Before I'm Gone | Stray Kids FF

Falling Apart

??? POV

We were waiting for Areum to come. As usual, she was the last to come. We were always patient though. It was okay with all of us that she took a while, but sometimes, it would take too long. We were all meeting at my house for the fun of it. Areum initially said that she did not want to, but we told her that we would discuss some stuff for the competition too, which we would. After a few minutes of waiting, she finally walked through the door.

"Hey, Areum!" Jeongin got up and ran towards her, giving her a hug. Reluctantly, she hugged back. Once Jeongin let go, she took off her shoes and headed into the living room.

"What are talking about today?" She asked, taking a seat on the couch. "Can we talk about the competition first then move on after...? I'd rather get it over with."

"Sure." I nodded and we talked about what was on our minds. About how we needed something new, what next, and all that.

"Lunch anyone?" I stood up once we had finished talking about everything that had to do with Stray Kids.

"I'm good." Areum stood up. "I have to go some-"

"Oh no, you don't." Chan took her arm. "You should eat with us.

"Chan~" She tugged away. " I have somewhere to be."

"Spare us some time!" He stood, staring at her. "Please."

"My... he's waiting for me." She looked at the door.

With a sigh, Chan turned away. "Alright, see you around." Chan headed towards me. "Let's go make lunch, Woojin." Nodding, I followed, turning my back on Areum.

~*~

Areum POV

"Gah!" I yelled as I got home. "Why... why... why? Why? Why?!?!" I was practically screaming. "Ugh." I stormed to my bedroom, dropping my backpack there, before storming back out with my phone and keys.

I headed up some stairs to the rooftop. Once I got there, I went to the side where there was a platform so the ledge seemed lower. There, I sat, alone, thinking about all my life problems. The poor boys had to deal with me all the time. Jeongin has been thinking that after him talking to Duri, I have been safe, or at least safer. Honestly, I was not. I still had to "date" Hwan. Duri had threatened me more. Additionally, she threatened Hwan too. She was not the only one who threatened me. People throughout the school threatened me. They either asked me to stay away or find a boyfriend. Every time, I would tell them that I "had a boyfriend" and that I would try to not spend too much time with them. They always found me to make sure I was not. The people in my class could be torturous too. Soojin was kind to me, so were his friends. Iseul, as always, was preppy and did not think much of it. Her friends, on the other hand, despised me. They asked Iseul to do so many wrong things to me. Thankfully, she never did them. She did tell me about them, often asking me why they were like this. As usual, I would explain to her just tidbits of it.

Haneul, she was a new transfer in August and had witnessed everything happening to me. She was still on my side of things and stuck by me all the time. Though, I felt bad that she had to suffer because of me. Just the other day, we were in gym class and the kids from both my class and the older class decided to target me in dodgeball. Haneul, being my saviour, went in front of me, trying to block them. I told her to get away from the front, at least if we were side by side, we would suffer equally. She agreed and did so. Chan, Woojin and Minho, on the sidelines, had been there to witness it all. For a few moments, they had done nothing. After a while, they watched me screech when the ball hit my stomach. The same thing happened to Haneul's side. Minho jumped in to rescue us. The other two followed. Woojin and Chan stood in between us and the people hitting us. Minho came to me and had helped me sit up, asking me if I needed anything, until I told him to just help Haneul first. He shook his head and just tried to support me while I clutched my stomach. Chan was the one who had gone to help Haneul, Woojin stood there, telling everyone to stop. Eventually, Mr. Choi, who had been called by the principal for a little chat, had come in to see Haneul and me on the ground. He glared at everyone and eventually, the entire class got in trouble. Well, other than Chan, Minho, Woojin, Haneul and me. Haneul and I were taken to the infirmary. Luckily, we were not hurt too badly, we just had some bad bruises. Either way, I felt terrible. The boys and Haneul had to suffer just because everyone hated me.

"Why..." I whispered to myself as I felt tears forming in my eyes. I lost my family, recently, my mother. She had had some kind of problems apparently, she never specified and the doctors never told me, but she had a stroke. They had rushed her to the hospital and she had survived that. Once I had gotten back to Canada, I was able to spend two days with her. Before she had another stroke and died. Yes, I know, she was in a hospital, why did she not survive the second one? I really would not know, maybe the stroke was just that bad. It did not matter how she did not survive. It is not like time could be wound back. She was gone, they were gone, and I will never be able to do anything about it.

~*~

Changbin POV

"Why?!?!" I heard yells from next door. That was new. Areum never yelled, she never raised her voice like that.

I heard the door slam and footsteps past my apartment to the stairs. I wondered what was going on. Did she fight with Hwan? Was someone hurting her again? Was she still hurting? What was going on?

I decided to give her a bit of time, then follow her up afterwards if she did not come back. After quite some time, I looked at the time. It had been two hours since she had left her apartment, I thought I might as well follow her. Grabbing my phone and keys, I went out and up to the roof. Once I got there, I found her sitting at the platform, her head hanging low. I could hear her talking to herself, but I was not able to make out the words. She began to rock herself back and forth. It seemed odd like she was not able to keep her balance as she did so. That is when I realized, she could not keep her balance because she was about to collapse. She may not have noticed me, but I ran up to her, catching her before she hit her head on the platform.

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Is the story okay? I'm really doubting my writing rn...  

Thanks for the reads! I don't think I've ever gotten so many in such a short time!

I really appreciate you for supporting my book BabyChangbinLover, thanks!

I'm going to start having random questions for you guys, here's the first: What's your favourite SKZ era?

Also, who saw Too Busy??? Boy Story is one of my favourite groups tbh. Jackson also did really well though! Omg, I look at Boy Story and question what I'm doing with my life... I'm around their age and yet I'm sitting around being a lazy bum and then there's them...

Alright, see you in the next one.