"earth to dayoung," renjun snapped his fingers. "hello?"
the girl was sat on the sofa, typing away on her phone — something she didn't do often. she looked up at the older boy and hummed.
"you've been on your phone ever since you finished your homework. what are you doing?"
yingyue shook her head and nonchalantly waved her hand. "nothing, i'm just talking to a friend."
renjun opened his mouth to say something but before he could, the front door was pushed open.
"i'm here to take haechan and yin back to the other dorm," mark announced, staying in the doorway so he didn't have to take off his shoes.
"coming!"
yingyue rushed to get her school backpack and hugged the dream members, waving goodbye as she took off with haechan following behind.
the car ride was silent, the three of them slightly exhausted, but yingyue seemed to be immersed in her cell phone. mark tried to subtly lean over and peek at what she was doing only to result in him almost getting caught and playing it off by yawning and stretching.
"is doyoung up?" yingyue asked, absentmindedly speaking in english.
mark glanced at her and nodded. "i think so. why?"
"i just need to ask him something."
when they arrived at the dorm, mark offered to carry yingyue's bag, and he did after a lot of protesting from the younger.
their home was quite lively as they stepped inside. they could hear yuta and jungwoo playing games in the living room downstairs, shouting at each other.
"i'll take my bag to my room then look for doyoung," yingyue told mark. "thanks, oppa!"
before he could reply, she was already rushing to her room. she quickly dropped her bag on her bed and went searching for doyoung, whom she found laying in his room.
upon hearing a knock on the doorframe, doyoung looked up from his phone and saw their youngest standing there.
"when did you get back?" he sat up and made room on the bed for her.
"just now," yingyue said. "are you alone?"
doyoung shook his head. "johnny hyung's here too. what's up?"
it was then that yingyue noticed the said boy sitting on the ground, waving at her.
"i didn't even see you," she laughed and skipped beside doyoung.
"you seem.. different?" johnny narrowed his eyes.
"in a bad way?"
"no, no. you're a lot more, i don't know, giddy?"
yingyue purses her lips and looked off to the side, making doyoung nudge her with his elbow.
"what, is it a boy?" he grinned.
"no! what? you're crazy!" the girl clicked her tongue, trying to play her bashfulness off but failed under the boys' stares. "yes."
johnny raised one of his eyebrows with a teasing smile. "i thought jaehyun and i told you that we're the only boys you need?"
doyoung let out a chuckle at his comment and turned to yingyue.
"so?"
"okay, so!" she perked up. "his name's chanhee but everyone calls him chani since that's his stage name—"
"oh, he's an idol too?" doyoung asked to which yingyue nodded.
"he's a part of sf9! he's really cute, and apparently he left a letter in my locker."
"mhm.."
"i didn't get it, but! but! he asked me out on a date!" she exclaimed.
neither of the elders had seen her this excited over a date before (not like she went on many), and were suckers for seeing her like this. her eyes seemed to light up while talking about chani and her smile was so wide that her dimples were prominent.
"did you say yes?" questioned johnny.
"i wanted to ask taeyong oppa first, and tell doyoung oppa before i said anything."
johnny put a hand over his chest and sighed out, "we raised you well."
rolling her eyes, yingyue bounced up from her position on the mattress.
"i'm gonna go ask taeyong oppa now!" she announced and turned to the door, only to be met with him.
"i heard everything," taeyong childishly grinned. "you can go. after you tell us where you're going, when you're going, what time you'll be home, and—"
"the arcade, after school on friday, i'll be home before seven, and yes, i'll bring back snacks."
the leader nodded in approval and ruffled her hair. "you have us on speed dial, right?"
"always! thank you!"
yingyue briefly gave taeyong an affectionate hug before running out of the room and to her own, shouting out an "i love you" on the way.
to say yingyue was eager would be an understatement; she was ecstatic. the boy she was good friends with and potentially crushing on had asked her on a date. she was still inexperienced in the dating scene, but after talking to chani that one day, she found out that he was too.
she wasn't able to sit still in any of her classes and even managed to embarrass herself in front of chani during the one period they did have together.
as they were walking out of the building, yingyue had a pout on her face while chani was teasing her.
"okay, it's not my fault!" she whined. "that desk came out of nowhere! i probably have a bruise on my leg now."
chani shook his head in an attempt to calm his laughter down and patted her head. "it was cute. it goes to show that you fell for me."
yingyue did her best to feign an angry expression but couldn't help and join in with a chuckle, for chani's laugh was simply contagious.
thinking back at that moment, she wanted to hit herself for bumping into a desk only because she got distracted when chani smiled at her. she looked up at him and poked his stomach with her finger.
"i get it~ stop laughing at me!"
at a distance, renjun, haechan, jaemin, jeno, jisung, and chenle were watching the two with frowns on their faces.
"now that i think about it.." chenle murmured. "chani might be the one who left the note."
haechan deadpanned at him, quickly looking at renjun then back at the younger. "took you long enough."
jaemin's eyes were glued on them as a feeling of jealousy filled his gut.
"where are they going? can we follow them?" he asked renjun. "doesn't matter, i'm gonna watch after yinyin—"
"hold it," the oldest said, holding jaemin by the back of his blazer's collar.
jisung furrowed his eyebrows and motioned to them as they walked further away.
"hello! shouldn't we go after them?!" he asked.
"i.." renjun thought for a second, letting out a sigh. "be discreet. that might be hard for all of you but seriously."
jaemin escapes renjun's grip and grabbed jeno's and jisung's wrists, pulling them along just in case they lost yingyue and chani.
the boys had gone, surprisingly, unnoticed as they trailed the duo until they reached the local arcade. it was a place that most of the members of nct were fond of considering they would go together during trainee days.
right as they were about to go in, jeno stopped.
"wait, shouldn't only one or two of us go in? wouldn't it be obvious that six of us are spying on them?" he pointed out.
haechan raised his hand. "i'll go!"
"me too!" jisung added.
chenle objected but renjun pushed haechan and jisung to hurry up and go.
"hyung~!" cried chenle, watching the other two leave.
meanwhile, chani and yingyue we're getting tokens from the machine, splitting the pay. most guys would've ignored the girl and paid it entirely, but chani remembered her telling him about how she liked chipping in and making herself useful.
waiting for all of the coins to fall into the metal pocket, chani leaned against the machine. "why don't you like people paying for you?"
yingyue shrugged her shoulders and said, "i'm not actually sure. i like giving, i guess."
as she grabbed a cup from the side of them, she was oblivious to chani's smile of admiration towards her.
from behind an indoor plant, haechan rolled his eyes. for a moment, he and jisung continued to watch them until an idea popped into his head.
"jisung! call her!" he exclaimed in a hushed whisper.
"what? why?"
"because! if we say some type of excuse, we can get her out of there!"
jisung blankly stared at his hyung and glanced towards yingyue. "..okay."
and so he got out his phone and dialed the number he memorized by heart, putting it on speaker but at a low volume. haechan kept his eyes on yingyue and saw her give chani an apologetic smile before stepping away from the game they were at, picking up the call.
"hey, jisung," she answered. "what's up?"
the said boy lifted his head up at haechan who only moved his hands around, silently telling him to make something up.
"u-uh, jaemin hyung isn't feeling well and none of us know how to take care of him.."
"but he was fine in class earlier?"
"he keeps coughing and sneezing and asking for you, noona."
the boy beside jisung had turned his back to yingyue and chani, now completely focused on jisung.
"are you sure?" her voice trailed off. "because i can see jaemin, along with renjun, jeno, and chenle, outside of the arcade i'm in. not to mention—"
the line went dead and the two were confused.
"you and haechan right here."
they jumped from the sudden closeness of her voice, eyes widening at her abrupt appearance in front of them.
"um.. hi, yinnie.." haechan murmured.
yingyue exhaled and went back to talk to chani.
"i'm sorry. something happened back at the dorm and i guess they came here to get me," she frowned. "can we finish our date another day?"
chani smiled sadly but was very understanding. "of course, and don't worry about it. text me when you get home."
"will do. thank you."
gathering up as much confidence as she could, she stood on her tippy-toes and left a light kiss on his cheek. then with red tinting her own cheeks, she quickly walked back to haechan and jisung, grabbing them by their ears and heading out.
haechan winced. "ow! can you be a little less harsh?"
once they were outside, yingyue let them go and watched as the two scurried behind the others. without a word, she brushed her hair back with her hand and turned around.
"i'll go straight to the 127 dorm," she softly mumbled. "i'll see you on monday."
and she walked away, stuffing her hands into her pockets.
the boys couldn't see her face, but they could tell that she was annoyed and upset. the way she shook her head at the ground made jisung feel horrible. he was never as emotional as some of the other members, however, it was a different story when it came to yingyue.
jaemin sensed his sadness and wrapped an arm around the youngest's shoulders.
watching her back until she disappeared in the crowd, jeno sighed. "let's just give her time and apologize to her when we see her."
renjun and chenle nodded in agreement.
"we messed up."
➥ 終。
➥ this is getting so much longer than i intended it to be sksksk oops but uHhH part four with a nicer ending?