of study streams and sports prodigies | norenmin

ten

"YAH! will you please just work, oh my god-" 

there he was,  zhong chenle, the school principal's son, standing on the high quality stage in all his glory, trying to get the microphone in his hands to work correctly and acidentally ending up scaring the shit out of himself by changing something at the back of the device and causing it to make a shrill, loud noise.

the microphone quickly learned the ability to fly and grew imaginary wings, because before chenle could even notice, it slipped out of his hand as he got scared by the loud noise that had occured just now.

the boy quickly recovered though and picked it up again, immediately bowing in front of the audience (that basically consisted of his entire university).

"ah, im so sorry! this thing just doesn't like me at all today. first the thing with the speakers and now this.. jisung, if you're hearing this, you were right! today really isn't my day!"

the mentioned boy in the audience flushed a little as many glances were suddenly directed at him and motioned back to the stage, trying to get everyone to bring their attention back to his best friend, who was currently the moderator.

chenle took a breath as quietly as he was able to as everyone looked back to him, "however! anyway! today's a very important day, because it's our yearly sports festival! a festival where all students gather together to compete in different sports. may it be basketball, football or just simple table tennis. everyone has a chance to win something, by gathering as many points as possible on the sports they're choosing. you can only stick with one sport though! which one you'll do, you now ask? well, you'll decide that together with your group!"

renjun tried to keep his attention onto what the chinese on the stage was saying, but was barely able to, due to jaemin and jeno constantly bombarding him from each sides with the question of what sport they were gonna take.

god, why did he got assigned with these two? he already complained about it, the moment he heard about it, but that surely didn't stop him from still doing that.

everybody had gotten assigned someone they got along well with, for example donghyuck had gotten assigned yangyang, an older student who was studying cybersecurity. as far as renjun was aware, those two didn't tak to each other a lot, but seemed to fit each other's vibes. if he thinks about it like this, he himself also got along with jeno and jaemin, considered them friends even, so perhaps he really shouldn't complain.

"don't act absolutely stupid. we all want as much points as possible, right?", he kept looking between the two, seeing both of them nodding quickly, "so of course we'll take basketball. that's what you're the best at." the chinese says that as if it's the most obvious thing in the world, while still keeping his voice down, to not attract any attention around them.

"but you don't play basketball, do you?" the black-haired questioned, eyeing renjun from the side.

the latter stopped his movements and probably also his breath for a second, but he wouldn't have noticed, because he was too busy thinking about if he should just lie to him, or them. 

"i- uhm.. i do?", it sounded more like a question, so it was quite the miracle that jeno actually believed him and put his head on renjun's shoulder, letting out a relieved sigh.

the brunette felt his hot breath against his skin and internally cursed himself for immidiately getting nervous and feeling his heart starting to race due such a simple action by such a big idiot.

as if chenle noticed that the conversation between those three was now over and a final decision was made, chenle spoke up again, "alright! there's nothing more to discuss, right? so then.. good luck to you all! don't mess up and gather as many points for your team as possible!"

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"hold up, what are you even doi- renjun, not like that!" jaemin hissed a little as he took the basketball out of renjun's hands, immidiately feeling bad right after for reacting so harshly.

"hey," the blackhaired spoke up as well now, carefully grabbing jaemin's arm and holding him a bit back, although he knew that his best friend most likely wouldn't do anything stupid, but he could never be sure enough. "now, don't be so harsh on him, nana. he hasn't played basketball before, so you," he purposefully put the emphasis on the word, "shouldn't expect him to already know everything." 

lowering his head, the youngest nodded, visibly ashamed. sometimes he came off meaner than he wanted to and this wasn't anything new to jeno, mind you, they've known each other for years, but this was the first time their chinese friend had experienced it, so he really wanted to prevent it from getting out of hand.

"no, it's fine, really- i am generally just bad at sports, anyway, so-," renjun would've continued talking, if it wouldn't be for jeno softly placing his hand on the mouth of the older, yet still making sure that he isn't pressing too hard and doesn't accidentally hurt him or anything. that small detail made renjun's heart skip a beat. 

"you're not bad, just inexperienced. let me demonstrate to you how to do it correctly."

while watching jeno showing renjun how to get the ball easier in the basket, jaemin had to gulp a little. everytime he watched his best friend play, he had the feeling that he himself still needed to practice quite a lot to get on jeno's level. it wasn't that he was bad, not by any means, after all he was amongst the best, but the he had always been just a step behind jeno. that was most of the time enough to make him insecure about his own skills, currently though, he had absolutely no time to think about any of his insecurities, as he watched how the basketball player's t-shirt slipped up, putting jeno's abs on full display.

jaemin whistled quietly, to show how impressed he is, before leaning a tad bit too close to renjun, whispering to him, "i don't think he's doing it on purpose, but goddamn, is he hot. don't you think so, too?"

next thing he knew, the youngest felt a punch directed at his arm, letting out a pained yelp and looking accusingly at renjun. 

"who's hot?," jeno was absolutely oblivous to what they just said, a big question mark basically being written in the middle of his face.

"i agree, nana," renjun turned to look at the boy he was adressing.

jaemin's mouth fell open.

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"oh my god, yangyang, are you sure you want to keep studying cybersecurity and not just become a tennis pro? you're way too good at this, i can't even keep up with you anymore," donghyuck groaned loudly, as he nudged his assigned parter for the sports festival in the side. 

yangyang chuckled at what his newfound friend said, "im very, very sure, hyuck."

the sports festival was almost coming to an end already, all of the friends had gathered together on a big table and renjun suprisingly wasn't sure if he wanted it to end already or not. don't get him wrong, he was still not too big on sports and he doesn't think he'll ever really be, but spending time with jaemin and jeno alone, basically practicing together with them was.. extremely nice. and by now, he wasn't even afraid to admit that anymore, feeling as if he made huge progress in accepting his feelings for the other two. 

he quite literally didn't even care about how many points they gathered or if they would even get a price for it, since, as cheesy as it sounded, the time and laughters the three shared with each other over the past few hours were more enough than enough for him.

amidst all the talking going on around him, renjun felt his own hand getting grabbed by jeno's slightly bigger one under the table. he tilted his head perplexedly and was about to ask why he did that, but jaemin beat him to it, gently whispering to him, "we had a lot of fun today. thank you so much, jun."

fuck. he really was in love with them, there was no denying it anymore.

he had, without a doubt, caught feelings for jaemin and jeno.