Chapter Text
“I had already decided not to abandon the quest for the lurking fear, for in my rash ignorance it seemed to me that uncertainty was worse than enlightenment, however terrible the latter might prove to be”
The Lurking Fear - H. P. Lovecraft
Wonwoo looked at the old mountains that were already covered in their tumults by some blanket of clouds. He could hear the soft murmur of raindrops still falling. Just a few, after the storm that had fallen in the morning.
“You have a good sight, Gyu.”
He returned his steps from the balcony to the room of his best friend who was still unpacking some things. Wonwoo had helped him move.
He would start living alone only because his parents had decided to return to his hometown, but he'd made his whole life there, with his friends and his high school. He already knew which college to attend and couldn't move in with them.
So he rented a simple apartment with a view of the mountains and near the subway station that would take him to school.
“Right? It's an old place, but I really like the location.”
Wonwoo looked around the room that was still empty at the moment. Mingyu was just taking things out of the boxes. He approached one of them to help him, but when he opened the flaps he found something very curious.
He pulled it out and held it in front of his eyes to get a better look. Some thick threads on a base circle with hollow metal tubes and bamboo wood slats, which had Chinese letters or pinyin that Wonwoo could not read. It had some red threads as decoration and brass frogs.
“What is this?”
Mingyu raised his head and not seeing from the angle he was at, he stood up and walked over to his friend.
He grinned widely as he recognized the object.
“It's a wind chime or feng-ling. It's a gift that Minghao gave me when I told him that I was going to move. He instructed me to hang it in a window or on the door. He explained to me that it helps to attract good luck and confers harmony. It also drives away evil spirits.”
“Drive away evil spirits” He expected no less from Junhui's best friend.
“I see... You and Minghao have become very close lately, haven't you?” Wonwoo put the instrument back in the box.
Mingyu laughed nervously. “Well, he's a good friend, Woo. He wanted to come help me with the move, but I told him that you would already come and three's a crowd.”
“Good thing you saved me from being the third-wheel.”
Mingyu looked at him with a scandalized face.
“I said we're good friends, Wonwoo! Besides, you and Jun hyung have also become very close, so don't say anything.” He complained and the older just laughed, but he shook his head.
“What are you talking about?” And he took the subject for granted, waving his hand as if he were chasing a fly away.
He was not surprised that such a gift came from Minghao. After all, as Jun had mentioned, only few people knew about his ability and one of them (the second to actually know) had been his best friend, Minghao.
He obviously believed in evil spirits. He internally thanked him for thinking of Mingyu and wanting to give him some kind of protection. Someone as clumsy as his friend needed it.
“And where are you going to hang it?” He moved one box, lifting it off another.
Mingyu made a thoughtful gesture and after a few seconds, he went for the chime. He moved towards the balcony of his room and thanks to his height he only had to stretch his hand a little and find a ledge to place the wind chimes.
“Done! It'll help to take away all those evil spirits who want to mess with me.” He placed his hands on his hips, satisfied. “Although I already know that you don't believe in that, Woo, but it's a nice touch.”
Wonwoo grimaced by way of a smile. He didn't like to hide many things from Mingyu because they were practically brothers. The boy had been very worried about him since the incident in the old school building (which was finally demolished). That was three months ago.
And he could not tell Mingyu anything because he didn't want to scare him and besides, he couldn't simply say to him: “Hey, you see, we met an evil spirit that wanted to sink our skull with a mallet and a demon that wanted to possess Jun, because the old director ended up invoking it. And not only that, I discovered that Jun is a medium with psychic abilities and I am a shield, which makes me immune to spirits and all those things that I never believed in.”
It was not easy at all and now he understood why Jun was still cautious even after all and that Wonwoo saw all this with his own eyes.
A light wind blew and pulled him out of his thoughts when he heard the melody of the wind chimes.
“That sounds nice.” Mingyu smiled widely again.
“That's right, Gyu, let's hope it drives away the evil spirits.”
Wonwoo watched from the corner of his eye as Junhui stared ahead with narrowed eyes. They were sitting at the cafeteria tables, the time when most of their group of friends could gather.
He had Soonyoung hitting him on his side because he wouldn't stop moving for some reason (there was no reason, he just couldn't stay still when telling his stories), so he pulled his chair a little closer to Junhui's side, who was relatively calmer than his Gemini twin.
More than anything because he was looking at something carefully.
Wonwoo followed his gaze and realized that something.
Minghao and Mingyu were sitting in front of them, chatting in their own world, arguing like they used to, this time about the best angle to take a certain photo that Wonwoo couldn't see from his place. But why did Junhui look at them like this? He had a strange gesture.
Wonwoo leaned in a little to whisper into his ear.
“What are you doing?”
Junhui jumped startled and Wonwoo chuckled because despite being a person who saw dead people and demons, Jun could be a scaredy kitten with other things.
He finally withdrew his gaze from the pair of friends and focused all his attention on Wonwoo.
Those last three months since the building incident had been... Curious.
More than anything because Wonwoo had spent his time researching and learning many things and Junhui had tried to resolve each of his doubts in the best possible way.
Their relationship had changed a bit too. Before, they didn't talk to each other, only when they were in a group and there were times when they didn't.
Now, they were closer friends. They had a lot in common (mainly their love for cats and cell phone games) and their personalities fit together very well.
Sometimes they used to go play in the arcade together, and act like normal people.
But there was also the other side. The things that Jun saw and felt. Like that time in the subway, on another of their afternoons at the arcade.
They'd been chatting about a new video game they wanted to try, when Jun suddenly fell silent and his eyes widened. He had been practically petrified.
Wonwoo couldn't see it, but an entity (which didn't look like a ghost or demon per se) had entangled his ankles with what appeared to be tentacles. Jun could feel the goo creep up his uniform pants up his calf.
The medium looked to his right and a face with upside-down features stared back at him, eyes leaking a black liquid. The smell of putrefaction was too much. A mist surrounded the formless body.
That was a corrupted spirit.
When a bad person died, someone who had done a lot of damage in life, sometimes echoes of them were trapped, but of course, evil is not cured by death.
And Jun imagined very well what that person could have done in life, all the harm that he caused. The smile where his forehead should be smiled crookedly at him and the medium felt more tentacles creep up his legs. He felt paralyzed by that entity, he immediately felt nauseous, the filth of the entity tried to infect him.
If it weren't for Wonwoo, who grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him to the next station, even if it wasn't theirs, he wouldn't know what would have happened to him.
He'd never seen anything like that. And his surprise and fear rendered him immobile. But Wonwoo's shield around him always seemed to work.
Wonwoo had already gotten used to that. To Jun's expression changing suddenly, to his strange headaches, to his caution in entering certain places or touching certain objects. To his gaze staring at some point where there was nothing for Wonwoo's eyes, but for the medium there might well be a scene taken from a mind used to horrors; to see and feel things that others ignored.
Junhui intrigued him a lot, because the medium had a very bright personality despite the fact that he saw the world differently from others.
“What's so interesting up there?” He pointed his chin at their best friends who were still discussing a photo on Mingyu's cell phone.
Jun alternated his gaze from Mingyu to Minghao, about six times. Then he leaned towards Wonwoo and the bespectacled boy placed his ear as close to the older's lips to facilitate the task. Their friends around them kept chatting about other things, Seokmin was already laughing hysterically and between Jeonghan and Joshua tried to calm him down.
“Their auras.”
Wonwoo only paid attention to Junhui's silky voice.
“Their auras? What about them?”
They looked directly at each other.
“I've been able to see people's auras better, so I pay attention to them to improve my ability in this regard. So I notice when they change.”
“Mine is still the same?” he asked curiously. Jun smiled widely.
“Wonwoo, your aura is almost unalterable, do you remember how I told you it was?”
The jet-haired smiled too, he was so close to Jun that he felt his breath on his face.
“Like a clear sky.”
Junhui nodded several times with his square smile.
“Exactly. Although now I can see the others if I pay attention.” He glanced between all of their friends, until he stopped again at Minghao and Mingyu. “And theirs is the same.”
The raven-haired blinked in confusion, looking up at the pair of friends. He couldn't see anything, logically, so he just had to use his imagination.
“How is it the same?”
“Well, it's not really the same, since Mingyu's aura is golden and Minghao's aura is silver, a nice combination.”
“As the gold and silver are?”
“Exactly. Mingyu's is very bright and Minghao's is very similar to yours in that it's more on the protective side than attractor, it is very beautiful, calmer and unalterable, but Mingyu's I have always seen it very frantic and if I'm honest it's a very... Striking aura. Except today. Now I notice the difference.”
“Can you describe them to me, please?”
Junhui nodded. He leaned a little closer to Wonwoo and the latter could appreciate a slight lemon scent coming from the older. But it was not acidic, but like a lemon pie, softer and more gentle. Everything in Jun was always gentle. He tried not to give too much importance to that closeness and pushed those thoughts away.
Meanwhile, the medium paid special attention to seeing the auras of the people around him. Right away, the one most familiar to him was the first that caught his attention.
Beside him, Wonwoo's aura with a very clear and calm blue color surrounded him in a protective manner. Junhui could feel his own aura being caressed by that of the shield, in his unconsciousness, approaching his. It was a sensation that filled his chest with peace. He didn't feel vulnerable being next to the jet-haired.
Afterward, Soonyoung's orange aura blazing like fire and swinging strongly. His friend had no special psychic ability, but his aura was the color of a sunset.
Jihoon's aura, neat and calm like gray metal, contrasted a lot with Soonyoung's aura next to him. Seokmin's aura, that of the sun itself embracing him. Joshua's violet aura did stand out from the rest, as he was a purifying person. He would expect no less from the son of an exorcist. His spirituality was very high.
But the two auras in front of him were drawing Junhui's attention.
Minghao's aura was another one very familiar to him. Of an affable silver color. His friend was almost like a shield and almost like a medium, he was in the middle. His spiritual abilities concerning being aware of the energies around him.
If something was wrong with a place or with a person, Minghao could feel it, even though he didn't specifically see what was wrong. He had always avoided bad situations because of his great intuition. And at the same time, his own calm aura, almost imperceptible, gave him protection.
Instead, Mingyu had a huge aura. Generally, people had an aura that barely surrounded them a few inches. If it was not seen, it was because the person was very sick or weakened. His grandmother had explained that the most stable ones always had the same slightly variable color tone and a considerable protective size.
But that they were reduced or acquired dark tones was a bad sign.
Mingyu was the opposite, his aura was very large and bright, a golden fire that could surround others. Although that will only happen in special situations. The more familiarity between two people, the better their auras matched.
And that was happening with Mingyu's aura, always so radiant and huge; it was engulfing Minghao's, but at the same time, the quiet silver kept the older's frenzied aurean toned down.
Mingyu was a spirit attractor, as was Jun. A great beacon. But Minghao diminished his aura and that protected Mingyu from any spirit or entity that wanted to feed on his enormous aura. Besides, Minghao was practically a sentinel. A canary in a coal mine.
Junhui was amazed at how easily the flames surrounding Mingyu danced around Minghao, with his parsimony aura rejecting everyone else most of the time, and now he was accepting the brunet's with such openness.
He wasn't rejecting Mingyu's, he was letting him join him. They were not aware of that, of course, but if their own energies were soughting out and mated... There, in the center of their union, of the golden and silver flames, a white light shone brightly.
That is why Junhui couldn't stop seeing that dance, of their auras that were sought and caressed as if they had known each other from more than one life.
The medium had only seen this once. When he was just learning to understand what he was capable of observing and his abilities were out of control.
The pearl-colored aura of his grandmother, big and beautiful as only a medium can have. And the titanium-colored aura of his grandfather, stable and protective, an invariable color, as only that of a shield can be.
They were sought as if they were two spiritual hands that joined between the space, creating a special light, like the reflection of a beautiful diamond or the greatest purity that one could see.
His grandparents loved and knew each other for a lifetime. It was the most logical thing to do.
That was why he was astonished to see the intensity of Mingyu and Minghao's auras.
And for some reason, he wondered if his aura matched someone like that.
If it stretched out towards the shield that was next to him and…
“Oh, I understand. How curious.” He explained all this to Wonwoo. About Minghao and Mingyu's dance of auras who had stopped fighting and were talking about something looking directly into each other's eyes as they so casually did.
“Yes, it's not that it's the same, but that when they're this close, they merge, so to speak.”
Junhui couldn't see his own aura. He still couldn't do it. He only knew that it was a halo of light surrounding his body, an attractor of moths, as his grandmother commented.
He looked at Wonwoo and his clear sky, then he closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, all the people were naked again. Not in the literal sense of the word (Jun preferred to see the dead, to see people in the suit that God brought them into the world) only that he had stopped seeing their auras in their figures.
Again he saw the same things as normal people... Almost, except for a deceased student with a twisted neck and bruised skin who was standing in the middle of the cafeteria looking directly at him. But Junhui was already used to that presence, so it didn't matter.
Minghao raised a questioning brow and lowered his book.
“Did I grow an extra head or what? You've been looking at me that way for a long time now, Jun, what's on my face?” Then he narrowed his eyes. “Don't even think about confessing your feelings of love towards me because that would be incest.”
The medium rolled his eyes and also turned playfully in his desk chair. They were in his room and while he was doing homework, Minghao only gave him silent company.
They had known each other forever. Since they were children of three and four years respectively. So they were practically brothers, even though they didn't share the same blood. Their families were very close and had moved to another country together.
“It's not that, silly, besides, I'm sure you would also reject me because someone else has already stolen your heart. Oh, my little Haohao, my innocent dìdì.” He made a dramatic gesture, touching his chest and looking up.
Minghao snorted. “I don't know what you're talking about, Jun.” And he resumed his reading.
But the older looked at him that way again. As if Minghao was hiding something from him.
As if he could hide something from Jun.
“Now what?” He looked at him over his reading glasses. For a 15-year-old teenager, Minghao had the habits of a 45-year-old lady. He was only missing one glass of wine, and the only reason he didn't have one was that he was underage and Junhui would never allow him to drink alcohol as a underage.
“Someone stole your heart,” he said expressionless, acting.
“What? You're talking nonsense, not that it's something new... But my heart is here, Jun. I'd be dead otherwise.”
Jun dragged himself with the chair to the bed where the younger was lying.
“Xu Minghao, this is a serious question: Did you secretly marry Kim Mingyu and didn't invite me to the wedding?”
At those words (or the mere mention of Mingyu), Minghao lowered the book and stared at Junhui.
“What?”
“You're a minor, you can't get married just like that. Besides, without inviting me-
“Junhui, what are you talking about?” he interrupted before he put on a drama. “I did not secretly marry, much less Mingyu.”
“Aha. You do not fool me. If you didn't marry him, at least you're dating him.”
“What?!” That question came out as a high-pitched scream. The younger one lowered the book and Junhui looked at him seriously now.
“Hao, are you dating Mingyu?”
He thought his friend would be on his neck at any moment. It happened what was not expected (or maybe he did). Minghao looked down at the Nyan Cat's covers on the bed and his face lit up like a Christmas tree. He blushed to his ears.
“No... he's just my friend,” he said in a very low voice.
Jun raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Only that?”
Minghao nodded, still embarrassed.
“Jeez... Minghao, you're just friends and your auras are already like this.”
At that, Minghao raised his head like a spring.
“Our auras? What about them? Didn't you say mine doesn't change?”
Jun raised his hands and dropped them.
“Well, tell your "friend" Mingyu that congratulations, he seems to be the person who most influences your energy. The only one that alters your pond, little frog.” The medium smirked and placed his chin on the back of the turned chair.
Minghao got on all fours and approached Jun, pointing his index finger directly at him.
“Wen Junhui, you are going to tell me what you're talking about or I tell Wonwoo hyung that you bought a gray stuffed cat with glasses that you named Mr. Jeons after him.” To emphasize his point, Minghao took the cat from among the others that his best friend had and held it up in the air.
Jun gasped in surprise, shocked.
“What?! It's not in honor of him!” But he started trying to get back his precious stuffed animal.
Seeing that Minghao took out his cell phone prepared to take a picture of the cat and send it to the chat of their group of friends, Jun raised his hands in a sign of peace.
“Okay, I'll explain. But you better answer me some things, eh?”
“Deal.”
At last Minghao returned the precious stuffed animal to Jun's arms who held it protectively to his chest.