"I know you're lying! You called him and those kids!"

"I swear, I only texted Chenle to say bye last night, I didn't call the police or whoever you are talking about, mom-"

"Don't call me that!" she roared, losing her temper if she even ever had one. Renjun zipped his mouth shut, not really wishing to repeat the night of eight years previously in the least. Renjun realised that it was currently the day before it happened. Maybe it was being mirrored and repeated, and the universe was trying to tell him in it's own sick little way. The thought sent another tear zig-zagging it's way down his cheek. His face was so tear streaked by now that his mother didn't even notice.

"Could you at least tell me who the fuck is outside?" Renjun had just about had enough of his mother's shit, and he stood up to face her. If it had to be so, he would go down (read: kicked out) in a haze of glory. "Your fucking dad, that's who!"

Renjun sat down again. Oh, really? Now he decides to turn up? Well, it's not that I'm complaining. "What's he doing here?"

"I don't fucking-"

Ding dong dingdong dingdingdingdong.

His mother screeched like a vulture in her fury, while Renjun tried to think optimistically.  What if he's here to offer an apology and maybe take me back? Nah, maybe a little bit too optimistic there, Renjun. Yeah, he wasn't too good at this.

Miss Jung looked at her son furtively, when a possible scenario popped into her head. "Whatever he wants, I won't just give you to him."

Despite his efforts to keep his hopes low, Renjun felt his heart drop in misery. It was like she had peered right into his mind, stolen and then twisted every one of his thoughts, and spit their deformed versions back at him.

And she went downstairs to attend the door again, though Renjun had almost forgotten that the doorbell had even rung again. This time though, she didn't forget to lock his door, putting the key on the little table next to the it, right beside an ornamental vase that she very nearly knocked over, not that she cared about it in the least. Renjun had made it.

▼

Mr Huang slumped against the fence outside, as all the fight leaked out of him, pooling into an invisible, poisonous puddle beneath him. Jaemin could swear he saw the grass around him brown a little due to it. "He won't want me, god dammit. Not after I left him with her." He gestured weakly at the door, where muffled shouting could be heard even though it was closed. Jeno had his ear against it, trying to discern what they were saying, but they were too far away. He persisted still. 

Jaemin was fuming. "What do you fucking mean? You gotta try, you gotta give it a go- and you haven't even told us why you started fucking legging it here when we told you that he had been out today. What's so worrying, huh? We're worried too!"

Mr Huang buried his face further in his hands, "Well, she kicked me out when I told her I was pansexual, and then divorced me- even though we were happily married. She disliked Renjun the minute I came out, since he's my kid. Even though he's also her's," he shook his head in disappointment. "She's a cruel woman. So if she found out that Renjun is gay, God knows what she would do with him. Take that as you will, but I'm just- I don't know if he's okay. She could have kicked him out, or he could have been stuck in that house in bad conditions for days-"

He stopped talking when he realised Jaemin wasn't listening anymore. He had gone storming up to the door and was talking in a fuming panic to Jeno, who soon copied his state, and started ringing the doorbell repeatedly. Jaemin heard footsteps thundering down the stairs and prepared himself for what he was about to do. Jeno looked sideways at Jaemin and saw this look upon his face, and understood the nature of it a split second before the door unlocked and opened. 

Jaemin pushed the door open fully and they both stormed inside. Mr Huang stood up in shock, but realised quickly that they were doing a favour. He would never have possessed the courage to-

"Where the fuck is Renjun, woman?" Jaemin yelled, sticking his finger at her, and unknowingly pushing her back with his frightening aura. Jeno looked at him in a moment of sheer appreciation (how awfully hot), before his gaze turned darker, and he walked right up to her and shouted, "you can't keep him here forever!" They both came right up to her height, and fuming as they were, together they proved to be quite a daunting force. 

She shrunk against the wall, and they looked at her expectantly. "I'll- I'll call the police. Y-you two are breaking and entering!" 

"You opened the door," countered Jaemin, shrugging. Jeno cut in, "and we fucking asked you something." She looked at them in shock, taking in their age, their proximity, and their sheer fury. "Who are you? Are you his kids?" 

Jaemin cringed and Jeno mumbled "that would be incest." Only Jaemin heard, though. "No, but we are here to take back a close friend of our's, who we have recently discovered you are holing up in here," Jaemin said by way of explanation, glaring at her. "So," Jeno concluded, "Please tell us where he is so we can take him to say hi to his wimp dad." He held his hand out sideways, gesturing to the man now observing the situation from the door. "Jeno!" Jaemin scolded him, hitting his arm lightly, and Jeno just shrugged. 

"Whatever you say, I won't give him to you. You need my permission, and I won't agree to this borderline kidnapping you are trying to go through with. You- you'll only fuck him up even further," she added. Now it was Mr Huang's turn to scoff, "Like you actually care about his well-being, you bitchass-" 

"Renjun, where the fuck are you? Are you even here?" Jeno had apparently had enough of this pointless banter, and after a beat he heard a yell in response from upstairs. He nodded at Jaemin, and started running upstairs. Jaemin went to follow him, but Miss Jung grabbed his jacket, her other hand missing Jeno's one by an inch. Jeno stopped a little way up, but Jaemin just gestured frantically for him to continue on. He started just pushing and fighting Miss Jung off whenever she went for the stairs, though it was a little harder than it sounds. She had some sharp ass nails. 

▼

Renjun had sat there massaging his side for a minute or so, as the pain didn't seem to be going away. He was just dreading the moment she got back up- she didn't seem like she was actually done. Hell, she might beat the shit out of him. Not fun. 

However, he planned to just wait and see what his dad was going to do. She said that he had brought other people, kids, she had specified. 

Wait. Kids. What kids did he know? He knew lots of kids, but none of them except Chenle knew of his dilemma. But Renjun knew that Chenle was under lockdown from his idiotic move a week and a half ago. So who might Chenle tell? Jisung, maybe. But he was one kid. Which one of Jisung's friends cared enough about Renjun to accompany him to Renjun's house? Renjun didn't think there were any, really. 

Maybe it could be his children? She didn't specify the ages of the kids. Renjun's gut twisted, however, thinking he might have moved on onto a new family. That Renjun was just part of his past. However, he had come to see him, and had texted him saying he wanted him back, right? Even if he acquiesced when his mother sent her blunt reply, he came, even if it was maybe just to see Renjun. He most definitely didn't come to see his ex-wife, and most likely not Daiyu.

Renjun's deep thinking was then interrupted by a loud shout from downstairs. Muffled as it was, he recognised the tone, the pitch, he knew that voice-

Scrambling up, wincing, he went over and pressed his ear to the door, just in time to catch the next shout. "-ust keep him here forever!"  This one was different, someone else. But he deduced something, these were kids indeed, but they were around his age. But who, who-

Then it struck him. What. Why- not them- it can't be...

Jaemin and Jeno? 

Renjun started desperately turning the handle, searching around his room for anything that would be able to pick the lock, but he had only one fucking bobby pin, which he had stupidly discarded in the bin outside when he had finished with it the night before, which was a pointless move on his part and that he was now regretting strongly. There was nothing else in his room that he could use to pick the lock, so that was a bust. He didn't exactly have the brute force to knock down the door either. 

Renjun rested his head against the block of wood that was separating him from two idiots that had accompanied his dad to retrieve him from his prison of a house. Why had they come and how the actual fuck did they find his dad, and why were they yelling at his mom-

"Renjun, where the fuck are you? Are you even here?"  Renjun recognised the voice to be Jeno's, and stood there for a second, a bit surprised at the straight-forwardness. "Yeah, I'm here! Up- upstairs!" he yelled back, voice hoarse. He heard a few feet thundering up the stairs, then just a pair, and felt the footsteps stop right up at his door. "Is this your room? Are you in here?" he heard Jeno say, unsure. "Um, yeah. I'm in here." Renjun was suddenly overly thankful about having just taken a shower and actually wearing decent clothes. 

"The door's locked, isn't it? Do you know where the key is?" Jeno asked. Renjun started to panic, where actually was the key? "Ah, wait! Is it this bronze key with like, two of the little thingies at the end? It was on this table outside." 

"Y- yeah? I think so- yeah." Renjun remembered the key to be bronze, and he assumed that the "thingies" Jeno was talking about were the bits, which the key did have two of. He heard Jeno insert the key into the lock, and he stepped back so that he didn't fall on Jeno when the door opened (which was secretly preferable, to be honest). 

It swung open, and Jeno stood there, slightly ruffled and with a light sheen of sweat on his forehead, looking better than Renjun had ever seen him. 

"Hi," Jeno breathed, and Renjun couldn't find the words, so he just stepped forward and threw his arms around his neck. Jeno's warmth throwing some comfort into him, he finally muttered a "Thank you," into his neck, and Jeno shivered a little. Renjun realised that he must be making him uncomfortable, so he stepped back and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, his cheeks colouring the smallest bit. "Sorry," he muttered, chuckling to try and break the silence that was steadily turning stale, in Renjun's opinion. 

"No! It's-" But before Jeno could finish his sentence, Jaemin came bowling up the stairs. "Renjun!" he exclaimed, running to envelope him in a bone crushing hug, and Renjun just couldn't believe his luck. Two hugs from each of his crushes, sweet. He usually was awkward giving and even accepting hugs, but it was just natural from them, the both of them. 

 "I'm so glad you're fine-" Renjun gasped and clutched his side, he had forgotten all about his pain in the events that had just occurred, but Jaemin's hug had squeezed his side too hard, bringing up a stab of pain. "Holy shit, did I hug you that hard? You are okay right?" Jaemin stumbled over himself to see if he was okay, and Renjun was touched by his concern even through the pain. "I'm- fine?" Renjun's meant-to-be reassurance came out more like a question, and Jeno raised his eyebrows. "I'm not convinced, Renjun. You hurt yourself- how?" 

Renjun felt cornered under their concerned faces, and he just spit it out, "Maybemymomkickedmeidontknowyoutellme." He didn't even know if it was discernible. Jaemin's eyes widened, while Jeno's just crinkled in confusion. 

"I'm gonna beat the living daylights out of that yanky danky sack of doodle shit!" Jaemin exclaimed, albeit quietly, as there was a chance that Renjun's father might hear him. He put a hand around Renjun in case he needed support (and just because that he had an adequate excuse to do so). Renjun didn't know whether to laugh at the insult, or die at their position. Maybe both. 

"Wait, wait, what? What he say?" he turned to Renjun, "What did you say?" 

"His mother fucking kicked him, that's what." Jeno's eyes widened, and he put a hand on Renjun's shoulder, "Are you okay? Does it hurt a lot? Where-"

"I'm fine, it really- it's fine! It's only on my side, not that bad, don't think any organs were-" But Renjun stopped talking when Jeno moved his hand from his shoulder to the small of his back, unable to keep talking for reasons that seemed obvious enough to him. 

"Right, we got him!" Jaemin finally yelled down the stairs, earning a groan of relief from someone who could only be Renjun's father. "Thank god, this was getting tiring." That made Jeno turn to Jaemin, "What's he doing?" Jaemin sent him a smile. "I left him to fight off the devil woman so that I come and see Renjun." Renjun's cheeks coloured at his words.

Jeno apparently didn't know what to do with his hands, moving them for the third time to hold Renjun's one. Renjun's cheeks lit up even further. 

They went down the stairs, to see Mr Huang holding up the handle of the living room door. The room had angered shouts coming from within it, and the occasional bang of a fist to the wood. Apparently he had succeeded on trapping Miss Jung inside, and was currently working hard to keep her there. Through his struggle, however, he still noticed the three's position: Jaemin with his arm around Renjun's waist, Jeno holding Renjun's hand and Renjun's cheeks bright enough to bathe the hallway with a rosy light. He was suspicious, but let it go, making up his mind to talk to Jeno and Jaemin as soon as possible, albeit later. 

"Right, Renjun, is the key to the living room anywhere around here?" The first words Renjun heard from his father in eight years. Climatic as fuck, in all honesty. 

Renjun informed him of the key in the drawer beside him, and Jeno went to fetch it as the man himself was busy keeping the quivering handle in position. Renjun missed Jeno's warmth immediately, choosing to just conspicuously cuddle into Jaemin further. 

Once they had succeeded in locking the door, they left the house in a jiffy. On the porch, Mr Huang turned to Renjun properly. Jeno and Jaemin stepped aside for a minute, and let them talk alone. Jeno blocked his ears to avoid eavesdropping. Jaemin rolled his eyes, but followed suit.

"Hello, Renjun." Mr Huang really didn't know what to say, and the air was as thick as rhubarb jelly. 

"What took you so long?" Renjun asked, trying not to look too upset. He had spent years mistreated and thrown around like a sack of potatoes in that house. In his eyes, it had been too long. Unbeknownst to him, he had spoken in Chinese. They had always conversed in Chinese when he was young, and apparently he couldn't bring himself to break that, even after all this time. 

"I was pulling myself together, Renjun. I was broken after your mother left me. I had loved her, please don't forget that. We were happy, with a whole family- and one little mistake broke that. Scratch that, it was an enormous mistake. I never should have told her, I know that now. Two of those years were spent at a spare apartment that my parents, your grandparents, own. I was just a mess, didn't have the motivation to do anything, couldn't get my- my shit together. I'm so sorry about those two years, Renjun. They were wasted. Then my parents got sick of me, and kicked me out of it. I was only messing it up, anyway. Then the next few years was just me looking around for the right job. I was obviously fired from my last one, and since my boss wasn't the nicest, they didn't want me back. But I found one," he smiled a little, though he didn't know it. "I was so happy, because it was the first step to being able to get you back. I worked there for three years, working hard to get promotions, to be able to be well enough financially to support you as well." 

Renjun didn't know that he was crying. There were just silent tears slipping from his eyes, knowing that his father had worked so hard, just for him. Just to get him back. 

"And the second I was able to, I started looking around for what school you attended, which wasn't too hard. I got a house near there, it's just on the other side of the school from here, and it's not bad either. But I couldn't get your address, and though I looked for it for ages, I just couldn't find out. So I went to the school, and then your friends here helped me out." His eyebrows raised as he enunciated the particular word in that sentence differently, and Renjun's cheeks glowed again under his tears. Wiping at them, he waved his hands frantically afterwards, denying anything his father might be insinuating. 

His father decided to tease him anyway. "I'm not sure if 'friends' is the right word, no? Hm... we might need to do something about that, now, won't we?" 

Jeno and Jaemin had long since removed their hands from their ears, watching the Chinese conversation in rapt confusion. "Did you know Renjun was Chinese?" Jeno mumbled sideways. "Well, duh, his name. But no, I never thought about it." And so they had no idea why Renjun was so flustered. 

They started when Renjun began walking towards them. When he reached them, they looked at him in relief. "Will you tell us what the fuck you guys were talking about, 'cause-" Renjun interrupted Jaemin, the blush still rosy on his cheeks. Jeno fought the urge to coo. "We'll talk about that later. He wants to talk to you guys. I gotta, uh, stand over there." Renjun pointed at the other garden, next to his house.

And so Mr Huang carried out an interrogation of his own, almost exactly like the one Chenle had performed a few days before. Jeno and Jaemin replied with even more panic and tried to be dead honest, failing in some fields, but they apparently passed this unspoken test, because Mr Huang let them off with a "Well, I ship you guys. Don't disappoint me." He then walked up to Renjun, leaving Nomin stuttering and spluttering. Renjun and his father started walking away from the house, discussing moving him to his new house and everything in-between. 

Jeno and Jaemin scrambled after them, panicking slightly, but set on walking Renjun home at least. 

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hey guyss right,, I'm so sorry that this was late. but I couldn't find it in me to finish this yesterday yall have no idea how long this took right now I have been writing for like 4 hours straight and I started on it the day before yesterday. its now four am and its rushed because I wanna sleep and I'm so sorry if its bad hnnnnn but I sincerely hope you enjoyed. I think theres like one or two chapters left 

I LOVE YOU ALL 💛💛💛🤧🤧