The Rules | JAEMIN

Chapter 5

Zhilan had spent the next few days getting accustomed to Neo City with the help of Ayeon and Soojung, the two girls Jiayi had mentioned. Ayeon was defintely much more of Zhilan's style but Soojung was also very nice, just a little too quiet for Zhilan.

They had shown her the different places they liked to hangout, such as this diner owned by Taeyong's friend Doyoung. The three girls had also gone shopping, an activity Zhilan enjoyed very much.

The most interesting thing for Zhilan was how the girls interacted with their significant others. Ayeon was absolutely correct when she said her boyfriend was extremely annoying, already making terrible jokes after a few seconds of meeting Zhilan. But he was definitely someone that cared about his girlfriend, and Ayeon's outgoing personality was definitely a good match for his.

Soojung and Jeno were also interesting, their personalities being the complete opposite of Ayeon and Haechan. Jeno took his work with the gang quite seriously, which probably came with the fact that he was Taeyong's brother. But Soojung, she stayed out of it completely, staying at home while the others were figuring out the deals. It was clear that Soojung and Jeno were completely different people but the fact that they balanced each other out perfectly when together made Zhilan wonder how that was even possible.

The thought of relationships only made Zhilan think about Xiaojun though, which made her extremely uncomfortable. She had yet to tell anyone that the real reason why she came to Neo City was to get away from her ex, and she had no plans on exposing that anytime soon.

So when she could, Zhilan decided to do her own thing, staying in her room or taking nice walks at night. She enjoyed being alone, or at least she thought she did, since that was basically all she's ever known her entire life.

Zhilan was sitting on her bed, listening to music from Renjun's awfully nice speaker system when the door flew open. She opened her eyes to see Renjun stumbling in with bags of...

Art supplies?

"Help. Please." Renjun begged and Zhilan rolled off her bed and took a few bags from him.

"What is all of this for?" Zhilan asked as she took a peek at the paintbrushes and paint inside while Renjun placed the empty canvases against the side of his dresser.

"College you idiot. I'm an art major." Renjun told her as he began organizing his things.

Zhilan did notice that Renjun had an easel instead of a desk, a rolling organizing drawer filled with art supplies and a small table beside it. Zhilan had always thought it was just a hobby though, not something he studied.

"College? You go to college?" Zhilan asked as she helped Renjun with his new supplies.

"Yeah, all of us do." Renjun told her. "It's a rule, Taeyong doesn't want us to be stupid."

"But Chenle and Jisung don't go." Zhilan pointed out.

"That's becasue Chenle's doing an extra year of high school to match up with Jisung." Renjun told her before realizing something. "Wait, what about you?"

"You know I dropped out of high school, right?" Zhilan said as she returned to her bed, taking a seat. "School really isn't my thing."

"Unfortunate." Renjun said, as he tidied up the bags that were now empty. "Guess you have this place to yourself during the days."

"Sweet." Zhilan said, taking out her phone, scrolling through it.

"Or at least most of it. I think Jaemin starts class later this year since he seriously couldn't handle the morning classes." Renjun said, making Zhilan look up from her phone.