Chapter Text
The clock on the classroom wall read 8:30 a.m. SiEun had turned toward the door every time it opened, hoping to see his friend's familiar face.
SuHo was just dozing on his piggy pillow, but every time he woke up, he looked around, specifically at the empty seat next to SiEun.
Both were confused after the minor's outburst against Yeongi for answering his cell phone. SuHo had to go after Yeongi to calm her down, while SiEun stayed behind to calm BeomSeok. However, no matter what he said, Beom was agitated and on the verge of a panic attack.
The situation did not improve when a group of boys entered their karaoke booth, claiming to be old friends of BeomSeok's, but from his frightened look and the trembling of his lips and shoulders, SiEun knew instantly that this was not the truth, so he managed to chase them away and leave them alone.
The incident had happened days ago, and since then BeomSeok had not shown up for classes or meetings. He had not responded to messages in their group chat or to SiEun's private messages. SuHo tried calling him a couple of times, but he did not answer either.
Both were ignored for a week. Their concern had even spread to Yeongi, who felt guilty about what had happened. She thought that perhaps her presence was not welcome to the youngest of them all.
That day, Friday, SuHo and SiEun had agreed that if BeomSeok did not show up for any of their classes, they would go to his house to look for him and satisfy their doubts. They prayed to the heavens that he would show up, at least at the end of the day, pretending that nothing was wrong. The truth was that they didn't want to resort to going to Assemblyman Oh's house.
But at the end of the day, minutes before the last class ended, they had already resigned themselves to the idea of going to BeomSeok's house.
So, SuHo told his coworker that he wouldn't be able to cover her shift that day. His coworker sighed, but accepted because the guy always helped out and stayed late without complaining. SuHo apologized over the phone as he got on his motorcycle and handed SiEun a safety helmet.
He held onto his waist and gave him directions on which routes to take to get there faster. SuHo wanted to comfort SiEun, but they were both equally anxious.
They drove through an upscale neighborhood until they found Beom's father's large house. SiEun had obtained the address from his teacher, who was genuinely concerned about their friend.
They rang the doorbell and waited outside for a few moments. The door was opened by an elderly woman who seemed to be in charge of cleaning the place or something like that. The boys bowed respectfully in greeting, and SiEun spoke: "Good afternoon, Ajumma, excuse me, is this the Oh family's house?"
The woman looked them up and down, examining them and trying to guess their intentions, but when she saw their uniforms, she relaxed and her expression softened. She gave them a polite smile and replied with a nod: "What can I do for you?"
SuHo cleared his throat, not knowing how to ask about his friend without sounding like a stalker or a fortune hunter. The shorter one had to speak again: "We're Beom-ssi's classmates. He's been absent all week and we wanted to know if he was okay."
The woman's expression immediately changed when she heard BeomSeok's name, and SiEun's chest began to feel a sense of foreboding. The woman replied with a pained expression: "Ah, you are friends of young master Beom." They nodded slowly, fearful of what she was going to say. "It's a shame that I'm the one to tell you this, but young Oh no longer lives here."
The others immediately frowned and jumped in with questions and objections, especially the taller one: "What? They moved?"
The woman lowered her gaze and replied, "Mr. Oh decided that young Beom should study abroad from now on."
Surprise, disbelief, and fear were immediate. The feeling SiEun feared weighed heavily on his chest and made it difficult to breathe. SuHo was also shaken by the news, not knowing how to process it. Their faces must have shown it because the woman apologized to them and said goodbye.
The door closed in front of them, with more questions and their insides trembling. Questions that might never be answered.
After learning of BeomSeok's escape, each reacted in their own way. SiEun had to confirm it first with the professors in charge of exchanges and transfers, and his fear only grew when the older man nodded at the news.
Assemblyman Oh had requested his transfer on Monday, and the rest of the week was spent dealing with paperwork and other bureaucratic matters.
SiEun tried to contact him by every means possible: text message, phone call, social media, even email.
But there was no response.
SuHo, for his part, ignored everything. He downplayed it and said it didn't affect him. Although Yeongi was the only witness to his sleepless nights and the sadness in his eyes when he looked at photos of them with BeomSeok on his phone.
As the month passed, the pain and uncertainty remained. SiEun still tried to contact him from time to time, which only made SuHo angry, but he said nothing.
When a year had passed, SiEun no longer sought him out, but the boy remained imprinted in his memories and dreams. Sometimes he would wake up with tears in his eyes in the middle of the night, just imagining his return.
SuHo would hit the punching bag or run through the parks to distract himself. The photos of the three of them on his cell phone had already been deleted, and he still had sleepless nights, but that was because of his jobs, right? At times, when he had a moment of calm, anyone could see his thoughtful and —almost— melancholic expression.
By their second year, neither of them mentioned the name of the person they once called their friend. Nor did they mention what they had been through together or his heartbreaking abandonment.
SiEun no longer dreamed about him. SuHo no longer thought about him.
After finishing high school and entering college, the weight of that emptiness, that memory, that recollection of that tall, thin figure, was lessened.
And when SiEun decided to move in with SuHo on his college campus, the name they had been avoiding for years crept back into their lives.