Chapter Text
"The government has announced to raise the minimum wage by the highest rate since 2008, an official said Thursday, in an apparent effort to revive the faltering economy. Still, the public voice raises discontent over the compromise as-"
"Excuse me."
Seungkwan jolted at the disgruntled voice, his eyes skating away from the reporter on the television to the impatient looking customer in front of him. The middle-aged man in a crumpled suit nudged his chin towards the pack of gum he threw on the counter, waiting for Seungkwan to cash it out for him.
"Sorry," Seungkwan apologized as he proceeded to scan the item. The man's eyes stalled on the shelves of cigarettes behind the cashier for a second, before he grudgingly reached for his wallet.
"And throw in a pack of Parliament Light too."
Seungkwan nodded and turned around. A little too fast, because he halted in the midst and almost tripped over his own foot before he actually got where he wanted to be. Seungkwan uneasily eyed the rows of similar looking boxes aligned in front of him. Shit, which one was the Parla-thingamajig again? Seungkwan bit his lip as he inwardly cursed to himself. He always got the cigarette brands confused, and honestly, he'd think he would've gotten the hang of it by now, having worked at this convenience store for two months already. He was wrong.
"It's the one to your right." The man's disgruntled voice was elevating to a clear irritation now. "On the upper shelf, no, below that- come on kid, I don't have time for this."
Seungkwan's hands hastily fumbled for the correct pack of cigarettes before he turned back around.
"Sorry," He apologized for the secondth time. "I'll remember next time."
"Yeah, you better." The man growled. "I can't take anymore of anything at this time of hour."
Seungkwan sighed as he watched the man leave. He had been out of it all day, lacking sleep from his already limited hours of sleeping. It seemed worth it when he was flying through his test in the morning, but enduring through his night shift was even more brutal than he'd expected. Taking his eyes off from the pitch black window, Seungkwan looked at the clock, massaging his shoulders draped under the orange uniform vest. It was past one thirty in the morning, and a certain part-time employee to take over his shift was falling slightly late.
The chimes on the door ding-ed at that moment, and the muffled buzzing of music being blasted through cheap earphones disturbed the quiet silence. Speak of the devil, Seungkwan smiled before he looked up to confirm who it was.
"I'm so sorry, Seungkwan-ah!"
Soonyoung came tumbling inside the store. He fixed up the headband that slipped down during his run and tried to put his right arm through the hole of his orange vest, failing miserably with each disheveled attempt.
"The dance practice got dragged longer than I'd expected it to, and gosh, I feel terrible for making you miss the last bus..."
Soonyoung sputtered as he made his way around the workstation, his arm still flailing about without much success.
"It's okay, hyung."
Seungkwan chuckled, holding the vest up for Soonyoung as the older male finally got his arm through.
"I kind of needed to walk home and breathe some cold air to wake myself up anyways."
Soonyoung looked personally offended by Seungkwan's response.
"Wake up?" He frowned, zipping his vest up and facing the boy whom Soonyoung would've sworn looked exhausted in any stranger's eyes. "You need to sleep. I thought you gave it up last night to study too."
"Being a senior high school student in Korea isn't an easy task, you know."
Seungkwan shrugged, folding up his vest and shoving it into his backpack. Soonyoung nodded, turning sympathetic at the comment, and finally shuddering as if to have involuntarily reminisced back to his high school days. Seungkwan laughed as he put on his school uniform blazer. He waved bye to Soonyoung and was about to walk out of the convenience store when Soonyoung called his name.
"Seungkwan, take this!"
Soonyoung threw something without a warning, and although Seungkwan knew that the blond didn't mean it, the hot can of coffee would've caused a bruise on his face if it weren't for his quick reflexes. Seungkwan blinked, a little stunned, and Soonyoung grinned back.
"It's on me."
Seungkwan snickered and slipped the can of coffee into his blazer pocket.
The streets were nearly deserted. Seungkwan knew that the walk back home wasn't going to take too long, but it would've spared him an extra half an hour to sleep had he taken the bus. He slipped earphones into his ears to block away shoutings by drunkards that could be heard occasionally in the distance, only to yank it out in annoyance after a few minutes because his batteries had completely died.
Seungkwan mindlessly calculated the hours of his shifts with every step worn with fatigue, his shadow sliding across the sidewalk with each approaching street lamp above his head. As Seungkwan got closer to home, his weariness made the uphill road to his house feel steeper than usual. He almost tripped over a crack in the pavement, and Seungkwan glared up at the dull lights as if to blame them. Some street lamps flickered, while some were so pathetically dim that it couldn't attract a single moth. Seungkwan laughed hollow, as the murkiness of the lights reminded him of himself.
The barely effective raise of the minimum wage was probably the luminous part of his flickering life. Where else could he send in a resume? How many more jobs could he possibly squeeze in between his job at the convenience store and his studies? How many hours of sleep could he have tomorrow?
"You're late."
Seungkwan stopped in his tracks at the deep familiar voice.
How much more do I have to endure, Seungkwan swallowed, to escape Choi Seungcheol?
The tall, dark man sat in front of his doorstep, breathing out clouds of smoke as he slowly got up to his feet. Illuminated under the dim lights, Seungkwan stared at Seungcheol's shapely chiseled features exposed under his pushed back hair. At first, Seungkwan hadn't believed that a guy with such a stunning profile made a living out of beating people up.
Once or twice or so, Seungkwan was weekly visited by loan sharks to have his home invaded, to have everything turned upside down with their incessant screamings and beatings to have the money ready. Those monsters scared Seungkwan, they tortured him, made him jump at the smallest noises that turned out to be nothing, made him jolt awake in the middle of night, sweaty and panting from nightmares.
But this man, Choi Seungcheol, the supposed leader of these debt-collectors, never really had any effect on Seungkwan. Or at least, not of such kind. Maybe it was because he was so good-looking, Seungkwan thoughtlessly ventured.
Or maybe it was because Seungcheol, despite being a loan shark, was so damn nice to him.
And Seungkwan hated him for it. How dare he, despite being someone who should strip him of dignity, of respect, of everything he had, now become someone of -Seungkwan didn't know what, he didn't want to admit it- significance? Trying to ignore the wave of relief that overwhelmed him when their eyes met, Seungkwan walked over. He stretched his hand, took the cigarette that burned steadily between Seungcheol's lips, and mashed the lights under his shoes. He looked up at Seungcheol to see the man smiling down at him.
"Do you have any idea how vulnerable you look, walking around a deserted neighbourhood at this time of night?" Seungcheol tilted his head as he scanned Seungkwan from head to toe. "...Dressed in school uniform?"
Seungkwan tried to brush past him, but Seungcheol grabbed Seungkwan by the wrist to plant the younger boy in front of him.
"It's dangerous, kiddo."
"Ahjussi, who do you think I'm doing this for?" Seungkwan snapped. "You're the one that's bugging me for money."
"I don't know," Seungcheol shrugged. "All I know is that you're not the guy that ran away with someone else's money."
Seungkwan closed his mouth. He didn't really want to talk about his father tonight.
"And I've been waiting," Seungcheol's low voice drifted with the wind. "for you."
Silence fell between the two, with the faint hum of the lights droning from above. For some odd reason, silence was never an uncomfortable element when shared with Seungcheol. Truthfully though, it was probably because Seungcheol was the only person that knew his deepest secrets that Seungkwan wanted to hide from everyone else; his runaway father hounded by loan sharks, his mother who left the family without a word, and himself, who was just somehow making it through each day.
Seungcheol knew things like that. And at the end of the day, Seungkwan knew Seungcheol came home feeling the same things. That life sucked.
Seungcheol moved to the side and leaned against the wall as if to give Seungkwan an option to go. He slipped a new cigarette between his lips.
"Boo Seungkwan."
Seungkwan bit on his lower lip at Seungcheol's voice. He could never leave after that.
"When I started doing this around your age, I used to carry around a big wooden stick to defend myself. You know, like a broken leg from a wooden table. And whenever I used it, I got this wooden splinter stuck under my nail. Always."
Seungkwan turned to face Seungcheol, unable to understand what the man was trying to say.
"Pretty annoying, really. I could forget about it, but I knew it was there, because it was always reminding me of its presence by pricking. The stinging was minimal, but if I ignored it for a long time, it became a serious wound and started numbing other parts of my body."
"What are you..."
Seungkwan opened his mouth, confused and perplexed, but Seungcheol didn't let him finish.
"Wooden splinters." Seungcheol spat with force. "You're exactly like those damned wooden splinters."
Seungkwan widened his eyes, a bit frightened at the tone of Seungcheol's angry voice and not knowing how to interpret Seungcheol's words. Sometimes Seungkwan forgot that Seungcheol was a man with blood on his hands. After all, the only images Seungkwan carried of him were either expresionless ones with puffs of smoke covering the better half of his face, or the laid-back smiles he got whenever Seungkwan spotted him waiting for him outside of his house. Seungkwan broke off the gaze, giving his best to hide his crazily racing heart.
"I get my paycheck tomorrow." Seungkwan tried to speak with composure. "It's enough to cover this month's pay, so don't send your men over."
He walked past and pushed the gates open. Over the creaks of the rusted gates, Seungcheol's voice penetrated all noise and drilled into Seungkwan's ears.
"I'm going to reduce your debt."
The words froze Seungkwan in his spot for a second, until the boy spun around and stared at Seungcheol in disbelief. Chuckling at Seungkwan's reaction, Seungcheol straightened himself.
"All of it."
"Ahjussi," Seungkwan stammered, "A-Are you serious?"
"Yeah."
Seungcheol responded nonchalantly as he approached Seungkwan closer and closer. By the time Seungcheol's face was inches before his own, Seungkwan faltered back only to be met by a dead end of the block beside the gate. Trapped between Seungcheol and the wall, Seungkwan's eyelashes flitted in consternation. Seungcheol lightly tapped his lean finger against Seungkwan's lips.
"If you give me this."
Seungkwan stared at the large dark eyes staring back at him. Then his gaze slided down to Seungcheol's nose, to his lips, and he held his breath as the smell of mint mixed with cigarettes wafted into his system. Seungkwan was supposed to be furious. He was supposed to be enraged that Seungcheol was playing around with him, toying him with money, yet he could feel his heart pounding so fast that it was beginning to frighten him, even daze him. Seungkwan forced himself to grab his slipping conscience and managed to open his mouth.
"Get lost." Seungkwan spat, his voice hoarse. "I'll just pay you back."
Seungcheol smirked as if to have expected his answer.
"Suit yourself."
He said and leaned back.
Seungkwan's tongue caressed over his dry lips. He was flustered that he was feeling frustrated, even sorry that it didn't happen, and Seungkwan quickly turned around to head inside when Seungcheol grabbed him back and spun him around. Seungcheol pulled Seungkwan in, his arms firmly around Seungkwan as he held him in his embrace. Letting his guard down, something Seungcheol hadn't done in a very long time, he rested his head on Seungkwan's shoulder as the younger male stood stiff in surprise.
After a long moment, when Seungcheol lost the count of seconds and Seungkwan had the nerve to start crying, Seungcheol pat Seungkwan's back as if to reassure him that everything was going to be okay.
"Hang in there," Seungcheol whispered as Seungkwan's arms linked around his body. "You're one heck of a stubborn wooden splinter."
The digital clock on the monitor of his cash register told Seungkwan that it was almost one o'clock.
"A notorious gang enterprise associated with illegal money lending and violent crimes have been finally exposed of last night. Here is Reporter Kim with more details."
Seungkwan almost dozed off to the voice of the dull news anchor, as the the midnight news on the television by his workstation was coming to an end. Seungkwan blinked furiously, slapping his cheeks lightly to keep himself awake. His shift only had a few minutes before its end, and Soonyoung had already texted him that he was almost here.
Besides -Seungkwan bit the insides of his mouth to keep himself from beaming too obviously- tonight was pay day. Seungcheol was going to be waiting for him in front of his house, and Seungkwan would be able to see him earlier tonight, considering that he was going to take the bus. Seungkwan felt a wave of heat rush to his face as he found himself wanting to hear those reassuring words again. Preferably, in Seungcheol's strangely warm and comforting embrace. If anything, Seungkwan thought to himself, he could always pretend that he'd gone nuts and jump into Seungcheol's hard, sturdy arms.
"This gang is known to have been involved in acts of fraud for decades, through unlawful monetary exchanges and adding false interests."
A young woman came into the store and placed a can of coke on the counter. Suppressing a yawn, Seungkwan scanned the item. On the television screen, a tall man with a dark cap pressed over his head, was being taken into the police station and getting bombarded with flashing camera lights.
"1,300 won please."
Seungkwan said to the woman. As he waited for the customer to dig up her change, Seungkwan's eyes casually turned to the television again.
"Police has not yet explained as to why the leader of the Choi gang had suddenly decided to turn himself in or what the motivation is behind his confessions. To the public, the mystery still remains."
Seungkwan froze. He recognized the familiar silhouette. He recognized those lean fingers, those arms, and those exact shoulders which made Seungkwan want to lean on them again.
"Excuse me, can you hurry up?"
Seungkwan heard the woman's annoyed voice, and he systematically moved his hands to accept the change and ring it through the cash register. His brain clashed with the ka-ching of the machine, alike an explosion, or a realization in his world like the big bang, causing his thinking to blur. Or his vision. They were both fading and starting to get blurry, drowning out the reporter's voice.
"Seungkwan-ah, I'm here!"
Soonyoung rushed inside, moving out of the way as the customer left with her bottle of coke. The chime of the convenience store rang at Seungkwan's head, echoing with Seungcheol's low soothing voice of telling him to be strong. Seungkwan shut his eyes, drops of tears falling onto the counter.
"You have plenty of time to catch the bus-" Soonyoung's eyes widened. "You're crying, oh my god, is something wrong?"
Seungkwan shook his head, looking up at Soonyoung and trying to smile.
"He cashed me out."
Seungkwan said between stifles of muffled cries. The tears didn't stop flowing, and Seungkwan brought his hands up to his eyes as they continued to drip down his arms.
"Ahjussi saved me."