Chapter 5 – Your Memories, In My Head
Yuji didn't sleep easily.
Even with Ren sitting silently on the couch like some watchful shadow, the weight in his chest wouldn't let him rest. His body was exhausted, but his mind wouldn't shut up.
When sleep finally dragged him under, it wasn't his own dreams waiting for him.
---
A hand gripping a wrist.
A flash of golden light.
A voice — deep, pleading.
"Don't let go."
Yuji gasped and turned.
Ren.
Not the Ren sitting on his couch.
A younger Ren. Hair longer, eyes burning with desperation.
He was kneeling in the rain, clutching someone by the arm — a man whose face Yuji couldn't see.
"Please. Stay with me."
The man yanked his arm away, and Yuji felt it — a pain that wasn't physical. A hollowing grief so sharp it nearly brought him to his knees.
Then the faceless man was gone.
And Ren was screaming silently into the storm.
---
Yuji jolted awake with a strangled sound, his heart racing. Sweat clung to his skin like ice.
His gaze darted across the dark room — Ren was still there, sitting with his head tilted back against the couch, eyes closed, as if asleep.
But Yuji felt it.
The same grief.
Faint. Old. But still there, buried under layers of calm control.
Yuji swallowed hard, hugging his knees to his chest. He hated this. Hated feeling things that weren't his. Hated knowing Ren's pain as if it were his own.
---
"You saw it, didn't you?"
Yuji froze.
Ren hadn't moved. His eyes were still closed.
"You were awake," Yuji accused.
Ren opened one eye, glancing at him. "Not exactly. But I felt it."
Yuji's stomach twisted. "That wasn't… that wasn't my dream, was it?"
Ren sighed softly, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "No. It was mine."
"Who was he?" Yuji blurted out before he could stop himself.
Ren's expression hardened instantly. "Don't."
Yuji flinched.
"That part of me," Ren said quietly, "isn't yours to know. Not yet."
The words should have been enough to make Yuji back off. But instead, they left him with a heavier question:
If sharing this bond meant he could feel Ren's pain…
What else would he end up feeling?