“So,” Jonghyun said slowly after a few minutes of peaceful silence, in which they had resumed looking at the stars.

Kibum snuggled closer, his head resting on Jonghyun's chest as Jonghyun let his fingertips lightly run up and down his arm.

“Hm?” Kibum hummed, sounding sleepy.

“You kissed me.”

Kibum let out a soft laugh and turned his head. He rested his chin on Jonghyun's chest in order to look up at him with a small, bashful smile.

“You kissed me back.”

Jonghyun grinned at him.

“Well, it’s not like I haven’t thought about it every single minute.”

Kibum raised his eyebrows, still smiling.

“Really?”

It was only then that Jonghyun realised what he had said and his face burned.

“I-I mean… oh god.” He covered his face with his unoccupied hand, muffling his words. “I never know when to shut up around you.”

Kibum laughed, hugging him tighter.

“It’s okay. It makes things a lot easier.”

“It makes me a lot uncooler as well.”

Kibum laughed heartily at that. Jonghyun couldn’t help but chuckle too, giddy with joy despite his embarrassment.

“You know, I don’t think uncooler is a word,” Kibum chortled after a moment.

Jonghyun was about to answer that it was too a word when there was a call from below them. Kibum sat up abruptly and squinted down at the stage through the net. Jonghyun followed his lead and spotted a small figure that looked like a girl with waist-long, blonde hair gazing up at them.

“Key!” she called again, her hands cupped around .

“Yeah?” he called back, posture tensing.

Jonghyun threw him a quizzical look, but it went unnoticed, as his full attention seemed to be on the girl.

“The Owner wants to see you!”

Kibum bit his lip and glanced at Jonghyun, looking guilty. Jonghyun shrugged at him with a crooked smile, wordlessly trying to tell him it was okay. He wasn’t even sure why Kibum felt guilty in the first place. Kibum closed his eyes and took a deep breath before letting it out slowly, meeting Jonghyun's gaze steadily. The look in his eyes was guarded, as if he were bracing himself for something he knew would end badly. Jonghyun wanted to ask so badly, but he didn’t have the time.

“Okay!” Kibum called to the girl without breaking their eye contact.

He stood up, pulling Jonghyun with him, and led the way back to the platform, hand steady in Jonghyun’s. Once they were safely on the platform, Kibum pressed and pulled the buttons and levers again closing the roof and pulling the net back in. They stood together in silence, watching the net retract back to where it came from. Jonghyun threw a quick glance at Kibum and saw his brow furrowed.

“Do you wanna take a shortcut?” he suddenly asked, looking at him with a playful glint in his eyes. It didn’t seem entirely genuine, but Jonghyun wasn’t going to call him out on it.

Instead, he swallowed loudly. He had a feeling he knew where this was going and he hoped fervently that he was wrong.

“W-well… that depends.”

Kibum laughed and grabbed his hands.

“Don’t let go,” was the only thing he said before he jumped off the platform. Jonghyun had no other choice than to follow with a yell so loud it could have been heard miles away.

Their descent picked up speed quickly. Everything around them blurred and the wind whooshed in Jonghyun’s ears, the tinkling of Kibum's exhilarated laugh weaving through it. Jonghyun's breath had disappeared after the initial yell and he hadn’t quite managed to catch it again, rendering him unable to utter any other sounds or try to shout at Kibum to stop their fall. He could only close his eyes as the ground rushed against them and hope the impact would kill him instantly and not let him feel any pain.

Suddenly his body came to an abrupt stop mid-fall and the only thing he could hear was a giggling Kibum. He gasped out a few quick breaths and it took a second before he dared open his eyes a crack. They were suspended in the air, floating barely a few centimetres above the stage and just as he realised it, Kibum let go of his hands and gravitation kicked in again. He tumbled to the floor with a groan but Kibum landed lightly on his feet beside him.

“Sorry,” he giggled.

Jonghyun let out a grunt and sat up.

“I would appreciate it if you warned me next time.”

“Next time?” Kibum asked, grinning from ear to ear.

Jonghyun grimaced at him, standing up heavily.

“Well, I’m planning on sticking around if you hadn’t noticed. And since it is kind of your thing…”

Kibum bit his lip, smile shy, and his gaze fell to the floor. His hand came up to tuck a few strands of hair behind his ear as a blush spread across his cheeks, sending Jonghyun’s insides flipping in somersaults. He was about to reach out and brush his fingertips across the colour on Kibum’s cheeks when he noticed several bluish marks on his skin, only visible because the arm of the t-shirt had been ruffled enough to ride up his arm during the fall.

He frowned and grabbed Kibum's wrist in one hand, his other pulling the arm of the t-shirt out of the way completely. Kibum looked at him curiously as Jonghyun leaned in to inspect what seemed to be five bruises in the shapes of fingers circling his upper arm.

“What is this?” Jonghyun whispered, worry filling his voice and chest. “Who did this to you?”

Kibum followed his gaze and his mouth opened in a perfect ‘o’, as if he had just remembered the bruises were there. He gently pulled his arm out of Jonghyun’s grip and tugged the sleeve down over them again.

“It’s nothing really,” he said offhandedly, clutching the end of the sleeve as if he were afraid Jonghyun would pull it off completely. “I just bruise easily.”

Jonghyun raised his eyebrows at him, unconvinced, and was about to investigate further when someone cleared their throat. The two of them turned to see the same girl who had interrupted them before standing just a few metres away. She had her hands on her hips and drummed her fingers against them impatiently.

“Right,” Kibum said, his entire demeanour turning apprehensive and guarded. He looked like reality had just slapped him in the face, but Jonghyun had no idea what that reality was. “Sorry, I’ll go now.”

He threw a longing glance at Jonghyun, raised his hand in a wave and turned around to leave.

“Kibum, wait.” Jonghyun desperately grabbed his wrist again. He couldn’t just let him leave like that, not after the bruises he’d seen.

“Jessica will see you out,” Kibum mumbled with his back still turned. “I have to go.”

“Wha–”

Jonghyun didn’t get much further because Kibum once again twisted his arm out of his hold and sprinted away, leaving him alone with Jessica, who was watching him with great interest. When Kibum was out of sight she reached out a hand, smiling amicably.

“Hello, I’m Jessica,” she introduced herself. “I’m the illusionist.”

Jonghyun, who had been staring after Kibum with his mouth open in disbelief, snapped his head in her direction.

“The illusionist?” he asked, sounding more threatening than he intended. She nodded, her eyebrows raised questioningly at his tone. “Then you’re responsible for making me feel the pull to this place!”

“Oh.” She turned her gaze to her feet guiltily, fumbling with her hands. “I-I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to…”

“No, no, it’s okay,” he hastily assured, feeling bad for seeming like he blamed her. He smiled. “I got to meet Kibum thanks to you, after all.”

Her eyes shot up to his and something dark passed them, her face going serious for a split second. Then she smiled back.

“Yeah,” she giggled. “I guess it’s not so bad then, huh?”

“Nah, but I guess I owe you thanks.” Jonghyun grinned.

“My pleasure,” she replied cheerily. Then she gestured in the direction of the door. “Let me see you out.”

Jonghyun frowned. He really felt like he should be going after Kibum. Call it instinct or whatever, but the nagging feeling that something was going on had grown stronger the more time he had spent with Kibum. And the bruises had kind of just made it worse.

“Right… I can’t just wait for Kibum to come back?”

She bit her lip briefly.

“Well,” she started slowly, “he’s going to be a while, so I think it would be best if you came back tomorrow.”

“Oh.” Jonghyun couldn’t hide his disappointment.

Jessica laughed lightly at his crestfallen look.

“Don’t worry!” she assured. “He’s still going to be here!”

That just made his worry worsen. Before he could pry for more information, she turned to lead the way and he reluctantly followed. There was something suspicious in the way she had answered him. Jonghyun's instinctive feeling of unease intensified even more and his worry grew tenfold. What in the world was going on? And who was The Owner?

He glanced at Jessica but decided against asking. He wasn’t entirely sure he could trust her.

Another thing that worried him was the speed at which he was falling for Kibum. It wasn’t healthy to be this deep in feelings after just what? Two days? But he had no way of stopping it, neither did he want to stop it. Kibum was something else, something he had never encountered in his life. He filled Jonghyun with so many new feelings and Jonghyun just couldn’t get enough. He wanted to know everything about him to the extent he didn’t have the mind to think about anything that was happening around him when they were together.

And he had a feeling it could end terribly.

A/N: *crawls out of hole* So, um.... I'm back... yay? I'm sorry I took so long ;__; But yeah, you probably know why if you read the author's note... and I just couldn't find the right words to write this or the inspiration, hence the slight hiatus, kinda *sigh*

Anyway, I hope you like this even a little and that it was worth the wait! And as most of my things are, this is not really proofread properly because I'm lazy OTL

I love you all! And no one really unsubscribed! (Colour me surprised! Hehe xD) Thank you!<3<3<3

Bye~!