Swept Away [chapter 6]
XD sorry guys~ here's the update! There will be more soon!
You are an idiot.” Changmin cursed to himself as he sat with his body draped around a cold, ice blue dining chair in the breakfast room, staring at the entrance doors waiting for Kyuhyun to magically appear. He had woken up at seven, unable to really sleep at all the entire night anyway, and it was now nearing almost ten.
“He wouldn’t run out on you.” Changmin assured himself. “I have my phone if we did, I’ll call Yunho hyung and he can figure something out.” He grabbed his solid black coffee and turned it so he would miss the chipped corner of the glass mug before taking a hearty sip and flinching as he tried to force it down. How disgusting, he thought with a grimace.
His seemingly sturdy resolve to be angry was fading as quickly as the sleepy haze in his brain. If he was being honest, he was terrified and hurt at the thought of Kyuhyun leaving him, and he was glad that the only person he had to be honest with was the bickering voice inside of his head. He could just call Yunho, and be in New York by nightfall. He took out his phone and slid across the lock screen, album art of The Painters with Kyuhyun’s hauntingly devious eyes staring back at him greeted him in an almost sinister way, and he sighed in defeat and tucked the phone back in his pocket. He looked down at the coffee cup in silence, his mind starting to go blank and the noises of the room fading out.
You have a serious problem if you can’t leave a complete stranger like this, his bickering other half said wistfully.
“I won’t call Yunho until noon… yeah. If Kyuhyun drank a lot last night, he wouldn’t be up until noon anyway.” He explained to no one in particular but that voice, tapping his finger against the mug and watching the ripple go through the murky black liquid.
“Do you often sit around and communicate with yourself?” Changmin jolted and gasped, looking up with wide eyes. “And do you often space out to such an extreme level, or are you just tired?” Kyuhyun chuckled. “Fun night last night?”
“Not when I was up all night thinking about you” Changmin snapped, then quickly added, “you leaving with my wallet.”
“I don’t think you were that worried about it.” Kyuhyun said calmly, a smile still playing at his lips.
Playing as always, toying with everything.
“Can we go?” Changmin asked abruptly, standing up and taking a bitter gulp of the coffee before colleting his things and walking towards the door. “Feel free to nap in the back seat. You must not have gotten much sleep.”
“Ah, so that’s what you’re so bitchy about.” Kyuhyun sighed as he followed Changmin out. “I didn’t have sex with anyone.”
“Does it look like I care?” Changmin raised his eyebrows sarcastically back to the accusation, heading to the desk and sliding his room key across the counter to the desk attendant. He turned away towards Kyuhyun when the woman was done and looked at him with the strongest gaze he could master.
“You can /fuck/ anyone you want to.” Changmin said calmly, smiling just slightly. He didn’t wait around for Kyuhyun’s answer, holding his hand out for the keys and keeping his gaze up expectantly. “Keys.”
Kyuhyun seemed surprised by what Changmin said, and he handed the keys over wordlessly from his front pants pocket.
“Thank you.” Changmin said civilly, taking them and walking out of the lobby, not bothering to wait for Kyuhyun to turn in his key. He walked briskly towards the car when he spotted it in the back of the lot and stopped when his hand hit it. He stared at his reflection for a minute before shoving the key in and opening it a little rougher than he should have, the sun-streaked glass showing him a glimpse at the weak, bickering self inside of him that he hated the more it showed itself. He put on his sunglasses as he tucked his bags behind the seat and climbed into the drivers’ seat, gripping the steering wheel and waiting for Kyuhyun to arrive.
He sighed after what felt like hours of waiting-even though the clock said it had only been five minutes-and leaned against the seat trying to relax. “It’s bad to drive when you’re clouded by things.” He reminded himself. He glanced at the rearview mirror as Kyuhyun came out with his backpack. The thick dark sunglasses and the contrast of the gleam of the sun against his chestnut hair made him surreal. The way he walked was hesitant, confidence faltering as if he feared reaching the car.
“This is not a big deal. We’re not best friends fighting. We’re strangers fighting over something juvenile. Just apologize, blame it on a crappy hotel bed, and be done with it.” He scolded himself with another sigh. “This man is not good for me.”
Kyuhyun put his bag in the trunk and walked around, climbing into the front seat without a word. Changmin started the car and looked at him before backing out.
“I am sorry. I did not sleep well last night, I should not have snapped at you.”
Kyuhyun looked surprised and nodded, “It’s okay. I shouldn’t have provoked you. I can drive if you want…”
“No I’ll drive.” Changmin said back simply and pulled out from the space. Kyuhyun shut his mouth and sunk down, propping one leg up against the dashboard and leaning against the window. Changmin expected quiet for the rest of the ride, keeping his mouth shut after muttering at the GPS angrily until he figured out how to change it back to Korean.
But Kyuhyun began rambling. He talked about North Carolina and the area he grew up in. About how he threw up for an hour after the first time he performed for an audience because of how nervous he had been. About a movie he had seen on the plane from northern Canada, where he had been before he had landed serendipitously at the same airport Changmin had. It was an obscure Canadian film that reminded him of a Japanese drama, where everyone died but the dog. He told Changmin about the movie he had a cameo in, he played a stoner who worked at a video store that the main actress had gone into when she broke up with her supposedly perfect boyfriend and his character convinced her there was more to the world than love.
“Do you believe that?” Changmin asked before he could stop himself as he handed the woman at the register his cash. They had stopped for lunch at a gas station, a greasy looking fast food place that made Changmin’s stomach twitch but Kyuhyun said he couldn't live without.
“That there’s more to the world than love? Of course not. Why else do we strive for it so much if everyone is not meant to have it?”
“But that’s foolish. People aren’t put here just to fall in love and make more people.”
“How do you know?” Kyuhyun laughed before ordering his food.
“I don’t know if I’ll eat what I got. I would be very surprised if I liked this place.” Changmin scrunched his nose as the worker slid the tray towards him across the counter and Kyuhyun paid for his.
“Eat it or starve, cháng jǐng lù. If you want to make it to where we’re supposed to be by tonight we can’t stop again.” Changmin pouted when he realized Kyuhyun was right.
“We can just drive overnight again. If you would shut up and nap for a while we could at least.” Changmin sneered as they sat down.
“Hey, you never told me to be quiet.” Kyuhyun laughed. “Don’t poke at your food like that, it’s rude.”
“I’m making sure it’s edible… I never thought driving for a week would make me miss home so badly. I can’t wait to get back to Korea now.” Changmin whined as he picked up the burger and bit into it with his eyes squeezed shut so he wouldn’t change his mind. He made a face as he chewed and Kyuhyun continued laughing.
“It’s not that bad!”
“Yes, it is.” Changmin said back once he swallowed. “I can’t eat this I’ll get sick. Do you want it?” Changmin offered. Kyuhyun blinked and then shook his head.
“I’ll be too full after this, thanks though.” Kyuhyun smiled sheepishly before devouring the food that he had gotten and Changmin grimaced before taking a few more bites of the burger he had been unable to eat a few minutes prior.
“Do you really want to drive overnight?” Kyuhyun asked between sips of the Coca-Cola he had until the straw hit air and he stopped abruptly.
“Yeah, sure.” Changmin shrugged. “That way we know we have less driving to do tomorrow and we can stop early or something.”
“Okay, sure. Sounds good.” Kyuhyun nodded and picked up the two trays to take them to the garbage. “So are you making me shut up and nap now?”
“Yes. Do you want to sleep in the backseat or the front?”
“I’ll sleep in the back. You’re too distracting if I’m up front trying to sleep.”
“You’ve slept this whole time in the front seat though…” Changmin frowned as he held the door open for the two of them.
“I didn’t sleep all the time.” Kyuhyun said nonchalantly as he walked to the car followed by Changmin.
Changmin stopped as he clicked the remote and unlocked the car. “What?”
“Don’t worry about it cháng jǐng lù.” Kyuhyun laughed as he climbed in and got into the backseat. Changmin paused outside of his door, an uneasy feeling in his stomach that he blamed on the food before shaking his head and getting inside.
It was just the food.
Kyuhyun fell asleep soon after getting in the car. Changmin kept looking in the rear view mirror to make sure the other was really asleep, suddenly paranoid with Kyuhyun’s comment about not spending the whole time sleeping. What else could he have been doing without sleeping… staring out the window? It can’t be that interesting to stare out the window for hours and hours only to be interrupted by the occasional sleeping.
Kyuhyun’s phone was playing song after song, some of the words in a language Changmin could understand, most of them far from recognizable. But they were all surprisingly appealing, Kyuhyun’s rather soulful taste in music still surprising Changmin. The songs, he analyzed as the hours drained by, seemed to have a common undertone of longing, of sorrow, through the mellow lyrics and the overall acoustic music behind them.
He was lost. Kyuhyun was lost in a world he only half wanted to be in, a world without the constant love and support of a family where his face was really all that mattered. Changmin bit his lip thoughtfully as he tried not to let his mind run away from him and forget to focus on the road. A world where only his face really mattered. Changmin didn’t know what it felt like. Was that the reason behind the bravado, the sunglasses that never let Kyuhyun’s sad brown eyes see the world for what it really was? What a life it must be…. Not knowing who you are because of everyone telling you what you should be.
Darkness started to creep in at the horizon as they entered a new state. Changmin leant against the hood of the car as the gas pump filled the tank on its own, stopping for gas at a quiet mountain town to watch the sunset and fill up as the fuel light came on. Kyuhyun was still sleeping in the backseat, something Changmin was thankful, his thoughts still so absorbed in the other man that it would be painfully obvious for Kyuhyun if the two would face each other now. He would have to wake him up soon, so they could keep driving.
Changmin watched the colors melt through the trees and gravitate further away from the looming darkness of the sky above it for a moment more before turning back and looking into the windshield of the car, the fluorescent lights of the gas station flickering on with the fall of day and creating a dull shadow in the back of the car so he was barely able to make out Kyuhyun’s still form.
“He probably doesn’t get to sleep much if he’s so popular.” Changmin chuckled and leant off the car, going to remove the pump and getting back into the car as silently as he could. He turned the car on and looked over his shoulder to make sure Kyuhyun was still asleep before turning the music down just a little more and pulling out from the gas station, deciding not to bother waking up Kyuhyun as his eyes met the gorgeous tranquil face, long eyelashes relaxing against his high cheek bones and lips pouting in his sleep.
“You sure are in trouble.” Changmin sighed to himself as he turned back around.
That face was almost too beautiful to ignore, and he was getting tired of fighting the sick feeling that turned out not to be good but his own insecurities. It was about time he fell in love with the wrong person.
You are an idiot.” Changmin cursed to himself as he sat with his body draped around a cold, ice blue dining chair in the breakfast room, staring at the entrance doors waiting for Kyuhyun to magically appear. He had woken up at seven, unable to really sleep at all the entire night anyway, and it was now nearing almost ten.
“He wouldn’t run out on you.” Changmin assured himself. “I have my phone if we did, I’ll call Yunho hyung and he can figure something out.” He grabbed his solid black coffee and turned it so he would miss the chipped corner of the glass mug before taking a hearty sip and flinching as he tried to force it down. How disgusting, he thought with a grimace.
His seemingly sturdy resolve to be angry was fading as quickly as the sleepy haze in his brain. If he was being honest, he was terrified and hurt at the thought of Kyuhyun leaving him, and he was glad that the only person he had to be honest with was the bickering voice inside of his head. He could just call Yunho, and be in New York by nightfall. He took out his phone and slid across the lock screen, album art of The Painters with Kyuhyun’s hauntingly devious eyes staring back at him greeted him in an almost sinister way, and he sighed in defeat and tucked the phone back in his pocket. He looked down at the coffee cup in silence, his mind starting to go blank and the noises of the room fading out.
You have a serious problem if you can’t leave a complete stranger like this, his bickering other half said wistfully.
“I won’t call Yunho until noon… yeah. If Kyuhyun drank a lot last night, he wouldn’t be up until noon anyway.” He explained to no one in particular but that voice, tapping his finger against the mug and watching the ripple go through the murky black liquid.
“Do you often sit around and communicate with yourself?” Changmin jolted and gasped, looking up with wide eyes. “And do you often space out to such an extreme level, or are you just tired?” Kyuhyun chuckled. “Fun night last night?”
“Not when I was up all night thinking about you” Changmin snapped, then quickly added, “you leaving with my wallet.”
“I don’t think you were that worried about it.” Kyuhyun said calmly, a smile still playing at his lips.
Playing as always, toying with everything.
“Can we go?” Changmin asked abruptly, standing up and taking a bitter gulp of the coffee before colleting his things and walking towards the door. “Feel free to nap in the back seat. You must not have gotten much sleep.”
“Ah, so that’s what you’re so bitchy about.” Kyuhyun sighed as he followed Changmin out. “I didn’t have sex with anyone.”
“Does it look like I care?” Changmin raised his eyebrows sarcastically back to the accusation, heading to the desk and sliding his room key across the counter to the desk attendant. He turned away towards Kyuhyun when the woman was done and looked at him with the strongest gaze he could master.
“You can /fuck/ anyone you want to.” Changmin said calmly, smiling just slightly. He didn’t wait around for Kyuhyun’s answer, holding his hand out for the keys and keeping his gaze up expectantly. “Keys.”
Kyuhyun seemed surprised by what Changmin said, and he handed the keys over wordlessly from his front pants pocket.
“Thank you.” Changmin said civilly, taking them and walking out of the lobby, not bothering to wait for Kyuhyun to turn in his key. He walked briskly towards the car when he spotted it in the back of the lot and stopped when his hand hit it. He stared at his reflection for a minute before shoving the key in and opening it a little rougher than he should have, the sun-streaked glass showing him a glimpse at the weak, bickering self inside of him that he hated the more it showed itself. He put on his sunglasses as he tucked his bags behind the seat and climbed into the drivers’ seat, gripping the steering wheel and waiting for Kyuhyun to arrive.
He sighed after what felt like hours of waiting-even though the clock said it had only been five minutes-and leaned against the seat trying to relax. “It’s bad to drive when you’re clouded by things.” He reminded himself. He glanced at the rearview mirror as Kyuhyun came out with his backpack. The thick dark sunglasses and the contrast of the gleam of the sun against his chestnut hair made him surreal. The way he walked was hesitant, confidence faltering as if he feared reaching the car.
“This is not a big deal. We’re not best friends fighting. We’re strangers fighting over something juvenile. Just apologize, blame it on a crappy hotel bed, and be done with it.” He scolded himself with another sigh. “This man is not good for me.”
Kyuhyun put his bag in the trunk and walked around, climbing into the front seat without a word. Changmin started the car and looked at him before backing out.
“I am sorry. I did not sleep well last night, I should not have snapped at you.”
Kyuhyun looked surprised and nodded, “It’s okay. I shouldn’t have provoked you. I can drive if you want…”
“No I’ll drive.” Changmin said back simply and pulled out from the space. Kyuhyun shut his mouth and sunk down, propping one leg up against the dashboard and leaning against the window. Changmin expected quiet for the rest of the ride, keeping his mouth shut after muttering at the GPS angrily until he figured out how to change it back to Korean.
But Kyuhyun began rambling. He talked about North Carolina and the area he grew up in. About how he threw up for an hour after the first time he performed for an audience because of how nervous he had been. About a movie he had seen on the plane from northern Canada, where he had been before he had landed serendipitously at the same airport Changmin had. It was an obscure Canadian film that reminded him of a Japanese drama, where everyone died but the dog. He told Changmin about the movie he had a cameo in, he played a stoner who worked at a video store that the main actress had gone into when she broke up with her supposedly perfect boyfriend and his character convinced her there was more to the world than love.
“Do you believe that?” Changmin asked before he could stop himself as he handed the woman at the register his cash. They had stopped for lunch at a gas station, a greasy looking fast food place that made Changmin’s stomach twitch but Kyuhyun said he couldn't live without.
“That there’s more to the world than love? Of course not. Why else do we strive for it so much if everyone is not meant to have it?”
“But that’s foolish. People aren’t put here just to fall in love and make more people.”
“How do you know?” Kyuhyun laughed before ordering his food.
“I don’t know if I’ll eat what I got. I would be very surprised if I liked this place.” Changmin scrunched his nose as the worker slid the tray towards him across the counter and Kyuhyun paid for his.
“Eat it or starve, cháng jǐng lù. If you want to make it to where we’re supposed to be by tonight we can’t stop again.” Changmin pouted when he realized Kyuhyun was right.
“We can just drive overnight again. If you would shut up and nap for a while we could at least.” Changmin sneered as they sat down.
“Hey, you never told me to be quiet.” Kyuhyun laughed. “Don’t poke at your food like that, it’s rude.”
“I’m making sure it’s edible… I never thought driving for a week would make me miss home so badly. I can’t wait to get back to Korea now.” Changmin whined as he picked up the burger and bit into it with his eyes squeezed shut so he wouldn’t change his mind. He made a face as he chewed and Kyuhyun continued laughing.
“It’s not that bad!”
“Yes, it is.” Changmin said back once he swallowed. “I can’t eat this I’ll get sick. Do you want it?” Changmin offered. Kyuhyun blinked and then shook his head.
“I’ll be too full after this, thanks though.” Kyuhyun smiled sheepishly before devouring the food that he had gotten and Changmin grimaced before taking a few more bites of the burger he had been unable to eat a few minutes prior.
“Do you really want to drive overnight?” Kyuhyun asked between sips of the Coca-Cola he had until the straw hit air and he stopped abruptly.
“Yeah, sure.” Changmin shrugged. “That way we know we have less driving to do tomorrow and we can stop early or something.”
“Okay, sure. Sounds good.” Kyuhyun nodded and picked up the two trays to take them to the garbage. “So are you making me shut up and nap now?”
“Yes. Do you want to sleep in the backseat or the front?”
“I’ll sleep in the back. You’re too distracting if I’m up front trying to sleep.”
“You’ve slept this whole time in the front seat though…” Changmin frowned as he held the door open for the two of them.
“I didn’t sleep all the time.” Kyuhyun said nonchalantly as he walked to the car followed by Changmin.
Changmin stopped as he clicked the remote and unlocked the car. “What?”
“Don’t worry about it cháng jǐng lù.” Kyuhyun laughed as he climbed in and got into the backseat. Changmin paused outside of his door, an uneasy feeling in his stomach that he blamed on the food before shaking his head and getting inside.
It was just the food.
Kyuhyun fell asleep soon after getting in the car. Changmin kept looking in the rear view mirror to make sure the other was really asleep, suddenly paranoid with Kyuhyun’s comment about not spending the whole time sleeping. What else could he have been doing without sleeping… staring out the window? It can’t be that interesting to stare out the window for hours and hours only to be interrupted by the occasional sleeping.
Kyuhyun’s phone was playing song after song, some of the words in a language Changmin could understand, most of them far from recognizable. But they were all surprisingly appealing, Kyuhyun’s rather soulful taste in music still surprising Changmin. The songs, he analyzed as the hours drained by, seemed to have a common undertone of longing, of sorrow, through the mellow lyrics and the overall acoustic music behind them.
He was lost. Kyuhyun was lost in a world he only half wanted to be in, a world without the constant love and support of a family where his face was really all that mattered. Changmin bit his lip thoughtfully as he tried not to let his mind run away from him and forget to focus on the road. A world where only his face really mattered. Changmin didn’t know what it felt like. Was that the reason behind the bravado, the sunglasses that never let Kyuhyun’s sad brown eyes see the world for what it really was? What a life it must be…. Not knowing who you are because of everyone telling you what you should be.
Darkness started to creep in at the horizon as they entered a new state. Changmin leant against the hood of the car as the gas pump filled the tank on its own, stopping for gas at a quiet mountain town to watch the sunset and fill up as the fuel light came on. Kyuhyun was still sleeping in the backseat, something Changmin was thankful, his thoughts still so absorbed in the other man that it would be painfully obvious for Kyuhyun if the two would face each other now. He would have to wake him up soon, so they could keep driving.
Changmin watched the colors melt through the trees and gravitate further away from the looming darkness of the sky above it for a moment more before turning back and looking into the windshield of the car, the fluorescent lights of the gas station flickering on with the fall of day and creating a dull shadow in the back of the car so he was barely able to make out Kyuhyun’s still form.
“He probably doesn’t get to sleep much if he’s so popular.” Changmin chuckled and leant off the car, going to remove the pump and getting back into the car as silently as he could. He turned the car on and looked over his shoulder to make sure Kyuhyun was still asleep before turning the music down just a little more and pulling out from the gas station, deciding not to bother waking up Kyuhyun as his eyes met the gorgeous tranquil face, long eyelashes relaxing against his high cheek bones and lips pouting in his sleep.
“You sure are in trouble.” Changmin sighed to himself as he turned back around.
That face was almost too beautiful to ignore, and he was getting tired of fighting the sick feeling that turned out not to be good but his own insecurities. It was about time he fell in love with the wrong person.