Chenle was simply depressed the entire ride to school. 

His driver, Hyojong, assigned to him these past days to escort him to school and back, and to supervise Chenle to ensure he stayed put in his own house at all times, kept looking back on him at stops and wondering what in the name of all loud dolphins was wrong with the adolescent. Although Chenle had tried his best to seem pissed and ignorant of Hyojong's existence because he was only here to restrict him, he had by the third day of sitting in the same car as him started chattering loudly about anything and everything with the driver, Hyojong laughing along and commenting on all the stories he had to tell. However, today, Chenle sat slumped in his seat, as if he was a child who's pet guinea pig had just died. 

Hyojong cleared his throat, unsure of whether to ask Chenle what was bothering him, unsure of whether he had the right to. Chenle remained unresponsive, sitting corpse-like, with an unnaturally vice-like grip on his folder, his small pale knuckles even whiter than usual. 

A trumpet of a beep broke the silence, making Hyojong jump, realising he had been looking at Chenle for the majority of the red light. Chenle didn't even react to the loud noise, his eyebrows only furrowing, more likely at something going on in his head than what was happening around him. Giving up on him, Hyojong just assumed that he had failed a test or something, and turned around, switching the gear and driving ahead. 

Chenle, meanwhile, was barely able to keep up with his thoughts. To be absorbed in your thoughts, you had to understand them. His were bustling around, all different topics from different times, even in different languages. He had been running after them all morning, trying to catch at least one; he had knocked over a cereal box in his efforts at some point, bumped into a chair at another. He just gave up when he had sat himself in Hyojong's car, tired of his futile attempts. While some people might have kicked something, or clutched at their head, he just sat there in pure misery, acquiescing to his thoughts running around, knocking against and shouting over one another. 

He just sat like that for a while. 

Something pierced his mind, in the form of sound waves, and his thoughts fell over for a second. Furrowing his eyebrows, he took one and unraveled it. Ah, yes, the talk he and Renjun had had in their second year of knowing each other. 

They had been sleepy, they hadn't even been looking at each other, Chenle on his bed, and Renjun rolled up in a sleeping bag like kimchi on the floor. They had been conversing in Chinese, though exhausted from the project they had just been working on. Somewhere in the midst of their forgotten whispers, Chenle had suggested something; if they ever were outed involuntarily to their parents, and it didn't go well, they should have a "secret code". He had seen something similar in a movie, and it looked... cool. He himself wasn't out, back then. 

"Why?" enquired Renjun, turning to be heard clearer even though it an uncomfortable position. 

"Because," said Chenle, smiling as he never really thought he would be outed to his parents involuntarily. He wasn't really taking his own words seriously. "If we can't reach each other properly, we can send a short message! And we'll know what's going on, so we can help each other!"  Like those spies...

And he still remembered that night, spent thinking up a catchy code, so that they could reach each other if such a thing ever happened. Neither of us thought it was ever really gonna happen... I didn't, anyway-

"Right, time to go Chenle." Hyojong had parked the car, and clapped his gloved hands together, turning and nodding at Chenle.

"O-okay. Bye."

▼

Jeno handed Jaemin his iced coffee, and took a long drag of his own latté, which was quickly cooling down due to the amount of time he had neglected drinking it for fear of burning his mouth. 

"Thanks, Jen," Jaemin smiled at him sweetly and took the straw between his teeth, Jeno's heart pattering against his chest for a second. He really never got sick of Jaemin's smiles. 

"So," said Jaemin after he had taken a sip or two, "So." "What? I feel like I missed something, you're giving me that look you gave me after I left my cake in the oven for four hours." Jaemin laughed, recalling the stuttering Jeno after he saw the result of his mistake, the blackened cake that he had made, left to bake and forgotten. 

"No, idiot, I'm talking about Renjun. Have you heard from him? Did Chenle or Jisung send you anything?" Jeno shook his head forlornly, sighing at the thought of Renjun. "I hope he just lost his charger or something. Anyway, you wouldn't miss anything, we're putting everything on Renjun in the group chat so, yeah... I just hope Renjun comes in today." Jaemin nodded in sympathetic agreement, before his eyes widened and he grabbed Jeno's hand. "Look, it's Chenle! Let's go ask him if he's heard anything from Injun!" 

Jeno turned around to see the boy, before promptly being dragged along by his boyfriend towards the blond. He knew something was wrong, however, when he saw Chenle's dead stature. Jaemin slowed down before reaching him too, with a frown. "Chenle..? You- you good there?" Jaemin asked tentatively, waving his hand a little before the shorter's face, which was drooped forlornly below his sight. 

Chenle looked up at Jaemin, his mouth still shut, not a word of Renjun upon his lips as of yet. Jaemin looked towards the doors of the school then stepped back to acclaim a view of the corridor where Renjun's locker was located. "Where is he? Inj- Renjun, I mean. It's like," he glanced at his watch, "ten minutes till class starts. Isn't he here by now, usually?" He looked back down at Chenle, only to find him shaking his head. Jaemin looked at Jeno, then turned back to Chenle, "What? Why are you shaking your head? Chenle, what's wrong?" 

"He's n-not coming in today." Chenle finally spoke, but they were not the words that the couple wanted to to hear. Jeno swallowed, before saying "Well, w-why is that, Chenle? Did he tell you? That he wasn't coming in?" Chenle chuckled dryly, and it was the most alarming thing Jaemin had ever seen in his life, other than that burned cake. "Wait one sec," Jaemin held up his plastic cup with his pointer finger out, slipping his hand out of Jeno's to take out his phone and proceeded to tap out a quick SOS to Jisung. "Continue? Where is he- why isn't he able to attend school today?"

"He texted me last night." Jaemin would have choked on his drink if he had taken a sip. Jeno however, wasn't so lucky. Jaemin slapped him on the back while looking at Chenle like it was his fault Jeno was choking on a latté. 

Once Jeno had recovered from his coughing fit, he looked at Chenle expectantly, as if nothing had happened. "Well? What he say? Nothing's wrong, right? Right?" 

Chenle opened his mouth to answer, but Jisung came speed-walking towards them, immediately putting his arm around Chenle and looking at Jaemin, who nodded like "it's okay". Jeno looked from the newcomer to Jaemin in confusion, but Chenle just smiled at the familiar contact and continued speaking. "He sent me two messages. One- the first one- was code that we came up with a while ago for getting it to each other that we had- that we had been involuntarily outed and that our parents, or parent, in his case, weren't too happy about it." Jaemin held a hand up to his mouth while Jeno ran a hand through his hair stressfully. Jisung just sighed and rubbed Chenle's shoulder. "The second one was about his-"

The deafening screaming of a school bell rang out through the hallway, cutting Chenle off harshly. Students started running hither and tither, off to reach their classes before they were caught late. 

"The last one was about his father! We'll talk about why this is important later!" Chenle yelled over the mayhem, then spotted someone who had the same class as him now and scurried off to join them (if they were late it's better to show up with mutuals than alone). 

Jisung looked back over at the boy's retreating back, his teeth pressing his lips together, then shrugged and smiled at Jeno; they had class together now. Jeno pecked Jaemin on the cheek and then walked after Jisung, who was already off to their double-science class. He stopped to wait for Jeno at the end of the hallway, then they both ran around the corner of the corridor. 

Jaemin was left to run to music, wondering why Renjun talking about his dad was such a big deal. After all, it's normal and moral to stay in touch with both your parents after they divorce, even if don't see them all that often, right? 

🀱🀳🁉🁇🀸🀱

its so bad oh my god I'm yELlinG

anyway svT COMEBACK SOON AND IM FREAKING OUTTT AAAHHHHHHH I CANT FUCKING WAIT THEIR TEASER PHOTOS ARE SO GOOD AND NOT TO BE BIASED BUT JISOOS ONE