PAPER HEARTS

17

An afternoon passes, with the rosy rays of sunlight setting my entire room awash with a gentle glow, and the watery train of words - of anger, disappointment, and worry - bringing my spirits down the valley.

"Do you know how worried I was?" Ryoko cries, plunging the metal spoon into the small carton of baby food. "Forget you, Jae, at least some fool found you before anything happened -"

Jeongguk coughs softly, eyes widening and his lips puckering out slowly as he takes a frightened glance in her direction. Then, his doe eyes swivel up to meet mine, and I give him a lazy smile. He shyly shrinks his back into his seat, grabbing his phone timidly, to hide the flustered shade of pink that's splashed over his freckles.

"- But for me? I thought I could've died whilst I talked to the nurse through the phone." She huffs, scooping out a spoonful of the gooey food and holding it out for me.

I keep my lips pursed, eyes narrowed at the muddy texture of the porridge, and my eyebrows knit as I raise my eyes to hers again, "How did you know?"

Ryoko frowns at me, retracing her arm to rest against the side of her torso again, "What do you mean?"

I adjust the pillow over my lap, eyes sweeping around the vaguely familiar hospital room in a drowsy stretch and take in my surroundings again. Jeongguk sits on the plastic chair that he's dragged out from beside the sheltered window, his round eyes never leaving Ryoko's talkative mouth. Noticing my gaze, he looks away immediately.

Taehyung lays on the couch beside Jeongguk's seat, his posture painfully uncomfortable even just to the eye, and his long legs dangle off the edge as he sleeps. His lips are parted, cheeks puffed out, and a soft chain of snores rhythmically escape his chest. He probably didn't get to catch up on his sleep last night, owing to how, unbeknownst to me, bratty and completely inconsiderate I was being.

I smile at his tousled tufts of brown hair wistfully.

"Ma'am." Ryoko grins smugly.

I cough, hasty to add my croaky voice to the apparent silence, "I mean, about me, h-how did you know about what I'd done -"

Her stance falls and she plays around with the carton in her hands as she thinks for an answer, "Jimin." She says, "Jimin called me."

With furrowed eyebrows, I part my lips in slight shock, "Do you know him?"

"Uh, yes," Ryoko doesn't look at me, "I do, in fact, we're friends from school."

"Oh," is all I say.

A dull minute of silence follows.

"And Tae," She shrugs simply.

"Wait, you went to school with him!?" I nearly spit my throat out, eyes gaping at her, "No way, that's too much of a coincidence."

My friend simply smiles at me innocently before stretching the spoon out like before, "Now, eat up - here comes the choo choo train!"

She draws an invisible track for the food train to roll over as it glides to its desired destination. I give her a wry wrinkle of my eyes as she taps the tip of the cold spoon against my dry lips. Ryoko wriggles her eyebrows in the direction of Taehyung, and I clamp my teeth shut over the mound of oats and make a face at the bland taste and the rubbery feel. I did not approve of anyone taking part in my caring squad cycle - seeing how two people were always by my side if not three when one was asleep.

"Why are you feeding me?" I mumble through the food, sheepishly fidgeting with the loose threads peeking from the sides of the pillow cover.

"Because queen," Ryoko snarks, rolling her heavily caked eyes, "Whichever eatable touched your fingers did not seem to find its way out the normal way. No one trusts you with this responsibility anymore. Your mother doesn't either, just so you know."