Inside the different world and crazy fairytale
Title : Inside the different world and crazy fairytale
Author : haruhanayukiko
Recipient : undistanced
Rating : PG-13
Word Count : 6,330
Warnings : a bit of blood and monsters
Disclaimer : SHINee is a group of human beings.
Summary : Dreams are the reality humans want. What they don't understand is how they have those dreams they've never thought of before.
A/N : I'm so sorry for my lateness. This is for taeminho fic exchange.
I really don't like how this turns out because I had to shorten it for my own benefit but I hope you like it, especially undistanced. Critiques are most welcome.
In a land full of mischief and burning flames of hell far away from human world, where the sunlight barely lights the place and happiness and joy did not exist, lived a young boy with an unfortunate story in life named Lee Taemin. With blood shaded curly red hair and white porcelain-like complexion, he was crowned a natural seduction. The way he attracted both men and women was not by coincidence, nor was it intentional. His innocent look and good boy charm always got him out of troubles; like that one time when he 'accidentally' burned his wolverine teacher's tail because he thought it would be fun to watch the teacher to fumble for a bucket of water. He didn't even have to bat an eyelash to get the wolf to forgive him. It was not his choice to be beautiful, he was only an ordinary soul trapped in an incubus body, the body of a demon that drained people’s energy in their sleep.
Many envied and admired his beauty and took it upon themselves to try stealing it from him. Those attempts had made him running away all his life and lost his family when they tried to hide him. Then, one day the underworld King found him struggling against one of the assaults and took him in as the foster child. From then on, he had lived his life like a caged animal, being polished to be the perfect heir for the underworld leader. He no longer felt, no longer hoped, and no longer loved.
On the day he turned fifteen, a man in mask came uninvited to his party and left a huge box as a gift. He also gave Taemin the key to open the box with and didn’t leave after telling him to open the box when he was alone. Intrigued and curious, Taemin promised not to open it if the man told him what was inside. The answer both pleased and confused Taemin more, the man told him it was a Pandora box.
So Taemin kept to his promise and despite the itching to just rip the lock away, he opened the box gently and tenderly. A shocking white enveloped him and he felt himself lost his consciousness. The last thing he remembered was the key was disappearing from his hand and he was falling into nothing.
In his unconscious state, no one even so much as glanced twice at him. That was to be expected from the busiest and crowded city of South Korea. He survived the first few days by himself without any food and shelter but he could only last so long and by the end of his first week, he was ready to accept his death. Among the busy street of Seoul, a man took pity on him and gave him everything he would ever need in human world. The man was Kim Kibum, a college student in his mid twenties who took his studies and job simultaneously despite his busy schedule.
It was not easy, being an incubus in the middle of humans. Granted, no one knows what he really was with long auburn hair and big brown eyes, aside from Kibum obviously, but still, after a lot of time it got suspicious. He was a lot faster than most humans, he memorized too quickly, and being too perfect was never accepted in human world; moreover, there were times when someone caught him in his real form. He had caused quite a lot of trouble to Kibum in their 4 years together. Though after spending such a long time together he started to care a little bit for the older male, he was still his cold self beneath the charming happy front.
••••
Taemin glanced absently at the place he was currently seeing. They were at a broken train railing which used to connect the bridge at the edge of the cliff. Under the cliff was a seemingly calm river with crocodiles swimming around it. A man with big eyes, might be in his early twenties, was sitting and swinging his feet in the air while looking blankly at nothing in particular.
Taemin tilted his head to the side, wondering what a strange place to be in one's dream. He stalked quietly at the sitting man and when he was close enough, the man gestured his hand in a motion that invited Taemin to sit next to him despite not giving any indication that he acknowledge the brunet's presence.
For a long moment they just sat side by side in silence, only the occasional sound of water below was heard. The autumn breeze was comforting, the wind was humid and Taemin found himself thinking exactly what he was doing. The sole reason he visited himself into someone else dream was to take the energy emitted from human’s dreams that his kind fed off of.
Taemin turned his head to look at the man. He had inhumanly big eyes, black hair, sharp pointy nose and thin lips. A shiver went through him when he took in the black-haired man's appearance. Taemin could say he was quite attractive for a human, if the bit about resembling a frog was ignored. He sat motionless beside him; never budging no matter however long Taemin stared at him. Suddenly, the man snapped his head at Taemin's direction and placed his gaze somewhere on Taemin's face.
Taemin was unnerved by the glassy look on his eyes. Yet those eyes held so much fire; it struck a shiver down Taemin’s spine. Taemin was speechless, it was the first time he saw such burning gaze in all his life experience. He found himself drowning in those eyes and before he realized it, he had lifted his hand to touch the other's cheek.
The spell was unbounded when the man looked away and Taemin couldn’t stop the flinch that surfaced when he realized what he was about to do. He cursed inwardly, letting his hand fall glamorously to his lap.
Placing his most innocent smile, he leaned forward and whispered beside his ear, "Come play with me." Taemin felt the sugar-coated words flew almost automatically from his lips.
"I’m bored, hyung. Play with me?" He opened his eyes wide as he let his right hand crawling to rest on the man's thigh in an attempt to get the older man excited. But his effort was in vain, the man only tilted his head slightly, didn't as much as turn his head to look at Taemin's expression. A thoughtful expression grazed along the man's beautiful features.
"But I don't know what to play. I'm afraid I'm not up for any normal games." A childish feeling of irritation came through Taemin as he was refused.
"Really, hyung? Let's play something more fun than normal games!" Taemin's voice usually would have crumbled any woman's, or in this case-man-'s resolve, doubled with the puppy eyes he gave, but this time it seemed that was not going to happen.
"What do you want to play then?" The man's voice was warm and gentle, quite the contrary to Taemin's devious smirk. He placed a hand behind the man's neck and captured the end of his mouth, nipping lightly at the skin. He explored a complete stranger's body that night like he always did every other night. But that was the first time he felt a surge of warmth inside his body when he reached his climax.
••••
The first thing Taemin saw when he was back to his room was a sleeping Kibum, who was about to be slay by an axe holding Minotaur. He didn't let himself think or panic, only letting his anger and fear engulfed him and turned into his true form.
His hair faded into honey and shortened until it barely brushed his shoulder, curvy horns came out from behind the curtain of his hair, just above the ears. His eyeballs were covered by thin red-violet film while his skin lightened a bit, reaching a fragile porcelain tone. His black nails lengthened and sharpened into claw-like, a pair of enormous black wings burst behind him, and a thin spade-end tail waved between his legs.
All the transformation only took seconds and he lunged forward at the axe raising creature, quickly gripped its head in claw grip and snapped it sideways, sputtering blood everywhere as the head detached itself from its body. The ever light-sleeper Kibum woke up right after the creature was killed and almost had a heart attack seeing a headless Minotaur with axe in front of his face.
"OH MY GOD TAEMIN!" Kibum screamed when the axe closed the distance to his face. Taemin hurriedly grab the body and hauled it outside the window, smashing the hand that was holding the axe to the window sill. He then walked to the window and picked the fallen axe. Dropping it from the room they were in, it clashed right on top of the creature.
"Oh, well...that was messy." Taemin said after having a glance at the room. Blood can be seen smearing across Kibum's bed and a little part of the wall beside it.
"No shit, sherlock! You ruined my beauty sleep, now I have to take another bath." Kibum wiped his face furiously, trying to get the blood out of his head. Taemin just rolled his eyes at the older's antics, he was used to the ever so hygenic man.
"Go take a bath, I'll clean this up." He shooed Kibum to the bathroom and changed to his human form. He let out a sigh as he started to change the sheet. Before the door was closed, he thought he heard a small thank you from the older male. At least he could protect Kibum as the payment of everything he received. He smiled at the thought.
"TAEMIN-AH!" Kibum's high-pitched voice roared inside the apartment, startling Taemin who was scrubbing the blood from the wall. He quickly ran into the bathroom, kicking the door open in his haste.
"What happened?" Kibum was sprawled on the floor in front of the mirror and pointing at the open window beside the sink.
"I-I saw something moving. I think that ugly monster before has companions." He stuttered at the beginning with his voice as mere whisper and Taemin was alert instantly. He walked closer to the window, peeking cautiously over it and carelessly yanked a bundle of what looked like a very big brown rag. Said brown rag lifted its head to revealed a dirty but young man with puppy like eyes staring around in fear and confusion.
"It’s just a homeless man. What should we do to him?" Taemin dropped the man on the cold bathroom floor and the stranger flinched. Kibum eyed the filthy man curiously after regaining his composure and the man crawled backwards until he touched the wall, trying to put as much distance between them. Kibum stood and walked closer to the man, only stopping when he was face to face with the scared stranger. He gazed hard and long at those big eyes staring hesitantly back at him and promptly announced, "He’s going to stay with us."
Taemin gave his most incredulous look at Kibum and thought he must be going crazy. The stranger's eyes got even bigger if that was even possible and let his mouth dropped to the floor. Kibum only gave his cheeky grin at them.
"So, what's your name, sweetie? You’re really dirty you know? I’ll have to give you a bath. Well, at least you are not that much different in size than me so you could borrow my clothes. Oh! My name is Kibum by the way." That was how Jonghyun was introduced to their lives.
Jonghyun was the new addition to their little family. He was an introvert by the look of things, wouldn't tell his history, spoke only if necessary, and got irritated by Kibum pretty fast. At least that was what happened the first few weeks. He showed his true personality after he ate Key's home-made cooking for the first time.
Taemin discovered the true nature of Jonghyun, the loud and truthful man, who trusted people too easily and laughed too much. He didn't mind though, Kibum had been busier with Jonghyun around so he was not getting any unwanted attention.
The next night Taemin slipped out from Kibum's room, claiming his spot on the rooftop and let his mind wandered to one of the humans' dream yet again.
When he opened his eyes, a blue green ocean was spread out in front of him, tropical trees waving by the wind behind him, and he was standing on the purest hue of white sands he had ever seen. He glanced to the left where a dark haired man was playing a piano. Well, trying to play was more appropriate because the sound it emitted was kind of horrible and off pitch.
Taemin cringed at a particular wrong note and hurried forward to stop the man. He grabbed the man's hand before it could make any more awful sounds and put it on the man's lap. He then began to press on one of the keys and closed his eyes, letting his mind go with the soft tunes he created.
After finishing the last note, soft clapping sound was heard from beside him. He opened his eyes abruptly and felt his cheeks turned bright pink as he realized he had just played a piano in someone else's dream where he invited himself in. He dropped his gaze to the piano, distracting himself from those burning eyes staring at him.
"What song was it?" The man who he recognized as the man from the night before asked him, his finger pressing on the keys, unconsciously making a horrible screeching noise when he pressed two at a time and he retracted his hand swiftly afterwards. Taemin chuckled at the man's obvious lack of ability to play.
"It’s Kiss the rain by Yiruma." In his short time in human world, Taemin managed to master the art of playing a piano. After hearing that one particular piece by accident 3 years ago, he started to study playing a piano. Kibum encouraged him of course, anything to get his baby happy.
"Hey, you are from the night before, what's your name boy? I'm Minho." Suddenly Taemin's content mood dropped, and he flashed a half-shocked, half-amused look at him. No humans had ever remembered him after he visited their dreams. It was an unwritten law for night world creatures not to leave anything that could be used as evidence of their existence, and that included memories. He was sure he left nothing from the night before, yet here the man saying he recognized Taemin.
Minho smiled warmly at him and he found that not only was he attracted by the man’s gaze but his smile was no less beautiful. He felt his lips tugged upwards without his consent and his stomach did little flips.
“I’m Taemin.” He replied, and for the first time after meeting Kibum he felt truly happy to hold a normal conversation with a human. They talked and talked about a lot of things, everything ranging from the general talk about weather to the most private conversation. They talked about how old Taemin was-he discovered Minho was just nineteen years old; how both of them were orphans and how Minho used to be an athlete, but something came up and he was forced to stop, “why?” Taemin had asked.
“Because I lost a game and got hit by a truck on the way home because I was too distracted by my depressing thoughts. I got minor injuries on my body but I can’t see any more after that. What good an athlete without his sight?” Minho talked as if it was a ridiculous joke he found amusing though he spoke with a slightly bitter tone which did not go unnoticed by Taemin. But Taemin did not even realize in the short time he spent with the older man that Minho was blind. Minho had always have that fierce look in his eyes but now, his eyes seemed tired and the glassy look suddenly made a lot of sense to Taemin. He vaguely wondered in the back of his mind how Minho could recognize him without seeing him the first time he addressed the brunet.
“Sorry to hear that. Well, at least you didn’t get permanent injury.” He smiled encouragingly at Minho and realized belatedly that he couldn’t see his smile. He felt a bit awkward with the knowledge of spending time with a sightless man even though Minho was far from disable.
They continued their conversation for every night after that just because Taemin felt how different Minho was from other humans and because he took a liking on him.
“I should get going.” The night was almost up; if he was not back before dawn then Kibum would throw a search party for him. However Taemin made no move to stand up.
“Then I won’t be holding you up.” Minho smiled warmly and said his farewell to the wondering teen, “See you next time?”
“See you next time.”
••••
“Taemin-ah, are you okay? You have been awfully quiet recently.” Kibum gave a worried glance at him from across the table. Kibum knew what was going on but with the presence of Jonghyun who was oblivious, he couldn’t confront Taemin openly. But dinner was the only time Taemin would let him confront him as the incubus would vanish every night after dinner.
“Yeah, I am. I just haven’t got enough exercise lately.” That wasn’t a complete lie. For him, going through dreams after dreams was like refreshing and resting to him so saying so shouldn’t be a lie and he didn’t have to feel guilty about it.
Kibum let the matter drop even though it was clear he still had something to say. Instead, he stood and began cleaning up the dishes, ordering Jonghyun to help him. Oddly enough, even with the obvious distaste Jonghyun showed to Kibum in the beginning, he grew to always stay close to him and followed him around like a puppy. It was a pretty adorable thing to watch and it calmed the storm inside Taemin’s head a bit.
Taemin heaved a soft sigh as he led himself into another dream, didn’t bother to pretend choosing among one of the humans as his pull to Minho was more than enough to make him ended up in said human’s dream.
The first thing he noticed was the blaring sound of cheering and screaming all around him. The next thing was the blinding lights from above him shone right at his direction and he was standing in the middle of what looked like a soccer stadium. Complete with the goal and the supporters.
“Hey Taem! Come play with me!” Minho’s voice rang through the crowds and soon a ball was tossed his way, closely followed by the bigger male as he tried to catch the ball from Taemin’s possession. Soon, they were too engrossed in their playing and Taemin laughed. He laughed genuinely for the first time since so long ago when his family still existed.
Only when they were spent and lying on the grass and all the fake supporters were gone-they were in a dream after all-did he really think about Minho. He seemed to always remember Taemin even after Taemin erased his memories; it seemed his existence could not leave the man’s head and he was wondering why it worked both ways. He couldn’t get Minho out of his mind these days and he had only known the man for only a month. He closed his eyes, trying to contain the feelings he was beginning to develop to the older man.
••••
The weather hadn't been good for the last 2 weeks since the hurricane hit the north part of Seoul. So it was an understatement if the sky hadn't seen any sunlight for about half a month. But from the last two days the rain had poured down swiftly non-stop to the point of having to use vehicles to transport, or else ruining whatever clothes you were wearing that day.
Taemin eyed Jonghyun who paced nervously in front of the front door from the kitchen table across the room. He knew what made the brunet so agitated, but the fact that he too felt anxious didn't make the view any less amusing.
"He can take care of himself, I'm sure." Taemin said teasingly, resting his head on his crossed arms on the table. Jonghyun looked up and stopped pacing. He fixed a shocked stare at Taemin before continued walking back and forth. Taemin sighed at the ridicules act and shook his head; if he wanted to be upset then that was not his problem.
"You're just jealous you don't have any boyfriend to be worried of." The sound was unexpected and Taemin looked up from his slumped position, but after his brain processed what his companion said he straightened his body so fast that he was convinced he heard a snap from his spine. Jonghyun was grinning at his gaping face which he thought must have looked pretty unattractive, but before he could arrange a coherent sentence to reply, the front door was slammed open.
"Oooh, the rain was so heavy!" Kibum's grumble echoed through the apartment and Jonghyun dashed forward to help the blond man, fluffy pink towels magically appeared on his hands and he handed them to the drenched man. Taemin was slowly gaining his composure when a dark silhouette fell on the floor behind Kibum.
"Hey, are you okay? You should be careful, the floor is wet." Kibum rushed forward to help the fallen man back on his feet. The man had short dark hair that plastered to his head because of the rain and gripped Kibum's hand and the wall to regain his balance while laughing awkwardly.
"Thank you, oh kind soul. I am fine now." He reassured Kibum so he would let go of his hand he was gripping.
"Kibum, this is..." Jonghyun trailed off uncertainly, cutting whatever replies Kibum had for the stranger before he got a word out.
"Oh, I forgot to say! This man was crouching in front of the bookstore across the street. He looked so miserable and I couldn't help myself so I took him in." Kibum sent Taemin and Jonghyun a sheepish grin and right on cue, the stranger looked up and gave his own type of grin.
"His name is-"
"Jinki-hyung!" Before Kibum could finish his sentence, Taemin had flown from across the room and crashed the poor man, making both of them stumbled before finally fell on the man's back.
"T-Taemin-ah!" The man-Jinki sounded surprised and he automatically circled his hands around Taemin's waist.
"What are you doing here, hyung?" Taemin's voice was muffled by the damp clothes he was hugging.
"I-Tae-I came to find you!" Jinki exclaimed with a confused but happy face. Both of them were too engaged in each other that they didn't notice the audiences they had in front of them.
"Ahem. I know you don't miss me and I'm touched by your cold welcome but can you please introduce your boyfriend to me?" Kibum uttered the question with a kind smile fixed on his face, though the dark aura around him was kind of hard to miss. Smiling cheerfully, Taemin ignored the obvious bite in the sentence and answered enthusiastically.
"He's not my boyfriend, Kibum-hyung. He's my brother. Well, half-brother to be exact. His father was married to my mother." He simply explained the matter without any further indication of telling more than necessary. Kibum looked like he wanted to say something but Jonghyun pulled him to their shared room, muttering something about wetness and catching a cold. Soon, the pair's footsteps faded away and Taemin was left alone with his brother, giving them the privacy they needed.
"So, how did you come here?" Taemin didn't waste his time beating around the bush which shocked Jinki a little. He remembered having Taemin as a shy younger brother who would flinch every time he was asked a direct question.
"Father asked my help to find you and bring you home." Taemin winced. He supposed it was inevitable. He had been trying his hardest to stay hidden for this long 4 years and the concept of finally going back home was a scary thing.
Going back home. How foreign the words were to him now that he thought about his little house he had been living with Kibum which felt like home to him. He would not go back home. He could not go back. He was home already.
But he couldn't say that to Jinki, could he?
"Okay, hyung. Just give me some time to say goodbye to my friends." Taemin faked a smile; the only person he would care enough to announce his depart was Minho.
"Well, that's the problem. I was transferred here by the Death Gods and they sort of just...left me here. Without a way back." Jinki smiled sheepishly and scratched at the back of his head. Taemin was about to leap in joy after the last word was out of Jinki's mouth.
"Ah, but I recall Father telling me to find The Gate which brought you here those few years ago and told me to search for a ‘Minho’.” At the mention of the name, Taemin looked up in puzzlement. Minho was a pretty common name so it could be merely coincidence his little crush happened to have the same name.
"There are lots of Minho in this world. How are you supposed to find him?" Trying to calm his beating heart, Taemin uttered the most logical question he could manage.
"That's where you come in. You see, the Gate has been asleep this whole time after sending you here and being an incubus, the dream world is your specialty and you should be able to track him. Just find someone named Minho who is never up from dreamland, please." Jinki pleaded.
"I-I'll see what I can do." Taemin agreed hesitantly. The problem was, he already knew his Minho was the Minho in question even if he refused to acknowledge it.
••••
At dawn, where most people were still asleep, Taemin went outside of the apartment. He walked the same path his soul had been going for the past month every night. He left the big loud city and entered the thick dark forest in the outskirts. The street was full of small rocks and unkempt, like it had never been taken care of or even being used before.
The slender boy turned into his real form when a waterfall could be seen behind the tall trees. Near the waterfall was a cave half-hidden by the bushes and the massive amount of moss covering the rocks.
Taemin took a step forward and ducked his head as two arrows shot from different directions. It seemed the place was filled with traps and protections. He jumped to the side as a blade swing towards the place he was just before and ran inside the cave quickly, narrowly avoided getting hit by pebble rocks and stepped on a crack under the dust filled floor. Instantly a net came up and wrapped itself on Taemin.
"Che. What a troublesome place." He muttered under his breath and cut the ropes surrounding him in one swift motion. After making sure none of the traps remained, he searched the area for the body he had grown used to and stumbled his way to the corner of the room.
Minho was laying on a made bed consisted of rocks and leaves, his hands laying motionless on his sides and his breathing was even, not disturbed ny all the noise Taemin made. The blond felt a tingling sensation on the pit of his stomach when he observed that perfect face up close. If he didn't know better, he would think Minho was just sleeping like any normal human.
He took a seat on the floor and leaned his body on the bed. He closed his eyes and got himself in Minho's mind, creating a place for them to talk.
"Why are you here?" Minho let the question passed his gritted teeth even before Taemin completely morphed.
"What are you talking about? What's wrong with being here? I come here everyday after all." Taemin faked innocence at the question, avoiding looking into Minho's eyes even though Minho was not capable of seeing.
"Why is your real body here? That's not how your kind works, you should not let your body and your victims get too close. It would mess the dream world!" Minho barely could contain his anger and worry, not noticing the slight flinch Taemin made at the word victims.
"That is not a problem. We are currently in your mind and not in a dream. I'm not that foolish to risk myself." He replied with such cold and flat tone that Minho froze.
"I have a question of my own though, how could you know about the consequences my kind get? You are a mere human, are you not?" Taemin eyed the man suspiciously. Jinki's voice rang in his mind and he tried not to let those words affect him.
"You know well what I really am; you have talked with Jinki after all. There's no need to play fool." Minho said, lowering his gaze to the floor. Oddly enough, he sounded genuinely sad and embarrassed, as if he had done something he was ashamed of.
"How do you know I've met Jinki?" Taemin tried to keep his voice even and took a step closer. His companion was still looking down and fiddling with his fingers.
"Well...I..am the Gate. I do not only connect the underworld to this world, but I also connect to every place in the universe. I am connected to every exist door to be precise." Minho explained gloomily.
Suddenly, a light emerged from behind Minho, illuminating their figures from different angle. Minho glanced back and took a hold on what seemed like a huge half-body mirror, where he put it before was lost to Taemin.
"It seems like, the Key is about to be retrieved." Minho put his hand on the mirror.
"What do you mean the Key? Key for what?" Taemin had closed their distance and stood beside him, peering over his shoulder to see what was in the mirror. The mirror was not any ordinary mirror, it didn't show their reflection but there were other people reflected. With dread he realized the people reflected were Kibum and Jonghyun with Jinki in front of them in defense position, looking like he was protecting them from visible harm. But try as hard as he might, he could not see what was threatening them.
"The Key is being retrieved, I know you want me to open the gate to your home, but The Key was hidden when I first came to this world." Minho put both of his hands above the mirror and stretched them out, making the mirror lengthened into screen wide for Taemin's benefit.
"How does a key connect to Kibum and the others? Get whatever you sent out of that place!" Taemin raised his voice in panic, eyes never leaving the screen.
"Don't you get it? It's not a key, it's The Key. Kibum is The Key. How do you think you could be taken when all the people in Seoul were as ignorant as they could ever get if you were not meant to be found? Kibum was the holder of The Key and your meeting was not coincidence. Now, I'll send you off to where you truly belong if only Kibum would give it back so I can raise myself in real world." He said it with a sad smile, distracting Taemin from his worry a bit when he wondered what was the cause of those sad expressions.
"I will surely miss you." Taemin felt his heart flutter at the words, he cupped Minho's cheek and grinned at him, all the previous tension was forgotten.
"What are you talking about? Like you said, you can connect to every door, which means you can find me whenever you want right?" Even though he knew Minho could not see his smile, he kept grinning at him, showing the perfect row of teeth. Another sad smile emerged on the taller male's face but a sudden scream distracted Taemin from asking more questions.
"Kibum-hyung!" Taemin exclaimed was a little bit too early as he watched Jinki being thrown aside and Jonghyun jumped forward to take the blow aimed at Kibum. Kibum was a hysteric mess; he screamed and yelled profanities at the monster, which Taemin still couldn't see considering the point of view was from the monster's eyes.
"Jjong!" Kibum fell on his knees, reaching for the fallen Jonghyun whose shoulder was bleeding profusely. Jonghyun coughed, emitting blood that smeared Kibum's clothes and wetting his face, mixing with the tears falling down his eyes. Taemin felt his heart breaking to see the man he had grown to care fell down like that.
"Stop! Stop it! You're hurting him!" Taemin pulled Minho's hand as if doing so could stop the monster from coming at Kibum.
"Don't you want to go home?" Taemin threw his head back and forth between staring at Minho and looking at the screen where the distance was getting thinner.
"But not like this! You don't have to hurt innocent people." Just as the last word left his lips, the screen blurred before vanishing into thin air. Taemin stared in shock with wide eyes.
"It seems your friend killed my beast." Minho said in a calm voice. Taemin let go of his grip on Minho's arm and got out from the older male's mind, back to the human world. He only spared a glance at Minho who was still laying motionless on the bed and a split-second hesitation before hauling the body onto his back and ran his way home.
He had a little difficulty with the extra weight on his back, but he managed to arrive safely at the apartment and stormed in without knocking. He was greeted by Kibum's panicked sobs and Jinki's voice trying to calm him, saying Taemin would come home soon and help would come.
The image was heartbreaking. Jonghyun's skin had turned deadly pale and his mouth was starting to turn blue. Taemin placed Minho on one of the couches and rushed his way to the crying Kibum.
"T-Tae..." The broken voice belonged to Kibum who was pleading with his eyes for Taemin to save his lover. Taemin placed his fingers on Jonghyun's jugular, finding an ice cold skin but fortunately the pulse was still there even if only barely.
"He is going to be okay, Kibum. Don't worry." Kibum had never liked lies but he would take anything that could reassure him of Jonghyun's health. He took a breath and promptly passed out. Taemin turned at Jinki and gave a questioning look.
"I've called the ambulance and yes, I killed the beast." Jinki released a deep breath and gave him a knowing look after pointing faintly at Minho.
"Good. You take care of Jonghyun. Leave Kibum to me." Both of them began working, carrying Kibum to his room, accompanying Jonghyun to hospital and making stories about burglar for the police.
When they came home, they saw Kibum holding a spatula taking a hesitant step closer to the sleeping man on the couch.
"Kibum-hyung, this is Minho. Can you wake him for me please?" Taemin saw Kibum's eyes widened when he mentioned Minho's name and the recognition turned into horror as he comprehend what Taemin would have known about him.
"I-I can't Taeminie. He has been sleeping this whole time even before I was created." Kibum said apologetically and lowered the spatula.
"But he said you're the Key and he mentioned something about your soul..." Taemin trailed off, not knowing what else to say. They stood facing each other; both busy with their own thoughts and didn't notice the nervous Jinki beside them.
"How...How is Jjong?" Kibum asked in timid voice. Taemin snapped out of his eerie and looked hesitant to answer.
"He is fine. He dislocated his shoulder and lost too much blood but he will be okay after taking the medication given at the moment." Kibum smiled at the answer and pulled Jinki, forcing him to show the way to the hospital, leaving only Taemin and Minho in the apartment.
"What should I do to wake you up?" Taemin wonder sadly out loud, hoping for the response he knew he wouldn't get. He took Minho's hand and put a soft kiss on the sleeping man's lips. Night time could not come faster for him. And when it finally arrived, he didn't expect to find the unexpected.
"I cannot be awakened. I've been asleep for as long as I can remember. You don't have to find a way to wake me." Minho said airily when Taemin came that night. It pained Taemin that they would never be able to be together in real world.
"I know you want to help go back to my home, but I actually do not want to go back. I'm happy here with Kibum-hyung, Jonghyun-hyung, Jinki-hyung, and most importantly I have you by my side." Taemin smiled and hugged the stunned Minho close.
"That's why you don't have to open the gate for me. And don't kill Kibum-hyung." Taemin said in between the crook of Minho's neck. Minho chuckled and held him closer.
They might not have the perfect relationship and Taemin's step-father wouldn't stop trying to bring Taemin back to under world, but they were content with what they had. This was only the beginning of their own fairytale.
Fin.
A/N: I'm sorry there is no forbidden-love, undistanced. It turns out differently from the original plot. Hope you enjoy it though.
Author : haruhanayukiko
Recipient : undistanced
Rating : PG-13
Word Count : 6,330
Warnings : a bit of blood and monsters
Disclaimer : SHINee is a group of human beings.
Summary : Dreams are the reality humans want. What they don't understand is how they have those dreams they've never thought of before.
A/N : I'm so sorry for my lateness. This is for taeminho fic exchange.
I really don't like how this turns out because I had to shorten it for my own benefit but I hope you like it, especially undistanced. Critiques are most welcome.
In a land full of mischief and burning flames of hell far away from human world, where the sunlight barely lights the place and happiness and joy did not exist, lived a young boy with an unfortunate story in life named Lee Taemin. With blood shaded curly red hair and white porcelain-like complexion, he was crowned a natural seduction. The way he attracted both men and women was not by coincidence, nor was it intentional. His innocent look and good boy charm always got him out of troubles; like that one time when he 'accidentally' burned his wolverine teacher's tail because he thought it would be fun to watch the teacher to fumble for a bucket of water. He didn't even have to bat an eyelash to get the wolf to forgive him. It was not his choice to be beautiful, he was only an ordinary soul trapped in an incubus body, the body of a demon that drained people’s energy in their sleep.
Many envied and admired his beauty and took it upon themselves to try stealing it from him. Those attempts had made him running away all his life and lost his family when they tried to hide him. Then, one day the underworld King found him struggling against one of the assaults and took him in as the foster child. From then on, he had lived his life like a caged animal, being polished to be the perfect heir for the underworld leader. He no longer felt, no longer hoped, and no longer loved.
On the day he turned fifteen, a man in mask came uninvited to his party and left a huge box as a gift. He also gave Taemin the key to open the box with and didn’t leave after telling him to open the box when he was alone. Intrigued and curious, Taemin promised not to open it if the man told him what was inside. The answer both pleased and confused Taemin more, the man told him it was a Pandora box.
So Taemin kept to his promise and despite the itching to just rip the lock away, he opened the box gently and tenderly. A shocking white enveloped him and he felt himself lost his consciousness. The last thing he remembered was the key was disappearing from his hand and he was falling into nothing.
In his unconscious state, no one even so much as glanced twice at him. That was to be expected from the busiest and crowded city of South Korea. He survived the first few days by himself without any food and shelter but he could only last so long and by the end of his first week, he was ready to accept his death. Among the busy street of Seoul, a man took pity on him and gave him everything he would ever need in human world. The man was Kim Kibum, a college student in his mid twenties who took his studies and job simultaneously despite his busy schedule.
It was not easy, being an incubus in the middle of humans. Granted, no one knows what he really was with long auburn hair and big brown eyes, aside from Kibum obviously, but still, after a lot of time it got suspicious. He was a lot faster than most humans, he memorized too quickly, and being too perfect was never accepted in human world; moreover, there were times when someone caught him in his real form. He had caused quite a lot of trouble to Kibum in their 4 years together. Though after spending such a long time together he started to care a little bit for the older male, he was still his cold self beneath the charming happy front.
••••
Taemin glanced absently at the place he was currently seeing. They were at a broken train railing which used to connect the bridge at the edge of the cliff. Under the cliff was a seemingly calm river with crocodiles swimming around it. A man with big eyes, might be in his early twenties, was sitting and swinging his feet in the air while looking blankly at nothing in particular.
Taemin tilted his head to the side, wondering what a strange place to be in one's dream. He stalked quietly at the sitting man and when he was close enough, the man gestured his hand in a motion that invited Taemin to sit next to him despite not giving any indication that he acknowledge the brunet's presence.
For a long moment they just sat side by side in silence, only the occasional sound of water below was heard. The autumn breeze was comforting, the wind was humid and Taemin found himself thinking exactly what he was doing. The sole reason he visited himself into someone else dream was to take the energy emitted from human’s dreams that his kind fed off of.
Taemin turned his head to look at the man. He had inhumanly big eyes, black hair, sharp pointy nose and thin lips. A shiver went through him when he took in the black-haired man's appearance. Taemin could say he was quite attractive for a human, if the bit about resembling a frog was ignored. He sat motionless beside him; never budging no matter however long Taemin stared at him. Suddenly, the man snapped his head at Taemin's direction and placed his gaze somewhere on Taemin's face.
Taemin was unnerved by the glassy look on his eyes. Yet those eyes held so much fire; it struck a shiver down Taemin’s spine. Taemin was speechless, it was the first time he saw such burning gaze in all his life experience. He found himself drowning in those eyes and before he realized it, he had lifted his hand to touch the other's cheek.
The spell was unbounded when the man looked away and Taemin couldn’t stop the flinch that surfaced when he realized what he was about to do. He cursed inwardly, letting his hand fall glamorously to his lap.
Placing his most innocent smile, he leaned forward and whispered beside his ear, "Come play with me." Taemin felt the sugar-coated words flew almost automatically from his lips.
"I’m bored, hyung. Play with me?" He opened his eyes wide as he let his right hand crawling to rest on the man's thigh in an attempt to get the older man excited. But his effort was in vain, the man only tilted his head slightly, didn't as much as turn his head to look at Taemin's expression. A thoughtful expression grazed along the man's beautiful features.
"But I don't know what to play. I'm afraid I'm not up for any normal games." A childish feeling of irritation came through Taemin as he was refused.
"Really, hyung? Let's play something more fun than normal games!" Taemin's voice usually would have crumbled any woman's, or in this case-man-'s resolve, doubled with the puppy eyes he gave, but this time it seemed that was not going to happen.
"What do you want to play then?" The man's voice was warm and gentle, quite the contrary to Taemin's devious smirk. He placed a hand behind the man's neck and captured the end of his mouth, nipping lightly at the skin. He explored a complete stranger's body that night like he always did every other night. But that was the first time he felt a surge of warmth inside his body when he reached his climax.
••••
The first thing Taemin saw when he was back to his room was a sleeping Kibum, who was about to be slay by an axe holding Minotaur. He didn't let himself think or panic, only letting his anger and fear engulfed him and turned into his true form.
His hair faded into honey and shortened until it barely brushed his shoulder, curvy horns came out from behind the curtain of his hair, just above the ears. His eyeballs were covered by thin red-violet film while his skin lightened a bit, reaching a fragile porcelain tone. His black nails lengthened and sharpened into claw-like, a pair of enormous black wings burst behind him, and a thin spade-end tail waved between his legs.
All the transformation only took seconds and he lunged forward at the axe raising creature, quickly gripped its head in claw grip and snapped it sideways, sputtering blood everywhere as the head detached itself from its body. The ever light-sleeper Kibum woke up right after the creature was killed and almost had a heart attack seeing a headless Minotaur with axe in front of his face.
"OH MY GOD TAEMIN!" Kibum screamed when the axe closed the distance to his face. Taemin hurriedly grab the body and hauled it outside the window, smashing the hand that was holding the axe to the window sill. He then walked to the window and picked the fallen axe. Dropping it from the room they were in, it clashed right on top of the creature.
"Oh, well...that was messy." Taemin said after having a glance at the room. Blood can be seen smearing across Kibum's bed and a little part of the wall beside it.
"No shit, sherlock! You ruined my beauty sleep, now I have to take another bath." Kibum wiped his face furiously, trying to get the blood out of his head. Taemin just rolled his eyes at the older's antics, he was used to the ever so hygenic man.
"Go take a bath, I'll clean this up." He shooed Kibum to the bathroom and changed to his human form. He let out a sigh as he started to change the sheet. Before the door was closed, he thought he heard a small thank you from the older male. At least he could protect Kibum as the payment of everything he received. He smiled at the thought.
"TAEMIN-AH!" Kibum's high-pitched voice roared inside the apartment, startling Taemin who was scrubbing the blood from the wall. He quickly ran into the bathroom, kicking the door open in his haste.
"What happened?" Kibum was sprawled on the floor in front of the mirror and pointing at the open window beside the sink.
"I-I saw something moving. I think that ugly monster before has companions." He stuttered at the beginning with his voice as mere whisper and Taemin was alert instantly. He walked closer to the window, peeking cautiously over it and carelessly yanked a bundle of what looked like a very big brown rag. Said brown rag lifted its head to revealed a dirty but young man with puppy like eyes staring around in fear and confusion.
"It’s just a homeless man. What should we do to him?" Taemin dropped the man on the cold bathroom floor and the stranger flinched. Kibum eyed the filthy man curiously after regaining his composure and the man crawled backwards until he touched the wall, trying to put as much distance between them. Kibum stood and walked closer to the man, only stopping when he was face to face with the scared stranger. He gazed hard and long at those big eyes staring hesitantly back at him and promptly announced, "He’s going to stay with us."
Taemin gave his most incredulous look at Kibum and thought he must be going crazy. The stranger's eyes got even bigger if that was even possible and let his mouth dropped to the floor. Kibum only gave his cheeky grin at them.
"So, what's your name, sweetie? You’re really dirty you know? I’ll have to give you a bath. Well, at least you are not that much different in size than me so you could borrow my clothes. Oh! My name is Kibum by the way." That was how Jonghyun was introduced to their lives.
Jonghyun was the new addition to their little family. He was an introvert by the look of things, wouldn't tell his history, spoke only if necessary, and got irritated by Kibum pretty fast. At least that was what happened the first few weeks. He showed his true personality after he ate Key's home-made cooking for the first time.
Taemin discovered the true nature of Jonghyun, the loud and truthful man, who trusted people too easily and laughed too much. He didn't mind though, Kibum had been busier with Jonghyun around so he was not getting any unwanted attention.
The next night Taemin slipped out from Kibum's room, claiming his spot on the rooftop and let his mind wandered to one of the humans' dream yet again.
When he opened his eyes, a blue green ocean was spread out in front of him, tropical trees waving by the wind behind him, and he was standing on the purest hue of white sands he had ever seen. He glanced to the left where a dark haired man was playing a piano. Well, trying to play was more appropriate because the sound it emitted was kind of horrible and off pitch.
Taemin cringed at a particular wrong note and hurried forward to stop the man. He grabbed the man's hand before it could make any more awful sounds and put it on the man's lap. He then began to press on one of the keys and closed his eyes, letting his mind go with the soft tunes he created.
After finishing the last note, soft clapping sound was heard from beside him. He opened his eyes abruptly and felt his cheeks turned bright pink as he realized he had just played a piano in someone else's dream where he invited himself in. He dropped his gaze to the piano, distracting himself from those burning eyes staring at him.
"What song was it?" The man who he recognized as the man from the night before asked him, his finger pressing on the keys, unconsciously making a horrible screeching noise when he pressed two at a time and he retracted his hand swiftly afterwards. Taemin chuckled at the man's obvious lack of ability to play.
"It’s Kiss the rain by Yiruma." In his short time in human world, Taemin managed to master the art of playing a piano. After hearing that one particular piece by accident 3 years ago, he started to study playing a piano. Kibum encouraged him of course, anything to get his baby happy.
"Hey, you are from the night before, what's your name boy? I'm Minho." Suddenly Taemin's content mood dropped, and he flashed a half-shocked, half-amused look at him. No humans had ever remembered him after he visited their dreams. It was an unwritten law for night world creatures not to leave anything that could be used as evidence of their existence, and that included memories. He was sure he left nothing from the night before, yet here the man saying he recognized Taemin.
Minho smiled warmly at him and he found that not only was he attracted by the man’s gaze but his smile was no less beautiful. He felt his lips tugged upwards without his consent and his stomach did little flips.
“I’m Taemin.” He replied, and for the first time after meeting Kibum he felt truly happy to hold a normal conversation with a human. They talked and talked about a lot of things, everything ranging from the general talk about weather to the most private conversation. They talked about how old Taemin was-he discovered Minho was just nineteen years old; how both of them were orphans and how Minho used to be an athlete, but something came up and he was forced to stop, “why?” Taemin had asked.
“Because I lost a game and got hit by a truck on the way home because I was too distracted by my depressing thoughts. I got minor injuries on my body but I can’t see any more after that. What good an athlete without his sight?” Minho talked as if it was a ridiculous joke he found amusing though he spoke with a slightly bitter tone which did not go unnoticed by Taemin. But Taemin did not even realize in the short time he spent with the older man that Minho was blind. Minho had always have that fierce look in his eyes but now, his eyes seemed tired and the glassy look suddenly made a lot of sense to Taemin. He vaguely wondered in the back of his mind how Minho could recognize him without seeing him the first time he addressed the brunet.
“Sorry to hear that. Well, at least you didn’t get permanent injury.” He smiled encouragingly at Minho and realized belatedly that he couldn’t see his smile. He felt a bit awkward with the knowledge of spending time with a sightless man even though Minho was far from disable.
They continued their conversation for every night after that just because Taemin felt how different Minho was from other humans and because he took a liking on him.
“I should get going.” The night was almost up; if he was not back before dawn then Kibum would throw a search party for him. However Taemin made no move to stand up.
“Then I won’t be holding you up.” Minho smiled warmly and said his farewell to the wondering teen, “See you next time?”
“See you next time.”
••••
“Taemin-ah, are you okay? You have been awfully quiet recently.” Kibum gave a worried glance at him from across the table. Kibum knew what was going on but with the presence of Jonghyun who was oblivious, he couldn’t confront Taemin openly. But dinner was the only time Taemin would let him confront him as the incubus would vanish every night after dinner.
“Yeah, I am. I just haven’t got enough exercise lately.” That wasn’t a complete lie. For him, going through dreams after dreams was like refreshing and resting to him so saying so shouldn’t be a lie and he didn’t have to feel guilty about it.
Kibum let the matter drop even though it was clear he still had something to say. Instead, he stood and began cleaning up the dishes, ordering Jonghyun to help him. Oddly enough, even with the obvious distaste Jonghyun showed to Kibum in the beginning, he grew to always stay close to him and followed him around like a puppy. It was a pretty adorable thing to watch and it calmed the storm inside Taemin’s head a bit.
Taemin heaved a soft sigh as he led himself into another dream, didn’t bother to pretend choosing among one of the humans as his pull to Minho was more than enough to make him ended up in said human’s dream.
The first thing he noticed was the blaring sound of cheering and screaming all around him. The next thing was the blinding lights from above him shone right at his direction and he was standing in the middle of what looked like a soccer stadium. Complete with the goal and the supporters.
“Hey Taem! Come play with me!” Minho’s voice rang through the crowds and soon a ball was tossed his way, closely followed by the bigger male as he tried to catch the ball from Taemin’s possession. Soon, they were too engrossed in their playing and Taemin laughed. He laughed genuinely for the first time since so long ago when his family still existed.
Only when they were spent and lying on the grass and all the fake supporters were gone-they were in a dream after all-did he really think about Minho. He seemed to always remember Taemin even after Taemin erased his memories; it seemed his existence could not leave the man’s head and he was wondering why it worked both ways. He couldn’t get Minho out of his mind these days and he had only known the man for only a month. He closed his eyes, trying to contain the feelings he was beginning to develop to the older man.
••••
The weather hadn't been good for the last 2 weeks since the hurricane hit the north part of Seoul. So it was an understatement if the sky hadn't seen any sunlight for about half a month. But from the last two days the rain had poured down swiftly non-stop to the point of having to use vehicles to transport, or else ruining whatever clothes you were wearing that day.
Taemin eyed Jonghyun who paced nervously in front of the front door from the kitchen table across the room. He knew what made the brunet so agitated, but the fact that he too felt anxious didn't make the view any less amusing.
"He can take care of himself, I'm sure." Taemin said teasingly, resting his head on his crossed arms on the table. Jonghyun looked up and stopped pacing. He fixed a shocked stare at Taemin before continued walking back and forth. Taemin sighed at the ridicules act and shook his head; if he wanted to be upset then that was not his problem.
"You're just jealous you don't have any boyfriend to be worried of." The sound was unexpected and Taemin looked up from his slumped position, but after his brain processed what his companion said he straightened his body so fast that he was convinced he heard a snap from his spine. Jonghyun was grinning at his gaping face which he thought must have looked pretty unattractive, but before he could arrange a coherent sentence to reply, the front door was slammed open.
"Oooh, the rain was so heavy!" Kibum's grumble echoed through the apartment and Jonghyun dashed forward to help the blond man, fluffy pink towels magically appeared on his hands and he handed them to the drenched man. Taemin was slowly gaining his composure when a dark silhouette fell on the floor behind Kibum.
"Hey, are you okay? You should be careful, the floor is wet." Kibum rushed forward to help the fallen man back on his feet. The man had short dark hair that plastered to his head because of the rain and gripped Kibum's hand and the wall to regain his balance while laughing awkwardly.
"Thank you, oh kind soul. I am fine now." He reassured Kibum so he would let go of his hand he was gripping.
"Kibum, this is..." Jonghyun trailed off uncertainly, cutting whatever replies Kibum had for the stranger before he got a word out.
"Oh, I forgot to say! This man was crouching in front of the bookstore across the street. He looked so miserable and I couldn't help myself so I took him in." Kibum sent Taemin and Jonghyun a sheepish grin and right on cue, the stranger looked up and gave his own type of grin.
"His name is-"
"Jinki-hyung!" Before Kibum could finish his sentence, Taemin had flown from across the room and crashed the poor man, making both of them stumbled before finally fell on the man's back.
"T-Taemin-ah!" The man-Jinki sounded surprised and he automatically circled his hands around Taemin's waist.
"What are you doing here, hyung?" Taemin's voice was muffled by the damp clothes he was hugging.
"I-Tae-I came to find you!" Jinki exclaimed with a confused but happy face. Both of them were too engaged in each other that they didn't notice the audiences they had in front of them.
"Ahem. I know you don't miss me and I'm touched by your cold welcome but can you please introduce your boyfriend to me?" Kibum uttered the question with a kind smile fixed on his face, though the dark aura around him was kind of hard to miss. Smiling cheerfully, Taemin ignored the obvious bite in the sentence and answered enthusiastically.
"He's not my boyfriend, Kibum-hyung. He's my brother. Well, half-brother to be exact. His father was married to my mother." He simply explained the matter without any further indication of telling more than necessary. Kibum looked like he wanted to say something but Jonghyun pulled him to their shared room, muttering something about wetness and catching a cold. Soon, the pair's footsteps faded away and Taemin was left alone with his brother, giving them the privacy they needed.
"So, how did you come here?" Taemin didn't waste his time beating around the bush which shocked Jinki a little. He remembered having Taemin as a shy younger brother who would flinch every time he was asked a direct question.
"Father asked my help to find you and bring you home." Taemin winced. He supposed it was inevitable. He had been trying his hardest to stay hidden for this long 4 years and the concept of finally going back home was a scary thing.
Going back home. How foreign the words were to him now that he thought about his little house he had been living with Kibum which felt like home to him. He would not go back home. He could not go back. He was home already.
But he couldn't say that to Jinki, could he?
"Okay, hyung. Just give me some time to say goodbye to my friends." Taemin faked a smile; the only person he would care enough to announce his depart was Minho.
"Well, that's the problem. I was transferred here by the Death Gods and they sort of just...left me here. Without a way back." Jinki smiled sheepishly and scratched at the back of his head. Taemin was about to leap in joy after the last word was out of Jinki's mouth.
"Ah, but I recall Father telling me to find The Gate which brought you here those few years ago and told me to search for a ‘Minho’.” At the mention of the name, Taemin looked up in puzzlement. Minho was a pretty common name so it could be merely coincidence his little crush happened to have the same name.
"There are lots of Minho in this world. How are you supposed to find him?" Trying to calm his beating heart, Taemin uttered the most logical question he could manage.
"That's where you come in. You see, the Gate has been asleep this whole time after sending you here and being an incubus, the dream world is your specialty and you should be able to track him. Just find someone named Minho who is never up from dreamland, please." Jinki pleaded.
"I-I'll see what I can do." Taemin agreed hesitantly. The problem was, he already knew his Minho was the Minho in question even if he refused to acknowledge it.
••••
At dawn, where most people were still asleep, Taemin went outside of the apartment. He walked the same path his soul had been going for the past month every night. He left the big loud city and entered the thick dark forest in the outskirts. The street was full of small rocks and unkempt, like it had never been taken care of or even being used before.
The slender boy turned into his real form when a waterfall could be seen behind the tall trees. Near the waterfall was a cave half-hidden by the bushes and the massive amount of moss covering the rocks.
Taemin took a step forward and ducked his head as two arrows shot from different directions. It seemed the place was filled with traps and protections. He jumped to the side as a blade swing towards the place he was just before and ran inside the cave quickly, narrowly avoided getting hit by pebble rocks and stepped on a crack under the dust filled floor. Instantly a net came up and wrapped itself on Taemin.
"Che. What a troublesome place." He muttered under his breath and cut the ropes surrounding him in one swift motion. After making sure none of the traps remained, he searched the area for the body he had grown used to and stumbled his way to the corner of the room.
Minho was laying on a made bed consisted of rocks and leaves, his hands laying motionless on his sides and his breathing was even, not disturbed ny all the noise Taemin made. The blond felt a tingling sensation on the pit of his stomach when he observed that perfect face up close. If he didn't know better, he would think Minho was just sleeping like any normal human.
He took a seat on the floor and leaned his body on the bed. He closed his eyes and got himself in Minho's mind, creating a place for them to talk.
"Why are you here?" Minho let the question passed his gritted teeth even before Taemin completely morphed.
"What are you talking about? What's wrong with being here? I come here everyday after all." Taemin faked innocence at the question, avoiding looking into Minho's eyes even though Minho was not capable of seeing.
"Why is your real body here? That's not how your kind works, you should not let your body and your victims get too close. It would mess the dream world!" Minho barely could contain his anger and worry, not noticing the slight flinch Taemin made at the word victims.
"That is not a problem. We are currently in your mind and not in a dream. I'm not that foolish to risk myself." He replied with such cold and flat tone that Minho froze.
"I have a question of my own though, how could you know about the consequences my kind get? You are a mere human, are you not?" Taemin eyed the man suspiciously. Jinki's voice rang in his mind and he tried not to let those words affect him.
"You know well what I really am; you have talked with Jinki after all. There's no need to play fool." Minho said, lowering his gaze to the floor. Oddly enough, he sounded genuinely sad and embarrassed, as if he had done something he was ashamed of.
"How do you know I've met Jinki?" Taemin tried to keep his voice even and took a step closer. His companion was still looking down and fiddling with his fingers.
"Well...I..am the Gate. I do not only connect the underworld to this world, but I also connect to every place in the universe. I am connected to every exist door to be precise." Minho explained gloomily.
Suddenly, a light emerged from behind Minho, illuminating their figures from different angle. Minho glanced back and took a hold on what seemed like a huge half-body mirror, where he put it before was lost to Taemin.
"It seems like, the Key is about to be retrieved." Minho put his hand on the mirror.
"What do you mean the Key? Key for what?" Taemin had closed their distance and stood beside him, peering over his shoulder to see what was in the mirror. The mirror was not any ordinary mirror, it didn't show their reflection but there were other people reflected. With dread he realized the people reflected were Kibum and Jonghyun with Jinki in front of them in defense position, looking like he was protecting them from visible harm. But try as hard as he might, he could not see what was threatening them.
"The Key is being retrieved, I know you want me to open the gate to your home, but The Key was hidden when I first came to this world." Minho put both of his hands above the mirror and stretched them out, making the mirror lengthened into screen wide for Taemin's benefit.
"How does a key connect to Kibum and the others? Get whatever you sent out of that place!" Taemin raised his voice in panic, eyes never leaving the screen.
"Don't you get it? It's not a key, it's The Key. Kibum is The Key. How do you think you could be taken when all the people in Seoul were as ignorant as they could ever get if you were not meant to be found? Kibum was the holder of The Key and your meeting was not coincidence. Now, I'll send you off to where you truly belong if only Kibum would give it back so I can raise myself in real world." He said it with a sad smile, distracting Taemin from his worry a bit when he wondered what was the cause of those sad expressions.
"I will surely miss you." Taemin felt his heart flutter at the words, he cupped Minho's cheek and grinned at him, all the previous tension was forgotten.
"What are you talking about? Like you said, you can connect to every door, which means you can find me whenever you want right?" Even though he knew Minho could not see his smile, he kept grinning at him, showing the perfect row of teeth. Another sad smile emerged on the taller male's face but a sudden scream distracted Taemin from asking more questions.
"Kibum-hyung!" Taemin exclaimed was a little bit too early as he watched Jinki being thrown aside and Jonghyun jumped forward to take the blow aimed at Kibum. Kibum was a hysteric mess; he screamed and yelled profanities at the monster, which Taemin still couldn't see considering the point of view was from the monster's eyes.
"Jjong!" Kibum fell on his knees, reaching for the fallen Jonghyun whose shoulder was bleeding profusely. Jonghyun coughed, emitting blood that smeared Kibum's clothes and wetting his face, mixing with the tears falling down his eyes. Taemin felt his heart breaking to see the man he had grown to care fell down like that.
"Stop! Stop it! You're hurting him!" Taemin pulled Minho's hand as if doing so could stop the monster from coming at Kibum.
"Don't you want to go home?" Taemin threw his head back and forth between staring at Minho and looking at the screen where the distance was getting thinner.
"But not like this! You don't have to hurt innocent people." Just as the last word left his lips, the screen blurred before vanishing into thin air. Taemin stared in shock with wide eyes.
"It seems your friend killed my beast." Minho said in a calm voice. Taemin let go of his grip on Minho's arm and got out from the older male's mind, back to the human world. He only spared a glance at Minho who was still laying motionless on the bed and a split-second hesitation before hauling the body onto his back and ran his way home.
He had a little difficulty with the extra weight on his back, but he managed to arrive safely at the apartment and stormed in without knocking. He was greeted by Kibum's panicked sobs and Jinki's voice trying to calm him, saying Taemin would come home soon and help would come.
The image was heartbreaking. Jonghyun's skin had turned deadly pale and his mouth was starting to turn blue. Taemin placed Minho on one of the couches and rushed his way to the crying Kibum.
"T-Tae..." The broken voice belonged to Kibum who was pleading with his eyes for Taemin to save his lover. Taemin placed his fingers on Jonghyun's jugular, finding an ice cold skin but fortunately the pulse was still there even if only barely.
"He is going to be okay, Kibum. Don't worry." Kibum had never liked lies but he would take anything that could reassure him of Jonghyun's health. He took a breath and promptly passed out. Taemin turned at Jinki and gave a questioning look.
"I've called the ambulance and yes, I killed the beast." Jinki released a deep breath and gave him a knowing look after pointing faintly at Minho.
"Good. You take care of Jonghyun. Leave Kibum to me." Both of them began working, carrying Kibum to his room, accompanying Jonghyun to hospital and making stories about burglar for the police.
When they came home, they saw Kibum holding a spatula taking a hesitant step closer to the sleeping man on the couch.
"Kibum-hyung, this is Minho. Can you wake him for me please?" Taemin saw Kibum's eyes widened when he mentioned Minho's name and the recognition turned into horror as he comprehend what Taemin would have known about him.
"I-I can't Taeminie. He has been sleeping this whole time even before I was created." Kibum said apologetically and lowered the spatula.
"But he said you're the Key and he mentioned something about your soul..." Taemin trailed off, not knowing what else to say. They stood facing each other; both busy with their own thoughts and didn't notice the nervous Jinki beside them.
"How...How is Jjong?" Kibum asked in timid voice. Taemin snapped out of his eerie and looked hesitant to answer.
"He is fine. He dislocated his shoulder and lost too much blood but he will be okay after taking the medication given at the moment." Kibum smiled at the answer and pulled Jinki, forcing him to show the way to the hospital, leaving only Taemin and Minho in the apartment.
"What should I do to wake you up?" Taemin wonder sadly out loud, hoping for the response he knew he wouldn't get. He took Minho's hand and put a soft kiss on the sleeping man's lips. Night time could not come faster for him. And when it finally arrived, he didn't expect to find the unexpected.
"I cannot be awakened. I've been asleep for as long as I can remember. You don't have to find a way to wake me." Minho said airily when Taemin came that night. It pained Taemin that they would never be able to be together in real world.
"I know you want to help go back to my home, but I actually do not want to go back. I'm happy here with Kibum-hyung, Jonghyun-hyung, Jinki-hyung, and most importantly I have you by my side." Taemin smiled and hugged the stunned Minho close.
"That's why you don't have to open the gate for me. And don't kill Kibum-hyung." Taemin said in between the crook of Minho's neck. Minho chuckled and held him closer.
They might not have the perfect relationship and Taemin's step-father wouldn't stop trying to bring Taemin back to under world, but they were content with what they had. This was only the beginning of their own fairytale.
Fin.
A/N: I'm sorry there is no forbidden-love, undistanced. It turns out differently from the original plot. Hope you enjoy it though.