Safe | norenmin

24

It was a saturday morning. Renjun had slept on the couch in the lounge room of his dad's house. His bedroom still had to be furnished but he was happy to finally have a home to call his. Jeno slept on the floor beside the couch, out of respect for sicheng.

The two teenagers woke up to the smell of fresh pancakes and coffee. It was almost too good to be true.

"Good morning!" sicheng cheerfully said as the two young boys sat at the dining table. Sicheng shoved full plates of pancakes into their faces with fruit and chocolate drizzled on top.

The three of them enjoyed their breakfast, laughing and having the time of their lives. It had been a while since either of them had felt so welcome.

But all good things must come to an end.

Sicheng excused himself from the table as a knock on the door was heard.

A few moments later, sicheng made his way back to the dining room with two police officers and a woman dressed in an expensive business suit. Renjun and jeno's stomachs dropped at the sight. Nothing good could possibly come from this.

"Are you lee jeno?" the fancy dressed woman asked, jeno nodded.

"I'm kim chungha from child protective services, and i'm here to inform you of the death of Lee Chaerin-"

"My mom?" jeno asked but he already knew the answer, he only knew of one lee chaerin. His heart froze, not knowing the right emotion to feel. Words couldn't describe his feelings as he heard those words. "H-how did this happen?"

"She passed away in her sleep last night. To save you from the confusing medical terms, basically her body failed on her. She had stage four lung cancer that went untreated for way too long, and from the state of your house i'm assuming she wasn't taking care of herself."

Jeno nodded, what she was saying was true. He did all he could to take care of her. He made sure she ate, had access to water and anything she wanted. He knew supplying her with alcohol and cigarettes was only enabling her but he had no other choice. Jeno could only feel guilt. He shouldn't have enabled her smoking habits, he shouldn't have bought her alcohol and he should've gotten her to a hospital when he saw her struggling. He shouldn't have had to care for an adult woman but he had no choice. He felt like it was all his fault. He shouldn't have left for days at a time and should've gave her his full attention.

"Your eighteenth birthday is approaching so it'd be pointless to put you in the system—" she scrolled through her phone searching for something. "— And i'm aware that your dad isn't in the picture, is there any friends or family you could possibly house with?"

Jeno shook his head, he couldn't form any words.

"Is it okay if he stayed with us?" sicheng stepped in.

"And you are?" chungha asked skeptically.

"I'm the father of this young man here-" he gestured towards renjun. "Renjun is a friend of jeno and as you can already see, he's very welcome here."

Chungha flipped through her clipboard and looked between the two police men, exchanging silent words between them. "Seeing as he's almost eighteen, I guess I can approve to save everyone some time and paperwork."

Sicheng and chungha discussed a few more things as renjun sat beside jeno and comforted the grieving boy. There were no words anyone could say to make this okay, but being there with him was enough for jeno. If renjun could take all the pain away and leave it for himself, he would've.

"I'll be in contact with you over the next few days to discuss more with you, jeno. Until then, if you have any questions or concerns please contact me." chungha gave the teenage boy a small paper with her phone number written on it and gave him a reassuring smile. "I'm sorry for your loss." she stated before being escorted out by sicheng.

As soon as the woman left the room, silent tears escaped jeno's eyes. He was mentally beating himself up for not being able to do more, but apparently she has cancer. Unless jeno was a superhero, there was no way he could've helped her.

Renjun cleaned up the mess that was left behind in the dining room before escorting jeno to their new unfurnished room. He set up a small blanket and littered it with pillows to make it more comfortable.

They sat on the blankets side by side, jeno still silently crying. Renjun pulled the younger boys head into his lap and allowed him to let out all his feelings.

Moments later, the door was opened by a distressed jaemin. Renjun assumed his dad let him in.

"Nono..." jaemin approached the cuddling boys, sitting beside them. Both of them sat on either side of jeno silently. No words were exchanged but they were all hurting. Renjun and jaemin hurting for the crying boy, he still looked beautiful with tears streaming down his cheeks. Jeno was grieving. Without his mother, what was he to do? He no longer had to care for someone. He didn't have to do illegal things to take care of himself. What was he meant to do now?

"Hey, you're gonna be alright." jaemin combed through the crying boy's hair with his fingers. "We're all gonna be alright."

Renjun nodded in agreement. "We've got each other, that's all we've ever needed."

Jeno nodded, nudging his head further into renjun's lap and spreading his legs across jaemin's body. It wasn't long until the boy cried himself to sleep.

"We're gonna be alright?" renjun whispered to jaemin.

Jaemin smiled that charming smile of his. "We're gonna be alright."

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a/n;
finally uploaded the last chapter, epilogue will be posted soon :)