When Go Yoon grabbed Cha Hohyeon’s shoulder once more, Cha Hohyeon swatted Go Yoon’s hand away as if having a seizure.
“Don’t, touch me!”
With that recoil, the cake Go Yoon was holding hit the car body and bounced to the floor. In an instant, the cake Go Yoon had bought thinking of Cha Hohyeon spilled on the floor and lost its original shape.
Cha Hohyeon also seemed startled by the thrown box and shrank his body, then continued staggering backward as if someone trying to run into the dorm, and watching Cha Hohyeon only doing incomprehensible actions, Go Yoon was now beyond frustrated to the point of anger.
“Cha Hohyeon!”
Sensing somehow that this was an unusual matter, Go Yoon hurriedly grabbed Cha Hohyeon’s shoulders with both hands. And then, as he was about to put strength into Cha Hohyeon who kept trying to pull his body from his hands, he was startled when Cha Hohyeon suddenly collapsed and held him.
“……Ugh.”
Go Yoon’s eyes widened in confusion since he hadn’t put more force than expected into his hands. Then, as if immediately sensing something, he quickly removed the cardigan Cha Hohyeon was wearing.
“You, this—”
He was silently shocked seeing the large bruise on his forearm. Cha Hohyeon, flustered that his arm was exposed, quickly put the cardigan back on, but Go Yoon, who had already seen the bruise like a handprint as if someone had grabbed Cha Hohyeon’s forearm like he himself had grabbed it, just froze.
But Cha Hohyeon didn’t give any answer to Go Yoon’s words and just brushed himself off and stood up. And Go Yoon grabbed Cha Hohyeon’s chin, which he kept lowering, with one hand and removed his cap upward.
“……You.”
Cha Hohyeon was battered so badly—bruised, swollen, lips split—it was horrifying to even imagine what had happened to this small face.
“What happened?”
Unable to look at Go Yoon properly, he lowered his head.
* * *
<CEO> – [Yoon-ah. Did you hear about Juno getting variety shows this time? No, he’s not moving with you guys this time but appearing on various programs alone… He insisted on including some rookie named Ka Jerim?] >1
[But thinking about it, you know that rookie too, right? Juno has already booked two variety shows appearing together with Ka Jerim.] >1
[Please reply when you confirm.] >1
Episode 12
*Abyss Emergency Network (4)
Seon Hobeom> ㅠㅠ anyone awake (03:00)
Park Eden hyung> yes
> again? (03:00)
Seon Hobeom> hyung ㅠ save me please
> locked door for now. (03:01)
Park Eden hyung> ok coming now (03:02)
Seon Hobeom> eden hyung bring cushions when u come
> afraid it’ll be like last time if i do it (03:02)
Ma Doun> im awake! seol’s awake too. (03:03)
(03:04) I’ll get the blanket. coming right out. <
“Seol-ah, got it?”
“Yeah.”
As soon as Onseol sent a reply to the group chat, he took out a thick blanket from the wardrobe. They stealthily went out the door like people making a night escape, and Park Eden, who had already come out and was waiting in front of the door, lightly waved his hand at them.
Thud-thud-thud-
Seon Hobeom and Ka Jerim’s door was making sounds at regular intervals.
“Today’s a bit early.”
The three stood in front of it, then looked at each other with tense faces.
“Should I send a text now?”
“Eden hyung. I’ll do it.”
When Onseol said so, Park Eden nodded and stepped back, and meanwhile Ma Doun sent a message.
*Abyss Emergency Network (4)
Ma Doun> hobeom. doorrrr (03:06)
Click—
As soon as they contacted him, the door opened as if it had been waiting. Simultaneously, Onseol quickly wrapped Ka Jerim’s body leaning forward with the blanket and lifted him up.
“Huh, -ah.”
Ka Jerim flinched as if startled by the sudden collision, and Onseol held such a Ka Jerim even tighter with more strength. And the members restlessly worried about Ka Jerim exhaling rough breaths as if his breath would stop.
“……Huh.”
Still shedding tears drip by drip while suffering, behind Ka Jerim, Seon Hobeom was just pacing anxiously, unable to cross the threshold of the room for fear of interfering with Onseol. Onseol sent Seon Hobeom a look telling him to stay still, then patted his back in a regular rhythm for Ka Jerim’s stability.
“Good boy, good.”
The struggles of Ka Jerim, who had been struggling to go forward while only shedding tears drip by drip, gradually ceased.
“Jerim-ah, it’s okay. It’s all a dream.”
Like dealing with a child frightened by a nightmare, Onseol whispered to Ka Jerim several times and coaxed and soothed him while holding him for quite a long time. Even though Ka Jerim was thin, since he was an adult, Onseol’s arms should hurt, but he didn’t show it at all and just kept his position until Ka Jerim found stability.
“It’s done. He seems to be asleep now, so let’s move him quickly.”
The Abyss members watched with gloomy faces, then upon hearing Onseol’s words, approached closely and carefully held Ka Jerim’s body. They moved even their fingertips carefully, worried that Ka Jerim, who had barely fallen asleep, might wake up because of them.
“One, two, three.”
“Heave-ho.”
They laid Ka Jerim on the bed relying on a single small mood lamp in the room. Through the flickering weak light, Park Eden slowly brushed back the bangs covering the forehead of Ka Jerim who was gradually regaining stability, and upon discovering the scar on the forehead revealed when the bangs were brushed back, clicked his tongue.
“Jerim’s forehead is hurt again.”
“It’s my mistake. I dozed off……”
“It’s fine. Still, at least you locked the door so it ended at this level.”
For the past few days, the Abyss members couldn’t stretch their legs and fall asleep. Because of Ka Jerim’s sudden strange behavior. At Onseol’s words that it was fortunate the door was at least locked, Seon Hobeom squeezed his eyes shut.
“Just thinking about that day makes me dizzy and crazy.”
As if just recalling it made goosebumps rise on his body, Seon Hobeom shuddered while stroking his forearm, then soon looked at Ka Jerim’s feet that weren’t properly covered by the blanket and let out a long sigh.
Ma Doun, who was standing next to Seon Hobeom, also recalled that day upon hearing Seon Hobeom’s words and reflexively looked at his feet covered with band-aids stuck all over. Then he covered and hid the battered feet tightly with the blanket.
“Doun hyung, why are you covering Jerim’s feet?”
“It’s upsetting.”
Ma Doun covered the blanket to hide the feet because he felt upset seeing Ka Jerim’s injury-covered feet.
The members also knew that feeling, so they each sighed and fell into thought recalling Ka Jerim’s appearance from a few days ago.
A few days ago, Ka Jerim came home with his face in a complete mess. Naturally, the members wanted to ask Ka Jerim what happened, but on that dawn when they couldn’t speak anymore to that haggard face that looked too exhausted, Ka Jerim dyed the kitchen floor red.
Seon Hobeom could never forget that moment. Normally it should have been a day when he had to pat and soothe Ka Jerim who would have been talking in his sleep a few times, but on that particular day, Seon Hobeom, who was especially tired, fell asleep early when normally he would have fallen asleep later than Ka Jerim.
However, the deep sleep didn’t last long.
“Just thinking about that time makes me really feel like I’ll go crazy. It was the first time I saw that much blood.”
Not only Seon Hobeom but all the Abyss members sleeping in their respective rooms were all startled by the sound of glass breaking in the kitchen and couldn’t help but be shocked the moment they all ran to the kitchen.
A glass cup shattered to pieces on the floor, and standing still on it, Ka Jerim was dyeing the floor red.
Onseol, who came to his senses first, hurriedly came wearing shoes and pulled out Ka Jerim standing tall among the broken glass, and Ma Doun hurriedly brought the emergency kit, while Seon Hobeom was still frozen seeing the blood. Park Eden, who was likewise frozen, belatedly came to his senses and cleaned the floor.
Ka Jerim, held in Onseol’s arms, stood still blankly, then collapsed with a flop like a doll whose spring had unwound, and soon exhaled gentle breaths.
“To think that was a sleeping state.”
The cause was sleepwalking. It progressed from sleep talking to sleepwalking, and since then, Ka Jerim kept wandering the room or if the path was blocked, he would keep bumping his head in front of it.
And the situation continued the next night too. At that time, Seon Hobeom was awake, and when he blocked Ka Jerim moving without knowing anything from behind, Ka Jerim had a seizure. Perhaps very startled that someone grabbed him from behind, Ka Jerim screamed while crying and trembled.
After that incident, the members absolutely had to naturally block his path from Ka Jerim’s front so he wouldn’t be startled. Anyway, recently because of this, none of the members could easily fall asleep, and they created a group chat excluding Ka Jerim and were trying to prevent damage as much as possible.
“What if something big happens to Jerim at this rate? I’m so scared.”
“Anyway, we made a hospital appointment next week, so if we just endure until then…… Ha, but what do we tell Jerim? He probably doesn’t even know he has sleepwalking.”
The members looked at Ka Jerim with worried faces, but Ka Jerim just slept deeply without knowing anything.
“There’s a high possibility the sleepwalking was caused by stress, right? Isn’t it because Jerim only works in the studio whenever he opens his eyes these days?”
“Then the cause of stress is work?”
“Jerim’s self-composed song just needs a bit of arrangement, so there shouldn’t be anything to be this stressed about.”
Recently, Ka Jerim went straight to the studio as soon as he opened his eyes. Like someone trying to forget something by working, he shut himself in the studio and worked on songs until his eyes became bloodshot, then as soon as he returned to the dorm, he collapsed straight onto the bed. Because Ka Jerim was practically living in the studio, the members not only had no time to talk with Ka Jerim, but even if they did, the atmosphere he gave off of wanting to be alone made it difficult to easily talk to him.
