Kaleidoscope - Chapter Four Part 2/2
Song: Kaleidoscope
Singer: BunniesOnTheMoon
Time: 4.5/?
Rating: Overall pg-15 (for crude language)
Inspiration: YunJae
Chorus: Yunho wasn't one to like school, but he attends his college anyways to make his mother happy. He also feels guilty, seeing that his mother slaves away to pay for his tuition. When his GPA drops dangerously low, he is given an unexpected chance at earning extra credit points to save himself. That puts him and Kim Jaejoong to close proximity, and Yunho finds himself falling for the other as Jaejoong struggles with a rare condition. Yunho has to be Jaejoong's 'constant' and he waits for the terrifying day when Jaejoong no longer needs him.
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This chapter is dedicated to my lovely beta supersonicjaz who is currently busy with her hectic life<3 Thank you bb for all you've done, and come back to me soon (~^3^)~
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Slumping onto his bed, a sigh heavy on his lips, he slipped the backpack strap from his shoulders. Flexing his arms from the tension, he gave a frown and looked down at the white bag strewn next to his legs. Kicking it, he frowned deeper when he recalled the conversation he had with Jaejoong’s mother several minutes earlier.
This morning, an unhappy Mrs. Kim had driven both Jaejoong and him to school, and so he wasn’t able to take his-or was it Joon’s?-motorcycle. Not having a ride, he was forced to call and ask a still mildly fuming Mrs. Kim for a ride home. The awkward silence that settled into the car once he got on was less than what he would favor for, and he found himself jumping when Mrs. Kim addressed him.
They had talked, and when he said ‘talk’ he meant ‘lecture’. If he wasn’t sure that the little woman that bounced with energy was a college professor, he was sure now. The way the other had worded her little monologue left him gaping and scrambling to apologize, though the thought that he wasn’t in the wrong lingered in his mind. He wasn’t even able to voice that it had been Jaejoong’s idea to skip-not his-but Mrs. Kim had bypassed him, speaking with such eloquence that didn’t blame him for anything, but still made him feel mysteriously guilty.
He could see why Jaejoong was so feisty, and he hoped Jaejoong wasn’t as amazing as Mrs. Kim in the speech department because to be honest, if Jaejoong had asked him to do something, he would have done it. But he blamed his willingness on his nice personality.
Letting out another small sigh, his lips flapping from the air moving from his lips, he sat up and stared out at the night. He had a nine p.m. lecture in BioChem, and it took all his energy just to put on clothes to get there. The conversation home with Mrs. Kim hadn’t really helped, and it left his mind feeling weak, seeing as he had nodded his head at everything the lady had said.
Getting up and taking off his shirt, he threw on an undershirt and a grey hoodie. Smiling, his eyes glinting, he opened his window and opened it wide; the cool night air whisked into his room and unsettled some of the papers on his desk. Hoisting his body onto the ledge, he gulped as he eyed the ground. It wasn’t that far down-he was on the second floor-but he was kind of scared that his lanky, awkward legs would betray him and send him pivoting to the ground.
It’s just a climb, he thought, and soon he was clinging onto the plant supporter. He steadied his wobbling body and sighed when he felt he was safe. Looking over at the window sill separated by the plant supporter he was currently clinging on; he noted the lights being clicked on and a distorted shadow whisking by one of the doors.
“Jae,” he tried to call out, but he mentally slapped himself when he realized the window was closed. Grunting with exertion, he clung with one hand onto the metal railings of the plant supporter while his other hand reached out and rapped the window gently. He saw the lightly elapse and disappear, but all too soon again it was bright. Rapping the window again, he waited as he saw the distorted black figure turn its head as if to look at the window.
He waited as the distortion sharpened and morphed into a clear distinct shadow of a person, and he smiled as the window opened with inaudible screech.
Jaejoong’s raven hair popped out and a look of surprise flashed on his face upon seeing Yunho. The other laughed at the sight, upon seeing the man clinging to the side of his house. “Yunho, what are you doing?” Jaejoong chuckled and he reached out and stroked down a strand of Yunho’s hair that swayed lightly out of place as a wind blew pass. “Come in, it’s cold,” Jaejoong offered, his hand falling back and onto the window sill. He settled his chin onto his palm and looked down at Yunho.
“No. Get dressed!” Yunho said excitedly. “We’re going up.” He heard the other chuckle and he frowned. “What?” he asked.
“Yunho, it’s dangerous. There’s nothing up there,” Jaejoong said. He shivered at the cold sweeping wind and his frown deepened.
“There is!” Yunho defended. He wasn’t sure if there was anything up there, but he just felt like going up, and well, he wanted the raven up there with him. “Please Jae?” he begged. He smiled a mischievous smile, his eyes glinting. “Live a little.”
Jaejoong startled, his very words being turned on him. His look of surprise was replaced with one of a smile, and he nodded his head as he agreed. “You are learning just fine, my pupil,” the other joked, his head throwing back and letting out a hearty laughter. Not allowing the other to respond, Jaejoong told Yunho to go on ahead while he got dressed.
“Hey,” Jaejoong greeted when they were both up on the rooftop. As expected, the place was flat and, well, barren.
Yunho eyed the sight before him. Jaejoong wore a white fluffy jacket that was several sizes too big for the small frame, and it puffed out of him like a marshmallow. He noted the bag Jaejoong carried, and pointed to it with his head.
“What’s that for?” Yunho asked, and he watched as the other smiled and walked over to him from the edge of roof. The raven shuffled through the bag’s contents and pulled out a long tube of some sort.
“I thought I’d show you what Synesthesia is like,” Jaejoong explained as he handed it to Yunho. The taller studied it and pursed his lips. “I was going to buy you one just for you, but they didn’t have it at the mall,” the other explained. Jaejoong perked up with a smile, “I brought all three!” he announced triumphantly holding up two more of the weird contraption.
Yunho turned the long circular tube in his hand and his sight caught writing scrawled on duct tape stuck to the side. He twisted it to get a clearer look and read the neat handwriting out loud. “2006. Mommy.”
Yunho looked over at Jaejoong. “She was the first person to ask me what my Synesthesia is like,” Jaejoong explained. “I got her this to show her. Look in it!” Jaejoong told Yunho, and Yunho complied.
He saw a hole on one end and placed his eyes directly on the hole. He could only see darkness and fragments of darkness; he was about to take his eye out and question Jaejoong on what he was supposed to be looking at when his head was gently pushed upwards. Slowly, colors started to burst from the other end, and his breath caught in his breathe as he witnessed the gentle hues of orange, red, green, and any other conceivable color splash across his vision.
“Wow,” he whispered, his eyes trained on the display of visual light shining through the tube. It was like looking through a rainbow; it was wonderful!
He took a minute to swing the tube away from his eye and was met by the ethereal moon emitting its light across the rooftops. For the first time, he could make out the stars that darted the sky.
He looked back into the tube and marveled at the beauty he was witnessing. He felt a tug at the end of the tube, and to his complete amazement, the shapes and colors at the end of the tube was rotating and making exquisite designs.
“How are you doing this?” he exclaimed, baffled, and he laughed when Jaejoong showed him the trick.
“Wow, so you twist the end ?” he clarified and Jaejoong laughed while nodding his head ‘yes’.
“You are like a child,” Jaejoong teased, and the other ignored his remark. Yunho turned his head and looked over at a beaming Jaejoong. The raven handed him another one of the tube-like things, and once again he read the side.
“2009. Chunnie.”
He looked over at Jaejoong and the other gave him an encouraging nod. He looks into the end and angled the butt directly at the glowing moon.
It was just as beautiful, but he saw the slight change in some of the colors. Where the last tube had been filled with the colors of spring flowers, this one seemed more like the hues of winter’s frost. It was as if all the colors from before had gotten a shade or two deeper, and Yunho even saw some specks of black strewn in unconventional places.
He grabbed the end of the tube and began twisting, watch as the moon’s light got blocked by the black dark shapes shifting. He still saw the colors, but they were overwhelmed by the darker colors. For a minute, he kind of understood Jaejoong’s situation, but all too soon the thought was gone.
He slowly dropped his hand and gulped. “Jae…” he began, but he didn’t know what he was supposed to say.
Instead, he was handed another tube. “Look,” Jaejoong told him, his face more serious than Yunho had ever seen.
“2011. Dad.”
This was current, Yunho realized. It was just last year. This was what Jaejoong was seeing as of now. Yunho gulped again, his hand hesitating to take the tube from the other’s hand. “What if I don’t want to know?” he admitted, and the other sent a thoughtful smile as he gently thrusts the tube into Yunho’s hands.
“It’s not that bad,” Jaejoong told him, and it made to soothe Yunho.
Letting out a breath, Yunho looked into the tube.
Nothing. It was dark, almost pitch black except for a few browns and grey. It was dreary, and Yunho jerked his head back and glance at Jaejoong in horror. “Not bad?” he accused the other. “This is what you see?” Yunho exclaimed. He couldn’t get it around his head. This was what Jaejoong was dealing with, and he was supposed to help with this… darkness?
Yunho didn’t even know enough about Synesthesia, and he wasn’t sure he would even learn a small portion of information on it! And Jaejoong, he was stricken with this, what was this? Darkness? Blackness? Blindness? And the other had expectations for Yunho to help him with this? This was the blind leading the blind.
Looking back into the tube, he twisted it and soon there was no color. Just darkness. He frantically twisted the end, hoping to the gods that a color or shape would pop up that wasn’t black.
He lost his patience.
The tube was taken out of his hands and Jaejoong placed the 2006 tube in his hand. He felt an encouraging hand stroke his back in comforting strokes, and he leaned back into the touch.
He looked back into the tube and was touched by the colors waltzing through his vision. He felt his anger and distraught slowly fade, albeit slowly.
“What is this?” Yunho asked, finally calm.
“This?” Jaejoong pointed at the tube. Yunho nodded. “It’s a kaleidoscope,” Jaejoong answered.
Yunho nodded again in acknowledgment. “It’s beautiful,” he lifted up the kaleidoscope in his hand to indicate to it. He didn’t say anything about the two kaleidoscopes in Jaejoong’s grasp. “Will I get one?” Yunho asked. He immediately regretted the question as soon as he asked the other. What if his was all black? He didn’t want to know.
“Yeah. I’ll find one, just for you.”
Yunho couldn’t help but smile. It touched his heart that Jaejoong was willing to share his world, and Yunho decided right then and there that he would also share his world with Jaejoong.
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