Something's Wrong
Park Chanyeol for President
It was lunchtime. Chanyeol just quickly took whatever served on the cafeteria and walked into the usual table he always sat on with his friends. Strangely, Chanyeol didn't have that much of an appetite. That was strange because he was a big eater by nature. He didn't even touch his food and just absent-mindedly played with it.
"What's wrong, Chanyeollie? You've been abnormally quiet today."
Luhan sat in front of him on the lunch table and started munching whatever he got on his plate.
"Huh? Nothing." That was a terrible lie because, hell yes, something was wrong and it was that obvious. He couldn't even pull off his trademark grin or smile or what.
"Ayo, brother." Minseok sat beside him and frowned a little, seeing that Chanyeol kept rolling the kimbap around on the plate and seemed to have no intention to eat it.
"Dude, if you don't wanna eat it, at least don't play with it."
"What? Oh, sorry."
Baekhyun and Kyungsoo later showed up with enough cartons of milk for all of them.
"Where's Sehunnie?" Baekhyun asked, noticing the absence of the maknae.
"He's in the hall. Second-year students have a briefing for their field trip next week." Luhan casually answered without turning his attention from his food.
"Ah, yes. The field trip. Where are they going this year?" Kyungsoo asked.
"I heard they're going to Jeju," Minseok said.
"Really? Whoa, they're lucky." Last year, they went to a famous hot spring in Daejeon. This year's trip sounded a lot more exciting, but their trip last year left so many good memories as well.
"Guys, remember our trip last year?" Baekhyun chuckled. It was exciting, thrilling, and embarrassing at the same time. I mean, these five boys created a mess there; something legendary to tell their grandchildren.
"Yeah, it was a lot of fun, right Chanyeollie?" Chanyeol was just blankly chewing the straw on his milk carton.
"Chanyeollie?" Baekhyun shook Chanyeol's shoulder a bit, gaining a slight gasp from the latter.
"Ah, yes, Baekhyunnie?"
"Are you okay? You're spacing out just now."
"Really? Ah, I guess I need to wash my face."
And just like that, Chanyeol left the table. Little did he know that Baekhyun was worried to death at the moment. Their eyes followed his figure until he could no longer be seen from their seats.
"Is he sick?" Baekhyun stole several glances to the cafeteria door to see if Chanyeol was coming back already.
"Seriously, what's going on with him?" Luhan leaned his cheek on his palm, taking out his phone to text Sehun.
"Maybe it has something to do with that tan boy we met yesterday." Minseok was still busy finishing his plate while the rest of them stared at him.
"What?" He asked, staring back at each of his friends.
"Hmm... What was his name again?" There must be something up with this boy, Baekhyun thought.
"Jongin? Jongout? Something like that."
***
Jongdae was sleeping on the couch, eyes staring lazily at whatever was on TV. Kris was God-knows-where and Jongin hadn't come back from the other dimension. There was no one to troll. Things got really boring and Jongdae chose to go to his very own paradise: the laboratory.
He grabbed some apple juice from the fridge and made his way to the basement, where he could spend his day and night, unaware of the time and space around him.
"How do I live without you, baby?" Jongdae smiled at all the machines in front of him.
Machines were his only friends before he met Kris and Jongin. He was always a nerdy, pathetic, solitude guy who spent most of his time working in his laboratory, locking himself underground, away from reality.
And that was probably why he befriended Kris and Jongin. They didn't mind him being his weird self; that's what people said.
Being a social outcast for almost his entire life, there's only one thing Jongdae wanted to do: to turn impossible things possible.
That way, people would appreciate him.
And he did.
"Jongdae!" Out of the blue, Jongin was there sitting on his desk.
"Whoa, dude. You scared the out of me!" Jongdae slapped his arm while Jongin just shrugged it off and laughed.
"Hey, tell me. How was it?" Jongdae threw his bottle of apple juice, which Jongin received happily. Teleporting took a lot of energy.
"It was hard." Jongin let out a long sigh.
"Did you tell him about us right away?"
"Not really..."
Jongdae dramatically raised his left eyebrow. "And what do you mean by 'not really'?"
"Man, I really need to talk to Kris first."
"Was he as cute as–"
"Jongdae!"
"Come on, everyone knows you got a crush on our Chanyeol, the Chanyeol we know. Who knows if–"
"Jongdae. Stop it." Jongin grabbed his collar. He was too tired to fight or even to argue with his friend. But sometimes, Jongdae went too far and Jongin needed to stop him. "Look, it's only between you and me."
He saw that again; that painful gaze in Jongin's eyes.
"I know, sorry," Jongdae muttered. Jongin released his grip and threw himself to Jongdae's comfortable desk chair.
"Jongdae, are you there?" They could hear Kris voice booming through the stairway connecting Jongdae's little paradise to their kitchen.
"Yeah. Come here, Kris. And bring me some food." Jongdae shouted as he his precious computer.
"Am I your maid or something?" Kris shook his head and chuckled.
"No, you're my mother. My lovely mother. Now get your here as soon as possible or Jongin won't tell us his precious discovery."
"Jongin? You're back already?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"Is there anything wrong?" Kris could sense the unsure, restless glance in Jongin's eyes.
"I don't think he could do it, Kris."
An awkward silence between Kris and Jongin took over Jongdae's laboratory.
Author's note:
Hello readers ^^ So, I'm going to ask you guys something...
Do you think that the story flows too slowly? Or are you guys fine with it?
Anyway, something big will be unveiled in the next chapter... or maybe not? Haha
Until then...
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