CHAPTER FORTY
THE PAST
❝DO THEY REMEMBER ME?❞
━ JENO FOCUS ━
"Don't wait after me, I got my chores to finish up, still. You guys begin working without me, I'll probably just join later."
Minsoo and Jaemin nodded, waving goodbye as they left Jeno to his kitchen duties while they went to work on some homework together.
Jeno silently walked into the kitchen that connected with the dining room, an island separating the two from one another.
He sat his books down on the said island and walked over to the dishes rack and stared at the silverware, plates, bowls, and cups sitting out on the air-drying mat.
A yellow sticky note sat on top of one of the bowls with handwriting in black sharpie.
i finished cleaning everything
u just need to make sure it's all dry and
then put it away!
- eunha :)
He smiled to himself and disposed of the note, grabbing a clean and dry cloth at the same time as he began wiping each dish.
While he stood there, accompanied by his own thoughts, his memory wandered to random places before settling on one topic.
His life before getting put into Neo House.
There were only a few people that really stuck out when he thought about his life prior to the one he was living now.
Of course his parents. A few friends as well. His best friend, Minhyuk. Even some of the bad people, like Hyunjoon, who seemed to have a life mission of ruining Jeno's own life.
It was pathetic, what lengths Hyunjoon would go to just to get a rise out of Jeno. It made Jeno laugh thinking about all of Hyunjoon's failed attempts.
His mind went back to the day he was taken away from his home and the people he loved dearly.
It was the end of his school year, everything fine and dandy until he got home one day to both of his parents with sad expressions as they stared down at an envelope. It was one of the only times he had actually seen them with sad faces.
When they noticed their son's presence, his father stuffed the envelope behind his back to try and hide it but it was too late, Jeno had already seen it and their expressions.
"Is something wrong?" He asked curiously, looking between the two.
His mother shook her head, "no, but we do need to talk to you about something important."
The thing that was important? They told him he had to be sent to summer school for extra studying because his grades were dropping.
In reality, his grades weren't dropping and he wasn't going to summer school.
Where was he going? Neo House.
"Ouch."
He was pulled out of his trance to look at his now bloody finger, only now realizing that he had become distracted when he picked up a knife.
He painfully grabbed a napkin and tried drying the blood off, afterward walking over to the cabinets to try and find a bandaid.
When he opened the second drawer, the kitchen door once again opened, and in walked Renjun. "Did you cut yourself?" He asked immediately.
Jeno eyed him suspiciously, wondering how he had figured it out so quickly yet nodded anyway. "Yeah, I got distracted while putting away a knife."
Renjun went unfazed as he walked past Jeno and to a different drawer, pulling out the bandaids and handing the box over. "Be careful next time," he uttered, walking out again.
Jeno tried thanking him but was too late, only silencing himself as he opened a bandaid and placed it carefully around his finger.
He returned to the sink, carefully placing all sharp objects away as he let himself drift back to memory land.
He always wanted to know why his parents seemed so sad when they never seemed to care about anything that involved him before.
They never showed many emotions towards their only son which admittedly made Jeno grow apart from them.
But seeing that look on their faces, Jeno knew something had been wrong. And whatever it had been, they didn't want him knowing about.
His mind wandered farther as he thought more about the years he spent livening a relatively normal life.
He wondered if his parents knew about his powers and whether or not that letter said something that involved them.
He wondered if they missed him.
He wondered if his friends missed him.
He wondered a lot and with a breathy release of air, the words that kept him up at night finally left his lips. "Do they remember me?"
→ ♕
sorry i've been so busy today, i nearly forgot to update