Notorious ⊷ Haechan

64 ⊷ Future

⊷ 64

Even Taemin and Ji-yoon's house struggled to provide a space large enough to host dinner for so many people. Yet, this wasn't a hindrance for the girl. She was happy to see everyone close to her come together for a home-cooked meal. Ji-yoon enthusiastically called it a family dinner, albeit that certainly stretched the term 'family'. 

Regardless, Ji-yoon had a hard time calling them anything else at this point. Or, at the very least, after all that they went through and all the work they did, she felt that they were close enough to consider them more than co-workers.

Xiaojun pushed out a thoughtful hum. "I was gonna ask," he began, "Why didn't you let Haechan come with you to meet Min-jun?"

Ji-yoon frowned at the question. "I'm not dragging my agent boyfriend into this," she commented. "I felt bad enough that he went with me to see Changbin that time. But Min-jun? That's too much."

"He knows anyway," Sungchan pointed out. "So he is implicated in it to some degree."

Ji-yoon narrowed her eyes at the younger. "You are oddly talkative these days."

Sungchan shrugged.

"Then what about the other three?" Renjun wondered. "Why can you drag them into it?"

Despite usually being straightforward, she was now hesitant about what to say. Claiming that she cared enough to attempt to keep Haechan free from guilt, then using the next moment to explain how the same wasn't true for the others would have made her feel horrible. 

Frankly, she hadn't put much thought into whether Kai or San or Sungchan should join her that night - she just let them. Because that's how it was. That's how it had always been. 

Still, she couldn't get herself to say that right away. Perhaps she was being unfair? Maybe this was wrong? 

Or maybe she was just overthinking, causing San to answer in her stead. 

"Because that's just our life," he explained with a casual shrug of his shoulders. "We aren't prosecutors or agents. We just look out for each other, that's what we do." 

Sungchan nodded wordlessly whereas Kai added, "Right. Even if she didn't tell us, we'd still go and find her to make sure she's okay." 

Yangyang inhaled sharply through his teeth, sensing a chance to annoy Haechan. "That's to say her boyfriend wouldn't?" 

Haechan quickly threw a glare at the younger. "Don't say nonsense. She asked me to stay out of it and told me that they were going to be with her," he defended himself quickly. 

Yangyang laughed. "Alright, whatever you say~"

Hendery shook his head as he pushed out a sharp tsk. "Outrageous." 

Haechan played along and rolled his eyes, while both boys watched Ji-yoon to see if the little banter made her feel better. It seemingly did.  

"Putting aside how shitty this whole situation was," Winwin said all of a sudden, "we got to write some pretty good articles."

Hendery chimed in by saying, "It really helped us a lot that you kept us up to date with everything."

"I'm happy you reported on it," Ji-yoon said, grateful to have their support. "Either way, you are good journalists. You are doing well, with or without me." 

Yangyang faked a tear. "Thank you, miss benefactor," he joked which caused the girl to roll her eyes.

"As for Haechan," Chenle said out of nowhere, "If you aren't planning on coming home anymore, do we have permission to turn your room into a storage room?"