It Follows {Book One}

05

Tuesday, July 31
32 days

•Renjun•

"Why are you researching colleges?"

Renjun let out a long, exaggerated sigh as he slowly shut his laptop and looked up at Donghyuck. "I told you a million, trillion times. I'm sending out applications this year."

"There's not going to be any colleges. There isn't even going to be a you to attend them."

Renjun rolled his eyes and opened his laptop again, continuing to look through what he believed to be the top art schools in the country. "Can't believe that everyone's buying this shit."

"The fact the literally everyone except for you believes it should be a little bit of a red flag, don't you think?"

"No," Renjun said shortly. "Everyone's just stupid."

No matter how many times he was told, no matter how much 'evidence' was given about the end of the world, Renjun would always write it off as bullshit.

The amount of times the end of the world had been predicted over the course of his life, a very short eighteen years, was a little obnoxious, if he was being honest-- and he always was, and every single time, it had turned out perfectly fine. He was still here, he was living, he was breathing, and he was going to live out the rest of his life.

Renjun had already graduated highschool, he was going to college, he was going to become an artist, he was going to adopt a gecko, he was going to live content and alone, and he was not going to die anytime soon.

He was disappointed, angry even, that people bought into this so easily. Where was the proof? He expected to believe that the world was what? Going to explode? Run out of breathable air, and he would suffucate (like in Spaceballs)? That a meteor was going to destroy everything?

The fact the he didn't know how was what he found suspicious. The world was supposedly going to end within a month, and yet they hadn't been told exactly how it was going to happen. And he was supposed to believe that?

No.

Renjun was going to send out applications, and he was going to continue living as if he wasn't surrounded be idiots. That shouldn't be too hard, he'd been doing it all his life.

Only this time the idiocracy was amplified to the max. Something Renjun hadn't thought possible.

"Are you seriously saying that everyone in the world is stupid except you?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

Donghyuck sighed, but nodded. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Just don't get your hopes up."

"Alright, listen," Renjun snapped, narrowing his eyes into a glare. "Either you're right, and we all die, or I'm right, and I get to rub in your face how incredibly dumb you are for the rest of your life. Either way, honestly, I'm fine with it."

"There's something wrong with you."

A phrase Renjun was used to hearing. 'There's something wrong with you' said to him by his family when he said he wasn't interested in boys or girls, and ever being in a relationship. 'There's something wrong with you' when he theorized about space, went on and on about the planets, about other galaxies and possible life, about the ghost he swore lived with them. 'There's something wrong with you' when he didn't feel love, feel anything at all for anyone. 'There's something wrong with you' when he'd slip into his own mind and not leave the house or see anyone for days.

Despite not believing that the world was about to end, he did spend quite a lot of time thinking about it. If on the negative chance it would happen within his lifetime, Renjun was okay with it. He didn't care much for people, he didn't think there was any viable reason to fear for humanity. He agreed with Yuta when he said that people were rotten to the core. And Renjun wanted to be one with the stars.

"Hyuck," Renjun said after a few moments. "If I die, I'll give you full bragging rights when we meet again in hell."

Donghyuck laughed excitedly. "Yes!"