Jonan stirs his soup, the spoon carelessly scratching the bottom of the bowl.

"How was your day? Jonan?" 

"Hm?" 

"Jonan, your mother was asking about your day," his father tells him.

"Oh." he stops stirring and remembers Gabriel at school. His stomach churns. "It was okay."

"Did anything interesting happen?"

Jonan looks to the side. "No, not really."

"Oh, school was so interesting for me today." His little sister jumps in her seat, trying to get her parent's attention. "There was a frog outside on the playground!"

His dad laughs. "What kind of frog?"

"It was a huge one! As big as this bowl..."

Jonan spaces out again and stirs his soup, his bowl ringing in a low sigh.

His mom pats him on the back. "Hey, Jonan, are you alright?"

He pushes the bowl forward. "Yup, I'm fine. Just, can I be excused?" 

His parents both glance at each other, concerned, but eventually nod. His little sister continues to ramble about the enormous frog she found on the playground as Jonan cracks a small smile, and leaves the table.

He puts on his shoes and goes outside in the chilly evening for a jog. 

Frosty air enters his lungs, poking at his throat. It's a little bit painful. The start is always a little bit painful, but there is a certain satisfaction about running, a sense of freedom when a breeze flows by one's face, as muscles extend and contract. To Jonan, running is an escape that excites and calms him, almost like a drug--he cannot imagine living without running.

He imagines that his road trip will be even better. It won't be long, just a 3 day drive along the coast of the country, but it will be three days of complete freedom (with frequent calls, of course). He can already feel the sun against his skin as he reaches the south of the country, the billowing winds, the wide expanse...

Jonan stops abruptly at a crosswalk, even though the light glares green. The memory of Gabriel resurfaces and dread settles upon his shoulders. He tries to shake the feeling off, there is no way he is going to let a single person scare him. 

That's what he keeps saying to himself when he arrives home.

When he goes to bed.

When he gets into the car.

When he pulls out of the driveway.

For the last time, Jonan makes a mental checklist of the things he brought. Phone, wallet, clothes. He is paranoid that he will leave something important, but as he sees his parents standing on the porch waving him goodbye and his little sister flailing about frantically, he is comforted.

Jonan glances at the clear blue sky and grins. "Everything will be alright."

--

At home, Gabriel decides it's time to sleep when he hears his mother telling him to eat breakfast downstairs. It's been two weeks into the break and his mind has long left the notebook and returned to video games, memes, and Stranger Things. He yawns and rubs his sore eyes.

As he pours milk into a bowl of cereal, he contemplates just how pleasant Winter-breaks are. No school, no need to go in public, and no strangers. No stress and no anxiety.

Gabriel's mother puts on her coat and gets ready to leave, but not before kissing her son on the cheek.

"You know, maybe you should go outside today," she says encouragingly. "It's sunny and there's snow outside after the snowstorm last night."

He nods half-heartedly as he carries his cereal on one hand and takes out his phone with the other. As he walks around the dinner table to his seat, he stairs out of the window to the backyard. A layer of snow coats the lawn, the bushes, and a wreath of stones beneath the dogwood tree, like a coat of white-out over the markings of fall. His phone vibrates just before he sets it on the table--there's a long notice from the school office. Gabriel only reads the first line: 

All students of 11A: Jonan Shun was in a bad car crash and is currently in the emergency room...