“joohyun,” sooyoung forces out, the action already taking a toll on , “joohyun, why are you doing this-”

a kick to the gut forces her to cough out blood instead, her muscles sore and aching as she’s propelled backwards. she feels her back hit the tree; the rough bark scraping against her skin. it makes her cry out in pain.

joohyun’s eyes are cold and unwavering, never once flinching at the way sooyoung lands forward on the ground with a sickening crunch. not at the way sooyoung scrabbles at the dirt, in a desperate attempt to get up, nails caked in soil and blood.

this isn’t right. her head is pounding and her arm is bleeding but one thought cuts clear through the haze: sooyoung knows this isn’t right.

this isn’t joohyun. it can’t be joohyun. joohyun was just laughing with her yesterday as they took on another bowl of ramyun. joohyun was just scowling at her yesterday for another one of sooyoung’s poorly executed pranks against coach kim. joohyun was just staring out the pier last evening like sooyoung figured she would for the rest of her life, stuck in the moment of a dying sun like sooyoung was too.

no, this isn’t right. and sooyoung needs to stop her.

despite the strain on her bones she gets up. she sways a little but she manages to find her momentum before running to the girl in front of her and-

crack. blinding pain shoots up her arm and she gasps, trying to wriggle her hand away. but joohyun holds her wrist cruel and tight, twisting it as hard as she can.

“i told you,” her voice like knives piercing through sooyoung’s heart. “don’t come finding me.”

she lets go and sooyoung falls to the ground again, the impact making her vision blur. “joohyun,” the plead comes out in a sob. “please don’t leave, stay. stay. stay, please,” she cries, the tears flowing in place of what she’s too afraid to say.

i don’t have anyone else, please. i’ll be alone again, i don’t want to be alone again-

“if i ever see you again, i’ll kill you.” footsteps sound farther and farther away with every word.

“joohyun,” she sputters like a dying light, hope in her chest rapidly fading as she watches the expanse of joohyun’s back get smaller and smaller with every step. the coolness of black fabric sways; sooyoung realizes joohyun’s not wearing the team uniform anymore. and she can only watch.

joohyun is slipping away, and sooyoung realizes no one could’ve stopped her in the first place.

it’s silent, the forest always is. the chirping of birds and the snapping of random twigs makes sooyoung realize that again, she is truly, utterly, alone.

except joohyun looks back.

it takes her a moment, but the action is unmistakable - joohyun stops in her footsteps and stands still, her head whipping around and staring at the ground behind her. in contemplation. and in a second as brief as a flash, her eyes flicker to sooyoung’s.

the uncertainty is her eyes is almost unmistakable.

she walks away.

sooyoung is left alone on the ground again. she stays where she is, not daring to move a muscle for the fear of breaking more than what she already has. she stays there for hours until coach kim finds her. she scoops sooyoung up in her arms and carries her back to the team infirmary, the journey all too swift and gentle for the horror of what sooyoung’s just experienced.

doctors come and go in a flurry, and seungwan visits, scolding her for going out alone and getting hurt and not telling her where she was. her fingers dig into sooyoung’s palm, her tears drip onto sooyoung’s fingers. but all sooyoung sees in the hours ahead is joohyun’s gaze replaying over and over in her head, the last from a friend.