Monday Evening, Week 10

Music Department Practice Rooms

Changsub's stomach growled as he sat hunched over the piano with his cheek pressed to the keyboard. It was already quite late and he'd skipped lunch but he didn't have the will to get up and eat.

What was the point really?

Somehow he had managed to hold his together during class that morning but seeing Chorong sitting on the other side of the room had definitely put a toll on his emotional stability.

The feeling had been surreal. It was almost like being in some crazy parallel universe where they'd never met and she was just one of the many random people in his class.

Changsub sighed.

He wasn't sure he could carry on pretending to function like 'normal'.

If you could call it that. Really he was just an empty shell of a person going through the motions of life simply because he had to.

He was still walking. Still breathing. But this wasn't living. This wasn't it. Now that Chorong had given him a taste of how much better his life could be with her in it he couldn't go back to being okay with just simply functioning.

Ah…Ignorance really was blissful.

He half wished he could go back to a time when he didn't know what it felt like to be a whole person the way she made him feel.

He heard a knock at the door.

"Hey kid we're closing up soon."

Changsub sighed again and lifted his head from the piano. His body felt like a ton of bricks. He slowly pulled himself up from the piano bench and made his way to the door.

The custodian gave him a strange look as he came out of the practice room. He must have gotten marks on his face from laying on the keyboard. He didn't care.

As he made his way back to the dorms he felt raindrops beginning to fall from the sky. Great.

He pulled up his hood and walked a bit faster hoping he could make it back before it really started to pour.

Changsub reached the dorm complex just in time. He ran up to the entrance of the boys dorm and fumbled in his pocket for his ID card to get in. Just as he was about to scan his card he noticed a figure crouched by the wall outside the girls dorm entrance.

He stopped.

"Chorong?"

He stared at her from across the courtyard. What was she doing out here at this time of night?

Was she…crying?

Changsub didn't know what to do. Half of him wanted to turn around and pretend he hadn't seen her and the other half wanted to run over and hold her in his arms.

He turned back towards the door and thought for a moment. No. Even if they weren't supposed to be talking he couldn't leave her sitting out there like that. Not with this rain.

He took a second to steel himself then walked over to her.

Changsub looked down at Chorong's small frame huddled in a tight ball on the floor in front of him. Something pulled painfully at his heartstrings. He hated to see her like that.

"Hey…"

Chorong raised her head slightly. She didn't meet his gaze but fixed her eyes on his black and white vans that were soaked from the rain.

"I thought we weren't going to talk…" She whispered in a shaky voice.

Changsub could almost feel himself breaking all over again from the sadness in her voice but he swallowed down his emotions.

"It's raining you should be inside."

Chorong shook her head and put her head back down on her knees.

"I can't face Bomi right now." She mumbled.

Changsub was confused. What could've happened?

He knelt down in front of Chorong.

"Chorongie…look at me."

Chorong looked up. He was right. She had been crying.

"You can't stay out here." He said quietly.

Chorong stared at him for a moment with a pained expression.

"Changsub-ah…"

Changsub suddenly found himself being pulled into a tight hug as Chorong wrapped her arms around his neck and began sobbing on his shoulder.

"Chorongie?…"

"What in the world…"

Changsub hesitated before awkwardly hugging her back and patting her shaking shoulders as she continued to cry.

"What happened…?" He asked, his voice cracking slightly as he felt himself tearing up. All thoughts of holding back his emotions were gone now.

"Don't say anything…just let me stay like this...just for a moment…please…" Chorong managed to say between sobs.

He couldn't say no.

Changsub held her close and let her cry as his mind raced with confusion. What could've happened to make her break down like this when she was always so strong?

His heart ached. It had only been a few days since the night at the lookout but he'd missed her so badly and now here she was crying in his arms and he didn't know how to feel.

All he knew was that she was hurting now and he wanted to take away all her pain, whatever was causing it.

"Chorongie…" He whispered, hugging her tighter as his own tears began to fall.

They stayed like that for a while as the rain continued to pour.

Finally Chorong's sobs had reduced to small hiccupping sniffles.

"I'm sorry…I just needed to…" She mumbled into his shoulder, still trying to calm her uneven breathing.

"Shh…it's okay."

Changsub caressed her hair gently.

Chorong eventually pulled back and let go of Changsub. She looked away, wiping her face with her sleeve.

"Thanks…" She whispered.

Changsub cleared his throat awkwardly and tried to blink away the tears that lingered in his own eyes.

"You should go inside." He finally said. He could tell she didn't want to talk about it and he wasn't going to push her.

Chorong nodded but didn't make a move to get up.

Changsub dragged himself to his feet. He stood for a second then held out his hand.

Chorong simply looked at it for a moment. She seemed to be struggling to decide whether to take it as if doing so would mean something more.

It stung but Changsub knew where her mind was going.

"Don't worry I'm not going to do anything." He said quietly, still holding out his hand.

"I thought you couldn't be just a friend." Chorong said with a quavering voice.

Changsub closed his eyes and sighed.

"I can't Rong…but you need one now so I'm trying my best just for this one time because I can't bear to see you broken like that."

Chorong hesitated then slowly reached up and took his hand.

His grip was warm and strong and in that moment Chorong felt something click in her mind.

She was afraid of it.

But she couldn't deny it.

She needed him.

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A/N  PASS THE TISSUESSSS guys this chapter was so hard to write I restarted like three times.