free | taegguk

(4). dishonesty and honesty

jeongguk wasn't ready.

the academy is huge. winding hallways, tiled floors under bright white lights that scream at him, make his still fuzzy head pound. he feels out of it, like he's not really here, not really in his body, not really listening to the boy next to him chatter.

his name is park jimin. he smiles a lot, talks even more, and honestly, it scares jeongguk. that he can smile so wide in a place like this.

this place. it steals the air from jeongguk's lungs every time he looks around, every time he tries to see an end to one of the hallways, tries to peak into one of the doors, undoubtedly classrooms, but what for? what do they teach? questions, swarming through his mind, uncontainable, and jimin isn't answering any of them. nobody is.

"this is the bathroom, there's one here and one a bit closer to the cafeteria," his voice is light, airy, bubbly, and it baffles jeongguk, how he's acting like he's just showing him around a normal school. like jeongguk's neck still doesn't burn, like he still isn't groggy from whatever he'd been injected with.

"we're not close to the cafeteria?" jeongguk asks, and his voice is rough like he just woke up from a deep sleep, and he feels like he did. like the sleep was reality, and now he's here, somewhere beyond, somewhere everything feels backwards.

jimin is walking a couple paces in front of him, leading him through the halls that branch out from the room jeongguk had been questioned in, "we're," jimin pauses for a second and thinks, turns around and looks at jeongguk, "getting there."

jeongguk feels a slight amount of annoyance settle in, and it's almost surprising, but also gratifying. that even through what's happened to him this morning, he can feel trivial emotions like this, like the irking feeling he feels as he stares at his feet, walking on top of the white floors towards a destination that feels miles away. he feels like he's been walking for miles.

"this place is really big," he comments, still staring at his shoes, because there's an awkward silence between them now and jeongguk doesn't necessarily feel like talking, but he also doesn't feel like thinking. thinking about the boy, about the paper, about the pain, about the sickness.

"yeah," jimin turns around to look at him again, and he's still fucking smiling, and a part of jeongguk wants him to trip over his own feet-

it's wrong of him. jimin didn't do anything. so when jimin speaks again, he bites back the urge to say something rude in response, "it takes a bit of getting used to." his tone is the same, still happy, and he turns back around, but jeongguk was listening closely, so he heard the slight waver of it towards the end. the slight display of emotion.

he chooses not to comment on it. isn't sure what he would say anyways, what questions he would ask. he just feels nervous and creeped out, scared by the never-ending hallways surrounding him and his unsureness of how to talk to jimin.

there's another silence, and jeongguk just feels so fucking awkward, his head racing with uncertainties and his eyes frantically scanning his surroundings, so he fills it, "how long have you been here?"

he probably shouldn't have asked that. he can tell by the way jimin's shoulder's tense up, by the way his footsteps falter before continuing, giving jeongguk a chance to slightly catch up. "awhile."

it's an obscure answer, but jeongguk isn't sure he wants to know the real answer to that question, how he'd react to it. he leaves it up to speculation, how long jimin's been here, how long he may be here. so instead he just hums, and lets them fall into silence again, footsteps echoing.

he wonders why the hallways are so empty. he supposes people may be at lunch, but they're deserted, spotless, and he knows not everyone's in the cafeteria, because of the two boys in that room with him. an interrogation room. is that what that was?