𝐸𝑇𝐻𝐸𝑅𝐸𝐴𝐿 // 𝐶𝐻𝐸𝑁𝑆𝑈𝑁𝐺 [✔️]

eleven

the next day, the boys arrive at the airport the moment the clock strikes three. their flight is scheduled to leave rather early in the morning and is claimed to land in shanghai by the time nearby breakfast stores open. jisung, when he bought the tickets, thought it would be a good idea since they'd have the rest of the day to sleep or walk around. jisung would rather sleep.

he trails behind chenle as they proceed through security. no matter how much coffee he chugged earlier, he couldn't wake himself up. his hangover headache from yesterday had subsided though it was replaced with something more like a migraine. he hadn't been getting much sleep lately anyway, since he's been up late talking to the elder—and kept awake by the dreams in his head.

my god, the dreams.

he wants to go in depth and analyze whatever horrifying images flashed through his head last night—a house engulfed in flames, screams of pure terror and confusion, smoke, an ambulance—but his mind pings from one thing another too fast to focus.

"hey, jisung?" chenle's honey-like voice snaps him back to reality, where they're now standing in line to get on the airplane. "i lost you for a second. is everything okay with you?"

"everything's fine." he lies. he would go back to zoning out though he realizes that he should probably focus on the moment he's in instead of dwelling on past dreams. and it's not like they particularly scared him, per se, it's just that they felt...real. they felt so familiar—he just can't pinpoint what it is. he wouldn't call it deja vu, since he doesn't recall any of these as memories.

he blames it on the fact that he woke up not remembering normal things.

the two walk onto the small airplane and tuck their single backpack into the overhead compartment above their seats. chenle takes the window seat, knowing jisung prefers the aisle. he hadn't flown much before but something tells him that he hates window seats due to an irrational fear of heights. it feels good knowing that chenle's looking out for him.

time seems to skip. it's like he blinks and the plane is already taking off. his knee bounces up and down as he begins to feel uneasy, head growing cloudy the further he gets from the ground. he grips onto chenle's arm tightly to help him calm down—and then he remembers, this is happening. they're going to china.

"thanks for everything, jisung."

it takes a moment for him to process the words being said. "oh...you're welcome."

"i mean it. before we met, i always hoped for a friend who would go to the end of the world and back for me. i knew my mom and brother loved me, but i was looking for something else. you gave that to me. i truly love being with you, you know."

jisung blushes. his heart pangs in his chest and at the same time he feels quite dizzy. he assumes it's the altitude change and smiles at his best friend. "i lov—like being with you too, chenle." he says, honestly.

chenle rests his head on the younger's shoulder—something he used to do quite often though now it feels so different, so genuine—and curls up in his own seat. he uses jisung's sweatshirt as a blanket and looks quite comfortable resting like this, as if in this moment he's safe from what they're running from.

the younger rests his own head on top of chenle's and closes his eyes, drifting off to sleep immediately after.

and then the dreams came back, so much more vivid than last night's.

it starts off happy. there's chenle, sitting next to him on a park bench and picking at his ice cream with a spoon. he has reminiscence of whipped cream on his nose, though jisung doesn't have the heart to tell him because it looks all too cute...all too pure.

the dream shifts. they're now outside the movie theatre, two tickets in hand that had just been redeemed to see the beauty and the beast. jisung remembers this moment as if it's a memory. in this moment, he, in fact, had fallen hopelessly and willingly in love with his best friend. watching him smile and sway as the movie soundtrack played, inviting jisung to dance in the back of the theatre with him just as the characters did on screen.

they almost kissed in this dream, too. jisung held his best friend close just as the beast did with belle, getting closer and closer to each other—until the dream shifts again.

a burning house. the smell of smoke and gasoline. he feels hazed, he feels weak, he feels hot. his body and clothes are covered in soot as the bright flames engulf his vision. he's inside the house, searching for something important, and it's frustrating because no matter how hard he tries, he can't pinpoint what that is.

he screams as his body temperature increases and increases when he goes deeper into the house, until a pair of strong arms grab him and pull him into a different dream.

his vision is then clouded with white. it feels like he can't open his eyes even though they're wide open. monotonous beeping resonates from a distance and echoes off the walls of his brain. his surroundings become more familiar as he makes out a hospital room with an empty vase and a television stuck on the news channel. this, for some reason, seems familiar too.

he looks down at his arm. his hand is holding someone else's much smaller than his own—it could very well be chenle's since he's not sure who else it could be. his arm is tarnished a dark red color and wrapped in stained bandages. as he reaches to remove them, he hears his name ring through his head, "jisung? jisung wake up. ji—"

"—sung, hey, wake up." chenle's hand jabs into the younger's shoulder to wake him. soon, he is pulled out of dreamland and staring at the elder with eyes glimmering in fear as if he had just seen a ghost.

"you look pale, jisung, do you feel okay?"

he is too tired and confused to verbally reply, so he nods.

"well, we've landed in shanghai. come on, let's go get breakfast. i'm starving."