~~~~~~~Jaehwan felt his fingers trembling, his hands barely holding onto the phone as he desperately clung onto the small device. With each ring he felt his heart drop, terrified that she would not answer. Ms. Kim had told him to call if he ever needed her. It was late, but he needed her now. He needed her so badly right now.

“Jaehwan? It’s 2 in the morning, is everything okay?” Jaehwan could barely speak, heartbreaking sobs stopping his voice from coming.

“I-I know you told me to call you right away. I-I know but it just happened so fast and I—I couldn’t call I-“

“It’s okay. Everything’s fine Jaehwan, that’s not your fault. Do you know where your coach is?”

“No, I don’t know where I am. I remember being in the lobby with the rest of the team since we’re leaving tomorrow a-and they were talking about me and saying all these lies and I started to get worked up so I motioned to coach and he-he said that he understood and then I left the room. I don’t know what happened but I thought maybe there was a person? But I’m all alone and I don’t know where this is b-but there’s broken glass everywhere and I-I think my hand is bleeding Ms. Kim. ”

Jaehwan would not have been shocked if all his tears were enough to make a river beneath him. He was terrified, more than terrified even……traumatized.

“It’s okay, I’m going to fix this Jaehwan. You probably got cut on the glass, so if you can what I want you to do is make sure that any tiny pieces of glass are out of the cut and put pressure on it. I’m gonna call your coach, and we will sort this out I promise you.” Ms. Kim was going to hang up the call. She couldn’t, Jaehwan didn’t want her to leave him. He couldn’t be alone anymore….what if he lost it again.

“No! Please stay I’m scared don’t hang up.”

“Okay, I can put this on a conference call so you can hear me and your coach. Is that alright?”

“Yes yes anything is just please don’t hang up the phone it’s all dark here.”

“Alright, it’s okay now. I’m not going anywhere…shhh. You’re okay now, I’m going to fix this.” Jaehwan heard beeping noises, and then seconds later ringing sounded however he could still hear Ms. Kim’s breathing. Jaehwan took a second, trying to calm his own uneven and short breathes so as not to embarrass himself even further in front of his coach.

“Ms. Kim, I was just about to call you. I’m sorry to tell you this but-“There he was, but the coaches’ voice barely registered to Jaehwan right now. Ms. Kim was the only one he needed to paid attention too, but she suddenly sounded extremely upset.

“But what?! But you let all those bullies on your team talk about Jaehwan and then let him have an episode on his own?!?! After I specifically told YOU that he needed to be watched out for on that little field trip of yours!!!!”

“Ms. Kim I can expla-“

“Don’t you DARE try to justify this! I am his guardian and you will listen to ME, or I swear to god himself that if ANYTHING has happened to him I am going to make your life a living hell!”

“I understand ma’am and I’m very sorry. We are working on it right now.”

“You will not be ‘working on it.’ You are going to FIND him! You will bring his medication with you, and you will take him back to that hotel. I don’t want him anywhere around those other kids and I will be picking him up and taking him home. If you haven’t found him in 10 minutes, I am calling your supervisors and having you fired.”

That was where it finished. Ms. Kim ended the call with coach of her own accord, Jaehwan entirely at a loss for words. Ms. Kim simply talked him through what to do, speaking with him until the coach finally arrived. Jaehwan was grateful, she kept him grounded. Ms. Kim kept his beyond scared and fragile psyche intact until help came.

The coach did in fact make it within 10 minutes, having followed every instruction Ms. Kim had given him. He brought Jaehwan’s medication, and even a bottle of water for him to swallow the pills easily with.

“Jaehwan……I’m so sorry. I promise this will never happen again, and I have a different room for you and will get you whatever you need. Okay? Let’s get out of here.” The coach looked scared, never having been in a situation like this before. He carefully led Jaehwan around the remainder of the broken glass, ripping off a piece of fabric from his clothing and giving it to Jaehwan for his hand. The man had never seen any teenager tremble this much before, solely from pure terror.

Jaehwan still had not hung up the phone call with Ms. Kim. ~~~~~~~~~

Jaehwan could not deny, everything was a little much to deal with right now. He felt like for everything that has happened, he’s done a decently good job of staying under control, but the fact that he did loose it is still nudging at the back of his brain.

He tries to remember, but it’s all just blurry rapid spans of craziness. He couldn’t h