after seeing no sign of her history notes in her backpack, yingyue let out a sigh and turned to chenle who sat beside her at the lunch table.
"i have to go back to my locker to get my notes," she told him while zipping her bag close. "i'll be right back and then i'll help you study."
chenle shook his head. "i can go with jisung to get them!"
"no, it's okay. i'll go—"
"jisung-ah, get your butt up and let's go get noona's notes," the younger cut her off, already standing up.
yingyue let out a soft laugh and took out a pen from the side pocket of her bag. she grabbed chenle's forearm and wrote her locker number along with the combination code.
"it should be right in the front," she said and let go.
"got it! we'll be right back~!"
jisung and chenle hurried out of the cafeteria while yingyue was left with renjun and jeno. they headed to the seniors' locker section and searched down the hall for yingyue's.
jisung nodded his head to the one beside him. "found it."
chenle followed the maknae's gaze and stepped closer. he lifted his hand to the lock and read the numbers on his skin quite loudly.
"hyung, can't you read in your mind? you're being too loud," jisung said, leaning against the wall.
with an eye roll, chenle finished turning the dial and successfully got the locker to open. he pulled the door open and a note suddenly fell out. it feathered on a route to the ground, but before it landed, jisung was quick to grasp it.
chenle shuffled closer to get a better look and asked, "what's that?"
"i don't know," jisung shrugged. "but it says it's to noona."
he flipped the mustard yellow card stock open and chenle started to read until jisung shut him up.
"you're really about to be a loudmouth again?"
"i'm wiser now!" chenle huffed out.
jisung snorted. "you made that mistake thirty seconds ago."
"i was young and stupid."
"yeah, and now you're thirty seconds older and stupid."
chenle wore a blank expression as he looked at jisung, deadpanning as he said, "last time i checked, i was older than you."
"yeah, yeah, whatever. i think it's a confession to noona," jisung replied dismissively.
"should we give it to her? who is it from?"
"it's one of her classmates that we don't know.."
the boys stared at each other for a minute before snatching the almost-forgotten history notes and slamming the locker shut. they ran to the home economics class upstairs, knowing jaemin and haechan were there.
the older boys were in the middle of baking cupcakes as an assignment they had missed while nct dream was away. haechan was sitting on one of the metal stools, swinging his legs back and forth, watching jaemin put the tray in the oven.
"hyung! hyung!" chenle screamed, running into the room. "emergency!"
jaemin jumped at the loud shout and looked towards the entrance. luckily there wasn't anyone else in the class since the teacher had to go to a meeting.
"what happened? where's dayoung? renjun? jeno? are they okay?!" he asked frantically, wiping his hands on the apron.
jisung waved the confession note in front of jaemin's face. "noona's on the brink of being taken away!"
haechan furrowed his eyebrows and took the letter, opening it and scanning his eyes over the words.
"it's just a love letter," he shrugged.
chenle looked at haechan as if he was insane and flailed his arms around, saying, "also an open door for noona to date someone and take all of her time!"
jaemin clicked his tongue. "it'll be fine. she's not allowed to date, and i doubt she even wants to."
"who knows?! she could be crushing on someone we don't know about!" jisung groaned, pulling on the strands of his hair.
"alright, jisungie, calm down," said haechan. "let's ask dayoung if she likes anyone."
"i bet you she'll say no," jaemin commented.
"i mean.. there's this one boy in one of my classes that's kinda cute. he's nice too."
jaemin looked betrayed as he listened to dayoung. jisung had a blank expression, chenle let out an "oh" but it sounded like a squeak instead, and haechan pursed his lips.
"well, would you look at that!" the oldest of the present five said. "we need to find jeno, renjun, and mark! study hard, yin! and don't forget to put in your earphones to focus better!"
haechan then pulled jaemin, chenle, and jisung out of the room and into the parlor. he whipped his phone out and dialed mark's number.
"jaemin, call jeno," he rushed out before mark answered. "hyung! there's a problem!"
concerned (but also doubtful since haechan was the one to ring mark) that something serious actually happened, the former oldest of dream quickly left the company building and got to the home in record time.
jeno and renjun met up with him in the elevator and the three were worried sick. they ran down the hall and barged into the dorm.
"hyung!" jisung exclaimed.
"is yingyue here? is she okay? what happened?" jeno frantically asked.
"i swear to god, haechan," renjun sighed. "if this was a joke—"
"she has a crush on someone and someone has a crush on her!"
silence surrounded the seven.
"..can't she hear us?" mumbled jeno, earning a dismissive wave from jisung.
"she has her earphones in, she can't hear even if chenle hyung screamed."
jaemin grumbled. "okay, that's not what we should be focusing on!"
"what's the big deal about her liking someone?" mark raised an eyebrow.
"because!" yelled chenle. "if she ends up dating, she'll end up spending all of her time with them!"
"which means she might miss practice, she might work less, she might change; this boy could be a bad influence!" haechan added.
nodding, jeno went to stand beside chenle. "i'm in!"
mark and renjun looked at each other and shrugged.
"great!" jisung clapped his hands together. "operation prevent dayoung noona from dating has started!"
➥ 終。
➥ so.. when are all 21 members gonna get together and be crackheads