of study streams and sports prodigies | norenmin

nine

lee jeno and na jaemin, two absolute sports prodigies, absolutely screamed their lungs out, when their professors announced the upcoming sports festival that would soon be held at their university. as often as they complained about their basketball club, they couldn't ever get enough of it. or enough of sports in general. especially jeno.

on the other hand, huang renjun, who was the complete opposite of a sports prodigy, felt his mood sinking down completely, when he had first heard about this entire thing. sure, their university had lots of people who were among the best in their area and it'd be awesome to watch them, but considering that he had to compete to those people made him have goosebumps all over his body. just how was he supposed to win anything at all?

donghyuck, who most always sat next to them in the lectures they shared together, had tried to convince him that he shouldn't take it so seriously and that it was all in good fun. his best friend was still wary, though.

now, things got infinitely worse when everyone who wasn't in any sports clubs got assigned two people who were, in order to receive a bit of help.

renjun had prayed to the gods, did all he could to avoid it, but eventually cursed the universe, because he got assigned no other than jeno and jaemin themselves. 

look, technically, he was among the luckiest. those two were sporty and were well-known for their immense skills, which was, indeed, a good thing. however, everytime he remembered his weird feelings whenever he was around them and the way it was so difficult to put on a straight (no pun intended) face on in front of them, he just wishes he would've gotten assigned two random other people. it didn't matter who, just someone who didn't make him feel these things.

the chinese took a look at his phone, which which he was hiding under the table (it was a miracle his professor hadn't noticed it yet, although the emphasis was on "yet") and peeked at the chat of him and jaemin. they hadn't talked much over text lately, the only longer conversation being about renjun congratulating him, jeno and his team for a basketball game they had won a few days ago. renjun watched it in person, since hyuck had ended up dragging him to the game and perhaps he fixated a lot more on his two friends than he'd like to admit.

oh well, he was really just running away from his own feelings, wasn't he?

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"how is it going with renjun and the other two by the way?"

that question had come so out of nowhere, that donghyuck looked up from his laptop and the pile of papers next to him, to glance over at his boyfriend, who was casually sitting on his bed in a loose fit, as if this was his own home (to be fair, mark was here everyday, so he might as well call it his second home.)

the korean adjusted his reading glasses, "good question! it's going well, as far as i know. injun keeps telling me he keeps seeing them everywhere and how much he hates it. though, we both know that he's lying," donghyuck rolled his eyes a little, at the thought of how obvious it was, that renjun was just suppressing their own feelings.

"oh damn," mark started, taking a bite of his ice cream, which left hyuck speechless, "sounds tough."

"you know, you're not much of a help, mark."

"i know, but," the canadian slightly stretched, since he had taken a nap just a few minutes ago and apparently his body was still a little stiff, "you're renjun's best friend, not me, so you know how to help best. or at least, better than i would do, i guess."

the younger held back a sarcastic laugh, mark could tell, "you act like the start of our relationship was absolutely smooth, so that i'd be a pro at this. do i need to remind you of the time i absolutely avoided you, because you kept being so nice to me and i just assumed that you were just trying to trick me into something?"

oh yes, mark remembers this time. very well even, though he kinda wishes he wouldn't, as he absolutely loathed the weirded out glances donghyuck had given him during that time.

kinda, just kinda, hyuck sees himself a little bit in renjun, because he too, had ignored his own not-so-friendship-like feelings for mark for quite some time.

this only made his urge to scream at renjun to finally realize his own feelings even stronger.