the way i love you ➵ beomkai

Chapter Three

The beeping of his alarm jolts Kai out of his sleep and he groans to himself, leaning over and grabbing his phone off the nightstand and silencing it. With a huff, he falls back onto the bed, hair sprawling onto the pillow beneath him. 

Lately the days feel the same to him; wake up, go through the motions, go back home, go to sleep. He feels that familiar emptiness in his chest that comes out of nowhere seemingly, especially when he remembers Bahiyyih and how he hasn't spoken to her since her birthday four months ago. Their last conversation wasn't much of one, considering she didn't respond to his message, but he doesn't hold it against her. He knows how busy she is, especially with how she just started high school and is more involved with her dance team and stuff. He sits up slowly, rubbing his eyes. Does his mom even talk to her and Lea? When was the last time she even spoke to them? She hasn't mentioned them, or his dad, for what seems like forever now.

But Kai shakes his head, pulling the covers off his legs. No use in thinking of that now, but speaking of his mom... Is she even home? She usually wakes him up around this time. He stands up and shuffles to his door, heading downstairs and towards the kitchen. He doesn't hear the usual chiming of the radio nor does he smell the scent of coffee.

"Mom, you home?" Kai yells anyway, not surprised when he gets no response. He pushes open the swinging kitchen door and his eyes immediately land on an all-too-familiar prescription bag. He walks over to it and rips off the note plastered on the front. The small, cursive writing stares back at him, telling him that his mom will be gone on a business trip for a week. He bites his cheek and opens the prescription bag, eyeing the amber container now in his grasp.

Kai scans the bottle, looking for any differences from last month's medication. He huffs out a laugh when he sees that they increased the dosage. He knows this was his mom's doing, who else could it possibly be? He hates that she goes behind his back constantly. But to be fair, he's not exactly the most direct person, either. He knows all she wants is the best for him, even if the best for him is defined as increasing his medication dosage without him knowing, but sometimes he wishes she would just leave him alone. He stuffs the note into the bag and crumples it up, throwing it away in the garbage can and heading back to his room.

He discards his medication into his bedside drawer and starts to get ready for school. His morning routine never takes long, so whenever Taehyun texts him to let him know that they're at his house he doesn't have to rush to gather his bag.

He makes his way out the front door, making sure the door's locked before walking over to the car, opening the door as soon as he gets there. Beomgyu moves closer to Taehyun slightly to allow Kai to have more room, and they exchange a smile before he's shutting the door behind him.

Yeonjuns begins to drive and the car is unusually silent, save for the muffled music coming from Taehyun's earbuds. He almost jumps when Beomgyu's head meets his shoulder. 

"So," Yeonjun suddenly starts, looking at them through the rear view mirror. "Are we going to talk about last night?"

Taehyun gives Beomgyu a side-glance as he holds one of his earbuds between his fingers. Soobin attempts to look at them discreetly by pretending to look at Yeonjun, and Kai looks down at Beomgyu and how he didn't budge at all, his eyes still shut.

"Don't need to," Beomgyu mutters out. "Hey, ya know it's gonna rain later? Hope you guys brought an umbrella or something."

Yeonjun mutters something underneath his breath but doesn't say anything else, eyes focused on the road ahead of him. Soobin is now focused on the window, Taehyun has both earbuds in once again, and Kai bites his cheek a little harsher than necessary. The tension is so heavy that he feels like he's going to suffocate the longer he stays in here.