Death || MEANIE [COMPLETED]

1 But

Already late in the night, in one dark hospital room, Jeon Wonwoo just stared blankly at the almost black ceiling, resting his head on a soft pillow, wondering why it was so hard for him just to fall asleep. His eyes were still wide opened. Contrary to what people usually do when trying hard to sleep, Wonwoo could not toss and turn. He had to stay in that one position, back straightly touching the bed. It was the fracture on his leg that kept him from moving freely on his own will, something he got from a recent traffic accident.

Jun, his best friend, who was riding the motorcycle he and Wonwoo usually used to go back and forth from school to their houses, apparently left unscathed from the accident—minor wounds, if you would say. Wonwoo couldn't remember clearly—in a blink of eye, he found himself in a hospital room, the one he was staying awake in now, with his sister, his uncle, and his friends, Soonyoung, Jihoon, and Jun, surrounding him, with a tremendous amount of worry drawn across their faces.

Wonwoo's older sister, Jeon Eunmyun, five years older than him, was the only close family member left for Wonwoo. They lived only by themselves, in a small house their mother managed to buy and left for them. Their parents broke up when Wonwoo was still a toddler and their mother, who took care of them ever since, died of cancer three years ago. Luckily, there was this kind and caring uncle of theirs who voluntarily wanted to take care of them, financially, despite not being well-off himself.

Jun, Jihoon, and Soonyoung were the main helpers of Wonwoo's life in his high school—now in his last year. Wonwoo didn't make friends easily. Jun was one he had since elementary school, although being a foreigner; and they never stayed apart since then. Soonyoung and Jihoon got to know him because of Jun, who apparently often socialized with them. And with that, ever since their first year of high school, they had been close as ever. Knowing that Wonwoo didn't like many people, they often just go somewhere with the four of them—karaoke room where they would be surprised to find out that Wonwoo knew a lot of girl group choreographies or cinema where they would see the tough Jihoon crying or being scaredy-cat. During exam sessions they would go to Wonwoo's house to study; Wonwoo teaching all of them single-handedly while Jihoon was given the last task to knock some sense on Soonyoung, who often couldn't get the lesson without some special treatment from Jihoon. Since the accident, the three of them would come very often, afternoon until night, or even staying overnight, when Wonwoo's sister couldn't accompany him, bringing him fruits, snacks, and books. They would mostly chat, or laughing at Soonyoung unconsciously teasing Jihoon, or even laughing even harder at how Jihoon retaliated at Soonyoung.

Wonwoo sighed heavily as he still could feel himself being awake, without any sense of falling asleep. He used his hands to slowly sit up and move backwards so that his back touched the bed stand. As he succeeded, he took his phone, which just vibrated, from the dresser next to the bed. He was alone at the hospital room now. His sister, being a medical student of the top local university, suddenly had something very urgent in her laboratory and had to leave the hospital at around 10.00 pm. Wonwoo didn't protest, as he had finished anything that he couldn't do alone from when his sister was still there.

00:02 AM

There was a notification, a new message—now more than five messages already, from his group chat.

Jun
YAH!
GUYS
ALL OF YOU
*screenshot of some random music video*
IT'S HIM EVERYONE
KASBDBKJQWB
HE
JUST
DEBUTED

Jihoon
...
It's freakin midnight and I wake up TO YOU FANBOYING TO SOMEONE I DON'T KNOW???

Jun
HE'S MY CHILDHOOD BESSTFRIEEEENDDD YOU GUYS
Now I'm a celebrity's friend ;D

Soonyoung
Who needs celebrity when you have me

Jihoon
^

Me
Lol
Need to remind y'all Jun's childhood = like 3 yo

Soonyoung
Even jihoon agrees

Jihoon
I'm referring to myself idiot

Jun
WHATVER I'M GOING BACK STREAMING HV A NICE SLEEP GUYS

Jihoon
Remind me why i'm friends with this guy again

Me
Only heavens know

Jihoon
I suddenly have the urge to regret my life
Lol have a nice sleep won soon

Me
Somehow same
You too

With that, Wonwoo closed the group chat and scrolled through his social media, silently laughing to some lame k-pop memes or crack previews. Soonyoung just disappeared without a trace from the group chat without saying anything—it wasn't like the three of them really cared anyway. He might just fall asleep or run to his garden to catch some grasshoppers—everyone knew he would do anything out of nothing. As he found himself reading posts from yesterday again, Wonwoo turned off his phone screen and put it back on the dresser, taking a TV remote.

Wonwoo asked himself as he turned the TV on, 'what kind of thing will I watch in this kind of time, thoug—'

"YAH! WHAT THE FUCK!" he cursed loudly, piercing the night silence; his heart skipped, as a jumpscare of one horror movie appeared right in front of him, in the right moment. He almost jumped out of his position because of the thrill but managed to stay put and changed the channel instead. He tried to inhale and exhale deeply, normalizing his heartbeat which was beating so fast he couldn't believe. 'I wonder if I can sleep tonight,' he thought to himself as an image of that wretched horror face started to haunt his head.

On one channel, he found a chess tournament—yes, a chess tournament. Wonwoo just stared at the TV screen, almost mindlessly, probably already forgetting about the jumpscare, as the two players didn't move even a bit, hands on their chins, eyes on the board, building up strategies and simulations. They stayed there for what seemed like hours to Wonwoo, who somehow didn't realize that he almost fell from the bed because of falling asleep. Luckily his hand supported his whole weight just in time, saving him from further apocalypse.

"I guess I should just sleep now," he muttered to himself, "thanks, chess."

He turned the TV off and as the light finally subsided, bringing darkness to fill the entire room back, with only slight moonlight passing through the windows. Wonwoo pursed his lips really hard, an attempt to keep himself from gasping or screaming, as he saw a tall figure, almost all black, standing in the corner of the room, vividly visible because of the dim lights. Wonwoo stared in disbelief for a few seconds, frozen, not even moving a single finger before finally blinked and shook his head hardly.

... and it was gone.

Wonwoo sighed heavily, relieved, with his hand rubbing his chest, feeling his heartbeat just raised again due to the shock. He shrugged it off and thought it was just only the aftereffect of that scary random-ass jumpscare which fortunately didn't stop Wonwoo's heart for all eternity. He used a slight strength of his hands to pull and push, positioning himself to lie down behind the blanket, warming himself from the cool temperature of the room, head perfectly resting on the pillow.

---

Okay so, let's pretend it's new year already all over the earth so i can say HAPPY NEW YEAR Y'ALL! I hope you had a nice year back in 2019 and will have a good, great, superb year in 2020! Everything's going well, worry not! You are doing great and you will keep doing great!

So yeah, this is the first chapter, and as I said, short. I hope you enjoy it!