Till I See Daylight

Suho x OC   [EXO]
romance, fantasy, au
3.373 words
dec. 30th 2016

                A single tear rolled down the corner of her eye, reaching the edge of her face and finally being absorbed by the fabric of the pillowcase. Jangmi’s face was illuminated by her phone’s screen, the only source of light in the room. She sobbed, shutting the screen off and carelessly threw the phone on the nightstand. She inhaled deeply and exhaled a shaky breath, rubbing her wet eyes in attempt to dry her tears and pretend they did not happen.

                Jangmi rolled around on the bed, laying on her back, and took another deep breath, ready to repeat the words she knew very well. Words she had been taught since a little kid, and still believed they would help.

                “Whatever I do, whatever I say,

                Bad thoughts won’t leave me and won’t go away.

                Please, keep with me during all night,

                And sing to me till I see daylight.”

                It was done.

                Everything in there was white. His clothes, the tables and chairs, the floor. His eyes were glued on the screen right in front of him. Numbers, real time graphics, stopwatch, information; his eyes and brain had been trained for several years to learn and process all that data presented to him as quickly as possible, to analyze and choose the right way to make them reach stabilization. Suho bit his lower lip, watching a specific point on the screen. The word ‘Sleeping’ slowly faded from grey to red, and it was time for him to act. He tapped the glass screen a couple of times and cleared his throat before tapping it one last time.

                He started singing. His voice, somehow, filled her dreams, soothed her pain, controlled her anxiety, pushed her depression away; anything she needed, it would happen.

                Suho was a Calmative.

                He sang to her, looking around the screen, checking the numbers and happily seeing them change into his goal. The frame on the left lower corner always took his attention more than it should; a type of camera that focused on her face during all her life. He was relieved to see her expression gradually relaxing while she slept. Once the song was over, he checked the data again; numbers stabilized, real time graphics nearly static and a small box with a green check in it.

                “Calm.” he smiled to himself.

                Calmatives were an entity with the only and exclusive purpose of calming down those who needed them. For humanity, they were completely unknown, but their effect on humans’ lives were undeniable. Usually through dreams, they would use all their skills and abilities to make sure their assigned human would be calmed down as soon as possible if, and only if, they were asked for it.

                There were many ways humans could do it; singing, repeating mantras, reciting a short verse. The latter was Suho’s favorite, and also the ones he usually was assigned for. There was a lot of research on each human’s personality to choose the most efficient Calmative to them. The Selectors believed that poetic profiles would make it a better match with Singer Calmatives and so on. Suho was a Singer Calmative, and his lyrics were more than poetic to humans’ ears – or dreams.

                There were also many ways to acquire a way of requesting. More than half of them were traditions, taught by parents or grandparents; the others made their ways themselves, and once noticing they worked greatly, kept them as a habit.

                Once sure Jangmi’s states wouldn’t reverse and she wouldn’t become sad again – she almost never did – he decided to take a break. He had been keeping up with her since earlier that day, when the states of her mind had started turning urgent. He picked up the little device on his table and plugged it in his ear, a mobile tracker that would beep once the request words were being said, so there was no way humans would be forsaken. Suho stood from his chair and stretched his legs, taking a brief look at her face before turning around and leaving for a short walk with a satisfied and somewhat relieved smile.

                Most Calmatives were loosely attached to their assigned humans; Suho himself had had quite a few of them for now, and he also thought there was really no reason to grow so fond of a human. It was often that they would keep their device plugged in their ears and do other activities, the ones who used to spend longer time around their tables would be considered workaholics. However, Suho was starting to become one.

                Jangmi opened her eyes for another day. She inhaled deeply and her mind quickly dragged her to the events in the night before. But they were exactly that at the moment; only events of the night before. She was feeling way better after a good night of sleep and a good dream. She wasn’t really sure of the scenes in her dream, they weren’t very clear and she honestly didn’t bother to remember them; the melody she heard was enough to keep her going for another day, the voice was reassuring her everything would be fine, and she believed it, despite the odd feeling sometimes. It was always like this, it never failed to work.

                Suho was happy with his results. It was a week when the Selectors were going to make arrangements, reassign humans, follow patterns, change Calmatives from their positions if needed, everything to make them work better and quicker. He had spent the last days rereading all the logs of her life, paying close attention to where he had been able to calm her down quickly – what was most of times – and what he could do to improve his performance. When a Selector came to talk to him and check his logs, he was vastly complimented. Truth is, Suho was happy with his results not because they implied his work was great, but because it meant his human was suffering less and less each day, due his efforts.

                As soon as the Selector left the room, Baekhyun rushed inside.

                “We’re going to play, wanna come?” he asked.

                “No, thanks,” he said without taking his eyes off the screen.

                Baekhyun looked at him.

                “You’ve been inside here for days. Are you sure you don’t want to play? We’ll be in teams.”

                “No, I have to stay here, I have some things to do.”

                Baekhyun discreetly checked out the screen and quickly scanned the data showed there.

                “But your human’s been good for more than two weeks now, I just heard the Selector saying your work is great, you don’t really need to stay here, just plug it in and come,” he tried once again.

                “I can’t! I have to be here if Jangmi needs me, Baekhyun!”

                He looked at Suho and lifted an eyebrow, frowning right after. It was not common for them to refer to humans by their names.

                “Alright… See you around then,” he slowly said and left.

                “You’re now a workaholic, I see,” Kyungsoo said while entering Suho’s office, some days later that week.

                “Kind of…” he mumbled, focused on the data on his screen.

                “We miss you at games. Chanyeol keeps winning every time, it’s not cool anymore,” he said softly.

                Something in his tone caught Suho’s attention. He his chair and looked at his friend.

                “What was the most difficult situation you had to face when dealing with a human?” he asked.

                “That’s random.” Kyungsoo smiled. “But I guess… You know, when they think about taking their lives, if they actually do something to make it, before they die, they reach a sleeping state. We’re allowed to do something, if they make the request, of course. Once I got a guy and I made everything I could to calm him. In some cases, it’s possible they don’t die, depending on how you manage their levels. He ended up dying anyways.”

                Suho listened to it all, taking notes to himself.

                “It was darker than I thought,” he said.

                “It was difficult,” Kyungsoo shrugged. “Why do you ask? Is your human with heavy problems?”

                “I guess there’s nothing wrong with Jangmi.”

                “Jangmi, your human?”

                “Yes.”

                “So, you…,” he trailed off.

                Suho looked at his friend, considering the idea of telling him the current situation