Before I'm Gone | Stray Kids FF

The Corner

Chan POV

Haneul was asleep, cuddling up next to me. At this point, it was just Woojin, Areum, Haneul and I in Areum's apartment. Everyone else had gone home, and since Woojin and I were the oldest, we decided to stay and care for the two sick children. A while ago, both Haneul and Areum had been well enough to sit with us and talk a little. Now, they were fast asleep. We had not given them any food yet, neither had much of an appetite and it was a trick that we all had learned: not to eat for 24 hours after throwing up.

Woojin came out of Areum's room, looking at me with tired eyes. "She's throwing up again." He sighed as he went to a closet to get a towel.

"Did she ever tell you what caused this?" I asked as he wet the towel in the kitchen.

"Nope." He turned off the tap. "I'll ask her later." He walked away, into the room.

Silently, I sat while stroking Haneul's hair. She started to shift and eventually, she was awake. She sat up and looked out the window, at the dark night. I put my hand on her shoulder, making her turn towards me. She gave me a shy smile before turning back to look at the sky.

"Haneul." I said as I got closer to her. "What happened?"

She looked wearily at me. "We ate bad food, that's all." She sighed as she leaned back on the couch.

"There's gotta be more to the story." I put a hand on hers which was on the couch.

"There isn't." She said bluntly.

I huffed at her answers. "Come on, don't lie to me Haneul." I got closer to her.

"If there is something going on," She refused to look at me. "I can't tell you what it is."

"Why not?" I put my arm around her. "I'm your boyfriend aren't I?"

"That doesn't mean you get to know everything Chan." She said a little roughly.

"Haneul..." I sighed, bringing my hand back. "Do you not trust me?"

"It's not that." She shook her head as she turned to me. "It's the fact that I really can't tell you." Her eyes were tired as she looked into my eyes. "I really can't, okay?" She sighed. "Please respect that."

Sighing, I nodded. "I will." I said as I put my arm around her once again, guiding her head to lay on my chest.

~*~

Seungmin POV

Both Haneul and Areum were finally well. They never got around to telling us what happened though. Though they were both well, they were still very distant. It was the Christmas season and yet, the mood seemed quite down. We had decided to have fun for the next while, with some training here and there. The competition was on hold after all, because of the holidays.

We wanted to have fun for a while, but it seemed as though Haneul and Areum were not up for it. They seemed to be busy with their own things. I had always asked them to sit with us at lunch and to hang out with us, but they always had a reason not to. Whether it be having homework, other people needed them, or they just needed time to themselves. They never could find the time for us and I always wondered why.

"Areum, come on," I said, standing in front of her. "Come meet up with us."

She looked to Haneul. "But... we're busy..."

"Please!" Jeongin pouted beside me. "We want to hang out at the practice room, pleaseee."

Haneul and her shared a glance, with a sigh, they both agreed. It was odd, they really seemed happy to meet with us back then, but they seemed to really not want to now. It was like something was holding them back. But what?

~*~

Woojin POV

At the meet up, all of us decided that we wanted to do secret santa. I had already gotten my slip of paper and knew exactly what I was going to get. I slipped the piece of paper into my pocket as we continued our conversation. Everyone was quite talkative. Everyone except Areum. She sat, a little out of place, looking at the ground and spinning her phone in her hand while zoning out. She got a text and flinched when the sound went off. I watched as she looked at the text and sighed. Since no one was really paying attention to her, she stood up and went to the corner of dance room without being noticed. Her body was turned inwards to the corner as she put the phone up to her ear.

I looked at everyone in the circle. Haneul was the only one who was also looking at her other than myself. She sighed as she went back to the conversations. Chan seemed to notice her sigh but not the cause. He looked down at her and brought his hand up to poke her cheek. Haneul furrowed her brow as she looked up from leaning on his chest, as if asking what's that for? And he chuckled, returning to the conversation. Haneul turned her head once more to Areum before joining the conversation. Somehow, no one else noticed Areum in the corner. Sighing, I decided not to think too much about it and just enjoy my time with everyone.

Time passed quickly. Looking at the clock, I realized that it had been about half an hour since Areum had gotten up and went to the corner. My eyes went back to the corner but something was missing. Areum was no longer there. My eyes widened as I looked over the bench near that corner. Her things were gone too.

"Hyung, what are you looking at?" Chan said, noticing my odd behaviour.

Just then, Haneul sat up, hitting Chan's chin in the process a little. She turned back and stroked his chin, apologizing, but then getting up and walking over to the bench to get her phone from her bag.

"Ow..." Chan rubbed his chin before looking back to me. "So what are you looking at?"

The others attention had been caught and they all directed their attention towards me, some of them looking relatively concerned.

I looked back at the corner before looking to Haneul then the group. "Did any of you see Areum leave???" I asked causing heads to turn.

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;-; I'm sorry I forgot to post, I'm a day late, I just got so caught up with school work... and forgot it was Wednesday!

On another note... rip I feel empty inside... is there a skz song for that? (ik there probably are but my brain legit can't function right now).

Edit: 2/14/2020

So like I said in the Chapter "Kisses" I will be adding some shout outs because I can't seem to catch up on them.

The shout out goes to Staysatxrnxe! Thanks for showing support for my book!