"should we get some drinks before we start?" asked jeno as the leader of the team.
"sure, let's go," said a member of the team, daehyun.
"it's fine. i'll go get the drinks for everyone. what do you guys want?" jeno offered as he stood up from his seat.
"i'll accompany you," said eunha to which jisung nodded too.
"i think everyone here drinks iced chocolate, right?" asked daehyun as everyone then nodded.
"alright, the three of us will be right back." said jeno as eunha and jisung followed behind him.
"why isn't renjun-hyung in school today, hyung?" asked jisung as the three walks in a line, heading towards the cafeteria.
"i called him earlier and he said he isn't feeling well. he did sound a bit off too," said jeno.
"i guess it's the fever season. eunha-noona just recovered too." jisung said to which eunha gave a weak smile as a response.
"i hope seolhyun is fine, too." jeno said.
both seolhyun and renjun were absent and both had the same reason - they aren't feeling well. seolhyun is on her sick leave for the second day today and renjun didn't inform the dreamies at all of his absence, not until jeno called him.
"i hope the cafeteria is still open at this hour," said eunha as they arrived at the cafeteria.
"thank god it's still open." said jeno as he took out his wallet from the back pocket of his pants, "eunha, do you drink iced chocolate?"
"i don't, i'll have iced americano instead," said eunha, taking out a few notes from her wallet.
"it's alright, i'm treating everyone," said jeno before proceeding to order the drinks for everyone.
"noona, how are you feeling about the upcoming competition?" asked jisung as jeno then joined them as they wait for their orders.
"i'm quite nervous, actually. plus i skipped a lot of session while i was sick so i feel bad towards the team, too." eunha said.
"right! i'm nervous too! the competition is only a few weeks away and we still have quite a lot to do," said jisung with his actions perfectly expressing his feelings, "but noona, you don't have to feel sorry. the team is using your idea anyway! you're already helping a lot actually, noona!"
"jisung is right. we're proceeding the sessions with your idea. so we're pretty much set on what to do already. and you were away because you were sick, so it's totally understandable." jeno said just as a staff handed over two bags of drinks on their table.
the three then continued to discuss their design as they made their way back to their room. as they were about to enter, jeno stopped the two with his arm and signaled them to stay quiet.
"but still, don't you think we should kick her out, daehyun?" asked a male voice, their conversation were audible from outside the room.
"well, it's true that she's been missing from our sessions but we're also almost halfway done with her idea. kicking her out from the team means we have to come up with another plan, sungjae." replied daehyun, the oldest in the team.
"come on, we can come up with better ideas than her. her idea isn't that great anyways." sungjae replied, "also, haven't you heard the rumors about her? it's crazy! i don't want to be in the same team with someone with a bad name!"
"what rumor?" asked seojin, another physics member in the team.
"it was haerin who told me this. eunha is so sick and can't control herself at times! haerin has even seen it with her own eyes," sungjae said.
"noona-" jisung called lightly as he noticed eunha backing away.
"eunha," jeno called, pulling her lightly by her wrist to a corner as jisung followed them.
"sungjae is right, jeno. maybe i should leave the team," eunha said as a tear trailed down her cheek.
it was heartbreaking for eunha to hear it from a teammate, someone she was supposed to work together with to win that competition.
she wasn't surprised to hear a rumor going around after her absence from the school for a week.
she wasn't surprised to know that haerin was the one to spread the rumor too.
but even the expected can be hurtful, sometimes.
"eunha, the whole team knows how good you are in the team. everyone in the team knows that you're a big help to the team. we wouldn't have progressed this much with the competition if it wasn't for your ideas. you came up with ideas no one else could think of." jeno said with both of eunha's hands in his.
"noona, what you heard from senior sungjae isn't true at all." jisung added.
"but it's true that i'm sick. perhaps maybe it's true too that i can't control myself sometimes." eunha said as she pulled her hands away from jeno's and covered her face as tears flows down her pale skin.
"eunha," jeno called, once again taking eunha's two hands and keeping it in his, "don't let the rumor define you. you know yourself better. i don't know how else i can say this but you're amazing, eunha."
"hyung is right, noona. senior sungjae is just like haerin-noona. you can't let yourself lose to them, noona." jisung said, his hand rubbing circles on eunha's back.
"believe me eunha, sungjae is all talk, like haerin is. if he wants to kick you out from the team, he'll have to talk to me about it. and there's no way i'll remove you from the team." jeno convinced.
•
•
•
renjun's pov
i woke up to the ringing of my phone. half-awake, i accepted the call without checking the number.
"renjun?" asked a familiar voice - a very familiar one but it felt weird.
"hey," was all that i could mutter.
"what did she do to you?" she asked.
"weiyun, look-"
"you don't have to hide anything from me, renjun. i saw haerin talking to you the other day." weiyun cut off. "why aren't you in school, today?"
"i'm just not feeling well, weiyun. nothing is wrong." i replied, trying to sound as convincing as i could.
"we're not strangers, renjun. i know from your voice when something is wrong. just tell me, what did she do to you?" weiyun persuaded.
"trust me-"
"do you resent me that much?"
"i don't resent you, weiyun."
"i still care about you, okay? so tell me," she said.
i trust weiyun. but what was the point?
will it make things better if i told her what haerin did to me? will it stop all the possible bad things that is going to happen?
"renjun," she started, "i know you know what's going to happen from now on. if you keep all of this to yourself and keep it away from dreamies, we're going to lose eunha like how we lost jinhye-noona, too. i don't want to go through another phase of grief, renjun."
"i'll tell everyone when i feel better. i don't want to lose anyone, again. just give me time, okay?"
"take care, always." she said.
"you too. don't walk alone. stay with chenle, always," i replied before hanging up.
• • •
a note from ayraa;
things are just starting to get tense here in alters! i'll be updating weekly from now on so be sure to not miss out on the chapters!
also, i published a new book;
it's titled "visions • nct2020"
- an alternate universe involving time-travel, superpowers and secret agents.
if you're interested, check it out!
i'll start publishing the chapters soon.
stay safe, everyone!
- enchantayr