fourth wheel | changlix

14

"-but it was actually super hilarious when he added the acid instead of the alkane," I explain to the girl walking next to me, replaying the events of last chemistry class in my head.

"Like, the teacher was not amused at all but then again, when are they ever? Chenle's face when his test tube exploded was lowkey priceless, but the same thing probably would've happened to me if that Seungmin guy wasn't my lab partner you know? He's smart so he prevents me from making stupid mistakes during chem class pretty often. Sadly, Donghyuck doesn't really seem to care about alkanes and acids or anything related to chemistry at all so those two are the reason behind a lot of unfortunate but entertaining events."

I can't help the skip in my step as I stroll through the hallways with my best friend. I'm not sure if Chaelin is listening to my somewhat pointless rant, though this is kinda something that's only funny when you actually were there when it happened.

She seems lost in thoughts, so I just let her be and start naming a long list of silly accidents caused by the not-so-dynamic chemistry duo that predescended their latest mishap.

"You should have been there, mate," I conclude as we approach the classroom where she left her pencil case. "The teacher doesn't even bother to give them detention anymore, not even when Donghyuck almost set the entire lab on fire and Chenle just died of laughter."

She still doesn't say much in return, and I huff, feeling a little bit offended that my enthusiastic rambles only elicit so much of a reaction from her. I decide to shrug it off as girly mood swings, or maybe she's just afraid that her pencil case isn't there which means she really lost it. God knows what girls keep in there.

"Hello, Earth to female creature next to me," I chime, playfully smacking her shoulder. "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm trying to figure out whether or not it's offensive to regret agreeing with something before it even started," Chaelin mutters absentmindedly, keeping her eyes straight ahead of her. "Was it even a good idea to let him handle this amount of responsibility?"

I give her a weird look, not quite getting the issue. A bit hesitant, I pat her shoulder. "Relax, it's just a pencil case. And if you're worried about my safety and wellbeing, don't worry, their station is on the other side of the classroom."

Now she finally looks up, confusion flashing in her eyes as she frowns. Yeah, now I'm confused too, one of us is definitely missing something.

"Nevermind, let's just get your pencil case," I mumble dismissively, before I'm going to lose more braincells over this.

We enter the classroom, and I'm glad it's on the ground floor because that saves us a lot of stairs to climb. I watch how Chaelin scurries off to look for her pencil case, and I decide to take a seat on the teacher's desk, crossing my legs to get more comfy on the wooden surface. Not knowing what else to do, I grab my phone and scroll around mindlessly, occasionally glancing up to find my best friend wandering around still.

Suddenly, the door swings open, clashing against the wall with a loud bang that almost makes me drop my phone. I glance up with wide eyes, just in time to see Jisung ushering a very confused Changbin inside and motion for Chaelin to follow him quickly. As soon as it all happened, Chaelin and Jisung are gone and the door closes with another bang, followed by the sound of a lock turning.

"Got them!" I hear Jisung's voice through the door, but it barely overpowers the beating of my heart as Changbin and I stare at each other in utter shock and confusion.

What.

"Uh, Chaelin?" I call out, breaking the eye contact and slowly pushing myself off the table. But I get no reply, hearing nothing but a dimmed conversation between the two outside of the classroom.