The 1143rd
The 1143rd
August 15
1:21pm
1st
Junmyeon wakes up to the insistent ringing of his phone. He swipes at the screen and groans as he gets hit by the hot air in his room. Did he forget to turn off the timer on the ac?
He rummages through his sheets, sure that he had left the remote control on his bed somewhere. He finds it underneath his pillows, and he slumps back on the mattress once the ac was turned back on. It will take a while before the room cools down, he thinks.
His eyes travel lazily until his gaze lands on his window, showing him the bright blue sky outside.
He smiles and picks his phone back up.
Dae. I’m bored. Wanna meet at the park? ;)
“Aish, why did you wanna hang out today, hyung?” Jongdae whines as he takes a seat on the swing beside Junmyeon. “It’s so hot out today, too.”
This particular swing set—with Junmyeon sitting on the right and Jongdae on the left—had been where they first met as kids, over time transforming into their designated meeting place. It was the perfect spot during the summer, with it being under the shade of trees.
“Aww, come on, the weather’s nice, don’t you think?” Junmyeon smiles as he hands Jongdae a still-cool juice pack.
They exchange stories about their first week of vacation, with Jongdae mostly whining about having to study for his upcoming college entrance exams, and Junmyeon lamenting having to house-sit all month while his parents go on their scheduled anniversary trip.
It was not like they were sharing anything new to each other, really. They texted each other everyday and even voice called at night. They were updated of the other’s life 24/7, but they talked anyway. Because it was so much more fun and a completely different experience—it was the same story, except now it’s not just words on a screen: there’s a laugh, a groan, a clap, a dorky series of facial expressions to accompany it.
It was cheesy, but sometimes Junmyeon was really just thankful that he had Jongdae as his best friend.
“Hyung, let me sleep over at your place tonight,” the younger says offhandedly. “I swear if I hear Chanyeol play Gee one more time I’m gonna start ripping my hair out.
“What’s wrong with Gee? It’s a nice song,” Junmyeon teases, knowing it would rile the other up.
“Yeah, but not after you’ve heard it 400 times!” Jongdae almost yells. “God, I really have been born into the wrong family. Wanna have Chanyeol as your brother? I’ll give him to you for free, I’ll even throw in his Iron Man figures if you want.”
Junmyeon laughs. “I do like Chanyeol but I think I like seeing you suffer even more.”
Jongdae kicks a shower of sand at him and he laughs even harder. Jongdae laughs along, until he quiets down into a smile.
“Hyung,” he says as he looks up to the sky. Something in the air between them shifts, making Junmyeon tilt his head to the younger. “If there’s something want to keep, but it always ends up getting taken away from you, what would you do?”
Junmyeon blinks. Where was this seriousness coming from? He opens his mouth to make fun of the other, but the joke dies in his throat when he is met with Jongdae’s somber stare.
“W-well—“ Junmyeon clears his throat. “I guess that depends on how badly I want to keep it? If it’s not something precious then I’ll just give up on it. But if it’s something I really, really, really want, then I’ll keep trying to have it. If I keep at it hundreds or thousands of times, I might just get to keep it, you know?”
Jongdae’s lips stretch into a smile, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. His lips stay frozen, instead of curling up at the sides like a cat’s.
“I guess that’s why you’re Kim Junmyeon, huh,” he says. “It’s always that ‘never give up’ motto for you, isn’t it? Maybe I should be more like you.”
Junmyeon frowns. “Dae, is something wro—“
“Hyung, let’s get some ice cream!” the younger announces as he suddenly shoots up from his swing. The tension snaps and clears in the blink of an eye. “Ahh, I really hate summer. I can feel the sweat trickling down my back. Ugh.”
Junmyeon can only gape at him. God, Jongdae was so mercurial. Sometimes, Junmyeon thinks that maybe the younger lives in fast forward—he’d go through things twice as fast, passionate and then apathetic in the same minute—sometimes in the same breath—leaving everyone around with a whiplash.
“You’re unbelievable,” Junmyeon sighs, shaking his head.
“And you’re a drama queen, are we done describing each other? Get up already, I need my ice cream!”
Jongdae seems like he’s back to his normal self, but something about the conversation bothers Junmyeon.
Junmyeon speeds up to catch up, but Jongdae makes a sudden stop, making Junmyeon stumble in an attempt to not bump into him. The younger turns to Junmyeon as he stands at the edge of the sidewalk.
“Have I told you how much I like you, hyung?”
There’s something heavy about those words, something deeper about that sad smile that Jongdae was giving him now that Junmyeon can feel in his fingers, but can’t quite touch.
And in the next second, everything seems to slow down: the breeze becomes lethargic, the birds flying overhead somehow looking frozen in place, the buzz from the cicadas relaxing into a hum, Jongdae’s leg lazily stretching out behind him as he steps off into the crosswalk, just as a truck speeds towards him.
Junmyeon’s eyes widen and he holds out his hand as his mouth open into a cry, “Look ou—“
Jongdae is swept out of his sight.
Junmyeon half-runs, half-stumbles to the street, drops to a kneel beside Jongdae’s broken form.
There is a deafening buzz in Junmyeon’s ears as his hands try to press on the wound at Jongdae’s head, but there’s another cut at his neck—Junmyeon presses a hand on it—and another at his chest and another at his thigh—
Junmyeon’s throat is ragged and sore. He realizes he’d been screaming the entire time.
August 15
1:21pm
2nd
Junmyeon shoots up in bed.
He snatches his phone from the bedside table and taps the screen awake like a madman. 15 Aug 20XX 1:21pm. He visibly slumps with a sigh.
“A dream, huh?” he mutters to himself.
The heat of the room is smothering and he wonders if he forgot to—
Dread, cold and heavy, floods his stomach.
He shakes his head. It was just a dream.
Just a dream, he repeats to himself as he sends a text to Jongdae.
Dae. Wanna meet at the park?
The rhythmical squeaking of the swing is almost calming. Junmyeon sits on his usual right swing, his fingers restlessly tapping on his lap as he waits for Jongdae.
“Hyung!”
Junmyeon looks up with a relieved smile to the figure approaching him. “You came!”
“Oh? You talk as if I had a choice,” Jongdae replies teasingly as he sits down on his swing. “Really hyung, couldn’t go two days without seeing me?”
Junmyeon tries to come up with a retort, but his gaze falls on his best friend’s clothes.
He’s wearing the same thing.
Flashes of Jongdae’s broken form on the street, his tacky dinosaur shirt soaked in blood begin to flood Junmyeon’s mind. He tries to shake the images away, along with the unpleasant trepidation, but seeing Jongdae walk towards him only makes Junmyeon recall the horrible images even more.
The younger must have noticed something was off. “Hyung, you all right there?” he asks as he nears. “You look pale.”
Of course he’d wear it, it’s his favorite shirt, Junmyeon reasons with himself. Get yourself together.
“I’m okay,” he says outwardly. If things were the same as the dream, then he just has to change them. “Hey, wanna go to the arcade?”
Jongdae gives him an incredulous look. “Not even gonna let me sit?”
But Junmyeon had already stood up. “Come on,” the older prods as he starts walking. “I’ll let you beat me at Haunted Carnival this time.”
“You won once and your ego is this big,” Jongdae mutters, but follows the older’s steps. “Ah, hyung stop walking so fast!”
The finally reach downtown and the park is out of sight. Junmyeon breathes a sigh of relief and slows down. “You wouldn’t believe this Dae, but last night I had the weirdest—“
He doesn’t get a chance to finish his sentence, as his words are drowned by shouts.
Junmyeon sees the people around him looking up and pointing to the sky, mouths open in terrified screams. He follows their fingers just in time to see iron poles falling straight towards them.
He is pushed backwards and he loses his footing, but not before he sees an iron pole pierce straight through Jongdae.
The rest of the iron poles fall to the ground. They hit each other on the way down, sounding maniacally cheerful like chimes.
August 15
1:21pm
3rd
Junmyeon wakes up with a sob. “Oh god,” he gasps, reaching for his phone. 15 Aug 20XX 1:21pm.
“No,” he whispers. “No!”
He jumps out of bed and throws on a shirt as he tries to call Jongdae. His fingers are clumsy and the screen is slippery from the sweat in his hands, but he somehow manages to scroll through his contacts.
“Jongdae!” he shouts as soon as the call goes through.
“Ow, hyung, the hell are you shouting for?”
“Where are you?” Junmyeon demands as he shoves his feet into his shoes.
“I’m at home, like always. Ya, Kim Junmyeon, why are you being—“
“STAY THERE!”
Junmyeon runs out of the house, door slamming shut behind him as he gets on his bike.
“Why?”
“Jongdae please, if you care about me at all please stay at home please, please!”
“Okay, I got it, jeez.”
Junmyeon pedals like a madman, and a couple of minutes later Jongdae’s apartment complex finally comes in sight. The younger is waiting for him by the gate, and Junmyeon all but jumps from his bicycle to get to him.
“You can’t be out here!” Junmyeon grabs Jongdae’s hands as he leads them both to the stairs going up to the younger’s unit. He casts a paranoid glance at the sky above, just in case.
“Hyung, what the ?” Jongdae demands as he is pulled along by the other’s iron grip.
“Just—just trust me this time Dae,” Junmyeon pleads.
“No!” Jongdae starts pulling against the older, his other hand clinging to the banister for support. “Not until you tell me what’s wrong.”
Junmyeon refuses to stop, tears pooling at his eyes and terror fueling his veins as he pulls the younger with all his might.
“Hyung, sto—“
The furious tugging between the two concludes with a pop. Suddenly Junmyeon’s hand is empty, and Jongdae’s terrified scream echoes through the air as he falls and lands with a resounding crack.
4th
Junmyeon manages to call Jongdae, instructing him specifically to stay inside his apartment.
He bursts through the door just in time to hear Chanyeol’s scream.
He makes his way towards the sound—the bathroom. Chanyeol is on his knees, still screaming. The shower is on, there’s a bar of soap looking lost on the floor. And there is Jongdae’s body, head surrounded by a halo of red.
5th
Junmyeon makes Jongdae stay home, stay in his bed.
Junmyeon doesn’t even make it inside the apartment. He can only watch as the building folds in on itself as it is ravaged by fire.
24th
Junmyeon tries not to make his way to Jongdae this time, instructing him to take a cab to Junmyeon’s house.
Jongdae is mugged and killed by the cab driver.
36th
Maybe it’s his presence that’s causing it.
He doesn’t talk to Jongdae at all, doesn’t ask to meet up.
He receives a call from a sobbing Chanyeol in the evening, telling him that Jongdae had been caught in a shoot-out at the bank, accidentally shot and killed by a cop.
52nd
Jongdae falls asleep in the bathtub and drowns.
78th
Jongdae slips on oil and breaks his neck.
93rd
Junmyeon manages to keep him alive until night came—dragging him along to the forest to camp in a tent. A bear attacks their camp, and Jongdae is mauled to death.
1143rd
Junmyeon stares up at the ceiling, numb to the suffocating heat of his room. How long has he been reliving this day? Months? Years?
It’s August 15th once again for perhaps the thousandth time now. His tears had long stopped, his mind filled with cross marks as he goes through every possible scenario he could think of—every possible way of changing the day so it doesn’t end with his bestfriend being dead.
But all he gets for his troubles is to see Jongdae dying in yet another way, and losing him over and over again has made Junmyeon tired and numb. He wishes he could stop caring, but it’s more of a routine now.
He gets out of bed as he texts Jongdae once again. He can’t bring his mind to come up with a different scenario today. He asks to meet at the park, restarting the sickening cycle once again.
There had to be a way out of this, he thinks tiredly. There just had to be. A day that just suddenly decided to endlessly repeat should also have that point, that escape.
Junmyeon’s mind wanders idly as he sits on his swing, Jongdae’s chatter drowned out by the thoughts in his head.
“Hyung, are you listening?”
Junmyeon snaps out of his daze. “Huh?”
Jongdae rolls his eyes. “I said maybe if they actually killed Castiel this time, they can move onto other things, you know? There are so many other religions they could write about, so many characters! But they keep focusing on christianity and I’m getting tired of it.”
“They can’t just kill him off,” Junmyeon answers absentmindedly. “They still need him for the heaven stuff.”
“Exactly. plot armor.”
Plot armor?
The younger stands up. “Say, I want some ice cream. Come on, hyung.”
Junmyeon stares after him, mind racing.
Plot armor.
In a story where there are two characters. One keeps dying. One stays alive. And the cycle repeats. Over and over.
And the story continues.
Jumyeon stands up and runs after Jongdae.
He could finally see end.
“Dae!” he shouts.
The younger stops, just a step shy of the crosswalk. “What?”
“Have I told you how much I like you?” Junmyeon asks, slightly out of breath. He sees the incoming truck from the corner of his eye.
“God, hyung, it’s too hot out for this cheesiness.”
“I was just saying,” Junmyeon insists. “I really do like you, Dae.”
Jongdae shakes his head at him, turning back to the street to step off the pavement.
Junmyeon grabs the younger’s wrist and yanks him back, throwing him to the safety of the sidewalk. The momentum carries Junmyeon forward, and he smiles in acceptance. The truck slams into him, pain exploding in him for a few seconds before his body starts to shut down.
Idly he notes Jongdae’s face above him. He is saying something, and Junmyeon gives him an apologetic smile. Idly, he notes how the younger’s face twists as he cries. But there is something off. There is something mixed in with the terror, with the anguish.
Was that…
Frustration…?
“Why?!” Jongdae cries between his tears.
“Why do you keep on dying?”
Junmyeon’s eyes widen in horror, and he knew no more.
Aug 15
2:11pm
18th
Jongdae wakes up in his bed, the sunlight from his window blinding him yet again. He sits up, leaning on the wall for support.
“I couldn’t save him again this time,” he murmurs as a lone tear makes its way down his face.
A/N
if it got confusing for you, feel free to ask in the comments! Thanks for reading ~
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