I'm alright

1/2

***

The sun was already high on the sky when Casper woke up. The clock with its green numbers obnoxiously told him that it was way past 12PM. His dreams were filled with disturbing images that left him with trembling hands and covered in cold sweat. He took another shower. After drying himself up with a towel, he looked at the marks on his wrists. They were more visible than in the morning but didn't itch or hurt. He re-wrapped them with elastic bandage, put on some clothes and went out of his room.

Seyoung, Takuya and Shin were in the living room. They were sitting in a semi-circle on the floor, steaming pot of dumplings in front of them. As soon as they saw the rapper, they beckoned him over.

"Yo hyung, thanks for the dumplings!" shouted Shin, even though there was no need to be that loud. "Do you want some before we eat them all?" he asked, trying to feed Takuya who already had one dumpling in his mouth.

"No, thanks" Casper replied, sitting near the trio. He couldn't stop thinking about his soulmate. He considered telling his band members about it but then decided against it. It was his problem, he shouldn't bother others.

"Is something the matter?" Takuya, always the one to pick up on his mood no matter what, asked with underlying concern.

Casper sent him a tired but genuine smile and shook his head. "I'm fine, just slept weirdly"

Everything was quiet after this, only the sounds of the trio munching happily on dumplings could be heard. Casper watched the food disappear from the pot, lost in his thoughts. He didn't notice Seyoung sneaking up on him so he jumped in surprise when the eldest grabbed his wrist.

"Easuh thar" he said with a dumpling in his mouth. "Whashup wish four vrishtsh?"

Casper could only blink, not understanding his hyung at all. "Uhhh... come again?"

Seyoung smiled sheepishly, as if the thought that speaking with a full mouth makes people hard to understand never occurred to him. He put up his hand in a "wait a moment" sign and tried to swallow the dumpling without properly chewing on it first. Unsurprisingly, he started choking right after.

Takuya patted Seyoung's back none too gently. "You should chew first, silly" the Japanese man chuckled and ruffled the vocalist's hair affectionately. Seyoung mumbled something that sounded like "sorry" but Casper couldn't be sure as the blonde man was still gripped by a coughing fit.

Then Takuya looked at Casper, his brown orbs full of intensity piercing right through his soul. "Hyung" he said. "I'm also curious. What happened to your wrists?"

"Ah, this" the rapper tried very hard to appear indifferent but a nervous chuckle slipped past his lips anyway. "I pulled a muscle when exercising"

The Japanese man squinted at him and a drop of sweat slid down Casper's back. He thought that Takuya saw right through him. But then the visual sighed and rubbed his temples.

"You guys are so clumsy, I swear to God I feel more like your mum than a fellow member..."

"If you're the mum then I'm the dad!" Shin jumped right into the conversation, trying to feed Takuya more dumplings and knocking him to the ground in the process. Shin managed to get the dumpling into Takuya's mouth after a third try, hitting him on the nose and cheek the first two times.

It was then that Casper decided to retreat to his room. He left the trio behind, not paying much attention to the silently fuming Takuya, pouting Seyoung or mischievously grinning Shin. He wasn't in the mood to be the middle man when Seyoung and Shin started quarrelling about whose turn it was to feed Takuya. Again.