Hung Up On The Stars • ChenJi

twenty two

Chenle and Jisung talk more about their problems with each other. It's ironic how they have been together for seven years as friends but only talk about their families now. But Jisung appreciates Chenle's patience and will to listen, listen if he did or didn't make sense, and laugh at his jokes.

But in general too, Jisung and Chenle start talking more. In the classroom, breaks, corridors, break times and later night calls too.

He admires Chenle talking about his issues too, sometimes rambling, sometimes serious, sometimes anxious, and sometimes desperate. He feels a sense of reassurance and dependency he would never want to lose.

He finds himself to be more open about his opinions and accepts all the applause from his brother and Chenle. He and his friends hang out a lot more during their breaks and make the most of the last year of high school.

Sometimes they talk about nonsense and the most absurd and meaningless stuff in the world but they brought themselves to a stage where they exchange habits and explanations of the various things to exist. They talk about progressive subjects including their future career and promise to be in touch and always worry and care about each other even if they end up in different institutions later.

Slowly, but surely, Jisung would get there.

Baby steps. But he will certainly put his life together.

He then talked to Hina and constantly checked up on her several times ensuring she is okay and glad to say, she looked happier than before too. They are a lot more comfortable with each other vanishing all the awkwardness residing and going back to normal friends. They both apologized for each other and Jisung, as always asked for a chocolate compensation for fun and they were open to all the issues.

He was happy to know about her new part time job she joined as a flower shop worker to save up for the college expenses.

When he told Chenle about his uncertainties about choosing what to do later in life, Chenle said that it was okay to take a break and study instead, for a year.

They still continue to have group study and play sessions and sometimes skip classes for fun too. He believes he can be naughty sometimes; he shouldn't just make a constant habit of it.

Once Jisung asked Chenle if he felt alone in his family because of the absence of a sibling to talk to. His older brother was mostly in China and having a wide age gap would probably hinder their closeness.

"I don't know about that, my brother has been like a father image for me and I have Renjun Hyung to talk to me so it's fine.We are cousins and family talk is much easier."

Jisung hums at the explanation given and feels happy that Jaemin was able to find such good friends like Renjun Hyung and Jeno Hyung.

An afterthought occurs in Jisung's mind and says, "Hey, Chenle?"

"Hmm?"

"No matter what happens we stay friends until the end right?"

"Oh bro, I was kinda hoping you would say that. We will always have each other on our backs and fight for each other."

Jisung smiles at that, "Seems nice."

****

Grandma cleans the rack taking out all the albums of when they were children, their parents' marriage photo album, and their grandparents' too.

First, it was just the old woman trying to replenish her sweet memories with her family and taking all those albums reminiscing the moments of life which, she wishes, lasted longer.

Later, Jaemin comes to their seat and asks about the whereabouts and whereabouts of the clicked pictures and his mother urging him to save those in the laptop.

Shortly Jisung and his mother joined and with them and with numerous rants and persuasion his father agreed to join the session too.

Laughs filled the room and excitement resided in the joy of seeing themselves younger in the past trying to identify the situations when these photos were clicked.

Jisung was amazed to see those many pictures of him and covered his face in embarrassment of how he looked before attaining puberty.

His father comments on how Jisung was the one to change the most in these several years from being the shortest of all brothers in the family to being the tallest despite being one of the youngest.

Jaemin squishes his cheeks admiring his adorable face when he was a kid and kissed his cheek lovingly with adoration causing Jisung to yank him away down the sofa.

Later, he searches for his old books for cleaning his room from all the dust settled for many years. Going through his books, he found a brown journal between his textbooks which he has never seen before.

Curious, he opens it and finds it out to be Jaemin's personal diary from four years ago.

Jisung gives it a thought.

As a decent person, he must keep it back where it was found because to prevent the invasion of privacy of Jaemin Hyung and respecting his feelings.

Of course, he is not gonna do that.

He smirks with evil victory depiction and sneaks it into the pages and reads a few pages having a hearty laugh enjoying his brother's keen explanation of his daily routine. After a few pages, he noticed that he stopped writing the details every time and just filled the spaces with "eh same thing."

Jisung covers his mouth unable to control his laughter at Jaemin's silliness and later reads a few more significant pages.

A while later, he saw a specific page in which he wrote about the day they got their exam results. Jisung remembers that time when he struggled so hard to get good marks, especially in science. But, what surprised Jisung was that Jaemin wrote about the results and complimented Jisung for working hard for the exam and attaining good results. He smiles at his words which say that 'Jisung rocked his exams and is very happy with his results. I'm proud of my bestest younger brother.'

Jisung smiles shyly to himself and makes an inward thought of the feeling to be mutual.

As he was furrowed in his thoughts, Jaemin comes to him, catching him holding his old diary. Jaemin tries to hit him for reading it but all Jisung could do is laugh at him and make fun of his younger self.

~tbc~