Geez, it was hot. Really ing hot. Of all the days to re-shingle the roof. He pulled off his tank top and heard a chorus of squeals and giggles. Right. School ended today.

Seunghyun sighed. He waved to the girls who squealed again but thankfully moved on. Seunghyun sighed again. Only one small patch to go- hopefully before that storm in the distance arrived- then he could have a nice long shower and dinner.

Freshly showered and with a belly full of food, Seunghyun sat at the kitchen counter to go over his finances. He had two rehabbed homes for sale, and if he could just sell one he'd be able to move on to a large project in this home. If the smaller home sold, he'd be able to lift this house and rebuild the foundation. If the bigger home sold, he'd be able to do that, plus put in new pipes. Maybe even buy another home to flip. This home, though, was his dream home. He hoped to one day live here permanently instead of whichever home he was currently rehabbing.

A sound came from upstairs just then, like footsteps, followed by a giggle. Then another giggle. Seunghyun rolled his eyes. “God damn schoolgirls,” he grumbled, turning off the lights and heading upstairs. He'd heard footsteps and laughing for a while now, and figured some neighborhood kids had found a way in and were trying to torment him. Kids get their kicks in the weirdest ways. Seunghyun hadn't caught them yet but figured it was only a matter of time. He wasn't sure how they could get in with brand new sturdy windows and a newly patched roof, but he vowed to investigate in the morning.

“Alright you rugrats,” he snarled. “That's enough for tonight. I'm exhausted and want to go to bed.”

Seunghyun heard another laugh, and something brushed past him, as if it were running. A window at the end of the hall was open, but Seunghyun didn't see anything leave it before it slammed shut. He rubbed his face and passed it off as exhaustion before going into the master bedroom and face planted onto the bed, falling into a dreamless sleep.

The next day was stormy and gloomy. Seunghyun headed up to the third floor to check for leaks. He found none and was pleased with his roofing work. Luckily there was plenty of work to do indoors- rebuilding a couple of the fireplaces; putting up new shelves in the library; re-tiling the powder room on the main floor. Seunghyun decided to sand the cabinets in the kitchen. It was a rather small room for such a large house, so Seunghyun was going to paint the cabinets white to brighten the room up.

He had been working for an hour and making decent progress. He reached down to pick up the sander, only to find it wasn't where he left it. It wasn't too far away, so Seunghyun figured he hadn't really been paying attention to where he set it down. Shrugging, Seunghyun went back to work. He'd just set the sander down again when he noticed it was moving away. Seunghyun gingerly picked the tool up and set it right next to his knee. Where it stayed for a few moments before beginning to move again. Seunghyun had pulled the sander back, only to have to forcefully pulled out of his hand to the other side of the room.

Seunghyun stared, and swallowed hard. Standing, he abandoned his project and moved out of the kitchen.

“Relax,” he told himself. “Probably just an animal that got in. Somehow.”

Satisfied with that answer, Seunghyun moved into the living room. He swept the floor in front of the fireplace and positioned the sofa and the wingback chair across from it to give the room a more homey feel. A crack of thunder sounded and a blue flame flared up in the fireplace.

Startled, Seunghyun reared back, falling and pulling the chair on top of him.

“,” he whimpered. He slid carefully out from underneath and stood up. He righted the wingback, avoiding looking at the fireplace. It was still crackling. Seunghyun picked up his messenger bag, and without looking back, he walked out of the room and out of the house and into his car.

He was sitting at a coffee shop thirty miles outside of town- the only place he felt safe enough to stop. By his second cup of tea he had managed to stop shaking and open his laptop. He answered emails and scheduled two viewings of his smaller home. He was browsing listings of homes for sale that were falling apart when he hand accidentally clicked an ad for escorts.

                                                                PICK YOUR COMPANY FOR THIS EVENING

followed by a phone number. Seunghyun stared at the beautiful man on the screen, and before he knew what he was doing, Seunghyun had dialed the number.

“Blue Star Service, how may I service you?” a woman's voice asked.

“I'd like.... some company for this evening,” Seunghyun said softly.

“Very good sir. Would you prefer the company of a man or a woman?”

Seunghyun stared at the man in the ad, and swallowed. “Man,” he answered thickly.

After providing his address and credit card information, Seunghyun leaned back and sighed. What had he done?

Seunghyun looked around the house. He'd just swept and straightened as much as he could. Unfortunately there was still some tools and clutter that he just couldn't move out of the way. His plan was to bring his.... um.... guest straight into the living room. They were going to talk. That's it. Just talk. Hopefully an hour of regular conversation- if that was possible with an . Seunghyun didn't know. He'd never done this before- would make Seunghyun feel normal again and everything would go back to the way it was. He heard footsteps upstairs and tried to block it out.

The door bell rang and Seunghyun swallowed. He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders before opening the door and having his breath out of him.

The ad... the man from the ad was on his doorstep.

He was a vision. His brown hair was pulled back with bangs framing his face. His smirk had a light sheen and his eyes were lightly lined in black. He wore black slacks, a white button down dress shirt and a black and white jacket.

“Mr. Choi?” he asked in a husky voice that Seunghyun was not expecting.

Seunghyun nodded.

The man smiled. “I'm Heechul,” he said, moving into the room and giving Seunghyun a soft, lingering, cherry flavored kiss. “How do you want me?”