It took a while for Jin-woo to calm down after his nightmare. After wearing his glasses, he searched for his phone to see what time it was and saw that it was 5:03 am.
No wonder it was still somewhat dark outside his window, it was way too early. He shouldn't have woken up until 6:30 to get ready by 7 and reach school before the first bell at 8.
Jin-woo internally checked his Melatonin levels and realized that they were fast disappearing despite him still feeling extremely lethargic. He decided to get up since he wasn't going back to sleep, and truthfully, he feared going back to sleep.
Swinging his foot over the side of his bed, Jin-woo turned off his alarm before getting up. He left his room and shuffled down the hall to his bathroom.
Filling his bathtub with cold water, Jin-woo got in after removing his clothes. He hadn't taken a cold bath like this in forever, the feeling was familiar. However, he usually did this after going for a run. On the days that Seong stayed over, or he stayed over at Seong's house, they would go for a run before taking a cold bath together. Though he was the one who usually had to drag Seong through every step of the way, and it was a nightmare to get him inside the tub.
Jin-woo couldn't help but smile while recalling those memories. However, flashes of the recent nightmare interrupted his recollection, and his smile was replaced by self-loathing.
Jin-woo rested his head against the edge of the tub and allowed the cold water to do its work. The bruises he got from his fight with Seo-joon, and his lackeys started to hurt less, and his weariness began fading away.
After fifteen minutes, Jin-woo got out of the bath and exited the bathroom; he then made his way back to his room.
When he came out, he was wearing white track pants with black stripes on the sides. He was topless and had a towel over his head to dry his hair.
The sounds of Jin-woo's footsteps were nonexistent as he made his way down the hall and the stairs to the first floor. Upon reaching the living room he walked over to the couch. When he saw no new beer discarded on the table, he concluded that his father hadn't returned home.
Heading to the kitchen and grabbing a white garbage bag, Jin-woo picked up the beer cans and cleaned up the area; the sound of the vacuum against the furnished floor echoed in the silent house. Hefting the garbage bag, Jin-woo then left to throw it out. The door closing behind him left an eerie silence lingering throughout the house, which was soon broken by the door opening as Jin-woo reentered.
Jin-woo had a frown on his face as he entered the house and closed the door behind him. This was because as he was throwing away the garbage, he saw that the garage door was left wide open with his mother's car missing. He didn't take notice of this coming home yesterday, so he wasn't sure if it was left open overnight or if his mother had returned when he was asleep and left it open after leaving.
Jin-woo checked his phone and seeing that it was 5:53 am, an inexplicable feeling of unease rose in his heart for some reason. However, he buried it and decided to spend his hour of free time reading his comic before he had to get ready for school.
But not before grabbing a container filled with grapes from the fridge.
Plopping down on the couch, Jin-woo read his comic while occasionally picking up a grape from the container and eating it.
Time flies when you're having fun. By the time Jin-woo snapped out of it, he checked his phone to see that it was 6:47 am.
Jin-woo cursed under his breath and he rushed to return the container that had nearly half of the grapes eaten in the fridge before heading up to his room. He was in such a rush that the towel he had forgotten was on his head, almost fell if it wasn't for his quick reaction catching it.
In his room, Jin-woo got dressed in under eight minutes but spent a good four minutes on his tie. Afterward, he checked his timetable to see what subjects he had for the first day of school, and what he saw made him frown a bit.
"We have P.E. right before lunch?"
Jin-woo thought for a moment and after formulating a plan for Seo-joon and his lackeys in his mind, his frown disappeared. Placing his subject books in his bag and his P.E. gear in a separate drawstring bag, Jin-woo then headed for his dresser to wear his contacts. However…
"Damn it."
Jin-woo cursed as he looked at the empty contacts container. He looked at the glasses perched on his nose in his dresser mirror and sighed. But suddenly he sighed once more.
While remembering his missing contacts, Jin-woo also remembered his missing watch.
Jin-woo glanced at the small box on his dresser that was wrapped like a gift. After staring at it for a moment, he reached forward and gently picked it up.
Pulling loose the string tied around the small box, Jin-woo slowly opened the cover and looked inside. A watch with a small white card on top of it stared back at him.
Jin-woo felt his eyes sting while a stuffing feeling began filling his nose.
Putting down the box's cover, Jin-woo picked up the small white card and turned it over to see that words were written on it.
'To my best friend Jin, so if I'm not there to remind you to take your medication, here's a watch for you.
-Love, your best friend Seong.'
Drip… Drip…
Tears fell from Jin-woo's cheeks and landed on his thumb. He hurriedly shifted the paper right after, so they didn't ruin it.
After taking off his glasses to wipe his tears, Jin-woo looked at the watch inside the box. It was a black Casio G-Shock watch.
Jin-woo carefully took the watch out and placed the note inside before putting away the box. He then gazed at the watch for a moment before securing it around his wrist. He was then about to set an alarm for 12:15 pm but Jin-woo realized there was already an alarm set. When he checked and saw the alarm was set to 12:00 pm, he almost let out a loud laugh.
Jin-woo could hear Seong's voice filled with annoyance, urging him to set his alarm at 12:00 pm instead of 12:15 pm.
The reason why he set his alarm at 12:15 was because he didn't want it to go off while he was in class or when he was around a lot of people. However, Seong would always scold him by saying his health was more important than someone else's opinion of him, though Jin-woo never listened to him.
Jin-woo smiled and chose not to change the alarm. After fixing himself in the mirror, he picked up his packed backpack and was about to leave his room. However, upon realizing that his vision was blurry, Jin-woo turned back to grab his glasses.
He was already used to his contacts so having to pick up his glasses in the morning felt foreign to him.
With glasses in hand, Jin-woo walked down the hall to his bathroom. Placing his glasses on the sink's edge, he opened the glass cabinet above it and took out his pill bottle. Jin-woo then took out the clear white bag from his pocket and tilted the pill bottle over its opening. After seeing a blurry pill fall inside, he placed back the pill bottle into the cabinet and pocketed the small clear white bag.
Grabbing his glasses off the sink's edge, Jin-woo then made his way downstairs.
However, that uneasy feeling that had been buried by him suddenly rose once again when his mother still wasn't home.