chenle's eyes opened slowly as a hand shook his shoulder in a gentle manner, surely to wake him up. it was this instant the chinese boy realised he had been sleeping, making him jolt awake and sit up immediately.

"happy new year, jisung!" he exclaimed in korean first thing in the morning, his brows furrowing in confusion when he saw the surprised face of his mother. "mom?" he continued in chinese.

with another quick glance to his surroundings, chenle noticed he was on his bed inside his bedroom, still wearing his clothes of the day before.

"where is jisung? what day is it today? mom, i need to wish him a happy new year." chenle spoke super-fast.

"calm down, sweetie. you fell asleep at the dorms yesterday. jisung carried you to the car." she explained caressing her son's messy hair. "it's january, 2nd."

"so, i did wish him a happy new year..." chenle mumbled.

"i'm guessing so." his mother nodded. "but you were so tired yesterday that you probably did so while being super sleepy, which is why you don't remember anything about it."

chenle pouted, reaching for his phone on his bedside table.

"you know, jisung really is someone amazing, le."

"yeah, i know, mom." chenle nodded at his mother.

"you should keep him by your side as much as you can." she continued. "i'm not sure you'll find boys like him everywhere."

"of course not." chenle huffed. "jisung is unique. there aren't 2 like him..."

"which is a reason more for you to keep him close." the mother smiled at her son.

chenle smiled back at her before concentrating on his phone again.

"oh, i woke you up because your aunt is coming in a few. i would have let you sleep, but since you're going to leave after for kun's birthday, i wanted you to see your aunt a bit."

"okay, i'm having a quick shower and i'll be there." chenle nodded as his mother left the room.

once the door of his bedroom had been closed, chenle lied back down on his bed, heaving a sigh.

he couldn't believe he had fallen asleep while waiting for jisung.

and he couldn't believe either that he didn't remember anything.

what if he hadn't wished jisung a happy new year?

he seriously hoped he had...

chenle had been so obsessed with jisung these past weeks...

he had acknowledged he had a small crush on the boy.

jisung had grown so tall and became so manly with the years.

he wasn't the cute little baby chick he was back when chenle was taller than him... now jisung was a tall grown man whose voice was so deep and whose body was so muscular.

and sadly, sm entertainment didn't let boy groups see girls that much to prevent any dating scandal to potentially tarnish the image of the company, which hadn't helped chenle growing fond of curvy feminine bodies.

chenle had hit puberty surrounded by men he had known as children or teenagers, and who had been hit by puberty really hard.

but everything was different when it came to jisung. chenle had gone through puberty when jisung started his. it was as if chenle had seen 'child jisung' with his 'adult mind', and he had seen the different stages of jisung's transformation, until he became the hot boy that he was right now.

that was the main difference between jisung and the others. chenle had seen the others as 'adults' with his children's eyes; but it wasn't the case for jisung. which is surely why he was having a tiny little crush on him right now.

chenle was startled in his daydream when his phone rang, making him grab the device quickly to look at the caller id.

his heart did skip a beat when he saw jisung's name on the screen.

"hello..." chenle answered the phone with pink cheeks.

"hi chenle." jisung's voice said through the phone. "slept well?"

"yeah..." chenle nodded, even though jisung couldn't see him. "why did you call me?"

"the hyungs and i are all going to the wayv dorm for kun's birthday. so, i wanted to warn you to go there directly." jisung explained simply.

"okay, thanks for telling me."

"no problem." jisung said. "so... see you there?"

"yeah..." chenle replied in a timid voice. "see you..."

chenle stayed silent for a while, wondering if jisung would hang up right away or not.

he still had something to ask, but he wasn't sure it was relevant, which meant that he wouldn't ask it if jisung came to hang up quickly.

but he didn't...

"bye- "

"wait..." chenle spoke, cutting jisung's word.

"what's happening?"

"did i... did i wish you a happy new year yesterday night?" chenle asked shyly, his voice barely above a whisper.

this made jisung sigh. "yes, you did, chenle." he informed, making chenle let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "but you shouldn't have stayed that late at the dorms. you were so tired... and you mother was waiting for you in the car..."

chenle's head lowered in shyness. "b-but... i wanted to be the first one to wish you a happy new year..."

"but you were already the first one to send me a message..." jisung told.

"but it's different in real..." chenle pouted like a baby.

"anyway." jisung sighed. "thank you for that, i appreciate it. but next time, i want you to go back home and sleep. your well-being is more important."

chenle nodded slowly, his heart beating fast in his chest. he loved it when jisung said things like this, it made chenle feel like someone important that needed to be taken care of – and jisung was perfect for that in his mind.

"lele? you're here?"

"h-huh, yeah, sorry." chenle said immediately, realisign that jisung wasn't with him and that he couldn't see if chenle had nodded or not.

"i thought you had hung up."

"no, no." chenle shook his head. "i was just... thinking."

"well don't think too much. and come to the wayv dorm as soon as you can, okay?"

"sure, i'll be there." chenle nodded.

"great, bye then!"

"bye." chenle whispered before hearing a few beeps, signalling the conversation was over.

with another sigh, chenle's eyes fixed on his white ceiling.

he was glad he had wished jisung a happy new year.

even in his sleep, he knew what were his priorities...

⇄

"you're so bad at this hyung..." jisung chuckled as he glanced at jeno who was sprawled out on one of the couches of the dream dorm, his phone in hands and his tongue poking the inside of his cheek as he tried beating jisung at the online game they were playing at.

"shut up, i got distracted." jeno mumbled simply as he tried his best to concentrate.

one week had passed sicne kun's – chaotic – birthday party.

all the boys had gotten back to their previous activities, training hard and going on shows.

thankfully, today was a break day for them, meaning they could spend the whole day doing whatever they wanted. days like those were rare, so the boys tried enjoying them as much as they could.

the two boys stayed silent for a while, both too focused on their phones to care about their surroundings.

inevitably, jisung won once again, making jeno throw his phone on his lap.

"i'm better than you, hyung." jisung wiggled his brows at the older.

"you were just lucky." jeno rolled his eyes.

"sure, i was."

"oh, sungchan!"

the boy that was walking towards the kitchen stopped on his tracks, looking at his elder that had just called him.

"yes, hyung?"

"you're good at videogames, please come and teach jisung a lesson. i can't with him anymore." jeno informed, pointing an accusing finger at the maknae of the group.

"sure, i'll play with you guys. let me get my phone in my room." sungchan declared. "and i'll ask shotaro if he wants to join too."

"just ask jaemin hyung and renjun hyung too." jisung added.

this was a normal free afternoon for the boys living in the dream dorm.

playing videogames was an activity that all of them enjoyed and that they could do together. it was quite fun, mostly when jeno would get mad because he was bad at videogames – as much as he tried pretending he wasn't.

"i'm here, with shotaro hyung, renjun hyung and jaemin hyung." sungchan declared, sitting down on the living room's carpet as he was followed by the three other males.

"so, are we making teams?" renjun asked, plopping on the sofa next to jeno once the younger boy had sat up in a much more presentable position.

"i'm with sungchan and shotaro!" jeno exclaimed immediately, knowing that the last additions to nct were very good at videogames, and that they were his only opportunity to beat jisung.

"well, thank you." jaemin scoffed.

"don't worry hyung. we'll still crush them." jisung informed, raising a teasing brow in jeno's direction.

next things that were heard were a mixture of curse words in various languages and screams of joy, making the dorm look livelier than ever.

as much as the six boys teased and yelled at each other, they were all very happy to spend their free afternoon like this, enjoying each other's company in a happy manner.

jisung was all the happier since he didn't have anyone to kill or anything illegal to pick up today. his parents had kept their words, and they hadn't given jisung anything to do for the whole week – jisung didn't remember having such a long period of time without needing to be involved in some mafia stuff.

"and once again, jeno hyung lost..." jisung declared, placing his phone on his lap as he had made his team win the game.

"you cheated!" jeno exclaimed.

"i didn't. i'm just so good at video games..." jisung shrugged as jeno sighed in exasperation.

new yells were heard across the living room as another game started, as intense as the one a few minutes before.

however, they were cut in the middle of that game by the doorbell ringing.

jaemin – who was the closest to the door – opened the front door, bowing at his manager.

"hello manager-nim. do you need something?" he asked, making the other boys bow at their manager too.

"huh... i need to see jisung." he informed, looking at the youngest member.

jisung put his phone into his pocket, standing up from the sofa and heading to the door.

something in his manager's voice was disturbing him. it didn't sound like usual.

"hello manager-nim." he bowed properly.

"hello jisung. can we... talk? privately."

jisung nodded, following the dream manager outside and closing the door behind their backs, making both of them stand in the middle of the street.

"is there something wrong?" jisung asked with furrowed brows, seeing how his manager seemed to be searching for his words.

"y-yeah, huh...i'm sorry..." the manager stuttered. "i'm n-not sure i can say this but... h-huh... h-he'll tell you better than me..."

jisung frowned harder as his manager stepped aside, allowing jisung to see a man standing on the other side of the road.

it didn't take long for jisung to recognise his godfather.

what the hell was he doing here?

without wasting time, jisung crossed the road and walked to his godfather's side.

"heesun? what are you doing here?" jisung asked, almost gasping when he was close enough to his godfather to see dried tears on his pale cheeks. "is there a problem?"

"jisung, i'm so sorry but..." heesun stopped for a second, catching his breath.

"b-but what...?" jisung blinked nervously.

"your parents were murdered. by dark danger."