╶ falling.
The stairs were being cleaned.
Why were the stairs being cleaned? It would be fine for every other person at the mall to just use the lifts - no one thought about the people that couldn’t. Woohyun stood staring at the metal doors, breathing deeply, hands clenched at his sides. It was worse when alone. When with other people it was easier to ignore how close the walls were on all sides - he didn’t notice as much how they seemed to close in, the small space getting hotter and hotter, and hotter-
Stop, Woohyun.
Taking a second deep breath he bit his lip as the doors slip open and he stepped into the metal box. It was fine, it was okay, it’d only be a few minutes at most, not even that, before he was out again. The elevator was empty, but even so he fitted himself into the back corner, leaning against the walls, hoping that it would prevent the feeling of them closing in on him slightly. His breath caught in his throat as the doors began to close - it would only be a few minutes.
He leant back, eyes closing for a moment, and focused on his breathing, repeating to himself that it was okay, that the walls weren’t going to move inwards, that the little metal box wasn’t heating up, and that it was perfectly safe. He’d repeated the same words to himself so many times before.