Metanoia

Hydra, Vruydon: Chapter 28

    After that confrontation with Vinzent a lot had changed for Renjun. For it wasn't that often for people to ever stand up to the four kids who were rumoured to be bullies in their old schools. This single act made by the brunette was than perceived as a line drawn between the two sides. And despite the more morally correct side having large numbers, they were significantly more weaker in physique so the effort made to stand up against the opposing side were rather useless. However after the brunettes brave choices, it seemed like everyone was starting to become more confident with their actions against the four.
    Riya especially. The silver haired girl was able to back talk the red haired boy on more multiple occasions and getting away with it Scott free. Instead of the other times where she had stayed quiet or silently mummer her arguments, his classmate was now debating at any given moment she was able to catch. Renjun found on multiple occasions that Riya was by Vinzent's side, yelling at him as he clenched his fists. She knew he could easily do damage to her just like he did to the runaway but as long as she chose her battles wisely she wouldn't get hurt- and she did in fact choose them well. Which enraged Vinzent every second more than he could bear.
    After witnessing it all, Saige had become much more active with the other trainees. She must have processed the results of her actions a bit more than last time as now she was starting to get to know more people. This little group included him, Jeno and Kuzma as the four created their own clique. Not comparing as much as the four horsemen, the group was more open in talking, but always coming back to the set group. In doing so Renjun was able to learn a bit more as Saige was almost as informative as Mei when she talked. First off, there was the fact that her sister had died in the building chase, proving the darts to be lethal. (He was glad Jeno was able to get it out before any larger effects settled into his system.). To cut it down short, the purple haired girl was coming out of her shell.
    Kailani, on the other hand, strayed much farther away from the rest of the class. In spite of her previous behaviour against them that usually ended in them getting in some sort of trouble- she was now avoiding them like the plague. She was spending more time trying to focus on her own training; locking herself in the training room for hours on end and starting to perfectly execute tasks given to her once assigned. There was a pause in fooling around and having fun. The orange haired girl appeared set on becoming more better than she was before. And in the end that meant ignoring all her past habits of mischief to become more productive.
    As the months started to pass, the four horsemen were also going through shifts in nature. There was a simplicity to say monkey see monkey do. In this case student see student do while they spent more time around their mentors. Renjun in only minutes of hanging out in cafeterias during meals could see the little things about the mentors that would slowly infect their apprentices the more time they spent with each other. This could also count when looking the other way around. Lucas became much more bored with Kailani once her habits took a one eighty and as time went on, started to become more productive in his own work- of course he still liked to have fun with it. This was easily said with the apparent bullies of their class.
With most of his victims gaining the upper hand against his antics, Vinzent started to retract into his own shell of anger and cruelty. He was finding himself more mean with the others who never bothered him the first place and liked to instigate as many arguments as possible with people he knew couldn't win. In this case it was mostly Kuzma who had become used to being timid and shy to even try and talk their way out of things. Zuri and Mei had also become regular victims to the bullying and teasing but it never bothered their daily schedules as they continued their day with no complaint whatsoever.
"Injunnie Injunnie." The red haired boy would always say as he leant on the walls, watching his classmate pass. "The Messiah Injunnie who saved our fateful class from becoming weak little fuckers. Proud of you Injunnie Injunnie. Should you die for out mistakes as well?"
The threats now to the brunette were short to nothing as he would continue were he needed to go. There was no use in provoking someone who had already lost. And besides, he would always have something more important to do. Deep down, Vinzent knew that too. He loathed that fact.
    His lackeys never strayed from his side despite how much power he was losing by the day. Alberto was still the same guy, loyal and arrogant beside his friend and always accompanying him with any target they decided to bully. Elisabeta was still a stone cold person who treated everyone else like her servants, expecting everything from everyone else. The two were always by Vinzent and always adding onto his taunting behaviour with their own flare. All in all the four horsemen could easily be said as the group that changed in the least. But there was an exception.
    Once again, monkey see monkey do. The saying could still account for anyone in the class. And by anyone it was, Mark's terrified apprentice, Jadon. Because as training became more harder for everyone, people started to learn quickly who had natural talent for these tasks and who didn't. While the rank board shifted between people every week, Jadon was stuck in the public beds in the middle of the dorms. According to most employees, the green haired boy had been fairly faithful to Vinzent's antics and personal traits. So much so that it had greatly affected his own work, which resulted in multiple failures on his part. It was thought throughout the class that the teen would be kicked out of the training program for sure. And it didn't take long until the four had become a three as the remaining bullies seemed to disregard Jadon from their clique. When they did, the teen had transformed overnight and suddenly became a loner in the class. For he had nothing to go back to.
Renjun was never one for sympathy and for Jadon, his morals had only been more solidified. 'He deserves this.' the brunette would repeat in his mind, only giving the green haired boy cold glances as he walked by the empty table. Besides, the smaller teen couldn't force himself to trust a kid who had laughed and watched as he was slammed onto the ground. There was no dignity in Jadon. So he would look past his classmate and continue on with his own work.
The training for Renjun had become nothing that he didn't expect as he had previously asked Sicheng about it before. Nevertheless, it was still a gruelling process to go through considering how suddenly things were coming along for him. Turned out when his mentor said they'd be taking things seriously now that he knew the brunette could handle it, he wasn't lying in the slightest. The student found himself going through undeniable amounts of physical agony as he pushed his body as hard as he could for the lesson given. There were sometimes where Renjun had turned particularly snappy at his teacher, however Sicheng was easily able to ignore most of the back talk given to him and continue training without a hitch. From acrobatics to weapon training to close combat.
As the days passed, the runaway started to notice that his own physique, in comparison to Jeno's, was becoming quite similar. He realized with every confrontation he had with Kailani's play fighting or Vinzent's hackling, he was getting more proficient in holding his own. Sometimes the others would comment on this, congratulate him on making it big with getting Sicheng as his mentor; or teasing him saying that the dark haired agent was his saviour on not completely failing the whole course. Either way, things were becoming much more easier as tasks that used to take hours were only taking minutes. His teacher had also noticed this and in no time, Renjun was getting much more freedom.
He spent more times hanging outside the company. Simply practicing his parkour prowess as he hopped from roof top to roof top, sometimes flipping, sometimes repelling, other times just running around for fun. The brunette started to hang around certain buildings of choice, loitering certain spots and hanging from certain areas to grab information and secrets about the city. They weren't much but they were certainly something.
Basically, Renjun was able to use the skills he was learning for his own advantage. Of course it wasn't much to go off of, the teen was able to deduce some certain facts. For instance, there was no trace of VR technology or anything close to the sort in Vruydon nor did it exist in any other neighbouring cities. This meant that it was exclusive to Goldenleaf only, however he knew better. Hydra was able to get a good grasp on nearly everything, including his home town so they obviously would have something about the VR. What could be worse was that they were the ones who made the VR. This proved to be a large resource to start from as the two boys started to base their searches with the cultures of the cities themselves.
    They were making great strides in knowing how Vruydon worked and how to fit in more properly. Before anyone were to find out about how unfamiliar they were with nearly everything. However they didn't only spend their free time with simply finding out how to fit in. Renjun was set on the reconstruction of the camera's around the building and was able to do as much as he could with the system. Making it so that it could turn off for five minutes before coming back on was enough for the runaway to do some work while he went out on his nighttime charades. Meanwhile, Jeno would spend as much time as he could around the others to socialize and grab any extra information that their mentors had shared. It was mostly due to the fact that Renjun was not one for much social activity with his classmates. Although it was a bit bothersome at times, they were able to gain a lot of help when infiltrating the company building- so the brunette had to push down his envy.
'I doesn't matter that much.' He would tell himself as he would head up to the offices.
Yet not everyone seemed to believe that.
"Ok, while Jeno is gone, when are you going to confess?"
It was the same scene that would play out in recent weeks. Every time Renjun would choke on his drink or his food and glare holes at Yuta. Who had not so gracefully decided to grace the four with his presence. All the while insisting that Jaehyun and Sicheng join as well. Turned out that the agent had a fairly close relationship with the other two. In retrospect however, it was rather amusing considering that the trio had all tried to Renjun at one point. But he was learning, well trying to learn to trust them a bit more. It wasn't in his nature but it was for the sake of his goal so he had to go through with it all. And it was somewhat worth it. Except these moments.
"What the fuck are you talking about?!" The flustered student would near yell causing Yuta to grin devilishly.
"Come on Yuta, I think Renjun's had enough things to think about." Jaehyun would sooth his coworker, trying his best to stop the teasing once and for all. Which in the end never worked in the slightest. Nonetheless, the brunette was grateful for the attempts coming from the soft hearted agent. (Ironically, soft hearted since his specialty is killing.)
The strawberry blond sure was persistent in his teases, reminding the student of a certain honey haired boy. But unlike Donghyuck, the agent had no intention on pushing buttons. It was like the guy was genuinely interested in other people's love lives. Not that Renjun had a love life.
"It's because Sicheng won't show his love to me that much." He pouted. "He used to do it all the time when he was a trainee, but I guess that was because I was his superior in a much larger sense."
The other agent of Yuta's affections would only scoff and continue eating. "I was forced to respect you."
Renjun didn't exactly believe Sicheng's cold behaviour towards people to be true, but it was a thing to admire. Especially when put to the test on missions. The three mentors were fast to open up and it made everything in Hydra appear less threatening for their apprentices.
Yet Kuzma's teacher, Doyoung, had no intention of doing so. Always around doing work or just not wanting to talk with the other employees or trainees- at least not in public. The blue haired teen was quick to defend their mentor, saying things like "Oh you have to go talk to him first." Or "He's just stressed out that's all." But when it came down to everything, was the purple haired man really subconsciously ignoring everyone? Or was there a purpose behind it all? Renjun thought it to be the latter.
    And as he walked down the halls to head up to the offices like he had down multiple times, he reflected more. The most he thought about was ever getting the chance to meet himself in the past. Although impossible, the runaway thought it would be amusing to talk to the weaker blond boy who would second guess everything. Because in the past he had no knowledge of the outer world, he only knew of Goldenleaf. What would the past Renjun say now? He would probably think this to be some trick of the mind, freak out over it, never once think it was real. And even if he had, there was no chance that he would want to speak. Renjun knew himself. There was no way he would ever ruin the outcomes that cause him to become an overall stronger person. Because becoming stronger let them become able to do things he thought almost impossible before.
    'Would Donghyuck even recognize me?' It was a tough subject to dwell on. Now especially as the final exams were coming extremely fast. But he knew he had to tackle it at one point. Months of just pushing things away was too much to bear and it made Renjun afraid. Scratch that, absolutely terrified. He had no intention on forgetting someone so important to him.
    He imagined his friends face, beautifully tanned. His eyes curved downward with long eyelashes, dark, chocolate brown eyes wide in shock. His cute little nose, scrunched up in confusion. His figure poised in a position made for running but frozen in place, hesitant. And his lips, the plump, red lips that would curve down in a frown. Everything about the image made Renjun want to run away, back to his friend. Embrace him; press his head against Donghyuck's chest to hear his heartbeat; look up into his eyes to yell in anger and cry out in happiness.
    It wasn't like Renjun to ever confess his hidden, unrequited feelings for his best friend. Yet sometimes in those moments, the brunette could realize how much he loved the honey haired boy. So much that he saw a little bit of his friend in every person.
    In the end though, he had to move on, or at least force himself to move on. 'It's not so bad.' He breathed out and reached his hand out to the door to the stairs. 'I have Jeno to help me move on.... Perhaps that's all I need. Perhaps that's all I ever needed to move on from-'
    "Injun."
    Renjun froze. He spotted Doyoung from the corner of his eye.
    "I need to speak to you."