Ships Passing In The Night ｜Markhyuck (OT21 AU)

Chapter 34

All things considered, Renjun thought, as he sat back in his chair in the art studio and watched his friends laugh and joke with one another, the last few weeks had been relatively relaxing. There was the small matter of the rapidly impending musical to consider--over which almost everyone involved seemed to be stressing every five minutes--as well as the academic side of his life continuing to pile on the pressure, but he couldn't really complain.

He, Jaemin and Donghyuck had somehow become closer than ever, following their eventful night out on Greek Row. Jeno and Yukhei seemed to have slotted themselves effortlessly into his wider friendship circle, even sitting with them at lunch on occasion. Plus, he currently had a comically large paintbrush in his hands, as he lazily filled in the outline of a horse on a piece of plywood. Things were pretty good right now, from where he sat.

"Hey, Renjunie? What's the best way to get, uh..." Distracted, he glanced up at the sound of Jaemin's voice, seeing the younger boy peering down at a half-empty tube of blue paint frantically. "...acrylic paint out of a white shirt?" Jaemin looked over at him and pouted, expression already both contrite and pleading before Renjun could even react, as if begging the older boy to save him from himself. He had a small, brightly coloured stain over the right breast pocket of his uniform shirt, which he was attempting to swipe at with a paper towel to minimal effect.

"Jaemin-ah!" Rolling his eyes and setting his current work-in-progress aside for a moment, Renjun quickly made his way over to the hapless boy and pulled his hand away from the fabric firmly. Behind them, he heard Yukhei let out a strangled bleat of laughter, as the senior boy finally registered what was going on, but he ignored it and started to drag Jaemin across the room towards the washbasins lining the back wall. "You need to soak it before it stains, idiot. I swear, you'd paint your own eyeball if I wasn't babysitting you constantly."

"Now, that I'd pay to see." Jaemin stopped in his tracks immediately, dragging Renjun to a halt as he turned to glare daggers at the smug-faced boy behind them. Perched on top of a workbench alongside Yukhei, Jeno snickered at the disgruntled look on Jaemin's face, leaning back onto his palms against the desk as he watched them with detached interest. Renjun felt a momentary twinge of worry over how Jaemin might react, gaze flicking quickly up to his friend's face and then back to Jeno, but then the boy beside him cracked a wicked smile and stuck his tongue out petulantly.

"At least I didn't try to eat the stuff last week," Jaemin muttered, casting Yukhei a furtive glance before he allowed Renjun to continue leading him over towards the nearest sink. The senior boy let out a half-hearted groan of protest before Jeno cut in again.

"He's not wrong, hyung. You did do that." Jeno paused for a moment, and Renjun used his free hand to turn on first the hot water tap and then the cold, letting the two streams mix together as they swirled around inside the small metal basin. "Why did you do that again?" Renjun kept one hand firmly on Jaemin's arm, fingers tangled loosely into his shirt sleeve. He didn't think Jaemin would actually make a run for it, not with an unsightly blue splatter slowly seeping through his shirt and into his skin, but Renjun didn't especially want a playfight to break out between him and Yukhei at this exact moment.

"I told you, I wanted to see what it tasted of." Renjun held back his smirk and pointed imperiously at the sink, indicating to Jaemin that he needed to make use of it. Jaemin didn't say anything and just started to unbutton his shirt slowly, so Renjun turned back towards the others to give him some privacy. Jeno was laughing at Yukhei now, who had the gall to look mildly offended. Neither of them was doing anything productive--if you didn't count glueing anything spare they could find in the supply cupboard to a sheet of A3 construction paper as productive--and they had to be disturbing the peace of the other students working around them, but Renjun couldn't bring himself to care much about propriety anymore.