Ships Passing In The Night ｜Markhyuck (OT21 AU)

Chapter 39

With everything seemingly having come to a head for his friends over a single weekend, Donghyuck found it disorienting how easily things settled back into a routine again over the next week or so. Everything was fundamentally different, because now he knew the whole truth--Renjun had made him wait until Tuesday afternoon but, once the truth started flowing, it had been impossible to stem--yet nothing had tangibly changed.

"I'll tell him," Renjun had insisted at least once a day for the past week and a half, whenever Donghyuck brought up the topic of his impending confession to Jaemin. "Soon! I'll do it soon, I promise."

Soon had come and gone, with Renjun still firmly in denial as to the effect that his silence was having on both himself and those around him. Jaemin had watched him carefully for the first few days--as had Donghyuck himself--but, when an explanation hadn't been forthcoming, he'd given up. Donghyuck didn't think Renjun had noticed quite how hard Jaemin had taken it--the younger boy was still resolutely sticking to his vow to support Renjun without complaint or hesitation--but the sadness that now seemed to follow Jaemin around like a dark cloud was palpable to almost everyone else.

"He still hasn't talked to him, huh?" Jeno had asked the following Thursday afternoon, when the whole gang had met up after school in the art studio, on one of the rare occasions that all five of the friends could spend time together. And friends they were, Donghyuck told himself, whether the others liked it or not. He still hadn't gotten to know the Jeno and Yukhei of this reality well yet, but he was determined not to waste any more time. Where he'd previously started to skip the creative after school sessions, Donghyuck now went to all of them, if for no other reason than to act as a buffer for casual conversation between the others.

"No, he hasn't," Donghyuck had reluctantly replied to Jeno, as the younger boy sat squashed in between him and Yukhei on their regular art bench. They'd been watching Renjun and Jaemin bickering loudly over what shade of green to use on whatever grossly misshapen object Jaemin had been trying to paint, but Donghyuck hadn't missed the hint of discontentment in Jeno's voice as he'd spoken. "Has he spoken to you since?"

"Not directly, no."

Donghyuck had first thought that Renjun was just being overly cautious whenever Jaemin was around, avoiding being too affectionate with Jeno where the younger boy might see them. He knew that there was still a lot they needed to air out between the two--three--of them, and he could have understood if Renjun had wanted to cool off on the PDA before he could manage to have the conversation, but it ran deeper than that. He'd pulled away from Jeno completely, following their date the other weekend, and Jeno was none the wiser as to why.

When Donghyuck had asked, Renjun had tried to brush it off as nothing, but the way Jeno watched him from across the room, eyes filled with the same distant longing that he so often saw in Jaemin's eyes, told him that it wasn't that simple. It was as though the older boy had decided that, until he made his mind about what he was going to do about Jaemin, he would keep his distance from both of them.

Donghyuck wasn't about to tell his best friend this, but he really longed to just lock the three of them into an empty classroom and make them talk it out. If he thought it would help, he would do it in a heartbeat.

"Earth-Prime to Hyuck?"

Donghyuck's head snapped up to meet Jaemin's eye, realising that he had spaced out in the lunch line. He'd overslept and forgotten to bring food from home today, hence the need to queue up for lukewarm pizza and disappointing pudding cups, and he'd only been half-listening as Jaemin pleaded with him to buy extra chocolate cake for them to share.

"Sorry, NaNa," he muttered, blinking rapidly as he quickly scanned the dessert selection and grabbed for one of the sugar-coma inducing sweets. "I'll buy you one if you really want it." He glanced down as he lifted the plate over towards his tray, hand freezing in mid-air when he realised that there was already an identical slice of cake sitting right next to his salad bowl. "Wait..."