What's Broken Can't Be Fixed

01

     It all started at least 3 years ago, when everything seemed fine. But of course, everything went wrong when the government started messing with shit they weren't supposed to. It was early in the morning, and in the group chat of 8 people on Lee Felix's phone, messages were rolling in.

     Soon, he was on a group call with 7 other boys. Felix walks out and props his phone up against the wall as his mother sets down a bowl of rice and quail eggs in front of him. "You guys need to hurry up if we're going to ride to school together." Felix says, picking up an egg with his chopsticks. He sighs, through the camera, seeing as his friend Jeongin was still in bed.

     "We're all ready. Jeongin's just being lazy." Seungmin says as he pulls his jacket over his shoulders. Jeongin laughs with his eyes still closed, and everyone yells at him to get up.

     Sooner or later Jeongin had gotten up, and everyone hung up the phone, getting on their bikes. Felix rides quietly, his hair blowing in his face from the windy day. Then he sees another boy on a bike coming from a separate road, and soon 6 other boys emerge from the many connecting roads. "I wonder what we're doing today." Changbin says, looking over at Felix, and the boy shrugs.

     "It's gonna be like any other boring day at high school." But when Felix turns back to look at the road his eyes grow wide. It all happened so quickly he didn't have time to register what was going on. The headlights shone bright in his eyes, and soon he was slammed against a car windshield. And as the car continued to drive forward, he rolled off the roof of it and fell off the back.

     Felix lands on his side, curled in a ball. He felt a throbbing pain in his head, his leg was twisted in a way it shouldn't be able to, blood was surrounding his body, and shards of glass were piercing him furiously. He was in so much pain that crying didn't even come to mind.

     His eyelids weighed heavy and all he heard was the clatter of bikes dropping. "FELIX!" He hears everyone screaming his name. Through his blurred vision, he sees his friend Hyunjin crouching over him with a worried look on his face. It was obvious that the boy couldn't walk, so Hyunjin gathers his strength to lift the boy off of the ground.

     "What the hell?" Hyunjin mumbles. As he looks up from Felix, he sees all the chaos happening further down the road. He begins to walk forward but Chris grabs his shoulder.

     "We have to go back to the house." Chris says. Hyunjin didn't know what he meant by the house but either way he knew they couldn't go back.

     "No." Hyunjin shakes his head. "It's back there too." Chris turns around with a confused expression but then he understands. What was going on in front of them had already been happening behind them. Looking down at Felix again, Hyunjin could feel the boy's blood seeping onto his clothes. He then realized they needed to get wherever they had to go fast.

     Rummaging through his backpack, Jisung pulls out a flashlight and Minho turns towards him. "Why do you have a flashlight in your backpack?" He asks, and Jisung shrugs.

     They all began to slowly edge forward into the oncoming fog, but the more they walked the harder it became to breathe. Everyone had pulled their shirts over their noses, but Hyunjin couldn't. His glasses had fogged up so he could barely see, and the moment he stumbled and almost dropped Felix, they knew it was time to give him a break.

     Hyunjin carefully gives Felix to Chris and then takes his glasses off, wiping them on his shirt and sliding them back on the bridge of his nose. "We won't last long." Seungmin manages to get out his words but goes into coughing fit straight after. The boy takes out his inhaler and takes a big puff, trying to catch his breath. Of course, being in this kind of air with asthma wasn't good for him at all.