Echo || NCTau ||

7 - Eenie Meenie

"The national security advisor of Japan comments on the gruesome details of the recent murder spree where the bodies of three men were found in their homes in different parts of Osaka. The case has been described to be – "

"Well, isn't that peachy", Haechan commented when the news anchor's pleasant face was replaced with a footage from the press conference held somewhere in Japan.

Chenle was seated in front of the couch with his laptop. He was supposed to be working on an assignment for university but the screen of his laptop had turned dark while he focused on a game on his phone. Jaemin and Jisung were engrossed by the news, although the latter was also supposed to be studying. Mark had fallen asleep and his big head kept nodding against Haechan's shoulder. Jeno and Yujin were either studying at the university library or at the climbing gym, and earlier Renjun had sent them a curt report from his recent adventures in China.

The more or less focused gang had gathered in the living room for the newest episode of the delightfully cliché drama called Copper Hearts – the love story between a cold and distant but also very hot and sometimes kind CEO and a poor girl who was gentle but spunky. In the latest episode (Haechan had had to watch it alone while he was still on his business trip in Taipei), the poor girl had been in a dramatic car accident just before being able to tell the CEO about the elaborate plot concocted by his rival – the second lead.

Who was also very handsome but in a villainous bad boy way.

Haechan was waiting for his redemption arc with great interest because he was an avid fan of second leads.
And maybe bad guys too.

He glanced at the TV where the news anchor was still describing the brutal murders in Osaka, and grimaced. Not that kind of bad guys.

"Doesn't that sound similar to what happened in Seoul last year?" Chenle asked without lifting his eyes from his phone. "The only difference is that now it's three people. Here it was two seemingly unrelated guys who were murdered brutally and found at the same time in two different locations."

Haechan remembered it as well. "A businessman and a lawyer", he noted as his gaze drifted automatically to Jaemin, who had flinched at Chenle's words. "The murderer wasn't caught."

Jisung was confused. "You remember a news story that happened a year ago?"

"True, you weren't here when it happened", Haechan realized and reached his hand past snoozing Mark to ruffle Jisung's hair. "It feels like our Jisungie has been with us forever."

In reality, as odd as it was, Jisung had been part of the pack for less than a year after they helped him escape from the poachers.

Jisung allowed his hair to be messed with because it was the quickest way for it to stop.

"They remember it because I spoke about it a lot. One of the murder victims was my student's father", Jaemin answered Jisung's confusion. "She witnessed the murder and many of the daycare workers took an extra course in handling heavy topics with young kids so that it would be easier for us to console her when she came back to school."

Chenle shuddered. "Poor kid." The topic was distracting enough to make him lose the game.

Jisung stared at Jaemin, wide-eyed. "How did the girl – "

"She was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Jaemin sounded tense. He had a soft heart and Haechan had seen how badly he had struggled seeing one of his students go through something like that. Following the situation, he had spent weeks sleeping in his penguin form in the bathtub. The memory made the otter's heart ache for its tiny friend that had protected Jaemin by shielding his dreams from circling back to the trauma one of 'his kids' had gone through.