Lovesick // TOMORROW X TOGETHER [TaeBin / SooKai]

Chapter 1 - I had the worst summer ever

(Trigger Warning: Death)

The chattering of the people around him boomed through Soobin's ears, but it was easy to ignore them when thinking about something else. Something that was more important, more urgent than the things his classmates were talking about.

The only people that weren't talking loudly in the classroom were the outsiders sitting in the corner, including Soobin, who wasn't sitting in the corner, but in the middle of the neatly arranged desks, right behind Yeonjun, who wasn't speaking a word either. It kind of became normality.

Since the beginning of summer break, Soobin and Yeonjun didn't really change words after the road trip. Of course, Soobin reached out to him multiple times but either he got left on read or a simple "Yeah, I'm fine." prevented him from further asking about his well being. It was always the same answer anyway.

Soobin asked himself if Yeonjun was the type of guy to easily lie if he had to. He only catched him lying when saying that he did his homework all by himself even though his answers were exactly the same as Beomgyu's. Because whether he was the type to often lie or not, Soobin knew that answering all his How Are You's with "I'm fine." was not quite the most truthful response.

Yeonjun turned different after they separated at the cemetery. It all changed after the accident on the highway. After Beomgyu died.

Soobin always recalled the things that happened after the car flipped over, mostly when looking at Yeonjun, wondering how to approach him properly without upsetting him.

He remembered when he opened his heavy eyelids and saw the full moon shining brighter than Soobin thought necessary. It shined so bright that Soobin wanted to close his eyes again, but the throbbing pain in his head and lower waist and everywhere else was stopping him from falling back to sleep.

Instead, he sat up and pushed his hand against his forehead as the pain began to move down to his chest and with it the feeling of when his head hit the hard ground. He saw blurry shimmers of blue and red, an ambulance that was already at the place of action. Soobin felt relieved that the pain would vanish soon but that was before he saw Yeonjun's weak, crying figure hovering above Beomgyu's lifeless body as he mourned his death.

First, he didn't understand it and he still didn't when he laid in the hospital bed, tucked perfectly in white sheets, the ceiling lights suddenly not bothering him as much as the bright moon did that night.

Soobin woke up from a muffled crying in his right ear. It was unbearable as the sound got louder and louder with every sense of consciousness he got back. He opened his eyes widely and examined the room he was in. White ceiling, white walls, white bed sheets. Everything was white, but Soobin couldn't deal with the surroundings for long as his attention quickly drifted to Yeonjun crying in the bed right beside him. That's where Soobin realized what really happened.

The look on his face didn't really stick to his memory for long but Soobin guessed that it was either compassion or sorrow. The pain in Yeonjun's sobbing noises were insufferable and the expression on Kai's face, whom Soobin noticed on the other side of the room, showed that Soobin wasn't the only one thinking that.

Only after becoming aware of Kai sitting in the room, Soobin also took a note of the weight pressuring down on his body. He turned his head forward to look at Taehyun having his arms crossed on the bed and his head hovered above Soobin's torso, while he watched Yeonjun with a painful gaze having a breakdown in the same second.

Soobin thought that Taehyun must have been asleep as well, as his face still looked a bit puffy when staring at Yeonjun. So he must have been at the hospital for a long time already. He must have been waiting for Soobin to wake up, long enough for him to feel tired and fall asleep on Soobin. Or Taehyun just arrived, but judging by the late hour, he must have been interrupted while sleeping, so he arrived at the hospital and picked up where he left off. Either way, the gesture was much more caring than one would expect, because Taehyun did all this just to be with Soobin.