Are You There - Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Calling Changkyun exhausted would be a painful understatement. He can barely feel his legs as he is practically dragged from his bed by a nurse. The arm that has just been tossed over his nurse's shoulders goes numb as soon as it is moved, a terrifying sensation, even after everything else he has gone through in the last twenty-four hours.
"What did he..." Changkyun's head lolls against the nurse's shoulder, his words drifting off into the air.
Minhyuk assumes the rest of the question and replies once they have safely made it to the elevator. "Master didn't do anything. Your body is just adapting to the new life source."
Changkyun shakes his head at that, his gaze roaming though his eyes are closed. "Sedated..." He mumbles, his stomach clenching as the elevator begins lifting up. "Drugs-"
"No, I promise. Nothing that isn't natural was put in you." Minhyuk hefts Changkyun's heavy corpse higher against his side, grumbling at the weight. "Your body will take a long time to adjust to the changes it's gone through. Hyungwon told me he gave you all the information you'll need to survive?"
Minhyuk, the nurse scolds himself. It's not like there's a pamphlet to just hand out. There isn't a help line to call in the middle of the night, you fool.
"He told me..." Changkyun groans before continuing, lurching forward just before the elevator doors open. "-told me that he would find me."
The elevator doors part and spit the pair out onto Jooheon's floor, a wheelchair waiting where Minhyuk left it. "Please sit down," Minhyuk says softly, lowering Changkyun into the chair and watching nervously when the boy droops over an arm. Minhyuk hurries to sit the younger upright, wheeling him into the main waiting room where he has left the boy's blond friend.
Changkyun's eyes have not opened since entering the elevator, and Minhyuk cannot help but worry that the boy's body will not be able to handle the last few hours of his transition. Perhaps that's why he wants me to send him on his way, Minhyuk reasons in his head. So he can die in his home and be at peace.
Before meeting Master Hyungwon, Minhyuk believed that the vampire was an invincible creature that could only be killed by a silver stake to the heart, like in old stories or movies. But in his twentieth year, the nurse learned more about the life and death of a vampire than he knew about his own abilities. Changkyun stirs in his seat as Minhyuk carts him about, still a hall's length away from Jooheon. Leaning down, Minhyuk can see that the boy's eyes are still shut tight, but he asks what is wrong anyhow.
"Jooheon," the younger replies quietly, the word but an exhale.
"Yes, he's here waiting. I'm taking you to him now, you'll be there in a minute."
Changkyun shakes his head rapidly, almost as if in pain. "I don't wanna," he whispers, tilting his head back to be heard. "Don't make me-"
"It will be alright. He'll take you home and make sure you get the rest your body needs." Minhyuk pats the boy's head, trying his hardest to soothe out the tension, but it does not work. Changkyun's eyes peek open to stare hard at the nurse, terror sparking like a fever in those orbs.
"Don't make me," he whispers again, earnest like never before.
Stopping the wheelchair near a patient's doorway, Minhyuk sighs before coming round to face Changkyun directly. "I'm sorry, but you're not allowed to stay here. There are different rules for you now, and I know you aren't aware of them yet, but you'll have to believe me for now. If you're here in the hospital much longer, without just cause and a guardian, someone will come to physically remove and detain you."
Changkyun's jaw drops at that, his fears growing by the second. He leans forward in his chair, hurrying to stand and push past Minhyuk. Changkyun is strong now, stronger than Minhyuk surely, but his body is still trying to awaken after a near comatose state.
"I'll hurt him," Changkyun cries out, clutching at the wall beside him as he hobbles down the hall. Minhyuk follows on his heels, hands stretched forward to catch Changkyun if he needs to. "I'll hurt him and I won't realize it."
Minhyuk considers stopping Changkyun before the dark boy can reach the lip of the hall, but by the time he has made up his mind, they are both already in the open of the floor's main waiting room. Changkyun yelps when he spots Jooheon across the space, rushing to turn and head back down the hall. Unfortunately, Minhyuk is already there in the way, and Jooheon's eyes have already lifted from his papers to spot the pair.
"Kyun-ah!"
Changkyun flinches, his mind coherent enough to help his body react appropriately. Dark eyes find Minhyuk's, pain sparkling beneath long lashes. "Please," Changkyun whispers up to the nurse, hands clutching at the man's scrubs. "I don't want to hurt him-"
Minhyuk forces his gaze away from the younger, pushing his hands against Changkyun's shoulders to turn him around and into the waiting room. "You need to trust yourself," the nurse whispers back, though he is scared for Jooheon himself. "You've eaten recently, and you're still finishing your change."
Minhyuk continues whispering information as he marches Changkyun forward, a false smile on his lips as he gazes at Jooheon over the younger's shoulder. "Hyungwon has a connection to you now, as he is your Master. Anything you feel, almost anything you do, he'll sense. When your body is deprived again, he can come to you to help."
Changkyun's feet still stutter on the long path to Jooheon, so much so that the blonde sets his papers down and stands to meet the approaching pair himself. Striding across the blank space, Jooheon stretches his arms out to embrace Changkyun, but the dark boy flinches back into Minhyuk's chest in unadulterated terror. Jooheon's brow furrows at that, but he wraps his arms around his best friend anyhow.
"Are you okay?" He whispers down to the younger man, earning a shock when he leans back. "What the hell happened to your hair?"
Changkyun shuffles from Jooheon's embrace, his fingers tugging nervously at a few chunks of his hair. He has yet to see it himself since awakening, so really anything could have happened to his hair. It is long enough to hang in his eyes, but still difficult for his eyes to adjust in the stark white light of the waiting room, so he gives up easily.
"I dunno," he whispers up at Jooheon, glancing back for Minhyuk's help.
The nurse thankfully steps forward, placing a hand on Jooheon's shoulder to guide him back to his seat where his papers rest. "You told me yesterday that your friend dyed his hair last week, didn't you?" Minhyuk uses the contact he's placed on Jooheon to implant a memory that never existed, his mother's bloodline coming in handy tonight.
Jooheon does not even consider the words before nodding, recalling to mind a false memory of helping his best friend mush a store-bought bottle of hair treatment onto his head. "That's right, how did I forget that?"
Jooheon sits himself down for a moment, his mind only on hair dye as he gazes up at his best friend adoringly. Changkyun grows uneasy as the blonde's eyes remain unblinking, something clearly wrong going on. "What just happened?" Changkyun whispers up to Minhyuk beside him.
"I adjusted his memory for the time being," Minhyuk answers out loud, no care for Jooheon's ears. "It won't last forever, so when he notices your hair again and asks, you can either give him the same answer, or tell him the truth."
Changkyun feels weak all over again, scared to ask how someone could possibly adjust someone's memory. If even for a short time. "Sure," he whispers, kneeling in front of Jooheon to rest his already tired legs.
Peering up at his best friend, his chest aches. If his body was still fit to use the oxygen around him, he would take this moment to push out a heavy sigh. What if I don't know what I'm doing, and I hurt you? Though his best friend cannot hear his thoughts, the small smile Jooheon sends Changkyun almost relaxes the younger. Almost.
Changkyun can sense that whatever exhaustion pressed into his body has already almost completely worn off, but with that he can feel how much stronger his body really is now. This only renews his fears of harming his longest friend. Venom. The word trickles down his spine like a shiver; a word for others to fear, yet Changkyun is at the will of it in this moment. He is absolutely terrified.
The newborn rests in his place as Jooheon retrieves his discharge papers, writing carefully against the chair beside him with no other surface to aid him. "Are you okay?" The younger asks gently, taking in Jooheon's face gratefully. Up until just now, it was the last face he wanted to see.
Now that they are both here, Changkyun takes the time to realize he has not seen his best friend in quite a while. Not since the comic shop the day before. It's been a full day already, and they had not even spoken face-to-face since the day before that. Jooheon's thin eyes glance up at his friend, eyes crinkling with a smile so pure and wrought with naivety.
"I'm okay if you are." Jooheon's mind is still fuzzy over what has happened to Changkyun. Though Minhyuk has fed him several fresh memories, and the papers in his hands have even backed up said ideas, Jooheon's mind cannot grasp onto so many implanted thoughts at once. After having so much stolen from his mind the day before, tonight's Jooheon has a near tolerance to Minhyuk's telepathic abilities.
Only the smallest adjustments, as the nurse so aptly calls them, will stick for a long enough stretch of time to call safe for Changkyun.
Changkyun does not give Jooheon a reply, he merely forces a small smile and stands again. Dusting his hands down the front of his jeans, he is shocked to find he is still dressed in the same clothes as yesterday. He shouts in fright at the sight of his own blood stains down his entire left side, while his shirt still hangs open with just the bottom button done together.
Changkyun's eyes stutter over the two blondes at his sides, hurrying to scurry behind Minhyuk and hide from Jooheon's view. "Why the hell am I wearing this-"
"He can't see it, calm down." Minhyuk tugs Changkyun back around him, thrusting him towards a chair to sit still. "Your friend here is seeing everything I tell him to see. He's hearing everything I tell him to hear." Minhyuk places a hand to his temple, the motion looking rather elegant, though it's only to try and dull the throb starting there.
Minhyuk takes a tentative step towards Changkyun, motioning down towards the boy's bloodied clothes. "For all he knows, you're in a clean pair of jeans and a sweater he brought for you tonight. He doesn't know a single thing about your health. I told him you had a life-threatening blood clot, the furthest thing from the truth, and he's already convinced. So stop panicking and trying to set off all the work I've just done for you."
Minhyuk huffs, shoving his hair out of his face dramatically before facing Jooheon. The young blonde stares up at the nurse, smiling idly as if this whole situation is as exciting as the theme park. "I've finished signing everything," Jooheon says quietly, holding out the collection of papers and pen for Minhyuk to take.
The nurse snatches them away in agitation, waving for both young men to stand up. "Changkyun, I already told you that Hyungwon will come for you when you need him. All you need to do is pretend Jooheon and anybody else you meet isn't technically a meal."
Changkyun's stomach rolls at the thought, though the venom at the base of his throat burns up for a moment with his body's natural excitement. He chooses to ignore both reactions and merely stands as instructed. "Is there anything specific I'm supposed to do if I need him right away?"
Minhyuk rolls his eyes, pointing towards the elevators. "Yes. You light a candle and whisper, 'Oh wise Master I bequeath myself to thee'."
Changkyun mutters the words to himself, taking the jest literally. "Okay, uh, thanks." He continuously whispers the quote to himself as he and Jooheon stumble together out of the hospital, a stop at the gift shop for a change of clothes the only thing that stalls their swift exit.
[ x ]
"Hey, Kyun. What happened to your hair?"
Changkyun glances at his reflection in the bus window, grateful beyond words to even see that he has a reflection. Seeing himself like this for the first time in over a day is startling. He now sees what everyone else has been looking at on the streets, and the bus. He almost hates the sight. He misses his rounded face and small imperfections. He looks too perfect. It serves a purpose, he supposes.
His hair however is so obscure, he cannot even put a name to the color. His old blue-black hair has lightened, that is to say the least. It has acquired some of the silvery shades of Hyungwon's twisted with a shadowy brown when shrouded from the light, and Changkyun wonders if that happened for any particular reason. It's not exactly an ugly color, as it seems to match well with his naturally dark skin, but he cannot see himself ever enjoying the sight.
He fingers a few strands before forcing a smile for his best friend. "I did it yesterday before work. Is it bad?"
Jooheon shakes his head, his lips pursing together as he stares a bit harder at Changkyun. As best friends, it is part of his job to notice when things change. He can see that things are different with Changkyun, but he cannot place just what else has happened. "I like the color," he says instead of asking for guidance on anything else. "It'll just take time to get used to."
Changkyun nods, still coping with everything else that he cannot even tell Jooheon about. Gone are the days of hiding in a closet just to protect himself. Now he must hide his entire life. Or lack thereof. Changkyun reasons with himself, trying to prove that he is protecting Jooheon in the long run by keeping as much of the truth from the blonde.
"The nurse that called me to the hospital told me you were attacked. He said that I brought you to the hospital." Jooheon shakes his head at that, pulling his phone from his pocket and opening up his previous messages. Opening his conversation with Changkyun, he shows the darker man the last message sent by himself well into last night.
From Changkyuhh: Haha, I was just joking earlier. That weirdo left, get home safe.
Changkyun's brows find one another as he reads the entire series of texts last sent by himself. They started remotely calm, asking Jooheon to stop by the store. They turned twisted quickly, and he recalls texting hurriedly from the floor of his workplace, pain ripping through his abdomen as his fresh wound ate at him from the inside out.
Changkyun swallows, thinking on how to explain this one away. He pats at his pockets, realizing that he does not have his phone, nor a wallet. He had had Jooheon buy him these new clothes, and get them on this bus, he does not even know why he attempts searching.
"The guy that attacked me must have sent it after I passed out. Before you got to me maybe." Changkyun pats at his pockets again dramatically. "I didn't have my phone at the hospital, he must have stolen it."
Jooheon's head nods naturally, the answer the most plausible that he has gotten in what feels like days. "Are you okay though? The papers that nurse gave me said that you were stabbed in your side, and they patched it, but then your blood clotted somewhere-" He waves his hand through the air, obviously having forgotten the specifics. "I dunno, but it sounded bad. You're probably gonna get a huge bill soon."
Changkyun nods, feeling stiff beside his lively best friend. "I don't wanna talk about it. Let's just go home."
Neither of the men have forgotten that they live in separate apartments, but they both stay at Changkyun's two-bedroom for the night. Mainly because Changkyun knows he can jump from the first floor window to escape Jooheon if need be, and Jooheon does not want to leave Changkyun alone nor stuff them into his small studio apartment.
So together they remain, and alone they suffer.