Pursing his lips, Jongin dug his fingers deeper into his chest as if trying to force some sort of sensation out of the endless knot tattoo. Jongin stifled his breathing and focused all of his concentration on his body and how he felt in correlation to the tattoo.

Jongin never excelled in articulating and verbalising his thoughts and emotions. If he had to give a concrete description to what he was currently feeling though, the closest comparison he could think of was that the veins that fed blood to the heart was clogged up. It was not noticeable at first — as the clog allowed just enough droplets of blood to slip through and nourish the unintentionally dormant heart. Now that he realised it though, it felt as though his whole existence had been put into jeopardy.

“She’s gone?” Jongdae repeated the words in disbelief. “Like… dea—”

“NO!” Jongin barked furiously, refusing to let Jongdae even think about the dreaded word. “Just— It’s like she’s there but not there…”

As Jongin struggled to formulate concrete and concise sentences, Jongdae grew visibly impatient.

“Now's not the time to clam up.” Jongdae stomped his feet in protest. “Chinsun’s not here to be your human dictionary or to explain things in layman’s terms for an idiot like me so you better switch on your brain and make use of whatever speck of communication skills you have to make us — make me — understand Kim Jongin.”

Jongdae’s rant had began as an insecure ramble but his voice grew steadily stronger and more astringent with each syllable he produced. He knew Jongin was not at fault but being the one always in the dark always left him in such a misery and fear.

Being able to read Jongdae’s mind like an open book, Baekhyun quickly intervened.

“It’s barely noticeable, but it’s like her presence is being… blocked?” Baekhyun attempted to explain, giving Jongin a tentative glance in search for confirmation.

Not knowing what else to say, Jongin solemnly nodded his head. Then, after careless