crack in the mirror | gayeon 🪞

-12-

All he remembered was Jiseok's hand gripping his own and his soft voice whispering something really quietly—he thought that it could even be the factor that made him fall asleep that night, because somehow, when he woke up, he was still in the boy's room.

He didn't know for how long they talked nor for how long he slept, but he knew that for fact when he woke up Jiseok was gone. And without thinking twice, he got up, checked the hour—eleven before midday, rushed downstairs, grabbed a piece of bread, chewed it and drank fresh water straight from the tap. It was too cold, and felt so great on his skin as it dripped from his chin, so he washed his face, cursing under his breath as he hit the cupboard with his head.

He had only a little time and lots of things to do that day, and what's more, his head hurt as hell, for obvious reasons.

It was Saturday which was the only thing that prevented him from going insane, because if it were a working day, he would've been fucked up—having to attend classes in such state would be a really hard task, if he were to be honest.

Although nothing much happened till Wednesday's evening. He spent the weekend not doing much, recovering from the big amount of drinks he had taken at the club, going out with Seungmin and stargazing with Jungsu only once.

One day when he made his way to spend some time with Jiseok, he was stopped by Gunil, who offered him to go and buy groceries with him, which to be honest, Jooyeon liked very much—he barely got to spend time with him on his own, so the opportunity seemed perfect.

The next free days of school were boring, the grave atmosphere was the only thing he had remembered from the lectures with professor Kim, and a new essay on the reflection of pain in books that was due at the end of the month, which meant three weeks.

He panicked on Wednesday, right before he left his room to meet Jiseok, because the note Junhan had given him was gone—he couldn't find it anywhere, let alone remember where he'd left it.

Jiseok had to remind him that he had that paper with himself the moment Jooyeon ran into his room with his cheeks burning red from the whole stress eating him up from the inside, and slowly the outside.

It only reminded Jooyeon about that night and the fact that now Jiseok knew a lot more about him than he expected, but when he stared into those big eyes, he couldn't tell if it was true. Nothing in the soft gaze spoke of the fact that he knew how bad Jooyeon's relationship with his parents were, which seemed to be a good thing.

Seemed.

Jiseok was good at not showing off what he knew and how he felt, he still remained a mystery to Jooyeon. And even when they were walking out of the Hut, making their way to the forest, Jooyeon couldn't decipher anything going on in his friend's face.

When he looked at him, he looked so neutral, even positive, smiling softly at Jooyeon as he caught him staring.

"I found a picture of that mushroom in the library," he said eventually, taking out a ripped piece of paper from the pocket of his white trousers. Jooyeon furrowed his brows and blinked a few times. "I know I shouldn't have done that to the book, but I had no other choice."

Jooyeon was confused, not only did he not know what he was talking about, but when he got the picture of the death cap, he thought the task would be even harder. Maybe it was because he never went mushrooming, but he simply had never seen this type in real life.

"I went to the library and because my card doesn't work, I had to rip the page off," Jiseok explained furthermore, letting Jooyeon know how everything happened. "And I know we have phones, but I thought it would be cooler without them."