DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN SUPER JUNIOR
Chapter 3:
As much as Donghae knew deep down that he was going to getin trouble, he found himself unable to leave the sleeping human's side. Hewaited there, pondering on his fate and future, both as a Death Walker and withthis human. When dawn threw her pastel colored beams across the sky, Hyukjaestirred and Donghae froze.
"Uh…" the human teen mumbled into his arms. "I fellasleep?"
"Yes, you did." Donghae muttered back from across thetable. Hyukjae started up, almost upending the table.
"I…" He brushed a hand distractedly through his hair. "Iforgot you where here. Did you stay there the whole night?" Hyukjae asked,cautiously looking around for anything out of place. He still knew next tonothing about the stranger, except that perhaps he was not a killer. In fact, for all he knew, the man might as well havebeen a burglar in disguise.
"Yes. As strange as this might sound, watching humanssleep is extremely interesting. You in particular." Donghae said with a smirk.
"I… I see." Hyukjae muttered, now looking at the stranger,bewildered.
"Surely you caught my hint."
"What?"
"Or you must be half-asleep."
"What are you talking about?"
Donghae looked at his target with a raised brow. Then hebared his teeth, catching Hyukjae by surprise.
"Why are your canines so long?"
"Look," Donghae muttered sarcastically, "I can shrink themtoo."
Hyukjae watched with fascination as the teeth resumedtheir normal size.
"You're not human?"
"Finally. He get's it."
"Vampire?"
"Not quite."
Hyukjae shook his head, unable to comprehend the fact thathe was having a conversation of this topic with a stranger he had just met andwho happened to stay the night, almost without his knowledge.
"Stay there. I need to shower. We'll continue this after Iclear my head a little."
Donghae watched as the human pulled off his shirt,revealing a thin, lithe body, with skin as smooth as silk. The Death Walkerrepressed his urge to reach out and stroke the human's back. But it was sotempting.
Hyukjae took no notice of Donghae's internal battle andheaded into the shower. From outside the bathroom, Donghae could hear thehuman's heart rate settle as the steam filled the room. He chuckled as the waterturned off the moment Hyukjae's heart rate returned to normal, to the rate ithad been the night before, before Donghae had first jumped him.
There was a pause, and then the bathroom door sat, transfixed by the sight before him. The human was wearing simply atowel, his blond hair plastered messily to his face. There were still waterdroplets from the shower on his bare skin, which slid down his body as hereached up to dry his hair with another towel.
And while Donghae was in his little reverie, Hyukjae wasthinking carefully about all the questions he was going to drill into thisstranger in the two hours he had before classes started.
"You said," he started, breaking the silence, "that youheard I had a broken heart. Yesterday. What did you mean by that?"
"What do you think?"
"That's why I'm asking. Since you don't seem to be human,I want to know if it's just a ploy you set up to get back into the apartment, orif you seriously think there's something wrong with me."
Donghae pulled his eyes away from Hyukjae, who had satdown across the coffee table from him. He looked down at the floor as he triedto figure a way to explain his ability.
"I can hear blood, pulses, heartbeats… As clearly as youcan hear me talking right now. Based on what I hear, I gather a profile aboutthe mental state of the person in question. It's really just based on instinct,but what I gather is usually correct."
"So you're saying I'm heartbroken."
"Surely you can't tell me I'm wrong." Donghae lookedHyukjae straight in the eye. The latter broke eye contact.
"I can't believe this. I don't understand how this works…"
"You don't really need to. And as odd as this may sound,I'm here. You can tell me about anything."
Hyukjae paused at the sweet words coming out of Donghae'smouth. He was perplexed, but only slightly so.
"And you know, as odd as this may sound, I completely believe you."
Donghae smiled happily, scooting over to the human's just as he reached up to put an arm around the now shaking boy, his bodystarted fading in and out. He paused and withdrew his arm.
"Ah… it seems this will have to wait."
Hyukjae looked up to see the stranger who had promised himcomfort disappearing before his eyes.
"Wha… What's going on? I thought you said I could tell youabout anything…?"
"And you still can. But it will have to wait. I'm beingcalled back, you see, and probably not for something good."
"What do you mean?"
"We're usually not forced to return against our will. Ah, hemust be angry."
"About what?" Hyukjae asked, starting to panic. He reallyhad no idea what Donghae was talking about.
"Probably about you. I was supposed to kill you, but now…"Donghae smiled. "Well don't worry about it. I will definitely be back, as soonas I can. Sit tight and go about your day as you normally would. I promise," Donghae put heavy emphasis onthe word, "I will be back."
And as was the case with Kyuhyun, Donghae's last wordsechoed around the now otherwise empty apartment, as Eunhyuk stared blankly atthe spot in which the Death Walker had last been.
"Siwon, Kangin. You two can leave. Resume your duties atonce."
The two Death Walkers bowed deeply and then exited thehall.
"The rest of you," Death growled, "explain yourselves. Youwere given targets, and instead of killing them, as you were supposed to, youhave been hanging around in their presences, slowly falling for their wile,seductive ways."
Kyuhyun, Yesung, and Donghaeall looked at Shindong, and then at each other.
"Well…" Donghae began.
"I guess we were lucky that our objects of interest didnot end up being our assigned targets." Siwon mused quietly as he and Kanginglided down the hall, their black cloaks billowing behind them. The hall waslike a wind tunnel, and a constant rush of air pushed it's way through thepassageway.
"Yeah, but now those objects of interest want us ininterrogation today at three." Kangin announced, chuckling, before bothdisappeared abruptly from the netherworld-like coven and headed back down tothe Korean city.
Ryeowook silently begged the clock that hung above theclassroom door to go faster. He needed to see Yesung again. The mysterious manhad dropped him off, alone, outside his school, and now he felt scared and smallyet again. Did he dare call Yesung his shell? The man did call him his turtleand made him feel safe and comfortable, which is exactly what the shell doeswhen a turtle when is threatened.
"Hey Shorty." The usual whispers from that group of students drifted into hisears from the back of the classroom. Ryeowook took a deep breath, silentlycalling for Yesung just as the bell rang, which allowed him to sprint from theroom. He knew, even without looking, that the small gang was following him, andhe felt that all he could do was scream for his silent protector to come rescuehim.
"Hey we just want to talk!" the frightening group ofstudents called again. The smaller boy knew that "want to talk," meant, "beatyou up" in bully talk. He had learned that one the very first time they said itto him and he ended up in a trashcan with a broken arm. Suddenly his face metpavement and the sound of laughter surrounded him.
"Oops," laughed a girl with long brown hair as the restof the students who had been chasing him surrounded him.
"I really hate my life right now," he whisperedpreparing for the inevitable attack.
Hyukjae stared blankly out the window of the schoollibrary. Donghae had left so suddenly, and to the blond's surprise, his hearthurt more in his absence. Another oddity had been the accurate pinpointing ofhis broken heart.
"Lee Hyukjae. Are you still moping around?" asked theshrilly voice of his old girlfriend as she sauntered up to his table,attracting stares from all directions.
"Soo Lee." Hyukjae replied calmly never taking his eyesfrom the window, where a short boy he recognized from his English class ranpast only to be tripped by some girl.
"Looks like the class bullies have found their favoritetarget." Soo Lee laughed. Hyukjae had to pause to think of why he even datedthe model-like girl. Oh right, she was a model. Just thinking back to thosetimes made him start feeling queasy, so he told himself he was leaving just tobe helpful, but in the back of his mind, he also knew that he was running away,trying to get as far away from his ex as he could. Repeatedly telling himselfthat it was to be helpful, Hyukjaeexcused himself quietly before dashing off to help the boy he suddenly rememberedas Kim Ryeowook.
Leeteuk smiled as he and Kibum watched the two E.M.S mensit in interrogation through the one-way window.
"They look cute." Leeteuk smiled, eyes feasting only onthe strongest man in the room, making his affections way too obvious.
"I guess I'll take the model then." Kibum said with acoy smile, knowing his hyung had stopped listening to him long ago. In truth,he had been wondering why the tall man known as Choi Siwon had so little in hisbackground files. In fact, both files had been nearly devoid of any information.
"Are you ready to interrogate our little victims?"Leeteuk asked as he made his way to the door of the room holding the two men.
Sungmin cursed as he combed his fingers through hishair. His father was forcing him to interact with his old girlfriend. As if hedidn't have enough problems with Kyuhyun lurking around injured. Of course, hisfather was unaware of his current preoccupations. He cursed again at allowingthe mysterious stranger leave his home so hurt.
"Sungmin." called a voice from the door. He looked up tosee his father standing in the doorway of the office.
"Yes, father?" Sungmin asked, hiding his distaste at thelook in his father's eyes.
"I have arranged a date this weekend with Miss Sue you two hit it off again then our company will once again be on top." hisfather said. Sungmin nodded, hiding the deep hatred that was starting to boilup. Satisfied with his son's obedience, the man left. Sungmin gave it a moment,and then he too stood up and made his way to the nearest exit. He had to go homeor do something. The image of Kyuhyun was floating dangerously in his mind.
"So, you miss me?" asked a coy voice beside him as hewalked out the doors of his father's company. Sungmin, pleasantly surprised,smiled as he turned to face the object of his thoughts.
"Kyuhyun! You're alright?" he asked searching for anysigns of discomfort.
"I'm not human, remember." Kyuhyun said cheekily,earning him a blush from the older male.
"So why did you have to leave this morning?" Sungminasked as they began to walk towards his home. Kyuhyun went silent beforesmiling and placing his arm around Sungmin's shoulder. "You won't tell me?"Sungmin asked as the evening rush of people flooded the streets.
"Maybe later. Until then, think I can stay at yourplace?" Kyuhyun asked, earning him another blush, a deeper blush, before apeaceful silence fell over them.
"Sure." Sungmin muttered quietly, and with that the twocontinued forward.
Donghae and Yesung slammed down their drinks in anger asHankyung quickly ran to refill their glasses.
"Calm down, I'm sure they're fine," Heechul said,watching the clubbers dance about.
"Not the point. If Death decides to go out of his way to find them…" Yesung couldn't continue as his head thudded onto his folded arms. Donghae growled before taking the glass Hankyung handed him and downing the shot.
"I will not lose Hyukjae to him." the man threatened as he stood up. "Yesung lets go find them." Yesung nodded quickly as they abruptly rose from their seats and rushed out the door.
"I wonder what threat Death used this time?" Hankyung mused worriedly as he prepared the now vacant seats for the next customers.
"I think I have an idea." Heechul whispered before signaling for another round of soju.
