𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ 𝐧𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 - 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐮

⇛ 𝐂𝐇. 𝟖𝟗

it was a cold rainy day and the atmosphere in panem had only gotten worse. the group were becoming distant but it wasn't on purpose. jihyun was spending more time with her family after feeling guilty for not being around them enough. chenle, jisung and haechan were the same. jaemin and jeno were glued to each other though. mark was hidden in his room a lot, working on his aspirations to become a writer. they were all trying to find ways to distract themselves. and renjun... he was a different story. they had all noticed a change in him. he was agitated and a bit erratic. but everyone had assumed it was because of his leg injury.

mark was sitting in his room on his bed, book in hand when he heard a bang from the room next to him. it was renjun's room. concerned, he went over and knocked on the door but didn't get a response. he could hear mumbling coming from inside and then something crashed to the floor. that was when he burst through the door to find renjun on the floor.

"renjun!" he rushed over to help him. "what happened?"

"my leg. the morphling... it's gone! i need it!" he cried out.

mark scanned the room to see if he could find it for him. he noticed that the bedside table had been knocked over with the drawers open and stuff scattered all over the floor. then he saw several syringes and empty bottles of morphling that should have been enough to last a month. the sickening realisation that renjun's leg injury wasn't the only reason he was taking morphlin settled in.

"renjun... what have you done?" mark asked.

"mark, please, you have to go to the infirmary and get it. i can't...! i need it!"

"renjun, no. you don't need it." he said, pulling his friend to sit on the bed.

"but my leg!"

"you don't need it for your leg, renjun!" he snapped, his noses flaring. he was furious, furious because he couldn't believe renjun had become addicted to the dulling of emotions and more importantly, that he hadn't noticed what his friend had been doing.

"i need it, please! everything hurts!"

"how could you have done this, renjun?! are you crazy?!" he grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"i am crazy! i'm fucking crazy!" he yelled back. "i hate the emotions i'm feeling. it makes me lose my mind but i finally found something to help. there's a reason victors take these!"

"you've lost your mind even more. do you understand what you've done?!" mark's grip on his shoulders tightened to the point that his nails were digging into his skin.

"y-you're hurting me!"

"what the fuck is going on?!" jihyun's voice echoed harshly in the room. she was stood in the doorway, anger on her face. she wasn't sure what she had just walked in to but she had heard that renjun was being hurt.

"ji, he—" mark began but was cut off as renjun pushed him and ran over to jihyun.

"jihyun, you have morphling, don't you?! i need some, please."

her lips were parted as she stared at him. he had a crazed look in his eyes that told her everything she needed to know. quickly, she locked the door behind her and pulled him to sit on the bed again.

"renjun, have you been taking more morphling than you should have?" she asked, sitting beside him. looking into her sincere eyes, he couldn't lie to her.

"yeah..."

"why?"

"why?" he laughed sarcastically. "jihyun, you constantly cry. mark, you lose yourself in your mind for hours. jisung drinks sometimes. haechan breaks stuff. jeno locks himself in the training room. chenle stays up all night thinking. jaemin smokes. and i take morphling. it's how we cope."