"Chenle, save those fists for when you truly need them. Step Number Two towards reforming you: keep your reactions under control."
"Ew, imagine having self-control."
⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒
in which a police office...
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An anything-but-causal night awakened to an anything-but-casual morning: the omegas overslept by ten previous minutes; Renjun forgot to pack his own suppressants and had to borrow some of Chenle's red brand; the toilet was partially clogged after last night and needed room service's attention.
"I wonder if everyone's downstairs already," Donghyuck wondered for the third time, although there was no sign of his attempts to speed up his dressing routine.
"The teachers probably factored in any variable," Renjun replied to the rhetorical question. "We couldn't possibly be the only ones who overslept."
Chenle tied his final lace and grabbed his backpack. He was the first up and the first ready to go, but it made sense since he always got himself up for school every morning, unlike the other two who usually woke to the alarm that was their parents. He was excited for the prospect of the adventure park, but he had that niggling thought that he'd challenged Jisung to the zip line and now he couldn't go back on it.
"Okay," Donghyuck sighed, the last to secure his bag on his back, "we're good to go."
•・•・•
"Not late," Renjun murmured when they reached the meeting point at the front of the hotel, bathed in the early morning sunlight that was more chilly than warm.
The alphas were there already. Jisung was chatting to his roommates while Mark mingled with others, presumably friends, and the other two, as always, stuck close together. They reassembled at the arrival of the omegas. Jeno's egghead was even more pronounced this morning. It was like another entity clinging to his forehead for dear life, and seemed to have become his defining feature. Chenle was sure he heard someone in the crowd of classmates refer to him as 'Jeno and his gangrene'.
"How far is the park?" Donghyuck asked, scratching his bare arms and shifting from foot to foot in the unexpected chill.
"Twenty minutes, half an hour," Mark yawned and moved towards him, jacket coming off at lightning speed to sit on Donghyuck's shoulders. "Not far."
The bus could be heard before it could be seen. The vehicle came down the road with the elegance of a bumbling bumblebee, buzzing and tumbling over gravel and stones. The engine sounded like a woman in labour. They decided to sit with the same partners to avoid debate, so Chenle was happy to sit beside Jisung again. What did disappoint him was that Larry muttered 'oh god' when he saw Chenle mount the bus. That dug deep.
"Can I rest on your shoulder please? I did yesterday," he asked quietly.
Jisung quirked a brow. "Only if you don't drool on me like last time."
Chenle's face flushed red and he found he had no words, for once. But he didn't like being lost for words so he bounced back quickly. "It was a comfortable shoulder."
