wrong send | lee felix [ HIATUS ]

40 [ narration ]

"Hello."

Felix had entered the room with an awkward smile as an attempt to lighten the heavy atmosphere.

Sung Ri stared blankly at the newcomer, not comprehending that it was Felix himself. This made it more awkward for the boy as he did not know what he was gonna do and what he was doing there.

The boy had never been comfortable with talking to other people personally. He preferred 'talking' to people through messages.

When he was still held captive, Felix never spoke to anyone there. Sure, there were kids there sharing his age, but that really wasn't a good place to 'socialize'. Because of that, Felix grew up to be introverted, and a l i t t l e bit detached from the world.

"Thank you for coming." Sung Ri's hoarse voice resonated throughout the room, breaking the awkward silence.

"It's no problem." Felix said, hesitating. "Uh do you want some water?"

Sung Ri shook her head.

"Okay." Felix breathed out, running out of things to say. His eyes scanned the lifeless hospital room. The only living things inside were him and Sung Ri, albeit the latter didn't really seem alive.

Felix spotted a stool he could sit on and slowly approached it before sitting.

"Hey." Sung Ri spoke, which startled Felix.

"What was it like being separated from your family like that?" Sung Ri asked with a tone like an innocent child. She turned her head to Felix, who was still stunned at the girl's sudden question, and made eye contact.

He didn't know how to respond. This was a topic he was too afraid to dive in. Even his parents couldn't ask him about it.

Felix kept silent for a few minutes, over thinking everything that had happened to him in the past few years and grimaced.

Sung Ri noticed his expression and regretted her words. "I'm sorry. Please pretend I never said anything." She apologized and shrunk under her blanket.

Felix turned his head outside the window, where he could see the dark sky being illuminated by street lights and twinkling stars, and the moon hid behind thick puffs of clouds. It was a tranquil night.

"It was terrifying..." He started off.

Sung Ri peeked from under her blanket to see Felix gazing at the stars outside the window. She couldn't quite read his expression, so she didn't know what the boy was thinking. She then turned her head outside as well, and started staring at the stars while listening to Felix narrate his childhood.

"When they suddenly snatched me away from my family, my mind went blank. I didn't know what to do except scream my parents' name. I remember there were other kids with me in the van. The people who kidnapped us would silence anyone, who would dare cry, with a gun."

"Some kids were sold in one piece, others were not. I managed to survive and live a long life because I didn't stand out, I didn't eat so I could be skinny, and because of that, I managed to crawl into tight spaces and hide when they were selecting who to sell to their clients."

"I had thought of killing myself then and there, but something inside me just couldn't accept the thought that I would die without actually living the life I deserved. I'm glad I didn't give up. After 15 years of being held captive in that hell hole, the authorities finally managed to find and rescue us."

"I was thankful that my family didn't give up and was persistent on finding me. They moved to Korea after I was kidnapped in hopes of Yongbok not having the same fate as I did. Not long after, they moved me to Korea as well, and I thought I would finally live a perfect life with them."

"But I guess I was fated to live an unhappy life. Three days after I came to Korea and reunited with my family, God took Yongbok away from me." Felix's words were laced with a bitter tone. His dull eyes fixated on a star, one that stood out from the rest, one that was shining brightly from afar.

Sung Ri clenched her blanket, Yongbok's sudden death flashed inside her mind.

"I'm sorry..." the girl whispered. Guilt engulfed her whole body, after all, if it weren't for her then the boy would still be alive.

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I am so so so sorry for not updating for so long. I was busy with school shit and had writer's block.

Thank you all so much for your patience. I will start updating regularly when summer break starts, which is in 3 weeks, so I hope y'all will still have the patience then.

Thank you for 7k reads, I love you.

-aiya