betwixt - enhypen

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

beep. beep. beep. the marimba ringtone on joori's phone was muffled as she threw a pillow over it. as she became aware of what her hands were doing, she opened her eyes to the bright sunlight peaking through the cracks in her curtains, and the cold of the morning, when the sun had not yet heated her living space. she hadn't yet learned how to fix the thermostat to turn the heating on automatically, even though she kept reminding herself that she wanted to.

she let her phone ring. joori let the alarm ring until it ended, a gruelling few minutes. it'd be back in another ten minutes, but for now, it had ended. as her mind caught up with her body, she felt sick. dizzy and ready to throw up, she dashed to the kitchen, to then vomit in the sink. with splashback over the front of her nightshirt, it smelled awful. a hand on the counter and another on her head she balanced herself feeling somewhat queasy and uneasy.

with no idea of how long she had been standing there, she fell down the wall, sitting on the cold floor. almost dozing off, the dreadful stench from below her nose managed to keep her awake and aware of her state. a few moments later, she could hear her phone start off again, the familiar noise being quietened by not only the pillows it was under but the distance from her, in the room next door.

her arms dropped to the floor, hard. making a vibration that she felt in the lower half of her body, it echoed, likely waking up anyone downstairs that wasn't already. her arms hurt from the unknowing force she had exerted on them, which she rubbed to soothe the pain and furrowed her brows. the bruises would come anyway now that she had hurt herself.

she could hear the distant bustle of people on the pavement, the clobbering of shoes walking to and from buildings with their bags blowing in the wind, and the breeze swishing through their hair. the clock on her oven told her that it was past the time her classes had started, and due to her state of unconsciousness she had to miss them. to say she was becoming more cognitively functioning would be a lie, she was barely changed from the state she was in earlier, and the onset illness was not gone nor had receded.

she took off her shirt, not being able to put it anywhere else other than dropping it from her weak hands onto the floor directly below, with the energy needed draining her, she felt fatigued and went back to sleep, which was easy due to her body feeling so heavy.

——————

was I right?

——————

later, when joori woke up, she saw a text from jay. she hated the smug tone of his message.

"was i right?" yes he was, but fuck why was he being such an egotist?

she wanted to go back to sleep and forget it, but the rumbling in her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten all day, and was in need of food.

after making some pretty plain ramen, just using the seasoning packet from the bowl, she ate it on her kitchen table, being watched over by her guardian angel, as she liked to think of him, the poster of her bias. it allowed her to momentarily forget about her phone, and after she had eaten her food, she wanted to extend that time, choosing to take a walk.

so, she chose to take a walk, putting on some jeans and a jacket, knowing that no one else would know she wasn't fully dressed underneath the puffer coat.

part of her felt bad that she had slept the whole day, it already being dusk. she had been trying to take care of herself and her sleep schedule was pretty important for that, but still, if she had slept the whole day then surely her body was tired.

regardless, she set off tracing the way towards the nearest pharmacy, which was luckily relatively close to her apartment. it would be uncommon to not have a pharmacy nearby, due to the constant need for students to have something to cure their hangovers, but, it was still convenient that it existed.

walking down each aisle of the small chemist's, she noticed someone wearing a hoodie that under the light looked very similar to one she used to wear a lot, a while ago, when she and jake were still together. she let the unidentified person take what they needed before she approached the shelves they had been hovering at since it was crowded enough as it was without her barging her way through. the labels on the strips were all easy to read, and in her unwell state, she could still find what she was looking for without having to ask.

with the idea that if she took a few more days to recover she'd be out of the medicine she had bought only a few days ago, she collected a few duplicate packets and took them to the counter. she wasn't planning to exceed the recommended dosage at any point, nor was she planning to stay sick, but she was lazy enough to forget to take them if the medicine wasn't on hand. she left, before taking a detour instead of going straight back to her room, walking around a part of campus she had not yet been to, around the other girls' dorm.

she smiled to herself, as she looked at the aforementioned building and remembered that jay thought it was where her dorm was: it's a nice block, she thought. although she still wanted to stay mad at jay, so tried to stop her smile as soon as it appeared. she walked through the ground floor of the girls' dorms, seeing the corridors pretty empty, apart from a girl who crept in, heading in from the direction of the boys' dorm, which joori realized could only mean one thing this late.

she didn't want to peek at that building as she left, instead walking underneath the cover of the dance studio, which was pretty close. the lights were still on, which meant that people were likely practising, and the faint sound of their music, and rubber squeaking across the rooms.

she looked in a window out of curiosity, not believing she would be spotted, and looked in to see a group of three boys, all working hard on a routine that joori knew was hard--even with her limited dance knowledge, she could see that the dance was difficult due to their excessive sweating and the musty odour that they emitted through the open window. she didn't look for very long, but was caught off guard when she saw one of the figures' reflections in the mirror: one of the dancers was jake, and he was still as talented as she had always seen him be.

the darkness surrounding her obscured both her vision and her mind, warping the world to a time in which she was there watching him at a dance competition, cheering for him and applauding with a standing ovation, her mouth wide open at her now ex-boyfriend.

she tried to shake off the weird nostalgia she felt whenever she spotted jake's girlfriend clap for him. as soon as he had finished dancing, he watched the girl run towards him from the corner of the room, whilst he looked up at her through his messy fringe, his hands on his knees bent over in exhaustion. the other figures seemed to object to the affection, before leaving, a cue to send joori on her way.

as to keep her cover, she walked back with her hood obscuring her upper face and hair, allowing her to walk back to her dorm without the shook up expression on her face noticed.

"jay, you were so good in there," she turned around immediately upon hearing the name, thankful she was hidden by the cover of night. two figures in sweatsuits walked past her, one talking and the other just listening.

"i'm just glad i can get some sleep," the other spoke.

that was all it took for her suspicions to be confirmed, the jay in question was her jay, and he was only a few meters in front of her. it wasn't the time for her to strike up a conversation with him, so she kept shtum, walking as silently as she could behind, and slowing her pace to create more distance between her and the pair. leaving enough distance between her and them so that she could still hear them, she listened in to their conversation, as she carried down the path they were on.

"you need to stop stressing so much bro, you'll be fine," declared the unspecified person, as jay shook his head.

"i can't just not stress out, sunghoon. i'm failing linguistics, i don't want to fail dance too. if i fail either class this semester my dad will make me work for him, i don't have a choice."

what the fuck?