Nodus Tollens || Jung Jaehyun

Chapter 13: Visiting

"How is everyone feeling back there?" The camerawoman, Boram, asked to the four squished bodies in the backseat. She frowned a bit seeing how cramped they all must feel. It seemed useless but she tried to give words of comfort anyway. "We have about an hour left in the drive so I suggest you take a nap. It's very late, after all. Seokju-sshi will drive all of us there safely."

Seokju peered on the rear view mirror to look at the bunch. He was sympathetic too. If he couldn't take a rest at this stressful moment, he could only wish his younger companions would. "Yes, since we're going to have to leave in the early morning anyway for your busy schedule, it'd be good to get in some sleep right now if you can."

"Yes sir," the four replied, the discomfort evident in their voices. With a nod, Seokju went back to focusing on the road while casually talking to his girlfriend in murmurs.

Music softly played in the car's speakers as they zoomed down the highways. The four cramped in the backseat turned within each other to have their own conversation. "By the way, Taeyong-hyung said we should try to call them when we see Jiwoo-noona," WinWin uttered. He tried to shuffle a bit to be more comfortable wedged in the middle of the backseat, but that only earned exasperated groans from Yuta and Minah.

"I kind of feel bad that we couldn't bring everyone," the lone female of their small group replied. "Donghyuck really wanted to go."

"Well, we can't help it if the babies have a bedtime," Yuta said with a shrug. "Taeyong too but he felt like it was his duty as leader to stay back."

A sigh left Minah's lips. "You're right. Maybe we can video chat so we can all see each other. I doubt that Donghyuck or Mark would be sleeping at a time like this."

"Yeah."

While Yuta and Minah fell into a conversation on their own about what their next step would be after seeing Jiwoo, WinWin turned to his side where Jaehyun quietly sat. He wasn't asleep, only just staring out the windows, the scenery of the night sky and the city sights rushing past them. The Chinese lad let out a solemn sigh as he knew that Jaehyun was the most worried out of all of them.

"Jaehyun, I think you should sleep. If you close your eyes, it'd be like almost no time until we can see noona again," WinWin quipped in a low tone for only the boy to his left to hear.

It was a promising idea, Jaehyun thought. However, his nerves were saying otherwise.

He shot the younger boy an appreciative smile anyway. "I'll try, but you should sleep too. Seokju-sshi will wake us up when we get there." All too readily, WinWin nodded and let himself relax into the seat. Within mere minutes, he was out like a light.

And eventually, so was Minah and Yuta, leaving Jaehyun alone awake in the backseat wrapped in his own thoughts.

"Are you not going to sleep?" The young vocal flinched at the sudden voice, not quite expecting any further conversation after his foreign members and Minah had fallen asleep. But in front, Boram had turned so to face him. She looked quite tired herself, most likely from the extensive work she does for Music Bank. "You know, this gonna seem like out of the blue but both Seokju and I are thankful to you all."

This definitely caught his attention. "Thankful, why?"

"Given to what had happened to her in the past five years, she has a lot of regrets and guilt. She's too young to be feeling all these adult feelings, it's too soon." As Boram said these things, Jaehyun couldn't help but look at Seokju's face on the rear view mirror. His expression saddened in a matter of seconds at his girlfriend's words.

She continued, "I feel like her only solace was her support for SHINee, but that changed when she started working with you guys. I finally feel like she's living how she's supposed to live, young and free, you know? She's still working hard, harder even, but at least she gets some kind of a break." A soft smile tugged at the older woman's lips. "Before her current circumstances, she told me how much she enjoyed working with NCT. I'm happy that she has people her age she can talk to now..." Boram let out a sigh, realizing how much she had been ranting to the idol. "Sorry, maybe because it's so late at night, I'm emotional to say all this. One day, I want to thank all of you properly when we're all rested and together."