Mr. No || NCT || Completed

39 - Where a picture is (not) worth a thousand words

Renjun had been awake for a good while before he detected any movement on Chaewon's side of the room. The girl had slept buried underneath her blanket and the pillow placed over her head as if she was hiding her sleep from the world. Renjun had considered waking her up or going downstairs to the lobby to wait for her to wake up, but had decided to wait it out in the room. Especially after seeing the two kind of suspicious men downstairs on the previous evening, he didn't want to spend any excess time in the shared spaces of the hotel.

"Good morning", Chaewon mumbled, still hidden inside her fort of blankets. When Renjun looked up from his sketchbook, she was peeking at him from a gap between the blanket and mattress.

He nodded. "Morning."

Chaewon emerged from her cocoon and let out a high-pitched screech while stretching her hands up in the air and sitting up. Her hair was up in two messy braids – on the previous night, she had provided Renjun with an extensive explanation on how much she hated sleeping with her hair down – and her eyes were barely visible since she was still so sleepy.

The girl stood up and stretched again. "Did you sleep well?" she asked while heading towards the bathroom. "I had this crazy dream about a serial killer with a doll mask and obsession over scaring his victims before killing them."

"So, a nightmare?" Renjun closed his notebook and placed it on the bedside table.
She shook her head. "Not really. It was almost like watching a thriller. I was more of a spectator instead of playing an active role, so I didn't have to be scared."

Renjun eyed her. "Watching a thriller in your sleep sounds like a nightmare to me."

"Fine." Chaewon waved the air dismissively. "If it's that important to you, I can call it a nightmare."
"It's not important to – "
Chaewon flashed him a sleepy grin. "Thanks for caring about my dreams."
She didn't wait for his reply before disappearing into the bathroom.

"I didn't mean it like that", Renjun complained by himself while getting up from his bed. He straightened his blanket that had gotten wrinkled while he sat on it, and then, after a brief deliberation, proceeded to make Chaewon's bed as well. Based on the state of her room when he visited her home, she wouldn't tidy up her bed on her own.

His phone buzzed on the table but he didn't feel like checking it, instead facing the large window. Haechan and Chenle had been bombarding him with suggestive questions about his trip while Jaemin was worried about his safety. Minghao had sent in some comments and ideas on the draft Renjun was planning to submit for the freelancer position, and mother was stressed about the Seoul Annual Winter Gala, where the engagement between Renjun and Yun Liying was supposed to go public.

It was too much. He didn't want to receive any more messages from anyone or he would seriously consider becoming a recluse sheep herder somewhere in Scotland.

Were there sheep in Scotland?
Maybe he would have to find the sheep first.

The phone buzzed again.

Renjun – who had never even tried smoking – started hoping that he would've picked up the habit just to have matches or lighter in his person at all times.

Chaewon exited the bathroom. "At what time are we going to the Geolmae Institute?" She rummaged through her makeup bag and started applying it swiftly.

"After breakfast – but we aren't in a hurry since their visiting hours don't start in another hour and a half." Renjun was looking outside, enjoying the view of the sea even though parts of it were blocked by buildings. The sky was a lighter shade of grey than the day before and the weather didn't seem quite so windy either.