NOW | woosan | ON HIATUS

- 3 -

The following week felt like a fever dream. After what happened to him, nothing felt real for Wooyoung. It all seemed like a façade put together by something. Nothing and no one felt real. The coffee didn't taste the same, the colors didn't look the same, the eyes meeting his didn't feel the same. 

Every two hours Wooyoung turned on the news even when he wasn't at home to see if there would be a report made on the attack but there were none. 

At first he wondered if was only the government trying to gatekeep the information, but later he noticed nobody was talking about it. Nobody whispered about the explosion of the train, nobody gossiped about opposing gangs shooting each other dead without hesitation, nobody broke down in fear from dead bodies littering the streets of their city. It was as if none of it even happened. 

But it was real. Wooyoung knew it was real, the aching pain in his stomach and the sight of it in the mirror reminded him every morning just how real it was. He ended up going to the hospital as per San's advice because he just couldn't get it out of his mind - and got the stiches checked. It was a clean work - said the doctor. It was so clean in his opinion that he asked just who had such superb equipment and Wooyoung had to reply he got it done abroad. Even with that, he was given strange looks.

Yeosang however, was absent from work ever since then. Wooyoung didn't text him and neither did he reach out. Wooyoung promised he would forget all about them but he just couldn't. The events of that day lived so vividly in his mind he fell victim to them every now and then. He started feeling like he was crazy. Like he imagined it all, like it was just a dream.

It wasn't a dream.

He became paranoid. As if there was a man on every corner coming for his life. Even tough he knew that shouldn't be the case, he couldn't believe it. 

Wooyoung sat at his regular spot at the café on the corner of his office. The place was small, but usually packed with costumers - truly the example of great marketing. The walls inside were bare bricks covered by live wisteria tendrils. Wooyoung enjoyed staying there. It was a spot he frequented so often they knew him by name, knew his mother by name, knew his favorite drink and what he would order based on his complexion when he walked in. It was his safe place. And he wanted to believe it was actually safe.

That illusion came to a halt the moment he looked up from his laptop and saw a familiar man at the other end of the shop, staring right at him. 

A whole week passed that felt crazy but on the contrary nothing happened. A whole week, where instead of his life going back to it's previous state it just deteriorated and when it was finally Friday, finally the day when he could just sit back and think maybe he was the crazy one to imagine things when actually nothing was coming for him - he was now staring at the exact person who was coming for him. 

He dropped the mug from his hand and it shattered loudly on the ground.

"Oh my god! Are you okay?" The shopkeeper rushed over and checked on Wooyoung. Her worry was evident. 

Wooyoung barely managed to force out a smile due to how shocked he was but he knew he had to pretend. 

What if he was imagining things again?

"Yes, I'm so sorry for troubling you like this I have no ide what got into me!" He quickly stood up in an effort to help but the lady pushed him back down.

"You go and sit, I'll clean it up. Should I bring you another cup of coffee?"

Wooyoung glanced at San again. He blinked with both his eyes slowly, as if signaling to accept the gesture from the host. Wooyoung gulped.