Wildfire And Rain

Chapter Thirty-Six

Soobin walks into the dorm to find Taehyun in the bathroom, deep cleaning the toilet. Strange. But believable- no, it's all strange. He quietly enters after the couple dropped him off.

He hasn't slept since last night and became sloppy with his driving so Yeonjun suggested he'd get some rest.

"Hey," he says and Taehyun jumps and turns around. He holds a yellow sponge in his hand that is now dripping soap water onto the tiles. He takes off his earbud and looks at Soobin's concerned face.

"Hi." he returns quietly, feeling awkward. He leaves his earbuds out but continues cleaning. Soobin leans on the bathroom door, his eyes observing him and he wonders if he should say anything. "What are you doing?"

Taehyun trains his eyes to the toilet, scrubbing. He shrugs. "can't you see?" he answers and Soobin chuckles; uneased. "I can see that you are cleaning... "he says. "Why are you suddenly cleaning?" he asks tentatively.

Maybe it is what some people do after receiving shocking news. He does not know how his friend is handling the situation but seeing him deep in the toilet is not one of the things he expected to see.

Knowing his friend, Taehyun would want to shove the whole thing with Kai down the drain and never speak of it again. And on another day Soobin would go along with it.

Not today, though.

Taehyun turns around, discards the sponge, and leaves the bathroom. "Look-" he begins. "If you want to tell me I told you so. Don't." despite the nature of his words, his tone is calm. "You were right, is that what you want to hear?" He grabs the cleaning spray.

Shaking his head; Soobin follows Taehyun's movements with his eyes. He bites his lips and finds himself deep in his thoughts. Was he right about Kai?

Surely, he was. Everything points to that. He knew Kai would be trouble for Taehyun and look and behold, he got arrested in front of his friend's eyes.

For murder, no less.

He looks back at last night. Beomgyu told the police officer they were barking at the wrong tree but when he ran to Soobin's car after getting his text, he seemed sad. Just sad. Not surprised or shocked. Sad with a sense of urgency.

Sad like he had expected it.

He kept mentioning it. "My brother." "That's my brother's" "My brother this and that." not Kai, but my brother. Beomgyu is trying to get Kai out because it's his brother. Not once did Soobin hear him genuinely say "he didn't do it, it's not the Kai I know."

Something you'd expect someone this close to Kai to say. And Beomgyu is this close to Kai, maybe it's just the Kai he knows. The one that will kill someone. The one that is expected to.

"I'm sorry," Soobin says. He sits on his bed, not sure how to comfort his friend. This is all just out of nowhere. "I didn't want to be right, Tae." he stops his friend's frantic cleaning by holding onto his wrist.

Taehyun pauses and looks at him, there are tears streaming down his face. "I'm really sorry about Kai." Soobin repeats. "I really am."

Taehyun nods and sniffles. Soobin opens his arms and ironically enough he knew this would end in tears, and he'd be the one to need to wipe them off. He wished it would be different, but some people are just the way they are.

There is no changing the unchangeable.

"W-why would he do that?" his friend's breathing is shagged, he pitifully asks. His snot wiping all over Soobin's shoulder. "I don't understand... "he sobs. "Why?"