Beautiful time (Noren)

18

It doesn't take long for Renjun to get into a routine, which is good for him. He had grown accustomed to his world being upside down with Jeno in it but before that, he stuck to a pretty boring routine. At the time it kept him sane and he enjoyed knowing what his days would look like.
It's been four days of the same thing. Four days of being by Jeno's side, which he would never change. Four days of being alone at Jeno's home, this one hurts. He was just getting used to not being alone all the time. He can't wait for the day that he feels the topsy turvy feeling in his tummy when Jeno makes his butterflies swoop. It's starting to feel like he's going through the motions and he hates it.
After a long day at work he finally gets to the hospital, he feels a sense of peace when he gets to see Jeno's face.

He walks in to the dimly lit room and flutters around pulling dead flowers out of the bouquets and straightening things up. He opens the shade just a little to get a little bit of natural light.
"Hi Jen, I hope you don't mind that I call you that? I'm sorry you were alone, I hope it wasn't long. Mark and Donghyuck must have had something important to do." He takes his hand and gently kisses it, then plays with his fingers.
"My new job gets better every day, since I've been trying to be positive it's helping but it's still hard not to think about you all day." He chuckles.
"I just wonder things like, I hope he's warm enough. I hope they are keeping him fed and yeah I know they are doing it through a tube but still." He takes a deep breath, his tears threatening to fall again.
"You look more handsome than ever, you are like a sleeping prince. I'm glad they were finally able to take that awful tube out of your throat." He sniffles, yes the tears won out again. He closes his eyes and lets out a deep breath and before he can open them he feels Jeno squeezing his hand. He's afraid to open them, because this resembles a dream he had the other day and feels like he will wake up any minute. He quickly looks up to see he's still asleep but he is still tightly holding on. Renjun cries harder.
"That's it, baby steps. I can't tell you how happy this makes me." He rubs his thumb along the back of his hand and sighs, just as he hears the door behind him.
"Hey Renjun, how are you holding up?" Donghyuck asks pulling up a chair next to him.
"I'm ok, look." He says excitedly as he shows him how Jeno is holding his hand. Donghyuck smiles softly.
"He should be awake soon." He says fighting tears.
"Stop, I want to hug you but I'm not going to let go of his hand." Renjun says making Donghyuck laugh. He leans over and wraps his arm around him instead.
"I don't want you to let go either." He sighs and leans on Renjun's shoulder.
"I don't think I've told you how happy I am that you are here with him. And I don't just mean now, I mean he was so happy every time he spent the day with you. You brought color to his life." Renjun smiles softly, still stroking Jeno's hand.
"How is the new job?" Donghyuck asks.
"It's ok, like under the right circumstances I would love it but right now I'm too preoccupied." He nods.
"I'm on paid leave, something they do when you get shot or shoot someone. I have to start seeing a counselor but I only agreed to go once he is awake. I miss him. I could give him so much shit and as annoyed as he acted I think he secretly liked it." Renjun hums while staring at Jeno's sleeping face.
Donghyuck sits with him the whole time, when Renjun notices the time he stands.
"Are you leaving?" Donghyuck asks.
"Mrs. Lee will be here any minute and I like to let them have their privacy, besides I have to feed the cats." He gives a half hearted smile and kisses Jeno on the cheek like always.
"Goodnight." He whispers.
"Good night Donghyuck." He smiles softly and gathers his things. Donghyuck stands as well and pulls him in to a hug.
"Goodnight." They walk out together and Donghyuck offers him a ride which he gladly accepts.

In the morning when Donghyuck gets there, like usual he sits beside him wishing he could turn back time.

He can't help but burst into tears when he sees Jeno looking at him.
"Shit, when did you?" Jeno smiles softly.
"Last night." He whispers, his throat still not in great shape after having a tube down it for so long.
"How do you feel?" He asks trying to stop his tears.
"Considering everything, I feel pretty good. They have some good drugs though." Donghyuck chuckles.
"Do you even know how long you were out? God, we were so scared." He takes Donghyuck's hand and squeezes it. He nods his head yes.
"I'm sorry." He looks around the room stopping on the drawing.
"Does he know?" Donghyuck scoffs.
"You think I would leave him clueless this long? I'm not an animal. If you really want the whole story, start with your text messages." Jeno frowns and takes his phone from him. He sees a lot of unread messages and missed calls. He swallows thickly and starts from the beginning.
Donghyuck feels the heartbreak when he watches the tears come out of his eyes at such a rapid pace. Then the further down he gets his smile grows.
He watches the cute video Renjun made with his cats and looks at the pictures of the flowers and other cute selfies he sent. He chuckles at his cuteness.
"So you've met?" Donghyuck looks on in disbelief.
"Psh, he's even met your mother at this point." Jeno's eyes grow large.
"Oh, how did?" Donghyuck sighs.
"Honestly? You will have to ask him, but he never complained so." He shrugs.
"Has someone been going over to my house to take care of my cats or are they boarded?" Donghyuck smiles softly.
"Ok so funny story. After you were shot, everything was in chaos. I was scared and I kind of forgot about them." Jeno's eyes get big again.
"Like three days later Jaehyun brought me your phone and I called Renjun right away, and yeah he's been doing it." He chuckles as he looks around.
"He's been sleeping on your couch so they don't get lonely." Jeno's face shows that of disbelief and fond all in one.
"Really? Why would he?" Donghyuck smiles knowingly at him.
"Because he cares about you. He comes in here everyday after work and straightens everything up, takes care of your flowers, he even bought you a stuffed kitty and made sure you had that drawing because he knew you would miss your cats." Jeno frowns.
"But why though?" Donghyuck just shakes his head.
"Because you are you and he really likes you. I mean personally I think you are a little uptight but maybe he likes that?" Jeno glares.
"If I wasn't recovering from surgery, you know I would hit you right?" Donghyuck laughs.
"This will be fun for me for a while. But seriously though. I'm really happy to see you awake and I want you to know that I would take your place if I could." Jeno reaches up slowly and ruffles his hair.
"You should call him, no better yet FaceTime him, I know he will love that. And I'll call Mark and have him drive him here to see you." Donghyuck says excitedly.
"I don't want to interrupt his work though." Donghyuck shakes his head.
"You will hurt him if you don't." Jeno swallows thickly and nods hesitantly.

Renjun was surprisingly crabby this morning. His morning was awful, he stepped in a puddle and his shoe has been wet all day. He's so uncomfortable and everyone around him seems to be wearing on his last nerve, but he doesn't want to show them that since he's new to this department. When he meets Jaemin for lunch he's all but lost his mind.
"Fuck! I'm having a shit day and it's only getting shittier." He sighs and rubs his face.
"What do you want to eat?" Renjun scrunches his nose.
"I'm not hungry, I'll just have coffee." Jaemin frowns.
"You need to eat, it's not healthy for you to skip meals." Renjun rolls his eyes as he's fishing his phone out of the bag, due to the fact that it's ringing.
"Just because I'm not hungry for one meal doesn't mean I'm going to die." He says as he pushes the accept button.
He finally looks at his phone screan when he hears someone clear their throat and when he does, he literally drops it.
Jaemin, realizing who it is gets up quickly to give Renjun his privacy. Renjun slowly peeks at his phone that's lying on the table face up and sees Jeno softly smiling from his hospital bed.
"Hi." He says with a small wave.
"Wait, is this real?" His hand goes up to his mouth.
"Just come here, I want to see you."