Chereads / The Longest Dayz / Chapter 25 - Chapter 25: Lee Taehyun

Chapter 25 - Chapter 25: Lee Taehyun

Taehyun followed Kittichai closely as they entered the other apartment, the apartment was dark so he went to flick on the light switch. As his fingers made contact with the switch another hand caught his. Looking to the owner of the hand he locked eyes with Kittichai who was glaring daggers into him.

"Don't you think at all? Or are you truly empty up there?" Kittichai jabbed Taehyun's forehead harshly. Taehyun looked off to the side avoiding the brunette's judging eyes and bit his lip.

"S-sorry." Muttered Taehyun.

"Kitt, stop being such an ass already." Yeongsu smacked Kittichai's arm as he walked past them.

"Wellll sorry for trying to protect your sorry soul Yeongsu-ya." Kittichai hissed sarcastically at Yeongsu, looking back at Taehyun with the same glare before tossing the artist's hand back at him.

"YA! That is hyung to you!" Yeongsu attempted to correct Kittichai's rude behavior, but was simply ignored as the brunette went into the kitchen to scour through everything and afterwards he went into what Taehyun assumed was the bedroom and slammed the door shut.

"I-I should apologize to him again." Taehyun stated as he made his way towards the door, but was stopped by Jiwon this time.

"Taehyun-ssi you really don't want to go in there right now, it's best to leave him to himself." Jiwon suggested. It didn't convince him though as he looked at the door doubtfully and then back at the blonde.

"It's my fault he is upset, I should-"

"Taehyun-ssi." Jiwon snapped sternly, cutting him off, "I said to leave him alone, so just let him be! Why do you even care if he is mad, you aren't even friends!" Taehyun's lip quivered at what the blonde had said. It was true he wasn't friends with Kittichai, but that didn't mean that he didn't want to be friends with him. "He clearly has a problem with you and doesn't like you that much, so try minding your own business." The model added harshly, rubbing salt in the wound.

Taehyun wasn't sure why he wanted to be close with Kittichai, but something about the brunette made him think it would be nice to have a friend as caring as him. He thought of how amazing it would be to have such a close friend and wanted Kittichai to care about him as much as he cared about Jiwon and Yeongsu; after all it was clear as day how much Kittichai values his friends.

A tear fell from Taehyun's eye before he let out a frustrated huff, turned on his heels and stomped away. He left the apartment and began to run down the hallway. He continued to run going up the stairs all the way to the top floor and ran to the door that was slightly ajar at the end of the hallway. He pushed the door open and stopped in his tracks as he entered.

It was a penthouse, a really nice one at that. The main door led into a large kitchen with marble counters, straight in from the kitchen was a large archway leading to the living room. The living room was extremely large with glass windows all around and in the middle of the room was a central fireplace. The ceiling was a decorative design of glass and was tinted. While the second floor of the penthouse looked down into the living room. Outside the living room was a balcony with a swimming pool.

Taehyun would've been awestruck, but was still too busy crying as he looked around. He made his way upstairs in hopes of finding a bedroom. He went into the first bedroom he found and threw himself under the blankets to cry to his heart's content.

Meanwhile downstairs: "Why did you have to be so mean to him!?" Yeongsu shouted at the blonde.

"I didn't think he'd cry about it!" Jiwon shouted back.

"He's a really sensitive person, he's been through a lot!" The fireman said. "Give me your phone!" Yeongsu demanded as he stuck his hand out.

"What? No!" The blonde refused.

"Give it to me!"

"No way!"

"Stop being so stubborn, I'd use my own if my apartment hadn't set ablaze today!" Yeongsu snapped at the stubborn model.

"It's still a no!" Jiwon turned away from Yeongsu in avoidance.

"If something happens to Taehyun, I will solely blame it all on you. It's your fault he ran out of the apartment!" The eldest jabbed the other's shoulder.

"He did what now?" The bedroom door flew open abruptly as Kittichai heard the argument. "Jiwon. Phone. Now." Kittichai reached into Jiwon's pocket without the other's consent, pulled out the cell phone and handed it over to the fireman.

"Hey!" Jiwon whined.

"Jiwon." Kittichai snapped, giving the blonde a cold glare. Jiwon was quick to shut up knowing all too well that Kittichai's glare was a warning.

Yeongsu quickly dialed Taehyun's number and waited patiently for him to pick up. He had put it on speaker so everyone could hear. It rang for a little while before Taehyun picked up.

"H-hello?" Taehyun sniffled into the phone, sadly, making Jiwon regret what he said.

"Hey Taehyun-ah, It's Yeongsu."

"Y-Yeongsu-hyung?" Taehyun asked through a sob.

"Where did you go, I'm worried about you."

"Somewhere." Replied the artist softly.

"Can you come back?" Yeongsu questioned the other calmly.

"D-don't want to.."

"Why?" Yeongsu ran his hand through his hair out of frustration.

"Jiwon-ssi is mean and K-Kitty doesn't like me." Taehyun's voice cracked followed by a sniffle as he mentioned Kittichai.

"Taehyun-ah, he just-" Yeongsu started

"Who said I don't like you?" Kittichai spoke this time, cutting Yeongsu off.

A long silence went by before the artist spoke again, "Kitt-ssi?"

"Yes?"

"Oh..." Once again there was a long silence, "you don't dislike me?"

"I don't," Kittichai confirmed the statement.

Yeongsu spoke up again, "So can you please come back to the apartment?"

"...Okay."

With that Yeongsu let out a sigh of relief. "Don't hang up though, okay?"

Back to Taehyun: He was still under the covers as he spoke on the phone, "Kitt-ssi... I'm scared." He hadn't wanted to admit it, but he had been too upset to think about being scared. Now that he had calmed down a bit, he had realized how reckless he had been. "I'm scared." He repeated.

"Tae-" Yeongsu started but was cut off.

"Where are you? I'm coming to get you." Kittichai asked him in a serious tone.

Taehyun had to think for a second before he could answer, "I'm on the top floor at the end of the hall, second flo-" The phone hung up right before he finished. He looked at his screen and realized his phone died.

He uncovered himself and looked towards the doorway. Taehyun stared at it wide eyed and it stared right back at him with its lifeless eyes. He now knew he had been even more reckless than he had thought as he stared into the lurker's eyes.

The lurker snarled at him and walked slowly towards him. He wanted to look for anything he could use as a weapon, but his common sense told him to keep his eyes on it no matter what. He frantically pushed himself back across the bed and against the wall as the lurker awkwardly stumbled to the foot of the bed. It stopped briefly, simply staring at him as if curious about him. He took a deep breath preparing himself for its next move. It let out a strange gurgling noise before it launched itself at him, quick to think he rolled to his left and onto the floor as it landed on the bed where he had just been. It sank its teeth into the pillow and let out a discontent grunt as it realized it missed its target. Taehyun briefly shifted his eyes over to the door as a second lurker came into view and stopped in the doorway.

"Shit." He cursed under his breath as he stood from the floor, making sure he was up before the first lurker had time to recover from its first attack. He remembered the scene he had witnessed with the couple at the convenience store, one lurker was there as a diversion. He quickly shifted his eyes to the door making sure that the second lurker made no move to attack him yet. His attention returned to the attacking lurker as it began to crawl across the bed towards him like an animal. It released a menacing growl, it was the kind of noise that only ever came out of a horror film. It was one of the most nightmarish sounds Taehyun had ever heard causing him to flinch. The lurker came to the edge of the bed and stood on all fours and then launched itself at him once again. He jumped to the left and rolled forward once he landed. He rolled right in front of the one in the doorway. Now that he was close to the second lurker, it leapt at him from the doorway causing him to leap like a frog to get out of the way, barely avoiding it. This lurker was quicker than the first one and leapt at him relentlessly until he was backed into the corner. Once he was in the corner the creature slowed, almost like it made a game out of its hunt. Like the creature knew it won the game, but had to make the last part end slowly to drag out its victory.

He had nowhere left to go, he knew it was over for him as it slowly reached its arms out and shoved his shoulders further into the wall. A tear escaped his eye as he turned his head away and closed his eyes as the lurker drew its mouth near him. Just as he was about to accept his fate he was jerked to the side harshly by the creature making his eyes shoot open.

The first thing he saw was a head flying across the room at a high speed, then a body dropping lifelessly to the ground. The lurker had been hit with so much force it had caused the creature to fly off to the side. Taehyun slid to the ground in relief, his eyes watering endlessly for what seemed like the hundredth time that day.

"I-I almost... died..." He breathed out shakily. "I-I was... S-so scared." He whimpered. Kittichai didn't say anything as he laid his sword on the ground and hugged him tightly. "I was s-so scared.."

He cried into Kittichai's shoulder for a really long time before he finally calmed down. Once he calmed down some, he pushed Kittichai back slightly, looking him in the eyes as he spoke.

"Thank you, Kitt, for saving me." Taehyun attempted to stand up. As he stood, his legs gave out, but Kittichai caught him by the arms and steadied him.

"Sheesh, how reckless." The brunette chuckled lightly, patting him on the head. He noticed how Kittichai examined him from head to toe making sure he hadn't received any injuries. He gave Kittichai a nervous smile to show that he was alright aside from being scared. Once the brunette was done looking him over, he led him by the hand out to where Yeongsu still stood over the body of the lurker that was in the doorway. Once Taehyun was close enough, Yeongsu turned to him and smacked him upside the head.

"YA! You idiot! Do you know how worried I was!?" Yeongsu scolded him. "I told you not to hang up, and what did you do? You hung up!"

"...My phone died, hyung, I'm sorry for worrying you." He looked up at Yeongsh with large puppy dog eyes.

"Geez..." Yeongsu made a line with his lips and looked away. Taehyun knew that Yeongsu couldn't stay mad at him when he was making such a face.

"Come on, let's go back to the apartment." Kittichai said to them. Kittichai continued to pull him by the hand as he began to walk back to the apartment.

Once they were back in the apartment, Jiwon immediately came over and apologized to Taehyun.

"Taehyuniee~ I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I shouldn't have said that Kitt had a problem with you and doesn't like you. That was wrong, I shouldn't have tried to speak for him, especially when I don't know if he really has a problem with you." Jiwon apologized with a sad expression.

"It's okay Jiwon, I forgive you." He patted Jiwon on the shoulder. The artist let out a tired yawn as Kittichai approached them.

"Tired?" The brunette asked.

"Yeah." He responded.

"You and Yeongsu can take the bedroom." Kittichai said to him. "Jiwon and I will take the pullout couch."

"Are you sure?" Taehyun asked to double check as he watched Jiwon leave them to set up the couch.

"Yeah, the bedroom is the safest room in here. Plus, Yeongsu is already in the bedroom, since you guys are brothers I figured you'd be more comfortable sharing a room with him, especially after what you just experienced." Kittichai said logically.

"I am comfortable around Yeongsu but..." Taehyun trailed off as he spoke. "I feel safest around you." He thought to himself.

"But what?" Kittichai questioned.

"I don't know, I think I'm too exhausted to think properly." Taehyun said softly as his ears turned a slight shade of red, which earned him a questioning look from the brunette.

"Alright, Goodnight." Kittichai said as he turned and went to lay down.

Taehyun looked at Minseok who was already asleep, nobody could even blame the musician for being asleep for the entire ordeal, he slept through the arguments and all. As soon as they had entered the apartment he had gone over to the closet and pulled out a bedroll and set it up in the far side of the living room in the left corner by the windows. Of course, he closed all the curtains and mumbled something along the lines of: "Something being out there, staring at me, when I wake up." Which everyone knew it wasn't possible that anything other than a bird could be outside the window at this height.

With a yawn, Taehyun went into the bedroom and closed the door. The moment he laid down with Yeongsu beside him, he quickly drifted into sleep due to exhaustion.