dicey ↬ nomin

Ch.11

"Jeno?" Ms. Kim called through the crack in the door. "Can I please come in? I'm worried about you."

Jeno was sitting on his bed with his knees tucked into his chest, barely moving except for his breathing. He didn't have a stable enough voice to answer her and he knew that she wouldn't come in unless he physically told her she could, so he was safe for now. The numbness in his cheeks had worn off so he was feeling the bruises really strongly. The taste of blood never left his mouth.

"Jeno, I heard that you're angry and that you threw a few things." He scoffed. Was that the best that Jaewoo could come up with to compensate for the loud noises upstairs. "Can Chenle at least come in to clean up?"

Jeno sighed and lifted his head from his curled position. "Yeah," he called faintly.

The light in the room wasn't on, but Chenle could still see Jeno clearly enough to see that he was curled up on his bed. He had a plate of dinner in his hands which Ms. Kim had asked him to bring up for Jeno. "Jaewoo told everyone you got angry and threw everything in the room around."

"Of course he did," Jeno croaked with a raspy voice and untucked his legs. Chenle turned on the light and made sure the door was closed. He gasped when he saw the colour of his friend's face - it was nearly purple with bruising.

"Jeno," he gasped and put the plate of hot food down on his own bed before trailing over to the boy. He looked so small and defenceless as he stayed silent. "Can you...tell me what he did?"

He sighed and gave Chenle a better view of his face, tilting it from side to side to show him the damage. He also extended his two arms to show him the hand shaped bruises on his forearms from when Jaewoo had pulled him to sit up. He hesitated with the knife wounds, not entirely sure he could even stomach the pitying look he would receive.

"Everything, Jeno. Please tell me everything he did."

The boy sighed and shakily stood up, turning around to lift up his shirt. The word MINE was etched into his lower back, just underneath the scabs from the scratches. It was raw and still had a few beads of blood poking out of it, but Jaewoo had stayed after making them and cleaned them out until they ceased bleeding. A packet of plasters were sitting on the nightstand, curtesy of Jaewoo, but Jeno couldn't bring himself to put them on.

Chenle let out a cry of surprise when he saw the cuts. It wasn't a particularly large message, probably because Jaewoo didn't want to risk Jeno passing out from blood loss. Too bad, because Jeno passed out from the pain instead.

"Jeno. You have to report this! If he goes to the police, it'll be over!"

Jeno looked at Chenle sadly and dropped his shirt back down. "You know he'll kill me before the police even arrive. I-I can't, Chenle."

His friend walked over to him and carefully pulled the boy into a hug, avoiding all the places he knew were sore. He pulled back and examined Jeno, checking to see the strangle bruises fading. He put both his hands on the sides of Jeno's neck, happy that they were fading. "You're too special to be treated this way."

Jeno smiled a dull, dead smile and tilted his head. "At least you and Donghyuck treat me the right way."

Chenle smiled back and passed the dinner to him, watching him eat. The room was really messy, with spots of blood on the floor and messy beds from the struggle. There were also scratch marks in the floorboards. "I guess I should do what I was actually sent here to do," he murmured and began to clean, moving the rug over the scratches and wiping the blood off the floor. He made the bed and treated Jeno's shirt to get rid of the blood.

"Thanks Lele," he murmured tiredly and sat at the edge of his bed.

"You're my brother, after all. What else would I do for you?"