haunted, again // nct.dream [2]

{22}

The group of eleven took their seats at lunch that first day back to school. Chenle's crutches slipped from readjusting and clanked on the cafeteria floor. Jueun let out a laugh as Chenle carefully sat in his chair. She slid his crutches out of the way.

"Hey," Mi-Cha slowly started as she took a seat, "since we didn't get the chance to have a proper Halloween, I brought a bag of candy for us to snack on."

"Ah, Mi-Cha, you're looking like enough of a snack yourself," Jaemin joked, letting his arm fall around her. Mi-Cha let out a laugh as she lightly pushed him.

Chenle's face lit up as he ripped open the bag Mi-Cha had set on the table. He pulled out a couple hand fulls and piled them on his tray.

"Do you really need all that candy?" Renjun asked, reaching for some of Chenle's sizeable pile. Chenle quickly batted his hand away,

"Do you really need to ask?" Chenle opened his first piece and popped it into his mouth.

Hyunji began to chuckle as she told him, "You shouldn't eat that much candy."

"Yeah," Haechan followed. "You're already starting to look bloated."

Chenle's hands quickly slapped the sides of his face and covered his cheeks. "Don't tell me that, I'm sensitive!"

People around the table began to laugh at Chenle's reaction. All except Mark. He kept blanking out and just staring around the cafeteria, looking for something. Mark sharply exhaled, leaning against the back of his chair.

"Is this seat taken?" a sweet voice asked him.

The laughing around the table ceased.

Mark almost jumped out of his chair when he turned to the source of the voice. Soomi brushed back a stray strand of hair, smiling shyly to Mark.

"You... want to sit here?" Mark asked, pointing to the empty seat next to him. "Like, with us? By me?"

"If you don't mind, I would love to join."

That time Mark did jump out of his seat. Almost knocking over his own chair, he pulled out the open seat for Soomi to sit in.

"What a gentleman," she whispered to Mark. Soomi set down her tray, but didn't take the chair. "I need to grab a fork first. I forgot to get one. Will you come with me?"

Mark glanced from Soomi to the rest of the table before nodding. "Sure." Mark smiled his nerves away as they started for the plastic utensils near the front of the cafeteria. "Why aren't you sitting with your friends?"

"You opened my eyes, Mark Lee." Soomi didn't make eye contact with Mark. Instead, she watched her clean, white converse as they slowly walked to the front of the cafeteria to retrieve a fork. "What you said that night in the maze, about me being more than I let on... I never believed that anyone would see me more than a popular person. I thought it was time to make a change."

Mark bit the inside of his cheek to fight back his giddy feeling. "I really did mean all of it."

"What made you kiss me?" She almost seemed hesitant to ask with her low tone.

"I was kind of hoping... y'know... that you'd fall in love with me?"

After a second a silence, Soomi broke in a giggling fit. "You're so charming, aren't you? Clumsy, but charming." She turned to face Mark, smiling brightly.

"Oh, and there he is!" a different voice ruined the moment. Every muscle in Mark tensed.

Soomi peeked around Mark at a freshman girl who was squealing at her table of five. "Who's she going on about?" Soomi whispered her question.

The freshman girl ran up to Mark, batting her eyes at him. "Hey, Mark. I was just telling my friends about the Halloween party, and how magical the kiss was."

"Kiss?" Soomi exclaimed, eyeing the girl then also Mark.

Mark gulped. "I'm sorry," he apologized to the younger girl. "I didn't mean to kiss you. You see, I was looking for her," Mark motioned to Soomi, "and you had the same costume, so I..." He stopped talking, thinking that would be better. Mark's lips pinched together.

The freshman girl started to frown. "But I was really hoping to get to know you better."

Soomi put a hand on Mark's upper arm, starting to pull him away from the situation. "Sorry, but Mark is a little busy getting to know me." The two walked away, Soomi still holding onto Mark's arm.

"Sounds like someone's calling dibs," Mark chuckled with a sense of cockiness.

"Yeah yeah," Soomi huffed. "Be thankful that I got you out of that situation."

When arriving back to the table with a fork, there seemed to be an uproar going around.

"I'm just saying, I'm the most wounded out of all of you. So, I deserve that last Twix," Chenle proclaimed. "I saved your lives for the second time now."

"Jeno only got three pieces," Renjun defended.

"Oh, you guys can share. We all know your mouths have already been all over each other's faces, what's the harm?" Chenle flicked his wrist in their direction. Hyunji choked on her cafeteria chicken nuggets while Haechan patted her back in the midst of crying with laughter.

Later on, the bell rang. Hyunji had to rush to the trashcan while Haechan decided to follow her since their next class is together. Before they could rush out of the cafeteria, Heachan pulled Hyunji back and out of the way.

"Hey, can we talk for a second?" he asked her.

"What's up? We have to get to class soon."

"I'm sorry," Haechan whispered to Hyunji in a scratchy voice. She tilted her head, listening to his words. "I'm so sorry, Hyunji. I got so defensive and angry for a reason that wasn't even true. It's just... I've never been in a relationship before, so I'm new to this kind of feeling. I'm acting crazy." A huff of laughter escaped Haechan. He looked down at their hands that they didn't even realize reached for each other. "You could say I'm going insane. Please forgive me. I overreacted, and I feel terrible for it."

Hyunji raised herself up just a little bit to reach Haechan as she gave him a small kiss. "Haechan, I could never hold anything against you. It's actually quite flattering how passionate you are about me." She let a mischievous smile play on her face.

Haechan smiled shyly, which was a rare sight to see. "I'm glad everything fell to place in the end."

"Me too."

Hyunji and Haechan started to leave the cafeteria but almost jumped out of their skin when Chenle popped back in.

"Guys, hurry! This guy named Vernon is talking about this forest not too far from his house that's fenced in and has warning signs! It sounds really interesting and he wants to check it out with some people!"

Chenle darted back out the doors. Haechan and Hyunji gave each other a horrified look before shooting off after him.

"CHENLE NO!"

(A/N): OMG IT'S OVER I'M ACTUALLY A LITTLE SAD not gonna lie this was probably the most fun book for me to write so far. I hope this was amusing and you enjoyed, maybe even scared you a little (even though I don't think it was scary enough to be horror)? I need to go on an editing adventure for both the first book and this one, but other than that it's over. Thank you so much for reading!