The following day, Jisoo didn’t show up for literature again.

Minhyuk swallowed down the thickness in his throat, his stomach sinking an inch further each time he turned to glance at her empty seat. He fidgeted in his own, finding it hard to keep still. It was frustrating. He was worrying for nothing. She seemed completely fine when they parted ways - but that didn’t stop his mind from racing.

Everyone’s body processed drugs differently and it had been obvious it was her first time taking any type of drug recreationally. He shook his head vigorously, as if he could eject the thoughts in his brain that way. In reality, it resulted in nothing more than his platinum blonde hair blocking his vision.

“I’m beyond worried, Jihye. I haven’t heard from Jisoo and she’s not the type to stay silent when she’s absent. At least, not with me,” The tall lanky guy that sat next to him whispered toward his girlfriend. Minhyuk slowly and calculatingly moved his hair out of his face.

“Hyungwon, calm down. I’m pretty sure she just came down with something. She’ll be fine.” Minhyuk watched as Jihye continued to assure her Hyungwon, smoothing down his hair where he had previously run his hand through it. Various things didn’t sit right with Minhyuk when it came to that couple. From his observations so far, he gathered that Jihye was obviously manipulative, but Jisoo seemed important to Hyungwon. So, why was this Hyungwon guy such a coward? If he wasn’t going to check on Jisoo, then who was supposed to?

Again, no. She had parents and possibly other friends that would surely be concerned about her. It was her fault for not informing herself on what she was taking, anyway.

It had nothing to do with him.

He huffed out a frustrated breath and pouted into his mask, choosing to lay his head down on his arms. The worksheet that he had been assigned to do wouldn’t get done in this state of mind anyway.

“I wonder if it’ll really be okay. Jisoo didn’t look so well these past few days. Plus, we were supposed to have a sleepover tomorrow.” Hyungwon avoided eye contact with Jihye as he uttered his last sentence and Minhyuk squinted his eyes in realization. Hyungwon hadn’t told his girlfriend about his plans. His and Jisoo’s plans. “Now, why would that be?” Minhyuk mouthed as he sunk further into his arms, trying his best to seem inconspicuous.

Coward.

Jihye in turn, had gone red in the face. Her pale complexion along with her apparent temper left nothing to the imagination. “A sleepover?!” She whisper-yelled at Hyungwon. “Are you forgetting that she’s a female and that we’re currently dating, Hyungwon?” She continued as Hyungwon’s jaw worked, visibly pissed himself. “Yes, actually, because she’s just a friend. I don’t think of her that way. I think of her as my best friend and nothing else.”

If either of them went to check on Jisoo, all that Minhyuk could foresee was a disaster. An emotional one that Jisoo didn’t need if she was still suffering from side effects, and if he could prevent it, he was going to.

Minhyuk shot up from his seat in the middle of their lovers spat as Jisoo’s name was thrown every which way. He grabbed his bag and stuffed his worksheet in it before walking out of the classroom. He couldn’t function like this, but it wasn’t rational for him to want to make sure she was okay to this extent either. He knew absolutely nothing about the girl.

Although deep down, he was aware of exactly why he was a nervous wreck about her.

And it made him sick.

“Shouldn’t you be in class?” The woman behind the computer eyed Minhyuk.

He had taken off his mask and hoodie on the way there, hoping he could be more convincing if he looked less menacing.

“Yeah, but my teacher wanted me to deliver some homework to an absent classmate after school. He said I should come before I forget and that you could give me the address.” Minhyuk gathered all his energy to smile brightly.

It was draining and hurt his cheeks.

“Who’s the student?” Minhyuk looked away from the name placard at the edge of her desk. “Jisoo.”

The woman behind the computer, Miss Kang as Minhyuk had just learned, continued to stare at him blankly. Minhyuk started to feel a cold sweat break out at the back of his neck.

“Last name?” Miss Kang raised an eyebrow, clearly not amused.

. He didn’t know her last name!

How incredibly stupid could he get?!

He looked over to the wall at his right, his panicked eyes reflected on the picture frame’s glass across from him. The planets of the milky way galaxy were pictured inside the frame, detailed descriptions of each one included.

“I’m Moon Jisoo.”

Ah, right… Moon.

It was Moon.

Her smile and hand, the hug… everything about her had been so bright and warm.

She was always warm.

“Moon,” He mumbled out, still staring at the picture, not quite sure if what he said was even audible.

“What was that?” Miss Kang said as she now chewed on a piece of gum noisily. He turned to her, snapping out of whatever that had been and replied, “Moon.”

She lived far.

Much farther than he did from their school and that was saying a lot.

“What a pain,” He said as he got off the bus.

As he looked around him, he began to realize where he was. He had been to this area quite often before, recognizing the convenience store him and his brothers had often frequented. That had been quite a while ago…

As he made his way to her house, he found memories popping up at random. He shook out his head and resorted to staring at the ground, putting his hood on to block his view. He didn’t need reminders of everything that had been good in his life and couldn’t have anymore.

By the time he arrived at her front door step, it was already lunch time and he was starving. He had half a mind to run off and grab something, but he knew he wouldn’t even be able to eat without finding out if she was okay first.

He pushed the doorbell with his index finger and fixed his mask. She lived in a quiet cul-de-sac, unlike the apartments he and his brothers had grown up in. As run down as the area and houses seemed, it gave off an aura of coziness. He missed that about this place.

The seconds seemed to go slowly as no one answered. The ball in his throat was hardly letting him breathe and now his stomach was twisting painfully. Was no one home? Was that it?

He sighed and went for a second attempt, when the door opened, the doorbell’s sound reverberating between them both as they stood there.

There she was in all her glory, clad in pajamas and hair frayed in all directions. Minhyuk didn’t really know what he had expected of Moon Jisoo, but this was hardly it.

“M-Min-” She stuttered before looking down at herself and nearly shutting the door in his face, choosing to only poke out half of her face behind it instead. He stood there visibly surprised, not knowing what to say. His brain hadn’t planned out the possibility of her being okay. He had thought the worst.

“What are you doing here?!” Her voice sounded rough, but he could tell the tone was of complete embarrassment. “How did you get my address?!” Minhyuk flinched a fraction at her shrill voice. It just kept going higher in pitch.

He continued to stand there, hands in the front pocket of his black hoodie as he stared at her. What possible explanation could he give her? The actual reason for coming to see her was selfish and he knew she wouldn’t understand.

“Why didn’t you come to school today?” He blurted, eyes piercing through her own as she peeked around the door, her full face coming into view again.

Now that he had time to take a good look at her, she did look ill. Severe bags under her eyes that looked like bruises, a fresh sweat upon her forehead, eyes still dilated and bloodshot. He felt a familiar itch at the back of his neck, his right-hand twitching inside his hoodie pocket.

He hadn’t been completely wrong.

The weight he had felt earlier grew heavier now, pressing down on his shoulders and threatening to drown him alive.

“I didn’t go because….”

I feel like absolute .

Jisoo felt a miserable laugh bubble up in . Hyungwon would have said something about her language if she had said that. She looked up at Minhyuk, who was staring at her with an odd expression… Almost as if he were lost.

She didn’t understand anything.

All she understood was that he wasn’t Hyungwon and that meant she didn’t have to hold back to appeal to him.

She steeled herself before replying, knowing full well that this could also be a hallucination. She had been having short bursts of them all morning. It’s like they were almost gone but were clinging to everything they could in order to stay.

“I didn’t go because I feel like . If it wasn’t apparent,” She said, opening the door fully again. Her head was throbbing horribly by this point and he had already seen her, so what was the point in hiding?

“Where are your parents?” He asked, squinting at her.

“Can we just… Can you come inside or something? The suns out and it’s too bright.” She backed up to let him in, but he hesitated. She saw him visibly gulp before he rushed in past her.

Real or not, she was too tired to figure him out today.

She slumped down on the couch, curling into a ball and patting the spot next to her lightly.

“My parents won’t be home for a good while, so don’t worry about it,” She said, noticing how weak her voice sounded.

“You’re fine with letting a stranger into your home, without your parents around? Are you nuts?” Minhyuk snapped at her as he sat down, concern evident in his eyes. Maybe he wasn’t as hard to read as she had thought.

“After what you did for me yesterday, I hardly see you as a threat. Plus, I really don’t have the energy for all these questions, so can we just get straight to the point?” She whined, grabbing her temples with her thumb and middle finger.

She felt the couch lift a little and opened her eyes. Minhyuk was gone. She could hear some noises coming from the kitchen, but it was blocked by the wall the couch was against. Jisoo stopped massaging her temples and thought for a minute. What if he really was dangerous? What if he came back with a knife from the kitchen or something?! Her mind began to race as she heard his footsteps coming closer.

He was coming back!

As much as it hurt to move, she scrambled up and pressed herself against the corner of the couch, pillow at the ready to deck him right as he rounded the corner.

Minhyuk appeared and she raised the pillow menacingly, ready to hit her target when he looked up at her and stopped dead in his tracks, a bag full of ice in one of his hands.

She audibly gasped in the silence that ensued.

It had to be the DPH still, right? She wasn’t usually this damn paranoid!

She then watched as Minhyuk backpedaled out of her sight.

Oh god… How could she