𝑭𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝑭𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅𝒔 - 𝓜𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓾𝓷𝓰

𝓒𝓱; 62 𝓓𝓻𝓸𝔀𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰

The next day Jisung had to go to school. In class, he couldn't help but notice Chan stealing glances at the empty seat because, well, Jisung did too. It made this feeling rise he couldn't quite identify. He just wasn't up for anything without Minho here anymore. They all promised each other that Hyunjin would contact them if anything happened, as he was the one staying at the hospital right now. He watched Chan from afar. There is hurt in his eyes, but he tries to cover it. For them, he tries to be that one balance point to keep everyone from sinking too deep. 

"Jisung, pay attention!" their teacher scolded, and Jisung turned his attention back to the front. "Yes, ma'am," he responded without contradicting her. 

He twisted. Drops of sweat covered his pale skin, his eyes moving though they were still shut. The only thing he saw was a dark room. He looked around. Suddenly, a spotlight flickered on. Minho squinted his eyes, trying to identify the figure standing within the light. He held his breath. That figure was him. It was so quiet that even the silence seemed to echo. The figure started a dance, one Minho didn't quite recognize. All he picked up on was that this version of him was moving further and further away from him. "Where are you going?" Minho shouted, yet he couldn't move. "Come back!" 

The further the figure moved, the fainter the image became. No matter how much his subconscious screamed at him to run, at least lift a part of his body as attempt, there was nothing. Like something had rooted him in the invisible ground of this place with no light, time or existence. He felt himself sinking while slowly the darkness devoured his body, a void dragging him down, his voice a muted and desperate wail of despair as he let it happen, paralyzed. "Wake up." he demanded himself. "Wake up. Wake up!" 

Minho gasped as he shot up from his place. Everything spun around when he tried to determine his surroundings. Which seemed impossible from how it felt like all his senses had shut off all at once. Like being underwater. A peep rushed through his ears, which made him groan and reach up to cover them. He could finally see more and soon the blur became a vivid image of a room. "Where am I?" he asked, still disoriented. 

"He's awake!" a voice reported from somewhere. He recognized the voice. Hyunjin. 

"I'll call a doctor!" Hyunjin yelled and sprinted out of the room. 

Minho gripped the edge of the bed, trying to heave himself. 

His heart dropped, evoking a rush of panic surging through him. He couldn't move.

When the door opened a doctor stepped inside with a group of nurses to his side. "Check his conditions!" he instructed one of them. "I can't move.." he spoke, in the midst of the chaos, trying to let the information sink in. Even though no one heard him. 

"How did I end up here?" 

The question made every doctor and nurse in the room turn to him and by the looks of it they didn't want to tell. They didn't know how to as everyone motioned to each other with their eyes. Then one doctor gave up and ushered everyone out of the room. He collected his documents on the clipboard, clicking his pen shut. He started to speak, glancing over at Minho. 

"The hit caused by the car appears to have damaged a part of the nerve system around the lower half of the spinal cord. It ultimately led to your legs to go numb."  

"You won't be able to dance anymore." 

The sentence whirled like a storm through his head, echoing, repeating, crushing him beneath it, ridiculing him. It feels like drowning but you have no idea of your surroundings, you're just floating, tapping into a darkness, you try to pull yourself back to the surface but only sink further. 

"What?" 

Time seemed to slow down. The moments flashed by. 

He saw himself dancing in front of a crowd, his classes with Hyunjin, times of happiness and sorrow, victory and opposition. 

Suddenly he felt himself being in the fields, a grand, open space, on his own. But everything suffered from drought. The wind blew past him as he froze in his spot. He dropped to his knees. He can't believe it. This is just a dream, an illusion, please, everything but reality. Now he understood. This is what the void meant and the other Minho was just him falling out of his own grasp. He lost. It's over. 

He lost. 

"Why do you dance?" a vague voice echoed, like the recall of a memory. 

"Because it's my escape." 

The bell rang and Jisung proceeded to shove all his books into his bag. He didn't care if they almost fell out. His eyelids felt heavy and dark circles and eye bags really showed the restless night he had. Felix put a hand on top of his shoulder. "Jisung, are you coming?" the boy asked and for a moment that reminded Jisung he actually had been standing in his spot, drifting off. "Hmm? Oh, yeah." he responded and went out ahead of them. Felix and Seungmin shared another glance before following behind him. 

The halls crowded as usual while Jisung and his friends tried to make their way through the mass of people. Then his phone buzzed as Jisung attempted to search for it in the sea of students, bumping into a few which earned him some glares and an occasional yell followed by a 'Watch where you are going!', until he found the phone. One sentence. But Jisung had never expected a singular sentence could change so much. 

"He's awake." 

Suddenly it seemed like his phone weighed tons as he held onto it just in time. "Ji, what are you doing?!" Felix yelled after him when Jisung started to run in the complete opposite direction of where they were supposed to walk to. "I have to go!" Jisung shouted back over his shoulder. "Yah! Where are you going?! We're in the middle of classes!" Seungmin called but Jisung didn't respond, continuing to run further to the exit. Seungmin shook his head and peered over at Felix. "Aren't we going to go after him?" he asked, slightly concerned and dumbfounded all at once. Felix watched him disappear into the distance. "No. I have a feeling he should do this by himself." With that, Felix turned back around and walked to their next class. "Yeah, but is it wise to let him on his own if he's like that? It's Jisung we are talking about, remember?" Seungmin argued back but ran after his boyfriend nonetheless.