far from you | oneus

fourteen. 28-08-20

Seoho turns his phone over and over in his hand, tuning out the teacher speaking at the front. It's already the last ten minutes of the hour-long lesson and she's still droning on about laying down ground rules like "always listen in class" and a bunch of other stuff he didn't remember because he...you know...wasn't listening.

He's tried to message Xion twice today, but his account showed that he'd been inactive since the day before. He knew Xion wasn't exactly normal, but idly he questioned how possible it was for a teenager to go without his phone for almost 72 hours.

The minute school ended, he picked up his books to shove into his bags before dialing Ravn's number.

"Ravn?"

"Seoho? Hello, what's up?"

"Remember what I told you about Xion?"

"That...yeah, I do. What about it?"

"He's been uncontactable for almost three days now. I didn't see him in school today either."

"That's weird. We're supposed to meet up today, aren't we?"

"Yeah, and he was really excited about it too. Do you think he would ghost?"

"I don't think so. Notice how there's always posts on his story?"

"Yeah I've noticed. What about it?"

"There hasn't been anything for more than 24 hours see, all his previous stories have expired. He probably really has been offline since the 26th, or he's blocked all of us from it."

"I don't think he would."

"Neither do I. Is there any way to confirm if he's in school? I guess this borders on stalking, but I want to know if he's okay."

"Yeah, I think I know a way. Will you guys meet me here instead?"

"At the school?"

"Mhm. And uh, get me a chocolate chip frappe to go?"

"You're such a loser. See you."

Seoho hung up and set his phone down, heading to the school library to check out the nearest communal laptop desk.

WELCOME TO
SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

ENTER STUDENT ID

do|

dongj|

dongju0110|

ENTER?

This account has been disabled.

─

Seoho was waiting for the others at the entrance to the library when they arrived, bearing the drink he'd ordered along with one of their own each. "I need one of you to help me do something," he explained quickly. "Hwanwoong, you look the youngest here. Can you help?"

He took them through the steps to follow as they made their way to the student office.

"Hi, can I check on my SNU student account, please?" Hwanwoong smiled politely at the counter staff. "My account's been disabled, I think."

"No problem dear, what's your name?" The lady at the counter looked down at her keyboard, waiting.

"Um, Son Dongju. My ID is dongju0110."

"I think there's been a problem."

"Sorry?"

"Your account has been deleted."

─

"They only delete accounts when you graduate or when you leave the school," Seoho said, leading them back down the path away from the office. "Now what?"

"Xion left the school? He's not coming here anymore?"

"But he was excited to study here. He even applied for a scholarship, I don't get it."

"I don't get it either."

There it was again, the frustratingly familiar feeling of seeing a puzzle but finding the solution unfathomably far away.

It was at that moment, as they huddled together around the small table at the communal study area, that the message came through.

MESSAGE REQUEST FROM @SAVEMEBOT

DOWNLOAD FILE: XION.SAVEME?