Prompt: Mirage
Additional Member: Zhou Mi
Word Count: 4,381

Jongwoon died five years ago due to a vehicle accident.

While driving through an intersection, on the way to one of his business meetings, a large cargo truck ran the stop light and slammed into the man’s car on the driver’s side. The impact had killed the man instantly.

Kyuhyun was in his office, working away, when he received the call. And his whole world crumbled to pieces when he heard the police officer on the other end ask if he knew a Kim Jongwoon. His voice trembled when he replied that he did and asked what was wrong.

“There’s been a crash, a cargo truck ran a red light, and I’m afraid that Mr. Kim’s car has been struck.”

“Oh gods, is he okay? Is Jongwoon alright?!” Kyuhyun practically yelled, catching the attention of his secretary as she looked up at him in concern.

“I’m afraid that the impact was too great that Mr. Kim was killed upon impact.”

That sentence rang through the man’s ears, his body was completely still, his eyes were blank, his body stiffened, the phone fell from his hand, dangling from the desk by the phone cord.

“Mr. Cho?” The faint voice of the officer came from the speaker, “Mr. Cho? Mr. Cho!”

The secretary quickly rushed over to Kyuhyun, “Kyuhyun? Are you okay? What is it? What’s wrong?” When she couldn’t get a response from the man, she picked up the phone, “H-Hello?”

“Mr. Cho?”

“This is his secretary, what happened? What’s going on?” She asked, still trying to get Kyuhyun to snap out of his frozen state.

As the officer explained everything to her, she stared at Kyuhyun in sympathy and worry. And little did she know the drastic change that would come from the man.

Present Day

He was practically a zombie. He worked his days away until finally he had enough and quit. He drank his nights away because after all, he couldn’t fall asleep in the same bed that used to occupy him and the love of his life without an aid. He shut down from everyone, barely ate, barely bathed, barely did anything because he could hardly find the strength for it.

Everyone told him that time makes the hurt fade, but he supposed that was only for some people. Because how could someone move on or heal when his dreams were filled with nothing but Jongwoon being back in his arms? And his nightmares that were filled with thoughts of how the man died? How could someone move on with that haunting him? How?

Everything seemed hopeless to him now. But of course, it was hopeless for him; Jongwoon was his everything in his life. His light, his darkness, his smile, his frown. His joy, his sadness. Jongwoon was the air that Kyuhyun breathed, and since his death, he felt like he’s suffocating. And he wondered when his lack of air would finally finish him off.

But Changmin, a very close friend of Kyuhyun’s, wasn’t about to let his best friend sit and wallow forever. No, even if some of his efforts seemed pointless, he was bound to make sure Kyuhyun was okay and keep his friend from going off the deep end.

He knew how much Kyuhyun loved Jongwoon and he knew the bond the two shared, but this state that Kyuhyun was in was not healthy. It was not good for the man at all. Grief was natural but Kyuhyun’s grief was constant mourning, and Changmin knew that if Jongwoon could, he’d tell the man to stop tormenting himself. Or at least, tell him to move on.

But Jongwoon wasn’t there anymore, Changmin was now, and Changmin was going to try everything to help his friend move on.

Which is how Kyuhyun found himself in the midst of a carnival with Changmin dragging him through the crowd. It was a Chinese carnival that was traveling through South Korea and ended up in Seoul for that week. Different colorful stands decorated the whole fair grounds, all bright and so beautiful that it should’ve brightened Kyuhyun up, definitely since he’d always wanted to explore China, but it didn’t even bring a crack of a smile to his face.

Something that didn’t go unnoticed by Changmin but he figured that maybe some food from one of the stands might change his mind. So he left Kyuhyun for a moment to get food.

Kyuhyun stayed where Changmin left him, only because he had no desire to go anywhere else. Not until he made eye-contact with a tall man wearing a top hat, suit, and cape. Those dark brown eyes seemed to bore into Kyuhyun, like they were reading everything in his entire soul.

With the wave of the man’s hand, Kyuhyun moved, walking closer to the man that was beckoning. Leading him inside a black tent, closing the door behind them.

“You appear to be lost,” the man said with a small smile gracing his lips, he was speaking Chinese but somehow, Kyuhyun could understand him. He had learned some Chinese before, back when he was still planning on visiting the country with Jongwoon, but he had forgotten most of it.

There was something that flickered across the man’s face after he spoke, almost as if he saw something in Kyuhyun after that moment. Kyuhyun didn’t speak. What could he say? He didn’t just appear lost, he was lost. He was lost without Jongwoon.

“Your love is admirable,” the man stated, “But you’ve lost him, haven’t you?” The thoughts of the car wreck flashed through Kyuhyun’s mind, and it seemed like the China man saw all of it, his smile turned sad, “You miss him terribly.”

Kyuhyun couldn’t stop himself from speaking then, “I don’t just miss him, I grieve him, I want him back, I can’t let go of him, I don’t want him to leave me, I can’t let him leave me. I love him, I love him so much!” It didn’t occur to him that maybe the man wouldn’t understand him, he was speaking in Korean, this man was Chinese.

But it didn’t look like the man was confused at all, he understood everything Kyuhyun said, his sad smile was still on his face but his eyes looked a little red. He looked a bit pained.

“I thought so, your dark aura is what lured me to you through the crowd,” the man straightened up, “My name is Zhou Mi and I’m a handler of great magic, if you’d allow me, I want to help you.”

To be honest, Kyuhyun didn’t want help. He knew that he was plummeting downhill; he had been since Jongwoon died, and quite frankly, he wanted to, because if it meant he was closer to dying, he’d be closer to reaching and being with Jongwoon. He knew that Changmin would be disappointed hearing that, but what did he have to live for since Jongwoon died? The man was his world.

But something in the Chinese man’s eyes, Zhou Mi’s, made him curious about how he could help him. What exactly could he do that all his friends hadn’t tried before?

“You’re interested, I can see, come,” he motioned towards a chair that Kyuhyun hadn’t noticed before, “sit down and I’ll begin.”

Kyuhyun walked over to the chair and sat down, curious to see what the man was going to do next. He watched those long, pale, slender fingers of the man’s come up to his head to tilt Kyuhyun’s head back, brushing his bangs out of his face. Then one of those hands came to rest on his forehead, he stared at Zhou Mi as the Chinese man closed his eyes, a warmth suddenly radiated from the man’s hand.

His eyelids started to feel heavy, Kyuhyun closed them, and felt a jolt go through his body as memories started flooding his mind. Memories of Jongwoon. The first time he confessed to the older male that he loved him. The first time that he kissed the man, it was under an old tree in the city’s park and when he realized that the little kiss had sealed him away inside Jongwoon’s heart. The time when they had their first fight, it was over Kyuhyun’s jealousy. He remembered having to sleep on the couch at the beginning of the night before crawling into the bedroom with a sore and aching back and begging Jongwoon to forgive him, if only it was to let him back into the comfy bed and back in those arms.

The first time that they made love flashed through his mind; he remembered all the little sighs and sounds coming from that pair of soft lips. He remembered the touches, the , the sweat, the heat that was built up between their bodies. He remembered the little ‘I love you’s whispered during and after their love making.

He remembered the morning before going into the office, the day that had destroyed Kyuhyun, he remembered making Jongwoon a cup of coffee. He remembered trying to help the man fix breakfast before getting shooed out so they wouldn’t be late for work. He remembered the little kisses he stole from the man and the way the back of Jongwoon’s neck tasted as he stood behind him, watching the man cook as he hugged him from behind.

He remembered the taste of those coffee-flavored lips before he had to grab his suitcase and head out the door so he wouldn’t be late for work. Then he remembered going into the office, greeting his secretary, and then going into his office to get started on the stack of papers. And then he remembered the shrill of a phone ringing before the Chinese man, Zhou Mi, pulled his hand away from Kyuhyun’s head.

But when Kyuhyun opened his eyes, he didn’t see the Chinese man anywhere around. He didn’t even see the inside of the tent anymore that he knew he had to still be in. Instead, he saw his apartment, but it couldn’t have been his apartment. Because it wasn’t neat, it wasn’t clean; it wasn’t bright and cheery anymore since the light of his world didn’t reside in it anymore.

But that’s where he was standing. And then he heard it, eyes widening at the sound of it. A soft, husky humming filled the room. It was distant, sounding like it was coming from the kitchen, but Kyuhyun could recognize it anywhere. Quickly he ran to the door of the kitchen, throwing it open to see someone he thought he’d never see again.

Standing there, back towards Kyuhyun, hands working away at the dishes in the sink, blond hair glowing in the sun coming through the kitchen window, his regular home attire adorning that perfect figure, was what Kyuhyun believed could only be a dream. It had to be a dream. There had been so many times when he dreamed that the car crash never happened, that he had awoke to find it’d all be a dream and Jongwoon was really inside the kitchen, fixing breakfast, or watching television in the living room with a bowl of cereal or a cup of coffee in hand.

So he wondered if this was just another dream. He debated about pinching himself because he always loved these dreams, they tortured him continuously, yes, but any moment, real or not, that he could have with Jongwoon again, well, he never wanted to wake up from it. And this, this felt so real. More real than anything he’d dreamed of before. But the other half of him brought his fingers up to twist a small part of the flesh on his arms, only when he winced at the pain, and slightly cursed, all it did was finally draw Jongwoon’s attention to him.

Kyuhyun hadn’t woken up, but he believed he’d died and gone to heaven or wherever that Jongwoon was when he saw the man’s face. He hadn’t changed at all, he was still so beautiful. Blonde hair framing his round face, those almond shaped eyes, those cheeks that were so puffy when he smiled, and those soft lips. It was Jongwoon. He was standing there. Just several feet from Kyuhyun.

“Are you alright, Kyuhyun?” Jongwoon asked, tilting his head to the side, looking down at Kyuhyun’s arm, “Why are you pinching yourself?”

The younger male dropped his hands back down by his sides, “Uh, um, n-no reason…” Kyuhyun glanced down at the floor before lifting his head to meet Jongwoon’s curious gaze again. He felt so shy when really, all he wanted to do was stride up the man and wrap his arms around him. Just to breathe in the scent of Jongwoon that had long faded from the pillows that Kyuhyun had clutched the first few nights after Jongwoon was killed.

“J-Jongwoon?” Kyuhyun spoke, hesitant, because the next question he asked, since he hadn’t woken up with the pinch to his arm, was going to be hard. He kind of wanted Jongwoon to lie to him and kind of wanted the truth but he wanted to know how this was possible. How was it possible that the man was standing here, before Kyuhyun’s eyes, when he had witnessed the man being placed inside a coffin and lowered into a six-foot grave? “H-How…” he cleared his throat, “How are you here?”

Confusion crossed Jongwoon’s face, “Uh, well, it’s where I live… last time I checked? And it is Saturday, our day off? I know I made plans to see my parents this weekend but I really wanted to spend the day with you.”

Kyuhyun just stared at the man for a moment, confusion reflecting Jongwoon’s, and it couldn’t make sense of what Jongwoon said. Of course, the man did live here… well, lived here, and as he peeked at the calendar on the wall, it was apparently Saturday, their day off, but how was he here? Jongwoon was dead! Or at least… wasn’t he?

“Kyuhyun, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Are you sure you’re alright?” Jongwoon asked, wiping his hands off on the dish towel and took a step towards the younger male.

He couldn’t help but released a choked laugh at the irony in Jongwoon’s words. Wasn’t he seeing a ghost right now? Wasn’t Jongwoon just a ghost? How else would he be standing there right now? If he hadn’t woken up by now and everything seemed so real, wouldn’t that mean it’s not a dream and he’s just seeing a ghost? It seemed like too much to hope for that it was real, that this was true.

“J-Jongwoon? A-Are you… are you really there?” Kyuhyun asked, tears starting to well up in his eyes, he begged to all the heavens that this was real. The pain in his chest was starting to eat at him, the dread that maybe this was just another torturous thing his mind conjured up, but what if it was real?

Jongwoon placed the dishtowel down on the side of the sink, “Yes, Kyuhyun, I’m really here,” he was still confused; more worried now, “Come here, Kyuhyun. Did something happen?”

That was all it took to make Kyuhyun break down in a sob. Jongwoon’s arms were wide open for him, ready to embrace him, and with just a few steps, he’d be back in those warm, loving, and caring arms. He’d be able to breathe in the scent of the man, hear his heartbeat, and feel it vibrate against him as it beat. And that was all Kyuhyun wanted, to know the man was still there.

He found it hard to move his feet at first, they felt like they were cemented to the floor, but he finally took a step, and then another, and another, and he could see that Jongwoon was still right there. The closer he got to the man, he could already feel the warmth coming off Jongwoon, he could catch the faint scent of the man, the smell of coffee grounds and peppermint. He couldn’t believe this was happening, he still didn’t know how it was happening, but he could care less at that moment because he was about to get his wish as he was just inches away from embracing the man.

“Kyuhyun!”

He felt like he’d be jolted by electricity. Maybe he had been. His body felt like it was waking up and when he blinked, Jongwoon wasn’t there anymore, that warmth that was awaiting him had vanished, turned into nothing but coldness aside from the two hands grasping his arms, shaking him. The face that was before him wasn’t Jongwoon, no, it was Changmin. Changmin’s worried face and standing behind him, was the Chinese man, the magician, Zhou Mi.

“Kyuhyun?” Changmin called again, seeing that the man had finally broke out of that hypnosis. “Geez, Kyuhyun, I didn’t think you were one for having someone hypnotize you.”

That confused him. “Huh? Hypnotize?” So it was all a dream? He instantly fell back into the depressed state that he was in before.

“Yeah, didn’t you know? I read that this guy, Zhou Mi, is a master at making mirages and stuff,” Changmin explained, helping Kyuhyun up out of the chair.

Kyuhyun couldn’t speak for a moment, so it was all just a dream. An illusion. Just some scene implanted in his mind by this man, Zhou Mi. He almost wanted to cry from feeling so foolish into thinking, for a second, that Jongwoon hadn’t died. But everything felt so real.

“Changmin, let’s go,” Kyuhyun said, brushing past the man and heading to the flap of the tent, but just before he left, he threw a glance back at Zhou Mi.

Zhou Mi simply bowed his head, a small smile on his face, and a look in his eyes that seemed to say that he knew that Kyuhyun would be back.

That night, after Changmin left, Kyuhyun lied there in bed, remembering everything that happened in that illusion. As much as he was saddened by the fact that it wasn’t real, that Jongwoon was dead, and that it was all just something created by someone playing with his memories, he believed the saddest part was not getting to wrap his arms around Jongwoon again. Everything else felt so real, and he really just wanted to believe that Jongwoon was real.

And so he tossed and turned in bed, not sleeping at all, not finding a comfortable position at all, and as much as he clutched to, what used to be, Jongwoon’s pillow, he couldn’t find peace or sleep. But of course, he hadn’t been able to find either of those since Jongwoon’s death, without the false peace that alcohol brought him, and the sleep that exhaustion brought onto him, of course. Yet tonight, it felt different. Even after he chugged down the last bottle of whiskey he could find, it still wasn’t easing anything.

When morning finally arose, Kyuhyun pulled himself out of bed, threw on some clothes that smelled clean, well halfway clean, to him, skipped the shower and breakfast, and was out the door. He knew that Changmin had more plans for him today and he was supposed to wait on the man to arrive at his home, but Kyuhyun couldn’t stay there. He wasn’t sure where he was heading at first, but somehow, he knew he would end up where he did.

The Chinese carnival.

In front of that black tent.

Tempted to open the flap.

He stared at it for a moment, unsure if he was ready to go back in and ask Zhou Mi to send him back into that mirage of Jongwoon, that illusion that he was alive again, but he figured that he had nothing to lose. What more could he lose anyway? His world had already been taken from him.

And so with his mind made up, he pulled up the flap and entered the tent. He found Zhou Mi, without his top hat on and without his coat, seated behind a little table, a cup of tea in his hands. The chair that Kyuhyun found himself in last night was just a few feet from the table.

“I knew you’d be back,” Zhou Mi stated, reaching for another cup, and pouring some of the warm tea into it. He placed it across the table and gestured to Kyuhyun to sit down. “Have a seat; the tea is already getting cold.”

Kyuhyun walked over and sat down, he stared at the tea cup for a moment, staring at the tiny tea leaves at the bottom of the cup. He glanced up at Zhou Mi to see the man only interested in drinking his tea.

“Can you take me back there?” The question left Kyuhyun’s lips before he even realized it. But deep down, he knew that was the reason why he came back to this man, to this tent, and to this lie that he would be fed.

The smile that crossed Zhou Mi’s lips should’ve made Kyuhyun’s skin crawl, the glint of mischief in his eyes should’ve made Kyuhyun get up and run out of the tent, but he didn’t. He remained where he was. This man sitting across the table from him had the key to him being reunited with Jongwoon again. And that’s all he wanted.

“I can take you back there. I can give you Jongwoon. I can leave you there with him for the rest of your days, if you’d wish it,” Zhou Mi replied, setting his cup back down on the table.

Kyuhyun’s eyes widened, “Y-You can do that? I can be reunited with J-Jongwoon? He’ll never be taken from me ever again?”

Zhou Mi nodded, “I can do that, you’ll stay forever in your memories of him, I can make it to where you won’t even remember his death.” He had the magic to do so; he could give Kyuhyun exactly what the man knew he wanted when he first laid eyes on the Korean man. “But are you willing to give up your life to a mirage? To an illusion of your dead lover?”

“Yes!” Kyuhyun all but shouted, he had nothing left to live for, and if he remained in that illusion that Zhou Mi could give him of Jongwoon then he was not going to refuse. He knew from countless times that Changmin told him that Jongwoon would want him to move on, but he just couldn’t. How could someone move on with half their life missing? And this offer right here, this command of the Chinese man, could substitute that missing half.

The China man took a deep breath, his smile gone, his face serious as he stared at Kyuhyun with those dark eyes, “Then your wish is my command.”

Kyuhyun wasn’t sure what happened next, all he could remember is the room starting to spin as his eyes struggled to stay open and then everything was black. When he found the strength to pry open his eyes, squinting at the brightness that was his surroundings, he felt an old familiar warmth lying under him. There was a soft vibration beating against his right cheek as he stared straight ahead, seeing the television playing, the volume was too low to hear.

Then he saw it, an arm moving in his line of vision. An arm that he’d know anywhere. Jongwoon’s arm. Kyuhyun couldn’t help but revel in the man’s touch as he felt that arm come around to hold his body to the man’s, his other arm already holding onto him. Then he felt a pair of lips press against the top of his head. He smiled. The first smile that graced his lips in a long time, he believed, as he lifted his head and was met with the most beautiful person on the face of the Earth.

Jongwoon. His Jongwoon.

“Did you have a good nap, Kyuhyun?” Jongwoon asked, releasing the man with one arm to bring his hand up to brush the bangs out of Kyuhyun’s face.

A nap? When had he fallen asleep? He couldn’t remember falling asleep right here, especially on one of the most comfortable pillows he’d ever slept on. Jongwoon’s chest.

He smiled at Jongwoon and nodded, lying his head back down on Jongwoon’s chest, snuggling into it, “Yeah, it was a good nap. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

He could feel a hand running through his hair and then the vibration through Jongwoon’s chest as he spoke, “I know, but I figured you’d fall asleep as soon as I found that old movie that I used to watch. You never made it through ten minutes without clocking out.”

“Well it was pretty boring,” Kyuhyun retorted, wincing when he received a small slap to his back.

“Hey! It is not, the first few minutes of it is supposed to be that way, but the plot becomes more interesting further into the movie…” Jongwoon kept rambling on and on about the movie while Kyuhyun simply soaked in everything.

The smile never faded from his face. Hearing Jongwoon’s voice again, feeling his arms around him, hearing that heartbeat against his ear, and just everything about Jongwoon. And strangely enough, he couldn’t remember why he was feeling so emotional over the thought of Jongwoon being there, there was something deep inside him that knew, but he couldn’t seem to conjure up the thought. He didn't believe he'd want to remember it either.

But whatever it was, he shook it away, shrugged it off as he lifted his head up to see Jongwoon still rambling on and on about the details of the movie. He smiled at the man, leaning forward, and catching the man off guard with a kiss, silencing him from his rambling.

“I love you, Jongwoon,” Kyuhyun murmured against the man’s lips. “I always will.”

A smile broke out over the blonde’s lips, “I love you too, Kyuhyun. Always.”

Zhou Mi smiled to himself as he tweaked a few things for Kyuhyun’s illusion. If the man was going to be in his care for the rest of his days, he may as well wipe any of that sadness and emptiness the man felt for his dead lover away. Instead he was just going to allow Kyuhyun to enjoy all his memories and the illusions that Zhou Mi could give him of Jongwoon. After all, in Zhou Mi's world, he could make it to where Jongwoon had never died at all.

So that together, Kyuhyun could always be with Jongwoon. 

A/N: I'd probably get more prompts completed if I didn't make them so long. XD