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“If you’re going to try to impress my best friend you should probably start by not letting him almost blow you up in potions while he’s working with you” Renjun hears Chenle tease.
He bumps shoulders with Renjun as they walk down the hallway towards the infirmary to try to take care of Renjun’s one missing eyebrow. Jisung didn’t exactly ‘almost blow them up’ as Chenle put it, he just caused a minor explosion that took Renjun’s left eyebrow with it by adding the belladonna too quickly, which reacted poorly with the rest of the liquids in the potion.
He’s hoping Madam Kang has a potion or a spell that will fix him up quickly, not wanting to have to wait for it to grow back on its own and have to have Jisung see him with one eyebrow until it grows back. He already looked like he felt bad enough when it happened in class but Renjun was quick to assure him it was fine. Thankfully, she takes one look at him and holds up a finger to tell him to hold on while she finishes patching up a first-year.
“Fire spells?” she asks while taking a look at his face before pulling out a wand and murmuring a hair-regrowth spell, easily fixing Renjun up, and stepping back to admire her handiwork.
“Small incident in potions. Had a small explosion. Jisung added something too fast” Renjun answers. “Am I good to go?” he asks, wanting to be out of the infirmary and to lunch quickly.
“You’re good to go, but do try to at least minimize the damage that boy does. I don’t want to see either of you, or Chenle, in here unexpectedly for at least the next month.”
“Yes ma’am. I’ll see you next Wednesday, and not a day before.” Renjun says with a laugh
“Let’s hope so,” Madam Kang says, grinning and shooing Renjun off to lunch with Chenle.
“Oh dude, I can’t come with you next week I’m sorry I meant to tell you that before but I’m supposed to be going out with Kun and Yang and Ten on like a double date type thing and since your appointment isn’t at your regular time I forgot and double-booked but if you need me there I can cancel,” Chenle says, slightly rambling at his roommate
“Don’t worry about it Lele, I can go alone. It’s not a big deal. I originally asked you to come with me back when I was still afraid of needles and still needed Madam Kang’s help. I can do my T shots without you now, ive done them about a hundred times, I just like the moral support and the lack of questions that come from going back and forth with someone else.”
Chenle hummed thoughtfully as they made their way to the Great Hall. Chewing on his lip he stopped abruptly outside the doors, turning to Renjun.
“Why not ask Jisung to pick you up from the infirmary?” He asks head cocked to the side.
“What?”
“Well.. you said it’s nice to have someone to go back and forth with, but Jisung is getting out of class when you would be getting done, so he could pick you up. He’s gone with us before for your appointments when we’ve had plans afterward, so you wouldn’t have to explain anything to him either. Plus, you could ask him to get lunch with you afterward.” Chenle says, wiggling his eyebrows at Renjun, who rolls his eyes and shoves him gently in return.
“But really, unless you don’t want to, which is also understandable, im sure he would be happy to pick you up.”
“I’ll think about it. Lunch here today first though please, im starving”
Chenle followed Renjun to the Ravenclaw table, sitting down facing towards Jisung, who was waving at them from the Hufflepuff table, and quickly got up to slip into a chair opposite them.
“Sorry, I should have saved you guys spots at the Hufflepuff table, I didn’t know how long you would be in the infirmary for though.” Jisung says sheepishly and gestures towards Renjun “Im glad you were able to get it fixed easily though! Sorry about that!”
“Eh, it’s no big deal, Madam Kang got me fixed up super quick. She did tell me to keep an eye on you and try to slow the Jisung induced infirm visits though” Renjun teased lightly.
“I don’t know that anyone could stop my clumsiness. I just get nervous and things go wrong” Jisung laughed, flushing red and looking down at his plate while picking at the edge of the sandwich he was eating.
Renjun decided not to press for what was making him nervous, chalking it up to stress from classes. From there their conversation devolved into talks about Quiddich, Jisung was the seeker for Hufflepuff, who had been quite good since he joined the team in his second year, and Chenle’s love for care of magical creatures class.
It isn’t until they’re finishing up lunch that Renjun even remembers his conversation with Chenle earlier. Chenle is elbowing him in the ribs and tilting his head towards Jisung while the younger is looking through his school bag, pulling out the pack of pear drops he always seems to have, that Renjun takes a deep breath and decides it’s now or never.
“Hey, sung?” he starts nonchalantly “uh, I have my appointment on Wednesday at 1 and I was wondering if you wanted to meet me at the infirm after your class and we could go to lunch?”
“Oh! Uh, yeah that sounds nice! Where did you guys wanna go?” Jisung asks, silently passing 2 of Renjuns favorite candy to him without having to be asked
“Actually, I’m gonna be out with Yang and Ten and Kun on Wednesday, it’ll just be you guys” Chenle supplies helpfully with a smile that would seem innocent coming from anyone else but both Renjun and Jisung can see through it.
“Ah, well my answer still stands,” Jisung says with a smile. “Just let me know where you want to go. Wednesday at 1!”
“Wednesday at 1!” Renjun parrots back “It’s a date!”
At that both flush a little bit, Renjuns words sinking in a bit before he clears his throat and rubs his arm.
“I mean.. you know like the expression”
“Yeah, for sure” Jisung agrees, and Renjun hopes he’s not imagining the small bit of disappointment in his eyes.
They both give an awkward little nod before standing to clean their plates off and head back to their respective common rooms, saying a quick goodbye.
—————
Next Wednesday comes quicker than Renjun realizes, and he finds himself quietly slipping into the private room Madam Kang always provides him. As he washes his hands and preps his injection site and materials he thinks about the lunch coming up. He and Jisung decided on popping down into Hogsmead for lunch as that was the easiest option for them.
He’s drawn his medicine and given himself his shot so many times by now that he could do it in his sleep and he’s got everything set up, carefully, pretty quickly. He can hear Jisung enter the infirmary and start small talk with Madam Kang as he’s giving himself his shot and smiles to himself at the polite but shy tone that Jisung seems to always use with those older than him who aren’t his peers.
After cleaning up and getting his little bandage put over his injection site Renjun is coming out of the private room and waving to Jisung
“Ready to go?” He asks with a small smile, getting a nod in return from Jisung
“Everything all good?” Madam Kang asks before they go. Renjun knows that she’s just asking to check in and make sure he’s taken care of so he gives a grateful smile and nods
“Yes ma’am, we’re gonna head out, thanks”
“Literally my job, Jun”
Renjun nods and gives a quiet ‘let’s go’ to Jisung, who waves goodbye and follows alongside him.
“Pear drop?” Jisung offers with a smile and Renjun nods, easily taking the offered candy from him.
They make small talk while they are on the way, chatting about Jisung’s class and how their days are going, and it’s not until they sit down at a table and settle in that Renjun notices Jisung seems a little bit restless. He seemed fine while they were walking and when he was ordering but now that there’s nothing to occupy him and the small talk has trickled out he is looking like he’s not sure where to go from here
“Everything ok, Sungie?” Renjun asks, tilting his head to the side
“Yeah! Yeah im good, im alright,” he says and shoots Renjun a smile before trying to reach out to play with the salt shaker, knocking both it and the pepper over and spilling them over the table.
“Oh.”
“Jisung, why every time,” Renjun says with a giggle, watching the tips of Jisungs ears turn red
“Im just nervous!” Jisung mumbles, trying to sweep the spilled salt and pepper into a napkin
“Why? It’s just me!” Renjun shoots back incredulously
“Yes! It’s you! You make me kinda nervous! You’re like, really cool and you share so much of yourself, and you’re so sure of yourself and the people around you. It’s a little intimidating” Jisung says, averting his eyes and rubbing his arm
“I mean… thank you but. I’m just Renjun. Like, im just Chenle’s roommate and your friend”
“Yeah, and I really like spending time with you, I just get a little nervous sometimes because like… I really like you. The other day when you asked me to get lunch I got… more excited than it probably appropriate. And then you called it a date” Jisung says with a little chuckle, picking at the edge of his napkin
Their server stops by then to drop off their food and check in with them, which gives Renjun a moment to process.
“Do you want this to be a date?” He asks suddenly after they’ve both been quiet for a moment.
“What?”
“Do you want this to be a date? Because I would like that” Renjun says, blushing a little bit
“Wait seriously?”
“Jisung, you burned off my eyebrow the other day, which is just the newest thing on the long list of things we’ve gotten into together if I might add, and I didn’t try to change partners in potions class, I think that should tell you all you need to know.”
Renjun is openly giggling at the situation now. In retrospect, they were both very obvious. Renjun continually roping Jisung into everything he can, Jisung constantly floundering around Renjun when he’s known to be pretty cool to everyone else. Renjun pulling books at the library about Dragons that he thinks Jisung might like. That time that Jisung gave Renjun his giant Hufflepuff sweater because Renjun complained about being a little chilly. The way that Renjun handles every bug-related ingredient in potions because they freak Jisung out. Jisung carrying a bag of pear drops all the time because he knows they’re Renjuns favorite candy, and when he’s having a bad day Jisung will leave a small bag of them in his things. Yeah, this shouldn’t have taken as long as it did.
“So. Park Jisung. Would you like to go on a second date with me? Seeing how this is the first one after all” Renjun asks with a grin
“Oh, Huang Renjun, I think that sounds a great idea.”
“We shouldn’t tell Chenle though, make him figure it out”
“Oh absolutely. Can we swing by Honeydukes after this? Im almost out of pear drops and there’s this cute boy I like that I try to keep them on hand for.”
Renjun laughs again, kicking him softly under the table and linking their ankles together.