[U-Kiss] Eight Flew Over, One was Destroyed
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1)
He walks on with a grave expression on his face, which is made painfully obvious by the way people seems to avoid him when they bump into him at the hallway; even the common greeting is more polite than usual, which he dismissed carelessly.
They have been practicing the new choreography, and he has been busy perfecting his moves when the guys start playing around. Of course, that’s a common occurrence when you have a group with six growing boys singing and dancing to a cutesy song titled ‘Talk to Me’, and it’s not that he haven’t fooled around before, but today, somehow, it irritates him.
He cannot really tell why; maybe it's because of the hot practice room, maybe it's because the stress is accumulating, maybe it's because he is getting tired of it, maybe it's because he cannot help but be overshadowed by his more popular brother. There are too much what-ifs and maybes, and it is getting into his head; and the next thing he knows is that he is already shouting across the room, five pair of eyes staring back at him.
The sudden silence and awkward glances suffocates him, and so he walks out, mumbling along the lines of apologies and needing fresh air, the door closed behind him with a click.
He still walks on endlessly, restlessly around, desperately wishes to be alone but the company is small and thus the lack of space. Wherever he looks there are people around and so he considers going out of the building when he sees the stairs to the rooftop. He remembers people saying that the door is always locked due to safety issues but then, he thinks, screw them. He will open the door with brute force if it comes to it.
Which explains his surprise when he finds that the door is not even locked, and there is actually someone there, sitting dangerously close to the railing, fiddling with papers in his hands and engrossed in music blasting through the headphones, judging by the way the head bobbed around to whatever beat is playing, black hair tousled by the wind.
He watches with amusement as the boy folds a plane out of the paper, and sends it flying away; one hand carelessly hanging on air with each flight the planes take. He leans on the wall, before he sits down and ends up sleeping himself away.
He wakes up at a small murmur of ‘hyung’ and a soft shake on his arm, with Kevin smiling down at him and Dongho running around the rooftop, attempting to scream down before Soohyun tackles the maknae to the ground, Alexander laughing himself silly at Eli waving at the flying birds. A black jacket was draped on him and he remembers leaving his in the practice room. His puzzled reaction earns a chuckle from Kevin as he pulls him up, smiling brightly, as if they have not been fighting before, and everyone just laughs it away when he brings it up, though they did apologize later.
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2)
He walks on to the rooftop, one of his favorite places at the building now, and finds someone there, sitting dangerously close to the railing, fiddling with papers in his hands and engrossed in music blasting through the headphones, judging by the way the head bobbed around to whatever beat is playing, black hair tousled by the wind.
He watches with amusement as the boy folds a plane out of the paper, and sends it flying away, one hand carelessly hanging on air with each flight the planes take. He leans on the wall and cannot help but feeling a severe case of déjà vu, though he thinks nothing of it. One plane flies backwards and the boy turns, his eyes landing straight on him, and a flicker of recognition grazes his face before he immediately bows, to which he simply nods as acknowledgement.
The boy smile softly and picks up the papers and planes and ready to leave, feeling awkward perhaps by a presence of a sunbae, to which he clicked his tongue in disapproval.
“Where are you going?”
The boy blinks, somewhat flustered by the sudden question.
“Just continue whatever it is you’re doing. Don’t mind me.”
Still silent, the boy smiles at him before continuing folding planes. He sits down and closes his eyes, the wind blows softly around him, almost lulling him to sleep when a plane hits his arm.
He opens his heavy eyes in annoyance and sees that the boy is gone; the door closes with a resounding click. On the plane is a quick scribble with a note ‘Don’t sleep here, you’ll catch a cold,’ to which he snickers.
He ends up sleeping anyway, too lazy to actually move, and ends up on the bed with a cold and furious manager. The members come to visit and among the many gifts they brought -fruits, cards, and medicine from fans and friends- is a paper plane, folded and almost hidden among the many ‘get well soon!’ messages. The note is a simple ‘Told you so,’ and his frustrated scream wakes Hyungjun up with a start on a chair across the room before falling off it to the floor. He snickers at the pout on the elder’s face and starts plotting of revenge against the boy.
Except that he realizes, he does not even know the boy’s name.
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3)
He returns back to the company and goes straight up the rooftop, where as usual, he can see the boy, folding paper planes, and sends them flying away. He leans at his usual spot, and quietly watches until the silence becomes unbearable and he can feel his eyes grow heavy with sleep.
He had planned to ask the boy his name, and why are you up here throwing paper planes when you should go practicing hard to debut, and many other stuff but he ended up forgot it all the moment he opened the door.
And eventually he succumbs to sleep, the wind blows softly around him. A paper plane flies and lands just by his hand, and the boy looks on, eyes heavy and dark, bowing at his direction before leaving.
On the plane is a note, ‘Sorry.’
Kibum never reads the note though, as the members come to wake him up for a schedule later, and during the rush the plane falls off on the floor, lying there, forgotten.
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4)
When the long overdue promotion kicks off he finds himself flying -Thailand, China, Japan- with faces to meet and schedule to complete and days slipping past him like a blur of cloud covering the moonlight on Seoul’s night sky. He feels himself floating around, anywhere, everywhere, and nowhere, to the point that he feels sick of flying, and just wants to stay firm on the ground, walking about with nothing to think and freedom in his mind.
Which is why he seldom walks to the rooftop when they are at the company ever since, and when he does, somehow he always finds himself alone.
He remembers Soohyun asking him about the paper planes, brows furrowed when he told him of the boy, and he can tell that something is disturbing the elder, but somehow he pretends not to realize, and just nods when told to have a rest.
By some twist of fate, perhaps, or Soohyun just has a big mouth, the manager comes up to him, specifically, to explain the schedule, in which the group will start the international promotion by holding concerts and fan-meeting and whatnot soon. He pays no heed to it, as Kevin will come up and repeat it again anyways, but something on the way the manager advices him of going somewhere else to sleep aside from the rooftop makes him wonder. As it is more of ‘don’t go there anymore’, though he receives no answer when he asked why.
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5)
He goes up to the rooftop one day, after a long while and surprisingly finds Dongho there, knitting alone by the wall. He goes slowly to scare the maknae, but apparently he was busted the moment he enters the door, to which the younger snickers.
They sit in silence, and when he feels sleep creeping up again there is a nudge on the side, and he turns to see Dongho staring at him, curiosity filling up the eyes.
“Hyung, why do you sleep here?”
He stifles a yawn and shrugged.
“Hell if I know.”
The younger puts down his knitting and turns, fully facing him now.
“Can you see him, now?”
He simply stares.
“Who?”
Dongho takes out a paper plane.
“Kiseop-hyung.”
There is a flash and moments in his memory, but he cannot see it.
“Who’s that, Dongho?”
The maknae simply smiles as he whips out his phone, and shows a message from the manager about a meeting, to which Kibum clicks his tongue, they are already late by 10 minutes now. Standing up to leave, he waits for the younger to clear up the stuff, but Dongho shook his head, signaling him to go first, in which he did.
Dongho approaches the railing, and throws the plane as it flies far, far away.
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6)
He likes the rooftop, very much. He likes the emptiness of it, how the sky stretches up above him, and how the wind will blow strongly yet smoothly for his paper planes to fly. He loves the paper planes, as it gives him freedom, for all that he wants is to fly, far, far away.
One day, the door to the rooftop is locked, yet he manages to steal the key, and proceeds with his usual routine when the railing gives up on him, and he flies, flies away from the sky.
Since then, he is always there, at the rooftop, sitting dangerously close to the railing, just because he can, fiddling with papers in his hands and engrossed in music blasting through the headphones, so that he can hear nothing else around him, and just focus on making the paper planes fly, hair tousled by the wind.
The door is not locked after that -he finds that he still holds the key with him somehow- yet nobody comes up, as there is a rumor floating about, hushed between hallways and empty, dead walls, that keeps people away, and he is happy, for he can have the place to himself now, perhaps.
After a while, a dark haired boy with a cold expression comes.
He does not mind, of course, since it’s been awhile indeed, and the railing is no longer the old, rusted ones, so it is safe already, he thinks.
Until the boy stares at him at the eyes, and spoke to him, as if he exists.
Worse, the boy keeps sleeping, deeper and deeper each time, and it scares him greatly.
He does not know why only the boy ends up like that, while his friends seem fine. The youngest in the group even stares at him and smiles, eyes twinkling with a look that clearly says ‘I know who and what you are’ to which he simply tilts his head, not knowing how to respond to that.
So he decides to hide, ensuring that the boy forgot about him and everything together, simply by sending him a plane, with his wish on it.
He smiles when it works, and says ‘goodbye’ to the closed door.
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7)
They have been practicing the new choreography, and he have been busy perfecting his moves when the guys start playing around. He can feel his head hurting and anger rising inside, and he is this close to exploding when the door of the practice room opens, the manager comes in with two boys who introduced themselves as AJ and Hoonmin, and will join the group for the comeback.
The members welcomed the new guys merrily and they are all smiles and something strikes his memory at how it seems familiar, but then he had known the guys before, and while they are not that close or anything he often see them hanging around with the members so it is not that unusual, just.
Later when he introduced himself ‘I’m Kim Kibum, and yes, I’m a hyung,’ to which the two nods and smiles softly, he almost sees a boy with a headphone holding a paper plane on a rooftop, smiling the exact same smile, except that he does not.
He never remembers the boy anymore.
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8)
In his blurry memory, there is always someone there, sitting dangerously close to the railing, fiddling with papers in his hands and engrossed in music blasting through the headphones, judging by the way the head bobbed around to whatever beat is playing, black hair tousled by the wind.
He will watch with amusement as the boy folds a plane out of the paper, and flies it away, one hand carelessly hanging on air with each flight the planes take. He will then lean on the wall, before he sits down and ends up sleeping himself away.
If the wind flies the plane forward he will keep staring at the boy’s back, imagining the fascination painted on the face as the plane flies away from their reach. If the wind ends up bringing it back the boy will turn and he will see a face that never seems to be surprised to see him there, as if he is expected to be there all along.
Usually the boy will recognize him for a second and bows as greeting on the next, and he will nod and maybe say a few words to which the boy will smile, softly grazing the handsome feature of the stranger. Yet, the boy never says anything, and just flying out paper planes, that flies away, and he will end up sleeping again by the cold wall of the rooftop.
In his fading memory, he never knows who the person is.
*******
9)
He walks on with a grave expression on his face, which is made painfully obvious by the way people seems to avoid him when they bump into him at the hallway; even the common greeting is more polite than usual, which he dismissed carelessly.
He cannot really tell why; maybe it's because of the hot practice room, maybe it's because the stress is accumulating, maybe it's because he is getting tired of it, maybe it's because he cannot help but be overshadowed by his more popular brother; there are too much what-ifs, and maybes, and it is getting into his head and so he walks out, mumbling along the lines of needing fresh air, the door closed behind him with a click.
He still walks on endlessly, restlessly around, desperately wishes to be alone but the company is small and thus the lack of space. Wherever he looks there are people around and so he considers going out of the building when he sees the stairs to the rooftop. He remembers people saying that the door is always locked due to safety issues but then, he thinks, screw them. He will open the door with brute force if it comes to it.
Which explains his surprise when the door is not even locked, and that it is completely empty up here, not a trace of a person can be seen. He leans on the wall nearby, before he sits down and ends up sleeping himself away.
He later wakes up with a small murmur of ‘hyung’ and a soft shake on his arm, Kevin smiling down at him and Dongho running around the rooftop, attempting to scream down before Soohyun tackles the maknae to the ground, and Hoon tickles the poor boy with a maniacal grin, earning laughter from AJ who finds the whole thing amusing. By the railing he can see Alexander laughing himself silly as Eli waved at the flying birds. A black jacket was draped on him and he remembers leaving his in the practice room. His puzzled reaction earns a chuckle from Kevin as he pulls him up, smiling brightly.
The sunset is achingly beautiful and they end up taking a picture together, the whole of them with the picturesque backdrop and it remains one of his favorite pictures ever.