// warning, mention of death//
"so it's true then?" they were feeding into whatever reaction jisung was now giving.
the way his breathing spurred and how he didn't try to fight back. how he wasn't even looking up at the boys in front of him anymore. at how his blinking pattern even changed and the way he was trying to focus his eyes on anything.
"your mom died?" the boy pushed forward.
"shut up.." jisung mumbled, feeling like it was suddenly harder to breathe.
his mom.
"ah your little act is dying down now huh?~" the taller boy grimaced, watching jisung yet not being able to tell the level of which his mind was falling in on itself.
his mom.
"how'd she die then?" jisung couldn't tell who was talking. all he felt was a hand go to his chin and turn his head upwards. "did she kill herself?"
jisung felt his cheeks burning red and the tears that collected themselves in his eyes. they were threatening to spill over, yet his eyes didn't ever look up. "n-no.. she-"
"oh so she didn't? that's surprising. if i had a son like you i think i would. wouldn't you?" the boys mocked and spoke to each other- and suddenly jisung felt himself being pushed back.
he couldn't see who did it.
"look he's crying." the girl's voice pierced.
his mom.
it felt like this whole time he had pretended she never died- but the slight mention of her had him being torn apart. his mind went to every place imaginable.
how did they know about it?
how are people finding out about something like this?
what were people saying?
jisung would try to block it out of his mind the best he could, but even his dreams came to absolutely haunt him. his dreams would traumatize him just like that night did.
the dreams of her dying always came back.
"where's your dad? did he die too? or did he not care enough about you to be there?" these were all assumptions. "did he leave you?"
but they were right.
rather than being affected by the teasing- jisung was now being tormented by the images playing over in his head again. every single thing. everything that he had thought about the night she died.
everything.
~~~
"isn't it getting late? i thought ji said he was getting out earlier than usual." minho walked into seungmin's room- he looked at the time, then at seungmin as if he was waiting for him to confirm.
minho had went home after jisung left for work, but then came back to the apartment near the time he assumed jisung would be back from working.
hyunjin was now at the apartment, sitting in seungmin's room as the younger did school work and studied as he often did.
"yeah.. now that you mention it, it's pretty late. usually when jisung says he's getting off early he'd be back by this time." seungmin confirmed minho's concern. "i was too caught up reading to notice the time.."
"i'll call him." minho walked into the room.
hyunjin sat up on the bed so that minho had room to sit down. "maybe he got caught up with cleaning up. he's still working at that restaurant right?" hyunjin questioned, trying to calm the two down in the process.
"he is." minho nodded and put the phone on speaker as it rang. the longer the ringing went on, the more he felt uneasy. he gave seungmin a look the second it ended up on voicemail.
"let me try," seungmin got up; nearly falling, as he stumbled to grab his phone from charging. the second he had the phone he clicked on jisung's contact and waited for it to start ringing.
he put it on speaker and everyone waited intensely.
in the end it went to voicemail, which was enough to make the unsettlement rise.
"let's go." suddenly minho was standing up, heading towards the door while seungmin followed immediately behind with no questions asked.
"wait what about me?!" hyunjin called out at the two who sprinted out the door. he got off the bed but heard the front door slam shut before he had the chance to leave the room.
"... well fuck me then i guess. looks like i'm waiting." he fell back onto the bed with a groan, taking out his phone to play among us while he waited.
meanwhile jisung had felt the buzzing in his pocket the times they called him.
but he barely even focused on it. he felt like he couldn't.
the way his body was trembling masked the vibrations of his phone.
it progressed.
he had been pushed onto the floor, as there were more remarks made about his loss. over and over again.
it was never ending.
to the point where jisung held his hands over his ears to try and block them out.
"who's tough now? hm?" the tall boy grabbed his arm to pull his hand away from his ear. "you can't come to terms with death?"
jisung couldn't even mutter out words. it felt like a weight was crashing down onto him slowly and crushing him.
he was hyperventilating. he had trouble breathing, and there was a dull pain in his chest.
"she probably hated you."
"do you even remember what she looks like correctly? aren't you scared you're going to forget?"
jisung felt a choking sensation scratch at his neck.
he was brought up by the other boy this time, only to be thrown back down. his body crawled over to the corner as he put his hands back over his ears.
this was worse than torture.
this had been going on for what felt like forever. it felt like hours.
"come on, it's no fun if you just stay in the corner." one of the boys lifted jisung back up from the hand that was currently recovering.
even though the wound surely was irritated again, jisung held no outward reaction to it. he didn't wince, or flinch it back.
"what do you have to say in response to us?"
god, it felt like drowning all over again.
there was a sinking feeling of panic, jisung's legs were shaking uncontrollably beneath him as if they were cold. they felt numb.
he wanted to fall back but he couldn't; the harsh and damaging grip on his hand wouldn't let him.
"come on. he said you're being boring, entertain us more. talk." the girl pushed forward with her voice from her spot.
after not being able to even open his mouth, jisung was thrown back. hard. his arm hit the wall first before he sank back down.
he had no reaction to physical pain. in fact, he gave barely any reaction to being pushed around at all. yet it seemed like he was breaking inside.
"you know, usually i would feel bad for someone losing their mother. but something tells me that in this case it was for the better." the girl was picking at her nails. "some people just deserve-"
there was the loud, shrieking sound of the door slamming open- it almost sounded like a gun shot.
the girl and the two boys paused and looked to the side, where the loud noise originated. they looked over and saw two other boys they hadn't recognized standing there- while jisung continued to sob in his hands.
the two were panting, looking as if they rushed as fast as humanly possible to the location.
and it took minho's eyes to fall down for his anger to boil and explode inside of him. he had seen jisung.
the second minho saw jisung, his eyes immediately went back to meet the three who were in front of him. and they must've sensed the anger radiating off minho, because they felt uneasy at his presence.
meanwhile seungmin couldn't pry his eyes away from jisung from the spot he stood in. he was in shock from how broken and loud jisung's crying sounded.
he had never heard jisung cry like this.
he was screaming. his sobs pelting through his broken gasps for air as his hands held their spot over his ears.
what had happened..?
minho walked forward to the three, eyes so sharp they could've resulted in the same damage as a razor.
no one knew what he was going to do- so when minho grabbed someone by the collar the girl gasped and dropped her phone, cracking the screen.
"which one of you fuckers did this?" his voice was scarily low. his grip was mercilessly tight. he lifted the guy higher by his collar, as the taller one stumbled back at the sight.
"which one of you do i have to break?"