Work Text:
renjun has to admit, post-renra vlives are somewhat therapeutic.
to others, talking to hundreds of thousands of fans through their phone cameras next to their managers, with nothing but the muted whirr of the car engine in the background might seem stressful, but to renjun, it’s routine, a sign of his day finally coming to an end.
and renjun finds comfort in routine.
so he’s completely at ease, when the comments section goes wild with messages from fans in all languages, mostly praising renjun’s performance on the radio earlier and asking whether he’d had dinner, random questions sprinkled in between. they go up at the speed of light, but renjun plays a quiet game with himself, wherein he pauses the comments randomly and replies to the comment his finger lands on.
renjun’s in the middle of thanking a fan who’s never missed a renD broadcast, when he notices the comments beginning to overflow with mentions of jisung, then he’s pausing mid-sentence with an “ah, wait a moment”, scrolling up.
half-expecting to find comments telling him that jisung had dropped a comment, and half-confused, renjun smiles a little when he finally sees what everyone was raving about.
“renjun-ah, did you know jisung did a vlive on your bed today? ” he reads aloud, blinking owlishly at the camera.
no, in fact he didn’t know, having been busy all day.
renjun barely had the time to scarf down a sandwich between his afternoon meeting at the company and heading to the radio studio, let alone stay updated with the other dreamies, but the thought of jisung lying with his cheek squished against renjun’s pillow, earphones plugged in while he drowsily babbled on about random things, made his heart thud in endearment.
a fond smile’s tugging at the corner of his lips merely at the vision in his head, when he catches himself and remembers he has to keep up his cheeky persona for the public eye, so instead, he chuckles a little in mock-astonishment, squinting at the camera.
“no, why didn’t anyone tell me! jisung-ah, we’ll have a little chat when i get back to the dorms~” renjun sing-songs teasingly, before swiftly moving onto the next comment, warmth settling in his chest.
//
it’s another long fifteen minutes until the car turns into their neighbourhood, and renjun finally ends the live, waving goodbye to the camera.
as renjun directs his gaze out of the window, staring at the streetlights pass by, his mind wanders back to the image of jisung he’d conjured up in his head, and he smiles softly.
his fans were probably wondering what kind of punishment renjun had in store for jisung, but all renjun was thinking of was of the way jisung’s eyes always scrunched up in delight whenever renjun came back to the dorms after a solo schedule, jokingly pushing renjun’s embrace away before snuggling closer, muttering half-hearted excuses like he’s cold and is seeking warmth (his excuse remains the same, even when they’re suffering through the sweltering korea summer heat).
“renjun-ah?”
it’s funny how time seems to pass by quicker when he’s thinking about jisung.
in renjun’s daze, they’d pulled up outside their dorms.
home, where his order of chinese takeout would hopefully arrive soon.
“renjun-ah, as much as i love you, i do need to get off work...” his manager nags jokingly.
“yes, your majesty, i’ll be out of your hair now~” renjun taunts in retaliation, unbuckling his seatbelt and quickly swiping his bag off the floor as he hopped out of the car, shouting “thank you for today, hyung!” over his shoulder, as his manager called “yah, you brat!” after him.
//
when renjun imagined coming home after the vlive, this was not what he had in mind.
he’d made quick work of their dorm passcode, expecting jisung to be in the living room when he opened the door, only to see jaemin and hyuck having what seems to be a pda battle on the couch, while jeno and chenle played animal crossing on the floor.
(“na jaemin, you better cave now or i’m gonna kiss you.”
“no, dwonghyuckie~ you cave or i’m gonna kiss you~”
“hyung, your island might simply be the most pathetic thing i’ve ever se-”
“chenle-yah chenle-yah, the more you talk, the closer you are to losing complete access to my farm.”
“hYUNG!!!” )
they looked up as renjun toed off his shoes at the doorway, brightening up.
“our breadwinner!!!! did you bring us food?”
renjun rolled his eyes and ignored donghyuck’s excited grabby hands.
“first of all, i don’t even want to know what’s going on here, but-”
four pairs of eyes blinked back at him expectantly.
“-i honestly don’t give enough shits about you brats, so. where’s jisung?”
at his question, the four of them simply sighed and went back to their business.
“i’m wounded, huang renjun, i thought we were family.” hyuck laments dramatically, dabbing at his eyes before diving in to press a soft kiss on jaemin’s collarbone, cheeks immediately flaming red when jaemin instantly swooped forward to retaliate. to that, renjun retches and throws his hands up to cover his eyes, doing his best to shuffle past them without tripping over.
“i really don’t understand why i’m stuck with you guys.”
“but you love us!!”
“no, chenle, i really don’t.”
//
this really wasn’t what he had in mind, but somehow, it’s a million times better.
there’s really only one other place jisung would be, if he wasn’t in the living room or scouring their kitchen for snacks.
renjun softly pushes open the door to his room, and sure enough, jisung’s sprawled across renjun’s bed, right leg half sticking out from under the blankets.
contrary to popular belief, jisung doesn’t spend that much time on jaemin’s bed - ever since they’d drawn lots for the new solo room, which renjun had won in the end, the youngest had all but moved in. (not that renjun minded in the slightest.)
jisung’s tangled earphones were still connected to his phone, the left earbud caught on his shirt collar. he must’ve fallen asleep after doing his vlive.
renjun quietly settled on the empty side of the bed, propping his head up on an elbow, staring down at the younger as he slept.
it was last december, when one of their managers came banging on their hotel room doors after their last dream show in bangkok, not even pausing long enough to apologise for waking them up at 4am in the morning, before she’s pulling a manila folder out of her bag, saying we just had a meeting - your comeback’s scheduled for april next year! , and suddenly it was all a frenzy of lyric writing (for jeno and jaemin), vocal classes, hitting the gym to get in shape, dance practice, more dance practice, recording sessions, countless concept photo, track video and music video shootings…
they’d barely had the time to stop and breathe, what with the rushed preparation for everything this time round, not that renjun’s complaining - the excitement of being able to release new music to the world outweighed all the stress and exhaustion.
but he really couldn’t deny that he’s glad they’re already halfway through with comeback promotions - it allowed rare nights when they could catch more sleep, like today.
as renjun watched, jisung’s nose scrunched up, rosy lips pouting, then his eyes fluttered open, sleepy gaze landing on renjun almost immediately.
“hyung?” jisung’s voice cracks a little from sleep, a deep timbre that leaves renjun’s toes curling. he reaches to place his phone on the nightstand, stretching a little as he tosses his earphones to the side, not caring enough to unravel the mess of cords.
“yeah, i’m back. miss me?” renjun teases, but his voice was too soft to be mocking.
jisung smiles, eyes squinting all prettily before focusing on the distance between them.
“hyungie.” the younger’s brow furrowed, pouting a little.
renjun only hums a little in response, feigning ignorance to what the younger obviously wanted. jisung’s always the softest and most pliant when he’s still clinging to wisps of sleep, whiny in a way you would never catch him admitting to having been when he’s fully awake.
and so renjun relaxes in his place, heart swelling with warmth as jisung huffed cutely at not getting what he wanted. it takes a few more moments, before jisung’s shoulders shrug dramatically under the covers in defeat.
“hyung..”
then renjun barely has time to react before he’s being tugged closer, jisung tossing the blanket over him.
renjun’s cheeks glow warm, and he’s sure the tips of his ears were flaming red, but despite himself, he shuffles closer, settling into the position that’s only become increasingly familiar over the months - renjun’s head tucked into the juncture of jisung’s shoulder, the younger’s arms securely around his waist, their legs an entangled mess.
renjun noses into jisung’s neck, breathing in the clean boy smell that never seems to leave the younger, while jisung presses a soft kiss to his head. they slot together like two puzzle pieces, and renjun’s never felt more content, more at home.
“hyung-ah, you’re so small, i feel like i could fit you in my pocket if i wanted to.” jisung says above him, voice so soft it was almost a whisper. renjun couldn’t even bring himself to scold the younger, instead settling for a gentle pinch on jisung’s side.
fucking whipped, he berated himself internally, while jisung laughed softly, and then they fall silent again, simply taking in the feeling of being wrapped up in each other.
another moment passes, with renjun’s eyelashes tickling jisung’s collarbone every-so-often as he blinked slowly, drowsiness creeping on him, jisung’s breath blowing warm puffs onto the crown of his head.
before renjun drifts off, he hears the rustle of blankets as jisung pulled him impossibly closer, whispering almost like he didn’t want renjun to hear - “hyung-ah, missed you today.”
//
when renjun wakes, it’s 11pm, and he’s starving.
jisung’s probably been up for a while, because when renjun’s stomach makes a noise, a hand combs through his hair, and renjun feels jisung shake with silent laughter.
“brat. i didn’t eat anything after the radio.” renjun scolds, but it’s halfhearted.
his stomach grumbles again, but renjun’s so content in the cocoon of warmth that he momentarily contemplates sleeping the hunger off instead.
then he remembers.
“my chinese takeout!! it’s probably all cold now, fuck.” renjun sits up with a jolt, cursing, accidentally shoving jisung back down onto the bed in the process.
he makes to move off the bed, when his hand is caught by the wrist, and something’s pressed into his palm.
“hyungie, about that takeout.. i think you should read this.”
something like dread simmers in his stomach, as renjun unfolds a familiar bright orange heart-shaped sticky note that came straight from the room of none other than their resident menace.
his suspicions are confirmed when he skims the short scribbled message, handwriting messy, as if written as a rushed afterthought.
renjun-ah!!!!
your jjajangmyeon and tangsuyuk arrived, but we figured you were too ~preoccupied~ to eat any of it anyway, so we enjoyed it on your behalf (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)
as expected, our breadwinner’s the best!!!!
thankyouuu ((o(^∇ ^)o))
p.s. i think we ran out of groceries tho hehe… there’s still mayo in the fridge if you’re hungry?? :D
-fullsun ^^
this is it. renjun is never going to hug his parents again when this damn quarantine’s over. he is never going to get another chance to eat mala huoguo, nor will he be able to ever experience the release of his fools cover. this is the last day he lives as a free man, because he is about to commit a fucking murder.
“yah, LEE DONGHYUCK!!! ”
there’s silence, before he hears chenle’s screeching giggle accompanying the sound of footsteps thundering past his door, disappearing down the hallway at the tell-tale sound of a door locking.