The blue patterned sheets levitated in the air as they were pulled away from the sleeping figure.  A gush of warm air enveloped the revealed skin in a warm hug, as the duvet previously covering it was quickly pulled away.  It’s a contrasting warmth, one less suffocating than before.  Although he feels the difference, no attempt is made to indicate this acknowledgement. 

“Get up!”  The strong, harsh voice demands. 

He listens, he understands, yet he doesn’t respond. 

“Wake up!”  The voice, doesn’t lose its firmness.  This time the owner, also brings his right hand to the resting man’s shoulder and shakes violently.  No response follows yet again.  Nichkhun had lost count of how many times he had tried to get the motionless figure before him to be awake. 

“Ok Taecyeon, you better get up now!”  It’s a rare occasion that he shouts the other’s full name; a way of informing the other he was starting to loose his patience.  But even that wouldn’t work.  Nichkhun lowered himself onto the soft red rug beneath their feet, turning his back towards the bed, taking a deep breath, before he began again.  “How much longer is it going to take?”  The sternness in his voice had disappeared, he had been defeated yet again.  There was still no answer.  “Are you expecting me to start a monologue now?”  He jokes, the third change of attempt had occurred.  He asked, but he knew that that was how it was going to play out.  He sighed.  “It’s not the end.”  

Taecyeon eyes finally opened.  The afternoon lights beaming through the gap in his curtain, made his eyes close momentarily, before they adjusted.  The clock on the beside table read fourteen hundred.   

“It’s not unreachable.”  Nichkhun was referring to their goals.  There was another pause. “They made lunch.”  That signified the fourth attempt.  Even the entrancement of food no longer worked for Taecyeon.  He simply wasn’t hungry.  How could he be happy at a time like that?  When his world had completely changed, his dreams were dispersing into thin air and everything had become meaningless, how could he be hungry?

Normally Nichkhun would end here and wait for a time when Taecyeon was more ready to talk to him.  But today was different.  It had been two months; he had waited long enough.  He couldn’t stand back and watch the younger isolate himself anymore. 

“Your parents are coming to visit tomorrow.”  The fifth attempt; his hidden card.
“Did you call them?”  Taecyeon finally croaks a response.  His voice is slightly raspy, having not used it in a while. 
“Is that what it takes?”  Nichkhun jumps to his feet, pleased he has received a reaction, but not exactly joyous he had to say that.
“Did you call them?!” Taecyeon, rises supporting his weight on his rather weak legs.  Nichkhun is slightly taken aback.  “Answer me!”  Taecyeon demands, grabbing harshly onto the collar of the older man. 
Nichkhun tries to inch himself away, but fails.  He places his hands over Taecyeon’s as a way to ask him to let go to no avail.  When actions fail, he attempts to use words.  “Clam down Taec!”  But this garners the exact opposite response as he grabs tighter, bringing the other closer to him as a result. 
“Why would you call them?!” 
“Have you seen yourself?  You haven’t left your room this whole month!”  The current dusty state of the curtains is undeniable evidence to this.  Nichkhun is angry now, as he fists the collar of the Taecyeon’s shirt as well, holding him in the same position. 

“It’s none of your business whether I leave or not!”  His words anger Nichkhun even more, who pushes him away roughly.  They’re like two beasts getting ready for a fight.  Their human qualities were starting to be lost. 
“How is it not my business when I’m your best friend!” Taecyeon turns away unable to face the other man. 
“You just don’t understand.”  He mumbles, shaking his head lightly.  His eyes fixated on the soft faux fur beneath his feet.   The tone in his voice has changed drastically.  He sounds both defeated and empty. 
“Even if I don’t, I need to get you out of here.”
“I don’t want them to see me like this.”  His voice is soft, the fear evident in it. 
“Taecyeon.”  Before Nichkhun can finish his sentence he is cut off.  “I can’t tell them.” 
“You have to tell them.” 

“I can’t!”  Taecyeon is angry again.  “You wouldn’t understand.  You’re already signed with a sporting agency!  Your dream is right there in front of you, waiting for you to reach it!” 
“So is yours.  You just have to reach out once more.” 
“I can’t.” 
“You can!”
“I can’t!”  Taecyeon shouts.  This equally angers the other, as he finds his hands grabbing onto Taecyeon’s collar once more. 
“Don’t you dare say that again!  You ing can!” 
“I can’t.”  His defeated voice comes out once more.  Nichkhun didn’t know why, but in the heat of the moment he couldn’t control himself anymore. His action, caused the other to turn his face to the other side.  A bright red mark had appeared across his face; a result of the hard blow that Nichkhun immediately regretted sending out.
“I’m sorry.”  Taecyeon laughs; a hysterical laugh, like he’s slowly going insane. 

 “I deserved that didn’t I?”  Nichkhun shakes his head, unable to get any words to come out of his mouth.  A silence fills the room.  Nichkhun slouches to the ground, his arms dangling to the side.  Taecyeon was staring in the general direction of the covered windows.  “How did we get here?”  The younger asks.  There wasn’t a need for a reminder, because they both remembered the events all too well.  For Taecyeon it was a thought that had never left.  He’ll never forget seeing those numbers.  He wouldn’t forget the anger and disappointment that ended in that thin piece of paper being scrunched into a tight ball and thrown across the room.  The score would follow him forever. 

All those days of isolation, the realisation that the world would continue to function without him, they didn’t help his state.  He didn’t want to talk to anyone, he was alone in this vast, increasingly foreign land.  To him happiness had become an ephemeral feeling.  He didn’t know if it had always been so short.  It made him question whether he worked so hard to feel something that would only last for what seemed like split seconds.  When happiness had become ephemeral, sadness seemed to last forever.  He had wanted to give up, to slowly fall out of this world; to be forgotten.  He was succeeding.  At least he didn’t fail everything.

“I can’t try anymore.”  Taecyeon tells Nichkhun.  There was another silence.  There was nothing Nichkhun could say to convince Taecyeon otherwise.  This wasn’t the first time and with each passing time, he saw Taecyeon bounce back and try harder.  But it was different this time, when someone who previously had so much determination decides he no longer can strive forward, nothing someone else says can make it different.  He wanted Taecyeon to make it, but sometimes hope was devastating
“What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know.  Maybe I’ll figure out soon.”  They both knew it wouldn’t be an easy decision, not after the number of years he had dedicated to this, not after what Taecyeon has witnessed. Taecyeon wanted to be left alone to think.  Although his thoughts had all led to one solution, he still wanted to think.  But for Nichkhun, if he left Taecyeon to think any longer, he was afraid that Taecyeon would leap to that one solution.  And if Taecyeon were to take that solution, Nichkhun would never be able to live with himself again, knowing that he didn’t possibly try his best to prevent it.
“Are you sure this is what you want?”  Nichkhun asked, each word forced out with the unwillingness to say them.  Taecyeon started laughing. 
“How could it not?  It’s been three times.  I think that’s enough already.” 

“Are you going to admit defeat then?” This was his sixth approach. 
“It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?” Taecyeon scoffed.
“So you’re just going to say quits now?  You’re going to throw away everything?”  It was making Taecyeon’s blood boil.  There was no one angrier, sadder or more devastated in this situation than himself.  “You’re going to let a stupid test, stop you from regaining that justice?  Have you forgotten why you wanted this in the first place?!”  Nichkhun raised his voice to emphasise the last part.  It was all he had left.  Nichkhun found himself with hands against his collar, and dark black orbs glaring back at him.  The beast had returned. 

“How could I forget?!”  How was it possible for someone to forget their own father?
“You’ve forgotten!”  Nichkhun was expecting pain anytime soon, but as long as it worked, the pain would be nothing.  “You’ve forgotten him!  You’ve forgotten the injustice served all those years ago!”  Taecyeon’s right hand released Nichkhun’s collar.   The older awaited the blow that would follow.  But Taecyeon hesitated.  “Punch me!”  Nichkhun encouraged him.  “If you punch me do you think it means you haven’t...” And before he could finish, he felt the blood rush to his cheeks, as knuckle contacted with skin.  He had become numb in that area.  The pain made him back away, as his hand came forward to caress his cheek. 

“Now that’ve you punched me.  You better be able to walk out that door and try again.”  And with that Nichkhun followed the light outside the room.  This was all he could do for the other. 

Taecyeon was finally alone again.  Left in the darkness to sort out his thoughts.  He stared at the palms of his hands.  The hands that he had used to hurt his friend.  Nichkhun was right though, if he gave up there was no difference between that and forgetting.  He couldn’t forget.  How could he forget seeing his only remaining blood relative dragged away from him?  How could he forget how that one false conviction had resulted in his closest kin leaving him forever?  If only he had been a lawyer then, if only they had enough money to afford a lawyer it would have been different.  This secret, this childhood he had long buried would haunt him for the rest of his life.  Something too traumatising, too painful to share, even with his adopted parents.  He knew that they probably knew, but only once was he willing to reopen that wound and share it with the world, and that one time Nichkhun happened to be there at that right moment.  Nichkhun always happened to be there though.  Taecyeon couldn’t let that one test become the burden between him and seeking justice.  He just couldn’t.   If he gave up, what difference would that be to admitting his father was guilty? 

It hurt the first time, when it those low scores were returned to him the first year.  The second time, although there showed to be a little improvement, it just wasn’t enough, but he bounced back both times.  Both times he never lost motivation, but this time it was different.  He hadn’t failed once, but three times now.  It made it feel like it was impossible to accomplish.  But if he didn’t how could he possibly change the perception of the world? His father had not killed the man.  He knew it and he couldn’t let the world believe that his father ended his life because of the guilt.  There was no way he could give up.  The LSAT was one of the many hurdles he’d need to cross to get the case appealed.  He needed to prevail till that day; till the day he could return his father’s innocence.  He needed to retake the test.  He needed to, even if it took ten more tries.  He just had to.    He picked up the books that had been scattered around the room and gave them a little dust.  He’d be needing them again. 

It doesn’t matter if at one stage happiness seems ephemeral.  Everyone goes through that.  But what’s most important is the devastation of failure is also ephemeral.  
“383, 384, 385.”  Nichkhun watched the seconds tick by on his wrist watch, before he heard the door creak open. 
“So who cooked today?”  The younger asks. 
“Wooyoung.”  A smile had taken over his face. 
“Did you call for pizza?”  A laugh takes over both of them, as Nichkhun swings his arm around the other’s shoulder. 
“It’ll be here in 5.”  

So there it was.  My first not romantic fan fiction.  I hoped you guys liked it~  And thank you you for reading!  I really appreciate it!  And Merry Christmas!~