Upon A Time (JoongNine AU)

Upon Light In A Dark Space

Nine

"Relaxed this shoulders, you're tense...", I said as once again, I stood in front of him, and massaged his shoulders to loosen it's tightness, "your breathing also need a little more control, or else you'll rush to the beat and sounded off tune. Do you smoke? Or, whether your past condition, has caused you any breathing problems? Sorry, if I ask a sensitive question".

"No smoking and no to the chest pain too. Most probably, not enough stamina. I rushed back into work, after my recovery, and have no time to maintain my fitness".

"Why don't you take more rest, Joong? It might help, if you take your time to recover well enough now, than to fall back sick later", I nagged, a little concerned.

"Are you worried about me, Nine? There's nothing serious, as of now. Besides, by working, it helps to keep my time full, from thinking too much about y...things", he hesitated, and changed his word, in the last second.

"What kind of things? Did you... experience anything, ermm, while you're, in that deep sleep? I meant, I'd read about it, somewhere, that some, claimed, to experience living in a paradise, or something liked that..."

"Paradise...", he said, almost liked a whisper, looked a bit down as he smiled sadly, "... is not exactly that fluffy white thing, Nine...as long as you stayed at a place where you're the happiest, everything looked so beautiful...I guessed, that could be, why people claimed it as a paradise, right? Ah, why are you curious, Nine? Should there be anything, seemed liked, I can't remember them...", he said, but his eyes darted away from looking at me straight. His words, sounded liked something that came from the depth of his memory. Liar. You remember them well, Joong, I could see that, but you choose not to tell me. Ah, why do I care.

"Well, Joong. You're right, nobody could say what a paradise looked like, anyway...", I said as I dropped my hands from his shoulders, but then he caught my wrist and held my hands. It was not in anyway tight, but it somehow kept me in place. For a while, Joong just kept staring at me, assessing my expression, but, his thumbs that caressed my skin, sent jolt of pleasant shivers up along my arms.

"Hmm, there's nothing interesting, to talk about me, since, I was not conscious. All I could say, I had a good, long sleep. But, what about you? Where were you in the past year, Nine? The news of your comeback from hiatus, is discussed about, almost on every entertainment site, local and international too. Your fanbase, shall I say, rejoice, that you're not secretly getting married as they had suspected...", he laughed, as he teased me a little, and I pursed my lips, tight, but then he pinched my cheeks, and scrunched his nose,"Eyy, sulky! Not that I purposesly want to question your private life, but somehow, the gossip column, already written about our coincidental comebacks; and...of course, this collaboration too, liked it is fated, or something...".

"I work non-stop since I was a teen, Joong. A year rest, shouldn't have pose an issue, it was due time anyway, isn't it, that I took a long holiday", I tried to say calmly, but I knew that he didn't buy it.

"Really? But, you whom I know, is not someone who could stay at home, doing nothing...", he said quietly, but yet, it caused my heart to pound hard. Did he already know? The way he taunt me to tell...

"But...since there's no news of your whereabouts or even sightings, I guessed it's true then, that you really took a rest. Besides, what I remember about you, might have changed over the years, right?", he smiled, rumpled my hair liked a kid, which caused me to grunt in exasperation and put an end to the tense moment.

"Eyyy! Stop that...", I swatted his hand away, annoyed,"...you promised to focus, now we're already distracted. Come now, back to this part again. I think, for the time being, if you hold your posture a bit proper, you could maintain your breath longer, between this, till this part...and only then, take the next breath...".