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the moment the bell rang and announced the end of the class, chenle immediately gathered all his stuff, put them inside his backpack and bolted outside the classroom, ignoring the teacher trying to tell him and everyone else to sit back down because he “wasn’t done with the class yet”. of course, just like always, no one listened to him. chenle wasn’t even surprised when he saw jaemin, one of his best friends, right when he got out of class, leaning on the wall and waiting for him.
‘man, don’t you have classes to go to?’ jaemin lifted his head from his phone when he heard chenle’s voice and he just shrugged, a smile appearing on his face.
‘the teacher was so done with us that he let us leave earlier. having a class filled with loud jerks sometimes has its good things.’
‘lucky bastard.’ the two friends laughed and started to talk about their classes as their made their way towards the canteen, where they were supposed to meet their other friends. they headed to their usual table, one that was a little far away from the others since jisung didn’t really like loud noises, and they sat down. after a year in that university chenle had only learned one thing: food there is absolute trash and on top of that, the line to get food is longer than the canteen itself, so in order to get an awful sandwich you’d have to wait for fifteen minutes. he learned to bring his own food.
‘hey, guys.’
‘hello!’ renjun and jisung sat down with them in their usual spots: jisung right next to chenle so it can be easier for them to share their food and renjun in front of jisung, next to jaemin.
‘someone’s in a good mood today.’ jaemin joked when he saw jisung’s wide smile, one of those silly smiles that just wouldn’t leave someone’s face in a while, and jisung blushed a little as he covered half his face with one of his hands, clearly embarrassed.
‘that someone just got noticed by his longtime crush.’ the younger blushed even more as he gasped.
‘he’s not my crush! ten hyung just told me that he loved my performance the other day… which is such a compliment coming from someone as talented as him. I just admire him. platonically! I swear!’ everyone knew that, but teasing their maknae and seeing him trying to explain himself and his feelings every time was really amusing. the group of boys went on talking about their classes, jisung and chenle shared a sandwich and some snacks, jaemin almost got punched by renjun because of a joke he made… the usual stuff. and then, they came.
‘oh, for fuck’s sake.’ renjun mumbled as he crossed his arms on top of the table, hiding his head there, but everyone’s eyes were already somewhere else.
the hockey team walking into the cafeteria felt like they were in an american movie every day. suddenly everyone’s eyes were on the group of boys that opened the main door, the loud screams before turning into whispers, them walking in slow motion as they talked to each other, minding their own business as if they weren’t the most popular boys in college. it was normal, though, they were all really attractive and athletic guys, who were also really good at their sport and ended up winning the previous year, why wouldn’t they be popular?
renjun hated it, he really did. they were literally just boys, normal dudes, and people worshiped them as if they were gods of olympus. everything surrounding them was a big deal to everyone, and to him that was hella annoying, he couldn’t even say he didn’t like hockey without people glaring at him. jaemin found it really amusing how annoyed renjun was by all of that, jisung didn’t really care, and chenle? well, chenle was too focused staring at certain pretty hockey player to mind about something else.
‘please, tell me he’s not coming over here.’ renjun said and jaemin chuckled, putting one of his hands on the boy’s back and caressing it.
‘you already know the answer to that.’ the petite boy let out a low groan as he hid his face further into his arms, as if by doing that he would hide his whole body and be invisible to others.
‘hey, guys. what’s up?’ that was none other than mark lee himself. mark lee was the captain of the hockey team and probably the most popular guy in college, which meant that he had the most annoying “fans” around. that also meant that renjun’s hater thoughts got louder every time he was nearby.
‘renjunnie, say hi.’ jaemin teased as he patted his back, a teasing smile on his face, and renjun slowly lifted his head. he took his sweet time to glare at his best friend before forcing a smile, turned his head to the other side and looked at mark.
‘hey, mark.’ he said, trying his best to be nice, and it was… a pretty bad attempt. mark’s eyes sparked in a different way regardless renjun’s cold attitude towards him, as if he didn’t care about it as long as he got to talk to renjun for a little bit.
‘uh, I was wondering… are you coming to the match on saturday? it’s a really important game and I’d really like to have you there. to cheer the team up, you know?’ he said, confidently but with a hint of nervousness too, while rubbing the back of his neck with one of his hands. chenle could sense the rejection from miles away and, honestly? he felt bad for the poor boy.
‘I don’t think I can, jaemin and I have to do something on saturday, right, jaem?’ renjun said as he kicked jaemin’s leg from under the table, to which jaemin didn’t even react.
‘actually, I think we should do that thing on sunday instead. so yeah, don’t worry, mark, we’ll be there. to cheer the team up and stuff.’ damn, jaemin was literally fearless. mark’s smile, which had dropped after renjun’s rejection, came back to his face, now brighter and wider than before.
‘okay! cool! uh- I’ll send you tickets later?’ jaemin nodded.
‘I’ll check my e-mail.’
‘great. well- I have to go now, but I’ll see you later! and, bye, jun.’
‘yeah, bye.’ renjun said, once again with a quite forced smile, and mark happily walked away, heading to the table where he and his friends normally sat. when mark sat down and renjun was sure that he wasn’t watching anymore he slowly turned his head to his left side.
‘you’re a dead man, jaemin.’
‘oh, come on, jun, cut the guy some slack. he’s a nice guy and he really likes you, why don’t you just give him a chance? or at least think about it?’ the older shook his head.
‘I know he’s a nice guy, but you know that I don’t like hockey, I hate going to the games because everyone is way too loud and I don’t like being the center of attention. what makes you think that me starting to date the hockey team captain and the most popular guy around is a good idea?’ okay, he did have some valid points there.
‘it’s fine if you don’t want to date him, but at least be nice to him…’ jisung mumbled, and renjun just let out a sigh.
‘I just don’t want him to get his hopes too high. and I swear I’m not mean on purpose, but when he comes I can feel everyone staring at us. it makes me anxious.’
‘still, jun, I think you should at least try. he’s a good guy and I’m sure he’ll treat you right.’ jaemin said, hand on renjun’s back and caressing it.
‘yeah! plus, it’s not like everyone has to know about you and him just because he’s popular. I’m sure that if you talk to him about it you two will be able to figure things out.’ now jisung talked, taking jaemin’s side on that, and even though the three of them saw how renjun treated mark, they also knew that no matter how hard he was trying, he did have some feelings for the older. who wouldn’t, honestly? he’s mark lee.
‘lele? what do you think?’ all the eyes were on him, but he wasn’t there. well, he was there, his body was there, but his mind? his mind was too busy daydreaming about a beautiful boy with a pretty smile.
‘hello? earth to chenle?’ jisung said, laughing as he waved his hand in front of chenle’s eyes, and that seemed to work perfectly fine. chenle blinked a couple times before reacting, looking away from the hockey team table and focusing back on his friends.
‘what? sorry. I was distracted. what were we talking about?’ he tried to act normal, as if he didn’t just get caught staring at a dude with heart eyes, which was already kind of embarrassing but by the looks on his friends’ faces he knew that he was going to be teased to death.
‘and does that distraction have a name?’
‘oh yeah, it’s mr lee jeno.’ renjun and jaemin teased as if renjun didn’t want to rip off jaemin’s head just a couple minutes before, and jisung laughed. chenle just rolled his eyes, smiling too.
everyone loved the hockey team players, but even inside the team, there were three people who stood out more than the others: they called those three boys the holy lee trinity.
mark lee was obviously the first one, as expected. captain, lead attacker, and overall the one who scored the most goals, the mvp in almost every game he played. mark was really good, the best player, but he wouldn’t be able to do all the things he does without lee donghyuck attacking with him. those two are like a perfectly built machine, two people that complemented each other so well that it could be really scary sometimes, the perfect attack duo even though their personalities were completely opposite. mark had a chill personality, was always calm and worked perfectly well under pressure. haechan? he was cocky, confident and had a bad temper that could be easily triggered on the field. still, they were best friends.
everyone knows that even though having a good attack is very important, having a good defense is equally important, and that’s where the last lee comes in. lee jeno. oh, lee jeno . he was by far the least perceived one of the three lees since he was an introvert who didn’t talk too much, but he was the best defender of the team, and he had the looks of a greek god. well, at least chenle thought that, and he remembered the day he saw lee jeno for the very first time.
‘nervous?’ jaemin asked as him, chenle and renjun walked towards the building. it was chenle’s first day of his first year and jaemin and renjun were starting their second year. chenle had visited the college a couple times in those visits most high schools organize to let students see where they’re going to study the year after, so he just shook his head at jaemin’s question.
‘nah. to be honest I’m a lot more scared because of jisung, I don’t know how he’s going to handle finishing high school without us.’
‘he’ll be fine. surprisingly he has friends that are his age and it’ll only be for a year, plus we’re going to see him every day when we hang out.’ renjun joked, and the others only laughed. chenle was kind of an extrovert, so he wasn’t worried about befriending his classmates or something. well, in fact, he wasn’t nervous at all.
the three friends went inside the building and walked towards their lockers. somehow chenle managed to own a locker right next to jaemin and renjun’s, which was unusual because normally the sophomores had all their lockers together, the juniors too, etc, etc. chenle was opening his when suddenly one of those moments of the movies happened.
‘what’s going on?’ he asked-whispered renjun, who was passing his hands through his face.
‘the hockey team.’ chenle didn’t understand at first, but when he saw everyone making room for a group of boys to walk freely in the hallway, he did. there were a total of seven boys, all of them attractive as fuck, different heights and hairstyles, and his eyes landed on one of them, one that caught his attention completely even though he was “hidden” between the others.
he had the face of an angel, his black hair slipped back so everyone could see how ethereal he was, and he was wearing a black tank top with ripped jeans, white converse and a silver necklace around his neck. the boy wasn’t talking and laughing loudly like his teammates, he was quietly listening to what the others were telling and smiling every now and then, but fuck, he had the most beautiful eye smile chenle had ever seen.
‘who’s that boy?’ chenle mumbled to himself, he didn’t even realize he was saying it out loud until jaemin answered.
‘which one?’ he crossed his arms and leaned on his closed locker, his eyes also fixed on the hockey boys, and chenle swallowed hard.
‘uh- the one that’s wearing a tank top? black hair, really pretty smile, blue backpack… that one.’ jaemin looked at chenle with an amused and kind of teasing smile.
‘that’s lee jeno, and I didn’t know you were into hockey boys. you surprise me every day.’ chenle rolled his eyes, closing his locker and trying to hide a smile. he couldn’t believe he was smiling just because he saw a cute boy. lee jeno, huh?'
‘you’ve been crushing on him for a year and a half now, are you ever going to confess?’ chenle shrugged, reaching out to steal jisung’s juice and taking it to his mouth to take big sip.
‘I’ve been thinking about doing it lately… but I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t. it’s not like he’s going to like me back or something.’
‘surely not with that attitude. you have to be confident! why wouldn’t he like you?’ jisung said, earning a glare from chenle.
‘maybe I could… try and talk to mark? to ask him if jeno likes you or something like that.’ jaemin chuckled at renjun’s words and sudden shyness.
‘that’s the lamest excuse to talk to someone I’ve ever seen.’
‘I’m trying to help a friend here, dude, it’s really not an excuse.’ chenle didn’t know what to do, actually. he looked at the table where jeno was, his eyes immediately landing on him, as if jeno was a magnet that was trying to make him come closer and closer. jeno looked as handsome as always, his hand running through his black, messy hair as he laughed at something someone just said. chenle smiled.
‘oh, for fuck’s sake, please just ask him out! what do you have to lose?’
‘well, what if he rejects me and then jun starts dating mark? we’d have to hang out with them, or at least see each other more often, that would be incredibly awkward.’ renjun frowned.
‘I’m not-’
‘okay, but what if he says yes? don’t you want to at least give it a shot?’ chenle didn’t know why, maybe it was because that was their first time talking about actually confessing to his crush, maybe because jaemin’s eyes were as hopeful and convincing as they usually were, or maybe because even renjun wanted to help him and was willing to approach mark to do so, but he felt… hopeful? excited?
‘be brutally honest, do you think I have a chance? because if the answer is yes, I’ll do it.’
‘yes! oh my god, yes.’
‘if you never try then you already have the no, lele. it can only get better.’ fuck, even renjun was encouraging him knowing that him dating jeno would mean more attention on them. well, not as much as he would have by dating mark, but it was still something. he felt his heart beating a little faster. what was that sudden adrenaline rush? was he really going to do that? well- fuck it.
‘okay, uh- where is he?’ he said as his eyes went back to the table, but jeno was nowhere to be seen. that was… a little weird. but whatever.
‘I think I just saw him leaving? maybe he went to the bathroom.’ jaemin said, pointing towards the door, and chenle immediately stood up, took his backpack and put everything inside before closing it and putting it on his back.
‘holy- are you going to do it now? right now?’ chenle just shrugged at renjun’s question.
‘I have to do it before I back out!’ after those words he just turned around and headed towards the door, opened it and left the canteen. now, where the hell was jeno? he saw him inside a couple minutes before, so he couldn’t be too far. instead of stopping to think about it he just started to walk, and after a couple minutes he finally found him.
he was standing in front of his locker, his back opened on the floor in front of him as he took some of his books out, put them inside the locker and changed them for some he would actually need. how could someone look so attractive while doing the most mundane thing in the world?
‘okay, I can do it. I can do this.’ he whispered to himself, closing his eyes and taking some deep breaths to calm his rushed heartbeat. well, it was now or never. thankfully jeno’s locker’s door covered some of his vision, which meant that there was no way jeno was seeing him walking towards him with jelly legs.
‘uh- jeno hyung?’ he didn’t even know where he took the courage to call out his name, or even talk to him since that was the first time they were going to exchange words, but yeah, there was no way back. the older peeked his head from behind the door, his curious eyes meeting chenle’s, and that was the moment where he realized that he had never seen jeno from up close. he felt his face heating up a little bit, his heart stopping too… was he having a heart attack or something? holy fuck, jeno was so fucking pretty.
‘uh? chenle, hi.’ chenle’s body froze and his eyes widened a little bit. lee jeno was right there, standing in front of him, talking to him, and he also knew his name? he had to be dreaming.
‘you know my name.’ he let out, once again saying his thoughts out loud, and jeno chuckled, his eyes turning into two beautiful crescent moons.
‘of course I know your name. mark hyung goes to your table every day, you’re friends with renjun and jaemin.’ chenle really felt like he was about to melt, or to pass out, or both. definitely both. he felt his mouth dry, he tried to think about what to say but his brain wasn’t functioning. jeno cutely tilted his head, still smiling.
‘do you want someone’s phone number? clearly not mark hyung’s since he really likes your friend, but… I think hyuckie isn’t talking to anyone right now. I can give it to you if you want.’ what? chenle frowned at jeno’s words.
‘n-no, I don’t want anyone’s phone number. why would you think that?’ jeno’s cheeks went slightly read as he let out an embarrassed chuckle, his right hand caressing his own nape.
‘I just assumed… when people approach me it’s normally because they want my teammates’ phone number, I’m used to that.’ people approaching jeno just to get closer to the others was kind of wild to chenle, he wasn’t going to lie, but that’s way better for him, right? less competence.
‘actually… I wanted to ask you if you were free on friday. maybe we could- uh, go out? or something. if you want.’ that was it, he did it. he felt his whole body less heavy, as if he had just dropped a huge bag filled with rocks, but his heart was still a little uneasy, especially because he witnessed how jeno’s smile dropped.
‘uh- do you- do you want to go out? with me? the two of us alone?’ oof, that was already feeling like a punch on the stomach.
‘yeah… but like- if you don’t want to, it’s okay.’ the two boys fell into a kind of uncomfortable silence, which felt like an eternity to chenle as he wanted for an answer even though jeno didn’t need to say it, he already knew.
‘I’m- I’m busy on friday, sorry…’ jeno said in a whisper, looking at chenle with guilty eyes, and the younger just knew that confessing was a terribly bad idea. he tried to put on a smile on his face, acting as if the moment wasn’t one of the most horrible and embarrassing moments of his entire life.
‘it’s fine, really. just- forget I asked.’ he didn’t wait for jeno to say something else, he just walked away, his heart hurting a little. he already knew that he didn’t have a chance with him but, well, at least he tried, right?
– – – –
jeno felt confused, really confused. what the fuck did just happen? did someone just confess? to him ? and not just anyone, chenle ? jeno’s eyes didn’t leave chenle’s silhouette until he disappeared down the hallways, probably going back to the cafeteria or maybe heading to the bathroom, he didn’t know.
‘what?’ he asked himself, his brain still thinking about chenle’s words, repeating them in his head again, and again, and again. jeno kneeled down to pick his bag from the ground, took the last book he was going to need and closed his locker, dragging his body to the ice rink for their training.
when he arrived to the locker room to get changed mark and hyuck were already there, doing what seemed to be… a shirt war? throwing the other his shirt? he didn’t know, and he didn’t care either. he let his bag fall on the ground and put both his hands on the lockers, resting his head on one of them. what did he just do? what the fuck did he just do? he separated a little and then banged his head against the locker, drawing the attention of his friends thanks to the noise he made.
‘jeno! holy fuck, what are you doing, dude?’
‘did you just smash your head against the locker? man, if you have dented it, the coach is going to kill us.’ mark rushed towards jeno, putting his hand on one of his shoulders and trying to check if his forehead and the locker were alright, letting out a relieved sigh when he saw that both were completely fine.
‘is everything alright?’ as you could tell, jeno wasn’t the kind of person that would go around hitting things with his head for funsies. jeno turned around, his eyes still open and looking at a certain point of the room without looking at anything at the same time, and he rested his back against the locker he just smashed.
‘do you guys remember chenle?’ haechan let out a sarcastic laugh.
‘chenle as in mark’s crush’s friend chenle? as in the guy you’ve been having a crush on since last year? you talk about him every day, man, of course we know. and also- I can’t believe you two had been having a crush on two guys from the same group of friends for over a years and none of you are doing something about it.’ haechan teased as he also approached his friends, sitting down on the bench right in front of them, and mark frowned.
‘dude, I try every day! he’s just- I don’t know. but I know he likes me.’
‘mark, I love you and I love how kind and nice you are, but sometimes being nice makes you stupid. that boy treats you like crap every time.’
‘I’m not going to talk about this right now.’
‘’cause you know I’m right.’ haechan mumbled under his breath, but mark just rolled his eyes and went back to jeno, who was still spacing out.
‘jen, what happened? did he hurt you or something?’ mark asked as he helped jeno to sit down and sat down too right next to him, but facing him.
‘he doesn’t look like the type of guy that would hurt someone, though. not with those spaghetti arms.’ haechan pointed out, and mark side eyed him, but deep down he knew that he was right.
‘I think- I think I just rejected him.’ he said, his mind still working on processing what happened, and mark’s eyes widened, hyuck’s jaw dropped.
‘you rejected your crush? jen- how?’
‘I don’t know! I just- he asked me if I was free on friday to go out with him and I said I was busy, but it’s because I’m busy! we have training on friday.’ jeno said, panicking a little bit as he looked at his friends, waiting for them to agree with him or at least support him a little bit.
‘okay, that’s not bad. did you tell him that you were free any other day of the week?’ jeno felt so stupid. he got really nervous under his friends’ piercing gaze, so it took him a couple seconds to let out a small “no”. haechan stood up, massaging his temple with his hands.
‘I can’t believe you just rejected your crush, jen.’ he said, making jeno pout.
‘it’s not my fault, okay? I got nervous! when people approach me it’s because they want information to flirt with you guys, not me! I’ve never had a boyfriend before, I don’t know how to do this stuff.’ mark put his arm around jeno’s waist, pulling him a little closer and letting the younger rest his head on his shoulder.
‘did I just lose my chance with him?’
‘what? no, jen, of course not. in fact, this is good! now you know that he likes you back.’ that was good, knowing that your crush likes you back is good, right? it didn’t make jeno smile, though, not after making a fool out of himself in front of said crush.
‘okay, jen, you’re lucky that you’re best friends with the king of flirting. we’re going to fix this.’ hyuck said, standing in front of them.
‘but how? he probably thinks I don’t like him now. I don’t even want to think about how awful he must be feeling right now only because I’m stupid.’
‘well, if he thinks that you don’t like him, you just have to prove him that you do like him.’ haechan said as if it was the most obvious answer in the whole world, which made the other two sigh and roll his eyes.
‘okay, sherlock holmes, how? don’t say confess back because I don’t think I can face him after what just happened, and he most likely won’t talk to me either. there must be something else I can do.’ the three boys stood in silence for a couple seconds, thinking about what they should do to help jeno with his love crisis, until something clicked inside mark’s brain.
‘I could talk to renjun! or jaemin. maybe they can help, right? or at least they can tell us if chenle would be willing to talk to you again to clear things up.’
‘oh! or maybe I could leave a flower and a note in his locker? that’s romantic and he’d definitely forgive me.’
‘that sounds like the best idea you’ve ever had.’ seeing mark starting to get excited made his uneasy feeling slowly go away. suddenly jeno wasn’t that sad anymore, in fact, he was happy: he was going to fix it, hell yeah he was.
‘I still think that just talking to him is a better idea.’ hyuck tried to say, but the other two weren’t even paying attention to him.
‘okay so, first I talk to the others, then depending on what they tell me you do the note thing and boom! date.’
‘sound good!'
‘I can’t believe I’m friends with you two.’
– – – –
their training was surprisingly good, and even though jeno’s mind was thinking about something else instead of focusing on the ice, he still had some fun. him, mark and hyuck ran to the locker room as soon as the coach announced that they were done and took a really quick shower: they had some things to do.
luckily for mark and jeno they knew where renjun and jaemin were going to be: they charred their next class with haechan, so they took advantage of that and decided to “walk his friend to class”. they were probably going to be late to their own classes, but that wasn’t as important.
‘okay, how do I look?’ mark said as he fixed his hair a little bit, getting a weird look from his friends.
‘what? if I’m going to talk to renjun I can’t look like shit. do I smell nice?’ he approached his friends, trying to make them sniff him, but the others just pushed him away between “ewww”s and other complaints.
‘just go! or they’ll go inside and you won’t be able to talk to them.’ mark turned around, noticing how jaemin and renjun were already walking towards the door, and his eyes widened a little bit as he fixed his hoodie.
‘wish me luck, gentlemen.’ and he walked away from them, heading to where the other two boys were. jeno and haechan just hid their bodies behind a wall, beeking their heads from it so they could see what was happening. they saw mark approaching them, jaemin greeting him with a smile and renjun… well. he was visibly upset.
‘do you think renjun is going to hate me after this?’ jeno said, his eyes still fixed on renjun, behind jaemin’s back and glaring at mark while his friend talked to him.
‘nah… he’ll let it go. also, that looks like the normal face he has around mark to me, maybe he’s not mad at you.’ he didn’t know which option was better, to be honest. he sighed and continued to observe. man, he would love to have a pair of binoculars and the ability to read people’s lips, he was starting to get really anxious.
after a couple minutes, or a whole eternity if you ask jeno, mark finally said goodbye to the boys and headed back to where they were.
‘so? what did they say?’
‘is it bad? does he hate me?’ haechan and him asked at the same time and mark just chuckled, making them a sign to calm down.
‘well… renjun didn’t even talk and he just kept glaring, which was bad to me, but I explained the whole situation to jaemin and he’s sure you still have a chance with him, you just have to try.’ jeno felt like he could finally breathe again. his entire body relaxed as he let out a small, relieved sigh.
‘thank god, I was about to throw myself off a cliff. sorry for renjun, though, I will talk to him if you want. he’s mad because of what I did.’ he was internally begging that mark would say no: renjun was… really, really scary. or at least to him. mark just smiled softly and shook his head.
‘nah, man, it’s fine. so, phase 2 of them plan? we still have like ten minutes before the bell rings.’ phase 2: putting a note inside his locker.
‘I just realized that I don’t know which one’s his locker.’
‘I know.’ mark and jeno looked at haechan, both with surprise and confusion all over their faces, and the youngest just shrugged.
‘what? I’ve seen him with renjun and jaemin a couple times. just follow me.’ so they did. they started to walk towards the hallway where the third year lockers were and haechan stopped walking right in front of one, he even gave it a small knock.
‘it’s this one.’
‘are you sure?’
‘I’m 80% sure.’ mark and jeno exchanged looks, most of the time trusting hyuck was… well, difficult, but just because the guy was a prankster and there was no way of finding out if he was telling the truth or just messing with you. mark shrugged and nodded, so jeno opened his backpack and took out a piece of paper and a pen.
‘so… what should I say? should I write something long or just a message to talk?’ he knelt on the floor for a moment, placing the notebook on one of his knees so he could write better, and looked up to his friends again.
‘I’d say something short but concise. maybe something that will make him realize it’s you?’
‘that’s what signing the note is for?’
‘yeah but imagine you got the wrong locker, dude. we don’t want someone completely random to come to jen and ask him out or something.’ mark and haechan kept discussing what jeno should put in the note out loud, but he wasn’t listening to them anymore. he decided to not sign the paper with his name, but maybe writing down his phone number wouldn’t be a bad idea, right? so chenle could immediately text him when he find the note… yeah, genius idea.
‘I told you that I’m busy on friday… what about sunday instead?’
text me? +127 123 456 789’
‘perfect.’ jeno whispered as he put everything back inside his backpack. after that he stood up, folded the paper in half and he put it inside the locker through one of the cracks that it had. he didn’t know why they were there, but for once they were useful.
‘what did you write on it?’ hyuck asked, and jeno just shrugged.
‘something that only him and I will understand.’ jeno could feel hyuck’s curiosity growing already, but it was just a silly thing, so he wasn’t going to answer anyway.
‘holy- is that chenle?’ mark pointed somewhere right behind them and jeno had never turned around faster. there he was, the prettiest boy he had ever seen, walking next to jisung and- heading exactly towards where they were.
‘shit. let’s go. go!’ jeno started to run to the bathroom, which was close enough to hide without being noticed by the other two boys, and mark and hyuck followed from up close.
‘do you think they saw us?’ hyuck was the one that peeked outside to see what was going on, jeno really didn’t want to be seen by chenle or he was going to die from embarrassment. putting a note on his locker was already kind of embarrassing, but getting caught doing it? hell nah.
‘negative. but he seems to be heading to his locker right now, so you might get an answer to your note soon.’
‘what?’ jeno rushed to the door, peeking only enough so his eyes could land on chenle, half of his face still hidden behind the door. a couple seconds later the three of them were watching every single move chenle and jisung were doing. the two friends were standing in front of the locker, talking about whatever the hell they were talking about, and jeno could feel himself starting to sweat. what if chenle didn’t like it? or didn’t realize it was his note? or what if jaemin was wrong and he didn’t want to talk to him anymore? what if- oh.
jeno saw how chenle opened his locker as he still talked to jisung, took out a couple books, left some other, closed it and walked away as if nothing had happened. the funny thing? he opened the locker that was right next to the one where he put the note, so chenle didn’t know about it and now someone random was going to open his locker and read his note. perfect.
‘in my defense I’ll say that I was only 80% sure and I got it wrong for only one locker. it’s not that bad.’ jeno felt discouraged to say the least. he didn’t care about one random person getting his number, he could just block them if they talked to him and that was it, but his problem with chenle was still there.
‘so… well! now we know for sure that’s his locker! just put another note and let’s go to class.’ jeno shook his head, putting his backpack over his shoulder.
‘nah, I’ll just… do it later. we have to go to class.’
– – – –
he didn’t do it later. he didn’t know why he felt so bad and discouraged after just one failed attempt to make things right with chenle, especially because it was just a little note on the wrong locker, but yeah, he truly felt like shit. he didn’t even pay attention to the last two classes he had, he just spent those two hours moping and drawing doodles (which weren’t even pretty) on his notebook to distract himself. mark even went to his class to walk him to the last one and tried to cheer him up, but to no avail.
‘do you guys want to hang out? maybe we can go to my house and play some games or whatever.’ hyuck, mark and jeno were together again, now walking towards the exit to finally go home.
‘it does sound like a good plan… not if you’re going to make us play overcooked again, that shit sucks.’ by experience jeno could say that the game was good, but hyuck was really competitive even when it came to cooperative games, so yeah… nothing good ever came out of that.
‘fine, whatever. jen, are you in?’
‘I’m not-’ he lifted his head to look at his friend, but his eyes ended up traveling to another place. chenle’s friend group was there- chenle was right there. they were a couple meters in front of them, also heading outside, and jeno didn’t really know what possessed him or where he took the courage, but he did it.
‘chenle!’ he said out loud, mark and hyuck even stopped walking just to look at him with wide eyes, and jeno knew it was his moment when he saw chenle turning around, trying to find the owner of the voice. his legs moved by themselves, heading towards the younger, who’s face expression turned into a surprised one when he saw him approaching.
‘hey-’
‘oh, hey, jeno.’ renjun said, a really scary smile on his face, which made jeno stop walking. the boy was between him and chenle, and jeno was too scared to do anything that could make him even more angry.
‘oh my god. please, forgive him. he can be really stupid sometimes.’ jaemin kindly smiled at jeno, put his hand on renjun’s arm and immediately dragged him away. jisung seemed a little lost, but when he noticed that he was alone with chenle and jeno, he immediately walked away too.
‘hey… uh, can we talk for a second?’ he asked with a soft voice, which sounded more like a whisper, and chenle just nodded.
‘okay, uh- well, when you asked me before if I was free on friday, I didn’t mean to reject your offer! I am just genuinely busy on friday! I have training and we start at 5pm and end at 8pm so I couldn’t hang out with y-’ man, he was so nervous. he felt his own hands shaking a little bit, thing that he tried to hide by keeping them inside his pockets, but still.
‘jeno, it’s okay, I promise. I wasn’t expecting you to say yes to me anyway. we can just pretend it never happened, it’s not a big-’ jeno didn’t stop talking when chenle started, which meant that they were just talking at the same time and not listening to what the other one had to say. yeah, it was a little messy, and jeno had to admit that he was starting to get a bit anxious.
‘but I am free on sunday!’ jeno said, raising his voice a little bit to make sure chenle heard him, and he knew he did when the younger stopped talking and just looked at him with wide eyes.
‘what?’ jeno nervously giggled, his right hand caressing the back of his own head.
‘yeah… y-you suggested friday, but I can’t, so what about sunday? are you free? we could go to the arcade, there’s a discount for- uh, couples.’ he felt his own cheeks turning a little red, but he hoped it wasn’t visible enough so chenle wouldn’t notice. the younger’s expression softened, a cute smile replacing his confusion.
‘are you asking me out?’
‘yes.’ jeno’s answer was so fast it was embarrassing, but he decided to push those thoughts away for the sake of his own sanity. chenle chuckled.
‘why didn’t you just tell me you were free on sunday when I was asking you out? I thought you were just rejecting me.’
‘well… I’ve never had a boyfriend, or gone on a date, so I got really nervous when you asked me. but I promise that I do want to go out with you. I even tried to leave a note inside your locker and we got it wrong, so now a random person has a piece of paper with my phone number there.’ jeno knew that he was, once again, making a fool out of himself in front of his crush, but chenle was laughing… oh, man, his laugh was so pretty.
‘give me your phone.’ chenle said as he extended his hand, waiting for jeno to hand him the phone, and after clumsily taking it out of his pocket and almost dropping it, he did it. jeno’s eyes didn’t leave chenle’s smiley face as he typed something he couldn’t see on his phone.
‘there you go.’ “ chenle ♡ ” jeno couldn’t and didn’t even try to hide his smile when he saw chenle’s contact on his phone.
‘text me later, we can talk about what we’re going to do on sunday.’
‘we could also talk about it on saturday… you’re coming to the game, right?’ jeno asked as he fidgeted with his phone.
‘yeah… why?’ chenle asked, a smirk on his face. damn, since when was he that confident?
‘well… maybe we could all go out to dinner afterwards? hyuck really gets along with jaemin, mark would love to spend some more time with renjun and… I would also spend some time with you. everyone wins, right?’ chenle pretended to think about the plan, but jeno could see in his smile that he was just acting, so he smiled.
‘I will talk to them about it. and, don’t worry, we’ll convince renjun.’
‘okay! okay. perfect. mark is going to be really excited.’ chenle laughed softly, shaking his head.
‘are you coming to our table tomorrow? we could talk a little bit while mark tries to flirt with renjun.’
‘i’d love that.’ the two of them chuckled, looking at each other with shiny eyes.
‘see you tomorrow, then?’
‘yeah! yeah, totally. tomorrow.’ chenle turned around and walked towards his friends, who were waiting for him. jeno’s smile didn’t leave his face, in fact, maybe it wasn’t going to anytime soon. he looked back at his phone, smiling even wider when he saw chenle’s contact again, and he ended up also walking towards hyuck and mark, who were too still surprised.
‘so… I might be up for some video games now.’ mark and hyuck didn’t make any comments about what just happened, and even if he did, jeno didn’t really care. he was going to have a date with his crush and that was all he could think about.