The Devil I Know | Jaeyong

3: Trip & Games

Taeyong rolls over, groggy, as he curls his toes beneath the sheets and unclenches his body to star-stretch. His eyes flutter open, a distant part of his consciousness becoming increasingly aware of the sound of shuffling at the other side of the room. Swallowing down the wooly cotton in his mouth, Taeyong ignores the looming threat of a headache rapping at his skull and glances over at his roommate. His vision is all blurred and fuzzy around the edges, and he's forced to squint through an overwhelming amount of morning light, but he manages to catch sight of Ten bending over to put his sneakers on. Awareness suffuses his senses, and he clears the fog in his mind to get a real good look at what he's witnessing, the flickering in-and-out of his vision turning into a full blown view.

Taeyong's mouth moves without thinking. "Where are you going?"

His voice comes out croaky and dry, almost barely audible, but Ten still jerks in his movements as if he'd been caught by surprise. Ten pauses for a moment before blatantly ignoring the question altogether and returning to tying his laces together. Taeyong drags up his stiffened bones to sit up on the bed. Blindly, he reaches for his phone tucked somewhere underneath his duvet and turns it on. It's like an ice cold bucket of water gets thrown over him the moment he sees the time, shocking him until he's completely awake.

"It's seven-thirty in the morning," Taeyong says, baffled, as he looks back over at Ten. His voice gathers a bit more oomph. "On a Saturday."

Ten fixes the last of his laces, making bunny loops on his beat up black and white trainers, before straightening up.

"So?"

"So, where are you going?" Taeyong asks, eyeing him.

Ten's dressed casual — super casual, and a whole lot more approachable now, too. His usual jet black liner and thin layer of makeup has been wiped off to reveal that familiar tan skin with reddish undertones and bumpy acne-scars. He's still decked from head to toe in all black, but he looks softer somehow. A lot less striking and intimidating. It makes Taeyong gather the courage to speak the most words he has to his roommate ever in the short time they've spent together.

"Are you going for a run?"

"The gym," Ten answers, sounding rightfully tired.

He picks up his headphones and slides them over the back of his neck before directing his attention to Taeyong with the raise of a brow.

"Why? You wanna come with?"

"Yeah."

Ten narrows his eyes a little, and it should make Taeyong shrink back in his seat like it did the first time he'd gotten that look, but it doesn't. Maybe he's used to it now. Or, maybe he's grown thick enough skin that it doesn't deter him as much as before. Whatever it is, it pushes him to agree a second time.

"Yeah—I mean, yes. Can I?" he blurts.

From the look on Ten's face, it's likely that everything he rushed to say came out as a string of incoherent nonsense, but he hopes the twinkle of hope in his eyes is enough to get Ten to concede. Making his eyes doe usually works on his dad, but, evidently, Ten's got more reinforcements in his walls than a six foot, 200 pound military man.

"Change of plans," Ten says. "I'm heading to the natatorium instead."

The natatorium?