Mr. No || NCT || Completed

24 - Where Renjun (allegedly) doesn't care

"What are you doing (you moron)?" The last part was silent.
Renjun was already on the edge, and didn't need any further aggravation. He and Chaewon had spent all Wednesday evening going from place to place, trying to get in contact with the people from his list. They had managed to meet some of them but no one had been useful. For reasons unknown to Renjun, Chaewon had been eager to visit the old granny - Junghoon's mom - again but he had refused.

On top of that, he had spent yet another long night in an endless dream loop where his younger self – a teenager Renjun this time – had been painting with watercolours while giving him silent treatment.

Now Byongho was creeping around, holding his phone up as if he was a wannabe-paparazzo.

What a frustrating day.

"Don't mind me", Byongho hummed, hunching slightly and aimed his phone towards Renjun from the new angle, "Just do your thing."

Renjun stopped refilling the coffee beans and turned to glare at the other employee. "Why are you taking pictures of me?"

Byongho lowered his phone and put it away slowly. He took his sweet time before reacting to Renjun's question but finally the relentless glare forced him to cave. "It's for the café's Instagram. The higher-ups told me to get good photos of you."

Renjun remembered seeing multiple pictures of himself on the café's social media account. Until now, he hadn't really thought about who was the one taking them but obviously it had to be his co-workers since they were uploaded on Dalah Café's own account.

"Well, stop doing it. It's annoying."

Byongho took his phone out again. "That's such a good facial expression. You look so mysterious and angry", he announced, "keep it up!"

It was difficult to decide whether Renjun wanted to resign or end Byongho's life subscription early.

***

"I almost forgot. Here", Chaewon stuffed a tiny plastic bag in Renjun's hand. It was ginseng extract. "My mom sent it to you."

Renjun looked at the tiny red package and almost walked into an advertisement stand.

"Why did she want to give it to me?" Renjun asked while putting the ginseng extract into his coat pocket. She had no reason to give him anything.

Chaewon shrugged. "She's happy that I have a new friend and she wants you to stay healthy." Then she glanced at him and hurried to continue, "I know that you keep saying that we aren't friends but that doesn't stop her from thinking that we are. And it's easier if she thinks that we are friends because otherwise she would be too curious about why we're spending so much time together."

"You could tell her that you're blackmailing me."

She gasped. "I'm no- oh. Yeah, true. I kind of am." Her nose scrunched. "I didn't remember that."

Renjun frowned. "How did you forget it?"
Chaewon focused on the street and the masses of pedestrians around them. They were a couple of blocks away from their next target who happened to live in a very busy part of Hongdae, so they were surrounded by the hectic sounds, crowded streams of people, and the hectic feeling of being constantly late.
Was she avoiding his question?

"You blackmailed me because you wanted me to tell Jaemin about you, and you don't even know what we are looking for. So, how do you forget that?" Slowly surfacing suspicion narrowed Renjun's eyes.

When he turned to her, he noticed that her normally lively, tanned face was pale and she was still staring forward, glazed look in her eyes. "It was – ", she stopped mid-sentence to swallow, and then remained silent.