"Chenle, save those fists for when you truly need them. Step Number Two towards reforming you: keep your reactions under control."
"Ew, imagine having self-control."
⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒
in which a police office...
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Cramped. Stuffy. Bright and dingy, smelling faintly of sweat — sweat tinted with a dying black-ice air freshener. Voices discussing familiar stories heard on the news, bodies either rushing around or sitting at the desks, potted plants stationed in the corners to filter the dank office space. There was a boy perched agitatedly on the edge of a seat opposite an unoccupied desk.
His arms folded and his posture began to slump in the soft-backed chair while he waited for the currently vacant desk to be occupied. The clock ticked on the far wall, expressing two o'clock in the afternoon, and yet another Saturday added to the list of weekends spent here in this very chair. He tapped his fingers against his arms and looked out at the life of the office-dwellers surrounding him, taking in the balance between bustle and calmness.
"Zhong Chenle. What a surprise."
His head whipped in the direction of the awfully familiar voice, eyes narrowing sharply on the middle-aged man who was sighing in disappointment. "Is it really, though?"
The man took his seat behind the desk and shuffled through a collection of files. His hands moved to organise them but his eyes locked with Chenle's, lips tight and expression all-knowing. "They said it was vandalism. Care to elaborate?"
"Come on, Oldy. Do I really need to?"
His eyebrow twitched at the nickname and the files were slid to the side of the surface in an arrangement. "Look Chenle, I can't help you if you don't want to help yourself. I'm on your side."
Chenle chuckled lightly and brushed a strand of his raven-black hair out of his eyes. "Help? I don't really need help, but thanks for the consideration."
"There's so much more you can do than engaging in crime. I think you have a lot of potential to excel at school if you could just try to learn. Now, tell me about the other guys. Where did they go?"
Chenle shrugged and readjusted himself in the chair, sitting straight-backed and fingers interlocked on the flat surface of the policeman's desk. "What 'other guys'?"
"The..." the man looked at one of the files and then back at the eighteen-year-old in front of him. "The beta and two alphas." His partners in crime. Of course, the officer didn't believe that the teen would give them away but he was obligated to ask. His eyes softened at Chenle's inner conflict. "Hey, don't let them drag you down with them. I've managed to talk you out of compulsory community service..." then proceeding to murmur quietly under his breath, "for the third time."
This was a regular occurrence.
There was a slamming sound as the door was thrown open, followed by two policemen pushing a handcuffed male into the office and towards one of their desks for cross-checking. The immediately strong and intoxicating scent of an alpha worked its way around the room until Chenle had to hold his nose in disgust.
