Seven | Book 1 (An EXO fiction)

39.

So I apparently suck at writing.

Junmyeon didn't say that, but since he's making me start from writing the fucking alphabet I can get the hidden message. When we first began lessons last week he did a "diagnostic" of my abilities. He doesn't understand how I can speak as well as I can without being able to write or read the things that I know how to say.

So, here we are sitting at the couches by the door, a week later, going back to learning to how to write like a 5-year-old. But I guess I understand. If I can't write, there's not really any use in learning the rest.

Then again, who even physically writes anymore anyway? Like I know my handwriting is shit, but I am never going to write anything in my life outside of this. I should be learning how to type better if anything...

I scrawl through the first few letters in the word I've been given to copy and I see Junmyeon shake his head from beside me. "Try writing it from a different direction," he says pointing to one of my letters "With the way that you're approaching it you're making it crooked and indecipherable. If you start from the top right instead your life would be a bit easier." I pout and look at my shitty letter and then at his perfect one.

He's great at everything he does.

I hate him.

He takes the pencil from my hand and leans over to scrawl on the paper in my lap. He's so close and he still smells so clean. I want to run my fingers through his light brown hair, but I know that it would be inappropriate on like 48 different levels to do so. So, I try to focus on his hand movements. The least I could do would be to try and impress him with my ability to retain information.

He leans away after having written a word that looks entirely unfamiliar to me. I copy the letters below his, and he claps excitedly. "See! You did great!" my face heats under his praise. I duck my head to hide my face and keep copying the word the way he instructed me to. He hands me a sheet of paper with more words that I'm supposed to copy, and goes back to writing a new list for when I'm done.

It's quiet, but comfortable. The sounds of pencil scraping paper is weirdly soothing.

Sitting next to my new hot tutor is pretty cool too.

The silence is interrupted all too soon by the sound of soft knocks at the door. I don't look up from the paper and Junmyeon tells the guest to come in. He's only known me a week and yet he picked up fairly fast that I don't raise my voice much...at least not anymore.

The creeps open all too slowly, and I freak out a bit so I finally stop focusing on my paper. My stomach drops and my heart lurches painfully.

Sehun.

The pencil falls from my hand as my grip becomes nonexistent. At the sound he finally looks up from where he had been heavily focusing on tiles below his feet. Our eyes meet and I feel a bolt of emotions hit me at one time and so forcefully that I lose my breath.

Pain. Loss. Sadness. Regret. Relief. Shame. Terror. Happiness. Lov-

No. Not that.

His terrified eyes tear away from mine as he bows his head to avoid my gaze. It's almost like we're back where we started. My throat dries up at his appearance. He's gaunt. Unhealthily so. His complexion is too pale. His body too thin. He just seems...dead. A walking corpse.

What happened to him? Someone would have told me if he'd been sent to the dungeon...he wasn't there was he? There's no way. I would never let that happen even if I was avoiding him. My mouth opens but no words come out.