Ships Passing In The Night ｜Markhyuck (OT21 AU)

Chapter 35

The ride home in Donghyuck's car that afternoon had been a tough lesson in patience and restraint. The two boys up front, not-so-subtly sneaking glances at each other--and at him--whenever they thought he was distracted, hadn't needed to tell him that he'd missed something big. Jaemin had been able to surmise that from the pointed silences, the barely restrained nervous energy and the way that Renjun had seemed to space out of their sporadic conversations every few seconds or so.

He'd tried to ignore it all the way through dinner too, hoping that one or both of them would tell him soon enough, if it was that important, but now Jaemin couldn't ignore the dull ache in the pit of his stomach as he sat on the office chair in his room and tried to focus on his Social Studies assignment. The subject didn't require a huge amount of concentration, leaving him free to observe the two boys sprawled out on the floor surrounded by their school work, but that was almost worse. It just left him with more space inside his brain to speculate, and to come to the inevitable conclusion that he had finally run out of time.

Jaemin wasn't stupid. Nor was he blind, so he knew without a doubt that Hwang Renjun was head-over-heels for a certain handsome soccer player. Granted, it had taken Jaemin far too long to come to that understanding, but, now that he knew, it was glaringly obvious. His best friend's eyes lit up whenever the boy entered a room--or if his name was even just mentioned in passing--and Renjun got the happiest, dumbest smile on his face whenever Jeno so much as looked at him.

If it had been anyone else--anyone else in the entire universe--Jaemin would have been first in line to cheer the two of them on with a gaudy, handmade banner and party balloons, willing Jeno to notice exactly what he was missing--because Renjun was perfect, inside and out, and he deserved to be that happy always--but it wasn't just anyone. It was Renjun, the boy Jaemin had been in love with since way before Jeno had entered the picture, before Donghyuck had touched down like a tornado and their world had been turned upside down. Jaemin didn't regret the majority of how things had turned out; he'd barely been a blip on Renjun's radar before Donghyuck had brought them together, after all, but he couldn't help but wonder if there was another parallel universe out there in which it was him that made Renjun's heart soar, instead of Lee Jeno.

"What did you get for question three?" Donghyuck asked then, pulling Jaemin back into the moment. Realising that his right leg was starting to fall asleep from the position he sat in, he shifted slowly, curling the offending leg up and under him onto the seat. Then he peered down at his work, knowing that Renjun was currently working on a different assignment from the other two boys, and sought out the question Donghyuck had mentioned.

"Hmm. I wrote 'social studies is stupid and Mrs Song can eat this entire piece of paper'," he offered dryly, spinning on the hydraulic base of the chair to look down at Donghyuck, who lay on his stomach with a pencil hooked loosely behind one ear. His friend lazily pushed up onto his elbows, staring up at him incredulously as a small smirk parted his lips. Jaemin sighed. "I might just move onto something else. This isn't due until next week anyway."

"NaNa..." Donghyuck started to say, a gentle rebuke sure to follow, but Renjun interrupted him, glancing up from his work to fix Jaemin with a knowing look.

"It's due on Tuesday morning, Jaemin-ah. It's Friday tomorrow, so you really don't have much time left." Jaemin considered his words for a moment, taking in the look of mild concern and disapproval on the older boy's face, and then sighed again.

"Yeah, I know. You're right," he hesitated, then added, "as always. I'll just start it again." Without further protest, Jaemin turned back towards his desk and pulled a new, blank sheet of paper from his notebook. He slid it across the wooden surface until it was side by side with the original, then he retrieved his pen and started to copy out the title again.