Minjeong sighed aloud. She thought that handing iKON to the police would be a much bigger drag than it actually was, which eased her nerves a bit. But none of that mattered because she was left with a huge gash on her left arm, right under her shoulder, that she couldn't bandage up herself.
So, the first person that came to mind that could help her was her brother Doyoung, but she remembered that the young man was still abroad. She also thought of Jimin, but soon erased her from the list of people who could help, as she knew her friend was either studying or sleeping at two in the morning.
Minjeong decided to ring the last person that she thought could help her, and thankfully, the boy answered the call.
"Hi, Minjeong. What's up?" the boy asked.
"Hey, Renjun. Are any of the Dragons' medics at home right now? Cause I have a little bleeding situation." Minjeong asked as she put the boy on speaker so she could bandage her arm better.
"The DREAM medic is home. Do you know where we live?" Renjun asked as he heard sirens outside of the window.
"If you live in the same building as Taeyong and Doyoung, then yes," she replied getting up from the ground and dusting herself, "We do. A floor above 127." Renjun stated.
"Okay, I'll be there in about half an hour," Minjeong replied.
"Do you want me to pick you up?" The boy asked in a slightly worried tone.
"No need. I'm already a burden." the girl replied as she entered the subway station, which was close by, "No, you're not. I told you to call me if you ever needed help. I wouldn't do that if it would burden me or the members." he argued.
"Okay, okay. I'm coming on my own though." Minjeong replied, "See you then," Renjun said before ending the phone call.
Truth be told, Minjeong didn't think that she'd need to get stitches, she just told herself that it was a possibility to not be too surprised if she had to get her arm stitched up. So, she wasn't particularly surprised when Renjun gasped at her condition after opening the front door to the dreamies' apartment.
"You idiot. You should've told me that it was this bad." the older boy scolded as he inspected Minjeong's arm.
"It's not that bad," Minjeong replied rolling her eyes at his reaction, "What do you mean not that bad? Your left sleeve is soaked in blood, this is bad." Renjun mumbled while dragging her to the kitchen.
"Well, I've had it worse so it's not a big deal." Minjeong shrugged her shoulders as she sat on one of the barstools, "Then I'm surprised you're not dead yet." the boy shook his head before handing her a glass of water. The girl quickly chucked it down, the dryness leaving her dust-filled throat.
"Honestly, same. I wanted to call a friend of mine to stitch me up, but I think she's still studying for her test tomorrow." Minjeong sighed.
"Yeah, and I should be sleeping at this hour. What makes you think that disturbing my sleeping schedule is better than disturbing someone who is already awake?" a boy asked as he exited his room.
"Excuse me?" Minjeong asked alarmed by the new boy's presence.
"That's Na Jaemin, the medic of NCT DREAM. He's not usually like this, but he hasn't had his eight shots of espresso yesterday so he's a bit pissed." Renjun explained as Jaemin passed them rolling his eyes at the girl.
"Figured something was wrong with him," Minjeong mumbled under her breath.
"Anyways, I'll leave you two to it. I don't like the sight of open wounds." Renjun smiled down at the girl and made his way to his room.
Minjeong sighed as she saw the door behind Renjun close, implying that he was probably going to sleep.
"So, why couldn't you ask someone else to stitch you up?" Jaemin asked as he made his way to the girl. He was holding the emergency medic kit in one arm and a white towel in his other.
"As I said, I didn't want to disturb a friend who is studying for her finals, my brother isn't in Neo right now, and Renjun told me that I could call him if I needed help," Minjeong explained briefly, hoping that the boy would understand.
"What a drag," Jaemin replied as he took off the girl's jacket to take a better look at her wound.
"What the fuck did you do?" Jaemin asked after inspecting the wound, "I got scraped by a bullet," Minjeong replied nonchalantly.
"Makes sense. Well, it doesn't need stitches since it isn't that deep, but you'll need to have bandages for at least two weeks." Jaemin explained, making Minjeong nod in understatement.
The boy cleaned her wound and bandaged it, giving her two extra bandages and lacing them in one of her jacket's pockets.
"Just sterilize the wound before reapplying the bandage. Ask your friend if you should do anything else in about a week, that is the time the wound should be halfway healed so you can still prevent any complications that might happen along the way." Jaemin stated.
"Thank you." Minjeong thanked the boy before walking to the front door to put her shoes on.
"Where do you think you're going?" Renjun asked as he closed his bedroom door behind himself, "Um, home?" Minjeong asked confused.
"It's four in the fucking morning. You might as well sleep here." Jaemin stated from the kitchen.
"The boys will wake up soon anyways," Renjun said as he took a seat on the couch in the living area, "But I have classes in the morning." Minjeong reasoned, clearly not thinking straight.
"What do you mean tomorrow? There's no college tomorrow." Renjun said a bit confused, "What do you mean?" Minjeong asked as she made her way toward Renjun and sat beside him.
"It's Saturday, you idiot," Jaemin replied, not sparing a glance at the girl.
"Seriously?" Minjeong asked, panic evident in her voice.
"Yeah. Why are you panicking?" Renjun asked, "I still didn't hand the papers to Taeyong, that's why." she sighed.
"You know Taeyong?" Jaemin asked, his attention finally gone from his phone screen, "I race under him." Minjeong pinched her nose bridge, trying to remember where she put all those papers.
"No way in fuck." Jaemin slammed his hand on the bar and glared at the girl, "What?" Renjun asked, looking at the boy.
"That's the bitch Taeyong ditched me for. I can't fucking believe it." Jaemin raised his voice a bit as he turned around, tilting his head back a bit while trying to remain calm, which wasn't working.
"Quiet down. The high schoolers are probably asleep." Renjun snarled back at the fuming boy.
"What do you mean ditched you? Taeyong obviously thought you were fully capable of mentoring yourself if he let you go." Minjeong stated.
"Well, he still let me before the agreement of me racing alone was due, and he let me go for someone like you. What rank are you?" Jaemin asked shaking his head in disbelief.
"No. 4. You?" Minjeong questioned back, "No. 1," Jaemin smirked seeing the girl intimidated by his short answer.
"Whatever," Minjeong mumbled under her breath, making the smirk on Jaemin's face widen.
"Well, I'm gonna sleep," Jaemin announced as he dragged his feet to his bedroom.
"Don't pay much mind to him, he's very nice once you get to know him," Renjun told the girl, "Oh really?" Minjeong shook her head, not believing the Chinese boy's words.
"Seriously. I probably woke him up on the wrong side of the bed." Renjun smiled at her a little.
"It's pretty clear that he hates me with a burning passion, and he looks stubborn so I doubt that'll change," Minjeong replied.
"Well, if you join the Dragons, you'll probably be assigned to Aespa, which means you'll be bound to work with us, and, unfortunately for you, Jaemin as well." Renjun reminded the girl, making her groan.
The two young adults finished their small talk, and as soon as they did Minjeong got up and called someone. Renjun, not being the type to eavesdrop, got up and went to the bathroom. Jisung was the first to wake up, and as soon as he entered the kitchen, the young boy screamed in shock. Minjeong got so startled that her phone dropped out of her hand because of the loose way she was holding it.
"Who the fuck are you?" Jisung asked sternly as he inched closer to the girl who just got up to pick up her phone, "I'm a friend of Renjun's. And you are?" Minjeong asked as she looked at the taller boy. She knew that Mark and Haechan had their own apartments, which meant the boy could either be Jeno, Chenle, or Jisung.
"Why should I trust you?" the boy asked, inching closer to the knife stand, "It's fine Jisung. She's a friend." Renjun said as he exited the bathroom with a towel placed on his head, his damp hair showing a bit underneath it.
"God fucking dammit, why'd you bring her here? At least warn me the next time. I would've shot her if there was a gun in this house." Jisung sighed in relief, which was soon replaced with shock as Minjeong casually handed him her gun.
"What the fuck?" Jisung deadpanned.
"What? You said you didn't have a gun in your apartment. You have one or two, but they aren't yours." Minjeong replied with a small smile before putting her gun back in her bag.
"I should get going though, it's seven and I still need to sign two papers for Taeyong. I can swing by in the afternoon and we can work on the assignment if you want." Minjeong turned to Renjun, who just nodded in response.
"Sure. Just call me when you're here. Our security system is very advanced." Renjun replied, "I have the keys." Minjeong smiled before waving goodbye to the two boys and exiting the dreamies' apartment.
"Well, she's interesting. Do you like her, Injun?" Jisung asked as he made himself cereal, "No, I'd say we're friends or good acquaintances. But I have a feeling she'll end up with Jaemin." Renjun shrugged.
"Jaemin doesn't have a love life. He's too obsessed with medicine to care about girls." Jisung laughed at the older boy's statement.
"Yeah, but he gets a lot of confessions in university, he just doesn't talk about them." Renjun reasoned, "Don't you all get confessions? I heard that Mark rejected four girls last week." Jisung asked as he put a spoonful of the half-soaked cereal and chewed on it.
"We do because no one knows we are in the Dragons. If they knew, no one would want to even look at us." Renjun laughed at the stupidity of his peers. He never understood how someone could trust another so easily without even knowing their government name. It fascinated him how people were so oblivious.
Minjeong went to Jimin's place instead of going straight to her place.
"Minjeong? What are you doing here so early in the morning?" Jimin asked as she let the girl in.
"I didn't sleep last night. Anyway, I have a wound I'd like you to check out." Minjeong said as she placed her bag on the bench in the hallway.
"What did I tell you about not sleeping at night?" Jimin scolded the younger as she went into the bathroom to get the first aid kit and everything else she might need to help Minjeong.
"Don't pull all-nighters because they are bad for your health and they ruin your sleep schedule. Jokes on you, Jimin, I don't have a sleep schedule." Minjeong grinned, and even though she knew it wasn't the right thing to do, the girl still found pride in her actions.
"Look, I know that you don't have a fixed schedule, but please try to take care of yourself. It's not that hard." Jimin sighed as she started unbandaging the girl's wound.
"You didn't bandage it yourself, right?" Jimin asked, "No, I still don't know how to do it as well as you'd want me to," Minjeong mumbled.
Minjeong let Jimin do her job, occasionally asking her questions about products she was putting on her wound or about the bandaging technique. Jimin explained everything, and even though she could see the confusion written all over Minjeong's face, she was glad the girl at least tried to understand the process.
"All done," Jimin said as she pulled the sleeve of Minjeong's hoodie over the bandage, "Thanks. Do I need to do anything with it?" Minjeongasked.
"Not really. You can just ask someone to rebandage it for you. Who bandaged it in the first place?" the girl asked as she placed all the materials used away.
"Na Jaenim, I think?" Minjeong replied, unsure of the boy's name, "Na Jaemin?" Jimin asked.
"Yeah, I don't remember his name. He's a racer, that's the only thing I picked up from talking to him. And he's No. 1." Minjeong said as she put her shoes on.
"He's in my class. Nice guy, I suppose. Never talked to him much." Jimin said recalling the boy's appearance.
"He's in a gang," Minjeong stated casually, "What? Him? In a gang? Are you sure?" Jimin asked in shock.
"Last time I checked, he's in the Dragons. Not that it matters much, just thought you might want to know." the other shrugged, letting Minjeong know that she didn't care about the boy's personal life as it never affected her, "He's also a stuck-up pain in the ass."
"Well, I have to go sign some papers, and Renjun told me to eat with them, I should introduce you to him, you might like him," Minjeong said as she opened the front door.
"I recall you already said that." Jimin chuckled at the other's lack of memory.
"I did? I must've been tired and didn't remember. Anyways, I'll see you on Monday?" Minjeong asked as she looked at the older girl in the kitchen, not even bothering to say goodbye to her friend.
"Yep, see you on Monday. Bye." Jimin said and Minjeong closed the front door.
She felt much better after talking to Jimin and getting her wound bandaged again. It's not that she didn't trust Jaemin, well she didn't, but she always entrusted her wounds to either Jimin or her brother.
It didn't take her long to reach her apartment, sighing in relief as she was welcomed with the smell of cinnamon rolls she made the day before her mission.
Her apartment was always cinnamon and coffee scented, those two things being Minjeong's favorite scents.
She signed the papers quickly, and after stuffing them into her tote bag, made her way to the kitchen. The cinnamon buns were cold but still very soft, so Minjeong only had to heat them before eating.
She didn't feel like going anywhere for the rest of the day but didn't have much of a choice because she didn't want to disappoint Renjun and not show up to eat with him and his friends. So, packing the papers that were now finally signed for Taeyong, the girl made her way to the dreamies' apartment.
She was dreading the fact that she'd have to interact with Jaemin again, not because he was better ranked than her, but because the boy just hit her nerves well enough the first time for her to dislike him.
Forty minutes of busy public transport later, Minjeong reached the apartment building. Not wasting any time, she called Taeyong, telling him that she was eating at the dreamies' apartment and that he could either swing by or she would bring him the papers herself.
The man said he was going to come to their apartment after lunchtime because he had to ask Jisung a few things about school so that she could just give them to him then. She was fine with that plan and hung up right in front of the apartment. After ringing the bell, she waited for a couple of moments until an unknown person opened the front door.
"Who are you?" the male asked tilting his head a bit, "I'm Minjeong. Renjun invited me for lunch." Minjeong replied simply.
"Oh, he told us but I forgot we were having someone over. I'm Donghyuck by the way, but please call me Haechan." the boy introduced himself as he let the girl in, closing the door behind her, "Okay." Minjeong smiled at him and took her shoes off, making her way to the living room when she saw Renjun on the couch.
"You made it." Renjun half-greeted, looking up from his laptop, "Yeah. You said I had to come, and I didn't want to mess with you." Minjeong replied sheepishly as she took a seat next to him.
"Did you finish the assigned homework from physics?" Renjun asked, "Yeah, do you want to copy it?" the girl asked as she took her laptop out.
"No, I want to see how you did it, cause my answers don't come out right," Renjun stated, waiting for her to hand him her homework, "Sure. It was hard for me too." Minjeong replied as she logged into her Microsoft account.
She handed him her laptop and excused herself to the bathroom, which meant she had to pass next to the kitchen.
Jaemin was the only one in the kitchen, his Airpods in as he focused on the food.
Not wanting to interact with the boy, Minjeong silently passed him while he was facing her with his back and made her way to the bathroom.
She sat next to Renjun while they were waiting for the food, explaining everything he asked.
"When did we even learn this?" Renjun asked, "We didn't," Minjeong replied, "Oh, by the way, did you finish your part of the assignment?"
"No, I was thinking of finishing it sometime tonight, but I have a deal later, so I don't know if I'll have enough time." Renjun reasoned.
"Okay. Just text me when you're done so we can meet and discuss the presentation layout and all that stuff." Minjeong replied, not minding his choice.
"Sure," Renjun simply replied before getting up and heading over to the kitchen to help Jaemin set the table.
Minjeong was left on her own so she just scrolled through her phone. She didn't even have time to reply to her brother before he called, and not wanting to be yelled at, Minjeong picked it up.
"YOU GOT FUCKING HURT AND DIDN'T CALL ME!?" Minjeong could tell that her brother was pissed by the yelling and the tone of his voice.
"Sorry," Minjeong mumbled.
"WHAT FUCKING SORRY? YOU IDIOT! YOU COULD HAVE DIED FOR ALL I KNOW!" Doyoung was so loud that Minjeong winced and distanced her ear from the phone.
"Well for all I know you could have been at work," she replied, not having a better comeback than that.
"It would be fine if I heard it from you. But I heard it from Renjun! How did he know before me?" Doyoung asked.
"Oh, one of his friends bandaged me up," Minjeong replied.
By now most of the boys were either in the living room or in the kitchen, and they were all invested in the girl's conversation.
"You're lying, aren't you?" Doyoung asked.
"No, why would I lie?" Minjeong replied.
"Look, just call me next time, okay?" Minjeong could hear Doyoung sigh through the phone, "I don't want to find out that you got hurt from other people." hanging up before she could reply, Doyoung made her more furious than she was before
"Motherfucker." Minjeong cursed under her breath.
"Hi guys!" an unknown voice was heard from the front door. Minjeong looked up only to be met with Mark.
"Hi Mark." she greeted casually, but her voice didn't go unnoticed by Jaemin who was coming out of the kitchen to greet his friend.
"What are you doing here again?" the boy asked Minjeong through gritted teeth.
"Renjun requested me to join you guys for lunch," she replied and smiled.
The smile seemed natural and polite to Mark, who was watching the whole interaction, but to Jaemin it looked like she was faking it to the point that the action disrespected him.
"Are you in the next race?" Minjeong asked averting her whole attention to Mark, "No. I heard you are though. An invite race?" the boy asked.
"You could say that," Minjeong replied.
"What would you get invited to?" Jaemin asked sarcastically, "Aespa," Minjeong replied. The boy didn't say anything after her reply, so they went to the kitchen and sat around the table.
It was a fairly simple and peaceful lunch, with Minjeong mostly talking to Mark, Renjun, and surprisingly Chenle, who she found rather cute especially when he would laugh.