Chapter Text
I’ve always thought watching true crime documentaries when I’m home alone is an awful idea, but for some unclear reason to me, every time my parents leave me home alone I end up sitting on the living room couch, with my eyes glued to the television and all of my senses highly alert in case a hitman comes knocking at my door.
Exactly as paranoid as I am right now.
Renjun thinks I always exaggerate the cases I tell him about, but I wouldn’t be so sure. I’d like to see my best friend home alone, with all the lights off, learning about kidnapping cases that ended up in cannibalism, and letting him find out if it’s as easy to take in as he says.
“Kidnapped for ten years?!” I gasp in disbelief, hands clutching my pounding chest. I can’t believe what the narrator is telling me, it sounds like a joke (a very bad one, by the way.) “How could she endure it for so long?!”
Without realizing, I shuffle a little closer to the television despite its brightness causing my eyes to tear up, ignoring the gnawing anxiousness in my stomach that is waiting for anything to pop up, and I see, stunned, the girl who not only supposedly lived inside a box for more than ten years, but who also had seven children with her kidnapper.
I swallow dry and my hands fly to my mouth, stifling a cry. I simply cannot believe just how far human cruelty can go. Was Lady Gaga right when she said Earth is the real hell?
Thankfully, the documentary ends more or less pleasantly after a few minutes. It could be called a happy ending as the girl was freed and the deranged man jailed.
The credits appear on the screen, and it’s stupid to feel safe now, but that’s exactly how I feel. I hurriedly stand up to turn on all the lights in the house, as if that would help me send all of the present evil energies back to hell, and quickly switch the true crime documentary on the TV for a red velvet cake tutorial to help me calm down.
I look at the time on my phone and realize it’s past midnight. Even though it’s late, I think I’m still in the mood for dinner, hunger doesn’t follow a schedule after all. I go to the kitchen and make myself some ramen. I have school tomorrow, and I know it should be time for me to go to sleep if I want to wake up early, but hunger calls, and I just can’t ignore it.
My parents have gone out celebrate their anniversary at a restaurant, and although they always say they’ll be back home “late,” they always return the following day. I’m not really sure how they spend their night together, but honestly, it’s something I’d rather not know.
For my own mental health.
After five minutes, my ramen is ready. I serve it in a bowl and eat it while watching the red velvet cake video that looks absolutely mouth-watering. I love cooking, but I love baking even more. I think I was made to be a pastry chef, though I haven’t told anyone this yet. I’m a bit ashamed to say I’m passionate about being in a kitchen instead of in an office.
After slurping down my noodles and drinking a can of soda, I’m finally ready to head to bed. But my plan is suddenly interrupted by my phone.
It’s not the usual short ding of a text; it’s longer, and I immediately realize it’s a call. I’m a little thrown off because of how late it is to be calling someone, but I don’t rule out the possibility of it being my parents. They sometimes call to make sure I’m okay and that no serial killer has come to chop my head off while I sleep. Well, at least that’s my theory.
But the caller ID that my phone displays isn’t my mom’s, much less my dad’s. Actually, it’s not even someone I talk to that much.
‘Jeno.’
My best friend’s boyfriend.
Suddenly, the air abandons my lungs. Jeno usually doesn’t call me much, in fact, he never does. The only reason I have his phone number is because Renjun sometimes forgets his phone and texts him from mine. But that’s it. We’re not close. Much less friends.
For a few seconds, I debate whether to answer the phone or not. This is certainly not the time for casual phone calls or to ask for the homework answers, though that wouldn’t even make sense as Jeno is a whole year older than both Renjun and me. It doesn’t occur to me what Lee Jeno could possibly want from me.
Could it be an emergency?
I groan. The phone won’t stop ringing!
Reluctantly, I grab my phone and slide my finger across the screen, closing my eyes as the call connects.
“H-hello?”
My voice is shaky. It’s been a long time since I last heard anything about him. Renjun occasionally tells me that he sees him at school and that their relationship is going well, but from that to me actually being in contact with him, I’m far from it. I didn’t even remember he had my number.
“Jaemin?”
His voice takes me by surprise. He doesn’t sound worried, but he does sound a bit agitated. I wonder if everything is alright.
“Yes? What’s going on?”
Jeno isn’t the type of guy that talks a lot. It’s actually a bit shocking how well he gets along with Renjun, who’s all chatter and uncontrolled laughter. They’ve been together for more than two years, though, and I think I’m no one to question my best friend’s love life. As strange as it may seem to me. If he’s okay with it, I suppose I should be too.
“Sorry to call you at this time, Jaemin,” his voice sounds a little odd again, almost difficult for me to recognize, “but... I need your help.”
“My... my help?”
How could I help someone like Lee Jeno? I mean, with there being lots of available people in the world… why call a stranger?
He has a boyfriend for a reason, right?
“Yes, I know it’s strange, but,” he begins to whisper, “are you home alone?”
It seems like an innocent question, but it can also mean many things, and I’m not so sure whether most of them are exactly good.
Or maybe watching so many true crime documentaries is messing with my head.
“What’s going on?” I rather dodge his question. I’m extremely glad my voice doesn’t give away my nerves. “Is everything okay?”
I hear him sigh from the other end of the line. He sounds frustrated, which puzzles me even more.
“No, honestly, nothing is okay. I… I need to spend the night at your house, do you think that’s possible?”
Jeno wants to do what where?
“Can’t you go to Renjun’s house?” It might be a rude question, but damn! Having your best friend’s boyfriend, whom you never interact with, calling you in the middle of the night to ask if he can sleep at your house is the strangest fucking thing in the world.
“No, I can’t.” Jeno sighs again, yet he doesn’t seem to be angry by my tactless question. “I already considered it, but I don’t want to worry him. And you’re the only person I can count on right now.”
Worry him? Why? Did something bad happen?
“Jeno… are you sure you’re okay?”
“I know this is all very strange, but please Jaemin, I wouldn’t be asking you for help if I could ask someone else.”
That, in fact, seems like a very reasonable point to me. But nonetheless, I still have the right to hesitate. After all, Jeno and I aren’t exactly close. I can’t just let him barge into my house like that.
“I don’t know Jeno.” I bite my lower lip hard. “Fuck, this is just all a little strange.”
“I know, and I’m sorry, I really don’t want to bother you. But I need to spend the night somewhere, the police told me yesterday that if they saw me in the park again…”
And then he leaves his unfinished sentence hanging in the air. Like it’s nothing. Like he’s not telling me this isn’t the first time he has nowhere to sleep.
The thought of Jeno at the park, on a cold, hard bench, spending the night there without being able to ask anyone for help, makes my heart quiver. I have two available bedrooms in my house, space wouldn’t even be a problem.
The problem is rather the situation. How am I going to tell Renjun that his boyfriend spent the night at my house? It makes no sense!
“Jaemin, please.” Jeno’s voice sounds desperate. I can’t help but wonder if his tone changed or if it’s simply the phone fucking up his voice.
I sigh long and shut my eyes tightly. This is extremely weird, but I don’t think I have another viable option.
“Alright, you can come.”
Jeno sighs, but this time it’s not in a tired and anguished way, it’s a little calmer. As if he were relieved.
“Okay, come outside, I’m already here.”
What?
This fucking son of a bitch had already assumed I’d say yes?
Also, how the hell does he know where I live?!
“Don’t get mad, but I thought you’d say yes and…”
“You know what? Shut up Jeno, I’m coming.”
And then I hang up on him.
I quickly pick up the mess I left in the living room and make sure to text my parents that I invited a friend to sleep over. I don’t want them to get surprised if they come home early and see a stranger snoring in the guest room.
I give myself a quick once-over in the mirror in our vestibule, and with a last sigh, head for the door.
I can’t get the feeling that I’m doing something wrong off my chest. But I have already given him my word and have to keep it. There is no going back.
Despite what a bad idea it seemed to get involved with my best friend’s boyfriend this way.