Colors || Lee Jeno

Chapter 12 | "trust you"

"Morning, Hyewon!" Jeno said cheerily as she skipped over to him at their usual meeting spot.

It had been two weeks since they'd first met and he made good on his word to take things slow. She found herself truly enjoying his friendship, though Lucas made it clear that Jeno was not allowed to replace him as her best friend.

They'd gone on shopping trips, arcade dates, and even to a theme park together. Overall, he was spoiling the hell out of her and she was loving it.

Things back at the house were tense. The boys noticed her absence and though she kept telling them she was off meeting some friends, they were skeptical. Lucas vouching for her made them even more skeptical but they decided to let it go.

Xiaojun was slowly allowing himself to be around her. He was still a bit tense, and Hyewon still felt the familiar pang in her heart whenever they talked, but her daily meetups with Jeno made her forget.

"Hey, Jeno." She said with a grin, giving him a light hug. "What's the plan for today?"

He gave her a mischievous smile, causing her to cock an eye at him, especially when she noticed the nervous glimmer in his eyes.

"Well... I did say it was going to be an important surprise, right?" She nodded. "How would you feel about... coming over to meet my gang?"

Her eyes widened in shock and her whole body tense up.

"NCT? You want me to meet NCT? Are you kidding?" She asked, the fear creeping up her spine. "No way. They're going to rip me apart."

"Theyre my brothers, there's no way they'd do that, I promise." He said with a chuckle. "The guys are way nicer than you'd think, I swear. You're gonna love them, and they're gonna love you."

She gave him a skeptical glance, staring him down before letting out a sigh.

"Fine. But if I die, I'm going to come back as a ghost and kill you."

"Yay! Let's go!"

Jeno gently grabbed her hand, dragging her behind him and running to his car.

- - -

As they pulled in through a set of iron gates, Hyewon could feel her throat tighten up. Driving through the canopy of trees on NCT's territory was unsettling. Technically she was trespassing on another gang's land and they totally could kill her for it.

"Hey, relax." Jeno said softly, noticing her nerves. "I won't let anything happen to you."

She nodded, unable to say anything due to fear. He just flashed her a reassuring smile as he pulled into the garage and parked the car.

"Alright, deep breath okay?" He said before the walked in. "I'll be honest, they're not going to love that you're here and they'll probably ask you a bunch of questions, especially the older members. Just stay calm, nothing is going to happen."

"Okay." She said with a deep sigh, trying to force away the nervous shake of her muscles. "I trust you."

"Good. Let's go."

He gently grabbed her hand, knowing that she was still a bit shaky with skinship but in her panic, she payed no attention to it, gripping onto his hand tightly as he led her inside.

"Guys? You here?" Jeno called as he shut the door.

"Jeno? We thought you went out. What are you-" the voice cut off as a boy rounded the corner, his face instantly hardening. "Who's this?" He asked with a cold tone.

"A guest. My guest, so play nice, Mark." Jeno said lowly, his aura suddenly becoming cold and dominating.

"Does Taeyong know about this?" The boy named Mark asked, looking her up and down.

"Not exactly."

Mark rolled his eyes, letting out a deep sigh and gesturing for them to follow him. Jeno gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before gently leading her down the hallway after Mark.

"Taeyong, we have company!" The first boy announced as they entered a large room.

Hyewon's eyes widened as she noticed a large group of boys all lounging around the room. She quickly counted 21, not including Jeno. The final boy then entered the room and Hyewon felt her entire body freeze.

Lee Taeyong, leader of NCT.

As his gaze landed on her and Jeno, his face hardened and his eyes narrowed. His expression twisted into a threatening frown as he quickly stalked over to them, two other tall boys rising to their feet and following behind him. Jeno quickly took a step forward, protectively shifting to put himself between Taeyong and her as he stared down his leader.

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing on our territory?" Taeyong growled, sending a shiver up her spine.

"My name is Kim Hyewon, I'm from WayV-"

"WayV?" Taeyong exclaimed, anger flaring in his eyes as he turned to glare at Jeno.

"She's my colors, Taeyong." Jeno replied firmly, his gaze unwavering as he stared back at his leader. "She's trustworthy."

Hyewon saw the way Taeyong's expression changed when Jeno mentioned colors, his hardened expression cracking ever so slightly as he straightened up. Seeing the change, Jeno took a step back, going to stand beside her.

"I see." He mumbled, looking her up and down. "Lee Taeyong, it's nice to meet you."

She quickly shook his outstretched hand, bowing to him as she did so.

"So, how long have you two known each other?" He asked.

"A few weeks."

"And there have been no issues?"

"No."

"No fights?"

"No."

"Jeno?" He asked, turning to the younger boy.

"She's good." He replied. "She's not even carrying a weapon."

Hyewon nodded, unzipping the side of her boots to show that the normally knife filled pockets were now empty.

"I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and hope that you're truly trustworthy out of loyalty to Jeno." He continued. "Don't make me regret it."

She nodded, gulping nervously as he turned and walked out of the room. The moment he left, all the boys quickly scrambled over to her, all wanting to meet their gang member's color.

"Hey, sorry about him." Said one of the tall boys who had followed Taeyong up. "He needs to protect the gang and stuff, I'm sure you understand. I'm Johnny."

"Yeah I totally get it, and I'm Hyewon. It's great to meet you." She replied cheerily.

"I'm Jaehyun, second in command." The other boy said with a smile. "Jeno's told us a lot about you, we've been very excited to meet you."

"Thanks I've been... well I was more nervous than excited but it's great to meet you guys." She said with a chuckle, causing the boys around her to laugh as well.

"Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone." Jeno said with a smile, their hands still tightly clasped. "I just hope you have a good memory, there's a lot of them."