Haechan has so many iconic looks but somehow 190728 boom Haechan hits differently
⊷ 17
"Right on time!" Yangyang exhaled in a rush when Haechan finally arrived at the house. He left the door open for Haechan to enter before he ran back upstairs.
Closing the door behind him, Haechan took off his shoes and then walked inside. Not wanting to be too intrusive, he only took a few steps ahead to the living room and kitchen, putting his bag down in the former.
He strolled through the big room. It looked so different now - less lively, less like home. Nothing had changed but up close in this silence, the grand living room felt empty.
Haechan stopped in front of one of the shelves that held a couple of pictures. Most of them showed just two people. A couple, probably. Smiling brightly, looking at each other with love, or looking at the camera with joy.
The few pictures that held more than these two in them, pictured either three or five people. Yet, in all of them, the kids that joined the adults were too young for Haechan to recognize them.
There wasn't a single picture where these kids were grown up, neither was there one where the couple had aged.
At some point, time seemed to have stopped for them.
It was just a guess that the girl in them was Ji-yoon. However, it was easy to tell that the oldest of the kids was Taemin.
And the other boy?
He seemed awfully familiar. Had Haechan seen him before?
Right about then, Yangyang came back downstairs. Since he didn't see Haechan in the hallway, he quickly glimpsed into the living room where he saw the boy standing, staring at the pictures on the shelf.
"What are you doing there?" he asked. However, he didn't really give him time to reply before he turned around and walked into another room opposite the living room where Haechan soon joined him.
It looked like an office or a study - somewhere to work quietly. Yangyang was busily going through a small stack of paper, trying to find something.
"Where's Ji-yoon?"
"Upstairs," he said when he finally found the paper he was looking for. He pulled a folder out of his bag that he had put on the chair next to him.
Watching him like this, casually hurrying through a house that wasn't his and remembering all the things he had said yesterday made Haechan remember how close Yangyang and Ji-yoon probably were.
"Who is the couple in the pictures?"
"Taemin's parents," Yangyang replied swiftly, not really keeping much attention to the older.
Nodding, glimpsing back into the empty, lifeless room, he then wondered,
"Where are they?"
This time, Yangyang hesitated a little. Not because he didn't know what to answer but just because it was hard to say out loud that,
"They're dead."
Nostalgia. These photographs were full of heartbreaking nostalgia.
Haechan seemed sympathetic, yet quickly asked,
"So Taemin and Ji-yoon don't have the same parents?"
"Nope."
"Then where are her parents?"
"Dead." This time he said it more swiftly. More detached, less interested.
Haechan couldn't help but frown. Seeing how Yangyang not only knew a lot but also had strong feelings towards these people - whether that feeling was regret or disinterest - was intriguing.
So he wondered...
"What about the other brother?" Haechan asked eventually.
Yangyang closed his bag. "Her brother?" he asked. "You know both of them anyway, why are you asking me?"
Surprised, Haechan stepped a little closer. "I know them?"
"Yeah," Yangyang said, "Taemin and--"
There was a loud thud that cut through the air, making both boys turn around. It came from the room right above them, so Yangyang ran outside and upstairs right away, closely followed by Haechan.
When they got to the room, they stopped in front of a closed door. Yangyang knocked against it a couple of times, one hand already on the doorknob, worry covering his face.
"Are you okay?!" he shouted through the door.
However, barely surprised, his worry was only met with a monotonous,
"Yeah, don't worry."
"What happened? Can I come inside?" he urged.
"Yeah," was all she said in return.
Yangyang pushed the door open immediately and entered the room, Haechan right behind him. But while Yangyang walked all the way up to the girl, Haechan stopped not far from the door and looked at the ground.
Because the ground was suddenly incredibly interesting - interesting enough to keep his eyes from the girl that was dressed in nothing more but a towel, sitting on the edge of the bathtub with soaking wet hair.
While Ji-yoon noticed that, she didn't have the time to comment on it before Yangyang again asked what happened.
"I got dizzy and slipped," she explained.
"Did you hurt yourself?" Yangyang asked, still as worried as he was when he came in. However, Ji-yoon merely shook her head, at which he stepped back.
As soon as he moved out of the way, Haechan took the chance to also quickly look at the girl. She didn't look particularly unwell, yet she was holding onto the bathtub's edge tightly with one hand, her other hand resting on her knee.
Distracted by her, he almost didn't see the couple of drops of blood that had gotten soaked up by the carpet.
"You are bleeding," he noted.
Ji-yoon just raised her brows in confusion, while Yangyang checked her again. He found the same drops of blood on the carpet, followed them up to her arm, where another drop was barely holding onto her elbow.
Yangyang took her hand, held it carefully as he checked her arm.
"You have a cut on your shoulder," he then said, scrunching his nose. "It looks pretty deep."
On her shoulder?
All of a sudden, she pushed out a low 'oh'.
"I fell against that cabinet," she explained, pointing at the culprit. She turned her head as far as she could, pushed her shoulder forward and tried to get a glimpse of the wound. "So that's why it was burning."
"You said you were okay!" Yangyang pointed out.
"I am," she retorted more calmly. As she turned back to look at Yangyang, she turned her head too fast. Grasping for the bathtub's edge yet again, she let her head fall into her hand.
Meanwhile, Yangyang turned around and walked over to Haechan. On the shelf next to him was a small first aid kit. He took it, then walked back over to the girl that was looking back up at him.
He put the box down, opened it. Before taking anything out of it though, he wanted to take a look at the wound. So he moved closer to her and-
Ji-yoon pressed a finger against his chest to stop him.
"What?"
She glimpsed at her phone, then back at him. "You are late. You have to go."
"But your-"
"I will do it myself."
He grimaced. "You can't even reach it properly."
At which Haechan took a step into the bathroom. "I will take care of it."
His offer made Yangyang turn around right away. He was surprised, to say the least. However, he couldn't dismiss his suggestion, so he was forced to agree.
Switching places with the older one, he soon said a quick goodbye, urged Ji-yoon to be more careful and asked Haechan to keep him up to date.
And after that was done, he left.
All alone, Haechan made an effort not to look too much at the girl so as not to make her feel tense, as not to make the situation awkward.
However, all of that caused Ji-yoon to mention that,
"You look uncomfortable. I will just do it myself."
At the same moment that she said that, Haechan pushed the box a little further away from her.
"You are the one only dressed in a towel, why would I be uncomfortable?" he asked as he rummaged through it.
Ji-yoon hummed thoughtfully. "You have a point."
He took a couple of things out of it, then sat down next to her on the edge of the bathtub and leaned back a little to clean the cut.
"Why were you dizzy?" he asked.
"I have a concussion."
For a moment, Haechan looked away from the wound and at her. "Oh."
"It's not that bad though," she reassured him quickly. "But I have a check-up today anyway, so we'll just see what the doctor says."
Haechan was quiet. He didn't react much, yet from the corner of her eyes, Ji-yoon spotted the frown he put on.
"Yangyang forgot to tell you about it?"
"Yeah."
"That's okay," she then said, not surprised at all. "I can go there on my own if it's inconvenient for you."
"It's fine, I'll drive you," he dismissed her suggestion. "You aren't feeling too well anyway, it's better that way."
Watching him from the corner of her eyes, Ji-yoon couldn't help but smile. She couldn't hold back her adoration for him and she couldn't ignore how much she enjoyed this.
"Are you warming up to me?"
He huffed. "You wish."
She smiled more, leaned her head a little closer to his and whispered,
"I do."
He looked up at her just for long enough to spot her amused expression, then quickly pressed two fingers against her forehead and pushed her head away from him.
With Haechan focusing on the cut again and Ji-yoon just sitting, staring at the ground emptily, she had time to think. Time to wonder.
"Haechan," she said, attracting his attention right away. He frowned when he looked up at her. Something about that felt odd.
But he didn't realize what it was, so he focused back on the wound.
"Hm?"
"Did you find the driver of the car yet?"
"We have the name but we are still looking for him," he said.
"Ah~" she exhaled, exhausted from the sound of it. She looked at the ground tiredly. "I'm curious who ordered him. JYP or the mayor?"
Haechan hummed. "Maybe both."
"But someone needs to have initiated it, you know?" she said. "That's the one we need to take care of first."
He raised a brow, looked up at her hesitantly.
"And by 'take care of' you mean...?"
Amused by his reaction, she decided to play along. So she smiled sweetly as she leaned closer and said lowly,
"Kill them."
Seeing him let go of his curious expression, now glaring up at her emptily, and hearing his exhausted exhale was fun, to be honest. She always enjoyed seeing his reactions.
"I would arrest you," he admitted, "but I don't have enough evidence yet."
"'Yet'?" she wondered in surprise. "Do you want me to leave you alone so badly?"
"Yes," he said without hesitation.
Ji-yoon hummed. For a second she was indecisive. Should she be upset about that? Or rather...
"Good~" she decided to say. "I'm looking forward to it since I really want to see you in action. I reckon you look really hot when you--"
She cut herself off when Haechan slapped the bandaid against the cut, causing her to let her head fall forward as she took a deep breath, trying to tolerate the sharp pain.
Haechan got up and put everything back into the box, then threw away the trash. Watching his cold demeanour, Ji-yoon couldn't help but point out,
"I was joking, you know?"
Haechan put the first aid kit back on the shelf, then turned around to look at her.
"I know," he deadpanned. "Get dressed, we have an appointment later." And with that, he left the room and closed the door behind him.
Once he was outside, however, he stopped. He turned around, eyes on the closed door. He pushed his hands into his trouser pockets and took a deep breath before he mumbled,
"I was also joking."
Towel ⊶
the amount of times I almost wrote Jie instead of Ji-yoon is disappointing,, I keep messing up the names lmao forgive me