Arcus // ATEEZ ✔

23: picking up the fragments

Jongho puts down the hot chicken soup and rice that he's going to eat himself while listening to what Serim has to say, but grumbles when his twin immediately pulls it towards him, stealing his comfort food. Giving a glare to San he returns back to the kitchen to get another bowl of soup and rice, and he sits down. He finally has the food to himself as Serim is placing the book in the middle of the table.

Both the twins have no idea why Serim had wanted to meet them, but it looks serious as even the busy trainee doctors are here with them. The only people missing from their group are the nurses, who say that their shift doesn't finish until 5. Serim's boyfriend, Seonghwa is together with them, looking equally curious as to what she is about to say to them.

"If you may forgive us, we haven't had anything to eat since breakfast," Jongho utters as he plops the rice into the bowl of chicken soup and mixes them together. "Cafeteria's up and running busy."

"No worries, both of you are welcomed to eat," Serim says absent-mindedly as she flips open the pages. "Anyway, whatever I'm going to say is going to sound really crazy, so I hope that all of you can sort of have an open mind while listening to what I have to say."

"We're... listening," Mingi says but there's a slight wariness at the end of his sentence. "What is this about?"

"Okay, I'm going to make this as simple as possible. All of you know that Jinju had been writing a story, and you know the rough idea of the story, right?" As they nod to give their agreement, she continues almost immediately, "Long story short, when she fell into coma, occasionally I would read her story because I missed talking to her. The story that she had managed to write was until chapter 17, and even then it was made up of points, not full sentences. Rough ideas of her story. But, when I was leafing through the pages of her book just now, there was suddenly chapter 18."

She pushes the book towards them, urging all five with her to read the content through. They peer over the page to read until the end of chapter 18.

"I think I get what you're trying to say," Yunho utters. "But it's crazy."

"Exactly."

"Oh crap, if it's true, that's amazing," San and Jongho say simultaneously.

"Am I the only one who currently has no idea what the hecking is going on here?" Seonghwa relays.

"Me too," Mingi lifts up his hand shoulder-level.

"Seonghwa, Mingi." Serim's face is serious as she balls her hands into fists. "What we're trying to say is during her coma... Jinju was probably experiencing all of this, but when chapter 18 came-"

"-was the day she passed away," Mingi comes into realization. "That was what it meant when she mentioned about being a phantom stuck in two dimensions."

"Are we... becoming crazy because we miss her a lot?" Jongho laments.

"Maybe we are," San agrees. "But if every one of us somewhat agree to this... it... doesn't hurt... to try... I mean, we're only writing some words on the pages to let the story continue."

"We just think of this as writing a letter to her," Yunho suggests. "That way it doesn't feel like we're turning crazy."

"This book is magical," Seonghwa says subconsciously, still trying to wrap his head around the concept. "It even writes itself. I might need a strong alcohol on this one."

Serim chuckles before squeezing his arm. "You bought this book for her, silly. You gave it to her when you found out that she liked to write. Where did you even buy this book?"