INVASION ⋮ norenmin

Ⅶ

Renjun realized that he overslept. He heard voices around and when he looked up, he saw Jeno kneeling in front of his cousins with the plate of food.

The weirdest part was that Renjun slept on the floor all night. When he recalled, he understood that he never went up on the sofa. Maybe that was why he slept so well.

His and his cousins' eyes met. They just stared at each other without any words. Well, there wasn't much to say, knowing that it was the third day in captivity. Hope was going down too.

Renjun's eyes instinctively shifted on his patient. Jaemin was still on the coffee table and didn't look like he moved an inch the last time Renjun had seen him. He was in a deep sleep, trying to recover, which was normal. Renjun was glad that he didn't see him walking around when he still needed to rest. That was the nightmare of any doctor, professional or newbie, seeing your patient carelessly walking around.

Unintentionally, Renjun remembered what Jaemin told him at night. The boy didn't know why, but he felt like he could rely on Jaemin. If he really meant it, Renjun should take care of him for Jaemin to recover faster and then all of them were saved... because if they wait for their parents to come back, they could be dead at that time...

"You woke up just in time," Jeno's voice and presence snapped Renjun back from his dreams. "Here, take it." Jeno handed the boy the plate with food. Renjun didn't know if he was seeing things, but it looked like Jeno was wearing a soft smile.

Renjun just nodded and ate. Just when he finally began enjoying the food, the plate was empty. Renjun thought that he should get used to this. It was happening for the third day already.

"Did he wake up when I was sleeping?" Renjun asked when he gave back the plate.

Jeno's lips turned upside down. "No, he didn't. Yesterday he went to sleep and didn't wake up not even once today. But it's normal, right?"

It sounded like Jeno believed that a boy like Renjun could know everything when it came to medical things. He was just a student! He was only learning.

"He's recovering."

"When will he recover?"

Those questions were stupid. Renjun wasn't God. He didn't know many things himself, especially when he removed the bullet, but could have infected Jaemin because of the bad tools.

"Sedatives wear off after 24 hours," he explained in a professional manner which meant that he didn't show that he was annoyed by those questions and kept being discreet. "After that, he'll need to get back to his senses, get used to his situation and deal with pain. Speaking of the wound itself, it'll recover only when his new skin starts showing. Before that, he needs a lot of care: wound cleaning, keeping it dry, bandage changing, applying vaseline and so on."

Jeno carefully listened and now Renjun knew the reason. He was surprised why he didn't notice it before. The two were really like a couple. They shared a lot of intimacy – Renjun saw them holding hands once and the distance between them was almost non-existent. If one slept on the couch, another one was kneeling beside him and staring at the victims.

"Right..." Jeno trailed off and suddenly looked away.

He was embarrassed by something but Renjun didn't have the energy to find out why. The boy let out a sigh and massaged his temples and even blinked a few times but still felt sleepy.

"Thanks for saving him," Jeno blurted out.

Renjun looked up at the black-haired boy, noticing that the latter was still looking away, obviously avoiding any kind of eye contact.