10/13
The sun was laughing when the boys got to school the next day. They tried not too think too much of the sun; however, when Seungkwan failed to show up at school, the boys all turned to the sun. No one wanted to go outside during lunch that day because the sun just freaked them out that much. No one said anything about the sun- no one wanted to talk either. They all assumed the same thing: Seungkwan was gone, and so were Vernon and Chan.
Seungcheol cleared his throat. He felt like a chewed up piece of one of his apple slices got caught in the back of his throat, but his throat was feeling like that all day. Jeonghan handed him a water bottle and tried to make small talk.
"Seungcheol, Jisoo, and I are graduating this year," Jeonghan said with a smile on his face. "You guys better be preparing something for our graduation party."
"I'll steal apples from the tree again," Mingyu said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Do you guys plan on going to the city once you graduate?" Wonwoo said as he slapped Mingyu's shoulder; he didn't appreciate Mingyu's sass towards Jeonghan.
"No, I plan on staying here and helping out at the farm," Seungcheol said after he finished drinking his water. "I'm the oldest, after all. I want to help my parents earn money so that my younger sister can go to college."
"I'm going to go to the city," Jisoo said. "I want to travel the world once I graduate."
"Do you not like living here?" Minghao asked.
"No, I just want to see more than just fields and fields of corn," Jisoo shook his head.
"I get you, Jisoo," Junhui said. "You want to see what the world has to offer."
"Exactly," Jisoo nodded.
He was going to continue, but the sound of the sun suddenly laughing louder made him stopped. The ten boys turned and looked at the sun all at the same time, but Wonwoo was the one to stop looking first. He quickly finished the rest of his lunch and said, "There's still a lot of time before they graduate. We don't need to worry about gifts just yet."
"Are you okay there, Wonwoo?" Mingyu reached out for Wonwoo's arm, but he moved it away.
"I think you guys are taking the sun too lightheartedly!" Wonwoo suddenly snapped. "We should be figuring out what's wrong with the dumb sun before we try to think about the future! What if Seungcheol, or Jeonghan, or Jisoo disappear too!"
The boys stared at Wonwoo, who was trying his best to remain calm. He turned around suddenly and walked briskly back to the classroom, the rest of the boys continuing to look at him until he entered the building. Seungcheol sighed and finished his own lunch before saying, "I was actually planning to see if I-"
"Seungcheol, don't do anything stupid," Jeonghan warned.
"I have to stay after school anyway to talk to our teacher, so I won't be leaving home in the middle of the night," Seungcheol reassured Jeonghan. "I won't take the forest path either, but if I find them, then it'll be good, right?"
There was a quiet, collective agreement amongst them, and Seungcheol nodded in response. He stood up and said, "I don't get this whole sun thing, but I will figure out what happened to our friends even if it kills me."
