Slipping Through my Heart Smoke

One

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo yawn loudly then quickly covers it with his hand. Last night, instead of sleeping early, he took some picture of smoke twirling in air and posts it on his blog. Yes, he is a smoke photographer.

 

 

 

 

At first, Kyungsoo do this just for fun and uploads it online then when the pictures he uploads goes viral, getting some compliments from famous photographers, it eventually becomes his hobby. Every night, he posts at least thirty pictures for billions of fans following him. And that is why he’s sleep-deprived every morning.

 

 

 

 

“Did get enough sleep?” Kyungsoo slowly turns to the left and sees his friend, Baekhyun, holding to cups of coffee. “Drink this.” He gives Kyungsoo a coffee.

 

 

 

 

“Thanks.” He said and grabs the coffee. Liking how it feels so warm in his pale hands.

 

 

 

 

“Dude you seriously need to rest.” Baekhyun leans on the counter, careful not to accidentally knock over some containers filled with candies. “What time did you sleep?”

 

 

 

 

“Around two in the morning, I guess?” Kyungsoo answers back and takes a sip of the coffee.

 

 

 

 

“Taking pictures again?” Baekhyun asks and get a low hum in response. Baekhyun slightly furrows his brows and puts down his coffee.

 

 

 

 

“Don’t push yourself. You should relax or do something not making you tired. Christmas is coming in a few days and here you are having huge bags under your eyes and probably adding more.”

 

 

 

“Baekhyun, I’m alright.” He forces a smile on his face. This only made his friend frown. “You should restock the cup noodles in that aisle. A while ago, a couple bought like two boxes of cup noodles.” He points the second to the last aisle. “Good luck!”

 

 

 

 

Baekhyun grumbles and glares at him. “Fine but I’m not done with you.” He then stomps his way to the storage room to grab cup noodles.

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo takes another sip of the coffee, loving how the bitter taste spreads on his taste buds before letting out a sigh of irritation between his lips. It’s not that he hates it when he is having this kind of conversation with Baekhyun. He understands that his friend is only concerned for him or cares a lot for him but why does he have to bring that up every time they talk? It annoys the hell out of him. He loves taking photos and lots of people love it. So deal with it.

 

 

 

 

The sound of the creaking glass door made Kyungsoo loses his trance and checks who just entered the store. A small smile appeared on his lips as he stares at the disheveled person who just came. He made a small wave at man and the man gladly waves back.

 

 

 

 

“Hello Kyungsoo. Good morning!” the man greets with a smile, the curl on the both ends of his lips are showing.

 

 

 

 

“Am I late again?”

 

 

 

 

He lets out a soft laugh. “Yes you are Jongdae. Good thing the manager isn’t here yet.”

 

 

 

 

Jongdae snickered and tightly wrapped his jacket around his freezing body. “When she’s late nobody scolds at her and when I’m late she makes me clean the whole store for a day.” He complains.

 

 

 

 

“How come you arrive here earlier than me? You sleep later than me yet you’re always here first.” Jongdae said and sit on the counter.

 

 

 

 

“It’s because he never sleeps at all!” Baekhyun holler at the back, making Kyungsoo roll his eyes and decides not to talk back because arguing with Baekhyun get pretty nasty. Meanwhile Jongdae laughs at Baekhyun’s remark.

 

 

 

 

Feeling annoyed, Kyungsoo lets it all out on Jongdae.

 

 

 

 

“Don’t sit there!” Kyungsoo slaps the back of Jongdae’s head. The man whimpers from Kyungsoo’s powerful slap but made no move getting off.

 

 

 

“Get off there or else the manager will kill you.” Kyungsoo warns when he sees a small figure through the glass window but Jongdae ignores it.

 

 

 

“Yeah, you better get off Jongdae.” Baekhyun just finished restocking a while ago and joins in the conversation. “The manager won’t be pleased seeing you on that.” He then points the counter and Kyungsoo nods in agreement.

 

 

 

 

“But I’m so tired! And she isn’t here yet.” He answers back.

 

 

 

“What do you mean she isn’t here yet. She’s just outside, looking at you through the glass window.” Kyungsoo said. His voice is laced with amusement as he watched Jongdae face turn into horror. Jongdae slowly turns his head and sees their manager glaring at him with a killer face. He quickly jumps off the counter when their manager entered the store.

 

 

 

“Kim. Jongdae.” She said in a murderous voice. “What are you doing?”

 

 

 

 

“M-Ma’am—I—I w-was—”

 

 

 

 

“And you’re also late.”

 

 

 

 

“How did you—“

 

 

 

 

“I was on my way here when you run passed me. I saw you Jongdae. Don’t you dare make any excuses.” She said and points outside the store. “Instead cleaning the whole store, you’ll be inviting customer in this store.”

 

 

 

 

“WHAT?! It’s freezing outside!” Jongdae mentally slaps his head when their managers gave him a terrifying glare when he raised his voice at her.

 

 

 

 

“Go. Now.” She orders through her gritted teeth. Jongdae bows at her and hurriedly left the store. She sighs at massages his temples. “Seriously, that boy will never learn.”

 

 

 

 

“I guess cleaning the whole store never worked on him.” Kyungsoo jokes. Their manager sighs again and looks at him and Baekhyun.

 

 

 

 

“If you both don’t want to join him, you guys better start working too.” She crosses her arms and eyed the two males. They both gulp and answered her with a “Yes ma’am!” then starts working.

 

 

 

Kyungsoo goes back behind the counter, checking if there’s any change he can give to the customers later on while Baekhyun checks if there’s any products out of place or missing.

 

 

___

 

 

"Time flies so fast." Kyungsoo says after seeing the time on the old clock hanging above the store's doors. "It’s six o' clock already." He stretches arms in the air as he yawn loudly.

 

“Yeah, instead of staying at home where you can sleep and relax after a day of hard work—you stay out, taking a lot of pictures of smoke floating in air and sleeping at for two to three hours before going to work,” Baekhyun deadpans as he throws some trash in the bin. Kyungsoo sigh heavily and decided to approach the guy about his sleeping problems.

 

“Don’t be like that Baekhyun.” He slings his arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders. Baekhyun huffs in annoyance and ignore Kyungsoo.

 

“I’m going to be alright. Just like the previous nights I went out and two to three hours of sleep is enough for me.” He states pats Baekhyun’s head with his other hand, hoping this will stop him but it is clear that he wasn’t because Baekhyun’s blank faces quickly turns into another frown.

 

“Kyungsoo it’s not healthy! Plus, what if something happen?! What will you do if some bastard decided to rob you or kill you?” His friend rants and frustratingly rubs his hands on his face. “Everywhere we go is not safe. One mistake can either lead you to an accident or something more.... unpleasant.”

 

“You worry too much. You know that?” Kyungsoo said with a small voice. Baekhyun’s short speech really made an impact on him for some unknown reason. Kyungsoo sighs and take a good look of his friend. Baekhyun is worried and sad; Kyungsoo really dislikes it when he is the reason behind what’s making him sad.

 

“Yes I know, sorry for being a caring friend.” He slumps his shoulders. “Go and do your thing.”

 

“Baekhyun…You know I hate seeing you this.” Kyungsoo said and receives no reply. “Okay, I’ll go home early starting this day. Sounds good to you?”

 

“What time?” his friend questions.

 

 

“Around two?” Kyungsoo raised two fingers and playfully wave it in front of Baekhyun.

 

“No.” Baekhyun quickly replies.

 

Kyungsoo slowly puts down his other finger. ”One?”

 

“No.” He crosses his arms and shakes his head.

 

“Midnight…?” Kyungsoo crosses his finger, hoping Baekhyun will accept it. Baekhyun thinks hard like his life depends on it. Once he made up his mind he looks at Kyungsoo and smiles a bit.

 

“Fine...”

 

Kyungsoo cheers and gives him a friendly hug before dashing to the locker room to change his clothes and grab his camera.

­­­­­­

 

 

___

 

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo huffs hot air on his hands then rubs it together. The glove he is wearing is not enough to keep him warm from the freezing winter night. These gloves were given by Baekhyun before he left the store, and his friend probably bought this in a cheap store or a big sale somewhere. Even if the gloves are useless, it's given by his friend so he'll keep it with all the time.

 

He grips on his DSLR and positioned it at a man smoking his cigarette. He focuses the lens on the smoke coming out on the end of cigarette and

 

Click.

 

Kyungsoo takes a look on the photo he just took and smiles when it came out beautifully. The smoke’s curves and waves kind of remained him blooming flower. With a contented smile he, cleans the camera’s lens and proceed on searching for another picture to be taken.

 

He walks around the park. Christmas lights hanging on the trees like webs and people walking around, talking about what they should do in Christmas with hot coffee in their hands. He decided to take some pictures of the decorated trees for his blog to give the Christmas feeling in it.

 

He was about to take a photo when a puff of smoke is caught on the corner of his eye. Instantly, he turned and took a picture.

 

Click.

 

He checks on the camera to see the photo and dropped it after seeing the taken photo.

 

It is a man. A beautiful man, surrounded by black smoke and half of his face is disappearing like smoke.

 

And it is looking straight at him.

 

Fear shot right through his body and he stumbles back as he grips the camera tightly in his hands. There must be a mistake. Maybe he just saw it wrong. He rubs in eyes in a harsh way and takes a really good look of the photo taken.

 

 

 

He wasn’t.

 

 

 

 

What is this? Kyungsoo thought as he tries to stand with numb knees. Is this even a human? He shivers. Probably not.

 

 

 

 

The fact there’s something out there that isn’t from here didn’t really scared him because he believes in a universe this big, it’s impossible that were are the only living beings. What scared him is that thing saw him. He’s afraid that it will come after him.

 

 

 

 

 

­­­___

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo frustratingly threw his bag on the floor at his apartment. He went to the police and showed them the picture, saying that something not from this planet is wandering and may cause harm. The police officers only laughed and said that there’s no such thing and told him the picture he showed is Photoshop. They just laugh at him and for believe those things at his current age. Feeling angry and humiliated he left the police station.

 

 

 

He holds the camera again and takes another good look of the picture and zoom it on the face. He can tell from its expression that it’s shocked and angry.

 

 

 

 

Angry at him.

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo paces back and forth across the room. What should he do? The police didn’t believe. Should he tell Baekhyun… or Jongdae? They’ll probably laugh at him. No one will believe him. They’ll think his crazy! Kyungsoo is not crazy! Kyungsoo shivers again. He rushes to the kitchen and drinks a cold glass of water.

 

 

 

 

Am I safe? He grips the glass tightly puts on the sink. He turns the faucet on and splash cool water on his face to keep himself awake. He looks at his camera once more and shivers again.

 

 

 

 

Cold. He checks at the small window near the refrigerator if it’s open and surprised to see it closed.

 

 

 

                       

“Why is it cold here?”

 

 

 

 

He starts walking toward the window when something strong pushes him against the wall. Kyungsoo groans in pain when his back meets the wall. He was about to scream help when a hand covered his mouth harshly. He fights back, trying to break free from the strong hold and doing this greatly displeases his attacker. Even though he is out of breath, Kyungsoo keeps on fighting and only to stop when the attacker’s other hand grip his neck, cutting the oxygen he desperately needs.

 

 

 

 

The room is dark and he can’t see his attacker’s face. Kyungsoo grabs the hand that’s choking his neck and tries to wrench it off his neck. His attacker loosens his hold around Kyungsoo’s neck just to hold him and grabs the fallen camera on the floor, still not removing his hand on Kyungsoo’s neck. Because of the light emitting from the camera, he can now see his attacker’s face.

 

 

 

 

It’s the man from the picture.

 

 

 

 

 

His attacker’s expression was emotionless at first when the camera was set on camera mode but when he started looking for the picture and finally saw it, he grips Kyungsoo’s neck tighter than before and he can see in his—its eyes the rising rage.

 

 

 

 

It happened so fast and next thing he sees is that they’re on a very very high building. Actually, his attacker was the only one on the building while he was on air, holding his attacker’s hand around his neck because his life depends on it.

 

 

 

 

“You…” His attacker’s voice sounds so hoarse and deep. He showed Kyungsoo the camera’s screen and sees the picture that cause this. “Did you show this to anyone?” he loosens his hold a little making Kyungsoo grip the attacker’s hand tighter.

 

 

 

“Don’t you dare lie to me. I can just drop you and leave your dismembered body at the foot of a one hundred sixty-three floored building.”

 

 

 

 

“Y-Yes…” Kyungsoo coughs and gasps for air at the same time. His answer obviously angered him and loosens his hold around his neck. “I…I….” Kyungsoo gasps again. “No-Nobody believed me! They th-thought I was just fooling t-them!”  He looks at his attacker’s face, stoic and unmoving.

 

 

 

 

“P-Please believe me…” Tears start to gush out from his eyes as he tries to breathe. “Don’t kill m-me.”

 

 

 

 

He then thought how his family and his friends would react seeing his dead body… pieces. The sorrow and pain written all over their faces, Kyungsoo really didn’t want that to happen, he did not want to die this way. More tears fall as he gasps for air. He notices his attacker looking at the back like something is also there with them.

 

 

 

 

He cries louder when the grip around his neck disappeared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clearly not expecting landing on the soft cushions of the bed. Kyungsoo eyes are wide as he looked at the attacker standing next to his bed, back to his room, his expression still stoic. He can’t move. He is too horrified to do something. He almost died. If he lied he could have died. He just lies there terrified to whatever plans his attacker might do to him.

 

 

 

“Erase it.” His attacker orders and throws the camera between his legs. Kyungsoo nods and grabs the camera and quickly deletes the photo. Kyungsoo gives the camera to him to prove that the photo is forever gone. The attacker’s face is still stoic and it scared Kyungsoo. His attacker is giving him no hints if he will survive—no, die or not.

 

 

 

 

His attacker comes forward and sits next to him. Kyungsoo’s breath hitched and bows his head low to avoid eye contact. “Do not you even think of telling this to anyone, I can just snatch you and push you off that building again.” Kyungsoo nods.

 

 

 

 

 

The attacker smirked. “I’m sure my handprint around your neck will keep you from forgetting that.” The weight beside him disappeared and Kyungsoo cautiously raise his head. He’s alone… for now. He doesn’t know if this will be the last will be visiting him.

 

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo world turn dark and soft cushions catching him. He fainted due to stress and fatigue.

 

 

 

 

 

A/N: first chapter is out guys!!! This fic is short chaptered. Maybe, 5-10 chapters only. I hope you guys find this somehow entertaining. I’m testing my writing and imagination skills here on this chap. Thank you to those who subscribed! It really means a lot to me~! I have a good night/day! ^^