𝒍𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅 : 𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒏

Chapter 5: Welcome to Cooperville High

Renjun awakens with a scream caught in his throat, the sound getting choked as it builds and leaves him breathless and confused.

He doesn't remember his dream, but the fear that courses through his veins worries him. His body isn't stiff thankfully, his fingers move accordingly and he sits up just fine.

His back pops as he moves, stretching the sleep from his body the best he can before he grabs his phone from its place on his night stand.

4:32am

He sighs, he still has a few hours before he's meant to be up. The house is still, his brother isn't awake yet for sure, and the sun had yet to rise from his slumber.

Renjun yawns, letting his eyes adjust to his bedrooms dim light. The fairy lights that he'd stuck to his wall bathing in their soft warm glow.

He thinks back, thinks hard about what he was dreaming of, but there's nothing. His memory is blank, a black screen of dreamless sleep. The tense anxiety and fear he woke up with is gone, having left as he stretched. Only to leave him confused and slightly concerned.

That's two dreams he can't remember, the first being the night at Suhos, he'd woken up feeling weird and uneasy, now it makes sense.

It's concerning, three dreams that leave him unbalanced and frightful. Each has messed with him throughout the day, left him paranoid and stressed even if he'd played them off as nothing but dreams. But truly they disturb him, both his physical body and his energies . He's left feeling unrest and discomfort.

Seeing the person the other day concerns him too. Renjun knows he's more susceptible to the supernatural, hell he's capable of magick, and yet he's never had something like what happened happen. That didn't feel natural at all, if felt wrong. He wants to tell Tao but at the same time...would Tao make them move again?

It's not something he likes thinking about, the reason they moved, but he knows that it's his fault, even if he doesn't remember it happening. He does remember the aftermath though, the hospital stay,the trashed living room, the awkward atmosphere, the news of changing their scenery a month later.

His friends didn't know why they moved, Tao didn't allow him to tell them, so the excuse of his brother getting a really good job fell from his lips like the lies they were.

That probably hurt the most, having to lie to YangYang, Hendery and Xiaojun like that. The older two didn't know half of Renjuns life, and while YangYang knew of their witchcraft - Tao and Renjun had fought for days about telling him anything. So, they'd left, leaving their lives behind to start a new one... kind of.

Renjun thinks he has the right to be upset with Zitao, how is it justifiable to hide a large part of someone's life from them? Zitao lied, lied to his face for years. Maybe he's more upset that Zitao didn't trust him enough to tell him something so important, his brother was constantly hiding things and he wants to know why.

He wonders if that's why Zitaos friends are so kind to him, maybe he told them that his little brother had a breakdown back in China so he thought it'd be good to move, would he stretch the truth that much? Was Renjun the only person he was stepping around?

He shakes his head at the thought.

They don't treat him like glass, they don't act like he'll break if they raise a voice, they treat him like family who hasn't seen each other in years. He's being ridiculous. He can't act like they've done anything wrong, because they haven't.

Renjun doesn't even remember what he was reminiscing about now. He glances at the clock.

4:36am