Macabre | Dowoo

s e v e n

The ceiling spun circles around him as he stared up at the white tiles that decorated the ceiling. It was after breakfast, and Jungwoo was laying down on the bed in his room. The whiteness around him didn't bother him as much as his mind had something to keep it occupied.

He was still thinking about what he'd asked his friends yesterday, their answers and then the events of today's morning as well. That guy, Doyoung, was so strange to him.

First of all, he was just as scary as Mark and Donghyuck had made him out to be. The stares Jungwoo received from across the table, even if they weren't meant to be scary, stressed him out and made him wanted to go far away.

Jungwoo recalled the comment Doyoung gave him. Or was it a compliment?

You're cute, Jungwoo.

Although he couldn't see himself, Jungwoo knew that his cheeks turned red from the heat now on his skin. He cursed at himself in his mind, bringing a hand up to brush against his burning cheeks.

It wasn't like Doyoung wasn't attractive. It was just wrong to feel this way.

He couldn't get tangled up in a serial killer's game of seduction. If Doyoung was even a serial killer, like everyone had said.

An unexpected knock echoed at the door, and he looked up to see who was coming in. There was a pause of several seconds before the door actually creaked open, as if he had an actual choice to decline the person their entry.

In walked in another adult, but it wasn't Mr. Lee. He was shorter and wore an oversized brown sweater.

"Hello, I'm Mr. Han," He said with a smile as he looked at Jungwoo. Mr. Han didn't close the door but instead held it open, standing at the doorway. "I'm here to lead you to the common room, since the doctors said you were good to go."

Jungwoo quirked up and eyebrow but got off of his bed and walked over to Mr. Han, who he surprisingly towered over in height. Mr. Han glanced up and then offered a smile, keeping an eye on Jungwoo next to him as they continued to walk through the white halls full of doors.

"There are a couple rules about our common room here. It's open from seven in the morning to eight in the evening, since that's when it's time for patients to start getting ready for bed. You can request for your hours the day before when your doctor brings you your evening medicine, but you have a limit of four hours per day. Hours can be split up across the day and you can choose to not use them either.

Inside the common room you can talk to anyone you'd like, and touching is allowed to an extent. However there is no violence whatsoever. I think that's it. Any questions?"

Jungwoo shook his head, even though everything that the other had said was still being processed inside of his mind.

Soon they reached the room that Mr. Han was talking about, and he let Jungwoo enter first. There were tables and chairs pulled up to them, but the many other patients inside of the room weren't all sitting on them. They were mostly scattered across the floor, playing with each other and the colorful activities around them.

It wasn't anything special, but at least the walls were a creme color in this room.

"I'll leave you to it, then, unless you want to leave," Mr. Han spoke up again.

Jungwoo glanced next to him, "I'll stay." He liked this place more than the others. Usually he didn't like spaces with too many people but this was an exception.

Mr. Han nodded, smiling with his front teeth out. "Alright. I'm supervising at the moment, and most of the time, so you can come over if you need anything. Have a nice time!"

He doubted he was going to have a nice time, but Jungwoo thought that this place was much more lively than his own room. When Mr. Han left his side to go sit with another adult at one of the tables in the corner, he walked further into the room to be on his own.

Not wanting to sit at one of the tables, he looked around the floor near the wall for an empty spot and found one in the corner behind a table no one was sitting at. He walked over it and almost smiled when it was vacant.

Jungwoo sat down with his back to the wall, pulling up his legs. He glance around and picked up the first book he could find, not bothering to read the title on the front of it before he started to forget the world around him.

This was nice.