your head turns to look at your awaken screen when you hear the familiar melody of your ringtone resound in the lonely room. it was jeno, but it was also an unearthly hour for him to be calling. you weren’t sure what it was that he needed, but you knew you weren’t in the mood to entertain him. so you watched as the phone continued to vibrate, eventually going dead when the line was cut off.
not even a minute passes before the screen wakes again, displaying jeno’s contact once more. you breathed, reaching over to answer the call. you placed the phone to your ear, keeping silent as you waited for jeno to say the first words.
“y/n?” he calls, his surrounding painted with noise. “yes?” you reply.
“i’m sorry for calling at such an hour, but i need you to come down to the bar,” he says. you hear rustling on the other side of the line, and the slurring of a very familiar voice. “he’s at it again, huh?” you say, looking down at your fingers that had open wounds everywhere due to your excessive peeling of them. “well,” jeno doesn’t continue his sentence, knowing that you knew what he meant.
“please?” jeno speaks up after a few seconds of silence. the boys didn’t know yet, and you didn’t want to make it obvious. you sigh, nodding your head even though he couldn’t see you. “i’ll come.”
you get off your bed and grabbed a coat, heading out the door for the bar. upon arrival, you didn’t even need to think twice because your feet knew exactly where to take you to find the boys. they always sat at the same exact booth, and it was no different today.
the first thing that greeted you was renjun who was lifelessly laying flat on the couch. jaemin’s cheeks were flushed pink and he was smiling sweetly, pep talking himself. and then your eyes trailed to the side to see jeno, who, although wasn’t exactly sober, was trying his best to keep anything else from entering haechan’s system.
“y/n,” jeno greets, gesturing in haste for you to come over. you oblige, seating yourself beside your ex-boyfriend. “please take him home,” he says. haechan had turned his head to look at you, almost instinctively wrapping his arms around your body, resting his head on your shoulder. he was so close that you could feel his lips brushing against your neck. you tensed up at the intimacy, your heart dropping because you were reminded of the fact that he’d forget this all the next day.
“i trust you’ll ensure jaemin and renjun gets home safe,” you say, already trying to get up. haechan wasn’t helping.
“yeah. i’ll call you again,” jeno says. you nod, prying yourself away from the boy’s clinging. once you were standing up, you grabbed haechan by the arm, slinging it over your neck while your other hand wrapped around his waist, holding on to his weight. his head falls to lean on your shoulder once again.
after much struggle, you arrived home. you dragged haechan to the bedroom, dumping his body on the bed. he groans, rolling over to rest his face on your pillow. you stared at the cut and bruises on his face. your hand reaches forward, your fingertips brushing against his injuries ever so slightly.
you knew he was going to run away again the next morning. what you weren’t sure of, was how purple and bruised he’d be the next time you saw him.
