soliloquy ↬ chensung

Ch.1

Annual School Play! Sign your name and class below to audition!

Chenle sighed and looked longingly at the notice pinned on the board. It was loud and colourful, full of reds and yellows and greens so that no one could miss it. And truly, no one ever missed the notice, because in addition to the flyer, there would be an intercom announcement accompanied by a student messenger going from class to class to inform everyone of the event.

He held the straps of his school bag tightly and inspected the names listed beneath the sign-up sheet. No one he recognised. He put his bag down and rifled through it to find his pencil case, extracting a rather blunt pencil and lifting it to the paper. He would love to sign up, but he wasn't much cop at acting.

As he was about to write his name in a moment of impulse, a hand flew onto his shoulder and spun him around. "You're signing up for the school play?!" His friend exclaimed with a huge grin.

"N-no! I'm not!" He hid the pencil behind his back and stood straight, watching the smile fall from Jaemin's face. "I was just looking to see who was going to."

"In other words, you were looking to see if Jisung signed up," the pink-haired boy snickered and wiggled his eyebrows.

"Could you possibly say that any louder?" Chenle huffed but smiled anyway. True, he was wondering if Park Jisung was going to act. He always did. He was a fabulous actor.

"If you're suggesting, then I'll give it a shot. IN OTHER WORDS-"

"Shush!" He slapped Jaemin's back and picked up his school bag, slinging it over his shoulder and slipping the pencil into his pocket. "Let's just go."

They wandered away from the colourful notice board and the very visible notice about the play. The halls were busy enough as it was, but the line of girls waiting to sign up was constantly getting longer and consistently annoying the people trying to get past. The two friends had to brush past shoulders and barge through groups of chatting students in order to make it to the locker area. And why were the girls lining up? That would be because of the handsome boy walking in Chenle's direction.

"Try not to face-plant this time," Jaemin chuckled and slung his arm around Chenle's shoulder, referring to the incident last week when Jisung had walked past them and the Chinese boy hadn't looked ahead to see the school bag on the floor.

"Don't remind me," Chenle frowned and covered his face with his hands. "He probably knows me as the idiot who tripped over a bag."

"Or the idiot who nearly broke his nose."

"Jaem!"

"Hehe, sorry." The pink-haired boy smiled and relaxed the arm around his friend's shoulder.

They watched as the tall, handsome boy walked towards them. Well, "towards them" would be wishful thinking, when he was actually making his way to his friends, who were at the other end of the hall. He looked particularly stunning today, although Chenle would say that everyday. He hid his blushing face underneath the strands of orange hair clouding his vision. His hair might have looked too long to those around him, but for the Chinese boy, it was the perfect length to avoid making his red cheeks known.

"He looked at you."

"No he didn't."

"Haha, I guess you're right." Jaemin was always supportive of Chenle's crush on Park Jisung. He had been crushing on Jisung since he first met him, which was when the younger boy had walked into the wrong classroom and met a solitary Chenle, who was catching up on forgotten homework, and had directed him to the correct room. Sure, it was just a small, meaningless exchange of words, but it had set off a chain of years in which Chenle's feelings continued to grow. He had liked Jisung for three years already.