In The Middle (Namon/PangWave One Shots)

Tick Tock

I could hear the clock ticking.

Tick tock tick tock tick tock...

I reach out my hand.

Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick--tick--tick--ti---

The metal clock shivered in my palm, crumbling into dust and scattered into the darkness. A voice called out to me, someone familiar. Hands reach out from the void, clinging to my body. Voices started to chant, singing in an eerie chorus.

You can't stop what's to come. You can't stop the inevitable. You can't stop their failure. You can't stop them from leaving you. You can't stop anything that is to come. You can't stop time from claiming the ones you love.

I jolt awake. The tiny clock pieces and tools were rattled by my sudden movement. I had fallen asleep on my desk, tinkering these godforsaken clocks and watches. I've become abnormally drawn to them. I pick up one of the parts I've disassembled, observing it under lamplight.

"What do you have to offer me?" I whispered.

I laid the clock part down beside its chronometric brethren, and picked up my phone. Pang was still not returning my calls. As I placed it down my table, it sounded off and my hand reflexively swiped it and read the message:

Rooftop.

I wasted no time. Pang was sitting alone, watching the cloudy sky, perhaps hoping for some moonlight. He doesn't move as I walked closer. Then, his voice suddenly rumbled into existence.

"Did Punn talk to you?" he said.

I hesitated. "Y-Yes."

"Do you believe him?"

I bit bit my lip. "I don't know..."

"You should."

My hand reached for Pang's shoulder. I turned him around to face me and I saw his bloodshot eyes, red nose, and pale complexion.

"What happened?" I whispered, my hands started to shake while I caressed his face. "Wh--"

"Korn killed himself."

You can't stop them from leaving you.

My hands on his cheeks faltered.

"He jumped off the balcony of his apartment. Ms. Darin found out where he was hiding."

You can't stop the inevitable.

Korn standing on the ledge, falling...falling...falling... My eyes started to sting. What was happening to us? Where did this all go wrong?

"Also..."

"Also?" My voice began to crack. "There's more?"

A tear fell down Pang's cheek. "Time is dead."

I suddenly grabbed his hand and dragged him down the stairwell. "Wave, where are we going?" I could hear him ask over and over again but I paid him no attention. The voices from my dream have already taken up much of my hearing.

You can't stop what's to come. You can't stop the inevitable. You can't stop their failure. You can't stop them from leaving you. You can't stop anything that is to come. You can't stop time from claiming the ones you love.

"Wave? Wave?"

I turned around. We were both crying now. Pang stopped calling my name. I wanted to hear it again. I wanted him to keep saying it. I continued to drag him up to the dormitories. When we stopped in front of my room, his eyes were lost in bewilderment. I dragged us inside.

"Wave, wh---"

I kissed him. Hard. All the things Punn said, I refuse to listen to them. I have seen him talking to Ms. Darin. I still trust Pang. He might be stupid sometimes but he's the only one who never had desires for himself. He could have made us all his puppets with one touch of his hand, with one whisper of his voice, but he didn't. We weren't a means to his ends. He's---

Pang pulled us apart. "What are you doing?"

"I don't believe any of them," I whispered. "I still trust you, Pang."

"Trust me? Korn and Time died because of me."

"They died because of Ms. Darin, because of the Ministry. They died because we are nothing but little experiments to them." My hands gently pulled him closer to me. I could see in his eyes the agony. I want to take it away. "This isn't your fault, Pang."

"Then why does it feel like it is?"

"Because you decided to make it your burden, you selfless idiot," I said. "And I love you for it."

"Wave..."

I kissed him again.

"Take me."

"Wave..."

"Please."

The walls and the shadows were witness to our affair. Pang's lips burned my skin like fire, his touch like ice sending shivers across my body. I was trying to take away whatever agony we were both feeling, he was melding us into one thing. His warm breath mingled around my neck as he thrusted into me and my nails dug onto the skin of his back. For a moment, there was only us, burning away in the heat. The ticking time crept but never came close. It just watched---watched as I shuddered, as Pang groaned in my ear as he stilled. I fell alseep beside him.

When I woke up, Pang was gone. He left a note saying sorry. And I sat on the edge of the bed, staring at his handwriting.

I could hear the sound the clock again.

Tick tock tick tock tick--tick--tick--tick--tick--tick---