Renjun woke up at half past 3 pm on Monday, having cried till somewhere in the midst of 6-7 am. When he pulled himself out of bed to go freshen up, he found himself in the midst of a major dilemma.

Renjun was almost all out of tissues.

At least he was done crying (for the second time), but this particular action had stripped him of all but a half a roll of his tissue paper, which he had to save for... reasons. (A/N : HE NEEDS THEM TO USE THE BATHROOM YOU NASTYS OMG)

Maybe he could ask for more? His family couldn't hate him that much...

He examined his face in the mirror, his eyes red and bloodshot from crying and fitful sleep. Don't I look absolutely godly...

Shaking his head, he took a quick shower to try and make himself feel better. He had always liked the calming sensation of warm drops pelting his skin and being enveloped in steam that fogged up the glass so that he couldn't even see the door out of the bathroom. He felt no one and nothing could reach him there.

He left the bathroom drying his hair, and put on some new clothes, even though he had no one to present himself to, and no reason to look presentable at all. Hell, I could slouch around like a fucking pig and no one would care- it's not like they ever come visit me, ask me how my imprisonment is going-

Discovering that two pieces of bread had been slid under the door while he was showering, right onto a sheet of paper he had left there for that particular reason, he strolled over, admittedly hungry, got onto his knees and was about to take them when the door's handle turned suddenly and the door itself burst open, very nearly crushing his fingers. He fell backwards in surprise and looked up to see who had interrupted his meal (if you could call two slices of wholemeal bread a meal).

His mother gazed down at him with slightly red eyes, pretty much scoffing at his pathetic position. Then her eyes went to his hair, wet from showering, and the clothes she had never seen before. "Why are you dressed up? Thinking of popping by the gay strip club? Is that who you were texting last night?"

Renjun's heart stopped. I knew this would happen. Now I've got to pay the price. Just partially tell the truth, don't fuck this up further.

His mouth apparently still had hope however, and decided itself not to cooperate with his mind. "Wh- what? I don't have my phone with me. How could I have c-called anyone?" Shit. Still a bad liar.

"Don't play dumb with me, fag. You can't lie for shit." Yep.

How does she know though? She was asleep... I was quiet as fuck too... Shit- was she awake?

"I left your phone screen down. I woke up just now and the screen was up."

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, so stupid, what the fuck, fuck, fuckfuckfuck- SAY SOMETHING-

"May- maybe Daiyu was fu- messing with it, or something, and left it like that?" He was trying too hard, every attempt was futile, and he knew that all too well.

"Bullshit. She went to her friend's house to do a project last night and she still hasn't come back," his mother shot the bullshit that Daiyu had fed her the night before right back against Renjun.

"One more thing," she added, her eyebrows raising. "I come to ask you about this, and your door's unlocked. Sounds funny, right?"

"Umm-" Renjun curled up into a small ball, ruffling his hair in agitation, searching for another lie tucked up somewhere in his brain. Too long, too late-

She kicked him.

Hard, in his side. A throbbing pain emanating from the place her foot had hit him, he looked up at her with tears of pain prickling his eyes in utter shock. She reeled her leg back again-

Ding dong.

Her foot dropped, and she looked over her shoulder. Please, please go. She turned back to him dismissively, and Renjun dropped his head.

Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding ding ding dingdingdingdong. This saga was then followed by a frenzied knocking.

She groaned, pulled up her cardigan which was falling over her shoulder, and shut the door. Renjun's ears didn't fail in noticing the absence of the click of the lock. It is funny, he thought numbly, that you forget to lock the door right after talking about the matter and kicking me for it.

Renjun tried blinking back his tears, but he failed and they rolled down his cheeks anyway. He made no move to wipe them, he needed not to blink to let them fall. His vision was blurry with them, so much so that everything in front of him was unfathomable; even the door a foot in front of him was a brown blob. He felt helpless, undignified- but it was all numb under the shock of the fact that his mother had actually hit him. He was only brought back to reality with every scream of pain his ribs gave him.

He stayed there on the floor a little, thinking that since she had left the door unlocked, she would be coming back. He could do nothing about it anyway. He didn't know where the key was; if he did he would have locked himself in.

A moment later, the door slammed open. Renjun looked up, too unfeeling now to be fazed. "Did you call him?! Did you? Answer me, dumbass!"

Hope blossomed in his chest, but it was all but a small daisy of it. "Who? Chenle?"

She shook her head in annoyance. "No- not him! What the fuck is he doing here, now?"

▼

Jaemin and Jeno now had Renjun's father tailing them. Jeno had successfully delivered his folder to the secretary, and Jaemin was shakily clutching around 20 sheets of paper. Both had forgotten about looking through the tests, and were just itching to leave the school so that they could take Renjun's father to see his son as soon as possible.

He kept quiet, thankfully, but Jeno could see him shaking in anticipation (or nerves?). They speed walked into Mr Porter's classroom after telling Mr Huang to stay out of sight.

Jaemin dropped the papers onto Mr Porter's desk and cleared his throat. "Is it time for us to leave yet, sir?" Jeno tapped his foot irregularly in the background. "Hm? I see you two are eager to leave?" He raised his eyebrows at the two. Jaemin wiped his sweaty palms against his jeans. "No- not at all sir! It's just- uhh- Jeno has swimming now!"

Jeno sighed at Jaemin's excuse, then smiled apologetically at the teacher from beside the door. "Very well, you may take your leave. Goodbye." He said this in English. The couple looked lost for the most part, but Jaemin understood "Goodbye" and just nodded gratefully, not knowing whether you were meant to say it back. He turned and ushered Jeno out the door, shutting it behind them.

Taking both their bags from behind the door, Jeno tossed Jaemin his own, and motioned for Mr Huang to follow them down the hall. They had just reached the exit when they were stopped by a teacher; Mr Bae, the PE teacher.

He recognised Jeno immediately, the student being one of his favourites, and then recognised Jaemin from the same class. "Hello, you two. Who is this?" He pointed his thumb comically at the man anonymous to him. "That's- that's my dad!" said Jeno. "Really? I thought I met your father already?"

"One of them! One of his dads," chirped Jaemin, and stared down the teacher, daring him to say anything against this. "Oh? I see!" Mr Bae nodded in understanding. "Yeah, they've split up though." Jaemin said and nodded earnestly, while Mr Huang looked at the youngster in disbelief of all the lives he was weaving oh-so-effortlessly. Mr Bae nodded again, then waved at the three of them and walked off, but not before winking playfully at Mr Huang.

Mr Huang's cheeks coloured while Jeno and Jaemin gagged in the background. Jeno hit himself in the chest, coughing, and Jaemin mouthed "I feel you".

"Okay!" exclaimed Jeno, albeit awkwardly, when he recovered, "Let's get you to Renjun!"

"R-right!" Mr Huang returned to them with a grim determination. Jaemin blinked repeatedly, trying to bleach his own mind, "So, according to the address that Chenle gave us, his house shouldn't be far from here, but we should still get going before my mum calls me to get the fuck home."

"Language, please," Mr Huang reprimanded. Jaemin raised his eyebrows at Jeno. Here they were, doing this guy the biggest favour, and he wasn't even allowed to cuss. He apologised anyway, while Jeno giggled at him. He then realised something and tapped Mr Huang's shoulder, "I don't think we have introduced ouselves yet! My name is Lee Jeno and this is my boyfriend Na Jaemin. We are classmates and friends of Renjun's." Jaemin felt they were actually digging themselves into a hole, calling themselves Renjun's friends, even though the boy in question probably didn't even return their feelings.

They tried walking out of the school calmly, but had started jogging halfway across the car park in their hurry.

Mr Huang tired himself out a few streets later, however, so they were just forced to speed walk. Jeno was quaking in his sneakers, simply oblivious to how someone could run out of energy in such a short amount of time. He did run track though, so maybe that was why.

To try distract himself, he turned back to Mr Huang, addressing him suddenly, "What are you gonna do when you see him? Renjun, I mean." Jaemin heard Jeno's enquiry and turned to the man expectantly. "Well, um..." he began, unsure. Jaemin sent him one of his pearly, sweet smiles encouragingly. "I was going to, you know, ask him to move him with me. When I found out what school he was attending, I got a house near there. I miss him, see." Jeno smiled happily, glad that Renjun would get a chance to live with his absentee parent- who was even in the LGBT+ community, and pretty gay, as he and Jaemin had (unfortunately) discovered.

"But," he sighed, and Jaemin turned to him suspiciously. "I- I don't know whether he wants to. He may never forgive me for leaving him with that bitch, never even having the courage to contact him- he could hate me. I wouldn't blame him." Jaemin spluttered at the hypocrisy- he was calling his ex-wife a bitch when he himself couldn't cuss in the man's presence.

Jeno, meanwhile, nodded soberly. "He mightn't warm up to you right away, but you gotta work for it too! Just, like, please get him to move out. He's kinda been hitting us with radio silence for a while because his mom found out he was gay, and he didn't come into school today either, just so you know." Mr Huang stopped in his tracks. "He what."

Not even waiting for clarification, he snatched the phone holding the address and Google Maps from Jeno's hand, and started running. Jeno and Jaemin looked at each other in charged confusion, before running after Mr Huang, who seemed to have forgotten his weariness.

When they reached the door of Renjun's house, Jaemin looked over at the house across the road and the house beside to make sure they were at the right one, and Mr Huang didn't embarrass himself by knocking down the wrong door. Seeing that they were at the correct address, he nodded in confirmation at Mr Huang.

He rang the doorbell once, and waited, tapping his foot restlessly. Jeno stood, clutching the straps of his bag awkwardly, and balancing on the balls of his feet as he waited for the door to be answered. To think he was being a hoe not 45 minutes ago, thought Jaemin, shaking his head.

They flinched when Mr Huang's patience snapped and he incessantly rang the doorbell a highly unnecessary number of times, followed by him rapping his knuckles against the wood at a force that was sure to hurt.

A prolonged minute later, the door cracked open to reveal slightly red eyes that were heavily lined with fading eyeliner and caked with old mascara. Renjun's mother spotted three people, but focused on one. Her eyes widened in shock when she recognised her ex husband.

"Miss Jung-" began Renjun's father politely, but she shut the door in his face.

"Well," Jaemin pronounced awkwardly after a moment, "that was rude."

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hi. uhh should I make a chensung book would y'all read it idkkkk