𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 ˡʲⁿ

4 : jeNO

It was a warm, sunny, and excruciatingly bright day. The sun's rays dabbled into Seri's room, slowly making it through the curtains into her room, inching towards her eyes, waking her up. She opened her eyes and stretched her arms our in an attempt to wake up, but soon fell back on her pillow. Her eyes shut as she drifted back into dreamland.

She felt like she'd been getting a suspicious amount of sleep and immediately woke up and looked at her alarm clock. '8.30 am', it said
"Holy shit I'm gonna get late!" she yelled before rushing to her bathroom to freshen up and dress up. She soon got ready and left home, forgetting her key and breakfast. Soobin had already left, taking the bike, so she had no other option but to walk. She would get late but it was better to be late than never show up.

As if he knew, right on time, jeno pulled up on front of her place. "need a ride?"
"how'd you know I didn't have a vehicle?" she questioned, getting slightly suspicious. "oh I was passing by and didn't see the bike. Also today is Thursday so the soobin has tennis practice. What you waiting for? Hop on" he patted the seat next to him. She smiled, burying the doubts deep inside her brain before joining him in the car.
But then she realised he lived across town and not a single road to school led to her house. She felt her palms get sweaty. "How did he know soobin has practice?", "his house is too far for him too pass by." "but then again, the school teams are publically announced and he probably just came to check on me." her thoughts scattered around in her mind.

Yet again, she brushed off her doubts and made herself comfortable on the seat. As the pair pulled up to school, hyunjin ran up to her, engulfing her in a hug, which she gladly returned. She had got closer to hyunjin and adored his company. The pair had art class together and hyunjin dragged her with him as she waved jeno a goodbye. Jeno looked at the two with a fake smile and immediately glared at hyunjin. Already having a plan in his mind.

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It was during the second period that the fire alarm went off and the kids were escorted into the school ground and the teachers were called into the principal's office. The catch was, this wasn't a drill. There was an actual fire in the chemistry department. So when the students were informed of this, the first thing that came to her mind was jeno. He had chemistry. He was in the lab. He may be injured. Her mind started wandering as she ran to the teacher to ask. What the teacher told her, is what brought a chill up her spine. "jeno was the one who caused the fire. He was fully aware that mixing the chemicals was dangerous. But he did it anyway. He's in the principal's office right now."
"what..." was all she could spell out as two men, namely soobin and hyunjin ran towards her. They said they were looking for her.

After a bit, the lab was sealed and the students were told to leave for the day. Upon entering her class, she realised she was the last one, until jeno walked up to her. "hey..." she said, hesitantly. "look, I know what the teachers are saying, but I didn't do it on purpose. It was an accident. I had potassium chlorate with me and I picked the wrong bottle and accidentally put sulfuric acid in it. Trust me." he pleaded. At this point, the chemical names were just a haze for her but she knew, even through the blur in her mind, she knew no one would be stupid enough to ignore the gigantic sulfuric acid label on the bottle. Also, the school banned students from using acid without supervision. So how did a teacher allow him to mix the two even by accident. It just didn't sit right with her.

She gave him a smile, atleast attempted to make it as genuine as she could before walking off towards soobin and hyunjin, waiting to depart with her. She looked back at jeno once, and realised he was staring right at her. With emptiness and an unreadable expression evident. She shuddered before sitting in the car and distracting herself with conversation with the other two.

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Damn tho. Jeno really said let's kill ppl.
And I don't study chemistry anymore so if I've done a mistake with the chemicals, please tell me ✨