~~~~~~~Wonshik could no longer deny it, he was tired. He was sleepy physically, and the stress from that caused him to be mentally strained as well. Walking down the street, that’s all Wonshik could think about. The thought encompassed his mind: that he hadn’t been active for much of the day, yet all Wonshik wished to do was take nap.

Of course for him, it wasn’t just a wish. It was more than an urge, like a need. It was a constant feeling that dragged him down no matter where or when it was. At times he could barely keep himself awake, other’s it happened before Wonshik could stop himself.

He never knew that sleeping could be such a big issue. If this hadn’t happened to him, Wonshik never would have thought that falling asleep would be such a huge problem, but that’s what it had become. Take this morning for instance:

The day had started with Wonshik waking up thirty minutes late, simply because he couldn’t do it, even though he had fallen asleep quite early. Even with all of that, Wonshik still felt tired. His body moved lethargically, effectively making him late for school.

During his classes, he had fallen asleep about twice. It was the times when it just happened, and Wonshik had gotten in trouble for it quite often. Still, Wonshik barely escaped detention, making both him and his buddies glad.

“We can finally do something now!” One of his friends practically screamed with excitement, the other two both following in a row.

“It’s about time, you’ve been in trouble forever!”

“You really need to work on that Wonshik, you can’t continue sleeping in class or you’re going to get held back.”

“Stop being such a downer! This is a happy moment! What do you want to do?” Wonshik listened, however truthfully he didn’t want to do anything.

He would have loved to go hang out with his friends and go have a good time, but it felt as though he didn’t have a great amount of energy to spend. Focusing on his school activities for the day, as well as participating in the mandatory physical education, had spent pretty much his entire energy build. Not to mention he still had school work to finish.

Even with all of that, Wonshik didn’t wish to disappoint his friends. He actually had the opportunity to go have some fun, and it would be a waste if he didn’t do it.

“I don’t know, whatever you guys think will be a good time.”

“Hmm…what would be fun?” The entire group of four huddled together, Wonshik joining simply to include himself.

“Oh, I know! There’s a club that’s opening tonight, why don’t we go to it?”

“Tonight? What time?” With that mention Wonshik grew quite concerned. Clubbing was mostly a late night thing, and Wonshik knew that there was no chance he was staying awake past 8:30

“Well, it’s a club. It won’t start until like 10 o’clock.” Wonshik looked at the ground, he knew that his friends weren’t going to be happy, but there was no way that was going to happen. He could feel it in his bones.

“I…I don’t think I can do that.”

“Come on Wonshik, please!!”

“Yeah come on, its sounds like fun!”

“Why wouldn’t you be able to come? You’re a teenager, it’s what your parents should expect anyway.”

“Don’t you dare tell us it’s so that you can sleep!” His friends comment’s all moved around the circle, hitting the reason right away. Wonshik felt as if he couldn’t’ tell them now, so he just didn’t say anything. Of course, not saying anything was about as good as telling them straight up.

“Really Wonshik? That’s all you do is sleep!”

“Even when he’s not sleeping, he acts like that’s all he wants to do. He never wants to be with us, he’d rather be dreaming.” Wonshik felt really bad, because that wasn’t how he felt at all. He really felt as if it was out of his control.

“I’m really sorry guys. I just can’t help it.”

“Yeah, give him a break. The guy sleeps a lot, it’s not his fault.”

“Uhh…but I really wanted to go!”

“It’s fine, you just go without me.” At that comment, they all stopped. Wonshik couldn’t see why. All they did a moment ago was complain, but suddenly they were so shocked that he had suggested that.

“We can’t go without you!”

“Why not? I have homework to do anyway.”

“Wonshik that just wouldn’t be right. We want you to come have fun with us. How about we go, and you can sleep until it’s time for us to leave?”

“That’s not really how it works. I can’t really control when I sleep. It just happens. Really it’s fine, I feel tired anyway. Just go without me, I’ll do something with you all this weekend.”

Wonshik watched as his friends faces were filled with disappointment. They all knew that nothing would happen this weekend either.

“Alright, if you insist.”

“Do you at least want us to go home with you?”

“It’s okay. I’ll just walk by myself from here. It’s not too far anyway.” That was the last comment Wonshik had said to them. After that, they had said their goodbyes and the three walked in the opposite direction. Wonshik felt bad, but he knew that they would still have a lot of fun without him. In fact, they probably will have even more fun without him there dragging their energy down.

Those events, were what left Wonshik where we was now. Walking across the street, entirely alone and getting more tired by the moment. He just couldn’t do it anymore.

Passing by a street post, Wonshik knew that he needed to take a break. He only wanted to stop a few moments to regain some energy, as his body felt so heavy he almost couldn’t’ walk any longer.

Wonshik moved down, leaning his body against the hard surface. He had been snoring before he even had a chance to sit down entirely. ~~~~~~

How he had felt that day, was very similar to what Wonshik had felt walking around the festival. It was fun and looked like it could have been a really good time, but nothing there looked like it would be the kind of thing to do alone. Wonshik had felt quite out of place just walking around by himself, and soon enough his body was too lethargic to move any longer.

Wonshik hadn’t meant to fall asleep in the corner, but he honestly couldn’t recall how it happened. All he knew was that when he awoke, he had been moved to a different place.

Wonshik groggily opened his eyes, surprised to see another person sitting right beside him.
His appearance didn’t look bad, more just…unique. His hair was a dark brown color, cut to be short but still long enough to have bangs. It was also quite curly, which happened to somehow compliment the rest of his face. His nose stood out amongst the rest of his features, but he still wasn’t bad looking. More than his looks, Wonshik noticed his hyperactive movements the greatest.

Wonshik sat up without a word, however that didn’t stop the man next to him from noticing. He started speaking loudly and quickly before Wonshik had a chance to even attempt to wake up, throwing him for a loop quite quickly.

“Have you finally woken up? Wow I hope you realize how good you are at sleeping. You were out like a light, on the floor none the less!”

“…what?” Wonshik stretched himself out as he sat up, rubbing his eyes and doing his best to feel like he had actually woken up now. It wasn’t working to his advantage, and in his state he honestly couldn’t register the words of the man next to him very well.

“Am I speaking too fast? I’m sorry, I guess I’m a little over excited.” His next words were no slower, however after that he actually stopped. Wonshik watched with a confused expression, as the strange person did some sort of odd breathing exercise beside him. It lasted for quite a while, giving Wonshik just enough time to regain his mind. That actually took a pretty great length of time, so it was impressive that the stranger could continue doing…whatever that was….for such a long amount of time.

Now he felt like he could actually converse, although he wasn’t certain he wanted to talk with this man.

“There, is that a little better?” Once the other started speaking again, he actually sounded like a normal human being. Still a little odd, but he was a lot better.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Good. I’m sorry, I freaked you out didn’t I. I promise I’m not as weird as I seem!” Wonshik nodded, however it didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that he wasn’t convinced. “My name is Lee Jaehwan, I saw you sleeping in that corner over there. I thought it might not be safe, so I moved you over here.”

Hearing those words, Wonshik felt a little bad. Jaehwan still definitely seemed like a weirdo, but once he had heard why the other was there, it made him feel guilty for judging him so quickly.

“Oh, that’s actually really nice of you. Thank you.”

“It’s no problem. What’s your name? I don’t mean to sound rude, but I did carry you to this bench. I feel like I deserve a name.”

“My name is Kim Wonshik.”

“Well Kim Wonshik, you sleep very well.”

“Yeah….I guess I do.”

“You guess?! You are talented. How did you manage to fall asleep like that?”

“Well…..I just did.” Wonshik didn’t know what to say. This conversation was so….out of place. Wonshik felt awkward, as all of a sudden this stranger which he had never met before was asking him questions. Not only that, but he jumped around and some of what he said made no sense. If he was honest, Wonshik didn’t really feel like he wanted to talk to him.

It turned out, it hadn’t mattered whether he wanted too or not. Jaehwan just kept going, and he never ran out of conversation topics. Wonshik didn’t know how it had happened, but before he knew it he actually had grown to learn a lot more about Jaehwan.

Thankfully, Jaehwan got better the longer you were around him. After about an hour of talking, Wonshik got a little used to how Jaehwan worked. He was definitely strange, however he really did seem like a nice guy. After a while, Wonshik actually was kind of glad that Jaehwan had never stopped talking.

“You really helped me out back there. How about I buy you a snack as a thank you?” After all of the chatting the two had done, Wonshik felt comfortable enough to finally repay the favor.

“Really? That’s not necessary.”

“Come on, I insist.”

“Alright, I can’t protest against free food. Just nothing incredibly sugary!”

“Alright, I’ll keep it noted.” Wonshik smiled. Jaehwan was actually kind of funny after a while.

“You feel better around me now, right?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“I just feel a little bad. I really freaked you out earlier, didn’t I?” Wonshik watched, seeing a different side of Jaehwan before his eyes. He felt guilty, as Jaehwan looked genuinely disappointed in himself.

“I was just confused. I needed a little bit of time to adjust.”

“I’m really so sorry! I don’t know what I was thinking but I really didn’t mean to come off so strong. I just couldn’t stop myself.”

“It’s fine. Trust me, I know how that feels.”

“Well, still. Thank you for tolerating me through my craziness. I feel like I should be buying you the snack.”

“No, it was no big deal. Even with the craziness, this is still the longest conversation I have had in a long time.”

“Glad to see we both have no social lives.” The two giggled at Jaehwan’s comment, neither very certain why it was humorous to them. “What’s your reason?”

“Well…it’s actually kind of personal.”

“Would it make you feel better if I told you mine first?”

“Go for it.”

“I have mania.”

“Mania?” Wonshik had to process for a moment, his brain trying it’s best to understand what that was. He knew what it meant, but not a lot about it since he had never seen it anywhere but on television. On television they make the people look like foaming at the mouth psycho’s, and Jaehwan definitely wasn’t that.

“Yeah, there’s a lot to it but basically it makes me very energetic. Like earlier when I was talking really quickly and bouncing around…that was why. Sometimes it gets really bad and I can’t control myself. Well, actually that was on the mild side. Even I don’t know what I do when it’s really bad. ”

Hearing Jaehwan’s description, Wonshik felt as if a light had been shone on everything. Suddenly, the way Jaehwan acted made so much sense, and it also made sense why Wonshik and he clashed so much at first. Wonshik couldn’t help from laughing.

“Is it funny?”

“No, No. Absolutely not, I’m sorry. I’m not making fun of you, we're just polar opposites.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have sleep disorders.”

“Really?” Now that Jaehwan understood, he was laughing too.

“I feel tired all of the time. I fall asleep without even realizing it.”

Somehow, that was all it had taken. After that the two felt like close friends, like they had known each other for years. Wonshik supposed since the both of them now knew each other’s big secret, there was nothing keeping them from liking each other.

Once they had reached the snack bar, Wonshik no longer needed Jaehwan to talk all the time. He no longer felt awkward around him, knowing that the both of them were just different.

Notes