dicey ↬ nomin

Ch.13

Jaemin was determined to make Jeno lose the bet. He was already getting bored without arguing and he was missing their squabbles. He was sitting in the classroom as the teacher droned on about whatever he liked to drone on about. Jaemin couldn't even remember which subject this was.

He sneakily pulled out his timetable and saw that it was geography class, which really had no explanation for why the teacher was talking about how chemical bonding occurred. Looking around the class, he saw many classmates checking their watches and possibly their timetables, also wondering how the teacher was incorporating chemistry into a chapter about population density around the world. Maybe it was because the teacher was, like, ninety or something. He was hunched over while pointing at the whiteboard where there actually wasn't anything written.

"And this is where it gets difficult," he wheezed and pushed his glasses up his nose. "You see, when you take oxygen and hydrogen..." he gestured to the board and pointed to a blank space.

"Sir, there's nothing there," a girl called loudly enough, assuming the old man had hearing problems.

He squinted at her and then looked at the board, squinting even harder through his glasses. "Oh, so it seems. I'll...put up the equations." He wrote everything up as fast as lightning without flaws, but a bit too late since the bell rang quickly after.

"Thank god he was a substitute," the boy beside Jaemin whispered and rubbed his eyes, collecting up his books.

Jaemin followed suit and went to leave, but then he felt bad for the teacher. "Umm, sir? The chemistry classroom is room 12, not room 21."

The man's eyes went wide as he gawked. "Oh dear! I have to get going!" He gathered his belongings and bolted.

Jaemin laughed and walked out the door, following a familiar person with his eyes. "Renjun!" He called and halted the short male in the middle of the halls.

"Oh, it's you," the Chinese male groaned and tried to dodge his loud friend.

"Aw, I know you missed me. I didn't see you this morning."

Renjun looked at Jaemin and moved his books to sit under his other arm. "I was talking to the club leader about last week's club meeting. There might be a trip organised for us."

"Lucky," he sighed and looked down the hall towards the classroom they were in next. He saw Donghyuck and Mark lingering in the doorway as the latter moved to go to his next classroom. Hyuck noticed their approach and smirked at Jaemin, thinking about their encounter last night at Jaemin's place of work.

"Jaemiiin," an annoying voice called just as he was about to growl at Donghyuck. He turned around and saw Mina standing there with her friends. "I-I miss you, Jaemin. I miss being with you, I miss your sense of humour, I miss your-"

"You're the one who caught feelings for someone else, so before playing the blame game, take a minute to digest that fact. Bye Mina," he sighed and walked into his classroom with Renjun and Donghyuck. "She's such a try-hard," he groaned.

"Do you still like her?" Renjun asked curiously as he pulled out his chair. The desks were set up in pairs and Jaemin sat with Donghyuck while the next set of two beside them started with Renjun.

"Nah, I'm not going to pursue someone who liked me for five minutes, moved onto Jeno, and then realised that she gave up a good thing. I wouldn't expect anyone to do any different if I was the one in her position."

The Chinese male nodded and hummed, looking at the top, of the classroom. "Are you sure you aren't gay, Jaemin?"

Jaemin looked at him with a sassy glare. "No, I'm not sure. And I don't care if I am, but if I was, then why would I like Mina?"

"Wait, you mean you haven't ruled out being gay?" Donghyuck asked in disbelief.

"Of course not. Just because I haven't liked a guy yet doesn't mean I won't."

Renjun chuckled and tilted his head towards the door. "Are you sure you haven't liked a guy?" Jeno was standing outside the door, chatting to Jisung about something. They both parted and went in different directions.

Jaemin tapped his fingers of the edge of his desk and threw a look of irritation towards his friend. "Why do you like creating drama so much, huh?"

"Hmm, because I'm bored."

"He doesn't like Jeno," Donghyuck laughed as though Renjun's statement was completely off the table. "Jaemin doesn't go for boys who are more popular than him."

"What are you talking about?" The pink haired boy whined, pushing his chair back and creating a screech across the floor. "I literally told you I've never had a crush on a guy but I could possibly develop one in the future, and now both of you took that as a 'coming out' story." He pouted and slid down his chair.

"Aww, don't get mad because we said you have a crush on Jeno."

"I'm not mad about that," he sniffed. "You said Jeno was more popular than me. I'm the most popular boy here, douche."

"Are you sure?" Renjun raised his voice at the end, sliding his chair back to level with his friend.

"I told you to stop stirring drama and you just threw my plea under the bus."

Donghyuck nodded. "Don't forget, Renjun, I know your secret. I can stir the cauldron just as well as you can."

Renjun looked weirdly at the boy and silently laughed. "You have nothing on me."

"Oh, but I do," he pressed, giving him a knowing look until Renjun started to sweat nervously. "Y-you know about that?"

"Of course. I see everything."

Jaemin had absolutely no idea what either of them were talking about so he zoned out and slid his chair back into his desk. Before the teacher could come in to start the lesson and bore the hell out of them, Jaemin leaned in towards Donghyuck and whispered in his ear "What's Renjun's secret?"

Donghyuck looked Jaemin in the eye and shrugged, whispering back with "I haven't the foggiest idea. Renjun's the cleanest person I know and he doesn't do anything bad. I just know how to play people."

"You are such a jerk," he laughed, and then glanced to the side sneakily to see Renjun looking at them inquisitively, thinking that Donghyuck was spilling his secret. He felt bad for his friend, but it was nice to see him being on the receiving end of nerves for the first time.

But as the lesson started, albeit slowly since the teacher was quite late, he kept zoning out and thinking about things. He imagined what it would be like if he was gay, and about what type of guy would fit his ideal type. It was a weird thought process, as he didn't believe he actually liked guys, but an eye-opening one. Jeno definitely wasn't his type. Not in a hundred years.