we the cursed, nct dream ✔

part thirty-nine

"Of course." He hugs her back and plasters on a smile. "I missed you."

"Me too. Let's never do that again." His heart fractures a little at that, but then she presses her lips to his cheek and it leaps embarrassingly. "Okay, loser. Now leave." She pushes him away playfully. "Get to class."

"Fine, fine, I'm going." Jeno leans down to pet Shawty. "See you later?"

"Yes. Oh, also," she calls, and he turns back. "I was thinking we could probably stop our training."

Jeno's brow wrinkles, blindsided. "What? How come?"

"Just..." Juno fiddles with her fingers. "You've helped me a lot. I don't really need to do any extra from now on. Did I tell you about the psychokinesis thing?"

"We haven't been telling each other much of anything lately," he points out, tone unreadable.

"You're right. I'll fill you in later."

"Okay, I'm leaving. Get some rest, alright?" Juno hums in response, and then he's gone.

She glances down at the kitten once the door's shut. "That went well, didn't it?"

Shawty just cocks her head to the side with an unimpressed look, like she's very much calling Juno out on her bullshit.

▸

Later the next week, in Korean class, Haechan is spoiling for a fight.

Like right now. Juno is writing, minding her own business, when a voice comes from over her shoulder. "Your essay's shit," he comments.

Juno glowers at him, quickly covering her notebook. "You are shit," is her lame response.

"Leave her alone, Hyuck," Jeno calls from his desk where he and Jaemin have been gossiping about whatever instead of drafting the essays they've been assigned to. Juno looks over at him and they exchange a smile, having found their footing with each other again. Almost.

"Yeah, let's see what you wrote." Mark gets up and walks to Haechan's desk, picking up his paper. They've been asked to write about a memorable event in their lives, one that had a large impact on them as a person. "My memorable event was the Saturday night that I decided to watch Train to Busan," Mark begins, reading aloud in a nasally voice. "That movie forever changed my life because-"

Everyone dissolves into chuckles, and Haechan rushes over to snatch the book from Mark's fingers before he can continue. "Uh, privacy?!"

"No, keep going. I want to hear the rest of it," Renjun calls from his own desk, where he's been dutifully writing his paper. Then he yawns, stretching, and walks over to perch on top of Juno's desk. "What are you writing about?"

"I'm writing about the time I found a dead girl in the hallway," she answers with zero hesitation. He blinks at her. She blinks right back.

Renjun inclines his head. "Definitely memorable," he quips. "Let's hope you're better at essays than you are at Biology."

"Screw off," she scoffs, but he just laughs and leaves. Despite his teasing, however, Juno's grades actually are higher than they've ever been. She's not sure what to attribute that to. Perhaps it's the mental illness.

Later, after she's written down a little more, Haechan returns. "Still shit," he singsongs, evidently working hard at pissing her off.

"I forgot to thank you," Juno says instead.

Haechan blinks dumbly. "Huh?"

"For that night," she reiterates. "When I got wasted. Thanks for taking care of my drunk ass. You didn't really have to." She shrugs. "And I was actually able fall asleep in your bed, so thank you. It was nice of you to do that for me."