[title song: coma by b.a.p]

chapter 1;

"Yah, Minah! Where are the strawberries I bought yesterday?" Song Hyemi calls over her shoulder, frowning at the refrigerator. "Actually, where's the bread? And the chocolate? Wait. Why is the damn fridge empty already??"

Hyemi makes a face when her flatmate doesn't even bother answering her. Hyemi shuts the refrigerator door and makes her way into the living room only to be met by Lee Minah lying on her back on the coffee table, textbooks and various pieces of paper scattered all around her, as she stares up at the ceiling. “Um, Minah. Are you okay?” Hyemi asks even though she’s three hundred percent sure Minah is not okay.

Usually Hyemi is used to Minah’s dramatic ways seeing as they had instantly become best friends the moment they met at orientation during the summer. But it’s the week of Final Exams and this had to be Minah’s third mental breakdown this week. Hyemi’s pretty sure she’s this close to having her own mental breakdown so her sympathy levels are basically nonexistent at the moment. Hyemi hasn’t slept in forty-eight hours and she needs something sweet to keep her awake because she is not falling asleep during her Calculus final.

Minah makes a rather pathetic noise and shakes her head, “No, I’m not. Who even cares about the goddamn quantum structure of an atom, Hyemi-ah? WHO?”

Hyemi just rolls her eyes, “Your chemistry final does. Now get off the coffee table, we eat there.”

“I’ve been awake for forty-eight hours straight, Hyemi-ah. I think we have angels on our ceiling.” Minah whispers in a dazed voice.

“I think you need to go to bed, Minah. And get the hell off the coffee table.” Hyemi replies, dropping onto the couch and staring at her Calculus notes in confusion because those don’t even look like numbers anymore. “Did you eat all the chocolate and strawberries?”

Minah rolls her head to the side and looks at Hyemi with wide eyes, “Maybe. Depends on if you’re going to kill me if I say yes.”

Hyemi drops her notes on the couch and stands up, deciding that she really needs some fresh air. “You know what? I’m going to go buy some chocolate and grab some coffee. We’re running low.”

Minah doesn’t even bother answering or acknowledging Hyemi and Hyemi figures she should try to fit in a nap at some point so she doesn’t end up like Minah. Hyemi glances at herself in the mirror and grimaces at her appearance. Her eyeliner is a little smudged and her hair is pulled up into a messy bun. She’s wearing sweatpants and her old university sweatshirt and she looks utterly sleep deprived (which is absolutely true). She takes a moment to wipe away her eyeliner before grabbing her keys and wonders if it’s illegal to drive while hopped on caffeine and no sleep.

~.~.~

Hyemi yawns, rubbing her eyes, and stares at the two boxes of chocolate in her hand. Eventually, she kind of just gives up and drops both brands of chocolate into the grocery cart. It’s probably really bad that she’s done this with every item she’s picked up already, honestly. She’s too tired to really care that Minah will probably throw a fit as soon she realizes the bread may or may not be organic.

“Yah! You can’t just do that. We’re in public, you idiot.” A voice shouts on the other side of the aisle, making Hyemi jump. She glares in the direction of the offending voice and decides she hates people, especially people who shout in grocery stores at…five in the morning. Hyemi blinks staring at her phone in surprise. She didn’t even know it was five in the morning. How embarrassing.

“There’s no one here anyways.” Another voice replies sounding rather bored. Hyemi just sighs and pushes her (really full) cart down the aisle and slows to a halt when she passes by the strawberries. Strawberries are her favorite; despite the fact that she really hated them two years ago (she likes them now because he hated them a lot too). Hyemi shakes her head, a little franticly, because no she will not think about him. She’s busy, she doesn’t care anymore, and it’s been two ing years.

She sighs and sorts through the strawberry boxes until she finds a good bunch of them. She’s about to head to the registers when she hears loud shouting and suddenly pain shoots up her side and something—no, someone—is pressing their hand into her face and practically squishing her. “What the hell?” Hyemi mutters, shoving the person off of her.

“, I’m so sorry.” Hyemi takes the hand outstretched in front of her and pulls herself up. His hand is weirdly warm and familiar, but she figures it’s because the grocery store isn’t very warm at the moment. The boy in front of her is tall, dark-haired, and looks incredibly unamused. There’s another boy beside him and he looks a little similar to the one that had apparently fell on top of her. He’s got sandy brown hair and big doe eyes. Hyemi thinks he looks about twelve years old.

“It’s okay, I guess. Just, um, watch where you’re going.” Hyemi responds, a little slowly, because she’s really, really sleep deprived and a little confused because of it.

“Are you okay?” The doe eyed boy asks, his eyebrows furrowed in concern, “You look a little, um, out of it. Did Sehun hit you in the head?”

She blinks, “He did hit me in the head. But I’m fine. It’s just. I haven’t slept in a while.” Hyemi mutters the last part, unable to hold back her yawn, and shrugs like it’s no big deal. Except it might be because she feels incredibly slow at the moment.

The doe eyed boy glances at her shopping cart and looks incredibly sympathetic, “Finals, huh?”

Hyemi nods, groaning a little. “Unfortunately.”

The boy laughs with his whole body and smiles, “Us too. We’re stocking up on coffee, honestly. I’m Luhan, by the way. The idiot who hit you is Oh Sehun.” He holds out a hand for her to shake and she smiles, taking it. She blinks when she feels a surge of something familiar when their fingers touch, but it’s gone as quick as it comes.

“I’m Song Hyemi. It’s nice to meet you. Or crash into you or whatever.” Hyemi replies and doesn’t miss the way Luhan blinks in confusion and Oh Sehun (who seems to have a perpetual face) looks vaguely interested.

“Song Hyemi?” Oh Sehun asks, eyebrows raised a little as he just stares at her.

The way they’re looking at her makes her feel a little uncomfortable so she gestures vaguely towards the registers before grabbing her shopping cart.  “Yup, that’s my name. If you don’t mind, I’m going to just. Um. Go. I’m going to go.” Before either of them can respond she quickly bows before making her way towards the registers.

Hyemi’s phone starts to vibrate and she digs through her purse as she pushes her cart forwards. She doesn’t manage to pick up on time, however, and sighs at the missed call from Minah. She figures that she’d rather deal with Minah probably reminding her to buy organic ice cream or something later, so she proceeds to stuff her phone back into her purse. When Hyemi gets closer to the register, she digs around for her wallet and she can’t find it. She frowns panicking a little as she pushes her hair back from her face and digs through her purse. It’s not there. God, she’s too tired for this.

“Hyung.” Hyemi blinks, recognizing Sehun’s voice coming from behind her. Maybe her wallet had fallen out when he knocked into her. Maybe he had stolen it, she’s pretty sure she’s seen crime stories about pickpockets on TV that were vaguely similar to the situation she had had with Sehun and Luhan.

“Excuse me, miss, you dropped this.” A voice says from right behind her, interrupting her thoughts.

Hyemi turns on her heels and her eyes instantly focus on the wallet in an outstretched hand. She reaches out for it and looks up, ready to grin in thanks, when she freezes. It takes her exactly five seconds to process the person before her, to process the dark side swept hair, the almond shaped eyes rimmed with dark eyeliner, the sharp teeth. It takes her exactly five seconds to process that it’s him.

It’s ing Byun Baekhyun.

He’s not dead, he’s not sick, he’s not any of the horrifying things her mind had made up so long ago in order to explain away his absence (before she started hating him). He’s standing before her, her pink wallet in his hands, dressed in dark skinny jeans and a sweatshirt looking perfectly ordinary and normal and well. He looks good. Anger bubbles up in her chest, anger and sadness and happiness and resentment. She’s so overwhelmed.

Distant memories and feelings she had always kept tightly locked away in the back of her mind slowly start to resurface the longer she stares at him. She can’t. She can’t do this. He’s not real. He can’t be. Oh my god. She doesn’t know what to do so she does what she’s always done best. She runs away.

Song Hyemi pushes past him and tries to run away. Except a hand wraps around her wrist (cold electricity runs up and down her spine when her as soon as he touches her) and she thinks she’s going to explode. “Hyemi?” He sounds so disbelieving and she hates how his voice still has that relaxing effect on her. She hates him.

Hyemi shakes his hand off of her wrist but his grip only tightens. Who does he think he is? She feels a sudden wave of rage go through her and she takes her other hand and tries to pry his hand off, making sure to use her nails. “Don’t touch me.” She hisses and she never knew she was this angry. “Don’t ing touch me.”

He immediately lets go of her and bites his lip in that way of his that she used to think was so adorable. She can’t do this right now. “I’m so sorry, Hyemi-ah.” He murmurs.

“I don’t care.” She says, taking her wallet from his still outstretched hand.

“I know. I just.” He looks so tired and, god, she’s missed his voice. She’s missed him so much and she hates it. “Are you. Do you. I don’t. I’m sorry.” The way he fumbles with his words makes her heart twist and her head hurt.

“I don’t care.” She replies, suddenly feeling incredibly tired. She pushes her cart forwards and thankfully he doesn’t follow her. She can feel his eyes on her, though, as she greets the cashier, as she puts her bags back in the shopping cart, and it’s making her even more tired. Tired and angry and so, so bitter.

As she pulls out a couple of the bags from her cart and wonders how many trips she’ll have to make between the front of the store and the car (she wonders if she can just somehow convince herself that Byun Baekhyun had just been a hallucination due to lack of sleep) when a pair of hands reaches into her cart and picks up the remaining bags. “Give it back.” Hyemi says, without looking at him. She can’t look at him, she really, really can’t. “I don’t need your help.”

“I know.” He says, softly, and it’s confusing, it’s so, so confusing. Her sleep deprived mind can’t comprehend him. When it becomes clear that he won’t put her groceries down, she makes her way towards her car, walking briskly, and makes a point to ignore him. She opens up the trunk and puts away her groceries before stepping back and watches as he puts the bags in his hands away. The longer she looks at him the heavier her chest feels.

She doesn’t say anything to him as she makes her way to the front of the car and she watches from the corner of her eye as he shuts the trunk and turns on his heels and just leaves. She watches his back and seriously wonders if this was some kind of elaborate nightmare.

Hyemi drives back to her apartment and immediately heads to her bedroom, deciding it was time to take a nap. But Song Hyemi can’t sleep, all she can do is relive every thought and memory she had tried to lock away so long ago. She hates him.

Song Hyemi hates Byun Baekhyun so much.

a/n: I feel like the pacing's just got a little weird all of a sudden?? 

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