Gorya laughed, breathless and unguarded, and Ren stepped back instinctively.
"Your girlfriend has a good sense of humour," Thyme said, amused, as if the sentence were harmless. There was no use arguing with them, he might as well announce it on national TV.
Ren didn't answer. He watched the way Gorya ran and hugged Thyme, how naturally she fit there, like a sentence completing itself.
"And here I thought you'd introduce her to me first," Thyme added lightly.
Gorya turned, surprised, then laughed again. She didn't notice when Ren picked up his bag.
"I should go," Ren said. It sounded reasonable. It always did.
Thyme clapped him on the shoulder. "MJ sends his love."
Despite their protests, Ren knew he had to leave them alone, in each other's company. That was what he did. Gorya always came first.
The car drove itself.
Or at least that was how it felt—hands on the wheel, eyes on the road, mind somewhere else entirely.
He entered REVIVE into the GPS without thinking.
The building stood quiet against the evening sky, lights glowing too softly for a place that housed desperation. Ren paused before going in, fingers resting on the door handle, as if waiting for permission. None came. He went in anyway.
Inside, everything smelled faintly of antiseptic and burnt coffee.
A boy was missing.
The word moved through the corridors like a held breath.
A frantic-looking father grabbed his hands. "My son went missing. Maybe an accident happened or—"
Ren placed a hand on his shoulder offering support.
They found the boy under a patient's bed, knees drawn to his chest.
"I don't want to go to school," the boy said. "I hate them. Everyone."
Ren crouched.
At least he knows where he's hiding, Ren thought.
He stayed there longer than necessary.
Ren motioned for the nurse to take him to the ward.
"You should think of this as part of the process. A part of recovery." Ren said handing over a glass of water to the parents seated in his office. His voice sounded steady. Reliable.
"You can enroll him in the Restart Life Program. We check on him every night."
His mind lingered on the words "Don't worry",but he didn't know how to promise that.
YOU ARE READING
Knight Syndrome
Fiksi PenggemarRen has spent most of his life surrounded by the F4 and Gorya, but as his friends start to venture out into the world, he realizes that he has no life of his own. Enter Ameena, a mysterious girl with a secret double life as an espionage agent who fi...
