Until Whenever

Chapter Fifteen

Seung Hyun sighed as he watched the Blue Frog from afar.

It had already been a while since he had tried to get inside, but it seemed that this club was more for renting and private use than anything else. It seemed that people exclusively paid to have the club to themselves to celebrate events such as birthdays, and they had very short lists of people that were allow into their parties. There was also the thing about private membership that was according to the bouncer an exclusive thing. Everything was so hush and secret, it was even worse than trying to get into Red Sunset without the invitation of someone from the inside.

There was no one here that he knew that could get him in. After talking with a few of its patrons that were hanging outside, and even some of the guests, Seung Hyun was asked to join a couple of girls to a store just a few blocks down. They had been kind enough to explain the things that they knew, and they provided far more information than anyone he had talked to. Still, he had said his goodbyes and headed for the parking lot.

Cracking open his store bought can of soda; he drank and kept an eye out in case he saw someone familiar. He wanted to know who the owner of this club was—no one really seemed to know him. Why would they want the Love Club? They already seemed to be doing fine without the other venue—unless it was that they wanted to destroy the other club. That made a lot more sense to him.

Seung Hyun was about to turn around and leave when he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. Sighing, he pulled it out and checked who was calling him. He raised an eyebrow as Ji Yong’s stage name flashed across his screen. Ji Yong and he were not planning to meet up again until two days from now to allow Ji Yong room to catch up with his job, so why was he calling now?

 “Hello.” He answered, his eyes flickering to a couple of giggling girls that passed him by.

“Seung Hyun! Where the are you?” Dong Wook’s voice sounded panicked on the other side.

Seung Hyun pursed his lips, “I have to say ‘Ji Yong ‘, you are starting to sound a lot like Dong Wook,” Seung Hyun took another chug of his soda. His eyes turned back towards the club, watching as a line started to form and a few other people were being ushered out. Looking at the time, Seung Hyun felt that it was too short, and far too early to end any kind of party.

Dong Wook cursed him out, causing him to snort with laughter. “Stop being a Seung Hyun, where are you! Why don’t you ever hold back and listen to everything I have to say!”

“Here pass him back to me,” Ah, there was Ji Yong. Seung Hyun his lips, waiting to hear Ji Yong’s voice clearly on the line.

“Where are you?” Ji Yong wasted no time getting to the point. Seung Hyun debated making it easy for them and telling them where he was. But really, his brother was so annoying, and why should he have to tell them anything. It was clear that they had an idea as to where he was. He was not about to explain himself to either Ji Yong or his brother.

“Somewhere,” he answered petulantly, taking another sip of his soda. His eyes moved down the ground, kicking some of the gravel at his feet. 

Ji Yong sighed, “Seung Hyun, we’re being serious,”

Sighing, Seung Hyun kicked the dirt under him harder, and started to walk back to his car. “Well, it’s not where I am, as to where I’m going to be.” He responded. He finished off the soda and crushed the can under his heavy boot. He considered simply hanging up the phone so he wouldn’t have to deal with either man.

“This isn’t working,” Ji Yong said, and Dong Wook took the phone back.

“Can you do us a favor at least, and meet us at a restaurant?” Dong Wook asked. Seung Hyun grunted, waiting for his brother to tell him where to meet and directions to get there. Imputing the information into his GPS, he finally closed the door of his car behind himself and drove off. It took him roughly ten minutes to reach his destination, and smirked when he saw his brother and Ji Yong waiting for him with food that they had already ordered.

It was funny how long it had been since he had actually gone out to a normal fast food restaurant with crappy burgers, fries, and sugary drinks. It was almost nostalgic of when he had been a child and would meet here with Dong Wook to do his homework. It was at a place like this that he also met Ji Yong.It all felt like a long time ago.  Walking over to the table, he sat on the other side, watching the two nervous men before him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at them. The two of them looked like they had a lot of things to say.

Ji Yong and Dong Wook shared a look that they both seemed to understand. It was like they were communicating and it raised his curiosity. He wanted to know what it was that they shared between them. It was odd to Seung Hyun, but he found that the reason he wanted to know was because it involved Ji Yong.  

“We don’t want you going back to the Blue Frog, ever again,” Ji Yong suddenly hissed, making him narrow his eyes. Where did Ji Yong get off telling him what to do anyways? Dong Wook reached for his hand before he could retort at his pet.

“We will tell you the story of why, but please; promise to never go back,” Dong Wook implored, his eyes begging him to agree.

“That depends,” Seung Hyun sat back, pulling his hand away from his brother. He looked at them, waiting. “What is it?”

Both Dong Wook and Ji Yong looked uncomfortable.

“You see, the Blue Frog has always had a hard as hell competitor as its head. The guy Park Jae Sung, we don’t really get what his deal is, or ever was with Hong Jun, and Hong Jun never told us. All we know is that Jae Sung killed him before anything,” Dong Wook said, “And we think that he did it mainly just to get what Hong Jun had, which is the club,”

“Alright,” Seung Hyun nodded his head. “What’s the deal though? I’m not from Love Club,” he shrugged. “Not like anything is going to happen just cause I go and check out the place,”

“It could!” Dong Wook hissed, “I don’t want you meeting him like that, especially without you knowing what he is capable of!” Seung Hyun blinked, silently watching his brother. Dong Wook took a deep breath, “You see, after Hong Jun’s death, Ji Yong here went to go and provoke him.” Dong Wook sighed, rubbing a hand over his forehead, causing Ji Yong to flush.

“I was just angry!” Ji Yong snapped, before pursing his lips and dropping his head. “I was stupid, okay.” He admitted quietly. “At the time I had become the new owner of Love Club, but before Jae Sung could learn about that I went to confront him. I wanted him to admit that he was the one that had killed Hong Jun and I wanted to destroy him. Jae Joong ended up provoking me instead. We got into a competition, and it was that if I won, he would do as I want, but if I lost—he’d get my submissive for however long he wished.”

Seung Hyun’s eyes widened a bit. That was a risky bet. After all, just as Dong Wook had said, competitions tend to be biased. “And you lost,” He couldn’t help but say the words himself.

“I lost,” Ji Yong nodded his head. Barring his teeth angrily, he continued with the story, “I was angry for being so confident that I would win, and part of me was also scared as to what he would want to do with my submissive,  but that became clear in a matter of a few days,” Ji Yong dropped his head, not being able to look Seung Hyun in the eyes, “Young Bae still will not talk as to what happened to him while he was with Jae Joong, but it was obvious that what he really wanted was to end my career as a Dominant. I had failed, and my submissive had paid the price. I became useless as the head of Love Club, Who could ever trust a person that had sold off his pet like that?”

Seung Hyun sighed, closing his eyes, and thought about what he just heard. Jae Sung obviously had not known that Ji Yong was the new owner of Love Club, otherwise he would have taken a lot more than just Ji Yong’s submissive. Other than that, since Ji Yong no longer competed and Love Club was more or less an ordinary club now, it made it harder to get the club. Having it suddenly betted into the club games had to raise some question as to who was performing. Then there was the issue of whether Ji Yong still had his fans. No doubt no one would want to be with someone that had been dethroned. That was why they had asked him, he was no one in the world of large competitions—he simply trained submissive for that kind of world.

He never liked the limelight, but here he was. He needed to face a stage with a dethroned king, and he the no name wanna be. 

“I don’t get it, what made you so sure that Jae Sung was the one behind the death of Hong Jun?” Seung Hyun asked.  “The way I heard it, Hong Jun had been speeding down the freeway, it seemed that he had been car racing, and lost control of his car. The reports said that there had been nothing wrong with the car, that it was all a matter of him being drunk driving.”

“That is what they want you to think, but Jae Sung is smart,” Ji Yong hissed, bitterness dripping from his voice as he turned to glare at Seung Hyun. The look in Ji Yong’s eyes was angry at the fact that Seung Hyun doubted his words.

“The police think that there was nothing wrong with the car, because, there was nothing wrong with the car. What we believe is that Hong Jun had been wounded, and forced—but that can’t be proved as over eighty percent of his body was burned.” Ji Yong scoffed, “What a way to cover up the damage.” 

“The only thing that we know was that Hong Jun didn’t do car races, he would have competed in a ual battle. Hong Jun had no doubts about his ability to put on a great show. No, his death was staged in such a way that it would make it hard to point out that someone killed him.” Dong Wook took out his cell phone, he clicked open a video and showed it to Seung Hyun.

In the video, there was a young man plastered over a tipsy Hong Jun, and they seemed to be dancing in a club. The video spins, for a moment it stops as Hong Jun seems to hic up, and for a brief second it shows the image of a man with glasses, and a group of others, obviously watching the happy man. Hong Jun snaps that Dong Wook should have come with him to party before it abruptly cuts off with boisterous laughter.

“It’s from that night when he died,” Dong Wook whispers.

Seung Hyun reaches for the cell phone, and looks at the footage a couple of more times. Ji Yong and Dong Wook curiously watch him. “These people are interested in him, is this Jae Sung?” he asked, pausing the video over those three seconds that show the man with the sunglasses and his group.

“Yeah,” Dong Wook nodded, “You think so to, and they looked far too interested, right?” Seung Hyun nodded his response. “But it doesn’t hold up alone as evidence, because Jae Sung is not seen approaching him, nor interacting with him—he just happened to be there.” 

“What about the car he was racing?” Seung Hyun asked.

“No plates, no car was found with its same identifications either. It was as if the car never existed,” Dong Wook and Ji Yong looked about the same in defeat. Seung Hyun sighed; he could already guess several reasons as to why that would be.

“No way to convict him, I see,” Seung Hyun whispered. He passed Dong Wook back his cell phone.

“Please, don’t go back there,”

Seung Hyun shrugged his shoulders, “Whatever,” he carelessly said. Dong Wook and Ji Yong both realized that it was as much as they were going to get out of Seung Hyun, and they were going to have to trust that he wouldn’t go back there.  “Let’s get a few things out of the way then,” Seung Hyun decided to change the heavy topic, “What exactly does Mr. Jae Sung do when he is in competition? I was hoping to see some of our competition so we could decide what to come up with,”

“Don’t worry about that!” Ji Yong readily said. “I will help you come up with a plan based on what I know,”

Seung Hyun sighed, and nodded his head in agreement. With that, the three men sat in silence for a while, before Seung Hyun stood up. The mood was just too suffocating and he wanted to end it. Dong Wook and Ji Yong blinked as Seung Hyun called his good bye. Dong Wook decided that they should go home as well. Ji Yong asked him to wait for him and followed after Seung Hyun.

“Seung Hyun!” he called. Seung Hyun paused by his car’s door, and waited for Ji Yong. “I hope that…I hope that this doesn’t change anything between us.”

“Why would it?” Seung Hyun asked, crossing his arms as he looked over Ji Yong. He could see the visible guilt and blame that Ji Yong must have been living for so long now. There was a point when you had to forgive yourself, but this was obviously something that still needed working out for that to happen. “That was in the past, and I can tell that you regret your decisions.” He muttered, not knowing what else to say. He didn’t really know much about the other person- or for that matter was just getting to know Ji Yong all over again.

“If I could go back, I would change everything. I would be smarter.” Ji Yong hissed with conviction, “I wouldn’t have allowed myself to be pinned down into such a dumb position!”

“We all make mistakes when we’re young,” Seung Hyun sighed, and then reached his hand to pat Ji Yong’s shoulder gently, and offered a comforting smile. “Go home and get some rest. I’ll see you later, okay.”

Ji Yong felt his cheeks heat up as he barely managed to return the smile and nodded his head. A part of him wanted to ask Seung Hyun if he could go home with him. He wanted to not be alone with his own thoughts, but at the same time felt like he needed to be alone with his thoughts. There were so many memories resurfacing. They were things that he wished to forget, and maybe in a way he had suppressed in the past, but not now when he could feel that same danger again.

He hoped that history would not be repeated. There was no way he could continue on if Seung Hyun got hurt. 

Noticing the inner turmoil within Ji Yong’s eyes, Seung Hyun couldn’t help but move in close, and press a soft kiss onto his cheek. Ji Yong blinked, looking up at him in awe, but before he could say anything Dong Wook honked.

“Ji Yong, get in! Hurry up.”

“Good night, Ji Yong,” Seung Hyun said, moving to open his car’s door. Ji Yong nodded, and moved to get to Dong Wook’s car. The ride back home was a silent one. Dong Wook kept throwing worried glances towards Ji Yong and they did not go unnoticed.

“I’m alright, by the way,” he said when Dong Wook pulled into the drive way of his house. He mostly did it out of hesitation, taking a quick glance to the house and then looking down at the ground. He rather be with Seung Hyun than here right now.

“You sure?”

 “Yeah,”

“Alright,” Dong Wook looked like he didn’t believe him. Ji Yong called his good bye, and got out of the car. Once inside the house, Ji Yong couldn’t tell if Young Bae had gone to bed or not. He decided to head into the kitchen and make himself something to eat before heading to brush his teeth and proceed to watch something before going to bed.

Ji Yong couldn’t sleep, and even as he sat down to watch one of his favorite films- his mind wouldn’t stop going back to what had happened in the past. He could still remember Young Bae’s somber expression when he had returned. He wouldn’t talk to him for hours to come, and would just pull away, his body shivering as he hissed, “Don’t touch me!”

Ji Yong would apologize repeatedly. He would beg Young Bae to “Just look at me!”

Closing his eyes, Ji Yong took a deep breath as he remembered the dead look in those eyes when they finally turned to him. “How could you!”

“I swear I didn’t intend for it to end that way Young Bae, I’m sorry! Let me make it up to you! I’ll make it right, please,” He fell to his knees, dragging Young Bae with him. Young Bae fought him, tears erupting from his eyes as he finally broke down, and eventually he was crying hard and clinging to Ji Yong like a lifeline. It was the firsts thing to happen in lifting the dark mood around Young Bae. Whatever Psy had done to him, Ji Yong had promised he would never let it happen again and he wanted so badly to get his revenge.

He wanted to break Psy to pieces, but instead he was broken. No one came near him, and he was asked to please step down as a dominant in his own club! He was asked to shut things down. To make it a normal club and he lost a chunk of the members that used to participate. After all, there was going to be no more work for them and they were exclusive underground maniacs and satyriasis who wouldn’t leave the life even if they left a particular club.

Feeling guilty, he had done as they had wanted. Even though an echo deep inside of him resonated that this was a world that he was not ready to leave, one look at Young Bae had him packing his bags and switching careers faster than lightning. He had been lucky with that. There were several things he would have done with his life if it had not been for the underground possibility.

Yet, apparently, after years of secretly pining for this type of life, and working hard to become someone in real life to leave it behind—here he was again, still not done with this world. He could never bring himself to ask Seung Hyun for any kind or revenge towards Psy for what he did to Young Bae. That was also his fault, and he had a punishment to face himself over it, and that was losing Young Bae a long time ago. He had hoped that at least friendship was enough but it seemed that Young Bae was still salty about what had happened. He wondered if perhaps this was Young Bae’s way of telling him that even a friendship between them was over.

Sitting up with another deep sigh and a longsuffering glance at the clock- he knew he was not going to get any sleep tonight. Not with his mind going round and round over the thought that he and Young Bae wouldn’t be friends ever again. Could he really live with that?  

Reaching a hand to his cheek, he gently pressed his fingers where Seung Hyun had pressed a kiss earlier that night and smiled softly as he allowed his thoughts to be filled by him. Slowly calming him and lulling him to a light sleep. 

Thank you too all for your patience on my slow updates