Chapter 11 ; First Nightmare

I awoke to the beeping of a vitals monitor. An IV needle was stuck in my arm, and my head felt like it was splitting open.

The events of the previous night rushed back to me all at once.--the spiked drinks. The almost . Baekhyun, punching the life out of that kid. The crazy in his eyes. His warm fingers against my cold cheeks. The roughness of his voice.

I looked around. I was in a large room, isolated from everyone else by a curtain.

“Hello?” I called.

I heard footsteps.

“The patient is awake.”

The curtain was pulled back by a nurse, revealing a distressed looking Hana and Baekhyun’s clique.

“Oh my god Myunghee, are you okay?” Hana asked, leaping forward and grabbing my hand.

“Yeah. What happened?”

“You passed out. Alcohol poisoning and drugs or something. Oh my god Myunghee, what on earth?”

“It’s ah, a long story.”

“Baekhyun called us this morning,” Kyungsoo said, “said that you would probably need a ride home.”

“Where is he?”

The entire assembly with the exception of Hana and I erupted in laughter.

“Oh god, Baekhyun is such an idiot!” Sehun exclaimed.

“He actually managed to fracture his fracture!” Jongin said.

“What?”

“He means that he went and further fractured his leg fracture,” Junmyeon clarified, “he somehow managed to get into a fight or something without having fully healed it.”

“And you all think that’s funny?” I said.

“Yeah!” Jongin said, “he’s always so cautious and clear-headed. It’s amazing how reckless he was. God, he wouldn’t even tell us what happened.”

“This is all my fault,” I whispered.

“How do you know?” Hana asked.

“He got into a fight with a gang of boys,” I said shakily, “to save me from being ually assaulted.”

//

“No, you stupid! X is 12 and y is 15.”

I rechecked my work, and everything seemed to be right.

“No, you stupid! X is 14 and y is 17.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“Admit it, Myunghee, I’ve always been better at algebra than you!”

“That’s not true! Remember freshman year when I beat you on that test?”

“Yeah, that one time!”

“Ugh! Give me your stupid piece of work!”

I snatched Baekhyun’s notebook out of his hands, meticulously scanning it. I detected no error. Hm, that was weird.

“Here, give me your piece of work.”

Baekhyun’s eyes swept over my calculations. His brows furrowed before he chuckled.

“You’re so careless. You copied the question wrong. From the textbook.”

I grabbed my notebook back and compared my question to that of the the textbooks. My stomach dropped as I realized that he was right. I cursed my carelessness.

Mr. Park made it my mandatory assignment to ‘tutor’ Baekhyun every weekend until he recovered. He wasn’t aware that Baekhyun was depressed. Although it wasn’t clinically diagnosed, it hindered him. He would not want to return to school any time soon.

It was late when I arrived at his house. I was over at Hana’s, in the process of repairing our friendship. Now, it was around 2 am and I had taken the bus here. The last bus would’ve left an hour ago. There was no way I could get home.

“Say, could I crash here? Just for tonight?”

Baekhyun seemed a little annoyed, but he agreed. He gestured at a door in his wall.

“The guest room is conjoined with mine. You can stay there.”

I picked up my bag and hauled it to the guest room. It was generically decorated, but I could see hints of Mrs. Byun’s taste peek out. Pastel colours and paintings of flowers. I texted my mom.

Staying over at friend’s house

The moment my head hit the pillow, I drifted into a heavy, dreamless slumber.

And I was awoken by a shriek.

I bolted up in the darkness, confused and a little bit frightened. A few seconds passed, and I heard it again. It was evidently masculine, and it came from Baekhyun’s room.

My bare feet slapped against the cold wooden floors of the bedroom as I twisted the doorknob and opened the door that separated our rooms.

Baekhyun was asleep, but not peaceful. His expression was twisted into one of anguish.

“No,” he muttered, “n-no.”

“Baekhyun?”

“No!” He screamed.

“Baekhyun!” I shook him by the shoulders, “wake up!”

“N-no, it-it’s not my fault!”

“Wake up!”

I shook him harder and his eyes flew open. He jumped away from me. His forehead was matted with hair. He was panting and sweating.

“Oh god,” he whispered weakly, “they’re back.”

“What?”

“The nightmares. They’re back.”