「 lukewarm | yang hongseok 」

[ t e n ]

10 | insomnia

Hongseok yawned as he groggily woke up to feeling quick breaths against his chest and drenched sweater sticking to his bare skin. He slowly adjusted his eyes to the darkness surrounding him as he ran a hand lazily through his hair. There were sobs coming from somewhere near him which caused the bruised police officer to turn to his right to see his son panting heavily, tears running down his red and puffy cheeks as he struggled to breath. The blanket was wrapped around the boy's small body very tightly, almost to the point of strangling him as he began to shriek and wail loudly.

Hongseok's eyes widened in panic, ripping the blanket off of his son and brought Juhyung into his arms, trying to wake him up. He felt his hands shake as he shook the small boy, his muscles locking up as tears forming in his eyes.

"Juhyung!", Hongseok screamed, his body shaking uncontrollably and began to sputter words like a broken record. "Juhyung w-wake up!"

He felt his son's forehead, feeling the burning sensation on his rough palm that radiated off of the small boy. Hongseok stared at Juhyung helplessly, watching his son holler at the top of his lungs and squirm violently in his arms.

Bathroom. Bring down the temperature, Hongseok thought to himself, running off of the bed with his son's cries growing louder. He twisted the bath tub's knob and watched water pour out of it in a steady but fast pace. He put Juhyung's head under the cold water, splashing it on Juhyung's face.

But he wasn't waking up.

Hongseok brought Juhyung out of the water. He tried to find other solutions, but when he looked down he saw that the small boy in his arms laying in his father's arms wasn't the same from less than twenty minutes ago -

Juhyung was lifeless.

Hongseok felt his world crumble around him, tears rolling down his cheeks like stones tumbling down a hill. He slammed his back against the tiled bathroom walls and slid down it. He felt water soak into the sweat pants that Yeseul provided, but he didn't care.

His everything slipped away from his fingers.

Hongseok let out an ear-bleeding scream, tears falling out of his eyes uncontrollably. His shaking arms brought the limp body of Juhyung closer to his body, hugging his son tightly as he sobbed. He lowered his head and kissed his forehead with puffy lips, the water droplets staining Juhyung's face and making his father's sight blurrier.

"Hongseok! I heard screaming! Is everything alright-"

Hongseok looked up to see the distorted face of a familiar blue haired girl. He shook violently as he met Yeseul's panicked and fear-filled eyes.

"Oh my God -"

"Juhyung!", he cried.

Yeseul gasped but quickly sprung into action. She ran out of her room to get something, leaving  Hongseok  frozen in place.

The world slowly started to fade away and everything sounds around  him as if he were Dorthy from 'The Wizard of Oz' trapped  in the tornado. A low buzzing rang in his ears and his head felt like a hammer was hitting him a thousand times a minute.

Everything in his body hurt - from the bottoms of his feet to the top of his head. His chest twisted into a tight knot as his heart pounded against his chest, and it felt like it was about to break the cage it was trapped in. He wanted to run, he didn't want this to be reality.