“Jeno?! Jeno!” He screamed at his phone that only had the faint sound of a car passing by, ignoring the person who he was meant to be working on his psychology project with. 

“Why? What’s wrong?” He heard Jaemin ask from where he sat on the bed, leg still bandaged as he started to pack his things up. 

“I don’t know!” He shouted in reply, panic beginning to overtake his body as he thought of the numerous placed where Jeno might be. There was the apartment that the other rented whenever he didn’t feel like staying at base, there was the university library where he was usually found studying, there was the dance studio and then there was-

There was the warehouse that Jungwoo had told him about where Jeno apparently met Donghae. 

“Renjun, calm down.” He heard Jaemin say, the younger’s voice cutting through his panic like a knife slicing through water. “You can figure it out if you’re calm.” He took several deep breaths while avoiding the other’s eyes, deciding to stare at the floor as he tried to even out his breathing. It wasn’t long before the door to the room swung open and a very panicked male with tanned skin ran towards him, shoving a phone in his face with three texts that he struggled to read. 

“Jun! Jun! Mark-hyung texted!” He heard Donghyuck screech before Jaemin’s several warnings to be careful were given. “He texted but I don’t know what it means!” Roughly pushing the slightly younger male away from himself, he allowed his eyes to adjust to the brightness of the screen before he felt relief wash over his being. 

From: Ugly Ramen Head

Find Jun as soon as you can and show him this:

From: Ugly Ramen Head

JN - WH - BLD - VP[NONE] - BLDT[4] - CLP[ME]

From: Ugly Ramen Head

Also, Jun. They want you back. I’ll do everything I can for them to not get you.

“What is it?” He heard Jaemin ask from behind, curiosity laced in his voice as Renjun decoded the message rapidly in his brain.
“It’s a bunch of letters that’s NCT’s code,” He explained before reaching behind his back to pull out his guns, checking to see if they had bullets. “The literal translation is ‘Jeno, warehouse, bleeding out, no vital points hit, four hours until he bleeds out and the culprit was the sender of the text.”

“And in normal people words that is…” Donghyuck trailed off as he smiled softly in relief once he saw that both his guns were at their full capacity. 

“It means that Jeno is bleeding out at a warehouse from something - probably a bullet. He has four hours until he dies from blood loss because none of his vital points were hit. The person who did that to him was Mark-hyung,” He explained, remembering the pain of having to remember all of NCT’s codes in case their phones were found by a rival gang.

“But why would Mark-hyung shoot Jeno?” Jaemin asked him, causing him to look up at the younger male who was gripping his sheets so hard that his knuckles were white. 

“The only reason that I can think of is his next text. B.A.P want their slave that was stolen from them by NCT back-“

“So you, in other words,” Jaemin interrupted him as he nodded, glad that he had decided to tell the other a bit of his past.

“Wait, slave?” , Donghyuck doesn’t know. “What do you mean by ‘slave’?”

“I’ll explain later,” He hastily told the tanned male who frowned at him in response. “For now, Min- I mean, Mark-hyung is probably doing all he can to make sure that B.A.P take their hands off me and that’s probably why he was forced to hurt Jeno. If he was given a choice, he wouldn’t even point a gun at Jeno because-“

“He loves him,” Donghyuck finished for him, something akin to jealously flashing in his eyes as he stared at Renjun. “He told me that Jeno was his world.”

“You’re his world too, Hyuck,” He muttered before staring at the other two in the room. “I have to go and haul my partner’s back here so I don’t want you two doing anything stupid.”

“We’re coming with you,” Donghyuck stated, stepping in front of him when he moved towards the door. “There’s no way you’re going alone.”

“I’m not going alone. I’m not that stupid, Hyuck,” He sighed out before pointing towards Jaemin. “Someone needs to look after the cripple.”

“I want to come too!” He heard Jaemin protest, the younger male pouting at him in an attempt to look cute. “Jeno’s my best friend and I want to know if he’s in trouble.”

“Look, I know he’s an important person to both of you,” He started, giving Donghyuck a pointed stare when his mouth opened for a retort. “But this is NCT business and both of you can’t be placed in danger because you’re civilians. I’ll bring him back to you in one piece.” Turning away and opening the door that had fallen shut when Donghyuck had entered the room, he barely heard Jaemin’s words as the door shut softly behind him.

“But who would bring you back in one piece if you got hurt, Renjun?”

You should be more worried for yourself, Jaemin.

~ ~ ~

“Yep, this is definitely Minhyung’s shot.” He heard Winwin say as he began to tend to the bullet wound that was on his partner in crime’s body. “I can’t believe he was the one who did this though.”

“I can,” Yuta commented from where he was standing with his gun lazily in his hand, ready to help defend Winwin with him in case any enemies came. “You heard the rumours. Lee Minhyung is kind to you for as long as you’re useful to him. Then, he hurts you.”

“Yuta-hyung, Jeno-yah changed him. You know that,” Winwin chastised as Renjun looked between them in curiosity.

“What exactly happened between them? People say that Jeno changed him but…what happened?” He asked, not being able to imagine a situation where Minhyung was hostile towards Jeno. “Haven’t they always been close?”

“Not always,” Yuta said, amused as he pointed his gun towards Renjun playfully. “The first thing Minhyung said to Jeno was ‘Shut the up, Donghae junior’.”

“Did he really say that?!” He asked as Yuta chuckled while Winwin groaned, the latter wrapping a bandage around Jeno’s stomach.
“He said it in a nicer way,” Winwin answered, glaring at Yuta who rolled his eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry. He said ‘Can you please shut the up, Donghae junior?’.”

“Seems about right.” He heard Winwin say and tried to prevent his mouth from dropping op