Mr. No || NCT || Completed

4 - Where Renjun can't find his slippers

"Bad omens?" Xiaojun eyed Renjun, and his dark eyebrows furrowed. "Did you get a concussion while fighting with your lead?"

Renjun shook his head and snatched the shrimp snack bag.

Xiaojun didn't try to take the snacks back. "What happened?"

Ten was done with pretending to sleep and was looking at Renjun from the other side of the couch with curious eyes. He motioned with his hands, asking for the shrimp snacks.

Renjun handed the bag to Ten and explained his day to him and Xiaojun as briefly as possible while underlining the strangeness of the dishwasher-girl, Song Chaewon.

"So, even though she had no way of knowing why I was in Nowon, she told me to be careful, and then I ended up getting beaten up. Doesn't that sound suspicious?" he concluded his story with narrowed eyes.

Ten and Xiaojun exchanged a look.

"And now you think that she's a bad omen?" Ten asked in a neutral voice.

When he said it like that, it did sound stupid. Renjun decided to backpedal a bit.

"Well, either that or she's a stalker or something."

Xiaojun scratched his cheek. "Because she ran into you twice and said random stuff to you?"

"Listen, Renjun", Ten spoke in a soft voice and pulled closer towards the duo sitting at the other end of the couch. Renjun was spooked by his gentleness, since normally Ten wasn't like that. Ten patted his shoulder reassuringly, and Renjun didn't know how to react. There was a faint smile on Ten's lips when he opened his mouth again, and said: "Don't be an idiot."

He cackled when Renjun pushed his hand away with an annoyed scoff.

Xiaojun took the snacks back from Ten and shoved a handful into his mouth.

"It does sound odd, I agree with you on that one", he finally spoke again once his mouth had enough space for words. "But aren't you already spreading yourself thin even without suspecting some random human girl for being a stalker just because you happened to see her more than once?"

Renjun was uncomfortable. "What do you - "

"It hasn't been long since you resigned from your real job, and now you're working as a barista, for one", Xiaojun explained, cutting him off. "You said that you resigned in order to focus on getting back to your feet but now you're running after some thugs who want to kill you in case working in customer service doesn't take you out first."

"And don't forget about his parents", Ten whispered.

Renjun's eyes hardened as he glared at the older guy.

Xiaojun coughed awkwardly. "Are you still doing the weekly dinners with them?"

"What else can I do?" Renjun's voice was cold. "I didn't exactly have much time to negotiate my terms when I needed to persuade my piece-of-a-shit father into helping us in the spring."

Back in March, the pack had gotten into trouble that had resulted in Renjun losing his ability to transform into his animal form, Jeno being shot, Dalah Café being set on fire, and Chenle, Jisung, and Yujin having to flee the country. Chenle's family had shouldered most of financial expenses but that had still left them with other, more delicate issues. Issues Renjun's family could take care of but not without a price.

Weekly family dinners were merely the tip of an iceberg.

"In any case, aren't you dealing with quite a lot already?" Xiaojun didn't want to force him to speak about his family situation. "Maybe you are stressed and overthinking it."