chenle's eyes fluttered opened, hermes' son slowly observing everything that was surrounding him and recalling the events of the night before.

despite still being on the boat, he didn't feel sick anymore.

the figure next to chenle groaned before readjusting its position, making chenle acknowledge the position he was in.

he was lying on his side, jisung's back facing him, and chenle had his arms hugging jisung's chest and their legs were entangled.

the chinese boy pulled away immediately, as if the contact of his and jisung's skins had burnt him.

why were they in this position?

chenle's first intuition was to say that jisung had initiated skinship, and that they had cuddled while they slept.

but chenle was very confused, because when he woke up, jisung wasn't hugging chenle or anything. jisung was peacefully lying on his side, facing his back to chenle.

but chenle was all over jisung, having his arms wrapped around the boy's torso as their legs were entangled. chenle was initiating this skin ship.

chenle felt his heart beating rapidly in his chest as he thought about jisung and himself, wondering what was going wrong with him.

there were thousands of questions turning around in his mind, begging to be answered, but chenle refused to answer them.

why was jisung always taking care of him?

why had chenle gotten to jisung's room yesterday night?

why had he accepted to be cuddled into his embrace?

why had he cuddled him in his sleep?

why was he feeling this nervous at the simple thought of his best friend?

why was he obsessed by him?

jisung groaned again, turning around in the bed and facing chenle who was standing beside the bed, his eyes fixed on the boy entangled with the covers.

chenle studied the boy carefully, staring at his features for long.

he looked so peaceful like that, asleep, like the flat sea after a long and violent storm.

his skin was so smooth and so perfect lit by the sun coming from the porthole.

the snores that were escaping his parted lips were slow and regular.

by the way, had these lips always been so tempting?

why was chenle suddenly feeling the need to get closer and i don't know... maybe kiss them?

chenle placed a hand over his chest when an image of him kissing his best friend appeared for a second in his mind.

his heart was beating so fast at this simple thought.

he started feeling so nervous, his hands getting sweaty.

he kept gulping the saliva that was endlessly producing in his mouth.

something was not right with him.

something had changed.

chenle's mind was getting filled with dozens of thoughts that came completely unorganized.

memories of him and jisung in the half-blood camp...

their quests...

their most precious memories...

all the good times they spent together...

their whole friendship...

bribes of the conversation he had had with donghyuck also surfaced in his mind, as if donghyuck was actually speaking to him.

you don't like me...

you like someone else...

this person is closer than you think.

he has always been there for you, and he will always be there for you.

let's add that he has been liking you for a long time, but too scared to tell you.

oh, and he will know how to protect you and keep you safe, i'm sure of that.

chenle's hands trembled as these words repeated in his mind.

he couldn't push them away from his mind.

he didn't know what was happening to him?

why was he becoming mad?

chenle's eyes fell on jisung who had groaned for the nth time.

thankfully, the sight of the younger boy made donghyuck's voice disappear inside his head.

he could finally breathe again, without feeling donghyuck's voice overwhelming him.

but he didn't breathe for long as donghyuck's voice was replaced by a lower voice he knew too well... jisung's voice.

it kept repeating sentences, ambiguous ones that had chenle questioning everything again.

you're so precious, lele...

we'll be together for ever, right?

i missed you...

you're the best...

i'm so happy for us...

it's like if we were actually more than friends...

however, a very last sentence resonated more than the others inside his mind, making him understand exactly what he needed to understand.

this sentence that had been pronounced the night before, when chenle was falling asleep, making him not 100% attentive of jisung's words...

i like you so much, chenle... i have for a long time... i really hope you could realise that... but even if you don't, just know that i'll always be there to take care of you...

"o-oh my god..." chenle gasped, suddenly feeling weak in the knee.

chenle exited the room, trying to be as silent as he could be.

as soon as the door was closed, he ran across the corridors, trying to find donghyuck in this giant floating maze.

"donghyuck!" he screamed out loud, looking around the room that was supposedly his. "donghyuck!" he tried again, this time inside the corridor.

"chenle?!"

chenle ran towards the voice immediately, ending up in one of the salons, where donghyuck was reading a book, sat on the velvet sofa.

"you were searching for me?" donghyuck raised a brow, placing his book down to look at chenle.

he didn't need to analyse the situation to understand what was happening.

he could hear chenle's heart beating madly inside his chest – and that was not because he had run across the corridors.

and also, jisung's name was glowing pink on top of his head.

"i-i know w-who i like..." chenle told, approaching aphrodite's son.

donghyuck gave him a smile. "you do?"

"it's jisung, isn't it?" chenle asked, placing his hand over his chest.

donghyuck didn't move one bit, his smile never disappearing as he stared into chenle's lost orbs.

"donghyuck, am i right?" chenle asked again.

"i'm glad you figured out your real feelings, chenle."

Ω

"so, are we going to talk now?"

renjun was sitting on the double bed him, jaemin and jeno had slept in the night before.

he had his arms crossed over his chest as he was staring at jeno and jaemin who were slowly waking up.

renjun had left the room a few minutes before to freshen-up and go to the bathroom, and he came back to the sight of jeno and jaemin sleeping entangled, leaving no place for renjun who had been the one in the middle since the beginning of the night.

"why aren't you in the bed?" jaemin asked, opening his eyes with difficulty as he let go jeno's arm.

"i went to the bathroom." renjun explained. "and now, we need to talk."

jeno and jaemin both sat up on the bed, leaving a bit of distance between their two bodies to ease the palpable tension inside the room.

"so..." jaemin coughed.

"well..." jeno did the same, rubbing his nape nervously.

renjun looked at the two boys, rolling his eyes.

"okay, i'll start." he declared. "i'll be completely honest with the two of you, and i don't care if this little speech has you two hating me or anything, but sometimes, the best strategy to adopt is to just let everything out, and i hope it will work."

jaemin and jeno both swallowed their saliva, exchanging a glance before looking back at the smaller boy and nodding.

"well, jeno, jaemin... i like you both. like, romantically and equally." renjun told. "i developed those feelings for jeno easily as he was acting like a gentleman towards me. jaemin, you were a tougher part since we had this little rivalry going on, but i guess the more you hate, the more you love, so, i developed feelings for you too."

jaemin was bewildered by this sudden statement – jeno had already heard part of it the night before, so he was prepared. ares' son opened his mouth to speak, not really knowing what to say after this.

however, he was cut by renjun.

"let me finish." renjun declared, making jaemin close his mouth again. "when i walked on you two being this... intimate yesterday night, something happened inside of me. i don't really know if it was something bad, or something good, but it definitely happened. on the one hand, i felt a lot of jealousy and hate towards both of you. like, i felt it unfair that jeno was making out with the jaemin i used to fight with, and at the same time, it felt unfair that jaemin was pleasuring the jeno that had made me feel so much things. i was scared too. seeing both of you like this made me guess that you had a thing for each other, and that i didn't have my place with you two guys, because you already had each other. but at the same time, on the other hand, a wave of hope hit me in the face. seeing the two of you like this, after all the mixed signals that both of you sent me, made me believe that what i had dreamt of could become possible. i started to believe that us three could happen, and that i wouldn't be the one left aside."

jeno and jaemin both had their mouths hanging open this time, their eyes fixed on the small boy whose face was getting wet by tears again.

they didn't know what to say, or what to do.

everything was so sudden...

all three of them obviously felt really strong feelings that overwhelmed them completely, but what could they do now?

seeing as neither jaemin nor jeno spoke for minutes, renjun sighed.

"you know everything now. i'll leave you two to... whatever you want to do. just please... take into consideration what i said. and try giving me an answer. either positive or negative. but don't make me wait for ever without giving me an answer."

and once this was said, renjun left the cabin, disappearing in the corridor under the two other boys' stares.

once renjun had disappeared of the landscape, jeno and jaemin faced each other, both still under the shock of what renjun had just said.

"i didn't know he had all of that going on inside his mind..." jeno stated.

"he's an intellectual, remember..." jaemin told.

"yeah, but... i don't know..." jeno sighed.

"jeno, i need to confess something." jaemin declared, trying ot push renjun's speech aside for a few seconds.

"y-yeah?" jeno raised a brow.

"i like you." he said bluntly, making jeno's eyes widen. "i like you, but i feel like i also have started developing feelings for renjun."

jeno nodded slowly, his hand finding its place over his chest inside of which his heart was getting out of hand.

"i need to confess something too..." he spoke, suddenly looking into jaemin's eyes. "i do like the both of you as well..."