insomnia | stray kids ff

lvl 48: apologies

Hana's POV
Felix and I explain all of our wonders and conspiracies to Jae that night. We told him about how there could be a difference between getting cured and being immune. We also informed him about how each time we meet at night, something happens the next day. All of these connections that we needed answers to couldn't be solved by Jae either. He gave us his opinion and what could explain the concept of being immune but they were all hypotheses.

It is now morning and everyone is up again. I feel bad for making Jae stay up with us. He is probably exhausted already looking after Sana. I watch her as Dowoon and Jeongyeon cook breakfast for us outside. Jeongin and Seungmin are talking together in the other room and I notice Hyunjin, Young K, Jisung, and Felix together outside chopping wood. I tilt my head in curiosity and look around for Changbin. I stand up from my chair and see that Changbin is in a room by himself, sitting on the bed as he stares out the window.

I knock before entering and Changbin turns his head. I notice his eyes grow wide when he sees that it is me and he almost becomes flustered.

"Is everything okay?" He asks awkwardly. I nod and then slowly walk into the room.

"Are you okay?" I turn the subject onto him and Changbin becomes silent. I sit beside him and continue to look at Changbin. "You seem off," I state and notice Changbin breathing heavily.

"I'm sorry," Changbin blurts out as if he was keeping those words inside of him for a long time. I frown at his apology in wonder.

"Sorry? Why are you sorry?" I question.

"I couldn't protect your sister," Changbin lets out and I see how guilty he feels just by the look on his face.

"It's not your fault, Changbin. You weren't the one who shot her," I reassure him. Changbin sighs and continues to stare out the window.

"What's on your mind?" Changbin loosens his posture before he answers.

"My father would always nag on me for the smallest things. If he couldn't find the TV remote, he would blame me or Ryujin. If I forgot to reload his shotgun, it would be my fault, not his. If..," Changbin stops himself from speaking further.

"If what?" I ask and Changbin meets eyes with mine. I notice how watery his eyes are and could tell that he has been hurting deep inside because of his father. "Changbin," I say with empathy and pull him into my arms. "This isn't your fault. None of those times were your fault," I say, trying to comfort him.

"It's been a while since we have talked like this," Changbin points out. He lets go of the embrace and sniffles. "Thank you," I simply nod and then we hear a groan from the living room.

[have strength, 

just endure a little more]

I run to the living room and see Sana still lying on the couch, out cold. Jae comes in and that Sana is still unconscious as well. Seungmin and Jeongin also enter the room.

"Why is it taking longer for her to wake up? Wouldn't Hana's blood have sped up the healing process?" Curious Jeongin asks.

"The gunshot has disrupted her nervous system and will take longer to restore the damage. As for Hana's blood, I don't think it has the ability to do that," I sigh and nod in disappointment.

"Breakfast is ready," Jisung opens the front door of the cabin and announces to everyone.

We all head outside and grab our serving of canned corn, rice, and spam. I sit beside Hyunjin as I eat my breakfast. Hyunjin feeds me some of his corn when he notices I finished mine. I smile at how generous he is after he spoon feeds me some corn.

"What am I, a baby?" I question him.

"Sometimes," He teases me and I nudge him playfully as a response.

"Hana, after breakfast, I will need to take some blood samples from you, Felix, and Hyunjin. Only if it's okay, though," We all nod in agreement and finish our food.

We head back into the cabin with Jae and he takes a sample of our blood. I put my hair into a bun before letting Jae take my blood sample. Once he finishes with the two boys and is about to take my blood, he is interrupted.

"Hana?" I hear Felix call me. I look behind me where Felix is and notice his perplexed face. I scrunch up my face in alertness.

"What's wrong?" I ask. Felix moves closer to me and squints his eyes. Hyunjin does the same as he also grows curious.

"There's something blinking behind your ear," Felix points out and a red dot blinks again where he saw it before. This grabs Jae's attention and he tells Felix to show him.

"Shit," Jae curses and then shakes his head. He takes my blood sample and then puts it away before investigating the mysterious red dot. "Did you always have this here?"

"I don't think so," I say in a panicked voice. "What do you think it is?"

In my head, I am freaking out because whatever this thing is could potentially harm the rest of the group and myself. I sigh to let out some tension and then I feel a warm hand intertwined with mine. I look up and see Hyunjin comforting me by holding my hand. I smile a little and try to calm down.

"I think it's a tracker," Jae says.

"How do we get it out of her head without hurting her?" Felix asks.

"I don't know," Jae sighs.

"JYP definitely knows something about us," Felix says. "Why would he continue to track us down after all we have put his safe haven through? What if he knows that we're immune?"

"What if he knew we were immune before we ever did?" Hyunjin speaks.

"What do you mean?" I ask.