Ships Passing In The Night ｜Markhyuck (OT21 AU)

Chapter 29

TW: Mentioned minor character death and implied past abuse/neglect of a minor. If either of those is a particular trigger for you, please consider skipping this chapter.

"Injunie, are you even listening?" Twisting around in his chair, Donghyuck turned from the cardboard rectangle he had been painting to look over at his friend, who had stopped responding several minutes earlier. Greeted with the back of Renjun's head, he sighed and answered his own question. "Of course you're not listening. Why would you be?"

Renjun had an elbow on the desk in front of him, cheek propped up on his knuckles as he watched Jeno paint something that Donghyuck thought was meant to be a French flag. The younger boy had a look of utter concentration on his face, each stroke of the brush slow and deliberate, and Renjun was nodding approvingly as he supervised the process. Donghyuck couldn't see Renjun's face from this angle, but he'd bet most of his worldly possessions that Renjun was sporting a proud smile as he watched Jeno work. It was almost sickeningly sweet to watch the pair grow closer each week, their interactions so goddamn adorable that it felt like a drama playing out in front of his eyes.

"Are you done with that?" He jumped a little as a female voice sounded in his ear, twisting around in the opposite direction to see one of the senior girls, Dahyun, standing over him. She pointed towards one of the large collection of paints he had accumulated on his desk over the past half hour, and he nodded. He wasn't sure exactly which one she wanted, but he was almost done with his piece at this point. She thanked him, retrieving a tube of bright red gloss paint with a grateful smile, and headed back to her seat.

Donghyuck stared down at the rapidly drying artwork in front of him, then glanced across at Renjun and Jeno again. He had grown to enjoy these after school painting sessions over the past few weeks, both because he found them therapeutic and because he'd been able to spend some quality time with Renjun, but he couldn't help but visualise the mountain of homework and script learning he had barely made a dent in yet. He wondered, as he stood up and carefully carried his cardboard canvas over to the drying rack in the corner, whether Renjun would mind if he stopped coming for a while. It wasn't as though he needed Donghyuck here, with Jeno keeping him entertained, and he was sure he could find another Renjun-shaped chunk of time in his schedule somewhere else.

"Yo, bro." A loud slapping sound perforated the silence, causing half the heads in the room to snap up and across to the door, before Donghyuck registered that the words had been spoken in lightly accented English. Lifting the racking back into place as quickly as he dared, taking care not to jostle any of the artwork already held inside, he turned to see that they had a new, unexpected visitor in the previously tranquil creative space.

"Hey, man," Jeno said, dropping his brush onto the table and pushing up out of his seat to allow Lucas to pull him into a back-slapping bear hug. Renjun gasped and lunged forward, barely managing to stop the blue-stained bristles from touching the completed red section of the flag, and Jeno cringed apologetically as Lucas let him go. "Sorry, Renjun-ah."

"It's fine," Renjun insisted, smiling up at Jeno and his teammate. Lucas--or Yukhei, as Donghyuck knew he ought to be referring to the boy--shoved Jeno aside playfully and dropped down into his vacated seat, shoving out a hand to the other, startled boy.

"Hi there," he said quickly, wiggling his fingers until Renjun accepted the proffered hand and allowed Yukhei to shake his enthusiastically. "I'm Jeno's friend. Nice to meet you."

"Wong Yukhei," Renjun interjected, pulling his fingers free from Yukhei's large hand. He glanced down at his palm for a moment, before returning his attention to the older boy's face. "I know."

"You've talked about me?" Yukhei reached up and slapped Jeno on the forearm. Jeno winced, shaking his head.

"Not even once."