Since when did the air became so hard to breathe in?

She takes a step.

...

The events that transpired after that day seemed like a blur to Chaeyoung. In a sense that reality seemed to have been omitted of a puzzle piece in her life so perfectly, as if it almost never existed. A figment of her imagination, Mina is, except she is in every thought, every glance, in every waking moment Chaeyoung experiences. But too far to be true.

Is she tripping?

After a messy conversation carried out by Dahyun to pacify the round of questions that came their way, she decided to stop the after school diary-decoding sessions. Though she doesn't want to, she knows her mind won't work at all after she knew that Mina was there and she had heard everything. Every. Damn. Thing. And for some reason, Chaeyoung is so petrified by that. But why?

Why does it make her wanna shout at the top of her lungs that it isn't true? Why does she want to trace her every step, find out every detail about a person she barely knew? Why is every, every thought is Mina and Mina and Mina? And it doesn't stop.

Why can't it stop?

Another day went by.

She lied down, beaten, no sight of Mina again. She searched everywhere, sneakily. Her classroom, the Chem Lab, the Auditorium, the H.E. room, the rooftop, the library, the jungle, the courtyard, the rooftop that's locked, even the bushes by the school gates and all the restrooms —that made her look like a creep— everywhere. But no Mina.

No Mina. Physically. Just the sweet, lingering scent of Jasmines.

There's a trail, but no source.

And all of this is making her bonkers.

She rolled around her bed, lost in a mess of her thoughts. Time passed and sleep has taken over her, but one thing remained: 

Mina

...

A week has passed, Chaeyoung painfully remembers.

Tzuyu still looks at her with sorry eyes, Dahyun is still reminding her of the promise she had already broken. Jeongyeon still rushes to go home afterschool so she can make it to her shift at the bake shop.

Everything seemed to go on, but Chaeyoung is still stuck.

Stuck in her thoughts. Stuck on the days that start and end with dull colors, with nothing to excite her. No spark in going out to take the world around her. Like listening to your favorite song, over and over, but realizing that it doesn't carry the element that made you so hooked to it anymore. And it goes on, ever so slowly, mocking the void inside her consuming the good she once learned to appreciate and be content with.

Is this how being trapped feels like?

...

With sketches scattered around the floor, Chaeyoung was woken up by her mom yelling for her to come down. Time check: 2 pm. She sighed, no need to be so energetic for, it's a Saturday. She dragged her body downstairs to be welcomed by a shopping list. She looked at the list, then to her mom, and back at the list.

"Your turn to do the grocery, remember?", her mom said while drinking her Jasmine tea. Jasmine. Mina. No. Stop. Chaeyoung shook her head, driving away the thought. She nodded and went up to get her hoodie and the keys to her bike lock.

"Might as well do something productive today.", she mumbles to her self as she leaves.

She pedal her way to the super market, earphones blasting the same song on repeat, just loud enough to hear the lyrics, and the noise of the world around her.

I feel close
Well maybe I'm not, heaven knows
It's a spotlight stuck on the ceiling
Why are these the things that I'm feeling?
There's so much time
For me to speak up, but I keep quiet
I'll complicate the most of the mantra
The power is out and I can't turn the fan on

She arrives at the place after 5 minutes, locked her bike, grabbed a cart and started the little scavenger hunt across identical shelves aligned. Piece by piece she crossed out the list. Making sure nothing's missing. She smirked —nothing missing?  Yeah. Totally.