fic: occipital bounce (written for shineebigbang 2012)
Occipital Bounce
15,557w; pg-13
Jonghyun/Taemin; Onew/Minho
Jonghyun eased up on the gas, guiding the car into the second turn of the current lap. The bank was steep, impossibly steep, and two vehicles had already flipped off the track before him. He bit his lip. His tongue slipped out the corner of his mouth in concentration. His fingers flexed in the thick gloves he wore, arms stiff and burning with the strain of being held in the same position for so long. He could do this.
Another car flipped right in front of him and Jonghyun swerved, barely missing a free invitation to the growing pileup at the bottom of the turn. A tiny explosion shook the cockpit as the vehicle next to him crashed into the wall. It was only Jonghyun against 5 other racers now, if only he could make it out of this turn with half of his car intact. The goal seemed plausible; he was nearing the end where the track once again flattened out.
Plausible, if he hadn’t run over a piece of shrapnel.
The front right tire blew with a force that rattled his teeth as he tried to keep the car from spinning out or flipping. Once the car slowed to a manageable speed he pressed on the break and pulled off to the side, the blowout and following maneuverings finally getting him off the danger of the turning bank. Gasping, Jonghyun reached up under his neck and unbuckled the clasp to his helmet with one hand while reaching for his call button with the other.
The intercom crackled to life as he lifted the helmet from his head and dropped it in his lap. “Racer number 02, I saw you swerving quite a bit there, what seems to be the problem?”
“I’ve got a blow, right front.”
“Gotcha loud and clear! Go ahead and coast in the safe lane for the next hundred meters then one of the crew will guide you down into the pit. We’ll get you back out there in no time.” The fuzzy sound of feedback from the intercom shut off abruptly and Jonghyun shifted gears. He gently stirred his vehicle towards a person waving a blue flag, rolling down the window when he got close enough.
The mechanic jogged up next to the car, leaning down into the window. Junior mechanic, the kid didn’t look a day over sixteen to Jonghyun. “Hey, number 02, you were having a good run out there until, you know.” The young man beamed and Jonghyun had to blink away his sudden blindness.
“Er, thanks.”
The crew member just laughed. “Thank me when you win, yeah?” He winked, then turned as someone shouted something Jonghyun couldn’t here. The kid waved them off, light brown bun bouncing against his neck. “Alright. Go ahead and put her in neutral and we’ll push you in.” He slapped the hood once, still smiling, then went to join his crewmates gathering at the back of the car.
Jonghyun leant back in his seat, letting some of the tension from the last lap escape through a deep cleansing breath. He felt the car being jacked up as he unzipped his jumpsuit partially and removed his gloves. There was nothing he could do about the raging thirst plaguing his mouth and throat, not when he saw the pit crew running around with tires, he would be back on the track soon. The kid’s face reappeared at the window causing Jonghyun to jump and hit his head on the roof.
“Oh, did I scare you? Sorry. I just need to let you know that we don’t have soft compound tires so you’re going to lose a lot of traction on those turns.” He pulled his full bottom lip between his teeth, letting them chew on it for a second before adding, “but they last longer! So if you can make it out the next two turns, while those other cars are stopped getting things replaced you can just finish this thing.” That grin again, and then he was gone.
Jonghyun just shook his head, he probably wouldn’t last that long anyway. Not for lack of skill, but mainly because-
“Oh hey, one more thing.” He was back. “Can I get your name?” The kid looked like he was blushing. “I’m kind of a fan.”
“Huh?” Jonghyun blinked. “Um, sure, it’s Jonghyun," he smiled, “Kim Jonghyun. What’s yours?”
“Oh, I-I’m Taemin.” The kid stuck out his hand, presumably for a handshake but before Jonghyun could return the gesture the world went black around him, the last thing flashing in his sight the grease mark beneath Taemin’s glittering eye.
-
He drifted back into awareness slowly, blinking a few times before he realized what happened. Sighing, Jonghyun pressed the release signal on his wrist and the capsule opened with a hiss of compressed air. He sat up, first removing the black tinted glasses, then the gloves, and finally the patches stuck to his forehead and neck.
“Hey, Minho.” Jonghyun called to the man he saw sitting at the desk on the other side of the room. He tried to climb out of the sleek plush lined capsule but his motor functions still hadn’t completely caught up with reality.
“Jjong? Your time is up already huh? How was it?” The taller man stood up and walked over to give Jonghyun a hand in escaping the capsule.
Jonghyun grasped the hand gratefully and pulled himself out; releasing a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding when his feet reconnected with the ground at last. “It was awesome. It really felt like I was there. That thirty minute time limit is shit though.”
“Sorry man," Minho chuckled, “this particular virtual reality interface is still under serious construction and we’re lucky enough to get to test it.”
“Yeah yeah I know. And you’ll follow all the rules and make the reports and be filthy rich if they decide to use your arcade as a hosting site once it’s launched. Thirty minutes is still too short.”
Minho clapped him on his back, openly laughing now as he kept his hand on his shoulder and stirred them towards the desk. “Short or not, I still need to report everything you think so give me more than that.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this.” Jonghyun slipped out from Minho’s arm and sat in his desk chair, propping his feet up on the table. “When I got in I just thought of what I wanted to do, no screen, no menu, no anything. And then I was there.” He was both in awe and jealous of the technology. “I want to know if it was programmed that way or if our minds are really capable of creating such a detailed world on their own. It really felt real, like when my time clocked out I thought I passed out for a minute.”
“Wait.” Minho paused in typing Jonghyun’s words on his float screen. “Elaborate on that black out thing?”
“Ok, well I was sitting in my racecar-”
Minho snorted, “racecars? Really? You can go into any world you see fit and you drive a racecar? What are you twelve?” He dodged the notebook Jonghyun chucked at him.
“Shut up Choi. Do you want my help or not?” He continued when Minho held up his hands in surrender. “Anyway, I was sitting there and it felt like I just blacked out, everything went black and when I woke up I was a bit disoriented.”
“Hmm.” Minho murmured, adding that to his update report and tapping the send button. “That’s something they’ll have to work on then. Don’t want people not being able to differentiate between virtual reality and…reality.”
Jonghyun shrugged. “Yeah so are we done today? Key’s making dinner and will flip his shit if I’m late.”
Minho broke into peals of laughter again. “I will never understand why you keep him around. Get out of here Jonghyun.” Jonghyun just grinned, grabbing his bag and slinging it onto his back.
“What can I say? He keeps me amused. See ya Choi.” He headed towards the door, almost opening it when something tickled his memory. “Oh, Minho, one more thing. Say other players are hooked up to the game, do you see them?”
“Wha? Nope, it’s a completely isolated virtual experience. Why do you ask?”
“Just curious. See you tomorrow.”
-
It wasn’t Jonghyun’s fault, but he was exactly two minutes and thirty-eight seconds late getting home. First he found his hoveboard disconnected from the community charger so he had to catch the bus. The bus, of course, was running late and when it arrived skidded up to the curb with a flourish that drenched Jonghyun in the rain water that had collected while he was inside Minho’s place. The state of his well being was peeved, wet, and hungry, when he ran into Onew in the foyer of his apartment building.
The older man just had to look at Jonghyun and flash his sheepish smile one moment and in the next Jonghyun was helping him lug his twenty bags of groceries up the stairs. The elevator was broken. So when Jonghyun finally arrived home, Key had disabled his keycard.
“Key, I swear I left early, plus I’m not even that late. Let me in.” Jonghyun was propped up against his apartment door, a perfect depiction of a day gone wrong.
A voice crackled from the speaker next to the door. “No. Late is late. Plus you smell like a sewer.”
“You can’t smell.” Jonghyun shot back.
“Maybe not like you but I assure you, that you do. You look like one too and I will not have you messing up my clean house.”
Jonghyun just sighed. “Unless you want the door painted black you will let me in and feed me.”
“So I can be the laughing stock of this whole floor? No thank you.” The door clicked open and Jonghyun fell through it, making a damp pile of flesh on the floor. “Welcome home Kim Jonghyun.” Key’s voice chirped throughout the apartment.
“I should reset you.” Jonghyun muttered from his surprisingly comfortable spot on the floor. “Minho agrees, you know.”
Key materialized on the wall next to the door, arms crossed and a derisive look gracing his features. “Empty threats Kim Jonghyun. I amuse you. Now please go shower before the food gets completely cold.”
Jonghyun contemplated throwing a shoe at the wall but Key would disappear before it hit, plus he didn’t want to get yelled at for dirtying said wall. Instead he picked himself up and trudged to the shower.
Key had been Jonghyun and Minho’s final project. An artificially intelligent house and apartment system that was different than the others. One that had a personality. “Why ‘Key’?”Minho had asked one day.
“Because he’s the key to my success.” He wasn’t though, at least not right away. Jonghyun was thorough in his coding, almost too thorough. Key not only had a personality, but a mind of his own and that just wasn’t marketable to the general public. Nobody wanted software to have free reign of their home. So after months of tweaking and fighting with the development team the prototypes were released and they flourished, as did Jonghyun’s bank account. They were perfect for people that lived alone, had no family, no friends. Jonghyun considered himself lucky that he at least a handful of friends, the concept was foreign.
He hadn’t been able to let Key go though, and installed him over his own home system, starting a beautiful love hate relationship. Jonghyun shuddered as the water in his shower turned from comfortably warm to frigid. Leaning more towards hate.
“Why aren’t you done yet?” Key materialized on the shower wall and Jonghyun yelped, covering himself. “Oh stop it’s not like I haven’t seen it all before.”
“Will you let me shower in peace? Seriously you’re getting more unbearable by the day.”
“Oh, so I’m unbearable now Kim Jonghyun?” Key flickered before the wall showed a scene Jonghyun presumed was from earlier that day. He was watching a room, his office, perfectly reminiscent of the destruction left by a full fledged tornado. Drawers opened and papers flew and suddenly the room was clean. The bastard had probably sorted everything alphabetically too.
“Thank you for organizing my office. Key. But please, can I have some privacy?”
The wall went blank and Key reappeared, shaking his head. “I will never understand you human’s and your need to be alone all the time. Hurry up.” He faded and Jonghyun slid down onto the floor, letting the water fall onto his face.
-
“So this is grass…soup?” Jonghyun maneuvered the long green things around with his spoon, he was pretty sure the cheese could win in a fair fight so he had to build an impenetrable fortress of grassy doom.
“Stop playing with it, and its chives, chive soup. I was scanning a journal earlier and it’s supposed to be good for your digestion. It also aids in the prevention of high cholesterol and blood pressure alongside providing a wealth of vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, potassium, calcium, vitamin k, beta-”
“Wow! This is so good, Key, thank you.” Jonghyun fished out a large spoonful and slurped it obnoxiously.
“Shut up. You’ll thank me when you don’t fall over dead from a heart attack.”
“Funny. I always feel like you have ulterior motives when you act like you’re concerned about my health.”
“Of course I do. What will happen to me if you die?”
Jonghyun raised an eyebrow. “I’m just going to keep pretending you actually care.” He continued to eat, letting the soup warm him as he listened to Key buzz around the walls and fixtures of his kitchen. The day’s events slowly played in his mind as he tapped one foot against the floor, humming a nonsensical tune between spoonfuls. As a certain memory leapt across his brain he stopped his movements.
“Hey Key.” The program in question materialized on the table, looking up at Jonghyun.
“Yes, Kim Jonghyun.”
Jonghyun poked at Key’s would be nose with his spoon. “I need you to go through anything you can find on virtual reality, especially stuff about the new interface Minho is in charge of testing.”
“I’m on it.” Key flickered away and Jonghyun went back to his musings.
-
Jonghyun threw another dagger before swinging higher into the tree. He ran his fingers down his utility belt and found he only had three left. Shit. If he was ever going to make it out of the forest he’d have to figure out a way to get past the goblins. A sudden pain shot up his ankle and he looked down to see one of the small green creatures latched to his leg, sharp yellowed teeth piercing through his boot.
“Vile human! Tainting our wood! Vile human! Must be removed!” They chanted, moving closer. Jonghyun shook his leg as hard as he could, sending the piranha goblin flying down the tree, knocking down some of his brethren en route.
“See, what you fail to realize is that I’m trying to remove myself, you just won’t let me!” Jonghyun shouted down, reaching over his shoulder for his sword. Fighting them off in close contact was his only option now, even if his chances of winning were slim to none. He backed up against the trunk of the tree for leverage, readying himself as a particularly fast goblin hopped up onto his branch. Just as he let out a shrill war cry and swung, an arrow whizzed down from above, striking the creature through the middle and causing it to topple off the branch.
Jonghyun suppressed a nervous breakdown. If they were shooting his enemies then that meant they were on his side right? Right? A hand appeared through the foliage above his head, beckoning. Deciding he had nothing to lose Jonghyun grabbed it and found himself being hoisted up with ease.
“Rule number one when fighting goblins, don’t fight them. You’re outnumbered and ill prepared.” His sudden-but-welcome companion tsked. “We have to get out of here, hold on.” Not knowing what else to do Jonghyun tightened his grip in the other person’s hand as he began glow.
“Oh, um, you’re glowing, and I don’t think it’s good for me to be exposed to…glowing. So let me go, the goblins can eat me.” Jonghyun stopped babbling when he was fixed with a stern look, the person’s lips moving soundlessly. One moment he was standing there hoping he wasn’t about to die and the next he was rolling down a hill. He landed on the stranger with an ‘oomf’.
“Get off me. Now.”
“Sorry! I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” Jonghyun scrambled to his feet, reaching down to help the other man to his feet.
“I’m fine. I would be ten times better if you hadn’t been struggling like a fool.” Now that he wasn’t running for his life and sanity Jonghyun got a good look at the stranger. He stood a little taller than him but his face was so young. His ears were pointed and his hair was long and flowing.
“Y-you’re an elf.” Jonghyun felt stupid now, the elves were the first pit stop he’d been headed towards.
The elf sighed. “Yes, Jonghyun. It seems so.”
Just when he’d thought he had a chance to breathe easy. “Um. How do you know my name?”
“You told me yesterday.” The elf looked exasperated now, lips pursed in a tight line. Okay those Jonghyun recognized.
“Taemin? What are you doing here.”
“I could be asking you the same question. Not that I mind, but is there a reason you keep appearing in my dreams?”
Jonghyun didn’t get a chance to answer. The sky and grass had begun to crumble into cubes.
-
“Choi!” Jonghyun yelled as soon as he was free from the capsule. “We have an odd occurrence happening.”
“Too early for your barking Jonghyun, way too early.” Jonghyun swiftly kicked Minho in his leg.
“It’s the middle of the afternoon. Nobody told you to stay out all night.” He reached over Minho’s shoulder to rummage on his desk, pulling out the float screen and bringing up their notes. “Are you positive that no one else is testing these?”
“And I quote. ‘We have partnered with the engineer Choi Minho and given him exclusive testing rights blah-di-blah-di-blah’ It’s just us Jonghyun.” Minho beckoned towards his device and it flew out of Jonghyun’s grasp to drift lazily near Minho’s hand. He tapped in the current date. “Okay shoot, whats going on?”
“I don’t know how to explain it actually.” Jonghyun rubbed at his temples. “Alright, the stock game characters, you know, people you meet during game play. What should they be like?”
Minho shrugged. “What kind of question is that. They should be like any other stock characters. Basic dialogue, no discernible features-“
“Exactly!” Jonghyun exclaimed. “And they really shouldn’t be able to remember a player right? Especially if game play is taking place in a completely new setting.”
Minho did that humming thing he did when he thought Jonghyun was acting crazy. “Jonghyun that can’t happen. Pixels don’t have memories.”
“Key has memories.”
“He has memories pertaining to you and your apartment. Stored data, not memories. This interface doesn’t store data, at least not yet.”
“Look Choi," Jonghyun sighed. “I know what I saw and I know what I heard, so just look into it please? I had Key download all the files he could, he can transfer them here.” There was something extremely weird about ‘Taemin’ and Jonghyun was going to get to the bottom of it whether Minho helped him or not.
“Who is Taemin?” Oh, he’d said that out loud.
“The person I keep running into. He said I keep appearing in his dreams.” It was Minho’s turn to sigh.
“Alright Jjong. Have Key send me the files, I’ll look into it. Either way, you’re not going under tomorrow. I’ll go and see for myself.”
Jonghyun almost protested but Minho was right, the best way to help solve any mysterious happenings was to have a firsthand account of the situation. “Fine. But I get to say I told you so.”
-
He’d given Key enough tasks before he left that Jonghyun wasn’t particularly worried about rushing home. Instead he zipped around the park on his hoveboard, mind more agitated every time he thought about Taemin. If someone was trying to cash in on their deal with the developers then he was going to find out where they were and shut them down.
Jonghyun stopped to rest in front of the pond, stretching out on a bench and watching the ducks swim to and fro in the water. What a simple life they had, no worries about computers and programs and weird game crashers. One of the ducks flickered as is floated through a log. Of course. Holograms. They were even making animals now?
“Jonghyun!” A cheerful voice called out. He looked up to see a figure waving from a tree a little ways from his bench. Jonghyun squinted his eyes, recognizing Onew as he did a weird combination of running and walking towards him.
“Hey Onew, what’s up?” He sat up and moved over to make room for the other man.
“Nothing much.” Onew plopped down gracelessly. “Actually that’s a lie, I am working on something but I need your opinions so I’ll wait until you and Minho are done with your current project.”
Jonghyun waved him off. “It’s not our project, we’re just testing, and possibly hosting it if it gets off the ground. Or at least Minho will be. Run it by me.”
“Okay, well um, you know how I tend to over shop when I pick up things right?” Yeah, Jonghyun knew. “Well, Seohyun got really angry with me last week. Something about having no foreseeable reason to require goat hooves so-”
“Wait, you bought goat hooves?” Jonghyun’s mouth curled around a giggle.
“Don’t laugh! They were on sale.”Onew huffed. “Anyway, so I got to thinking, what if I could take her to the store with me? Then she could get what she wanted instead of sifting through all the stuff that I buy.”
“That’s kind of an awesome idea Onew.” Jonghyun loved Onew’s ability to take ideas and expand on them in the simplest yet most functional of ways. They’d clicked initially because Jonghyun caught Onew in the labs one night blasting Al Green. A friendship built over their shared love of two hundred year old R&B. It wasn’t until later though that Jonghyun learned Onew was concentrating in three different programs simultaneously and sat at the top of his class in all of them.
He was really too humble for his own good and the fact that he always asked Jonghyun for help or feedback floored him.
“It’s really not that great. It’s just building on your initial program. I’ve got some crude prototypes already in the works if you want to go for a test drive with Key.”
“That voice tagging along with me all day? Yeah I’ll have to get back with you on that.”
Onew laughed, teeth flashing in the sunlight. Jonghyun had half a thought on whether the sun would soon be artificial too before joining in. “He’s really not that bad, you should be nicer to him.”
“When he stops trying to feed me green stuff maybe I will.” They sat in silence for awhile, watching the water, the flowers, the sky. Then Jonghyun decided he needed some advice. He explained the run-ins with Taemin in the game much like he explained it to Minho earlier.
“Hmmm, I’d say your suspicions are correct, it sounds like there is another brain hooked up to the system you’re testing. Weird.”
“I know right? But I don’t even know what to do to find the guys behind it.”
“Maybe no one is behind it. Maybe the company is doing a blind test in another sector.”
Jonghyun nodded as he processed the thought.“That sounds possible, but then would we be able to interact? The range would be pretty far if they are thinking of launching somewhere else.”
“I don’t know Jonghyun, maybe it’s just that powerful. I mean, aren’t you testing it because we don’t know exactly what its capable of?”Onew stood and stretched, patting Jonghyun on his shoulder. “Anyway, I want to look at the files too if you don’t mind. We can meet up later and discuss.”
“Alright, thanks.”
“No problem. See ya.”
Jonghyun waved and decided he might as well head off too. He tossed a rock into the pond and watched one of the holographic ducks try to eat it before hopping on his hoveboard and whizzing away.
-
He tapped his fingers on his desk, counting to ten before releasing his breath. Nope, he was still mad. “Key!”
“Yes, Kim Jonghyun.” Key appeared on the ceiling.
“Why is my desk pink?”
“Oh. That.” Key blinked. An unnecessary function, but one he’d picked up from watching Jonghyun.
“Yes. That.”
“Well I was bored this afternoon and I was scanning this article about color theory. The color pink stimulates energy; it increases not only blood pressure but respiration and pulse rate. It also encourages confidence and-”
Jonghyun let out an exasperated sigh. “Ok but what does that have to do with me?”
“Well you said you would be working later, and I want you to do your very best!” Jonghyun swore when Key grinned the room pulsed yellow. Knowing him it probably did.
“I really don’t get you sometimes.”
“You’re not supposed to ‘get’ me. I’m of a higher intellectual level than you by design. Sorry.”
Jonghyun just shook his head, deciding it best to ignore Key for now and concentrate on the mystery developing in front of him. He scrolled through the downloaded files in quick succession searching for clues. Two hours passed and he still didn’t find anything noteworthy. There were just piles upon piles on information about the company’s other ventures. They owned a chain of banks, an airline, a hospital, restaurants, and many other things. Jonghyun wasn’t surprised by this; it would take an organization of that size to fund the development of a game such as they were testing.
By the time the sun starting peaking into his window Jonghyun probably knew enough about the company to apply for a position in senior management. What he was no closer to knowing, however, was the origins and whereabouts of one game crasher named Taemin.
-
“Minho, help me, my house is holding me hostage.” Jonghyun whispered into his phone before jerking away to sneeze. He’d fallen asleep at his desk only to wake up in a puddle of snot. Stupid park. Key had not only freaked out, but had essentially locked him in his room once he finally crawled into bed.
Key’s voice crackled over the line. “I’m not holding him hostage Choi Minho, I’m just not letting him go out.”
“Excuse you, this is a private phone call. Get off my line.”
Minho was lucky he was halfway across town; otherwise Jonghyun would have throttled him for laughing. “I’m guessing he stayed up all night and made himself sick?”
“Precisely. So I’m sorry, but he can’t help you today.” Key materialized on the phone in Jonghyun’s hand. Probably just to annoy him with his know-it-all looks.
“It’s official. I’m insane. What person in their right mind would create a mother for themselves?” Jonghyun and his sudden self reflection continued to be ignored by both Key and Minho.
“It’s alright Key, we want Jonghyun operating at his best.”
“I’m glad someone agrees with me. Why don’t you come over instead? I’m making soup.”
“Ooh! What kind?”
“Chive. There’s cheese in it too!”
“My favorite, I’ll be right over.” A click resounded in his ear. Sometimes Jonghyun hated his life. Really hated his life.
By the time Minho arrived Key had let Jonghyun leave the room provided he wrap up in a blanket. So there he was in his living room, half dozing with his feet propped up on the table just to spite Key when the bell rang.
“Choi Minho! It has been a long time since I have seen you.”
“True, how’s it been Key?”
“Boring. All he does is sleep and be late.” Jonghyun glared from his blanket cocoon. He had more of a life than that. Right?
“Why are you two so loud? Sick person trying to rest here.”
“Then rest. I’ve been telling you to do that all day anyway.” Key appeared on the wall next to Minho and made a gesture like he was about to stir him away before he dropped his arm, realizing he couldn’t actually touch anyone. “Let’s go Choi Minho. The soup is hot. Kim Jonghyun you stay there, your friend will bring you some in a minute.”
Jonghyun was drifting off again when Minho finally returned. “You know, you should talk to Key more.”
“We talk enough. Trust me. Give me that.” Jonghyun grabbed the bowl from Minho’s hands and tilting to his lips, drank half the bowl in one gulp.
“I thought you hated this?” Minho suppressed a laugh.
“I haven’t eaten since last night.” Jonghyun polished off the rest of the soup before setting the bowl down and yelling. “Some caretaker Key is, letting me starve!”
“No need to yell Kim Jonghyun, I can always hear you.”
“Anyway. About the-”
“No!” Two voices shrilled at him.
Jonghyun just blinked at Minho because he couldn’t see Key’s exact whereabouts. “No what?”
Minho continued “No talk of the game, or the person you are paranoid about, or anything resembling work. You’re going to sit there like a bump on a log and I’m going to join you and Key is going to play trashy movies for us to watch until we pass out.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Sometimes Jonghyun really loved his life.
-
Jonghyun woke up on top of Minho, their limbs tangled in a nice heap.
“Good morning beautiful.”
“Shut the fuck up Choi, and get off me.” Jonghyun grumbled.
“I see you’re still not a morning person. Also, may I point out that you’re the one on me. So if you please.”
Jonghyun rolled to the floor, snuggling back into his blanket. Floors were amazing, and comfortable, and warm. Floors. Minho kicked him. “Ow.”
“Get your ass in the shower. Slacking time is over.”
“If I recall correctly, you and Key wouldn’t let me do anything yesterday.”
“Well we don’t rely on your memory now do we?” Minho grabbed his cheek and wiggled it a couple times. “Now come on Jonghyun, up and at ‘em.”
Jonghyun turned his head, mouth wide, but Minho must have known he was in danger because he quickly snatched his fingers back just as Jonghyun chomped down. “You are the most disrespectful little shit I’ve ever met Choi. I will get you one day.”
“When you grow a couple more centimeters.”
By the time they finally left, Key was shrieking and Jonghyun’s living room was covered in pillow stuffing.
-
Minho treated Jonghyun to beignets on their way to the arcade so he was forgiven. Sort of. Maybe tomorrow. Jonghyun had tried to flirt with the cashier with powdered sugar on his face and Minho laughed at him. Yeah tomorrow.
He attached the node to Minho’s neck none too gently.
“Watch it Jonghyun.”
“It’s your fault for trusting me to do this after being so evil to me.” Jonghyun smiled, the definition of angelic goodness. Minho just eyed him warily and fiddled with the settings on the glasses. Jonghyun beckoned for him to lean down and attached the remaining nodes to his partner’s forehead.
“I think you can handle putting the gloves on.” Jonghyun stepped back to admire his handiwork. “Give me the run down on what you do out here.”
Minho slid one hand into a glove before repeating the process with the other, flexing his fingers and admiring the fit. “Um, nothing much. There is nothing to monitor, the capsule does it. Vitals, brain activity, everything. They weren’t lying when they said it was the most advanced system ever.”
Though Jonghyun knew most of that from reading through the files, he still had expected that Minho did something while he was under. No wonder he always looked half asleep when Jonghyun came out.
“I guess I will do some dusting or something.”
Minho shrugged. “Code for ‘I’ll sleep and raid the fridge’. Tell me about your friend that I’m looking for?”
“He’s not our friend, Minho.” Jonghyun scowled. “He’s a kid, tall, nice smile, really disarming. Long brown hair and from what I can tell he shows up when you need help. Goes by Taemin.”
“He doesn’t sound bad at all. Seems pretty cute actually.”
“Oh. Kay.” Jonghyun crossed his index fingers and backed slowly away from Minho. “While you go in and try to pick up a video games character I’ll just be cracking the password on your diary.”
Minho shook his head and sat down in the capsule, the plush lining automatically shifting to cradle his body. “Good luck with that. Besides, you’re the one insisting he’s not a character, but someone trying to cash in on us.”
“And the sooner you go, the sooner we can get more information.”
Minho just grinned and leaned all the way back, reaching up to close the lid. Jonghyun waited until he heard the oxygen pump on the underside of the capsule turn on before he shuffled to the desk to get some more sleep.
-
He was woken up quite rudely, with a book hitting him on the back of the head. Jonghyun looked up, hand rubbing the sore spot on his neck, to find Minho looking down at him.
“Jonghyun, didn’t your mother ever tell you not to be so paranoid? It’s pretty much perfect in there. Plus I didn’t see any long haired kid running around playing Good Samaritan.”
Jonghyun stood then, pushing the chair back with the force. “Look, I know what I saw. Who knows, maybe he only shows up for certain people.”
“Or," Minho removed a glove and threw it down on the desk, “maybe he only shows up to you because it’s all in your head. Did you ever think of that?”
He hadn’t.
“Well…no. But I talked to Onew and he said-”
“You talked to Onew? Lee Jinki who calls himself Onew?” Minho’s expression changed completely. If Jonghyun was pressed to describe the look he would have to go with ‘lost puppy’.
“Erm, yes. And he said-”
“How is he? I haven’t seen him in awhile. I should visit.”
“Good I guess. And we live in the same building you know so you could have-”
“Let’s invite him out! We haven’t had a night out in forever.”
“You’re right, we haven’t. I’m sure he’s busy with stuff though, he’s developing a new-”
“That’s great! A perfect excuse to get together.”
Jonghyun sighed. “Choi. Correct me if I’m wrong, but, do you still have a crush on Onew?”
“What?” Minho’s features shifted from ‘lost puppy’ to ‘fish out of water’. “Of course not. He’s a nerd.”
“So are you.” Jonghyun coughed to keep himself from laughing. “But uh, I guess I can see if he wants to hang out this weekend. Since you know, there’s no chance of you molesting him. Because he’s a nerd that you don’t have a crush on.”
“Damn right.”
-
Jonghyun accepted the fact that Taemin only appeared when he was a player in the game, so when the honey haired bane of his existence showed up next to him he wasn’t surprised.
“It’s cold out here.” The young man chirped, words muffled by the cloth covering his mouth and nose.
“No duh.” Jonghyun wiggled his fingers, testing his grip on the stocks. They stood atop a slope, a few other racers lined up on either side of them.
“What is with you and racing games? Do you have some sort of complex?”
Jonghyun did a few bends and stretches. “Look twerp. I’m just going to ignore your existence from now on, so don’t talk to me.”
He really hadn’t expected Taemin’s face to fall so far it rolled to the bottom of the mountain. “But, you’re the only one I can talk to around here.”
“Right, because you’re in my head. There is no other explanation for why I keep seeing you.” Jonghyun grinned, this was his in. “Unless you want to tell me where and how you linked in?”
“Linked in? And I’m not in your head.” Taemin pinched his arm, the action having no effect through the layers of Jonghyun’s jacket. “See?”
“No. I don’t. And don’t play dumb with me. How are you hooked up to this game? And if you’re telling the truth about that, then why can’t my friend see you?”
Taemin’s lip quivered. “Don’t be like that Jonghyun, maybe it’s a game to you but these are really my dreams.” Jonghyun scoffed, was this kid seriously trying to fool him? “And I don’t know why your friend didn’t see me. I was a spectator in the stands for his soccer match. I cheered as loud as I could for him.”
Of course Minho had made himself a soccer star. Of course. Jonghyun shook away the smirk forming on his lips. “So let me get this straight, you’re just wandering around here until one of us shows up and builds a new world? If they are your dreams, why aren’t you in control of them?”
Taemin’s smile was back then. “Nobody has control over their dreams Jonghyun.”
A loud pop sounded in the air and the other racers were already moving fast down the hill. “Fuck.” Jonghyun pushed off on his skis.
They went in silence for most of the trail, Jonghyun had a slight suspicion that the only reason Taemin wasn’t talking was because it was near impossible with the wind stealing sounds and carrying them away. He made a dangerously sharp turn at the next flag, kicking up snow. Still, Taemin was right with him.
Jonghyun really should have been paying more attention to the trail instead of trying to glance over his shoulder to see how close Taemin was. If he had, he wouldn’t have hit a rock and face planted in the snow. Taemin skidded to a stop next to him, covering him in even more snow that was starting to seep between his hat and the collar of his jacket.
“Hey. Are you ok?” Taemin reached out his hand, similar to when he’d pulled Jonghyun up into the tree. Apparently he no longer possessed that elven strength though, because when Jonghyun gripped his hand he pitched and fell on top of him.
“For such a skinny thing, you’re pretty heavy. Just throwing that out there.” Taemin rolled off of Jonghyun’s back and splayed out in the snow next to him, laughing up at the clear blue sky.
“Let’s just call it payback.”
“Payback my ass. Last time was completely your faul-” Jonghyun found his mouth filled with snow. He spat it out, looking at Taemin in shock only to find his eyes glittering mischievously.
“Were you saying something?” He said innocently. Oh. Oh it was on.
“I was saying you better run.” They both scrambled to unstrap their boots from their skis. Taemin was faster and got a head start but Jonghyun had great aim, he hit him square in the shoulder blades with a perfect snowball. Taemin went down.
“Mercy! Mercy!” He was gasping in the snow, laughter escaping him and making his shoulders shake. The cloth had fallen from his face and his cheeks were flushed pink. The nicest shade of pink Jonghyun had ever seen, if he was honest with himself. Jonghyun’s heart beat loudly in his chest and he felt his breathing quicken. Key really had been right about pink.
“Not a chance.” He bounced down to Taemin still rolling around in the snow and began shoving handfuls of snow up his jacket. Still, the insistent laughter didn’t stop. Who laughed like that anyway? It was like a million bubbles were dancing in Jonghyun’s ears.
Taemin’s jacket and shirts had ridden up during Jonghyun’s attack and a thin strip of skin quaked under Jonghyun’s glove. He jerked his hand away, clearing his throat. “Ok enough of this, we have to get back on the trail.”
“No we don’t.” Taemin spread his limbs and moved them against the snow covered ground, creating a snow angel. “We could just stay here. You’re fun Jonghyun.”
“Why do I feel like I’ve been tricked?”
Taemin just shrugged, lifting his leg and hooking his foot behind Jonghyun’s to bring him down next to him. “Make an angel. If you get it right it will come to life and protect you.” Taemin’s gaze drifted inward for a second, like he was remembering something maybe not so good.
Jonghyun tried to laugh off the awkward moment. “Come to life and protect you? Really? Did your mom tell you that?”
Taemin just blinked. “Yes.”
“Oh. Well what the hell?” Jonghyun stretched out on his back, extending his arms and legs before waving them. “How am I doing?”
The giggles were back. “Great, you’re a natural.”
Jonghyun chuckled himself, sighing and looking at the sky. The sky that was flickering. “Hey Taemin, I have to go soon.”
“I know.”
“I still don’t trust you.”
“I know.” Taemin seemed to be giving his best smile and it was the last thing Jonghyun saw before the world began to crumble around them.
-
Onew accepted Jonghyun’s invitation to accompany him and Minho during a night out, much to Jonghyun’s surprise. So three days later he was in front of his mirror trying on shirts.
“Kim Jonghyun, I can see my future in those pants. Why are they so tight?”
Jonghyun laughed. “So someone else can see their future in them. Which shirt do you think looks better?” He held up two shirts as Key materialized in the mirror.
“Hmm, the grey one.” Jonghyun shook the shirt off the hanger and pulled it over his head.
“Uh, can you move so I can see?”
Key slid onto the wall next to the mirror “Yo, my bad.”
“I’m going to regret asking, but where did you learn that?” He was really going to tweak Key’s program one of these days.
“I was processing late 20th century movies this morning. Did you know that to watch a film then you had to purchase these casings that had yards and yards of black tape in them that the images were imprinted-”
“Yeah I had to learn about that. No telling your busy body apartment system to flash something on the wall whenever you felt like it.” Jonghyun flicked the space that would have been Key’s forehead and moved to the closet to grab his coat. “Don’t lock me out when I come home trashed, okay?”
“I’m not promising you anything, Kim Jonghyun.” Key’s voice rang out as Jonghyun shut the door.
He stepped into the elevator, punching the button for Onew’s floor and leaning back against the wall, hands in his pockets. When the bell dinged and the doors opened Jonghyun found himself with an armful of Onew.
“Um.”
“Hey, Jonghyun! Key told Seohyun you were on your way so I was going to meet you but the elevator sounded weird so I was listening to it and then it opened and… hi!” Onew beamed at him and Jonghyun just laughed, reaching out to straighten the other man’s glasses.
“You really are something. And what are these? You don’t need glasses. Nobody needs glasses.”
“Ah. Seohyun said they were fashionable. Should I take them off?”
“What? No, no they’re fine.” Jonghyun snickered, “Minho will love them.”
-
When they arrived at the club Minho was waiting outside. Jonghyun waved a greeting. The music was pouring out of the building in waves, which was odd because it always seemed quieter inside.
“ID badges please.” A woman stood next to the door, looking at them patiently.
“Hey Victoria, long time no see.” Jonghyun lifted his badge to her eyes. They flashed green and soon Jonghyun was hearing a beep and a click as the door unlocked for him.
“Ah, Jonghyun, your last visit was six months ago, please enjoy your stay and come more often.”
Jonghyun smiled, “Victoria my love, when are you going to say something different?”
“When you come more often and we can use that money for my upgrade.” She tilted her head and smiled back.
Jonghyun stood next to the door as the other showed their badges.
“Minho, your last visit was twelve days ago, please enjoy your stay.”
“Jinki, your last visit was seventeen months ago, why are you even bothering?”
Onew flushed, mouth moving but making no sounds until finally he sputtered. “V-victoria I told you to call me Onew. And I’ve been busy.”
“I’m better at remembering the more I see you.” She smiled again. “Enjoy your stay Jinki Onew.”
If he left him out here Onew would probably protest until Victoria had him in tears at her feet so Jonghyun dragged him inside, Minho not far behind. They all agreed to avoid the dance floor for awhile and settled in at the bar, Onew in the middle of his two friends.
“Hey, let me treat you ok?”
“Thanks Minho!” Two voices exclaimed.
“Not you. Jjong.”
“And I repeat, most disrespectful little shit I’ve ever met.” Jonghyun pushed a button on the smooth counter in from of him and the bar hostess appeared. “Jessica, we want a round of those pink things.”
“Right away, Kim Jonghyun.”
Minho leaned down towards Onew’s ear and stage whispered, “he’s obsessed with pink now. Even his desk is pink.”
“That was all Key’s fault. And I’m not obsessed. These things are just really good.” The drinks in question rose from the counter with a mechanical whir and Jonghyun grabbed his before it was completely still. “A toast! To. Uh...”
“To Seohyun?” Onew supplied.
Minho sat up a little straighter. “Who is Seohyun and why are we toasting them?”
“You dimwit, Seohyun is Onew’s apartment.” Jonghyun bounced his foot along the bottom of his barstool. “But yeah why are we toasting her?”
Onew just grinned. Removing his watch and tapping the face twice. “Because, look.” The watch flashed blue and then a ten centimeter tall hologram of Seohyun appeared.
“Yes, Lee Jinki.” Seohyun blinked at the other two men staring down at her. “Hello Kim Jonghyun, Choi Minho.”
“Hey Seohyun.” They said in unison while Onew groaned.
“Seohyun, how many times have I told you to call me Onew?”
The small holographic girl flickered for a moment before saying, “you’ve told me one thousand, seven hundred, and twenty…one times. Lee Jinki.”
Onew really hoped his companions were laughing and not choking because he didn’t know the first thing about cardiopulmonary resuscitation, if that was even appropriate in this situation. “Thanks Seohyun, you can go back now.”
She waved. “Bye, have fun!”
“Onew that was incredible.” Minho was the first to recover from his laughing fit, admiration shining in his eyes.
“No, no no, I just took the previous system and built up a schematic that can transfer her data and compress it into a smaller form. Kind of like memory card that never needs to be connected to do its job.”
“It is way too dark outside for me to understand what you just said but I’ll drink to it anyway!” Jonghyun raised his glass and the others soon joined him.
After their third round of shots Jonghyun drifted to the dance floor, leaving Minho to not so subtly woo Onew. He did a few generic moves, letting the crowd pull and push him towards the middle where he finally got into it. A handful of people tried to dance with him, men and women alike. Though there were many attractive people around him, He didn’t stay with any one partner for long. Not long enough to drift close and definitely not long enough to walk off the floor and exchange names, or other things. He wanted to dance with a skinny kid with long light brown hair.
When Jonghyun returned to the bar he found Minho flexing his arms, while sitting in Onew’s lap.
“My dear friends. I…do not believe I am drunk enough for this. Excuse me.” He ordered something that looked blue and poisonous before turning to Onew and raising an eyebrow.
“I swear it’s not what it looks like. He challenged me.” Jonghyun took note of the empty glasses covering the counter in front of them. “Then he started talking about how strong he is.”
“I got up here so he could get a really good look. Look at my arm Jonghyun. Look at it.”
“I’ll pass.” Jonghyun deadpanned. “But hey Minho, that guy over there by the bathroom? He said he was stronger than you.”
Minho was flabbergasted. “What?”
“Not even joking. He said he could take you in a fight.” Jonghyun sipped his drink to keep the grin off his lips.
“Ok I need to go show him my arm, this just isn’t right. Isn’t it obvious that I would win in a fight with him?”
“Of course!” Both Jonghyun and Onew praised.
“Save my seat, I will be right back.” Minho got up from Onew’s lap and staggered off, muttering something under his breath about ‘showing him’. Jonghyun and Onew laughed openly then, the latter clutching his side while Jonghyun threw his head back.
“Thank you. I think.”
“No problem. Though I can only help you up to this point. He seems pretty intent on taking you home.”
“He’s been trying for years, I just might let him.”
Jonghyun spit the sip he’d just taken back into his glass. “Really?”
“Why not?” Onew shrugged. “Have you seen his arms?” That set Jonghyun off again until Minho returned.
-
As per their tradition when they’d been students, a night of dancing and drinking was followed by coffee and donuts. Though Jonghyun would’ve much rather gone home in a drunken stupor just to forget the way Minho had draped himself over Onew on the dance floor.
“Minho get your finger out of your donut.”
“It’s really warm though.” He did remove his finger however, only to promptly stick it in Onew’s mouth.
“M’oh. Mhat meawy ith wam.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jonghyun stood, grabbing the rest of the box for himself. “You two go find Onew’s room. I can get myself home.”
“Bye Jonghyun!” He was going to kill Minho.
The cool night air put him in a whimsical mood as he walked down the street, chomping on his donuts. He wondered if Taemin liked donuts. Yeah, someone as sweet as him probably loved them and all things diabetes. How would he get them into the game though? Could they eat food in the game? Everything else had seemed real enough. Maybe he could imagine a whole spread of sugary confections and it would appear before them.
Jonghyun stopped and tried. Nothing. He tossed the empty box of donuts into a trash receptacle, laughing at himself. When he arrived home he almost thought Key really had locked him out but no, he was just using his key card wrong. He’d have to install an eye scanner or thumbprint scanner or something. Keycards were so tedious and difficult-
“Welcome back Kim Jonghyun. Please, shut up and go to sleep.”
“I made you, you…you. You can’t talk to me that way.” He thought he felt the apartment sigh and the floor illuminated a path to his room. Sometimes Key was really awesome.
continued...
15,557w; pg-13
Jonghyun/Taemin; Onew/Minho
Jonghyun eased up on the gas, guiding the car into the second turn of the current lap. The bank was steep, impossibly steep, and two vehicles had already flipped off the track before him. He bit his lip. His tongue slipped out the corner of his mouth in concentration. His fingers flexed in the thick gloves he wore, arms stiff and burning with the strain of being held in the same position for so long. He could do this.
Another car flipped right in front of him and Jonghyun swerved, barely missing a free invitation to the growing pileup at the bottom of the turn. A tiny explosion shook the cockpit as the vehicle next to him crashed into the wall. It was only Jonghyun against 5 other racers now, if only he could make it out of this turn with half of his car intact. The goal seemed plausible; he was nearing the end where the track once again flattened out.
Plausible, if he hadn’t run over a piece of shrapnel.
The front right tire blew with a force that rattled his teeth as he tried to keep the car from spinning out or flipping. Once the car slowed to a manageable speed he pressed on the break and pulled off to the side, the blowout and following maneuverings finally getting him off the danger of the turning bank. Gasping, Jonghyun reached up under his neck and unbuckled the clasp to his helmet with one hand while reaching for his call button with the other.
The intercom crackled to life as he lifted the helmet from his head and dropped it in his lap. “Racer number 02, I saw you swerving quite a bit there, what seems to be the problem?”
“I’ve got a blow, right front.”
“Gotcha loud and clear! Go ahead and coast in the safe lane for the next hundred meters then one of the crew will guide you down into the pit. We’ll get you back out there in no time.” The fuzzy sound of feedback from the intercom shut off abruptly and Jonghyun shifted gears. He gently stirred his vehicle towards a person waving a blue flag, rolling down the window when he got close enough.
The mechanic jogged up next to the car, leaning down into the window. Junior mechanic, the kid didn’t look a day over sixteen to Jonghyun. “Hey, number 02, you were having a good run out there until, you know.” The young man beamed and Jonghyun had to blink away his sudden blindness.
“Er, thanks.”
The crew member just laughed. “Thank me when you win, yeah?” He winked, then turned as someone shouted something Jonghyun couldn’t here. The kid waved them off, light brown bun bouncing against his neck. “Alright. Go ahead and put her in neutral and we’ll push you in.” He slapped the hood once, still smiling, then went to join his crewmates gathering at the back of the car.
Jonghyun leant back in his seat, letting some of the tension from the last lap escape through a deep cleansing breath. He felt the car being jacked up as he unzipped his jumpsuit partially and removed his gloves. There was nothing he could do about the raging thirst plaguing his mouth and throat, not when he saw the pit crew running around with tires, he would be back on the track soon. The kid’s face reappeared at the window causing Jonghyun to jump and hit his head on the roof.
“Oh, did I scare you? Sorry. I just need to let you know that we don’t have soft compound tires so you’re going to lose a lot of traction on those turns.” He pulled his full bottom lip between his teeth, letting them chew on it for a second before adding, “but they last longer! So if you can make it out the next two turns, while those other cars are stopped getting things replaced you can just finish this thing.” That grin again, and then he was gone.
Jonghyun just shook his head, he probably wouldn’t last that long anyway. Not for lack of skill, but mainly because-
“Oh hey, one more thing.” He was back. “Can I get your name?” The kid looked like he was blushing. “I’m kind of a fan.”
“Huh?” Jonghyun blinked. “Um, sure, it’s Jonghyun," he smiled, “Kim Jonghyun. What’s yours?”
“Oh, I-I’m Taemin.” The kid stuck out his hand, presumably for a handshake but before Jonghyun could return the gesture the world went black around him, the last thing flashing in his sight the grease mark beneath Taemin’s glittering eye.
-
He drifted back into awareness slowly, blinking a few times before he realized what happened. Sighing, Jonghyun pressed the release signal on his wrist and the capsule opened with a hiss of compressed air. He sat up, first removing the black tinted glasses, then the gloves, and finally the patches stuck to his forehead and neck.
“Hey, Minho.” Jonghyun called to the man he saw sitting at the desk on the other side of the room. He tried to climb out of the sleek plush lined capsule but his motor functions still hadn’t completely caught up with reality.
“Jjong? Your time is up already huh? How was it?” The taller man stood up and walked over to give Jonghyun a hand in escaping the capsule.
Jonghyun grasped the hand gratefully and pulled himself out; releasing a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding when his feet reconnected with the ground at last. “It was awesome. It really felt like I was there. That thirty minute time limit is shit though.”
“Sorry man," Minho chuckled, “this particular virtual reality interface is still under serious construction and we’re lucky enough to get to test it.”
“Yeah yeah I know. And you’ll follow all the rules and make the reports and be filthy rich if they decide to use your arcade as a hosting site once it’s launched. Thirty minutes is still too short.”
Minho clapped him on his back, openly laughing now as he kept his hand on his shoulder and stirred them towards the desk. “Short or not, I still need to report everything you think so give me more than that.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this.” Jonghyun slipped out from Minho’s arm and sat in his desk chair, propping his feet up on the table. “When I got in I just thought of what I wanted to do, no screen, no menu, no anything. And then I was there.” He was both in awe and jealous of the technology. “I want to know if it was programmed that way or if our minds are really capable of creating such a detailed world on their own. It really felt real, like when my time clocked out I thought I passed out for a minute.”
“Wait.” Minho paused in typing Jonghyun’s words on his float screen. “Elaborate on that black out thing?”
“Ok, well I was sitting in my racecar-”
Minho snorted, “racecars? Really? You can go into any world you see fit and you drive a racecar? What are you twelve?” He dodged the notebook Jonghyun chucked at him.
“Shut up Choi. Do you want my help or not?” He continued when Minho held up his hands in surrender. “Anyway, I was sitting there and it felt like I just blacked out, everything went black and when I woke up I was a bit disoriented.”
“Hmm.” Minho murmured, adding that to his update report and tapping the send button. “That’s something they’ll have to work on then. Don’t want people not being able to differentiate between virtual reality and…reality.”
Jonghyun shrugged. “Yeah so are we done today? Key’s making dinner and will flip his shit if I’m late.”
Minho broke into peals of laughter again. “I will never understand why you keep him around. Get out of here Jonghyun.” Jonghyun just grinned, grabbing his bag and slinging it onto his back.
“What can I say? He keeps me amused. See ya Choi.” He headed towards the door, almost opening it when something tickled his memory. “Oh, Minho, one more thing. Say other players are hooked up to the game, do you see them?”
“Wha? Nope, it’s a completely isolated virtual experience. Why do you ask?”
“Just curious. See you tomorrow.”
-
It wasn’t Jonghyun’s fault, but he was exactly two minutes and thirty-eight seconds late getting home. First he found his hoveboard disconnected from the community charger so he had to catch the bus. The bus, of course, was running late and when it arrived skidded up to the curb with a flourish that drenched Jonghyun in the rain water that had collected while he was inside Minho’s place. The state of his well being was peeved, wet, and hungry, when he ran into Onew in the foyer of his apartment building.
The older man just had to look at Jonghyun and flash his sheepish smile one moment and in the next Jonghyun was helping him lug his twenty bags of groceries up the stairs. The elevator was broken. So when Jonghyun finally arrived home, Key had disabled his keycard.
“Key, I swear I left early, plus I’m not even that late. Let me in.” Jonghyun was propped up against his apartment door, a perfect depiction of a day gone wrong.
A voice crackled from the speaker next to the door. “No. Late is late. Plus you smell like a sewer.”
“You can’t smell.” Jonghyun shot back.
“Maybe not like you but I assure you, that you do. You look like one too and I will not have you messing up my clean house.”
Jonghyun just sighed. “Unless you want the door painted black you will let me in and feed me.”
“So I can be the laughing stock of this whole floor? No thank you.” The door clicked open and Jonghyun fell through it, making a damp pile of flesh on the floor. “Welcome home Kim Jonghyun.” Key’s voice chirped throughout the apartment.
“I should reset you.” Jonghyun muttered from his surprisingly comfortable spot on the floor. “Minho agrees, you know.”
Key materialized on the wall next to the door, arms crossed and a derisive look gracing his features. “Empty threats Kim Jonghyun. I amuse you. Now please go shower before the food gets completely cold.”
Jonghyun contemplated throwing a shoe at the wall but Key would disappear before it hit, plus he didn’t want to get yelled at for dirtying said wall. Instead he picked himself up and trudged to the shower.
Key had been Jonghyun and Minho’s final project. An artificially intelligent house and apartment system that was different than the others. One that had a personality. “Why ‘Key’?”Minho had asked one day.
“Because he’s the key to my success.” He wasn’t though, at least not right away. Jonghyun was thorough in his coding, almost too thorough. Key not only had a personality, but a mind of his own and that just wasn’t marketable to the general public. Nobody wanted software to have free reign of their home. So after months of tweaking and fighting with the development team the prototypes were released and they flourished, as did Jonghyun’s bank account. They were perfect for people that lived alone, had no family, no friends. Jonghyun considered himself lucky that he at least a handful of friends, the concept was foreign.
He hadn’t been able to let Key go though, and installed him over his own home system, starting a beautiful love hate relationship. Jonghyun shuddered as the water in his shower turned from comfortably warm to frigid. Leaning more towards hate.
“Why aren’t you done yet?” Key materialized on the shower wall and Jonghyun yelped, covering himself. “Oh stop it’s not like I haven’t seen it all before.”
“Will you let me shower in peace? Seriously you’re getting more unbearable by the day.”
“Oh, so I’m unbearable now Kim Jonghyun?” Key flickered before the wall showed a scene Jonghyun presumed was from earlier that day. He was watching a room, his office, perfectly reminiscent of the destruction left by a full fledged tornado. Drawers opened and papers flew and suddenly the room was clean. The bastard had probably sorted everything alphabetically too.
“Thank you for organizing my office. Key. But please, can I have some privacy?”
The wall went blank and Key reappeared, shaking his head. “I will never understand you human’s and your need to be alone all the time. Hurry up.” He faded and Jonghyun slid down onto the floor, letting the water fall onto his face.
-
“So this is grass…soup?” Jonghyun maneuvered the long green things around with his spoon, he was pretty sure the cheese could win in a fair fight so he had to build an impenetrable fortress of grassy doom.
“Stop playing with it, and its chives, chive soup. I was scanning a journal earlier and it’s supposed to be good for your digestion. It also aids in the prevention of high cholesterol and blood pressure alongside providing a wealth of vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, potassium, calcium, vitamin k, beta-”
“Wow! This is so good, Key, thank you.” Jonghyun fished out a large spoonful and slurped it obnoxiously.
“Shut up. You’ll thank me when you don’t fall over dead from a heart attack.”
“Funny. I always feel like you have ulterior motives when you act like you’re concerned about my health.”
“Of course I do. What will happen to me if you die?”
Jonghyun raised an eyebrow. “I’m just going to keep pretending you actually care.” He continued to eat, letting the soup warm him as he listened to Key buzz around the walls and fixtures of his kitchen. The day’s events slowly played in his mind as he tapped one foot against the floor, humming a nonsensical tune between spoonfuls. As a certain memory leapt across his brain he stopped his movements.
“Hey Key.” The program in question materialized on the table, looking up at Jonghyun.
“Yes, Kim Jonghyun.”
Jonghyun poked at Key’s would be nose with his spoon. “I need you to go through anything you can find on virtual reality, especially stuff about the new interface Minho is in charge of testing.”
“I’m on it.” Key flickered away and Jonghyun went back to his musings.
-
Jonghyun threw another dagger before swinging higher into the tree. He ran his fingers down his utility belt and found he only had three left. Shit. If he was ever going to make it out of the forest he’d have to figure out a way to get past the goblins. A sudden pain shot up his ankle and he looked down to see one of the small green creatures latched to his leg, sharp yellowed teeth piercing through his boot.
“Vile human! Tainting our wood! Vile human! Must be removed!” They chanted, moving closer. Jonghyun shook his leg as hard as he could, sending the piranha goblin flying down the tree, knocking down some of his brethren en route.
“See, what you fail to realize is that I’m trying to remove myself, you just won’t let me!” Jonghyun shouted down, reaching over his shoulder for his sword. Fighting them off in close contact was his only option now, even if his chances of winning were slim to none. He backed up against the trunk of the tree for leverage, readying himself as a particularly fast goblin hopped up onto his branch. Just as he let out a shrill war cry and swung, an arrow whizzed down from above, striking the creature through the middle and causing it to topple off the branch.
Jonghyun suppressed a nervous breakdown. If they were shooting his enemies then that meant they were on his side right? Right? A hand appeared through the foliage above his head, beckoning. Deciding he had nothing to lose Jonghyun grabbed it and found himself being hoisted up with ease.
“Rule number one when fighting goblins, don’t fight them. You’re outnumbered and ill prepared.” His sudden-but-welcome companion tsked. “We have to get out of here, hold on.” Not knowing what else to do Jonghyun tightened his grip in the other person’s hand as he began glow.
“Oh, um, you’re glowing, and I don’t think it’s good for me to be exposed to…glowing. So let me go, the goblins can eat me.” Jonghyun stopped babbling when he was fixed with a stern look, the person’s lips moving soundlessly. One moment he was standing there hoping he wasn’t about to die and the next he was rolling down a hill. He landed on the stranger with an ‘oomf’.
“Get off me. Now.”
“Sorry! I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” Jonghyun scrambled to his feet, reaching down to help the other man to his feet.
“I’m fine. I would be ten times better if you hadn’t been struggling like a fool.” Now that he wasn’t running for his life and sanity Jonghyun got a good look at the stranger. He stood a little taller than him but his face was so young. His ears were pointed and his hair was long and flowing.
“Y-you’re an elf.” Jonghyun felt stupid now, the elves were the first pit stop he’d been headed towards.
The elf sighed. “Yes, Jonghyun. It seems so.”
Just when he’d thought he had a chance to breathe easy. “Um. How do you know my name?”
“You told me yesterday.” The elf looked exasperated now, lips pursed in a tight line. Okay those Jonghyun recognized.
“Taemin? What are you doing here.”
“I could be asking you the same question. Not that I mind, but is there a reason you keep appearing in my dreams?”
Jonghyun didn’t get a chance to answer. The sky and grass had begun to crumble into cubes.
-
“Choi!” Jonghyun yelled as soon as he was free from the capsule. “We have an odd occurrence happening.”
“Too early for your barking Jonghyun, way too early.” Jonghyun swiftly kicked Minho in his leg.
“It’s the middle of the afternoon. Nobody told you to stay out all night.” He reached over Minho’s shoulder to rummage on his desk, pulling out the float screen and bringing up their notes. “Are you positive that no one else is testing these?”
“And I quote. ‘We have partnered with the engineer Choi Minho and given him exclusive testing rights blah-di-blah-di-blah’ It’s just us Jonghyun.” Minho beckoned towards his device and it flew out of Jonghyun’s grasp to drift lazily near Minho’s hand. He tapped in the current date. “Okay shoot, whats going on?”
“I don’t know how to explain it actually.” Jonghyun rubbed at his temples. “Alright, the stock game characters, you know, people you meet during game play. What should they be like?”
Minho shrugged. “What kind of question is that. They should be like any other stock characters. Basic dialogue, no discernible features-“
“Exactly!” Jonghyun exclaimed. “And they really shouldn’t be able to remember a player right? Especially if game play is taking place in a completely new setting.”
Minho did that humming thing he did when he thought Jonghyun was acting crazy. “Jonghyun that can’t happen. Pixels don’t have memories.”
“Key has memories.”
“He has memories pertaining to you and your apartment. Stored data, not memories. This interface doesn’t store data, at least not yet.”
“Look Choi," Jonghyun sighed. “I know what I saw and I know what I heard, so just look into it please? I had Key download all the files he could, he can transfer them here.” There was something extremely weird about ‘Taemin’ and Jonghyun was going to get to the bottom of it whether Minho helped him or not.
“Who is Taemin?” Oh, he’d said that out loud.
“The person I keep running into. He said I keep appearing in his dreams.” It was Minho’s turn to sigh.
“Alright Jjong. Have Key send me the files, I’ll look into it. Either way, you’re not going under tomorrow. I’ll go and see for myself.”
Jonghyun almost protested but Minho was right, the best way to help solve any mysterious happenings was to have a firsthand account of the situation. “Fine. But I get to say I told you so.”
-
He’d given Key enough tasks before he left that Jonghyun wasn’t particularly worried about rushing home. Instead he zipped around the park on his hoveboard, mind more agitated every time he thought about Taemin. If someone was trying to cash in on their deal with the developers then he was going to find out where they were and shut them down.
Jonghyun stopped to rest in front of the pond, stretching out on a bench and watching the ducks swim to and fro in the water. What a simple life they had, no worries about computers and programs and weird game crashers. One of the ducks flickered as is floated through a log. Of course. Holograms. They were even making animals now?
“Jonghyun!” A cheerful voice called out. He looked up to see a figure waving from a tree a little ways from his bench. Jonghyun squinted his eyes, recognizing Onew as he did a weird combination of running and walking towards him.
“Hey Onew, what’s up?” He sat up and moved over to make room for the other man.
“Nothing much.” Onew plopped down gracelessly. “Actually that’s a lie, I am working on something but I need your opinions so I’ll wait until you and Minho are done with your current project.”
Jonghyun waved him off. “It’s not our project, we’re just testing, and possibly hosting it if it gets off the ground. Or at least Minho will be. Run it by me.”
“Okay, well um, you know how I tend to over shop when I pick up things right?” Yeah, Jonghyun knew. “Well, Seohyun got really angry with me last week. Something about having no foreseeable reason to require goat hooves so-”
“Wait, you bought goat hooves?” Jonghyun’s mouth curled around a giggle.
“Don’t laugh! They were on sale.”Onew huffed. “Anyway, so I got to thinking, what if I could take her to the store with me? Then she could get what she wanted instead of sifting through all the stuff that I buy.”
“That’s kind of an awesome idea Onew.” Jonghyun loved Onew’s ability to take ideas and expand on them in the simplest yet most functional of ways. They’d clicked initially because Jonghyun caught Onew in the labs one night blasting Al Green. A friendship built over their shared love of two hundred year old R&B. It wasn’t until later though that Jonghyun learned Onew was concentrating in three different programs simultaneously and sat at the top of his class in all of them.
He was really too humble for his own good and the fact that he always asked Jonghyun for help or feedback floored him.
“It’s really not that great. It’s just building on your initial program. I’ve got some crude prototypes already in the works if you want to go for a test drive with Key.”
“That voice tagging along with me all day? Yeah I’ll have to get back with you on that.”
Onew laughed, teeth flashing in the sunlight. Jonghyun had half a thought on whether the sun would soon be artificial too before joining in. “He’s really not that bad, you should be nicer to him.”
“When he stops trying to feed me green stuff maybe I will.” They sat in silence for awhile, watching the water, the flowers, the sky. Then Jonghyun decided he needed some advice. He explained the run-ins with Taemin in the game much like he explained it to Minho earlier.
“Hmmm, I’d say your suspicions are correct, it sounds like there is another brain hooked up to the system you’re testing. Weird.”
“I know right? But I don’t even know what to do to find the guys behind it.”
“Maybe no one is behind it. Maybe the company is doing a blind test in another sector.”
Jonghyun nodded as he processed the thought.“That sounds possible, but then would we be able to interact? The range would be pretty far if they are thinking of launching somewhere else.”
“I don’t know Jonghyun, maybe it’s just that powerful. I mean, aren’t you testing it because we don’t know exactly what its capable of?”Onew stood and stretched, patting Jonghyun on his shoulder. “Anyway, I want to look at the files too if you don’t mind. We can meet up later and discuss.”
“Alright, thanks.”
“No problem. See ya.”
Jonghyun waved and decided he might as well head off too. He tossed a rock into the pond and watched one of the holographic ducks try to eat it before hopping on his hoveboard and whizzing away.
-
He tapped his fingers on his desk, counting to ten before releasing his breath. Nope, he was still mad. “Key!”
“Yes, Kim Jonghyun.” Key appeared on the ceiling.
“Why is my desk pink?”
“Oh. That.” Key blinked. An unnecessary function, but one he’d picked up from watching Jonghyun.
“Yes. That.”
“Well I was bored this afternoon and I was scanning this article about color theory. The color pink stimulates energy; it increases not only blood pressure but respiration and pulse rate. It also encourages confidence and-”
Jonghyun let out an exasperated sigh. “Ok but what does that have to do with me?”
“Well you said you would be working later, and I want you to do your very best!” Jonghyun swore when Key grinned the room pulsed yellow. Knowing him it probably did.
“I really don’t get you sometimes.”
“You’re not supposed to ‘get’ me. I’m of a higher intellectual level than you by design. Sorry.”
Jonghyun just shook his head, deciding it best to ignore Key for now and concentrate on the mystery developing in front of him. He scrolled through the downloaded files in quick succession searching for clues. Two hours passed and he still didn’t find anything noteworthy. There were just piles upon piles on information about the company’s other ventures. They owned a chain of banks, an airline, a hospital, restaurants, and many other things. Jonghyun wasn’t surprised by this; it would take an organization of that size to fund the development of a game such as they were testing.
By the time the sun starting peaking into his window Jonghyun probably knew enough about the company to apply for a position in senior management. What he was no closer to knowing, however, was the origins and whereabouts of one game crasher named Taemin.
-
“Minho, help me, my house is holding me hostage.” Jonghyun whispered into his phone before jerking away to sneeze. He’d fallen asleep at his desk only to wake up in a puddle of snot. Stupid park. Key had not only freaked out, but had essentially locked him in his room once he finally crawled into bed.
Key’s voice crackled over the line. “I’m not holding him hostage Choi Minho, I’m just not letting him go out.”
“Excuse you, this is a private phone call. Get off my line.”
Minho was lucky he was halfway across town; otherwise Jonghyun would have throttled him for laughing. “I’m guessing he stayed up all night and made himself sick?”
“Precisely. So I’m sorry, but he can’t help you today.” Key materialized on the phone in Jonghyun’s hand. Probably just to annoy him with his know-it-all looks.
“It’s official. I’m insane. What person in their right mind would create a mother for themselves?” Jonghyun and his sudden self reflection continued to be ignored by both Key and Minho.
“It’s alright Key, we want Jonghyun operating at his best.”
“I’m glad someone agrees with me. Why don’t you come over instead? I’m making soup.”
“Ooh! What kind?”
“Chive. There’s cheese in it too!”
“My favorite, I’ll be right over.” A click resounded in his ear. Sometimes Jonghyun hated his life. Really hated his life.
By the time Minho arrived Key had let Jonghyun leave the room provided he wrap up in a blanket. So there he was in his living room, half dozing with his feet propped up on the table just to spite Key when the bell rang.
“Choi Minho! It has been a long time since I have seen you.”
“True, how’s it been Key?”
“Boring. All he does is sleep and be late.” Jonghyun glared from his blanket cocoon. He had more of a life than that. Right?
“Why are you two so loud? Sick person trying to rest here.”
“Then rest. I’ve been telling you to do that all day anyway.” Key appeared on the wall next to Minho and made a gesture like he was about to stir him away before he dropped his arm, realizing he couldn’t actually touch anyone. “Let’s go Choi Minho. The soup is hot. Kim Jonghyun you stay there, your friend will bring you some in a minute.”
Jonghyun was drifting off again when Minho finally returned. “You know, you should talk to Key more.”
“We talk enough. Trust me. Give me that.” Jonghyun grabbed the bowl from Minho’s hands and tilting to his lips, drank half the bowl in one gulp.
“I thought you hated this?” Minho suppressed a laugh.
“I haven’t eaten since last night.” Jonghyun polished off the rest of the soup before setting the bowl down and yelling. “Some caretaker Key is, letting me starve!”
“No need to yell Kim Jonghyun, I can always hear you.”
“Anyway. About the-”
“No!” Two voices shrilled at him.
Jonghyun just blinked at Minho because he couldn’t see Key’s exact whereabouts. “No what?”
Minho continued “No talk of the game, or the person you are paranoid about, or anything resembling work. You’re going to sit there like a bump on a log and I’m going to join you and Key is going to play trashy movies for us to watch until we pass out.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Sometimes Jonghyun really loved his life.
-
Jonghyun woke up on top of Minho, their limbs tangled in a nice heap.
“Good morning beautiful.”
“Shut the fuck up Choi, and get off me.” Jonghyun grumbled.
“I see you’re still not a morning person. Also, may I point out that you’re the one on me. So if you please.”
Jonghyun rolled to the floor, snuggling back into his blanket. Floors were amazing, and comfortable, and warm. Floors. Minho kicked him. “Ow.”
“Get your ass in the shower. Slacking time is over.”
“If I recall correctly, you and Key wouldn’t let me do anything yesterday.”
“Well we don’t rely on your memory now do we?” Minho grabbed his cheek and wiggled it a couple times. “Now come on Jonghyun, up and at ‘em.”
Jonghyun turned his head, mouth wide, but Minho must have known he was in danger because he quickly snatched his fingers back just as Jonghyun chomped down. “You are the most disrespectful little shit I’ve ever met Choi. I will get you one day.”
“When you grow a couple more centimeters.”
By the time they finally left, Key was shrieking and Jonghyun’s living room was covered in pillow stuffing.
-
Minho treated Jonghyun to beignets on their way to the arcade so he was forgiven. Sort of. Maybe tomorrow. Jonghyun had tried to flirt with the cashier with powdered sugar on his face and Minho laughed at him. Yeah tomorrow.
He attached the node to Minho’s neck none too gently.
“Watch it Jonghyun.”
“It’s your fault for trusting me to do this after being so evil to me.” Jonghyun smiled, the definition of angelic goodness. Minho just eyed him warily and fiddled with the settings on the glasses. Jonghyun beckoned for him to lean down and attached the remaining nodes to his partner’s forehead.
“I think you can handle putting the gloves on.” Jonghyun stepped back to admire his handiwork. “Give me the run down on what you do out here.”
Minho slid one hand into a glove before repeating the process with the other, flexing his fingers and admiring the fit. “Um, nothing much. There is nothing to monitor, the capsule does it. Vitals, brain activity, everything. They weren’t lying when they said it was the most advanced system ever.”
Though Jonghyun knew most of that from reading through the files, he still had expected that Minho did something while he was under. No wonder he always looked half asleep when Jonghyun came out.
“I guess I will do some dusting or something.”
Minho shrugged. “Code for ‘I’ll sleep and raid the fridge’. Tell me about your friend that I’m looking for?”
“He’s not our friend, Minho.” Jonghyun scowled. “He’s a kid, tall, nice smile, really disarming. Long brown hair and from what I can tell he shows up when you need help. Goes by Taemin.”
“He doesn’t sound bad at all. Seems pretty cute actually.”
“Oh. Kay.” Jonghyun crossed his index fingers and backed slowly away from Minho. “While you go in and try to pick up a video games character I’ll just be cracking the password on your diary.”
Minho shook his head and sat down in the capsule, the plush lining automatically shifting to cradle his body. “Good luck with that. Besides, you’re the one insisting he’s not a character, but someone trying to cash in on us.”
“And the sooner you go, the sooner we can get more information.”
Minho just grinned and leaned all the way back, reaching up to close the lid. Jonghyun waited until he heard the oxygen pump on the underside of the capsule turn on before he shuffled to the desk to get some more sleep.
-
He was woken up quite rudely, with a book hitting him on the back of the head. Jonghyun looked up, hand rubbing the sore spot on his neck, to find Minho looking down at him.
“Jonghyun, didn’t your mother ever tell you not to be so paranoid? It’s pretty much perfect in there. Plus I didn’t see any long haired kid running around playing Good Samaritan.”
Jonghyun stood then, pushing the chair back with the force. “Look, I know what I saw. Who knows, maybe he only shows up for certain people.”
“Or," Minho removed a glove and threw it down on the desk, “maybe he only shows up to you because it’s all in your head. Did you ever think of that?”
He hadn’t.
“Well…no. But I talked to Onew and he said-”
“You talked to Onew? Lee Jinki who calls himself Onew?” Minho’s expression changed completely. If Jonghyun was pressed to describe the look he would have to go with ‘lost puppy’.
“Erm, yes. And he said-”
“How is he? I haven’t seen him in awhile. I should visit.”
“Good I guess. And we live in the same building you know so you could have-”
“Let’s invite him out! We haven’t had a night out in forever.”
“You’re right, we haven’t. I’m sure he’s busy with stuff though, he’s developing a new-”
“That’s great! A perfect excuse to get together.”
Jonghyun sighed. “Choi. Correct me if I’m wrong, but, do you still have a crush on Onew?”
“What?” Minho’s features shifted from ‘lost puppy’ to ‘fish out of water’. “Of course not. He’s a nerd.”
“So are you.” Jonghyun coughed to keep himself from laughing. “But uh, I guess I can see if he wants to hang out this weekend. Since you know, there’s no chance of you molesting him. Because he’s a nerd that you don’t have a crush on.”
“Damn right.”
-
Jonghyun accepted the fact that Taemin only appeared when he was a player in the game, so when the honey haired bane of his existence showed up next to him he wasn’t surprised.
“It’s cold out here.” The young man chirped, words muffled by the cloth covering his mouth and nose.
“No duh.” Jonghyun wiggled his fingers, testing his grip on the stocks. They stood atop a slope, a few other racers lined up on either side of them.
“What is with you and racing games? Do you have some sort of complex?”
Jonghyun did a few bends and stretches. “Look twerp. I’m just going to ignore your existence from now on, so don’t talk to me.”
He really hadn’t expected Taemin’s face to fall so far it rolled to the bottom of the mountain. “But, you’re the only one I can talk to around here.”
“Right, because you’re in my head. There is no other explanation for why I keep seeing you.” Jonghyun grinned, this was his in. “Unless you want to tell me where and how you linked in?”
“Linked in? And I’m not in your head.” Taemin pinched his arm, the action having no effect through the layers of Jonghyun’s jacket. “See?”
“No. I don’t. And don’t play dumb with me. How are you hooked up to this game? And if you’re telling the truth about that, then why can’t my friend see you?”
Taemin’s lip quivered. “Don’t be like that Jonghyun, maybe it’s a game to you but these are really my dreams.” Jonghyun scoffed, was this kid seriously trying to fool him? “And I don’t know why your friend didn’t see me. I was a spectator in the stands for his soccer match. I cheered as loud as I could for him.”
Of course Minho had made himself a soccer star. Of course. Jonghyun shook away the smirk forming on his lips. “So let me get this straight, you’re just wandering around here until one of us shows up and builds a new world? If they are your dreams, why aren’t you in control of them?”
Taemin’s smile was back then. “Nobody has control over their dreams Jonghyun.”
A loud pop sounded in the air and the other racers were already moving fast down the hill. “Fuck.” Jonghyun pushed off on his skis.
They went in silence for most of the trail, Jonghyun had a slight suspicion that the only reason Taemin wasn’t talking was because it was near impossible with the wind stealing sounds and carrying them away. He made a dangerously sharp turn at the next flag, kicking up snow. Still, Taemin was right with him.
Jonghyun really should have been paying more attention to the trail instead of trying to glance over his shoulder to see how close Taemin was. If he had, he wouldn’t have hit a rock and face planted in the snow. Taemin skidded to a stop next to him, covering him in even more snow that was starting to seep between his hat and the collar of his jacket.
“Hey. Are you ok?” Taemin reached out his hand, similar to when he’d pulled Jonghyun up into the tree. Apparently he no longer possessed that elven strength though, because when Jonghyun gripped his hand he pitched and fell on top of him.
“For such a skinny thing, you’re pretty heavy. Just throwing that out there.” Taemin rolled off of Jonghyun’s back and splayed out in the snow next to him, laughing up at the clear blue sky.
“Let’s just call it payback.”
“Payback my ass. Last time was completely your faul-” Jonghyun found his mouth filled with snow. He spat it out, looking at Taemin in shock only to find his eyes glittering mischievously.
“Were you saying something?” He said innocently. Oh. Oh it was on.
“I was saying you better run.” They both scrambled to unstrap their boots from their skis. Taemin was faster and got a head start but Jonghyun had great aim, he hit him square in the shoulder blades with a perfect snowball. Taemin went down.
“Mercy! Mercy!” He was gasping in the snow, laughter escaping him and making his shoulders shake. The cloth had fallen from his face and his cheeks were flushed pink. The nicest shade of pink Jonghyun had ever seen, if he was honest with himself. Jonghyun’s heart beat loudly in his chest and he felt his breathing quicken. Key really had been right about pink.
“Not a chance.” He bounced down to Taemin still rolling around in the snow and began shoving handfuls of snow up his jacket. Still, the insistent laughter didn’t stop. Who laughed like that anyway? It was like a million bubbles were dancing in Jonghyun’s ears.
Taemin’s jacket and shirts had ridden up during Jonghyun’s attack and a thin strip of skin quaked under Jonghyun’s glove. He jerked his hand away, clearing his throat. “Ok enough of this, we have to get back on the trail.”
“No we don’t.” Taemin spread his limbs and moved them against the snow covered ground, creating a snow angel. “We could just stay here. You’re fun Jonghyun.”
“Why do I feel like I’ve been tricked?”
Taemin just shrugged, lifting his leg and hooking his foot behind Jonghyun’s to bring him down next to him. “Make an angel. If you get it right it will come to life and protect you.” Taemin’s gaze drifted inward for a second, like he was remembering something maybe not so good.
Jonghyun tried to laugh off the awkward moment. “Come to life and protect you? Really? Did your mom tell you that?”
Taemin just blinked. “Yes.”
“Oh. Well what the hell?” Jonghyun stretched out on his back, extending his arms and legs before waving them. “How am I doing?”
The giggles were back. “Great, you’re a natural.”
Jonghyun chuckled himself, sighing and looking at the sky. The sky that was flickering. “Hey Taemin, I have to go soon.”
“I know.”
“I still don’t trust you.”
“I know.” Taemin seemed to be giving his best smile and it was the last thing Jonghyun saw before the world began to crumble around them.
-
Onew accepted Jonghyun’s invitation to accompany him and Minho during a night out, much to Jonghyun’s surprise. So three days later he was in front of his mirror trying on shirts.
“Kim Jonghyun, I can see my future in those pants. Why are they so tight?”
Jonghyun laughed. “So someone else can see their future in them. Which shirt do you think looks better?” He held up two shirts as Key materialized in the mirror.
“Hmm, the grey one.” Jonghyun shook the shirt off the hanger and pulled it over his head.
“Uh, can you move so I can see?”
Key slid onto the wall next to the mirror “Yo, my bad.”
“I’m going to regret asking, but where did you learn that?” He was really going to tweak Key’s program one of these days.
“I was processing late 20th century movies this morning. Did you know that to watch a film then you had to purchase these casings that had yards and yards of black tape in them that the images were imprinted-”
“Yeah I had to learn about that. No telling your busy body apartment system to flash something on the wall whenever you felt like it.” Jonghyun flicked the space that would have been Key’s forehead and moved to the closet to grab his coat. “Don’t lock me out when I come home trashed, okay?”
“I’m not promising you anything, Kim Jonghyun.” Key’s voice rang out as Jonghyun shut the door.
He stepped into the elevator, punching the button for Onew’s floor and leaning back against the wall, hands in his pockets. When the bell dinged and the doors opened Jonghyun found himself with an armful of Onew.
“Um.”
“Hey, Jonghyun! Key told Seohyun you were on your way so I was going to meet you but the elevator sounded weird so I was listening to it and then it opened and… hi!” Onew beamed at him and Jonghyun just laughed, reaching out to straighten the other man’s glasses.
“You really are something. And what are these? You don’t need glasses. Nobody needs glasses.”
“Ah. Seohyun said they were fashionable. Should I take them off?”
“What? No, no they’re fine.” Jonghyun snickered, “Minho will love them.”
-
When they arrived at the club Minho was waiting outside. Jonghyun waved a greeting. The music was pouring out of the building in waves, which was odd because it always seemed quieter inside.
“ID badges please.” A woman stood next to the door, looking at them patiently.
“Hey Victoria, long time no see.” Jonghyun lifted his badge to her eyes. They flashed green and soon Jonghyun was hearing a beep and a click as the door unlocked for him.
“Ah, Jonghyun, your last visit was six months ago, please enjoy your stay and come more often.”
Jonghyun smiled, “Victoria my love, when are you going to say something different?”
“When you come more often and we can use that money for my upgrade.” She tilted her head and smiled back.
Jonghyun stood next to the door as the other showed their badges.
“Minho, your last visit was twelve days ago, please enjoy your stay.”
“Jinki, your last visit was seventeen months ago, why are you even bothering?”
Onew flushed, mouth moving but making no sounds until finally he sputtered. “V-victoria I told you to call me Onew. And I’ve been busy.”
“I’m better at remembering the more I see you.” She smiled again. “Enjoy your stay Jinki Onew.”
If he left him out here Onew would probably protest until Victoria had him in tears at her feet so Jonghyun dragged him inside, Minho not far behind. They all agreed to avoid the dance floor for awhile and settled in at the bar, Onew in the middle of his two friends.
“Hey, let me treat you ok?”
“Thanks Minho!” Two voices exclaimed.
“Not you. Jjong.”
“And I repeat, most disrespectful little shit I’ve ever met.” Jonghyun pushed a button on the smooth counter in from of him and the bar hostess appeared. “Jessica, we want a round of those pink things.”
“Right away, Kim Jonghyun.”
Minho leaned down towards Onew’s ear and stage whispered, “he’s obsessed with pink now. Even his desk is pink.”
“That was all Key’s fault. And I’m not obsessed. These things are just really good.” The drinks in question rose from the counter with a mechanical whir and Jonghyun grabbed his before it was completely still. “A toast! To. Uh...”
“To Seohyun?” Onew supplied.
Minho sat up a little straighter. “Who is Seohyun and why are we toasting them?”
“You dimwit, Seohyun is Onew’s apartment.” Jonghyun bounced his foot along the bottom of his barstool. “But yeah why are we toasting her?”
Onew just grinned. Removing his watch and tapping the face twice. “Because, look.” The watch flashed blue and then a ten centimeter tall hologram of Seohyun appeared.
“Yes, Lee Jinki.” Seohyun blinked at the other two men staring down at her. “Hello Kim Jonghyun, Choi Minho.”
“Hey Seohyun.” They said in unison while Onew groaned.
“Seohyun, how many times have I told you to call me Onew?”
The small holographic girl flickered for a moment before saying, “you’ve told me one thousand, seven hundred, and twenty…one times. Lee Jinki.”
Onew really hoped his companions were laughing and not choking because he didn’t know the first thing about cardiopulmonary resuscitation, if that was even appropriate in this situation. “Thanks Seohyun, you can go back now.”
She waved. “Bye, have fun!”
“Onew that was incredible.” Minho was the first to recover from his laughing fit, admiration shining in his eyes.
“No, no no, I just took the previous system and built up a schematic that can transfer her data and compress it into a smaller form. Kind of like memory card that never needs to be connected to do its job.”
“It is way too dark outside for me to understand what you just said but I’ll drink to it anyway!” Jonghyun raised his glass and the others soon joined him.
After their third round of shots Jonghyun drifted to the dance floor, leaving Minho to not so subtly woo Onew. He did a few generic moves, letting the crowd pull and push him towards the middle where he finally got into it. A handful of people tried to dance with him, men and women alike. Though there were many attractive people around him, He didn’t stay with any one partner for long. Not long enough to drift close and definitely not long enough to walk off the floor and exchange names, or other things. He wanted to dance with a skinny kid with long light brown hair.
When Jonghyun returned to the bar he found Minho flexing his arms, while sitting in Onew’s lap.
“My dear friends. I…do not believe I am drunk enough for this. Excuse me.” He ordered something that looked blue and poisonous before turning to Onew and raising an eyebrow.
“I swear it’s not what it looks like. He challenged me.” Jonghyun took note of the empty glasses covering the counter in front of them. “Then he started talking about how strong he is.”
“I got up here so he could get a really good look. Look at my arm Jonghyun. Look at it.”
“I’ll pass.” Jonghyun deadpanned. “But hey Minho, that guy over there by the bathroom? He said he was stronger than you.”
Minho was flabbergasted. “What?”
“Not even joking. He said he could take you in a fight.” Jonghyun sipped his drink to keep the grin off his lips.
“Ok I need to go show him my arm, this just isn’t right. Isn’t it obvious that I would win in a fight with him?”
“Of course!” Both Jonghyun and Onew praised.
“Save my seat, I will be right back.” Minho got up from Onew’s lap and staggered off, muttering something under his breath about ‘showing him’. Jonghyun and Onew laughed openly then, the latter clutching his side while Jonghyun threw his head back.
“Thank you. I think.”
“No problem. Though I can only help you up to this point. He seems pretty intent on taking you home.”
“He’s been trying for years, I just might let him.”
Jonghyun spit the sip he’d just taken back into his glass. “Really?”
“Why not?” Onew shrugged. “Have you seen his arms?” That set Jonghyun off again until Minho returned.
-
As per their tradition when they’d been students, a night of dancing and drinking was followed by coffee and donuts. Though Jonghyun would’ve much rather gone home in a drunken stupor just to forget the way Minho had draped himself over Onew on the dance floor.
“Minho get your finger out of your donut.”
“It’s really warm though.” He did remove his finger however, only to promptly stick it in Onew’s mouth.
“M’oh. Mhat meawy ith wam.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jonghyun stood, grabbing the rest of the box for himself. “You two go find Onew’s room. I can get myself home.”
“Bye Jonghyun!” He was going to kill Minho.
The cool night air put him in a whimsical mood as he walked down the street, chomping on his donuts. He wondered if Taemin liked donuts. Yeah, someone as sweet as him probably loved them and all things diabetes. How would he get them into the game though? Could they eat food in the game? Everything else had seemed real enough. Maybe he could imagine a whole spread of sugary confections and it would appear before them.
Jonghyun stopped and tried. Nothing. He tossed the empty box of donuts into a trash receptacle, laughing at himself. When he arrived home he almost thought Key really had locked him out but no, he was just using his key card wrong. He’d have to install an eye scanner or thumbprint scanner or something. Keycards were so tedious and difficult-
“Welcome back Kim Jonghyun. Please, shut up and go to sleep.”
“I made you, you…you. You can’t talk to me that way.” He thought he felt the apartment sigh and the floor illuminated a path to his room. Sometimes Key was really awesome.
continued...