II

“Are you sure you do not want to go to my house this weekend? My parents would not care.” Jaemin tried to persuade Donghyuck yet again, but he just ignored it.

“And having to put up with you and Renjun for two whole days? No thanks. I'm fine,” Donghyuck replied, making the other two boys laugh.

“Ok. You know that.” Jaemin said and pulled Donghyuck into his arms, squeezing him against his body “See you on Monday.”

Renjun said goodbye, and then they saw Donghyuck turn around and go back inside the school building. The two followed the path he made until Donghyuck vanished from his visions.

“So... did you tell him you're sharing a room with Mark?” Renjun asked when he made sure Donghyuck was far enough away not to listen.

Jaemin sighed. “If I say so, what do you think will happen?”

“I do not know exactly. He does not want to talk about it. Since Mark has come he says absolutely nothing,” Renjun replied.

“Should we be worried?”

Renjun thought for a moment, but ended up not responding because the car horn of Jaemin's mother called them, and they were not interested in talking about it when they got home.

It was the end of the week, and the students were released to go to their parents' house, excepting students who were punished or those who simply preferred to stay in school over the weekend, which was not really a problem for Donghyuck. He did not want to have to stay with his father telling him what to do or talk for hours, it definitely was not a hard choice to make, and for a thousand times, he would rather stay in school than have to go home.

It had been days since the students finally calmed down with the arrival of Mark and Jeno. They were already settled, and now they could walk down the aisles without so many curious looks or uncomfortable feeling.

As they were classmates, Donghyuck exchanged a few words with Jeno during class, and always ran into him in the hallways, but with Mark, he had the impression that they were on completely opposite poles because they never met or saw each other during the day, perhaps because Mark was from another series, and quickly made friends with the older students, especially Lucas, who was from the same classroom as him. Not that Donghyuck wanted to meet him out there, he was really relieved never to have to exchange a word with Mark, and he hoped it would continue like this for the rest of the year.

The lonely boy made his way to the school cafeteria, he had not had breakfast yet as soon as the morning ring sounded, Renjun and Jaemin dragged him out of school just to say goodbye, which was not necessary because soon they would be back. After he picked up his food, he sat down at one of the tables, the place was not as crowded as he used to be during the weekdays, but there were still some students sitting around. He spent a few minutes looking around as he relished his food, and was startled when Jeno suddenly appeared at his side, with the same smile that Donghyuck particularly loved.

“Hey, good morning,” Jeno greeted, making Donghyuck face him.

“Good morning,” he replied.

“Can I sit here?” Jeno asked, and Donghyuck pondered for a few seconds what he was supposed to say.

“Yea”

Jeno smiled, and quickly settled down beside Donghyuck, who was still eating his breakfast and wondering why he wanted to sit next to her, when there were so many other vacant places in the entire cafeteria.

“Why are you up so early?" Jeno started a conversation “It's saturday”

Donghyuck wondered the same. “Actually, I went to leave my friends at the door of the school. Pretty weird, huh? Considering they will be back in two days.”

Jeno laughed. “I do not think so.” He looked Donghyuck in his eyes, but the younger boy could not bear to look at him for a long time and turned his eyes away.

“And what are you doing here? I mean... did not want to go home?” Donghyuck asked, trying to disguise the heat that his face.

“I thought about it, but my brother stayed in school, so I did the same.”

“His brother?”

“Mark. You know him, do not you? They were friends,” Jeno asked, making Donghyuck almost choke on food.

“Y-yes. We knew each other.” Donghyuck was clearly uncomfortable with the subject of the conversation, so Jeno chose to change the subject.

“Did your friends go home? Is not it boring to be here alone? Not much time has passed, but I feel that I will die of boredom.”

Donghyuck laughed. “Over time you find out there are lots of things to do here,” he said “we can have fun invading the teachers' restricted wing, then jumping off the bathroom window and running off to drink in the bar right there,” Donghyuck said and made Jeno smile. The younger boy was enchanted by the sound of Jeno's laughter, and he found it incredible how his eyes formed a perfect moon, almost closing completely when he laughed.

“Can we really