“I just really need to have you here right now.” or “Ever wonder if the world would be better off without you… ?” for gyusoo?
“Hyung… If you ever loved me, come to my side. Please. I just really need to have you here right now.”
The day the world ends is not loud or flashy. It just simply… ends.
For just a little while, it’s just the seven of them against the whole world. Sometimes, if Sunggyu squints, he can nearly find it ironic. Before it was seven of them against the world of entertainment, clawing their way up to the top, but now, it’s still the same seven against the world outside of their practice rooms and stages, where they claw their way for survival.
Still, when they can, they sing the songs that they used to sing together, just so that they can believe that someday they’ll go back to being that Infinite that could stand on stage and sing out their hearts to the whole world. It’s been a little while since they had seen anyone else. It was weeks, maybe even months, since they lost Soojung and her sisters. Not in anyway that they could say that their little sisters were legends, they just disappeared.
As if they would be able to tell anyone that cared anyways.
Sunggyu just leads them on and on, insisting, “Just a bit further,” in the same way that he would say, “Just one more time,” before all of this started. Even though still Sungyeol would complain about being tired and having sore feet, he would stand up and they would all follow their leader.
It’s hard to stop because every single time they try to, it seems like danger is right around the corner, ready to take them. On one of the nights that they had decided to stop in an abandoned convenience store, Sunggyu wants to keep on moving, but when he looks at the others, he knows that they aren’t going any further that night. He still insists on keeping someone on watch while the others sleep. For the first shift, he and Myungsoo sit together, watching the flames of the fire quietly dance in the dark.
“Hyung,” Myungsoo says quietly, leaning against his shoulder.
“Yeah, what is it?” Sunggyu says with a little hum, his mind rather on thinking about where he would lead the others next or how he’s going to convince them tomorrow that they will survive.
Myungsoo doesn’t say anything about his silence and instead just presses a walkie talkie into his palm. “Hyung, if I call, could you answer?”
Smiling, Sunggyu nods and holds Myungsoo close, his hand stroking through Myungsoo’s hair gently. “Of course I will.”
It’s hard to promise like that because sometimes it feels like nothing’s left, but still, Sunggyu tries. If it’s for his dongsaengs, anything is possible.
The small walkie talkie weighs down his pockets as they walk throughout the deserted streets of Seoul. Myungsoo walks so close to Sunggyu that Sunggyu can feel Myungsoo’s body heat which doesn’t really help because it’s already so hot, but Sunggyu doesn’t say anything about it, even extending a hand out to help Myungsoo over a pile of rubble.
“Hyung?” Myungsoo asks. His warm palm presses against Sunggyu’s, but it helps lift the weight off his shoulders.
“Ever wonder if the world is better off without you?”
Sweat trickles down Sunggyu’s neck, tickling him as he swipes it off. “Myungsoo, we’re some of the last survivors on Earth and now you’re deciding to ask that question?”
“Well…” Myungsoo looks down at the ground and doesn’t say anything for a little while. Sunggyu learned now that the world was ending that time doesn’t have any power anymore. So even as a few blocks pass in silence - Myungsoo still clinging onto his hand as if he would lose Sunggyu if he let go - Sunggyu isn’t surprised as Myungsoo continued his thoughts. “There’s always bad guys in the world, no matter how many people there are. So… maybe… do you think so?”
Sunggyu looks over at Myungsoo who doesn’t meet his gaze. “Soo-yah, you better not leave me. I only have you and the others in this world.”
“No! I’m not going to leave!” Myungsoo says, shaking his head desperately. “I’m not going to leave you.”
Relaxing a bit, Sunggyu draws Myungsoo closer. Myungsoo sighs happily as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders and Sunggyu feels a little bit of pride. Even in the ruins of the city he used to call home, he can still calm Myungsoo.
The end of the world had come suddenly, it had just… ended.
For Sunggyu, the end of his world, it comes just as suddenly.
But he knows how it ends.
Sunggyu hears Hoya screaming and he runs. They promised when the world ended that if it came down to saving one or saving more, they would need to make certain sacrifices. No matter how coldhearted that sounded, Sunggyu knew that it would be the only way it would work. He grabs the two maknaes by their collars and stars pulling them towards safety, away from Hoya and Sungyeol’s screams. Sungjong and Myungsoo fights against Sunggyu, wanting - needing - to reach their best friends.
“They’re gone,” Sunggyu says quietly into Myungsoo’s ear. “We need to go.”
With a choking sob of protest and for his friend, Myungsoo turns and follows Sunggyu who picked up Sungjong to join Woohyun and Dongwoo who already were halfway down the street.
That’s the beginning of the end. The middle of the end comes and leaves a gaping hole where Sungjong and Dongwoo used to be, bringing the end of the end with it.
Sunggyu wishes so much that their end could be something like everyone else - just disappear - but instead, they had to run into a gang who managed to survive like they did, but it comes down to fighting.
Myungsoo is a good fighter. Sometimes, Sunggyu forgot that Myungsoo was 2nd dan in taekwondo, when he was just an idol, it wasn’t needed. Woohyun liked doing fight scenes and as he had bragged to Sunggyu before, “Stage fighting isn’t much different than real fighting.”
the end of the end comes with a scream of, “Myungsoo!” and Sunggyu can’t do anything as a knife comes down towards Myungsoo. But Woohyun can.
Before Sunggyu knows it, Woohyun is between Myungsoo and the knife and that night, red rain falls from the sky.
“Woohyun!” Sunggyu yells, rushing towards the two. The rest of the gang they were fighting were scattered around, defeated and retreating, but Sunggyu only has eyes for Woohyun, crumbled in a pile on the floor. “No… Woohyun…”
Woohyun doesn’t respond (he can’t).
A small voice says, “Hyung,” and he looks up through his tears to see Myungsoo reaching towards him.
For the first time, Sunggyu slaps Myungsoo’s hand away and he’s screaming before he knows it. “This is your fault! If you weren’t there, Woohyun would still be alive! It should be you, not Woohyun, who’s dead! Get out of my sight!”
Myungsoo’s eyes always spoke for him, this time wide and filled with tears, begging for Sunggyu to forgive him, to not drive him away like this, but Sunggyu doesn’t see.
“Get out!” he roars. “Get lost!”
The knife that took away Woohyun is in his hand and he slashes the air, close enough to Myungsoo to make him scuttle away. “Get lost,” Sunggyu hisses, his breath coming out in ragged gasps. “I don’t want to see you ever again.”
With one last begging look over his shoulder, Myungsoo flees. Vaugely, Sunggyu realizes that Myungsoo was crying, nearly sobbing, but he doesn’t care. His second hand, his best friend, the chopsticks to his spoon or whatever Woohyun had said, was gone.
Sunggyu carries Woohyun’s body to a park where he digs a grave for him. He wishes that he had the bodies of the other members to burry with Woohyun as he finishes burying him. Instead, he sets up little gravestones for each of the members. As he’s building them, he thinks about the members; how Hoya and Dongwoo would always dance together, Sungjong rolling his eyes constantly at his hyungs, then Sungyeol aways sticking beside Myungsoo…
Then it hits Sunggyu hard. He messed up.
The moment they lost Sungyeol, Myungsoo was crying for his best friend, but still, he followed Sunggyu, trusting him to stay beside him even if Sungyeol, Myungsoo’s second hand, his best friend, the chopsticks to his spoon, was gone. And Sunggyu repaid him poorly, threatening to kill him the moment Woohyun was gone.
Shooting up to his feet, Sunggyu runs through the moonlight streets, cursing himself for being lead by his heart when he needed to lead the only person he had left on this planet.
Everywhere Sunggyu looks, he can’t find Myungsoo. Everything is quiet, just like the world was since the moment the world ended, but Sunggyu didn’t realize because he had his brothers beside him. Collasping onto the cold pavement, Sunggyu cries into his arms, wishing that his cries could somehow bring Myungsoo back to him.
As that thought crossed his mind, suddenly, in his pocket, Myungsoo’s voice spoke out.
Sunggyu jumps and presses his hand against his pocket, feeling that weight that felt heavy at first, but now he didn’t realize was there. The walkie talkie feels surprisingly warm in his hand and he pulls it out of his pocket as Myungsoo keeps on talking.
“If you ever loved me, come to my side. Please. I just really need to have you here right now.”
“Myungsoo?” Sunggyu asks, his hand gripping onto the walkie talkie so hard that his knuckles turn white. “Where are you? I’ll come to you. I’m so sorry, I messed up, you were right, even in the world this small, there are bad guys. I was the bad guy to you, please where are you?”
For a moment, there’s no reply and Sunggyu starts running. Even if it’s in the wrong direction, he’s running towards Myungsoo.
“It’ll be okay,” Myungsoo’s voice finally replies. “If this is the end of the world, I’m glad it ended like this.”
“Myungsoo? What are you talking about?”
“Because this means I saved you.”
