What is Love? / Part 12
Short chapter, but I felt like it needed to end there. :)
Hope you enjoy!
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“Have what in my bag?” You asked, genuinely confused by his remark.
“This.” Minseok spit out the word, his hand moving forward to throw something on the bed.
You stepped forward, looking more closely at the object on the bed. It surprised you, after all this time, to see a needle laying on the bed. The vial had the remains of a yellow residue on the inside and the cap was off the needles end.
“You don’t have anything to say?” Minseok’s face was red with rage and his fists were balled tight, knuckles white from the strain. He grabbed for your wrist, pulling the sleeve of your sweater up roughly. “Did you do it here?”
“What?” You pulled your arm away, “No! No, I didn’t do anything!” You pulled your sleeve back down. “What’s the matter with you!”
“You really expect me to believe that? There’s the evidence right there, ________!” He hit the bed, making the needle jump. “I can’t believe I let you go out with them. I knew that something bad was going to happen.”
“It’s-It’s old!” Your eyes brimmed with tears and you scratched unconsciously at your arm through your sweater. You could feel time moving so slowly around you, specs of dust in the air, the shadows moving on the walls. And you could see Minseok yelling, but you weren’t listening, not really.
“Look at me.” He took a step towards you, “Let me see your eyes.” You stayed staring at the window “Look at me!” His hand came up to your face, his touch gentle despite the reason for him touching you.
The feeling of his fingertips on your chin pulled you from your revery.
“I hate you.” You let the words slide out between your teeth. “Get away from me.”
You didn’t know what you were doing but you were sure that you were not going to stay another moment longer. The door startled you as you closed it, the sound of your footsteps on the old hardwood floors mixing with the memory of the door slamming shut.
Chanyeol came out of the living room, rubbing his eyes as though he had been sleeping as you came down the stairs.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, stepping in front of you.
“Do you have your car keys handy, Chan?” You asked breathily.
“Uh, yea, but-” He stumbled on his words, unsure of what was going on or whether to let you have them.
“It’s okay Chan. I’ll be back. I just need to go out.”
“What time is it?” His voice was groggy, and the question came out as a mumble as he walked towards his backpack, laying open on the floor next to the sofa where he had fallen asleep. He took his keys out of the front pocket, his hands fidgeting around them awkwardly.
“It’s not very late, really.” You pulled the keys away from him gingerly. “Thanks Chanyeol.”
You wasted no time leaving the house, unlocking Chanyeol’s car with the fob. His car smelled like old fast food wrappers and juicy fruit gum. You let yourself sit for just a moment before turning the car on and starting down the winding driveway
In the house Minseok heard the car start and looked out the windows as the car’s high beams turned on. He raced downstairs towards the front door.
“Where’s she going?” He asked Chanyeol, who was standing in the living room looking confused in his sleepy daze.
“I don’t know, man. She didn’t say.”
———
You were raging.
How could he think I would do that? After all of my work to get clean and he just stood there and accused me like that, you thought angrily. Above everything else that bothered you was the look of pure disgust on his face.
You drove fast, headed for the highway, unsure of where you were going exactly. After all, it was around three in the morning. Not much was open outside of the city where the house was.
Your phone rang.
Minseok, you guessed.
You let it go to voicemail.
You quickly came to the realization that you didn’t have anything with you. No clothes, no money, no drivers license. But you didn’t want to turn around, it was like telling him that he had won.
You pressed on the gas, going well over 130km an hour. There was a rush of adrenaline taking over you and you didn’t want it to stop. You couldn’t let it.
———
Minseok ran upstairs, grabbing the keys from the desk and took the stairs back to the front door two at a time.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to get her.” Minseok snapped.
“Let her just cool off, Min.” Chanyeol clapped his brother on the back. “I’m sure it will be fine when she comes back.”
“No way. We just had a huge fight and I don’t want her to do something stupid.”
“Well if you think she’s like that then you have bigger problems, man.” Chanyeol’s tone shifted to something much cooler than it had been. He moved to sit on the couch once more, throwing things lazily into his backpack. “I’m going to bed.” As he walked past Minseok, he made no effort to walk around, instead opting for checking Minseok’s arm.
Minseok shook his head angrily, stomping outside and letting the door slam closed behind him. He dialled your number as he got in the car; it rang seven times then went to voicemail.
“________, where are you? Come back right now. I’m sorry. I just freaked out. I don’t want something to happen to you.” He hung up, throwing his phone on the passengers seat.
It shouldn’t be that hard to find you, right? Who else was out there in the middle of the night.
———
Thoughts continued to race through your head, a roller coaster of emotions filling you.
The car beeped and you looked down at the dash to see that you were 60km until the gas tank was empty. You hit the steering wheel, letting out a long, frustrated yell.
Why was this all happening?
You felt like you had been doing so well.
Sure, you went into the club when you said you wouldn’t but that wasn’t that big of a deal.
You slowed the car, pulling over onto the shoulder of the highway.
“I should have just checked the bag.” You muttered, letting your head rest against the steering wheel. You knew you would have to call him eventually but you wanted to wait just a little bit longer before doing so.
You could feel the inside of the car getting brighter and you lifted your head up, looking out the rearview mirror to see two white beams of light coming towards you, and then slowing down, and then stopping, right behind your car.
You pressed the lock button on the door, just to be safe.
“________!” You recognized Minseok’s voice immediately. “Open the door!” He tapped on the glass and you looked towards him, hesitantly.
You compromised by rolling down the window half way.
“What are you doing here?” You asked.
“What are you doing on the side of the road?” He countered.
You let out an agitated huff. “Chanyeol had his car running practically on empty.”
“So…you were just going to sit here all night?”
“I was just waiting before I called because I didn’t-don’t- want to see you.” You crossed your arms, partially in defiance, and partially because you were cold.
“Just get in my car.” He was already calling one of his brothers. “Hey, I know it’s late…” Minseok turned away from you, walking up the side of the road.
You sat for another moment in Chanyeol’s car, taking deep breaths before getting out. Standing next to the locked passenger’s side door of Minseok’s car, you waited for him to turn around and notice that you were freezing.
The moon looked like almost a perfect circle in the sky. The full moon was coming, you had forgotten.
Maybe that’s why Minseok reacted the way he did.
You watched Minseok hang the phone up and slip it into his back pocket of his sweatpants. He stood on the edge of the road, so still, the headlights so bright you knew that he couldn’t possibly see you, even though it felt like his eyes were burning right through you.
After a couple minutes he started to walk towards the car, getting in smoothly and shutting the door more forcefully than he really had to. There was nothing to say, so you didn’t say anything, instead, you turned your head to look out the window, head resting on the cool glass. You kept your arms folded over your chest to ward off the cold.
Eventually another set of headlights pierced the night and Minseok started the car, doing a fast u-turn to head back towards the house.
“Who was that?” Your voice barely came out in a whisper.
“Junmyeon.”
You let out a huff of air.
“He was up anyways. Everyone is up.” It sounded like he was blaming you for that.
“Maybe if you hadn’t yelled at me they wouldn’t be.” You scoffed.
“Don’t blame me.” Minseok glanced between the road and you.
“Well, you started it.” He started to talk but you raised your hand. “You went through my bag and found it and jumped to some stupid conclusion. You didn’t even let me explain or anything.” You were starting to get riled up. “Jesus, it’s like you’re pms-ing or something.”
“Is that what you think?”
“Well the full moon is coming up, like tomorrow, and you’re being super irrational right now.”
“You’re really pulling that line on me? Don’t girls hate when guys do that?”
You started to laugh. Uncontrollably.
“Yea…yea we do.” You took a deep breath to calm your laughter. “Fuck…I’m tired.”
“Me too.” Minseok reached over, his hand resting on your knee. “I’m sorry.”
“I know.” You let your head fall back against the headrest. The feeling of Minseok’s hand on your leg warmed you. A sense of comfort washing over you and pushing all of the other feelings out of the way.
The car was in the driveway now. Minseok drove smoothly towards the house. Swinging back into his parking spot. You unclipped your seatbelt, letting it fall away from your shoulder and back against the wall of the car.
“I hate this whole mating thing, you know. I mean, I can’t stay mad at you about anything.” You couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corner of your lips and you started to open the door, turning away from Minseok, but he caught your arm, pulling you back to face him.
“Yea,” He said, his hand sliding up to your cheek, his face mere inches from yours. “It really sucks knowing that you’ve found the person you would do anything for.” He bridged the gap between the two of you, his lips moving firmly against yours, his tongue sliding, hot, into your mouth.
“Tongue already?” You muttered, pulling away slightly. “You think you’re back in my good graces that easily?”
“Just shut up and kiss me already.”
As you kissed Minseok you could feel your body tingling from his kiss. But the part you could feel the most was on your left foot between your toes where you shot up earlier that night.
