Psychedelic

[10] Ghost Town

Pairing             : Heechul x Taeyeon

Genre/Theme   : friendship, fantasy, psychology, mild philosophical matters, Armageddon-themed?

Warning         : possible religious issues, weird story

Pinboo’s spazzing on Heechul x Taeyeon:

To me, the first and most memorable thing about Heechul and Taeyeon's interaction was one of the fanaccounts/Heechul's interview when he said he wouldn't hesitate jumping to the sea to save Taeyeon. I was like...afdslk, I love it! I also like the HeeTae seemed to be in contact during Heenim's enlistment –like how Heechul joined instagram, after (among other things) knowing Taeng has opened her instagram account. There just seems to be a sibling-ish connection between these two that I just love and adore ^^. And this shot is also mainly inspired by Walk the Moon's Anna Sun. 

What do you know? This house is falling apart

What can I say? This house is falling apart

We got no money, but we got heart

We're gonna rattle this ghost town!

"Why, do you think, us?" she asked –her voice was the only other sound he could hear aside from the teasing wind and the river's current flow before their eyes (and his own heartbeat –they were alive, this was the proof, mankind).

Kim Heechul took some pebbles from the grounds –having to lift one of his Chuck Taylors so that he could get the best-sized pebble. He saw this in movies –one that he had watched on Wednesday's afternoon when he had pretended to be sick in order to skip schools – and thus he threw the pebble to the surface of water. The pebble made some swift jump once, twice, before it sunk into the river bed. He sighed, shrugged, and questioned back to her, "I don't know. Why not us?"

Taeyeon threw her body softly to the beds of grass behind her. The strong scent of  wet grass made it to her nose. Her mother would have been mad at her for dirtying her t-shirt again, but she knew it would no longer be the case now.

"Why us?" she questioned again –this time gazing at the cloud moving slowly miles and miles above her. "Why not United State's president? Why not Dalai Lama? Why not that pregnant lady with her unborn child? Why not my father? Why us?"

Heechul shrugged –trying to throw the second pebble to the river again. "Fate?"

"What God destined? Do you think there's God?"

"You're asking an atheist –wrong approach," Heechul pointed out.

"Yet, you believe in fate."

"I believe in my existence now," he concluded. "I believe not in the reasons behind it, but simply, our current state. We're alive. We're this world's probably sole survivors. That's the fact and one that I just have to accept."

Taeyeon spread her arms on the ground –feeling the ticklish sensation of grass touching her fingertips. "Do you think this is reality?" Her fingers continued to make tantalizing movements –exploring the sharp grass on the surface of her pads. "Like... what if we've been dreaming? What if –"

Taeyeon stopped.

And screamed a second later.

Heechul quickly looked back and demanded in panic, "What?!"

Taeyeon gazed in horror at her hand. Brown, creamy substance was marring her pale palm. She shrieked, "! Dog's poo!" and ran to the river in front of them to wash her hand clean –complaining here and there how awful it smelt and how disgusting it felt.

Heechul cringed at the information.

"At least, that is real."

***

It just felt too surreal to be real; too weird to feel saddened.

Taeyeon would remember that day: August 21st –any ordinary day –not even her birthday. August 21st, she woke up to her alarm sound and nothing else. Not her mother's yelling to get ready for school, not her brother's loud music which had usually already interrupted her sleep so early in the morning.

Her house had been so silent –aside from her footsteps and eventually-diminishing calling of her family members.

But everything else had been the same. Her brother's room was as messy as ever; the TV on the living room was on (except that, instead of morning news, there was only gray buzz on the screen); numerous bottles of soju her father had drank with his colleagues the night before were still scattered on the table. It was as if she was suddenly home alone –as if her family just went on a sudden trip out of town without telling her anything.

Taeyeon had spent the next ten minutes that morning to walk around her neighborhood –and aside from the absence of people or other living existences, everything was normal. Her neighbors' cars were parked outside of their gates; the newspapers from the day before laid forgotten on her lawn; the sun was blazingly hot; and everything else was just as what it was supposed to be.

Taeyeon did not even know why she did not freak out.

She took bath and dressed in her school's uniform; she took her bicycle and rode her usual route to her school. There was no meteorite's falling, or blizzard of storms, or earthquakes, or any other catastrophic event. But without the traffic, her ride to school was twice faster. She nearly suspected it when there were nobody in her school either.

She did not know what transpired her to do so, but she continued her march to her classroom still. The remains of chemistry notes from the day before's lesson were still available on the whiteboard. The teachers room were empty.

She still did not freak out.

But she finished 'school' faster that day.

So, still clad in her school's uniform, she decided to ride her bicycle to the town center.

Her ears were getting used to the overall silence.

Not even bird sounds were heard.

It was only that time, 12:47 pm according to her pink Casio watch, Taeyeon did what she was supposed to do from the very first moment she realized the whole ordeal.

"Hello?!" she yelled on top of her lungs, to the world of nothingness, to anyone who was never there.

Silence.

"Anyone's still around?!" she yelled again.

Silence still.

It freaked her out how she did not freak out, still.

Then she stopped her bicycle, on the middle of the usually busy Gyeonginno street. The asphalt was hard and rather warm on her back, but she kept on lying there. Her mathematic textbook was placed on top of her face to prevent excessive heat . She thought she might have been asleep, perhaps she did.

What woke her up was the first foreign sound she heard in the suddenly foreign world.

"Oi, little girl, you're alive?"

The mathematic textbook was lifted from her face and instead of the sun's merciless rays, a comforting shadow covered her face.

Taeyeon narrowed her eyes –trying to rub the sleep off her face and finally glanced at the only other existence she met that day –who came in the form of a young man dressed in plaid shirt and tight, girlish jeans, with nape-length, brown hair tied in a low ponytail.

Taeyeon blinked.

"Hello," the guy greeted. "My name is Kim Heechul, fellow survivor. You are?"

***

They were like rebels freed from their ground periods, like prisoners set free from the prison bars.

It was the first day since...ever that Taeyeon truly laughed her heart content. She felt like she could do anything –and nearly literally anything. She decided that now she was probably one of two World's only survivors, having Kim Heechul as her companion was surely not a bad idea. Heechul was like a mad hurricane –everything he did was rather uncalled for, yet at the same time, acceptable.

They first went to a cosmetic shop on the Cheongdamdong. Heechul had apparently stolen some baseball bat from a sport shop earlier ("It's not stealing. It's nobody's anymore now! He had insisted) and he used the bat to break the glass window of the cosmetic shop. Taeyeon laughed at Heechul's courtesy, because despite his rather rebellious nature, he was gentleman enough to eliminate the possible glass shards and sharp window pieces to exist –so that Taeyeon could jump into the cosmetic shop.

They tried different nail polish colors. Heechul was being the woman there that time; he kept on urging Taeyeon to apply numerous tries of colors to his nails (and he finally settled with fuchsia, while she chose the indigo ones). They then went to the bookstores, took (not stole, never stole) dozens of paint sprays. They had a race from the department store to the street in front of it –laughing, and only being silent once both of them were busy decorating the asphalt with writing, rainbows, and unicorns.

Heechul invited her to his college not so long after and Taeyeon could only give a shrill, ecstatic laugh when Heechul drew pink-colored moustache on the statue of his college founder. Restlessly, they then got into a police car parked on a nearby police station. They spent nearly 30 minutes trying to locate the key, and danced happily once they found them. Heechul took the driving seat and drove the police car all over the town. He did not have his license yet, and he continued to bump into the street lamps, pedestals, and numerous other objects. Taeyeon clapped her hands happily and the police' siren –the town was once again lively with the loud police siren sound.

Let us bring catastrophe to this boring old town!

It was only after nearly an hour of circling around the town that they got tired, and decided to take a rest on the small mound facing the river. They left not long after Taeyeon touched the dog's poo though.

"We got no money, but we got heart. We're gonna rattle this ghost town..." Heechul let out a soft tune out of his lips as they walked to the nearby park. Taeyeon thought she had heard the song before, and while not exactly familiar with it, she got a feeling that Heechul was singing it off-tune. She did not point that out to him though. The only survivors or not, how idiotic he actually looked or not, Heechul did not seem to appreciate insult.

But generally, Heechul was a fun person to be with.

And he was considerate too –Taeyeon thought idly as she munched at the hotdog. 15 minutes earlier, they found an unoccupied hotdog stall –no owner available, but eno