Mr. No || NCT || Completed

18 - Where Renjun is kind of blackmailed again

By the time Renjun came back with the cleaning supplies, Chaewon had wiped the dirt from the documents and gathered bigger pieces of the broken flower pot so that it would be easier to sweep the rest.

"Why did you - "
"How was your - "

They had started speaking at the same time only to stop awkwardly mid-sentence. Chaewon took the broom from him and started sweeping the dirt and tiny terracotta shards from the floor.

"How was your call?" she asked without giving him a chance to speak first. She wasn't looking at him and he had a feeling that she was avoiding eye contact on purpose. "Was it a friend of yours?"

Renjun sat down on the floor again and shuffled through the papers to find the document he had been checking before his call with Minghao. "It was my friend", he found the correct paper, "He offered me a freelancer thing."

Why did he say that? Renjun bit his teeth together, not understanding why he was speaking to Chaewon as if they were friends. He was supposed to get stuff done and get out, and the girl didn't need to know anything about him.

"Really?" Chaewon turned to him, excited glimmer in her eyes, "Do you mean like a graphic designer thing? That's amazing!" She started bouncing on the balls of her feet while hugging the broom, as if he had just gifted her with a winning lottery ticket.

Her sudden, joyous reaction surprised Renjun. It wasn't her place to be so happy about his opportunities. "Why are you grinning like that?" he muttered, glancing at the look on her face before looking down to the paper again. The excitement made her eyes behind the round rimmed glasses even more sparkly than usual and a thought of sunglasses passed Renjun's mind.

"I'm happy for you", Chaewon shrugged and started sweeping the dirt again, "When are you going to start?"

Renjun gripped on the paper in his hands. "I didn't say yes."

"What?" With few long strides, she was standing in front of him, pointing his head with the broom as if it was a sword and she wanted a duel. Renjun looked at the tip of the broomstick that was in front of his eyes, before following it up to Chaewon's hand. Then he lifted his eyes to meet hers. She seemed to be confused by him. "Why did you refuse?"

"I didn't do that either", he answered and got back to work, ignoring the broom that was currently threatening to poke his eye out. "I'm still thinking about it."

Chaewon huffed and squatted next to him, hugging her knees with the broom. "That's dumb. You shouldn't play hard to get with a job", she announced, staring at his face even though he wasn't looking at her. Once again, she was close enough for him to smell the faint scent of her perfume even though it wasn't very polite. She was so close that Renjun could've grabbed her hand easily if he wanted to. It goes without saying that he didn't grab her because there was no reason for him to do it but he could've done it. He blinked, trying to focus on what was going on. Chaewon was still looking at him. "Where's your phone? I will call your friend and tell him that you will do it."

Renjun rolled his eyes, ignoring her resolve. Again, she was butting in even though it had nothing to do with her.

Chaewon saw his reaction. "You think that I wouldn't do it, don't you?"

"He's Chinese", Renjun pointed out. Of course, Minghao spoke Korean almost like a native since he had lived in Seoul forever but that didn't lessen the fact that he was actually from China.

"I can speak Chinese too", Chaewon said confidently.

Renjun turned to look at her, lifting his eyebrows. "I thought that lying is difficult for you."