ADOMANIA: THE SENSE THAT THE FUTURE IS COMING TOO QUICKLY

"For the love of god, what did you do!" Changkyun's voice was loud in a shriek, making heads turn to us while Hanbyul who sat beside me gaped at me with her jaw lying low.

"I can't believe this. You were supposed to interview the guy and you asked him out instead," Hanbyul managed to say and both pair of eyes stalked me. Changkyun was almost hanging on the metallic bar of the bus being squished by people and Byul was frustrated enough to finally yank off her bonnet (a part of her proud archaic fashion, which she deemed as the retro outfit for the coming summer) and wipe off the sheen of sweat on her forehead.

"On top of that, you sprayed pepper on another guy and sent him to the hospital," she elucidated slowly to herself, hands making gestures in the air.

"I did not, I mean- I am sure of it. That guy was probably sick already for being drenched in the rain for too long." I shifted in the plastic seat uncomfortably. Public transports were never my thing, especially in a scalding day like this with sweltering heat piercing through the skin no matter where.

I would rather turn up my table-fan in full speed at home and sit before it with my mouth hanging wide open, however, which only seemed like a luxury at that moment.

The bus was swamped, people's bodies against each other and a rancid smell of sweat wafting around the constricted space. I wished I could indulge in the rain hours now. "With Wonho, I invited him on a friendly date to thank him for lending me his umbrella," I muttered to no one.

"I always knew she was a hostile creature, I tell you." Changkyun was still in shock, eyes wide and a crease between his brows as he spoke to the brunette girl beside me. "Judging by her past virulent actions, I knew."

"We all knew. It still comes as shock anyway." Byul twirled a strand of her hair around her finger. Both of them acting as if I did not exist at that moment, as if I was not right there listening to their absurd discussion with my utmost attention.

"Sunny has this wanton violent side inside of her. Like that one time she almost slapped senior Kang," Byul added, Changkyun nodded with a small sigh.

"Or when she snapped at professor Oh because he kept on pushing her ideals about woman in our sociology classes," Changkyun commented and I almost shuddered despite being tormented by the blistering heat.

"I was having my period both of the time, and you both know it." Finally I made my presence known making them turn to me.

"Was it really based on your menstrual cycle this time? Your ovulation? Because I certainly don't think so." Changkyun had a knowing look on his face as he stared down on me. Hanbyul pulled on the hem of his shirt and an unspoken conversation happened between them. With that Hanbyul stood up and he replaced the seat next to mine.

It would be my turn to stand there five minutes later Byul but we were already close to our designated stop. "Can you blame it on PMS this time?" She asked, the red bonnet again on her head, sitting gracefully like a crown.

"Either way, I am glad that you have finally laid your eyes on someone. I've always wanted to go on double dates with you," she spoke again with her face nonchalant.

Changkyun turned to me. "You and I both know she was just jealous of you being the only single one in our entire batch."

"I can hear it, you shorty chef from ratatouille!" The brunette shouted the very second, creating another instance of a part of the crowd whipping their heads toward us.

"Just use an actual swear word babe, call me asshole." Changkyun smirked. Which indicated another brawl and my cue to dissipate into the back of my mind, where I would leisurely stare out somewhere and nowhere at the same time.

The monochromatic morning had started off with the bitter taste of black coffee, now it was tuning into the prosaic noon of yet another hot day under the summer sun, the painful wait for the lackluster day to end already.

In my hazy state of mind I watched gray buildings stand tall amidst the sunshower, girls and boys in school uniforms crossing the streets, restaurants packed with suited males and females for their lunch hours. It was mundane, every day repeating as the same.

Even then I knew something was changing. Last night I could barely sleep. For one, I thought and thought a lot about the spring boy, and I wondered a lot about the skeletal body too, lying on the wet gravel like a dead man.

Was this situation normal? Changkyun's index finger poking on the side of my arm pulled me out of my reverie. I noticed that Hanbyul was on her phone, while Changkyun was looking at me expectantly as if he was about to share a secret.

"If you really decide to date Wonho, please don't if it's only a fling," his voice was barely above a whisper, deep and chilly. It was perplexing to see him being serious, I couldn't help but do a double take.

Sensing me in confusion he stared ahead, a hand raking through his coffee hair. "I am just baffled he even said yes. He's been through some things, and I don't want to see him like that again."

I could merely ask what he was talking about, because I hadn't seen anything wrong in Wonho but his ember eyes visited my mind and I asked myself, how could I even know. I knew nothing about him.

The bus stopped and we had to get off for the dreary hospital trip. I couldn't ask Changkyun anymore, he was again back to his playful self, bickering with Hanbyul.

Instead I marched up to them with a merry smile on my face. "How much will you guys give me if they say the stranger didn't faint because of my pepper spray?"

"Give me my ten dollars now." I held out both of my hands in hope for the bet money but both my friends, and now deemed as arch enemies turned away ignoring my existence, again.

Turned out that I did not have to lose sleep for a crime I hadn't committed. The skeletal figure was so malnourished, probably for a long period of time that he had fainted. He was still unconscious and I couldn't help but stare at the dainty boy.

"He is tall," Byul whispered and I saw both of them peering at the guy asleep on the hospital bed, IV drip attached to his bony arm.

"He looks young," Changkyun added.

The boy could be taller than anyone in the room, judging by how his head rested closely to the headrest and his feet almost touched the railings at the end of the bedding. Yet he looked frail, so small, as if he could crumble with a mere poke on his body, just like he crumpled to the street the previous night.

The hospital's gray attire loosely hung on his body, matching with his sunken eyes, and hollow cheeks, pale and chapped lips that looked like they were once filled with life, perhaps, the boy too was filled with life.

And perhaps that was long ago because lying on that hospital bed he looked nothing more than a ragged doll, a broken up toy. I did not want to use the word 'dead' for him, the equilibrium in his sleeping face could not make me reckon so.

I only stared and stared, the tall boy under the rain in a charcoal dark evening.

With a black umbrella held up his head, sheltering him from the shower. His hair was neatly brushed, some of it falling on his forehead, his cheeks were healthy in pink and his vibrant eyes played with fire. His full and tight lips were pulled into a boyish grin when I approached him.

"Doesn't he look familiar somehow?" Hanbyul questioned and I immediately straightened up, realizing how intently I was staring at the unknown boy.

A frown made its way on my face. Why was I imagining that? For one, I had not seen him with an umbrella last night and barely could I make out his face before he fell, and two, the boy in my daydream looked nothing alike him though I knew they were the same person, I just knew.

The daydream I had while standing in the pungent medicine like smell whirling around me, felt like a distant memory.

"Maybe because of his long hair. Look at those locks, they very much look like Sunny's," Chankyun blew a whistle and Byul bursted out into a giggle at the end of his remark.

"All jokes aside, who even is he?" I rolled my eyes at them. Byul had sobered up by then and now examining the bag that was lying on a chair next to the bed, then she picked it up.

Changkyun scratched on his chin, eyes never leaving the figure on the bed. "I don't want to play detective, but I guess we do not have much of a choice now. The nurses informed that he did not have a wallet or any item of identification on him. His bag looks custom made, and it has a lock."

I went up to Byul who had her eyes scrutinizing the tattered bag. It was not as small but not that big in size, a simple leather bag meant to wear in your shoulders. The straps were torn here and there, the leather was worn out, and there was no name tag.

I had never seen a bag like this that had its zipper pulled into a four digit coded lock. Byul turned the bag around and pulled onto the little piece of plastic material sewn under the handheld strap, where they had the size or manufactured date and such.

The letters were almost unrecognizable there too, jaded with the presence of time, albeit it was readable. 'CHAE, 2046' it only said that.

"If we really pay for his bills, the question is if he can pay us back." The hand that was scratching on Changkyun's chin was now inside his mouth, fingernails under his clattering row of front teeth.

"He looks poor but the face is handsome, so I can't tell firmly." Hanbyul sighed, the leather bag still in her grip. "Though his watch looks expensive."

My eyes finally fell onto the watch on his limp wrist, and I wondered why they hadn't taken it off as well. Then I realized how natural it looked on him, as if a part of his limb it was.

A watch with opaque glass and leather straps tightly wrapped around his small wrist.

The world blurred, a ticking sound suddenly pounding against my head. I had never seen it before, but where had I seen it?

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A/n: hyungwon with long hair was superior

Can this man, NOT- istg