The Sound of Magic (Ri Eul x Reader)

"Do you... believe in magic?"

Huff, huff, huff...

Your breath comes out in gasps as you trudge up the hill to the abandoned amusement park. You've made this trip hundreds of times, but this particular hill always manages to leave you breathless.

"Aaah, seriously..." you mutter under your breath, gritting your teeth as you continue to put one foot in front of the other. "He just HAD to pick the amusement park. Why couldn't it have been somewhere easier to get to?"

You start thinking of a new complaint you can present Min-hyuk with when you get to the top. You've always had a new one when you go to see him. It's like an unspoken tradition you two have. You say something like, "Really, my feet are about to fall off this time" or "I don't think my lungs can handle one more trip up that damn hill" and he always grins or laughs, then invites you in.

In reality, you aren't really bothered by the difficult hike. Sure, it leaves you a little winded, but it's not too bad. The real reason you complain is simply to get a reaction out of him. You love the way his eyes light up when he smiles, and letting loose some goofy complaint is always guaranteed to make him smile.

Besides, seeing a smile on his face is reassuring to you since there was definitely a time when smiling didn't come as easily to him...

An image of Min-hyuk in a hospital bed--his hands gripping his skull and his eyes wide--flashes across your mind. He had really looked deranged when you'd seen him like that in the psychiatric hospital. That was in highschool, right after he jumped off the school building in an attempt to take his own life.

You thought back to your highschool days briefly. You and Min-hyuk had been classmates that year. At the start of the school year, there had been something about him that intrigued you. At first you thought it was just because he was uncommonly handsome, but you realized after a while that it was more than that. Looking back, it was because you could tell something was off about him, and you wanted to learn more about what it was... and help if you could. You remember following him around school like some stalker. But he never noticed you. Never noticed anything, for that matter. The school year leading up to his suicide attempt, he just seemed to be numb to everything and everyone.

You remember getting the news about what had happened. Your teacher had come and told the class everything. That day was one of the darkest days of your life. You had felt like you might die from the guilt that clawed at you.

Your deepest regret is not doing something about what you saw that year. You could tell something was deeply wrong, but you were naive and didn't think he would try to do something so drastic. Even now, so many years after highschool, you are still wracked with so much guilt. What would have happened if you had just gone and talked to him instead of hiding and spying on him like some creep? Would things be different?

But it had seemed like the world had given you a chance to atone back then, because after the incident and his subsequent recovery in the hospital, his parents decided to send him to a psychiatric hospital... one that you just happened to volunteer at. Your mom had been admitted there at the time, and you would always go to see her. You had no idea you would eventually meet your best friend there.

The image of Min-hyuk in the bed looking completely insane returns to your mind. That was the first time you'd seen him after the incident. That was when you decided that you would help him instead of sitting on the sidelines. And that was also the first time he noticed you--really noticed you. During the time he spent there, you and he became very close.

The more you got to know him, the more it seemed like he wasn't crazy at all. From what you could tell, it just seemed like his parents had absurdly high expectations and he had caved to the stress of trying to please them. On the other hand, there were times when he said and did things that were strange and definitely not normal. He made you constantly question his sanity.