It doesn’t make any sense to him. He tries, desperately to read her. She’s always been his favourite poetry, the one he writes and the one he understands. Yet somehow this Jihyo felt different, like a missing puzzle piece: somewhere beneath his coffee table, the sofa, hiding, its absence only 1 out of 500 other pieces, yet glaring, burning a hole in the whole picture. 

But he knows, and she too knows, that things are now different.

XXX

The bells are ringing incessantly as he’s being chased down by Jongkook, Kwangsoo, Haha? He cannot be sure. One second he’s barrelling down the hallway and the very next there are, (oh my goodness, he breathes), black spots flying across his vision and everything is moving too quickly all at once. He feels unbelievably sluggish as though he’s sinking in quicksand and he can’t quite catch his breath. The last things Kang Gary remembers seeing are the too bright fluorescent lights on the ceiling and a loud scream.

XXX

Everything crashes and burns and ends up in flames. They cut the programme short and rush him to the hospital. There’s blood everywhere, from where he hit his head on the floor to his nose. His eyes won’t open and Jihyo’s screaming bloody murder. There are tears everywhere.

Jaesuk has to hold onto her, remind her to breathe, to stay calm, to think of the baby as she heaves, loud gasps escaping .

There’s blood everywhere and she doesn’t remember