Chenle looked tired and Jisung was worried.
At first, he had assumed the reason for Chenle looking so down was because of his breakup with Haeun.
He knew that neither of the two were particularly upset about it, but as the most popular couple (ex-couple) in school, there had been some backlash when the news had come out. Rumours about Chenle cheating on Haeun, or Haeun cheating on Chenle, of abusive relationships, of drug and alcohol addictions, and of every other ridiculous thing that could possibly go wrong in a relationship.
The whole school was divided between those who believed Chenle was at fault and those who believed Haeun was at fault, though clearly, neither party knew the truth.
Chenle had gotten quite a few negative comments and remarks thrown his way, some people going so far as to threaten to harm him, and Jisung was worried that all the drama was starting to negatively impact the older.
But Chenle seemed completely fine whenever anyone brought up the topic of the breakup, and when he heard the comments about him whilst walking through the crowded halls of the school he hardly batted an eye.
That all led to Jisung coming to the conclusion that there was something else going on that Chenle had failed to mention to him, something that was, if possible, worse than all the hate the male was getting.
Jisung hated the very thought of it, as he believed Chenle should never have to go through pain of any kind. If it had been up to him, he would have taken Chenle somewhere far away, where they could live peacefully together, away from the hurt of society. Jisung would hold him and love him the way he deserved, and never would he have to feel negative or upset again.
"Wake up, Jisung," Renjun said, waving his hand slowly, back and forth, in front of Jisung's eyes, which had been glazed over and staring out into space.
Or, to be more specific, he had ended up accidentally staring at a girl that he recognised as one of his female classmates, who was glancing back at him with a rosy blush on her cheeks and a nervous smile.
He looked away from her without giving her so much as another thought, focusing all of his attention on glaring at Renjun for interrupting his daydream, who only responded by giving the younger an unimpressed look, one that Jisung had gotten many times before from Renjun.
"What's wrong with you lately?" Renjun asked, "Is it about your boyfriend?"
"He's not my boyfriend," Jisung argued.
"Okay, would you prefer the term husband then?" Renjun asked.
"No!"
"Jisung, all I did was say the word husband and you immediately knew I was talking about Chenle," Renjun stated, and shit. He was right, but Jisung didn't want to think about it, let alone talk about it. "You two need to get your shit together or I'm going to do it myself. Fuck, I can't deal with you two pining anymore."
"Be nice," Jeno piped in, placing his arm on the back of Renjun's chair, technically wrapping his arm around the older, if it weren't for the chair blocking the skin to skin contact.
Jisung tuned out his two friends when he noticed Chenle walking towards them. His eyes were downcast and he avoided looking at anything that wasn't the off-white cafeteria floor.
It was obvious by the way he was walking, his posture simultaneously slumped yet tense, slumped as though trying to make himself as small as possible and tense from the constant worry that lately seemed to follow Chenle everywhere he went. All Jisung wanted to do was drag the older away from the hundreds of pairs of eyes that were trained on him.
He decided to make it his mission to discover what was bothering his best friend, no matter what it took and no matter how long he would have to try before finding the answer.
- 🐥 & 🐬 -
It took him a few days, but Chenle finally decided to open up to Jisung about what was bothering him.
It all started in the form of a phone call at 3:00 am in the morning, and though it wasn't unusual for either of them to stay awake that late, they typically only did so when they were together, whether that was because they were doing homework, playing video games, or had simply lost track of time while talking. So being woken up from a restless half-sleep by the familiar ringtone he saved only for Chenle was strange, and honestly scared Jisung more than he wished to admit.
Jisung rolled over on his bed, reaching his arm out from underneath the warmth of his blankets to grab his ringing phone. Seeing Chenle's name pop up on the screen as he had expected, he answered the call immediately.
"I need you," Were the words spoken into the phone the minute the line connected.
They were only three words spoken in a broken voice, but those words were all Jisung needed to practically catapult out of bed. He grabbed a hoodie that he had abandoned on the floor of his bedroom the night before and rushed out of the house, so worried about Chenle that he failed to remember to tell his parents that he was leaving.
He was halfway to Chenle's house when he realised that a) he had no idea where he was supposed to be heading since the line had disconnected after Jisung had heard Chenle's message, and b) he had forgotten to warn his parents of his leaving.
He decided that the latter was something that could be dealt with later, once he was sure Chenle was alright, but as for the former, he had to ask the older male.
He checked his phone, and he could swear he had never felt more grateful than he did at that moment to see a text from Chenle, one that simply read, 'I'm at the park'.
He rushed to the park without waiting a second longer. But even though Jisung was running as fast as he could, the rest of the world around him felt like it was moving in slow motion. It was like a dramatic scene from a romantic movie, where the protagonist had to get to their love interest before something awful happened.
But he wasn't in a romantic movie, it was just Jisung's life. It was Chenle's life as well, and with every step that Jisung took, another second of wasted time passed. It was another second where Jisung wasn't by Chenle's side, couldn't help him, and had no idea what he was doing or how he was feeling.
The run to the park felt like it had taken much too long, but when he finally arrived at the location he saw Chenle on his knees in the damp grass.
"Lele," Jisung said, "Are you okay? Are you crying?"
He ran to Chenle's side when he heard soft, broken sobs escaping past the other's lips. Whatever it was, it was hurting Chenle more than his breakup with Haeun, more than the bullying at school, more than all the insane rumours about him, and Jisung knew it was serious.
"It's my fault," Chenle whispered.
Jisung wasn't sure if the comment was something Chenle had meant to say aloud, it didn't seem like it since he didn't raise his head to look at Jisung. In fact, he hadn't had any reaction to hearing Jisung's voice at all, as though the younger wasn't even there.
"What are you talking about?" Jisung tried to ask him, "Chenle, I need you to talk to me, please. I need to know what's going on."
"They're fighting again," Chenle answered him, but his voice seemed so far away it made Jisung wonder if Chenle had yet to realise that he was even there, "This time it's worse. It's always getting worse. But this time he blamed me. He said it was my fault, all of this is happening, everything is going wrong. It's because of me. It's my fault! Can't you see, it's always my fault!"
Chenle was shaking by the time he had finished speaking, rocking back and forth on his knees, his jeans getting wet from the ground since it had rained earlier that day and the grass hadn't yet had the time to dry.
"Who, Chenle?" Jisung begged, "Tell me who you're talking about."
"My parents," He said quietly, "They- they were fighting and I got in the way and he got angry and told me to leave the house. I have nowhere to go now. I can't go back. They don't want me anymore."
"You always have somewhere to go, Lele," Jisung said, wrapping his best friend in his arms in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. It was sadly also one that was starting to become commonplace between them. "As long as I'm here, and I'll always be here for you, you will always have somewhere to go."
"You promise?"
"Of course I promise."
- 🐥 & 🐬 -
𝐼𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑎 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒'𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝐻𝑎𝑒𝑢𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛.
𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑚 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛: 𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑁𝐶𝑇 2020 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝?
𝑂𝑟 𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘.