Treasure tales

Jaehyuk #8: Friendship issues

As I sat there, nearly drowning in boredom, a portal suddenly opened in this doorless room. A second later Jaehyuk, of whom we had all been waiting for, stumbled into the room. I briefly noticed a tanned hand pushing him through before he crashed onto the floor.

Hyunsuk had been mostly inactive until now, but at that very moment he jumped forward and caught Jaehyuk's fall. However, given Hyunsuk's petite body build compared to the masculine Jaehyuk, both of them ended up crashing onto the floor instead, with Hyunsuk cushioning Jaehyuk's fall.

"Ow..."Jaehyuk murmured, in a daze. He blinked at Hyunsuk. "You could've let me fall you know."

Hyunsuk shook his head. "I'm the leader," he said without hesitation. He looked around the group nervously. "I failed at protecting all of you and led you all into this. This was the least I could've done. Still, I failed to stop your fall. What kind of terrible leader am I..."

"Hyunsuk," Jihoon said in alarm as he grabbed his shoulders and dragged him away. Hyunsuk didn't resist. He looked very discouraged.

"I'll deal with him. Please, help Jaehyuk," Jihoon told the rest. There was a sort of resolute firmness in his tone.

Mashiho and Junkyu immediately went forward and attempted to hoist Jaehyuk up. I was alarmed by the defeat evident in Jaehyuk's exhausted eyes. Jaehyuk resisted them.

"Leave me alone," he said almost drunkenly. He roughly pushed them away and stumbled onto the only comfortable bed in the room. Then he collapsed, and was asleep within seconds.

"He's been behaving like this everyday," Jeongwoo said, looking slightly irritated.

"Give him a break, Jeongwoo. We don't even know what he's going through with our captors," Mashiho immediately intercepted.

"It's getting ridiculous. The earth is about to be bombed by that asteroid any second, and he has to get himself caught. And then get us all caught," Jeongwoo continued, heat rising to his face. "If the earth is annihilated, and we no longer have a home, a planet to return to, it's his fault," Jeongwoo responded angrily, pointing to the now sleeping Jaehyuk. He raised his tone. "HIS fault."

"Jeongwoo, you know that's not--" I tried to calm him down, but Jeongwoo cupped his two hands on his ears and refused to listen.

I turned around to look at the other members. They all look baffled. I wonder if, deep down within them, they also silently blamed Jaehyuk. I sighed. If they did, I couldn't really blame them. It's true that, with us stuck here, the survival of the earth--and their homes and livelihoods--was left in jeopardy.

However, I also knew that they held their tongue out of consideration for Jaehyuk because he was a friend they cared for.

"Haruto, say something," I said helplessly. I noticed that Haruto and Jeongwoo were quite close due to their ages, so I thought maybe a word from him would resolve things.

Haruto turned his piercing gaze at me, and pointed his sharp chin upwards, as if to shrug off the responsibility from himself. I groaned.

"He might be right," Doyoung said in a small voice. "What do we do if the earth ends up annihilated? We must get back to it as quickly as we can. Poor Jaehyuk, though."

"Please, stop it," Yoshi burst out. "Jaehyuk never intended this. You know that. What's going to be solved if we all play the blame game?"

Jeongwoo shook his head. "I miss the outside," he murmured. "The blue skies and light streaming from the sunshine. I don't want to be cooped up in here. But there's no way to get out. And it's all his fault."

I saw that there was no way to change his mind; he had his mind set on it. Defeated, I decided to ignore him and instead went over to peer at Jaehyuk sleeping. He looked troubled in his sleep. He must be having a nightmare.

"Rin," I turned around. It was Junkyu and Yedam, who had prior remained completely silent.

"I know that the storyline you're familiar with is that we all severed contract until the day Hyunsuk returned to our lives," Junkyu begun uncertainly. "But it isn't actually the whole truth. We wanted you to know that. Yedam, Jaehyuk and Jeongwoo were your schoolmates, right?"

Yedam nodded. "I was actually in the same elementary school as them, but never really communicated with them until much later. What I do know, however, is that Jaehyuk was Jeongwoo's senior in his Co-curricular activity(CCA). Jeongwoo's older brother had gone missing right about that time, and Jaehyuk had taken it upon himself to play the surrogate older brother role for him. They were really famous for that."

"He did?" I gasped. "He treated Jeongwoo as if he were his own brother? Why would he go so far for somebody?"

"Because he's like that." Yedam and Junkyu said in sync. It was unanimous. I saw that, and understood.

"That's so kind of him," I murmured. I glanced once upon the sleeping Jaehyuk, and my heart ached. I hated the idea that someone so kind had to suffer like this. I knew that I could never be kind like that.

"I think deep down Jeongwoo really loves him," Junkyu continued. "So I'm sure his outburst was his own way of coping with this situation. We're all sad and worried that Jaehyuk is being hurt, but he probably has it the worst out of us all. After all...if something happens to Jaehyuk, to Jeongwoo it'll be like losing his older brother twice. I hope you understand that. And forgive him, and be more tolerant of him."

I nodded in silent agreement.

We paused as Jaehyuk fidgeted in his sleep. His eyebrows were twitching. Yedam bent down to feel his forehead.

"He seems fine, at least for now. Let's allow him to rest," he said.

Later on I noticed that Asahi had moved over to sit beside Jaehyuk's sleeping form. He was staring at Jaehyuk's body with furrowed brows.

"Look, they bandaged him more," Asahi said brusquely, immediately noticing my presence as I walked over to join him. He was right. Jaehyuk was covered in more bandages than before.

"It's like that daily," he continued in short sentences when I did not reply.

"It is," I agreed. "I shall spare you the specifics, but his cells are working very hard to resolve the damage. He's sleeping so deeply. He must be tired, with all that metabolism going on as well as...whatever has been happening."

I reached forward to ruffle his hair, thinking that it looked very soft and fluffy, and hoping it might reach him in whatever nightmare he was battling. Perhaps it would comfort him and help get him through his nightmare.

I hesitated.

"It's soft, isn't it?" Asahi said suddenly, smiling wryly at me. I quickly retracted my hand in embarrassment.

"What are you talking about?" I protested. Then I softened my voice. "Whatever battles you're fighting, Jaehyuk. We're fighting with you. So please, don't isolate yourself like that."

My gaze turned to Jeongwoo, who stood alone, staring at one of the drab grey parts not yet covered with Yoshi's art. He had a serious expression on his face, one you'd hardly see on the usually excitable ball of energy. For a moment, I thought I even saw loneliness reflected in his dull expression, one of which Jeongwoo quickly hid as if he was conscious about his true emotions being revealed. I saw that his eyes would flit to Jaehyuk now and then, but only for a very brief moment each time.

"Some of them are mine too," Asahi confessed, breaking my line of thought. "The paintings I mean. But for some reason you're always sleeping or napping when I paint. Yoshi is so fun to paint with."

I blinked at him, surprised. I remember the days when he was hostile to the members, and now he already seemed close to Yoshi. And perhaps Jaehyuk as well since he was concerned enough to watch over him.

I smiled. Admist all the tension, good things happened too, at the very least.