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You were always walking ahead of him. Whenever Jeno made his way out of the gymnasium, he always had to catch up to you.
It was the same routine every day. He wakes up in the morning for the early morning class he regretted signing up for, he sits in the lecture hall with a small cup of coffee which its burning warmth would seep past the thin layer of the paper cup and reach his palm, he leaves the lecture hall when the class is finished with a page of sleepily scribbled notes and he heads to the gymnasium next to spend hours playing basketball with his friends.
Today was different. He was less in the mood to engage in a competitive sport and more inclined to drown in the aftermath of his argument with Donghyuck back in the cafeteria the other day. Did he regret lashing out on Donghyuck? Yes. Was he still upset that Donghyuck refused to tell him about what happened to you? Yes as well, even though his friend made it perfectly clear he did it for privacy reasons.
(Jeno knew, though, that Donghyuck's protection over your privacy was half out of human decency and half out of his childish possessiveness over you.)
He had made no attempt to patch things up with Donghyuck, and seeing that their text messages were left to dry out for three days because they had refused to initiate a conversation with each other, Jeno's stubbornness was reciprocated. However, that didn't mean Jeno hasn't been spending his time dwelling his mind on his reaction, how it has hurt Donghyuck, and most intriguingly, how it all happened because of you.
He was never one to express his frustration that way. Jeno was calm, he knew he was. Being able to work under pressure was his thing; although, he was never as good at improvising under pressure as Donghyuck was. Being able to keep his emotions under control was also his thing; how could he have befriended Donghyuck if he was not equipped with a set of patience that was seemingly over-the-top? Besides that one time he threw a ball at Donghyuck's head, he has always kept his annoyance and dismay beneath a gentle smile.
Jeno's patience was what made his anger so scary, second to the fact that he just looks like he can beat someone up really badly. If Jeno was to blatantly express his anger, like the way he did in the cafeteria, then the matter must have meant a great deal to him. Except since when have you mattered so much to him that he would lash out on his long-term friends over something about you?
You walked past Jeno after making direct eye contact with him. The neglected boy let his jaw hang slightly before he licked the corner of his lips, an unwillingly defeated smile blossoming on his face. He found it hilarious how he would have gotten worried if any of his friends did that to him, just blatantly ignoring him after acknowledging his presence. But since it was you, he knew your negligence was just a product of your interesting personality.
Pushing himself off the wall, he quickly caught up with you in just a couple of steps. Brushing past you, he turned around swiftly and stopped just a step before you. Bending his waist, he came to your face-level with a gleeful greeting. "Hey!"
