Chapter 3
Quicksand
Jaekyung slumped down into the couch in the living room and listened to the rain pouring outside. It slowly lulled her to sleep as she nodded off into the world of undisturbed dreams.
--
"Ok, guys! That's a wrap, you can go home now." the debate supervisor said.
Kyungsoo sighed a breath of relief as he slung his bag over his shoulder. Chanyeol followed suit.
"Yah, where do you think Jongin went off to..? Jaekyung was worried sick, remember?" Chanyeol asked.
"Who knows? He usually cuts class anyways, it's no big deal." Kyungsoo answered easily.
"...Ok, then."
The two boys pulled out their umbrellas and began walking to their individual homes. Chanyeol lived just one street away from Jaekyung and Kyungsoo. They all- including Jongin- had known each other since very early childhood, but lately her brother and his best friend have noticed Jaekyung slowly drifting farther and farther out of reach.
She just wasn't as bright and cheerful as she used to be.
--
Jaekyung awoke to the sound of the doorknob twisting and the door creaking open. She shot up and immediately picked her baseball bat off of the umbrella rack. Cautiously, she crept up to the front door and kneeled down.
"Jaekyung? Jae, you home?" her brother's voice called.
Her shoulders relaxed as she placed the bat carefully back where it had previously been. "Yeah.. God, you scared me!" Jaekyung complained, going to hug Kyungsoo.
"Aish, you baby. There's nothing to worry about, it's just me." he hugged her back.
Reeling in the warmth that always seemed to radiate from her beloved brother, Jaekyung smiled... when suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her back and warm liquid drip down to the ground.
Kyungsoo had stabbed her.
Jaekyung screamed and tried to break free of Kyungsoo's grip, which only resulted in the knife to bore deeper down into her flesh. "K-Kyungsoo! Stop it, it hurts!" she cried out.
Tears streamed down her face as Kyungsoo remained silent. That's when Jaekyung felt two strong hands grip onto her shoulders and shake her.
"Jaekyung! Jaekyung, wake up!" the voice yelled.
She woke, again, to see the face of her older brother. Jaekyung flung Kyungsoo off of her as her pupils dilated.
"...Don't come near me." she growled.
"Jaekyung! It was just a nightmare, I swear. You were screaming in your sleep so I became worried."
Jaekyung began crying again. "You.. I had a dream that you tried to kill me!" she wailed.
Kyungsoo's face softened as he went over to comfort his little sister. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, just the way their mother used to do whenever either sibling used to cry as a child. "It's okay.. don't worry, I would never do anything to hurt my baby sister. You know that, right?" he cooed soothingly.
Jaekyung sniffled as she slowly nodded her head.
"Good, now let's go eat, ne? You must be hungry; it's already 7:45 PM." he suggested.
"...Ne," she replied dully.
"Barbecue?"
"Whatever is okay with me."
"Sure, let's go then. Bring your textbook, we have an exam soon." he ordered.
Kyungsoo and Jaekyung arrived at the Korean BBQ place and took a seat down next to a window so that Jaekyung could watch the rain droplets.
"Kyungsoo... really, where is Jongin oppa? He hasn't texted or called me the entire day, and he usually never does that!"
Jongin's sudden disappearance was driving Jaekyung crazy.
What if something bad has happened? Jaekyung thought to herself. She wouldn't be able to bear it if anything had happened to another one of her close friends.
Kyungsoo shrugged. "Molla, Jaekyungie. I'm sure he'll be back tomorrow. If not, I'll personally make a phone call and curse him out." he joked.
"You go do that, oppa." she smiled, opening her textbook to read.
Kyungsoo spent the entire evening just attempting to bring back the Cha Jaekyung who used to walk this earth. The sister he used to have. Now, the Jaekyung everyone saw was simply a hollow shell who smiled with empty sincerity. There was but one single person who was capable of making the old Jaekyung come back.
But he was long dead.
He was Byun Baekhyun; he was the boy whom she loved so much, and still loves. The only instances in which Kyungsoo witnesses Jaekyung genuinely smiling is when she's flipping through the scrapbook that Baekhyun and she created together.
Still, it was a broken smile, resembling a broken wind-up clock.
Wind it up once, nothing.
Wind it up ten times, just barely.
But just as a clock counts seconds with every tick of its arms, the world was slowly counting down the seconds left of Jaekyung's life, as well as the others around her.
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