dicey ↬ nomin

Ch.19

Jeno was peacefully ignoring his teacher, looking out the window and blissfully avoiding the bricks of boredom thrown to the students by the monotonous tone in the teacher's voice. At least, he was peaceful until a loudspeaker announcement was made, startling everyone in the classroom as the intercom was old and crusty. The crackling noise made him and his seat mate wince as the speaker was mounted on the wall behind his desk. He looked down at his hands and fiddled with them while the crackling and fizzing calmed down enough for them to catch a few words on the other end.

"Gymnasium....now.............permission," was all that could be heard, so the teacher reluctantly shooed everyone out of the classroom to meet in the gym. Jeno took his time, a few classmates deciding to walk with him and chat as though they had been friends for life. He just listened and nodded as a response, more focused on the subject of the meeting. He noticed that other classroom doors were opening as other student classes were being let out for the assembly. He noted a head of purple hair walking in front of him so he jogged over and draped his arm over Chenle's shoulder.

"Jeno, hi."

"Hey. I wonder what this is about."

Chenle sighed and looked at his friend. "I think I know what it's about, but I'm not particularly happy about it."

Curious about his theory, Jeno narrowed his eyes. "Tell me what you think?"

"Mmm, not until I know for sure, because then I'd be embarrassed if I went barking up the wrong tree. It's not bad though, it's just an annual event that I happen to dread annually."

As they approached the gym, everyone split into their year groups, so Chenle had to go and congregate with the other sixteen year olds while Jeno stayed with his classmates. There was a loud ruckus inside where lots of students were gathered and talking, excited to be missing class. One of the teachers came up to the class Jeno was in and told them to merge with the other classes in their year group, causing the boy to spot Donghyuck who was clinging to Mark.

"Everyone line up according to your height! Tallest at the top of the line!" Another teacher called as Jeno sorted himself into somewhere between the middle and the tall end of the line. Since there were lots of students in his year, he had to mentally measure himself against the boys to see where he fitted in. The girls were in a separate line, doing the same as the boys.

Once everyone was in position and the teacher was able to see that the correct heights were in the correct places, the other year groups had all but finished as well.

"Good afternoon everyone," the principal spoke, although his lack of mic made him a bit on the quiet side. "I'm sure you're all glad to be out of class right now." Jeno turned his head to look at the man as a round of nods and murmurs sounded. He glanced across the way at Chenle, who was sandwiched between two people who looked to be exactly the same height as him. He smiled when he caught his eye, giving a cute wave. "So as you have all probably guessed, the annual school sports festival is upon us." Jeno cringed at the man's choice of words, making him sound like he was stuck in the Shakespearean times. He also cringed at the mention of the sports festival. "We as the staff have noticed that our school's socialisation outside of the friend groups is deplorable."

Another teacher stepped in and held up a mic, continuing from where the principal left off. "If you look to the person beside you, they'll be your partner for any group activity during the festival."

On cue, everyone looked to their sides to see who they had been partnered with. Jeno felt his expectations drop when he saw that Jaemin was beside him. "Hey there," the pink haired boy smiled and tried to shake Jeno's hand as a means of annoying him. Jeno immediately turned to his other side, hoping that he was actually partnered with this other person. 'Twas not to be though, when he saw that the boy was already talking to the boy two down from Jeno.

He reluctantly looked back at Jaemin and frowned. "Great."

"Isn't it?" Jaemin seemed a bit too happy about this arrangement for someone who was stuck participating with his rival. "We're going to do great, my friend."

Jeno hummed and looked away, trying to ignore the eyes boring into the side of his head. Jaemin just kept staring and trying to annoy him. After having disclosed his living situation to the guy, he expected to be left alone and unbothered since most people left him when they found out. This teen just wasn't living up to expectations. He kept their relationship the same even though he knew one of Jeno's secrets, and it made Jeno feel warm inside that he wasn't being judged. He appreciated it.

"Listen up!" The teacher called over the mic. "You can't swap partners, so don't even try. This is a good opportunity to make a new friend. Use it wisely!" And with that, they were allowed to wait in the hall until the bell rang. Jeno watched as Jaemin trailed over to his friends. He went over to Chenle and Jisung, who were laughing with each other about something.

"We're partners," Chenle smiled once he spotted Jeno approaching. "I asked Jisung's partner to swap with me and it turned out that they were friends with my partner anyway. Isn't that great?" He was beaming, similarly to Jisung, who was happily watching the Chinese boy.

"That's lucky. I'm stuck with Jaemin."

Jisung decided to slip out of that conversation since he was friends with Jaemin and didn't want to overhear anything controversial. He just watched them converse while blocking his ears childishly.

Across the hall, Jaemin bolted to Mark and Renjun. Donghyuck was happily boasting about him and Mark winning all the awards since they were good at sports. Renjun got lumped with some random guy who was geeky and socially awkward. "I wish I had a partner who could lead me over the finish line without tripping over their gangly legs," he sighed, taking a small dig at the poor boy who seemed to be honoured to partner with him.

"I'm with Jeno," Jaemin chirped, knowing how good an athlete the boy was. That made two of them. They were going to be a dynamic duo, whether Jeno liked it or not. "I don't think either of us particularly wanted to be together, but I'm not too angry about it."

Renjun scoffed and folded his arms. "Well, if Jeno has any reservations about partnering with you, feel free to do it with me instead."

Jaemin made a disgusted face and slapped his friend's shoulder. "I won't do anything of the sort with you, Mr. Vulgar."

"Tell me again, dumbo, who's the Mr. Vulgar? Who took my invitation for a guarantee of a trophy in the sports festival as an invitation for hanky panky? You."

Jaemin sniffed and averted his gaze to the other two, seeing if they were any more interesting than the drip trying to call him a dumbo. "Jeno keeps trying to avoid me, like, more than he usually does. I'm not gonna lie, I feel hurt." He was just joking, but he noticed how severely Hyuck's mood dropped. "Did you fight with Jeno or something?"

"The opposite, actually," the shorter, light brown haired boy covered up his drooping frown.

Jaemin frowned and the two lover boys went back to gloating about their partnering while Renjun continued to insult his friend with intelligence digs. The pink haired boy half heard him and half blocked him out as his eyes trailed to the other side of the hall, locking onto Jeno's. The other boy looked away, playing off that he had been caught staring. Jaemin, on the other hand, kept staring shamelessly and watched as his rival slowly looked back at him, startled when he realised that he was still being looked at. Jeno looked like he was getting psyched out by Jaemin's staring but tried not to show weakness so he stared back, igniting a dull competitive feeling in the younger's chest as he smiled at Jeno.

Jeno looked taken aback that he was smiled at and looked around to see if it was someone else who he was looking at, but upon realising it actually was him, he tilted his head and gave Jaemin a confused look.

Jaemin thought the older boy looked cute for a moment there.