WORDS. |Kim Seungmin

Forty Six.

"Finally!" Seungmin groaned stretching his slumped limbs.

"Wow!" Jisung gasped in awe. The boy was having twinkling eyes and a dropped jaw as he was looking at Seungmin who sat opposite to him.

"Dude! Don't look at him as if he was a freaking giraffe in the zoo." Changbin snapped at the boy who was still in shock.

It wasn't the first time for Jisung to see Seungmin actually talking, but he wasn't believing it. No one could believe it. No one could comprehend what was happening that day, after the study break when they had to present the projects they worked on for the whole semester. No one could say a word when Seungmin stood there, next to Aria, and started presenting it in front of a hall full of students and professors who had never heard his voice before. Who thought he was mute.

He stood there, full of himself, feeling the needed confidence to talk out loud. He wasn't afraid of how he might look in their eyes. He wasn't afraid of being called a freak. He wasn't a freak. Not anymore.

He was cured.

That day, after talking to the deeply sleeping boy, he got cured. Magically, all his words went somewhere else but his skin. Magically, he had nothing anywhere across his body. Magically, Aria didn't feel the urge of searching him to look for the lost words. They weren't there. They never painted his skin.

Aria surely was his Healer but her presence alone wasn't the cure. He had to go through all of this to grow up and learn to be responsible for his actions. He had to ask for forgiveness. He had to apologize. And then, he had to go easy on himself and let go.

The moment he did that, the moment he secretly told himself that it was okay to let go and learn how to live with that punishment, he got healed.

He was healed.

He was a Normal once again.

"I can't help it." Jisung said pouting. "It's been weeks since that presentation but I still can't get used to him talking."

"It's not like you two were ever close." Aria said. She was collecting her belongings to stuff them inside her tote bag. Obviously, she was sitting right next to Seungmin. She never left his side since they came back from their road trip. She never let go of his hand either. It was serious to her to the extent of thinking of changing majors just to be able to attend all the classes with him, not only literature. "You only had one class together for two semesters, Jisung. And I still can't get why you are attending literature when your major is architecture."

"Neither do I!" Jisung shrugged. "It's obligatory, though."

"Whatever, guys." Seungmin said standing up. He shoved his backpack to one shoulder while grabbing Aria's hand to stand along with him. He looked down at her, smiling fondly as always. "I'm hungry. All those exams drained my energy."

"HOTDOG!" Changbin yelled excitedly.

"Sounds good to me." Aria said, smiling back at Seungmin, not even looking at Changbin as if he didn't exist, which made the boy huff in annoyance.

Seungmin looked at Jisung who was collecting his belongings to leave the exam hall too. "Are you coming with us?" Seungmin asked.

"I guess I-" A loud thunderclap echoed, cutting Jisung's word. The four classmates looked through the far window to see a storm starting to rage outside. The weather turned gloomy all of a sudden and rain started pouring without warning. Jisung sighed. He dropped his head and rubbed his face before he lifts his eyes to Seungmin again. "I'm not coming." He said then looked over his shoulder to where his best friend was sitting by the window. He watched him jump to his feet and start packing up frantically.

Aria's eyes trailed to where Jisung was looking. She felt tightness in her chest at the scene of their classmate running towards the exit, almost tripping over his own legs.

"What's wrong with him?" Changbin questioned, seeing the same exact scene.

"He's always like that." Jisung said, shoving his bag to his shoulders. "Whenever the sky goes crazy, Minho becomes restless like that." He said waving at them before he starts running as fast as he could to follow his friend.

"This boy is quite weird." Changbin said. The three friends started walking towards the exit. "He's not friends with anyone except for Jisung that you think he's got some serious communication issues, but then he's doing great when it comes to flirting with girls."

"I guess it's the opposite." Seungmin talked, throwing his arm around Aria's shoulder, pulling her closer to him. "Sitting at the back just observing for too long, made me see things differently. I guess girls are flirting with him, not the opposite. He's just trying not to be rude to them."

"I don't know. I thought he might get punished for playing their hearts but the rumors said he was once a Punished." Changbin said as the three friends made it to the building's main gate. They stood there watching the heavy raindrops hitting the solid ground loudly. The sun was hiding somewhere behind those dark clouds but the sky was being illuminated by the lightning.

"He was?" Seungmin asked.

Changbin inched closer to whisper to his friends. "Did you know he's a few years older than us?" He asked. His two friends shook their heads. "Well, he started university late. Some said he was a Punished that couldn't leave home and others said he was one of those sleeping peacefully for years. Nobody knows the truth, though."

Aria shoved her eyes to where she could catch a final glimpse of the two friends who were running to God knows where. Her eyes fell to Minho's colorful sneakers which she recently became aware of. Sighing lowly, she talked under her breath.

"I guess he's still having his punishment."