𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙡𝙤𝙦𝙪𝙮 | chensung

Ch.20

"Psst."

Chenle looked up from the animated doodle on his page, eyes filling with wonder when he saw that Jisung had been the one to get his attention. "Yeah?"

The younger slid his chair across the floor until the back bumped into the front of Chenle's desk. Then he stood up and sat facing him, arms wrapped around the back of the chair. "Have you spoken to Renjun today at all?"

He shook his head and furrowed his eyebrows. "I haven't. Why?"

"Well, apparently the two of us have to clean up the theatre after rehearsals today. Are you up for that or...?"

"Sure." He smiled bashfully at the thought of more alone time with Jisung. The younger, too, was inwardly surprised at how he had spoken to the older easily after his panic in the library today. "Umm..." Chenle turned deep red, catching Jisung's attention. He pointed behind the taller boy but covered it up by picking up his pen and pretending to write, because the teacher was giving them evil glares from the front of the classroom.

•・•・•

"Damn, she's a beauty," a classmate remarked as he looked over Jaemin's shoulder at his phone. It was the social media account of a girl he had wooed.

"Isn't she? I don't know if I should get in contact with her or not, considering she has a boyfriend..."

More boys wandered over to peak at the many girls in his contacts. Well, all except one boy gathered around. He, obviously, was Jeno, and was quite unimpressed with Jaemin's extra-curricular engagements. "What's so good about them?" He called over from his window seat. "There's no fun when they throw themselves at you so easily."

The class looked over at him in awe. "Wow Jeno, you like them to play hard to get?"

Jaemin felt his eyebrow twitch at Jeno's clear reference to him. He wasn't playing hard to get, rather, he was figuratively running away. He wasn't trying to be chased at all. "But girls don't like it when guys constantly pursue them."

Jeno chuckled dryly and held his two hands out like a balance. "It's in the art of pulling back that makes them turn around and follow you instead."

At this, Jaemin scoffed. "Turn your back then, because she'll keep walking."

"Will she? Or perhaps she'll miss the attention and chase him like a lost puppy."

"What if she's allergic to dogs? She couldn't possibly be a puppy then, could she?"

"Hmm. I've always preferred cats anyway."

The class was silently watching the back and forth natter. It seemed like these two knew each other, although apart from the odd conversation during class between them, no one would've guessed that they did. What more, Jeno wasn't being a complete idiot for once.

Jaemin sighed and directed his unamused gaze back to his phone, but he suddenly didn't feel like sifting through the media anymore. He placed it face-down on the desk and sourly threw a look at Jeno, who had kept his eyes on him the whole time. The dark-haired boy gave a sly smile as though he could tell that he had put him out of the mood.

"Keep looking," Jaemin deadpanned and folded his arms, still surrounded by his classmates. "But don't expect anything more."

"Much obliged."

The bell rang signalling the end of the day and Jaemin threw his bag over his shoulder, collecting up loose stationary. As he was about to make his way out of the classroom, an arm tossed itself over his shoulder and he'd be damned if he didn't know who it belonged to.