fic: The Long Exile {Chapter 2/?}
Title: The Long Exile
Length: Chaptered, Chapter 2/?
Author: M_K Yujji
Rating: PG, likely to go up eventually
Genre: Drama/Angst/Fantasy
Disclaimer: Though real people are used as characters, this fic bears no resemblence to Real Life and these people are not owned by me.
Summary: exile : noun 1 the state of being barred from one's native homeland. 2 a person who lives in exile.verb expel and bar (someone) from their native homeland.
-ORIGIN Latin exilium 'banishment'.
Notes: Inspired by the Tri-Angle PV. Though there will be a loose resemblance to various mythical/religious figures and places, it's not really intentional.
I'd just like to thank everyone who replied to the two previous chapters. Normally I'd reply individually, but I'm not entirely sure how to answer most of the questions. ^_^;; Since this is my very first DBSK fic, I was a little worried to be posting it, but I'm very happy that it's being so well-received. Thank you! Parts are coming quickly right now, but this weekend I am going out of town so I will not be able to write or post at all for several days. Sorry!
Also, I'm a little unused to the entire 'ah' and 'hyung' thing - and I can't even begin to figure out where 'sshi' goes - so I'm not sure I'm being very consistent. I'm very sorry for that!
Prologue
Chapter 1
~*~*~
“Look here, you spoiled little princess. You can’t always get your way!”
Jaejoong glared at the woman. Part of him was aware that he was being somewhat unreasonable, but mostly he just didn’t care.
Why couldn’t she see that this was important?
“I’m not asking for your permission, I’m telling you to do it!”
The argument had been going on for almost a half hour and had gotten progressively louder with each round of insistence and rejection. Jaejoong was starting to get a headache, but he refused to give in.
“Umm... Guys? They can hear you out on the street....” Both combatants turned to glare at Yunho, the only person in the entire building brave - or stupid - enough to stick his head into the room and invite their wrath. Though he visibly paled at the hostility that permeated the room, he edged his way in and rested a wary hand on Jaejoong’s shoulder. “What exactly is the problem?”
Sensing an ally, Jaejoong turned to his friend, lip quivering, just the faintest hint of tears in his eyes. Yunho had always been a sucker for his tears, even when they’d only just met. “All I want is my hair dyed back to black, Yunnie-yah. She absolutely refuses to fix it.”
Yunho’s eyes softened and he tugged the blonde strands consideringly before he turned his attention to the stylist. “Why can’t you dye it back?”
“I just touched up the blonde two days ago! If he wanted to go back, then he should have said something then.” She glared at them both, arms crossed, foot tapping.
“Two days ago I didn’t care what you did to it!”
“Jaejoongie,” Yunho patted his shoulder in an attempt to calm and soothe. “Yelling won’t help.”
Though he grumbled a bit, Jaejoong subsided back into a quieter tone. “I really need it to be black again, Yunnie.”
Yunho caught his chin with a gentle hand and tilted his face up so that their eyes met. “Why is it so important, BooJae?”
Jaejoong ignored the warm fuzzies in his stomach and chest it always gave him to hear Yunho use the nickname. He bit his lip and shook his head, unsure that he could explain it well enough that Yunho wouldn’t think he was crazy. He’d caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror that morning and he’d been struck by the most intense feeling of wrongness to see the short blonde locks. For a long moment he hadn’t even been sure it was really him staring back from the mirror, never mind the fact that it was the color and style he'd been sporting for months without bothering him. “It... It doesn’t look like me.”
Their gazes held for a long minute and Jaejoong had the strangest feeling that Yunho was peering into his soul. Whatever he saw made Yunho nod slowly and turn back to the stylist. “It’s his hair. If he wants it black, make it black.”
“But-“
Then Yunho smiled his most devastatingly charming smile. “I promise he won’t be asking to bleach it again next week, Joo-Eun-noona. And weren’t you the one who was saying what a shame it was to turn such a pretty head of hair such an ugly pale color? Certainly you’re the only one that can properly appreciate the way Jaejoong’s hair should look, right?”
Clearly flustered and pleased by the idea that Yunho had bothered to remember her specifically of all their stylists, it took very little more to convince the woman to fix Jaejoong’s hair.
He waited until the woman had hurried off to gather the necessary supplies and then he leaned on Yunho with a soft snicker. “Did she really say that or did you make that up?”
“Someone said it, I just don’t remember who it was,” Yunho replied with a grin. “Hopefully it was either her or she won’t remember that it was someone else until after she’s done.”
“Thank you, Yunho-yah.” He bumped Yunho’s shoulder with his own. “I owe you one. She’d never have given in if you hadn’t shown up.”
Yunho just laughed and wrapped his arms around Jaejoong’s waist. “You just have to learn how to ask the right way, Jaejoongie-yah. If you demand things, people will dig in their heels just to spite you.”
“You’re just better with people...” Jaejoong gave Yunho’s hands a pat and then pulled away. “Anyway, I guess I’ll be missing lunch today. By the time we’re done here Changmin will have eaten everything.”
Smiling, Yunho tucked his hands in his pockets and shook his head as he began to back out the door. “I’ll save you something.”
“Please don’t risk your limbs for a bowl of kimchi.”
“He wouldn’t dare gnaw off his appa’s hands.”
Covering his mouth, Jaejoong giggled. “Yunnie, it’s Changmin. He’d chew off his own hands for the last bowl of kimchi.”
“For you, Fair Jaejoong, I shall risk it! Band oppa can’t let Band umma go hungry!” Yunho clasped one hand against his chest dramatically before wiggling his fingers at Jaejoong with a laughing goodbye and left.
Really, with the way Yunho carried on sometimes it was little wonder half of their fans thought they were a couple.
Not that Jaejoong minded in the least.
Jaejoong laughed softly and shook his head with affectionate exasperation before turning to smile gratefully at the returning stylist. It was easier to be nice now that she was doing what he wanted.
~*~*~
YoungWoong....
YoungWoong Jaejoong....
Where are you, YoungWoong Jaejoong?
Jaejoong tossed and turned in his bed, restless and unable to do more than doze. All night the rain had pounded on the windowpanes, thunder cracking through the air and lightening brightening the bedroom to near daylight.
Usually he found rainstorms soothing, but there was nothing soothing about the storm that night.
The rain seemed almost to whisper his name, edging into his sleep and preventing him from escaping into the lovely dreams he’d been having of late.
YoungWoong Jaejoong....
His band mates didn’t seem to be sharing his problem, each asleep in their own small bed. He spared Changmin an envious glance before turning to face the wall again.
He was just as exhausted as the others. It didn’t seem fair that they could find rest while he couldn’t.
Shadows flickered over the walls like pale ghosts, the rain water on the window lending strange shapes with each flash of lightening.
Maybe he’d be sleeping better if someone had thought to close the blinds?
Jaejoong was strangely reluctant to crawl out of bed just to do it himself, though. Better to stay nestled in his blankets and hope that sleep would find him...
YoungWoong Jaejoong... Time to come home....
The shadows seemed to take shape before Jaejoong’s sleep deprived eyes and his head flew around to stare at the windows.
A macabre face grinned at him from the other side of the glass and he screamed.
He was still screaming, curled into a ball on the floor at the end of his bed, when the lights flickered on and Yunho was stumbling through the maze of beds to get to him.
“Jaejoong! What is it, what’s wrong?” Frantic hands unfolded him and began searching for hidden injury.
Jaejoong was only peripherally aware that he’d woken everyone up as he clung to Yunho, unable to prevent the distressed noises and the uneven hitching of his breathing.
“Hyung? What’s wrong?”
“Back up, give us some room... Maybe... a cup of water?”
“Or something stronger, from the looks of him...”
“That... might not be a bad idea...”
Ignoring the soft whispers of concern, Jaejoong buried his face in Yunho’s neck, grateful for his friend’s warm strength. Yunho let him cling, petting his hair with one hand and rubbing soothing circles on his back with the other, until someone returned with the water. Then he gently tugged Jaejoong’s head back. “Come on, BooJae... Take a drink for me, okay?”
It was easier to do let Yunho take charge than to protest. ‘Something stronger’ turned out to be warm soju, probably out of Yoochun’s hidden stash. Jaejoong coughed and wrinkled his nose, preferring his liquor cold and without such an obvious burn, but the warmth it made as it curled into his belly went a long way in easing the shuddering tremors that had been rocking his body since he’d fallen out of bed.
Only when he’d drank down the entire glass did Yunho hand it back to Yoochun and cuddle Jaejoong close again. “Bad dream?”
Jaejoong shrugged, embarrassment beginning to seep in now he was more aware that everyone was awake and staring at him.
“It’s okay, Jaejoong-hyung. We all have them sometimes.” Changmin sounded close. It was probably his hand that had joined Yunho’s on his back.
“Not usually that loudly...”
“Hush, Chunnie.” A smacking sound and a whisper of a smile settled onto Jaejoong’s face, being able to picture the scene without actually seeing it. Undoubtedly, Yoochun was rubbing his head and glaring at Junsu.
Jaejoong cracked an eye open just to check and nodded to himself at the confirmation of his guess. Then clenched his eyes shut again as the lightening and thunder intruded again. “The window,” he whispered. “There was someone... in the window.”
Silence met his whispered words.
“Hyung.... We’re ten stories up....”
“He- it was there.”
“But-“
“Check the windows, Changmin-ah.”
“But hyung-“
“Make sure they’re locked and pull the blinds down. Yoochun go make sure the door is locked. Junsu, check the other windows.”
“Yun-“
“Hey-“
“Why-“
Whatever kind of look Yunho was giving them, it was enough to instantly silence all other protest. Jaejoong could hear them carrying out his orders with little more than quiet grumbling to themselves. He felt Yunho shift around and then he was being lifted off the floor and cradled close.
“I really saw it,” he whispered against Yunho’s neck, feeling small and stupid, but still more than a little afraid of what he’d seen in the window. Too afraid to laugh it off and insist that everyone stop making a fuss and go back to sleep.
Yunho pressed a kiss against his hair. “I believe you.”
It made him feel better, somehow, even if Yunho was just humoring him.
“Windows all locked and blinds secure, Yunho-hyung.”
“Thank you, Minnie-yah. Go back to sleep, now.” Yunho settled Jaejoong onto his own bed near the door and clamored in beside him, careful to keep his own body between Jaejoong and the long line of windows. It was a tight fit - the beds being necessarily small to fit five into one room - but Jaejoong was pathetically grateful for the enforced closeness.
“Good night.”
Wrapped up in Yunho’s arms, blinds blocking the outside world and whatever unknown terrors it hid, the soft murmur of Yoochun and Junsu from the kitchen, Jaejoong finally found enough comfort to slip into sleep.
~*~*~
On to : Chapter 3
Length: Chaptered, Chapter 2/?
Author: M_K Yujji
Rating: PG, likely to go up eventually
Genre: Drama/Angst/Fantasy
Disclaimer: Though real people are used as characters, this fic bears no resemblence to Real Life and these people are not owned by me.
Summary: exile : noun 1 the state of being barred from one's native homeland. 2 a person who lives in exile.verb expel and bar (someone) from their native homeland.
-ORIGIN Latin exilium 'banishment'.
Notes: Inspired by the Tri-Angle PV. Though there will be a loose resemblance to various mythical/religious figures and places, it's not really intentional.
I'd just like to thank everyone who replied to the two previous chapters. Normally I'd reply individually, but I'm not entirely sure how to answer most of the questions. ^_^;; Since this is my very first DBSK fic, I was a little worried to be posting it, but I'm very happy that it's being so well-received. Thank you! Parts are coming quickly right now, but this weekend I am going out of town so I will not be able to write or post at all for several days. Sorry!
Also, I'm a little unused to the entire 'ah' and 'hyung' thing - and I can't even begin to figure out where 'sshi' goes - so I'm not sure I'm being very consistent. I'm very sorry for that!
Prologue
Chapter 1
~*~*~
“Look here, you spoiled little princess. You can’t always get your way!”
Jaejoong glared at the woman. Part of him was aware that he was being somewhat unreasonable, but mostly he just didn’t care.
Why couldn’t she see that this was important?
“I’m not asking for your permission, I’m telling you to do it!”
The argument had been going on for almost a half hour and had gotten progressively louder with each round of insistence and rejection. Jaejoong was starting to get a headache, but he refused to give in.
“Umm... Guys? They can hear you out on the street....” Both combatants turned to glare at Yunho, the only person in the entire building brave - or stupid - enough to stick his head into the room and invite their wrath. Though he visibly paled at the hostility that permeated the room, he edged his way in and rested a wary hand on Jaejoong’s shoulder. “What exactly is the problem?”
Sensing an ally, Jaejoong turned to his friend, lip quivering, just the faintest hint of tears in his eyes. Yunho had always been a sucker for his tears, even when they’d only just met. “All I want is my hair dyed back to black, Yunnie-yah. She absolutely refuses to fix it.”
Yunho’s eyes softened and he tugged the blonde strands consideringly before he turned his attention to the stylist. “Why can’t you dye it back?”
“I just touched up the blonde two days ago! If he wanted to go back, then he should have said something then.” She glared at them both, arms crossed, foot tapping.
“Two days ago I didn’t care what you did to it!”
“Jaejoongie,” Yunho patted his shoulder in an attempt to calm and soothe. “Yelling won’t help.”
Though he grumbled a bit, Jaejoong subsided back into a quieter tone. “I really need it to be black again, Yunnie.”
Yunho caught his chin with a gentle hand and tilted his face up so that their eyes met. “Why is it so important, BooJae?”
Jaejoong ignored the warm fuzzies in his stomach and chest it always gave him to hear Yunho use the nickname. He bit his lip and shook his head, unsure that he could explain it well enough that Yunho wouldn’t think he was crazy. He’d caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror that morning and he’d been struck by the most intense feeling of wrongness to see the short blonde locks. For a long moment he hadn’t even been sure it was really him staring back from the mirror, never mind the fact that it was the color and style he'd been sporting for months without bothering him. “It... It doesn’t look like me.”
Their gazes held for a long minute and Jaejoong had the strangest feeling that Yunho was peering into his soul. Whatever he saw made Yunho nod slowly and turn back to the stylist. “It’s his hair. If he wants it black, make it black.”
“But-“
Then Yunho smiled his most devastatingly charming smile. “I promise he won’t be asking to bleach it again next week, Joo-Eun-noona. And weren’t you the one who was saying what a shame it was to turn such a pretty head of hair such an ugly pale color? Certainly you’re the only one that can properly appreciate the way Jaejoong’s hair should look, right?”
Clearly flustered and pleased by the idea that Yunho had bothered to remember her specifically of all their stylists, it took very little more to convince the woman to fix Jaejoong’s hair.
He waited until the woman had hurried off to gather the necessary supplies and then he leaned on Yunho with a soft snicker. “Did she really say that or did you make that up?”
“Someone said it, I just don’t remember who it was,” Yunho replied with a grin. “Hopefully it was either her or she won’t remember that it was someone else until after she’s done.”
“Thank you, Yunho-yah.” He bumped Yunho’s shoulder with his own. “I owe you one. She’d never have given in if you hadn’t shown up.”
Yunho just laughed and wrapped his arms around Jaejoong’s waist. “You just have to learn how to ask the right way, Jaejoongie-yah. If you demand things, people will dig in their heels just to spite you.”
“You’re just better with people...” Jaejoong gave Yunho’s hands a pat and then pulled away. “Anyway, I guess I’ll be missing lunch today. By the time we’re done here Changmin will have eaten everything.”
Smiling, Yunho tucked his hands in his pockets and shook his head as he began to back out the door. “I’ll save you something.”
“Please don’t risk your limbs for a bowl of kimchi.”
“He wouldn’t dare gnaw off his appa’s hands.”
Covering his mouth, Jaejoong giggled. “Yunnie, it’s Changmin. He’d chew off his own hands for the last bowl of kimchi.”
“For you, Fair Jaejoong, I shall risk it! Band oppa can’t let Band umma go hungry!” Yunho clasped one hand against his chest dramatically before wiggling his fingers at Jaejoong with a laughing goodbye and left.
Really, with the way Yunho carried on sometimes it was little wonder half of their fans thought they were a couple.
Not that Jaejoong minded in the least.
Jaejoong laughed softly and shook his head with affectionate exasperation before turning to smile gratefully at the returning stylist. It was easier to be nice now that she was doing what he wanted.
~*~*~
YoungWoong....
YoungWoong Jaejoong....
Where are you, YoungWoong Jaejoong?
Jaejoong tossed and turned in his bed, restless and unable to do more than doze. All night the rain had pounded on the windowpanes, thunder cracking through the air and lightening brightening the bedroom to near daylight.
Usually he found rainstorms soothing, but there was nothing soothing about the storm that night.
The rain seemed almost to whisper his name, edging into his sleep and preventing him from escaping into the lovely dreams he’d been having of late.
YoungWoong Jaejoong....
His band mates didn’t seem to be sharing his problem, each asleep in their own small bed. He spared Changmin an envious glance before turning to face the wall again.
He was just as exhausted as the others. It didn’t seem fair that they could find rest while he couldn’t.
Shadows flickered over the walls like pale ghosts, the rain water on the window lending strange shapes with each flash of lightening.
Maybe he’d be sleeping better if someone had thought to close the blinds?
Jaejoong was strangely reluctant to crawl out of bed just to do it himself, though. Better to stay nestled in his blankets and hope that sleep would find him...
YoungWoong Jaejoong... Time to come home....
The shadows seemed to take shape before Jaejoong’s sleep deprived eyes and his head flew around to stare at the windows.
A macabre face grinned at him from the other side of the glass and he screamed.
He was still screaming, curled into a ball on the floor at the end of his bed, when the lights flickered on and Yunho was stumbling through the maze of beds to get to him.
“Jaejoong! What is it, what’s wrong?” Frantic hands unfolded him and began searching for hidden injury.
Jaejoong was only peripherally aware that he’d woken everyone up as he clung to Yunho, unable to prevent the distressed noises and the uneven hitching of his breathing.
“Hyung? What’s wrong?”
“Back up, give us some room... Maybe... a cup of water?”
“Or something stronger, from the looks of him...”
“That... might not be a bad idea...”
Ignoring the soft whispers of concern, Jaejoong buried his face in Yunho’s neck, grateful for his friend’s warm strength. Yunho let him cling, petting his hair with one hand and rubbing soothing circles on his back with the other, until someone returned with the water. Then he gently tugged Jaejoong’s head back. “Come on, BooJae... Take a drink for me, okay?”
It was easier to do let Yunho take charge than to protest. ‘Something stronger’ turned out to be warm soju, probably out of Yoochun’s hidden stash. Jaejoong coughed and wrinkled his nose, preferring his liquor cold and without such an obvious burn, but the warmth it made as it curled into his belly went a long way in easing the shuddering tremors that had been rocking his body since he’d fallen out of bed.
Only when he’d drank down the entire glass did Yunho hand it back to Yoochun and cuddle Jaejoong close again. “Bad dream?”
Jaejoong shrugged, embarrassment beginning to seep in now he was more aware that everyone was awake and staring at him.
“It’s okay, Jaejoong-hyung. We all have them sometimes.” Changmin sounded close. It was probably his hand that had joined Yunho’s on his back.
“Not usually that loudly...”
“Hush, Chunnie.” A smacking sound and a whisper of a smile settled onto Jaejoong’s face, being able to picture the scene without actually seeing it. Undoubtedly, Yoochun was rubbing his head and glaring at Junsu.
Jaejoong cracked an eye open just to check and nodded to himself at the confirmation of his guess. Then clenched his eyes shut again as the lightening and thunder intruded again. “The window,” he whispered. “There was someone... in the window.”
Silence met his whispered words.
“Hyung.... We’re ten stories up....”
“He- it was there.”
“But-“
“Check the windows, Changmin-ah.”
“But hyung-“
“Make sure they’re locked and pull the blinds down. Yoochun go make sure the door is locked. Junsu, check the other windows.”
“Yun-“
“Hey-“
“Why-“
Whatever kind of look Yunho was giving them, it was enough to instantly silence all other protest. Jaejoong could hear them carrying out his orders with little more than quiet grumbling to themselves. He felt Yunho shift around and then he was being lifted off the floor and cradled close.
“I really saw it,” he whispered against Yunho’s neck, feeling small and stupid, but still more than a little afraid of what he’d seen in the window. Too afraid to laugh it off and insist that everyone stop making a fuss and go back to sleep.
Yunho pressed a kiss against his hair. “I believe you.”
It made him feel better, somehow, even if Yunho was just humoring him.
“Windows all locked and blinds secure, Yunho-hyung.”
“Thank you, Minnie-yah. Go back to sleep, now.” Yunho settled Jaejoong onto his own bed near the door and clamored in beside him, careful to keep his own body between Jaejoong and the long line of windows. It was a tight fit - the beds being necessarily small to fit five into one room - but Jaejoong was pathetically grateful for the enforced closeness.
“Good night.”
Wrapped up in Yunho’s arms, blinds blocking the outside world and whatever unknown terrors it hid, the soft murmur of Yoochun and Junsu from the kitchen, Jaejoong finally found enough comfort to slip into sleep.
~*~*~
On to : Chapter 3