Chapter 40

'We shouldn't send messages to each other anymore,' Wonsik typed on his phone. He looked at the screen for a while, stared at it for decades until he swallowed the lump in his throat and finally hit send. His brother discreetly took a peek over his shoulder because it was not like Wonsik to sulk. Wonsik felt his eyes, of course, it was just that he was so damn tired that he did not bother dealing with Hongbin who was currently being nosy. There was nothing to hide about his text mate anyway since he was simply labeled as 'J' in his phone. His brother could assume that 'J' was a female or male, but Wonsik did not care about what he would think anymore because he was finally going to end everything once and for all.

"You're going to stop texting?" Hongbin asked when their teacher went out of their classroom briefly. "Why? That's... A big step from you," He mumbled softly as he, too, waited for the person called 'J' to reply.

Wonsik nodded, his eyes not leaving the screen. His heart was racing but he paid it no attention. It was not the time and place for him to start caring about silly things. When his phone started to vibrate a minute later, he took a deep breath before opening the message, 'Are you telling me this again? Did something happen? You can tell me and you know that I'd understand.' Wonsik chewed on his bottom lip, thinking, 'No, you wouldn't understand. You would never.' But that was not what he answered 'J' with; he sent back, 'Goodbye, J' instead and deleted his text mate's contact information in his phone immediately after.

Hongbin wanted to ask more questions. But it was his righteous self that held him back. After all, he was meant to be a model student not only for the other students but also for his brother. The least that he could do was comfort Wonsik with a pat on the back, but their teacher was already coming back inside their classroom before he was able to do anything. Hongbin only watched as Wonsik sighed again for the millionth time that day and sunk his head down on his desk to mope. He paid a percentage of his attention on his brother but mostly focused on the lesson as he always had. And for the first time, Hongbin wished that the lesson would finish earlier than usual just so he could confront Wonsik properly. But sadly, he had to wait until lunch.

"Stay here," Wonsik's father instructed, giving his son's shoulder a squeeze before he sighed. "I will just speak to the receptionist. Don't do anything that will cause a ruckus, okay?"

Wonsik shrugged his father's hand away from his shoulder as he nodded. "I'm not crazy and I won't 'cause a ruckus,'" He muttered, but his father was already making his way to the receptionist's desk as if his words were of no value. He scoffed, knowing full well that that was what he earned for throwing tantrums and worsening his father's marriage with Hongbin's mother. It was not what he intended at all, but he knew in his head that it was better that they separated sooner than later. They were, after all, not connected by a red string. His father's red string was leading Wonsik somewhere else, but it was not his place to find a new mother figure. Whatever his father decides on was not his problem.

Getting bored with having to wait to be called in by his doctor – his therapist, as his father called her, Wonsik started to look around the waiting room instead of wasting his time on reading the boring magazines displayed in the middle of the room. The waiting area was a huge room and it made him feel like he was at a hospital. His father kept convincing him that they were just in a clinic, but Wonsik did not really understand what the difference was since he would still be meeting someone in a white lab coat just because he kept insisting on seeing red strings everywhere. He was not lying and the problem lied with the fact that no one would believe him – not him. Wonsik was only telling them what he could see –

"They're real! Stop telling me that they aren't!" A loud voice immediately caught Wonsik's attention. He whipped his head to the source and saw a girl of his age arguing with her mother by the hallway. He did not really hear what the mother was telling the girl, but Wonsik was drawn to what their conversation was about all because of how m