Along Destiny's Path
Title: Along Destiny's Path
Author: samdek95
Prompt: Lifehouse - ♪ Broken ♪
Genre: Angst
Rating: PG-13
Summary: In which Kyuhyun reminisces over his relationship with Jongwoon
Written for kyusungcentral's Valentine's Day Songfic Festival
♥규 성♥
A small tear fell from the young boy's cheek, landing with a quiet splash on a photograph. The picture was of two boys; one raven-haired boy smiling happily at a taller brunette; their smiles were so innocent and genuine. They were only looking at each other and ignoring all the other people walking past them. The raven's eyes twinkled with laughter whilst retaining his soft facial features, making him look like an angel. The brunette was holding the smaller male's hand lightly as if it was made of glass; so delicate and fragile.
The photo was happy.
On the other hand, the boy holding the photo was the complete opposite emotionally. Holding it brought back lots of memories: of when they first met, their confessions, and their first date. It was all too much for the lanky brunette too handle.
“Kyu…” The shy raven looked down towards the floor, too afraid to make eye contact with the younger.
“Jongwoonie, what’s wrong?” The gamer smiled back at his hyung; internally laughing at his elder’s shyness over pretty much everything. It was one of the many reasons why he loved his best friend more than a friend - though he would never admit such a thing. It was better to admire him from afar than to ruin the best friendship he had ever had.
“Kyuuu…” The elder continued pulling the brunette’s sleeve and encouraging him to lower his height so they were at the same level.
“What?” Confused, Kyuhyun bent down a bit so his face was at the same height as Jongwoon’s, looking into the raven's dark brown eyes. Suddenly, he felt something soft press lightly against his lips as Jongwoon kissed the younger gently before running off to hide his embarrassment.
It had been two months since the fatal accident took away the brunette’s precious raven. What was once a whole had now been sliced into pieces with no hope of being put back together. Kyuhyun could never go out and find someone new to love; Jongwoon was his one and only, and knowing that the elder would never be there anymore to look after him when he needed him broke his heart even further. Jongwoon was always the first person he would run to whenever there was something wrong or when there was some sort of accomplishment he had achieved on Starcraft, but now there was no one to turn to in those situations.
Yes, he was considered one of the popular people in school, his charming looks and snarky personality winning the hearts of many girls in all years and also winning the heart of the beautiful Jongwoon. His Jongwoon. The two males were already good friends before attending high school through their parent’s businesses. Their personalities did clash, but they didn’t care; it fitted perfectly for them, having comfortable silences when the mysterious Jongwoon wanted time to think. A lot of the other students in school wondered how they were able to maintain such a friendship because their personalities differed so much. They were practically linked at the hips around school. Kyuhyun’s out going, snarky character contrasted deeply with Jongwoon’s mysterious and quiet persona. Next to the loud, attention grabbing Kyuhyun, Jongwoon was seen as a delicate snowflake silently making its way down towards the rough ground - unnoticed.
The two males quietly gossiped about the daily rumours going around school. A lot of the time, the rumours were about Kyuhyun; not that he cared. He actually quite enjoyed hearing things about himself that he didn’t know.
“I don’t know why, but this week’s gossip is about both of us.” Kyuhyun sighed. He was always very protective over Jongwoon. To him, Jongwoon was a fragile porcelain doll overwhelming with beauty; delicate to touch and easily broken emotionally.
“Oh no, what is being said?” Jongwoon’s eyes teared up, he hated having rumours spread about himself because they were usually not about the nicest of things.
“Apparently we are in a relationship.” Unknown to Kyuhyun, Jongwoon’s heart sank. On so many occasions, he had wanted to confess his feelings to the gamer so badly but could never muster up the courage to do so. He settled with the thought that friendship was much more valuable than love.
“Don’t you think it would be really funny if we pretended to go out? Just to shock all the annoying girls.” Kyuhyun loved playing pranks on the other students at school, though he would never play one on Jongwoon - Jongwoon was too special to him.
“I don’t know…” Jongwoon looked away to hide the blush heating up his face to a bright pink hue.
“Or we could go out for real…” Jongwoon turned his face towards Kyuhyun instantly not quite sure if he had heard him correctly.
“Hey, Jongwoon, do you want to go out with me?” Kyuhyun asked, his heart beating faster with every second whilst waiting for the elder’s response. Jongwoon paused briefly before nodding profusely while enveloping the younger in a hug, tears streaming down his face with happiness.
“You know, there was never a rumour about us. I made it up.” Kyuhyun smirked and feigned pain when Jongwoon slapped his boyfriend lightly, clearly embarrassed about what had just transpired.
Kyuhyun blamed himself for the death of his beloved boyfriend. If he hadn’t been showing off his driving skills to the elder, then they wouldn’t have swerved and fallen into the ditch below. He wished it had been him who had suffered the majority of the blow, but then realized that he was serving his punishment by having to suffer with the loss of someone who meant more to him than anything else in the world. If he had died, then Jongwoon would be mourning as a punishment for doing nothing wrong.
The gamer deserved it. It wasn’t meant to have happened.
The cold weather the night before had caused the ground to be slippery, reducing the amount of control Kyuhyun had of the car. Many times during that journey, Jongwoon had continued to remind Kyuhyun to drive slowly because of the hazardous conditions, but he had ignored each and every reminder and now had to live with the consequences.
The last two months had been torturous for him; even more so than when he had told the whole school that he was gay and telling them that he was now in a relationship with Jongwoon. His popularity had suffered slightly; the fan girls went off to find someone else to chase after, but otherwise, no one could care less about his sexuality. In fact, some people admired Kyuhyun because he did not care about how other people judged him; since being in a relationship with someone of the same gender was considered as a sin and an act of devil. Kyuhyun did not care. He had his Jongwoon by his side the whole time, but now, Jongwoon would never be by his side. He spent the first week crying himself to sleep every night and arranging his boyfriend’s funeral to exactly how Jongwoon would have wanted it to be.
“Kyu, guess what?” Jongwoon looked up at his boyfriend with an innocent smile on his face, happy that he was with the one he loved.
“What?” Kyuhyun looked down at the boy, whose head was lying on the younger’s lap.
“I love you.”
The funeral had a big turn out. It turned out that more people cared for Jongwoon than Kyuhyun had originally thought. Everyone looked beautiful: abiding the dress code of black with a touch of red, red being Jongwoon’s favourite colour. The speeches everyone gave were incredibly touching, even those who weren’t friends with Jongwoon said something and that was what touched Kyuhyun’s already broken heart most.
At the end of the funeral, everyone was given the chance for one final look at the body before it was to be buried. The beautiful Jongwoon looked so calm with a dazzling smile stretched across his face that many of the people from school broke down at the loss of such a great person. However, no one cried as much as Kyuhyun. He grabbed the coffin and sobbed so loudly, screaming out all his emotions on how it was his fault that Jongwoon was no longer around. He didn’t want to close the coffin; it would mean that Jongwoon would finally be no longer part of the world and just be a star looking down on the rest of society. Kyuhyun did not want Jongwoon to be gone, the largest part of his life to vanish without a trace. After some time, some other students managed to pry away the sobbing boy away from the coffin. Kyuhyun said one last goodbye and Jongwoon was left to finally rest in peace under the ground.
Everyone was sympathetic; going up to Kyuhyun to give their condolences or a hug for comfort. However, it had the opposite effect on the brunette and just made him feel more guilty.
He began wasting his life, crying himself to sleep every night and mechanically waking up each morning to go to school - not that he concentrated. His grades began slipping, not that he was bothered. The only thing he cared about was Jongwoon.
“Every time we go out, we must take a photo of us together to remind us of every one of our dates!” Jongwoon excitedly explained.
“But my memory is amazing!” Kyuhyun smirked back laughing at Jongwoon’s extremely cheesy but romantic personality.
“I know it is, but I want to create a scrapbook so when we adopt some children when we are older, we can show them what love really is.”
The picture that the brunette was holding was of their last date. Kyuhyun had decided to treat his beautiful boyfriend to a picnic in the park next to the Han River. Admiring the serene scenery while children played happily in the play area behind, the two lovers sat next to each other on a red and blue checkered rug, the smaller of the two lying on the younger's legs smiling up at the one person who had his heart: the perfect scene from a romantic film. The brunette was holding the elder's hand, caressing his fingers lightly like a fragile doll. A lot of the other kids were staring at the male couple, unsure of what was going on because they were used to the more traditional male/female couple. The pair ignored these whispers of disapproval, too distracted by each other’s presence to care that they were being judged.
A few days later was when their relationship ended with the fatal crash. They had been on their way back from watching a musical at a theatre in a nearby town.
Kyuhyun stumbled out of the wreckage relieved he had made it out unharmed. Unfortunately, that was only until he saw his boyfriend lying motionless with little movement coming from his chest. Screaming, he threw himself at the raven hugging the elder tightly and wanting to spend as much time as he could with his lover. They had had their whole lives planned ahead of them but now it had all shattered in the blink of an eye.
“The musical was wonderful.” Jongwoon stared at the music theatre, amazed that he had had the opportunity to see The Three Musketeers and had enjoyed every bit of it.
“It wasn’t my thing, but you were there so I enjoyed it as much as you.” Kyuhyun leaned in to kiss the elder, a smile plastered across his face.
A bottle of pills lay on the desk next to Kyuhyun’s bed. The brunette had decided that he could never move forward. Even if he tried, the memories of Jongwoon would always pull him back to where he started and haunt him in a fit of nightmares that recurred every night. Taking one last breath, he swallowed the last pill before lying peacefully back into his bed, holding one of the last happiest memories he had in his hand.
This way, he could forever be with Jongwoon in the sky, continuing his destiny with the one he loved the most.
-Fin
Word Count: 2,021