[SJFF] Fragments of a Memory - Chapter 9
Title: Fragments of a Memory (Sequel to Angel of Death)
Characters: Kyuhyun, OC, SJ members
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance, Drama
Word Count: 2,487
Summary: Even if he may have been released from those invisible bonds tying him down, even if he has been allowed to return, what are the odds of a separation occurring once again?
~ * ~
Chapter 09
He sprinted down the deserted streets, his breath turning into mist when the warmth became one with the cold air. He kept throwing panicked glances over his shoulder, keeping an eye on the people who were chasing after him. Too short of a distance put between him and the rest would be detrimental to his safety. It was probably inadequate even if he had a five hundred-metre lead ahead of them.
His eyes teared up when his lungs threatened to burst from within, screaming in protest at the amount of pressure and exertion he had put them through. He figured that he must have run several blocks across the city. The building he had originated from stood in the distance.
Desperate to regain his breath, he slowed down into a light jog and allowed his airways regain the oxygenation they greatly craved for. Nevertheless, he abruptly halted in his steps when a group of people suddenly showed up in front of him, and the blood effectively drained from his face.
How the hell did they end up here so soon?, he thought in panic. But still he maintained his calm demeanour on the surface; he couldn’t let this group of people sense his insecurities.
“What do you want from me?” he breathed out, still gasping for breath.
His eyebrows furrowed together when he realised that they weren’t out of breath. At all. He was dead sure that they were running as hard as him, if not harder. So why do they seem as though they had just went on nothing more than a light stroll across the city?
“Your life,” the fattest one of the group replied, stepping forward with a menacing aura.
His eyes widened when he recognised that face. It was the drunken obese man he had tracked down the other day. Wasn’t he supposed to be dead? That was when he noticed the glass shard embedded at the base of the man’s neck, though no blood could be seen trickling from the very deep wound.
Yup, the man was dead alright.
“You took our lives without even flinching,” a middle-aged woman spoke up, pulling his attention towards her. He recognised her to be the woman who leapt to her death just last week. “Now you have to pay for it.”
He scoffed in disbelief, then let out a mocking laughter. “It’s all in exchange for your wishes with the promise of death. You had your wishes granted, so naturally your lives would have to be taken. Surely you’re not thinking of getting away without having the need to repay, are you?”
However, it was as though the group of people did not seem to give a damn about whatever he had just said. They continued to advance towards him, inch by inch - almost in a zombie-like manner, in fact. “Give us our lives back…”
“I didn’t take them!” he said defensively, taking a step back with every distance they covered. “You killed yourselves!”
“You manipulated us!” another person hissed from the back of the large group. “And now you have to pay for what you have done.”
He hadn’t realised that he had reaped so many lives since then.
“Then what do you expect me to do? I was under orders to lead you to your deaths. It was in exchange for your own wishes,” he growled, completely poised to make a run for it. His eyes vigilantly scanned his surroundings, assessing the escape routes he could employ. He could only hope that the angry, very dead mob wouldn’t catch up with his intentions.
Nevertheless, he gasped in surprise when an arm suddenly circled around his neck from behind, threatening to cut off his newfound oxygen supply. He coughed and struggled in his attacker’s hold, trying to free himself from the death grip.
“Let go of me!” he yelled, clawing uselessly at the arm that was slowly strangling him to death. It only served to make his attacker’s grip tighten on him.
“Why don’t you try saving your own ass if you’re so capable, hmm? We’re going to give you a taste of how it feels like to die without being able to fight against it,” the sinister female voice whispered in his ear, being every bit as threatening.
His eyes dilated in pure horror for the first time in a long while as two bony fingers clamped down further on his airway.
* * * * *
Hyeonmin cracked an eye open when she heard the constant mumbling coming from beside her. Allowing her sense of sight to get adapted to the dim surroundings, she then threw a glance over her shoulder to see what was going on.
She held her breath when she saw Kyuhyun thrashing around in his sleep, beads of sweat rolling down the sides of his face. He was still mumbling incoherently, and the fear was evidently reflected in his expression. His face was as pale as a sheet of paper, just like how he would appear whenever he had those splitting headaches in the past.
The worry immediately surged over her entire being. This wasn’t the first time that he had experienced such horrible nightmares, which seemed to have started several weeks ago - on the very same day that he had met Jinri, to be precise - but they seemed to be increasing in intensity. She vaguely wondered whether Kyuhyun’s memories of Jinri were returning to him, and found herself holding her breath as a result of the sharp stabbing pain coming from her chest.
It took her several more moments before she decided she was being paranoid. Sighing, she turned around to face Kyuhyun, and gave him a gentle shake. “Kyuhyun,” she said urgently, though he didn’t even stir from whatever nightmare that was plaguing him. She tried again. “Kyu, sweetheart, wake up.”
Hyeonmin nearly leapt out of the bed in shock when Kyuhyun suddenly sprang up into a sitting position with his pupils dilated with fear, panting hard. He seemed to be grossly out of focus, seemingly still trapped within the never-ending mazes of his nightmare. Still feeling deathly worried about him, Hyeonmin moved to cup his cheek in order to get his attention, only to recoil when he roughly slapped it away. Only when Hyeonmin let out a painful yelp did Kyuhyun regain his senses. He immediately scrambled for her when he saw her cradling her aching wrist, and gently took it into his hand.
“Oh God, Hyeonmin, I’m terribly sorry! I thought you were-” he began frantically, only to do a double take before he even completed his sentence. Kyuhyun shook his head to clear his mind. “Does it hurt badly?” he asked, planting soft kisses on the spot where the redness was slowly spreading across the expanse of her skin.
She gingerly withdrew her hand and flashed a wry smile at him. “I’m... I’m fine, Kyu. More importantly, are you alright?” she returned the question, trying to hide the pain from her expressions.
Her plan seemed to work, as Kyuhyun visibly took a deep gulp and averted his gaze immediately. “I’m alright. Just a bad dream,” he said, voice trembling a little - too slight for Hyeonmin to notice.
Hyeonmin frowned at the answer. It wasn’t the first time Kyuhyun had experienced such nightmares, but he still refused to divulge anything about them. Time and again he would parry her questions with the statement that she should go to bed because she had to go to work in the morning. She was dead sure he would do the same thing tonight. But she still felt the need to take the chance.
“Kyuhyun, I don’t think these nightmares of yours are just ‘bad dreams’,” she replied, scooting closer to him and enveloped her arms around Kyuhyun. She nuzzled her cheek against his neck, gently caressing his hand. “It’s getting more intense these days, and you’re evidently getting really affected by them. Why won’t you talk to me? Don’t keep me in the dark. Please.”
Kyuhyun almost exhaled in annoyance at her persistence. “Hyeon, I told you I’m fine. You’re worrying too much over this,” he snapped. His expressions softened moments later when he realised how harsh he had been on her, and pulled her into an embrace. “I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have raised my voice. You must be exhausted. Go to sleep, alright?” he said, though there was a tone of finality in his words.
Hyeonmin could only nod numbly at his words. What else could she say? He wouldn’t listen regardless.
She tried her best to bite back the disappointment when he flipped over and pulled the covers over his head, effectively ending all forms of conversation between the both of them. She hated being shut out of his life in such a manner, but there was nothing else she could do.
In the end, Hyeonmin threw one last longing glance at Kyuhyun’s sleeping form, and slipped back under the covers herself.
* * * * *
He wandered down the streets in a dazed manner, not having a specific destination in mind. He couldn’t even remember why he had left the house to begin with, but he attributed it to the restlessness that was gnawing away at him. His thoughts were too full of feelings of guilt and self-reproach to care or to think about anything else.
The moment he had woken up from his sleep and found the space next to him on the bed empty, Kyuhyun felt his heart fall to the pit of his stomach. Usually Hyeonmin would never leave for work without waking him up with a kiss, but apparently there was a first for everything. He had a nagging suspicion that she was still upset at his cold treatment in the wee hours of the morning, though there was no way he could clarify it until she was home.
Hyeonmin had refused to answer his calls after all.
Kyuhyun’s lips were tightly pursed as he mulled over the sequence of events over the night. There was no way he could tell Hyeonmin about his dreams - or rather, nightmares - because it would freak her out even more. He was trying to ignore these recurring dreams himself, wanting to believe that it was merely his guilty conscience trying to push him over the edge.
Then there was another problem. The last voice that had whispered in his ear before Hyeonmin woke him up - one so spine-chilling, so vengeful that it sent shivers down his spine even as he thought about it now - was unfamiliar to him. He self-admittedly had a decent memory of the recent events surrounding him, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t pin a face to the voice.
Was there another person messing with his mind? He didn’t know. He certainly hoped not either.
The moment the delicious aroma of coffee weaved its way into Kyuhyun’s senses, he automatically halted in his steps, the thoughts that caffeine would probably do him some good invading his mind. He glanced up only to be surprised by the signage of the shop, though a smile replaced his sense of surprise barely seconds later.
Without giving things further thought, Kyuhyun shrugged slightly and pushed his way through the door. The tiny bell bolted to the doorframe chimed sweetly at his action, and soon enough, a resounding ‘welcome’ reverberated through the outlet. The person who was nearest to Kyuhyun turned around to show him to an empty table, but the moment she did so, the woman froze in her position at the recognition of him.
“Oh - it’s you!” she exclaimed with a bright smile.
“Yes, it’s me,” Kyuhyun grinned in response. “I didn’t expect that you’d be here, Jinri-sshi.”
“I did tell you that I own this shop, right?” Jinri laughed, then led Kyuhyun towards the table which he had occupied on his previous visit.
“You did,” he acknowledged with a polite nod. He ambled along casually, catching up onto her intentions just fine. “But you told me you were juggling several jobs at the moment as well, didn’t you?” Kyuhyun questioned with a mischievous glint in his eyes. He pulled one of the armchairs out for Jinri to sit on, before taking the other one right across her.
Jinri shook her head in amusement at the statement. “Indeed I have. I didn’t expect you to remember, though.”
“And just why not?” he challenged playfully and prodded at his temple. “Don’t underestimate my memory power.”
“You’re as conceited as always, Kyu.” Another laugh escaped from Jinri’s direction, before the atmosphere around them suddenly turned chilly. She stared wide-eyed at Kyuhyun, apparently having realised that she had said something wrong.
Kyuhyun was equally taken aback by her words - what did she mean by ‘as always’? He was sure that this was only the second time he really spoke to Jinri. And that nickname…
She caught on to the change in his expressions and the questioning vibes emanating off of him, and quickly waved the matter off. “I’m sorry; forget what I’ve said. You remind me too much of someone and it somehow just slipped off my tongue,” she grinned nervously, hastily getting up from her seat. “I’ll go get you a drink. Long Black, right?”
“Yes, that would be fine. Thank you,” Kyuhyun concurred, eyeing her curiously as she made her way towards the bar counter. She seemed eager to end their conversation, for reasons unbeknownst to him.
As he watched her make his coffee, Kyuhyun couldn’t help but feel a vague sense of familiarity with her every action. Some part of his mind stirred sleepily, though he wasn’t sure why it was reacting in such a manner. Either way, the beginnings of a headache prevented him from probing further into his memories. He didn’t want to take the risk in a public area, knowing the worst possible consequences of such headaches from experience.
Their gazes met for a split second, when Jinri looked up from the mug which had just been filled with the dark liquid and at his direction. She turned scarlet when she realised his glance was trained on her, and she quickly returned her attention to the cream she was now spreading across the drink’s surface.
That moment, however, evoked stronger emotions within Kyuhyun’s being. One that inexplicably told him that he used to be in love with her.
“Impossible,” he muttered under his breath and chased the thoughts away. If Jinri used to be someone important to him in the past, why didn’t he have any recollections of her when he had first regained his memories of his previous lifetime while he was still an angel of death?
It didn’t make sense to him, and he decided that his mind was only playing tricks on him.
After all, Hyeonmin and his brothers in Super Junior would have told him about her existence, wouldn’t they?
A/N: Jinri belongs to the lovely airplanewishes
Characters: Kyuhyun, OC, SJ members
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance, Drama
Word Count: 2,487
Summary: Even if he may have been released from those invisible bonds tying him down, even if he has been allowed to return, what are the odds of a separation occurring once again?
~ * ~
Chapter 09
He sprinted down the deserted streets, his breath turning into mist when the warmth became one with the cold air. He kept throwing panicked glances over his shoulder, keeping an eye on the people who were chasing after him. Too short of a distance put between him and the rest would be detrimental to his safety. It was probably inadequate even if he had a five hundred-metre lead ahead of them.
His eyes teared up when his lungs threatened to burst from within, screaming in protest at the amount of pressure and exertion he had put them through. He figured that he must have run several blocks across the city. The building he had originated from stood in the distance.
Desperate to regain his breath, he slowed down into a light jog and allowed his airways regain the oxygenation they greatly craved for. Nevertheless, he abruptly halted in his steps when a group of people suddenly showed up in front of him, and the blood effectively drained from his face.
How the hell did they end up here so soon?, he thought in panic. But still he maintained his calm demeanour on the surface; he couldn’t let this group of people sense his insecurities.
“What do you want from me?” he breathed out, still gasping for breath.
His eyebrows furrowed together when he realised that they weren’t out of breath. At all. He was dead sure that they were running as hard as him, if not harder. So why do they seem as though they had just went on nothing more than a light stroll across the city?
“Your life,” the fattest one of the group replied, stepping forward with a menacing aura.
His eyes widened when he recognised that face. It was the drunken obese man he had tracked down the other day. Wasn’t he supposed to be dead? That was when he noticed the glass shard embedded at the base of the man’s neck, though no blood could be seen trickling from the very deep wound.
Yup, the man was dead alright.
“You took our lives without even flinching,” a middle-aged woman spoke up, pulling his attention towards her. He recognised her to be the woman who leapt to her death just last week. “Now you have to pay for it.”
He scoffed in disbelief, then let out a mocking laughter. “It’s all in exchange for your wishes with the promise of death. You had your wishes granted, so naturally your lives would have to be taken. Surely you’re not thinking of getting away without having the need to repay, are you?”
However, it was as though the group of people did not seem to give a damn about whatever he had just said. They continued to advance towards him, inch by inch - almost in a zombie-like manner, in fact. “Give us our lives back…”
“I didn’t take them!” he said defensively, taking a step back with every distance they covered. “You killed yourselves!”
“You manipulated us!” another person hissed from the back of the large group. “And now you have to pay for what you have done.”
He hadn’t realised that he had reaped so many lives since then.
“Then what do you expect me to do? I was under orders to lead you to your deaths. It was in exchange for your own wishes,” he growled, completely poised to make a run for it. His eyes vigilantly scanned his surroundings, assessing the escape routes he could employ. He could only hope that the angry, very dead mob wouldn’t catch up with his intentions.
Nevertheless, he gasped in surprise when an arm suddenly circled around his neck from behind, threatening to cut off his newfound oxygen supply. He coughed and struggled in his attacker’s hold, trying to free himself from the death grip.
“Let go of me!” he yelled, clawing uselessly at the arm that was slowly strangling him to death. It only served to make his attacker’s grip tighten on him.
“Why don’t you try saving your own ass if you’re so capable, hmm? We’re going to give you a taste of how it feels like to die without being able to fight against it,” the sinister female voice whispered in his ear, being every bit as threatening.
His eyes dilated in pure horror for the first time in a long while as two bony fingers clamped down further on his airway.
* * * * *
Hyeonmin cracked an eye open when she heard the constant mumbling coming from beside her. Allowing her sense of sight to get adapted to the dim surroundings, she then threw a glance over her shoulder to see what was going on.
She held her breath when she saw Kyuhyun thrashing around in his sleep, beads of sweat rolling down the sides of his face. He was still mumbling incoherently, and the fear was evidently reflected in his expression. His face was as pale as a sheet of paper, just like how he would appear whenever he had those splitting headaches in the past.
The worry immediately surged over her entire being. This wasn’t the first time that he had experienced such horrible nightmares, which seemed to have started several weeks ago - on the very same day that he had met Jinri, to be precise - but they seemed to be increasing in intensity. She vaguely wondered whether Kyuhyun’s memories of Jinri were returning to him, and found herself holding her breath as a result of the sharp stabbing pain coming from her chest.
It took her several more moments before she decided she was being paranoid. Sighing, she turned around to face Kyuhyun, and gave him a gentle shake. “Kyuhyun,” she said urgently, though he didn’t even stir from whatever nightmare that was plaguing him. She tried again. “Kyu, sweetheart, wake up.”
Hyeonmin nearly leapt out of the bed in shock when Kyuhyun suddenly sprang up into a sitting position with his pupils dilated with fear, panting hard. He seemed to be grossly out of focus, seemingly still trapped within the never-ending mazes of his nightmare. Still feeling deathly worried about him, Hyeonmin moved to cup his cheek in order to get his attention, only to recoil when he roughly slapped it away. Only when Hyeonmin let out a painful yelp did Kyuhyun regain his senses. He immediately scrambled for her when he saw her cradling her aching wrist, and gently took it into his hand.
“Oh God, Hyeonmin, I’m terribly sorry! I thought you were-” he began frantically, only to do a double take before he even completed his sentence. Kyuhyun shook his head to clear his mind. “Does it hurt badly?” he asked, planting soft kisses on the spot where the redness was slowly spreading across the expanse of her skin.
She gingerly withdrew her hand and flashed a wry smile at him. “I’m... I’m fine, Kyu. More importantly, are you alright?” she returned the question, trying to hide the pain from her expressions.
Her plan seemed to work, as Kyuhyun visibly took a deep gulp and averted his gaze immediately. “I’m alright. Just a bad dream,” he said, voice trembling a little - too slight for Hyeonmin to notice.
Hyeonmin frowned at the answer. It wasn’t the first time Kyuhyun had experienced such nightmares, but he still refused to divulge anything about them. Time and again he would parry her questions with the statement that she should go to bed because she had to go to work in the morning. She was dead sure he would do the same thing tonight. But she still felt the need to take the chance.
“Kyuhyun, I don’t think these nightmares of yours are just ‘bad dreams’,” she replied, scooting closer to him and enveloped her arms around Kyuhyun. She nuzzled her cheek against his neck, gently caressing his hand. “It’s getting more intense these days, and you’re evidently getting really affected by them. Why won’t you talk to me? Don’t keep me in the dark. Please.”
Kyuhyun almost exhaled in annoyance at her persistence. “Hyeon, I told you I’m fine. You’re worrying too much over this,” he snapped. His expressions softened moments later when he realised how harsh he had been on her, and pulled her into an embrace. “I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have raised my voice. You must be exhausted. Go to sleep, alright?” he said, though there was a tone of finality in his words.
Hyeonmin could only nod numbly at his words. What else could she say? He wouldn’t listen regardless.
She tried her best to bite back the disappointment when he flipped over and pulled the covers over his head, effectively ending all forms of conversation between the both of them. She hated being shut out of his life in such a manner, but there was nothing else she could do.
In the end, Hyeonmin threw one last longing glance at Kyuhyun’s sleeping form, and slipped back under the covers herself.
* * * * *
He wandered down the streets in a dazed manner, not having a specific destination in mind. He couldn’t even remember why he had left the house to begin with, but he attributed it to the restlessness that was gnawing away at him. His thoughts were too full of feelings of guilt and self-reproach to care or to think about anything else.
The moment he had woken up from his sleep and found the space next to him on the bed empty, Kyuhyun felt his heart fall to the pit of his stomach. Usually Hyeonmin would never leave for work without waking him up with a kiss, but apparently there was a first for everything. He had a nagging suspicion that she was still upset at his cold treatment in the wee hours of the morning, though there was no way he could clarify it until she was home.
Hyeonmin had refused to answer his calls after all.
Kyuhyun’s lips were tightly pursed as he mulled over the sequence of events over the night. There was no way he could tell Hyeonmin about his dreams - or rather, nightmares - because it would freak her out even more. He was trying to ignore these recurring dreams himself, wanting to believe that it was merely his guilty conscience trying to push him over the edge.
Then there was another problem. The last voice that had whispered in his ear before Hyeonmin woke him up - one so spine-chilling, so vengeful that it sent shivers down his spine even as he thought about it now - was unfamiliar to him. He self-admittedly had a decent memory of the recent events surrounding him, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t pin a face to the voice.
Was there another person messing with his mind? He didn’t know. He certainly hoped not either.
The moment the delicious aroma of coffee weaved its way into Kyuhyun’s senses, he automatically halted in his steps, the thoughts that caffeine would probably do him some good invading his mind. He glanced up only to be surprised by the signage of the shop, though a smile replaced his sense of surprise barely seconds later.
Without giving things further thought, Kyuhyun shrugged slightly and pushed his way through the door. The tiny bell bolted to the doorframe chimed sweetly at his action, and soon enough, a resounding ‘welcome’ reverberated through the outlet. The person who was nearest to Kyuhyun turned around to show him to an empty table, but the moment she did so, the woman froze in her position at the recognition of him.
“Oh - it’s you!” she exclaimed with a bright smile.
“Yes, it’s me,” Kyuhyun grinned in response. “I didn’t expect that you’d be here, Jinri-sshi.”
“I did tell you that I own this shop, right?” Jinri laughed, then led Kyuhyun towards the table which he had occupied on his previous visit.
“You did,” he acknowledged with a polite nod. He ambled along casually, catching up onto her intentions just fine. “But you told me you were juggling several jobs at the moment as well, didn’t you?” Kyuhyun questioned with a mischievous glint in his eyes. He pulled one of the armchairs out for Jinri to sit on, before taking the other one right across her.
Jinri shook her head in amusement at the statement. “Indeed I have. I didn’t expect you to remember, though.”
“And just why not?” he challenged playfully and prodded at his temple. “Don’t underestimate my memory power.”
“You’re as conceited as always, Kyu.” Another laugh escaped from Jinri’s direction, before the atmosphere around them suddenly turned chilly. She stared wide-eyed at Kyuhyun, apparently having realised that she had said something wrong.
Kyuhyun was equally taken aback by her words - what did she mean by ‘as always’? He was sure that this was only the second time he really spoke to Jinri. And that nickname…
She caught on to the change in his expressions and the questioning vibes emanating off of him, and quickly waved the matter off. “I’m sorry; forget what I’ve said. You remind me too much of someone and it somehow just slipped off my tongue,” she grinned nervously, hastily getting up from her seat. “I’ll go get you a drink. Long Black, right?”
“Yes, that would be fine. Thank you,” Kyuhyun concurred, eyeing her curiously as she made her way towards the bar counter. She seemed eager to end their conversation, for reasons unbeknownst to him.
As he watched her make his coffee, Kyuhyun couldn’t help but feel a vague sense of familiarity with her every action. Some part of his mind stirred sleepily, though he wasn’t sure why it was reacting in such a manner. Either way, the beginnings of a headache prevented him from probing further into his memories. He didn’t want to take the risk in a public area, knowing the worst possible consequences of such headaches from experience.
Their gazes met for a split second, when Jinri looked up from the mug which had just been filled with the dark liquid and at his direction. She turned scarlet when she realised his glance was trained on her, and she quickly returned her attention to the cream she was now spreading across the drink’s surface.
That moment, however, evoked stronger emotions within Kyuhyun’s being. One that inexplicably told him that he used to be in love with her.
“Impossible,” he muttered under his breath and chased the thoughts away. If Jinri used to be someone important to him in the past, why didn’t he have any recollections of her when he had first regained his memories of his previous lifetime while he was still an angel of death?
It didn’t make sense to him, and he decided that his mind was only playing tricks on him.
After all, Hyeonmin and his brothers in Super Junior would have told him about her existence, wouldn’t they?
A/N: Jinri belongs to the lovely airplanewishes