district 17 | svt

12

Ever since the Hansol and Seokmin became cellmates, Seungcheol had been helping Hansol with his verbal communication skills. In a way, it was sort of like speech therapy.

Seungcheol would bring in a random prisoner, giving certain instructions to Hansol on what to say during their brief conversation. For the first few months, it was a short introduction of his name and his age. As the months wore on, his instructions became more and more complex. He'd introduce himself, but also add other words, like complimenting the person's hair or telling a funny story about his life when he lived in the district.

After almost a year of Seungcheol's unofficial speech therapy, Hansol was pretty much all good to go. With the help of his cellmate's encouragement and the classified DPO guard, his anxiety disorder became something Hansol barely had to worry about.

Seokmin also helped him discover another way of relieving any of his anxiety he had when he spoke. The older introduced him to something called rapping, a way of using your voice to create a rhythmic pattern with words.

"I'm not the best at it," Seokmin shrugged, "But I think you'd be good at it!"

"I'm not so sure," Hansol mumbled, fiddling with his fingers.

"Don't be shy," Seokmin smirked, "Give it a try! I'll give you a beat."

Hesitantly, Hansol stood up from where he and Seokmin were sitting, walking a few feet away to face the older. Seokmin began to clap his hands at a certain tempo, making Hansol naturally sway his body to the beat. As he got into the rhythm, he tried to come up with words to say, words that could express his emotions about how he was feeling and about his situation. He took a deep breath and let his voice out.

"Trauma got me bad bad
Locked up when I was young
Basically had no friends
Boxed in boxed in my own world.

Stuck in my fantasy like,
Dreamin it to be real life.
The time I'm waiting without thinking
But I found out now I realize.

I'll just be left alone like this
I don't know what to do except for this

I don't wanna be alone
No, I hate to be forgotten,
Imma sing this song
Is anybody listening?"

He was left out of breath, finishing his short but heart-felt rap. It was spontaneously made, but somehow he felt his eyes water when he was finished. Seokmin was almost as baffled as he was, shocked that he had just made up that rap in less than a minute.

"I told you!" Seokmin cheered, his smile beaming with pride. "You're a natural!"

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{ D - 151 }

It was a normal day in Cell No. 13. Hansol was taking a nap on his bed but was woken up by the sound of Seokmin singing vibrantly at the top of his lungs. The boy let out a quiet groan before rolling to his side to watch his cellmate sing into his toothbrush like it was a microphone.

A small smile grew on Hansol's lips as he watched Seokmin dance around their cell as an imaginary song played in the older's head. Once Seokmin noticed he woke up Hansol, he immediately stopped singing and skipped over to greet his friend.

"Good Morning, fellow cellmate!" He grinned, "Did you like your wake up call?"

"No," Hansol lied, rolling to his other side so that his back was facing Seokmin, making the older pout.