Part of the double update with Chapter 6 because Happy Lunar New Year~! 🐯

His brother threw on his favorite jacket, a letterman from his judo club, and shoved on his shoes.

“I’m leaving.”

“Don’t leave, Minwoo. Don’t you still have homework to do?”

“I can do it when I get back. It’s due the day after tomorrow.”

“And you’re going to get more homework the day before it, tomorrow. It’s best to finish early if you can.”

“Well, I can’t, because I’m going to hang out with my friends.”

Minseok sighed from where he stood in the foyer. He didn’t want to have his brother worry, but he deserved to know the real reason Minseok was reluctant to let him go out tonight. And… a certain feeling of dread, stronger and familiar, welled in his stomach.

“I don’t want you going out because there’ve been recent reports of an immoral person going around killing kids your age.”

“I’m not a kid.”

“You’re someone’s kid, and Mom and Dad said for me to watch you. Minwoo, they’re worried about how often you go out and how these ‘friends’ of yours might be—”

“They’re not! Whatever you or Mom and Dad think, they’re not! God—can’t you be cool too and keep this from them?”

“It is not cool to go underage drinking and smashing people’s cars!”

Minwoo’s eyes widened.

“How did you…”

“I have a night class. A week ago, I get in my car, and what do I see? My brother with a band of hooligans drinking and breaking bottles on students’ cars in the university parking garage.”

“Since when did you have night classes? Weren’t you always saying ‘nighttime is dangerous’?” His brother words spat with mockery, but he stood up and fixed his jacket, avoiding his gaze.

“I switched so I could pick you up from judo practice. Do not change the subject. Minwoo!”

Minseok dashed in front of him and slammed the door with his back, locking it.

“Hyung!”

“You are not allowed to leave this house tonight or any time after nine until further notice.”

“What?! You’re giving me curfew?”

“Yes, for your safety.”

“You can’t stop me.”

His brother made a grab for the lock, shoving his shoulder against Minseok. But Minseok grabbed his wrists and pushed him back.

“Minwoo, stop!”

His brother ripped out of his hold with a yell and tackled him, but Minseok hunkered his weight down and hooked his leg behind Minwoo’s left, pushing his opposite shoulder. He hit the floor, and Minseok pinned him down.

“I’m doing this because I’m worried for you! The serial killer is in this area, Minwoo—”

“That won’t happen to me! God—I just want to have fun and do stuff! Even Mom and Dad aren’t this strict.”

“Because they trust me to be strict for them! You’re not immune to danger or the law, no matter how much your friends keep telling you to break it.”

“You don’t freaking understand because you don’t do anything for fun. You don’t have any friends or anybody!”

Minseok froze at those words. They stabbed him with phantom pains, reminded him of a past so similar to this one, and a wave of dejavu swirled in his head. In his hesitation, Minwoo managed to throw him off and scrabbled for the door. Minseok rolled and clamped onto his brother’s leg, dragging him away from the exit. Minwoo squirmed and kicked and crawled for the door, but Minseok kept his hold even as each of his brother’s screams and yells jabbed his heart.

Then Minwoo stopped, and Minseok almost let go of his brother’s leg when he flipped around and lunged. He was the one who pinned Minseok to the ground now, and he slammed down his fists, scratched and clawed at Minseok’s arms as he drew them up to shield his face.

“What, just because you’re older than me, your word is law? You think you’re so important, playing the big brother, but you don’t actually ing care. You’re not my brother. You’re no one to me, and I hate you! You never let me do anything! Going on about safety when you go out almost every night. Night class means you’re still going somewhere, while I’m sitting at home, wasting my life and not able to try anything because otherwise you don’t have a ing role in this house. Mom and Dad see you as my babysitter, not as their son! You ‘care’ so that you can seem responsible, so everyone praises you and leaves you alone and—and—”

Minseok felt wet stream down his burning arms, but it didn’t soothe his skin. Some dripped down onto his cheek, and the iron tang filled his nose. That was when he realized that it was blood. The clawing suddenly stopped. Minseok took down his arm defence to see his brother gone, the door still closed.

“Minwoo?”

Silence. Then police sirens in the distance. Dread seized him.

“Minwoo!”

He jumped to his feet and flung open the door, but the moment he stepped out of his house, he fell straight down. Darkness swallowed him, and when he hit the ground, a sudden heatwave made him shudder. That didn’t seem to make sense, but then he realized that the sudden temperature wasn’t what made him shudder. Power pulsed from around him, through the indefinite darkness.

Something pierced his back, but when Minseok looked behind him, he was met with nothingness. The power pulsed harder, bearing down on him, thundering against his body. His clothes and skin constricted him, and his fingers moved on their own, stripping them off. His clothes came off easily, but his skin—Dragging his nails over and over, he burned trails into his skin, and blood dripped out from where he dug new wounds onto old.

Didn’t he deserve it? He couldn’t keep his brother safe.

Then his arms wouldn’t move. He twisted and struggled, but he couldn’t bring his arms together. An invisible force held him back. Nothing was left to peel the pressure off from him. Minseok dropped to the ground and curled into the pain.

Too soft-hearted.

Minseok flinched. A voice slipped through his head, molten and silvery, pooling and searing, and when he tried to cover his ears, the force stopped him again.

And you live to get to death. Danger is from instinct, then welcomed for that chance. You’re without a will to live, only a wish to simply be useful while alive... Very well. Then you shall live with me.

The fire slid to his back, and Minseok steeled himself for the flames. He waited, but none came. Instead, a chill cooled where the fire once was. It nipped his skin, but then the nipping diffused across his body, feeling like small pleasant tingles along his skin. A pressure fell on his chest, but the weight felt warm. When it didn’t move or do anything else, Minseok thought it harmless, almost soothing. He closed his eyes.

~~~~~

Minseok smelled incense and the thunder hidden in rain. Taking in a waking up breath, he made a move to rub his eyes when he felt something pressing down his palm. Just as quickly as he felt it, the weight disappeared and so did the one on his chest. He wasn’t cold, but the loss of warmth and weight made him pout.

“Get up, you troublesome human.”

He groaned because he knew that voice, and hearing it first thing in the morning just made him roll away from it.

“You’re awake.”

Minseok’s eyes sprung open. He didn’t know that voice.

Bolting up and turning around, he saw Chen curling his lip at him, but someone else was there too. This person had wild red hair that stuck up and out and curved, not at all matching the stoic expression he wore. The person had pale skin, some cheekbone that probably showed during a smile—though not as much as Chen—and eyes that seemed to analyze and pick apart Minseok as they observed him. He wore a navy long-sleeve and jeans, casual, so Minseok really was not expecting the proud lightning demon to dip his head to them.

“At ease,” the person said, and Chen lifted his head, shuffling to the side as the person stepped to Minseok. “Welcome to hell.”

He just blinked.

“I suggest staying for a little longer to rest. I also would like to examine your condition before sending you back to Earth.”

The person paused, and Minseok figured he should say something, but a cough came out instead. His throat felt as if he swallowed a sand dune. The person drew a few fingers across the air, and Minseok’s mouth fell open when water materialized out from the path he drew. Then the water rushed him, slipping into his mouth, and he instinctively swallowed. He smacked his lips together at the dusty taste.

“Apologies. I don’t have a cup, and hell doesn’t offer plumbing.”

“Uh, no, that’s fine. Thank you.” He cleared his throat when the person didn’t reply. “So, I guess demons don’t shower?”

The person’s face didn’t react.

“Is that your first question?”

“I told you that he was weird,” Chen grumbled.

Minseok shot him a look.

“To answer your question, no, not in the way humans usually do. Swimming is common though. I often visit Earth to swim in its seas.”

“Oh, that’s cool.”

Minseok bounced his gaze from the ancient European-looking pillars behind the person, off their shoulder to the gray skies out the window, just past their hand to the smooth stone floor, anywhere but their face. Even when he was in the best condition to act professional, he still had trouble keeping eye contact with expressionless people. That was how the jokes and odd comments burst out of him. Even Kyung—D.O—made some reaction whenever they interacted before Minseok knew that he was a demon.

His thoughts squeaked to a stop when his eyes landed on a jar sitting on the table of what looked like the living room. Black swirled in a vat of red. Right, he was bit by his client, who turned out to be a vampire and…

Minseok looked down and slapped his hands to cover his bare chest. Why was it bare?!

“Again, apologies. I had to see the proxy sign on your back.”

“No, it’s fine. Uh, can you tell me what happened? And who you are?”

“Have some respect,” Chen growled, but the person waved him down. The red-haired pushed a plain t-shirt across the table to him, and Minseok murmured a thanks before slipping it on.

“I am Suho, Commander of the demon legion Tehom.”

Those names sounded familiar, and the epiphany lit in Minseok’s brain.

“Oh, you’re Chen’s commander, right? He was really proud when he said that he was part of your unit.”

The leader looked at Chen, who straightened, then turned to Minseok, glaring at him.

“Who are you to say what I’m proud of and not?”

“Are you saying that you wouldn’t be proud to be in his unit?”

“I didn’t say that!” Then he paused and straightened, looking to the floor. Minseok tried to keep the sneak out of his grin.

“Okay, so if you didn’t say that, then why not just admit it? Don’t you think that your leader would like to hear some verbal affirmation from those he leads?”

“I—That’s—”

Minseok couldn’t bite back his laughs and he rolled back into the couch when Chen’s expressions started changing a mile a minute.

“Shut up! I should’ve let that leech drain the blood from you while I had the chance.”

Minseok gasped. His client. The contract. Murderous Chen.

“Don’t hurt them!”

“What?”

“Don’t hurt Jeong Jaehyun and Kim Doyoung. I think they were just scared.”