At The End Of The World Together Forever // TOMORROW X TOGETHER [BeomJun]

Chapter Thirteen - Almost There

The landscape slowly changed and the countryside switched from an arid rocky desert to a wider humid area with more grass and trees.

With every kilometer closer to his hometown, Yeonjun's grip on the steering wheel tightened. The more he saw familiar places again, the less he wanted to be in this car, in this place, in this world. The more signs he saw with the city's name on it, the more worried he got.

He had refused to go there for eight years. He always told his parents that he would want to go there on another day and that over and over again until his parents didn't ask anymore. But Yeonjun knew very well that his parents wanted to ask him again, sometimes on a wednesday, sometimes on a saturday. He just didn't have the guts to do it. And now it was friday. It all happened on this day and now he was ready to face what he had displaced a long time ago.

"I guess we will have to spend the next few days together in one room." Taehyun stated and looked at Kai with a teasing gaze. He only rolled his eyes.

"My sister could have mentioned it just once." Kai ran his left hand through his blonde hair with frustration and let himself fall back into his seat further.

"Why are you so upset? You seem to get along pretty well with Taehyun." Beomgyu commented and smiled over his shoulder. Kai huffed in his direction.

"Still, he is coming between our brother-sister-time."

"She told me that she doesn't even want to hang out with you." Kai's mouth jumped open as he laid his wide open eyes on Taehyun, bending his body a little bit forward to get a better look at him.

"That hurts my heart."

"That's what she said." Taehyun defended himself and raised his hands up with an innocent look.

"Your sister seems very nice." Soobin spoke up between them. Kai turned his head to Soobin and looked at him.

"Was that sarcasm?" Soobin looked away from his gaze and on the ceiling of the car before he fixed his eyes at Kai again.

"You can decide." Kai was quiet for a moment and then huffed as a response. A smile appeared on his face when he fell back into his seat.

Yeonjun directed his gaze back to the street and grinned in secret. For a second he forgot his anxiety and the impetuous thoughts in his head. There was one positive thing about this whole road trip, despite those previously uninvited guests, and that was the distraction from Yeonjun's bad thoughts. He felt a glimpse of gratitude for them.

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Yeonjun drove off the highway and onto a more less frequented road. Around them were trees over trees, a large forest with scrub and leaves on the ground, but the street that paved through the forest was surprisingly clean from branches.

There went only one way through the forest, a single road only paving forward or past smaller mountains. The crown of the trees covered the sunlight, only a shimmer of light was shown between the leaves, which lit the way.

Beomgyu looked out of the window and enjoyed the scenery before him. Looking at Yeonjun's phone, Beomgyu could see a picture of a yellow butterfly. 'All I Wanted' by Paramore was playing and Beomgyu guessed that it was a song Taehyun would listen to regularly. It wasn't really his taste but Beomgyu understood the liking behind this song.

Yeonjun drove around a bend but when he could have sped up again, he slowed down more than usual. The others in the backseat didn't notice it right away but after a while Soobin took a glimpse at Yeonjun with unrecognizably furrowed brows. Soobin and Beomgyu both knew that not only because they were the only ones on the road and Yeonjun could have driven faster than he needed to, Yeonjun also usually drove faster than the traffic signs allowed.

"Why are you driving so slow?" Beomgyu whispered with a low voice so that the others couldn't hear him. But he didn't have to whisper anyways as Kai and Taehyun also realized how slow he was driving on an empty road where he could speed up to 80 km/h.

Yeonjun didn't answer his question but instead slowed down even more before he turned right, onto a path that was not paved or no sign indicated it. Tyre tracks were caved in the mud, meaning that Yeonjun wasn't the only one who used this abbreviation, but surely the first after years as there was already grass growing through the mud again.

The road was much bumpier than the smooth road they were driving on just a moment ago. Beomgyu turned his head around to Yeonjun again, his heavily frowned face showed enough distress for him that Beomgyu didn't have to speak up again for Yeonjun to talk.

"A shortcut."

"Shortcut to where?" Soobin spoke up now and looked almost as worried as Beomgyu but not quite as much. Yeonjun tightened his grip as Beomgyu asked himself how much more his hands could hold the steering wheel with his knuckles pale white. The car was silent for a minute, or was it two?

"Shortcut to.. cemetery?" Beomgyu's eyes switched to the windscreen before he slowly closed his eyes and fell back into his seat, only now realizing how far he moved towards Yeonjun with his body. He carefully fixed his glasses with two fingers and crossed his arms before his chest. Then he fixed his glasses again.

Soobin only looked down at his hands but his hands were either being held by Taehyun or laying under Kai's fingers, so he only looked at his lap. The other two kept quiet and it furiated Yeonjun. Suddenly it was all silent and silence was the one thing Yeonjun didn't want. He took his hand off the steering wheel and turned up the volume until he couldn't hear the silence anymore. But the noise in his head didn't seem to get drowned out.

He toyed with the volume control and tried to make the music as loud as he could. The music didn't get louder and the regulator didn't rotate in the direction Yeonjun was turning. His heart started to race and the grip of his left hand around the steering wheel began to hurt more and more. With each passing second, the noise in his head grew louder and seemed to get more penetrating and irritating and disturbing and frightening and distressing and tormenting.

A soft, warm feeling wrapped around Yeonjun's right hand and moved his hand in the other direction he was aiming for. The music got quieter but the amiable feeling around his hand didn't leave. Yeonjun could sense every touch from Beomgyu as he gently intertwined their fingers together and pulled his hand onto his thigh. He looked at him and saw Beomgyu's sparkling eyes fixed at his face. He looked very concerned but tried to cover it up as much as possible. Yeonjun could still see his worry through his eyes and his lips that were slightly curved down.

Yeonjun took a deep breath and looked at the road again. The trees were almost stroking the car with their branches and the path was littered with small puddles. Yeonjun still drove slowly after all that happened in his head.

On the way to the cemetery, he took little glimpses at Beomgyu, making sure that he was still there, holding his hand, caressing it with his thumb and squeezing it every few minutes. Beomgyu also made sure that Yeonjun felt calm and secure.