always ↬ leading me on || l.dh • h.rj • z.cl

·thirty two·

"Chenle!"

"Donghyuck!"

The five males stared on awkwardly as the two boys embraced in front of them, Donghyuck lifting the younger off of his feet and spinning him around once before putting him down again.

"I swear they had a bad history at one point," Jaemin leaned closer to Renjun and whispered in his ear not-so-subtly.

"You're telling me. It's been a day and they're all over each other," the elder face-palmed, adjusting the straps of his bag as he listened to Jeno and Jisung fake gagging in the background.

Mark sighed lightly, ruffling his hair and splitting the two apart, "for fuck's sake, at least get into the fucking school before you do this type of shit."

"But Mark," the orange haired boy whined, "we missed each other."

"Yea-"

"I can't believe you two," Renjun snorted, grabbing Jaemin's wrist and pushing past them all to enter the building.

"Injun-" Jaemin's voice faded out as they disappeared inside, Chenle's expression falling as he spotted Renjun's fingers slip from his wrist and into the brunet's hand.

"He seems pretty jealous to me," Donghyuck suddenly piped up, his voice loud in the Chinese boy's ear. Chenle jumped and looked to his side, only to see the elder's eyes glued to the windows — where Jaemin could be seen hanging off of Renjun happily.

"I don-"

"We should totally step up our game and rile him up even more, that'd be fun," the tanned boy smirked, "what do you say, Chenle?"

"S-Sure? I don't think it'll bother him all too much though," the younger replied, confusion laced in his tone as Donghyuck slung an arm around his shoulders and proceeded to drag him inside as well.

"Oh trust me, it will."

‣‣

"Thank you," Chenle said, holding the bracelet tightly to his chest with a small smile on his face, "I missed this so much."

"Yeah... I'm sorry about that too," Donghyuck let out while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "I should have given it back yesterday..."

"It's okay, at least I have it now," the younger whispered, fingers tracing over all the little charms that were dangling from the smooth band of silver.

The duo were currently in one of the school bathrooms, Donghyuck was sat on the edge of the large sink area and Chenle stood close to the wall. A thick silence settled around them and Chenle gulped.

If he was being honest, they were still very awkward around each other.

Sure, the conversation they had yesterday put them both at ease and they agreed to start over, but that doesn't mean everything was suddenly going to be perfect.

The reason why they had hugged this morning and acted so familiarly with each other was just their way of trying to be normal. They both shared the thought that if they acted like they were friends, they would eventually become friends, and while they didn't see any flaws in that theory, it was still hard to go through with.

Chenle didn't even know what was going on now, he didn't know what he should be feeling and he just wanted a break. He just wanted to crawl into Renjun's arms and stay there; where he knew he'd find comfort and solace - away from all of the thoughts and feelings that were eating away at him from inside.

"Was it special to you?" Donghyuck's voice broke through the heavy air.

"Huh?"

"That bracelet, was it special to you?"

"This?" Chenle laughed softly, gripping it just a little bit tighter, trying to gain strength, trying to not cry, "...it means the world to me."

‣‣

"Renjun ge gave it to me just before I left China," Chenle started, he was now sat beside Donghyuck, holding the bracelet up close between them both, "back then, it only had these," he showed the elder two charms, a lilac one, shaped into the letters 'z.cl' and a black one that spelled out 'h.rj'.

"They're pretty."

"Mhmm, he always sent me a new charm to add on every month with a letter that explained the reason why he got it," he pointed to a baby blue dolphin, "this one, he said, was because of the way I laugh."

"Like a dolphin?"

"Like a dolphin," Chenle nodded, moving onto the charm beside it, a golden wing that had tiny diamonds lining its edges, "this one, was because he was convinced that I was secretly an angel," he smiled, "obviously I'm not, but yeah, each one of them holds a lot of meaning to me."

"Oh."

"It was something I'd always look at when I got sad or homesick and I'd just remember everything that gege told me," he sighed, "I'd remember gege and then I'd become happier. I never took it off until-" he stopped abruptly, recalling the day he took it off — well, the day he was forced to take it off.

"-until I made you," Donghyuck finished off for him, slumping against the cold mirror behind him and closing his eyes guiltily, "I'm sorry."

"You keep saying that."

"Because I really am!" the orange haired boy groaned frustratedly, "I really am sorry for everything I've done. I'm finding out all of these new things every day and it's making me realise just how much of a jerk I was. I want to slap myself, but I can't slap myself in front of you so I'm saying sorry and then I'm going to slap myself lat-"

"Woah, calm yourself Donghyuck," Chenle laughed, "you don't have to slap yourself," there was a minute of pause as they stared at each other, "it's good that you realised you were a jerk though."

"Fuck you."

"And it turns out, you still are."

‣‣

"Jeno, call me short one more time and I swear I'll strangle you." That was Renjun.

"It's true though- OKAY, I'M SORRY I WAS JOKING, DON'T HURT ME PLEASE-" Obviously Jeno.

"Jaemin, are you really just going to sit there and record all of this?" And that was Mark.

"Yup." Definitely Jaemin.

"I'm good, don't worry! I just slipped on some coffee!" And then Jisung.

"Uh-" Chenle started, staring at the messy scene in front of him.

"-what the fuck?" Donghyuck finished.