Healing

XXIX - remember

I hope you have a great week ahead and enjoy this chapter.

Bel, xx

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It's late, but Jinyoung doesn't care about the time; he needs answers after so long. As he grabs a hoodie to throw on, he sees the blue scarf he had with him at the hospital, and he stops on his tracks. He remembers the many times Jaebeom wrapped his different scarves around his neck while he was a memory as winter started settling in Seoul. For some reason, that blue one was the only one Jinyoung managed to not lose, the last one before he woke up. Now he knows where it came from.

Approaching the middle of March, the night is not that cold, but he grabs the scarf and takes it with him as he heads out.

After so many days, the young man finally turns on his phone, and notifications start to rush in. Many Kakao messages and voicemails he doesn't check as he gets out of his home. He only knows every single one of them is from Jaebeom. He doesn't want the older man's words to affect his determination.

Jinyoung knows he has to take the metro and get off in Seocho Station, but the trains have stopped running, so he takes a taxi. His heart is hammering as he watches the city landscape through the windows, the lights blurring as it drives down the river and then east. When the taxi driver stops, Jinyoung pays and gets off, scanning his surroundings; it looks exactly how it did in his dreams. He remembers the busy crossroad and the exact fancy condo complex with many tall buildings where Jaebeom lives, even the flat number, but he won't knock at the door. Instead, Jinyoung enters the condo and stops outside the building from his memory, watching it with dread running in his veins.

Jinyoung feels his blood pressure dropping a bit, there's a rising in his ear for a few seconds and his hands go a bit numb just as cold starts sipping in his body; so he's thankful he brought the scarf, wrapping it around his neck and finding solace in its warmth and familiarity.

His hands are trembling when he unlocks his phone and launches Kakao, opening the conversation with Jaebeom. He doesn't read any of the many messages, although most ask him to just answer the phone, to talk. Instead, he just types:

I'm outside your building.

Jinyoung watches the words he sent, the number one by the bubble there telling him the message hasn't been read yet. It's way past two a.m., maybe Jaebeom is asleep. Still, Jinyoung doesn't move and continues staring at the screen, waiting for that number one to vanish.

When more than ten minutes have gone by and the number one doesn't go away, Jinyoung decides to just call the older man. It wakes a few rings but ultimately Jaebeom picks up.

"Jinyoungie?" The older man asks, out of breath as if he rushed to answer the phone.

"I'm outside your building," Jinyoung repeats the words, his voice trembling a bit as he clenches the gadget against his ear.

He hears the way Jaebeom takes a sharp breath in and then moves into his room. Jinyoung imagines the other man rushing out of bed, running to the door.

"I'll be there in a moment, don't move," he requests out of breath and Jinyoung closes his eyes, an incredulous huff escaping him.

Jaebeom should be asking how is that possible, he never brought Jinyoung to his place; there's no way for Jinyoung to know where the older man lives. The fact he's not even questioning it is the first confirmation of the night.

True to his words, Jaebeom comes out running out of the main doors a few minutes later in some jogging bottoms and just a white t-shirt, his hair disheveled as if he just got out of bed. His expression is wild and he is panting as he stares at Jinyoung standing there. The older man takes the last few steps towards him, fighting to catch his breath.