KissTheDream: Originally, this and the next chapter were one, but I split them up. Looks better this way.

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Morning found Jaehwan dazzled and disoriented, sprawled out in a bed that definitely wasn’t his, hair a total mess, body so sweaty his pajamas stuck to his skin.

He propped himself on his elbows. A fear gripped him, a fear that made him shiver among the cosy blankets, yet he couldn’t explain or remember what exactly he was so afraid of. Did I have a nightmare?

He heard a low meow, and that finally made him realize where he was.

Leo stood near the bed, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing something that, according to Jaehwan, should definitely be illegal – a black, silky tank top that was cut low and exposed his defined collarbones and the shallow valleys above them, as well as his bulging arms.

Unable to utter a sound, Jaehwan stared at Leo and waited for an explanation.

“You passed out.” Leo finally muttered. Jaehwan remained silent. “I found you in the kitchen. On the floor.”

“… What was I doing there?” asked Jaehwan quietly, more to himself than to anyone. Did I drink last night?

Leo shook his head, then motioned to the side table, where a modest breakfast was waiting. He eyed Jaehwan expectantly.

Hold up, this bastard actually made me breakfast? Jaehwan dared to think, for a second, that Leo might have some humanity in him after all. Whispering a “thanks”, he took the tray in his weak hands and started munching on whatever he could grab first, barely noticing the taste. Slowly, Leo stood up and assumed his usual position at the laptop.

Jaehwan bit his lips, a little embarrassed for passing out. Why did I just collapse all of a sudden? He didn’t even have a single drink last night. It made no sense. Halfway through his scrambled eggs, he noticed the first glint of sunlight outside, purple against the city’s grey skyline. The light fell across Leo’s delicate face as the strange boy closed his eyes, enjoying the music pulsing through his headphones. He even gave up his bed for me? Does that mean he didn’t even sleep? What the hell, we aren’t even friends! The sun emerged above the horizon, huge and red, red, red, as red as…

Like a punch to the face, it came back to Jaehwan in a flash – the body dangling from the ceiling fan, facing upwards, missing an arm, missing a hand, missing a leg, missing an ear. He remembered the warm drops of blood dripping down his own face like tears. And he remembered the shirt the corpse was wearing, the cute baby blue shirt Jaehwan had bought Hongbin for his birthday.

“Bucket… ” Jaehwan muttered, stomach turning like a washing machine and its contents rising up his throat and nose. “Bucket, bucket…!” The feeling was familiar – he felt it every time he drank too much of Hakyeon’s terrible beer – but that made it no more bearable. “BUCKET!!!”

Leo finally took notice but was way too late to stop the half-digested eggs from exploding out of Jaehwan’s mouth and onto the pure white rug. Vomit dripping from his mouth, Jaehwan was too preoccupied to feel embarrassed or sorry. Jumping up from the bed, he pulled Leo from his chair.

“Leo, it… it’s in the kitchen. In the kitchen...!!!” Jaehwan panted into Leo's face.

Leo’s eyebrow arched upwards, but he still let himself be dragged out of the bedroom, across the chilly hallway and into the small kitchen. Rushing inside, Jaehwan’s eyes were immediately on the ceiling, on the slowly rotating fan that had, the night before, had a swollen body on top of it, slowly spinning along, dripping blood as it turned.

But in the morning light, all Jaehwan saw was a perfectly clean fan with nothing on it, buzzing slightly as it made slow circles.

Jaehwan’s mouth ran dry. “It… I swear it was here…” He wasn’t entirely sure whether he was glad there was no body, or even more disturbed.

That’s when Jaehwan’s adrenaline rush abruptly ended. His legs felt weak, the world spun, and Leo had to practically catch him or else he would fall.

Holding on to Leo’s shoulders, faces centimeters apart, Jaehwan couldn’t miss Leo’s empty expression. Leo’s nose scrunched up a little.

“Go wash your face.” Jaehwan just blinked at him. Sighing exasperatedly (it seemed to be a habit), Leo harshly pushed Jaehwan away and propped him against a wall.

“You have vomit on your face.” That’s all Leo said before retreating back into his own room.

Only then did Jaehwan notice he was trembling. Confused, Jaehwan glanced upwards at the ceiling fan once again.

I’m SURE I saw it!!!

Nothing seemed to make sense.

Feeling another rush of sickness, Jaehwan threw up again, this time into the kitchen sink.

* * *

In the comfort of his own room, Jaehwan lay in bed and toyed with his old phone. He took the battery out, he took the SIM card out, he took the memory card out, then put it all back it – yet nothing seemed to work. When he had fainted the night before, his old phone fell onto the hard kitchen floor tiles and, apparently, broke apart completely.

With his new phone taken away by the police the day before, Jaehwan was phoneless. He toyed with the idea of barging into Ravi’s station or trying to find Hakyeon at his uni. He desperately need to see someone, to talk to someone, someone who could take his mind off of the horrible memory that resurfaced over his eyes every few seconds. Whether he was remembering more and more, or his mind was inventing new details, Jaehwan would never know – yet, each time, the sight grew more and more detailed in his head, as well as more gruesome. He thought he could remember Hongbin’s body wearing that knitted bracelet they’d once made in elementary school and that Hongbin had never taken off ever since.

But then, Jaehwan remembered the corpse had had no hands to wear bracelets on. Sinking into his bed, he clutched his head in his shaking hands. Maybe I made the whole thing up? He started intensely at his phone, praying it would suddenly ring, even though it was clearly impossible - the screen was blank and dead.

In a desperate attempt to distract himself, he opened his laptop to find, to his shock, a strange new message on his facebook.

“Come to my room.” said a message from someone named Jung Leo.

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KissTheDream: Watching the Love Equation MV, I'm struck by a huge and terrible mystery.

Where did the ice cream go?!

When Hyuk smudges ice cream on Ravi's face, it's all over his face. But in the next shot, there's just a tiny bit of ice cream on his lips.

What sourcery is that???

My guess? Hyuk it off. :3

As always, comments, upvotes and subs will be greatly appreciated. In fact, once I conquer Earth, all my commenters & upvoters will be made into princes & princesses.

It's true. I promise. ^.^ <3