He Likes Spicy Food
Although Lu Jingren has changed houses, every night was still a challenge for him since it was rare to have any dreamless sleep. What triggered this change and those dreams, he did not know but it was rather annoying.
It was to the point that he decided to see his fiancee from a distance.
He saw her at the mall with another girl. If he was not wrong then the other girl was Mizuki Rei's fiancee.
[Momo, I like this pair of heels a lot! Do you think it suits me?]
Lu Jingren saw his fiancee who used to have long hair that reached past her waist but was now sporting a short hairstyle. In his dreams, her hair was long so he did not expect to see her wearing it so short.
"Yet another difference that tells me it isn't real."
She was obviously the same girl in his dreams but she looked more aloof and distant. She stared hard at people but was softspoken towards Mizuki Rei's fiancee.
[Little girl, you should choose more practical clothes. If you were chased by a monster, can you get away while wearing a mini skirt and a pair of high heels?]
[Momo! You're such a killjoy!]
[I am doing this for your own good.]
[Momo, Momo, can I atleast buy this dress? It looks so cute!]
Lu Jingren saw his fiancee's rather devastated expression but she still acquiesced to the other person's request.
He noticed that his fiancee was wearing a white dress much like the one she wore in his dreams when she went to have a date with him for the first time.
Lu Jingren watched some more before he backed away and left.
There was obviously something wrong with him.
For weeks, he encountered many sleepless nights and tried various ways not to fall asleep just so he wouldn't have to dream about his fiancee again.
Mu Qianmo noted his strange behavior but Lu Jingren did not reveal anything to him. Fu Yangzhu tried asking him but Lu Jingren did not know how to explain his current condition. This was perhaps something that no science book would be able to explain.
However, he has begun to form his own opinion about himself.
"That me in the dream... is really different from me."
Then...
The apocalypse came and Lu Jingren thought that those dreams would stop coming or that he would finally find an answer to how they came to be.
He was mistaken.
It was because those dreams got worse, basically turning into nightmares that would cause him to feel stressed.
In one of those dreams, he saw how paranoid he was.
He also saw how the other him finally understood that he liked his fiancee but it was too late since she had given up on him. There is only so much negligence that a person could take.
The other him had cornered that girl in her apartment.
He pinched her face using his fingers, their faces were very close to each other.
"Didn't you say that you wanted our relationship to work and not have a marriage of convenience?"
He stared into her eyes.
"Lilian... You said you wouldn't leave me... Did you lie...?"
His fiancee quivered like a leaf in the rain. She was quiet and she stared back into his eyes, looking like a deer caught in headlights but he did not loosen his grip on her arm or face.
A few seconds passed.
She eventually nodded, a stiff expression on her face.
[I.....won't leave, Jingren.]
"Good. Very good." He said before pressing a kiss on her lips.
His fiancee was dumbfounded. He stroked her cheeks softly using his thumb.
"Yangzhu told me that a couple who are dating should kiss on the first date. We have been dating for two months now and we have already dated each other many times."
His fiancee was in dazed as he explained this. Her eyes looked away, a faint blush on her cheeks. His fiancee was embarrassed and a little mortified.
[I...understand.]
But she did not push him away.
He licked his lips before placing another kiss on her mouth.
"Crazy."
It was a crazy dream.
Lu Jingren shivered, and rubbed his arms together, feeling as if he saw something straight out of a horror movie. He would have never done such a thing in real life.
In reality, he had never kissed a woman but the other him in the dream was like a starved beast preying on a small rabbit.
Lu Jingren was extremely bothered by what he saw, so much that he was staying up late again. Mu Qianmo and Fu Yangzhu often asked him what was wrong.
"Nothing is wrong." He said in a monotonous tone.
He did not reveal anything and merely said he was fine but he knew that Mu Qianmo had caught on to his behavior. Out of respect, he did not say anything to Lu Jingren.
In the early days of the apocalypse, Lu Jingren was extremely frustrated because of his dreams and often took it out on the mutants they encountered along the way.
Because he was bothered by the other him in the dream and of the girl that was his fiancee, he was more quiet than usual and rarely talked to the others. Everytime he thought of his fiancee, he would feel as though he was slowly losing his identity.
"This isn't me," he thought.
"I wouldn't have been as paranoid as that guy." He was referring to the other person that looked like him. Lu Jingren was clear with one thing. He likes spicy food but the guy in the dream hates them which could only mean that they were two different people who share the same face.
"That's not me," he thought, more firmly this time.
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