#31. SHINee [Jonghyun/Onew]
Fandom: SHINee
Title: Broadway Boogie Woogie
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s)/Focus: Jonghyun/Onew
Length: 2715 words
Summary: Minho gets into trouble for fun. Jonghyun gets into trouble because it's the only way to fill his stomach with food. So when he is presented with the opportunity to make a few bills without breaking a sweat, he grabs it… quite reluctantly.
Warnings: N/A
Notes: Thank you so much, evennow_still, for letting me play in your sandbox, even if only for a while. I had so much fun remixing the fic, primarily because the whole thing seems so believable. I hope I did it justice! :)
The title was taken from Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie.
Remixee author: evennow_still
Title of work you remixed: Swell
Link to work you remixed: http://evennow-still.livejournal.com/5433.html
Maybe it isn't so bad to have spent the past two weeks being hounded by the police and kept in jail, Jonghyun thinks as he walks down the flight of stairs, eager to meet Minho at the bottom of it. The $100 fine and having his summer dedicated to community service isn't appealing at all, but these two weeks have been his best-fed weeks, getting three meals a day and free lodging while his case was still being reviewed by the court. "These are dark times, hyung. Dark times," he remembers Minho telling him, and while stealing DVDs from the movie rental nearby isn't exactly the best way to earn a living, it surely fills his stomach with something.
"So, who's your favorite person in the world?" Minho chimes, a bit too eager for someone who has gotten himself into trouble. Minho was able to buy them more time than necessary, extending their stay from a week to two. He has his way with women guards.
Jonghyun fights the urge to wipe off that huge smile stretching across Minho's face with a punch to the gut, and decides against it when he recalls all the food he's managed to eat those two weeks they were in jail. "Not you," he simply replies, and walks a few steps ahead of Minho.
"Then, what if I told you I got assigned to the art museum?"
Jonghyun frowns. "I'd hate you. Not that I don't already."
Minho nods thoughtfully and presses his lips tightly together. Jonghyun knows what that means.
"Oh."
---
This nation will be great again - that was what the president had promised everyone three years back. Nothing has changed, though - the economy is still down in the dumps, and companies are laying off employees left and right. Jonghyun's part-time job as a delivery man doesn't pay for the bills as well anymore, which is why when Minho suggests the DVD-stealing stint, he bites the bait. Hard.
Jonghyun reaches deep inside his pocket and fishes for a slip of paper. The writing is barely legible; bless his ability to read ugly handwriting. He stops in front of an old building and knocks on the door tentatively, entering only when he hears the words, "Come in."
"Um, hello. I'm Jonghyun. Jonghyun Kim, the one doing community service?"
"I know. Take a seat. He'll be late. Just wait for him."
In one of the longest hours in Jonghyun's life, he learns some new things - the secretary, Krystal Jung, attractive as she is, is too serious for him to even attempt to woo; his prospective boss is perpetually late, a quality he considers his biggest pet peeve; and this summer's going to be one hell of a rough ride.
His boss' office isn't like your usual office. The walls are decked with doodles that look as if they've been drawn by grade schoolers, and there is no trace of organization in the room whatsoever. It is a war zone, and the deadliest weapon is a big red crayon.
"Jonghyun, right?" his boss asks, peeking a little from the bangs covering his eyes. "Not to be mean, but I’m really glad you fucked up."
Jonghyun stops midway through clearing the seat nearest to him and slides down inelegantly. While fucking up is something that he apparently does well, he's still torn between considering the statement a compliment more than an insult. He worries his lip for a while and just nods, trying his best to smile.
"It's not really bad, though," his boss soon adds. "My assistant had an emergency back at home so I'm glad you could help out. I'm Jinki, by the way." Jinki smiles; finally, a familiar sight, something not out of the ordinary. "Glad to have you here."
He gives Jinki's hand one firm shake and a light squeeze. "Thanks, I guess. Glad to be working with you."
"Oh no, no, you're not." Jinki chuckles. "Anyway, can I paint you?"
Jonghyun furrows his eyebrows and studies Jinki's face carefully. There's a reason why he's always wanted to go into Psychology and that's because he wants to study people at length. He doesn't need a degree to know that Jinki isn't joking, though. The unfaltering smile is disconcerting, and the twinkle in Jinki's eyes tells him this, everything, probably isn't a good idea.
"How do I ask for a transfer?"
Jinki chuckles one more time. It makes the hair at Jonghyun's back stand.
"Simple - you can't."
Jonghyun's fascination with museums stems from his lifelong dream to be an artist. He remembers his mother telling him that he's displayed interest in drawing even before he turned three. He's not entirely sure why he never followed his dream of being an artist, though. Maybe it's the lack of funds to get into an art school, or maybe because he hasn't picked up any art material since third grade. He's long resigned to believing that his talent has abandoned him.
Despite Jonghyun's many efforts at pleading to be transferred to a new assignment, he isn't successful. Monday and Tuesday find him watching Jinki as the latter teaches art to children, maintaining a safe distance from them for fear of being reduced to a heap of panic. Wednesday and Thursday, Jinki has him distributing crayons and papers to the children. Friday, Jinki lets Jonghyun play with the kids and somehow gets coaxed into playing with the children, himself. For all of Jinki's inability to deal with children at a close distance, though, the kids still love him. Jonghyun attributes this to Jinki's eerily bright smile and his ability to make the children laugh for no apparent reason.
"Enjoying?" Jinki asks, checking. They've just finished the art session and the children are slowly leaving the room. Jinki's voice is loud enough to be heard, but Jonghyun pretends he doesn't hear, busying himself with the papers in front of him.
"I said, are you enjoying?"
Jonghyun's breath hitches when he feels Jinki's breath tickling his skin, when his ears get filled with the sound of Jinki's voice. Jonghyun mutters something unintelligible, something he has intended to come off as, "None of your business," and Jinki just cackles, chuckles, laughs.
"So, can I? Paint you, I mean."
Jonghyun flinches, then turns around with a lopsided smile. "No, thanks," he curtly replies, and resumes cleaning up the mess they've made.
Jonghyun walks in on Jinki attempting to paint the uncovered wall in the classroom one time. "Picasso," Jinki simply replies when Jonghyun asks, What the hell are you doing?, and proceeds to adding more dots to the composition. By now, Jonghyun has learned not to further question Jinki's artistic quirks and just choke them up to, well, Jinki being creative.
"Are these drawings new?" Jonghyun then asks, gesturing at the wall covered with different doodles. Jinki nods, then returns to what he is doing.
There's always a new set of children to be taught every week. "Keeps me fresh and excited about teaching," Jonghyun remembers Jinki saying, but he wonders briefly why Jinki pushes the kids too hard on Fridays, towards the last hour of the art class, to the point that he'd breathe down their necks and whisper, Draw. Draw some more.
Jinki periodically asks him if he can be the subject of Jinki's next painting, and he always politely declines. He doesn't know why Jinki's so gung-ho about the whole idea, and he's not sure what Jinki means by, "You're interesting." All he knows is that Jinki's got a peculiar way of drawing people to himself, and that he's slowly finding himself being drawn to Jinki, albeit grudgingly.
Or maybe not.
Jonghyun's last day at work is punctuated by a trip to the art museum with the children. "For a change," Jinki says, then rounds up the children with relative ease. Maybe it's just Jinki trying to act calm in front of the children because Minho has pulled Jonghyun to one side of the museum, or it might just be because the kids are much too lethargic to even elude Jinki's attempts at making them form a straight line.
"I haven't seen you all summer," Minho says as he balances the canvas in his hands, and cocks his head just so, gesturing Jonghyun to follow him somewhere.
"Well, whose fault is that?"
Minho scoffs. "Shut up. I've got way more than you do, you know."
Jonghyun raises an eyebrow as if making a point, but promptly gets distracted when they arrive at a secluded area of the museum. The paint work is still uneven on some parts of the walls, and the place smells of dust and construction. There are a couple of paintings sprawled on the floor. Jonghyun crouches and inches closer to a rather peculiar painting.
"Exhibit?" Jonghyun asks. Minho nods a little and smiles.
"New artist. He's quite the hot shot, though; the press is all over this exhibit of his."
Jonghyun nods thoughtfully and fights the urge to run his fingers down the length of the canvas, or to trace the strokes of the painting. "He must be good," he mumbles, noting the familiarity of the strokes and color selection. Three soft knocks on the door signal Jinki's arrival, and Jinki briefly peeks from the opening before disappearing again.
"Gotta leave." Jonghyun offers Minho a smile. "Boss is treating me to dinner. Says it's a reward for being of use to him."
Minho narrows his eyes, a teasing note on the curve of the lip. "Oooh, a reward."
Jonghyun makes sure to slap Minho on the arm before turning around to leave. "Free up your Saturday! I'll get you into the opening of the exhibit!" he hears Minho call out, and he simply flashes the latter a thumbs-up and catches up with Jinki who's crouched down low, smiling at the kids and returning hugs in the weirdest fashion.
In theory, Jinki shouldn't look this attractive while wearing that lopsided, awkward smile, while he clamors for space and the ability to deal with children in a better manner, but he does. So Jonghyun just watches from a distance, keeping his laughter to himself, and answers, "Picasso," when logic begins to question him - what the hell are you doing, Kim Jonghyun?
"So, what are you going to do now? Go back to stealing DVDs?"
Jonghyun looks up from his meal and gives Jinki a wry smile. "Funny," he replies flatly, then adds, "You're not my boss anymore. I think you're forgetting that."
"But I still treated you to dinner. At least humor me for a while."
Jonghyun shakes his head and sinks his teeth back into the burger Jinki has ordered for him.
"The offer still stands, by the way." Jinki pushes back his glasses with his index finger and offers a smile. "I still want to paint you. Maybe I can even pay you for it."
"I told you, no, not even if you're paying me for it."
"How about I treat you to food? Anything you want?"
"You can't buy me-"
"Come on. Treat it as a parting gift."
An entire summer dedicated to eluding Jinki's attempts at luring him into his painting room finally sees its end when Jonghyun takes a deep, deep breath, and thinks to himself, Just get it done and over with. He shrugs, worries his lips for a while before nodding rather vigorously and looking away. He can feel a light flush creeping to his cheeks - he's been declining the offer for a good reason.
"I can paint you right now with that blush on your cheeks." A chuckle, and then, "You're really cute when you blush."
Jonghyun clasps his hands together then buries his face in his hands.
Jinki's living-cum-painting room isn't exactly what Jonghyun has always imagined it to be. It's rather bare and neat, as opposed to Jinki's office. The couch in the middle is the lone piece of furniture, and while the carpet is nice, it does not go well with the couch.
"So, where do you want me?" Jonghyun asks, undoing the knot of his robe hesitantly.
Jinki looks up from setting up his tools. "Anywhere, as long as you're comfortable."
Jonghyun settles inelegantly on the couch, and notices the flush creeping up Jinki's face when he realizes that he's in such a compromising position. He shifts a little so that the necessary parts to be covered are covered, which results into a futile fifteen minutes of choosing the right pose for the paining.
"Jonghyun, will you please just relax?"
He hears a tinge of exasperation in Jinki's voice, and a shiver runs down to Jonghyun's toes. "But I am relaxed!"
Jinki shakes his head and simply picks up the brush, slowly beginning to place strokes on the canvas.
The painting process takes hours. Jonghyun falls asleep from time to time, waking up to Jinki's muffled laughter and his sore limbs. The rest of the day is filled with Jinki's endless humming, compensating for the lack of a radio or a stereo, and after a while Jonghyun finds himself humming along until he drifts off again, into a much deeper slumber.
When Jonghyun next wakes up, there's a blanket wrapped around him. "You look cold," Jinki comments from a few feet away, a lazy smile on his lips and his eyes hooded with fatigue. "You were smiling in your sleep, though."
Jonghyun furrows his eyebrows. He has no recollection of dreaming of anything, but he does remember hearing Jinki singing in his sleep. "Probably a bad dream," he comments, snuggling closer to the blanket. "Are you done yet?"
"Just a little more." Jinki taps the brush on the canvas lightly. "You can keep the blanket on. I just need to do a few more strokes and I'll be done."
Jonghyun nods and, within a few minutes, he finds himself drifting off again. When he wakes up, his vision is blurred and Jinki's nowhere to be seen, and he's standing atop a rock, the waves crashing all around him, reaching up to the sky.
"Well, that's weird. Jonghyun rarely arrives late for an appointment."
Minho glances at his watch periodically. Jonghyun's not the type to stand him up or leave him hanging and not even send a text or give him a call. "We're opening in five minutes," Kibum reminds Minho, and Minho just nods and makes his way to the exhibit room, ready to assume his post.
"It's really weird, though," Minho says, whispering to the wind, and Kibum waves him off. He sends Jonghyun one last text before slipping his phone back into his pocket and wearing his biggest smile as the artist - Onew Lee - arrives at the exhibit and hands him a painting.
"Here's the centerpiece. Sorry for bringing it late." Onew laughs a little. "I finished it just last night."
"No worries, sir. I'll put it up right now."
Minho makes his way inside and removes the cloth covering the painting. He gives the painting a good look and fastens it to the stand, securing it in place. "It's the centerpiece, alright," he mumbles, then folds the cloth neatly before walking back to the entrance. For a brief second, he thinks he hears someone calling his name, but it might just be Kibum who's shooting him a stern look and saying, "Come on, we're about to start!"
He closes the door behind him and tells Onew to stand near the entrance for the ribbon-cutting. Onew smiles back at him. The clock ticks, and the exhibit begins.
Jonghyun pounds hard against the canvas, calls out Minho's name, but to no avail - he can't get through.
He can't get out.
Title: Broadway Boogie Woogie
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s)/Focus: Jonghyun/Onew
Length: 2715 words
Summary: Minho gets into trouble for fun. Jonghyun gets into trouble because it's the only way to fill his stomach with food. So when he is presented with the opportunity to make a few bills without breaking a sweat, he grabs it… quite reluctantly.
Warnings: N/A
Notes: Thank you so much, evennow_still, for letting me play in your sandbox, even if only for a while. I had so much fun remixing the fic, primarily because the whole thing seems so believable. I hope I did it justice! :)
The title was taken from Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie.
Remixee author: evennow_still
Title of work you remixed: Swell
Link to work you remixed: http://evennow-still.livejournal.com/5433.html
Maybe it isn't so bad to have spent the past two weeks being hounded by the police and kept in jail, Jonghyun thinks as he walks down the flight of stairs, eager to meet Minho at the bottom of it. The $100 fine and having his summer dedicated to community service isn't appealing at all, but these two weeks have been his best-fed weeks, getting three meals a day and free lodging while his case was still being reviewed by the court. "These are dark times, hyung. Dark times," he remembers Minho telling him, and while stealing DVDs from the movie rental nearby isn't exactly the best way to earn a living, it surely fills his stomach with something.
"So, who's your favorite person in the world?" Minho chimes, a bit too eager for someone who has gotten himself into trouble. Minho was able to buy them more time than necessary, extending their stay from a week to two. He has his way with women guards.
Jonghyun fights the urge to wipe off that huge smile stretching across Minho's face with a punch to the gut, and decides against it when he recalls all the food he's managed to eat those two weeks they were in jail. "Not you," he simply replies, and walks a few steps ahead of Minho.
"Then, what if I told you I got assigned to the art museum?"
Jonghyun frowns. "I'd hate you. Not that I don't already."
Minho nods thoughtfully and presses his lips tightly together. Jonghyun knows what that means.
"Oh."
---
This nation will be great again - that was what the president had promised everyone three years back. Nothing has changed, though - the economy is still down in the dumps, and companies are laying off employees left and right. Jonghyun's part-time job as a delivery man doesn't pay for the bills as well anymore, which is why when Minho suggests the DVD-stealing stint, he bites the bait. Hard.
Jonghyun reaches deep inside his pocket and fishes for a slip of paper. The writing is barely legible; bless his ability to read ugly handwriting. He stops in front of an old building and knocks on the door tentatively, entering only when he hears the words, "Come in."
"Um, hello. I'm Jonghyun. Jonghyun Kim, the one doing community service?"
"I know. Take a seat. He'll be late. Just wait for him."
In one of the longest hours in Jonghyun's life, he learns some new things - the secretary, Krystal Jung, attractive as she is, is too serious for him to even attempt to woo; his prospective boss is perpetually late, a quality he considers his biggest pet peeve; and this summer's going to be one hell of a rough ride.
His boss' office isn't like your usual office. The walls are decked with doodles that look as if they've been drawn by grade schoolers, and there is no trace of organization in the room whatsoever. It is a war zone, and the deadliest weapon is a big red crayon.
"Jonghyun, right?" his boss asks, peeking a little from the bangs covering his eyes. "Not to be mean, but I’m really glad you fucked up."
Jonghyun stops midway through clearing the seat nearest to him and slides down inelegantly. While fucking up is something that he apparently does well, he's still torn between considering the statement a compliment more than an insult. He worries his lip for a while and just nods, trying his best to smile.
"It's not really bad, though," his boss soon adds. "My assistant had an emergency back at home so I'm glad you could help out. I'm Jinki, by the way." Jinki smiles; finally, a familiar sight, something not out of the ordinary. "Glad to have you here."
He gives Jinki's hand one firm shake and a light squeeze. "Thanks, I guess. Glad to be working with you."
"Oh no, no, you're not." Jinki chuckles. "Anyway, can I paint you?"
Jonghyun furrows his eyebrows and studies Jinki's face carefully. There's a reason why he's always wanted to go into Psychology and that's because he wants to study people at length. He doesn't need a degree to know that Jinki isn't joking, though. The unfaltering smile is disconcerting, and the twinkle in Jinki's eyes tells him this, everything, probably isn't a good idea.
"How do I ask for a transfer?"
Jinki chuckles one more time. It makes the hair at Jonghyun's back stand.
"Simple - you can't."
Jonghyun's fascination with museums stems from his lifelong dream to be an artist. He remembers his mother telling him that he's displayed interest in drawing even before he turned three. He's not entirely sure why he never followed his dream of being an artist, though. Maybe it's the lack of funds to get into an art school, or maybe because he hasn't picked up any art material since third grade. He's long resigned to believing that his talent has abandoned him.
Despite Jonghyun's many efforts at pleading to be transferred to a new assignment, he isn't successful. Monday and Tuesday find him watching Jinki as the latter teaches art to children, maintaining a safe distance from them for fear of being reduced to a heap of panic. Wednesday and Thursday, Jinki has him distributing crayons and papers to the children. Friday, Jinki lets Jonghyun play with the kids and somehow gets coaxed into playing with the children, himself. For all of Jinki's inability to deal with children at a close distance, though, the kids still love him. Jonghyun attributes this to Jinki's eerily bright smile and his ability to make the children laugh for no apparent reason.
"Enjoying?" Jinki asks, checking. They've just finished the art session and the children are slowly leaving the room. Jinki's voice is loud enough to be heard, but Jonghyun pretends he doesn't hear, busying himself with the papers in front of him.
"I said, are you enjoying?"
Jonghyun's breath hitches when he feels Jinki's breath tickling his skin, when his ears get filled with the sound of Jinki's voice. Jonghyun mutters something unintelligible, something he has intended to come off as, "None of your business," and Jinki just cackles, chuckles, laughs.
"So, can I? Paint you, I mean."
Jonghyun flinches, then turns around with a lopsided smile. "No, thanks," he curtly replies, and resumes cleaning up the mess they've made.
Jonghyun walks in on Jinki attempting to paint the uncovered wall in the classroom one time. "Picasso," Jinki simply replies when Jonghyun asks, What the hell are you doing?, and proceeds to adding more dots to the composition. By now, Jonghyun has learned not to further question Jinki's artistic quirks and just choke them up to, well, Jinki being creative.
"Are these drawings new?" Jonghyun then asks, gesturing at the wall covered with different doodles. Jinki nods, then returns to what he is doing.
There's always a new set of children to be taught every week. "Keeps me fresh and excited about teaching," Jonghyun remembers Jinki saying, but he wonders briefly why Jinki pushes the kids too hard on Fridays, towards the last hour of the art class, to the point that he'd breathe down their necks and whisper, Draw. Draw some more.
Jinki periodically asks him if he can be the subject of Jinki's next painting, and he always politely declines. He doesn't know why Jinki's so gung-ho about the whole idea, and he's not sure what Jinki means by, "You're interesting." All he knows is that Jinki's got a peculiar way of drawing people to himself, and that he's slowly finding himself being drawn to Jinki, albeit grudgingly.
Or maybe not.
Jonghyun's last day at work is punctuated by a trip to the art museum with the children. "For a change," Jinki says, then rounds up the children with relative ease. Maybe it's just Jinki trying to act calm in front of the children because Minho has pulled Jonghyun to one side of the museum, or it might just be because the kids are much too lethargic to even elude Jinki's attempts at making them form a straight line.
"I haven't seen you all summer," Minho says as he balances the canvas in his hands, and cocks his head just so, gesturing Jonghyun to follow him somewhere.
"Well, whose fault is that?"
Minho scoffs. "Shut up. I've got way more than you do, you know."
Jonghyun raises an eyebrow as if making a point, but promptly gets distracted when they arrive at a secluded area of the museum. The paint work is still uneven on some parts of the walls, and the place smells of dust and construction. There are a couple of paintings sprawled on the floor. Jonghyun crouches and inches closer to a rather peculiar painting.
"Exhibit?" Jonghyun asks. Minho nods a little and smiles.
"New artist. He's quite the hot shot, though; the press is all over this exhibit of his."
Jonghyun nods thoughtfully and fights the urge to run his fingers down the length of the canvas, or to trace the strokes of the painting. "He must be good," he mumbles, noting the familiarity of the strokes and color selection. Three soft knocks on the door signal Jinki's arrival, and Jinki briefly peeks from the opening before disappearing again.
"Gotta leave." Jonghyun offers Minho a smile. "Boss is treating me to dinner. Says it's a reward for being of use to him."
Minho narrows his eyes, a teasing note on the curve of the lip. "Oooh, a reward."
Jonghyun makes sure to slap Minho on the arm before turning around to leave. "Free up your Saturday! I'll get you into the opening of the exhibit!" he hears Minho call out, and he simply flashes the latter a thumbs-up and catches up with Jinki who's crouched down low, smiling at the kids and returning hugs in the weirdest fashion.
In theory, Jinki shouldn't look this attractive while wearing that lopsided, awkward smile, while he clamors for space and the ability to deal with children in a better manner, but he does. So Jonghyun just watches from a distance, keeping his laughter to himself, and answers, "Picasso," when logic begins to question him - what the hell are you doing, Kim Jonghyun?
"So, what are you going to do now? Go back to stealing DVDs?"
Jonghyun looks up from his meal and gives Jinki a wry smile. "Funny," he replies flatly, then adds, "You're not my boss anymore. I think you're forgetting that."
"But I still treated you to dinner. At least humor me for a while."
Jonghyun shakes his head and sinks his teeth back into the burger Jinki has ordered for him.
"The offer still stands, by the way." Jinki pushes back his glasses with his index finger and offers a smile. "I still want to paint you. Maybe I can even pay you for it."
"I told you, no, not even if you're paying me for it."
"How about I treat you to food? Anything you want?"
"You can't buy me-"
"Come on. Treat it as a parting gift."
An entire summer dedicated to eluding Jinki's attempts at luring him into his painting room finally sees its end when Jonghyun takes a deep, deep breath, and thinks to himself, Just get it done and over with. He shrugs, worries his lips for a while before nodding rather vigorously and looking away. He can feel a light flush creeping to his cheeks - he's been declining the offer for a good reason.
"I can paint you right now with that blush on your cheeks." A chuckle, and then, "You're really cute when you blush."
Jonghyun clasps his hands together then buries his face in his hands.
Jinki's living-cum-painting room isn't exactly what Jonghyun has always imagined it to be. It's rather bare and neat, as opposed to Jinki's office. The couch in the middle is the lone piece of furniture, and while the carpet is nice, it does not go well with the couch.
"So, where do you want me?" Jonghyun asks, undoing the knot of his robe hesitantly.
Jinki looks up from setting up his tools. "Anywhere, as long as you're comfortable."
Jonghyun settles inelegantly on the couch, and notices the flush creeping up Jinki's face when he realizes that he's in such a compromising position. He shifts a little so that the necessary parts to be covered are covered, which results into a futile fifteen minutes of choosing the right pose for the paining.
"Jonghyun, will you please just relax?"
He hears a tinge of exasperation in Jinki's voice, and a shiver runs down to Jonghyun's toes. "But I am relaxed!"
Jinki shakes his head and simply picks up the brush, slowly beginning to place strokes on the canvas.
The painting process takes hours. Jonghyun falls asleep from time to time, waking up to Jinki's muffled laughter and his sore limbs. The rest of the day is filled with Jinki's endless humming, compensating for the lack of a radio or a stereo, and after a while Jonghyun finds himself humming along until he drifts off again, into a much deeper slumber.
When Jonghyun next wakes up, there's a blanket wrapped around him. "You look cold," Jinki comments from a few feet away, a lazy smile on his lips and his eyes hooded with fatigue. "You were smiling in your sleep, though."
Jonghyun furrows his eyebrows. He has no recollection of dreaming of anything, but he does remember hearing Jinki singing in his sleep. "Probably a bad dream," he comments, snuggling closer to the blanket. "Are you done yet?"
"Just a little more." Jinki taps the brush on the canvas lightly. "You can keep the blanket on. I just need to do a few more strokes and I'll be done."
Jonghyun nods and, within a few minutes, he finds himself drifting off again. When he wakes up, his vision is blurred and Jinki's nowhere to be seen, and he's standing atop a rock, the waves crashing all around him, reaching up to the sky.
"Well, that's weird. Jonghyun rarely arrives late for an appointment."
Minho glances at his watch periodically. Jonghyun's not the type to stand him up or leave him hanging and not even send a text or give him a call. "We're opening in five minutes," Kibum reminds Minho, and Minho just nods and makes his way to the exhibit room, ready to assume his post.
"It's really weird, though," Minho says, whispering to the wind, and Kibum waves him off. He sends Jonghyun one last text before slipping his phone back into his pocket and wearing his biggest smile as the artist - Onew Lee - arrives at the exhibit and hands him a painting.
"Here's the centerpiece. Sorry for bringing it late." Onew laughs a little. "I finished it just last night."
"No worries, sir. I'll put it up right now."
Minho makes his way inside and removes the cloth covering the painting. He gives the painting a good look and fastens it to the stand, securing it in place. "It's the centerpiece, alright," he mumbles, then folds the cloth neatly before walking back to the entrance. For a brief second, he thinks he hears someone calling his name, but it might just be Kibum who's shooting him a stern look and saying, "Come on, we're about to start!"
He closes the door behind him and tells Onew to stand near the entrance for the ribbon-cutting. Onew smiles back at him. The clock ticks, and the exhibit begins.
Jonghyun pounds hard against the canvas, calls out Minho's name, but to no avail - he can't get through.
He can't get out.