soliloquy ↬ chensung

Ch.23

"Jeno, my pal," Jisung called and raced towards him in the school hallway. It was just after his history class and he was on his way to chemistry, which they happened to share together. The day was bright and the classrooms were quite muggy. There was a pleasant buzz in the air that naturally accompanied happy weather, where the teachers were all in good moods and made jokes and classmates chatted about getting less homework.

"Hey," the black-haired boy smiled and showed his crescent eye-smile. He immediately covered his face and forced a frown. "Dammit. I'm supposed to be saving my smile for Jaemin."

"Jaemin?"

"Huh? Oh, y-yeah. Long story. Anyway, what's up?"

Jisung pulled a tight smile and lingered his thoughts on his friend's comment. Jaemin, huh? They did have some classes together - Jaemin and Jeno, that is. "Umm, I just feel like we haven't chatted much recently. I've been occupied with 'Across the World', what with Renjun upping the intensity of our rehearsals. But...uh...how have you been?"

"Very lonely without you," Jeno sighed and curved his lips upwards. "As long as you get me front-row tickets then it's all 'G'. You know, I've been trying a lot harder with school recently."

"I noticed," Jisung hummed and looked around cautiously, eyes landing back on his friend to whisper. "You mentioned that Jaemin was motivating you?"

Jeno nodded and placed his finger on his lip, hushing him. "I don't think I ever mentioned it to you before, but I like him a lot."

The group of chemistry students making their way to the lab was loud and lively with conversation, so by lowering their voices, they were guaranteed that no one would eavesdrop. Jisung was looking at him with half surprise and half expectance. It wasn't completely unbelievable and he had noticed that they seemed closer these days. "Okay. I can see it. I can picture it."

"He doesn't tell people this, but before Chenle moved to Korea, when Jaemin and I were younger, he was actually my first boyfriend. I was eight. We were eight."

"Now this? This I definitely didn't know." He smirked at the thought of eight-year-old Jeno sneakily getting a boyfriend and getting the ass-whooping of his life from his parents. "You must've kept that well-hidden."

"Yeah. Mum would've slaughtered me, because we have this policy of being open about relationships and she wasn't Jaemin's biggest fan. She said he was 'a bad influence' because he was hyper and stuff. I was a lot quieter then."

"And now you're the bad influence," Jisung snickered and patted Jeno's back. They turned the corner and arrived in front of the science lab. The biology lab was beside it, and when he shuffled past the panelled glass window, he could see Chenle and Jaemin messing around not-so-sneakily at the back of the room. His heart lifted at the sight and he felt his eyes light up happily at the sight of the orange-haired Chinese boy.

"Ohoho. Looking at my man now?" Jeno shoved him playfully away from the window and squished himself against the glass to spy on Jaemin while they waited outside for the chemistry teacher to arrive and unlock the lab. Jisung watched in amusement as Jeno breathed and made the glass fog up. Suddenly, he developed a huge, toothy smile and waved dramatically. "He saw me!" He slowly stopped waving and cleared his throat, turning to his younger friend in a deflated manner. "He gave me the 'middle finger'."

Jisung stepped forward and nudged Jeno away to look inside too, but this time, both Chenle and Jaemin were watching with their bodies turned away from the desk. Chenle immediately blushed at the sight of Jisung and felt his heart skip a beat, waving cutely and blinking with lit-up eyes. The younger boy returned the gesture and stifled a laugh when Jaemin wiggled his eyebrows at Chenle.

He didn't want to distract them anymore than he and Jeno already had, so he moved away from the transparent panel and glanced at his friend, who was leaning against the wall with a raised eyebrow. "No. Way."

"N-No way? What way?"

"No. WAY!"

The group of students turned to look at them but Jeno shooed their prying eyes away. The teacher's footsteps clopped down the hallway and the jingle of keys followed. They parted to let the man unlock the door and usher them inside, a meek apology muttered about his lateness.

"You," Jeno pointed at Jisung as they followed their classmates into the lab. "You have to tell me about your secret crush. I'm not so dense," he knocked his knuckles against his head and jabbed his finger back at the taller boy. "Those eyes...They remind me of the way Chenle always looks at you."

They wandered to their shared desk and pulled the stools out to sit down. Jisung eagerly shuffled towards Jeno with wide, curious eyes and a light feeling in his chest. "Th-The way he looks at me?"

Jeno looked around and saw that no one was getting ready for the class, including the teacher, who was wiping the board down with his eyes glued to his phone. The girls and boys were talking each other into comas. "So give me all the juicy details. Did the play bring this on? Was it that time I gave you guys a highly-alcoholic drink? The after school punishment work? Or-"

"I don't know," Jisung finally cut in and leaned towards him, hand cupping his mouth to whisper. "I found him to be great company at first, although he was really shy. It was hard to talk to him normally. For a while I wondered if I made him uncomfortable because I'd see him interacting with Jaemin and they were loud and cheerful. But...then he gradually started to let loose and we were able to joke around and freely chat."

"And practice together all alone," Jeno added with wiggling eyebrows and covered his mouth with his textbook, fluttering his eyelashes flirtily. He earned an embarrassed smack on the arm. "But am I wrong?"

"Well, we did kiss-"

"Holy mother of-"

"For the play."

"...Oh. Well that was anticlimactic."

"I...I think he's interested in me. He blushes a lot and gets shy still. I don't know if I should confront it or not though."

"Don't confront," Jeno pushed his arm out and flattened his hand against Jisung's chest, nudging him back so that they weren't up in each other's faces. "Show without telling."

"..."

Jeno flicked his imaginary ponytail back and lay his palms flat on the table like a debate was about to take place. "So, I've been trying to flirt with Jaemin openly but he's very dismissive. Being nice to him and hanging around him seems to be working a lot better than constantly showering him with innuendos. It's a shame..." he trailed off and looked somewhere in the distance, eyes glazed. "Innuendos are my strong point."

"Ahem, I'll take your advice, think about it and decide."

Jeno nodded and gave him a proud thumbs-up. "I'm glad you told me about this. I feel like a real friend again. You know, if you wanted to be an even better friend to me, I have this stash hidden away under my bed because my dealer accidentally gave me more than-"

"Nope. Sorry."

He sighed but turned to face the front of the classroom. "Your loss."

He was sure it wasn't his loss. He tapped his fingers against the desk and found himself glancing out the bright, light-filled window. It was indeed very warm today. His busy mind was occupied solely with Chenle.