“it’s good experience for the crown prince!” this pudgy adviser’s voice sounds as if he’s constantly got food stuffed inside his mouth. “a necessary measure… not working for his highness… might help if he were to choose… ” baekhyun’s too busy counting the chins on this man to listen. that’s a whopping four, ladies and gentlemen! 

when it comes down to it, he won’t show how much he’s looking forward to the event. finally, he’ll get to choose his own toy. this is what eight-ssi died for! he lasted long, that’s gotta be acknowledged, but gosh did he have an ugly cry; baekhyun will make sure to avoid that this time.

within the first fifteen minutes of talking to him it's already evident that the boy would be of absolutely no use to the investigation. no ties with his father, no knowledge of the war, no interest in the military. no, jhin isn't tainted by any remnants of the hell baekhyun left behind. instead, he's bright. he's bright like the lights that shine times square and american billboards on the sidewalks. so infuriatingly bright.

and charming.

and funny and adorable. 

baekhyun's seen more than jhin without a doubt but he hadn't seen a happy bubbly free-spirit since the last time he had looked into a mirror and seen strawberry syrup stains at the edges of his lips too. yes, he also used to be like this, right? every touch of jhin's skin against his own reminds him of what had been and what could have been. and it worries baekhyun only because he knows that neither resentment nor envy would have caused a flutter in his chest.

he notices both the honesty in jhin's voice and the hurt in his eyes whenever it's not returned. jhin still knows him like the inside of his palm, picking up on every lie and slip of a poker face. baekhyun reminds himself of this whenever his phone starts to ring with that stupidly catchy pop song that jhin set as his ringtone.             when a moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie

no, jhin is of no use to the investigation.            when the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine   

why does he still pick up?               that's amore

his chest soothes when he hears jhin's voice again. how is this guy energetic at every goddamn hour of the day? jhin's face lights up when he sees baekhyun, and baekhyun hasn't smiled this genuine in a long time. when jhin talks, he's long-winded, but he has a way of making even a library trip sound like an adventure. when jhin sneaks a glance of him, he's subtle as if he's shy. yet when he pulls baekhyun into a hug, he doesn't hesitate for a moment. "it's normal in america!" his loud voice declares, right at the top of the empire state building. 

( @deiemos / source: here / status: not accepting! )

HE HAD ALWAYS been a quiet boy. Whether lost in daily fantasies of escape, of love, or just simply thinking back on the movies he had watched the evening prior, he resided in his own head.

It was a natural reaction for him, to remain silent, after his mother would chastise him all through his childhood. “But I’m not sick!” “Yes, you are. Now shut the hell up and sit still.” Then his skin would be pricked yet again and the conversation would be dubbed as finished. Now, over twenty years after his mother was caught, Sangho still struggled in opening up even in simple discussions.

People were easier to tune out than deal with face to face.

But he was nice. Too nice, most would surmise. If he was stuck in the clouds, it never took much to bring him back to the cold, hard ground. A simple tug on his leg and reality would wash over him again.

Currently, he was too stuck in his scathing thoughts about The Neon Demon to notice the other’s demand for his attention. Christ, what an awful movie. What’d they do that for? Words spoken are hardly enough to pierce Sangho’s disappointed, possibly even angry, wondering.

Glancing over at Jhin, it was only then that he remembered another was in his presence. Oops. He had done it again, just like Britney Spears. Had he been talking this entire time? What a pity.

He could hear his mother’s nagging in the distance, though she was hundreds of miles away, stuck behind steel bars for the rest of her life. It was enough to make him feel like a failure of a human. Guilt overtook his insides, seized them for the umpteenth time.

Geniuses were all crazy, they all had mad ideas. These moments of lucidity shouldn’t be experienced alone, someone was supposed to be on their side. A right hand, a partner, a brother.  

Wind in her hair, Mihyun didn’t close the window, the stormy weather fitted the atmosphere almost too perfectly. Almost. Maybe somewhere, someone up there was looking down on them, trying to scare them away from the young woman’s plan. Her head slowly turning to her left, another idea came to her mind as she opened another book. Her research started innocently, curiosity teasing her to dig a little more into that entire “Satan” myth. To her, it was nothing but myths. Forces like the devil, the angels, God, could exist. And, as a fake psychic, she had to prove herself all of her predictions were nothing more than a good calculation. Faith? There was no such thing as faith.

Her eyes were everywhere, from the books to the silhouette in front of her. Jhin was here with her, clueless. She didn’t tell him yet why she called him, she only said it was an emergency but she didn’t really fear his reaction. He was, after all, one of the few people she could talk to openly, without any filter. In this case, Jhin was clearly the only one she could call. She thought about Baekhyun, but she knew some parts of her plan weren’t safe for someone as... fragile as him. The tall guy was definitely more fit for the mess she had in mind while the other needed to be protected from such things. “As I told you before, I believe we can predict the future not because some spiritual being decided of our faith but because some... strangeness are around us.” She started to explain herself, a serious expression on her face to show him they weren’t here to fool around. The night would be long.  

Another page flipped, her finger pointed to it, giving a clue to the other one. “The treasure in old bones.” She read, a smile spreading on her face. The familiar knife was already in her hand, it travelled down the page at a fast pace only to cut it out. “This particular page tells me I can summon the guy from down there, Lucifer or something.” With a quiet laugh, she repeated a sentence written in red. How ironic. “The bones of a lonely, careless soul will summon the light-bearer.” Her eyes left the dusty sheet of paper, a dark spark appearing in them when she looked at Jhin once more.  The idea that bloomed in her mind earlier made her smile widely, oh they will have fun. “Burn their bones and find the answers you need.” This entire thing was nothing but an experiment, Mihyun wanted answers and she had to go out of her zone of comfort to find them. 

On the outside, it could be misunderstood as a meaningless excuse to cause trouble but she wasn’t quite a troublemaker. She knew better, she was greedy for knowledge. The feeling something could go wrong couldn’t be ignored by the young woman but she believed Jhin and her were able to finish her task.Her hatred for ignorance was dominating everything else. “They call it a sacrifice. A sacrifice from the grave.” Her words were spoken clearly, unable to go back in time and erase that moment from his memory. Thunder outside was having a competition with her heartbeat. If she believed in demons, she would think they were watching them. Her own beliefs didn’t make sense, it was time to put some light on this. It was time to give in, temptation was definitely hard to resist. 

We are in the crowd: weird kids sentence pack. 

status: accepting.

Her mother used to tell her friends were a family you could choose and, sometimes, Mihyun wondered if that was entirely true. A few weeks before she met that special friend, the cards warned the young woman about him. The knight of swords, a sign of bravery and, yet, foolishness. She couldn’t deny it was a good sign even though there was something more to the man. Sometimes, he seemed scared of her and other times, it was the complete opposite. Mihyun was only able to make him uncomfortable when they were reading his future, while Jhin could be pretty scary when he wasn’t treating her like she was his little sister. Fortunately, she only faced that overprotective, almost cheesy, side of him.  

The phone in her hands couldn’t stop ringing and she had to excuse herself to answer the call, she was waiting for it and he knew it. She knew he could tell she was trying to hide her excitement but it was definitely a lost cause as her gummy smile appeared the moment she answered. Such a cliché to see a girl waiting for that special moment, pretending she didn’t expect to talk to that girl. She laughed and spoke as the other looked at her, teasing her. She swore she saw him mouthing the word “crush”, ridiculous considering she never felt anything close to a crush. 

Her smile disappeared suddenly as her friend cancelled their plan for nothing else but a boy. Of course, what else. “No.. d.. don’t worry. It’s al— it’s alright! Yes I’m fine.” Mihyun lied to the other girl as she saw him moving, only to sit next to her. “I was going to.. to be late anyway! I had a lot of.. I had a busy day!” Her excuses were dull and irrelevant, Jhin knew it as he saw her getting ready nervously. Friends were a second family, why would they put each other aside for the sake of romance? 

@deiemos

it's not so cold when he's sitting on one of the three pillows that they own. he's even got a blanket around him and jhin is holding him close enough to share body heat. there’s utter darkness in the room save for the light that's shining from the screen of their million-year-old computer. it whirls like a rocket launcher just to play a single pixelated motion picture, flares up and fades out at random; the dead-beat machine's life is just a pathetic series of struggles. at least that's not unlike its co-owners. at least jhin can't tell when it's the colour saturation that flusters.

the light of the screen reflects off of baekhyun's cheeks. the contours of a grin. they both burst out laughing, boisterous and loud, shitting all over the quiet of the night. it's not so cold then when there's warmth in eyes that meet his --a welcome change from the gaze a mother wears as she screams a line of insults.                         ( in her defense, at least she's not a lying bitch: he really wasn’t ever supposed to be born. baekhyun must've gotten the compulsive lying from his father's side instead. )

"they panned at the worst moment! this camerawork is shit," jhin scowls at a director that will never hear him. he hasn't picked up that baekhyun's gaze has already shifted from the screen onto him. jhin doesn't usually pick up on things.

                  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --                                 THE FEW INSTANCES THAT JHIN ACTUALLY PICKED UP ON                                                                            SOMETHING UNSPOKEN

a few hours ago, when baekhyun was sulking for a little more hot sauce on his noodles.

a few days ago, when baekhyun texted "i know the way back on my own!!!!!" from a place at which he most certainly did not. 

a few weeks ago, when baekhyun came knocking at his door: duffel bag, pathetic expression, red mark on his cheek, the whole cliche.     -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

it began as a Lost Boys homecoming and  became the home baekhyun never had. jhin was a genie because he had the magic ability to make anything enough ; sleeping bags, empty fridges, flickering lights, ancient computers. a small meat bun was suddenly big enough to rip off half if it were for jhin. baekhyun, who never did anything selfless, passed off his dick money as busking tips so he could buy bubble tea to share with jhin.                                     baekhyun, who's never been fortunate, fell down a spiked pit and struck gold.

the screen freezes again like their skin underneath the blanket. when it does that for long enough, they make up the rest of the movie themselves. baekhyun's in charge of the sound effects and jhin, the plot.

the rest of the night is more fun than when they actually had the movie playing.

it doesn’t dread on baekhyun until midnight. he’s safe at home. he doesn’t think until the darkness seeps that there’s a monster's hiding. not under his bed, but on top of another. as the newest saved contact on his phone. the newest noose around his neck; but he's safe here. he'll face his fear of the sunrise when he wakes up with jhin's hand inside his; though jhin still hasn't figured out everything else baekhyun has left unspoken. 

                 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --