Spirits and Sidewalks 1/7
TITLE Spirits and Sidewalks 1/7
SUMMARY Jonghyun's just an unfortunate kid. Kibum's just a lost spirit.
CHARACTERS/PAIRINGS [SHINee] Jonghyun/Key.
RATING/WARNING PG-13.
GENRE Fantasy/Romance
AN: This was originally my SBB entry but by the time I finished it it was closer to 20k than 10k and it just wouldn't have pieced together well without chapters, so I submitted something else for SBB. Since this is complete, I'll try to post a chapter every week or two-depending on how busy I am.
There's a playlist for this one too, of course. It's weird; not all of the song lyrics "match" the story... I just listened to this shit while I was writing keke. L' Homme aux Bras Ballants gets awesome at 1:53, just sayin'. I like waltzes a lot. The world needs more waltzes.
*fey = faery. Based from the more or less evil European faeries. Not that relevant, but yeah. On to the fic!
spirits and sidewalks;
"Just jump," Kibum was shouting, "Quickly!" He motioned for the other three to follow him across the tracks-it was a double bridge. Two twin railroads separated by mere feet, though the other rail was abandoned, wood most likely rotten soft-still safer than their current placement. They could make it; they had space to back up or go forward, but the train was fast approaching on deathly steel skates, and it was much nearer than it looked.
Kibum had met them all maybe an hour before. He'd successfully tricked them into following him, and now he had one thing left to do: get them to jump. In their state of fear, they'd likely die either way.
He saw the only boy in the group, angled face and dyed blond hair-the only one Kibum found even partially interesting-there was something about him-turn stricken eyes to him, but as soon as their gazes met, the fear was replaced by a narrow questioning-a knowledgeable suspicion. Kibum would be surprised if he had the time; instead he just turned a coy twist of a smile at the boy. The word "Quickly!" had just left his lips, and with a panicked will to survive, they had jumped.
Kibum stood on the other side unharmed as the train shuttered past, its iron screaming covering the sickening sound of meshing metal and bone. The wind had already oxidized the russet blood that sprayed before his face. He took one step back as he felt their deaths settle, licking his lips in a satisfied way and turning to leave. Yet he paused; something was not quite right.
As the train's final car passed, breaks shrieking in their delayed attempt to stop, Kibum caught sight of a figure still across the tracks. He had one elbow over the railing, feet swinging over the edge as they reached for purchase. Jonghyun was the boy's name, if Kibum remembered correctly. The blond pulled himself onto the track and crossed the rails with a shaky attempt at casualty, face set to indifference. Fascinating.
"What are you?" He asked deadpan, catching his breath.
"You didn't jump." Kibum ignored his query; his expression remained intent, sloe-eyed gaze direct and mischievous.
"Whatever spell you cast didn't work." Jonghyun replied loudly. "Answer me."
"I won't answer a question you already know." Kibum shot back with a steady, open grin. A wicked one. If Jonghyun demanded it of him, he'd have to tell-by rule, fey couldn't lie, they could only suggest. As the one person who had survived, Jonghyun held that tiny power over him.
"Did they dig up your tree or violate your river?" Jonghyun drawled in dry sarcasm, squatting to look at the tracks-there was nothing to see but distorted wood and rust.
Kibum sat next to him in front of the rails. "It's not like that anymore." He said with a loose sigh. "We live in two very different worlds."
Jonghyun gave him a deep, calculating look. Kibum wasn't sure how long they stared at each other, but it was clear to him that Jonghyun was trying to prove to himself that this was real and that he wasn't delusional.
"Aren't you afraid I'm going to eat you?" Kibum asked after awhile.
"You would have by now if you wanted to, wouldn't you?"
Kibum nodded, giving up a small chuckle. "Yeah."
"It's okay." Jonghyun shrugged. "I didn't like them much either."
Kibum wasn't sure what he meant by that-as if he needed any reassurance. Humans were ridiculous, trivial creatures. He hadn't realized he'd voiced it out loud until Jonghyun was replying defensively, "Naturally we are. And you just get to live forever, doing as you please?"
"Oh no," Kibum replied. "Only if I have souls to eat. And not forever."
"Do you have to kill them so violently?" Jonghyun asked, picking up a splintered sliver from the track and pushing rocks and dirt about in wriggly circles.
"They're best that way." Kibum offered him a lurid smile and Jonghyun laughed it away into the wind, voice stolen by the breeze. About a mile off the train had finally slid to a halt; he'd have to call the police soon, and this strange meeting would have to come to an end.
"So," Jonghyun said, "The story goes like this: I told them to jump from the bridge into the river, but they didn't jump in time, and I managed to jump between the two tracks."
"They wouldn't believe you if you told the truth anyway." Kibum gave him a disinterested look.
"Someone might." Jonghyun replied, standing and dusting off his pants. "Will you be here tomorrow?"
"Of course." Replied Kibum, adding playfully, "I live under the bridge."
"I'll stop by." Jonghyun didn't think when he said it, didn't really care either way.
This surprised Kibum. "How do you know I won't trick you?"
"I think we've established already that you can't." Chortled Jonghyun, unaffected. "Be in this exact spot, okay?"
Kibum wiped the spattered blood from his cheeks and smiled. It was sincere and strange to him, as was the human boy that stood inches away, blond hair tousled by the unrelenting wind. Kibum got to his own feet and stepped backwards off the tracks, disappearing before Jonghyun could race to the edge to see him fall; though his voice echoed right in the boy's ear.
"I'll be waiting."
Jonghyun was in the news against his will, only stating that he had told his friends to jump, but they hadn't. He refused to say more; nobody looked into it, nobody seemed to care. Many were speculating drug or alcohol abuse, and funerals were being arranged immediately in misplaced retaliation.
Jonghyun stood amongst it all as a lone sentinel, surrounded by people he knew, classmates, friend's family members. The sky was pleasantly cloudy and his Sunday best itched because it fit to well, and all he could think of was that fey; the one who had introduced himself as Kibum. Was that his real name? Jonghyun wondered, what did he really look like? He supposed it was part of Kibum's allure; something in Jonghyun knew he was insane for feeling nothing about the deaths of his friends, for facing their murderer.
"Hey," a voice called him from his thoughts. It was the class president, Lee Jinki. They had never spoken before, though he had known Jonghyun's friends as well. "Ceremony's starting."
Jinki sent him a weak smile that Jonghyun failed to return, walking with him over to the desolate row of chairs. In the front, the families of the deceased stood with repressed sobs and somber faces. Behind them, Jonghyun and Jinki sat. It did not feel particularly awkward, the silence between them, but Jonghyun knew Jinki was dying to ask him something. After the blond's insistent, "What? Just ask me." Jinki blushed slightly and stuttered a hasty response.
"Do you-" he began, "-really think it was an accident?"
"What are you saying?" Jonghyun shot back immediately. "Of course it was."
"I don't think it was." Jinki replied gravely, a frown marring his gentle features.
"You weren't there."
"But I knew them too." Jinki pressed. "Suicide-was it suicide?"
Jonghyun resisted the urge to laugh bitterly in Jinki's face. In an ironic way, it sort of had been. "No." He said. "No," he added again, softer, because he felt the need to.
Jinki stared at him for an uncomfortable few seconds before looking away without another word. The funeral progressed and they parted, and Jonghyun felt even more ostracized than before. Phrases like "Poor boy, must be traumatized", "How awful for him", and "Does he blame himself?" echoed in the air. He left-it was the only thing he could do to keep his sanity in check.
The wind was biting and cold as Jonghyun walked along the tracks. There was still police-tape fencing the area, but he ignored the cautions, ducking under the strung plastic with his hands tucked in his pockets, out of the chilled air. Strolling out onto the bridge, he was oddly glad to see that Kibum was there at all-he hadn't had his hopes up.
"You're earlier than I expected." The fey said by way of greeting. His black coat billowed un-buttoned behind him as smoke plumed from his lips; a long, intricately designed tobacco pipe nestled between two pale, impeccably angled fingers. To Jonghyun it looked like the perfect balance between a science fiction scene and an image from some mysterious book. He wanted to laugh. Instead, he found himself asking the same thing as before, only more in wonderment, more enchanted.
"What are you really?" He said, stopping to stand directly in front of Kibum. Several feet of nippy, strange weather separated them, but Jonghyun could easily feel the shamelessness in the fey's smile. "I did research." He added, almost as a threat. He crossed the tracks to sit beside Kibum, mirroring yesterday. "You can't lie, can you?"
Kibum tipped a shoulder carelessly, tapping the burnt herbs from his pipe onto the firm dirt between them. "It hardly matters when it's very easy to not lie and do lying justice several times over."
Jonghyun scoffed at him, fingers poking at the charred, dried leaves. "Is that really necessary?"
"When masquerading as a human, quite." Kibum said charmingly.
A long silence fluttered between them on frore wings, fighting the press of the sun's warm hands against Jonghyun's back. Jonghyun welcomed it much more than the stressing, anxious voices of society-of his life.
"You can't do this all the time," Jonghyun spoke up when the sky blackened further, perhaps curtailing rain.
"This place is said to be haunted." Kibum said in wayward response. "It's said to be bad luck."
"But you?" Jonghyun replied, open-ended. He wasn't sure what his question was.
"There's a reason I've come to this-place." Kibum turned dark, glassy eyes to Jonghyun, narrowed and scathingly innocent in appearance-Jonghyun found he could hardly look away; his phone was his distraction as it vibed in his pocket, a call back to reality.
"Will you tell me?" He asked, getting to his feet.
"Sure, I'll tell you." Grinned Kibum. "Don't bother coming tomorrow, I'll come to you."
Jonghyun opened his mouth to reply but Kibum had a finger to his lips and was pointing at Jonghyun's phone. The blond answered, heading back towards the edges of the bridge-back into the city.
"Where are you?" The voice asked in unmasked annoyance-Minho.
"Where do you think? I'm on my way back."
"Don't bother." Said Minho. "Everyone's already leaving." There was a pause on the line and Jonghyun was about to hang up, but Minho went on. "You're lucky to be alive."
"I guess." Jonghyun said. "The world tends to work like that."
Minho snorted. "I guess it does. Will you be in class tomorrow?"
"Unfortunately." Jonghyun replied, hanging up after he declined Minho's offer to join the archery club for the umpteenth time. When he turned back with thoughts of asking Kibum what he had meant, the fey was already gone. The tracks were an empty stretch across the slate river.
Class "tomorrow" had left Jonghyun in a state of mental disarray. They had a transfer student, he was tall and beautiful, and his name was Kim Kibum. The fey was smiling at him from across the room and it felt completely private, like the gesture was meant for his eyes exclusively. Only the excited murmuring throughout the classroom reminded Jonghyun that he was in school, with other students.
And they had no idea. The story of the school had its culprit among them and they'd never know. It was then Jonghyun decided he had to figure Kibum out. He had to know exactly who he was and why he was and what he was, without any of the fey's suggestions or weird, capricious smiles.
When lunch rolled around, Kibum was instantly surrounded by people-humans, Jonghyun noted-that the fey effortlessly befriended with facile charm. It settled unevenly with Jonghyun, who was left to himself with nothing but the wary glances he was all-too quickly becoming accustomed to. He wanted to retire to the roof, but Jinki slid into the currently empty desk nearby, stopping him.
"It's strange, isn't it?" The class president asked. "How everyone's so enamored by him."
"And you're observation skills," Jonghyun replied in the same tone with the same pause, caustic, "Are uncanny."
Jinki just laughed the insult away. "How are you?"
"I'm fine."
"You can't be."
Jonghyun turned the most unfriendly look he could muster to Jinki; it was more of a pathetic frown. "Am I heartless if I don't feel that upset?"
Jinki blinked at him, holding out an individually wrapped bread bun. "Most likely." He said without hesitation. "Or something's up."
"You're still on about that?"
"I have this feeling." Jinki replied eagerly, "That it's just not right."
Jonghyun chose silence in response, taking the offered food without thanks.
"The thing is," Jinki went on despite Jonghyun's clear signals that he didn't want him to. "The thing is, I want to be your friend."
Jonghyun hadn't seen that one coming at all, and he hadn't expected it to hit him as hard as it did. He felt jittery all of the sudden, and odd. His voice came out quieter than he wanted. "Why?" He asked. "I never bothered to talk to you before."
"Why not?" Jinki smiled at him. "It's never too late to start."
Jonghyun pouted up at him. "Okay, I guess." he said. "And sorry."
"Sorry?"
"For being an ass." Jonghyun replied, throwing the plastic wrapper at Jinki.
Friend. Friends. The word already sounded foreign to him, almost ancient-like an old, untouched ancestry. Jonghyun failed to see Kibum's pristine gaze on him, observing with a mute expression the emotions swirling about his face.
The players were set, the human; the fey; the sacrifice-now the game would begin.
♥ | next
AN: Tobacco pipe -- They were originally used for opium, sure. I own this exact pipe! It really does break into three parts, for cleaning purposes I assume. It's sort of heavy. It's sexy. I remember I bought it to cosplay Yuuko from xXxHOLiC... I never did. Kekeke
I talk to much, but,
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING!
This fic was purely inspired from a true local story about three girls who were hit by a train downtown, and there was one boy who survived. It just kept going from there. Many elements are drawn from Korean mythology, European mythology, and my crazy misconceptions of life (oh, and Holly Black).
One; Two; Three; Four;
Pictures of the tracks that inspired this fic (Yes, I took them :D). Although I must note that the train tracks in SASW are higher and the bridge is longer, as it extends over a river, not a creek or what have you. :3
I AM SO TIRED. BYE. Sorry for any typos. ):
SUMMARY Jonghyun's just an unfortunate kid. Kibum's just a lost spirit.
CHARACTERS/PAIRINGS [SHINee] Jonghyun/Key.
RATING/WARNING PG-13.
GENRE Fantasy/Romance
AN: This was originally my SBB entry but by the time I finished it it was closer to 20k than 10k and it just wouldn't have pieced together well without chapters, so I submitted something else for SBB. Since this is complete, I'll try to post a chapter every week or two-depending on how busy I am.
There's a playlist for this one too, of course. It's weird; not all of the song lyrics "match" the story... I just listened to this shit while I was writing keke. L' Homme aux Bras Ballants gets awesome at 1:53, just sayin'. I like waltzes a lot. The world needs more waltzes.
*fey = faery. Based from the more or less evil European faeries. Not that relevant, but yeah. On to the fic!
spirits and sidewalks;
"Just jump," Kibum was shouting, "Quickly!" He motioned for the other three to follow him across the tracks-it was a double bridge. Two twin railroads separated by mere feet, though the other rail was abandoned, wood most likely rotten soft-still safer than their current placement. They could make it; they had space to back up or go forward, but the train was fast approaching on deathly steel skates, and it was much nearer than it looked.
Kibum had met them all maybe an hour before. He'd successfully tricked them into following him, and now he had one thing left to do: get them to jump. In their state of fear, they'd likely die either way.
He saw the only boy in the group, angled face and dyed blond hair-the only one Kibum found even partially interesting-there was something about him-turn stricken eyes to him, but as soon as their gazes met, the fear was replaced by a narrow questioning-a knowledgeable suspicion. Kibum would be surprised if he had the time; instead he just turned a coy twist of a smile at the boy. The word "Quickly!" had just left his lips, and with a panicked will to survive, they had jumped.
Kibum stood on the other side unharmed as the train shuttered past, its iron screaming covering the sickening sound of meshing metal and bone. The wind had already oxidized the russet blood that sprayed before his face. He took one step back as he felt their deaths settle, licking his lips in a satisfied way and turning to leave. Yet he paused; something was not quite right.
As the train's final car passed, breaks shrieking in their delayed attempt to stop, Kibum caught sight of a figure still across the tracks. He had one elbow over the railing, feet swinging over the edge as they reached for purchase. Jonghyun was the boy's name, if Kibum remembered correctly. The blond pulled himself onto the track and crossed the rails with a shaky attempt at casualty, face set to indifference. Fascinating.
"What are you?" He asked deadpan, catching his breath.
"You didn't jump." Kibum ignored his query; his expression remained intent, sloe-eyed gaze direct and mischievous.
"Whatever spell you cast didn't work." Jonghyun replied loudly. "Answer me."
"I won't answer a question you already know." Kibum shot back with a steady, open grin. A wicked one. If Jonghyun demanded it of him, he'd have to tell-by rule, fey couldn't lie, they could only suggest. As the one person who had survived, Jonghyun held that tiny power over him.
"Did they dig up your tree or violate your river?" Jonghyun drawled in dry sarcasm, squatting to look at the tracks-there was nothing to see but distorted wood and rust.
Kibum sat next to him in front of the rails. "It's not like that anymore." He said with a loose sigh. "We live in two very different worlds."
Jonghyun gave him a deep, calculating look. Kibum wasn't sure how long they stared at each other, but it was clear to him that Jonghyun was trying to prove to himself that this was real and that he wasn't delusional.
"Aren't you afraid I'm going to eat you?" Kibum asked after awhile.
"You would have by now if you wanted to, wouldn't you?"
Kibum nodded, giving up a small chuckle. "Yeah."
"It's okay." Jonghyun shrugged. "I didn't like them much either."
Kibum wasn't sure what he meant by that-as if he needed any reassurance. Humans were ridiculous, trivial creatures. He hadn't realized he'd voiced it out loud until Jonghyun was replying defensively, "Naturally we are. And you just get to live forever, doing as you please?"
"Oh no," Kibum replied. "Only if I have souls to eat. And not forever."
"Do you have to kill them so violently?" Jonghyun asked, picking up a splintered sliver from the track and pushing rocks and dirt about in wriggly circles.
"They're best that way." Kibum offered him a lurid smile and Jonghyun laughed it away into the wind, voice stolen by the breeze. About a mile off the train had finally slid to a halt; he'd have to call the police soon, and this strange meeting would have to come to an end.
"So," Jonghyun said, "The story goes like this: I told them to jump from the bridge into the river, but they didn't jump in time, and I managed to jump between the two tracks."
"They wouldn't believe you if you told the truth anyway." Kibum gave him a disinterested look.
"Someone might." Jonghyun replied, standing and dusting off his pants. "Will you be here tomorrow?"
"Of course." Replied Kibum, adding playfully, "I live under the bridge."
"I'll stop by." Jonghyun didn't think when he said it, didn't really care either way.
This surprised Kibum. "How do you know I won't trick you?"
"I think we've established already that you can't." Chortled Jonghyun, unaffected. "Be in this exact spot, okay?"
Kibum wiped the spattered blood from his cheeks and smiled. It was sincere and strange to him, as was the human boy that stood inches away, blond hair tousled by the unrelenting wind. Kibum got to his own feet and stepped backwards off the tracks, disappearing before Jonghyun could race to the edge to see him fall; though his voice echoed right in the boy's ear.
"I'll be waiting."
Jonghyun was in the news against his will, only stating that he had told his friends to jump, but they hadn't. He refused to say more; nobody looked into it, nobody seemed to care. Many were speculating drug or alcohol abuse, and funerals were being arranged immediately in misplaced retaliation.
Jonghyun stood amongst it all as a lone sentinel, surrounded by people he knew, classmates, friend's family members. The sky was pleasantly cloudy and his Sunday best itched because it fit to well, and all he could think of was that fey; the one who had introduced himself as Kibum. Was that his real name? Jonghyun wondered, what did he really look like? He supposed it was part of Kibum's allure; something in Jonghyun knew he was insane for feeling nothing about the deaths of his friends, for facing their murderer.
"Hey," a voice called him from his thoughts. It was the class president, Lee Jinki. They had never spoken before, though he had known Jonghyun's friends as well. "Ceremony's starting."
Jinki sent him a weak smile that Jonghyun failed to return, walking with him over to the desolate row of chairs. In the front, the families of the deceased stood with repressed sobs and somber faces. Behind them, Jonghyun and Jinki sat. It did not feel particularly awkward, the silence between them, but Jonghyun knew Jinki was dying to ask him something. After the blond's insistent, "What? Just ask me." Jinki blushed slightly and stuttered a hasty response.
"Do you-" he began, "-really think it was an accident?"
"What are you saying?" Jonghyun shot back immediately. "Of course it was."
"I don't think it was." Jinki replied gravely, a frown marring his gentle features.
"You weren't there."
"But I knew them too." Jinki pressed. "Suicide-was it suicide?"
Jonghyun resisted the urge to laugh bitterly in Jinki's face. In an ironic way, it sort of had been. "No." He said. "No," he added again, softer, because he felt the need to.
Jinki stared at him for an uncomfortable few seconds before looking away without another word. The funeral progressed and they parted, and Jonghyun felt even more ostracized than before. Phrases like "Poor boy, must be traumatized", "How awful for him", and "Does he blame himself?" echoed in the air. He left-it was the only thing he could do to keep his sanity in check.
The wind was biting and cold as Jonghyun walked along the tracks. There was still police-tape fencing the area, but he ignored the cautions, ducking under the strung plastic with his hands tucked in his pockets, out of the chilled air. Strolling out onto the bridge, he was oddly glad to see that Kibum was there at all-he hadn't had his hopes up.
"You're earlier than I expected." The fey said by way of greeting. His black coat billowed un-buttoned behind him as smoke plumed from his lips; a long, intricately designed tobacco pipe nestled between two pale, impeccably angled fingers. To Jonghyun it looked like the perfect balance between a science fiction scene and an image from some mysterious book. He wanted to laugh. Instead, he found himself asking the same thing as before, only more in wonderment, more enchanted.
"What are you really?" He said, stopping to stand directly in front of Kibum. Several feet of nippy, strange weather separated them, but Jonghyun could easily feel the shamelessness in the fey's smile. "I did research." He added, almost as a threat. He crossed the tracks to sit beside Kibum, mirroring yesterday. "You can't lie, can you?"
Kibum tipped a shoulder carelessly, tapping the burnt herbs from his pipe onto the firm dirt between them. "It hardly matters when it's very easy to not lie and do lying justice several times over."
Jonghyun scoffed at him, fingers poking at the charred, dried leaves. "Is that really necessary?"
"When masquerading as a human, quite." Kibum said charmingly.
A long silence fluttered between them on frore wings, fighting the press of the sun's warm hands against Jonghyun's back. Jonghyun welcomed it much more than the stressing, anxious voices of society-of his life.
"You can't do this all the time," Jonghyun spoke up when the sky blackened further, perhaps curtailing rain.
"This place is said to be haunted." Kibum said in wayward response. "It's said to be bad luck."
"But you?" Jonghyun replied, open-ended. He wasn't sure what his question was.
"There's a reason I've come to this-place." Kibum turned dark, glassy eyes to Jonghyun, narrowed and scathingly innocent in appearance-Jonghyun found he could hardly look away; his phone was his distraction as it vibed in his pocket, a call back to reality.
"Will you tell me?" He asked, getting to his feet.
"Sure, I'll tell you." Grinned Kibum. "Don't bother coming tomorrow, I'll come to you."
Jonghyun opened his mouth to reply but Kibum had a finger to his lips and was pointing at Jonghyun's phone. The blond answered, heading back towards the edges of the bridge-back into the city.
"Where are you?" The voice asked in unmasked annoyance-Minho.
"Where do you think? I'm on my way back."
"Don't bother." Said Minho. "Everyone's already leaving." There was a pause on the line and Jonghyun was about to hang up, but Minho went on. "You're lucky to be alive."
"I guess." Jonghyun said. "The world tends to work like that."
Minho snorted. "I guess it does. Will you be in class tomorrow?"
"Unfortunately." Jonghyun replied, hanging up after he declined Minho's offer to join the archery club for the umpteenth time. When he turned back with thoughts of asking Kibum what he had meant, the fey was already gone. The tracks were an empty stretch across the slate river.
Class "tomorrow" had left Jonghyun in a state of mental disarray. They had a transfer student, he was tall and beautiful, and his name was Kim Kibum. The fey was smiling at him from across the room and it felt completely private, like the gesture was meant for his eyes exclusively. Only the excited murmuring throughout the classroom reminded Jonghyun that he was in school, with other students.
And they had no idea. The story of the school had its culprit among them and they'd never know. It was then Jonghyun decided he had to figure Kibum out. He had to know exactly who he was and why he was and what he was, without any of the fey's suggestions or weird, capricious smiles.
When lunch rolled around, Kibum was instantly surrounded by people-humans, Jonghyun noted-that the fey effortlessly befriended with facile charm. It settled unevenly with Jonghyun, who was left to himself with nothing but the wary glances he was all-too quickly becoming accustomed to. He wanted to retire to the roof, but Jinki slid into the currently empty desk nearby, stopping him.
"It's strange, isn't it?" The class president asked. "How everyone's so enamored by him."
"And you're observation skills," Jonghyun replied in the same tone with the same pause, caustic, "Are uncanny."
Jinki just laughed the insult away. "How are you?"
"I'm fine."
"You can't be."
Jonghyun turned the most unfriendly look he could muster to Jinki; it was more of a pathetic frown. "Am I heartless if I don't feel that upset?"
Jinki blinked at him, holding out an individually wrapped bread bun. "Most likely." He said without hesitation. "Or something's up."
"You're still on about that?"
"I have this feeling." Jinki replied eagerly, "That it's just not right."
Jonghyun chose silence in response, taking the offered food without thanks.
"The thing is," Jinki went on despite Jonghyun's clear signals that he didn't want him to. "The thing is, I want to be your friend."
Jonghyun hadn't seen that one coming at all, and he hadn't expected it to hit him as hard as it did. He felt jittery all of the sudden, and odd. His voice came out quieter than he wanted. "Why?" He asked. "I never bothered to talk to you before."
"Why not?" Jinki smiled at him. "It's never too late to start."
Jonghyun pouted up at him. "Okay, I guess." he said. "And sorry."
"Sorry?"
"For being an ass." Jonghyun replied, throwing the plastic wrapper at Jinki.
Friend. Friends. The word already sounded foreign to him, almost ancient-like an old, untouched ancestry. Jonghyun failed to see Kibum's pristine gaze on him, observing with a mute expression the emotions swirling about his face.
The players were set, the human; the fey; the sacrifice-now the game would begin.
♥ | next
AN: Tobacco pipe -- They were originally used for opium, sure. I own this exact pipe! It really does break into three parts, for cleaning purposes I assume. It's sort of heavy. It's sexy. I remember I bought it to cosplay Yuuko from xXxHOLiC... I never did. Kekeke
I talk to much, but,
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING!
This fic was purely inspired from a true local story about three girls who were hit by a train downtown, and there was one boy who survived. It just kept going from there. Many elements are drawn from Korean mythology, European mythology, and my crazy misconceptions of life (oh, and Holly Black).
One; Two; Three; Four;
Pictures of the tracks that inspired this fic (Yes, I took them :D). Although I must note that the train tracks in SASW are higher and the bridge is longer, as it extends over a river, not a creek or what have you. :3
I AM SO TIRED. BYE. Sorry for any typos. ):