Paper Heart

§ 2 §-

“I’ve never been hurt over love or thought of anyone seriously before, so I’m serious,”

“This music project is going to be so easy,” Sehun, exclaimed, his voice practically beaming out his happiness. “My partner’s doing all the work, so I can just sit back and relax,” He propped his feet on the dining table, resting his hands against the back of his head as a carefree smile smeared across his face.

Lu Han slapped the back of the maknae’s head, rolling his eyes as he sat down next to Xiumin at their lunch table in the outside courtyard. “What kind of maknae are you?”

“Yeah,” Chen joked,  “You should be running around, listening and doing jobs for your hyungs, and instead you’re here acting like a chaebol,”

Sehun pouted, pulling his legs off the table and under his seat. Kai sat opposite him, smirking as he devoured his lunch. Chanyeol was next to him, whilst Kyungsoo was on his right-hand side.

“How can you eat like a pig and still maintain that body, I’ll never know,” Lay asked, crossing his arms as Baekhyun quietly copied his homework next to him. Kai smirked in response, purposely taking larger bites of his lunch just to taunt his hyung.

“What about you Kai, who’s your partner?” Suho asked, playing the part of the leader well.

“Just some girl,”

“Some girl?” Baekhyun smirked slowly, “Is she cute?”

For some reason, Sehun saw Kai’s fist slowly clenching together underneath the table. “No,” He replied, a mask of indifference covering his face.

As the discussion ventured off into different topics, Kai’s eyes drifted across the outside dining room until it came to a stop on a small figure at the furthest edge of the courtyard, her head buried into a notebook, pencil in hand. Looking down at his food, his stomach twisted into thousands of knots, causing a nauseous sensation to fill him.  

“I’ve seemed to lost my appetite,” Kai abruptly spoke, as he looked down at his lunch tray, a sense of queasiness flooding through him. Standing up to gather his stuff, he turned towards his hyungs worried faces. “Also, I don’t really want to be around for the Mathematics test next period,”

“You never loose your appetite,” Sehun countered, looking across at Kai’s half-eaten food.

Sweat riddled at the nape of Kai’s neck, as a cold sweep of September wind flickered across the table. “I guess I’m not feeling that well,”

“I’ll walk you home,” Kyungsoo said, gathering his things.

Kai nodded in thanks, before casting a single glance to the small ethereal-like shadow on the opposite side of the courtyard.

Sehun watched as his friends walked away, a sinking feeling flickering across his face as he caught the look on Kai’s face as he stared at his newly appointed partner for the rest of the term.

Turning to look at this Ryu Ara, his eyebrows furrowed. “Why is Kai acting like that?” He whispered to himself.

“Maybe he’s actually not well,” Lu Han pointed out, obviously having heard Sehun but not knowing why Sehun had spoken. “I mean, nobody’s invincible, not even Kai,”

“Make sure Taemin gives you some porridge,” Kyungsoo mothered, as he watched Kai enter his house gate. “And call any of us if you feel any worse,”

“Yes, Mom,” Kai replied, rolling his eyes.

The bricked-house was small, with a tall iron gate and was surrounded by lush, green bushes. The gate creaked open, the sound sending a shiver through Kai’s body. Stumbling to the door, his face turning translucent as he slipped his shoes off, and opened the door.

“Taemin hyung?” He called out. “You there?”

“I’m in here!” A light, airy voice came from the kitchen as Kai entered, wondering what Taemin was doing; after all, Taemin was as bad a cook as Kai.

A carton of banana milk was perched in Taemin’s hand as he cocked his head towards Kai. “Why are you back home so soon?”

“I didn’t feel well,”

“Didn’t feel well my ,”

Kai scoffed, crossing his arm over his chest. “Have you finished your online courses?” He asked, changing the subject as quick as possible.

“Of course,” Taemin replied, rolling his eyes. “It seems that I’m going to graduate sooner than I thought,”    

Kai rolled his eyes, although a small smile flickered across his face. “No one would have thought you where only two years older than me if we didn’t tell them,”

“Are you calling me old?”

“Yes, you look like an Ajumma,”

Taemin mock glared at his cousin, before a serious gaze covered his face. Manoeuvring towards Kai, his hands gripped the edge of his wheelchair, stopping just short of the handle breaks. “No, seriously why are you back here so early?”

Kai’s eyes wandered towards Taemin’s wheelchair, remorse and guilt eating away at the centre of his stomach.

Taemin always had a smile perched across his tanned skin, but whenever people weren’t around, Kai always noticed the slight hint of helplessness in everyday things that Taemin couldn’t do anymore. Although he didn’t tell him, Kai knew that Taemin missed dancing, more than anything in the world.

Guilt had always plagued Kai’s mind since the accident, especially since they lost the one thing that connected them in the first place, their love for dancing.

Kai sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I honestly felt sick, Kyungsoo hyung helped me skip,”

Taemin’s face slowly twisted into a mixture of disbelief and worry, before he sighed, slurping up the remainder of his banana milk and throwing the empty carton into the trashcan.

“Go lie down, I’ll call a take-out for some porridge, and call you school to explain your absence,”

Kai grumbled in reply, turning towards his bedroom and throwing his dark navy school bag on the ground. As his legs to buckle beneath him, he collapsed onto his mattress, the drama of the first half of school enslaving his mind. Allowing the guilt and the pain to writhe inside him, he twisted and curled on his mattress, silent tears pricking the edge of his eye.

A sharp knock rapped against the door, “Kai? I ordered us some Jajangmyeon, kimbap and porridge, do you want anything else?”

Harshly wiping away the tears that had yet to fall, Kai replied, his voice husky and thick. “No, that’s fine,”

“Alright,” Taemin replied quickly, before Kai heard him speaking briefly on the phone.

Breathing out, Kai his bed, stripping his clothes off and covering his body with the blanket. Sweat had worked its way up across his torso and the nape of his neck, as he covered his face with his hands, hiding away from the past that kept catching him no matter how much he tried to run away.

Ara closed her eyes, the dull ache in her chest intensifying. Burying her head into her music notebook, she plugged her headphones in her ears as if that would magically take away the pain in her chest.

Blood drained from her face; her usually rosy cheeks were translucent and colourless. Rubbing a hand harshly against her ribcage, Ara gripped her pencil tightly as she felt a strong gaze on the back of her head.  

“Are you alright?”

The voice was quiet and feathery, almost ethereal-like. Turning her head slightly towards the source of the voice, a flash of flaming crimson hair coming into view.

Miss Park

“I’m fine,”

“Sweetheart, you look as if you’re about to faint,”

Ara opened to respond when the pain in her chest s