𝘀𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀; nomin

two

His headache had long since left him, but Jaemin still couldn't concentrate in class.

No matter how hard he focused on the board that the lecturer was standing by, his eyes always fell onto the the pair who sat directly in front of him. Jeno and Jinsoo. The young adult was baffled by their attitudes at school.

The brunette, Jeno, had been smiling and talking to his boyfriend in a very loving way. He even lay his head on the elder's shoulder while the ravenette would whisper in his ear.

Jinsoo seemed overjoyed and deeply in love with the boy to his left, nuzzling the younger affectionately. It confused Jaemin so much. How had these two been screaming and fighting for hours straight only three hours ago?

His heart skipped a beat when Jeno's eyes met his. The contact had been brief and had gone unnoticed by Jeno's possessive boyfriend, but the blonde could see a familiar emotion in the brunette's eyes.

It was the same look that his friend, Renjun, had given him when he found out his mother had died back in China. Dread. Fear. Helplessness. Anger. Sadness.
It was a strange mix of all these things, as if Jeno's eyes were telling a complicated story that his body denied.

He had turned back to the front of the classroom, leaning into Jinsoo's side, desperate for warmth on the chilly November morning.

Jaemin shrugged the strange feeling away, focusing on the board again.
Tuesdays always seemed to drag on for him, since he had hours of study to do at night with only a few hours of sleep. It was tough and it was tedious, but the young adult had somehow juggled this strange schedule for three months. Barely.

He was knocked from his thoughts when the lecturer walked up the stairs. He had obviously set the group something to do, but of course Jaemin had missed this due to lack of mental presence that morning.

Mr. Song stopped walking at the row in front of the Jaemin. The younger had thought he was done for, for his lack of focus throughout the lecture. He held his breath in anticipation but instead felt his shoulders slump in relief as the middle aged man leaned in closer to Jeno.

Jaemin didn't miss the killer look that Jinsoo had thrown the man, but Mr. Song seemed oblivious to the glare the younger adult had sent him.

Jaemin leaned in closer to the trio, trying to hear what they were conversing about without seeming too obvious about his eavesdropping.

Their hushed whispers made Jaemin even more confused. Why were they being so quiet? He was in class after all.

The whole thing. This relationship, friendship, anger, the shouting. Everything.

Had it just gone on in Jaemin's mind? Nothing added up anymore. There was no way, no possibility that the pair had even raised their voices to each other, let alone the hours of screaming that Jaemin had listened to. In an attempt to decipher what about this relationship was toxic, he listened as the professor started to talk.

"Jeno, can I speak with you after class?" He heard the middle aged man whisper. He had also noticed how annoyed Jinsoo looked while he started to squeeze the younger's thigh painfully tight. A warning? Was that was Jaemin had just witnessed?

He was utterly confused, watching as Jeno's usually outgoing personality shied away as he viewed his boyfriend's movements before staring him in the eye.

"I'm very sorry, Sir, but I have somewhere to be," the brunette politely declined the teacher's request. He glanced at Jinsoo, who now wore a sinister grin while digging his nails into Jeno's thigh.

A whimper left the younger's mouth, but he covered it up by pretending to yawn. It hadn't even raised a suspicion with the teacher - he was painfully oblivious to the clear signs of pain Jeno was expressing. It was as if he was begging for help, but no one was hearing him.

The distinct look of fear swirled in Jeno's eyes. Any observant person could see that.

"Jeno, this is important!" That teacher spoke out, no longer whispering to the boy but talking in a normal tone.

"Fine," he muttered, seeming defeated by the words and the killer glare that his boyfriend sent him.

No one had noticed this attitude or the tension. No one had even batted an eyelash at the clearly toxic relationship. Or was it only obvious to the brunette who had endured hours of abuse only the night before.

Jeno bit his lip nervously as the teacher stood up straight again, walking away from the desks tentatively with a slight skip in his step.

"What the fuck was that?" Jinsoo had mumbled in the younger's ear, eliciting a yelp from the boy who had no intention of giving up against his boyfriend.

"I was taking matters into my own hands, sweetheart."
The sarcasm that was laced in his voice was clear to Jinsoo who had only tightened his grip on Jeno's thigh, desperately trying to hold his anger back.

"Your going to have a long night tonight, babe," the ravenette growled through gritted teeth, trying to keep his voice low in fear of a classmate overhearing their conversation.

"I always do...don't I?" Jeno had questioned, but his partner didn't answer him this time and instead kept his focus set up.

Instead he had held the grip that he had on the younger's thigh, digging his nails in deeper, watching with satisfaction when the younger flinched away from his touch.

He watched the lesson go on, carefully contolling his anger.

Twenty minutes, that's all that Jinsoo had to wait. It wasn't too long, but to him it felt like an eternity.

Jeno's attitude had been making his job of keeping them under the radar close to impossible.
People had started to glance at them a little strangely as his boyfriend purposely looked unhappy, annoyed or hurt.

He had been putting up the act for so long that he had finally stopped caring what Jinsoo did. Everything had hit rock bottom, it could get no worse for Jeno who wanted nothing more than a caring boyfriend.

Jinsoo's breath hitched when Jeno leaned in, whispering in his ear "Fucking try me."

His rebellious phase had started. Jeno was done with the constant abuse. He would sit there and take it, and that wasn't going to change until the day his sister died, or, if a miracle happened and she became cured of the illness. That scenario seemed rather unlikely.

All of this pain and torture...it was for the small fourteen year old who awaited her brother's return from the city.

Jeno just wanted to be back in the countryside where the smell of animal manure had been the scent of home to him. Along with the excited squeals from his sister as he returned home from school each day.

She had told him that the only reason she was holding on was for him.

It had crushed the brunette's heart that this girl was so close to death and still wanted to please her older brother.
She was so strong and he was so weak. How had the story been so twisted that she would look up to him?

His thoughts were cut short by the sound of the bell and the teacher's call of dismissal, indicating that the lecture was done at long last.

Jinsoo had released his grip on the younger's thigh only a few moments prior, but the loss of contact had been a relief for Jeno who was now hesitant to go home.

"I'll meet you outside babe," the raven haired boy chimed, a sickly sweet smile spreading across his face.

"Yeah...whatever."

The words had infuriated Jinsoo, but he had noticed that Jaemin who sat behind them was watching closely. So, suppressing his rage, he just ruffled Jeno's hair 'fondly' before leaving the classroom, throwing a last glance back at the retreating adult who had walked to the teachers desk.

"Hey, you're Jinsoo, right?"