01. Chewing

To love someone and to be in love with someone, are two completely different things. You love your parents, your closest friends and even your favorite sport. You can love anything and everything. But it becomes harder when you are in love. You can tell some someone is in love with you, just by the way they say your name tells it all. You just know that your name is safe in their bay.

Kind of like chewing gum.

Always getting stuck in places you don’t want it to get stuck in is what chewing gum is best known for. Love isn’t so different either. Having person, you’re in love with stuck in your head, isn’t one hundred percent pleasant. 7 young boys found that out in the worse way possible.

Experience.

***

The boys were in their club room – the room where they hang out at most lunch breaks and even after school and weekends, despite one of them going to a different school because of their age. It was like their second home. Somewhere where they felt safe and warm in each other’s comfort. Or at least, what Jeno thought it would be.

“DO YOU WANNA GO?” Donghyuk screamed in between chews from his gum. In his left hand was a pillow, acting as his shield, on the other was a pool noodle. Yes, a pool noodle.

“FIGH ME!” Chenle shouted in Chinese, mimicking the same posture Donghyuk was in.

Holding up all his defenses, and spitting his chewing gum on the floor, Donghyuk yelled, “I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU SAID, BUT YOU’RE GOING DOWN!”

From the sidelines were the rest of the boys. Clueless Mark, who was also the eldest, had no idea what do to. He had already tried to calm the children, but it was no use. They just wouldn’t listen to him anymore. So he sat on the floor, chewing his gum until the boys would eventually stop on their own.

Then, from each side of the room, pillows were thrown everywhere. No, not like in sleepovers, but actual savagely thrown pillows that would knock anyone down if they weren’t too cautious. Joining the mix, were the pool noodles. While the pillows were being thrown around by only the two, Donghyuk and Chenle, they still had managed to find a way to fight one another with their pool noodles.

Seeing the fight, and finding it amusing while also fun, Jaemin decided to join in. He grabbed the nearest pillow to his right and threw it across the room and all the way to Jisung’s lap. The youngest chuckled then clutched the pillow with both his hands and chucked it back at Jaemin. Beside him, Renjun couldn’t help but grab two pool noodles in his hands. And in a split second, Jaemin was on the ground and holding the pillow with both hands, trying to pry off Renjun who sat on top of him, slapping him with the pool noodle.

Clueless Mark stopped chewing his gum and sat in the middle of the fight, magically dodging all the pillows and pool noodles by just sitting there. Amazing, it was, he sat frozen like a statue and stared off into wonderland, while the children started war with one another.

The only one who looked the slightest bit sane was Jeno.

Class president, straight A+ student and no. 1 boyfriend material, Jeno stood by the door way, chewing his own gum, and  had watched the whole situation transpire. It wasn’t like he had much choice anyways. If he had tried to stop the whole ordeal, he wouldn’t