✎ᝰ. NIGHT HAS COME 𖤐 IMAGINES

Invisible string (Jang hyunho)

sequel of Love isn't a timely feeling

PLOT: you have never been close to hyunho, but why, after leaving the mafia game behind, there's an odd feeling connecting the two of you?

WARNING: anxiety, panic attacks, reference to death

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Life had been feeling strange since you left the mafia game. You didn't have many memories of it besides the police kicking the door and handcuffing Seeun's parents, the only thing that experience left you with was anxiety.

Your therapist said it was normal:your brain got so used to a fake reality that forgot how to live in the real world, so, as a sort of side effect, you would feel anxious, and you would perceive your everyday life as something different or odd.

The only thing comforting you was the knowledge that all your classmates were on the same boat as you, including Bora. Maybe her conditions were even worse than yours:she had multiple panic attacks and showed up at school only once or twice a week if she was lucky enough to get out of bed.

Without her, you would spend most of the time alone, having lunch at your desk while watching kdramas and funny videos on YouTube.

Sometimes you would meet your classmates' eyes, they were all the same:empty, dark, confused; you were almost scared by the way they started at you, but you weren't able to understand why. There was only one pair of pupils that seemed to look strangely kindly at you:Hyunho's; but, again, you had no idea of the reason behind it.

You had never really talked to him, you ended up in the same team a few times during PE but he was the leader while you occupied the back lines, which was why you didn't even have the chance to work close to
him. All your interactions had always been brief and limited; however there was something tying the two of you together, like an invisible string...and he knew it.

He knew it because he kept looking at you, turning around when you noticed him; you even believed that he tried multiple times to talk to you but always stepped back when it was time.

Maybe you should've made a move, maybe you should've walked up to him and simply said hi like classmates normally do, but anxiety was holding you back. You had been thrown back to the real world only a few weeks before, so stepping outside of your comfort zone was still too much for you.

The last bell of the day rang, making your thoughts fade away. You collected your stuff and leit, watching as your classmates ran downstairs.

Students flooded the hallway, pushing each other.
You found yourself stuck in a mess of bodies and loud noises:someone was laughing, someone was yelling, someone got called out by a few teachers.

You looked around, scared as you felt anxiety rising from the depths of your insides:you kept repeating to yourself that everything was alright, that you had been in that situation before, multiple times since you started attending high school, but there was nothing you could do to control that feeling. Your breath shortened, your heartbeat accelerated and your hands started sweating while holding the handrail. You felt dizzy, so you closed your eyes in hope to calm down,
but you failed due to someone running past you, bumping onto your shoulder. It made you lose your balance, falling down the stairs.

Luckily, there were only a few steps left, so all you got were a bunch of scratches on your knees and a bloody hand. You tried to get up, but your head was spinning too fast while students either jumped over you or suffocated you with their bodies. You started coughing as you were having troubles breathing. For a moment you thought it was over; but then asomeone grabbed your shoulders.