Just Before The Dawn [DaeJae]

Twenty Nine

It was Friday when Daehyun finally felt good enough to go back to school. They should not have eaten the soup, Junhong and him had both been sick for the last few days, since, as it turned out, the soup they ate had been two weeks old. Junhong was still staying at home, which was why Daehyun had a rather boring day. 

They had their last lesson with Ms park and as the bell rang, the teacher walked up to him. 

"Daehyun, do you have a moment?" 

The boy put his book in his back and nodded. "Sure." 

"It's about Youngjae. Have you heard anything from him this week?" 

"No, we haven't spoken for a week." 

"I see" the teacher sighed. "He hasn't been at school for four days now and I heard that a few certain people bullied him on Monday after school. Would you mind checking on him?" 

"Of course I don't mind. i'm also worried because he hasn't answered my messages the whole week. I will visit him today, don't worry." 

"Thank you. Oh, and can you take the summary sheet for him I gave you earlier? It's important for the test next week." 

"I will give it to him. Have a nice weekend, Ms Park." 

"You too, Daehyun." 

... 

When Daehyun entered Youngjae's dorm through the big glass door, he found himself in the entrance hall. There was a door leading to the staircase and next to that door was the window to an office, where he saw a woman. 

He approached her, clearing his throat. "Excuse me, I wanted to visit Yoo Youngjae. he doesn't know about my visit though." 

The woman smiled at him and nodded. "I will call the public phone in his hallway, one moment." She picked up the phone, pressed a few buttons and after a while, Daehyun heard someone answer. 

"Hello?" 

"Himchan? I have a visitor here, for Youngjae. Could you please let him in?" 

"I'll be right there." the voice on the other end said and the woman ended the call. 

About half a minute later, a young, black-haired man came down the hallway. "Hey, you must be Youngjae's friend. Come with me." 

he lead the boy up the stairs to the second floor, where the young man unlocked the door to their hallway. "To be honest" he suddenly said, "Sometimes I'm not even sure if Youngjae really lives here. I never see him, barely hear anything from his room, despite he lives right next to me. I've only met him one time when I came home later than usual." 

"Well, he's not much of a person to get in contact with strangers easily." Daehyun said, as they stopped at Youngjae's door. "Thank you for bringing me here." 

"No problem. I'm Himchan, by the way." 

"Nice to meet you. My name is Daehyun." 

They shook hands, then Daehyun knocked on the door. There was no answer. He tried again, with the same result. 

"Maybe he's sleeping?" 

Himchan shrugged. "Go in and check tho, you're his friend. Sorry but I have to go now, got some work to do." 

Daehyun nodded and slowly opened the door. The room was dark and the air stuffy. On the bed in the back of the room lied Youngjae. 

"Jae?" he asked, but the boy did not react. Daehyun entered the room and closed the door, switching on the light. A feeling told him that something was wrong and when he got closer to the boy, he saw he was right.