Those days - txtzy

part 5: 五

Jisu noticed Soobin in class when school started after the weekend. He was dressed in black from head to toe, eyebags hanging under his eyes and an exhausted, heartbroken expression on his face. Beomgyu was patting his back lightly, which made the boy advert his eyes and look out the window.

Kai slipped a paper bag of pastries to him, but the older boy shook his head miserably.

She later learnt that his mother had passed abruptly the day she had met him. "Poor Soobin," Ryujin murmured softly, having heard the news from Beomgyu, "He must be devastated."

Another person who looked in despair was Ara. Her eyes were red and teary, unable to even look at Soobin without sobbing. She soon slipped out of class, hurrying to the toilet to clean the wet droplets leaking from her eyes.

Jisu requested to be excused and made her way to the restroom to check on the girl.

She was hunched over the sink, her head down as pearly tears dropped down into the porcelain surface. A damp tissue was gripped in her hand, her knuckles bleached white.

Approaching the girl cautiously, Jisu said softly, "Ara?"

Ara's head jerked up, and she hastily rubbed the tears away as she managed a pained smile, "Oh, Jisu, hey."

"Are you alright?" She asked, even though she knew the answer. The other shrugged, then her smile began to slip and she let loose another sob.

"It's just...I've known her for so long, and now...she's just gone, like that. I even considered her a second mother to me-" Ara's breath caught in her throat, unable to continue choking out another syllabus.

Jisu spread her arms, offering a warm embrace for the weeping girl.

-

The funeral was heart-wrenching for Soobin. His father wanted him to continue to go to school, saying that he shouldn't miss any lesions but Soobin knew it was more because he knew that it would be pure torture for the boy to have to look at his mother's serene face in the casket all the time.

So he did as his father requested, and went to school as per normal. But it was so hard to concentrate, so hard to pick up his pen and write answers to worksheets and notes of various lessons. And it was so hard to avoid the topic of his mother's death.

His friends were the best, silently staying by his side, when he decided to skip lunch or when he couldn't pay attention.

But he couldn't take the suffocating unsaid sympathy that seemed to be wrapping around him, as more and more people seemed to get the hint that Soobin was mourning.

So he did something he never thought he would.

He went to hide at the staircase leading to the clocktower.

He could never be caught being there, the staircase was notorious as the hideout for suicidal people. It would kill his reputation for him to be spotted there.

But it was also the quietest place, as noted by Kai.

So he sat at the third flight, his eyes fixed on the ceiling far away. He could finally breathe, having gotten away from the stifling surrounding filled with people.

That didn't really last long.

"Are you okay?"

A familiar voice said soothingly, and he was surprised to see Jisu at the bottom of the flight. Her expression was full of concern and worry, and she hurried up the flights, her hand extended with a packet of tissue.

Soobin didn't realise he had started to cry, and swiftly wiped the tears away, but Jisu only gave a comforting smile.

"It's okay," She said softly, "It's fine to cry. Just let it all out."

And the dam within him broke as he cried into his hands, Jisu simply sitting down and giving him moral support from afar.