Chapter IX

“All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being

not just with my hands but with my heart.”

-  Tahereh Mafi

“Choi’s” was one of the largest department stores inside Seoul city, extending across five of the most famous and visited blocks in the Gangnam district. Considered as one of the most exclusive stores, every summer and winter it was visited by those within the high spheres of the Korean society. Those with the enough money and time to spend in search for exclusive products and so-called luxurious brands.

For Jiyong the store was more like a brilliant and expensive labyrinth. The corridors and passageways stretching all across white floors and marble-like walls.

“The technology department needs to be reshaped. And we need to install better security devices to keep everything safe, as it’s been an increment in the number of devices stolen this last six months,” appointed Soo Hyuk, check-listing the notes written in his tablet.

Jiyong gazed at the exhibitors of the department were a pair of young kids were pasting their noses and pulling their parents hands, trying to convince them to buy them the Tablet “10-point-something”… Jiyong smiled softly.

“We still need to pay liabilities dragged since last year,” Soo Hyuk added, lifting his eyes and looking at Jiyong as if he was the culprit of those debts.

“Who is in charge of those things?”

“Yoi Ping normally takes care of it. But he’s been quite inefficient the last months,” the man repeated, with the same argument.

“How much do we need to pay?” Jiyong asked, the furrow in his brows now growing visible.

“Quite an amount of money, if we count all the financial losses,” Soo Hyuk answered, with a grin appearing over his face.

“Losses? I didn’t know Choi Company was in financial troubles,” Jiyong confessed and frowned more, gazing around the store in search of hints of the store malfunctions, but everything seemed just as perfect as it was aimed to be.

They kept walking through the store and at every step more subtle problems that involved a lot of work to fix them surged from here and there. Every one of them, according to the cynical man's words, had arisen within those 6 months Jiyong had been away. Jiyong slid both his hands over his face with restrained frustration.

It took him a minute to recognize the place were they had stopped walking. Soo Hyuk was studying him with his eyes, as if he knew something amusing was going to happen within the next seconds and was, indeed, expecting for it to happen. Jiyong felt the uncontrollable desire to run away from the spot he was, when he recognized the artificial fountain and the electrical golden stairs yet his body kept still, his hands sweating, his breathing hitched terrifyingly and his eyes tried to find a safe place to look at, away from that piece of space, just meters from him, where he had last seen Choi Seunghyun’s body lying over the floor, dead.

“Do you want us to move?” asked Soo Hyuk with pretended worry, stretching his right hand just to place it over Jiyong’s shoulder without any real intention of comfort.

Jiyong would have loved to slap the man right there, but was more occupied trying to ease his own corporal reactions, in fear of collapsing in panic. But before he could ask for real help, a hand pulled him from the man's arm and away from that place, guiding him throughout the departments far from that triggering spot.

“Are you okay, Mr. Kwon?” asked a girlish voice belonging to a red-haired sales assistant in front of him, studying him with a hint of worrisome.

“He is fine, do not worry more than necessary Mrs... Park,” answered Soo Hyuk right behind her, squinting his eyes to read the ID pin over the assistant clothes. He looked annoyed and strangely unpleased at her rescue from his torment.

The red-haired assistant nodded with her head but looked anything but convinced, even eyeing Soo Hyuk with a hint of scornfulness before walking away.

“Employees nowadays. There’s no respect anymore nor any sense of authority,” Soo Hyuk complained following with his eyes at the grayish uniform of the assistant until her sight was lost between all the exhibitors.

“Why did you take me there?” Jiyong asked when he had calmed himself enough to create a whole sentence.

“I had no idea it would affect you this much,” the other man excused himself. He looked apologetic yet a hint of a derisive smile appearing over his lips gave him away.

“It does affect me,” hissed Jiyong and pushed Soo Hyuk’s body to one side. “I’m going,” he declared and started walking away with his hands still tightened into fists but Soo Hyuk’s hand was faster, grabbing onto his wrist and rather violently stopping him from going away.

“What?” asked Jiyong rudely whilst pulling his hand away, as if the touch burned his skin.

“The stockholders are going to have a meeting this weekend,” Soo Hyuk started saying looking sternly at Jiyong’s face.

“And?”

“They want to discuss over your competence to head this company. You know you are not quite famous or liked, right, Jiyong?”

“I am not trying to gain your sympathy,” Jiyong answered, strongly irritated, drawing a sarcastic smile over his face.

“That might not be your best decision,” Soo Hyuk agreed, but the pleased grin appearing over his face did nothing but anger and disturb Jiyong even more. He turned his back and walked away this time faster and with less elegance.

The sound of the streets, the combined voices of the peasants and the horns of the cars submerged Jiyong into a trance, protecting him from the evident disturbance germinating in the deep of his core.

“You can’t go further sir!” a policeman stopped him, trapping him between his two strong arms. He tried to release himself but he only got to see the yellow line cords, the orange colors of the uniforms around the covered body over the floor. He recognized those shoes.

“He is my…” he tried to argument but the sounds slipped out from his throat. He watched in silence and stupor how three of the workers lifted the body from the floor and placed it over a stretcher. He watched the hand that escaped from the covers and recognized too, with horror, those fingers and that golden watch he had given him as a gift on Christmas.

“Hyun! Hyun!” he shouted in hysteria, before everything turned blurry around him.

“Mr. Kwon?” the voice of his driver called him from the distance. “Where should I take you? Should I call Mr. Dong?” asked the man with fatherly eyes.

Jiyong shook his head and sighed desperate. “Take me home,” he pleaded and hid his face between his hands.

Seunghyun had never entered inside Choi’s store. It belonged to a world that was not his; to stratums and realities far away from the one he lived. So his first time was surprising but with a bad sense. Cold places were not his favorite atmosphere.

They killed someone in here, he remembered trying to be impartial in his judgments. And that made him doubt if it was not his own mind the one providing to that place with those gruesome characteristics. He came there in search of answers, or at least to satisfy his curiosity to meet the place where Jiyong had started to lose his senses.

But when he lifted his eyes he saw what he had not expected to see; Jiyong and Soo Hyuk standing in the middle of the store. The first one looked frightened in a way Seunghyun had not seen before and the second one stared at the man in front of him with mischievious eyes.

Seunghyun studied the scene, hiding himself behind the women clothes mannequins. How lucky could he be to have come the same exact day Jiyong had decided to visit the store too? Seunghyun sighed incapable to understand his own fate.

Jiyong remained frozen, standing still and Seunghyun observed how his face became paler slowly, his chest rising and falling with violence. He recognized the signs of a panic attack in an instant. Why? And then he remembered the place from those newspaper cuts inside Jiyong’s library, and everything became meaningful. That was the exact place where Choi Seunghyun had been murdered.

Worried, he searched around him and spotted a red-haired assistant not far away from him. He called her with hushed tones. The girl approached him with a confused frown adorning her feminine gestures.

“You see that man right there? He is having a panic attack,” he blurted out and the girl turned her face alarmed as she had been trained to. “His name is Kwon Jiyong.”

“Kwon Jiyong?” echoed the girl with a frightened voice. 

Seunghyun nodded. “Take him out of there.” 

The girl nodded. It was obvious the girl recognized as same as him what was happening right there. She knew the story as every other employee in the store. He saw the girl pulling Jiyong away and the distortion in Soo Hyuk’s face the moment he saw the girl, and the irritation in his posture when he realized what had just happened.

Seunghyun kept hidden until he saw Jiyong stepping outside the store minutes after. The sales assistant returned to her spot and exchanged with him a meaningful stare and a shy smile. Seunghyun murmured with his lips a thank you, and went out of his hideout, approaching to that place in the middle of the store that retained so many memories for the people around him.

He sat at the edge of the artificial fountain and tried to imagine the scene: the assassins, Seunghyun’s back guards, the face of Choi Seunghyun, and his last words.

“What are you doing here?” hissed a voice right over him. Seunghyun lifted his eyes and ran into those stoat eyes of the elf-like man. Soo Hyuk.

“Am I prohibited to come here? Did I miss maybe some sign against Supplanters?” answered Seunghyun with a similar hatred filled voice. “Or Seunghyuns?”

Soo Hyuk studied him with his gaze before stepping closer. Seunghyun rose himself immediately. At the distance, the same red-haired girl looked at them with curiosity and consternation behind one of the glass counters.

“Stay away from things that are not your business,” Soo Hyuk said, looking at him with treacherous eyes attempting to be intimidiating.

“Are you maybe afraid of me finding something?”

Soo Hyuk spurned him, stretching his peculiar smile, “I’m serious. Keep your nose out of here!”

“You stay away from me!” Seunghyun exclaimed in return, pushing the man away from his personal space, “Is this the way you treat your clients?” he said and lifted one of his eyebrows

“You are not my client,” stated Soo Hyuk with annoyance, “I’m warning you!”

“Keep your warning with you,” Seunghyun laughed, gaining a bewildered stare from the other one. He walked away, pushing with his shoulder one of Soo Hyuk’s shoulders in the way. “Soo Hyuk!” he shouted when he had created a considerable distance between them. 

Soo Hyuk turned his face towards him with coarseness. As if he did not want to hear what was going to be said next.

“Don’t be so obvious if you don’t want to be found out,” said Seunghyun smiling proudly and turned away, leaving the other man shaking in perplexity.

To find Jiyong’s car parked at the front of the house four hours before he was normally due, was something the supplanter kind of expected. He did not blame Jiyong; the way he had been forcibly dragged back to places he wanted never to see again was just disgusting. The disdain towards Soo Hyuk only increased inside Seunghyun’s heart.

“Jiyong?” he called the other’s name, knocking softly at his room’s door. Nobody answered. “Jiyong? Is everything ok? I saw your car out there and well… Are you ok?” he asked again trying to sound the right amount of worried, not too much, not too little.

At the other side of the door the rustling of the blankets against the bed was the only sound that evinced the presence of Jiyong. Seunghyun swallowed hard and mustering courage he pushed the door open carefully. Jiyong was lying on his back over the bed; his eyes were fixed on the ceiling. He merely glimpsed at Seunghyun with apathy and then returned his stare where it had been pasted before.

“Can I do something for you?” asked Seunghyun. He knew his kindness was unusual, but was worried enough to pass over it.

“Tell me something,” started saying Jiyong, his eyes still fixed on the ceiling. “Are you always this kind to people?” he finished, focusing his eyes intently on Seunghyun’s face.

Seunghyun stood still, his hands clenched at his back, hanging onto the door. He shrugged avoiding answering. The answer was evident for both of them.

“Will you do something for me?” questioned Jiyong with a brittle voice.

“Whatever you need,”

“Whatever?” echoed Jiyong, and lifted one of his eyebrows.

Seunhyun first widened his eyes not sure what was going on, then looked down and away from those eyes that were looking at him as if challenging him. His answer coming out as a tremulous murmur.

“Everything I’m allowed to,”

Jiyong narrowed his eyes and lifted his eyebrow again in disbelief. “You are a supplanter, you should be allowed to do that.”

Seunghyun clenched his hands harder onto the door unconsciously. Was he? He started debating between running away from the room and closing the door behind him.

“Then?” hurried him Jiyong.

“I-I… yes,” he ended up stammering.

Jiyong nodded and beckoned him to come closer. Seunghyun closed the door and tried to not think too much about what he was about to do. His steps were uncertain and his hands remained awkwardly pasted onto his sides not sure what to do with them.

When he reached the bed, he placed one of his knees over the mattress and leant forward towards Jiyong. But the hand of the other one stopped him halfway pushing his chest away.

“The perfume,” hinted Jiyong. Seunghyun merely nodded and looked at himself obeying those orders. He sprayed his body with that strange aroma and stared at his reflection at the mirror. What are you doing? His image seemed to question him with disappointment. And even though everything was simply crooked and sickening he wanted it. He wanted to know, to feel, for he was as invested as Jiyong in their shared fantasy.

He returned and crawled over the mattress until Jiyong’s body was underneath him. Jiyong grabbed his waist and pushed him closer. He had never felt attracted to a man before, but the fragility and resistance fighting inside Jiyong’s eyes, his contradictions turned him into someone Seunghyun could not help but adore. Jiyong played with his hands over his body and undressed him unhurriedly.

Those pale, feminine hands grabbed his own and taught him how to touch, where to caress. Seunghyun stared, marvelling at how Jiyong’s neck stretched backwards and how his pale skin jolted at his touch. He engraved that new, unknown face beneath him, inside his mind. Everything could have been perfect if not for how Jiyong kept his eyes closed. It was his way to tell that even though he was allowed to touch, he was not seen nor recognized.

Was it possible for a man’s body to be this fascinating? Or the sound of a manly hoarse voice beneath him this exciting?

“Lube,” Jiyong answered without opening his eyes.

“What?” asked Seunghyun inside his own trance, his eyes and mind distracted on contemplating Jiyong’s body.

“Lube!” breathed Jiyong again, frowning with a hint of desperation and pointing with one of his hands at the counter besides the bed.

Seunghyun widened his eyes and nodded. He had null experience with this, but he knew what those words meant and what that thing was used for. Still, when the bottle was between his hands he looked at it as if it was something just fallen from another planet. Until Jiyong pushed his hips up demanding, Seunghyun came back to reality.

“Don’t be gentle,” demanded Jiyong between breathes.

Seunghyun was hard and excited, and confused, and scared, all at the same time. But the moment his lubed finger slid inside Jiyong’s body and he saw Jiyong jolt in pleasure he knew he liked this. It was beautiful: the way Jiyong exhaled lust and how the muscles of his lower abdomen contracted, all provoked by the touch of his fingers.

Seunghyun could not stop himself from kissing Jiyong’s tights and his smooth skin. He ran a hand over Jiyong’s abdomen, exploring and adoring. Jiyong moaned when his fingers touched dangerous places.

“Told you not to be gentle. ing do it!” Jiyong ordereed, pushing him up, stopping the kissing and the touching Seunghyun was overwhelmed with.

Seunghyun’s mind went to a place never explored before. He ed inside and felt physically powerful, but also emotionally vulnerable and exposed. New sensations crept inside his soul and unknown shivers ran down his spine. New feeling burned inside his heart when he opened his eyes and saw Jiyong’s face contorting in pleasure, his… that name. It was beautiful.

Jiyong came first, his hands clenching onto Seunghyun’s back. The supplanter rushed after, exhaling and breathing hard over Jiyong’s face. A minute later Jiyong slipped underneath him, and established a distance between bodies over the mattress.

Seunghyun looked at Jiyong’s back shivering at the other side of the bed. He was crying. Jiyong was crying again. And without explanations to his own madness, ignoring his own pain and frustrations, he moved closer to Jiyong and slid a tender hand over the other’s waist and pulled him close to him in a protective way.

“I’m tired,” cried Jiyong, not making any effort to release himself from Seunghyun arms.

“Of what?” asked Seunghyun, kissing Jiyong’s neck.

“You know that feeling when you are out of control. When you are nothing but who you used to be and can do nothing to fix it. I’m tired of that,” explained Jiyong with a crooked voice.

Seunghyun only pressed him closer and ran a hand over Jiyong’s hair. Trying to comfort him without words, not finding any meaningful answer to his questions.

“Will it stop?”

“Eventually,” declared Seunghyun.

“How much is eventually? I can’t anymore…”

“This could be something good. Being tired might be your first step,”

“Can you make it stop?” begged Jiyong, holding onto Seunghyun hands. “Can I stop loving him?”

“You don’t need to stop loving him,”

“I want this to end. I’m so tired,” repeated Jiyong between sobs and kept crying during the night, and Seunghyun let him, holding him close in silence. He caressed and drew figures over Jiyong’s skin, traced lines over his hair until the tears became steady breathings. Jiyong fell asleep between Seunghyun arms.

“I’ll keep you safe from yourself,” he promised kissing Jiyong’s nape. “It will stop, I promise.”

Hi there! So, yes. Finally something is going to start happening between this two. I'll be updating more regularly as I'm a out for holidays!. Thank you to all of you readers, subscribers that keep reading my story. Thank you so so much!

An special callout to my new subscribers: Chapinadee17, and to my new upvoters: xXJebbieChanXx and crazypandazhou.