The Boy From The Bridge - Jakehoon

Chapter 81: New Year, Same Old School 2/6

28 Days Later:

Jungwon ears pricked up at the sound of the vibration. Looking at the source he saw a light emitting from his phone. It had been confiscated for the duration of the Christmas period and, whilst in his mother's custody, had run out of battery. Thus, on its return to his possession he had to first place it on charge.

Social isolation had been weird, it wasn't that Jungwon really missed having a phone, he wasn't much of a social animal. Sure, he had friends at school but he didn't really hang out with them outside of that institution. Jungwon's time outside of the house was mainly spent in the mall playing his games of little toy soldiers, he didn't need a phone to organise that.

His Christmas had been spent at his desk painting his miniatures whilst trying not to inhale too many fumes. He had enjoyed it, it was nice to not having to withstand the scrutiny and complexity of High School drama and playground dynamics - in his room it was just him and his models - it was, at least to him, bliss.

Unfortunately, as with all things, they come to an end and January had reared its head once more and that meant a return to early starts and homework. Jungwon sighed at the thought of both of those things as he walked over to his now charged phone.

His eyes widened as notification after notification barraged his device:

'Missed Call from Jay'

'Unread Message from Jay'

'Missed Call from Jay'

The quantity of notifications meant that his phone wouldn't stop vibrating.

The sea of notifications had a very common theme, their sender. Jungwon grimaced to himself at the thought of his older friend being unable to reach him.

Leaving the notifications to play out, Jungwon went to get himself a glass of milk before returning, several minutes later, to find that his phone had finally calmed down.

Once he had gotten comfortable he picked up his phone and read the messages. The crux of them concerned Jay's position as an increasingly isolated member of his friendship group. Heeseung had gotten another girlfriend and had been smitten with her over the winter period. 'Jaeyun' and Sunghoon had also been near radio silent, even if social media was flooded with photos of them together.

Jungwon felt his brow furrow as he thought about Jay not knowing about his two friends relationship with each other. It's not like they were subtle, at least not in Jungwon's eyes. Jungwon wondered if he should tell Jay to make it easier for him, licking the milk moustache from his his face he decided he couldn't - it wasn't 'his news' to share.

Jay seemed lonely from his texts and Jungwon knew his forced silence would have hardly have helped the issue. It was weird for Jungwon to posit someone wasn't as comfortable as him at being alone. Jungwon wasn't an introvert, he just couldn't be asked with being an extrovert in high school - it seemed so forced and a total waste of ones energy.

Despite his own reservations he was sympathetic to Jay and although he wasn't in the mood for a phone call decided to send him a text.

Hi Jay, sorry for the silence - I got grounded

Jungwon hadn't even finished writing his second sentence when Jay replied.

JUNGWONIE???? GROUNDED??????? WHY?????

Jungwon laughed at the speed and alarm of Jay's response.

Parents being parents - I'll see you tomorrow. I've got to sleep now but just wanted to say hi and sorry for missing your messages