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C H A P T E R     F O U R T E E N
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»I've never been certain whether the moral of the Icarus story should only be, as is generally accepted, 'don't try to fly too high,' or whether it might also be thought of as 'forget the wax and feathers, and do a better job on the wings'.«
– Stanley Kubrick

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Gleaming light dipped the darkness into brightness, the night suddenly gave way to the day. A light taste of salt was carried by the cool wind away; a short touch on the lips. Bitter taste. Audible laughter mixed with the rushing sound of the sea echoed in the infinity. He was a free bird, overwhelmed and intoxicated by the sensational feelings. He stared at the bizarre point, where the sky and the sea were evidently touching. This particular point, when looking at the endlessly wide ocean and the two blues merged into a unit. Exactly where the infinity of the sea bent over the majestic sky.

No one could stop or even overcome him, he was the king of the air. Another laughter fizzed over his lips, his wings rising up into the air, the heat was rising, because the sun had already reached its highest point. Risky.

A race with the wind, kissed by the sun. Only then did he feel the pain, the incomprehensible overpowering heat in his back - his feathers melting. Wax, they were made of wax. He crashed, disbelief in the open eyes. Only for a moment, he felt the fear; an icy hug. Then he closed his eyes. Because the infinite depths would probably be his eternal grave.

He had not been a king, but simply terribly reckless ...

A certain Thai man had entered the club with outstretched arms as if he were the king of the world, who paid a visit to his people and expected applause and cheering. The blue and violet lights, mixed with the smoke in the room, made his appearance even more elegant. He wore garderobe at least as expensive as Taeyong's: a blood-red business jacket made of velvet, a white button-up shirt under it - at least 5 buttons were not buttoned up, showing lots of skin - black custom-made pants and shoes made of snakeskin.

"Oh my God," I stood up from my seat, eyes wide, my smile even wider, "Ten!"

"Yo man, you're back?" Lucas -who I didn't miss for the last twenty minutes- shouted from the other end of the room and moved to our table.

"I heard my favorite is in town, of course I'm back," he answered, winking in my direction. I looked at him with emotion as he had made a reference to something I had said to him a long, long, long time ago and had almost forgotten about.

"I'm your favorite," I said absent-minded, playing with my hair while Ten and I sat in Jungwoo's room, waiting for him to come back with the popcorn so that we could start our movie night.

Ten still looked at his phone, and apparently ignored me, pretending to search the web for movies to watch.

"I said, I'm your favorite!" I said a little louder, demanding his attention and sitting upright on the bed.

Ten sighed, not looking up from his phone, "You want me to ask 'your favorite what?' so that you can answer with that cheesy quote you read on Tumblr, but I won't give you that satisfaction!"

I gasped at his answer, but recovered fast, "Oh teatea, really? D'you think that little of me? You can ask me."

"No thanks." His back was still facing me while he minded his own business.

I threw a pillow at him, missing miserably, but that was okay, since he finally turned around to me, looking at me as if wanting to ask what the fuck do you want?

"No, no, really, just ask me. Ask 'Cami, you're my favorite what?'"

"You're my favorite what?" He asked without any emotion. I smiled brightly, knowing damn well, that he already expected me to tease him, which made it more amusing for me.

"Well, thank you for asking," I started in a , "but I guess I need to answer with: just that. I'm your favorite pair of eyes to look into. Your favorite name to appear on your phone. Your favorite way to spend an afternoon. Fill in the blank... I left it at favorite for a reason."

"And there we go..." He muttered to himself, knowing I indeed quoted the cheesy tumblr stuff.

"Oh, come on, Grumpy, I'm just messing with you, you know that." I grinned and nudged him.

„First of all, you can call Jaehyun Grumpy, but not me!" He clarified, „Secondly... Am I obliged to whisper 'you're my favorite, too?' Because I won't do that with you." I started pouting. "And isn't the quote actually starting with you're my favorite and not I'm your favorite?"

"Yeah!" I confirmed, my head hanging over the edge of the bed now, next to Ten who was sitting on the ground, "but I switched it since I know for a fact that I am your favorite out of everyone."

He turned his head in my direction with a confused look on his face, "Girl, get your facts right, you could never be my favorite when Jungwoo and Taeyong are still alive and breathing."

"Sure," I said ironically.

Ten made a challenging face and tilted his head, an amusing smile playing around his lips, "Afraid I could steal your men?"

I straightened up, "There's no way that's ever going to happen."

"I smell jealousy," he said in a sing-song way of speaking.

"Maybe, but only because Jungwoo is my family." I defended myself, arms crossed and turning away, "What you do with Taeyong is not my business. It's not like we're in a relationship or anything; or that I care for him at all."

"How are you?" Ten asked approaching me, giving me a big hug and looking seriously concerned, "I heard you saw Taeyong again. Do you need to talk? I always have an open ear for you."

What the fuck?

"Why does everyone know about that?" I pushed him away from me and looked at all three of them. Jungwoo avoided my gaze, Lucas winked at me, the moment our eyes met and Ten made a face as if the answer was obvious.

"Girl, we have a groupchat about you!" He made in a duh tone.

WHAT the fuck?

"Why?"

"Originally it was a groupchat we had without adding Taeyong, then when that Nalin girl came, we switched it to a gossiping chat, and now we use it to talk about you. You need to know, you out of all people, coming back to the city was a huge event," Ten explained to me; the same way a teacher would talk to their students, smiling and patiently.

"Who's in that groupchat?" I wanted to know. I wondered what they had talked about me in their freetime. Good things? Bad things? I needed to at least know who they were.

"The old crew, minus Jaehyun, plus Lucas, plus Danger," was the simple response I got.

The old crew aka Doyoung and Sicheng. Couldn't he just say their names?

"And who's Danger?" I asked instead.

„Haechan," Jungwoo answered, "He was supposed to be your partner instead of Lucas, but Mark kinda messed it up and couldn't convince him to do the Nakamoto mission."

"We also have a groupchat where we excluded him," Ten informed me, "Wasn't nice when he found out, thanks to someone," Ten side-eyed Lucas who avoided his gaze, "And believe me, it's not important to meet him anyway, he's just trouble."

"How many groupchats do you have actually?"

"Way too many!" Ten exclaimed, "One without Haechan, one without Taeyong, oh wait, two with- no three... oh my God, we have so many chats without Taeyong. In fact I'm only in one group chat with him." Ten looked shocked when he realized.

"But back to the real matter," Ten pointed with his index finger to me, "I heard Nalin's name... now tell me, is the tea hot?"

I sighed and silently gestured him to take a seat at the table, and somehow Lucas took this as an invitation as well.
It was about to be a long ass ride...

Five years ago.

I blinked as I passed a bus stop, the flickering street light next to it blurred the picture a little for my eyesight, I was struggling to keep my balance. Well, actually I shouldn't have left the house with having such lack of sleep.

"I'm staying up. I don't wanna come down from your love. We'll get lost together, let me flow."

I froze instantly when I heard someone sing. Everything was spinning in my head, a weird goosebumps climbed over my arms and my head shot forward. Someone was sitting on the bench at the bus stop. I narrowed my eyes, concentrating. No, no one was sitting there, but rather lying. Again I shook my head, more lines came over her lips, the voice had something harmonious and at the same time terribly melancholic about it.

"Don't ever let me come down from your love... from your love... from your love."

I knew that song from somewhere... and the girl too.

My eyes went wide and I swallowed when I recognized her.

"Nalin", I breathed as if paralyzed and headed for her. She didn't notice me at all, drew circles in the air with her left hand, and in her right hand, she had a big bottle of wine. What the hell? I could hardly believe my eyes.

She wore a pitch-black long-sleeved dress that reached to her knees. Once again she had tucked up her legs, involuntarily presented her underwear to the world. Her feet were in half-length dark boots with metal caps, her blond hair was tousled and scattered on the bench.

"Nalin", I said again dizzy, and she was terribly frightened when she saw me. Instantly, she got silent, only slowly did she seem to recognize me in her dull state, because after several moments passed, her features softened and she burst out laughing.

"Carmen! What are you doing here?" She sounded incredibly happy, jumped up from the bench and dropped the wine bottle from her hand, which clattered on the asphalt.

I instinctively flinched. "I was... uh, on my way home," I lied, when in reality I had left my home at this hour.

Her stormy embrace overwhelmed me a little, I almost lost my balance, but she moved away from me just as quickly.

"Boring", she exclaimed, clapping her hands theatrically when she saw the mess, "Oh, no. The poor wine."

"What are you doing here?" I held her by the shoulder so she wouldn't tip over. Only now did I see another bottle on the ground, but that one was undamaged and empty. What was wrong with her?

"Gettin' bored," she replied with a shrug and took a piece of gum out of her bag, immediately putting it in her mouth.

Apparently, she was bored all the time. That's how it seemed to me.

"But drinking in the middle of the night at a bus stop? And then like that..." I pointed to her clothes as she looked at me blankly.

There were plenty of drunken idiots who lay hands on girls in this area.

Unlike her, I was at least aware of the dangers, I was almost an adult and was able to take care of myself. And Nalin... The girl was lying on a bench with her legs tucked up, drinking alcohol even though being underage and singing some song without even thinking for a moment that anything could've happened to her. Other than that, she had been completely isolated from the world, after all, she hadn't even noticed me until I was standing right in front of her.

Suddenly I got angry, angry at so much recklessness.

Although you are not much better, huh?  a voice in my head said.

"Nothing ever happens to me." She looked into the distance, took the chewing gum out of her mouth and then stared at me. "Strange, isn't it?"

"Strange? More like a miracle, if you do something like this more often. Don't be so careless, Nalin. Pride comes before the fall. What if you were surprised by a bunch of drunken idiots?"

I also sat down on the bench with her, my head aching and the smell of the broken bottle's wine gradually seeping into my nose.

"I would've screamed or something. Or smacked their heads with my bottle." She shoved the pink chewing gum back into her mouth and sighed deeply. Suddenly she looked so incredibly tired.

"Sure", I said dryly. "Like you also noticed me so fast."

Laughing, she raised her index finger, "Luckily not, eh? Otherwise, I might've smacked the bottle over your head."

Smiling, I shook my head, stiffening for a moment as she rested her head on my shoulder. She wrapped her arms around my right arm and sighed deeply again.

"What's on your mind, Nalin?" Something was depressing her that I could not only sense but also see.

"Oh nothing", she muttered.

It smelled sweet, of chewing gum, lollipop and pink soda, mixed with the alcohol scent. The typical Nalin-scent.

However, mostly without the alcohol.

"Tell me." I nudged her lightly.

Apparently, her nose was itchy or something, because she rubbed her face against my shoulder. Too lazy to use her hand.

"Taeyong ditched me", she wailed hopelessly.

I stiffened again and my eyes grew big. "What?"

Taeyong ditched Nalin? Since when did the two even have contact? No, that wasn't impossible.

"We texted each other yesterday, he invited me to Jaehyun's party, but then he just blew me off."

In fact, it simply didn't come to my mind. Why did he even invite her in the first place? Nalin wasn't his type at all, apart from that, she was terribly young and childish. Even between him and I, there was an age gap of three years, and Nalin was even way younger than me.

However, I wondered why he had never shown up after he invited her? Did it finally hit him how young Nalin was, or was there something else behind it?

"I bet it's because of his friend... what's his name again? One? Two?"

"Ten," I corrected.

"Yeah, that one. He never liked me, and I'm sure he badmouthed me so that Taeyong lost his interest. Oh, I hate Taeyong's friends so much!"

She sighed and got up, "But not Jungwoo, of course not him, he's always so nice to me. Like you, I think it's in your genes." She smiled to herself and suddenly stared at me with a determined expression that made me feel uneasy.

"Wanna crash a party with me?"

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A/N

The italic text at the beginning of the chapter tells the tragic fall of Icarus as he ignored his father's warnings by choosing to fly too close to the sun, melting the wax of his wings, and fell into the sea and drowned - but a little differently interpreted by me c:

Needed :) the :) mythological :) reference :) here :)