Are You There - Chapter 43: Chapter 43

Kihyun is not at all surprised when his manager tells him that Hyunwoo will be late today. The darker man had been feverish and dazed when the incubus sent him off the day before; Kihyun would be more on edge if he had been told the older would come in on time despite his ailments. He is however pleasantly surprised when Hyunwoo's still flushed form sways through the front doors only ten minutes late for his shift.
His eyes, void of both his contacts and glasses, shift about with the inability to focus. Kihyun tries not to let his gaze linger on the man as he wanders up the main aisle towards the counter, hands out at his sides to hold his balance up. "Good morning," the incubus calls out with his head tilted down, his eyes never leaving the stock report on the counter before him.
Hyunwoo gives no reply, his head swimming with a fever his body still has not quite burned off. He bathed and bathed again in temperatures near ice, but his body had not beaten it last night; the sweat is already collecting across his brow now after only a few minutes of walking. He had taken the bus here, giving him only five or so minutes outside in the April heat. It proves enough to leave him weak.
"What're you doing?" Hyunwoo tries to focus his vision in on the paper before Kihyun. The words only sway with him, unable to clear up and become any kind of sensible.
"Tomorrow's Wednesday. Vendor drop offs and returns." Kihyun glances up from the page, a casual smile to try and ease Hyunwoo into a conversation. But the darker man is not looking at him. His eyes, a complete lackluster compared to their usual hazelnut, zero in again and again on the same paper. Kihyun takes note of the haze behind them. "Aren't you wearing your lenses?"
Hyunwoo shakes his head, blinking hard as he searches around for the under-counter stools. Gripping one hard, he sits himself down on the edge of it just so he can gain his bearings. "It's not good to wear them if you're sick. Bad germs."
Kihyun sighs, grabbing his pen between his teeth in annoyance. "Well what about your glasses? Your eyesight is worse than a bat's-"
"Don't mother me." Hyunwoo's brow furrows as he focuses again on that paper, trying his damnedest to read even the letterhead. He knows exactly what it is meant to say. Vendor Returns Filing. Yet it has blurred and multiplied over itself too many times to make sense.
Kihyun cannot help but scoff at the tone Hyunwoo gives him, the incubus practically itching to slap the attitude right off the darker man's face. "Well excuse me for caring, but wasn't it you who just yesterday practically begged me to come over and coddle you?"
Hyunwoo's already tinted cheeks deepen to a crimson, embarrassment doing his fever no good. "Please. I would have asked a pig for help if I'd seen one before you came around."
Kihyun's eyes squint together as he peers over at Hyunwoo, confused by the analogy. "What help could a pig have been?"
Grumbling to himself, Hyunwoo turns in his seat so Kihyun will not hear him. The incubus does however, his strong ears deceiving the darker man. "A pig would have at least kept me company. You just let me go home alone to die."
Kihyun scoffs once again, Hyunwoo's idea of the common cold beyond comprehension. "You do understand that you're the one who's pushing me away here, right?" Kihyun rounds the counter so he can face Hyunwoo head on, the darker man staring straight ahead. His eyes cannot focus on Kihyun's, but they do not bother to try for very long. "I gave you the biggest piece of me, tried to make you understand, and it's you that decided you didn't want it."
Gritting his teeth as a headache begins to grow, Hyunwoo feels his eyes roll dramatically. "Honestly I assumed I would get a few slivers of your life eventually, but I never asked. I never pried, and I never expected anything from you. I told you about my life, and I knew one day I would get the same." Hyunwoo gestures between himself and Kihyun, his shoulders sagging with the effort of speaking. "But all I got was a faerie tail and an empty apartment."
"Stop calling me that! The fae are a completely different breed-" The incubus cuts himself off, realizing the argument is useless. Frustrated with how dim Hyunwoo is being, Kihyun wants to tear his own hair from his scalp. It would heal quickly, and Hyunwoo would probably find it evidence enough to believe the incubus. But Kihyun has promised himself that he would not sway the mortal's mind in any way. So he holds his ground and swallows his pride.
Rounding the corner again, Kihyun reclaims his seat beside the man he has somehow fallen hopelessly in love with. A love stronger than anything he has ever felt. A love that breaks his heart every time he questions why it must come to an end.
"I'm sorry I can't make you believe me. Not without hurting you at least." Clasping his hands together in his lap, Kihyun reads over the stock report again and again, memorizing the vendor numbers and names of comics he will never bother reading from the store shelves.
Hyunwoo can hear the pain in Kihyun's voice, though he desperately wishes he could ignore it. He does not want to hear the smaller man hurt, ache, whither. He wants Kihyun to smile through everything. Especially when it is something to do with himself. Hyunwoo never wants Kihyun to hurt because of something he has done. Yet it seems to be all Kihyun hurts over these days. Something Hyunwoo says, or does, or does not do at times. Something he does not understand, or does not believe. Something that wrecks Kihyun over and over again. Hyunwoo just cannot fix it.
He hates himself for ever letting the man he loves more than life itself hurt. Perhaps it is that hate that spurs the thought. Perhaps it is the blinding fever that ignites it. Perhaps it is the way his eyes finally find focus on Kihyun's profile for an instant, pale and smooth and riddled with heartache. He is not sure what leads his lips to form the words, or why his brain does not stop his mouth from opening. But he speaks them nonetheless, and his thoughts are suddenly voiced.
"I really wish you would make me believe, even if it hurts me back."
But Kihyun refuses. Hyunwoo knew he would.
[ x ]
Jooheon had to call into work yesterday, and today his boss sounds particularly callous when the blonde requests a second fake sick day. Jooheon cannot help it however, and only forces a few heaving coughs past his lips as he explains to the aging man over the line that he will not return until tomorrow. Jooheon knows he cannot miss his shift on Wednesday, even if he really is hacking up a lung by the time his shift starts.
"Are you fired?" Changkyun, concerned over what his training will consist of today, cannot help but also worry over Jooheon. He knows the blonde is under the influence of Hyungwon's orders, so he cannot worry over his own job as well as he should. "I can help you find another job-"
"I'm not fired." His answers are all simple, all concise, and Changkyun hates it. He wants to shake the older man awake and demand a better reply. He knows Jooheon can hear, process most things, and even think for himself. Yet Jooheon remains near silent when Changkyun speaks to him.
The pair dive into an uncomfortable silence, both awaiting Hyungwon's arrival. Changkyun had picked up Jooheon from his and Kihyun's apartment again today, but they have made it to the antiques shop sooner than expected. Jooheon wonders if he will be killed today. With the way the air seems, stiff and rather uninviting, he cannot imagine he will be alive for long if he stays here. It is unsettling.
Changkyun hears Hyungwon first, the front door to the shop opening and closing with a shift of air and a din of street traffic. Changkyun does not have a key to the store, and had found it locked up when they arrived. Without much thought, he had taken Jooheon's hand and faded into the store, easier now than it had been on Sunday. But Jooheon had taken it just as horribly, tossing himself to the floor to heave into whatever he could reach.
Changkyun hopes Hyungwon cannot smell the vomit that still lingers in the air, but he knows it is only wishful thinking.
"Changkyun!" The young vampire flinches, almost ducking behind Jooheon just to his left. "Would you care to explain why my favorite ottoman stinks of rotting meat?"
Changkyun can quite literally hear the grimace in his Master's voice, clear and deep as he nears the back office where the pair wait in apprehension. Changkyun matches his Master's expression when the older appears in the doorway, shaking his head in reply. "No clue." He sounds as lofty as Hyungwon often does, but with far less confidence behind the tone.
The elder's eyes flicker down Jooheon's face, reading the shame laced there easily enough. "Did you fade with him again?" Changkyun averts his gaze, shrugging with no confirmation. Hyungwon sighs, entering the room in that gliding manner that he has. "I could barely let you train yesterday after you got stuck between my walls."
Changkyun groans, having repressed the memory as best he could. Though his fade across the city had been successful on Sunday, Monday's fiasco was a different story. He had tried his hardest to relax and fade just across the room. A simple feat, really, but the young vampire had managed to lose sight of his own molecules. He had drifted too far forward and had ended up caught between the old walls of the shop. He is still glad the building has no insulation left standing, or he may have suffocated during his panic.
"Are you going to kill me?"
Jooheon, who has not spoken directly to Hyungwon once since meeting him, has found some spare ounces of confidence while Changkyun is being shamed. The younger vampire is surprised to hear the blonde speak at all, having forgotten that he was there amidst his own embarrassment. Hyungwon tilts his head curiously, thinking on his answer with a hint of a smirk on his thick lips.
Shrugging, he replies around a sigh. "I suppose it will all depend on how well our little Changkyun can handle his abilities. Day two begins right now."
Without any more warning, Hyungwon strides forward and takes a hold of Jooheon's wrist, standing the mortal up quick enough to make him sway. Changkyun stands as well, nervous over what Hyungwon will do. Though Jooheon has refused to express much to Changkyun since the vampire basically died before him, Changkyun cannot help but worry that the blonde will be harmed. While Jooheon may refuse him now, Changkyun is still in an aching love struck stupor.
"Rush hour traffic will come along in perhaps fifteen minutes, let's wait just a bit outside."
Changkyun's head tilts in sync with Jooheon's, the pair both lost on why the morning traffic is of the elder vampire's interest. Though Jooheon is confused by many things, he has come to terms with with the idea of vampires already. He can feel them prodding at his mind, weaning him onto the thought so simply. He has not caught onto anything else yet, the conversation between Changkyun and Kihyun just the morning before not lasting too long for him to process it. He lost the idea of Kihyun's immortal existence quickly enough, and now he only recalls vampires and humans. And perhaps the inkling of ghosts that linger after someone's death.
"Why are you concerned with the traffic?" Changkyun question remains unanswered for exactly fourteen minutes. It is an incredibly rude awakening when Hyungwon's hand, still wrapped tight around Jooheon's wrist, shoves forward quick enough to propel the blonde after it.
Straight in front of a moving truck.