Voiceless Cries

Chapter 7 : Infected

The deafening sound of the students’ voices slapped her as she stepped into the full cafeteria. Students were clustered around tables, giggling and smiling. Anguish and melancholy engulfed her. She let out a bitter smile. If only she was normal.

She trudged towards her usual spot and was halted when she saw it was already taken. True she had been late that day. Her eyes calmly scanned for any empty seat but had seemed to fail.

Within the periphery of her vision, she saw Myungsoo with Sunggyu trotting beside him, chatting away like a machine gun. Her heart jumped at the memory of their connection the previous day, how they had interacted wordlessly. She felt his heart soften when his fingers caressed the keys and the way their playing unite them together was still vivid in her mind. Her eyes twinkled as she walked over, in hope to dine with the man who had showed her joy and salvaged her from her wrecked life.

But as she neared him, he did not approach her, nor did he acknowledge her. He walked pass her as if she was nonexistent; as if her body had disappeared into thin air. His face was shadowed by the mask of steel and his impenetrable eyes were shielded with ice. Her heart plummeted, fallen into deep ruins. Dismay colored her face as she realized how stupid she had been. He had a reputation to carry. No matter how close they were, she could not approach him as a friend, and neither would he.

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“I noticed you had been disappearing every time class ends. Where did you go?” Sunggyu’s voice was full of curiosity.

His intense desire to know Myungsoo’s whereabouts had left him staring hard at his friend, as if that would dig out all the answers for him.

“Not your business,” Myungsoo said as he swung his bag on his shoulder and walked off. Without turning back, he waved, “See you tomorrow.”

Sunggyu stood immobilized. His curiosity was getting the better of him and he wanted to follow. Maybe the rumors were true after all? But Myungsoo has his secrets of his own and he respected that. He should not intervene on whatever business he had. Sunggyu sneezed. Ah, stupid nose.  He stayed in that position until Myungsoo was no longer in his sight before he turned the other way.

Myungsoo jauntingly made his way to the clock tower, taking in deep breaths as he walked.  Savouring the moment, the fresh air and the view as if there was no tomorrow. He had felt more relax recently. He did not know the reason to his new found calmness but he had enjoyed it regardless.

Suddenly his nose itched to the extent that he actually stopped in his tracks. The urge to sneeze was so great that he could not curb it.

He sneezed. It was followed by more sneezing. Okay, he had officially caught a cold from that damned Sunggyu. He felt sick due to the constant sneezing that he had tried so hard to restrain. He was so mad at Sunggyu that he swore he would kill him if he was present.

He continued to walk, but was no longer jaunting. He had to stop once in a while to control his overly excessive sneezing fits. When he had finally reached he seated himself on the bench his back resting on the wood.

He was greeted by a playful playing that had tugged his heart without his consent. But it did not seem as if he was making any effort to push it away. He had willingly let her do anything with his heart. Her playing was getting more playful, pounding hard on the barrier that he had built all these years, inching nearer and nearer to the human flesh, nearer and nearer to his human emotions. He was made a slave and he did not hate it even though he knew he was played around.

Then, his head started throbbing, softly at first. But as time passed, it got more intense, as if a fist was hammering his head. Hard. It felt like someone was chewing, no – savouring his brain; tearing it away in pieces and feasting on it. Tolerating the pain in his head was next to impossible, but he forcibly attempted to push it down until breathing became a labor. With his head threatening to burst, he stood up.