𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐮𝐳𝐳𝐥𝐞𝐬 | 𝐡𝐡𝐣

thirteen.

He's there again. The car's upside down in the road, the front windshield cracked, and his golden locks dangle in his face. The cop approaches, does everything he always does, and leaves. Everything is the same as always.

Except when he turns to look at Areum, it's you in the seat beside him, your limp body hanging upside down in the passenger seat, crimson liquid staining your hair.

Hyunjin screams louder than he's ever screamed, filled with terror and pain, and suddenly, he's back in his room. You're rushing in to see what's wrong, concern filling your face when you see the tears staining his cheeks and his deadly grip he has on his hair. "Hyunjin, what's wrong? Did you have another dream?"

Your voice makes him cry harder. You're alive, that's all he cares about--besides keeping things that way. That dream was his reminder of why he had to keep away from you. Calming his sobs down, he shakes his head. "It's nothing... I-I'm fine, go back to bed now, please." His voice pleading for you to just leave him alone.

Unfortunately, that's what you expected. Hyunjin and you used to be close. Two weeks ago, he would've cried in your arms and clung to you like a child did with their favorite blanket, and now he won't even tell you he was having nightmares. Where had all the progress gone?

Sitting on the bed next to him, you stroke his back. He wants to push you away, but it's more soothing than one would think. "Hyunjin, I'm not just going to leave you to cry in the dark. Why won't you tell me what's wrong?"

"There's--there's nothing wrong, I just had a bad dream. That's normal." He lies, shrugging your hand on his back away. He couldn't get comfortable, or else he'd get too close again.

You give him an almost exasperated look. "You rejecting my comfort is, though, so what's up?"

"Nothing. Just go back to sleep."

Hyunjin wasn't someone to be this stubborn, and you have work tomorrow, so you decide to drop the topic for now. Maybe he was just shaken up still. "Fine. If something else happens, let me know."

He nods--he wouldn't, but he lets you think he would--and you reluctantly leave the room.

----

Hyunjin didn't get any sleep. Too haunted by his dream, his eyes were never closed long enough for him to drift off until it was already six a.m., and he had to get ready. Luckily, the day's dull for the most part, except for now.

"I'm twenty-one?" Hyunjin grins excitedly.

"Yep, your birthday is on March twentieth, and you're a two thousands brat," Minho nods, pushing the blonds head away from him gently. They were having a discussion about Hyunjin's past, and while Minho's glad to see him smiling brightly again, he didn't want Hyunjin's hair all over his sandwich. "It's weird to think the last time you knew who I was, you were just nineteen..."

Hyunjin nods, but it doesn't change much for him. He could've been sixteen and it wouldn't change anything for him, since he didn't remember it. "Sorry I took so long to remember you."

Minho shakes his head. If there was one thing everyone knew about Hyunjin, it was that he apologized far too often for things he couldn't control. "It's not your fault, you were literally dying, then stuck in a drugged sleep."

Hyunjin bobs his head, because he knows Minho's right, but he still feels bad. He can't imagine being forgotten by his closest friend, after doing everything in his power to protect him. "How did we meet?"

Minho's face relaxes into one of nostalgia, and Hyunjin thinks it's truly something how one person can seem so menacing and so friendly. "I was nine, you were eight. Neither of us have any siblings, and rich kid life can get really lonely, so our parents had us meet up. You used to follow me everywhere then, always copying me and trying to be just like me. You became my little brother."