In which a sip of gatorade takes "Star Boy" Kang Taehyun's life for a wild ride, transforming his perfect, meticulous plans for the future into a guessing game of magic, tissues, friendship, and a strange transfer student who can't seem to stay away...
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「 IT WAS MY FIRST ⠀ I WAS SCARED, I LIED! 」 ━ roller coaster.
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THE CLOCK TICKING WAS THE FIRST THING Taehyun's ears recognized. The second was his small cat, Hobak, whose purrs were drowned out by some late night rain. The boy sighed as he sat up, moving his heavy arms to the middle of his lap. Hobak shivered at the loss of her human blanket and followed his hands to the warmest part of the bed, him. She curled into his stomach and gnawed at his t-shirt. Taehyun, who was accustomed to her lifestyle, stroked her fur gently with what little energy he had. His pets tended to do this; act as if they owned him, not the other way around. Hyun could vaguely recall the night in which his pet snake, Cherry, managed to find its way into his pencil pouch, not letting him grab a single utensil to finish his homework. (Taehyun ended up having to bike to Beomgyu's house and ask him for a spare. Beomgyu, over a stupid 2B pencil, made him buy drinks for practice for a month.)
Taehyun grabbed Hobak by her back, gently lifting her into the air Lion King style so that her beady, yellow eyes poured into his large, chocolate brown. "What do you think you're doing so late," he mumbled, voice scratchy and low. In her own language, Hobak protested (not even answering his question), gently clawing at the boy's palm and mewling for him to put her down. Taehyun obliged, setting her onto his bedroom floor to scurry away. The soccer player sighed again, looking at the clock reading in neon blue lines, 3:17. Deciding to get out of bed, he slid off his covers and stretched his arms into the air.
It was Sunday, or Monday as of now, and the boy had not gotten a wink of sleep. After everything that had happened just two days ago, how could he?
The Friday fire lab incident with Kai still hadn't digested properly in his stomach. No matter how many times he played the scene over in his head during the weekend, everything that happened一from Yeonjun and Kai's relationship to the older's disappearance and the fire一didn't make sense; none of it did.
He had turned down several party invitations because of the incident (which wasn't too abnormal) for the purpose of thinking things over. But he had also bailed out of his movie date with Beomgyu, claiming that he forgot about a large project due by the end of the week. After a few suspicious texts and replies of reassurance, Beomgyu let his best friend off the hook, but not before he reminded the former that he was always there if he needed to talk.
