𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝘁 ♡ noren

« eight »

October had arrived and left smoothly, giving the students a break from school before they returned to their dreadful routines of waking up early. The air was sharp and freezing, hitting harshly against the buildings of the school, howling angrily throughout the day. The short, gloomy days did not help, for the students arrived at school in the dark, and went home in the dark.

Jeno was constantly looking out for Renjun and keeping him away from Mr Seo, making sure the teacher never got a chance to get close to the Chinese boy. Even though he tried his best, Mr Seo still managed to sneak in an inappropriate touch during his lessons. Renjun didn't tell Jeno. He could see the Korean male's attempts at keeping him safe, and he didn't want Jeno to feel disappointed that he couldn't keep Renjun safe.

Over the next few weeks, Renjun had noticed that Bomin, Nancy and Chani hadn't bothered him at all regarding Mr Seo. Whenever they walked past each other on the corridor, they would simply ignore him and strode past him.

"Maybe they feel guilty after the conversations that happened on the app."

This made him happy, at least his days would be a bit better now that they had stopped. However, that was not sufficient enough to keep Renjun in a good mood. He still had the problem of dealing with Mr Seo, but also, he noticed all of his friends would be acting off as well.

Mark would look stressed most of the time as he took great care of Donghyuck, who seemed to be drained. He tried smiling or cheering up the mood within their friends but ended up failing as he allowed himself to be engulfed in Mark's arms. Chenle and Jisung seemed nervous, refusing to leave each other's sides or sometimes requesting one of their other friends to accompany them to class. Jaemin's usual energy had vanished and left an anxious male behind, whose bubblegum hair could not hide the fact that he was deeply worried.

Renjun and Jeno weren't going to let their friends keep secrets, and confronted them.

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Slamming his hands on the table, he immediately gained everyone's attention. Once their eyes were on Renjun and Jeno, both the males decided to sit on top of the round table as their friends looked up at them.

"Enough keeping secrets," began Jeno. "Tell us what's bothering you."

"I beg your pardon-"

"Mark Hyung, not the time to be an English teacher," interrupted Renjun. "Look, it's clear you're all bottling up your feelings. So, why not tell us?"

They glanced at each other nervously before Chenle responded. "Renjun-ge, that's very nice of you, but most of us don't want to bother you with our problems when you probably have your own."