The eviction notice came as expected. A few scattered dreams --nightmares, really--  came as well. Nightmares of those eyes, just staring him down, unblinking. Oh, God, just stop staring. Stop staring. Stop staring. Please, stop staring.

Jaehyo couldn’t even remember the guy’s name; memory tainted with pure panic and adrenaline. All he could recall was his eyes, that strange paper slipped into his back pocket, the way the other’s hands held the gun. There was no way he was just some ing rando clerk. There was something more to him that had been eating away at Jaehyo since the incident. He found himself wondering what had become of the clerk, and what the writing on the paper could possibly mean. He certainly wasn’t smart enough for riddles, or daring enough to actually go to the location and find out what this was really all about.

He could be involving himself in something he wasn’t ready for, something he would regret… something that could give him closure.

------

It was a sweltering summer morning and for the past two hours Jaehyo had been splayed out on his bed sideways in just his underwear with his feet hanging over the edge at the knee. With no job, no food, and soon no apartment (and with no one to turn to for help), he spent a lot of his time laying around. He hardly even felt panicked about his impending homelessness. Mostly numb. More tired. So goddamn tired.

Turning onto his side, he reached over to grab the creased and smudged note sitting on his bedside table. Laying onto his back again, he lifted it above his head and read it over again despite having it memorized. When he finally was kicked out, that’s when he’d go. After selling all his nice, minimalistic furniture, after getting the remainder of his security deposit (if any), after filling his car up on gas… he’d go.

------

The heavy knot in his chest as he drove down unfamiliar, unlit streets was unexpected. It was a kind of nervousness he had not experienced since he first broke into modeling. Not since he first got his hands on that gun. Since the clerk stared him down as he undressed.

Honestly, what had he been thinking?

He could have murdered someone, he could be going through court right now, with any and all future ruined. Was that apartment really worth it? Were any of the things he’d grown so attached to really worth it? How could he be so foolish?

Rolling down the windows to allow the warm evening wind blow through his hair, Jaehyo let out a deep sigh. The sunset glared through his front windshield and he squinted back while lowering the front visor, the crumpled note of too-neat handwriting tucked into the mirror.

Perhaps he should have left earlier? The darkness of the streets was making the area much harder to navigate, but then again, maybe that was the point. The only reason someone would have a building in this area was so they were hard to find. Maybe that should have raised some red flags, but Jaehyo had already come this far, and so he might as well see it out. It’s not like he had anything else to lose.

------

He couldn’t even be sure it was the right place. It looked like every other goddamned half-dilapidated building in the area. But, imagining that mistakenly trying to get into the wrong building would have serious consequences, the ex-model just sat in his idling car for ten, upwards of twenty minutes. Waiting. Watching. There were a few lights on in the rooms a couple stories up, but no movement to suggest anyone was actually there. No one had gone in or out either until just as Jaehyo finally turned off his car and unbuckled to get comfortable.

It was too dark to see clearly, but a pair (a couple, maybe?) had approached the front door which opened just barely wide enough to let them though. Jaehyo didn’t even get a chance to catch a glimpse of whoever was behind the door.

Pulling his keys out of the ignition and the note from the visor, Jaehyo took in a deep couple of breaths and opened the car door. Whatever nervous eagerness filled him earlier was suddenly gone, his legs trembling slightly beneath him (though to be fair he had developed some knee issues since the clerk kicked his kneecaps out of place). Those first few steps towards the building were the hardest, gravelly dirt cracking underneath his nice loafers all the way to the doorstep.

Jaehyo’s hands were shaking so bad he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to properly knock.God, he hoped there wasn’t some sort of secret knock. What if he had to do Morse code of the note against the door!? He didn’t know any Morse code, he was screwed! He was a ing dead man as it was. At least no one would miss him.

Just as he started to raise his arm to knock, the door cracked open suddenly. He heard a gun and sharp Japanese words fired in his direction. Startling so hard that he leapt right into one of the bushes that surrounded the entryway of the building, the man behind the door started to laugh as he swung the door open further.

Cat eyes that almost hid under a light blond mop of hair stared down at Jaehyo as he tried to scramble out of the bush with wide eyes and a scratched cheek. A wide smile spread across the other man’s large face, making his nose look even larger. He slowly aimed the gun down, right at Jaehyo’s head. “Better start explaining why you’ve been sittin’ outside for the past half hour.” His finger laid over the trigger.

“You’ve got ten seconds.”