MISSING, jongsang

28 ; embraced

at the gentle knocks on the door, yeosang knew he needed to get up now. he didn't know how long had passed since he'd returned to consciousness, exhausted eyes boring into the ceiling since then, yet he did know that ignoring everyone and everything was probably not the best idea. they were all hurt in this situation, both physical and emotionally, therefore yeosang didn't believe he had the lone right to do so.

another three knocks. "yeosang..." it was san, much to the boy's surprise. "we-we need to go, now. please come out once you're ready..."

oh, yeah. we're going back home, yeosang had to remind himself. with the news that was being spread right now, he wasn't as glad about it compared to prior anymore.

drained, yeosang dragged his body upright. once on his feet, he didn't bother to fix his disordered appearance, instead heading straight out of the door.

both the kitchen and the sitting room were empty and for a moment, yeosang thought wooyoung and san had gotten impatient and left without him. until, he heard objects clattering against one another, as if someone was rummaging through something. nearing the sound, yeosang hesitantly knocked on the door to the spare room.

after a bit of silence, he pushed the door open, peeking his head through. the radically vibrant colours, being the very first thing he made out, pained his eyes, as san spun around to face him.

the pear-haired boy's mouth fell, in fear yeosang recognised, and it was only then that he took notice of the state of his surroundings — asides from the fact that it was revoltingly bright and colourful.

the room looked like a nursery, toys that any kid would fantasise about owning messily scattered around the place, tea-sets and playhouses and building blocks and jigsaw puzzles and a bookshelf of children's books and plushies. hell, yeosang hadn't even seen as many plushies cramped into one room in his life, from animals to cartoon characters and pretty much just everything you could imagine

despite his sheer confusion, yeosang, strangely, thought it was cute. however, at the panic widening san's eyes, he didn't think it was timely to be thinking of such.

yeosang opened his mouth to break the doubtful silence, although he didn't even know what there was to say, but san was fast to voice before him, "p-please don't say anything yet..." he picked at his fingers, busying his anxiousness with the view beyond the window. "i-i- you probably think i'm a weirdo, like e-everyone does, b-but i promise there's a reason... for all of this. j-just let me explain. please... then, you can say whatever you'd like, just—"

"sure," yeosang said softly, upon noticing that san was simply rambling his nerves out now. "you can explain. though i don't really see a problem, unless you, like... hand-crafted your plushies from dead peoples' ashes—" san stifled a laugh; "s-so... yeah, go ahead."

"o-okay. uhm..." san sat himself, comfortable, atop of the bed, snuggling a banana plushie into his chest. "i... i-i- i'm a little," he stated, looking back at yeosang for a reaction. all he received, though, was a confused look. "ah, you don't know what that means... d-do you?"

ysosang bit his lip. "sorry, i—"

"most people don't, it's okay! and if it makes you feel any better, woo didn't know, either." san chuckled to himself fondly at the memory, before adding, "he's probably waiting for us right now, too, so we should hurry up." yeosang nodded his head in agreement, keeping quiet to usher san on, in which he did, "s-so... being a little i-is a mindset, pretty much. one that you can slip in and out of, sometimes by will, sometimes not. and, uh, if the name of playroom isn't clear enough, little space is basically j-just... y-you know, like.."