Jongin didn’t exactly remember where he was at first. He was being held in someone’s arms. The bright lights, that were almost familiar, shined down on him, slightly blurring the face looking at him in silence. His mother brushed his hair away from his face.

“The paramedics said you fainted on the ride here,” his mother told him softly. Her grip on him tightened a little and her eyes started to water. Jongin couldn’t say much because his mouth dry like a desert. “Do you remember anything, Jongin?”

One by one Jongin started putting pieces together. His eyes began to focus as he studied his surroundings. A lobby. A hospital lobby. Jongin quickly sat up, yanking himself from his mother’s grasp. She didn’t bother to say anymore because she wanted Jongin to realize on his own. More tears welled up in her eyes.

“Mom, why are we…?” Jongin looked to her for answers but he grew silent when he met her somber gaze. “… Mama?”

“I’m sorry, Jongin,” his mother bit down on her bottom lip to keep her from becoming hysterical. Memories slowly came back to Jongin and he couldn’t answer so he just listened. “I came as quick as I could, Jongin. Your father couldn’t make it, I’m sorry.”

“Nn… it’s okay,” Jongin croaked out. His mind started to race. His hand raised to his face, “where is Chanyeol?”

“Chanyeol? I don’t know, I haven’t asked.”

Jongin jumped from his seat and rushed to the front desk of the lobby. “Excuse me,” he called out to the woman facing away from him. He asked a couple of questions to which he answered but one in particular caught him off-guard.

“Chanyeol’s parents are with him and they requested no one else to be in the room at this time,” she said as she looked down at a clipboard with a list and some scribbles tacked on. Jongin grimaced at her words. In a way, they hurt. He stepped back from the desk and sat back down with his mom. He wondered why he wasn’t even excluded.

“What did she say?”

“They don’t want anyone to be in the room right now,” Jongin mumbled, now obviously in a bad mood. It made him upset knowing that wouldn’t be able to see Chanyeol for who knows how long. “Mom, don’t you know what happened to him?”

His mother glanced at him from the corner of her eye. She looked down at her hands clasped together in her lap. “You know, don’t you?”

“Ah, Jongin, please let’s not talk about this right now. We should head home. You will see him later.” When stood to leave Jongin grabbed her shaking hand.

“Why won’t you tell me?”

“Jongin,” his mother shook her head and took her hand away from his, “please… don’t make me do this.”

It was then he realized how quiet the lobby was. It was the dead of night and Jongin couldn’t remember what day it was anymore. Jongin looked for a clock around the large, open space. He found one hanging above the entrance of the hospital.

10:14 pm.

His eyes wandered back to his mother not wanting to meet his gaze.

“What happened to Chanyeol?”

“Jong-”

“Please!” Jongin lost his patience, jumping to his feet. “I need to know. Please, tell me.”

Jongin’s mother sighed and looked away. People were starting to stare. “Alright, not in here,” she gestured to the entrance.

He followed her outside to a small sitting area. In fact, it was probably the exact place Jongin had been with her months prior with the cigarette. She sat down on a bench and he sat beside her. “Jongin, Chanyeol isn’t okay…”

Air clogged up in Jongin’s chest.

His lungs started to burn along with his eyes. “What’s wrong with him?”

“He won’t wake up, Jongin.”

“Ah, uh… what? What does that mean?”

“I asked about it earlier. The nurses told me it was some sort of clot in his brain. A hemorrhage.”

“But… why? How?”

“I’m not sure. Jongin, I’m sorry.” She wrapped her son in a hug and they sat there in silence. Jongin wasn’t sure if he could cry or could feel any more broken than he did now. “I’m sorry that all of this is happening to you… I’m sorry for what I said about Chanyeol before… Please, stay by his side.”

Jongin forgot it was his birthday weekend. He sat in his room alone waiting for a call from Chanyeol or something like that. He didn’t want to visit him, worried he would see something he didn’t want to see. Jongin’s parents worried but Jongin never came out of his room. It got to the point where they left meals for Jongin by his door but they just piled up over the two days.

He kept his eyes glued to his phone. Everything was falling apart as soon as they were coming back together. He didn’t cry though. He didn’t cry when he looked at old pictures of his best friend and him visiting places together. He didn’t cry when Chanyeol or his parents never called.

Jongin was slowly forgetting how to feel.

Monday rolled around like it always did. For a moment that morning, Jongin became infuriated as he wished life stopped for everyone else because his life was suddenly in shambles. He knew when he would get to school no one would care and no one would ask for Chanyeol. He knew there would be nothing on the news about his best friend. Why did Chanyeol not matter?

He wanted this all to be over.

He arrived to school a bit earlier than usual. Baekhyun and Sehun didn’t make it to the bus stop when he did so he didn’t expect anything from him. Though he felt like something was missing as he visited his school locker. It was so quiet even though people were all around him. He didn’t notice anything strange until he turned to walk to class.

People looked at Jongin differently. In fact, people were actually looking at him. The look he had on his face was probably unreadable.

“Jongin,” a voice appeared from behind him. Jongin turned around to see a few girls with bouquets in their hands.

“We heard about Chanyeol… we got you some flowers and… we’re sorry, Jongin.” The girls gave him the arrangements and left without a word. He looked around to see everyone looking at him and finally felt the sadness they were all feeling inside. His hand smacked his face in embarrassment of the tears that were starting to fall.

Maybe people understood. Maybe Jongin wasn’t alone.

Words of encouragement filled the hallway’s atmosphere. People understood how Jongin felt because there was a special place in everyone’s heart for Chanyeol. This was when Jongin realized Chanyeol was truly a special person.

He wandered to his classroom and stared at his desk that had snacks and more flowers piled on it. He was beginning to wonder how he was going to get all of this home by himself. Honestly, he didn’t even know where to put it during school. He rounded the desk to see letters from so many other students, a lot from who he didn’t even know. It warmed his heart knowing that people did care.

When the teacher came in to see Jongin packed with stuff he was offered an alternate seat but Jongin refused and just placed all he could in his desk before putting the rest (mainly the flowers) by the windows illuminating the classroom.

Throughout the day Jongin was approached by so many people. It felt nice being important to people. But he never forgot once why they were all reaching out to him. He decided today would be the best time to see Chanyeol if they allowed him to. A faint smile skimmed across his lips as he sat in lunch thinking about later that day but it quickly disappeared as a couple of people stood beside him.

Looking up he didn’t expect to see who he met eyes with.

“Kim Jongin?”

“A-ah, yes…” He replied shakily. One of the other’s placed a hand on his shoulder.

“We’d like to speak to you alone for a moment.”

“A-alright,” Jongin replied and he followed the two police officers outside the school and into the courtyard.

“All we’re asking is if you can identify a few people,” one policeman stated. “We’ve been trying to reach out to you for a couple of days since we identified you in the surveillance video of the convenience store on Toegye-ro (*ro means street like in the U.S).”

Jongin had pretty much forgot about that incident. It was pretty far back in his mind lately. When he didn’t respond the other officer, with the nametag Bang Taehyun, proceeded with the conversation. “We have, who we believe, the boys that harassed you that night in custody.”

The man took out his phone and swiped the screen a few times. When he showed Jongin what was on the screen, Jongin couldn’t recognize the two mugshots of two boys. He had never seen them before and he couldn’t match them to the faces he thought he saw that night.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think those are the two.” Jongin answered.

“They said they were told to harass you, Jongin,” officer Bang said. The other officer nodded. Jongin’s head crooked to the side in confusion. “Do you know this person…?” He went back to scrolling then let Jongin have a look at a third boy.

Jongin’s eyes widened in fear. A cold chill ran through his body like lightning.

“Do you know him?”

Silently, Jongin nodded. No words crawled from his mouth as he stared right back into Kim Jongdae’s dark and sinister gaze.

A/N: hello everyone! I'm sorry to have been gone for, like, over a MONTH. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and make sure to check out my other story that I will be starting up after Breathless. It's Kaisoo as well (I'll probably edit the description intro a bit) and I'm sure you will like it if you like this story so far. It won't be as sad, I promise lol