The Day He Met Kim Heechul
Title: The Day He Met Kim Heechul
Author:
inyeonin
Pairing: Hanchul
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, romance, angst(?)
Warning: grammar mistakes
Summary: Hankyung would say there was something wrong but he stayed silent. Instead, he kissed him softly. His hand held Heechul close, never wanting to let go as white, soft feathers brushed against his arms.
Author's Notes: just a warning: this is hanchul is OC DDD: idk why i have written hannie as an emo boy :( is there a kingdom in korea idk just ugh D: anyway, hello! and yes, i still ship and support hanchul :)
The Day He Met Kim Heechul
*
Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a prince named Hankyung. Unlike other princes, Hankyung wasn’t trained to fight for battles nor allowed to pick a princess to marry. He wasn’t as loud, or as nosy as most of them. But Prince Hankyung had his own flaw-he was uncaring, too reserved and snobbish for anyone’s liking. He was even proud like his father, the king.
Perhaps, Prince Hankyung wasn’t even worthy of being the protagonist of this story-he’s quite a complicated character no one dared to narrate. But Prince Hankyung was well-loved by most of the girls and princesses who met him and envied by men of all ages who knew his name. And this was where the complications started-Prince Hankyung was a subject of love and hate.
It started when Prince Hankyung became first in line to the throne. The news spread like a vast wind throughout the kingdom. Everyone was left stunned to know that the ‘missing prince’ had been found and now, the almost-king, Prince Siwon was not enthroned. Since then, the lanky 19-year-old boy became prince-he was taught everything he needed to know, provided everything fitted only for a royalty.
But no one knew how they found Prince Hankyung-not even who he was before he was titled. But you see, every secret had its own tale of knowing. And Prince Hankyung’s secret was written between the scars near his heart.
The scars never healed. It stayed on his chest like ugly marks. No one knew how painful they were-how they burnt like the sun and lingered like the full moon. And every time he ran his fingers against the marred skin, he felt as if he was just struck yesterday and the pain was as excruciating as the first time.
*
The day Hankyung was waiting for came. He ran, his mask catching every puff of breath he exhaled. He kept running, running, running...like he was a madman who just escaped prison after long years of confinement. He smiled. He cackled.
He was free...
The kingdom was getting smaller in his vision every time he glanced back at it. And before he realized it, he was walking into the narrow pathways between the tall houses.
He stopped until his feet were only a step away from a door-a wall between his past and his present.
>The door was falling apart, rusty and had seemed to be unopened for a long time. Hankyung stared at it as if he was cursed. At the back of his mind, he thought of a frail boy tucked away in a corner...begging...pleading...
Someone...Someone! Geng-
Hankyung shook his head. Stop! Stop-damn it!-Stoooop!!!
Why did you stop running Ge-
Stop it! He gripped his fist as hard as he could-wanting to draw blood against his very palm to divert the pain inside his heart.
He was breathing hard, his fingers centimetres away from the knob, when his right eye caught something-someone, rather, who was sitting against the dirty wall and was probably looking at him like he was some crazy man.
"Why you-” he hissed but the next words died on his tongue. At first he thought it was a girl but when he looked at his frame-all bones and no soft curves, it was revealed to him as a boy-a very beautiful one at that. He looked younger than him he thought, and he was staring at him fearfully, his big eyes red and puffy. Hankyung was dumbfounded for a moment, thinking that perhaps his cinch was right but there was something about the way the boy was looking at him-Now, where’s your deviant eyes, you blasted child!-and he couldn’t not stare back.
“You..,” he started but he could not grasp his thoughts properly. The boy’s eyes became even more pleading, tears gathering as he started shaking.
Hankyung frowned at that. He walked towards him when he sensed something wasn’t right. He hunched over the boy before he noticed he wasn’t looking back at his eyes. In fact, his were dancing at directions, unseeing. His mouth was opened but Hankyung never heard him speak.
“Say, what’s your name?” He asked before touching his shoulders awkwardly, wanting him to recognize his presence.
The boy’s lips quivered before he tucked his bruised knees against his chest tighter.
“Now, now, I’m not going to harm you,” Hankyung said. It was true.
“I...I c-can’t remember,” he whispered, Hankyung’s palm against the boy’s skin felt burning.
“Why are you here?” Hankyung asked the same question he wanted to ask himself.
“I...I d-don’t know..,” the boy replied breathily.
Funny, because their answers were the same.
*
Prince Hankyung kept a very well-hidden secret. And that secret involved a familiar door and a boy in white. When the moon reached its highest peak, Hankyung grabbed his mask and sneaked from the palace ground and went to the same place he had been visiting for a week.
“Geng,” he said and like every time he said this name, he waited for hell to haunt him down. He sighed when nothing happened and reached for the door.
“Geng,” he repeated, his voice tiny with doubt. He waited again but all he felt was the unexpected crawl of lightness unto his heart when he saw him smile.
His hell must’ve forgotten him this time.
*
The nightmare came again.
Like a broken record, it started with the same line and ended with him begging for death to come.
“Someone...Someone! Geng escaped again!”-too many voices came, echoing against his ears, before he was finally found. “Why did you stop running? Finally tired, eh? Now, where’s your deviant eyes, you blasted child!” He would scream but he felt he was never heard, for the voices kept coming until one strike on his chest quietened the whole place.
Hankyung would pant like crazy after he awoke; tears started streaming his forlorn face.
“Shh..,” he heard someone hushed. Hankyung glanced to see him there, lying in bed, his eyes glowing like a painted marble against the dark. Hankyung never knew why but he tried to lie back again, staring right back at him. And he knew, the latter was picturing him that way, his eyes blind and unseeing as his hands reached for his cold, cold face, wiping the tears away. “Hush,” he said. “I’m here, Geng...”
And that was all it took before he finally crumbled.
*
His name was Hankyung-rather, he was called Geng by the orphanage’s governess. A small boy with fiery brown eyes, he was taunted, teased as the son of the devil himself. A defiant, ill-mannered child! He heard the governess screaming as she grabbed a knife.
“Someone...Someone! Geng escaped again!”
He kept running, running, running...like he was a madman who just escaped prison after long years of confinement.
The ‘kingdom’ of Madam Lee was getting smaller in his vision every time he glanced back at it. And before he realized it, he was walking into the narrow pathways between the tall houses.
He stopped until his feet were only a step away from a door-it was too late.
“Why did you stop running, Geng? Finally tired, eh?”
*
His breathing came back to normal and he was still looking at him in darkness. He was lying still, his fingers dancing against Hankyung’s face, drawing smoothly over the curves of his bones...up to his nose down to the chapped skin of his mouth.
“What are you doing?” Hankyung whispered, his voice tired as the night. The latter just smiled. “Do you remember anything?” Hankyung asked.
“Just my n-name,” the boy whispered.
“Then, tell me what your name is,” he insisted. The boy smiled, his eyes delighted. “Kim Heechul.”
Hankyung smiled back, “Your name sounds perfect.” And Heechul giggled a little. “You’ve changed,” he would say and Hankyung would be left confused but he would never say a thing.
The answer came the next day.
*
“Is something wrong?” Heechul asked him, his voice tender and wavering a little.
Hankyung would say there was but he stayed silent. Instead, he kissed him softly. His hand held Heechul close, never wanting to let go as white, soft feathers brushed against his arms.
Geng...Geng...Geng...
The wings sprouted from Heechul’s back signalled that what they had now wasn’t meant to be forever.
*
A fallen angel must have some things to sacrifice to save their loved one. And here he was, saving the name he remembered-Geng...Geng...Geng...
Hankyung told him about the nightmares. His eyes were dancing between Heechul’s tearful gaze and the feathers behind him which were swaying in an abstract pattern against the wind.
“Then Geng, why did you stop running?” Heechul asked.
Because I’m afraid that if I don’t, I will never notice you. That I will just pass you by, never ever knowing you’re there, were the words left he wanted to say but he settled with:“To see you.”
That night, Prince Hankyung slept peacefully for the first time. And when the sun came, he pictured Heechul, his angel, smiling at the words left unsaid between them. Slowly, he opened his eyes.
He glanced to where he laid but Heechul wasn’t there anymore. What was only left of his presence was a mere feather resting against the scars on his chest.
The narrator should like to tell that unlike every fairytale there was, not everyone lived happily ever after in this story.
But Prince Hankyung-or Geng-lived contently holding the evidence of his existence.
fin.