silver lining ⇢ chensung

cinq

the next day dawned a rainy and gloomy morning, so out cold that neither of the two yearned to wake up, yet jisung forced himself to, albeit reluctantly.

after all, no one can blame him for all what had happened to him anyways. he was not allowed to wake up early or take care of himself for his parents think he was still a child.

pulling himself out of the weirdly comfortable bed, he turned to his travelling companion, who was still seemingly sleeping, his pale skin as cold as ice.

"le, wake up..." he poked the older's side, whose silhouette did not budge an inch as a reply. "it's time to go..." he trailed off as he kept on poking chenle's side.

weirdly enough, chenle did not even have a frustrated reaction, let alone move from his place on the bed. now impatient, jisung switched on the lights to see if chenle was asleep, only to see something utterly horrifying.

chenle was indeed awake, but his frame is as still as a corpse going through rigor mortis. his blank stare into space was uncanny as it held no life; it was almost as if he was dead.

jisung screamed out his name instinctively, worried sick whether his acquaintance passed away. trying to shake him out of his trance, he noticed that chenle was breathing, much to his relief.

"you scared me for a second there," jisung spoke out, his tone raspy and tired, yet laced in complete worry. "come on now, le, wake up already."

no response other than quiet, unintelligible mumbles came from chenle, not even a look towards him.

before jisung could say anything, knocks on the door caught his attention. he scampered to the wood, nervously opening the door only to reveal kun.

"what happened...? you look like you saw a ghost," kun remarked, raising an eyebrow at him. "and did you wake up your friend yet?"

"he's...not saying anything," jisung's voice faltered, tears blurring his vision in the process. "i-i almost thought h-he was dead...but he's breathing. i don't know what happened—"

"now, now, calm down," kun cut him off, persuading the youngest to regain his composure. jisung approached the suffering male, only to see that he was now looking at him.

apparently, chenle's weird trance was broken all of a sudden as he glanced stoically at the two. his skull started to convulse as he hitched his breath, his shaky fingers pointing to the vague corner of the wall, confusing the oldest.

jisung immediately got the hint as he approached the now-convulsing male, grabbing his hand as he caressed it gently, asking as quietly as possible. "is there...something on the corner, le?"

chenle stayed still, his expression stoic and lifeless but the younger knew there was great inexplicable fear behind it. he noticed the older's breathing was now jerky as his eyes are closed shut, in some ways trying to get a hold of himself.

"do you want to stay here for a while?" kun asked concerningly before turning to jisung. "i don't want you both to go end up in trouble. it's better to wait until chenle's alright."

a scream erupted from chenle as tears fell out of his eyes, clutching jisung's hand in a vice-like grip before slurring the words in a broken voice. "p-please...s-stop..."

that sentence sounded very weird in the present context, but kun respected his wishes nonetheless. "is he asking us to leave?"

"no...! t-tell them to l-leave...please..." chenle's head convulsed once again, it almost felt like he was going insane.

the voices in his head had grown stronger over the course of the turbulent night, the forms haunting him in the background as he felt like he was living amidst a disaster.

panic setting in, he felt like every step he took was watched by his disjointed parental figures, and to an extent, it wasn't a feeling at all. he could see them, hear their blade-like whispers cutting into his skin; one could only wonder whether humans and their subhuman counterparts whose only goal in life is to traumatize other humans.

jisung fell silent as he did not know what to even do— it was obvious that chenle was hallucinating due to whatever mental problem he has, and all he could do is convince him that the supposed beings are all just his mind playing with him.

but then again, he might never know how convincingly real they might sound to the older.

jisung let out a sigh as he approached chenle slowly, wrapping his hands around his frame to pull him into a hug, caressing his spine in the process. "le, i can't shoo them away...but didn't i tell you yesterday? i'll not let them get to you."

all the tears that welled up in chenle's eyes now burst out into a hopeless fit of sobbing as he was still not ready to accept that out of all the people in this world he talked with about his problems...

...none of them wanted to help him, save him out of this never-ending abyss, except for jisung, an acqauintance he barely met.

"don't let their voices tell you anything, they're just a bunch of dumbasses trying to make you do stupid shit," jisung spoke out, trying to reason why such hallucinations even exist.

"they're the reason why i managed to get out," chenle deadpanned amusingly. "so give them some sort of credit, will you...?"

"alright, alright," jisung waved it off, chuckling happily. "are you alright though...?"

chenle let out a beam of pure happiness as he nodded vigorously, which was now a relief for the oldest watching the two. "not going to lie, i thought you both were childhood best friends considering how you both talk to each other, but i'm guessing you both are best friends already."

jisung broke the hug as he wrapped his hand around his waist, chuckling nervously. "uh, i mean, i consider le as my best friend, i don't know what he thinks though..." he turned to chenle, hoping for a good answer.

"you're not my best friend..." chenle pouted as he looked at him in a cute yet frustrated way before immediately changing his expression and pulling him into a hug. "you're the bestest friend ever!"

the older only cooed at the two as he headed out the door, reminding them both. "aww, that's adorable! anyways, hyuck made some breakfast, get ready, alright?"

the two nodded in the affirmative as they packed their stuff, now ready to traverse whatever new path that awaits them...

...for this path was the way for chenle to finally find a way to forget whatever beings are watching them, trying to pull his fears into the hopeless happy façade that he painstakingly built up across the point of almost two decades.

the pain was still there, and he could only hope to forget, after all, it wasn't real even though his mind desperately wanted to prove him otherwise.

/ / really just thought i wrote over 4882 words but then i realised it was characters, not words 💀

also sorry for the smol chapter, i'm writing this on my phone after getting a plot jaemin in my head ;-;

yeah so, disclaimer, i'm not a schizophrenic, but i do have hallucinations. so i just...don't really have much to work with. please bear with me and if i did something inaccurate, pls let me know.