Jongin wants to call Soojung. Soojung wasn’t Taemin or Jinri, or any of his other friends. She was Jung Soojung and she could help him. His heart ached, he’d done all he could but it hadn’t been enough and now it was being covered up.

Until a few days ago he had no idea who Zhang Yixing was, and now he wanted to scream to the world what he saw, what had happened to the boy, because the school was starting to pretend like it never happened. Jongin figures that by the time Doctor Hwang leaves, if Yixing doesn’t come back then they’ll pretend like he never existed. They’ll make it seem like his life wasn’t destroyed by stupid bullies, and unsympathetic teachers.

Jongin pauses in his steps. He closes his eyes in the middle of the sidewalk three blocks away from his school and takes deep breathes. He slowly breathes in and out, counting down from ten, ignoring the few people passing him as he stands still. He opens his eyes just as someone accidentally pushes into him, blaming the teenager under their breathe.

Jongin then takes out his cellphone, and unlocks it.

 From:Soojungie
Sorry Oppa. I won’t be able
to answer calls while I’m
away. This will be my
last time texting too. Don’t
worry, I already contacted my sister.
^.^ I’ll call u when I get back!

That was sent yesterday, the very last thing Jongin had seen from her, and since then he’d contemplated texting her. Soojung was a bit of a free spirit. She was quiet and didn’t exactly talk a lot but she was always thinking. She had gotten Jongin into numerous messes with just the words ‘Oppa’ and ‘I’ve got an idea.’ Soojung had aegyo seeping out of her pores and she knew how to put it to good use when she wanted to.

She was his best friend, he told her things that not even Taemin knew, and now with her gone he’d lost his confidant. He could text her, and she would probably answer him, but he didn’t want to ruin her fun.

He bites his lip and thinks about where he can go from there, what he can do. Part of him wants to see Zhang Yixing, he’d been told what hospital the older male was staying in and he did want to see him.

Jongin thinks to what his friends would tell him to do, what they themselves would do if they were in the same predicament and he decides that he needs to see with his own eyes that Zhang Yixing’s okay. He won’t be able to attend school with a clear conscience until he’s sure Zhang Yixing will be okay and come out of what happened to him stronger.

He starts walking again, blending seamlessly into the early morning city dwellers as he heads to the nearest bus stop.

Jongin bites the bottom of his lip as he paces the outside of the hospital room. The last time he’d been in a hospital was when he was 13 and Soojung made him climb a tree to see who could climb the highest. Jongin had fallen off about halfway there and not only did he lose to Soojung but he broke his arm and obtained a concussion.

Jongin takes in a deep shaky breathe and moves forward. He grasps the door’s handle and slowly and cautiously enters the room. In front of him there are two beds, he barely pays attention to the first bed, eyes taking in the sight of the broken boy in the bed closest to the window.

He hesitates in the doorway; his mind tells him to run, to get away as fast as possible but his feet moves forward till he’s right in front of Zhang Yixing. His eyes stray up and down the sleeping bo