Suho awoke the next morning, feeling worse than he had ever had in his life. This was the reason why he rarely drank. He hated how the alcohol affected his body the morning after. It always caused him to lose sense of reality, as if time and motion had stopped and all that was left was him and the hangover. But time, of course, did not stop. It never stops for anyone.

When he returned to his dorm last night, he crashed on his mattress. He didn’t know what ‘drunk’ felt like, but he must’ve been more drunk than he had thought. His stomach was in knots and he couldn’t gather the energy to climb out of bed, even though it was almost three in the afternoon.

He thought about getting up to eat, but he didn’t feel very hungry. He thought about getting up to wash, but he didn’t feel like getting out of his warm sheets. He thought about a lot of things that had happened last night, but he didn't feel anything at all. The room was quiet, too quiet. Kyungsoo wasn’t in their room and he wondered where his best friend was. With what energy he had, he lazily stretched his arm and searched for his phone around him. He was sure his phone was nearby. Still lying flat on his back, his arms lazily searched back and forth until he felt the solid block of plastic.

“Found it,” Suho said with a smile to himself. He turned it on and his eyes felt like they were going to pop out. He had missed at least twenty phone calls, all of which were from his friends. He had a couple of text messages and he read them. He felt so groggy throughout the whole time he was looking at his phone that his eyes felt as if they were zoning in and out on the messages. From what he gathered through the messages, Sehun had gone off to the washroom, then when he came out a group of freshmen Elite’s approached him. They were drunk, and Sehun was scared. They forced him to drink, and he couldn’t say no out of fear. Then Luhan went to find him, but was bombarded by a few girls who distracted him. They talked, and talked. And Luhan tried to excuse himself, but of course they couldn’t let the handsome foreign exchange student escape. And then Kris and Lay found Luhan, and Kyungsoo found Sehun. But Kris and Lay had some brownies on the way. They didn’t realize until they found Luhan that the brownies they ate were ‘weed brownies’ and by then they were a mess. In the end, Luhan was embarrassed by his friends and had to get the hell out of the party. Kyungsoo brought Sehun back to his room and texted Chanyeol. But by that time, Chanyeol had already left Suho’s side.

And it wasn’t until he finished reading all the messages that he remembered coming across the dark Alena Yoo last night. And he remembered talking to her. And he remembered apologizing for things that were out of his control. And he remembered how sad and lonely she looked.

By then the door opened and someone appeared from behind it. Suho turned his head and saw Kyungsoo coming in. The younger male had a bagel in his mouth and a few books in his arms.

“You’re finally awake,” said Kyungsoo, a smirk on his lips.

Suho groaned when Kyungsoo flicked the lights on. Had the lights been off this entire time?

“I hate alcohol,” Suho said, rubbing his eyes. Kyungsoo snorted, “I told you not to drink too much.”

A sheepish smile formed on Suho’s lips, “I couldn’t say no to Su….bin…Oh dear god.” He slapped his hand on his face and he sighed at the memory.

Subin. He forgot about the encounter with her last night. Thinking about the two of them in a room together made the blood rush to his cheeks. Suho felt ashamed and embarrassed. And he felt sorry for what had happened last night between them. But he didn’t think Subin would be very happy if she found out he pitied her.

A coy look appeared on Kyungsoo’s face. He had slipped off his combat boots and dropped the books on the table. “Subin, huh,” he wiggled his eyebrows, taking a bite of his bagel. “Chanyeol told me you were left alone with her last night. How’d that go?”

Suho flushed even redder. “Er…”

“Wait, you’re blushing,” Kyungsoo’s eyes were wide now and he pounced on Suho’s bed. The movement of the bed made Suho feel sick. Kyungsoo crawled to Suho and eyed the other male. “Please tell me you didn’t do what I’m thinking you might’ve did.”

“Hey!” Suho shouted. His voice cracked and he cleared his throat. “Of course not. I would never take advantage of her.”

“Oh,” Kyungsoo replied. He took another bite of his almost finished bagel. “So what did you guys do?”

“Er, well honestly, she wanted to…” Suho scratched his head. He didn’t know how to say this without it sounding weird. Subin was so innocent. And pretty. And she had the loveliest freckles. He didn’t want to make her sound bad.

“Oh god, she’s a when she’s drunk isn’t she?” Kyungsoo grimaced and shook his head.

Suho’s eyes rounded and he got up so fast that he got motion sickness. “Dude, it’s not like that. It’s just… let’s not talk about it.”

Kyungsoo shrugged, “If you ever need to talk about it. I’m here.” And then he got up and wandered over to his area. It looked like he was trying to find something.

Suho let out a sigh and watched Kyungsoo search for whatever he was looking for. After a moment he spoke up. “I talked to Alena last night.”

The heavy movements of Kyungsoo sauntering back and forth stopped. Kyungsoo turned and raised a brow at Suho. “Why would you waste your breath on someone like that?”

“I don’t know,” Suho replied. “I thought she passed out on the fields or something so I wanted to check up on her to make sure she was okay.”

Kyungsoo laughed and rolled his eyes. “What a gentlemen.”

“Shut up with the sarcasm.”

Kyungsoo sighed, his face turning serious. “I’m serious. You hear how people talk about her around the campus. If she died, you should have just kept on walking. There are people in this world that you can worry about, but not Alena Yoo. She’s not worth a penny of care.” Then he went back to searching for whatever he was looking for.

Suho remained silent for a bit, letting Kyungsoo’s words sink in his brain. Something about it angered him. He never liked it when Kyungsoo said things like this. But Kyungsoo was a realist and he often said what he thought was right. “That’s pretty harsh, Kyungsoo. How can you say that about someone you don’t know?”

Kyungsoo said nothing.

Finally, he found a pair of jeans which Suho assumed was left abandoned under his bed for months now. Kyungsoo shook out the dust and spoke without looking at Suho. “I don’t need to know her. I don’t want to know her. As far as I can tell, she’s a who is better off left for dead.”

And Suho had said nothing else because he didn’t really know Alena. But he was still very upset with Kyungsoo and went back to sleep, despite realizing how hungry he was after he melted into his sheets.

---

Class resumed. Things went by as they should. Suho went to classes, ate lunch with his friends, did his homework, and everyday he repeated the same routine. He was an organized person, and it wasn’t just his room he was organized about either. His entire lifestyle was organized and it went by the rules of a chronological agenda that he created in his mind. Most of his friends thought he should find some hobbies, but Suho didn’t want it to interfere with his inner agenda. Kyungsoo called him ‘Grandpa’ on many occasions because of Suho’s lack of activity.

Suho did do things other than schoolwork though. He enjoyed taking walks, and he liked to play games from time to time. He liked to sleep a lot, too. He was just like any other boy his age… just less active on school spirit.

Suho liked his simplicity.

As the weeks dragged by, Suho came to realize that Subin had no recollection of the party. She must’ve been REALLY drunk. She didn’t talk to him about it, NOR did she give h