Chapter 26

Youngbae suddenly heard the front door slam shut. It surprised him as he thought everyone was at home. He pushed himself out of the couch and dragged his feet towards the hallway. He jut out his head and he found his surprise growing.

“D – Dae?” He shot him an uncomprehending look accompanied with slight worry. Daesung didn’t look up, he just silently climbed up the stairs. A little while later, the door opened again, this time it revealed an angry Seunghyun.

“Yah! Daesung!” He yelled. When he saw he wasn’t in the hallway anymore, he figured he was hiding himself in his room again.

“Daesung!” His voice had gotten louder. He then loudly sighed in frustration and ran up the stairs. Seen from the side, it almost looked as if he was floating over the steps. Youngbae didn’t know how to react upon seeing this scene. Had they been having yet another fight? He slowly followed the yelling, ready to go up against Seunghyun if that was what Daesung needed.

He wasn’t expecting the scene he was seeing in front of him. Seunghyun had pretty much smashed in Daesung’s door and he had pinned the latter on the ground whilst yelling at him.

“Stop running away! Stop running away from telling the truth!” He screamed as he pulled Daesung slightly up by his collar. Yet nothing of it all seemed to bring about some form of reaction from Daesung’s side. Although Seunghyun didn’t seem to get it, Youngbae did. The more Seunghyun was yelling at the youngest, the more he was making him shut down. Youngbae placed his hand on Seunghyun’s shoulder.

“Hyung…” He softly let out. But Seunghyun didn’t pay any attention to him. Instead, he kept on shaking the blonde on the ground whilst yelling at him to stop running away. He kept on doing so until he lost his strength and slowly lowered him, but he didn’t let go of his shirt. Youngbae could see it was all stretched out. Slowly, but certain, Seunghyun’s breath started to slow down as well. Then something happened that overtook Youngbae again; the oldest started to release the tears he had been holding in for so long now.

Daesung didn’t look at the man on top of him. He had his cheek pressed against the floor, and was staring at his door. He was waiting, waiting for it all to pass. Because that was what always happened, right? There’s only a short moment of drama, a short moment of hurt, and then there’s time. Time for reflection, time to get over it, time to forget. He was just wondering why no one could forget that he had been away for a couple weeks. He was just wondering why no one could forget about him.

“Stop… Stop running away…” Seunghyun let out between his choked up breaths. He pressed his face into Daesung’s chest.

“Stop running away from me.”

But nothing mattered. Daesung kept staring at his door while releasing a sigh. He wanted him to leave, how could he not get that? He didn’t want to talk about everything that had happened. If he wanted to do that, wouldn’t he have done that by now? He momentarily thought about pushing the older off of him, but when he thought about all the care it required, he decided not to. Seunghyun then moved his hands from Daesung’s chest and slid them around him, closing him into a tight hug.

“I don’t know what happened, Dae,” he said, and the usage of the name ‘Dae’ made the boy tense up. It had been a while since anyone called him that.

“Even when you don’t want to talk about it, no matter what it is, you have got to move on,” Seunghyun’s voice lowered as he nuzzled even closer to the younger.

“Because the Daesung that’s here right now, isn’t real.” This time, instead of leaning in closer, he pulled back a bit in order to look in the boy’s eyes.

“This isn’t re