arrows of silk | nct renjun.

nine | alone.

Renjun walks down the dark streets of Guangzhou, a light drizzle of rain and the solemn glow of the full moon creating a woeful yet serene atmosphere. He kicks a few pebbles here and there, each streetlight flickering as he walks past due to the outlander-ish aura that he carries. With his head laying low, he thinks deeply, distressed. 

If Jaemin and Jeno aren't allowed to help me anymore, 

then am I alone in this world?

A solitary tear trickles warmly down his cheek, matching the patterns of the sky- each tear increasing as the rain does so. 

He pulls out his phone once he realizes that he's drenched.

"Kun, take me home."

-----

Renjun soaks in his distress as he stares up at the ceiling, his gaze locked on nothing in particular. A thousand shapeless thoughts zoom around in his mind, unable to catch them. He isn't too desperate to fall in love- he still doesn't believe in it. But being so far away from his loved ones? It tears his heart apart with each solitude second that passes. 

Then a thought strikes him.

Rom-Com!

Renjun jumps up speedily, instantly regretting it as the rapid movement blends each blunt thought in his distant mind like a protein shake. He rummages through Yukhei's collection of movies, allocating specific reactions to the various DVDs he comes across - gagging at all the romance movies yet picking them out anyway. 

After picking movies like Titanic, A Walk To Remember, Me Before You and Everything, Everything, he thanks Caelum that he has an extended weekend and jumps into his bed across from the TV, grabbing a single celery stick and a cup of uncooked noodles as movie snacks. He excitedly inserts A Walk To Remember, hoping it would be filled with the joy that true love supposedly brings.

He cries out an entire ocean with his eyes. 

"Is love this upsetting?? WHY DOES IT EVEN EXIST THEN?" His voice is watery and searingly hot, and he earns a couple of bangs on the door from Yukhei in response to Renjun's tempestuous wailing. Regardless of how broken-hearted the movie left him, he reluctantly puts in the next one; Me Before You. For research purposes only, of course. "I mean, not all movies can be that sad, can it?" 

He was wrong. 

For the second time that night, he produced enough tears to water an entire garden. 

Renjun's head hurts from all the crying. His eyes are bulbous and scarlet, his nose a waterfall. Beside him lays a flock of used tissues, a half-eaten celery stick, and two unwatched movies that he'll watch once his heart is stitched back together again. He resigns for the night, unable to think organized thoughts and opinions on the two movies he watched. Only that they made him sad. And sad is bad. 

With all the lights off, it's just him and the solitary moon, glowing in all its shameless glory. You're just as lonely as I am, he thinks. You're trapped. 

His heart pounds dolefully, taking a few minutes to return back to its original running pace. His face is soundless and muggy, and his eyes droopy yet stubborn. His mind is busy and won't allow him to sleep just yet.

Love is faithful.