Engraved

5. Haven

Wow wow so many of you have read this since I last updated! I'm so sorry this took me so long, last semester took up a ton of my time. Don't worry! I'm not abandoning either of my stories! Updates just might be slow as schoolwork starts to pile up.

I really hope you all are enjoying this story, it makes me so happy to see people are liking it! I'll try to get updates up faster.

tw // minor mentions of suicide in this chapter, nothing serious I promise, everyone is safe.

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The warm air inside immediately comforted him like a hug. He shivered at the temperature change.

"Oh my goodness!" a shriek shot towards them from the back of the store. A portly woman in a collared shirt and flower printed skirt rushed towards them, running along the long row of machines on the wall.

"Hi Mrs. Choi, we got stuck in the rain, and he needs to use the phone." She pointed over her shoulder to him with her thumb, but the woman didn't even look at him. She was instead peeling the jacket off of the girl, cooing at her and fiddling with her wet hair.

"I told your mother I would look after you while she was away and look what's happened! Did you go swimming? Honestly! Let's get you out of those clothes hm? Want me to get Jonghoon to run over to your apartment and grab you some clothes? We can wash these here," She was beginning to try to pry the girls soaked shirt off her body.

"No, no, thank you," the girl replied, shooing the woman's hands off of her clothes. She turned to Hyunjin, finally getting the woman to look at him too.

"He needs a phone, ours both got waterlogged." she said plainly.

The woman gasped. "So you decided to take a dive too? What, is the new generation just asking for trouble?" She scoffed, but motioned for him to follow her. She led him to the main desk at the back of the store, went behind the counter, and handed him a corded telephone. Then she promptly began fussing over the girl again, prodding her with her fingers and whining about how careless she was being.

Hyunjin couldn't decide who to call, to be honest. His first call would be to the managers, but he was already in trouble and didn't want to explain everything. His next call would have been to Chan, but he royally messed up there. He wasn't sure he'd ever be able to speak to the boy again. In fact, for a second he wondered if he should even go back at all.

No, no, he couldn't leave them behind. He just hoped Chan and the others would forgive him.

In the end he decided to call Jisung, just because it was the only other number he could remember. When they'd fought in the trainee days, he'd refused to put the younger's number into his contacts, but memorized it in case he had to call him. Like right now, he supposed.

The call rang once, twice, three times.

"Hello?" The boy's voice sang through the speaker.

"Hey Jisung, its Hyunji-"

"Hyunjin?? Where have you BEEN! We've been worried sick about you, especially Chan, he thinks it's all his-" the boy's string of words was interrupted by a shuffling.

"Hey, it's Minho. Where are you? We'll come pick you up," he heard Jisung whining in the background about it being his phone, but it didn't mask the cold in Minho's voice.

Hyunjin swallowed his pride, the guilt really setting in.

"Fresh Laundromat on Haven Street. There's a pond close to it, I can go get the exact address if you want."

"No, it's fine, Changbin's got it pulled up on GPS," the elder said. "Stay there, we'll be there in about 10 minutes."

And with that, the line went dead.

Perhaps it was because he'd acclimated to the air, or maybe it was the dread setting in, but Hyunjin suddenly felt very cold. His clothes were stiff and stuck to him like paper mache, and he still hadn't even wiped the droplets off of his neck and face.

"Hey," a voice said behind him. He turned to look at the source only to be hit in the face by a flying towel. He immediately began drying his neck and face. There wasn't much he could do about his clothes. He put the towel over his hair both in an attempt to dry it and so it was harder for the person who had just sat next to him to see his face.

"You got a ride?" The voice clearly belonged to the girl from the pond.

He nodded, and silence fell for a moment.

"You okay?" the girl asked.

He contemplated just saying yes like always, but what good would that do here. He wouldn't see this girl again.

"No, not really," he sighed, looking at his soaked shoes.

"Well, I know it's not my business, but back there... whoever's picking you up wouldn't want you to... leave forever right?"

His eyes widened. "Oh no! I wasn't trying to... I slipped, honest."

He heard the girl breath out of her nose in relief.

"Next time don't stand so close to the edge, then."

To Hyunjin, this felt like the start of another lecture, one of many he'd received from the managers and his bandmates over the years. That and coupled with the fact that his friends would be picking him up soon and he'd have to talk to Chan made his blood run with unbridled nerves.

"I don't need coddling. I'm just fine on my own. I didn't need your help in the pond back there," He snapped, immediately regretting the gut reaction.

"Maybe, maybe not. But I helped anyway. So what? It's okay to lean on others once and awhile. And I'm not coddling you. The only person here doing the coddling is Mrs. Choi, who I had to stop from stripping you naked and throwing your clothes in the dryer," She laughed, a small noise that lasted just for a few seconds.

He felt his chest rise as he chuckled too. Under the weight of it all, everything somehow just felt a little bit... lighter.

He turned his head to get a look at her face, to really look at her this time. The towel blocked his vision, but as soon as he reached up his hand to remove it, tires screeched loudly outside.

His head swiveled to look out the glass front doors only to see Jisung practically tumble out of the car, Minho right behind him. The doors opened with the force of one worried Jisung.

"Hyunjin!" He yelled, flinging his arms around the older boy and knocking the towel off his head. "Are you hurt? Why'd you run off like that?? Jeez, your skin is freezing!"

Hyunjin saw Minho come up and tap Jisung's shoulder, signaling for the boy to give Hyunjin some space. Jisung relented, but only after holding his bandmate at arms length and looking him over for damage.

"Hyunjin, let's go home, okay?" Minho's words were meant to be neutral, but Hyunjin heard the slight waver. Minho had been worried about him too. 

"Yeah, okay I'm coming I just want to-" He looked to the side to say something to the girl, but she was gone.

"Want to what?" said Minho.

"Nothing, let's just go."