Echo || NCTau ||

38 - For all time

Haechan suspected that the BBQ restaurant had never been noisier than when their entire pack of over 20 hungry people entered its premises with the simple goal of eating everything the restaurant had to offer.

"I skipped lunch so that I could eat more now", Johnny admitted to Haechan while throwing his arm over his shoulders, as they followed one of the workers towards the set of tables they had reserved earlier.

Haechan tutted at Johnny's words and patted his hand arrogantly. "Well, I skipped breakfast because of the same reason so you're hardly anything special!"

"You skipped breakfast because you slept in", Chenle pointed out behind them.

Now he wanted to be honest? Haechan clicked his tongue again.

"That's what I told you so that you wouldn't feel bad for me for going to work on an empty stomach."
"I couldn't care less about your empty stomach."

Haechan spun around on his feet to give him an offended glare and made sure to not sit next to Chenle and his mean words when they finally found their table.

Midway through the dinner, after everyone had had the chance to stop being hangry, Doyoung raised his voice over the chatter. "Renjun, you said that you had something you wanted to share with us. Would now be a good moment?"

"You have news?" Jaemin turned to Renjun with wide eyes. "I thought you just wanted to have a family dinner with everyone."

Haechan pressed a hand over his chest. "Right. We thought you cared about us, Injunnie."

Renjun rolled his eyes. The day when Haechan and Jaemin didn't take up the opportunity to be annoying and dramatic would be a sign of the world ending.

"Well?" Jaemin grabbed his arm when Renjun didn't share his news immediately. "Out with it."

Haechan leaned forward in anticipation.

"I proposed to Chaewon."

Renjun's words were followed by a complete silence.

Then, the cheers erupted and chaos ensued.

Half of the group jumped up from their chairs, and at least two stools toppled over, hitting the floor loudly. The Chinese members started shouting immediately, the younger ones started shouting, and Jaemin, Haechan and Jeno were the first ones to tackle the boy of the hour with overtly aggressive hugs.

"When did this happen?" Haechan shouted over the loud cheers after giving space to Jisung and Chenle. "How did it happen? What did she say?"

"Of course she said yes!" Jeno bellowed like a proud father whose son had just scored the winning goal.

Haechan blinked. Well, it was true that had Chaewon refused, Renjun most likely wouldn't have gathered them together to celebrate it.

Renjun, who was currently being strangled by some of the other guys, wasn't replying fast enough to the rest of his questions, so Haechan peeked his head through the crowd.

"When did this happen? We need more details."

The otter was full-on panicking. He hadn't packed gifts when he left home and he didn't even have any of his pretty rocks with him (even though the otter thought that he should always bring one or two everywhere as a backup if an emergency gift was needed) so he had nothing to give to his roommate.

He knew Renjun's face well enough to recognize the awkward flicker in his eyes upon hearing his question.

Haechan's jaw dropped.

"This isn't a new thing, is it?"

Renjun had set the date for the pack dinner over a month ago.

Jaemin gasped in the background and Chenle's hold of Renjun's arm tightened a bit too much.