home, jaemin

chapter twenty

"so..."

nayeon's voice trailed quietly as she and jiyoung made their way to class- now separated from all of the boys they'd been seated with at lunch.

"hmm?" jiyoung glanced up at nayeon, only to return her vision back to the area straight ahead- eyes dilated and blurriness surrounding her.

her soft-toned voice was far from her normal one- it was weak-hearted and voiced the pain that consumed her internally and was beginning to break her down mentally.

"what's up...? why are you, um, you know...down?"

nayeon had been the only girl in a group of guys since she began dating jeno- the middle of their 6th-grade year.

although they were young and naive, they followed along with their classmates and expressed their liking for one another, thus creating a relationship so unbreakable that they were still together now.

over the same amount of time, she grew close to the same six boys her boyfriend practically considered brothers- having been together since the young stages of life.

her own friends practically banished her from their friend group, feeling like she was hogging the "cute boys" to herself and giving them bad representation.

long story short she got rid of them, got closer to her boyfriend, and adopted six new brothers.

but having spent so much time with boys who would rather die than have their pride or ego hurt, it didn't make it any easier on nayeon with learning how to help others, emotionally.

the boys were all like brick walls that she would have to break down one by one to understand what was happening and to figure out what was upsetting them.

but now with jiyoung, she was already broken down. where was she to go from here? usually with the boys, she'd practically have to force them to tell her what's wrong but how exactly would she get to jiyoung? she was almost the complete opposite from the seven doofuses she knew as family.

the corner of jiyoung's lip slightly heightened before falling back down to the same droopy place from before, "honestly, not sure."

nayeon wasn't fully sure she understood and took her seat at her desk to finally look at jiyoung, "sorry?"

"i- i really just don't know," she admitted, feeling embarrassed under everyone's stares.

nayeon nodded to emit a comforting sense for jiyoung, "well, tell me where it began. when did you start to feel unwell?"

jiyoung huffed, trying to remember every detail from the last twenty-four hours. it felt like she was losing her memory for some reason.

"well," she began slowly, "last night i woke up in the middle of the night in, like, this cold sweat."

"cold sweat?" nayeon asked curiously, having never heard the expression. jiyoung just nodded.

"i had this weird dream and it was like in a whole 'nother universe. it was like i was watching a weird horror movie."

"what was it about?"

just trying to think back made jiyoung shudder uncomfortably.

nayeon saw this and tried to comfort her once again, "you don't have to if you don't want to."

"no, no, it's alright." she closed her eyes momentarily, "it was like these two robbers coming into this weird house surrounded by guards. they came in through a balcony and stole a baby. the lady shot the husband while the man stole the baby and ran out when the guards finally got in."

nayeon sat speechlessly.

it definitely sounded like some messed up horror movie but how did that correlate to jiyoung?

"that's what's got you all messed up and distraught?"

jiyoung nodded, "i don't know why or how, or even what's happening but i just feel some kind of connection to the whole thing. it's weird, i know—"

"it's not,"

"but i just... i don't know. i don't know anything. i don't know why i feel connected to it. i don't know why i want to know more. i don't know why it has me so emotional. i don't know why i feel like i know the people from it but i just- i just do. i don't want to but i can't shake the stupid feeling inside of me out."

tears spurred out of her fake blue eyes and onto the cold beige desk. classmates around the two disregarded the emotions pouring out and carried on like it was normal.

nayeon scooted her chair closer, wrapping her arms around the clearly hurt girl.

she had no way of knowing what was going on either but it did not mean that she would not try and help her the best she could.

"it'll get better, okay? you just have to believe." she tried to soothe jiyoung.

"you think so? you think i'll be able to let this stupid burden feeling finally go away?" jiyoung asked, trying to convince herself more than anything.

"of course."