The morning sun was already blazing when Ren sprinted across the campus gates, breathless and disheveled. His shoulder still burned faintly beneath his uniform, the serpent mark hidden beneath layers of fabric. No matter how many times he told himself it was just a dream, the throbbing heat proved otherwise.
"Ren!" Kai waved from the entrance of their lecture hall, grinning. "Cutting it close again, huh?"
Ren shoved him lightly. "Shut up. I made it, didn't I?"
But even as he laughed it off, his mind wandered. He kept rubbing his shoulder, uneasy. Something about the mark—it felt like it was… watching him.
He tried to focus as Professor Han droned on about literature, but his thoughts kept slipping back to last night's dream, to golden eyes in the mist.
The classroom door creaked open.
Ren looked up—and his heart skipped.
A boy stood in the doorway, tall and graceful, his black hair catching the sunlight like strands of silk. But it was his eyes that froze Ren in place—golden, sharp, and hauntingly familiar.
Every nerve in Ren's body screamed recognition.
"Class," Professor Han adjusted his glasses. "This is our new transfer student. Introduce yourself."
The boy's gaze swept across the room, lingering on Ren for a heartbeat too long. "My name is Li Wei," he said smoothly. His voice carried a strange weight, low and velvety, like the echo from Ren's dream.
Ren's stomach tightened. Impossible. It couldn't be him.
Li Wei offered a polite smile, but when their eyes locked, Ren felt the air in his lungs vanish. The same words from last night's dream rang in his mind— "Mine… no matter the lifetime."
"Li Wei, you can take the empty seat beside Ren," Professor Han instructed.
Ren stiffened as the stranger walked down the aisle, each step slow, deliberate. The moment Li Wei slid into the seat beside him, the serpent mark on Ren's shoulder flared, heat pulsing through his veins.
Ren flinched, clutching his arm.
Li Wei leaned slightly closer, his golden eyes glinting. "Does it burn?" he murmured, so quietly only Ren could hear.
Ren's breath caught.
He wasn't dreaming anymore.