dicey ↬ nomin

Ch.41

It wasn't long before the small week-long holiday from school was over and the familiar alarms were waking up the students in the mornings again. Jeno was walking to his locker on Monday morning with Donghyuck and Chenle. The hallway was alive with chatter about the police outside the orphanage, because there wasn't much else to gossip about. The town wasn't terribly interesting, so police cars were always an omen of future gossip.

"I can't believe you're with Jaemin now," Donghyuck laughed and covered his mouth with the back of his hand. "I mean, it was bound to happen, but you being attracted to a guy like him is a bit unexpected."

"Yeah, well," Jeno shrugged, letting out a sigh. "I wasn't expecting it either."

Chenle smiled as he spotted Jisung and Mark across the hallway. His face lit up when the tall boy returned the gesture.

"Actually," Donghyuck scratched his chin. "Chenle and Jisung's love just hasn't blossomed yet. When is it going to go somewhere?"

The Chinese boy frowned at him and tilted his head. "I wonder the same thing." His face fell when he remembered how awkward Jisung was and also the boy's homophobic mother. He could get the vibes that Jisung liked him back but what else could he do with the vibes? Jisung needed to ask him himself. Or maybe Chenle could just put his nerves aside and ask the tall boy himself.

Jeno put his arm around Chenle's shoulder and side-hugged him. A lot of students were watching them curiously because Jeno didn't usually walk around with his two brothers and they were were curious about the relationship. Noticing that Jeno seemed happy with them, no one approached him like they usually did.

Mark and Jisung wandered over with smiles on their faces and Mark gave Hyuck a kiss on the cheek, causing the brunette to blush and wrap his arm around Mark's. Chenle had never seen couples so suited to each other as Hyuck and Mark's and Jeno and Jaemin's. It made his stomach lurch because he didn't have that. He really liked Jisung but it seemed that maybe nothing was going to come of their feelings.

He saw that his love interest was watching Mark and Donghyuck with a wistful expression as well and he sighed, tugging on his sleeve. "Hey Jisung, can I talk to you please? Privately?"

The boy nodded uncertainly and blinked in confusion. "Sure. Let's go over there?" He pointed to a column of lockers where no one was standing.

Chenle nodded and glanced at Jeno. "I'll catch up to you soon."

"Okay, no problem," he smiled and watched his friend skip off to talk with Jisung. He wondered if it had anything to do with the budding romance between the two, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions and would wait for Chenle to tell him if they did get together.

When the two boys stopped walking and Chenle's nerves ate away at his resolve, he picked at his cast aimlessly and looked up at Jisung. He may have been nervous, but his heart wasn't beating as fast as he had thought it would. He was at a point where he knew he had waited long enough and just wanted to skip the pointless moments that would lead to nothing. He liked Jisung and he wanted to know if it would be a live relationship.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Jisung could feel the slight tension but he didn't want to jump to conclusions.

"Yeah," Chenle bit his lip in thought at how to word it, but decided on the good old-fashioned confession. There wasn't really anything to think through. "I really like you. I want you to tell me if I'm grasping at straws or if there is a possible relationship that could come of our friendship."

Jisung knew he had left it a while to ask him out but he had been so nervous that he overthought it every time and talked himself out of it. Now, Chenle was the one to take the reigns and push the 'what ifs' down. He felt his cheeks heat up as Chenle looked intently at him and him alone. "I like you too, and I think we're overdue a romance."