Away (5/?)
Title: Away ; chapter 5
Fandom/Pairing: Super Junior, f(x) ; Heechul/Hankyung
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Heechul's gotten himself into something tangled, he just knows it. Life away from former expectations was supposed to be easier, but so far things are still just complicated.
Note: i agonized over this, and the fact that it's so so so so late! but i'm excited to be posting again! it's not as long as past chapters, but i actually loved writing this one. i'm also going to make an effort to update this fic weekly, hopefully every Thursday. oh, and this chapter kind of answers a big question.
Word count: 2738
Chapter 5;
~
Heechul found that it wasn't actually that difficult to return to the gas station again, despite the fact that it'd been probably a good five minutes at least by car when they'd merely passed by before.
And this time he was on foot.
The sun wasn't completely hidden behind the horizon line yet, but the street lamps were starting to flicker on. Not too many people were walking around town anymore. When he did pass by anyone, they smiled. And even though it was obviously polite to do the same in return, Heechul gave it halfheartedly and continued walking. The station was then completely in sight.
Sure, the smell of gas wasn't his favorite to inhale, but the idea of being here comforted him in odd ways. If he'd stayed at Victoria's house, it would have only been worse, only brought him another heap of confusion. But he wondered how Donghae was. Heechul felt his heartstrings being tugged at relentlessly when he thought about the look on the young boy's face. How could this 'Lee Yoonhwa' scare him this badly? Donghae had practically been out of his wits. Heechul wondered if he and Hankyung had screwed up again, staying true to what he'd said-they would make each other insane.
Heechul opened the pull door, making sure to read if it was push or pull in the first place (he'd known a few friends to make that mistake of not checking). He didn't head to the front register where the object of his desire was, where the nicotine was. Instead, he walked around the whole 'mini-mart'-at least that's what the sign over the entrance door said. Heechul closed his nose to the smells of gasoline and rubber, trying to focus on if he wanted ice cream or not.
"Perfect comfort food for a shitty mood," he mused, hand on the freezer handle. Cold. And the weather was perfect outside, still humid from the daytime, but not too hot. He could just sit there and forget the cigarettes, eating ice cream instead. It'd be bad for him to be smoking again, anyway.
He stared for a while into the spaces between the various frozen cartons and wrapped up cones, not entirely certain if his mind was going to stay on the topic of ice cream versus lung-darkening smoke, or if it would venture to places he wished it'd stay away from. Holding in all his wants to sigh, Heechul opened the freezer. But he didn't move his hand, didn't pick the kind he wanted. Just stood there, the cold air rushing over him until his nose felt numb and there was someone tapping his arm.
"Excuse me…"
Heechul absentmindedly picked the first item that he could get his hand around. Felt like a cone. He looked at whoever tapped him and discovered a thin boy, looking much younger than he did. The kid had small yet bright eyes that almost seemed like they were smiling on their own, without help from his mouth, but his face seemed confused. There was something vaguely familiar about him. Oh, wasn't he one of those kids that waved when he and the others drove past earlier?
"Excuse me," the boy said again. "Could you close the freezer, hyung?"
"Hyung?"
"Jinki!" Out of nowhere, another teenager popped out and put his hand on the younger one's shoulder. "Don't bother the customers."
"But he-"
Heechul closed the freezer. "Sorry, I had the door open."
"Oh," he said, glancing apologetically at Jinki. His eyes then came back to Heechul. "Are you new around here?"
"Um, yeah," Heechul answered.
"Where are you from?"
"Seoul."
The boy who wasn't Jinki's eyes widened. "Wow, what are you doing in a place like this, then? You know, our Kibum-ah was born in Seoul-"
Heechul's breath almost hitched. Kibum.
"Hyung, I already told you," and again, a new person appeared from behind a row of chips and pretzels. "I'm Key."
"And Hyukjae is Eunhyuk, we know, we know. I'm Sungmin, by the way," he held out his hand. Heechul took it. "This is Jinki, and that one over there is called Key-but his real name is Kibum."
"Sungmin-hyung, where's Eunhyuk-hyung?"
"Hyukjae went home," said Sungmin.
"I'm Heechul," he stuck in his own intro and let go of Sungmin's hand before Key-Kibum?-Key's jaw dropped. He stared at Sungmin incredulously.
"Hyung left me?"
"Kibum-ah, you're coming over to our house tonight," Sungmin raised his eyebrow. "Did you forget?"
Key blinked, as if it was just coming back to him. "Oh yeah."
Jinki laughed and Sungmin took his hands off the boy's shoulders so the younger teenagers could go back to the register, Heechul assumed. "So, Heechul-sshi, what brings you to this stupid little town?"
"It's cute," Heechul shrugged, lightly tossing the ice cream back and forth between his hands. The frost forming against the papery wrapper felt strange on his fingers. "My…family and I are visiting someone."
"Sounds fun," Sungmin started towards the front of the store again, stopping to glance back at Heechul. "Did you want to buy that?"
"Yeah."
"This way," Sungmin smiled and lead him to the register, and he promptly shooed the younger boys out of the way, before taking the scanner and hovering the device over the bar code of Heechul's ice cream. "Hope you like it here," he said.
"It's cute," Heechul said again, hating that he did, before taking back his cone and saying, "thanks."
"See you around."
"Sure," Heechul said, not necessarily a promise. Yet, he had to admit that there was something he liked about Sungmin. The boy was pretty, and Heechul could appreciate other boys you could tack the word onto. Most of the time. As long as they weren't a threat.
He gave a wave to Sungmin on his way out, unwrapping his ice cream and sitting down at the edge of the sidewalk, lit up only by the fluorescent lighting illuminating whatever customers were actually here, shoving gallons of gas into their cars. It truly wasn't Heechul's ideal place to eat, but he did so despite his want for a real chair or a pillow. There wasn't anybody to complain to.
"Hey."
Or maybe there was. He glanced up, vanilla ice cream and a bit of chocolate smeared on his lip. Before speaking, he quickly licked it off. "What are you doing?"
"I was gonna ask you the exact same thing," Hankyung promptly sat down at Heechul's right.
"Why are you here?"
"Why are you here?"
"You're being annoying again," Heechul half-glared, lips millimeters from his ice cream as he spoke. "Stop doing that."
"Well, I'm pretty much raising kids that aren't that much younger than me. It's my job to be annoying so they'll stop it."
Heechul sighed. "In case you didn't know, I'm not one of your goddamn kids, Hankyung."
"And in case you didn't know, I'm only teasing you."
He bit his lip for a second, almost wanting a dramatic pause to go by before he replied. "I may, you know, tease you, too. But, you're good with them. Really good. They love you, those kids, and you're probably the only person they'd listen to. Although Sulli likes me."
"And Victoria."
"That she does," Heechul gave his desert another lick. "So, seriously, what are you doing here?"
"Drove. I was looking for you. And I needed gas."
"So you just randomly drove to a gas station and saw me here so you got out of your car and came over?" Heechul asked, tapping his finger against the cold cone in thought.
Hankyung shrugged. "I just said I needed gas, too. I was lucky," he needed to search for a few words. Oh, there they were. "To have found you at the same time."
"Flirt."
He laughed and thought about wiping a bit of ice cream from Heechul's lip, but opted not to. "So are you okay?"
"That depends," Heechul had it covered anyway, with his tongue again. "Is Donghae okay?"
Hankyung sighed. "I think so. For now. You didn't...it wasn't your fault. Just know that. You should. Because it really wasn't your fault. It's more mine than yours. I should have turned my phone off at dinner."
"If I should, I guess I will," Heechul offered his cone. "Want to tell me what happened anyway?"
Heechul watched as Hankyung's eyes landed peculiarly on him, accepting the ice cream. Seemed like he wanted an elaboration.
"Well, I know I was there, but that doesn't mean I know what was going on," Heechul explained, rolling his eyes. "So would you care to tell me or am I stuck in the dark?"
"It's dark outside right now," he even had an eyebrow raised at the same time. Cheeky idiot, thought Heechul, before his chest twisted in this weird way, but he ignored it.
"You know what I mean."
"You want me to tell you why Donghae acted that way?"
Heechul nodded.
Hankyung ran a single hand through his hair, leaning into it and staring at his feet for a moment. "Okay," he said, before lifting his head again. Heechul watched him in their mutual silence, until Hankyung spoke again. "He was abused. They all were. That's why, uh, Kyuhyun's back was…like that."
Chewing on his bottom lip, Heechul stayed quiet, unable to locate any words he could push out of his mouth right now. Hankyung could sense this.
"Their mom-well, she's not actually their mom. She adopted them all-did that to them."
"Is everyone else like…Kyuhyun?" Heechul lost his urge to finish his ice cream. He almost felt like dropping it. "Sulli-"
"Sulli never got treatment as bad as that," Hankyung shook his head, shuddering at the thought of the little girl, scars and all in tow. Her scars, he knew, were never as bad. But that never made it okay. "Sulli got the lightest…treatment of them all."
Heechul knew it was somewhat bad of him to feel relief, but he did, and it wasn't as if he was relieved over them all being punished. The idea of Sulli undergoing the same things as Kyuhyun gave him chills, so he pushed it out of his mind as best as he could. "They're okay now, though, right?"
"Better than they used to be. They're still scared-"
"As if I didn't know that already-"
"-but they're happier now, being away from that place. Away from her. Lee Yoonhwa. God, I hate that woman."
"Oh, wow. I didn't think you were the type to hate anyone," Heechul raised his eyebrows. They quickly came back down, though, when Hankyung didn't laugh like he'd almost hoped. "Well…nevermind."
"Usually I'm not."
Once Heechul was done with his food, Hankyung stood up and looked down, as if waiting for Heechul to do the same. By now Heechul started to get some kind of sick feeling in his stomach and he wondered if the ice cream was just old. He used Hankyung's hand to keep himself stable as he rose to his feet, but he was on his own as they walked to the car. The gas didn't help his stomach, nor his brain. It was almost like he was smelling blood, and the image of Kyuhyun's scarred back came into focus in his mind. It was then that he remembered Henry's injured wrists.
Heechul clamped a hand over his mouth, the sickening feeling crawling up his throat.
He almost felt like bursting into tears. Hankyung started to drive, and maybe he didn't even notice Heechul's pained expression. Hankyung had one of his own.
~
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Hyung?"
"Yeah," Heechul paused. "Well, sort of."
Donghae rolled over. "You're not hyung."
"I am a hyung to you, though. So call me one, okay?"
The teenager nodded, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. Light flooded in through the window and covered the expanse of the bed, including where Henry was also curled up, underneath blankets. Heechul made a note in his brain that he could potentially wake him up by accident.
He kept his voice low. "I'm sorry I got you all upset at dinner today."
"What time is it?" Donghae sat up, the light was gone from his face as the bed moved around for a moment and Henry stirred, suddenly cold from the loss of his hyung as a potential space heater. "Jesus, Heechul-hyung, it's 3am. Can't this wait until morning?"
"Talking to you in the morning would not be as effective," he defended, though lamely. It didn't make any particular sense to either of them, but Heechul had his own reasons. He didn't want anyone to interrupt, and in the morning there would be Hankyung, Sulli, Henry, anyone to get in his way. Heechul reached out to give Donghae a pat on the head, and bit his lip when he noticed the way the boy flinched. "I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry. And I hate saying I'm sorry, just so you know. But I am, got it?"
Donghae hung his head for a second, the tips of his hair illuminated from the moon. "I know you didn't mean it. It's okay." Henry stirred again, his younger hand reaching out for Donghae like it was something he'd done all his life, clinging for support. And it probably was.
They weren't little boys, they were teenagers, but to Heechul there was something about them that screamed dependence. They needed each other, no matter what age they were. And the two of them could share a bed without problems because they were probably used to it, and they probably needed to more than anything else.
"Where's Kyuhyun sleeping?"
"Oh. Hyung, he isn't very pleasant just out of sleep, I would definitely wait until morning for that one," Donghae even started to laugh, quiet as it was.
"Yah, I was just curious. I thought he'd be with you and Henry."
"He's with Hankyung-hyung. I thought you were with them, though…"
"And Sulli?" he ignored the question.
Donghae answered nonetheless. "With Victoria."
Heechul performed a mental head count of everyone. All accounted for. The name 'Krystal' floated through his mind, but he would save this question for another day at a gas station with Hankyung.
"Thanks, kid," Heechul had a magnificent urge to lean over and kiss the top of his head, like his sister used to do for him when they were young. But he considered the flinching from before, and settled with the lightest touch of his hand against the space about an inch from Donghae's hand. "Go back to sleep, keep Henry company," he said, before disappearing out the door.
~
The room only two door down was empty, and it seemed like no one had even lived in it for months, years even, save for the visible attempts at keeping it clean and dusted every now and then. Even Heechul could notice those things. Nothing appeared to have been moved much, though. Almost like being in a historical exhibit.
He hadn't slept at all since he and Hankyung came back from the gas station, unlike he let Hankyung believe. The last time they talked had been at 11pm, after a while of watching TV together. He'd given his Chinese friend the impression of going to bed soon after and slipped into his Tom & Jerry shirt. He couldn't sleep, though, lying on the couch and staring at the screen whose volume was so low he could barely make out anything the characters were saying. The main actress was pretty, the plot was typical. At that point, Heechul had considered getting back into watching dramas as religiously as he used to.
The typical plot turned him off, though. Almost as much as the main actress, no matter how attractive she was. Not his type. Not too many girls were these days. He'd sat up and by the time he'd conjured up the right words in his mind it was 2:55am and he went on his Donghae mission.
As of now, said Donghae mission was complete, and Heechul crawled into this uninhabited bed. Careful enough not to disturb anything else in the room, he settled himself in the center of the bed that seemed made for someone much younger.
There were posters on the wall with Chinese lettering, there was a banner from the Beijing Dance Academy hanging from the ceiling, there were a few scattered awards here and there on the wardrobe and on top of a desk, and Heechul then closed his eyes. Hankyung came to mind.
--
i love this fic ;___; even if it's not that spectacular or whatnot, i just love it. i'll keep doing my best to make sure it's enjoyable.
Fandom/Pairing: Super Junior, f(x) ; Heechul/Hankyung
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Heechul's gotten himself into something tangled, he just knows it. Life away from former expectations was supposed to be easier, but so far things are still just complicated.
Note: i agonized over this, and the fact that it's so so so so late! but i'm excited to be posting again! it's not as long as past chapters, but i actually loved writing this one. i'm also going to make an effort to update this fic weekly, hopefully every Thursday. oh, and this chapter kind of answers a big question.
Word count: 2738
Chapter 5;
~
Heechul found that it wasn't actually that difficult to return to the gas station again, despite the fact that it'd been probably a good five minutes at least by car when they'd merely passed by before.
And this time he was on foot.
The sun wasn't completely hidden behind the horizon line yet, but the street lamps were starting to flicker on. Not too many people were walking around town anymore. When he did pass by anyone, they smiled. And even though it was obviously polite to do the same in return, Heechul gave it halfheartedly and continued walking. The station was then completely in sight.
Sure, the smell of gas wasn't his favorite to inhale, but the idea of being here comforted him in odd ways. If he'd stayed at Victoria's house, it would have only been worse, only brought him another heap of confusion. But he wondered how Donghae was. Heechul felt his heartstrings being tugged at relentlessly when he thought about the look on the young boy's face. How could this 'Lee Yoonhwa' scare him this badly? Donghae had practically been out of his wits. Heechul wondered if he and Hankyung had screwed up again, staying true to what he'd said-they would make each other insane.
Heechul opened the pull door, making sure to read if it was push or pull in the first place (he'd known a few friends to make that mistake of not checking). He didn't head to the front register where the object of his desire was, where the nicotine was. Instead, he walked around the whole 'mini-mart'-at least that's what the sign over the entrance door said. Heechul closed his nose to the smells of gasoline and rubber, trying to focus on if he wanted ice cream or not.
"Perfect comfort food for a shitty mood," he mused, hand on the freezer handle. Cold. And the weather was perfect outside, still humid from the daytime, but not too hot. He could just sit there and forget the cigarettes, eating ice cream instead. It'd be bad for him to be smoking again, anyway.
He stared for a while into the spaces between the various frozen cartons and wrapped up cones, not entirely certain if his mind was going to stay on the topic of ice cream versus lung-darkening smoke, or if it would venture to places he wished it'd stay away from. Holding in all his wants to sigh, Heechul opened the freezer. But he didn't move his hand, didn't pick the kind he wanted. Just stood there, the cold air rushing over him until his nose felt numb and there was someone tapping his arm.
"Excuse me…"
Heechul absentmindedly picked the first item that he could get his hand around. Felt like a cone. He looked at whoever tapped him and discovered a thin boy, looking much younger than he did. The kid had small yet bright eyes that almost seemed like they were smiling on their own, without help from his mouth, but his face seemed confused. There was something vaguely familiar about him. Oh, wasn't he one of those kids that waved when he and the others drove past earlier?
"Excuse me," the boy said again. "Could you close the freezer, hyung?"
"Hyung?"
"Jinki!" Out of nowhere, another teenager popped out and put his hand on the younger one's shoulder. "Don't bother the customers."
"But he-"
Heechul closed the freezer. "Sorry, I had the door open."
"Oh," he said, glancing apologetically at Jinki. His eyes then came back to Heechul. "Are you new around here?"
"Um, yeah," Heechul answered.
"Where are you from?"
"Seoul."
The boy who wasn't Jinki's eyes widened. "Wow, what are you doing in a place like this, then? You know, our Kibum-ah was born in Seoul-"
Heechul's breath almost hitched. Kibum.
"Hyung, I already told you," and again, a new person appeared from behind a row of chips and pretzels. "I'm Key."
"And Hyukjae is Eunhyuk, we know, we know. I'm Sungmin, by the way," he held out his hand. Heechul took it. "This is Jinki, and that one over there is called Key-but his real name is Kibum."
"Sungmin-hyung, where's Eunhyuk-hyung?"
"Hyukjae went home," said Sungmin.
"I'm Heechul," he stuck in his own intro and let go of Sungmin's hand before Key-Kibum?-Key's jaw dropped. He stared at Sungmin incredulously.
"Hyung left me?"
"Kibum-ah, you're coming over to our house tonight," Sungmin raised his eyebrow. "Did you forget?"
Key blinked, as if it was just coming back to him. "Oh yeah."
Jinki laughed and Sungmin took his hands off the boy's shoulders so the younger teenagers could go back to the register, Heechul assumed. "So, Heechul-sshi, what brings you to this stupid little town?"
"It's cute," Heechul shrugged, lightly tossing the ice cream back and forth between his hands. The frost forming against the papery wrapper felt strange on his fingers. "My…family and I are visiting someone."
"Sounds fun," Sungmin started towards the front of the store again, stopping to glance back at Heechul. "Did you want to buy that?"
"Yeah."
"This way," Sungmin smiled and lead him to the register, and he promptly shooed the younger boys out of the way, before taking the scanner and hovering the device over the bar code of Heechul's ice cream. "Hope you like it here," he said.
"It's cute," Heechul said again, hating that he did, before taking back his cone and saying, "thanks."
"See you around."
"Sure," Heechul said, not necessarily a promise. Yet, he had to admit that there was something he liked about Sungmin. The boy was pretty, and Heechul could appreciate other boys you could tack the word onto. Most of the time. As long as they weren't a threat.
He gave a wave to Sungmin on his way out, unwrapping his ice cream and sitting down at the edge of the sidewalk, lit up only by the fluorescent lighting illuminating whatever customers were actually here, shoving gallons of gas into their cars. It truly wasn't Heechul's ideal place to eat, but he did so despite his want for a real chair or a pillow. There wasn't anybody to complain to.
"Hey."
Or maybe there was. He glanced up, vanilla ice cream and a bit of chocolate smeared on his lip. Before speaking, he quickly licked it off. "What are you doing?"
"I was gonna ask you the exact same thing," Hankyung promptly sat down at Heechul's right.
"Why are you here?"
"Why are you here?"
"You're being annoying again," Heechul half-glared, lips millimeters from his ice cream as he spoke. "Stop doing that."
"Well, I'm pretty much raising kids that aren't that much younger than me. It's my job to be annoying so they'll stop it."
Heechul sighed. "In case you didn't know, I'm not one of your goddamn kids, Hankyung."
"And in case you didn't know, I'm only teasing you."
He bit his lip for a second, almost wanting a dramatic pause to go by before he replied. "I may, you know, tease you, too. But, you're good with them. Really good. They love you, those kids, and you're probably the only person they'd listen to. Although Sulli likes me."
"And Victoria."
"That she does," Heechul gave his desert another lick. "So, seriously, what are you doing here?"
"Drove. I was looking for you. And I needed gas."
"So you just randomly drove to a gas station and saw me here so you got out of your car and came over?" Heechul asked, tapping his finger against the cold cone in thought.
Hankyung shrugged. "I just said I needed gas, too. I was lucky," he needed to search for a few words. Oh, there they were. "To have found you at the same time."
"Flirt."
He laughed and thought about wiping a bit of ice cream from Heechul's lip, but opted not to. "So are you okay?"
"That depends," Heechul had it covered anyway, with his tongue again. "Is Donghae okay?"
Hankyung sighed. "I think so. For now. You didn't...it wasn't your fault. Just know that. You should. Because it really wasn't your fault. It's more mine than yours. I should have turned my phone off at dinner."
"If I should, I guess I will," Heechul offered his cone. "Want to tell me what happened anyway?"
Heechul watched as Hankyung's eyes landed peculiarly on him, accepting the ice cream. Seemed like he wanted an elaboration.
"Well, I know I was there, but that doesn't mean I know what was going on," Heechul explained, rolling his eyes. "So would you care to tell me or am I stuck in the dark?"
"It's dark outside right now," he even had an eyebrow raised at the same time. Cheeky idiot, thought Heechul, before his chest twisted in this weird way, but he ignored it.
"You know what I mean."
"You want me to tell you why Donghae acted that way?"
Heechul nodded.
Hankyung ran a single hand through his hair, leaning into it and staring at his feet for a moment. "Okay," he said, before lifting his head again. Heechul watched him in their mutual silence, until Hankyung spoke again. "He was abused. They all were. That's why, uh, Kyuhyun's back was…like that."
Chewing on his bottom lip, Heechul stayed quiet, unable to locate any words he could push out of his mouth right now. Hankyung could sense this.
"Their mom-well, she's not actually their mom. She adopted them all-did that to them."
"Is everyone else like…Kyuhyun?" Heechul lost his urge to finish his ice cream. He almost felt like dropping it. "Sulli-"
"Sulli never got treatment as bad as that," Hankyung shook his head, shuddering at the thought of the little girl, scars and all in tow. Her scars, he knew, were never as bad. But that never made it okay. "Sulli got the lightest…treatment of them all."
Heechul knew it was somewhat bad of him to feel relief, but he did, and it wasn't as if he was relieved over them all being punished. The idea of Sulli undergoing the same things as Kyuhyun gave him chills, so he pushed it out of his mind as best as he could. "They're okay now, though, right?"
"Better than they used to be. They're still scared-"
"As if I didn't know that already-"
"-but they're happier now, being away from that place. Away from her. Lee Yoonhwa. God, I hate that woman."
"Oh, wow. I didn't think you were the type to hate anyone," Heechul raised his eyebrows. They quickly came back down, though, when Hankyung didn't laugh like he'd almost hoped. "Well…nevermind."
"Usually I'm not."
Once Heechul was done with his food, Hankyung stood up and looked down, as if waiting for Heechul to do the same. By now Heechul started to get some kind of sick feeling in his stomach and he wondered if the ice cream was just old. He used Hankyung's hand to keep himself stable as he rose to his feet, but he was on his own as they walked to the car. The gas didn't help his stomach, nor his brain. It was almost like he was smelling blood, and the image of Kyuhyun's scarred back came into focus in his mind. It was then that he remembered Henry's injured wrists.
Heechul clamped a hand over his mouth, the sickening feeling crawling up his throat.
He almost felt like bursting into tears. Hankyung started to drive, and maybe he didn't even notice Heechul's pained expression. Hankyung had one of his own.
~
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Hyung?"
"Yeah," Heechul paused. "Well, sort of."
Donghae rolled over. "You're not hyung."
"I am a hyung to you, though. So call me one, okay?"
The teenager nodded, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. Light flooded in through the window and covered the expanse of the bed, including where Henry was also curled up, underneath blankets. Heechul made a note in his brain that he could potentially wake him up by accident.
He kept his voice low. "I'm sorry I got you all upset at dinner today."
"What time is it?" Donghae sat up, the light was gone from his face as the bed moved around for a moment and Henry stirred, suddenly cold from the loss of his hyung as a potential space heater. "Jesus, Heechul-hyung, it's 3am. Can't this wait until morning?"
"Talking to you in the morning would not be as effective," he defended, though lamely. It didn't make any particular sense to either of them, but Heechul had his own reasons. He didn't want anyone to interrupt, and in the morning there would be Hankyung, Sulli, Henry, anyone to get in his way. Heechul reached out to give Donghae a pat on the head, and bit his lip when he noticed the way the boy flinched. "I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry. And I hate saying I'm sorry, just so you know. But I am, got it?"
Donghae hung his head for a second, the tips of his hair illuminated from the moon. "I know you didn't mean it. It's okay." Henry stirred again, his younger hand reaching out for Donghae like it was something he'd done all his life, clinging for support. And it probably was.
They weren't little boys, they were teenagers, but to Heechul there was something about them that screamed dependence. They needed each other, no matter what age they were. And the two of them could share a bed without problems because they were probably used to it, and they probably needed to more than anything else.
"Where's Kyuhyun sleeping?"
"Oh. Hyung, he isn't very pleasant just out of sleep, I would definitely wait until morning for that one," Donghae even started to laugh, quiet as it was.
"Yah, I was just curious. I thought he'd be with you and Henry."
"He's with Hankyung-hyung. I thought you were with them, though…"
"And Sulli?" he ignored the question.
Donghae answered nonetheless. "With Victoria."
Heechul performed a mental head count of everyone. All accounted for. The name 'Krystal' floated through his mind, but he would save this question for another day at a gas station with Hankyung.
"Thanks, kid," Heechul had a magnificent urge to lean over and kiss the top of his head, like his sister used to do for him when they were young. But he considered the flinching from before, and settled with the lightest touch of his hand against the space about an inch from Donghae's hand. "Go back to sleep, keep Henry company," he said, before disappearing out the door.
~
The room only two door down was empty, and it seemed like no one had even lived in it for months, years even, save for the visible attempts at keeping it clean and dusted every now and then. Even Heechul could notice those things. Nothing appeared to have been moved much, though. Almost like being in a historical exhibit.
He hadn't slept at all since he and Hankyung came back from the gas station, unlike he let Hankyung believe. The last time they talked had been at 11pm, after a while of watching TV together. He'd given his Chinese friend the impression of going to bed soon after and slipped into his Tom & Jerry shirt. He couldn't sleep, though, lying on the couch and staring at the screen whose volume was so low he could barely make out anything the characters were saying. The main actress was pretty, the plot was typical. At that point, Heechul had considered getting back into watching dramas as religiously as he used to.
The typical plot turned him off, though. Almost as much as the main actress, no matter how attractive she was. Not his type. Not too many girls were these days. He'd sat up and by the time he'd conjured up the right words in his mind it was 2:55am and he went on his Donghae mission.
As of now, said Donghae mission was complete, and Heechul crawled into this uninhabited bed. Careful enough not to disturb anything else in the room, he settled himself in the center of the bed that seemed made for someone much younger.
There were posters on the wall with Chinese lettering, there was a banner from the Beijing Dance Academy hanging from the ceiling, there were a few scattered awards here and there on the wardrobe and on top of a desk, and Heechul then closed his eyes. Hankyung came to mind.
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i love this fic ;___; even if it's not that spectacular or whatnot, i just love it. i'll keep doing my best to make sure it's enjoyable.