All Hands Except One

By: HuangMeiLing

They might have been getting back from any long trip as they trooped through the door of the SM Building, tired, sweaty, and silent. But this had not been any journey, but a long and dark one, and they would never be the same again.

Suho sat down at the kitchen table and looked up at the group’s grandfather clock, watching all the hands move back from 1:45 to 12:00.

All the hands except one.

The hand labeled “Luhan” stayed were it were and it’s golden arm seemed to have lost some of its shimmer. Kris opened the clock front and stopped the ticking pendulum inside, glancing forlornly at the last hand and motioned Suho to get some rest.

The dorm was deathly silent; not even Chanyeol and Baekhyun were making noise. The rest of the remaining members – Lay, Chen, Xiumin, D.O, Tao, Kai, and Sehun – lingered in the kitchen, all of them trying to stare everywhere but the clock, its familiar, reassuring ticking gone. Finally, Chen and Xiumin got up and opened the case again, holding it open to take their member’s hand out, gently unscrewing it from the axis on which it had revolved for the past two years.

Walking over to Sehun, they placed the golden pointer next to Sehun’s tightly clenched fist, leaving the room without another word.

After moments of silence, Lay stood up; his face filled with tears, and left the room without any word. Tao choked a sob and later ran upstairs, not wanting to let the members see him cry. D.O, who was clutching Luhan’s Wolf shirt, stood up and rubbed Sehun’s shoulder before heading upstairs.

Later on, Kai and Sehun were the only ones left. Silence was the only thing both could hear.

“How does it feel?” asked Kai with a cracked voice. Sehun did not look up.

“How do you think it feels? We lost him.” Kai was surprised to hear Sehun’s cold voice.

“You… You better get some sleep. We still have a concert to go to, you know.” Sehun did not respond but Kai knew he was listening. Kai stood up and left to get some sleep. Kris was hesitant on leaving Sehun alone.

Sehun did not look directly at the clock hand for he kept looking at the floor, but his fingers slowly crept over towards it, tentatively feeling the etched spaces in the cold metal where “Luhan” was written. Seeing the tear form in Sehun’s eye, Kris quietly left the kitchen, leaving him to mourn over his best friend in peace.