until the end of time | seungjoo

:𝔱𝔢𝔫 :

Without Hyeongjun around them, it felt different. Gunil didn't like the turn of events the most; he was his best friend, so hanging out with the rest felt quite pointless—the space left after Hyeongjun was more than just empty. It made his stomach do flips, and feel so numb. Yet, at the same time he was extremely happy for him, because he wasn't sick anymore. His health has gotten much better and that was what mattered to him the most.

And Seungmin... he tried his best not to think about not having Hyeongjun around. To put it bluntly, doing so was strangely hard.

He never really appreciated everything they had going on; even the little quarrels during their races, or the way Hyeongjun would pass him a pillow during nap time. Now, even though he hasn't really experienced any of the circumstances of these events, he still managed to miss his friend.

Sitting in the playroom with Jooyeon in their bunker made of foam blocks, they played with their cars (Seungmin with a purple one, and Jooyeon with a yellow one). It was weird for Seungmin to see him this active, but he was happy. More than that. He was overjoyed, and chuckled as the boy got up and brought even more toys, gathering them in a pile inside of their little spot.

"You'll need to play police," he ordered, pushing a blue car towards Seungmin. The latter gladly picked up the car, and nodded his head.

"And you?"

"I'm a criminal." He giggled, smiling at Seungmin from ear to ear. Using some advantage of this moment, Seungmin stared at him for a few seconds longer, and he noticed that he was still a bit paler than usual. His cheeks weren't as reddish as normally, and if possible, his black hair seemed to be faded. The cold might've touched him a bit rougher than both of them expected, but Seungmin was so glad he was feeling better than even two days ago. "You, chase me!"

And they played. Played for a very long time that felt like eternity. With their laughs filling the room, they couldn't care about anything else but each other. It was their time; their moment.

"There you are," they heard a stern voice, and soon after, a pair of hands landed on Jooyeon's shoulders. Oh.

It had to mean one thing only.

Without looking up, he was already so sure he would see the scary sister right above him. Shivers ran through his body already, and he swallowed hard, looking at Seungmin in front of him.

"You stuffed a pea into the drawer at your table," she hissed through her thin lips, and Jooyeon squeezed his eyes shut. So he was caught. He thought he was good at hiding all his little actions, but this time, this specific one didn't go unnoticed.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, hoping she would leave him alone, and he would be able to play with Seungmin even a few minutes longer, but no...

The moment he wanted to turn around and run into their bunker the hands of the Sister made their way to his forehead, and she became slightly red as Seungmin noticed.

Her cheeks grew suffocatingly warm, and with her free hand she fanned herself.

"Someone call the doctor," was all she managed to utter.

—--—

Sitting in his own room, Seungmin waited patiently for it to get considerably late. He was mad with the Sister, she had to always ruin the fun he had with his best friend, and more than anyone else annoyed him very much.

Everything was great. They played together, they didn't do anything wrong, and if she was mad at Jooyeon for stuffing a pea wherever he could, it still didn't give her the permission to send him to the doctor out of boredom. First of all, Jooyeon didn't deserve that, and second of all, he was also having so much fun with Seungmin.

When the 'considerably late' moment came, Seungmin jumped off his bed and tiptoed to Jooyeon's room. He first looked through the window and then with his lips agape, entered his room.

"What is that?" He questioned, furrowing his brows, and Jooyeon, as much as he wanted to turn around, didn't.

"I... I don't know," he shrugged, looking down at his hand and the thing plugged in his skin. It felt weird; very odd, and he didn't like it, but it had to be there, the doctor told him that it was more than just necessary.

"Can we go to my room as you promised?" Seungmin uttered eventually, although he was quite sure that the answer he would receive wouldn't be the one to his liking.

"Min," Jooyeon whispered, and as Seungmin thought, tried to mask his embarrassment again, just as with his early wandering to sleep. "He told me I'll be allowed to leave the room when the cold stops."

So he was stuck there now.

"I thought you were good now," he said, half surprised, half not. He knew the cold had a little impact on his health, but he didn't know he would end up trapped in his own room.

"But you know what, everything was worth seeing the snow, wasn't it?" Seungmin wanted to shake his head sideways. Nothing was worth it. He didn't care that he had seen snow this year. He didn't care about anything!

He would've done everything for Jooyeon to be all safe and sound now, and not how he is now... lying in his bed with something connected to his body, and a weird monitor next to him that showed a lot of things Seugnmin couldn't understand. All he grasped was the diagram with his heartbeat, and beside that, nothing.

He also deduced that his health had to have gotten worse. Oh, pretty much worse. Otherwise, they would be in Seungmin's room now, and not there, looking at each other with puzzled gazes and mixed feelings.

Tearing his eyes away from Jooyeon, he hung them on the device on his left, and the numbers, he didn't understand any of them, in fact, he was quite bad with bigger numbers, and by staring at them so obstinately, he knew he wouldn't help.

He didn't know what they meant, but there was one thing he managed to understand. Something was off. Very off.

None of his friends was ever closed in their room, not able to leave it because of their condition, and now he was met with his best friend looking at him, not even having any strength to say a single word towards him, because he was so shocked.

Thinking about all that, Seungmin didn't want to come to the conclusions he came to later. He just preferred not to know about it all, so when he was alone in his bed he hid his face under the pillows and tried his best to deafen everything blabbering in his head.

He thought these were ghosts telling him what was going to happen to his little friend, and he hated these invisible personages. He hated them so much! Why were they there? Why were they bothering him and not the bad doctor or the gross Sister? It should've been them and not Seungmin.