Strange Being | 2park

Chapter 7

"Jihoon! Get out of our way! Jihoon!" Jihoon snaps out of his trance as he catches a familiar voice.

"Daehwi?"

"Jihoon-ah." Suddenly his two best friends were to each side of him. Jihoon opens his mouth yet no words exit his mouth.

"Here, let's get up. Let's go somewhere else, okay?" Daehwi and Jinyoung help Jihoon up as they slowly began to exit the cafeteria, sending glares at whoever tried to follow the three out.

"Hyung, what was that?" Jinyoung questions.

Jihoon doesn't reply. He pulls himself out of his friends' grasp before simply slumping his body down onto the staircase, sitting down upon one of the ledges.

"Jihoon, I've never seen you snap like that. Even when I could tell you want to. What happened?" Daehwi asked as Jihoon avoids their stares, smashing his face into his own skin.

Daehwi and Jinyoung crouch down beside him. Jihoon's face is shoved into his knees.

"What's wrong? We're just worried about you, hyung..." Daehwi continues. Jinyoung carefully places his fingertips onto Jihoon's back, surprised when Jihoon jerks his head up.

The two are left in shock as they look at Jihoon.

A tear is falling down his cheek.

Followed by another.

Something his two best friends have never witnessed before.

"Why does it hurt?" Jihoon says, his voice is strangely calm for someone with tears slowing streaming down his face.

"W-Where hyung? Did you get hurt?" The two slightly scrabble to get closer to Jihoon, worry etched onto their faces.

Jihoon points towards his own chest.

"I-It hurts."

***

So days pass. Weeks. Jihoon doesn't see Woojin around very often. Only catching the brunette during the time they have classes together. He tries not to focus on Woojin. After all, why should he? Woojin has no reason to swim in his thoughts. He has work to turn in, exams to study for. There's no room for Woojin. So why is he in his head?

Jihoon only snaps out of his thoughts when a librarian taps his back, requesting that he stops flicking his pencil onto the table repeatedly. Jihoon lets out a quiet groan as he runs his fingers through his hair gently.

He rests his head onto his books.

Gosh, he's freaking exhausted.

It's already late out. Jihoon had been working all day long, and he's almost finishing up the last of his essay.

Jihoon finds his eyes slowly shutting as he feels his reasonable side that begs him to stay awake and turn in his essay in time slowly leave his body. He finds himself gradually losing consciousness. Thankfully a loud noise that strangely translates into a sneeze snaps him out of his trance. Jihoon jerks his head towards the noise as does most people in the library.

Who sneezes like that?

The answer isn't the most pleasant in Jihoon's eyes.

ba-dump...

ba-dump...

ba-dump...

Jihoon feels as his chest decides to tighten itself, squeezing his insides uncomfortably, and Jihoon is forced to snap his head back down as he covers up as much as his face as possible. Moving his hair as he covers his heated cheeks with his palms.