silence - nct, norenmin

⍣ 13 ⍣

"no."

"come on..."

"no."

"please..."

"it's a no."

"sunmi... tell us please..."

"you can look at me pouting as much as you want, i won't change my mind."

the two boyfriends took action on the next day.

they had barged into the nurse's office – disturbing sunmi that was taking the temperature of a student – and asked her about jaemin.

they had been there for half an hour now, and sunmi still had said nothing.

"please sunmi... why don't you want to tell us...?" renjun whined.

"it's not that i don't want, it's just that i can't tell you." she replied, typing on her computer.

"but why? we won't tell anyone."

"because it's my job. i can be fired if i don't respect the professional secret rule." she replied, glaring at the two boys. 

jeno and renjun huffed, crossing their arms over their chests.

"why do you want to know things about him so much?" she asked.

"because he's intriguing. we want to know more about him." renjun replied immediately.

"ask him then." sunmi told.

"very funny." jeno spoke this time. "the problem is that he's mute."

"and have you never heard about these?" she asked, waving her phone in front of the two boys.

renjun and jeno sighed, exchanging a glance.

"asking him will be so weird..." renjun whined.

"and asking me is against the rules."

"yeah, but this way we won't scare him. i can feel that he's not comfortable around us..."

sunmi snorted, looking at renjun.

"yeah, considering that you have been following him around since the first day, you can say he's a bit uncomfortable around you."

renjun rolled his eyes. "come on, i apologized for that! we're friends now."

"yeah, well... you are a psycho."

"i agree." jeno added, making renjun glare at him.

"anyway. go back to class now so that you can graduate. i don't want you to spend your whole life bothering me in this high school." sunmi said after clapping her hands.

"please, no! tell us something about him. just one little thing." renjun begged.

"i said, no." sunmi replied.

"we want to know why he is scared of everything... please? he's such a mystery... he would never tell us on his own." jeno added. 

sunmi looked at them with a brow raised.

they had a point.

jaemin would never open to them so easily.

he would need help.

and these two seemed to be willing to help.

and they couldn't help if they didn't know about him...

"okay." sunmi said.

"we are all ears!" the two boyfriends exclaimed, leaning over the desk.

"i'm not going to tell you everything because i can't. i'm just going to give you a little detail that may help you understand him better."

"okay, tell us! we promise we won't tell it to anyone." renjun told.

"oh, of course you won't tell this to anybody." sunmi nodded, as if warning them that if they did, it would be the end of them.

she thought for a few seconds, searching which words she'll use to give them just the right number of details.

"so... jaemin hasn't always been mute." she started. "everything started after an accident. and you know what that means?" she raised a brow, meeting jeno and rejnun's eyes.

the two boys shook their heads, listening carefully to every single word sunmi pronounced.

"it means that he's traumatized."

⍣

"jaemin, baby, no phones during dinner." jaemin's mother told, catching the attention of her son.

"yeah, i'll tell them." jaemin replied before focusing on his phone again. 

"he's never been on his phone this much..." jaemin's father told, low enough so that only his wife could hear it.

"i wonder what he's doing..."

"i hope he doesn't spend all his school days stuck to his phone too..."

jaemin put his phone back in his pocket and concentrated on his plate with a smile.

"you seem very busy with your phone these days..." jaemin's mother spoke.

"yeah." jaemin answered, having another spoonful of rice despite not having swallowed the previous one.

"what's so interesting about it?" his father asked.

"renjun and jeno created a groupchat so that we could communicate since i can't talk to them. they're being so kind with me."

his two parents nodded, looking at each other with a smile.

their baby was regaining his smile, and it was all that mattered.