Puzzle Piece 𖢻 ∫ JaemJen

𖢻 Chapter Thirty-One: Have In Common

Chenle walks leisurely to a specific classroom he will be spending an hour in, passing by some people he knew as he has his airpods on.

He halts on his steps when a hand lands on his shoulder, grunting, he pauses his music and turns to see a frowning blonde haired girl.

Taking one of his airpods out, he raises a brow. "What's up?" He asks calmly but his facial expressions visibly show his annoyance as well.

"Where are you headed to?" The blonde haired girl asks in return, tone strict as she eyes him intently.

Chenle shrugs his shoulders in nonchalance, "detention." He waves a piece of paper in his left hand for the girl to see.

Eyeing it, she glares harshly. "You got detention again?"

"It's nothing uncommon, Yuna, come on." Chenle snorts at her.

"Sure but that doesn't mean it should be an almost daily routine, Le." Yuna says seriously, "what is the reason this time?"

Hearing her tired and already hopeless tone, Chenle chuckles. "I was just late."

"You were not just late, you skipped a whole first subject this morning." Yuna elaborates for them. "Your Papang will be disappointed."

"As if he'd find out." Chenle rolls his eyes at.

"May I remind you that this will go on your record and either our advisor or principal will contact your Papa no matter how hard you try to hide this."

"So what? He's going to be mad at me because I was bonding with my Dad? Am I wrong for doing that?" Chenle suddenly takes offense from her words.

Yuna was flustered for a second but regains her composure, "that's not what I meant, Lele. And you're not wrong for spending time with your Dad."

"But I'm just saying there is an appropriate time and day to do that by also balancing out your schedule–"

"You don't know how it is like, Yuna. Please leave, I need to go to detention and get it over with." Chenle mutters, interrupting her.

He pushes her hand off his shoulder and walks away. Yuna stands there sighing deeply at her stubborn friend.

That's Shin Yuna, one of Chenle's best friends, part of the latter's semi big friend group he spends most of his time with.

She's been friends with Chenle since 5th grade, known him more than the teenage boy knows himself.

She knows how Chenle is truly like, knows some details of his life, and even if she was informed late about it especially when it's a problem, she tries to understand and help Chenle to the right path.

It's difficult, despite how close you are to someone and how long you two have known each other for, trying to help them is much more difficult than you'd think.

You don't want to hurt them, but at the same time you have to hurt them at least a little bit just for them to listen and budge.

For a stubborn person like Chenle, it is indeed a hassle and a challenge for your own patience.

That is something Yuna and Jeno have in common nowadays.

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"Why are you guys picking me up today?"

Jeno holds back a wince from Chenle's tone, "Johnny had to attend something urgent, and it was a good timing that our meeting ended early."

"Well you could've just picked me up alone..." Chenle glances at Jaemin who's on the driver's seat.

Jeno frowns, "sweetheart, I can't drive... At least not all the time with my condition."

"We could've took a bus or something."

"Lele, you know how I feel about public transport for you and Jisung... And it's also expensive nowadays." Jeno reminds him softly.

"Besides, Mister Jaemin here kindly offered us a ride." By the mention of his name, Jaemin peeks over to look at him and flashes the young lad a smile.

"You could've said no, Pang..." Chenle mutters.

"Chenle, please stop complaining about this and kindly get in the car." Jeno say sternly.

Ignoring his grumbles, Jeno adjusts himself to look at the backseat. "By the way, Lele..."

"Hm?" Chenle hums while having his eyes on his phone, Jisung beside him trying to look at it as well, hoping he would be playing some games again.

"Why were you taking so long?" Jeno asks straightforwardly.

Chenle shrugs his shoulders lazily, "I had an after school activity."

Jeno lets out an intrigued noise, "Oh, what was it?" Trying to make this conversation longer for obvious and good reasons.

Jaemin glances at the rearview mirror as Chenle replies, "we were cleaning the classroom and I had to discuss something with my classmate afterwards."

"Ahh, I see." Jeno hums in acknowledgment, "so h–"

"Pa, I'm trying to listen to music." Chenle cuts him off a little harshly, glaring at his Papa.

Jaemin bites his inner cheek, restraining himself to scold Chenle when he felt like the timing isn't good today.

Jeno frowns and nods off slowly, too tired to argue with him especially in front of Jisung and in a moving vehicle.

Because he is sure Chenle will most likely end up starting a screaming match with him.

So he diverts his attention to Jisung, "how about you, sweetheart? Would you like to tell us how your day went?"

With a happy nod, Jisung goes straight to it after seeing his elder brother will not be playing any type of game to entertain them both today.

As Jisung talks, Jaemin interacts with him along the way, joking with him and encouraging him to keep on going.

Bringing a soft smile on Jeno's face.

As they kept talking with Jisung's voice and laughter getting louder thanks to Jaemin, Chenle groans and turns up the volume to blur them out.

The small observation has Jeno's smile faltering.

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Thoughts???

We have a small chapter about Chenle's perspective, what do you think?

Sorry, busy weeks. And more busy weeks ahead. I'll post an announcement about my upcoming schedules and plans to clear things out :)

This past two weeks have been hectic after my aunt's small car accident, luckily she's okay now but it was really tiring to handle.