This Day | Gyuhao (Threequel to Youth & The Aged)

- 37

| Chapter Thirty - Seven — Youth |

The fire still flickers over the edge of the cliff, a loud boom echoing through the air as the car explodes once again, Junhui and Soonyoung's screams getting impossibly louder as they try and claw their way past the hold on each other.

Mingyu's just the same, not screaming, but still trying to bolt forward. Hansol and Wonwoo cry out for him to stop and Mingyu just needs them to understand that he's singlehandedly just lost his entire being.... lost the love of his life right before him and everything he's ever known about about loving, the person who taught him how to love and the person he called his soulmate... gone, right in front of him.

"What's going on?!" Seungkwan joined the party, eyes wide and glossy as he stares at the fire, convinced he's at the gateway to Hell as soon as Hansol fills him in.

Seungkwan falls to his knees, holding onto Joshua's hand, shaking his head so fast he's surprised it doesn't screw right off.

"K-Kwan-ah," Joshua's lip wobbles, trying to pull Seungkwan back up.

"No!" Seungkwan slaps a hand to his mouth, shaking, "N-No, H-Hao—"

"LET GO OF ME!" Soonyoung cries out, gritting his teeth as he pries at his husband's hold on him, not giving up even a little, wanting, so desperately determined to get back to where Minghao was, so ready to see that glowing face and happy aura the boy had managed to keep throughout all of this shit.

A tortured soul who just smiled in return.

"This is so pathetic!" Junhui's tears feel like blood, stinging his eyes like poison, blinding him along with the nonstop rain and it makes him nauseous.

Mingyu's still on his knees, eyelashes fluttering as he stares at the fire... everything breaking down inside him.

It's like he's a robot with Minghao as his programmer, the signal lost and forgotten.... and now Mingyu doesn't know how to continue running.

This couldn't be real. 

This... This couldn't be happening. 

"He wouldn't die like that!" Soonyoung screams what everybody's thinking, "Not after all this stupid shit! He's not that dumb! LET ME GO, GODDAMN IT!" The blonde finally manages to rip himself away from Jihoon's grip on him, making a bee-line straight towards the lava hot scene before them.

"Fuck— Soonyoung, no!" Jihoon runs after him, managing to catch the older by the arm just before he tips himself over the edge, the blonde cursing bloody murder at him like there's no tomorrow, punching at his chest and resisting so painfully it makes Jihoon's heart hurt and throb, sore beyond belief.

It takes another minute or two, but Soonyoung finally gives up, fists turning into more of a weak nudge rather than anything, face crumbling up into a look that Jihoon can't even begin to explain.

And then Soonyoung's finally collapsing, all the emotions finally piling up into one. His body goes completely lax, his sobs ripping up from the deep depth of his sore throat so harshly it sounds painful.

Jihoon's there to catch him of course, to hold him and never let him go.

"He's n-not that stupid...." Soonyoung hits Jihoon's chest again, hand barely able to make a fist at this point.

Jihoon doesn't tell him it'll be okay because it won't ever be, doesn't tell him it'll get better because it never will, just holds him closer than he's ever held anyone, closing his eyes in agony, his own tears melting into Soonyoung's skin like a drop of poison.