tvxq: five superheroes yoochun never got to be
five superheroes yoochun never got to be
band, really minor yoochun/jaejoong. 2,489w.
"I would like to challenge a superhero role. Superman, Batman, Spiderman."
- P. Yoochun
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
1. the dark knight
"Holy death trap, Batman!" said Junsu, squirming against the ropes. "If we don't find a way out of this soon, we're going to be sleeping with the fishes!"
"Keep your head in the game, Robin," said Yoochun, as they were lowered inch by inch into a giant shark tank. "The Ventriloquist missed a compartment when he emptied my Bat-belt. Can you reach it?"
"I think so." Junsu squirmed some more. The blood was rushing to his face from being upside down for so long. "Is it a Batarang? A Bat-saw? Shark repellant Bat-spray?"
"Actually, it's Bat-lube," said Yoochun.
"Gee whiz, Batman," said Junsu. "You really think of everything."
"I do my share of breaking and entering," said Yoochun mysteriously. "We have to hurry. Every second we waste here, Gotham's citizens are being plagued by petrifying puppet pandemonium."
"I got the Bat-lube!" said Junsu.
"Good work, Robin. Now lube up our hands so we can wiggle them free from these restraints."
Junsu lubed them up. They wiggled.
"Is it working?" asked Junsu. "I think it's work--holy shitcakes, Batman, the sharks have lasers on their heads."
"Stay calm, Robin." Yoochun headbutted a shark in the nose. BAM. POW.
Suddenly, just as a shark-laser burned through the ropes and our heroes began to fall towards the tank, a window in the warehouse crashed open and Batgirl came flying in on a Bat-cable, saving the dynamic duo in mid-air before they could meet certain death.
They landed on a high platform. "Golly, Batgirl," said Junsu. "That was some good timing!"
Changmin crossed her arms across her chest, which also pushed her boobs up. Junsu cleared his throat. "Sentient ventriloquist dummies are attacking the entire city. Gotham needs you, Batman," Changmin said. "I guess you can come too, Robin."
"What should we do about the laser sharks?" asked Junsu, as he adjusted his crime-fighting short shorts.
"We'll come back later to donate them to the zoo, old chum," said Yoochun. They both held on to Changmin as she fired her grapple gun. "Right now we have bigger fish to fry."
"Badum-ching," said Junsu, and they took off into the night.
2. the webslinger
It was a stupid move, making the choice not to wear the suit, thinking he was out there risking his ass enough days out of the week that taking two hours off to have a normal dinner with his normal boyfriend wasn't just asking for it. They made it five blocks to the restaurant before his spider sense went off like a car alarm.
"You're going arachnid again," said Jaejoong.
"I think I have to go," Yoochun looked out the window, and winced, "do something about that. Sorry, could you pull over?"
The street was obstructed by the guy in the rhino costume robbing the bank and all the typical New Yorkers trying to get a better look. Jaejoong paid the cab fare while Yoochun took off his fancy shoes, his fancy jacket. He needed something to hide his face. He was such a moron. The Moronic Spider-Man. He deserved to wear a paper bag. He thought about the paper bag idea before he realized Jaejoong was tucking his mask into the back of his fancy jeans.
"I brought it along just in case," Jaejoong said.
"I'm a moron," said Yoochun.
Jaejoong punched his shoulder. "Your bad guy's getting away."
Yoochun was swinging after Rhino five minutes later, wearing his mask and a brand new I ♥ NY shirt to uphold his secret identity. He was a moron and he looked like a tool. He crouched on a traffic light pole, webbed Rhino's legs together and yanked him back. Rhino crashed face-first into the cement.
"Can we make this quick?" said Yoochun. "I've got a pot roast in the oven."
Rhino snarled and tore through the webbing. Then he charged. Yoochun threw a mailbox at him. Rhino kept charging. Okay. So it was going to be one of those fights.
Half an hour and fifty billion dollars of property damage later, Yoochun swung out above the wreckage. He left Rhino knocked out and webbed up in a crater with the sack of cash for the cops to deal with. The bystanders heckled him about his new homeless-chic look.
He found Jaejoong sitting away from the commotion, on the curb with a paper cup of coffee and the rest of Yoochun's clothes. "Hey, stranger," Yoochun said as he dropped in next to him, sore everywhere, missing a sock.
"Hey, Spidey," Jaejoong said. They snuck into the nearest alley together.
"It's dangerous to be out here alone," Yoochun said as he toed his shoes back on.
"I was actually on my way to dinner."
He traded in his shredded shirt for his jacket next. He'd bleed on it a little, but by now he was a pro at inconspicuous laundry. "Well, are you still hungry? We could grab some hotdogs or something. I know a great vendor."
"Sorry, Spider-dude," Jaejoong said. "I'm kind of already waiting for someone."
Yoochun smiled and took off his mask. He had really bad mask-hair. Jaejoong pushed Yoochun's bangs aside to study his blackening eye. "Ouch," Jaejoong said.
"No worse for wear."
"You reek, too."
"It's the musky scent of justice," said Yoochun. "This was a pretty shit date, huh."
"Don't sweat it," said Jaejoong. "When you grow four extra arms again, then it'll be pretty shit."
"Or pretty sexy," Yoochun tried to leer.
They picked up some aspirin and gauze down the street; then Yoochun slung them up onto a high rooftop where they ate hotdogs in a webbing hammock and Yoochun waited for his body to stitch itself back into shape. When he ran off to bust a carjacking ring, he came back with some beers to celebrate: his cracked but not broken ribs, his rent paid on time, a week without Jaejoong getting thrown off another bridge, the big city spread out beneath them for the taking. It wasn't really normal. No one said the word had to mean so much.
3. the sexy robot
Upon getting clawed through the chest by a dinosaur, Yoochun took a second to re-evaluate his life choices.
"Get up, you lazy shit, I know you're not dead," Changmin yelled. He blew the head off a baby T-Rex with an inspired massive gun.
Yoochun dusted his coat off and got up. He examined the hole in chest, stuffed some of the wires back in. It tickled. "I need a beer," he decided.
"Question," said Changmin. "You're a robot. Where does the beer even go?"
"What are you, anti-robot? Are you a specieist?" said Yoochun. He looked around for a weapon and found the head of Changmin's baby T-Rex. He chucked it at a brachiosaurus and watched with some satisfaction as its neck whipped back. "Gimme another T-Rex head," he told Changmin.
"I'm out of ammo," Changmin said. "Watch out for the pterodactyl."
Yoochun's hands opened up like a swiss army knife--corkscrew, scissors, blowtorch, five different types of blades. He held them up against the swooping pterodactyl, said, "This is fucking useless," and dived behind Changmin instead, who slammed his gun into the dinosaur like a baseball bat. "We could use some back-up over here!"
"So could we," said Yunho over the comlink.
"Yeah, but we're fighting genetically engineered mutant dinosaurs."
"I'm fighting genetically engineered mutant dinosaurs," said Changmin. "Oh, hang on." He stuck his hand under a pile of corpses and fished out a machine gun he'd lost track of earlier. It had some dinosaur teeth stuck in it. "Gotcha. Come to daddy."
Half a mile away, they heard an echoing boomsquelch sound. "Never mind, call for help rescinded," said Yunho. "Junsu blew them up."
"Hi guys!" said Junsu.
"What were they?" asked Yoochun.
"Giant dung ninjas or something. No biggie," said Junsu.
"Call for help reenacted." Jaejoong's voice this time. "I've been surrounded by robot koalas. Trying to punch my way through."
"Are you drunk?" said Yunho. "You sound drunk."
"There's a small chance I could be drunkenly mistaking babies for robot koalas," Jaejoong said.
The pterodactyl was diving back. Changmin fired at it until its guts exploded right above them, then he pushed his gun into Yoochun's arms. "Bored with the dinosaurs, think I'm gonna go help punch koalas," Changmin said. "You can finish up here, right?"
"Yeah, sure," said Yoochun, wiping liver off his cheek. "Have fun with the robot cruelty."
"Robots aren't a real species, Iron Asswipe."
Yoochun threw away the gun before climbing up onto one of Changmin's T-Rex carcasses, so he could gain some kind of strategic advantage and stop standing knee-deep in assorted dinosaur entrails. That gunk was making his system go haywire. He faced the stampeding hoard of triceratops and reconfigured both of his arms.
Mode: Chainsaw.
4. the clone
Here it is: people die. Things get bad, get better, then get bad again. But when Yoochun stood in all the rubble and devastation, two dead bodies, their blood on his hands and costume--all he could think about was the HQ hot tub. Camping trips. That first week when the team had just started out, ready to fight crime, save worlds, and get girls.
All the shit they did, like kids with something to prove. Destroying city blocks as they chased after each new B-list villain of the week. Skipping into the future and meeting an older, better Yoochun, dressed in Superman's cape and tights, wearing the S shield like he finally belonged in it. Crashing one of Yunho's outer-space babysitting gigs, where Junsu spent the next hour fitting as many alien toy firetrucks as he could into his mouth. For the anniversary of the day they broke Yoochun out of his test tube, they followed him to Smallville and learned how to milk cows, while every five minutes Yoochun touched the emblem on his own chest and looked to the sky.
Now Yoochun navigated through the people cleaning up their big, stupid fucking mess. He saw Changmin kneeling alone on the hill. He was taking his gauntlets off, laying them in the grass. Then he put his head in his bare hands.
Around them, the dust cleared.
5. the time traveler
Yoochun goes back to 2007. They're riding the success of "O", in the middle of their second Asia-wide tour, new Japanese singles and press junkets.
It's one of the rare days they have off work. The apartment is dark and the floorboards chill the soles of his feet. Everyone else is out. Yoochun's with friends, he can't recall who. Light filters into the hallway from under the bathroom door. Yoochun frowns. The door isn't closed all the way, and he walks in on Yunho taking a bath.
Yunho's lying against the end of the narrow tub--arms spread out until his fingertips nearly touch the tiled floor, eyes closed and face tilted back as if he's under sunlight. He looks calm.
Yoochun takes too long wondering if he should say something. Yunho's eyes squint open. The rest of him stays still. "Back already?" he says.
"I burned out early." Yoochun tugs his beanie further down, over his different haircut. Maybe he's thinner now than he was in 2007. No one should notice in this kind of light. "I didn't know you were staying in tonight."
"I figured I needed it." Yunho dips a hand into the water before rubbing it down his face. "Fell asleep for a second back there."
"Should I leave you to it?"
"I'll be out soon. I think I'm starting to prune in places nobody was meant to prune."
Yoochun smiles back, halfhearted. Out of habit, he looks for something significant, if Yunho is extra exhausted or if his shoulder muscles have bunched up and he's annoyed at Yoochun for interrupting. He never really could figure out when it started. In two years he'll be searching for signs everywhere.
He leaves to wander the kitchen, finds a takeout box in the fridge labeled CHANGMIN'S - TOUCH AND DIE. He stares into the fridge until the air from it gives him goosebumps. If he eats Changmin's 2007 leftovers, what will the consequences on the future be? Changmin could die of starvation. Changmin could punch his teeth out. He could save everyone.
He chances it and grabs the box. He heats it up and takes it to the living room couch, where he sits cross-legged and steeps in the apartment's silence, the worn leather smooth and cold under his bare ankles. It's familiar the way an old scab is--healing over, still itchy.
Later, Yunho pads down the hallway in sweatpants, dries his hair, says hey. After he pours a glass of water, he comes over to sit with Yoochun, stretching his arms across the back of the couch. It occurs to Yoochun, with a brief clarity, that he hasn't talked to Yunho in a year.
He runs a few sentences through his head. What's up? Have a nice bath? Bet the other prunes don't look half as good as you. Yunho turns on the TV and saves him the embarrassment.
"Isn't that Changmin's?" Yunho asks.
The kimchi fried rice is half-gone by now. "Yeah," says Yoochun. "Want some?"
"If you promise to take the fall for it," says Yunho.
Yoochun crosses his heart. It earns him a smile.
They watch rerun episodes of Full House. Yoochun takes off his beanie so he can run his hand through his hair. He sinks back against a cushion and shuts his eyes. He needs to leave. He should have left an hour ago.
When he opens his eyes again, he can't tell how much time has passed. His neck is a little sore from the position he dozed off in. Yunho has scooted closer. He's still watching the TV, engrossed even though they've all seen it a dozen times before, and his hand is in Yoochun's hair, combing through it as the credits start to roll, as if it's the most natural thing in the world.
And suddenly it's so easy to be here again that Yoochun doesn't know what to do. This was a stupid idea. He should've gone back to some big event, something with a defined meaning, not this forgotten, private place.
He disentangles himself, climbs off the couch. "I think I'm gonna go to bed."
Yunho leans forward to give him a goodnight pat on the ass. "Okay. Sleep well."
Tomorrow morning Changmin'll throw a tantrum about his food and Yunho'll waggle his eyebrows at Yoochun, the Yoochun who belongs here, asleep face-down in his breakfast. Two years later Yoochun will spend a month shut off in his own apartment. Nobody changes. Changmin doesn't starve. Nothing is saved. Yoochun puts his beanie back on, waits for his throat to open back up. If he doesn't move, time won't either until he's ready. "Thanks," he says, and counts to ten.
band, really minor yoochun/jaejoong. 2,489w.
"I would like to challenge a superhero role. Superman, Batman, Spiderman."
- P. Yoochun
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
1. the dark knight
"Holy death trap, Batman!" said Junsu, squirming against the ropes. "If we don't find a way out of this soon, we're going to be sleeping with the fishes!"
"Keep your head in the game, Robin," said Yoochun, as they were lowered inch by inch into a giant shark tank. "The Ventriloquist missed a compartment when he emptied my Bat-belt. Can you reach it?"
"I think so." Junsu squirmed some more. The blood was rushing to his face from being upside down for so long. "Is it a Batarang? A Bat-saw? Shark repellant Bat-spray?"
"Actually, it's Bat-lube," said Yoochun.
"Gee whiz, Batman," said Junsu. "You really think of everything."
"I do my share of breaking and entering," said Yoochun mysteriously. "We have to hurry. Every second we waste here, Gotham's citizens are being plagued by petrifying puppet pandemonium."
"I got the Bat-lube!" said Junsu.
"Good work, Robin. Now lube up our hands so we can wiggle them free from these restraints."
Junsu lubed them up. They wiggled.
"Is it working?" asked Junsu. "I think it's work--holy shitcakes, Batman, the sharks have lasers on their heads."
"Stay calm, Robin." Yoochun headbutted a shark in the nose. BAM. POW.
Suddenly, just as a shark-laser burned through the ropes and our heroes began to fall towards the tank, a window in the warehouse crashed open and Batgirl came flying in on a Bat-cable, saving the dynamic duo in mid-air before they could meet certain death.
They landed on a high platform. "Golly, Batgirl," said Junsu. "That was some good timing!"
Changmin crossed her arms across her chest, which also pushed her boobs up. Junsu cleared his throat. "Sentient ventriloquist dummies are attacking the entire city. Gotham needs you, Batman," Changmin said. "I guess you can come too, Robin."
"What should we do about the laser sharks?" asked Junsu, as he adjusted his crime-fighting short shorts.
"We'll come back later to donate them to the zoo, old chum," said Yoochun. They both held on to Changmin as she fired her grapple gun. "Right now we have bigger fish to fry."
"Badum-ching," said Junsu, and they took off into the night.
2. the webslinger
It was a stupid move, making the choice not to wear the suit, thinking he was out there risking his ass enough days out of the week that taking two hours off to have a normal dinner with his normal boyfriend wasn't just asking for it. They made it five blocks to the restaurant before his spider sense went off like a car alarm.
"You're going arachnid again," said Jaejoong.
"I think I have to go," Yoochun looked out the window, and winced, "do something about that. Sorry, could you pull over?"
The street was obstructed by the guy in the rhino costume robbing the bank and all the typical New Yorkers trying to get a better look. Jaejoong paid the cab fare while Yoochun took off his fancy shoes, his fancy jacket. He needed something to hide his face. He was such a moron. The Moronic Spider-Man. He deserved to wear a paper bag. He thought about the paper bag idea before he realized Jaejoong was tucking his mask into the back of his fancy jeans.
"I brought it along just in case," Jaejoong said.
"I'm a moron," said Yoochun.
Jaejoong punched his shoulder. "Your bad guy's getting away."
Yoochun was swinging after Rhino five minutes later, wearing his mask and a brand new I ♥ NY shirt to uphold his secret identity. He was a moron and he looked like a tool. He crouched on a traffic light pole, webbed Rhino's legs together and yanked him back. Rhino crashed face-first into the cement.
"Can we make this quick?" said Yoochun. "I've got a pot roast in the oven."
Rhino snarled and tore through the webbing. Then he charged. Yoochun threw a mailbox at him. Rhino kept charging. Okay. So it was going to be one of those fights.
Half an hour and fifty billion dollars of property damage later, Yoochun swung out above the wreckage. He left Rhino knocked out and webbed up in a crater with the sack of cash for the cops to deal with. The bystanders heckled him about his new homeless-chic look.
He found Jaejoong sitting away from the commotion, on the curb with a paper cup of coffee and the rest of Yoochun's clothes. "Hey, stranger," Yoochun said as he dropped in next to him, sore everywhere, missing a sock.
"Hey, Spidey," Jaejoong said. They snuck into the nearest alley together.
"It's dangerous to be out here alone," Yoochun said as he toed his shoes back on.
"I was actually on my way to dinner."
He traded in his shredded shirt for his jacket next. He'd bleed on it a little, but by now he was a pro at inconspicuous laundry. "Well, are you still hungry? We could grab some hotdogs or something. I know a great vendor."
"Sorry, Spider-dude," Jaejoong said. "I'm kind of already waiting for someone."
Yoochun smiled and took off his mask. He had really bad mask-hair. Jaejoong pushed Yoochun's bangs aside to study his blackening eye. "Ouch," Jaejoong said.
"No worse for wear."
"You reek, too."
"It's the musky scent of justice," said Yoochun. "This was a pretty shit date, huh."
"Don't sweat it," said Jaejoong. "When you grow four extra arms again, then it'll be pretty shit."
"Or pretty sexy," Yoochun tried to leer.
They picked up some aspirin and gauze down the street; then Yoochun slung them up onto a high rooftop where they ate hotdogs in a webbing hammock and Yoochun waited for his body to stitch itself back into shape. When he ran off to bust a carjacking ring, he came back with some beers to celebrate: his cracked but not broken ribs, his rent paid on time, a week without Jaejoong getting thrown off another bridge, the big city spread out beneath them for the taking. It wasn't really normal. No one said the word had to mean so much.
3. the sexy robot
Upon getting clawed through the chest by a dinosaur, Yoochun took a second to re-evaluate his life choices.
"Get up, you lazy shit, I know you're not dead," Changmin yelled. He blew the head off a baby T-Rex with an inspired massive gun.
Yoochun dusted his coat off and got up. He examined the hole in chest, stuffed some of the wires back in. It tickled. "I need a beer," he decided.
"Question," said Changmin. "You're a robot. Where does the beer even go?"
"What are you, anti-robot? Are you a specieist?" said Yoochun. He looked around for a weapon and found the head of Changmin's baby T-Rex. He chucked it at a brachiosaurus and watched with some satisfaction as its neck whipped back. "Gimme another T-Rex head," he told Changmin.
"I'm out of ammo," Changmin said. "Watch out for the pterodactyl."
Yoochun's hands opened up like a swiss army knife--corkscrew, scissors, blowtorch, five different types of blades. He held them up against the swooping pterodactyl, said, "This is fucking useless," and dived behind Changmin instead, who slammed his gun into the dinosaur like a baseball bat. "We could use some back-up over here!"
"So could we," said Yunho over the comlink.
"Yeah, but we're fighting genetically engineered mutant dinosaurs."
"I'm fighting genetically engineered mutant dinosaurs," said Changmin. "Oh, hang on." He stuck his hand under a pile of corpses and fished out a machine gun he'd lost track of earlier. It had some dinosaur teeth stuck in it. "Gotcha. Come to daddy."
Half a mile away, they heard an echoing boomsquelch sound. "Never mind, call for help rescinded," said Yunho. "Junsu blew them up."
"Hi guys!" said Junsu.
"What were they?" asked Yoochun.
"Giant dung ninjas or something. No biggie," said Junsu.
"Call for help reenacted." Jaejoong's voice this time. "I've been surrounded by robot koalas. Trying to punch my way through."
"Are you drunk?" said Yunho. "You sound drunk."
"There's a small chance I could be drunkenly mistaking babies for robot koalas," Jaejoong said.
The pterodactyl was diving back. Changmin fired at it until its guts exploded right above them, then he pushed his gun into Yoochun's arms. "Bored with the dinosaurs, think I'm gonna go help punch koalas," Changmin said. "You can finish up here, right?"
"Yeah, sure," said Yoochun, wiping liver off his cheek. "Have fun with the robot cruelty."
"Robots aren't a real species, Iron Asswipe."
Yoochun threw away the gun before climbing up onto one of Changmin's T-Rex carcasses, so he could gain some kind of strategic advantage and stop standing knee-deep in assorted dinosaur entrails. That gunk was making his system go haywire. He faced the stampeding hoard of triceratops and reconfigured both of his arms.
Mode: Chainsaw.
4. the clone
Here it is: people die. Things get bad, get better, then get bad again. But when Yoochun stood in all the rubble and devastation, two dead bodies, their blood on his hands and costume--all he could think about was the HQ hot tub. Camping trips. That first week when the team had just started out, ready to fight crime, save worlds, and get girls.
All the shit they did, like kids with something to prove. Destroying city blocks as they chased after each new B-list villain of the week. Skipping into the future and meeting an older, better Yoochun, dressed in Superman's cape and tights, wearing the S shield like he finally belonged in it. Crashing one of Yunho's outer-space babysitting gigs, where Junsu spent the next hour fitting as many alien toy firetrucks as he could into his mouth. For the anniversary of the day they broke Yoochun out of his test tube, they followed him to Smallville and learned how to milk cows, while every five minutes Yoochun touched the emblem on his own chest and looked to the sky.
Now Yoochun navigated through the people cleaning up their big, stupid fucking mess. He saw Changmin kneeling alone on the hill. He was taking his gauntlets off, laying them in the grass. Then he put his head in his bare hands.
Around them, the dust cleared.
5. the time traveler
Yoochun goes back to 2007. They're riding the success of "O", in the middle of their second Asia-wide tour, new Japanese singles and press junkets.
It's one of the rare days they have off work. The apartment is dark and the floorboards chill the soles of his feet. Everyone else is out. Yoochun's with friends, he can't recall who. Light filters into the hallway from under the bathroom door. Yoochun frowns. The door isn't closed all the way, and he walks in on Yunho taking a bath.
Yunho's lying against the end of the narrow tub--arms spread out until his fingertips nearly touch the tiled floor, eyes closed and face tilted back as if he's under sunlight. He looks calm.
Yoochun takes too long wondering if he should say something. Yunho's eyes squint open. The rest of him stays still. "Back already?" he says.
"I burned out early." Yoochun tugs his beanie further down, over his different haircut. Maybe he's thinner now than he was in 2007. No one should notice in this kind of light. "I didn't know you were staying in tonight."
"I figured I needed it." Yunho dips a hand into the water before rubbing it down his face. "Fell asleep for a second back there."
"Should I leave you to it?"
"I'll be out soon. I think I'm starting to prune in places nobody was meant to prune."
Yoochun smiles back, halfhearted. Out of habit, he looks for something significant, if Yunho is extra exhausted or if his shoulder muscles have bunched up and he's annoyed at Yoochun for interrupting. He never really could figure out when it started. In two years he'll be searching for signs everywhere.
He leaves to wander the kitchen, finds a takeout box in the fridge labeled CHANGMIN'S - TOUCH AND DIE. He stares into the fridge until the air from it gives him goosebumps. If he eats Changmin's 2007 leftovers, what will the consequences on the future be? Changmin could die of starvation. Changmin could punch his teeth out. He could save everyone.
He chances it and grabs the box. He heats it up and takes it to the living room couch, where he sits cross-legged and steeps in the apartment's silence, the worn leather smooth and cold under his bare ankles. It's familiar the way an old scab is--healing over, still itchy.
Later, Yunho pads down the hallway in sweatpants, dries his hair, says hey. After he pours a glass of water, he comes over to sit with Yoochun, stretching his arms across the back of the couch. It occurs to Yoochun, with a brief clarity, that he hasn't talked to Yunho in a year.
He runs a few sentences through his head. What's up? Have a nice bath? Bet the other prunes don't look half as good as you. Yunho turns on the TV and saves him the embarrassment.
"Isn't that Changmin's?" Yunho asks.
The kimchi fried rice is half-gone by now. "Yeah," says Yoochun. "Want some?"
"If you promise to take the fall for it," says Yunho.
Yoochun crosses his heart. It earns him a smile.
They watch rerun episodes of Full House. Yoochun takes off his beanie so he can run his hand through his hair. He sinks back against a cushion and shuts his eyes. He needs to leave. He should have left an hour ago.
When he opens his eyes again, he can't tell how much time has passed. His neck is a little sore from the position he dozed off in. Yunho has scooted closer. He's still watching the TV, engrossed even though they've all seen it a dozen times before, and his hand is in Yoochun's hair, combing through it as the credits start to roll, as if it's the most natural thing in the world.
And suddenly it's so easy to be here again that Yoochun doesn't know what to do. This was a stupid idea. He should've gone back to some big event, something with a defined meaning, not this forgotten, private place.
He disentangles himself, climbs off the couch. "I think I'm gonna go to bed."
Yunho leans forward to give him a goodnight pat on the ass. "Okay. Sleep well."
Tomorrow morning Changmin'll throw a tantrum about his food and Yunho'll waggle his eyebrows at Yoochun, the Yoochun who belongs here, asleep face-down in his breakfast. Two years later Yoochun will spend a month shut off in his own apartment. Nobody changes. Changmin doesn't starve. Nothing is saved. Yoochun puts his beanie back on, waits for his throat to open back up. If he doesn't move, time won't either until he's ready. "Thanks," he says, and counts to ten.