✔ || Distract Me

Chapter 3

Dreams were supposed to have content in them. Right? But Jeongguk opened his eyes to find nothing but inky blackness as far as he could see. He shuddered, feeling the claws of the darkness reaching out to grab him. Fear gripped him - he wasn't afraid of the dark, but something about this was wrong. Very wrong. There was a humming in his ears that made his heart hammer. What was going on? Was this a nightmare?

He spun around, wildly searching for an exit, for a light, for anything, and then froze. A sickly glow radiated from the depths of the blackness, far, far away from Jeongguk. It was a beacon of hope, and Jeongguk sprinted forward, desperate to reach it. Was it just him, or was the floor dipping and swaying with each step he took? He pushed himself to run faster, though his lungs began to ache. The light stayed irritatingly dim, as if he wasn't making any progress reaching it. He stumbled - over what, he couldn't tell you - and found himself on his hands and knees. Gravel - at least, it felt like gravel - but into his palms and he gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stand. His ankle whined under his weight, but still he set off again, limping as he jogged.

Suddenly, the pulsing glow exploded toward him in a flash of white light. Jeongguk threw an arm up over his eyes, stopping. When the light died down enough to remove his arm, Jeongguk squinted into the new brightness and shivered.

There he was. Kim Taehyung, or whatever dream-being his brain had created to look like Kim Taehyung. Jeongguk stumbled towards him, the darkness clinging to his back still fueling his fear. Taehyung sat cross-legged, his robe open and falling from his bare shoulders to reveal the skin of his chest. Jeongguk blushed at the sight as he stepped closer. Taehyung watched him with an unreadable expression, his shoulders scrunched forward as if in a permanent grimace. Jeongguk found he couldn't look into his hooded eyes for more than a moment and opted instead to gaze at his ash blonde hair.

And then he stopped walking. Something in him wouldn't let him get closer to the boy, try as he might. He opened his mouth, but he couldn't seem to form words. The boy - Taehyung - cocked his head at him, his stare swooping over Jeongguk's body. A stab of self-consciousness shot through Jeongguk as he realized he was only wearing briefs and a t-shirt - what he had gone to sleep in. The maknae squirmed under Taehyung's stare, and those dark eyes flicked up to his face. Jeongguk froze, unable to look away from his piercing gaze. Taehyung slowly lifted himself to his feet, eyes never leaving Jeongguk's, and proceeded to step closer. Jeongguk's eyes of their own volition traveled down Taehyung's front, and the maknae blushed when a chuckle - low and tantalizing - rumbled from Taehyung's throat.

A small, condescending smile pulled the boy's lips upward, but he didn't speak as he began to circle around Jeongguk, appraising him from all angles. Jeongguk's head and eyes followed him as he walked, but the rest of his body remained stubbornly frozen. All the fear that had drove him to stand in front of the boy was gone, replaced by a sensation that Jeongguk couldn't name. Part of him wanted to run away, and it must have been that part that made him shudder when Taehyung's fingers suddenly brushed across his shoulder blades. His heart rate spiked as Taehyung dropped his hand and proceeded to step close enough for his breath to tickle Jeongguk's earlobe. Taehyung whispered in a voice that made the maknae's knees tremble, "You are quite stubborn, aren't you?"

Jeongguk didn't know what that meant, and he couldn't have responded if he tried. Taehyung sighed and strolled away from Jeongguk, and the maknae found that the wounds in his back were still coated in dried blood. Jeongguk's arm lifted - was he lifting it himself or had it grown a mind of its own? - and his fingers almost touched one of the long gashes. But Taehyung, as if he had read Jeongguk's mind, whipped around and shrugged his robe on over his shoulders. He frowned and Jeongguk dropped his eyes. "Off limits," he said fiercely.

Jeongguk managed a meek nod and Taehyung sat back down, gazing up at him. Jeongguk met his dark eyes. There was something sinister in them, yet they seemed overwhelming gentle. Somehow, it wasn't awkward to just stare back at the boy, and Taehyung didn't seem to have any plans to stop looking at Jeongguk.