~*~

Chapter III

In the Rain

5월 15일

Hoya would’ve walked straight past Myungsoo if Myungsoo hadn’t called out to him. 

He was concentrating on the music, listening to the tracks that the producers had given them to listen to.  They were going to be for their next comeback, but they weren’t still ready for the idea fo a come back without Myungsoo. 

But it was their job so they listened to it. 

Hoya was walking through the hospital garden, trying to hurry into the  building.  The clouds hanging above the Seoul skyline were dark and promising rain.  As he was hurrying through the park, he nearly missed Myungsoo calling to him.

“Howon-ah!”

Hoya skidded to a stop and turned around.  Myungsoo waved happily from a spot by a bench where he was sitting in a wheelchair. 

“Myungsoo?” Hoya asked as he drew closer to Myungsoo, putting his phone back into his pocket.  “What are you doing out here?  It’s going to rain, you should be inside.”

Myungsoo waved off his concerns and looked up to the sky, the cool rainy winds blowing against his skin.  “I wanted to come outside,” he said simply.  “It’s nicer outside than it is inside my room.”

“But it’s going to rain,” Hoya argued, shifting his weight from foot to foot. 

Myungsoo opened one eye to look at him.  “It’s not raining now,” he answered bluntly.

“It’s going to rain,” Hoya said again. 

Sighing, Myungsoo shook his head.  “I’ll go inside if it rains,” he promised.  “For now, I like it out here.”

Hoya smiled and sat down on the bench beside him.  “Why are you out here?”

“I asked Hyeji-noona if she could bring me outside for a little while, Umma and Abeoji aren’t here today and I didn’t think that any of you had the time to come over either,” Myungsoo explained.  “Inside is boring.”

Hoya nodded, knowing that Myungsoo got deathly bored inside his room.  It wasn’t strange to get to his room and find Myungsoo doing the most strange things to fight his boredom.  Once, Hoya walked in and found Myungsoo building a fort with his sheets and chairs in the room.  Hyeji seemed to be a part of his mischief as she came in with some extra sheets to complete his fort.  “Fort L” lasted for about a hour and unfortunetly was torn down when the chairs supporting the fort fell down around them. 

“Could you dance?”

Hoya jumped and stared at him .  “What?” he asked, totally lost from his thoughts.  

“Dance,” Myungsoo said again, waving his arms in the air.  “Like what you would always do.”

“Here?  Now?”

Myungsoo nodded, his hair falling into his eyes as he did.  “You always do, why can’t you do it now?”

Hoya grinned and nodded, standing up.  Even though there was no music, he started to move his body slowly, each movment fitting back into the old music that still was playing in their hearts.  Dancing was like breathing to Hoya now, he had been dancing for what felt like forever.  He loved dancing, he knew that he could never stop dancing even if he tried, that’s why he left his home in Busan to come to Seoul and dance like he wanted to. 

Even though dancing was something that Myungsoo was never very passionate about, it was a dream that he followed too.

Suddenly, new music interrupted his movements and he looked up to see Myungsoo with his phone in his hands, playing music.

“Why did you stop?” he asked, concern in his eyes.  “Is something wrong?”

Hoya smiled slowly.  “No, nothing’s wrong at all.”

For the first time in a long time, Hoya felt like nothing was wrong, everything was perfect. 

He continued to dance, to show off his dance moves to Myungsoo, dancing to the music that they had made in the past, but would always give him the hope for the future, because at one point, those songs were their future and always would be there for them.

Myungsoo was smiling and laughing as Hoya continued to dance for him. The song changed to ‘I Like You’ and Hoya laughed as Myungsoo started to dance as best as he could in the wheelchair.  Hoya laughed as Myungsoo started doing dances that Hoya nearly forgot that Myungsoo did, the little goofy dances that he did on the side of practices or when they were waiting around for something. 

Hoya grabbed Myungsoo’s hands and tugged at his hands, dragging him to dance with him.  Myungsoo laughed and wiggled his shoulders in his way of dancing while he was trapped in the wheelchair.  It was definitely not how Hoya usually danced, he usually did hip-hop, and this dance was rather something like what middle school students did at school dances.  But to Hoya, it was one of the best dances he had ever done. 

A little hand patted on his thigh and he looked down to see a little girl with a hospital ID braclet around her wrist.  She had a big smile on her face as she reached out for Hoya’s hand.

“I want to dance too, oppa!” she squealed happily.  “Please, oppa, dance with me too!”

Myungsoo smiled as Hoya took her hand too and they started ‘dancing’ together.

After the song ended, the girl let go of their hands and waved to them happily.  “Bye bye, oppa!  Get better soon!”

She raced away bfore any of them could say anything. 

“She was cute,” Myungsoo said, smiling happily at the girl’s retreating back.

“Yeah, she was,” Hoya agreed. 

Suddenly, a fat drop of rain fell down on Myungsoo’s nose.  Hoya smiled as Myungsoo went crossed eyed to see the drop of rain on his nose.

But a few seconds later, they weren’t laughing as rain started pouring down on their heads.

“Oh ,” Hoya swore loudly and hurried to undo the break on Myungsoo’s wheelchair.  Myungsoo smiled at him as he pushed him towards the entrance of the hospital. 

The sudden rainpour wasn’t getting any lighter and the hospital entrance was too far away.  Hoya looked around quickly and spotted a small gazebo on the side of the path.  Quickly, he change his direction to the gazebo, but even in the smal sprint to the gazebo, Myungsoo and Hoya were already soaked to the skin from the rain.

Hoya wipped the water from his eyes and looked at Myungsoo.  Myungsoo’s hair was gathered in small chunks on his forehead from the rain water and his shoulders were soaked with water, but he was still smiling.

“Sorry, Myungsoo,” Hoya apologized, wipping the rain water off him as best as he could, forgetting that he was also wet.  “I didn’t think it would rain, sorry, you got wet and-”

Myungsoo laughed and cut Hoya off.  “Hyung, stop, it’s okay,” he reassured. “You don’t need to worry.”

“But you might get a cold.  You’re just recovering and your immune system’s still weak and-”

Myungsoo grabbed Hoya’s wrist and held it tightly, stopping his movements.  “If that happens, Myungsoo said gently.  “you’ll be there to help me.  It’s okay, Howon, it really is.”

Myungsoo’s dark eyes were warm and shining as Hoya finally looked at him.  Hoya sighed and sat down on the gazebo bench in front of Myungsoo.  “Sorry, it’s just that I don’t like the rain.  It’s like the whole world is crying,” he said.

Myungsoo laughed softly.  “I like rain,” he said, smiling, his dimple appearing on his cheek as he looked up at the grey skies.  “You don’t need to think of it as the Earth crying.  Because I like it.  Just think of it as a blessing for me.”

Hoya nodded slowly.  “I’ll try…”

He smiled at Hoya again.  “It’s okay, Howon, it really is.”

Hoya bit his lip, trying to decide his next words.  “Myungsoo… about you leaving Infinite…”

He looked down, suddenly finding his hospital gown very intresting.  “If you’re mad… I’m sorry,” he muttered, fussing his wet hair into place. 

“Myungsoo, we aren’t mad, we just want to know why,” Hoya said.  “We lov… We’re so proud of you, but it hurts us to know that you’re not going to be with us any more.

“Like Sunggyu-hyung… he’s so, so, so proud of you.  As the leader, he’s the most proud of you.

“Dongwoo-hyung, half the energy he uses while he’s awake and when he’s asleep, is spent worry about you.  He cares so much.

“And Woohyunie.  You’re on his mind constantly, thinking about what time he can visit you in the hospital next, or when the next time he can be there for you and he even knows when you need your next medicine.

“Sungyeol.  He’s the closest to you, of course, so he knows you the best, and I think he might be hurt the most.  But he’s strong, he’s strong for you.

“Last of all, Sungjong… Sungjong… he misses you, he might not admit it, but he cares so much about you because he’s trying to take care of you and return the favour.

“We all don’t want you to quit Infinite,” Hoya continued.  “Because we all care about you, we’re all proud of you, you’re on our mind constantly and we’re trying to be strong for you.”

Myungsoo remained silent, staring out into the hosital garden as the earth was soaked with the tears from the sky. 

“What about you?” Myungsoo finally spoke up.

“What do you mean what about me?” Hoya asked, confused.

“You talked about Sunggyu, Dongwoo, Woohyun, Sungyeol and Sungjong. What about you, Howon?”  He looked up, his eyes uncertain.  “Are you okay?”

Hoya looked down, not wanting to look Myungsoo in the eye.  “I think that you’re so brave for facing your life when it’s like this, but I didn’t think that you would be so cowardly to turn away from your life in this way.

“To be truthful… I’m hurt that you’re trying to leave us.”

The rain drumed down on the earth as the two young men sat together, rain falling down from the sky and down their cheeks as well.  

~*~

5월 17일

Sungyeol could hardly recognize Myungsoo’s hospital room.  There were sheets drapped over most of the furniture, creating a fort of sheets and Myungsoo was nowhere to be seen. 

“Myungsoo-yah?” he called out as he stepped into the room.  “Where are you?”

Myungsoo’s head popped up on the other end of the sheets, grinning widely.  “Hey, Sungyeol!  Come join me!”

Sungyeol knelt down and looked into the ‘entrance’ of the fort of sheets.  “Myungsoo, what’s this?”

Myungsoo grinned, beckoning Sungyeol closer.  “I was bored today, I wanted to rebuild Fort L.”

Sungyeol rolled his eyes as he crawled into the fort.  “Fort L?  Are you the leader?”

He snorted and nodded.  “What other reason would it be called Fort L them?  Because our all and powerful Lee Sungyeol is the leader?”

“That isn’t such a bad idea,” Sungyeol joked.  He looked around the fort, surprised at the space underneath the sheets.  “You really did a make-over in here,” he said. 

Myungsoo shrugged, rearranging a pile of sheets in one corner.  “It isn’t like there’s much I can do in here while I’m waiting for someone to-nothing to happen.”

“Hey, Myungsoo-yah,” a new voice, Hyeji’s voice, sang out from the outside the fort.  “I got you new sheets that you were asking for.”

Myungsoo brightened immediately.  “Thank you, noona!” he called out happily. 

Hyeji ducked down so she could see in, holding a few extra bed sheets in her arms.  “Hello, Sungyeol,” she added as she handed the sheets to Myungsoo.  “What are you doing here today?”

“I was just visiting,” Sungyeol said scooting over a bit so that Hyeji had enough space to crawl in a bit. 

“He came from the very powerful Infinite Fortress,” Myungsoo said, drapping out the sheets and trying to orginize them in a very ‘Myungsoo’ way. 

“Is that right?” Hyeji laughed.  “Then I came from the Nurses’ Desk Castle which I need to be getting back to after I make the rounds in Fort L.”

Myungsoo nodded as Hyeji crawled over in the small fort space to do a quick check up on Myungsoo. 

Sungyeol looked around the interior of the fort.  Myungsoo had set up chairs in each corner and his IV stand was holding up the centre of the fort. 

“How long did it take for you to make this?” Sungyeol asked Myungsoo. 

Myungsoo shrugged slightly as Hyeji did something with the IV in his hand.  “Maybe a hour?  I don’t know, I was bored.”

“Really bored,” Hyeji corrected.  “He kept on complaining whenever I was in the room.”

Myungsoo grinned.  “I’m not bored any more,” he said cheerfully. 

Sungyeol rolled his eyes.  “Who are you and what have you done to Myungsoo?”

Myungsoo stuck his tounge out at Sungyeol, a childish gesture which earned him a smack on the head from Hyeji.  “I feel like I shouldn’t have to say this to two grown men, but BEHAVE!  I’ll see you in a few hours, Myungsoo,” Hyeji said as she crawled out of the fort. 

“See you later, noona,” Myungsoo said cheerfully.   He sighed and looked over at Sungyeol.  “What brought you here today?”

“I wanted to visit you,” Sungyeol said. 

“Don’t you have something better to waste your time on?” Myungsoo asked, slightly bitterly. 

“Oh sure, I could sit at the dorm and watch all of the dramas that I want and get bored out of my mind,” Sungyeol said sacrastically.  “Come on, Myungsoo-yah!  I want to be here, not at the dorm.” 

“But-”

“Myungsoo?”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up, okay?”

Myungsoo’s lip cruled into a smile and he nodded.  “What do you want to do today?” he asked. 

“I don’t know,” Sungyeol shrugged.  “What do you have to do around Fort L?”

Myungsoo shrugged.  “I’m the king around here, you need to follow my orders,” he said slightly sacrastically. 

Sungyeol threw his head back and laughed. 

“Yah!  If you laugh at me, you can be thrown in prison!”

Sungyeol just continued to laugh. 

“If you don’t stop laughing, you’re no longer going to be a guest, but an intruder!” Myungsoo yelled over his laughing. 

Sungyeol grinned evily and wiggled his fingers as if he was going to tickle Myungsoo.  “If I’m an intruder, I guess I’ll have to attack!”

He rushed at Myungsoo, pushing him to the ground.  He dug his fingers against his ribcage which made Myungsoo start laughing helplessly. 

“Don’t!” he yelled out as he tried to fend off Sungyeol. 

Sungyeol grinned, not taking mercy on his friend for even a second.  One of their failing legs hit Myungsoo’s IV pole and the whole fort came falling down in white folds on top of them. 

Myungsoo, who was completely pinned underneath Sungyeol, started laughing, Sungyeol soon joining him.  Sungyeol got off of Myungsoo, sitting up in the mess of sheets. 

He looked over at Myungsoo who was sitting up too, patting down his ruffled hair. 

“Fort L is very faulty,” Sungyeol noted, leaning against the foot of the bed. 

Myungsoo smiled at him.  “Whatever, I’m going to be bored tomorrow again, I can rebuild it then.”

“Can I help?”

Myungsoo nodded.  “Still going to be call Fort L though.”

“Why?”  Sungyeol pretended to pout. “Can’t it be called Fort LYeol?”

“I think the Inspirits say MyungYeol, not LYeol,” Myungsoo joked. 

“LYeol has a better ring to it,” Sungyeol argued. 

“No, it doesn't!” Myungsoo shot back.  “At least SooYeol, okay?”

“Why do you always come first?” Sungyeol complained, kicking at Myungsoo’s feet. 

“Because I’m more handsome.”

“You are not.”

“I am.”

“You’re not.”

“You’re in for it.”

Sungyeol didn’t have the time to say anything as Myungsoo threw himself at Sungyeol and wrestled him down to the ground.  Sungyeol laughed and tried to hold Myungsoo off as he tried his best to tickle Sungyeol. 

It felt so normal to be aruging with Myungsoo about little things, not caring about anything at all.  Sungyeol missed Myungso around the dorm. 

It was hard to think that he might not have his best friend for much longer.  It felt too soon for Myungsoo to go.  Sungyeol knew as his friend, he needed to be prepared to let Myungsoo go, but still, his heart didn’t want to let him go. 

Sungyeol scrambled away from Myungsoo, laughing and sitting down beside Myungsoo, their backs leaning against the bed. 

“Hey, Sungyeol?” Myungsoo asked after a few moments. 

“Yeah?”

“Have you wrote my eulogy yet?”

Sungyeol rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.  A little while ago, sometime around March, Myungsoo had asked Sungyeol if he could write an eulogy for him out of the blue.  Caught off guard, Sungyeol had agreed, but since then, he had never thought about it.  “Why do I need to write that?  I can always do that later.”

“No, you should do it now,” Myungsoo insisted.  He grabbed a pad of paper from the side table and shoved it into Sungyeol’s hands. 

“What should I write then?” Sungyeol asked, looking at the paper. 

“Anything,” Myungsoo said, crossing his arms over his chest, mimicking the way that Sungyeol had done before.  “Here, I’ll start for you.”  He waited until Sungyeol had his pen and paper ready before he started.  “My best friend, Myungsoo, was awesome and-“

“Wait, first of all, you’re not my best friend,” Sungyeol said, shaking his pen at him.  “And you’re not awesome.”

Myungsoo laughed.  “Then you write.”

Sungyeol gave him an evil smile.  “Lee Sungyeol’s eulogy for Kim Myungsoo,” he said, writing down the title with a flourish. 

“Good start.”

Sungyeol gave a fake bow before starting to write, reading aloud what he was writing.  “Kim Myungsoo is the most annoying person I’ve ever met.  He did not ever wash.  He’s the most clumsy person ever.  He wouldn’t do his homework until the very last minute while we were in university classes together.  His hair is a monster of his own.”

Sungyeol took a deep breath and looked up at Myungsoo.  “But… you know, Kim Myungsoo is more than my best friend.  Even though L is often cold, Myungsoo was the one who made me smile.  Sometimes when we were on stage, I would purposely make a fool of myself just so that I could make L smile.”

Myungsoo smiled.  “Sungyeol, I-”

“Wait, I’m not finished yet,” Sungyeol said, waving his pen at him, before continuing on with writing, “Even though Myungsoo is more than my best friend, he can never stand on his feet.  He will do nothing unless he is feed.  He only wears black clothes.  He is the worst patient when he’s sick even before he was diagnosed with cancer. 

“He needs so many hugs that anyone would think that he was a baby koala.  If he is grumpy, he’s like an over grown baby throwing a tantrum.  If he’s sad, we have to go get him ice cream and baby him until he smiles again.”

“Any one would think that you hate me,” Myungsoo said dryly. 

“I’m still not at the end of the page,”  Sungyeol said with a little pout, showing the half filled page to Myungsoo. 

“Sorry,” Myungsoo said, nodding for him to continue. 

“Even with all of these things, all the things that made Myungsoo annoying and very, very high maintenance, whenever Myungsoo would smile, it would make everyone else smile too.  His laugh would be the sound of the canary in a mine.  Myungsoo is more than my best friend.  I guess you could say that Myungsoo is my brother.” 

Sungyeol looked up from his piece of paper to look at Myungsoo.  He was smiling softly at Sungyeol, tears bright in his eyes. 

There was just enough room on the paper, and with a little smile, Sungyeol finished.  “Myungsoo is a very sweet person.  He has the best smile I know.  He’s friendly with everyone.  He loves a lot of people and takes care of everyone around him.  I wish that he was never diagnosed with cancer.  Maybe someday, we’ll meet again when we’re on our infinite journey, but for now, I hope that Myungsoo will be able stay with us on our Infinite journey.”

Dotting off the last sentence, Sungyeol placed the pen down.  Even though the page was filled mostly with insults to Myungsoo, but filled with love as well. 

“Sungyeol.” Myungsoo reached out and hugged him tightly.  “I’m sorry.”

Tears dripped down the sides of his nose as Myungsoo hugged him tightly, the same koala bears hugs that Sungyeol mentioned before.  “Myungsoo… you’re our canary, don’t stop singing, never stop singing.”

Myungsoo nodded, holding onto Sungyeol tighter than before.  “We promised that we would sing and perform until we die, right?  There won’t be a time that I’m going to die until I’m standing up on stage with all six of you again.  When we’re singing our songs again… that’s the moment when I’m going to go.”

Sungyeol closed his eyes.  “Some day, we’re going to be standing on stage together, we’re going to sing together and when we take our final bow together, that’s going to be the end of Infinite.”

“We’re not going to end there,” Myungsoo said quietly.  “We’re going to last forever.”

“Myungsoo?”

“Yeah, Sungyeol?”

“I love you.”

“I know.  Me too.”  

Sorry I didn't update yesterday!  I swear I meant to!  I just happened to go out to dinner with my sister for my birthday and then we watched Big Hero 6 so then I didn't get home until late, sorry!  Actually, Big Hero 6 is a good movie, not going to apologize for watching it.  ^^/

More MyungYeol, I don't know why I'm having so much MyungYeol recently.  If you like MyungYeol, check out my stories MyungYeol at the Idol Olympics and If you trust me, I'll wait and we'll be happy together. If you don't like MyungYeol, and happen to like WooGyu, (and bits of OT7.  I beat up Myungsoo pretty badly in this one too...) read The Prince of Nagareboshi and the Prince of Yoosung everyone should read this one bc I'm super proud of this one.  

Okay, done with promoting my fics... Lovelyz is having their comeback tomorrow!!! I'm so fricking excited!! Kei looks super cute!  And the rest of them look super lovely as well!  Especially Infinite's Elephant, but only Kei is cute! 

Also, I edited DtR the other day and squashed some chapters together so that there's four less chapters, I think that it's 21 chapters instead of 25, but it's still all there, just squashed together.  Thank you!  

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