Byun Baekhyun, day forty two 12:21

As I walked into the cafeteria I was met with a familiar figure. I approached cautiously, attempting to make my steps as silent as possible so that he wouldn't hear them but of course, he turned around when I was only a few steps away.
“Trying to startle me?” He asked. I shook my head in response and received a dry chuckle. “Don’t lie to me Byun.”
“No, I swear. I wasn't trying to startle you.” He stared at me through peered eyes, scanning my face for any sign of a lie, before finally letting out a small sigh.
“Any news?” He asked, turning back around and forcing me to walk around the table.
“No,” came my short reply, “you?” He shook his head with a disappointed frown.
“I don’t get it,” he exclaimed, “people don't just disappear!” He pushed his tray away and let his forehead rest on the table top. The action reminded me of my own tray sitting among the line of perfectly rationed portions of food. Without saying anything, I retrieved my tray and placed it on the table inches away from his head. The hollow thud caused him to raise his head, his eyes staring at me from an angle that made him look angry. I raised my hands instinctively and he lowered his head again. As I sat down, a long and drawn out sigh left his lips.
“You okay?” I asked, half-heartedly picking up my fork and stabbing it into the well-done meat before me. He shook his head in reply and I decided to leave it at that.
After a few minutes he suddenly let out a startling groan of frustration.
“You have got to stop doing that.” I said, my hand letting go of the fork to clutch my chest. He mumbled an apology, sat up and continued eating his barely-touched food.
He was barely halfway done when I finished so instead of returning to my room, I decided to wait until he finished. Little did I know that despite his large mouth, the man could only eat the tiniest bites. Safe to say he was dragging out the time before we both had to return to our respective rooms.
“Tell me about him again.” I asked. The man in front of me looked up with wide eyes, swallowed and cleared his throat before answering.
“What’d you want to know?” I shrugged.
“Whatever, when did you meet him?” I asked and he took a moment to chew his food before answering.
“I think… it’s been about six months since then.” A smile spread across his face at the memory. “I still remember it perfectly, he was the first person I met after I came here. It’s strange,” he started, furrowing his brows in thought, “I can remember this place being a lot smaller back then.” He looked around as if making sure that this place was bigger and I couldn’t help but follow him. “You know how they say the color white makes things brighter?” He asked, focusing his attention back on me. I shook my head having never heard that in my life. “Huh, I still hear the ringing in my head. ‘White is bright. White is bright’. I guess they stopped playing it.”
“Playing it?” I asked confused. He nodded his head and his gaze looked distant as it looked past me.
“That voice, you call it Han-something.”
“Haneul.” I clarified.
“Yes, Haneul, it used to say that sentence over and over again. But still… nothing was as bright as him.” He said with a fond smile. “I remember we used to talk every chance we got, back when this place was smaller I would run into him everywhere.” His smile faltered slightly. “But the day we met was special. I had been here for about two months and I finally accepted the fact that I was alone and then, he decided to show up. I was so excited--” he let out a chuckle, “--I actually knocked him over. He had only been here for about a day and I shocked him so bad.” I couldn't help but laugh at the story.
“I can imagine.” His smile was wide but it didn't quite reach his eyes as they glazed over. I recognized the vacant stare and knew I had to get his attention back. “Kyungsoo?” I said and his eyes regained some focus as they met mine.
“Huh?”
“We’ll find him,” I stated, reaching across the table to put my hand on his, “I promise.” I tried giving him an encouraging smile but his attention was on our touching hands. He started nodding slowly, as if he was still processing.
“Really?” He asked in a low voice. It was trembling and forced like he was trying to choke something back.
“Really.” I whispered back. He looked up at me with tears welling in his big eyes before speaking in a trembling voice.
“Okay.”

The moment I stood up to leave the cafeteria I got a sinking feeling in my gut. I turned around just before the doors closed behind me to catch one last glance of Kyungsoo and found his back facing me as he hunched over the table in much the same position I had left him in. A shadow of a sob could be heard as his body started trembling. I felt a stabbing pain in my heart but still, I let the doors close and headed back to my room. I didn’t care about the looming feeling that I wouldn’t see him again, I convinced myself that my gut was wrong.
Or at least I hope it is.

A/N: This is about 51 words under my goal for each chapter but I really wanted to get this up. Please leave a comment, tell me if it was obvious who it was, who you think will be featured in the next chapter and if you think Baekhyun's gut is right. How do you think the story will play out? There are a lot of twists and turns yet to come.