Overdrive | NCT ✅

18. I help a dude go bald

The next day Mark and Rose pick me up for Uni.

"How was the party?" I ask Rose after greeting the two siblings.

"It was amazing, I loved it. You should've stayed for longer," Rose answers, smiling happily.

I smile back at her tightly.

"That's good, it sounds like you and Jaemin had fun," I reply.

"How come you left early?" Rose asks.

"It was too much," I lie quickly.

Rose studies me for a second as if she can see straight through my lie, but then she relaxes.

"You should've looked for me," she says.

"I did," I breathe under my breath slightly bitterly.

I make eye contact with Mark in the rearview mirror, but he quickly looks away. Mark stops outside campus, and Rose and I step out, waving him goodbye as we walk onto campus.

"What actually happened at the party?" Rose asks.

Maybe she saw through my lie after all. I try to think of what to say to her when I spot Lucas and Jaemin not far from us. My eyes widen when I see Lucas' hair; he's dyed it a platinum white, and it suits him really well. My heart somersaults in my chest when he turns around and smiles at me. He looks hot. I can't lie.

"You're drooling," Rose says, returning my attention to her.

"What?" I ask in alarm as I wipe my face.

I glare at Rose's smirking face when I realise she was lying.

"I think you have more than one thing to tell me," she mutters as the other two walk towards us.

"I have no idea what you're on about," I say stubbornly.

"Hey," Jaemin says as he and Lucas reach close enough.

"Why do you always look good with every single hair colour, it's annoying," I mutter at Yukhei.

"What can I say, it must be in my genes," he laughs.

"Uh-huh, don't flatter yourself too much, you've already got a big enough head as it is,"

"Now that's just offensive," Lucas says, pretending to be hurt.

I laugh at his expression, and Jaemin clears his throat.

He's looking at the two of us questioningly whilst Rose's struggling to suppress a smile.

"Come on Jaemin, let's go," she says, grabbing his arm and dragging him away from the two of us.

"What was that about?" Lucas asks.

"No idea," I answer.

There's a pause as if Lucas wants to say something.

"What is it?" I ask him.

"You know when you told me the thing about yesterday was a secret, did you mean that Rose doesn't know either?" Lucas asks.

"She doesn't know. I haven't had the chance to talk to her properly since the party," I answer as we start walking.

"You should talk to her. She'll be upset when she finds out you kept it from her," Lucas suggests.

"Hmm. I'm not exactly keeping it from her though..." I say uncertainly.

"I know. I just think she should know,"

"Yeah. I was thinking about what you said yesterday," I start slowly, and Lucas nods encouragingly.