"It's because I came here because I wanted to pick you up," Ren nonchalantly said as he came to the cooking station with his one cup of ramen noodles. "Is there something wrong with it?"
Miso's breathing hitched when Ren looked at her in the eye.
Was he actually telling those words to her?
Out of nowhere?!
Then, Ren turned to Han and gave him a warm smile. "I wanted the two of us to watch some horror movies together but I didn't see you in the dorm. So I figured that you were at the company."
Han raised both of his hands and pointed his index fingers towards Ren, "My soulmate. You could have just waited for me to come back to the dorm though."
"I did," Ren replied. "But Bin was nagging at me how Jay was still not in the dorm as well. You know how much of a nagger he is that he said it will be my fault if something bad happens to Jay."
"I'm so sorry," Miso muttered as she grabbed the rims of the cup noodles and walked at the corner of the convenience store and realized that she didn't have her disposable chopsticks with her.
She was about to stand up but Miso saw a pair of chopsticks being offered to her. Miso glanced up and saw Han's face with a nonchalant facial expression.
"Here," Han said as he glanced at Miso with a small smile as he handed the chopsticks to her. "No need to thank me."
"Thank you, Han," Miso still insisted on thanking him and grabbed the chopsticks from him. She used the chopsticks and started slurping her noodles. "Ouch, it's hot."
"Of course, it is, you idiot," Han scolded her as he sat next to her. "Tsk, tsk. You're really such a handful, Jay."
Miso awkwardly smiled and chomped on the ramen noodles that were already inside her mouth. She blew on some air and she saw hot air escaping from her mouth.
She almost choked on her food but she continued to chew on it and swallowed. The noodles had a refreshing taste after staying out to practice this late at night.
"Look at how you're enjoying your food," Han remarked as he blew on his noodles. "I didn't know you like eating not until I saw you eat some noodles."
Miso turned her head and asked, "What do you mean?"
"I noticed how you don't seem to have any appetite when eating with the members," he replied as he turned his head to the left. "I wonder if it's because of one member who seemed to be the source of your stress."
Ren, who was just casually slurping his noodles, raised his left eyebrow and glared at Han, "What are you looking at?"
"No, no, nothing at all." Han played it off and continued, "I was wondering if you actually knew that you're the one who's being mean towards Jay, our newbie." He sighed, "Are you not even afraid that one day he'll end up running away from us?"
Ren was silent and didn't speak. He stared at Han, then at Miso who was waiting for his answer. He spoke, "I was being hard on him because I knew that he won't run away."
As if there was something that tugged Miso's heart, she couldn't help but let out a tiny smile.
"Honestly, you weren't here because of me, right, bro?" Han asked as he playfully narrowed his eyes at Ren. "You were here because Jay was still practicing late at night, and Bin was able to successfully guilt-trip you."
Really?
There's a possibility that Ren was actually worried about her.
So he knew that he's being hard on her because he wanted her to do well as the future vocalist of the group? Not because he wanted her out of the group?
For some reason, having those kinds of assumptions made Miso smile.
"I'm not that guilty but you know how annoying it is when Bin starts to get into a hyper mode," Ren shared as sat up straight on his chair.
"Ah, I get what you mean." Han nodded in agreement. "When he gets hyped..."
"The tone of his voice raises up and he would continue to bother me all the time," Ren took a deep breath and shook his head in disappointment. "You don't know how much I tried to ignore him but didn't manage to do it."
"I can just imagine," Han let out a small chuckle. "That bro is really persistent. But it just shows how caring he is towards us."
Ren didn't say anything.
The silence broke when someone's phone started ringing. It turned out that it was Ren's phone. He picked up his phone from his pocket and looked disappointed when he realized who the caller was.
He slid the green button and put the phone on the table. The phone was already in speaker mode.
"Hello, Ren," Bin's voice echoed. "You came out to grab Han and Jay, why are you still not back yet?"
"We went somewhere," answered Ren as he glanced at Han and Miso not to say anythng.
"The three of you went somewhere...?" Bin trailed off and Han couldn't help but crack a smile. "Don't tell me you three went to go clubbing?"
Ren didn't answer and let the silence fill the room. Han was about to burst out laughing but he managed himself not to do so.
"Of course not," Bin continued on his own. "There's no way it would be this quiet when you're already there." He laughed at his own thoughts, "You guys must be grabbing a bite at a convenience store. Buy me some strawberry milk!"
"I don't want to," Ren refused.
"I'm not asking you, Ren," Bin shot back. "I'm asking Han and Jay to get me some strawberry milk! Eat fast and come back to the dorm, okay?"
Ren abruptly ended the call and a smirk was plastered on his face. They all knew that BIn is such a worrwart that they finished their noodles as fast as they could and went back to the dorm.