Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Despite everybody’s excitement, Donghyuck doesn’t care about the new transfer student. 

He sits with YangYang at the back of the class, laughing at some sort of new manga the latter bought earlier that day. It’s against the school rules to have such books in the classroom during school hours, but when has Donghyuck ever cared about school rules? He’s been climbing all over tables and chairs and ditching afterschool clean-up duty ever since he was seven. He definitely does not give two shits about school rules.

It’s not that he’s a bad student, per se, it’s more of the fact that he doesn’t see any point in trying. It’s just high school, a small point in his life. When he’s finally out there, he’s one hundred percent sure that no one will ask about his grades or the extracurricular activities he did when he was seventeen. Those just don’t matter in the real world. As long as you’re charming and good with words, you will be able to come on top.

And Donghyuck likes to think he’s charming and good with words.

His teacher walks into the classroom and tells him and YangYang off almost immediately. How she saw through the thick dictionary wall YangYang made to block the view of the manga from the front of the class, Donghyuck will never know. 

She clearly isn’t in a good mood, and upon seeing the two of them crowded behind a wall of dictionaries and snickering, she makes Donghyuck switch seats with Quanzhe, moving him from the back row to somewhere around the middle. Donghyuck thinks it’s a bit dumb. After all, he’s one, if not the most , popular kid in class. He has friends everywhere and moving to another desk definitely wouldn’t shut him up. He’s sure his teacher will realise it soon enough , but he’s still offended over how she thinks it’s that easy to do so. 

Donghyuck doesn’t care about the new student, but he hates all the comments and rumors his classmates are starting to murmur under their breaths once the said student walks through the door. Some of them seem believable, others are dumb, but Donghyuck still wants none of that.

His first impression of Renjun will forever be engraved in his head. The new transfer student walks into the classroom with his chin slightly in the air, shoulders back, and arms loosely by his sides. His gaze is up, straight and focused, and he had a small, subtle, natural smile that reached his eyes. 

His eyes held the stars. That is Donghyuck’s first thought after they meet eyes by accident. 

He had walked in with such confidence, such certainty, that Donghyuck couldn’t help but feel a bit intimidated and jealous. Not only does he tick off all the boxes that Donghyuck made to be categorised in his ‘charming and good with words ’ group (Donghyuck is currently the only person in said group), he’s also very attractive.

He doesn’t need to turn around to see Jaemin’s heart eyes towards the new boy. 

After thinking about it for a few seconds, Donghyuck realises he’s exactly Jaemin’s type. Donghyuck lets out a small smile as he ducks his head down. Maybe he could help Jaemin out, it’s been too long since his last relationship anyway. It feels a bit weird not listening to Jaemin go on and on about how cute his significant other is.

The transfer student stands in front of the class, eyes crinkled into little crescents. “Nice to meet you all,” he greets. “My name is Huang Renjun.”

His voice is strangely melodic, a bit unexpected, and smooth. Donghyuck thinks he could fall asleep listening to him talk about the most random of things. It’s nice, though. Donghyuck won’t lie about that, those with good voices are said to be successful in the future — or so he was told. 

The teacher shuffles around the seating placements and the transfer student ends up behind Donghyuck. Convenient for him, not so much for Renjun. Renjun seems like the smart type; someone who studies a lot and aims for top universities —   so it should be a breeze to buy answers off him, if he’s easily swayed by money.

Everyone’s easily swayed by money, Donghyuck learns that extremely early on in his life. It’s not a bad thing, not in his eyes, but he does wish he didn’t have to learn so much about trading and whatever else at age thirteen or something. To be honest, he doesn’t even remember half the things he was taught. It shouldn’t matter in the future anyway. 

The bell chimes, signaling the end of class and the start of lunch. The moment Donghyuck puts his books away underneath his table and takes out his small, blue bento box, he’s being dragged out the door by Jaemin. 

“Hey, dude! What the hell?!” he snaps, pulling his arm away once they’re outside. “I’m trying to eat here. I’ve been craving these rice balls all day.” Donghyuck spots an empty bench and quickly walks towards it, leaving Jaemin in dust.

Jaemin apologises, but he doesn’t even try to sound sorry. They settle down onto the bench and Donghyuck rolls his eyes and stuffs a rice ball into his mouth. He already knows what Jaemin is gonna talk about for the hour or so. So as soon as the latter opens his mouth, Donghyuck makes the conscious decision to block out his voice. He occasionally nods to make it seem like he’s listening, even though Jaemin can probably see right through him.

With eyes boring into Jaemin’s forehead, he pokes around his bento box with his chopsticks only to find out he’s finished his lunch. With a frown, he puts away his chopsticks, wishing he had savoured the rice balls instead of mindlessly eating them to drown out Jaemin’s voice. 

He tunes into Jaemin’s ranting, unwillingly, as he closes his bento box.

“ — he seems like he’s responsible, I wonder if he’ll make a good husband or dad.”

Donghyuck shoots a concerned look towards Jaemin. He definitely chose the wrong time to tune into the rant. 

“Don’t you think you’re a bit too young to think about marriage?” Donghyuck asks, raising an eyebrow. 

Jaemin turns red and looks at him up and down. “I didn’t think you were listening,” he mumbles. “Ah, this is kinda embarrassing.” He hides his face behind his hands.

Donghyuck scoffs. “What are you embarrassed about? I can assure you that you’ve said worse things directly in my face before.” He furrows his eyebrows. “I don’t even want to think about them.”

Jaemin sticks out his bottom lip.“That’s true,” he says. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“What do you think about Renjun? Don’t you think he’s super cute?” 

Donghyuck thinks about his next words carefully. “I mean, he is attractive. I like his voice too. That’s about it though.” Across from him, Jaemin pouts. “I don’t know what you want me to say,” Donghyuck sighs, running a hand through his hair. “He seems like he’d get 100% on exams? I don’t know, dude.”

Jaemin bites the inside of his cheek. “It’s like love at first sight for me,” he whispers. “I’m in love.”

Donghyuck strains a smile. “Yeah, sorry but you say that about all the crushes you have. I have a feeling this crush of yours will be gone in, like, two months.”

Jaemin raises both his eyebrows. “Bet?”

“Bet.”

Needless to say, Donghyuck lost the bet. His pride, dignity, and 1,000 yuan are all gone all because Renjun decided to lend Jaemin a pencil one day.

A pencil and a quiet ‘ keep it ’ was all it took to get Jaemin head over heels for the boy. Donghyuck blames Jaemin’s mom for taking out his pencil case from his bag a day before their English test, because now he’s stuck with Jaemin constantly talking about Renjun.

“How are you so ‘in love’ with him when you’ve never even had a conversation with him,” Jeno asks, peering at Jaemin from above his manga.

“Stop reading, we’re here to study.” Jaemin shoots him a glare. “And I have had a conversation with him before, thank you very much. Why else would I have this cute pencil if I didn’t?” He digs around his pencil case to bring out said pencil.

YangYang, thankfully, stops him. “We know which one it is, we’ve seen and heard it enough times, please stop talking about it.”

They’re sitting in the local food shop Jeno’s family owns, with their textbooks and notebooks open for the first time since forever. Mid-year exams are coming up, and despite being the troublemakers in the class, the group had collectively decided to study for once — because it’d be ‘ their last mid-year exams ’, or so YangYang says. 

“You should study,” YangYang says to Donghyuck, twirling his pencil between his fingers. “We’re graduating this year. You should get into the habit of it.”

Donghyuck’s side of the table is clear, with no books in sight. He glances over at YangYang’s open book. “Yeah, and all you’ve done is question 2a, you’re no different than me,” he taunts. 

YangYang opens his mouth to bite back but is interrupted by Jeno’s mom placing four bowls of braised pork rice down. A chorus of ‘ thank you auntie ’ travels around the table.

“It’s so nice to see you boys studying so hard,” she says, ruffling Jaemin’s hair. “I haven’t seen Jeno study since he was eleven!” She leans over and plucks the manga out of Jeno’s hands. “I’ll leave you boys to it then!” She beams a smile and takes the empty glasses, then disappears into the kitchen. 

“My manga…” Jeno pouts.

“I told you to stop reading,” Jaemin scolds as he smacks the top of the older one’s head with his rolled-up notebook. “You’re so dumb, why didn’t you put it away the moment you saw your mom?”

Jeno shrugs. “I mean, now I can actually concentrate, I guess.” He sighs and picks up his pencil. “YangYang, what did you get for 4c?”

“I haven’t done it yet,” YangYang groans. “I can barely do question two. I hate this. Who suggested this?” He scans each one of their faces. “We all know this wouldn’t work, how did we agree to this?”

“Donghyuck suggested it,” Jaemin says, putting a spoonful of rice into his mouth. “And he doesn’t even have his books open. What a scam.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Donghyuck comments, pointing his chopsticks at him. “It’s rude.”

YangYang pushes the chopsticks down. “And it’s rude to point your chopsticks at people.” He copies the same tone of voice Donghyuck had used. 

Donghyuck stares at him and silence ensues between the group.

Jeno lightly slams his textbook onto the table and they all turn to him. 

“If we’re not gonna study can you guys please leave? I mean that in the nicest way possible, but it’s just that my mom might come in randomly and I don’t want her to think that I’m fooling around with you guys instead of studying.”

“Your mom loves us,” Jaemin says. “And you barely study, what are you on about?”

Jeno sighs. “Yeah, but she’s getting on my ass ‘cause it’s our last year. She also suggested getting into uni overseas, and to be honest, I’m kinda considering it.” 

This is Donghyuck’s first time hearing about this, and from the looks on YangYang and Jaemin’s faces, it’s theirs too.

“Overseas?!” YangYang looks as if he had been splashed by cold water. “How long have you been thinking about this? Why haven’t we been told?!”

Jeno takes a deep breath. “It’s not a definite choice yet, I’m still considering it.” He drums his fingers on the table. “It’s just that I’ve kinda gone through my high school life without a clear direction or path I wanna follow in the future, and I think it just occurred to me that I’m graduating this year and I guess I’m kinda worried? I don’t know.”

Donghyuck wants to sympathise with him, he really does, but he finds himself unable to do so. He’s never had those kinds of thoughts before, thoughts such as worrying about your future and path and career, it’s just such a foreign concept to him.  

He wonders if that’s the reason he doesn’t try in school.

Once he finishes his bowl of rice, he picks up his bag off the floor. “Alright,” he says. “I’ll get going then. Good luck on studying.” He sends Jeno a small smile, the latter reciprocates.

After saying a quick thank you to Jeno’s parents for the meal, he scampers out the door before Jaemin can catch up to him and give another hour long speech about how soft Renjun’s hair looks.

“Bro, if Jaemin talks about Renjun one more time, I think I’ll cry,” YangYang says to the sun-kissed boy the next day. “When you left, I tried to study, but he just kept going on and on about Renjun’s cute notes or whatever. I think I would’ve thrown something at him if Jeno wasn’t there.” 

Donghyuck turns around to face the younger boy, but instead, his vision focuses on something going on outside the classroom. “Hey, is that — ” He squints his eyes.

YangYang, confused, follows his line of vision.

“Oh my gosh, what is he doing?!”

On the other side of the windows are Jaemin and, surprisingly, Renjun. Jaemin is saying something to Renjun, while the shorter one is slowly nodding with furrowed eyebrows.

“When did he get the guts to talk to him?” YangYang says, voice barely above a whisper. “He’s been admiring from afar for two and a half months. This came straight out of nowhere!”

Jeno creeps up from behind them. “What are you guys looking at?” 

YangYang whips his head around. “Jaemin is talking to Renjun!” 

Jeno furrows his eyebrows. “Jaemin? Like Na Jaemin? Our Jaemin?”

“Yes, OUR Jaemin!”

Jeno pauses. “Ah, he did say he’s gonna do something about his feelings yesterday, after the two of you guys left.”

Donghyuck almost chokes. “Is he confessing ?!”

Jeno’s eyes grow wide. “No, no way. He’s not that kinda person, I don’t think, but he might be trying to befriend him?”

YangYang whistles. “Very brave, potential friendzone there.”

“Yeah, but I think it’s better to get friendzoned than strangerzoned, if that’s a thing,” Jeno chuckles. “Gotta give it to him though, I thought he was joking yesterday.”

Donghyuck clicks his tongue. “We all know Jaemin doesn’t joke around, that boy has zero impulse control.”

They continue to spy on the duo before a certain brunette quickly pulls Renjun away.

“Hey, hey!” YangYang frantically yells. “What’s he doing?!”

Donghyuck thinks YangYang might be a little too invested in whatever’s going on between Jaemin and Renjun. 

“Okay, I’ll be right back. I’m gonna go chase down Chenle.” YangYang rushes out the door before Donghyuck or Jeno could say a thing. 

“Poor Chenle,” is all Jeno says before he returns back to his desk. 

Zhong Chenle, the class’ top scorer in basically every subject. In other words, the complete opposite of the person Donghyuck is. He’s smart, hardworking, and rumors have it that he studies every single day. Chenle was the first one to befriend Renjun out of the whole class, which is probably the reason Renjun hangs around him the most. Actually, Donghyuck kind of sees it now; Renjun is also smart and hardworking, and he’s pretty sure he’d study every single day too if he could. They kinda make a good match in Donghyuck’s eyes.

Not as lovers, but as best friends. Donghyuck’s rooting for Jaemin, even though he’s irritated by his ramblings half the time. 

Jaemin walks into the classroom, and Donghyuck instinctively raises his hand up for a high-five.

“What were you guys talking about?” Donghyuck asks. Jaemin doesn’t look upset or disappointed, so Donghyuck’s guessing Renjun didn’t reject him. Or maybe Jaemin just didn’t spill out his two month long hidden feelings to him. Maybe they talked about studying together, Jaemin’s unpredictable that way.

Jaemin’s hand comes into contact with Donghyuck’s. “Not much, I just told him I think he’s cute and would like to go out with him.”

“What?!” Donghyuck chokes. “All of a sudden? What did he say?! Why?!”

Jaemin shrugs, unfazed. “Listening to Jeno’s speech about his future or whatever got me thinking, you know?” He leans back on the desk behind him. “Thought I could make my life more interesting with a significant other.”

“So you’re using Renjun to…” The word is on the tip of Donghyuck’s tongue. He clicks his fingers as he digs through his brain, but to no avail, so he simply gives up. “You’re using Renjun?”  

Jaemin playfully slaps him. “No! You know my vocabulary is tiny, don’t twist my words.” He pauses and purses his lips. “I don’t know, I just felt the sudden urge to ask him out, I guess.”

Jaemin’s the only person in their friend group who says such a thing so casually, a natural flirt — so to say. 

“Well, did he agree? Did he punch you? What did he do?” Donghyuck asks as he scans his friend’s face.

There’s no trace of embarrassment or discomfort, which is surprising given that he had just confessed to the ‘love of his life’. If Donghyuck didn’t know better, he’d believe that Jaemin’s just faking his feelings for Renjun. After all, who confesses to someone then looks perfectly fine and sane straight after?

He’s read somewhere that if a person’s smooth around the person they like, then it’s probably not worth accepting them, as people get nervous around the people they like. 

Donghyuck, can sadly, vouch for that. He vaguely remembers having a crush on some model student a few years back and whenever he was put into a group project with them, he’d always end up with shaky legs and sweaty palms. 

He would not do it again, would not recommend either. He rates that experience a 3/10.

“He didn’t say anything,” Jaemin sighs. “He couldn’t, actually. Chenle came and took him away in a blink of an eye.” He straightens out his tie. “I’ll probably catch him after school, or something, so you guys don’t have to wait for me to walk home.” His hands clasp together and he lets them fall.

After practically eating, studying, and playing with someone for more than five years, you’d start to pick up their little habits. One of Jaemin’s is that he can’t sit still when he’s nervous. Donghyuck smiles to himself as he spots Jaemin’s left leg bouncing continuously. Guess he’s worried for nothing, Jaemin’s definitely nervous, he just doesn’t show it on his face. 

Donghyuck gets up from his chair and pats Jaemin on the shoulder. “Don’t be worried, if anything, you still got us.” 

Jaemin makes a questionable face at that comment and quickly opens his mouth to say something, but Donghyuck swiftly exits the classroom to scout for YangYang before he does something stupid that can potentially ruin his image for the last seven months of highschool.

It’s from YangYang that Donghyuck learns that Jaemin was just shitting with him. 

That brat wasn’t confessing, he was just asking for Renjun’s English and maths notes.  

Donghyuck had never felt more inclined to punch Jaemin in the face, but since he’s all the way back in the classroom, Donghyuck punches the next best thing; YangYang. He had felt bad for a split second, but then remembered all the other times the younger had tormented him, and suddenly didn’t feel as bad anymore.

In the end, he had mistook Jaemin’s excitement of ‘pranking’ him as being nervous. Can’t say he didn’t expect it though, to be fair, Donghyuck did have his doubts, he didn’t just blindly believe him. 

Now he’s not gonna believe another word that comes out of Jaemin’s mouth, and Jaemin brought that upon himself.

“I can’t believe him,” Donghyuck puffs as the duo walk back to their classroom. YangYang is still stifling his laughter beside him and Donghyuck might just reach over and smack the back of his head. “Stop laughing, it’s not that funny.”

“No, it’s funny because you believed him!” YangYang bursts out laughing for the second time. “You out of all people should know better than to trust Jaemin!”

Donghyuck considers leaping off the building. He knows YangYang will never let him live this down. It’s not even that funny, and the whole reason why Donghyuck is embarrassed is because YangYang is making it a bigger deal than it seems.

“You have a horrible sense of humor,” Donghyuck mumbles. 

YangYang’s laughter dies down. “I’m so glad I’m not like you,” he taunts and Donghyuck rolls his eyes. “I pulled back Renjun to ask what they were talking about. You should’ve seen the look on his face! He was so confused, it was hilarious! He was like; ‘Ah, he asked for my notes. Tell him I’ll give it to him after school’ or something and Chenle was beside him going on and on about how he didn’t like us right in front of my face,” YangYang sharply breathes in before continuing. “That Chenle — ” He shakes his head. “Just because he’s a year younger than us and gets high marks in everything doesn’t mean he’s the shit. I bet he hasn’t even had his first kiss yet.”

Donghyuck raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you had so much pent up anger towards him, you need to find a way to externalise all that. It’s not good for you otherwise.” He pauses. “And you haven’t had your first kiss either.” He looks at YangYang. “Way to make a comparison.”

The younger brushes him off. “Yeah, yeah. At least I didn’t blindly believe Na Jaemin!” He leaves Donghyuck’s side and runs ahead before the latter can grab onto the back of his shirt and give him another beating. 

Donghyuck, who wakes up every morning and double knots his shoes just for this moment, darts after him. 

He almost loses a head when he makes a sharp turn into their classroom. 

Donghyuck has never seen such neat notes in his life. Donghyuck’s handwriting, for one, looks like chicken scratch and even though he’s the one writing the notes, sometimes even he has trouble making sense of whatever he wrote.

Renjun’s notes look like heaven compared to his hellish one. There’s so much colour. Who even has that many different coloured pens and highlighters in their pencil case. Heck, all Donghyuck uses is a gray lead pencil. He doesn’t even carry around a pencil case — he puts his pencils in his pockets and takes them out when needed.

“It’s like I’m looking at a rainbow,” Jeno says, peering over Jaemin’s shoulder. “He has such neat handwriting too. Donghyuck could never.”

The next thing Donghyuck finds himself doing is holding Jeno in a chokehold. “Say that again, I dare you.”

YangYang appears behind him immediately and rubs his hands all over Donghyuck’s face in an attempt to free Jeno. “To be fair,” he says, struggling to hold down a squirming Donghyuck. “He’s not wrong.”

Donghyuck releases Jeno from his grasp and switches his target to YangYang. “Did you even wash your hands?! Who knows what you’ve touched!” he screams as he lunges for the Taiwanese. 

YangYang lets out a scream as Donghyuck dives towards him and the two collapse onto the ground, hands all over each other, and grass and mud smearing all over their white uniforms.

Jeno rushes to break the two up. “Your parents are gonna yell at you the moment they see your dirty uniforms.” He pulls YangYang up. “You two are literal children.”

Still on the floor, Donghyuck throws his messenger bag filled with books right at him. “Why don’t you help me up, huh?” He huffs. “Some friend you are.”

Jeno picks the lone bag off the floor. “Because I don’t like you,” he says with a hint of amusement in his voice. “Also, that really hurt. What’s in this bag? You don’t even study, why would you carry books.” He opens up the bag to inspect it.

Donghyuck flies to snatch his school bag out of his friend’s hands. “Have you never heard of privacy?!” His eyes flash with warning. “I hope your sister leaves the door open when she exits your room next time.”

Jeno places a hand over his left chest and falls to the ground, being dramatic as always. “Oh no,” he cries, holding his hands up in the air. “Such a horrible curse placed upon me!”

Jaemin walks up to them slowly, eyes still glued to the notebook. 

“What is he looking so intensely at those notes for?” YangYang whispers to Jeno beside him.

“Maybe he’s looking for some kind of sign that Renjun might return his feelings?” Jeno shrugs. “Who knows at this point.”

Donghyuck, who decides to get back at Jaemin for the stunt he pulled this morning, snatches Renjun’s notebook out of the lovesick boy’s hands. 

Jaemin’s head snaps up immediately and Donghyuck swears he has never seen Jaemin move so fast in his life. In a blink of an eye, the notebook is gone from between his fingers and back safely in Jaemin’s arm. He holds the notebook close to his chest, cradling it almost, and glares at Donghyuck.

“Renjun said that if his notes change in condition at all, he’ll never talk to me again.”

Jeno places a hand on Jaemin’s head. “Guess it's a big deal then,” he laughs. 

YangYang slings an arm over Donghyuck’s shoulder and Donghyuck almost loses his balance. “You’re so heavy,” he comments after regaining his footing. “Have you been eating a lot more?"

YangYang nods happily, and Donghyuck smiles. YangYang reminds him of a puppy sometimes, always energetic and ready to play. He’s the only one who actively keeps up with Donghyuck’s antics, after all. Jeno’s always trying to stop him and Jaemin can never be bothered to join in, so YangYang is dubbed his ‘Partner-in-Crime’ by default. Can’t say Donghyuck doesn’t like it though, both he and YangYang had grown quite attached to the unofficial title, both having ‘ Partner in Crime ♡ ’ as each other’s contact names on their phones. 

“Did he just leave you with his notebook?” Jeno asks. “I thought he’d at least, like, offer to tutor you or something.” 

Jaemin hesitates. “Yeah, I kinda wished he did.” He lets out an airy chuckle. “But nah, he said he had to quickly rush somewhere. Chenle was with him too, telling him that he’d be late for an interview or something if he didn’t move his ass.”

Jeno ponders for a second. “Do you think he has a job? A part-time job, maybe?”

Donghyuck’s ears perk up. 

“A part-time job?” he asks. “Who even works at this age? Isn’t he too young? Where are his parents?”

It’s a bit uncommon to be working during high school, as most parents would prefer their children to focus on their studies, Donghyuck’s friend group included. He had thought that everyone in his class was pretty well off so there was no need to rush into hard labor so quickly. After all, you have the entirety of your life after school to work and suffer, why bring that pain to you in advance? 

He wonders if Chenle has a job too. That’d be pretty surprising. Juggling both studies and work? Donghyuck might have to bow to him with respect next time he sees him in the hallways.

“Maybe he’s poor?” YangYang pipes up out of nowhere.

Jeno slaps YangYang’s upper arm. “You can’t just call someone poor, you know.”

The youngest rubs the area where Jeno had hit him. The skin is already turning reddish-pink. “Why are you so aggressive all the time?” he whines. “I’m just saying.”

Donghyuck cuts into their conversation, knowing full well what Jeno would say. “It's rude to say things like that,” he scolds, his cold fingers gripping onto the back of YangYang’s neck.

YangYang, who jumps at Donghyuck’s cold touch, quickly realises his mistakes and fumbles out a string of apologises to Jaemin, as if he’s here on behalf of Renjun. 

“I don’t think he’s wrong though?” Jaemin says, tilting his head to the side.

“When will you guys stop talking about other people’s financial status,” Jeno sighs. “And Renjun might not even be ‘poor’. You guys are just a lot better off than me — ” He stumbles across his words as he draws a circle pointing to himself. “Us, actually. Not everyone was born with a silver spoon in their mouth.”

Donghyuck concludes that this conversation has nothing to do with him so he turns away and decides to keep his mouth shut. 

“Yah, Lee Donghyuck! Stop acting like you’re not guilty either!” Jeno’s voice comes barging in.

“Since when have I commented on someone else’s financial status?” Donghyuck challenges, crossing his arms.

“You’ve commented on mine!”

“Well, obviously. You’re my friend!”

Renjun is in some deep shit right now, from what Donghyuck can sense in the room.

He rests his head in his arms. The energy coming from the front of the classroom is kind of making him uncomfortable, to say the least, and he does not want to mess around at a time like this. He glances over to YangYang, who’s sitting two desks beside him, and the younger just sends a shrug his way. He looks a bit scared, which normally Donghyuck would laugh about, but this time — even he’s feeling a bit nervous.  

Their teacher slams her open palm down on her desk and Donghyuck swears he saw YangYang jump from the corner of his eye. 

Donghyuck has never seen their teacher look this heated before, and with the stunts Donghyuck and YangYang pull 24/7, that’s definitely saying something.

“Who’s our Class Leader?!” their teacher snaps. 

It’s silent. 

Donghyuck wants to turn around to check up on Renjun, but knows that it’ll draw too much attention to himself, so he decides against it. He continues to rest his head between his arms, but peeks up a bit to study his teacher’s face. 

They make eye contact and Donghyuck immediately ducks his head back down.

“I asked, who’s our Class Leader?!” she repeats.

A heavy atmosphere fills up the room, with occasional shuffling from the uncomfortable students, Donghyuck included. 

“Huang Renjun!” she snaps.

From behind Donghyuck, Renjun stands up immediately. His chair makes a horrid sound as it scrapes against the floor. It’s hushed, all around, and Donghyuck twists his body around to take a look at Renjun.

Renjun’s head is hanging low, his gaze does not meet anyone’s.

“Huang Renjun, what do you have to say for yourself?!”

Upon closer inspection, Donghyuck realises that Renjun’s hand is slightly shaking. No, his entire body seems like it’s trembling. His face is pale and he swallows hard.

It must be his first time getting into trouble, Donghyuck thinks. Why else would he look so shaken up after getting ‘yelled’ at. For Donghyuck and his group of friends, it’s kind of a common thing to get scolded every fortnight or so. 

“The envelope, where is it?!”

Their teacher is just about screaming now. Maybe if Donghyuck complains to his dad enough, he’ll be able to do something about her. She can’t even teach English properly anyway.

Renjun opens his mouth after staying silent for so long. “I don’t know,” he says quietly, voice trembling. “I placed it underneath my desk but it’s not—”

“That’s 6,000 yuan, Renjun! You can’t just lose 6,000 yuan!”

Donghyuck’s eyes widen at the reveal of the number. It’s not a lot to him exactly, but he had caught Jeno’s face at the back of the classroom and the latter had immediately paled at the sound of the number. 

“Huang Renjun! If you do not find it, you’ll be forced to pay everything out of pocket!”

Renjun’s face turns from pale to plain out white, as if all blood had been drained from his face. Donghyuck may not be the most book smart person ever, but he’s pretty good at reading people if he says so himself. To be honest, it really doesn’t take a genius to know that Renjun’s panicking.

Donghyuck thinks back to the conversation he had with Jaemin last week. 

Jaemin hesitates. “Yeah, I kinda wished he did.” He lets out an airy chuckle. “But nah, he said he had to quickly rush somewhere. Chenle was with him too, telling him that he’d be late for an interview or something if he didn’t move his ass.”

Jeno ponders for a second. “Do you think he has a job? A part time job, maybe?”

Donghyuck’s ears perk up. 

“A part time job?” he asks. “Who even works at this age? Isn’t he too young? Where are his parents?”

“Maybe he’s poor?” YangYang pipes out of nowhere.

Jeno slaps YangYang’s upper arm. “You can’t just call someone poor, you know.”

If Renjun is facing any sort of financial difficulties, this 6,000 yuan thing will most definitely leave a dent in his wallet. Something that Donghyuck believes Renjun cannot afford to have.

Donghyuck isn’t normally one to do anything related to charitable purposes, so he blames Jaemin’s enamored feelings towards Renjun for this. Donghyuck must be rubbing it off him. 

He contemplates for a second, before raising one of his arms and slamming the other onto Renjun’s desk behind him. 

The entire class stares at him.

“Um,” he starts. “I think I might have taken the 6,000 yuan by accident?”

Their teacher’s face is starting to become red and Donghyuck doesn’t think it does her any justice. Before he could make a comment on how she should probably calm down and that her blood pressure may be a little bit high right now, she starts screaming at him.

“How do you accidentally take 6,000 yuan?!” 

She’s so loud that Donghyuck swears the other classes can hear her. 

“I thought it was mine.” He shrugs. It’s obviously a lie because Donghyuck does not carry his money in an envelope, but their teacher’s most likely not in the right mind as of this moment and will probably believe whatever bullshit Donghyuck spews out from his mouth.

“I’ll pay it back by tomorrow,” he continues. “It’s not Renjun’s fault. Don’t punish him.”

Renjun makes some kind of noise behind him. Quiet enough for Donghyuck to hear, but not loud enough for the rest of the class to notice.

"Lee Donghyuck, that is unacceptable behavior! You shouldn't just take 6,000 yuan because you feel like it!"

Donghyuck rolls his eyes. "I already said I'll pay it back tomorrow, calm down."

Their teacher's eyes flare up. "Do not talk back to me," she seethes. "Go, run ten laps around the oval. Right now."

Donghyuck doesn't move in his seat. He's not gonna make some kind of teacher force him to do physical exercise. If anything, she should just burn—

"Now!" She screams, and it's the first time Donghyuck has ever heard her raise her voice like this.

Biting back on his tongue, he slowly removes himself from his chair.

"Faster!" she barks. "Don't even think about coming back until you've finished all ten laps."

Donghyuck scoffs loudly, all this because someone had decided to misplace 6,000 yuan. As he exits the classroom, he locks eyes with Jaemin.

Jaemin is looking at him with an unreadable expression on his face. Donghyuck can't blame him, after all, he himself is also surprised at whatever he just did.

"Lee Donghyuck! Move it!"

Donghyuck lets out an exasperated sigh and exits the classroom.

He tries to reassure himself by saying how ten laps wouldn't be that tiring. The oval doesn't even look that big, from where Donghyuck is standing three-story high up, at least.

Both Jaemin and Renjun owe him big time for this.

He exhales harshly as he begins to descend down the stairs.

Donghyuck’s entire body aches, even in places where he didn’t know could. Those ten laps were draining, and Donghyuck doesn’t feel like moving again for the rest of his life. Never has he ran so much before.

He didn't even bother going back to class after his ten laps, and instead just sat outside the library and re-read the manga he had stolen from YangYang the night before. There’s no way he was going back into the classroom to deal with that she-devil all over again. She doesn't like him, he doesn't like her; both parties are happy if they don't see each other.

So Donghyuck decides to do her a favour by not showing up to the rest of the classes. 

It’s peaceful, being alone. He hasn’t really had time to himself for a while now as he’s always around YangYang or Jaemin or Jeno.

The bell signals the end of the day, and Donghyuck drags himself off the floor, getting ready to meet the rest of his friends at the front of the school.

He’s stopped by a familiar voice behind him. 

“Hey.”

Donghyuck tightly holds onto the strap of his bag.

“What can I do for you?” he asks, swiftly turning around. 

Now this is the first time he’s ever interacted with Renjun. Surprisingly, given that he’s one of Jaemin’s closest friends.

Renjun stands before him, nervously fidgeting.

“I just wanted to thank you for today,” he says, not meeting Donghyuck’s eyes. “You really didn’t have to—”

“It’s nothing, I have the money to spare anyway,” Donghyuck quickly cuts him off. “Don’t worry about paying me back or whatever.”

“I’m not letting you waste money on some random classmate you’ve never talked to in your life.”

Donghyuck wants to leave. He really isn’t in the mood to have an argument he’d probably lose. “I already said, it’s completely okay. I have the money. Focus on yourself for once, maybe,” he snaps. “Don’t you have a part-time job, anyway? You can’t afford to pay up 6,000 yuan.”

Renjun stares at him. “How do you know I have a part-time job?” he asks, eyes narrowing.

Donghyuck shrugs. “Word gets around?”

Renjun exhales sharply through his nose. “Fine, then is there any way I could repay you then? I feel really bad for making you pay back the 6,000 yuan and for making you run ten laps, especially since you had nothing to do with it.”

Donghyuck waves a dismissive hand. “No, no. I’m fine. Just don’t lose such a huge amount of money again. I won’t be there to save you next time.”

Renjun stays silent and Donghyuck wishes that he’d leave instead of just standing there. Donghyuck, feeling a bit uncomfortable, shifts nervously. “Well,” he says, pointing over to the front gates. “I’m gonna leave. See you around.”

As he turns to leave, Renjun pulls on his arm. Donghyuck freezes and looks at the latter with a confused face. “Do you… need something?” He raises an eyebrow.

Renjun turns a shade of bright red and releases Donghyuck’s arm immediately, spewing out apologies at about 90km/h. He frantically reaches into his bag to pull out a few sheets of papers, and shoves it into Donghyuck’s chest.

“It’s a practice exam,” Renjun says. “Finish this by tonight and bring it in tomorrow, I’ll correct them for you.”

Donghyuck stares at the boy in front of him. “You’re joking, right?” He looks through the papers. “I don’t study. You should take these back and use them for yourself.”

Renjun folds his arms across his chest. “No, it’s a thank you for what you did for me this morning. I’ll help you get your grades up.” 

Donghyuck knows he made the worst choice he possibly could, helping Renjun.

“If I knew that you’d just make me do a bunch of practice exams, I wouldn’t have helped in the first place,” Donghyuck scoffs. 

Renjun’s face hardens and he reaches over to snatch the practice exam out of Donghyuck’s hand. Donghyuck moves faster and holds it high above him.

“Just give it back if you won’t use it,” Renjun says, monotoned. 

Donghyuck quickly stuffs the practice exam into his bag. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t use it!” he rebuts.

Renjun looks at him. “I’m just trying to help you, as a way of saying thank you,” he softly says. “It’d be great if you could do the exam, but…” He trails off. “Just do this for me, please. I’ll mark it tomorrow. Let me repay you by helping you. I wouldn't know how to face you otherwise.”

Donghyuck purses his lips together. He’s not the best at saying no to people, so he sighs and nods his head. “Alright, I won’t have to do this anymore after our exams, right?”

“No, if you don’t want to.”

Donghyuck hums. “Alright, I’ll try and do this. No promises, though.”

Renjun says nothing but just nods, before running off to meet up with Chenle, probably.

So he leaves Donghyuck alone, a bit baffled, with a crumpled practice exam in his bag and tons of regrets churning in his head. Something at the back of his mind tells him that he’d be seeing a lot more of Renjun now, whether he likes it or not.

Donghyuck doesn’t want to admit it, but he stayed up pretty late last night trying to finish that dumb practice exam.

He struggled, for the most part. He swears his teacher never taught them how to solve vector equations or whatever they’re called. Or maybe she did, because that topic took up the majority of the practice exam, but Donghyuck blames her for not being interesting enough for him to eagerly participate in class.

He walks into the classroom quietly and slams himself down onto his desk. 

His friends can entertain themselves for now. He had caught sight of Jaemin in the corner of the classroom chatting to Zhenghao when he walked in, and Jeno and YangYang were nowhere to be seen.

He checks the time on his watch; there’s around ten minutes until class starts. He rests his head on his arms and tries to force himself into taking a short nap, feeling too tired after having his precious sleeping time taken away from him. 

As he’s about to completely drift off into dreamland, he feels a sharp poke in his back.

He ignores it, hoping that whoever’s making holes in his uniform leaves him alone, but then he remembers who is sitting behind him.

“Can you please stop?” Donghyuck asks tiredly as he lifts his head up and twists his body to send Renjun a look of disapproval. He’s too tired to think of some snarky remark for the boy sitting behind him. “You’re gonna make me bleed.”

Renjun says nothing and instead holds out his hand.

Donghyuck rolls his eyes and reaches to dig around his bag. He pulls out three extremely crumpled sheets of paper and places them in Renjun’s hands. 

A look of surprise flashes across Renjun’s face, before he takes a pen out of his pencil case and begins marking the practice exam Donghyuck never wants to see again in his life.

His self-esteem lowers significantly when Renjun turns the page (to all the vector questions) and pauses to stare at them. He looks up and sends Donghyuck a puzzled look. “Do you even know what you’re doing here?” He asks, leaning over and showing Donghyuck the page.

Donghyuck takes one look at the page and pushes it away. “I don’t even know what vectors are, Renjun. Let alone how to find them.”

Renjun lets out an exasperated sigh and focuses his attention back to the practice exam. 

Donghyuck, who decides that his self-esteem has been brought down enough for the day, turns back around and returns to resting his head on his arms. It’s a bit hard to fall asleep, however, when Renjun is marking his exam paper so loudly.

“Could you mark any louder?” Donghyuck mumbles into his arms.

Renjun hums from behind him. “Did you say something?” 

Donghyuck lets out a muffled groan just as Renjun happily exclaims that he’s done marking. 

Another tap to his back and Donghyuck might just lose it.

“I’m not joking when I say I’m gonna start bleeding,” he snaps at Renjun as he sharply turns around. “Why do you have to poke me with your pencil? Just poke me with your finger or whatever.”

“You think I want to touch you?” Renjun provokes. His grin falls immediately when he realises he said it outloud. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“Dude, it’s fine,” Donghyuck says. “It’s normal to playfully banter, that’s what friends do?” He realises that he said it more like a question than a statement.

This interaction makes Donghyuck think that Renjun doesn’t have (a lot of) friends. And if he did , he needs to get away from them immediately because with the way he’s acting right after being playful just doesn’t seem right.

“Do you have friends?” Donghyuck asks, speaking his mind.

Renjun stares at him, agape. “What do you mean ‘do you have friends’?” He sputters. “Why— of course I do! Who doesn’t? Why are you even asking?”

“You’re getting really defensive,” Donghyuck points out. “You sure?”

“Yes, I have Chenle,” Renjun says. “And enough of that, do you want me to help with vectors? It’s honestly not that hard of a concept to understand.”

Donghyuck gives him a dirty look. “Yeah, it’s not hard to understand for you. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m sorta dumb.”

Renjun studies him for a second before running a hand through his hair. “No one’s dumb, Donghyuck. Here—” He hands the practice exam back. “— keep those on you for today, I’ll help you after-school, how about that?” He looks at Donghyuck with a hopeful glint in his eyes.

Donghyuck, for some odd reason, finds it very hard to say ‘no’.

“Sure,” he says through dry lips. He knows he’s going to regret it. He doesn’t want to study, let alone stay back after-school to study.

Renjun sends him a shy smile and nods, confirming their plans for the afternoon.

Donghyuck is unable to stop himself from letting the next few words tumble out from his mouth.

“Do you wanna hang with my friends and I at lunch later?”

Renjun freezes.

“You can bring Chenle, too!” Donghyuck quickly adds on. “If you want to though. Please don’t think that this is a threat.”

Renjun laughs softly, and Donghyuck almost, almost , understands why Jaemin is so smitten with him. It’s kind of hard to imagine that this was the person threatening him to finish a practice exam yesterday, when he almost looks like an angel at this exact moment.

“Sure. Thank you for the offer,” Renjun says quietly. “I’ll see if I can pull Chenle along with me.”

Donghyuck is reminded of his conversation with YangYang from a while ago. “I don’t think Chenle likes us very much,” he says with a grin.

“He really doesn’t, but I’m sure that’ll change by lunch,” Renjun states. “He just sees you guys as trouble-makers.”

Donghyuck whistles. “He’s not wrong though. We kinda are, just not as bad as all of you guys think. We still have feelings, you know. We’re not heartless.”

“I know,” Renjun muses, resting his chin in his hand. “Not too sure about Chenle though.”

“Should you really be talking about your friend like this?” Donghyuck challenges, leaning back in his chair, in an attempt to get closer to the other boy. 

“Oh, so now he’s my friend,” Renjun says with a mocking tone.

Donghyuck huffs and stares at Renjun exasperatedly. “Wow, you’re using that tone of voice with me? I can’t believe I invited you to hang with me at lunch. You’re no longer invited.”

Renjun's face falls immediately and he looks around nervously. “Really?” he asks in a small voice. 

Awkward tension fills the air and Donghyuck doesn’t like how fast the atmosphere changed between the two of them.

The more Donghyuck stares at him, the redder Renjun’s cheeks seem to grow. The latter bites down on his lower lip, teeth sinking into his flesh, as he nervously feels around his table for his papers.

“Renjun, I’m joking.” Donghyuck tries to reassure him. “But don’t be so sad even if I do tell you you’re not allowed to hang out with us anymore. We don’t really do much.”

“Nothing like spray-painting walls?” Renjun raises an eyebrow.

“Does it look like we carry spray-cans around? Of course we don’t. We just sit down and eat. It’s pretty boring.”

Renjun shakes his head, smiling from ear to ear. “No way, I’m sure it’s not boring. You guys seem like an interesting bunch.”

Donghyuck stares at him, before shrugging and turning back around.

“Alright,” he singsongs. “If you say so.”

“Care to explain to me why Huang Renjun and Zhong Chenle are sitting with us?” YangYang asks in a hushed tone, quiet enough so that the two people mentioned sitting in front of him wouldn’t hear. 

Donghyuck pays no attention to him, and instead just simply shrugs, not meeting YangYang’s eyes.

Jaemin hasn’t said a word from the moment Renjun (and Chenle) appeared out of nowhere and sat across from Donghyuck, beside Jaemin. Donghyuck, who was occupied at that time talking to Jeno, sent a small smile Renjun’s way as he sat down beside him. Jaemin, who was just silently munching away on his homemade yakisoba, paused mid-bite with eyes wide open in shock.

Donghyuck doesn’t think he’s taken his eyes off Renjun from the moment the latter appeared.

And if Renjun’s noticed Jaemin’s lingering gaze, he sure hasn’t said anything about it.

To Donghyuck’s surprise, Renjun gets on pretty well with Jeno. Probably because of Jeno’s newfound interest in studying, but Donghyuck doesn’t want to make assumptions. Chenle is a bit more closed off, which is to be expected, only chiming into conversations when he’s mentioned.

“So, Chenle,” YangYang starts, stretching out the last syllable. “I find it interesting how you’re sitting with us. A change of heart coming from you, perhaps?”

Chenle flushes a deep shade of red and Renjun has to hold down a snicker from beside him.

“It’s not like I wanted to be here!” Chenle exclaims, folding his arms over his chest. “I would leave if I could.”

“Then do it,” YangYang provokes, pointing his pair of chopsticks at the boy sitting across from him.

Chenle looks stunned. “Now?” he asks, his voice coming out a bit wobbly.

YangYang nods with an evil grin that Donghyuck knows Jeno would slap him for if Renjun and Chenle weren’t here. 

“You’re not moving.” YangYang really doesn’t know when to shut up, but at this point, his poor victim’s face is already a bright shade of red. “Something tells me you do like our company.”

Chenle has a surprised look plastered all over his face and red rising up from his neck. Donghyuck would have found the reaction funny, except Chenle suddenly slams his palms on the table and stands up to leave the table without a second glance, his lunch box in hand.

The table is silent as they watch Chenle’s retreating figure. They didn’t intend to hurt him or make him feel uncomfortable, but Donghyuck will admit that maybe YangYang took it a bit too far. After all, Chenle isn’t their friend, they’re not in the same friend group. They don’t know how much Chenle is able to take before it actually hurts him.

YangYang sends an apologetic look towards Renjun, in which Renjun shakes his head dismissively at.

“I’ll go get him. Sorry about that,” He says, packing up his lunch box. “He gets overwhelmed easily.”

The rest of the group asks Renjun to apologise on behalf of them and tell him that he’s free to join them whenever he wants, as they enjoy his company. Renjun accepts with a bright smile on his face.

Before leaving, Renjun turns to Donghyuck and says, quite loudly for the entire table to hear; “We’re still on for after school right?” to which Donghyuck nods nervously while glancing over at his other friends who are staring intensely at him.

Renjun, satisfied with that answer, smiles and runs off to chase down Chenle.

The moment he’s out of earshot, the entire group pounces on Donghyuck.

“After school?!” YangYang is quite literally shouting at him. “Are you guys going out on a date?!”

Before Donghyuck could even get a word out, YangYang pulls Jaemin by the hair and shoves him right in front of Donghyuck’s face. “Renjun is meant to be this guy’s!” he continues. “What happened to the ‘bro code’?”

Donghyuck pushes Jaemin’s face away from him, he’s far too close to him for his own comfort. 

“Calm down, YangYang,” Donghyuck says as Jaemin detaches himself from YangYang’s hold. “I’m not interested in dating him, he’s not my type.”

“Then what are you guys doing after school?” YangYang bites, leaning over the table. His face is so close to Donghyuck that every time he exhaled, Donghyuck had to suppress the urge to gag. His breath smells a lot like onions, and Donghyuck doesn’t like onions.

“Your breath stinks,” Donghyuck complains, leaning backwards to avoid the stench. “Go rinse your mouth or something before we move on. Or, just don’t lean so close into me.”

YangYang scrunches up his face and returns to sitting on the bench. “You could have said that nicely,” he says with an upset tone. “You’re so mean Lee Donghyuck.”

Donghyuck rolls his eyes and turns to Jaemin. “Don’t worry about me stealing him or whatever. I really don’t have any interest in him.” He places emphasis on ‘really’ to hopefully make it sound more believable. Believable to himself or to Jaemin or to the group, he doesn’t really know.

Jaemin smiles sheepishly, seemingly embarrassed by YangYang’s outburst towards Donghyuck a few seconds ago. “It’s fine,” he says. “I’m not upset. It’s not like you guys can’t be friends with him just because I have a crush on him.” He pauses as he wraps his chopsticks in a thin sheet of tissue. “And a crush is meant to be a brief infatuation for someone unattainable. So if Renjun, and Chenle, hang out with us more, that crush might be gone just like that.” He clicks his fingers.

Everything happens in a flash, and the next thing they know, Donghyuck and YangYang are all over Jaemin, with Jeno attempting to pull them all apart. 

“Do not tell me I’ve been listening to you gush about Renjun for the past three plus months only for you to stop liking him,” YangYang cries as he shakes Jaemin by the collar. “Do not say that, please. Even if it happens, don’t tell me. Let me pretend you still have a crush on Renjun even when we’re 20.”

Donghyuck places his cold hands down Jaemin’s back, feeling a weird sense of satisfaction when Jaemin jumps at the contact. “That will be three or so months YangYang and I will never get back,” he whispers into Jaemin’s ear, or attempts to, with YangYang’s shaking.

“Okay!” Jaemin lets out between fits of giggles as YangYang moves onto tickling him. “Okay! I’m sorry! Now get off me!” he says with a gasping breath as he digs his nails in YangYangs forearm. 

YangYang lets go and bounces back immediately. “Jaemin, what the heck?!” he hisses. “That hurt!”

Jaemin straightens out his collar and gives the two of them a mischievous smile. “Love you, YangYang,” he says as he ruffles his hair. He turns around and pokes Donghyuck in the cheek. “Your hands are really cold, you’re lacking in nutrients,” he laughs. “Come on, class is starting soon.” He fixes his hair and skips away, back into the main building, with his lunchbox in his hands. 

“He really reminds me of a bunny sometimes,” YangYang deadpans. “So full of energy and free.” He shakes his head. “Come on, class is starting soon, let’s go.”

“You made it weird at lunch,” Donghyuck comments as he settles himself down at his desk. He takes out his exercise books and twists his body to face Renjun, who’s sitting behind him. “What are we doing today?”

It’s pretty silent, minus the screams and shouts from the after-school basketball club camping out on the basketball courts outside a few floors below. Donghyuck has never stayed back after school before, even the thought of it makes him want to cry. But here he is, after school studying, with one of the top scorers in the class. 

“I made it weird?” Renjun tilts his head to the side, his pencil twirling in between his fingers. “Elaborate please.”

“It’s nothing, you just worded it to make it seem like we’re doing something weird together.”

Renjun pauses. “Oh, I didn’t know. Sorry about that.”

Donghyuck brushes him off. “It’s fine. But what are we doing? Do you have another practice exam for me?”

Renjun glances at him with a confused look plastered all over his face. “What do you mean ‘what are we doing’? We’re studying for the mid-year maths exam at the end of next week.”

Donghyuck feels his heart drop and he searches for a sign on Renjun’s face that he’s joking. There’s no way the mid-year exam is in three days. Heck, the last time he checked, there was still another three weeks to prepare. 

All Donghyuck can do is let out an off-putting sound of: “Huh?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t know,” Renjun sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Ms Tsai has been telling us to prepare for it for the past week.”

Donghyuck shrugs. “I don’t listen to anything that woman says.”

“I was talking about it with Jeno at lunch today.”

“The mid-year?”

Renjun nods.

Donghyuck purses his lips. “He didn’t tell me anything,” he says. “I mean, he doesn’t have to, it’s not his job to tell me when we have exams. It would have been nice if he did tell me though. I wonder if YangYang and Jaemin knew about the exams. If they knew about them and they didn’t tell me I swear there’ll be an unfriending of a friend group later tonight.” He notices he’s rambling.

Renjun lets out a suppressed laughter. “Calm down,” he jokes. “Don’t worry, I’m here, remember? I score pretty high on my tests and quizzes—”

“Yeah, I know,” Donghyuck cuts him off. Renjun shushes him.

“— I’m here to help you,” he continues. “What do you need help with? Other than vectors.”

Donghyuck rubs his nose. “Erm… Everything?” He flashes a forced smile towards Renjun.

“Do you not pay attention in class?” Renjun sighs, twirling his pencil again. “Is it just maths?”

“It’s just maths,” Donghyuck answers. “Believe it or not, I’m actually quite good at every other subject.” And it’s not a lie. Despite not actively tuning in during classes, Donghyuck happens to be able to pick up on formulas and definitions really quickly. With maths being the exception, of course. If he’s too perfect, people might just start witch-hunting him.

“Well, we have about a week to get everything done,” Renjun hums. “Are you up for the challenge?”

A smile spreads across Donghyuck’s face. “I love challenges.”

“Renjun, it’s already eight. Can I go home now?” Donghyuck whines as he stretches out his back.

He’s sitting a few rows behind Renjun now, as he had moved around multiple times in the past two hours, complaining that it’s impossible to study maths while being seated on a chair. Renjun then told him to shut up and sit back down, but since Renjun said it in a mean tone, Donghyuck instead went to the 7/11 right outside of their school and returned with some crackers and two tea eggs just to spite him.  

“Have you finished the textbook questions?” Renjun asks, not looking up.

Donghyuck snaps a cracker in half as he looks at the scribbled page that was meant to be filled with his answers. “No?”

Even from the back of the room, Donghyuck can hear Renjun’s sigh. 

“Alright, I’ll give it to you,” Renjun says as he closes his textbook. “I’m surprised you stayed back studying with me for three hours.” He looks back at Donghyuck and smiles. “Let’s go home.”

Donghyuck could feel the heavy weight on his shoulders become lighter after hearing the words; ‘let’s go home’ and so he sweeps off all the books and papers off his desk and quickly throws everything into his bag. 

He waits at the door, because Renjun is moving so slowly. “Hurry up,” he says, stretching out the last syllable. “It’s going to be like nine o’clock or something when you finish packing.”

Renjun sticks his tongue out at him as he slings his bag over his shoulder. “You’re so mean, Lee Donghyuck.”

Donghyuck scoffs as Renjun walks by him. “YangYang said the exact same thing to me at lunch today, am I really that mean?”

Renjun stops and looks back at Donghyuck, who’s leaning on the doorframe with his arms crossed and a raised eyebrow. “Hm…” He nods approvingly. “I like the way YangYang thinks.” 

Donghyuck opens his mouth to protest, but since Renjun is already half-way down the hallway, he runs to catch up to him. “No way you’re siding with YangYang. I met you first, you’re my friend, not his,” he sulks. “You can’t team up on me when I’m the reason you guys had that one conversation together.”

“ We had our first conversation yesterday ,” Renjun argues. 

“Huh, I didn’t even notice. It’s as if I’ve known you for all my life,” Donghyuck murmurs. There’s no hint of sarcasm in his voice, and Renjun glances at him with a small surprised look on his face. 

They exit the school building, and the evening spring breeze brushes by Donghyuck’s exposed skin, sending a small shiver down his spine. He’s wearing their school’s summer uniform, as he had thought that the temperature wouldn’t drop so much in the late evening. Goosebumps start to appear on his arm and he wants to get home as soon as possible.

“Are you cold?” he asks Renjun. 

Renjun, who probably checked the weather beforehand, is dressed completely in their spring uniform with his blazer wrapping his petite figure. He looks very warm right now, and Donghyuck curses at 6am him for not bringing his blazer.

“Nope.” Renjun shakes his head. “Are you?”

Donghyuck scrunches up his nose. “Yeah, a bit. Kinda wanna go home quickly.” He looks over at Renjun and silently asks for permission to run off, to which the latter catches on and nods at. Donghyuck is silently impressed with how quickly Renjun caught on with his facial expressions, as even Jeno has a hard time doing that.

He takes one last look back at Renjun, before jogging away against the wind, with a small smile on his face.

“We’re doing this again tomorrow!” He hears Renjun shout from behind him.

He slows down as he considers it for a second. He did have fun with Renjun studying, even though he was distracted half the time, and it is better than studying by himself. 

“Sure!” He shouts back over his shoulder. “Bring me another practice exam tomorrow!”

He could practically hear the excitement from Renjun’s fading voice as he replied with an ‘of course!’. And for some strange reason, hearing that tone of voice made Donghyuck feel warm, despite being out in the cold.

Perhaps Huang Renjun isn’t as bad as he thought he is.

The next few days are a blur for Donghyuck, and he gets a small break over the weekend. Renjun gave him two practice booklets to complete, but the difference between doing work after school and at home is that Renjun isn’t nagging behind him every second, so he forgets about the booklets until he walks through the school gates on the following Monday morning. 

“Maths mid-year in four days,” Renjun says with a smile on his face as Donghyuck sits himself down in his seat. “Are you ready?”

Donghyuck turns back with half-lidded eyes. “I guess?” he says as he rests his chin in his palm. “I’m not confident but I’ll probably do better than I’ve ever in my life.”

Renjun nods. “Okay, that’s good to hear. At least I know I helped a bit. Give me your booklets. There’s still time before class starts, I’ll mark them right now.” 

 Donghyuck freezes and his eyes widen.

Renjun’s face falls upon seeing this reaction. “You didn’t do them did you?” He sighs and leans forward. “Just because I’m not there to push you doesn’t mean you can just stop doing the exercise. I spend a lot of time making them, you know?”

Okay, now Donghyuck feels bad. But in his defense, Renjun didn’t tell him that he made it from scratch himself. If he did, then it changes everything. Donghyuck will make sure to remember that, but he isn’t sure whether or not Renjun would make another booklet for him after this. Renjun probably thinks it’s a waste of time because he didn’t do them. 

“I didn’t know,” Donghyuck pouts. “If you told me you made it yourself I would’ve done them. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Renjun waves him off. “Just do them tonight.”

“Will do,” Donghyuck says. He studies Renjun for a second, watching him as he takes out his books for the first lesson. 

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Renjun asks as he raises an eyebrow. He takes out a pencil and starts twirling it in between his fingers. A habit of his that Donghyuck has learnt after spending hours after school with him. “You’re weird.” 

Donghyuck makes a face at that comment. “What’s wrong with staring?”

“Everything.”

Donghyuck shrugs. “You know, you’re pretty boring,” he says with a straight face.

Renjun furrows his eyebrows. “That’s really sudden. What did I do this time?” The pencil he’s twirling is in the corner of Donghyuck’s tunnel vision, and it’s starting to irk him off a bit. 

Donghyuck frowns and plucks the pencil out of Renjun’s hand. “I don’t know how you can study for so long without needing some kind of reward system,” he comments, attempting to copy Renjun’s way of twirling the pencil. It doesn’t work out and the pencil goes flying to the front of the room.

Renjun sharply exhales as he leaves his seat to fetch said pencil. Donghyuck looks at him with apologetic eyes as he returns.

“To answer your question,” Renjun says as he sits back down. “Getting good marks is the reward for me. Passing and getting highest in the class is why I study so hard. What I don’t understand is how you need a reward system to get through school.”

“I need a reward system to get through everything,” Donghyuck comments. “Including this exam we’re doing.” From the look on Renjun’s face, he knows exactly what he’s hinting at.

Renjun side-eyes him. “I’m not making a bet with you.”

“Making a bet with me is the best way to get me to study more!” Donghyuck exclaims, arms flailing in front of Renjun’s face. “Isn’t that what you want me to do?”

Renjun pushes Donghyuck’s arms away. “Fine, let’s say we make a bet. What are we betting on?”

Donghyuck grows silent. To be honest, he didn’t expect Renjun to agree with him that easily. He had always thought Renjun was someone who was extremely stubborn and would put his foot down at things he doesn’t agree with. Turns out Donghyuck was wrong, again.

“If I get higher than you in the mid-term I get to take you out to roller skate.”

What Donghyuck did not expect was for Renjun’s face to drain all colours. Roller skating isn’t even that bad, you might get a few bruises and bumps here and there but you wouldn’t die . Donghyuck has no idea why Renjun looked like he had seen a ghost.

“Are you okay?” Donghyuck asks, poking Renjun’s hand. “You’re acting like I said I’d take you bungee jumping or something. Why are you so pale?”

Renjun snaps back to reality and whispers in a small voice. “I can’t roller skate. I don’t know how to.”

Donghyuck almost finds him cute. But the part that finds him amusing overrides that thought so he pushes it to the back of his mind. Renjun isn’t cute, he made him do all those practice exams.

“I was worried that you were dying,” Donghyuck laughs. “Don’t scare me like that.”

Renjun hides his face in his hands. “I have some bad experiences with roller skating, I can’t do it.”

“You’re acting as if I’ve won the bet already, calm down,” Donghyuck snickers. “Isn’t this more reason for you to win the bet?”

Renjun glares at him through his fingers. “I wasn’t going to lose in the first place.”

“Sure, keep telling yourself that,” Donghyuck taunts. “C’mon, roller skating isn’t even that bad. I’ll guide and hold onto you. I swear on my life you will not get any bruises.” He places his right hand over his heart. “Promise.”

Renjun sighs as he removes his hands from his face. 

“Alright,” he says after a moment of silence. “But if I get higher than you then…” He trails off as he scrunches up his face, thinking.

“Nothing illegal,” Donghyuck chimes in.

“I know,” Renjun sighs as he rolls his eyes. “I wouldn’t make you do something that bad.” He holds his head in his hands. “Wait, I can’t think of anything.”

“Take your time.”

The moment Renjun’s eyes light up, Donghyuck knows he’s in trouble.

“How about dyeing your hair?” Renjun asks in an excited voice, wiggling in his seat.

Donghyuck’s hand instinctively touches his hair. It’s not that Donghyuck doesn’t want it, heck, he’s wanted to dye his hair for quite a while already, but there’s one small detail that’s holding him back from agreeing to it.

“It’s against school rules to dye your hair, isn’t it?” Donghyuck asks, scrunching up his face. 

Renjun nods. “It is, but when have you ever cared about school rules?”

“I’ve always cared about them,” Donghyuck retaliates.

He’s still skeptical, but he finds himself shaking on it with Renjun.

“I’m not going to dye it green or whatever,” he says. “I’m dying it light brown at most.”

“Sure, I don’t really mind,” Renjun laughs. “But are you sure I won’t die in that skating rink?”

Donghyuck grins from ear to ear. He likes the way Renjun and him are able to banter and play around with each other. He doesn’t get a lot of opportunities to do that with his group of friends. Jeno is too serious, Jaemin can get a bit sensitive and YangYang sometimes is a bit too much for Donghyuck to handle. Renjun is a perfect combination of all three of them, not too sensitive but not too snarky either.

“Of course not,” Donghyuck laughs. “Don’t you trust me?” 

A small, single smile etches itself onto Renjun’s face. “I do. I do trust you.”

Renjun runs ahead to the bulletin board that’s surrounded by too many students for Donghyuck’s liking. It’s a bit of a push-and-pull for Renjun, getting to the front of the crowd, and Donghyuck tries to look over the sea of heads from the back to see if he could somehow see his name. There’s no use, however, as the print is too small and there are way more taller people who are blocking his way.  

He ends up waiting for Renjun in their empty classroom, after all, it’s become a habit to meet here after school every day. He’s sure Renjun knows where to look for if he needs him.

The door slides open slowly and Donghyuck lifts his head up from his workbook. He meets Renjun’s eyes.

“You’re studying?” he asks, in disbelief.

“You’re acting as if I haven’t been studying with you every evening,” Donghyuck says, rolling his eyes. 

Renjun sits down in the seat in front of him and sends a sly smile towards Donghyuck. “So…” he starts off.

Donghyuck pouts. “I don’t want to hear it,” he says, quickly placing his hands over his ears. He can hear the muffled sound of Renjun laughing quietly as he watches him. 

“You gotta keep your end of the bet,” Renjun reminds him, removing Donghyuck’s hands from his ears. 

As his skin comes into contact with Donghyuck’s, he notes that Renjun’s fingers are cold. Really cold. It’s interesting, since he’s always dressed so warmly in his uniform and blazer, sometimes with a scarf on top of it too. Donghyuck remembers asking him last week why he brings around a scarf when they’re in Spring, but Renjun just dismissed the question and said you should always be prepared.

“Alright, I will,” Donghyuck says. “I’m not one to back out on bets.”

Renjun opens his mouth to, probably, rebut that statement, but he’s interrupted by the loud sound of rain hitting the school roof. 

“Whoa, that came out of nowhere,” Renjun whispers. “It’s pretty heavy.”

“Why are you whispering?”

Renjun shoots him a glare. “You ruined the moment,” he huffed. “We’re meant to talk in hushed voices and listen to the rain falling.”

Donghyuck raises his eyebrows. “What does that even mean? You’ve been watching too many movies.” He leans over and ruffles Renjun’s hair. “I feel like you’d be the type of person who’d enjoy fighting in the rain with the person you like, and when you walk off, they’d pull you back and confess their love to you,” he teases. 

Renjun pushes his hand away. “For your information, I think kisses in the rain are very romantic, thank you very much. Also, that is extremely specific. Maybe you’re the one who watches too many movies.”

He pauses, before continuing. “Wait, why are you even here? Our last mid-term was yesterday. You don’t have to be here anymore.” 

Donghyuck is offended that Renjun had thought that he’d ditch him the second he’s able to. He’s grown attached to the star student, unfortunately. “That’s mean,” he frowns. “I think you’re fun to be around. I don’t get why I can only hang around you when we have exams or tests. We’re friends, remember?” He flicks his fingers on Renjun’s forehead. “Where did your brain go? Hello? Anyone home?”

Renjun swats his arm away and turns around sharply, to study or whatever he has to do even though mid-terms are already over. But Donghyuck still saw that small smile Renjun tried so hard to hide as he turned around. 

It’s cute, Donghyuck thinks. And for the first time, he doesn’t have anything to counter that thought.

He stares at Renjun’s back for a while, before ultimately deciding to run out of the classroom and school before Renjun can even bat an eye.

There’s a hair salon that’s about a ten minute walk from his school. Five minutes if he runs, and in the rain, Donghyuck is sure it'll be even faster.

He slams the salon door open, drenched from head to toe, and he feels bad for whoever will have to mop the floor later. He makes up his mind that he’ll tip a fair amount to make up for the trouble the staff will have to go through when he leaves. As he sits down on the chair, he finds himself feeling even worse as he’s staining the salon’s nice cushion chairs.

“Auntie, could you dye my hair light brown, please?” he asks, as the auntie covers his body with a black cutting cape. 

“Dye? Isn’t it against school rules to dye your hair?” She raises an eyebrow as she looks at Donghyuck through the mirror.

“It’s okay, I don’t really follow the school rules,” he says. “It shouldn’t take too long, right?”

She stays silent for a second. “It’ll take up to 45 minutes at most,” she replies.

Donghyuck nods at that. “That’s perfect. Light brown it is.”

In hindsight, he should have double checked with a mirror and a wig to see exactly what he’d look like with light brown hair. He doesn’t look weird, no- of course he doesn’t look weird, but it just looks extremely unnatural. Donghyuck won’t lie, he had thought that he’d look even more striking with light brown, but maybe next time he’ll keep his original hair colour.

As he leaves the salon, he realises that the rain has stopped. He runs a hand through his newly dyed hair, having a few second thoughts as he walks slowly back to school, and wonders what Renjun would think of his hair. He could already hear the latter laugh at him because he looks like a fool. There’s a voice in the back of his head telling him that Renjun has probably already gone home after he stormed out of the classroom, but he shakes that thought away, confident that Renjun is still there, studying.

“Oh, thank god you’re still here,” he says upon entering the classroom. “If you weren’t then it’d be awkward.”

Renjun’s head snaps up immediately. “Where did you go? You can’t just…” He trails off as he squints his eyes, trying to find out what’s different from the Donghyuck he saw an hour ago. “Did you dye your hair?” he exclaims slowly, stretching out his words. 

Donghyuck sits down on the table in front of Renjun, turning the chair around to face him. “What do you think?” He asks, running his fingers through his hair.

Renjun stares at his hair for a second, before letting his eyes drift back to his work. “You look dumb,” he says, without a second thought.

“I knew it,” Donghyuck sighs. “I knew you’d say that.” He pauses and Renjun glances up from his notebook. “Are you done studying?” he asks, catching Renjun’s glance. “Let’s go home now. Your brain’s going to fall out at this rate.”

Renjun scrunches up his nose. “I don’t think that’s how it works,” he says, but he obliges with Donghyuck’s suggestion and packs up his books. “You didn’t study today,” he comments, picking his bag up from the floor as Donghyuck rushes to open the classroom door for him.

“I can’t study every day,” Donghyuck complains, attaching himself onto Renjun’s bag. “I’d go insane!”

“Are you calling me insane?”

“Damn right I am!”

Donghyuck hears Renjun sigh. They walk in silence through the school, something that they’ve done after every single ‘study lesson’ together. It gives them time to collect their thoughts, or just simply relax to let their minds wander. It’s not awkward, it’s almost never awkward when Donghyuck is with Renjun. It’s interesting, though, because Donghyuck had always thought that they were complete opposites, but the more time he spends with Renjun, the more he realises that that isn’t the case.

They walk in a comfortable silence until they reach the school gates.

“Don’t get sick,” Renjun says. “You ran out when it was raining, quickly go home and take a warm shower.”

“I’m all dry now though!” Donghyuck refutes, puffing out his cheeks.

Renjun laughs and pushes him lightly. “You can’t get sick,” he scolds, looking back at Donghyuck. 

Under the orange haze being casted off the sun that’s threatening to dip behind the horizon, Renjun looks as if he’s glowing. With his sun-kissed skin and his rosy cheeks, with his innocent demour and hesitance in his movements, Renjun is breath-taking. And then he gives him that smile of his that just seems so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness that unexpected warmth rushes through Donghyuck.

He doesn’t even bother to hide the blush creeping up his face as he drowns out Renjun’s words.

“— how are you meant to take me roller skating?”

He snaps back to reality after hearing those words. “What?” he asks. “But I lost the bet…”

Renjun pouts. “Have you not been listening?” He shoves his hands in his pockets. “I can’t believe you, Lee Donghyuck.”

He says nothing more, and begins walking away.

“Wait!” Donghyuck cries, catching up to him. “So you mean I can take you roller skating?” he asks with stars in his eyes.

Renjun looks at him and laughs. “Yeah, sure. So you can’t get sick, okay?” He pats Donghyuck’s head, tangling his fingers in his newly dyed hair.

He pulls away in a second, seemingly flustered. “I’ve got to go now!” he squeaks. “We can plan everything tomorrow.” 

Donghyuck smiles. “Yes, of course. Make sure to get home safely.”

“You too.”

“I’m starting to have second thoughts about this.”

Donghyuck looks over to his right to see Renjun holding his head in his hands. 

“You’re overreacting,” he says as he lifts Renjun’s chin up and places a helmet onto his head. “You’re not going to die, I’m here.”

“Not exactly the most reassuring thing to hear coming from you,” Renjun scoffs, as he swats away Donghyuck’s hands, clipping on the helmet himself.

Donghyuck pulls himself up off the floor and extends an arm to Renjun, to which the latter accepts as he stumbles over his roller skates trying to do the same thing. “You sure I won’t die?” Renjun asks, lifting an eyebrow at Donghyuck after almost falling face-first onto the floor. Luckily, Donghyuck was prepared for such things to happen and managed to grab hold of Renjun’s arm before anything bad could happen to his face.

“What would you do without me?” he teases as he pulls Renjun back onto his feet. “You’ve got to relax. Just think of it as ice-skating.”

“I don’t ice-skate,” Renjun mumbles as Donghyuck lets go of his arm. “I don’t normally do things where I have to rely on wheels or knives to keep me moving.”

Donghyuck audibly sighs as Renjun attaches himself onto his arm once more, before losing his balance and taking Donghyuck down with him .

“I’m starting to think this isn’t a good idea,” Donghyuck groans, rubbing the spot on his knee where he knows a bruise will form later. “We haven’t even made it into the rink yet, but I swear I’ve already gotten two bruises.”

“I did try to tell you that this isn’t a good idea,” Renjun pouts as he gets up on his knees. “Help me up,” he demands. “I can’t stand up with these wheels.”

Donghyuck lends Renjun a hand and guides him to the metal rail. “Hold onto this,” he instructs, letting go of Renjun. “Stay there until you’re able to stand without falling.”

Even in the dark, crowded rink and under the flashing colours being emitted from the LED lights situated all over the ceiling, Donghyuck can see Renjun’s knuckle turning white from gripping onto the rail so tightly.

He reaches out and takes Renjun’s hand. “You know what, just hold my hand instead. Your knuckle is turning all white.”

Before Donghyuck could even register it, Renjun begins to squeeze his hand so tightly to the point where it feels like it would break at any second. “Slow down, buddy,” Donghyuck laughs nervously, moving backwards, keeping his eyes on Renjun. “You’re going to break my hand.”

Renjun’s face is all scrunched up as he puts all his energy into not falling onto the floor. “I’m sorry,” he whispers out. “I just don’t have a good sense of balance.”

Donghyuck nods and switches his position to be next to Renjun. “It’s okay, everyone starts off like this. Just spread open your legs a bit, into something like a v shape, and bend your knees. Yes, just like that.”

Renjun looks kind of funny right now, with his butt sticking out and arms spread open beside him. But Donghyuck knows better than to laugh, because he knows that by the end of the day, Renjun will probably end up roller skating better than him.

Donghyuck tries to let go of Renjun’s hand, but Renjun notices and moves faster, so he’s able to snatch it back before Donghyuck could skate off. “You’re not letting go of me until I can actually move,” Renjun seethes.

“You’re doing great, though!” Donghyuck tries to persuade him, feeling almost all the sensation in his hand gone. “You’re not even falling anymore.”

Renjun shoots him a glare to tell him to stop talking, and Donghyuck shuts his mouth immediately. He stands next to Renjun for a few minutes, as he teaches him how to move and how to balance, until he spots an opening to dash off.

Renjun loosens his grip on Donghyuck’s hand as he successfully balances himself and Donghyuck doesn’t need to be told twice that this is his chance. 

He skates off before Renjun can say a word, throwing up peace signs at the boy who just fell onto the floor due to the sudden absence of his main balance point.

He doesn’t look back, feeling a bit bad for leaving Renjun alone, but Renjun’s against the wall and the rail is right above his head, all he has to do is reach up and he’ll be back on his feet again. And it’s not as if he’ll be trampled by all the other people here either, he may be small, but he’s not hard to miss.

That’s why he feels guilty when he finishes up his lap and finds Renjun sitting on the floor in the same exact spot he had left him.

“Why aren’t you up and having fun?” Donghyuck asks, looking down at him and going around in little circles. “Stop fooling around and let loose.”

“I want to go home,” Renjun frowns as he brings his knees to his face. “It’s not fun if you just leave me here alone. Everyone’s staring at me.”

Donghyuck scans the rink before bending down to meet eye level with Renjun. “I can assure you that no one is staring at you,” he says softly. “C’mon, get up.”

Renjun huffs as he grips onto the rail above his head, pulling himself up. “Please hold my hand,” he says as he shakingly laces his fingers with Donghyuck’s. “Don’t leave me this time.”

Renjun just looks so cute with his rosy cheeks and big eyes that Donghyuck doesn’t have the heart to say no. “I won’t,” he replies, grinning from ear-to-ear. “But first, you’ve got to do one lap by yourself!” 

He pushes Renjun forwards, laughing as he watches the latter try to (not so gracefully) skate back to the sidelines and be one with the rail again. “Lee Donghyuck!” Renjun cries, looking back at him.

Panic seeps in when Donghyuck realises he pushed Renjun with a bit too much force. 

“Turn around, don’t look at me! You’re going to bump into that wall-”

“You’ve been hanging out with Renjun a bit too much, don’t you think?” 

Donghyuck looks up from his bowl of watermelon to see YangYang squinting down at him. 

“Yeah?” he replies, nonchalantly, looking behind the slightly younger boy to see Jeno and Jaemin throwing handfuls of grass at each other. His gaze wanders back to YangYang. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“You’re spending a lot of time with him,” YangYang says, emphasising on two certain words. He sits down in front of him and steals a piece of watermelon.

“We’re friends,” Donghyuck mumbles. “I hang around with you guys and no one ever says a thing.” 

YangYang is quiet for a moment as he chews on the piece in his mouth. “You know,” he begins. “I haven’t heard Jaemin talk about Renjun for a while. Not after him and Chenle started to join us.”

Donghyuck raises an eyebrow. “And that concerns me because...?”

“Because I think Jaemin’s infatuation for him has passed.”

Donghyuck studies YangYang’s face before ultimately bursting out into a nervous chuckle. “I still don’t know why that concerns me,” he says, eyes darting around. He slides the bowl away and clasps his hands together. “And how can you be so sure? You’re not Jaemin, how would you know?”

YangYang gives him a look that Donghyuck knows too well. “How ‘bout we ask Jaemin then?” he sing-songs.

Donghyuck lunges across the table in hopes of pulling YangYang down before he could create a mess that doesn’t seem enjoyable to clean up, but YangYang had already called out to Jaemin before he was able to shut him up, so the duo came jogging to the table.

“Something wrong?” Jaemin asks as he takes the seat next to Donghyuck. Jeno squeezes himself between the two.

“It looks like I’m interrogating the three of you,” YangYang laughs. 

Donghyuck wants to stop this conversation as fast as he can, because he knows he’s going to accidentally say something he doesn’t and isn’t ready to yet. But the look on both YangYang and Jaemin’s faces tell him that he’s not getting out until he says something they want him to say.

“Jaemin, you don’t talk about Renjun a lot anymore,” Jaemin hums in agreement besides Donghyuck and YangYang continues. “I’m kinda glad, because thank god , but it’s kinda interesting that you’ve stopped.”

“Interesting? How so?” Jaemin asks, not really paying attention, and attempts to take a piece of watermelon from Donghyuck’s stray bowl. 

Donghyuck slaps his hand away. 

YangYang coughs, bringing their attention back to the Taiwanese boy. “Anyway, as I was saying. You don’t talk about Renjun a lot anymore—”

“I heard you the first time,” Jaemin cuts off, still eyeing the bowl of watermelon.

At the same time, Jeno pipes up; “Why are we talking about Renjun?”

YangYang lets out an exasperated sigh. “Anyway, back to what I was saying.” He taps the surface of the wooden table impatiently. “You don’t talk much about Renjun anymore, despite literally being friends with him now. Why’s that?”

Jaemin pauses. “Er, I don’t like him anymore?” he questions. “Like I said, I think it was because he seemed unattainable at first, but now he’s my friend so it’s weird.”

YangYang stares at him. “I’m still upset that you made me sit through months of you being all obsessed with him.”

Jaemin waves him off. “We don’t talk about that. However ...” He looks to his side and locks eyes with Donghyuck. “What have you been doing with Renjun all the time,” he teases, wiggling his eyebrows.

This is the conversation that Donghyuck does not want to have, not when he himself is not sure of his feelings yet. “What do you want me to say?” he shoots. “That I like him?”

Jaemin shrugs. “I don’t know, you tell me. But you sure are acting like you do.”

Donghyuck watches as Jaemin reaches over and steals a piece of watermelon. “What do you mean?” he asks.

“You see, as someone who has had feelings for Renjun before, I know it when people have a crush on him. I see myself in them,” Jaemin says, smiling. “And you, my friend, looks at him like how I did when he first walked into our classroom.”

“Not to alarm anyone at this table,” Jeno says after a moment of silence. “But I thought it was pretty weird how he stood up for Renjun that one time. The money thing, remember?”

Donghyuck lets his head fall on the table. All eyes are on him now. “Look guys, can we not talk about this, please? I personally don’t know whether I do like him, or not.”

He feels a hand rest on the top of his head. He’s not sure whose it is, but he appreciates the action.

“Sorry, Donghyuck.” He hears Jeno say. It must be Jeno then. “We won’t bring it up again.”

Donghyuck hums uncertainly. “Thank you.”

The next few months pass by in a blink of an eye and before anyone even noticed, Renjun and Chenle, the younger one being pulled in without his consent, permanently joined Donghyuck’s friend group.

It’s sort of surprising how after the two joined, the group began to hang around outside of school a lot more. It’s as if the whole atmosphere had changed. Donghyuck wouldn’t say it’s bad, it’s sort of refreshing, but it was just for the longest time, he had thought that all he needed were Jeno, Jaemin and YangYang. He definitely did not expect Renjun and Chenle to come barging into his friend group and making themselves right at home.

Donghyuck’s habits have also changed for the better. Self-studying after school with Renjun has become a norm for him, with the rest of the group sometimes popping in and joining them. Needless to say, Donghyuck’s grades have improved a lot thanks to Renjun. They haven’t skyrocketed, but they’ve improved enough for the teacher to notice and realise it wasn’t a one time thing. 

He proudly remembers getting back his maths exam with a 75% and his whole class ‘ooh-ing’ at him. He realises he owes a lot to Renjun, and he’s noticed changes that aren’t only his grades. How he views the world is slowly changing after becoming friends with both Renjun and Chenle, the two opening his eyes with knowledge that he knows he’d never want to learn unless it’s from the two.

To say that they’ve grown close is an understatement.

Now, with their university entrance exams in a week’s time, YangYang somehow persuaded the group to take a break from studying and go to the beach to relax. Convincing Chenle took a while, but YangYang somehow did it and now they’re here, on the sandy beach of Changhua.

Donghyuck comes here with YangYang at least once every three months, but he’s never seen the sun set from the beach since him and YangYang always seemingly get bored after a few hours playing in the water. But this time, with a much bigger group, it’s different.

It’s no longer just him and YangYang crying because salt water went into their eyes, getting sunburnt, and running away after seeing a weird looking bag swimming towards them. Now, it’s YangYang splashing water into Chenle’s face, Renjun jumping into the water then clinging onto Jeno due to the sudden coldness, and Jaemin shoving a handful of sand down Donghyuck’s back.

They play in the water for hours, and Donghyuck climbs back onto the pier to take a short break. Renjun follows him after a few minutes.

The two sit in comfortable silence, watching their friends yell and scream under the golden hues of the setting sun. 

“Do you think there’s a parallel universe out there?” Donghyuck asks, breaking the silence. He looks over to Renjun, just in time to see him scrunch up his face in thought. “A different reality that exists at the same time as us.” 

After a few seconds, Renjun faces him and raises an eyebrow. “What’s up with the sudden question?”

Donghyuck shrugs. “I mean, just think about it,” he says, looking into the horizon. “It’s pretty big out there, right?”

“Pretty big?” Renjun hums. “I would believe it’s pretty big.”

Donghyuck starts to smile. “Yeah, so there’s got to be a parallel universe somewhere ! Like, one where we’re idols, maybe?” He looks at Renjun with a lopsided grin on his face. “Maybe one where we’re the last ones standing in a zombie apocalypse?”

Renjun throws a rock he found on the pier into the water. “That doesn’t sound too fun,” he mutters. “Do you think there’s a parallel universe where we’re all rich and successful?” He gestures to the rest of the group playing out in the ocean. “Where we don’t have to worry about money, or school, or a social life?”

Donghyuck watches as YangYang splashes another handful of seawater in Chenle’s face. Chenle falls over, but not without dragging Jaemin down with him. The two emerge from the water seconds later, and Jaemin’s loud complains can even be heard from where Donghyuck and Renjun are sitting.

“Sure, if there’s a parallel universe where we’re idols, or zombies, I’m sure there’s one where we’re all huge CEOs or something like that.”

Renjun, seemingly satisfied at that answer, slaps Donghyuck’s knee. “Then there’d be a parallel universe where we never meet.”

“There sure would be,” he replies. “There’s a parallel world for anything that doesn’t happen here, I guess that’s why they’re called parallel universes.”

“Wow, when did you actually start using your brain.” Renjun teases, pushing a finger into Donghyuck’s forehead. “I’m such a good influence on you. I remember when we first met, you’d just wander around aimlessly like a lost little puppy.”

“I did not wander around like a little lost puppy.” Donghyuck playfully shoves Renjun off of him. “I’ll throw you in the water if you touch me with those slimy hands again, I swear I saw you touch the moss growing on the pier with them.”

Renjun gives Donghyuck a confused look. “What-” he starts off, before Donghyuck bursts out into laughter. “Oh my god, I can’t believe you,” he says as he stares at Donghyuck, his chin in his hand, shaking his head ever so slightly.

“You two lovebirds! Come down! We’re playing Marco Polo!” Jaemin shouts from beneath them. 

“Marco Polo in the ocean?!” Renjun yells back, a tint of concern in his voice. 

“Make it more fun, you know? If one of us dies, then we die!” Jaemin says over his shoulder as he waddles back to the group.

“You guys have zero impulse control, one of us will end up dead by the end of this year,” Renjun sighs. 

“Sounds pretty accurate,” Donghyuck says, standing up. “Come on, time to get back in the freezing water.”

He places his hands on Renjun’s shoulder. 

“Why are you holding my sh-”

He pushes him down into the water, Renjun’s screaming being carried along with the wind.

“You jerk!” he shouts at him, after emerging from the water. “Couldn’t you have warned me beforehand?”

“If I did, it’ll take away the fun, wouldn't it?” 

“You’re insufferable!”

“You love me.”

To Donghyuck, his university entrance exam seemed to be more like an assessment for how well Huang Renjun’s after school studying sessions had helped him, rather than an exam to get into the university he wanted to get into.

He didn’t aim high. Donghyuck had applied to Mingdao University, knowing that he’d most likely get in with his scores. It’s in Changhua, which means he’d still be in the little, closed off town where he’s grown up all his life. This year brought a lot of change for him, and he isn’t sure if he’d be ready for another year of that if he leaves Changhua for university. Donghyuck learns that he doesn’t like change, he’d prefer to keep everything the same if he could. Meeting Renjun was, and is, an exception.

Renjun, being Renjun, obviously aimed for National Taiwan University. The top in the entire country. Him and Chenle, actually. Donghyuck doesn’t doubt for a second that they’d get in. YangYang is trying out for National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, which (if Donghyuck is being honest), doesn’t seem like the best choice given he’s a more artistic person, but Donghyuck isn’t going to judge how YangYang’s planning to cruise through life.

Not when Donghyuck, himself, has zero idea what he wants to do when he’s older.

Jeno plans on going to Japan, with his mother sponsoring him. How he’s going to survive in Japan without knowing one bit of Japanese, Donghyuck has no idea. But seeing how serious Jeno has been about studying for the past months, Donghyuck knows he’d pick it up in no time. Jeno is like that, once he puts his mind to something, it’s hard to break him free from achieving it.

Jaemin decides to apply to a university in Kaohsiung after seeing the rest of the group aim for high universities. “Go big or go home,” he had said to Donghyuck when they were filling out their future career sheets. It didn’t seem like he was serious about it for a good month or so, but Donghyuck has been keeping tabs on the group’s scores and Jaemin actually hasn’t been doing too bad compared to the start of this year. Donghyuck doesn’t know what university Jaemin applied for, but he’s almost certain Jaemin will be able to make it.

It’s then that it suddenly hits Donghyuck. They’re all leaving him behind. With Renjun, Chenle and YangYang going to Taipei, Jaemin going to Kaohsiung, and Jeno going overseas to Japan, Donghyuck realises he’s being left behind in the town he’s grown up in. While he’s too afraid to venture out into the new world of the unknown, all his friends are willing to step outside their comfort zone for a chance of change and freedom.

Somehow, it makes Donghyuck think of himself as a coward.

After all, who else other than a coward, would be too afraid to leave their hometown in fear of loneliness. It’s ironic, to be honest, as he’s getting left behind by staying in his hometown. It’s times like this where he’s jealous of his group of friends, who somehow have their entire life sorted out already. Donghyuck doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life riding on his father’s riches, but it really looks like that’d be the case now.

His phone on his bed rings and he peers over to see the contact name. Upon recognising the familiar name, he picks it up immediately.

“What’s up? Why are you calling so late at night?”

His whole body tenses when he hears a sniffle come from the other end.

“Are you okay?” he whispers into the phone. “Do you need help? Where are you right now?”

“Can you meet me at the park? The one where we celebrated Jeno’s birthday?” Renjun’s voice is quiet over the phone.

“Yeah, of course.” Donghyuck throws his covers off and immediately goes to collect his jacket from behind the door. “Stay there, alright? Do you want me to stay on the line?” He double checks that his parents are soundly asleep, before slipping out of his house. It shouldn’t take long to reach the park, not with Renjun on the other end of the phone, crying.

“No, it’s okay,” Renjun says softly. Another sniffle. “Just, come quick.”

Renjun hangs up the call before Donghyuck could protest. His heartbeat calms down, after knowing that Renjun isn’t in danger whatsoever, but he still makes sure to get to the park as soon as he can. 

From afar, he sees Renjun’s crouched figure sitting on one of the park benches and slowly walks up to him. 

Donghyuck doesn’t even get to open his mouth, as the moment he sits down, Renjun begins to cry again.

He waits, until Renjun is ready to speak.

“I only know how to study,” he finally says between hiccups. “All I do is study. Ever since junior high all the way to high school. I’ve studied to not disappoint my parents who sacrificed so much for me. They said that all I needed to do was to get into National Taiwan University, but I still somehow screwed that up.” He slams a fist down besides him. “I still screwed it up!”

Donghyuck watches as Renjun’s body trembles.

Feeling useless, Donghyuck digs around in his pocket for some tissues. He pulls out a handful that look a bit used, but he still hands it to Renjun regardless. Renjun takes it, breaking out into a small smile. “Did you use this?” he asks, holding the tissues up. 

“I don’t think so?”

Renjun lets out a soft laugh. “Thank you,” he says as he wipes his eyes and nose with the (hopefully) unused tissues. Donghyuck stares at him.

“What?” Renjun snaps, glancing at him. 

It hurts seeing him like this. It hurts to see Renjun think that he’s not enough, that he’s failing everything. Donghyuck wants to tell him that the university that Renjun gets into doesn’t determine his worth, but he knows that Renjun might not appreciate that comment as of right now, so he holds himself back. But Renjun just looks so distraught drowning in his thoughts that Donghyuck can’t help but say something that he hopes would cheer him up, in one way or another

Donghyuck feels his mouth go dry. “No matter what university you go to…” He trails off as the words get caught in his throat and he restarts his sentence. “I have to tell you something.”

He waits for Renjun to say something, anything. But instead, he crumples up the tissues in his hand. “Don’t tell me you like me now,” he chokes out. Donghyuck can see the tears threatening to spill again.

“I do like you,” Donghyuck says, carefully, observing Renjun’s reaction. “But it seems like you already know.” 

Renjun nods, not looking at Donghyuck. “So what do you want to tell me, then?”

Donghyuck doesn’t have anything to tell him. He has nothing that could cheer up Renjun, and now isn’t the time for jokes. He’s always been bad at words, finding more comfort in his actions instead, but he isn’t sure if Renjun wants to be touched right now. So instead, he just sits next to Renjun, to let him know that he’s not alone. That no matter what, Donghyuck will always be someone he could go to. Someone who will always be on Renjun’s side.

But how badly Donghyuck wants to bring Renjun closer to him. How he wants to wrap his arms around the smaller boy’s figure, to share the overflowing warmth coming from him, to the one who wishes to no longer be cold. How he wants to place his chin gently on Renjun’s shoulder, as Renjun soaks his hoodie wet with tears. How badly he wants to hold him, so tightly, as if he could disappear any second. What Donghyuck wants is to hold Renjun for a second, a second is long enough, and tell him through silent words that he loves him, that he’s doing amazing, and that everything will be okay.

But he finds it impossible. It’s hard to gather up the courage, and Donghyuck now learns that he is a coward in front of the one he likes. So instead he settles his hand on Renjun’s head, stroking his hair softly, with so much care and gentleness to not break him. And under the blanket of stars where they shared memories that he hopes they won’t forget, he wishes that Renjun could hear all the words he’s too afraid to say.