"It's nice to meet you Chenle." Jeno said quietly, a bit nervous around the new boy. Rather than hiding behind Jaemin though he stood his ground at his side, holding his hand tightly as he took deep breaths.

Don't worry

He doesn't think you're weird

He'll accept you just like uncle Junnie and uncle Hyuckie..

While Jeno was busy convincing himself that he was okay around this new boy, Jaemin was observing Chenle carefully.

"Wait, Zhong Chenle? As in from the Zhong family? The one with the big company?" Chenle nodded at Jaemin's words with a smile and Jaemin's mouth feel open in awe.

"Is he serious?" Jaemin asked Renjun who nodded.

"Yep. My cousin is rich." Jaemin nodded slowly.

Well, there goes my money problems until I get a job..

"Damn kid. That's impressive." Chenle nodded.

"Well, Jaemin, why are you two here? Last I checked the both of you wanted some alone time this morning." Haechan said as he took a seat on one of the couches. Jeno let go of Jaemin's hand and followed the younger, sitting beside him and holding his stuffed toy dog.

Jaemin suddenly felt like he was being put on the spot as he stood before all of them. He sighed as he began to explain.

"My parents came home.."

"That's a problem?" Haechan asked as he rubbed Jeno's back gently. The older boy seemed to be blocking everything out, distracting himself with his stuffed dog.

"Yes, it is," Jaemin answered. "They abandoned me for my entire childhood and suddenly came back acting like they still deserved some authority over me!? Not to mention how he fucking hit me! I don't know about you but I sure as hell wasn't gonna just stay there and let them act as they owned me."

"Okay, first off, calm down." Renjun said sternly. "No one needs to start throwing hate to their parents right now, that's not the way to handle all of this."

"Well, what else should I do?"

"Maybe give them a chance." Haechan said, removing his arm from around Jeno. "They must've come back for a reason. You should've at least given them the chance to explain themselves." Jaemin scoffed.

"If they had wanted to explain themselves they would've done that instead of hitting me and calling me a rat!"

"Jaemin, please calm down." Renjun said.

"Calm down? How would you feel if your parents suddenly just came back after years of leaving you alone?!"

"Well, at least you fucking have parents Jaemin!!" Renjun suddenly yelled, getting to his feet as tears streamed down his face. Haechan protectively stood up beside him and took a step forward-

"Everyone, stop!" The three of them turned in Jeno's direction to see the small boy holding his hands over his ears tightly as he cried harshly.

"P-please, stop.." Jaemin tried to take a step forward toward Jeno, but Haechan held his arm, stopping him from stepping any further.

"W-well I hope the three of you are proud of yourselves." Chenle said suddenly. He stood up and walked slowly over to Jeno. "Hey, why d-don't we go to the guest room hmm? I think we should give them a bit. Is that alright?" He asked soothingly. Jeno nodded as Chenle took his hand and carefully led him to the guest room.

It was strange to Jeno. Well, actually, three things were strange to Jeno.

For one, the guest room was decorated to look like a toddler's room, complete with a tiny bed and one of those dinosaur pillow pets that he saw ads for on TV. Why they would need this kind of room was a mystery to him.

Something more confusing was why the three had started fighting. Jaemin had told him that everything was over, that they were finally safe and could finally be happy, but this wasn't Jeno's idea of safe and happy.

But what confused him the most was why this other boy seemed to care.

"Chenle.." He said softly. The younger nodded in acknowledgment as he sat on the floor, patting the spot beside himself. Jeno walked over and sat carefully on the plush carpet beside the younger. "Why are you helping me?" Chenle carefully put an arm around Jeno, not wanting to make the older uncomfortable. It was then that Jeno noticed Chenle was shaking too and had been since they were in the living room.

"Because I'm a lot like you." Chenle said carefully. Jeno's eyes widened.

"R-really?" Chenle nodded slowly.

"In some ways yes." Chenle answered.

"So you feel really tiny sometimes too?" Jeno asked, tilting his head and watching Chenle curiously. The younger shook his head.

"Not exactly. I have mild phonophobia." Chenle said. Jeno furrowed his brows.

"What's phonophobia?"

"Well, normally phonophobia means that a person gets extremely scared of loud noises, which can sometimes even send them into panic attacks or worse cause them to break down. For some people, it's so bad to the point that they fear leaving their homes because they are worried about these sounds." Jeno suddenly cuddled into Chenle's side.

"That's horrible Chenle.." He said softly. "I'm sorry you have to go through that." Chenle moved the arm he had slung across the olders shoulder to pet his hair.

"Don't worry Jen, it's okay. Since mine is a mild case it isn't as bad. But hearing loud noises can still scare me a lot, just like when you got scared while everyone was yelling." Chenle explained. "So, you weren't the only one who needed to step away and calm down. I needed it just as much." Jeno nodded at the younger's words.

"I'm kinda glad.. That someone else is like me I mean." Jeno said. "It makes me for once feel like I'm not weird." Chenle chuckled.

"Jeno, it's okay to be weird." Chenle assured as he rubbed the olders arm. "It's okay to be different, it's okay to be scared, and it's okay to feel tiny. Dont worry about trying to be normal, because being normal is boring." Chenle said the last bit bluntly making Jeno laugh a little. He stopped and let a comfortable silence settle for a moment before he spoke up again.

"Renjun cares about you, right?" Chenle frowned and nodded.

"Of course he does. He cares about both of us. Why do you ask?" Chenle asked curiously.

"Well, then if he cares why wasnt he careful? Why wasn't he careful to keep his voice quiet?" Chenle felt his whole body tense.

"Um, Well, he probably tried- uh, maybe he just, forgot! Yeah..." Chenle said with a nervous chuckle.

"He doesn't know?" Jeno asked bluntly. Chenle sighed, relaxing a bit as he nodded.

"That's part of the reason I wanted to be here. I wanted to tell Renjun about it since it's been years since we saw eachother, and I was hoping to move into a quiet neighborhood around here. But I haven't found the right time to tell him." Jeno was silent for a bit.

"Chenle, there's never really a right time to tell people these things. You just have to do it." Chenle nodded at the olders advice and let out a slow breath.

"I guess you're right."

The small room fell silent as the two drowned themselves in their own thoughts, Chenle debating if he should listen to Jeno while Jeno was still trying to think about the argument that had just happened in the living room. Jeno sighed and let his attention go elsewhere, trying not to worry too much.

His eyes lit up when he spotted a set of toy dinosaurs that had been set up nicely in the corner on a small mat. The mat was decorated to look like dirt with rocks littered about. He lifted his head from Chenle's shoulder and carefully crawled over to the toys. His smile grew as he picked up one of the dinosaurs before turning back around to look at Chenle who was watching him intently. Jeno grabbed a pink dino and crawled back to Chenle before offering him the toy.

"Wanna play? There are cooler dinosaurs over there if you want them. There's even this pink one! I really like the pink one." Chenle laughed lightly before nodding, taking the green dinosaur he was being offered.

"Sure." He picked it up and looked it over a few times before speaking up. "What's this one called?" Chenle looked at it for a moment before nodding.

"Xenotarsosaurus" The younger tilted his head. "Sounds sorta like Jeno-tarsosaurus, don't you think?"

Jeno smiled at his response, his eyes doing the same as he nodded and went to get the entire mat of toys.

Maybe this new boy would like him more than he thought.

← t b c →

Btw, what do you think about Chenle's character?

I think he's awesome :)
A good baby
K bye ilysm
❤💛💚💙💜