This chapter contains mentions of ual assault!

Limbo

Chapter 4: Restless

______________________________

“Kim Jongdae?”

Jongdae looked up from his phone to see the barista holding a caramel macchiato. He stood from his seat and went to claim his drink, smiling and thanking the barista.

“Have a nice day.” She smiled and returned to her place behind the counter to fix more drinks. Jongdae used his straw to stir his caramel macchiato, trying to mix the caramel with the coffee, before taking a sip and his lips at the bittersweet taste that flooded his mouth.

“Hyung?”

The art student turned. “Jongin!”

Kim Jongin was a dance major at K Arts and was two years younger than Jongdae. He was tall with tanned skin and black hair that covered his forehead. A wide smile rested on his face as he greeted Jongdae enthusiastically.

Something nuzzled Jongdae’s ankle, and he looked down to see a poodle sniffing at his shoe. Another poodle that looked almost identical sat at Jongin’s feet, and Jongdae couldn’t help but coo a little.

“Where’s Jjangah?” Jongdae asked as he crouched down to pet the poodle next to him. He checked the bone-shaped tag that was dangling from the dog’s neck. Monggu, the tag read.

“My sister took her to the vet. Jjangah hasn’t been eating much these days,” Jongin explained, tugging on Jjangu’s leash when the poodle started wandering away. “I haven’t seen you around recently, hyung. How are you?”

The two of them ended up chatting for a while, catching up with each other as Monggu and Jjangu circled them, frequently tangling themselves around Jongdae’s legs, Jongin’s legs, or both. Jongin talked about a dance competition that he was considering, and Jongdae admitted that he was still struggling with his graduation project.

It was because of his project that Jongdae decided to cut the conversation short. Jongin was disappointed, but he bid his goodbyes and walked up the counter to order his drink. Jongdae left the café and headed back to his dorm, settling at his desk and flipping open his laptop the moment he arrived. He double-clicked on the icon of the drawing program and connected his drawing tablet to the computer as he waited for the canvas to pop up. Once everything was ready, Jongdae tapped his chin with his pen, trying to think of ideas for his project.

Thirty minutes later, Jongdae erased a line on the canvas for what felt like the sixty-seventh time, exhaling loudly in an effort to calm the frustration coursing through his veins. He still didn’t have any ideas for his graduation project and had decided to try drawing until something caught his fancy. He started out with flowers, thinking that he might have an easier time with those since he hadn’t drawn one for a school project yet. Unfortunately, the task was proving to be more troublesome than he anticipated, and by now, he was swiping his pen across his drawing tablet with an impatient fervor.

He started when a hand clamped down on his shoulder, and Jongdae whipped his head around to see Baekhyun standing over him. Strangely, the film student didn’t make fun of Jongdae for being startled. Instead, he held out a file, and a confused Jongdae took it hesitantly.

“I was bored yesterday, so I, uh…” Baekhyun scratched his head uneasily. “I looked up Junmyeon on the Internet. I-I think you should read this. Just as a heads-up: you might not like what you see.”

The film student awkwardly shuffled out the door, and Jongdae stared after him until the other closed the door. A few moments later, there was the sound of the front door closing, and Jongdae knew that Baekhyun had left the dorm.

Still confused but also a little nervous, Jongdae flipped open the folder to see a pile of printed online articles. His eyes were immediately drawn to the bolded headlines, but his attention was focused on one big, black word that was at the end.

.

His mouth had suddenly gone dry, so Jongdae reached for the cup of water that was placed beside his laptop. He drank half of it in one gulp and braced himself for what he would find in the article.

“’On March 4^th, 1991, two bodies were found in a house in Damyang,’” he read to himself, “’An autopsy revealed that both individuals underwent rigor mortis and that the time of death took place approximately a week before discovery. One man was identified as twenty-three-year-old Kim Junmyeon of Seoul National University.’ Oh, my God,” Jongdae breathed out as he recognized Junmyeon’s university. He put the article down and massaged his temples, heaving a sigh as he struggled to take in what he just read.

After a few seconds, the art student picked up the article again and continued reading. “’While the other man’s cause of death was determined to be a slit throat, Kim Junmyeon suffered signs of extensive torture and .’”

It was only then that Jongdae noticed the photos that were posted with the article. He felt like someone had punched him in the stomach when he saw Junmyeon smiling up at him from the paper. The photo must have been for college because Junmyeon looked impeccably well-dressed, complete with the school uniform and groomed hair.

Next to Junmyeon’s photo was another picture of a man Jongdae had never seen before, but he didn’t need to know the stranger in order to figure out that the person was Junmyeon’s assaulter. Once again, Jongdae put the article down, this time taking deep breaths to settle the anger and unease bubbling in his stomach. He hadn’t expected this when Junmyeon admitted to being murdered not too long ago. When he heard ‘murder,’ Jongdae assumed that a robber had attacked Junmyeon and accidentally killed the latter in a scuffle. At worst, Jongdae thought perhaps Junmyeon had been killed by a jealous lover of some sort, but then again, Baekhyun had been making him watch far too many dramas lately.

Jongdae shuffled through the rest of the papers that were in the file, pausing when he found the school newspaper for Seoul National University. Baekhyun had gone and circled one particular column, and Jongdae knew that it must be the report for Junmyeon’s death.

“’We are saddened by the untimely death of one of our spectacular music students Kim Junmyeon.’” Jongdae had to stop there as the pit of dread that had been growing in his stomach threatened to swallow him completely.

How was he going to face Junmyeon the time he entered Limbo? He wasn’t sure how he would react when he saw the other again. What would he say? What should he do?

He tilted his face towards the ceiling and leaned back in his chair, staying in that position for a while as he tried to think about how he was going to bring this subject up in front of Junmyeon tonight.

“So my friend searched you up on the Internet and the articles say you were a victim of…s-ual…assault?” Jongdae frowned at how unsure and blunt he sounded. Normally, being honest was something he took pride in, but in this case, it would be better to have some tact.

Unfortunately, tact was something Jongdae at, and he doubted he would ever be able to pull it off.

“Um, I know you must have died pretty badly…no, that already sounds awkward,” Jongdae groaned, covering his face with his hands in embarrassment, even though nobody was around to witness him talking to himself.

He ran through several more conversation starters, finding each one less satisfactory than the last. In the end, he gave up and tried to go back to drawing, except this time, his hand began to sketch out a person’s face.

Carefully marking the jawline so that the face wouldn’t be too round nor too square, Jongdae erased a few wayward lines at the chin area and redrew them. Then, he started on the hair, which was parted to the right and stopped at the ears. He made sure to give the hair an appropriate amount of volume as well as sketch in a few loose strands here and there. After he was satisfied with that, Jongdae moved on to the facial features.

However, the facial features and expression were proving to be troublesome for Jongdae. He first drew Junmyeon with a neutral expression but felt that there was something off about it. He opened a new canvas and copied the first drawing over, leaving the face blank so he could draw a new expression.

To his dismay, it didn’t help, so Jongdae tried to draw Junmyeon from different angles. There was one where Junmyeon was looking up towards his right, another where Junmyeon had a downcast expression, and many more, but they all proved to be unsatisfactory for Jongdae.

Finally fed up with his failed attempts at drawing Junmyeon, Jongdae threw his pen down and closed his laptop before jumping onto his bed and crawling beneath the blankets. He huffed, still stewing frustration over his art, and closed his eyes, deciding that a nap would be the best way to go.

Jongdae’s eyes flew open when he felt someone shaking him. Blinking rapidly until his vision cleared, the art student saw Baekhyun leaning over him, one hand still resting on Jongdae’s shoulder. Still groggy, Jongdae pushed himself up onto his elbows and checked the digital clock that was placed on the nightstand beside his bed. 6:23 pm.

“Are you hungry?” Baekhyun asked as he straightened up, “I ordered some takeout, and Chanyeol made some food for us.”

Sitting up fully this time, Jongdae realized that he was indeed hungry. “Yeah, dinner sounds nice,” he mumbled tiredly as he got out of bed and staggered towards the bathroom. “I’ll be there in a bit, just let me…” A yawn interrupted him mid-sentence, but Baekhyun seemed to have gotten the message.

Jongdae splashed some cold water on his face, waking up almost instantly to the stinging feeling of the liquid on his skin. He rubbed his face dry with a towel and headed to the kitchen. Baekhyun was already sitting at the table, stuffing a piece of kimbap into his mouth and chewing eagerly with swollen cheeks. A Tupperware filled with snow peas and hot dogs sliced into mini-octopi also sat on the table, and Jongdae plucked out a hot dog and ate it, followed by a slice of kimbap.

Baekhyun had his phone on the table and was watching an episode of a drama, so the two of them ate in silence, both too focused on the show and the food to make conversation. It wasn’t until the food was all gone and the episode was finished before Baekhyun spoke up.

“Did you…look at the articles?” he asked tentatively.

For a few seconds, Jongdae stared immobile at Baekhyun with his mouth slightly open and half-chewed kimbap threatening to spill out. Then, it all came flooding back to him. Junmyeon’s death, the assaulter’s photo, and the school newspaper. Jongdae felt guilty for forgetting, even though it was just a moment, but he swallowed it down and focused on answering Baekhyun.

“I looked at a couple of them, yeah.”

Baekhyun hummed in acknowledgment, lightly squeezing his hands together restlessly. Jongdae didn’t say anything more either, and an awkward silence settled between them. Both were searching for words but neither of them was able to find any.

It was a long while before Baekhyun spoke up again. “So what do you think?”

Jongdae chewed at his lower lip, still trying to put his thoughts into words. “I-I don’t know; it’s just…” He put his head in his hands a heaved a sigh. “I’ve always heard about cases from complete strangers on the Internet, but now it’s someone I know.”

Baekhyun nodded slowly. “Did Junmyeon mention any of this while you were dreaming?”

“No,” Jongdae breathed, “He only said he had been murdered. Holy , how am I going to bring this up with him tonight?”

“I…don’t think you should be the first to bring it up,” Baekhyun mused, “Since he purposefully didn’t say anything about this, I think he doesn’t want you to know.”

“So wait for him to talk about it first if he ever decides to talk about it?” Jongdae was unsure about Baekhyun’s suggestion. It felt like he would have to be dishonest with Junmyeon, and he didn’t want that since Junmyeon was just starting to get used to his presence.

However, Baekhyun was right to an extent. Junmyeon would probably be upset if he found out Jongdae had pried into his business, and Jongdae didn’t want Junmyeon angry with him so soon after their first meeting.

“Yeah, you don’t want him mad at you for snooping, do you? He might go berserk or something.” Baekhyun took a long sip from the can of soda that he had popped open a while back.

“Berserk?” Jongdae echoed in confusion.

Baekhyun blinked innocently and made a few vague gestures with his hands. “I mean, he’s a ghost. Don’t ghosts go crazy when they get mad or something?”

“Why are you calling him a ghost?” A tiny prick of irritation was beginning to grow in Jongdae, but he didn’t know why. Instead, he merely frowned at his roommate as he struggled to push the annoyance away.

“Because he’s dead, and you’re just visiting his spirit, aren’t you?” Now, it was Baekhyun’s turn to be confused. “Spirits are pretty much ghosts, right?”

“Well, ghosts don’t really appear in dreams, do they?” Jongdae retorted, “Besides, Junmyeon might not be like that.”

“Hey, I didn’t mean it like that,” Baekhyun quickly backtracked, seemingly realized that he had somehow managed to push Jongdae’s buttons. “Sorry if it came out that way, ‘Dae, but I really wasn’t trying to make it seem like I was trying to talk or something.”

Jongdae deflated as well, reminding himself that there really wasn’t a reason for him to be all riled up. “Yeah, sorry I snapped at you. Shouldn’t have done that.”

Baekhyun clasped his hands together and interlaced his fingers. “I still think you should wait for Junmyeon to bring up his death himself though. That way, he won’t feel like you’re trying to push your way into his life.”

Jongdae hummed in agreement. “I guess so. I just hope he won’t be too shocked when he sees me back in Limbo tonight.” Upon seeing Baekhyun’s questioning gaze, he added, “I kind of told him that I’d stop pestering him if he answered my questions.”

“Tell him you have more questions,” Baekhyun replied easily, and Jongdae couldn’t help but laugh.

Jongdae took a while longer to fall asleep that night, nervous about how Junmyeon would greet him when the art student appeared in Limbo again. Sure enough, Jongdae opened his eyes to see the dead man standing over him with his lips pressed into a thin line and his arms crossed over his chest.

A/N: More details surrounding Junmyeon's death has been revealed, and Jongdae continues to try to befriend Junmyeon. Let's hope it turns out well for him.

'Til next chapter!