HAPPY ENDING | svt ✓

⁶² : loud & bittersweet

hoshi stumbled into the room, his head spinning as his legs gave in.

it was all so loud, voices screaming incoherent words at him and forcing him to make sense of it all.

despite his weak legs, out of habit, he crawled his way over to his closet and hid inside, curling himself up into a ball at the very corner and hugging his legs towards himself.

he felt his tears falling but couldn't feel as to whether or not they were warm or cold, all his senses numbing and leaving a constant buzzing sensation in his head as his own perception of reality became more and more warped.

back then, he had moments of sanity and for the most part, could still converse properly with others but currently, it felt as though his fate was closing in on him, hurriedly stripping him of the means to communicate with others outside of wonderland.

his hands trembled as he reached up to cover his ears, sniffling and further squeezing himself into the corner of the closet as if hiding would save him from his destiny.

everything was so loud that he didn't hear his door open. nor did he hear the concerned voice yelling his name.

until the closet doors were opened, woozi standing there in an all black attire that gave hoshi deja vu from the night of the dance.

"are...you real?" his voice felt foreign, almost broken as he stared at woozi, half-expecting him to be a figment of his imagination.

he couldn't hear his response, his ears filled with the sounds of gibberish his head was telling him to say and causing him to wince at how jarring they sounded.

he wanted all his thoughts out. he wanted them all gone. he just wanted silence for once in his life.

and then it came.

everything turned silent, his head clear for once as he hesitantly stretched his legs out, still unsure of how all that noise had died down in less than a second.

then he saw it — gold dust danced around him, encircling him and casting a warm golden glow on his otherwise sullen face.

"it's pixie dust," woozi said, his hands glowing with the most beautiful shine that hoshi had ever seen. "i got my powers back today."

"and...you're using them on me?" woozi nodded, his expression unchanging.

it was a moment frozen in time, hoshi realising that the clock had stopped moving and everything else apart from them was stuck in place, not even the shadows exempt from woozis' magic.

"get a grip hoshi," woozi said, golden flecks landing on hoshis' skin. "you're a lot stronger than the nonsense in your head."

"how would you know that?"

"i just know." hoshi nodded at his reply, closing his eyes and enjoying the peacefulness in his mind. "i'm going to start the flow of time again okay so don't get overwhelmed and try to fight back-"

"but what if i can't?" hoshi asked, eyes wide at the thought of all that noise returning and eyes brimming with a new set of tears.

"you can and you will hoshi," woozi said, the gold dust staining hoshis' arm. "just breathe — i'm here."

and with a snap of his fingers, time restarted, the voices hitting him immediately at full force and causing his head to go numb again.

"i..." he took a deep breath, focusing on other things in his room like his tiger plushie, woozi, his messed up clothes and woozi again, his fingertips stained with gold.

it was still loud but his presence muffled the sounds in his head.

"are you back?" woozi asked, his voice laced with concern that he hadn't heard from of him before.