cult.

THREE: two

renjun sat in the nurse's office, finally calmed down. his breathing was normal and his chest felt much better. he made sure to thank that young girl before she left. as soon as she walked out the door, he let himself lay down on one of the nurse's beds. his head sunk into the pillow which offered him no support, but at this point, it didn't matter to him. he couldn't stop thinking about what he heard in the library and just about everything else that's happened in the past few days. sure, he was feeling better physically, but it still pained him to think about.

he turned his body to the wall, staring at the yellow paint that stared right back at him. looking slightly up, he could see the bottom of an informational poster. what he was able to read was just a website and phone number but nothing else.

"um... excuse me...?"

the reticent voice that entered the room seemed to sound exactly like chenle, but he denied this.

"i heard renjun came by here. is he still here?"

he closed his eyes and that if it really was chenle then he'd go away if he pretended to fall asleep.

"he's still here. what do you need from him?" the nurse asked with zero interest in her voice.

renjun could hear the typing from where he rested, and it seemed to get faster by the minute. he tried to find a logical explanation as to why the nurse would be typing so much for such long periods of time.

"i needed to give something to him. it's urgent."

there's a long pause, and for once the nurse stopped typing on her desktop computer. he heard her heave a sigh before allowing him to proceed. he then caught the sound of footsteps that got closer and closer to his bed by the second.

"renjun?"

he squeezed his eyes shut and prevented himself from speaking a word. he hoped this would obligate chenle to let him be. but it actually did the opposite. he felt his cold hands gently shake his shoulder.

"dude, wake up..." he spoke softly. renjun only groaned in return.

"what do you want, chenle?" he mumbled bitterly. chenle sighed before going to gently shake his shoulder again.

"we need to talk," he explained. his voice was hushed and soft. "it's important."

renjun turned enough to see part of the latter's face before he gave him a look of disinterest.

"what, you wanna tell me that i'm a nosy asshole like the others did?" he answered sharply. the latter heaved a frustrated sigh.

"no because you're not an asshole."

"you didn't say i wasn't nosy though--"

"for fucks sake, renjun! this is really important!"

the older rolled his eyes before finally sitting up. he gave him a look that read he was willing to listen but he would have to make things quick. he watched as chenle fished a slip of paper from his sweatshirt pocket. but it wasn't really a slip of paper... it was an envelope.
and it had "from mark" written on the front of it-- it was the same color ink as the previous letter. there were no tears, no tape to put it together... it was perfectly fine.

"but..." renjun muttered in disbelief. "this is..."

"he wanted me to give this to you, but the others didn't think i should." chenle explained. he pushes it over to the latter, hoping he would just take it. "they think it's destroyed, but i still kept it. mark seemed eager that you have it... and i'm sorry i put this off."

renjun looked down at the envelope with hesitation. it took him a few seconds before he finally took it into his hands.

"maybe you'll find some type of closure with it...? i don't really know." he continued. "just keep it to yourself. the others can't know you have it, okay?"

he finally looked chenle in the eye this time.
"do you know what happened to him?" he asked with caution and a bit of fear.

chenle averted his gaze to just about everywhere else. he fidgeted with his sleeve before hanging his head low.
"just read the letter, okay?"

"do you... know what it says?"

he shook his head. "mark told me that no can read it but you. and I chose to respect his wishes."
he stood up from the edge of the bed.

"i'm gonna go now. maybe I'll see you around?"

"okay..."

he turned to make his way to the doorway. that's when renjun called him back.

"chenle?"

he turned around again. "yeah?"

he regripped the envelope before he gave him a sad smile.
"thank you."

renjun could see his eyes gloss over as he tried to give him a smile in return. he saw him bite his lips to prevent any tears from falling.
"i-i'm really sorry, renjun. i'm so, so sorry..."

be he could even ask him why he was already out the door. he debated whether or not to go after him. he wasn't sure if that would be the safe option for him. he seemed to know at least something about mark's whereabouts, so renjun figured he might have done something to him. but at the same time, he did take that chenle might have regretted it due to him apologizing so many times. still, he was still so unsure. so instead, he decided to just read mark's letter to him.
he carefully tore the envelope open to see a two-page letter written in familiar handwriting...