Chapter Text
There’s nothing more annoying than having to stay back in the campus in one of his dreadiest weather just because he had forgotten his umbrella. There are still a few students around the building, similar idiots like him who had forgotten to bring such an essential when the weather forecast clearly stated a hundred percent chance of rain in the evening, waiting for the rain to subside or to be fetched by somebody.
Renjun doesn’t have that option, first due to being outcasted, shunned, and cut-off by his family, and second, due to having no romantic nor friendly relationship intimate enough to ask them for such a big favor. In an ideal life, asking to be fetched shouldn’t be a big favor, but for him who’s lonely to his core, it is.
He snapped out of his stupor and realized that whilst he was drowning in his thoughts, everyone had already left as soon as the rain stopped and now, the sky has cleared and the moon was shining on him. He shook his head and picked up his bag from the railing he was leaning on.
As he passed the university gate, his stomach grumbled loudly, making him chuckle lowly as his ears burned, quite thankful that the area was deserted. He had forgotten to bring his airpods and thus, has to settle on his ragged earphones. This choice of his had proven itself when he heard footsteps behind him.
It was obviously cautious but daring enough. Renjun raised an eyebrow but pretended not to hear the tailing he’s currently experiencing. He turned off the music that was gently blasting from his earphones and decided to amuse himself for a while. Turning left away from his usual route, he snickered internally hearing the person turned the direction and street he did a few beats later.
A few steps later, Renjun decided that it’s not even worth it to be aware and so, he played some music again, enjoying the cold breeze that’s the aftermath of the downpour from earlier. Blasting Taemin’s ‘ 2 Kids ,’ Renjun silently enjoyed the atmosphere, still aware of the presence not far from him but unbothered enough to let it consume him.
Seeing a familiar corner, he turned towards it and smiled upon seeing the dead end that’s getting clearer with each step he takes. After a few steps, he was met with the old, grey, asphalt wall and smiling, he turned around swiftly and smiled seeing the man almost tripping on his own feet. “No need to hide, I knew I was being followed.”
The man, who looks absolutely expensive in his black suit, stopped midway from hiding himself. “I’d like to know why I am getting followed though.” Renjun supplied, removing one of the earpieces out of his ear.
The man was unfazed with his cheery disposition despite the connotative danger the situation inherently possesses. “We’d like you to come with us Mr. Huang. Our boss wants to meet you.” Renjun hummed and walked towards the man- no, boy, giving his bag and nudging towards the direction out of the alley. He realized that although tall, his stalker mustn’t be older than he is.
Unsurprisingly, the moment that they emerged out of the alley, he spotted a black limousine waiting across the street. He hummed and let himself be led into the passenger’s seat before the door was closed by the boy that escorted him. “Damn, that fast?” Another person, the one in the driver’s seat commented, looking through the rearview mirror and meeting eyes with Renjun. “Was he supposed to take long?” Renjun blinked, looking at the boy that escorted him that’s now sitting shotgun. The driver shrugged before replying. “Well, normally, one would expect some struggle, you know? And maybe I was expecting Jisung to bring you back unconscious.”
Renjun snorted at that before leaning back, switching the song in his ears into something he couldn’t remember the title of. “Ahh, I would’ve loved it if I had my airpods with me. Guess I won’t be meeting them now.” He muttered absentmindedly as he looked out of the window, uncaring of his immediate surroundings as he let himself be abducted. “Boss will replace it ten-fold, don’t worry about it.” The boy who escorted him- Jisung, the driver said it, said as he looked at him through the rearview mirror.
Now that Renjun’s looking, the rearview mirror is pretty much useless save for being used as some sort of spy device in order to look at the backseat properly. “That’s such a reckless thing to do.” He noted, eyeing the useless mirror as well as the driver that doesn’t even look at his side mirrors while driving. “Don’t worry, Lele’s a good driver.” Jisung said, his facade not even breaking for a second. Raising an eyebrow, Renjun couldn’t understand which part of that sentence was meant to appease and assure him.
“Fine, we’re in a convoy, so I don’t have to worry about my tail, I just have to make sure that I’m following the hyungs’ car in front of us properly. Happy?” ‘ Lele ’ clicked his tongue but kept his eyes on the road as they exited the expressway. Renjun didn’t bother reading the signs and kept humming to himself as a favorite song played in his shuffle.
He was getting particularly comfortable when Jisung broke the silence again. “So, uh, I think you’re a hyung, so hyung, I would have to knock you unconscious because protocols and all.” Renjun bit his lips and ran through a number of scenarios in his head. “That’ll hurt though and I still have a quiz next week so I don’t want to risk any brain damage for the meantime. Can’t you just like blind fold me or something? I won’t snoop either, you can check my phone and I’ll have my earphones on blast.” He raised his three fingers in promise.
The two in the front seat exchanged brief glances. Renjun thinks that they might not agree but he really doesn’t want to sport any bruise or risking himself to concussion should they misstep with knocking him unconscious. He’s sure that they’re more than capable people, probably belonging to a gang or something equally shady yet sophisticated, but he has massive trust issues. Deciding that it’s for the best, he took a deep breath and pulled his well honed pitiful act.
He jutted his lips ever so slightly, not too much to be considered over the top but not nonexistent either that it barely leaves an impact. Closing his eyes for a while, he let out the minimal tears just so it could shine some sparkles and a tinge of redness into his eyes but not so much that he started tearing up. ‘ Lele ’ the driver looks a little standoffish and his pitiful act might not work, however, he’s not the one looking through the rearview mirror and Renjun can see Jisung slowly wilting with each passing second that he gazes through the mirror only to see the pitiful act thriving in the backseat.
After a sigh, Renjun could only throw his fist in his head as he knows that he’s getting what he wants. “Alright, I’ll, uh, I’ll just make a call.” Renjun saw him fish his phone from his chest pocket and a few beeps later, was on call with somebody Renjun figured must be higher than he is in the organizational hierarchy. Leaning back, he turned down the volume of his music to snoop properly.
“Hyung, so, like, we had a talk- Chen Le and I did-” “No we didn’t?” “ Chen Le and I talked , and we figured that can’t we just like, blindfold him and block his ears?” “What Jisung? You know the protocol-” “But hyung, he has a quiz and what if he fails it because of brain damage?” “Jisungie-” “We promise he wouldn’t cause a fuss, Renjun hyung even promised- wait, you’re a hyung right?” Jisung turned to him and Renjun smiled slightly before providing his year of birth. “I was born in 2000.” “Yeah, Renjun hyung promised-” “Wait, why is he even awake?! Park Jisung-!!!” “Yeah Renjun hyung promised and I’m sure that boss will prefer him to arrive spotless?”
A faint silence followed Jisung’s unsure proposition but Renjun’s sure that he has the younger in the palm of his hands and based on the previous exchange, Jisung will continue to vouch for him until he’s disillusioned. ‘ Which doesn’t seem to be anytime soon. ’ “Fine. But the moment he does anything remotely harmful and suspicious, he’s going down, alright?” They heard from the other line and this made Renjun beam brightly as he answered for the younger’s stead. “Don’t worry Jisung’s hyung! I won’t give you any trouble just as I didn’t make any for Jisungie! I don’t even know the road we’re driving on so be rest assured!”
This made even Chen Le look at him through the rearview mirror. Renjun could only shrug before turning back his music into its original volume. “Now I can see why hyung’s interested in you.” Chen Le said once before returning his eyes on the road. Renjun scrunched his eyebrows but prodded no further, he has a feeling that things will be answered when they arrive wherever they’re supposed to.
“So yeah, here’s the blindfold, please put it on because we’re very near the hq and I’m already in trouble so yeah, please don’t put in more trouble than I am already in.” The young boy looked absolutely devastated now that things had dawned on him and Renjun still had half a heart so he took the blindfold and put it on his head before reaching out and patting the boy’s back. “I’ll take that bullet for you should they actually want to put one into you.” He put on the blindfold and leaned back again.
“I doubt you’ll even have one near you but yeah, thanks for the thought hyung.” He heard Jisung say before he suddenly felt insurmountable drowsiness engulf him, and soon, the last thing that he heard was Taeyeon’s soft voice in his ears.
Blinking rapidly, he let his eyes adjust to the brightness of the room. Stretching his neck, left to right, he wandered his eyes and sighed, disappointed that he hadn’t arrived awake but understood that if Jisung actually sent him fully conscious and capable, he would have been in more trouble than he might be currently in for breaking protocols just because Renjun pulled his pout and crocodile tears out.
“I just want to say that it’s my idea and Jisung and Chen Le were just tricked.” He said out loud knowing that there might be someone there with him though his current visual capacity was limited. “Which is even more reason for them to be taught some lesson .” Renjun bit his lips both from being startled as well as the implications of that lessons. Usually, he wouldn’t bother getting involved because he already has too much shits on his plate, but with the short encounter he had with the younger two as well as seeing the end of his life flashing in front of his eyes, he just decided to fuck it.
“Actually, no. Please don’t. Uhm, I don’t have a high pain tolerance but they really tried to follow through whatever that protocol was, I just really can’t afford losing any brain capacity and they understood that, we formed an agreement, I was still unconscious, just less bloody.” Renjun nodded to his head, hoping that this falls through because as far as he can see, his story was consistent.
The one he was talking to finally walked in front and entered his line of vision and Renjun almost raised an eyebrow if he weren’t too focused on trying to remove the massive headache that settled in place of disorientedness. “Have some water, it’ll help with the headache.” He was offered a glass and although common sense would suggest him to do otherwise, he still took it and chugged it without missing a beat. With his progressively regained senses, he can now see more clearly how insanely normal the man in front of him looks.
He doesn’t really know what he’s expecting, because it should be understandable that the most notorious of people should look the most normal and mundane but Renjun has to admit that he has to literally swallow down something dumb about ‘you don’t look like a gang member’ lest he actually has to lose his tongue quite prematurely. Instead, he settled for something that’s still in the rational side of him. “So why am I here? Does my dumb family have some debts they dumped onto me? Because if that’s the case you’d be sorely disappointed because I have nothing on me apart from my university scholarship. My organs are not healthy either because I’m a chainsmoker, I have congenital heart disease, asthma, and I have tested positive for HIV.”
It is true that he’s a chainsmoker and an asthmatic but he doesn’t really want to be cut open just for these people to sell his organs and neither does he want to be sold to some prostitution ring because he still has a quiz in College Physics next week. The man blinked at him before looking at him in confusion. “What? What no, no, that’s not why you’re here.” Renjun sighed in relief because he’d honestly hate it if his family actually regressed more than they already are.
“You’re here because I like you and I want to make you fall in love with me within three hundred and sixty five days.” Renjun blinked blankly, not registering the implications of the words. “So, yeah, like, one year?” He clarified and this seemed to catch the man off-guard as he lost the cold facade he had started again. “Uh, yeah. If you don’t fall for me then, then I’ll leave you alone forever and you won’t even remember I was there.”
Renjun tilted his head, in absolute confusion of how shit just turned 100 real quick. Massaging his head, he took a deep breath and stared the man down in absolute seriousness. “So you’re telling me, you have a crush on me so you sent your men to fetch me-” “I actually sent them to kidnap you-” “Irrelevant because Jisung looks like an angel- anyways, so you sent your men to fetch me rather than approach me like an actual human being? I mean, you should know that you’re attractive because that suit fits you well and that hair looks good pushed back but you could’ve at least spared me from the chloroform and would you look at that, my battery is dead.”
By the end of his rant, he was a little bit out of breath with his lips jutted out fully in despair. “Nevermind, let me just borrow your charger and outlet, it’s a type c, I’m sure you have it.” Renjun shot up while beaming only to regret it not a second later because he almost came crashing back down if not for the man’s quick reflexes. “Yeah, maybe later.” “I don’t understand?”
Renjun looked up and saw the utter confusion this mob boss possessed in his eyes. Blinking rapidly, “Uh, I just made myself comfortable, would you prefer me quivering in fear though? Because I can do that well.” The man shook his head as he gently pushed Renjun back down for him to sit. “Is this you giving me a chance?”
The man looked unsure but Renjun feels quite satisfied with the turn of events and if he’s being really honest, he doesn’t have anything going on for him anyway. His family had completely cut him off ever since he had been outed by his equally conniving brother, he has no friends to be worried about his disappearance, and to be honest, a little more excitement in his life wouldn’t hurt.
Looking at the man, Renjun shrugged and smiled a bit. A genuine one this time. A genuine one after a very long time. “I’m looking forward as well as to how this will unfold, so give me your best shot mister ‘ unnamed man who likes me yet haven’t introduced himself yet. ’” This seemed to fluster the man but he hurriedly composed himself and stood straighter.
“I’m Lee Jeno and I look forward to our one year, Huang Renjun.”