Countdown | Stray Kids OT9✔

Chapter One

Why is 3Racha so lovable? Why is Jeongin and Seungmin so cute? Why is Hyunjin so cute? Why is Woojin so handsome? Why is Minho so attractive? Felix's vocal is destroying me help—

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"Don't you hate it when someone makes a joke about you, about something that you are incredibly insecure about, and they don't realize it? But every laugh feels like a stab in your chest, because it hurts so much and brings memories that you'd rather forget, but you can't say anything, because people will know your weakness. They'd know how insecure you really are, so instead you just laugh it off and hide the pain you see inside,"

—Unknown.

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I walked faster, my nerve going berserk, my focus dissipating. My mind keeps going back to what happened earlier.

What the hell? How did I change the dog's life? Who was that woman? Why was she staring right at me?

Before the girl could even process that I did something to her dog, I stealthily escaped the scene, looking back once to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. How did I even do that?

My finger only brushed downwards slightly on its countdown... Did I change its time like how you do with the clocks on your phone?

How come that didn't work when I needed it the most?

"Miss, your parents—"

I shook my head, attempting to shake the memories off my head, memories I'd rather forget forever.

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A few weeks later.

I bobbed my head along the beats of the music that blared through my earphones, looking down on the road as I walked towards the school, not wanting to look at anyone's countdown.

It physically hurts me to see someone only having a few minutes to live, especially when they're last moments are seemingly their happiest one.

Throughout this power, I witnessed different emotions of people before they died. I already saw different types of countdown, there were green ones, upon observation, the people with green countdown meant that those people will die with illness. Red ones meant that those people die through suicide, blue means through murder or an accident, white means through old age.

My mind wandered to the mysterious man on the gate a few weeks ago, looking back at it... His countdown is gold...

"Watch out!"

I looked at my right, snapping out of my trance to spot a truck heading towards my frame, the driver looks equally shocked, and I couldn't do anything but just stand there.

Almost as if it was in slow motion, I peered down my stomach, feeling a weird sensation in it, only to see something that I have been waiting and wanting to see, my countdown.

00:03

00:02

00:01

Snap.

I braced for the impact, shutting my eyes tight, feeling my arms instinctively raise over my face. A few seconds later, I felt... nothing. I opened my eyes and saw everyone, unmoving.

"H-how..." I muttered to no one in particular, looking around me to see everyone, just... standing there, eyes on the spot I am in, their expressions twisted into shock as if I am still about to be hit by that truck.

"Shocking, right?" I jumped at the voice, looking behind me to see a boy with a hood over his head, casting a dark shadow unto his figure, but only enough for me to see his eyes, sharp and squinted, but held mischief in them.

He was holding his left hand up, curled into a fist as if he is holding something tight, a mist circling it. Out of instinct, I looked at his chest, a frozen 00:05 on it.

"Who... are you?" I asked, taking a few steps away from him.

"Oh, we'll meet soon, but not through death, this isn't your time to die yet, we need you for something before that happens. See you around," He ended his sentence with a chilling and mischief-filled pronunciation of my name.

He suddenly sprinted towards me, roughly pushing me, and making me fall on my bottom on the sideway, the spot I fell in creating a visible ripples through the air, and the people around me soon moving properly as they should.

But, the man was gone...

But, something changed, the truck that was originally going through my direction passed by, the driver was maneuvering the vehicle as if what happened seconds ago didn't happen. Looking around, everyone is acting as if nothing happened, as if I wasn't about to get hit, with some looking at me in curiosity, as if wondering as to why a student is casually sitting on the sideway.

A fragile, warm and shaky hand softly grabbed my elbow, pulling me up, "Are you okay, child?"

Looking at the person, I saw a man, no older than his 40's, seemingly like a father of one or two. I stared at his countdown, a red 43:00 adorning his chest.

He is gonna kill himself in 43 minutes.

"Miss?" He called once again, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Are you a father?" I, myself, was shocked that slipped my mouth.

He looked startled by my question but softened, releasing my arm from his hold, "Ah, yes... A father of three..."

He sat down on a nearby bench, and I had no choice but to follow him as he's told me stories about his life. 43 years old, relationship status unknown (but he labeled himself as separated) because his wife of nine years suddenly disappeared for three years, leaving their three children, 7-year old, 5-year old, and 2-year old, on his care, currently unemployed and has no source of income and enough money to feed his children a complete meal for this week.

"Oh, I may not know what it feels to have children, but... I know how it feels to lose their parents. So, I'm sure your children wouldn't want to lose another, and I'm sure they look up to you, so whatever it is you feel like you're lacking in... Err... You're doing great, just keep going. It's okay,"

He smiled as if he was relieved, as if he has been waiting for someone to tell him that. But, something caught my eye, his once red countdown, was now white, 324 120:36:21.

A small smile spread across my features, I guess some people just needs someone to talk to and someone to encourage them and tell them that they're doing great...

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The last paragraph is for everyone who feels like their lacking in something. I do hope you know that you are doing great, you are wonderful and please keep that smile on your face. Whatever problem you're going through, it is only there to make you stronger. Find someone to talk to, and don't keep those feeling bottled up :)

Chapter written on: May 27, 2019