He doesn’t really expect to see himself standing outside in front of a massage parlor. The air smells like , alcohol, and drugs. There are too many girls trying to drag him into the massage parlors. He doesn’t want to do this, he feels like vomiting up his breakfast, and where the hell is Sungjae? He tells him to meet him in front of a goddamn massage parlor and doesn’t even show up on time. He stands there, impatiently tapping his foot and avoiding eye contact from anyone walking past him. He stands there for a few more minutes before he decides to walk away. A hand grabs at his wrist and pulls him into an alleyway. He’s about to scream, but a hand covers his mouth.

“Don’t scream, you’ll gather people’s attention.” The hand uncovers his mouth, and Ilhoon turns to see Sungjae giving him a cheeky smile.

“Are you kidding me?”

“No.”

A small pill is shoved into Ilhoon’s hands. He looks up at Sungjae; his hair is styled, and his makeup-covered face is still smiling at him. How he wishes he can punch it. What does he even want? They’ve only met two times (one on the phone, the other in his living room) so far; they barely know each other. So why meet up in some secluded alley in the red-light district? He has a high chance of getting ually assaulted, and he doesn’t want that. He stares at the pill in his hands and then to the tall man, who still bears a smile that’s starting to look strained. Did he want him to take it dry? Taking an unknown pill dry? What if it’s—

“It isn’t,” Sungjae says, cutting off his thoughts. “It’s not acid or any date drug, if that’s what you’re thinking. Well…” the man looks off at the graffiti covered wall behind him, “you are.”

Ilhoon visibly flinches. His eyes narrow at the tall man. “Jesus Christ, you scared me! Why do you have to do that?” He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “Why do you even read other people’s minds?”

Sungjae shrugs. “It’s not like I have a choice; it just happens.”

“ing invasion of privacy,” Ilhoon mutters, “I swear to God.”

“It’s not like I chose to—“

“Sungjae.”

“Ilhoon.”

Ilhoon huffs, glaring at the tall man. Sungjae gives an endearing smile in return. Ilhoon can’t help but feel put off by it.

He lets out a short huff. “You are insane.”

“It’s just a pill. It’s supposed to save your life and prevent the Abnormalities from away your life force,” Sungjae sighs. “And you just refuse to take it.”

“But—But you’re a psychic e!” he spats out. “Who would believe in that type of ? And what the hell is an Abnormality?”

Sungjae sighs. “I prefer the term psychic gigolo, thank you very much, but if you insist...”

“You’re still a e, and no one should trust es.” He pauses. “You didn’t answer my question about the Abnormalities.”

“I think you just offended at least half of the people here.”

“So? You just can’t trust a shady e—God dammit, answer my question, Sungjae.”

“You really like using that word, don’t you? But seriously, I’m not the only psychic gigolo out there.”

Ilhoon lets out a frustrated sigh. “Stop avoiding my question and answer it,” he demands.

Sungjae looks away from Ilhoon. “I don’t think I’m the person you should ask.”

“Then who should I ask?”

Sungjae doesn’t answer the question but instead grabs Ilhoon’s wrist and pulls him away from the alleyway. He’s thankful for that until the tall man starts pushing him into the massage parlor; his life has just become ten times worse. Surprisingly, the massage parlor doesn’t smell like drugs, alcohol or ; it just looks like a normal massage parlor. Sungjae leaves Ilhoon near what he assumes is the waiting area and heads over towards the receptionist desk.

“Yo, Kiki, hit me up with a room,” Sungjae hollers out.

A girl, Kiki, Ilhoon assumes, appears from behind the counter with a deadpanned expression. She’s a pretty girl with long black hair, straight bangs, and large eyes. Kiki is a weird name for a Korean, unless it’s an alias; he hopes it’s an alias. She looks at Sungjae and then to Ilhoon, giving him a scrutinizing eye.

“Are you going to him?” she asks after a while.

Sungjae frowns and shakes his head. “No.”

“Oh, so he’s going to you,” she says instead. She moves around, searching the desk for a key to an empty room. “He’s pretty short, are you sure he’s going to be able to have with you?”

“Kiki, no, we’re not having . Gosh, do you always have to assume that whenever I bring someone?”

“Yes,” she deadpans. “Yes, I do.”

“I honestly don’t know how you’re a high in demand e.”

“I’m just that good.”

Sungjae huffs, obviously not amused. “Just give me the goddamn key, Kiki.”

“The one where Star and Sik are?” she asks, bringing out a key with a star charm dangling from it.

Sungjae snatches it out of the girl’s hands and smiles at her. “Thanks, Kiki, you’re the best.”

She shrugs. “You too,” she says in a monotone voice. She returns to what she was doing previously, before Sungjae had barged into the building.

He turns to Sungjae, whose hands are covering his face (probably in shame). He glances back to the girl who is off in her own world. Sungjae sighs and drags him away from the counter. The girl smiles at him, although it looks a bit forced and unnatural on her. He looks away from her and gives Sungjae a questioning look. “Is she always like that?”

Sungjae laughs. “Kiki’s weird, but I guess that’s a charming trait of hers.”

Charming? How is being a e charming? A question pops up in his head. “Is her real name Kiki?”

“Nah,” Sungjae shakes his head, “it’s actually Heeyoung, but she likes being called Kiki.”

“Oh, that’s a bit odd.”

A bit odd is just an exaggeration, but he doesn’t want to say anything else out loud without offending anyone. Apparently he’s already offended at least half of the people within the red-light district.

They enter a room, only lit by scented candles. There are two beds, and he can see the silhouette of two people sitting on one of the beds. Ilhoon feels like crying; it’s like a scene straight out of ography. He wants to leave; he doesn’t want to be involved with this. What if Sungjae was lying to him this entire time just so he can blackmail Ilhoon into filming gay ? He should just run out of the room and abandon everything and hope to God he doesn’t get killed or mauled by big, burly men. He slowly inches towards the entrance.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” one of them comments. The room lights up to reveal a boy (well he thinks it’s a boy, but why would a boy be at a massage parlor?) and a man who looks like he can burst into tears at any moment. Sungjae smiles brightly at the two.

“Hyunsik! Min—“

The boy hushes Sungjae. “We can’t afford to attract any attention, be quiet.”

It’s another psychic; he’s one-hundred percent sure that it’s another goddamn psychic e. He stares at the smiling boy with large eyes. Someone like that is most definitely not a e, not with that childish face of a middle school student. The man, Hyunsik he assumes, sitting next to him looks as equally uncomfortable as Ilhoon. But he still manages to give Ilhoon a sort of reassurance through a smile (though it looks awkward and it screams “please help me”). He’s glad that there’s at least someone sane in the room.

“Hey, Sungjae, did you ever give him the pill?” the boy asks, eyes narrowing at Sungjae.

“Yeah—, you never took it, did you?”

Ilhoon had forgotten about the pill that was forced on him. Unknowingly, he still has it. He opens the palm of his hands and looks at the pill. He looks over at Sungjae, who is staring at him with anticipation, and the boy, who the hell is he anyways, staring blankly at his nails.

“Do I have to?”

Sungjae nods. “There are other ways you can take it,” he pauses and waggles his eyebrows at Ilhoon, “if you want to take that route.”

Ilhoon’s eyes widen. “N-No.” He pops the pill into his mouth. If anything goes wrong, it isn’t his fault, if his vision starts blurring, if he starts feeling weird, nope, not his fault. He stands there for a while, waiting for something to happen, a reaction, anything.

Nothing happens.

“See, I told you it wasn’t acid, LSD, or any of that stuff.”

Hyunsik stands up and gives Ilhoon a sympathetic pat. “It’s okay, that’s what I thought at first when Minhyuk approached me.”

“Minhyuk?”

Hyunsik turns and points at the boy sitting on the bed. “That’s Minhyuk, he’s a part of the association of escorts?” He rubs the nape of his neck. “I’m not completely sure myself since I was still a bit in shock the other day.”

The boy, Minhyuk, stands up from the bed. He approaches him with a kind smile. He looks harmless, not like someone that would please men and women in a ual manner. But nope, Hyunsik proved his theory wrong: he’s an . Minhyuk is an . Minhyuk gives him a curious look, leaning in on his face. “Ilhoon was right about you having a cute face.” He extends his hand towards him. “I’m Lee Minhyuk, nice to meet you.”

He looks down at the hand hesitantly. He starts to wonder, what if he had had with someone prior this, what if he—

“He was also right about you having a dirty mind despite the cute face,” Minhyuk adds.

“What’s with you people! You drag me here out of the blue and—and—you can read people’s minds!”

Minhyuk chuckles. “Well, Sungjae can only read people’s minds when over the phone and when he looks into people’s eyes. It also applies to me too—well, the eyes part.”

He immediately covers his eyes with his hands. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” he screeches, mainly towards Sungjae. “Then you wouldn’t have to read everything I thought of, you bastard.”

Hyunsik laughs. “I don’t think they like prying into our minds—“

“That’s where you’re wrong, our poor naïve Hyunsik.”

Minhyuk sighs. “Sungjae, I think it’s best if we explain to them why we dragged them here first,” he says. “You can screw with them after I explain.”

“You’re the best, hyung.”

Hyunsik looks at them curiously. “You said something about me being in danger?” He turns to Ilhoon. “Did he tell you were in danger?”

Ilhoon uncovers his eyes and nods. “Yeah, is there a reason why you told me that, Sungjae?”

“Abnormalities are after you two,” Minhyuk explains, sitting back on the bed. “They need your life force to gain immortality and an unlimited amount of power.”

“What.”

“Abnormalities,” Sungjae repeats. He sits on the other bed, looking over at Hyunsik and Ilhoon. “They’re these creatures that cause death and famine, often looking for power from mortals’ life forces. Although the ones looking for you two are Greys.”

“Greys?” Hyunsik asks, “what are—“

“You’ll know what they are when you see them.”

“When we—“

“I think we should start the ceremony, Minhyuk.”

Ilhoon stands in the middle of the room with Hyunsik. He still doesn’t understand the situation even after it’s been explained to him. It’s all too confusing and he doesn’t know that these “Abnormalities” or “Greys” are. He doesn’t understand what they’re talking about, none of this is actually entering his mind. It’s too frazzled by the different scents of the candles and the fact that he’s in the red-light district, somewhere he never thought he’d be in. He looks over at Hyunsik, who seems to be taking in the information in a pretty calm manner.

Why can’t he be Hyunsik? Why can’t he be calm and composed? He sighs and runs a hand through his hair, he really just wants to run out of the building and curl up in his bed. That’s all he wants to do.

Minhyuk takes out an old, battered book. He flips through it until he gets to a certain page.

“Since you both took the pills, they should disappear after this page is read.”

“That’s it? It’s that anticlimactic?” Ilhoon asks in disbelief. “You don’t read it out loud?”

Minhyuk raises a brow. “What did you expect? Some adventure that leads us to a mystical stone that would rid the world of Abnormalities?”

Ilhoon’s eyes shift towards Sungjae. “Kind of? Yes, I did.”

“Minhyuk, it’d be great if we can hurry the process because I need to meet with my client in like—“ he looks down at his wrist. “Now.”

“Do you know how long it’ll take for me to read this? And we need four people who’ve taken the pill too.”

Sungjae leaves in a rush, his phone at his ear as he apologizes to the mysterious person on the other side of the line. Minhyuk sighs and shuts the book close. He gives the two an apologetic smile, “well, it seems like we’ll have to do this when we’re both free.”

“Was that why he—“

“Looked so nice today?” finishes Minhyuk.

Ilhoon nods.

“Probably some his client has,” Minhyuk says casually. “He kind of looked like an idol, so I’m guessing they have a thing for idols.” Hyunsik’s eyes widen and Ilhoon looks like he wants to cry. They honestly didn’t need to know that, none of that. Minhyuk laughs, “there’s limits as to which we’ll actually fulfill for our clients, don’t worry.”

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a/n: waaaa after a long time i updated this-- i actually had this written ages ago i just never published it, oops. forgive me-- it also may seem rushed and doesnt provide a lot of information, but heeey i'll get to it.