KIM TAEHYUNG
My features scrunch together as the smell of medicine and sedatives cloud my mind, and I instinctively step back out the door.
"Taehyung?"
Sian's confused voice echoes in front of me as she looks back, eyes questioning. "What's wrong?"
"I-I'll stay out here." I say, not wanting to leave her alone for a second but not being able to bear the suffocating smell. "Come back quick, okay?"
"Don't go anywhere." She says sternly, pausing with half her body out the glass door. "Not even a step. Stay right here— I'll be just a minute."
Then I watch her figure disappear through the doors, and breathe carefully as I lean against the pharmacy's brick walls.
My eyes wander aimlessly over the bustling people, the sparkling lights of the stores.
Was I really sick?
Sick enough to kill me?
My expression goes sullen when I imagine leaving all this behind— leaving Sian behind. I wanted to be with her forever.
But I'd read enough books to know that kind of thing never happened in reality.
Carefully, I slit my eyes as I memorize the surroundings in front of me. I take care to burn the smallest things into my mind— that rainbow shop in the corner, that person with a bright blue streak in her hair.
Wait.
Bright blue streak?
When the woman turns her face towards me, I don't even think about what could happen next.
I just run.
Even though my heart immediately starts pounding and my head feels dizzy, adrenaline pours through my blood.
And I somehow know she's seen me. I know for sure she's following me right now, pushing past people in her way.
How far had she been?
"Taehyung-ah!"
I silently curse in my head as I turn right into a thickly hedged garden in front of some random house. She wasn't that far— she could be right behind me.
My legs drive faster.
"Taehyung! Stop!"
Is it just me or is it that she seems closer?
Not even taking the time to spare a glance behind me, I rush into the garden.
The grass crunches underneath my feet until I run into a dead end.
Dammit, dammit, dammit.
Then I turn to see a small kind of hole carved into the side of the thick vines, and somehow manage to place myself in there just before I hear her turn the corner panting.
I bite on my tongue to stop breathing, to stop doing anything as she looks confusedly at the empty end.
My lungs feel like they're about to explode, and I wrap my hands over my mouth and nose as I hear her come closer.
Please.
I can see her silhouette right through the plants as she looks around, her eyes scanning right past me as she finally sighs and turns, running back out of the corner.
