Chapter 9

A loud ring sounded throughout the forest. 

Jaejoong stirred in his place. The sunlight filtered through the trees as they replaced the moon’s gleam with a brighter shine. He squinted as soon as he opened his eyes. About to rub the sleep out of them, he noticed his hand loosely curled around his dead cell phone. Sighing, he put it in his pocket before he slowly sat up, careful not to aggravate his wounds any further. With a bruised and dirt-covered hand, he brushed the twigs that stuck to his face over night, leaving similar indents on his cheeks. He shook his head to shake the dead leaves out of his hair. His eyes formed into slits as he peered at his surroundings. Realization suddenly hit him as he saw that he was still in the forest. But how?

*Flashback* 

Jaejoong listened to the long and continuous ringing before someone picked up.

"Hello?" Yoochun answered with a groggy voice. Jaejoong figured he had woken him up.. It was past midnight and he felt guilty that he had to wake the other.

"Y-Yoochun?" Jaejoong managed to croak out.

"Ye- who… who is this?" Yoochun yawned, not paying to much attention to the call.

"It's… Jaejoong." Jaejoong winced from the pain; it hurt to move his jaw. As if his face was squished between two hard objects; every movement causing them to dig into his jaw. How he wished it was numb. 

"Jaejoong?!" Yoochun's voice rose and he sounded more alert. Jaejoong nodded on the other side of the line, not realizing the other couldn't see it. 

When Yoochun got no answer, he got worried.  "Jaejoong? What happened? Are you ok?" 

"It… hurts..." Jaejoong croaked out. He started to tear up from the pain that was slowly coming back.

"What hurts Jaejoong?...Is it because of Yunho?" Yoochun started to think about what happened earlier that day when Yunho rejected Jaejoong and caused a huge commotion. 

"After school I--" 

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Yoochun paused when Jaejoong stopped talking. 

"Jaejoong?... Jaejoong?!" Yoochun asked into the phone. He looked at the cell phone screen and saw that the call had ended.

'He hung up?' he thought. He tried to call Jaejoong back, but he wouldn't answer. 

“Hi, this is Jaejoong. I can't answer the phone right now but please leave a mess---” 

“Damn!” Yoochun cursed. Jaejoong’s words kept repeating in his head. 

‘He's hurting? It must be from what happened with Yunho, he must be devastated right now. Yunho for causing this!' He also started to think about why Jaejoong hung up and didn't answer when he called him back. 'Maybe he just needs some alone time.' Yoochun sighed before going back to sleep. 

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"After school I got hurt… Can y-you pick me up?" Jaejoong asked. He waited for the other to respond but got no answer from Yoochun.

"Yoo-Yoochun? Hello?" Jaejoong tried again, but still got no answer. He checked his phone and realized that it died mid-call.

"Ahhh!!" Jaejoong groaned and threw his phone as far as he could, wincing when it caused a sharp pain to shoot up his arm. He fell back onto the ground, giving up. 

"Someone… please..." Jaejoon croaked before consciousness left him.

*Flashback end*

Remembering the school bell that woke him earlier, he carefully took to his feet, quickly catching himself when his leg had trouble supporting his weight. He couldn’t miss class. It still hurt a lot to move, but for some reason it didn’t hurt as much as he thought it would. It was as if his body had released a bunch of endorphins to make him feel lighter. Like when you laugh after breaking a bone.

'I'm going to be late for class,' Jaejoong thought on instinct. Forgetting how he looked, he limped through the maze of trees, soon finding himself at the front doors of the school. 

It didn't faze him when didn't see anybody else hurrying into the school. When he stepped inside, no one was in the hallways.

'They must all be in class already. I'm so late,' Jaejoong panicked. He tried to limp faster when he saw the door to his classroom, but once he reached the door to push it open, he lost his footing and fell, making hard contact with the floor. The door made a loud bang as it hit the wall behind it. Most students jerked in surprise while a few shot their heads up as they were awaken from their slumber by the sudden loud noise and looked in the direction the sound came from. His classmates gasped when they saw Jaejoong slowly get up, his body covered in blood and bruises.

Jaejoong looked to the back of the classroom when he heard laughing. His eyes grew wide in fear when he saw Heechul and the other three students from yesterday smiling and laughing, their gazes fixed on him. He quickly looked down, not wanting to provoke anything else, his hands started to shake in fear. It finally hit him that he was covered in bruises. His hands wrapped around his arms in a protective shield. How he wished he had a sweater.

"Jaejoong!" Jaejoong heard a familiar voice before he was engulfed in a tight hug.

"Ahh.." Jaejoong winced.

"What happened to you?!" Yoochun pulled away from the hug just enough to see Jaejoong's face.

"No-nothing..." Jaejoong stuttered and turned away from Yoochun. When he did, he saw Yunho and Siwon standing up from their seats and staring back at him with wide eyes, shocked at Jaejoong's appearance. Jaejoong averted his eyes once again, to the other side of the room this time and saw Junsu in his seat, hands covered his gaping mouth, trying to stifle any sounds that could escape his chapped lips. Jaejoong could tell he was about to cry, seeing the glassy look he had in his eyes. Jaejoong wanted to run over to Junsu and hug him to try to make him feel better, but before he could, Yoochun yelled at him. 

"Yeah right nothing happened!!" Yoochun shouted sarcastically.

"Omo! Jaejoong-shi! You need to see the nurse!" the teacher cut in, his mouth agape.

"I can take him!" Siwon and Yunho both yelled out simultaneously, causing the other students in the class to gasp and question why two of the hottest students in the school would want to help a nobody like Jaejoong.

"No need." The teacher turned to Yoochun and Jaejoong. "Yoochun, you are already with Jaejoong, you can take him."  

Yoochun nodded and started to head out the classroom with Jaejoong. "Let's go Jae," Yoochun said as the left the classroom and the two gaping boys behind. 

As soon as Yoochun and Jaejoong left the classroom, Yoochun started his interrogation.

"What happened to you?" Yoochun asked him again, but Jaejoong kept quiet. "Who did this to you?" Yoochun pried, but still got no answer. "Why don't you tell me?!" Yoochun raised his voice, halting in his step.

"I did!" Jaejoong screamed back, not missing Yoochun's sudden flinch and saucer-like eyes.

"I tried to tell you! I--" Jaejoong winced, tears forming in his eyes as he tried to hold himself up. The pain was getting worse. 

Yoochun's breath hitched when he saw Jaejoong's scrunched up face. He knew the boy was trying to hide his pain. Within a minute he was already crouched down in front of Jaejoong. "Get on my back, we need to get you to the nurse now!" Jaejoong hesitatingly nodded before carefully getting on the othe