chinese lessons; renhyuck

ten

They chat for the rest of the night up until Renjun had to go to bed. They don't talk much about the incident, they instead focused on how Donghyuck had been dealing with it. It didn't seem like a big deal at first, but there was no denying that something shifted between them that night. He was glad that Renjun tried his best to understand what happened without pushing him out of his comfort zone. He also appreciated how Renjun also talked about other things that took his mind off of him... he doesn't want to think about him right now.

The next day, Donghyuck made sure to use some makeup to cover up the way his face had been red and swollen from all the crying he did yesterday, sadly he couldn't really hide the way his eyes had been puffy. He had hoped that it wasn't really obvious when he arrived at class earlier because if he was being honest with himself, the way he looked would probably tell everyone that something terrible had happened to him.

Thankfully no one really noticed, with everyone being too busy studying for upcoming quizzes or snoozing off at the back of the class to notice much of anything. Before he knew it, classes had ended and it was time to go to work. It wasn't really a bad day; just another boring day for Donghyuck and nothing was new. When he left he had seen Chenle talking to Jaemin in the courtyard but Chenle had quickly walked away without saying goodbye to him.

He'll definitely ask him what's wrong tomorrow. For now, he needs to get to work. He makes sure that he doesn't take the same route he used yesterday so that he can avoid bumping into anyone. The thought of seeing Mark after yesterday makes him sick to his stomach. Sadly that doesn't work because the moment he tries to use a different campus exit, the one farther away from his building, he runs into someone he wasn't really exactly expecting to see here of all places.

On a bench sits Renjun with his camera, snapping pictures of every tree, flower, or other random sights that catches his eye, with not a care about the world outside his camera. This is why he does not notice Donghyuck approaching him.

"Renjun?" Donghyuck asks, stopping just behind the bench where he is sitting. He lets out a shocked gasp when Renjun jumps slightly, almost dropping his camera, "What the-- Haechan?!" he says, clutching onto his chest as though his heart were beating very fast.

"Jesus I'm sorry," Donghyuck apologizes, while Renjun sets the camera down on the empty space beside him. "What are you doing here anyway?" He asks, making his way opposite Renjun.

"What are you doing here?" Renjun deflects the question back unto Donghyuck.

Donghyuck raises his eyebrow in confusion, "I... I study here..?" he answers slowly, not exactly sure where this conversation is going.

Renjun stares at him and is silent for a moment, seemingly thinking over his next words carefully. After a couple of seconds he finally speaks up again, "You cried last night, didn't you?" Donghyuck's eyes widen at that, "I..." he trails off, unsure of how to respond. "Is it that obvious?" Renjun nods, "You kind of look like shit." Donghyuck scoffs at his statement. "Yeah well, thanks," he bites back.

"No, I mean actually... You do kinda look pretty shitty, even your makeup isn't perfect anymore," Renjun explains, trying to be kind. Donghyuck doesn't know what to say to that. He didn't want to cry and now he looks like a mess? "Are you trying to get back at me for missing our session yesterday? I thought we were okay." He questions, trying his best to mask how hurt his voice sounded.

"No! I'm not trying to make fun of you," Renjun replies sincerely, "But I meant that you look awful right now," Renjun adds. Donghyuck shakes his head dismissively, "Whatever." He turns his back away from Renjun. He thought that if they didn't develop a friendship last night, they had at least developed an understanding of each other. Maybe he was wrong.

"See you later," he adds as he starts walking away. "Wait, that wasn't what I meant!" he hears Renjun say behind him, but he ignores him. He did his best trying to cover up how much of a mess he was yesterday and here Renjun was just reminding him of it.

He stops when a hand wraps around his arm and pulls him back, turning him around to face Renjun. "That wasn't what I meant," Renjun repeats firmly, before forcing Donghyuck to sit down on the bench he sat on earlier.

He sits beside him, still staring intently into Donghyuck's eyes. "Why did you stop me?" Donghyuck asks him, furrowing his eyebrows. Renjun breaks eye contact and looks down at his lap, "Because I didn't want to cause another misunderstanding," before looking back up to Donghyuck with a determined look on his face, "and I wanted to apologize."

Donghyuck frowns, "What for?" he asks, confused. "For my earlier comment, I didn't mean it like that," he says honestly. "And also, I'm sorry for judging you before getting to know you, I thought you didn't care about others because you were always so focused on yourself." Donghyuck is quiet at this point, processing everything that Renjun had said. "So, yeah, I was wrong and I'm sorry for that, I promise that won't happen again." Renjun finishes his sentence.

"What did you mean by that?"

"Hm?" Renjun asks, raising an eyebrow.

"When you said that you thought I didn't care... What did you mean?"

----

authors note:

hi, this is my first author's note and I just wanted to say that this chapter was actually supposed to be longer and more detailed but my laptop restarted on its own before I got to save it so everything got deleted which was pretty painful, ouch. 

but I hope you guys are enjoying it so far!!