the two boys continued their tutoring session as usual, after woojin had very painstakingly convinced bang chan he was feeling better and good to continue. 

he felt more focused today and wanted to work harder to thank bang chan. he felt very apologetic for his breakdown earlier, also embarrassed that he had to see this side of him. 

"chan-ie," 

"hmm?" 

"i don't understand this part. can you explain again?" woojin said with a smile, placing his chin on his hands, looking up cutely at bang chan.

"sure. hmm, alright. you want x as your subject, so you move the rest of the equation to the left," bang chan slowly explained, occasionally looking at woojin to check if he was listening and understood whatever he was explaining. 

however, he did not expect woojin to fall alseep. he had never slept in their sessions, and always very eager to listen and ask questions. 

bang chan slowly pulled out the pen he was holding and carefully carried him to the bed, in fear of waking him up. he obviously wasn't able to continue studying after what happened earlier, but kept being stubborn and insisted on continuing the session. 

bang chan sighed, and decided to bring him out for dinner later. 

-

"uung, chan-ie?" woojin woke up, patting his hand on the side of the bed to search for bang chan. it was however, cool. alarmed, woojin sat up and looked around the room. 

wait, what? where was he? wasn't he in his room with bang chan before? weren't they just studying? what? why was he suddenly in this plain, grey room? moreover, the only thing in this room was the bed!

what was going on?

pain crept into his head, splitting his brains apart. out of all time and places, he started having migranes. again, those scary, depressing thoughts entered his head. 

suddenly, the room shifted, morphing into another whole different scene. was he dreaming? it must be. this is all just a dream, woojin! c'mon, wake up, wake up! 

the scene slowly changed to a schoolyard. it looked like he was behind some school. his middle school, to be exact. 

"hey, what're you standing there staring at me for? you saw all that right? if you wanna laugh then please do, i really don't care anymore. ahhh..." 

"h-hey, are you okay?" he automatically spoke, when all he really wanted to do is laugh and walk away. he pulled the poor guy up, dusting his shoulders. 

"why're you helping me? i'm disgusting," he took a glance at woojin, "if you're helping me just out of pity then forget it. i don't need pity," he shoved woojin away, struggling to the wall for support. 

"you clearly need help right now. let me help you," woojin demanded without hesitation, and he really wanted to slap himself. nothing would happen if he were to leave the guy alone. 

"i'm woojin. what's your name?" 

"... why should i tell you?"

"fine then. i'm gonna call you weak boy,"

"don't call me that! i'm woon. park woon," 

oh, how he resented that name.

-

"why did you help me back then?" 

the two boys were sitting comfortably on the bus, making their way home. they lived on the same street, just a few blocks away.

"well, i got reminded of myself when i saw you. so i decided to save you," 

"you got beaten up before too?" park woon asked, now perched on his seat. he can't believe someone with such strong justice get bullied once. 

"yes, called me woodiot or something," woojin scoffed, "pathetic," 

"let's protect each other from now on. i predict someone's gonna come beat me up soon," park woon held up a fist, and woojin bumped it in response.

"sure!"

-

they graduated together, without any problem, fortunately. ending up in the same high school, they were again unseparable, sticking together whenever there was a chance. 

two months passed like that.

while heading to the teacher's office alone, he bumped into some very familiar seniors. 

"hey, long time no see, woonie! are you still acting all buddy-buddy with our dear woodiot?" 

"leave his side, or," the senior whipped out a pocket knife from his back pocket, pointing it towards woon's neck. he cackled, "or you'll know what happens,"

-

"w-woojin, i'm sorry. i can't be friends with you anymore,"

"w-what? why's that? you're joking, right?" 

why did he suddenly want to stop being friends? hah. because he was a coward, unwilling to face this together.

"let's not meet tomorrow. i'm going now,"

the next day after school, four familiar faces were laughing together. 

"let's go to the karaoke?" 

"sure!" 

and they all set off to the bus stop. woon turned back and caught woojin staring at them. he looked shocked, but quickly turned away.

-

chemistry and math class was now a sickening place to be at. they taunted woojin all day, and woon soon showed no more sign of remorse or regret. he was living one of the happiest moments of his life, thinking, woojin could never.

woojin was forced to transfer schools. he had no choice. yeah, bye ers. i'm going over to meet my soulmate, y'all could never. 

the scene now shifted to class, where he was sitting in front of bang chan. they were back to when he first entered the class. 

there were students making fun of him, banging hus table and stuff. woojin felt helpless. he wanted to help him shut them up, and throw some words back, but he couldn't control his body. 

he saw bang chan sprout up from his sleeping position and shout back, but this time, the taunters also fought back. one guy threw a hard punch right in chan's face.

"woojin! woojin!" the guy walked up to him, and shook him violently. he was about to throw him a punch too, when his face turned into chan's worried one. 

"woojin! you're finally up!" chan exclaimed, and buried him into his arms.

"bang chan!"

"yes, i'm here, i'm here," he cooed, rubbing circles on woojin's back. "it's just a nightmare, i'm here now, you're okay," 

"just a nightmare..." woojin repeated, many thoughts running in his head. 

just a nightmare... a nightmare... 

woon's coming back! 

-

[a/n: i'm coming back too. sorry for the super long hiatus, i'm only left with one more paper to go. i have more spare time now, thankfully. i'll be entirely free for november, then i'm maybe gonna hit up some job in december. i'll continue uploading. i'll never give up on this story!! thank you for waiting.]