Solitaire ; [3/?] ; gen!SHINee
Title: Solitaire (Chapter 3: Foundations)
Group: SHINee
Rating: PG13
Wordcount: ~3,100 /sob
Summary: Einstein was right, Jonghyun's life sucks, Jinki is smart, and it's a small world after all. Turns out that God may not throw dice, but he does play with cards.
Notes: Ahahaha finally the whole group! Really sorry for the tl;dr - no idea how that happened ;;; Implied trauma at the end, and things are going to pick up from here on out, so fair warning for that.
Jonghyun collapsed on his bed in a mixture of groans and complaints, the mattress bouncing slightly under the impact. The house had been empty when he'd returned - which was just as well because. Well.
It was just as well.
"Had fun?"
"Fuck!" Jonghyun yelped as he sat bolt upright, heart pounding like he'd just run a marathon. Standing a few feet away in what Jonghyun could have sworn was empty space just moments ago was a cheerfully grinning boy who had a smile that could outrival an angel's in innocence. "Don't scare me like that," he groaned as he flopped loosely back onto the covers.
Taemin grinned, and sat down on the edge of Jonghyun's bed. "You'll - "
"- get used to it?" Jonghyun finished for him, sitting up just enough to prop himself up on his elbows.
"Yup. See, you already are," Taemin said cheekily, pulling his legs up onto the bed.
Jonghyun groaned again, wondering what he'd done in a previous life to deserve this. "You couldn't just walk in through the door like a normal person?" he complained.
"But I'm not a normal person," Taemin pointed out as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"...Right."
Normal people didn't appear out of thin air, didn't cause either really elaborate hallucinations or dimensional shifts, and didn't - well - either way, he wasn't a normal person. It didn't help that Taemin looked like a normal person. He looked solid, felt solid, had two eyes, a nose, a mouth and everything else that made up a person. He smiled, looked sad, laughed, teased - Jonghyun felt that if Taemin had been a normal person, maybe they might have been friends.
"Did you have fun?" Taemin's repeated question interrupted Jonghyun's musings, the boy watching him with a small smile on his face.
"Hm? Oh, yeah. It was fun." Jonghyun abruptly sat up and swung his feet over the edge of the bed, padding across the floor in his socks. It had been fun, and when it was all over, Jonghyun had let the high carry him home, until it had slipped out abruptly as he placed a hand on the door handle, pulled keys out of a familiar bag, pulled the door in place as he turned the keys with a quiet click and then pushed it open, walking into an empty hallway. Hello? he'd called quietly, and then louder. Hello? He'd kicked off his shoes and made his way down the hall and into the kitchen where he'd switched on the lights. Something came up at the office and Dad's business trip got extended - don't wait up for us! read a note on the table. It had been with some relief that he'd replaced the note and trekked up the stairs to his room - he hadn't been sure what to say when he saw his parents.
He turned over the thing in his hand - and realised abruptly and with some amusement that it was a deck of playing cards - that was missing two of the Aces, if Jonghyun remembered correctly. "Did you put this here?" he asked Taemin, but Taemin shook his head. Jonghyun put the deck down, and riffled through the things on the top of the shelf, pausing every now and then as his hands brushed against something that had been particularly forgotten. He wandered over to his desk and sat, before he stood and crossed the floor again to the shelf, crouching to explore the lower shelves. "I don't feel dead," he said, more to himself than to the boy who sat silently behind him. His fingers ran across the spines of several books, stopping on a hardcover notebook which he pulled out.
"But you are," Taemin apparently felt the need to point out.
Jonghyun said nothing at first, flipping open the notebook instead. Old melodies and contrived words stared back at him, and God how did he even manage to write these? Well, he'd been young, but still. "Jinki liked this one," he said aloud, running fingers across old pen marks.
"Jinki?" Taemin questioned from behind him.
Jonghyun craned his neck backwards to look at Taemin. "Yeah. We went to the same middle school until he moved away. Sort of kept in touch but haven't talked in a while." Jonghyun sighed, rested the notebook on his lap, and leaned back on the heels of his hands. "Kinda wish he hadn't."
Taemin hummed thoughtfully. "Are you crying?" he asked suddenly.
"What no!" Jonghyun turned indignantly on the spot, hastily flicking the back of his hand across his eyes - which, to his credit, weren't red in the slightest. "I'm not!"
Taemin laughed, and hopped up off Jonghyun's bed. "I think your mom's home," he said, gesturing to the bedroom door. "So I better go."
Jonghyun stood and hurried to his bedroom window - and sure enough, a car was pulling up in the driveway. He ran his tongue across his lips, the back of his mouth suddenly dry.
"Go to sleep," Taemin said quietly. Jonghyun turned to look at the boy. He was leaning against the door, hands jammed into his pockets. He had the same small smile on that he usually wore, the one that made reading him so damn hard. Taemin looked down for a moment, his black hair cut to just above his eyes flipping down to obscure them - when he looked up again, there was no trace of the smile. Jonghyun swallowed.
He moved from the window to sit heavily on his bed, but made no move to lie down just yet. "What about you?" he asked.
Taemin shrugged, ran a hand through his hair. "Don't forget - you dealt the cards." And then he disappeared.
The sound of the front door opening jangled loudly in the space that Taemin had left behind, and Jonghyun hastily burrowed under the covers out of years of honed instincts. Sure enough, foot steps echoed up the stairs, and the door opened, light spilling into the room. Jonghyun squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath - before he remembered that he was supposed to be breathing and let it all out at once, too fast. He heard a familiar chuckle, and as the door closed, he thought he heard his heart break.
He lay there in the darkness for a few moments, eyes still closed tightly. His breaths came raggedly - he gulped in air, held it, slowly exhaled as he pushed a pounding heartbeat back to a normal volume. Fingers clenched at covers - and it suddenly occurred to him that these were his covers, not ones pulled out of some matrix space and suddenly his breathing was far too uneven again and it was a long time before Jonghyun felt safe enough to open his eyes, ignoring the dampness as he brushed fingers against his cheek.
Aware of the silence in the house, Jonghyun sat up, pushing the covers off. He tried to simply materialise the deck like Taemin seemed to be able to do with most things, but nothing happened. Snapped his fingers - nothing happened. Sighed, felt silly, and passed an open palm across his lap - and wasn't sure whether to be surprised or not when the dealt deck appeared. The fact that they didn't tumble about willy nilly on the uneven covers and that they seemed to be resting in a plane of their own did startle him a little, however. He would've thought that such things were restricted to the matrix space, or wherever it was.
He picked up the card on the right, and turned it over a few times. The room was dark, and he couldn't be bothered to turn the light back on, but even so he could pick out the faint shape of the card. Ace of diamonds. Or spades? Probably diamonds - it looked red.
Jonghyun sighed, and replaced the card where it had been dealt. He sighed again, and feeling like some cheap magician, snapped his fingers. The cards disappeared.
♠ ♡ ♥ ♢ ♦ ♡ ♣
"What is wrong with you lately?"
They were sitting in the club room, after most of the members had already left. Jonghyun had been dozing in the back of the room, not really paying attention to the discussion going on in the center about an upcoming concert. He'd had a sleepless night, and it showed in the redness of his eyes and the shadows under them. Kibum sat on the edge of the desk, swinging his legs under him. In response, Jonghyun shoved Kibum lightly off the desk, and got a sharp rap on the head in return. "Ow!" he yelped.
Kibum gave him a look, and then took a seat on the chair instead, leaning on the desk. "Seriously; you've been spacing out all day, you're stupider than usual, and I think you've said a total of three words all day."
"I'm tired okay?" Jonghyun shot back in a moment of irritation, and instantly regretted it when a flash of hurt passed across Kibum's face. "It's fine, don't worry," he tried to cover it up - but even so, it came out shorter than usual.
"Why don't you visit him, hyung?" piped up from behind Jonghyun. Taemin was seated cross legged on a desk, absorbed in some video game or other. He looked up briefly to smile at the two of them, before he went back to mashing buttons on his PSP.
"Huh?" Jonghyun turned in his chair to regard Taemin, confused. "Who?"
"Jinki hyung!" Taemin smiled brightly, finally putting the game down. "Weren't you just talking about this yesterday?"
Jonghyun stared at Taemin blankly. "I was?"
"We could go this weekend and take the train. It's only an hour away, right?"
"That's a good idea - it'll be fun, won't it Taemin-ah?" Kibum agreed, and Taemin beamed. "Then it's settled. We'll meet at your place afterschool tomorrow, and then surprise him."
Which was how Jonghyun found himself nestled in a seat towards the back of a compartment, watching Kibum fuss over Taemin as if he'd known Taemin all his life, headphones stuffed into his ears. For the most part he dozed, cracking his eyes open every now and then to check on Kibum. At some point in time, he must have dozed off completely, because the next time he opened his eyes, Kibum was looming over him. "What's up?" Jonghyun yawned.
Kibum raised an eyebrow. "We're here," he said. "If you don't get off we'll leave you behind."
"So cruel," Jonghyun complained, but followed Kibum off the train anyway. Taemin was already waiting for them at the exit, asking directions from the ticket master.
"Do you even know where we're going?" Jonghyun asked skeptically.
"Of course he does!" Kibum said, elbowing Jonghyun. "You didn't think that I wouldn't have given him the address, do you?"
Jonghyun rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, you have everything under control and I'm just a bumbling fool in the corner here," he said sarcastically.
Taemin just laughed, and waved them closer. "Hurry up," he said impatiently.
Jonghyun looked at Kibum and rolled his eyes. "Isn't the wrong person excited?"
"Why shouldn't he be?" Kibum sounded affronted. "It's a trip!"
♠ ♡ ♥ ♢ ♦ ♡ ♣
"- so. Yeah. Hi." Jonghyun finished somewhat lamely, standing on Jinki's doorstep.
Jinki, in the meantime, was staring at the three of them with a flabbergasted expression on his face, as if seeing his old middle school friends (+ 1) was the last thing he was expecting to see when he opened the door on a random Friday evening. Which, to be fair, it probably was.
"Can't you at least act happy to see us?" Kibum nagged, although the effect was somewhat ruined by the smile on his own face.
Something in Jinki finally switched to the 'on' position. "No I mean yes ahhh of course I'm happy to see you," he flailed. "Um, come in! It's a little messy since I didn't know you were coming and, um, actually, someone else is here right now too."
As if on cue, someone walked up behind Jinki with a confused but polite smile on his face. "Hello," he said.
"Hyung!"
Beside him, Jonghyun felt Taemin tense up suddenly, and he did a double take as he turned to look. "You know each other?" he asked, at the same time Jinki said "wow, it's a small world!"
The black haired boy tilted his head slightly in a quizzical manner, as Taemin laughed a little nervously, waving one hand in front of his face. "Ah, no. Um, we're cousins," he explained, and then to the other boy: "I didn't know you were here, hyung."
The boy shrugged, as Jinki introduced him with a slight laugh. "This was unexpected. Ah, right! This is Choi Minho. He's a dongsaeng at my school; since he lives nearby and his parents come home late, sometimes we work on homework together."
"Hello," Minho greeted again, before Jonghyun interrupted.
"Homework?" he asked skeptically. "You're doing homework on a Friday night?"
Jinki stared at him. "...Yes?"
"Clearly this won't do," Kibum cut in. "After all, we're here, so you might as well show us around."
"Sorry for imposing," Taemin at least had the grace to say, as Jinki gave up with a sigh and mouthed a 'sorry' to Minho. "You were probably busy studying. It's an important year for you, isn't it?"
"It's fine," Jinki dismissed. "I think this is the first time they've visited me, so..."
In the end, the five of them headed down the street to the main part of the city, Jonghyun and Kibum catching up on news with Jinki, Taemin and Minho trailing behind in their own conversations. Jinki, it turned out, was one of the top students in his grade ("Since he doesn't have a loser like you to pull him down," Kibum sniped at Jonghyun. "Hey! What about you?" Jonghyun groused back.) and he was studying for his university exams. He didn't go out much, he explained apologetically, so he didn't know the city that well ("Which is why you need friends like us," Jonghyun interrupted.) but he could take them to the museum! ("- Ugh, no." At which Jinki's face fell and Kibum chatised Jonghyun for being so inconsiderate when they were already making Jinki go out of his way to show them around.) "Um, then since you probably haven't eaten yet, I can take you to my favourite restaurant?"
"That sounds good," Minho said from behind them, making Jonghyun jump in surprise. "Their food is good."
Jinki beamed at him. "Great! It's not far from here, and maybe we can go to the night market after!"
Jonghyun followed leisurely as Jinki lead the way excitedly, now that they had an actual destination in mind. Kibum bantered playfully with the older boy, while Minho seemed content to listen. Jonghyun had reason to jump again when Taemin suddenly latched himself onto Jonghyun. "See, this was a good idea wasn't it, hyung?" he asked cheerfully.
"Yeah, sure," Jonghyun said dismissively, shrugging Taemin off. "I'm not that short," he complained.
Taemin chuckled, but obligingly released Jonghyun and took a step back. In front of them, Jinki waved for the two of them to hurry up because they were crossing the street here. Jonghyun whined a little but nodded to Taemin and jogged ahead to the crossing. "Food!" he yelled over his shoulder, revelling in the familiarity of hanging out with friends.
"It's just across the street," Jinki explained, pointing out a brightly lit store.
The light changed - and Jonghyun froze.
There wasn't any real reason for it, not that he could see. It was just a heavy feeling against his chest, a twisting sensation behind his stomach, a tingling coldness in his fingers despite it being fall. A dryness in the back of his mouth, a silence in his consciousness, a sudden lack of breath. "Jjong?" Kibum paused and turned when he realised that the older boy wasn't following them, and then Jinki's eyes opened wide and Minho moved and Kibum turned to look and Jonghyun was still frozen and -
Taemin walked in front of Jonghyun, a look that could almost be described as furious on his face. "What are you doing!?" he hissed, jerking a finger at the tableau behind him. Jonghyun blinked, the feeling that had been holding him in place suddenly gone. He looked around him, startled at the sudden silence. A child was frozen midstep, hand halfway to his mother's coat. A young couple were smiling at each other, fingers intertwined.
And in front of Jonghyun, behind a flash of brown as Taemin turned briefly to look as well, a truck was spinning out of control to where Jinki stared, Kibum was turning to look, and Minho was three steps into pushing the two of them out of the way.
"What are you doing?" Taemin repeated, snapping his fingers in front of Jonghyun's face to get his attention. "Didn't I remind you about the cards? Don't tell me you still haven't touched them."
Jonghyun shook himself out of his trance, eyes unable to leave the scene in front of him. Shakily, he repeated his actions from a few nights earlier, the untouched layout appearing in front of him. Taemin tsked, and watched as Jonghyun slowly reached out to the cards, picking up the Ace of diamonds like he'd done before - only this time, he placed it above the line of cards. Taemin seemed to nod in approval, and Jonghyun flipped over the card which had been under the ace, revealing a three of clubs.
"Deal from the deck," Taemin prompted, and Jonghyun dealt out three cards in succession. Slowly, because he suddenly realised that with the scene frozen in front of him and the cards in his hands, this was much more than just a solitary card game. In fact, from the urgency in Taemin's voice, this was the furthest thing from solitary at the moment.
A noise of frustration escaped from the back of his throat when nothing was playable. So he dealt the next three. And then the next.
"What the hell!?"
Taemin shrugged, eyes watching the cards like a hawk. "Keep going," he said quietly.
Jonghyun turned over another three cards. Six of hearts. "Another NG," he said more to himself, a feeling of panic beginning to build where there had been none before. Slowly, he turned over the next triplet. Five of clubs. King of hearts. Ace of spades.
"Ace...?" Jonghyun grinned, and placed the card next to the ace of diamonds. Taemin nodded appreciatively, but only folded his arms across his chest and kept silent.
The rest of the stack though, was far less promising when nothing else turned up. Jonghyun moved to run through it again when Taemin shrugged grimly and snapped the set out of existence. "That'll have to do," Taemin said, and Jonghyun watched almost silently in horror as the world came to life around them once again.
Almost.
The name that tore itself from his throat though, that rang raw through the autumn air, was anything but silent.
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<< chapter 2 || chapter 4 >>
Group: SHINee
Rating: PG13
Wordcount: ~3,100 /sob
Summary: Einstein was right, Jonghyun's life sucks, Jinki is smart, and it's a small world after all. Turns out that God may not throw dice, but he does play with cards.
Notes: Ahahaha finally the whole group! Really sorry for the tl;dr - no idea how that happened ;;; Implied trauma at the end, and things are going to pick up from here on out, so fair warning for that.
Jonghyun collapsed on his bed in a mixture of groans and complaints, the mattress bouncing slightly under the impact. The house had been empty when he'd returned - which was just as well because. Well.
It was just as well.
"Had fun?"
"Fuck!" Jonghyun yelped as he sat bolt upright, heart pounding like he'd just run a marathon. Standing a few feet away in what Jonghyun could have sworn was empty space just moments ago was a cheerfully grinning boy who had a smile that could outrival an angel's in innocence. "Don't scare me like that," he groaned as he flopped loosely back onto the covers.
Taemin grinned, and sat down on the edge of Jonghyun's bed. "You'll - "
"- get used to it?" Jonghyun finished for him, sitting up just enough to prop himself up on his elbows.
"Yup. See, you already are," Taemin said cheekily, pulling his legs up onto the bed.
Jonghyun groaned again, wondering what he'd done in a previous life to deserve this. "You couldn't just walk in through the door like a normal person?" he complained.
"But I'm not a normal person," Taemin pointed out as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"...Right."
Normal people didn't appear out of thin air, didn't cause either really elaborate hallucinations or dimensional shifts, and didn't - well - either way, he wasn't a normal person. It didn't help that Taemin looked like a normal person. He looked solid, felt solid, had two eyes, a nose, a mouth and everything else that made up a person. He smiled, looked sad, laughed, teased - Jonghyun felt that if Taemin had been a normal person, maybe they might have been friends.
"Did you have fun?" Taemin's repeated question interrupted Jonghyun's musings, the boy watching him with a small smile on his face.
"Hm? Oh, yeah. It was fun." Jonghyun abruptly sat up and swung his feet over the edge of the bed, padding across the floor in his socks. It had been fun, and when it was all over, Jonghyun had let the high carry him home, until it had slipped out abruptly as he placed a hand on the door handle, pulled keys out of a familiar bag, pulled the door in place as he turned the keys with a quiet click and then pushed it open, walking into an empty hallway. Hello? he'd called quietly, and then louder. Hello? He'd kicked off his shoes and made his way down the hall and into the kitchen where he'd switched on the lights. Something came up at the office and Dad's business trip got extended - don't wait up for us! read a note on the table. It had been with some relief that he'd replaced the note and trekked up the stairs to his room - he hadn't been sure what to say when he saw his parents.
He turned over the thing in his hand - and realised abruptly and with some amusement that it was a deck of playing cards - that was missing two of the Aces, if Jonghyun remembered correctly. "Did you put this here?" he asked Taemin, but Taemin shook his head. Jonghyun put the deck down, and riffled through the things on the top of the shelf, pausing every now and then as his hands brushed against something that had been particularly forgotten. He wandered over to his desk and sat, before he stood and crossed the floor again to the shelf, crouching to explore the lower shelves. "I don't feel dead," he said, more to himself than to the boy who sat silently behind him. His fingers ran across the spines of several books, stopping on a hardcover notebook which he pulled out.
"But you are," Taemin apparently felt the need to point out.
Jonghyun said nothing at first, flipping open the notebook instead. Old melodies and contrived words stared back at him, and God how did he even manage to write these? Well, he'd been young, but still. "Jinki liked this one," he said aloud, running fingers across old pen marks.
"Jinki?" Taemin questioned from behind him.
Jonghyun craned his neck backwards to look at Taemin. "Yeah. We went to the same middle school until he moved away. Sort of kept in touch but haven't talked in a while." Jonghyun sighed, rested the notebook on his lap, and leaned back on the heels of his hands. "Kinda wish he hadn't."
Taemin hummed thoughtfully. "Are you crying?" he asked suddenly.
"What no!" Jonghyun turned indignantly on the spot, hastily flicking the back of his hand across his eyes - which, to his credit, weren't red in the slightest. "I'm not!"
Taemin laughed, and hopped up off Jonghyun's bed. "I think your mom's home," he said, gesturing to the bedroom door. "So I better go."
Jonghyun stood and hurried to his bedroom window - and sure enough, a car was pulling up in the driveway. He ran his tongue across his lips, the back of his mouth suddenly dry.
"Go to sleep," Taemin said quietly. Jonghyun turned to look at the boy. He was leaning against the door, hands jammed into his pockets. He had the same small smile on that he usually wore, the one that made reading him so damn hard. Taemin looked down for a moment, his black hair cut to just above his eyes flipping down to obscure them - when he looked up again, there was no trace of the smile. Jonghyun swallowed.
He moved from the window to sit heavily on his bed, but made no move to lie down just yet. "What about you?" he asked.
Taemin shrugged, ran a hand through his hair. "Don't forget - you dealt the cards." And then he disappeared.
The sound of the front door opening jangled loudly in the space that Taemin had left behind, and Jonghyun hastily burrowed under the covers out of years of honed instincts. Sure enough, foot steps echoed up the stairs, and the door opened, light spilling into the room. Jonghyun squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath - before he remembered that he was supposed to be breathing and let it all out at once, too fast. He heard a familiar chuckle, and as the door closed, he thought he heard his heart break.
He lay there in the darkness for a few moments, eyes still closed tightly. His breaths came raggedly - he gulped in air, held it, slowly exhaled as he pushed a pounding heartbeat back to a normal volume. Fingers clenched at covers - and it suddenly occurred to him that these were his covers, not ones pulled out of some matrix space and suddenly his breathing was far too uneven again and it was a long time before Jonghyun felt safe enough to open his eyes, ignoring the dampness as he brushed fingers against his cheek.
Aware of the silence in the house, Jonghyun sat up, pushing the covers off. He tried to simply materialise the deck like Taemin seemed to be able to do with most things, but nothing happened. Snapped his fingers - nothing happened. Sighed, felt silly, and passed an open palm across his lap - and wasn't sure whether to be surprised or not when the dealt deck appeared. The fact that they didn't tumble about willy nilly on the uneven covers and that they seemed to be resting in a plane of their own did startle him a little, however. He would've thought that such things were restricted to the matrix space, or wherever it was.
He picked up the card on the right, and turned it over a few times. The room was dark, and he couldn't be bothered to turn the light back on, but even so he could pick out the faint shape of the card. Ace of diamonds. Or spades? Probably diamonds - it looked red.
Jonghyun sighed, and replaced the card where it had been dealt. He sighed again, and feeling like some cheap magician, snapped his fingers. The cards disappeared.
♠ ♡ ♥ ♢ ♦ ♡ ♣
"What is wrong with you lately?"
They were sitting in the club room, after most of the members had already left. Jonghyun had been dozing in the back of the room, not really paying attention to the discussion going on in the center about an upcoming concert. He'd had a sleepless night, and it showed in the redness of his eyes and the shadows under them. Kibum sat on the edge of the desk, swinging his legs under him. In response, Jonghyun shoved Kibum lightly off the desk, and got a sharp rap on the head in return. "Ow!" he yelped.
Kibum gave him a look, and then took a seat on the chair instead, leaning on the desk. "Seriously; you've been spacing out all day, you're stupider than usual, and I think you've said a total of three words all day."
"I'm tired okay?" Jonghyun shot back in a moment of irritation, and instantly regretted it when a flash of hurt passed across Kibum's face. "It's fine, don't worry," he tried to cover it up - but even so, it came out shorter than usual.
"Why don't you visit him, hyung?" piped up from behind Jonghyun. Taemin was seated cross legged on a desk, absorbed in some video game or other. He looked up briefly to smile at the two of them, before he went back to mashing buttons on his PSP.
"Huh?" Jonghyun turned in his chair to regard Taemin, confused. "Who?"
"Jinki hyung!" Taemin smiled brightly, finally putting the game down. "Weren't you just talking about this yesterday?"
Jonghyun stared at Taemin blankly. "I was?"
"We could go this weekend and take the train. It's only an hour away, right?"
"That's a good idea - it'll be fun, won't it Taemin-ah?" Kibum agreed, and Taemin beamed. "Then it's settled. We'll meet at your place afterschool tomorrow, and then surprise him."
Which was how Jonghyun found himself nestled in a seat towards the back of a compartment, watching Kibum fuss over Taemin as if he'd known Taemin all his life, headphones stuffed into his ears. For the most part he dozed, cracking his eyes open every now and then to check on Kibum. At some point in time, he must have dozed off completely, because the next time he opened his eyes, Kibum was looming over him. "What's up?" Jonghyun yawned.
Kibum raised an eyebrow. "We're here," he said. "If you don't get off we'll leave you behind."
"So cruel," Jonghyun complained, but followed Kibum off the train anyway. Taemin was already waiting for them at the exit, asking directions from the ticket master.
"Do you even know where we're going?" Jonghyun asked skeptically.
"Of course he does!" Kibum said, elbowing Jonghyun. "You didn't think that I wouldn't have given him the address, do you?"
Jonghyun rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, you have everything under control and I'm just a bumbling fool in the corner here," he said sarcastically.
Taemin just laughed, and waved them closer. "Hurry up," he said impatiently.
Jonghyun looked at Kibum and rolled his eyes. "Isn't the wrong person excited?"
"Why shouldn't he be?" Kibum sounded affronted. "It's a trip!"
♠ ♡ ♥ ♢ ♦ ♡ ♣
"- so. Yeah. Hi." Jonghyun finished somewhat lamely, standing on Jinki's doorstep.
Jinki, in the meantime, was staring at the three of them with a flabbergasted expression on his face, as if seeing his old middle school friends (+ 1) was the last thing he was expecting to see when he opened the door on a random Friday evening. Which, to be fair, it probably was.
"Can't you at least act happy to see us?" Kibum nagged, although the effect was somewhat ruined by the smile on his own face.
Something in Jinki finally switched to the 'on' position. "No I mean yes ahhh of course I'm happy to see you," he flailed. "Um, come in! It's a little messy since I didn't know you were coming and, um, actually, someone else is here right now too."
As if on cue, someone walked up behind Jinki with a confused but polite smile on his face. "Hello," he said.
"Hyung!"
Beside him, Jonghyun felt Taemin tense up suddenly, and he did a double take as he turned to look. "You know each other?" he asked, at the same time Jinki said "wow, it's a small world!"
The black haired boy tilted his head slightly in a quizzical manner, as Taemin laughed a little nervously, waving one hand in front of his face. "Ah, no. Um, we're cousins," he explained, and then to the other boy: "I didn't know you were here, hyung."
The boy shrugged, as Jinki introduced him with a slight laugh. "This was unexpected. Ah, right! This is Choi Minho. He's a dongsaeng at my school; since he lives nearby and his parents come home late, sometimes we work on homework together."
"Hello," Minho greeted again, before Jonghyun interrupted.
"Homework?" he asked skeptically. "You're doing homework on a Friday night?"
Jinki stared at him. "...Yes?"
"Clearly this won't do," Kibum cut in. "After all, we're here, so you might as well show us around."
"Sorry for imposing," Taemin at least had the grace to say, as Jinki gave up with a sigh and mouthed a 'sorry' to Minho. "You were probably busy studying. It's an important year for you, isn't it?"
"It's fine," Jinki dismissed. "I think this is the first time they've visited me, so..."
In the end, the five of them headed down the street to the main part of the city, Jonghyun and Kibum catching up on news with Jinki, Taemin and Minho trailing behind in their own conversations. Jinki, it turned out, was one of the top students in his grade ("Since he doesn't have a loser like you to pull him down," Kibum sniped at Jonghyun. "Hey! What about you?" Jonghyun groused back.) and he was studying for his university exams. He didn't go out much, he explained apologetically, so he didn't know the city that well ("Which is why you need friends like us," Jonghyun interrupted.) but he could take them to the museum! ("- Ugh, no." At which Jinki's face fell and Kibum chatised Jonghyun for being so inconsiderate when they were already making Jinki go out of his way to show them around.) "Um, then since you probably haven't eaten yet, I can take you to my favourite restaurant?"
"That sounds good," Minho said from behind them, making Jonghyun jump in surprise. "Their food is good."
Jinki beamed at him. "Great! It's not far from here, and maybe we can go to the night market after!"
Jonghyun followed leisurely as Jinki lead the way excitedly, now that they had an actual destination in mind. Kibum bantered playfully with the older boy, while Minho seemed content to listen. Jonghyun had reason to jump again when Taemin suddenly latched himself onto Jonghyun. "See, this was a good idea wasn't it, hyung?" he asked cheerfully.
"Yeah, sure," Jonghyun said dismissively, shrugging Taemin off. "I'm not that short," he complained.
Taemin chuckled, but obligingly released Jonghyun and took a step back. In front of them, Jinki waved for the two of them to hurry up because they were crossing the street here. Jonghyun whined a little but nodded to Taemin and jogged ahead to the crossing. "Food!" he yelled over his shoulder, revelling in the familiarity of hanging out with friends.
"It's just across the street," Jinki explained, pointing out a brightly lit store.
The light changed - and Jonghyun froze.
There wasn't any real reason for it, not that he could see. It was just a heavy feeling against his chest, a twisting sensation behind his stomach, a tingling coldness in his fingers despite it being fall. A dryness in the back of his mouth, a silence in his consciousness, a sudden lack of breath. "Jjong?" Kibum paused and turned when he realised that the older boy wasn't following them, and then Jinki's eyes opened wide and Minho moved and Kibum turned to look and Jonghyun was still frozen and -
Taemin walked in front of Jonghyun, a look that could almost be described as furious on his face. "What are you doing!?" he hissed, jerking a finger at the tableau behind him. Jonghyun blinked, the feeling that had been holding him in place suddenly gone. He looked around him, startled at the sudden silence. A child was frozen midstep, hand halfway to his mother's coat. A young couple were smiling at each other, fingers intertwined.
And in front of Jonghyun, behind a flash of brown as Taemin turned briefly to look as well, a truck was spinning out of control to where Jinki stared, Kibum was turning to look, and Minho was three steps into pushing the two of them out of the way.
"What are you doing?" Taemin repeated, snapping his fingers in front of Jonghyun's face to get his attention. "Didn't I remind you about the cards? Don't tell me you still haven't touched them."
Jonghyun shook himself out of his trance, eyes unable to leave the scene in front of him. Shakily, he repeated his actions from a few nights earlier, the untouched layout appearing in front of him. Taemin tsked, and watched as Jonghyun slowly reached out to the cards, picking up the Ace of diamonds like he'd done before - only this time, he placed it above the line of cards. Taemin seemed to nod in approval, and Jonghyun flipped over the card which had been under the ace, revealing a three of clubs.
"Deal from the deck," Taemin prompted, and Jonghyun dealt out three cards in succession. Slowly, because he suddenly realised that with the scene frozen in front of him and the cards in his hands, this was much more than just a solitary card game. In fact, from the urgency in Taemin's voice, this was the furthest thing from solitary at the moment.
A noise of frustration escaped from the back of his throat when nothing was playable. So he dealt the next three. And then the next.
"What the hell!?"
Taemin shrugged, eyes watching the cards like a hawk. "Keep going," he said quietly.
Jonghyun turned over another three cards. Six of hearts. "Another NG," he said more to himself, a feeling of panic beginning to build where there had been none before. Slowly, he turned over the next triplet. Five of clubs. King of hearts. Ace of spades.
"Ace...?" Jonghyun grinned, and placed the card next to the ace of diamonds. Taemin nodded appreciatively, but only folded his arms across his chest and kept silent.
The rest of the stack though, was far less promising when nothing else turned up. Jonghyun moved to run through it again when Taemin shrugged grimly and snapped the set out of existence. "That'll have to do," Taemin said, and Jonghyun watched almost silently in horror as the world came to life around them once again.
Almost.
The name that tore itself from his throat though, that rang raw through the autumn air, was anything but silent.
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