(no subject)
In the eyes of a mad man
hyukmin, pre-haemin
pg13
psychological, horror
-- prequel to Love's Driving Me Crazy Crazy Baby by peaches_n_kream
When Sungmin and Hyukjae comes back to the dorms, they're laughing and jostling each other like only the best of friends would. Sungmin's room is farther than Hyukjae's, but because Hyukjae is a little bit in love with his best friend, Hyukjae doesn't mind walking his friend to his room before going back all the way around to his.
Sungmin's about to step inside his room when Hyukjae hears his friend gasp in terror. Hyukjae quickly grabs Sungmin's arm and pulls him out of the room, out of the possible danger, pulls him behind himself in an effort to shield the other from harm. Sungmin squirms and tries to take his arm back from Hyukjae's tight grip. Hyukjae doesn't let him, however, because once he sees Sungmin's room, Hyukjae wants nothing more than to hide Sungmin away from the world, hide him where it's safe, where mad men like the one who obviously broke into Sungmin's room can't reach his friend.
Because pasted in the walls of Sungmin's room are pictures of Sungmin smiling, Sungmin laughing at something, Sungmin grinning, smirking, touching his lips, drinking something, eating something. They're everywhere, on the ceiling, on the floor, on all four corners of the room. What horrifies both of them, however, what makes Hyukjae want to take Sungmin away, what makes him want to keep on holding on to his friend until he's sure he's safe, are the words painted on top of the pictures on the wall:
I love how your lips form the most beautiful of smiles.
So beautiful I want to carve them out, place them in a jar so I could kiss them forever.
Sungmin violently pulls his arm away from Hyukjae that it breaks Hyukjae's hold on him. He hurriedly pulls Hyukjae inside his room, closes the door behind him before tearing the pictures down. Hyukjae, stunned and more than a little terrified, stays rooted on spot. He doesn't know who would do something like this, doesn't know who could be insane enough to declare something like that. The only thing he knows is this: He'll do everything to keep Sungmin safe. Sungmin, who has been protecting him ever since he can remember, Sungmin, who has always stayed by his side whenever he needed him.
It's his turn now, Hyukjae thinks. And damn him if he doesn't do a good job of it.
---
When they calmed down enough, Sungmin says it might've been a prank. Hyukjae nods at that and helps Sungmin ask around.
Hyukjae, on the other hand, doesn't really think it's just a prank. There's too much emotion in those pictures. Like they were taken with care, with... love. A strange and sick kind of love, but love all the same.
It's the same way he sees Sungmin after all.
Except, in the not-insane way.
In the end, not a single person they've asked admitted to it-- even when Sungmin threatened bodily harm. No one even knows who would be sick enough to stage something like that-- prank or otherwise. So, when Sungmin had asked the last person he thought would know something about it, and when that last person just looked at them in genuine confusion, for the first time since Sungmin's brother got in an accident, Hyukjae sees that Sungmin is completely and utterly terrified.
"What if it isn't a prank, Hyuk?" he asks, voice trembling a little.
"It's okay, Sungmin hyung. We'll figure this out. You’ll see."
I swear I won't let anything happen to you.
---
Days pass by without incident, but just when they're about to forget...
"Does it say who's it for?"
Hyukjae inspects the box that had been left outside Sungmin's room. He picks it up and shakes it a little.
"I think it's a jar, hyung."
Opening the door to his room, Sungmin motions for Hyukjae to come inside as he asks, "Is it for me or Jungmo?"
Hyukjae shrugs. "It doesn't say..." But then, at the bottom-- "Oh wait! It's for you, hyung. See?" Hyukjae says, pointing at the little scrawl near the bottom of the box, "It says: Lee Sungmin. Can I open it, hyung?”
Sungmin laughs, “Yeah, sure.”
Hyukjae sits on Jungmo’s bed as Sungmin settles in his, curiously looking on as Hyukjae unwraps the surprise gift. “I wonder who left it there,” Sungmin muses, “It’s not like I have any admirers, right? So whoever it is shouldn’t have been shy coz there would’ve been no competition.”
Hyukjae glances up at Sungmin quickly when the other says this. No competition?! When has there never been a competition?! He doesn’t comment, however, because then Sungmin would know, would figure out that he’s part of that competition, has always been since the day the elder boy stayed with him when no one else did.
When Hyukjae’s got the thing half open, he suddenly feels that something’s wrong.
Because gifts… they shouldn’t smell like blood, right?
Hurriedly, Hyukjae closes the already half open box. He snatches the tape lying on top of Jungmo’s desk and begins to tape the box shut, wraps it tightly, securely so that Sungmin doesn’t see, doesn’t have to know that he’s got a mad man of an admirer. Of course Sungmin’s asking him what’s wrong, fighting him for the box, trying to get it away from him so he could see for himself. But even when Sungmin’s stronger, even when the elder boy has always been the more fit of the two, Hyukjae’s desperation, his fear and desire to protect the other boy enables him to finish wrapping the box again.
“Don’t, hyung!” he pleads, “This… It’s--,” he doesn’t get to finish his sentence, however. He’s distracted by a piece of paper lying innocently between them. Sungmin picks it up but once he reads it, he covers his mouth with a hand then shakily sits on his bed. He looks up at Hyukjae then, eyes filled with fear and dread and helplessness because he had no idea who would do such a thing, would be sick enough to even think like this.
Hyukjae takes the paper from Sungmin’s trembling hands and reads:
In the midst of the crowd I held your hand today. It was so warm and soft and fit perfectly into mine
I almost couldn’t stop myself from cutting them off so we could keep on holding hands and never let go.
---
They go to the dorm head once they’ve gathered themselves together.
They show him the note, the gift, tell him what had happened a few weeks ago. He’s surprised by it and frowns at them because they should have told him sooner. Sungmin apologizes, saying he didn’t want to be a bother. Hyukjae apologizes with Sungmin, but deep inside, he’s asking for forgiveness for being unable to protect his hyung like he said he would.
He tells Sungmin that once there’s an available room, he’ll transfer Sungmin there immediately. He’s sorry he can’t be much of help, that he can only do this much, but if the stalker ever reveals himself, if Sungmin needed someone to talk to, he’s always welcome here.
Sungmin smiles at their dorm head and thanks him profusely. They both leave then, Sungmin with a smile on his face, Hyukjae with a small frown on his. Because in the end, hadn’t they accomplished nothing?
---
Sure enough, after a whole month, even when Sungmin had changed rooms, even when they tightened security…
“Huh? Did I leave this open? And what in the world is that smell?”
Hyukjae laughs beside him, “It’s probably Teukie hyung. You know how he is in the mornings. Him and his crazy boyfriend!”
But it isn’t Sungmin’s roommate, nor was it because of his crazy boyfriend. Someone had clearly broken in. If not for the fact that inside the room hung pictures upon pictures of eyes; eyes that were smiling, eyes that were wide with surprise, with curiosity, with delight. Sungmin was about to write it off as his roommates’ boyfriend’s crazy antics, but then Hyukjae’s looking at each of them in fear, looking up at them as if he knows who they’re for, what they mean.
He looks at his hyung with eyes wide with fear, and then he looks up, up where the pictures were hung, and-
“Hyukjae?” he hears Sungmin whisper, “What is it?”
He doesn’t want Sungmin to see it but he finds that he can’t move, can’t make a sound in warning, can’t even make himself look away.
It’s too much, way too much. Whoever’s doing this is walking the road to insanity. Surely, no sane mind could do something as horrible as this?
Because there aren’t just pictures of eyes hanging from the ceiling. Hidden among the photos among photos and hanging directly above Sungmin’s bed were a pair of human eyes. Beside that were the words:
I love how beautiful your eyes are, how they shine like the stars.
They’re so beautiful I want to pluck them out,
hang them above my bed and stare at them forever.
---
He's never seen it before this, Sungmin breaking down.
Hyukjae doesn't know what to do, doesn't know how to handle this. Because out of the two of them, Sungmin has always been the stronger one, has always been the one comforting the other. In the few times it was Sungmin that needed comforting, Hyukjae only needed to take him out, treat him to dinner or make him watch a movie with him.
But Hyukjae can't do any of that now.
They're in Hyukjae's room; Sungmin, sobbing continuously on his bed; Hyukjae, beside Sungmin with his arms wrapped tightly around the elder boy.
It breaks Hyukjae's heart to see Sungmin like this. It breaks his heart even more when he hears Sungmin whisper, "I'm scared, Hyukkie."
---
The notes and horrid presents stops after that.
Once Sungmin's sure, he begins to eat normally again, begins to go out, begins to be the Sungmin Hyukjae knows him to be.
During the times that Sungmin withdrew into himself, Hyukjae had felt like he was lost as well. Hyukjae is his own person, but the elder boy has always been his rock, his one constant source of strength when everything else fails.
So it's with a wide, shit eating grin that he takes Sungmin outside. They're going to the amusement park today, Hyukjae's treat, and he's going to make sure that Sungmin's going to forget all his problems and have fun.
He's still wearing that shit eating grin when they're in the park, still wearing it even on the scariest rides, still wearing it as they're going home until they're outside Sungmin's new room.
They're laughing and jostling each other like only the best of friends would and for the longest time since, Hyukjae can honestly say that things will get better, that they'll get to move on, that they'll be able to accept it and then forget.
Heck, maybe he'll even get his chance to confess. And maybe they'll both be their happily ever afters.
Sungmin has his door open when someone calls for Hyukjae's attention.
The elder boy looks at him questioningly, so Hyukjae shrugs and says, "I think it's someone from the dance club. Wait, I'll just go and check."
Sungmin laughs as the other boy runs to the other. He keeps the door open for a while, and when he realizes that Hyukjae could just open the door himself, he steps in his room and closes the door.
He's reading a magazine when Hyukjae comes inside, a bottle of coke in hand already near empty.
Sungmin pouts a little when he sees this. "Could've left a little for me, too."
Seeing that, Hyukjae laughs, "Hyung, don't be a kid! It was already half empty when Hae gave it to me."
"Hae?" Sungmin asks. And then he sits up and says, "Oh! That boy from your club?"
When Hyukjae nods, Sungmin continues, "Good dancer?"
Hyukjae smirks, "Not better than me!"
Sungmin's about to retort when Hyukjae suddenly frowns and grasps at his throat. Looking worriedly at his friend, Sungmin asks, "Hey, you all right?"
Hyukjae shrugs, "I dunno. My throat feels weird. Like it's closing up, or something."
"What do you--,"
---
Sungmin doesn't exactly remember what happened. All he knows is that Hyukjae just started coughing really hard and really long.
He remembers blood, remembers how it splattered against his shirt, against his face, against Hyukjae's palm. He remembers how terrified Hyukjae was, how helpless he had been. Sungmin remembers how tightly he had held onto his best friend, remembers how tightly Hyujkae had been holding on to him.
What he remembers most, however, were Hyukjae's words:
'I'm sorry I couldn't protect you, hyung' and 'I love you'.
Everything else began to lose importance afterwards. All he wanted was to save his friend, to keep him by his side. So he tries his best to calm his friend down, and once he's safely positioned his friend on the bed, he squeezes Hyukjae's hand and whispers:
I'm gonna get help, Hyuk! Please, hold on! because I love you, too.
It had been too late, in the end.
Poison, they told him after, In the last drink he ingested.
---
In the funeral, someone sits beside Sungmin and asks: Will you let me keep you now, hyung?
Sungmin looks at other person but is too brokenhearted to care.
He doesn't forget the eyes, however.
At the back of his mind, Sungmin realizes it's the eyes of a mad man.
---
Years and years later, he's happily in love with a man called Lee Donghae.
On the night of their first anniversary, Donghae surprises him in his apartment, a cake on hand with one lighted candle.
Sungmin laughs at the cheesiness of it, but it endears the other to him more. Donghae was such a joy to be with, so filled with life and child-like innocence. So much unlike himself.
All of a sudden, the light goes out.
In the darkness, only Donghae's eyes are illuminated.
Sungmin's too in love with the other to care but at the back of his mind he realizes that he's staring at the eyes of a mad man.
---
FAIL. SO MUCH FAIL.
I FAIL AT CREEPY!