extraordinary things ; chenji

dumb idiot park jisung

jisung

"And then there's the placenta."

Jisung is reading a guide to kittening on his computer. It's not as gross as he expected, though some of the details are extremely detailed. Nibbles looks worse off than him. She's not moving, nothing but the occasional twitch of her tail to show she's not a stuffed animal.

"Is that the thing we might have to remove if Nibbles doesn't?" Chenle asks.

"No, that's the sac. There's a placenta for each kitten, so we have to count them to make sure there aren't any, you know, still inside afterward. Infection risk."

Nibbles' tail coils up like a danish. Suddenly she jumps down from her perch on the kitty condo.

"I've heard enough."

"Really?" says Jisung. "We haven't even watched a birthing video yet."

"No no no. No no. I'll let you two have the rest of the evening."

"Where are you going?"

"To sing on the fence. Don't wait up. As they say."

She hops from the floor to the desk and waddles out the window. A moment later they hear an awful wail. Jisung closes the window.

"She's scared," he says.

"Shitless," Chenle replies. "She's making me nervous too. Isn't pregnancy supposed to be intuitive, especially for animals?"

"I don't know. Maybe they all get scared and we just don't know."

"Maybe we shouldn't do research with her here. Like how you're not supposed to research root canals before you get one."

"You're probably right. I want to keep going though, just us. I'm her doctor and I had no idea kittens came out wrapped up like salad rolls."

"God, don't compare them to food."

So they sit at the end of Jisung's bed and watch a cat birth on YouTube. Weirdest subject Jisung has ever studied for sure, but this is so much more important than anything school has to offer. These kittens are basically going to be family. (Nibbles giving him one of her lives has to make him something to her children, right? Vampire uncle once-deceased?)

"Oh... man," Chenle murmurs. "Text me if you need help cleaning up or something."

"I don't know. It'd be cool if you were there from the beginning."

"I don't think Nibbles likes me that much."

"I mean, I'd like it. Moral support or something."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

He looks away, nods. "Then I'll be there. Just text me."

"Okay."

Chenle looks back up again. He smiles a little. "Last time we had a movie night, it was a little more fun than this."

Jisung laughs. "Calling this a movie night... I don't know."

"I was thinking about the biting thing."

"What... about it?"

"It's kind of... suggestive of something, isn't it?"

"Suggestive?"

"I mean, biting? Blood-lust? Exchange of... fluids?" Chenle is articulating with his hands, so Jisung stares at them instead of his face. "Satiation. Feeling tired afterward. Like, dude, we do it in your bed."

"I... guess I never thought of it that way."

"Seriously?"

Well... maybe he'd been ignoring it. Otherwise his mind might have grabbed it and ran off to questionable places. Should he lie? Should he shrug it off? What is Chenle asking? Is he hinting at the kiss? Why are Jisung's knees sweating?

"Yeah," Jisung says, "okay. It's pretty much a huge innuendo. But that doesn't matter, right? We can just... pretend it's normal, right?"

Chenle is looking at him. It makes Jisung feel pinned. He gets up to do something, anything. Ends up pushing the kitty condo into the corner, nudging a pile of clothes across the floor.

"Hey," says Chenle. "You know Hana?"

Jisung mumbles a yes.

"She asked me to prom."

Oh crazy jealous panic. It roots him to the spot. Steals his voice.

"I think I'm going to say yes. But, Jisung, if you can think of a reason why I shouldn't..."

Jisung looks at him for a second. He's looking back. What is he asking? What does he want?

Oh God. This is Jisung's chance, isn't it?

He tries to find the words, somewhere, floating in his body. I like you. There. There's your reason. It feels like another language. Like his mouth won't be able to make the impossible sounds. Like his lungs won't give him enough air.

This secret... it's fragile. But it could blow through his life like a nuke. It could change their friendship in ways that can't be undone. And that, that he's not willing to risk.

"If you," he murmurs, "like... like her, you should go."

"You're okay with that?"

Another chance. "Why wouldn't I be?" Wasted.

Chenle's jaw clicks in and out. He nods a little. "Okay. Then... that settles it."