Chapter Text
"Kim Dokja..." The voice calling his name in a worried tone sent shivers down his spine. "Kim Dokja please wait."
"Heck no!" The demon king turned his head and shot the guy running on the ground below him a dirty look. "You think I am easily fooled? Is this another new trick of yours? Sir hero?" He continuously flapped his wings and never once slowed down. But the monster of a hero still managed to follow his speed without falling behind. His thick muscly leg twisted and turned to avoid the roots and rocks blocking his path.
Kim Dokja stared at the interesting display before realizing what he was doing and turning back his head. 'The hero's charm is too much. Even he, a freaking demon king, was affected.'
"Wait!" The hero shouted again. "Please..." He added, sounding more desperate. Kim Dokja hesitated for a split second. His wing froze in midair, surprised by the hero's plea. His deep voice sent a chord strumming deep inside the demon hurt, twisting it and making the usually heartless demon feel unknown pain from just one simple word.
The hero didn't waste that moment of weakness and jumped up from one of the boulders and plucked the demon king from the sky. They both tumble down and the demon king yelps.
'I knew it!! This is one of his tricks! Dammit!!!' he struggled to get away from the hero's embrace, his black wing flapping furiously, trying to support both of their weight in vain, Yoo Jonghyuk gripped around his body like a freaking squid! Refusing to budge an inch. They both crash onto the earth.
Kim dokja slowly opened his eyes that had automatically closed shut from the collision. He crooked his head as much as he could in that awkward position, squashed in between his 'companion' chest and his vice gripped. Yoo Jonghyuk had turned in mid-air and landed himself on his back, protecting Kim Dokja completely from the impact. Despite the harsh fall, the hero didn't seem affected at all. In fact, that very guy is staring straight into his eyes with those pair of onyx eyes.
"Finally, you look at me." A corner of the hero's mouth twitched upward. Kim Dokja didn't know why, but he looked softer like this. Those narrow eyes that had always looked at him with murder rage was now replaced with a big doe eye of a dog asking for attention from his owner. The frown that always adorned his face was nowhere in sight, smoothed over completely. His almost smile made him attractive, like an awkward giant teddy bear, shy and gentle, not at all like the same person who has been trying to kill him for the past 3 years.
No matter how much the hero wanted to murder him, or more probably, due to that, Yoo Jonghyuk would never be able to act like this towarded him, let along made that kind of face.
"Who are you? What have you done to Yoo Jonghyuk?" The demon king tried to sit up, but the movement alarmed the guy and he tightened his grip. Now he couldn't even move his damn neck.
Seeming to finally register his question, the hero tilted his face innocently. "Yoo Jonghyuk? Is that my name?" Kim Dokja's scowled. If he could move his hand freely, he would have poked him on the chest to emphasize his point, "It’s the name of that body you're possessing. Whoever you are, you better get out of him before you get into even bigger trouble. And let go of me, you're crushing my bones! Are you trying to kill me? Ah, you probably are...*mumble* but isn't this too much? Where's your dignity? We should fight one on one to our death not using this kind of underhand tactics." Never mind that Kim Dokja, as the 73rd realm demon king, was infamously known for using underhand tactics, and quite frankly, being a hypocrite.
The hero didn't budge from his provocation. No, it was more correct to say that he was too confused to register the insult. His brain was busy processing the words tumbling out from the demon's mouth. He looked puzzled, scrunching his face like a little child trying to understand difficult words.
"I'm not a ghost. I don't possess this body." He finally said, and decided to ignore the rest of the content.
Kim Dokja scoffed, "I know him better than anyone else. There's no way you are him. You suck at imitating him by the way. In fact, are you even trying? He would never make that kind of face, he only had two default mood and that is murder craze bastard mood or resting bitch face mood. And you're neither. So, you better tell me who you are before I blast you to another realm."
The guy scrunched his face even more, but this time, his black eyes became shiny with accumulating tears. He bit his lips and looked away, a slight tint of red adorn his chiselled cheek.
"I... I'm sorry..." He mumbled.
"Finally admitting huh?"
"No!!" He whipped his head back. Their faces only inches apart, the hero had pulled him up his chest. If Kim Dokja relaxed his neck even a little bit, their lips would have met each other.
"I really am not a ghost. I... I.... Don't know what I am!"
Kim Dokja retracted his shocked face for the second time today. "What do you mean by that?"
"I don't know what I am. Or where I am. I don’t even remember my name. The only thing I remember is you, Kim Dokja." He stared earnestly into the demon's eyes, who were still frozen from shock.
"I only remember you..." He repeated softly. "I don't know who you are, but I know for sure, in my heart, you're very important to me. If the only thing I remember is you, then it must be the best indication, right? That's why I keep chasing you. You won't stop flying away even when I called for you. I don't know why you run, but I don't want to be left alone in this unknown world. I only know you. I'm sorry I had to drag you down, but I can't just let you go away before I get to say anything to you."
"Wait wait wait. Slow down!" The demon king interrupted the man before he could continue further, "what you are telling me right now is that you have amnesia?" Yoo Jonghyuk, the hero, the saviour of mankind, demon kings' mortal enemy, nodded at him.
"Well, crap."
Yoo Jonghyuk walked along the high pillars of the castle. He observed this foreign surrounding. 'This place doesn't look familiar at all', he disappointedly thought, 'I wonder if I have ever been here.'
The demon king who had hesitantly brought him here after realizing his predicament provided him a room and left him to do some 'work' as he called it. Yoo Jonghyuk felt depressed just thinking how he got easily abandoned by the man. 'Am I making the right decision? What if this feeling inside my heart is only one sided? What if he hates me and only took pity after I begged him?' he lowered his head, halting from his wandering. His broad figure was hidden by the shadows of the pillars. ' I'm such a fool.' he sighed. 'Maybe I should try my luck somewhere else...'
The reason he went off to wander in the first place was because he wanted to find the demon king again and maybe try to remember anything from the demon king's abode that could help him with his memory. But he didn’t see anything familiar, not even a single living creature. It was like an abandoned old castle. So cold and lonely, 'just like him...' an image of a certain demon king’s back flashed in his mind. 'I wonder what kind of person he is... He's certainly kind if he actually brought an amnesiac guy, he isn't fond of, home.’ Then he added, ‘A weak minded too, for the same reason.'
"Jonghyuk-ah! Where are you?!!" A sudden yell brought him out of his stupor. The voice kept on ringing in the big empty castle, bouncing off the wall and echoing itself across the hall like a mourning ghost finding its long-lost companion. Yoo Jonghyuk hurriedly ran to the source. His running step must have alerted the demon king as he heard a flapping wing coming closer toward him. Just as he rounded the corner, a fuzzy thing enveloped him as a hand shot to grab his collar.
"You bastard, you make me panic again!!" A cute angry face was staring right at him. He couldn't help but crack a smile. 'So, he does care.'
"What so funny?! You could have gotten yourself in trouble, wandering alone like that! What if one of the guests found you and tried to devour you!! With your lack of memory, I doubt you remember how to defend yourself!!" The wings surrounding him flapped incessantly, ruffled by its owner’s disturbed mind.
Yoo Jonghyuk extended his arm and embraced the demon in front of him, "I'm sorry." He whispered to his ear.
"I just wanted to stay by your side." He continued. “So, I’ve been searching for you.”
Kim Dokja's heart skipped a beat. A flustered adorn his pale face. 'This protagonist...' he grudgingly thought, 'Even his speech could have seduced so many people. No wonder he rarely talked. Must have been hard to be born talented in making people fall to their feet with barely any word.'
The demon king didn't realize he had buried his face on the hero's shoulder. Squeezing his collar tighter like he didn't want to let go of it ever again. “You shouldn’t have done that.” He mumbled into the leather coat. “If anything happens to you, I won’t know what I will do. I need you.”
‘You’re my nemesis. I won’t let anyone else get to you first.’ Kim Dokja thought.
‘Does that mean the feelings are mutual?’ thought Yoo Jonghyuk. ‘If so, then I will never let go of him. Never.’ A certain voice deep in his subconscious echoed his decision.