[ON-GOING] A Prequel To Annulled: 2190, It's Just The Beginning

11

It was Wednesday morning when Baekhyun was constantly calling me earlier. When I got up to answer his calls, he ended it abruptly. So I moved as fast as I can and travel to our school an hour early compared to the time that I'll leave house. He's not answering my phone calls and it's worrying me a lot! He won't bug me at 4 am if it's nothing. I called in their house before leaving and no one answered. I just realized that auntie must've been out of town again. Was Baekhyun stressed? But the last time we met, he's all bubbly and happy so I don't think he has problems!

"Hey, have you seen Baekhyun?" I've asked Yeri when she bumped with me. It's still early but people here in our school were already busy! Kim Yeri is our Treasurer by the way.

"Oh. Chanyeol sunbaenim!" She bowed and I nodded. "Baekhyun sunbaenim is inside our headquarters I think! That's where I lastㅡ" I didn't let her finish her words when I pulled her for a hug and I just shouted her my Thank You before rushing to the place she said.

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It was dark here but I know he's here. I can hear his breathing from afar and his sobs. He's crying himself alone in the darkness. Baekhyun is sad again.

"Hey. . . Baek. . . Where are you?" I asked, my hand leaning on the switch of the light. I know he's here. I know he's just torturing himself alone with sadness that's why the lights were turned off. He once told me that darkness gives comfort to him whenever he feels sad and bad. In times like this, he told me he prefers to be alone because he grew up like that. But now that he got me on his back, I'll never let him live with that kind of life anymore.

"Please leave me alone," he said in between sobs. I know he's near to me so I opted not to make a move anymore because I might step onto him.

"I'm here. You don't have to beat yourself in sadness alone," slowly pushing the switch, my eyes adjusted after looking into a complete darkness to seeing a place covered in white. There I saw him. Sitting on the left corner of this room while hugging his knees. His eyes were already reddish because of his cryings. I quickly ran my way towards him and pulled him for a hug. He tried escaping from my arms but he failed so he rested his head on my chest and continued on sobbing. "Just go on. Pretend that I'm not here. I'll wait for you to calm down, Baek."

I don't know if it's the righteous thing to do but comforting Baekhyun made him cry even more. Maybe he's really like this. He's still adjusting on having someone beside him whenever he's sad. He used to knock himself alone with sadness. He said he doesn't usually open up with his mom, he'd rather let sadness consume him than telling auntie who's always been busy with her work and businesses. That's when the thought that their bonding is inseparable compared to Mom and I was crashed. After all, they're just like those other broken families whose got their relationship tainted but I'm glad that Baekhyun's not the rebellious kind of son. He stayed with his mother. About his father, I don't know if he's still in speaking terms with him. I don't really ask him personal matters like this, he's just surprising me at one moment we're still talking about things around and in one time, he's already opening up the wound that's been long cured but still not fully healed yet.

"You know what?" I started while playing with his fingers. Baekhyun seemed to calm down a bit when his hand automatically held mine and gripped it gently. I cannot hear his sobs anymore, just few hiccups because of the cryings he made. "I have this cousin who shared the same fate with you. She's a fruit of broken family that's why I've gotten protective of her. But sadly, we have to leave the province and stay here in Seoul because Mom got a stable and good job here. I was hesitant on leaving her because I know that I've been her comfort zone but I have to. Just like you, she finds comfort in darkness. But there's a different story here. She prefers to lock herself alone inside a dark bathroom. She sleeps inside their bathroom. Auntie made her a comfortable bed inside their bathroom because she can't sleep at peace on her own room. One day, she told me that it's because she hid on a bathroom when uncle was finding for her. Her dad used to beat her up and the only place that time she thought of hiding at is the abandoned public bathroom nearby their house. She tried getting treated for it by some psychiatrist but her mind and body's going against it so we opted on letting it be like that."