Park Chanyeol woke up to the blasting alarm right beside his ears. The man stirred lazily as his hand was busy groping the side of his pillow trying to find the noisy phone to turn the alarm off. Just then he remembered that he was supposed to wake up early to check up on his best friend before going to school. She might not be able to come today, so he at least wanted to make sure if she was getting better.

The male came out dripping wet from the hot shower, his lower region wrapped with a white towel and he let the upper bare showing his well-built guns and chocolate abs. He took another small towel to dry his damped hair while whistling to a certain song he has been working on. Chanyeol took out and quickly slide into a white tee and a pair of destroyed jeans. A blue plaid button down shirt taken out from the closet to complete his favourite style, a shirt over tee inside. His messy ash hair—which colour started to fade away and got to meet the black as his hair grew longer—styled down so he had his bangs just right under his eyebrows. The male checked the whole appearance once again and confidently went out from his room. It hasn’t been minutes when he suddenly ran back to the room and snatched the wrist watch and his smart phone from his tidy desk. His eyes scanned around the room once again to make sure he didn’t leave anything before got to his car.

It was drizzling outside. The male drove slowly as he knew that the road become terribly slippery with the rain. A small smile creeping up his lips when he saw some couples on the pedestrian, walking together under the rain. Some were just calmly walking under an umbrella, while the unfortunate others just ran to the nearest place to wait. It didn’t take too long until he reached the hospital where his sister wanted to be picked up. She had a night shift, so Chanyeol had to pick her up early in the morning. He parked the car not too far from the lobby because he was too lazy to go down to the basement. He took out his phone and sent out a message, telling the sister that he was already outside.

The rain droplets scattered on the glass, some were quickly streaming to the downside, before it finally reached the earth after a long journey falling from the sky. His mind flew back to the time before he got home yesterday evening. The school bell rang loudly but he still needed to finish the music score his teacher gave before he could go home. Taking a while, he finally finished half of it, and politely asked the teacher to let him go home, well, with a promise to finish it at home of course. After getting the permission, the boy ran out from the room, quickly dashing out to his locker because he knew he made someone waiting for too long. He threw his book without even bother to tidy it up and went out straight to the hall.

He was right.

The petite girl was still waiting for him. She was standing beside a huge pillar of the building, with her hands grabbing the straps of her backpack. The girl simply smiled after she spotted the tall male who was running to her, hair messed, but still looking mighty fine. They went home together, as the boy promised to stop by the book store before coming back home. Reaching just half of their way home after buying the school supplies, the rain suddenly pour down heavily, and unfortunately, there was no place to save themselves from getting wet. Hence, the boy suddenly grabbed her hand, asking her to run hoofing through the hard rain.  The latter just chuckled, but then she squeezed his hand and nodded.

“Park Chanyeol, open the door!” Someone bang the window from the outside, startling the boy whose eyes were closed, still drowning on his reverie. He abruptly pressed the lock system, unlocking the door for the woman standing outside the car who started to get wet. “Yah! Were you sleeping?” She threw her big bag to the back seat of the car before pulling the seat belt.

“You took too long, Noona.” Chanyeol fired the engine and quickly went out from the parking lot, bringing the wheels down the lane.

The older smacked his hand when he tried to spin the volume button up. It was too noisy for her. Having a different taste of music with your brother definitely made it difficult when you were in the same car with him, she thought, especially when the male was the one who drove. “So have you decided what to buy?”

“For?”

The older rolled her eyes.

“What else? Her birthday is coming isn’t it?”

He sighed. They stayed silent, seemed like both were drowning on their own thought. Chanyeol finally broke the ice first. “Noona, how is her condition? Is she really okay now? I mean… why did it happen again yesterday? It has been a while since the last time the scene happened, right?”

“Aerin?” The older asked.

The male just smiled, half scoffing. “Of course. Who else do you think I want to know about from you, Mrs. Psychiatrist?”

“Well… You know her better than anyone else. Something must have happened that triggered the scene.”

“Aren’t you coming with me to check her up?” The older only shook her head.

“She would need time for herself, I’m going to let her have it first. I’m going to see her in the evening.”

“Will she ever come back to her old self, Noona?”

Park Yoora only smiled. “Tsk. You’re that in love with her.” She exclaimed with her gentle motherly voice.

Chanyeol held his breath before letting it out as a long sigh. He turned his head slightly towards his sister. “Well, isn’t it obvious?” His lips curled up a bit forming a sad smile as he speed up.

Jongin sighed for the umpteenth time that day.

It was kind of indescribable. It was something that the man never realized before. It was this empty feeling, a feeling of losing something someone usually had. People said that you wouldn’t realize that precious thing you had until you lost it. And that was what he felt right at that moment.

Still, Kim Jongin, once again, denied it.

It was the nth time of the day he checked on his screen despite it was Sunday. No, he wasn’t checking the news. He wasn’t checking about the company either. He kept reloading his private email, again and again. But there’s nothing new came up, only fake alarms, giving notice of some promotions he didn’t even remember subscribing to.

The man glanced at the calendar sitting comfortably on his working desk, unconsciously counting the days. It was a week to his birthday. The day who should be people’s happiest, but it was the day Jongin loathed the most, the day which hurt him the most. He reloaded the page once again, but there’s really nothing new for him to check.

A small thought suddenly ran on his head, but the man just shook it off. Jongin went to bed and put the lights off, secretly hoping that something good will come up tomorrow.

A tired sigh slipped out from the girl’s lips after she opened her heavy eyes. She still felt sick, her body felt so sore everywhere. Her breathe was a bit off, making her head a bit dizzy. The girl stopped stirring, giving time for her body to adapt. Aerin tried to remember what had happened last night and took a look around her room. She knew, it must have happened again last night. But surprisingly, the room wasn’t a mess, which was new to her since she had never let anyone in, every time she went through the situation. She hissed when she felt a sting of pain on her head. The girl quietly took a look at her hands and wrists to find that there’s a visible red bruise on her left, and some scratches on her right. When will she get out from this suffer? No. The question should be like: when will she decide to stop this suffer. Because she knew, she was the one who held the key.

The girl heard a soft knock on her door before noticing that the knob turned and it moved a bit. The first thing she saw was a head, slowly peeking inside. She squinted her eyes, trying to get a clearer sight of the owner of the head, and when she realized who it was, she couldn’t help but letting out a scoff.

The owner of the head slo