breakfast was a tension filled one. it was a mix of different emotions.
for one, there was teasing from xiaojun seeing that shotaro came out of sunchan's room in the morning since they didn't know of him sleeping there. the moment the two walked out the door, they came across xiaojun and hendery. the two were glad to see the japanese male out of the basement, meaning his good intentions have been proven but they were instantly teased on the spot. 'don't do it yet without the label, hm?' hendery even joked.
two, the guilty feeling members had for accusing shotaro, special mention goes to renjun. he knew the story of his family was real, but why didn't he try to understand him first before dragging him? he truly felt sorry towards the member and ashamed to look at him in the eye. jeno and jaemin advised him to just go up to him and apologize because everyone knew of how kind the accused male was.
and three, the uncomfortable feeling shotaro and sungchan shared the moment they saw taeyong and jaehyun. memories of their voices from last night played in their minds, making them turn away at once and kept their gaze on their plates. the two would avoid any type of interaction with the higher ranked males making others think that shotaro might have been disturbed by the turn of events.
once the meal was done, the affairs man and escape man decided to volunteer and stay behind to clean up with the latter doing almost everything because he didn't want the affairs officer to get tired. they took their sweet time in removing the left overs and washing the plates as to avoid the kitchen couple, but they weren't so successful in doing so. the boss and underboss were waiting for them right outside the kitchen.
"why were the two of you avoiding us the whole morning?" taeyong asked, raising an eyebrow. "are you angry at us, taro?"
"uh, no?" he replied that came more of a question. he was looking at the taller male for help.
"ah boss," he stopped when the two higher-ups looked at him. well here goes nothing. "we just happened to come from the field last night and," shotaro was beyond shocked that the male was really going to say it. his expression wasn't unnoticed by jaehyun which made him more curious until he realized they were in the kitchen last night, "and we kinda heard the two of you... moan—"
taeyong put a hand out to quiet the male, "no, we were not moaning. what the fuck? wait, is this the reason you two have been ignoring us all morning?" the two nodded, lowering their heads in fear of what the leader might say next but were surprised to hear a laugh instead. "god, jaehyun! i didn't know we sounded like that!" the eldest hit the underboss's arm. "this is your fault! you're scaring the kids!"
the two looked at one another then at the older couple with a confusion written across their faces, but at the same time they didn't want to hear anything further from them. they should be keeping their innocence for as long as they could.
"we were just playing around last night, kids." jaehyun smiled with those adorable dimples and patted the japanese male's shoulder as he happened to be closer to him. they didn't want to put the words playing around in a different context, so they will leave it at that. "you probably heard taeyong whining because i stole his ice cream."
taeyong laughed at the memory, making the younger couple laugh awkwardly while eyeing one another and thinking of a way to get out of this conversation. jaehyun continued talking despite the uncomfortable look the two gave them, "and you must have heard him complaining that i placed too much sprinkles."
"it was basically sprinkles with ice cream instead of the other way around!" the leader whined which made the two slowly relax to the small talk. "now i know. i understand why you've been acting weird. no hard feelings, hm?" he referred to shotaro who nodded, "no hard feelings, boss. i know you were looking out for the group."
"you can guys go ahead now," jaehyun shooed them after the two said their small byes.
"damn it, jaehyun! that was a close call, you piece of shit," taeyong pinched the taller's side once the younger ones were out of sight, "you could have seen their expressions, i wanted to laugh, but they seem so nervous around us."
the underboss laughed, bring the older into his arms with a playful grin. "they were cute being all flustered but since we got that all figured out, let's go do some business in the office, yeah?"
"how about real work?" taeyong pushed off the arms wrapped around him and started walking away, "we got to figure out the east and south side mafia then we have tons of paper work, mr. jung. strictly no funny business."
"that was so fucking awkward!" shotaro exclaimed, making the younger look at him because he rarely or never heard him say a curse word. the japanese stopped going up the stairs when he noticed the other being silent. he thought sungchan was having a hard time, "what? is there something wrong? i told you i should have just got us some breakfast and ate it in your room."
"no," he broke into a laugh, "i just think i never heard you cuss. everyone knows of your innocent and cute image. it was just surprising or new? to me?"
the older gave him a light push, just enough to make him laugh. "we learn something new everyday and it so happens to be me cussing."
after quite some time, they have arrived at the top of the staircase with shotaro guiding the male with crutches. the two continued to laugh around talking about the incident last night and the talk earlier. they knew they weren't wrong with what they heard and decided to play along with the older couple's little show.
"if they only knew," sungchan sighed after a laugh but stopped immediately from walking when he saw another member waiting for them by the door of his room which made the japanese look ahead of him then taking a few steps back. "what do you need, renjun?"
shotaro moved backwards until he was already behind the injured male's side. this action made the chinese male even more guilty, "i came here to apologize personally to shotaro. i didn't want to act like nothing happened." after hearing the reason, the once accused male come closer. "i don't want to leave you a quite traumatizing memory since we're here for life. we're here to be family, so shotaro, i'm really sorry. if i weren't too nosy about things then you could've told us your way."
shotaro brought renjun into a hug, "its okay. you just trusted your gut feeling and that's really fine with me."
sungchan was amazed at how the japanese could just let things go like that— how he forgives everyone even when he was wrongly accused and not believed. the male just watched as their conversation continued as he was the one holding a grudge with the chinese male who later remembered his presence, "sungchan?" renjun offered a small smile, "i'm sorry if i offended you in any way, hm? i didn't intend to hurt anyone and i'm sorry for interrupting your confession that night."
that broke his icy glare and made him smile at the memory of his confession the night before. well, he couldn't stay mad at the members who helped him catch up with life after taking care of him. "i already confessed last night though, so let's just drop that."
the chinese male's eyes widen, "you really couldn't wait, channie?" he laughed, "as soon as you woke from the surgery, you wanted to confess. now right after he got out of the basement, you told him right away? our boy is all grown up!"
it made the japanese male giggle, realizing the timing of his confession. "i bet he was eager to tell me."
"no need to bet because it is true," sungchan raised an eyebrow as if challenging them, "i'd confess to you anytime."
"ah!" renjun covered his ears with his hands, "i came here to apologize and not witness anything mushy mushy." the two laughed as they watched him enter jeno's room that was two doors away from them.
"so," shotaro turned to the taller male, "you'd confess to me anytime?"
"i would but i have mercy for your cheeks that might catch fire if they keep burning up."
💣
lucas entered the university with everyone looking at him. he kept his gaze ahead, looking for the office to get his schedule like a normal student would. the male was asked to go to school so suddenly, even earlier than the date they told him.
he was woken up earlier with a loud ass alarm which woke up the other members who were in the same hallway as him. 'time for school, kid!' jaehyun shook his body that tried to ignore him but failed when they used the alarm for the second time.
upon entering the office, even the staff stared at him for a few seconds before getting back to work. well, i am handsome. the foreign male was assigned to a girl that was supposed to guide him the whole day— touring him, taking him to class, and maybe bring him along for break time.
once his eyes landed on the girl, he hid his smirk. target locked. mafia daughter found. he didn't expect it to be that easy to look for her. it was as if he was destined to meet her as soon as possible to make their connection easier to build. well, time to work his magic on her.
"damn, i didn't remember school was this difficult," he mumbled as he watched their math teacher write equations across the board. "should i be writing all these?" he looked around to see most of the students with their notebooks, so he pulled out his and tried to fit in.
the moment he reached the living room of the house, he slumped into the couch. "feet off the couch!" he heard kun's voice from a far. he sighed tiredly and complied, doing it heavily like a kid annoyed.
"how was school? enjoying the calculus class i entered you in?" doyoung teased.
"you know what? fuck school."
i'm glad the book is getting good feedback and is gaining many reads. 🥺 thank you so much uwu. i have planned out my next books, i hope you guys would also support them 💗. i've been quite busy lately with college application and some personal stuff thus the late updates but anyways, i enjoy reading all your comments! again, big thank you to y'all!💕 |