“Huang Renjun, I presume?” 

Renjun simply nodded as he observed the man in front of him in his pristine suit and hair layered with gel to complete his sophisticated vibe.

“I apologise for this surprise visit but do you mind if we come in?” 

Renjun simply stepped aside as he held the door open to the apartment and watched the woman in front of him in her ironed floral dress as she delicately removed her feet from inside her confining high heels. 

“Ge, who is it?” Chenle’s innocent asked from down the hallways, near the location of the door that entered their bedroom, the younger’s footsteps following shortly after. It was a little scary at how Renjun considered that bedroom to not only be his but Chenle’s as well. “Oh…father…mother…” He said in awe, sentence trailing off into the unknown abyss and voice barely audible as the couple sat on the couch in the living room that would be equivalent to a sewage plant in their eyes. 

“Sorry, Mr and Mrs Zhong…would you like anything to eat or drink? I have some chocolate cake?” Renjun asked timidly, striving to be somewhat of a good house guest…despite the fact that his guests were uninvited rich socialites that were here to take away the one thing that had made him genuinely happy in these past two months. 

“Hmmm…I won’t have anything but what would you like, dear?” Mr Zhong said in reply, turning to his wife, eyes piercing, as she simply shook her head. Mrs Zhong looked at Renjun in the eye before glancing at the shoes that were still on the feet of her husband, shooting Renjun an apologetic look shortly after. Renjun simply smiled softly and shook his head in response, not noticing Chenle move behind him to hide from his family. It was barely a second before he heard the door unlock and two familiar voices fill the hallway. 

Only one person had a spare key to his apartment and Renjun didn’t like the idea of his landlord entering on this situation.

“Sicheng, how do you even have a key to Renjun’s place?”

“Babe, calm down. It’s mine, he’s just renting.”

“Renting? Renting? Sicheng, he’s a high school student!”

“Oh he doesn’t actually rent…he’s sort of free loading and working to pay for his own food.”

“Sicheng.”

“What?”

“Look. It’s my parents.”

The usually kind voices of Sicheng and Kun were somehow rendered mute as they laid their gaze on the couple in front of them. Both were dressed in casual attire, jeans and jackets, with Kun holding a small box that probably contained pastries of some sort from the cafe he worked at, if the logo on the top was anything to go by.

“Mother, father…what are you two doing here?! Father! I thought we had a deal!” Kung screamed, box shaking violently in his hands as he glared at his father, eyes looking as if they could kill him.

“We did and it has come to an end. It’s been two months and he’s still here so I came to get him,” Mr Zhong harshly retorted, voice resembling icicles as he returned the glare his son was projecting at him evenly. 

“I said that you would allow him to stay here as long as I managed your models’ schedules and breaks. That has not yet come to an end,” Kun replied through gritted teeth, hands clenching the box he held to the point where it was beginning to crumple. Renjun noticed Sicheng’s worried face as he removed the box from the other’s hands and placed it on the top of the kitchen counter.

“I realised that you were not doing an adequate job so I decided to go against the deal,” Mr Zhong shot back and Renjun felt as if he was witnessing two children fight over a toy. Only, the ‘toy’ was a more important situation and the ‘children’ were actual adults - one of whom had a son. 

“Not doing a good job my ! Ever since Kun-ge took over, all your models were able to get the legal amount of rest and meetings without the public losing interest! What the do you mean by ‘not doing a good job’?!” Sicheng shouted from his position near the kitchen counter. 

Renjun began to understand what was happening and the lengths that his friend and Chenle’s older brother performed to ensure that Chenle would stay away from the Zhong mansion.

“Father, Renjun-ge has been very good at taking care of me. I was safe the whole time,” Chenle said so quietly but it was able to stop the bickering between his older brother and his father. “Can’t I stay here for a bit longer?” Chenle asked in the same minute voice as he pleadingly looked over Renjun at his parents for approval. Does he actually want to stay here?

“Chenle, you ran away from us! You broke so many rules and if it wasn’t for your brother’s preposition of helping the company, you would have been dragged back to the mansion three minutes after you stepped into that cafe!” Chenle’s father shouted, standing up from his seat and walking slowly towards Chenle who gripped Renjun’s left wrist like a lifeline. 

“You followed us?! Father, that’s stalking!” Chenle shouted back, face twisted in horror as he began to see the man in front of him in a new light. He felt a slight pull on his left wrist and looked behind him to see Chenle trying to drag him as he backed away from his father.

“Stay away from him!” Renjun shouted as loudly as he could, not really knowing what had possessed him to raise his voice in the first place. He wasn’t from their world. He wasn’t even meant to cross paths with them.

But he was here now and that’s what counted.

“How dare you…how dare you…an insignificant middle class worker like you raising their voice to someone like me? Didn’t your parents ever teach you manners?” Mr Zhong taunted, eyes narrowing as they lay on Renjun’s small frame, causing him to tremble involuntarily.

“How can I show manners to someone who talks like that to his own son?!” Renjun exclaimed, hands now curling into fists as he used all of his will to look at the older man in the eye. Don’t back down…this is to make sure that Chenle is safe so don’t you dare back down, Huang Renjun.

“I can talk to my son whichever way I see fi-“

“No you can’t! He’s a person too and people have feelings! I don’t care if you have enough money to buy everything I have ever owned but I do care if you don’t treat people properly! He was crying because of you! He was suffering because of you! He didn’t think he deserved anything because of you! You wrecked him and it’s my job to make sure that he gets built back up from scratch!”

The words that Renjun heard didn’t sound like they were from his mouth. His voice sounded disembodied and broken, cracks everywhere and tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. His nails had begun to dig into his skin from how hard he was clenching them. His ears didn’t seem like they would stop ringing but he kept eye contact with the older male who had now stopped in front of him. He’s not near Chenle…he’s not that close…I can do this.

“You do not know the lengths that I have gone to get to where I am now and I am not allowing someone like you to ruin it. Chenle, we’re leaving. No excuses. If you’re not in the care in ten minutes after I walk out that door, I will fire that boy from my company - the one that you consider a brother,” Mr Zhong relayed in a steady and oddly calm voice as he exited the apartment, allowing the door to slam behind him. Renjun’s immediate reaction was to turn to the younger and comfort him but he didn’t. He couldn’t comfort