Are You There - Chapter 28: Chapter 28

"How the hell did you do this to yourself?" Kihyun sighs as Hyunwoo falls back onto the small sofa of his den. "Honestly, don't you bother taking care of yourself?" The tall man only smiles as Kihyun dotes over him, rushing away to get a frozen pack of vegetables from the kitchen.
"I was moving a new shipment of comics at work, and just kinda dropped the box. It's no big deal." Hyunwoo can hear the smaller man groan from the kitchen, clearly annoyed at his carelessness.
"When someone texts you to help get their pants off, do you think they're going to take them off just to reveal a disgustingly huge bruise?" Kihyun reappears in the den, a cloth wrapped around a frozen bag of mixed steamables, and a pout on his lips. "I haven't seen you in two days, barely got any texts, no calls, and you just show up hurt expecting me to take care of you."
Though he makes a show of sounding annoyed with Hyunwoo, the older man knows just how desperate Kihyun is to baby him. In the early stages of their relationship, Kihyun had almost avoided any contact with Hyunwoo. He adored getting the older man's attention when he could, but he had several muttered excuses about being bad for Hyunwoo's health that the dark man chose to ignore. The only thing he felt when Kihyun was around was simply exhausted; Kihyun was too vibrant, and simply tired the older man out in an instant.
But after months now, Hyunwoo knows that Kihyun is far more comfortable as a unit, and will readily nurse him if need be. "I missed you too," Hyunwoo murmurs, flinching when Kihyun places the makeshift ice pack onto the swelling bruise on his thigh.
Hyunwoo curses, and Kihyun forces his lips into a tight purse to keep from grinning. He does not want to hurt the older man, but he finds a slight pleasure in making him suffer just a bit for not contacting him. The bruise, large and purple and terrifying, will not be healing like Kihyun's do. "This is gonna last for weeks," Kihyun mutters, lifting the ice pack to poke at the darkest parts of the bruise.
Hyunwoo yelps, slapping Kihyun's hands away in pain. "Well don't poke at it!" Kihyun stares Hyunwoo down, silently daring the older to hit him again. "Sorry," Hyunwoo murmurs, forcing his hands beneath his legs so Kihyun can prod as he pleases.
"First you don't call, then you're hitting me, next you'll start drinking and throwing empty bottles at me." Kihyun, lost in his own train of thought, is oblivious to the way Hyunwoo watches him. The dark man, with eyes that glint in a certain way when the incubus finds them, stares at Kihyun's profile as he mumbles to himself. Kihyun has this way about him, often lost in memories that Hyunwoo does not understand, but wishes he could. During the four months of their rather easy relationship together, Hyunwoo has only learned that Kihyun has no parents, dreams of photography, and was cast out by his family for being gay.
Whereas, Hyunwoo has already shared most of his life with Kihyun. Photos, old school performances, even a few visits to his parents with Kihyun in tow. The incubus has been given all his memories, while Hyunwoo is only left to ponder over Kihyun's past.
"What're you mumbling about?" Hyunwoo wonders quietly, lifting a hand to touch Kihyun's cold one, chilled from the ice. "I didn't mean to hit you, and I can promise I won't be throwing anything at you anytime soon."
Kihyun purses his lips, realizing only now that his seventh life has been replaying in his mind. He had been shot to death at the end of his young seventh, and the vivid recollection still sends shivers down his spine as he finds Hyunwoo's eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispers, pulling the ice pack from Hyunwoo's leg. "I fell asleep reading a book earlier, and I guess it's on my mind now."
He would like to tell Hyunwoo all about his last eight lives, and how this ninth is by far his favorite. Though he will been reprimanded by the Counsel just for loving Hyunwoo, the incubus has never been this happy.
Hyunwoo's thoughts seem to mirror Kihyun's, because he lets his words hit the air between them soft enough to make the incubus shiver. "Is this about those cuts on your back from October?"
Kihyun does not like the reminder of what now have become shocking scars on his once smooth skin. Never in all his lives has he been given a scar, and now he has nine disgusting stripes across his back, sides, and chest. His hand involuntarily lifts to the single cord that ropes across his left collarbone and down his chest. He hates this one the most, as it is the one Hyunwoo has to see most often. Hyunwoo notices the motion, and sits upright to pull Kihyun's hand away from his own beating heart. He pulls the incubus back down with him, so the younger is huddled into his large frame warm and protected. "Why don't you ever talk to me about it? Hiding things just because you're scared isn't how you should handle it."
Kihyun pouts, nestling closer to Hyunwoo's warmth with his head tucked into the larger man's neck. He is careful to keep their skin-to-skin contact to a minimum, scared to steal Hyunwoo's energy straight from him. This is his curse as an incubus, and it worries him each time his lover holds him close.
"One day, when I get completely blasted off a pack of rice wine, I'll tell you all about my life, and even beyond that." Kihyun can hear Hyunwoo's pulse, strong and steady, like Hyunwoo himself. In his life, Hyunwoo has become the rock he has been missing for too long. The dependence he has put onto Hyunwoo's shoulders scares Kihyun, but he does not know how to leave.
He does not even want to leave, at that.
"You know what happened even before your life?" Hyunwoo tilts his head down a bit, staring down the slope of Kihyun's nose and along the top curve of his pert lips.
Kihyun sighs, tightening his arms around the older man. "I've got centuries of memories, I promise you that. One day you'll get a first-row seat to it all, don't worry."
Though the promise is sweet, Hyunwoo does not fully understand the weight of Kihyun's words. He only smiles and plants a gentle kiss against the younger man's temple, warming the incubus through. "I'll wait for it."
[ x ]
Changkyun grins, standing in greeting as Jooheon wanders into the rather rowdy noodle shop. "Hi," Changkyun breathes out, a hand up in greeting.
"Changkyun?" Jooheon mispronounces the unfamiliar name, just as he had first done when they met now five years ago. Changkyun smiles at the nostalgia, motioning for Jooheon to sit. He corrects his name for the blonde, who flushes. "Sorry," Jooheon murmurs, lifting his small hands to hide his dimpling cheeks.
"It's fine, people mess it up all the time." Changkyun sits back in his place, almost in awe of the blonde across from him. He has kept his distance for a full six months now, since the day he asked Hoseok to wipe Jooheon. And now he has finally managed to snag him for the evening.
"You don't really look like the picture Hoseok showed me," Jooheon speaks up as he fiddles with the tableware beside the water Changkyun had asked for him.
Changkyun nods, running a hand through his still sometimes startlingly shiny hair, mentally cataloging how many things had changed in his appearance since his last photo. "It was probably an old one, I've been pretty steady in my looks for the last few months."
Jooheon nods, leaning a bit over the table to get a better look of the younger man. He likes what he sees, all dark shades and shadows and bright glimmers. Dark hair that glistens under the setting sun outside, and cheekbones that float just low enough to keep his eyes wide. A wide jaw, pulled taut and curving up to meet dark cherry lips. "You look older," Jooheon mutters after staring for far too long.
Changkyun ducks his head, glad to hear it. Before he can give any valid reply, a short waitress comes along for orders, and the pair are caught in a mad dash to figure out what they want. "Nabeyaki udon," they blurt at the same time, glancing up from their menus to share small smiles. "And a double for gyozas," Changkyun adds, recalling how dearly Jooheon loves the small dumplings.
Jooheon's smile crinkles into an outright grin as he and Changkyun tuck their paper menus into their standing holder, his hands drumming against the table excitedly. "Did someone let it slip that I love dumplings?" Jooheon whispers across the table, having to lean too close to be heard over the loud neighboring tables. The vampire could hear him through the most dangerous of storms.
Changkyun smiles, shaking his head with a shrug. "I just really love them myself. I'm glad you do too, otherwise I'd be eating sixteen alone."
As they wait for their noodles, they keep the conversation light. "How long have you known Hoseok?" Jooheon, having been given a few ideas to match Changkyun's backstory, does not know much about the vampire. A work friend of Kihyun's, and a close friend of Hoseok's. Though somehow they have never met.
Changkyun pretends to think, tapping his chin as he looks up in consideration. "About five years now, I guess. I met him when I was still a teenager."
"Oh, how old are you now?" Jooheon's question is so simple, and Changkyun almost does not hesitate to say that he is twenty-three. But the reminder that his birthday no longer means anything gives him pause.
"Twenty-three," he says anyway, pushing his frozen state aside for now. "I was almost eighteen when I met Hoseok, or maybe I'd just turned eighteen..." Changkyun, fuzzy on even real events, shrugs away the topic. "How about you? When did you two become friends?"
Jooheon thinks to himself, genuinely lost on when he and Hoseok had first met. "Definitely during our school years," he murmurs, a finger tapping against the table to the beat of his heart. Changkyun smiles at the sound, familiar even after months of going without it. "God, probably when I was around fourteen?" Jooheon leans back, shocked at the realization as Changkyun hides his smile behind a hand. "Wow, it's been a decade."
The conversation lulls for a long moment after their food arrives, attention stolen for the time being. Changkyun, thankful to find that human food while unappetizing is still edible, eats as best he can without gagging. The taste of a once favorite order is awful, like something rotten and wrong, but he stuffs down his noodles and washes down as much as he can with water. He drank yesterday, and the blood will tide him over for days if it needs to, but after the day out with Hoseok for new clothes and a haircut, the sun has drained him a bit.
Months living as a vampire have taught him many things already. Sleeping, eating, and breathing. All things are necessary for him to continue surviving, though at minimum intake compared to humans. He can do without blood for up to a month if he is conserving his energy and running on fumes. He had tried it back in the winter, and found that the new year was not properly experienced as he instead lied in bed exhausted and starving
The sun, another obstacle at first, has become far easier to handle now. While it still drains his energy, he knows if he has eaten recently, he can last an entire day naked in the sun without much aftereffect. But human food, this will be his final downfall. It rests in his body, digesting slower than thought possible, and leaving him feeling rather sick if he does not take in more blood soon after.
The thought makes him acutely aware of Jooheon sat across from him, seeping warmth and the scent of caramel apples, sickly sweet and inviting. Changkyun finds that when he looks up at the blonde, he is already watching the younger. "Is there something on my face?" Changkyun wonders, placing his chopsticks down to prod at his lips.
Jooheon chuckles, resting his chin in his hand. "Sorry, I was kinda staring," Jooheon admits, flushing at his words a moment later. "I was looking at your hair more than anything," he adds when Changkyun ducks his head in embarrassment.
"Ah," the dark man mutters, lifting his hand to tug at a stray strand and push it back into place. "It's natural, believe it or not," he mumbles, clearing his throat at the odd look Jooheon fixes him with. "Seriously, it is."
"You've gone grey at twenty-three?" Jooheon asks, lifting both his hands to hide his loud laughter. "I'm... I'm sorry, but that's just crazy." He cackles into his hands, tilting his head back as his shoulders shake.
Changkyun, though he has being made into a fool, feels his lungs stutter in his chest at the sight. If there is anything he loves most about Jooheon, it is his infectious laugh, warm and gentle and childish. Something Changkyun would love to knit together and wrap himself into. "I'm not grey," Changkyun calls out around his own sudden chuckles, caught from the older man. "I had an accident a few months ago, and I think the stress just kinda..."
Changkyun trails off, tugging at his hair nervously as he lets Jooheon fill in the blanks.
"What kind of accident?" The blonde wonders, plucking a fried dumpling from the plate between them. "Car?"
Changkyun shakes his head, dropping his hand a little too forcefully atop the table. Both men flinch when their plates clatter against the surface, Changkyun's ears flaring red at the tops. "I was stabbed," he admits after a long few moments, dropping his eyes to keep from meeting Jooheon's surely pitiful gaze. "A few weeks before last Halloween."
Changkyun gestures to his left side, where a scar now resides. Hoseok, months ago in a drunken fit, had dragged a bottle of blessed water to his and Minhyuk's apartment, playing the part of a threatening fae. To Changkyun's dismay, Hoseok had not realized the bottle was genuinely blessed, and had splashed it down his shirt.
At least now Changkyun can pretend he was stabbed at the comic store when people ask about the jagged scar across his lower ribs, while before when people asked about the incident, he had not even had a mark.
"Was it bad?" Jooheon wonders, and when Changkyun glances up, he is surprised to see a look of awe on the blonde's pale face. He shakes his head at himself, mumbling a moment after, "Obviously it was bad if your hair went grey from stress but like-"
"It was bad," Changkyun admits, clearing his throat. "Kinda still affects me today," he adds quietly. Being dead and all, he adds silently.
Jooheon hums, the conversation dropping off again as they pick at their chilling meals. Jooheon peeks glimpses of Changkyun every few moments, suddenly more than intrigued in the young man before him. Just from the picture Hoseok had shown him a week ago when he set up their little date, Jooheon had been interested. Seeing Changkyun in person has made the blonde all the more excited to learn about this stranger.
Now, after talking to him, and realizing how real the man before him is, he is completely invested. Setting his chopsticks down, Jooheon leans forward, his cheeks heating as he asks, "Do you think I could see your scar?"
Changkyun chokes on a dumpling, not expecting the question. He drops the fried pork and cabbage wrapping, shoving his hand into his hair as he leans back in his seat. He has gotten quite good at this glamour trick Hyungwon has taught him, and the other gifts that come with being a vampire. Gauging emotions, for one. Changkyun's eyes flit over Jooheon's face in one silent motion. From the way his jaw clenches as he stares back, to the dilation in his dark pupils, dampening the glimmer in his already dark eyes. The flush in his usually pale cheeks, and the absence of any dimple as he holds his expression as still as he can.
Changkyun watches a single strip of sweat roam Jooheon's false blonde hairline, and listens as the man's heartbeat kicks up with each passing second. Understanding the weight of Jooheon's question, Changkyun smirks. He has been waiting for this question for far too long. Years, and he has held himself away from it for the last six months just to protect the blonde. But Jooheon does not seem to need the protection, and Changkyun knows he can control himself. Or bind Jooheon's thoughts with a glamour if need be.
Grabbing his wallet, Changkyun motions for Jooheon to stand with him. Jooheon's breathing picks up as he follows after the darker man, jumping nearly from his own skin when Changkyun grabs for his wrist. They pay at the door just before dipping out, stepping into the waning sunlight of the April eve.
"My place is two blocks away," Changkyun answers the unasked question, and Jooheon's heartbeat quickens once again. If Changkyun had not been straddled by the blonde and heard this exact same rhythm before, he might have assumed Jooheon was scared. But he knows him all too well, despite Jooheon's total oblivion.
The blonde, trailing after Changkyun, is nothing but eager as the city passes by them. His skin is flushed as he stares hard at the vampire's profile, seemingly so familiar and warm despite this being their first meeting. Jooheon wracks his brain for why the younger man could feel so near to him, as if years have gone by in their relationship, and sums it up to the photo Hoseok had shown him.
He does not question why he feels so comfortable with the younger. Why he is letting Changkyun drag him off to his apartment. Why despite his quite exterior, Changkyun has already drawn Jooheon in. Not even why Jooheon is so prepared to hand over his body with little thought.
Something about Changkyun just feels right, and he refuses to leave tonight without exploring just how far their fates seem to have entwined.