Metanoia

Forest: Chapter 4

As he kept walking onward, Renjun couldn't help but look around the area a bit more in awe. Nothing in Goldenleaf was as beautiful and exquisite as the landscape he was walking through. Because, unlike the town, hardly anything was tainted by man made structures or items. Everything was purely nature working at her best, with the exception of the shack across the lack and the hole he was going to claim as a one day hideout. However his suburban mini city was practically a machinery based mess save for the forest by the school. But even the nature had been littered with trashed parts of devices or candy wrappers from children's hikes.
This forest, outside the city, was a type of enlightenment from all that he knew from his childhood. Yet he couldn't really recall much from his memory. He considered picking up pace so he could have a quicker recovery from everything that had just happened. It wasn't that easy though when the soft colours of his surroundings hypnotized him into a serene trance. He was tempted to stray over to the lake and perhaps just dip his hand in and watch the ripples of the water disturb the illusion that it was a sheet of glass. Maybe roam the forest for a bit and rest his eyes with the beautiful colours of the leaves. But he just couldn't get distracted. He had a shelter to make.
Upon arriving at the large oak tree, Renjun decided that it would have to do for the night and set his bag down. Peering in, his face scrunched up in distaste at how 'well kept' it was. For a tree. And by that he meant it was still thought of as messy if that condition was found in the truck or in his own house.
Obviously, the case was that he would need to make it into a more comfortable space that would be deemed better than the car. Or he would force himself back on the (somewhat) long walk down to the vehicle. And in the end he would probably be knocked out by the exhaustion of it all. which meant a lot of bad things happening to them would become an infinitely high possibility. No. Renjun had to do something about this.
He walked a few inches into the forest before finding a medium sized stick. Then with a nod and a determined look in his eyes, he ducked into the hole and he stretched his arm out to grab at all the cobwebs hanging around the inside. As each one got snagged by the small twigs, coming out of the branch, Renjun made a noise of disgust. None of them held spiders- thank God. But he still flinched whenever something seemed to move or drop. In the end, he was quick to launch the stick as far away as possible, even if it didn't make it that far due to his lack of athletic skills.
Pulling out some leather gloves he had packed (you know, for those moments when you just had to slap someone good), the blond started to clear out all the undergrowth from the ground and push them off to the sides. He leaned down and flimsily collected all of the pieces scattered across the floor. From moss to crumpled old leaves to even nuts that were buried by the squirrels. The blond groaned from all the work and massaged his back for a moment before continuing his minimal task. He stashed all of it at the edges, hoping it could provide him at least some sort of warmth. Than shook away all the remaining dirt on his hands, taking the gloves off and neatly placing them near the entrance.
Lastly was the ground- and the coverage it needed. Renjun looked deep into his bag, at the nice pile of clean sheets and such with a crestfallen expression visible on his countenance. A small part of him absolutely did not want to waste all these supplies on one single night of comfort. However he knew that his condition at the moment was not gold star status. Which meant he should better look after himself unless he wanted to get sick. And heaven forbid he gets ill while trying to travel, even worse, trying to recover his truck from its flat tire.
So with a heavy heart, he took out all of his packed blankets and towels. Spreading them out wide, he lay them out across the dirt. He got on the ground and stretched out to smooth out all the wrinkles. His breath came out in a choppy manner, rather dramatic about the lost cleanliness of his belongings. But despite this, he was still content with how comfortable it came along. With that he was pretty much all set for his one night stay.
Renjun let out a sigh and his muscles relaxed. He stood in the middle of his makeshift home. Finished and rather comfortable for a hole that was carved into a tree, he felt a bit of pride swell in his heart. In a few minutes of arriving at the hollowed out hole, the teen was able to create a livable space for what could be more than one day. And even though he wasn't going to stay that long, he was still proud of the progress he made. Although he could have done much more if he wasn't so sore from the previous evens. Still. That must've accounted for something.
He peered out his little shelter to see the sun was close to setting and the breeze getting a bit more chillier than before.
Renjun quickly made his way over to the lake and splashed some water onto his face to clean up all the grime and anxiety that glued itself on. He hissed as the water seeped into his cut but sat through another few rounds to make sure it was free from most of the dirt that had gotten in. The runaway rubbed his hands against his shirt, he wiped his face with his arms, and peered into the water. The little part of the lake was rather disturbed with ripples making his reflection look extremely distorted, due to all the splashing he made. However he could see the open wound strung across his left cheek.
"Yup definitely going to scar" He stated to no one in particular before leaning back and staring at the large body of water once more. "I wish I could hang around the forest a bit longer..."
It was a meaningless request really with all that was going on and everything he had planned. For crying out loud he just busted his pickup from a damn car chase! All the while trying to escape his town which he suspected to be a suspicious freaking area! And now he was stranded without food or drink in a place he didn't know probably a long ways away from the outskirts of Goldenleaf. Great way to start off an adventure really.
His goal was clear, to find out what was going on. Which meant getting the hell out of here. Even if the place was so tempting to just stay in. Renjun wasn't taking a chance to spend winter coped up in a shack trying to scavenge for food. No sir. He wanted to find that large ass city that the college students went to.
Getting up and dusting off his pants, the small teen went around to find the raspberry bush he found whilst walking to the oak. And he continued to think on.
He may have not remembered much from when he was a child, he could easily recall the hundreds of times he and Donghyuck watched Mark leave Goldenleaf. It was always at random. The two would stand outside Donghyuck's house, waiting for the usual red suv to pull in and their older friend to come out lugging a large cameo patterned suitcase behind. Once he made it to the porch the two would run over to him, both with completely contrasting reactions. For instance the weekend he went off to look at the school he was going to go to after graduating. The honey haired teen was completely over the moon about Mark getting a scholarship, whining a bit about bringing him along. Meanwhile Renjun was interrogating him on his trip and if anyone scary looking tried to approach him. Either way the high school graduate would just laugh and go inside to describe his trip.
    Smiling, Renjun absentmindedly picked the berries and brought them back over to his shelter while getting a small refreshment of water on the way.
    He could admit that his time there was rather well spent, even with the underlaying tones of suspicion. It must've been the past few months that pushed him off the rails. The events of the VR's release. Donghyuck's sudden addiction to the game. The creepy, obsessive stalker. Jaemin and the other popular guys that hung with him. It all added up into a messy shit show. And with the addition of his sudden disappearance; the missing cases; the first ever homicide; and the car chase- Renjun was sure his stress levels were just bursting at the seams.
    But despite the slow boil of the months events, the past two days had been the most rough and terrifying. He was fairly relieved he could take this chance to wind down at least for a bit. Maybe take a step back and look at the bigger picture. So he could solve this problem much faster and get back on the absent road sooner.
    He took no risk in starting a small fire, because he was sure to fall asleep at any given moment. Instead he curled up in the farthest corner from the entrance, using the bag to block large drafts. Taking one of the coats he packed up, Renjun engulfed himself in the large attire. With one movement of resting his head against the tree bark, he dozed off.