Time

For Randomonium

Couple: Woogyu

Prompt: Sunggyu gets a tattoo

Time

Tic toc.
Tic toc.
Tic toc.

Groaning, the brown-haired male rubbed his forearm harshly.

My arm is so sore, damn that tattoo.

He rolled his navy blue shirt sleeve up slightly, revealing an image of a clock, carved deep into his white milky skin, the black green-ish ink stood out from his pale skin, and it almost looked translucent in the faint rays of light that shined from a small creaking lamp hanging from the ceiling.

Tic toc.

Under Sunggyu's tired gaze, the clockhand on the cryptic clock tattoo engraved onto his arm moved, sickenly slowly, stopping at the number six written in Roman numerals.

The male didn't react much, he sighed and glanced outside at the half hidden moon in the dark bone chilling night through his half opened window.

It seems that the clock is moving quicker nowadays.

He drew his legs close to his chest under the dirty mattress, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

"I want ice cream!" A little boy bounced up and down on a chair, his legs swinging happily.

Smiling at his silliness, a middle-aged woman let out a chuckle:"We don't have icecream, and you're going to get a stomach ache Gyu."

Disappointed in the woman's refusal of buying ice cream, the little boy looked down dejectively, with a pout visible on his lips.

He looked up in surprise seconds later when he saw his mother walking towards the door.

"Where are you going?" He tilted his head out of sheer curiosity.

"What do you think?" The women's slender fingers slipped on her boots, "To buy you ice cream."

By the time the woman lightly shut the door close, a blinding smile appeared unknowingly on little Sunggyu's chubby face.

Little did he know of the pair of murderous eyes that was hidden cleverly under the bushes outside the window, waiting for a moment to strike.

It started with a loud bang that sounded outside, and a strange man with a suit barging in the door.

"Who are you!?" Little Sunggyu's voice wavered in the air as he stood up, legs trembling.

Instead of answering, the man looked up, his lips stretching into a terrifying smile, his eyes widening with insanity:"Brat! Your mother is dead!"

Crackling like a mad man, he advanced toward the trembling Sunggyu crouched in the corner:" If I can't have her! You can't either!"

Stopping a foot away from Sunggyu, the man suddenly let out a strangled cry:"I'm sicken tired of seeing her only showing affection for you! You little bastard! You made me kill your own mother!"

And Sunggyu felt something in his mind click as he stared, mouth agape, at the horrifying man in front of him.

Something about the insane man's eyes reminded him of his mother's. It is filled with the same kind of sadness, of the same kind of sorrow. His family was complicated, confusing. He always lived with his mother from the start, not knowing anything at all. And there was one forbidden topic his beloved mother always refuse to talk about whenever Sunggyu attempted to ask.

"Father?" He whispered the word fearfully, afraid that that one word will anger the creature pulling his hair while whispering madly while crawling on the floor.

And it did, the figure stood up abruptly, and took out something that looked like a pen out of his suit pocket. Little Sunggyu's eyes widened in horror as the man took off the cap, revealing a sharp needle.

"You will suffer!" The man chanted as he grabbed hold of Sunggyu's limped arm,"I have designed this for years in my lab, and this will ensure that you will have a painful life, you will experience what I have went through, your loved ones all leaving you when you die soundlessly. Goodbye."

Sunggyu doesn't remember much about what happened after, only fuzzy images of him whimpering as the man engraved something with the needle and the unbearable pain of his forearm as he finally lost consciousness.

Ugh.

Sunggyu's eyes snapped open, he touched his face, surprised that his visage, for once, isn't smeared with tears. It makes sense though. He thought to himself bitterly. He already shed so much until he has none left to shed.

Hands trembling, he examined his forearm again.

It is a time bomb.

It was years after the mysterious incident that Sunggyu realized the clock on his arm explained the splitting pain he always felt from time to time.

He doesn't understand himself where he got his knowledge from, but he soon discovered the clock represented his lifeline, literally. The pain getting worse and worse as the clock hand drags itself  toward the number twelve. And when the clock hand strikes twelve. It will stop. But Sunggyu's heart will stop too. His life ending in a blink of an eye soundlessly, just like how his father had promised.

At first, Sunggyu refused to believe his inevitable fate, and tried all the means possible to try to get rid of the tattoo. But as time went on, Sunggyu's once lively eyes lost hope, and he just sat there and did nothing as he watched time pass by in front of his very eyes. The clock hand striking one, two, three, four, five, and eventually six. And just like that, half of his life flew by.

However, there was one thing Sunggyu is grateful for: the side effect.

For some bizarre reason, Sunggyu always dreams. Not the normal dreams about random fantasy-like creatures. It's of people, real people that exist in real life, and that is the only time he is able to communicate with others, and forget about his haunted clock.

That was how he met his former friend, a feminine boy called Sunjong, a long, long time ago.

"You want to meet up? In real life I mean." Sunjong said cheerily in his dream one night, blowing the mug of hot chocolate clutched tightly in his hands.

"Can we?" Sunggyu asked incredulously, almost seconds later regretting asking such a stupid question. For some reason, Sunggyu feels less sad in his dreams, and more carefree and wild-spirited. Like how he use to be.

"Of course! I'm real you know!" Sunjong chuckled,"I'll see you tomorrow at the cafe at six!"

And that leaves Sunggyu no choice but to slowly, reluctantly drag himself there the next day.

Sunjong, in Sunggyu's opinion, is too loud for such a small person. He often nags, shrills, and laughs hysterically, even when Sunggyu didn't say anything that is worth laughing happily at.
But Sunjong was surprised at real-life Sunggyu's cold personality, and even though he tries his best to always keep a positive, cheerful atmosphere around Sunggyu, it's just simply impossible.

"What's the use of living?" Sunggyu sighed, as he repeated his question for the millionth time.

Sunjong stops laughing, the sparkles from his eyes disappearing, and Sunggyu can hear something inside Sunjong snap.

"Then why don't you stop living!" Immediately after Sunjong said it, his eyes were full of regret.

"I tried. Many times. But I can't go until my time is up." Sunggyu replies sadly.

"You mean..."Sunjong faltered, his eyes full of horror,"You tried to kill yourself?"

Sunggyu simply nodded, his expression sad.

"Look hyung," Sunjong's tone was strict, "You need to find a reason to live."

And Sunjong never showed up again.

Sunggyu merely shrugged off the young boy's advice.

I hope I'll never find a reason to live. It just makes everything more painful.

But fate didn't exactly listen to what Sunggyu wanted.

Sunggyu rarely dreams anymore after Sunjong left. And when he does, he just dismisses all the people he meets in his dreams. Never agreeing to meet up in real life again.

Sunggyu smiles, his lips cracking, and closes his eyes. Letting his expected dreamless sleep overtake him.

A cafe comes into view. It's similar to the one where he met Sunjong, and Sunggyu cringes.

Sunggyu looks around, finds himself a wooden chair to sit on, and crosses his legs.

He was about to order a cup of coffee from the shop when he heard a rustling noise.

A male, about Sunggyu's age, stumbles out of nowhere, his chest rising up and down as he huffed irregularly.

Something inside Sunggyu stirs, and before he can stop himself, he blurts out: "Hello." to the stranger.

The male looks up abruptly, to the sound of Sunggyu's voice, hesitates as if whether or not to make a dash and run away, but ends up greeting back:"Hi."

He blinks. Sunggyu blinks. No one moves a muscle.

"Please,"Sunggyu says in a cheerful voice, and he hates himself for that, "Please sit!"

The male shuffles closer after a pause, cautiously sits down on the farthest seat across from Sunggyu, balancing on the edge of the seat, looking at the ground.

He has a pretty nose. Was all Sunggyu think about.

"I'm Sunggyu! Kim Sunggyu! What's yours?" Sunggyu bites his lip, desperately trying to stop the positive tone of his voice.

To his astonishment, the male flinched a little at his voice, and lifts up his head slightly, and cast his gaze at Sunggyu.

He has chocolate eyes, his wild raven hair covering parts of his eyes, but everything about him portrays fear. Sunggyu notices, for the first time, that the male is trembling.

Sunggyu's hand reaches out instinctively, against his will, and tries to pat the other's shoulder:"Hey it's okay----"

Before his hand could reach that far, the male yelps and jumps up, startling Sunggyu, runs away abruptly, disappearing from Sunggyu's sight.

Sunggyu frowns. But gave no second thought to the mysterious male. Forgetting he didn't even get to know the other's name.


The next night, Sunggyu, surprisingly, meets the male again, as he curled up in his mattress and hoped for a good night sleep.

Instead, when the male stumbles out of nowhere just like the day before, Sunggyu calls out again:" Hey there, you remember me?" He extend his hand out and gestures.

The man sits down on the same chair, the same way as he did before, cautiously and skeptically, and looks up.

His chocolate eyes are clear today, fear was still there, but not as noticeable.

It was complete silence. And Sunggyu hated it. At times like this, he can almost hear his clock.

Tic toc.

Another silence engulfed the air, and Sunggyu feel his cheeks grow warm as he realized the male is staring at him intently, and he fidgeted uncomfortably, regretful of his greeting earlier.

Of course he doesn't remember you. No one does.

His eyes rounded slightly as he heard a soft chuckle, sweet and melodious, like the tinkling of bells.

"Of course," the male's voice was almost inaudible, "I'm Woohyun."

Each word sounded distant, yet gentle and precious. Like snowflakes melting in his hands.

Sunggyu found himself smiling as he repeated the other's name over again for his guilty pleasure:"Woohyun. Nice to meet you. I'm Sunggyu."

Sunggyu can almost see the fear in the boy called Woohyun's eyes disappearing as he smiled, for real this time, a simple lopsided grin:"I already know."

And Sunggyu's heart flips.

The preceding nights and nights were lost in the wind as Sunggyu and Woohyun enjoyed meaningless conversation leading to nowhere, and he can see the fear completely gone now as Woohyun's eyes shaped into crescents as he giggled very much like a child. He found himself feeling attached to the younger boy, attached to the scent that lingers around him, attached to the tiny mole on his collarbones, and attached to his tempting chocolate eyes. He felt like he knew Woohyun even before he was born, he felt like Woohyun was an old friend who he lost contact with, Woohyun felt...like home. Sunggyu almost forgot about his clock as time flew by, almost.

Sunggyu wakes up coughing up blood the next day. He grimaces as he rolls up his sleeves.

The clock hand is at nine.

Sunggyu freaks out, panics, and breaks and shatter random pieces of furniture.

"No no no no no." Sunggyu whimpers as he clutched his arm, agony written all over his face. He only calms down when sleep overtakes him.

"You don't look so good." Woohyun's eyes are filled with concern as he stares at Sunggyu that night.

Sunggyu chuckles, or tries too, as it came out as a broken sob.

He doesn't remember much about what happened after. Only him clutching Woohyun's shirt desperately as he explained the story of his clock through strangled hiccups and Woohyun's hesitant but soothing comforts as he tousled Sunggyu's light brown curls.

"Let's meet up." Sunggyu chokes out, after awhile, his voice muffled by Woohyun's soaked shirt, "In real life. Cafe at six, tomorrow."

Woohyun doesn't show up the next day. Of course he doesn't.

And when Sunggyu tries his best to get mad at Woohyun in his dream. He simply couldn't as the brown-eyed male looks around frantically, and nearly collapses into Sunggyu's arm.

"I'm sorry Gyu hyung," Woohyun looks like he is about to cry, guilt written clearly on his face, his eyes wide again with fear as he trembled,"There were too many people there. Just too many."

"Woohyun-ah,"Sunggyu decides to ask a question cautiously after awhile, "Are you afraid of people?"

Woohyun nods, his chest heaving up and down, "That was why I ran away from you the first time we met, people are cruel, and scary."

"But the second time, I'm not sure how I should explain this, when I saw you, there was a spark, a connection, and I learned I could trust you somehow. God, you must think I'm being overly cheesy now." Woohyun laughs bitterly, his mouth twitching stiffly.

"I understand." Sunggyu doesn't pry anymore, and found himself saying this eventually, embracing the younger closely, their figures fitting together like puzzle pieces, perfectly molding into each other, and their breathing was mingled together.

Wiping a tear away from Woohyun, Sunggyu tries again:"We can always meet tomorrow." Even though he knows time isn't exactly in his favor.

Sunggyu opens his hamster-liked eyes(as Woohyun calls it) slightly as he realized his eyes has been closed all this time, and sees Woohyun sleeping on his chest, a blissful smile on his face.

Even though it feels wrong to give another chance to someone who he never even met in real life, Sunggyu's mind goes blank and his heart beats uncontrollably as he gaze upon Woohyun's smile, he swallows the lump in his throat, and convinces himself that it's okay, everything's okay, because it's good old brilliant Woohyun. The Woohyun he loves so much.


The pain is getting worse, it was first only on his forearm, but now it's spreading like wild fire, and his whole body ached. Sunggyu barely had the energy to heave himself to the cafe.

And his heart sinks as he finds a small sticky note attached to a cup of coffee, the sweet aroma radiating off of it.

"I'm sorry." Scribbled in messy writing, was Woohyun's apology.

Sunggyu smiles at Woohyun's unorganized handwriting, completely forgetting about the message, and he clutched his coffee in his pale fingers, and hugs it close to him.

It feels warm and addicting, just like Woohyun.

And he forgives Woohyun...again, even when he knows his clock will point at number twelve the following day.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry." Woohyun cries that night, tears slipping out uncontrollably like a flood, and engulfs Sunggyu in a bone-crushing hug,"I'm so stupid. I know you don't have much time left I'm sorry I-I----"

Woohyun stops, eyes growing as round as quarters, as he felt something soft against his lips.

"Shh...it's okay Woohyun-ah." Woohyun can feel Sunggyu beaming through the gentle kiss.

"C-Can you forgive me?" Woohyun begs, tears still rolling down his cheeks.

Sunggyu smiles, even though it's painful to do so, cause he can feel his life slipping away every second, "Stupid, there's nothing to forgive in the first place."

Woohyun surprises the hamster-cheeked man as he nuzzles the hamster's neck, and he can feel the other shudder pleasantly at his touch:"I'll be there tomorrow. Same time. Same place. I promise."

"Alright. But Woohyun, I might not be there tomorrow. I'm sorry. Maybe in our next lives?" Sunggyu feels a tear escaping his own eyes, rolling down his pale hollow cheeks that lost its chubbiness, dampening Woohyun's hands.

"Let's both stop being sorry okay?" Woohyun spoke gently, as if afraid his voice will shatter Sunggyu, who's slipping away like grains of sand, "And if you can't make it, I'll wait, I'll wait for you."

Sunggyu just hums in response, too exhausted to say anything anymore.

He can feel the pain slowly subsiding as he leaned in further in Woohyun's embrace, the addicting scent of Woohyun, and Woohyun's last promise, echoing off the walls of his heart.

Sunggyu never woke up. But a tiny smile never left his lips.

And by morning, when the birds are chirping happily, the wind is softly blowing the golden leaves of a tree outside Sunggyu's small apartment beautifully, and the sugary clouds adorned the blue sky perfectly.

Sunggyu's clock stops.

But Sunggyu's heart doesn't. It keeps on beating. Beating for Woohyun.



200 years later

A red-haired boy runs in a hurry, earning several stares and murmurs from the pedestrian passing by. But he doesn't care. Right now, he is only cares about one person.

He stops abruptly at a run-down cafe at the center of his town, and looks around frantically, trying to catch his breath.

Leaning on one of the graffiti walls next to the cafe, was a man wearing a hat, hands holding a cup of coffee.

The grown-man lifts his head up at the approaching sound of footsteps, a pair of chocolate eyes gazing lovingly at the red-haired boy, tips his hat a little, and pouts, rather childishly.

"You're late."

A/N: Gahhh I hope you enjoyed reading this and oh god I'm pretty sure this isn't what you've been expecting as I was trying to think outside the box and this...is what happens. >< Haha have a wonderful day and Merry Christmas!! ^-^ *throws hearts*