The World Stopped Moving {MarkRen} | complete

neuf

"They've been gone for three hours." Jeno checks his phone, then tosses it between his hands as he pulls his legs to his chest and squeezes a cushion between his knees.

Renjun paces the living room. He wants to sit down next to Jeno but his body seeks to chase his racing mind, unable to rest. "Where did you say they went?"

"Just out. To town. Whatever that means," Jeno replies.

It's nearing midday. Renjun left art, hoping to catch the fallout between Jaemin and Donghyuck, but by the time he'd bolted across campus they'd already left to 'chat about things'. Jeno told him that means Donghyuck dragged a reluctant, stammering Jaemin out the door and wouldn't take no for an answer, and Renjun imagines the scene with his own heart stammering.

"Donghyuck was borderline pissed off. Jaemin nearly burst into tears," Jeno adds, brow creased with worry.

Renjun stops pacing to run his hands through his hair. "Maybe I should've just agreed to come home."

"No." Jeno shakes his head. "It's good that they're talking."

"I hope they're talking," Renjun says, not wasting a second of silence between the end of Jeno's sentence and the start of his own. He knows how much Jeno cares for his friends. "Jaemin better be fucking talking."

Jeno shrugs and taps on a YouTube video, so Renjun takes the dramatic gaming channel intro as his cue to leave the room.

Jaemin and Donghyuck don't return until the sun has set. Lying awake in bed, covers kicked to the floor and limbs splayed out in defeat, Renjun listens to the click of the front door, to their hushed whispers, to the creak of the floorboard in the hallway. He only hears one door open and close. He thinks it's Donghyuck's. He figures that must mean they've made up and rolls over, ignoring the gust of wind filtering through his window by wrapping his arms around himself, hairs standing on end.

In the morning they're gone again. Jeno tells him they went to get breakfast together. The thought flusters Jisung, sending Chenle into a fit of giggles, and Renjun drinks his daily mug of tea with less milk than usual, staring into the dark brown liquid as though praying it will solve his worries. The next day, Friday, is possibly the busiest Friday Renjun has ever experienced. He chases after his mother – he missed her first call, then wouldn't pick up when he phoned her back – to suffer her rant about the neighbour's new dog. She only ever seems to phone when there's something to complain about. He then scrapes his way through a quiz on contemporary artists. He also tries to catch Jaemin in a moment's rest. Without any luck. Renjun swears he's seen more of Jeno than he has Jaemin or Donghyuck, and that's saying something. Jeno just says he's finished the bulk of his coding assignment. Renjun notices the concerned gazes he throws, so decides to interpret that as he's just worried and wants to keep Renjun company, which he supposes is a sweet gesture.

Even amid the chaos, Renjun's mind will not drop a certain topic: Mark.

Mark Lee, who seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

Renjun doesn't receive a single text. He debates messaging Jungwoo but puts it off, worried to come across as either creepy or overbearing. And he's never met Jungwoo, which sparks enough anxiety on its own.

He traipses to the art room early on Saturday morning. The walk clears the cobwebs from his head. Jaemin and Donghyuck are at the dorm for once and Renjun walked in on them whispering to each other at the kitchen table. When they whipped their heads round, eyes wide like deer trapped in headlights and like they were caught doing something they shouldn't, Renjun offered a brief nod and smile as he fished around the fridge for an apple to eat on the go. His stomach twisted in all kinds of elaborate, painful knots, but he decided to leave them be. It stings to do so, yet as he walks down the street, he slaps a plaster on the wound by telling himself he shouldn't interfere, that this independence is what he wanted for Jaemin.