Breakfast passed without incident following the earlier conflict. Hyungwon had spent the rest of his meal with his head on the table, flushed cheek pressed against the smooth surface. He was tired.
An alarm went out over the room, and all the kids began getting up at once.
Nobody at the table said anything, but Hyungwon thought that he understood. They had until the next alarm to reach their classroom.
Sure enough, he followed them in and slid into the desk beside Minhyuk. Hyungwon immediately put his head back down. It felt too heavy for his neck to hold up, and if he passed out and hit his head again, he'd have a headache when he woke up.
He stared at the boy next to him through his lashes, his eyes half-lidded. Yesterday, Minhyuk had been so bright, so full of energy.
Hyungwon watched as Minhyuk's hand clenched. "Stop staring at me. It's creeping me out," Minhyuk muttered, and Hyungwon just blinked twice before closing his eyes.
The second alarm sounded, and their teacher entered a moment after, the door locking behind him as he brought the door shut. "Good morning. Hyungwon, lift your head up."
Hyungwon slowly raised his head. His vision was slightly blurred. If I don't get some sleep, I might collapse again soon.
"Good. Now, we will be continuing our lesson from yesterday."
***
Hyungwon had forced himself to stay awake through class, and lunch, and class again, but his body grew heavier and he was pretty sure he'd be waking up with a headache soon.
In his old school, he'd been instructed to tell the teachers when he felt this close to passing out, but he already knew the teacher here didn't like him. Most of the class was quiet today, each boy shut away in a problematic world of his own.
Hyungwon was alone.
If I collapse in the hallway, will they help me get back to our room?
He smiled bitterly to himself a moment later.
Of course. They wouldn't want a demerit.
The final bell rang for class, and everyone rose, Changkyun hurrying out of the room first, followed by Shownu, then Minhyuk, then Jooheon.
Hyungwon rose gingerly before heading to the door. Then he was out the door, forcing one fact in front of the other, staring down at the tiles.
Just keep going. You're almost to the room. Just a little farther.
Only he faltered at his next step, and his eyes rolled back into his head as he collapsed.
Wonho's eyes widened as he saw Hyungwon pause and wobble for a second before his knees gave out. He ran forward and got a hand under Hyungwon's back, holding the unconscious boy upright before slipping a hand under his knees and lifting him parallel to the ground.
"Should have left him," Kihyun snapped as he passed Wonho before reconsidering. "Scratch that. We don't want a demerit. Just throw him on his bed."
Wonho frowned. Everyone had been tense today, and it all stemmed back to the argument with Changkyun.
Everybody had accepted that maybe they belonged here, that maybe they were crazy.
But no one wanted to feel invalidated. Nobody wanted to be isolated from the others. Even if they were wrong, they still wanted to matter, to feel justified.
Everybody wanted someone to believe them. Even if what they said wasn't necessarily true.
Because it was true for them.
Wonho set Hyungwon down on his bed. He hesitated before arranging Hyungwon's limbs so they laid comfortable straight. Then he folded Hyungwon's hands across his stomach.
But then when he took a step back, he pulled in a ragged breath, quickly moving forward and placing Hyungwon's arms at his sides.
Maybe it had been the placement of his hands, or maybe just how still and limp Hyungwon was in his sleep, but he had looked...
For a moment, it had looked to Wonho as though Hyungwon were dead.
