Doubler || NCT || Completed

28

"- and after that day they started calling me Haechan."

Yujin blinked a couple of times before focusing her eyes on Haechan, who was smiling proudly at everyone eating their breakfast around the table.

"I told you that it'd be an emotional roller coaster, didn't I?" he spoke with sparkling eyes, clearly expecting a strong reaction from Yujin. "Right, noona?" he continued hopefully when she didn't answer right away.

"Um, yeah", she hurried to say. "Of course."

Haechan's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Jeno, who was seated next to Yujin, was trying not to laugh but the corners of his mouth were quivering. Jaemin was moving stew around his plate with his eyes almost closed, and Renjun's chopsticks clinked against his bowl in metronome-like precision as he ate without taking part in the conversation.

"I don't think that she listened to your story", Chenle pointed out in a nonchalant manner as he picked up some rice from his bowl. "She probably fell asleep in the middle of it."

Yujin glared at the younger Chinese guy and cursed him with her eyes when Haechan turned to look at her in utmost betrayal. She hadn't meant to zone out during his long and meandering anecdote, but it was too early for her to get emotionally invested in the origin story of a nickname.

"You didn't listen?" Haechan huffed. "Didn't you say that you wanted to hear it?"

"No one wants to hear it", Renjun muttered without messing up his eating rhythm.

"I do! It's just that I'm a bit tired and zoned out", Yujin tried to explain her behaviour. "And I did hear some parts, just not everything."

"What did you hear, then?" Haechan demanded to know. Yujin grimaced and he saw it. "You're lying again!"

"Calm down, Haechannie", Jaemin requested with a groggy voice. "No one should have that much energy on a Monday morning."

Haechan pouted like a kid. "I'm telling Mark that you're bullying me", he threatened all of them.

"Don't you have to leave in like fifteen minutes if you don't want to be late from work?" Jeno asked while glancing at the clock, clearly unfazed by his threats.

"I'll make it in time", Haechan countered his question even though he was still wearing sweatpants and his hair was a mess. He turned to point at Yujin with his chopsticks. "But I think that it's unfair if Yujin noona doesn't listen to me and then lies about it, and it's not like - "

"Less talking, more eating, Haechan-ah", Jeno advised interrupting his rant, and pushed his accusing chopsticks down. "Save some of that energy to work, okay?"

Finally, the troublemaker complied and focused on his food while mumbling by himself with a grumpy scowl on his face.

"Why don't you have any meat", Chenle asked from Renjun. He reached out to fish some slices of meat from the dish in the middle of the table before placing them to the older guy's bowl. Renjun smiled slightly at the action but the smile disappeared immediately when Chenle continued his thought, "No wonder you're so short."

Following the everyday life of her new temporary flatmates was both interesting and surprisingly heart-warming. While she had spent most of Sunday cooped up in Jeno's room, working on the laptop the guys had borrowed to her, and on the phone with auntie Hyunsook and Jiyoung, she had noticed that underneath all the bickering and mockery the guys were like a tightly knit family.

Chenle was the first to finish his food.

"Nana hyung, I'll borrow that new dress shirt, okay?" he called out as he disappeared from the kitchen.