Kris woke up to find himself in bed. He didn’t remember going to bed at all. Then he remembered the events of the night before. He had definitely fallen asleep on the sofa, had Lay carried him here all by himself? He looked across the room which was dimly lit, it was still very early in the morning. He could see Lay’s sleeping figure in his bed and looking back at the clock Kris saw it was only 4am. Looking once again at Lay, he could see slight tremors coming from the bed. Was he cold? Kris got out of bed and walked to Lays side, carefully lifting the quilt and slipping into bed beside Lay, pulling the quilt down over them both and snuggling closer, making sure not to wake him.

Lay seemed to be restless in his sleep, but after Kris had been laying there for a few minutes Lay calmed down and went peacefully back into a deep sleep, Kris soon joining him.

Hours later Kris woke again, he opened his eyes and instantly made eye contact with Lay, whose own eyes were only a few inches from Kris’s.  Lay smiled at Kris and ruffled Kris’s hair, which was already messy from supporting his bedhair.

“Morning.” Lay chuckled, taking his hand back away and watching Kris’s sleepy face.

“Good morning.” Kris replied gruffly. His voice, which was usually low in the morning anyway, came out much rougher. It must have been from drinking alcohol and crying. His head pounded and his throat hurt but none of that mattered. He looked at the boy in front of him who within just a few weeks had become so dependent on.  “What’s the time?” Kris asked, burying himself closer to Lay and closing his eyes. 

“It’s just gone seven o’clock.” To that Kris groaned.

“I know. We need a day off. And we need to get out of this building for as long as possible. We live and work here, we rarely leave.” Lay complained, sitting up slightly in bed and Kris thought he heard Lay let out a small noise of pain but when he opened his eyes Lay seemed perfectly fine. He was sitting with his back against the headboard of the bed. Kris rolled so that he was on his back next to Lay, lifting himself slightly so that he was also resting against the headboard.

“What would you do on your day off?” Kris asked Lay, trying to wake himself up a bit.

“I’d want to start by eating breakfast and having coffee in that place I took you to, do you remember?”

“ah the place with the amazing mocha?”

“Yeah, that’s the place! Then I would want to walk around town for a bit, buying anything I saw that was nice. I would have food from a stall for lunch, like ddeokboki. Then I would find somewhere specific to go for the evening until dinner time. An activityof some sort, as it’s pretty cold at the minute ice skating sounds good. Then I would want to eat Chinese food. I miss Chinese food.” Kris nodded to this.

“It sounds like the perfect day out. But you made my stomach growl talking about all of that food.” Kris said. As if to prove his point his stomach rumbled loudly.  “Should we go out for breakfast? We still have time and our money should have gone through today.” Kris suddenly suggested, sitting up in bed.

After deciding to go out for breakfast they pulled themselves out of bed and got ready to go out. As Lay got out of bed he made yet another groan of pain, this time much more noticeable.

“Are you okay?” Kris asked.

“Yeah, it’s just cramp.” Lay said and they finished getting ready without questioning it.

The two of them got ready to go out, picking up their wallets and walking to Lay’s favourite café. “Let me just double check that the money went in.” Kris said, going to the local ATM. After inserting his card and putting in his PIN the number on the screen made his jaw drop.

“What?” Lay asked worried. “Has it not gone in?”

“Well…” Kris said. “Some has.”

“What do you mean.”

“There’s money in there but, barely any. I think we’re just going to have to have ramen for dinner some nights. This can’t be right. I know it’s half of our monthly wage but, this pay is ridiculous. The minimum wage is ₩5210 right?” Kris asked

“Yes I believe so.” Lay said confused as Kris started to count on his hands.

 “We work 13 hours a day roughly.”

“How much is in there?” Lay asked curiously.

“₩85000…”

“WHAT?” Lay said. It was the loudest Lay had ever spoken. “For that money we’d have only needed to work around 15 hours in the past two weeks!”  

“Check your balance!” Kris urged Lay, removing his own card from the machine.

“It’s about the same!” The two of them looked at each other in despair.

“We can make this work.” Kris said. “We’ll just have to spend the minimum we can. I’ll talk to Soo Man about why it’s so low and hopefully we can get by, even if we just have to buy cheap food.”

“But it’s more than food. We need cleaning products, shower gels, I also need new clothes. It’s the little things that add up.”

“No we can do this. It’s okay, it’s workable.”

The two of them returned to SM hungry but empty handed.

“Why don’t you go up and find something for us to eat. I’ll talk to Lee Soo Man and sort this out.” Kris suggested.

Kris waited for Lee Soo Man for half an hour before he arrived.

“I got the money in my account this morning.” Kris said without greeting Lee Soo Man, whose response was to just nod.

“Oh good I transferred the money yesterday, so it went in okay?” Soo Man asked.

“Well not really. There’s a lot less in there than I was expecting.” Kris said.

“You read the contract though right? How much were you expecting, your accommodation costs you daily, the drinks you drink while hosting are kept on record, and these charges are removed from your wage.” Soo Man explained.

“Oh yeah, well that could be it.” Kris said, wishing more that he had read the contract now.

“Is there anything else you need help with?” Soo Man asked.

“Yes actually, when do we get a holiday, or at least a day off?”  Kris asked, feeling like that was probably explained in the contract too.

“You must have been working at the company for two months before you can book holiday.” Soo Man said.

Kris just nodded. “Well, thank you. I’ll be off now.” 

He explained the situation to Lay who just sighed. “Well at least now we know not to go crazy with the drinks, it’s not too bad for a wage really, we’ll have enough money between us to live.”

After finding food to eat from their cupboards, the two showered and dressed.

“We still have an hour until we need to start work.” Lay said to Kris. “What do you want to do?”

“Hm, how about the game from before, do you remember?”  

“The game of truth? Sure, whose go was it?” Lay asked.

“Hm…Yours? I think.” Kris said, trying to remember but failing.

Lay sat back in his seat thinking of a question to ask.

“When did you move to Korea?”  Lay asked, trying to get a grasp on how long Kris had stayed in the country trying to find work.

“I’ve been here for just over a year.” Kris said. “But I lived in Canada for two years before that.”

Lay nodded, over time he wanted to build up a picture of Kris, after all he still didn’t know him that well.  “It’s your turn to ask me a question.” Lay pointed out.

“Actually, there is a question I’ve been wondering about.” Kris said to Lay “How come you didn’t go back to China after leaving your entertainment company?”

“I did for a little while, but I was kind of forced to return.” Lay said, sighing and looking down sadly.

Kris gave him a questioning look so Lay continued.

“I came to Korea looking for money. Idols are supposed to be paid a lot and since I can dance, sing and play the piano I thought I could make it. I needed the money for my mother you see. She got ill and I couldn’t afford the treatment. My uncle cared for her at home while I came to Korea for money. My company kept telling me that if I put money into certain things like extra dance lessons I would be sure to debut soon. So of course I put my last bit of money towards what I thought was a good cause. Soon I was fired from the company and poorer than when I started. I returned to China empty handed and my Mother soon passed away. My uncle blamed me and told me to leave, so I came back to Korea hoping to find another company, to prove that I hadn’t wasted my time.”

Kris was left speechless as Lay finished.

“Things haven’t really worked out for the two of us huh?” Kris said. “At least you have the knowledge of what happened to your family. I have no idea where my mother is. I left her and when I realised what I’d done it was too late. I went back but she wasn’t there.”

“If you’re meant to find her you’ll find her one day.” Lay said reassuringly, patting his back.

The game continued throughout the day. While they worked they took turns asking each other questions. Lay’s favourite colour was purple, he had gotten his love for unicorns from his grandmother. Kris had a phobia of spiders and he disliked the colour yellow above all others.

Lay had questions he wanted to ask Kris but he wasn’t sure if Kris would be ready to answer either one yet, so he kept quiet, waiting for a better time.

Today they were given even more work on top of their usual. They had to add a second layer of paint to the room downstairs and had to build a brick wall outside of SM.

“I need a bricked off section to fill with soil, then I’m going to plant rose bushes there. It will really add some life to our building!” Lee Soo Man had told them before telling them where to build it and heading off again to wherever he goes in the day.  That day they didn’t finish working until half past three.

When they walked back to their dorm Kris noticed that Lay was holding his waist again. This time he couldn’t help but ask. “Is you waist bothering you?”

“No, no. It aches a little but I’m fine.” Lay smiled back at him and Kris wasn’t sure how honest Lay was being, but he didn’t want to keep pestering him.

They followed their usual routine of eat, shower, dress and then head down to work. Their suits had dried by now and Lay had made sure that they hadn’t creased.

When they got to the reception Min called out to Lay.

“Lay, you’ve been privately booked tonight!” Lay and Kris gave each other a look and Lay left Kris to find out more at the desk.  Kris stood in the doorway to the main host room, watching as Lay went up in the elevator. He was just turning away from the reception when he heard someone enter and Min greeted them.

“Hello Tao, back again so soon?”

Kris froze in place and turned slowly around on the spot.

“Yes well, this host club feels like a second home to me.” Tao said, catching Kris’s eyes for a moment and smiling slyly. “I have a reservation upstairs.” He said to Min who nodded.

“Yes, Lay is waiting upstairs for you.” She replied. Kris’s heart almost exploded in that second.

Lay was going to be alone with Tao. The same Tao that just a night before tried to take his very first kiss.

So I have been updating a little slower, and for that I'm sorry. In my defence I found it hard to write in this chapter without making it seem boring. It may also have to do with the fact that I got a boy's number. I rarely talk to people okay!!! Thank you for the subs and comments, they really do mean the world to me. Please leave a comment saying what you think will happen next! I'll try to update more frequently from now onwards. 

-1990stalker-