dunk shot | z.cl

f o u r

"Incoming!!"

Chenle whisper screamed as he shifts his shoulder, bumping Kaili's head off of it and making the girl almost hit her head on the table.

"Yo what the f-"

"Miss Xiao"

The teachers stern voice makes Kaili's eyes widen, her head immediately popping up, hands scrambling to find her pencil.

"Yes sir?"

"How's your assignment coming?"

"Uh great," her voice warbled and she cleared her throat, "I just need some time, ya know with the factoring and stuff"

His eyebrows raised, but the teacher walked away anyway, giving her a quiet "just keep working" as he went to the next student.

"Factoring Kaili?"

"What" she whined to her best friend, her head drooping as she looked down at the paper she was supposed to be working on.

"We're in chemistry"

The younger girl let out a groan at her mistake, shooting pleading eyes to her best friend.

"Leleeeeee"

He laughed at her pain, but leaned closer so that he could help her anyway.

"I'm so glad the team is still in the tournaments, but I swear if we have one more game on a school night I might die"

"Well I'm not tired"

"Which is weird, you should be exhausted you psycho"

Truth be told, Chenle was tired, he just slept through his earlier classes so that he would be awake by the time he saw her.

"Maybe I'll just do bad this game, then we'll lose and be out and no more games" he finished speaking and pulled her paper towards him, only to get his arm smacked before he could even read anything.

"Don't even joke about that! It's your last year and you have a chance to go to nationals!! I would go without sleep for three whole months if it meant I got to see you play at that level"

Normally the two weren't much for mushy words, usually showing they cared in silent, unconscious ways, but Kaili did have a knack for speeches when needed.

"Okay, okay I got it Li"

He tried to act nonchalant about it, but there was a big smile on his face as he scootched closer to his best friend.

"Now let's balance these chemical equations"

"Or we could go get coffee"

"No. Work first. Coffee later"

Kaili sighed as she gave in, picking up her pencil again and listening to Chenle's soothing voice trying to explain significant figures to her for the hundredth time.

After 20 minutes of Kaili questioning her entire existence and forgetting how to round, the bell finally rung and the students flocked out to the hallways.

"So coffee now"

"Kaili"

"No, we did the dumb work. Now it's coffee time"

He let out a groan but followed her anyway, immediately shutting up when her hand latched around his to pull him through the hallway.

"Kaili!"

She stopped in the middle of walking, causing Chenle to slam into her back and knock them both over.

The young girl's eyes screwed shut, bracing herself for impact, but her head didn't make contact with the hard linoleum, instead hitting something marginally softer.

She peaked one eye open, making direct eye contact with her best friend who was hovering above her.

"OH MY GOSH ARE YOU OKAY"

She was completely fine, other than the fact that her heart was beating so hard it was about to escape from her chest, but something about how close she was to her best friend made her unable to speak.

"You hit your head and now can't speak oh gosh I killed my best friend"

He obviously knew she was okay, but when she didnt laugh at his joke he looked more seriously at her.

"Hey are you good?"

She couldn't respond, every bit of her focused on the warmth of his body heat on her own, and the way they were so close she could smell his shampoo.

"Kaili?"

He leaned his head closer to inspect her face and she only panicked harder, face reddening and eyes getting wider.

"Yo am I interrupting something here?"

It was the voice that had called her name earlier and caused this whole dilemma, and the shock of being seen in a slightly questionable position was finally enough to get Kaili out of her head.

"Oh uh"

The two best friends looked at each other before quickly avoiding eye contact, Chenle awkwardly rolling off while Kaili smoothed imaginary wrinkles in her shirt.

"No, not interrupting anything"

The young boy reached his hand down to help his best friend up and she almost didn't want to take it, but she did anyway.

"Are you sure, because that looked kind of uh... spicy"

"No Giselle, nothing spicy. You just scared us when you screamed my name across the hallway"

"Oh yeah haha, sorry about that"

Kaili had now gotten off the floor, once again dusting herself off as she turned to the girl with expectant eyes.

"So what's up?"

"What do you mean?" The younger girl looked at her friend confused.

"Why did you scream my name across the hallway?"

"OH!" her eyes went wide, but she quickly looked down at her feet, "I didn't really need anything, those girl were just being mean to me again so I thought I could get your attention you would kinda help me....escape"

"THEY WERE BEING MEAN TO YOU? WHO WAS IT GISELLE I'LL FIGHT. I'M TELLING YOU ONE OF THESE DAYS I WILL PUNCH THEM FOR YOU"

"No no no no no, calm down, its fine, we just have to ignore them. They're not worth my time, that's what you always tell me right?"

"Well yes not worth your time, but my time see that completely different-"

"Okay Kaili," Chenle, who had been standing silently the whole time (mostly trying to process what had happened on the floor) now spoke up, trying to calm his friend down, "let's go get coffee, yeah? You wanted coffee"

"Yeah but now I want to punch some underclassmen"

"No," he spoke to her as if she were a toddler, or a puppy "we don't hit people Kaili"

She let out a groan, mumbling an "I wish we could" before asking her younger friend if she wanted to come with to get away from the people in her class.

"Actually yeah that sounds kind of nice"

"Great! Lele, that means you get backseat, sorry not sorry"

She gave him a quick peck on the cheek before running away towards the parking lot, Giselle in tow.

Poor boy was too busy thinking about his best friends lips on his cheek to react fast enough to her comment, standing there like an idiot for a solid minute before he realized.

"WAIT BUT IT'S LITERALLY MY CAR"

It was too late though, and he had to sit in the back seat while Kaili played therapist to her younger friend, Chenle only speaking when Kaili would yell back at him to tell her she was right.

'remind me why i love her again?'