After Dusk || Im Changkyun

26. Cloud 9

Chapter Twenty Six

"I really can't go anywhere because of you, can I? I might as well quit my own job and watch you 24/7." Changkyun sighed, shaking his head while he look down at you worriedly. You weakly gripped onto his shirt, which was different from the gray one he was wearing earlier. His features were enhanced from the moonlight that cast from Wonho's open curtains, the worry lines on his forehead creasing while he looked at you. You just smiled.
"Were you about to sleep?" You asked, noticing his hair that was messed up despite the fact that you had straightened it out not too long ago. Your hands instinctively found themselves weaving through his hair, flattening it out.
You could ignore a lot of things in this life but you couldn't ignore when Changkyun's hair was messy. It was like second nature for you to fix it despite how cute he looked. He scoffed at you, arguing back instead of answering your question,
"Were you planning on you know, eating anytime soon?"
"Tomorrow. Work." You responded, saying the last part quietly in hopes that none of them would hear. You lifted yourself off of Changkyun and sat up straight. His arm careful wrapped itself around your waist, placing the back of his free hand on your forehead.
"I can't tell." He looked to Kihyun,
"She's always either frigid or burning up."
Kihyun very roughly shoved Hyungwon away from him for zero reason and Hyungwon crashed into a wall, mumbling inaudible words at the shorter man.
"Well, Changkyun. Does she look like she's okay?"
Changkyun rolled his eyes at Kihyun, who slapped his neck lightly. Changkyun retracted from Kihyun, leaning closer to you as he rubbed his neck with a annoyed point. You giggled softly,
"Does he always abuse you all?"
"They deserve it."
"I know. I would if I could."
Kihyun bent down in front of you, looking at you again. You hid your face in Changkyun's shoulder to which he tsked.
"I'll just head home and sleep. I'll be better in the morning." You informed them both, who seemed not to be falling for your tricks. You didn't expect them too but it was worth a shot. You somehow managed to stand yourself up after faltering a few times, or Kihyun gently pushing you back into your seat. You took a few aching steps, keeping yourself as straight as you could just to show the men that were around you that you were alright.
See, all you needed was a few minutes to sit down and you'd already regained your energy.
Changkyun mumbled something, his hand hovering above your shoulder but you swatted it away.
You didn't need his help.
However, the giant barricade that was Lee Wonho stepped in between you and the door that was leading out of his apartment.
"Babes, you need a hospital."
"Babes?" Changkyun raised an eyebrow at Wonho, his eyes narrowing at him. Wonho's eyes widened, looking like he just regretted his entire life choices as he held his hands up in surrender, blowing his hair out of his eyes whose pupils were shaking furiously at the sight of the very unimpressed Changkyun in front of him.
"Mine." He purred, holding fondly onto you as he rested his head on your shoulder and wrapped his arms fully around your torso.
This time it was Hyungwon that slapped Changkyun away from you.
Changkyun hissed at Hyungwon, his arms leaving you for only a second before he continued you glue himself to you.
You didn't mind. He was basically holding you up.
"She's like a tiny paper doll. You're going to snap her rib cage if you hang onto her like that."
"Broken ribs are not fun." Kihyun shivered, hugging himself for a few seconds before Wonho scoffed, playfully nudging him with his hip.
"You fractured yours. You didn't break it."
"By the time I'm done with you, you'll be the one with the broken rib."
Hyungwon held back Kihyun by his shirt and you watched in subtle horror as the gray haired man lunged at the built giant that was Wonho.
He didn't seem to fazed whatsoever.
"Hospital?" Changkyun asked, his hair falling into his eyes again. You felt all their eyes on you, burning through your back. You shook your head, waving your hands as you untangeled yourself from Changkyun's embrace.
"I don't like hospitals." You breathed out, taking small steps towards the door, a hand still looped under your arm. Hyungwon was quickly to swiftly slide in and shut it. You groaned at him who just laughed at your pain.
"Your father was a doctor, Eggo."
"And my sister was hospitalized for half of her life and I had to witness it. I'm not stepping foot inside a hospital. I'm sick of them. Look at me, I'm fine." You gestured towards yourself, smiling as wide as you could. Changkyun bitterly smiled as he let go of you. Suddenly, you'd lost the only thing that was keeping you upright and your knees wobbled. You held out your hands, leaning yourself on the wall in hopes of not falling but you were basically on the ground. You grinned guiltily at the four guys who had circled around you, watching as you continued to try and balance yourself on your own two feet.
You staggered one last time before Changkyun got sick of watching you struggle. He sighed before scooping you up, one of his arms going under your legs while the other wrapped around your back, lifting you up bridal style.
"You got lighter. I didn't think that was possible." He rasped out, his hot breath hitting your neck.
"Let me go, Changkyun!" You whined, trying your best to flail your self around in his rock solid grip.
"I am capable of walking and I- wait. How do you know if I got lighter or not?"
He gave you that "really?" look as he adjusted his hands in hopes of making you feel a bit more comfortable.
It was pretty nice.
"You fell asleep that one night on my shoulder in Italy, remember that? How else do you think you ended up so nicely tucked in my bed?"
Your eyes widened at his words. You crossed you hands over your chest, tucking your head into yourself as much as you could.
"I feel exposed." You gasped at Changkyun who was happily laughing at you, admiring everything about your pale and sickly self somehow.
"You're especially tiny when you're in my arms, Eggo." Changkyun winked to which you scoffed, poking his chest which you were so conveniently leaned up against.
"Like you're so tall, Changkyun. Go stand next to Hyungwon."
"Hey!"
Laughter erupted from one person, all the sound coming from the room focused on the man in the oversized green hoodie.
"You're one to laugh, Yoo." Changkyun seethed, pushing him over to Hyungwon and hovering his hand over Kihyun's head, holding up your entire body with one arm. His head was barely past Hyungwon's ear. Hyungwon chuckled with satisfaction while Kihyun flicked his arm. He flinched initially but seemed to have no reaction following.
You bet they'd all gotten used to that.
"It's good to know that I'm the standard here. The rest of you are nothing compared to me."
Wonho tsked, leaning sideways to Hyungwon's ear as he whispered loud enough for everyone to hear,
"Yet he has a girlfriend and you've still been single for the last four years."
Hyungwon gasped, slapping a hand over his heart while he looked at Wonho with pure shock.
"Don't bring my love life into this, WonHoe." He spat out, looking to be genuinely offended.
You tugged on the fabric of Changkyun shirt. His attention, which was focused on Hyungwon and Wonho's back and forth arguments about their apparently non existent love lives, returned to you as he craned his neck down so he could hear you over all the shouting. 
"Are you going to put me down?" You pointed to the ground. Changkyun simply shrugged blankly as he responded,
"Sure."
And he just completely let you go.
There were a lot things that were going through your mind while your entire world slowed down. As you felt your body getting closer and closer to the ground, you knew one thing for certain.
You were going to beat him up as soon as you gained your strength back.
Changkyun swiftly managed to bend down, catching you within seconds of letting you go despite the millennial it felt like for you. Your arms instinctively wrapped around his neck, not wanting to fall for dear life.
And if you were going, you were pulling him down with you.
"I hate you." You muttered over and over again, hiding your face in his shirt as you felt the soft vibrations in his chest as he laughed at you.
"When Hyungwon said she was a paper doll, I don't think he meant for you to treat her like one." Kihyun pointed out,
"Plus, she's still weak. You're going to literally break her."
Wonho opened the door, nudging you both out his apartment and dragging Changkyun by the shirt exactly three doors down, putting in his house code, which was still his birthday and pushing you into Changkyun's apartment.
"Bye now."
He closed the door behind him.
Both of you looked to each other, obviously still confused to what exactly had just happened. Wonho has basically just kicked you out of his own home with no notice.
How considerate of him.
The door opened again for a few seconds, your pink purse sliding on the ground as it closed again.
How even more considerate of him.
Changkyun bent down with you still in his arms, picking it up and dropping it on his kitchen island. He strolled down his hallway, pushing open his bedroom door and actually turning on his light.
A miracle.
He carefully placed you onto his bed, lifting the covers and gently tucking you in, adjusting the pillow so you could be as comfortable as possible.
It was cute.
He dusted his hands together as he grinned at your bundled up self, your eyes and nose just barely peeking out of the blankets.
"I'll go get you something to eat."
"But-"
"I wasn't asking you, I was telling you." He snapped back before you could even respond. You wanted to open your mouth to argue but you shut it, watching Changkyun leave his room and head to the right, where his living room and kitchen were. You breathed out as you hugged the covers, and chilled there for a bit. Eventually, you got sick of it. pushing yourself up as much as you could so you were sitting up. With perfect timing, Changkyun showed up with a plate in his hand and a baby cup in the other in impeccable speed.
You burst out into a smile as soon as you saw it.
"You keep Eggo's in your house?" You giggled while you happily took in the sight of the eggo waffle that was on the perfectly white plate that Changkyun had put it on. It looked like he'd spread some peanut butter on it, placing a few berries on the side and holding a cup of orange juice in a baby cup in his hand. He'd refused to give you any drink in a normal cup.
"I eat them whenever I miss you." He explained, looking down at the little masterpiece he'd created,
"Also, I used to make this exact thing every time I started eating after a while. Just with bread instead of a waffle." He handed you the fork as he set the plate down on your lap that was covered by the dark gray blankets of his bed. He sat down at the edge of the bed, watching and mindlessly stabbed at the poor waffle with your fork. Changkyun swiftly snatched it out of your hand, looking genuinely concerned at your unintentional violence towards the poor waffle.
"Eggo, it's like you're stabbing yourself."
"I don't mind."
Changkyun blew his hair out of his face, huffing as he cut a square off with the side of his fork. He held the fork up at your mouth, poking your closed lips with the piece of waffle.
"Here comes the airplane!" Changkyun cooed in his best baby voice while he swerved the fork around in the air like a little plane. You rolled your eyes but couldn't hide your smile at his little game. You happily took the bite.
Changkyun beamed, petting your head as he cut the next piece of the eggo.
"That's my baby."
You flicked his hand off of your head, sipping onto the orange juice in a kiddie cup and placing it on the table abode you as a quick idea sparked in your head. You leaned in closer to Changkyun, slightly tilting your head. You could tell you'd caught Changkyun off guard from his wide eyed expression.
"Do you know who my baby is?"
And suddenly he looked amused, raising his eyebrow and smirking slyly.
"Who is it, darling?"
You paused did a few seconds, placing a finger in your temple, pretending to think about it.
"Ollie."
Changkyun groaned, pulling his face away from yours and throwing his head back in agony.
"I swear to god, that dog makes my life so hard. I'm not picking him up tomorrow. He can be Yuta's dog now."
He dropped the fork onto the plate, giving you that disappointed look that you seemed to get consistently today.
"Don't talk about my son like that." You crossed your arms, laughing uncontrollably at how upset Changkyun seemed at your little tease.
How does it feel to taste your own medicine, Im Changkyun? Must be aggravating, huh?
"You're twenty two. You're still young. You can't have a son."
"Cause you're so old and wise, Sensei." You joked, unconsciously stuffing another piece of the waffle in your mouth which made Changkyun smile gently.
"I'm older than you, Eggo."
"Just barely, Danny boy."
"But I am."
"Two years isn't that much."
"Yes, it is."
"It's two years and one month. The one month matters."
"Oh my god, you're such a nerd."
"I know. It's called being smart. You could never."
"Hey! I got into college with a full scholarship. How about you?"
"I skipped a grade."
"How impressive, nerd."
"Don't call me nerd, nerd."
You both broke out into laughter at your small back and forth argument. Your entire body basically leaned onto his as you clutched your stomach. It hurt to laugh this hard.
You hadn't laughed this hard in a while.
Changkyun stole a strawberry off your plate, and you finally noticed that he'd been kind enough to cut off the stems.
"I thought these were for me." You popped a raspberry in your mouth, eating the rest of the waffle in one bite. He shrugged, eating another berry, and another one, and another one.
"You're going to feel weird for a bit. A bit nauseous but you'll feel fine in a couple days with consistent meals and rest." Changkyun assured, taking the plate from your lap and sliding it onto the the bedside table that was beside the both of you. The headache was becoming more prominent again. You closed your eyes, trying to ignore the pain.
You felt Changkyun shift closer to you. Your eyes fluttered open watching him pull you towards him. You tilted your head in confusion but he straightened your neck, his hands traveling to your head and his fingers pressing directly at your temples and right above the top of your nose bridge.
"What are you d- woah... that feels so much better." Changkyun scoffed, rubbing circles around the places where his fingers were placed.
"You can basically try to snap my ankle back in place but you don't know about pressure points?"
He laid you down on the bed, moving to sit right beside you rather than practically leaning on top of you.
"If it ever hurts just press in those spots for a couple seconds and it'll be more bearable." He simply stated, resting his head back, his eyes slowly closing for a few seconds.
"Anything else you could do? Any other things you could place upon me? Make me forget everything painful, Sensei Changkyun. You seem to have a lot up your non existent sleeves." You casually asked, pointing towards the short sleeved shirt he was wearing, snorting slightly. Changkyun's eyes opened slower than they'd closed a few moments before. He looked down at your lying self, a glint of mischief sparkling in his eyes.
Oh god.
What was he going to say this time? Nothing good ever came from that look.
"I don't know." Changkyun shrugged, that sly grin not seeming to leave his face. He wavered, before his face came right in front of yours, making your heart race.
"I could place my lips on yours and you wouldn't be able to think about anything for the next week."
You flipped yourself hiding your face in your pillow in hopes that Changkyun wouldn't see the redness that had spread throughout your face.
He's such a tease.
"I'm going to bed." You mumbled into the cloth of the pillow, gently kicking your feet like the teenage girl you were not so long ago, hiding your probably tomato red face. You felt Changkyun move beside you, feeling his arms wrap around your waist. You winced at the pressure, softly pushing him away from you, flipping yourself back around to see the pouty boy lying right next to you.
"You're actually going to break my ribs, idiot."
He was quick to reel his arms back, lying straight on his back and mumbling a soft apology. He stared at the ceiling blankly, almost making him look pitiful.
Look.
It's a poor baby that needs attention.
You understood though. You had a feeling you knew why he was always in need of affection and reassurance.
He hadn't received it when he was little.
You know, you know. You shouldn't be thinking about his childhood, but as each day passed you got more and more curious.
Especially to why he left when he did. What his parents were like. What his days were consisted of. What he felt about everything. All of his struggles.
You just wanted know.
You turned to face Changkyun, who was still mindlessly staring at ceiling, his arms crossed and simply resting on top of him.
You, in return, wrapped your arms around his waist, pulling yourself closer to him. You took one of his arms, which was obviously stiff from shock and placed it around you gently.
"I never told you to stop." You stated cheekily, resting your head on his chest. You giggled at hearing his racing, feeling his chest rise up and down rapidly and tapping his arm to the rhythm of his heartbeat.
"Look who's all nervous now, huh? How does it feel?" You poked his frozen face that was still directed at the wall, but his eyes were widened.
For the first time you had caught him off guard.
Changkyun: 1 Y/N: 1
He finally directed his attention towards you, the shock still evident in his expression.
"You make me feel like I'm on Cloud 9 every single day. Eggo. You make my heart do cartwheels and I don't know how but I'm loving it."
"Shut up." You laughed, feeling Changkyun's other arm slip underneath your head. You pressed a button that was at the side of Changkyun's headboard that dimmed the lights because from the looks of it, one of you was going to fall asleep and the other sure as heck wasn't going to move to turn them off.
With this gentle, calm, serene atmosphere, there was only one thing you could do.
A brutal but subtle interrogation.
"Tell me about what it was like when you were younger."
You felt his entire body stiffen up to which you sighed. You stroked his hair softly, knowing just how to put him at ease.
You'd picked up a lot of things in the last few months. You impressed yourself.
"I know you don't like to because it wasn't the best, but I think you'll feel a lot better talking about it, I promise."
You could feel his heart rate speed up again and you could almost physically feel his entire body hesitate. You felt bad. You wanted to tell him to forget you said that but eventually, he relaxed, taking a deep breath before starting to speak.
"My father expected perfection from me. Everything I said, everything I watched, everything I did was planned out so that I would always be perfect."
He closed his eyes momentarily,
"My mother, on the other hand, tried her best. Any sort of love or physical affection I ever had growing up was from her. Unfortunately, their marriage was not stable whatsoever, I think they got an arranged marriage or something like that it's not like I had the ability to ask. My father only saw me as a pawn on the chessboard that was life. I was seen merely as a sacrifice to get to what was make important. I never called him 'dad' even once in those sixteen years." He scoffed and you continued to wrap strands of his perfectly raven black locks around your pointer finger.
"I called him 'sir' most of the time. It was either that or 'father' but that was if he was in a good mood. He was never really in a good mood."
He finally opened his eyes, looking down at you with a pain struck gaze,
"Your dad may have died when you were young but my father was dead to me as soon as I stepped out of that stupid household."
You stopped stroking his hair, instead pulling him into your warm embrace, hopefully soothing his nerves since you could feel how tense his entire body was.
Maybe now wasn't the time to pry into this.
"I'm sorry, Kyun. I shouldn't have asked."
"No, it's okay. You deserve to know and I trust you but talking about my parents is tough to say it simply."
He intertwined his fingers with yours, hiding his face in the crook of your neck, his breath hitting the sensitive parts of your skin and it was driving you crazy to say the least.
Crazy in a good way.
"Oh, yeah. Did you see that interview with Jungwoo from a today?" This time, it was your turn to freeze up.
What on earth was about to go down.
"I can't believe he had the guts to say that during an interview. He really did like you."
You couldn't tell what kind of reaction this was. He didn't seem mad, or annoyed, or anything to be honest.
It was a new kind of terrifying.
"I swear I thought you both would start dating. He was so painstakingly obvious. But apparently I was too." He removed his head from your neck, resting it back onto the pillow,
"How did it feel, Ms. Popular? You had two handsome guys crushing on you at once."
"Well, I didn't know either of you were. Jungwoo was new news to me." You admitted, and Changkyun seemed genuinely surprised. He burst out into a confused laughter, still genuinely surprised but it was almost ominous the way he was laughing at you.
It made you want to run and hide.
"He was so obvious, Eggo!" He exclaimed, making you slightly flinch at how loud he was laughing. He looked like he was going insane.
"He'd probably liked you since you first met. I only started noticing it during filming, but guess what?" He gently poked your cheek, making you glare at him. His hysterics finally calmed down, wheezing a few times from how loud he was laughing but eventually he went back to being quiet. He whispered one last thing into your ear,
"I got to you first."
You rolled your eyes at the man with a toothy grin.  He looked so satisfied with himself that you couldn't even stay mad. It was cute. It was definitely cute. It was very cute.
"God, you're so possessive." You sighed, playfully letting go of his hand that was to tightly grasped onto yours, knowing that he'd whine and then take it back.
And he did.
You yawned, curling up closer to Changkyun's side.
"Tell me something that'll make me fall asleep." You mumbled into the fabric of his shirt, letting out another yawn.
"Sure, okay.. hmm" he thought, grinning as you could sense an idea pop into his head,
"An elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle with no substructure, it is not composed of other particles. Particles currently thought to be elementary include the fundamental fermions like quarks, leptons, antiquarks, and antileptons which generally-"
You slapped a hand over his mouth, but you could tell just from his eyes that he was giving you that proud smirk.
"Please not that. I don't even know what you're talking about."
"Particle physics. It's a pretty simple concept. What do you want me to do then?" He asked, tapping your head gently, having the time of his life while looping strands of your long hair over other pieces in a terrible attempt to try and braid your hair.
"Sing me a lullaby." You requested.
He shut the idea down immediately.
"You sing me a lullaby."
"Why should I?"
"Because I said so."
"Okay, fair enough."
"Yes." Changkyun pumped his free fist into the air, but immediately had his hand intertwine with yours, peacefully playing around with your fingers.
Clingy little bi-
No. We don't say that about him. But we do in our head. Except not now cause you'd feel guilty.
"There was this lullaby my parents used to sing when my sister and I were little. I think they made it when I was born and they used to sing us to sleep together whenever our dad was home."
He closed his eyes, resting his head as gently as he could on your shoulder. You could tell he was trying not to hurt you.
"Well I'd love to hear it, Eggo."
You took a deep breath, carefully patting Changkyun slowly like your dad used to as you began to sing the lullaby that held so close to your heart,

"Sleep soundly, my precious child
Don't shed a single tear
I'll hold you close, never let you go
I'll take all your fears
Sleep soundly, my precious child
May your dreams be all well
For when the morning dawns upon you
Know that I'll be right there"

You wiped away a lone tear, letting yourself smile a bitter smile as you recalled all of the nights you'd fall asleep to hearing the words. You'd never known if the song was longer, both you and your sister would be knocked out as soon as you heard your parent's voices. And you'd never asked about it to your mother, knowing that it was probably still a raw memory for her. You didn't want to see her cry over the sweet memories of your father.
You missed him. A lot.
You finally opened your eyes, surprised at the lack of response from Changkyun. However, you were greeted by him sleeping peacefully beside you. You smiled tenderly, pulling the blankets up to cover him.
"Works like a charm." You quietly giggled to yourself, admiring how peaceful Changkyun was when he was sleeping. Too bad he wasn't like this all the time. It would be to your advantage.
"Good night." You said to no one, finally getting comfortable and falling asleep beside him.

•—•

You hated alarms.
You flailed your hand around for a bit, desperately trying to find your phone so you could slam your hand on the snooze button. Instead, you knocked it off the bedside table. You groaned, both at the fact that your alarm was still blaring and you couldn't reach it, and at the returned pain in your stomach. You rolled off the bed, landing roughly on the wooden ground. You curled yourself up into a ball, rocking back and forth on the floor in agony and your eyes finally landed on your phone. You slammed your finger on the button.
Unfortunately, it was not the snooze button but you didn't care.
You clutched onto the side of the bed, pulling yourself up and throwing yourself onto the empty bed.
Wait.
It was 6:30 AM and there was no one here?
Your eyes landed on a little pink note that was placed on the pillow that Changkyun's was resting on not too long ago. You grabbed it, opening the curtains before you were able to read it, laughing at his cheesiness,

"Hey, Eggo,

Sorry I couldn't be here when your idiot self wakes up. For a weak, weak, weak person, you have a strangely strong grip. I tried getting off of work today but I was only able to get off early. I'll be back at around 10:30, so stay in bed and rest until I get back. I hate leaving the house at 4:50 but here I am writing this at 4:43. June will drop by sooner or later, something about wanting to spoil you with food and a lecture. I didn't question her for the sake of myself. How am I supposed to end this? I love you? Don't die while I'm gone? Rest well? Eat some food? Yeah, don't die, nerd. Yes, I'm not over that.

The best, talented, amazing, handsome, most amazing man on the planet,
Im Changkyun"

That ending was a bit much but you could ignore it just for today.
It was sweet.
But you were about to do what you did best in this life.
Disobeying Changkyun's orders.
You finally left the bedroom, running a hand through your hair as you called Saera. You waited impatiently for her answer, tapping your foot on the ground to the sound of your phone ringing.
"What?" She exclaimed, making you jump at how loud her voice somehow could be through a metal box of wires. You apologized softly, hoping to calm down her rage but she probably knew what you were going to say.
You winced, feeling another surge of pain strike through your entire body. You pressed a finger at your temple for a few seconds, taking a deep breath as the pain subsided for a few moments.
"I'll be ready in twenty minutes. How long is it to the interview set?"

•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•

just felt like we needed more cuteness before teehee