The House on Mass. Avenue | Rensung

Untitled Part 8

It was the middle of the night - around 3:30 am - when Jisung met Renjun.

It had all but given Jisung a heart attack when he had heard the front door open from where he was seating in the parlor, a lamp and the moonlight giving him enough visibility to scribble down odd ideas in his notebook. He was slowly getting along with his writing and had most of his characters planned out.

He guessed that it had scared the other boy as well, a small yell of surprise coming from the boy when he had walked further into the house and turned to see Jisung sitting, surprised himself, on the couch in the living room.

He was a brown-haired boy, just as many of the others were, and had glasses resting on his face which seemed weary with exhaustion. He was clothed in a pair of black slacks as well as a navy blue fuzzy zip up. Around his shoulder was a messenger bag and in his hand was a phone, which just happened to turn from a bright screen to a dark one from negligence.

"Oh," the boy said after a moment or two of blinking blankly at Jisung before he cocked his head to the side, "You're Jisung, aren't you?"

"That would be me," Jisung said, feeling a bit awkward at the strange atmosphere that had just been created between the two of them, "Um, are you Mark or Renjun?" This elicited a laugh from the other and he walked into the parlor, extending his hand towards Jisung with a small and tired smile on his face.

"Renjun, Huang Renjun," Jisung returned the smile, shaking the boy's hand as he comfortably plopped down across from Jisung on the couch, "Excuse my messy state, I just finished my shift."

"Don't worry about how you look, I'm not one to care for appearances strictly," Jisung reassured him and Renjun nodded, shrugging the bag off of his shoulder and adjusting his fluffy jacket around him. "And I hope you don't mind me asking but, your shift?"

"Yeah, I work at the BBC down the road?" Renjun ruffled his hair, and look at Jisung quizzically, "I'm not sure if you've been here long enough to go down there; it's a restaurant."

"Oh, I haven't yet, but I'll be sure to go down sometime," Jisung smiled politely, looking down at his notebook to quickly scribble down the restaurant name so he wouldn't forget. "I don't want to keep you up for much longer since you've just had a long shift. I'm sure we'll meet again."

"Nah," Renjun brushed off and leaned back, much to Jisung's surprise, "I've worked 24 hours shifts with a two hour break in between several times before, I'm sure I'll be fine. Plus," Renjun said, pulling his legs up onto the couch so that he was curled into the back cushions, "I don't have work tomorrow and I want to get to know the new boy more without any interruptions."

"Oh," the young author exclaimed softly, a little taken aback by Renjun's bluntness and his curiosity to know Jisung better, "Well, as long as you're alright."

"Now, what I'm most curious about," Renjun seemed to get right into it, his cunning eyes looking at Jisung as if he could dissect his answer before he even asked his question, "How have you been with all the rules? Haven't broken any yet? Well, I'm sure you haven't since I haven't heard about it."

"Oh, yeah, the rules," Jisung laughed a bit at the end, "Um I haven't been in too many situations where the rules have applied, besides the second floor mirror and the shells of course. Which reminds me," Jisung glanced off to look at the fish bowl, "What happens when we fill up the bowl with shells?"

"Well," Renjun seemed to hesitate for a moment before eventually deciding to answer, "We usually put them in jars and Hyuck - oh sorry, that's one of Donghyuck's nicknames - takes them down to the basement."

What.

"Wait wait wait," Jisung sputtered, shifting to sit up straighter, blinking, and shaking his head as he looked at Renjun's amused face, "I think I really misheard you. Did you say Donghyuck brings the shells, in jars, down to the basement?"