Halfway (Chapter 3)
Title: Halfway
Length: Chaptered (3/?)
Author: Meatarashii
Rating: G - PG13
Genre: Fluff + General + Double AU crossover (Heading to the Ground and Heaven’s Postman crossover)
Pairing: YunJae/BongJoon
Summary: He woke up in the middle of a path in the countryside…
Previous chapter(s): 1| 2
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“Why did you wait?”
“It’s not like I had anything better to do.”
“You could have tried going the other way without me, Cha Boong Goon.”
“Alone? I’d get bored easily and roam…it’s what I do,” the taller admitted, chuckling. “So you have a job, huh?”
An affirmative hum was offered in return, as Jae Joon adjusted the strap of his bag.
“How can you have a job when you’re…uh…you are in a coma too, right?”
Another hum of confirmation was given.
“So…”
“Have you ever heard of the red postbox, Bong Goon-ssi?”
Just as the question was presented, Bong Goon spotted the said item in the distance, stark against the pastel colors of the grass and sky.
“People put letters in it to send to their loved ones,” Jae Joon continued when he received no answer.
“And you deliver it?” Bong Goon asked, as they neared the item.
He received a hum once again as he took a look at the postbox. It was bigger than a regular one, but was small enough to only be inconspicuous to those who weren’t looking for it. With a look at the raven-haired male, he opened the latch to check inside.
“There’s nothing in here.”
“Not surprising,” said the other, placing his messenger bag down beside the postbox. “I just collected the letters. Not many people actually use this anyway.”
“How often do you collect?” Bong Goon asked curiously.
“Everytime I make a delivery, I check the box,” the other answered, before looking at the taller male. “You seem to be taking this quite well.”
“Hey, I’m in a coma. I don’t think anything else is going to be as shocking as that.”
Jae Joon chuckled softly, amused.
“So you can laugh,” Bong Goon grinned, chuckling as well at his achievement. “What do you do when there’s nothing to deliver?”
“I go to the town or the city and I walk around. I’ve noticed that me just being present with groups of people makes them think about their departed loved ones.”
“Apparently, being a spirit out of its body assures you that you’ll never run out of breath,” Bong Goon observed before coming to a realization. “Wait! You mean you leave your stuff here?”
“I have no use for it when I go to town.”
“But what if someone takes it?”
“No one will take that, Bong Goon-ssi, I-well now, we-are the only ones that can see it. In fact…being spirits, as you say, results in the fact that to anyone else, we are invisible,” Jae Joon explained, before turning to walk on.
“Hey, wait for-”
Bong Goon made a run to get to the shorter man’s side, but suddenly found himself unable to take another step forward. It was like there was a magnetic field that disallowed him from moving any further.
“Bong Goon-ssi?”
“I-I can’t…It’s not like the wind before, but-”
Jae Joon’s features showed genuine surprise as he figured out what happened.
“How deep of a coma are you in, Bong Goon-ssi?”
The rhetorical question hung in the air, both going quiet at the sudden revalation.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It had felt like a few hours at most since both had figured out that Bong Goon was in such a deep state of unconsciousness that he couldn’t leave the halfway mark between the living and the dead. Jae Joon had then abandoned his initial intention of going to the city, deciding instead to stay and talk to the distraught man. He figured that the tall soccer player truly needed it at the time.
So they talked about anything and nothing. Keeping each other occupied in the middle of nowhere. They started with simple topics, learning that they were of the same age, and what they did for a living. Bong Goon had been amused that the raven-haired man was in the fashion industry.
“It suits you though,” he had said in response to the other’s questioning look. “Just looking at the way you dress, it must be second nature for you.”
Jae Joon smiled slightly in return and in thanks before continuing the conversation. He learned that Bong Goon’s father had died, how the man now lives with his sister and her mother who treats him as her own. They went on and on about things they were willing to talk about, and backed off when the other even looked uncomfortable in divulging information on any topic.
It came to a point where both tried to remember how they ended up in a coma in the first place. Bong Goon remembered nothing but falling, as he had stated before, then waking up in the middle of the path.
“I think I was in a car crash,” said Jae Joon, trying to remember. “The last thing I recall was driving…but unlike you, I woke up next to the postbox.”
“And you decided to become a postman?”
“No, there was a note for me.”
Bong Goon made a noise of understanding, but the smaller man said nothing else. They sat in silence for a while before Jae Joon got up, saying he needed to check on something as he picked up his bag. Bong Goon nodded in response and stated that he’d wait near the postbox. It went without saying that it was not like he could go anywhere, anyway.
Only after an hour or so did Jae Joon come back, spotting the other performing stretching exercises near the postbox. Once he was close enough, Bong Goon immediately stopped and pushed himself up to a more comfortable sitting position and looked up at the raven-haired postman.
“You’re late.”
“We’re spirits, Bong Goon-ssi,” said Jae Joon, adjusting the strap of his messenger bag. “there is no actual state of time for us.”
“Why’d you take that with you, anyway, I thought you said you had no use for it out there?” Bong Goon asked, watching from his seat on the grass, peering up at the man. “And stop it with the ‘ssi’ Jae Joon-ah, we’re the same age, for crying out loud.”
“Sorry, force of habit. To answer your question, I needed to get something,” said the other, taking something from his bag and tossing it at the seated man. “Here.”
Bong Goon instinctively caught the thrown item. Jae Joon watched as a grin lit up the other man’s face as the taller man instantly recognized the blue-spotted object.
“Where’d you get this?” Bong Goon asked, holding up the slightly dirty soccer ball.
“I used to play when I was a kid,” Jae Joon explained, shrugging. “I thought it would help keep you occupied.”
“It will,” the other assured, grinning as he got up to look at the slightly shorter man. “Wanna play?”
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A/N: Hrm…I believe there’ll be two chapters left for this…three at the most. For those sticking with this, I’m really glad that you are, hope that more comment ‘cause I really like to hear from my readers. :D
Right now I’m out of things to say…but I might edit the A/N if something else comes to mind. XD XD XD