Macabre | Dowoo

s i x

The next time that Jungwoo headed down the painfully plain hallways he was actually smiling. Not with his lips, of course, but on the inside.

After breakfast it had been so boring, nobody coming in or talking to him like the doctor from the morning. He couldn't decide which he preferred, being all alone or alone with someone he didn't want the company of.

All he knew was he was finally getting to talk to the only people he liked in here so far, and that made his heart beat inside of his chest with excitement.

As always he walked inside, stood patiently in line and watched with a cringe as the lady behind the lunch counter gave him something that resembled pasta. He couldn't really tell.

He continued to walk to his usual circular table while taking a closer look at the lunch for the day, his feet already wired to go towards the direction he need to. In his tray there was a pile of overboiled-looking noodles, with some traces of red staining them that Jungwoo guessed was sauce.

Placing down the tray, he made himself as comfortable as he could on the plastic chair. "Hi, guys-" he said, looking up to say hello to his friends. 

If anything he was definitely not expecting Mark and Donghyuck to not be there. Instead, someone else was sitting in front of him at the table.

"D-doyoung?" He stuttered out, his lips open in surprise. Doyoung was indeed looking back at him with a sly smile, his chin propped up in him palm as he rested his elbows on the surface of the table.

"I'm glad you already know my name," Doyoung chuckled. His voice was strangely pleasing to the ears as it rolled off of his tongue.

Jungwoo laughed nervously, nodding. The brief amount of time he was looking at the other had ended, his eyes falling to the weird pasta on his plate. He didn't know what to say for obvious reasons, and he was a little scared of the person in front of him in the first place.

Thankfully it was Doyoung who picked up the conversation again. "So you're the infamous Jungwoo, I believe?" he asked.

Jungwoo peered back up at Doyoung with confusion, "Infamous? What do you mean?"

"Well, not as infamous as me, of course," Jungwoo caught a glimpse of a toothy grin on the other's face. "I've heard about you, though. Don't think you're crazy, eh?"

Were other patients in the hospital talking about him? Jungwoo didn't have time to ponder that question as he replied warily, "I don't. I'm not really supposed to be here, you see. But nobody believes me."

He looked up again, this time when Doyoung let out another mocking chuckle. "Everyone here is crazy, Jungwoo. It's not an opinion, it's a fact."

Jungwoo felt small compared to Doyoung, like he really couldn't argue against him because he was merely prey and Doyoung a predator that could swallow him up at any moment. His legs told him the floor beneath him fell and he was staring up at the other with weakness.

"I'm not crazy, though," he said quietly, twiddling his thumbs that he hadn't realized dropped to his lap, resting on the cheap white fabric of his patient uniform.

"Even if you don't think it now," Doyoung replied, "Stay here too long and you'll end up being crazy for real."

The words that Doyoung said stuck with Jungwoo in his mind. Was that really true? After days, weeks, months on end, he surely couldn't be the same Jungwoo as he was now. Everything had changed for him in merely days, and from now on he wasn't going to be in the world of sanity anymore.

Quickly he dismissed this thought in his mind, trying lot to let it occupy his mind for any longer. Keeping his head down so he wasn't looking at Doyoung, Jungwoo grabbed his plastic spork and poked at some noodles, seeing if they were something worth eating.

Really, he needed an excuse to not focus on Doyoung, but the food was not that bad. The noodles were, as suspected, undercooked and the flavor of the traces of the tomato was a bit off, but overall it was edible.

For a moment he focused on his food, being able to forget that there was anyone around him at all. He only got through half of his noodles and some water, though, before Doyoung once again broke the strange silence that was floating around them.

"You're cute, Jungwoo," he heard Doyoung say.

This caused Jungwoo to immediately start choking on the noodle going down his throat, but he was able to recover quickly. He stared back at Doyoung with a raised eyebrow, who was now looking at him with a soft smile but intense eyes. They made him feel small and fragile again.

"Wha-what?" Jungwoo coughed out, "Excuse me?" he cringed at the way his voice sounded so similar to that of a mouse. Couldn't he gather any courage at all in front of this guy.

Doyoung had the audacity to shrug, looking Jungwoo up and down. When he replied he already changed the subject, "Lunch is ending in a minute."

Jungwoo watched as Doyoung stood up from his chair, only finding it weird now that he was the only one with a lunch tray. "See you soon, I hope. Bye, Jungwoo," Doyoung had a smile on his face still as he waved to him and walked away.

Finishing up his lunch, Jungwoo sat there puzzled. There were so many different questions going through his head at the moment, but possibly the most stupid one actually came out of his mouth as the guards at the cafeteria doors announced that it was the end of lunch.

"How'd he know that lunch was ending?"