the sleeping soprano
title: the sleeping soprano
type: to be continued (5659 words)
fandom: shinee
pairing: jongyu
rating/warnings: pg? idk i can't think anymore ;_;
author's notes: wrote this just last night and this afternoon, so it's super duper messy and raw and unbeta'd and nothing like i imagined it would turn out, haha. first attempt at jongyu, hruu. dedicated to dubulust - HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! and hyungdeul - i'm so sorryyyyyyyyy ;A;
When Jonghyun sliced his finger open on that (very very) shiny razor, he expected to feel the blade piercing through his skin, beads of crimson welling up in its wake as he wailed about the slight to his carefully tended body in his best falsetto, the one that left the servants' ears ringing for hours.
What he didn't expect was to pass out in a dead faint (the last thing he saw were his parents' horrified faces and the gleeful one of that creepy hag that he was certain was trying to lure him into engagement-oh God, how the hell did she get into the palace and what was she going to do with his body?!) and then waking up in what seemed to be a picturesque paradise.
It was very much like his mother's flower gardens, this new place. Of course, he'd only ever seen them from afar, having been barred from wandering around anywhere without strict supervision especially around the thorny roses, but he'd always thought they were quite beautiful from what he could see of them from the palace.
This place, however, seemed even more beautiful than the royal courtyard. Or perhaps it was an exact imitation of the gardens after all, and Jonghyun had never realized how beautiful the place was unless you could see it for yourself.
Jonghyun reached out to the nearest patch of flowers, brushing a finger against the tiny petals of a rosebud.
And stopped. Jonghyun's brows furrowed as he brought his hand up to his face. The skin was entirely unmarred: there was no sign of a wound anywhere.
"Hm. That's weird," he murmured, looking around the garden. Come to think of it, there was no sign of the castle anywhere. Only patches of flowers as far as the eye could see.
Jonghyun abandoned his admiration of the flowers to follow the cobblestone path that wound around the gardens. The journey back to the castle seemed to be taking much longer than he thought it would. At first, he thought that it was his unfamiliarity with the gardens that made walking seem so long. Then, perhaps, the royal courtyard was much larger than he'd initially thought it to be.
But when the sun reached the horizon and the sky changed from a bright blue to the vivid oranges and pinks of sunset, Jonghyun was certain that something was horribly wrong. By the time the stars began dotting the night sky and he had circled that same stupid patch of hydrangea for the twentieth time, Jonghyun was tired, sweaty, and on the verge of tears.
"This is not the reality I wanted!" he screamed into the cool night air with all the strength he could muster.
Not even the sounds of startled animals could be heard to comfort him.
Jonghyun screwed his face up into a frustrated expression, the ugly one that he only ever wore in the safety of his chambers when no one was around to see him-if there were no people around, then his image wouldn't matter, anyway-and began sobbing. The soft hiccups turned into loud wails and Jonghyun began kicking and pulling at the hydrangea plants, uprooting them from the soil and destroying the beautifully manicured gardens until exhaustion finally claimed him.
---
He woke up to the burning sensation of sunlight piercing through his eyelids. Jonghyun groaned loudly, throwing an arm over his eyes and resolving to yell at the foolish chambermaid that forgot to draw his curtains close the previous night.
Jonghyun rolled over, expecting to hit his overstuffed feather pillow.
Instead, his face met hard ground. He sat up quickly with a yelp and prodded his nose gingerly with his fingers, praying that there was no permanent damage.
A quick survey of his surroundings confirmed his worst suspicions. He was still stuck in this twisted parody of the palace gardens.
Frustration welled up in him again, and he lashed out at the nearest plants he could swipe at. The hydrangeas shook violently, teetering from where they were rooted to the ground, and Jonghyun groaned as he realized that there was no sign of his violent tantrum the previous night.
"Even you're conspiring against me! All of you!" Jonghyun yelled accusingly at the flowers.
Of course, they didn't respond, and eventually Jonghyun felt pretty stupid for yelling at plants, so he decided to get up and move onto a different area of the garden. Maybe there were potentially less aggravating plants. Like tulips. Tulips were nice.
He finally found that nice patch of tulips that he'd passed by a million times the previous day and settled himself on a shady spot along the pathway. Jonghyun sighed, tilting his head up to the sky and squinting up at the sun. It had just about reached its zenith, meaning that it was around noon.
During this time, he would be hiding out in one of the many music rooms, completely absorbed in playing a new melody or practicing his singing. The servants would be running around all over the castle, frantically trying to find him in time for the lunch meal. His parents had always insisted on eating lunch as a family-sometimes he would wake up too late for breakfast, and dinner was usually reserved for visiting nobles or grand parties that he sometimes wormed his way out of-and his father had a terrible temper whenever Jonghyun could not be retrieved for their family bonding time.
Eventually, one of the maids or servant boys would find him, sigh in relief and coax him gently away from the piano with promises of obtaining new scores for him to learn. He would be escorted down to the grand dining hall, taking his place at the seat to his sister's left and begin halfheartedly picking at the lavish meal laid out for him while listening to his parents try to hold a conversation that did not directly involve affairs of the kingdom.
Perhaps he should have been kinder to the servants. Perhaps he should have gone down to mealtimes without them having to raid the entire castle to find him. Perhaps he should have eaten everything on his plate instead of just enough to excuse him from the meal. Perhaps he should have initiated conversations with his parents, answered their attempts to reach out to him instead of sitting through lunch as if it were a punishment. Perhaps he should have been nicer to his older sister, complimenting her instead of teasing her and getting her riled up for no real reason.
He was crying again, but quietly this time. Only the wetness rolling down his cheeks was testament to his sudden bout of loneliness.
---
Eventually Jonghyun resolved to stop crying over his predicament. It wasn't productive, and it only ever got him tired and cranky, anyway.
Admittedly, it took him a few days to come to that conclusion, but afterwards Jonghyun felt a lot calmer about being thrown into a maze of the palace gardens. Once he stopped tearing up innocent flora, Jonghyun found that the gardens were actually very good places to sit down and think.
Not that there were a lot of other things to do, but you had to give him credit for being optimistic.
He came to the conclusion that his current situation was the result of magic, most likely the doing of that crazy witch that wanted to marry him. Occasionally he'd heard the servants whispering about a curse, and he had a feeling that this weird spell might have something to do with how his father did not allow him to take sword lessons or how his mother refused to let him anywhere near the kitchens or how his sister would never let him anywhere near her chambers while she was engaged in embroidery lessons, but exactly why the curse was placed, he had no idea. In fact, he wasn't even sure if he wanted to know.
The biggest problem was how he was going to get out. Obviously, simply strolling out of the gardens was no option, and aside from his amazing singing voice and his drop-dead gorgeous looks, Jonghyun wasn't exactly equipped with any sort of magic to combat the spell placed on him.
In the end, he eventually concluded that, like any good little princess, he would have to wait for some dashing fellow to come and save him. Not the most appealing option, but if it got him out of this hellhole, he'd gladly wait for his knight in shining armor with open arms. Jonghyun would even grant him lifetime free access to all his concerts!
Happy with his resolve, Jonghyun turned to finding ways to occupy himself while waiting. Honestly, there wasn't much to be done: despite the lack of rain or any nearby source of water, the plants seemed to be keeping themselves alive quite well.
Jonghyun took to playing around with the plants, gathering as many flowers as he could and arranging them into beautiful bouquets that he pretended were for some royal gathering. He wandered around the gardens, memorizing where each kind of plant was located until he knew each one like the back of his hand. He tried to recall their names from the lessons his tutors tried to drill into his head, and for the ones he couldn't remember, he made up fanciful names like "Lily Like Oxygen" and "Ring Ding Rose".
Perhaps his proudest achievement was when he gathered up a number of particularly large leaves, rolling them into makeshift flutes and trying to play tunes with them like he had seen the children of the servants do. This particular endeavor took him the entire afternoon, but producing the first clumsy note made him so happy that he nearly beheaded the nearby patch of sunflowers with the way he flailed about.
A few more days of obsessive playing and he managed to master the basic scale, which was enough for him to play wind renditions of his favorite tunes. It helped ease the boredom greatly, and the only thing more that he really wished for (aside from getting out of this world) was someone to accompany him.
---
Aside from naming plants and playing songs, Jonghyun also kept track of how many days he had spent in the maze. Apparently, the garden didn't magically reset itself if you removed the plants carefully, and Jonghyun was able to collect an assortment of pebbles and seeds to serve as markers.
It was on his twenty-seventh night of being trapped in the imitation of the royal courtyard that something very strange happened. He had just finished his latest project, the construction of a cozy grass nest so that he wouldn't have to sleep on the cobblestone anymore, when a boy dropped out of the sky.
Literally. Screaming and crying as he fell from the heavens onto a patch of Lilies Like Oxygen.
At first, Jonghyun could barely believe what had happened. He'd been waiting for someone to come and rescue him from this place, but he'd always expected the person to be a gallant knight or a prince on a tall white steed, galloping out of the horizon and carrying him away to safety. The abrupt, unexpected arrival of the boy was like a scene out of a particularly funny dream, and Jonghyun briefly wondered if he had spent so much time alone that he had finally begun hallucinating.
The pained groaning that emerged from the patch of flowers jolted him out of his reverie, and Jonghyun got up and ran over to where the boy had landed.
Jonghyun watched in horrified fascination as the disheveled young man picked himself up from where he had landed awkwardly and gaped at the strange garden he was now sitting in.
The stranger turned his head and met Jonghyun's gaze. After a brief moment of shocked silence, the odd man gave Jonghyun a sheepish grin.
Jonghyun leapt at the stranger, throwing his arms around him in a fit of enthusiastic joy.
The stranger froze up at first, but carefully returned his embrace, and even patted him comfortingly on the back when Jonghyun began to sob loudly into his shoulder.
---
"So you have no idea how you got here?"
Onew-the stranger's name-shook his head. "One moment, I was in my bedroll, and the next thing I knew, I was spitting out lilies." He frowned, and suddenly turned his head to spit out one last petal stuck between his teeth.
Jonghyun mirrored his frown. "So I take it you have no idea how to get out of here, either."
The other boy shrugged. "Sorry, no idea, either."
Jonghyun groaned loudly, flopping back onto the grass and huffing to himself. "I knew it was too good to be true!" he yelled up at the night sky.
Onew's head entered his line of vision. "Well, it can't be that bad, right?" the older boy offered. "You and I got here out of nowhere, so we might be able to get out the same way."
"I've been stuck here for twenty-nine days, hyung," Jonghyun said irritably, pushing himself up into a sitting position. "What if you're stuck here, too?"
Onew paled at his words. "But I think I left the fire going!" he whined, lower lip sticking out in a pout.
Jonghyun gave him a funny look. "Aren't you supposed to put those out before you go to sleep?"
"Well, er..." Onew flushed sheepishly. "I was really tired, and I... thought I could wake up to put it out later, or that it might put itself out or something..."
He paused awkwardly, clearly embarrassed.
Jonghyun broke out into a loud laugh, which surprised the two of them. Jonghyun, especially-he couldn't even remember the last time he had laughed; if he had even laughed during the time he spent in this never-ending garden.
"You're funny, hyung," Jonghyun beamed, all flashing teeth and an arm wrapping comfortably around Onew's shoulder.
Onew made a face, but accepted Jonghyun's brand of comfort anyway.
---
Jonghyun had fallen asleep next to Onew, the two of them curled up back to back in the grass nest Jonghyun had spent the last couple of days flattening out. He was incredibly disappointed to find the other boy missing by the time he woke up.
Jonghyun berated himself for being selfish-he should be happy that the other boy managed to free himself from this prison, that he wasn't being subjected to the same torture that he was. But still, even if Onew wasn't the one to be able to save him, it was nice to have someone else to talk to.
And there was something genuinely likable about Onew. Jonghyun wasn't ignorant-he had observed Onew carefully, taking note of his sturdy dragon-hide boots and the mithril armor that peeked out from under his shirt. Onew was evidently from a very rich family, but he wasn't anything like the arrogant, self-centered sons of the nobles that came to stay at the castle every now and then. Onew was a little clumsy and had an offbeat sense of humor, but he was sincerely kind, and Jonghyun prided himself on being an excellent judge of character.
Maybe Onew was an illusion after all. A vivid dream born out of desperation for human contact.
Jonghyun patted the grass next to him where Onew had slept the night before.
Still a little warm.
---
Of course, when Onew tumbled out of the sky again that night, grumbling about needing to find a better way to enter this world, it was all Jonghyun could do not to smother the older boy.
Instead, he beamed, thrusting out a makeshift grass flute at Onew and asking him if he knew how to play.
Onew wasn't all that skilled with the instrument, but Jonghyun discovered something much better. Onew could sing.
It was an accidental discovery: they were walking along the gardens, Jonghyun pointing out the different flowers to him and proudly listing off the names he had given them himself when Onew randomly broke out into a song about springtime.
Jonghyun had stared for all of ten seconds before cautiously following with the next verse. Onew joined him on the second line, and they finished the entire song before gaping at each other.
"Holy shit, we sound awesome," Jonghyun remarked intelligently.
"Yeah, we do," Onew concurred.
And so it became habit for them to spontaneously break out into duets. Jonghyun exhausted his entire knowledge of songs-an impressive catalogue, indeed-and Onew taught him what he knew, songs that sounded as though they came from the neighboring kingdom.
This piqued Jonghyun's interest, and on one night when they ran out of songs to sing and had grown bored of throwing flower heads at each other, Jonghyun asked Onew about himself. In retrospect, it was probably a bit odd to ask about each other only weeks after their first meeting, but Jonghyun found that he really didn't mind.
Onew, as it turned out, was on a quest. There was a beautiful maiden in the next kingdom who had fallen under a deep sleep, cursed to remain that way for a hundred days until a brave man managed to slay the dragon guarding her and awaken her, else she would die. Jonghyun laughed, teasing Onew about slaying the dragon by falling on top of it, and Onew had drawn him into an impromptu wrestling match for his cheek.
Jonghyun, in turn, shared stories about himself. He was the second child and only son of his parents, but due to an unfortunate mix-up during his birth where everyone was confused by his high-pitched wails, his official birth certificate named him a girl. "Don't laugh," he paused in the middle of his story to warn Onew.
"I'm not," Onew insisted, hiding a grin behind his hand.
Jonghyun rolled his eyes, but tossed Onew a good-natured grin anyway. He went on to mention that he was a talented singer-and here he gave Onew another look, to which the older boy held his hands up innocently-and that he often held concerts. It just so happened that on the day of his eighteenth birthday, one of his crazier fans had sent him a razor. He sliced his finger on the blade and somehow ended up here, unable to leave ever since.
Onew was pensive, twirling the stem of a petunia thoughtfully between the pads of his fingers. It wasn't until Jonghyun cleared his throat that Onew snapped out of his sudden train of thought, and gave Jonghyun an embarrassed smile for being caught spacing out.
"You should pay more attention, hyung," Jonghyun berated him lightly, nudging him with his shoulder.
Onew gave a small murmur of agreement, turning his gaze up to the night sky.
---
Pebbles and seeds slowly filled the part of the cobblestone pathway that Jonghyun marked out for himself. On the fifty-third night, Onew managed to fall asleep with a piece of jerky in his hands, and it somehow carried into the flower gardens.
"I can't believe you didn't do this sooner," Jonghyun mumbled over a mouthful of beef. The ordinary food seemed so delicious after over two months of being deprived of food-not that Jonghyun really needed it in this world, but the sensation was well-appreciated all the same.
"I didn't even know I could," Onew replied, snapping off another bite of his half of the jerky. He chewed thoughtfully, dangling his legs from the branch they were currently perched on. "I wonder if this will be gone when I wake up."
Jonghyun gave him a funny look. "You're awake right now, hyung."
Onew shifted himself just enough to meet Jonghyun's eye. "No, I mean," he swallowed, "in the real world."
Jonghyun belatedly remembered to swallow his own mouthful. "Oh."
Suddenly, the jerky wasn't so appealing anymore. Jonghyun shoved the remainder of his piece into Onew's hands and curled himself closer to the tree trunk, turning his gaze to the bed of crocus below.
Onew, not knowing what to do with the jerky, let the piece fall to the ground and shuffled a little closer to Jonghyun. "You know how I can only get to this place when I'm asleep?"
"Mm," Jonghyun murmured.
"Well, I was thinking that it might be the same for you," Onew ventured cautiously.
Jonghyun turned to look at him incredulously. "What do you mean? That I'm dead?"
Onew waved his hands in panic. "No, no, that's not what I meant-"
"Then what do you mean, hyung?" Jonghyun asked. He could feel his voice hitching, feel the panic and fear that he thought he had long suppressed. "How can I be asleep? How come I can never wake up? How can you drop in and out of this place like it's nothing to you, while I'm stuck here forever?"
"It's not like-" Onew tried to reach out to him, but Jonghyun only batted his hands away.
"Don't you think I've wondered why I'm here? Don't you think I've tried every possible way to get out?" Jonghyun trembled, curling in on himself. "I didn't want to be stuck here, you know. I want to finish learning how to play that sonata I bribed out of that traveling musician. I want to hold another concert. I want to run around the castle. I want to ride my horses. I want to eat lunch with my family, and maybe eat breakfast and dinner with them, too. I want to sleep in my bed, and I want to wake up in it. I want to be awake... I want to be alive, hyung. I want to live!"
It wasn't until Onew pulled Jonghyun to himself, murmuring nonsensical words and directing Jonghyun's face to the crook of his neck, did Jonghyun realize he was crying.
"I told myself I wouldn't cry anymore," Jonghyun managed to say through great shuddering breaths.
"You don't have to hold it back, you know," Onew murmured, patting Jonghyun's back soothingly. "You don't have to pretend, Jonghyun-ah."
Jonghyun shook in Onew's arms and let his facade break down, just this once.
---
They never spoke of that night again, where Jonghyun fell asleep to the sound of Onew's humming and woke up with the distinct impression of the older boy's warmth against his back. Jonghyun never directly apologized the following night for lashing out so suddenly, for breaking down in front of him; only touched Onew's elbow hesitantly with the pads of his fingers.
Onew never directly told Jonghyun that it was alright, that he had nothing to apologize for; only took Jonghyun's hand in his, twining their fingers together and squeezing gently in unspoken reassurance. Jonghyun never directly thanked Onew; only tightened his grip around Onew's hand as he led him through another expedition through the gardens.
But as idyllic as their world may have been, it was not to last forever. As the days wore by and more and more pebbles and seeds filled up the cobblestone pathway, Onew's stays became shorter and shorter. Sometimes he would arrive far too late, landing in yet another bed of flowers only when the moon was far past its zenith. Sometimes he would leave too early, disappearing from Jonghyun's side just after the younger boy fell asleep.
It reached the point when sometimes Jonghyun would stay up all night, waiting for the familiar sounds of screaming from the heavens, and Onew would not arrive at all.
"What are you fighting so desperately that you can't even let yourself get a decent night's rest?" Jonghyun scolded him on the seventy-first night of his imprisonment. It had been the third time that Onew had not arrived, and Jonghyun refused to accept his excuses of having to travel over the night and not being able to find a decent place to rest.
"Jonghyun-ah," Onew sighed, exhaustion evident in his voice. Part of the reason why Jonghyun was so riled up was that Onew had been looking progressively worse for wear. Dark rings were appearing under his eyes, and he could barely bring himself to walk around the gardens anymore. Oftentimes when he did manage to visit the fake royal courtyard, he would beg off exploring the gardens and simply sit and talk with Jonghyun, soon dropping off into a fitful rest until the rising of the sun.
"I'm just saying," Jonghyun sulked, plucking at the petals of a daisy. "If you have to sacrifice your health for the sake of saving this girl, then maybe you should start rethinking your decision to take this quest."
"Jonghyun-ah," Onew repeated, but his tone was sterner this time.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Jonghyun said quickly. He rocked back on his heels, peering up at the spattering of stars that dotted the night sky. "Seriously though, hyung, I don't think your beautiful maiden would want to be rescued by a panda."
Onew made an affronted noise, to which Jonghyun laughed. "I'm just worried about you, hyung. You know that."
"... I have to save her, Jonghyun-ah. She needs my help," Onew said quietly from somewhere above his head.
"Hah, I wish my rescuer had that dedication," Jonghyun grinned, settling back comfortably against the grass. "I'm sure she'll be happy to be rescued by you. Hey, maybe when you're done saving her, you could think up a way to get me out of this place."
Onew didn't respond, much to Jonghyun's confusion.
"Hyung?" Jonghyun called out, turning to look at Onew.
A soft snore was his only reply. Onew had fallen asleep again.
"Argh, fine! Don't rescue me, you irresponsible man!" Jonghyun mock-growled, throwing the beheaded daisy at Onew. It bounced off his head harmlessly, and it might have been just a little funny if Onew had been awake.
Jonghyun rolled his eyes and crawled over to Onew. "Your princess better be damn thankful she's got you to save her," he whispered into Onew's ear.
Onew mumbled something about chicken, and rolled over to face Jonghyun.
---
Onew rarely visited nowadays. His arrivals were few and far between, and each time he would be too exhausted to do anything more than to greet Jonghyun and apologize for making him wait so long before passing out in a deep slumber.
This annoyed Jonghyun greatly, not because Onew could never spend time with him anymore, but because Onew was clearly suffering and he couldn't do anything about it. He found himself cursing at the stupid chit who had gotten herself spellbound, at the stupid dragon who was giving Onew so much trouble, at stupid Onew who wouldn't let himself rest, at himself for being stuck in this stupid maze and not being able to assist Onew.
The final straw was when, during a particularly lazy afternoon on his ninety-third day of being cursed, Onew dropped out of the sky.
"What the fuck, hyung?!" Jonghyun yelped, crushing a patch of begonias under his feet in his hurry to get to Onew's side.
The older boy was at the worst state that Jonghyun had seen him. His hair was slightly singed at the edges, and numerous cuts and gashes dotted the length of his arms and legs, the blood seeping through his now-tattered shirt. Onew looked completely shocked to be in the imitation gardens, and he struggled against Jonghyun's grasp as the other boy tried to pull him up.
"Hold still, hyung!" Jonghyun barked. "You're bleeding everywhere and-oh my God, did you land on your mouth or something?!"
"I can't be here!" Onew gasped, his eyes darting about wildly. "I have to-I have to kill her! I have to kill the-"
"God, hyung, you're going to get yourself killed like this!" Jonghyun yelled, meeting Onew's wild gaze with his terrified own. "You don't have to do this!"
Onew's gaze softened, his hands coming up to rest on Jonghyun's shoulders. "I need to, Jonghyun-ah."
"Yeah, well, I need you too!" Jonghyun snapped.
Onew froze, his hands dropping limply against his sides. His mouth opened and closed uselessly, eyes wide in surprise.
Jonghyun backed away a little, pressing his palms against his eyes to stem the flow of tears that he knew was coming. "Hyung, don't-I don't want you to-" Jonghyun whimpered, feeling the lowest he had ever felt in his entire life.
There was silence, and Jonghyun was sure that Onew had disappeared. Perhaps forever. All because he had scared him away, and at the worst possible moment. What kind of idiot blurted that out to a man engaged in a battle that could cost him his life?
"Jonghyun," he heard Onew speak softly. "Wait for me, okay? When I'm done, I'll... I'll find you. I'll come and save you. I promise."
"Onew-" Jonghyun tore his hands from his face, his heart threatening to burst out of his chest.
Onew was gone.
---
Jonghyun had since abandoned adding to the pebbles and seeds that marked his entrapment. There was no use in counting anymore, not when there was nothing left to count to.
His escape from this never-ending maze, his freedom to awaken and to live life normally again. Honestly, he would give these up in an instant if it meant seeing Onew again.
Onew... He had promised to come and save him. But there was no guarantee of that, either. Not when Onew hadn't returned for days-the longest he had gone since he first arrived over two months ago.
Sometimes Jonghyun would wonder if he had made it safely. If he had managed to slay the dragon after all. Sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night with sweat beading his entire body and Onew's dying screams ringing in his ears, and he would have to struggle over to the nearest tree, throwing up until acid burned his lips and the chill was purged from his body.
Sometimes Jonghyun wondered if Onew remembered after all, or if the promise he made to the brash, cocky boy was completely forgotten the moment he laid eyes on that beautiful sleeping maiden. He imagined her to be very fair, blonde curls arranged artfully around her slumbering form, rose red lips parted just enough to invite an awakening kiss. Perhaps she was the kind of girl that he would have given a second glance, someone that he might have composed songs for, someone that he might have fought for and died for and forgotten other people for.
He wouldn't have blamed Onew for falling for a woman like that. He wouldn't have blamed the girl, either, if she fell for Onew. The man was very easy to fall in love with. He, of all people, should know that.
"Ugh, I sound like a minstrel," Jonghyun groaned, rolling over in his nest and blinking blearily at the lycoris blooms that surrounded him.
There was nothing to do now but wait. Not that he hadn't been doing that since he first arrived in this messed-up garden, but the loneliness was starker than ever.
Jonghyun-ah...
Ah, the hallucinations were back. Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to roll around the poppy field earlier that day, after all.
Jonghyun-ah, wake up...
"I am awake, hyung," Jonghyun murmured to the Onew-sounding hallucination.
How do I wake him up?
"Hell if I know," Jonghyun snorted. What an odd delusion.
I do what?!
Jonghyun's brow furrowed. Who was the hallucination talking to? And what did he have to do to-
---
"Mmph!"
Jonghyun gagged, smacking at whoever was above him. The person drew back with a pained whine, covering his cheek where Jonghyun's hand had landed, and Jonghyun took the opportunity to scrub at his lips furiously.
"What the fuck was that?!" he demanded, spitting out the other person's saliva.
"They told me to do it!" the person yelped, waving his free hand in the direction of the three fairies lounging about in the other corner of the room.
"You three?!" Jonghyun gaped at his fairy godfathers, who smiled and waved at him. "Why did you tell him to do that?!"
"It was the only way to break the spell," Lee Sooman explained calmly. "True love's first kiss."
Jonghyun gave him a strange look.
"Hey, it was his idea," Lee Sooman shrugged and gestured over at Park Jin Young, who preened at the attention.
"I hate you all so much," Jonghyun deadpanned, flopping back onto his bed.
And stopped. "Wait, true love's first kiss?" he repeated incredulously.
"The first kiss shared by two destined lovers," Park Jin Young sing-songed, and waved his wand over at the person who had woken Jonghyun.
The man removed his hand from his stinging cheek, and gave Jonghyun a familiar sheepish smile.
"Hi," Onew waved awkwardly.
Jonghyun gaped, speechless for the second time in a minute.
"We'll leave the two of you to talk," Yang Hyun Suk said, ushering the other two out of the door amidst Park Jin Young's protests.
Onew coughed and shuffled on the spot. "So," he mumbled, tucking a loose lock of slightly singed hair behind his ear. "Do you come here often?"
"I swear I'd punch you if I didn't love you so much," Jonghyun exhaled a relieved breath, laughing as he rolled out of bed and tugged Onew towards him.
"But this is just the first time we've met," Onew grinned, his forehead bumping against Jonghyun's.
"What are you talking about? Of course I know you," Jonghyun scoffed, arranging Onew's arms around his waist.
"Really? From where?" Onew blinked, his hands fitting into the dip of Jonghyun's back.
"Once upon a dream," Jonghyun sang softly, and brought his lips to Onew's in their first proper kiss (that horrible wake-up one didn't count).
"You're even cheesier than me," Onew mumbled against Jonghyun's mouth.
"Shut up, hyung," Jonghyun smiled, and deepened the kiss.
---
"Just promise me one thing."
"Mm?"
"No flowers at the wedding."
"Done."
type: to be continued (5659 words)
fandom: shinee
pairing: jongyu
rating/warnings: pg? idk i can't think anymore ;_;
author's notes: wrote this just last night and this afternoon, so it's super duper messy and raw and unbeta'd and nothing like i imagined it would turn out, haha. first attempt at jongyu, hruu. dedicated to dubulust - HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! and hyungdeul - i'm so sorryyyyyyyyy ;A;
When Jonghyun sliced his finger open on that (very very) shiny razor, he expected to feel the blade piercing through his skin, beads of crimson welling up in its wake as he wailed about the slight to his carefully tended body in his best falsetto, the one that left the servants' ears ringing for hours.
What he didn't expect was to pass out in a dead faint (the last thing he saw were his parents' horrified faces and the gleeful one of that creepy hag that he was certain was trying to lure him into engagement-oh God, how the hell did she get into the palace and what was she going to do with his body?!) and then waking up in what seemed to be a picturesque paradise.
It was very much like his mother's flower gardens, this new place. Of course, he'd only ever seen them from afar, having been barred from wandering around anywhere without strict supervision especially around the thorny roses, but he'd always thought they were quite beautiful from what he could see of them from the palace.
This place, however, seemed even more beautiful than the royal courtyard. Or perhaps it was an exact imitation of the gardens after all, and Jonghyun had never realized how beautiful the place was unless you could see it for yourself.
Jonghyun reached out to the nearest patch of flowers, brushing a finger against the tiny petals of a rosebud.
And stopped. Jonghyun's brows furrowed as he brought his hand up to his face. The skin was entirely unmarred: there was no sign of a wound anywhere.
"Hm. That's weird," he murmured, looking around the garden. Come to think of it, there was no sign of the castle anywhere. Only patches of flowers as far as the eye could see.
Jonghyun abandoned his admiration of the flowers to follow the cobblestone path that wound around the gardens. The journey back to the castle seemed to be taking much longer than he thought it would. At first, he thought that it was his unfamiliarity with the gardens that made walking seem so long. Then, perhaps, the royal courtyard was much larger than he'd initially thought it to be.
But when the sun reached the horizon and the sky changed from a bright blue to the vivid oranges and pinks of sunset, Jonghyun was certain that something was horribly wrong. By the time the stars began dotting the night sky and he had circled that same stupid patch of hydrangea for the twentieth time, Jonghyun was tired, sweaty, and on the verge of tears.
"This is not the reality I wanted!" he screamed into the cool night air with all the strength he could muster.
Not even the sounds of startled animals could be heard to comfort him.
Jonghyun screwed his face up into a frustrated expression, the ugly one that he only ever wore in the safety of his chambers when no one was around to see him-if there were no people around, then his image wouldn't matter, anyway-and began sobbing. The soft hiccups turned into loud wails and Jonghyun began kicking and pulling at the hydrangea plants, uprooting them from the soil and destroying the beautifully manicured gardens until exhaustion finally claimed him.
---
He woke up to the burning sensation of sunlight piercing through his eyelids. Jonghyun groaned loudly, throwing an arm over his eyes and resolving to yell at the foolish chambermaid that forgot to draw his curtains close the previous night.
Jonghyun rolled over, expecting to hit his overstuffed feather pillow.
Instead, his face met hard ground. He sat up quickly with a yelp and prodded his nose gingerly with his fingers, praying that there was no permanent damage.
A quick survey of his surroundings confirmed his worst suspicions. He was still stuck in this twisted parody of the palace gardens.
Frustration welled up in him again, and he lashed out at the nearest plants he could swipe at. The hydrangeas shook violently, teetering from where they were rooted to the ground, and Jonghyun groaned as he realized that there was no sign of his violent tantrum the previous night.
"Even you're conspiring against me! All of you!" Jonghyun yelled accusingly at the flowers.
Of course, they didn't respond, and eventually Jonghyun felt pretty stupid for yelling at plants, so he decided to get up and move onto a different area of the garden. Maybe there were potentially less aggravating plants. Like tulips. Tulips were nice.
He finally found that nice patch of tulips that he'd passed by a million times the previous day and settled himself on a shady spot along the pathway. Jonghyun sighed, tilting his head up to the sky and squinting up at the sun. It had just about reached its zenith, meaning that it was around noon.
During this time, he would be hiding out in one of the many music rooms, completely absorbed in playing a new melody or practicing his singing. The servants would be running around all over the castle, frantically trying to find him in time for the lunch meal. His parents had always insisted on eating lunch as a family-sometimes he would wake up too late for breakfast, and dinner was usually reserved for visiting nobles or grand parties that he sometimes wormed his way out of-and his father had a terrible temper whenever Jonghyun could not be retrieved for their family bonding time.
Eventually, one of the maids or servant boys would find him, sigh in relief and coax him gently away from the piano with promises of obtaining new scores for him to learn. He would be escorted down to the grand dining hall, taking his place at the seat to his sister's left and begin halfheartedly picking at the lavish meal laid out for him while listening to his parents try to hold a conversation that did not directly involve affairs of the kingdom.
Perhaps he should have been kinder to the servants. Perhaps he should have gone down to mealtimes without them having to raid the entire castle to find him. Perhaps he should have eaten everything on his plate instead of just enough to excuse him from the meal. Perhaps he should have initiated conversations with his parents, answered their attempts to reach out to him instead of sitting through lunch as if it were a punishment. Perhaps he should have been nicer to his older sister, complimenting her instead of teasing her and getting her riled up for no real reason.
He was crying again, but quietly this time. Only the wetness rolling down his cheeks was testament to his sudden bout of loneliness.
---
Eventually Jonghyun resolved to stop crying over his predicament. It wasn't productive, and it only ever got him tired and cranky, anyway.
Admittedly, it took him a few days to come to that conclusion, but afterwards Jonghyun felt a lot calmer about being thrown into a maze of the palace gardens. Once he stopped tearing up innocent flora, Jonghyun found that the gardens were actually very good places to sit down and think.
Not that there were a lot of other things to do, but you had to give him credit for being optimistic.
He came to the conclusion that his current situation was the result of magic, most likely the doing of that crazy witch that wanted to marry him. Occasionally he'd heard the servants whispering about a curse, and he had a feeling that this weird spell might have something to do with how his father did not allow him to take sword lessons or how his mother refused to let him anywhere near the kitchens or how his sister would never let him anywhere near her chambers while she was engaged in embroidery lessons, but exactly why the curse was placed, he had no idea. In fact, he wasn't even sure if he wanted to know.
The biggest problem was how he was going to get out. Obviously, simply strolling out of the gardens was no option, and aside from his amazing singing voice and his drop-dead gorgeous looks, Jonghyun wasn't exactly equipped with any sort of magic to combat the spell placed on him.
In the end, he eventually concluded that, like any good little princess, he would have to wait for some dashing fellow to come and save him. Not the most appealing option, but if it got him out of this hellhole, he'd gladly wait for his knight in shining armor with open arms. Jonghyun would even grant him lifetime free access to all his concerts!
Happy with his resolve, Jonghyun turned to finding ways to occupy himself while waiting. Honestly, there wasn't much to be done: despite the lack of rain or any nearby source of water, the plants seemed to be keeping themselves alive quite well.
Jonghyun took to playing around with the plants, gathering as many flowers as he could and arranging them into beautiful bouquets that he pretended were for some royal gathering. He wandered around the gardens, memorizing where each kind of plant was located until he knew each one like the back of his hand. He tried to recall their names from the lessons his tutors tried to drill into his head, and for the ones he couldn't remember, he made up fanciful names like "Lily Like Oxygen" and "Ring Ding Rose".
Perhaps his proudest achievement was when he gathered up a number of particularly large leaves, rolling them into makeshift flutes and trying to play tunes with them like he had seen the children of the servants do. This particular endeavor took him the entire afternoon, but producing the first clumsy note made him so happy that he nearly beheaded the nearby patch of sunflowers with the way he flailed about.
A few more days of obsessive playing and he managed to master the basic scale, which was enough for him to play wind renditions of his favorite tunes. It helped ease the boredom greatly, and the only thing more that he really wished for (aside from getting out of this world) was someone to accompany him.
---
Aside from naming plants and playing songs, Jonghyun also kept track of how many days he had spent in the maze. Apparently, the garden didn't magically reset itself if you removed the plants carefully, and Jonghyun was able to collect an assortment of pebbles and seeds to serve as markers.
It was on his twenty-seventh night of being trapped in the imitation of the royal courtyard that something very strange happened. He had just finished his latest project, the construction of a cozy grass nest so that he wouldn't have to sleep on the cobblestone anymore, when a boy dropped out of the sky.
Literally. Screaming and crying as he fell from the heavens onto a patch of Lilies Like Oxygen.
At first, Jonghyun could barely believe what had happened. He'd been waiting for someone to come and rescue him from this place, but he'd always expected the person to be a gallant knight or a prince on a tall white steed, galloping out of the horizon and carrying him away to safety. The abrupt, unexpected arrival of the boy was like a scene out of a particularly funny dream, and Jonghyun briefly wondered if he had spent so much time alone that he had finally begun hallucinating.
The pained groaning that emerged from the patch of flowers jolted him out of his reverie, and Jonghyun got up and ran over to where the boy had landed.
Jonghyun watched in horrified fascination as the disheveled young man picked himself up from where he had landed awkwardly and gaped at the strange garden he was now sitting in.
The stranger turned his head and met Jonghyun's gaze. After a brief moment of shocked silence, the odd man gave Jonghyun a sheepish grin.
Jonghyun leapt at the stranger, throwing his arms around him in a fit of enthusiastic joy.
The stranger froze up at first, but carefully returned his embrace, and even patted him comfortingly on the back when Jonghyun began to sob loudly into his shoulder.
---
"So you have no idea how you got here?"
Onew-the stranger's name-shook his head. "One moment, I was in my bedroll, and the next thing I knew, I was spitting out lilies." He frowned, and suddenly turned his head to spit out one last petal stuck between his teeth.
Jonghyun mirrored his frown. "So I take it you have no idea how to get out of here, either."
The other boy shrugged. "Sorry, no idea, either."
Jonghyun groaned loudly, flopping back onto the grass and huffing to himself. "I knew it was too good to be true!" he yelled up at the night sky.
Onew's head entered his line of vision. "Well, it can't be that bad, right?" the older boy offered. "You and I got here out of nowhere, so we might be able to get out the same way."
"I've been stuck here for twenty-nine days, hyung," Jonghyun said irritably, pushing himself up into a sitting position. "What if you're stuck here, too?"
Onew paled at his words. "But I think I left the fire going!" he whined, lower lip sticking out in a pout.
Jonghyun gave him a funny look. "Aren't you supposed to put those out before you go to sleep?"
"Well, er..." Onew flushed sheepishly. "I was really tired, and I... thought I could wake up to put it out later, or that it might put itself out or something..."
He paused awkwardly, clearly embarrassed.
Jonghyun broke out into a loud laugh, which surprised the two of them. Jonghyun, especially-he couldn't even remember the last time he had laughed; if he had even laughed during the time he spent in this never-ending garden.
"You're funny, hyung," Jonghyun beamed, all flashing teeth and an arm wrapping comfortably around Onew's shoulder.
Onew made a face, but accepted Jonghyun's brand of comfort anyway.
---
Jonghyun had fallen asleep next to Onew, the two of them curled up back to back in the grass nest Jonghyun had spent the last couple of days flattening out. He was incredibly disappointed to find the other boy missing by the time he woke up.
Jonghyun berated himself for being selfish-he should be happy that the other boy managed to free himself from this prison, that he wasn't being subjected to the same torture that he was. But still, even if Onew wasn't the one to be able to save him, it was nice to have someone else to talk to.
And there was something genuinely likable about Onew. Jonghyun wasn't ignorant-he had observed Onew carefully, taking note of his sturdy dragon-hide boots and the mithril armor that peeked out from under his shirt. Onew was evidently from a very rich family, but he wasn't anything like the arrogant, self-centered sons of the nobles that came to stay at the castle every now and then. Onew was a little clumsy and had an offbeat sense of humor, but he was sincerely kind, and Jonghyun prided himself on being an excellent judge of character.
Maybe Onew was an illusion after all. A vivid dream born out of desperation for human contact.
Jonghyun patted the grass next to him where Onew had slept the night before.
Still a little warm.
---
Of course, when Onew tumbled out of the sky again that night, grumbling about needing to find a better way to enter this world, it was all Jonghyun could do not to smother the older boy.
Instead, he beamed, thrusting out a makeshift grass flute at Onew and asking him if he knew how to play.
Onew wasn't all that skilled with the instrument, but Jonghyun discovered something much better. Onew could sing.
It was an accidental discovery: they were walking along the gardens, Jonghyun pointing out the different flowers to him and proudly listing off the names he had given them himself when Onew randomly broke out into a song about springtime.
Jonghyun had stared for all of ten seconds before cautiously following with the next verse. Onew joined him on the second line, and they finished the entire song before gaping at each other.
"Holy shit, we sound awesome," Jonghyun remarked intelligently.
"Yeah, we do," Onew concurred.
And so it became habit for them to spontaneously break out into duets. Jonghyun exhausted his entire knowledge of songs-an impressive catalogue, indeed-and Onew taught him what he knew, songs that sounded as though they came from the neighboring kingdom.
This piqued Jonghyun's interest, and on one night when they ran out of songs to sing and had grown bored of throwing flower heads at each other, Jonghyun asked Onew about himself. In retrospect, it was probably a bit odd to ask about each other only weeks after their first meeting, but Jonghyun found that he really didn't mind.
Onew, as it turned out, was on a quest. There was a beautiful maiden in the next kingdom who had fallen under a deep sleep, cursed to remain that way for a hundred days until a brave man managed to slay the dragon guarding her and awaken her, else she would die. Jonghyun laughed, teasing Onew about slaying the dragon by falling on top of it, and Onew had drawn him into an impromptu wrestling match for his cheek.
Jonghyun, in turn, shared stories about himself. He was the second child and only son of his parents, but due to an unfortunate mix-up during his birth where everyone was confused by his high-pitched wails, his official birth certificate named him a girl. "Don't laugh," he paused in the middle of his story to warn Onew.
"I'm not," Onew insisted, hiding a grin behind his hand.
Jonghyun rolled his eyes, but tossed Onew a good-natured grin anyway. He went on to mention that he was a talented singer-and here he gave Onew another look, to which the older boy held his hands up innocently-and that he often held concerts. It just so happened that on the day of his eighteenth birthday, one of his crazier fans had sent him a razor. He sliced his finger on the blade and somehow ended up here, unable to leave ever since.
Onew was pensive, twirling the stem of a petunia thoughtfully between the pads of his fingers. It wasn't until Jonghyun cleared his throat that Onew snapped out of his sudden train of thought, and gave Jonghyun an embarrassed smile for being caught spacing out.
"You should pay more attention, hyung," Jonghyun berated him lightly, nudging him with his shoulder.
Onew gave a small murmur of agreement, turning his gaze up to the night sky.
---
Pebbles and seeds slowly filled the part of the cobblestone pathway that Jonghyun marked out for himself. On the fifty-third night, Onew managed to fall asleep with a piece of jerky in his hands, and it somehow carried into the flower gardens.
"I can't believe you didn't do this sooner," Jonghyun mumbled over a mouthful of beef. The ordinary food seemed so delicious after over two months of being deprived of food-not that Jonghyun really needed it in this world, but the sensation was well-appreciated all the same.
"I didn't even know I could," Onew replied, snapping off another bite of his half of the jerky. He chewed thoughtfully, dangling his legs from the branch they were currently perched on. "I wonder if this will be gone when I wake up."
Jonghyun gave him a funny look. "You're awake right now, hyung."
Onew shifted himself just enough to meet Jonghyun's eye. "No, I mean," he swallowed, "in the real world."
Jonghyun belatedly remembered to swallow his own mouthful. "Oh."
Suddenly, the jerky wasn't so appealing anymore. Jonghyun shoved the remainder of his piece into Onew's hands and curled himself closer to the tree trunk, turning his gaze to the bed of crocus below.
Onew, not knowing what to do with the jerky, let the piece fall to the ground and shuffled a little closer to Jonghyun. "You know how I can only get to this place when I'm asleep?"
"Mm," Jonghyun murmured.
"Well, I was thinking that it might be the same for you," Onew ventured cautiously.
Jonghyun turned to look at him incredulously. "What do you mean? That I'm dead?"
Onew waved his hands in panic. "No, no, that's not what I meant-"
"Then what do you mean, hyung?" Jonghyun asked. He could feel his voice hitching, feel the panic and fear that he thought he had long suppressed. "How can I be asleep? How come I can never wake up? How can you drop in and out of this place like it's nothing to you, while I'm stuck here forever?"
"It's not like-" Onew tried to reach out to him, but Jonghyun only batted his hands away.
"Don't you think I've wondered why I'm here? Don't you think I've tried every possible way to get out?" Jonghyun trembled, curling in on himself. "I didn't want to be stuck here, you know. I want to finish learning how to play that sonata I bribed out of that traveling musician. I want to hold another concert. I want to run around the castle. I want to ride my horses. I want to eat lunch with my family, and maybe eat breakfast and dinner with them, too. I want to sleep in my bed, and I want to wake up in it. I want to be awake... I want to be alive, hyung. I want to live!"
It wasn't until Onew pulled Jonghyun to himself, murmuring nonsensical words and directing Jonghyun's face to the crook of his neck, did Jonghyun realize he was crying.
"I told myself I wouldn't cry anymore," Jonghyun managed to say through great shuddering breaths.
"You don't have to hold it back, you know," Onew murmured, patting Jonghyun's back soothingly. "You don't have to pretend, Jonghyun-ah."
Jonghyun shook in Onew's arms and let his facade break down, just this once.
---
They never spoke of that night again, where Jonghyun fell asleep to the sound of Onew's humming and woke up with the distinct impression of the older boy's warmth against his back. Jonghyun never directly apologized the following night for lashing out so suddenly, for breaking down in front of him; only touched Onew's elbow hesitantly with the pads of his fingers.
Onew never directly told Jonghyun that it was alright, that he had nothing to apologize for; only took Jonghyun's hand in his, twining their fingers together and squeezing gently in unspoken reassurance. Jonghyun never directly thanked Onew; only tightened his grip around Onew's hand as he led him through another expedition through the gardens.
But as idyllic as their world may have been, it was not to last forever. As the days wore by and more and more pebbles and seeds filled up the cobblestone pathway, Onew's stays became shorter and shorter. Sometimes he would arrive far too late, landing in yet another bed of flowers only when the moon was far past its zenith. Sometimes he would leave too early, disappearing from Jonghyun's side just after the younger boy fell asleep.
It reached the point when sometimes Jonghyun would stay up all night, waiting for the familiar sounds of screaming from the heavens, and Onew would not arrive at all.
"What are you fighting so desperately that you can't even let yourself get a decent night's rest?" Jonghyun scolded him on the seventy-first night of his imprisonment. It had been the third time that Onew had not arrived, and Jonghyun refused to accept his excuses of having to travel over the night and not being able to find a decent place to rest.
"Jonghyun-ah," Onew sighed, exhaustion evident in his voice. Part of the reason why Jonghyun was so riled up was that Onew had been looking progressively worse for wear. Dark rings were appearing under his eyes, and he could barely bring himself to walk around the gardens anymore. Oftentimes when he did manage to visit the fake royal courtyard, he would beg off exploring the gardens and simply sit and talk with Jonghyun, soon dropping off into a fitful rest until the rising of the sun.
"I'm just saying," Jonghyun sulked, plucking at the petals of a daisy. "If you have to sacrifice your health for the sake of saving this girl, then maybe you should start rethinking your decision to take this quest."
"Jonghyun-ah," Onew repeated, but his tone was sterner this time.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Jonghyun said quickly. He rocked back on his heels, peering up at the spattering of stars that dotted the night sky. "Seriously though, hyung, I don't think your beautiful maiden would want to be rescued by a panda."
Onew made an affronted noise, to which Jonghyun laughed. "I'm just worried about you, hyung. You know that."
"... I have to save her, Jonghyun-ah. She needs my help," Onew said quietly from somewhere above his head.
"Hah, I wish my rescuer had that dedication," Jonghyun grinned, settling back comfortably against the grass. "I'm sure she'll be happy to be rescued by you. Hey, maybe when you're done saving her, you could think up a way to get me out of this place."
Onew didn't respond, much to Jonghyun's confusion.
"Hyung?" Jonghyun called out, turning to look at Onew.
A soft snore was his only reply. Onew had fallen asleep again.
"Argh, fine! Don't rescue me, you irresponsible man!" Jonghyun mock-growled, throwing the beheaded daisy at Onew. It bounced off his head harmlessly, and it might have been just a little funny if Onew had been awake.
Jonghyun rolled his eyes and crawled over to Onew. "Your princess better be damn thankful she's got you to save her," he whispered into Onew's ear.
Onew mumbled something about chicken, and rolled over to face Jonghyun.
---
Onew rarely visited nowadays. His arrivals were few and far between, and each time he would be too exhausted to do anything more than to greet Jonghyun and apologize for making him wait so long before passing out in a deep slumber.
This annoyed Jonghyun greatly, not because Onew could never spend time with him anymore, but because Onew was clearly suffering and he couldn't do anything about it. He found himself cursing at the stupid chit who had gotten herself spellbound, at the stupid dragon who was giving Onew so much trouble, at stupid Onew who wouldn't let himself rest, at himself for being stuck in this stupid maze and not being able to assist Onew.
The final straw was when, during a particularly lazy afternoon on his ninety-third day of being cursed, Onew dropped out of the sky.
"What the fuck, hyung?!" Jonghyun yelped, crushing a patch of begonias under his feet in his hurry to get to Onew's side.
The older boy was at the worst state that Jonghyun had seen him. His hair was slightly singed at the edges, and numerous cuts and gashes dotted the length of his arms and legs, the blood seeping through his now-tattered shirt. Onew looked completely shocked to be in the imitation gardens, and he struggled against Jonghyun's grasp as the other boy tried to pull him up.
"Hold still, hyung!" Jonghyun barked. "You're bleeding everywhere and-oh my God, did you land on your mouth or something?!"
"I can't be here!" Onew gasped, his eyes darting about wildly. "I have to-I have to kill her! I have to kill the-"
"God, hyung, you're going to get yourself killed like this!" Jonghyun yelled, meeting Onew's wild gaze with his terrified own. "You don't have to do this!"
Onew's gaze softened, his hands coming up to rest on Jonghyun's shoulders. "I need to, Jonghyun-ah."
"Yeah, well, I need you too!" Jonghyun snapped.
Onew froze, his hands dropping limply against his sides. His mouth opened and closed uselessly, eyes wide in surprise.
Jonghyun backed away a little, pressing his palms against his eyes to stem the flow of tears that he knew was coming. "Hyung, don't-I don't want you to-" Jonghyun whimpered, feeling the lowest he had ever felt in his entire life.
There was silence, and Jonghyun was sure that Onew had disappeared. Perhaps forever. All because he had scared him away, and at the worst possible moment. What kind of idiot blurted that out to a man engaged in a battle that could cost him his life?
"Jonghyun," he heard Onew speak softly. "Wait for me, okay? When I'm done, I'll... I'll find you. I'll come and save you. I promise."
"Onew-" Jonghyun tore his hands from his face, his heart threatening to burst out of his chest.
Onew was gone.
---
Jonghyun had since abandoned adding to the pebbles and seeds that marked his entrapment. There was no use in counting anymore, not when there was nothing left to count to.
His escape from this never-ending maze, his freedom to awaken and to live life normally again. Honestly, he would give these up in an instant if it meant seeing Onew again.
Onew... He had promised to come and save him. But there was no guarantee of that, either. Not when Onew hadn't returned for days-the longest he had gone since he first arrived over two months ago.
Sometimes Jonghyun would wonder if he had made it safely. If he had managed to slay the dragon after all. Sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night with sweat beading his entire body and Onew's dying screams ringing in his ears, and he would have to struggle over to the nearest tree, throwing up until acid burned his lips and the chill was purged from his body.
Sometimes Jonghyun wondered if Onew remembered after all, or if the promise he made to the brash, cocky boy was completely forgotten the moment he laid eyes on that beautiful sleeping maiden. He imagined her to be very fair, blonde curls arranged artfully around her slumbering form, rose red lips parted just enough to invite an awakening kiss. Perhaps she was the kind of girl that he would have given a second glance, someone that he might have composed songs for, someone that he might have fought for and died for and forgotten other people for.
He wouldn't have blamed Onew for falling for a woman like that. He wouldn't have blamed the girl, either, if she fell for Onew. The man was very easy to fall in love with. He, of all people, should know that.
"Ugh, I sound like a minstrel," Jonghyun groaned, rolling over in his nest and blinking blearily at the lycoris blooms that surrounded him.
There was nothing to do now but wait. Not that he hadn't been doing that since he first arrived in this messed-up garden, but the loneliness was starker than ever.
Jonghyun-ah...
Ah, the hallucinations were back. Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to roll around the poppy field earlier that day, after all.
Jonghyun-ah, wake up...
"I am awake, hyung," Jonghyun murmured to the Onew-sounding hallucination.
How do I wake him up?
"Hell if I know," Jonghyun snorted. What an odd delusion.
I do what?!
Jonghyun's brow furrowed. Who was the hallucination talking to? And what did he have to do to-
---
"Mmph!"
Jonghyun gagged, smacking at whoever was above him. The person drew back with a pained whine, covering his cheek where Jonghyun's hand had landed, and Jonghyun took the opportunity to scrub at his lips furiously.
"What the fuck was that?!" he demanded, spitting out the other person's saliva.
"They told me to do it!" the person yelped, waving his free hand in the direction of the three fairies lounging about in the other corner of the room.
"You three?!" Jonghyun gaped at his fairy godfathers, who smiled and waved at him. "Why did you tell him to do that?!"
"It was the only way to break the spell," Lee Sooman explained calmly. "True love's first kiss."
Jonghyun gave him a strange look.
"Hey, it was his idea," Lee Sooman shrugged and gestured over at Park Jin Young, who preened at the attention.
"I hate you all so much," Jonghyun deadpanned, flopping back onto his bed.
And stopped. "Wait, true love's first kiss?" he repeated incredulously.
"The first kiss shared by two destined lovers," Park Jin Young sing-songed, and waved his wand over at the person who had woken Jonghyun.
The man removed his hand from his stinging cheek, and gave Jonghyun a familiar sheepish smile.
"Hi," Onew waved awkwardly.
Jonghyun gaped, speechless for the second time in a minute.
"We'll leave the two of you to talk," Yang Hyun Suk said, ushering the other two out of the door amidst Park Jin Young's protests.
Onew coughed and shuffled on the spot. "So," he mumbled, tucking a loose lock of slightly singed hair behind his ear. "Do you come here often?"
"I swear I'd punch you if I didn't love you so much," Jonghyun exhaled a relieved breath, laughing as he rolled out of bed and tugged Onew towards him.
"But this is just the first time we've met," Onew grinned, his forehead bumping against Jonghyun's.
"What are you talking about? Of course I know you," Jonghyun scoffed, arranging Onew's arms around his waist.
"Really? From where?" Onew blinked, his hands fitting into the dip of Jonghyun's back.
"Once upon a dream," Jonghyun sang softly, and brought his lips to Onew's in their first proper kiss (that horrible wake-up one didn't count).
"You're even cheesier than me," Onew mumbled against Jonghyun's mouth.
"Shut up, hyung," Jonghyun smiled, and deepened the kiss.
---
"Just promise me one thing."
"Mm?"
"No flowers at the wedding."
"Done."