𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺; renjun x dream

𝙨𝙞𝙭𝙩𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙧

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It was late. Very, even. Sometime near two in the morning when the rest of the complex had retired to bed — all except one persistent resident. Chenle had his legs folded while he sat on the couch, dressed casually in a baggy pair of pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt he'd stolen from Jeno maybe half a year ago. Renjun had said to them that he'd come home early and tell them all about it, but as time went on everyone started to guess that perhaps he had celebrated the finishing of the exam with other people. Or even one other person.

Jaemin had been the first to suggest it; saying that YangYang was definitely out drinking with him or something, and maybe even more. That had really ticked off the others and they tried to be lighthearted about it by attacking him with the couch pillows...but that thought was forever left on their minds. And when night fell and twelve p.m struck, they decided they didn't want to stay up and listen to an excuse for it. So Chenle pretended he was getting a glass of water when really he wanted to stay downstairs a little longer. But two hours had passed since then, and even his patience was starting to dwindle.

At around ten past the door had something fall against it, and the mere 'thud' noise was enough for the purplette to guess it was heavy. Without wanting to assume anything, he waited and listened as a set of keys was audibly dropped outside and then picked up, just for them to be lazily jabbed at the door until it fitted into the lock. Is that...Renjun? He wondered, getting up slowly and keeping his guard up only as a precaution.

But when the door flew open and the smell of alcohol flooded in, it was almost like he was seeing a different person. "R-Renjun?"

"Hm?" The blonde-ravenette frowned, his eyes fluttering a few times before he focused on his neighbour and smiled brightly. "Ah, Lele. How are you? You look so cute~"

"And now...you're speaking Mandarin. That's nice." The taller boy furrowed his brows and tried not to guess what the heck had happened here. He'd never seen Renjun drunk before and it was already an experience he didn't enjoy. "Are you okay? You're barely standing—"

"Ugh, I'm hungry," the older giggled and patted the other's shoulder lazily before stumbling towards the kitchen area. Chenle followed along awkwardly, now nervous that the noise would bring the others down. A part of him didn't want them to see this disappointing sight just yet. Not when he hadn't gotten absolutely hammered with them.

"You should head to bed, ey? It's a bit late to be eating—" he peered at the jar the other was devouring from, "peanut butter? Oh come on, give me that." He snatched it away feverishly and placed it back on the top shelf so Renjun wouldn't keep grabbing at it.

"Le, you're all serious~" he pouted and practically grabbed at the taller, pulling him in for what felt like an innocent hug for two seconds before wet kisses were being placed along Chenle's neck. The younger freaked out, quickly stepping back and smacking his hand over the attacked area.

His red cheeks betrayed his words, "Renjun! Cut that out!"

"What? You guys make no fucking sense," he gushed with a slightly bitter expression, although it was weak from the delirious behaviour, "First you're desperate to get in my pants and then you make up rules for when, how and who." His legs were barely able to support him as he tried to make it to the stairs. Every time he found something to hold onto, he would. "Oh look...the ceiling's turning around."

"Seriously, Renjun. How much did you drink? Who were you with?"

"You're not my m-mum," he hiccuped while attempting to turn around without the roof collapsing on him, "I already have one of those and she's....she's..." he yawned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Wait, where did YangYang go?"

Oh fan-fucking-tastic, Chenle inwardly seethed, storming over and grabbing the other by his wrist before forcing him to follow him up the stairs. Of course it was YangYang. Who else could it have been? And why hadn't that little shit walked him home?

"A-Are you mad?" Renjun pouted, whining every time they moved onto the next staircase. The final straw hit him, however, when the younger tried to rush him up the last flight. His stomach churned, throat swelled with heat and nasty, hot bile spilled straight out and onto the tiles. Chenle reflexively let go of his wrist, covering his mouth when he saw the amount of puke spilling down the stairs.

"You can't be serious. Renjun!"

"Stop yelling at me!" He hissed, pushing his sleeve over his face and grumpily cleaning it off. He lazily watched the strong-smelling mess leak further and further down towards the second flight's break. "It wasn't me..."

"I'm done," Chenle snapped and walked off to head to bed.

"Lele, don't go~"

"Don't pull that shit with me!" The purplette stopped at the midpoint and turned to look at him. "You said you'd come home, Renjun. You said you'd come home early and we all waited for you. We waited and waited but we knew..." he stopped for a moment, looking up to blink back the sting of wanting to uselessly cry, "we knew you were off with other people....with him."

"That's—"

"I had faith that you'd be back at any minute. I stayed all this time in the quiet just to find you like this. Fuck you!"

Renjun blinked once, grasping onto the wall to hold his balance. He knew what Chenle was talking about, and he understood why he was upset. But the fog enveloping his brain just wanted to push it all under a rug and pretend it didn't exist. It was a mentality he was used to. "Y-You didn't have to stay up..."

"Yeah well...now I know. I won't again."

"Chenle, I'm sorry."

"Y'know, it would just be so much easier for us all if you gave even half as much of a damn about us as we do about you. Sometimes it looks like we're getting somewhere and then you'll do something dumb like this. You'll let us down. I'm getting whiplash here."

"If you spent even one day in my shoes, you'd understand how hard it is!" He uttered solemnly in Mandarin. "Not everyone has your confidence or a family they're willing to give up. I'm doing the best I can..."

Chenle hummed in acknowledgement, closing his eyes for a long moment before taking a deep breath and continuing up the stairs. "Well try harder."

Maybe it could've been considered a miracle that Renjun wouldn't remember any of this in the morning.

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*cracks knuckles* the closer to the nineties we get, the better. i thought we'd never make it to the seventies but we're so close ;-;

thanks for reading, guys, i appreciate all this support even after i've been neglecting this. i've really missed you and it's taken a day or two to realise how badly i've needed to write as well. i'll try to stay on this sugar rush at least until we see the end of this book at long last!

until the next chapter ❤️
-lily