f i v e

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"As I mentioned before, this assignment will be done in partners," the teacher said from the front of the classroom

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"As I mentioned before, this assignment will be done in partners," the teacher said from the front of the classroom.

Their whole class turned to look at Renjun. The boy didn't pay them any attention.

"I would, therefore, like you all to get into groups of two," the teacher continued.

The class erupted into chaos, everyone trying to reach Renjun's desk first. At first, Renjun seemed slightly confused as to why everyone was at his desk again, but the confusion quickly turned to annoyance when he realized it was about the partner situation again.

All of a sudden, Jeno felt a force that seemed to be pulling him by an invisible thread. The next thing he knew, he was standing by Renjun's side.

"Jeno is my partner. Now will you all please leave us alone," Renjun announced, voice once again echoing over all the chatter.

Everyone groaned, but turned away nonetheless, sorting themselves into partners like they normally would.

Jeno blinked once, then twice. "You know my name?" he asked stupidly.

"Yes, idiot. It's called being observant."

"Right," Jeno replied awkwardly. It wasn't that he didn't think Renjun was observant, Renjun just seemed like he constantly didn't care what was going on around him. "And I'm your partner now?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

Several minutes passed. Jeno sat next to Renjun quietly, watching (more like admiring) his every move. Renjun was sketching an image of a fairy. A beautiful one at that, but Jeno couldn't take his eyes off Renjun most of the time.

From what Jeno could see, Renjun had a real talent for art.

"Why me?" Jeno asked, breaking the silence between them.

"Isn't that obvious?" Renjun replied calmly.

"Yes," Jeno admitted, "but you of all people should be able to persuade the teacher to let you work alone."

"I know."

"Then why don't you?" Jeno asked, genuinely confused. Renjun was confusing.

"So that I wouldn't have to do all the work," Renjun replied.

Oh.

Before Jeno had a chance to respond, the teacher clapped his hands, getting the attention of the class. Jeno surveyed the room. Most students had moved into spots next to their partners. Jeno noticed Jaemin sitting with Donghyuck at the side of the class.

Gradually, the class quieted down.

"You're assignment is to research a mythological creature and explain your creature to the class in a ten minute presentation. Limited amounts of class time will be given for this project, so please take responsibility to work on it at home. The assignment is to be due in a month."

The class quickly arose into conversation once again. Jeno turned to Renjun who looked somewhat taken aback by the explanation of the assignment.

"Renjun! This is great! You are a mythological creature," Jeno said, unable to hide his excitement.

"We're not doing fairies," was Renjun's response.

"Why not?"

"Because I said so."

"But we would do so well! All of the information would be accurate, we would barely have to do any research, and we would still ace the assignment!" Jeno reasoned.

Renjun shook his head.

"Please?" Jeno tried. He was pretty sure puppy eyes wouldn't work on someone like Renjun, but he tried it anyway.

"You do it then. You can do the research by yourself, that way it won't be cheating," Renjun answered.

"Since when did you care about cheating?"

Renjun paused. "I don't."

Jeno's brows furrowed slightly. "Then why–"

Renjun placed his pencil down and turned to look Jeno in the eyes. "If you want to do fairies, the offer is there Jeno. Take it or leave it."

With that, the boy went back to drawing once again.

Renjun was indeed confusing.

—☆—

"So are you gonna tell us how you managed to get Renjun as your partner?" Donghyuck asked as they walked to the cafeteria.

"I don't know either though," Jeno said truthfully.

Donghyuck rolled his eyes. "Of course you do, you just want to keep Renjun for yourself."

"That's okay, we understand," Jaemin agreed. "I wouldn't want to share my secrets if I had Renjun to myself either."

Jeno could only nod along. There would be no use trying to talk sense into his two friends. This was fairy magic they were dealing with, even if they didn't know it.

"What mythological creature are you two doing?" Jeno asked, trying to change the subject.

"We're doing werewolves. Hyuck thought it would be the one with the most information available," Jaemin answered. "What about you and Renjun?"

Jeno hesitated. If he was being honest, the debate about whether or not to do fairies had played out in his head all morning. In the end, Jeno decided that researching fairies would probably be a good way to understand more about Renjun.

"We're doing fairies," he said.

"Really?" Donghyuck said, "You never would have passed as the type to be interested in fairies, Jeno."

Jeno chuckled. Before Jeno met Renjun, that would've been the exact case. Jeno wouldn't even think about researching fairies, but Renjun was... something else. Jeno genuinely wanted to learn more about Renjun and seeing as the latter wasn't going to open up by himself, Jeno figured he should do his own research instead. Maybe, just maybe, this was exactly what Jeno needed for Renjun to open up to him.

"Honestly, Renjun could probably pass as a real-life fairy. He's beautiful," Jaemin piped up dreamily.

Jeno almost choked on air.

"Fairies aren't real, Na Jaemin," Hyuck said from next to him.

Again, Jeno had to physically stop himself from choking on air.

"I know, I'm just saying," Jaemin replied.

"You know, I'm really hungry," Jeno said, changing the subject once more. "Let's go eat food." Jeno tried his best to drag his two friends along as discreetly as he could. Luckily both of them seemed to catch on to nothing.

---

i miss the dreamies :(

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