Monsta X Oneshots

Rationality (ChangKi)

Prompt:

Person A doesn't like Person B. They don't know why but they just can't stand them.
Person B knows tjis and does every and anything they can to stay close to person A.

~*~

For Yoo Kihyun, Lee Jooheon was something unbearable; like a constant, irritating itch he couldn't scratch but had to bear lest he pulled open a scab. If there was no scab, Kihyun would have itched him away, but then again, if there was no scab, Jooheon wouldn't have been the itch in the first place.

Jooheon being what he was to Kihyun really wasn't his fault, something Kihyun would quietly admit to himself, during the darker part of night when he was calmer, more rational. But how was he to have known that when Jooheon moved in with him as his dorm mate, he would bring along the squishiest ball of existence ever? One with the most breathtaking dimples that popped out on the slightest twitch of lips, one with such an attitude that Kihyun might have banished him from his apartment, had it not been for that soulful pout?

Well, that was what Lim Changkyun was to Kihyun. More or less a miracle, his miracle, to be exact; an angel disguised as a demon. Or vice versa; with Changkyun, Kihyun was on a constant rollercoaster. The boy was unpredictable and crazy, but at the end of the day, Kihyun's, after all.

So to put it shortly, Yoo Kihyun only put up with Lee Jooheon because Lim Changkyun was the former's boyfriend and the latter's best friend.

And Kihyun, well, could get jealous.

As Jooheon's new dorm mate, he had first-hand experience seeing just how exactly those two clicked or were joined at the hip. How many times had he witnessed Changkyun not even coming inside, but standing on the road to yell something intelligible at Jooheon's window, whereupon the older would understand a whole conversation in that word and rush out with no sense of self? How many times had Jooheon sneaked out at midnight to grab McDonald's for Changkyun? How many times had Changkyun turned up with McDonald's for Jooheon? At three am?

And for that matter, how many times had Jooheon begged Kihyun into cooking comfort food for Changkyun, whenever he turned up quivering silently, because his report card had come in and his parents were less than pleased?

It had been okay up till then, because up till then Kihyun was still trying to convince himself that his feelings were platonic and had no hope of them being reciprocated. That Changkyun just needed some steadiness in his life, that he probably couldn't handle a relationship right then.

So it was okay for Jooheon to use Kihyun as a stress reliever, for him to tell him quietly over cooking that Changkyun managed to scrape a C in Calculus. It was okay for Kihyun to hear the silent message the younger had conveyed. It was okay that Kihyun had seen how hard Changkyun had worked and how Jooheon had pulled all nighters with him in the living room, that he'd fallen asleep listening to Changkyun's tense rote learning and sleep cracked voice deciphering numbers and equations.

It was okay for him to make a pot of Changkyun's favorite beef soup. It would be much later when he learned that Jooheon had left later that day for a while so Changkyun could pull Kihyun into a timid kiss when he asked if he'd like that soup he'd made just for him.

Amidst those kisses and stolen touches, Kihyun told him it would be okay.

It wasn't.

Shortly after, Kihyun found himself lying in a puddle of his own puke, the world a mass of shifting and sliding objects before him. The doctor said he'd suffered from vertigo, and would have to take a lifelong supplement of pills to keep his blood from thickening, lest they blocked his arteries again. Changkyun's visits grew frequent, the anxious mess that he was. He fussed over Kihyun, and Kihyun kept him stretched, the irrational mess he was. He would snap, unable to bear the burn in his chest he felt whenever he saw Changkyun with Jooheon. He slid him poisonous words, gave him large bouts of silent treatment, showed him the steel of his eyes. Later on he would kiss apologies into his skin, during the parts of the night when he felt rational. Because Kihyun, at the end, knew he was wrong. But this venomous jealousy inside him hissed to be sated, and he found himself giving in more and more. Changkyun simply endured, matching his attacks with cool levelheaded words that served to infuriate him further and accepting his apologies with the dimpled smile he knew Kihyun loved so much. The older kept him torn between him and Jooheon, but Changkyun paid no heed, even when Kihyun found he could no longer shield his eyes in front of Jooheon.