Leo carried the weight of Hyuk’s journal in more than just his backpack the next day. The pages covered in Hyuk’s handwriting sat on his mind, buried themselves under the folds of his skin, and worst of all, dug into his heart so hard he could hardly bear it. He was tempted many times during the day to take it out and get it over with, but each time his hand went inside his bag to grab it, his fingers would lock around the spirals and refuse to pull it out. He had several imprints of double spirals on his palms to prove it.

The day crawled by; Leo wasn’t able to focus on his work the way he should. School just didn’t cut it anymore for blocking out intrusive thoughts. Finally, he just gave up and waited for 7:00 to roll around so he could get out of here. It wasn’t like the work was getting done with any sort of effort anyway.

When the time came, Leo couldn’t get out of the building fast enough. His backpack bounced against his back as he jogged toward the subway station, not even taking a moment to wait for Ken, who had been waiting for him.

“Come on, Leo! Wait for me!” Ken’s annoyed voice called after him. “Seriously? That’s the last time I wait for you!” Leo heard his footsteps slow to a walk and he could hear his grumbles even from here.

Throughout the train ride, Leo’s backpack seemed to get heavier and heavier and it was a relief to finally slip it off his shoulders when he barreled into their room, startling N and Hongbin out of the card game they were playing on the floor.

“Where’s Ken?” N asked, taking in Leo’s flushed cheeks and too-bright eyes. He sighed. “Did you leave him behind? Should’ve known.”

Leo ignored him and reached inside his bag, finding that now that he was home, it was easier to pull it out and carefully open it to the first page. Before N could ask what he was reading, Ken stomped into the room looking irritated. He gave Leo a glare worthy of Ahjumma before dumping his bag on his bed and stomping out of the room again. N and Hongbin exchanged a glance and stood to follow him, leaving Leo alone in the room, which was perfect.

Leo took a deep breath and looked back at the page, the familiar messy scrawl bringing him back into the past, where Hyuk was still with him. He lowered his eyes to the words and began to read the first entry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry! Teasing you again, I guess. Sorry for the filler chapters recently; good stuff is yet to come =)