Train to The In Between
Title: Train to The In Between
Summary: sometimes, sungyeol thinks that it takes death to show him what he's missing in life.
Prompt: Love is giving someone the power to destroy you but trusting them not to.
Pairing: myungyeol, woogyu, hojong, past!jongyeol. hint!2jun
Note: Happy birthday Michelle :) I hope this dark, angsty but happy ending story (er, this i subject to change though) makes your day~ <3
__
of all the ways to die, sungyeol never really expected to die at twenty-four whilst chambering in a law office at the hands of his boyfriend. sungyeol supposes though that he does kind of deserve it for being a complete ass but really, did sungjong have to shoot him in the head and send his brains splattering out on the wall? though he does thank god that sungjong isn’t one for dramatics or he would’ve stabbed or forced to drink poison with sungjong standing over him as he chokes.
he sighs a little, scuffing a dress shoe into the ground as he hunches over, leaning on the wall of the train station. he doesn’t really care that he’s currently wrinkling his nice suit - was he buried in this monkey suit? - but what’s really bothering him is this train station. sungyeol has never really been one for religion and the whole afterlife thing but he’s always hoped the afterlife would be filled with pretty boys for him to eye.
“sungyeol?” comes an all to familiar voice and sungyeol turns to see sungjong strolling up to him in his white suited glory and blonde hair pulled back in a short ponytail. “sungjong?” he asks, confused. “are you dead too?”
sungjong rolls his eyes as he comes to a stop next to sungyeol, leaving a little distance between them and glaring when sungyeol reaches out to touch him. “yes, i’d suppose so if i’m still seeing you even after i blew your brains out,” sungjong grouses, crossing his arms. “does this mean we’re still together? i mean, i died right after i shot you so we never really broke up did we?” sungjong questions after a moment of silence.
and sungyeol is struck dumb with no clue of how to answer sungjong’s question because he doesn’t really remember speaking much when he came home smelling of sex and hickeys littered all over his neck and jaw line. “er, we could break up now if you want,” sungyeol offers and the condescending look sungjong gives him is enough to shut him up.
they wait in silence for something to come and sungyeol ponders his life. it had been quite the fruitful one if he were to really think about it. he breezed through school with average grades, was pretty popular because of his friendly attitude and bright smiles. he glances at sungjong and smiles a little, a wave of affection rushing over him as he takes in the sight of his killer who is pale, milky skin, high cheekbones, pink lips and a tough attitude to make up for his soft outer appearance.
he remembers meeting sungjong in university where sungjong was majoring in dance and culinary. they got together a couple of months after and have been together for about four years now. he can’t say that he doesn’t love sungjong but it’s pretty clear that he didn’t love sungjong enough not to have hurt him by sleeping around.
“ooh,” sungjong pipes up suddenly. “a train’s coming,”
and true enough there’s a rattle and a loud ‘chug-a-chug-chug’ as a train approaches the station.
“passengers, please board the train” a mechanical voice says as the train’s doors slide open.
they climb up the steps and into the train, consisting of only one other passenger. a dirty blonde-haired man with a gummy smile as he waves at them. “hello, i’m dongwoo,” he says. sungjong smiles at him and takes a seat opposite him, introducing himself. “sungjong,”
sungyeol smiles a little and takes a seat somewhere closer to the front and away from the chattering pair feeling a little confused. isn’t death supposed to be depressing or something? why’s the dude so happy.
“do you have any idea where this train is going?” sungyeol hears sungjong ask.
“the in between,” dongwoo says. “it’s the place where everyone goes before going to well, wherever we’re supposed to go. i’m hazy on the details but i’ve been on this train for a while so i know a little bit,”
“why haven’t you gone to the in between?’ sungyeol asks curiously, twisting in his seat to look at dongwoo.
dongwoo smiles a little. “you can’t really expect the train to waste fuel by carting one person all the to the in between do you? i’ve waited a while but that’s cool. sunggyu-hyung says i can go to the in between today because we’re picking up three more passengers!”
“there’s a quota for the train to bring you to the in between?” sungyeol questions, a little suspicious and wary of this in between place.
“saves fuel,” dongwoo says with a shrug. the ride after that lulls into a comfortable silence, broken every once in a while by sungjong’s and dongwoo’s murmuring.
sungyeol isn’t sure how much time passes but eventually the train slows to a stop at another station and two more people come clambering in. one’s a guy dressed in a striped suit and spiked up hair another a young-ish looking guy with a confused look on his face dressed in sweats and a loose t-shirt.
the guy with the striped suit moves back to where sungjong is sitting and sungyeol raises a brow when sungjong blushes. “hi, do you mind if i sit here with you?” the striped suit guy asks.
“y-yeah, sure i mean go ahead!” sungjong stammers, giggling nervously as the guy’s lips curl into a small smile and sits down. “i’m sungjong,” sungjong squeaks out.
“howon. it’s nice to meet you sungjong despite the circumstances,” the guy, no, howon says. sungjong titters before asking to be let out for a moment and sungyeol let’s out an ‘oof’ when sungjong kicks him in the shin.
“what?!” sungyeol hisses, glaring at the blonde.
“we need to break up. like right now,” sungjong says all seriousness.
“what? why?” sungyeol asks, confused.
“because howon is hot. and i want to get together with him. like as soon as possible. have you seen the guy? he looks so fucking good in the suit!” sungjong hisses back, glancing surreptitiously at howon who smiles at him.
“fine. let’s break up,”
sungjong squeals and pecks sungyeol’s cheek, darting away with a “thank you, i knew there was a reason i put up with your cheating ways sungyeollie,”
sungyeol rolls his eyes as the guy in the sweats laughs. “your ex?” he asks.
“yeah, unfortunately,” sungyeol sighs. “can’t believe i got dumped on the way to the in between,”
“it happens i guess. i’m dongjun by the way,”
“sungyeol,”
and cue awkward smiles before the turn away from each other and lapse into silence.
“last stop before the in between,” the same voice says again and sungyeol looks up from where he is perusing a gossip magazine found under his seat. the doors open and a guy dressed in a suit - what is with everyone and suits? sungyeol wonders - with brown hair and a smile boards the train, nodding politely to sungyeol and dongjun and making his way to the back of the train away from everyone else.
‘odd,’ sungyeol thinks before shutting the magazine and looking out the train window. he falls asleep soon enough, lulled into slumber by the rattle of the train and dim lighting along with everyone else.
__
“i trusted you!” sungjong shrieks, trembling as tears track their way down his cheeks, the gun in his hand trembling.
“jong-ah, i---” sungyeol starts.
“save it! how many times have you told me you’re sorry sungyeol? how many times have you promised me you wouldn’t do it again,” sungjong questions, hurt lacing his every word as sungyeol swallows. he can see the heartbreak in the younger man’s eyes and he can’t blame him.
“sungjong, put the gun down and we can talk about this. please?” sungyeol chokes out.
“NO!” sungjong screams. “i won’t listen to you! you’re just going to lie to me again like you did all those other times. this ends now sungyeol-ah,”
and the last thing sungyeol knows is that sungjong pulls the trigger and with a ‘BANG’ it’s lights out for him.
___
“passengers, please alight the train,” a mechanical voice says, jerking everyone out of their slumber.
“wha--- we’re here?” dongjun murmurs sleepily.
“apparently,” the stranger who boarded the train last says excitedly, moving to the doors first with dongwoo tailing him eagerly. sungyeol and sungjong are the last to leave the train, sungjong wrapped in howon’s striped suit’s jacket.
“jong-ah,” sungyeol calls before sungjong reaches the door. sungjong glances back at him questioningly. “for what it’s worth i’m sorry. i did love you,”
sungjong smiles bitterly and sungyeol can’t help but think it’s an ugly smile on sungjong’s normally bright and cheerful face. “apparently not enough hyung. but i forgive you,” and he accepts howon’s hand, assisting him down the steps.
when everyone has alighted the train, it takes off again, going to goodness knows where, probably to pick up more passengers.
“what do we do now?” howon says, tucking his hands into the pockets of his pants and glancing around, drinking in the sight of the white train station.
“you follow me,” a voice says. everyone turns around, startled to see a guy dressed casually in jeans and a brightly coloured shirt that should be illegal.
“sunggyu!” the last passenger exclaims, loping forwards and enveloping him in a hug. sunggyu stiffens for a moment before hugging him back. “woohyun,” sunggyu says in return. “there’ll be time for us to talk later but for now,”
woohyun releases him reluctantly, still smiling.
“come along,” sunggyu says and he starts walking. “i’d suppose i’ll have to say welcome to the in between. if you have any questions, feel free to ask. oh and sorry for the delay of your arrival dongwoo-sshi. the higher ups have been feeling particularly economical lately about fuel,”
“it’s okay,” dongwoo says. “it was fun riding in the train though it could do with better lighting,”
sunggyu’s lips quirk into a half smile as sungjong asks, “what do we do in the in between?”
“work,” sunggyu replies. “you’ll see when you get there though because it’s all done through assignments so i’m afraid i don’t know what work you’ll be doing,”
“don’t we get to move on?” howon questions.
“yeah you can, but you’ll have to stay in the between for two years first before you can make a decision,”
“decision?” dongjun queries.
“yeah. whether you want to move on or allow your soul to be reborn, which is basically reincarnation,”
“what do most people choose?”
“most choose to stay,” sunggyu says with a mysterious smile. “because they’ve all found something in the in between that makes them want to stay,”
and they reach a pair of high, golden gates, a bright light shining through and nearly blinding them. “welcome to the in between,”
___
sungyeol supposes that the in between isn’t too bad. he’s caught glimpses of dongjun who’s working in a diner under the supervision of a pretty good looking guy called junyoung that made stars appear in the younger man’s eyes. sungjong’s been assigned to work with the Angel of Love, also known as Cupid and sungyeol cannot help but agree that’s the sort of job that suits the young blonde just fine.
and from what he can tell, sungjong is getting along just fine with howon judging from the way they both go moony-eyed over each other along with the subtle touches and chaste kisses were anything to go on from.
the last passenger or rather woohyun seems perfectly fine working in a music store with dongwoo - yes, the in between has music, booze and parties - and woohyun seems content to clinging onto their guide, sunggyu anytime he’s free.
it’s a particularly quiet day at the antique shop sungyeol’s been assigned to work in when sunggyu comes in all smiles and clipboard in hand with woohyun following after, grinning widely. “hello sungyeol!” woohyun greets cheerfully. “how’s it going? is it fun working here? it seems boring!”
“woohyun!” sunggyu admonishes, elbowing him and giving him a pointed look to go away for a moment. “sorry about him sungyeol-sshi. but how is it going? i’m doing a routine check on the lot of you,” sunggyu apologises, smiling fondly when he sees woohyun horsing around with a customer.
“it’s fine i guess. boring but fine,” sungyeol answers with a shrug. “say, i’ve never seen my boss around though,”
sunggyu stops scribbling on his clipboard and chews on his lower lip, looking a little troubled. “oh,” he murmurs then sighs. “i’m sorry about that. myungsoo’s a little, introverted and pre-occupied with a few personal matters,”
“hey, don’t stress about it hyung. i was just saying,” sungyeol grins, reaching over the counter to pat sunggyu’s shoulder. the older man gives him a distracted smile.
“i’ve got to go now sungyeol-sshi. you can come find me in the building sungjong-sshi works in if you need me. i’m on the eighth floor,” sunggyu throws him one last fleeting smile before leaving and taking woohyun with him, shoving the cheeky man out the door exasperatedly but with affection as they stop outside the door and sunggyu brushes away some dust off woohyun’s clothes.
sungyeol feels a little jealous but keeps a smile on his face as he goes to attend to his customer who’s waving him over. he wishes sometimes that there’ll be something to give him a reason to stay in the between because he isn’t so sure he wants to move on.
___
that night finds him sitting by a river with woohyun and sungjong with a pack of beer between them as they talk about their time here in the between. sungyeol feels a little guilty when sungjong giggles about howon and oh, how amazing he is and how he’s always so kind. sungyeol thinks he could’ve done better by the younger man back when he was still alive and in love with the younger but then he realises, maybe he wasn’t quite that in love with sungjong at all because he can’t remember a time where he trusts sungjong enough to let him in.
“you look like you just figured something out,” woohyun says suddenly, peering at sungyeol. “are you in love?” woohyun smirks, nudging him. sungyeol colours and gulps his beer as sungjong giggles.
“i’m not. i was just thinking about sungjong,” he replies.
“me?” sungjong asks. “sorry yeol-ah, but i’m a taken man,”
sungyeol rolls his eyes. “no, i was thinking of our relationship jong-ah. maybe, maybe i didn’t quite love you,” he says hesitantly and he’s surprised when sungjong doesn’t slap him but hugs him instead.
“you realised. took you long enough,” sungjong huffs somewhere near his neck. “i don’t think you really ever trusted me,”
woohyun smiles a little at that as he looks up at the dark sky. “do you wanna know something?” he asks them. they shrug and woohyun starts speaking, “i knew sunggyu from when he was alive,”
“isn’t he an angel?” sungjong asks, surprised.
“no,” woohyun laughs. “he was a music student who became a composer, a really good one but died because he lost his inspiration and couldn’t find it anymore,”
“that’s... that’s sad,” sungyeol murmurs.
“it is, yeah,” woohyun says, eyes misty. “sometimes i wish i did something to give him back his inspiration but i was stupid back then. stupid and in love with my best friend. a couple of days after sunggyu died, i saw him in my dreams. he said he forgave me and that he loved me and he’d be waiting,”
“then what happened?” sungjong breathes out, eyes wide with curiousity.
“then i lived three more years before getting into a car accident and here i am,” woohyun says. “you know sungyeol-ah, i’m not really one for corny lines or shit like that so i’m only saying this once okay?”
sungyeol nods.
“love is pretty hard to describe. it seems stupid but when you’re in it, it seems like the most special thing in the world. and love comes with trust. so if you don’t trust the person you love enough to not break you, it’s going to create problems like whatever happened between you and sungjong,”
“so what i’m trying to say is, i loved sunggyu, i love him now and i lived three years loving him and probably going to spend forever loving him since i’m dead and he’s dead and in those three years, sunggyu trusted me to not fall in love with someone else. he trusted me not to break him just like how sungjong trusts howon not to break him,”
“you just have to learn how to let go of those issues sungyeol-ah. maybe then you can fall in love properly”
___
woohyun’s words stick in his brain for the next couple of days as he goes through work and life in the in between mechanically and he sighs, frustrated when he can’t seem to do anything about it. he groans and rests his head on the hardwood of the counter. the bell tinkles but sungyeol doesn’t want to bother wasting energy to check who it is.
it earns him a swat on his head and he looks up to see a man, a very handsome one with dark hair and even darker eyes and pale skin staring down at him. “if i knew sunggyu-hyung was going to assign me a slacker i should’ve been in earlier,” he says.
“w-wait. you’re my boss?” sungyeol gapes. the guy smirks. “duh. sorry i haven’t been around. i was handling some... personal stuff. i’m myungsoo,”
sungyeol swallows around the lump in his throat and the thudding of his heart as his brain struggles to process enough oxygen to come up with something to say. “sungyeol,” he squeaks out, colouring in embarrassment when myungsoo laughs a little at his high-pitched voice.
“how’s the shop?” myungsoo asks, looking around.
“ohmygodiloveyou,” sungyeol spits out in reply, covering his face in mortification when he realises what he’s suddenly said. “oh god,” he moans, more embarrassed than ever. “please don’t fire me. i’m really sorry. i just,” and the rest of his sentence trails off into unintelligble garbling.
“that’s very eloquent of you,” myungsoo remarks dryly. “and i was actually hoping for a couple of dates before the confession but i’d suppose the confession now is pretty okay too,”
“what?” sungyeol looks up, surprised etched into his open mouth and wide eyes. “you were hoping for dates?”
“well, yeah. isn’t that how relationships start?” myungsoo questions, raising a brow and doubting the IQ of his employee. sunggyu must’ve lied when he said he assigned an intelligent and bubbly young man to work in his shop because this puddle of garble doesn’t seem to fit the description.
“but you’re my boss,” sungyeol says eventually.
“i’m pretty sure the whole, dating in the office thing is pretty much screwed here in the in between,” myungsoo muses and sungyeol has to agree wholeheartedly to that.
“so, a date?” sungyeol asks hopefully.
myungsoo eyes him for a moment before sighing. “look, i’m going to be honest okay? i don’t know if i can handle a relationship at the moment because i’ve still got ghosts from my life before the in between that’s haunting me. but if you can wait and trust me, then okay. one date,”
sungyeol mulls over it for a moment before smiling shyly. “i heard from dongwoo that there’s a good diner a couple of shops away from the music store,”
and the smile sungyeol gets from myungsoo is blinding and enough to send his heart into palpitations. if sungyeol weren’t dead, he’s sure he would’ve gotten a heart attack.
“the food there is shit though just so you know,” myungsoo says. “get to work sungyeol,” and he drifts out of the store, throwing a small smirk at the grinning man.
and sungyeol thinks that he might understand the corny spiel that woohyun proclaimed to him a couple of nights ago.
.end
*after not: errr.... why is this so fluffy and brain killing? michelle, i’m sorry. i hope this was okay >< happy birthday again!