Mystery Tattoo | Norenmin

Chapter 19: Huang Renjun

Renjun rolled over and kicked his legs up, shifting his blankets so that they pulled up and wrapped nicely around his body. He shivered as some of the cold air slipped under his blankets and he frowned. He reached over to the edge of his bed and pulled the Moomin plushie Jaemin and Jeno had bought him under the blankets for maximum hugging satisfaction.

He was all alone in his dorm room without Jeno or Jaemin and it had never been colder. He shivered again and decided to curl into a ball, trying to gather as much warmth as he could. Renjun could have sworn that he saw his breath as he breathed out and silently cursed the lack of warmth flowing through his room. He almost got up to check to see if the window was closed. Almost.

Both Jeno and Jaemin were out shopping for Christmas which was already less than a week away. Renjun had already done his shopping and had stashed all his presents at Mark's dorm, except for Mark's of course. In return, all of Mark's presents were stashed under Renjun's tiny bed and they had agreed to meet Christmas Eve to wrap while everyone else was making dinner.

Since none of the group were going home for Christmas, either too far away and thus too expensive or strained family tensions, they had decided to celebrate together.

He was overwhelmingly excited about Christmas this year. Renjun had never spent Christmas with his family since the event eight years ago and he wasn't going to start anytime soon. Renjun felt a throb of pain ache in his heart at the thought of his sister but he quickly tried to shake it out of his head.

He had to be strong, for Jeno and Jaemin.

So he turned his thoughts to his boyfriends. He had gone out shopping with a Chenle on Sunday, something that may have resulted in them being escorted from the mall but Renjun wasn't going to dwell on that.

Chenle had finally come up with the idea of Christmas shopping and Renjun had promptly panicked, completely forgetting until that moment. This resulted in three hours of running, screaming, lists, and tears as Renjun found presents for his friends and significant others.

He had immediately gone to the new art store for Jaemin, almost crying in relief when he saw they were having a holiday special. He had grabbed a packet of the best coloring pencil the store offered, in his own opinion of course. He had also grabbed a couple of small canvases, remembering that Jaemin had mentioned working on a couple of pieces while school wasn't overwhelming him.

Jeno was a little harder, until Renjun came across a small bookstore snuggled into a small corner of the mall. Much to the dismay of Chenle, Renjun had spent roughly 45 minutes browsing through the books to find the perfect ones for Jeno. He had finally settled on Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone and Anna Karenina.

Renjun refused to admit it was a present for himself too as he couldn't wait to cuddle up next to Jeno and listening to his voice as he read.

Renjun left for the check out after grabbing the two books thinking he was done but paused by the Manga section. He remembered Mark briefly complaining about Jeno staying up watching...One Piece? Or was it Naruto? Renjun couldn't remember for the life of him so he ended up grabbing the first volume of Full Metal Alchemist and calling it a day.

Renjun didn't know Jisung too well so he had asked Chenle, regrettably, and suffered through a 10-minute rant about everything the younger boy liked, leading Renjun to buy two Hobbit pop funkos.

Chenle was obviously very interested in what Renjun was going to buy him but Renjun was too quick. He had actually bought Chenle's present over the summer before school even started when he had decided to browse the mall back in his home town. He had bought Chenle a basketball jersey from his favorite team and a piano book in the music shop next to the sports store. Renjun still didn't understand how that layout worked.