Jongin had planned to go to Kyungsoo’s house for the evening, seeing as his apartment was lately always empty. Yixing had apparently found someone to make his heart beat again, someone, in Jongin’s opinion, very wacky and weird, but also trustworthy.

Days were so blissful now that he didn’t have to invent excuses in his head to appear at his boyfriend’s house. Ah, his boyfriend. It still felt weird to call him like that, he was almost too happy about it to say it.

When he knocked on Kyungsoo’s door, not noticing the new car in front of the house, he certainly didn’t expect an old woman to open it. She was petit, with a round face full of soft wrinkles that only enhanced her motherly appearance.

“Hello there, who are you?”

Jongin froze in his spot: that had to be Kyungsoo’s mother. Caught in a sudden wave of panic he bowed as low as he could get and put on a wiggly smile, too nervous to think about what to say.

“Are you Kyungsoo’s friend from university?” she asked, with a warm tone in her voice.

“Yes… yes I am, Madame. May I speak with him?”

The woman giggled a little, hiding behind her hand. She resembled her son so much, both in looks and in her away of moving.

“No need to be this formal. Every friend my son has is welcome in his house, of course”

Jongin stepped in, sighing in relief: she seemed like a very sweet lady, but that could be because she didn’t know the relationship going on between him and Kyungsoo. He had to be very careful.

He found his loved one sitting in the kitchen, talking to a man who could only be his dad with a tensed expression on his face. The dancer tried to study the both of them before being noticed: his father, a man with sharp features and a severe look in his eyes, was talking firmly to his son, moving his hand categorically on the table, while Kyungsoo looked conflicted as he spoke.

Finally, the two men noticed Jongin’s presence and the singer got up, smiling shyly at him.

“Dad, may I present you Kim Jongin, a dance major at my university”

The man got up as well and slightly bowed to him, not smiling but softening a little.

“I will leave you alone to talk” he said and he disappeared in the living room.

Jongin rushed to Kyungsoo and took his hand.

“Are you ok?”

“Why shouldn’t I be?” he asked puzzled.

“It looked like you two were fighting”

Kyungsoo broke into a one of his heart shaped smiles.

“Oh, no. They are staying here until my final concert and he was insisting on sleeping on the sofa. He reminds me of someone else” he said winking, then a more serious expression took control of his features “By the way, I didn’t tell them about us because I wanted to discuss about it with you first. I am sure they would understand over time, but I will tell them only if you are ok with it”

Jongin looked at him, not sure about what to say. He had never been treated so kindly by anyone before; even his parents didn’t give his opinion that much importance.

“Tell them. I will be by your side whatever may happen” he said, squeezing his hand.

Kyungsoo nodded firmly, breathed in and out then walked into the living room, followed by him.

His mother and his father were sitting on the sofa, talking amiably about something silly as the weather outside, when their son coughed to gain their attention. Jongin could instantly feel how much love there was between those three and the sensation of doing something wrong creeped in his heart like a buckthorn branch.

“Mom, dad, I think I have to reintroduce you Jongin, because there is something I haven’t told you about” he did a little pause to catch his breath, as his heart was pounding like hell had been cut lose “This is Kim Jongin, not only a dance major at my Uni, but also my boyfriend”

For a long, endless moment, there was a perfect silence. Not a word was said, not a muscle moved, so much Kyungsoo felt the itching sensation inside of his lungs rapidly surging and had to deeply breath to calm himself down. He couldn’t have a crisis now, he had to remain firm, but how could he? Tension had been placed upon his shoulder like a marmoreal monster, just waiting to crush his spine and break him in two. Fortunately, Jongin was by his side, ready to catch him if he had to fall.

His mother was the one who broke the spell leaning on an armrest and rising up to go near her son.

“Well, Kyungsoo… the fact that you found someone special is very important and knowing you I’m sure he is a wonderful person” he voice was so shaken the singer let go of Jongin’s hand to embrace his mother.

“Thank you so much” he managed to whisper into her ear.

Giving his arm for her to lean on, he moved his gaze onto his father, who still was looking at the floor, deeply lost in his thoughts. Then, he got up abruptly and locked his eyes with Jongin’s. There was so much the dancer wanted to say to him: how much he loved his son, how he wanted to remain with him like nobody before, how he would always support him no matter what, but the man didn’t give him time to even open his mouth: with a single movement, he got his jacket from the chair in the kitchen, gave a long and meaningful look at his son and he was out of the door, soon followed by his wife who only had the chance to give Kyungsoo a light kiss on the cheek before leaving.

Jongin was frozen, physically and mentally: he couldn’t process even a single scene of what had just happened, the only thought in his head was a big a sharp REJECTED. For an instant, he had been the happiest he had ever been in his life, when Kyungsoo’s mother had seemed to accept him as his boyfriend, but then everything was crushed to pieces, not even by words, by just one look, because he knew by heart what those eyes meant: disgust. How could a parent be disgusted by his own son was out the realm of his comprehension, but he was sure that was what had happened.

Kyungsoo was so pale he was afraid he had died that instant, so he rushed by his side, taking his face into his hands, gently caressing him, searching for some emotions in his big dreamy eyes, but there were none. He was just staring at the floor, no, even through it, or maybe he was not looking at all. Everything inside him had shut down completely, leaving only an empty shell.

His father.

His father had…

How could…

No.

And that was when he stopped breathing all together.

-Chanyeol?-

-Yes, this is Chanyeol speaking. Who are you? And why are you crying?-

-It’s Jongin. I’m at the hospital and he… he just… I don’t know what to do Chanyeol. He has been inside of that room for so long and I’m scared he’ll never come back. I can’t go on without him, you understand? I can’t… there is so much silence here Chanyeol…-

.

.

.

-What hospital are you in? I’ll be there as soon as I can-

Everything was white. The walls, the curtains, the light… everything was white. He felt like he was laying on a cloud, so soft he could go back to sleep anytime, but he didn’t want to. He stayed there, eyes half open, to feel the sun kissing his skin, to let the soft wind caress his cheeks and fill his lungs with new fresh air.

Ah…

He breathed out. He was so calm in that moment it felt surreal. He didn’t even knew where he was, but it didn’t matter. Someone was singing, or maybe it was the cicadas outside. He couldn’t tell the two sounds apart: humming or chirping, what difference was there? Insects and human, were they really different? They died the same way, making noise.

Maybe he didn’t want to shout, sing or hum, maybe he just wanted to do nothing, go away in the shadows. Funny how he now found silence so appealing: no one would care about him, no one would even notice.

He just had to close his eyes…

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I'm finally back from my trip Yeah! I'm sorry if this chapter came out as sad as it is, I originally had planned it to be another very happy and loving one, but the trip to LA wasn't actually the best, especially because at one point I found myself alone and very sad, so this was created and I'm actually pretty proud about it so I hope you'll like it anyway (No gif this time sorry ^__^)