three is the perfect number || jaenoren (norenmin)

cinq

School on Monday was uneventful enough for Renjun, other than the fact that his alarm clock had suddenly decided it had wanted a day off, meaning he barely made it to his first class on time and was unable to see Jeno before classes began, which immediately put him in a terrible mood. Sometimes he was embarrassed about how completely he stopped functioning without Jeno. 

To add to this, he hadn't seen Jaemin all day apart from coming across him in the corridor and receiving all but a small smile, which made his overactive mind wonder whether Jaemin only acted friendly towards him when there were no other people around to see him talking to some lowly, sad kid with a bag covered in badges. 

Sitting at a table with his lunch, his friends' babble blending in with what was going on in the background, Renjun felt the air around himself going stale from the loud silence. He hadn't seen Jeno all weekend, Jaemin was sort of maybe ignoring him — Even his sandwich tasted more bland than usual.

Renjun's eyebrows scrunched up, and he judged himself for how dramatic he was sounding. He was probably just being over the top, overanalysing Jaemin's actions and missing Jeno's dry humour. He decided to join in on whatever his friends were yelling about, only to discover that while he'd been zoned out, Chenle had started choking on a sandwich and Jisung was shaking him by the shoulders, as if it would save him. He looked pointedly away, wondering again where Jeno was. Renjun hadn't talked to him all day — he could be dead. 

Where could he be? He wouldn't have detention or anything. Deciding he had more important things to do than watch Mark laugh his ass off at the two younger students, both with tears gathering at the corners of their eyes (one from choking, one from hysteria), he got up, told his friends he was leaving and receiving a good few farewells. Chenle was still teary when he left the lunch hall.

He dumped his half empty juice in the bin, and went off down the corridor, checking in some classrooms he thought Jeno might be likely to frequent. He ended up spending the next five minutes just peeking in random rooms, getting more impatient by the minute. Where in heck is Jeno?

He was tempted to just yell into the mostly empty hallways to check if Jeno would just reply, when came across a new poster on the main board. Interested, and mostly glad for the distraction, he stopped to read it, eyes skimming over the garish red print.

Swim meet, Monday after school at the pool

Volleyball tryouts, Tuesday and Wednesday after school at the volleyball court

Book club meetings Monday and Friday, at lunch in the library

IT club meetings Monday and Tuesday, at lunch in the main computer room

Basketball tryouts, Monday at lunch in the sports hall

Track on Thursdays after school

It struck him that Jeno might be taking part of one of these, and nearly groaned in frustration. This was the most likely scenario, when he thought about it. Jeno might have decided to go join a book club on impulse or something, and forgotten to tell Renjun about it. He went up to the list, running a finger along the words as he read them.

He could probably rule most of these out. He could barely float; He had no interest in volleyball that Renjun know of; The only things he could do on a computer was type up essays and play Papa's Freezeria; He hadn't anything to do with playing basketball in years and not the slightest interest in track either. 

He shook his head and was about to go to the library when the doors of the hall he was standing before burst open, and an arm reached out and pulled Renjun inside.