『Close』▷ hajeongwoo。

⑧ e i g h t

Yoshinori paced around the hall.

Life was full of unexpected surprises that could either be good or bad, and no one would ever really know what the cute would be. He had never truly understood what it meant until now— now that something had happened and none of them had ever thought of it before.

He wound up a hand through his messy locks, impatiently yet also nervously tapping his feet against the floor as he walked back and forth the hall in irregular intervals. It hadn't been hours yet, but he felt like he had been waiting for forever. He was also quite sure that the other five felt the same judging from the way they tried not to burst through the door and see what was going on inside that locked room.

Yedam was crying, sobs retching out of his mouth as he sat on the bench and God, he felt so many emotions at once that he wanted to yell at Yedam and tell him to fucking shut up— as Doyoung by his side ran a hand up and down his back, drawing imperfect circles on it with his shaking thumb. Hyunsuk sat by the door of the room, face buried onto his knees but the constant shaking of his intertwined hands couldn't hide his own anxiety.

Across where Yedam and Doyoung sat, Asahi stared blank into nothingness. Call him uncaring or unbothered, but the rapid beating of his heart and the tortuous chains of thoughts on his mind was more than enough to prove his indifferent mask wrong. And Yoshinori knew that, so why in the world did he still want to glower at him and scream at him for not caring enough? Why did he still want to pull Asahi's collar, to tell Yedam to shut the hell up or to kick Hyunsuk just to make him say something? Why?

(As for the rest, they were left in the dorm. Mashiho was crying, Jeongwoo and Junghwan were both shocked while Junkyu, Jihoon and Jaehyuk volunteered to stay and look after the three.)

"Yoshinori-san," Asahi's voice, as soft as usual yet not quite the same tone, entered his ears. "Please, please calm down. You're—" he had spoken in Japanese, like he didn't want anyone else to understand what he was saying, or maybe he had just been too desperate to think of anything that he had unconsciously switched to his mother tongue. "You're making me feel nervous too. Please just— can't you stop making me feel worse, I beg of you."

The other halted his steps at the last sentence. His feet implanted themselves into the cold tiled floor, and the urge to grab Asahi by the collar all of a sudden subsided as soon as his brain registered how overwrought the younger had sounded. His tone was begging, despairing, telling Yoshi to stop acting so distressed because he didn't want to feel any worse than he was already fraught.

"I— I," the older Japanese switched in between languages because he didn't know if the others should hear it or not, nor if he should speak or stop. And upon witnessing the doctor finally come out of the door after what felt like an eternal run of time, he decided he didn't have to say things no more.

Hyunsuk bolted up from his obviously panic-stricken posture, scurrying to the doctor with so much anxiousness that he had beat everyone else into asking.

"How is he?"

"He's fine now," the doctor inserted a pen to his chest pocket. "I'll tell the rest of the details to his permitted guardian. For now he needs to rest and be kept away from stress or any emotional buildups that could make him feel agitated or such."

Then Yoshi was dashing into Haruto's hospital room, but it wasn't like the others weren't.

-----

Haruto's head pounded and his throat felt dry. He peered through his blurry eyes and moved his hand, trying to gesture to the person in front of him that he needed water. Someone assisted him up and a glass of water was placed against his lips soon after.

He had to blink a few times for the faintness of his vision to clear.

"What... happened?" he croaked out, his parched throat not quite satisfied with the water he drank.

"I should be the one asking you that!" Yoshi countered. "What happened to you? How come Junkyu found you lying on the bathroom floor?"

Alarmed, the younger's eyes went wide and his head whipped towards Yoshi's direction. "Junkyu-hyung?" he cited, seeming unsure of the name.

"Yeah. He said you looked like you were having an asthma attack or something," Hyunsuk supplied. "Seriously Haru, what happened to you?"

Memories of the prior events started piling into his mind at the question. He averted his gaze and stared at his hands like they were the most eye-catching thing in the room, much to Asahi's suspicion.

But the silent teen simply remained quiet, observing the fifteen-year old Japanese rapper.

"Say something," Doyoung cut in. "You know you can tell us anything, right?"

"T-that's right," Yedam added with his shaking voice. "Tell us anything."

Haruto pursed his lips then shook his head, turning to look at Hyunsuk.

"Can I have some water?"

Hyunsuk huffed, then handed the glass of water to him.

No one questioned him anymore after that.