hold me 𐦍 yeonbin

034 ᯓᡣ𐭩

Soobin went to bed, but he can’t sleep. He slept for several hours while sitting on the coffee table, under some spell. His heart races from the image of Yeonjun standing over him with soulless black eyes. The way his voice cut into Soobin’s heart with such an unnatural, demonic echo rings in his ears when he closes his eyes.

Soobin stares at his ceiling, unblinking, trying to keep from checking on Yeonjun. Siyeon will tell Soobin when he’s awake. Siyeon is taking care of Yeonjun. Yeonjun is safe. Soobin is safe.

His phone blinks on the nightstand. Four missed calls from Kai and two from Beomgyu just today. He doesn’t feel like talking to either of them or even reading their texts. He will have the rest of his life to live with them, however, he only has a handful of days left with Yeonjun and Siyeon and Bora.

To distract himself, he considers Bora’s offer. He considers if he would be able to stay in a place so connected to Yeonjun that even when he’s gone, everything will remind Soobin of him. The pier, where he kissed Yeonjun. The campus where he saw Taehyun for the first time. The road at the bottom of the hill where he tried to punch Taehyun. The home he made and reconnected with an old friend and two new ones.

He might never move on. He might never fully move back home. Even if he lives in his shitty, red-walled apartment and takes the one-fifteen bus to campus every Tuesday through Thursday. No matter how many tables he wipes and orders he takes and drinks he spills onto customer’s laps, he won’t be able to move back.

Soobin tosses under the covers, kicks them off, covers his head with a pillow, then tosses it on the floor. He doesn’t think he wants to move back. He can’t live without being surrounded by magic. He can’t live in a place filled with it, either. He can’t be a normal human with normal bills and normal student loans. He can’t pretend he is one of Siyeon’s crowd forever.

The door to Yeonjun’s room opens slowly, quietly. Siyeon must have been with him the whole time. Her steps echo soft and slow down the hall while trying not to wake up Soobin or the sleeping pixie.

Soobin can’t wait alone any longer. This is too much for one human to handle alone. He needs to talk to her.

Soobin rolls out of his bed and pulls on a pair of sweatpants and his shirt from the floor, moving as quiet as he can as to not wake Yeonjun.

Yeonjun’s door is still open. Soobin decides to check on him before following Siyeon downstairs. He can hear Siyeon and Bora talking through their door, something about Bora’s classes today. The words professor and himbo followed by a fit of laughter sound down the hall.

Soobin peers into Yeonjun’s room. There is no pixie in the bed.

The front door opens and slams closed.

Soobin bolts after him.

“Soobin?” Siyeon yells from upstairs. “Yeonjun?”

Soobin throws on his shoes, unlaced and on the wrong feet, as he sprints out the front door following the sound of another pair of footsteps.

“Stay here!” he hears Siyeon’s muffled voice shout from the upstairs.

It’s as cold as winter, despite summer around the corner. Soobin kicks up mud with every step. Yeonjun is quick for someone who just had a black out homicidal panic attack.

Soobin rounds the driveway and skids to a stop at the top of the dirt road leading down to the pier. Yeonjun is nowhere.

“Yeonjun!” he yells. His voice echoes through the trees. No response.

If Yeonjun is heading to the capital to get his wings, he won’t make it on foot. Soobin won’t be able to catch up with him. He’s already out of energy by the time he reaches the bottom of the hill.