Mia and Dohyun walk side by side, Mia rants on and on about her date the next day making Dohyun grow even more annoyed. He slowly stops listening till Mia grabs his ear and drags him into a store.
Mia ran around emptying out her pockets as well as the contents of the store. Dohyun went through the shelves of books, taking a couple glances around. It was the kind of store that sold tarot cards, zodiac sign accessories and clothing, gems and stones, etc etc.
Dohyun scanned every book, one caught his eye. It was a hard covered black book with a gold spine, a bookmark and pen. There was no title, the only design on it was a carving of an eyeball. It was obviously a notebook, it was quite small for a notebook though, less than 5 centimeters wide and 3 inches tall. He took the book and tries to open it but it doesn't budge, Dohyun wasn't strong but he wasn't weak either. He tries his best to pry it open many times but fails, eventually he gives up and puts the book back leaving the shop.
Dohyun reads a novel on his phone, "How to Eat Life" (Real novel created by Japanese singer Eve) he waited patiently for Mia to max out his card. Mia leaves the shop dragging Dohyun with her by his shirt collar.
They enter Mia's neighborhood and sit in front of her house.
"Oi, Dohyun, can we chill at your house?"
"Absolutely not."
"Ehhhhh, why? We both have nothing to do."
"Reasons"
Dohyun gets up and leaves Mia alone in her
front yard, he leaves the neighborhood hearing Mia's loud voice yell at him.
Dohyun entered his home only to be welcomed by the strong smell of alcohol and smoke. He covers his mouth and nose with his hand as he puts away his stuff, he looked at the man who was passed out on the coach surrounded by bottles and cans of alcohol, Dohyun's annoyance grew and he prepared himself with the task of cleaning the trashed living room as well as clearing the horrible stench out of the air.
Dohyun finished his task, as he went to get himself something to drink he felt something cling to his side. He looked down to his side to see a little boy hugging him.
"How was Dohyun hyung's day?"
The child smiled so brightly, Dohyun felt his negative feelings and annoyance leave him as he hugged the child back. This little boy was his younger cousin, Lee Euhyeon. His father whose Dohyun's uncle was the one lying on the couch, Lee Yoojin. Euhyeon's parents fought often, usually over money. Euhyeon's mother left him and his father, it made their financial problems worse and Yoojin lost hope. He got addicted to drugs, alcohol, and smoking. He always came up with an excuse whenever Euhyeon caught him getting high, he didn't want Euhyeon to think he was a bad person or someone he should look down on. He was colder and more harsh with Dohyun, he would get violent every now and then but he would apologize a couple hours later. He definitely wasn't the best parent but he also wasn't the worst.
"Dohyun hyung?"
Euhyeon tugged at Dohyun's sleeves as Dohyun stood in silence spacing off. He ruffles up Euhyeon's hair as he snaps back into reality.
"You must be hungry after working so hard on school work huh? I'll cook you something, what do you want to eat?"
"Noodle!!"
"Wanna help me out this time?"
Euhyeon nodded happily, they laughed and smiled as they prepared their food, Euhyeon was the only one that Dohyun was happy to be with, he wanted to keep him safe and happy, to guarantee him a good life. Dohyun was saving up money so he could leave with Euhyeon to America, Euhyeon has always wanted to go to America. Euhyeon had a good future waiting for him, hopefully at least.
They finished making their food, they had moved to Dohyun's room to eat since Yoojin was occupying the living room. As soon as they finished eating Euhyeon left to go back to his room, he didn't leave without hugging Dohyun though.
Dohyun let out a sigh as he sat down on his bed, he felt something hard under the sheets though. He uncovered his blankets and sheets revealing a book. What's strange is that it looked like the exact same book that was in the store he went in with Mia earlier that day. Same eyeball, golden colored spine, small size, bookmark and pen, it was all there. So what was it doing in his room? And how did it get there?
[Did Mia break in and put it here? She would've left a note though.]
Dohyun searched around for a note that could've gone with the book but found that his search was useless. He sat on his bed staring at the book. He gently spread his fingers across the cover and around the eye when suddenly, the eye blinked.
It blinked multiple times before the once 2-D eye that was carved into the cover turned into a real eye. That eye looked directly at Dohyun's eyes maintaining eye contact for what seemed like hours. The middle of the eye opened revealing a full set of long sharp teeth, it licked its eyeball as if it were actually lips as it seemed to pierce a knife right through Dohyun's eyes. Having no idea how to react the next thing that happened made him shocked.
"Y'know it's quite rude to stare, Dohyun."
Drift Asleep| Chapter 1: A strange dream part 1