you can stay|skz

|eight|

I stand in the middle of the practice room. I hang my head as I try to catch my breath. Most of the others left hours ago, but three of them stayed. They stayed with me despite it being so late. ChangBin. MinHo. JiSung.

ChangBin and MinHo left about ten minutes ago. JiSung stayed with me while I packed my stuff up. He was more than willing to volunteer to walk me home. It was weird. Neither of us said anything for the longest time. It wasn't until we reached the block just before ours when he broke the silence.

"You think I'm cute—don't you?" JiSung states casually as he keeps his eyes on the street ahead of us.

"What?" I turn toward him confused. Did he really just ask me that?

"You think I'm cute. I heard you say it." JiSung continues to carry out the conversation as if it were a normal everyday thing for us.

"You're crazy. I never said that." I chuckle as I shake my head. I stare down at my feet to try and hide my embarrassment.

"I'm not crazy. I heard you say it. You were talking to ChangBin. You clearly said Han JiSung is cute." JiSung teases as he nudges me playfully.

"I told you a million times—you took it out of context." I groan as I kick at the ground.

"ChangBin said my name and you said cute. It doesn't require any context." JiSung mumbles as he tugs the door to the apartment building. I take a shaky breath to try and keep my frustration in check.

"I was kidding. I went too far, didn't I?" JiSung frowns as he hits the elevator button. I avoid meeting his gaze as he turns towards me.

I close my eyes tightly as I tap my fingertips on my thighs. I fight the urge to scratch at my arms. JiSung doesn't seem to notice as he steps into the elevator. The moment he looks up at me he tenses.

"I'm sorry. Come here—" JiSung reaches out to wrap his fingers around my wrist. He delicately tugs me into the elevator just moments before the doors close.

"Don't touch me." I whisper softly as I tug my arm away from him. I just want to get home. I want to hide under my blanket and cry.

JiSung grows worried as I turn away from him. My breaths are hurried as I stare down at my feet. I tug my hair tie out of my hair in hopes of easing my throbbing headache. I did too much. I know I did. I should've just went home and went to bed after my first meltdown, but I couldn't. I had to get the rest of the dance down. I only have a few more days to perfect it. It doesn't help tomorrow I'm supposed to practice with the others. I'm scared.

My heart sinks the moment the lights in the elevator flicker. It stops moving all together and I turn toward JiSung in terror. He sees my face and he starts to panic. He knows I won't last in here. After everything that's happened today I'm already a mess—this only makes things worse.

"Don't worry—I'm sure they'll get it fixed fast. It's probably nothing." JiSung chews on his bottom lip as my knees give out.

I take my bag off and set it beside me as I pull my knees to my chest. I swallow hard as I rock back and forth. JiSung sits down on the ground next to me. He watches me closely, unsure as to what to do. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and searches for someone's number. I reach out to stop him. I shake my head as I take his phone from him and lock it.

"What can I do? I don't know what to do." JiSung searches my face for an answer, aware that there's a good chance I won't answer—that I can't answer.

I hesitantly reach out for his arm. I tug on him as I do everything I can from completely loosing sense of everything around me. I don't want to fall apart completely with him. I don't want him to see what HwiYoung has. JiSung thinks hard as he takes my hand in his. He's trying to remember everything HwiYoung told them: