Gossamer - Discontinued

𝒱𝐼𝐼

Sliding into his seat, Jisung let out a soft whine as his elbow hit the table, causing Chenle to look up, worried. He wanted to go over and ask if the beta was okay, but Renjun had told him being too overbearing would scare Jisung.

Chenle didn't want to scare Jisung, he wanted to marry him.

"Mr. Zhong, stop giving Mr. Park googly eyes and concentrate on the lesson."

"Sorry sir!" Chenle chirped, turning back to the board.

"As I was saying, this semester is about traditional Chinese literature. You will be put into pairs and will be providing one twenty page essay and one fifty slide slideshow on the literature you choose. Since this is such a small class, we will only be looking at the Six Classic Novels."

The twelve students looked at each other, and the professor smiled. "And I will choose your partners."

With those words, Jisung knew his fate. His professor loved to absolutely torture him, ever since he had accidentally sent his very rough draft to him. The draft looked like this:

Title motherfucker - some fries motherfucker

Shit about Shang Dynasty - writing and crap - Yinxu hell yeah - FIRST CHINESE DYNASTY BITCHESSSS - oracle bones were the shit, oxen bones too - big brain power government.

Needless to say, the professor was far from pleased.

"Mr. Zhong, since your eyes never leave from Mr. Park, I think you two should be paired together," The professor said, and Jisung hit his head on the desk while Chenle clapped his hands happily.

"Of course they don't, he's my mate!" Chenle declared to the entire class, and Jisung hit his head against the table again. Before the end of the day, it would be everywhere that he was Chenle's mate.

"You two will be doing Romance of the Three Kingdoms." Jisung's jaw dropped as he named the book, internally cursing out his luck. Romance of Three Kingdoms had 120 chapters, nearly 1,000 characters, and 800,000 words. And he had to go through that with Chenle.

Soon enough, the floral frangipani scent enveloped him, and Jisung wrinkled his nose. "Hi Jisung!" Chenle chirped.

"Hi," Jisung said shortly.

"Have you read Romance of Three Kingdoms before?"

"You realise how long it is right? Why would I have done so?"

"I did." Jisung wouldn't admit it, but it was been one of the books he had read. The only problem was that it was in the original version; old Chinese and unabridged. He was surprised Chenle had read it though.

"Really?"

"I'm not that dumb," Chenle said awkwardly. "And Chinese culture is important to me. After all I'm from where once was China."

When there had been a threat of a Third World War, countries had decided it was best to merge together. China, Korea, and many of the smaller countries had merged, making it one United Asia.

"I didn't mean you were dumb, I was just surprised you'd want to - never mind." Jisung had to keep up a wall. Sure, he was sure Chenle was nice under his weird stalker vibes and perfect face structure and messy hair that Jisung wanted to run his fingers through as he pulled the smaller boy into a kiss - wait.

The entire lecture hall was startled by Jisung slapping himself, hard, and even the professor looked scared.

No. He couldn't like Chenle. He didn't want to know what his parents might do if they found out he had a friend other than Renjun. Much less a crush. They'd probably flip their shit like they always did to be honest.

He could remember when he told his parents he had a friend. They'd looked horrified and told him friends would only hurt him and one day he'd end up dead because of a friend. He was five.

Somehow, Renjun got them to approve of him, so Jisung was allowed, technically, one friend.

Jisung was beyond grateful they'd let it be Renjun though. Renjun knew how to turn off the tracker on his phone, take out bugs his parents put in his clothes, and generally showed him how to have fun - even if it meant getting drunk beyond belief when he turned seventeen.

"Jisung?" Jisung hummed in response, and Chenle realised the younger boy hadn't been listening. In fact, his scent was curdling, smelling distressed. Tentatively, Chenle reached out a hand and laid it on Jisung's shoulder, feeling Jisung immediately relax under his touch.

Electricity seemed to flow for a split second, and all Jisung could concentrate was on Chenle. Even with his eyes closed, he could sense the older boy's warmth and the way his heart was racing.

"I was wondering if you wanted to meet at my house to work, or yours." Chenle said again, studying the now relaxed face of Jisung. His clean scent slowly became less sour, and as soon as he was back to normal, Jisung shrugged off Chenle's hand.

"Your house." And with that, Jisung bolted out of the lecture, immediately going to Renjun.

"Why do you look so frazzled?" Renjun asked, looking at him and frowning.

"Chenle, he touched me and it was like a tidal wave of calm? Like he mattered to me?"

"Jisung he's your mate, of course it would be like that."

"How did you know?"

"Well besides the obvious signs, it's also all over the school, the newspaper included. Jaemin's really a snoop." Renjun held out a paper that had an extremely realistic photoshopped photo of Jisung next to Chenle, laughing, and Jisung turned white.

"I'm going to die."

"Hey, hey, deep breaths."

"Inhaler," Jisung managed through his stuttering breaths, and Renjun dug out an inhaler, handing it to the boy and watching as he inhaled and exhaled. He hadn't meant to cause such a sudden anxiety attack, but Jisung did need to know.

"Don't worry. I'll tell your parents you're staying with me. And I'll coordinate it with Chenle so you don't have to risk anything."

"But this news?"

"Won't get back to your parents. Believe me." Renjun squeezed Jisung's shoulder, but it felt different from when Chenle had comforted him. Chenle felt like a tidal wave of calm, while Renjun seemed to be just a regular wave.

Did this mean Chenle was his mate?

But he didn't want that.

He didn't want an alpha as a mate.

He didn't want a mate, period.

He didn't want to fall in love just for his parents to rip them apart.

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So, what're your thoughts on this story so far?

What're some questions you have?