Slight mentions of violence– I'm pretty sure I've said this already in the Introduction Chapter.

I'm hoping you all have read it thoroughly so I don't have to remind this over and over again :)

❅

"And he believed me!" Donghyuck cackles loudly, in the midst of swirling his glass delicately. "Got shot twice for that."

Despite the loud music in the bar, they could still hear each other's laughter. Sometimes Renjun complains about them being too loud, making it obvious on some serious occasions.

"What an idiot." Donghyuck tuts with his tongue poking out in the corner of his lips. Proud to share his stories to his peers.

Renjun munches on the chips and nuts in the middle of their table, shaking his head at the tanned male as always.

"Says the one who forgot to reload and almost got us killed." He mutters, getting a kick from under the table. He and Donghyuck share harsh glares from across each other.

"Does Hyuck's lie usually work?" Shotaro asks in curiosity, Chenle nods in response a second later.

"For some people, yeah."

"I mean, we can easily pretend we're agents. At least, I can." Donghyuck giggles before taking a long gulp of his drink, hissing afterwards.

Turning to the ravenette boy beside him, he nudges his shoulder with a smirk. "But Jaemin over here.... He can act as a normal kid on the block."

"You're drunk." Jaemin rolls his eyes, "I'm sure any of you who gets this assignment could do the same."

"Depends," Renjun chuckles quietly. "Lots of us are picky," winking at him, he laughs when it elicits an annoyed groan from Jaemin.

"Also, it's kinda risky." Chenle snorts at him as he hands Hendery the almost empty bottle of beer.

"As if our usual assignments aren't risky, we literally take a bullet for each other." Hendery states, pouring himself another shot.

"True." Renjun easily accepts defeat, since it's not Donghyuck, he doesn't bother to argue despite him being wrong or not.

"Anyways, what about you, Jaem?" One of the downside when sitting next to Donghyuck, is him being too chatty and sometimes, intrusive.

It doesn't help when he's intoxicated too, pestering Jaemin who's starting to regret showing up late– on purpose.

"What about me?" Jaemin raises a brow, fingers snaked around the slippery and cold glass.

"Tell us about this Jeno kid, you never really talk about him– not to mention you haven't been ranting to us about this assignment recently too." Donghyuck pinpoints.

Jaemin squirms on his seat for a second, annoyed by the fact that although Donghyuck is intoxicated, he can still do some annoying shit.

One of them is being good at guessing, exposing you without realizing and giving you a situation you didn't plan on being in.

The others immediately look at him patiently and curiously, of course they are. And Jaemin so badly wants to curse at Donghyuck.

But that would be obvious. Hinting something is off, and they could spread the word out till it reaches to the boss. If they wanted to– however, Jaemin isn't risking that.

Before he could speak, Yangyang snickers, "tell us about your moments with him. Is he a good boyfriend? You know it could be a bad thing for you."

"What is there to talk about him?" Was what Jaemin retorts.

Yangyang gives him a teasing look, grinning like the Cheshire cat as he peeks from the rim of his glass while taking a sip.

"Literally anything." Hendery says while feeding himself a handful of those spicy powdered nuts.

"There's nothing, though." Jaemin bites his inner cheek when they all didn't react, as if not believing him. "He's just like the others, what's there to talk about?" He repeats.

He doesn't know why his insides are churning once they started talking about him and Jeno– mostly the latter.

But it has him growing annoyed, defensive even. He wants to end this conversation and talk about something else, might even prefer to listen to Donghyuck's dumb stories.

He just... Doesn't want to talk about it– to them and right now. Although he recently went to a sweet double date with Jeno, he felt really off himself.

His birthmark on his temple and dorsal wrist feels weird too, as if it's starting to hurt or something.

Although, he brushes those thoughts aside, convincing himself that it's probably because of the alcohol making him feel dizzy and all weird.

"Just checking," Chenle chimes, smacking his lips after taking a big gulp of his drink. "You know it would be bad if you... Fell for him."

"Mhmm," Hendery hums attentively, glancing at Donghyuck who's starting to doze off, eyes droopy and blinking slowly with his face flushed.

"I'm sure we don't need to explain to you," Renjun was oddly gentle with him, like this was really serious and trying to warn Jaemin for their safety.

Maybe he is.

Jaemin doesn't want to admit that he is glad Renjun didn't actually explain to him about it. They all know the possibilities, he doesn't want to hear it again tonight.

Renjun is acting like a real concerned friend, unlike his behavior towards Donghyuck and Chenle– of course in a teasing way.

Jaemin just nods at him in return, going silent for the rest of the night until they had to leave.

He helps Hendery with a passed out Donghyuck, Chenle skips his way to the van while Renjun and Yangyang are bickering on who gets to drive.

Once they settle Donghyuck in the very back beside Chenle, Yangyang rests a hand on Jaemin's tensed shoulder. "You need a ride back?"

Apparently, Jaemin walked his way here. Mark took the car without telling him, and he wasn't in the mood to take a cab instead.

"Nah, I can defend myself just fine." He rejects with a lazy hand waving off, Renjun tuts at him. "You guys should head back before we all get scolded."

"It's not like you have school or anything to do tomorrow." Hendery rolls his eyes, "lucky bitch."

"You should at least take a cab, now that you've drank tonight." Scolding him, the others couldn't help but laugh.

"I will." Jaemin half-promises him, but silently agrees that maybe he should just take a cab, now that he's kinda tipsy.

Waving them goodbye just in time for Renjun receiving a phone call from Doyoung, Jaemin's trip on his way back home was silent.

Even the driver is quiet– the radio was somehow broken, Jaemin thanks the heavens for that.

Because he's too deep in his thoughts, replaying Renjun's warning in his head even when he lays down on his bed moments later.

His temple feels heavy, couldn't wait to doze off after some time.

❅

Thoughts??

Questions??