when you wake up | sunki

nine.

Sunoo and Riki are pacing one of the two suites several hours later. Dinner was ordered through room service just a while ago because Jungwon was too exhausted from jumping around all day to leave the hotel for dinner, and the two of them are left waiting around. Riki plays quietly with his Nintendo Switch in the window seat of the room, and Sunoo unpacks his items from his overnight bag.

"Is there a reason you brought me along?" the younger boy asks suddenly.

"I didn't want to leave you alone today," Sunoo answers. "I can't go back to the apartment to meet you at the rooftop tonight, so my next best option was to take you with me."

He seems satisfied with the older boy's answer, and settles back down to play Mario Kart in silence.

"Riki, do you want to take a shower?"

The other boy lowers his Switch and gestures to his empty hands. "I didn't bring any clothes with me."

Sunoo takes one of the folded sets of clothes from his bag and holds them out. "I have extra. Go shower if you want, but we're staying the night here."

Riki accepts the clothes, setting down his Switch and heading into the bathroom. "Thank you, I'll be done soon."

It's slightly past 11PM by the time the two of them are finished with their respective routines before bed. Sunoo itches to send a message pressing for more information from Jay regarding the events of the night, but he restrains himself. There is a reason he was not made aware earlier, and in this case he can tell it's probably a good one.

"You won't remember what I told you when you wake up," Sunoo says. "Will you be disoriented? You should leave a note for yourself."

Riki nods and picks up the stationery pad from the nightstand beside the bed, writing quickly. The older boy doesn't look over to ask what he writes, only moving to settle on the sofa. "You can take the bed. I forgot I'd had to make arrangements for two people, so I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay," Riki folds the paper in half neatly and slips it into the pocket of the hoodie he's borrowed from Sunoo. "We can share, I don't mind things like that. Back with the Nakagawa-kai the kids used to sleep together all the time when their parents were out."

"Oh? If you don't mind, then." Sunoo takes the side of the bed opposite from Riki and he lies down, careful not to jolt the bed too much. "Actually, there's something I wanted to ask you, too."

"What is it?"

"The note you wrote. Why don't you do this every day?"

Riki's hair falls across his face when he lays down, and he moves to swipe the longer strands away from his eyes. "Right, that. The therapist assigned to me told me to, at first. I didn't bother. It didn't seem like there was any end to this, and what was the point of keeping a record? Every day I'd have one more pageful of words to read, about a life I didn't remember. It was just...stupid and pointless."

Sunoo can hear the frustration and exhaustion in the younger boy's voice, and he sighs. He doesn't want to imagine how terrifying it must be to wake up every day and not know what happened to himself the previous day. It was like living in an endless loop, a loop that only he himself was stuck in, while the rest of the world moved on like normal.

"It must be frustrating," he says softly. "I can't imagine. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. The world is full of bad people, and the good shouldn't have to apologise for the sins of others."

Riki's words are jaded, mature, impartial. As they fall asleep that night, Sunoo wonders how much the other boy has gone through to reach where he is today.