dicey ↬ nomin

Ch.1

Jeno's idea of a Monday morning had never been the best, especially since the whole student body whined about it too and left no room for one's own opinion on the weekday, but this Monday morning took the prize. Never had he been denied entrance into the school by none other than Na Jaemin - his least favourite person at school.

"You want to get past me?" Jaemin chuckled as he stood, arms folded, blocking the doorway into the school building.

Jeno rolled his eyes in irritation and snickered. "You think? Let me in, Jaemin."

The vendetta between the two (which really made no sense since neither of them had particular reasons to fight in the first place) was common knowledge at their school. In fact, even the teachers seemed to have copped on to the thick tension between them. The only thing Jeno could say that would make the situation better, was that at least they weren't in the same base class. Of course, they had a few lessons together, but not enough to start World War Three.

"I can't let you ruin anyone else's day," Jaemin smiled innocently and held his arms horizontally, holding both sides of the doorframe and creating a barrier. "Plus, I thought you would be ditching school today to hang out with Mina."

Jeno tried not to show his confusion as to why Jaemin brought up the name Mina, the girl Jaemin was dating, and just shrugged. "Why would I do that?"

"Because," the pink haired boy felt the smile slowly run from his face as seriousness tried to grab his usually carefree character. "She likes you now. Didn't you hear? She told me she had feelings for you."

Jeno didn't know if he felt bad for the guy, understanding that their relationship had been really good up until recently, or victorious because she had left him for the enemy. He didn't want to sympathise with the younger boy at all, so he chose the latter option. "Not my problem," he folded his arms and shifted his weight. "But you know what will be my problem? Your blood on my hands if you don't let me through."

Jaemin, raising his hands in mock surrender, stepped back in controlled spite and let the boy through. "Just know this, Jeno: Mina doesn't keep feelings for long. Soon, you'll be in my shoes."

"Except," Jeno walked through the door and stood a good metre away from Jaemin, "I won't be rebound for some girl who realised that I'm the better choice. Both of you can enjoy the loneliness."

***

As Jeno sat through his first class, he couldn't help but feel his legs go numb from the lack of movement. He really didn't like Jaemin at all. The guy was an utter buffoon; the definition of an immature daredevil. He would probably skydive without a parachute if it meant he could get more followers on social media. The complete opposite of the composed, snappy, snarky Jeno, who would have preferred not to continuously be at the eye of every storm in his school life. And just to add to the mix, Jaemin was quite flirty with Jeno, and if that didn't spell out 'weirdo', then he didn't know what did.

Sure, being popular had its perks, and one of them being that he never really hung out with the same person twice. This meant that no one had a good grasp on his private life and no one would pry into his unexplained absences, or the injuries that cropped up with no alibis to contradict or invalidate his haphazard explanations. Of course, there were cons to popularity that probably outweighed the pros, such as his inability to sit with his one true friend at school - Chenle.

Graceful movement in the corner of his eye led him to glance out the window, the panel of glass being the only wall between him and the ever so fading blossom petals. They fell beautifully. Jeno wished he could be even half as free as the soft petals littering the running track outside the window.

Being the quiet student he was, the window seat was a given. The teacher always focused so hard on carefully planning where the noisy troublemakers sat that they would forget about Jeno, placing him in the back corner beside the window.

"Mina, continue from page twenty," the teacher called over the boy's mental escape from boredom. He looked away from the window and then over to the female voice reading. Just the back of her head was what Jeno could see, but he couldn't say that she had a very memorable face. 'Mina...Jaemin's girlfriend.' He decided that it didn't really matter to him whether or not he remembered her face because he had to keep his head low and his mind occupied.

He placed his idle hands on the table and interlocked his fingers, examining the dirt under his nails and picking at them listlessly. He slowly brought his eyes out the window and sighed at the small drops of rain trailing down the glass and leaving a wet trail. Unable to take his eyes off one of the droplets running down the window, he watched it until it congregated and merged with the others in a small pool at the bottom. The things he found enjoyment in when driven to the edge of boredom.

"Lee Jeno!" The teacher called with an annoyed expression, causing the boy to flinch. He hated it when his name was used with that tone of disappointment. It really just reverted his mind back to the horrors of what awaited him whenever he wasn't at school. He slid his trembling hands onto his lap under the desk and looked expectantly at the teacher with an air of confidence. Fortunately, he was saved by the bell... The teacher placed his hands on his desk and leaned all his weight onto it, creating an irritated and tired stance. He watched the students leave one by one and narrowed his eyes scrutinisingly at Jeno.

"Jeno! Let's eat together," the voice of one of his many classmates called as he packed away his belongings. A little group of students were standing in the doorway to wait for him, but he felt really bad because he had already promised to sit with Chenle. They had big smiles on their faces, just adding to the guilt. He always sat with people he didn't know, so he owed it to Chenle to sit with him.

"Sorry guys, I'm booked. We have the next class together though, so can I sit with you then?"

"No problem, dude, see you later." When they left, it was an awkward moment of silence between the teacher and Jeno as he could feel that he was about to continue what was disturbed before the bell.

"I'm sorry, sir, I'll pay attention next time."

Pushing his thick-rimmed glasses a bit too far up his nose, the teacher gave Jeno a look of disappointment, causing the boy to feel very small. "You usually pay attention, so I'll let it slide. If there's something going on then let me know, because it's a bit late to be letting your grades drop."

'I don't usually pay attention, actually, but you wouldn't notice because I'm good at pretending.' "Thanks. Enjoy your lunch break," he smiled weakly and left. At least, that's what he tried to do, but instead of walking down the hallway to meet up with his friend, he bumped into someone. He flinched and felt one of his bruises being bumped into.

"Sorry. Oh, it's you," Jaemin said with a small gasp from the impact. He looked at Jeno quizzically and reached his hand out to see if he was okay.

Jeno froze as he saw Jaemin's hand and carefully stepped back, shaking his head in objection. "I'm fine. Sorry, I guess I wasn't watching where I was going." He flicked his gaze behind Jaemin and kept walking as though he had spotted who he was looking for.

Jaemin frowned, because he had noticed Jeno's wince and hesitance to being touched. He turned around to watch Jeno turn the corner and frowned again, wondering why he even cared.