STRANGER. － c.bm + k.dh

── [１４] ──

Had he been crying? He couldn't really tell anymore. This body of a stranger had lost any connection to him, and even if his sight was weakened by tears, he couldn't feel their heat on his cheeks or their wetness down his chin.

Bomin couldn't feel them, but he could feel the secure hold suddenly wrapped around both his wrists and he focused his spinning irises on the concerned man before him who set his hands onto his chest, as if trying to make the younger feel his heartbeat.

"Min, what's wrong? Has something happened? Are you not feeling well?"

There was such panic in his partner's voice that guilt ran rampant within him, searing his veins and making him bite down on his tongue.

He didn't deserve all this worry and stress. No, if he had been more careful about being seen, this wouldn't have happened. Donghyun would have kept on living blissfully, stayed by Bomin's side without ever knowing of the horrific creatures that the latter was tormented by nightly. If he had kept his distance in the first place, instead of always putting up his cheerful and outgoing facade so as to fool people around him, Donghyun wouldn't have ever even spoken to him and he wouldn't be burdened with such a problematic boyfriend.

Ah, there it is. Problematic. A burden. That was what Bomin was, and yet he found it strange that these thoughts were even making him cry. He had believed them for years, enough that he had grown numb to them and accepted them, did his best to hide them from eyes that watched him.

When was the last time he had cried because he felt like this? When was the last time he felt such sorrow and ineffable blackness dousing the remains of his soul?

It wasn't pleasurable, but he was feeling. He was finally feeling something and he could have almost been happy if it weren't for the situation.

Donghyun was still there, gaze intense and strained on his boyfriend's face which contorted with his heaving sobs. Long gone was that innocent smile and those shining eyes, no trace of them left on the blotchy, red skin and sore lids, lashes like feathers studded with diamonds, beautiful but too heavy to fly.

"Minnie, what happened? Talk to me," Donghyun murmured, pleaded, stepping onto his toes so that his lips could place a delicate peck upon the taller's forehead, "Tell me honestly."

He couldn't, he didn't want to. Bomin didn't want to say what was wrong because then it truly would be all over.

Donghyun had fallen for the stranger, the man he saw in his reflection, the one with big grins and giggles, optimistic and hard-working, but the real Bomin, the man he would see reflected at him in cracked mirrors and elevator doors, was a monstrosity, a breathing disaster that longed for an end.

He shook his head, lowering his chin to his neck and tugging one of his hands out of Donghyun's hold to rub away his tears, attempting to block his face from his lover's sight.

It seemed Donghyun had grasped onto such a fact and sighed pitifully, something which made Bomin scowl to himself for being the object of such a sentiment.

"Please, don't hide, Min."

He continued to wipe at the endlessly flowing cascade of water, desperate, frustrated.

"Don't hide, please."

"I'm sorry."

Donghyun reached out and cupped the younger's jaw, eyes trailing along where their skin came into contact prior to dragging up along his face just as his touch slid forward, bringing his thumb atop the taller's chin and his index and middle finger below it, guiding his head lower.

They met one another's eyes in a look so powerful it made gasping for breath even harder for Bomin, whose damp face was traced by the older's sight, strained, concerned, as if struggling to hold back his own tears.

"How long have you been crying?"

"Too long."

A pause, and Donghyun's fingers fastened around Bomin's right hand that he still pressed to the centre of his ribs.

"Do you know what face you're making? You － You look like you're in such pain."

"It's better this way. I haven't felt anything for too many years."

And something seemingly snapped within Donghyun, the male pulling him into a forceful embrace, holding onto the larger as if he would escape should he have the chance, as if this was his only way of offering strength, transmitting his love.

His face nestled into the tenderness of Bomin's chest and Bomin moved his hands to splay them upon Donghyun's woolly sweater, then fisting it, gripping it tightly in his fingers and squeezing his eyes shut.

Bomin was still crying, but amidst the sound of his muffled hiccups and whimpers, he could hear the strangled inhales of his partner and eventually feel the heat of his tears through his top.

"I care for you, Min, I care for you," Donghyun kept mumbling, as if some mantra he needed to repeat infinitely, "Please, don't forget that I do."

Bomin wouldn't.

⇻•×•⇺

Please vote, comment and share!
thanks for reading