Baby Renjun 🍼

1. Stressed (Markren)

Prompt: After mark left dream, Renjun has the pressure of being the oldest and rarely became a little. After overworking and hurting himself dream finally called mark to help Renjun.

Request by @Youcanstayalways 

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Being the current oldest in the group, Renjun had taken the initiative to take over Mark's "duties" after the elder boy officially graduated from Dream. There wasn't any discussion of who would be the next leader, neither the company nor Mark thought it was necessary. However, someone had to take the responsibility to take care of 5 teenagers - 2 still going through puberty.

Jeno was too nice for his own good who can't say no, which makes it easy for the youngest 2 to manipulate him in doing what they want. Jaemin plays favourites - he would probably spend almost everyday cooing and cuddling Jisung and forgot about his other responsibilities and Donghyuck.... he is 95% of the reason why they always got into trouble which is why Renjun decided to take over Mark's absence of leadership and his responsibilities.

Reminding the members of their schedules, waking them up in the mornings, helping out with choreographies for the members who had difficulty catching up, taking it for the team by receiving the scoldings from their managers if they got caught sneaking out from the dorms in the middle of the night, always encouraging and motivating the members when their morale is low - Renjun never seen these as a burden. In fact, he prides in it, especially when his members come up to him to ask for help or in need of any advice.

However, Renjun is only human. And everyone has their limits.

"Renjun! What the hell are you doing?!" Renjun jumped, startled at their dance teacher's booming voice.

Renjun immediately stopped moving, staring wide eyed at the dance teacher who was glaring at him.

"What's wrong with you?! You've been making so many mistakes these past few days! We can't move forward because of you, the music video shoot is just next week, you need to memorise and know the steps by now!" the dance teacher continued.

Renjun had his head down, staring at his shoes. He could feel the heat creeping up his neck, embarrassed that he was getting scolded in front of everyone. He tried his hardest not to burst into tears right then and there, biting his lips hard as tears welled up.

The dance teacher scoffed, "Are you seriously going to cry just because I'm giving you a scolding? What are you? 6? You're the oldest! You're supposed to be setting an example for the rest!"

At the mention of crying, Donghyuck worriedly glanced at the chinese boy. Jisung and Chenle shared knowing worried looks.

"Hyung, how about for today we practice ourselves. Get our basic rights. We promise to remember everything by today so we can move on to the next step tomorrow."Jeno suggested. Jaemin nodded in agreement.

The dance teacher sighed and agreed, not before threatening everyone in the room that they better not make any mistakes for tomorrow's practice.

After the dance teacher left, Renjun sniffled and wiped away stray tears with his sleeves.

"Renjun--" Donghyuck approached the chinese boy but Renjun quickly made a move.

"I'll go to the washroom for a minute." he forced out a smile, trying not to worry his members.

In the washroom, Renjun splashed some water onto his face, staring at himself in the mirror.

He was terribly homesick, and exhausted. He hadn't had any time to call his parents to ask how they're doing. Their comeback was pushed earlier, they had to record the new songs and learn the new choreography all within only 2 weeks. They also had to take photos for the album. He had to rush to his radio schedule everyday after he was done with the photoshoot or song recordings and came back home late at night, barely had any time to properly rest before the cycle repeats. Everything was happening too fast that Renjun didn't have any time to even breathe.