[Chapter Fic] Ticker
“You’re lucky I go along with your shit.”
Changmin ignored the words as he walks into his apartment, shutting the door and putting his keys in a little bowl on a side table. The reprimand had an nonverbal echo that followed Changmin as he toed off his shoes and tossed his jacket over the back of a chair. He brushed off the reverberations easily as he settled in, grabbing a drink from the fridge before turning towards a side a table to the source of the words.
There was a young man sitting on top of his dresser, unusual only for the fact that he seemed to be both present and not, semi-opaque legs hanging over the edge of the furniture to swing straight through it. He eyed Changmin with bemusement on handsome features tinged with something like concern. Changmin rolled his eyes at him.
“Where’s Junsu? He’s usually the one stalking me.”
The young man shrugged, hopping off the dresser and reappearing on a kitchen counter feet from where Changmin stood, giving him a tentative smile, “Where he always is when he’s not with you. It’s not like he’s got that many places to go,” The young man gives Changmin a sly look, “I bet you’re thankful, huh. Junsu wouldn’t go along with you so easily.”
“Shut up, Yoochun… Junsu’s a pushover anyways.”
The words are said with guilt and the young man- Yoochun- sighs, reappearing next to Changmin. A semi-opaque hand slides on top over Changmin’s in something like sympathy.
“Don’t say things like that. I was just giving you a warning. You’re… lucky, Min. You’ve got a Guardian that doesn’t give a shit and likes to bend the rules. You mean well, but I can’t just let you use my power like you did with that girl back there. For better or worse, we don’t need more mistakes like-”
“Just shut up, Yoochun! I know already… I do.”
And with that Changmin was as alone as he would ever get, drink gone warm in his hand.
-
It was his third walk of the day, but Changmin could never seem to get out enough. Being in an empty apartment with nothing but spirits for company had the effect of plying him with guilt. There, he couldn’t escape the memories of shame his ‘gift’ had brought him.
He recognized that it was unnatural. Wrong. He’d learned it well enough.
It was his own fault that he was cursed, and by now he understood that the capability to See Death’s tags was a punishment for his actions. A path paved with good intentions did not necessarily make life go full circle.
He didn’t need Yoochun to remind him of his limitations, though Changmin supposed that it was part of the spirit’s job as an Otherworldly Guardian. Yoochun had given him plenty of warnings in the past- always amiable about it and quick to be a friend- and the reprimands were unlikely to halt, especially with Changmin’s last, terrible mistake still hanging over their heads.
Unfortunately, being outside the apartment wasn’t necessarily any better than shutting himself in. There, Changmin was confronted with visions of human mortality wherever he looked. He was surrounded by snapshots of finality, and damn if it didn’t affect him every time. There were days where he wasn’t sure he was in his right mind, hellish insight sharp and surreal, dogging his steps darkly until the death he’d Seen popped up in the columns of obituaries.
There were the days in which he came to hate people- to hate that they were so fragile- and felt bitter as a result. Sartre, Changmin knew, was right. His Hell was other people.
Changmin couldn’t imagine the real thing being any worse
He sighed, lost in his own thoughts- at least grateful it distracted him from the strange looks he received from people around him who seemed to sense something off about him. Changmin had long since learned how to best tune out-
He didn’t notice the soccer ball until it hit him in the head.
Changmin swore, suffering a moment of déjà vu before looking up to see a young man with a thin, tired face jogging up to him, handsome features set in concern. Changmin gasped a little as the man approached, numbers lining up in his mind and turning into a death sentence overlaid on the scene before him.
A concerned voice brought Changmin out of his thoughts, the young man waving a hand in front of his face, “Hey, are you alright? Uh-oh, Jihye, this isn’t ain’t good. I think we broke ‘im.”
A girl jogged up to the young man and shook her head reprovingly, country accent strong in both her speech and the young man’s, “Oppa! I told’ja not ta try to show off, but there you went, clowning around and you go on and clonk this nice young man in the head!”
Changmin blinked in a daze, clearing his throat after a moment, “Miss, I’m fine.” He hesitated afterward, uncomfortable, but the two seemed to take no notice, bickering among themselves until the girl called his attention again, smile wide as she made the effort to speak with more formal speech.
“Sorry about that, mister. You see, my brother and I are pretty new to Seoul, and, you know how it is, coming from a little itty rural place like Gwangju-“
“Jihye!”
“Hush, oppa, I’m talking. Anyways, my brother’s too shy to ask ‘cuz he thinks you’re handsome,” Changmin and the young man both blushed, “But the truth of it is that we don’t really know anyone here and we really need a tour guide if we’re gonna survive in the big city.”
She clasped her hands behind her back and smiled at him kindly, big eyes pleading him to say ‘yes’ though so much in Changmin was saying ‘no.” He was no social butterfly and his communication skills were limited these days. He often had trouble relating to popular media, and, most of all, it was simply too strange to know just when and how the other person was going to meet their end.
The situation was probably less than ideal for them all, but something in their faces made Changmin give a reluctant ‘yes’ at which the siblings’ faces lighting up brilliantly.
“Great!” Jihye bowed deeply along with her brother, “My name is Jung Jihye, and this is my older brother, Yunho. We’re staying at that hostel just down the road and I’m sure I have our temporary number on me somewhere-“
“Jihye, don’t overwhelm him,” the young man- no, Yunho- warned, tone almost teasing and not lacking in care, “I’m sorry that this is so sudden, but we don’t have any friends here and well, the city is overwhelming… you wouldn’t mind starting… now-ish? If it isn’t too much trouble?”
Changmin nodded wordlessly, following as the siblings bounded ahead to show him to the hostel so they could start there. Indecision roiled in his stomach and he struggled with his sense of duty.
It was part of him to give people warnings when he could and somehow, the words wouldn’t make their way up his throat as he tagged along with the Jung siblings.
Yunho didn’t have much time left. He didn’t have much time left at all.
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Sorry for this took so long, but even after I got all settled in the dorms and started classes and such, I just felt so unmotivated. This chapter definitely isn't all I hoped it would be, but it is what it is and I'll try to work something up better and faster for the next chapter.