A/N: OTL I was away from writing for very long because life is ing stressful. I'll return little by little (and still stressed but hey.. writing is my drug). This is something Wookay I wrote just for fun and a sorry excuse for a comeback but.. have patience with me and I'll return. xxx

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Wooyoung’s palms were sweaty, his knees felt weak and his arms hung heavy as he paced the hallway, went into his bedroom and came back out again. He’d been tracking the package for days, waking up in the middle of the night just to refresh the page and then having trouble falling asleep. ing mailman, always late. 

It was 6.15 in the morning. At 6.17 he checked his phone again and swore at the seconds for lagging. ing foundations for the laws of time. Mail usually arrived around 11 and Wooyoung sighed exasperated and to no use. No one there but his own restless self. 

Refresh. Still in transit and loaded on a truck.

“Come on, come on, come oooon” he chanted and tapped his fingers against every surface he passed, so hard that his middle finger had gotten sore. He should sleep. At least lie down, maybe have breakfast. The more he glanced at his bed, the more it felt like a treacherous sinkhole.

Five and a half hours later, Wooyoung hadn’t accomplished anything but dark circles, too tired to pace anymore he’d resorted to leaning against the wall with one eye closed and one on the door. Blinking was a waste of time in the state he was in, hyped up and highly alert, at least in his own judgment. Which was slightly impaired by a night with just four hours of sleep.

The bell rang and Wooyoung almost smashed his head against the door. “Yes!” he shouted through it while his fingers moved in syrup to unlock the damn thing. “Oh hello” he said more composed as he stared the UPS guy in the face, name tag Minjun, face a bit baffled. “Hello” the man said, “Jang Wooyoung? Package.” Before he’d finished, Woo had already snatched his flat box and started ripping at the corner. “You gotta sign” Minjun reminded him right before the door slammed in his face, “Or I’ll take the package back.” Woo backed off like Gollum had possessed him.

It hurt to hold the pen. At the end of the scribble, he forgot about the door and ripped the cardboard, leaving little shreds of paper by his feet. Not until he’d broken all the way into a pair of shiny red dice, perfectly weighted as he rolled them in his hand, did he realise that the delivery guy was still staring. 

“What?” he asked with a wry smile, “Is it your job to monitor people too?” 

“I got curious” Minjun reciprocated with a mirrored leer, “People love their packages but not this desperately.”

For a moment they stared like strangers, balancing in the doorframe border between nice and dismissive. The dice bounced against the palm of Wooyoung’s hand. “I’m in the middle of an important project” he said barely looking up. 

“Heading to Vegas?”

“That won’t be necessary” Woo replied and reached for the handle to shut the door.

“So what do you-“ Minjun was left with the thud of the door closing in his face. 

~

Less than two weeks later, another package labeled Jang ended up in Minjun’s truck, by chance it was the first he laid eyes on and for whatever other reason, it was octagonal with a faint smell of vanilla. It didn’t seem very interesting.

Had he followed the route set out for him, Minjun would have ended up by Wooyoung’s apartment complex just before lunch, but he didn’t feel like complying. He wanted to shake the box, to twist and turn and listen to it before eventually delivering. Furthermore, he wanted Woo to wait for it and enjoyed the idea that he would pace back and forth all day wondering if the shipment would show up.

ing customers, always so impatient. 

Despite the salty look on Woo’s face as his mail showed up 6.20 pm, exactly 12 hours after he’d started to actively anticipate it; Minjun couldn’t help but greet the recipient with a shameless “Is this for the same project?” 

“No” Wooyoung snorted and his dark eyes said something else, “Where do I sign?”

“It smells nice” Minjun continued and refused to hand over the parcel but sniffed it instead, the zombified Wooyoung offering little resistance as he stood by the door and swayed from side to side. If sleep was a lemming, he’d ran after it and over a cliff.

“It’s mine” Wooyoung growled and for a moment he bared his teeth, “Hand it over.”

“Do you have a problem” Minjun said bluntly and handed over the small item without letting go of Wooyoung’s gaze. “No” Woo repeated with the same biting dismissal, not his fault that the world spun a little every time he tried to blink. 

“You look tired.”

“Let me sign.”

“How many more packages are you expecting?”

“None of your business” Wooyoung grunted and slammed the door a little harder than the first time.

~

Tuesday, a black package with the weight of pure lead. Friday, a softer one that rustled when it was handled. The following Monday, two almost identical poster tubes that definitely didn’t contain posters. A full week passed. Monday again and the next box was flat, covered in duct tape and felt like it contained liquids. Every time Minjun arrived at that dark wooden door, procedure was the same.

Wooyoung’s eyes would burn a hole in his chest, he’d hand over the things and try to ask a question but was shot down right away and left wondering what the hell was going on. Not two weeks later, the escalating stream of packages had come from every continent including Antarctica. ing customers, always so secretive. 

‘I’ll send a package of my own’ Minjun decided at last, ‘Either he’ll be mad out of his mind or he’ll finally open up.’ It was more or less in his job description not to snoop but curiosity is an impulse not easily overcome.

“Thanks” Wooyoung hissed as his cylindrical box was handed over, he couldn’t remember what he’d ordered of if he’d tracked it properly, but then again his frenzy had been something else for a couple of days. At night he scoured ebay to find the next piece and during the day he altered between spots of sleep and patches of anxiety mixed with some sort of normal life. He was tired. 

“How’s your project?” Minjun asked and took some extra time to produce the electronic signature, “Any ing progress?” It was hard to hide he was frustrated about the lack of updates.

“If it’s any of your ing business” Wooyoung said and sported a glimpse of a smile, the raw edge of the question amusing him through the haze, “But yeah I’m getting closer.” As he spoke, his fingers had begun unwrapping the corner part of the wrapped package.

“Great, bye” Minjun said and for the first time around Wooyoung, he’d already turned around as the door was closed. 

~

“Just something for the neighbour today” Minjun excused himself as Wooyoung banged his door open and came crashing into the hallway like he had a debt to collect. Maybe he did. “Oh really” he said sourly and came so pugnaciously close that he all but grabbed Minjun’s sleeve and tore it off his shirt. “Nothing for me? Cause the last one wasn’t what I ordered.”

“Oh?” It wasn’t the surprised and apologetic Oh, but a taunting expression, a glare with glee and Minjun smirked in a way Wooyoung had never seen him do before. “Yeah..” he followed with and he wasn’t as mad anymore, “Did you send that?”

All of Minjun’s being shrugged, not just his modest shoulders but his energy as a whole said maybe. “Don’t know” he leered and turned against the opening door to hand over his delivery. “Sign here” he said under his breath and unlike Wooyoung, the customer didn’t care to make a scene or a complaint. “Sure” she just said and closed the door like you’re supposed to.

“I know I didn’t order that” Wooyoung continued and the moment when he’d been thrown off had passed, “And there wasn’t any sender information.” Thinking about it, he got angry again, like he’d been for days since the useless piece of crap had been delivered to his door. “I don’t need that” he said a bit louder, “I don’t want that.”

“Sorry” Minjun said and his smile widened, a moment of cocksure teasing before Wooyoung pounced on him and grabbed his arm full on. “Why did you bring that for” he snarled and his nails felt sharp through the service uniform, “A piece of lousy driftwood?!”

“Didn’t have much else around.” Minjun wasn’t apologising or even sorry, just stating the facts of his low efforts. Besides why would he spend anything but postage when the point was just to around to a minor degree. “Bet this is violation of company code” Wooyoung said and abruptly let go of Minjun’s arm, “I’ll report you to your boss.”

“For sending a package you can’t even prove was mine?” 

“I have a deadline you know.” Wooyoung’s eyes were slitted and his fingers splayed like he’d realised he’d just let go of a rotten branch or a soggy banana, “No time for this game of yours. You deliver your packages and I make my build and nothing else.”

“What are you building?” Stoneface with the twitch of a successful scheme.

“Nothing.” Wooyoung’s eyes fell to the floor and suddenly he wasn’t interested in the confrontation, a weak nudge of his foot to the upper part of Minjun’s boot as anger left via his toes. “Really?” The grains in Minjun’s voice aligned and smartened up, he’d smelled something. Trouble. Or opportunity. “Don’t lie to your provider.”

“Oh shut up.” Back by his door and almost inside, the rage was back between Wooyoung’s lips. “It’s a very pressing deadline” he said adversely, “So don’t hold me up or pull your schemes.” His tongue was tense to the point of smudging his words but didn’t want to settle down. “You’re a lousy delivery man” he spat throw the narrowing crack in the door, “If you snoop again or send something again, I will have you..” He closed the door a little too early as a gust in his hands came and went. “Fired!” he screamed through it and promptly busted it open again. “Fired” he added and cocked his head, “ you.”

“Don’t get so agitated that you’ll faint” Minjun said unfazed and it wasn’t his foot that prevented the door from closing again but his pure determination that acted as a stopper, “Tell me and I’ll upgrade you to be first on my route.”

“You’re a real piece of-“ Wooyoung began and grappled for the handle to get rid of the conversation, but found his feet didn’t work well with the threshold nor the excitement and then the floor moved five inches to the left without warning. ‘Strange’ Wooyoung thought before his head was caught in a large cast iron bell that gave off a dull but sharp reverberation. 

“Hello?” Minjun called from a distance, he’d swallowed his voice and found it again while Wooyoung had knocked himself out against the doorpost and then laid down rather peacefully but flat on his back, half at home and half in the common corridor. ‘I’ll have to move him’ Minjun told himself, ‘Can’t leave the feet in the staircase. Gotta carry him inside.’ How unfortunate but what to do. He he.

If you enter, you might as well make sure the coast is clear, right? And if the homeowner is a little bit woozy, surely it’s good manners to find the kitchen and give him a glass of water. Minjun had never been to this apartment before so it took him a while to find the right room and the cupboard and the tap. So long in fact, that Wooyoung woke up, got on his feet and came to the conclusion he was about to be scammed. 

“Don’t you touch that” he hissed and swung his fist into Minjun’s shoulder. “What is this?” Minjun replied mid-cough as the air jumping out of his lungs did nothing to distract from his curiosity, “Can you use this for anything?”

“Yes” Wooyoung wheezed and bent over double not to fall again, “I’m gonna call the police if you don’t leave.” Another spin of his still shaken brain made him almost top over and fumble over Minjun’s . “Ditto” the mailman replied and pushed Wooyoung to the couch, “ual assault, neh. Don’t touch me.”

The room wasn’t spinning anymore, but it had blurred stripes that couldn’t decide whether to go horizontally or along the wallpaper widths and it made Wooyoung nauseous to try to track them. “Get out” he said with a queasy gasp, “Amulets lose power when you touch them.”

Of course that only made Minjun’s hands hover closer to the weird collection. “Any you can spare?” he said boldly with no consideration to the greenish tint that had spread over Wooyoung’s cheeks. “No” the owner moaned and laid his head in his lap, “No no no.” Trying to get a bearing of his balance again, he stayed like that while Minjun sat down on the floor right next to the laptop and the pile of curious items. 

Dice neatly placed. Laminated placards with holographic backings. What looked like a very real rabbit’s foot. Minjun it. The fur was soft as cashmere. 

“What exactly are you doing?” he asked more seriously, genuinely curious and not just about to make fun. There was something too scientific about the patterns around the macbook, like it had been measured with a ruler and cautiously placed with great stakes at hand. Wooyoung hiccuped and snivelled as vowels still felt like bubbles rising in his throat. “Do you think I have a concussion?” he whined and fell towards the armrest. “Yes” Minjun said concerned and dragged his attention from the intricate items to the boy about to faint for the second time, “You think you need a doctor?”

“No no no.” A sickly whimper. 

“So what is this supposed to do?” Minjun asked again, he would be late for the rest of his delivery route but so what. Not like people weren’t expecting the delay anyway.

“Just trying to get rich” Wooyoung complained, his brain glared at him for answering truthfully like it had been an interrogation. Was it a hearing? Bit hard to tell still.

“Is it working?”

Minjun plucked at a peculiar feather, too wide for any bird he knew and yet so light that it almost took flight at the smallest touch. Hollow perhaps. With a black iridescence. “What?” Wooyoung said in a measly voice that was getting closer to steadying, “The laptop?”

“The plan to get rich.”

“Not yet.”

The quill was indeed hollow, it gave way as Minjun pushed it with his fingertip. “Why not” he asked, “You have all this and all for nothing?”

“Just not complete yet.” Thoughts were aligning although the energy for a rage fit was nowhere to be found. “I’m waiting for the smaller parts.” He motioned to the corner where a mixed materials statue was towering, arms in so many directions that all the corners of the world would be covered. “This guy has been here since August so not much left.” It was March. Wooyoung was impatient. 

“What are you expecting will happen?”

“I, eh-“ Not that Wooyoung was dizzy anymore but he wasn’t all figured out either. Not in general and not in any specifics either. Standing up he felt basically normal, just less enraged than normal, quite thirsty. Couldn’t bring himself to want the stranger out. Instead he said “It’s a luck concentrator. Or an odds improver.”

“You know luck isn’t an observable force, right?”

“Right.” Temples pulsated. Wooyoung rubbed them. “Luck isn’t really a thing, but it’s still a thing, you know?” “Not really” Minjun grinned, “Not a thing in any sense of the word. So what does this pile of knick-knacks actually do?”

“Well nothing” Wooyoung grinned back, they weren’t friends but he felt friendly. “Not yet.”

When half an hour later, Wooyoung hadn’t died or fainted or even had a headache, Minjun decided the whole operation was quite pointless and told him to lie down, take an Advil and call a doctor. “I’m not sick” Wooyoung grunted in reply, “I’m searching for something..” His stare was already blank, arms heavy against the coffee table. 

“Doubt you have any idea” Minjun said and pinched his wrist as punishment for the watch having skipped an hour, “And I guess I’ll be back.”

~

Packages kept coming, just flatter and smaller and with less of a fuzz as Minjun came to deliver three of them at once. When he returned asking “Did you get a bump?”, Wooyoung even replied “Yeah.. it hurt like a motherer when I woke up in the morning” and rubbed the side of his face embarrassed. Not really friends. No longer enemies either.

Not invited in. No door in the face.

“How many of these do you have left?” 

“I won’t really know until I know, right?” 

“Jang Wooyoung, I thought you were an expert.” Before the accident, Wooyoung would have certainly pretended like he was, but his resistance had worn down with less sleep and more ebay. Every once in a while he played a poker game and lost, knowing it wasn’t time yet. Something missing. “I am an expert” he still asserted, “Just not sure on what.”

“When you win the millions, make sure to thank me for saving your life!” Minjun saluted his customer with a gunlike finger gesture and spun. Wooyoung was making plans and he needed one too.

~

“This is the last one” Wooyoung smiled broadly as three weeks later, Minjun appeared with a piece of registered mail no bigger than a credit card, although it probably wasn’t one. Didn’t have the right plastic feeling when he bent it.

“Huh?” Minjun should have known the day was coming. “Why?” he huffed discontent and made a face that was likely to be classified as mistreating a customer. “What do you mean why?” Wooyoung replied and smiled - it made Minjun confused because since when did Wooyoung smile? - “It just is.”

“How do you know it will work?”

“It has to.” The shrug wasn’t as confident as the words set out to be. “What if it doesn’t?” Minjun said and in his heart he wished it wouldn’t. Not yet while he hadn’t figured out how to get in on the deal and stick his hand down the golden pants. “Oh it’s going to” Wooyoung reassured himself and put the tiny envelope in his back pocket, “I’m going to be rich and it’s just a matter of hours.”

“If it’s so easy, how come no one else has done this yet?”

“People win in the casinos all the time!” There it was, Wooyoung’s indignant and highly flammable side, sparked by the impatience of a guy who needed a signature and did everything to stall. “Not because they have gathered trinkets” Minjun argued and finally reached for the pen and pad to close the affair, “They just win because probability adds up.”

“What do you know” Wooyoung snorted and snatched the gear for the digital signature, “You don’t appear to have a lot of luck.”

“Don’t say that” Minjun countered with a slanted smile, “I met you, eh.”

~

If you’re low on luck, all you can do is grab what little is given to you. So Minjun thought and he wasn’t dumb enough to wait and see, when it had been so easy to act. 

“Deliveryyy” he chimed as he rang Wooyoung’s door barely 48 hours later and promptly took two steps back not to have the recipient kick the door in his face. “What the ?” Wooyoung greeted him with a swing of the door that was almost as forceful as expected, “I’m done with you!” His hair was all sorts of messy.

“Another package” Minjun answered, “Not my fault, man.”

“Is this a pack of coffee?” For a second, Wooyoung tried to contain himself but it didn’t last. “Why are you harassing me?” he said loudly and smacked the parcel to the floor. Not even wrapped. Just literally a bag of coffee beans but hey, any excuse is an excuse when there’s an emergency.

“So are you winning?” 

“None of your ing business!” Wooyoung’s voice went so high that it cracked and he had to cough from deep in his chest. “So no then.” Thinking of the consequences, Minjun resisted the urge to smack Wooyoung’s back. Enough of a risk to say “So why not?” in the most innocent of tones and then stare at Wooyoung’s furious facial expression as he tried to answer. “I dont-“ he started and rolled his eyes annoyed, “-freaking know!”

“Well maybe. Just maybe. If you add this thing it will work.” Hidden in Minjun’s hand, had been a flat box no bigger than one for matches. He knew it contained a pea green jade elephant because come on, if you steal something at least you check what you’ve taken. Or borrowed. Let’s go with borrowed.

Wooyoung’s brain got caught in an episode of lag. Surely he was angry, he knew that but it didn’t quite compute for all the thoughts and tinkering and repeated trials he’d made for the last two days. “Aurggghhhh” he ended up grunting before he slapped Minjun hard in the chest and took the package with violence. So taken by the impatience and excitement that he didn’t close the door or check the mailman or even turned around. As he put the small figurine in the heap of things spread around his laptop, Minjun was right behind. Just to observe.

And. Nothing happened.

Both their eyes glazed over waiting for the moment. Minjun had no idea what he was expecting. “So..” he hawked quietly, “Is there a ritual here or?”

“Why are you still here” Wooyoung sighed, maybe he’d even had a little nap in the space between now and then. He didn’t appear quite awake. “I don’t think there’s a ritual” he sighed, “And you’re a thief, this is so unprofessional. I should-“

“Why aren't we playing” Minjun grinned and put his hand on the keyboard, “Let’s try this thing.”