On The Line | Chensung

Maybe Not Mark

Jisung groaned, stepping backwards as someone yelled at their friend, running past him. Why he let Jeno convince him to attend a stupid party was unknown to him. He could honestly have just sent Yangyang a text in the morning and left it, it's not like he knew him well. And yet here he was, holding a stupid red solo cup in a room with booming music, hoping that there was only punch inside. Jaemin shuffled up to him with a smile, Jisung immediately untensing as he saw him, something he'd gotten used to in Jaemin's presence.

"What's wrong, pumpkin?" Jaemin asked, Jisung scrunching his face upon hearing the question.
"I fucking hate people, man," he grimaced, swallowing in disgust as he stared into his cup once more. Not wanting to take a chance on anything not canned, he leaned past his friend and placed the cup on the kitchen table.
"Oh, yeah same," Jaemin nodded, taking a sip of his cola. "I'm only here cause Yangyang's my classmate, I barely talk to him," he chuckled, looking down at his can, "The only people I know who actually know him are Donghyuck and Mark."
Jisung nodded, mumbling "ah right" as he looked back up at everyone dancing and yelling in bright neon lights.

He couldn't really think of a bigger teenage cliché, big booming party with people running around up and down the stairs. It didn't help that Yangyang's housemate was rich as hell, the place could put Chenle's house, or to be more specific, mansion, to shame. Though he much preferred Chenle's dark gloomy mansion to this overly bright, extremely loud noise maker. Maybe it was just the introvert in him though, people were disgusting ninety percent of the time.

He quirked an eyebrow up as he watched Chaeryeong stumble past him, chuckling at her when a hand hit his back. Looking to see what made the impact, he grinned seeing Jeno groan in despair, hands on both his and Jaemin's backs.
"I don't want to be here anymore," he grumbled, sending death stares to all his schoolmates.
Jisung rolled his eyes, "it's like it wasn't your idea to come here."
"Well I thought it would be fun," Jeno glared at him as he snapped.
Jaemin giggled beside him, poking his shoulder, "well you thought wrong, now didn't you?"
Jeno pouted, groaning silently in sadness as he watched the people dancing in the living room, random people jumping on the couches and Mark's classmate, Lucas, desperately trying to pull his semi drunk friends off. Jisung shouldn't really question how underage kids even had access to alcohol, but he learned to stop questioning it a long time ago.

"At least Injun's having fun, I guess," Jeno said, pointing up to the tiny boy screaming and laughing along to the lyrics of BTS' 'Wings'. Jisung looked up, grinning to himself as Renjun jumped and danced with some of his classmates, lights whirring around him as the floor shook beneath all their feet. At least one of them was enjoying himself.

He turned to look back at Jeno, snapping his mouth shut instead of speaking like he planned to when he saw both Jaemin and Jeno just gazing softly at the older boy. Jaemin giggled to himself, turning pink as he gnawed on his can, while Jeno swayed from side to side with the music, smiling at him with pink ears.

Jisung blinked before shuffling away awkwardly from the duo, leaning on the wall, trying to look anywhere else to distract himself. But unfortunately if he looked one way, there were bright ass lights he didn't want anything to do with and if he looked to the other side, he could see the two Romeos staring longingly at their Juliet, so it really wasn't a win either way.
He shuffled his phone out of his pocket, glancing at the time and his battery, scrunching his nose as he saw they had only been there for an hour and his phone was almost dead. Curse his stupid brain for not charging and being too caught up with texting Chenle and Chaeryeong earlier on. Couldn't he have just kept it connected?

He huffed to himself, instead slowly tuning into Jaemin and Jeno's conversation and praying that he wasn't intruding on something personal.
"Your eyes kinda sparkle when you see him," Jaemin turned to Jeno, smiling at him mutedly.
"Welp, it could be worse," Jisung mumbled to himself, sighing to himself as he listened.
Jeno looked back at the pink haired boy, "hm?"
"When you look at Renjunnie," Jaemin clarified, titling his head at Jeno, "your eyes look sparkly and pretty."
Jeno blinked at him, Jisung stifling laughter as he watched Jeno's ears turn red. "You think they're pretty?"
Jaemin laughed quietly, before leaning up a pecking Jeno's cheek, "of course I think they're pretty, you have gorgeous eyes, Nono."
Jeno's face slowly dusted completely pink as Jaemin turned back to Renjun. Jisung chuckled to himself as Jeno looked down, seeing his whole brain malfunction before his eyes. He giggled as Jeno looked back up at Jaemin.

"Thank you, Jaemin," he stumbled verbally, scratching the back of his neck, "I think you have pretty eyes too."
Jaemin chuckled, waving his hand dismissively, "you didn't need to return the compliment." He took a sip of his drink, looking back at Renjun singing under the spotlight, "I already feel flattered in both your presence."
Jeno took a deep breath as Donghyuck called out for Jaemin to play beer pong with him, the younger boy sending a smile at him before bidding him goodbye.

Jisung laughed quietly, walking back to Jeno, the older boy taking his hands out of his pockets and raised them up to his burning cheeks. Jisung internally facepalmed, watching Jeno pressing his knuckles into skin and looking surprised about the warmth from his skin. He knew his friend was slow, but he didn't really think he'd have to spell it out to him. 
"Maybe not Mark hyung," Jisung nodded to Mark before letting his eyes flicker to Jaemin. He pursed his lips, nodding toward the pink haired boy being shook by Donghyuck, "maybe Jaemin hyung."
Jeno's eyes widened as the realisation struck him, turning his head up to Jisung with confused doe eyes. Jisung snorted as Jeno's bewildered gaze fell to the floor, the older boy bringing his hand to his chest, probably wondering why the hell his heart was beating so damn fast.

Before Jisung could help his naïve and possibly stupid friend, someone yelped out his name. He turned to the sound only to see someone running toward him, tears streaming down their face. "Woah," Jisung stumbled back as Chenle launched into his arms, the younger boy staring in confusion as Chenle cried into his jacket. Going from no emotions whatsoever to a complete mess was definitely something Jisung had never anticipated, so to say that concern was bubbling in his chest was a major understatement.
He pushed the boy back slightly, trying to ask him what was wrong but Chenle just shook his head, hiccupping through broken sobs. He brought the boy back in his arms, holding him tightly to his chest, his jacket soaking with tears.

He looked back at Jeno as he carded his fingers through the crying boy's hair to try and calm him down. He blinked to his friend, not knowing what had happened or what to do. Jeno shrugged at him, mouthing out that he didn't know what to do either. Jisung looked back at Chenle, stuttering out a shaking exhale in worry before he scanned the room. The only problem though was that he didn't know what or who he was looking for. What could possibly upset this boy to the point of tears? Jisung didn't know but whatever it was he had to find out and either remove it or them.
"Well I can't actually kill it, now can I."

He sighed, moving his arms to hold the boy more easily, Chenle had started to calm down, now just sniffling as he clutched tightly to his jacket. He moved himself away, rubbing the tears in his eyes. Jisung cupped his face, wiping stray tear marks as he looked at him in concern.
"What's wrong, what happened," Jisung asked, catching himself before he added some sort of endearment. He'd probably been around Jaemin for too long, it naturally almost slipped off his tongue.
Chenle huffed, looking down with wide eyes as he controlled his breathing. "People...kept touching me...I got overwhelmed, I'm sorry."
"No, don't be sorry, angel," Jisung shook his head, rubbing his shoulders reassuringly.
Chenle looked back up at him, letting out a shaky sigh, "I'm so sorry, you're just the first person who came to mind."
"It's okay, it's okay, I promise," Jisung ruffled the boy's hair, nodding at him. He swallowed down a weird feeling he had felt as Chenle had said that, instead moving away and offering him a glass of water.

He took his jacket off, draping it over Chenle's shoulders for him to feel a bit safer, taking him through the crowded kitchen carefully. Jeno hip bumped him on the way, smirking at how furiously the boy was blushing, probably mistaking his flustered state for something else. Jisung flipped him off, carefully guiding him to the sink and hoping that part of Chenle's abilities was noticing fast heart beats.