Chapter Text
Jaemin hasn't cried in seven years.
The very last time he had let his eyes become wet with tears was at his mother's funeral. It had been a dark and gloomy day, set aside for him to mourn the death of the only woman who had been his everything. Almost as if matching what he was feeling, the weather was stormy, the wet rain weighing down his suit, his lashes heavy with a mixture of tears and rain. He watched in silence as his mother's coffin disappeared beneath the ground and that day, he did what no one in his line of work should do.
He let his emotions get the best of him.
He let down his guard.
By the time nightfall had arrived, eight of his trusted men were also six feet under and Jaemin had sustained a knife slash to his torso, one that Kun told him would leave a scar forever.
Ever since that day, not a single tear has fallen from Na Jaemin's eyes.
Even now, as Jaemin stared down at the body that belonged to his brother, his pants darkening at the knee from the pool of blood he was kneeling on, he tries his best to keep his eyes dry. He looks up, furiously blinking away the tears that threaten to stream down his cheeks, white knuckles clenching tightly by his side.
There's a hand placed gently on top of his shoulder and turning back he sees Jeno, eyes emotionless and face passive. "We'll find out who he is." There's an edge to Jeno's voice, one that hints at the ruthless monster inside him, one that promises the end of the world if that's what it came to.
"I promise you this, Jaemin, we’ll hunt down whoever did this and make them wish they had never been born." Donghyuck's voice carries from the top of the staircase and even then, the certainty in his voice is strong and unmissable. Looking up, Jaemin is met with a pair of eyes that have a storm brewing in them, watching him closely in stare flooded with anger and contempt.
Jaemin gulps, swallowing down all the weak emotions that were bubbling inside him, attempting to erupt. Instead, he replaces it with a fire and he can feel it gaining momentum, getting ready to explode and he allows it to do so. He feeds the fire his grief, his sadness, his anger and lets it encompass him completely and this time when he opens his eyes, he doesn’t struggle to blink away tears.
Instead, he sees scorching, crimson red.
It’s a red that mirrors the blood smeared across the white tiles beneath him.
It's a red that mirrors a single word.
The exact word that is carved messily into the chest of his dead brother.
REVENGE.
Renjun is absolutely swimming in sweat.
Breathing heavily, he makes his way backstage and then down the stairs, the neon hues and thunderous music dimming out the lower he goes. Mindlessly, he brings a hand up to brush away the strands of hair that was sticking to his forehead but stops when he notices the glitter covering his hands. Renjun cringes, glitter was a bitch to get off his body let alone his hair.
Annoyance fills him and he's regretting the way he had spread out the sparkly flakes all over his exposed stomach and arms just a while ago. Sure, it had been an audience favourite but it was going to take approximately four showers and then some more to not glimmer like some sort of Martian the next time he walked out in the sun.
"Great job today, babe!" The loud voice that so obviously belonged to Krystelle echoes through the hallway and over the faint booming of the music upstairs. As she walks past Renjun, dazzling smile on her face, she holds a sheer robe, the same material Renjun's crop top is made out of, over her outfit for the night, an outfit that left nothing to the imagination. Krystelle was mind-blowingly sexy and she knew it.
Renjun smiles easily, "Thanks Stelle," he replies smoothly, "break a leg up there."
Krystelle throws Renjun a knowing smile and a wink over her shoulder before she disappears upstairs and its obvious when she's out on stage when the club erupts into deafening cheers and whistles.
It had been a long shift tonight, one of those nights that felt like they would never end and while Renjun now grasped a handful of twenty- and fifty-dollar notes (he's certain he saw a couple of hundreds in there too), it had left him feeling tired and gross. He had given up adjusting the shorts that constantly kept riding up throughout his performance and he swears his eyelids were going to fall off from the mere amount of eyeshadow he had smeared all over them.
Finally, he reaches the end of the corridor and turns to his dressing room. Renjun smiles to himself, excited to walk in and sit himself down on whatever chair is closest and rest his sore legs for the first time in a couple of hours.
Except, things don’t exactly go down like that.
Instead, the first thing he see as he walks in are three men lounging around in his dressing room as if they owned the place. Renjun blinks, his heart stuttering in panic before he neutralises his expression and stares down the men.
"Excuse me?" Renjun asks, the lilt in his tone holding an immeasurable amount of audaciousness in it. "Can I help you?"
Lee Jeno, Lee Donghyuck and Na Jaemin, his mind supplies unhelpfully. He knows who these men are, everyone living and hoping to survive in this country knew these men but it wasn't every day they crashed your workplace. As a matter of fact, it was wisest to avoid them at all costs. Nothing good ever came out of a surprise visit from this trio.
There's no response from any of them, absolute radio silence. In fact, all they do is stare at with dark, unwavering eyes and Renjun wonders if his skin is going to start smouldering and emanate smoke if they continue. Then again, Renjun's kind of flattered, he knows he's good looking, it comes as a given with his current line of work but he didn't think he'd be that attractive, to the point it'd make three very powerful men who had access to all the sexiest pornstars and escorts in the world, freeze in their spots.
Renjun catches his reflection on the full-length mirror that was leaning against the opposite wall and smirks inwardly. Shorts that showed off his perky ass and milky thighs, a mesh crop top that fell off his shoulder and showed off his tiny waist, face full of striking eyeliner and pink lips and the glitter; the glitter that made his skin sparkle magically even under the cheap, yellow lights of the dressing room.
Ok, maybe he was that attractive.
It's Donghyuck who snaps out of whatever trance Renjun put them in first. "Yeah," he mumbles out, discreetly elbowing Jeno who was hanging by his side. "Yeah, you can help us with something."
A heavy sigh escapes Renjun lips. "Well, go on then. What is it?"
Renjun can't really understand why he's talking so calmly, so coolly, so arrogantly to a trio that probably had multiple weapons on them, to a trio that could probably put a bullet through his head at any given point. The reasonable part of his brain is screaming at him, telling him to show at least a little bit of politeness but the same time, it’s not like he has much to lose.
Death isn't a scary concept to someone who has nothing to live for.
"Do you know my brother?"
Walking forward, Renjun was reaching for a towel he kept hanging on his chair when Jaemin asks the question. His face twists up in confusion waiting for the (dashing) man (with black, windswept hair) to keep talking.
"Am — Am I just supposed to know who your brother is, or?" Renjun prompts, eyebrow lifting in confusion.
It's silence again as Renjun starts to pat away the remains of the night from his body with the towel.
"Park Jisung," Jeno finally responds, voice slightly choking up, "tall kid, kind of mousy looking—"
Renjun cuts him off — he should really be dead right now — and his face lightens up in recognition. "Oh, yeah, yeah, I know him." he pauses and looks over at Jaemin, "he's your brother?"
"Yes." Jaemin says, eyes narrowing and Renjun wonders if he’s imagining the glimmer of red, he’s certain just reflected in his irises, "and he's dead."
All his actions stop, Renjun freezing up at Jaemin's words. He furrows his eyebrows and regards the group with cautionary eyes, lips curling into a tight grimace. "What?"
Donghyuck, who had been twirling Renjun’s best tube of eye-liner between his fingers flings it straight at him and then jumps off the surface of his vanity. Renjun flinches, stumbling backwards, hands flying up to catch the bottle.
"Jesus, careful, this is expensive," he utters quietly, examining it closely before placing it down with the rest of his makeup products.
Donghyuck raises an amused eyebrow up, running a hand through his hair and walks towards Renjun, closer and closer and closer until the smaller male can smell Donghyuck's heavy cologne wafting off him.
"Jisung," Donghyuck starts, ignoring Renjun's previous words completely, "was murdered a month ago and we have information you guys knew each other."
"Murdered?" Renjun mumbles out, sounding appalled at even the thought of it as he tries to process Donghyuck's words. "He was murdered?" There's another shaky sigh escaping his lips and Renjun instinctively brings a hand up to nibble at one of his nails, "he — he didn't deserve that, he was a cool guy."
Jaemin raises his brows at that statement. "Yeah? What else do you know about him? How do you know about him?"
Shaking off the shock that came from the sudden revelation, Renjun shrugs as he sits down in front of his vanity. He grabs a cotton pad, wets it with makeup remover and then wipes it over his eyes but he’s certain the trembling of his hands hasn’t escaped the eyes of his guests in his dressing room. "Well, I met him here, we got talking because he told a creep to keep his hands off." Renjun's actions slow down, his eyes trained on his reflection in the small mirror in front of him. "It was sweet of him to do that, not many do. He was one of the rare guys that understood I'm a dancer, not a hooker."
"Right, that sounds like him," Donghyuck mutters. His brows are furrowed in concentration as he watches Renjun's every move, a hand moving up to rest on Jaemin's shoulder, curling into a tight ball.
"We got talking and he told me he was, y'know, part of whatever it is you guys do but I didn't know he was related to you," Renjun continues, glancing up at Jaemin through the mirror and then back at himself. "I don't have anything else to say though," he finishes with a shrug.
"We'll decide that," Jeno states gruffly causing Renjun to roll his eyes, and almost immediately he feels piercing glares angrily settling on the back of his head. "Now, when you first met, who was he with? Or was he here alone?"
"Of course, he wasn't alone, who comes to a club alone?" Renjun replies incredulously. "He was with two guys, one looked like an e-boy wannabe and the other was gross and old and way too confident for a man with a potbelly." Renjun shudders to prove his point before getting up from his seat and walks into a small closet, slamming the door shut behind him.
It's only after he's certain the three can't see him anymore that he breathes easy, leaning against the door in relief. As much as he was talking back to everything they were saying, he was still terrified to the core. The fear had been eating him up from the moment he had entered the room and it was taking everything in him to not start bawling at just the sight of them. Renjun knew he wasn’t alone, there was no one who had interacted with them that was left sane or happy.
Them as in the three men that ruled the country. After joining their individual mobs together to create NCT, the power Jeno, Donghyuck and Jaemin held was akin to, no, more than that of the president. Being a small island in east Asia, it was easy to control the borders and perfect for imports and exports of various items. While the general census was leave them alone and they'll leave you alone, they were still ticking clocks, ready to explode at any second. With body counts probably way past the hundreds and with the skill to use any weapon thrown their way, these were the type of men you tried to never, ever cross paths with.
And now, with Jisung, apparently Jaemin's brother, being murdered right under their noses, the entire gang was probably on edge. Renjun was playing a dangerous game treating them with such little respect.
Renjun pushes aside the nervous ramblings inside his head and quickly pulls on clothes that were less revealing and warmer, before walking out, head held high and breathing neutral.
Immediately, however, the door of the closet is closed shut behind him and he's slammed against the door, the clothes in his hands dropping to the ground as Jaemin grabs his wrists and pins them above his head.
Jaemin's tall as he looms over Renjun but he's feels even taller as Renjun cowers down, heart hammering wildly in his chest, so loud he’s certain that it's audible. There’s a heavy silence settling over them and Renjun tries his best to hold eye contact with the intimidating man but there's a glint, a dark and dangerous one deep in Jaemin's eyes that Renjun can't help turn his face away.
"A little feisty, aren’t you, love?" Jaemin asks, voice baritone and taunting. Jeno and Donghyuck have come up on either side of him and now he's surrounded by nothing but the strong auras of the three. He holds his breath, scared to even breathe too loudly in case they absolutely lose it.
"Just 'cause we're playing nice doesn't mean you can treat us however you like." The words that leave Jeno's mouth sends small hills of goosebumps up the length of Renjun's arms and it takes all his bodily control to not to shiver in fear. "Understand?"
There's a pause and Renjun looks up once again into Jaemin's dark eyes. "Understand?" Jaemin repeats, glare hardening.
"Sure?" Renjun whispers out, wincing when it comes out more like a question that anything else.
"We don't have to introduce ourselves, I’m sure? So, for the sake of our time and your life, just answer us with respect or it'll be like a Huang Renjun never even existed." Donghyuck states calmly, his voice so level that it sends an electric current shooting up his spine. "Now since you're all ready, how about you come with us and tell us everything you know about Jisung. Then we'll think about letting you go."
Renjun clenches his jaw, knowing that if he relaxes it, his teeth would start clattering together in absolute fear. So, instead of answering verbally and potentially embarrassing himself with a crack in his voice, Renjun nods.
The answer seems to satisfy Jaemin and he proceeds to grab Renjun by the arm and instantly drag him out the dressing room, fingertips digging into his skin as if his aim was to bruise him. As Renjun struggles to keep up with the fast pace of Jaemin’s long strides through the corridors of the club, he ducks his head in shame, cheeks burning as he feels the curious stares and hushed whispers of the other staff of the club focused directly on him. No one says anything though, no one tries to help him, they wouldn’t dare to. Instead, they all stumble out the way and press up against the walls in fear.
When they finally reach the back exit of the club, Jaemin shoves Renjun through the door, the security guard actively avoiding eye contact with all of them. Renjun is almost immediately hit with a blast of cold wind, the frigid air colouring his nose a bright pink but just as quickly as he is thrust outside, he is thrust inside a black car.
Renjun can’t help but sigh as he settles down in his seat, eyes drooping shut in tiredness and annoyance.
Screw Jisung for getting murdered.
Jeno is seated in the driver's seat and the other two are crowded around Renjun in the back and all Renjun simply wants to do is, die.
"Are we almost there yet?" Renjun mumbles out. There’s a piece of cloth tied over his eyes, encompassing the entire world around him in darkness and Renjun was not the fondest of the dark. With his sense of sight stripped, that too when he's in such close contact with the specific company he has, he's surprised he hasn't started wailing in fear already. He tries to melt into the leather seats of the car, but he finds that he can't move much with Jaemin and Donghyuck on his either side and gripping his arms tightly. "Seriously, what do you think I’m going to do? Jump out the window? Let go, my arms hurt.”
The incessant whines from Renjun are completely ignored and he swears Donghyuck's grip tightens at his words. He scowls but keeps quiet, still a little shaken from the threats they had made earlier. He knows he should have expected that with the way he was acting around mafia leaders but it was much more of a scary ordeal that he would have imagined.
The drive continues and Renjun, as uncomfortable as he is, finds himself dozing off to the low whirring of the car engine. Unfortunately, the silence doesn’t last long and it’s shattered by the ringing of a phone and Renjun startles up with a gasp.
There’s movement from the front before, “yes?” he hears Jeno say and being nosy, Renjun strains his ears to try and hear anything of the conversation but he can only make out a low mush of words from the caller. “Get to the point, Soobin,” Jeno says after a short, few seconds, cutting the person on the other side off mid-sentence, his voice rough with impatience. There are more muffled words from the caller before Jeno finishes the call with a sharp, “Okay.”
There’s another wave of silence that settles over the car once again but this time it’s filled with an awkwardness, thick enough to cut with a blunt knife.
From his left, he hears a shaky sigh. “Well?” Jaemin asks.
“That was Soobin.”
“Yeah and?”
There’s an edge of something foreign in Jaemin’s voice and while Renjun tries to make out what it was, he simply can’t.
“The DNA results are back, it’s not our kid.” Jeno says, the words obviously kept vague due to Renjun’s presence but the other two seem to understand and Renjun feels Jaemin’s hand loosen on his arm.
“You’re sure?” Donghyuck asks.
“Yeah, but this doesn’t mean we should just halt the investigation. It was still our kid that was the target.” Jeno tells the other two calmly.
There’s a low hum from Jaemin, sounding like he was deep in thought about something and then the silence is back, no more words exchanged between the three.
But it’s different this time. The silence was deafening and heavy with unsaid words and for some odd reason, this sets off alarm bells in Renjun’s head, sirens loudly blaring in his ears. He doesn’t know what’s taking over him but there’s a panic building in his heart, his chest constricting tightly and suddenly it’s becoming a struggle for him to breathe.
“You know, you shouldn’t take a call while you’re driving. I’d like to be home in one piece and not laying in some ditch on the side of the road.” Renjun ends up saying to break the silence, trying to keep himself grounded.
There’s a collective sigh and if Renjun wasn’t in the situation he was in, it would have been slightly comical.
“If you’re trying to not to end up dead,” Jaemin mumbles, breath heavy on Renjun’s neck, “I’d keep that pretty mouth of yours shut.”
Renjun freezes in fear and quietens down for a second before he opens his mouth again, about to (carefully) whine some more when the car comes to a halt. He sighs a breath of relief but that feeling doesn’t last long as Renjun is harshly pulled out of the car by Jaemin. He's immediately pushed inside what he’s guessing is their place of residence but he has no time to ponder more on it, before he's harshly pulled out another door. He stumbles, almost faceplanting onto the cement pavement but the tight grips on his arms steadies him and keeps him upright.
When the blindfold is pulled off his face, he blinks wearily, eyes skittering around in nervousness. The first thing he realises, after he finally blinks out the dark spots in his vision, is that he's in the backyard of a large mansion.
The second thing he realises is the large pool in front of him.
Where a man stands, by the very edge.
Holding a head firmly underwater.
There's thrashing, warbled screams and water splashing everywhere but the man is unphased, grip strong around the back of the woman's neck.
The man turns back, locking eyes with him for a frightening second before turning to the men standing beside him.
Renjun watches in absolute terror as Jaemin flicks two fingers up swiftly and the woman is let go. She scrambles away from the edge of the pool and it takes everything in him not to flinch as Renjun takes in her bruised and bloody face.
"The whore isn’t fucking talking." the man says, voice deep and indifferent.
Donghyuck scoffs, arms coming down to unbutton the cuffs of his white shirt and then rolls the sleeves up, "Well?" He says, looking at the woman as if she was nothing more than a worthless pest.
The woman is coughing up water and trying to take in ragged mouthfuls of air at the same time, leaving her a coughing, sobbing heap on the ground. Still, she finds the energy to look up and shake her head, a painful cry escaping her lips. "I — I don't know anything," she chokes out. "Please, I swear, I really don’t know who did it." The beg sends shivers up Renjun's spine and he drops his head and squeezes his eyes shut, unable to watch any more.
"Fine."
A beat of silence passes.
Then another.
Another.
And then a loud splash. Renjun's head flies up and he watches in horror as the woman's head is pushed underwater once again. Renjun can see the grip the man has around her neck tightening, woman uselessly thrashing around violently, trying to escape the man’s hold. The minutes slowly pass but then she stills. Renjun feels faint, nauseousness creeping up his stomach as the man lets go and a lifeless body topples into the water.
Renjun bites down on his lip to fight a scream.
"You can leave," Jeno says firmly to the man who nods, bows deeply and then stiffly walks into the house, leaving Renjun all alone with Jaemin, Jeno and Donghyuck.
And, of course, the dead woman at the bottom of the pool.
He's going to die, Renjun thinks to himself, he is completely and utterly done for and he can tell, with a sinking feeling in his stomach, the next lifeless body floating in the pool is going to be him. Why else would he have been dragged to the middle of nowhere and then forced to witness a literal murder right before his eyes.
Jaemin’s hold on him loosens and Renjun yanks his arm away, palms rubbing furiously at the bruise that was certainly going to bloom. "What do you want?" he hisses. He has nothing to lose, he concludes, his death was probably inevitable at the point and so, fuck respect.
"Respect," Jeno mutters as he strides over to the edge of the pool. Squatting down, he reaches in and grabs the woman’s hand, his fingers checking for a pulse before letting go with a satisfied nod. He peers into the water one last time before looking straight up into Renjun’s eyes, an evil smirk playing on his features. "Or you'll be next."
Fuck respect? It’s a lot easier to simply think than to do and so Renjun ends up biting down on the flesh of his lips to stop the snarky reply threatening to escape his mouth and seeing this, Donghyuck raises an eyebrow.
"So, you do know how to hold your tongue,” he hums, voice so thick it sends shivers up Renjun’s spine. “Good boy."
Renjun wants to scream at how pathetic he feels, but it was true. He did know when to hold his tongue and right now, as he was being circled like he was prey in front of these predators, was one of those moments. He breathes out wearily, eyes stopping at each one of them before falling back down to the cement ground.
“What did you and Jisung speak about?” Jeno goes straight into business but he sounds smug at Renjun’s defeated stance.
Renjun might be scared, but he wasn’t weak and even if he was, he’d never outwardly show it and so he looks up at Jeno dead in the eyes. “Nothing much. Like I said, he stood up to a perv trying to feel me up, complimented me and gave me some money. Then he went back to his conversation and I went back to my show. After my shift, he was still at the club but he was alone, I think, and just sitting in deep thought. I bought him a drink to thank him for earlier and we just introduced ourselves.”
“And, what else?” Jaemin asks, leaning forward. Renjun can’t help but focus on the glassiness in his eyes and for the first time, Renjun realises that Jaemin is actually a human and not just an emotionless robot. And while he tries his best to keep his facade up, Renjun could see the cracks appearing, the more they talked about his brother.
“I mean, we didn’t get to talk about anything else. He got a call and had to leave.” Renjun pauses before sighing, “and no, before you ask, I did not see who was calling him.”
Donghyuck’s brows raise up, lips curling into a scowl. “Right,” he starts, tugging up his pants slightly as he sits down on a chair by the pool, "Would you be able to recognise the men Jisung was with that night?"
"Quite literally, just check the CCTV cameras, we have them in every corner of the club," Renjun murmurs under his breath. Silence follows his words and looking up Renjun flinches, being at the receiving end of frosty glares from the men. "I mean, yeah, I guess."
Jaemin nods, motioning Jeno discreetly and Jeno stalks towards Renjun, hand reaching into one of his suit pockets and pulls out a crinkled-up piece of paper and then gracefully shoves it in front of Renjun’s face. Renjun doesn’t flinch when he comes face to face with a picture of a man who looked eerily similar to a snake, with sharp pupils and a strong jaw. He was definitely terrifying, especially with the long scar that starts from his brow down to his cheek, unhealed and a bright pink colour as if he picked at it regularly.
“Was it him?” Jeno asks, hiding the little surprise he felt at how calm Renjun’s face looked. He’d seen people tear up at the just the picture he was holding up, a deadpanned stare was definitely a first.
Renjun’s eyes travel from the picture to Jeno. “Nope, never seen this guy before.”
Jeno looks over his shoulders and Jaemin shrugs before cocking his head in a small gesture. Donghyuck nods and with that Jeno looks at Renjun once more. “Are you sure you’ve told us everything?”
“Yes? I don’t really have a motive to hide stuff from you,” Renjun says, shrugging.
“And you don’t have anything to do with it do you?”
Renjun blinks slowly, looking Jaemin with an unimpressed expression but his heart starts beating wildly in his chest, and his toes curl slightly in fear, was that what they thought? That he killed Jisung?
“No.”
“Well, then, you won’t have a problem with us testing your DNA, right?” Jeno asks, although it sounded more like a challenge, a challenge for Renjun to deny it.
Renjun doesn’t understand why the three were badgering down on him so much and so, in an attempt to just to get them out of his hair and leave him alone, he nods. “I don’t care,” he mutters out, “do what you want,” and that was all the confirmation they needed.
Almost immediately, the man that had left earlier walks out from the shadows and in his hands was a large bag that Renjun eyes with fear, insides filling up with dread and palms becoming clammy with sweat even in the cold air.
“No need to be too scared, love.” Jaemin lulls, leaning back to sit next to Donghyuck. “Just making sure you aren’t our killer.” There’s a pause and Jaemin’s eyes do that thing again, the thing where Renjun swears it just flashed with an inhumane glint of red. “You better not be our killer.”
It’s a threat, Renjun’s smart enough to realise that and with that, his breathing flies out of control, mouth drying up with anxiousness. As the man he had seen murder the woman sets up, another man walks up behind Renjun, looming over his much smaller frame in a menacing manner. Rough hands grasp his shoulders harshly, keeping him steady, upright and in position while other man grabs Renjun’s hand before taking out a butterfly needle and holds it by his arm ready to pierce into his skin.
Renjun’s mouth falls open in absolute disbelief and as the man inches closer to his arm with the needle, he shoves the man away and wriggles out of the other man’s grip, scurrying as far away from the two as possible. Jeno jumps up at this, hand ghosting over the side of his hip where a weapon was most likely concealed but Renjun didn’t care.
Instead, he looks at the man holding the needle in absolute horror. “What on Earth are you doing?”
The man blinks in surprise, taken aback by Renjun’s near violent reaction. “Drawing your blood?” He says, voice lilting up into an unsure question.
“Like that?” Renjun asks, absolutely aghast as he points at the needle. It was held in the man’s balled-up fists, as if he was holding a knife ready to stab someone. “You know you have to get a vein to draw blood, right?”
“Yeah? If I don’t get it, I’ll just try again.”
Renjun has to physically stop himself from face-palming himself. “What am I?” He asks incredulously, “a pinboard to blindly stab a fucking needle into?” Renjun walks over to bag and inside are multiple zip-lock bags, filled with all the equipment needed to properly draw blood. “All this and you decide to only use that?” Renjun’s hands reach up to massage his throbbing head. It was so late that it was now early morning and he just wanted to sleep not be turned into a human pinboard.
With that, Renjun decides to take things into his own hands. He looks around for a table he could possibly sit in front of, only seeing one near the chairs Jaemin and Donghyuck were sitting on. Sighing in annoyance he stalks over, sitting down and opening the zip-lock bag.
He places his palm face down on the table and wraps medical tourniquet around his wrist, tightening it hard enough for a vein to bulge out. He rubs a small alcohol wipe on the back of his hand before uncapping the needle and carefully inserting it into the vein. He realises belatedly that his hands are definitely not big enough to do this completely with one hand and so he turns towards Donghyuck.
“Can you, just, like, push the tube in?” Renjun asks, trying not to seem too nervous.
Donghyuck, without saying words, listens to him and a waves of blood rushes into the tube.
After cleaning himself up, Renjun slams the tube of blood on the table.
“Here,” he says, not even trying to hide the fatigue he felt at the point. “Now, can I go home?”
But it seems like the three definitely hate him and he can tell, knows it deep in his bones that the answer is a solid ‘no’ in the way Jeno smirks.
“The DNA results won’t be back until a couple of hours later and we can’t have you running around the city without officially crossing you out as a suspect,” Jaemin says, his voice laced with mock empathy.
Donghyuck smirks and then shrugs innocently.
“Guess you’ll be spending the night here.”