ADOMANIA || zhong chenle

chapter 25

daiyu entered her room as silently as possible, just for the very unlikely case that yua was asleep already.

which she wasn't, obviously.

daiyu contemplated on walking straight out of the room once she saw who was there, actually, but it would've been too suspicious.

"oh- hi hye, hey yua." she greeted, trying not to meet the older one's eyes.

the two were huddled together on the couch, playing mario kart.

yua looked up. "hey to you too. where were you? it's pretty late already."

ah yes. what a great question to answer in the presence of ahn hyewon.

"chemistry project." she hoped that hyewon wouldn't understand what that meant, but that was about as unlikely as yua going to sleep anywhere before 1 am.

after all, daiyu hadn't shut up about her chemistry project with zhong chenle for the past few weeks.

taking off her shoes and placing them on the little shelf she had for that, daiyu walked over to her closet to grab her pyjamas.

"do you want to join? we're starting a new cup." hyewon asked, offering her a joycon. the orange one; the one daiyu always played with.

"i'm good. thanks though."

'shit. wrong move.' she cursed internally. 'now they're definitely gonna know that something is off.'

daiyu would never miss an opportunity to kick some ass in mario kart, despite the unbeatable — as they called yua — playing.

basically, nobody had ever managed to beat yua in the past four years, but daiyu always came in second. so when she got the chance to play with someone she could win against, daiyu would normally not even dream of declining.

yua made eye contact with her, and gave her a long. weird, and very questioning look, as if trying to read her.

her face practically screamed 'we'll talk later.'

"i'll be in the shower." the chinese girl announced, disappearing through the door.

showering was a great way to clear your mind. it cools you off, gives you time to think and sort out thoughts and feelings.

but not even that seemed to help the stressed girl as she stood under the cold, running water, rubbing her shampooed scalp.

some shampoo got into her eyes. as a reaction, she let out an audible hiss and closed her eyes shut as a reflex.

the burning sensation in her eyes eventually wore off, but daiyu didn't want to open them just yet.

instead, she stayed in the shower for a little longer, despite already having turned off the water and gradually growing cold.

she tried to clam her breathing, slowly counting along with the breaths, but it all seemed to be of no use. she couldn't get rid of the stressed and nearly panicked feeling she felt at seeing hyewon.

'what the fuck is wrong with you?' daiyu hated herself for feeling that way. 'she's your friend, just fucking talk to her if it bothers you that much.'

perfectly well aware of the fact that her conscience was right, she might-fully (not really) pushed away the voice in her head and stepped out of the showers.

why face your problems when you can just forget about them and pray that they'll eventually get sick of you and leave on their own?

(i do not promote or encourage living with that kind of mentality. but just like in real life, characters handle issues in their own way, which is not always a healthy one! if you are struggling and/or need someone to talk to who doesn't know or judge you, my dm's will always be open.)

daiyu dried herself with a towel and got dressed in her pyjamas.

she took a glance at the mirror. her reflection showed a tired teenage girl, who looked just as stressed as she was feeling.

her wet, dark hair was damping the blue shirt of her pyjamas, and uncomfortably sticking to her face.

shaking her head from side to side, she tried to make it look a little more voluminous. she often envied curly haired people, like that one fourth-year girl she was friends with, ellie. ara also had some really pretty waves.  

then again, curly-haired-people always complained too, so it really was true that you always want what you can't have.

daiyu washed her face and blow dried her (in her opinion) boring hair.

then, she contemplated. two options stood to her disposition.

a) she could walk out of the bathroom, say that she was tired and head straight to her bed. but if she did that, she would have to pretend to actually be sleeping, and she really wasn't in the mood to not do anything at all until hyewon left, which could take hours. also, yua would then see that she actually wasn't sleeping and want her to explain.

b) she could just stay in the bathroom and hang on her phone until a bit later. the only con was that there were no actually comfortable places to sit on in the small dorm-lavatory.

going out there and just staying awake was not an option. daiyu trusted yua enough to not say anything while hyewon was still in the room — she wasn't that indelicate. but hyewon wasn't stupid, she must be suspecting something too.

so obviously, daiyu settled for the second option. she sat down on the closed toilet lid and unlocked her phone, keeping herself busy by scrolling through her instagram.

but then, an unexpected notification popped up at the top of the screen.

1 new message from the devil

daiyu's lips slightly parted in confusion, she clicked on the banner.

the devil

did you get home?
22:48

'oh, that's right. he said to text him once i got to the dorm. something about how it's late and dark already.'

he wasn't wrong. daiyu has said it many times already; teenage boys are disgusting.

i did
22:48

daiyu cursed her mind for the idea that had just popped up at reading his text. 'but what else are you going to do? sit here until dusk?

so she just took the risk and texted him once again.

hey uhm
22:50

i know this is rly weird
22:50

but can i like, stay over at your dorm for a sjort while?
22:50

i rly need to save myself from an awkward situatiob
22:51

she didn't bother to fix the typos, biting her lip in nervousness as she waited for his response.

'did i make him mad by spamming?'

she was just about to give up and delete the messages, when a new text appeared.

sure
22:55

but i'll come pick you up
22:55

be outside your dorm in 5
22:55

__________________________________

what do we prefer? them ripping each other's heads off or this?

also, i'm on a ski trip with my friends rn, so idk how frequent i'll update this week

i once said that i had a lot of chapters prewritten for this, but i ended up being rly busy last week and used most of that up then, but i'll try my best :)