Part II

Vanishing Act

Chapter II

Conscious

Sunggyu was the first to snap out of the trance. He had to, especially at a time like this. He was the leader; he needed to wake up.

It had been one month and two weeks since the break down and things have only being going downhill since then.

Maybe there was some type of Idol Curse, like what happened to Super Junior* and maybe now that they have settled down, it had moved on back to Korea to spread its wicked disease somewhere else.

Like in Infinite.

Everything was just moving too fast for Sunggyu, though. Life had decided to it and just take a bullet train to the end of the road. He thinks he can see the end of the road from where he is now, actually. Hopefully, though, it’s just his imagination and he can go back to his Woohyun.

His thoughts seemed blank but only because they were thinking a million miles a minute you couldn’t even see it.

Everything that had happened recently was too overwhelming for comprehension.

The album had sold fantastically but the tour had been postponed due to the situations at hand.

But both the leader and the Maknae were given time off, they were still allowed to go back to the dorm whenever they could and all. But they couldn’t follow the schedule.

Sunggyu blamed the fan. It was the fan's fault. Not all of them. Just that crazy one.

The Sasaeng*.

If it hadn’t of been for her then none of this would’ve happened. Sunggyu knew that no idol was in the clear for Sasaengs, but he knew that the Inspirit fan base was a quiet and well-tamed one and their Sasaengs weren’t like Exo’s or Suju’s.

Theirs were worse. Much worse. They were ing crazy.

They were there. They were always there. They knew every secret, every tear drop, every scene. He had only just come to realise that they had never escaped.

They had films of them hugging, talking, taking the ing shower.

It was disgusting. It was disgraceful.

How could they do that? Weren’t they fans? Weren’t they meant to love and protect Infinite, not go and ing invade their private life because they have no ing life of their own!

This girl wasn’t the first Sasaeng he met. She’s just the first that didn’t expose her identity straight away. She smiled warmly at him and asked for his autograph. Sunggyu looked at the page, he knew not to ever sign something without searching it first but it seemed fine and dandy.

She smiled once again and shook his hand and asked for a hug to which he gladly complied.

Everything was fine.

Until a sadistic smirk creeped upon her face and her smile dropped. Something was placed in his sleeve and the paper was left unattended, a soon-to-be souvenir for something that's going to go terribly wrong.

But her face already remained etched into his mind.

She was scary, freaky. She smiled so sadistically that he doubted she even considered herself a fan. He knew that she didn't consider herself a fan.

He watched her closely, even ignoring Sungjong that was trying to tell him something, and watched her movements with a sharp, close eye.

But she went to one booth and one booth only after that. Woohyun’s.

“Are you okay, hyung? You look kind of sick.”

Sunggyu snapped himself out of his thoughts and looked back to Sungjong reassuringly.

“I’m okay, just a bit tired. You should worry about yourself though.”

Sungjong looked down and smiled slightly, “I’m okay. I’ll just rest a different time. My Sungels* are counting on me, I can’t let them down!”

Sunggyu laughed at his determination and ruffled his hair. “You’re such a good id—“

All movement froze. He had forgotten all about it.

The item she had given him was a picture.

She had given him a photo. A photo of what?

Sunggyu shivered.

He watched the photo that fell to the ground beneath them. 

“Hyung, what’s wrong? What’s that?” Sungjong queried and took a peak at the photo and his eyes widened in shock and he visibly paled, but much less than Sunggyu’s though. Sunggyu had never felt so exposed.

“H-Hyung?”

If this gets out—Sunggyu didn’t even want to think about it.

How many other people had seen that photo? How many photos of these were there?

His eyes quickly snapped to Woohyun’s table to find the girl reaching into hug Woohyun. Something hidden glimmered as it caught the sun and in less than a moment Sunggyu was on the run, grateful that Woohyun’s table was not too far. 

Dreading what would happen when he got there.

Dreading what would happen if he was too late.

“If I can’t have you, no one will.”

Blood poured out onto the floor.

Blood was coughed out, splattering the liquid everywhere.

Weirdly though, only four people had seen it. Everyone had been so wrapped up in their activities that they didn’t see the knife plunge into a chest.

They only saw a man fall.

Woohyun didn’t even notice when tears had fell from his eyes all he saw was Sunggyu, who laid in his arms.

Sunggyu, whose eyes slowly flickered to the bleeding body next to him, his head beginning to face the direction too before he felt a soft hand caress his cheek and guide his eyes back to the crying beauty.

“Oppa*!”

A fan’s voice rang out, and a series of shouts had quickly followed but he didn’t care about them. Nor the knife in his stomach, the bleeding body beside him, or the fragile boy who had collapsed to his knees a few metres away.

He was a leader yes. But he was dying; he could rest from that position for just a few minutes, couldn’t he? Even at a scarring, intense, tragic event like this, couldn't he just rest for a while?

All he could and wanted to see was right in front of him, looking so shocked with eyes wide open and his jaw slackened. Slowly he started to form incoherent words, that all sounded like sorry. Sunggyu didn’t want to hear that.

Sunggyu only heard apologies from the person who held him. Nam Woohyun should not give out apologies.

Nam Woohyun was not the person at fault.

But Nam Woohyun disagrees.

Woohyun couldn’t even think straight, all that could pour out of his mouth was a bunch of pathetic sorry’s. How could he not have seen this?

He should’ve been more careful, he already knows this. He also already knew that what he was saying did not make things any better.

Woohyun quickly shut up and refocused his eyes to the bleeding leader who formed broken words that could hardly be heard.

“I love you.”

This was not the time. It was not the time for things like this when he was bleeding to death! The biggest ‘I love you’ that Sunggyu could give Woohyun was surving, was living.

But at the same time it was a perfect time. It was a perfect time to finally say the words he had always wanted to say. It was the perfect time, because if he didn’t do it now, he may never be able to do it again. Plus he couldn’t not reply, ‘cause Sunggyu said it first.

“I love you too, Sunggyu. I love your smile, your cheeks and your eyes. I love your hands when you hold mine and how you hug me tightly. I love you, Sunggyu because you mean everything to me. I really love you, as much as I hated you in our debuting days. I love you so much, especially when you direct your smile to me and how you gaze at me different. I love how you make me feel special and always put up with my fits of anger and when I act so high and might around others. I love you a lot. So please. Promise me don’t go.”

 The rest of the scenes flew by quickly for some, shortly for others but the rest of the scenes weren't even there for Woohyun. He couldn't tell whether or not it felt like a moment or felt like an eternity. For Woohyun everything was blurry except for his love--his lover was the only thing he could ever focus on.

So he watched as his lover’s eyes closed. Kim Sunggyu wasn’t dead. He was resting. Kim Sunggyu needed sleep, he had been tired lately.

“I’ll be waiting.” He whispered into the ear of his beloved and his lips twitched upwards when he saw the smile grace the beautiful lips of his lover.

Sunggyu mentally scowled as he thought back to her, weirdly though, he couldn't remember much about her, but Sungjong had come and explained earlier.

A quiet sob broke his chain of thoughts.

As well as being the first to wake up, he had been the last to get up—only because he was still in this little dream state of his.

“Gyu gee gee, won’t you wake up?”

It wasn’t as simple as that. He was awake.

“We’re sorry! We never knew this would happen.”

He knows that. He understands. This had nothing to do with them.

“Please, come back. We need you.”

He wants to. He really, really does.

“L-LeaderGyu, he’s waiting for you.”

Sunggyu is coming. He swears he’s coming.

“HamsterGyu, Please wake up. Namstar’s waiting for you.”

He knows, damn it! He knows!

This was never meant to happen, he knows! He knows what happened, he’s there! He can hear everything but god damn it he can’t even ing twitch his eyebrow!

God ing Damn it!

“H-He’s waiting for you. We’re waiting for you.”

He knows.

“We’re sorry.”

He knows. He knows.

But that doesn’t change anything.

“Woohyun’s waiting for you.”

It doesn’t change a ing thing. But it should.

*Super Junior = A very successful membered boy group from SM Entertainment

*Sasaeng = An overly obsessed fan that prives into the private life of their idols.

*Oppa = What a female calls a close male who is older than her.