Three times this week L.Joe had noticed the same customer wandering through the aisles after 11pm. He was painfully conspicuous; he always walked slowly, staring at all the items on the shelves and mumbling to himself by the chillers. He never bought anything but stayed for almost an hour or two some nights. Not to mention he was drop-dead gorgeous! He dressed in designer-looking clothes and always immaculate, no one looked that good at quarter to one in the morning.

As he stacked a shelf with chocolate, L.Joe watched the customer. He was standing a few metres away, holding a ramen cup and apparently reading the ingredients. With a little shake of his head he returned his attention to heaving boxes of chocolate onto the shelves. After a moment, he realised the customer had appeared beside him, still holding the ramen cup. L.Joe jumped with fright. When the hell had he moved?!

“Hello.” His voice was soft, like satin or silk.

“Uh, hi. Can I help you today?” L.Joe intoned, he focused on lifting the next box.

“Yes. Are these nice?” The man rattled the ramen cup to accentuate his question. For a strange reason though L.Joe felt he was actually asking less about the ramen and more about L.Joe himself.

His heart fluttered and the box slipped from his grasp. His odd customer caught it with one hand and steadied it for him again. L.Joe gaped.

“Wh -what?” He stuttered, now dangerously close to this strange person. Their noses were almost touching, he could see the man’s eyes were like never-ending oceans. It was so strange; he was Asian, like L.Joe, but his eyes were so blue. Or were they thundercloud grey? Perhaps it was actually violet. He couldn’t tell, he didn’t care.

The customer stepped back and the trance was broken. He cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Sorry.” He mumbled before turning and walking away, placing the ramen cup back where he had found it before fleeing the store.

L.Joe stood in place for a long moment, only coming-to when his arms began to protest at holding the heavy box.

--------------------------------------------------

It wasn’t until the following week on night-shift that L.Joe saw his weird customer reappear. He strolled into the grocery store around midnight and made his way slowly up and down the aisles. That particular evening L.Joe was restocking frozen fish, his hands were cold even through the gloves and his back ached from leaning over the edge of the freezers. When he caught sight of the customer (wait, should he even call him that? He never bought anything) L.Joe stopped what he was doing.

Trying to be secretive he stretched out his back and watched the man go by. As though he could feel L.Joe watching him the man turned and smiled his way. L.Joe jumped, his eyes were clearly a dark brown, much like L.Joe’s own.

He returned to packing Fish Fingers into the freezer, only pausing when he noticed the man approach in the corner of his eye. He looked up and tried to smile through his discomfort.

“Hello, can I help you?”

“Hello.” That voice again, L.Joe felt he could melt into a puddle. “Where do you keep your sunscreen?” Those were the words that he used but once again L.Joe was sure he was actually asking a different question, one with layers and depths he couldn’t comprehend.

“Uh-“ One day he would learn to respond to questions like a normal person, “This way.” He pointed and led this strange man to the back of the store where personal items were kept.

“Thank you.” The customer replied, touching L.Joe lightly on the arm. He shivered violently, he must have been chilled from the freezer. They locked eyes again and L.Joe felt he might actually swoon and faint.

“Your eyes…” L.Joe mumbled, they were changing colours once more. Green, hazel, black, amber, violet, mauve. It was like a kaleidoscope in his eyes.

“Ah.” He broke the eye contact, keeping his hand on L.Joe’s arm to steady him. When L.Joe felt he could hold himself up once more the man disappeared, striding away to the exit quickly before L.Joe could react.

--------------------------------------------------

It was another three nights before L.Joe saw him again. The three nights had felt longer than normal. Night-shift usually dragged but somehow the absence of his strange encounters made them longer. When he did finally return L.Joe watched him openly. He was supposed to be stocking tampons but he didn’t care. He needed answers, he needed to talk to this man, he needed to hear that silken voice.

It seemed the strange man felt the same way, he abandoned all pretence and approached L.Joe at once.

“Hello.”

L.Joe shuddered with delight.

“Hello.” He replied.

“Would you like to come with me?”

L.Joe nodded. He wanted that more than anything. Of course, that’s what he had been asking every time they spoke. It was so obvious now.

“Then let’s go.” He held out a hand, waiting for L.Joe to take it. He grasped it gladly. Leaving the half-packed tampons on the floor of the shop, he trailed after this man like a puppy.

“Name?” L.Joe seemed to come back to himself a little when they were out of the fluorescent lights. “What’s your name?”

“Chunji.”

“That’s a strange name.”

“I’m a strange person.” Chunji paused and turned to look back at L.Joe, his eyes flashed in the dark but the colour-change couldn’t be seen.

“I know.” L.Joe nodded, they were still holding hands. The hand in his was hot, as though Chunji’s core temperature was naturally higher. “Where are we going?”

“Where ever we want.” Chunji shrugged and tugged L.Joe along again.

“Chunji?” L.Joe jogged a little to catch up so they walked level. “Are you a vampire?” The words sounded stupid when they were said aloud.

Chunji laughed, a sound like a bright, toning bell. He threw his head back with mirth and cackled wildly. L.Joe waited, feeling stupid.

“No.” Chunji finally managed between gasping breaths, “No, I’m not a vampire. That was funny though, best laugh I’ve had in eons.”

“Then…” L.Joe hesitated, they were now standing in the middle of a dark deserted park, perhaps he didn’t want to know what Chunji was.

“What am I?” Chunji supplied, his voice wrapping L.Joe like silk once more. He nodded lazily, feeling as though he could lay weightless in that voice. “Do you really want to know, Lee Byunghun?”

L.Joe smiled, almost no one knew his real name here, or even used it if they did. It had sounded so sweet coming from Chunji’s lips. He nodded drunkenly.

“I want to know.”

“Then I’ll show you.” Chunji dropped his hand and L.Joe shivered with the sudden cold, he had forgotten his jacket at the supermarket.

Chunji stepped away a few paces and turned sharply on his heel. L.Joe felt a strange sense of dislocation, where Chunji had stood on two feet now hovered an ancient Korean scholar. He had no feet, only a strange whispy smoke that swayed in a breeze of its own. His uniform was a traditional blue and white and he even wore the flat-brimmed hat. Looking closer L.Joe found Chunji’s shining, beautiful face beneath the hat.

“What?” L.Joe stepped closer, he glanced at the mist where feet were supposed to be. It made him a little queasy so he looked up into Chunji’s eyes again. It was certainly him. Now they were closer he could see Chunji’s supernatural eyes, they were whirling through colours once more, faster this time. Yellow, red, green, grey, violet, indigo, red, black, blue; they never seemed to settle on a hue for more than a moment.

L.Joe felt dizzy, as he swooned and fell Chunji caught him. He didn’t feel the stiff fabric of the scholar’s garb but rather the soft wool of Chunji’s jumper he had been wearing that evening. He was stooped, head against Chunji’s chest, staring at the ground between them.

“Your feet came back.” He said childishly.

Chunji chuckled.

“Yes.” His silken voice calmed L.Joe again.

“What are you?”

“A djinn of course.” Chunji replied patiently.

“Oh.” L.Joe pressed his nose into the warm fabric. “Ok.”

===========================

===========================

A/N: I kinda want to write a part two to this! This Drabble has me inspried, hence being longer than the other two. If I write part two I'll put it right here as the next chapter ^.^