Based off prompt 'Imagine Person A packing Person B’s belongings in boxes, the heartbreak of their funeral still heavy on their mind, though it was months ago. They’re about to burst into tears again when they hear a knock at the door. Person B’s voice says their name, though it sounds strange. They look up to see Person B, dressed in what they were buried in, clumps of dirt falling from their person, and a slight smile on their decaying face.'
 

-

Kyuhyun sat on the floor with an industrial packet of duct tape, a large thick black marker and a heavy heart. He stared around vacantly at the place that he had shared with Sungmin. 'Had'. The use of the past tense constantly jarred him.

He hated it. Speaking in past tense made everything real. But his therapist had made him do it during the sessions and the habit started bleeding into the rest of his life as well.

Ryeowook had already taken out Sungmin's clothes and possessions from the various nooks and crannies of their apartment, simply piling it up in the living room for Kyuhyun to go through. If he had to do it himself, he think he would have given up long ago. But all that was left now with just minimal sorting and the packing before all traces of Sungmin would be gone from his house. Except the photos of course. He was definitely keeping those.

Kyuhyun looked up at the large frame sitting on the side table just beside their couch. The large mahogany frame had been so carefully picked out, and it was encasing one of their nicest pictures, Sungmin had claimed. It had been taken within the third year of their dating, on a holiday to Greece where a waiter-secret-aspiring-photographer had offered to take a shot of them. They'd moved at the last minute but the result was a picture of Kyuhyun staring at Sungmin lovingly while Sungmin's eyes focused somewhere just off-camera, laughing brilliantly while the sunset bloomed behind that. It was their best picture, Kyuhyun thought.

He sighed and went back to the boxes, packing away all of his clothes for donation to the needy, just like Sungmin wanted. His personal effects were mostly going to his family and his close friends, like he had told Kyuhyun once in jest when they were discussing the afterlife. They didn't think that a few months later, a car would just come barrelling down the road and knocking into Sungmin. Or that he'd die minutes after the operation, just after Kyuhyun had barely gotten to exchange their last 'I love you's.

Kyuhyun kept Sungmin's favourite shirt, he didn't think he could bear keeping anything else in the closet.

One box down, five more to go he sighed.

A knocking sounded at the door and he padded over tiredly to press the buzzer, knowing full well that the only people who came around nowadays were their close friends. 'Come in, whoever you are. Do you want tea?'

'Kyuhyun.'

He spun around in shock, dropping the cup and it smashed on the ground but the sound did nothing to mask the plaintive calling of his name.

Kyuhyun ran straight to the living room, following the strange call and he skidded to a halt in front of Sungmin in the middle of the living. 'Su - Sungmin?'

But it wasn't the Sungmin he remembered. This Sungmin was covered in dirt that seemed to keep dropping off him, leaving a trail from the door to the room. His beautiful blond hair was hanging in clumps from his head and his eyes were sunken and listless. 'Kyuhyun,' he whined. But the pout was still the same. That familiar pout, surrounded by now thin lips and drying skin. Sungmin stretched out a hand, skeletal and shaky, pointing it at Kyuhyun while a maggot wriggled onto the top of his hand.

'Why'd you leave me Kyuhyun?' Sungmin whispered, taking a step closer even as there was a horrific crack and three of his toes broke off, but he continued walking. 'You promised you wouldn't leave me.'

Kyuhyun shrank back against the dining table. 'But I didn't! You left me Min!' He grabbed behind him for anything that he could use to defend himself. 'You're not Sungmin. The Sungmin I loved was sweet and kind and beautiful and oh my god, you're a nightmare. You must be. I haven't been sleeping well! Go away!'

'A nightmare?' Sungmin stopped in his tracks. 'You think I'm a nightmare?' He picked at his suit, the simple black suit and tie that Kyuhyun had decided to bury him in, now covered with grime and insects and already fraying. 'Look at this suit! This is the nightmare, it doesn't even fit me well because I've lost so much weight!'

'Go away,' Kyuhyun whimpered, staring helplessly at Sungmin as the decomposing corpse of his boyfriend came closer and closer and the smell of rotten meat filled his nostrils, causing his bile to rise and he retched violently, feeling the tears leak out from his eyes. This wasn't happening, this wasn't real. It was just a figment of his imagination.

'But it is real Kyuhyun-ah,' Sungmin put a hand on his arm and Kyuhyun watched in horror as a beetle crawled out of a tiny hole in his skin only to burrow back in, making a new one. 'Don't you love me? We'll be together forever. Not even death can keep us apart.'

All Kyuhyun could do was scream as Sungmin pressed closer with a gleam in his dead eyes, the smell getting stronger and stronger while the hand on his arm gripped tighter, the skin falling away until it was only bones holding onto him. Kyuhyun didn't want this. He didn't want Sungmin back if this was the Sungmin he got.

'What happened to loving me in sickness and in health, Kyuhyun-ah?'

The next day, the police were alerted to a horrific smell coming from Kyuhyun's apartment and they burst in only to find Kyuhyun, or what was left of him, still pressed up between the dining table and the wall, hands frozen up in front of his face and terrified eyes as the maggots and flies ate away at his body. What they couldn't account for was the large amount of dirt that they found scattered throughout the apartment, even in the bed. The largest amount of dirt was found in a pair of shoes that Ryeowook identified as Sungmin's by the doorway.

'I thought Kyuhyun buried Sungmin in those,' Ryeowook hiccuped. 'But I must have been mistaken.'

'Are you alright sir? It must be hard losing two friends,' the policeman asked kindly and Ryeowook nodded through his tears.

'I'm fine. I guess I'll be the one doing the packing now,' Ryeowook made to take off his shoes and enter the apartment but the policeman stopped him.

'There's no need, Mr Lee Sungmin's things are all done and packed. There's just an exceptional amount of dirt on the boxes that we need to clean off and process before we can hand it off to you.'

Ryeowook was confused. 'But what about Kyuhyun's things?'

'Well that's the weird part. His things were all packed into boxes too, with the same dirt covering all those boxes. His clothes, his personal effects, even his laptop; the only thing left in the house that wasn't furniture or food was the photograph of both of them on the side table. I don't think you'll want to keep that though.'

'Why not?'

'Well,' the policeman hesitated. 'Dirt and maggots were all over the picture, the largest amount in the entire apartment actually. The funny thing is, the dirt tests positive for Mr Lee Sungmin's DNA all over it. But I don't suppose you know anything about that.'