THURSDAYS.

02. MONDAY

Some people fear change.

One of these people is a junior named Na Jaemin.

Jaemin fears change.

Which is ironic since he is currently about to experience one of the biggest changes in his life.

He sits by the edge of his bed that used to be piled up with folded clothes that are now packed into the red luggage that is being put by the back of his family's car.

Jaemin is very fond of being simplistic.

He never fancied bright colors or dressing stylishly to impress people that go by him. He prefers white, or ash gray. His walls were just plain white; his curtains were gray; while his table, drawers, and floorboards were just polished wood.

He is moving into a concrete jungle.

He is moving into the city and he hates it.

But change happens. Everyone has to deal with change.

He'd already accepted this fact, but he didn't expect that things had to change this much.

He grips onto the borders of the window that used to be designed with pictures of himself along with his two best friends. Of course, those were already packed into the luggage too.

He is reminiscing times before change.

He doesn't want to leave anything behind.

Especially his friends.

He doesn't want to leave behind the hangouts he will miss with them every Thursday noon.

He doesn't want to leave behind the times where they would jokingly complain about how he decided to use such plain frames to display their pictures with. "That's it? You should've used one with gold lining instead." They would laugh.

There is still so much to do but time is unfair.

It's unfair, while change is terrifying.

Just mentioning the word "change" can change everything with a snap of a finger.

Like how he first mentioned to his friends about his departure.

"Things are going to change."

He remembers when he first told that to his two friends, they both immediately caught on, but decided not to jump into conclusions.

They already had an idea about it. Since months before today, Jaemin had already warned them about how the sickness of his grandmother all the way in Seoul threatened him to move away.

And here he is, taking in the last of the scent in his room.

Even the room's scent changed much after the night before today. Now that almost all the things in his room had disappeared (except the shelves, table, and bed.) into the trunk of his family car, the room resembled no scent of himself.

The future owners of his room are probably not even going to be able to imagine the fact that anyone used to live there, it looked all too brand new.

Jaemin did a good job in packing everything up, that even the previous scent of his room might come along with him all the way to Seoul.

But that is a good thing.

He tells himself. I won't have to worry about things changing this way.

But of course even if he tries so hard not to change anything in his point of view,

Things are going to change for his friends too.

He doesn't know what can happen- or maybe he might.

He knows at the back of his head that sometime soon,

Everything is going to change.

Maybe his friends will loose interest of being friends with someone you can't even give a slap on the shoulder when they say something stupid.

Maybe his friends will start to forget about him, start to adjust to life without him.

Start to be happy without him.

Or maybe worse, they'll part ways too.

And that would be his fault.

He doesn't like the idea- not the slightest bit.

Though he wishes them to live life without grief of his departure, he doesn't want that either.

Deep inside he knows well-

That he doesn't want them to come up with inside jokes he'll never get to understand- or even have a chance to hear about.

That he wants them to keep missing him, though he won't be back any time soon.

That even though he's said: "don't be sad about my leave. It'll make me sad too.", he knows that he'd rather them miss him like he's dead. He'd rather they be sad- because it makes himself feel loved.

He knows deep inside, that he doesn't want them to hang out and be overjoyed without him.

But his friends is probably trying to forget him by now.

They haven't talked for a week. And it still bothers Jaemin to this day.

Jaemin has tried to forget them.

But how? How can he forget the people who had crafted his childhood?

Jaemin can never forget them.

Because if he does, things will change.

And he doesn't want things to change.

Change is going to take away puzzle pieces of his supposed life with them.

Change is going to take away puzzle pieces of the regret of not being able to see his grandmother for one last time. Four days is all she has left.

Change is going to take away puzzle pieces of fear, fear of staying too close to people that he might have to be there to watch them clock out.

Change is going to take away puzzle pieces of his supposed life that is capable of tearing him apart.

Change is going to take away the puzzle pieces that he doesn't ever want to cross paths with.

Yet- he still wants to keep them.

And still wants to be the one to put that puzzle together.