Title: The Difference Between Pawns and Kings [6/__ ]
Fandom: Super Junior
Chapter Pairings: Eunhae
Word Count: 1406
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Overall Summary: he secluded world of South Korea has decayed and it's largest city, Seoul, has fractioned into two seperate halves: the kings and the pawns. Society is different; life is different. People struggle to survive in both worlds, either smothered by the rules of the city or the despair of the slums. The lucky ones managing to balance between the two extreems watch their friends suffer or survive, take or be taken. Still, life churns on, and no matter what hand you have been dealt, you must play the game.
Chapter Summary: What sickness can and cannot do.
Genre: AU
A/N: Want some answers? I hope you guys can figure it out, without me saying it outright.
schm0use, i know you can. I'm sorry to do this to him, but you did kind of give me the idea, a long long time ago when this first started and you probably dont remember. He does make for a rather beautiful tragedy, doesnt he? Anyways, on to lighter things. Thanks for voting in the poll, everyone! It made me really happy to see 16 votes, since you can only vote once, that means i have 16 readers! yay! \o/ also, im glad to see a little variety! As of now, the two pairings for chapter 7 are Sihanchul and Kyumin! which is excellent, because we havent seen anything from those two in a while, and im very pleased to be writing them again and linking the stories up. Ill let voting continue, in case anyone wants to fuck with me, and just for my own curiosity, and then after this ill put up another poll seeing what you guys are thinking for chapter 8, just because polls are a whole barrel of fun. at least i think so. Thank you all so much for reading! ♥♥♥
**dedicated in memory of holyschm0use216, because im sure its dead by the end of this. (unblock me, you whore)
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Normal people get colds. They cough and sneeze and try to fight it off until they get stuck in bed for 2 days, pounded with medicine, their nose rubbed dry and raw with tissues. Then they get better and they get up and they move on as that one kid in the cubicle two rows across stifles a sneeze and they’re glad they aren’t next to him. Normal people get colds. Eunhyuk doesn't, because Eunhyuk can’t.
Eunhyuk has been sick since he was 16. He had been playing baseball with his sister in the backyard. He had pitched, she had swung, and she had let go of the bat too early. He had to get 27 stitches along the side of his skull. The doctors gave him a transfusion to keep him stable, because a lot of the blood that he had lost had ended up on Sora instead of where it belonged. That was after the Decline, but before they had to move from their quiet little suburb house with the front lawn they had been playing on. The collapse had left a lot of loose ends untied everywhere, things had gone unchecked, unregulated, there was disarray. Had Eunhyuk’s parents been able to afford it, and if they would have gotten any sort of compensation, they would have sued, but that possibility was gone with the Decline and their quiet little suburb house with the front lawn. They didn't tell Sora, all three of them agreed on it, and Eunhyuk was more than okay with letting her have the peace of mind he could never get back.
Donghae had known Eunhyuk since he was 13, and he hadn’t found out until a year after it happened, when Eunhyuk had been absent from school for a month and a half. Donghae wasn't stupid enough to believe that a common cold had the capacity to do so much damage. When he told him so during his visit, Eunhyuk didn't even try to make excuses; instead, he cried, for the first time since the diagnosis. Donghae had simply held him, pale-faced, and he could feel himself age what felt like years in those few minutes alone with Eunhyuk. They both felt it, and they felt themselves change, and they became different people who finally realized that things don't always turn out okay. They were 17. They both agreed to love each other forever, and they haven’t stopped, although it’s a little different from what they intended back then.
Eunhyuk has always been naturally thin. No matter how much food he shoves in his face, it doesn't stick to anything. Even so, he became thinner over time, and to his great annoyance it makes everyone coo at him and fuss over him until he wants to remind them he’s still “normal”, if that's a standard anyone can afford anymore. Donghae doesn't treat him special. The only thing Donghae does that he normally wouldn't is that he walks the 12 blocks to the drugstore to pick up Eunhyuk’s prescription. It probably wouldn't be a big deal if they had a car, but they don't, so it is. (He also sets around 5 alarm clocks that go off at 4 in the morning as reminders. It’s thoughtful, Eunhyuk thinks, but waiting 3 more hours until a decent hour to take a stupid little pill isn’t going to kill him. Donghae, apparently, feels otherwise, and sternly hands him a glass of water.)
Winters are hard on him, as they should be. It’s cold and people are coughing all over (Donghae is glaring at them all) and there are enzymes and weird shit everywhere all dying to have their fun. Most of the time, during the worse months, like January and early February, Donghae quarantines them. They save up their vacation time for this. It sucks just a little bit, but then in a way it almost is a vacation, because they get to sit with each other in a warm little apartment while everyone is getting pneumonia and awful phlegmy things. They escape and rent around a hundred movies and watch only twenty. Donghae knows Eunhyuk would kill to go to Japan one summer, but more often than not he rather likes it like this, being selfish with one another and their time. Japan can wait. Bend It Like Beckham and Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace - Special Limited Edition with Exclusive George Lucas Commentary Version A with the Holographic Anakin DVD Skin cannot.
Eunhyuk and Donghae been dancing together since they were 13, longer than that apart, and nothing stops that. Eunhyuk loses his breath quicker than Donghae but it doesn't take long until they’re both panting and it sounds normal again in the practice studio at their gym. Eunhyuk doesn't rest more than Donghae. He doesn't sit out run-throughs. He dances and at the end he feels more alive than he has in ages, even though his arms are limp and his legs protest as they lope to the bus stop, sore and grinning. Dancing is the one thing that brings him back to when he was 16, before the bat and doctors and pills. When he dances, it reminds people that he’s normal and they quit cooing and fussing for a few days.
They don't talk about it unless they have to. It’s more of a silent agreement than anything else. They both know its like this and it isn’t going to change or get better, and they’ve accepted that years ago. It doesn’t rule their lives though, so there’s no need to bring it up over and over again, and they always know what the other is talking about when they breach the subject, so it’s fine. The only time they do talk about it is when someone gets close, comes into their lives. There have only been a collect few who have done this, Kibum and Yunho among them. The two of them, like Donghae and Eunhyuk, have a silent understanding and don't feel the need to coo or fuss or prod or mother, they look like Eunhyuk the same way as everyone else. When Donghae had started working the bar at the club a few years ago, he hadn’t expected them to go farther than work. That was before Kibum came through the door with him one night and for the next two years. They were all friends, so Eunhyuk didn't mind. When they had finally told Kibum, he shrugged and asked why they thought it was important. He had already guessed for a while, and they said it wasn't important, but that if he planned on affecting their lives, it should all be laid on the table. Both Kibum and Yunho, once they were in, never looked back.
Donghae now works in an office, Eunhyuk works in a tutoring center. They don't talk much about their jobs a lot because it isn’t their life like dancing is. The only way they would talk about their jobs like dancing is when they finally make it their job. Which they will. It’s the only solid plan they have; their only goal that they grab onto and move towards and live for. The only real way their current jobs touch their lives is their hours (deciding when they come home, if it’s takeout or a cooking night, if the 4 am alarm will be more hinder than help). That, and the days when Eunhyuk is horny and Donghae comes home in his suit.
They still have their boring jobs. Not for lack of trying to get recruited, or anything. Only because every single team, company, group decides that once they figure out what Eunhyuk is-no, what he has, then suddenly they’re afraid. They mark with their red pen a big dash straight across their papers and their lives. They go to another audition and try again.
Someday, Eunhyuk likes to say.
Yeah, replies Donghae absentmindedly. Someday.
For now, they find someday in the other’s hands and interlacing fingers and they squeeze, holding on to someday. Holding onto each other. Holding on.