Metanoia

Hydra, Vruydon: Chapter 17

'Mark's part of the company trying to kill me....' The thought had run around Renjun's mind for a long time now. It probed at his brain and taunted him nonstop. As if it was a broken record being played on loop and dooming him into insanity. The brunette was sure that if this continued on any longer he would smack his head against the nearest wall. And as he walked along with the group of trainees, he still couldn't wrap his head around it. He wasn't able even focus on what Johnny was saying. It was just too startling to think of. To shocking to understand.
Mark Lee, his childhood friend, was in Hydra, whose agents seemed hellbent on having his head on a spear. The boy who couldn't even properly punch someone was now adorned with weaponry of all kinds. He who used to be a peacemaker among Donghyuck and Renjun's fights was going to teach a group of students how to become killers. Someone who was so easily teased by his two best friends.... Mark's in a company fit for killers.
Why? Why was Renjun's innocent, gentle friend carrying a gun on his hip? Why was he training us? When did Mark join this company... Was he always part of this city? Did the brunette get tricked into thinking that his dark haired friend was just always working for someone? Was the older boy even his friend in the first place...
He thought long and hard about it as they travelled the large facility. Johnny, apparently one for large, grand introductions, was flamboyantly gesturing at every single thing present in the building. They started going to the company building connected by the large lower floors. All crowding against the elevator, Renjun stayed extremely close to Jeno. The white haired boy was the only one he could trust right now. That and he was afraid of someone pulling him off to the sides to deal with his separate situation.
The other trainee's appeared to have noticed the camaraderie between the two boys and some snickered between themselves. Renjun must have not noticed how his hand was tightly clenching Jeno's, or how bashful and flustered his friend was. After all, the brunette didn't initiate much private displays affection much less public ones. Their faces weren't important to the runaway at the time, they were only fuzzy blobs of colour.
They traversed along the floors of the company sector. Johnny kept droning on and on about the place- most likely facts that would be useful for later infiltration. But Renjun was no where near being able to focus on what the man was saying. That never stopped the blue haired teacher however, in fact it didn't seem like Johnny even noticed as he was too swept up in his excitement.
    The surroundings were another kind of blur to the small teen. All the sounds only become buzzes against his ears and hums swirling around the air. He felt as if he was floating on the ground. Everything about Mark being his friend. One of the people he could trust most in this world. It was lost. He could love the dark haired boy as much as he wanted. Renjun could sacrifice his own wellbeing for the sake of the older teen. He could give everything in the world to him and defend him as best as he could. But in the end, Mark could easily not care for the brunette at all. He could watch Renjun and find no emotion in it.
    'I bet it would only make his job as an agent much easier than it was before.' A lump rose and he choked back any somber noises. It was his first day, he shouldn't be exposing his weaknesses so easily. Blinking back the tears, Renjun furrowed his eyebrows and did his best to push his emotions aside. 'It doesn't matter if Mark is in Hydra or not anymore. If I have to I'll ignore what was thought to be a friendship. For answers.'
    He wasn't able to instil that idea in his mind, because every time he glanced at Mark he went back to when they were still in school together. Renjun hated loving Mark.

     "And that's the end of our grand tour kiddies!" Johnny finalized, the elevator opening to a narrow hall leading to a single door. Leading them out, the teacher stopped by the screen beside the entrance. "The last and final stop is your beautiful, fantastical dorms! There's only four private rooms in there which would leave the rest sleeping out in the open, exposed to each other. Now before you kill each other over who gets it, this will be the only night where you can choose the one of the four rooms freely. Tomorrow it will only be accessible to the four top performing students. Your luggage is in the room already, dinner is in twenty. If you have any questions about the system and such ask me. If you have any personal feely, pubescent questions or something ask Mark. He's young enough to understand I'm sure."
    Everyone nodded, and in this moment, Renjun finally awoke from his daze. The kids around him all were tense and ready for what Johnny said to be the heavenly depths of hell. The brunette, despite preparing himself for things like this and being involved with chases far worse than simple training and social interaction, was completely terrified. Was this seriously going to be another form of school? Wasn't the years before good enough?
    "Alright," the teacher placed his palm against the screen. With a green hue lighting up, the door slid open. "Have at it kids."
    With that as a confirmation for ease, seven of the twelve made a mad dash into the room obviously desperate for one of the four private rooms. It left the other five startled as they slowly made their way into the dorms themselves.
    Everything was dark brown. Everything felt way too modern for Renjun's tastes. With the smooth, dark brown wooden floor and the black, slick and shiny walls dotted with two large screens. One was already on, displaying the events and notices happening within the company, it looked like it's own little bank of information. Several icons were lined up on the side, one being the map which probably meant this was a kind of start of program for new students. The other screen was currently a holographic blue at the moment, however there were number placed from one to twelve. There was a line under four. Most likely to be the rankings Johnny mentioned.
    Besides that there were no windows to speak of, no plants or tables for other decoration. Only the eight beds placed in two line in the middle of the room with a smaller screen at the foot of the bed and a small compartment under the bed. The rest of the room was void of any life or personality. Which was about to change real quickly.
    "Come on Old Woman, this room is especially reserved for the top four, not lowlifes like you." A crude voice came from further in the room where a rather tall boy stood, pretty towering over the smaller girl. His amber eyes flashed with disdain and he leaned down in an obvious tease to the girls height. "How about you scram and let a more high class sweetheart take your place hm?"
    Her fists were clenched against her sides. Although Renjun wasn't able to see her reaction, he could clearly understand she was frustrated. He recognized her as the girl standing beside him in the line up.
    "Come on Vinzent!" She complained. "It's not high school anymore stop acting like a child."
    He shrugged. "How about you change that elderly hair style of yours than we can talk. Maybe than we'll see eye to eye." There was a cruel grin growing on his face.
    "I can't understand why they ever let a bastard like you in."
    Vinzent easily ignored her. Instead his eyes were trained on the curvaceous figure of their classmate sliding into the room herself. The door slide closed right behind her, as her gradient green hair disappeared. "Well looks like your efforts were a waste of what little energy you have." He waltzed casually over to the next room being saved by another boy with similar burgundy hair.
    The silver haired girl spun around, visage reflecting her anger.
    He simply smiled and waved as the door closed.
    Renjun felt a pang of pity for the his classmate and he glanced over to see one more vacant room. However the obvious friend of Vinzent quickly made his way over, shoving someone else aside in the process. As Jeno sped over to help their classmate, the brunette tried to ignore everything that was going on.
    He could only trust Jeno, he won't get emotionally attached to these other kids.
    Finding his luggage placed against the wall, the runaway took the handle and dragged it over to the bed furthest from the door. He started to unpack, ignoring the other students who attempted to approach him. Renjun was entirely focused on what was going to happen next.

    In the twenty minutes they had, all the trainees had been able to unpack their belongings. By that time, the four who claimed their own private rooms sauntered out, boasting silently about their low level achievement at luxury. There was little to no time for that however, as they started to making their way to the cafeteria.
    All clustering into the elevator, a silence had filled the space with cliques already forming amongst themselves. The silver haired girl known as Riya had herself glued to Zuri, another female student with striking multicoloured crimped hair. It was oddly similar to Renjun and Jeno's dynamics as a duo. Meanwhile Vinzent made his group rather present with the burgundy haired teen, Alberto; the boy with striking green eyes, Jadon; and the girl with green hair named Elisabeta. The rest happened to be clustered in their own little group, however there was one kid suspiciously close to them.
    With their light blue hair and sparkling dark blue eyes, their figure was rather thin and tall as they hovered close to Jeno. And as the elevator doors opened to the cafeteria, Renjun still found this to be the case. He couldn't blame the kid though.
    Cause in comparison to the regular school cafeteria the brunette was used to, this was something more... spacious... yet cramped. He was getting the full idea of the crowding in the building as over fifty long tables were placed in the room, still not appearing to be enough as some seemed rather squished. There was a long counter against the wall, wrapping around the perimeter of the room. It was completely filled with delectable delights, from grilled chicken spotted with sesame seeds to curry and drinks going from sparkling water to plain soda's and juices to even sweet dessert wine. Few of agents were in the line up, as the rest were already eating up their own five star cooked meal.
And so, all twelve of the recruits, realizing how little they were compared to the workers, silently made their way in line as well to search and pick their own fine meal.
The blue haired teen was almost flush against Renjun's back as the brunette moved along the line, skimming over the meals. With every step, he got more annoyed with the kid behind as well as anxious over the fact that he could've been found out so easily. Leaning over to pretend to reach for some peas, the runaway dropped his voice into a whisper.
"Can you tell me what the person behind me's deal is?"
Jeno, who was eyeing the medium rare steak with hungry eyes blinked out of his trance for a moment. Taking a quick glance back he noticed the kid and smiled kindly. Renjun couldn't help but feel a bit irked. The white haired boy leaned down to whisper in his friends ear. "That's just Kuzma. The kid from the grocery store. They're fine, don't mind them."
Breath tickling his ear, Renjun huffed and continued on hunting for a decent meal. And as he left the line with Jeno to go find a seat, Kuzma was following behind like a lost puppy. He sat abruptly at a random table, nearly making the white haired boy trip over his own feet.
Once again he ignored the blue haired teen sitting timidly across from him and started to eat. Sometimes he would glance up, but Renjun was only trying to look past him. And in the end he regretted doing so.
As behind the shy Kuzma, were a man with strawberry blond hair, a man with dark brown hair and a man with red streaked hair. All three were conversing amongst each other. They appeared way more relaxed than when chasing Renjun. And upon looking closer at the name tags (required by every member to wear) he was able to barely read their names.
'Yuta, Jaehyun, and Sicheng.'