Luminous • Jisung

26 • About

• Chapter 26 •

Renjun stepped forward, colliding with Cho-a. He hugged her tightly. 

"Will you not," he began, then stopped to take a breath and collect his thoughts, "just ignore me like that again?" 

Jisung watched the scene quietly, arms crossed in front of his chest. He gave the older one an almost judging look, though it held more a sense of curiosity than one of resentment. 

He watched, eyes on Cho-a. Meanwhile, the girl just looked down. 

"I called Kun," she defended. 

"But you didn't call me." 

She stayed silent whilst her eyes travelled up. 
"I was with Jisung," she reminded and eyed said boy. "You know you can trust him." 

Renjun exhaled deeply and pushed himself away from the girl. Eyes landing on her at first, he then glimpsed at the younger boy a moment after. 

"Yeah, I know. He was being a real ass though," Renjun replied flatly, unimpressed by the fact that Jisung was right next to him. 

The younger rolled his eyes, seemed not surprised. 
"You were one first." 

"Debatable-" 

"That's not-!" Jisung uttered, voice rather loud when he stopped himself. He paused, took a deep breath at the way Cho-a was watching him. "-debatable." 

Ignoring his own irritation, Jisung just walked past the two reunited friends and towards their usual dining table. It was autumn, yet neither Jaemin nor Jeno minded sitting outside. So they still sat there, ate their food, the number of students around them sparse.  

Sitting down, Cho-a greeted the other boys who seemed happy to see her. 

"There you are," Haechan said with a smile. "Are you well?" She nodded. 

"Where were you?" Jaemin asked nosily, leaning forward to get a little closer to the girl. "Renjun kept whining about how you didn't come home for two days." 

Side-eyeing Renjun, Cho-a smiled. She was glad to hear that he cared for her that much. She was also sorry she worried him to that degree. 

"I was having a sleepover at Jisung's." 

Jaemin's eyes widened. 
"Woah~" He turned to the younger boy. "You went a long way from hating her to spending the night with her. I'm proud of you." 

Jaemin then reached over the table to pat Jisung's head who, although he seemed like he didn't necessarily like it, let him. 

Smiling in satisfaction, Cho-a shoved a forkful of food into her mouth. 

A moment of silence wrapped itself around the seven of them. The atmosphere seemed light and calm and, for a rare moment, peaceful. 

Safe. 

Yet from within that silence, Jeno became a little fidgety. A little troubled. 

He stayed quiet a lot, knew not to insert himself too much into what was going on. But he was starting to feel uneasy not knowing what exactly was happening to his friends. 

So he inhaled slowly, mustering up the energy to sit up straight and talk a little more boldly. 

"I know that there is something you aren't telling us." He pointed at Jaemin as his fellow 'us' and also briefly glimpsed at Chenle whom he didn't know if he should include or not. "You will have your reasons but it's not like we don't worry just because we don't know what's going on."