Monday Afternoon

Kai saw nothing. He heard nothing. He was nothing. It seemed as though he was falling through an abyss, into a state of oblivion. He had no idea what was going on.

One minute he was running across the street, and the next he heard Kyungsoo screaming to him that a truck's coming his way. Let it. Kai was too emotionally hurt as it is to care anymore. What kind of physical pain could possibly be more painful than the shattering of his heart? Let the truck run over him. Let it crush every single bone in his body.

But it never did. The next thing he knew, Kai is on the sidewalk, a weight on top of him. Kyungsoo. His doll. He had run across the street and slammed against Kai, the force pushing the both of them out of the road just as the truck was about to close in. The truck came to a stop and the driver got out. Many people driving by also parked their cars to check if the boys were alright.

Kai stared up at Kyungsoo, eyes wide. He was astonished. The doll had actually saved his life. He still heard nothing. Not the words coming out of Kyungsoo's mouth, nor the ones spilling from the people around them. He saw darkness as his consciousness slipped away. A deep pain was growing where his ankle was. Had he twisted it? Was it broken? Kai lost all sense of mental control. He let himself slip away into a faint.

He was on solid ground but then floating. In his head he was on a cloud, but in reality was being placed on a stretcher by the paramedics. When they realized he was Kim Jongin and called his name to wake him up, Kai heard it as the screams of his fans as he danced on a stage. Kyungsoo's voice was somewhere among them. Somewhere far away. Too distant for Kai's liking.

His eyelids felt heavy and he stopped trying to open them after a while. He was too tired to try anything. Pain shot up his leg. Kyungsoo's voice was soon gone. Vanished into thin air like a mist. An entropic mist.

When he did manage to open his eyes, he was blinded by a bright light. As if someone had placed a lightbulb right in front of his face. It soon dissipated, but still Kai saw white. He realized he was looking at a hospital ceiling. 

Kai ignored the ache in his body from falling so roughly against the cement and sat up. He took a look around. The room looked awfully familiar. The chair beside it did too. He was in Joonmyun's room. His bed. The one he died in.

Kai was about to jump out of the bed when he realized he was hooked up to an I.V. He pulled a little on it. Maybe he could rip it out? Nah, he shouldn't take the risk. He looked at his condition. After a fall like that, his left ankle was bandaged up. He managed to escape death and be punished with a sprain and a load of cuts and bruises. A particular one on his bottom lip was stinging like crazy.

Leaning against the post of the bed, Kai attempted to move his injured leg. No such luck. The pain was too uncomfortable to move. Sighing, he tapped his knee with his fingers to kill the time. Why was he here if he had just a simple sprain? 

The door to his room creaked open. Kai's head jerked in the direction of the sound. In walked Baekhyun followed by Chanyeol, their faces lit up by their smiles. Chanyeol pranced up to the side of the bed with a bouquet of red roses and held them out to Kai.

"Happy birthday!"

"Yah! You punk!" Baekhyun yelled, hitting Chanyeol lightly upside the head. "He's hurt! It's not his birthday!"

Chanyeol's face fell. "So there's no cake?"

Kai laughed. "You two babos. What are you even doing here?"

Baekhyun flopped down onto the bed beside Kai. "Here to cheer you up, of course! DUH. Come on! You almost ing died!"

Kai and Chanyeol gasped. Chanyeol blinked a few times.

"Bacon? Did you just say a cuss word?"

"Yes, Yeollie. Yes, I did."

Kai smiled despite the pain cascading over his body. He turned the bouquet of roses all around so he could see every angle of them. The boss' son breathed in their scent. Sweet and crisp. Fresh. He suddenly wanted some sort of fresh pastry that was sweet and crisp. Biting his lip, he leaned over and poken Chanyeol who was now sitting in the armchair.

"Can you get me something sweet from the cafeteria?"

"Will a sugar packet do?" Chanyeol asked. Baekhyun smacked him upside the head again.

"Babo!" the chaffeur wailed. "Aish! I'll go. That derp! Still don't understand how I fell for you!" Grumbling, he left the room, shutting the door softly behind him. Kai snorted once.

Chanyeol took off his jacket and tried to pull off the buttons. Kai smacked his hands. Moron. Trying to ruin his own clothing for the sake of not being bored. The accountant gave him a wide smile that made one of his eyes shut more than the other. Kai snickered. What a creep.

The accountant stood up and pranced over to the windows. He opened the blinds and sunlight flooded in. Kai covered his eyes and thrashed around on the bed. He was about to go blind from so much light! Chanyeol got the message and shut the blinds, offering Kai a nervous, crackly laugh. The boss' son only laughed and looked at the roses again.

One of them was wilting. He picked it out from the rest, placing the bouquet on the table beside the bed. The edges of the rose's petals was turning a slight brown, microscopic pieces chipping off as if it were painted. He ran his finger around the most degraded petal. It leaned back as its connection to the stem broke apart, until finally, the entire petal fell off altogether. Kai watched it drift slowly down to the floor.

There was a knock on the door. Chanyeol skipped over to it, anticipating Baekhyun. But instead, when he opened, Kyungsoo walked in. He looked nervous, his hands in his pockets, gaze avoiding Kai's. Chanyeol coughed into a clenched fist as he sensed the tension in the room.

"I'm gonna go find my Bacon," he proclaimed then scurried out the door. Kyungsoo followed the tall boy with his eyes, then closed the door with his foot.

Kai lowered his head. His gaze was fixated on Kyungsoo, and the way his head was positioned gave him the appearance of a serial killer. Kyungsoo swallowed and came closer, his hands behind his back. Slowly, he revealed a brown teddy bear with a red bow tie from behind. He held it out to Kai. The younger took one look at it before scoffing and looking away. Kyungsoo let his outstretched hand with the bear fall to his side. Yeah. He definitely screwed up big time.

He sat down in the armchair, moving it closer to the bed. Kai rolled away, his back to Kyungsoo. The doll pinched the bridge of his nose and sat the teddy bear on his lap. Reaching over, he placed a hand on Kai's shoulder. The younger shook it as a sign that he didn't want Kyungsoo touching him. The older obliged.

Both of his hands once again in his pockets, Kyungsoo his dry lips swiftly. "Kai?"

He saw the tip of Kai's nose as the younger man turned his head a little in the direction of Kyungsoo's voice. It then disappeared. Kai obviously didn't want to talk to him. Fine. Then he'd do the talking.

"Kai, I'm sorry, ok? So much has been going on lately that you and I and everyone else haven't been themselves."

"You think that's an excuse?" Kai asked. "You think that makes it alright to go running off with someone else?"

Kyungsoo gripped the bear with one hand. "No...and I know now that it was stupid. Even before I almost...lost you. But I see that I've lost you anyways, haven't I?"

Kai flipped around onto his other side so he faced Kyungsoo. He reached out and knocked on the older's forehead. "Allo? Anyone in there? Seems that you don't have a brain since you think I've stopped loving you. You're lucky you're so pretty, doll face. Otherwise you'd be on your outside."

Kyungsoo smiled cheekily. "I'm forgiven?"

Kai grabbed the bear and held it to his chest. "Yeah. Just because you acted like Super Man. Saving my life and all. Thanks." He sniffed. Ah, this was getting too emotional. He didn't want to cry at a time like this.

Kyungsoo pinched Kai's cheek. "Don't get sappy with me! You should be scolding."

Kai's face turned stern. He threw the teddy bear at Kyungsoo's head. "I should be punching! You're lucky I'm disabled now and that you're my doll face!"

Kyungsoo smiled and stood up. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he gave Kai a quick kiss on the cheek before running out. The younger watched him leave, upset. Seeing the doll leave him hurt.

Kyungsoo scurried outside the hospital. He made his way down the sidewalk at a brisk walk, ignoring how the people around him recognized him as they boy who resembled D.O and the one who saved Kim Jongin's life. They saw him as Kai's hero. If only they knew what he really was to the boss' son. No matter, they'd forget this ever happened soon enough anyways.

Running a hand through his hand his hair, the boy with doe likes eyes sped on his heels towards the park he and Taemin had met at last night. He gulped as he walked by the bench. Instead of sitting down onto it, he ran towards the spot near the river he and Kai had their first date outside of the house. He sat down in the same exact spot as before. He remembered having been sitting alined with a tree on the other side of the water.

Kyungsoo leaned back on his hands. The grass he was sitting on was heating up fast from the sunshine. He pat on it as if it were some sort of animal, then sat still. The water rushed by him silently, calmly. He wished he was as calm as it was. With no emotions. Then none of these decisions he made would have ever happened. Man, he was weak.

Kyungsoo shut his eyes and lifted his head to the sun. He inhaled deeply as a soft breeze blew by him. The weather was so perfect for a terrible day like this. It was a shame that Kai couldn't experience it with Kyungsoo. A true shame.

Shame. It seemed to be punching Kyungsoo in the face. He felt so ashamed for what he did. Ah, but Taemin. That darn, irresistable Lee Taemin. It had felt so good to be inside of him. On top. Kyungsoo was almost always on the bottom with Kai during actual . It pissed him off. With Taemin, he was in charge. It was a selfish act for freedom and power.

Kyungsoo drowned deeper into his thoughts as he thought about this. He wanted Taemin neither with his heart or his head. And after seeing Kai so hurt, he wasn't sure if he wanted Taemin at all anymore when he was ually frustrated. But their deal came back to him. Obviously Taemin enjoyed what they did enough to be willing to keep his mouth shut to do it again.

Kyungsoo knew Kai couldn't keep him a secret forever. If the boss' son was going to continue his work as the main model for Kim Industries, he'd have to come clean about the older one day. Running from it would make it worse. It's less damaging to speak the truth yourself rather than have someone else do it for you.

And the fact that Joonmyun was gone ensure Kai's place as the one to inherit the company. Kyungsoo covered his face and claawed at his own skin. How could he Taemin while Joonmyun had been dying?! The doe eyed boy would peel his face off if he could. Selfish brat. He was no better than Taemin.

His thinking was interrupted when he heard something rustling in the bushes behind him. He jerked around. He hoped with all his soul that it was a squirrel. Or a rabbit. Or whatever. As long as it wasn't a reporter or someone who would kill him.

Tall. Lean. Hood over the head and sunglasses over the face. The figure took the sunglasses off and folded them in his pocket. Large eyes. Like a frog's. Kyungsoo gulped. This face was awfully familiar. The shape, the eyes, the lips, everything. He had seen it before. But where?

It snapped in his head soon enough. This young man's face had been in the papers. On TV. His description given in detail on the radio. Choi Minho.

Kyungsoo gasped. He scrambled up, backing away slowly as Minho approached. The younger's hands were in his pockets, and that made Kyungsoo even more nervous than he already was. What if he had a gun? Or a knife? Would he pull it on the older? Why not? He was a criminal, after all. Murder must be as easy to him as breathing.

"Do Kyungsoo?"

Kyungsoo was too scared to speak. He opened his mouth then closed it. Minho walked closer and grabbed the collar of Kyungsoo's jacket.

"If my head and heart weren't on the same page, you'd be a goner," he growled. "Stay away from Taemin. For your sake, not his. I don't know what you're trying to do, but I know what he's going to do. Selling yourself to him won't stop him."

Kyungsoo breathed heavily, lips parted as the air escaped his mouth. Minho let go of him.

"You fool!" he barked. "You don't know Taemin like I do! If I didn't love him, Do, I'd have strangled him by now! Look!" He his phone in Kyungsoo's face. The photograph he had taken on Kai's and Kyungsoo's one week anniversary was displayed. "He sent this to the Lees' personal media today. He wanted to start something that wouldn't end soon. Since you're not clearly visible but everyone can identify Kai, this will get people's attention and curiousity."

Kyungsoo gulped again. "Why?"

"You really thought he'd stop? That it's over?" Minho trembled with frustration. "He's sadistic, Do. He's sane and insane at the same time."

"You knew it was wrong," Kyungsoo muttered, "and yet you helped him anyways."

Minho's eyes grew larger. "I don't plan on helping him anymore. He has to stop. He went as far as telling me to eliminate Zhang Yixing from the face of this earth. He's...changed. He didn't used to be this way before you showed up."

Kyungsoo burst into tears. "It's not my fault! None of this is my fault and don't you dare make it sound like it is!" He fell to the ground, banging his fist against it. "I didn't want to be the replacement doll! I didn't want to fall for Kai! I didn't want to be Taemin's target or his toy! I didn't!"

Minho rolled his eyes as Kyungsoo cried onto his feet. He hated sob stories. He leaned down and grabbed Kyungsoo by the shoulders, pulling him up. His teeth were tighly clenched, and Kyungsoo could see that Minho's jaw muscles were flexing.

"Don't leave your damn house," the younger hissed. "Don't answer his calls or texts. Don't see him. I'll try to fix this. To end it." He lightly slapped Kyungsoo's cheek. "Got it?"

Kyungsoo sniffed and nodded. Minho let out a frustrated sigh and put his sunglasses back on. With a curt bow to Kyungsoo, he ran off. The older watched him until the younger had sprinted way out of his sight. He waved goodbye to empty air.

Plopping back down onto the grass, Kyungsoo tore it up from the ground. What was there for Minho to fix? Everything was already ruined. As soon as the photo would get out, everything would be destroyed. Kyungsoo saw only a few options in his own head how to keep Taemin's mouth shut. And obviously one of them was to...well, yeah. And as displeasing as it sounded now, Kyungsoo had to deal with it. And this time, Kai would have to know.

As for the second thing, he needed that damn chain back. If Taemin somehow had it after their night together and saw the engraving on the back of the pendant, both Kai and Kyungsoo would be exposed. Their relationship would go down the drain faster than they could ever imagine.

For now, the doll would stay low just as Minho had told him to. Back to square one. Back to sitting in Kai's room and never leaving