Another day of living. Jeno's mornings seemed to have become a chore as he slowly got out of bed, getting ready for the day. Perhaps it was all of the troubles in his head, or maybe it was because he actually wanted to get up, but surprisingly, he got ready incredibly fast.
As he ate his bowl of cereal, checking his phone, he glanced at the time. "7:15," he read. He quickly cleaned his bowl, grabbing his bag, and headed towards the front door. Opening the door, he was met with Renjun and his hand in mid-air, presumably about to knock on the door. The shorter boy stood there shocked, his eyes opening wide. "You're... early?" He questioned.
Jeno rolled his eyes, "What? Is that supposed to be shocking?" He questioned back, already walking towards the direction of the Academy. Renjun, who stood there for a second or two, quickly snapped out of his trance and began jogging towards Jeno in able to catch up with the speedy boy. Once he regained his composure and energy, Renjun began to speak again. "Well, it is. You're never early. At the very most, you're on time," He said, answering Jeno's previous question.
Jeno shrugged, "Guess I just didn't have much on my mind. I was ready faster than before."
Renjun patted the boy's shoulder, "Good for you," He said with a smile on his face.
The two of them made small talk on random things, such as school, hangouts, and Chenle's supposed new friend. The chatter slowly diminished as they arrived towards the Academy. "I gotta go," Renjun said, already making his way towards the Visual Arts department of the halls.
"Let me guess, another painting?" Jeno inquired. Unlike what he thought, Renjun shook his head. "I promised Professor Kim that I would give some portfolios from the Art Composition classroom to the Photography class, first thing in the morning," The guy said before sprinting off in that direction. Jeno chuckled, "I didn't even get to bid him farewell," he thought, heading to his locker.
While at his locker, it seemed to Jeno that it was oddly more quiet than before. Usually, during this time, someone would approach him from behind right about now.
"Hey, Jeno!"
Jeno turned around, only to see his Mark Hyung. "What did I expect? I told her off. Man, this is gonna need getting used to," He thought to himself.
"So... Jeno, did you think about what I said yesterday?" The older boy questioned.
Jeno looked up, attempting to grasp his memories of yesterday. After his slumber, it felt as if everything that happened was just a figment of the boy's imagination. But after remembrance, Jeno let out a small "ah." Mark looked at the younger, tilting his head as a signal for Jeno to tell him his thoughts. Good thing the boy caught on, otherwise Mark would've looked like an idiot, moving his head like that. "Well, I did some thinking," Jeno began, closing his locker, "And even though I'm not completely on board with this idea. I'm going to give her a chance to explain herself."
Mark started clapping like an excited fifteen year old girl, "Yay! You're taking my advice. I hope it goes well!" He exclaimed. Jeno nodded. "Oh look, there she is now. You go talk to her, I have class in a few. See you!" Mark said before walking off. Jeno turned towards his left to see that his Hyung was right, Hyesoo was standing there a couple of metres away at her own locker. Jeno began to approach her steadily. Once he got closer, he made eye contact with the girl, which, unexpectedly, made the girl walk off, leaving Jeno to stand there, wondering what happened.
-♡-
Hyesoo was at her locker, getting her books for her morning classes. While closing her locker, she saw from the corner of her eye someone approaching her. Turning her head slightly to see who it is, she catches sight of Jeno. She was about to greet him, but she stopped herself. As he approached her, the girl quickly walked away from him, her hair moving along with the way she walked.
"Hey, Hye!" The girl heard. She turned around to see her friend, Jieun, coming up to her. "See what I did there? Get it? Hey and Hye?" Her friend said.
Hyesoo rolled her eyes playfully, and let out an airy laugh, "Yeah, I got it."
"So," Jieun said, linking her arm with Hyesoo's as they head to class, "How has your morning been?"
Hyesoo let out an airy breath, "I decided to listen to you guys," which made Jieun look at her in confusion as to what specifically, "You and Jinhyuk told me to give Jeno space, so I've been doing that. He came up to me, but I walked away."
Jieun let out a small 'o' before nodding her head, "Good for you. Just make sure not to ignore him for too long, you both need the confrontation soon." Hyesoo nodded as they both walked up to Jieun's class that was luckily, right across Hyesoo's. "See you later, Hye!" Jieun exclaimed, walking into her classroom. Hyesoo waited a few seconds before turning around and making her own way into class. Upon entering, she again made eye contact with Jeno, but she turned her head away and carried on to her seat.
-♡︎-
"Why the sour face, Jeno?" Donghyuck asks, tapping Jeno on the shoulder.
"It's nothing," Jeno said, shaking his head.
"Well, it's clearly something since you're being all grumpy," the sunny boy sang, booping Jeno on the nose and laughing. Jeno wanted to ignore his friend, but alas, he couldn't. After all, who can ignore Lee Donghyuck when he acts like that. "Fine. It's just... I think Hyesoo may be ignoring me," Jeno claimed, pouting a bit.
At that time, Renjun and Jaemin had sat down with the two others, listening into their conversation before class had started. "Quit pouting, you're making me uncomfortable," Renjun said. That made Jeno pout even more to annoy Renjun. Jaemin, on the other hand, had heard bits of the previous conversation and went to pat Jeno on the shoulder, "It's ok, Jeno. She probably didn't even mean to be ignoring you."
Donghyuck nodded, "Mhm! It's probably nothing! Maybe she's having a bad day. I bet everything will be back to normal tomorrow."
Jeno heaved a sigh before eventually agreeing with Donghyuck. Perhaps it was because his gut intuition said he was right, or maybe it was just because his friend's sunny disposition that you couldn't help but agree with everything he said had made Jeno agree. "You're right. I'm sure everything will be back to normal tomorrow."
Well, it wasn't. Hyesoo had ignored him for the entire day. And the day after. And the day after that. And the day after the day after that. She's ignored him for the entire week, and it was now Friday. Jeno had tried to talk to her for three days, but everytime he even came a couple steps away from her, the girl would turn her head to the left and walk away. Since confronting her wasn't exactly working out for Jeno either, every morning, he patiently waited for the girl to approach him. But alas, she never did, and now Jeno is getting pissed.
"How could she just ignore me like that? I'm literally giving her a second chance to explain herself, yet she's still ignoring me!" Jeno huffed, sitting down at the lunch table. The Dreamies looked up at their angry friend, some of them attempting to stifle their laugh from the way Jeno was upset. Mark gave his younger friends a glare, telling them to stop before looking at Jeno. "Don't get yourself angry over this. Maybe she also needed space," the older boy said, patting Jeno's back.
"I get that. But did she really need to ignore me?" Jeno questioned.
Mark heaved a sigh and shrugged, "I don't know. Just give her a bit more time. If it really pisses you off, make her talk to you."
"Confront her. Yeah..." Jeno thought to himself. And with that, the boy carried on with his day. Jeno finished up with the rest of his classes, and instead of waiting for his friends, he went straight home to take a nap to clear his mind. He almost didn't realise how long he had slept for until he woke up, seeing no sunlight. The first thing he did as he was finally awake was to check his messages for anything new from Hyesoo.
And once again, for the fourth time, there was none.
Jeno sighed deeply. "That's it," he thought to himself, getting up from his bed and picking up his jacket. He made his way downstairs, contemplating if he should leave a note of where he is in existence. He decided not to and walked right out of the house.
There was only one place in his mind right now, and that was where he was going.
-♡︎-
Hyesoo was in her bedroom, watching another drama since she had finished with her workload today. She was so heavily invested in the episode she was currently watching, she almost didn't hear her phone playing KARA's Step, signalling to her that she was getting a call. Though, once she heard it, the girl quickly grabbed her phone, pressing answer, not even looking at the caller ID.
Hyesoo
"Hello? Who's speaking?"
Unknown
"Hi..."
Hyesoo
"Jeno? Why are you calling me? And at this hour?"
Jeno
"I just... I needed to talk to you."
Hyesoo
"..."
Jeno
"Please Hye..."
Hyesoo
"...Fine. Where do you wanna meet up?"
Jeno
"Look outside."
Hyesoo
"You're kidding.
Jeno, what are you doing outside of my house?"
Jeno
"Waiting outside for you to come down and talk to me...?"
Hyesoo
"You idiot.
I'll be right there. Give me a second."
i'm actually very proud of this chapter 😊
also... thank you all for 1k reads!!! i'm so grateful for each and everyone of you thank you for reading!❤️❤️