“Hello,” Jonghyun mumbles when the bell over the door indicates a person entering. He doesn’t look up from his magazine. The voices that start whispering tells him there are more than one person in the small convenience store. It’s 11 PM in the small shop and Jonghyun has an hour left. In the last 2 hours, it has been practically vacant. It isn’t until the customers put a sixpack of beer on the counter that Jonghyun looks up from his magazine. In front of the counter stands two young boys, definitely younger than 19.

“Two packages of Raison Red,” the one clad in a black hoodie says. Jonghyun raises an eyebrow.

“ID,” he says and reaches a hand out. He can see the two boys fiddling a little in their pockets, probably looking for the fake ID. Jonghyun really doesn’t care about their age and he’s going to let them buy their beer and cigarettes anyway.

“I’ve forgotten it,” the guy says and Jonghyun purses his lips shortly.

“You know I can’t let you buy it unless you can prove you’re 19 or older.” Jonghyun can see them looking briefly at each other.

“Come on, man. We’re obviously 19,” the other guy says. Jonghyun blinks a little and leans back in his plastic chair. It’s unprofessional at best, but Jonghyun is too tired to care.

“Oh, really?” he asks and the guys sigh a little. “Aw, boys, don’t be so discouraged.” He punches the numbers into the cash register. “21.000 won.”

The two boys look at him. Jonghyun reaches his hand out towards them and wiggles his fingers a little.

“I’m waiting. And I’m not tolerating theft so you’re paying twice for the gum in your pockets.” Jonghyun wiggles his fingers a little again. “Cough up or I’m calling the cops and telling them you’re trying to buy cigs and booze while underage.”

The hooded guy sticks his hand into his pocket and produces two 10.000 won bills and hands them to Jonghyun. Jonghyun looks at him with a piercing glare. The last 1.000 won bill is produced reluctantly but when it finally lies in Jonghyun’s hand, he sends them a bright smile. They gather their stuff in a hurry and Jonghyun calls a chipper ‘have a good evening’ after them. The bell sounds again when they exit and Jonghyun returns to his magazine. Jonghyun has only flipped one page when the bell sounds again, indicating someone new entering.

“Hello,” he says but once again doesn’t look up.

“So rude,” a voice says in front of the counter and it has Jonghyun promptly putting his magazine down. He stares into the most gorgeous brown eyes he has ever seen, but today they’re dimmer. They don’t shine as bright as they usually do but Jonghyun dismisses it. Maybe the other man is just tired.

“Hey babe,” Jonghyun says and the other man yawns a little before he walks around the counter and plops into Jonghyun’s lap.

“Aren’t you off soon?” he asks and Jonghyun smiles while he wraps his hands around the other man’s waist.

“We close at 1.30 AM. You know that, Kibum.”

Kibum frowns but leans against Jonghyun’s chest nonetheless.

“Mmmh. I missed you yesterday. Can’t you just ditch the last 2 hours and close the shop?” Kibum asks and Jonghyun laughs.

“And get fired?”

Kibum scoffs a little and gestures with his hand in the air.

“You’ve worked here since you were 18. Don’t you think it’s on time you do something I can be proud of?”

Jonghyun raises an eyebrow.

“And what do you suggest? Doing pawn-breaking?”

Kibum glares at him and Jonghyun sends him a soft smile before he pecks Kibum’s cheek.

“Okay, you win.”

Kibum turns in Jonghyun’s lap before he connects their lips. Jonghyun doesn’t count the seconds while they kiss. Whenever he’s with Kibum, it’s like time stands still. It doesn’t feel like he’s moving steadily towards his death. Jonghyun appreciates the lack of time he has when he’s with the other man. Kibum, with his black hair and large bomber jacket he stole from some credulous fool. Kibum with his feline eyes and dark kohl eyeliner. Kibum with his skinny and elegant frame that shows sturdiness nonetheless.

Kibum leans back and lets go of Jonghyun’s lips. It’s only 11.46 PM. Jonghyun squeezes his waist a little.

“Are you going to stay with me when I get off?” Jonghyun asks and Kibum nods a little.

“If I wasn’t, I sure as wasn’t going to wait around for you. For two hours!”

Jonghyun just snorts.

“Take a beer or something then?”

Kibum just shakes his head at that and leans closer to Jonghyun. Jonghyun raises an eyebrow. This is not normal behaviour. He doesn’t say anything, though, because Kibum mumbles ‘I love you’ against his neck and Jonghyun forgets.

The large glass double doors slide open for faer as fae steps inside. There are voices talking all around faer, machines beeping as beds pass by with or without patients. Fae looks to faer left, towards the waiting area. The nurse behind the counter looks at faer and tilts her head a little before she returns to her phone call. Fae watches the people in the large room before faer phone vibrates with an incoming text message. Taemin snorts a little when fae reads the text. As time passes by, fae starts to get a little restless. Fae is here to pick up Junghwa after she was pushed down stairs. Fae is pretty sure she has fractured her wrist because that’s just her luck but it’s odd she isn’t done yet.

When Junghwa finally does exit the doctor’s office with a cast on her left wrist, Taemin sighs a little.

“Are you sure it’s worth it?” fae asks and Junghwa looks at faer incredulously.

“Of course it is!”

Taemin gets up from faer seat and gently laces faer arm with Junghwa’s.

“Hey!” she says. “I just got an idea.”

Taemin widens faer eyes.

“Oh no,” fae says and Junghwa hits faer lightly with her healthy hand. Taemin laughs a little. “So what is it?”

Junghwa leads them out of the hospital and onto the streets. She is walking towards the small side streets where they both know there will be smaller clothes shops. Neither of them actually shop in big malls and brand stores after they came out. It’s obvious to the world that Junghwa is not a girl yet and looking at girl’s clothes only brings them lots of stares. Junghwa has been growing her hair and has been slimming down and while she looks absolutely fabulous to Taemin’s eyes, she hasn’t actually started transitioning. Taemin knows she’s saving up for a augmentation to get rid of a little of her dysphoria but they both know she is going to need a lot of courage because her family is not going to be supportive of her. Junghwa pulls at faer arm and Taemin looks at her.

“I need a new dress,” she says and sends him a smile. Taemin sighs a little, but fae doesn’t say anything to counter her statement. Fae worries about her, but no matter how many times people accidentally push her down stairs or how often people blatantly express their dislike of her, her smile never falters in public and Taemin admires her for that. She pulls faer with her into a small shop and starts looking around. Taemin swallows faer worry for the time being and starts looking through clothes on the hangers for her.

Kibum knows it is worthless. All the medical procedures his doctor has suggested, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery. It’s all useless because none of it will save him. His doctor has tried to convince him, has tried telling him that maybe he too can get healthy – or at least have a few years left. But Kibum has looked at his wrist and the 6 months he has left is not going to change. He’s terminally ill and he can either choose to go through countless of strong medications and suffer their side effects or he can live the last few months he has left like he wants to.

He sighs and sits down on a window sill in front of a strip club. There are people laughing and dancing behind him in the club as girls in little clothing wiggle their asses. Outside the music can only be heard dimly, though. Kibum almost reaches into his pocket to get a cigarette but then he has second thoughts and decides it won’t do anything for him anyway. He’s watching the nightlife go by in the flashy area of the worst neighbourhood in the city. He sees beggars steal from other beggars and old homeless people fighting over what food they find. He watches the flashy black cars arrive to and from brothels, a sort of anonymity the rest of the city uses when they don’t want to get recognized in the area. Nobody wants to live here. It’s a well-known fact that if people first end up here, they never move away.

Kibum didn’t exactly end up in the neighbourhood by own will. In fact, he is pretty sure nobody had intended for him to even be born. His mother certainly hadn’t wanted him and his father is still unknown to Kibum. Then again, who cares about the son of a e? Maybe it’s better this way. He’ll let the disease off him; he can be a tragic story. Maybe Jonghyun and Minjung will move on and find worthy lovers that aren’t criminals. He wants it for both of them.

He sighs again as he gets up from where he has been sitting and starts walking towards his home.

Blue blinks break through the black night. People are running around on the streets, doing everything they can to save the people inside the vehicles that have crashed together. He sighs a little as he walks closer to the commotion, close enough to see what is happening but far enough to not get involved. It is not his business. He turns around when he feels a chilly breeze and notices a woman with long black hair standing a few meters away. She turns her head and gets eye contact with him and then sends him a smile. He shakes his head fondly before he makes his way towards her.

“She still has one minute left,” he says and she rolls her eyes.

“Let me do my work, will you?” she asks and he chuckles a little. They draw attention from the few people around them but only for a split-second or two before everybody else again turns to the chaos that is unfolding before their eyes.

“I can’t let you take her before her time hits zero,” he says and she sighs.

“It already has,” she says and he shakes his head and lifts the sleeve of his left arm to reveal a wrist watch intricately designed.

“Not yet,” he says and watches the second hand climb towards the big zero where there should have been twelve. The second it lands on the zero he looks up and gets eye contact with the woman. “She’s all yours,” he says and gestures towards the two crashed vehicles. She nods and grabs a small notebook from her purse and with a beautiful beige pen writes the name of the woman in her book.

“Over here!” a paramedic shouts and starts CPR on the woman that has just gone into cardiac arrest.

“I’ll see you again soon, Jinki,” the woman says.

“We’ll see, Minji,” Jinki says before she walks away. He stays to watch the paramedics declare the woman dead before he too turns around and walks away from the scene. The other people involved still have time left.

“Minjung,” her father says and Minjung looks up from her book. He’s standing in front of her, dressed in a black suit like always. His face remains neutral as he watches his daughter. “Your mother wants you to join the annual charity ball at the Kim’s.”

Minjung already knows where this is going and she already knows she doesn’t want to attend.

“I can’t, papa,” she says and bites her lower lip and tries to gain sympathy. Her father doesn’t really look at her.

“I want you to make an effort to get to know their son this year.”

With those words, he turns around and leaves her alone and Minjung slumps into the couch and puts her book away. She hates the Kim’s. Not only are they the stereotypical rich family, her parents have been trying to get her to marry their son for the past 5 years. Minjung considers herself lucky that they haven’t arranged a marriage yet.

She knows her father has only told her because her mother knows she won’t listen. If Minjung misbehaves now, she’ll be punished.

Minjung isn’t in the mood to read anymore so she leaves her book on the coffee table and retreats to her room. She’s standing with her back against her door and staring at her phone but she doesn’t even want to text either of her boyfriends. There is nothing they can do either.

“Oh,” an elderly lady says. “Are you Kali’s son?”

Kibum turns around, uncomfortable at the mention of his mother’s name. The elderly woman who walks behind him sends him a wide smile. She’s wearing shaggy clothing and her face is caked in make-up. He bets it has been all her life but old habits die hard and Kibum knows because he has seen the es and how they come in all ages. This woman, however, must be too old to actually do business, but she obviously knows his mother. He knows he shouldn’t react like this. It will only serve to prove that he is, in fact, Kali’s son and that could be dangerous, but he can’t look away when he watches the old woman with her short hair and pink lips.

“So, it is you! Oh, dear boy, you look so much like your mother.”

Kibum cringes at what is supposed to be a compliment but he doesn’t say anything to her. She sends him a smile again and Kibum notices a few of her teeth is missing.

“I’m Xiao,” she says and Kibum shrugs. “You don’t remember me, do you? I don’t blame you, I’ve grown so old in the past few years!”

And when she chuckles Kibum widens his eyes.

“Xiaoxiao?!” he asks and she nods with another smile.

“Oh, child!”

Kibum throws all caution to the wind as he embraces the old woman. He’s well aware that she could steal from him in the vulnerable position, that it could be a ploy, but he trusts her. Kibum hasn’t spoken to her ever since she left the brothel he grew up in when he was 12, but she has been a grandmother of sorts for all his childhood. The only woman in the brothel that tried to raise him and teach him right from wrong. He guesses she didn’t succeed all that well considering where he is in life. Xiao laughs and releases him, only to grab his face in her dirty hands and turn it from left to right so she can look at him.

“How is your mother?” she asks when she’s done. Kibum rolls his eyes.

“Dead.”

Xiao gasps.

“Oh no, I’m sorry. Tell me what happened when I left?”

She pulls him with her to a small bench in a forgotten park. Garbage litters around on the grass but nobody really cares.

“Mmmh, Mr. X was as … well, you know him. Nina took me in, mom started doing drugs more heavily. She died when I was 18 and Mr. X kicked me onto the streets because I didn’t want to sell .”

Kibum shrugs a little and Xiao looks horrified.

“And I who prayed to God every night to give you the best and he left you with such a future.”

She shakes her head and Kibum smiles softly before he places his hands over hers.

“I’m fine, Xiaoxiao. I have a girlfriend and we’re happy,” he says and she turns her head to look at him. She’s touched by the happy news and Kibum feels his heart shrink a little. He hasn’t told her everything, obviously not. She doesn’t need to know he’s about to die of cancer at the age of 25. Instead he tells her vaguely about Minjung when she asks to know more.

If Taemin wasn’t so absolutely horrified of getting beaten to death, fae would have landed a fist in the ’s face. But fae can’t. Fae can only listen to the cruel words spewed towards them as they walk down the street, arm in arm. Junghwa smiles and doesn’t appear affected but Taemin knows that the words affect when they’re alone and even though she keeps saying it’s worth it, fae sometimes does question if it really is that worth it. Whenever fae asks, however, Junghwa says yes. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

Taemin pulls her along and tries to forget the words and the laughter. Junghwa had been so happy earlier when she bought the dress and she really does look gorgeous in it, but apparently other citizens don’t think so. Most are too scared of confrontation but the guy that had been courageous enough to hit on her and had been surprised by her flat chest and her masculine face hadn’t been late to voice his displeasure.

“If my wrist wasn’t broken, I would've punched him,” Junghwa says as the man follows them down the street, still trying to mock them in public. Taemin snorts with laughter.

“You’re incredible,” fae says and Junghwa nods a little.

“So are you. Thanks for sticking up for me,” she says and Taemin bites faer lower lip before fae looks up at her and sends her a wide smile.

“Always,” fae says and she laughs a little.

Jonghyun browses through a magazine he has stolen from the convenience store when he closed up a few days ago. It’s one of those magazines that people never buy because of its themes. It’s usually a History magazine but apparently has a theme-week of urban legends and old myths. It isn’t really interesting.

There’re a lot of myths on vampires and werewolves. Those mythical creatures that exists in every culture. There’s a 4-page spread on gumihos but even those are uninteresting to him. It isn’t until he reaches the last few pages that he notices something interesting.

The Time Paradox

In Ancient Baekje, King Onjo was suffering from pneumonia and his hour count dropped rapidly. It was inconvenient and King Onjo still didn’t have a son that could continue the kingdom. He requested for healers to save him and men from the entire country did their best to give him more time. The King became weaker and weaker.

His notary wrote his testament when a young man entered the palace, followed by a soldier. The young man claimed that he could save the King and rid him of his pneumonia but the King had to promised that the young man wouldn’t be exiled for witchcraft. The King happily agreed and the young man did as he had promised. Word spread in the kingdom when the King suddenly gained better health but the young man seemed to have disappeared.

Throughout history there are notes of a young man mysteriously curing people.

The legend extends to foreign countries as well, tales of a young man who would cure diseases. Those he cured lived longer.

People who have witnessed the young man in action have said that he acts like he can control Time. It has garnered the attention of conspiracy theorists who claim that if one meets this young man, he can grant people more Time as he must be the personification of Time.

This has all been gathered in what today is commonly known as The Legend of Time.

Jonghyun blinks a little when he finishes reading. The Legend of Time sounds interesting. It sounds like it might be the answer to his low hour count. Jonghyun puts the magazine away and in the process ends up looking at his wrist. The number there, however, is much different from what it was yesterday. In black ink is the number 7.889. Yesterday it had been 297.840. Jonghyun blinks again but the number stays.

This is wrong. This is so wrong. This must be a mistake. Jonghyun hasn’t killed that many people. He was supposed to turn 60 years old. Not die when he is 26. He forcefully grabs his phone from the table top but as he stares at his screen, he doesn’t know who to contact, who to call. Jonghyun ends up putting the phone away again as he stares at the grey walls on his cold apartment in fear.