ADOMANIA || zhong chenle

chapter 9

"did she seriously make us run all the way here because of pumpkin soup?"

seon-ok was fuming with anger, glaring daggers at jieun who was happily holding her food tray, two servings of soup on it.

"just let her be, there isn't much that brings this girl joy anyway."

haeun held her breath while quietly declining the soup the cafeteria staff was offering her, trying not to get any of the odor in her nose. as much as jieun loved anything pumpkin, haeun hated it with a burning passion. still, being the mature kid that she was, she let her friend have her fun.

ara seemed to be on seon-ok's side for this one, yua was already at the table, stuffing herself with food, and daiyu's mind was too busy thinking about god knows what to pay attention to her friends discussion.

she had gotten to serve herself right after jieun, so by now she was just standing at the side, waiting for the other girls to finish. her mind had wandered off to somewhere else, to this morning's training, actually. to be even more precise; her mind had wandered off to zhong chenle.

it was a mystery to her how someone could look so tremendously good and still be a total ass. because the boy was handsome, that's something daiyu wasn't able to deny. she would totally have liked him for hyewon, if it weren't for his pitiful excuse of a personality.

still lost in her thoughts, it took her a bit too long to notice that her friends had already started walking over to the other side of the cafeteria; where their japanese friend was sitting.

"what the- guys! wait for me!"

all those high school rom-com dramas that hyewon had forced her to watch should have taught her that running through the cafeteria with a bowl of pumpkin soup on her tray could only end in disaster, but daiyu didn't appear to have thought of that in that moment. in fact, it didn't look like she thought much at all.

and sadly, unlike on tv, the person she crashed into was no prince charming who caught her by the waist and then fell in love with her.

no, daiyu ended up plumply landing on her butt, the food tray falling straight out of her hands.

still in shock, she looked up to whoever was in front of her — and she really wished she never did.

this is really just my luck, isn't it?

comparing it to dramas again, daiyu was rather sure that prince charming didn't necessarily have pumpkin soup in his hair and all over his face. hell, there was even some on his uniform, and that was most definitely going to leave a stain.

i'm fucked.

despite all the orange substance covering him, daiyu was perfectly capable of identifying the boy in front of her.

and who would it be if not zhong chenle?

it was like someone had put a curse or something on them after that kahoot she lost, and daiyu was really getting tired of their continuous unpleasant meetings.

chenle raised a hand to his face to wipe the soup away from his eyes, so he could at least regain his vision.

just as expected, he let out a loud, annoyed groan as he saw who was on the floor.

maybe he had hoped for a kdrama moment too?

daiyu finally got up and wiped the dust from her uniform shorts.

"you again?"

"me again."

she conclusively didn't feel like replying any less rude than he had spoken to her.

"you're buying me a new shirt if this leaves a stain."

now this made her real angry. really, it took every nerve in her body to control herself from slapping him right across his face.

because at the end of the day, it was kind of her fault.

in no way did that give him the right to act like that, but she had bigger worries than buying a stuck up asshole a new shirt.

"...sure."

she walked past him to join her friends, who all had quite different reactions.

haeun aas looking away in secondhand-embarrassement, yua was grinning like it was her birthday, seon-ok looked like she was holding in her laughter, and the rest were just in shock.

"hey! where are you going? aren't you gonna apologise?"

of course i wouldn't just get away like this, what was i even thinking.

"i'm sorry, i guess. now if you could please let me go; my friends are waiting for me."

daiyu eyed his hand on her upper arm almost disgustedly.

shivers ran down her spine at the look he gave her.

being honest with herself, daiyu didn't expect her own behaviour either. she often claimed to be a peaceful person who avoided conflict, but something about zhong chenle just made her want to piss him off.

the boy wasn't really sure what was going on either.

he was conflicted; a part of him wanted to say something, anything, because how dare she do that and not even properly apologise? and the other one was shook to the bone at how unbotheres towards the whole situation daiyu seemed.

it may be the rich, privileged side to him speaking, but chenle was used to people being more respectful —almost afraid, actually — to him, and doing what he asked them too.

still, he settled with letting go of her and keeping quiet. chenle would have to see the girl enough in the future, they could sort things out then.

daiyu strolled over to her friends, not even sparing chenle another glance.

we should really stop meeting like this.

__________________________________

i have mixed feelings on this