the stars aligned for us | sunsun

9

song: stay alive (prod. SUGA of BTS)  –jungkook

9| the storm ahead

"hello, is this park jongseong on the phone?"

"jake are you free right now?" jay ran up to jake whom he spotted in the hallway.

"why are you panting? is everything okay?" jake asked as he handed jay a bottle of water, who gratefully accepted the bottle.

"i can't find sunoo."

"yah this is a huge campus, obviously it's going to be difficult finding him," jake slapped jay's back.

"what do you mean you can't find sunoo?" sunghoon's stern voice cut through beside jake's.

"he's not been picking up my calls since this morning. the landowner of sunoo's house just called. the lease is over apparently so sunoo lost the house. god, i can't believe this news had to break today," jay groaned in frustration.

"what's today?" jake asked, his playfulness gone.

both of them understood there's something seriously wrong for jay to be in a hyper panicked state. for someone who was calm and collected all the time, jay, all being fidgety and worried, gnawed at their brains.

"today is sunoo's grandmother's death anniversary," jay muttered reluctantly. it is quite a private detail but desperate times call for desperate measures.

sunghoon's heart stopped for a second.

halmeoni passed on? why didn't sunoo tell me?

jay continued, "he tends to vanish for a day or two on this date. it's just that the landowner told me she had texted sunoo and he left her on read. he wasn't picking up her calls and my calls too. he loves that house. i'm worried he's going to do something stupid."

"yah, it's been raining all morning and the weather forecast for today is a predicted rainstorm. if he gets stuck out there, there's no telling whether he's alright or not," jake paced up and down.

"i can think of two places he could have gone but both are pretty far out."

"i'll go, just tell me where." jay looked up at sunghoon in slight wary, but sunghoon's the best shot he has right now, especially since jake had hitched a ride with sunghoon so only sunghoon and jay have a vehicle right now.

"i'll go to his previous house, jake can continue searching the campus while sunghoon can go to the xxx cemetery at the crossroad near the exit to suwon on the highway." jay instructed before all three of them split in a rush.

jay got into his mercedes while sunghoon quickly revved the engine of his porsche to life.

"halmeoni,i'm sorry. i couldn't buy the house. i'm so useless–" sunoo whispered into the air as he gently traced his fingers on his grandmother's tombstone, as his knees dug into the ground.

"i'm so sorry i failed you. i should have done better," sunoo forced himself to hold back his tears as he put a small smile on his face staring up into the sky. the heavy rain pelted down on him, weighing him down, soaking him completely.

"i'm so lost. i want you back. why couldn't god take me instead?" sunoo whispered, broken.

"kim sunoo! how could you just leave without telling anyone huh? do you know how sick and worried everyone is? what if you died out here in this storm?!" sunghoon yelled as he ran up to where sunoo was.

"yah kim sunoo are you listening to me–" sunghoon stopped his sentence midway as he focussed on how sunoo was slightly shivering as he held back the tears that were welling up in his eyes.

again with the bad habit. how many more times do i have to tell him, it's alright to cry?

"hyung?" sunoo's whisper echoed in the rain.

sunghoon's heart pounded, sunoo hadn't addressed him with any fondness or yearning or any emotion but hatred in general.

yah, this is not the time to think about it.

sunghoon slightly opened up his arms, which was all it took before sunoo jumped on him, clinging to him like a koala bear. sunoo's head nuzzled into the crevice of sunghoon's neck, his warm breath hitting sunghoon's nape. he tightened his hold on sunoo as he just whispered sweet nothing in the younger boy's ears as sunoo's salty tears dampened sunghoon's already sopping wet bodies.

"it's not your fault sunoo," sunghoon whispered as he gently threaded his fingers through sunoo's wet strands of hair.

sunghoon slowly placed sunoo in the passenger seat after the younger fell asleep after bawling his eyes out. he turned on the heater in the car as he buckled them up. sunghoon quickly typed "i found him," to jay.

sunghoon gently tugged at his shirt before smiling when he saw the marks on his neck through the rearview mirror. sunoo tended to bite at his neck when he cried to muffle his sobs.

it had always been like that. i would hold sunoo in my arms whenever he cried.

sunghoon wiped sunoo's face dry with some tissues before he stripped him out of his shirt and pulled one of his spare one's over sunoo's body so that he doesn't get a cold. sunghoon smiled fondly at the sleeping figure beside him, sunoo's lips pushed out in a cute pout, his cheeks lightly flushed.

sunghoon whipped his head back to the front when sunoo started moving, afraid to get caught staring.

why am i afraid?

he peeked over to see sunoo cuddling his bag as he let out a small sigh.

"thank god you're safe. i don't know what i would have done if you weren't," sunghoon mumbled to himself as he drove them back to the university.

– L