Golden ◂ NCT Jaemin

49 ◂ Misunderstanding

◂ 49 ▸

Smiling all of a sudden, Taeyong tilted his head to the side. He hummed, nodded and stepped yet another step closer.

"Shoot me."

Renjun didn't even hesitate before noting, "That was kinda dumb of you."

Taeyong gasped. "I was angry!"

Hearing that, Jeno suddenly remembered something. He snapped his fingers, looked at Jaemin.

"Do you remember that time Doyoung gave us this really long lecture about keeping our sarcasm in check? He said if we got hurt because we said something rude or snarky then he wouldn't save us."

"Thinking about it, that might have been because of Taeyong," Chenle noted.

Haechan gasped, then turned to the oldest. "We didn't have to go listen to his passive-aggressive rant if it wasn't for you?!"

Surprised, Taeyong leaned back, looked around nervously.
"That wasn't even the topic-"

Jaemin leaned closer to Jie and whispered, "It was his fault for sure."

And Jie nodded a little too quickly. "Probably."

"Wait-"

"But the first time we met Jie she told us to shoot her," Jisung pointed out.

Jaemin agreed but then quickly explained, "That doesn't count though because she wasn't being sarcastic."

Which, on the one hand, made sense. On the other hand, however, the boys frowned not only at the revelation but also at the casual tone Jaemin used and the absent-minded nod Jie gave in agreement.

They weren't quite sure whether they should laugh at that or not.

"Anyway!" Taeyong broke their conversation up after a while. "The moral of the story is that not everyone is bad just because the people around them are."

"And where is she now?" Jisung asked. He was curious yet also worried. After what he had just heard, he felt anxious for the girl. "Did you get her out of there?"

"Winwin entered through the back and took her with him while we distracted Li Huang," Taeyong explained.

Relieved, Jisung nodded along, then urged him to answer,
"So? Where is she now?"

Her heart started racing at the question. Just an inquiry yet it felt like a threat - one coming from someone she felt as close to as Jisung.

Startled, her mind was caught up between screams and silence, between trying to figure out if she would be okay or not.

Why not?

The boys seemed to root for her well-being more than anything else. She wasn't being very rational. There was no reason to overthink this and overthinking didn't feel like her either. It was just that--

Her mind hit the breaks when she felt a hand on hers. His fingers curled themselves around hers, hiding under the dinner table, away from the others' sights.