Chapter 25: Can it Get Worse? P.2 Banana Danger
Welcome to Touchstone
After bundling up, Yiseul leaves her room to meet others outside in the dark hallway. While lost in her wandering thought of where Jinhwan was, a bright light assaulting her face causes her to look away with eyes shut.
Junhoe’s chest rumbles with soft chuckles.
Jennie snatches the flash light from him. “Your immaturity is astounding,” she mutters.
“So, the whole building’s electricity is down so that means the heating is also completely down,” Joohyuk notifies everyone with exasperation clear in his voice. Things surely have gotten worse, haven’t they?
“All efforts are probably focused on the main campus and not us who are out here,” Jisoo responds. “We’re the forgotten middle child.”
“I wonder how East wing is holding up,” someone from Center body comments.
“Probably not any better,” another replies.
“Dorm head, what should we do?” Seungyoon asks.
“We need a means of contact so everyone should try to conserve their phone’s battery,” she answers.
“That’s a good idea,” Joohyuk seconds as he takes a look at his phone that shows a depressing 45%. He tries to hide his grimace as Yiseul and him make eye contact for a moment.
“I have 89%.”
Yiseul’s announcement earns her a chorus of, “How?”
She shrugs. She doesn’t play on her phone and she doesn’t really contact anyone– speaking of which, she should probably see how Mina is holding up.
***
“Have you heard anything from maintenance?” Yiseul asks as she meets Joohyuk by the window, away from their residents.
Everyone has gathered in the common area in hopes that with lots of people, everyone would benefit from the condensed body heat. But, also because the few battery-powered heating appliances have been dropped off by school authority and scattered about in the dark room. And, thankfully, the arguments have stopped since their attention has been focused on one thing– staying warm.
“I’m only told that they’re working on it. Some other parts of campus have lost power also,” he responds.
“This ,” Junhoe mutters between his quivering lips.
A sudden open and close of a door at the end of the hall stirs everyone’s attention. Soon, the footsteps come to a stop outside the common area and a head peeks in.
“Wow, it’s a party,” Hanbin comments.
“What’s a resident of the East wing doing here?” Jongdae wonders.
“I got bored,” Hanbin responds after peeking out from his scarf. Just like everyone else, he was bundled up in layers as well. He walks in and Junhoe is quick to grab him.
“I need more body heat,” he says as he wraps his arms around Hanbin. Bobby soon joins on the other side.
“Is anyone hungry?”
The single question from Center body immediately gains everyone’s attention.
The young girl stands to her feet. “Since West wing is giving us a place to stay, I can share some of our food.”
“Seulgi to the rescue,” Jongdae says with a smile as she disappears out into the hall.
Yiseul suddenly focuses on the buzzing in her phone and she excuses herself.
“Dorm head, what about conserving battery?” Junhoe yells out after her but she’s already gone.
A little further down the hallway, Yiseul picks up the call. “Yes, Mina?”
“Do you know how long until we get power back?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s freezing, Yiseul.”
“Did you put on layers?”
“Yes, but it really isn’t doing much–,” coughs spill out from the other line.
“Try to stay with everyone and where the heaters are,” Yiseul reminds her.
“Can’t you come, Yiseul?”
“Yiseul!”
A call of her name from behind causes her to look over her shoulder to see Suhyun waving her over. “To where?” she asks Mina.
“Here. Where I am.”
Yiseul finds herself unable to answer right away. “I can’t, Mina.”
Silence comes over.
“I’m needed here,” Yiseul explains and based on what she has been hearing, the main campus would most likely have results sooner than them anyways.
“… Okay.”
“Call me if there is anything else,” she says before ending the call. Stuffing her phone back into her pocket, she walks back to the common area with Suhyun waiting at the doorway. “What’s wrong?”
“My brother,” Suhyun responds blankly.
“God, how can she be out cold like that?” Someone from Center body comments with his attention directed at Lisa who was slumped against the wall on the floor.
“Suhyun! You’re going to get sick,” Chanhyuk mutters with worry while wrapping another scarf around her.
Suddenly, the look of disbelief on Suhyun’s face disappears behind the fabric. Hoping Yiseul would come to her rescue, her hand subtly searches for the dorm head and she manages to tug on her sleeve.
“Chanhyuk, I don’t think she can see,” Yiseul says.
“Oh,” Chanhyuk responds before trying to push the scarf down so that they could view more of his little sister’s face.
“… She may a hard time breathing as well,” Yiseul adds.
“Oh… then, I can loosen this up a little,” he answers while working on the scarf.
Though it wasn’t the ideal solution, Yiseul tried her best.
“I’m back,” Seulgi announces as she walks through the door at the end of the hall. In her hands was
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