Stendhal's Syndrome - JongSang ✔︎

Chapter 4

"It's too hard!" Yeosang whined, grabbing onto his Mother's shoulder to steady himself.

"Don't worry. You'll soon overcome it. Just stay focused and take breaths."

Yeosang slowly nodded, moving the curtain a bit and peeking out the window to where Jongho was out on the yard building some form of contraption that Yeosang didn't care about.

He had been there for nearly half an hour looking out the window and he thought his heart was about to burst with how fast it was beating. Really unhealthy but what did he care?

All he wanted was to get over his syndrome.

"I think I should give up and just live with this," Yeosang sighed, walking over to a sofa and settling down. "I'll never be able to stay conscious anyway."

"Don't say that. Why don't we explain your situation to him? What if he could possibly help in a way we didn't think of?" Mrs Kang asked, hoping that they could try other options on how to cure the syndrome.

"He doesn't need to know. I'll try from here and when I can finally stop fainting every time I see him, then you can bring him closer," Yeosang stated, making sure his answer was firm.

And so the task of trying not to faint commenced. Yeosang didn't even know why he was trying so hard. He would be going back to the university in a little over a month and he would have no one to faint at the sight of.

Nearing the ending of the first month, Yeosang couldn't take it anymore. He had been trying so hard he ended up fainting three times in one day. Much more than he had done in several years. And to make it worse, he felt as if his heart would explode any second.

It was always palpitating even when he wasn't looking at Jongho. That's how hard he tried. To the point where his heart would randomly speed up.

"I think I might get heart disease," Yeosang sighed as he swirled the water in his glass cup. "Oh this will be great. I'll get heart disease AND I'll never stop fainting. Absolutely peachy."

Mrs Kang watched her son with hurt. Hurt because she couldn't help her son and hurt because the cure seemed so easy yet so difficult to carry out. She didn't want her son doing all of the steps in order to break his syndrome but she also didn't want him living the lifestyle forever so in the end, she begrudgingly accepted the fact that her son might someday carry out the act of copulation with the neighbour.

Scary for a Mother to think of really.

"Maybe you should take a break," Mrs Kang suggested, not wanting Yeosang to overdo himself.

"No. I'll do it until I stop fainting and then after that, I can live with dizziness."

Yeosang was determined. He was ready to prove to everyone that he was capable of staying conscious no matter how beautiful something, or someone, was. He would ensure he would be able to stay conscious by the time he started heading back to the university which would be in around roughly a month's time.

The only problem, the task was way too difficult to overcome by himself and he was getting nowhere. All he knew was that his heart would speed up and his mind would go fuzzy at random times. Mayhaps he was getting damaged or mayhaps it was because his brain would randomly bring up the neighbour's face at unnecessary times.

Yeosang didn't understand how Jongho was always outside messing around. The amount of time spent outside was astronomical and Yeosang thought that he was crazy. But he simultaneously thought that the neighbour was doing him a favour by keeping in sight at all times so he didn't complain.

On a rather fine day at the beginning of the final month, Yeosang decided he would go for a walk to clear his brain. He didn't want to look outside the window all day anymore and instead decided it would be good to refresh his brain.