On Saturday night you decide to go out with friends. You finished schoolwork early and Rika isn't giving you any RFA-related business so you decided to accept your friends' invitation to the newly opened club in Hongdae. You dress in a striped jumper dress with a tee underneath and matching black pumps. The strobe lights hurt your eyes and the music too deafening. You watch your friends on the dance floor, jumping and bobbing their heads to the rhythm of the music, once in a while grinding their bodies against some random male. You give a little cringe every time you see it.
"Want something to drink?" You turn around to see a stranger asking you. You give him a small smile and a shake of the head but the stranger was so damn insistent about giving you a drink, pushing the glass of crystal liquid in your direction. You stare at the shot glass, your mind going on overdrive, trying to come up with polite ways to leave him. Your brain comes up with nothing, and you curse yourself for being too innocent for this world. You were about to take the glass when you felt a warm hand circling your wrist. You look up to see Luciel Choi and you open your mouth to speak but before the words got out of your mouth, Luciel has pulled you with a force strong enough to make you stand up. He turns his attention towards the stranger with a smile and told him, "Sorry but she's with me." before he pulls you away from the stranger. You both weave in and out of the crowd of dancing bodies, Luciel keeping a tight hold on you, before both of you stop at the farthest corner of the club, the music there not as loud as it was at the bar.
Luciel lets go of your hand and turns around to look at you before letting out a sigh. "Park Joohyun," he begins with a shake of the head. "just what are you going to do without me?" He lets out a tsk tsk sound.
"But I wasn't doing anything." You told him, the confusion evident on your voice. Luciel shakes his head again.
"That man was going to drug you, you know. He put ecstasy in that glass before giving it to you. Had you taken it, I don't know where you'd wind up going. Seriously, just what are you going to do without me?" Your mouth formed an o shape as you take the information in. You bowed and apologized for causing trouble for him. He shakes his head, telling you it was nothing and made you promise to be more careful next time.
"What are you doing here anyway?" you inquire, before crossing your arms over your chest and narrowing your eyes. "You're not stalking me, are you?" He lets out a snort and replies with "You wish. I was here before you. If anything, you were the one stalking me." You playfully punch his arm in response.
"Is that how you treat your protector?" he asks you, rubbing the arm you hit and pretending to be hurt. You just roll your eyes at him.
"So why didn't I see you here?" you ask him. He points up and stares at something behind you and you turn around and look up to see a platform on the second floor.
"I was there the whole time," he informs you. "I even saw you entering with your friends. I was surprised to see you here by the way. Didn't peg you as the type to party." His eyes focus on you, looking you up and down, and you feel a little conscious. You look around the club to keep your eyes from him.
"Your brother's not with you? Unknown-ssi?" you ask him.
"No. I'm here alone. My brother doesn't really like crowded places."
"Oh. I can relate."
"Then what are you doing here?" he asks with a small frown.
"Thought I'd give partying with friends a chance since I'm not too busy partying with RFA." You answer with a shrug. "But I guess I'm really not suited for this kind of thing." Your eyes roam the dance floor and you once again watch your friends grind their bodies against strangers, their sweat mingling with each other, and you mentally cringe.
"First time going to a place like this?" he asks you and you nod. He nods back and grabs your hand again, leading you outside the club. Both of you are already halfway across the street before you can ask him where you are both going. He doesn't answer, only tightens his hold on your hand, and you try not to think about how big and warm his hand is, and how much it feels good to have him hold yours. You enter a 7/11 branch and he leads you to one of the plastic benches. You sit down and he walks away, freeing your hand.
You try not to think about the sudden coldness from the hand he let go as you wonder what on earth you both were doing there. He comes back with two cups of ramyeon and sits in front of you before sliding one of the cups to you. You take it and raise an eyebrow at him, silently questioning him. He shrugs.
"I figured this was your kind of partying." He tells you, breaking his chopsticks into two. You give him a little chuckle and a shake of the head.
"So we're partying right now?" you ask him, breaking your own chopsticks before blowing into the cup of hot ramyeon.
"You bet."
"Sad that we're missing one thing. Otherwise this party could've been perfect." He looks up from his cup of ramyeon and raises an eyebrow.
"What are we missing?"
"Disney movies."
"Aaaaahhhhhh…." He says, nodding slowly. "Then next time we have a party, remind me to bring my box of Disney films at home." You nearly choke on the ramyeon you were eating as you let out a laugh.
"Thanks Luciel," you tell him after a while. He gives you a genuine smile and reaches out, messing your hair.
"I kinda knew you aren't into big crowds after the last two RFA parties. The Defender of Justice observes everything."
"I owe the Defender of Justice a lot." You tell him with a smile. "What should I do to repay my debts?" Luciel shakes his mop of red hair.
"A hero does not ask for payment." he tells you in a serious voice, puffing his chest up. You laugh and call him a dork. Your phone vibrated inside your pocket and you fished it out, checking the notification.
"It's a message from one of my friends." You inform Luciel, eyes scanning the Kakao message your friend has sent you, asking for your whereabouts. The redhead sitting in front of you took your phone before you could protest and typed out a quick reply. He handed it back to you and you read the message he wrote. "Busy partyin with mah fam. Dun worry. I'll get home safe. Have fun! Lol" it says. You stare at him after reading.
"This isn't how I write a message." You tell him. "My friends would think I'm drunk." He gives you a shrug.
"Well I wouldn't know how you write one because the only message you've ever sent the messenger is a single "Hello Rika"." He has a point there. You're not sure whether to tell Luciel that the messenger makes you feel uncomfortable, the two of you aren't really close enough to tell each other secrets. And there was something about Luciel Choi, something not quite right. You push the thought at the back of your mind. You don't want to think about it right now.
Luciel brings you home a little after midnight in his red sports car. You were worrying about the last train when he rolled his eyes at you and leads you back to the club where his car was parked. You wonder how a guy probably the same age as you could own such a luxurious car. He's probably some chaebol, you think, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to afford the red beauty.
Luciel opens the shotgun door and you get in, careful not to touch anything else. You sit still while he starts the ignition, and you two were silent the whole time he was driving. It was thirty minutes later when you realize that you haven't told him your address. You were about to enter your address on the GPS when you see that he's in the right direction. You whip your head to look at him. He shrugs, eyes still focused on the empty road.
"I have to know where every single member of the RFA lives. Safety reasons."
You don't bother to reply, leaning back on the backrest and closing your eyes to rest. You open them again when you hear Luciel saying "We're here". You turn to look at him and thank him, giving him a small smile that he doesn't return, before you step out of the car. You watch as he drives off, the taillights getting smaller with each passing second.
The next time you were asked to log into the messenger, you see Luciel online. After debating with yourself for a couple minutes, you decide to send out a simple "Hey Luciel". The whole chatroom went quiet for a second before it exploded with messages, most of them from Yoosung, about you finally breaking your silence in the messenger. Kang Jaehee sent an "It's nice to finally meet you, Park Joohyun" which you reply with a "same here". Yoosung tells you that it's nice to finally be able to talk to you in the messenger.
"Hey hey Joohyun~" The message Luciel sent had you smiling despite of yourself. You reply "Hey ^^" and wait for him to reply.
"Nice to see you gracing the messenger with your presence~" he replies back. You bite your lip to keep your grin from getting wider, some part of you wondering why talking with Luciel like this would put a smile on your face.
"I had to. I mean, you should at least sound like me the next time you try to reply to my friends."
"lol" The three letters had you wondering what you were going to say next. Fortunately, the redhead sent another message. "What did they say?"
"They thought I was high." Luciel sent out another lol and the others (Yoosung and Zen) wondered what the two of you were talking about. The conversation ended when Rika entered the chatroom. Rika has ordered you to complete a transaction and deliver the goods, this time with Yoosung. He gave you (or maybe it was for Rika) a thumbs up and told you not to worry. It'll be as smooth as the last. Zen joked about being jealous of Yoosung for going with you and the blond replied with a grinning emoji.
Rika goes offline soon after sending you a private message regarding the details and you were left with Zen, Yoosung, and Luciel (Kang Jaehee left as soon as she found out who was going to do transactions this time, claiming she has work to do). You spend a good thirty minutes chatting with the three until Luciel goes offline because he has "things to take care of." You go offline soon after.
A/N: A short update to celebrate my day off~! BTW, anybody wants to edit a photo for this fic? lol
-olympicmayhem