Touch || Lee Jeno

five.

"Hyuck, I swear if you break another vase we're leaving your ass!" Renjun whisper-screamed into the cold, dark night. 

Above, on the second story of the quaint little house was Donghyuck, dangling off of his bedroom window. 

"Shut up!" Donghyuck retorted as he struggled to balance his foot on the first floor windowpane below him. 

Jeno had already climbed down with ease and was standing next to Jaemin and behind Renjun, watching in mild amusement as Donghyuck continued to bicker with Renjun. 

"You really need to teach the poor boy to sneak out the way you do," Jaemin laughed as he folded his arms together. 

Jeno smiled as he shook his head. 

"And never see this scene ever again?" He gestured at the now crouching and slightly whimpering Donghyuck— "No way." 

After a series of bickering and a string of swear words, Donghyuck finally landed safely on the tiny garden below his window, this time without breaking any vases. 

"Finally— let's go!" Jaemin whispered, and the four boys snuck off around the corner from the group, careful not to be spotted by anyone. 

By now, they have gotten used to sneaking out and sneaking back in with ease. It used to be slightly harder when the four of them used to live together because it was harder to sneak out four people. Now that they're separated, it became slightly easier— apart from Donghyuck's fear of heights and his particularly lousy body coordination when it came to sneaking out through the window. 

"You think we're gonna run into Jinkyu's idiots again? I'm really not in the mood tonight." Renjun wondered aloud as they walked casually, already a safe distance away from their group home. 

"No," Jaemin said as he walked ahead of the other boys, "because this time, we're coming to him."

"Wait, what?" Donghyuck asked, bewildered.

"We can't just ignore what happened with Jinwook." Jaemin explained, still walking ahead. 

"Are you kidding me? We've been avoiding them all this time, getting into fights with Jinkyu's newbie idiots, and now you wanna go to him??"

"You know we wouldn't have to be doing this if we didn't get in that fight, right?" Jeno asked rhetorically. 

Donghyuck rolled his eyes, but didn't talk back. He— just like the rest of the boys— knew that a meeting with Jinkyu was inevitable, whether they approached him first or he confronted them later. At least this way, they get to do it on their terms. 

Their walk was a little more silent now, knowing what lies at the end of their journey. Jeno felt the tension, but chose to ignore it. He was used to it by now; nothing involving Jinkyu was ever easy-going. 

He also knew that that thug was someone they should be, at the very least, careful around. However, Jeno felt more irritated by him rather than intimidated; he was like a pesky little fly they couldn't shake off. 

The four of them walked past small stores and cramped alleys, squeezing through closed off paths and through sketchy neighborhoods until they finally made it to a secluded and seemingly-deserted junkyard. 

They walked through the entrance, the abundance of junk cars and spare parts towering over them in many scattered piles. Jeno looked to the left to see that the abandoned jeep was still at its exact position, just like it used to be when they would come and hang out after school. 

They walked instinctively to their right, through a path between more piles of wreckage and abandoned items— the sounds of chatter growing louder— until they found themselves in a clearing in the back. Unlike the entrance of the junkyard, the clearing was not abandoned in the slightest.