Are You There - Chapter 44: Chapter 44

Hoseok sighs to himself as he opens up the Angelic Infusion tea shop alone. His parents had called ahead and told him that they would be taking the day off for themselves. He does not necessarily blame them, not after the events that have unfolded within these dark walls in the past few days. While he does not blame them, he is not particularly happy to open up the store for them.
He barely enjoys working any hours at all, his own business gaining less attention if he is cooped up behind the tea-lined walls of the shop. He is not surprised when Minhyuk wanders into the store soon after opening, the sun high though the hour has only just hit seven. Minhyuk had announced the day before that he would like to spend the day with Hoseok, catching up on things they have missed in the time they spent hating one another.
Or, the time Hoseok spent shoving his feelings down his throat and Minhyuk seethed in his own anger. They have both agreed that the tea shop is an almost hallowed ground, someplace safe where neither can harm the other. Minhyuk hopes the thought can actually protect them from any truth they speak today.
"You can sit back here." Hoseok waves the telepath away from the first stand of teas, motioning towards the small rocking chair beside his own. The store is perhaps the most laid back spot Hoseok has ever had the chance to work in, and he is almost thankful for it today. His parents really know how to sell comfort.
Minhyuk wrinkles his nose at one of the chairs, grimacing as he settles into the one closest to Hoseok. Gesturing towards the far one of the three, he cannot keep the grit from his teeth. "Is that your father's chair?" Hoseok nods in reply, and Minhyuk almost gags. "I could smell the old man before I even got to it."
The fae huffs out a sharp breath, leaning back in his own chair in annoyance. His father may not be the best man of character, but he does not like to hear others mock the older man for merely existing. Hoseok has heard for most of his life just how terrible a man his father is. From threats against the elder's life, his family, and his business, Hoseok has heard most everything. But this is the first time anyone has made a comment on the scent of old man.
"My dad always smelled like clove cigarettes though," Minhyuk's voice continues through Hoseok's thoughts. "So I guess this is a bit better."
Hoseok does not know what to say to that. He knows Minhyuk's father died years ago now, and surely there is not much he can voice that will rise the frown on the telepath's lips. So he settles for a sigh and a gentle tap on the man's thin arm.
"Don't comfort me just 'cause my dad died." Minhyuk sounds far less than harsh, or even angry in any way, but Hoseok retracts his hand despite that. "I wasn't looking for pity," he adds with a rushed glance towards the fae.
"Well I'm still sorry." Hoseok drops both his hands into his lap, avoiding the telepath's gaze and instead focusing his attention towards the front of the store. Business will not pick up until around eight, when the morning rush to work has ended and foot traffic for shopping begins.
"You would've hated my father," Minhyuk puts in after too long of a silence. It has only lasted a few moments, but it is off putting and he cannot handle it. "He was really big into the idea of integrating the bloodlines for good and shoving out the old ideals of separation."
Hoseok shifts in his seat, well aware of Minhyuk's own half-blood lines that run through him. Half telepath, half fae, something that should make Hoseok naturally uncomfortable. It should not exist, not after the history the two bloodlines have had between one another. And yet, here Minhyuk sits with a wary frown and a line above his brow.
Hoseok startles in his place when he fixes Minhyuk with a proper stare, realizing only now that he can actually see the telepath's full face. "What did you do to your hair-"
"Chopped it off." Minhyuk does not want to hear the disdain in Hoseok's voice, the shock of the sight neither men were prepared to face. The washed out hair, what had seemed brown when above the bleached blonde ends, is now near black and healthy. Minhyuk has pushed it back from his face, and though it is shorter now, it rests easily atop his head in a proper style. "I had Changkyun help me after work," Minhyuk adds offhandedly.
Hoseok simmers in his seat, almost annoyed to hear that the two roommates were up late into the night together. Minhyuk had gotten off work at the hospital at already past ten last night, and Hoseok had taken him for a late meal after that still. They'd arrived at Minhyuk and Changkyun's apartment at half past eleven, and yet he had stayed up with the vampire just to cut his hair off?
Hoseok cannot keep the pout from his lips as he glares out across the wide expanse of tea lined shelves. Minhyuk does not notice at first, eyes glazed over with a calm he has not felt in a long while, but it is not at all hard to miss Hoseok's expression the moment he glances towards the broad man. Sucking his teeth a few times, Minhyuk feels his eyes roll dramatically. "What's with that face? Are you jealous or something?"
Hoseok shrugs, his arms folding themselves over his chest almost protectively. "No, I just don't understand why you wouldn't ask me to help you." Fighting a yawn, Hoseok hopes Minhyuk does not notice the way his jaw stretches and his lips clench.
Minhyuk does catch it, smiling to himself for a moment before looking away. "Changkyun doesn't need to sleep, it's easier to stay up with someone that won't pass out trying to help me." Minhyuk runs a hand through his significantly shorter hair, the locks freshly washed and silky between his fingers. "Plus he's got that vampire vision, so he can notice little imperfections way better than you."
Hoseok bristles at the jab, annoyed further now than he already was. "I would've paid for you to just get it done somewhere. You can ask me for-"
Hoseok stops, choking on his words as a pang through his chest rips at him. He lurches forward in his seat, a hand to his chest and lips parted around a cough. Minhyuk glances his way a few times, laughing to himself when he notes just how red Hoseok's face has become. Reaching a hand out to pat it against the fae's back, Minhyuk deems this nothing serious.
"Take a breath you idiot." Minhyuk slaps his hand against the man's back a bit harder, laughing louder when Hoseok shakes his head. "Are you choking on your spit-"
"Changkyun," Hoseok blurts out, coughing harder as he slides from the chair onto the ground. His knees hit the wood first, his hands clenched into fists next against the hard surface beneath him. His throat clears, but his chest cannot expand with enough air as the threat of something he cannot see looms over the vampire elsewhere.
This is the first freckle of their connection Hoseok has felt since Changkyun's brink of death. Days have gone by without a thought, a memory, a pain. This is not any of that though. This is a terror that neither men can shake as a sudden rush of visions flash across Hoseok's mind.
Bile threatens to pass the fae's lips as he witnesses everything through Changkyun's eyes. Lights blink out, screams pass ears, knees scrape the pavement.The wall Hoseok had built across his mind last night crumbles, and Minhyuk is flooded with the same thoughts almost immediately. Tears cloud the telepath's eyes as he stands from his chair, quick to drag Hoseok up from the floor despite the man's obvious pain. "It isn't real, okay?"
Hoseok shakes his head, completely washed out with Changkyun's incomparable agony. Hoseok has never felt his heart break before. He thought he had when he watched one of his closest friends die just before him, but this is so much worse. Not only is he seeing it first hand, but he is feeling it through the mind of someone's lover.
The pair make only a few strides towards the store's main doors before everything stops. They stop. Their minds stop. Time stops.
[ x ]
Changkyun has never screamed so loud before. It is such a raw sound that escapes his lips, tearing its way through his throat as he lunges forward. Hyungwon's mouth curls up into a wicked grin as his youngest's form darts past him. Jooheon flails his arms about as he stumbles off the curb into the street, his ankle rolling and sending him reeling towards the cement. He cannot see the truck that barrels towards him, but he can hear the horn as the driver leans into it, screaming at his windscreen for Jooheon to get out of his way. The blonde hits the ground, his hands scraping against the cement and burning for only an instant before everything goes white.
In one instant, the world shifts before so many lives. Jooheon is struck, crushed beneath the hull of the hurdling truck. The driver veers hard into traffic, screaming all the way as he collides with a car at the center of an intersection. Changkyun crashes into the pavement a foot from the curb, his speed doing nothing to stop what he has just witnessed. His Master stands aside, watching on with idle curiosity. The elder waits, knowing something must happen. His youngest will not let the blonde die. Not without some sort of fight. This is the kind of sudden jolt the young vampire needs to set a new ability into motion. Something drastic and terrifying needs to unfold in front of his very eyes.
What better than to watch the man you love pass through an untimely death? Hyungwon cannot think of another method. He knows his best moments have also been his worst. The most desperate of his times were when he was gifted with the best of his abilities. He wonders if he will have time to grow further with his age. He wonders if he will come to see the end of this century.
He figures not as he watches Changkyun kneel into the cement, his hands in his hair, at his chest, clawing at his cheeks in terror. The young vampire cannot comprehend what he has just witnessed, yet it is so simple. Jooheon lies crumpled and twisted, crimson stains like a veil over his form. It splays out at odd angles around him, pooling near his hip too quick to be healthy. Changkyun can feel it everywhere, far worse than when Hoseok was on the edge of death. He had felt that like a quake in his chest, streaks of cold and threads of agony that pulled at his lifeless heart. But this is so much more than he can handle.
This is strips torn from his body. Skin peeled back and leaving him exposed to the elements. To the monsters before him. The mess that he cannot fix, cannot forgive, and never forget.
He can feel the shuffle on the other side of his connection. He can feel Hoseok fumbling as he attempts to gather himself. Changkyun can feel Minhyuk's prodding hands, Hoseok's fatal breaths, the crack of wood against fists. Changkyun can feel it piling onto the rip that tears through his chest. He cannot even breathe. Not with these weights settling against his skin, into his pores and coiled around his muscles. He refuses to let this tight breath go until Jooheon moves. Until the blonde, twisted and wrong on that ground takes in his own breath.
But Changkyun knows he will not. There are cars around him now, stopped and stuttering as they realize that it is a dead body in their way. A bloody corpse unknown and ruining their path towards the future. Wrecking their days and their outlooks on life. Creating painful memories they will not forget, but will not recall in the way that others will.
None of them notice the screaming man on the curb until he is standing upright. His face is red, and his veins stand at attention as he lets the harshest sound he has ever made claw up his throat and dance against his tongue. The scream that curdles against the ears of drivers, passerby, and even people tucked away safely behind the walls of near shops. They cannot miss it.
Even those that had not caught onto the scene yet hear the terror and agony of the man on the curb.
Everyone hears him apart from he himself. He hears nothing now, his eyes blinking back the burn of tears that he refuses to let hit his cheeks. He is standing, but he does not know how quite yet. His legs feel numb, as if he will sink into the cement at this rate.
There comes a step forward, and Hyungwon's smile suddenly wavers on his lips. Changkyun is moving. He is going to do something. He knows not what, and he wonders for a moment if here on the street, his youngest will just turn the blonde instead of fixing it. He is not sure if the thought has crossed Changkyun's mind, and he realizes that there will be too many witnesses here if it has.
It thankfully has not. Changkyun has never once thought of changing Jooheon, of ruining the man's life alongside his own. There are already too many problems, too many mistakes between them. He refuses to drag Jooheon into an eternity beside Changkyun. The vampire does not think Jooheon wants that. He knows it, in fact.
There is a second step forward, and the honks of cars screech to a halt as the air dies around Changkyun. A third step forward and everyone else pauses, live-action ceasing to exist above and below. Hyungwon's smile is gone, and his eyes are locked, the space that Changkyun once occupied empty now as the vampire stumbles towards Jooheon's form. Just one tear hits the vampire's cheeks as he kneels beside Jooheon, a hand reaching out to touch the man's chest and hopefully steal away some of the blonde's pain.
There remains no heart beat when Changkyun's fingers rustle over the dry fabric, his breath finally releasing and swirling against the warm April air. It electrifies around him in an instant, but he does not recognize the sudden prickle that swims all across his skin as everything shifts. His body's structure bends about as if caught in a fade, and he watches as the lives around him contort, and reverse. Rewind. The blood surrounding Jooheon retraces its path before returning to the blonde's body, warmth flooding his cheeks with each second that dials back. Hyungwon's smile returns as the view from moments ago is stolen from his mind.
Changkyun's chest widens and falls apart as he watches Jooheon's eyes peel open one by one, his lips spreading to push out a dying breath. The truck reverses back over him. The flattened and twisted left leg straightens and his body twirls in a fall that raises him instead. The blonde's feet step awkwardly one over the other and untwist as he reaches the curb, his eyes wide and his mouth caught between a shout and a cry.
He strides back towards Hyungwon, his eyes on the street he imagine's he will hit in a moment.
Everything stops again when Jooheon reaches the older vampire, caught in his hold once more and frozen in fear. It takes Changkyun that split instance he is left with before everything moves again. It takes him only that blink of time to realize what he has done, and what he has seen.
As Jooheon is flung carelessly forward towards the street for the second time, Changkyun's form reshapes and he is in place to catch the blonde before he can be crushed under the tires of the oncoming truck yet again. His chest heaves against Jooheon's back, his arms around the blonde and his nose pressed between his shoulder blades as he fights a painful sob. Vivid images of Jooheon's mangled form on the street flash before his eyes as he cries into the blonde's shirt.
Hyungwon is not sure what has happened, but he has enough faith to believe that it is something come to save his life this Sunday.
Changkyun, with the gentlest hold on the man he loves more than breathing, is just as terrified as he was moments ago. The fear of watching his lover die will not shake now, though it slowly morphs the longer he stays cradling Jooheon to him. The blonde lets the vampire hold on, though he is unsure himself of just what has happened. He does not remember anything beyond a grapple with Hyungwon, and perhaps a flash of his own life before his eyes.
He does not know, and he never will.
Changkyun has just turned back time.