The Party That Killed || Hyunlix

38 🕸️

3rd person pov.
Chan's memory appeared suddenly, as if it was trying to break free from the shadows to be noticed. Before he could reach for the box he was holding, he saw his fingers tremble, and the old house—once filled with warmth—seemed to grow more distant. It was a strange feeling, as if the forgotten walls held something more, something he couldn’t understand.

He remembered the old house, full of family photos that never matched the picture he had in his mind. The box they were stored in was covered in a layer of dust, and the photos were faded and ruined by the passing time. He felt like he was the only one who had ever looked at these photos, because his family still treated them like something forgotten. Though the photos only showed them—Chan, his mother, and father—he had the feeling there should be someone else there. The memory of this person, his brother, with whom he had lost contact, returned with sudden intensity.

In one of the photos, he saw himself with his parents, who were holding him in their arms, but in another, he saw his brother, whose face was blurred, as if someone didn’t want him to remember his existence. Yet, he couldn’t forget him, even though he didn’t know his name or what had happened to him.

He didn’t know exactly when it all started, but it was definitely from the moment his parents separated, and he felt like everything around him was becoming foreign, burdened with some unspoken weight. He had the feeling that his brother was still somewhere out there, maybe completely forgotten by the family, or even by him.

He paused for a moment, but then he heard the sound of creaking doors. He knew that this was the moment when reality would once again wrap itself around him.

≈🎃≈

Felix and the others entered the room, and Felix immediately asked the question that was supposed to clarify everything:

"Do you want to know what else Chan was hiding?" he asked, pulling out a note. "Ask him when you find him. :)"

The guy’s gaze shifted to the note but quickly turned away, not wanting to give anything away. Felix tried to talk to him, but the guy just shook his head and muttered:

"I won’t tell you anything." Of course, he wasn’t going to give in easily. Then, Hyunjin walked into the room.

"What's going on? Any problems?" he asked, noticing the tense atmosphere.

"He’s a junkie," the guy explained, almost admitting to something that shouldn’t have come to light. However, he noticed the teacher passing by in the hallway and immediately lowered his voice.

"I didn’t want to say it, but he bought that stuff from me. At first, he bought like any other client—just a little bit. But then he started coming every break. I tried to tell him to slow down, because if he got too high, it might come out that the stuff came from me, and I’d end up in jail."

"He asked for more, didn’t he?" Felix observed, looking at him carefully.

"Yeah... the guy got so hooked that he started flipping out. He was saying stuff like it wasn’t his fault, that he didn’t want it, that it was going to happen again, that... I don’t know. He mentioned something about family. The only thing I understood was that he hated someone and wanted to be free."

"Did he say anything else?" Felix asked, tightening his grip on his bag.

"Not really... But there was something else, something that struck me as odd," the guy lowered his voice even further. "He tried to warn me about something."

Felix and Hyunjin exchanged glances. "What did he say?" Hyunjin asked, fixing his gaze on the guy. He threw a quick glance at the door.

"Shouldn’t you guys be in class? It’s past the bell," the teacher said, walking into the room.