ADOMANIA || zhong chenle

chapter 33

while daiyu was having the time of her life in the girls' changing room, a certain chinese male with newly cut hair entered the boys' locker room.

"not very energised today, chenle?" his friend sungchan asked, as he stuffed his bag into the locker next to chenle's.

with a nod, he answered "just haven't been sleeping a lot lately.

he too stowed away his duffel bag and started changing into the training uniform.

"and why is that?"

'wish i knew.' was what chenle would have said if he had been completely honest with sungchan.

instead, he shrugged.

"had a lot of things on my mind, i guess."

"mhm."

sungchan hummed, but just as chenle thought that he was off the hook, the boy spoke up again.

"and does — by any chance — things shift electricity and know how to cut hair?"

chenle slowly turned his head towards his friend, an annoyed look on his face.

"no, they don't. stop assuming i like her just because i've decided that despising each other while our friends are dating and we still have almost two months of a chemistry project ahead of us isn't the best of options and we're somewhat getting along now."

needless to say, sungchan was slightly taken aback.

"fine, no need to get so defensive, i was only joking anyway."

the chinese boy nodded, not completely buying the excuse, but decided to proceed changing clothes.

sungchan did too, while facing the other way, so chenle wouldn't see his embarrassed face.

because actually, he did think that chenle had something going on with zhao diayu. despite being one of chenle's only friends in the grade, the two still talked a lot less than he did with his senior-friends or jisung.

due to that lack of conversation in the last months, sungchan had opted to assuming that his friend was interested in the chinese girl.

to him, the way the pair interacted with each other in their chemistry vlog made that obvious.

they acted like the kind of duo to get called out by teachers for acting like an 'old married couple' in elementary school.

but apparently, chenle did not think that way at all.

if sungchan had thought that his mood was bad before (though only because of the early schedule), it had definitely worsened now.

later, as they were training in their element-specific groups, he kept an eye on chenle, and only one thought crossed his mind as he watched his friend fight.

'oh lord. what monster have i awakened.'

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the first part of the day — in other words; the morning — was pretty boring, but daiyu had expected that.

element-specific training was always uninteresting without haeun — meaning every monday. and conditioning was hell, no matter what.

relief washed over her when she heard the trainer's whistle, indicating the start of lunch break.

"i'm going to fucking collapse."

seon-ok leaned against her for support, though daiyu felt just as weak.

her legs were subtly shaking, and her breaths were heavy.

'they really had to recruit a whole ass bodybuilder for conditioning, didn't they?'

the only positive thing about that was that he was rather handsome, the bodybuilder.

but gawking at the outlines of abs that showed through the tight shirt he would wear wouldn't save her from the pain the exercises brought her either.

not even the japchae the kitchen was serving could save her from that.

"soo, daiyu; first combat session of the month. are you excited?"

jieun asked her, as they walked to the training field after a rather uneventful lunch.

since jeno was a grade above them and therefore didn't train on mondays, jieun had enough time for them.

daiyu could clearly remember how she had felt when those two had just started dating.

no matter how hard she tried, she hadn't been able to understand why jieun would simply leave them at lunch, and not sit next to her in class anymore. and all that just to do something with jeno.

though daiyu had grown to accept their relationship and to some extent understand her friend's behaviour, she still wasn't totally okay with everything that she did.

it wasn't like jieun completely neglected them. no, she still ate with them on mondays, came to most of their hangouts and had now started bringing jeno with her to have lunch with them more often.

and still, daiyu didn't like the way the girl prioritised her boyfriend.

they arrived to the training grounds just in time, as their teacher started explaining.

"today, we'll be splitting up the afternoon into two parts. for the first two hours, you'll work on the usual elemental-combatting. i'll announce the pairs right after this.

after the 3 pm break, we will gather here again, and when i say gather, i mean all of us."

her eyes drifted over to a particular group of water shifters, though daiyu didn't know them very well.

"there, i will pair you up differently for the second half, where we'll be doing hand to hand. understood?"

obedient yelling was heard from the students, and the trainer (not the bodybuilder anymore, by the way) gave a satisfied nod.

"great. alright then, now to the interesting part..."

and then she started listing names, of which none really stood out to daiyu.

occasionally, she would share a glance with one of her friends — whenever one of their names was called.

her last name started with 'z', so daiyu was used to being called last.

although the pair to be announced right before hers caught her attention too.

"... jang jieun and zhong chenle..."

'jieun with chenle?'

sure, he was friends with her boyfriend, but the combination was really something else.

daiyu had a weird feeling that those two's personalities would not match at all.

but that was just from how she knew them, maybe they would turn into completely different people around eachother.

'just like chenle's attitude towards me did a one-eighty overnight once.'

she was so immersed in her thoughts, that she almost missed her own team being called.

"...woo and zhao daiyu."

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ahhh can't believe we're at chap 33 already 😨
i honestly thought that i would discontinue this after like, ten chapters, but here we are

and i'm really motivated too lol, can't wait to start writing the next stories 🫢