Ashes | JENO

Chapter 7

"Okay, now that I'm back," Ayeon said, taking a seat at their cafeteria table. "You two, explain now."

Jeno avoided the girl's eyes as he swirled his drink that Mark had bought for them, not wanting to engage in the conversation.

"Explain what?" Renjun asked as he and Mark gave them confused looks, the two still sitting in the dark.

"Ayeon and I were just walking down the halls to see Mr. I'm Avoiding Ayeon's Eyes literally about to beat up this poor girl." Haechan said, giving Jeno a look.

Great.

"Mr. What?" Mark asked, being his usual stubborn self, making Renjun roll his eyes.

"Jeno." Renjun said, taking a bite out of his sandwich. "Now please explain."

"She pissed Jaemin off." Jeno said, hoping that was enough to justify his actions."

"Or at least he thought she did." Ayeon told them. "Jaemin was just going to the washroom."

"Actually, she did piss me off." Jaemin said, surprising them all.

"Wait, you?" Renjun exclaimed, making Jaemin nod his head. "But you never get mad."

He's not wrong, Jeno thought, glancing at the male sitting beside him.

"I don't." Jaemin said. "But Soojung was saying some pretty rude things about Jeno so I was pretty mad about that. That's why I went to straight to the washroom to cool down, sorry bro."

"It's fine." Jeno said as Jaemin gave him a small smile.

"Now I'm curious." Mark said, staring at the two. "What exactly did she say about Jeno?"

"We were just talking about him, I don't even know how you came up." Jaemin told them, turning his head to Jeno. "But I told her you were a caring person and she said that she found that hard to believe."

"You can't get mad at her for that." Ayeon said, shifting the attention of the members of the table to her.

"Ayeon has a point." Renjun agreed. "Unless you're part of the gang, you wouldn't know that."

"Yeah, I thought Jeno was the coldest person ever." Ayeon said before a grin spread across her face. "Turns out the one with anger issues is Renjun."

"Yah!" Renjun exclaimed as Haechan held him back with a smile.

"You're just proving her point." Haechan said, earning a smack from Renjun.

"Do you know her or something?" Jeno asked, raising an eyebrow at the girl. Jeno watched as Ayeon returned the look.

"Do I have to know her to support her? She seems like a nice person, otherwise Jaemin wouldn't have been friends with her. Plus her hair colour is really nice."

That hair colour.

The other boys must have gotten Jeno's silent signal but Ayeon still had no idea.

"Ayeon." Haechan warned, giving his girlfriend a look.

"What? I'm serious, I would love to have hair like hers." Ayeon said, clearly not taking the hint.

Jeno bit his lip as he felt the pain in his chest and was sure the others were worried as his hands clenched into fists.

"Ayeon, please." Mark said, trying to help Jeno out.

"No why are you all acting like that?" Ayeon said, looking around with a look of confusion on her face.

"Stop. It." Jeno heard Haechan mumble through his teeth and Jeno could feel all eyes on him.