The Demon Next Door

11

"J-Jongin!"

"Hang on. Almost there."

A whine came back at the 'almost.' "Jongin, s-stop! It hurts!"

"I know! I'm almost done, just hang on one more second..."

"Jongin!" Kyungsoo howled.

The younger man was not expecting the smack upside the head. Kyungsoo scowled at him, teeth clenched together to emit hissing noises. Jongin only arched one eyebrow.

Mental note: never let Jongin take care of your splinter. Kyungsoo was pretty sure the damn thing was in deeper than before Jongin's not-so-helpful, pathetic assistance.

Kyungsoo didn't even know how he'd gotten it. Perhaps from the branch he'd picked up while they were walking in the park. However it got there, the little wood chip in his skin hurt like hell.

And Jongin was, for the record, not helping. At all.

"It's just a splinter. A small booboo." Jongin pinched Kyungsoo's cheek.

The older squeezed his thumb, trying to make the splinter pop out. "It hurts."

"No, shit. When we get back, come over and I'll take it out with tweezers."

Kyungsoo held his injured thumb to his chest. "I don't trust you."

Jongin laughed. "You don't trust me?"

Kyungsoo's candor was not so refreshing. "No."

"Yeah, right." Jongin reached out and took Kyungsoo's other hand. "Let's walk around a little more and do stuff that doesn't require your right hand. Unfortunately, that crosses out the number one thing on my bucket list."

"And what's that?"

Jongin's grin was wide and cheesy. Kyungsoo huffed. His thumb was pulsing too painfully for him to put up with Jongin's crap.

"Fuck you, Jongin."

"No, actually other way around. I was going to fuck you."

Kyungsoo would have smacked him again. His right hand, however, was not in the mood. His left wasn't as strong. It was Jongin's lucky day today.

They walked around the park hand in hand. People stared, and Kyungsoo found himself not caring anymore. Let them stare. Let them see how happy he was compared to them.

It had taken him a while to disregard the gossip that would spread like wildfire. He thought about arguing with some of the people, especially at school, but then again, you can't fight fire with more fire.

Jongin kept on babbling about something. Kyungsoo spaced out a few words into the monologue, instead allowing his attention to wander about the scenery around them.

The leaves were turning all sorts of vibrant colors. Red mixed with yellow. Orange splashed onto the entire canvas. Some leaves had already sacrificed themselves for their host tree, falling to the ground and losing whatever shade they previously possessed to a chocolate brown.

Kyungsoo winced each time his foot crushed a fallen leaf. He felt guilty for reasons unknown. Perhaps just the knowledge of dead life beneath his feet ticked him off.

Life. What was life? Kyungsoo wouldn't exactly call whatever he had before Jongin a life. So, he was dead then? And living now?

Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow. The fuck was he even thinking about?

He'd had a life. It just wasn't interesting. There hadn't been a lot of things that had brought out whatever he had in him. With Jongin, on the other hand, Kyungsoo let himself go wild.