"he said WHAT?!" both chenle and renjun exclaimed as soon as jeno told them about mark's encounter with a girl in the morning.

"i swear he said it." jeno laughed with his two other friends.

mark arrived last at their table at the canteen, and seeing his three friends laughing their asses off, he didn't need long to figure out that jeno had told them everything.

"hello, hello, jeno's boyfriend." renjun greeted him while wiggling his brows.

"very funny." mark smiled fakely, dropping his tray next to chenle's.

"indeed." the younger chinese replied befaure laughing like a dolphin.

mark let out a long sigh before sitting down and digging inside his food.

his friends won't be doing anything else than laughing at him, so, might as well eat.

"seriously, what went through your head?" renjun asked between two laughs.

"this girl had sex with the whole school! i don't want a girlfriend like that!" mark complained.

"but using the gay excuse!" chenle basically screamed. "that's so not you!"

mark rolled his eyes as chenle and renjun burst out laughing once again.

"i'm not sure you would have been better if you were facing a random person." mark tried defending himself.

"i have a valid reason, because i have a boyfriend." renjun replied, clinging onto jeno's side.

"chenle then. i can already imagine you in a gay panic." mark pointed an accusing finger at his canteen neighbour.

"me?" the chinese boy huffed. "i would have done better than you, that's for sure."

mark raised a brow. "i'm not so sure."

"are you challenging me?" chenle asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"exactly."

"well, if you'd like then. i'll go ask the number of a boy of your choice, right now. just to prove you that i actually have balls." chenle said proudly.

"that's completely differ- "

"yeah, do that." renjun cut mark.

chenle glared at his chinese friend before looking back at the canadian.

"okay, ask a boy's number." mark nodded. "and have a small conversation."

"okay." chenle rose to his feet. "which one?"

mark looked around the canteen for a few seconds, searching for a perfect boy for his friend.

he wasn't searching for someone who seemed too kind, because he didn't want to make chenle's job an easy one.

and after a few seconds, he finally found his perfect target.

"him. at the table in the corner." mark declared with a smirk seeing the boy seeming to be in an angry state.

✯

donghyuck sat down next to jaemin at their usual canteen table, in the very corner of the room, where people didn't come much to sit.

"is everything okay?" jaemin asked, looking at the boy by his side. "do you need something else?"

donghyuck rolled his eyes at his friend's overprotectiveness. "i'm not a little at the moment, you know?" he said. "you can treat me like a 19-year-old."

"sorry." jaemin apologised. "i tend to forget..."

donghyuck shrugged, using his fork to push the vegetables that had been placed messily in his plate. he wasn't a big fan of boiled carrots.

"you know... i could find myself a new place to live if i'm a burden to jisung and you..." donghyuck said, playing with his food and avoiding eye-contact.

"what are you talking about?" jaemin asked, confused.

"you and jisung are always taking care of me, day and night, as if i was a baby... i don't complain at all, i absolutely love it." donghyuck explained. "but because of me, you can't live your lives the way you'd like. none of you found a lover, and that's mainly because you need to take care of me..."

before jaemin could answer, jisung arrived at the table with a bright smile, and placed his tray in front of donghyuck's.

"hello, how has this morning been?" he questioned joyfully as he sat down. "oh... huh... what's happening?" he asked, seeing donghyuck's sad face and jaemin's almost angry one.

"donghyuck here thinks he's a burden to us." jaemin said, looking at jisung in the eye.

"what?!" jsiung exclaimed. "hyuck, you know that this is completely false! why would you imagine that?"

"because none of us has boyfriends and live our lives the way we want." jaemin responded instead of the brunette.

"donghyuck... you can't say that. this is completely false..." jisung said, his brows furrowing.

both jisung and jaemin couldn't understand why donghyuck even thank of thigs like this.

they had taken care of him for so long...

they were as close as family members now.

those questions weren't meant to get asked.

"we do not want you to move out of our little home, hyuck." jaemin said.

"jaemin is right, donghyuck. we've been together since forever, and we will stay together." jisung said. "we'll never get tired of you, hyuck. none of us has boyfriends because we aren't looking for one, our main priority is you. no one else."

salty drops started to leave donghyuck's eyes as the older boy sniffled.

he was touched, and he couldn't believe that his friends were still willing to take care of him when he took all of their time.

he couldn't even imagine how much taking care of a little could be tiring.

"hello, my friends over there asked me to- is there a problem?"

jisung and jaemin turned towards the stranger that had just come next to them, in the furthest table of the canteen.

it was a small boy, with blondish hair and a bubbly persona.

jisung even found himself mumbling a small 'cute'.

"he's a bit overwhelmed, don't worry." jaemin said, embracing donghyuck in a hug and hiding his face in the crook of his neck so that he was hidden from the stranger.

meeting strangers could lead to more stress for donghyuck, and stress led to him slipping, and none of them needed a little hyuck to deal with right now.

"oh, it happens sometimes." the stranger nodded. "i'm sorry for him."

"it's okay." jaemin smiled. "what were you here for?"

"oh yeah!" the stranger turned around to look at jisung whose angered expression was now replaced by a small smile. "i'm chenle, and my friends over there asked me to talk with you." he said, pointing at a table of three boys on the other end of the canteen.

jisung and jaemin both looked in this direction, finding the three males looking at them.

"they asked you to have a talk with me?" jisung repeated, one of his brows rising in confusion.

"well, they asked me to get your number because they thought i was a scaredy cat and that i wasn't able to have a talk with cute strangers without panicking." chenle said at a thousand miles an hour. "turns out i can."

jisung looked at the small chinese with a blush forming on his cheeks.

had this little guy just called him cute?

"so... you want my number?" he asked, trying to forget about the 'cute' part.

"basically, yeah." chenle nodded. "if you don't want, you can give me a random number and i'll do as if it was yours."

jisung chuckled before pulling his phone out of his pocket. "put your number in my phone. i'll put mine in yours." he declared under the bewildered eyes of jaemin.

"cool!"

chenle gave his phone to jisung and took the younger's phone.

he typed in his number and made sure to write a cute contact name for himself before giving the phone back to the boy.

"i'm sorry, i have one last question." chenle stated.

"go on."

"what's your name?" he asked, feeling shy suddenly.

"i'm park jisung." the younger replied with a smile.

"well, it was nice to meet you, park jisung. hope we can be friends." chenle said, giving the boy a toothy smile.

"same for me, chenle. and of course, let's be friends."

chenle giggled before waving the boys goodbye and heading back towards his table.

"this was weird." jaemin said with a huff.

"he's cute." jisung shrugged, looking at the small chinese boy hopping back to his table. "how's donghyuck?"

jaemin looked at the boy between his arms. "he fell asleep like a baby."

✯

"you were there for long." renjun said as soon as chenle sat down next to mark.

"i believe we had things to tell each other." chenle giggled.

"what did you talk about?" mark asked, obviously pissed that chenle had managed to talk and ask the number of this guy that seemed to be in an angry state.

"anything and everything..." chenle shrugged. "he's jisung, and we're friends now."

jeno snorted. "and more soon."