silver lining ⇢ chensung

huit

the breeze died down as chenle was pulled back into a hard surface, finally just enough out of his trance to realise he was not chased by his ephialtes anymore. clutching whatever he could feel with trembling hands, he snuggled closer to the warmth surrounding his frame. an exhausted, yet utterly terrified voice spoke up, faltering with every word it spoke. "a-are you okay...le?"

cocking his head upwards, it took several hour-like seconds to finally realise what exactly had happened. his lips ran dry, struggling to speak out a word due to how shaken he was from the endeavour, although he tried his best to reassure the taller. "y-yeah...i-i'm okay..."

a few moments of silence ensued as jisung caught his breath from running and jumping for god knows how long, while chenle's vision slowly canvassed the place they have ended up in. confused, he queried before panic set in his voice, now suddenly being remembered about the little fluffball he acquainted with not so long ago. "w-where are we...? a-and where's daegallie...?!"

to his relief, jisung let out a chuckle as he pointed at the bichon frise now in her own world, leaping about as she barked at the zooming cars below the parallax, before noticing the two glancing at her. she waddled happily towards the two and leapt into chenle's lap, licking his hands in complete bliss.

"when you....w-went into that, we were in the middle of the road so i had to carry you. i guess she saw through what i was trying to do, so she found this rooftop for us to stay," jisung explained in a bittersweet tone, before heaving a faltering sigh as his hands wandered nonchalantly, brushing across daegal's fur. "c-can i...ask you something...?"

chenle hummed in approval as he beamed wholesomely, his legs now dangling outwards the roof's edge, awaiting his faltering question, while jisung struggled to speak out his question for his words were written in tears, sobbing silently. "w-what's the...problem...? i-is it like...you're paralysed o-or something...? i'm just...really worried a-about you..."

chenle's jaw hung ajar as he nodded subtly to the question before letting out a soft giggle, his wholesome smile even more happier. "oh that's all? i don't know why i zone out but my caretakers called it something...ah, i forgot the name of it. wait..." he rubbed his temples as he tried his best to recall was that awfully sounding name was.

daegal suddenly noticed another staircase going downstairs to another direction. feeling curious, she tilted her head and stole sceptical glances at the metal framework below. glancing at her two de facto owners longingly, she leapt and scratched the taller's thigh with her non-existent claws in order to beckon the two of the discovery.

"what is it...?" jisung asked as daegal ran towards the staircase but waited for the two this time. he nudged the smaller who was still trying to recall the name of his mental disorder. pulling a very estranged chenle close, the two followed her, only to reach an apartment downstairs that looked as if there were no tenants residing in it. jisung was still perplexed on what exactly was the fluffball's motive, while chenle looked around the place, brimming in curiosity. "this looks like the place i lived in!" he exclaimed.

as daegal started to scratch the door in impatience, it finally hit jisung on what exactly she meant. all the adrenaline in his body lit on fire as his curiosity turned into pure panic, frantically looking around to see if anyone was watching from the distance. from the back of his eye, he saw chenle looking through the scattered mail, to his pure terror. "what the hell?! d-don't touch that, le! that's someone else's stuff!"

he slapped the letters off chenle's hand, now strewn all over the floor. a half-open letter in a worn out, crumpled piece of paper garnered their attention for it was the letter that the smaller was trying to read. "oh no, no, no..." jisung muttered under his breath as he grabbed the letter with trembling hands, his eyes skimming through the barely legible lines—