Long Flight | NCT Taeyong

Chapter 26

Taeyong's POV

"Do you want anything?" I ask, reviewing our list on my phone as I stand up to order.

She says no, but I observe out of the corner of my eye that she's looking at the vanilla latte of another customer.

After reading off my whole list to the surprised worker, I also order a large vanilla latte and then return to the table to wait. The worst part about getting everyone food is the ridiculously long wait time. At least today I have Chaemin to keep me company.

I'm about to start talking to Chaemin again when my phone starts ringing. I swear, if it's one of the members, I'm going to murder them in their sleep.

I excuse myself and internally scream when I see that it's Haechan calling me. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS BOY? Still, I answer the call, in case it's important.

"Oh my goodness Haechan, what do you want?"

"Where did you go, hyung?"

"Bakery"

"Oh, with that Chaemin girl?"

"Manners, Haechan!"

"I saw your texts, you know."

"What the heck? Can you please not, Haechan? Have you ever heard of privacy before?"

"Can we meet her? You seem to like her a lot."

"No, I'm not doing that."

"Do you want me to expose the video of you talking to your plants to our Czennies?"

"I don't care, they'll still love me."

"Or your stuffed animal collection?"

"Dude, you can't threaten me like that!"

"Then bring her over. We already cleaned."

"What do you mean, I'm the one who cleaned last night!"

"Whatever, just bring her so we can meet her."

"Why?"

"Stuffed animal collection, Taeyong?"

"Fine, I'll ask."

I huff and hang up on Haechan, not needing to hear any more of his shenanigans. The disrespect of this child!

I look across the table and see Chaemin, giggling. She probably heard bits and pieces of our frustrating and unnecessary conversation.

"It's not funny!" I exclaim defensively. Just then, my order is called. Well, that was faster than expected.

I set the vanilla latte down in front of Chaemin, waiting to see her reaction. As expected, she's shocked. Well, it's just a small drink.

I decide to ask Chaemin to come to our dorm on behalf of Haechan as soon as possible.

"Do you want to say something?" Chaemin asks, pulling me out of my planning. She must have noticed my nervousness.

"Um, I don't really have anything to say, Haechan had a question to ask you," I clarify.

"Really? For me?" she asks, pointing at herself in surprise.

"Yeah, he... um... wants you to come to our dorm," I rush out, tripping over my own words. I'm more nervous than when I gave our NCT MAMA speech.

"Wait, actually?" Chaemin gasps in disbelief. Apparently she actually understood me.

"Yeah, he kinda looked through my phone," I sigh, making a mental note to scold him when we're alone.

"I mean, I would love to!" Chaemin answers, making me sigh in relief. "But like, is it allowed?"

"Yeah, I mean, I could just get Johnny hyung to pick us up instead of our manager," I answer, knowing that Johnny is probably in on Haechan's dumb plan. He always is.

"Are you sure? I don't want to break rules..." she says hesitantly.

"There's no official rule against it, so we're good," I promise her.

"Um, okay, I'll come if it's really okay," Chaemin agrees, smiling. I then text Johnny hyung to ask our manager to leave for a bit so hyung can pick us up and bring us to the dorm.

"Johnny hyung should be here soon," I inform Chaemin, slipping my phone away. I see her eyes widen in surprise as I tell her about the plan.

We talk about random topics for a while, and soon I recognize Johnny hyung's car pulling up in front of the shop.

"Let's go," I suggest, picking up the bags of food. Chaemin nods and follows me out the door, back into the frigid winter air.

Within a few seconds, though, we're warm again, sitting in the back of Johnny hyung's car.

"Welcome to Johnny Drives!" he greets us, tipping his imaginary chauffeur hat. "Where would you youngsters like to go today?"

"Hyung, please drop the act," I whine in embarrassment at his odd skit, causing my hyung to chuckle and become normal again.

(Bold is English)

"What's up, are you Chaemin?" Johnny hyung asks, greeting Chaemin normally in her native language.

"Yea, nice to meet you, Johnny!" she answers happily.

"Taeyong talks about you a lot!" he mentions, giving me a mischievous look through the mirror. What did he say about me?

"Oh, really?" Chaemin asks, surprised at his statement.

"Yea, all the time," he rolls his eyes, making Chaemin giggle as they continue talking in the language I'm not fully fluent in yet.

"How far are we from the dorm?" I interrupt, feeling uncomfortable because I don't understand half of their conversation, they're speaking too fast.

"We're here," Johnny answers. "I sent our manager to IKEA to get Jaehyun his lightbulb, since it's so far away. We should have at least an hour or two."

I hand the bags to Johnny, who grudgingly accepts them as we take the elevator up. I notice Chaemin standing in a tense and nervous way, and I get how she feels.

Walking up to the door, I unlock it and crack it open just a little, unsure what to expect. With just a little glance inside, I can tell that there are way too many people in there.

"Hyung, you didn't have to host a whole party!" I complain, thrusting the door open to reveal what looks like the rest of the 23 members instead of the usual small group of 5th floor ones.

As soon as everyone sees the person behind me, they erupt into chaos and start barreling towards the door. I quickly shut it, seeing the confused face of Chaemin, who's probably overwhelmed by the reality of our group.

"Let's do this in a civilized way, guys," I propose, opening the door again. To my satisfaction, everyone stays put and doesn't flood the three of us.

"So, this is Chaemin," I introduce as Chaemin bows and says hi to everyone.

Then she finishes her quick introduction and I see Ten cue everyone, and then we all get swarmed by the members.

Well, there goes my plan of introducing everyone normally. Not that I expected it to work in the first place.

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