if there was one thing jaemin had learned in his eighteen years of life, it was to never cross lee jeno. for all of his polite and serious demeanor, pissing off jeno was like pulling the pin from a grenade and sitting right on top of it. so when he sees jeno and serena coming out of the same car, with icy looks and less than kind body language, jaemin thinks shit's about to hit the fan.

it seems chenle and jisung have come to the same conclusion because they both jumble something together about having second year orientation (school started over a month ago; it was literally the beginning of april) and run in the direction of the second year classrooms. serena takes one last look at jeno, says something that the rest of the boys can't hear, and walks in the same direction. 

jaemin had no idea what serena had said but by the look on jeno's face, he could tell that it wasn't something that was readily discussable. he didn't look mad, like jaemin had expected him to. he looked lifeless, as if all the fight had gone with his estranged sister.

"let's go to class?" renjun proposes, and jeno just follows, head hung and thoughts all over the place. 

none of the boys comment on jeno's sullen behavior for the next three days. their schedule consisted of the same few things: pretend like everything was alright within the group, go to class, disappoint serena at practice some more, and repeat.

honestly, it was suffocating. nothing could ever impress serena - it was as if she had glued a stick to the inside of her ass. there was literally no other reason for her shitty attitude, jaemin concluded, voicing as much to chenle, who snorts and nearly alerts jeno who just looks up at them dully and looks back down to his half-finished korean homework.

which jaemin's pretty sure wouldn't even be possible, given the fact that jeno's pretty much braindead at this point, going through the motions without any speck of humanity showing through. it was as if serena had ripped the soul clean out of him.

two days before the game where the scouts would be coming, haechan decides to stage an intervention. 

"come on, jeno. you have got to get out of your head," haechan protests, looping his arm around the aforementioned boy. jeno whips up, shaking haechan off of him in cold fury.

"i am not in my head about anything. just...just leave me alone. i don't want to say or do anything i regret," jeno says, and for the first time in three days, jaemin sees a little bit of his old self shining through. and desperate times call for desperate measures so jaemin does what he has to: pisses him off.

"chan's right, for the first time in his life," jaemin starts, ignoring the whines from haechan and cautionary looks from jisung. "you're being an asshole, jeno. what. so your sister's a bitch. it's not like you can do anything about it."

jeno's eyes are viciously red, as if the devil himself decided to incarnate within him for a split-second. his fists are balled at his sides, arms tense, and jaemin could practically see the thoughts flying around inside the older's head. 

"don't call my sister a bitch." the words come out low, dangerous, and concerning. what the fuck. what the fuck. what the f - what. 

jeno had been in a pissy mood for the past four days because of his sister and now he's offended that jaemin says it? 

"look, i get that you guys are worried, but don't insult my sister. i've got a lot on my plate right now and i really don't to make it worse by fighting with you guys." and with that, jeno is gone, and the boys are left more worried than they had been before.

"what, and i cannot stress this enough, the fuck was that all about?" chenle says when jeno's out of earshot. haechan and jaemin are both silent. was there really an answer? 

it only gets worse. jeno is missing when they get to lunch; renjun having said that jeno had upped and out of english the moment it ended, having practically sprinted in the opposite direction of their usual spot after having received a text.

lunch is silent, with haechan actually doing his homework for the first time the entire quarter, renjun's nose in a book, and chenji quietly playing games on their phones. it's stifling. suffocating. jaemin grumbles that he's going on a walk to which he receives half a grunt from renjun and rolls his eyes.

the air was stuffy, gross, and humid. way too humid for the beginning of april, jaemin muses, when he turns the corner of the building to see park jisoo, leaning against the wall, cigarette in her hand. she lets out a breath, the smoke captive in her mouth releasing into the air, forming clouds in the air. 

it takes five minutes for jisoo and jaemin to find a secluded space. it takes a minute of small talk before jisoo finally fists jaemin's tie and pulls him in for a kiss. a deep, hot, and heavy kiss. the type that leads to something else. the type that you let every single ounce of your anger into. by the time jaemin pulls away from the girl, her lips are swollen from the force of his kiss, bitten red and eyes slightly unfocused. 

"holy shit. you must be as frustrated as i am," jisoo comments, slightly out of breath. jaemin raises an eyebrow at that.

"you good?" jisoo's aware that this is just politeness from the male's behalf but she can't help but confide in him.

"not really. i don't fucking know. i don't know what to do." and from there, everything comes tumbling out. 

it turns out that jisoo's lady love, kang youngmi, had broken up with her, stating that she had gotten 'bored of dating girls' and that being bisexual was 'gross'. she'd left jisoo with the scathing advice to 'pick a side' and that she was just confused. 

"are you confused?" jisoo's eyebrows furrow at that. her kiss-swollen bottom lip finds its way into a slight pout as she contemplates the question for the moment.

"no. i like girls. a lot. but i like guys a lot too," she concludes, gesturing to jaemin's figure with an air of cheekiness. "it just fucked with my head because i wasn't expecting it from my girlfriend, you know what i mean?"

kind of. jaemin hums in response, nodding.

"a little. i mean, i don't know because i feel like girls and guys have it different when it comes to shit like this but, yeah. i think i know what you're talking about." the pair fall into a comfortable silence. this felt nice. usually it was make-out, run away, tell your friends what happened, ignore him for a while, and then eventually come. repeat the cycle. 

this was a first. it was nice. 

"by the way, i figured you should know because you're his best friend but jeno's eating lunch with that new kid? park serena? i don't know. i thought you might not know," jisoo says, stretching her limbs. jaemin glances at the older girl with a look of thinly veiled confusion. 

"oh yeah. uh, thanks." the bell rings, not allowing jaemin to press for details but with the glint in jisoo's eyes, he has a feeling he's gonna get them anyway.

"serena's hot. so's jeno. you think it runs in the family?"

and with that, she's walking away, a slight swing in her hips that's absolutely hypnotizing in the eyes of jaemin. cute. 

the rest of the day goes by in a blur, with jaemin preoccupied with jeno's situation and maybe a little bit by jisoo as well, who sends him a wink when mrs. jang, the math teacher, tells jaemin to fix his tie. 

by the time the boys get to practice, it's as if the universe has exploded. jeno and serena are talking to each other civilly. not in a friendly manner necessarily, but the polite smile and more comfortable behavior has jisung absolutely spinning. less than nine hours, they were acting as if they were practically strangers and now they were acting all chummy chummy?

firstly, lee jeno was stubborn as hell. there way literally no way in hell he had just decided to drop whatever enmity he had for shits and giggles. and secondly, from what jisung could tell, serena was a bitch in her own right. she refused to sugarcoat things and thought she was the second coming of jesus or something. how did she ever decide to reconcile? 

even coach lee looked a little surprised and the progress but the man could not, for the life of him, keep the giddiness out of his behavior. the smile on serena's face evaporates when the boys finally finish warming up and circle up, setting her clipboard down and tying her hair up in a ponytail.

"there's two days until the scouts get here, and you guys are not ready enough. some of you aren't ready because the improvements you need to make are long term things. i appreciate your hard work. the majority of you, however," serena says, pointedly looking at a couple boys with withering looks that has them squirming in their spots. "aren't improving because you aren't following the advice they get from 'a girl'." 

serena's lips curve into a tantalizing smile and for the second time, a chill runs down renjun's spine.

"so you guys are gonna play against me."

+++

a/n: again, this chapter is dedicated to kris for being the angel you are :))