Word Count: 3.5k

 

“Jeno you’ve been staring at him for the past thirty minutes.”

Chenle, Jeno’s beloved yet demonic friend, snaps him out of his thought. Jeno whips his head quickly to glare at his friend through his brown fringes, but the way he flusters and stutters over his words earns him a quiet laughter from the other.

“I- I was not.” Jeno scowls and slaps the younger boy’s thigh.

The only reaction he gets from the Chinese male is an eye roll and a disapproving shake of his head.

They were currently in the middle of Professor Oh’s class. The only class Jeno has with the boy who’s all sunshine and flowers, yet surprisingly quiet when class falls into session. Sometimes he’ll even catch the honey-skin boy in the library if he’s lucky.

The very first time Jeno laid his eyes on him was on the first day of the new spring semester.

That day he had arrived at the lecture hall 10 minutes prior to the official class time. Jeno had convinced Chenle that they should go to the lecture hall early because the class has over 200 students and he didn’t want to fight for a good seat. His friend may have grumbled the entire walk there, but Jeno made it up to him by treating him dinner that evening.

Who knew that a boring lecture class would be where it all started?

The golden boy stumbled into the lecture hall a few minutes after them and had asked if the seat next to Jeno was taken. It took Jeno by surprise because, one, there was still plenty of time before class and two, many seats were still open to claim. Yet the sun-kissed boy still had asked for the seat next to him. The boy was definitely way out of Jeno’s league in his leather jacket and ripped blue jeans. For once in his life, Jeno felt underdressed for college as he decided to attend the first day of class in only his joggers and a marvel graphic t-shirt.

Jeno never replied to the boy since he was too caught up idolizing the said male, so Chenle chirped an “it’s available” instead. The few minutes before class that day felt like a lifelong daydream to Jeno. The boy was so talkative and friendly as he leaned forward in his seat to spike a conversation with Chenle (seeing as Jeno, being stuck in the middle, wasn’t uttering a word). Jeno thought his voice was uniquely beautiful though. He may have stolen way too many glances at the boy that day, but if the boy noticed, he never said anything about it.

What really made Jeno develop a crush on the said boy was when Professor Oh had walked into the room and the boy suddenly did a complete 180, going from bright and sunny to quiet and obedient. And oh boy, was his side profile good looking. Eventually the lecture was cut short since it was just the first day of class, used to go over the syllabus along with a short introduction of the professor himself. As he and Chenle were packing up he didn’t expect the sunshine boy to tap his shoulder while beaming, “name’s Donghyuck by the way. Thanks for letting me sit next you!”

“U-uh oh yeah, haha. No problem.”

Jeno didn’t even get to tell him about his name in return.

Jeno has been whipped ever since and Chenle doesn’t stop making fun of him for it.

After the first two weeks of lecture, Donghyuck no longer sat next to them. Jeno can only assume either Donghyuck made a new friend in lecture or dragged his friend to sign up for the class. Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon the golden boy would come in laughing and joking with a taller male by his side as they took their seats near the front row. Something small twisted in Jeno’s stomach each time, but he convinced himself that Donghyuck and the unnamed male were nothing but friends. Jeno has seen Donghyuck with others in the library and this male wasn’t getting any special treatment. Jeno holds onto some of that hope as motivation to approach Donghyuck one day.

“Dude you’re staring again.” Chenle mumbles after leaning in, not trying to get caught for talking during class.

Jeno doesn’t regret shoving the smug grin off his friend’s face. It was well deserved in his opinion.

 

-          -          -          -

 

Jeno hates Wednesdays for no particular reason.

It just the energy out of him, and it makes him crave the warmth of his bed. If Jeno could sleep through Wednesdays, he would.

Sadly, on Wednesdays he has an awful academic schedule. His macroeconomy theory lecture starts early in the morning at 8 a.m. and his next class doesn’t start until 1 in the afternoon. What Jeno complains about the most is that he can’t even go back to his apartment during the time gap since it was too far from campus.

The only thing that made Wednesdays bearable was he got to spend his free time in the library.

What’s important is how he catches Donghyuck in the library every Wednesday at brunch time.

Jeno doesn’t think he’s stalking; it was a pure coincidence when he decided to stay on the fourth floor two weeks ago and spotted the boy. (“Staring at him for hours makes you a stalker, Jeno.”) And if sometimes Jeno can hear Chenle’s sass about his little crush, he ignores it. It’s a mere admiration.

Jeno doesn’t mean to stare, but it gets hard not to when Donghyuck and his group of friends aren’t exactly “library friendly”. But because the librarian is located on the first floor, they never get told off for being too loud. Occasionally some students get up and leave, but no one has ever outspokenly told them to shut up.

Donghyuck is a lot prettier when he’s smiling and chatting away anyways.

Okay so maybe Jeno is a little more than whipped for the sunshine boy, but could anyone blame him? Who wouldn’t fall for Donghyuck? He was perfect in every sense.

Jeno had casually taken his self-proclaimed spot in the library, a window seat that was a few seats away from Donghyuck’s usual spot (in Jeno’s defense, he had sat there first two weeks ago and just decided to stick with it). His laptop screen shone brightly with a digital copy of his textbook, but he was getting distracted by the number of students waiting in line for a Japanese food truck outside the library down below.

“I’m telling you Renjun, it’s not a bad idea!”

The familiar voice makes Jeno’s body go tense. He didn’t even have to second guess himself; he knew it was Donghyuck’s voice right away. Jeno subtly tries to steal a glance. That brief stare makes him stare for a few seconds longer before he can finally tear his gaze away.

Jeno pretends to be busy with his e-textbook, not that anyone was paying attention to him though.

Today it was just Donghyuck and his friend Renjun. With how loud they always are it wasn’t hard for Jeno, and the other surrounding students, to hear half of their conversations. Thus, it was quick for Jeno to identify half of Donghyuck’s friends. Much to Chenle’s dismay, he would have to agree with Jeno on this one.

“Hyuck I’m not saying that it’s not a bad idea-“

“Then do it!”

“-because it’s a terrible one you dip.”

Jeno thinks the amount of profanity Renjun uses in a day may be the equivalent amount of profanity he uses in a whole year. Jeno thanks 10 years of his life that Renjun isn’t his friend or else his mom would be super disappointed in him for being friends with a “bad influencer”.

“Oh come on! I promise it’s effective. You saw how confident Yuta hyung got.”

“Didn’t he get rejected the first two times?”

“That’s not the point Renjun. The point is that the tutoring sessions help!”

“So I have to risk getting embarrassed twice before things work out? No thanks.”

Jeno glances up again and catches the sight of Renjun rolling his eyes, arms crossed, and head held high. Donghyuck’s back is facing against Jeno’s sight, yet even from behind Jeno can tell he’s slowly getting irritated.

“Okay first of all, Dejun isn’t like Sicheng. He won’t turn you down. Second of all-“

“Oh my god Donghyuck do you not know how to whisper?! Everyone will know at this point, jesus.” Jeno hears