chinese lessons; renhyuck

two

He's not ready. He's not okay.

"Donghyuck..." Jaemin pats his back as more sobs escape from his mouth unwillingly. "I'm sorry," Donghyuck apologizes. They were in the middle of their fifth song when suddenly flashbacks of him singing along made his throat dry, he tried to push his feelings back but his vision turned blurry and before he knew it, he was sobbing.

"I'm so sorry." He says again. Chenle engulfs him in a hug and the brunette buries his face on the crook of his neck, he can hear Chenle sigh. "Don't be sorry, I know how hard it must've been for you to come here especially when we used to share this room with him," Chenle sighs again,

"I'm murdering him."

"Hey! he was a good person..." Donghyuck trails off, breaking off from Chenle's hug.

"Still broke your heart so I'm going to cut that son of a bi-"

"Aye," Jaemin places his finger on Chenle's lips to shut him up, "Talking shit about him isn't going to solve anything." He doesn't see how Chenle's ears ever so slightly turn a light shade of pink. Donghyuck laughs at the observation while the blonde glares at him as if telling him to shut up.

"We can just practice next week, how about that?"

"Yeah I'm okay with that, we've practiced for an hour already anyway, it's enough for now!" Chenle smiles reassuringly.

"Guys..." Guilt bubbles up inside him again. Stupid feelings, stupid men. How much more do his friends have to sacrifice for him to finally get his act together, they still have to practice for the festival. "The festival happens in December, it's still August. You don't have to worry." Jaemin says as if he could read his thoughts.

"I'm sorry, I'll do better next week."

"Don't say sorry, Hyuck. Feelings aren't supposed to just fade after a breakup."

Donghyuck looks at them with a smile, he truly appreciates his friends. They're the only ones that could actually understand him, other people would definitely give up on him if he ever pulled the avoiding move on them but his friends were understanding, they knew how much Mark had meant to him.

How much Mark means to him.

He kind of regrets bringing him to the practice room, seeing him laugh along with his friends, and sometimes even singing along with them. Even if he did not major in music and he was in the basketball club, he would bring a guitar along and sometimes sing love songs to Donghyuck.

(With Jaemin and Chenle fake gagging in the background, Donghyuck would roll his eyes and flip them off while his boyfriend would only chuckle while rubbing his nape.)

Where did it all go wrong? How did everything fall apart?

"Hyuck..." Jaemin says, his voice soft and sweet while looking directly into his eyes. Jaemin reaches out to caress Donghyuck's cheek, thumb softly tracing the outline of his moles before trailing downwards to his cheeks, caressing it gently.

"What is it?" 

"You're crying," Chenle points out, gesturing to the tears on Donghyuck's face. "Are you... are you okay?" His tone is worried, cautious almost, and Donghyuck nods in response. "Yeah, no," Donghyuck wipes away his tears with his sleeve. "Not really... yeah maybe." Chenle gives him an unsure look while Jaemin pats his back comfortingly, "Okay let's stop talking about him, how's your new job?"

"The cafe? I haven't even started yet." Jaemin gives him a sheepish smile, clearly having forgotten after trying to get Donghyuck to calm down. He wipes away the remaining tears, huffs, and playfully glares at Jaemin, "I see how much I mean to you, from now on Chenle is my only friend!"

Chenle screeches as Donghyuck pulls him in a tight hug and sticks his tongue out. The atmosphere finally lightens and with that, he temporarily forgot the pain. Perhaps it was because he was surrounded by the people he trusted the most.

"It was lowkey funny how you were sobbing while on the drums though."

"I hate you all."