dicey ↬ nomin

Ch.8

It was half an hour into Chenle's study session with Jisung at the younger boy's house. They had agreed to meet up to work on their project since their teachers were stressing the partners' extra-curricular interactions, leaving no time to work on it in class.

They were currently sitting up to Jisung's study desk in his room, which was painted white. The whole room was a tidy monochrome theme, with a black swivel chair for the desk and a black duvet with a white throw on the end. His pillows were perfectly puffed and were both white, and the carpet was was white too with no stains and not an ounce of dirt or dust.

"It's so clean in here," Chenle commented amidst colouring in a picture he had drawn for the presentation.

Jisung nodded and looked around too. "It doesn't even feel like my own room anymore. I wish I could take some creative license with it, but my mum won't let me do anything."

Chenle leaned his cheek in his palm, raising his eyebrows. "Is she a bit of a control freak?"

"Just a bit. It doesn't help that she has OCD, which explains the colour scheme. The whole house is colour schemed and it makes me feel like I'm a doll in a dollhouse."

Chenle sat up and put his colouring pencil down. "I think we've done enough work, right? Can I look around your house?"

Jisung perked up, glad to move on from the work since he was feeling bored. "Let's. I'll show you around."

They wandered downstairs, where the kitchen was a lime green and white colour scheme. The cupboards were all green while the floor was tiled white. The stools that lined the white island were green too and there was no dirt to be seen. "We walked through here earlier, right? I never noticed this," the Chinese boy peered at a framed photo on the wall. It was a picture of who could be assumed as Jisung's parents holding baby Jisung.

"Ah, that's a nice photo of us from when I was three months old. It's one of the only nice photos of us since the rest either have a blur in them or the subject isn't quite centred. My mum gets rid of any pictures that aren't perfect."

Standing up on his tippy toes to look closely at it, Chenle noticed a landmark in the background. "Oh, you're in France?"

"Mhm, my dad used to go to lots of meetings abroad. He brought us with him once for a holiday. He gave up the overseas trips to be with me and my mum more." Jisung smiled at the picture, having no memory of the trip but enjoying the looks on their faces - the content smiles.

"Is he at work right now?"

"He and my mum work until five o'clock, but on Saturdays my mum works until three. You'll meet her soon, anyway, since it's Saturday." He led Chenle to their living room, which had a long brown couch in the centre and an armchair on either side. The walls were a mustard colour to compliment the brown furniture, while the carpet was white. "Our tv stopped working recently so we can't watch anything, unfortunately."

Chenle smiled and walked around the room. "That's okay. Our tv is really old and small, so I'm no better."

Curious, Jisung looked over at the boy. "What's your family like?"

Chenle didn't particularly want to hide anything, but since Jisung was close with Jaemin and Jeno didn't want Jaemin to know about their living situation, he thought it best to stretch the truth. "It's...big."

Jisung chuckled. "Lots of siblings?"

"Too many to count. My mum is really nice and she takes really good care of us, but sometimes I feel like she needs to stop drowning herself in caring for us. I want her to take a break and let me and my older brothers look after the youngsters for a while."