Ch. 12 : Hoya's Revenge (Backfired)

    “Apppaaaa~! when can I go see Sungyeollie...I don’t want to do be here right now, I don’t want to meet your barmaid ahjummas, I just want Sungyeollie! You’re making me miss my precious “sleepy time” and my ‘Sungyeolie” watching time,” Myungsoo whined as he trudged along after his father down the dark road to Old Palryongie’s tavern while the old vampire made a sour face.

    “Myungsoo-ya! I keep telling you, the point of it all is NOT to see Sungyeolie today!” The point is to have fun withOUT your fiancee. Before a man marries, he needs to have to have gone out and into the world and meet all kinds of people. Appa is throwing you a bachelor’s party and you better be thankful because it’s at my buddy’s Old Palryongie’s place.”

    “I don’t want to! Besides, the only other bachelor we know of is Hoya ahjusshi!”

Hoya internally fused and scoffed, remembering how Woohyun ruined his otherwise perfect proposal (even though it still worked out in the end).

    “YOU HAVE TO! I’VE ALREADY BOOKED THE TAVERN AND RENTED OUT BELLY DANCERS FROM THE EAST! DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY BAGS OF GINSENG I HAD TO SELL?”

    “NO!”

    “Myungsoo stop being a baby! You’re a MAN now, you need to meet more people in your life before you settle, like how I was before I met Woohyun Umma.”

    “Pppffftt, sure, Woohyun umma was the only one in the village that wasn’t a noona and the only one willing to date your appa back in the days,” Hoya remarked, folding his arms from the corner beside Myungsoo and Sunggyu.

    “Shut it Hoya!” Sunggyu snapped pointed a threatening finger at Myungsoo’s sassy Uncle. Hoya shrugged his shoulders making an ‘I don’t care/whatever motion’ at Gyu, and smirked contently to himself in watching his little nephew’s discomfort.

    Sunggyu dragged his son behind him to the front steps of Old Palryongie’s Tavern. It looked shady with flashing neon lights of some y woman swinging her legs up and down above the tavern’s sign. There was another neon sign outside the window that read . “LIVE LIVE SHOW GIRLS TODAY: LIVE DANCERS IMPORTED FROM THE EXOTIC EAST SHOWING TONIGHT!!!!”

    Hoya followed behind the father-son duo with a slight glint in his eyes and a subtle smirk at the corner of his lips, which were steadily growing into a mischievous grin. He stopped before the entrance to the tavern and took a moment to contemplate on something before entering. The tavern was bustling more than usual, and it appeared that Sunggyu had called in some of his old friends to join in his son’s bachelor party. From the corner of the bar, he spotted Sunggyu greeting his two best friends (and probably only friends) Yongguk and Soohyun. Hoya waved an awkward hand to say hello as he was acquainted with them as well.

A scantily dressed barmaid directed the party to the center table of the room. Myungsoo was about to take a seat on the side of the table when Sunggyu exclaimed, “No, no no no no, sit here son, sit here.” He patted the seat at the very end of the table, the pristine seat reserved for the man in question. Myungsoo was embarrassed at what his dad was doing since several people turned their heads at the commotion. Sunggyu snapped his fingers with a smug face and one of the barmaids instantly swaddled over to ask what’d they’d like to drink tonight.

After the drinks and snacks were placed on the table, Myungsoo was left sitting there awkwardly by himself as the older men enjoyed each other’s company, talking of each other’s pasts, leaving the poor young vampire out of the conversation. Myungsoo didn’t like places like these; he was more content with just being by himself in the comfortable shrubbery of Sungyeol’s tree. It had only been a day, yet he missed Sungyeol so dearly already. He avoided eye contact with the passing ladies wearing bead strung bikinis, although the colorful cocktail glasses on the trays they carried fascinated the young vampire and caught his attention.

Myungsoo excused himself from the table saying that he’d like to go explore.

“Appa. Appa.” Sunggyu was busy talking his teeth off.

Myungsoo sighed and just went off by himself, assuming that the elders wouldn’t mind his absence anyway. The young vampire walked towards the bar stand and looked back at the table. Sunggyu was still talking with his friends, but by now the table was also accompanied by some other scantily dressed dancers; Myungsoo assumed it was those exotic ladies from the East that his father had booked for the event. He studied their features and shook his head. None of their looks, none of them even hold a candle in comparison to his precious Yeollie, or Auntie Dongwoo, or even Woohyun Umma, or even his new fairy godmother-in-law Sungjong. Myungsoo clicked his tongue disapprovingly and shook his head at his father’s poor choice of taste.

There was nothing there that seemed to hold Myungsoo’s interests for long, and soon he found himself sitting idly at the bar, bored, stirring his blood-orange juice round and round. The young vampire glanced at the clock before snapping his fingers at one of the barmaids to gesture her to come over. The girl approached him with a tray full of assorted cocktails and wine. Myungsoo “gracefully picked up the glass with his stubby fingers, trying hard not to spill the delicate contents.

    One glass became two, two became three, and so the evening went on. Myungsoo found the cocktails to have an addictive uniqueness in their taste, much like the sweet metallic sheen of Sungyeol’s blood. He found it’s fruity bitterness endearing and it reminded him of the tastes of Sungyeol’s lips (or so he would like to taste Sungyeol’s lips). He downed glass after glass and snapped his fingers to get a random barmaid’s attention.

When the barmaid made her way over, she slipped briefly and spilled some of the drinks, but out of reflex, Myungsoo reached out his arm to help her balance herself. There were a few minutes of struggle for the balance between the two before the barmaid gave him a thankful look and proceeded to give him the whole tray of cocktails. Myungsoo nodded nonchalantly at the hostess and accepted the tray gratefully. He rubbed his hands together before carefully deciding on which of the colorful drinks to try next. Each different drink revealed what he thought of as a different side to Sungyeol. His eyes sparkled at the delicious drinks. He might’ve found a new hobby. Why did Gyu appa hide this from him all along?!

From afar through the flashing disco lights and hazy atmosphere in a corner, a man grins to himself in full satisfaction as his finger snapped away at the button on an old polaroid camera.

The bar was far too crowded by now and Myungsoo found himself easily bored. He tried almost every cocktail on the menu before the bartender denied him, so now there wasn’t much to do. On cue, Sunggyu made his way over from the elderly’s table and motioned for him to come over.

    “Son! Come on! It’s almost time for the main show!” Sunggyu exclaimed, pulling Myungsoo’s arm to drag him back to the table directly in front of the stage.

"When can I go home Appa?" he muttered sluggishly from the effects of the alcohol.

"Surely not now! Appa booked this show for you. Do you know how much it costs? Enough for Woohyun Umma to notice a few missing coin bags!"

"....grrrr." Myungsoo growled sounding a bit like his mother.

"Don't be a party pooper Myungsoo! It's your own bachelor party! The point is to enjoy your last few days as a bachelor and trust me when I say that you should savor the last few days because…….!"

"I think ... you're enjoying this more than me.” Myungsoo cut his father off as the elder droned on.

The older man ignored his son’s remark and continued to pull Myungsoo over to the best seat of the table where it gave the  best view of the performers on stage.

Myungsoo looked around wondering where Hoya Ahjusshi was; he hadn’t seen him all night since they entered. Sunggyu snapped his fingers at his son’s wandering eyes to grab his attention and to situate it onto what was happening on stage. Sunggyu wanted his son to watch and enjoy the dancers as much as he did because once again, he paid good money for that.

At first, Myungsoo had no interest in the exotic dances the scanty women were doing on stage. They skinny stick-like creatures that just weren’t Myungsoo’s type. No woman, no one, nothing can be better than his own precious Sungyeol.

“WHOOOOO YEAHHHHHHHHH,” Sunggyu was making a racket at the table along with the other ahjusshis.

Instead, Myungsoo snapped his fingers at a barmaid for more of those colorful cocktails that tasted like Sungyeol, and the more he indulged himself in the cocktails that tasted like Sungyeol, the more he saw Sungyeol. Up on stage. His mind was in a blur, it wasn’t working right, or rather, it was working in a way that he enjoyed what he was able to see on stage and wished that he could see more of what was happening. In short, Myungsoo saw Sungyeol’s face on every one of the exotic dancers and was enjoying every bit of of their scandalous dance moves.

    Soon enough, Myungsoo began joining in with his father’s enthusiasm. “WHOOOOOO TAKE IT OFF, TAKE IT OFFF!”

    Yongguk ahjusshi had to cling on to Myungsoo’s legs to try to stop him from jumping up and down on the chair he was supposed to sit on.

    “SUNGGYEOLLIEEEEE! YEOLLIE! OPPA LOVES YOUU!” He blew a kiss  and made a heart with his arms at one of the dancers, then at the other one, and the other one, because all of them looked like Sungyeollie and were doing what Sungyeol would never do in a million years. Yongguk slapped his and pulled on the waistband of Myungsoo’s pants when he was about to step onto the table.

_____________________________________________

Sungyeol trudged along after his Fairy Godmother from store to store. His feet were already aching really bad from all the walking up and downtown; he even asked if Sungjong could turn a random squash into a carriage so they could ride it while they went to buy Sungyeol’s wedding tux. There was no question that Myungsoo was going to wear his vampire clan’s traditional Victorian tuxedo so Sungyeol was going to wear either matching black or white tux, but Sungjong insisted he had to look fabulous. Hence, this was why they were on 6th Avenue shopping district going from one designer to another looking for the best outfit. Secretly, he wondered if Sungjong had any magical powers at all. Why couldn’t he do things that other fairy godmothers could do? The two wandered around for a few hours before meeting up with Woohyun Umma-ni. Auntie Dongwoo tagged along once he closed up the apothecary.

    As the three ladies neared the the street corner, they heard loud booming music coming from the place with flashing signs. It was a dead end of a rather shady street. The louse place turned out to be a tavern as they discovered. Out of all forsaken places to get lost in, the three of them had come to the end of the street of some shady tavern. Sungyeol made a disgusted face when he glanced at the dirty floor.

"Woohyun Umma-ni I thought you said the wedding shop was around here."

“I swear its around here somewhere…” Woohyun replied. His nose however, was picking up some verrrry familiar scents and he furrowed his eyebrows immediately as the scents became stronger in front of the tavern’s doors.

"Palryongie’s...gggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...ggryuu...Myungsoo.!"

Sungyeol, Sungjong, and Dongwoo could only watch in stunned silence as Woohyun’s lovely face slowly wrinkled into a terrifying cringe, fangs slowly appearing, and eyes glowing a golden amber in color. Woohyun approached the entrance as the others trailed behind, clinging onto his arms and patting his back to try and calm him down.

“Excuse me, m’am, you can’t cu---!” Woohyun shoved aside the buff and burly bouncer and kicked down the tavern door. Literally, he bore a hole through the cloudy glass and old creaky wooden frames. The remaining three ladies with him hesitated, still unable to understand what inside this tavern that made Woohyun so mad, before following the werewolf inside.

Woohyun shoved through the masses of scandalous people, not caring that he was stepping on feet or that he was knocking drinks out of people’s hands. The ladies were greeted with a smoky haze everywhere that made it hard to see save for the occasional beams of colored light.

In one corner of the tavern was a crowd of people cheering around a circle. It was a dance battle and Woohyun immediately broke through the teeming masses of sweaty bodies to the edge of the dance floor. The crowd broke into a sudden cheer.

Hoya put raised his hands up and fist pumped the air. “HOYA! HOYA!” the crowd chanted.

“I SAY HO AND YOU SAY YA! HO!

“YA!”

"HO!"

"YA!!!!"

Woohyun stepped right onto the dance floor and grabbed Hoya by the scruff of his shirt. “Where. Is. Sunggyu,” he said through scrunched teeth. Hoya was stunned and couldn’t utter a word. His huge smile quickly faltered.

“WHOOoo, Ahjumma! Look at this ajumma! She thinks she’s brave enough to challenge the great Ho-God! Booooo!!!” Someone yelled out.

Sungyeol, Sungjong, and Dongwoo by now had managed to squeeze their way into the dance floor.

Hoya turned his head with Woohyun’s fist still on his shirt when he heard Dongwoo’s small voice, “H-h-Ho-God?!”

“Dongwoo-shii...It’s not like…” Hoya muttered while looking around at his surroundings. Certainly this was not a place where he wanted to be seen. How could he ever explain himself?

“ISN’T THAT MYUNGSOO?!” Sungjong’s voice perked up as he pointed to a figure that was high up over everybody’s heads, dirty dancing on a bar stool while waving around a face veil. It was Sungyeol’s turn to start fuming as he surely recognized the face of his fiance enjoying himself among the poorly clothed dancers. Below him was a table of old ahjusshis cheering for him.

Woohyun released his grip on Hoya, leaving him there with an aghast Dongwoo and started for Myungsoo’s direction. Sungyeol was already a step ahead of Woohyun umma-ni, shoving through the mass of people.

Sungyeol mercilessly slapped a geezer’s hand off of his arm as he approached closer and closer to the table that was causing most of the commotion in the tavern. Sure enough, Myungsoo was having the time of his life with two barmaids each rubbing his legs. He had a bottle of alcohol in his hands and he shook his duck stiffly and awkwardly from side to side  due to his inflexibility, slapping them once in a while.

“Kim Myungsoo.” Sungyeol simply said. “Kim Myungsoo!” He said a little louder. He opened his mouth for a third time.

“YAH! KIM MYUNGSOO!” It came from Woohyun umma. Everyone at the table stopped in their tracks, stunned silent; the bar maids gave a confused look at the ahjumma lady in the maxi dress.

Myungsoo looked in the direction of the booming voice. He looked at the figure beside it too.

“U-u-umma...S-s-ungyeolie?” His eyes darted at his father for help.

Woohyun, upon seeing where his son’s eyes landed, glared at Sunggyu who put this hands together as if to apologize.

Old Palryongie, who was an honored guest at the table, was in awe at Woohyun’s beautiful face until Woohyun propped his leg up onto the table to climb up and bring Myungsoo down by the ears.

“Soo this is why Gyu spends so much time here…” Old Palryongie mused to himself the moment he saw Woohyun’s legs.

Myungsoo stumbled off the stool. “Umma, umma, I’m sorry, sorry umma please it hurts umma, please let go.”

Sungyeol took the initiative to yank Myungsoo’s other ear while Woohyun clutched onto the back of Sunggyu’s shirt by the neck. The two ladies dragged Sunggyu and Myungsoo past the staring bystanders who were pointing and giggling at the scene. Myungsoo had no choice but to keep up with both of the ladies for both had a hand on each of his ears. Sunggyu also obediently followed his wife with no words said. Sungjong flew gracefully behind feeling a little pained inside because Myungsoo was being hurt.

Bursting out of the already burst door, Woohyun threw them all inside the bus wagon van and paused for a moment to look for Dongwoo. He spotted Lady Jang on the opposite side of the street with his arms crossed and face of mixed emotions. Hoya stood closely across from him with his shoulders slumped. Hoya put a gentle hand on Dongwoo’s arm but the latter shook it away.

“YAH! YOU TWO!” Woohyun waved them over from the driver’s seat.

No one spoke on the drive home. Not even Woohyun. He didn’t even bother to nag.

Myungsoo focused his eyes on the floor, too afraid to make contact with anyone in the car. He sat in the middle row next to Auntie Dongwoo who was making barely audible whimpering noises. Sungyeol didn’t want to sit next to him. Hoya Ahjusshi was way back in the third row with a grim glassy look in his eyes. Even the usual sarcastic snarls from Hojusshi couldn’t be heard. The delicate beauty of the woodlands placed a gentle hand over his trembling lips, holding in a cry.

The teenage vampire sat awkwardly besides Auntie Dongwoo and looked over the whimpering figure towards Sungyeol who refused to look back, much less talk to him. Meanwhile, Sungjong, Myungsoo’s Fairy Godmother-in-law glared daggers at Myungsoo, tsked, and shook his head disapprovingly. He had a different attitude towards Myungsoo after the kidnapping incident; he became more bitter and spiteful at the handsome vampire.

Woohyun slammed on the breaks abruptly, causing the bus wagon to come to a violent stop right on the driveway of his Victorian home. The werewolf got out of the car, opened the side of the van to let Sungyeol off and dragged Myungsoo out by the collar. Gyu was silently following behind. The old vampire’s shoulders slumped as he walked behind his wife and son, pouting a little and cringing at the uncertainty of what’s to happen next. Hoya caught Dongwoo from slipping when he exited the van, but Dongwoo shook it off and didn’t look at him before latching onto Sungyeol’s arm and following everyone else into the house.

Hoya glanced at Sungyeol as if to beg him help, but even the usually sweet Sungyeol was cold to Hoya Ahjusshi.

In a row, the guilty men stood. Then, two were kneeling, one was standing still and stiff with his back as straight as a meerkat.

FFFFWWWPP! SMACK!

Woohyun hit the feather duster on the edge of the coffee table. Everyone flinched.

"Explain." Woohyun commanded in a single word as he pointed the feather duster at Myungsoo, ignoring Sunggyu.

"Um...ummaaa,” the boy stuttered as he glanced at his father next to him with no avail.

"SHUT IT! I WON'T BUY THE CRYING THIS TIME!" Woohyun snapped.

"A...Auntie Dongwoo...*hic hic*"

"I'm sorry Myungsoo precious! *hichicc* Auntie Dongwoo ... has my own problems at the moment* hichic* oh gosh! *hichic" Dongwoo cooed softly looking away avoiding eye contact with Hoya and trying to hold back the water works. Sungyeol was sitting next to Dongwoo with a hand over his shoulders and the other rubbing his back trying to sooth him. Sungyeol glared at Myungsoo.

"S...Sungyeolie..." Myungsoo gave Sungyeol a pout and reached out an arm.

"Don’t touch me! And don't you dare talk to me!" Sungyeol snapped pulled his arm roughly away from Myungsoo.

"N...nooo noooo noooo *hic hic hic* Sungyeolie youu can't be mad at me nooo nooooo....S s Sungyeollie...don't be mad at mingthoo...it's it's APPA AAAAHHHHHHHH ....NOT MEEE *hic hic*" Myungsoo's face started to scrunch up even more in real tears now that Sungyeol was mad at him.

“Yah! Don’t rat your fathe-” Sunggyu began to retaliate but was quickly shut up by a death glare and a huff by his wife. “I’m, sorry yeobo,” he quickly muttered and looked down at the floor again.

"Don't forgive him Sungyeol! Even Fairy Godmother is appalled by such behavior from these men! My precious fairest beauty deserves better." Sungjong scorned.  

There was no more hope in trying to get Myungsoo to talk since he was in a whining mess right now, so Woohyun went on to Hoya for answers. He already knew what Sunggyu did and Sunggyu knew it too, so not much was needed to be said between them.

"Hoya shiiii, you and I have always maintained a civil relationship, so would you please tell me what's the meaning of all this Hoya shiii. And I’m sure Dongwoo shiii would also like to hear an explanation. " Woohyun voice sounded a bit venomous, and scornful, but calm.

“Umma! Don’t hit Ho-jusshiii, he didn’t do anything wrong!” Myungsoo spat out between his crying.

Normally, Hoya never put up with Woohyun. He was a man. No woman would faze him. But when Woohyun smacked the side of Hoya’s legs with the feather duster despite his son’s plea, Hoya revealed what was in his pocket.

Woohyun snatched the papers from the man’s hands and flipped through them, feather duster still in hand. His nostrils flared and the threw the papers in the air and whipped his head towards his husband Gyu, who was stiff with fear of his wife. It was a picture of him flirting with one of the barmaids and feeding her a strawberry.

Myungsoo picked up one of the polaroid pictures and saw himself atop a barstool with what looked like to be a face veil in his waving hands. Upon closer observation, it might’ve been a .

“HO-JUSSHI! HOW COULD YOU?!!?” His eyes were filled with hurt and betrayal as Myungsoo searched Hoya’s eyes for an answer. Hoya avoided eye contact and simply cleared his throat.

Sungyeol too, picked up one of the pictures that had flown in his direction. His face instantly turned dark when he saw the image of Myungsoo, casually drunk and lifting the chin of a barmaid with one finger seductively. Sungyeol instantly got up from his seat beside Dongwoo and stormed up the stairs, stomping on every single creaking step. Sungjong flew after him.

"NOOOOO Sungyeolie! It's not what it looked like. I really thought of her as you! She looked like you!"

Sungyeol was appalled when he heard this and stomped even faster upstairs.

Watching Sungyeol stalk off made Myungsoo wail even louder, so loud that he almost lost his voice in the process and was shut up by Woohyun umma, so the teenage vampire reverted to an internal corner in his mind instead.

Dongwoo looked at the vampire boy sympathetically. He finally fixated his hurt eyes on Hoya and the witch doctor said, “Lee Howon-shi, how could you do this?”

Hoya flinched.

"L...Lee ... Ho...Ho..won..s..shii? ...D...Dongwoo babe...you didn't just formally called my name did you?"

Hoya was in shock. His lips hung agape.

“I did, Howon-shi, I just don’t know how often you might do this kind of thing-”

“That-”

“...with your friend Sunggyu-shi, but you two should be a shame to be exposing this little baby to such, such immoral things. I guess I don’t know you well enough so I shouldn’t be ‘shi’ coding you.” Dongwoo softly scolded; his voice was gentle, but his word were cold and distant.

Each word that Dongwoo spoke stabbed at Hoya’s tiger heart, and what hurt the most was the way that Dongwoo addressed him with such formality. It was bad, and very sad to have created this distance between them.

“If you’ll excuse me, I think I should go now.” Dongwoo whispered with his voice beginning to shake again.

"D...No! Dongwoo! " He followed Dongwoo out the door.

Hoya tried to grab onto Dongwoo’s shirt, but his hands slipped on the loose fabric flying away in the wind. The tiger hunter frantically dashed after his love.

Woohyun eyed Myungsoo again. The teenage vampire seemed to have caged himself in his own hypnotic trance out of stress indicated by the way he sat. He leaned on the edge of the couch and hugged his legs tightly to his chest while staring absently into the distance.

"Myungsoo..." No reply came from the vampire boy.

"Myungsoo..." Again no reply.

"MYUNGSOO!  SNAP OUT OF IT!"

"This. Is. All. Appa'sss. Fault." Myungsoo said darkly hissing after the 's like a snake.  His eyes turning a darker red now. A dark mysterious aura emitted from him.

"Appa.  Appa was the one who dragged me and Hojusshi to that weird club. I said I wanted to leave, because I only want to see Sungyeolie.  But. APPA. Appa... said this was the last night I'll be a free man, so I should enjoy this moment.  AND, IT WAS APPA THAT HIRED THOSE DANCERS, THOSE EXOTIC DANCERS FROM THE EAST!  AND HE USED 3 BAGS OF GINSENG TO BOOKED EVERYTHING!!! THIS IS ALL APPA'S FAULT! YEOLLIE IS MAD AT ME ! AUNTIE IS MAD AT HOJUSSHI!  IT'S ALL APPA'S FAULT! I DIDN’T EVEN WANT TO GO TO THAT STINKY TAVERN! THE ONLY THING I LIKE WAS THOSE COLORFUL DRINKS THAT TURNED EVERYTHING INTO SUNGYEOL!"

Myungsoo ranted in fury, his voice full of scorn towards the unfortunate situation. After his long vent, the vampire stomped up the steps following wherever Sungyeol went, leaving Sunggyu alone with Woohyun in semi-wolf form as evident through the hair and fur that had grown up to his arms by now.

"Well... Gyu, are you happy now? This all happened because you couldn't control yourself... and just for one day! Just one day keep your flirting to yourself. HUH!!!! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!!!! DO YOU WANT ME TO TO BRING MY UMMA DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAINS AND MY ARMY TO TEAR UP THAT DAMN TAVERN!!!!"

"Y...Yeobo... we really don't need that now do we? There's no need to bring mother in... law into this." Gyu gulped.

Woohyun tried to open his mouth but he honestly did not know what to say. He knew that deep deep down, very very deep down, all the old vampire wanted was for his son to enjoy himself and that he didn’t intend for things to go this way. Instead of talking more and wasting his energy, Woohyun put a hand to his forehead and headed towards the kitchen instead.

“Yeobo!” Gyu knew too well. His wife was mad at him and he had to go fix it. Now. (Before he gets eaten by werewolves).