Chapter 20 - Zone

“-ya… Keya… Keya” Blinking multiple times as she feels someone tap her, Keya tilts her head to the side as her vision refocus on the sketch book in her lap. Adjusting her glasses as she slowly raised her head, Keya finds Suyun staring back at her from the passenger seat of the van. An amused but concerned look was on her face. Looking to her right, she sees the same look on Daehyun’s face. She then looks to her left and again sees the same look on Yongguk’s face.

Keya blinks again before turning around in her seat to see the other four boys with the same look. Keya looks at Himchan who had been the one to call her. “Uhhh… oh my bad, I kinda zoned out for a moment. What did you need?” she asks, her hand raising to rub her forehead. Himchan raises a brow at her. “Earlier, you and Suyun were…”

Himchan stops talking and lets out a laugh. A pout crosses Keya’s face as she watches him. “I’m sorry…” Himchan says with a small smile. “But did you say that you zoned out?” he asks. Keya nods. “Yeah, it happens from time to time. I used to do it a lot in high school.” she informs.

“Ah, okay, so that means you know your habit.” he says.

“Huh? Yeah, I know when I zone out.” Keya says.

“No… I’m talking about the singing.” he says.

Keya tilts her head. “What do you mean?” she asks. Himchan sits forward. “You’re telling me that you’ve never been told that you sing, apparently when you zone out.” he states. Keya frowns as she rubs her forehead again. “What? No I don’t.” she says. She then looks at Jongup who nods. “Yeah, you do.” he states. Keya then looks at Daehyun who also nods. “You’ve done it a few times before when you and Jongup were reading manga.”

“Your volume was low.” Jongup says. “But when the car got quiet, we can’t help but actually hear you.” he states. Keya feels her face heat up. “Ahhh… I was hearing music in my head, I didn’t think that I was actually singing along.” she states. Zelo looks at her. “What song was just going through you head before you zoned back in?” he asks. Keya tilts her head. “Ah, it was one of 10cm’s songs.”

“It was ‘Tonight, I’m Afraid of the Dark’, right?” Suyun asks. Keya looks at her and nods. She then groans. “Well this is very embarrassing… for me.” she says sitting back into the seat. “But that would explain how Stace realized when I started zoning out on her sometimes during our high school days.”

“I’m pretty sure she wasn’t too thrilled when she did.” Youngjae says making Keya let out a small laugh as she turns looks at him and shakes her head. “No she was not.” she says. He then looks at her. “Speaking of habits, why do you keep doing that constantly?” he asks. When Keya looks at him with a confused look, he motions toward the hand that she had once again pressed to her forehead.

Keya looks up as her hand before she lowers it. “Oh, I do that whenever I have a headache. I didn’t realize I was doing it so much.” she states. She then shrugs. “Why don’t you just take some aspirin?” Yongguk asks. Keya sighs. “I would, but I forgot mine at the apartments.” she states. “And I had just bought a new bottle too.”

“Hold on, I have some in my bag.” Yongguk states, sitting forward to grab the bag that sat on the floor at his feet. After a moment, he pulls out a small bottle. Popping it open, he gives Keya three of the green clear tablets before closing it back and setting it back in his bag. Thanking him, Keyah looks around for a bottle of water.

“Why did you give her three?” Daehyun asks. Yongguk looks at him. “Because whenever I see her take them, it’s usually three or four.” he says. He then looks at Keya, who was still looking around. Grabbing the bottle that he had sitting in the door’s drink holder, he hands it to Keya. “I figured that that naturally works.” he states.

Taking the bottle, Keya uncaps it before taking the medicine. Once done she recaps the bottle and hands it back to Yongguk. “Thank you.” she says. She then turns and looks at Daehyun who was looking at her with a raised brow. “What?” she asks. Daehyun blinks. “You do realize that you just…” he trails off before shaking his head.

“You know what, never mind. Forget it.” Daehyun says. “Instead… You take four sometimes? Keya, that’s unhealthy.” he says. Keya shrugs. “Well I’ve token six once. At max eight.” she states. The look that across Daehyun’s face was almost comical. “Daehyun, calm yourself. It’s okay. It was fine.”

“Keya, you shouldn’t do that. That’s dangerous.” Zelo states. Keyah shrugs. “I wouldn’t do it if I thought it was too dangerous.” she says. “In high school, I used to get really bad migraines. They were to the point that I would get sent home. But when I went to get checked out, they said I was healthy and that it was probably stress. So only thing I could do was take aspirin.”

“Well was it stress?” Jongup asks. Keya shrugs. “I don’t know. Because as I told them, what was there to stress out about? I didn’t do anything. The only time I ever really went outside was when Stace dragged me out.” she explains. “But who knows. The mind works wonders and I could have been stressing out without even realizing it.” she states.

“So you just took the aspirin instead of trying to find out what it could have been?” Daehyun asks. “Keya that could have been an overdose.” he states. Keya shakes her head. “I wouldn’t have done it if I thought it would come to that.” she says. “Remember, I’ve been down that road before.” she says.

“You’ve overdosed before?” Keya turns as looks at Zelo who had a look of horror on his face. The shocked look on the others’ faces didn’t really help. Keya immediately shakes her head. “No June Bug, don’t think that. I never did it. Just thought about it.” she states. Himchan scoffs. “That’s still bad.” he replies. “Why would you think about that?” he asks.

Keya shrugs. “It just natural came up.” she says. “I had depression from somewhere at the end of 8^th grade up until months into 9^th grade.” she informed as she turns around and sits back into the seat. “That summer in between was a very difficult time for me. I’ve thought and done things that I wish I could take back.” she says her right hand unconsciously taking hold of her left forearm. “But that’s done and in the past. Can’t change it.”

An uncontrollable silence settle over the van. “So how did you overcome it?” Youngjae asks after a moment. A small smile spreads across Keya’s face before she even thought about it. “Family and Music.” she states and without even looking at the others around her, she knew that they understood. “In a matter of like three minutes, Super Junior changed my life. Something about their performance just spoke to me. Maybe it was the thought of the hardships they might have faced to debut with 12 members. Got me thinking. But it introduced me to a world that has now put me where I am now.”

“I guess I’m grateful for that. It lead me to be able to be here with you all. So I guess I wouldn’t want to change the past if I could.” Keya states. “I wouldn’t change the time I’ve spent with you all for anything in the world.” In response, Daehyun wraps an arm around her shoulders. He pulls her closer until their head lightly bumped together. “Stop it. You’re going to get us all emotional if you keep on.” he says. “Let’s talk about happier things. Like food and where we’re going to go eat at right now.” he adds earning laughs from the others.

A.N.: And that's Chapter 20. Another short chapter, sorry. I can't believe I haven't updated in a month. I thought I updated like two weeks ago. So when I logged in I was like 'God, I'm super late.' But I'll try to update again next week.

So far everything is going well. Just found out earlier today that San E & Mad Clown is coming to Chicago and Monsta X is coming back again for thier world tour. I am definity going to Monsta X. And I'm trying to see if I can go to San E & Mad Clown. I love San E, and they're doing a meet and greet for the two, so I really want to go.

Anyways, thank you all for reading.