▪️runaways → nct jaemin fanfic

17 ✧ 전아름

Jeon Areum's POV

We arrived back in Seoul, finding the house that my mum grew up in. It was a very middle class area, and you could tell that all the people around here lived very privileged lives. Nothing like super rich, just... comfortable.

We walked past various kids our age who had AirPods and expensive designer clothes, who would give us the side eyes as we walked past them in our scruffy clothes. In the orphanage we were given pocket money for doing chores, and some people went and got jobs on the side, but we were never given enough money to go and spend it on expensive things. They'd just get stolen anyway.

I mean, Jeno was carrying Renjun on his back. Renjun's leg still hasn't healed, so instead of him walking on it everywhere Jeno just carries him. That might be another reason why we're getting strange looks.

We arrived at the address, and I knocked on the door. An old lady answered, smiling down at us. I could tell she was trying not to judge us from what we looked like, but obviously that's hard to do in a middle class community.

"Hello there." She smiled at us. "How can I help you?"
"Um.." I spoke up. "We're looking for Jeon Minji's parents. I'm her daughter, Jeon Areum."

The woman's expression changed.

"They, um, moved out." She told us hesitantly. The woman looked as if she was conflicted after saying that, but I didn't push it further.
"Oh." I sighed. "Okay." We went to turn away, when the woman spoke up again.
"Wait." She stopped us. "What happened to your friend's leg?"
"He fell and cut it open." Jeno told her. "His ankle is also sprained."

"It looks like you haven't changed the bandage in weeks!" She gasped. "You all better come in quick so I can get it cleaned up and checked on." The seven of us all exchanged glances, before making our way inside.

"Something tells me this is your grandma." Jaemin whispered in my ear, and I nodded in agreement.

We placed Renjun down on the sofa and the lady got to work, cleaning the wound, applying medicine, wrapping it back up.
"Have you not taken this to hospital?" She asked Renjun. "Does your mother not help you clean it?"
"Oh, I'm an orphan." Renjun explained, and the woman looked up to stare at him. "We all are."

She turned to look at us all, and her eyes landed on me. "What happened to Minji? Is she-"
"She's alive." I told her. "I was taken to the orphanage when I was five because-" I paused. "Because she couldn't look after me anymore." The old lady just sighed, continuing to clean Renjun's wound.

"That stupid girl," She mumbled under her breath. "I told her she wasn't ready to look after her own child, but she didn't listen to me and had one anyway." I don't think it was meant for us to hear, but I felt very strange after hearing her say that. She told Minji not to have me?

"Did you know my dad?" I asked her, and she shook her head.
"As far as I was aware she didn't have a boyfriend at the time," she sighed. "It could've been Jungkook for all I know. He was very protective of her," she looked back up at me. "But you don't look anything like him."

I knew that my dad was called Park Jimin, and that's who Minji was dating at the time, but I had no idea where to find him. I was hoping this woman would know something about it, but apparently she knows less than I do. She probably thought Minji slept around and considered her a shame to the family, having a child outside of marriage.

"Do you know where we can find Jungkook?" I asked her, and she sighed deeply.

"I don't know if that's the best idea." She told me. "He just got out of prison a couple days ago." Ah, Minji did mention that. "He came here yesterday and asked for a bit of help to get back on his feet again, so I gave him a bit of money and told him to not come back. He told me he lost someone very dear to him when he was away in prison, and he never got to apologise to her for what he did."

"What did he do?"
"He wouldn't tell me." She replied. "But it looked like it was eating him alive."
"Could you tell us where he is anyway?" I pressured. "Please."

She gave us the address at the place he rented out, and we thanked her. We stayed a little longer, and told her a little bit about how we ran away, and she told us about Minji when she was a kid. She definitely hasn't changed then.

"Hold on," she stopped us as we were about to leave. "Do you kids want anything before you leave? Food? Clothes?" We kindly declined, but she wouldn't take no for an answer, giving us lots of food and bottled water, as well as scarves and hats that she'd knitted.

"I can't believe you kids have made it for as long as this." She confessed, giving Jaemin and Chenle large piles of winter clothes to carry. "I wish you a safe journey."
"Thank you." We replied, leaving the house and walking back to our van with the supplies.

"Look." We heard some kids snicker in our direction. "They look so poor. I think they're stealing from that house!" I craned my head over once putting the water bottles on the floor, glaring at them. Jaemin picked up on this, and looked over as well.

"What's up with them?" He asked, now glaring too. The four scrawny boys looked a bit taken aback by our deathly glares, but they continued laughing anyway.
"Oh, the bastards are just making fun of us, that's all." I told him, making sure they heard.

"Who are you calling bastards!?" One of them yelled.
"Might wanna take a shower! I can smell you from here!" Another jeered, causing them all to laugh.
"You know," Jaemin sighed. "I haven't punched anyone in a while. I'm kinda craving it, you know."
"Me too." Jeno smirked, placing Renjun down to sit on the side of the van before cracking his knuckles.

The three of us walked over to the four boys, watching them as they looked slightly intimidated, but stood their ground. Two of the boys were around my height, one was Jeno's height and the tallest was Jaemin's height. However unlike Jeno and Jaemin, these kids were lanky. They were wearing their school uniform, their name tags attacked.

"Han Jisung." I read aloud. "Hwang Hyunjin, Kim Seungmin, Lee Felix."
"What do you want." The one called Seungmin asked us angrily.
"Just wondering what we did that caused you to get so mad at us." Jeno asked, putting his hands in his pockets.
"Maybe if you poor bitches weren't stealing from that poor old lady!" Hyunjin spoke up. "You know her own daughter ran away from home?"

I just scoffed. "Poor bitches. Your insults are pretty fucking weak, so why don't you take your snobby arses back home so mummy can wipe them for you."

"Ya. Do you wanna die?" Jisung stepped forward trying to intimidate me, but Jaemin immediately stepped in front of him. Being a whole 10cm taller, Jaemin towered over the kid.
"Careful shorty." Jaemin growled. "I'm this close to punching that delicate face of yours."
"Hah, like you could do anything." Jisung smirked, his confidence getting the better of him. Jaemin just decided to show him that yes, he could do something.

And punched him in the face.

"AAH! What the fuck!" He screamed, spitting blood out onto the floor and holding his jaw in pain. "What the fuck is wrong with you."
"Wow, that felt good." Jaemin laughed.
"Don't see why you get all the fun." Jeno huffed.
"Better run along while you still can pretty boys." I teased, watching as the four of them scarpered.

"My dad's a lawyer!" Jisung yelled. "I'll get you sued!"
"Oh no, I'm so scared." I laughed, and the four of them left.

Word Count-1383