EX // Minsung

31. Isolation

After Jisung had come back to his dorm, he had locked himself in his room. And he hadn't come out for about a week now. He hadn't even gone to class.

And when Lewis or Sam knocked onto his door, he pretended to be asleep so he wouldn't need to see them. After they had left he would just text them, sorry, I was asleep, but ignored all of their other messages.
He mostly slept during the day anyway and then ate at night to avoid as many people as possible. It started when he couldn't sleep at night, he kept thinking about Minho which made him spiral. Then during the day he got so exhausted he had to take naps.
But because he didn't want to interact with people and nobody is up at night anyway, he had to keep himself busy as to not spiral further.
So even though he couldn't turn in his assignments, he still did them. They just couldn't be graded this way.

When examweek came around, he didn't go either, but at night he still studied for the tests. He had told himself that maybe he would go anyway if he knew the material well enough, but last minute he chickened out.
It was too late now. If he showed up now, everyone would be asking him questions about where he has been.
Jisung is one of the top students, playing hooky wasn't in Jisung's dictionary.

Well...

Until Minho broke up with him.

He also couldn't go to class because of Minho. What if he saw him in the hallway? Or during lunch? Or on campus? Even outside the dorms was a possibility, Jisung didn't want to risk it.

Jisung knew Minho wouldn't come over to his dorm anymore, but he still stayed inside his room just in case.
He had gotten a lot skinnier than he used to be, but he was getting by fine. For now.

Jisung's anxiety really didn't help him at all. He felt bad for isolating, but he was also angry people weren't even trying their best to check up on him. Sam probably has newer and cooler friends anyway. Jisung wanted his head to shut up, but the bad thoughts just wouldn't go away. What if Sam started hanging out with Yeonwoo? That was probably one of Jisung's biggest fears right now.
Sam was also texting Jisung a lot less these days. Maybe Yeonwoo had convinced Sam that Jisung was crazy like Minho. Though Minho isn't crazy, Jisung was sure of it.

Jisung's phone started vibrating, but when he checked the display it wasn't who he had hoped it to be. It was never who he hoped it to be.
It was a call from his dad. He wasn't sure if he should anser it, he could guess where this was going. However, he couldn't ignore his responsibilities forever.

"Hello?"

"Jisung is that you?" His dad sounded worried.

"Hm, it's me."

"We heard you haven't been attending class lately? And you also missed the exam week? Did something happen?"

Jisung could feel the tears well up in his eyes and the itching in his throat, waiting for Jisung to cry it out. Instead he inhaled deeply, swallowed his spit and exhaled deeply.
"Hm, something happened, I don't feel very well." He was honest about that part at least, but he didn't want his parents to worry too much. "I don't want to talk about it, but don't worry. My friends are taking very good care of me, I'll feel fine soon enough."
He knew he wouldn't feel fine anytime soon. In fact, he felt like he would never feel fine again.

"And your grades?" His parents were very worried for him personally, but as soon as they thought he was going to be okay again, all they cared about were his grades.

"I did all the assignments and I studied all the materials, I just haven't had time to hand it in yet. I'll ask the teachers if they can quiz me on it next week."

"You said your friends are taking good care of you, no? Why haven't they handed in your assignments for you?"

"It needs to be done personally to prevent fraud." Jisung lied. It was a stupid lie, fraud was just as easy when you had to turn it in yourself. His dad seemed to buy it though, so for now he was in the clear.

"Okay then. I don't know what's wrong, but I'll email the school to tell them your grandmother died so you have a reason. I will also tell them you will be attending class next week again. This time you are going, okay?"

"Well, dad-"

"I said, this time you are going. Okay?"

"Okay." Jisung sighed defeated. He really had to start going now, he couldn't postpone it any longer.

He used the remaining days of the week to get back to a semi-normal sleep schedule so he could attend school again. Heartbreak is bad enough, he didn't need his parents' anger and disappointment on top of it.

Even though Jisung was going to bed and waking up at okay hours now, he still avoided as much contact with Lewis as possible.

Luckily one of his teachers had emailed him to tell him she would quiz him on the material before next class, if he passed the test he was allowed to skip classes for as long as he needed to. Another luck he had was that this teacher was his teacher for two out of four subjects he had, so he could get out of at least two days of school.

"Jisung, you're finally out of your room again!" Lewis exclaimed when he saw his roommate standing in the kitchen early in the morning.

Lewis immediately went in for a hug but Jisung stepped aside. "Please leave me alone, I don't want this."

"I'm sorry, I thought this meant you were feeling better. You were cooped up in there for a long time, I was worried you wouldn't even eat." Lewis confessed, checking out Jisung's physique with a worried look. "You do look a lot skinnier than before."

"I ate at night. Now let me go to class in silence please." Jisung couldn't even bear to look at Lewis, everything reminded him of Minho. He didn't need Minho's best friend to be worried about him. "Go look after your own friend, though he should be fine." Jisung slammed the door as he left, not leaving any room for Lewis to say anything. He didn't want to know how well Minho had been doing without him anyway.

When Jisung entered the empty classroom with just his teacher sitting in it, he slammed all his missed assignments on her desk.
"I did all of the assignments too. I did them on time, I just couldn't hand them in."

"That's alright Jisung. Even if you didn't do it on time, I understand what you are going through." Yeah, right. She could never understand what Jisung was going through. Jisung was convinced he was the only one who had loved and lost so intensly.

"Just give me the test please."

The test was a different one from the examweek so that Jisung's friends wouldn't have been able to tell him the correct answers. Jisung didn't know that though and he also didn't care, he knew the material anyway.

When he was done he waited for his teacher to grade it. She said she would grade the tests immediately so that he would know if he passed. She would grade the papers later and email him his results.
Jisung just couldn't wait to get out of there. The time was ticking and soon students would come in to follow the next class. Sam too.

"Jisung, I can't believe it! You only made one mistake, you scored a 99 percent on the test."

"I studied." Jisung nervously glared at the door. "Does that mean I can go now?"

"Yes, of course. You're excuse from my classes on Monday and Thursday. I'll email your results for the paper later."

Jisung mumbled out a 'thank you' and quickly bowed at her before storming out the classroom.

Finally he could go back to isolating himself.

"Jisung, WAIT!"