Chapter Text
Senior year for Renjun was supposed to be fairly uneventful. That was, until someone in administration had a bad day, and decided that for the new academic year, all upperclassmen would be changing dorms.
“I don’t get why you’re complaining so much. This place is a whole five minutes closer to the cafeteria, and we have two windows this time,” Donghyuck was swinging his legs in different directions every few seconds, and Renjun almost ate socked feet a couple of times while trying to unpack his suitcases.
“If you hit me with your feet, I swear I’m gonna throw you out of that second window,” Renjun huffed, and Donghyuck stretched further, curling his toes dangerously close to Renjun’s shoulder.
Senior year for Renjun was supposed to be fairly uneventful, until the school decided that an early August afternoon was just prime time for moving heavy boxes across streets and up staircases, and implemented some bastard software in the Housing and Student Life department that made Donghyuck his roommate. And gave Donghyuck the top bunk.
Of course Renjun was aware that he’d get a new roommate after Mark graduated, but out of all the junior and senior boys moving into the new building, he had a few dozen names he’d pick before Donghyuck to share a disgustingly small amount of square feet for ten whole months.
“Don’t get cranky at me just because you lost the opportunity of a lifetime,” Donghyuck jumped down from the top bunk “You know the housing match wasn’t totally random. You could’ve requested him as your roommate,” Renjun threw a notebook in Donghyuck’s direction but he dodged, sticking his tongue out.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” and he had to turn away to keep Donghyuck from noticing the blush creeping up his face. There were probably a thousand reasons why rooming with Donghyuck was a bad idea, but the fact that he was Mark’s best friend — and thus knew everything Mark did about everyone Mark ever interacted with — was the worst of them all.
It wasn’t like Renjun expected Mark to keep a secret from Donghyuck, but God, he really hadn’t thought that one through.
“Maybe there’s still time? You could fill in a moving request, or something.”
Renjun wanted to chuck another notebook at him. “Shut up and finish unpacking,” but before Donghyuck could keep pushing Renjun’s buttons, there was a knock on their door. They both stood frozen for a moment, because, who under fifty years old visited their neighbors on the moving day, and most importantly, who out of a hundred and twenty busy junior and senior boys in that building would knock before opening an already half open door? At the lack of answer, a head tentatively appeared by the threshold.
“Oh,” the guy’s eyes widened “You’re here. Jaemin!” he shouted, head disappearing back into the corridor “This is their room!”
“Finally,” a huff, but the voice sounded laced with an ever present smile. Unlike the other guy, Jaemin kicked the door open straight away, arms full with a maroon glossy vase. “I can give this back.”
It took Renjun half a second to recover from the shock, and even less for his brain to go on overdrive. Suddenly, it seemed like a rather positive thing that the room had two windows — even if they were on the third floor. How long could a broken leg take to heal?
“What do you mean, give this back?” Donghyuck stared at the duo by the entrance of their room like they had four heads each.
Which, valid. Because Renjun’s senior year was supposed to be fairly uneventful, if not for his long time crush kicking his room door open only hours after moving in to give him back a plant that wasn’t his.
“She doesn’t fit in our room.”
“And what the fuck do we have to do with it?” Donghyuck was making shooing motions at them, Renjun still frozen. Jaemin was right there, glorious blond hair as if blow dried, holding the door open with just one foot and looking completely unbothered by Donghyuck’s attempts to close it.
“Ah, ah, ah,” Jaemin tutted at Donghyuck, leaning a bit more against the door “This fine lady here is your inheritance. Mark asked me to take care of her during his move out, and just never came to get her back. So, as I’m sure he’d have wanted,” he winked, and even though it wasn’t even directed at himself, Renjun felt his hands start shaking “I’m giving custody back to her rightful guardians.”
“Why’re you talking about this thing as if it’s human? It’s just a plant.”
Jaemin looked scandalized. “Jeno, cover her ears— Miss Evergreen doesn’t deserve to hear that.”
“It has no fucking ears!” Donghyuck gestured wildly “We don’t want he— I mean, we don’t want it!”
“So you agree? You agree that Miss Everdeen is a she?”
“Jaemin shut the fuck up—”
“She’s a red emerald,” the words tumbled out of Renjun’s mouth, and the three people by the door paused. “Miss Evergreen, I mean. So the name you gave her is very fitting.”
The pause stretched for a few seconds too long, and Renjun was about to get fidgety under all that undivided attention. He would’ve probably sacrificed a couple of his classmates without a second thought to have his crush come into his room unprompted like that, just not exactly when he was in his pajamas, hair plastered to his forehead and still sweating buckets from the move and the scorching sunlight coming from not only one, but from two windows, as Donghyuck had noted. So much for the uneventful when the academic year hadn’t even started yet.
But then Jaemin gave the most disarmingly bright smile, and Renjun was a second away from spontaneous combustion.
“See? Injunnie here is going to be the best plant dad there is,” and if the gorgeous grin wasn’t enough, Renjun’s heart was now doing an Olympic floor gymnastics routine after hearing the nickname.
Donghyuck looked back and forth between Renjun and Jaemin. “You can’t possibly be serious. Look at the size of this thing.”
“We really don’t have space for her if we want to get a second desk,” the other guy — Jaemin had called him Jeno — said in an incredibly soft tone, shrugging apologetically. Jaemin pouted, nodding along, and Renjun repressed the urge to say that they could use his and Donghyuck’s room as pure and simple storage space if they so wanted. He ignored Donghyuck’s murderous stare in his peripheral vision.
“D-don’t worry, we have space here,” Donghyuck’s jaw dropped, and Jaemin celebrated, asking Jeno to help him settle the vase down between the two windows. Renjun grimaced and mouthed an apology to Donghyuck as the other two straightened the plant, to which his roommate answered by shaking his head in disbelief.
Jaemin crouched down and clasped his hands together, cooing. “Look how pretty you are here, Miss Evergreen. And don’t you worry, uncle Jaemin and uncle Jeno are gonna visit you whenever we can,” he looked back at Renjun with big, expectant eyes. Renjun fiddled with the hem of his pajama shirt. “Right?”
“Uh. Alright? I guess,” Donghyuck made a silent ‘what the fuck’ motion, and Renjun quickly shushed him. “If you want.”
“Coolio,” he stood up, brushing dust off his knees. “Well, I guess our job here is done? She’s really looking pretty. But we won’t keep you guys any longer,” he put a hand on Renjun’s shoulder for a whole second, and Renjun felt his soul positively leaving his body. “Thanks a lot Injunnie!”
Jeno gave both Donghyuck and Renjun short apologetic nods, and scurried to follow Jaemin.
They stood in silence for a moment, staring at the plant.
“I’m not taking care of that,” Donghyuck started climbing back up to his bed.
“Her,” Renjun muttered, caressing one of the leaves, still feeling the ghost of Jaemin’s hand on his shoulder. He’d called him ‘Injunnie’.
“God, do all crushes turn people this stupid?” Donghyuck complained, shuffling through his song library. “You’re probably thinking about how now you’re two dads sharing custody of the same plant baby,” and, no, that wasn’t what Renjun had been thinking about, but Donghyuck’s remark was enough to make the tip of his ears go pink, burying his face in his hands. “Man, you’re corny as shit.”
Renjun chucked a second notebook at Donghyuck.
“The hell’s wrong with him?” not even the sound of Donghyuck’s lunch tray dropping on the table made Renjun flinch. Chenle barely looked up, but nodded sympathetically.
“First day of classes blues, probably.”
“That’s a thing?”
Yangyang shrugged. “How would I know? He’s been like that since like, first period,” he inched his index finger as if to poke Renjun’s cheek, but Renjun didn’t react. Waved a hand up and down in front of Renjun’s face, and no response. Yangyang shared a look with Donghyuck and shrugged again. “If you’re his roommate and you’ve got no clue what this is about, then you really can’t expect us to.”
“I had to go get him lunch ‘cause dude was just sitting on the table staring at nothing,” Chenle tapped on Renjun’s tray with a fork “But I don’t think he really ate anything yet. It’s kinda creepy.”
Donghyuck hummed, mouth full. “Huh, that’s weird,” a couple of snaps in front of Renjun’s face, still no response. “He was okay this morning? I think?”
“He’s been living with you for a week, maybe the toll’s finally catching up on him,” Yangyang ducked before Donghyuck’s hands could reach his collar.
“Shut the fuck up, I’ll have you know I’m an absolute delight to share a room with,” Chenle snorted, and Donghyuck closed his eyes for a second. “No, I’m serious. One completely forgettable week? Trust me, if I had done something bad, I’d have remembered his reaction.” Chenle had his left eyebrow raised, and Yangyang had his right eyebrow raised, and Donghyuck was sure Renjun would’ve found it absolutely hilarious if his roommate wasn’t halfway catatonic.
“Nothing happened? You’ve done nothing?” and no matter how much Donghyuck scourged his brain for something, anything mildly outrageous that would warrant Renjun limply piling the purée in his tray instead of actively trying to choke Donghyuck, there was nothing.
“I swear. It’s been so monotonous that the most interesting thing happened during our move in.”
“Why’s that?”
Donghyuck shook his head. “Mark man, leaving his stuff around like horcruxes or something,” Chenle nodded, knowing the burden of keeping Mark’s smaller suitcase until he left for college. “Left this huge plant in the old dorm that we’re now taking care of because Jaemin’s not dealing with—”
Renjun’s cough startled them enough for Chenle’s cutlery to drop to the floor and for Yangyang to choke on his water. The suddenness of Renjun’s coughing fit made Donghyuck freeze as well, until he noticed how red Renjun’s ears were. Twisting his nose in disgust, Donghyuck clapped Renjun on the back until his roommate stopped coughing.
“Holy shit he’s alive,” Yangyang leaned forward, examining Renjun’s face until Renjun flattened a hand on his nose, pushing the face away.
“Quit talking nonsense,” his voice was strong, but the faint blush was still visible down Renjun’s neck from Donghyuck’s seat.
“Yeah, he’s just super excited about our new plant, can’t help thinking about it,” Donghyuck teased and Renjun looked up, a gazillion different warnings in his eyes.
“Can’t believe Jaemin made you guys keep a plant though,” Yangyang slid his unused spoon to Chenle “Thought you didn’t even know each other.”
“We don’t,” came Renjun’s quick answer.
“Oh no, no, we know him,” and the foot that mercilessly kicked Donghyuck in the shin was most definitely Renjun’s. A hiss. “Injunnie specially knows him very well.”
“What’s that? Did Renjun fight with him? I didn’t even see them talking the whole morning,” Yangyang looked genuinely confused, and Renjun’s new blush, out of embarrassment this time, was enough fuel to Donghyuck.
“Oh,” he turned slowly towards Renjun, who was now burying his face in his hands “I had no idea Jaemin was in class 2 with you guys.”
As Chenle perked up, talking about how his roommate Jisung was also in class 2, and how the class cut must have been either on the letter H or J this year, Renjun tiredly rubbed his face, dreading to meet Donghyuck’s eyes.
“Are you sitting close to him?” Donghyuck whispered, pretending to be busy with his food.
“Please, please just shut up,” all of Renjun’s energy had been used on trying to focus in class for the first half of the day, and he had none to spare on Donghyuck.
“What do you mean?” he feigned shock and Renjun kicked his shin again. “Fuck, man, this hurts.”
“Serves you well. Stop talking about it.”
Yangyang narrowed his eyes. “Talking about what?”
Donghyuck and Renjun held eye contact for long enough to make the table fall into an uncomfortable silence. Renjun cleared his throat. “About how the, uh, new class division is just as weird as the new dorms”
Donghyuck rolled his eyes. “God, they really do become stupid,” and quickly moved his feet out of the way before Renjun could kick him again.
“So what happens when you get held back as a senior?” Renjun pressed the space key a bit too hard. He chewed his bottom lip, closing his eyes for a second, and wondering what would come out of it if he bit the bait Donghyuck was throwing. His roommate made a questioning, annoying sound, and Renjun considered finishing his digital planner in the common room. “I wonder if that’s how it happens,” Donghyuck singsonged, and Renjun decided that biting the bait earlier meant that Donghyuck would leave him alone earlier as well.
“Who’s getting held back now?”
Donghyuck hummed. “Yang said you haven’t even opened your notebook in class yet. It’s been three days,” he sighed dramatically “He’s wondering if you’re planning on transferring, because you’re just gonna get held back like this.”
“I don’t—” but Renjun cut himself short, because, well, he really hadn’t done much in class yet. Actually, if he was honest with himself, Renjun would admit he’d done nothing at all. “I’m adjusting, alright? Tell Yangyang to focus on his own studies.”
“Is ‘adjusting’ a code for staring at Jaemin’s face or—” Renjun swiveled around in his chair and Donghyuck quickly raised both hands in defeat. “I’m joking, I’m kidding, alright? Unless that’s like, what you’re actually doing,” and Renjun could see from his roommate’s smug smile more than from the heat of his own skin that he was blushing. He clicked his tongue and turned back to his laptop.
“I don’t look at him. Like, at all,” a sigh “So that’s not the problem.”
Donghyuck was quiet for a long moment, and Renjun could almost feel his shoulders relaxing enough for him to go back to typing before his roommate spoke up again. “No, I kinda think that that’s the problem.”
Silence.
Renjun clenched his fists over the keyboard. He was terribly tempted to snap back and say something about how Donghyuck was a few years too young and a few degrees too short from being anyone’s therapist, but. Even if Mark wasn’t too busy with his new college freshman life to talk about romantic woes, Renjun had never actually gotten a solid second opinion on his whole crush thing. It was hard, figuring out who in an all-boys boarding high school would be cool enough with discussing Renjun’s sexuality with zero conscious or unconscious prejudice, and who truly wouldn’t mind hearing about his silly crush to give him advice.
And though rooming with Donghyuck wasn’t the best thing that had ever happened to him for a wide array of reasons, maybe Donghyuck’s willingness to listen and talk about it made his less than stellar qualities as a roommate almost redeemable. So, as much as it pained him, Renjun was not about to pass on the opportunity to get some free, even if questionable, counseling.
“What do you mean by that?” and Renjun decided to pointedly ignore how both of Donghyuck’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline just because his tone had been reasonably calm. It kind of made him want to leave for the common room again.
But then Donghyuck properly sat up on the top bunk, locked his phone as if fully preparing to immerse himself in that conversation, and Renjun thought that maybe he wasn’t that bad, after all.
“I, uh, how do I say this,” Donghyuck scratched the back of his hand, looking up to the ceiling like he was actually remembering a whole monologue instead of coming up with one on the spot. “I think you can’t focus in class because you trying to not focus on him demands way too much of your attention.”
Huh.
“No, yeah, that makes sense. But,” Renjun raised a finger before his roommate started talking again “Things would be so much worse if, like, he caught me staring. Like. In the middle of class, or something. I think I’d stop going, and I’m not even joking.”
Donghyuck stared at him for a long moment. “I think you should confess.”
Renjun snorted. “Yeah, I too think I should just yeet myself out of the window,” he rolled his eyes, turning back to the laptop. Yeah, maybe it had been stupid to think Donghyuck could help him with what probably was the current biggest problem of his life, but a guy could dream.
“No, no,” Donghyuck jumped down from the top bunk, turning Renjun’s chair around and sitting on their bean bag, elbows propped on his knees. “Hear me out for a second, okay? What if,” a dramatic pause, and Renjun resisted the urge to turn away again. “What if, you’re feeling this way because you’re pent up?”
Renjun blushed furiously. “I really think you should just shut up,” but Donghyuck waved his hands frantically.
“No, not like that, just hear me out alright, like,” Donghyuck made wide, random nonsensical gestures between his chest and his head. “You know?”
“No.”
Donghyuck threw his head back, groaning. “Okay, let’s start over. I think you should confess. I think that since you’ve liked him for what, a year now?” Donghyuck stopped and Renjun meekly nodded “Cool, a year now. And correct me if I’m wrong, which I don’t think I am, but I think your longest interaction was like, the she-plant fiasco.”
“Miss Evergreen,” Renjun muttered.
“Whatever. What I’m trying to say is, you’ve had all these complicated emotions for all this time and you only got to act on it for the like, thirteen seconds of the five times you interacted with him, or something. So deep down you’re probably worried that by being so close to him, the whole metaphorical emotional dam is gonna burst, and keeping everything under control is so hard for you, that you stop focusing on everything else. So, I think you should just— tell him? Somehow get it out? To, I don’t know, give yourself some room to breathe.”
They were silent for a long moment, and Renjun felt like the human embodiment of TV static.
“I, wow,” which, really, wasn’t what he intended to say, but his brain was either processing things so fast that he couldn’t catch one specific thought, or his head was just fully empty. But Donghyuck was looking at him expectantly, as if hoping to hear some sort of conclusion, and that really was the most solid piece of advice he’d ever gotten, even after talking about it with Mark for so long. So. “And... just, how do I even do something like that?”
Donghyuck put a hand on Renjun’s shoulder, a sympathetic smile. “Not to throw everything I just said straight in the trash but, before you can blurt out your undying love for him, you kinda have to learn how to talk to the guy first, right?”
Renjun swatted Donghyuck’s hand away, and turned back to the desk, ears red. His roommate chuckled and climbed back up to his bed, humming something that sounded suspiciously like ‘I Will Always Love You’, and that was just about where their short truce ended.
“Cut it out,” Renjun hissed, and Donghyuck chuckled again.
“Yeah, you’re welcome,” Donghyuck singsonged, and Renjun would have retorted, if he wasn’t so busy opening Amazon and ordering a copy of ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People.’
“So,” Yangyang jumped, exhaling a soft ‘oh my God’ as Donghyuck slapped a hand on his desk. “Who’s borrowing me their Bio textbook?”
Yangyang sighed, leaning back on the chair. “Tough luck.”
“No, I’m serious. I’ve got Bio next and I’m failing.”
“It’s the second week of classes?” Donghyuck shrugged, and Yangyang sighed again. “No, I’m serious too. We don’t have Bio today.”
Donghyuck paused for a moment, crossing his arms. “Fine. Give me another textbook with a green cover then.”
“Why don’t you go bother your roommate like— Hey Renjun get a hold of—” but Yangyang fell silent, frowning. “It’s this again, he’s doing it again, should I actually be worried?”
Donghyuck clicked his tongue, studying his roommate’s blank expression and empty gaze. He turned back and forth once, twice, a finger raised as if following Renjun’s probable line of sight. “Where does Jaemin sit?”
Yangyang’s frown only deepened. “The third row? Like— over there. What does this have to do with anything?”
Bingo.
Donghyuck smiled slowly, gears turning in his head at fully speed. He nodded to himself. “Ah, it’s fine. I can just go see if he has the book on him.”
“Who, Jaemin? Do you really think he—”
“I’ll borrow you mine,” Renjun stood up abruptly, yanking the back of Donghyuck’s uniform shirt. “I’ll, I have the textbook. You don’t need to bother Jaemin.”
Silence.
“You’re actually insane, you realize that, right?” Donghyuck asked over Yangyang’s low whistle.
“Shut up,” Renjun muttered, clumsily pushing the chair away so he could search for the textbook in his bag. He pushed the hardback against Donghyuck’s chest, lightly steering him towards the classroom door. “Please leave, now.”
Donghyuck hummed. “This is actually painful to watch, bro.”
“I don’t care.” Renjun hissed.
“No, no, you do— stop for a sec, listen,” Donghyuck spun a few times, evading Renjun’s arms pushing him out of Class 2. “It’s getting seriously concerning. Did you... did you think about it?”
Renjun narrowed his eyes. “About what?”
“You know. The thing.”
It took Renjun five whole seconds and Seungmin not so discreetly turning around to enter the classroom from the front door instead for him to uncross his arms and sigh, giving in.
“People are gonna think we’re fighting.”
Donghyuck snorted. “Well yeah, with how defensive you get when the topic is,” Renjun narrowed his eyes again “Sheesh, sheesh, yeah, alright, you get what I mean. What I’m saying is,” and Renjun was actually ready to listen to his roommate for an entire uninterrupted minute, had his Jaemin wired brain not caught the bane of his existence approaching the classroom in his peripheral vision. Renjun swallowed. He honestly hoped that the chain of please go through the front door, please go through the front door, please go through the front door was only in his head, and that Donghyuck’s confused expression had nothing to do with it having been said out loud.
But as most of Renjun’s prayers as of late, this one was also ignored.
Instead, Jaemin pushed his complaining roommate through the door, Renjun flattening against the threshold, and threw a brilliant smile back.
“Don’t keep our Injunnie out here for too long Hyuck,” a wink “Class’ starting.”
Still frozen against the threshold, Renjun mentally counted up to five, and raised a finger in warning before his roommate could resume speaking.
“No, shut up,” he pushed Donghyuck’s shoulders to turn him towards Class 1 “I don’t wanna hear it. Take my book and go.”
Pushing back against Rejun’s hands, Donghyuck turned his head, hissing. “Alright, this is it, if you don’t grow some balls and do something about this already, I’ll do it for you,” twisting himself away, Donghyuck hurried down the corridor as the bell rang. Renjun stood by the door, all blood leaving his face.
“You wouldn’t!” and the only answer was the thumbs up Donghyuck threw before getting inside Class 1. And, quite unfortunately, Renjun also believed his roommate would.
One nervous glance back towards his desk, and his eyes couldn’t help but make a detour to a seat in the third row, the back of a blond head, the sliver of a wide smile. It wasn’t like he also didn’t think his entire situation was ridiculous, but there weren’t many things Renjun had done in the past year to change it at all. If before he had been fighting against himself, he was now fighting against time — Donghyuck’s time — and that could mean anything, from the next hour, to after graduation, and the thought didn’t sit right in Renjun’s stomach.
He just needed a sign. That was what he’d honestly been waiting all that while — any sort of opening that would help him not hate himself regardless of the result. And he needed one fast, before Donghyuck could—
Jaemin met his eyes.
A confused head tilt, a short nod before finishing turning towards his desk neighbor. Renjun was aware of his habit of staring and was also careful to not let Jaemin know he’d been staring at him and was so stressed thinking about things other than not staring and also kinda wanted to die.
He tapped Yangyang on the shoulder before standing up quickly. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
Renjun was in a mood. His friends debated whether it was an improvement from the first week of classes, or if it was a further descent into something with no return, and surprisingly, the results were fifty-fifty. Not that the unnecessarily long words and the Model UN discussion format could legitimize the topic when it was done over hash brown crumbs and spilled chocolate milk on their breakfast table.
Side A pointed out that he was responding to external stimuli like a person again — after a three minute digression, because Chenle was shocked that Donghyuck could use the words ‘external stimuli’ correctly in a sentence — while Side B was worried Renjun’s current face would unknowingly start a fight with someone.
“I swear I’m not making it up,” Yangyang leaned forward “I heard Sunwoo telling Youngjae that our dear friend here was sizing him up.”
“Now that’s bullshit, I only asked him if he’d delivered the forms to the teacher’s office because I hadn’t submitted mine yet,” Renjun huffed, stabbing the straw in the juice box.
“Alright but did you also have to, like, angrily stare at him for five minutes, make him go up to you and ask what the hell your problem was, and basically throw your form on his face? That’s asking for a fight.”
Three pairs of eyes turned to Renjun, and he slurped on the box for a moment.
“I guess I could’ve been a bit more polite.”
“Yeah, I’d definitely fight you if it were me,” Chenle whistled when Renjun kicked him in the shins. With that, there was no consensus on whether angry Renjun was better than catatonic Renjun before the bell rang for the first period.
Still, Renjun was in a mood.
And his day did not give a single damn about it.
Holding the back of Yangyang’s shirt collar, he leaned forward. “You know what to do, right?”
“I, uh,” Yangyang loosened his tie a bit, and Renjun reveled over that fact that his friend was actually sweating trying to find an excuse. If he was going to leave Renjun on his own like that, he should at least be a bit uncomfortable about it. “Last year Sanha and I decided to partner up again if we were in the same class for senior year, it wasn’t—”
“Traitor,” Renjun released Yangyang’s collar as he scrambled to come up with more excuses.
“What the— You weren’t even in my class last year! I bet if Donghyuck was here you’d partner up with him and leave me alone too and—”
Renjun chuckled. “Relax, man. I’m just joking,” and if Yangyang noticed the sudden high pitch in Renjun’s voice and the obvious lie, he didn’t comment on it.
Truth was, most of his closer acquaintances were not in Class 2 this year, so Renjun didn’t stick to Yangyang just to be annoying. And while it would be much better to have one of his closest friends as his lab partner, maybe he really should start branching out a bit more if only for the last year of high school.
Maybe it was just wishful thinking on his part, maybe he just wanted to partner up with someone outside his friend group just so if Sunwoo ever told anyone that Renjun was aggressive as hell, he could have extra back up. Maybe he was a Scorpio Mars and hoped that Yangyang would feel replaced by his new lab partner.
Mr. Kim knocked twice on the board, and the room fell silent again. “Those who still don’t have a partner, please raise your hand,” and with a final burning look towards Yangyang, Renjun slowly raised his. “Then, I’ll assign numbers one and two to you guys. Ones have to pair up with the twos that are sitting the closest to you, okay? Okay. Starting from here, you, one, two, one, two, one, two—”
Maybe what Renjun really needed was to cleanse his mind and soul of all these vengeful thoughts, as it suddenly felt like karma was doing its very best to get back at him, because the moment Mr. Kim pointed the attendance book in his direction and assigned him the last number two, it was like Renjun’s mind had become the sound effect of a record scratch and then gone silent.
“The lab partner sheet is still going around, so make sure to finish signing it and have the representative deliver to me before the end of the next period. That’s it for today boys, remember that next class we’re still meeting here before heading to the lab!” but Renjun could not for the life of him join the apathetic chorus of ‘Thank You Mr. Kim’ as the bell rang. No, he had more pressing issues than Yangyang turning back to try apologizing a second time, and than the four minutes he had to thread the chaotic hallway and get the history textbook from his locker.
Because from two seats down and in the next row over, Jaemin was making his way towards Renjun’s desk.
“So you’re a two, right?”
Renjun stared for a moment at the lab partner sheet Jaemin had placed on his desk. “I, yeah?”
“Cool, then I think I’m the one closest to you,” record scratch one more time. Renjun refrained from physically shaking the thought away and have Jaemin think he was more of a weirdo than he probably already did. Instead, he looked up with a sheepish smile, and hoped the tremble in his hands wasn’t noticeable as he wrote his name next to Jaemin’s. “That’s funny, I thought you were gonna pair with Yangyang.”
He wasn’t sure whether he was hallucinating, but the way Jaemin rested both hands at the side of his desk, the way Jaemin spoke with a hint of tease in his voice, it was almost like Renjun imagined Jaemin would act if he really was the closest one to him. With a confidence not at all like that was their probable fifth in person interaction, or something. But then again, maybe sharing the custody of a plant did bring people together.
“Why aren’t you partnering with your roommate too?” Renjun had almost forgotten that the traitor sitting in front of him was actual friends with the love of his life. Almost.
Jaemin shrugged. “Jeno’s got a fever today, so he stayed at the dorms. I don’t think he minds partnering with someone else too.”
“Oh,” Renjun felt himself blush when Jaemin turned his attention back at him, and scrambled for something, anything to say. “Is it okay, though? L-like, it’s totally fine if you write his name down instead.”
To watch Jaemin smile was a wonderful thing, no matter why or how. He’d waxed poetry about it once, when Jungwoo, a friend from Mark’s hometown visited for a weekend and smuggled some beers in. Renjun’s slightly tipsy brain had gone on a tirade about at least 28 different types of Jaemin-smiles, and what each of them meant, and right now he was sure this was a number 8. A slow one, almost calculating, that didn’t quite reach Jaemin’s eyes because he was so so much attention to the thing he was smiling at. Which, in that case, was Renjun. His ears were probably burning red.
“Oh no, it’s all good. We don’t work well on assignments together anyway,” Jaemin tapped twice with his pen over the sheet, and tilted his head to read the names. “So if you signed your name already, I’m gonna give this to the others,” he nodded to himself before Renjun could answer, taking the piece of paper away with a wink. “Thanks, Injunnie.”