Mine [oneshot]
Title: Mine
Author: pikagyu
Rating: R
Pairing: Yadong (Dongwoo/Hoya);; 2woo (Dongwoo/Woohyun)
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summary: Someone was always watching.
AN;; a very, very, very late help_japan fic for chunonew_rx! I finally sat down and wrote it all. I'm sorry if it's not as dark as you would like, but this is a lot darker than anything I usually write.
--
Mine
--
Dongwoo didn’t have the best luck when it came to things in life. His parents passed away when he was young, leaving him to be passed around his aunts, uncles, and cousins until he graduated from high school. He found a job as a construction worker and enrolled in the local university. He worked hard as a student by day and worked harder as a construction worker by night. Whatever free time he had, he used to study and do his homework.
He didn’t have very many friends, but the ones he did have were good to him, doing whatever they could to help him out a little bit.
“Dongwoo, wake up,” Hoya said, shaking his friend’s shoulder. Dongwoo fell asleep at the coffee table in the middle of typing an essay. His laptop was an old hand-me-down from one of his other friends. It was practically brand new, used only once or twice by his friend, Sunggyu.
Hoya glanced over at Dongwoo’s screen and rolled his eyes. The boy barely had three paragraphs typed, and a line of gibberish where his head fell onto the keyboard. “Dongwoo.”
Dongwoo suddenly sat up, blinking his eyes rapidly before squinting and groaning, rubbing at his face.
“You fell asleep again,” Hoya said with a frown. Dongwoo was falling asleep during the day more often. Apparently, his boss had him working on the new highway overpass, and it was taking a lot more out of him than he expected.
“I did? Sorry, I’m just really tired.” Dongwoo yawned and sat back against the chair, closing his eyes again. Hoya watched him for a few minutes until his breathing evened out again, a tell tale sign that Dongwoo was asleep again.
Hoya would be a liar if he said he still didn’t have feelings for Dongwoo. They met at the university, and Hoya fell in love with the way Dongwoo smiled and the way he laughed. Then he found out about Dongwoo’s life and how hard it was, and he fell in love even more.
They dated for a few months until Dongwoo broke it off, apologizing. He didn’t seem to have enough time for Hoya in his life romantically, not in between his classes, and homework, and working at night to pay for it. Hoya insisted that it was fine, and any time they could spend together was enough for him, but Dongwoo thought he deserved better. Dongwoo always thought his friends deserved better than him.
I’m just burdening you with my problems. I’ll be okay, I promise, you guys.
Hoya remembered Dongwoo telling them that during the emergency meeting they had about his well being last month. And he remembered being worried, but none of them could do anything about it because Dongwoo was smiling like he always was.
Hoya closed his laptop and grabbed Dongwoo’s before deleting the gibberish.
--
When Dongwoo woke up, it was dark. His laptop was closed, and his paper was printed out in a neat stack on top of it. Dongwoo frowned and reached out to grab his paper, flipping through fives pages of it before seeing Hoya’s sticky note on the last page.
You’ve used up your Get Out of Jail Free card.
Dongwoo sighed and let his head fall back on the couch. He was dropping the ball here. He really needed to step it up and prove to his friends that he was fine, and he didn’t need help.
--
The manager at the construction site was in love with Dongwoo. He thought Dongwoo had a good work ethic, and he did what he was told without talking back. And on top of that, he never missed a day of work.
“Dongwoo, come here. Let me talk to you a little bit.” And because Dongwoo never missed a day of work, he was starting to wear down, something his manager noticed immediately. “How’s school going? You doing okay in your classes?”
“Yeah, yeah, they’re fine. I’m passing everything and-” Dongwoo yawned, holding up his hand in apology as he covered his mouth. “I’m doing okay. Why?”
His manager eyed him for a moment before frowning slightly.”You seem more tired than usual lately, that’s why. If I’m working you too hard, just say so. I can cut back on your hours a little bit and-”
“No! No! Don’t cut back on my hours, I’m fine. I need all the money I can get for tuition,” Dongwoo said frantically, eyes going wide. He barely managed to get his high school diploma, and most of his relatives laughed when he said he wanted to go to college.
His manager eyed him for a moment before someone called for Dongwoo, making him turn his eyes towards one of his coworkers. “If that’s all, I really need to get back to work,” he said before bowing low to his manager and heading off with another yawn that would rival a lion’s yawn.
--
Dongwoo finished his shift at five in the morning and headed back to his apartment on foot, while it was still dark. He wiped some cold sweat away from his forehead and tried not to let the weight of his tools and clothes bother him too much.
Just a few more years... Just a few more years of this, you’ll have your degree, and you’ll finally get somewhere in life, he thought to himself, heaving a sigh. Dongwoo was a firm believer in the phrase, ‘Good things come to those who wait.’
He took whatever life gave him and kept a smile on his face. He knew his friends thought he was secretly suffering on the inside, that they thought maybe he was really absolutely miserable underneath the smiles and laughter. But he wasn’t, really. It was hard to be miserable about the only thing he’d ever known.
Dongwoo didn’t know how long he’d spaced out until he bumped into someone and almost fell over from the weight of his tools.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Are you okay?” Dongwoo felt someone reach out and grab his arms, steadying him on his feet. Dongwoo blinked a few times and took in a deep breath, feeling his body start to protest from the lack of sleep and hard labor.
“Yeah, I’m fine, I’m sorry. I should’ve been watching where I was going, but it’s five in the morning, and people aren’t usually out... at... this hour...” Dongwoo’s voice trailed off as he stared at the man standing in front of him.
He had an expression on his face mixed between amusement and a smirk. He was immaculately dressed, for any time of the day and not just five in the morning, and the only thing that marred his appearance was the dust from Dongwoo’s clothes that transferred to him when they bumped into each other.
“I know. That’s why I don’t blame you. My suit, however...”
Dongwoo felt the color drain from his face. There was no way he could afford to replace, or even clean something like that. The man sensed Dongwoo’s apprehensive and chuckled before pulling a small white card out of his jacket and handing it to him.
“You do construction, right? You should call me sometime. I might have some work for you. Pays enough, easy money.”
Dongwoo stared at the card in the man’s hand apprehensively before reaching out to take it. The man grinned at him before stuffing his hands into his pockets and wandering off into the darkness. Dongwoo didn’t know how long he stood there staring after him, but a gust of wind brought him back to his senses as he stared at the card in his hand.
Nam Woohyun
--
Hoya was worried when Dongwoo didn’t show up for class in the morning. He sat nervously in class, tapping his pen on the desk. Several people glared at him, and one person even hissed at him to stop, but Hoya didn’t take any heed, mind concentrating solely on Dongwoo and wondering if he finally collapsed from exhaustion. He grabbed his phone from his backpack and pulled up Dongwoo’s number, fingers flying across the touch screen to send him a text.
To: Dongwoo
hey. are you okay?
Hoya stared as the text sent and waited for a reply. He waited through the entire class, and when nothing came, he frowned.
The professor finished his lecture and waved them away, rubbing at his eyes. Hoya practically threw his things into backpack before resolving to go grab some food and check up on Dongwoo. He had a class in ten minutes, but Dongwoo never missed class, and it worried Hoya.
--
Hoya’s worry escalated when Dongwoo didn’t answer the door after he knocked on it a few times, calling his name. He kicked at the placemat, looking for Dongwoo’s spare key. When he didn’t find it at its usual place underneath, Hoya swore slightly, looking around the door.
Anyone that thought Dongwoo was slow was an idiot. He was a closet genius, making Hoya almost wish that Dongwoo was as simple as people thought he was as he searched for the key. A small bump on the doorframe caught Hoya’s eye. He reached out and ran his hand up and down, catching the end of something. He picked at it, and realized it was tape. He pulled it down, revealing the key.
“Oh, Dongwoo,” Hoya said with a smile on his face before jamming the key into the door and letting himself inside. Dongwoo’s shoes were by the door, and his backpack was on the kitchen table, where he always left it while he was getting ready for school.
Hoya called his name one more time before dropping his things and looking around the apartment for signs of forced entry. He knocked on Dongwoo’s bedroom door before pushing it open to see Dongwoo passed out on his bed, wrapped up in his blankets, fully dressed for school.
“Dongwoo?” Hoya stepped inside carefully, avoiding the dirty clothes and shoes that littered the floor. Dongwoo didn’t move as Hoya gently grabbed his shoulder and shook it. Frowning, Hoya reached up and pressed his hand against Dongwoo’s forehead, sighing. He was burning up. “I can’t believe you were still planning to go to school.”
Suddenly, Dongwoo’s eyes snapped open, and he sat up abruptly, making his vision spin. He moaned in pain and let himself fall back onto the bed, pressing his hands to his eyes. “Hoya? What time is it?” he mumbled, trying to make the world stop spinning.
“Too late for class. I texted you, and you didn’t reply so I got worried. I brought you some food. And I’m about to go out and get you some medicine.”
Dongwoo groaned and sighed. He was already feeling a little bit under the weather when he got home, so he decided to get ready early and take a nap before class. He didn’t think he’d sleep all the way through class. “Wait. Don’t you have class right now?” Dongwoo croaked out as Hoya got up to leave.
“I can miss a class or two to take care of you.” Hoya watched as Dongwoo’s face went from sickly and tired to guilty, and he sighed as he leaned on the doorframe. “It’s okay. You’re sick. Don’t feel guilty. I just want to see you get better.”
--
Dongwoo was on the couch, rolled up in his blankets when Hoya came back with the medicine. He grabbed a clean cup from the small kitchen and filled it with water before jabbing at Dongwoo and handing him some pills and the water.
Dongwoo took it from him and choked the pills down, making a face at how terrible they tasted. “Tastes like medicine,” he croaked out, finishing the water and placing the empty cup on the coffee table.
“Really? The package said rainbows, sunshine, and unicorns. You’re telling me they lied to me?” Hoya looked so scandalized that Dongwoo couldn’t help but laugh. His entire body ached as he shook with laughter, but he didn’t care. It was making him feel better. “You should really take a break for a few days. If you’re a little bit short for rent, I’ll help you cover it, but if you keep going like this, you’re going to be rent free in heaven.”
Dongwoo knew he was right. Hoya was always right when it came to these things. “So take a few days off, okay?”
Dongwoo stared at Hoya’s pleading face before sighing and nodding, letting his head fall back onto the couch. A smile appeared on Hoya’s face as he reached out to ruffle Dongwoo’s hair. He got up and grabbed the bag of previously warm food and took it out to shove into Dongwoo’s microwave.
“I brought food. Are you hungry?”
“Am I ever not hungry?”
--
Different people came to check up on Dongwoo at different hours of the day. Hoya stood there and watched and listened as Dongwoo called his manager to let him know he needed the next couple days off to get better. His manager thought he was doing him a favor by giving him an entire week off, and Dongwoo was grateful, but the amount of money he would be losing was nagging at him in the back of his mind.
Sunggyu conveniently managed to find different ways to check up on him during the day, while Hoya and his other friend, Myungsoo, managed to stop by at night, claiming that it was the first time in a while that Dongwoo was free during the night, so they had a guy’s night. Every night.
Dongwoo laid awake at night one night, unable to sleep because he was so used to working so late at night. His sickness cleared up in two days, and he was ready to go back to work, but his friends wouldn’t have it. And neither was his manager when he called in to say he could work.
His mind wandered to the stranger’s business card. Nam Woohyun. Dongwoo had never heard the name before in his life, but he promised him pay. He reached out for his phone on his bedside and scrolled down to Woohyun’s name, pursing his lips. His thumb hovered over the button to call, perhaps a little bit too close because his phone started to dial.
Dongwoo almost dropped his phone in surprise when he heard someone answer.
“Hello?”
“Uh... Hi.”
“Who is this?”
“It’s Dongwoo.”
“Dongwoo...?”
“Oh! The construction worker you bumped into the other day.”
“Oh, it’s you. I was wondering when you were going to call. Looking for a job?”
“Yeah, I’m going to be a little bit short on cash this month so...” Dongwoo’s voice got quieter when he heard someone stirring out in the living room. Usually he’d sleep out there with them, but he decided to sleep in his room so he could be well rested for school in the morning.
“Ah, I see. Well. I’ll text you the address to the site. You’ll be restoring an old house. You know how to do that, right?”
Dongwoo didn’t have the faintest clue.
“Either way, there will be some others there working on the house. As long as you follow directions, everything should be fine.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks. I really need the money and-”
“I know. Don’t worry about it.”
And then the line went dead.
--
Woohyun stared at his phone as soon as he hung up, smile on his face. It wouldn’t be long now, before he could have Dongwoo all to himself.
He sat alone in a sparsely furnished living room, in a house close to to the country. It was off the beaten path, and held a certain quaintness to it that Woohyun loved. Sheets covered whatever other furniture was in the house, and a fire burned in the fireplace as Woohyun rested his elbow on the armrest, leaning his head onto his hand.
“Dongwoo, Dongwoo, Dongwoo,” he mused to himself, pressing a button on his phone to stare at the background. Woohyun smiled as he saw Dongwoo’s laughing face appear, fully clad in his construction armor. He sighed and turned his phone off before staring into the fire.
--
Dongwoo checked his phone in the morning as he got ready for school, stopping when he was met by a foreign address. He opened up his laptop and searched the address to see it was on the outskirts of town. His instinct screamed at him that this was a bad idea, that he should just let Hoya help him with his rent, but he pushed the feeling into the back of his mind while he made notes on his phone of how to get there by bus. There was a note of when the others would be working, and Dongwoo noted that it was right after his classes ended until dinner.
“That’s not so bad... gives me some time to do homework, and I can head out to my other job at night, too,” he said out loud with a smile. Maybe his luck was turning up for once.
--
“Where are you headed?” Hoya asked as Dongwoo packed up his things quickly, checking his phone for the time.
“I need to catch up on some homework, so I’ll see you later?” Dongwoo asked, swinging his backpack over his shoulder and giving him a questioning thumbs up.
“Yeah, sure. I’ll see you later,” Hoya said, blinking twice before Dongwoo disappeared from his sight.
--
It would take about forty-five minutes for the bus to reach the stop on the outskirts of town, and then another twenty minutes for Dongwoo to walk to the house. He did the calculations in his head twice, and then a third time because he started to confuse himself.
He watched as the other occupants of the bus got off at their respective stops, sometimes in a flood of people, and sometimes, only one person would go. There were a few people that got on at stops, but by the time they got to Dongwoo’s stop, he was the only one left.
“What’re you doing out here by yourself, sonny?” the old bus driver asked. “Ain’t nothing but fields and abandoned houses out there.”
“I’m helping restore a house, actually. Not too far from here,” Dongwoo said as he stepped off of the bus slowly.
“Is you, now? I know which one that is... You best rethink that idea, son. That house is nothing but bad news.”
Dongwoo felt a chill go down his spine as soon as he got off of the bus, and the doors closed behind him. He watched the bus drive off, and then he was alone at the edge of town. He could make out the house at the end of the path and gulped.
--
The feeling that somebody was watching him wasn’t strong at first. Dongwoo made it to the house to see a flurry of workers going in and out. The only noise was the sound of tools hammering and sawing. No one was saying anything.
The manager of the project spotted him and hurried up to him with a small bow. “You’re Dongwoo?” he asked, avoiding eye contact.
“Uh... yes. I am. Nam Wooh-”
“Yes, I know. Take a look through the house and get familiar with it first before I give you your tasks.” He hurried away before Dongwoo could say anything else, hovering over a table with the blue prints. Dongwoo swallowed and ignored the strange feeling in his chest, taking a hardhat from someone who offered it to him and thanked them before taking a look at the house from the front.
The white paint was peeling. There were a few holes in the roof, the patio had a few holes where the planks rotted and fell away. The circular attic window was broken. The withered remains of a garden was overrun with weeds, and the living room window needed replacing.
Dongwoo stepped inside, stepping out of the way of busy workers. No one was saying anything to each other beyond the bare necessities, something Dongwoo found odd, because everyone at his nightly construction job took to talking with each other to help pass the time as they worked.
The first room on his left was a dining room. There was only a table and a few chairs, all covered with a white sheet. The walls were bare and cracked. On his right was a living room. There was a couch and a chair across from a fireplace. No coffee table, and the mantle looked like it’d seen better days.
Dongwoo walked inside, past a drawer in the hallway with a cracked vase. At the end of the hallway was a staircase that looked whole for the most part. It had an iron handrail, and Dongwoo stopped to admire the detail in the craft. Past the stairs was the kitchen, but there were so many noises coming from there, Dongwoo opted to go see upstairs instead.
There were spots on the wall that were whiter than others, a sure sign that frames once hung there. At the top of the stairs, Dongwoo could see four doors. One was at the very end of the hallway, two on the right, one on the left with a small hallway closet.
He gently pushed open the doors to the room, peeking inside to see them completely empty. Dongwoo pushed open the door at the end to see there was a bed in the room, covered with a sheet. There was a dresser, a small vanity, and another door that Dongwoo assumed was the closet.
He closed the door to the room and turned around. Where was the way to the attic? He glanced up at the ceiling and noticed the trap door for it, but no string hanging down. Must’ve snapped off or something. This house looks pretty old, Dongwoo thought as he stared.
Then he felt it. Eyes watching him. He tore his eyes away from the ceiling and looked around. No one was on the second floor. The doors in front of him were closed. He glanced over his shoulder and felt his heart drop. The door to the master bedroom was open.
Dongwoo felt himself tremble slightly. He’d closed it. He definitely remembered closing it. “Maybe I didn’t close it all the way, and it opened by itself from all the noise,” Dongwoo said, reaching out to grab the doorknob and close the door again.
This time, he made sure it was completely closed before hurrying down to the manager outside of the house.
--
Compared to everyone else, Dongwoo had a relatively light workload. By the time it was time to pack up and go home, he’d barely even broken a sweat.
“Here you go,” the manager said, handing him an envelope with his name on it. Confused, Dongwoo took it and opened it up, eyes widening at the number of bills crammed inside.
“What? But I hardly even did anything and-”
“Will you be coming back tomorrow?” the manager asked, cutting him off.
“I- yeah. I mean, the house isn’t done yet, and-”
“Okay. Go before you miss the bus.”
--
When Dongwoo boarded the bus again, there was a different old man driving the bus. He didn’t say anything as Dongwoo got on, but there was a look on his face that made Dongwoo feel like he shouldn’t be there.
--
“Where have you been?”
Dongwoo almost dropped his keys in surprise when he heard Hoya’s voice as he opened the door. “I went out to clear my thoughts. How long have you been here? Don’t you have your own apartment?” Dongwoo asked with a laugh, trying to play off Hoya’s concern. He finally felt safe again in his own apartment.
“I came by to see if you wanted to grab some dinner or something, but you weren’t here.”
“Oh. Why didn’t you call me then?” Dongwoo asked, heading into his bedroom.
“I did. It said your number wasn’t in service. Did you forget to pay your phone bill?”
Dongwoo furrowed his eyebrows and pulled out his phone as Hoya sat down next to him. “No. I paid my bill. Full bars of service, half battery. Try calling me again,” Dongwoo said, frowning slightly.
Hoya pulled out his phone and dialed Dongwoo’s number, and both of them almost jumped when they heard Dongwoo’s phone start ringing. “Are you sure you dialed the right number?”
“I think I know what your number is,” Hoya said with a scowl. Dongwoo laughed at him, and Hoya’s scowl turned into an exasperated smile. “Anyway, I’m here. We might as well go out for dinner.”
“Hoya, I have some homework to do and-”
“You should’ve thought of that before you decided to go clear your thoughts. Come on. I’m buying.”
“Well, when you put it that way...”
--
Dongwoo had forgotten how good it felt to spend time with Hoya this way. They had a comfortable dinner, talking about random things. He, of course, fought with Hoya for the check whenever it came out and lost when Hoya jabbed him in the ribs.
They walked back to Dongwoo’s apartment, laughing and trading punches. A silence fell between them, and when Hoya grabbed Dongwoo’s hand in the darkness, Dongwoo welcomed the comfort.
Then, he felt eyes on him again. He stopped laughing and looked around, eyes nervous. Hoya noticed and looked around too, wondering what Dongwoo was looking for.
“Dongwoo? Are you okay?”
“Yeah... I’m fine. Just have this weird, nagging feeling, that’s all.”
“Already restless from taking a week off of work?”
Dongwoo would be able to go back to working on the overpass tomorrow. His manager called him and let him know that the project was almost finished. Dongwoo would need to look for another job soon. He thought about the wad of cash in his backpack from the one day of working on the house and felt chill go down his spine.
“Cold?” And before Dongwoo could open his mouth to answer, Hoya let go of his hand and wrapped his arm around his waist with a smile on his face. Dongwoo could feel himself getting nervous again, but this time, it was a different kind of nervous. The good kind.
They walked in silence all the way up to Dongwoo’s apartment. When they stopped moving, Hoya shifted so he was standing in front of Dongwoo, both arms wrapped around the slightly shorter man’s waist.
Dongwoo’s face was red with how close Hoya was standing close to him. They’d dated before, but they didn’t get very far before they broke up.
“I miss this,” Hoya whispered, barely an inch away from Dongwoo’s lips.
“I...” Dongwoo didn’t have to say anything else before Hoya leaned in to kiss him.
--
One thing led to another. They were kissing in front of Dongwoo’s apartment, and the next thing he knew, they were making out on his couch.
Hands were roaming everywhere, and Hoya was making delicious moans as Dongwoo gripped his hips as they writhed together on the couch. Somehow, they moved to Dongwoo’s bed, their clothes were gone, and Dongwoo was lost in all of the good feelings flooding his body.
“Hoya, Hoya,” he moaned, bucking up underneath him. Hoya grinned and pressed their lips together again, biting Dongwoo’s soft bottom lip before kissing down to his jaw and attacking his neck.
“I’ll make you feel good. I promise,” he mumbled into Dongwoo’s collar bone before he bit down. He was rewarded by a loud moan from Dongwoo.
--
Dongwoo didn’t think much of it when Hoya didn’t show up to class. Hoya hurried out in the morning while pressing kisses to Dongwoo’s lips, saying something about being late to class. He said they’d talk about what happened last night later, and maybe talk about getting back together again.
He checked his phone to see a text from Hoya saying he wouldn’t be in class because of an emergency. Dongwoo immediately got alarmed and asked him if he was okay. Hoya assured him he was, but Dongwoo was still left with a feeling of unease that hadn’t left him since he visited the house.
Speaking of which, he had to go out there again, but the feeling that Hoya wasn’t really okay was nagging at him, so as soon as class was over, Dongwoo went straight to Hoya’s apartment.
He banged on the door a few times, calling Hoya’s name before finally picking up the phone and calling him. It rang four times before Hoya finally picked up.
“Hoya? Where are you? I’m outside your apartment,” Dongwoo said, running his hand through his hair.
“Oh, I stepped out to run errands for a bit. Listen, I’m going to be a little bit busy for the rest of the day, okay? I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Dongwoo blinked a few times before letting out a sigh. “Oh. Okay. Sure. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Bye.”
If Dongwoo weren’t so jittery, he probably would’ve noticed how strained Hoya’s voice sounded. He was far from okay, and at that moment, he wasn’t sure if he was even going to be alive tomorrow.
“Good,” Woohyun said, hanging up Hoya’s phone and throwing it behind him onto the kitchen table. Hoya struggled in the chair he was tied to as Woohyun sighed.
Hoya was on his way home when he was suddenly knocked out. When he woke up again, he was bound to a chair, gagged and tied while a man in a suit smoked a cigarette in front of him, eyes looking dark and deadly.
He’d tried to escape, but the cloth binding his arms and legs to the chair was tied too tightly, cutting off his circulation. “Who are you? Why am I here?” Hoya yelled, struggling in the chair again.
Woohyun took a few steps forward and smirked at him before reaching out to grab his hair painfully and yanking his head back. “You are here,” Woohyun said, tracing the veins on Hoya’s neck with his free hand, “because you touched and defiled something that belongs to me.” His voice was laced with something that sounded like poison.
“What are you talking about?” Hoya hissed, trying not to cry out in pain as his head was pulled further back.
“You know perfectly well what I’m talking about. And I’m going to teach you a lesson about playing with things that don’t belong to you.”
Hoya couldn’t even scream when he felt something pierce his neck.
--
Dongwoo was apprehensive about going back out to the house, but he didn’t like leaving jobs unfinished, even if he didn’t technically commit to doing this job. It didn’t settle right with him to leave something halfway, especially with how much he was paid for doing next to nothing the day before.
When he arrived on site this time, he hardly recognized anyone’s face besides the site manager’s. The manager saw him coming again and waved him over with his hand.
“I don’t recognize anyone here,” Dongwoo said, looking around again.
“Yeah. A lot of people bailed out on us because of the story behind this house.”
Dongwoo opened his mouth to ask about it but changed his mind. He wanted to finish this house and be done with it before something happened. Plus, he didn’t think his heart would be able to take anything else today.
“You’ll take the attic today. Just clean out whatever is there. The safety inspector said it was safe to go up there.”
--
Dongwoo headed up the stairs to see the trap door to the attic lowered. He was hit with a sense of déjà vu, staring at the lowered ladder. He climbed up slowly, just in case there was something wrong with the ladder, and when his head poked up into the attic, he glanced around at the boxes littering the room.
Dongwoo’s shoes kicked up dust with every step he took. He glanced around the room at the boxes, chests, and random objects. He made his way over to the broken window and saw some scaffolding set up so the painters could start painting the outside of the house.
He turned around and stopped, squinting his eyes and trying to remember something that was nagging at him. Then it hit him.
“Oh! This looks like...” It looked like the house he used to draw when he was a kid. His teacher told him to be creative with a project she sent him home with one day, to design a house just for him.
“It looked almost exactly like this,” Dongwoo said to himself, thinking about the floor plan. He was only eight, when he drew it, but Dongwoo could remember the idea behind it. “Huh. Figures my dream house would have some creepy back story to it.”
--
When Dongwoo got back home, he was surprised to see Hoya standing outside of his doorway. He was pacing back and forth, trembling slightly. Dongwoo’s eyebrows furrowed with worry when he noticed how pale Hoya was.
“Hoya?”
Hoya nearly jumped when he heard Dongwoo call him, and stopped pacing. He stood nervously as Dongwoo approached him, and kept a good distance between the two of them.
“What are you-”
“I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”
Dongwoo froze and stared at Hoya for a few seconds before a smile broke out on his face. “Hoya, you can’t scare me like that. Stop it. Come inside, you look ridiculously pale,” Dongwoo said.
“I mean it, Dongwoo. We can’t see each other anymore.”
Dongwoo stopped in the doorway and turned to give Hoya a weird look. “What are you talking about?”
“I was just using you. I wanted to have sex with you, and that was it. I don’t consider you a friend or anything, just a conquest.” Hoya’s heart burned as the words spilled from his mouth, but if he didn’t say them, then he would start to feel a cut forming on his body.
“... Just a conquest? What? Hoya, listen, we don’t have to be in a relationship together. I didn’t mind our friendship-”
“No. This is it. This is the last time we’ll see each other.” And Hoya left Dongwoo standing there in his doorway, completely dumbfounded.
You better not look back. Or there will be consequences. Hoya gritted his teeth and faced forward, resolutely not turning around, even when he heard Dongwoo calling for him.
--
It would be his luck that the one time he needed his friends, they would be unavailable. Dongwoo threw his phone down after he got Hoya’s voicemail for the third time and started to dial Sunggyu’s number for the fifth time.
“The one time I actually need someone,” he said, staring at his phone. When he heard Sunggyu’s voicemail, he threw his phone and covered his eyes. Dongwoo never realized just how many people were there for him until they were gone.
--
Dongwoo was walking home at five in the morning again from the construction site. The overpass was done, and after another safety inspection, it would be open to the public to use. He felt accomplished, building something that would be of use to someone.
He’d passed the last few days away with going to class and going to work on the house and going home. He’d worked on his homework for a bit before going out to his night job. And now, he was going to be out of the night job, but still have plenty of money left over thanks to how much the house job was paying.
“Fancy seeing you out here again,” Dongwoo heard a familiar voice say. He looked up from the sidewalk to see Woohyun, still dressed in a suit, sitting on a bench with a smile on his face. Dongwoo stopped and stared at him for a moment until Woohyun beckoned him over and patted the seat beside him.
He didn’t have anywhere to be, so Dongwoo sat down beside him, heaving a sigh.
“Why the long sigh?” Woohyun asked, pulling a cigarette out and offering one to Dongwoo. Dongwoo declined, and Woohyun shrugged before lighting it.
“You don’t want to hear about my problems. I have too many of them, and I’d rather not bother people with them,” Dongwoo said, leaning back against the back of the bench.
“I’m curious now. Don’t leave me hanging like this.” Woohyun breathed out a stream of smoke.
“One of my friends decided that he didn’t want to be friends anymore. We were talking about getting back into a relationship, but he randomly decided he didn’t want to anymore. He’s been avoiding me for the past few days. And I can’t even talk to my other friends about it because they’re all busy with their own lives.”
Woohyun nodded in understanding, looking out at the sky. “Sucks when you don’t have anyone to turn to, huh?”
“I always thought I could do things on my own. I never realized how much I relied on my friends until now,” Dongwoo said quietly.
Things were quiet between the two of them until Woohyun dropped his cigarette and stomped it out. “How’s the house going?”
“It’s almost done. I think there’s only another day or two of work on it before it’s finished.”
“That’s good. Thanks for picking up the job. I think you’re the only one besides the site manager that’s stuck with it.”
“I don’t really like to leave things unfinished. Do you know how much they’re paying me? For what little they’re having me do?”
Woohyun nodded. “Of course. I’m the one that told them.”
“But why?”
“Why not?” Woohyun asked, shrugging his shoulders. They two stared at each other until Dongwoo’s eyes narrowed a little bit. “What?”
“Nothing. I just...” Something felt familiar about Woohyun’s stare, but before Dongwoo could figure it out, Woohyun stood up and brushed some invisible dust from his shoulders.
“I should be headed out anyway. Good luck with your friends.”
Dongwoo watched as Woohyun left, feeling even more apprehensive than before.
--
It was the final day of working on the house before it would be completed. Dongwoo was getting ready to leave for the bus stop when he heard frantic knocking on his door. Anxious, he pulled it open to see Hoya standing there, looking like he’d seen a ghost.
“Hoya! What-”
“I don’t have much time. I know you’ve been working on a house after class. Don’t go back there,” Hoya said. He was panting, and when he caught his breath and opened his mouth to talk again, he gritted his teeth together as his face screwed up in pain.
“Hoya! Are you okay? What’s going-”
“Don’t. Go. Back. There.”
Dongwoo had no choice but to obey before Hoya turned and left as abruptly as he came. “Hoya! Wait!” Dongwoo yelled, but Hoya was already gone.
--
Hoya stumbled into his apartment, holding his stomach. He managed to get to his couch and pulled off his shirt to reveal a long bloody cut across his chest. When he thought about the warning he gave Dongwoo, he yelled as another cut opened on his chest above it.
“I told you not to see him again.”
Hoya gritted his teeth as his chest heaved. He had smaller scars on his arms and his legs from when cuts would appear because he thought about Dongwoo.
“You’re sick, do you know that? Dongwoo would never love someone like you,” Hoya spat, groaning in pain when another cut opened on his chest.
Woohyun sighed from the seat next to him and pursed his lips. “Well, when no one else is left and he’s looking for comfort, guess who will be there with open arms? I know you humans. Irrational creatures.”
“At least we’re not crazy!” Hoya yelled, earning another cut across his stomach.
“We all do a few crazy things when we’re in love. I think it goes for any species, not just mine.”
Hoya closed his eyes as he felt blood dripping down his chest and wished for death.
--
Dongwoo called in to the site manager, making up an excuse to not go in that day. The site manager started to sound nervous, asking why he couldn’t come in. He sounded almost frantic.
“I’m really sorry, but something came up that I can’t ignore. I hope you understand!” Dongwoo hung up his phone and ran his hand through his hair. What the hell was going on?
--
For once in his life, Dongwoo fell asleep at an early time. His phone was still clutched in his hands after trying to reach Hoya for the last four hours.
And even in his sleep, he felt it. The eyes. The unease. His eyes snapped open, and he sat up in a room that wasn’t his.
His eyes went wide, and he jerked around in the sheets, looking around wildly, terror slowly washing over him as he realized where he was.
“Oh, god.”
He was at the house.
Moonlight flooded through the window, and Dongwoo slipped out of the bed. He was in the master bedroom. The room was slightly more furnished, and the lights were supposed to be working now, but when Dongwoo flipped the switch, nothing happened.
He tiptoed quietly over to the doors, eyes darting around rapidly. Dongwoo opened up the door quietly and peeked out into the hallway. It was empty and dark. Dongwoo was breathing hard as he opened the door, stepping out into the hallway.
He walked cautiously and slowly, looking around for any sign of movement. He went down the stairs slowly, just in case one of them creaked and gave away his position. He could see the round moon outside through the window at the front door, and noticed there was a fire burning in the fireplace in the living room. The shadows moved slightly, making Dongwoo’s breath hitch.
“Come in here. Don’t just stand there in the hallway like a creep.”
Dongwoo froze. That was Woohyun’s voice. He hurried over to the living room and saw Woohyun sitting across from the fireplace, drumming his fingers on the armrest. He glanced back at Dongwoo with a smile and patted the empty seat next to him. “I thought you’d never wake up.”
“What’s going on? Why am I here?” Dongwoo asked, eyes turning anxious and angry.
“This house is for you. It’s your dream house, remember? It has everything you ever wanted in it. I remember,” Woohyun said, turning back to the fire.
“How do you know that? Who are you?” Dongwoo demanded.
Woohyun stared at the fire until his head lowered slightly, and he closed his eyes. “I can make you happy here. It’s all I’ve ever wanted since I first saw you working on that project for your teacher. I told you I was going to build the house of your dreams. Don’t you remember?”
Woohyun turned in his seat to see Dongwoo narrowing his eyes at him as he tried to remember. “No. I don’t. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Figures. You might’ve thought it was a dream. I know your life is hard, and you have no idea how badly I wanted to make it easy for you. I didn’t want you to grow up spoiled, though. I made sure nothing bad happened to you. But you’re here now, your house is done, and I’m here to take care of everything you could possibly want.”
Dongwoo blinked a few times as he let Woohyun’s words sink in, and he shook his head. “No. No. You can’t keep me here. I have friends, I have coworkers, I have Hoya. I need to find Hoya,” Dongwoo said, backing out of the living room and heading for the front door.
Woohyun was in front of him in a flash, grabbing Dongwoo’s arms and shoving him back towards a wall, eyes full of anger. “Hoya is gone, and your friends are gone. You finished the overpass job, so you don’t even have coworkers anymore. You’re alone, Dongwoo. Your family doesn’t want you. But I’m here. I want you. I need you,” Woohyun said, eyes turning from anger to pleading.
Dongwoo’s chest heaved, his vision getting dizzy. He was terrified. And his breathing only intensified when Woohyun leaned forward and nuzzled their cheeks together before pressing his lips to Dongwoo’s ear and kissing down his jawline.
“I can take care of you. I’ll take care of everything you need,” Woohyun whispered. His grip on Dongwoo’s arms was starting to get painful.
“What do you mean Hoya is gone? What happened to him? And my friends? You know, don’t you?” Dongwoo croaked out, feeling horror and anxiety grip at his heart.
Woohyun sighed and let go of one of Dongwoo’s arms, reaching up to stroke his face gently. Dongwoo was sure he was going to have bruises. “Your friends are busy. And Hoya was getting in the way, so I got rid of him.”
Dongwoo tensed up underneath him and sucked in a gasp. “You did what?” he asked quietly.
“You have to understand. You were mine first. And- and he touched you and defiled you. He had to be punished for playing with things that didn’t belong to him.”
Dongwoo stared at Woohyun in disbelief as Woohyun gazed at him fondly. He couldn’t believe it. Who was this psycho? “Where is he?”
“He’s gone. That’s all that matters. He’s gone, and I’m here. I’ll take care of you so much better than he ever could,” Woohyun said, burying his face into the crook of Dongwoo’s neck.
“I’ll love you better than he ever could.”
Author: pikagyu
Rating: R
Pairing: Yadong (Dongwoo/Hoya);; 2woo (Dongwoo/Woohyun)
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summary: Someone was always watching.
AN;; a very, very, very late help_japan fic for chunonew_rx! I finally sat down and wrote it all. I'm sorry if it's not as dark as you would like, but this is a lot darker than anything I usually write.
--
Mine
--
Dongwoo didn’t have the best luck when it came to things in life. His parents passed away when he was young, leaving him to be passed around his aunts, uncles, and cousins until he graduated from high school. He found a job as a construction worker and enrolled in the local university. He worked hard as a student by day and worked harder as a construction worker by night. Whatever free time he had, he used to study and do his homework.
He didn’t have very many friends, but the ones he did have were good to him, doing whatever they could to help him out a little bit.
“Dongwoo, wake up,” Hoya said, shaking his friend’s shoulder. Dongwoo fell asleep at the coffee table in the middle of typing an essay. His laptop was an old hand-me-down from one of his other friends. It was practically brand new, used only once or twice by his friend, Sunggyu.
Hoya glanced over at Dongwoo’s screen and rolled his eyes. The boy barely had three paragraphs typed, and a line of gibberish where his head fell onto the keyboard. “Dongwoo.”
Dongwoo suddenly sat up, blinking his eyes rapidly before squinting and groaning, rubbing at his face.
“You fell asleep again,” Hoya said with a frown. Dongwoo was falling asleep during the day more often. Apparently, his boss had him working on the new highway overpass, and it was taking a lot more out of him than he expected.
“I did? Sorry, I’m just really tired.” Dongwoo yawned and sat back against the chair, closing his eyes again. Hoya watched him for a few minutes until his breathing evened out again, a tell tale sign that Dongwoo was asleep again.
Hoya would be a liar if he said he still didn’t have feelings for Dongwoo. They met at the university, and Hoya fell in love with the way Dongwoo smiled and the way he laughed. Then he found out about Dongwoo’s life and how hard it was, and he fell in love even more.
They dated for a few months until Dongwoo broke it off, apologizing. He didn’t seem to have enough time for Hoya in his life romantically, not in between his classes, and homework, and working at night to pay for it. Hoya insisted that it was fine, and any time they could spend together was enough for him, but Dongwoo thought he deserved better. Dongwoo always thought his friends deserved better than him.
I’m just burdening you with my problems. I’ll be okay, I promise, you guys.
Hoya remembered Dongwoo telling them that during the emergency meeting they had about his well being last month. And he remembered being worried, but none of them could do anything about it because Dongwoo was smiling like he always was.
Hoya closed his laptop and grabbed Dongwoo’s before deleting the gibberish.
--
When Dongwoo woke up, it was dark. His laptop was closed, and his paper was printed out in a neat stack on top of it. Dongwoo frowned and reached out to grab his paper, flipping through fives pages of it before seeing Hoya’s sticky note on the last page.
You’ve used up your Get Out of Jail Free card.
Dongwoo sighed and let his head fall back on the couch. He was dropping the ball here. He really needed to step it up and prove to his friends that he was fine, and he didn’t need help.
--
The manager at the construction site was in love with Dongwoo. He thought Dongwoo had a good work ethic, and he did what he was told without talking back. And on top of that, he never missed a day of work.
“Dongwoo, come here. Let me talk to you a little bit.” And because Dongwoo never missed a day of work, he was starting to wear down, something his manager noticed immediately. “How’s school going? You doing okay in your classes?”
“Yeah, yeah, they’re fine. I’m passing everything and-” Dongwoo yawned, holding up his hand in apology as he covered his mouth. “I’m doing okay. Why?”
His manager eyed him for a moment before frowning slightly.”You seem more tired than usual lately, that’s why. If I’m working you too hard, just say so. I can cut back on your hours a little bit and-”
“No! No! Don’t cut back on my hours, I’m fine. I need all the money I can get for tuition,” Dongwoo said frantically, eyes going wide. He barely managed to get his high school diploma, and most of his relatives laughed when he said he wanted to go to college.
His manager eyed him for a moment before someone called for Dongwoo, making him turn his eyes towards one of his coworkers. “If that’s all, I really need to get back to work,” he said before bowing low to his manager and heading off with another yawn that would rival a lion’s yawn.
--
Dongwoo finished his shift at five in the morning and headed back to his apartment on foot, while it was still dark. He wiped some cold sweat away from his forehead and tried not to let the weight of his tools and clothes bother him too much.
Just a few more years... Just a few more years of this, you’ll have your degree, and you’ll finally get somewhere in life, he thought to himself, heaving a sigh. Dongwoo was a firm believer in the phrase, ‘Good things come to those who wait.’
He took whatever life gave him and kept a smile on his face. He knew his friends thought he was secretly suffering on the inside, that they thought maybe he was really absolutely miserable underneath the smiles and laughter. But he wasn’t, really. It was hard to be miserable about the only thing he’d ever known.
Dongwoo didn’t know how long he’d spaced out until he bumped into someone and almost fell over from the weight of his tools.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Are you okay?” Dongwoo felt someone reach out and grab his arms, steadying him on his feet. Dongwoo blinked a few times and took in a deep breath, feeling his body start to protest from the lack of sleep and hard labor.
“Yeah, I’m fine, I’m sorry. I should’ve been watching where I was going, but it’s five in the morning, and people aren’t usually out... at... this hour...” Dongwoo’s voice trailed off as he stared at the man standing in front of him.
He had an expression on his face mixed between amusement and a smirk. He was immaculately dressed, for any time of the day and not just five in the morning, and the only thing that marred his appearance was the dust from Dongwoo’s clothes that transferred to him when they bumped into each other.
“I know. That’s why I don’t blame you. My suit, however...”
Dongwoo felt the color drain from his face. There was no way he could afford to replace, or even clean something like that. The man sensed Dongwoo’s apprehensive and chuckled before pulling a small white card out of his jacket and handing it to him.
“You do construction, right? You should call me sometime. I might have some work for you. Pays enough, easy money.”
Dongwoo stared at the card in the man’s hand apprehensively before reaching out to take it. The man grinned at him before stuffing his hands into his pockets and wandering off into the darkness. Dongwoo didn’t know how long he stood there staring after him, but a gust of wind brought him back to his senses as he stared at the card in his hand.
Nam Woohyun
--
Hoya was worried when Dongwoo didn’t show up for class in the morning. He sat nervously in class, tapping his pen on the desk. Several people glared at him, and one person even hissed at him to stop, but Hoya didn’t take any heed, mind concentrating solely on Dongwoo and wondering if he finally collapsed from exhaustion. He grabbed his phone from his backpack and pulled up Dongwoo’s number, fingers flying across the touch screen to send him a text.
To: Dongwoo
hey. are you okay?
Hoya stared as the text sent and waited for a reply. He waited through the entire class, and when nothing came, he frowned.
The professor finished his lecture and waved them away, rubbing at his eyes. Hoya practically threw his things into backpack before resolving to go grab some food and check up on Dongwoo. He had a class in ten minutes, but Dongwoo never missed class, and it worried Hoya.
--
Hoya’s worry escalated when Dongwoo didn’t answer the door after he knocked on it a few times, calling his name. He kicked at the placemat, looking for Dongwoo’s spare key. When he didn’t find it at its usual place underneath, Hoya swore slightly, looking around the door.
Anyone that thought Dongwoo was slow was an idiot. He was a closet genius, making Hoya almost wish that Dongwoo was as simple as people thought he was as he searched for the key. A small bump on the doorframe caught Hoya’s eye. He reached out and ran his hand up and down, catching the end of something. He picked at it, and realized it was tape. He pulled it down, revealing the key.
“Oh, Dongwoo,” Hoya said with a smile on his face before jamming the key into the door and letting himself inside. Dongwoo’s shoes were by the door, and his backpack was on the kitchen table, where he always left it while he was getting ready for school.
Hoya called his name one more time before dropping his things and looking around the apartment for signs of forced entry. He knocked on Dongwoo’s bedroom door before pushing it open to see Dongwoo passed out on his bed, wrapped up in his blankets, fully dressed for school.
“Dongwoo?” Hoya stepped inside carefully, avoiding the dirty clothes and shoes that littered the floor. Dongwoo didn’t move as Hoya gently grabbed his shoulder and shook it. Frowning, Hoya reached up and pressed his hand against Dongwoo’s forehead, sighing. He was burning up. “I can’t believe you were still planning to go to school.”
Suddenly, Dongwoo’s eyes snapped open, and he sat up abruptly, making his vision spin. He moaned in pain and let himself fall back onto the bed, pressing his hands to his eyes. “Hoya? What time is it?” he mumbled, trying to make the world stop spinning.
“Too late for class. I texted you, and you didn’t reply so I got worried. I brought you some food. And I’m about to go out and get you some medicine.”
Dongwoo groaned and sighed. He was already feeling a little bit under the weather when he got home, so he decided to get ready early and take a nap before class. He didn’t think he’d sleep all the way through class. “Wait. Don’t you have class right now?” Dongwoo croaked out as Hoya got up to leave.
“I can miss a class or two to take care of you.” Hoya watched as Dongwoo’s face went from sickly and tired to guilty, and he sighed as he leaned on the doorframe. “It’s okay. You’re sick. Don’t feel guilty. I just want to see you get better.”
--
Dongwoo was on the couch, rolled up in his blankets when Hoya came back with the medicine. He grabbed a clean cup from the small kitchen and filled it with water before jabbing at Dongwoo and handing him some pills and the water.
Dongwoo took it from him and choked the pills down, making a face at how terrible they tasted. “Tastes like medicine,” he croaked out, finishing the water and placing the empty cup on the coffee table.
“Really? The package said rainbows, sunshine, and unicorns. You’re telling me they lied to me?” Hoya looked so scandalized that Dongwoo couldn’t help but laugh. His entire body ached as he shook with laughter, but he didn’t care. It was making him feel better. “You should really take a break for a few days. If you’re a little bit short for rent, I’ll help you cover it, but if you keep going like this, you’re going to be rent free in heaven.”
Dongwoo knew he was right. Hoya was always right when it came to these things. “So take a few days off, okay?”
Dongwoo stared at Hoya’s pleading face before sighing and nodding, letting his head fall back onto the couch. A smile appeared on Hoya’s face as he reached out to ruffle Dongwoo’s hair. He got up and grabbed the bag of previously warm food and took it out to shove into Dongwoo’s microwave.
“I brought food. Are you hungry?”
“Am I ever not hungry?”
--
Different people came to check up on Dongwoo at different hours of the day. Hoya stood there and watched and listened as Dongwoo called his manager to let him know he needed the next couple days off to get better. His manager thought he was doing him a favor by giving him an entire week off, and Dongwoo was grateful, but the amount of money he would be losing was nagging at him in the back of his mind.
Sunggyu conveniently managed to find different ways to check up on him during the day, while Hoya and his other friend, Myungsoo, managed to stop by at night, claiming that it was the first time in a while that Dongwoo was free during the night, so they had a guy’s night. Every night.
Dongwoo laid awake at night one night, unable to sleep because he was so used to working so late at night. His sickness cleared up in two days, and he was ready to go back to work, but his friends wouldn’t have it. And neither was his manager when he called in to say he could work.
His mind wandered to the stranger’s business card. Nam Woohyun. Dongwoo had never heard the name before in his life, but he promised him pay. He reached out for his phone on his bedside and scrolled down to Woohyun’s name, pursing his lips. His thumb hovered over the button to call, perhaps a little bit too close because his phone started to dial.
Dongwoo almost dropped his phone in surprise when he heard someone answer.
“Hello?”
“Uh... Hi.”
“Who is this?”
“It’s Dongwoo.”
“Dongwoo...?”
“Oh! The construction worker you bumped into the other day.”
“Oh, it’s you. I was wondering when you were going to call. Looking for a job?”
“Yeah, I’m going to be a little bit short on cash this month so...” Dongwoo’s voice got quieter when he heard someone stirring out in the living room. Usually he’d sleep out there with them, but he decided to sleep in his room so he could be well rested for school in the morning.
“Ah, I see. Well. I’ll text you the address to the site. You’ll be restoring an old house. You know how to do that, right?”
Dongwoo didn’t have the faintest clue.
“Either way, there will be some others there working on the house. As long as you follow directions, everything should be fine.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks. I really need the money and-”
“I know. Don’t worry about it.”
And then the line went dead.
--
Woohyun stared at his phone as soon as he hung up, smile on his face. It wouldn’t be long now, before he could have Dongwoo all to himself.
He sat alone in a sparsely furnished living room, in a house close to to the country. It was off the beaten path, and held a certain quaintness to it that Woohyun loved. Sheets covered whatever other furniture was in the house, and a fire burned in the fireplace as Woohyun rested his elbow on the armrest, leaning his head onto his hand.
“Dongwoo, Dongwoo, Dongwoo,” he mused to himself, pressing a button on his phone to stare at the background. Woohyun smiled as he saw Dongwoo’s laughing face appear, fully clad in his construction armor. He sighed and turned his phone off before staring into the fire.
--
Dongwoo checked his phone in the morning as he got ready for school, stopping when he was met by a foreign address. He opened up his laptop and searched the address to see it was on the outskirts of town. His instinct screamed at him that this was a bad idea, that he should just let Hoya help him with his rent, but he pushed the feeling into the back of his mind while he made notes on his phone of how to get there by bus. There was a note of when the others would be working, and Dongwoo noted that it was right after his classes ended until dinner.
“That’s not so bad... gives me some time to do homework, and I can head out to my other job at night, too,” he said out loud with a smile. Maybe his luck was turning up for once.
--
“Where are you headed?” Hoya asked as Dongwoo packed up his things quickly, checking his phone for the time.
“I need to catch up on some homework, so I’ll see you later?” Dongwoo asked, swinging his backpack over his shoulder and giving him a questioning thumbs up.
“Yeah, sure. I’ll see you later,” Hoya said, blinking twice before Dongwoo disappeared from his sight.
--
It would take about forty-five minutes for the bus to reach the stop on the outskirts of town, and then another twenty minutes for Dongwoo to walk to the house. He did the calculations in his head twice, and then a third time because he started to confuse himself.
He watched as the other occupants of the bus got off at their respective stops, sometimes in a flood of people, and sometimes, only one person would go. There were a few people that got on at stops, but by the time they got to Dongwoo’s stop, he was the only one left.
“What’re you doing out here by yourself, sonny?” the old bus driver asked. “Ain’t nothing but fields and abandoned houses out there.”
“I’m helping restore a house, actually. Not too far from here,” Dongwoo said as he stepped off of the bus slowly.
“Is you, now? I know which one that is... You best rethink that idea, son. That house is nothing but bad news.”
Dongwoo felt a chill go down his spine as soon as he got off of the bus, and the doors closed behind him. He watched the bus drive off, and then he was alone at the edge of town. He could make out the house at the end of the path and gulped.
--
The feeling that somebody was watching him wasn’t strong at first. Dongwoo made it to the house to see a flurry of workers going in and out. The only noise was the sound of tools hammering and sawing. No one was saying anything.
The manager of the project spotted him and hurried up to him with a small bow. “You’re Dongwoo?” he asked, avoiding eye contact.
“Uh... yes. I am. Nam Wooh-”
“Yes, I know. Take a look through the house and get familiar with it first before I give you your tasks.” He hurried away before Dongwoo could say anything else, hovering over a table with the blue prints. Dongwoo swallowed and ignored the strange feeling in his chest, taking a hardhat from someone who offered it to him and thanked them before taking a look at the house from the front.
The white paint was peeling. There were a few holes in the roof, the patio had a few holes where the planks rotted and fell away. The circular attic window was broken. The withered remains of a garden was overrun with weeds, and the living room window needed replacing.
Dongwoo stepped inside, stepping out of the way of busy workers. No one was saying anything to each other beyond the bare necessities, something Dongwoo found odd, because everyone at his nightly construction job took to talking with each other to help pass the time as they worked.
The first room on his left was a dining room. There was only a table and a few chairs, all covered with a white sheet. The walls were bare and cracked. On his right was a living room. There was a couch and a chair across from a fireplace. No coffee table, and the mantle looked like it’d seen better days.
Dongwoo walked inside, past a drawer in the hallway with a cracked vase. At the end of the hallway was a staircase that looked whole for the most part. It had an iron handrail, and Dongwoo stopped to admire the detail in the craft. Past the stairs was the kitchen, but there were so many noises coming from there, Dongwoo opted to go see upstairs instead.
There were spots on the wall that were whiter than others, a sure sign that frames once hung there. At the top of the stairs, Dongwoo could see four doors. One was at the very end of the hallway, two on the right, one on the left with a small hallway closet.
He gently pushed open the doors to the room, peeking inside to see them completely empty. Dongwoo pushed open the door at the end to see there was a bed in the room, covered with a sheet. There was a dresser, a small vanity, and another door that Dongwoo assumed was the closet.
He closed the door to the room and turned around. Where was the way to the attic? He glanced up at the ceiling and noticed the trap door for it, but no string hanging down. Must’ve snapped off or something. This house looks pretty old, Dongwoo thought as he stared.
Then he felt it. Eyes watching him. He tore his eyes away from the ceiling and looked around. No one was on the second floor. The doors in front of him were closed. He glanced over his shoulder and felt his heart drop. The door to the master bedroom was open.
Dongwoo felt himself tremble slightly. He’d closed it. He definitely remembered closing it. “Maybe I didn’t close it all the way, and it opened by itself from all the noise,” Dongwoo said, reaching out to grab the doorknob and close the door again.
This time, he made sure it was completely closed before hurrying down to the manager outside of the house.
--
Compared to everyone else, Dongwoo had a relatively light workload. By the time it was time to pack up and go home, he’d barely even broken a sweat.
“Here you go,” the manager said, handing him an envelope with his name on it. Confused, Dongwoo took it and opened it up, eyes widening at the number of bills crammed inside.
“What? But I hardly even did anything and-”
“Will you be coming back tomorrow?” the manager asked, cutting him off.
“I- yeah. I mean, the house isn’t done yet, and-”
“Okay. Go before you miss the bus.”
--
When Dongwoo boarded the bus again, there was a different old man driving the bus. He didn’t say anything as Dongwoo got on, but there was a look on his face that made Dongwoo feel like he shouldn’t be there.
--
“Where have you been?”
Dongwoo almost dropped his keys in surprise when he heard Hoya’s voice as he opened the door. “I went out to clear my thoughts. How long have you been here? Don’t you have your own apartment?” Dongwoo asked with a laugh, trying to play off Hoya’s concern. He finally felt safe again in his own apartment.
“I came by to see if you wanted to grab some dinner or something, but you weren’t here.”
“Oh. Why didn’t you call me then?” Dongwoo asked, heading into his bedroom.
“I did. It said your number wasn’t in service. Did you forget to pay your phone bill?”
Dongwoo furrowed his eyebrows and pulled out his phone as Hoya sat down next to him. “No. I paid my bill. Full bars of service, half battery. Try calling me again,” Dongwoo said, frowning slightly.
Hoya pulled out his phone and dialed Dongwoo’s number, and both of them almost jumped when they heard Dongwoo’s phone start ringing. “Are you sure you dialed the right number?”
“I think I know what your number is,” Hoya said with a scowl. Dongwoo laughed at him, and Hoya’s scowl turned into an exasperated smile. “Anyway, I’m here. We might as well go out for dinner.”
“Hoya, I have some homework to do and-”
“You should’ve thought of that before you decided to go clear your thoughts. Come on. I’m buying.”
“Well, when you put it that way...”
--
Dongwoo had forgotten how good it felt to spend time with Hoya this way. They had a comfortable dinner, talking about random things. He, of course, fought with Hoya for the check whenever it came out and lost when Hoya jabbed him in the ribs.
They walked back to Dongwoo’s apartment, laughing and trading punches. A silence fell between them, and when Hoya grabbed Dongwoo’s hand in the darkness, Dongwoo welcomed the comfort.
Then, he felt eyes on him again. He stopped laughing and looked around, eyes nervous. Hoya noticed and looked around too, wondering what Dongwoo was looking for.
“Dongwoo? Are you okay?”
“Yeah... I’m fine. Just have this weird, nagging feeling, that’s all.”
“Already restless from taking a week off of work?”
Dongwoo would be able to go back to working on the overpass tomorrow. His manager called him and let him know that the project was almost finished. Dongwoo would need to look for another job soon. He thought about the wad of cash in his backpack from the one day of working on the house and felt chill go down his spine.
“Cold?” And before Dongwoo could open his mouth to answer, Hoya let go of his hand and wrapped his arm around his waist with a smile on his face. Dongwoo could feel himself getting nervous again, but this time, it was a different kind of nervous. The good kind.
They walked in silence all the way up to Dongwoo’s apartment. When they stopped moving, Hoya shifted so he was standing in front of Dongwoo, both arms wrapped around the slightly shorter man’s waist.
Dongwoo’s face was red with how close Hoya was standing close to him. They’d dated before, but they didn’t get very far before they broke up.
“I miss this,” Hoya whispered, barely an inch away from Dongwoo’s lips.
“I...” Dongwoo didn’t have to say anything else before Hoya leaned in to kiss him.
--
One thing led to another. They were kissing in front of Dongwoo’s apartment, and the next thing he knew, they were making out on his couch.
Hands were roaming everywhere, and Hoya was making delicious moans as Dongwoo gripped his hips as they writhed together on the couch. Somehow, they moved to Dongwoo’s bed, their clothes were gone, and Dongwoo was lost in all of the good feelings flooding his body.
“Hoya, Hoya,” he moaned, bucking up underneath him. Hoya grinned and pressed their lips together again, biting Dongwoo’s soft bottom lip before kissing down to his jaw and attacking his neck.
“I’ll make you feel good. I promise,” he mumbled into Dongwoo’s collar bone before he bit down. He was rewarded by a loud moan from Dongwoo.
--
Dongwoo didn’t think much of it when Hoya didn’t show up to class. Hoya hurried out in the morning while pressing kisses to Dongwoo’s lips, saying something about being late to class. He said they’d talk about what happened last night later, and maybe talk about getting back together again.
He checked his phone to see a text from Hoya saying he wouldn’t be in class because of an emergency. Dongwoo immediately got alarmed and asked him if he was okay. Hoya assured him he was, but Dongwoo was still left with a feeling of unease that hadn’t left him since he visited the house.
Speaking of which, he had to go out there again, but the feeling that Hoya wasn’t really okay was nagging at him, so as soon as class was over, Dongwoo went straight to Hoya’s apartment.
He banged on the door a few times, calling Hoya’s name before finally picking up the phone and calling him. It rang four times before Hoya finally picked up.
“Hoya? Where are you? I’m outside your apartment,” Dongwoo said, running his hand through his hair.
“Oh, I stepped out to run errands for a bit. Listen, I’m going to be a little bit busy for the rest of the day, okay? I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Dongwoo blinked a few times before letting out a sigh. “Oh. Okay. Sure. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Bye.”
If Dongwoo weren’t so jittery, he probably would’ve noticed how strained Hoya’s voice sounded. He was far from okay, and at that moment, he wasn’t sure if he was even going to be alive tomorrow.
“Good,” Woohyun said, hanging up Hoya’s phone and throwing it behind him onto the kitchen table. Hoya struggled in the chair he was tied to as Woohyun sighed.
Hoya was on his way home when he was suddenly knocked out. When he woke up again, he was bound to a chair, gagged and tied while a man in a suit smoked a cigarette in front of him, eyes looking dark and deadly.
He’d tried to escape, but the cloth binding his arms and legs to the chair was tied too tightly, cutting off his circulation. “Who are you? Why am I here?” Hoya yelled, struggling in the chair again.
Woohyun took a few steps forward and smirked at him before reaching out to grab his hair painfully and yanking his head back. “You are here,” Woohyun said, tracing the veins on Hoya’s neck with his free hand, “because you touched and defiled something that belongs to me.” His voice was laced with something that sounded like poison.
“What are you talking about?” Hoya hissed, trying not to cry out in pain as his head was pulled further back.
“You know perfectly well what I’m talking about. And I’m going to teach you a lesson about playing with things that don’t belong to you.”
Hoya couldn’t even scream when he felt something pierce his neck.
--
Dongwoo was apprehensive about going back out to the house, but he didn’t like leaving jobs unfinished, even if he didn’t technically commit to doing this job. It didn’t settle right with him to leave something halfway, especially with how much he was paid for doing next to nothing the day before.
When he arrived on site this time, he hardly recognized anyone’s face besides the site manager’s. The manager saw him coming again and waved him over with his hand.
“I don’t recognize anyone here,” Dongwoo said, looking around again.
“Yeah. A lot of people bailed out on us because of the story behind this house.”
Dongwoo opened his mouth to ask about it but changed his mind. He wanted to finish this house and be done with it before something happened. Plus, he didn’t think his heart would be able to take anything else today.
“You’ll take the attic today. Just clean out whatever is there. The safety inspector said it was safe to go up there.”
--
Dongwoo headed up the stairs to see the trap door to the attic lowered. He was hit with a sense of déjà vu, staring at the lowered ladder. He climbed up slowly, just in case there was something wrong with the ladder, and when his head poked up into the attic, he glanced around at the boxes littering the room.
Dongwoo’s shoes kicked up dust with every step he took. He glanced around the room at the boxes, chests, and random objects. He made his way over to the broken window and saw some scaffolding set up so the painters could start painting the outside of the house.
He turned around and stopped, squinting his eyes and trying to remember something that was nagging at him. Then it hit him.
“Oh! This looks like...” It looked like the house he used to draw when he was a kid. His teacher told him to be creative with a project she sent him home with one day, to design a house just for him.
“It looked almost exactly like this,” Dongwoo said to himself, thinking about the floor plan. He was only eight, when he drew it, but Dongwoo could remember the idea behind it. “Huh. Figures my dream house would have some creepy back story to it.”
--
When Dongwoo got back home, he was surprised to see Hoya standing outside of his doorway. He was pacing back and forth, trembling slightly. Dongwoo’s eyebrows furrowed with worry when he noticed how pale Hoya was.
“Hoya?”
Hoya nearly jumped when he heard Dongwoo call him, and stopped pacing. He stood nervously as Dongwoo approached him, and kept a good distance between the two of them.
“What are you-”
“I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”
Dongwoo froze and stared at Hoya for a few seconds before a smile broke out on his face. “Hoya, you can’t scare me like that. Stop it. Come inside, you look ridiculously pale,” Dongwoo said.
“I mean it, Dongwoo. We can’t see each other anymore.”
Dongwoo stopped in the doorway and turned to give Hoya a weird look. “What are you talking about?”
“I was just using you. I wanted to have sex with you, and that was it. I don’t consider you a friend or anything, just a conquest.” Hoya’s heart burned as the words spilled from his mouth, but if he didn’t say them, then he would start to feel a cut forming on his body.
“... Just a conquest? What? Hoya, listen, we don’t have to be in a relationship together. I didn’t mind our friendship-”
“No. This is it. This is the last time we’ll see each other.” And Hoya left Dongwoo standing there in his doorway, completely dumbfounded.
You better not look back. Or there will be consequences. Hoya gritted his teeth and faced forward, resolutely not turning around, even when he heard Dongwoo calling for him.
--
It would be his luck that the one time he needed his friends, they would be unavailable. Dongwoo threw his phone down after he got Hoya’s voicemail for the third time and started to dial Sunggyu’s number for the fifth time.
“The one time I actually need someone,” he said, staring at his phone. When he heard Sunggyu’s voicemail, he threw his phone and covered his eyes. Dongwoo never realized just how many people were there for him until they were gone.
--
Dongwoo was walking home at five in the morning again from the construction site. The overpass was done, and after another safety inspection, it would be open to the public to use. He felt accomplished, building something that would be of use to someone.
He’d passed the last few days away with going to class and going to work on the house and going home. He’d worked on his homework for a bit before going out to his night job. And now, he was going to be out of the night job, but still have plenty of money left over thanks to how much the house job was paying.
“Fancy seeing you out here again,” Dongwoo heard a familiar voice say. He looked up from the sidewalk to see Woohyun, still dressed in a suit, sitting on a bench with a smile on his face. Dongwoo stopped and stared at him for a moment until Woohyun beckoned him over and patted the seat beside him.
He didn’t have anywhere to be, so Dongwoo sat down beside him, heaving a sigh.
“Why the long sigh?” Woohyun asked, pulling a cigarette out and offering one to Dongwoo. Dongwoo declined, and Woohyun shrugged before lighting it.
“You don’t want to hear about my problems. I have too many of them, and I’d rather not bother people with them,” Dongwoo said, leaning back against the back of the bench.
“I’m curious now. Don’t leave me hanging like this.” Woohyun breathed out a stream of smoke.
“One of my friends decided that he didn’t want to be friends anymore. We were talking about getting back into a relationship, but he randomly decided he didn’t want to anymore. He’s been avoiding me for the past few days. And I can’t even talk to my other friends about it because they’re all busy with their own lives.”
Woohyun nodded in understanding, looking out at the sky. “Sucks when you don’t have anyone to turn to, huh?”
“I always thought I could do things on my own. I never realized how much I relied on my friends until now,” Dongwoo said quietly.
Things were quiet between the two of them until Woohyun dropped his cigarette and stomped it out. “How’s the house going?”
“It’s almost done. I think there’s only another day or two of work on it before it’s finished.”
“That’s good. Thanks for picking up the job. I think you’re the only one besides the site manager that’s stuck with it.”
“I don’t really like to leave things unfinished. Do you know how much they’re paying me? For what little they’re having me do?”
Woohyun nodded. “Of course. I’m the one that told them.”
“But why?”
“Why not?” Woohyun asked, shrugging his shoulders. They two stared at each other until Dongwoo’s eyes narrowed a little bit. “What?”
“Nothing. I just...” Something felt familiar about Woohyun’s stare, but before Dongwoo could figure it out, Woohyun stood up and brushed some invisible dust from his shoulders.
“I should be headed out anyway. Good luck with your friends.”
Dongwoo watched as Woohyun left, feeling even more apprehensive than before.
--
It was the final day of working on the house before it would be completed. Dongwoo was getting ready to leave for the bus stop when he heard frantic knocking on his door. Anxious, he pulled it open to see Hoya standing there, looking like he’d seen a ghost.
“Hoya! What-”
“I don’t have much time. I know you’ve been working on a house after class. Don’t go back there,” Hoya said. He was panting, and when he caught his breath and opened his mouth to talk again, he gritted his teeth together as his face screwed up in pain.
“Hoya! Are you okay? What’s going-”
“Don’t. Go. Back. There.”
Dongwoo had no choice but to obey before Hoya turned and left as abruptly as he came. “Hoya! Wait!” Dongwoo yelled, but Hoya was already gone.
--
Hoya stumbled into his apartment, holding his stomach. He managed to get to his couch and pulled off his shirt to reveal a long bloody cut across his chest. When he thought about the warning he gave Dongwoo, he yelled as another cut opened on his chest above it.
“I told you not to see him again.”
Hoya gritted his teeth as his chest heaved. He had smaller scars on his arms and his legs from when cuts would appear because he thought about Dongwoo.
“You’re sick, do you know that? Dongwoo would never love someone like you,” Hoya spat, groaning in pain when another cut opened on his chest.
Woohyun sighed from the seat next to him and pursed his lips. “Well, when no one else is left and he’s looking for comfort, guess who will be there with open arms? I know you humans. Irrational creatures.”
“At least we’re not crazy!” Hoya yelled, earning another cut across his stomach.
“We all do a few crazy things when we’re in love. I think it goes for any species, not just mine.”
Hoya closed his eyes as he felt blood dripping down his chest and wished for death.
--
Dongwoo called in to the site manager, making up an excuse to not go in that day. The site manager started to sound nervous, asking why he couldn’t come in. He sounded almost frantic.
“I’m really sorry, but something came up that I can’t ignore. I hope you understand!” Dongwoo hung up his phone and ran his hand through his hair. What the hell was going on?
--
For once in his life, Dongwoo fell asleep at an early time. His phone was still clutched in his hands after trying to reach Hoya for the last four hours.
And even in his sleep, he felt it. The eyes. The unease. His eyes snapped open, and he sat up in a room that wasn’t his.
His eyes went wide, and he jerked around in the sheets, looking around wildly, terror slowly washing over him as he realized where he was.
“Oh, god.”
He was at the house.
Moonlight flooded through the window, and Dongwoo slipped out of the bed. He was in the master bedroom. The room was slightly more furnished, and the lights were supposed to be working now, but when Dongwoo flipped the switch, nothing happened.
He tiptoed quietly over to the doors, eyes darting around rapidly. Dongwoo opened up the door quietly and peeked out into the hallway. It was empty and dark. Dongwoo was breathing hard as he opened the door, stepping out into the hallway.
He walked cautiously and slowly, looking around for any sign of movement. He went down the stairs slowly, just in case one of them creaked and gave away his position. He could see the round moon outside through the window at the front door, and noticed there was a fire burning in the fireplace in the living room. The shadows moved slightly, making Dongwoo’s breath hitch.
“Come in here. Don’t just stand there in the hallway like a creep.”
Dongwoo froze. That was Woohyun’s voice. He hurried over to the living room and saw Woohyun sitting across from the fireplace, drumming his fingers on the armrest. He glanced back at Dongwoo with a smile and patted the empty seat next to him. “I thought you’d never wake up.”
“What’s going on? Why am I here?” Dongwoo asked, eyes turning anxious and angry.
“This house is for you. It’s your dream house, remember? It has everything you ever wanted in it. I remember,” Woohyun said, turning back to the fire.
“How do you know that? Who are you?” Dongwoo demanded.
Woohyun stared at the fire until his head lowered slightly, and he closed his eyes. “I can make you happy here. It’s all I’ve ever wanted since I first saw you working on that project for your teacher. I told you I was going to build the house of your dreams. Don’t you remember?”
Woohyun turned in his seat to see Dongwoo narrowing his eyes at him as he tried to remember. “No. I don’t. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Figures. You might’ve thought it was a dream. I know your life is hard, and you have no idea how badly I wanted to make it easy for you. I didn’t want you to grow up spoiled, though. I made sure nothing bad happened to you. But you’re here now, your house is done, and I’m here to take care of everything you could possibly want.”
Dongwoo blinked a few times as he let Woohyun’s words sink in, and he shook his head. “No. No. You can’t keep me here. I have friends, I have coworkers, I have Hoya. I need to find Hoya,” Dongwoo said, backing out of the living room and heading for the front door.
Woohyun was in front of him in a flash, grabbing Dongwoo’s arms and shoving him back towards a wall, eyes full of anger. “Hoya is gone, and your friends are gone. You finished the overpass job, so you don’t even have coworkers anymore. You’re alone, Dongwoo. Your family doesn’t want you. But I’m here. I want you. I need you,” Woohyun said, eyes turning from anger to pleading.
Dongwoo’s chest heaved, his vision getting dizzy. He was terrified. And his breathing only intensified when Woohyun leaned forward and nuzzled their cheeks together before pressing his lips to Dongwoo’s ear and kissing down his jawline.
“I can take care of you. I’ll take care of everything you need,” Woohyun whispered. His grip on Dongwoo’s arms was starting to get painful.
“What do you mean Hoya is gone? What happened to him? And my friends? You know, don’t you?” Dongwoo croaked out, feeling horror and anxiety grip at his heart.
Woohyun sighed and let go of one of Dongwoo’s arms, reaching up to stroke his face gently. Dongwoo was sure he was going to have bruises. “Your friends are busy. And Hoya was getting in the way, so I got rid of him.”
Dongwoo tensed up underneath him and sucked in a gasp. “You did what?” he asked quietly.
“You have to understand. You were mine first. And- and he touched you and defiled you. He had to be punished for playing with things that didn’t belong to him.”
Dongwoo stared at Woohyun in disbelief as Woohyun gazed at him fondly. He couldn’t believe it. Who was this psycho? “Where is he?”
“He’s gone. That’s all that matters. He’s gone, and I’m here. I’ll take care of you so much better than he ever could,” Woohyun said, burying his face into the crook of Dongwoo’s neck.
“I’ll love you better than he ever could.”