ADOMANIA || zhong chenle

chapter 46

around his friends, chenle had gone back to his usual self.

that talk with jisung had done him well, and really helped him sort out his thoughts.

around daiyu... well, he simply didn't talk to her.

for her, things were pretty much the same as before their fight too, except for the lack of interaction with him, of course.

unlike chenle, the girl hadn't told any of her friends what had gone off betweem them, though she knew that yua would be there to listen to her if she ever felt like it.

life felt pretty boring to daiyu without her little whatever-you-want-to-call-it that she had with chenle though.

there was nobody to fight with, or discuss what would happen if satan met santa.

they actually had that conversation once.

a couple of weeks ago, the boy hadn't been able to sleep, and because of his decision (which was probably made by the three redbulls he had downed right before) to facetime her, she had ended up locked up in the bathroom, giggling about whatever stupid topics he talked to her about.

the memory left a bitter taste on her tongue.

slumped against yua, daiyu was currently sitting at the side of the outdoor training field, observing the few brainless idiots who were still training, despite having been dismissed almost a whole hour ago.

those idiots — including donghyuck, hyewon and seon-ok — were the kind of student that daiyu could simply not relate to, no matter how hard she tried.

since she was currently in a bit of a slump considering academics and her goals for the future, it was hard doing something more that what was necessary to get a passing grade.

with the chemistry project she was doing with chenle, it had been different.

he had that kind of effect on her; she felt challenged, like she had to do better than him.

pretty difficult in a teamwork-assignement, but still. he managed to light that flame of competitiveness inside of her.

'there i go, thinking about him again,'

she silently sighed, internally cursing herself for letting her thoughts drift to zhong chenle once again.

but speak — more like think — of the devil!

no other than the boy she least wanted to see appeared right in front of her, his face making it evident that the feeling of displeasure was mutual.

"you left this on the bench in gym 3."

a hard, metallic object landed on her lap; her phone.

"uhh... thanks."

her response was dry and awkward, but she didn't feel the least bit guilty about that.

before walking off, chenle decided that he had yet another important thing to share with her.

"and tell your boyfriend to calm down a little. that bastard almost blew my head off today."

daiyu was left to understand what in the world he possibly could've meant, while yua was loving the drama that was unfolding right in front of her eyes.

"you have a boyfriend?" she giggled, playfully hitting daiyu's arm. "why didn't you tell me?"

the older girl chuckled too, though it was more of an empty, dull laugh.

"didn't know that either, how nice of him to inform me. no but actually, who was he talking about?"

for the sake of not worsening daiyu's already bad mood, yua held back the mocking laugh she was about to let out.

"kim seonwoo, who else?"

"ugh. he seriously needs to let it go. i can be friends with whoever i want. at least seonwoo's nice, i wouldn't mind dating him."

yua's eyes widened. she had been so convinced of her best friend developing feelings for a certain chinese second year boy, that the words coming out of her mouth left her in shock.

'that's bad. i don't like the dude much either.'

while she didn't have as much of a serious issue with him as chenle did, yua still wasn't the biggest fan of daiyu's new friendship.

daiyu was aware of that, but she also knew that if something was seriously wrong, yua would have been more persistent on the topic.

out of boredom, daiyu fiddled with the object in her hands, turning it on.

she gaped at the picture of the lockscreen in awe.

'did i seriously not change it?'

it was a childhood picture of chenle that she had found lying around in his dorm once while they were working on the chemistry project.

it showed him in some kind of backyard, holding a monstrosity of a rifle in his hands, that was probably as big as he was back then.

she had found it absolutely hilarious and scanned it to set it as her wallpaper, despite the boy's protest.

'did chenle see this...?

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chenle would be lying if he said that he hadn't felt anything at seeing her wallpaper.

no, it had felt like a punch to the gut, making him once again feel guilty about his behaviour towards her.

though the training day had been a harsh reminder of why he wasn't fond of her friend with the ruby necklace.

to start off strong, he had been paired to train with him, nothing he couldn't handle.

air shifters were greatly underrated in the combat community. apparently, blowing a little bit of air around didn't sound powerful enough to some people, but one would be surprised of what a skilled air shifter was actually capable of.

so again — that wasn't what chenle was worried about.

in fact, he was more scared of himself than anything.

he couldn't let his anger get the best of him during a fight, or else his actions, and especially their outcome would be unpredictable.

but while combatting, chenle was quick to notice that it was the other one who was letting the emotions take over.

chenle was getting the uncomfortable feeling that kim seonwoo liked him about just as much as he probably liked his 'friend', with the difference that zhong chenle wasn't there to kiss his feet and the very ground he walked on.

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so, that facetime scene is something i had originally planned to write but then forgot about, though i kind of know what i want to do with that...

but like, thoughts?

it's been quite a while since i asked for any feedback lol