Satisfaction [NCT]

36.

Being alone in his apartment wasn't fun. There was nothing to do. He tried watching movies but nothing was entertaining enough. He would do homework, but he's already done so much. He did everything that's due tomorrow and an essay that's due in a week, he has nothing else to get caught up on. He could study, but why would he? There's no tests coming up soon and for the most part he understands the material they are going over in class.

He also doesn't have many friends. He had some people he could text like Hendery but what would they talk about? He isn't interesting enough to talk to him during school and after school. He looked through previous text conversations he's kept in his phone. The most recent was from his mom, Hendery, and Xiao Jun. Then Yangyang from 2 weeks ago. The next most recent was 3 weeks ago from Johnny, his dad, and Taeyong. He clicked on one of their profiles and clicked on the typing box. Should he text him?

TEN: hey, I know you probably don't like me much, or even at all. You said that if I ever needed something I could text you.

He contemplating sending the message, deleting it only to retype it, changing some words to sound less desperate. Eventually he just allowed his thumb to press the button to send the message. He dramatically swiped out of the conversation and turned his phone off and slid it away from him. Why did he do that? Johnny is going to laugh at him. What if he gets ignored?

With every minute he didn't get a response, his anxiety rose more and more. His fingers trembled, his legs tapped the floor rapidly. Johnny is probably ignoring him. He probably wants nothing to do with Ten. Why would he?

Ten started to play music and walk around in his kitchen. Maybe he can make something for dinner. That is, if he can cook. He's not very good at cooking, maybe he can get better. Ten started to bring a pot of water to a boil. He got out different ingredients that he has, even though he didn't have much. He had to make do with what he had. He cut the only two vegetables he owned, swaying his hips to the beat of the music. He moved the vegetables to the pot of boiling water and danced as the chorus began. "Oh my, my, my" he pumped his fist that was holding the knife into the air. He took out a bit of cooked beef and reheated it in the microwave. His music quieted down and gave a small ding before returning to the original volume. Ten walked back over to see what the notification was.

JN: hey Ten, what's up?

TEN: I just wanted to see what you were doing, we haven't talked for a couple weeks so I was just curious.

He waited for two minutes staring at his phone until the read receipt popped up. He swiped out and put the phone down, not trying to make himself look desperate. A couple moments later, a ding echoed through the room. He slowly picked up his phone, reading the text from the message preview instead of in the app.

JN: I thought you said you needed something

TEN: I do, I need a friend

JN: that's- not how that works...

TEN: why not? You said if I needed something I could text you, and you seemed pretty friendly about it so I figured you were down for being friends
TEN: Guess it was just a fake friendship

"Alexa, play fake love." Ten said and paused his own music.

JN: ten, I didn't mean that. I'm not a good friend for you. You'll never see me except for maybe once every 3 months. Plus, I would want to spend that time with Taeyong, from what I heard, he would not be wanting to share that time with you.

TEN: what has he said about me?

Johnny didn't respond. Ten gave up and went back to cooking, realizing he slightly burnt his food. He took it all off of the heat and tried to salvage what he could. "Bon appetite."