Cruel Favour (1/2)
Title: Cruel Favour
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Jongyu (Jonghyun/Jinki), side!2minkey (Minho/Taemin/Kibum)
Genre: Angst, AU, Horror, Paranormal, Psychological, Romance
Disclaimer: As you can see, these people belong to me. That rhyme was as unintentional as it was true.
Summary: Smile, please smile, you're prettiest when smiling, Cry? Am I crying? I'll wipe those tears, and you have a lost expression. You stiffen, I bring my knees to the floor, and ask you what you did wrong.
Warnings: Violence/Murder, Blood/Gore, Rape (Implied), Language, Paranormal
◎♡◎♡◎
A four year old boy ran across the children's play room stopping when he was a couple steps away from another boy not much older than him - not that he knew that, or cared.
“Hey you! You're Jinki right?” Looks right at the boy who was tying his shoes.
“Y-yeah, why?” The other looks up.
“I want you to play with me!” He was hovering over him now.
“M-me? Why?” The boy with the bunny teeth pointed at himself, completely confused.
“I don't wanna play with Kibum any more! He keeps making me be the daddy cause he wants to hit me on my head!” The boy rubbed his head dramatically before he pulled the other up.
“Wah! O-okay...” Confused, he was confused. This boy never really asked to play with him before, just kept looking at him all the time. He was a little excited, though the other boy was a bit rough, at least he reminded him a little of a puppy, and puppies were nice.
That was how they first met, as two little four year old kids that played with each other that once because one of them decided they would play together on a whim, and they ended up playing together everyday after that first time.
And they are still together.
◎♡◎♡◎
Jonghyun treasured - loved - the time he spent with Jinki. No matter how insignificant the moment seemed, whether is was them sitting on the highest branch of some huge tree or Jinki almost falling off the branch, Jonghyun would make every effort to ingrain it's memory into his mind. Jinki did too, he knew it, because they would always talk about those happenings while laughing and smiling and gazing at each other moments longer than necessary.
It was no mystery, it was something everyone in their small town knew - word travels fast thanks to a few friends - Jonghyun loved Jinki, no, he loves Jinki, he's loved that fragile boy ever since they were both eight years old and he saved Jinki from falling off the edge of a very dangerous cliff into the merciless boulders that hadn't been allowed to claim a life for who knows how long. He had gripped his best friend's hand tightly - so tight that upon retrospect he wonders how the circulation of blood was not cut off in both their hands - and he strained his body to pull the other boy up enough so that he could grab onto the craggy edge of the cliff to help himself up. Jonghyun had pulled Jinki all the way over the edge of the cliff as he didn't realize Jinki was pulling himself up and both boys went reeling away from the edge of the cliff towards safer grounds.
Jonghyun fell onto lime-green grass and Jinki fell onto Jonghyun. Jonghyun only noticed that his arms were wrapped tightly around Jinki's waist when the elder tried to get off of Jonghyun, only to reconnect forcefully with the other's chest. Jinki didn't struggle much when he realized Jonghyun was holding him down, he just looked at Jonghyun with misty eyes before smiling at him and thanking him as much as he could before Jonghyun pulled him down for a better hug. Jonghyun... had never felt fear grip him as tightly as it did that day - he felt as though he was going to lose the most important person in his life when he saw Jinki slip off the edge, and the look of pure terror he saw on Jinki's face had caused his heart stop to beating, his brain to stop functioning and he just ran - and Jonghyun had never been so powerless in controlling what is body did as he couldn't bring himself to let Jinki go that day.
But even if Jonghyun loves Jinki, Jonghyun would never make a move on him - not until Jinki indicated that it was alright. Jonghyun did confess his feelings for the other but he didn't demand a relationship with Jinki, he had decided to give the other time and they both knew why. The reason was simple. It was something Jinki had confessed to Jonghyun when they were eleven. That day as he looked up to the evening painted sky, closely studying the few stars that had already began to peek down at them from the heavens, Jonghyun had consciously sworn that he would do anything to protect Jinki - whether that was overkill or not, Jonghyun couldn't care less.
“J-Jonghyun ah, I... I want to tell you something...” The boy was looking down at his hands and tangling his fingers together before slowly pulling them apart - a nervous habit that Jonghyun had learnt to identify. Why was he so nervous?
“Jinki ah... what is it?” The honorific 'hyung' was something Jonghyun never used to address Jinki, they were really close so he didn't need to use it, right? He never cared for honorifics anyway. Jonghyun patiently watched the older male from his spot at the base of their tree - a large, shady tree full of viridian leaves that he and Jinki always came to play at, when they were kids and even now.
“I- w-well, it's about, you know... that thing called... 'love'.” Jinki made quotation marks with his fingers and Jonghyun nodded, he wanted to laugh a little though, the gesture was too adorable at this point because Jinki was being serious. Jinki was quiet for a while and Jonghyun studied him intently. “I...” he paused, swallowing a mouthful of air before continuing, “I think... I'm... scared of..!” When Jinki had looked up to Jonghyun from his hands Jonghyun was a little confused - and worried. Jinki was crying, he cheeks and nose had begun turning red as tears flowed down his cheeks and he brought his hands to his face to wipe the tears with his sleeves and hide his face.
Jonghyun reacted without thinking and he hugged Jinki who buried his face into his chest as he lightly gripped the fabric, he began to cry more freely. Afraid of love? Jonghyun could understand it because he was afraid of love as well. He was afraid of losing people who were important to him, it would hurt so much. He figured Jinki must have been feeling similar conflict. He felt a little relieved that someone could understand what he felt, even if it was barely. And then, Jonghyun felt a warm liquid slide down his cheeks. He was crying. Jinki noticed the change in the pattern of Jonghyun's breathing and he looked up.
And he gave Jonghyun an understanding smile. Jinki wiped Jonghyun's tears away carefully and Jonghyun cupped the other's face, placing his thumbs on Jinki's tears and gently wiping the liquid away while slowly drawing circles with the pads of his thumbs on Jinki's face. That day they had stayed underneath that tree holding each other and reassuring the other that everything would be fine before they joked around a bit and eventually fell asleep.
The next morning when they went to Jinki's home they were scolded by their mothers who had worried and waited at Jinki's house for them to return, but even while being scolded and sneaking glances at each other, the knowledge that they handled their little apprehensions together, they felt as if they could conquer the world - no matter how small that little problem seemed to the world.
“Here's not so sad any more, Jonghyun ah,” Jinki smiled as he pointed to his chest - his heart. Jonghyun grinned and put his hand over Jinki's and pressing it to the older boy's chest before saying,
“Soon, I'll make it all better!”
◎♡◎♡◎
Jonghyun and Jinki, they would always refer to that time as the one in which 'they were the world's biggest crybabies' while laughing, maybe at that point they were, but who was going to tell?
Jonghyun was currently lying on his bed, tracing patterns with his eyes into ceiling. He considered everything that had happened in his life up until now a work of art - or more like a miracle. It was all perfect, Jonghyun thought with a smile.
Well, was being the operative word. Jonghyun raised his right hand, palm facing the ceiling and he looked at his hand closely, before looking at the ceiling and then back to his hand. Recently, things have been weird, not between him and Jinki but with things in general. People have been dying, all who were apparently in some sort of romantic relationship... and others have been killing and having no memory of how it happened, or of it at all. The victims of the latter case were far and few but because of how bizarre it is, the case attracted a large amount of attention. The case of the 'couple murder', as people nicknamed it, however was far worse and more heinous than the latter case. There were many murders in that case, all across Asia and it has been happening for six years now. Jonghyun had no idea what was up with that case but he was damn sure he didn't want to find out. The other case with the fewer murders, he knew a little about. His sister told him that one of her friends had experienced it, that it's a syndrome, caused by a parasite, or something like that. Jonghyun - though he had his doubts about what he was being told - had been curious, he asked what was so special about the parasite or the host, why it chose who it chose, did what it did.
“I don't know why, maybe it just chooses randomly. But... maybe there is a pattern amongst those who were hosts.”
“What do you mean by 'those who were hosts'? Don't they still have the parasite?”
“That's one of the weird things, it's like the parasite just feeds off of a person once, or more like feeds off whoever it made the person kill, or maybe it doesn't feed at all cause usually the host is just fine; but then - this is the really strange thing about it - it just leaves the person after and that person usually has no idea that they committed murder!”
“Then how do they know that they were possessed?”
“It's not possession, Jonghyun ah.”
“Whatever- noona, just tell me!”
“There's usually a witness, or someone who is usually with the host. Apparently there are symptoms that occur before the murder.”
“Symptoms?”
“Yeah, like the person begins to have nightmares, like being killed by whoever the parasite is targeting or other strange things; they slowly begin to get sick, really weak and pale probably because of lack of sleep, they begin seeing hallucinations and eventually the parasite will take control of the person's body.”
“How do they know when the parasite takes control?” Jonghyun's voice wavered, he was becoming a little frightened now. Just a little.
“This is what my friend said happens - it happened to her... cousin, I think - the parasite will take control when the person faints, when they pass out for a really long time, she said when they woke up their voice would sound like someone else's, their eyes would usually be void of any emotion and the parasite would even state that it's taking control of the body for a while and will release it. It starts to talk about the host for a while, then it would just leave.”
“A-and then..?” Jonghyun was trembling a little. Crap what if all this really was real?
“Ne, 'Hyunnie, are you scared?” His sister asked in a teasing tone, sticking her tongue out and winking at him. “You a scared little puppy?”
“Yah! Just continue!” He flushed.
“She doesn't know. It leaves and then after a while, it would come back and say that it was done. Then the host would just collapse, unconscious.”
“That's it?”
“Yup.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh.”
“... Well, why do they choose who they choose? As a host or target?”
“Apparently, there seems to be some connection among all the targets, but what the connection is was never released to the public.”
“Really?” He sounded shocked, an incredulous look plastered into his face.
“Yeah, and the host? I don't know why or how the parasite chooses it's host, I'm not one so I don't know!”
“Ah, that sucks!”
Damn, why did he have to remember something freaky like that when he was all alone in his house for once? And it was a Sunday too! Why was he bored and alone on the evening of basically the only free day of the week - unless Jonghyun decided to cut school which Jinki and Kibum would never allow. Jonghyun sighed and was about to choose to mope in his room until the next day when his phone suddenly rang, it's shrill crying successfully breaking his pensive mood and causing him to jump - right off of his bed and onto the floor, face first. He groaned, languidly throwing his hand in the direction of the incessant ringing, lazily groping the desk's surface before finally grabbing the device, flipping it open and mumbling an annoyed 'hello' while he sat up and rubbed his head. Dammit, this stuff doesn't happen to him, it happens to Jinki.
“Damn you, Kim Jonghyun! Don't you know you should answer the phone as soon as it rings!?” Jonghyun winced. He didn't need Kibum's loud, angry voice berating him right now. In all honesty, he didn't ever need it.
“I answered it as soon as I could! What are you calling me for Key, to yell at me?”
“No...” Kibum sounded a bit calmer, “You know, if you were busy... you could have just said so!” He said with a teasing tone and Jonghyun knew exactly what Kibum was hinting at. And he sputtered.
“Wha- why do you think I'd do something like that?! I- I- No!” He was sure his face was red but he wasn't too sure if it was from embarrassment or anger as he heard Kibum's hearty laughter from the other end of the line.
“I was just kidding! Or were you-”
“No!” Jonghyun shouted, abruptly cutting Kibum off causing the other to chuckle.
“Okay, okay, can't you take a joke? Yes, you can. Now, on to what I was going to talk about...” Jonghyun groaned, earning an annoyed sound from Kibum before the latter continued speaking, “That's why you're all alone right now! We just wanted you to come to that park close to the edge of town with us!”
“Eeh?” Jonghyun whined, “Do I look like a kid? I don't want to play with you at a park!”
“Fine then! Who needs ya! Jinki and I will just go, all. By. Ourselves!” Jonghyun then gasped and Kibum knew he had won.
“No!! No! Okay, fine, I'll come! I can't trust you anyway!” Jonghyun huffed and Kibum sniggered singing 'that's great' and hanging up in a split second.
Jonghyun sighed and stood up. He hoped that he had not just agreed to another of Kibum's outrageous schemes.
◎♡◎♡◎
Jonghyun skulked through the park's gates and he looked around for a head of hair that could only be Kibum's because he didn't know anyone else who had half of their head shaved off. Jonghyun looked around as he straightened himself out - why was he crawling around? He had no idea. After a little while he saw a familiar face - a face Jonghyun never wanted to see ever since the incident of a gang being ordered to randomly attack two students who were attending his school, ever since the incident of Kibum and Jinki being attacked on their way home. The person, the one who ordered the attack for God knows what reason, just so happened to turn at that exact moment and when they did they gave Jonghyun the sweetest smile - it made him want to fucking retch. This person - this woman - always brought out the worst in Jonghyun.
He really hated it.
“Jonghyun ah!” The woman yelled cheerfully as she ran over to him, waving like a child. She was not cute, not cute at all; at least, not to Jonghyun.
“Noona...” Jonghyun, who subtly backed away as she entered his personal space, tried his best not to sound annoyed, he really did, but truth and honesty always beat him - he was never a very good liar.
“No...” she whined, looking at Jonghyun through her eyelashes and Jonghyun couldn't help but think - know - that they were fake, “I told you to call me Bou, yes?”
“Yeah, but it would be rude to refer to you so informally, noona,” Jonghyun could feel his lips twitching at the corners, a repressed smirk, when she showed her displeasure at being called noona, but - like the rest of her - that expression may have been fake as well and that killed his satisfaction. Jonghyun had no idea why this woman even thought to show her face around him, let alone come within six metres of him. After what she did, Jonghyun could just throttle her. She didn't even have a reason for doing it, when authorities asked why she did what she did she just replied, with the most twisted smile Jonghyun had never imagined,
“I wanted to... I was bored and there was nothing else to do!”
Disgusting. She didn't know that Jonghyun had found out because no one was supposed to have been there in the police station, but Jonghyun had snuck in - he was curious about what had happened - and he heard everything. Honestly, why was this person not in jail, she really should be-
“Going out with you, Jonghyun ah!” She exclaimed as she clung to Jonghyun's arm. What? What the hell is this woman babbling about now?
“Noona? Are you okay?”
“I'm just fine Jonghyun ah!” She gave him a slightly offended look. “I really think you and I should go out sometime!” Jonghyun wanted to shove her, send her flying into the nearest object that could cause serious damage to a person upon impact. Jonghyun would never, ever, ever go out with that woman. She wasn't his type anyway.
“Ah...”
“Jonghyun! Do you know how long I have been waiting for you?” That voice, oh please let it be who he thinks it is. Jonghyun spun to see Kibum running towards him with a look of irritation and Jonghyun cracked a smile as Kibum swooped Jonghyun's arm right out of Bou's grasp causing them to spin a little and when they stopped Jonghyun and Kibum were off, running in the opposite direction at full speed, Kibum complaining to Jonghyun very audibly as they ran and eventually ducked behind a sign.
“Oh my God, thank you so much Key!” Jonghyun hugged Kibum as he complained.
“Ah, no problem, I hate that bitch anyway.” Kibum waved a hand dismissively.
“Why were you talking to her?” Oh, another familiar voice. Jonghyun lifted his head to see Jinki on his haunches, Minho sitting cross-legged next to him, the elder fixing him with a slightly curious glare. Obviously Jinki didn't like her either.
“I wasn't talking to her, I was being held captive! I swear.” Jonghyun put a hand over his chest and fervently nodded. Jinki dropped his glare at that, allowing himself to fall onto his butt as Minho told him to be careful.
“Ah, Key you lied, look Minho's here too!” Jonghyun pointed accusingly from Kibum to Minho then back at Kibum.
“Pssh, so what? I can do that, I saved your life!” Kibum crossed his arms and stuck his nose into the air as Minho and Jinki snickered.
“Yah, stop laughing!” Jonghyun's command only caused more laughter, especially since Kibum did that thing where he throws his head back and laughs - really loudly - before clinging to Minho's arm. Jonghyun... was starting to feel a little insulted.
“What did I do to deserve this?” He exclaimed, Jonghyun really lacked patience sometimes.
“You talked to that weird lady!” Jinki was now pointing at Jonghyun accusingly, oh so this was his own fault. Go figure.
“What?” That was all that came to Jonghyun for a reply.
“Hyung, you really shouldn't talk to people who are like that.” Minho said, he was serious and he made sense. Kibum and Jinki just shook their heads in agreement. Jonghyun felt as though he had to defend himself.
“It's not my fault! I swear she's stalking me!”
“Ugh, then get some bitch repellent so we can move on with our lives!” Leave it to Kibum to swear when he was pissed. Ah, Kibum was pissed, then Minho and Jinki were probably pretty annoyed as well. Jonghyun wouldn't be winning this game. Jonghyun just looked at each one of them before raising his hand once again.
“I'm sorry.” Jinki was the first to break and hug him.
“Oh Jjongie, it's okay!” Followed by Kibum,
“Aw, come here you little punk!” Who was then followed by Minho, who just patted his head and said,
“It's okay, hyung.” If only his parents and sister were so forgiving towards him. Eventually the limbs untangled themselves and all was once again well with the world, until Kibum spoke, stirring up some trouble again.
“But this isn't about you, Jjong. From here on, this is an interrogation.” Kibum looked rather proud as he stated this, Minho nodding a little and Jinki looking just as confused as Jonghyun. Jinki was confused, so they were probably going to interrogate him. Jonghyun realized this and snickered a little. Poor Jinki, Kibum would probably be relentless.
“Hyung.” Kibum drawled, wrapping an arm around Jinki and pulling him closer. Commence the interrogation. “Jinki hyung, you eat well right? Except for the fried chicken you like to eat every now and then.”
“Uh, yeah...” Jinki seemed to look between Jonghyun and Minho for help. Minho just shrugged and Jonghyun mouthed 'sorry'.
“You're pretty healthy, right?” Kibum raised one of Jinki's hands before letting it drop as Jinki responded with another 'yeah'. Kibum then smirked, only for a moment but Jonghyun caught it, then Kibum asked the question that would surely give him the victory he was waiting for.
“And... you sleep well, right?” Kibum grinned, “Hyung.” That did it, that must have been his trump card because Jinki's eyes widened considerably - only for a moment - as he parted his lips to respond before clamping them shut as he swallowed a lump that suddenly found residence in his throat. Kibum lightly shook the elder with his arm which was still wrapped around Jinki before lightly squeezing his arm.
“Uh...”
“Don't lie to me Jinki!” Kibum warned as he spun Jinki to face him. Jinki looked at him a little shocked before lightly smiling at him. Kibum traced the area underneath Jinki's eyes with his index finger as his face took on a dejected expression and he quietly spoke,
“Jinki... there are these extremely dark rings under your eyes right here, you're usually dozing off at times that are inappropriate and maybe even dangerous. What's going on? Is something bothering you? Can't you tell us?” Jinki smiled again, closing his eyes.
“It's nothing Kibum ah, just dreams.”
“That keep you awake all night? They can't be good.”
“Ah, talking about nightmares, it's so childish Kibum ah.” Jinki held Kibum's hand in his and gently moved it away, but Kibum tensed and prevented Jinki from completing the action.
“And you're mature, since when?” Kibum insisted, staring Jinki down until he broke through the elder's resolve. Jinki sighed, signalling the acceptance of his defeat. Minho almost sighed in relief, if Jinki didn't go down that easily, God knows what Kibum would do. Jonghyun was leaning in now - a little too much - he was curious, he wanted to know what was keeping Jinki up at night. Why? Because he felt as though he was entitled to know everything about Jinki.
“Ah,” Jinki suddenly became nervous and started messing around with anything his fingers fell upon - his hair, his face, his clothes, everything. “You know, this is so cheesy-”
“Since when did cheesy things matter to you, hyung?” Minho flatly interjected causing Jinki to pout and give him a 'who's side are you on' look. Minho chuckled and continued, “Sorry hyung, but if this keeps up, you'll get so sick you'll have to go to the hospital. You've already become so weak.” Minho emphasized his statement by pushing Jinki causing him to tumble onto Kibum's lap. And Kibum suddenly had the urge to do some teasing, or molesting, or whatever the hell you want to call it because he was going to do it anyway.
“Jinki ah,” Kibum caressed Jinki's face, “Are you lost?” Kibum said in that sing-song way of his. Jinki giggled, patting Kibum's hand.
“Kibum ah,” the response was a playful one. Jonghyun scoffed and Minho eventually pulled Jinki back up, earning an annoyed sound from Kibum.
“Don't interrupt my romantic scenes Minho! Dammit...” Kibum started grumbling and Jonghyun snickered.
“Anyway, do you see my point? Jinki you're probably two nights away from being sick.” Minho said, crossing his arms.
“No, no I'm fine.” Jinki said attempting to wave off the question but instead he ended up losing his balance. He held his head with one hand and braced himself with the other against the floor.
“Ugh, I don't think we need any more proof. Hyung, just tell us what's going on, we can't help otherwise.” Minho prevented Jinki from objecting with a stern, “We are going to help.”
“Seriously, Jinki ah.” Jonghyun didn't really want to believe any of this, Jinki was falling sick, and he wouldn't even let them try to help. They were all best friends! Like a key and lock, they need to be together otherwise they're near useless. He huffed, blew up his cheeks and squatted placing his hands on the floor between his legs. At that moment Jinki chose to look at him and, like the child he really is, he jumped over and hugged the living daylights out of Jonghyun who apparently was stuck to the floor because he didn't fall over.
“Aha, you remind me of one of those stuffed animals in the stores!” As Jinki nuzzled Jonghyun's shoulder, Minho and Kibum sighed at how easily their hyung could be distracted and honestly, this worried them even more.
After some time, Kibum's patience eventually ran out and he pounced on Jinki, dragged him away and dropped him onto a bench. He then held Jinki down onto the bench and called Minho and Jonghyun over.
“Hyung, you are going to talk and you are going to talk now!” Kibum commanded, unspoken threats lacing his voice and features. Jinki visibly shuddered and as he looked over to Jonghyun and Minho, who were quite terrified considering the fact that they were basically hiding behind the lovely and wide sign located a little bit behind Kibum, he was told 'forget it, they can't help you now'. Jinki could have fainted - if he wasn't so damn terrified.
“I, I,” Kibum narrowed his eyes. “Okay, well there's usually a white room, it's plain, empty with absolutely nothing! I can't even tell where the walls and the floor meet!” Kibum softened his expression, just a bit.
“Go on...” Kibum said, he listened intently as Jinki described the recurring dream for the past couple weeks. There was a person - at least it looked like a person - who would usually ask about some woman by the name of Boeun. Ask about, if she was there in the town and if she was causing trouble for any other people. The person, who Jinki referred to as a 'he' so Kibum figured it was a man, would say that if she did anything to harm anyone that Jinki should tell him and he would get rid of her. He would also say things like 'Boeun is the last one, as soon as I get rid of her, everyone will be safe! So don't worry, okay?' and stuff similar to that.
“Ah, so then, what does the person look like?” Kibum asked, Jonghyun and Minho standing behind him, having become curious of it all.
“Ah, hum... he is... kinda tall and he has a,” Jinki made circular motions with his hand around his head, “bowl haircut, except it looks nice, kinda brown hair which darkens to black at the roots and, and...” Jinki looked thoughtful for a moment, before he looked as though he just had an epiphany, and pointed to his cheeks. “Dimples, when he smiles, he has a dimple right around here!” He pointed to the left corner of his mouth.
“Oh, that's a lot of details.” Jonghyun said petulantly, Minho just gave him a disapproving look while Kibum asked some more questions.
“But... that's only half of what you dream, isn't it? There's no way that would really keep you up.” Kibum watched as Jinki pursed his lips a little - hesitation. Then he looked at them and cracked a smile.
“Ah, the other half is unpleasant, you guys shouldn't have to hear about stuff like that...”
“We want to hyung, you'll tell us.” Minho obviously didn't like Jinki bottling all of his troubles up. Jinki gave him a dejected look.
“After the first part, I'd usually wake up for a while, but when I fell back asleep...” Jinki hesitated again, biting his lip - he almost looked as if he were battling with himself - before continuing. “The room, it would be black and it would smell... like decay. There were usually things attached to the walls and ceiling - hanging from chains and hooks - they'd be mangled, bloody, horrible,” Jinki was starting to look sick,
“Hands, legs, arms, bodies... they would just be there hanging, swinging and pouring blood and their insides onto the floor which was a mirror or something, so even when I tried to look away from it all it was impossible - it was just everywhere.” Jinki hands clasped his hands, they were shaking but even though he described all of that, they felt as though that was not the end of it. They were right.
“Eventually, everything would start to melt and then, when it was all gone, he would come back. But he wouldn't be all smiley and healthy. He would look as if someone tried to rip him apart, he'd have cuts and bruises, his eyes would be bloodshot, he'd look frail and depressed and he would just stand there and stare at me - stark-eyed and tight lipped. I would try to talk to him every time, though all he would do was look at me. After a while he would just walk away in the opposite direction - it was so... freaky.” Jonghyun didn't want to hear any more and if that was the case then he was sure Kibum just wanted to shut Jinki up and go and hit stuff because when Kibum's scared he likes to hit things. But Kibum was trying so hard to be a proper best friend, here was no way he was going to stop Jinki - at least, not until he was done. Jinki paused for a while, trying to gather his thoughts.
“I would just stand there and then, the room would suddenly look like an alleyway at night, and across the walls you could see shadows mimicking everything that was taking place in front of me. There would be... a man and a woman walking past the alleyway and another man would be running after them calling out to the other, telling him not to go with the woman. I would follow and look at what happened. When I reached the man who was with the woman would be passed out on the floor while the other was held back by a group of men. Then, everything would fade, all I would be able to see was black.” Jinki stopped again. Honestly, Jonghyun didn't want to know what happened next. He would be fine with never, ever knowing how it ends, really. He would be so happy if this was the end of Jinki's nightmare. Of course, it wasn't.
Damn.
“Then there would be the sounds of screaming, people would be calling each other's names and then there would be a sickening sound of skin and bones cracking and breaking and then the sound of blood dripping followed by a horrified scream and a woman's shrill laughter. Then one of the people would be repeatedly calling the other's name and cursing the woman. After a while a bunch of voices would say stuff like 'this has gone too far' and 'we won't be a part of this any longer'. The woman would swear at them and then there'd gunshots and screaming... The person who was calling the dead one's name would scream before there was rattling and then another sickening sound of flesh, skin and bone being ripped and cracked before there was the sound of someone hitting the floor. Then more high pitched laughter-” Jinki buried his face in his palms and sniffled a little, his dyed hair courtesy of Kibum effectively hiding his face.
“Oh my God, Jinki you've been dreaming this for the past month?” Kibum sounded so far away as Jonghyun tried to process everything. Holy hell, it was all so disgusting, how did Jinki live with those dreams for a whole month? All this time Jonghyun just thought that Jinki's tiredness was because he was probably exhausting himself again. Jonghyun never even thought that... Jonghyun just wanted to beat the crap out of himself right now but before Jonghyun could finish his self hate thoughts, Minho spoke.
“That's... not the end is it..?” Minho was being cautious, and that was fine, with a topic like that and descriptions like those, if one wasn't careful Jinki would faint or become nauseated. Jinki looked up, smiling weakly at the other. Oh please no, Jonghyun's stomach couldn't handle much more.
“There's not much left though, so...” Jonghyun could feel the happiness inside of him almost explode, so he wasn't surprised when Kibum suddenly straightened up and told Jinki not to worry and finish. Jinki recomposed himself and did his best to describe it - to make it short and sweet.
“After that, more black. Then he'd appear again except this time he would be with another guy - this guy looks like the one who was with the woman. First they would be happy, joking and goofing off but after a minute there would be a bright flash and screams and then they would be all bloody and crying and they would be hugging each other making promises to stay together before everything just blended into everything else. The end.” Jinki finished with a dry, forced laugh. Kibum had one hand over his mouth and the other over his stomach. Yeah, that was probably the worst horror movie-like thing Kibum had ever heard. Jonghyun was a bit interested, disgusted but interested. Just a little though because really, why would Jinki have to have dreams like those? He's just too... Jinki to have dreams like those. Jonghyun felt some strange urge to go home with Jinki and sleep with him - in a totally un-perverted way - to protect him, as if Jonghyun's being there would just scare the nightmares away or something.
Yeah right.
“I have an idea!” Kibum announced after he got over the initial shock, “Why don't we just all sleep over at Jinki's?” Apparently, Kibum was thinking the same thing as Jonghyun, although in Jonghyun's version it was only him and Jinki. Jonghyun sulked a little but at least-
“On such short notice? I don't know if my landlord would allow it...”
If they had any form of animals ears, they would be drooping now, but Kibum, being Kibum, refused to be defeated - even by a landlord.
“Then everyone can just come to my apartment, I won't mind.” Before anyone could object in any way Kibum continued, “Yeah, that sounds like a plan! Alright, quick! Everyone, go home, get your stuff and then run back to my place!”
“Ah, do we have to run?” Jinki whined. Minho sighed and Kibum responded,
“Yeah ru- actually, I guess you don't have to, you could walk if you want. I guess it really doesn't matter.” He shrugged. Jonghyun was relieved, sure the notion of running home and then to Kibum's apartment sounded absurd, but knowing Kibum if he wanted to, he would make them do it.
Kibum hurried them off and told them that if they didn't reach his apartment in thirty minutes, he would trace their phones, find them and beat them up. Who could really argue with such a threat when Kibum was the one issuing it? They just scurried off and tried their best to be on time.
◎♡◎♡◎
Jonghyun sighed as Minho rang the doorbell for the nth time and he was this close to losing it and breaking down the damned door. This close, until Kibum finally opened it. He grinned at them and Jonghyun suddenly wanted to punch him but he settled for words instead.
“You told us to hurry here or you'd beat us up, but you had us waiting for at least thirty minutes out here! You know since it's, like, November, it's really cold out here?!” Kibum gave him a 'shut the fuck up' look and Jonghyun wished a had something, anything, to beat this guy up with.
“Well I'm sorry our dear maknae needed a debriefing so he would know what was going on!” Kibum crossed his arms and moved out of the way, allowing the shivering trio to enter his apartment.
“Ah, in here's roomier than I remember,” Minho commented, glancing around.
“Yeah, I fixed it up a little for you guys,” was Kibum's response, of course it made Jonghyun feel bad for arguing with him earlier, but there was no way he would show it. Minho just nodded a bit and Jinki yelled his thanks from somewhere deep in the apartment. They really had to keep a better eye on their hyung. There was suddenly a yelp followed by a crash. Minho and Kibum looked alarm and by the time they stood up, Jonghyun had already dashed to the room where the crash had apparently come from.
Really, they had to keep a better eye on Jinki.
Jonghyun yanked open the door and was greeted with the sight of Taemin laying on his back on a loveseat, his legs hanging over the armrest, hugging Jinki tightly - almost squeezing him to death if Jinki's strangled cries were anything to go by - repeatedly yelling,
“Hyung! Hyung, are you okay? Omigosh hyung, such freaky dreams why didn't you say anything? Taemin would have come to your rescue ages ago! Hyung, hyung, hyung, hyung, hyung!! You should have said something! Seriously! Ah, you really are getting weak! Look at how pale you are and you feel so cold! You even got lighter!! You and I shall eat a lot tonight, okay?!” And the ranting just went on, so, Taemin was obviously worried about Jinki. And Jonghyun obviously didn't expect to see what he saw because he just stood there, staring. He expected to see Jinki on the ground nursing some bump or bruise, not being hugged to death by his maknae.
“Oh, go get a room!” Kibum's teasing comment shocked Jonghyun back to Earth, when did Kibum and Minho get here? Oh right, they were right behind him. Whatever then. Taemin momentarily stopped squeezing Jinki and replied,
“Can't you see I'm in a room right now? You're invading our privacy!” Taemin stuck his tongue out at Kibum, the kid had guts if nothing else.
“Curse the day you became legal, Taeminnie! Don't give your umma lip!” Kibum stalked past Jonghyun until he was right in front of Taemin's face where he proceeded to place his hands on his hips and tap his foot impatiently - a string of actions with which he was all too familiar. “Stop crushing your hyung, let him breathe!” Instead of trying to pry Taemin's hands off of Jinki, Kibum just tickled Taemin's sides until he eventually let the other go. Jinki clambered away from Taemin, trying his best not to fall over as he ran to the door where Jonghyun and Minho were quietly standing. Jonghyun was a little curious as to how this all went down while Kibum continued to tickle all the oxygen out of Taemin.
“So, how did this happen?” Jinki rubbed his head and replied,
“I dunno, I was just walking past the door when someone - Taemin - grabbed me and pulled me into the room. Next thing I knew was that he was hugging me and saying he would have saved me.” He laughed a little and Jonghyun followed suit. Eventually, Kibum and Taemin pulled everyone into the room and thus, a tickle war began.
All this and the night hadn't even started yet.
◎♡◎♡◎
“So, what is the point of this, umma?” Taemin asked as the five of them sat cross-legged on cushions around a low table, Minho grabbing the remote and flipping through channels while Jonghyun and Jinki played rock-paper-scissors. Kibum thoughtfully tapped is chin with his pointer finger, before he snapped his fingers, signalling to everyone that he had come up with a response.
“Well, does anyone know how to stop nightmares?” There was a silence before Minho spoke,
“Usually, we just have to wait a while and the nightmares would stop on their own... after about a week, right?” Minho looked at Taemin who nodded while saying that's the only way he knows of.
“There's gotta be something we can do...” Jonghyun sulked, his chin resting on the smooth surface of the table, letting his head loll from one side to the other. It wouldn't make much sense to ask Jinki because if he knew of a way surely he would have used it by now. Speaking of Jinki, Jonghyun thought as he glanced to his right where he saw Jinki rolling an orange back and forth with the palm of his hand. Jonghyun looked to the centre of the table, there was a bowl of oranges. He looked at Jinki then to the bowl then back at Jinki before cracking a smile, of course his hyung could make a toy out of anything - even fruit. Then Jonghyun saw fingers snap in his face.
“Hello,” Taemin sang, “Earth to hyung?”
“What?” Jonghyun sat up a bit.
“Go google some way for us to prevent Jinki's nightmares,” Kibum said as he took a bite of an apple.
“Why should I go find it while you sit here on your ass and eat? And where did you get that apple all of a sudden?” Jonghyun yelled, he didn't want to leave to go and google something that was more than likely a wild goose chase.
“This is my apartment Jjong, I live here. I know where everything is so it was easy for me to go and get it while you were staring at Jinki. And you have to do it cause I say so!” Kibum took a nice big bite out of the apple, just to piss Jonghyun off because it was funny.
“I don't want to waste my time! And you're not allowed to drop the 'hyung'!”
“You're right, you would be wasting your time,” Kibum took a bite, “but I'm just as close to Jinki as the next person so it's just fine if I drop the 'hyung', haha.” Another bite.
“Yeah, so wha-” Jonghyun was cut off by an apple core connecting with his forehead, “...Fuck you, Kim Kibum.” The response Jonghyun got was a perfect middle finger pointing right at him accompanied by a stuck out tongue. They continued to bicker as Taemin and Jinki laughed while watching them and eating oranges and Minho complained that they were 'so loud and rude' as he tried to focus on watching his soccer game.
◎♡◎♡◎
“I have an idea!” Taemin announced, looking proud of himself. At this point Jonghyun and Kibum were at each other's throats - literally, as they gripped each other's collars and glared at each other - Jinki had an orange stuffed in his mouth - skin an all - as he attempted to grin while Minho told him he should at least peel the orange before eating it. Ah, Taemin had great hyungs, really. He sighed a little as said hyungs looked at him asked him what his idea was in various tones of clarity and loudness. “Well, since we can't think of any way to ward off nightmares, why don't we just stay up until tomorrow?”
Now, there were so many different things that were wrong with that statement, especially since they had classes for the entirety of the next day, but it was the thought that counts. Everyone mulled it over for a moment.
“Sure, why not?” Kibum sighed and let go of Jonghyun so he could shrug, “We'll probably fall asleep any way...”
“YAAAAY!!” Taemin threw up his arms and ran around, cheering. Of course, he just wanted an excuse to be able to stay up late, Kibum should have known. “I can stay up late!” The maknae sang as he ran around some more before plopping onto the couch lengthwise behind Minho, swiping the remote from the elder and flipping through the channels with a smug look on his face. Minho sighed and muttered that the game he cared about was over any way and that he was thirsty as he shuffled off into the kitchen. Kibum followed Minho with his eyes before deciding to go with him.
“What if he gets lost or tries to eat all of my ramen?” Kibum said to no one in particular before he walked out the door, calling to Minho to wait up.
“Ooh, I want ramen!” Was all Taemin said before he jumped off the couch and ran after them. Jonghyun and Jinki were left there and they were just staring at the television set, until Jonghyun thought of something to talk about. Jonghyun slowly moved his left arm as he turned to face Jinki, placing his hand on Jinki's chest - where he figured his heart should be, though he could be wrong as Jonghyun didn't consider himself a genius.
“How's this going, Jinki ah?” Jinki stared at Jonghyun's hand before his eyes widened a bit as he realized what Jonghyun was referring to. He smiled, placing his hand over Jonghyun's.
“Ah, it's fine... but it could be better.” Jinki responded earnestly. Oh, what did Jinki mean? Could Jonghyun have a relationship with him now or was he referring to the stress of the nightmares? Jonghyun's mind raced and he couldn't think of anything good to respond with, though it's not like he could stop his word vomit.
“Would it be okay now? You know- well I mean, if I..” Before Jonghyun could say anything else - or say something completely and utterly stupid - Jinki pecked him, soft and quick, on his now blood red cheek. Jonghyun rapidly blinked before he stared at a smiling Jinki, bemused. “So... I can?”
Jinki closed his eyes with a smile and was about to respond before someone yelled - nice, loud and shocking,
“Umma, Umma!! Jonghyun hyung is molesting Jinki hyung!!” Taemin yelled, causing Jonghyun and Jinki to snap out of their reverie and pull away from each other. Taemin turned to face them, a wicked little grin on his face as his eyes met with Jonghyun's. He walked over to the couch and sat down, slurping the noodles from his ramen cup.
“You evil little-” Jonghyun would have finished the thought if Kibum didn't come barrelling through the door.
“I knew we shouldn't have left you two alone!” Kibum pointed at Jonghyun with his chopsticks accusingly, “You perverted dog!”
“How dare you bring animal references into this!” Jonghyun retorted.
“Are you, then, not going to deny the fact that you're a pervert?” In response to Kibum's accusation Jonghyun sputtered,
“O-oh yeah? Well, what about you!” It was Jonghyun's turn to point now.
“I am not perverted, I'm just a very caring mother towards my children!”
“Well then, I'm just caring towards my friends!”
“There's a line between caring touches and perverted touches!”
“Well, didn't you know that Taemin was lying?” In response Kibum gasped,
“Taemin would never lie! You were probably extremely close to Jinki and that's why Taemin may have misunderstood! Right Taeminnie?” Kibum looked to Taemin who hurriedly swallowed his mouthful of noodles before replying,
“Ah, yeah umma! He was close to Jinki hyung like how those boys and girls are like in the movies when they're alone!” Kibum made a face akin to one of pure shock while Taemin fired a sneaky, smug little smirk at Jonghyun. As the second mini-battle of the night continued, Minho just sat on the couch behind Jinki, patting his hyung's head while slurping noodles and telling him not to worry as Jinki just looked at Jonghyun and Kibum bicker for the sake of bickering yet again and sighed.
◎♡◎♡◎
Eventually they all settled down to watch a movie, but they didn't actually watch the movie, they put the movie to play in the background as they played games and commented on random scenes before they eventually fell asleep - the two eldest had somehow ended up on the floor while the other three were on the couch. Taemin was laying across Minho and Kibum's lap, Minho and Kibum's heads leaning against each other, Jinki's head resting on Jonghyun's shoulder and Jonghyun's head leaning on Jinki's. But before they had fallen asleep, Jonghyun had vowed to himself that as soon as Jinki awoke from the nightmare, Jonghyun would comfort him in any way he possibly could.
And Jinki did wake up at some ungodly hour with a sharp gasp and a jolt, covered in cold sweat - knocking his head with Jonghyun's, successfully waking the other up. And Jonghyun did comfort him - stayed awake with him, threading his fingers through the elder's hair while whispering comforting words to him until the sun threatened to climb into the sky, forcing them to awaken the others and get ready for school with little rest, but even so, Jonghyun stayed with Jinki.
◎♡◎♡◎
Part 2
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Jongyu (Jonghyun/Jinki), side!2minkey (Minho/Taemin/Kibum)
Genre: Angst, AU, Horror, Paranormal, Psychological, Romance
Disclaimer: As you can see, these people belong to me. That rhyme was as unintentional as it was true.
Summary: Smile, please smile, you're prettiest when smiling, Cry? Am I crying? I'll wipe those tears, and you have a lost expression. You stiffen, I bring my knees to the floor, and ask you what you did wrong.
Warnings: Violence/Murder, Blood/Gore, Rape (Implied), Language, Paranormal
◎♡◎♡◎
A four year old boy ran across the children's play room stopping when he was a couple steps away from another boy not much older than him - not that he knew that, or cared.
“Hey you! You're Jinki right?” Looks right at the boy who was tying his shoes.
“Y-yeah, why?” The other looks up.
“I want you to play with me!” He was hovering over him now.
“M-me? Why?” The boy with the bunny teeth pointed at himself, completely confused.
“I don't wanna play with Kibum any more! He keeps making me be the daddy cause he wants to hit me on my head!” The boy rubbed his head dramatically before he pulled the other up.
“Wah! O-okay...” Confused, he was confused. This boy never really asked to play with him before, just kept looking at him all the time. He was a little excited, though the other boy was a bit rough, at least he reminded him a little of a puppy, and puppies were nice.
That was how they first met, as two little four year old kids that played with each other that once because one of them decided they would play together on a whim, and they ended up playing together everyday after that first time.
And they are still together.
◎♡◎♡◎
Jonghyun treasured - loved - the time he spent with Jinki. No matter how insignificant the moment seemed, whether is was them sitting on the highest branch of some huge tree or Jinki almost falling off the branch, Jonghyun would make every effort to ingrain it's memory into his mind. Jinki did too, he knew it, because they would always talk about those happenings while laughing and smiling and gazing at each other moments longer than necessary.
It was no mystery, it was something everyone in their small town knew - word travels fast thanks to a few friends - Jonghyun loved Jinki, no, he loves Jinki, he's loved that fragile boy ever since they were both eight years old and he saved Jinki from falling off the edge of a very dangerous cliff into the merciless boulders that hadn't been allowed to claim a life for who knows how long. He had gripped his best friend's hand tightly - so tight that upon retrospect he wonders how the circulation of blood was not cut off in both their hands - and he strained his body to pull the other boy up enough so that he could grab onto the craggy edge of the cliff to help himself up. Jonghyun had pulled Jinki all the way over the edge of the cliff as he didn't realize Jinki was pulling himself up and both boys went reeling away from the edge of the cliff towards safer grounds.
Jonghyun fell onto lime-green grass and Jinki fell onto Jonghyun. Jonghyun only noticed that his arms were wrapped tightly around Jinki's waist when the elder tried to get off of Jonghyun, only to reconnect forcefully with the other's chest. Jinki didn't struggle much when he realized Jonghyun was holding him down, he just looked at Jonghyun with misty eyes before smiling at him and thanking him as much as he could before Jonghyun pulled him down for a better hug. Jonghyun... had never felt fear grip him as tightly as it did that day - he felt as though he was going to lose the most important person in his life when he saw Jinki slip off the edge, and the look of pure terror he saw on Jinki's face had caused his heart stop to beating, his brain to stop functioning and he just ran - and Jonghyun had never been so powerless in controlling what is body did as he couldn't bring himself to let Jinki go that day.
But even if Jonghyun loves Jinki, Jonghyun would never make a move on him - not until Jinki indicated that it was alright. Jonghyun did confess his feelings for the other but he didn't demand a relationship with Jinki, he had decided to give the other time and they both knew why. The reason was simple. It was something Jinki had confessed to Jonghyun when they were eleven. That day as he looked up to the evening painted sky, closely studying the few stars that had already began to peek down at them from the heavens, Jonghyun had consciously sworn that he would do anything to protect Jinki - whether that was overkill or not, Jonghyun couldn't care less.
“J-Jonghyun ah, I... I want to tell you something...” The boy was looking down at his hands and tangling his fingers together before slowly pulling them apart - a nervous habit that Jonghyun had learnt to identify. Why was he so nervous?
“Jinki ah... what is it?” The honorific 'hyung' was something Jonghyun never used to address Jinki, they were really close so he didn't need to use it, right? He never cared for honorifics anyway. Jonghyun patiently watched the older male from his spot at the base of their tree - a large, shady tree full of viridian leaves that he and Jinki always came to play at, when they were kids and even now.
“I- w-well, it's about, you know... that thing called... 'love'.” Jinki made quotation marks with his fingers and Jonghyun nodded, he wanted to laugh a little though, the gesture was too adorable at this point because Jinki was being serious. Jinki was quiet for a while and Jonghyun studied him intently. “I...” he paused, swallowing a mouthful of air before continuing, “I think... I'm... scared of..!” When Jinki had looked up to Jonghyun from his hands Jonghyun was a little confused - and worried. Jinki was crying, he cheeks and nose had begun turning red as tears flowed down his cheeks and he brought his hands to his face to wipe the tears with his sleeves and hide his face.
Jonghyun reacted without thinking and he hugged Jinki who buried his face into his chest as he lightly gripped the fabric, he began to cry more freely. Afraid of love? Jonghyun could understand it because he was afraid of love as well. He was afraid of losing people who were important to him, it would hurt so much. He figured Jinki must have been feeling similar conflict. He felt a little relieved that someone could understand what he felt, even if it was barely. And then, Jonghyun felt a warm liquid slide down his cheeks. He was crying. Jinki noticed the change in the pattern of Jonghyun's breathing and he looked up.
And he gave Jonghyun an understanding smile. Jinki wiped Jonghyun's tears away carefully and Jonghyun cupped the other's face, placing his thumbs on Jinki's tears and gently wiping the liquid away while slowly drawing circles with the pads of his thumbs on Jinki's face. That day they had stayed underneath that tree holding each other and reassuring the other that everything would be fine before they joked around a bit and eventually fell asleep.
The next morning when they went to Jinki's home they were scolded by their mothers who had worried and waited at Jinki's house for them to return, but even while being scolded and sneaking glances at each other, the knowledge that they handled their little apprehensions together, they felt as if they could conquer the world - no matter how small that little problem seemed to the world.
“Here's not so sad any more, Jonghyun ah,” Jinki smiled as he pointed to his chest - his heart. Jonghyun grinned and put his hand over Jinki's and pressing it to the older boy's chest before saying,
“Soon, I'll make it all better!”
◎♡◎♡◎
Jonghyun and Jinki, they would always refer to that time as the one in which 'they were the world's biggest crybabies' while laughing, maybe at that point they were, but who was going to tell?
Jonghyun was currently lying on his bed, tracing patterns with his eyes into ceiling. He considered everything that had happened in his life up until now a work of art - or more like a miracle. It was all perfect, Jonghyun thought with a smile.
Well, was being the operative word. Jonghyun raised his right hand, palm facing the ceiling and he looked at his hand closely, before looking at the ceiling and then back to his hand. Recently, things have been weird, not between him and Jinki but with things in general. People have been dying, all who were apparently in some sort of romantic relationship... and others have been killing and having no memory of how it happened, or of it at all. The victims of the latter case were far and few but because of how bizarre it is, the case attracted a large amount of attention. The case of the 'couple murder', as people nicknamed it, however was far worse and more heinous than the latter case. There were many murders in that case, all across Asia and it has been happening for six years now. Jonghyun had no idea what was up with that case but he was damn sure he didn't want to find out. The other case with the fewer murders, he knew a little about. His sister told him that one of her friends had experienced it, that it's a syndrome, caused by a parasite, or something like that. Jonghyun - though he had his doubts about what he was being told - had been curious, he asked what was so special about the parasite or the host, why it chose who it chose, did what it did.
“I don't know why, maybe it just chooses randomly. But... maybe there is a pattern amongst those who were hosts.”
“What do you mean by 'those who were hosts'? Don't they still have the parasite?”
“That's one of the weird things, it's like the parasite just feeds off of a person once, or more like feeds off whoever it made the person kill, or maybe it doesn't feed at all cause usually the host is just fine; but then - this is the really strange thing about it - it just leaves the person after and that person usually has no idea that they committed murder!”
“Then how do they know that they were possessed?”
“It's not possession, Jonghyun ah.”
“Whatever- noona, just tell me!”
“There's usually a witness, or someone who is usually with the host. Apparently there are symptoms that occur before the murder.”
“Symptoms?”
“Yeah, like the person begins to have nightmares, like being killed by whoever the parasite is targeting or other strange things; they slowly begin to get sick, really weak and pale probably because of lack of sleep, they begin seeing hallucinations and eventually the parasite will take control of the person's body.”
“How do they know when the parasite takes control?” Jonghyun's voice wavered, he was becoming a little frightened now. Just a little.
“This is what my friend said happens - it happened to her... cousin, I think - the parasite will take control when the person faints, when they pass out for a really long time, she said when they woke up their voice would sound like someone else's, their eyes would usually be void of any emotion and the parasite would even state that it's taking control of the body for a while and will release it. It starts to talk about the host for a while, then it would just leave.”
“A-and then..?” Jonghyun was trembling a little. Crap what if all this really was real?
“Ne, 'Hyunnie, are you scared?” His sister asked in a teasing tone, sticking her tongue out and winking at him. “You a scared little puppy?”
“Yah! Just continue!” He flushed.
“She doesn't know. It leaves and then after a while, it would come back and say that it was done. Then the host would just collapse, unconscious.”
“That's it?”
“Yup.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh.”
“... Well, why do they choose who they choose? As a host or target?”
“Apparently, there seems to be some connection among all the targets, but what the connection is was never released to the public.”
“Really?” He sounded shocked, an incredulous look plastered into his face.
“Yeah, and the host? I don't know why or how the parasite chooses it's host, I'm not one so I don't know!”
“Ah, that sucks!”
Damn, why did he have to remember something freaky like that when he was all alone in his house for once? And it was a Sunday too! Why was he bored and alone on the evening of basically the only free day of the week - unless Jonghyun decided to cut school which Jinki and Kibum would never allow. Jonghyun sighed and was about to choose to mope in his room until the next day when his phone suddenly rang, it's shrill crying successfully breaking his pensive mood and causing him to jump - right off of his bed and onto the floor, face first. He groaned, languidly throwing his hand in the direction of the incessant ringing, lazily groping the desk's surface before finally grabbing the device, flipping it open and mumbling an annoyed 'hello' while he sat up and rubbed his head. Dammit, this stuff doesn't happen to him, it happens to Jinki.
“Damn you, Kim Jonghyun! Don't you know you should answer the phone as soon as it rings!?” Jonghyun winced. He didn't need Kibum's loud, angry voice berating him right now. In all honesty, he didn't ever need it.
“I answered it as soon as I could! What are you calling me for Key, to yell at me?”
“No...” Kibum sounded a bit calmer, “You know, if you were busy... you could have just said so!” He said with a teasing tone and Jonghyun knew exactly what Kibum was hinting at. And he sputtered.
“Wha- why do you think I'd do something like that?! I- I- No!” He was sure his face was red but he wasn't too sure if it was from embarrassment or anger as he heard Kibum's hearty laughter from the other end of the line.
“I was just kidding! Or were you-”
“No!” Jonghyun shouted, abruptly cutting Kibum off causing the other to chuckle.
“Okay, okay, can't you take a joke? Yes, you can. Now, on to what I was going to talk about...” Jonghyun groaned, earning an annoyed sound from Kibum before the latter continued speaking, “That's why you're all alone right now! We just wanted you to come to that park close to the edge of town with us!”
“Eeh?” Jonghyun whined, “Do I look like a kid? I don't want to play with you at a park!”
“Fine then! Who needs ya! Jinki and I will just go, all. By. Ourselves!” Jonghyun then gasped and Kibum knew he had won.
“No!! No! Okay, fine, I'll come! I can't trust you anyway!” Jonghyun huffed and Kibum sniggered singing 'that's great' and hanging up in a split second.
Jonghyun sighed and stood up. He hoped that he had not just agreed to another of Kibum's outrageous schemes.
◎♡◎♡◎
Jonghyun skulked through the park's gates and he looked around for a head of hair that could only be Kibum's because he didn't know anyone else who had half of their head shaved off. Jonghyun looked around as he straightened himself out - why was he crawling around? He had no idea. After a little while he saw a familiar face - a face Jonghyun never wanted to see ever since the incident of a gang being ordered to randomly attack two students who were attending his school, ever since the incident of Kibum and Jinki being attacked on their way home. The person, the one who ordered the attack for God knows what reason, just so happened to turn at that exact moment and when they did they gave Jonghyun the sweetest smile - it made him want to fucking retch. This person - this woman - always brought out the worst in Jonghyun.
He really hated it.
“Jonghyun ah!” The woman yelled cheerfully as she ran over to him, waving like a child. She was not cute, not cute at all; at least, not to Jonghyun.
“Noona...” Jonghyun, who subtly backed away as she entered his personal space, tried his best not to sound annoyed, he really did, but truth and honesty always beat him - he was never a very good liar.
“No...” she whined, looking at Jonghyun through her eyelashes and Jonghyun couldn't help but think - know - that they were fake, “I told you to call me Bou, yes?”
“Yeah, but it would be rude to refer to you so informally, noona,” Jonghyun could feel his lips twitching at the corners, a repressed smirk, when she showed her displeasure at being called noona, but - like the rest of her - that expression may have been fake as well and that killed his satisfaction. Jonghyun had no idea why this woman even thought to show her face around him, let alone come within six metres of him. After what she did, Jonghyun could just throttle her. She didn't even have a reason for doing it, when authorities asked why she did what she did she just replied, with the most twisted smile Jonghyun had never imagined,
“I wanted to... I was bored and there was nothing else to do!”
Disgusting. She didn't know that Jonghyun had found out because no one was supposed to have been there in the police station, but Jonghyun had snuck in - he was curious about what had happened - and he heard everything. Honestly, why was this person not in jail, she really should be-
“Going out with you, Jonghyun ah!” She exclaimed as she clung to Jonghyun's arm. What? What the hell is this woman babbling about now?
“Noona? Are you okay?”
“I'm just fine Jonghyun ah!” She gave him a slightly offended look. “I really think you and I should go out sometime!” Jonghyun wanted to shove her, send her flying into the nearest object that could cause serious damage to a person upon impact. Jonghyun would never, ever, ever go out with that woman. She wasn't his type anyway.
“Ah...”
“Jonghyun! Do you know how long I have been waiting for you?” That voice, oh please let it be who he thinks it is. Jonghyun spun to see Kibum running towards him with a look of irritation and Jonghyun cracked a smile as Kibum swooped Jonghyun's arm right out of Bou's grasp causing them to spin a little and when they stopped Jonghyun and Kibum were off, running in the opposite direction at full speed, Kibum complaining to Jonghyun very audibly as they ran and eventually ducked behind a sign.
“Oh my God, thank you so much Key!” Jonghyun hugged Kibum as he complained.
“Ah, no problem, I hate that bitch anyway.” Kibum waved a hand dismissively.
“Why were you talking to her?” Oh, another familiar voice. Jonghyun lifted his head to see Jinki on his haunches, Minho sitting cross-legged next to him, the elder fixing him with a slightly curious glare. Obviously Jinki didn't like her either.
“I wasn't talking to her, I was being held captive! I swear.” Jonghyun put a hand over his chest and fervently nodded. Jinki dropped his glare at that, allowing himself to fall onto his butt as Minho told him to be careful.
“Ah, Key you lied, look Minho's here too!” Jonghyun pointed accusingly from Kibum to Minho then back at Kibum.
“Pssh, so what? I can do that, I saved your life!” Kibum crossed his arms and stuck his nose into the air as Minho and Jinki snickered.
“Yah, stop laughing!” Jonghyun's command only caused more laughter, especially since Kibum did that thing where he throws his head back and laughs - really loudly - before clinging to Minho's arm. Jonghyun... was starting to feel a little insulted.
“What did I do to deserve this?” He exclaimed, Jonghyun really lacked patience sometimes.
“You talked to that weird lady!” Jinki was now pointing at Jonghyun accusingly, oh so this was his own fault. Go figure.
“What?” That was all that came to Jonghyun for a reply.
“Hyung, you really shouldn't talk to people who are like that.” Minho said, he was serious and he made sense. Kibum and Jinki just shook their heads in agreement. Jonghyun felt as though he had to defend himself.
“It's not my fault! I swear she's stalking me!”
“Ugh, then get some bitch repellent so we can move on with our lives!” Leave it to Kibum to swear when he was pissed. Ah, Kibum was pissed, then Minho and Jinki were probably pretty annoyed as well. Jonghyun wouldn't be winning this game. Jonghyun just looked at each one of them before raising his hand once again.
“I'm sorry.” Jinki was the first to break and hug him.
“Oh Jjongie, it's okay!” Followed by Kibum,
“Aw, come here you little punk!” Who was then followed by Minho, who just patted his head and said,
“It's okay, hyung.” If only his parents and sister were so forgiving towards him. Eventually the limbs untangled themselves and all was once again well with the world, until Kibum spoke, stirring up some trouble again.
“But this isn't about you, Jjong. From here on, this is an interrogation.” Kibum looked rather proud as he stated this, Minho nodding a little and Jinki looking just as confused as Jonghyun. Jinki was confused, so they were probably going to interrogate him. Jonghyun realized this and snickered a little. Poor Jinki, Kibum would probably be relentless.
“Hyung.” Kibum drawled, wrapping an arm around Jinki and pulling him closer. Commence the interrogation. “Jinki hyung, you eat well right? Except for the fried chicken you like to eat every now and then.”
“Uh, yeah...” Jinki seemed to look between Jonghyun and Minho for help. Minho just shrugged and Jonghyun mouthed 'sorry'.
“You're pretty healthy, right?” Kibum raised one of Jinki's hands before letting it drop as Jinki responded with another 'yeah'. Kibum then smirked, only for a moment but Jonghyun caught it, then Kibum asked the question that would surely give him the victory he was waiting for.
“And... you sleep well, right?” Kibum grinned, “Hyung.” That did it, that must have been his trump card because Jinki's eyes widened considerably - only for a moment - as he parted his lips to respond before clamping them shut as he swallowed a lump that suddenly found residence in his throat. Kibum lightly shook the elder with his arm which was still wrapped around Jinki before lightly squeezing his arm.
“Uh...”
“Don't lie to me Jinki!” Kibum warned as he spun Jinki to face him. Jinki looked at him a little shocked before lightly smiling at him. Kibum traced the area underneath Jinki's eyes with his index finger as his face took on a dejected expression and he quietly spoke,
“Jinki... there are these extremely dark rings under your eyes right here, you're usually dozing off at times that are inappropriate and maybe even dangerous. What's going on? Is something bothering you? Can't you tell us?” Jinki smiled again, closing his eyes.
“It's nothing Kibum ah, just dreams.”
“That keep you awake all night? They can't be good.”
“Ah, talking about nightmares, it's so childish Kibum ah.” Jinki held Kibum's hand in his and gently moved it away, but Kibum tensed and prevented Jinki from completing the action.
“And you're mature, since when?” Kibum insisted, staring Jinki down until he broke through the elder's resolve. Jinki sighed, signalling the acceptance of his defeat. Minho almost sighed in relief, if Jinki didn't go down that easily, God knows what Kibum would do. Jonghyun was leaning in now - a little too much - he was curious, he wanted to know what was keeping Jinki up at night. Why? Because he felt as though he was entitled to know everything about Jinki.
“Ah,” Jinki suddenly became nervous and started messing around with anything his fingers fell upon - his hair, his face, his clothes, everything. “You know, this is so cheesy-”
“Since when did cheesy things matter to you, hyung?” Minho flatly interjected causing Jinki to pout and give him a 'who's side are you on' look. Minho chuckled and continued, “Sorry hyung, but if this keeps up, you'll get so sick you'll have to go to the hospital. You've already become so weak.” Minho emphasized his statement by pushing Jinki causing him to tumble onto Kibum's lap. And Kibum suddenly had the urge to do some teasing, or molesting, or whatever the hell you want to call it because he was going to do it anyway.
“Jinki ah,” Kibum caressed Jinki's face, “Are you lost?” Kibum said in that sing-song way of his. Jinki giggled, patting Kibum's hand.
“Kibum ah,” the response was a playful one. Jonghyun scoffed and Minho eventually pulled Jinki back up, earning an annoyed sound from Kibum.
“Don't interrupt my romantic scenes Minho! Dammit...” Kibum started grumbling and Jonghyun snickered.
“Anyway, do you see my point? Jinki you're probably two nights away from being sick.” Minho said, crossing his arms.
“No, no I'm fine.” Jinki said attempting to wave off the question but instead he ended up losing his balance. He held his head with one hand and braced himself with the other against the floor.
“Ugh, I don't think we need any more proof. Hyung, just tell us what's going on, we can't help otherwise.” Minho prevented Jinki from objecting with a stern, “We are going to help.”
“Seriously, Jinki ah.” Jonghyun didn't really want to believe any of this, Jinki was falling sick, and he wouldn't even let them try to help. They were all best friends! Like a key and lock, they need to be together otherwise they're near useless. He huffed, blew up his cheeks and squatted placing his hands on the floor between his legs. At that moment Jinki chose to look at him and, like the child he really is, he jumped over and hugged the living daylights out of Jonghyun who apparently was stuck to the floor because he didn't fall over.
“Aha, you remind me of one of those stuffed animals in the stores!” As Jinki nuzzled Jonghyun's shoulder, Minho and Kibum sighed at how easily their hyung could be distracted and honestly, this worried them even more.
After some time, Kibum's patience eventually ran out and he pounced on Jinki, dragged him away and dropped him onto a bench. He then held Jinki down onto the bench and called Minho and Jonghyun over.
“Hyung, you are going to talk and you are going to talk now!” Kibum commanded, unspoken threats lacing his voice and features. Jinki visibly shuddered and as he looked over to Jonghyun and Minho, who were quite terrified considering the fact that they were basically hiding behind the lovely and wide sign located a little bit behind Kibum, he was told 'forget it, they can't help you now'. Jinki could have fainted - if he wasn't so damn terrified.
“I, I,” Kibum narrowed his eyes. “Okay, well there's usually a white room, it's plain, empty with absolutely nothing! I can't even tell where the walls and the floor meet!” Kibum softened his expression, just a bit.
“Go on...” Kibum said, he listened intently as Jinki described the recurring dream for the past couple weeks. There was a person - at least it looked like a person - who would usually ask about some woman by the name of Boeun. Ask about, if she was there in the town and if she was causing trouble for any other people. The person, who Jinki referred to as a 'he' so Kibum figured it was a man, would say that if she did anything to harm anyone that Jinki should tell him and he would get rid of her. He would also say things like 'Boeun is the last one, as soon as I get rid of her, everyone will be safe! So don't worry, okay?' and stuff similar to that.
“Ah, so then, what does the person look like?” Kibum asked, Jonghyun and Minho standing behind him, having become curious of it all.
“Ah, hum... he is... kinda tall and he has a,” Jinki made circular motions with his hand around his head, “bowl haircut, except it looks nice, kinda brown hair which darkens to black at the roots and, and...” Jinki looked thoughtful for a moment, before he looked as though he just had an epiphany, and pointed to his cheeks. “Dimples, when he smiles, he has a dimple right around here!” He pointed to the left corner of his mouth.
“Oh, that's a lot of details.” Jonghyun said petulantly, Minho just gave him a disapproving look while Kibum asked some more questions.
“But... that's only half of what you dream, isn't it? There's no way that would really keep you up.” Kibum watched as Jinki pursed his lips a little - hesitation. Then he looked at them and cracked a smile.
“Ah, the other half is unpleasant, you guys shouldn't have to hear about stuff like that...”
“We want to hyung, you'll tell us.” Minho obviously didn't like Jinki bottling all of his troubles up. Jinki gave him a dejected look.
“After the first part, I'd usually wake up for a while, but when I fell back asleep...” Jinki hesitated again, biting his lip - he almost looked as if he were battling with himself - before continuing. “The room, it would be black and it would smell... like decay. There were usually things attached to the walls and ceiling - hanging from chains and hooks - they'd be mangled, bloody, horrible,” Jinki was starting to look sick,
“Hands, legs, arms, bodies... they would just be there hanging, swinging and pouring blood and their insides onto the floor which was a mirror or something, so even when I tried to look away from it all it was impossible - it was just everywhere.” Jinki hands clasped his hands, they were shaking but even though he described all of that, they felt as though that was not the end of it. They were right.
“Eventually, everything would start to melt and then, when it was all gone, he would come back. But he wouldn't be all smiley and healthy. He would look as if someone tried to rip him apart, he'd have cuts and bruises, his eyes would be bloodshot, he'd look frail and depressed and he would just stand there and stare at me - stark-eyed and tight lipped. I would try to talk to him every time, though all he would do was look at me. After a while he would just walk away in the opposite direction - it was so... freaky.” Jonghyun didn't want to hear any more and if that was the case then he was sure Kibum just wanted to shut Jinki up and go and hit stuff because when Kibum's scared he likes to hit things. But Kibum was trying so hard to be a proper best friend, here was no way he was going to stop Jinki - at least, not until he was done. Jinki paused for a while, trying to gather his thoughts.
“I would just stand there and then, the room would suddenly look like an alleyway at night, and across the walls you could see shadows mimicking everything that was taking place in front of me. There would be... a man and a woman walking past the alleyway and another man would be running after them calling out to the other, telling him not to go with the woman. I would follow and look at what happened. When I reached the man who was with the woman would be passed out on the floor while the other was held back by a group of men. Then, everything would fade, all I would be able to see was black.” Jinki stopped again. Honestly, Jonghyun didn't want to know what happened next. He would be fine with never, ever knowing how it ends, really. He would be so happy if this was the end of Jinki's nightmare. Of course, it wasn't.
Damn.
“Then there would be the sounds of screaming, people would be calling each other's names and then there would be a sickening sound of skin and bones cracking and breaking and then the sound of blood dripping followed by a horrified scream and a woman's shrill laughter. Then one of the people would be repeatedly calling the other's name and cursing the woman. After a while a bunch of voices would say stuff like 'this has gone too far' and 'we won't be a part of this any longer'. The woman would swear at them and then there'd gunshots and screaming... The person who was calling the dead one's name would scream before there was rattling and then another sickening sound of flesh, skin and bone being ripped and cracked before there was the sound of someone hitting the floor. Then more high pitched laughter-” Jinki buried his face in his palms and sniffled a little, his dyed hair courtesy of Kibum effectively hiding his face.
“Oh my God, Jinki you've been dreaming this for the past month?” Kibum sounded so far away as Jonghyun tried to process everything. Holy hell, it was all so disgusting, how did Jinki live with those dreams for a whole month? All this time Jonghyun just thought that Jinki's tiredness was because he was probably exhausting himself again. Jonghyun never even thought that... Jonghyun just wanted to beat the crap out of himself right now but before Jonghyun could finish his self hate thoughts, Minho spoke.
“That's... not the end is it..?” Minho was being cautious, and that was fine, with a topic like that and descriptions like those, if one wasn't careful Jinki would faint or become nauseated. Jinki looked up, smiling weakly at the other. Oh please no, Jonghyun's stomach couldn't handle much more.
“There's not much left though, so...” Jonghyun could feel the happiness inside of him almost explode, so he wasn't surprised when Kibum suddenly straightened up and told Jinki not to worry and finish. Jinki recomposed himself and did his best to describe it - to make it short and sweet.
“After that, more black. Then he'd appear again except this time he would be with another guy - this guy looks like the one who was with the woman. First they would be happy, joking and goofing off but after a minute there would be a bright flash and screams and then they would be all bloody and crying and they would be hugging each other making promises to stay together before everything just blended into everything else. The end.” Jinki finished with a dry, forced laugh. Kibum had one hand over his mouth and the other over his stomach. Yeah, that was probably the worst horror movie-like thing Kibum had ever heard. Jonghyun was a bit interested, disgusted but interested. Just a little though because really, why would Jinki have to have dreams like those? He's just too... Jinki to have dreams like those. Jonghyun felt some strange urge to go home with Jinki and sleep with him - in a totally un-perverted way - to protect him, as if Jonghyun's being there would just scare the nightmares away or something.
Yeah right.
“I have an idea!” Kibum announced after he got over the initial shock, “Why don't we just all sleep over at Jinki's?” Apparently, Kibum was thinking the same thing as Jonghyun, although in Jonghyun's version it was only him and Jinki. Jonghyun sulked a little but at least-
“On such short notice? I don't know if my landlord would allow it...”
If they had any form of animals ears, they would be drooping now, but Kibum, being Kibum, refused to be defeated - even by a landlord.
“Then everyone can just come to my apartment, I won't mind.” Before anyone could object in any way Kibum continued, “Yeah, that sounds like a plan! Alright, quick! Everyone, go home, get your stuff and then run back to my place!”
“Ah, do we have to run?” Jinki whined. Minho sighed and Kibum responded,
“Yeah ru- actually, I guess you don't have to, you could walk if you want. I guess it really doesn't matter.” He shrugged. Jonghyun was relieved, sure the notion of running home and then to Kibum's apartment sounded absurd, but knowing Kibum if he wanted to, he would make them do it.
Kibum hurried them off and told them that if they didn't reach his apartment in thirty minutes, he would trace their phones, find them and beat them up. Who could really argue with such a threat when Kibum was the one issuing it? They just scurried off and tried their best to be on time.
◎♡◎♡◎
Jonghyun sighed as Minho rang the doorbell for the nth time and he was this close to losing it and breaking down the damned door. This close, until Kibum finally opened it. He grinned at them and Jonghyun suddenly wanted to punch him but he settled for words instead.
“You told us to hurry here or you'd beat us up, but you had us waiting for at least thirty minutes out here! You know since it's, like, November, it's really cold out here?!” Kibum gave him a 'shut the fuck up' look and Jonghyun wished a had something, anything, to beat this guy up with.
“Well I'm sorry our dear maknae needed a debriefing so he would know what was going on!” Kibum crossed his arms and moved out of the way, allowing the shivering trio to enter his apartment.
“Ah, in here's roomier than I remember,” Minho commented, glancing around.
“Yeah, I fixed it up a little for you guys,” was Kibum's response, of course it made Jonghyun feel bad for arguing with him earlier, but there was no way he would show it. Minho just nodded a bit and Jinki yelled his thanks from somewhere deep in the apartment. They really had to keep a better eye on their hyung. There was suddenly a yelp followed by a crash. Minho and Kibum looked alarm and by the time they stood up, Jonghyun had already dashed to the room where the crash had apparently come from.
Really, they had to keep a better eye on Jinki.
Jonghyun yanked open the door and was greeted with the sight of Taemin laying on his back on a loveseat, his legs hanging over the armrest, hugging Jinki tightly - almost squeezing him to death if Jinki's strangled cries were anything to go by - repeatedly yelling,
“Hyung! Hyung, are you okay? Omigosh hyung, such freaky dreams why didn't you say anything? Taemin would have come to your rescue ages ago! Hyung, hyung, hyung, hyung, hyung!! You should have said something! Seriously! Ah, you really are getting weak! Look at how pale you are and you feel so cold! You even got lighter!! You and I shall eat a lot tonight, okay?!” And the ranting just went on, so, Taemin was obviously worried about Jinki. And Jonghyun obviously didn't expect to see what he saw because he just stood there, staring. He expected to see Jinki on the ground nursing some bump or bruise, not being hugged to death by his maknae.
“Oh, go get a room!” Kibum's teasing comment shocked Jonghyun back to Earth, when did Kibum and Minho get here? Oh right, they were right behind him. Whatever then. Taemin momentarily stopped squeezing Jinki and replied,
“Can't you see I'm in a room right now? You're invading our privacy!” Taemin stuck his tongue out at Kibum, the kid had guts if nothing else.
“Curse the day you became legal, Taeminnie! Don't give your umma lip!” Kibum stalked past Jonghyun until he was right in front of Taemin's face where he proceeded to place his hands on his hips and tap his foot impatiently - a string of actions with which he was all too familiar. “Stop crushing your hyung, let him breathe!” Instead of trying to pry Taemin's hands off of Jinki, Kibum just tickled Taemin's sides until he eventually let the other go. Jinki clambered away from Taemin, trying his best not to fall over as he ran to the door where Jonghyun and Minho were quietly standing. Jonghyun was a little curious as to how this all went down while Kibum continued to tickle all the oxygen out of Taemin.
“So, how did this happen?” Jinki rubbed his head and replied,
“I dunno, I was just walking past the door when someone - Taemin - grabbed me and pulled me into the room. Next thing I knew was that he was hugging me and saying he would have saved me.” He laughed a little and Jonghyun followed suit. Eventually, Kibum and Taemin pulled everyone into the room and thus, a tickle war began.
All this and the night hadn't even started yet.
◎♡◎♡◎
“So, what is the point of this, umma?” Taemin asked as the five of them sat cross-legged on cushions around a low table, Minho grabbing the remote and flipping through channels while Jonghyun and Jinki played rock-paper-scissors. Kibum thoughtfully tapped is chin with his pointer finger, before he snapped his fingers, signalling to everyone that he had come up with a response.
“Well, does anyone know how to stop nightmares?” There was a silence before Minho spoke,
“Usually, we just have to wait a while and the nightmares would stop on their own... after about a week, right?” Minho looked at Taemin who nodded while saying that's the only way he knows of.
“There's gotta be something we can do...” Jonghyun sulked, his chin resting on the smooth surface of the table, letting his head loll from one side to the other. It wouldn't make much sense to ask Jinki because if he knew of a way surely he would have used it by now. Speaking of Jinki, Jonghyun thought as he glanced to his right where he saw Jinki rolling an orange back and forth with the palm of his hand. Jonghyun looked to the centre of the table, there was a bowl of oranges. He looked at Jinki then to the bowl then back at Jinki before cracking a smile, of course his hyung could make a toy out of anything - even fruit. Then Jonghyun saw fingers snap in his face.
“Hello,” Taemin sang, “Earth to hyung?”
“What?” Jonghyun sat up a bit.
“Go google some way for us to prevent Jinki's nightmares,” Kibum said as he took a bite of an apple.
“Why should I go find it while you sit here on your ass and eat? And where did you get that apple all of a sudden?” Jonghyun yelled, he didn't want to leave to go and google something that was more than likely a wild goose chase.
“This is my apartment Jjong, I live here. I know where everything is so it was easy for me to go and get it while you were staring at Jinki. And you have to do it cause I say so!” Kibum took a nice big bite out of the apple, just to piss Jonghyun off because it was funny.
“I don't want to waste my time! And you're not allowed to drop the 'hyung'!”
“You're right, you would be wasting your time,” Kibum took a bite, “but I'm just as close to Jinki as the next person so it's just fine if I drop the 'hyung', haha.” Another bite.
“Yeah, so wha-” Jonghyun was cut off by an apple core connecting with his forehead, “...Fuck you, Kim Kibum.” The response Jonghyun got was a perfect middle finger pointing right at him accompanied by a stuck out tongue. They continued to bicker as Taemin and Jinki laughed while watching them and eating oranges and Minho complained that they were 'so loud and rude' as he tried to focus on watching his soccer game.
◎♡◎♡◎
“I have an idea!” Taemin announced, looking proud of himself. At this point Jonghyun and Kibum were at each other's throats - literally, as they gripped each other's collars and glared at each other - Jinki had an orange stuffed in his mouth - skin an all - as he attempted to grin while Minho told him he should at least peel the orange before eating it. Ah, Taemin had great hyungs, really. He sighed a little as said hyungs looked at him asked him what his idea was in various tones of clarity and loudness. “Well, since we can't think of any way to ward off nightmares, why don't we just stay up until tomorrow?”
Now, there were so many different things that were wrong with that statement, especially since they had classes for the entirety of the next day, but it was the thought that counts. Everyone mulled it over for a moment.
“Sure, why not?” Kibum sighed and let go of Jonghyun so he could shrug, “We'll probably fall asleep any way...”
“YAAAAY!!” Taemin threw up his arms and ran around, cheering. Of course, he just wanted an excuse to be able to stay up late, Kibum should have known. “I can stay up late!” The maknae sang as he ran around some more before plopping onto the couch lengthwise behind Minho, swiping the remote from the elder and flipping through the channels with a smug look on his face. Minho sighed and muttered that the game he cared about was over any way and that he was thirsty as he shuffled off into the kitchen. Kibum followed Minho with his eyes before deciding to go with him.
“What if he gets lost or tries to eat all of my ramen?” Kibum said to no one in particular before he walked out the door, calling to Minho to wait up.
“Ooh, I want ramen!” Was all Taemin said before he jumped off the couch and ran after them. Jonghyun and Jinki were left there and they were just staring at the television set, until Jonghyun thought of something to talk about. Jonghyun slowly moved his left arm as he turned to face Jinki, placing his hand on Jinki's chest - where he figured his heart should be, though he could be wrong as Jonghyun didn't consider himself a genius.
“How's this going, Jinki ah?” Jinki stared at Jonghyun's hand before his eyes widened a bit as he realized what Jonghyun was referring to. He smiled, placing his hand over Jonghyun's.
“Ah, it's fine... but it could be better.” Jinki responded earnestly. Oh, what did Jinki mean? Could Jonghyun have a relationship with him now or was he referring to the stress of the nightmares? Jonghyun's mind raced and he couldn't think of anything good to respond with, though it's not like he could stop his word vomit.
“Would it be okay now? You know- well I mean, if I..” Before Jonghyun could say anything else - or say something completely and utterly stupid - Jinki pecked him, soft and quick, on his now blood red cheek. Jonghyun rapidly blinked before he stared at a smiling Jinki, bemused. “So... I can?”
Jinki closed his eyes with a smile and was about to respond before someone yelled - nice, loud and shocking,
“Umma, Umma!! Jonghyun hyung is molesting Jinki hyung!!” Taemin yelled, causing Jonghyun and Jinki to snap out of their reverie and pull away from each other. Taemin turned to face them, a wicked little grin on his face as his eyes met with Jonghyun's. He walked over to the couch and sat down, slurping the noodles from his ramen cup.
“You evil little-” Jonghyun would have finished the thought if Kibum didn't come barrelling through the door.
“I knew we shouldn't have left you two alone!” Kibum pointed at Jonghyun with his chopsticks accusingly, “You perverted dog!”
“How dare you bring animal references into this!” Jonghyun retorted.
“Are you, then, not going to deny the fact that you're a pervert?” In response to Kibum's accusation Jonghyun sputtered,
“O-oh yeah? Well, what about you!” It was Jonghyun's turn to point now.
“I am not perverted, I'm just a very caring mother towards my children!”
“Well then, I'm just caring towards my friends!”
“There's a line between caring touches and perverted touches!”
“Well, didn't you know that Taemin was lying?” In response Kibum gasped,
“Taemin would never lie! You were probably extremely close to Jinki and that's why Taemin may have misunderstood! Right Taeminnie?” Kibum looked to Taemin who hurriedly swallowed his mouthful of noodles before replying,
“Ah, yeah umma! He was close to Jinki hyung like how those boys and girls are like in the movies when they're alone!” Kibum made a face akin to one of pure shock while Taemin fired a sneaky, smug little smirk at Jonghyun. As the second mini-battle of the night continued, Minho just sat on the couch behind Jinki, patting his hyung's head while slurping noodles and telling him not to worry as Jinki just looked at Jonghyun and Kibum bicker for the sake of bickering yet again and sighed.
◎♡◎♡◎
Eventually they all settled down to watch a movie, but they didn't actually watch the movie, they put the movie to play in the background as they played games and commented on random scenes before they eventually fell asleep - the two eldest had somehow ended up on the floor while the other three were on the couch. Taemin was laying across Minho and Kibum's lap, Minho and Kibum's heads leaning against each other, Jinki's head resting on Jonghyun's shoulder and Jonghyun's head leaning on Jinki's. But before they had fallen asleep, Jonghyun had vowed to himself that as soon as Jinki awoke from the nightmare, Jonghyun would comfort him in any way he possibly could.
And Jinki did wake up at some ungodly hour with a sharp gasp and a jolt, covered in cold sweat - knocking his head with Jonghyun's, successfully waking the other up. And Jonghyun did comfort him - stayed awake with him, threading his fingers through the elder's hair while whispering comforting words to him until the sun threatened to climb into the sky, forcing them to awaken the others and get ready for school with little rest, but even so, Jonghyun stayed with Jinki.
◎♡◎♡◎
Part 2