Ships Passing In The Night ｜Markhyuck (OT21 AU)

Chapter 45

After the dramatic events of the wee hours of the morning, Donghyuck never could have imagined that he would fall back asleep. Yet, as awareness returned for a second time and he yawned lazily, he had to admit that he'd been wrong. According to the alarm clock on the bedside table, it was barely gone eight in the morning, the sunlight venturing in through the gaps at the edges of the curtains pale and lacking its usual intensity, but Donghyuck felt surprisingly well-rested.

The strange feeling from earlier still hadn't faded, not entirely, but it did seem to have shifted, over time, into something closer resembling anticipation than dread. In the few short hours that had elapsed since his conversation with Dongyoung--which still felt as fresh in his mind now as it had just seconds after the fact--Donghyuck had somehow managed to experience the most restful night's sleep he'd had in months.

He had a sneaking suspicion he knew why that was, but, as he was still refusing to allow himself to hope too much, he decided to simply accept it for the gift it was. After the suffocating nothingness of the past few weeks, the unexpected energy boost wasn't something Donghyuck was going to take for granted. Whatever today brought--and he sincerely prayed that it would bring even more than he was allowing himself to hope for--he would take that as a sign of progress.

To his surprise, it only took Donghyuck ten minutes to persuade himself to sit up and seek out his glasses, squinting against the low light as the furthest extremities of his room swam slowly into focus around him. This, too, was a vast improvement on the day before, and so felt like yet another step in the right direction. He didn't venture from the bed, content to dwell in his makeshift safe haven for just a few minutes longer, instead reaching blindly towards the spot on the table beside him where his phone should be.

Another few seconds, fingers scrabbling futilely against nothing but polished wood, was enough to remind him that his phone was likely still in bed with him, having not bothered to reattach it to the charger after his early morning call. Shifting his weight carefully from one hip to the other, he felt the unmistakable boxy outline of the device pressing against his right knee, and shimmed down the bed a little until he was in a position to retrieve it.

The display illuminated immediately, warning him of impending low battery, but he ignored that in favour of flicking through the few messages from Dongyoung that he must have received after falling back asleep. The first had come in just after 5:00, letting him know that they were on their way back home from the airport. The second, sent nearly an hour later, had him checking the current time and then groaning in frustration.

Just got home. Everyone is exhausted. You should probably come over around lunchtime, to give us all a chance to get some sleep. Is 12:00 okay?

He wanted to say no, to call Dongyoung then and there and demand that he rouse everyone immediately. Never mind that they wouldn't have a clue as to why, or that he would be barging in on five people--or six, the tiny spark of hope whispered--who had just barely crawled into bed. He was impatient, desperate to see what was going on, to finally give himself a chance to fan that optimistic spark into flame, but he knew that wasn't fair. Not on Dongyoung, and not on any of the other Annex residents.

Of course, hyung. See you then.

Sending the message, Donghyuck forced himself to plug the phone in again, vowing to try to ignore it for a while. It was barely past eight in the morning, after all, and there were still a good few hours he'd have to endure before noon arrived, so he decided to keep himself busy. Heading downstairs, tiptoeing carefully when he noticed that his parents' door was still firmly closed as he passed, he fixed himself some leftover meat and rice for breakfast and then took his sweet time eating it. Afterwards, he took an unnecessarily thorough shower, revelling in the fact that there was no one around to hurry him along or complain about wasted water.