Before I'm Gone | Stray Kids FF

She's Gone

Seungmin POV

Areum had been gone three days and we all missed her dearly. She would be coming back in a few days, hopefully. We were forced to train without her. She did her best to video call and such to help out, but it was not easy. We would take videos and send them to her to critique. She had to back out of the competition because she had to leave. Even so, she did not let that get her down, she continued to work hard on what she could do to help us.

Today, we were taking a break. Areum told us to take today off and we listened to her for once. We decided to go to the park and play some games and have a picnic. We started with truth or dare.

"Hyunjin, truth or dare?" Jeongin poked Hyunjin.

"Truth." He said calmly.

"Who do you like???" Jeongin giggled.

Hyunjin's eyes widened a little and the tips of his ears turned a light shade of pink. "Um..." He looked at Jeongin.

"You have to tell us! It's truth or dare." Jeongin smiled slyly.

"Fine." Hyunjin glared at him a bit. "Areum."

A few oOoos were said and many teased him a little. Including me. He eventually got us to stop and asked Minho the same question.

"Areum..." He looked at the grass around him.

A silence fell upon our group. We did not normally have instances where two people liked the same person at the same time. Before I knew it, Minho was up and walking away. I guess he did not want to play anymore. I was up and going after him with Jisung. He was sitting alone by the pond, fiddling with a rock he had found. Jisung was the first to sit by him, me sitting beside him afterwards.

"Why'd you leave?" I asked.

"I just don't want to play." He shrugged. "Plus, if she's going to be brought into this, I'd rather not."

"Why not?" I turned to him.

"He misses her," Jisung answered once it was made clear that he would not answer anytime soon.

"Oh." I nodded, sitting in silence afterwards. Jisung seemed to be trying to make Minho talk. Eventually, I found myself getting up and walking away. There was no point in trying to make him talk anyways, he never told me anything. Waving goodbye to Jisung, I went on my way back to the group.

~*~

??? POV

At the airport, the boys and I waited. Areum was coming back today. She had not told us anything, nothing about what had happened to her mother, she had not let us see her friends... nothing. All she did was send us pictures of scenery or herself when we asked for it. She did not know that we were coming by. We had wanted to surprise her. We were waiting at the luggage area and we saw her coming through the gates. We all watched as she came closer, she was not looking up, rather at her phone. Eventually, she did look up and stopped where she was. Instead of running towards us with happiness on her face, like I thought she might, she stood still. She began to come closer to us but instead of going towards us, she went to the luggage area. The others and I gave each other a glance. What was wrong now?

While the others conversed and theorized about what could be wrong, I strayed from the group and went over to Areum. She kept a sharp eye for her luggage, but still managed to notice me. She looked at me with a frown. Not one that looked like she was upset with me, just one that looked like she was upset in general. I walked over to her and put a hand on her arm.

"Hi." She said, heaving a sigh.

"Hi, Areum." I put my hand down and watched for her luggage too. "Why'd you walk away?" I looked at her.

"I just..." she paused and went over to get her one suitcase. She then came over to me and put her suitcase down, taking out the handle before continuing with what she was going to say. "I just didn't feel like it." She sighed. "I don't want to worsen anyone's mood."

"How would you do that?" I furrowed my brow in confusion. "Look, I know you guys are happy to see me. But I'm guessing you wouldn't be happy to see me unhappy right?" I nodded in response. "Right now, I am not in the best mood, and I don't want to affect you guys."

"I think you might be anyways." I pointed at the others who were staring at us worriedly.

"I know." She replied slowly. "But it's better than having to deal with my bad mood right now."

"How come?" I looked at her. "What happened?"

She looked past me, causing me to turn and look too. The guys were making their way over here. She turned her attention back to me, making eye contact with me. I could see it in her eyes. She was sad. Something obviously had happened and it was bad. The hurt in her eyes was so visible. She was hurt.

Soon, I felt the presence of the others around me. Chan was by Areum, Hyunjin and Jeongin were in between Chan and me. On Areum's other side was Minho. Woojin was behind Minho and Areum. Changbin was between Minho and me. Jisung and Seungmin were standing behind them.

"By the way, I didn't forget." Areum changed the subject just for a moment while turning to Chan. She opened her backpack and took out a wrapped gift, handing it to Chan. "Happy Birthday."

"Oh, you didn't have to." He smiled, taking the gift gratefully. "From Canada?"

"Mhmm." She gave him a weak smile.

"Areum, can you tell me what's going on now?" I said impatiently. I had waited long enough and I just wanted to know what happened so that perhaps I could fix things.

"You really have to know don't you?" She asked me.

"Yes, Areum." I looked at the others, then her. "We all have to, we care about you."

"Fine." She stared at me. "If you must know, Felix." She looked down at the floor before looking back at me. "She didn't make it." She said bluntly. "She's gone."

I watched the boys around me give each other glances. I just kept my eyes on Areum. I guess there's no fixing that. I thought as I walked over to her, giving her a hug to try and soothe her and stop her from crying.

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Ack, I'm sorry, this story is probably getting boring. But thanks so much for the 900+ reads!

Okay, I just wanted to address this (not that anyone pointed it out, but just for you guys to know) I am a new Stay, a babyStay if you will, and I am still getting to know the group. I do have rough ideas of what each member is like, but I don't know everything about their personalities, so I do take a few guesses through this story. As I've been writing and rereading, I realize that my depictions of them are not perfect and could be better, so as I write, I try to get to know them more and apply it to my writing. I also don't have every member of skz stand out so much as others and I'm so sorry for that. Is that okay guys?

Would anyone be willing to tell me a bit about each member in the comments? Or even just one of them? It would be really helpful!

Thank you to BiasJungkook for supporting this book!

Thanks, guys! See you in the next one!