“TELL ME TELL ME T-T-T-T-T-TELL ME.”
marks words deafened you through the phone, causing you to have to move it away from your ear, cringing in the process.
“calm the fuck down, okay, i’ll tell you.” you say, and mark only refrains from yelling anymore once you begin the story.
relaying it from start to finish.
FLASHBACK: A FEW HOURS AGO: Q BLOCK
you were going to miss it, that’s all that was on your mind.
your legs were beginning to betray you as you climbed the stairs to the second floor corridor, your previous ‘logic’ that the stairs would be quicker than the elevator quickly betraying you too.
technically, you were supposed to ask before you took equipment from the college, and taking it without any former notice was classed as a biggggg mistake. you did not want to have to pay the fine they’d make you pay if they found out you were stealing their supplies without permission.
so you made it in your best effort to be as quick and as stealthy as you could.
finding the door, you pressed it open, hastily rushing inside and clicking the door shut behind you.
you eyed the shelves, calculator upon calculator, pens upon pens, stacking each row.
one of each, and then get out, you told yourself.
filling your bag with the equipment you needed, you rushed around the room.
but before you could reach the final item, fingers brushing over the case of the erasers, you heard the door click.
someone was coming inside.
deciding to leave the erasers and praying you would hopefully be a graph-drawing genius in your exam and turn out to not need one, you shut your bag, throwing yourself behind a shelf and invisible from whoever was making their way from the door.
you heard them breathing heavily. whoever it was, was in a rush too.
after a few minutes of rustling around, the room grew silent, and you assumed whoever this stranger was, had left.
just to make sure, you peered around the corner of the shelf.
what you saw, who you saw…
you grew still with shock.
clad in a green and black, F1 drivers jacket, was none other than samo.
his back faced you, his face, like usual, not at all visible.
nearly falling, you hit your wrist on the side of the shelf in attempt to save yourself from making too much noise.
but your attempt was futile.
he heard the sound of your wrist against the steel bar of the shelf.
he heard that there was someone in the room with him.
you looked up at him, his eyes on you, and your eyes on him.
no, that wasn’t an F1 driver
that was lee jeno, the guy in your math class who hates everyone.
not that you’d ever spoken to him, not until then.
you were still, unmoving, and his eyes widened as he realised that you’d seen his face. that you’d pieced it all together.
the word you wanted to say (which was, ‘what?’) was quickly interrupted by jenos panicked movements, rushing over to you to help you up from behind the shelf.
“are you okay?” he asked, quietly.
right now? he’s asking if i'm okay, right now?, you questioned to yourself.
you nodded, unable to speak, to ask any questions.
once you were on your feet, he looked down at his jacket and then back to you.
“shit.” he whispered, as if he was finally coming to terms with the fact that a stranger, you, had seen his real identity.
he cracked his neck, seemingly deep in thought on how to handle this situation. but you spoke up instead.
“look, i don’t care who you are. i really don’t. in fact, i hate samo, i think he’s a fake celebrity who feeds on the fact that people don’t know what his face looks like.” you said, trying to ease the situation and accidentally offending the man in front of you in the process.
he laughed at you, tilting his head and raising a brow.
“that’s not quite what i meant…” you continued, once you realised how that probably sounded.
“i know.” he said softly, mind elsewhere. “but, i don’t know you. how do i know i can trust you?” his eyes were serious, expression stern.
“you don’t, and you can’t.”
“so you’re gonna go tell everyone, that’s it?” he was more concerned now, all amusement in his face, gone, replaced with a stone cold visage.
as he spoke, he crept his body to the door, blocking any chance you’d have to sneaking out. not until you’d discussed this with him, not until he was certain you wouldn’t tell anyone.
“i’m the first one, aren’t i?” you asked. he looked confused, face asking you to elaborate. “i’m the first person you’ve had to accidentally find out. and now you don’t know what to do.”
his jaw tensed, and that’s how you knew you’d hit the nail on the head. “okay then. i have a solution for your… dilemma.”
it was stupid, but you saw the perfect opportunity arising from this entire conversation.
you see, you knew jeno’s dad was your professor. and truly? you didn’t care about jeno being samo, sure it was shocking to discover, but it had no effect on you or your life, whatsoever. so why not make it benefit you? and in the meantime, you could benefit him. it was the perfect deal.
“i won’t tell anyone,” you started, “if…”
his eyes hardened at the two letter word, fixed on the ground.
“if?” he asked, annoyed by your pause.
“you get your dad to bump my grade on every assignment until we graduate.”
slowly, his eyes gravitated from the ground, and to your face, trying to read you.
but it took mere seconds for him to provide you with an answer.
you reached out your hand to shake his, and he eyed your palm before complying, encasing his fingers around yours and shaking your hand.
and so that was it. your deal was made. whilst you, with the word of promise to stay silent about his hidden identity as the neoculture driver, samo, he would somehow convince his father to bump your grade.
but as you began to turn to pick up your bag, jeno stopped you in your tracks.
“wait.” he said, stepping closer to you.
you turned back to him. “what.”
“don’t you think it’ll be suspicious?”
“me, telling my dad to bump the grade of a random girl in his class. you don’t think he’ll wonder why?”
you frowned. but surely he’ll understand since he knows that-
“he doesn’t know you’re samo?” you asked
“why else do you think i have to hide my face. why else do you think i go to college.”
this whole time you’d thought samo was self-absorbed, money hungry. when really, he was just some college guy with a strict dad.
“well, i guess you’re right, he’s not going to do it for no reason.” you told him.
you saw jeno’s eyes glisten, like an idea had formed in his mind and he was dying to let it out.
“okay then. let’s tell them we’re dating.”
“he’d do it for my girlfriend.”
“be my fake girlfriend, yn.”
FLACKBACK OVER: PRESENT TIME
mark screams over the phone, “NO WAYYY DUDEEEEE. SO SAMO IS JENO????? AND NOW JENO IS FAKE DATING YOU?????”
“yes,” you whisper, “please shut the fuck up, mark. you have roommates! they’re going to hear you!”
“noones in. but wait, wait, wait, aren’t you going against the deal by telling me?”
“well, no technically not… you know that guy jaemin from chemistry?”
“i asked jeno who else knows and he said that jaemin is the only person he’s ever told”
“so i also asked him if he’s gonna tell jaemin that me being his girlfriend is fake and he said he’s going to. and then i asked if i could have one person to tell too.”
“AND YOU CHOSE ME???? AWWWWWW YNNNNNN” mark yells, again.
“can you stop yelling, PLEASE?”
“i’m sorry this is just so exciting, dude.”
truly, mark is wayyyy more excited than you are.
“wait, wait, wait,” mark says again. “what about chenle?”
“you know, your big fat crush on him?”
“oh, right. he’s just my hallway crush, you know, he’s never going to actually like me.”
“don’t put those delusions in my head, i'm a taken woman now!”
“fake taken doesn’t count, man.”
you stay on the phone with mark for hours, joking about your new deal with jeno, droning on to him about how good chenle looks in his new instagram post, complaining to him about the math exam you missed but then remembering that, thanks to jeno, you’re probably going to get an A anyways.
everything in your life is suddenly changing, in better ways than worse.
but for jeno? his world is about to turn upside down.
notes; subtle foreshadowing🤨, but Q block gate has been REVEALED 😪 also communities are apparently a thing on tumblr now? so i made an nct one!!! the link to join is here if ur interested lol and sorry for such a late update tonight this took me a while!! 😣
