𝐸𝑇𝐻𝐸𝑅𝐸𝐴𝐿 // 𝐶𝐻𝐸𝑁𝑆𝑈𝑁𝐺 [✔️]

four

after being friends for some many years, jisung discovered that he had a sense for what chenle was feeling in specific moments. when he was happy, he would smile and his volume when talking would increase, but just by a bit. when he was sad, he would go quiet and the sparkle in his eyes would dim. chenle was never one to talk much about his own thoughts or feelings, and to an outsider he would be hard to read, but jisung found it quite easy to tell his best friend's mood.

when chenle was tired or overwhelmed, he would close his eyes and take deep breaths. he's doing the same thing now, with his head propped against the car window using jisung's balled up suit jacket as a pillow. jisung knows he's awake by how uneven his breathing is—because when chenle is actually asleep he tended to breathe through his mouth rather than his nose.

not that jisung noticed or anything.

before chenle can drift off to sleep, jisung stops the car in the hotel parking lot. by now, it's after nine and quite dark outside, so checking in without being noticed whould be quite easy.

hesitantly, he taps chenle's shoulder to pull him out of dreamland. "we're at the hotel," he says in a whisper.

chenle readjusts himself and gathers all of his belongings. "are we still in downtown seoul?" he asks, tucking one of jisung's baseball caps over his head in efforts to hide his face. it kind of clashes with the suit he's still wearing, but he doesn't seem to care. "did you keep driving?"

"no, we're still in seoul," jisung replies. "we can get back on the road tomorrow. i don't want to draw much attention to ourselves until we're far from home—in case someone can see you in the car."

that much is true. he doubts if anyone in seoul would care enough to recognize them, but if jisung went missing back at home he's sure chenle's mother would send out a search party. gof forbid she lost the next closest thing to her son, too.

"what if someone already saw me in the car?" chenle asks, more panic in his voice.

"i think if someone did, we'd know." jisung digs his phone out of his pocket to flash the minimal amount of notifications on the screen. "renjun would be calling like crazy."

"have you gotten any messages from him yet?"

jisung takes a closer look at the notifications. two different people texted him earlier, renjun and his mom. he reads both of them but doesn't respond. "he texted me asking if i was going to be at the reception. i told him i would be earlier. and then my mom texted me, she wants me to 'get home this instant.'"

"screw her."

the youngest laughs at this. chenle's right. screw her. she never added anything to jisung's life except yelling and demanding more than the world from him. thank god jisung won't have to deal with her ever again. "yeah. screw her."

the duo wander through the automatic double doors and find themselves standing before the mahogany front desk. the lobby is nice—so nice that jisung once again worries about the money in his bank account—but he doesn't say much. he can always make more money in the near future. so, he approaches the receptionist with a small smile.

"just one night for us please," he says, ushering his debit card towards the lady.

"single or double?"

he thinks about it for a moment, not bothering to spare chenle a glance since he knows the eye contact will be incredibly awkward. they used to share beds back during their sleepovers, and nothing has really changed since then, has it? plus, it's cheaper that way.

"single is fine."

she reads out his total after taking his card and swiping it. she hands it back to him along with a small room key card. "there's complimentary breakfast from six to ten tomorrow morning. pool and gym are open twenty four hours a day with access from your room key. enjoy your stay."

the two bow at her, heading down the lobby where the elevator is.

"i promise you, when this blows over, i'll get a job and pay you back every penny. and then some." chenle says eagerly once the elevator door closes behind them. "i can't have you keep buying all this stuff for me when it's my fault we're here in the first place."

jisung tries not to believe what chenle's saying is true. for the past few hours, he had completely forgotten about the circumstances—running away and faking a death—and instead thought of it as a vacation with his best and only friend (albeit the love of his life but jisung hasn't admitted to that yet). his smile fades as he remembers why he's truly here. "there's no need, chenle, really. i can spare treating you every now and again."

when chenle laughs, jisung begins to feel the just the way he felt before. truly happy. happy that he gets to spend every last minute with his best friend. happy that he has the thrill of running away from home, of running away from the law. happy that he can forget the past and move on to a brighter future. what jisung would have given to be in this place two weeks ago.

the elevator stops and opens at the fifth floor. the hallways are dead quiet as it's getting late, so the two proceed to their assigned room. luckily, it isn't too far from the elevator.

the room they're given is small, but it'll do. plus, it was the cheapest option, so jisung couldn't complain. a queen sized bed is set in the middle of the room, accented with tables on each side and mirroring a television. jisung had slightly hoped the bed would be a little bit bigger as to avoid any possible contact with chenle—even though, deep down, he wanted it.

he tosses his bag of clothes on the bed. "it was—it was cheaper this way."

"i would imagine." chenle replies nonchalantly, also setting up his clothes in the corner of the room rather than a dresser. "it'll do for now anyway. it's just one night."

"yeah, you're right."

jisung mentally debates whether or not he should get a shower, and settles with taking one in the morning. the idea of standing for that long sounds repulsive when all he wants to do is lay down in a comfortable bed, and spread out. besides, in the morning he could freshen up and grab breakfast while chenle remains asleep (he likes sleeping in after a stressful day).

and luckily, chenle decides the same thing. he goes into the bathroom to change out of his suite and wash his face, getting into more comfortable clothes. as he emerges from the bathroom no more than three minutes later, he finds the lights off but still manages to see jisung curled up on the bed.

chenle smiles fondly, noticing that no blankets are covering him—it looks like jisung simply plopped down and fell asleep.

the air around them is slightly cold, so he does what any normal person would do in this situation and takes the blanket at the foot of the bed and covers jisung up, but not without crawling in as well.