dicey ↬ nomin

Ch.26

Jeno and Jaemin were looking at each other from across the field. The former was standing with Chenle, who was all casted up and dulled emotionally, while the latter was with Renjun, Mark and Jisung. Donghyuck was probably eating somewhere. It was Day Three - the final day of school before a week for midterm break. Yesterday was very stressful with a hospital trip mixed into the equation. Jeno was quite drained.

He and Jaemin had won their soccer match against Renjun and his partner, who actually weren't too shabby. Renjun's partner was rather gifted in the sports area (at least, more gifted than Renjun himself), which didn't reflect in his attire. They guy came off as a nerd but was really sporty. They got into the finals and came first overall, so both boys had two gold medals each plus Jeno won one in the five-hundred-metre sprint.

Jeno looked down after breaking eye contact with Jaemin. He looked dismally at Chenle's arm and then over to Jaemin's group, where a distracted Jisung was looking over at them as well as Jaemin. The shorter of the other two was staring so intently at Jeno that the ravenette didn't think that he was even aware that Jeno was looking back. Chenle, on the other hand, was glued to the banner barrier while watching the partnered relay race. They had already competed in it earlier on today and Jeno and Jaemin received silver medals because Jeno dropped the baton.

"I wish I could still compete," Chenle whispered and lifted his gaze from the relay to the clouded horizon. The day was the hottest so far, even though there was a cloudy forecast. They were dripping with sweat from the humid heat and the exercise.

"I thought you hated the sports festival," Jeno clicked his tongue teasingly.

The Chinese boy chuckled lightly and glanced over at Jisung, who looked away from them in a hurry. "I guess I do now."

As the relay finished up, it was time for a snack break before the commencement of the three-legged race. As the two friend groups merged, curtesy of Chensung, they squished together outside. They were sitting in a circle near the famous kissing spot. Hyuck had shown up too, meaning that if he had been eating somewhere earlier and then was eating lunch again now, that would make him a bottomless pit. He was squished up to Mark and spreading unwanted and unneeded sandwich crumbs all over the older's hoodie. Jisung was on Mark's other side and then beside him was Chenle. Then it went Renjun, Jaemin, Jeno.

As they ate in an almost silence (Jisung's crunchy celery stick ruining the peace), a ray of sun broke through the shadow casted by the school building. It was a bit chilly in the shade. Jeno was looking down at Jaemin's lunchbox, having noticed the unicorn printed on it. "Well that's interesting," he pointed out, unable to tear his eyes away from the uncalled-for creepiness held in the faded unicorn's eyes.

"This is my sister's," Jaemin stated a bit too quickly to be true.

Jeno just shrugged and ate his snack bar quietly, tearing small pieces away and chewing. Jaemin, however, looked down at the unicorn and pouted, followed by a glance towards Jeno. Renjun rolled his eyes. "You two have, like, the biggest crushes on each other." A huge crack noise sounded after Jisung snapped his celery stick.

"Ahem," Jaemin cleared his throat, for once unable to give a snarky comment. "Crush?"

Jeno was bright red, making Jaemin turn red too. This led the raven haired boy to think about that moment over the weekend when he thought Jaemin was cute. The said boy started to think about the time he got jealous over Jeno talking to Chaeyoung. All in all, it was an awkward moment in which neither of them could look at each other. Donghyuck gagged as a sign of 'ew'.

"Don't even get me started on you two," Renjun reprimanded him and alternated his pointed finger between Mark and Donghyuck. "And you," he looked at Chenle and Jisung, who gave him open-jawed looks of surprise. "You're so innocently in love it makes me sick."