NCT Imagines (Requests Open!)

Issues Pt. 2 (Renjun)

Renjun walked away, his heart hurting so much, he thought he would collapse any second.  He would never be good enough for anyone, no matter how much effort he put in.  He knew you felt so broken, but he had pointed out something that he himself needed to fix.

If you have issues, then you should deal with them before dating someone...

What gave him the right to give advice when he couldn't even follow his own words?  Renjun faced himself in the mirror in his room, staring at the scraggly boy before him.  That boy had gone through so much that he was almost completely emotionally numb.  Or so he thought he was until he ended his relationship with you today.

He crumpled in front of the mirror, sinking to his knees.  He had no right to have broken up with you the way he did.  That made him no better than the others that had made his life a living hell.  Even though the bruises had disappeared, his memories burned like fire in his mind.  His body remembered the pain, and his heart remembered being ripped apart every single day.

Renjun watched as the other kids jumped out of their seats, ready for a few rounds of tag and kickball and messing around on the monkey bars.  Everyone loved recess... everyone except Renjun.  He wanted to play tag- he wanted to show off his cool tricks on the monkey bars, but he knew what he was in for if he did.  Quietly, he pulled out a book he brought from home, turning the pages as he found himself getting lost in the story.  

Someone tapped his shoulder, and he looked up to see the worried face of his teacher.  "Hey, Renjun, something came up, and I need to go run an errand, so you have to join the other kids outside for recess today.  I don't want to leave you alone in the classroom."

Reluctantly, he closed his book and headed to the playground.  Renjun was always an obedient boy.  

"Hey, Twig!" he heard the snarky voice of his worst nightmare behind him.  Renjun kept walking, hoping they wouldn't bother him today, but he heard the voice again.  "Twig, we know you heard us.  If you don't turn around and come back here, I'll snap you in half like the twig you are."

Renjun's cheeks blazed in embarrassment, but he did as he was told, slowly turning around and walking back to the bullies that never let him rest.  

"You have our math homework done?" the leader of the pack pressed.

Renjun bit his lower lip.  The homework was in his backpack which was in the classroom that his teacher had locked up while she ran her errand.  "It's in the room.  I can give it to you after recess."

"What if I want it now?" the taller boy smirked, stepping closer.

Renjun flinched as the boy grabbed his book, reading the cover in amusement.

"Is this what you do in your free time?  Read lame books?  What a nerd!"  He began ripping pages out of the book, and Renjun tried to grab it back.  The book had been a present from his grandfather before Renjun's family moved to Korea.  

"Give it back!" Renjun screamed, doing everything in his power to save the book from being completely destroyed.

The boy tossed the book to one of his friends before packing a punch to Renjun.  He doubled over, unable to see clearly and his side aching from the blow.  

"This isn't bullying.  This is just what you get for not giving me what I want when I want it," the boy sneered.  He kicked Renjun in the shin, and he crumpled to the ground.  He looked around, seeing other kids watching him get battered and bruised but not saying a word.

After the bullies left, Renjun picked himself up and grabbed his tattered book that had been tossed nearby.  Almost all the pages had been ripped out, but only two pages in the book were completely unscathed- the first and last.  Before Renjun had gotten on the plane to Korea, his grandfather had handed him this book, saying "Every story has a different beginning, but in the end they're all the same."

Back then, Renjun hadn't known what his grandfather had been talking about.  But now, he slowly understood.  Renjun had been picked on and bullied during his childhood for things he couldn't even control.  Sure, he had been bullied for being skinnier, shorter, and more into books and academics than the rest of the lot, but that didn't mean he couldn't find his happily ever after.

"I'm making a mistake," he muttered as he fumbled for his phone, his fingers rapidly dialing your number.  

Someone picked up, but the voice was definitely not yours.  The person on the other end clarified that she was your friend and that you had passed out at a bar and that she was taking care of you until you woke up.

Renjun quickly scribbled down the address the girl gave him before grabbing his helmet and hopping on his bike.  He raced past blocks of houses until he arrived at yours, and there was no hesitation when he rang your doorbell.  The girl he assumed he had spoken with on the phone  let you in.

"Where is she?" he asked, frantically looking around until he saw your limp figure strewn on the sofa in the living room.  "Y/N," he said your name softly.

"You're the last person I wanna see.  Get out.  You're only making my headache worse," you groaned, covering your face with a pillow.  

"Are you okay?  I heard you got really drunk last night," he said slowly, sitting down on the sofa next to you and patting your back.

You shivered in disgust.  "Take your hands off me.  When was the last time you cared?  If I'm remembering correctly, you broke up with me, so why are you crawling back now?  You didn't realize what you had until it was gone?"

Renjun nodded.  "That's exactly it.  Listen, maybe we can work out our problems together.  You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, but I have a lot to tell you that I've been bottling up.  There's a lot of deep stuff I've been hiding from you because I didn't want you to carry that burden.  Once I broke up with you, I immediately realized how important you were to me and how hard it was to carry that burden on my own with no one by my side."

You looked up at him, seeing your reflection in his watering eyes.  "So what you're telling me... is that I'm not the only weird one?"

He slipped his hand in yours, smiling warmly at you.  "If you think about it, we're all weird.  It'd be scary to run into someone normal these days."

You pulled him closer, trying to convince yourself this was actually happening- that Renjun was sitting right next to you, asking for you to forgive him and get back together.

"Looks like we all have issues," you grinned.

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A/N:  Wow, okay lemme start off by commenting on how many of you loved part 1 and wanted a part 2.  Honestly, when I wrote part 1, I knew that I would end up writing a part 2 because I couldn't just let the story end there.  I also wanna take this time to remind you that you're amazing, and even if you can't see that you are right now, you shine brighter than the stars in the sky.  Keep your head up and never stop dreaming.

Question of the imagine: What's something about yourself that you would never change?  For me, I think it would have to be my personality.  Growing up, I thought I was super introverted, and teachers had to beg me to speak louder and contribute to the class, but when I grew up, I became more outgoing and happy and surrounded myself with people who felt the same way.