The Sound of Flight - Part IV ; OT5

[thevignette]

Sorry for the long wait, but it's finally done :D If you haven't read the interlude yet, you might want to, even though not having read it wouldn't interfere with your understanding of this part.

Title: The Sound of Flight - Part IV
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Dong Bang Shin Ki
Pairing(s): OT5
Disclaimer: The boys do not belong to me. This is also nothing but pure fiction.

All parts: Part I | Part II | Part III | Interlude | Part IV
Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII (final)


The Sound of Flight
Part IV

There's noise coming from outside. His heart leaps in his chest, and with movements sluggish from sleep, Jaejoong rolls off the bed. He ends up hitting the back of his head against the leg of the bedside table. He presses a hand against the throbbing pain, trying to ignore it as he shakes Yoochun out of sleep.

Someone is choking - he can hear it, the wheezy gurgling noise.

"Yunho," Jaejoong hears Junsu's sharp yell. He runs out of the room, abandoning a groggy Yoochun on the bed.

He skids to a stop when he sees Yunho clutching someone by the throat, lifting him inches off the ground effortlessly. The person gasps, his hands clawing at Yunho's fingers locked around his neck.

Hyukjae.

"Yunho," Junsu says, his voice rising. "Let go right now."

Jaejoong sees the moment when Hyukjae sends the invisible electric charges through his body - he recognizes it from the way Hyukjae squints his eyes in concentration. Yunho screams, releasing Hyukjae as he collapses onto the ground, his body convulsing from pain.

"Oh God," Jaejoong says, dropping to his knees, his hands hovering over Yunho's body, not knowing what to do. "Oh God," he looks up at Hyukjae, coughing and choking as he sucks in deep breaths. Junsu moves instantly towards his best friend, half shielding him from view protectively.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Jaejoong says warily.

Hyukjae does not answer, and there are tears brimming in his eyes as he tries to regulate his breathing.

"Hyukjae?" Yoochun says incredulously from behind Jaejoong.

On the floor, Yunho finally stops the involuntary spasms. Jaejoong grabs him and helps him back to his feet. Yunho leans heavily against Jaejoong, sweating and breathing heavily.

Jaejoong suddenly realises that he hasn't seen Changmin.

"Changmin - " Jaejoong says, looking around wildly for a sign of their youngest.

"Don't move!" Hyukjae shouts suddenly and Jaejoong freezes.

The atmosphere is heavy and tense. Jaejoong wonders if he is imagining the bitter metallic taste it has when he breathes in through his mouth.

Yunho and Jaejoong are standing opposite Junsu and Hyukjae. Yoochun is hovering somewhere in between, a horrified look on his face. Jaejoong can't see Changmin. Worry ripples across his skin like an itch, and Jaejoong wants to shout Changmin's name until Changmin answers. Where is he?

"I didn't have a choice," Hyukjae says, a wretched look on his face. "They got Donghae and Sungmin and - and they threatened me and - I couldn't say no."

"They got Donghae?" Yunho asks through clenched teeth; beads of sweat trickle down the sides of his face and he is still shaking, unsteady on his feet.

"I have to take the five of you back. If I don't take the five of you back, I'm dead." Hyukjae's voice trembles, and Jaejoong knows he's not kidding.

"We're not going back," Yoochun says quickly. If we go back, we're dead. Jaejoong knows that what's Yoochun is thinking. That's what all of them are thinking. They can't go back, they made their choice when they ran away and there is no turning back.

"You have to go back," Hyukjae shrieks at them. "You have to." His eyes flick from Jaejoong to Yunho to Yoochun, calculating his next move.

There is movement somewhere behind Hyukjae, and Jaejoong sees Changmin crawling out from behind the sofa, silent and stealthy. He's holding something in his hand, probably something that he wants to strike Hyukjae with - Jaejoong can't see what it is, and he's afraid to move.

Jaejoong has no idea how Hyukjae senses Changmin behind but he suddenly turns around and grabs Changmin, holding their youngest in an unforgivable choke-hold, his nails digging into the side of Changmin's neck.

Changmin makes a terrible noise, his eyes rolling back in his head. Jaejoong screams, lunging forward recklessly.

"If anyone moves, I'll kill him," Hyukjae shouts hysterically, his voice cracking.

Everyone freezes in motion. Hyukjae shifts towards the door, never loosening his hold on Changmin. "Starting from now," he says shakily, his eyes darting around to make sure none of them make sudden moves. "I'll send electric charges through his body," he glances down at Changmin, eyes wide with terror, and there is a crazy look in his eyes that scares Jaejoong. "They won't kill him instantly, but if I keep it up, he'll be dead in two minutes. So, you have two minutes to decide if you want to go back with me."

Two minutes, Jaejoong thinks, his heart nearly stopping, two minutes to save a life.

Changmin's face contorts in agony, his body twisting against Hyukjae as he's electrocuted.

"Someone do something," Yoochun shouts.

Jaejoong watches as Changmin goes limp, and he feels himself sinking onto the floor, his consciousness bleeding away.

I'll always save you. Any time, any where.

From anything.

Anything.

Junsu picks Changmin up from the floor, stumbling under the dead weight. Across the room, Yunho has an unconscious Jaejoong thrown over his shoulder and a terrified Yoochun clinging onto his arm.

"Out, get out," Junsu shouts at Yunho, who's squinting through the flames, not knowing where to go. The entire room is burning with his fire, and the flames lick across the floor, hungry and vicious. The fire Junsu created.

The fire he used to burn his best friend.

As he steps out of the front door, he wonders if Hyukjae is dead. He nearly collapses under Changmin's weight in his arms but Yunho relieves him of the burden, throwing Changmin over his other shoulder easily.

In the car, Junsu sits between Jaejoong and Changmin, both still unconscious.

Yunho drives, while Yoochun sits in passenger seat, eyes staring blankly ahead.

Junsu closes his eyes and sees Hyukjae's accusing eyes staring back at him as the fire slowly ate him up. Junsu, the last thing Hyukjae had said, his voice disbelieving. Disbelieving because Hyukjae had trusted him. Because they were best friends.

Were.

The entire car smells like smoke. And death.

"Stop the car," Junsu croaks out. He pushes the car door open, taking a few unsteady steps forward before throwing up, over and over again, until there is nothing left in his stomach but sour, heavy guilt.

Yoochun can't recall a time when the five of them had ever had a serious disagreement. It seemed as though back at the Academy, they had never fought.

Everyone envied them. The five of them supported each other, stood up for each other, no matter what happened. Eventually, the five of them became one existence, intertwined, interdependent.

Yoochun knows that the five of them became friends by default. It was left unsaid at the Academy that the five of them were the most talented, most powerful of the lot. When Junsu pulled the precocious Changmin into their original group of four, they were complete.

Yoochun heard talk about how the five of them were going to be groomed to be future leaders of the Academy. He wouldn't have been surprised if that was really what Dr. Lee and the rest of the professors had in mind. Even if they were not being groomed to become future leaders of the Academy, Yoochun knew, even back when Changmin and Junsu had not been approached, that there was something they were being trained to do.

They went to Changmin first, because if Changmin gave into their demands, the four of them could never let him do it alone. When threatening Changmin didn't work, they went to Junsu, because Junsu had been there for the longest time, and they probably thought Junsu would have some kind of loyalty to the Academy that would make him agree to what they wanted. Negotiations didn't work with Junsu, and they started with the threatening again.

"It'll be one of you next," Changmin told Yoochun quietly the next morning after Junsu was called to the Office.

Two days after that, before they could get to the next person, they made a run for it.

The five of them together, Yoochun thinks, that was how it was possible for them to do something so reckless. If there were only three or four of them, they would never have ran. It was possible when it was the five of them, because they were already one existence, intertwined, interdependent.

"We should have left the moment we knew Changmin called," Yunho chants over and over again. "One of us should have figured it out."

Yoochun wishes Yunho would stop talking about it, because it's the only thing he's been talking about for the past five minutes. "It already happened," Yoochun says. "Thinking about what we should have done isn't going to change anything."

"Why didn't one of us think of it?" Yunho says, heaving a long sigh.

"Give it a rest," Jaejoong says. Colour has returned to his face, but Changmin still looks pale and drawn, despite regaining consciousness. Junsu is sitting between the two of them, blank and unresponsive.

"Jaejoong," Yoochun twists around from his seat in front to give Jaejoong a warning look.

Jaejoong pretends not to see. Yoochun clenches his fists, sensing the confrontation coming.

"If you didn't figure it out in time, don't blame it on the rest of us," Jaejoong crosses his arms, looking spiteful in a way Yoochun has never seen before.

"I'm not blaming anyone," Yunho growls. Yoochun sees his grip on the steering wheel tighten. "We all didn't figure it out, okay? So we're all responsible for what happened."

"If it's anyone's responsibility, it's yours." Jaejoong snaps, and there's an ugly sneer on his face. "You're our unofficial leader, remember?"

Yunho steps on the brakes with force, and they are thrown forwards as the car stops abruptly. "And why am I the unofficial fucking leader? It's because the oldest one is too fucking incompetent - "

"Fuck you," Jaejoong snarls, lunging forward.

"Jaejoong - " Changmin utters his first words since opening his eyes, and Yoochun turns around to see Changmin reach over to touch Jaejoong's arm.

"Don't touch me," Jaejoong shouts, batting Changmin's hand away violently. "We told you not to call, and you didn't listen so we all know it's actually your fucking fault."

It goes absolutely silent.

Yoochun can hear his own heart beating, deafening and hollow-sounding.

Jaejoong looks stricken by the words he has just uttered. He shrinks like a balloon, deflating within seconds, and the vicious glint in his eyes extinguishes instantly. "Changmin," he says in a small voice. "Changmin," he repeats as Changmin wrestles with the car door, wrenching it open and getting out. "No, don't - Changmin -" Jaejoong sounds like he is close to tears.

"Changmin," Yunho calls, pushing the car door open. He races after Changmin, leaving the three of them in the car - Jaejoong, who starts to sob; Junsu, who still hasn't said a single thing; and Yoochun, staring at the driver's seat Yunho has just abandoned.

They sit there in the car. Twenty minutes pass.

Yunho and Changmin don't come back.

Eventually, Yoochun takes the wheel and finds somewhere for the three of them to say. The first thing Junsu does is curl up on the bed and fall asleep. Jaejoong is still crying. His eyes are so swollen Yoochun wonders if he can even see.

"Don't cry," Yoochun says. "I'm the crybaby around here, remember?"

He tries to make things better. He hugs Jaejoong from behind, kisses the skin on his neck, and tells Jaejoong everything will be okay.

Jaejoong only stops crying when he falls asleep at about ten o'clock at night.

Yoochun is the only one who cannot sleep. He walks around the hotel room, boiling hot water, opening and closing cupboards and drawers, staring out of the window every few minutes, feeling increasingly unsettled. Yunho and Changmin's absence gnaws at him like an unbearable itch.

Twenty minutes past eleven, someone knocks on the door.

It's Yunho, bringing their youngest back home.

"Oh God," Yoochun says thickly, opening the door wide to let them in. "How did you find us here?" he asks Yunho. "How did you know?"

Yunho smiles tiredly before pulling Yoochun into a hug. "Must be our heart to heart connection," he jokes.

When Yunho lets go of Yoochun, Yoochun turns around to see Changmin kneeling next to Jaejoong, who is asleep on the sofa. As though Changmin's presence is felt, Jaejoong's swollen eyes blink open instantly.

Jaejoong mouths Changmin's name, his voice less than a whisper. He touches Changmin's face, runs the pads of his fingers gently over Changmin's face. Yoochun wonders if he's memorizing Changmin, in case they ever lost him again.

Changmin leans forward and before their lips meet, Yunho puts both hands on Yoochun's shoulders, and steers him quietly into the bedroom where Junsu is sleeping.

Junsu is still deathly pale during breakfast the next day.

Changmin's entire body is strung tight with tension. "Should I say something?" he asks Yunho.

Yunho makes a non-committal noise and then shrugs. No one knows what to do. Junsu doesn't speak to anyone, and no one speaks to him.

Eventually, Changmin cannot take it any longer and corners Junsu near the bathroom before lunch. "Junsu," he calls out.

Junsu stops, but doesn't reply.

"I - Yunho told me what happened - and -" Changmin wonders which is more appropriate, thank you or I'm sorry. "You saved me," he ends up saying. He knows the both of them are thinking of the promise Junsu made, I'll always save you. Any time, any where. From anything.

Junsu still doesn't speak.

"I'm sorry," Changmin says at last.

"Your apology is not going to bring him back," Junsu says, staring at the floor.

"Junsu," Changmin says softly.

"Please," Junsu's voice cracks wretchedly. "Please, I don't want to see you, I don't want to hear you speak, please - " Junsu backs away, and flees, as though he cannot bear to be in the same place as Changmin.

Changmin stumbles backwards into the bathroom, leaning against the sink as his legs give out on him. He stares at his reflection in the mirror, and thinks, I should have been the one to die.

"You're horrible," Yoochun tells Junsu flatly.

Junsu looks shocked, the first change Yoochun has seen to his blank, distant expression. Yoochun knows Junsu never saw this coming. Out of everyone, Junsu probably expected this least from Yoochun, but Yoochun has to say it.

"Changmin doesn't deserve this from you," Yoochun tells him.

"Hyukjae is dead," Junsu says, and it hurts him to say the words, Yoochun can tell.

"You'd rather Changmin had died in his place?" Yoochun asks.

"You don't understand how I feel - Hyukjae, he was my best friend," Junsu hisses. "And I killed him."

"He would have killed all of us," Yoochun says quietly. "You know he would have. He wasn't the Hyukjae you knew any more. He worked for them. He wouldn't have let any of us off."

Junsu doesn't answer. Yoochun sighs, long and resigned.

"It was an accident. No one is to blame for what happened," Yoochun says.

Junsu looks up, and there is pain in his eyes Yoochun has never seen before. Yoochun feels choked with sympathy. He wishes fervently that none of them have to hurt like this.

"Looking at Changmin reminds me of what I did," Junsu says. "I can't stay in the same place with him any longer, I'll go mad. Either he goes, or I leave - "

"Junsu," Yoochun stops him. "The five of us - we have to stick together-"

"Don't you understand?" Junsu shouts. "Either he goes, or I leave."

Yoochun sucks in a breath. "Junsu," he says, suddenly understanding something. "Junsu, I was right. You - you really would rather Changmin be the one dead. Junsu." He stares at Junsu, and thinks I don't know you any more. "Junsu," he tries again.

Junsu doesn't defend himself. Yoochun's heart starts to ache, a kind of foreign pain that he has never felt before.

Junsu packs his belongings, and Yoochun doesn't ask him to stay.

"He'll come round," Yunho says confidently. "He just needs time to think this through. Whatever happened hit him really hard, but he'll come round in the end."

"Did he say," Changmin ignores Yunho, turning to face Yoochun. "That he wished I was dead in Hyukjae's place?"

Yoochun looks away, shakes his head, but Changmin knows the truth.

"He couldn't even look at me," Changmin says. "I know that's what he was thinking." Yoochun knows that Changmin is trying to sound flippant but there's an underlying current of pain in his voice that anyone can hear.

"Changmin," Yunho says helplessly. "That's not true."

"I'll always save you. Any time, any where. From anything," Changmin says quietly, and Yoochun notices the moisture in his eyes.

"What?" Jaejoong cocks his head to one side, leaning closer.

"What Junsu told me before. I'll always save you. Any time, any where. From anything," Changmin repeats. "Anything. Just not from anyone," he says bitterly, and turns away before they get to see the tears fall.

Junsu walks for a long time without knowing where he's headed. He feels wretched and awful and sick to the stomach. A violent exhaustion gnaws at his bones and there is a dull painful throb in his head that matches the one in his heart. He walks into a fast food place, sits down and orders a coffee.

When the sun sets, Junsu is suddenly hit by the realization that he is entirely alone.

He has no where to spend the night. Finally, after walking around aimlessly for another two and half hours, Junsu finds a small run-down hotel to spend the night. He lies in bed, unable to fall asleep.

A heavy sensation rests over his chest, making it hard to breathe. He shifts onto his side, and holds one hand out listlessly. A small ball of fire starts to rotate above his palm, encased by his fingers, and he stares into the black centre of the flame until he falls into the night's open mouth, swallowed by sleep.

At night, he dreams of what happened: the details even more vivid than they were. The horror in Hyukjae's eyes as he screamed, looking down to find his skin on fire. Hyukjae throwing an unconscious Changmin onto the ground as he tried to stop the fire from spreading. It was too late. The fire consumed him within seconds, and the choked sound of Hyukjae's voice, saying Junsu's name as he sank to the ground. Accusation glittering in his eyes, coupled with disbelief. The suffocating smell of smoke.

Stumbling forward to pick Changmin up, pulling Changmin close and checking for breathing, for heartbeat, and the thought pounding through his head, he's safe, he's safe, I saved him.

"Where are you going?" Jaejoong says.

Changmin freezes, one hand on the door knob, one hand holding onto a backpack. He turns around slowly, and Jaejoong notices the guilt that flits across his face before being replaced by a blank expression. "Nowhere," he lies.

"Changmin," Jaejoong crooks a finger, and Changmin makes a noise of protest as the backpack is forced out of his hands, sailing straight into Jaejoong's arms. "Don't tell me you're going to run away again," Jaejoong says.

"I wasn't going to run away," Changmin says heatedly. "Can I have my backpack back now?"

"Not unless you tell me where you're going," Jaejoong says. "If you insist on leaving, I'll have to call Yunho over and have him forcibly keep you here." His gaze softens. "Changmin, it's not safe out there."

"It's not safe for Junsu either," Changmin snarls. "I just want to look for him - "

"No," Jaejoong interrupts. "You won't find him."

"I can," Changmin says loudly. "I can find him and I will. Give me my backpack."

"Changmin, even if you find him, he's not going to come back with you," Jaejoong holds on tightly onto the backpack. "I'm not letting you leave."

"You can't make me stay," Changmin says, his hand gripping the doorknob. He notches his chin upwards in quiet defiance.

"No," Jaejoong raises his voice, as Changmin wrenches the door open and runs. He shouts for Yunho, throwing the backpack aside and chasing after Changmin. He follows Changmin down the street, and loses Changmin just as he rounds a corner. Jaejoong swears, trying to speed up when he sees Yunho overtaking him.

Seeing Yunho, Jaejoong crumbles onto the side walk in relief. Yunho will catch up with Changmin easily. He picks himself up from the ground, panting, and jogs slowly in the direction where Changmin and Yunho went.

Rounding the corner, he sees Yunho standing there, alone.

"He's not here," Yunho says, turning around and spotting Jaejoong.

Jaejoong's mouth goes dry. "Impossible. I saw him turn this corner." He looks down the long street - there is no way Yunho couldn't have spotted him.

"I didn't see him," Yunho says. "If I saw him, I would have caught up, but he's not here."

"No," Jaejoong whispers, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth.

"Where could he have gone?" Yunho asks persistently, shaking Jaejoong by the shoulders. "Jaejoong - come on - we can't possibly lose him - " There's fear in Yunho's eyes that Jaejoong knows is mirrored in his own.

Someone touches Jaejoong, making him jump, but it's only Yoochun. "What happened?" Yoochun asks. "I heard shouting and saw Yunho running out of the room."

Jaejoong shakes his head, the words refusing to come. Yunho looks at Yoochun, mouth set in a grim line, and says it for Jaejoong.

"It's Changmin," Yunho says. "He's gone."

Continue to Part V
Back to Interlude

Hopefully it didn't disappoint :\

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