She let the small tip of graphite take over her brain. She let it flow in whatever way making whatever that was on her mind appear on the piece of parchment in front of her.

Seulgi, as usual, found herself in the early morning sitting at a corner of the beautiful school garden. 

She had her small sketch book out and was drawing down whatever that she was having her mind occupied on, on such a calm and lovely morning.

She lifted up her pencil and took a look at what had come up.

Her eyes narrowed as she saw it and began to realize that it wasn't something she should have been drawing.

It was a drawing of a pair of lips. Sweet, slender and pretty lips slightly curled up at the corner like it was smirking at her.

She suddenly ripped the page off and held it closer to her eyes.

"Stupid!...What's wrong with me?" she asked herself.

A bit embarrassed and taken aback, she closed her sketch book and pulled out the file that normally had all of the little drawings she made, neatly put inside of it.

She pulled it out and placed the drawing of the lips somewhere in between the bundle. 

Her eyes went to the first drawing that was visible on top of it. It was a drawing from the day when she got invited into the mysterious house she had always wanted to go into.

The sketch had two men and a girl walking side by side on which seemed to be like a windy night. One of the men seemed to be a cheerful bubble with his mischievous smile and awkward pose, while the other seemed to be a quiet and caring one by the way he was looking at the girl.

It was the time when Baekhyun and Lay walked Seulgi back to her house. 

Seulgi smiled at the drawing. It was a sweet memory. It also was the first time in a long time, that she felt like she could actually make some friends on her own.

There were more drawings. She flipped through to see that she, without knowing, had captured most of the moments she could clearly remember with her 'aliens'. There was the one where she had drawn Suho jumping off of the cliff. It seemed too real she felt like her blood turned to water again; The time when she found herself trapped in a car chasing after D.O; The time when Baekhyun showed his powers to her at the animal clinic. There were many and it made her smile.

Without knowing, Seulgi had spent the entire morning before class, looking through her drawings, rather her sweet memories. And all throughout she kept feeling that it wasn't the end, like her body was preparing her for more...way more.

She packed up everything in a hurry after the cringe-y sound of the annoying bell made her come back to earth.

"Great...," she sighed as she stepped on to the building late for the first time.

She ran with all her might down the now empty hallway, clutching on to her open back pack which was slipping away.

Just as she made to a corner, a figure appeared and both bumped on to each other and crashed down with all of Seulgi's books falling off.

"You should be more careful!" Seulgi heard someone whine.

It was Jongin. No surprise there, for Seulgi was now used to him appearing out of the blue.

Seulgi frowned at him and squat down to pick up her books. 

The hall master who checks the late-comers was shouting his way from the opposite hallway. 

Seulgi grabbed all the books in one go and squashed them into her bag while Jongin watched her, having his hands comfortably in his pockets and he himself ready to run once the hall master appears from down the corridor.

"Why do you even bring so many books? What a mess.." Jongin started commenting.

"Shut up!" Seulgi shouted back. She pinched her file and lifted it only to have all the papers fall down and spread all over.

"Oh no!" she shouted seeing her sketches fall down and fly away from her turning everything into an even more bigger mess.

Jongin chuckled, but his chuckles disappeared as he saw the drawing that triggered his willingness to get closer to Seulgi laying at his feet.

It was half done. Some of the shading made it unclear and some were missing from the picture. Flashes of the small carving started flicking through his mind so fast. 

He tore his gaze from the picture to stare at the wall but his mind didn't stop playing the shaky image of a carving of twelve symbols that ticked like a clock. It made his head throb and made him want to...just kill himself, for a reason that he couldn't even think of.

I don't want to die...But why do I feel like I should...

The shout from the hall master clicked Jongin back to reality and he found himself alone in the hallway with no Seulgi to be seen.

"Hey YOU!" He heard the shout from the hall master but Jongin was still half on earth.

A hand pulled him and soon he was running with whoever who saved him from detention points.

"Hey!" 

Jongin found Seulgi snapping her fingers at him.

"What?" he retorted quite by practice.

She pointed to the door of his classroom and said, "Thank me later"

Jongin watched as she walked to her classroom in front of his, and disappeared at the door. Seulgi had somehow brought him to where he should be while he was half sane. 

And for some weird reason Jongin kept on staring at from where she disappeared like it meant something; like she was supposed to be a part of his story and not just for the information of where she saw the carving from, but for something much greater.

He was feeling like it wasn't Seulgi who brought him to the craving he keeps seeing in his dreams; rather it was the craving that keeps bringing him to Seulgi.

***

"These idiots! Why aren't they picking up?!" Song Qian, who appeared at her father's hospital early morning after not being able to contact Lay or anyone, finally decided to just check in on Sehun.

She walked to the room he was in and slightly open the door to see whether he was still there.

She sighed seeing a boy who had gotten out of his bed and was staring outside while his nurse was adjusting and neatly arranging the bed.

Song Qian looked at her phone one more time and put it away in frustration. She was trying to contact Lay from last night and none of the contacts that he had given her was working. She didn't even know where they stayed at, for she was even prepared to go find them and tell them the instance she figured out Sehun was one of them.

"Sehun-ah, you should eat chid," Ji Yeon, Sehun's nurse, spoke while Song Qian listened to them at the door.

Sehun just kept on staring outside.

"You know, even my child doesn't eat well. She skips meals a lot and it's not even because she wants to maintain her figure or anything. She's just...she's just..." Ji Yeon was choking up and bit.

Sehun for the first time turned his head towards her and asked back, "She's just what?"

Ji Yeon was surprised. But she shook her head in reply and said while caressing Sehun,

"...You healed up very fast. You might get discharged very soon so you can go home early."

"I don't know where 'home' is. I don't think I have one."

His reply left Ji Yeon heart broken and Song Qian even more determined.

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