take me home ; nct johnten

11

Johnny walked to work the next day. It was already getting dark, but there were hardly any people out on the streets so it was relatively quiet.

As he walked, he put a cigarette between his lips and lit it with the lighter in his pocket.

He was quite proud of himself; he seemed to be getting better at not smoking so much. Technically speaking, one or two cigs a day is hardly a lot, but it was getting to the point where it was typically one or none.

He hadn't completely finished smoking the cigarette by the time he got to the club but decided that he wouldn't waste a few more minutes trying to get it down to the butt. Instead, he pulled it out of his mouth and threw it on the ground, crushing it under his foot as he went inside.

He had made it to work a little early today. Heck, the club wasn't even open yet. He scanned the large room for the employees he knew, only being able to find Yuri and Jeonghwa, both dancers, on the initial half he looked at. The other half contained Yuta, his boss, two waitresses that he didn't know the names of, and a cute backside that looked all too familiar.

Mustering up enough courage to start a conversation, he began to approach him. However, in the middle of his conquest, he heard his name being called.

"Johnny!" Yuta shouted from the bar.

He snapped his head towards him and sighed, knowing that he could no longer go over to Ten. Johnny went behind the bar and promptly stood in front of Yuta, who had an unreadable expression on his face.

"So I heard you've been hanging around Ten lately," Yuta said, wiping down a glass in his hand.

Johnny looked over and titled his head to the side. "Hm? Who's Ten?"

Yuta scoffed. "Don't act like you don't know who he is. Does 'Chittaphon' ring a bell?"

He hummed.

"I'd advise you to stay away from him. He's a workaholic. All he thinks about is this club. It's his life."

"But aren't you his friend? Why are you talking about him like that?" Johnny asked, a little offended that Yuta could speak so negatively.

"Well, I thought I was his friend. But then you started hanging around him and now he doesn't pay attention to me."

Johnny blinked a few times in utter disbelief. He had only met Ten three times. It wasn't possible that he was influencing the cute boy...right? "What do you—"

"Hey Ten!"

Johnny turned around and saw Ten sleepily leaning up against the bar as he learned he usually did.

The boy responded with a quiet, "Hey."

Yuta walked over to him and threw an arm around his shoulders. "Why do you look so tired?"

"I stayed a few extra hours this morning," Ten mumbled.

Johnny watched them conversation as though he wasn't even there. It felt weird.

"When did you leave work?"

"10am."

Johnny couldn't help but butt in. "That's six extra hours!"

Ten's focus suddenly shifted over from Yuta to Johnny. He hardly even noticed he was there before. "Oh yeah...I guess it was."

"When did you go to bed?" Johnny asked despite being able to see Yuta adopting a grim and evil look on his face.

"4pm."

He was shocked. It was almost 8pm now, so that meant Ten got less than four hours of sleep. He opened his mouth to say something, but Yuta beat him to it.