Metanoia

Hydra, Vruydon: Chapter 21

That evening was much more crowded than the last. In contrast to the other nights meal, where Jeno, Kuzma and Renjun were eating more independently from the other students- the trio was now surrounded by a majority of the class. The only exception was Alberto, Jadon, Elisabeta and Vinzent, who were sitting at their own table with some of the company workers. However, despite the glares being thrown towards the others, the four horsemen of apocalypse had no big influence at the moment. Not like they had before. And it was easy to understand why.
After the test results had come in it seemed that two out of the four  were kicked out of their high chair. Who were they replaced with? None other than the white haired boy, Jeno and the blue haired teen Kuzma. With the results coming in on the large screen in their dorms, anyone with eyes could see that the sparring part of the test gave the athlete a generous amount of marks for staying undefeated. And even in the stealth part he did formidably well, scoring a rank or two below Renjun. Kuzma, in spite of being mediocre at both, got a good mark. From simply having the sum of the two test results be much larger than most others. It seemed that in the eyes of the company, they would much rather have a jack of all trades.
So it was no surprise that once they got into the top four they would become a bit more popular among the students. Of course it wasn't fooling anyone that these kids were just trying to catch onto their tactics and use them to their own advantage. Nevertheless, Jeno was becoming a bit more comfortable with his classmates.
"Were you an athlete before? Did you secretly train in the arts of fighting before signing up? Had you been in gang fights in your younger years? Are you actually part of the mafia?" Mei was bombarding him with every question possibly known to man. Completely ignoring her food, she leaned over the table eagerly awaiting his answers. But it seemed as if patience wasn't her strong suit. "WAIT WERE YOU RAISED BY NINJAS?!?!"
Jeno laughed bashfully and glanced down at his plate. "Well I did play a lot of sports before coming here so I guess-"
"WAIT YOU'RE AN ANGEL." The pink haired girl interrupted him once more, pointing an accusing finger his way. "YOU WERE SENT FROM THE HEAVENS TO HELP US."
He smiled in an embarrassed manner as the nickname was said. "No, I'm not. I'm just a normal human being."
"LOOK LOOK EVEN HIS SMILE IS ANGELIC." Mei continued to chatter on and boast about Jeno as he once shy demeanour slipped away. Clearly having someone much more kinder take a good lead in the rankings was a reason to come out of her shell. Which was a good reason for sure.
But the white haired boy looked back at what she had said. Help them? Help Hydra? He was internally filling up with guilt. There was no intention of doing so, none in the slightest. If anything, him and Renjun had come in to destroy Hydra. To find out what the hell was going on with Goldenleaf and why people from this company were interfering. They wanted to stop the madness.
Jeno looked up and made eye contact with Saige, whose gaze was unreadable. He had remembered her as the older sister of little Megan when he had searched through the building the first day he came. But unlike her behaviour before, which was calm and kindly, she had become silent and near brooding. Maybe it was because she had no intention to show weakness.. or maybe-
"Come on Jeno! You should probably eat some food. Than you can become stronger for tomorrow!" Mei chirped, tapping her fork against his plate filled with some sort of fine delicacy he had spotted in the line up.
Snapping out of his thoughts, he nodded a bit before continuing to eat again.
"Even if Mei is being a bit obnoxious about it, you were really good today." Kuzma spoke up shyly, like usual.
"You did good too." Riya responded from out of nowhere, already onto eating a rainbow coloured jelly. "Being equally good at two things is a gift you know."
The blue haired teen flushed in embarrassment. "Or equally bad at two things, you never know."
"Ok stop bragging Kuzma," Kailani complained, setting her cup of lemonade on the table. "I did way worse than you."
Jeno watched as the rest of the group was starting to chime into the conversation and a peaceful feeling washed over him. He knew that this class had no means of killing him and Renjun, they were just innocent kids who wanted to make a difference in the world. Wanted to make themselves known and achieve a good, fulfilling life. There was nothing in them that was going to drive them to kill anyone for the sake of humanity.
Still, the white haired boy kept wondering why those three agents had attempted to kill Renjun in the first place. 'Well the first two tried. Sicheng had only wanted to knock him out, or something like that.' It was indeed confusing to think about, especially since Jeno still had little to no knowledge about Hydra's history. Besides the experimental accident that had occurred in the past.
    "I'm guessing Jeno will be assigned to a top soldier type." Out of no where Zuri had spoken up. The mini debate on who was the worst between Kuzma and Kailani stopped. Everyone had started out mumbling in agreement.
    "I still don't get this thing about interns though...." Jeno whispered, half to himself and half to the group.
    "Well it's a mentorship program they have here at Hydra where the students take an aptitude test to see which employee of the company will work with them best. It's sort of based off of the similarity of working habits and the cooperation that could stem from that. I hear that Mark used to be the apprentice of Johnny and that's why he's working with his mentor now." Mei went off with her explanation, never seeming to take a breath. "So what Zuri is trying to say is that you could be matched with one of the highest ranked soldiers in Hydra because you went undefeated in our class!"
    The multi coloured hair girl nodded. "I was thinking Jaehyun maybe."
    "Jaehyun?" Jeno's blood went cold. The guy who tried to kill Renjun during a car chase?
    "I can totally see that." Mei agreed, nodding rapidly. Kailani appeared to be having enough of the pink haired girls voice as she told the hyper teen to keep eating.
    He looked around to try and find Renjun's eyes but he couldn't find the brunette sitting anywhere near them. In fact, every since training had ended, Jeno wasn't able to catch sight of his friend at all. A few butterflies started to manifest in his stomach and he couldn't help but become a bit panicked at the sudden disappearance of the smaller boy.
    "Are you looking for Injun?" Saige asked, her voice coming out soft and icily quite.
    Jeno only nodded as he turned around in every which way to find the familiar mop of dark brown hair that would be paired with ice blue eyes. But the older teen was no where in his line of sight. He could feel a fear crawling up his throat.
    "I think he stayed behind in the training room." Riya suggested, now shoving Zuri's silver macaroon in her mouth. "He looked like he was going to keep at it with the obstacle course."
    'Of course.' His body relaxed. 'It would be so much like Renjun to be going and training while everyone isn't.'
    "Speaking about Injun," Kailani started again. "He really pulled out his talents in the end didn't he?" It appeared to be a rhetorical question whilst she continued on. "Cause he really sucked at the sparring. But he was the highest ranked in that stealth simulator."
    Mei nodded enthusiastically, slurping up the last drops of her soup. "I thought he would totally bomb trying to fit in with a science class considering the fact that he is really stubborn in his ways."
    Several noises of confusion came from the table.
    "You idiot, it was a fight club that we had to go through." Kailani snipped, smacking the pink haired girls shoulder lightly. "I think you're talking way to much to remember what happened two hours ago."
    "That wasn't my environment though." Riya piped up. "I had to get by an alleyway filled with gangsters."
    "Perhaps we all had different environments?" Kuzma suggested and the group went silent.
    Jeno was absolutely shaking with excitement. In spite not being phased by how modern the technology was in this city, he had been getting larger pieces of information than he had before. It was great. And as he started to finish his dinner he was thinking about how to tell Renjun without any other prying eyes and ears.

That night, the opportunity was presented to Jeno on a silver platter. Because by getting a rank as one of the top four, he was being granted the opportunity to take one of the private rooms. However upon doing so, he found how trashed it had become. Jadon must've caught wind about this before Jeno had because once the white haired boy came in with his luggage, the place was an absolute mess.
The bed sheets were all crumpled up into a ball in the corner, the floors were messy with books and papers that had once adorned the bookshelves and desk. Some surfaces of the room were wet and sticky and piles of junk food crumbs had been almost purposely scattered around the room. The walls were covered with markers and even the TV had some cracks in it. Every light was smashed into pieces.
Jeno was not in the least disappointed or angry by Jadon's behaviour at all. In fact this was not a bother at all to him as the run down hotel had the same condition when he had entered before. Perhaps a bit more destroyed by age than intention but it was still in a similar state besides the fact. And just like with the hotel room, Jeno would clean up this place. Which was surprisingly more simpler than last time with the technology installed in the room. He was able to remake the bed by hand but there was a button by his bedside that made the room clean up the floors and walls by themselves. The mess was wiped clean, as if it was only an image on a screen and it could've possibly been the case with how advanced the dorms were. After he had gotten up and started to pick up the papers and books, setting them back to a spot that seemed rather normal. Collecting the shattered lights, he put them into the garbage and opened up the window behind his bed frame.
In the end, Jeno was able to clean up the room in record time, just as some mumbles from the outside were heard. Ignoring the cracked TV, he opened the door and saw Renjun talking a bit with some of the students, albeit not seeming really into the conversation. His brown hair was matted to his forehead and he had a shower towel hanging off of his neck in a cliche manner. Riya was right in thinking he had stayed in the training room.
"Injun!" Jeno called out, attracting the attention of literally everyone in the room. His friend turned around, staring at him with cold eyes. He saw the white haired boy waving him over and sighed, ending his conversation with his classmates before jogging inside.
"What do you need?" Renjun's voice was lacklustre. "Want to show me your new private room?"
"What? No not really." The athlete tilted his head in confusion at the brunette's standoffish mannerisms at the moment. "I was just wanting to talk to you, since we haven't talked since the aptitude tests this afternoon."
The other scoffed and sat on the mattress. "You could've stayed around and than we could've talked."
Jeno felt a twinge of guilt. "Well, I mean yeah sorry... But I was collecting information about Hydra." He smiled reassuringly. "You'll never guess what I learned."
Renjun had no say in the matter, instead he glared at the duvet.
The smile faded from his visage as the younger boy sat beside his sulking friend. "What's wrong? Aren't you happy that I got us a lead."
"Of course I'm happy." The brunette snapped.
Catching on to what was going on, Jeno sighed and tugged at his friends shirt. "Are you jealous right now?" He could feel the muscles stiffen under Renjun's pyjamas and he snickered. "Aww Injunnie you shouldn't have."
The boy in mention squeaked out in protest as his taller classmate brought him into a hug. "I'm not jealous!"
Jeno ignored the brunette's squirms and complaints as he shifted to the head of the bed frame. Resting his head on Renjun's shoulder he chuckled a bit at his friends actions. This definitely made the other become silent as gave up on trying to get out. Instead he stiffly moved around to get more comfortable.
"Fine." Renjun admitted sourly. "I guess I was a little jealous. But whatever. Just tell me what information you got and than I can head back."
"Sure." With that Jeno started to explain. But in the back of his mind, the white haired teen was unsure about letting the brunette head back to the less luxurious beds. However he tried to ignore the idea and fight off the red tint making its way up his face.