Your actions determine your future
NUMB3RS
Chapter 4
It had been days since Junhyung’s escape from death and he almost felt normal, almost, even with all the numbers surrounding him. He didn’t know what to do next. He would just accept this ‘gift’ and use it when it’s needed, if he feels that death can be postponed and not actually interfering with nature.
The Beast members were going out together as a bonding session since there was no schedule for them that day. So far, they hadn’t been invited to many variety shows, so they have more free time now, which wasn’t a good thing come to think of it.
“Let’s go to the record store today! Then we can go eat barbeque again!!!” Yoseob jumped up and down in excitement and hugged Hyunseung all of a sudden.
“Why are you so happy eh?” Hyunseung raised his eyebrow and smiled at Yoseob’s antics. He can’t help but just hug that blonde guy back.
They were on their way to the record store when suddenly, Yoseob’s stomach started grumbling. They all stared at Yoseob and patted his back, “Just hang on buddy. We’ll get something to eat later.”
The rest of Beast walked side by side, everyone wearing hoodies, sunglasses and hats to disguise themselves from mobs of crazy fan girls. When they finally got to their favourite CD shop, they dispersed and promised to be back one hour later.
It was then that Junhyung realized Yoseob’s numbers were getting shorter and shorter, and it was terrifying him but he tried to calm down. Maybe he had calculated or seen wrongly. Just to make sure, Junhyung trailed after Yoseob and went to the same section.
Both Junhyung and Yoseob were opposite each other, looking through stacks and stacks of CDs. Junhyung tried looking at Yoseob’s head without being too obvious but whenever he did that, Yoseob would just smile at him as if he knew Junhyung had a secret, but wouldn’t tell him, and it was creeping Junhyung out.
“Hey Hyung, why do you stare at me like that?” Yoseob suddenly smiled when he caught Junhyung staring at him again.
‘Sh*t SUE it. What am I suppose to say?’ Junhyung thought to himself and smiled awkwardly at Yoseob.
“Oh nothing.”
Yoseob smiled to himself and continued on searching for his CD. This time Junhyung was sure of it. Yoseob had less than an hour to live… but what could possibly happen in this store? A piano dropping down on them? Nah, it only happens in cartoon. A robbery? Could be… what else?
Tick, tick, tick… the imaginary tick probed Junhyung’s stressed
mind. Every second that passed doubled the adrenaline in his bloodstream.
He rubbed his eyes and looked back at Yoseob’s numbers.
Oddly, it was back to normal.
‘What in the world…’
Then it started decreasing like mad again.
Junhyung reached out for the numbers to stop. Just stop. Don’t lessen any further. Yoseob’s his friend. No, more than that. Yoseob’s his brother. No brother would want to lose another.
When Junhyung realized what he’s doing, he quickly pulled back his arm in midair and placed both his hands in his pockets.
Yoseob looked up at him again.
Then the numbers became back to normal.
Was his mind playing tricks on him?
Junhyung shook his head and looked at Yoseob’s numbers again
There it was, decreasing so quickly as if it was going to be the end of the world.
Yoseob’s time was almost up and Junhyung had this gut feeling, hell, his heart was already wrenching at the thought of it that Yoseob was about to die any moment now.
“AH… I’m so hungry…” Yoseob rubbed his tummy and dashed out of the store to find something to eat.
+++
Oh mannnn… I’m like starving here. Where’s the food stand when you need it huh? Okay okay tummy, be quiet for awhile. People are staring. I’ll get you something to eat in no time! AH! There’s a food stand right there!
What the… the traffic light’s over there… but the food stand’s over there… and the road is over here… But I’m so hungry…
Okay just this once. I promised Doojoon I won’t ever jaywalk but this is a special case. Just for you tummy all right? I looked right and noticed there was no incoming vehicle. Good.
+++
It happened in a blink of a second. Yoseob had run out on me like that. I chased after him as fast as I could,
hoping it’s not too late. Now where did he go?
“Yoseob!” I screamed out loud, hoping that he’d hear me and run towards my direction. But nothing. I was weaving in and out of the crowd, screaming for his name, desperately trying to get to him. I have to find him.
Something was going to happen. How could I be so careless? I could have just grabbed him by my side when I had the chance to. Now, with him out of my sight, it was impossible for me to even try and save him.
KIKWANG KIKWANG KIKWANG… I spotted a yellow blob making his way across the road. It happened so fast. The truck was surely going to hit him head on. It was so close. But his numbers…
They weren’t decreasing as fast as I imagined them to. So what does this mean?
“WATCH OUT!”
My legs dashed towards him… hoping to save him in time. I’ll never forgive myself if anything happens to him.
Sh*t, I’ll never look at myself the same way again. I could have prevented it. I could have-…
“HONK. HONK”
+++
But just as I was about to cross the road, I could hear a loud honk, overwhelming my ears and before I could turned my head to see what it was, I could feel my body falling backwards into someone’s arms.
What just happened? The guy in the truck just sped away, yelling some vulgarities at me.
Holy sh*t. I almost got myself into a horrible accident… everyone stared. What the hell just happened…
I looked up to see my saviour.
+++
Suddenly, someone grabbed him from behind, inches before the truck collide with his little head. My heart was racing so fast, it was about to cross the finishing line soon. Oh man, if Yoseob really did got into that accident, I think I’d just die there too.
Oh thank God for Doojoon and his appropriate timing. You can always count on that guy to save the day.
Wait, Yoseob and his numbers! What happened?
“Yoseob! Oh my god, are you okay? I TOLD YOU TO LOOK RIGHT AND LEFT BEFORE YOU CROSS THE ROAD!” I started nagging at him as soon as I reached the scene. This kid really knows how to piss me off. Then I looked above him and realized his numbers were considered normal, just like everyone else’s. Wait, if he had escaped death… on the same spot as I did… does this mean?
“Yoseob, do you see anything…weird,” I grabbed his shoulders and stared into his eyes. Nothing. He’s just shocked but he definitely wasn’t freaking out like I expected him to, or like how I did, when the numbers started appearing. The rest of the Beast members had started running out of the store when they saw me running and were now staring at the scene in front of them.
“Let’s just go to the restaurant and eat yeah,” Doojoon tried calming Yoseob down and signaled the rest to go ahead. He gave me a reassuring look that he’ll take care of Yoseob and for me to not worry so much. How can I not worry when I have to make sure all of them make it through the day… alive?
+++
At the same restaurant, Yoseob had forgotten all about his near-death experience and focused on the food. They somehow always sat in the same position whenever they’re in this restaurant with Junhyung always facing AJ’s stare.
“So watcha’ thinking Hyung?” AJ stared at Junhyung who was again, too distracted by the numbers to even pay attention. ‘All right, ignore me if you want.’
Suddenly, Junhyung noticed the little girl again. This time she was running around and tripping over things but no one bothered to help her up or tell her to shut up while she was making a lot of noise. He sighed.
Then, the little girl turned her head and smiled at him, waving her tiny hand excitedly. Junhyung smiled awkwardly again and waved a little but he quickly put down his hand when he noticed AJ staring at him.
“So… who were you waving at?” AJ grinned at Junhyung. Junhyung just snorted and stuffed his mouth with rice, not bothering to answer AJ’s questions. AJ then gave up talking to Junhyung and continued on eating.
Junhyung suddenly noticed that someone was staring at him again, but it wasn’t AJ. It was none other than the little girl, peeping up at him from the edge of the table like she did the previous time Beast came here.
‘Just ignore. She’ll go away soon.’ But she didn’t. She just kept smiling at him and widening her eyes in amazement just like she always did whenever he shifted his eyes to her even for a second.
Finally, he couldn’t take the huge eyes monitoring his every move. He put his chopsticks down and sighed. Everyone else was too busy eating to even notice. Just as Junhyung turned his head to tell the girl to just go away already, he noticed she had disappeared.
Wait, no she didn’t. She was running out of the restaurant, and as he stared at her back… he realized something was different about that girl. Something was missing. He then looked above her head before she disappeared and noticed…
There were no numbers.
To be continued...
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