estrange ✶ huening kai

four.

walking into the lunchroom later that day felt like nothing sora had ever been through.

as soon as she stepped into the cafeteria, all eyes were immediately on her. around her, she could hear her classmate's occasional whispers about her episode that occurred no more than an hour ago.

sighing to herself, she lowered her head in hopes that she could block out their words; however, her efforts were in vain.

everywhere she went, she heard it. that word. the word she had grown to despise in such a short time.

"i heard it's hanahaki."

"so it's true─ sora has hanahaki?"

"she has hanahaki. i feel really bad for her."

hanahaki. hanahaki. hanahaki. oh how she hated that word.

it hadn't been more than an hour, yet it seemed that the entire school had come to know of her unfortunate reality. keeping her head down as she got closer to the end of the line, sora's cheeks burned in embarrassment. she felt ashamed.

"student, please swipe your card."

realizing she was holding up the line, sora's eyes widened, "o-oh." but before she could even take her card out, a person's arm went around her, the machine beeping to signify that her lunch had been paid for.

"i got it, don't worry."

looking up, sora met taehyun's eyes. but the way he was looking at her was different. almost as if there was a sort of pain in them.

"why?"

"why not?" he retaliated, his lips pulled into a thin line as he turned to walk back to their table.

"taehyun, i don't need your pity, okay? i don't need anyone's. so please, spare me from your acts of kindness if your only fuel for them is because i'm sick." sora couldn't bring herself to meet his eyes, and instead walked past him to their lunch table, where their other friends were waiting.

taehyun only blinked in response, his gaze following after her. biting his tongue, he slowly let a sigh fall from his mouth, "bad timing, huh?" shaking his head, he followed in her footsteps, then plopping down in the spot a few people down from her.

as everyone ate, they all took turns at peaking at sora, who was only picking at her food as her appetite had gone away due to her episode.

"are you not gonna eat?" yedam asked worriedly.

"just not feeling very hungry," sora shrugged, hoping for the conversation to switch topics.

jeongin nodded to agree with her, "i wouldn't either."

"jeongin!" beomgyu whisper-yelled, slapping his best friend's arm.

chuckling quietly, sora nodded, "yeah.." to be honest, she felt a little relieved that at least one of her friends was treating her normally.

"i grabbed you a red bean bun," doyoung announced as he took his seat next to her, "i know they're your favorite."

"thanks, dobby," sora offered a half-hearted smile, grabbing the bun from his hand. when a familiar giggle reached her ears, she turned her head to the source of the sound. almost instantly, though, she wished she hadn't.

yuna was clinging onto kai's arm, as they walked towards the table. obviously uncomfortable, sora averted her gaze down to her food.

"kai, you're so funny."

doyoung found himself sighing distastefully at the girl's flirting, "uh, i'm not very hungry, anyone want my lunch?"

"oo, me, me!" beomgyu volunteered, just as jeongin had done the same.

"aw, man," he pouted, watching beomgyu cheer as he ate his lunches.

"kai, i'm not understanding the notes for my math lesson very well.." yuna began, before batting her eyelashes up at him, "do you think you could pretty please help me after school?"

seemingly reluctant, kai furrowed his eyebrows in thought. but then yuna began to tug on his arm, which prompted him to nod.

"you can have my lunch, jeongin," sora abruptly stood, sliding her bag onto her shoulder, "i'm not feeling very hungry."

"sweet!" when he was elbowed in his side, he winced, "i- i mean.. uh, feel better?"

she nodded, then turning to leave the cafeteria. little did she know that yuna was watching, and taking note of her reaction.

"sora, wait!"

looking behind herself, she was surprised at who had ran after her, "taehyun?"

"i just wanted to make sure that you were.. uh.. that you were," he scratched the back of his neck, trying to word his sentence so as to not accidentally offend her again. "i just want to be sure that you're okay."

"i'm fine, taehyun."

"and i also wanted you to know that i'm not treating you any differently because of your sickness. i would never."

just by the look in his eyes, sora could tell that he was being sincere.

"i just wanted to do more things for you, but i guess it was a bad choice of timing." the two laughed, taehyun's eyes averting to his left, while sora's went to her right, only for their eyes to come back and meet once again. "anyways, if you ever need to talk, i'm here. i know we've been friends for a long time, but i feel like you forget about me."

"i could never forget about you, taehyun," sora teased, her hand reaching up to lightly punch his shoulder.

holding the place where her hand hit him, taehyun felt his cheeks warm up in just the slightest. with a light pink hue swirling on his cheeks, he looked down at his shoes, trying to hide his goofy grin, "i'm glad." suddenly sighing, taehyun looked back up at her, "anyways, it's gonna be time for class soon, so i'll go back to my homeroom to review. just, um- let me know if you need anything, okay?"

sora nodded, a gentle smile on her lips, "okay. thank you, taehyun."

he nodded, before the two went their own seperate ways.

-

just want to clarify that there is definitely gonna be people from different groups in here, if you couldn't already tell. i put yedam & doyoung from treasure in due to their INCREDIBLE debut :) and jeongin is in bc jeongin and beomgyu bffs. anyways, this is long overdue, but i hope you all enjoyed!!!