lost and found || hvc

IX reality check

It was all brown hair, brown eyes and pink lips flashing before my eyes. Flashes of colours and objects making me dizzy. A hand and I held it. Running, running, and blurry pavement beneath the boy's feet and mine. Lips that met mine, eyelashes tickling my cheek. Echoing laughter, warmth and a breeze, that made hair fly all around. Smiles and more laughter. Glimpses of a deep brown iris one could get drawn into. And suddenly there was nothing and no one. It hurt, my heart beat too fast and my vision blurry, as if covered in tears. My mouth opened up to shout, but I couldn't hear anything.

And then I woke up.

--

"You must see very interesting dreams," Alex said and yawned into her coffee cup. "You keep on tossing and turning and mumbling words I can't understand."
"Yeah, they're quite intense" I said, not really wanting to talk about my dream any further, as it felt oddly personal. "Sorry about disturbing you."
"Nah, it's cool. We have that lunch thing anyway so it's good to be up early," she said and yawned again. "It's already nine anyway."

"Lunch?" I asked, not recalling any previous mention of the matter.
"Yeah, with Joshua and Wonwoo and Seungkwan," Alex said like I should have known what she was talking about. She always did this: scheduled things and made plans for us but forgot to tell me about it.
"I thought I told you," she said when I continued looking confused. "Sorry."
"What time and where?" I asked, not even bothering to have the "you-should-talk-to-me-before-arranging-meetings-for-me"-talk with Alex; it's not like I had anything better to do. 
"At one, at some barbeque place Joshua likes," she answered, still sounding very tired. "It's quite close."

I stood up and walked into the community kitchen and took a banana and a chocolate milk carton I had purchased the day before from the fridge, before heading back into my room to get my phone just to find Alex sound asleep with her coffee cup dangerously close to spilling onto her blanket. I took it from her relaxed fingers and placed it on the night stand. Then I walked back to the common area and towards the staircase of the boys' rooms. I walked up the stairs, surprisingly not seeing anyone (everyone was probably still asleep, it was a Saturday after all), and once I had passed the dorm room corridors I eventually ended up at a very dingy door at the end of the stairs that said "FIRE EXIT" in big, bold red letters. I opened the heavy door and was faced with another set of stairs, this time narrower and made of steal. I climbed up, almost missed a step every now and then, and was faced with a small rusty door. When I opened it, I was faced with a familiar scenery of the roofs of the buildings near the dorm.

I had always loved roofs, as they gave me a odd sense of peace and seemed so far away from the people and the hurry, almost a world of their own. I had tumbled upon the roof of the dorm building one night when I had been feeling homesick and a bit freaked out by everything new. Ever since then, I occasionally came to the roof to think about everything and nothing, always alone. I didn't tell Alex about it, I wanted to keep it a place for myself although it probably wasn't. I had never run into anyone anywhere near the roof, but that didn't mean no one else went there; maybe we all just needed it at different times. This time I sat near the edge of the roof and started to eat my breakfast while looking at the small people walking on the sidewalk underneath me. I saw a mom struggling with her toddler, who wanted to run towards the cars moving on the road every few seconds. I saw two little kids holding hands while walking and I thought they were cute. I sat like that for a while before finally finding the power to stand up and walk back to my dorm room to wake up Alex and get ready. 

--

"Do you think this is okay?" I asked Alex while standing in front of our mirror. I had picked out my loose black straight leg pants (they looked fancy but were comfortable to eat in) and a cropped t-shirt with a oversized denim jacket, my true love. Alex lifted her eyes from her phone and gave a thumbs up of approval. My hair wasn't that bad, but needed washing, so I just pulled it into a ponytail and hoped that it didn't look dirty. I felt motivated enough to put on some eyeliner and a few minutes later I was standing outside of our dorm with the maps app open on my phone.

"It says it's just around the corner from the café," I said to Alex, who was still tying the shoelaces of her sneakers. "So we probably won't get lost."
"Let's go then," she said and closed the door of our room. "Joshua said they're almost there."

It took us about five minutes to make our way to the restaurant, which was a very nice-looking, small place. As soon as we arrived, Alex rushed over to show lots of PDA with Joshua and I naturally hugged Wonwoo and did our secret handshake with Seungkwan (fistbump, fistbump, knee touch, knee touch, a 360° turn and finger guns).

"Hello. A table for 6, please," Wonwoo said to the waitress when we got in. As I quickly counted in my head, there were five of us present. Maybe there was someone joining us, Mingyu probably, I thought to myself without saying anything. We were guided to a very peaceful corner (there weren't many people in the restaurant anyway) of the restaurant and the waitress brought us menus and water.

"Order something good for me," I told Wonwoo and put on my best please-smile. "I don't know what to get." It was true: although I knew some foods and what I liked in some places, I was a bit cautious when it came to new foods and new restaurants. Besides, everything Wonwoo had recommended so far had been good.
"By the way, are we expecting someone?" I asked. "You said a table for six."
Right after I asked that, we all turned our heads towards a noise coming from the direction of the entrance, and a boy appeared from behind the corner.

"Hi guys, sorry I'm late," he said and sounded breathless. As my eyes made their way up through to his (too) familiar features, I realised who it was. It was Hansol, and that was the only answer I needed.

// a.n HI! hope you enjoy this chapter (I might edit it later i wrote it during night time again to stay on schedule i am literally the worst procrastinator). btw I want to thank you all for over 3k reads, which is crazy omg, and for over 100 votes!!! I'm so grateful to everyone who reads this story and votes and comments!