━━━━━ ‘AH, IT WASN’T HIM…’
Unsure whether to feel ashamed and embarrassed, or sad and disappointed by your mistake; you realized the young boy you saw was not the blonde boy you called out for but in fact the same black haired boy you saw running.
You were starting to feel as if the empty feeling without Tommy’s presence near you was materialising into visual hallucinations.
You truly missed the boy’s cheerful yet outrageous personality. But at the same time, you couldn’t process the idea that the boy had almost died by being burnt inside a raging fire. Your heart wrenched at the thought, but you continued to give a small smile to the boy in front of you.
“I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else…” you apologized and the boy nodded, understanding the mistake.
You started to notice that the boy had fully green eyes. He reminded you of the completely white boy that had red eyes who you saw earlier with Alex walking through the hallway, yet he also reminded you of the same black-haired boy with green eyes who led you here. Could it be possible that they were the same person? But if so, how?
He started looking away from you in discomfort and you didn’t realize that you were staring at the boy for too long. You blinked your eyes and pulled yourself from your thoughts with a bit of struggle.
“What’s your name?” You asked him.
“Ranboo…” he faintly stated, but you luckily caught it.
“Ranboo? That's a cool name. You don’t seem to like talking very much, do you?” You asked, to which he nodded quietly.
“That’s okay. We can still try to get along despite that,” you said with a kind smile.
“(Y/N)...” you heard him say your name under his breath.
“Huh?” You hummed in response, confused and unsure of whether you heard him correctly or not.
“Y-Your name is (Y/N)... right?” He asked to which your eyes widened in surprise.
“Uh, yeah… that’s me… How did you know?” You asked with a curious gaze.
“Uh, I’ve heard about you before… from Mr. Q…” he divulged to which you hummed in thought.
It was funny to you how formally Alexis was referred to, and the mentioning of him also caused you to perk up and subconsciously curl the ends of your lips up slightly into a smile at the idea of him thinking about you. You then proceeded to wonder where on Earth he was right now. He seemed to be rather serious these past few days ever since his call with Jschlatt.
“You guys are close friends, right? He doesn’t talk about you that much, but sometimes he rambles a bit about you without knowing,” Ranboo stated, which caused your heart to flutter slightly.
“Do you mind if I ask you what he said about me?” You asked quietly.
“I’m sorry, I don’t remember quite well… I don’t have the best memory, but I’m sure he only talks positively about you,” he responded.
“Ah, I see…” you said.
You continued to stare at the boy for a moment.
‘He seemed so nervous and shy…’ you thought to yourself as you started to deconstruct the boy’s character.
Though, as you noticed a few bruises littering the side of his face, you started to feel rather concerned about the boy.
‘Or maybe he wasn’t always like this?’ Your thoughts continued before snapping back into reality as you heard the boy speak.
“B-by the way, who is Tommy?”
“Huh?” You questioned, caught off guard by the name he had mentioned.
“Y-you mentioned something about him earlier,” he explained.
“Oh…” you said, recalling memories of earlier when you met the boy. “Yeah… don’t worry about it, he’s… he’s one of my friends you could say. I think of him as a little brother sometimes…” you said with a smile, but he looked back at you with an unreadable expression on his face.
“Your eyes… you’re sad… something happened to him, right…?” He suddenly said,
It was as if he could read your true emotions like an open book to which you blinked in surprise at his words. The boy’s eyes widened, realizing what he had accidentally blurted out, and he looked away sheepishly.
“S-sorry…” he apologized.
Wanting to change the subject, you decided to ask him a question.
“Hey, by the way, I think I happened to see your brother passing by in the hallway with Quackity, is that right?” You asked
“H-huh, brother…?” He looked at you confused before realization dawned on his features, “O-oh… that… that wasn’t my brother… it’s quite hard to explain at the moment,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.
You swore at that moment, you saw the boy glitch, but you weren’t sure whether it was just your imagination. I mean, you had mistaken him for Tommy earlier. Your mind wasn’t exactly reliable at the moment. He then had a change of expression and looked at you with more of a rather worried look.
“Miss (Y/N), you should get out of R-RE:LIFE as soon as possible... please...” he pleaded, which confused you even more.
“Why?” You asked but he didn’t answer your question. Instead, he took out a book with a hardcover coloured in black and decorated with gold borders. It seemed so royal, yet quite messy and old with torn papers sticking out from the sides.
“I… I can’t explain right now… h-here…” Ranboo said, passing it to you.
“What’s this…?” You asked as you opened the book and flipped the cover to the first page. Messy hand scrawled out a simple sentence in blood red ink.
‘TRUST NO ONE,’ three words you felt as if you had heard somewhere before.
“Hey-” Before you could question him any further, you looked up to find he was nowhere in sight.
You looked around, trying to find him, but he was completely gone. Just like that. You then looked down at the book once again before hiding it inside your inner coat. Suddenly, the cat which had led you towards Dream appeared next to you. Not wanting you to get near anything that could possibly involve you with its owner, you tried to shoo the cat away.
“Go away...” you whisper-yelled and the cat kept its distance from you while licking its paw, beginning to walk away right after it was done.
As confused and skeptical as you already were, you took a few steps back, watching cautiously as the cat strolled out of your line of sight.
'☊⊑⏃⌿⏁⟒⍀ ⏁⍙⟒⋏⏁⊬-⏁⊑⍀⟒⟒.'
Created on 15 June 2021
Edited on 18 July 2021
Edited by michellechair @hanamocha