amen, amen | enjoltaire

Chapter Thirteen

He hadn't meant for this to happen.

It had been suggested at dinner, a quick question in the crowd of nine other voices vying for attention. It was Courfeyrac, passion in his eyes and barbecue sauce on his chin, who had put forward that they should all meet up at Enjolras's house after college. They'd planned to meet at Courf's, but apparently his mother didn't want nine more kids to add to the veritable hoarde of children she already had.

And it had been him, momentarily forgetting the situation he'd found himself in as of late, who'd said yes.

It was only when he met up with Cosette outside the entrance that he remembered his mistake. He'd sent off a quick group text, a feigned realisation that his parents were having the floors redone and not even he was allowed home that night, banished to Cosette's.

He cursed his friend's resourceful nature when Combeferre replied that's okay, we can meet you at her's. Cosette was part of the groupchat too, and simply sent a thumbs up in response. She truly did enjoy ruining Enjolras's life sometimes.

That's how they all ended up here. Ten teenage boys in the house of a girl who wasn't technically allowed to be around any of them. It was irresponsible for him to have brought them all here- especially Marius, who Enjolras doubted Valjean was ever going to like, but he couldn't see any way of stopping it without telling them what was really going on.

Valjean wasn't home. This was something Cosette had repeated ad nauseum during their walk back to her house. She was right- he was at work and would be for the next few hours. That didn't stop Enjolras fretting over it, though.

He tried to push it to the back of his mind and tune back in to whatever Bossuet was saying. He was recounting a story he'd read on the internet, something about a woman who'd lived in a stranger's wardrobe for years without him ever noticing. Joly was enthralled, but Enjolras wasn't sure whether that was because he found the story interesting, or he just liked gazing at Bossuet.

They'd been at Cosette's house for about an hour, and had inevitably fractioned off into smaller groups. Courfeyrac, Grantaire, and Bahorel had taken over one sofa and were watching cat videos on Courfeyrac's phone. Cosette and Marius were sitting at the kitchen island, foreheads oddly close together and hands clasped. Jehan had taken Joly's cane and a pocket knife and retreated to the far corner of the room, humming to himself and he carved what seemed to be flowers into the surface. Joly himself was sitting in Valjean's armchair, Bossuet on one arm as Enjolras sat at his feet. Combeferre and Feuilly were sitting cross-legged either side of the coffee table, Cosette's mp3 player between them.

"Cosette?" Feuilly asked loudly, "what's 'to anyone'?"

"What?" she asked, turning away from Marius to face him. Feuilly had been rather quiet for the past hour, and so his sudden outburst piqued the interest of the whole room.

"'Two N E one'. What is it?" He spoke slower this time, looking at the small machine in his hands with deep confusion. Cosette began to laugh.

"It's pronounced twenty one, Feuilly. They're a K-pop group. I thought you'd know about them seeing as you like Korea so much."

"He likes North Korea, Cosette. They're a bit different," Enjolras laughed.

"I don't like North Korea. I'm interested in their government and want the liberation of their people," Feuilly said as he took the headphones out of the mp3 player and pressed play. The song that filled the room sounded just like something he'd hear on the radio- upbeat and pop-y, almost on the verge of club music.

"This is brilliant," Feuilly gushed, his eyes lit up as he listened. "I can't believe I've never heard this before!"

"I have the CDs upstairs if you want to borrow them," Cosette laughed, jumping down from her seat and walking towards the middle of the room.