C L O S E R || hwang hyunjin

past

The night passed by in a blink, I ended up finishing the drawing. But, it was so hard to focus when all I could think about was him and what he said. 

"I wonder when they will call me for the next interview." I had thought as I got out my phone, and saw that I had an email. "Oh, speaking of which.." I started to mutter as I walked down the street. The email said: "Please come in for your interview at 11:00 tomorrow.." And I continued to read the rest of the details I made a sigh and shoved my phone in my pocket.
I looked up ahead as I made my way through the school campus.

"Winter break is officially over now, it felt like it went in a blink of an eye." I walked into the entrance, seeing people I haven't see in a few weeks. "A few weeks sometimes feels like months!" I heard someone say. As I walked down the hallways, I spotted Felix and Minho from afar and ran up to them. "Hey! long time no see." I waved.
"Yeah." They both made a small wave at me. I looked around, trying to find one person who was in my head. 
"it's still kind of early, so he's probably elsewhere in the school right now.." I looked down and started to worry a bit. 
"We should head to class," Felix mentioned and we all went to the class together. As I entered the classroom I saw a face I have never seen before and a familiar face sitting next to him.
"Hey!" Seungmin waved to us. I smiled seeing him in my class, but I was wondering who was beside him. 
I looked over and I saw Felix and Minho staring, their eyes beating at him. The guy with blonde hair, that had blue tips to them. He had a calm look on his face. He slowly looked up to them.
"Long time no see." He said in a light voice. 
Quickly I felt someone move right passed me, I saw Changbin come in with a nervous smile on his face. He saw what was going on and made a light cough, it made everyone go to their desks and sit down. Not a word was spoken. 
"That was weird..do they all know each other?" I whispered to Changbin. "I have heard about him before from Minho, Him and Felix used to be friends." He whispered back. I sat in the chair all the way in the back and kept looking at the guy he was talking about. Seungmin noticed me and made a small, nervous wave. I made a small wave back. Then I noticed the girls coming into class, but it was only Gracie and Rylee. "Carys and Haley aren't coming back to this class, they decided to switch over the break." Gracie was saying as she walked in, but then she noticed the guy sitting in the back. She stopped in her tracks. I noticed that Felix was staring down, and Minho just looked concerned. 
"Eric?" She muttered as she slowly approached him. "Since when did you get here?" 
"Today, I decided to transfer," Eric said softly. I noticed Felix was glaring back at them. 
"Why?"
"For you of course." He made a quick smile, and I saw Gracie's face turn a bit red. Then, I knew what was going on. "So Eric is Gracie's love interest but Felix likes Gracie so they had a fight over her." I put the pieces together. 
"Well..uh." She got embarrassed as I say Bang Chan enter the room. "Sit down now, it's class time." 
Gracie quickly went back to her seat, while smiling back at Eric. Somehow I felt this bothering feeling inside me, I couldn't help but be worried about Felix, for he had this down look on his face. 
Bang Chan noticed that someone wasn't sitting beside me. "Hey." He called out to me. "Do you know where your friend is?" As he said that I felt like the whole class was staring at me. 
"Uh, no."  I looked down, nervously then heard someone open the classroom door, flustering to come in. He quickly sat beside me. "Ah, there you are," Chan called out with a bright smile on his face. "Well, how was everyone's break?" 
"Ahhhh, too fast." Changbin shrugged. "True, the Holidays sure pass by, now, please turn your textbooks..."
I opened my book and kept trying to take glances over at Hyunjin, who was playing with his hair. He seemed nervous. I lightly tapped him on the shoulder and whispered. "Is everything okay?" I asked. His eyes focused on me then he looked back down without a word.
I was remembering what happened last night. 
"He seemed so scared last night, and I am wondering why.." I could remember the scared look he had on his face. I wanted to find out what was wrong, what he was hiding, and why he was acting so strange and so erupt, but I couldn't find the strength to ask him. I didn't want to hurt him. After the class was over we all got up. I saw Felix, Minho, and Changbin quickly dart out of the classroom as I saw Eric and Gracie talking and walking with each other. I quickly followed behind Seungmin.
I quickly got his attention. "Hey, I wanted to ask you. How do you know Hyunjin?" I whispered to him as I looked behind me. I saw Hyunjin packing his bag.
"Uh, welll..it's kind of a long story." Seungmin shrugged and walked off. I felt like he was hiding the truth from me. I quickly followed up behind him. "Please tell me, I am concerned about him."
Seungmin turned back with a nervous smile "I am too, that's why I don't want to tell you. I am sorry." He had this genuine smile on his face, like he wanted to tell me, but couldn't somehow. "I-" I wanted to say something but, was interrupted. We were both stopped by the people in front of us. I stood there was saw Felix, grabbing ahold of Eric's shirt, lifting him up.
"Please let him go." I heard Gracie glare over at Felix, trying to remove his hands from him. Felix saw the stern look on her face and let him go. "Don't taunt me like that." I heard him say as he walked off with Minho and Changbin. "I will catch you later." I waved to Seungmin and ran up beside them. I never saw Felix so sensitive before.
"Are you okay?" I asked from behind. "Yeah," I heard Felix cough. Changbin looked back at me. "Eric taunted Felix with Gracie and he got...kinda upset." He whispered to me. "Oh, yeah. After school, I will give you the papers." He also mentioned. I nodded.
"There is so much going on, but I can't seem to understand any of it." I suddenly started to get a call and noticed it was Macy. I parted from the boys to take the call. I saw Minho talking to Felix. Felix looked a bit calmer than before. 
"Hello?" 
"Hey, I am here on the main campus," Macy said excitedly.
"Why are you here?" I made a small laugh. 
"I am leaving back soon and I wanted to visit during lunch hours." She told me. I realized how much time has already passed. I shook my head. "Okay, I will come out," I said as I hung out the phone. I had seen that Changbin had noticed me as I started to walk out. 
I walked out and noticed Macy waving to me, then noticed the boys followed up behind me.
"Hey!" I ran up to her and gave her a big hug.
"Wait.." Minho started to blink really quick. "You know her?" 
"Wait.." Macy realized. "You know each other?"
I was confused. "Wait what?"
"Annie is your friend you hid from me?" Minho's eyes went wide. 
"Why didn't you tell me you knew Annie?" Macy glared over.
"Well, I didn't know because I didn't know you knew her." Minho crossed his arms. 
"Sooo..how do you guys know each other?.." I asked there, confused.
"Uh, we are siblings." They both said at the same time. I was shocked by what they said.
"But you guys look nothing alike," I added.
"That's what I said." Felix laughed a bit.
"Hmmmp, good." Macy grew a smile on her face and looked across at Felix. "That explains how she knows Felix, then." I shrugged to myself. "So, do you guys want to eat lunch?" Changbin suggested. We all nodded. It seemed that we were all trying to help Felix out somehow, and I felt like Macy came here for more than just me.
"It's cold out here so let's head inside." Felix led us in and we started to walk through the hallways. I was looking around wondering where Hyunjin had gone, but I didn't notice him anywhere. "I am not sure I am supposed to be in here but I like it," Macy whispered to me with a grin on her face. I made a small laugh.
I didn't know the whole story behind Felix and Eric, but I didn't want to get involved with it. As we stuck around the halls we passed by Eric and Gracie. Macy had noticed how uncomfortable Felix had looked. "Are you okay?" She asked.
"I am fine," He shrugged back. "I will get over it." A quick smile grew on his face. "Ah," They both looked close to each other, but I didn't know what they were thinking. 

For the rest of the day and classes, I didn't see Hyunjin. I didn't know where he had gone to. I constantly looked around, but I couldn't find him. I was following behind the Boys the whole time so I never got a chance to go off and find him. As we were walking out of the school I got Changbin's attention. "Have you see Hyunjin?" I asked him. He shrugged back. "I haven't." He had just noticed that he didn't see him either. "I will just call him later, I guess." I shrugged.
The day had already gone by, as I was walking away.
"Hey uh, lemme walk you home." Changbin offered. 
"Sure, I have to prepare for my interview." I shrugged. Changbin quickly ran up from behind. 
"I have missed the first few periods of school tomorrow and I feel bad." I grabbed hold of my backpack. "Couldn't you give a note or something to the teachers so you don't get called out for it?"
"Maybe."
It went silent for a bit as he walked me home. He reached in his bag and handed me the drawings. I looked at them and they were kind of smudged. "Sorry I couldn't stop it from smudging." Changbin scratched his head. "No, it's fine." 
Suddenly the door behind me opened and I saw Jisung. "Hey, come in I have something to tell you." He seemed anxious. I quickly bowed to Changbin. "I will see you later." 
As we parted I went inside to see Jisung rushing to his laptop. 
"So, I found out about Park Jinyoung's family, and apparently he had a wife and a child. But, not much is known about him because it seemed like a lot of information was stored away."
I looked over Jisung's shoulder.
"Ah, so it could be true then...his ability?" 
"I mean, it's not really an ability but more like a gift or an inheritance." Jisung looked back at me.
"The ability can be inherited through people." 
"So, it can be passed through relatives? does that mean I am related to him?" I scratched my head.
"Could be. But, I looked into it more and he claimed to have shared this with others, but it's not by blood." Jisung shrugged. 
"Then what is it by?" 
"Not sure yet." Jisung kept reading on his computer. "Just let me know," I told him as I made my way to my room. "What does he mean by inherited?.."  The more I heard it the more it made sense to me. I sat down at my desk, looking at the drawing I was going to present. I noticed that it was completely dark already. I felt my heart thumping as I stared at the drawing of Hyunjin.
"I wonder where he went today." I thought to myself. 
Suddenly, I saw that I got a text from Macy. 
"I am going to stay at my family's house tonight, Minho, Felix, and I are hanging together to try to talk things out. I really hope to cheer Felix up, he has seemed down lately."
As she told me that, I realized I had the same drive towards Hyunjin. There was more I wanted to do for him, more I wanted to know.
I turned off my phone.

NARRATOR POV


Felix, Minho, and Macy were all sitting around the living room, with video game controllers in their hands. Macy started spamming the button while playing up against Felix. "There is no way I am going to let you beat me," she repeated.
Minho just sat there and watched. He laughed at them. "There's no way he's gonna let you beat him." 
Felix was all calm while playing the game, he looked really focused, and he knew what he was doing. Finally, the end of the match came. "Uhg, I swear I would've gotten you that time." Macy scratched her head and placed the controller down to take a sip of her soda. 
Felix looked down. "Thank you guys for hanging out with me, it means a lot." He stood up. "I should probably get going now though." 
"Ah, it was nice seeing you." Minho made a small wave. "I will see you tomorrow at school." Minho got up to go to his room. Macy seemed like there was something she wanted to say, but she couldn't say it. "See ya?" Felix got her attention with a small wave.
She made a quick smile and waved back. "See ya."
"Why is he so different than I remember?" 


Annie POV


It was the next day and I was in a rush all around the street. I was carrying a lot in my hands and struggled to get my way towards the building. 
I walked in, and the girl had to lead me to the room once again. I slowly came in and realized there was more than one person in the room this time. But, it didn't look as formal. There was someone turned around in the corner organizing things, but I recognized the back of their head. "Is that Seungmin?" I thought to myself.
"Come in, come in." The man behind the desk said. I awkwardly brought myself over to hand him the project I was working on. I took a deep breath. I was nervous about what he was going to think of it. He slowly opened the portfolio and his eyes widened as he saw the drawing.
"Ah, you drew this?.." I didn't know what his thoughts on it were, it was hard to read all of his expressions. 
"Hey, son. Come here and tell me what you think of this." He called the other person over. He quickly turned around, and I was right. It was Seungmin. 
"Wait...Son?"
Seungmin quickly noticed me. "Annie?" His eyes widened.
"Wait, you guys know each other?" His father looked at the both of us. "We go to school together." I made a slight bow.
"Yeah, I didn't know you were applying here." Seungmin looked over at the drawing. "Woahhh...." He let out, "Wait...is this Hyunjin?" He had recognized who it was. 
"Uh..." I started to scratch my head. "I guess so, he was my model for the drawing."
"Ah, So I see you are good at drawing and modeling work..." His dad nodded then gave me back the drawing. "Good work, I would like you to start right away, I will send you the schedule and you will be working with the draw modeling team. Seungmin is on that team too so you will know someone there." As he was speaking so quickly, I didn't know how to comprehend it all. 
"So, I got the job?" I made a small nervous laugh. 
"Yeah." He laughed back. "Just call me Mr. Kim for now." 
I bowed. "Thank you, Thank you." I kept wanting to say. I grabbed my portfolio and was about to leave the room. "How about Seungmin shows you around the building and where you will be working? It is a large place after all." Mr. Kim said. Seungmin scratched his head. "Would that be okay?" he quickly smiled. "Sure." I made a quick nod. Seungmin opened the door for me and lead me out. "Sorry, it's a bit awkward."
"It's okay." I waved my hands nervously. "I am glad I can work with you." I made a bow to him. He led me through the hallways and I looked around at the rooms I had noticed before. "Uh, I guess I should show you where you will be working first." Seungmin opened the glass door and led me into a room full of many people. There was one main desk upfront, and the other desks were large and had people drawing at them. 
"So, what is my job going to be...he didn't really explain it. When I applied here I didn't really think of the position I was going to do." I whispered to him, as I lowered my head in embarrassment. I did research on the company, but I never researched this particular unit of work. "We just create models and drawings for people,"
"Like a designer team almost?" 
"Yeah." Seungmin led me through the desks and the people staring at me. "I can't believe I am opening this much, I never would've imagined last year I would getting a job.." 
He led me to an open desk that was next to his. That was filled with cute little figures and pictures. I saw a picture of what looked like a younger version of him and Hyunjin, with their fathers. "Who is that?" I pointed.
"Oh.." Seungmin picked up the picture frame. "It's a photo from a few years ago.."He started to go quiet. "Is that Hyunjin?" I asked. 
He nodded slowly. "I am guessing that is your dad.." Then my eyes traveled to the man standing right above Hyunjin. His face looked so familiar to me but I couldn't put my finger on it. Seungmin quickly put the photo down and started shuffling with things on his desk. He looked a bit nervous. I wasn't sure why. He led me back into the hallway and we went through the rest of the rooms on the floor. "It's getting late," Seungmin added. 
"I didn't know you wouldn't be at school today." I held onto my things while stepping into the elevator. "Yeah, sometimes my dad wants me to come in with him when there are not as many people working." He scratched his head as he pressed the button to go down the elevator. There was this question lingering on inside me, that I wanted to know.
"So..how did you meet Hyunjin?" I asked from behind. 
Seungmin started to get kind of anxious and made a quick smile. "Uh, our parents knew and worked with each other so, we kinda saw each other and became friends." Is all he told me.
"Ah, that sounds nice.." I shook my head. "I haven't actually heard a lot about his father, but I am curious to know.." 

Seungmin lead me out of the building. "I am not sure when I will start." I scratched my head as we quickly went to school. I looked at the time and we missed all the periods except one. 
"When my dad says right away, he means right away." Seungmin made an eye smile as we were walking in the hallways. "At least we didn't miss the whole day."
I made a small nod, as I saw someone walking towards us, Hyunjin's eyes peaked on us. We stopped to greet him. "Hi." I made a small wave at him.
"Hi." Hyunjin looked down shyly, then swung his arm around Seungmin's shoulder. "Would you like to get a coffee later?" He asked Seungmin.
"Sure." Seungmin looked nervously at me. 
"Oh..I am working with Seungmin now!" I raised my hand to tell Hyunjin, I was excited to see his reaction. He avoided eye contact with me. "That's great..congrats!" 
It was awkward again, I didn't want it to be. They started to walk away to go to class together. I had kind of felt like Hyunjin was slowly drifting from me again. "He keeps acting strangely...what did he mean by what he said before..?" I wanted to run up behind him and ask, but, my actions were interrupted by someone tapping my arm. I looked over to see Changbin, shoving his hands in his hoodie. "Hey, I haven't seen you all day."
"Didn't I tell you? I had a job interview today.."
"Oh, right. Maybe I thought it was a different day." Changbin shrugged nervously. "Want to go to class together?" He suggested. I made a small nod, looked down, and followed him to class.

Days had passed, it felt like it went by so quickly. But, I had barely any interactions with Hyunjin, I wanted to know the truth. I was done sitting around, worrying about it anymore. Today was my first day of work. I had gotten dressed in nice jeans and a large hoodie. I tied up my hair, and I put a beanie on top of my head. I went out in the cold and quickly rushed to work. I slowly made my way up the floors and into the art modeling room. I went over to my desk. "Good morning." I heard someone say. I made a small bow. "Good morning." I sat down at my desk, and I had a list of tasks I had to get done. Some drawings, and models I had to work on. I got out my sketchbook and started modeling the figure they assigned to me. I looked over and saw Seungmin working beside me. "So, what are the models for?" I whispered to him.
"You don't know? the models are for animation for the t.v show. You don't know what the company is...right?" Seungmin made a small tease. As he told me that, I realized how much I didn't know. I nodded and started to imagine the character I was drawing. I slowly looked back over and noticed the picture again, my eyes slowly zoomed in on Hyunjin. My thoughts wondering, and my heart pounding. There was something I really wanted to know. 
"What did he mean that my time would run out..?" I slowly muttered to myself as biting my pencil, but I realized I said it out loud. Seungmin slowly looked over at me. 
"What did you say?" 
"Uh, it's nothing." I started to laugh nervously, my chest felt really hot for some reason like I didn't want him to hear it. 
"Did he really tell her...?" I heard him mutter under his breath. 
"What do you mean?"
"Get back to work and stop chatting!" I heard a manager say from up ahead. "Yes ma'am," I said quickly while focusing back on my work. But, I couldn't help but worry. 
After some time during the day working, it passed by too quickly for me to even think. I felt my stomach start to rumble a bit. "Ah, already?" I looked at the time and heard the manager clap. "Time for lunch, everyone meets back in a half an hour." She got our attention. I saw that Seungmin quickly got up with his things and headed out of the room quickly. But, I ran up to catch him. I moved past people and caught up with him in the hallway. "Hey. I don't really want to eat by myself, so would you want to eat together?" I asked him. 
"Sure." He made a quick eye smile, but he seemed nervous. "I am meeting with my friend though." 
"Oh, that's fine. As long as I am not imposing.." I looked down as we went down the elevator and to the building's cafe. I suddenly saw Jeongin sitting at a round table, with a coffee in his hand. Seungmin quickly ran up to him with a wave. "Hey." Both their faces lit up. But, Jeongin looked over at me, who was hiding behind Seungmin. "Oh, hi!" Jeongin quickly smiled.
"What?" Seungmin was confused. "Why does everyone know Annie..like are you popular?" He looked over at me with a laugh.
"Nah, trust me..I am not." I scratched my head. We sat at the table and I got my lunch box out. 
"I just know her because she is Hyunjin's friend."
"Right..." Seungmin seemed to want to avoid that conversation.
"So, how is the cafe going?"
"Fine.." Jeongin looked down, "I am surprised I still like coffee." He laughed, but they both noticed how uncomfortable I was because something was so deep in my mind.
"You guys are good friends of Hyunjin...right?" 
There was silence for a bit of time. Seungmin coughed. "Should we tell her?" Jeongin looked over at him.
"Well!" Seungmin stopped himself. "I mean.. I don't want to give any information because that is Hyunjin's job."
"I am just confused and need some clarification." I looked at both of them. "How did you guys meet...and like, what was Hyunjin like before..? Like.." I looked down.
"You love him don't you?" Seungmin looked at me sternly. I got flustered by what he said. "Uh, I mean..." I looked down, as I felt my heart race. "I do." I made a small nod.
"I see." Jeongin shrugged back. "I guess we could tell you about our childhood journey, but there's so much to it."
"Yeah." Seungmin agreed. "So Hyunjin had always been that quiet kid that did whatever his father had asked." He went on.

NARRATOR POV FLASHBACK