HEE:LIFT | TXT & Enhypen

~ sixty-four ~

TW: depression, anxiety attack

~~~~~

Silent Canary || 3/4

As soon as they reached their dorm, Taehyun crawled into bed with all of his winter gear still on.

Heeseung followed him into the bedroom, taking a seat on the edge of the mattress. "Are you going to sleep like this?"

"Yes," Taehyun mumbled. "Just wanna sleep."

"That's alright." Heeseung gently unzipped the boy's puffy winter jacket. "I'm just going to take off some of your clothes, okay? I don't want you to get too hot."

Taehyun lay on the bed, limp and lifeless as Heeseung undressed him.

Beomgyu watched from the doorway, his face filled with worry. He squeezed his eyes shut as Sunoo touched his shoulder.

"I don't understand," Beomgyu whispered. "Why's he still like this? We- We haven't had the time to talk, but I thought we were on good terms after the hospital last night."

"He's depressed," Sunoo sighed, linking arms with Beomgyu. "Your fight contributed to it, but overall, his brain isn't making happy chemicals. There's nothing you can do to change that."

"He's been having a lot of mood swings lately," Jungwon noted. "Is it possible he might be bipolar?"

Jay shook his head. "I don't think so. I knew someone who was bipolar, and their mood swings looked different. Each one lasted longer, like for weeks, even months sometimes."

Soobin nodded. "Taehyun's mood swings only last a few hours. Also, he hasn't had any manic episodes."

"What's a manic episode?" Ni-ki asked.

"It's a period of time when someone has an elevated mood and excessive energy," Jay answered thoughtfully. "When someone's in a manic state, they act weird, like they're super happy for no reason. They get really mad really fast. And when they talk to you, it's like something's off, but you can't quite tell what. At least, that's what it was like for me. I was pretty young, so I don't know how accurately I remember it."

Kai frowned. "Jay, who'd you know that was bipolar?"

"Back in America; one of my friend's parents. I went to his house pretty often for like sleepovers and stuff. One time, his dad came into the room in the middle of the night and asked us if we wanted to see a movie. We said yes, and he drove us all the way from Seattle to LA. That's a seventeen-hour drive, by the way."

Jay took a sip from his glass of water.

"Anyways, the cops found us there and took us home. I didn't find out until later that his dad was in a manic episode and that he basically kidnapped us." Jay smiled to himself. "Apparently, my parents and my friend's mom were freaking out. They had no idea where we were for like, three days."

"That sounds terrifying," Sunoo breathed. "Were you scared?"

Jay shrugged. "Nah, his dad didn't mean any harm. Plus, my friend and I were having the time of our lives in Hollywood."

He patted Sunoo's arm. "A majority of bipolar people don't mean to cause trouble. They can't control themselves and think things through during manic episodes. It's not their fault."

The twelve boys stared at Taehyun's sleeping figure in silence.

"So... We had this conversation to conclude that he's not bipolar?" Daniel finally asked.

Jay let out a quiet laugh. "Yeah. Pretty much."

He lowered his head, no longer having the energy to pretend everything was fine. "God, I hope he's okay."