✔ || Distract Me

Chapter 1

Jeongguk did not dream. Whether it was because he didn't get enough sleep or because his brain simply couldn't conjure up imaginings worth remembering, he never dreamt.

Until he stumbled upon the boy with the scars in his back. It hadn't been a long visit - only long enough for Jeongguk to open his eyes in a blindingly white landscape, nothingness as far as he could see. If he squinted, he could see a form kneeling far away, back facing Jeongguk. Something in his soul pulled Jeongguk forward and he stumbled along, allowing the current to yank him onward. There wasn't a sound beyond the echoing of his footsteps, loud and immense. Entranced, Jeongguk stepped ever closer to the figure.

He could make out blond hair now, and a striped robe that fell off the boy's shoulders.

The boy. It was most certainly a boy.

Now Jeongguk narrowed his eyes, and the boy's smooth back came into better focus. There were two long wounds in his shoulder blades - vertical lines that gnarled the otherwise perfect skin. They were red - fresh - and gleamed in the white light that bathed the entire dreamscape. For that's what it was - Jeongguk wasn't sure how he knew, but he did. However, he couldn't shake the feeling that this place was somehow real - that the boy sitting with his back to him was experiencing real pain, and that there was real blood coursing through his veins. That this boy existed, and not just in Jeongguk's dream. The boy's head was bowed forward. Jeongguk marveled at how still he was - like a statue. Not even breathing, or, at least, he didn't look like he was breathing. A few steps more and Jeongguk was almost close enough to touch him. Almost. Something held him back from the ethereal boy - something deeper than his own mind, something instinctual. Nevertheless, he wondered what it'd be like to touch that honeyed skin. Would it be as warm as it looked? Or would it be frozen, as this hellish dreamscape was? The wounds were uglier up close - angry purple, black, and blue veins spidered out from the crevices in the perfect skin. Dried blood clung to the edges of the gashes even as fresh blood bubbled from the innermost parts of the lines, seeping lazily outward. And yet, they didn't tarnish the boy's looks. He held a strange type of beauty - incomparable to any person Jeongguk knew of, yet so, so perfect. Jeongguk steeled himself and, against his better judgement, took another step and reached forward with a trembling hand.

Suddenly, the boy tilted his head so that he was gazing skyward. Jeongguk froze, arm still outstretched, not even daring to breathe. A strange fear shot through his body. The boy slowly turned his head, his shoulders remaining inhumanly still, and met Jeongguk's stare with two dark, swirling eyes. His gentle pink lips curved upwards in a pained smile.

Jeongguk felt his body backing away, though his mind was screaming at him to continue reaching forward, to touch the boy. It was okay; he wanted to touch him, he wanted to feel that enticing skin under his fingertips. But his body continued backing away until Jeongguk realized it wasn't him who was moving, but the landscape of the dream itself, pulling him farther and farther away. The boy hadn't moved; his head was still twisted around as he unblinkingly watched Jeongguk get yanked farther and farther away, that same grimacing smile stretched across his face. Jeongguk reached out fruitlessly in a last-ditch effort to get back to the boy. He opened his mouth and released an ungodly shriek, long and silent.