ADOMANIA || zhong chenle

chapter 7

daiyu knew her friends liked her.

she knew they cared for her, and she was sure that they would've been sad if she really would have gotten expelled from NSOE.

but what she didn't know, was that she would find the six of them huddled up together in her room, on her bed the moment she entered the small dorm she shared with yua.

"oh? what's the occasion?"

a high-pitched screeching sound was heard, and yua jumped up from the bed, running towards her chinese friend to tackle her in a hug.

"you absolute dumbass, fucking spill it already."

a hearty laugh escaped daiyu.

"everything's fine. i need to learn how to control myself, but i'm staying."

then, the very last bit of space she had left to expand her lungs when breathing was taken in by the five other girls joining the hug, daiyu in the middle of it.

"y'all, this is just a theory that i have, but maybe letting me breathe would... you know, give me a greater chance at survival?"

finally, they pulled away.

"why would your life even be endangered?" jieun wondered.

daiyu — who had started taking her shoes off — snorted.

"maybe because i have to work with zhong chenle on a chemistry project that will go on for months."

to prove her point, she repeated herself.

"zhong chenle. chemistry. for months."

"seriously? damn, that's some bad luck you got. if you want, we can switch? i'm paired with this boy — what's his name again? sung- something, i don't really remember."

now this piqued haeun's interest.

"that keen on working with your dear admirer, hyewon?"

the younger girl's eyes widened. "that's not it, oh my god. i was just trying to help dai!"

'dai' burried her face in her hands. "believe me, i would love to accept your offer, but there's now way it'll work. the prof already knows that i'm paired up with him, and when i tried switching with ok-ok he got so damn mad, i don't think i've ever seen him like that."

"who? chenle?"

seon-ok deadpanned. "the professor, yua. the professor."

after hearing that, hyewon gave a small hum and sat down next to daiyu on the bed.

"alright then. did you already decide on a topic?"

daiyu nodded. "mhm... or more like, the professor did."

"how come? i thought you were supposed to do that by yourselves?" ara decided to join the conversation.

"yeah, we were. but mr zhong and i do simply not get along, and professor hwang thought he would just have to assign us a topic himself."

she threw her head back in desperation.

"and out of all the topics he could've choosen, he went with human relationships. we have to compare human relationships to chemical bonding."

looking up from her phone, seon-ok shot her a weirded-out look.

"that's literally the easiest one he could've given you. why are you complaining?"

"that's zhao daiyu, seon-ok. the girl who has just started her second year at a prestigious high school but doesn't know what an atom is. what did you even expect from her?"

damn, she's really violent with her words today, isn't she?

"wow, thanks hae. i'm gonna telll your aunt that you were badmouthing me, she'll surely be happy to hear that."

while dodging haeun's multiple pillow attacks, daiyu turned to ara.

"your dad was in the principal's office before i went in. he told me to say hi."

that didn't really seem to surprise ara as much as it had surprised daiyu.

to her, it seemed pretty weird that the head of the crime-department had to come talk with a high-school director. it was almost suspicious, even.

as unlikely as it was, daiyu had a feeling that something wasn't going the way it should in their country, but the government seemed to be doing a pretty good job at hiding it.

that thought was distracting her the whole time until the girls left, which was almost an hour later.

though she was pretty sure nobody really noticed, except for yua, of course.

nothing ever went past that girl. for someone that careless, she sure was observant.

"so... penny for your thoughts?"

just like before daiyu's meeting with the director, they were laying on their beds, facing each other.

the only difference was that they were in their pyjamas now.

"i... i don't even know either, to be completely honest." was her response.

"it's just... don't you think that it's kinda weird for ara's father to visit lee soo-man? a person with a job like his shouldn't be in a school for work matters, and if it's something personal it's just as concerning."

yua hummed, having already suspected something of that sort.

"you see, when he was leaving, he told soo-man something about needing his help, which the director didn't seem very happy about."

again, the japanese girl hummed.

"i think you shouldn't worry too much. i mean, aside from that being something i live by anyway, i feel like it's really not our place to worry about this. the government — as much as i hate it — seems to be taking action against whatever is happening, and think about it; even if they told us, what could a bunch of adolescents do? what difference would we make?"

she's right. she usually is.

"i guess that makes sense."

it slightly hurt her pride to say that.

"no seriously, you're probably right. at least i don't have to worry about going to detention tomorrow yet either. it's thursday!"

"oh gosh nooo... my left cheekbone is still sore from monday, please just tell me that mrs choi is back, because i'm definitely not training with that substitute again."

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i love the girls, but since there's so many i'm having a hard time properly portraying each of their personalities :((