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He moved into his new place months ago and Changmin still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of the layout of the apartment or what all of these damn light switches go to.
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"Forget it!" he exclaimed, throwing himself down into the nearest chair, sighing dejectedly.
It wasn't that it was a large apartment, but it felt like every day he found a new switch that seemed to do absolutely nothing. He'd tried over and over again to take an inventory of all the ones he'd found so far, but when he looked, the mystery switch seemed to disappear, only to reappear later on another wall. Honestly, he'd gotten pretty sick of the weirdness of it all.
When his stomach started to grumble, Changmin decided it must be time to stop wallowing and go make some lunch.
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"Hyung, you don’t understand. Every time I come back here there is another light switch that doesn't go to anything!"
Yunho listened patiently on the other end, indulging Changmin as he ranted for the third time this week about the case of the disappearing switch. Of course Yunho wanted to believe him, but every time he'd been to Changmin's new apartment, the kid couldn't point out a single one that proved his point.
"Look Changdol-ah," Yunho sighs, "I really think that it's all in your head. There's no way that light switches are moving all around your apartment just to drive you crazy. If you're that sure about it, start marking the light switches with a marker or a sticker and keep track of them that way."
Yunho could hear Changmin taking what he had said into consideration. After a moment of silence from the other end, he could hear some opening and closing of drawers and cabinets. Changmin must be looking for a marker like Yunho suggested.
"Found it!" Changmin practically yelled into the receiver. Yunho had to pull the phone away from his ear so fast, that he almost missed it when Changmin said, "Thanks hyung!" and hung up.
"You're welcome, I guess" Yunho said to a dead line before setting his phone down on the counter. He was sure he'd hear about how it went tomorrow.
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Changmin had decided on a system after his talk with Yunho. Working switches would get a checkmark and the non-working switches would get a number. That way he could keep track of the ones that didn't work and how many there were.
"I am a genius," Changmin said to himself as he started out on his mission. He had decided to start from the front door and move though the apartment room by room until he was sure that he had gotten to all of them.
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The switches by the front door both checked out.
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The switches in the kitchen, living room, hallway, guest bedroom, guest bathroom, coat closet, his bedroom and his bathroom... Changmin methodically checked all of them.
“This doesn't make any sense!” Changmin was getting frustrated. All he'd written with his marker so far were check marks. 17 switches throughout the apartment and not a one of them didn't turn something on and off. Usually this would be a good thing, but because he was hunting for a mystery switch, Changmin wasn't thrilled. In fact, he had started to think that he'd been losing his mind after all.
Changmin flopped down on his bed after testing his last switch and dialed the phone again, deciding to give Yunho a piece of his mind. It was his silly plan from the beginning.
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"You're sure you got around to all of the switches?" was all Yunho could say in response to his other half calling ,for the second time that night, and telling him that they should probably cancel the rest of their schedules and check Changmin into the loony bin because he was clearly not all there.
"Yes Hyung! I said I'm crazy, not an idiot" Changmin cried. Yunho could practically hear him pouting on the other end of the call.
"I didn't say that you were an idiot, I just think that maybe you forgot one. How about I come over and take a look too. Maybe I can find one for you." Yunho was trying to keep Changmin from having a personal crisis over a light switch, and felt like he was failing. "Did you get the one for the closet in your bedroom?"
"Hyung, that’s dumb, of course I got the one in clos….et…." Changmin's voice went quiet as he said the last word as if he were realizing something. "Maybe I am an idiot… I totally forgot that one"
"Changmin, you're just too worked up over it. Take a deep breath and go check it out so that you can try to get some sleep tonight. Want me to stay on the line with you? If it works fine you'll just call me back to rant again, right?" Yunho didn't really want to stay on the line too much longer. I was getting late and they had an early schedule in the morning. He didn't know if Changmin was going to get any sleep at all if this kept up, then he'd need to handle a very tired, possibly grumpy Changmin, all day.
"Nah, hyung. You got bed. I'll let you know how it turns out when I see you in the morning." And for the second time that night, Changmin hung up the phone without giving Yunho the chance to say goodbye.
"Good night to you too, brat" Yunho said to nobody. Smiling to himself, Yunho finished off the glass of water he'd gotten as he answered Changmin's call and headed toward his bedroom to get some much deserved sleep. He was looking forward to Changmin pouting and tell the managers and stylists all about his traumatizing ordeal in the morning.
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Changmin was already halfway to his bedroom by the time he hung up on Yunho. He winced as he realized that he'd kind of hung up on Yunho twice that night. He was just so sick of the mystery.
The last switch was on the outside of his walk-in closet. Changmin wasn't about to get his hopes up. He'd used this switch to turn on the light after he'd gotten out of the shower earlier that day and everything had been normal.
When he opened the door to the bedroom, he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. It was like electricity was coursing through the room. This was getting a little freaky. Maybe he should have had Yunho stay on the phone, but the man sounded exhausted. It would have been cruel to keep him awake any longer.
There was something that was off about the switch that Changmin was suddenly standing in front of. First of all, there were two of them. He could have sworn that there was only one before. On top of there being an extra switch, the one on the left was kinda… sorta… glowing.
"Nope. This is not happening! This cannot be happening." Changmin bounced on the balls of his feet and ran his fingers through his hair as he repeated the his mantra of denial a few times. He started to pace the length of his room, staring at the switch as if he was afraid he would glance away and then when he looked again it would be gone. Or at least not glowing. Though, he thought that it would probably be less strange if it weren't glowing.
Steeling himself and squaring his shoulders, Changmin took a step forward. Then another. He counted the five steps it took him to cross the room until he was standing right in front of the switch. Before he lost his nerve he reached up, hesitating only slightly before
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