Chapter Text
Beomgyu smiled.
“Huening ah, why are you so cute?!”, Soobin playfully pinched their maknae’s cheeks. Huening had played a prank on the other members, causing a huge mess in their kitchen but was forgiven the moment the culprit was revealed to be him. Beomgyu, having been the first one to stumble upon the scene was blamed for it and had the hyung line riled up quite a bit at the thought of cleaning up the place. Beomgyu almost had himself riled up if not for his desperation to keep his composure to not make the situation worse for them. Eventually after hearing the commotion, Taehyun came out from his room to see what was happening and told the older two hyungs that Beomgyu had been with him in the room before they heard the ruckus outside which Beomgyu suggested he would check out.
“Not every prank is played by Beomgyu hyung, you know?”
The hyung line smiled and gestured an okay sign at them while ‘punishing’ Huening with tickles and gentle headlocks. Beomgyu shrugged at Taehyun and started cleaning up the mess while the trio continued their fun in the living room. Taehyun frowned at their backs and were about to call them back when Beomgyu tugged at his hand while still cleaning with his other.
“As long as they’re having fun, it’s okay.”
“But you aren’t…”
Beomgyu stopped wiping and looked up at Taehyun, who squatted down to meet him at his eye level. The two conversed with their eyes before Beomgyu warmly smiled and patted the back of Taehyun’s head, letting their foreheads meet. Taehyun looked into his hyung’s sombre eyes, at the same time, looking at his unfathomable smile in his bottom peripheral. Beomgyu squeezed Taehyun’s shoulder before going straight back to cleaning. The younger silently joined him as he silenced out the growing laughter from the trio. The two oldest leaned over the counter and showed surprise when they didn’t see the mess anymore. Huening popped his head between them and went to find the missing two.
Opening the door to Taehyun’s room, the light was now turned off and they saw a shadow under the blanket. He then hopped over to the other two standing in front of the locked bathroom door. They mouthed to him that Beomgyu was showering, probably to clean up the mess on him from cleaning up. They went back to the living room and switched on the PS5 to play together while waiting for the bathroom to open up.
Inside, Beomgyu crouched over the shower area and held his head with one hand, the wall with the other to steady himself. His emotions came surging in like tidal waves, forcing his tears to pour out. To Beomgyu, the tears didn’t make any sense. It shouldn’t, he thought. If his mind couldn’t understand it, why would his body. Trying his best to prevent any noise from escaping his mouth, he slowed his breathing and turned the steaming water back on. The stinging sensation on his back cleaned the mess he was, and his mind was returned to peace.
Not being noticed by the trio in the living room as he exited, he made his way into his room and laid in his bed, taking him no time to be transferred to dreamland.
Beomgyu stared at another ‘Beomgyu’ who stood in front of him. The ‘Beomgyu’ tilted his head and smirked at him.
“You know you’re different from them, right?”
“What do you mean…?”
“Oh~ You know what I mean, Choi Beomgyu. You will never fit in.”
“Taehyun understands me-”
“But does he really? Kang Taehyun, is that someone you’re sure you can trust?”
“Even if you look like me, I know what I feel.”
“But do you?”
Beomgyu gritted his teeth and tried stepping away, but an unknown force kept him from moving away from his place. Meanwhile, the ‘Beomgyu’ stepped closer to him until their shirts brushed against each other. Beomgyu finally had the chance to take in his surroundings. It was nothingness apart from the water beneath their feet that didn’t seem to work with the same type of physics in the real world.
“Did you know the water below us is much deeper than you think? Once you understand what you feel, what do you think is going to happen…when you fall in?”
The ‘Beomgyu’ snapped his fingers, leaving Beomgyu to sink into the bottomless water. Every surge of emotion he felt was unbearable along with the feeling like he was suffocating by himself. But…he wasn’t alone…he had Taehyun…right…?