Jong-In Too Deep
Officially Missing You - Alpha and Beta College AUUPDATES, es! Hahahahaha. Anyway, this one is short because the last one is long as . So yeah, a short one.
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The two of them walk along a quiet road for twenty minutes before sirens could be heard in the distance. It finally breaks the uncomfortable, deafening silence between them, with Kyungsoo walking ten feet ahead of Jongin, while the latter juggles between his throbbing head and his confused thoughts.
"Jongin, are you okay?" Kyungsoo asks for the fifth time that day, masking a straight face with a nonchalant tone. He's worried sick over the younger male and pretending to be indifferent is starting to make his insides churn.
Jongin nods his head but he says nothing. His hand is still pressing a torn cloth to his head, and he could see that the bare part of Kyungsoo's tummy is beginning to make the older male shiver under the cold night air. But Kyungsoo keeps a stoic expression on his face, occasionally showing signs of his concern over the younger male when he thinks that Jongin is not looking. It's difficult to hold a fake façade for too long, and he's only too glad that help is on the way.
You still care about me, Do Kyungsoo.
The thought of it is enough to make Jongin feel warm inside, and he follows the beta boy closer than ever, until Kyungsoo is sure that he's no longer shivering from the cold but from the heat of Jongin's breath against the back of his neck. He doesn't say anything to stop the younger male, but he doesn't show interest in it either.
The sirens apparently belong to an ambulance and two police vehicles. Four officers pull Kyungsoo to the side and question him for details while the paramedics treat Jongin's injury. Nothing too serious it seems. The force applied against his head would most likely cause concussion, but it would not kill him. Despite the dull throbbing in his head, Jongin stubbornly interrupts the interrogation after paramedics had wrapped a bandage around his head and demands to be taken home. They're both tired and Kyungsoo mouthes a silent 'thank you' in his direction.
A police vehicle pulls over in front of SMU's entrance forty minutes later, and Kyungsoo doesn't say a word before he runs back to the beta house. Jongin watches him leave quietly, ignoring the single tear falling down his cheek at that moment.
It's only been approximately two weeks---ok, 10 days---since their break-up, and Jongin is already feeling worse each day. He trudges back home quietly with slumped shoulders, not even noticing the stares directed to him from the shadows.
"Did you see that? Kim Jongin is crying." The hushed voices whisper to each other.
"Is he crying over that beta freak---what's his name again?---Kyungsoo, right? This is surprising. But I'm more surprised to know that he could actually shed tears." A wide grin forms on his mouth. And his friend grins back.
"I guess Kim Jongin is not as great as they say he is. Let's go before someone sees us." Two figures linger amongst the shadows for a second longer before they're sure no one is around except them. They run back to the Nu frat, ready to tell their members about this. It would act as their trump card, to finally have something on the alpha frat.
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"Jongin! Hey, are you okay?" Kris rushes over first, knowing fully well what had happened to Jongin but he couldn't let the latter suspect anything of course.
"I'm fine." Jongin says, biting his lips so hard until he could taste the iron seeping out from it. His heart is hurting, his head is throbbing, and everything else is spinning.Tears are now falling freely, blurring the faces before him, but he could still make out traces of concern on Kris's face. Sehun's right arm wraps around his waist and keeps him upright because for some reason, the room looks like it's tipping to the side slightly, throwing him off balance. He mentally thanks his frat members for being there right then.
"Hey! Hey Jongin, can you hear us? Are you alright?" Chanyeol voices out worriedly after that, stepping in front of Kris. Jongin tries to keep his eyes open but he feels so...sleepy, and tired, and drained...he wants to sleep. His vision is all blurry and he could only make out colours to determine where his friends are. Since they move, the colours move too.
"I miss him..." A moment of weakness eventually escapes his mouth and silence descends in the alpha house. Someone shifts uncomfortably in the blur, and Sehun's arm around him tightens a little more. They carry him to the couch, careful not to hit his head. A small part of the bandage around his head begins to spot a red mark after that. Blood, as the boys notice. And Yixing rushes into the kitchen to grab the first aid kit.
Jongin drifts between his consciousness as time passes, his whole body feeling as if a weight had been put on top. He could still see his friends moving in front of him. Someone combs back his hair with calloused fingers, probably Tao. Another hushes him to sleep, and it sounds like Chanyeol. Kris tries to take off his shoes and Sehun is rubbing his tummy.
It's nice to know that they care about him, even after they know what a big he is. He couldn't even protect Kyungsoo without getting hurt himself, and for some reason, that makes him feel lesser than a man. What would he be then? A monster. Yeah, most probably.
When Yixing returns with the first aid kit, Jongin is mumbling some incoherent words to himself. The blurry images before him have somewhat contorted into a single image of a familiar figure he yearns to hold. Kyungsoo.
Has Kyungsoo come to take care of him? He absentmindedly mutters out the next few words, thinking that it's Kyungsoo. "I miss you, baby...." He chokes. "Please forgive me. I'm so sorry for hurting you. I'll stop doing everything you hate. You just have to tell me. I'll stop lying, I'll avoid girls like a plague, I'll carry you on my shoulders if I have to. I know you want me to tell the world that we're together..." He pauses, biting his lips. It's supposed to be for Kyungsoo's sake that he decided to keep it a secret. But secrets be damned. If it hurts Kyungsoo so much, then he's willing to take the punches coming their way. As long as he could still protect Kyungsoo. As long as he could kiss those lips and see that heart-shaped smile he misses so much. "I'll do it." He croaks, sobbing harder. "I'll tell everyone. So please...I can't do this anymore...I miss you so much it hurts."
Kyungsoo takes his hand and tells him to rest. And Jongin closes his eyes, mouthing out I'm sorry for lying. I'm sorry for cheating. I'm sorry for everything, before he eventually drifts off to sleep.
"It's concussion." Yixing says after he changed the bandage. There's a sheen of sweat on his forehead, a result of trying to rid the old bandage without waking the dancer up. Tao wipes away the sweat from his forehead and promptly keeps away all the unused bandages and iodine mixture back into the kit. The boys exchange sad glances before turning back to Jongin. "He thinks we're Kyungsoo." Sehun remarks quietly.
"Should we tell Kyungsoo then?" Tao asks.
"He needs to do that himself. And I don't think he's supposed to sleep with a concussion. Isn't he supposed to wait a few hours?"
Kris's words cut through the uncertainty lingering in the air like a knife, and the boys are suddenly unsure whether they should wake Jongin up. He seems so peaceful right then, curled up into a ball on the couch."I'll call the hospital and ask about it." Yixing finally says, sighing deeply. "You guys should get some sleep. Chanyeol, mind carrying him to his bed? I don't think he'll enjoy waking up with sore muscles."
"Yeah, ok."
"I need to call Kyungsoo first to check if he's okay." Kris states. "After all, I was the one who took him out."
While he goes off to make the call, Yixing calls the hospital to ask about concussions. Chanyeol carries the sleeping Jongin upstairs, and the last two members retire to bed. The night eventually passes into morning, and it's time to start the day again.
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Kyungsoo on the other hand, retreats to the safety of Minseok's room the moment he arrives home. His favourite shirt has a huge gaping hole in it, and Baekhyun throws a panic fit when he sees the younger boy in front of him. "Yah, Kyungsoo ah, what the happened to you?" Obviously he knows what happened because Kris did call to mention about the plan but he DID NOT expect for Kyungsoo to return home in such a disheveled state, with half his shirt torn, and looking as if he ran a marathon. He is leaning against the doorframe weakly, gasping for air, while his hands cover over the bare area of his stomach.
"Let me in, Baekkie. I'm cold." Kyungsoo pushes past the older boy and almost bump into Jongdae but the latter managed to skip out of the way.
"Whoa there, what the happened to you?!"
"That's what I asked him." Baekhyun says, a little exasperated. Kris promised that no one would get hurt.
Kyungsoo doesn't want to worry them too much, knowing how dramatic the beta frat could be when it comes to things like this. Heck, the last time Joonmyeon and Kyungsoo got lost somewhere in Busan, Baekhyun freaked out and called EVERYONE he knew, which included Kyungsoo's mum. In the end, the boys were only three blocks from each other and the two weren't really lost. Kyungsoo managed to track the others down by following the scent of Luhan's perfume. It was distinctly 'Chinese', he recalled. Not that everyone knew what he meant.
But Kyungsoo still ended up getting grounded by his mum when he returned to Seoul. In fact, she specifically stayed in the beta frat for a week just to make her son remained grounded.That was one memory he didn't like to recall.
Back to his dramatic beta friends. Yes, Baekhyun and Jongdae, especially, would throw a fit if they know about the uneventful kidnapping earlier. So it's probably best to keep that information away from them. "I found Jongin in a ditch and I tore my shirt to wrap it around his head...." He says, masking a straight face. It's not a complete lie. Jongin had been hurt, but no one needs to know where and how.
"Jongin? I thought you were with Kris." Baekhyun thinks that he deserved an award for his remarkable acting skill, ignoring the fact that Jongdae rolled an eye on him.
"I was. But then I wasn't. It's....a long story. And I'm too tired to talk right now. I need to sleep."
Of course they instantlly know that Kyungsoo's lying, but they don't want to push it further. "Well, you should get some rest then." Jongdae finally says, sighing deeply. "But we're talking to Kris about this tomorrow."
Kyungsoo simply nods his head in return before running up to Minseok's room. The older male would not usually question him so late at night, even in the state that he's in. Just as he expects, Minseok welcomes him with nothing more than a smile, before tossing a clean pair of pajamas to him and patting the empty spot on the bed. Kyungsoo gets into it gratefully before drifting off to sleep, hoping that tomorrow would not be as dramatic as the night before had been. It was mentally exhausting, to be honest.
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Well, this chapter isn't meant to be funny. But Jongin will turn good again. In fact, better than he was. But getting Kyungsoo to trust him again might take some work.
Jongin secretly taking care of Kyungsoo
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