ONESHOTS

veins running silver (gold coated fibers)

author: sunflowersforhyuck (thedawnbeforethesunrise)

Summary:

The blessing of the moon has followed Renjun's family for generations, a long line of silver-haired beings with pearl shine dripped in their blood.

He hates it more than anything in the world.

(On nights where the full moon appears, Renjun hides away from the rest of the modern world. All he wants, though, is to be able to sit under the stars with Jaemin).

When Renjun was born, his fate was sealed by tufts of translucent white locks and snow-dusted lashes.

His hair faded into black soon after, but that didn't take away what all of it meant. His mother knew the moment he first came into the world. The blessing of the moon has followed Renjun's family for generations, a long line of silver-haired beings with pearl shine dripped in their blood.

Every few generations, a new child of the moon is born. Not everyone in the family gets the fortune. The previous one was Renjun's great grandmother, and this generation, Renjun wins the luck of the draw.

He hates it more than anything in the world.

It's inconvenient, first and foremost. A full moon occurs roughly every month, and its presence triggers Renjun's curse. His raven hair washes out into silvery white, and his lashes glint diamonds. His skin takes on a sort of internal gleam, pearlescent and fair in the dark of the night, entirely too eye catching to do anything inconspicuously. The curse starts in the morning the day of, gradually steeping him in moonlight until he reaches completion in the night. He spends those days of the full moon at home.

His relatives would always try to spin it to be something spectacular. Renjun is the chosen one, they would say. He's the true descendant of the moon. At family gatherings, Renjun would be cooed over, praised for doing nothing but exist. But over time, he learns that his spectacularity is not one to be shared or flaunted to anyone outside of the Huang household. He is a precious jewel destined to be eclipsed by the shadows.

Just as the moon exists in solitude, Renjun must do the same.

🌑

No one knows his secret.

At least, no one he associates with in university. Even his best friends, Donghyuck and Jisung, have the truth withheld from them, and Renjun prefers it that way. Over time, through various failed attempts to tell someone, he's lost the resolve. Building up the courage only to chicken out becomes exhausting after a while. He doesn't want to be alone forever, but to have another bear the weight of this other part of him is a daunting task, for him and for them.

There have been close calls, like the time Jisung dropped by to pick up his forgotten hoodie, or the time Donghyuck tried to surprise Renjun for a fast food run. Both times, Renjun had insisted that he was very sick. He's become quite good at being convincing over the years.

He lives alone to avoid exposing himself. It's for the best, to avoid potential problems, but the loneliness sinks its claws deeper into him the longer he thinks about it. It's a lot of traipsing around at home, in his little apartment in this college town, disillusioned as he stares at the night sky.

The cognitive dissonance of everything is so strong, it makes Renjun's skull split. He hates the moon, but he, like all the other cursed individuals in the past, is reliant on it. Renjun is physically weaker than the average human because the sun drains him. Like a twisted tie that binds him for life, he becomes the picture of health the closer the days get to the full moon every month. In his daily life, Renjun has to be diligent with his habits, and keep a cap on in the sun as he walks to class. Tedious affairs, all because he needs the moon to be strong, as if the basic biological rights of being a human have been ripped away from him.