Key fled. He scolded himself for it. He was such a coward, but that deer in the headlights look that she gave him was never a good sign so he retreated before anything bad happened.

A while after Key’s withdrawal, she found herself staring at the potted plant and fiddling with the small card in her hand without looking at it. It was a simple message. “I’m sorry. Get well soon,” written in Jonghyun’s scrawly handwriting. The plant itself was also pretty simple. Mostly leaves with small green buds too young to bloom. Even though most people would say it wasn’t a choice plant for a gift to give to a sick person or to a girl you liked, the plant not even close to ripening with beauty, she appreciated the little pot of life, but she wasn’t sure if it brought her comfort.

The plant itself was nice to look at, but once she started thinking about who gave it to her, she pictured him in her head. She then pictured what he ccould do. All the bad stuff. She shook her head to dispel the thoughts. ‘Just think about the plant itself. Such pretty leaves…’

When she looked away from the innocent occupant of her nightstand, she noticed the slight tremble in her hand. After drawing up her knees, she sandwiched her hand between them and her chest and wrapped her other arm around her legs. Her cheek rested against the tops of her knees as she stared past the plant towards the window where her eyes followed the flight of a flock of migrating birds.

Some time later, somebody knocked on the door and a soft “hey” reached her ears. ‘Kibum…’ She hauled herself up and moved towards the door. On the other side, Kibum held his breath as he heard her quiet footsteps and saw a shadow beneath the door. Her hand hovered over the door knob, and she became detachably fascinated with the involuntary shivering in her fingers. The boy’s hold ghosted across her skin and she almost thought she felt his heat. Her hand trembled so much that it sometimes tapped the brass door handle, causing her to grab her own wrist to steady it.

Kibum let out a breath as he heard the lock click, but it wasn’t the way he hoped it would click. She had locked the door. He sighed out a brief ‘See you later," and then heard a thud as she put her back to the door and slid down it to resume her position of knees drawn up like she had been on the bed. He sighed again and walked down the hall with his hands in his pockets.

What made her let him hold her? How did it come to happen? She tried to cut through the cloudiness that was the last dozen days of her unfree life. Slowly, the fog cleared with much effort. Distantly, she concerned herself with the state of her mind. It never used to take her so long to remember things, and it usually didn’t come with a major headache too. Her memories went back to maybe about two weeks ago. She watched herself in her head as she sluggishly dragged herself to the door and fell into Onew’s arms. She saw him bring her to the bed and fuss over her as Luna growled and darted from side to side, nipping at his heels in warning with teeth and fur flashing. She didn’t see herself anymore but could hear him frantically call somebody on his cell phone.

The ghost of a cold rag wiped her forehead and light touches fluttered against her cheek.

She blinked and through a sliver of visibility, the girl could see the top of Taemin’s head as he napped at her bedside. She closed  her eyes and felt a cold hand against her head. As if she was underwater, she could hear people talking. “How’s she been?” “Hasn’t been conscious as far as I know. Is that normal hyung?” “I don’t know. Ask Jinki-hyung. This probably happened because she hasn’t been eating much. Along with the stress…”

The next memory made her heart clench because that’s how she had felt at that time. Like everything decided to gather together into one big bowling ball and knock into her. Her lost friendships, her separation from her family and work, her life threatening experiences. It all decided to get together and remind her of them. The sense of all the good things she lost made her heart break. Wasn’t heartbreak supposed to be figurative? It sure didn’t feel like it. Didn’t these things normally attack the mind? Her head must have been too messed up to take anymore damage.

And with the pain came tears and she just needed something to cry into. Taemin was the nearest thing. She cried until all her feelings flooded out onto his shirt and then she fell asleep from exhaustion.

The next time she gained some bits of consciousness, she was being held by Kibum.

After standing on shaky legs, she unlocked the door and peered left and right. She shuffled towards the nearest bathroom. Despite everything, the first sentence her brain formed after her trek through the fog of her memories was “How embarrassing.”

-----

Kibum materialized into the SHINee dorm where Jinki, Jonghyun, and Taemin were eating a late night dinner.

“Well, everything’s back to normal,” he announced as he plopped down onto the sofa.

“Normal good or normal bad?” Taemin asked with hope.

“Normal as in she’s back to avoiding us like the plague. But at least she’s conscious and moving,” Key cheekily replied.

Onew looked on the bright side. “Well, better than being sick with swine flu.”

“We should tell Minho. He’s probably worried sick. We don’t need him falling ill too.” Jonghyun took out his cell phone but paused. “Forgot. His cell phone isn’t going to work in Canada.”

“I’ll tell him in a bit. Just let me get some grub.” Kibum walked over to the table where Taemin set out a small bowl of rice for him.

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THEA's Corner <3

I know where I want to get. I have that chapter all typed up and ready now. But I don't know how to get there.... >.< Hence the long update wait and the shorter chapter here. But I think I will be able to post up something soon. Maybe within the next few days.
 

Posted: 28 Dec. 2010
Word count: 1,020