Q U I E T D O W N [huang renjun] ✓

T W E L V E

"You're sick? Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"You left when I was sleeping, princess"

"Don't 'princess' me, how could you be so careless and run in the rain!?"

"I'm fine, Hyenie. Just go a few days without me beside you, can't be that hard. I made the boys swear to protect you"

"Yeah, yeah okay. Still doesn't excuse the fact you got sick", Jihye rolled her eyes as she closed her locker. "Bye Jaem, I gotta get to class now"

"Study well, sis"

She hummed, giving a small okay before hanging up. Just in time, because the boys were already coming up to her.

"Yo, Jihye. Where's your bro?", Donghyuck asked.

"Sick, his stupid ass ran in the rain", she rolled her eyes as she walked to class. Not feeling any presence beside her though, she stopped and turned around.

"Why aren't you guys coming?"

The boys stood frozen, looking down as if they were caught guilty of something.

Guilty? What could they even be guilty of?

Jisung nudged Donghyuck, making the older glare at him. "Tell her", Jisung whispered.

"No"

"Come on Hyuck you have to", Jeno added.

"But-"

"Tell me what?", Jihye raised an eyebrow.

"Well, uhh you see-"

"We were playing truth or dare the other day and Jaemin chose dare which led to Donghyuck daring him to run 500 meters in the rain and now he's sick", Chenle said in one go, earning a glare from Donghyuck.

"What? Not like you were actually going to tell her anyways", he shrugged, not really bothered.

"No I was going to-!"

"Donghyuck", the boy turned slowly, and also peed in his pants seeing the girl glaring upwards at him. Gulping nervously, he backed away a little.

"H-hey I'm sorry, okay?"

Jihye sighed, before turning around. "You should tell that to Jaem, not me"

Entering the classroom, she put her bag down and got ready for the lesson. She paid no attention, not to the boys nor to anything else.

"Hello class", Mrs. Kim walked in. "For today you'll have to get into groups of two and finish a worksheet together", the class groaned.

"I know you all hate linear equations, but it's for the better! No need to choose your partners, just do the work with the person you're sitting beside", Mrs. Kim eyed the whole class until her eyes landed on Jihye. "Where's Jaemin?"

"He's sick today"

"Oh...", she nodded. "Well, you can do the worksheet with Renjun then"

Jeno, Donghyuck, Jisung and Chenle turned their heads to Jihye the moment they heard that. Eyes big, they remembered what Jaemin had threatened them all about.

Don't let her near Renjun, ever.

"Hey, Jihye! You can do the work with me instead", Donghyuck chuckled nervously.

"No you can do it with me instead", Jeno smiled.

Jihye deadpanned. "No thanks, shoo", she swatted a hand at them as she stood up to sit beside Renjun.

The boys looked at them in horror, but not for long until Renjun looked at them with an eyebrow raised. All of them cowered, hesitantly turning around hoping Jaemin won't find out what happened.

"Four sheets!? There's like 20 questions per sheet, oh god", Jihye combed through her hair in frustration.

"We can split, so you do 40 questions and I do another 40", Renjun suggested.

Jihye nodded, giving him two sheets as they worked in silence.

Some time passed, and turns out they were the first ones to finish everything so quickly. Handing the papers to their teacher, Jihye went back and sat down in her own seat.

"Hey", Jihye turned around, confused as to why the boy was calling her. "What are you doing? Class isn't over yet"

"Yeah but our work's done-"

"Don't care, you should face me"

"What?", Jihye looked at him in disbelief.

Renjun twirled the pen in his fingers looking up to her slowly. "Did I stutter?"

A bit of pink dusted her cheeks as she felt her heart beat quicker than usual. Taking her chair, she turned around and sat across him. Nothing was said between them, and Jihye fiddled with her fingers out of nervousness.

That didn't go unnoticed by Renjun, who saw her shaky fingers and looked up to her, his gaze unnoticed by the girl.

Just like her brother, huh? Cute

Renjun blinked repeatedly, realizing what he just thought.

Cute? Her? No way. Get a grip, Renjun

Sighing, he just stared out the window.

"Hey", he said after some time, Jihye's head raising up to see his perfect side profile.

"Are you afraid of me?"

Jihye was dumbfounded by the question. "What do you mean...?"

"This whole school acts like I'm a virus", Renjun faced her. "They avoid me"

"But how come,", Renjun took it another step and leaned forward, space between the two becoming limited.

Jihye had her eyes big, heart beating loud as she bit her lip impulsively. Renjun looked down for a second before shaking his head a little, trying to think of something else other than her lips.

"How come you don't move away from me? And instead move forward towards me?", he said, almost a whisper.

Jihye couldn't answer, because the bell had already rung. Renjun leaned away from her, and stood up not wasting another second to walk away. Out of her sight, Jihye let out a deep exhale.

"What...was that?"