ADOMANIA || zhong chenle

chapter 45

"chenle, i'm being serious. what happened with you and daiyu?"

but jisung didn't get an answer, being completely ignored by chenle, who just closed the door of their dorm after entering, locking him out of there.

"hey! i live here too! open the door!"

once again, he didn't get any reaction.

"look, i know you well enough to know that you're struggling with something, and keeping it inside is not gonna make it better. you should know better than bottling your feelings up by now."

for a short while, there was silence, until the door opened slightly.

jisung hesitantly pushed it open just a little wider, to be met with chenle lying on his bed, facing the wall.

'did he seriously run back there right after opening the door?'

"it's fine if you don't want to talk, i guess. but i'm here for when you do. there's got to be a solution for whatever went wrong."

and that was chenle's last straw.

the tears began to fall and his shoulders shook in a way he couldn't control, while he desperately tried to hold in the sobs that threatened to escape his mouth.

startled, jisung thought of what to do.

he wasn't the best at comforting people, and what if chenle simply wanted some space?

still, he decided to approach him, sitting next to where the older boy was lying, gently placing a hand on his shoulder, in an attempt to calm him down.

'he'll let me know if he doesn't want company.'

chenle kept crying, but jisung patiently waited for him to say something, not wanting to pressure him too much.

he just sat there, rubbing his friend's shoulders.

chenle wasn't one to cry a lot, he had initially been really shocked to see him break down like that.

about half an hour later, his crying had luckily died down, and he seemed ready to talk to jisung.

"it's all my fault, you know?"

"she didn't do anything wrong at all. i was an asshole, and i don't even know why i acted that way."

though jisung still didn't completely understand the situation, he looked at his friend in empathy.

"it couldn't have been that bad. but what even happened? did you fight?"

next to him, chenle nodded.

"didn't you watch the new episode of that stupid vlog? it's all there. i was explaining some chemistry shit, and suddenly she brings up kim seonwoo. and i don't even know why, but it made me so mad."

"he's just not a good person, i can feel that. even if he turns out to have nothing to do with the bloodshifters, he's still an asshole to the people around him. no matter how sweet he might be acting to daiyu." he sniffled, while jisung carefully listened to his rant, trying to judge the situation.

"then, what did you do?"

chenle looked down in shame.

"i ran out of there. but apparently, daiyu finished the video and came searching for me. didn't take her long either."

"she asked me what the problem was, and i tried to explain why i didn't like the guy, but she wouldn't listen to me. not even when i told her about the tattoo. so i said that he was just trying to get in her pants."

jisung's eyes widened.

"why would you even say that...?"

"well, it's what it looks like to me. though maybe i shouldn't have let her know, yeah. whatever, i was really angry back then."

with a shake of his head, the younger boy sighed.

"it's obviously not 'whatever' if it's got you crying like this."

but chenle ignored that last statement of his, and instead continued his story.

"then she got really mad, yelling at me about thinking that nobody would want to be friends with her if it wasn't for her body, or something. which is obviously not true. i'm friends with her too, aren't i? and donghyuck and mark."

jisung frowned.

'i swear, he's done nothing but fuck things up with daiyu ever since day one.'

of course he'd never say it like that, especially since it was partially her own fault too.

"we were in this hallway by the auditorium, right? and she kind of had me cornered by the wall, and was just generally too close. but i said something so stupid, ji, i swear."

chenle buried his face in his hands at the mere thought of it.

bracing himself, jisung questioned; "what was it?"

"my dumb ass just went 'i just don't want you to get hurt.' like, what the actual hell?"

"well, it's the truth, isn't it? you don't want her getting hurt. you want to protect her from the danger seonwoo may bring."

chenle turned his head to look at his friend, who didn't quite see the problem.

"i mean, yeah, it is, but still. it made things so weird, really. she just looked at me for a while, i think she found it just as stupid as i did. and then she kept screaming about how i should stay out of her business."

okay, now jisung started to see the issue.

"and then?" his tone was expectant.

"i left."

'of course he did.'

"and you haven't talked to her since?"

the chinese boy shook his head, while jisung sighed once again.

"well, i won't lie to you — i don't see that many easy ways out of there either. maybe apologising, though you were really just being honest. so like, tell her that you're sorry you were so harsh or something. she doesn't really strike me as the type to easily accept apologies though."

maybe he wasn't being of much help, but at least he was trying.

"the other way would be a bit more difficult, and — assuming the seonwoo dude is related to the blood shifters — dangerous too. but hypothetically speaking, you could try gathering more evidence against him to convince daiyu to drop him."

he knew very well which of the two chenle would choose.

when it came to daiyu, there was no way that he would do something as hurtful to his pride as apologising.

wiping the tears of his face once again, chenle stood up and looked at him with a firm expression, though it was hard to take him seriously with his red, swollen eyes and pout.

"let's go with the second one. the question is just; where to start?"

__________________________________

seonwoo's last name reveal!

do y'all even remember him though?