The Tells of a Different Childhood

123. Halfway

By the time Ijin got to school, Seokju was already in his seat, his head resting on his arms with his face tucked into his elbow. Someone had placed their school blazer on him like a blanket, and if it wasn't for that, he would have thought that Seokju was trying something new to try and ignore them completely.

With his eyes lingering on Seokju, he slowly walked to his desk, only looking away to give Yeongchan and Hyeokjin a questioning look. He didn't have to say what his question was. Going back to his homework, Hyeokjin calmly answered, "He was already asleep by the time I got here." Hm...

Again, Ijin glanced over at Seokju, his friend's shoulders rising and falling in a rhythmic pattern as he slept. Just how tired was he, if he was taking a nap at school? That was certainly a first, especially once he remembered that Seokju had been trained to be aware of his surroundings at all times. It was quite concerning to see that Seokju was tired enough to take a nap at school of all places.

Yeongchan huffed, his hand stretched out, "Ijin. Give me your jacket."

He blinked in surprise. "What?"

"Give me your jacket," Yeongchan repeated, his thumb pointing over at Seokju as he did so, "Mine is too small to cover him completely, and Hyeokjin doesn't have his, yours is big enough." Oh, that made sense. Looking over at Seokju, he could see what Yeongchan meant by his jacket being too small to cover him, his jacket only went down to Seokju's mid-back while his would be big enough to cover him.

Without another word, he handed Yeongchan his jacket, which his friend took, and walked over to Seokju's desk. Gently, Yeongchan draped the blazer over Seokju's shoulders and made minor adjustments so it covered him better.

The fact that Seokju didn't stir was only a testament to how tired he was.

That brought up another question, one that Yeongchan asked him when he sat back down. "Why is he so tired?" Ijin was wondering the same because Seokju had been taken off rotation from work and he had even been excused from training for the past week already so as far as he knew, Seokju didn't have any physical activity that would make him so tired.

Hyeokjin sighed as he continued his homework, only sparing Seokju a sullen glance as he did so, "I don't know. Yeona says that he's not allowed to leave the house. You said that he's not doing training either right?"

Ijin nodded, "He's been put on leave since last week. He's not working either, and he's only allowed to be at the gym for two hours, remember?" Not to mention, there was no way Seokju was doing enough physical activity to leave him so tired within a mere two hours. Two hours was nothing compared to their usual daily activity.

"Right right." Hyeokjin trailed off, his lips turning into a thin white line as he did so. "You don't think anything is happening at home, do you?" That was enough to make all of them nervous, the three of them exchanging looks at the mere thought.

"I don't think so." Yeongchan said quietly, looking nervous at the prospect of Seokju having problems at home. "His parents aren't even home. Yeona already told us that they haven't been home for over a year already." That was a good point, but it still didn't explain why Seokju was in his current state.

Hyeokjin shook out his shoulders as a shiver went down his spine. "Yeah, I know. Just I dunno. I have a bad feeling about something."

"We're not denying that something is going on," Ijin amended because it was obvious that there was something going on that was causing Seokju to lose sleep, but he knew that it wasn't for the reason Hyeokjin was thinking, "But I don't think it has something to do with his parents. They're not home." Seokju had said that his parents rarely contact him as well so it had to be something else.