(Possible trigger warning ahead in the chapter. I will let you know when it is in case you wish to skip that part)
We pull up to the toy store, which had all of its lights off already.
Quietly, we hop out of the van to get our bags and gear on. While we prepare, Chan tells us what we need to take this time around.
"We should go for the more expensive things for JB, then some smaller things for the people and kids. Make sure to take very careful movements and to not push any buttons on anything." He reminds us.
Me and Seungmin nod as we start stuffing towards the back door.
We go through the storage room into the sides of the store. Chan motions us to head in our different directions.
Seungmin goes to the store front, Chan stays towards the back, and I head to the second floor.
On the way up, I see an overview of all the shelves on the lower floor. There are a lot of blinking lights on the new toys, along with some ocean lit bubble tanks on the top of the shelves.
On the second floor, there are more soft toys. In the far corner, a giant shelf as tall as the ceiling stands full of stuffed animals of all species. The center of the floor was lined with more shelves with toys for younger kids and infants.
I know from experience: one wrong move in that aisle, and we are caught right then and there. Why do baby toys have so many buttons anyway?
Close calls aside, I stagger closer to the plushie shelf. There is seriously every kind of animal here, so I start grabbing different ones at random.
I'm almost done filling out my first bag when I come across one that looks familiar.
I stop and reach out for the light brown squirrel plushie sitting in the middle of the shelf.
(Possible trigger warning. Scroll for the bolded letters for the all clear sign)
As I look down at the small squirrel, I'm reminded of the past.
"Dr. Lee, report to room 324 immediately."
No, not right now.
"Honey! Someone help!"
I can't let it-
"Mrs. Han, please stand up!"
I-
Fluorescent hospital lights, white walls, white tiled floors. Doctors and nurses rushing past my small form into my father's room. A taller nurse trying to communicate with my mother.
I stand there unsure about what's going on. Everything was calm, then a loud beeping sound comes from one of the tall computer things attached to my father's bed.
I can still hear the ringing in my ears. I cover Peter's little ears in case he can hear it too.
While I was focusing on my plushie, my mother stood up and grabbed my arm to drag me away from the room.
Wait, dad's still in there! The doctors and nurses looked worried, is he in danger?!
I pull from my mom's grip but she's too far into her emotional state to hear and feel me crying and pulling for us to go back.
We walk down to the front lobby of the hospital like that. I didn't stop protesting until the bitter cold air from the winter months hit me.
As I'm strapped to my car seat, I still try to push away and run inside, but fall asleep from the emotional stress before I can step foot out of the car.
NO! I can't think of this right now. I have a job to do.
I hear a faint sound from a song.
N-no, I can-
"Wake up, Jisung. We'll be at Grandma's in a little bit."
No-
I rub open my eyes and pull my blanket up to see my mom at the steering wheel. The music from the radio is low but loud enough to hear the lyrics being said.
We smoothly drive past trees and pedestrians on the sidewalk. I always liked to look out the window to see what goes on when no one might be looking.
We slow down to a stop light and let the waiting people cross the street.
Sitting on the right back side of the car, I see the people walk right past my window. Adults, kids, and even a few dogs pass before I feel my mom press the gas for us to move forward.
I keep my eyes out the window when I hear my mom scream.
Quickly turning to her, I see something shiny and black right against the left side of the car before I curl into a tight ball to protect myself.
The next few moments are blurry.
I only see black and the sun shining through my eyelids.
I hear glass breaking and metal scraping against more metal. Along with passerbys yells.
I feel pain all over the place. My arm feels like it's being ripped apart, and there's little sharp pains all over my body.
After what seems like an hour, I stop moving.
I open my eyes to see blue light all over the place. Wait, that's my blanket.
Moving the blanket, I hear pieces of glass slide off and onto the ground.
When the blanket is off of me, I notice that the car is standing upright, but it's tilted to the right, making me lean on my door.
I look around to see glass all over the place, the seats are cut up and have white bags coming from them, and the front windshield is all cracked.
I call out for my mom, to which she doesn't answer, she stays still leaning to the right with the car. Her usually neat and slicked down hair is now messy and all over the place.
I unbuckle my car seat belt with lots of struggle and carefully step towards her, making sure to not fall on the glass.
I shake her arm, she doesn't move.
I call her name, she doesn't reply.
From behind me, I hear sirens. I don't like sirens.
There's red and blue lights with the sirens, they're too bright.
The window on the passenger seat is completely open besides a few shards hanging onto the frame.
I grab my blue blanket and crawl through the window and see the sky and buildings again. People are either watching with wide eyes or running away and yelling.
I don't like this. I have to hide from the sirens, they're getting louder.
I run towards the tall buildings, they seem to stretch to the sky.
On the side, the walls in between the buildings are dark and full of boxes, maybe I'll be safe here.
The blue and red lights stop at the car, and the sirens are right there with them.
If I stay here, I'll be safe. I'm always safe with my blanket.
(Here is the safe point for those who skipped through. Don't worry, I'll recap what happened later so you don't miss anything!)
I shake my head to get rid of those memories. Normally I can control when they take over.
After realizing where I am, I feel something wet on my face. Was I crying?
I wipe off the water and look around. I'm still in the toy store.
"Hey!"
I stubble back from the whisper yell I hear on my right.
Catching my breath, I look expecting to see Chan standing with me, but it isn't Chan.
In front of me stands a taller guy covered from shoulders to toes with black clothes and black hair sitting on his head.
He stares at me with a look I can't place. He looks intimidating, like I shouldn't mess with him.
He starts to inch closer to me and reaches a hand towards my face when an ear screeching siren sounds with red lights to follow.
A/N
I don't know how good those flashbacks were. Please let me know in the comments, I've never written something like that before.
This chapter was also longer than I intended, but I just wanted to include all the sensitive stuff in one thing so you don't have to worry about another trigger warning for a little bit.
If you did skip over the flashbacks, here is a recap of what happened:
First we saw a flashback of the day at the hospital when Jisung's father passed away for unknown reasons.
Then we saw a flash back of Jisung driving with his mom to his grandma's house, when they got into a car crash and Jisung's mom passed on impact. Jisung's little blue blanket is what saved him during the impact, and allowed him to run to the alleys away from the sirens and lights of the emergency services.
Next chapter we shall see who this mystery man is.
Unless you already know, if you do then that sentence was pointless.
Anyway, if you didn't see Hyunjin's vlive the other day, here's what you missed:
Love you guys!❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤