soliloquy ↬ chensung

Ch.26

"I heard you've finished the play?"

The students stood awkwardly in the principal's office, staring at him as he asked the question. "Yes," Renjun answered. "We've run through all the scenes now, granted out of order."

The man nodded approvingly. His eyes scanned over the group and then settled back on the director, proposing a dress-rehearsal and costume collection. The rest just couldn't shake the memory of the last time they all stood in here together, being yelled at, given punishment work...Chenle immediately let his gaze fall to Jeno, who had been the primary cause for that catastrophe. He frowned after realising something; what the hell was Jeno even doing here? He wasn't a member of the cast!

Jisung noticed the older' hard focus on his friend and, while the principal was still addressing Renjun, he nudged Jeno and whispered to him quietly "what are you here for?"

The black-haired boy turned to him with a gravely serious face and leaned towards his taller friend, hands cupping his mouth to whisper. "I'm supposed to be in maths. Of course I'd want to get out of that."

Jisung furrowed his eyebrows and stared at him in exasperation. "Aren't you trying to be better than that?"

"Not for maths," was the reply, and taking his own words seriously, Jeno hushed his friend and turned back to face the principal.

Jisung caught Chenle's eye and shrugged his shoulders. He then reverted back to listening to the principal, catching the words 'party for your performance'.

"And of course, once the play is finished, your group will be dissolved until next year's play."

Everyone felt a piece of their heart shatter at the inevitable, knowing that their time together was always going to be ephemeral. Renjun, in particular, was in his last year so he wouldn't be directing any more performances. "But we also get to dissolve the punishment work, right?"

The man nodded. "Of course. I'm taking your behaviour at the park as a blip in your school careers. Huang Renjun, we've had a lot of dealings and I know that you wouldn't intentionally ruin a place like that." He looked at their faces, recognising some of the older members, while the younger ones (excluding Jisung, as he was a strong persona at school) didn't seem familiar. "Lee Jeno," he hummed.

The ravenette blinked at him expectantly.

"Get back to your maths class before I make it your last."

"Yes sir," he bowed respectfully and took his leave, crying on the inside that a set of equations were waiting to be solved by him in the maths room.

The rest snickered as the trier finally got kicked out, and then the three main leads were sized up by the older man. "You three," he pointed to the trio. "I look forward to seeing you steal the stage."

They also bowed in response, Chenle glancing at his costar, who also felt his heart flutter at the thought that he and the Chinese boy would get to act together in front of everyone. Donghyuck smiled to himself at the pair's obvious behaviour. Even Renjun was looking at them oddly.

•・•・•

"This is going to be so cool!" Jaemin exclaimed and wrapped his arms around his friend's shoulder, guiding him to the canteen. "You're going to be the talk of the school! 'The lesser-known Zhong Chenle and the popular Park Jisung kill it out there on stage and show how much chemistry they have!' Oh, I can already see it. The school newspaper's headlines in two weeks' time."

Chenle awkwardly scratched the back of his head with a bashful smile. "I've been practicing so much recently. I hadn't even realised how much I muttered the lines to myself until Jisung caught me red-handed during after school cleaning the other day."

"Aw, it's good to see you talking confidently about him. The only times you'd ever talk about him without blushing, before we met him, was when you used to tell me how good looking and nice he was - as though I couldn't see that for myself."

"Well, we've gotten closer."

"So you've said."

He smiled to himself and felt his hands clasp around the cuffs of his jumper. The canteen was packed as usual and no tables were available. They hadn't made it in time. The staff were frantically throwing trays of food into kids' waiting hands while the loud chatter and banter filled the senses.

"Well," Jaemin began after they had taken a moment to appreciate the daily scene. "We could eat in the library again."

"Library sounds very charming right now." At least they could peacefully eat and chat. And plus, sometimes Jisung and Jeno went up there... "Hey Jaem, I've been overloading you with my secret love life," he paused as they turned and began their journey up to the library. They walked in stride and passed empty classrooms. "But...is there anyone in your heart right now?"

Jaemin's expression froze in a smile that didn't reach his eyes, and instead, made them wide and intense. "Not at all."

"Not any of those girls you always seem to have wrapped around your finger?"

"Pff," he waved his hand, "nope." He took a moment to remember the day when he and Jeno had had a battle of metaphors in the classroom. "This handsome cat right here is currently running away from a pesky pursuer."

Chenle smiled and shook his head. "Wow. Pesky? Poor guy."

"What guy? I don't know whoever you're talking about," Jaemin swiftly cut in and turned to glance at the rows of empty classrooms through the unlit hallway. "Besides, I'm too heavily invested in your romance to give a flying frick about my own one."

"Right. Okay." Chenle kept his gaze forward but an inner sneaky smile seemed to want to show. He stretched his arms above his head and yawned cutely.

"Am I getting a free ticket to watch your performance? I better be. I drop you home most days."

"Yeah. Of course."

They laughed together, carefree, and pushed open the door to the library. Chenle's lunch box clacked against the wood and an immediate 'SHH' was hissed from the vengeful librarian. He mouthed an apologetic 'sorry' to her and widened his eyes in exasperation at Jaemin.

"The beanbags," the older demanded and grabbed Chenle's arm, dragging him towards the back where they could enjoy a quiet lunch. "Let's hope they're still free."

And yet, as they reached the back of the musty book-riddled shelves, there was in fact a small crew claiming the spot.

"No. Way." Jaemin looked at his friend and sighed in a mixture of disappointment and familiarity at who he was seeing in their designated area. "Park Jisung. Lee Jeno. Huang Renjun. Lee Donghyuck."

The group hadn't noticed them yet and didn't seem as though they would any time soon. Chenle became attentive at the sight and smiled widely. "Wow. I guess we missed the invite."

The older felt his eyes drill holes through Jeno's laughing face as he annoyed Renjun, while the younger trained his gaze on the other two conversing with big smiles and hushed tones. It seemed idyllic for lunchtime. And so they joined them. They were like a team now, and although their group would be dissolved sometime soon, none of them truly believed that they'd see the end of it.

There was a sense of kinship amongst them now, and for all Renjun's rude and blunt nature, Donghyuck's unshakeable confidence, Jeno's...weirdness...Jaemin's over-enthusiastic support, Jisung's struggles with Jichan's character and Chenle's long and painful journey to gain even an ounce of Donghyuck's confidence, they were solidly involved now.

And Chenle in particular would still be a stuttering, lovesick, under-confident mess without each of them.