a million thoughts fly through jongin’s head as he watches chanyeol collapse onto the floor in a heap of tangled limbs and bloody curls. time slows down into a suffocating halt as jongin stands rooted to the spot, flooded by a deluge of memories playing out before his eyes.
not specifically important things per say, but the every day, average kind of memories jongin didn’t even know he still had.
like the time he and chanyeol volunteered to do the grocery shopping for one of their sunday afternoon barbecues, passing the sample stands back and forth multiple times to try this food or that, and getting kicked out of the store for loitering.
or one of the millions of times jongin sat behind chanyeol, tucked away into the safety of his back, as chanyeol zipped through the freeways on his motorcycle, hair whipping in the wind, so free, so careless.
chanyeol and jongin sitting on the couch one night, tv turned down to a muted background noise, watching in amusement as kyungsoo strangles baekhyun for wasting the last of the hot water, and then disappearing off into some dark corner to do god knows what.
the little things, the simple moments. those are the memories jongin remembers as his body begins to spring into action, ten seconds before his brain even acknowledges that he’s moved a muscle.
the memories close off with a final image of chanyeol sitting by the pool side, dangling his feet into the water and glancing over his shoulder to smile at jongin, inviting him to sit beside him and enjoy the warm, summer sun beating down on their faces.
then red bleeds through every crack and crevice of jongin’s brain. burning scarlet of angry, heated, glorious fury.
his hands automatically pull out his firearms, shooting in every which way as he runs toward the fallen boy, an angry roar ripping from his throat, blending with the rhythmic crackling of gunfire echoing all around him.
he ignores the sting and burn of the bullets piercing through his flesh, mind intent on a single purpose, to get as close to chanyeol as possible.
jongin nearly reaches his destination, falling to his knees as his vision begins to swim, the edges rippling and fading inwards in a ring of darkness.
he struggles to keep awake, eyes fixated on chanyeol just inches away from him, and drags his body the rest of the way.
the last thing jongin sees is chanyeol’s face, lashes gently brushing across his cheeks, the corners of his lips quirked up in a faint smile. and if jongin ignores everything else, chanyeol could just be sleeping.
jongin stretches out his hand to brush a stray, matted curl away from chanyeol’s eyes, but never quite reaches that far as jongin gives in to the numbing blackness, submerging under the tidal wave of everlasting nothingness.