You stare at the laptop screen, scrolling down your Facebook profile aimlessly on your bed. You have no idea what you’re doing but it’s better than just lying on your bed, thinking about… stuffs.

Just then, your messenger pop-up appears at the corner of the screen. It’s Kai. You remember that you’ve forgotten to reply his text messages. All 6 of them.

[Chat mode]

Kai says: You didn’t reply me. You didn’t lose your phone, did you?

Riles says: No. Uhm. Sorry. I was busy.

Kai says: With what?

Kai says: Anyways, how was your day?

Riles: Busy.

Kai says: -_-

Riles says: Sorry.

Kai says: Is there anything you want to say to me other than just ‘sorry’?

Riles says: Nothing really.

Riles says: Oh, how was the audition today?

Kai says: I talked to Baekhyun today.

Riles says: I didn’t exactly asked you about him.

Kai says: I want to talk about Baekhyun.

Riles says: Well, I don’t want to talk about him.

Kai says: Why can’t you just type out Baekhyun’s name?

Riles says: It’s pretty obvious I meant him.

Kai says: I dare you to type out his name.

Riles says: You win the dare.

Kai says: Seriously?

Kai says: Wait, does this means you didn’t see Baekhyun today?

Riles says: I don’t see why I would. I was at the park.

Kai says: That idiot.

Riles says: Yeah, well, anyways, I’m going to bed.

Riles says: Hello?

Riles says: Okay, bye.

Kai says: Wait!

Riles says: Yes?

Kai says: Come to college tomorrow.

Riles says: Huh? What for? It’s our semester break.

Kai says: I need to see you.

Kai says: Yeah, that’s right. I need to see you.

Kai says: It’s been a while.

Riles says: …sure. But I promised Chanyeol to be somewhere.

Kai says: Are you out of your mind? You two actually planned to be at the park from the morning?

Riles says: No.

Riles says: We’ll be at the park in the evening. We’re going somewhere else in the morning.

Kai says: What? The zoo?

Kai says: Right, yeah, just be in college.

Kai says: Goodnight!

Kai appears to be offline. Send him a message instead.

[Chat mode ends]

“Yah!” You shout at your screen when he goes offline just like that. That bastard. “I don’t want to go to college,” you grunt and fall back on your bed. “What is he up to now?”

“Hun?” your mum knocks on your door suddenly. “Are you awake?”

You put a pillow over your face. “I’m going to sleep, mum.”

“I need to tell you something. I need to talk to you,” she says.

You don’t want to talk. You don’t feel like talking. She must be wanting to talk to you about college and life again. You don’t want that.

“Not tonight, mum.” You push the pillow away. “I don’t feel like talking.”

The next morning, early in the morning in fact, Kai is seen pacing back and forth, also in circles, outside the music hall, which is a rare case. Not Kai going crazy outside the hall, more to the fact that Kai is in college early in the morning during a semester break.

He takes his phone out from his pocket and jabs onto the screen almost vigorously. He didn’t care if he cracks the screen. After pressing the call button, he holds it up to his right ear. Baekhyun finally picks up his phone, “Yah! Where are you?” Kai shouts into his phone.

“I’m behind you,” Baekhyun replied and ends the phone call when Kai turns around.

Kai stares at him shockingly, eyes widen, eyeing Baekhyun up and down. “The hell happened to you?” he asks rather loudly and walks up to Baekhyun who keeps scratching his right arm. “Didn’t you go find Riles yesterday? I asked her on messenger last night and she said she didn’t see you!” Kai then grabs Baekhyun’s right arm up, stopping him from further scratching. He points at the red swelling spots, “What are these? Did went all the way into the jungle to find her? You fell onto some poison ivy?”

Baekhyun tries breaking away from Kai’s grab but fails. He then continues scratching the spot near Kai’s hand.

“Stop scratching!” Kai exclaims and hits Baekhyun’s left hand away. “You better answer my questions!”

“I can’t.” Baekhyun cries. “They really itch!”

“I’m not letting you scratch them until you answer my questions!”

Baekhyun covers his ears with both hands, Kai’s hand still grabbing onto his right arm. “Fine!” Baekhyun puts his hands down. “I actually went finding for her in every block of our college and then I realized she wouldn’t be here since its semester break. So I ran to her house and she wasn’t there either. Her mum was surprised to see me after I told her my name. Which is weird. But she told me not to wait for Riles and go find her at the park. I did. She wasn’t to be found anywhere.”

“Then?” Kai isn’t really being patient during Baekhyun’s explanation at all.

“I slept at the park. At the playground.” He doesn’t dare to look at Kai, who is eyeing him with questioning eyes now. “On the slides.” He then looks down at the mosquito bites. “And yeah, I got these instead.”

Kai opens his mouth to say something but he shuts it back almost immediately. He sighs and lets go of Baekhyun’s right arm. “I’m not even going to ask why you were sleeping there.”

Baekhyun didn’t even bother to say anything to Kai. Instead, he just keeps scratching the itching spots. They look really bad.

Kai shuts his eyes tightly in disbelief and looks back at Baekhyun’s arms which are full with scratch marks and swelling mosquito bites. Some are even dried up scars resulting from Baekhyun’s forceful scratches. “Come on,” he says, motioning Baekhyun to follow him. “Let’s get you to a nearby clinic or something to treat those…” he trails off and grabs both of Baekhyun’s wrists. “Can you stop scratching?”