Limbo

Chapter 10: Expulsion

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Spinning the black pastel between nimble fingers, Jongdae flipped his finished piece upside and squinted at it, searching for any mistakes that eluded him earlier. Upon finding none, Jongdae carefully laid the artwork on top of his desk and put away his pastels. Then, he cleaned up his work area and headed to the bathroom to wash his hands. He needed to sleep early tonight to make up for last night.

Seeing as Chanyeol stayed over for the night, Jongdae made a quick prayer before lying down, hoping Chanyeol and Baekhyun wouldn’t get up to any nightly activities. Afterward, he crawled into bed, and it felt like his head hadn’t even touched his pillow yet before Jongdae opened his eyes to the familiar gray. Relief flooded him when he realized that he had appeared in Limbo again. He was aware that he didn’t visit Limbo every night, but a part of him still worried that he wouldn’t see Junmyeon again.

Therefore, a large smile stretched across Jongdae’s face when he saw Junmyeon sitting a few yards away from him. Forgetting that he was supposed to be trying to get rid of his crush, Jongdae sat up and called, “Hyung!”

Junmyeon didn’t respond. Upon moving closer, Jongdae’s wide grin faded when he saw Junmyeon holding his head in one hand, fingers tangled in locks of short, black hair.

“Hyung, are you okay?”

A strangled noise escaped Junmyeon’s throat, but he didn’t attempt to give a coherent answer. A gnawing sensation emerged in Jongdae’s gut. Something was very wrong.

 “Hyung, what’s bothering you?” Jongdae persisted, “If there’s some way I can help you, then tell me.”

Junmyeon paled at that, gray color draining from his face. Jongdae frowned and reached out, wanting to offer some form of comfort but unsure how. However, he didn’t expect Junmyeon to lash out and slap his hand away.

Jongdae recoiled, hand still hovering the air. “Hyung…”

“Don’t,” Junmyeon ground out, shrinking in on himself. “Don’t touch me.”

A white-hot knife buried itself in Jongdae’s chest. Junmyeon was acting as though they were strangers again, back when Jongdae chased after him even though he had made it clear that he didn’t want to see Jongdae in Limbo. However, being pushed away didn’t hurt as much last time.

“Hyung, I just want to help,” Jongdae tried.

“No,” Junmyeon shuddered, “You want to hurt me.”

The knife in his chest twisted, and Jongdae’s voice rose. “What?”

“You’re going to hurt me,” Junmyeon repeated, “Just like he did. You guys say the same things, so you must be–”

The words bubbled in his chest, threatening to spill from his mouth. Jongdae took a deep breath and – despite the voice yelling at him to keep his mouth shut – blurted out, “How could I want to hurt you when I like you!”

The silence that followed and Junmyeon’s lack of a reaction unnerved Jongdae. Now that he needed to deal with the impending consequences of his impulsive words, Jongdae realized that he should have backtracked when he still had the chance.

Junmyeon faced him with an open mouth and an empty expression, but Jongdae suspected that Junmyeon was looking through him rather than at him. He shifted his weight, and then Junmyeon was back. However, Jongdae didn’t like the look in Junmyeon’s dark eyes as the other backed away with arms raised defensively.

“Wait, Junmyeon, let me explain,” Jongdae pleaded, but he could tell that Junmyeon didn’t want to keep talking. However, Jongdae wasn’t going to give up. He stepped forward, preparing to clarify his earlier words, and instantly knew that he made a wrong move.

“Get out.” Junmyeon flinched away, voice trembling and eyes wide. When Jongdae hesitated, Junmyeon raised his voice. “Get out!”

An unseen force shoved Jongdae in the chest, sending him stumbling backward. Arms flailing, Jongdae braced himself for impact with the ground, but to his surprise, he never fell. Instead, he felt like he had been thrown onto a roller coaster while simultaneously being through a vacuum. His vision went dark, and the air escaped his lungs. As Jongdae thrashed for breath, his innards twisted in on themselves while a throbbing pain pierced his skull.

Then, something threw him onto his back, and Jongdae’s eyes flew open to see the familiarity of his dorm room. Cold air rushed into his lungs. His pounding head felt as light as a feather, and his room spun like a top. His insides were a writhing mass of snakes and his limbs were jelly, causing Jongdae to stumble out of bed and wobble towards the bathroom like a newborn fawn.

Unfortunately, he failed to make it in time. The sour taste of bile filled his mouth, and Jongdae doubled over, kneeling on the cold floorboards as he emptied his stomach’s contents. His vision blackened for a second. When he came to, he was still hunched over the puddle of vomit, supporting his upper body with shaky arms. His heart pounded in his chest, each pulse reverberating through him like an earthquake.

His stomach lurched again, forcing more vomit up his throat and out of his mouth and nose. The bile blocked his airways, and Jongdae choked as he struggled to get air into his lungs. His head was too light, and his vision was starting to dim again as he gagged. A red stain appeared in his puke, and Jongdae let out a low cry.

A moment later, a loud crash assaulted his ears. Jongdae’s arms gave out almost right after, but someone caught him and turned him over. Baekhyun’s worried face peered down at him, and from this angle, Jongdae could see Chanyeol standing in the doorway with a shocked look.

“Jongdae, what happened?” Baekhyun asked, mouth running a mile a minute in his concern, “Are you hurt? Are you sick? Jongdae?”

Jongdae tried to respond, but his body felt too weak. In the end, he didn’t manage to utter a response, and the last thing he was aware of was Baekhyun yelling for Chanyeol to call an ambulance.

When he woke up to the incessant beeping of the heart monitor, Jongdae’s first response was to silently complain about how loud the person’s heartbeat was. Then, as he opened his eyes and scanned the peach-colored walls, it dawned on him that it was his heartbeat.

The people sitting on the small couch by the window were also his parents.

His mother noticed that he was awake immediately. She stood up and approached his bedside with her husband right behind her and placed a cool hand against Jongdae’s forehead. “Jongdae-yah?” she said quietly.

Jongdae tried to form a coherent reply but could only muster up a weak groan.

His mother turned to his father and whispered, “He’s awake.” Then, she reached over him to fiddle with something on the bed, saying, “I’m going to call the nurse now, Jongdae-yah. She’s going to come and check up on you, okay?”

Jongdae grunted. As they waited for the nurse’s arrival, Jongdae tried moving his head and limbs. Aside from a light stiffness and faint headache, he seemed to be fine. Meanwhile, his mother continued to speak to him with a soft and slow voice.

“Jongdeok is here, too, but he went to use the bathroom. I think Baekhyunnie and his boyfriend went to get coffee and snacks?” She glanced at her husband, who nodded.

The nurse arrived just then and stood by Jongdae’s bedside with a calming smile as she asked Jongdae how he felt.

“Tired,” Jongdae mumbled, “Head still hurts a little. Stomach feels off.”

“Could you describe how your stomach feels off?”

Jongdae wrinkled his nose as he tried to think of words that would describe the feeling. “Feels…a little restless?” he tried, “Like I might throw up again soon.”

“I see,” the nurse noted, “Could you tell me how much your head hurts on a scale of one to ten? One being negligible pain while ten is terrible pain.”

“Probably a one or a two,” Jongdae rasped.

The nurse nodded. “Alright. Well, the doctor will be here soon to discuss your condition. Before then, is there anything else I can get you?”

“Water, please. And can I have some more blankets?”

“Of course. I will be back with those shortly.”

Jongdae heard the click of the door as the nurse left. “Mom?” he murmured.

“Yes?”

“What happened?” Jongdae remembered puking his guts out on his bedroom floor while trying to reach the bathroom. He remembered Baekhyun and Chanyeol breaking down his door and Baekhyun fretting over him before he passed out. Seeing that he had woken up in a hospital room, Jongdae realized that Chanyeol must have called the ambulance like Baekhyun told him to.

“Your father and I were sleeping when his phone started ringing nonstop,” Jongdae’s mother explained, “Baekhyunnie was calling us in the middle of the night, so we knew that something must have happened, and it turns out you got sent to the hospital! Baekhyunnie said you were very sick. He told us which hospital and we got here right away. Jongdeok arrived a while after we did.”

“How come you got so sick all of a sudden?” Jongdae’s father asked with furrowed eyebrows, “Are your classes putting too much pressure on you?”

“No, no. My classes are fine.” Jongdae fidgeted as he thought of what transpired in Limbo last night. Junmyeon’s distressed and fearful expression surfaced, and Jongdae’s chest ached at the memory of Junmyeon shouting at him to leave. Then, something had pushed Jongdae out of Limbo.

Jongdae chewed on his bottom lip. Had Junmyeon managed to force him out of Limbo? Was that why Jongdae woke up puking so badly that he didn’t even have time to reach the bathroom?

The door opened, and Jongdae looked up, expecting to see the nurse. However, it was his brother who came into the room instead. Upon seeing Jongdae awake and sitting up, Jongdeok’s expression brightened and he said, “Oh, you finally woke up?”

Jongdae smiled. “Hyung.”

“Geez, you really gave us a scare, you know,” Jongdeok rambled as he pulled up a chair next to Jongdae’s bedside and sat down, “Mom called me an hour before my alarm was supposed to go off, saying that you were in the hospital, so I took a day off work to come check on you. When I got here, I saw your friend Baekhyun pacing in the waiting room. He told me you ended up in here because you vomited blood and passed out.”

Jongdae winced at that. He had forgotten about the blood part.

“So what did the doctor say?” Jongdeok asked.

“I haven’t seen him yet,” Jongdae answered as the nurse came back in, carrying a bottle of water and three more blankets for him. The conversation lulled as the nurse handed Jongdae the water and helped wrap the extra blankets around him. She gave him another reassuring smile before leaving once more.

Jongdae gulped down a few mouthfuls of water, sighing as the dryness in his mouth and throat disappeared. The pounding in his head faded as well, so he took another sip before capping the bottle and setting it down on his bedside table.

The family sat in silence, but Jongdae could feel the lingering gazes. He knew his parents and brother were worried. He was in the same boat, but he knew that everything must have started when Junmyeon forced him out of Limbo. Before last night, Jongdae had never woken up sick despite having been in and out of Limbo several times. Did being forced out of Limbo cause some sort of harm to his body?

Jongdae tensed. What if the doctor knew about Limbo and could tell that Jongdae had been visiting Limbo? Would the doctor tell his family? They would think Jongdae was going insane and put him in an asylum!

Jongdae had been so preoccupied with his thoughts that he didn’t notice Baekhyun and Chanyeol enter the room until Baekhyun jabbed him in the cheek.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Baekhyun asked, setting down the coffees while Chanyeol distributed the snacks.

“Okay,” Jongdae answered, eyeing the blueberry muffin in Chanyeol’s hands.

“Just okay? Has a nurse come to talk to you yet?”

“Yeah, she said that the doctor will be here soon.” Jongdae swallowed and asked Chanyeol, “Can I have a bit of that muffin?”

Chanyeol paused and glanced at the muffin. Then, he looked around at the others. “Are we allowed to feed him?”

To Jongdae’s chagrin, the others decided to wait for the doctor to arrive and confirm that it was okay to give him food that wasn’t from the hospital. This led to Jongdae pouting as he watched Chanyeol’s cheeks puff up as the latter stuffed the entire muffin into his mouth.

“I’m going to the restroom,” Jongdae’s mother announced, grabbing her purse and giving her husband a look that said she wanted to speak to him privately. Jongdae’s stomach sank as he watched his parents leave. He knew how worried his mother must have been, and he knew that she had been holding back her tears in front of him. Now, she just wanted a private place to cry in the company of her husband.

Soon after their parents left, Jongdeok got up from his seat and said, “I’m gonna go get more snacks in case the doctor says it’s okay to feed Jongdae.”

The door had just closed behind Jongdeok when Baekhyun slid into the unoccupied chair next to Jongdae’s bed and began firing questions that Jongdae didn’t want to answer at the moment.

“So why did you throw up? Was it because of Limbo?”

“I don’t know. Maybe,” Jongdae replied. Each word felt like it was attached to a hundred-pound weight that he had to overcome in order to speak. He hoped Baekhyun would get the hint and drop the conversation if he changed the topic, so he looked around and asked, “Did they say anything about when I’ll be released?”

The corner of Baekhyun’s mouth twitched. “No, the doctor will probably tell you when he comes by,” he said, rushing to get the words from his mouth, “What happened with Junmyeon last night in Limbo?”

“What are you guys talking about?” Chanyeol cut in. His eyebrows were furrowed as he looked from Baekhyun to Jongdae. “What’s Limbo? Who’s Junmyeon?”

Jongdae threw Baekhyun a questioning glance, surprised that his best friend hadn’t blabbed everything to Chanyeol yet. Baekhyun merely shrugged in response.

“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” Jongdae stated, trying to make sure his words didn’t sound too clipped.

Thankfully, neither Baekhyun nor Chanyeol pursued the issue, although Baekhyun pressed his mouth into a thin, irritated line and Chanyeol’s eyes were still wide in confusion. The room fell into a heavy and stifled silence that only seemed to crush them as time went on.

Jongdae’s family must have noticed the tension when they returned to the room, but neither his parents nor his brother said anything. Jongdae was relieved when they didn’t bring it up. What he needed right now was to be alone with his thoughts and feelings. Any prying would only irritate him.

Jongdae could have celebrated when the doctor finally arrived, although the news the doctor brought with him left much to be desired.

“As far as the tests show, Jongdae-ssi is completely healthy,” the doctor mused as he flipped through his notes, “I’ve consulted with several of my colleagues and we have absolutely no idea why he would vomit so suddenly and violently that he ended up passing out.”

“Are you absolutely sure you haven’t forgotten anything?” Jongdae’s mother asked, “Or perhaps you misinterpreted a result?”

“Yes, ma’am, we have reviewed the results several times,” the doctor confirmed, “However, the tests all say that there is nothing wrong, which is why I would like to propose keeping Jongdae-ssi here for the weekend so we can run a few additional tests and monitor him in case it happens again.”

Jongdae would rather go home, but judging by the look his parents exchanged, he was going to be staying whether he wanted to or not.

“Of course, doctor,” Jongdae’s father agreed as he gave Jongdae a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, “Would it be alright if we brought him food from outside the hospital?”

“I don’t see why not,” the doctor answered, “Although the hospital will be providing meals three times a day, so I would recommend sticking to light snacks.”

After making sure that Jongdae didn’t need anything, the doctor left. Jongdae received a kiss on the cheek from his mother and another pat on the shoulder from his father before his parents left as well.

Jongin came to visit shortly after Jongdeok left. He arrived panting and coatless with furrowed eyebrows and a frown. Upon catching sight of Jongdae munching on snacks on the hospital bed, Jongin heaved a huge sigh, which he stifled when he noticed Chanyeol and Baekhyun sleeping on the sofa.

“Hyung! Holy .” Jongin collapsed on the chair. “Baekhyun-hyung texted me to come to the hospital but I was asleep and I just saw his message and why did you pass out?”

Jongdae almost laughed at how Jongin blurted all of that out in one breath but restrained himself since the other seemed genuinely worried. “The doctor said that they don’t know because all the tests showed that I’m perfectly healthy. I have to stay here for the weekend so they can run more tests and monitor in case something like that happens again.”

“So you’ll be out by Monday morning?”

“Sunday afternoon, actually,” Jongdae corrected.

“Oh, okay.” Jongin fell silent for a moment, looking around the room. Then, he asked, “Are dogs allowed in here? I could bring my dogs over if you feel lonely.”

“You’ll have to ask the staff, but they’ll probably say no.” Jongdae stuffed another handful of chips into his mouth. Suddenly, he remembered that he had a deadline due this weekend and froze. How was he going to turn in that assignment by Saturday evening if he was in the hospital?

“Hyung, is something wrong?” Jongin’s question brought Jongdae out of his thoughts, and he realized that he had stopped chewing.

Jongdae swallowed. “I have a piece that I need to turn in by Saturday. Do you think the staff will let me out of the hospital for a while so I can do that?”

A rustling sound came from the sofa as Baekhyun shifted and lifted his head, eyes still bleary from sleep. “I’ll turn it in for you if you tell me where to take it,” he mumbled before dropping back down and falling asleep again.

True to his word, Baekhyun showed up in Jongdae’s hospital room on Saturday morning with Jongdae’s art in his hands and pastels in a bag over his shoulder. “I brought this in case there were some last-minute tweaks you wanted to make,” Baekhyun said, holding up the piece so Jongdae could check it over.

“No, I’ll just turn it in as is,” Jongdae said, “I need to put my name on it though.”

Baekhyun handed him the art and a pencil. Taking care not to smear the drawing, Jongdae scribbled his name and ID number on the back of the canvas before handing it back.

“Room 209 in the fine arts building, right?” Baekhyun asked as he took the piece back.

“Mhm.”

“Alright. See you around.” Baekhyun spun on his heel and headed for the door, only to pause and look back. “Also, did you want to change the time for your appointment with Yixing? I told him that you got hospitalized, and he said it’s up to you if you want to see him at a later date.”

“My appointment is on Monday morning, right?” Jongdae asked. After Baekhyun nodded, he continued, “Then, I’ll keep the time.”

With another nod, Baekhyun left. Jongdae sighed and laid back down. Baekhyun seemed quieter than usual lately, and Jongdae knew why, but he still wasn’t ready to talk about Junmyeon yet. Additionally, he didn’t dream of Limbo in his sleep last night again, and Jongdae actually felt relieved because of that. He wasn’t ready to face Junmyeon yet after what happened the night before.

A/N: Things went from 0-100 real quick, didn't they...Also, Yixing will be appearing next chapter ^^

On a slightly different note, we're more than halfway done with the story. There are six more chapters + an epilogue (which is already written). I'm not sure how to feel about that xD