not afraid to fall [chapter 5]
Title: not afraid to fall [chapter 5]
Author: ivoryroyale
Genre: supernatural, friendship, drama, suspense
Rating: PG
Summary: in which a group of six aren't afraid to stand tall because they have each other
Note: 3,434 words. Developing unrequited!Daehyun/Youngjae.
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[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 five
Junhong can't sleep.
He just keeps feeling Jongup's concern and fear for his brother digging painfully hard into his back and he can't even will his eyes to close.
Junhong moves to lay flat on his back on his bed and stares blankly at the ceiling. He doesn't get to feel it a lot - fear. He feels concern a lot because of Himchan who constantly feels it whenever Yongguk takes particularly long to get back from a "mission" or whenever Jongup trains too hard and ends up passing out or whenever Youngjae starts getting those suspicious migraines from using his ability too much or even whenever Junhong ends up running faster than he's used to and crashes, limbs hurting and ready to be sick.
But he never feels fear, in all its pure, violent glory.
Pure fear is a particular emotion that erupts unbelievably fast through someone's brain. It's raw and raucous and it's like an acid, eating and tearing its way to take over every limb in your body until everything else is numb and you could only feel anxiety coursing through your veins.
Junhong can feel it again, creeping up his spine as he thinks about Jongup's emotions, and he nullifies it away, closing his eyes and draining it until it's gone.
Rolling over onto his side, playing with the end of his blanket and sighing, Junhong thinks about Jongup and how the older boy had felt it, pure terror, burrowing deep into the forefront of his mind.
He wants to help him. He really does, but he hasn't learned yet how to nullify an emotion completely, and he doubts Jongup would feel grateful if he stuck twenty-four-seven by his side draining away buckets and buckets worth of his feelings.
He did that before, to someone, and succeeded in nothing but freaking them out.
But he has to do something.
He's going to do something.
And he doesn't care how reckless or frightening that something is.
Daehyun wakes up to someone jumping on his bed.
At first he wills it away as him dreaming things, go back to bed, Daehyun, he says to himself, but then he feels someone shaking his shoulder and shouting, "Daehyun hyung!" in his ear and he groans. "Wake up!"
Daehyun brings the pillow that he's laying on over his ears and smacks at wherever the voice is coming from. He really doesn't want to get up. It's the first time in a while since he's gotten a good night's rest and this bed is really comfortable with its soft pillows and clean blankets and soundless creaks as he moves on top of it. He never wants to get out of bed ever again.
But somewhere between his awareness slowly fading away and losing consciousness, he hears Youngjae huffing and it's not just a playful huffing, it's that I'm serious, if you don't get up I'm going to scream huffing and Daehyun is almost scared enough to roll out of bed. Almost.
'Almost', because, he's handled worse than an angry Youngjae. (Well, at least he hopes Youngjae wasn't that angry to be worse than a soldier.)
"Jongup," Youngjae calls, and Daehyun almost scoffs from his place curled underneath plain white sheets. Like Jongup could do anything, the boy couldn't even accidentally bump into a wall without countlessly apologizing. (Which he had done, yesterday, when they were done with dishes and he was too busy spacing out to realize he was walking straight for a wall.) So Daehyun winds himself further into the blanket and hums sleepily into his pillow, feeling rather content.
He ignores whatever Youngjae murmurs into a smiling Jongup's ears, even if he's a bit curious to hear what the two could possibly be whispering about in his room. (He silently revels, liking the sound of that - his room.
Not his cell.)
Then, all of a sudden, Daehyun feels like he's floating in the air like a cloud. At first, he furrows his eyebrows, wondering what kind of dream he's having, before shrugging thoughtless shoulders. He won't complain; the sensation is sort of nice.
That is, until his bed starts tilting forward and Daehyun feels like he's about to fall, slipping just a bit further down his mattress with each second that passes.
What, he thinks, opening his tired eyes slowly to see that he is, in fact, in the air. His ceiling is, literally, right in front of his face. "Holy crap!" He shouts, voice unmuffled because he likes to take off his mask before he goes to bed and oh, look there it is, right by his pen and post-it notes on his night stand, a good six or so feet away from him, on the ground. Scrambling to grip onto the headboard, Daehyun sits up on his bed, all tiredness forgotten completely due to the fact he was bound to fall, any second now.
"You awake now?" Youngjae smiles, and Daehyun finds it a little evil. He makes it a mental note never to make the genius angry. Then, he remembers Jongup and Youngjae calling him into the room and his fear dissipates into a slight, indifferent anger.
"Jongup, put me down," And he's surprised when he hears a sort of giggling-chuckle from beneath him that makes Daehyun's anger change to something else. He guesses it's peacefulness, but he's not sure. Maybe he could ask Junhong what it is, the boy's bound to know with all the emotions he feels each day.
Jongup lowers him down to the ground (gently, of course) and Daehyun scrambles off the bed, looking down at it like it'll somehow start flying, even if Jongup was the one that lifted it from the ground, without any trouble. Daehyun glares, (sort of. He's still tired and can't really tell if it's really a glare or him trying to see through the blurriness of his eyes that comes with just waking up), at the younger when he remembers he was the cause of his near death and almost opens his mouth to start going off on the boy about how that was completely uncalled for! before the younger does that little giggle-chuckle thing again and he feels guilty for even wanting to yell at the boy.
Youngjae thanks Jongup, suppressing a rather obvious, amused grin, before telling him to go get ready for school and to go wake up Junhong if Himchan hasn't yet. Daehyun watches groggily as the younger saunters out of the room, silently wondering how the hell can that kid have super strength. Youngjae tosses him some clothes Daehyun hadn't noticed the man was holding in his hands before, and he narrowly catches them, raising a silent eyebrow.
"Get dressed," Youngjae commands, looking entirely too proud of himself. "We're going shopping,"
By get dressed, Youngjae means, Daehyun realizes, that he has to change into the exact clothes that he picked out for him and he has to do it in less than five minutes or else Youngjae was going to leave his ass, he'll be downstairs if he needs him, and no, you can't wear the creepy black mask out in public, Daehyun hyung.
Daehyun hates shopping already.
Daehyun makes his way downstairs to find Youngjae, post-it notes stuffed precariously into the pocket of the black cardigan he is wearing. The black cloth dangles somewhere passed the waistline of Youngjae's baggy jeans and ends in fancy looking tassles that are fun to run your hands through. He scratches at the uncomfortable tag behind his back attached to the neck of Youngjae's white t-shirt and grumbles about how he wants his mask.
He feels unbearably naked without it.
Still scratching at his back, Daehyun peers into the kitchen to see Junhong, practically asleep in his cereal and Jongup sitting next to him on the table, smiling as he takes cheerful bites out of his own bowl of cereal, poured into a plastic green bowl. The boy's obviously a morning person, Daehyun thinks, and he wonders what it's like to be able to smile all the time.
He's a little jealous.
Jongup looks up at him, messy bedhead and all, and waves through a spoonful of grain, "Morning!"
Daehyun gives him this look that clearly says I'm still mad at you for holding me ten feet above the ground and nearly killing me as he wrestles the pen and sticky notes out of the cardigan pocket. He moves to sit at the table.
Where's Youngjae?
Jongup swallows the cereal bits in his mouth. "I dunno," He states oh-so-helpfully and Daehyun sighs, but isn't really surprised. "You can have breakfast while you wait though!" He exclaims, pointing his attention to the box of cereal sitting not too far away on the table.
Daehyun worries at his bottom lip. But Youngjae said he'd leave me if I wasn't downstairs in five minutes.
The words are foreign to Jongup, apparently, because the boy stares wordlessly at the words, going as far as mouthing them before he answers, "Oh, Youngjae hyung wouldn't do that. He just said that so you'd hurry up,"
Somehow, the information doesn't really make Daehyun feel any better. It just makes Daehyun want to march back upstairs and sleep in retaliation, but he's learned not to do that, to be obedient when given an order, and Youngjae told him to meet him downstairs so downstairs he shall stay. "You should really eat. Here, I'll pour you some cereal!" Jongup offers, standing up after stuffing another spoonful of cereal into his mouth before walking over to one of the cabinets.
Daehyun watches to make note of where the bowls are (third cabinet to the right, right next to the plates) and the spoons (first drawer, right in front of the kitchen sink) before he turns around in his seat to write a quick Thanks.
"Can you get me a bowl too, Jongup?" Daehyun hears come from the kitchen entryway and he turns to see Youngjae standing in the middle of the kitchen's entryway, fixing the creased sleeve of his jacket. "Do the clothes fit you nice?" Youngjae asks politely, making his way over to take a seat next to him.
Before he can scratch a curt yes into one of the post-its, Youngjae turns his attention to Junhong, sleeping in a cereal bowl, and his expression turns amused, then placid, then cross as he sighs and walks over to the other side of the table to shake the younger boy awake. Daehyun rips off the note and stuffs it somewhere in his pockets when Jongup comes up from behind him with two bowls, spoons, and milk balanced in one hand.
"What's that?" Jongup asks, referring to the note.
No comment.
"No comment?" Jongup pouts. That's a first, Daehyun thinks. He's always seen the boy smiling as of yet. "What's that supposed to mean?"
It means I have nothing to say about your question.
Now, the boy looks a little irritated, gently setting down the bowls onto the table and pouring cereal into both. "I know what it means-"
Daehyun sticks the post-it note saying his thanks for the cereal to Jongup's lip before he can say anything else.
Going shopping with Daehyun, Youngjae realizes that Daehyun is a lot like a child despite how mysterious looking he is.
He gets lost around the shops like a six year old and is constantly mesmerized by the little trinkets that some of the stores keep on display at the windows and he writes on his sticky notes Youngjae, what's this? and sticks them onto the items so that Youngjae knows which object he means. He constantly disappears at the most random of times and shows up again at even more abnormal intervals, tapping Youngjae on the shoulder and giving him mini heart attacks.
The boy is just so difficult despite the obvious fact that he's supposed to be older.
Two hours into browsing and they only manage to buy one thing: a small pack of balloons because, apparently, they looked cool or at least that's how Daehyun put it when he was pestering Youngjae to buy them.
Youngjae thinks they need a whole battle plan, just for shopping.
So Youngjae drags Daehyun over and away from a clothing store window where they have sparkling bracelets on display, buys him a pink pearl drink at a nearby drink station, and tells him to sit and drink while he plans out what they're going to buy.
"Can you hand me your post-its and pen, please?" Youngjae asks Daehyun who seems to be enjoying the drink because his eyes shine (rather adorably, Youngjae regrets thinking) when he gets a taste of it. The blonde shuffles through his pockets and gives the younger boy the paper and writing utensil, not once taking his mouth off the straw of his drink.
Youngjae brings up the mental list he made yesterday and separates it from necessities to luxuries, writing the items they're going to buy on one of Daehyun's post-it notes.
Necessities: clothes, toothbrush, shoes.
Luxuries: paint, and any knickknacks he decides to buy.
The list is small enough and Youngjae nods his head in approval. Although clothes will most likely be a hassle, a toothbrush, shoes and paint should, all together, be quick.
It's the knickknacks that he's worried about though.
"Daehyun hyung," Youngjae calls, head turning left and right, looking for the blonde boy. He'd lost him somewhere between the shirts and the pants in the men section of the clothing store. He literally has no idea where the older boy could be and he has a super brain for goodness sake. "Where the hell are you?"
No answer, so he just keeps looking, wandering through clean cotton and denim, soft silk and sequin. "Daehyun-" He turns around and suddenly lets out a yelp, causing the other customers in the store to stop and stare as Youngjae presses a hand against his mouth and chest, trying to regulate his heartbeat, beating rapidly in his chest.
"You!" He yells, pitch higher than it should be, sporting a sort of scowl-frown that could be mistaken for a pout. "I was looking everywhere for you!" He informs the blonde standing in front of him, looking utterly unfazed. "Where the hell were you?"
Daehyun sighs, a short breath escaping his chapped lips as he rummages through jean pockets that Youngjae aren't familiar with. He should be wearing Youngjae's pants, but he isn't, and it's quite obvious that he isn't because these ones fit him ten times better. Now that Youngjae looks at him, he's wearing an entirely different outfit, complete with shoes. How did that slip his vision? I was in the changing rooms. Daehyun's post-it note says.
Youngjae's about to ask what the hell were you doing in there? but then, he realizes that that's a stupid question.
Instead, Youngjae looks at Daehyun, clad in faded skinny jeans, fluorescent red shoes, and a long sleeved shirt with a series of multi-colored zigzags decorating the surface in a series of blues, purples, and yellows. At his side, he has a whole cart full of clothes and Youngjae almost laughs because they're nearly all fluorescent colors.
Well? Daehyun scratches onto a post-it. How do a I look? And he steps back, so Youngjae can take in the full of his outfit, spreading his arms out.
And Youngjae sort of wants to utter absolutely amazing but he bites his tongue.
"You look okay,"
Somewhere in between shopping for the toothbrush and looking through lines and lines of fluorescent paints for Daehyun's room, Youngjae takes a detour by the music store.
He's not a music buff or anything. He likes to dabble around with song lyrics in his head whenever he's bored and he whisper-sings songs in the privacy of his bedroom whenever he's working on homework, but that's about it for him and music, professional wise. Truthfully, Youngjae just really likes listening to the different genres and melodies and the lyrics that are sometimes even enough to stop his brain from thinking all the time.
He doesn't enjoy it when his ability takes actual effect and his brain is put into overdrive and his senses hurt along with his head, so he listens to music instead to keep the crazed storm in his head calm.
He's in the middle of one particular soul song where the artist screams their heart and soul into the lyrics, when he remembers Daehyun. The blonde rips the headphones off his ears and Youngjae is about to protest until he sees Daehyun actually listening to the music, eyes closed and mouth set into a straight line.
No one actually ever tries to get into what Youngjae's into because everyone thinks what he does is either nerdy or boring or a waste of time, so the genius is taken completely by surprise when Daehyun nods his head along with the music and his eyes shine bright with fascination.
"This sounds really, really good," Daehyun accidentally slips and Youngjae is absolutely mesmerized by the boy's voice.
And absolutely terrified of it as well.
It's three thirty in the afternoon when Daehyun and Youngjae crash through the house doors with bags full of clothes and trinkets and shoes and buckets of red, blue, and yellow fluorescent colors because Daehyun couldn't make up his mind. They decided to get a sky blue toothbrush for him because it's Youngjae's favorite color and if Daehyun chose, he probably would have bankrupted Youngjae who would consequently bankrupt Yongguk because that's where he gets all his money from.
Youngjae's laughing and smiling because he hasn't had that much fun in forever. He barely even registers the fact that Jongup's home, and on the couch with Himchan and Yongguk watching television.
"Did you guys buy out the whole store?" Himchan asks, tilting his head back to see the bags littering the living room floor and whistling after seeing the amount.
"Daehyun got pretty close to," Youngjae smiles and he doesn't even bother with the little tiny squirming he's feeling in his stomach. The feeling showed up sometime after the music store and sometime before fighting over which toothbrush to pick and he couldn't quite figure it out what it was, so he chose to just ignore it. "They were a pain to carry all the way home," Youngjae whines, lugging his share of the bags over to drop them near the couch, and Daehyun follows suit.
You should've been there, Jongup. You would've been a huge help. Daehyun writes, remembering this morning, where the boy carried his bed up without so much as a sweat.
The younger boy laughs, grinning from ear to ear. "Sorry I couldn't be there,"
And it's when Yongguk is looking through the bags of miscellaneous items and Himchan is teasing Daehyun mercilessly for the stuff he bought ("seriously, who the hell buys a bag at the mall?") when Youngjae notices Junhong's absense.
"Where's Junhong?"
Of course, Jongup knows where he is right away. "He came home early, because he was feeling sick. He's in his room resting," The younger boy stands up from his spot on the couch and leaves the room, saying as he steps up the stairs, "I'll go and check up on him,"
Youngjae nods, waving at him, before turning back to Himchan and Yongguk to show him the new pair of headphones that he bought. He tells the story about how they came across them in the music store and Daehyun writes commentary about little things Youngjae neglects to say ("you tripped over a stray CD on the ground and flipped headfirst into storage and asked if you could have them when you emerged from the wreckage and found them on your head").
It's two seconds later when Jongup tumbles down the stairs. "Um, guys..."
They don't hear him over the sound of their laughter and rustling bags, looking at shirts and shoes and exclaiming words about how you really shouldn't have bought this or you really should have bought me one of these.
"Guys!" Jongup reiterates, shouting, and that catches their attention. They stop smiling and their hands freeze where they're at because Jongup never shouts.
"What's wrong?" Daehyun accidentally asks, pen and paper forgotten in favor of hearing out the younger. Jongup's near tears, clutching tightly on the stair railing, knees shaking, and Himchan immediately gets up to run over and hug him tightly, pressing the boy's face into his chest and soothingly smoothing down his hair.
And then he says through choked sobs, muffled by Himchan's t-shirt:
"Guys, Junhong isn't in his room,"
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Previous | Next
Author: ivoryroyale
Genre: supernatural, friendship, drama, suspense
Rating: PG
Summary: in which a group of six aren't afraid to stand tall because they have each other
Note: 3,434 words. Developing unrequited!Daehyun/Youngjae.
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[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 five
Junhong can't sleep.
He just keeps feeling Jongup's concern and fear for his brother digging painfully hard into his back and he can't even will his eyes to close.
Junhong moves to lay flat on his back on his bed and stares blankly at the ceiling. He doesn't get to feel it a lot - fear. He feels concern a lot because of Himchan who constantly feels it whenever Yongguk takes particularly long to get back from a "mission" or whenever Jongup trains too hard and ends up passing out or whenever Youngjae starts getting those suspicious migraines from using his ability too much or even whenever Junhong ends up running faster than he's used to and crashes, limbs hurting and ready to be sick.
But he never feels fear, in all its pure, violent glory.
Pure fear is a particular emotion that erupts unbelievably fast through someone's brain. It's raw and raucous and it's like an acid, eating and tearing its way to take over every limb in your body until everything else is numb and you could only feel anxiety coursing through your veins.
Junhong can feel it again, creeping up his spine as he thinks about Jongup's emotions, and he nullifies it away, closing his eyes and draining it until it's gone.
Rolling over onto his side, playing with the end of his blanket and sighing, Junhong thinks about Jongup and how the older boy had felt it, pure terror, burrowing deep into the forefront of his mind.
He wants to help him. He really does, but he hasn't learned yet how to nullify an emotion completely, and he doubts Jongup would feel grateful if he stuck twenty-four-seven by his side draining away buckets and buckets worth of his feelings.
He did that before, to someone, and succeeded in nothing but freaking them out.
But he has to do something.
He's going to do something.
And he doesn't care how reckless or frightening that something is.
Daehyun wakes up to someone jumping on his bed.
At first he wills it away as him dreaming things, go back to bed, Daehyun, he says to himself, but then he feels someone shaking his shoulder and shouting, "Daehyun hyung!" in his ear and he groans. "Wake up!"
Daehyun brings the pillow that he's laying on over his ears and smacks at wherever the voice is coming from. He really doesn't want to get up. It's the first time in a while since he's gotten a good night's rest and this bed is really comfortable with its soft pillows and clean blankets and soundless creaks as he moves on top of it. He never wants to get out of bed ever again.
But somewhere between his awareness slowly fading away and losing consciousness, he hears Youngjae huffing and it's not just a playful huffing, it's that I'm serious, if you don't get up I'm going to scream huffing and Daehyun is almost scared enough to roll out of bed. Almost.
'Almost', because, he's handled worse than an angry Youngjae. (Well, at least he hopes Youngjae wasn't that angry to be worse than a soldier.)
"Jongup," Youngjae calls, and Daehyun almost scoffs from his place curled underneath plain white sheets. Like Jongup could do anything, the boy couldn't even accidentally bump into a wall without countlessly apologizing. (Which he had done, yesterday, when they were done with dishes and he was too busy spacing out to realize he was walking straight for a wall.) So Daehyun winds himself further into the blanket and hums sleepily into his pillow, feeling rather content.
He ignores whatever Youngjae murmurs into a smiling Jongup's ears, even if he's a bit curious to hear what the two could possibly be whispering about in his room. (He silently revels, liking the sound of that - his room.
Not his cell.)
Then, all of a sudden, Daehyun feels like he's floating in the air like a cloud. At first, he furrows his eyebrows, wondering what kind of dream he's having, before shrugging thoughtless shoulders. He won't complain; the sensation is sort of nice.
That is, until his bed starts tilting forward and Daehyun feels like he's about to fall, slipping just a bit further down his mattress with each second that passes.
What, he thinks, opening his tired eyes slowly to see that he is, in fact, in the air. His ceiling is, literally, right in front of his face. "Holy crap!" He shouts, voice unmuffled because he likes to take off his mask before he goes to bed and oh, look there it is, right by his pen and post-it notes on his night stand, a good six or so feet away from him, on the ground. Scrambling to grip onto the headboard, Daehyun sits up on his bed, all tiredness forgotten completely due to the fact he was bound to fall, any second now.
"You awake now?" Youngjae smiles, and Daehyun finds it a little evil. He makes it a mental note never to make the genius angry. Then, he remembers Jongup and Youngjae calling him into the room and his fear dissipates into a slight, indifferent anger.
"Jongup, put me down," And he's surprised when he hears a sort of giggling-chuckle from beneath him that makes Daehyun's anger change to something else. He guesses it's peacefulness, but he's not sure. Maybe he could ask Junhong what it is, the boy's bound to know with all the emotions he feels each day.
Jongup lowers him down to the ground (gently, of course) and Daehyun scrambles off the bed, looking down at it like it'll somehow start flying, even if Jongup was the one that lifted it from the ground, without any trouble. Daehyun glares, (sort of. He's still tired and can't really tell if it's really a glare or him trying to see through the blurriness of his eyes that comes with just waking up), at the younger when he remembers he was the cause of his near death and almost opens his mouth to start going off on the boy about how that was completely uncalled for! before the younger does that little giggle-chuckle thing again and he feels guilty for even wanting to yell at the boy.
Youngjae thanks Jongup, suppressing a rather obvious, amused grin, before telling him to go get ready for school and to go wake up Junhong if Himchan hasn't yet. Daehyun watches groggily as the younger saunters out of the room, silently wondering how the hell can that kid have super strength. Youngjae tosses him some clothes Daehyun hadn't noticed the man was holding in his hands before, and he narrowly catches them, raising a silent eyebrow.
"Get dressed," Youngjae commands, looking entirely too proud of himself. "We're going shopping,"
By get dressed, Youngjae means, Daehyun realizes, that he has to change into the exact clothes that he picked out for him and he has to do it in less than five minutes or else Youngjae was going to leave his ass, he'll be downstairs if he needs him, and no, you can't wear the creepy black mask out in public, Daehyun hyung.
Daehyun hates shopping already.
Daehyun makes his way downstairs to find Youngjae, post-it notes stuffed precariously into the pocket of the black cardigan he is wearing. The black cloth dangles somewhere passed the waistline of Youngjae's baggy jeans and ends in fancy looking tassles that are fun to run your hands through. He scratches at the uncomfortable tag behind his back attached to the neck of Youngjae's white t-shirt and grumbles about how he wants his mask.
He feels unbearably naked without it.
Still scratching at his back, Daehyun peers into the kitchen to see Junhong, practically asleep in his cereal and Jongup sitting next to him on the table, smiling as he takes cheerful bites out of his own bowl of cereal, poured into a plastic green bowl. The boy's obviously a morning person, Daehyun thinks, and he wonders what it's like to be able to smile all the time.
He's a little jealous.
Jongup looks up at him, messy bedhead and all, and waves through a spoonful of grain, "Morning!"
Daehyun gives him this look that clearly says I'm still mad at you for holding me ten feet above the ground and nearly killing me as he wrestles the pen and sticky notes out of the cardigan pocket. He moves to sit at the table.
Where's Youngjae?
Jongup swallows the cereal bits in his mouth. "I dunno," He states oh-so-helpfully and Daehyun sighs, but isn't really surprised. "You can have breakfast while you wait though!" He exclaims, pointing his attention to the box of cereal sitting not too far away on the table.
Daehyun worries at his bottom lip. But Youngjae said he'd leave me if I wasn't downstairs in five minutes.
The words are foreign to Jongup, apparently, because the boy stares wordlessly at the words, going as far as mouthing them before he answers, "Oh, Youngjae hyung wouldn't do that. He just said that so you'd hurry up,"
Somehow, the information doesn't really make Daehyun feel any better. It just makes Daehyun want to march back upstairs and sleep in retaliation, but he's learned not to do that, to be obedient when given an order, and Youngjae told him to meet him downstairs so downstairs he shall stay. "You should really eat. Here, I'll pour you some cereal!" Jongup offers, standing up after stuffing another spoonful of cereal into his mouth before walking over to one of the cabinets.
Daehyun watches to make note of where the bowls are (third cabinet to the right, right next to the plates) and the spoons (first drawer, right in front of the kitchen sink) before he turns around in his seat to write a quick Thanks.
"Can you get me a bowl too, Jongup?" Daehyun hears come from the kitchen entryway and he turns to see Youngjae standing in the middle of the kitchen's entryway, fixing the creased sleeve of his jacket. "Do the clothes fit you nice?" Youngjae asks politely, making his way over to take a seat next to him.
Before he can scratch a curt yes into one of the post-its, Youngjae turns his attention to Junhong, sleeping in a cereal bowl, and his expression turns amused, then placid, then cross as he sighs and walks over to the other side of the table to shake the younger boy awake. Daehyun rips off the note and stuffs it somewhere in his pockets when Jongup comes up from behind him with two bowls, spoons, and milk balanced in one hand.
"What's that?" Jongup asks, referring to the note.
No comment.
"No comment?" Jongup pouts. That's a first, Daehyun thinks. He's always seen the boy smiling as of yet. "What's that supposed to mean?"
It means I have nothing to say about your question.
Now, the boy looks a little irritated, gently setting down the bowls onto the table and pouring cereal into both. "I know what it means-"
Daehyun sticks the post-it note saying his thanks for the cereal to Jongup's lip before he can say anything else.
Going shopping with Daehyun, Youngjae realizes that Daehyun is a lot like a child despite how mysterious looking he is.
He gets lost around the shops like a six year old and is constantly mesmerized by the little trinkets that some of the stores keep on display at the windows and he writes on his sticky notes Youngjae, what's this? and sticks them onto the items so that Youngjae knows which object he means. He constantly disappears at the most random of times and shows up again at even more abnormal intervals, tapping Youngjae on the shoulder and giving him mini heart attacks.
The boy is just so difficult despite the obvious fact that he's supposed to be older.
Two hours into browsing and they only manage to buy one thing: a small pack of balloons because, apparently, they looked cool or at least that's how Daehyun put it when he was pestering Youngjae to buy them.
Youngjae thinks they need a whole battle plan, just for shopping.
So Youngjae drags Daehyun over and away from a clothing store window where they have sparkling bracelets on display, buys him a pink pearl drink at a nearby drink station, and tells him to sit and drink while he plans out what they're going to buy.
"Can you hand me your post-its and pen, please?" Youngjae asks Daehyun who seems to be enjoying the drink because his eyes shine (rather adorably, Youngjae regrets thinking) when he gets a taste of it. The blonde shuffles through his pockets and gives the younger boy the paper and writing utensil, not once taking his mouth off the straw of his drink.
Youngjae brings up the mental list he made yesterday and separates it from necessities to luxuries, writing the items they're going to buy on one of Daehyun's post-it notes.
Necessities: clothes, toothbrush, shoes.
Luxuries: paint, and any knickknacks he decides to buy.
The list is small enough and Youngjae nods his head in approval. Although clothes will most likely be a hassle, a toothbrush, shoes and paint should, all together, be quick.
It's the knickknacks that he's worried about though.
"Daehyun hyung," Youngjae calls, head turning left and right, looking for the blonde boy. He'd lost him somewhere between the shirts and the pants in the men section of the clothing store. He literally has no idea where the older boy could be and he has a super brain for goodness sake. "Where the hell are you?"
No answer, so he just keeps looking, wandering through clean cotton and denim, soft silk and sequin. "Daehyun-" He turns around and suddenly lets out a yelp, causing the other customers in the store to stop and stare as Youngjae presses a hand against his mouth and chest, trying to regulate his heartbeat, beating rapidly in his chest.
"You!" He yells, pitch higher than it should be, sporting a sort of scowl-frown that could be mistaken for a pout. "I was looking everywhere for you!" He informs the blonde standing in front of him, looking utterly unfazed. "Where the hell were you?"
Daehyun sighs, a short breath escaping his chapped lips as he rummages through jean pockets that Youngjae aren't familiar with. He should be wearing Youngjae's pants, but he isn't, and it's quite obvious that he isn't because these ones fit him ten times better. Now that Youngjae looks at him, he's wearing an entirely different outfit, complete with shoes. How did that slip his vision? I was in the changing rooms. Daehyun's post-it note says.
Youngjae's about to ask what the hell were you doing in there? but then, he realizes that that's a stupid question.
Instead, Youngjae looks at Daehyun, clad in faded skinny jeans, fluorescent red shoes, and a long sleeved shirt with a series of multi-colored zigzags decorating the surface in a series of blues, purples, and yellows. At his side, he has a whole cart full of clothes and Youngjae almost laughs because they're nearly all fluorescent colors.
Well? Daehyun scratches onto a post-it. How do a I look? And he steps back, so Youngjae can take in the full of his outfit, spreading his arms out.
And Youngjae sort of wants to utter absolutely amazing but he bites his tongue.
"You look okay,"
Somewhere in between shopping for the toothbrush and looking through lines and lines of fluorescent paints for Daehyun's room, Youngjae takes a detour by the music store.
He's not a music buff or anything. He likes to dabble around with song lyrics in his head whenever he's bored and he whisper-sings songs in the privacy of his bedroom whenever he's working on homework, but that's about it for him and music, professional wise. Truthfully, Youngjae just really likes listening to the different genres and melodies and the lyrics that are sometimes even enough to stop his brain from thinking all the time.
He doesn't enjoy it when his ability takes actual effect and his brain is put into overdrive and his senses hurt along with his head, so he listens to music instead to keep the crazed storm in his head calm.
He's in the middle of one particular soul song where the artist screams their heart and soul into the lyrics, when he remembers Daehyun. The blonde rips the headphones off his ears and Youngjae is about to protest until he sees Daehyun actually listening to the music, eyes closed and mouth set into a straight line.
No one actually ever tries to get into what Youngjae's into because everyone thinks what he does is either nerdy or boring or a waste of time, so the genius is taken completely by surprise when Daehyun nods his head along with the music and his eyes shine bright with fascination.
"This sounds really, really good," Daehyun accidentally slips and Youngjae is absolutely mesmerized by the boy's voice.
And absolutely terrified of it as well.
It's three thirty in the afternoon when Daehyun and Youngjae crash through the house doors with bags full of clothes and trinkets and shoes and buckets of red, blue, and yellow fluorescent colors because Daehyun couldn't make up his mind. They decided to get a sky blue toothbrush for him because it's Youngjae's favorite color and if Daehyun chose, he probably would have bankrupted Youngjae who would consequently bankrupt Yongguk because that's where he gets all his money from.
Youngjae's laughing and smiling because he hasn't had that much fun in forever. He barely even registers the fact that Jongup's home, and on the couch with Himchan and Yongguk watching television.
"Did you guys buy out the whole store?" Himchan asks, tilting his head back to see the bags littering the living room floor and whistling after seeing the amount.
"Daehyun got pretty close to," Youngjae smiles and he doesn't even bother with the little tiny squirming he's feeling in his stomach. The feeling showed up sometime after the music store and sometime before fighting over which toothbrush to pick and he couldn't quite figure it out what it was, so he chose to just ignore it. "They were a pain to carry all the way home," Youngjae whines, lugging his share of the bags over to drop them near the couch, and Daehyun follows suit.
You should've been there, Jongup. You would've been a huge help. Daehyun writes, remembering this morning, where the boy carried his bed up without so much as a sweat.
The younger boy laughs, grinning from ear to ear. "Sorry I couldn't be there,"
And it's when Yongguk is looking through the bags of miscellaneous items and Himchan is teasing Daehyun mercilessly for the stuff he bought ("seriously, who the hell buys a bag at the mall?") when Youngjae notices Junhong's absense.
"Where's Junhong?"
Of course, Jongup knows where he is right away. "He came home early, because he was feeling sick. He's in his room resting," The younger boy stands up from his spot on the couch and leaves the room, saying as he steps up the stairs, "I'll go and check up on him,"
Youngjae nods, waving at him, before turning back to Himchan and Yongguk to show him the new pair of headphones that he bought. He tells the story about how they came across them in the music store and Daehyun writes commentary about little things Youngjae neglects to say ("you tripped over a stray CD on the ground and flipped headfirst into storage and asked if you could have them when you emerged from the wreckage and found them on your head").
It's two seconds later when Jongup tumbles down the stairs. "Um, guys..."
They don't hear him over the sound of their laughter and rustling bags, looking at shirts and shoes and exclaiming words about how you really shouldn't have bought this or you really should have bought me one of these.
"Guys!" Jongup reiterates, shouting, and that catches their attention. They stop smiling and their hands freeze where they're at because Jongup never shouts.
"What's wrong?" Daehyun accidentally asks, pen and paper forgotten in favor of hearing out the younger. Jongup's near tears, clutching tightly on the stair railing, knees shaking, and Himchan immediately gets up to run over and hug him tightly, pressing the boy's face into his chest and soothingly smoothing down his hair.
And then he says through choked sobs, muffled by Himchan's t-shirt:
"Guys, Junhong isn't in his room,"
-----
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