bad chemistry

ten

Minju lays down on her own bed as a lot of things spiraled around her mind. Firstly, she is extremely tired yet her eyes can't seem to close as whenever she does, a still image of Jeno smiling is painted. She looks around and stares at the clock ticking nonstop. Jungwoo also keeps texting her but she forgets to reply, so she knows the door is opening as she jumps out of her room and hugs the other. Jungwoo is taken aback for a minute, as he ruffles the other's hair.

"What's with the sudden hug?"

"I don't know, I am in a seemingly good mood today."

"Anything happened at the station?"

Minju's lips itches and twitches as she wants to say what's on her mind. But she knows that Jungwoo is going to either tease her or ruin her hopes so she shakes her head. "Not much, just the sun was shining extra brightly today."

"It was a pretty gloomy day though-"

"Whatever, you just ruined it."

Jungwoo laughs softly and annoyingly as Minju scrowls to herself. He sits down on her couch as he wraps himself with a blanket. Minju crosses her arms, unpleased, as she whines a little, "What are you doing..."

"I just want to sleep on the sofa."

"You have a sofa at your place."

"This sofa is much more comfortable."

She rolls her eyes as she watches Jungwoo snuggle against the pillows on the sofa. She heads back inside her bedroom and closes it, turning off the lights. Jungwoo just blankly stares at the door of her room, sighing to himself. "Why don't you know..that I come here whenever I miss you?"

—

Rushing towards the station, Minju arrives to the office a little later than usual. She wakes up perfectly on time, but she blames Jungwoo for staying over since he wouldn't budge off the sofa until she threatened him. She apologizes as she arrives, as Donghyuck tauntingly says aloud, "Oh look whose here on time."

Jaemin slaps the back of his head, as Donghyuck rubs the spot with a pout. Minju fixes her hair as she sees Jeno sitting at his desk quietly, barely looking at her. She walks over to the other as Jeno keeps staring at his book as she clears her throat slightly. "Get ready in five."

Minju nods excitingly as she gets dragged away by Jisung so that she can change. Donghyuck widens his eyes and interrupts, "YOU'RE REALLY GOING TO TEACH HER!?"

He is immediately shut up by Renjun as the other stuffs a piece of bread into the protesting mouth as Renjun grumbles, "You talk too loud and too much shut up."

Jeno shakes his head at the scene, as he stands up from his seat and leaves the room. He walks down the hallways, only to be stopped by Doyoung who is leaving his office. Doyoung shakes his head and blocks the walk as he says with authority, "I, Kim Doyoung, will forbid you from training even more. You barely got off the hospital bed at dawn today, are you crazy?"

Jeno peers over his shoulder before replying, "I am going to train the new girl."

"She can learn from Johnny."

"It's my job. I can't go out to the field."

"Doesn't matter."

Jeno glares up at the older, who is unfazed by his attitude. He replied in a low, deadly voice, "Do you know what it feels like to do nothing?! Do you know what it feels like when you can't do something that you love!? What if someone came up to you and broke your hand so that you can't perform surgeries? Do you think you'll react to the situation like you are right now?"

Doyoung looks away in frustration as he replies urgently, "No, you know that's not what I mean."

"No, you're not understanding me. Don't come to help me ever again if I faint. I can crawl to the hospital by myself so that I won't be a worry to you."

They are arguing in a quite loud way, which makes some people peer to see what's happening. Johnny watches from afar, as he rushes over with Taeil to stop from arguing. Doyoung, who doesn't want to back down from the argument, replies angrily back, "You know you can't feel your own emotions rising. We're trying to prevent you from burning out!"

"I DON'T FUCKING CARE."

Jeno screams without knowing, as he is about to raise his fist without a thought. Johnny stops him from doing so, holding him back as Taeil does the same towards Doyoung. He bites his lip upsettingly, preventing himself to say more.

Jisung, who is watching the madness from afar, looks over at Minju, who is stretching on the side. She is changed into an all black workout gear, as the boxing gear is laying down on the ground so that Jeno can teach her how to wear it. Jisung nervously taps on the glass which makes Minju also walk over to Jisung panicking. She stares at the two argue in the middle of the hallway, which is gaining much more attention. She tries to think of a way to get Jeno out of the situation as he is getting dragged away towards the opposite direction.

Without a initial thought, she runs outside into the hallways, ignoring Jisung's protests and arrives to the scene. Everyone looks at her confusingly, despite Jeno and Doyoung, as they are still fuming in anger. She looks over at Johnny before removing his hands from the other's body, and she holds Jeno's hand to get his attention. They all stare without a word, as Jeno finally realizes that she's there and she drags him out of the hallway.

Everyone is watching them hurry out of the hallway, as a million pairs of eyes just follow her. She grabs her backpack from the outside of the training center, and smiles apologetically to Jisung, She walks out towards the main police office station, which many citizens start to recognize her. Jeno doesn't know what else to do but stare at their hands as she continues to walk towards the street and waves over a taxi.

He gets pushed into the car as she hurriedly gives the address to the driver. Johnny and Taeil soon follow after, but they don't chase after them once the taxi leaves the station. Minju stares out the window and sighs in relief as the cab just drives smoothly through the streets. She turns to Jeno, as he is just quietly staring at their hands being held together. Minju blinks embarrassingly before tugging her own hand away but he doesn't let go. He holds it without another word, as he avoids her eye contact to stare out the window quietly.