Title: Broken Pieces
Pairing: Rahyuk
Related Chapter: 42, 48, 55, 64, 84, 91, 100, 113, 123, 137, 152, 157, 160, 168, 180, 198
Word Count: 610

Ravi regretted ever listening to N’s advice. The older had asked exactly where Hyuk worked and Ravi hadn’t been able to answer since he didn’t know himself. N had made the suggestion then that he should follow Hyuk to work and, like a fool, Ravi did exactly that. He just…..he wanted to know about Hyuk. They’d been living in the same apartment for almost a full year now and he still didn’t know much about him. In contrast, Hyuk could write a book with what he knew about Ravi.

Maybe that was why Ravi had followed Hyuk. He just wanted to know one simple thing about the person he loved. He had thought it was harmless.

It wasn’t.

He’d followed Hyuk to a strip club. At first, he’d tried to brush it off as nothing, Hyuk probably just worked at the bar or something. There was no way Hyuk could actually be stripping, right? Wrong. Honestly, what bothered Ravi about it was the look of discomfort in Hyuk’s eyes the whole time the younger man was on the stage. Had he the option, Ravi knew he would run off stage and never go back out.

Ravi had planned to leave, to never mention following Hyuk to anyone. But luck wasn’t on his side and Hyuk noticed him as he was getting up. Hyuk had looked so…..ashamed. It made Ravi feel horrible to be responsible for that feeling. Then, Hyuk’s gaze hardened. He finished up what he had been doing and walked away so calmly that it scared Ravi. He knew that something had snapped in Hyuk, that his being at the strip club had broken something in Hyuk.

Ravi made an attempt to sneak backstage, but before he could go too far someone caught his arm.

“Can’t let you go back there,” said a man with blond hair, “no customers allowed.”

“I’m not a customer,” Ravi insisted, “I’m a friend of Hyuk’s. Please, I need to see him.”

“Oh?” the blond looked a little surprised, “you’re….Ravi, right?”

“Yeah,” Ravi nodded, wondering how the guy knew his name.

“Hyukkie talks about you all the time,” the guy smiled, “I’m Ken by the way. Come on, I’ll help you find him. If anyone asks, you’re a new guy.”

“Thank you,” Ravi smiled, following after Ken. He tried to recall if Hyuk had ever mentioned Ken before, but couldn’t recall anything. Not that it was surprising since Hyuk didn’t tell him much in the first place.

“Here,” Ken said, finally coming to a stop in front of a door, “Hyukkie should be in here.”

“Thank you,” Ravi bowed before slipping inside.

Hyuk was sitting in a corner of the room, head resting in his arms as sob shook his body.

“Hyuk,” Ravi rushed to the younger’s side, “Hyukkie.”

Hyuk didn’t look up, didn’t allow Ravi the chance to see his tear stained face before launching himself at the other man. Hyuk wrapped his arms around Ravi and buried his face in his shirt in hopes of muffling his sobs. Ravi hugged Hyuk closer to himself, not knowing what to do or say to make the other feel better.

“I’m sorry,” Hyuk whispered, hiding his face in Ravi’s shirt, “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Ravi assured him, “please don’t cry.”

Hyuk just cried harder, mumbling about how this was the only place that would hire someone like him and that he was so ashamed of what he did. Ravi just whispered in his ear that it was alright, that he had nothing to be ashamed of. Ravi had never expected to see Hyuk so broken on the inside, yet here they were.

A/N: poor Hyukkie. Good thing Ravi is there for him, huh? In other new (kind of important news really) you’ll have noticed that I added “related chapter” between “pairing” and “word count” at the start. Well, I’m going to be spending the rest of the day doing the same thing to the other 75 themes I’ve posted. It just….it should make it easier to find which themes belong to what AU series. I’m also going to adding a master list to the foreword listing all the themes by pairing so it’s easy to find just, like, Luck or HyuKen. Anyway, just a heads up on that. Gonna try to get it all done today, so wish me luck!!