crack in the mirror | gayeon 🪞

-4-

Seeing a folded piece of paper wedged under the door gap was questionable. Jooyeon had to blink his eyes a few times to believe it was real and not something he imagined due to the lack of sleep he had that night.

The paper was still there; it was pink and had been folded about three times. He picked it up and, yawning, opened it.

It was an invitation.

He suddenly remembered all these societies and clubs Seungmin had told him about, but this wasn't anything like that. The black cursive said: Let's meet outside the school today at 7pm, i'll wait for you in front. If only Jooyeon knew who that was.

Of course, he didn't know how the boys wrote. He knew none of their handwriting and suddenly regretted not doing so.

He spent the whole day walking around the Hut or Oasis trying to make eye contact with every boy, but no face said that the owner was the one who wrote the message to Jooyeon. So he could only assume who that was.

His first guess was Gunil, but no—he didn't look like someone who'd like to play such games. He'd come to him and tell him straightforwardly that he wants him there and at this hour.

He didn't even know the purpose of the meeting; he only knew the place and the time. This could be anyone, literally. What if it was someone he didn't know or a ghost? After all, this school was old; someone must have died in that house already. And what if they wanted to haunt Jooyeon now? But he didn't believe in haunting and possession, so he continued persistently looking at his housemates.

During the dinner Gunil prepared, he could swear that he even managed to make Jungsu uncomfortable; as he deduced, he didn't like being watched while eating. He could understand him, but it didn't stop him from observing the rest.

"Are you not hungry?" Seungmin asked, waking him up from the trance. He had been looking at them, trying to notice something different in anyone's behaviour, for the past few minutes, and the soup was left untouched.

"I'm not a big fan of Borscht," he admitted, pushing the bowl away from him. Maybe this way, he would free himself from eating it.

But he had to make Gunil like him... He almost forgot about it.

When Gunil announced that he could take it away from him, he shook his head to the sides and drank it really quickly; it didn't even matter that he burned his tongue—he had no other choice.

When 7pm approached, he threw a coat over his body and, as quietly as possible, left the Hut. Before the said hour, he checked if anyone was wandering in the living room, and to his surprise, everyone was somewhere else. He got very lucky, so not wasting it, he strolled down the lane very quickly.

With every step, he felt curiosity growing in his stomach and heard the leaves breaking under the weight of his body. He reached the targeted place and looked around. At first, he couldn't see anyone, so feeling uneasy, he stood waiting.

"I said 7 on point." Jooyeon heard a voice from behind him, and he turned his body around.

"Jiseok?" He squinted his eyes and blinked a few times, just as in the morning, but once again, it was all true, and the silhouette approaching him belonged to the said boy. He had a blue scarf around his neck, and his cheeks were very red even though he had just exited the Hut, or at least, that was what Jooyeon thought. "Why didn't you sign the paper?" he asked instead of questioning the purpose of the meeting, which, on the other hand, also made him inquisitive.

"I thought you wouldn't show up if I had." Jiseok shrugged as if it were the most obvious thing in the whole world.

Jooyeon stared at him for a while before saying anything. Moments like that made him wonder where he and Jiseok stood. He didn't understand their relationship because, on a daily basis, they barely exchanged many words.