Another two-part update: 98 and 99 are going up together!

Warning: you might be confused at the beginning.  Just keep reading – I promise that it will all make sense if you just keep going.  You just have to trust me no this one. 

#99 – Writer’s Choice: Night

The white walls glared against Kibum's eyes.

Taemin just wasn't waking up!

The doctors were starting to loose hope that he ever would.

Kibum couldn't listen to them when they spoke like that.  He wouldn't hear them say that Taemin would never open his eyes again.  Would never laugh again, or smile again, or dance again.

He refused to believe that.

So he sat there and watched and waited.

Be in the end it wasn't his decision.

"It's for the best Kibum..." Taemin's father had said.

"They're going to donate his organs..." Taesun had informed him, because Taemin had been really healthy and could help other people now. 

They were going to pull the plug on Taemin. 

Kibum wanted to scream to yell to fight them.  Why couldn't they see that Taemin just needed more time?!  He would wake up!  He would!  He just needed a little more time to rest.  That's all! 

He was flanked by Onew and Jonghyun on either side of him.  They both wore black suits of mourning, both looking away and crying silent tears.  Their hands clenched tight around his wrists when he moved forward to try and stop this madness, but they didn’t stop the terrified screams that clawed their way out of his throat. 

“Taemin!  No!  You can’t DO THIS!”

Nails bit into his skin and he screamed himself hoarse, tugging and pulling against the men who held him back who seemed to have developed some super human power without his knowledge.

He sagged to the floor, his knees hitting with a bruising force as they flipped the switch on the first machine.  As the sensors were pulled off and IVs removed the room grew eerily silent.  With the final click of a switch all of the machines that had been keeping Taemin alive were now off.

It was just the heart monitor now.  Beep…beep………beep………………beep…………………………………………………….

“Time of death…”

Taemin was gone.

*****

Kibum shot up in bed, his heart having plummeted into his feet with the latest nightmare.

It was like all those years ago all over again.  Watching Taemin in that bed day in and out and now knowing whether he was ever going to open his eyes ever again. 

But this time, his dream took him to his worst nightmare. 

What if Taemin had never woken up?  What if there hadn't been a chance?  What if one of those kicks had landed a little higher and slammed into his spine instead of his kidneys? 

Kibum swiped at the tears that flowed down his face, not even making a dent in the river flowing from his eyes.

He swore that his heart wasn't even beating he was so freaked out, or that it was too fast to register anymore.

Kibum swung his shaky legs out of bed and tried to still them by pressing them against the floor.

He was burning up, his throat dry and body quaking.

The man lurched to his feet and stumbled to the kitchen where he found himself a glass of water, needing to use both hands just to keep it steady enough to make it to his mouth. 

Kibum tried deep breaths. 

Nothing.

He needed Taemin.

The former rapper glanced up at the clock and did a quick calculation in his head.  It's early afternoon there, he realized and lunged towards the phone.

He pounded Taemin's number into the phone.

In two rings the other man picked up.

"Bummie, what's wrong?" Taemin's voice flowed into Kibum like pure energy.  Suddenly his hands and legs stilled and he was able to find the strength to stand without the support of a wall or counter.

"Bummie?!" Taemin's voice raised in pitch.

"Tae..." Kibum whispered, relishing the knowledge that Taemin was alright.  He was fine.

Taemin had woken up; they had never needed to even think about what else they would do.

Taemin was still alive. 

"Bummie." Taemin's voice was concerned.  "What is wrong?" he asked again.

"Why do you think something is wrong?" the other man asked breathily.

"Because it's three in the morning in Korea.  3AM calls are rarely for good things."

Kibum closed his eyes and imagined that Taemin was here in front of him, rather than on the phone. 

"I just..." Kibum stopped, "now you can't laugh." he warned.

"I won't laugh, why did you call Kibum?"

Kibum mumbled something into the phone.

"Sorry, didn't catch that." Taemin deadpanned.

Kibum pouted and again wished that Taemin as there in front of him because pouts have more of an effect when the recipient can actually see them.

"I had a nightmare..."

There was silence on the phone.

"What happened?" Taemin asked after a moment, his voice deep and contemplative.

"You were back in the hospital again.  But you weren't waking up."  Kibum bit his lip, the emotions of the dream still raw and seemingly real enough for the palpitations that his heart went through.  "They..." Kibum's voice broke, "they pulled the plug..."

Kibum heard Taemin exhale with a slight whistle sound. 

"Bummie, I'm fine." Taemin said in a calm voice.

"I know...but I just woke up and..." Kibum trailed off.  He didn't know why he had called Taemin...he knew that the man was safe and sound, on the other side of the world, but safe and sound.

"It's alright love," Taemin said fondly, "It's kind of nice to get to hear you right now anyway.  It's been a rough day."

"Oh?"  And Taemin filled Kibum in on his presentation that had been blown because one of his group members had decided to go out drinking the night before ("Dude, its called Thirsty Thursday!") and had actually managed to vomit in the middle of the presentation.

The pair talked for another 30 minutes, never mind the phone bill, until Taemin had to go and head in for another class.

Kibum clicked the phone off and returned it to its cradle. 

The man sighed and ran his hand over his face roughly.  It was almost 4 in the morning, and he had to be at the office early to finish up some paperwork before a project's deadline at noon.

He slouched back down the hallway and fell into bed, staring across the empty blackness of night towards Taemin's side of the bed. 

He had had many nightmares since Taemin went away.  There was something so calming about the other man's presence and Kibum could sleep like the dead just knowing that Taemin was in the apartment.

But since Taemin had been gone, his sleep had been fitful and full of odd dreams and nightmares.

But tonight had been the worst.

The hardest part about it was how real it had seemed.  The room had matched the one that he had sat in for hours every day in that ICU.  He had memorized every inch of the place, from the designs in the wallpaper to the scuffs on the floor tiles.  The same antiseptic smell had filled his lungs.  He could hear the same nurses calling down the hallways that he had heard back then.  Jinki and Jonghyun had even had their hair styled the same as back then.

It had been Kibum's worst fear, both then and now, that he would loose Taemin.  That something would happen to take that wonderful man away from him. 

That would be pure hell.

Kibum stretched over the bed and grabbed at something on Taemin's bedside table. 

It was a framed photograph of the two on their last date before Taemin had flown off to America to study at UCLA. 

Kibum hugged the photo to himself, glad that the smiling man in that photograph was still alright.

He pulled the sheets up over his body and fell back into a dreamless sleep, the picture still held tenderly in his arms. 

Our minds can play tricks on us at night.  The worst kind of tricks, because our subconscious believes them to be completely and utterly real, making our hearts pound and our adrenaline race.  But one has to remember that day soon comes to dispel the shadows of night, and those fears can be left behind you, because it was never really real to begin with.

Come morning, Kibum would wake up and lay a gentle kiss to the glass of the picture frame before setting it back up on the otherwise empty table and getting ready for work.  The memories of his fear already tidied away, and only remembering the joy of hearing Taemin's voice in the night.  

The next one is going to take awhile.  And my idea for it will likely result in a tear-jerker.  I think it's kind of fitting as a way to say goodbye to this story that has taken over such a huge portion of my life.