Rainy days

168 4 4
                                    

Seventeen 

AN: just a small seventeen angst, kinda weird

Little Chan looks out the window. It's raining again, the sky a vast mess of black billowy clouds, the wind stirring up the droplets as they fell, dripping onto the window pane and slipping off like they had important business elsewhere. The house was dark too, which wasn't odd, considering the fact that it was almost eleven at night, way past Chan's bedtime. But he just felt that there was something wrong. The lights were dimmed downstairs, hushed whispers snaking up the stairs. Chan wraps himself tighter in a blanket, feeling brave, as he sneaks out of his room. Straining his ears to listen, he tiptoes down the corridor. "We can't tell them," Second oldest brother Jeonghan says urgently. "Well, then what do we do? Lie?" Joshua, third oldest brother asks in an equally soft but demanding tone. "It's not confirmed, yet," Oldest brother Seungcheol soothes. A fist is brought down on the counter. "Yet?" Joshua hisses, "You want to wait for that doctor's phone call to tell them? Wait for the death certificate to be mailed over before we tell him? They're gone, Seungcheol, or going. I can feel it. I know it." Someone sobs. "Don't say that," Jeonghan whispers tearfully. "We need to be strong, to tell the others," Seungcheol sighs.

"Channie?"

Chan whips around to face Seungkwan. "Why are you up?" The older mutters groggily. "Shh," Chan presses his index finger to his mouth, and Seungkwan follows suit. They wait outside Wonwoo, Jihoon and Soonyoung's shared bedroom. "Let them sleep for now," Seungcheol decides, "We'll tell them in the morning." Seungkwan pokes Chan rudely, "What are they talking about?" Chan shrugs. "Well, figure it out!" Seungkwan murmurs. Jeonghan and Joshua hum sleepily in agreement. "But..." Jeonghan starts, "If anything happens, what's going to happen to us all?"

The phone cries out. A hand creeps onto Chan's shoulders, and the boy stifles a scream. Wonwoo stood there silently, Jihoon behind him rubbing his eyes and Soonyoung hugging a pillow. "What's going on?" JIhoon mutters. Seungcheol had picked up the phone, his voice shaky.

"Y-yes? Oh, ah, yeah. What happened?" Chan can feel Wonwoo tense up. "O-oh. I...I see...O-okay." Dead silence hangs in the air, the hyung line stunned and shocked. Jihoon is frozen stiff and Wonwoo holds his breath. And Seungcheol must have given the other two a look, because Joshua quietens and Jeonghan takes deep shuddering breaths. Chan peeks out from the shadow downstairs. Seungcheol has his head in his hands. And the rain falls even harder.

But Chan doesn't get it.

"Jeonghan hyung, why is the sky crying?" The little boy asks. Jeonghan grips a black umbrella, the other hand wrapped around Chan's. The thirteen of them are all donning black clothes. Two pristine coffins lie on a stand. But Chan doesn't know what they are. The older boys are crying, Wonwoo blinking hard at the rainy sky, Mingyu staring down at the ground. Junhui doesn't speak, Minghao studies the coffins as if that would give life back to those in them. Seokmin looks crestfallen, except crestfallen is too light a term to describe agony. Hansol and Seungkwan know there's something wrong. They just can't figure out what. And the rain falls even harder.

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