Changkyun stares wistfully through the glass before him. This is his favorite thing to do, if he were to be asked to choose. Of course, no one would ask him. All the others are always too busy with their own tasks, whether it be helping mortals find love, keeping mortals out of trouble, or ushering souls to their final resting place.

He wishes he had a job. He wishes he’d be Assigned already… If for nothing else than to finally have something else to do aside from staring down at the mortal plain all day.

“Here he is!” a familiar voice chimes, and Changkyun turns to see one of his superiors, Hyungwon, gliding over to him with an effortless ease Changkyun is still yet to master. “What’re you doing in here, Kyunnie? We thought you were going to be in the Scribe Hall today.”

“They said they didn’t need me,” Changkyun replies, doing his best to keep from sounding disheartened. He watches as his other two friends, Minhyuk and Hoseok, follow Hyungwon into the room, and then turns back round to continue watching the glass.

“What about Communications?” Minhyuk suggests, recognizing easily the downtrodden posture of his dongsaeng. “They always need more help there.”

“Not today…” Changkyun mutters. A strong hand sets itself on his shoulder, and he doesn’t have to look to know who it belongs to. He leans into the familiar touch, and soon enough his hyung is hugging him tightly round his shoulders.

“Don’t worry, Kkungie,” he consoles, “you’ll find a place soon. All of us have a part to play in the grand scheme of things.” The others gather around, as well, and Changkyun is soon the center of a big group hug. His heart warms at the affection, but it doesn’t exactly make him feel better about his current lack of a purpose.

He gazes dully at the looking glass over Minhyuk’s shoulder, watching as the mortals all buzz about their own way, each with a goal in mind.

How he envies that…

“Thank you so much!” Kihyun calls out to the audience, bowing one last time. The crowd cheers surrounds him in a blissful sort of euphoria, and he waves goodbye to all as he’s rushed from the stage by staff. He replays the performance in his mind, it having been the perfect comeback stage. He’s sure he’ll look back on it tomorrow with about fifty points of things he needs to fix, but, for now, he’ll just ride the rocket to cloud nine a bit longer.

“Hyung~!” a familiar voice calls, and Kihyun turns to see Jooheon, a dear friend of his, approaching the backstage area. Kihyun’s smile only grows at sighting the rapper, and he goes to greet the man with a quick hug.

“Are you in the middle of promotions right now, Heonney?” he asks, raising a brow. The last time they’d been pitted against each other, it had almost been a bloodbath. Both had been so driven to one-up the other, a desire even strengthened by their closeness, that they’d worked past both their limits and ended up in the hospital.

They’d agreed to never promote at the same time again, if they could help it.

“No, but I heard you were,” Jooheon answers. “So, I thought I’d come to take you out for a stage well-performed~” Kihyun coos at the younger’s offer, pulling at his dongsaeng’s chubby cheeks. He’s lost weight ever since his latest comeback, but there’ll always be a certain plumpness to his face that Kihyun couldn’t be more approving of.

“Alright,” Kihyun agrees easily. “I’ll check with my manager to make sure I’m free. I’ll text you when I have an answer, okay?” Jooheon nods, and pauses only to hug and congratulate the solo vocalist once more before darting off to greet another friend of his. Kihyun chuckles fondly as he watches, pushing his hair back with a hand before going off on his way.

It takes barely any coercing from his manager, Hyunwoo, at all to get him to agree to letting Kihyun free for the night.

Their outing ends up taking much more time than either had thought, with much more drink either had planned to have, and both find themselves stumbling into Kihyun’s apartment in the wee hours of morning. Jooheon had wanted to just catch a cab to go home, but the older had insisted on making sure he get home.

In their drunken state, though, neither could remember the new address of the rapper, as he’d recently moved, so Kihyun had ended up just dragging Jooheon to his own home, instead.

“I told you I’d get you home~!” Kihyun giggles as he pulls Jooheon further into the apartment. Jooheon chuckles, as well, his head absolutely buzzing from the liquor.

“But this is the wrong home, hyuuuuung!!” Jooheon finds himself protesting, though he allows himself to be tugged wherever Kihyun is taking him. Of course, that’s nothing new. Jooheon would follow Kihyun to the end of the world if he asked…

Kihyun ends up dragging Jooheon into his bedroom, and instructing him with a hazy gaze to sit on the bed. The older retrieves a change of clothes for his dongsaeng, and hands them over. Kihyun then sloppily strips down to nothing but his briefs and crawls under the covers, humming contentedly at the warmth still present in his body. Jooheon changes as best he can in his inebriated state, having difficulty with figuring out which side of the sweat pants is the front and which is the back.

He slips into bed beside Kihyun shortly after, and the older snuggles up as close as humanly possible.

Jooheon’s heart pounds madly at the proximity despite his knowledge of the older’s innocent intentions. He’s known Kihyun for so long, for so, so long… Of course, he didn’t need so many years to fall in love with this particular hyung, even though it seems Kihyun needs a bit more time to realize the existence of such feelings…

He’s willing to wait, though. He’s willing to wait forever for this man.

Little does he know how futile this patience is.