identity: renjun, jeno & jaemin [on hold]

twenty eight; so it begins

Aria awakes with a violent jolt and cold sweat dampening every surface of her skin. She pants, fisted hands that clutch on her sheets tremble with fear while her shaking pupils desperately try to focus.

What did she dream of? Why was it so fearsome and...perturbing? What terrorized her so deeply to the point it sends her bones trembling?

The abrupt sound of the doorbell drains the remaining colour on her skin and she staggers to the door, cautious and heart beating out her chest.

It's 2am, almost 3- the devil's hour. Who would come at this unworldly hour?

"Aria! It's me, Renjun!" Renjun exclaims, panicky and she gasps, eyes widening.

Maybe it's the fear and suffering but she instantly rushes to the door for the remaining distance, slipping once or twice along the way as she moves frantically and the moment the door opens-

She surrenders into his arms.

  "Aria, what's wrong??" Renjun asks with concern dripping from his tone as he rubs her back. "Let's get inside first so I can get you settled, alright?"

  Within a moment's breath, Aria finds herself tucked into bed with a damp towel on her forehead and a soothing scent that calms her nerves.

  Aromatherapy?

  She notices the faint white fog floating above her and turns to the litte contraption releasing the smell.

  "Feeling better?"

  Aria nearly cracks her neck from how quick she spins her head to the voice.

  Renjun sits at her study desk, a book in hand, round glasses framing his gentle eyes and a small, warm smile.
"You fell asleep the moment after you ate the fever pill."

   She glances at her desk where an empty glass cup and pill sheet are put before back at Renjun with a glint of suspicion and caution. Now that she's completely aware, she's realized how... coincidental his timing was.

  No, how weirdly and scarily accurate.

  "Why did you come here so suddenly?"

  Renjun furrows. "You called me, did you forget?"

Aria's expression of confusion appears and it deepens when she checks her phone's call log.

It's true, she did call him an hour ago. An hour ago when she was having the vague nightmare. So why does she not remember?

Her headache that subsided fleetingly returns and she falls heavily back onto the mattress at the gradually rising weight of her head.

"Just rest and relax. You're still healing up," Renjun advises and kneels by her side to pat her with the damp towel- cooling down her sizzling skin.

Aria's breaths are short and quick, insufficient and steaming from the fever, but she still manages to initiate a conversation.
"Renjun... Is there some...thing...you're not t-telling me?"

She doesn't know why she asked that. She doesn't even know what to expect. But her brain keeps gnawing on her to.

Renjun soaks the towel again and wrings it into the bowl before again, patting it on her forehead and neck- not meeting her eyes.
"Of course not, Aria. I tell you everything, you know that."

She doesn't buy it.

"Really—"

"Don't you trust me?"

His abrupt cut renders her speechless and she looks at him who stares at her with a look of dejection.

  Her heart cracks a little.

  "Of course, I do! I just—"

  "Are you sure? Because all your questions are saying otherwise, Ari," Renjun argues softly. Not a single raise of his tone, nor a single note heightened and not a single word of abrasion.

  But the strange thing is, she's turned frozen. Was it fear? Not quite. Was it nervousness? No.

  Distrust?

  The sudden warmth on her cheek returns her focus to Renjun who's stroking her cheek. When did he stop patting her with the moist cloth? When did he put it away?

  She furrows and he leans down to peck her forehead.
"Renjun, my headache's getting worse... I think I'm having a fever."

  Renjun glances at the 'aromatherapy' he put on, seeing the smoke grow thicker and thicker.
"Don't worry, Aria. You'll feel better once you wake up- and I'll still be here by then. I'll take care of you."

  It doesn't take long for her eyes to shut and the once cordial mien falls from Renjun's face as he picks up their phones to delete his missed call from Aria's call log and change back Aria's number on his phone from his name to hers.

  Of course, she was much too out of it to notice but the phone she was looking at wasn't hers. It was Renjun's. It's fortunate for him that they use the same brand and model.

  He was the one who called Aria during her moment of distress but he so wittily changed her name into his own so she would think that she called him.

  He heard her thrashing and gasping in terror of the nightmare but he couldn't just come without reason.

  And now-

  Renjun looks down at the slumbering girl and plants a lingering kiss on the back of her hand.

  He's got her trapped inside his act.