• Chapter 54 •
Cho-a was half asleep, fingers interlocked in front of Jisung's chest as he carried her on his back.
"You are heavier than I thought," he noted.
"That's the weight of my love for you," Cho-a mumbled jokingly in return, words coming out slurred. She had her eyes closed. Her comment made Jisung smile.
Renjun glared at the two with a frown, which was why Haechan quickly put his arm around the older one.
"Don't look at them like that," he warned.
"I just think we should bring her home instead of to Jisung," Renjun mumbled, quickly realizing that he was alone with this opinion. He looked around, eyes soon getting stuck on Haechan.
"And tell Kun... what?" the younger questioned.
"The truth," Renjun replied.
Haechan snorted in amusement, shook his head. "I'm not going to support such a stupid idea."
Rolling his eyes, Renjun focused back on Cho-a. "She is fine though?"
"She's just a bit exhausted," Chenle reassured. "If she fought with Young-hee then she will have used her powers. That's tiring for her. She just needs some rest."
"You seem to know much about that." Renjun looked at the younger one who quickly nodded, smile proud.
"I am not her trainer for nothing, hyung."
"I wanted to ask," Jaemin interrupted, looked around. "Who is Cho-a's brother? Why don't we know?!" Jeno agreed to all the questions asked with a supportive nod.
Frowning, Jisung glimpsed to the side, looked at them. "Who told you that?"
"Young-hee mentioned it," Jaemin explained.
"Yeah, she said that her brother hates her," Jeno added. "She said something about Jisung and Kun, too. It made Cho-a pretty angry."
"That's why the fight started?" Renjun asked, baffled.
"Yeah." But Jaemin quickly added that, "Cho-a threw the first punch but Young-hee basically asked for it."
Chenle nodded proudly, petted the girl's shoulder as he fake-sniffled.
"You did so well."
Renjun hit the back of his head. "Don't encourage her, idiot." The younger rolled his eyes, turned away from him.
Jisung glimpsed at the oldest who seemed to have forgotten about the initial question.
"Renjun," he called him. "Shouldn't you explain something?"
He sighed, nodded reluctantly before turning to the others.
"I'll explain it in more detail later but-" he ran a hand through his hair to gain some time. "I'm her brother."
Haechan gasped deeply and very dramatically. "And you told that brat before us?!"
Jisung frowned. "Are you talking about Young-hee or me?"
"Young-hee. But good to know that you feel addressed," he joked, which the youngest decided to ignore.
"Young-hee and I used to be friends years back, that's why she knows," Renjun briefly explained, ready to not talk about it. "Are you sure we shouldn't bring her home?" he urged yet again, eyes on the girl.
Jeno eventually stepped in. "Don't make it too complicated," he said in an order-like tone. He walked up to Cho-a, who was still holding on to Jisung in her half-sleep. He put his hand on her shoulder gently before he called her name.
"Cho-a?"
"Mhh?" she hummed.
"Do you want to go home or sleep over at Jisung's?" Jeno asked softly.
Not waiting for even a second, Cho-a tightened her hold around Jisung and crossed her legs in front of his body.
"Jisung~" she mumbled happily, making him smile at her cute voice and quick answer.
Renjun nodded and gave in. "Fine," he agreed reluctantly.
"When were you two friends though? I didn't even know about that," Haechan eventually changed the topic, curious about the answer.
"That was when I was still really young. I needed to vent to someone and Young-hee was there for me. She has always had rather... conservative views due to her upbringing, so she reinforced my beliefs," he explained but didn't fail to add, "I don't think like that anymore though, so..."
Jaemin put a hand on Renjun's shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze.
"We know, we know," he reassured. "You grew up to become a respectable young man, Renjunie." He wiped away a fake tear, hand on his face as he sniffled.
The respectable young man in question just grimaced and ignored him.
"But why did you say it like that?" Chenle asked. "Conservative views due to her upbringing. What do you mean?"
"It's because of her mother," Renjun explained, then looked at Jisung who sighed as he nodded.
"That's probably also the reason why Young-hee came to see you - to ask about her," Jisung said.
However, their bits and pieces of explanation were close to useless to the others. Especially to Chenle, who didn't quite seem to understand.
"Why would we know anything about her mother?" He let his eyes jump around between Renjun and Jisung, quickly making him frown. He pointed at them. "You are keeping something from us."
"Don't tell me you are also Young-hee's brother--" Chenle began but got cut off more than quickly when Renjun slapped his shoulder.
"Of course not."
Which still didn't answer the original question. And so Renjun looked at Jisung and Jisung looked at Renjun.
The sight made Haechan frown. "Please don't say the thing I think you want to say."
So Jisung hesitated - and then he said it regardless.
"Hyun-joo is Young-hee's mom."
Haechan threw his head back. "Why are your families so complicated?" he whined. He looked around strictly. "Okay, say it now. Does anyone else have any hidden family members we need to know of?"
Chenle put his hand up. "You?" Haechan asked. "Fine, who is it?"
"Daegal," he replied proudly.
"We all know and love Daegal, she doesn't count." He dismissed it. So Jaemin raised his hand. "Okay, go ahead," Haechan said.
Jaemin pointed at Cho-a with a wide grin. "My future daughter-in-law."
Inhaling sharply through his teeth, Haechan shook his head in disappointment.
"Forget that I asked."
• Jisung's •
This chapter isn't really exciting or anything, sorry about that! But I really wanted to write it, I couldn't help it hahaha
Ly~
( ﾟдﾟ)つ Bye