"Chenle, save those fists for when you truly need them. Step Number Two towards reforming you: keep your reactions under control."
"Ew, imagine having self-control."
⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒
in which a police office...
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"He's where?" Chenle looked at Donghyuck nervously. "Alright. Don't worry, we've got it." He put the phone back in his pocket. He didn't remember ever giving Jeno his phone number, but oh well, he had more pressing issues. "Renjun made a runner for laser tag."
Donghyuck kissed Mark on the cheek and booped their noses together. The alpha had only just come out of the toilets after washing his eyes. "We're going to find Renjun. What will you two do?"
Jisung looked at Chenle and smiled, then turned to Donghyuck. "We'll be the agony aunts for Jeno and Jaemin."
•・•・•
They checked the forest area that he had apparently run into, but there was no sign of him. They then made tracks for laser tag.
"I wonder how he's feeling," Donghyuck sighed. "Renjun needed this like he needs a bullet in the head."
Chenle breathed deeply and cocked his head. "I think it's a good thing. I guess... when I was going through my rough patch, constantly testing Oldy's limits, and my own, really, having Jisung tell it to me straight that I needed to cop on was a blow that I had to take. I had to take it or else I was narrowing myself. There's nothing quite like having someone who cares about you tell you what you don't want to hear, but need to hear."
"I always let you know how upset your behaviour made me."
Chenle smiled and pulled him in for a side hug but made sure to keep moving. "That's something I had but Renjun didn't have; I had you when I would have been otherwise alone. Oldy knew that. That's why he tried to use Jisung as my model example and set him up to be my friend. He thought it'd be easier if I was surrounded by people to help me out. But what I really believe to have helped me is not the quantity of people, but quality. I had you to lend me a shoulder to cry on, and Jisung set a rocket under me to get me moving instead of remaining sessile in the life I thought I'd chosen for myself."
Donghyuck hugged him tighter. There was no one he loved more platonically than this idiot beside him. "You know you're my main hoe, right?"
"Better not tell Mark."
"He's over it already. We've been like this for so long." And now they needed to be Renjun's 'quality people'. "But how do we help him? I'm worried I'll be too strong about it."
"I think he'll do most of the talking."
Donghyuck supposed that was the best option. To let Renjun vent was to let the healing process complete itself. "I imagine this stems back to last year..."
"I imagine so too. I didn't realise how deeply this has affected him. I knew it was," Chenle paused, "well, I guess I know nothing, really. We had similar experiences but it worked out differently for both of us. At least Jisung got there before anything really bad could happen. Renjun..." Be stopped walking and squinted at the fluffy hair attached to a body that was lying against a tree.
