WOLFGANG || Stray Kids Fanfic || Rewriting ||

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten ~

The pack grew more and more worried the longer Remi didn't show her face. A week dragged by of throwing pebbles at her bedroom window and Jeongin returning to his pack with the news of not seeing her at college either.

"Maybe we should knock the door?" Felix suggested on the seventh night of her absence, with his pack gathered around in Bangchan's apartment.

"And say what?" Minho sassed. "I'd be a bit weirded out if some random dudes knocked on my door asking to see one you guys--"

"We don't have a choice," Bangchan said to him. "She could be dead for all we know. We need Jeongin, Hyunjin or Felix to knock the door since they look the youngest to pass off as someone from her class. Maybe Hyunjin since--"

"Can I go now?" He asked impatiently. "I'm getting really bad vibes."

Bangchan nodded and Hyunjin left in a haste. He hated the sickly feeling that had filled him every day for a week. Remi wouldn't just stop talking to them... would she? Did they do something wrong? Was she sick of them? Or worse... had she shifted in front of her family, and ran off, or... they killed her? What if the possible teacher that sent the boys after Jeongin had found her and killed her...? He shook her head quickly. These kinds of thoughts weren't helping his anxiety.

The sky around him darkened as the sun set behind the fields of the park. He rushed up the hill and ended up running to Remi's house. The family's car wasn't parked in the drive but all the lights were on, he could see them through the windows. He snuck round back and looked up into Remi's curtained windows; a soft golden glow illuminated from behind the hanging material, turning magenta curtains slightly pale. Instead of knocking on the front door, he climbed the conservatory roof using the slim, frail tree right next to it. It shook under his weight, but he made it onto the roof without breaking any branches.

Outside of her window now, he knocked on to glass with his large knuckles. His heart started to pound at the thought of someone else drawing back the curtains. He needed it to be her--he needed to know she was alive, even if she really had decided to ignore them. The pounding became so violent that it hurt his ribcage.

And then, the curtains flew apart. It took Hyunjin several moments, in which he held back tears of relief, to realise that her eyes were shiny and slightly puffy and red.

"Jeez... I thought you were dead!" He exclaimed as she reached up for the window's handle and pushed it open. "You've been crying, haven't you? What's going on?"

Remi sniffled and leaned against the windowsill, closer to Hyunjin. "My brother... accidentally ran over my cat..."

Hyunjin's face dropped. "What? Oh my God... I'm so sorry... what did you do after you found out?"

She wiped the tears that rolled down her cheeks, sniffling again. "I cried... I snapped and attacked him... he's in the hospital--"

"What?"

"I broke his ribs--"

"How the--"

"I punched him... a lot... my parents couldn't stop me... I'm honestly just lucky I didn't shift... I was too hurt to feel how angry I was..."

She was incredibly lucky not to have shifted and lost control, Hyunjin thought. God knows what would have happened. He sighed and automatically reached out to hold her hand.

"You've got good control, though. Minho would kill him if he knew," He said with a meek attempt at a playful smirk. "I know she meant the world to you, I'm really sorry--I-I--I'll get you a new cat, you know, when you're ready. Promise," He held out his pinkie.

Remi sniffled once again, wiped at her nose with her sleeve, and wrapped her pinkie around his with a gentle smile. "Thanks... sorry I didn't let you guys know... I didn't want to talk about it because I was in denial... but when my parents brought home her ashes a few days after... I lost it..." Tears rapidly filled her eyes over and over again. "I have her ashes on my desk... I feel bad... like she's cooped up..."

Hyunjin squeezed her hand tighter as she sobbed in front of him. "Do you have, like... a little cork bottle?"

She shook her head, crying into her sleeve. Oh, he wished he could jump into her room and give her a comforting embrace. "I--I have an idea. Let me go get something from my apartment, give me ten minutes."

Remi nodded, still crying into her sleeve. Hyunjin left with a heavy heart; him and his pack hadn't known her for too long, but he didn't think he'd ever see her cry. She was so confident and brave, like the world could never tear her down or hurt her. But at the same time, he knew if anything was to break her, it would be the death of her beloved cat--and worst of all, her brother did it. Accidentally, but that wouldn't lessen Remi's pain in the slightest, and Hyunjin knew that.

So, he ran home, told the rest of his pack that she was alive but crumbling inside, then dismissed their pleas to go back with him (and Minho's advice to kill her brother) and grabbed a few items from his desk drawer.  He tucked them away into the safety of his pocket and ran back to Remi's house. She was waiting at the open window, visibly less upset than ten minutes ago. Before he could talk, she moved away from the window as she patted the frame, and went to sit on her bed.

Hyunjin, surprised, pulled himself up and climbed into her room, closing the curtains behind him. The room was full of black and grey and dark variants of typically bright colours, such as pink and purple. He stood there awkwardly, waiting for her to say something, but she stared absently as the pink cat bed by her desk.

"You can sit," She patted the end of her bed and snuggled into her pillows.

Nervous suddenly, he seated himself at the end of her bed and showed the contents of his hoodie pocket. A tiny cork-topped glass bottle, an equally tiny eye-pin, and a black chain.

"You could put some of her ashes in her, and scatter the rest around the back garden?" He suggested, holding out the items for her to look at.

Remi stared at them for a moment, then glanced up at Hyunjin. Her brown eyes shined like honey against the golden glow of her bedside lamp. He felt his heart melt and thump wildly at the same time. 

"I love that idea," She wiped away a quick tear on her right cheek, and flashed him a pretty smile of gratitude. 

To escape his urge to fanboy over her beauty, he collected the silver urn with pawprints etched into the steel, and took it with him to the bed. Remi carefully unscrewed the lid and dipped the tiny bottle into the ashes, then poured some out so the cork could fit back onto the top. Hyunjin twisted the tiny eye-pin into the cork and added the chain through it, then held it out for Remi to take. Tears were yet again rolling down her cheeks as she took it from him and placed it over her head, fastening it behind her hoodie.

"Meet me outside," She motioned towards the window, smiled at his nod, and left her room with her cat's urn.

Hyunjin climbed out of the window and waited on top of it until Remi came out of the back door. He jumped off the roof and followed her to the back of the garden. Her silent tears grew into snotty, choked sobs. She kissed the urn, hugged it, stroked it as if her cat could feel it, and gently scattered her ashes all over the garden. For a long while, they stood side by side, staring at the sparkling ashes in the grass and dirt, when Remi fell to the grass and let out wails of heartache. His heart shattered for her. Holding back his own tears at seeing her in such distress, he joined her on the ground.

Before he had the chance to think through ways to comfort her, she leaned against him, her head on his shoulder. His body tensed over, but he found it in him to wrap an arm around her shoulders and squeeze her reassuringly.