It started before he even woke up.
The dream felt real. The level of detail was uncanny, from the buildings lining the streets to the wind biting into his skin. He was walking somewhere, somewhere he hadn’t been in close to six years but that he still remembered exactly how to find. His old dealer lived in Daerim-dong, a short walk from the nearest subway station. A twenty minute ride from his old apartment. An agonizingly long time, to someone in full-blown withdrawals. And he could feel it in the dream. The cold sweat. The ache that reached down into his bones. By the time he climbed the staircase leading up to Taehwan’s apartment, his legs felt almost too weak to carry him. His hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Even inside, with Taehwan retreated into the next room to give him privacy, he couldn’t calm down enough to steady them.
He woke up the second the needle pierced his skin.
And it haunted him all day. Being denied that high – even just an echo of one, even just a memory. It would have been more than he’s had in months. It’s maddening, the slow trickle of chemicals he’s allowed. Methadone is fucking useless. He wants a high that will hit him like a tidal wave. He wants it to wreck him. He’s seething with it, and at the clinic he stares them all down, daring them to pick up on it. How close he is to disaster. But they only smile at him as they hand him his dose, vacant and impersonal, and send him on his way.
He doesn’t need a dealer anymore. He is the dealer. (And Taehwan is a corpse rotting somewhere, unidentified.) He has more than enough. Enough to kill him ten times over. No one would notice a little missing.
Only one thing standing in the way of his plan. Because it’s a plan now, one that began in the vapors of a dispelled dream and solidified into concrete steps by the tenth time that image intruded into his mind (Taehwan dead, unrecognizable). Because if he’s doing this, there’s only one way to do this.
Ten o'clock finds him breaking into a nervous sweat under the fluorescent lights of the pharmacy down the street. He’ll never be able to show his face in here again. He wants to tell the pharmacist he’s a diabetic, just to throw the accusation in his stare into doubt, but he can’t bring himself to speak. He checks out without a word.
Ten-thirty finds him in the midst of an old familiar ritual. He’s taken his time getting prepared. Dragging his feet. Summoning the nerve. He starts with a quarter-gram – conservative if he were still using, but now, he’s not so sure. He doesn’t know how high his tolerance is anymore. He doesn’t know enough about methadone to estimate the equivalent of his daily dose. But he’s come too far to back out now.
His heart is beating out of his chest. He can see his pulse through the skin, in the vein he zeroes in on. Even under the overhead light, he can barely see the old marks. They’ve almost disappeared and here he is making new ones. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters but the slow push of the plunger, slow and steady so it doesn’t hit him too hard. He waits. And waits.
It’s something very close to panic making his hands fumble to cook up more. Filling the same needle over again, because it doesn’t matter if it hurts going in. All that matters is the rush he’s been dwelling on all day.
He’s slammed an entire gram by the time he decides it’s a lost cause.
He could go look it up, but he doesn’t bother. It’s the only thing that makes sense. He remembers what they told him, before officially registering him as a patient at the clinic. About using while in the program. Don’t even try. He’d taken it for a general warning against relapse, a threat it’d get him kicked out. He never would have thought they meant It’s a waste of heroin.
Eleven o'clock finds him retreating to bed, completely defeated. He’s failed twice – failed in his sobriety, and failed to make it worth it. Start to finish, this day has been Hell. He’s done.
his lips are stained with blood.
SOOHYUK: Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my fucking Jesus fucking CHRIST
SOOHYUK: Heroin overdose. Overdose. Cocaine overdose, opium, charcoal, ipecac, narcan, naloxone…naloxone. That’s narcan. Narcan. Narcan.
SOOHYUK: Please work oh my God oh my God you can’t die Sungjoon you can’t fucking die -
his ribcage is clattering. he shakes, he trembles, his whole body is clumsy as he scrambles to the sprawled body on the floor. that’s Sungjoon. that’s Sungjoon. that’s SUNGJOON, for FUCK’S sake, wake the FUCK UP, please, please, please... - please, please, please... -
he watches the needle plunge through cold, pallid flesh. watches the blued veins rush eagerly to the surface, the subtle twitch of his pulse, counting down to the last goddamn millisecond for Sungjoon to open his eyes. please, please, please…- please… his breath hitches and he jerks back when the body doesn’t move. that’s just a body. it’s just a body. no, that’s SUNGJOON. that’s SUNGJOON, you FUCK, you crawling piece of SHIT, he’s DYING and you can’t even HELP him - please, please, please…- please… please, please…-
he folds into himself, small, terrified, looking wide-eyed at the man: he’s still. so, so still. and he’s so scared, he’s so scared. Sungjoon can’t die. Sungjoon can’t die. Sungjoon can’t die. not him, not him - fuck - not him. anyone but him. the apologies run through his lips like a babbling stream as he rocks back and forth, fingers tight against his skin, seized by such pure, unadulterated terror. cries falling from his open mouth.
SOOHYUK: Please, please, please, please, please…- please… please…- please… -
[ you just let him die, man! he’s dead! he’s dead! dead! dead! dead! dead! dead! dead! dEAD! DEAD! DEAD! DEAD! HE’S DEAD! SUNGJOON IS DEAD! SUNGJOON IS DEAD! SUNGJOON IS DEAD! that’s just a body, that’s just a BODY! a BODY! HE’S DEAD! SUNGJOON, OH MAN! HE’S FINALLY FUCKIN’ DEAD, BABY! ]
SOOHYUK: Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please - please -
A good hour for mischief.
(IT) knows where to go. These footsteps are automatic, but they’re not his. With his hands in his pockets, a cheerful tune drawling through his parted lips, Soohyuk (but it’s not him. it’s not. it’s - ) takes casual strolls towards the apartment his body is most familiar with. A building he’s kept watch of for so, so long, that even its address is an old nursery rhyme he’s repeated to himself at night to help him sleep. A mantra, a spell for comfort. Watching for that motherfucker -
He (IT) clears his throat. Among all things, it’s most important to stay calm. To stay steady. To stay stable. Otherwise he’ll find himself trying to drag out that bastard’s vocal chords with his own bloody fuckin’ teeth - the anger, oh it burns so, so slowly. His name sears in his throat, imprinting itself in bold, thick strokes: a brand -
[ i’m going to fucking KILL that bastard. i’m going to rip out his eyes by their sockets, make him choke on them, piss all over his GODDAMN face and slash his gut fuckin’ wide OPEN, i’m going to chew him up and spit him out. he’s going to KNOW my name, KNOW who the FUCK he should never have crossed, know that Sungjoon is MINE - he’s MINE - he’s MINE - ]
Among all things, it’s most important to stay calm. To stay steady. To stay stable.
There’s new shoes on his feet. He walks with patterned taps - up the stairs, hand trailing along the railing - turn left at this corridor. A few stories up. The echoes bounce around the walls and spiral downwards as he’s ascending, the ring on his fourth finger rough against the rotting wood. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Clink, slide, tap. Tap. Tap. Clink, slide. Tap. Tap. Tap.
The door. It’s locked, but he knows the way in. He brushes the debris from his fingers, clinging to each line on his palm as he steps into the room.
There’s a part of him that panics, instantly - spilled traces of powder on the floor, a lighter - a spoon, liquid on the floor - a syringe, pulled half-way. Bubbling. A ripped bag.
[ he’s dead, isn’t he - he’s dead, isn’t he - he’s dead, dead, dead, - DEAD, - oh my GOD he’s DEAD isn’t he he’s DEAD, he’s DEAD, he’s DEAD, ISN’T HE? ]
Among all things, it’s most important to stay calm. To stay steady. To stay stable.
Something in him (not him - just, this weak, quivering body) aches. It’s begging him, screaming for him to - to what? Check up on him? Make sure he’s not - DEAD? And if he’s dead, whose fault would it be?
[ it’s YOUR fault, it’s YOURS, he is YOUR responsibility - ]
Soohyuk bends down and wipes some of the powder with his fingertips. He rubs it against his thumb, lips slightly pursed. His heart is beating quickly, and somewhere in his mind there’s shrieking - but he’s calm. He’s steady. He’s stable. (Not him, IT.) He puts his hands back into his pockets as he walks past the hallway, to a door he’s thrown open before. A room he’s torn apart in a frenzy, looking for -
Heroin overdose. Overdose. Cocaine overdose, opium, charcoal, ipecac, narcan, naloxone…naloxone. That’s narcan. Narcan. Narcan.
oh my God you can’t die Sungjoon you can’t fucking die
And there he is, face white as snow. Pale as it’s ever been, slight beads of sweat drawn against his hollow cheeks. His eyes are sunken in. It’s been so long, but his lips ajar and the clothes he’s wearing are loose. And -
[ that FUCKING BRAND - the FUCKING BULLET]
“Sungjoon,” Soohyuk (no. it’s not him. it’s not him.) says. His voice is low, drawled, ghostly. He crouches next to the bed, mouth half-cocked, a few inches from his face.
“Sungjoon,” he repeats. A hand reaches out to gently touch the man’s face, fingers pressed against gaunt bone. “You look like absolute shit.”