de·ni·al  (dĭ-nī′əl)

[Yunho's POV]

The sky is dark and not a single cloud is in sight. The wind is howling, sending the withered leaves on the ground flying.  My vision is blurred. Shapes and images are flurrying by me but they have no meaning to me whatsoever. They say these 'images' are called memories. It's a word I'm still struggling with. What are memories?

Changmin looks at me in sorrow again. Frowning deeply, those perfectly shaped brows of his has etched into his smooth and radiant skin, leaving a mark known as a 'wrinkle'. I reach out with my hand; Changmin immediately grasp mine in his. The tears are welling up in his eyes now, collecting at the corners of those black irises. I smile, revealing the toothless grin I had since the accident knocked two of my front teeth out. Changmin sees the gap between my teeth. Suddenly, the frown on his face dissipates, having been replaced with a grin. His eyes squints to give the infamous look of his mismatched eyes and suddenly I'm laughing along; the room resonating with our wild cackles and shrieks. 

There is no reason to laugh but there is no absolute reason to cry either. One wave of laughter continues after the next as our chuckles echo down the corridor, sounding much like sea waves crashing onto the shore. We never stop to catch our breaths. We never pause to figure the source of our humor. Like a broken tape recorder, we keep laughing on and on, and on and on, and on and on...

[Changmin POV]

I am in the hospital room again, watching you as you laugh your heart out, the tears streaming down my face as my chuckles resonates with yours. I see you smiling but hyung, I know it's all just a lie. You are just pretending to be fine. I know that for a fact. The accident did not just destroy DBSK and wreck it into pieces. It broke you apart from inside out. You are just a broken shell of your former self. It's a fact that none of us wants to point out but hyung, you're so intelligent you've probably figured out for yourself right? You know that, do you? You know that you are missing someone important from your life; your other half that has vanished from your memories...

The doctors say that is the trauma from your brain that results in this memory loss. I know that isn't true. I see you sleeping on the same side still. I see your hands still clutching onto the elephant plush you gave him in the Thailand trip back then. You claim you do not know this human 'Kim Jaejoong' but hyung, every part of your body remembers him.

Your hand reaches for the elephant, your eyes focuses on him in all the pictures we have shown you,  your ears prick up at the songs he composed, your sleeping position on the right with the vacant space next to you...

Everything about you screams 'Kim Jaejoong' hyung, everything but your heart that is still pushing him away. 

You tap my hand with yours, catching my attention back and breaking my train of thoughts. As usual, I give you an encouraging smile, the grin dying at the ends of my lips. My eyes are reflected in yours and I can catch the spark of hope glistening in mine as I open my mouth, the same question pronounced off my lips.

"Hyung, do you remember who Jaejoong hyung is?" I asked in a hurried whisper, my eyes wide open with anticipation.

You smile at my question, revealing your toothless grin once more. It is the same question I asked yesterday and the same words that I used the day before. There was no difference at all.  And as expected, you gave me back the exact response as you did yesterday.

"No." you answered remotely.

With a shake of your head, the conversation is instantaneously closed. I smile back at you, though this time around, I'm not the only one smiling in false pretense. Your mask is placed tight on, the cracks sealed with the ever present smile on your face. The masquerade has ended long ago but somehow, the play stuck on, the actors on the stage continued acting as though the performance never begun...

I turned away, pretending not to see the tightening of fist around the poor elephant plush in your right hand. 

In the end, hyung, you're still in denial aren't you?

D-e-n-i-a-l.

The End.

Author's Note: If you didn't understand this, that's okay. I don't really understand it myself. I'm just really addicted to writing this sort of 'abstract' fic these days where a fic can be continued on by the viewer's imagination. This fic has no real beginning and no real ending. It's all up to the readers. Just like how my other drabble Reflection is! ;D Drabbles are real cool that way huh? >< (If you don't like this style of mine, well, please bear with me. Once school lets up, I'll write a proper one shot instead of this weird drabbles. *deeply apologises*)