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jungwoo knew for sure that one day he'd meet their young neighbor in person. his name is jaehyun, but jungwoo calls him a sexy neighbor. however, what jungwoo didn’t expect was the way they’d met. jaehyun threw rotten damned eggs at him and peppered his hit with insults on top.
“are you completely insane?! not scared to be caught? have you ever thought about what you're doing? we're your neighbors for fuck’s sake,” jaehyun tosses another egg at jungwoo. it shatters on his arm with a magic bang. it won't be easy to wash away the jacket.
“it’s not even your house!” jungwoo’s voice is indignant. as far as he remembers, jaehyun’s house is across the road. jungwoo made sure he was going to curse their neighbor, who is not sexy as jaehyun.
“it isn’t mine yet! perhaps, later, you’d start to do dirty tricks on me?” jaehyun reached for the last egg that jungwoo had buried so diligently just a moment ago. jungwoo already counted how many curses jaehyun took when he touched eggs - his coven calls them magic balls. bucket list was full: at least three days of diarrhea, morning sickness and a severe migraine in the middle of the night right before going to sleep. jaehyun took it all.
jungwoo didn't even feel sorry for him. the time has come. jungwoo learned curses and had to practice them somewhere and somehow. maybe it was wrong to keep magic balls close in their neighbor, but he has had to see their work! so, jungwoo choose the most unpleasant neighbors, and yes, he knows it isn't an excuse. jung jaehyun decided he could run into jungwoo’s businesses, so he’ll suffer from consequences. it’s his own problem.
phew.
the last ball flies into jungwoo again, but he successfully bats it off. all of a sudden the sound “oi” came from the back, and an egg happened to land right on the mantle of the third person. turns out it was chenle. pale as always, he looked at the stains from the magic and rotten liquid with an unreadable expression.
“oh, i’m sorry,” jaehyun’s face immediately shows remorse. jungwoo huffs, he wasn't granted that puppy eye today. “i didn’t want you to get hurt.”
chenle doesn't even look at him. he immediately shifts his dead gaze to jungwoo.
“what's going on?” he asks in a cold tone.
“well… i was busy with my balls, you do remember,” jungwoo turned red, looking at jae, knowing perfectly well how strange he sounds to him.
chenle looks at jaehyun and raises an eyebrow in disbelief. nothing good should come of it.
“did he touch them?” the younger one asks. technically, only younger, as he looks so. chenle is older than all those present here, maybe for around 5 years. jungwoo doesn’t remember how old he was turned into a vampire. judging by the fact that taeyong still doesn’t let him go far from Coven, chenle is still too young to travel alone in this world.
“his eggs? yes, i did touch it,” jaehyun hisses without blinking. “he buried it in the neighbors' yard. do you think it's ok?”
“you should have chosen a different street,” chenle remarks calmly, and then walks up to jaehyun and hits him on the forehead with an open palm. “sleep.”
jaehyun wakes up from this nightmare with a headache and frantically looks around his room. dark, damp, no one was around. he lives in a house only with sicheng, whose bedroom is on the first floor, and nothing can be heard from there either.
a weird dream. very realistic. jaehyun is unable to think for a long time and returns to sleep.
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ten looks at jungwoo with the most deadpan expression and repeats the question one more time:
“you let jaehyun lift your balls? touch it. knowing that he would be cursed?”
“i didn’t know he’s so stubborn,” jungwoo admits. “if fate sent him to take my balls, then, i mean, it was necessary, right?”
"don't justify your own stupidity with fate," johnny remarks intelligently, not looking up from reading the newspaper. ten smiles affectionately at his husband and then looks at jungwoo unperturbed again.
“if something would happen to him, it will be entirely your fault,” he warns. “i won't deal with your problems just because you're a member of my coven.”
“he's not a member yet,” jaemin pouts.
“officially,” jungwoo retorts. “as soon as i’d find a way to unlock the powers… will i get a chance for initiation?”
“if doyoung will also agree,” ten nods. “apparently, your powers need some special way. i opened my power after dealing with a demon,” ten throws his hand at johnny, who chuckles at this, “ doyoung killed his lover.”
“i'm still alive,” taeyong snorts from the other side of the house. “it was an accident, we didn’t know i would die.”
“and still you did die,” jaemin concludes.
“we are bound for eternity by the marriage of the soul. he doesn't age and neither do i. he is a vampire, i am a human,” doyoung enters the room with an old book by his chest. “not the worst end of a story”.
"if not me, he wouldn't be a vampire,'' johnny points out. “he would just die and go to the fields of asmodeus. so don't be too proud. killing a loved one in exchange of gain witch power is the worst way.”
jaemin is silent when older witches talks their stories. he revealed his power at the same moment as he received it, cause he accidentally fell into a puddle of a unicorn piss and drank water from there. he keep it as secret and tried as much as possible not to tell anyone the story of his witchy beginning, out of shame, but jungwoo already knew everything.
their argument about “what is the worst way to open the begin of the witch's” is interrupted by an annoying knock. and the doorbell after it.
today is a full moon.
“jeno!” jaemin jumps up and rushes to the front door.
a grumpy werewolf really sits on the doorstep, next to him is the tall figure of their neighbor jung jaehyun. his arms folded across chest and his eyes fully squinted.
ten waltzes to the entrance, where jaemin already on his knees clutching jeno's shaggy withers and cooing soothing words about how jeno should not run out of the house during a full moon.
“your dog's name is jeno?” jaehyun wonders instead of greeting. “i thought that was the name of the guy… who also lives here,” jaehyun gets even more confused than before. no one condemns him for having a broken brain. too many people live in this house. “anyway. i found him in the middle of the street. he was very frightened and in torn clothes. maybe someone tried to kidnap him? he’s a very beautiful dog, it’d be true.”
jeno really was very pretty dog in his wolf form: gray and white fur, bright green eyes, and a pink nose that jaemin kissing right in front of whole coven, but jeno just unbotheredly lick him after every kiss.
“technically it’s a wolf,” ten said and smiled. “thanks for bringing him. how are you?”
ten wouldn't be a witch if he didn't do a quick check on jaehyun's condition. he touched three magic balls, but judging by his appearance, none of them affected him. which is almost impossible, considering that ten himself tested jungwoo's magic before letting him curse people.
“uhm- okay,” jaehyun mutters. “isn't it dangerous to keep a wolf in the house?”
jaemin laughs, raising his head.
“he’s a pet!” he said happily and dragged jeno into the house behind them. “come on, jeno, we're not welcome here.”
“we would love to get rid of the dog, but he and jaemin are inseparable. we have no other choice,” ten calmly notices. “are you sure everything is fine? do nightmares bother you? strange dreams?”
ten and jaehyun have known each other for a long time. ever since jaehyun had just moved to this town away from civilization. jaehyun's best friend sicheng suffered from a terrible allergy, and they could no longer live in the capital city. they had to choose a more or less developed tourist town: there is everything you need, including the internet, as well as places where you can relax and there full of young people.
jaehyun thinks and shakes his head.
“i had a strange dream, to be honest, but,” he says. “do you want to talk? for this it is not necessary to invite me to a tarot session, you know?”
johnny laughs out loud from behind ten and walks to the door, hugging his husband from behind. jaehyun smiles at him in greeting.
“ten is just worried that something might happen to you. they say there's a lunatic who's throwing damned eggs around here.”
jaehyun stares at one to the other in a daze, like he thinks they're mocking him, retelling the weirdest dream he's ever had.
“dizziness, nausea?” ten asks again but jaehyun shakes his head. “strange- that is, it's good! the lunar cycle greatly affects all of nature. come again-”
“johnny!” a heart-rending scream from the up floor and loud footsteps on the stairs attract the attention of the whole trinity at the door. “i accidentally turned hands into a tree!”
“whose hands?” john turns to screams without surprise.
jisung stops in the middle of the stairs and hides his palms behind his back, looking fearfully at jaehyun, who's eyes widened at what he saw. hands of the young guy really turned into a tree, as if overgrown with the bark of an old oak.
“understood,” johnny kissed ten on the cheek. “i'll deal with it.”
“i-” jaehyun starts and ten pushes him out the door with his hand, blocking the view of the house.
"it's just makeup," ten says quickly. “nevermind, jisung has naughty hands.”
“i didn't even know you had more kids. that pale boy. chenle, right?”
ten grimaces at his guess, then shakes his head. even the thought of chenle as his child seems ridiculous.
“oh no, lele is a pupil of taeyong and doyoung,” he protests. “on my shoulders only jungwoo now. jaemin is an independent guy. and jisung… well, we look after him, but he is also more attached to jaemin than to me.”
“looks like a homeless shelter,” jaehyun says honestly.
ten laughs at his words, but he doesn't mind. this is what it looks like for mortals. for a coven, this kind of pack in one house is something usual. a bunch of magical creatures live together under one roof. this is safer, considering how many other wizards want to take away the strength and power of their colleagues. ten’s coven is one of the best in the world, there is a huge weight in their words and many would like to get here.
john and ten know how to select really talented characters. the most powerful witches were always around, and other magical spawn fell by chance. how it was with jeno that jaemin picked up in the forest on a full moon when jaemin thought someone's dog got lost. since then they have been inseparable. the wolf was already strongly attached to the young witch.
doyoung is another powerful witch who got into the coven first. ten tried to help taeyong and doyoung, as one of the lovers was dying. doyoung did not have enough strength to save taeyong. they eventually received help from johnny, the demon of death, who makes deals with charon. this deal cost a lot for ten since they got engaged. and happily married for over two hundred years.
chenle is taeyong's mistake. he accidentally turned boy when chenle fell off a cliff and nearly met his death. taeyong still blames himself a lot for this. lele himself is grateful. if it wasn't for taeyong's bloodlust, he would have died bleeding on some rock high up in the mountains.
jaemin found jisung when he was testing his witch senses. a boy from a local city, dweller who has always been an absolutely ordinary child, if not for jaemin's look at him. “something is wrong with him,” he said. "his abilities will be revealed." and then it opened up. jisung burned down his house. fortunately, there was no one inside. his powers are uncontrollable bursts of the elements. water, then fog, then air, then fire. now here is the tree.
among the magical non-residents of the house were also xiaojun and yangyang, but their story is completely sad.
ten smiles reassuringly at jaehyun.
“we just like living together more. you also live with a friend. right?” he was interested in it. “sicheng?”
“yes, i do,” at his mention, jaehyun starts to smile.
ten once again examines jaehyun for magical footprints and they are right there. everything from the sicheng. he does not know what nonsense he told his friend to move to the countryside, but ten is surprised how long druid was able to live away from the forest. now sicheng is the main healer and doctor in the town.
jaehyun has another job. he works either remotely or helps local residents set up satellite communications.
“that's all, there are no other reasons. house is big, it will accommodate a lo-o-ot of people.”
jaehyun looks around the building.
"doesn't look that big," he chuckles. his own house here looks bigger.
“our fortress is like a tent from harry potter. big inside, small outside.”
“funny,” jaehyun chuckles. but ten does not laugh, as if this is not a joke.
that’s what really makes jaehyun get scared. house of lee-suh family is old, almost ancient. on a high hill, the highest point of the city. there is only forest around, the clearing closer to the end of a town, and the river at the bottom of a hill is completely dotted with moonlight at night. around is only silence, trees and almost no people. only those who believe in magic often found themselves near this house. jaehyun knew ten was doing something like tarot and healing potions. but he himself trusted only science.
“you can go,” ten pats him on the shoulder. “if something happens, you can always contact us.”
“nothing should happen…” jaehyun grumbles under his breath, but leaves meekly.
ten looks after him and wonders how lucky he is that he didn’t pick up a curse? it's almost impossible, but sicheng couldn’t take them off. something was wrong in jaehyun, ten felt. and he didn't feel the desire to open pandora’s box.
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ten realizes something is wrong with jaehyun for sure. not because he happens to be at their house too often, but… at first he brings herbs from sicheng, another time he fixes the antenna, the third time he asks johnny for help with some kind of tool around the house. this is really weird. even stranger, how the signs of magic are more and more clearly can be read on him. it is no longer pollen from a sneeze, but distinct pieces, as if he is collecting more and more of it on himself every day, accumulating. if it goes on like this, then soon he himself will not be visible.
however, ten only realizes on saturday night the seriousness of the situation when he, jungwoo, and jaemin meet jaehyun and sicheng for a week-long grocery shopping at the market.
ten is already smiling and waving in the direction of the 97 year old besties when jaemin abruptly grabs his other hand and squeezes it hard.
“do you… d-do you see it too?” he trembles.
jaemin na was not a shy witch. he once dragged three demons back to hell on his own, and he also gagged THE lucifer when he came to drink with johnny for jesus' birthday. he's definitely not shy. however, now his trembling through the body was transmitted even to ten through the air of the musty store.
“what?” jungwoo asks, blinking rapidly.
jaemin looks at him and squeals as he jumps up, dragging his arm down.
“it's time! we gotta go! let's shop later!” jaemin screams.
jaehyun and sicheng, noticing movement in the group of people and the fear in the eyes of jaemin in front of them, stopping on their place and do not move. ten nods goodbye to them, leaves a full basket of food and leads jungwoo and jaemin back to the car.
johnny is surprised that they come without groceries.
“you really didn't see it?” jaemin asks when they are in the car where they won't be heard. “johnny, go faster, please.”
“what were we supposed to see?” jungwoo asks, peering at him.
"you couldn't see it anyway," the younger waved it off. “ten?”
“if you are talking about sicheng, then he is a druid and will not bring us any inconvenience. i have known him for long. he’s nice. nothing like mavka that wanted to eat chenle’s soul last time.”
“sicheng is a druid?!” woo genuinely is surprised.
“why i’m not surprised you are blind, deaf and without taste,” johnny looks at him in the rear mirror. “as usual.”
“i’m not talking about sicheng, i am aware of him. i regularly buy soothing herbs from him.”
“doja, you mean,” prompts johnny.
“soothing,” jaemin hits the back of john's seat, “herbs.”
“if only you and jeno smoked it not in the attic, then i would not have said that.”
“so that's where the smell of burning comes from!” jungwoo turns to jaemin with an unhappy face. “i thought it was jisung!”
“and who is the third who takes a sedative with them, in your opinion?” ten also grins in the rear-view mirror. johnny squeezes his hand on the gearbox. “jaemin, what did you see? describe it in more detail.”
one of the features of jaemin's magic is to see it everywhere. he does not distinguish between werewolves or vampires, creatures that owe magic to their form, but do not carry a drop of it in themselves. but with other things he can smell even the slightest way of magic.
“jaehyun, he's mortal, right?” jaemin asks. ten hoots. “he's full of magic. as if he had accumulated it from someone. something.”
“i also noticed it…” ten thinks. “but if it's from a sicheng-”
“no, something else.”
“my balls?” jungwoo suggested.
“it’s not a curse,” jaemin shakes his head. “but it definitely has something to do with you. there was some kind of golden thread between him and you.”
johnny brakes sharply in the middle of the road and almost drives off into a ditch instead of carefully parked. ten keeps balance with both hands in place, as if he is about to fly to hell out of the passenger seat. jaemin and jungwoo bang their foreheads against the front seats in unison.
“repeat?” suh turns to the youngest with a stony expression.
“there is a golden thread between jungwoo and jaehyun-” jaemin notices frightenedly, holding his forehead and pressing himself into the chair from johnny's terrifying figure. he seemed ready to devour a petty witch here and now. even his demonic essence wakes up: his eyes sparkle in the darkness of the car with a red gleam. “is this bad?”
john looks at jungwoo, clicks his tongue, and then looks at ten and reaches out to kiss him.
“sorry,” he remarks, “i scared you. just... second time... i couldn’t do the same deal.”
“we'll think of something,” ten says encouragingly and smiles at him. then he turns to jungwoo. “let's talk at home. jaemin,” he looks at him, “everything will be fine, don't worry. we need to check something.”
“can i help?” na is interested in.
ten shakes his head. no one is going to help jungwoo. just demons or… the god.
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the library in their house is the most spacious and dusty room. high windows, moonlight and huge magical luminous balls. with three more witches and one vampire in the room. the local demon decided that it was none of his business.
“the golden thread between you and jaehyun can only mean one thing: your souls are connected. rather, the soul of jaehyun is forever betrothed to the soul of an ancient witch who was reborn in your body. well, it’s you.”
this story is almost identical to the story of doyoung and taeyong. with one small detail.
“does that mean we're connected?” jungwoo realizes. ten nods. “and what does it mean?”
“that only jaehyun can open your powers,” ten notes sadly.
jungwoo really wanted to finally open the magic in himself to the maximum. all the power of his abilities seemed to be contained inside him and did not know where to break out. sometimes it hurt jungwoo when tried to cast a powerful spell, but it just shrunk and did not work. it's like he was not being able to remember a word that's on his tongue. so close yet so far away. jungwoo knew everything, he knew that he would succeed, only he had to unscrew the faucet harder. and he didn't turn around with the opportunity to do so.
“and how to do it?” jungwoo is keenly interested.
“witches are cursed with three soul bonds: lust, hate, and falling in love. if you were cursed in the first place, then you need to sleep with jaehyun. if the latter, you will have to kill him. and if the third,” doyoung smiles, “fall in love with him, and then kill him.”
jungwoo thinks.
“purely statistically, most likely, will he have to be killed?” he asks.
“oh, not at all,” ten snorts. “the curse of hatred is difficult, and the curse of falling in love is almost impossible. and- you have to really piss off someone powerful to be cursed like this,” he says, looking reproachfully at doyoung. he blushes and looks up at the ceiling. “kimdo angered the priestess of delphi in his first reincarnation. i don’t even want to know how many times he died without revealing his powers, and how many times taeyong died, too, without finding him.”
“a lot…” vampire whispers, as if he remembers every death. doyoung takes his hand.
“then, lust?” jungwoo offers.
“his cock is your key to magic,” ten nods and smiles. “i will do a hypnosis session with jaehyun. he’ll try to remember his past life and then i will give you the exact answer.”
doyoung waves his hand and looks at jungwoo, raising an eyebrow.
“what do you feel for him now?”
jungwoo shrugs.
“nothing…”
“he constantly called him "sexy neighbor". i bet a hundred, it's lust.”
“yes, i would prefer it to be lust myself,” ten jokes. “one death in the house is enough for me.”
john's demonic eyes appear on the doors to the room.
“hey. i retired.”
“i’m sorry, love,” ten blows a kiss to him and the demon’s eyes disappear.
jungwoo and jaehyun don't have the best history of first impressions. they could hardly be described as friends. even if jaehyun thinks their first face to face meeting is just a dream. jungwoo doesn't see any chance to open his magic with jaehyun's help.
“what if the curse would be broken?” jungwoo asks.
doyoung laughs out loud.
“do you think that the one who put it on you is so weak that his curse will break? i beg you, pardon.” he snorts. “jaehyun's soul has been reborn like this for hundreds of years, just like yours. nothing changed. fate always pushes you together at the right time. humble yourself. fuck him or kill him, i don't know.”
“fall in love and kill,” taeyong supports his lover, smiling reassuringly. “and you will have such strength that you will be able to conjure another hundred years and live in clover.”
“or i'll just become a vampire and live forever.”
“it won't work, you know,” ten shakes his head. “unless you link life with the demon of death.”
“i'm not that crazy.”
“hmm”, ten doesn’t agree.
witches are not able to become "different". the life of a vampire is contraindicated for them, because poison simply will not work in their body, and the vampire himself will be poisoned by their blood. witches won't be able to become a werewolf, because transformation will be a simple cold, magic will drive the curse out of their body. the only option: spells. but those need the support of a demon from the other side. making friends with the demon of death is difficult, and it is almost impossible to fall in love with him. ten miraculously coped.
jungwoo realizes that if his soul hasn't been able to do something with curse for thousands of centuries, then he can not, too. here the choice is either to ignore or use the opportunity. envious people like to confine the awakening of the witch's power to restrictions so that fewer sorcerers can use their powers.
there was a plus.
with each reborn of a soul, the power of the witch accumulates and becomes greater. jungwoo, although he could not use his magic to its fullest, felt that he had a huge potential that could wipe entire cities off the face of the earth, as well as build new ones.
he still hasn't chosen the direction he'll pursue after the reveal. from a moral point of view, white magic is more pleasant, and on the other hand, black magic opens up more opportunities. it's too early for him to think about it.
he still has to deal with jaehyun.
ten is fast in his decisions. he invites jaehyun under the pretext of fixing antennas, and he comes on a day off, says that everything is fine and he was called in vain, but he doesn’t even get angry. ten then drugs him with soothing tea and with the help of a chenle that disables jaehyun in a vampire way, ten puts him into a trance in his sleep and they travel through jaehyun's past lives.
not for long. literally three seconds into the process ten shouts “oh my god” and then “no!” and “what is he doing?... ahh!” and opens his eyes.
“it's definitely lust!” he concludes, his cheeks blushing more than jungwoo has ever seen in his life. “it’s only three lives, jungwoo, but you’re in each…” ten sucks in a ferocious breath through his nose. “and jaehyun- what he did with you. did! awful, just awful!”
ten rises and flies away to wipe his eyes with alcohol after what he saw in his head.
chenle dutifully stays in the library and looks at woo.
“should i leave you two?” he asks calmly, hands clasped behind his back.
“what do you mean?” jungwoo grimaces, guessing the context.
“well…” chenle looks up, “you will reveal your witch power or…”
“right now?!” woo shouts.
“what are you waiting for?” chenle calmly answers and gets a cushion in the face. intentionally, of course. jungwoo knows chenle could very well catch it. “okay, so i have to wake him up.”
jungwoo spreads his arms and looms over jaehyun, chenle stops beside him. and does nothing. he looks at the witch again.
“are you sure?”
“chenle, i won't rape him.”
“he won't even know.” vampire justifies himself and gets slapped on the back of the head. “okay, okay, i get it.”
chenle was a pupil of the early 00s, where alcohol was a good reason to be guilty if something happened to you. jungwoo tried to re-educate him, but it didn’t work out very well.
vampire touches jaehyun's forehead and he twitches sharply, slowly opening his eyes.
“jaehyun?” jungwoo calls out to him cautiously, hovering over jaehyun in line of sight. boy's pupils darting from side to side until he gets frightened again, staring at jungwoo with five cent size eyes. “you fell down the stairs and get hit hard. headache may be with you the whole day, but ten has already given you a painkiller and a compress, you should feel better.”
“i need to go to the hospital,” jaehyun tries to get up, but jungwoo’s hand holds him in place and, surprisingly, he doesn’t really move on.
“we’d called sicheng, he said that he didn’t need you there, so we acted according to instructions,” chenle notices, and then looks at the door. “i'll bring herbal tea.”
vampire winks at jungwoo and, without jaehyun noticing, he hits him on the shoulder, turning on his toes. jungwoo exhales angrily, looking at his back. he definitely felt that sharp look on himself.
jaehyun clears his throat and hisses at the pain in his head as he tries to change position. jungwoo carefully sits down next to him and offers him a glass of water. jaehyun does not refuse, but does not want to look at him either.
“my name is jungwoo,” younger remarks, running his hand over his neck. cold creeps over it. jaehyun is the one with whom jungwoo’s soul is connected, and for some reason he did not feel it at all. it always seemed to him that he could notice someone who is so important to his essence. nothing. only sympathy, but he felt it for many people in his life. “i weren’t properly introduced to you.”
“i know who you are,” jaehyun remarks and hands the glass back, finally making eye contact. “i've seen you in my dream. once. not my best sleep,” he remarks. “after it, i had the same feeling as now... maybe i'm sleeping again?”
jungwoo takes his hand and pulls the skin back a little, pinching.
“painfully?” he asks.
“not much,” jaehyun shakes his head, raising the corner of his lip in a smirk and resting hand on his knee. “i must have hit my head pretty hard. before you woke me up i had many dreams. lots of. you were in every one of those.”
jungwoo bites his lip to keep himself from laughing and asks rather politely:
“and what did i do there?”
“doesn’t matter,” tips of jae’s ears turn red and he clears his throat before speaking in a more stable voice, “judging by the fact that we are just talking now, this is reality, not a dream.”
jungwoo smiles softly, nodding.
“did you like these dreams?” he continued to wonder.
“i had a good but shameful feeling,” jaehyun shrugs. “it was so weird. i seemed to be switching from one life to another in a second. in each of my lifes you and i were different, but i understood- i, it's me. and you, it's you. we were inseparable. we'll meet again. so weird…” jaehyun looks up at him with bright brown eyes. “i just met you, but after these dreams it seems that i’ve known you for eternity.”
oh, if only he knew the truth. jungwoo pursues his lips and rises. maybe wine and dine jaehyun wouldn't be as difficult as he thought, because the whole image of him that he had seen before was made up of the first impression.
jungwoo saw jaehyun as gloomy, arrogant and rude. he raised his eyebrows when he drinks, when he eats, when he looked at the pigeons flying away from fast gait, and even when he looked at sicheng (his best friend). it although created a wrinkle between his eyebrows, but he still looked pretty, to be honest.
and now, alone, sleepy jaehyun with pain and fog in his head after vampire hypnosis is very soft and defenseless, like any mortal that jungwoo knows. he did not like mortals, he had no love for them. they were stupid and blind, ignored supernatural things, and those who believed still could not see half of the magic. their eyes did not perceive it. jungwoo, even if he fell in love with someone, simply could not show them even half of his abilities.
he decides to check if jaehyun is special.
illusion magic is the most interesting of all that jungwoo has studied. he is not yet able to create separate universes and move people there or something like that. but a small room is quite subject to him. if jaehyun is special, he will understand that it is something unnatural.
alas, jaehyun doesn't understand. when the stars appear in the room and the green dragon flies around it, when the books turn into meteorites and it surrounds them, jaehyun opens his mouth in awe and is frightened by the small rabbit in his ear then jungwoo sighs with relief. maybe jaehyun is the one who unlocks his power. but not the one who will stay with him until the end of his days. jaehyun doesn’t understand that is magic.
jungwoo puts him to bed and jaehyun says “so this is another dream. dream within a dream. and in it, you again. jungwoo… jungwoo-woo-woo-woo-woo” and closes his eyes, thinking that from this dream he is falling into another one.
this time jungwoo has no idea what jaehyun is dreaming about. but the smile on his lips is soft so maybe it is something nice.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡.｡.: *･゜‘∀･*:.｡. .｡.: *･゜ﾟ･*
jaehyun wakes up with a fever. his body didn't seem to rest this time. he jumped from dream to dream, falling into another sex trip with a man he had seen three times in his life before. the penultimate dream was pretty cute, jungwoo was asking him stupid questions and jaehyun was embarrassed and then the universe opened up for him and he fell asleep again.
the last dream out of all was the strangest. he would prefer another one where he is between the legs of a blond-almost-stranger-but-not-so-much-now.
in this last dream johnny, ten's husband, stared at him for more than three minutes and even when jaehyun wanted to say something, he didn't make a sound. then suh sighed and clasped his hands leaning towards him, resting his elbows on knees.
“and what i should do with you?” he asks rhetorically. “i like you, jung jaehyun, but not a single soul rested because of the curse.”
“curses?” jaehyun doesn't understand what he’s talking about.
“and i can’t kick jungwoo out… terrible,” john shakes his head, then raises his head to the ceiling. “do you know what a deal with the devil is?.. of course not. if you promise me that you won't go crazy after hooking up with jungwoo, then you have to keep this promise. otherwise, i will take your soul and send you to hell. and hell is better than wandering on earth for years, because your lover is not yet dead, and without him you cannot be reborn.”
jaehyun doubts that hell is worse than earth.
“it's cool in hell, you could even become a demon. i would put in a good word for you.”
jaehyun tries to ignore this dream but johnny doesn't go anywhere and then looks back at him and his eyes are red and yellow. like a dragon from a dream with jungwoo.
“you will go crazy, jaehyun, one way or another. but a deal with me will save you, ok?” john smiles and holds out his hand. “you will become a ghost and you will wander the earth for at least three hundred years and no one will see you except me and other demons or ghosts. demons will mock you, and other ghosts can't talk. just like you are now. and in hell… you have a perspective. then you’d return to earth already as a demon, jungwoo can be with you forever. your love will be... eternal. like me and ten. your souls will remain bound.”
jaehyun doesn't understand why he should be persuaded by this. he doesn't care about shit.
john clicks his tongue.
“you’ll understand later,” he says. “agree, jae. hell is your new heaven.”
in sunday school jaehyun was told never to make a deal with the devil. the same one he wants to do now. the currency of hell is the soul. and jaehyun has only one coin. well… becoming a demon and living forever isn't so bad?
so jaehyun holds out johnny his hand, shaking, and johnny pulls him sharply towards and kisses passionately.
deals are sealed with a kiss.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡.｡.: *･゜‘∀･*:.｡. .｡.: *･゜ﾟ･*
“can’t believe you make out with jaeyhun before me!” jungwoo said loudly in the middle of the kitchen, what doesn’t make everything better.
ten glares at johnny because of an incident between him and jaehyun. even though john’s ashamed, he understands that it was for the better and it was impossible to do otherwise. his husband waits for an apology, he apologizes in every possible way and tries to find the right words, but, oh well, it wouldn’t be ten if he won’t make any scene.
“you promised that you would retire,” ten calmly said.
“i did it for jungwoo, i want save his life. i want make safe our lifes”, johnny points.
“you promised,” ten insists.
“so, you would rather have jaehyun’s ghost running around after woo as a puppy in our house?” johnny whines. “ten, sweety, it doesn’t mean anything-”
“you retired because i didn't like you kissing for making deals. now, two hundred years later, you did it again, demon john jun yeongho suh. you, as usual, justified your title of the devil.”
johnny looks at jungwoo for support. jungwoo just shrugs. he didn't ask for help. he doesn't care at all what happens to jaehyun after their mating. jungwoo is aware that if jaehyun’s soul is bound to him then on their first contact - which will release his powers - jung's mortal mind will not withstand the strain. he'll either go crazy or he'll recoil altogether. and there are many mortals, they are the bargaining chip of this world. their life, their purity is just a way, a currency to achieve goals.
jungwoo had killed people before, he had stolen their souls, it was nothing special. he helped chenle to hunt people, bad people, of course, but they were still humans, raised by their parents, taught to walk when they were small as a chair. they hunted people who studied physics at school, cried because of the deuce and put an end to life when they did not enter the university. they were humans who became thieves just to survive or killers because their emotions took over their bodies.
they were mortals, but jungwoo wasn’t. this is the difference. he is different, they would call him special when he won’t even dare to call them such.
“tenny, please, i just want to save woo…” johnny continues to make excuses. he kneels in front of his husband and takes his hands. it’s already good, ten doesn’t pull them out. “i couldn’t ask another demon to do it, they shouldn’t know about this. this is a scam. and there was no time. even lucifer couldn’t help me with this. you know him. if i had asked taeil, he would not agree to help me. it is dangerous at least. i play with devils, with the king of hell.”
“jungwoo didn’t ask you,” ten whispers. his eyes are filled with pain from the betrayal he experienced. john broke a two hundred year old promise. destroyed the reason why they once have agreed to be together.
“you've seen the things i've seen,” john whispers and quickly snaps his fingers.
an invisible force carries jungwoo out the door with his loud scream flying through the whole house and out. he can survive it.
“jugwoo’ll fall in love as soon as jaehyun dies,” john continues, still quiet so that jungwoo doesn’t know his future. “he won't love him until he loses him. it is jungwoo who will go crazy from loneliness, from the fact that he will not have the opportunity to get close to his beloved. they are cursed to live at the same time, but at different levels of perception. jungwoo in the human world, jaehyun in the world of damned. they can be together while jungwoo has no power and jaehyun is in love with him to the point of madness. this is a complex curse, it can only be removed by breaking the law of the universe. only if jaehyun dies and becomes a demon. fate, finally, after thousands of years, dozens of rebirths of this couple, brought them together with us. we are the only ones who can help them. i know it,” john kisses ten’s brushes, pronouncing the words further, “and you too, my love. fate brought us all together for a reason this time. we should try to break their curse like we gave happiness to doyoung and taeyong. i'm sorry i didn't tell you beforehand. there was no time and i acted quickly. i only thought about helping them, nothing else.”
“john…” ten shakes his head and finally smiles, forgiving his husband. “after meeting me, you begin to forget that you are a demon. demons don't save mortal souls... they take them to hell. torture them for the pleasure of god.”
“you made a fallen angel out of a demon. you're a witch, tenny, the best of them. the greatest.”
ten leans down and gives john a short kiss on the lips.
“i’d always choose you, john.”
“i’ve chosen you every time before,” demon agrees.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡.｡.: *･゜‘∀･*:.｡. .｡.: *･゜ﾟ･*
saturday is a day for working hours at the gas station. jungwoo worked there once a week for a 12 hour shift. so much time for only one reason: forest gnomes. these little assholes refused to get any closer to the city than after this gas station. they needed certain ingredients for potions from another area of a wood, where they could not come, because elves liked their little fat toes too much. especially how they are crunched with maple sauce, if you make jelly out of them or marinate under the grill. in general, elves hunted them.
therefore, ten’s coven in deals with the gnomes, gave them the necessary substances. gnomes gave their personal potions to coven’s personal use and it was a wonderful relationship that witches and forest magic things could have between.
however, they could only meet at the gas station on saturday.
it was a brilliant plan. if jungwoo would randomly appear in the forest at the side of the city once a week, locals could ask why he does it. now he got a job here. so, during his shift, he pretended to smoke in the forest away from the fuel, and made exchanges with gnomes. wonderfull. he also has a salary of human money and did not even have to conjure it once again.
that day everything was as usual, except for the fact that a new car arrived at the gas station, which woo easily recognized. jaehyun. he was the only one in this shitty town who drove last model of gray mercedes. if jaehyun wants to show off in the small village he just could just buy a tesla at this point. sadly jaemin already had it (they don’t discuss this).
jaehyun first pretends to be interested in the soap bubbles at the back of the market, as if someone would actually buy it there. and then nevertheless heads to the counter, where he throws two chocolate bars and asks to fill a full tank. jungwoo nods and then they start waiting for the gas to fill up.
“so…” jaehyun scratches his chin. “how are you?”
jungwoo looks up and blinks in surprise.
“good,” he replies. if jaehyun is waiting for him to ask something else then jungwoo won’t.
“how is ten? is the tv working properly?”
“yes, you have magic fingers... hands, i mean. i wanted to say that you are a great master,” jungwoo blushes, but not as much as jaehyun’s ears after his words. “do your dreams still bother you?”
jaehyun rubs his red ear in confusion.
“dreams?” he wonders.
“well, yes… remember? you said you dreamed of me?”
“when?”
“well…” jungwoo remembers that jaehyun still don’t know they have met each other. “ah… probably ten mentioned it. didn’t you tell him about your dream with me? where i threw eggs at you. not the best acquaintance then,” jungwoo extends his hand across the counter. “my name is jungwoo.”
“jaehyun,” jae takes his hand and squeezes gently. “when does your shift end, jungwoo?”
kim bats his eyelashes, dumbfounded by the question.
“fifteen minutes. the night guy is already here.”
“oh that’s good,” jaehyun smiles as if he didn’t come on purpose right now. “i'm going back to the city and can give you a lift. i'll be waiting for your shift to end, jungwoo. and don't even think about refusing me!”
jungwoo didn’t intend to, it’s even better for him. well… actually in any other situation, jungwoo would have already kicked jaehyun in the head for such impudence, where he was not given a choice: to go with him or on his own. but he gives it a chance. just for this time.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡.｡.: *･゜‘∀･*:.｡. .｡.: *･゜ﾟ･*
jungwoo thought it would be hard to win jaehyun, but he was very, very wrong.
as soon as they happened to be alone in the car, jungwoo hints that he is hungry, and they go to a local roadside cafe where coffee is free, but sausages are very expensive. jungwoo orders food and offers to pay for everything since jaehyun is giving him a ride home, but jaehyun refuses and says that he brought jungwoo here, he invites, which means he pays. also, jungwoo should keep the money for their next date.
“what makes you think that we will meet a second time?” jungwoo jokes.
“i know myself,” jaehyun smiles.
at any other time, jungwoo would have shut up a smug guy with a couple of bewitches. might be it looks adorable to other people, but jungwoo really hasn’t interest in jaehyun. he only needs one thing. and it's literally his dick. jungwoo isn't quite ready for this kind of enlightenment, but he doesn't really have a choice, as he get it, so he take his fate as it is. dull, unhappy and cursed.
in general, as jungwoo reassured himself, jaehyun was not the worst option. jungwoo could actually unlock his power just by sneezing in the right way. or he could literally never open it, because jungwoo and jaehyun were born at different times. he is sure that it has already happened once. something from his memories of the past calls to him with longing about it.
jungwoo smiles sweetly at the waiter when he puts their orders between him and jaehyun. the server makes a mistake and puts dishes on the wrong sides. boys rearrange it on their own and start casual conversation after a light laugh. jaehyun talks about work, jungwoo says he's working with ten and still doesn't know if he'll stay here for long.
“you moved because of the sicheng?” woo’s surprised. jaehyun nods. “are you two… just friends?”
jaehyun got water running through his nose when he heard the guess in jungwoo's voice.
“exclusively,” he shakes his head. “this weirdo needs an eye and an eye. well, i'm also tired of the hustle and bustle of the city. sometimes i miss walking distance to the cinema or huge supermarkets, but here i have high-speed internet and cheap snacks.”
jungwoo smiles at him the way people look at approval, but he finds jaehyun’s speech boring and monotonous. they are so different that it's hard to imagine that their lives could somehow be connected. jungwoo is a witch. has potential in black magic, which he studied so actively and to which his heart lay. jaehyun is a druid's best friend, helping everyone around him, sometimes even for free. and yes, he's cute as hell.
no matter how hilarious it was, jungwoo’s soul does not lie to jaehyun. even when they are already full and leave the cafe, and jaehyun boldly takes his hand. even when at the house jaehyun walks out jungwoo and leads him to the door. nothing happens in his heart. jaehyun was a sexy neighbor and still is.
their second date is already more formal and interesting. jaehyun calls jungwoo to the lawn near ten's house. fairies often collect pollen there, but it’s already cold enough for them, so jungwoo is sure that no one will interfere them. even water by the river, which runs at the bottom of the meadow, will not let mavkas and mermaids come to them. they are safe.
jaehyun brings hot tea, which is clearly prepared by sicheng, because it contains the herb from the evil eye and against demons and vampires. jungwoo takes a spare blanket with him and it is really useful, they take cover with it and watch the surroundings: water below, a star above and grass around. the silence is so loud that jungwoo can clearly hear his own heartbeat. maybe jaehyun’s too.
“do you believe in fate?” jungwoo asks.
jaehyun chuckles.
“i didn’t believe in it before,” he shakes his head. “it seems to me that there are no predestinations, no higher power. i don't believe in supernatural things. but recently i thought that maybe fate exists. just not the way i imagined it.”
“what has changed?” jungwoo is surprised and puts a mug full of warm drink to his lips.
“i met you,” jaehyun turns to him and smiles softly. then he lowers his gaze and with a sigh, as if he had kept the information in himself for a thousand years, takes jungwoo’s hand. “sounds weird and wild, i know, but i dreamed about you,” he squeezes jungwoo’s fingers and raises his eyes again, becoming serious, but not losing his gentleness, “many times, very many. the day i fell down the stairs, i dreamed of you more than 10 times and all dreams were so realistic. some scary, others... spicy. in each of these dreams, no matter how terrible it was, i always felt that i would never want it to be different. even when i was dying a painful death, i did not regret it. i did not want to change fate, i accepted it. death greeted me like an old friend.”
jungwoo bites his lip.
“what if i told you that these are not dreams?” he carefully clarifies.
“i would believe it,” jaehyun says confidently. “dream’s were so... realistic that it feels like that it was me, real me, just in another time or in another universe. sorry. it sound stupid.”
it isn't for jungwoo, but he won’t amend him.
“what if you had to die because of me again, but now?” he asks instead.
jaehyun thinks for a few seconds.
“you can't escape fate, right?” he finally says, peering into the cold, raging water at the bottom of the valley. “if it was repeated nine times, it would be repeated a tenth time. it's not in my power. i will accept this scenario. i will die again because of you, jungwoo, and i will not regret it.”
jungwoo thinks that there is nothing romantic about dying for love. but he holds back and turns jaehyun's chin towards him.
“then you will die again,” he announces, looking directly into his eyes.
“just let me enjoy some more time with you,” jaehyun whispers and looks at his lips.
jungwoo feels power over him and this is not a spell, not magic, which is doubly pleasant. he smirks and leans in, leaving a clean kiss on his plump lips that he hasn't given anyone before.
somewhere inside jungwoo realizes that he should feel goosebumps, running electricity from the desire to continue kissing, from the way jaehyun's hands squeeze his legs and pull him closer. he must feel it all, his mind must turn inside. he realizes how it should be, but does not receive even half of these emotions in reality thinking only about his blooming powers. he feels it, not love or adoration for jae. he feels how witch inside him buzzing, ready to go and fly, but it can’t. one kiss is not enough. just kissing is not enough.
it's nice, yes. it is interesting. but only jaehyun moans in pleasure as his lips sink lower. only jaehyun whines the name as he confesses to the moon about his crush on jungwoo. jungwoo needs something else and he aims for it. and fucking jaehyun stops him as he gets closer to the key of his power and magic.
“it’s not the best time,” jaehyun notices and rises, wrapping jungwoo more tightly in a blanket. “let me take you back to home. i have to go too.”
jungwoo's jaw literally drops down, but he agrees to the terms. he had no idea that sexy jaehyun jung was a three-on-three system mate: date-kiss-sex. he doesn't want to scare him either. what if jaehyun would refuse to do business with him if jungwoo insists.
they enter the house from the backyard and jaemin immediately squeals and closes his eyes, falling on jeno and pressing against his chest. jeno looks at him in bewilderment, but hides jaemin’s head from everyone else.
“is he fine?” jaehyun clarifies, moving closer to jungwoo's ear.
“he will be better when you leave.”
jaemin almost whimpers and jeno comforts him by stroking his head.
“what did i do…?” jaehyun wonders, looking at jungwoo in bewilderment.
woo shakes his head and invites him to go back to the threshold. jaemin's gift can sometimes blind him without his knowledge. apparently, jaehyun burns so brightly that even blocking his ability doesn't save the poor witch.
“the question is what jungwoo did not do,” chenle appears from around the corner silently, frightening everyone present. “this would not have happened if previously in the library you’ll-”
“everyone get out!” ten barks. “go to your rooms!” then he smiles sweetly at jungwoo and jaehyun, looking at their linked hands questioningly. “you?..”
“there was nothing,” jisung says from the stairs, leaning over the railing. “jaehyun is too well-mannered.”
“you peeped?!” jungwoo is outraged.
jisung shrugs like it was nothing.
“johnny asked,” he notices.
“you don't have to take it out on me!” johnny’s shout from the kitchen is indignant.
jaehyun drags jungwoo back to the threshold and slams the house door completely.
“i have to go,” he remarks and kisses woo on the cheek. “see you later. i hope.”
jungwoo holds his hand, not letting go further.
“are you afraid of them? are they weird?”
jaehyun looks towards the house as if they could still eavesdrop on.
“i'm worried,” he admits. “especially because of johnny... in my dream i made a deal with him. even his voice scares me.”
jungwoo blinks in confusion.
“is that all that bothered you?” he asks incredulously.
“well, sort of,” jaehyun remarks, embarrassed.
“what about jisung?”
“he’s a teenager, i’m not surprised,” jaehyun snorts and then purses his lips. “i really have to go.”
jungwoo kisses him again, but this time briefly and without letting jaehyun’s hands dance on his body. jaehyun doesn't look like he wants to leave, but he still walks away from him to the car, waving sadly at the end.
jungwoo breaks into the house with a very angry face.
“what did you do?” he shouts.
“why did you bring him into the house?” jeno is interested. his wolf eyes are already glowing, even though the full moon is only a few days away.
“i didn't know jaemin would be blinded.”
the mentioned one looks at the witch with red eyes: either from tears, or from a vision. and folds his arms in displeasure. jaemin is easily upset if caught off guard. the poor fellow was just passing by and didn't expect to see it at all. it turned out to be a spectacle.
“his soul is pure,” jaemin remarks. “i don't understand how it works. i will never believe that he is sinless. he threw balls at you.”
jungwoo clicks his tongue and looks at johnny.
“he has a good guardian angel,” he explains. “he is not sinless according to human canons, but his angel always cleanses his sins, as if preparing him for something…”
“jaehyun is supposed to be a vessel for someone?” ten is interested with suspicion.
“jesus himself, no more,” john jokes, grinning. “no. it's just that his angel is good friends with sicheng.”
“but yuta is succubus…” jeno remarks, not understanding.
“he is talking about kun,” jungwoo guessed from his side and looked at johnny with a squint. “what else i don't know?”
ten appears in front of him and hits him on the forehead to calm him down.
“the main thing you know. jaehyun is innocent in the eyes of angels and you plan to defame his soul and when you do that no angel can help him. kun will lose a mortal, you will gain powers, jaehyun will go to hell. what do you want? does something bother you?” he asks. “hm?”
he looks with his little eyes straight into the soul, catching shame there with pincers, or something at least a little similar. jungwoo can’t really find at least a drop in himself. he has been looking for magic power all his life and when he finally found it, he did not plan to just merge it.
all the living creatures around know what is happening in town. either the rumors don't linger in the coven, or jaehyun is really a walking burning candle.
jungwoo wakes up to the fact that his body is pressed into the bed. at first he has a thought that doyoung and taeyong are again role-playing games in edward and bella, where taeyong confused the rooms, but then he feels the wet tip of the tongue crawling from his ear along the neck he immediately realizes who can wake him up in this way.
“yuta, get off me, you demon jerk,” jungwoo tosses under them. yuta laughs and, instead of getting off him, clasps their hands in a grip and does not allow jungwoo to get up.
yuta, as mentioned earlier, is a succubus. they are lousy demons of lust. usually yuta scam people who believe that if they are a scorpion, then they are the god of sex. there’s only a little mistake since they are demons. anyway, jungwoo fell for it too. a couple hundred times. so here he does not condemn mortals.
“they smell delicious,” yuta whispers in his ear. “only those who were rejected with sex smell like that. what's happened? soully didn't like it? or the spell didn't work?”
soully is “mortal”. from the word soul. although technically jungwoo has it too. but he is not offended by such a word towards jaehyun.
“leave me alone,” jungwoo gives up and stops moving. his sleepy body refuses to cooperate, let alone the yuta’s pheromones.
“we found out here,” yuta remarks, as usual referring to himself and everyone else in the third person. this habit has remained with him since those immemorial times, when they spoke in a long forgotten, dead language. somehow this habit they dragged into all the new languages that they learned. yuta is the oldest demon, and in general a person that jungwoo knows. they are over five thousand years old. which doesn't change the joke that jungwoo had sex with grandfather. “they are under a spell. they are cursed.”
“yes, yes, what do you want?” whines jungwoo. “because i want to sleep.”
“we want to know something,” yuta lets go of him and sits up straight, folding his hands between legs, spread out on either side of jungwoo. “what do they feel when they kiss jaehyun? we fear you have already met in other lives.”
“well, what's the matter to you?” jungwoo rises on his elbows. “we still can sleep together if that worries you?”
yuta chuckles.
“we don’t care at all.” they slowly shake their head. “just, is it worth for you to open the power of a witch if it cannot be used?”
jungwoo narrows his eyes, trying to figure out the riddle, but nothing comes to mind.
“what do you mean?...”
“oh,” yuta laughs. “it's simple,” they throws up their hands. “if we're not mistaken, you've got a triple curse on you, jungwoo. lust will release your powers. love will drive jaehyun crazy. and death will separate lovers until the next life. and so on in a circle for an eternity, until the world collapses.”
“and why did you think so?”
“you really pissed off zeus, jungwoo,” yuta smiles slyly. well, just like a snake, which they can turn into and crawl into someone as- “you were cursed by the gods themselves for refusing to become eternal.”
jungwoo abruptly opens his eyes so wide that he thinks they will tear and the eyeballs will fall out onto the sheet.
“i- what?!” he yelps. “i refused to be a god for jaehyun?!
“and they said that they would die for you, too, if the gods want it,” shrugs yuta. “jaehyun died because of you at the hands of god. then zeus killed you too, jungwoo. your curse is that now jaehyun always die by your hand. the curse cannot be reversed. only zeus could do it.”
"and you're suggesting i shouldn’t open the power?" jungwoo snorts. “let jaehyun die, i don't care.”
yuta laughs again, throwing their head back. but not fun at all. nothing funny.
“that’s why we asked how you felt when kissing jaehyun.” they kick jungwoo in the nose. “if nothing, then as soon as you kill jaehyun, all feelings will return to you and you will mourn their loss until you yourself go crazy. you will love them only after their death.”
“jaehyun dies and i’ll love him?” jungwoo clarifies. yuta nods. “i think i will get over this loss.”
yuta slowly shakes his head again.
“you always think so, but you will go crazy like jaehyun. it will be slow. and jaehyun will watch you from the ghost world and they will suffer.”
“thanks for the warning!” jungwoo is indignant and plops down on the pillow. “what am i supposed to do?”
“we don't know,” yuta climbs off him. “maybe it's better not to reveal your power? live life without them. try to be like a normal soully.”
“it's impossible.”
"we know," yuta agrees. “and jaehyun walk like lightning on a christmas tree. if you do not use the key, then angels and demons will come here. they will fight for jaehyun. they will want to release their seal with the power of the witch.”
jungwoo blinks rapidly.
“will they steal my power?”
“they can't use it. you won't be able to get it after also.”
jungwoo sighs in frustration. either slowly go insane from the curse, but not gain strength. or wait until the forces disappear altogether, but stay sane.
not the first time, jungwoo decides. this is his 100th rebirth, probably.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡.｡.: *･゜‘∀･*:.｡. .｡.: *･゜ﾟ･*
jungwoo is doing his best to keep himself in check so as not to jump on jaehyun right there. in a public place. for some reason, jaehyun decided that today it would be ideal to get out to a bigger city and go to the cinema. jungwoo hates movies. they were filmed by magical creatures, transferring the real magical world to the screens and revealing secrets for mortals.
also it was stuffy in the room.
the other thing is that jaehyun didn’t let go of jungwoo’s hand the whole time they watched the movie, and jungwoo’s palm was sweating even worse than it did when he tried to inhale more hot air. on the plus side, they kissed again. more plus for jaehyun, because jungwoo only felt the movement of his lips, taken out along his, and also felt some kind of unfinished, elongated feeling inside. as if someone is waving to give a slap in his face, and then lowers hand: enough for being scared, but does not hurt.
they return to jaehyun’s car holding hands, but in silence. a confused smile plays on jaehyun’s lips, and jungwoo hesitates to tell him what he has to do.
“you believe in fate, don't you?” jungwoo cautiously interested again.
jaehyun stops and pulls him by the waist, and with the other hand he straightens jungwoo’s bangs from his eyes, examining the beauty in front of him.
“if not dreams, i would continue to be a blind ignoramus living next to you,” jaehyun coos, smiling. “maybe you bewitched me, huh?” he laughs, but jungwoo is not feeling funny. “what coincidence that tourists come to your house for fortune-telling and advice. as they say ten is a powerful magician, right?”
“a witch,” corrects jungwoo. it is important. wizards suffer from nonsense like getting dust from a unicorn's ass by a star or tricks in a circus. witches do decent magic and curses, and magicians are completely hermits, even if they have the same power as the coven brothers.
“yes, yes, and you are a little demon who bewitched me,” jaehyun lightly smacks jungwoo on the nose that he snorts. “or an angel? with this hair i’m not quite sure.”
jungwoo shrugged off his hands and sighed heavily.
“what if what you saw in the cinema could be real, what would you do then?” jungwoo continues the interrogation. “what if i teach you how a mortal can see another part of the world. will you look at it? will you watch magical creatures with me?”
jaehyun sighs and takes a step back, but laces his arms around jungwoo to keep him on his toes.
“anywhere with you, jungwoo,” he smiles.
so he does not hesitate. he looks around and notices a squirming fairy by the trash can. she is in search of a drop of alcohol and this is a great opportunity to introduce a small part of his world.
jungwoo turns jaehyun in profile to the fairy and invites him to look out the corner of his eye. he does so and becomes silent for a second, then laughs.
“are your magical creatures giant, drunken flies?” he wonders. “i didn’t think that you associate magic with the homeless-”
jungwoo turns to him and looks with anger on his face.
“your first dream with me. you threw eggs at me, didn't you?” he asks. jaehyun nods. “then chenle came and hit you on the forehead and you passed out, right?” jungwoo continues until a nod from jaehyun. “it was not a dream, it was reality. we didn't want you to make a fuss and put you to sleep. chenle, by the way, is a vampire and his ability to induce trance. he did it together with ten, but we lied to you that you fell down the stairs. also those dreams where i appeared before you ten times in a row. how our sex for you, did you like it? it's all from our past lives together.”
jaehyun looks at him with his mouth open. yeah, jungwoo even feels sorry for him, he wouldn’t have digested so quickly the information that was slapped in his face either.
“i can't understand, are you so good at making fun of me with a serious face or are you crazy and i have to run?” he asks with the same incomprehensible tone.
“ohh, let's go!” jungwoo shouts. “only a ghost will convince you, and unfortunately, this is the only thing that your mortal eye is able to see.”
“i really don’t know what to think…” jaehyun breathed out.
he doesn't really resist anyway. jaehyun even gallantly opens the car door for jungwoo. they go home almost without discussing anything. jaehyun only clarifies what it all means a few times. jungwoo admits that he is a witch, thinks a little about whether to tell who sicheng is. he decides to say tho and jaehyun just laughs.
“oh, he told me. i thought he was just obsessed with, you know, tolkien or something and came up with all sorts of things. his fascination with herbal teas is something.”
“it's not tea. potions and concoctions,” jungwoo grumbles, feeling insulting from jaehyun’s words. so much disrespect for other people's work and skills. sicheng is a very skilled druid. no matter what he do and how, human knowledge is also beneficial.
“okay... but do the laws of your magic world allow you to tell me this?”
“you still can't see anything. you are mortal. your eye sees only 3 walls of the universe. and magical creatures have 4. demons have as many as five.”
“demons?!” jaehyun is surprised for the first time. as if the fact that there are ghosts, witches and vampires is quite normal.
“yes, you know one.”
“don’t tell me it’s johnny-” he begs.
“then i'll shut up.”
“oh my god,” jaehyun whimpers. “i made a deal with him in a dream. am i going to hell now?”
“your guardian angel will be able to resolve this issue, i’m sure,” jungwoo remarks. “what, are you ready to die soon?”
“well, what if you want to kill me?”
“i wouldn’t joke like that if i were you,” jungwoo chuckles.
“this is hardly a joke,” jaehyun laughs bitterly. “i told you, i always died because of you. apparently, now is no exception…” he sighs. “i just hope it won't be as soon as the last time.”
jungwoo bites his lip to keep from upsetting him.
today is sunday, which means that a visitor is waiting on their site closer to the top, where there is a crypt and a couple of lonely graves. xiaojun is here almost every sunday as if on guard. he has only one goal for the night and he has been fulfilling it perfectly for the third year in a row.
jungwoo jumps out of the car and gestures for jaehyun to be quiet when he gets out and follows him. getting closer to the graves, they almost crawl and eventually hide behind one of the gravestones.
xiao looks at his watch, sighs, and stares at the moon.
“what should i see? freak at the grave? what is he doing here?” jaehyun whispers angrily.
“he’s not a weirdo,” jungwoo grumbles in his direction. “this is xiao dejun. he sits at the grave of his boyfriend, yangyang. he died in a car accident last year. tragic death. i can't add anything. xiao waits here every sunday to see his ghost. yangyang is cursed to be a ghost here on sunday from 12 to 3 am.”
“minute to 12,” jaehyun notes.
“the show will start soon then.”
“romantic…” jaehyun hums. “to wait for your beloved every week at the grave just to see him again. but we must go further. when i die-”
“i’m sorry for him,” jungwoo interrupts.
“xiao? yes, very much,” jaehyun agrees.
“xiao? no, he's crazy. pity yangyang. let's start,” jungwoo rests his chin on his palm. “look.”
nothing happens for jaehyun at first, but then he turns his head a little to the side and, out of the corner of his eye, notices movement at the tombstone. something translucent, but very big, is trying to hide behind it.
“come out, i see you, the time has come,” xiaojun proclaims and rises from the stone bench near the grave.
“xiao, please… it hurts me how you suffer…”
“yangyang lui, you are an asshole, a motherfucker, a fucking jerk and i hate you with all my heart to the core for what you are a pissed-off fucker…”
jaehyun does not listen further to the flow of insults. he thought there would be a romantic plot: lovers from the world of the living and the dead meet when they have only one chance to see each other, since cruel fate ordered them to be separated.
instead, he watches as xiao dejun slings, insults and humiliates the ghost who clings to the gravestone and makes sounds like he is crying, but jaehyun is sure that ghosts can’t do that. all in all. poor yangyang. jaehyun’s been so surprised that his love assumptions did not come true that he does not immediately realize that he is seeing a ghost. this should not be confused with a thorn in the eye or a hallucination. yangyang is a real ghost. almost like in the movies. only more transparent.
“yangyang cheated on xiao, xiao cursed him that after death yangyang would not rest and, when we cursed him, we didn’t think that he would die so quickly and now we have to endure dejun here every weekend,” jungwoo rolls his eyes, as if it’s all quite fine. “his screams will wake up the other spirits one day, i swear. he is crazy. we told him to go to therapy, you know? turn to a psychologist and send yangyang to hell already. well, not literally, yangyang is damned forever already. though- maybe i can reverse everything if xiao wants to. when i get the strength, of course…”
jaehyun grabs jungwoo’s arm and drags him back down the hill.
“i don’t want to listen to a stream of curses, i thought it would be romantic and was ready to be touched. i hope you didn't curse me? like that? i will die and die. the end.”
“huh, kind of,” he smiles and sees the disbelief on jaehyun’s face. to calm him down, jungwoo kisses jaehyun on the nose and he instantly gets soaked like bread in milk. jaehyun looks like cute dimpled bread in general anyway.
jungwoo smiles at the thought, but quickly catches himself. jaehyun will die soon. he can't catch real feelings for him.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡.｡.: *･゜‘∀･*:.｡. .｡.: *･゜ﾟ･*
jungwoo’s morning didn’t go well. it seems to him that something makes him get up and no longer sleep, but he is not sure, because insomnia has overcome him for a long time. however, having gone down to the first floor, he is not even surprised, because on a bright plush sofa, which ten literally dragged from the trash, a long figure with thick hair is sitting imposingly.
there have not been such guests in their house yet.
jungwoo made eye contact with the man on the couch and at first it seems to him that he is familiar. but not in this life. a slight veil of deja vu wraps around jungwoo’s brain and he squints in an attempt to remember who is sitting in front of him when he himself is placed on the sofa.
he had never seen johnny so nervous.
“kim jungwoo,” guest leans towards him and holds out his hand. a sly smile plays on his lips, he himself slyly examines interest. “haven't seen each other for thousands of years.”
“your name.” jungwoo looks at the outstretched fingers and then slowly looks up from under his lashes.
“crucial, as always,” palm in front of jungwoo shrinks, and smirk disappears from unnamed lips. “now you will remember everything.”
with a clapping of fingers, the young man squeezes them until they turn white and jungwoo feels like his body is no longer under his control. jungwoo’s eyes roll back under the force of gravity and he falls into the astral plane.
jungwoo hates going to the astral. this is used to communicate with spirits and other hidden beings to remember the past. the most powerful witches also see the future here. but no one, not a single witch, magician or witcher is able to throw another person into another dimension. only angels, demons and gods can do it. jungwoo doesn't want to know which one is the man from the couch.
“remember!” the command proclaimed and jungwoo is pierced by the pain of a century of history, passing through his unprepared human head. neural connections are too strained and it seems to him that he is on fire like a light bulb.
"zeus", "thor", "odin", "wednesday"... thousands of voices curse jungwoo’s hearing, circling around him. “perun”, “jupiter”, “raiden”, “lei-gun”.
“kunhang,” jungwoo whispers, clutching his ears. it seems to him that from the pressure they will burst and he will bleed out.
the man from the sofa laughs at him, mocks jungwoo. he even clicks his tongue.
“the old name” he continues to click his tongue. “with it you greeted me in a past life.”
he opens his fist and jungwoo emerges into the real world with a deep sigh, feeling an unprecedented lightness that he could not even pull out of his memory before.
“hendery”, he appears. “the god of thunder, basically the god of the sky in my recent cv.”
jungwoo gasps. for the first time in his life he sees god before him. many of them died a few hundred years ago, when they were forgotten, when no one else believed: the gods feed on faith and their strength is completely dependent on it. but hendery, like the god of thunder, seems very good. young, smiling and quite pleasant to look at.
“why are you here?” jungwoo barely manages to make any sound out of himself, because the body still refuses to return to its normal form after the astral.
hendery chuckles and smiles again as he leans back on the couch and rests his hands on the stick between his legs. jungwoo only notices that he came with that staff.
“i’ve come to you every time you are on the verge to break the curse. i'm the one who cursed you, jungwoo. hundreds of generations ago, when the world was still empty and there were few witches. your soul has been cursed for several millennia, when you, a young witch, refused love of the god of thunder, that is why you were cursed. since your love is so monogamous, and i didn’t deserve it-” hendery raises an eyebrow, drawing air into his lungs. “but i'm not an evil god, my sweet boy,” he smiles, looking at jungwoo again. “i gave you a loophole on how you can break the curse. alas, for all the time you did not understand. but there is still a chance. make sure that you’ll live forever, that your beloved lives forever, and everything will be alright.”
jungwoo snorts, even though he knows it's dangerous to act so cocky with a god. but he has nothing to lose, he is already cursed.
“i don't care about jaehyun and what happens to him…”
“i only care about the power of witch and how to get it,” hendery continues at the same time as him, as if he had already heard this remark hundreds of times before. probably he does.
jungwoo loses face and god smiles wider when he notices it.
“yes, i know what you think now,” hendery nods, pursing his lips. “when you lose jaehyun, you will understand what love is. i cursed y’all for what you said to me back then. you said your love is real and it’s better to die together than to live apart. so i make you feel lost every time you meet again. jaehyun will fall first, but you will fall harder, sadly, too late. so you will know the real price of sincere love, but you couldn’t feel it as you did in your first life,” the god sign. “make sure you won't lose him this time, jungwoo. make a man out of him. make him immortal.”
“a vampire?”
hendery shrugs as if he doesn't know.
“if possible,” he whispers, imposingly raises his hand up and snaps his fingers.
thunder and lightning illuminates everything around, and jungwoo closes his eyes. when he opens them, there is no one else in the house, except for permanent residents. the slight smell of ozone tingles the nose.
jungwoo really pissed off a god thousands of years ago.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡.｡.: *･゜‘∀･*:.｡. .｡.: *･゜ﾟ･*
jungwoo always finds jaemin in the same place: at the very top of the slope under a pine tree that is over a hundred years old. its branches are wide at the top and there are so many needles on the ground that they turned out to be a soft and prickly carpet. jaemin used to take jeno on the walk on a full moon at this spot.
today was a similar case. jeno howled at the bottom, frolicking in some kind of puddle.
“jaemni,” jungwoo mutters. jaemin looks up from his book and finds him a second later. jungwoo smiles at him. “are you too busy?”
jaemin lifts a book by spell into the air. as usual. he was too fascinated by magic to give even a second of time to use it.
jaemin wasn't the strongest in witchcraft or spells, his real gift was visions. he saw creatures, he saw powers of magic, he saw connections and even the future. he is a soothsayer, a fortune teller more than a witch. that made him very valuable to the coven.
“i wanted to ask if you can look into my future?” jungwoo sits down beside him, cross-legged. “what does this spring promise me? summer?”
jaemin puts the book to the side and clasps his hands in a lock on his lap.
“i don’t think you want to know, woo,” he shakes his head. “the god who came to us wanted to make things better, but i don't see him helping you. he came with good intentions.”
“hendery?” jungwoo is surprised. “you- you saw him? met before?”
“when gods come to witches, everyone knows about it,” jaemin shakes his head. “they smell like ambrosia, they leave golden pollen everywhere…” jaemin thinks. “hendery is no longer a strong god, but he will always be powerful. he glowed with gold, he was connected with you. his curse is on you, right?”
jungwoo nods. jaemin purses his lips in dispeasure.
“i saw your future jungwoo,” jaemin notices from afar, fingers crossed. “it is different every time. whatever choice you make is important.”
“there are several options?” kim is surprised.
jaemin laughs like he said something stupid.
“oh, a great many. don't let yourself be killed, jaehyun will try. and when he tries, kill him first. don't feel sorry for him. don’t think about closing him somewhere far away from you and let him be alive,” jaemin puts a gun out of his fingers and puts it to jungwoo’s temple. “kill jaehyun, woo. do him a favor. then you will understand me. you need to break his heart.”
killing jaehyun is not the hardest option for jungwoo. and even more so it is easy for him to break the heart of a mortal. in any meaning.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡.｡.: *･゜‘∀･*:.｡. .｡.: *･゜ﾟ･*
johnny looks at jaehyun on the porch, hugging ten from behind. jae came to help them chop wood with jeno. surprisingly, but a fact in the hands of jaehyun there is as much power as a werewolf has. and jeno feels more fun doing something together. though jaehyun still doesn't believe that jeno and little wolf he brought in a few months ago here are the same being.
“we won’t make a vampire out of him,” ten concludes, “as jungwoo had asked. let alone we won’t curse him like yangyang and xiaojun.”
“jaehyun's soul is already connected with the witch, it won't work.”
“clearly,” ten agrees. “what if the deal with the devil doesn't work either?”
"they will have one more life to understand what to do next," johnny remarks and kisses the top of ten's head. “it's not our problem anymore.”
jungwoo appears on the periphery of their gaze and the lovers simultaneously turn their heads towards him.
“he’s fucking hot,” he says. “i'll eat him right here on this lawn so that you can all see how hot he is.”
“jaemin will be jealous, jungwoo,” ten jokes, knowing full well that it’s not about jeno at all.
lil wolf looks up at them, hearing his own name from afar.
“i’m hardly interested in a mongrel,” jungwoo waves off and breaks into a smile when jaehyun throws an ax over his shoulder and happily waves at him. “yuno!” he coos, jumping off the porch and rushing to him. “time to take a break!”
“he will be like you when he realizes that he has fallen in love,” ten says, kicking johnny with his elbow.
john blinks, not understanding what his lover means. ten smiles a cat grin, taking the man by the cheek and breaking into a smirk.
“hopeless in love,” ten whispers and kisses johnny.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡.｡.: *･゜‘∀･*:.｡. .｡.: *･゜ﾟ･*
jungwoo never forgets that jaehyun is mortal. but it absolutely flies out of his head when, after a date with a guy, he finds himself in jaehyun’s house hallway literally nailed to the wall by the strong body of a stuffy one.
jaehyun kisses him to the point of losing pulse, thieroising his full lips first, squeezing the other's thigh with a strong hand as his leg presses against him, pushing hot bodies together. they couldn't even take off their jackets, so quickly jaehyun clung to jungwoo's body, unable to withstand several weeks of abstinence.
jungwoo was even more impatient to get into other's panties as soon as possible. for other reasons.
“sicheng is out of town,” jaehyun says between kisses. “the whole house is ours.”
“good,” jungwoo exhales and pushes jaehyun away, looking into his eyes lustfully. “are you planning to make me be loud?”
“the main thing for you is not to choke on pleasure,” jaehyun smirks and lifts jungwoo in his arms.
they end up on the floor in front of the fireplace on the soft carpet. there’s warmth and privacy because of the wide sofa, hiding them from the rest of the room. jungwoo snaps his fingers and the firewood immediately lights up, showering them with soft light.
“your witchy stuff is sexy,” jaehyun admits, lowering his lips to jungwoo’s neck.
“i know a spell to enhance orgasm,” he smiles.
“i hope,” jaehyun mumbles, “you’d not need it with me.”
“try hard,” jungwoo chuckles and jaehyun looms over him.
it desires in his eyes, burning from the depths of his mortal life. jungwoo doesn’t understand this look, no one has ever looked at him like that. nor yuta, who did want to taste his body as his succubus self told him, nor a joyful ten when jungwoo agreed to join his coven.
but jaehyun. jungwoo could look at himself through jaehyun’s gaze and see in the reflection of his eyes himself as a coveted treasure, a lust, a desirable jewel that jaehyun managed to get and take right into his hands through all his efforts. he looked at him with a filled look, thick as a glass of red saperavi and languid as the same grape berries on the hottest summer day.
jaehyun looked at him like he is the most beautiful sunset in his life, and a dream that came off the list of wishes to santa claus.
jaehyun see him with lovingly like no one had ever seen jungwoo before.
jungwoo feels a twitch inward but lets it through. it can not be that someone hooked him up so much or be liked by him. especially not jaehyun, who is destined to die from love for jungwoo. he himself will live without him for a long time. he must live without jaehyun’s care about him out of nowhere at any time. live without the sweet compliments, kisses, and attention jaehyun showered him with.
although magic, the power that accumulated in jaehyun, but did not let him touch it, is much more important. jungwoo is finally cured of his cravings, albeit at the cost of someone else's life, and he can't wait when he comes down to it. so he grabs the bottom of jaehyun’s shirt with long fingers and pulls it up.
what a waste, in his opinion, to create such a body and lose it in the process, because the evil god desired to do so.
jaehyun leans down and kisses jungwoo's neck again as he seems to like this body part the most. he lowers himself down, undoing jungwoo’s shirt buttons and covering his exposed skin with kisses. jungwoo is delighted by it, how nice it is. how easily jaehyun understands what he needs and likes. and jaehyun himself is delighted, hearing the light excited sobs from jungwoo so he whisper pleased when everything goes right and according to plan.
they kiss for a long time half-dressed by the warmth of the fireplace. so long that jungwoo himself realizes that he is delaying the moment when everything will happen, because a grain of his human conscience is sincerely sorry for jaehyun, who does not understand what he is getting into. but jaehyun himself undresses him to the end, and he himself takes off the rest of his clothes.
“wait,” jungwoo puts his hand on his chest and pulls away from jaehyun’s lips completely reluctantly.
jaehyun immediately allows himself to give jungwoo some personal space, but it hardly counts when he literally lies on his arm.
“you should know something.” jungwoo rises up on his elbows and swallows the lump in his throat. “i'm not just a witch, and you are not…” the needle of the mind hits the head with pain, but it immediately disappears, as if it never existed, “you are not an ordinary person. there's a curse on your soul.”
jaehyun laughs and lifts jungwoo's chin with his fingers, caressing his loose bottom.
“cursed to love you forever and in every life?” he asks, rather jokingly. but jungwoo nods fearfully and jaehyun laughs again. “it doesn't look like a curse, woo. more a present or a gift from the gods. i agree to fall in love with you forever, just to feel what has happened to me now again.”
jungwoo clenched his jaw.
"your feelings aren't real," he remarks sadly after a moment. “you- you're in love with me, that's a fact. but your emotions towards me are aggravated because of the curse. you're going crazy in love with me, jaehyun.”
“and i'm happy if so,” he whispers, leaning towards jungwoo, to his ear, “ isn't that the point? die happy? i'm mortal. i will be dead anyway sooner or later. the difference is did i live happily as i wanted too,” he said leaving another kiss on jungwoo’s nose. “when i die, promise to meet me on the other side. just a second before we would be reborn.”
jungwoo knows he can't promise it, but he nods anyway. so jaehyun kisses him, soft and sensual this time, hoping to convey his emotions through touch.
but jungwoo remembers, deals are sealed with kisses.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡.｡.: *･゜‘∀･*:.｡. .｡.: *･゜ﾟ･*
jungwoo only comes back the next day when jaehyun let him go, actually. all night they are busy with their dirty needs, in the morning jungwoo feels the last wave of strength, and closer to dinner jaehyun notices that he has things to do and work, so it’s time to go for jungwoo, and he himself is happy to show off his magic in front of the coven. because his magic has never been so tangible. he felt it in himself, like water after a shower. it coursed through his veins, ran from his fingers when he cast spells, and accumulated if he wanted it.
for the first time in his life, jungwoo realizes that he is complete, fully accomplished in magic. that he is a witch who will be feared and respected, because his powers are enough to destroy cities and create new universes.
ten meets him with his mouth open, noticing his smile. jaemin claps his hands happily.
“i haven’t seen this in a long time,” he remarks and holds out his hand. jaemin's light magic strokes the barrier of jungwoo’s like two slugs decided to dance. “ticklish. your magnetic field is…”
“unbridled…” ten shakes his head and then sighs. “but you can do it. how is jaehyun?”
jungwoo waves his hand away.
“as usual, he didn't even understand what happened. just… you know. worked. as before.” jungwoo straightens his hair, smiling nervously. it's true, absolutely nothing has changed in him. only jungwoo, along with an orgasm, also received the power of magic, which he had been trying to get since childhood. “i warned him, but-”
“he’s in love,” doyoung goes down the stairs. “we're aware. his curse won't work that quickly. the more he loves you now, the faster he will go crazy. his madness will grow drastically.”
“poor,” jisung chuckles from above. “i would never have thought that love is so hard.”
"only the damned ones," doyoung convinces him, turning back. “you are still young for this.”
“love does not appear with age!” jaemin protests, folding his arms over his chest.
“you say so?” jungwoo comes over and ruffles his hair. “so then when would you ask jeno to go out on a date and stop pretending that you're just close friends?”
chenle literally falls down the stairs at the bookshelf.
“you two are not dating?” he wonders. jaemin shakes his head in confusion. “ooh, then i'll shoot my shot. jeno!”
“what?!” jaemin rushes towards the vampire. “zhong chenle!”
ten watches them with a smile, like a real caring father. jungwoo sometimes understood why he gathered so many witches and other creatures under his roof: he loved to watch people grow, he loved to take care and share experiences. ten will live forever, connected with the demon, he will be surrounded only by doyoung and taeyong, who also have eternity ahead. and all the rest, sooner or later, will disappear from the face of the earth before rebirth, or they will leave along for personal path to seek their destiny.
jungwoo would like to stay with them forever. but he is not afraid of death, even if it comes for him now.
the doorbell rings persistently and doyoung is the first to open it. jungwoo turns to watch who is the guest.
it turns out to be a yuta, completely emotionless, as they almost always are. but when they notice jungwoo, yuta puts on a cheeky smile.
“we were ordered to present them a bouquet of dying flowers,” he remarks in the same impudent tone. “it still has the juices of life and looks nice.”
jungwoo walks to the door and doyoung steps away but doesn't leave. yuta sniffs the air a little at first, and then draws the air around jungwoo very deeply into his lungs.
“smell of sex,” they remark. “you haven't had it for a long time.”
“why a bouquet?”
“jaehyun passed,” yuta rolls his eyes. “not die, just asked to present it for you. we are just a courier. ah... jaehyun also smelled... but it's ordinary.”
“cool, nice, ty and bye, yuta,” jungwoo snorts and slams the door in their face.
“thank you and see you soon. already miss u...
-yuno”
jungwoo smiles and presses flowers to his chest, inhaling the sweet smell.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡.｡.: *･゜‘∀･*:.｡. .｡.: *･゜ﾟ･*
initially, jaehyun's behavior doesn't annoy jungwoo and he thinks everything is fine. in the afternoon they meet for dinner, in the late afternoon they end up in bed, and in the morning jaehyun goes cause of his business and returns again in the evening. he pampers jungwoo with attention and gifts, asks how he is doing, tries to surprise him with weekend dates.
then he takes a weekend off on a weekday and spends it with jungwoo. then he starts working from the coven house, keeping an eye on woo and constantly engaging him in conversation. almost imperceptibly, jaehyun spends more and more time in the coven, which annoys not only the reason itself - jungwoo - but also the others. and even when, with the help of a spell, jungwoo manages to calm him down a bit and send him home for a few days, so that he himself can rest from him, an angry sicheng comes to their house.
“what did you do with him?!” jungwoo is nailed to the wall right at the door, taken by the scruff of the neck by a druid. he is angry to the point of red eyes and whitened knuckles and it’s scary if jungwoo knew that he could be defeated.
“nothing,” jungwoo smiles. “i am not guilty.”
“there is a curse on him, let him go, sicheng,” ten intervenes. “jaehyun is cursed from birth, his soul is connected to jungwoo. jaehyun has to go crazy, nothing can be reversed.”
sicheng almost throws jungwoo at the wall and rushes to ten, but just looks furious, no longer trying to start a fight.
“you should have said!” he exclaims, now confused and defeated. no one dares to reverse the curse. “i should have… i could… say goodbye to him! when he was in the right state of mind!”
“what's happened?” ten asks carefully and takes him by the forearm, inviting to sit down. as soon as sicheng is on the sofa, he puts his elbows on his knees and drops his head in hands and begins to sway, as if he himself had gone crazy.
“he lost his job, he only talks about jungwoo, as if he’s delirious. he does not think about anything else,” sicheng almost howls. “any question he transfers to him!” he blows up and pokes a finger at jungwoo. “jaehyun refused to eat until he’s met him. he said they should eat together. that he wants to see how happy jungwoo will be when he’d cook something for him. he wants to do everything just for him!”
“i'm sorry that you have to endure this…” ten said, patting sicheng on the knee.
he shakes his head and wipes eyes from tears: either anger, or loss.
“he was my best friend, and i didn’t even know that he would soon disappear…” sicheng notices. “you should have told me. i would get ready.”
“we'll try to save him,” ten assure. “we can't promise, but we'll try. we did it with doyoung and taeyong. okay? just believe it. we need faith.”
sicheng nods. the faith of one powerful druid will certainly not be superfluous.
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when coven stops letting jaehyun in, he sleeps on the porch outside. he really lost weight in the short month of his insanity and doyoung notes that he was already quite in love with jungwoo if he burned out so quickly.
at some point, jaehyun doesn’t even ask for a meeting with jungwoo anymore out of impotence, and this is such a good sign for jungwoo himself. he hopes jaehyun just starves to death or something. ten supply jaehyun with pen and paper because he only agrees to eat if he is given something in return.
with the help of notes, jaehyun conveys quite creepy and frightening things, but they don’t touch jungwoo much. “you are mine”, “i can’t live without you”, “i will love you until death”. at some point jungwoo stops reading because jaehyun’s handwriting becomes illegible, like he's learned a new language: delusional. hardly anyone else understands what jaehyun wants to convey.
but then he gets a little better. doyoung finds the spell and the curse parted a little. in a short three days, jaehyun looks like his old self again. he's still going crazy because of jungwoo, but he speaks clearly again, eats calmly, and manages to clean himself up.
ten begs jungwoo to meet jaehyun in a safe area so he agrees. but jaemin's words burn in his head: jungwoo needs to kill him before jaehyun can do it with jungwoo.
library: once again a meeting place. their first day when they met in reality, thinking that this was not a dream. when jaehyun saw all the lives before, and jungwoo saw jaehyun up close.
jaehyun gets up impatiently like a little puppy about to be fed, but he can't approach plate just yet. jungwoo smiles weakly at him and indeed: jaehyun's eyes are bright and clear, without a drop of madness.
“i missed you so much,” impatience breaks out of jaehyun. “god, woo, you have no idea how much i missed you!”
“i missed you too,” jungwoo smiles and it’s true. he missed jaehyun fussing around him and how much he loved him. he’s surprised by how interesting a mortal can be. “how are you doing?”
“i'm glad that doyoung helped me. and you?”
“it’s hard to see you like that, i’m sorry i raise it in you,” jungwoo admits and sits down in a chair. jaehyun repeats after him and they sit across from each other about a meter apart. so close but too far: jaehyun wants to hold jungwoo in his arms and never let go again. at least it was what old self jae wanted too. this version is not like that and even jungwoo surprised by it. jaehyun suddenly bursts into good-natured laughter and changes completely, like switching off between day and night mode.
“pity me?” he raises an eyebrow and jungwoo swears he looks like a demon now. only they change their views so drastically. and jaehyun had never looked at him like that before.
“of course you…” jungwoo stumbles over the words as jaehyun smirks and his eyes are a thick fog of madness.
there is no one in the room but them, although jungwoo knows they are being watched, as usual. but creepy thorns dig into jungwoo’s skin when he realizes that jaehyun can do anything to him and his magic isn't guaranteed to work on him since they’re linked.
“me?” jaehyun snorts. “i will die if you won’t accept me. i can't breathe without you.”
jungwoo wraps his palms around the armrests.
“why are you still breathing then?”
jaehyun closes his eyes for a second.
“i can't let myself die until you're mine.”
“i will never be yours,” jungwoo denies and rises. “have a nice death, jaehyun. i hope you’ll enjoy watching me and how i live my life without you in it.”
jaehyun laughs loudly and after a second goes silent to the point of vacuum. he takes it off by jumping on jungwoo from behind. he's fast, which jungwoo doesn't expect.
“either you’ll die as mine right now,” jaehyun whispers, wrapping his arms around jungwoo’s neck and squeezing it, “or i’ll die by your hand. up to you.”
“don’t let yourself be killed, jaehyun will try. and when he tries, kill him first. don't feel sorry for him."
jungwoo takes a deep breath and rolls over like jeno taught him, so he gets behind jaehyun and manages to break free from his grip and quickly grab the hidden gun in his belt. taeyong gave it to him when he said that magic might not help since their souls linked. it is the reason why jaehyun had nothing out of cursed eggs he touched.
with a trembling hand, jungwoo points a gun at jaehyun, who turns around at him, he’s out of breath. jaehyun remains on his knees, with only his face and shoulder turned towards him.
johnny flies into the room and stops at the door with ten, looking at them in surprise: first to one, then to the second, looking around.
“jungwoo, don’t be silly,” ten asks.
“don’t kill me,” jaehyun makes eyes and slowly turns to jungwoo with his whole body. he meekly folds his hands below, showing his obedience. “love me, woo. love me as i love you.”
he looks normal again, as before. and isn't that the top of insanity? when you can pretend to be who you used to be.
“jungwoo…” johnny blinks a few times and his devilish gaze returns to its place. “it’s going to hurt,” he warns, even though jungwoo doesn’t understand what he’s talking about. “please, relive it.”
“do you love me, yuno?”
“as crazy, woo.”
jungwoo tightens his jaw and holds the gun tighter in his hand. he does not look away when his finger rests on the trigger. he doesn't look up. he looks straight at jaehyun, into the depths of his soul that he could get lost in if he fell in love with him even for a second as much as jaehyun himself.
the tick of a clock that counts not time, but death. jungwoo smiles at jaehyun, wishing for the last time to reassure the mortal at the moment of his fate.
“remember me in the next life,” jungwoo asks. it's not a promise, but jaehyun nods and lowers his eyelids.
“i love you, kim jungwoo. now, always and forever.”
BOOM.
jaehyun’s body falls back like a lifeless chunk of bone and skin, and jungwoo still holds the gun at arm’s length, unblinking as he watches. he had foreseen the future emotions of himself, that he will feel better, because jaehyun will no longer bother him or interfere, but a second after a shot a new wave of magic permeates jungwoo’s body from head to toe.
if the magic that he received when he discovered the powers were pleasant, now he feels only violent torment.
johnny kisses ten on the cheek.
“it's time” he declares and disappears into space.
jungwoo falls to his knees and releases the gun from his hands with a loud sound of hitting the floor and a sob from his lungs. ten jumps up to him, catching his body so that he doesn’t fall down like a dead heap on the floor, he doesn’t care much about jaehyun’s body there.
“jungwoo?” ten calls, pushing the hair out of the boy's face. “how are you?”
jungwoo doesn't know what to say because he has no idea. his whole body aches like after a cold, but he can survive this. the pain with which his heart is contracting is something new. at the moment when jaehyun fell to the floor in death, all their common moments flashed in front of jungwoo like film frames: the first meeting, kiss, date, hugs, dinner, and the very night when he received power. but this time he seemed to be catching up with the past and remembering what he should have felt at the moment.
he remembered the warmth of the fireplace and the hot heart of jaehyun, who is still alive and wildly in love, pressing jungwoo to the floor under him, making him moan his name in pleasure. he recalled his warm look when he refused to let jungwoo out of the car because he didn't kiss him goodbye. he remembered jaehyun's warm hands holding him so snugly and firmly in place as they retrieved the neighbor's kitten from the apple tree.
he remembered everything that made him alive even for a second of a witch's meaningless life. all the moments in his head were connected with jaehyun. and, alas, he will never repeat them again, because jungwoo...
“i k-killed him,” he howls, pointing at jaehyun. “wh-what should i do, ten?”
the older witch wipes away the tears that stain jungwoo's red cheeks, although it makes no sense. streams will soon flow again along the same lined paths.
“no one else will love me like he does,” jungwoo continued, grabbing onto the ten’s clothes and pressing into him, shuddering again from the cold that covered him. “i don't love anyone either. i couldn’t love anyone like him. and i don’t want it. i want only jaehyun, ten. i want him back. i want to make him happy as he did to me. no one can repeat it. he’s the one for me and i am for him. i know it now, but i regret i couldn’t have gotten it earlier. he died without knowing!”
“shhh,” ten strokes his head as jaemin and jeno enter the room. they look at each other and then look at jaehyun and ten. the last one waves his hand for them to take jaenyun away from here. “woo, you will survive. jaehyun… you knew it would be like this.”
“i didn't know it would hurt like this!” jungwoo screams angrily and sad. “i seem to have caught up with all the feelings that i did not have before!”
ten can't help but chuckle, which he quickly regrets as jungwoo looks at him with pure hatred.
“this is the essence of your curse, silly,” ten leaves a kiss on his forehead, continuing to stroke his hair. “now you have to survive it.”
“i really want to turn off the feelings, as it was before,” jungwoo whispers. “it's like i've never felt anything, but now…” he chooses words, exhales slowly. “i felt everything at once.”
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john had not been in hell for a long time and sometimes he was overcome by a strange desire to return, but the curses from ten beat off any desire. it's not like johnny was a welcome guest. there are many demons, even more work, and due to the level of his place he dumped it to enjoy a peaceful life.
so donghyuck greets him with a rather furious expression.
the place of the king of hell passed to hyuck at the moment when johnny surrendered the post. he has been the head of the incineration for almost ten thousand years and is now more than glad that he was able to leave. haechan was also happy at first, but after all the hardship he had to go through, he started reforming his responsibilities pretty quickly and delegated a lot to others.
“and what do you want?” hyuck crosses out something in a piece of paper and throws it in the air behind his chair. a small stream from the river of forgetting is always in the chief devil's office.
“jung jaehyun is dead, and he owes me one deal,” johnny immediately gets down to business, leaning on the table. “he is a ghost at my house on earth, but you can return him to hell so that we can talk.”
hyuck grimaces in displeasure.
“why should i?” he wonders.
“he is… a rare specimen,” johnny smirks and loosens up, straightening his shoulders confidently. he had been preparing this speech since the day he realized that convincing donghyuck would not be easy. “his guardian angel kun cleansed his soul to the very end, he is like jesus in the world of demons, almost without a damn. also, he is aware of all this horror-shit with witches, well, he is not the most ordinary mortal that you can rummage around,” johnny rolls his eyes, “and his soul is connected with a witch, so he is also with magic, count! such a demon will be, wow! i advise you to take him. otherwise i don’t really want to take his soul to me, i don’t go to hell frequently, he will be bored.”
hyuck thinks for a second about everything he said.
“i understand,” he nods and snaps his fingers. jaehyun's soul gold appears in the devil's office and he examines it with interest. “really, cleanly... ten years in hell and then let him do whatever you want, he can return to earth.”
“ten?!” johnny is outraged. “human ten?”
“say thank you for not a thousand!” hyuck clicks again and jaehyun's soul takes the form of his most recent human body. “will be my personal assistant, the latter one was seduced by some succubus, so that’s why devils would tear him apart now peacefully.”
jaehyun just lays on his back for a while and is afraid to take a breath like his human body is used to. johnny even feels sorry for him, but not much.
“name?” donghyuck is in command.
“jaehyun... or yuno. whichever is more convenient.”
“oh, another one,” donghyuck chuckles with laughter. “do all demons have two names or what?”
“taeil has one,” johnny remarks.
“he’s a fallen angel, of course one. lucifer is his title, right?” donghyuck rolls his eyes and rises from his seat to loom over jaehyun, still wild from shock. “congratulations, you are now a demon. although... not much good about it. do you love to bully people?”
jaehyun shakes his head and donghyuck sighs sadly, looking up at johnny.
“maybe seduce?” another shake and another hateful look at john. “who did you bring to me?”
“i didn't think you'd agree so quickly!” john grumbles, folding his arms over his chest. “lack of demons?”
“good one, yes!” hyuck admits, pursing his lips. “can you come back? i will raise your salary.”
“no.”
hyuck sighs and looks back at jaehyun, patting his shoulder.
“let's go, get up, you will find out your duties,” he says and rises from his place.
johnny helps jaehyun to get up like the only familiar face in his new agenda.
“how do you feel?” he asks. yeongho himself had long forgotten how he felt when he woke up dead.
“as if i just died… and came back to life,” jaehyun squeezes and unclenches his fingers, checking their performance. “ah…why was jungwoo crying? i thought he didn't love me.”
johnny doesn't understand what he's saying at first and then starts laughing at jaehyun's stupidity.
“you’ll understand later,” he shakes his head. “remember this date,” the demon draws the time in the air 15 minutes after the death of jaehyun. “in ten years, when donghyuck frees you from hell, come back to this time. it will begin your countdown of life on earth. remember?” jaehyun nods and johnny hugs him goodbye. “welcome to hell!”
“it's hot here,” jaehyun chuckles muffledly and accepts the arms of the demon who bought his soul.
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the first two years in hell for jaehyun is… hell. he's still not used to working with dead people, and they ask too much of him, like he's their waiter instead of a punisher. the more they dripped whining into his ears, the easier it was to mock them. for some reason, donghyuck felt sorry for him: he gave him killers, then rapists, whom jaehyun wanted to regenerate and kill again with his own hands.
then it turned into a routine for him and he even began to really enjoy everything that was part of his duties. but there wasn't a hell of a day that jaehyun didn't think about jungwoo. the same one who killed him without regret and tears in his eyes, but as soon as he died, he began to whimper and burst into tears, as if he meant something to him.
jaehyun couldn't help it. all his insides sang and stretched back to the ground, just to meet jungwoo again.
however, this melancholy soon became boring and it became easier to live with it. by the last years in hell, jaehyun had completely calmed down. yes, there were bad people, there were good people, there were none, and they also needed to be steamed in boilers and forced to unload the wagons.
there were also lustful tours that jaehyun never used because they didn't interest him at all. in general, with his eternal love for one person (a witch, which is even worse), he was unsettled. sometimes yuta visited jaehyun, but he never talked about the affairs of the other world. just hanging out with him, cheering him on.
jaehyun was making his rounds of the demons' deals when donghyuck caught up to him.
“yuno!” he grumbles in a shallow voice and finally evens out with him. “you'll be free in 10 minutes!”
jaehyun looks at him with an eyebrow raised.
“from what?” he asks, folding his hands behind his back.
“hell!” haechan pleases him and drags him by the cheek, as he usually did. “exactly ten years ago you fell into hell, and now you can leave. ready to go back to jungwoo?”
the mere mention of a name kindles a spark of hope in jaehyun's body. he nods.
“transaction of your soul and restoration of the body will not be easy,” hyuck clicks his tongue, examining him. “what date will you return? dibs on, only after death!”
jaehyun remembers johnny's words and a light bulb goes on in his head.
“i even know seconds,” he says. hyuck pats his cheek again.
“okay, peachy,” the king of hell says and winks at jaehyun. “let’s bring you back to earth!”
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the first breath after death is never the most pleasant. the lungs hurt, as if it stuck together and you need to tear off the adhesive tape from them. and the fingers do not obey and become numb, because human blood needs to be warmed up in order to run through the veins again.
and if earth falls on your face, it’s not very pleasant to spit it out and try to blow your nose. jaehyun rolls over onto his stomach, trying to pull this off with a roar.
“do you hear it?” the diggers take a pause and the earth stops falling on the demon. “is it sounds from the grave?”
“maybe the ferret fell?” the second voice was interested.
“i would smell, i'm a werewolf.”
jaehyun wipes the dirt off his face and rises from the bottom of the pit on shaky legs and angrily surveys those who buried him. jeno looks towards the house and jaemin slowly opens his mouth in shock.
“i’m going to bury you with my own hands now,” jaehyun warns angrily, obviously annoyed because they didn’t even put him in a coffin after death.
“jeno?…” a dumbfounded jaemin calls softly.
“huh?” werewolf turns, sees jaehyun with a wolf look, gets scared like a puppy and hits him with a shovel right on the head. “zombie?!”
jaehyun, although a demon, is still in human form. so when he gets a hard hit on the head with a shovel, he falls back into the pit on earth, losing consciousness. jaemin immediately peeks inside.
“ten!” he calls, dropping the shovel and racing toward the house. “ten!!!”
jeno does not catch up with him, but looks at the bottom of the grave, holding a shovel tightly in his hand. if jaehyun is a zombie, they will have to kill him a second time. definitive this time.
waking up a second time in a freshly dug grave without some kind of coffin under you is no longer so pleasant. jaehyun's head hurts like it never hurt in his entire mortal life. he feels blood on forehead and remembers he was shot here, but touch proves there’s no hole from it. he tries to open eyes and notice there are several figures around the edges of the pit. he recognizes johnny immediately, by his relieved smile and yellow demonic eyes. jeno on the same whites, the look of a wolf.
and what for…
“yuno!” jungwoo does not calculate his desire to see jaehyun as soon as possible and literally falls into the pit on his knees in front of jaehyun, immediately grabbing his hand. there is not much space between the ground, but they fit. “is that really you?!”
jaehyun twiddles his fingers warmly. it had been so long since he had tasted warm or cold, smelled. this does not exist in hell, but there are feelings there: pain, longing and love. and jaehyun wants so much to tell jungwoo everything he's been thinking about these last ten years.
“i rose from hell,” he says, “for you.”
jungwoo looks at him in shock at first like he never thought he would ever hear jaehyun’s voice again. and then, smiling broadly, throws himself on his neck, holding him tight.
“i was so scared that i lost you until the next life again!” jungwoo pulls away from jaehyun and looks into his eyes. “i didn't have time to tell you something. i did not understand what i... was needed.”
“and so?” jaehyun finally puts his hands on jungwoo too, pulling him closer.
if he needed to die and become a demon in order to spend eternity with jungwoo, he is ready to die a hundred times and go through this path again for today's second chance.
“i love you.”
“i will love you forever.”
what can be more romantic than confessing love to each other in the full fresh unfinished jaehyun’s grave?
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jaemin opens the door after a ring, but no one is there. he looks down and finds a rich basket of flowers and wine there.
“jungwoo, jae, you’ve received a gift!” he declares, picking up the offering and carrying it inside.
“from who?” jaehyun enters the living room from the backyard, and jungwoo continues to water the bushes by the stairs with a hose, ignoring them.
“hendery,” jaemin hands him an envelope. “who is it?”
“i have no idea,” jaehyun pursues his lips. “woo, who is hendery?”
“the god of thunder,” calmly answers jungwoo. “why are you asking?”
jaehyun unfolds the envelope and reads the letter.
“he writes that it didn't take four thousand years for us to beat the curse and says his offer to become a god for you is still valid,” jaehyun shouts and returns to the backyard, continuing to look at the handwritten letter. “but on one condition.”
“and what is it?” jungwoo snorts with laughter. he will never agree in his life and both he and jaehyun are aware of it.
“if you suck him off and i join in the process,” jaehyun says through laughter.
“oh my god!” johnny shout from the second floor, who is a master of eavesdropping. “zeus has not changed even for a thousand years of oblivion.”
jaehyun looks at jungwoo in shock.
“zeus cursed us?”
jungwoo smiles nervously and snaps his fingers to burn the note in jaehyun's hand as proof of his connection to god.
“long story…” he declares.
“we literally have eternity.”
“for love, not fights,” ten declares from the garden and winks at jaehyun.
indeed, jaehyun thinks. an eternity with jungwoo in return for god's curse is a good price.