Flames | NCT

Chapter 13

Naeun had her hands in her pockets as she walked towards her class. She entered to see Chenle already seated inside, head on his desk and eyes closed.

"Sleeping already?" Naeun said as she placed her bag on the floor beside her seat. Chenle turned his head towards her.

"No, just sad." Chenle said with a pout.

"Why?" Naeun asked as she began taking out her things. Chenle sat up with a deep sigh.

"Jisung's always busy training with Jimin now. I'm this close to losing my best friend." Chenle said, pinching his fingers together. Naeun chuckled.

"I think you're being overdramatic." Naeun said, just as Minjee and Haechan walked into the classroom together.

"Yah, hyung. Do you think I'm being overdramatic?" Chenle asked as Haechan stood beside Minjee's desk as she sat down.

"Overdramatic about what?" Haechan asked, glancing at Chenle and Naeun.

Naeun motioned her head towards Chenle. "Chenle thinks he's losing his best friend to Jimin."

Chenle crossed his arms. "I should talk to Renjun, he can probably relate." Chenle said, narrowing his eyes at the new couple. "You did tell him, right?"

"Yeah, you did. Right, Minjee?" Haechan said, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Me, I thought you were telling him." Minjee said to her boyfriend.

"Wait, you're telling me Renjun doesn't know?" Naeun exclaimed.

They all exchanged looks with one another.

...

Renjun was casually enjoying his time in the potions room after school, working on his newest personal project.

Being a senior in the school meant that he had to impress one of the teachers if he wanted to be accepted into Upper School, and that meant extra time working on his skills. He still was thinking about his research proposal for his Upper School application.

"Potion that can cure diseases?" Renjun mumbled to himself before a shiver went through his body. The thought reminded him as his first trip to Hell.

There were a few other girls from the coven also in the lab, who were working on another potion. They were getting on Renjun's last nerve as they gossiped about the students at the school.

"All the teachers are so good looking, how does anyone focus?" One of them said.

Renjun rolled his eyes. Do they seriously have nothing better to talk about.

Renjun was about to tell the girls to shut their mouths when their conversation topic changed.

"Did you guys see? Minjee finally has a boyfriend?"

Renjun raised an eyebrow. Kang Minjee?

"Yeah, he's really good looking. She really struck gold with him." Another replied.

Renjun gripped tightly to the glass in his hand as he listened to the girls talking about Minjee's boyfriend, but they never dropped a name. Eventually he got fed up.

"Don't you have anything better to talk about?" Renjun said, slamming the table. They turned to him.

"Why does it matter, it's not like you like Minjee anyways, you've literally hated her your entire life." The leader of the group said, crossing her arms.

Renjun bit the inside of his cheek. Even though what she said was true, Renjun couldn't help but feel a twisting feeling in his stomach.

"You're all just annoying." Renjun said, putting his glass down and gathering his stuff.