october | ningselle (ON HOLD)

II

now

Giselle isn't really one to pry, but the class bursting into whispers piques her interest.

It's an elective class, where the grades are mixed, so there's seniors and juniors everywhere, and they're all talking about something.

But what?

"What's the news?" she asks Irene, resident gossip of SM High. Irene is gorgeous, with long black hair and mysterious dark eyes, and her looks more often than not get her the information she wants.

"There's a new boy," Irene says, whisking a breath across her freshly manicured nails. "He's from China."

"From China?" Ningning leans over, interested. "What city? Does he speak Mandarin? What's his name?"

Irene grins, delighted to share gossip as Giselle's stolen heart sinks. "He's from Shanghai."

"So he does!" Ningning's quickly widening smile now matches Irene's. "When's he coming? What's his name?"

"Zhong Chenle, and he's coming on the fifth," Irene says conspiratorially, and Giselle's heart lands somewhere between her ankles. It's October 3rd. That's two days.

It's not that she doesn't want Ningning to have a new friend- someone she could speak Mandarin to and talk to her culture about. But a new boy everyone's obsessing over usually means bad news. She's seen the signs before with her best friend. When Ningning was in fifth grade, it was Jeong Jaehyun. In her eighth grade year, Mark Lee. In sophomore year, Na Jaemin in Giselle's biology class, and thanks to Giselle's intervention the two actually dated for two months (and then Jaemin moved away).

However, this is slightly more pressing than a group of Korean boys her best friend used to like.

This is a boy that could talk to Ningning like Giselle couldn't. A boy who could form a bond with her Giselle couldn't.

Giselle was used to feeling jealous about her best friend, but this was a whole next level.

Ningning turns to Giselle, grinning, and her smile fixes Giselle's mood a little. So she decides to put on a fake smile and hope for the best.

That'll work, right?

"Zhong Chenle, Zhong Chenle, Zhong Chenle," Ningning muses later when they're both at Giselle's house, flopped on her bed doing "research."

Well, okay, no. Ningning is using Giselle's computer to stalk Chenle.

It's not stalking, Ningning had justified. I just want to know who he is.

Yeah, right, Giselle thinks to herself just as her best friend yelps in surprise.

"What? Is he ugly?" Giselle launches herself from her position to look at the screen, and her heart drops for the third time that day.

Zhong Chenle is not ugly. In fact, he's so good-looking that even Giselle has to grudgingly admit his handsomeness. He has a perfect jawline, so perfect that it comes out defined in every picture he takes. His eyes are like Irene's, mysterious and dark and alluring; he has full lips and hair that is tousled perfectly.

Giselle can see Ningning's eyes widen as she scrolls down his Instagram page, quickly becoming more taken by his looks and charm. She sees the exact same look in her friend's eyes that she did with Jaehyun, Mark and Jaemin.

All boys.

Ningning has never, ever liked a girl before, and from the looks of it?

Chenle's about to be her next infatuation, one that she'll rope her heartbroken best friend into helping her with.

Giselle sometimes wonders if she's reading too much into Ningning's little smiles and laughs and arm touches, and now? She thinks she's right.

Ningning is being her friend.

And she'll never like Giselle how she's starting to like Chenle.

then [ one year ago ]

Giselle was a junior then, Ningning a sophomore. 

Ningning was already relatively popular for her good looks, and she had a moderate amount of boys lining up to ask her out. Giselle was already in love with her by then (it was year three and counting.)

She thought everything was going fine until something- or rather, someone named Na Jaemin threw itself into the mix.

Giselle had enrolled in biology to expand her horizons, and by some force of the heavens Ningning's literature class was literally two doors down. So they always walked each other to their next classes after that.

But in December of Giselle's junior year, Na Jaemin transferred to her class.

He had had some drama in his old class and was switching his classes around, and he just happened to end up in Giselle's. Jaemin was very cute, the school thought, with floppy curtain bangs and sweet eyes. Several girls liked him that Giselle knew of, and she didn't really mind the hype. He was a nice guy.

Until her first biology class with Jaemin ended and Ningning and Jaemin left the room at the exact same time.

Ningning's mouth opened in surprise, never having seen Jaemin in person before, and she latched onto Giselle like she was an anchor. Normally, Giselle wouldn't mind the contact, but the reason made her back stiffen and her arms freeze.

"Is. That. Na. Jaemin."

"Yeah...?" Giselle's reply came out as more of a question.

"Why. Is. He. Right. There."

Giselle looked down at her best friend and noticed the look in her eyes.

The "new crush" look.

Except this time it was way stronger, since Jaemin was looking back at Ningning with the same interest.

Crap.

"He's in my bio class let's go we're going to be late," Giselle exhaled in one long sentence, but Ningning wasn't moving.

"Ning, please," Giselle tried, tugging her friend lightly.

"I think I'm in love," was Ningning's lovestruck response.

Oh, great.

In the end, they did end up getting to class on time, or Giselle did, at least. Ningning had been walking at a frighteningly slow pace, so she wasn't sure.

But the lateness didn't bother her. It was Na Jaemin who did.

now

And now, Zhong Chenle.