Chapter Text
“We long to remain mysterious, to evade definition. Tell us you cry, tell us everything, then we will forgive you. But we do not wish to tell you everything. This is our secret, hence our silence. We plunge into secrecy, as into black smoke, to disappear.”
—The Sisterhood of Night (2014)
Somewhere in the Northeastern United States
Huang Renjun doesn’t plan on moving with his parents at the ripe age of 21 years old, but he isn’t exactly doing anything with his life, so he figures it’s a free trip to anywhere else.
The town, Arderville, is normal enough, with a population of 15,000 or so and surrounded by forests that come straight out of a fairytale. It might as well a dream for him, being a painter and all, and he is so graciously offered a job thanks to his art curator parents at the local museum. The town was founded on some historical traumatic event, as any interesting small towns are. Something to do with a horrific cult that stemmed from the puritans and killed half the town—Renjun isn’t sure though, he’s just supposed to sell tickets at the front desk.
It’s his third day in his new home, and he has finally moved everything into the so-called “mother in-law house” that sits a few yards away from the main house. He’s thankful he doesn’t have to share a home with his parents anymore, because he’s an adult to some degree, but he’s doubly grateful that he doesn’t have to pay east coast rent.
It’s cool and damp with oncoming autumn as he makes his way through town for the first time, stopping into a small cafe to grab some coffee, gravitating towards it due to the cute sign with a hand-made engraved leaf border. Everything about the town is very eco-modern with a splash of quaint charm, and when the bell on the door rings upon his entrance, he is affirmed of such observations when he sees the inside.
“Hey! What can I do for you?”
There’s a tall boy behind the counter, probably on the edge of 19, and he’s dressed in all black with soft brown hair on his head. His name tag says Jisung.
“Uh, hello.” Renjun pauses, returning the boy's nicety to the best of his ability as his eyes quickly scan the handwritten chalkboard menu. “I guess I’ll just have a hazelnut mocha, iced, please,” Renjun replies as he pulls his wallet from his back pocket, digging around for his card before retrieving it with a friendly smile.
“What brings you to town? Camping?” The boy asks as he takes Renjun’s card from him, swiping it on his little Square machine before turning the screen to Renjun to add a tip. “I’ve never seen you here before.” Renjun pulls his card out of the machine and gives a generous 18%—he doesn’t like to do less.
“No, no I just moved here. I live in a cabin just outside of town,” Renjun replies as he puts his card back in his wallet, looking up at the boy again with his standard customer service expression.
“Jeez, what’d you move here for? There’s nothing exciting for miles. The nearest city is 45 minutes out.” The boy gives him a quirked brow and Renjun can’t help but laugh a bit at that, considering he really doesn’t know why he agreed to go with his parents, he just didn’t have anywhere else he needed to be.
“My parents were moving here. We’re from Arizona so the change in scenery seemed nice enough,” he explains with a shrug.
The boy, Jisung, gives him a nod of understanding before spinning the little machine back towards him. “Epic. Well, can I get a name?”
“Renjun.”
“I’ll have that order right out for you, Renjun!”
Renjun nods with an amused smile and goes further into the cafe, sitting at a table near a back window where he can observe everyone. He hadn’t exactly planned for the little detour or else he would’ve brought a book or something, but opts for people watching as he knows there will be literally nothing interesting on his phone.
There’s an older couple in line now, slowly eyeing the menu and Jisung just watches them with a smile as he waits patiently. Other than them there’s only one other person in the cafe, sitting at one of the booths on the wall with a laptop, appearing to be a business man of some sort. Overall, there isn’t much to observe, but Renjun appreciates the fake leaf garlands on the walls that surround what looks to be printed warehouse paintings of the forest. The overall aura of the cafe would make it perfect to do sketches in, he thinks absentmindedly.
Renjun folds his hands together and rests his chin on them, ears perking up when he hears the ringing of the bells at the front door, signaling that someone is entering—or a few someone’s. A group of five guys file into the shop and Renjun feels his breath catch in his throat at the sight of them, though he isn’t sure why. They look fairly normal, maybe a little too into the grunge aesthetics, but overall just young guys. One is extremely tall with nicely cut, warm blonde hair. Then there are two who are practically attached at the hip, messy strands of black ichor framing their ridiculously perfect faces. The last two are laughing together about something, and Renjun wonders absentmindedly what it is as he admires their warm brown and platinum heads. Arguably, they are all fucking beautiful, which Renjun isn’t afraid to admit, he is only human after all.
The five of them stand in line behind the elderly couple, the tallest one giving them a smile that they actively ignore. Strange, Renjun thinks, until he glances at the other patron in the cafe, and then to Jisung and the other barista helping him, and he realizes that everyone is frozen, staring at these guys as if they had walked in covered in blood. To Renjun’s knowledge, they hadn’t.
His interest is piqued as he watches the elderly couple move down the line after ordering, distancing themselves as much as possible from the group. He turns his attention to Jisung and the other barista who seem to be bickering about something before Jisung pushes the kid back behind the display case, turning to greet the guys with a less than friendly expression.
“What’ll it be?” Jisungs asks, hands gripping onto the edge of the counter, his lips taut over his teeth as he struggles to even look at them. Anyone with a brain could see he’s quite nervous, but something slightly more sinister about the situation begins to settle unpleasantly in Renjun’s bones.
“Jisung, my favorite barista—baristo? Is it feminine?” The one with the light brown hair steps up to the counter first, placing his hands on the dark granite before leaning closer to the boy.
“Barista is fine. What’ll it be?” Jisung asks again, obviously trying to stand his ground.
“No small talk, then. Alright, well, the usual guys?” The man turns to his group, receiving quiet nods in return. “Two black coffees, one iced, one hot, a matcha latte, a caramel latte, and an iced chai latte.” He grins.
Jisung almost grimaces at his words, but pulls it together at the last minute to afford him a nod. “Coming right up,” he says through gritted teeth, moving to turn when a hand reaches out to stop him.
“Aren’t you gonna have us pay?” The guy takes his wallet out, dropping a 50 on the counter with his same smile, almost pointy at the corners of his lips. “Keep the change, and you can put the name for the order as Hyuck.”
Jisung simply nods and turns to begin making the drinks as Renjun sees a figure approach him out of the corner of his eye, the other barista coming to his table to set his drink down with an apologetic look.
“Thanks,” Renjun says with a smile, the boy nodding slightly with the intent to leave before Renjun abruptly reaches out to stop him. “Hey, uh, who are those guys?” He asks quietly, trying not to seem obvious that he’s staring as the five guys occupy the tables and booths against the wall, the business man long gone.
“Uh, I’m not sure I can say.” The boy chews on his lip, the same nervousness that hangs in the air seeming to cling to him like static, almost making Renjun nervous in the process. “Ask Jisung, he’ll know better than me.” As if to avoid any further questioning the boy turns and leaves, hiding behind the display case to begin helping Jisung make the drinks. Renjun turns his attention to the group of guys, eyes grazing over their dark denim jeans and t-shirts of varying styles and colors. Most of them are wearing black boots of different shapes, save for the brown haired boy called Hyuck wearing muddied converse, and Renjun wonders again what they possibly could’ve done to garner such reactions, which does nothing but feed into his insatiable curiosity.
As his eyes continue to take them in he catches the gaze of the pair that have their arms wrapped around each other, dark brown eyes burning into his brain with an intensity Renjun thinks he can feel on his skin. His cheeks burn red, holding their stare only for the lack of being able to pull away, and a sudden chill settles beneath his skin, wracking his body with a shiver that pulls him back to reality enough to finally look down at his drink. Breaking the eye contact leaves Renjun feeling empty, like they’d taken something from inside of him for themselves, but he reasons that it’s just nerves.
Renjun grabs his drink, thankful they’d put it in a to-go cup as he stands up to leave—only to immediately sit back down with a small thud.
The elderly couple had gotten their drinks and left, the businessman ran away, and it’s now just Renjun, the baristas, and the group of strangers. He isn’t sure what his thought process is, but something is making everyone uncomfortable, and he figures it is his responsibility as a human being to make sure Jisung and the other boy aren’t left alone when they are obviously… afraid. Civic duty and something small and unnerving whispering over his shoulder keep him glued in his seat, sipping absentmindedly at his drink.
They all stay that way for a few minutes, until finally Jisungs voice pulls Renjun from his focus on the grain of the wood table. He looks up to see the drinks all placed on the end of the counter, watching as the one who calls himself Hyuck stands from the table, his group following behind him like a pack of wolves. Hyuck grabs their drinks and passes them around to their respective owners before turning to Jisung with his same sickly grin.
“We’d love to stay but unfortunately we have things to do. Thanks, Jisung.” Hyuck gives the boy a wink before the group finally turns to leave. Renjun is shifting his own body to be ready to stand the second they leave, but last minute they pause, one of the guys with black hair and a mole on his cheek speaking in a deep voice that would’ve knocked Renjun off his feet were he standing.
“Oh, and Chenle has been talking about you. Just thought you should know.”
And with that they leave, the oxygen suddenly seeming to return to the expanse of room as the door shuts behind them. Renjun finally stands from the confines of his seat and steps up to the counter cautiously, not wanting to startle Jisung as he still seems stuck in thought. He gives the boy a few moments to realize he’s there, and when he finally does his plastic customer service smile tries to find its way to his features, but it doesn't seem to last very long.
“Hey, are you okay?” Renjun asks gently, eyes exploring Jisung’s face to watch the waves of emotions he’s going through, clearly shaken by the ordeal.
“Uh, yeah. Sorry about them, I promise they don’t come in here all the time.” A wry chuckle escapes the boy before a bout of silence falls between them.
Renjun reaches into his pocket again for his wallet before pulling out a small business card that Renjun uses for art commissions, setting it on the counter for Jisung to take. “No worries. I just wanted to see if maybe you wanted to hangout sometime? Since I’m new I need someone to show me what's what.”
Jisung perks up at that slightly, picking up the card with a genuine smile that brings some life back to his eyes. “Wow, a business card,” he mumbles quietly before looking up at Renjun with a nod. “I’d like that. I’ll text you.”
“Awesome. Do you need me to stick around or…?”
“No, no! It’s okay. They won’t come back, and besides they’re just losers.” Jisung gives a final nod as his attention is pulled to the door upon hearing the ringing of the bell again. The pair share a final wave and Renjun steps out of the way for what appears to be a mom and her two kids. “Bye, Renjun!”
“Bye,” Renjun says slightly under his breath as he carries his half empty drink out the door with him, feeling able to breathe better once his lungs can inhale the warm air. The late August weather is much more humid than he’s used to, but the heat is familiar and gives him a last bit of home before fall hits.
Renjun continues on with his errands for the day, trying his best not to think about what exactly had happened in that cafe, and who those guys were, but even while he’s standing in the middle of a little grocery store with a basket in his hands he can’t seem to think of anything else. The occurrence was strange to say the least, and even the thought of the five men brings a strange chill to the back of his neck (but he blames that on the air conditioning). There are so many questions that just seem to lead to more questions and eventually Renjun has to shut his own brain off when he notices he’s been staring at an apple for a good three minutes while pondering the situation.
After grabbing his essentials Renjun hikes his two canvas bags up on his shoulders, carrying them out of the store and into the sun once again. He figures it’s a good time to go home and eat, the quick trip admittedly carrying plenty of excitement.
Renjun takes the newly familiar walk through downtown again towards his car, and as he passes by the cafe he allows his mind to wander to said exciting events, letting them carry him home and lead him through the rest of his afternoon.
The whole ordeal stays etched in his brain, and he finds himself checking his phone every now and then for a text from Jisung. There’s something the boy knew about those guys that Renjun’s curiosity needs to know too or he just might die (that’s dramatic, obviously). In the back of his mind he feels a bit guilty for having a sort of ulterior motive for contacting Jisung, but he does genuinely want a friend. Renjun has never moved away from home in his life, and he’s nervous about what snow feels like and having to defrost his car. What exactly are snow chains? Well, none of it matters, really, Renjun is just thinking—and thinking, and thinking. He thinks through dinner and stares off into space with his favorite show playing in the background, and even when he closes his eyes to sleep does he see muddied converse and combat boots in the darkness. He’s never going to know peace, is the last thing he thinks before finally succumbing to his tiredness.
❦
The next morning doesn’t provide much relief.
Renjun jolts awake to the buzzing sound of his alarm, blinking at his far too bright phone screen to see a few texts from Jisung. His eyes are still a bit blurry, so he focuses on sitting up in bed instead, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and trying to become a properly functioning human again.
When he can finally blink without wanting to fall back and knock out again, he picks his phone up with a bit more awareness, scrolling through the texts informing him that Jisung got stuck closing but would like to show Renjun the best place in town one day if he’s willing to take a bit of a hike. Renjun agrees, typing out a quick reply while sleepily pulling his jeans on and slipping into a plain black t-shirt, as requested by his new job he’s going to have to start amongst all his brain fog.
Unfortunately, the said job is in the museum across town, on the edge of where buildings meet forest, so Renjun is going to have to drive. It definitely isn’t a valid complaint as “across town” means 8-10 minutes max, but it’s not like anyone is around to scold him, so he allows himself the early morning dramatics.
Which honestly seems to be on theme for the rest of his day, seeing as when Renjun arrives at the museum and parks in front of the dark log cabin-esque building, he is immediately met with a sign for “Arderville Museum—History of the Arderville Cult” .
Very self explanatory.
The entire building has a bit of an eerie feel to it, surrounded by dense trees and a bit too far out of town to hear cars going by more than once or twice.
Renjun climbs up the steps and pauses to take a deep breath of the forest air, warm but still sharp with pine and something damp, like moss near a stream, before pulling open the door and stepping inside. Upon entering he’s met with a dark carpet and natural exposed walls from the cabin exterior, making the atmosphere a bit dark, but he supposes that is the point.
In the entryway there’s a small placard on the arch that leads into the main part of the museum that reads, “Those Who Dare To Enter, Don’t Piss Off The Ghosts.” A bit cheesy, but funny enough.
“Uh, hello?” Renjun calls out as he takes the small step into the main part of the building, immediately seeing a front counter with a glass case that has little artifacts with price tags. The museum seems practically empty of life, even if the walls are covered from top to bottom with pictures and pentagrams in shadow boxes, and Renjun feels a bit creeped out if he’s honest.
There’s a bump somewhere in the museum that makes him startle, and he spins on his heels to hear the sounds of heavy footsteps on the old carpeted floors. Renjun’s skin prickles with goosebumps despite the way he’s telling himself over and over again that he’s a complete idiot for being scared of a few noises, but when the steps get closer he can’t help the way his heart gets lodged in his throat.
“Sorry for the wait, what can I do for—” there’s a pause, the man who’s just rounded the corner stopping in his tracks as he and Renjun make eye contact. Renjun sees messy black hair atop a tall frame, broad shoulders filling out a black t-shirt that’s tucked into equally dark jeans. He recognizes the face instantly—anyone would, with a face like that. “You.”
Renjun’s features twist at the proclamation, even if the man hasn’t said it with any real bite. In fact, he seems to be practically grinning. “Me,” Renjun replies unenthusiastically, shoving his hands into his front pockets as he teters on his heels. He looks down to see a little nametag pinned onto the shirt, with a scribbled Jaemin written in sharpie. “It’s my first day, are you the manager?”
The simple question seems to make Jaemin even more amused, and he breezes past Renjun to the front desk, tapping on the computer that Renjun assumes is connected to the register. “Something like that. My family, we own the museum, so I guess I'm in charge.” Jaemin glances at Renjun over the top of the computer, giving him a small smirk before typing something out that Renjun can’t see. “My brother didn’t tell me anything about the new employee, if I had known it was the boy from the café I would’ve dressed better.”
Renjun swallows uncomfortably at what sounds almost like an attempt at flirting, and the goosebumps turn to an awkward warmth beneath his skin. To him, Jaemin is far too attractive and grotesquely cocky to be complimenting him without it being some joke, which just makes Renjun even more uncomfortable. “So your brother’s the manager?”
“Why are you so obsessed with there being a manager? Do you need authority so badly?” Jaemin shoots back with a challenging raise of his brow, his features turning from playful to curious and… challenging.
Renjun’s mouth opens and shuts like a fish out of water, trying and miserably failing to formulate a reply that isn’t just stuttered nonsense. However despite his best efforts all that comes out is a shocked, “excuse me?”
The pair hold eye contact for a few moments, nothing but the ambient sounds of haunting classical music playing in the background for their stare down. It’s Jaemin who breaks Renjun’s gaze first by glancing back down at his computer, and his chest inflates with a breath before coming around to Renjun’s side once again. “Here’s your nametag, you can put your name on here however you want, but make sure you add your pronouns somewhere. We don’t open for another 20 minutes so I’ll give you a quick tour. Sound good?”
Jaemin is giving him whiplash, but Renjun nods nonetheless, taking the name tag from him before magnetizing it to his shirt. It doesn’t have his name on it yet, obviously, but he feels less like Jaemin will yell at him this way.
“So, the first room is a brief history of how the town was founded, who the colonial assholes were that inserted themselves where they didn’t belong, and all that fun stuff. There’s a few background tracks that play in here, telling the story as you walk through, and they die sometimes. I’ll show you how to fix those at the end,” Jaemin explains as he leads Renjun through a dark curtain, immersing them into a windowless room with projections of haunting light illuminating the enlarged pictures and texts on the walls that tell a clear story. He doesn’t give Renjun time to look around much as they make it swiftly from one end to the other, but as Renjun is led towards a dark hallway that he presumes leads into another room, he catches a glimpse of a portrait of a man that seems eerily familiar.
He isn’t given a moment to dwell on it though, Jaemin’s charismatic voice booming back into his senses when they enter what looks to be a room full of artifacts.
“At the end of that room it introduces the members of the town founders who started the cult, and in here is where you learn the timeline of how it all started and what they did. Most everything that’s locked away in a case is an original that’s been dug up, everything else is just replicas that tourists find interesting.” Jaemin pauses as he talks, standing in front of an open display that has a chalice with pentagrams engraved on it. Next to it sits a dagger—or athame , as the plaque reads—and Renjun glances up at the man as he continues. “Like we’d let people just touch a sacred chalice? Completely archeologically unethical. And just stupid.” He huffs out a laugh, as if Renjun is supposed to be in on the joke.
He is not.
“Why is it stupid?” He asks, stupidly, regretting the words before they even fully leave his mouth with the way Jaemin blinks down at him. His emotion is hard to decipher, somewhere between curious and annoyed, but even that is glazed over with a nonchalant chuckle.
“C’mon, there’s more to see,” Jaemin replies in lieu of actually answering Renjun’s question, a phenomena Renjun fears he will have to start getting used to. Jaemin seems like the type to never give someone a straight answer, and the past twenty minutes have been proof of such.
The tour continues on in as much of an awkward flurry as it began, and when Renjun and Jaemin come out the other end into the gift shop, Renjun is thankful to finally see a window. The entire place is dark and creepy, which is perfect for a museum about cults and witchcraft, but personally, Renjun is just here to get some work experience, and he isn’t too keen on experiencing anything supernatural himself.
When the pair make it back to the counter Jaemin hands Renjun a sharpie to fill in his name on the blank name tag, and Renjun scribbles a quick he/him beneath his name as Jaemin had originally requested. When he’s finished with that, Renjun magnetizes the tag back on, looking up at Jaemin with a bit of a smile, subconsciously looking for approval for some reason. Renjun’s features fall the second he realizes what he’s doing, and he turns almost immediately when he sees the way Jaemin smirks at him.
“Thanks for the tour, but what exactly will I be doing?” Renjun finds himself asking as he slips around to the far end of the counter, not comfortable being so close to Jaemin.
Jaemin taps his silly little computer again, giving Renjun a bit of deja vu as he types something in he can’t see. “I have to take inventory of some of the gift shop shipments, so you can sell tickets while I do that,” the man replies as he glances over at Renjun with a small smile. “Come back here so I can teach you the register.”
Renjun gulps at the request, his palms becoming sweaty against his will as he nods nonetheless. He hates the way Jaemin makes him so nervous, but he also feels like he can’t for the life of him put a barrier between them. Jaemin is too charismatic, too charming or whatever, but something about him keeps Renjun agreeing to his every whim, and his lack of self preservation skills tells him this could be a very interesting mystery to get to the bottom of.
The rest of their shift goes by rather normally. Renjun lets families and couples from out of town steadily into the museum throughout the day. Thankfully the operating system is mostly updated, so buttons are labeled and Renjun isn’t entirely at a loss when problems arise. Jaemin comes and goes to check on him, sometimes just peeking at him from the curtain, other times coming up behind him and hovering like a fly. Regardless, Renjun is just glad when the museum open sign flickers off, and he and Jaemin divide up cleaning tasks.
Renjun offers to do the front and the bathrooms, not quite sure he’s ready to be alone in those dark rooms quite yet, and he’s very busy wiping away a smudge on the glass case at the register when he hears the ding of the front door bells coming from behind. He stands abruptly at the sound, setting his spray bottle down onto the counter before peeling away from it, peering through the archway to see who has entered.
“I’m sorry but we’re—” he pauses, the dark shape turning steadily into a man with black hair like Jaemin’s, shoulders just as broad. “Closed,” he finishes awkwardly, swallowing around nothing as the man flashes him a smile, sauntering into the building as if he belongs there. Once again Renjun is overwhelmed with deja vu, because he knows this man, can see him in his mind's eye standing next to Jaemin and their group of friends in the cafe.
The cafe.
Amongst Renjun’s nervousness, he’s nearly forgotten why he was so nervous around them to begin with. Renjun has extended a hand of friendship to the barista from that cafe, Jisung, and did so because these two men are a part of a group looking to cause problems. Obviously Renjun doesn’t know what kind of problems, but trouble is trouble, and Renjun doesn’t want to be on the wrong side.
“Jeno?” Jaemin’s voice comes from behind him, giving Renjun whiplash as he turns to face the man he’s become at least a little bit familiar with. Jaemin doesn’t even spare him a second glance as he strides past Renjun towards Jeno, gently gripping onto the front of his shirt before bringing him in for a chaste kiss. Renjun averts his eyes, even if he still peeks in his peripheral to see the way Jeno’s eyes crinkle cutely upon seeing Jaemin face to face. “Renjun and I were just finishing, Jen. You didn’t have to come in.”
Jeno glances past Jaemin to catch Renjun still blatantly spying on them, and Renjun jumps as he turns back towards his abandoned spray bottle, bringing it around to the backside of the counter to put away. “I know,” Jeno replies to Jaemin, even if his gaze is still on Renjun. “I just wanted to see who the new guy was.”
Well, Renjun’s hope of escaping this was always naive, but he has to admit he’s still a bit surprised at being addressed at all.
Jaemin turns back to look at him too, and now there are two sets of eyes boring into him with unashamed curiosity, and Renjun feels his cheeks heat up almost instantly. “Renjun, this is Jeno. Jeno, meet Renjun,” he says with a grin, gesturing to the two of them as if presenting game prizes. “Renjun has been a great help all day. He’s an artist, you know.”
“An artist?” Jeno muses with a small hum, nodding as if the fact holds some sort of importance. “You’ll have to show us your work some time.” Renjun blinks at him, nodding dumbly to appease the request and only relaxing when Jeno’s attention turns back to Jaemin. “You ready to go then, babe?”
Babe .
Of course, the pair kissing was a dead giveaway that they are together, but the word just cements that reality into Renjun’s head, and for some reason the puzzle pieces fit in a bit more snugly than before, despite them always having fit.
“Yes, more than ready,” Jaemin replies with a small chuckle. “Renjun?” He calls to get said man’s attention, causing Renjun to perk up like a soldier at attention.
“Hm?”
“You can go. I’ll see you tomorrow?” Jaemin asks with a small raise of his brow, as if the question is a challenge he’s not expecting Renjun to take on.
Renjun however has never been the type to refuse a challenge, and even if his neck is splotching red with nerves, he nods with as much determination as he can muster, coming around to the other side of the counter with a small bow of his head. “Sure. See you tomorrow. It was nice to meet you, Jeno,” he mutters as he steps around the couple, not even waiting for Jeno’s reply as he rushes out of the museum on swift feet.
When Renjun pushes the door open he’s immediately pelted with rain, the air several degrees cooler than it was the day before, and he becomes glad for his car as he runs towards it without thought. Shutting himself inside with a small huff, Renjun turns on the heater to warm himself up, rubbing the rain from his arms and watching as the heavy droplets race down his windshield in waves. Through the rain he can see Jaemin and Jeno’s blurred figures leaving the museum too, and Renjun glances around the parking lot to see which car is Jeno’s.
But when he doesn’t see any other car in the lot save his own, he turns back to watch as the pair avoid the parking lot altogether, instead heading for the tree line hand in hand. Renjun’s brow furrows at the sight, his eyes blinking to make sure they’re not playing tricks on him as he watches them disappear into the dense forest, talking as if the sky were clear and blue.
It’s another strange moment to tack onto his list of strange moments with the guys from the cafe, and as Renjun pulls his seatbelt on he remembers one other thing that causes his warming skin to suddenly form goosebumps. In the few times that he and Jaemin spoke, it was about work related things. They’d made small talk maybe once, and it was about the changing of the seasons. Not once had Renjun spoken about himself, which makes him wonder in pure and utter disbelief:
When had he told either of them that he was an artist?