Chapter 8

“Come on, baby… we are going to make it…” Yunho encouraged the wounded Jae that was struggling to even make a single step. “The car isn’t too far…” he added and held him tighter as they ran towards the gate. Everything was sunk into deep silence, and the smoke had risen up to the sky, being visible by every corner of Seoul city. Yet, no one had come for aid; no police, no fire fighters… no one to assist. That was a fact that troubled Yunho greatly, but he couldn’t think of it at such a moment. His greatest worry was Jaejoong and taking him back to the hospital was his only concern.
His eyes scanned the dark area around them. Yunho was thankful the other three didn’t follow him. Probably they had found some kind of a plan or they were arguing whose idea was the best and why.  He could even listen to them in his head. The whole story would go like this:
JS: We will do it this way. It’s the safest!
YC: No one asked you…
JS: What a surprise, I would say the same to you…
YC: Then what do you suggest to do? They are both in danger!
JS: Going after them is not an option. Dying to save them would do nothing good…
CM: Guys…
JS & YC: Not now Changmin!

And thus it would go on and on…maybe that’s the reason why no help was to be found. Maybe they were too busy disagreeing instead of picking their damn cellphones and calling anyone. Yunho shook his head in disapproval and right when he was about to chuckle and tell Jae what he had in mind about the other three, he heard a soft moan. There was no burden in his arms; he was holding nothing but thin air. “JAE!” he called out his lover’s name and looked behind as the young man had fallen on the ground, holding his injured waist and supporting himself with bleeding hands on the soil.
“I- I’m fine” he reassured him with a low voice and faintly lifted his hand; somehow to ease Yunho’s worry; almost impossible to achieve.
“You can do it…” the leader knelt close to him and offered his arm. “Come on, I’ll lift you up. The car is not so far away…we will make it…”
Jaejoong looked into his love’s eyes and swallowed unsure of his words. His entire body was in terrible pain; his waist and back full of scratches and his torso filled with purplish bruises. His legs couldn’t hold him up anymore and his head had enough of the tension and the fall they both went through to escape the hell…

Yunho held tightly the other’s hand as they both were witnesses of the fire’s fury right in front of them. Indeed, their only entrance was no blocked by aggressively dancing flames. It almost felt as if they were screaming to the two boys not to go any closer; as if they were singing to them, trying to manipulate their minds and force them to stand still till the end. It was such a beautiful sight that Jae felt so charmed by it… so charmed that he even reached out his hand to touch the red velvet skin of those burning sirens… He wanted to touch them so badly… to feel the heat and be one with their essential beauty…
“NO!” Yunho screamed and slapped his arm, grabbing it and holding it down. He stepped right in front of him. “What are you thinking?!” he yelled confused and angry.
Jae didn’t give his reply right away. He seemed frozen; hypnotized somehow, yet as the voice of his lover echoed in his mind again and again, suddenly everything made sense to him. The young man shook his head and blinked, just like when he was waking up from a light nap. “Yunho?” he tilted his head to the side and then repeated again, only this time with a louder voice as he grabbed Yun’s upper arms and pushed both of them to the side. The fire hand managed to devour the upper floor and occasionally, large, burning pieces of ceiling were falling, and one of them was the reason why Yunho was laying on top of a silent Jae.
“Phew…” he said as he stared at it with eyes of terror, slowly realizing what would have happened to them if Jae was not fast enough. “We were lucky, enough- Jae?” he questioned the brown haired guy’s silence and suddenly his life became a small matter compared to Jaejoong’s frowning and whimpers of pain. “What’s wrong?! Are you hurt?! Answer me!”
“M-my back…” he sobbed and Yunho turned him to the side as Jae had brought his knees to his chest, hugging them, arching his back which was filled with wounds and small pieces of glass stubbed in various spots.  Previously, when Yunho was still outside, he had ducked to cover himself from a blow that smashed the window. The broken pieces of glass were scattered everywhere and Jae had fallen with his back on a whole bunch of them. Hastily, the leader stood up and pulled with him his lover. There was a way out… They just had to be quick and precise… and endure the pain that would come after that.
“Don’t be afraid. We can still get out…” he whispered his ear as he pulled the pieces of glass out of Jaejoong’s wounds with really fast motions so the pain can be sudden and last few seconds. The other young man held tightly onto his boyfriend and dug his face to Yunho’s neck as he moan silently from the sting and the soreness. “It will be alright…” Yun kept on saying to comfort him. “I love you…” he kissed his head and caressed his messy hair. “…I’m not letting you alone…not ever again…” he cupped his face and smiled gently before pressing his own lips against Jae’s, brushing them together and taking all the fear away.
 It didn’t take Jaejoong long to calm down and give his boyfriend a nod, reassuring him that he was already feeling alright and that he would overcome everything in order to escape from there.

So, the plan was pretty simple yet a little hard to prepare. Of course jumping from the window would have been a very easy thing to do since the glass was broken. However, a small detail complicated everything else; the height. None of them could simply jump through it by stand it in such a low floor. They needed a surface just as high as a dining table or two crates one on top of the other, or anything that could assist them. Yunho rubbed the back of his head. Time unfortunately was not on their side and Jae now needed medical attention more than before. Odds indeed were a terrible villain and they both had to find out about it at such terrible events.
 “Yunho…. We can’t wait anymore..” Jae spoke in a low and hopeless tone as he supported his self on the wall, forgetting for a while the ach of his body. “We can’t stay here!” he desperately shouted and Yunho turned to him “I KNOW! I AM TRYING!” he yelled back and Jae looked at him with wide eyes before lowering them.
“I’m sorry…” the young man whispered and Yun sighed, kicking a fallen chair and letting out a cry of despair from the depth of his lungs. All the agony and the terror being release in one powerful cry that frozen Jae’s blood, but still weak to freeze those flames.
“It’s no use, Yun…” Jae said lowly and began sliding his body against the wall and down to the floor. “It’s over… don’t you get it?” all hope was lost… “No one is coming… and the fire will slowly take us  both-” he paused to cough as his throat was already stuffed with dust and breathing was slightly challenging to do.
“No! I can’t accept that, JAE! I can’t!” the leader threw back at his lover who seemed more like a rival now than a loved one. One side had given up and the other was just… “…trying too hard, Yunnie…”

A little outside the gate.

“Police said that they will be right here.”
“And the fire department answered the same all five times I called…” Junsu shook his head and his bottom lip as he glanced both Changmin and Yoochun. “What about the hyungs?”
“None picked it up.” Min replied with a shrug. “Their numbers either were invalid or unavailable.”
“I don’t like the sound of that…” Micky shared his thought and took a deep breath. “I called the police; they answer that they will be right here, yet no sign of them for more than half an hour.  Junsu does the same with the Fire Department; same reply, same result. And none of the hyungs in the company is answering… What does that mean? Is this all in our heads?”
“What? Are we the only ones seeing this?” Changmin pointed at the building that was giving into the embrace of the raging fire.
“Something else is going on….” Junsu spoke with a thoughtful look. “Let’s try again and if there is no reply then we go right in.”
“Are you crazy? Just a few moments ago we agreed that this is not the solution. ”
“Do you have anything different to suggest, Yoochun? Do you?”
“Ah, great! Even you Changmin?!” Micky desperately waved his arms and scoffed. “Fine!” he came in a forceful agreement and grabbed his cellphone, dialing the police’s number with the other two following him.

“AGHHHHHHHHH!” Yunho threw the broken chair to the wall and knelt down as he couldn’t think of anything. Their only way out was right there; he moved his glance up to the window; and yet it was so far away from them…why? Why things had come this way? “You know…back when we had that fight…” he started first to break the silence.
“Don’t..” Jae stopped him. The last thing he wanted to listen these grave moments were an explanation that mattered no more..
“No I have to. I… actually was waiting for a more appropriate moment but…” it was his turn to choke on the smoke as the air was getting thicker and lesser.
“I told you don’t, Yunnie. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It does! Can’t you see it, Jae? I--”
“SHUT UP!” Jaejoong burst and shot his body up before tripping on his own step and nearly collapsing. Yunho ran to his aid and held him tightly. They both remained silent, lost in the embrace. “I don’t wanna remember any of it..” he explained while sobs were heard. Yun’s arms tightened around the injured Jaejoong. “I don’t want to remember the fight and any of our fights. I don’t need any damn explanation, Yunho!” he punched the man’s chest before breaking down to tears. “I just…. I just want to know that you…that you love me” his voice was just as wrecked as his spirit.
“I do love you…” Yunho struggled to remain strong, however he was feeling obligated to do so. He let no tear to fall down from his eyes and he kept on holding Jaejoong, protecting him from what was to come next. “That’s why, whatever it is to happen here..” he held his cheeks and gazed into his eyes with half a smile. “I want to be next to you… I want to..” his one hand fell to grasp Jae’s “fall with you, if that is to happen tonight. I don’t care about anything but…”
“Stop it, Yunnie...” he pulled back and covered his mouth with his fist as he turned his look away. “It’s already over anyways.” The boy wiped his tears. “No one has come… no will come… No one cares!” he yelled and grasped his head. “We will die, Yun..” he stepped towards him and clutched his shoulders, shaking him softly. “We are already dead!”
Yunho couldn’t speak. Every word was erased from his mind as dread and horror were ruling his every thought. It was as if his soul had left and Jaejoong was only shaking a lifeless body.
We are dead….

We already are dead
 

No one will bother to save us…no one will care to save us…
 

This is the end….
 

Jae had lost all his senses, his calm and his heart. He was desperate and afraid; in pain and not so strong. He had lost hope and he couldn’t think clear enough.   

No…. No…. this wasn’t the end.

They weren’t dead neither going to die.

There was still hope..

“NO!” he yelled and grabbed Jae firmly from his wrist pulling him towards the window. “Wait here!” he commanded him and the other just stared at him with confused, glimmering eyes.
Yunho took off his jumper and began banging with it a small table that was yet resisting. Trying to put the fire out, Yun hit it harder and harder. It was already known to him that wool could be quite the fighter when it was going against such a villain as fire so he acted fast with more confident than before. Once the flames had been defeated, he pulled the half burned furniture right where Jaejoong was. His palms were red and almost burnt since the material was boiling but the instinct, the need to survive was prevailing the throbbing of his skin.
“Get up!” he instructed him.
“Huh?” Jae looked at the table and then back at Yunho.
“We don’t have much time…” the leader pulled his own self up and then offered his hand to Jae. “Together. Come on.”
Jae nodded and grabbed his arm, forcing his body to be lifted and his legs to stand on the hot surface. But despite the temperature and the shaking metallic legs, the height was just right.
The two young men looked at each other, holding hands and swallowing thickly. This was it; their final exit. It was now or never.

..

They had both fallen down; outside of the fiery building…They were alive. Yunho was so pleased with that. He had watched Jaejoong breaking and keep on muttering that they were dead and none of this would end well.. But they could finally breathe the clear breeze; the refreshing wind…they could look at the night sky and they could hope again.. So..

“…please, Jae… just a few steps more” he begged his lover to stand up..
“I…I will…” the boy bit his lower lip not to make a sound from the painful waves that struck down his body with a single move. He was breathing heavily and coughing at the same time. It was a wonder how he still kept his consciousness… but he tried his best, even if that alone was not enough. He lifted up his head to look at his Yunnie… to gain more inner strength and endurance by gazing the man he loved more than life itself… “YUNHO! BEHIND YOU!”
The man was taken by surprise and did as he was told. His breath hitched at the sight.
 

“Nothing is over… yet!” a cold voice spoke and the sound of a gun being loaded echoed all around…