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They’ll meet in their room. That’s what Renjun assures himself as he’s staring around at the intimidating campus that’s to be his home for the next four years, but he wishes they could’ve met up even sooner and faced these first steps together. They had all done the orientation earlier in the summer, yet he felt like the buildings and trees and walkways between had a new light now that he was looking at them about to officially be a student there.
He hesitantly navigates the area to find his dorm, mom and dad on either side of him chattering excitedly, all three of them carrying huge duffel bags. He’s struggling, and he can see his adjusting the strap on his shoulder more than a few times, but his mom seems entirely unaffected by the weight, making big motions with both hands as she takes it in. She’s telling him how proud of him she is, that her outstanding son made it into this prestigious school, that he has such good friends to share the experience with.
She’s met Donghyuck a few times, and as the least religious of the parents between his and those of the other two non devil-spawn she’s the only one that’s seen his horns and tattoos, not just the edges peeking out of long sleeves, and eyes undisguised by contact lenses. She’s the best female figure Donghyuck’s ever had in his life, and Renjun is glad to provide the connection.
There are days when he’s still insecure about his place among the four of them, because they might’ve all been friends for nearly six years by now, but there were still the years before that, a majority of the time Donghyuck was invisible to protect him from people that might judge him or do much worse because of his aforementioned demonic parts. That plan had backfired due to his surrogate mom, who’d had the job of raising him, neglected him for her career. Thankfully they’d called on his dad, the Devil that like to go by Johnny, in a scary ritual, and he’d mostly fixed the situation but making Donghyuck visible and taking him home. The surrogate mom’s career as an A-list celebrity, given to her by Johnny in exchange for birthing and taking care of Donghyuck, took a big hit and she’d lost most of her fame.
Renjun had only met Donghyuck days before they performed the ritual, but he was easily made a part of their group.
The days of insecurity usually happen when he’s alone, in one of his classes that doesn’t include Jeno or Jaemin, but the discomfort quickly dissipates when he’s with the rest of them, part of why he’d really like to get to the dorm and see them.
His mom notices his antsy behavior, raises an eyebrow and smiles sympathetically at him. He knows exactly what she’s trying to do, talking enough for the three of them while his dad comments at a normal rate, distracting him. He accepts it and tries to tune in more.
“I packed some cookies in this one for you guys while you unpack,” she informs him as she pats the bag she’s carrying, “Are Johnny and Ten going to be there?” She adores Donghyuck’s parents, who look like they’re less than ten years older than Renjun and his friends, but are obviously paternal when it comes to Donghyuck.
“Yeah, Ten says he has that recipe you were wondering about.”
When she first met them, Renjun was scared about how she’d react to Donghyuck having two dads, because he would come out to her eventually, and he wanted to know how she’d feel about gay people that weren’t her son. She easily welcomed them, asked them to stay for dinner, and they shared embarrassing stories about their sons. Johnny and Ten were limited by having only spent a year with Donghyuck by then, but no one struggled to fill the silence. When they left, he’d turned to her with a nervous smile and told her, and she’d hugged him close.
He and his friends all love his mom.
They find the building after a fairly short time looking for it. He checks in at the front desk and slumps against the wall of elevator. When they get to his floor, his energy has returned enough for him to scurry out and check both directions, running to his room.
He opens the door to find the other three already there with their parents, scrambling around each other to unpack, but they surround him in a group hug almost as soon as he steps through the door. They drag him to his bed, the bunk below Jaemin’s, and begin showering him with their respective experiences getting through campus. Jeno whines that he got here first and Jaemin took forever in placing second because he was here with just his parents.
They laugh at him, Jaemin pinching his cheeks, and he pretends to cry like a baby at the treatment. Renjun pats his head and says, “We’re sorry Jeno-yah,” lilting his voice like he does when talking to the kids he babysits. When he glances up, their parents are at the door snapping pictures and aww-ing before they leave. He gets the hint and walks over to his mom and dad too give them hugs. His mom kisses his cheek before reminding him of the cookies.
When they’re gone, he hunts through the duffel his mom was holding and finds enough cookies to feed a small army, and they descend on them like vultures. They all profess their love for his mom to him, and he rolls his eyes and tells them, “You have her number, she’ll love hearing it from you.”
That inspires a group video message with all of them shouting, “Thank you Mrs. Huang, we love you!” and Donghyuck, who sends the message, kisses Renjun’s cheek in gratitude for “being born of an angel.” They joke about how this technically pits Donghyuck and Renjun against each other, and Donghyuck throws himself at Renjun sobbing quotes from Romeo and Juliet at him.
They don’t have classes for another week, but they’re all tired enough from moving and unpacking by nine thirty that night, so they wish each other good night, turn off the lights, and go to bed.