Another Fairy Tale /Ateez

Chapter 22 - The start of a beautiful friendship

I'm carrying my worries
Even if no one cares, I'm exhausted
With a vow I promised, I won't fall over 
There are countless dreams in the sky

- Han (Stray Kids), Alien

"You met someone new?", Ms. Choi asked surprised. Rory nodded almost proud of herself. Even though she had been discharged from the hospital two days ago, she called Len every free minute, making sure the girl had someone to talk to. 

"Yes. We met at the hospital.", Rory explained, her head dangling from the couch, her feet on the opposite side. For some reason she was sick of sitting normally, sick of the normal therapy, so she convinced Ms. Choi to sit like that. Surprisingly the woman followed Rory's example, even though it was far more difficult to make notes that way. At some point she gave up and put her notebook away. 

Ms. Choi looked over to Rory. The moment she had walked through the door, she knew something had changed, something was different and it couldn't just be the fact she made a knew friend. Something must've happened to her the past two weeks, other than her hospital stay. There was something in her eyes Ms. Choi had seen. It wasn't happiness or excitement but a glimpse of hope. 

"So anything else that happened? What about your nightmares?" 

"Didn't have one the last nights.", Rory said, surprising herself. It was true, she hadn't had one but there was a reason behind it and she couldn't tell it, knowing Ms. Choi would think she was crazy. But for some reason Rory told her everything else: Her fight with Changbin, the schools decision to throw away the theatre's old costumes and even her incident with (Insert HJ's crazy stalker name). 

Ms. Choi lifted an eyebrow in surprise. Rory had never told her so much but she wouldn't dare to point it out, scared she'd close up again. "So basically, you're saying you're life is shit." 

This time it was Rory's turn to be surprised. She had never heard her doctor swear before. But it was making her more normal and Rory felt even more relaxed now. "You could say that." 

"Have you been to the kindergarten again?" 

"Once but then Jisung insisted to bring me home because I looked like a 'walking piece of shit'.", Rory said and quoted Jisung's exact words, making Ms. Choi laugh. 

"Are you spending more time with him lately?" 

"He wanted to come by later to help me with my History stuff." 

"That's good, Rory! But don't focus too much on your grades, okay? Education can be done later but your health is either good or bad, so concentrate on that." 

"So I can ditch him and skip school?" 

"No!" 

"God, Mr. Brunner is expecting the impossible from us.", Rory whined as soon as she saw the stuff they had to learn for their upcoming exam. Jisung rolled his eyes. 

"It's not that much. It's only three major topics." 

"That's three too many.", Rory said but still opened her book to study. She was sitting on her bed while Jisung had sat down on the floor with a pillow. It felt weird letting him in her room but at the same time it made the room seem much smaller now that a second person was in here. Rory was thankful to Jisung that he tried not to stare at the things in her room, trying to get to know her better. 

Occasionally, Jisung would ask questions out of the blue and Rory had no clue how to answer them. Jisung would then patiently explain it wasn't Da Vinci who discovered America. At one point Rory started answering the stupidest things just to tease Jisung.