Jaemin knew that he was doomed the second he heard Renjun slam the front door, and by the time the furious barista reached the living room, Jaemin had already hidden behind confused-looking Jisung who was just trying to live his life and do his math homework.
"You shouldn't be violent in front of the baby!" Jaemin tried to reason with Renjun while shaking Jisung by his shoulders as if he was a human shield. "Think about the child! Hasn't he suffered enough?"
Renjun, who had stormed towards them, halted in the middle of the room to consider his roommate's words. Then he glared at Jisung. "Move. Go study somewhere else."
"Oh boy", Haechan's elated voice echoed through the apartment. "This sounds tasty!" The damn otter was more like a bloodhound based on how quick he was to pick up the scent of drama.
Jisung frowned at Renjun but didn't move an inch. "You shouldn't fight."
Jaemin had been smart to baby him enough to win over his loyalty. What a cheap trick. Renjun gritted his teeth together, attempting to murder Jaemin with his eyes over worried Jisung's head.
Jaemin chuckled awkwardly. "How are you doing, Injun-ah?" He flashed his most dazzling smile at Renjun – possibly hoping to blind him in order to escape, fake his death and become a reclusive monk hiding somewhere in the mountains. "Did you have a good – put that down!"
Renjun had picked up a chair and was holding it over his head.
"You tricked me", Renjun said in a monotone voice, still holding onto the chair. "Was it fun?"
"Ye- No. Of course not." Jaemin started blinking rapidly. "I mean, what are you even talking about? I would never do such a thing to you! Don't be silly!"
When Renjun took a step towards them, Jisung lifted his lanky arms to his sides as if that way he could protect Jaemin. "He had your best interest in his heart. He just wanted you to be upfront with Chaewon."
Jaemin swallowed.
Renjun was itching to slam the chair against his pretty face then and there.
"He told you what was going on?"
On the previous night, after his dinner with Chaewon, Jaemin had been so secretive that Renjun had thought that no one would ever find out who he had been out with, let alone the reason behind the sudden dinner date.
"Of course he told us everything." Haechan leaned against the door frame with a smug smile on his face. Renjun had no idea when he had arrived to the scene. "Did you really think that he would've come up with today's beautiful plot on his own?"
Renjun wanted to pick another chair so that he could go for a double-kill. He should've known that the jealousy trick had been Haechan's doing.
Haechan's smirk widened when he saw how Renjun's eyes were travelling between him and Jaemin, trying to decide whom to attack first.
"Although, I got to admit that I'm disappointed in Chaewon's negligence. I thought that she would've played along a bit longer for it to be more effective. She is my childhood friend after all so she could've entertained our plan a bit longer."
"Lying makes her sick", Renjun spat out. "As her 'childhood friend' you know that and still you thought it would be fun to play around!"
Haechan waved the air dismissively. "You're the one who was trying to push her together with Jaemin out of nowhere."
Renjun opened his mouth to defend his actions but closed it when he realized that he wasn't going to tell the full story to them anyway. Instead, he turned to point at Jaemin.
"Why did you flirt with her so hard if you don't like her? It's not fair to mislead people like that."
Jaemin tilted his chin up and gave him a smouldering look through his lashes. "If you thought that was me flirting hard, you haven't seen anything yet, honey."
Renjun stared back at him, expressionless. "Stop that."
Over his shoulder, Jisung eyed Jaemin's flirty face disapprovingly before returning back to the matter at hand and turning back to Renjun. "So, if everything is settled now, are you and Chaewon officially dating now?"
Jaemin's excessively provocative look was replaced with a grimace and Haechan let out an odd, high-pitched "eeh" sound that reminded Renjun of a leaking balloon. Apparently, they, unlike Jisung, remembered what was the actual hindrance to why Renjun barely agreed to even acknowledge his feelings.
"I'm still supposed to get married with another person if I can't find a way out of it", he reminded the youngest member, trying not to sound too stern. "And we shouldn't forget that Chaewon isn't a doubler, so it would never work anyway." Stating it aloud made him feel hollow.
Jaemin's eyes narrowed.
"The first part of your reasoning is valid", Haechan approved while looking at his nails. He was still standing next to the door, probably because Renjun hadn't let go of the chair even though he had lowered it already. "The second part? Not so much."
Renjun eyed him, not happy with the tone of his voice. "I wouldn't have expected such judgmental words from a guy who couldn't name half of the girls he has dated even if his life depended on it."
"Renjun!" Jaemin sounded like a mother.
Haechan, on the other hand, barely scoffed. He finally crossed the room just to pat Renjun's head dismissively. "Aw, are you that upset that I forced you to face what you're really feeling?"
Renjun knew that if he went for a physical attack, Haechan would jump into his otter form and run away. If he still had the connection to the wolf, he would've already gone for his roommate's throat but in his human form he would never catch the otter.
"Don't you ever get bored of prying in other people's lives?" he spat out.
Haechan grinned. "Nah. It's what keeps me going."
"That's enough, Haechan-ah." Jaemin stood up and threw his arm over Haechan's shoulder. "Stop annoying him just for your own amusement."
Renjun heard his phone go off in the kitchen and, before leaving, gave Haechan and Jaemin one more glare. "Play tricks with me one more time and I will chop your heads off."
As he was leaving the room to check his phone, Renjun heard Jisung wince even though he wasn't threatening him.
From: Chaewon
To: Renjun
I FOEUND IT! GRamma's piece of the addresspaperthing was in her diari!! OMG u will be dog again soon
Sorry no i mean wolf hehe~
Renjun's lips twitched. Chaewon appeared to be so excited that her success rate at spelling was even worse than usual but somehow it was very endearing to Renjun even though he generally wasn't fond of spelling mistakes.
When he was rereading the message for the third time, he finally registered what its contents meant.
They were in possession of three out of four pieces of the address that would take them to the cure.
Chaewon was right. If everything went well, he might be reunited with the wolf soon.
***
"Are you dumb?" Renjun asked from Chaewon when the girl pushed a piece of paper on his face while he was driving to his family's home. She was practically jumping up and down on the passenger's seat, her eyes glimmering like droplets of water on a sunny day, and she had barely let Renjun say anything after they met up in front of her house.
Chaewon didn't care about his question. "I wanted to show it to you so we can put the pieces together and see it all in one place. Do you think that we'll find the last piece soon as well? I tried to call Nam Jihoon's mom yesterday but she didn't pick up so I'm gonna try again later. Ooh, maybe she will give us cookies if we visit her like she did last time, right? I've been craving something sweet recently."
Renjun peeked at her to see if she was done when she stopped talking to breathe, and hurried to interrupt her before she could continue. "Didn't you think about the fact that there is someone after us who is tracking our every move? We shouldn't walk around with the pieces in case they're stolen from us."
"Well, where are the pieces you have then?" Chaewon pouted, disappointed in his lame reaction. "Didn't you say earlier that you can't hide any documents from Haechan and the rest of your roommates inside your apartment?"
Renjun cleared his throat. "That's different and beside the point. What I mean is that you need to take this seriously." His ears were warm.
"That's not what I asked, though", Chaewon hummed with puffed cheeks while looking at her nails.
Renjun felt sulky. "Does that even matter?"
"It does to me."
"They are hidden in my sock drawer since Haechan keeps stealing my stuff if it's anywhere else."
Chaewon scoffed. "And is that somehow much safer than me taking the piece with me for a couple of hours?"
Renjun didn't know what to say since it was possible that Chaewon had a decent point. He really did need to find a better hiding spot for his things than the sock drawer.
"About today; my grandmother can be quite mean sometimes." He switched the topic instead of continuing the old one. Anyway, he felt the need to warn her about his less-than-cuddly relative. "I don't even know how often she meets people who are not doublers so she might be rude towards you. She doesn't mean to be impolite but it just comes off like that."
"Sounds familiar", Chaewon mumbled to herself.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Renjun narrowed his eyes but kept going. "Just don't tell her about what we are currently doing, okay? When I mentioned searching for a cure a couple of weeks ago, she got angry at me."
"I'll be on my best behaviour", Chaewon promised immediately. "What about the rest of your family? What should I be wary of with them?"
"Don't worry about that. You shouldn't meet anyone other than grandmother today." Before setting the date, Renjun had checked with his grandmother that his father was having a meeting in Incheon and his mother was volunteering in an orphanage.
Chaewon tilted her head, uncertain look in her eyes. "Are you sure about that?"
***
Renjun's father stared at Chaewon in confusion when they ran into him in the hallway while he was on his way to the office and they were trying to sneak into the library. Chaewon stared back but seemed nowhere near as surprised as the man in front of her.
"Renjun, who is this?" his father's voice was stiff as he eyed the stranger in front of him. He addressed his son in Chinese, sounding like a public announcement.
Renjun cleared his throat and, ignoring his father's choice of language, spoke in Korean. "This is my friend, Song Chaewon. Chaewon, this is my father." Why was his father home? He was supposed to be in Incheon.
"Hello", Chaewon greeted politely and bowed to the older man. She hesitated for a moment before continuing, "You have a beautiful home."
Indeed, she had been impressed with the lavishly decorated house and had commented on how the doorknob in the front door looked like a golden apple.
Renjun's father nodded but the expression on his face remained unchanged.
"What is she?" he asked, still speaking in Chinese and clearly pointing his words only to Renjun as if Chaewon was a carboard box. "She isn't like us."
As loving and polite as ever.
"She is my friend", Renjun repeated himself, refusing to switch away from speaking in Korean. "That is all you need to know."
Chaewon's brow was furrowed like he was thinking hard about something. Then, she lifted her pointer finger in the air.
"What... am I? I don't... uh, know... either", she spoke in choppy, heavily-accented Mandarin before sending a wide grin at Renjun's father.
Renjun's father was baffled. "You speak Chinese?"
"No." Chaewon shook her head. "Little bit."
"Her grandmother was from Beijing", Renjun explained to his father – still in Korean. He knew that his father was trying to intimidate her. "I thought that you were supposed to be in Incheon today."
His father shrugged. "Yun Lili returned to Korea yesterday so we're having dinner together with her and her father."
Renjun's stomach dropped and he couldn't stop himself from glancing at Chaewon. He didn't want Yun Jianfeng, Liying's father, to be anywhere near her. He was unpredictable and would stop at nothing if he thought that someone might be useful for him.
"At what time are they coming?" he asked, trying to sound calm and collected. He wanted to get Chaewon out of the house before the Yuns arrived.
His father blinked. "I don't know."
Chaewon's nose scrunched.
It took a lot from Renjun not to confront his father for lying to him but he didn't want to risk him figuring out that there was something abnormal about Chaewon since he had clearly sensed that she wasn't fully human.
"If you say so", Renjun said instead and pulled Chaewon by her elbow. "I promised to speak with grandmother, so we're going now."
"Does she know about Lili?" his father called out after him.
Renjun grinded his teeth together. "She does." He didn't turn to look back, instead pulling Chaewon with him to get away from his father.
"He lied to you", Chaewon whispered when they reached the library door.
"I know."
The door leading to the library opened before they touched it, and they were faced with Renjun's grandmother who had opened it for them.
Grandmother, unlike Renjun's father, barely glanced at her grandson. She stared at Chaewon without blinking as if she was nothing but a mirage.
"Would you look at that", she mumbled to herself in Chinese, and reached her tiny, wrinkly hand towards Chaewon to take hold of her hand. It wasn't a handshake or an indication of friendliness. Instead, she looked down at the younger woman's hand and turned it around, feeling her fingers and pulse before looking up to her face again with fascination. "Aren't you an odd creature."
***
Author's note: I'm very, very later and for that I'm sorry. Life is so busy these days, I barely have time to go home to sleep before having to get back to work again. Sadly, the situation will be like this for a while longer, maybe three weeks or so. After that I'll have more time to write but until then we'll have to survive with sparse updating schedule... Apologies! Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you for your great comments and support and for reading the story! Stay strong, safe and healthy!
Also, I'll reply to the previous chapter's comments later today because I need to get back to work now!
I'll see you soon!