𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 || 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐡𝐲𝐮𝐜𝐤/𝐍𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧

13

Donghyuck sighed as he worked at making dinner in the kitchen. Four of them were still around, but it felt like it was just him lately. They didn’t gather together much anymore outside of meal time and going out for supplies.

What made it worse was that Jeno had taken to drinking all the time, the basement room stocked with the alcohol he’d found. He’d even started smoking too, something Jaemin had convinced him to stop doing a long time ago. His snarky and pessimistic personality didn’t take the deaths well and he refused to listen to anyone, locking himself down there all day.

The sound of large amounts of bottles crashing to the floor caught Donghyuck's attention. From the kitchen he could hear the sound best as the door to the downstairs room was just by it. He ran over to see what was wrong, but stopped at the doorway when he heard voices.

“I lost them too!” Jaemin screamed, and Donghyuck was just in time to see Jaemin try to grab at Jeno, wrapping his arms around him when Jeno tried to back out of range.

Jeno was unresponsive though, keeping that drunk-out-of-his-mind smile on his face. Donghyuck knew that he was in pain; no amount of fake apathy could cover how much pain he was in. They all were close, and that’s why they could all understand the hurt, the frustration and anger at their situation, even if they expressed it in different ways.

Jaemin held on to Jeno tightly, trying to get him to break down and let it out so that they could lean on each other and heal. Despite all of his efforts Jeno just wouldn’t respond the way he wanted to, his hazed gaze looking right past Jaemin.

“I don’t fucking care. I don’t care about any of this shit. Not about you, not about them, or any other fucking person here! We’re all going to die right? You might as well get out of my face right now.”

Jeno's sudden lash out surprised Jaemin, enough for Jeno to use it as leverage to throw him off and against the wall. Despite being winded Jaemin went at Jeno again, throwing a punch that made him stumble back, wiping tenderly at the blood on his newly busted lip.

Donghyuck took a step forward at that, debating on going in to break it up before things got too violent. He decided against it in the end. Maybe this was what they needed. His inability to feel lately made him hesitant to get involved in something he might not understand. So he watched as they threw punches at each other, wondering how the same two people that were usually inseparable and got along so easy it was like breathing could have fallen so far.

Finally one of Jaemin's punches led Jeno to fall back against the steps, dazed long enough for Jaemin to catch his breath and speak again.

“Will you listen to me for once?” Jaemin pleaded, pulling Jeno up so they could look each other in the eye.

“I don’t want to hear anything from you right now!” Jeno slurred angrily, pushing Jaemin to the floor. Donghyuck watched with wide eyes as Jeno picked up a chair, throwing it against the wall and shattering the mirror there. “Get lost!”

That was about it for his coordination, because he was staggering backwards right after, falling onto the steps and laughing drunkenly, hollowly. He missed the hurt look on Jaemin's face as he went up the stairs, pushing past Donghyuck like he wasn’t even there. Jeno never saw how quiet Jaemin got as he sat on the floor, defeated and alone. But Donghyuck saw the way he stared ahead, pain, loneliness and a chilling emptiness fresh in his eyes.

Donghyuck had to talk to him soon.

He would have to… He would have to… Before Jaemin did something stupid and—