city without dialogue chilled warmth we lost our breath
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"Thank you guys so much for your help." Waiyin thanked the boys as they filed out of the house, shaking their heads in response and saying that it was the least the could have done. Because they weren't just thinking of her when they helped her, they were thinking of Renjun too.
When they had gone finally, the girl closed with door with a sigh, body slumping against the adjacent wall with exhaustion. She didn't know if she could continue with this.
She didn't know if she could keep pretending that she was happy to be back. Or even so much so that she wanted to be back. She felt more like it was something that had to be done. That she would never be able to put Renjun to rest if she didn't do this. The only problem was that it proved more difficult than she had originally anticipated.
Because his memories were everywhere. His DNA scattered around the place and his scent attached to certain rooms and certain walls. He was everywhere but he was nowhere all at once. That fact alone was driving her insane. She could tell why his grandparents wanted away with the house now.
Collecting herself again, Waiyin went back to the corridor that was just past the foyer, walking over to the table where the boys had set up the phone. The one place that didn't smell faintly of pinewood and French cologne just like her boyfriend had was that damned broom closet. And that was because it stank of rat feces.
She absolutely had to get that fixed.
Thankfully, Jaemin had found an address book earlier and helped her highlight some of the local exterminators. She began to punch in the numbers carefully - confusion clouding her mind as she attempted to decipher the obscure nature of the old fashioned telephone. Why would Renjun have this in his room anyway? She didn't know that he collected antiques.
Soon enough the phone was ringing and Waiyin had to endure almost a minute of the terribly scratchy dialing sound before the call finally connected.
The girl put the weirdly shaped receiver to her ear and the other end naturally came to her lips. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it almost immediately when she heard the voice on the other end say a tentative, "Hello?".
With a gasp, she slammed the receiver back onto the phone, breathing out shakily as her chest tightened. A hand lifted to her mouth subconsciously as her lips parted in shocked - she must have been hallucinating.
Figuring that she entered the number wrong, she tried again, pressing each of the keys slower this time in order to ensure she didn't mess up. It must've been a mistake she had made. There was no other explanation.
The incessant ringing started again and she held her breath as she waited for the voice of an exterminator (whatever that sounded like) or at the very least an automated voice telling her that the number she had dialed was out of service. But of course, fate would not have that.
The call went through again and almost immediately she was met with that impossible voice again. "Hello? Who is this?"
Waiyin couldn't believe her ears. The receiver shook violently in her hands and her legs began to feel weak as her stomach lurched dangerously. She took a seat on the staircase a few steps away, trying to pull herself together as she quickly reprimanded the person on the other side of the line, "If this is a joke, it's not funny. Stop."
She shook her head furiously. Pull yourself together Yin, she scolded her, it's obviously not him. It can't be.
With a pounding chest and eyes that were rapidly blurring with frustrated tears, Waiyin searched frantically for a different number she could call, punching it in quickly and holding a hand over her mouth to stop herself from throwing up. This was sick.
"Hello?" She tried to speak first, hoping that this time it wouldn't be that horrific thing she had encountered the last two times. "Who the hell?... Who are you? Why do you keep calling?"
What the fuck? The girl didn't even know what to think anymore as blood pounded in her ears and panic rushed through her body like a fast-acting poison. Phosphenes danced in her vision as she pushed her palms against her eyelids. Something had to be wrong with her. It had to be.
Hysteric anxiety had taken hostage of her body and she had to tighten her jaw to the point that it hurt to stop herself from crying out. A cold sweat broke out and shivers pricked at her all over.
Over and over again, she picked up the receiver after inputting a random sequence of numbers and each time, when the call connected she heard the same voice. She felt like she was losing it.
Her mouth dried and her lips trembled as she dialed the phone one last time. "Oh my fucking god, what the hell do you want?" "Who are you?.. Why do you keep picking up the phone? Stop it!-" "Wait.. Waiyin?... Waiyin, why are you calling me? Are you okay?"
The girl froze. Her whole body tensed as it felt as though time had stopped momentarily and even just a blink lasted the length of an eternity. So this whole time she hadn't been dreaming. Then what the hell was this?
"Huh?... Who are you?" "Waiyin.. Stop messing with me." Her heart stopped when she heard the voice laugh. That laugh. She had heard that laugh so many times. Whether they were painting, or he was and she was failing pathetically to make something half as good; or if they cooking whilst singing; or watching movies whilst using his bedsheets against walls as a projector. She could remember that laugh that was like honey, poured slowly and deliberately. The laugh that she hadn't heard in five years. It couldn't be that it was that same laugh now.
"Stop- Stop it. I don't know you, stop calling my name as if I know you." "Waiyin, what the hell? It's me, Renjun. Jeno's friend? You literally saw me last week. You were at my house last week, remember?"
Waiyin couldn't take it anymore. Whoever it was playing this prank, she couldn't handle it. Why would someone do that? If it was one of the boys, she would make sure they knew that it wasn't funny at all.
But at the same time, she couldn't imagine that any of the boys would have had the time to do something like this. And even if they had, Renjun was their friend too, they would find this 'prank' as insensitive as she did.
If it wasn't a prank though, had it had been real, would that have meant that Renjun was still alive? And he was trying to contact her? She didn't want to get her hopes up, but there was always a slim chance.
It sounded too much like him to not be him
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🔂
its been a WHOLE YEAR since i updated anything wowww i feel like idk i've j found it rlly difficult to write so i threw myself into other passions but now im trying to spread my attention evenly
i also got some motivation to write bcs i found thatthere's at least someone who actually wants to read and know what happens next, so i can't not finish it. thank uuu
