It was four o’clock when Haneul and I entered the room. That meant that there were about four hours until my Father would come to pick me up. I thought that I could manage to avoid Woohyun in that amount of time. Little did I know that it was quite impossible considering the fact that he was in that room. Little did I know that so much could happen in four hours.

○●○●○

“How did your moving go?” Hoya asked. I told him that it went smoothly and that I would continue unpacking tomorrow. The guys said that they were happy to have me back and that they really wanted to hear about my new home.

“Well, it’s…” I paused. I really didn’t know how to describe it. It was a house. “big.”

The guys nodded their head and some even made a circle with their lips. They asked me to elaborate and tell them more about it. They wanted to know how many rooms were in it and Dongwoo even asked me how many washrooms there were.

“Well, there are five bedrooms and four of them have their own washroom. The only room that doesn’t is my Mother and Father’s office. We have on spare room for guests.”

“You’re so lucky, Sehun. You get your own bathroom,” Sungyeol pouted. “Haneul and Woohyun take forever in the washroom!”

“Hey!” Haneul shouted.

She threw her pillow at Sungyeol who yelped at the force.  I laughed at her reaction and unconsciously turned to see Woohyun’s. But to my dismay, he showed no sign of emotions and just stared into space. He wasn’t making jokes like he normally did and he didn’t even greet me when I came in. This only added to my heavy heart.

“Why didn’t Sun Hi come today?” Sunggyu asked.

“Why? You miss playing princess?” I teased. Sunggyu’s cheeks went a bit red but he shook his head, “I was just wondering.”

“She was eating her lunch,” I said.

“Weren’t you eating lunch?” Sungjong asked. I thought back to the delicious plate of pasta that I left half-full at the restaurant and grimaced. This was all Ms. Choi’s fault.

“Yea and why did you come in with Ms. Choi?” Haneul asked randomly.

“Good!” Hoya yelled, “Make sure to become real close with her.” He emphasized the word real.

I sighed before telling them the entire story of how I was eating and Ms. Choi decided to intrude on my lovely meal. They all laughed except for Hoya who was quite happy that I had been in her car. He thought that he was one step closer to extra food and other goods.

○●○●○

“Hey, Sehun,” Myungsoo called me. I picked up the dust that I gathered with a broom and put it in the garbage before turning to him. He nodded his head to the door and I knew full well that he wanted to grab some milk. I nodded my head and soon we ended up on the terrace.

“So what colour is your new room?” Myungsoo asked.

“Light blue,” I said as I thought back to my room. My Father repainted it and on my request, he kept the colour the same. I always liked that colour.

“That’s the colour of my room as well,” Myungsoo laughed lightly. “I wish I could see my room again.”

“Why don’t you go home? I’m sure you would be allowed to,” I said.

“My parents aren’t in the country. They got a job in Japan and have been there for the past year. It’s great pay which helps to pay for the medical bills.”

I didn’t say anything to Myungsoo and just took a sip of my milk. The weather was getting nicer and nicer and children were playing outside regularly now.

“The other day, Ms. Choi brought us fries. We were really excited when we saw them come in,” Myungsoo said.

I looked over at him and raised an eyebrow, “That’s great, I guess.” I laughed a bit.

“But they were mushy!” He exclaimed. “Why would she give us such disgusting fries!? I mean if she was going to bother bringing them, she should have brought us nice crispy ones and not ugly mushy ones.”

I laughed, “So did you guys eat them?”

“Sungyeol did,” He sniggered.

“But of course he would,” I smiled. Myungsoo’s story managed to make me feel a bit less upset. My heart felt lighter and I couldn’t wait to ask Sungyeol about the fries. I began wondering what other funny stories I had missed this week.

○●○●○

“He told you didn’t he?” Myungsoo said out of the blue.

My mood suddenly went down. I knew Myungsoo was referring to Woohyun and that was a topic I didn’t want to discuss.

“Why did he say that?” I asked carefully. I was afraid that Myungsoo would say the same thing that Woohyun said. I was afraid that Myungsoo would confirm all my fears by saying that Woohyun was truly dying. If he was going to do that, I’d much rather not know at all and live in an illusion.

“Woohyun never told any of us that,” Myungsoo said. “I overheard him talking to the doctor the other day so that’s why I know.”

“How do you know he talked to me about it?”

“That day after he hung out with you, he changed. He was really quiet and just not very Woohyun-like. He came in with slumped shoulders and went straight to bed. Nobody else really noticed and just assumed he was sick but now, the guys are beginning to get really worried.”

“Did you guys ask him why he’s acting like that?” I turned to Myungsoo.

“Haneul did but he didn’t say much.”

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, “God, it’s my entire fault.”

“Why would you say that?”

After not accepting Woohyun’s request, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was being a wimp and I knew it. I was beating myself up for not accepting his request but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It felt horrible.

I ignored Myungsoo question and asked him a question instead, “Do you think he’s actually going to die?” I whispered the last word.

“I think he’s being a pessimist right now. I’ve seen Woohyun at his worst and it’s definitely not right now. But I think he just wants to do what he loves,” Myungsoo said as he turned to look at me, “Did you know he loves soccer? He misses playing it a lot.”

And there dropped my heart a bit more. Myungsoo’s words were innocently hurting me so much. I nodded my head at him, “He told me.”

“I think if he could somehow be on that field again, he’d be happy,” Myungsoo said.

○●○●○

“Oh Sehun,” Haneul said with her hands on her hips. She walked up to Myungsoo and I who were standing in the silence.

“Yes, Kim Haneul?” I replied.

“We haven’t had a tutoring lesson in a while. God knows what’s happening to your grades,” Haneul shook her head. “We’ll need to do some math today.”

She grabbed my hand and began dragging me away. I turned back to look at Myungsoo who just waved at me. Haneul continued mumbling some incoherent words and pushed me into the room. We sat on her bed and she took out her notebooks and began teaching me about derivatives.

I hated Calculus.

“Through a derivative, you can find the slope of the tangent at a certain point,” She began. I nodded my head and continued to listen until she used numbers. That was when I got lost and could no longer pay attention no matter how hard I tried.

“Wait,” I asked her to stop. “What did you do to the exponent?”

Haneul looked back at her notebook and re-explained it, “You just bring the exponent down and multiply it by the coefficient. Then you subtract one from the exponent and there you go!”

She gave me an example and told me to find the derivative. I hesitantly picked up the pen and began writing. I did as she told and brought down the exponent before subtracting one from it. I checked my answer multiple times before looking over at Haneul who was busy reading a book.

“I’m done,” I announced. She looked up and then down at my paper. Her eyes scanned my work and then she looked up at me, “You got it, Sehun!”

A small laugh escaped my lips and a smile of pride was placed on my face, “I got it, guys!”

Everybody cheered for me and Haneul gave me a high five while smiling brightly. I never knew how good it felt to get a question right nor did I know how great it felt when everybody was happy for you. I turned my attention back to the lesson plan that Haneul made and urged her to continue on.

○●○●○

“You did well today, Sehun,” Haneul complimented. “I sort of thought you would doze off.”

“I can be smart too, you know,” I said.

“I guess,” She giggled while looking at me. I pushed her away a bit and she gave me a look of dissatisfaction.

“I’ll keep pushing you down unless you admit that I am smart,” I said while pushing her forehead so that her head was on the pillow. She struggled against me and blew her hair away. I had fun teasing her. She was about to admit that I did have intelligence within me but the door opened and in came the lady who always ruined my fun.

“Have you guys seen Woohyun?”

I looked back at his bed and noticed he wasn’t there. I suddenly got a bit worried and asked Ms. Choi why she needed him.

“He didn’t come for his checkup and he’s not here either.”

“I’ll go look for him,” I said as I got up. I walked out of the room and went to the cafeteria. Woohyun could have possibly been hungry and could have decided to get a snack. There had been many instances when he just randomly got up for food. When I got there, I didn’t see him and neither had anybody else who I asked.

I then went to the games room and the gym. He wasn’t in either places so I tried to the terrace. I wasn’t sure if Woohyun knew that it was a nice place to be but decided it was worth it anyway. But to my dismay, Woohyun wasn’t there either.

Where did he go!?

I began walking through hallways again and found myself in the library. I walked through the aisles and ended up near the end where there were separate rooms for those who wanted privacy while reading. I checked a couple of rooms but Woohyun wasn’t in them.

Woohyun, what games are you playing right now?

I ruffled my hair frustratingly and was about to leave when I saw another room in the corner of the library. I stared at it for a while before finally deciding to check to see if he was in there. I walked up to it and tried to look in through the window but it was covered and there were no holes.

I put my hand on the handle and pushed it down, “Woohyun, you better be in here.”