Play my heart

Chapter XVIII

Caesar confirms Adryan received the video and their own messages for him on that same Thursday night, because he's nothing if not efficient. He hasn't said much since then, busy staring at Connor work on a new ceramic vase for his upcoming exposition. Darren's not sure what's so fascinating about a moving lump of ceramic, but he doesn't question it, too busy himself glancing at his phone every few seconds.

He's not waiting for anything, just to be clear. He really isn't—it's just Lee's rehearsing with the orphanage, and he sent a picture of himself with a bit of red tinsel wrapped around his head as both a crown and a scarf, to which Darren only managed to answer after a minute trying to remember what words are. So it's not like he's expecting a response or anything. It's not even like he has to physically stop himself from picking up the phone and opening the image again to stare at it for a bit longer. Why would he do that anyway?

"You're awfully quiet, guys, I'm starting to worry. Are you planning something?"

They both jump at Connor's voice. Darren turns his attention back to him, and finds him smirking, eyebrows raised in that mischievous way of his. Caesar stammers a response, going red, which only amuses Connor further. Darren shakes his head and makes his way to Connor's kitchen, more in search of something to do than anything else.

"Oi, you," Caesar beckons him once he's back. "Connor told me you spent the night outside, young man, I'm gonna have to demand an explanation. Who were you with? What did you do? You look like you didn't sleep a blink last night, did you have so much fun?"

They're both laughing at this point, and Darren can only roll his eyes at his stupid friends. "Well apparently Connor didn't tell you I was at Lee Jung's place. I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

Though it is true he barely got any sleep, but not for any reason they could imagine.

"I'm just saying, bro, you're spending an awful amount of time with this guy lately," Connor pipes in, "You don't warm up to people so easily."

"And isn't he like, the impersonation of that bad boy trope?"

"He's a classical musician," Darren deadpans.

"Nicknamed the Enemy by the whole school for a reason, I believe," Connor points out, and Caesar nods along. "Besides, didn't you both hate each other? You said he pissed you off."

"He does." There's no way of guessing where this conversation is going. "And you guys do as well, so can you stop?"

To his chagrin, Caesar and Connor exchange one of those Looks they use to communicate something without anyone else understanding, and decide to not stop their interrogation. Darren's terrible at answering questions, and he's already lost all interest in the conversation, so their attempts, though annoying, prove futile.

"Whatever, man," says Caesar, the first to give up. "I'm just glad you're connecting with more people. Should've known it would be through music."

"Speaking of which, we're going to this charity performance of yours," Connor states, going back to his sculpting, "and nothing you say or do will stop us."

Darren huffs, but all intents of speaking disappear as his phone pings with a new text, and he scrambles to read it.

Let's meet in an hour, yeah? I need a break from these goblins.

Things seem to be getting so much better now.

The sky is still dark as he races through the streets, heart pounding and anticipation mixing with his blood. Dawn's already waiting for him at her front door, he picks her up without a word. She has no idea what's going on.

Dawn's arms tighten around his waist when they take a sharp turn at the deserted street leading towards the airport. They spot Caesar's yellow car in the parking lot as they hop off the bike. Darren grabs Dawn's wrist, and then they're running through the airport's entrance hall, barely avoiding the people in their path.

They skid at the arrivals door, where Connor and Caesar are already waiting, just as the glass doors open and a tall figure, clad in all black, steps forward.

"Adryan!"

The boy lifts his head at the sound of his name in Dawn's voice. He stops dead in his tracks, letting go of his suitcase, and they both look at each other for an endless moment, starstruck. The stillness breaks when Darren pushes Dawn towards him, which is all she needs to jump into Adryan's arms. He swings her around in the air, disbelief and wonder spilling from them in the form of bubbling laughter.

"You're back, you're back!"

He makes the mistake of letting go of her. Moving at once, Darren and the others drown Adryan under a group hug. They're laughing now as well, ruffling Adryan's hair and lifting him off the ground.

"Oi! Stop that, you idiots! Stop!"

They drop it eventually. Connor's demanding questions mix with Dawn's reprimands about not keeping in touch and leaving so suddenly. Back to his usual, grumpy self, Adryan crosses his arms over his chest and argues everything they say, out of pure habit.

"Okay, that's enough, guys," Darren intervenes after a while, unable to hide a smile. "What are you even doing here?"

Adryan scoffs and averts his gaze, cheeks going pink. "I got the message and the video," he says. "Then I just... I couldn't- I took the jet as soon as I managed to get rid of my mother. I just had to come."

As Caesar goes off about how worried they all were, thinking Adryan's mother might have him incarcerated to force him to cooperate, Darren's eyes accidentally find Dawn's. In a second, they get to the silent agreement that nothing happened, and it's all forgotten from then. He smiles at her in reassurance, and nods to himself when Dawn's attention centers again on Adryan.

That's how things should be, anyway. His heart seems to have finally understood that much.

It's barely sunrise as they head to Adryan's place, where they have breakfast and sleepily hang out until lunch. Darren falls asleep somewhere in the middle, exhausted after a night of turning in his sleep and jolting awake with the feeling of lips against his ear and fingers in his hair.

He bids his friends goodbye after lunch and rides back to his place. Lee's supposed to meet him soon for their Sunday rehearsal at Darren's.

The time Lee was scheduled to arrive goes by without any sign of him. Fifteen minutes turn into an hour, another, and another, until it becomes fairly obvious Darren just got stood up. He checks his phone every few seconds—no texts, no calls, no explanations. Pacing around his living room, he messes up his hair, and goes over every possibility for the tenth time. Maybe he got stuck in traffic, or he slept in, or some family issue came up, or the orphanage needed his help at the last minute and he forgot his phone.

It's nearing sunset when the last thread of patience vanishes. Darren grabs his phone with trembling hands and presses the call button next to Lee's name. He taps a foot on the wooden floor as the first tones go by with no answer. And then:

"Hello?"

A feminine voice. His thoughts turn into static.

"Um. Hi? Who's this?"

"Are you a friend of Mr. Jung's?"

"Why?" he breathes. "Where is he? Who are you?"

"I'm a nurse at Richter's Hospital."