[ cнapтer тwenтy ➛ ѕтarт ]

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"How much fucking money do you have? I'm modeling and I still can't afford a fucking package of Chocolate Brownie Goldfish."

"Bitch, plain Cheddar is better, it's a classic," Jaemin retorted, in utter disbelief at how little taste the older had. "And I haven't even bought that much for Renjun."

Jeno rolled his eyes, twirling himself around on his swivel chair in their dorm room. "The fucking paper you're writing your letters on are worth more than Nikes."

"Nike sucks, Adidas is better," Jaemin commented, still in disbelief at how uncultured the other boy could be.

"Your opinions are as irrelevant as those 'unpopular kpop opinions' videos."

"You need to fucking mouth shut," Jaemin snapped, now thoroughly annoyed. He was also seated at his desk in his swivel chair, tapping his pencil on the wooden surface as he thought of what to write.

The raven-haired boy sighed and plugged his headphones into his phone to watch a couple of the "unpopular kpop opinions" videos he had just been dissing. Most of the videos used the voice Daniel, which he was a sucker for.

Only a few days were left until Valentine's Day — Jisung's birthday had recently passed, and he had thrown cake at every teacher in celebration, screeching in joy because he had set other students up to take the blame so he never got in trouble. The blonde was a year younger than all his friends, but as his birthday was in early February, he was able to enter in school early and still be in the same grade as the rest of the Dreamies, similar to how Mark entered school a year late and was older than everyone else.

Every day since the beginning of February, Jaemin had artfully written up a short, cute, heartfelt note on luxurious looking paper, disguising his identity by signing the notes anonymously, then conspicuously get them into Renjun's locker, or bag, or dorm room. He'd attach a small gift to the note, a chocolate or some other candy, and spend the rest of his time patiently waiting for Valentine's Day to come around so he could confess to the older Chinese boy.

Jeno had watched it all unfold, and couldn't help but laugh his ass off and tease the younger about it.

He found it adorable how much effort the caramel-haired was putting into his messages and gifts, but also hilariously sad. It was more than doubtful Renjun would somehow return the feelings.

Little did either of the two know about the surprise that would be sprung on them the day before Valentine's.

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The Dreamies had met up at a nearby river on Wednesday. The next day would be Valentine's and Markhyuck would skip school and spend the whole with only each other, so their friends wanted to hang out before then.

At the river, all seven had been messing around, playing Truth or Dare — what else? — and splashing around in the water, laughing and giggling and screaming away.

Suddenly, Renjun abruptly clapped his hands and hollered at his wild friends to calm the fuck down so he could make an announcement. A few minutes later, the Dreamies were sitting under a tree, a poor shield to the cold winter air. They had been having too much fun to notice the weather earlier, but now they were starting to become a shivering mess.

Chenle, who had strangely been ignoring Jisung the whole time, wrapped an arm around Renjun as the older began to talk, "I got news."

"Better not be fake like Donald Trump's weave. Wait, do you have an STD?"

"Donghyuck, I love you, but if you speak the name of our stupid president again I will run away to Canada where the prime minister has better hair."

"I'll run away with you."

"Aww, babe--"

Jisung snapped impatiently, "Stop being so gay, listen to Chenle! And Renjun."

Jeno hid coughed to hide his mutter of, "Whipped," and Jaemin couldn't help the snort that tore out of him.

"Y'all more energetic than Wanna One," Chenle whined. "Me and Renjun are dating! That's the not fake news, the tea, the beans, so suck a bitch."

Silence had suddenly fell upon the group. Markhyuck were shooketh, and sent glances of shared suspicion to each other.

Jeno automatically looked over at Jaemin, who was taking the news as badly as Jisung.

Both boys had their eyes and mouths wide, astonished at the unexpected news. But under the supreme meme of their expression, evidence of tears prickled at both boys' eyes.

There were so many words to describe the situation, the most accurate probably being "awkward".

Five boys stayed still for so long, one would think they were statues of Greek gods. The two boys who were delivering the news were nervously biting their lips, sending worried glances at each other.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Jaemin spoke up.

He sounded like he was choking, and he was, on heartbreak. Twice now, his heart had been shaken, pun intended, and shattered by the same Chinese boy.

"C-congratulations."

"Stan Day6," Donghyuck softly murmured, and Mark had to exercise extreme control over his body to refrain from beating up his boyfriend.

"This ain't the time to promote kpop groups, thanks."

"Stan Seventee--"

"I will fucking--"

Lightning fast, Jeno smacked the couple for ruining the mood.

Jisung, who ignored Mark, Donghyuck, and Jeno, nodded, dazed. "Y-yeah, congrats. I'm... happy. For you two. You're cute."

It was then when the Korean raven-haired felt like crying because it was obvious which boy Jisung's last sentence was directed at.

Slowly, the Dreamies managed to ease back into their previous time of playing around. The atmosphere was still awkward, and many hurt looks from Jisung and Jaemin were sent to the Chinese couple.

What no one seemed to notice, however, was how uncomfortable Renjun looked, and the smallest of tears in Chenle's own eyes.

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No one saw much of Jisung after that day. The youngest member still attended his classes but made himself invisible. Even in dance classes, where he was usually so charismatic and enthusiastic, a result of his love for it and being one of the best dancers in the school, he hid.

Markhyuck would try their best to help out the blonde, who they thought of as their son, but it did nothing. Jisung was already lost.

Jaemin was in the exact same boat, sailing further and further out into dangerous waters, except the one to try and comfort him was Jeno.

However, there wasn't much the older could do. He still had his own academics, modeling career, and secret admirer to juggle. That girl, which he still didn't know the name of, hadn't stopped chasing after him. She was doing the exact same thing as Jaemin had done for Renjun, just without the gifts and nice paper. It was no longer even amusing, just troublesome and vexatious.

One day, when it was some minutes past ten, Jeno turned off the light to their dorm room. Jaemin had already curled up in his bed but wasn't sleeping, just observing the wall. The trash can that the roommates shared held candies, chocolates, and fancy paper.

Jeno broke the silence when he decided they'd been laying in silence for too long.

"It's weird."

Yawning, the caramel-haired asked softly, "What is?"

"Chenle and Renjun. They started dating out of nowhere. They barely showed signs that they liked each other."

Jaemin chuckled dryly. "You haven't known them as long as I have. They used to be as close as Chensung, and now that they're roomies, it'd make sense they're dating."

"Still seems off to me."

"If you're trying to make me feel better, I appreciate it, but there's nothing you can do."

"Oh my shit," Jeno grumbled, got out of his bed to switch the lights back on, which Jaemin furrowed his brows at, turning over to look up at the older in confusion, "I hate you, but I also hate when you're sad. Get dressed, we're going out."

"What the hell? I wanna sleep!"

"You're gonna get more heartbroken! C'mon, Renjun's great but he's killed you more times than you have eyebrows, and we don't have classes tomorrow anyway. We're going partying so you're gonna loosen up and feel better, so make yourself look hot for once and don't even try to get out of this."

"He's broken my heart twice and I have two eyebrows, though--"

"Thought I told you to get fucking dressed?? I definitely didn't ask for your stupid unpopular opinion! Go before I beat your ass!"

Jaemin sighed, knowing he was unable to do anything about the older's adamant demands.

In about thirty minutes, the boys were all dressed up, tiptoeing out of their rooms and down the halls, quietly sneaking out of the building. There wasn't exactly a strict rule on curfew or anything, but they still didn't want to make a sound as they escaped the school grounds and walked along one of the main roads to travel to downtown.

The boarding school was at the next city over from where the Dreamies lived, yet at nighttime, the two cities looked the exact same.

Finally, the boys were able to make their way inside a club, thankful that the bouncer was drunk and didn't pay attention to the fact that they had no ID with them and looked young.

Soon enough, both boys had gotten themselves intoxicated and were screaming along with the rest of the crowd to the music, dancing and grinning.

Jaemin felt alive, and couldn't remember ever being so heartbroken only an hour ago.

It was as if he had never genuinely loved Renjun.

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[ cнapтer тwenтy ➛ end ]

[a/n]: am i gonna have to get drunk 25/7 to forget that mork graduated from dream?

a) yes

b) hell yes

c) probably yes

d) are you fucking stupid the answer is yes and yes

hope y'all enjoyed this disappointment of a chapter, i'll try to get to the gud shit soon

p.s. soon=3821390183901823091283901280197301 years

edit: JUST WANNA CLARIFY

renjun and chenle aren't related and never were, they were family friends and grew up like brothers but still ain't related tHATS ALL. so renle ain't incest