Archive of Our Own ^beta

Changkyun had a headache. A bad headache. He was lying naked on his bed with a pillow over his face.

There was a sharp knock on the door. Changkyun was in no mood for knocking, or whoever was responsible, so he chose to ignore it, silently mouthing expletives into his pillow, lest the intrusive knocker hear him.

He had muffled himself so successfully, he was unaware of what happened next and the calamity that would soon follow.

- - - -

Hyungwon had knocked on Changkyun's door twice. He knew he was in there but on receiving no answer, he decided to do what any normal human being would do under such circumstances, he barged right in!

The sight that met his eyes filled him with alarm. His hands flew up to his face, his eyes wide; what an atrocity!

He ran from the room in horror, convinced that what he had just seen would haunt him for the rest of his life.

- - - -

Jooheon was trying to enjoy his breakfast, an endeavour that rarely went according to plan, as someone always seemed intent on destroying his calm.

He liked the idea of breakfast, it should be the calmest meal of the day but every time he settled down to his first mouthful something went wrong.

He raised his spoon to his mouth and paused. Waiting. Nothing happened. He was beginning to feel mildly irritated. He put his spoon back down and listened. Nothing. Silence.

He folded his arms and sat back. Any minute now... still nothing. Jooheon was a fool. He failed to realise that the only person spoiling his breakfast now was himself.

- - - -

Changkyun's headache was still on-going. What a foul mood he'd descended into. He was beginning to feel chilly; he was sure his extremities were beginning to turn blue.

His mind was reeling over everything that had led up to this brain-splitting headache and his eventual snapped temper. He knew there'd be repercussions but, right now, he didn't care. He would try to sleep.

- - - -

Minhyuk was trying not to panic. A Minhyuk never panics. They laugh things off. But today was different. Minhyuk was blind, mute and paralysed. For a Minhyuk who likes to bounce around being noisy and an all round nuisance, this was the worst kind of catastrophe. But he wouldn't panic. I won't panic. He started to panic.

- - - -

Kihyun couldn't breathe. He'd tried to but all he was aware of when he tried to breathe in, was a startling noise that sounded like a death rattle. Was the grim reaper looming over him? He tried to focus but all he saw was blackness.

Am I dead?

I must be dead! 

This was a very worrying realisation. Not breathing and likely being dead raised all sorts of dreadful concerns.

Kihyun was also a fool. He failed to realise that if he really was dead and not breathing, he certainly wouldn't be lying there worrying about it.

- - - -

Jooheon had finally decided, after 30 minutes of ruminating that it was now safe to eat his breakfast. After so much time, it had lost some of its appeal, so he added some ketchup for good measure, in the hope it would revitalise the taste.

He raised his spoonful of soggy, ketchuppy cereal slowly to his mouth and opened wide. A sudden crashing through the door startled him. He fell backwards off his chair knocking his dish to the floor.

- - - -

Hyungwon's face was as white as a sheet. His hands flew to his face, once more horrified. He was beginning to think he'd fallen into an Edvard Munch painting.

What was he to do?

He ran over to where he'd last seen Jooheon, disappearing behind the table in a Mexican wave. He was afraid to look.

He had reason to be afraid. The sight that met him was the worst one yet. Jooheon was motionless on the floor. Around him were the shattered remains of his breakfast and he was lying in an awkward position on top of his broken chair. His face looked pale. His eyes were closed. And it was a bloodbath! 

Jooheon is dead! I've murdered him!

Hyungwon felt himself descending into hysterics; he didn't have the stomach for blood and Jooheon was a bloody crumpled mess. He was in so much trouble now. If only he hadn't gone through any doors today, maybe all this would never have happened.

Every door he'd gone through had revealed a fresh new horror.

Get a grip of yourself Hyungwon! Do the right thing. You will spend the rest of your life in jail but....

He slowly walked to the phone and picked it up.

"Hello..." he said. "I need the police."

- - - -

Hyungwon covered Jooheon with a sheet, the bloody mess soaking through. He couldn't bear to look at his crime, it was too painful.

He sat down at the table, the note he was clutching in his hand was screwed up into a ball.

He buried his face into his hands for the third time and started to cry. This was it. He knew that with Shownu gone, he was the only member of Monsta X left.

Would there be any justice for him after this?

- - - -

The police arrived to find the young man in an almost catatonic state.

The kindly policeman led him into the kitchen, where Hyungwon pointed a shaky finger in the direction of a sheet on the floor, the shape of a figure beneath it.

"I've murdered Jooheon..." he said, his voice quivering. "I didn't mean to, it was an accident. And worse than that, Changkyun has also been murdered!"

The policeman regarded him, his eyes wide.

"And did you murder Changkyun too?"  

"I didn't!" Hyungwon was panicked. "It looks like he was the victim of a sex attack and was suffocated! He was blue when I found him."  

The policeman scratched his head. What a dreadful situation. 

"Is there anyone who can corroborate your story?" he asked.

"No," Hyungwon said, handing the policeman the screwed up note. "I went to find them. Kihyun and Minhyuk, I mean. But they are missing."

The policeman studied the note, I will bury you both! it said, in an angry red scrawl.

"I think they are also dead." Hyungwon was wringing his hands.

"When did you last see them?" the policeman asked.

"Last night," Hyungwon announced. "Well, I didn't see them exactly. But I heard them."

"Heard them?"

"Yes," Hyungwon said. "They were playing a trombone and trumpet duet. It was quite a fearful noise. Changkyun was very angry!"

The picture was becoming clearer to the policeman, or so he thought.

"Do you think that maybe they murdered Changkyun and went on the run together?"

"What? No!" Said Hyungwon. "They've clearly been kidnapped by whoever DID murder Changkyun, this much is obvious."

The truth was, nothing was obvious. It was all a very bizarre and far-fetched set of circumstances. The policeman was bewildered as to how to proceed with this investigation, he was of a mind to believe that Hyungwon had murdered everyone.

He was contemplating placing him under caution when the bloody sheet sat up! Hyungwon screamed and fainted. The policeman's only witness was now out cold.

- - - -

Jooheon rubbed his head and looked around the room. Of all the breakfasts, this was the worst one yet. That was it. He was never having another breakfast again.

After a quick self assessment, he quickly deduced that aside from a bump to the noggin, he was otherwise uninjured. He did, however, need a change of clothes.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

The policeman filled him in with as much information as had been made available so far.

"Kihyun and Minhyuk are missing and Changkyun's been murdered?" Jooheon, sat down on a chair. The other one. Not the broken one. This was horrific, how long had he been unconscious since his Mexican wave?

"Murdered? Who's been murdered?" a voice startled them in the doorway.

Hyungwon's eyes flickered open and he was greeted by the sight of Changkyun in a black robe, wielding the tie in his hand. He was petrified.

"It's the black satin ghost of doom come to claim me," he wailed. Then he fainted again.

- - - -

Changkyun looked around bewildered, he was in a much better mood now that his headache had gone.

"What's going on?" he asked, pouring himself a coffee, surveying the debris and staring at Jooheon. "And why are you covered in ketchup?"

Jooheon and the policeman filled him in on Hyungwon's long and convoluted tales.

"Oh," said Changkyun, looking for somewhere to sit. "This is a bit... er..."

Jooheon stared at him through narrowed eyes. He looked guilty of something.

"Well at least we've both not been murdered!" Changkyun said to Jooheon, as he stared at the angry note.

"That doesn't solve the mystery of Kihyun and Minhyuk..." Jooheon was still alarmed.

"Yes..." said Changkyun. "About that..."

- - - -

Kihyun wasn't sure how long he'd been acclimatising to death when he heard a door open.

"Good heavens!"

The voice startled him and he heard another awful, deathly wheeze.

I must now be arriving at the pearly gates. I've been an awful long time dead now.

- - - -

Minhyuk was now in a full fledged panic and the feeling wasn't sitting well with him. It went against all the fibres of his being. He heard a door open.

"Oh my word!" said a panicked voice.

Well perhaps I was justified after all! He thought.

- - - -

The policeman shook his head in disgust as he faced all five remaining members of Monsta X, standing in front of him.

"This! This is what happens without Shownu!" he exclaimed looking at them all.

Changkyun was biting his lip, he was wearing a hard-faced expression.

Kihyun and Minhyuk had been rescued from their respective wardrobes, bound and blindfolded. Minhyuk had been gagged.

"For the good of humanity!" Changkyun had announced snippily.

Kihyun had his trombone stuck in his mouth, which explained why he thought he couldn't breathe and kept hearing that peculiar, deathly noise whenever he tried.

Minhyuk had been initially perturbed to find his trumpet, a bent and twisted wreck, lying beside him but once he'd been filled in on the dramas of the morning, he found the whole sorry affair tremendously amusing and had been consistently laughing and cracking annoying jokes that no-one was in the mood for.

Poor Hyungwon looked like he'd eaten his bedding. He was right at the very start, when he said what he'd seen would haunt him forever. Look what it had escalated into. He didn't think he'd ever forgive Changkyun. Changkyun was a dick!

Jooheon was starving, the knock to the nut had given him quite an appetite. Was it nearly lunchtime? If it was, he was going out. He needed to get as far away from this ridiculous lot as possible.

Kihyun had said the least on the matter. He'd been convinced he was dead for so long, he was having a hard time, now, acclimatising to being alive again. Death and resurrection in one day, was just one step too far.

Changkyun scowled. The reprimand he'd received from the policeman had left him feeling extremely disgruntled. It was all a huge overreaction in his not-so-humble opinion.

Minhyuk's leaping about was pissing him off royally. He did feel a bit sorry for Hyungwon but at the same time, couldn't believe a person could be that ditheringly stupid.

Yes... Changkyun was descending into another very foul mood.

And worse than that...

The worst thing of all...

Now he had a headache!