Chapter Fifteen

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Could it be possible that he liked Seungmin romantically?

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"Hey, Jeongin. Have you seen Seungmin?"

Jeongin looked up from his bowl of cereal, seeing Hyunjin sit down with a single piece of toast. "Uh, no. Why?"

Hyunjin took a small bite of his toast. "I've usually been walking with him in the morning, but he wasn't outside of his room when I went to go get him, so I thought he was already here. But he's not."

Jeongin furrowed his eyebrows. "That's certainly... strange. Maybe he'll come later."

Hyunjin sighed. "Alright. I hope he shows up."

Time went by quite slow as the two waited for Seungmin to show up. Soon, breakfast was over.

And Seungmin hasn't shown up.

Hyunjin shakily stood up. "Should we go... l-look for him?"

Jeongin tapped his fingers against his leg nervously. "I think we should. Where could he be?"

"Should we check his room first?"

Jeongin nodded, beginning to walk in the direction of Seungmin's room. Once they arrived, Jeongin knocked on the door, anticipating the worst.

What if something happened to him?

The door opened, but it wasn't Seungmin.

It was his roommate.

Seungmin's roommate looked at the two. "Hello."

Hyunjin scratched the back of his neck. "Hi, uh... is Seungmin here?"

Seungmin's roommate shook his head and shrugged. "Seungmin? No, he left the room almost immediately after wake up time. I don't know where he is."

Jeongin's eyes widened in surprise. Seungmin went somewhere? But where? "Alright, thank you."

Seungmin's roommate gave the two a smile and shut the door. Jeongin looked at Hyunjin. "Where is he?"

"That's what I was going to ask you!"

The two panickedly starting to go around the ward, looking at every face to see if it was Seungmin, but with absolutely no luck.

In their rush, the two finally stumbled into the cafeteria bathroom, in which they saw a figure sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall.

"Seungmin?"

The figure slowly turned his head, looking directly at the pair.

It was indeed, Seungmin.

Seungmin looked like, for lack of better words, a mess. His eyes were red from crying, and his hair looked extremely far from the perfection that it usually is.

Jeongin immediately kneeled on the floor to comfort his friend. "Hyung, what happened? Are you okay?"

Hyunjin kneeled down next to Jeongin. "Tell us, Seung."

Seungmin looked confused. "A-are you guys even real?"

Jeongin immediately looked at Hyunjin, the two exchanging some seemingly wordless communication. Hyunjin turned back to Seungmin. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure we are. Why do you ask?"

"But are you, or are you just t-telling me that b-because you're part of my imagination and you are just saying that because that's what you were told to do?"

Jeongin's eyes widened.

Seungmin was having a relapse.

"Seung-"

Seungmin gripped his hair with his hands, looking straight at the floor as tears began to fill his eyes. "D-did my imagination make you all, this whole place and everyone here? Am I even where I'm supposed to be? You guys way are too good to be true... A-are you real? A-am I just talking to myself right now? Do I look crazy!?"

Jeongin hugged Seungmin, Hyunjin wrapping his arms around the two right after. "We're very much real, hyung. You have to believe us."

"B-but I don't know! I can't stop thinking about it."

Hyunjin continued to hug the two smaller boys. "We aren't part of your imagination. We're physically here, you need to believe it."

Seungmin sniffled. "Are you? I-I... I guess you could b-be, but... I don't know."

Jeongin rubbed circles on Seungmin's back. "Can you tell me... why you think this way?"

"I-I... well, I was just... thinking about how th-thankful I was for y-you both and... how I like- how I appreciate you both and... I somehow thought that it was too good to be true..., nothing like this c-could h-happen to me really because I'm not a v-very... likeable person. It seemed so fake. And... and... and I began to b-believe it as I thought about it more and more and I can't stop thinking about it this way. I w-want to believe th-that it's true and I think I know d-deep down that it is, but I can't s-stop doubting myself. Why am I like this?"

Seungmin was having a delusion.

Jeongin pulled out of Seungmin and Hyunjin's hug, looking straight into Seungmin's eyes. "I think I know kind of how it feels... feels to want to stop can't, but you have to trust yourself. You say you know that deep down you know it's true that we are real, but you can't stop doubting yourself. You have to stand firm on what you know and learn to trust yourself. It takes time, you can get through this."

Seungmin rubbed his eyes. "It's b-been ages since I had a delusion. I don't know why th-this happened."

Hyunjin gave Seungmin a smile. "It's just another part in getting better. There may be roadblocks and such, but it still means you're on your way to getting there. Getting better isn't always easy, but to get to the end you have to be strong."

Seungmin nodded, looking between the two.

"Thank you guys, I really appreciate it."

A/N bread

unedited

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