not afraid to fall [chapter 2]
Title: not afraid to fall [chapter 2]
Author: ivoryroyale
Genre: supernatural, friendship
Rating: PG
Summary: in which a group of six aren't afraid to stand tall because they have each other
Note: 2,835 words. A considerably less suspenseful chapter compared to the previous ones.
-----
[prologue] [chapter 1] [chapter 2] [chapter 3] [chapter 4] [chapter 5] [chapter 6] [ chapter 7] [chapter 8] [ chapter 9] [chapter 10] [chapter 11] [ chapter 12] [chapter 13] [chapter 14] [ chapter 15] [ chapter 16] [ chapter 17] [ chapter 18] [ chapter 19] [ chapter 20]
not afraid to fall
chapter two
Daehyun's ten again, smiling and laughing up at his tutor, sitting across from him on the small writing desk they usually have their lessons at. There's the occasional maid and butler that slip in and out of the room, replacing the bedsheets, adjusting the curtains, folding the laundry, arranging his drawers, but Daehyun pays them no mind. He just listens to the smooth voice of his tutor, lulling mathematic equations and chapters from storybooks between funny jokes and casual smiles.
He loves his tutor. She can make just about anything sound interesting, from algebraic equations to world history to astronomy, which Daehyun likes learning about the most. As he copies over notes that his tutor told him were important, he talks to her about his day.
"A kid waved to me from outside my window this morning," Daehyun explains excitedly. "She wanted me to come outside and play but I told her I couldn't," His parents don't like it when he goes outside. It has something to do with the fact that he's feeble and weak and getting worse everytime he opens his mouth. The doctors don't know what it is and his parents don't know what it is either, so they want Daehyun to stay inside and rest all day, quiet and obedient.
Daehyun doesn't mind. He has his tutor to keep him company.
"She looked really sad when I told her I couldn't go outside,"
She purses her lips goofily and Daehyun giggles because she resembles a fish when she does it. She laughs along with him and Daehyun feels butterflies in his stomach. "Well, I'm sorry she has to miss out on someone as great as you," She says after her strings of laughter subside.
He grins happily, finishing up his notes as she checks the watch around her wrist. Daehyun doesn't like it when she does that because he knows what's coming. She's going to leave him, just like his mommy and daddy whenever they have a business trip, a meeting, a charity case, a party to attend to. "Sorry, kiddo, it's getting late. I have to get going," Daehyun frowns when he places the pencil back down onto the desk. "You got that assignment written down, right?" He nods, she smiles gently.
As she gets up to leave, Daehyun watches her smooth out her long denim skirt, watches as she leans over to ruffle his hair affectionately, watches as she opens the door of his room to leave.
"Wait," Daehyun begs and she turns around, shocked.
"What's wrong? Did I forget something?"
"Don't go," He commands, feeling each word tugging at his heart. "Don't leave me."
She freezes, in the doorway, getting stares from a maid standing on the other side. She looks petrified, like she's just seen a ghost and Daehyun wonders why she's not smiling. Because she always smiles at him.
He's about to question her why, but the image of his precious tutor morphs slowly into his parents, staring down at him with looks of disapproval.
Daehyun's eleven now.
"Mom?" He asks, looking at her apprehensively. Something isn't right. "Dad?" Daehyun smiles, trying to break the heavy tension settling over the room. It's strange that they're here, especially together. He never gets to see his parents. "What's going on?"
They shake their heads at him as an answer before they too morph into another figure. They transform into bulky men, bursting down his bedroom door, shouting for him to come out, come out wherever you are as he tries to run away. He screams for his mom, for his dad, but they don't hear him over the money in their hands, counting away, ignoring their sons cries for help.
The men grab onto him and he cries out-
Daehyun wakes with a gasp, straightening from his previously slumped over position. His neck cricks uncomfortably from sleeping in such an awkward position and his hair is damp from sweat at the nightmare. Just a nightmare, he reminds himself, rubbing at his face and running his shaking hands through his mussed hair.
He's in a car, he points out rather obviously. Yongguk's, he remembers. They'd walked to it after leaving the base and apparently Daehyun fell asleep the moment they started driving because right now, it seems as if they aren't anywhere near the base. They're surrounded by other cars, falling behind them as Yongguk drives faster down the road. Daehyun stares in wonder at the amount of people there are.
"You okay?" Yongguk asks from the driver's seat, taking furtive glances toward Daehyun who's seemed to have calmed down significantly from realizing he's out in the open and away from the base.
Daehyun nods as he stares outside the car window, eyes traveling in silent awe over the busy road, the fluffy green trees, the yellow sun, the blue sky, the white clouds, and everything he's been deprived of due to the fact he's been confined in a prison since he was eleven.
It's refreshing to breathe the fresh, morning air instead of the artificial air of a cell.
Yongguk turns his head toward the road again, seeing that Daehyun's calmed down considerably. "You must have had some nightmare," The boy had been tossing and turning, eyebrows nit together, mumbling jumbled nonsense in his sleep. Yongguk almost pulled over to the side of the road to shake him awake, the boy looked so terrified.
Daehyun hums, agreeing immediately. The faces of the men flash into his head, dragging him forcefully away from his home, and tossing him carelessly in the back seat of a seedy van. He shakes his head to get rid of the thought. "How long was I asleep?"
"A while," Yongguk flashes a gummy smile at Daehyun and Daehyun tries to give him one back behind the mask around his mouth, but finds that he can't. He's forgotten how. "You slept for most of the drive at least; we're almost there. Got about another ten or so minutes,"
He nods, leaning an elbow against the armrest and placing his chin in his hand. When five minutes pass, they're suddenly following a path that looks abandoned, no cars surrounding the area, not even any buildings. Just miles and miles of tall, green pine trees on either side of a narrow road. Daehyun wonders where they're at.
Yongguk glances diligently at the clock in his car. 11:36, it reads. Daehyun guesses about three to four hours have passed since they started driving. "The kids are probably going to be at school, so you won't be able to meet them until later," Yongguk points out, following the road that snakes its way around trees. Daehyun quirks an eyebrow at the word kids and school. How old are the people living here? And how can they go to school without getting caught? Without slipping up and revealing to everyone that they're abnormal? "You'll still get to meet Himchan though,"
"Who's Himchan?" Daehyun asks, as the sinuous path turns straight.
Yongguk smiles fondly, a specific twinkle in his eyes that convinces Daehyun into thinking something's going on between him and this Himchan person, before answering, "He's my best friend," Likely story, Daehyun wants to say, wondering how Yongguk would react to the teasing, but he decides against, remembering how easily he could spark a flame from his palms. "He's just a big goofball, so you don't have to pay too much attention to him,"
If that wasn't a subtle way of telling him to back off, Daehyun's not sure what is.
Daehyun's about to hum as a reply before he catches sight of a house in the clearing.
It's huge, that much Daehyun can tell. He stares up at the structure with wide eyes as Yongguk parks the car carefully along the dirt path surrounded by green hedges in front of the house's white porch and painted black front door.
"Like it?" Yongguk asks as he turns the car's engine off and beckons for Daehyun to step out of the car.
Daehyun nods mutely. It's everything that the base wasn't. The base was cold and so clean that it was scary, as if no one actually lived inside it. It was made out of cold plaster and relentless soldiers and horrible memories.
Here, you can actually breathe. You can hear birds chirping, can hear wind, rustling leaves, can feel the wind against your skin - the complete antithesis of what Daehyun lived with. Daehyun counts three levels to the house: the first is made out of beautiful stone brick while the second and third are made with a contrasting white wood colored grayish from lack of dusting. Light colored asphalt shingles make up the roof.
Tentatively, Daehyun follows Yongguk up to the porch. Wind chimes suspend from the roof and Daehyun reaches up a curious finger to brush against them. They twinkle against the movement, singing into the warm morning air. Yongguk watches in silent amusement as he combs through his jacket pockets.
Yongguk wordlessly pulls a key ring out of one of the pockets and fingers through the different sets of keys. After finding the right one, he steps up to the door. Daehyun watches, spots a black keypad straight to the left of the door and raises an eyebrow. Yongguk punches in a string of numbers, saying as he does so, "I'll tell you the numbers once we get inside," Daehyun accepts it, shrugging. "We take a lot of precaution on making sure that nobody but the people who live here can get inside,"
Once a resounding beep emits from the keypad, Yongguk turns to the door, eases in the key, and unlocks it, jiggling it out of the lock and pushing the door open almost effortlessly. He steps aside and motions for the blonde to enter first.
Cautiously, Daehyun inches his way through the doorway, Yongguk following right behind him.
He would have frozen in the doorway at the sight of the place if Yongguk hadn't been there to push him through playfully. "We don't have all day, Daehyun," But Daehyun isn't listening, too busy surveying the house to think up a comeback.
The inside of the house looks bigger than the outside, with a high ceiling and vast living room. There's a huge television perched up onto one of the walls with a long, brown leather couch surrounding it and Daehyun feels a bit of temptation to sit and watch it. It's been a while since he's watched television. Instead, he steps further inside the house, notices the clean, wooden floors, the plaster walls, the picture frames strewing the walls with photographs showing who Daehyun deducts live here.
He's in awe at how hospitable the place looks. Not even when he lived with his parents was the house this open looking. It was always so suffocating, living with all the maids and butlers that played role of his parents when his real ones were away on business.
Now that Daehyun thinks about it, they never even had one family portrait on the intricate wallpaper of the mansion.
"Himchan," Yongguk calls, locking the front door as he does so. Daehyun looks over at him, hand hovering over a particular picture with four boys smiling so wide he can't even see their eyes. At the sound of the name, Daehyun looks around the room, as if Himchan will just pop out of thin air. His gaze lands on an especially large entryway next to the living room and he startles when a man with brunette hair pops his head out from behind it.
"Hey," He greets with a smile, having not noticed Daehyun yet, eyes fixed solely on Yongguk. "You're back!" Himchan makes his way out of the room, proudly revealing an embarrassingly pink apron around his front. Daehyun raises a silent eyebrow as the man wipes his hands on the fabric of the smock diligently before tossing his arms up in what looks like an attempt at initiating a hug.
Yongguk narrowly dodges it, and Himchan sports a tiny pout-frown. Daehyun cuts off their little exchange with an amused cough.
Himchan flips around comically, looking for the source of the cough, before finally facing Daehyun. Yongguk smiles in what Daehyun expects is supposed to mean I told you he was a goofball. "Himchan, this is Daehyun," Yongguk explains and Himchan stares at him with wide eyes, mouth slightly ajar. "Daehyun, this is Himchan."
Himchan laughs softly, an amazingly goofy grin replacing his previous look of shock. The man's unbearably pretty looking. "Sorry, didn't see you there,"
It's okay, Daehyun wants to say, but he just hums instead, hoping that at least Yongguk understands that he can't go around talking whenever he wants due to his ability. He could end up brainwashing either of them without meaning to. That, and his ability tends to drain his energy if he talks too much.
They stand around in silence, Himchan balancing himself on the balls of his feet uncomfortably, Yongguk looking at the ground awkwardly and Daehyun standing there, staring at the both of them.
"So," Himchan starts smoothly, the silence finally getting to him. "Who's hungry?"
Daehyun's stomach growls, embarrassingly loud, as a blunt answer.
Himchan and Yongguk talk in the living room while Daehyun eats in the kitchen.
"The boy eats like a trucker," Himchan laughs as he exits the kitchen, having served Daehyun a plate of eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Daehyun can't hear him though, too focused on the plate of food in front of him and Himchan chuckles some more. "Where'd you find him?" He asks Yongguk when they're out of earshot and Daehyun can't hear them.
Yongguk takes a seat on the couch, sighing tiredly. He hasn't slept in a few days, having been too focused on the mission and breaking into the government base and trying to find any sign of other mutants in the area. He'd found none but Daehyun, and he sighs in what's a mixture of relief and disappointment. Relief because he'd actually found somebody - saved him from the clutches of the government.
Disappointment because he'd been looking for one particular mutant and came up short. Again.
"At the government base that I broke into," Yongguk answers Himchan's previous question.
The brunette stops smiling, suddenly turning serious, asking the question that Yongguk's been waiting for. "Did you find him?"
Yongguk shakes his head slowly, and Himchan briefly looks solemn, jaw tight, a frown deeply set on his mouth before it disappears and morphs into a tiny smile. Yongguk feels a tug on his heartstrings. "At least you found Daehyun," Himchan reminds, ever the optimist.
"Jongup's going to be so disappointed," Yongguk states miserably, ignoring Himchan's attempt at comforting him. "He's not going to show it, but he is,"
Himchan gives him a stern look, moving to sit on the couch next to him. "He knows you're trying though," Himchan points out as he places a chin on Yongguk's shoulder, invading his personal space, hoping to get a smile out of his best friend. Yongguk looks at anywhere but Himchan, head turned to stare stubbornly at the wall to his left. Himchan smiles slightly at the man's attempt to ignore him.
Himchan pokes the man gently in the side and grins when it gets a reaction. "Besides, we'll find him sooner or later," Himchan continues and grins, lifting his chin off of Yongguk's shoulder when the older man turns to look at him.
"In the mean time," Himchan says, glancing at the invisible clock around his wrist before clapping resolutely. "I demand that you get some food in your system, young man." Teasingly, he wags a finger, imitating a strict mother but failing considerably because of the bright smile threatening to overtake his lips. Yongguk snorts at his effort.
Himchan hops up from his spot on the couch, and turns to Yongguk expectantly. "You're not moving," The younger points out, pointing at Yongguk's form, unmoving on the couch with no sign of even budging.
"Thanks for the report, Captain Obvious," Yongguk smirks.
Himchan smiles slyly in reply. "If you don't move, I'm going to have to use force,"
Yongguk rolls his eyes, exclaiming how the man didn't have the guts. Himchan retaliates by grabbing onto his feet and attempting to forcefully drag him off of the couch. Yongguk yelps at the sudden action.
"Okay, okay," He sighs, trying to pull out of Himchan's iron grip, complying after nearly falling off the couch cushion due to Himchan's incessant tugging. Himchan shouts in triumph, letting go of Yongguk's feet to lift a fist into the air in victory. Yongguk almost bursts out laughing at the man's dorkiness. "I just hope Daehyun hasn't eaten all the food yet,"
"I heard that," Daehyun shouts in protest from the kitchen, voice muffled by what Yongguk guesses is food.
Himchan snickers giddily, pointing an accusing finger at Yongguk before mockingly exclaiming, "Ooh, you got in trouble,"
Yongguk shoves him playfully to the ground with a suppressed smile.
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Previous | Next
Author: ivoryroyale
Genre: supernatural, friendship
Rating: PG
Summary: in which a group of six aren't afraid to stand tall because they have each other
Note: 2,835 words. A considerably less suspenseful chapter compared to the previous ones.
-----
[prologue] [chapter 1] [chapter 2] [chapter 3] [chapter 4] [chapter 5] [chapter 6] [ chapter 7] [chapter 8] [ chapter 9] [chapter 10] [chapter 11] [ chapter 12] [chapter 13] [chapter 14] [ chapter 15] [ chapter 16] [ chapter 17] [ chapter 18] [ chapter 19] [ chapter 20]
not afraid to fall
chapter two
Daehyun's ten again, smiling and laughing up at his tutor, sitting across from him on the small writing desk they usually have their lessons at. There's the occasional maid and butler that slip in and out of the room, replacing the bedsheets, adjusting the curtains, folding the laundry, arranging his drawers, but Daehyun pays them no mind. He just listens to the smooth voice of his tutor, lulling mathematic equations and chapters from storybooks between funny jokes and casual smiles.
He loves his tutor. She can make just about anything sound interesting, from algebraic equations to world history to astronomy, which Daehyun likes learning about the most. As he copies over notes that his tutor told him were important, he talks to her about his day.
"A kid waved to me from outside my window this morning," Daehyun explains excitedly. "She wanted me to come outside and play but I told her I couldn't," His parents don't like it when he goes outside. It has something to do with the fact that he's feeble and weak and getting worse everytime he opens his mouth. The doctors don't know what it is and his parents don't know what it is either, so they want Daehyun to stay inside and rest all day, quiet and obedient.
Daehyun doesn't mind. He has his tutor to keep him company.
"She looked really sad when I told her I couldn't go outside,"
She purses her lips goofily and Daehyun giggles because she resembles a fish when she does it. She laughs along with him and Daehyun feels butterflies in his stomach. "Well, I'm sorry she has to miss out on someone as great as you," She says after her strings of laughter subside.
He grins happily, finishing up his notes as she checks the watch around her wrist. Daehyun doesn't like it when she does that because he knows what's coming. She's going to leave him, just like his mommy and daddy whenever they have a business trip, a meeting, a charity case, a party to attend to. "Sorry, kiddo, it's getting late. I have to get going," Daehyun frowns when he places the pencil back down onto the desk. "You got that assignment written down, right?" He nods, she smiles gently.
As she gets up to leave, Daehyun watches her smooth out her long denim skirt, watches as she leans over to ruffle his hair affectionately, watches as she opens the door of his room to leave.
"Wait," Daehyun begs and she turns around, shocked.
"What's wrong? Did I forget something?"
"Don't go," He commands, feeling each word tugging at his heart. "Don't leave me."
She freezes, in the doorway, getting stares from a maid standing on the other side. She looks petrified, like she's just seen a ghost and Daehyun wonders why she's not smiling. Because she always smiles at him.
He's about to question her why, but the image of his precious tutor morphs slowly into his parents, staring down at him with looks of disapproval.
Daehyun's eleven now.
"Mom?" He asks, looking at her apprehensively. Something isn't right. "Dad?" Daehyun smiles, trying to break the heavy tension settling over the room. It's strange that they're here, especially together. He never gets to see his parents. "What's going on?"
They shake their heads at him as an answer before they too morph into another figure. They transform into bulky men, bursting down his bedroom door, shouting for him to come out, come out wherever you are as he tries to run away. He screams for his mom, for his dad, but they don't hear him over the money in their hands, counting away, ignoring their sons cries for help.
The men grab onto him and he cries out-
Daehyun wakes with a gasp, straightening from his previously slumped over position. His neck cricks uncomfortably from sleeping in such an awkward position and his hair is damp from sweat at the nightmare. Just a nightmare, he reminds himself, rubbing at his face and running his shaking hands through his mussed hair.
He's in a car, he points out rather obviously. Yongguk's, he remembers. They'd walked to it after leaving the base and apparently Daehyun fell asleep the moment they started driving because right now, it seems as if they aren't anywhere near the base. They're surrounded by other cars, falling behind them as Yongguk drives faster down the road. Daehyun stares in wonder at the amount of people there are.
"You okay?" Yongguk asks from the driver's seat, taking furtive glances toward Daehyun who's seemed to have calmed down significantly from realizing he's out in the open and away from the base.
Daehyun nods as he stares outside the car window, eyes traveling in silent awe over the busy road, the fluffy green trees, the yellow sun, the blue sky, the white clouds, and everything he's been deprived of due to the fact he's been confined in a prison since he was eleven.
It's refreshing to breathe the fresh, morning air instead of the artificial air of a cell.
Yongguk turns his head toward the road again, seeing that Daehyun's calmed down considerably. "You must have had some nightmare," The boy had been tossing and turning, eyebrows nit together, mumbling jumbled nonsense in his sleep. Yongguk almost pulled over to the side of the road to shake him awake, the boy looked so terrified.
Daehyun hums, agreeing immediately. The faces of the men flash into his head, dragging him forcefully away from his home, and tossing him carelessly in the back seat of a seedy van. He shakes his head to get rid of the thought. "How long was I asleep?"
"A while," Yongguk flashes a gummy smile at Daehyun and Daehyun tries to give him one back behind the mask around his mouth, but finds that he can't. He's forgotten how. "You slept for most of the drive at least; we're almost there. Got about another ten or so minutes,"
He nods, leaning an elbow against the armrest and placing his chin in his hand. When five minutes pass, they're suddenly following a path that looks abandoned, no cars surrounding the area, not even any buildings. Just miles and miles of tall, green pine trees on either side of a narrow road. Daehyun wonders where they're at.
Yongguk glances diligently at the clock in his car. 11:36, it reads. Daehyun guesses about three to four hours have passed since they started driving. "The kids are probably going to be at school, so you won't be able to meet them until later," Yongguk points out, following the road that snakes its way around trees. Daehyun quirks an eyebrow at the word kids and school. How old are the people living here? And how can they go to school without getting caught? Without slipping up and revealing to everyone that they're abnormal? "You'll still get to meet Himchan though,"
"Who's Himchan?" Daehyun asks, as the sinuous path turns straight.
Yongguk smiles fondly, a specific twinkle in his eyes that convinces Daehyun into thinking something's going on between him and this Himchan person, before answering, "He's my best friend," Likely story, Daehyun wants to say, wondering how Yongguk would react to the teasing, but he decides against, remembering how easily he could spark a flame from his palms. "He's just a big goofball, so you don't have to pay too much attention to him,"
If that wasn't a subtle way of telling him to back off, Daehyun's not sure what is.
Daehyun's about to hum as a reply before he catches sight of a house in the clearing.
It's huge, that much Daehyun can tell. He stares up at the structure with wide eyes as Yongguk parks the car carefully along the dirt path surrounded by green hedges in front of the house's white porch and painted black front door.
"Like it?" Yongguk asks as he turns the car's engine off and beckons for Daehyun to step out of the car.
Daehyun nods mutely. It's everything that the base wasn't. The base was cold and so clean that it was scary, as if no one actually lived inside it. It was made out of cold plaster and relentless soldiers and horrible memories.
Here, you can actually breathe. You can hear birds chirping, can hear wind, rustling leaves, can feel the wind against your skin - the complete antithesis of what Daehyun lived with. Daehyun counts three levels to the house: the first is made out of beautiful stone brick while the second and third are made with a contrasting white wood colored grayish from lack of dusting. Light colored asphalt shingles make up the roof.
Tentatively, Daehyun follows Yongguk up to the porch. Wind chimes suspend from the roof and Daehyun reaches up a curious finger to brush against them. They twinkle against the movement, singing into the warm morning air. Yongguk watches in silent amusement as he combs through his jacket pockets.
Yongguk wordlessly pulls a key ring out of one of the pockets and fingers through the different sets of keys. After finding the right one, he steps up to the door. Daehyun watches, spots a black keypad straight to the left of the door and raises an eyebrow. Yongguk punches in a string of numbers, saying as he does so, "I'll tell you the numbers once we get inside," Daehyun accepts it, shrugging. "We take a lot of precaution on making sure that nobody but the people who live here can get inside,"
Once a resounding beep emits from the keypad, Yongguk turns to the door, eases in the key, and unlocks it, jiggling it out of the lock and pushing the door open almost effortlessly. He steps aside and motions for the blonde to enter first.
Cautiously, Daehyun inches his way through the doorway, Yongguk following right behind him.
He would have frozen in the doorway at the sight of the place if Yongguk hadn't been there to push him through playfully. "We don't have all day, Daehyun," But Daehyun isn't listening, too busy surveying the house to think up a comeback.
The inside of the house looks bigger than the outside, with a high ceiling and vast living room. There's a huge television perched up onto one of the walls with a long, brown leather couch surrounding it and Daehyun feels a bit of temptation to sit and watch it. It's been a while since he's watched television. Instead, he steps further inside the house, notices the clean, wooden floors, the plaster walls, the picture frames strewing the walls with photographs showing who Daehyun deducts live here.
He's in awe at how hospitable the place looks. Not even when he lived with his parents was the house this open looking. It was always so suffocating, living with all the maids and butlers that played role of his parents when his real ones were away on business.
Now that Daehyun thinks about it, they never even had one family portrait on the intricate wallpaper of the mansion.
"Himchan," Yongguk calls, locking the front door as he does so. Daehyun looks over at him, hand hovering over a particular picture with four boys smiling so wide he can't even see their eyes. At the sound of the name, Daehyun looks around the room, as if Himchan will just pop out of thin air. His gaze lands on an especially large entryway next to the living room and he startles when a man with brunette hair pops his head out from behind it.
"Hey," He greets with a smile, having not noticed Daehyun yet, eyes fixed solely on Yongguk. "You're back!" Himchan makes his way out of the room, proudly revealing an embarrassingly pink apron around his front. Daehyun raises a silent eyebrow as the man wipes his hands on the fabric of the smock diligently before tossing his arms up in what looks like an attempt at initiating a hug.
Yongguk narrowly dodges it, and Himchan sports a tiny pout-frown. Daehyun cuts off their little exchange with an amused cough.
Himchan flips around comically, looking for the source of the cough, before finally facing Daehyun. Yongguk smiles in what Daehyun expects is supposed to mean I told you he was a goofball. "Himchan, this is Daehyun," Yongguk explains and Himchan stares at him with wide eyes, mouth slightly ajar. "Daehyun, this is Himchan."
Himchan laughs softly, an amazingly goofy grin replacing his previous look of shock. The man's unbearably pretty looking. "Sorry, didn't see you there,"
It's okay, Daehyun wants to say, but he just hums instead, hoping that at least Yongguk understands that he can't go around talking whenever he wants due to his ability. He could end up brainwashing either of them without meaning to. That, and his ability tends to drain his energy if he talks too much.
They stand around in silence, Himchan balancing himself on the balls of his feet uncomfortably, Yongguk looking at the ground awkwardly and Daehyun standing there, staring at the both of them.
"So," Himchan starts smoothly, the silence finally getting to him. "Who's hungry?"
Daehyun's stomach growls, embarrassingly loud, as a blunt answer.
Himchan and Yongguk talk in the living room while Daehyun eats in the kitchen.
"The boy eats like a trucker," Himchan laughs as he exits the kitchen, having served Daehyun a plate of eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Daehyun can't hear him though, too focused on the plate of food in front of him and Himchan chuckles some more. "Where'd you find him?" He asks Yongguk when they're out of earshot and Daehyun can't hear them.
Yongguk takes a seat on the couch, sighing tiredly. He hasn't slept in a few days, having been too focused on the mission and breaking into the government base and trying to find any sign of other mutants in the area. He'd found none but Daehyun, and he sighs in what's a mixture of relief and disappointment. Relief because he'd actually found somebody - saved him from the clutches of the government.
Disappointment because he'd been looking for one particular mutant and came up short. Again.
"At the government base that I broke into," Yongguk answers Himchan's previous question.
The brunette stops smiling, suddenly turning serious, asking the question that Yongguk's been waiting for. "Did you find him?"
Yongguk shakes his head slowly, and Himchan briefly looks solemn, jaw tight, a frown deeply set on his mouth before it disappears and morphs into a tiny smile. Yongguk feels a tug on his heartstrings. "At least you found Daehyun," Himchan reminds, ever the optimist.
"Jongup's going to be so disappointed," Yongguk states miserably, ignoring Himchan's attempt at comforting him. "He's not going to show it, but he is,"
Himchan gives him a stern look, moving to sit on the couch next to him. "He knows you're trying though," Himchan points out as he places a chin on Yongguk's shoulder, invading his personal space, hoping to get a smile out of his best friend. Yongguk looks at anywhere but Himchan, head turned to stare stubbornly at the wall to his left. Himchan smiles slightly at the man's attempt to ignore him.
Himchan pokes the man gently in the side and grins when it gets a reaction. "Besides, we'll find him sooner or later," Himchan continues and grins, lifting his chin off of Yongguk's shoulder when the older man turns to look at him.
"In the mean time," Himchan says, glancing at the invisible clock around his wrist before clapping resolutely. "I demand that you get some food in your system, young man." Teasingly, he wags a finger, imitating a strict mother but failing considerably because of the bright smile threatening to overtake his lips. Yongguk snorts at his effort.
Himchan hops up from his spot on the couch, and turns to Yongguk expectantly. "You're not moving," The younger points out, pointing at Yongguk's form, unmoving on the couch with no sign of even budging.
"Thanks for the report, Captain Obvious," Yongguk smirks.
Himchan smiles slyly in reply. "If you don't move, I'm going to have to use force,"
Yongguk rolls his eyes, exclaiming how the man didn't have the guts. Himchan retaliates by grabbing onto his feet and attempting to forcefully drag him off of the couch. Yongguk yelps at the sudden action.
"Okay, okay," He sighs, trying to pull out of Himchan's iron grip, complying after nearly falling off the couch cushion due to Himchan's incessant tugging. Himchan shouts in triumph, letting go of Yongguk's feet to lift a fist into the air in victory. Yongguk almost bursts out laughing at the man's dorkiness. "I just hope Daehyun hasn't eaten all the food yet,"
"I heard that," Daehyun shouts in protest from the kitchen, voice muffled by what Yongguk guesses is food.
Himchan snickers giddily, pointing an accusing finger at Yongguk before mockingly exclaiming, "Ooh, you got in trouble,"
Yongguk shoves him playfully to the ground with a suppressed smile.
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