Third Person POV…

Sohee gradually began to calm down and soon enough even the hallways outside had hushed down. She sighed as the last trickle of sunlight left the room.

Suddenly a thought came to mind and Sohee pulled out her phone from her bag she had tucked away in the corner. She switched it on and there it was, under the time was a stream of missed calls and unread messages. She bit her lip and after taking a quick glimpse at Zelo, waddled into a far corner to roll through the messages.

Where are you? Don’t leave me with Kai!! ㅠㅠ Hurry up or you’ll be late for class! —Jisu [1:28pm]

Hello?? Is everything okay? Class has started already!!—Jisu [1:37pm]

My phone got confiscated because of you! –Jisu [3:16pm]

Why aren’t you or Jongup answering your phones?! ….Oh! Oh I see… ;) –Jisu [3:22pm]

Sohee where are you? –Minhyuk [4:02pm]

Where are you? What are you doing? –Minhyuk [4:45pm]

Sohee where are you? Your brother’s getting worried… –Suho [4:46pm]

Hurry up and get home. –Minhyuk [4:47pm]

ANSWER YOUR PHONE LEE SOHEE!!! –Minhyuk [4:58pm]

Sohee felt a chill down her spine. She quickly flipped to her contacts and just as expected there were several missed calls from her brother—27 to be exact, plus 10 from Suho. Sohee hesitantly pressed dial and the moment she brought the device to her ear, her brother picked up.

“LEE SOHEE WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING OUT AT THIS TIME WITHOUT TELLING ME?!” Minhyuk immediately yelled through the line.

Sohee almost dropped her phone from shock. She pulled it away from her ear and checked whether or not it was already on speaker. It wasn’t—but it sure felt like it was.

“S-sorry,” Sohee stuttered as she hesitantly closed the gap between her phone and her ear.

“WHERE THE ARE YOU?!” Minhyuk barked

“Th-the hospital!” Sohee spat back.

There was a silence then rummaging.

“Hey Minhyuk what’d she say?” Sohee could hear Suho ask in the background, “W-What?! Give me the phone!”

There was more rummaging before a clear voice was back on.

“Sohee are you at the hospital?! What’s wrong? Are you okay?!” Suho blurted the moment he got hold of the phone.

Sohee felt her lips tighten in some sort of distorted smile. “Yes, yes I’m fine. Zelo was in an accident though.”

“Huh—Junhong? What happened??”

Sohee quickly explained the situation to the two on the phone, apologizing several times to her brother who kept swearing and cussing in the background.

“So he’ll be okay?” Suho questioned, worry in his tone after having met the boy several times in the past.

Sohee nodded instinctively. “Yeah, the doctor said he should wake up in a few hours.”

There was rummaging around the line again before Minhyuk’s voice perked back up. “When are you coming home?” he asked bluntly.

Sohee exhaled, feeling somewhat relieved he was no longer yelling. She then scrunched up her lips and mumbled her reply, knowing he would probably be back to cursing and shouting the instant she answered. “Well… the nurse said one of us should stay the night and—”

“WHAT?! COME BACK HOME RIGHT NOW!!”

Sohee groaned and sunk to the floor. Glimpsing up at Zelo, she could only see his feet poking out from the blankets. “Jongup had to go home to Jisu so I’m keeping Zelo some company,” Sohee mumbled.

“ARGH—FINE! We’re coming over though,” Minhyuk hissed.

Sohee brought the phone to her other ear after the first one felt seemingly deaf. “There’s a limitation of one person after six o’clock,” she twisted around to peaked at the clock above her, “it’s fifteen minutes past six already.” She could hear her brother groan and shove the phone to Suho to deal with the matter.

“So, Junhong will be discharged in the morning—”

“If they say there’s nothing else wrong with him,” Sohee interrupted. “So…um… after he’s discharged… can he stay with us for a week or so—just until he can take care of himself again?” Sohee bit her lip. There was a silence and mumbling on the other end. She could feel her fist clench in anxiety.

“Yeah, we’ll pick you two up in the morning. Just call one of us when you two are ready to go,” Suho finally replied soothingly.

Sohee finally exhaled. Her chest and fist unclenched themselves and she felt her head lighten slightly. “Okay—”

“Wait Sohee!” Minhyuk chirped.

Sohee pressed her lips together, assuming a lecture was to follow. “Yes…?”

“Take… take care,” Minhyuk grumbled.

Sohee smiled and nodded to herself. “I will! Good night,” she paused and quickly added ‘I love you’ before ending the call.

Sohee exhaled and got up from the floor. Only when she got up did she notice how tense her muscles were from the apprehension, they felt stiff and weak as she waddled back to Zelo’s side. She dumped herself back into her seat and unconsciously found herself staring at the boy again. He looks so peaceful… was all she could think as she felt somewhat grateful for the situation.

Sohee suddenly jolted as her phone began to vibrate on her lap. She quickly brought it to her ear expecting it to be Minhyuk with an over-hanging comment, she was surprised to hear a female voice on the other end.

“SOHEE FINALLY!!” Jisu groaned loudly.

“Huh? Jisu!” Sohee’s face lightened up.

“Jongup just got back home and he told me what happened, and here I thought you two ditched me to go on a date!” Jisu slurred, “Anyway, how’s Zelo doing? Is he awake yet?”

Sohee peaked at Zelo from the corner of her eye. She heaved a sigh and shook her head, “No, he’s still resting...”

“Ah is that so?” There was a short gap in the conversation before Jisu added, “If the doctor said he’ll wake up soon, he’ll surely wake up soon!” she reassured her. “Ah but what’ll happen to the competition tomorrow— wait.”

The line fogged up as Jisu brought the phone away from her ear to run around. Sohee could hear a door open and Jisu shout, ‘Hey your competition is tomorrow, right?’ After a moment Jisu brought her phone back to her ear.

“So yeah, what’s going to happen with the competition?” Jisu asked.

Sohee pondered this over. ‘He’s going to be devastated…’ She twisted her lips. “I don’t know…” she murmured.

“Hmm… he wouldn’t be able to participate even if there’s no physical injury,” Jisu pondered. “He’s going to be upset…”

Sohee found herself nodding and hastily commented with a simple ‘yeah’ while her eyes unconsciously drifted onto the oblivious boy. “Well there’s we can do…”

Jisu sighed, hummed and suddenly changed the subject. “I’ve decided I’m going to give up on Daehyun oppa.”

Sohee blinked, she could tell this was going to be a long conversation so she walked over to the other end of the room again. “What do you mean?” she whispered into the phone, as if someone may have been eavesdropping.

“Well after you left to get your phone and stuff, some stuff happened and blah blah blah—”

“Hey! What happened?” Sohee grumbled in disappointment.

“Fine, fine!” Jisu grumbled back jokingly. “After you left to find your phone, Kai and I were alone.  We were just small talking but I kept feeling guilty for some reason and when I was about to ask if he was waiting for me that day he interrupted and said he saw you leave before me and—” Jisu was talking really fast and high pitched as if she had a time limit to explain herself.

“S-Slow down!” Sohee pressed.

Jisu exhaled and continued on a moderate pace. “Kai said he saw you leave before me and asked if I stayed back to ask the teacher something. I panicked—” her voice cracked at panic to emphasize, “—and didn’t know what to say so I suddenly asked him if we had made plans to walk home together that day. He said no but then he said he had waited for me,” Jisu sighed, it sounded more like a grumble over the phone. “He probably just wanted me to feel guilty—that bastard.”

Sohee smiled knowingly to herself. “He probably just wanted to let you know.”

Jisu groaned, Sohee could imagine her friend rolling her eyes. “I didn’t know what to say. Then he said, ‘I watched you leave… you were holding hands’” Jisu gave Kai an immature voice like children do when they mock their parents.

There was a pause.

“I felt bad though.” Jisu admitted.

Sohee sighed, “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t help it.”

“I know but—!”  Jisu sounded frustrated but let it go. “Anyway—I told him it didn’t matter since we weren’t dating and then Kai began to yell at me.”

Sohee was taken aback. She shuffled around, moving the phone to her other ear. “Yelled? What’d he say?”

“Something like, ‘he’s just playing with your feelings,’ and then I defended Daehyun so Kai got more mad. He whacked the table—I thought he’d like punch me.”

“Mmhm,” Sohee hummed. She didn’t know Kai had it in him to yell at Jisu, yes he was stubborn and hot-headed at times but...

Jisu rushed the next section like she was disgusted for the words to come out . “Then Daehyun appeared and it was really awkward. He asked if he was interrupting and Kai lied and said, ‘No, me and Jisu are just discussing our date this Saturday.’”

“But you weren’t?” Sohee interrupted.

“Exactly!” Jisu exclaimed, proud she had gotten something through. “Anyways—Kai then asked if Daehyun and his girlfriend had plans this weekend.” There was another pause.

“Jisu?” Sohee called.

“He—Daehyun said Eunmi and him had no plans yet.” Jisu hesitated, “He’s dating Eunmi.”

Sohee pursed her lips. She didn’t know how to feel, in a way she was sad for Jisu but also relieved that her friend could finally get over Daehyun now. “I’m sorry…” she said unsurely, “Are you okay?”

“It’s okay, I’m okay,” Jisu insisted. “I’m just sick of being the only one trying so hard.”

Sohee nodded. “Y’know, Kai is trying just as hard for you.” She could hear Jisu nodding and hum a ‘yeah.’

There was a long silence before Jisu heaved a loud sigh as if to check whether Sohee was still there.

“What are you going to do now?” Sohee asked.

“Daehyun and I will just go back to how we used to be, except I won’t fall for him this time—”

“And Kai?” Sohee asked curiously.

The reply was hesitant but Jisu embarrassingly admitted, “He’s still insisting on taking me on a date this Saturday…”

‘That’s in two days…’ Sohee thought. She beamed, happy that she was finally giving Kai a chance despite his ruthless behaviour. “That’s good.”

Took me several attempts to update this (internet kept playing up.) If you don't already know, I have started a new story, Paradox Online. Don't worry I'll be updating IDKU simultaneously. It's a bit more action sci-fi/fantasy and based on J/MMORPG games. B.A.P still (since I'm so biased.)

I just reread this chapter. Its sounds even worse then when I wrote it... maybe all the english assignments at school are helping me orz