tic toc (2/2)
Tic toc
“His name is Jang Wooyoung. Nichkhun finds out by accident when he sees Wooyoung’s notebook lying around on his study table.”
Nichkhun/Wooyoung
au (supernatural), r
5, 800+ words
a/n: inspired/based on a movie called Hereafter
+
<<
Nichkhun is a bit tipsy when he gets back to the dorm. He opens the door and sees Wooyoung sitting down on his bed with his laptop, a few cans of unopened beer settled nicely at the edge of his study table beside him. He sees a few empty cans in the bin.
“How did you get those in?” Nichkhun refers to the cans, squinting his eyes to make sure he sees it right. Wooyoung follows his train of sight.
“I carried them in?”
Nichkhun blinks his eyes. “And the housemaster didn’t say anything?”
“I got this from him.”
“What?” Nichkhun furrows his eyebrows in confusion.
“I helped him with something. He’s so grateful, he’d let me off even when I’m breaking the rules,” Wooyoung says, fingers typing away on his keyboard. “You okay there?” he asks when he sees Nichkhun slightly wobbling his way to his bed.
Nichkhun nods and takes his jacket off, flopping on the mattress. “Worry about yourself first. You don’t look too well yourself,” he says, noticing Wooyoung’s flushed face. Wooyoung waves him off dismissively.
“Didn’t expect you to get back early, though. It’s weekend, and I thought Gina’s throwing a party at her house?”
“I just got back from there. Party got too wild,” Nichkhun covers his eyes from the light with his arm. Wooyoung snorts.
“I can imagine,” he says. More sound of his fingers typing quickly on the keyboard of his laptop. Nichkhun almost dozes off when he finally realizes something.
“Hey, wait,” he pulls his arm away, his vision blurry from the pressure before. “You’re talking to me.”
“Yes, I am,” Wooyoung affirms.
“I thought you were mad. You looked kinda mad this afternoon,” Nichkhun points out.
“Hmm,” Wooyoung lazily replies.
“Were you?” Nichkhun sits up so he can see Wooyoung.
“Yes…Maybe, I don’t know,” Wooyoung responds, half sighing.
“If it’s something I said, I’m sorry,” Nichkhun apologizes.
“It’s okay. I just….” Wooyoung trails off.
“So, it is something I said,” Nichkhun raises his eyebrows. Wooyoung flicks his eyes at Nichkhun, throwing contemplating gaze at him. He closes his laptop, carries the case of beers and approaches Nichkhun. Wooyoung sits on the chair of Nichkhun’s study table and offers him a can. Nichkhun gladly accepts it. He pulls the lid open and downs the drink.
“Do you really think the guy is a freak?” Wooyoung chugs on his beer.
“What?” Nichkhun asks, baffled and unsure of what Wooyoung was referring to.
“The guy who can talk to the dead,” Wooyoung helpfully reminds him.
“Oh,” Nichkhun remembers. “Well…..” he scrunches his nose, thinking. “I don’t know. It’s creepy, but kinda cool, too. Maybe. In a twisted kind of way,” Nichkhun shrugs.
“But do you think he’s a freak?” Wooyoung asks again, impatient and almost demanding.
“Honestly?” Nichkhun stays silence for a while. “No. No, I don’t think he’s a freak,” he says, mind wandering off. Ability to talk to the dead….Nichkhun wonders how he can find this person. If only he knew who it was, maybe he can ask him a favor. Maybe, he can find out how she’s doing over there….
Wooyoung stares at him and downs the remaining of his beer in one shot, before opening a new one. “Good,” he says, like it’s the only thing that matters to him knowing that. “He’s been called a freak all his life. Not everyone understands, especially kids his age,” he continues, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
“How’d you know?” Nichkhun wants to know. Wooyoung chuckles, his face flushed red. Is he seriously already feeling tipsy by drinking only a few cans of beer? Nichkhun narrows his eyes in wonder.
“Uggh,” Wooyoung slams the empty can on the table. “Do you mind?” he asks, and flops on Nichkhun’s bed on his stomach without waiting for any approval from him. “Low alcohol tolerance,” Wooyoung tells him. Ah, Nichkhun snorts.
“It gets better these days,” Wooyoung vaguely says. “Or I don’t know, I think it only gets worse and really, really weird.”
“What are you talking about?” Nichkhun sips on his beer and silently watches as Wooyoung rolls on his back and unzips his hoodie.
“This freak I know,” Wooyoung makes useless hand gestures. Wooyoung is so much more amusing and talkative when he’s half-drunk like this, Nichkhun decides, and writes a mental note to feed Wooyoung alcoholic beverages if he wants the younger guy to actively participate in the conversation next time. Wooyoung props himself up on his elbows and snatches Nichkhun’s beer, shamelessly chugging it.
“What about this freak you know?” Nichkhun dutifully asks and stares in fascination as the beer trickles from Wooyoung’s mouth down his neck, his Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows the drink.
“This freak,” Wooyoung drunkenly says. “He can talk to the dead. These days, when he touches people, not only is he able to connect them to their dead beloved ones, he can hear their thoughts too. Vaguely. And see glimpses of their memories,” Wooyoung finishes. “Though it only happened to one person, so far.”
Nichkhun tries to sink Wooyoung’s words amidst his fuzzy mind and the now spinning room. When he finally gets it, he perks up and widens his eyes at Wooyoung.
“So, you’re telling me you know who this guy is?” Nichkhun asks eagerly, taking the beer can from Wooyoung's hand and putting it on the table.
“So, so well,” Wooyoung drops his back against the mattress once again. “Doing the readings for the people is not always nice, you know?” he mumbles, looking up at the ceiling.
Nichkhun easily ignores him, only caring about his own curiosity and need to see this said guy. Nichkhun hovers on top of Wooyoung, his left hand on the bed on Wooyoung’s right side. “Do you know how I can---” Nichkhun never gets to finish his own question after his eyes caught Wooyoung’s half-lidded ones. Only now he notices how dangerously close their faces are.
“I know what you want,” Wooyoung tears his gaze away from Nichkhun. You, Nichkhun’s mind screams as he trails his eyes from Wooyoung’s face down to his body. It suddenly gets too warm in the room. “You want him to do the reading for you,” he says. Nichkhun tilts his head, barely even interested in this conversation anymore.
“Reading? Is that what they called the session is?” Nichkhun asks. He boldly cups Wooyoung’s cheek with his hand, and gently caresses it.
“Nichkhun,” Wooyoung whispers, his eyes back on him.
“Shh,” Nichkhun shushes him. He runs his thumb down the bridge of Wooyoung’s nose and traces his lips. Nichkhun shifts his legs and straddles Wooyoung. The younger guy blinks in confusion but doesn’t move away.
“What are you doing?” Wooyoung breathes out.
“I don’t know,” Nichkhun shakes his head, his hand slipping on the crook of Wooyoung’s neck. He rubs comforting circles with his thumb there and he can feel Wooyoung relaxing a little.
Nichkhun leans forward and gives an experimental press of his lips on Wooyoung’s. Wooyoung doesn’t move, and when Nichkhun feels him gripping on his shirt tightly, feels him slowly reciprocating the kiss, Nichkhun throws and forgets all thoughts. He nibbles and sucks and traces his tongue on Wooyoung’s lips, tasting the lingering beer in his breath. Nichkhun slides his tongue into Wooyoung’s mouth, swallowing his whimpers.
It’s the alcohol running in his system; where else would Nichkhun have gotten the guts to cross the line like this? Maybe he have always wanted this, he doesn’t really know, and now the alcohol only helps to trigger his courage to put his need and want into actions. At least Wooyoung wants this as well, their mouths still connecting in a deep and urgent kiss, hands roaming around their bodies sneaking for some kind of contact.
Nichkhun pulls Wooyoung up without breaking the kiss, impatiently tugging off Wooyoung’s hoodie from his body. He lets Wooyoung unbuckles his belt, and they pull away from the kiss so Nichkhun can pull Wooyoung’s shirt off, before he presses Wooyoung back on his bed.
“Nichkhun. Nichkhun, wait,” Wooyoung groans when he feels Nichkhun grazing his teeth and licking his tongue across Wooyoung’s jaw line and neck. Nichkhun hesitantly pulls away when he feels Wooyoung’s fingers digging into his shoulders; a gesture to make Nichkhun look up at him. Nichkhun is drunk, with alcohol or lust or love, he can’t tell. But he notices the vulnerability of Wooyoung’s gaze, eyes glistening, breaths heavy, and his Adam’s apple- oh God, that Adam’s apple- moving up and down as he swallows nervously.
“I told you, it’s not always nice,” Wooyoung says.
“What?”
“Knowing things about people and their past stories. It’s not always nice…” he continues. “Secrets you’re not meant to know,” he swallows again. “But with you, it’s different. I want to know you. Every part of you. Everything about you,” he cups Nichkhun’s cheeks. He eases the frown on Nichkhun’s face by reconnecting their mouths in another kiss, slowly at first but it turns deep and passionate soon after.
Wooyoung rubs his hands up on Nichkhun’s arms, and then across his shoulder blades before he pushes Nichkhun down, down, down and Nichkhun is more than willing to comply. He marks his territory on every of Wooyoung’s exposed skin, parts he can reach to- biting and tracing and circling unspoken words and promises.
“She has the prettiest smile,” Wooyoung says.
“Who?” Nichkhun asks, distracted, hands busy pulling off Wooyoung’s pants.
“She said she missed---”
“Why are you still talking?” Nichkhun grins in mischief. “About other girl, no less?” Wooyoung gasps and loses his ability to talk once Nichkhun touches and wraps himself around him.
It makes it easier for Nichkhun to do his job like this; in the silence with no talks, with Wooyoung’s voice only coming out in the form of moans, whimpers and groans and the likes. Nichkhun shuts his mind off and only tries to concentrate on making Wooyoung feels good.
+
Wooyoung’s avoiding him. God, Wooyoung’s avoiding him. Nichkhun cannot believe this is happening, the awkward phase after they found themselves wrapped in each other’s arms that one morning, hung over and naked and oh my God what the fuck happened?
They need to talk and get this over it. Nichkhun is desperate to talk to Wooyoung, curious to know the reason why Wooyoung is avoiding him in the first place. But it’s hard to see him around these days. Wooyoung is too determined to avoid him, for how much longer, Nichkhun doesn’t know. Wooyoung slips into their room so late at night after Nichkhun has fallen asleep from waiting for him, and disappears again so early in the morning. Nichkhun knows this by the look of the slightly disheveled sheet on Wooyoung’s bed, the smell of Wooyoung’s scent lingering around in the room when Nichkhun wakes up in the morning.
The memories eventually become clearer bit by tiny bit, the feel of Wooyoung’s mouth ghosting on his skin, his fingers scratching and leaving marks, the burning trails of his tongue down his abdomen and the inside of his thighs- everything is so fresh in his mind now.
Nichkhun runs his hand on his left shoulder, feeling the bite mark there still, bruising and hurting and so, so real. Nichkhun shivers and tries so hard not to think of Wooyoung naked and squirming under him, tries not to think of his breaths tickling his neck, tries not to think of Wooyoung’s breathy moans when he was so close to release, tries not to think of the bite on his shoulder when he finally did. He fails really badly and has to get himself off in the hot shower, out of both desperation and frustration of the memories of the night and also Wooyoung’s behavior.
Nichkhun doesn’t want the awkward phase to continue. He only wants Wooyoung.
+
“Okay,” Nichkhun hears Wooyoung’s voice approaching nearer and nearer. He turns around, and sure enough it’s him.
“Wooyoung,” Nichkhun widens his eyes. He finds himself missing Wooyoung so much more than he had thought, and thinks has it really been that long since they see each other like this face to face? It takes all of his strength to not attack the younger guy with hugs and kisses right at the moment.
“Okay,” Wooyoung says again. He slips his books on the table and keeps approaching Nichkhun. Nichkhun takes backward steps, surprised and confused, until he hits his back against the tree. “Okay,” Wooyoung takes a deep breath in and exhales deeply. “Okay.”
“Okay?” Nichkhun arches an eyebrow up.
“Shh!” Wooyoung shushes Nichkhun loudly, putting his palm up at him without meeting his eyes. “Let me do the talking.”
“O….kay?”
“I said, shh!” Wooyoung glances at Nichkhun but then quickly looks away again, his cheeks slowly turning red. Nichkhun finds it endearing but too amused to do anything about it. “We need to stop this.”
“Stop wh--”
“I can’t always crash at Junho’s room. Sure he’s not always around-- and that he sneaks and sleeps at his girlfriend’s dorm-- but his roommate---- Chansung brings his girlfriend over sometimes and it’s just---- really, really awkward and ughhh I just want to sleep peacefully but--- then there’s you,” Wooyoung stares at Nichkhun hard.
“What did I do?” Nichkhun says defensively. “I’m not the one avoiding anyone.”
“You know what we did,” Wooyoung swallows, putting his hands on his hips. “And I just. I just don’t want things to get awkward between us. I just--- don’t want you to feel like you owe me something, or feel sorry for me.”
“Owe you what?” Nichkhun asks in confusion. “For what?”
“For,” Wooyoung presses. “You know.”
“I’m not sure I’m catching up well….” Nichkhun narrows his eyes. Wooyoung exhales frustratingly.
“Give me your hands.”
“What?”
“Just, hold your hands out,” Wooyoung demands, so Nichkhun does what he asked for. Wooyoung folds his sleeves up and stares at Nichkhun’s hand, mumbling and nodding his head to himself. Wooyoung reaches out his own hands at Nichkhun’s and holds them tightly, and there’s the flash of white light again. Nichkhun quickly retracts his hands.
“Okay, what was that?” Nichkhun throws a questioning look. Wooyoung closes his eyes and exhales deeply.
“She said she missed you,” Wooyoung tells him.
“…What?”
“And she wants you to be happy,” Wooyoung mutters.
“What? Who?” Nichkhun frowns. Wooyoung slowly opens his eyes and glues his gaze to the ground.
“She loved you. Always have, always will….She’s smiling. So pretty. She’s always smiling,” Wooyoung chuckles softly. The knot in Nichkhun’s stomach tighten as he begins to slowly realize who Wooyoung is talking about. But how did he….?
“So many things she wanted to tell you, but she has to leave now. She asks me to tell you to stop wearing her bracelet because it’s girly, and it’s hers.”
Bracelet….? Nichkhun instinctively pulls his arm up and looks at the handmade bracelet around his wrist. Yuri? Nichkhun’s eyes widen in realization.
“She’s doing fine, so you don’t have to worry about her anymore.”
“Wooyoung, how did you-- I never told anyone about---” Wooyoung flickers his eyes at Nichkhun, gaze so painful- silently explaining and begging for understanding and acceptation. Suddenly, everything just starts clicking together; why Wooyoung is hesitant to touch people’s hand, why he was mad, the white light, why Wooyoung knows so much- he’s the guy Taecyeon’s been telling him about. It’s me. I’m the freak. The customers, the payments- is this what Wooyoung’s been doing?
“Her name is Yuri,” Nichkhun doesn’t expect, of all things, that came out from his mouth. But Wooyoung already knows so much and Nichkhun doesn’t have any reason to hide anything from him. He eyes the bracelet as the memory of his dead first love comes flashing back in his mind.
“I know,” Wooyoung smiles and leans his back against the tree, just beside Nichkhun. “Sorry about what happened,” Wooyoung sounds genuine. Nichkhun shrugs.
“Yeah, me too. Can I ask you something?”
Wooyoung snorts. “You want to know how long I’ve been a psychic freak? Or how it happened?”
Nichkhun furrows his eyebrows. “No. I just wanna ask why you avoided me.”
Wooyoung tenses, obviously and completely caught off guard with Nichkhun’s question. “Oh.”
“So, you wanna tell me why?”
“I already told you. I didn’t want you to feel sorry for me. I didn’t want you to feel like you owe me something and I didn’t want you to feel the need to make it up for what had happened that night. At least now that I helped you with the reading for free, we’re even now.”
“But owe you for what?” Nichkhun asks for the second time, slightly irritated. Why can’t Wooyoung be straight with his words and save all these useless confusion? Wooyoung gives a look at Nichkhun, clearly irritated too.
“For letting you fucked me, goddamn it,” Wooyoung throws his hands up in the air in frustration. Wooyoung pushes himself up and walks to the bench and sits there, giving his back to Nichkhun. Nichkhun notices the top of Wooyoung’s ears turning red.
“But I’m not sorry,” Nichkhun says. “I don’t regret anything. Do you?”
“…..No.”
“I just wish I was more sober when we did it.”
Wooyoung turns around and throws his notebook at Nichkhun in disbelief. “What!” Now that Wooyoung’s facing his way, Nichkhun notices that his whole face is flushed red from embarrassment. Nichkhun laughs. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve been thinking about, about what happened that night.”
Nichkhun stops laughing and stares at his palms, before averting his eyes back at Wooyoung.
“Yes, that’s right,” Wooyoung narrows his eyes. “I see your thoughts,” he says. “……It’s actually kind of amazing. It never happened to anyone else before,” Wooyoung ponders to himself. It’s Nichkhun’s turn to feel embarrassed and exposed. Wooyoung smirks when he notices this and turns back around. “You want to do me in the shower,” he says, teasing but a slight shyness laced in his voice.
“Well, are you gonna let me?”
“I cannot believe you! Pervert!” Wooyoung throws a much thicker book at Nichkhun. “…but maybe,” he mumbles and shrugs. Nichkhun grins.
+
Nichkhun slowly wakes up from his sleep when he feels soft touches on his lips. He smiles.
“Wake up. You have an exam to attend in…..10 minutes.”
Nichkhun jerks up, startled, and accidentally pushes Wooyoung -who was on top of him- aside on the other (small) space of his bed. But Wooyoung is not even mad, muffling his laughter with his arm. “What! Why didn’t you wake me up sooner?” Nichkhun panics. He goes around the room and starts dressing himself up. “It’s not even funny. I need to pass this or I won’t be promoted to the next semester.” Nichkhun stops and squints his at Wooyoung when the latter one fails to hide his laughter anymore. “Why are you laughing?”
“You wouldn’t wake up so I had to lie,” Wooyoung says, covering the lower half of his face with the blanket. Nichkhun blinks before his gaze falls on the alarm clock on his study table. 8 in the morning.
“Youuuuu,” Nichkhun squints his eyes begrudgingly and approaches Wooyoung on the bed. “I could use some sleep, you know?” he puts his hands on his hips.
“Why do you sound accusing? You were the one who kept us both awake all night,” Wooyoung points out.
“I needed to study for the exam!…..and I had no idea Jang Wooyoung would be such a wide and complex topic to study,” Nichkhun grins teasingly, turning the table around. Wooyoung bulges his eyes out.
“You are so dirty and shameless,” Wooyoung accuses. “Heyyyy,” Wooyoung says when Nichkhun gets on the bed and crawls on top of him. “I woke you up so you could study! Not get all horny on me like this.”
“I am not horny. I just want a morning kiss,” Nichkhun blinks innocently.
“Right,” Wooyoung rolls his eyes. “I told you it’s not gonna happen in the shower,” Wooyoung hits the side of Nichkhun’s head with a pillow. “Or in the hallway. God, you’re so dirty, Khun.”
“Hey, stop reading me!” he pouts. Wooyoung puts his hands up and shows them to Nichkhun.
“I wasn’t even touching you,” he wriggles his fingers. “Your dirty thoughts are something that can be read openly.”
“Okay I have 6 hours left until I have to sit for my paper,” Nichkhun points out. “That‘s more than enough time to make you pay for all of this.”
Wooyoung’s surprised gasp and protest are silenced by Nichkhun’s kiss.