Sad Birds Still Sing (Bang Chan x Reader)

Breakfast

Word count: 1214

Chapter warnings: none

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It had been three days since they'd arrived at Changbin's house. The tension in the building was, understandably, at a high. The news of Jisung had hit them pretty hard- them, meaning Y/N and Chan. As heartless as it sounded, there really wasn't a reason for Jeongin to have any strong emotional connection to the other boy. He'd only just heard about him a day before finding out what had happened, and hadn't even seen the new version. While he was admittedly uncomfortable knowing that there was a grey just below them, it wasn't really his place to suggest they get rid of it. He decided to just keep his head down.

Chan was angry at first. He was upset at Changbin for even letting Jisung get hurt in the first place. After all, it hadn't taken him long to figure out the secret behind the greys, shouldn't they have been avoidable? Brooding in it a bit more, he admitted to himself that it hadn't been him to figure out the secret, but the three of them as a team. Even then, Jeongin had only gotten lucky in seeing the way that they operated. They could have ended up the same way.

So, it wasn't Changbin's fault. Then, he started finding himself arguing that Jisung was a monster, and Changbin was stupid for keeping him here. He should walk down there and throw that thing out right now, or at the very least open the downstairs doors until it wandered out. Every time he worked up the nerve to go do something about it, though... he stopped at the top of the stairs. He told himself that it was because interacting with it, for any reason, was just too risky. He knew the real reason, though. He couldn't stand to see one of his best friends like that. As disgusting as he looked, he was still recognizable. And more importantly, he couldn't turn his back on the kid.

Changbin had always been more cynical than the other two. Chan was the optimist, Jisung was the antagonist, and Changbin was the removed cynic- that's how it had always been. Even now, though, Changbin was hoping, begging for a means of fixing their friend. It didn't feel right for Chan to act any differently. He had been through denial, and anger... He guessed that they were both stuck in bargaining, for now. He mentally promised himself that it wouldn't be bargaining, though. He wasn't dead. That was a start.

As for Y/N, she wasn't as progressed as the two of them. She had only seen Jisung for a brief flash, but even that had been enough to make her sick to her stomach. Once she was upstairs again, though, he was out of sight. She certainly hadn't been down there since. Even if she'd wanted to, she doubted Chan would let her. No one was talking about it because no one wanted to be the person to bring it up. Because of that, she was just going about her days as if nothing had ever happened.

It was scaring Chan. It wasn't as if he wanted her to feel upset, God, he hated seeing her upset. But... it was even more unsettling that she wasn't. It was as if she'd gone to sleep and woken up completely okay. Each of the three mornings was the same. She'd walk into the kitchen, he'd already be up, but he wouldn't have eaten- just made a cup of coffee.

"Good morning, Chan!"

"...Morning."

"Why so tired? Don't tell me you haven't slept."

"Shove off," he groaned, taking a sip from his cup. "I'm sleeping."

"Alright, but if I find out you're lying..."

"Yeah, yeah." He rolled his eyes. She'd always been like this before, too. She'd come to visit the studio, bring breakfast for everyone, chastise him for not taking care of himself. Was she reverting? Trying to go back mentally?

"What do you want for breakfast?"

"I'm not hungry."

"You have to be hungry," she laughed, "You haven't eaten all night. Unless, of course, you were up-"

"I wasn't up!" He insisted. "I just don't eat in the morning. It makes me nauseous."

"You always say that, and then I cook for myself, and you end up wanting some and being too proud to say anything."

"No I don't."

"Alright," she shrugged, "Last call, though-"

"I'm not hun-gry," He repeated in a sing-song voice, getting her to smile just a bit. Giving him one more skeptical glance, she walked over to the fridge to begin cooking. Opening it up, she looked down in surprise. They had... barely anything. It was enough for maybe that day, but...

"Morning," She heard a new voice entering from the side, immediately familiar. Still in his pajama bottoms, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, was Changbin. Noticing that she was pulling things from the fridge, though, he snapped to attention. "Oh, I was just thinking about that." He pointed out. "We're basically out of refrigerated stuff. We've still got some cereal and soup and stuff, but the rest is kind of... useless."

"Would it kill you to dress up before you came out here?" Chan interrupted.

"It's my house." Changbin glared. "And anyway, we're gonna have to go get food sooner or later. I've been avoiding it because..." He coughed awkwardly. It was pretty obvious what the reason was.

"I'll go!" She said cheerfully, catching both of them off guard as she lit up the stove. "I already know my way around the greys, and Jeongin showed me how to start up the generator at the gas station. I'm sure I could manage it again."

"You're not going by yourself-" Chan said, a little aggressively, standing in protest.

"I'll be fine! Someone needs to stay with Changbin-"

"Jeongin could go with you," Changbin tried to offer, "That way there's-"

"No, I'm going with you." Chan demanded, still looking at her. She wasn't even looking at him, hoping that her nonchalantness would get him off her back.

"We can talk about it after breakfast." She insisted. "Changbin, do you want any?"

"Uh, yeah, that would be great," He nodded robotically, "Thanks."

"I'd better make some for Jeongin, too..." She muttered to herself. "Where is he, anyway?"

"He was still asleep, last I checked." Changbin pulled out a chair to sit at the table with Chan. He looked over to see what the older boy was working on, but he covered it before anything could be seen. Changbin saw no reason to start anything over it, though, so he just ignored it.

"Agh, what do you know," Y/N said as she started transferring food from the pan to a few plates.

"What's the matter?" Chan asked in concern. Walking over with the admittedly delicious-smelling dishes in hand, she feigned embarrassment.

"I accidentally made too much. And just when Changbin was worried about running out of food, too."

"Give it to Jeongin." Chan rolled his eyes.

"There's four plates." She set them down, running a hand over her forehead. "God, I'm so stupid."

"Well..." Chan sighed. "I suppose if it has to get eaten." Sliding one his way with a grin, she agreed patronizingly,

"We wouldn't want it to go to waste."