can i walk with you - heejay

chapter twenty-three

heeseung sat at the lunch table, a bad feeling churning at the pit of his stomach at the thought of jay waking alone to the cabin. there was a little voice in the back of the older's head, telling him that he was being unreasonable. jay would be fine. but this was different, it felt different. 

heeseung didn't pay any attention to the conversation his friends were currently having, and instead scanned the crowd, searching for the table donghyun had occupied the other day. the lee boy bounced his leg as he turned back to his table, donghyun was nowhere to be seen.

heeseung's chest tightened with worry as he sat in thought. he tried convincing himself that he was overreacting, but nonetheless the boy reached for his phone, scrolling past the previous messages he had sent to jay.

love ♡

they ran out of corn
do you want something else?

no
it's fine

are you sure?

yeah

ok
i got you curry instead

today 7:54 p.m.

stay safe
watch where you're going it's really dark
are you on your way back yet?
did you trip?
your clumsy like that
where are you?
everything okay?
you've been gone for almost 16 minutes now
hello?
love?

the third year had been typing out another worry-filled message when jake spoke up.

"heeseung?" jake raised his voice, causing sunghoon and sunoo to pause mid-argument and turn to heeseung in concern. jake had called the older boy's name at least four times by now.

"huh," heeseung finally, although distractedly, responded, typing out the rest of his message before looking up, only to see the three other occupants of the table already staring at him.

"you good bro?" jake spoke slowly, his brows raised as his eyes darted to sunghoon and sunoo who looked equally confused.

"yeah, i'm fine," heeseung shortly replied as he quickly stood from his spot at the table. "i just gotta go. see you guys later." the tall boy didn't bother to elaborate before he raced towards the door.

heeseung jogged along the dirt path, constantly checking his phone to see if jay had responded to his texts. a thin layer of sweat covered the boy's forehead, his heart racing as the gravel made a faint crunch under the weight of his feet.

heeseung was halfway to the cabin when he stumbled over what he assumed to be a rather large rock, his breath catching in his throat as he almost fell face first. the third year glanced back in annoyance, wanting to see what he had almost broken his ankle over.

heeseung had to do a double take, his breath catching as his eye catching the familiar shine of what was definitely not a rock. the third year turned around, walking a little closer before crouching down to get a better look at the object. keys, he realized. heeseung's brows furrowed as he reached out to grab them, lightly shaking the rubble off. had someone dropped their key?

the boy held it out flat on his palm, turning his hand to see the number displayed on the small wooden plaque.

it was like time stopped for the lee boy as he continued to run his eyes over the number on display as if it would change if he willed it. but it was to no avail because when heeseung turned the plaque over, saying a silent prayer before switching it back over a giant two was still displayed on the wood.