Eight.
Twelve Meters and Closer
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Jiwon filtered in the room, trying his hardest to be quiet, his mind vaguely aware that he shouldn't be found in this state. He mindlessly chuckled. Nobody should see him in this state.
They had high hopes. It all crashed down. "And I'm the biggest casualty," he thought mournfully.
He crawled on his knees to get to Hanbin's room. Halfway through, he slipped and hit his chin on the ground. Annoyed, he rubbed his chin and looked up, seeing that he had only actually made it out the vestibule and halfway along the living room. He grew even more annoyed.
"Aiish. Why is Hanbin's room so far away?"
He felt something drip from his nose, and upon wiping it, saw his fingers covered in dark liquid. Blood. His nose was bleeding now.
"Huh," he stared at it, not knowing what to make of it. "Guess I had too much. Damn Hunchul for bringing so much more that was necessary."
He didn't notice the lamp in the kitchen was still on, nor that somebody was calling him, whispering harshly. He continued his trek to the end of the hallway, but again his knees gave way. He gave up totally, spread his arms on the floor as if hugging it. "I'll sleep here," he said to himself, smiling. "So cold."
"Hyung, hyung!" Hanbin whispered, agitated. He tried to pull Jiwon up, but the bigger boy seemed resolute to stick to where he was. In a short while, he fell unconscious.
Hanbin ran his hand through his hair. He tried to pull his brother up, to no avail. It was 4am, and Hanbin had been awake studying; but if his mother wakes up and sees Jiwon in this state, she'd freak.
She'd more than freak, she'd bring him to a hospital. Jiwon's been acting so erratically that the times he was home actually brought pain to his parents more than relief; and to think that since training to become a rapper, he had only been home four times since last holidays.
Four times. On all occasions, he'd been drunk or irate or so quiet that nobody was able to get a word out of him.
Hanbin considered waking Jinhwan, when he noticed that Jiwon's nose continued to bleed. Ironically, he had a huge smile plastered on his face. Panicking, Hanbin checked if he was breathing. He sighed when he saw his brother's chest rise up and down normally, albeit a little quicker than usual.
"It's a nosebleed, Hanbin. Not a hemorrhage." He calmed himself down. He leaped over his brother silently and made his way over to the other side of the hallway, where Jinhwan's room was. He let himself in quietly, approached the bed and shook his eldest brother gently.
"Hanbin-ah." Jinhwan moaned sleepily. "What's up?"
"Hyung, it's Jiwon. He's home..." at that, Jinhwan perked up and slipped out of bed, sleep be damned. He walked out of his room quietly with Hanbin close to his heels. He frowned as he saw Jiwon laying on the floor, spread-eagle.
Jinhwan furrowed his brows. "Let's get him to your room."
"How? He's dead weight. I tried waking him up again but he wouldn't budge." Hanbin bit his lip, deliberating if he should tell his eldest brother about the nosebleed.
"Let's drag him if we have to. Mom will wake up soon."
Sounding resolute, Jinhwan took one of Jiwon's arms around his shoulders and pulled him up by the waist by the other. Hanbin followed suit and dragged the peacefully sleeping Jiwon to the end of the hall.
Jinhwan glanced at his younger brother's face, and Hanbin was scared for a moment that he'd also freak out when he saw the blood. But he looked away just as quickly, and Hanbin thought for a moment that he must have missed it.
But Jinhwan's face looked noticeably harder, and his expression was unreadable.
They succeeded in getting him into the room, and Jinhwan almost tossed him to the bed if not for Hanbin who was clinging on to his older brother. Jiwon lay there, face down, and Hanbin surreptitiously wiped his brother's upper lip so that the blood would be less noticeable. Not that Jinhwan hadn't already seen. The blood had already stopped flowing.
He stood there awkwardly as Jinhwan heaved a sigh, and sank into the swiveling chair in the room. He had his head down, and ran his hand through his hair several times. "A family habit," Hanbin realized belatedly.
"Sorry for waking you, Hyung. You can go back to sleep now. I'll take care of things from here..." Hanbin said quietly, but his voice trailed off as he sensed the growing tension from his eldest brother. He didn't budge, not show any indication that he heard or that he planned to go. Hanbin stood awkwardly for a few more minutes of heavy silence, the only thing getting to him other than Jinhwan's mounting dark aura was the stink Jiwon brought into the room.
"You b------." Jinhwan said sharply, suddenly, that Hanbin jumped a bit. Jinhwan never cursed. He never got mad, ever. He was the sweetest of the brothers, and the quietest. Hanbin had never heard him say anything bad about anybody, ever.
Hanbin was more surprised, however, when Jinhwan got up suddenly and hit Jiwon's leg with his fist. "You ------- b------. Doing this stupid thing...you've made mom worried, you're making yourself freaking sick, when all you had to do was --"
"Hyung!" Hanbin said, a little louder this time. He tried to pin his eldest brother's hands around him as he continued to attack Jiwon, but he was much bigger and much stronger. Jiwon stirred, but he didn't wake. He buried his head on the pillow and snored as Jinhwan continued to curse him under his breath.
"Hyung, mom will wake up." Hanbin pleaded urgently, and Jinhwan calmed a little by that. He shook Hanbin's arm off of him, a bit harshly. He sighed heavily again, and it was only now that Hanbin noticed that Jinhwan's eyes were b with tears.
He didn't bother to hide it. Jinhwan rubbed his arm over his eyes and gasped a little, triyng to control himself. "Wipe his face. There's till some blood. And get him a clean shirt, for crying out loud."
Jinhwan p
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