Fic: Searching for... ... - Chapter 7A
Title: Searching for... ... - Chapter 7A
Author: vic_sim
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone, anything, except for the plot.
Characters: Super Junior + Henry, Zhou Mi, DBSK
Category: General
Rating: PG-13
Archive
“No one survived?”
Ryeowook checked, unable to believe his ears.
Kibum nodded, keeping his silence. Instead he reached over to the laptop, and scrolled down the page, finding the part which reported it.
Ryeowook read the segment in shock and disbelief. He had failed his brother. The promise to care for him, to protect him, to go back for him, all disappeared in an orange flame into dark black choking smoke in the sky.
“Ryeowook?”
Kibum voiced his concern. Although he was not one who showed his emotions often to people, he was different when with people he considered family. And Ryeowook was definitely part of his family.
Kibum had grown up rather self-absorbed in his world. His companions were mainly Donghae’s friends. It was intriguing how the two siblings had taken the personality of each of their parents with Donghae being more like their mother and Kibum, their father. At least that was the first impression people gather of the siblings. In actuality, the two were similar to each other.
Donghae relished in the fantasies of the unknown world of aliens, monsters and any unidentifiable creatures. He announced to the whole world his love and passion for them and often dragged his good friends with him on excursions to find the aliens that stayed on Earth. Kibum, on the other hand, kept himself content by immerging in books, engaging in those exact fantasies of his hyung by reliving them through the words of the writers. That was what brought the two brothers close, despite Kibum complaining to Ryeowook about his childish hyung. Ryeowook and Donghae both knew that it was the way Kibum showed his love.
Ryeowook looked at Kibum, tears glistering in his eyes. He could still remember the voice from his dream, asking him to promise that Ryeowook would come back for him. The young innocent voice. All he had now was the voice and a blurry image of the boy.
“What’s wrong, Wookie?”
Kibum reached over in an uncharacteristic action to hold Ryeowook’s hands. He was genuinely scared by the tears. Ryeowook tended to cry more easily, but this silent falling of tears were frightening Kibum. He reached into his pocket, taking out his phone to send a text to Hankyung. He only prayed that Hankyung would come quickly.
After what seemed like eternity as Kibum could only sit there unable to persuade Ryeowook to divulge anything, he heard footsteps rapidly approaching the bench.
“Hankyung-hyung!”
Kibum called out, making Hankyung’s worry explode when Ryeowook did not even react to his name. Quickly dumping his bag on the floor, not even caring that the floor was exceptionally dirty, Hankyung sat next to Ryeowook, pulling his dongsaeng into his embrace.
“What’s wrong Li Xu?” Ryeowook’s Chinese name slipped out in Hankyung’s worried state.
It was then that Ryeowook showed any reaction, for there were only three people in the world who called him that - his parents and Hankyung. Ryeowook turned, burying his head in Hankyung’s chest.
“I didn’t keep my promise. I couldn’t keep my promise.”
“What promise?”
But Ryeowook was no longer replying to him. Hankyung looked puzzled at Kibum, who simply pointed to the laptop screen with concern shining through his eyes.
Hankyung scanned through the article, still not quite apprehending why the burning down of an orphanage would trigger such a reaction in Ryeowook. He stared at the name of the orphanage, something clicking in him. Oh. Hankyung reached a hand, soothing Ryeowook by stroking through his hair.
“Hyung..?”
Hankyung’s eyes travelled to Kibum, noting the tense shoulders of the younger. He shook his head, mouthing “I’ll tell you later.” For now, the three of them sat in relative silence, except for the occasional sniffling from Ryeowook.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hae, where’s everyone?”
Donghae looked up from his spot at the tree where they always gathered to see Eunhyuk sitting down next to him.
“I saw Kibummie and Ryeowook leaving together. Kyuhyun is sick. Henry went back to check on him. Yunho-hyung and Jaejoong-hyung are together somewhere. Kangin-hyung, Heechul-hyung, and Yoochun-hyung are at lectures. Hannie-hyung got a text and suddenly left just now. Oh, Teukie-Umma went to check on Kyuhyun as well.”
Eunhyuk nodded at the long explanation from his friend, even though there were still some people unaccounted for.
“Everyone seems to be busy with their own things huh?”
Eunhyuk asked absent-mindedly as he spotted his best friend from afar. Junsu was now running towards the pair, frantically waving a piece of paper in the air.
“Hyukkie! Donghae!”
Junsu came to a stop in front of them, panting hard.
“What?”
Eunhyuk asked, only to have the paper flung into his face.
Crouching over the piece of paper, Donghae and Eunhyuk read through it.
“What? We’re supposed to produce a video of the act we’re performing?” Donghae exclaimed. “That’s a new thing. I’ve not heard it before.”
Having regain his breath, Junsu spoke. “Apparently there were too many groups who entered this year, and they would not have the time to judge every single performance on that day. Hence they came up with a new criterion of a video.”
“But how are we going to record the video? We haven’t even finalise our performance yet!”
“I know that Hyukkie. But what can we do?”
“Hey, did you see the deadline for submission?”
Donghae’s soft voice interrupted the two.
Eunhyuk and Junsu looked at each other, then simultaneously turning to look at the paper.
“Oh, damn.” Junsu nodded in accordance.
They were going to be so dead.
It was due a week from today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The three of them had retreated to Sungmin’s room, now with nothing to hide for they had a reason - a mission to discuss. All three were still reveling from the photograph they had just seen. Having grown up in the household, surrounded by people who all worked for his father, Sungmin knew that the people the gang tended to investigate on were usually those involved in the underworld. However, he could not wrap his mind around the fact that he was now supposed to investigate his friend.
Zhou Mi glanced warily at the other two as Shindong took his usual spot in the room. He was uncertain about his feelings towards the mission. He had only just transferred to the university - even though it was based on a lie that he was only here for a year for he could no longer return to his home country - and yet, he was ordered to do that. He knew that he could not defy the boss, but his heart willed him to follow his young master.
Shindong looked at the two, noting how they seemed to gravitate towards each other unknowingly. Tearing his eyes away and ignoring the faint twinge in his chest, he thought about the situation. What were they going to do now? He knew vaguely about the compromise Sungmin had made with his father, and he knew that if Sungmin wanted to live his own life, here was his only chance. Sungmin would have to complete the mission. But completing the mission might mean that they - all three of them - would lose some, if not all, of their friends. And it was a daunting thought, for they had built a life outside the walls of this house, a life where they could pretend to be simple casual students attending university and not worry about potential enemies who were after their lives. It was a life he wanted to keep living.
“How should we go about doing this?”
Sungmin asked. He was deliberately avoiding acknowledging who they were going to investigate, choosing to believe that if none of them were to mention the name, it would not be true. Deep inside, Sungmin knew that he was in denial. If he could, he wanted to deny the whole existence of the mission.
The two picked up the train of thought, neither questioning Sungmin’s words, allowing for their young master to remain in denial for in truth, they too wanted to do so. Shindong shook his head as they started the planning, thinking.
Perhaps the only good thing about this whole thing is that we’re the ones investigating.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kyuhyun stared at Brian, the words registering in his head. This... Seeing the pain swirling within his hyung’s eyes, Kyuhyun knew it was true.
“How long?”
Brian shook his head.
“They are not sure because you missed the past two check-ups. Didn’t you say that you wanted to start anew? To get away from all the pain? What was it that you promised me when I let you come here?”
“How do you know about it?”
“Your contact is still me on the records. They called to ask why you didn’t go for your appointments.”
Kyuhyun looked away, pinning his gaze at a tiny dirty speck on the wall which he had not notice before. Kyuhyun could not give a voice to his thoughts. Because if I can ignore it, I can tell myself that maybe I’m fine.
“…I don’t want to do it.”
“Kyuhyun…”
Gently Brian guided Kyuhyun’s face towards him, ignoring the suppressed tremors from his dongsaeng. Brian’s eyes met Kyuhyun’s, both almost mirroring each other in pain, though one was pleading, while the other was wavering.
“Kyuhyun…”
Brian’s eyes locked onto Kyuhyun’s, not allowing Kyuhyun to look away. Both pairs of eyes stared at each other, mirroring each other in the efforts of hiding pain, though one was pleading while the other was wavering. Kyuhuyn gave an inscrutable nod, tearing his eyes away from his hyung. Brian breathed an internal sigh of relief. He was about to say more when the door opened.
Kyuhyun turned his head slightly, glad to have a reason to avoid looking at Brian. Henry paused as he spotted two people at the table, one his roommate, the other unknown. His puzzled look must have appeared on his face for the unknown person stood up to introduce himself. Remembering his manners - or what his mother had drilled into his head about Asian culture when he was younger, Henry bowed in response to the introduction.
“Kyuhyun, are you feeling better?”
That question raised a confused look, mixed with worries from Brian. It was then that he noticed that Kyuhyun was paler than he used to be. He had attributed the sudden dizziness as just something normal as it tended to occur with Kyuhyun and his mind was completely filled with the words of the doctor that kept repeating itself in his head like an endless broken recorder. He berated internally for not paying more attention to his dongsaeng. Now he questioned his decision for letting his dongsaeng study away from him. It has barely been two months since he started school! And he’s already ill.
He cast a stern glare at Kyuhyun, but held back from fussing over the younger in Henry’s presence. Kyuhyun nodded slightly at Henry’s question, choosing to stand up - slowly this time - as he planned to head back to his room. He staunchly ignored the two as he walked down the corridor, leaving the two who just met alone. He did not want either to be mothering him. At the moment, he wanted to be alone.
Left alone, Brian and Henry could only stare at each other awkwardly. Brian sighed, glancing at his watch. He had an appointment in half an hour - it was part of the reason why he was at the city - but he also wanted to find out more about how his dongsaeng was doing. Regret filled him every time when he thought about Kyuhyun for leaving him alone in the house with those he called family. When he found the courage to meet Kyuhyun again, it was nearly six months later.
“Please take care of Kyuhyun for me,” Brian asked of Henry, pausing before he ploughed on. “Tell him… tell him to call me about it.”
Henry was left standing confusedly in the common area, his mind pondering about that last statement.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>>>>> Part B