Chan POV
The boys and I were sitting around in the park. It felt odd that Areum was not with us today. We had invited her but she had said no. Not even Jeongin's begging could get her to leave her house. Maybe it was a girl thing? However, I doubted that. The others seemed to be bored. They had grown so used to having Areum with them that they did not seem to know what to do. Standing up, I watched as everyone looked at me. They seemed to be wondering what I was doing. I explained that I would go to Areum's place and see if I could coax her out of her apartment. Or at least come back with a reason. The others nodded and asked to come with me. I told them maybe not. She may not want all of us to come barging in. Since all of them wanted to come, they had to play some kind of elimination game to choose who would come with me. After a few rounds of rock, paper, scissors, Hyunjin won and came with me. We walked for about ten minutes in silence before we reached her building. I went in and tried ringing her intercom to see if she would pick up. She would not. Sighing, we stood there and waited to see if someone might come down.
"Do you need to go inside?" A voice said behind us.
"Oh!" I nodded. "Yes, we do."
"Did you lose a key, forget the code or something?" She asked, punching in a code to get in.
I laughed nervously. "No, I'm just here to see a friend."
"Ah, I see." She nodded and let us in. "What floor?" She asked as she headed to the elevator.
"Nine," Hyunjin replied before I could.
"Oh, same." She smiled and pressed the button as we went up.
"So... do you live here?" I asked while looking around.
"Oh, no." She chuckled. "I live in Building 3. My cousin lives here and I'm visiting because I know today she's going to be staying cooped up in her apartment."
"She lives alone?" I asked curiously.
"Technically yes." She nodded. "She's here from abroad for her studies but is living in a place that her mother had owned for a while and that they used whenever they visited."
"Ah, I see." I nodded, looking to Hyunjin to see him fiddling with his hands; tapping out some beat.
"Who are you here to see?" She asked.
"A friend of ours," I responded quickly. "She kept refusing to hang out with us and our friends without reason so we're coming by to see if she's okay."
"Oh, okay." She started to change the subject. "So, you are how old?"
"I'm a 97 liner," I replied. "He's born in 2000." I pointed to Hyunjin.
"Hyung, I could have said that myself." He mumbled.
The girl and I laughed at his reaction and went back to our conversation once we had stopped laughing.
"How about you?" I asked.
"94 liner." She smiled. "I know, I'm old."
The elevator stopped and we all got off, heading in the same direction. Eventually, we both stopped at the same door. Questioningly, we all looked at each other. Why were we all visiting the same person? Finally, I came to the realization that this was one of Areum's cousins that she had told us about.
"You're Areum's cousin, aren't you?" I smiled. "How did I not realize!" Chuckling, I watched her put in the code to Areum's place.
"And you're two out of the nine friends she won't stop talking about." She smiled as she went in. "By the way, if she asks, I don't know her code and her door was just slightly opened."
Hyunjin and I nodded as we headed inside. She told us to sit down on the couch and wait so that she could get Areum out of her room. A few minutes passed by and nothing happened. I could hear a bit of thrashing here and there as if Areum's cousin was trying to drag her out of the bed while Areum refused. Hyunjin looked at me and started a conversation.
"What if today is just some bad day for her?" He asked. "Or what if she's sick or has a lady thing today?"
"Hyunjin, don't jump to conclusions," I replied. "But I have been wondering that too."
"Should we just leave?" He asked.
"No." I thought for a moment. "I think something is up... I think we should wait."
Just as I was finished saying what I had to say, Areum's cousin came out, a bit messier than before. She sighed and opened the door to her room and let us know we could go in, telling us that she had given up and that it was our turn to try. She had to go home and then go to work so she left. Before she left and let us go into the room she said: "Don't worry, she's fully clothed, don't do anything though." And with that, she left. Cautiously, we stepped in. The room was dark, except for some light coming from a lamp by her bed. She was hiding under the covers, but was obviously awake.
"Areum?" Hyunjin said quietly, going around me to the bed and sitting beside where Areum was. "It's me, Hyunjin." He said soothingly. "Chan's here too."
"Leave me be." She said, her voice muffled in the blankets.
"Can you at least tell us what's wrong?" I asked, sitting on her other side. "Did we do something wrong?"
She threw off her covers to reveal a messy haired, red-eyed, tear-stained girl. Different from the usual girl we knew. She shook her head at our question, telling us we never did anything wrong and explaining to us that it was supposed to be her younger brother's birthday today and she told us how much she missed him. We consoled her, trying our best to comfort her. She told us about how she felt like she was being too much of a baby about it, but could not seem to get herself out of bed to do anything. We told her it was okay to be this way and that we could leave if she wanted. Just as Hyunjin and I were getting off the bed and about to walk out, she grabbed Hyunjin's arm stopping him and pulling him back on his bed, then grabbed mine, doing the same.
"Please..." She said in a hushed tone. "Don't leave me like them."
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The one time I have a POV for a full chapter... lol jk I've had a few but y'know.
Are you enjoying? Anything I can improve on?
I feel like posting more than one chapter so that's exactly what I'm going to do ;)
Update 5/22/2020: Since I have so many people supporting my book (THANK YOU) I will be doing the shout outs in chapters that came before when the shout outs started. Thank you <3
Thanks chingu_iii for supporting my book!!
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Before I'm Gone | Stray Kids FF
Fanfiction{Completed} Kang Areum is the new kid in her school. She finds herself befriending a few guys. They become her best friends. They become the people that she can always count on. She was happy with them, always. Until she was not. Areum had lost all...
