When We Were Young

• 17 •

• Zhong Chenle •

I woke up really early, because I felt hungry.

I woke up in a different room and reality started to hit me when I remembered that I'm at Ahra's house.

I took my phone from my nightstand and accidentally hit a box. All the pictures from the box fell, and all the pictures has a familiar face.

I gave a closer and clearer look, and I realized it was Jaemin hyung when he was younger, before debut to be exact.

He was wearing school uniform with Ahra, they both seemed so happy in the picture. Jaemin look so happy with the biggest smile I ever seen in Jaemin's face, the face that we never saw.

I picked up everything and the last one I picked up was a picture of them, Jaemin kissing Ahra's cheek while Ahra was flushing red.

They were happy back then until time came we were about to debut.

To compare their situation back then and today is really different, Jaemin made things more difficult to understand.

I heard a knock, I went to the door right away and when I opened it Sora was panting.

"Uh Che-n-le?" she stutters "umh I don't think Ahra can't go to your dorm" she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"She is really sick and Appa will come and check on her" she replied.

"Where is she?"

"She is in the living room" Sora leaded me to Ahra.

We arrived in the living room, Ahra's brother also came in same time as me and Sora, Ahra's mom was rubbing a dump towel on her.

"Is she alright?" I asked her mom, she smiled to me "I don't know, her Appa is on his way here"

"We should take her in her room" Haeso suggested, we all agreed.

"Did she sleep here?" I asked, Sora only nod to me.

Ahra's mom patted my shoulder "It's not your fault, Ahra wanted you to be comfortable" she said "Ahra is going to take care of you and your members till her last day of work"

Haeso took Ahra in his arms and delivered her in her own room, I helped him by covering Ahra with the covers.

"You should eat breakfast with me so I can drive you back to your dorm" Haeso suggested, but my guilt doesn't want to leave Ahra in this situation "don't worry, we are not mad at you" I only nod.

Haeso took me to the dining area with him, Sora was already there waiting for us. Maids started delivering food to the table, I thank them every time they come.

"Since when did she got sick?" Haeso asked.

"I noticed her being sick yesterday morning" I replied to him right away and he just nod.

"Well thank you for keeping her company on the way here" I bowed to him.

"It's nothing, I didn't want something bad to happen to her since she is like a sister to us now" I replied to him and skipped the part about Jaemin and her.

"She is probably stressed with work" I added and they just nod as an agreement.

After breakfast, Haeso drove me back to the dorm with Sora.

The dorm was really quiet, only Jisung and Jeno in the kitchen. Helping theirselves to eat breakfast without Ahra's self made food.

"How's Ahra?" Jeno asked right away when he saw me.

"She is going to the hospital since she is really sick" I replied plainly.

Jaemin suddenly came into the kitchen looking really surprised.

"You're back" he told me "did she already cook breakfast?" we shook our heads.

"She is not here" Jeno answered him with mixed emotions of disappointment and worries.

"Is she fired?"

Non of us answered him and he just went to the pantry to look for something he could eat.

"Aren't you worried about her?" I asked him in a low tone.

"Why should I?" He asked me back in a sarcastic way "she is no one now"

"Jaemin hyung if she is in a bad situation right now are you going to continue this?" I asked him one more time and he stopped what he was doing.

Non of us spoke a word, until Renjun hyung came in.

"How is Ahra doing?" He asked me while speaking Chinese.

"She is really sick and they are taking her to the hospital" I replied to him in Korean so the rest can understand

"She even let Chenle stay in her room while she slept on the couch" Jisung added, Jeno spits out his water to Jisung accidentally.

"What?" He yelled at me.

I raised my hands "in my defense she told me she will sleep in the other room since the other room was messy and didn't want me to stay there" I said he calm down after I explained.

Jaemin left the room after that with his bowl of cereal.

"Chenle found something on her room" Jisung started, telling him about what I found was the huge mistake I ever did.

"What did you found?" Renjun leans to me and asked.

"Box full of Jaemin and Ahra's pictures" I replied plainly, I showed my phone since I took a picture of some of the pictures.

Renjun snatched my phone while they scroll through the pictures I took as an evidence.

They started gasping dramatically.

These guys are really.

"I think that Jaemin" Jeno pointed towards the way to Jaemin's room "is not this Jaemin" then he pointed to the picture in the phone.

"Look at him" Jisung started "he used to make her smile" Jisung smiles "then now?" He turned his smile to a poker face.

"He wasted such an amazing person" I added, Jeno started nodding.

3 days later

After 3 days without Ahra is really boring, me and Jisung can't bug her for now.

I started my morning really early since I don't have Ahra to help me cook, Jisung is useless! All he can do is follow you around if you don't ask him to do something, he can't even cook.

When I got out of the room, I noticed the smell of pancakes, familiar pancakes.

I raced towards the kitchen and I saw Ahra, cooking pancakes.

I wasn't informed she is coming today.

"Morning" she noticed my existence in the room, I immediately went to hug her, she giggled of my actions "did you miss me that much?"

I let go of her and look at her "YAH!" I squeezed her cheeks "don't scare us like that again!" And she suddenly started to laugh at me.

How dare you laugh when we were worried.

"I was just sick you idiot!" She said "it's not like I'm dying" I only pouted at her.

"Don't give me that look you big head dolphin" she pushed me away, that made me smile.

Realization hits me that she is back to her normal self.

"Why don't you go wake up the other's" she suggested while putting the pancakes in a one big plate "call them for breakfast"