sleeping sickness

chapter 1//youngjae pov

The bell rang, signaling the end of my history class. Once again, I left the class without any idea of what was discussed. I plugged in my headphones and quietly navigated through the crowded halls to the cafeteria. Since I had a free period, I usually came here to draw. My shrink told me that drawing should help me calm down and focus. She was right, but she also said that sleep would be helpful. That's where she was wrong. Sleep was more destructive than helpful, in my case. I was afraid of it; the moment I shut my eyes, I would begin to panic. I found sleep fascinating, though. I liked to draw people sleeping. That's what I did during my free period. I took out my sketchbook and looked around for a sleeping person. Looking down my table, I saw one. It was Im Jaebum, my foster brother's best friend. I smiled and started to sketch his sleeping form. He was the subject of many of my sketches, so I knew how to draw him fairly well. I always made sure to include the two little moles above his left eye (he would get slightly irritated when I didn't). When I finished the drawing, I looked up at Jaebum, who was awake.

"Did you draw me again?" he asked. I nodded and slid my sketchbook down the table to him. He looked at the drawing and smiled.

"Do you like it?" I said.

"I think it's your best one yet, Jae. It's amazing. and once again, it was a pleasure being your model." he slid my sketchbook back and walked over to me. He sat down across from me.

"Did you need something, hyung?" I said.

"How are you doing in your classes?" he asked. I hesitated. He already knew the answer; he spent most of his time with Jinyoung, my "brother," who told him everything about me. There was almost nothing those two didn't know about me.

"Okay, I guess." I mumbled.

"Come on, Youngjae. don't lie," he paused. "I'm gonna be at your house today to do homework with Jinyoung. I'll help you while I'm there, okay?" it wasn't a question. He stood up to leave and ruffled my hair.

"See you later, Youngjae." he said as he walked off.

///

The first time I met Jaebum, I hated him. He got all of Jinyoung's attention when he was around, when it was usually me Jinyoung was focused on. As I got older, though, I realised I had been selfish for thinking like that. I slowly started becoming friendlier with Jaebum, and even started to draw him. He was nice to draw; his cheekbones were perfect for shading, his eyes always sparkled, and of course, he had the little "beauty marks," as he liked to call them.

The first time I drew him, it was really awkward. He had been napping on our couch, so I snuck into the living room and sat in front of him to sketch him. I had nearly finished, when he chose that moment to wake up. He had just stared at me. Then he asked to see the drawing. I showed it to him, and the only thing he said was that I forgot his "beauty marks." He had never said anything bad about my drawings, just the occasional "you forgot this," or "make sure to fix that." It was nice to have someone praise my art like he did. He was always there for anything.

~unedited