Oasis

"Mr. Kim?"

Youngjae approaches the emaciated Omega facing away from him. He curls his fingers, watching carefully as Heechul toys with one of his conch shells and ignores him. Youngjae winds over to the other side to face him.

Oblivious, Heechul has his full attention focused on the shell. He runs his hands over the small bumps and presses it to his ear, finding meeting eyes with Youngjae. He presses a finger to his lips.

"He's gone home," Heechul whispers, blue clouding his dreary eyes. His dark circles have punctured through his thin skin like a plague. "Do you think he ever reached the shore?"

Youngjae hesitates. "Yes."

Heechul's shoulders fall. "Thank goodness... Oh, thank goodness. I was so worried." He cradles the conch shell and murmurs to himself like a mantra, "Hankyung, Hankyung, Hankyung..."

"Hankyung?"

Heechul snaps his eyes wide open. "Hankyung? He's here? You know him? Has he reached home safely?" The frail Omega struggles to sit up and Youngjae hastily helps him up.

"Yes, he has," Youngjae blurts, much to Heechul's utter relief. Heechul twists his arms over Youngjae's back and hold him close with a contented sigh.

"I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy," he breathes, voice bordering on a despondent cry. His mood abruptly swings once again and he lets go of Youngjae, occupying himself with the shell merrily.

Youngjae gently pulls the blanket over Heechul's lower body and melts into a small smile. "Who is Hankyung?"

Heechul stiffens. He glowers at Youngjae and holds the conch shell to his chest warily. "Why do you want to know?" He spits scathingly. "You're going to tell everyone. I know people like you. All of you are the same, you pathetic, lowly bastard."

Youngjae shrinks back at the sudden hostility. "Um, I won't tell, Mr. Kim."

"That's what they all say. But they gossip behind my back and I bet they were the ones who told him." Heechul slumps as despondency seeps over his countenance. "He must have already known since 1987."

Heechul clutches his head and whimpers, fingers clenching into his hair. He begins to shiver. "He must have already known. He just wanted to torture me so he pretended all this time. Since 1987. Everything went wrong. I didn't mean it. You can't blame me."

Heechul tears up and Youngjae frantically reaches out for the Omega. Out of the blue, Heechul shrieks and lashes out at Youngjae. His nails scratch over Youngjae's neck and draws blood. Youngjae winces and promptly covers his wound in astonishment.

"Don't touch me. Don't touch me!" Heechul shudders as he stares wide-eyed at Youngjae, backing away and hitting the rail guard. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he cries out in despair, shrouding his face within his two hands. "Please don't hurt me, I'm so sorry, I didn't- I didn't mean it! It was an accident!"

"Please, please," Heechul wails. "Forgive me. I'm so sorry. I know, you came back to seek your revenge. Please, please, please, forgive me. I'm really so sorry. I regret it so much." His incoherent blubbering dissolves into a frenzy as he claws at his face, panicked eyes raking over Youngjae's face.

"I'm sorry! Don't do it to me! Please!" He screeches, rubbing roughly at his cheeks. "It burns! It hurts so much, please... Hankyung, save me... Come back, please..."

Youngjae hastily searches the room and finds the flask of warm water on the bedside table. He falters before finally splashing Heechul's face with it. As the water trails over Heechul's wrinkled face, his bony fingers relax, protruding veins simmering back down under the skin. Tension unravels from his back as he glances around in confusion, glassy eyes finding Youngjae in his disorientation. "Hankyung?"

"Mr. Kim, I'm sorry," Youngjae whispers. He takes a napkin and dabs Heechul's face, the Omega shivering as water trails down under his shirt.

"Oh, it's you." Heechul churns out a crickety smile, evidently still not over his thrashing fit. He peers at Youngjae for a long while as Youngjae gingerly cleans him up.

"I've been meaning to tell you this," Heechul starts softly. His lips curl further. "You look like someone I know."

"Who, Mr. Kim?"

Heechul simply persists in his smile. "Someone." He holds his head with a wince, having pulled too harshly on his hair previously. He nudges Youngjae aside and wipes himself.

"Get me a new shirt and a towel from the drawer, will you?"

Obediently, Youngjae retrieves a baggy shirt and a long towel. Heechul undresses and dries himself off properly, allowing Youngjae to help him into his clothes.

"I must have blurted out quite some about Hankyung. He's my friend," Heechul firmly says. He burrows himself up in a blanket. "A good friend."

"Is he still... with you?" Youngjae cautiously asks. Heechul churns out a bitter smile.

"No. He went home by ship but... I have never heard from him since then," he sighs.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't apologise for that. If you say you're sorry for things like these when it's not your fault, it makes your true apologies insincere," Heechul remarks.

Youngjae nods slightly, kneading his fingers through his shirt. "Why did your friend leave?"

"You ask a lot of questions," Heechul exhales. He scrutinises Youngjae's wound and worriedly asks, "Gosh, your neck! Are you okay?"

"It's fine. It was itchy so I scratched a little too hard." Youngjae presses a napkin to the superficial skin wound, offering an assuring smile.

"I must have said a lot. I always do when I go mad," Heechul says as if he's speaking of the weather in an everyday conversation. Youngjae helps to prop him up with his pillows and Heechul uncurls his hands, staring at his crinkled palms.

"What did I say?" Heechul asks. He glances over nonchalantly, shrouding a hint of guardedness and dread in his stare. Youngjae has memorised this look well off his own mother when he hid his diagnosis, disgustingly bent on hiding his terminal illness from his very own son.

"You didn't say much. You only called out for... Hankyung?" The name rolls off his lips and Youngjae furrows his brows, trying his hardest to recall where he had seen or heard the name.

"Well, it's because he was a very good friend to me," Heechul explains, wrapping his arms around his feeble self. "Forgive me for suddenly going berserk. He was just a friend, but I suddenly missed him because I don't have a lot of friends."

"It's okay," Youngjae returns softly. "I don't have a lot of friends too so I get lonely sometimes."

Heechul peers at Youngjae and melts into a sympathetic simper, squeezing Youngjae's shoulder. "It gets hard, doesn't it? When you have nobody to talk to." With one finger, he lifts Youngjae's chin. "Considering how pretty you are, it must be difficult to make friends. No one wants to be the uglier one."

"That's the way it is for Omegas, isn't it?" Heechul hums with a chuckle. "It's always a competition between Omegas to see who gets swept up first, so it's difficult when we're automatically each other's rivals." He shakes his head in distaste. "Which, by the way, I do not agree with at all. It's utterly ridiculous."

Youngjae nods fervidly. His mother used to share tales of horrid Omegas who would backstab him and sabotage his relationships, hoping for a chance with his boyfriend. Some would get close to him merely to receive attention from Alphas.

"Omegas are so stupid to fight because of Alphas. What's so great about them?" Youngjae scoffs. "All Alphas like to pretend that they want to make friends with Omegas, when they only want to bed us."

Heechul laughs. "Well, I wouldn't say all Alphas. Some are nice."

Youngjae insistently shakes his head. "Only Betas are good for friends. We don't have to compete with them; they don't have ulterior motives."

"That is true. But you should still be wary. There are many bad people on this earth. It's not easy to find someone who truly cares for you, especially in the world I live in. People always wish to be rich but they don't know how filthy we are, and how hard friends can come by. That's why when you find a true friend, you have to hold on to him well."

Youngjae squeezes his own hands, suppressing the thought of Minki waiting at home. "Is Hankyung that friend?"

Heechul stares at him. "I must have spouted a lot about him, hm?" He repeats with a sigh. "Yes, he was a good friend." He crosses his arms with a light smile and a dissecting gaze. "I feel like you aren't telling me everything I said about him."

"I did," Youngjae blurts. "I couldn't understand much. You were calling out for him to save you." He pauses to recollect the shreds of Heechul's previous blabber. "You also mentioned the year 1987... And then you said you were sorry."

Heechul thins his lips. "I asked him to save me?" He heaves, some exasperation threaded into his expression. "Well, I was having a nightmare. That bastard of a husband can't be counted on so I suppose I naturally called out for my only friend."

"1987." Heechul rubs his eyes in fatigue, a subtle annoyance underlying his wheeze. "He is a good friend to me because when I was at my lowest and had no one, he helped me."

Heechul slumps. "I... did something I'm not proud of that year," he confesses faintly, grasping tightly on his blanket. "And he said it was okay, that I was just trying to protect my children. Even my eldest son shunned me for it. But he... he was the only one who told me it was okay."

Heechul churns out a miserable smile, despondency colouring his irises with bleakness. Youngjae places a hand over Heechul's scrawny fingers and comforts, "It's understandable. A mother would do anything to protect their children."

"You wouldn't say that if you knew what I did," Heechul whispers. His eyes well up with tears and he wipes them away gingerly. "I was just so afraid. I didn't want my children to suffer."

"Your husband didn't help you?" Youngjae crossly questions. Heechul lets out a hoarse laugh, startling Youngjae.

"As if he ever would. He's the one who got me into all this trouble. Ever since I was wedded to that bastard, my life has been a nightmare." Heechul grits his teeth as his fingernails sink into his palms. "I did all of this only because of him."

Heechul evens out his breathing and forces himself to unwind, examining his now injured palms. Youngjae rushes to get a tissue but Heechul brushes him off.

"There's a saying in China," Heechul continues, "that a married Omega is just like water that's been poured out--he no longer belongs to the family. Once you're wedded out, you can't return, else it'll be a disgrace."

"You can think of the one reason why an Omega would return, no?"

Youngjae squirms. "Divorce?"

Heechul nods. "It's sad, isn't it? That we're like commodities to be passed around. I did what I did so I could keep my place beside that bastard, so my child could live well." He gestures for a glass of water and Youngjae quickly pours him one. Water spills from his lips as he gulps it down, running down his neck.

"Was that why you couldn't leave your husband?" Youngjae utters, both anger and sadness suffusing his tone. It's always been like this since the start of time--from the women to their reborn silhouettes, the Omegas. What makes it all the worse is that Heechul is married to Youngjae's implicit boss, Jung Yunho, one of the major stockholders of AXS. He works under that conniving, repulsive bastard and his atrocious family.

Heechul nods. "It's a different story now, though. Even in a climate where divorces are more commonplace, who would want me when I'm insane?"

Youngjae lowers his head. The helpless misery churns in his stomach and makes him absolutely nauseated. He's witnessing the very consequences of their revolting society on a man now so fragile and broken.

He lifts his head when Heechul pats his cheek.

"Don't look so sad for me. He was the reason why I did such horrible things in my life, but I'm not free of any guilt. He didn't hold a gun to my head, after all." Heechul runs his hand over his gaunt feelings. "That's probably why I lost my child. God is fair."

"But you had to do it for your children," Youngjae protests. "You did nothing wrong."

Heechul's li