she closes the door behind her before setting the tray she was holding on the de

he hadn't noticed the fact that he was backing up until his feet hit the floor. he fell backwards, landing against the wall behind him.

"are you okay?" the demon asks, he seems concerned.

"yeah, yeah, i'm fine," jeongin mumbled as he stood back up, dusting his pants off. he looked up and caught the demon watching him carefully, his eyes were scanning jeongin's body. he shuddered and began walking again, the demon followed close behind.

the walk to the front office takes longer this time than usual, and jeongin knows that the demon is most likely curious as to why he keeps stopping to wipe the sweat from his brow.

when they reach the door to the office, jeongin turns around to face the demon, he sees that the demon is grinning. he raises an eyebrow at him questioningly, but the demon simply waves him goodbye and walks back to wherever he came from.

jeongin walks through the door and heads straight for the computer that he had spent most of the previous day working on. he begins typing out a new email and sending it out, when his phone buzzes in his pocket. pulling it out, he checks it, he had received a response from the demon.

[from: jisung]

good luck!jeongin reads it three times before replying,

> thank you.

jeongin puts his phone back into his pocket and returns to work.

--

two days later, jeongin wakes up to the sound of knocking on his bedroom door.

he rubs at his eyes and slowly sits himself up, he tries to stand up as slowly as possible so as to not disturb the quietness outside his room, and eventually, he stands up. he walks to the door and opens it slowly, peeking through the crack of the open door and finds that it's his mother standing there.

"hey baby, you're awake!" she exclaims cheerfully, she sounds exhausted, her tone indicates that she had been crying recently, "do you want me to leave you alone for a bit? i'm sorry if i woke you up."

jeongin shakes his head, "no, i'm awake." he steps aside to let his mother in, "it's fine," he says once she's inside. he shuts the door behind him.

his mother sits herself down onto the couch and lets out a small yawn, she stretches her arms above her head. "how are you feeling honey? do you feel like eating something? do you think you could eat something sweet?" she asks anxiously.

jeongin shrugs, "sure mom, i suppose i could eat something."

jeongin's mother nods and stands up from the couch, "okay then, just stay here, i'll be right back." she goes over to the kitchen and gets out a plate. she places it on the table next to where jeongin is sitting.

"eat whatever you want." she says as she sits down next to her son. she pulls her legs up onto the chair, resting her head comfortably in her hands.

jeongin picks up the fork and begins eating, but he can't find anything to eat that he particularly likes. he frowns in disappointment, but he doesn't say anything.

jeongin finishes eating, then goes upstairs to his room, hoping to spend his whole morning reading, but he isn't able to distract himself from the fact that he has no appetite, he feels nauseous.

jeongin climbs back down from his bed and grabs his bag, which contains all of his books, and sets them on his desk. he then proceeds to sit in the empty chair in front of his desk.

as he starts to read through his notes for today's lesson, there's a knock on the front door. he stops reading and listens attentively as his mother calls for the person who's waiting outside.who is it?" she asks.

"my name is junhui, and i just arrived," a voice replies.

jeongin hears a shuffle as footsteps approach him, "hi junhui, how are you doing?" his mother asks, sounding slightly amused.

"i'm good, thank you, um," he pauses, Jeongin assumes that he must be hesitating due to the unfamiliarity of speaking, "jisung."

jeongin looks up in surprise as the name slips out of his mother's mouth, and quickly schools his expression before anyone else hears it.

jeongin watches as his mother smiles widely at the mention of the younger male's name, "oh, hi jisung, do you want something to drink? or perhaps food?" she asks politely.

junhui laughs lightly, "um... i'm fine, thanks for offering though." he then bows slightly.

jeongin looks back down at his notes and continues to read.

"okay, just let me know if you need anything!" his mother yells out as she leaves the room.

jeongin waits for a few minutes after his mother left the room until he hears footsteps approaching his room, the sound of the doorknob being turned causes him to look up again, and his mother enters.she closes the door behind her before setting the tray she was holding on the desk.

she then walks over to jeongin, taking a seat across from him. she pulls out a bottle of water and a glass and fills it with water. she then hands one of the glasses to jeongin, "here, take some water, you haven't eaten anything since you got home, right? your stomach might be upset."

jeongin nods slowly, taking a sip from the glass. his mother reaches over and pats his hand gently, "don't worry, everything will be alright. you'll figure it out soon enough."

jeongin takes another sip from the glass and nods slightly again.

"i thought that you would've gone to see jisung by now, he said he wanted to talk to you." his mother says casually.

"um... i..." he thinks about what he should say to his mother. "i kind of got scared earlier, and i decided to avoid him for a while," he admits.

his mother gives him a questioning look, and he can tell that she wants to ask something else, but she decides to let it slide for the time being.

"that's understandable," his mother responds after a few seconds of silence, "just keep your guard up, you don't want anything to happen to you."

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