𝐼𝓃 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒟𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂𝓈 ~| Huang Renjun

十八

"You sure she's not gonna faint now?" Yangyang playfully asked Renjun when he approached them, getting a glare in reply.

"Hi, Renjun. How are you feeling? I'm glad you're no longer hospitalized. Is it really that hard to welcome me like a normal human being?" Renjun annoyedly replied, causing a low chuckle from some of the other boys.

"So two people are moody today, I see," Xiaojun said, nudging Hendery's arm. The latter seemed upset as well and without Renjun asking, Xiaojun added, "he had to pay Ningning so he couldn't buy a game he wanted."

Renjun sat down at the table with them and used his arms as pillows to rest his head on. Kun eyed him before following his gaze, noticing he was looking at Jihyun from a distance. "Jesus, just go and talk to her if your crush on her is this big."

"What?" the younger was quick to reply, pinning his eyes on Kun. "I'm just making sure I know where she is in case I start feeling bad again."

Kun sarcastically hummed a mm-hm. "You need to talk to her again. That's the only healthy way this can work."

"A relationship requires communication," Yangyang intervened.

"We're not a couple," Renjun commented with gritted teeth and smacked the other with his hand.

"Seriously though, Renjun," Ten uttered, looking up from his homework through his glasses. "You do need to talk again. You both depend on each other equally as much as the Sun and Moon do. Without each other, it's just empty and dangerous."

"But the Sun and the Moon are never together," the younger boy argued, gaining no more than an eyeroll from the Thai.

"Just go, goddamnit, is it really that big of a deal?" Renjun pondered for a second before vigorously nodding. Ten sighed in response. "Alright, you leave me no other option," he added, standing up.

Panic suddenly rushed within Renjun as the older approached him and grabbed his arm. "What are you doing?"

"Taking you to her by force, what else does it look like I'm doing?"

"What is he doing?" Chenle asked mid-laughter as their eyes fixed on Ten dragging Renjun to them across the quad.

Renjun seemed to be very much upset and continued complaining in Chinese to Ten, which got a quiet laugh from Chenle. Jihyun pay them litte to no attention until they were literally right in front of them. "Uh, this boy here," Ten harshly pulled Renjun as he tried to escape. "He has something to say."

"No the fuck I don't. You forced me to come."

Ten gave the younger boy a mother-like stare. "The way you looked at her from our table says otherwise. Now go, speak."

All eyes were on Renjun. Chenle, specifically, was trying not to smile mockingly at his frustrated expression. "Can I just.." Renjun started, fidgeting in his space. He knew trying to get away would just make it more awkward at this point, but he really didn't think of speaking to Jihyun. Not again, at least. He did have something to say, but didn't think of words to say it. Much less in front of all the other boys staring into his soul like that. "Can we talk privately? I don't like this much attention."

"What do you wanna talk about?" Jihyun asked with an unchanging expression.

This only caused the boy to grow even more anxious as he imagined she didn't want him in front of her. "Well," he pursed his lips as he tried looking at Chenle for help. The latter just shrugged his shoulders in response. "I just wanna explain myself sincerely. And face to face. But you see, I don't really like the idea of having all of them here staring at me like that."

Jihyun looked around at her friends, noticing the unspoken resentment they held against Renjun, and sighed. "Fine. But you have until the bell rings." She stood up to get her stuff, not noticing the boy's relieved smile.

"That's more than enough."

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"You better hurry."

Renjun hesitated to speak, fully aware of her intimidatingly stern face at him, but eventually words came out of him. "Before I explain that whole fiasco, I really want to apologize for yelling at you over the phone. And for, well, causing you great pain before that. It was my choice to be angry, and you paid the consequences. You were in the right to be mad at me. I'm sorry.

"Following that, I wanna apologize for the whole Yizhuo thing. I had no idea you two had history. I wouldn't have done it if I had known. Hendery—the-the prince Eric looking guy—is friends with her and asked her to help me in, well.." he trailed off, not knowing how to properly word the next sentence without sounding weird. "You see, Ten said that getting you jealous would make you talk to me out of spite. So we would have had contact and we could've saved the whole hospital thing. I understand that you're mad, and I won't blame you if you decide to ignore me lon-"

Jihyun couldn't hold a straight face and bursted into laughter. "I stopped being mad at you since days ago, I was just waiting for you to say sorry. You need to know when to apologize, so I just pretended in hopes you would get the hint."

"Oh."

The girl shook her head as her laughter calmed down and she friendly patted his arm as he looked still tense and scared. "It's okay. I would've strangled you already if I was still mad. Ask Hyuck."

"Ah," Renjun breathed in and out to calm down. "So no hard feelings?"

"Of course not. You acknowledged your mistake and apologized sincerely. There's no grudges from my part. I should also apologize for being mad in the first place."

"Oh, not at all!" He smiled and shook his head no. "Was I in physical exhaustion because of some other person's anger, I would also be that upset. It's understandable."

Jihyun insisted. "But my anger had us both taken to the hospital, nearly dying in the process."

"Many people nearly die because of something so small and don't even realize it. It's fine, really. I'm glad we can finally talk again though," the boy added. The next sentence was in a whisper as in secrecy. "'Cause those other boys are kind of loud and my head will hurt at the end of lunch."

This comment of his made her let out a giggle and she nodded. "I'm glad too. I'm tired of teasing Chenle by myself," she let out as they walked back to where the boys were sitting, looking at the ground. His eyes lingered on her face for a couple of seconds as a smile seeped through his face.

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