Cherem - Chapter 5
Title: Cherem
Chapter: 5/?
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Fantasy, AU
Characters: Taemin (SHINee), Hyunjoong (SS501), the rest of SHINee, SS501 and other cameos
Pairing(s): TBA
Warning: Rating will go up in later chapters
Summary: When Lee Taemin gets deported down from his comfortable position in the weather division to a strange division known only to most as ‘the Store’, he gets tangled up in the stuff that should stay safely in his daydreams. Three difficult house-spirits, plenty of strange, needy customers, one clumsy but strangely mysterious store-keeper, and one particularly curious customer who seems to keep coming back only when Taemin is around.
It’s all fun, but wishes are desires are dangerous things. And soon, Taemin begins to wonder if he’s biting off more than he can chew…
~*~
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~*~
“Taemin-ah~”
The sound of the call wasn’t familiar, and Taemin wondered why. He had become used to the past few weeks of wake-ups, and they were always done in one of the same three ways. Either it was a thwack to his head, courtesy of one impatient Key; or it was a prank - an ice cube down his back, water over his head - quite obviously the work of Jonghyun; or it was a gentle but firm shake to his arm, a soft call, and then the apologetic brown eyes of Onew as Taemin pried open his eyes. But never had it been the mattress contracting and expanding as someone bounced on it and called out his name in a bone-chillingly sweet way.
Taemin pried open his eyes and promptly fell out of it. “Hyunjoong-sshi?!”
“Ah, good morning.” Hyunjoong replied with that winning smile and mild look, as if he wasn’t on his knees, bouncing up and down on Hyunjoong’s bed. “Did you have a good sleep?”
“Yes… until you woke me up… but… what are you doing here?” Taemin slowly picked himself up from the floor, still staring at the strange sight before him.
“Bouncing up and down on your bed.” Hyunjoong answered cheerfully, as if it was the normal thing to say. “I heard that it’s quite an effective way to wake people up. And seems like I heard right.”
Taemin continued to stare incomprehensibly at Hyunjoong for a few moments, before he sighed. He should have figured that this wouldn’t be beyond Hyunjoong, for in the few weeks he’s been staying here, he’s realized that although for most part, Hyunjoong was the mild-mannered man he seemed, he had moments of craziness, like everyone else, only more extreme. Still, he didn’t really have the heart or capacity in such the early morning to tell Hyunjoong that what woke him up was more of the shock of seeing him so up close than the bouncing up and down on the bed.
“No… I meant, where are the rest?” Taemin asked instead, as he picked himself off the floor, straightening out his silk pajamas.
“Oh. It’s their day off today.” Hyunjoong continued to bounce, his face factual and serious as he said all of this, as if it was common knowledge, when it obviously was the first time Taemin had heard anything of the sort. “So they’re all out.”
“Oh.” Taemin couldn’t really say anything else to that, “So, I’m working with you today?”
“Ah… no.” Taemin thought there was an approving smile on Hyunjoong’s face, but it just as well could have been mockingly amused. “It’s your day off today too. That’s what I came here to tell you. But I don’t think you can go out, so you’re kind of stuck here with me.”
Taemin blinked. Well that was unexpected. “I have the day off too?”
“Yep.” Hyunjoong nodded, making one last hard bounce before he leapt off the bed. “Not that there’s much you can do here except eat, sleep and read. But still, just take the day to relax. Key made breakfast before he left though, join me?”
Taemin shook his head. He’d taken to eating more for dinner so that he didn’t feel hungry in the mornings. The three house-spirits didn’t usually have such a strong concept of time, and sometimes, they’d wake him up, leaving him for five minutes, and come back, already expecting him to be dressed with breakfast eaten. Taemin supposed he could just wake up on his own, but he’d never been good with waking up in the mornings, and alarm clocks seemed to hate him. And since his compromise had been working so far, he saw no need to change it.
Hyunjoong shrugged. “Well, suit yourself. I’ll be in the kitchen eating breakfast, after that, I’ll probably be looking around the rooms. Holler if you need me. I might here. If I don’t, then you’ll need to fend for yourself.”
Taemin laughed, shaking his head at the answer. “Should I bring the fireplace poker with me then? Just in case the shadows rear up and bite me?”
“Perhaps, perhaps.” Hyunjoong laughed as he moved towards the door. “You never know.”
And then Taemin was left alone to ponder what to do with his day-off. It took him a while to decide, for it was as Hyunjoong said - he couldn’t leave the place, and there really wasn’t that much to do except… read, eat and sleep. But Hyunjoong had left out one thing, probably because he couldn’t do it himself, and was that Taemin could explore more of the strange place he was trapped in.
He had taken to doing so after a few times of getting lost while being left alone to his own devices, after the day was done and dinner had been eaten. The first few times, Taemin had been trying his luck, seeing if the payment had been fully collected. But it seemed that it was still too early for that, and with every time Taemin opened a door with the intention to get out, he would open it to a strange room, invariably getting lost.
Afterwards, he found it useful an aid to explore the place. For the store was big, and it would have been time consuming to always trace back steps from the day before in order to get a clear picture of the place. And so, for the last few times, Taemin always had first opened the door with the intention to get out, and then subsequently toured the place with just the thought of exploring, and soon, he had several parts of the store already mapped out in his head.
It was this he decided to do as he splashed some water on his face and pulled some decent clothes on - a pair of jeans and a shirt that he’d stolen from Key (he hadn’t had quite the nerve to wear it while the owner was around yet). And before he opened the door, he cast an eye to the fireplace poker, wondering for a moment if he should - for all the things said with Hyunjoong earlier had only been half a jest. For strange things did happen inside the store, and even Hyunjoong professed to only know a small fraction of the oddities that roamed here. But then, he felt the press of the two daggers Hyunjoong had handed to him one day and decided that he was well-armed enough. For he knew they had been spelled, and although seemingly less menacing than a fireplace poker, he knew that they’d be more effective against things strange.
So began his day off of exploring. His first opening of the door had brought him to a new room, filled with crystal things. And Taemin was dazzled for a while, and he stayed in this room, looking at every single artifact, but not touching them even though he wished he could. But he had learned the hard way, what horrors could be released when he disturbed the things in these rooms - most of them were harmless yes, but he wasn’t the store-keeper, so he didn’t know which weren’t, and he had long decided it was better to be safe than sorry.
He took a left turn and came up to one of the rooms he had helped clean along with Key - a room filled with seemingly random items, except they were all old and dirty and remained so even after Taemin had tried to dust them. When he asked what the point was of cleaning things that refused to be cleaned, Key had thrown his wiping cloth at Taemin and rolled his eyes while he said the obvious answer. “We’re wiping the shelves, idiot.”
Taemin swore then to try to be more critical in his thinking after that.
He spent the whole morning exploring - going into rooms he’d never seen before, and some he had. He even traced his way back triumphantly to the kitchen, reckoning to himself that he’d found a short-cut from the library, and it would allow him some time to grab a snack in the middle of work when Onew gave him the usual toilet break. Hyunjoong was no where to be when he’d entered, but there was a stack of pancakes. And since Taemin was too lazy to do lunch on his own, his breakfast became his lunch - satisfactory enough despite being cold. Good food always behaved in a class of its own.
Sated, Taemin washed the dishes so that Key wouldn’t nag when he came back, before he stretched and prepared himself for more exploring. Thinking about leaving the place, he opened the kitchen door, and like expected, what was outside wasn’t the usual corridor that on turning right would lead to his room, but a different room that he now stepped into with much curiosity.
It was a room filled with rubber duckies, and it struck a chord of memory in Taemin’s mind. He’d been in this room before - but not with Key cleaning, or with Jonghyun to put in new things. So where…?
He stepped forward, peering at a particular duck with the reddest mouth and bluest eyes he’d ever seen when the door slid open, and he jumped, blinking owlishly as he saw Hyunjoong in the doorway. The store-keeper’s own eyes blinked just as owlishly back.
“You lost?” Hyunjoong asked, and it was then Taemin remembered when he’d been in this room before - on the second day he was here, and he had been trying to get out. This was one of the rooms he’d waited in for Hyunjoong to get him.
“No.” Taemin shook his head with a wry smile.
“Trying your luck then?” Hyunjoong raised an eyebrow as he shut the door behind him.
“No again. Just exploring.” Taemin laughed at the assumption and the mildly surprised expression on Hyunjoong’s face. He thought he caught a glimpse of satisfaction, but it was gone before he could determine it had been there. “Hmm…”
“So… tell me.” Taemin asked after a few moment of silence, and it became apparent that Hyunjoong wasn’t really doing anything beside peer at the rubber duckies with his pince-nez. “Why is there a room full of rubber duckies?”
“They’re payment.” Hyunjoong answered half-heartedly, concentrating on a task Taemin wasn’t apparent of. “Usually for maturity, but sometimes other things.”
“Rubber duckies?” Taemin raised an eyebrow, unable to see how they had any value to be payment for a wish fulfilled.
“Not rubber duckies.” Hyunjoong raised a finger, seeming to locate the exact rubber ducky he wanted, and picking it up and placing it in Taemin’s hand. “Memories.”
And suddenly, Taemin wasn’t in the room anymore, but standing on a wide-field filled with green grass blowing in the strong wind. And then there was two boys playing it in, their kites flying carefree in the wind. Blue was one, yellow was the other. Strong, vivid colours - too strong to be real. And then there was a promise - a promise to be together forever, corny words out of a Disney movie and then-
“Ahem.”
Taemin started at the new voice, turning around to see a beautiful man that he’d never seen before, folding his arms, and raising a decidedly bothered eyebrow at Hyunjoong. “Showing others my childhood again, store-keeper?”
“Heechul-sshi.” Hyunjoong smiled and bowed, and Taemin guessed that that was the name of the man that brushed off his fussy Victorian winter coat as he stalked in. “I’m sure you don’t mind. It’s so normal after all.”
“Ha. Ha.” The man named Heechul snorted, pulling off his velvet top-hat, and then Taemin realized that this was not so much a man, but a cat-hanyou - a half-demon, with the ears of a cat peeking out through the strands of his long, strikingly red hair. “Well, you should know what I want and what I need. I’m a busy man, so let’s have it here.”
Hyunjoong laughed and nodded, plucking the rubber ducky out of Taemin’s hand and handing it to Heechul, who had pulled out a simple, silver pocket-watch, and held it out to Hyunjoong.
“Excellent.” Hyunjoong commented in return to Heechul’s grunt. “Well, I’ll be seeing you soon then?”
Heechul sighed, flicking his hair behind as he replaced his top-hat. And Taemin was startled to see that the man seemed to have aged in a second - the start of wrinkles on his once flawless face, the beginnings of crows feet. “Of course you will, you know I can’t stand being old like this.”
“You could always have my job.” Hyunjoong chuckled, “Then you wouldn’t need to worry about that at all.”
Heechul snorted, waving his hand. “If there’s anything that I hate more than the unforgiving nature of time, it’s being trapped. So, I’ll take my freedom over your offer anytime.”
“Goodbye, Heechul.” Hyunjoong smiled wryly, stuffing the pocket-watch into his pocket as the red-head stalked out briskly, and Taemin jumped as the door shut sharply behind him, staring after the closed door in confusion.
It wasn’t missed. “That was Kim Heechul. One of our regulars.”
“Regulars?” Taemin turned back to Hyunjoong. “We have regulars?”
“All stores have their regulars, what more the Store.” Hyunjoong smiled, moving towards the door, Taemin scrambling after him. “Heechul comes often because of his job, not that I can disclose it - it’s top secret stuff after all. But sometimes he needs something, and sometimes he needs to be in lack of something, and this is the best place he knows to suit his purposes, so he comes here. Today, it was the need to look older, more mature and to be more sympathetic. So…” Hyunjoong pulled out the pocket-watch, dangling it down and letting the silver glint into Taemin’s eyes. “It was his time in order to get back his memories.”
There was an obvious order in Hyunjoong’s eyes, and Taemin held out his hand on reflex for Hyunjoong to drop the key-chain into. It glinted in the dull light of the room they were passing through - a room of papers and documents, before Taemin closed his hand around it.
“I know it’s your day off, but do it as a favour won’t you? Since you’re exploring.” Hyunjoong asked, probably out of politeness, because Taemin had technically already agreed. “I’d shelve it on my own, but there’s another customer coming, and I don’t want to keep him waiting.”
“Another customer?” Taemin was surprised. He had gotten used to weeks of inactivity, of boring administrative jobs. Then all of a sudden, the customers seemed to be flooding in when it was their supposed day off.
“It’s a day off for you, but not for me.” Hyunjoong laughed, before turning around, a glint in his eyes. “But that’s not what’s really on your mind, right? The customers have always been coming, but whether you know it or not is a different thing.”
Ah, so it was that again. Taemin would have been much more bothered if this had came up a few weeks ago, but now, he was kind of used to it. Besides, recently, he’d been feeling that he wasn’t too sure if he really wanted to know everything that went on in the Store. Hyunjoong had assured him that everything was legitimate, but he never said it wasn’t dangerous.
“Well, if you need my help, just call me.” Hyunjoong quirked an eyebrow as he turned around at the offer. The smile shared between the both of them was significant of the understanding of the laughable reversal of roles, and Hyunjoong nodded, waving an elegant hand before moving out. “I will.”
Taemin stayed in the room for a while, staring at the after-image of Hyunjoong long after the store-keeper had left. Somewhere, a cloud moved, letting streams of sunlight flood through glass yellow-stained through time, colouring the dust motes floating in the air.
Then, another cloud took its place, and the room darkened again, the dance of dust interrupted. And sighing at the moment, Taemin stuffed the watch into his pocket and left as well.
~*~
He was in the library, haven’t yet found the room that contained pocket-watches as percentages of a person’s time and hoping to retrace his steps from there, when he heard the shout of alarm, then the sound of a fearful roar that shook the very foundations on which the Store stood upon.
Taemin was out into the corridor before he himself realized it. There were sounds of fighting in a distance, desperate clashes of metal, and the toppling over of furniture, and Taemin swore he heard precious glass breaking as well. It only made him run faster, raising a wind to aid his speed. And within a minute, he was outside the drawing room, violently shoving the door to a side, the rice-paper quivering in its frame. “Hyunjoong-sshi!”
The store-keeper was being pinned down by someone, his slim cane-sword barely blocking the weight of an ostentatiously crafted claymore. And without thinking, Taemin drew out his daggers with one smooth action, dashing forward to at least help distract the brute so that Hyunjoong could get up and do something.
But before he’d even reached near, his strike was deflected by the interference of a swift rapier. Taemin barely managed to contain his shock and deflect the almost immediate counter-strike, the elegant gold-lined blade snaking out like a one meter miracle.
“You dare draw your blades against my master?!” Taemin looked up to see, a rather scantily clad girl in black brandishing her rapier against him, a look of outrage on her face. “Get up, you fiend and fight me like a man!”
Taemin stared, because he hadn’t heard anyone speak in a manner like that since Tiffany had gone on a true-blood Victorian craze and had forced upon them teas and scones and affected British accents. And because of the fact that they were accusing him of being unmanly when it was them drawing their blades first.
There was a moment of silence - silence that dragged to a point of anti-climax when the girl shrieked in a manner much like Tiffany and waved her rapier in a haphazard agitated movement. “Well?! What are you waiting for? Come on! Get up and fight!”
“Nicole! What are you doing? Lower your blade!”
Taemin blinked, looking up when a shadow was cast over him, and spotted two more new arrivals coming in. He caught a glimpse of Japanese kimono, and what looked like a Maiko rush into the room. “You too, Jungmin! What in the name of the seven lords are you doing?”
There were cries of “But Leeteuk-oppa!” and “Awww… but I was having fun!”, but the melee slowly cleared, and Taemin heard Hyunjoong saying, among all the noise, “thank God, Leeteuk. You have the timing of a saint.”
“With these two, I have to.” The kimono-clad man named Leeteuk pointed at the two medieval-looking people who had assaulted Taemin and Hyunjoong, of which the girl was now sulking while the Maiko tried to pacify her, and the red-haired male was laughing raucously. “Anyway, shall we get down to business?”
Hyunjoong straightened out the black-silk kimono that he must have put on just to greet them and raised an eyebrow. “Well, before that, I have something to do…”
And then, Taemin was treated with a sight he’d never thought he’d see. It was Hyunjoong taking just a step right, then appearing right behind the red-haired male in a move so fast, Taemin didn’t even see it happen. Then, there was a thud, and almost in slow-motion, the eyes of the male rolled up to the back of his head and collapsed to the floor.
There was a moment of silence, before it was broken by a distressed shriek of “MASTER!” and the rushing of the black-clad girl to his side. Taemin had to cover his mouth, which had fallen so wide, to choke back a laugh of surprise - which was way too delighted to be polite.
“There.” Hyunjoong huffed, replacing his cane-sword, into its sheath, having used its blunt end to do the deed. He turned back to Leeteuk who was shaking his head wryly, but looked a little too amused for his own good as well. “Now. Didn’t we have matters to discuss?”
~*~
They were a group of exorcists, Taemin found out, and common customers of the Store because of their job. Ironic somewhat, because they themselves were part of the pantheon which they deal with. But as it was, they toured the human world as cosplayers in order to blend in, which explained their outlandish outfits.
Taemin also found out their names, after some quick introductions when he brought in the Oolong tea. The girl in black whom Taemin had crossed blades with was Nicole Jung, and she sulked all the way through the introductions. The girl in the Maiko costume, all the while trying to conspicuously nudge Nicole, assumingly to berate her, was Go Hara. The rowdy one with red hair, who hadn’t once stopped badgering Hyunjoong, even after waking up with a painful looking bump on his head, was Park Jungmin. And the one in the kimono was Park Jungsu, or Leeteuk, and he was the leader of the whole rowdy bunch, and apparently, there were others in their gang - a Yesung, a Shindong, a Sungmin and some others whose names Taemin didn’t manage to catch.
Taemin somewhat sympathized with Leeteuk for needing to deal with just Jungmin, yet alone all of them. And he’d been ready to dismiss himself, since he figured they were the customers (or rather, Leeteuk was the customer, since Hyunjoong had earlier referred to a singular male), and Hyunjoong would like to be alone with them.
But just as he was about to leave, Hyunjoong called out to him. “Why don’t you stay, Taemin? Since you’re here.”
“You don’t mind?” the question came out before Taemin thought better of it, and he got a surprised expression in response.
“I never mind,” was Hyunjoong’s reply. “It’s usually the customers who do, but Leeteuk doesn’t, right?”
The kindly bespectacled man shook his head, smiling at Taemin, and gesturing for him to sit. And Taemin did so, settling into a stool against the wall, a little off from the rest, ignoring the glower he got from Nicole.
“Now.” Hyunjoong took a final sip of his tea before putting his cup back down onto the low black-lacquered table. “What do you have for me?”
The air seemed to change as Leeteuk eyed Hyunjoong for a while, and even Jungmin seemed to sober up as Leeteuk untied the sword around his waist and placed in down on the lacquered tabled as well.
It seemed a normal sword at first - a Japanese kodachi, really, but when Taemin set his eyes on it properly, he found his hands curling into fists, and his teeth clenching together in fear. For the sword had a strange air to it - odd and blood-curling. There was a hiss, and as everyone turned to look at him, he realized that it had come from him.
“Hmm…” Hyunjoong gave him a strange, knowing look, before turning back to look down at the sword. “I thought it might be this. What did you use to bind it?”
Leeteuk only gave Hyunjoong a pointed look, who held up his hands. “I thought you might have used something special for something this strong… Hmm… amber prayer beads…” He leaned down, giving the sword a sniff. “Salt infusion… No ofuda?”
Leeteuk frowned, casting a sharp eye at the sword, then quickly pushing Hyunjoong back, pulled out a piece of paper, and slapped it onto the sword.
Taemin jumped as there was the crackle of black lightning at the contact, and a soul-piercing shriek. Everyone else in the room had tensed, hands going to their weapons, with the exception of Hyunjoong, who chuckled, and leaned down again, so near to the sword that Taemin wanted to go over and pull him back. “Now, now there was no need for that. You’re all perfectly safe here…”
“Well, since you seem confident of dealing with this, I’ll leave the necessary payment before making my move.” Leeteuk got up, preparing to leave.
“Ah. No, no.” Hyunjoong raised a hand, stopping Leeteuk, and thus also the other three, in their tracks. “I said you were safe here, didn’t I? I can’t promise that if you leave now though.”
Leeteuk stiffened. “The others?”
“Were they exposed?”
There was a nod, and a hard look. Hyunjoong hummed, rubbing his chin as he always did when deep in thought. “I’ll make something… Hara can make it back I think, because of her nature, she should be fine. But the remaining three of you should stay the night. Just in case.”
There was a silence, and Taemin was surprised to find an uncomfortable atmosphere at the thought of spending the night here - Nicole rubbing at an invisible spot on her rapier, Jungmin look down at the carpet, as if its pattern was the most interesting thing in the world, Hara picking at a stray thread in her skirt. And he was even more surprised to hear Leeteuk’s next words.
“You know we’d rather not… Key…”
“Will be away for two more days.” Hyunjoong supplied. Taemin thought he looked just as astonished as Leeteuk did. “I told him you were coming, and he asked for three days leave.”
“Oh.” Taemin was bemused to see the sadness reflected in all the exorcist’s eyes. Leeteuk’s the saddest of all. “I see. Well, then. I suppose we should stay the night.”
Hyunjoong nodded, before gesturing at Taemin. “Taemin… could you do me another favour and help prepare the rooms? I promise I won’t disturb you any more after this.”
“No, of course I’ll help.” Taemin immediately stood up. He could tell from the atmosphere in the room that his presence had stayed its length, and that there were things that needed to be said that he wasn’t supposed to hear. And Hyunjoong had already gone out of character to let him stay so long anyway.
“Thank you, Taemin. I’ll show them to the rooms later.” Hyunjoong nodded, and Taemin quickly fled from the room. Occupying his mind with trying to remember the instructions Onew had given him in case there ever came a need for him to entertain guest - anything to take off his mind from the strange and stifling atmosphere in the room.
But even then, his mind couldn’t help but wander back to that sword, its black lacquered sheath, and how it had glinted a sickly sheen in the light. The sick feeling he had got when Leeteuk slapped on that ofuda, and the unearthly scream it had loosed.
And he also thought about the black lightning, and how similar it was to the one that had been released that night a few weeks ago, when Taemin had grabbed onto a knife belonging to one usually grumpy house-spirit named Key…
~*~
“You really didn’t need to.”
Taemin sighed for the fifth time in three minutes, turning around to face Hyunjoong with a baleful sigh. “I heard from the other three what happens when you try to make anything in the kitchen. And I really think that I did need to.”
Hyunjoong laughed, scooting backwards as Taemin bustled past him to check on the soup. And he ran wry fingers through his hair as he finally gave his ascent. “Yes, that’s true. I’m useless in the kitchen… So, I give you my thanks, Taemin.”
Taemin replied with a non-committal grunt, deeming the soup ready and turning the fire off the stove. Then he was struck with a thought. “What happens when you’re left alone like this then?”
“Key usually puts enough food in the fridge enough for as long as he’s gone.” Hyunjoong explained, moving again as Taemin tried to reach behind him for the pepper. “I’m not that bad that I can’t use the microwave. And I do know how to make cup ramen. It’s not beyond my skill to boil water.”
Taemin raised an eyebrow and snorted. “That’s not what Key said.”
“Ahem. Key has a very low opinion of anyone who doesn’t know how to cook, so I don’t think you should depend on him for judgments.”
Taemin was about to rebuke when down the hallway, there was a horrid scream. The two looked at each other for a split second, then both were out in the hallway, the argument over Hyunjoong’s skill with food totally forgotten.
They were the first to arrive, the scream also drawing out the other exorcists from their rooms. But they were still too late.
Hara was already inert on the floor. Her throat sliced open, ruby blood staining the tatami floor.
She had been killed. And from the wound, Taemin could guess exactly what the weapon was that killed her.
~*~
[ Chapter 6]
Chapter: 5/?
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Fantasy, AU
Characters: Taemin (SHINee), Hyunjoong (SS501), the rest of SHINee, SS501 and other cameos
Pairing(s): TBA
Warning: Rating will go up in later chapters
Summary: When Lee Taemin gets deported down from his comfortable position in the weather division to a strange division known only to most as ‘the Store’, he gets tangled up in the stuff that should stay safely in his daydreams. Three difficult house-spirits, plenty of strange, needy customers, one clumsy but strangely mysterious store-keeper, and one particularly curious customer who seems to keep coming back only when Taemin is around.
It’s all fun, but wishes are desires are dangerous things. And soon, Taemin begins to wonder if he’s biting off more than he can chew…
~*~
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~*~
“Taemin-ah~”
The sound of the call wasn’t familiar, and Taemin wondered why. He had become used to the past few weeks of wake-ups, and they were always done in one of the same three ways. Either it was a thwack to his head, courtesy of one impatient Key; or it was a prank - an ice cube down his back, water over his head - quite obviously the work of Jonghyun; or it was a gentle but firm shake to his arm, a soft call, and then the apologetic brown eyes of Onew as Taemin pried open his eyes. But never had it been the mattress contracting and expanding as someone bounced on it and called out his name in a bone-chillingly sweet way.
Taemin pried open his eyes and promptly fell out of it. “Hyunjoong-sshi?!”
“Ah, good morning.” Hyunjoong replied with that winning smile and mild look, as if he wasn’t on his knees, bouncing up and down on Hyunjoong’s bed. “Did you have a good sleep?”
“Yes… until you woke me up… but… what are you doing here?” Taemin slowly picked himself up from the floor, still staring at the strange sight before him.
“Bouncing up and down on your bed.” Hyunjoong answered cheerfully, as if it was the normal thing to say. “I heard that it’s quite an effective way to wake people up. And seems like I heard right.”
Taemin continued to stare incomprehensibly at Hyunjoong for a few moments, before he sighed. He should have figured that this wouldn’t be beyond Hyunjoong, for in the few weeks he’s been staying here, he’s realized that although for most part, Hyunjoong was the mild-mannered man he seemed, he had moments of craziness, like everyone else, only more extreme. Still, he didn’t really have the heart or capacity in such the early morning to tell Hyunjoong that what woke him up was more of the shock of seeing him so up close than the bouncing up and down on the bed.
“No… I meant, where are the rest?” Taemin asked instead, as he picked himself off the floor, straightening out his silk pajamas.
“Oh. It’s their day off today.” Hyunjoong continued to bounce, his face factual and serious as he said all of this, as if it was common knowledge, when it obviously was the first time Taemin had heard anything of the sort. “So they’re all out.”
“Oh.” Taemin couldn’t really say anything else to that, “So, I’m working with you today?”
“Ah… no.” Taemin thought there was an approving smile on Hyunjoong’s face, but it just as well could have been mockingly amused. “It’s your day off today too. That’s what I came here to tell you. But I don’t think you can go out, so you’re kind of stuck here with me.”
Taemin blinked. Well that was unexpected. “I have the day off too?”
“Yep.” Hyunjoong nodded, making one last hard bounce before he leapt off the bed. “Not that there’s much you can do here except eat, sleep and read. But still, just take the day to relax. Key made breakfast before he left though, join me?”
Taemin shook his head. He’d taken to eating more for dinner so that he didn’t feel hungry in the mornings. The three house-spirits didn’t usually have such a strong concept of time, and sometimes, they’d wake him up, leaving him for five minutes, and come back, already expecting him to be dressed with breakfast eaten. Taemin supposed he could just wake up on his own, but he’d never been good with waking up in the mornings, and alarm clocks seemed to hate him. And since his compromise had been working so far, he saw no need to change it.
Hyunjoong shrugged. “Well, suit yourself. I’ll be in the kitchen eating breakfast, after that, I’ll probably be looking around the rooms. Holler if you need me. I might here. If I don’t, then you’ll need to fend for yourself.”
Taemin laughed, shaking his head at the answer. “Should I bring the fireplace poker with me then? Just in case the shadows rear up and bite me?”
“Perhaps, perhaps.” Hyunjoong laughed as he moved towards the door. “You never know.”
And then Taemin was left alone to ponder what to do with his day-off. It took him a while to decide, for it was as Hyunjoong said - he couldn’t leave the place, and there really wasn’t that much to do except… read, eat and sleep. But Hyunjoong had left out one thing, probably because he couldn’t do it himself, and was that Taemin could explore more of the strange place he was trapped in.
He had taken to doing so after a few times of getting lost while being left alone to his own devices, after the day was done and dinner had been eaten. The first few times, Taemin had been trying his luck, seeing if the payment had been fully collected. But it seemed that it was still too early for that, and with every time Taemin opened a door with the intention to get out, he would open it to a strange room, invariably getting lost.
Afterwards, he found it useful an aid to explore the place. For the store was big, and it would have been time consuming to always trace back steps from the day before in order to get a clear picture of the place. And so, for the last few times, Taemin always had first opened the door with the intention to get out, and then subsequently toured the place with just the thought of exploring, and soon, he had several parts of the store already mapped out in his head.
It was this he decided to do as he splashed some water on his face and pulled some decent clothes on - a pair of jeans and a shirt that he’d stolen from Key (he hadn’t had quite the nerve to wear it while the owner was around yet). And before he opened the door, he cast an eye to the fireplace poker, wondering for a moment if he should - for all the things said with Hyunjoong earlier had only been half a jest. For strange things did happen inside the store, and even Hyunjoong professed to only know a small fraction of the oddities that roamed here. But then, he felt the press of the two daggers Hyunjoong had handed to him one day and decided that he was well-armed enough. For he knew they had been spelled, and although seemingly less menacing than a fireplace poker, he knew that they’d be more effective against things strange.
So began his day off of exploring. His first opening of the door had brought him to a new room, filled with crystal things. And Taemin was dazzled for a while, and he stayed in this room, looking at every single artifact, but not touching them even though he wished he could. But he had learned the hard way, what horrors could be released when he disturbed the things in these rooms - most of them were harmless yes, but he wasn’t the store-keeper, so he didn’t know which weren’t, and he had long decided it was better to be safe than sorry.
He took a left turn and came up to one of the rooms he had helped clean along with Key - a room filled with seemingly random items, except they were all old and dirty and remained so even after Taemin had tried to dust them. When he asked what the point was of cleaning things that refused to be cleaned, Key had thrown his wiping cloth at Taemin and rolled his eyes while he said the obvious answer. “We’re wiping the shelves, idiot.”
Taemin swore then to try to be more critical in his thinking after that.
He spent the whole morning exploring - going into rooms he’d never seen before, and some he had. He even traced his way back triumphantly to the kitchen, reckoning to himself that he’d found a short-cut from the library, and it would allow him some time to grab a snack in the middle of work when Onew gave him the usual toilet break. Hyunjoong was no where to be when he’d entered, but there was a stack of pancakes. And since Taemin was too lazy to do lunch on his own, his breakfast became his lunch - satisfactory enough despite being cold. Good food always behaved in a class of its own.
Sated, Taemin washed the dishes so that Key wouldn’t nag when he came back, before he stretched and prepared himself for more exploring. Thinking about leaving the place, he opened the kitchen door, and like expected, what was outside wasn’t the usual corridor that on turning right would lead to his room, but a different room that he now stepped into with much curiosity.
It was a room filled with rubber duckies, and it struck a chord of memory in Taemin’s mind. He’d been in this room before - but not with Key cleaning, or with Jonghyun to put in new things. So where…?
He stepped forward, peering at a particular duck with the reddest mouth and bluest eyes he’d ever seen when the door slid open, and he jumped, blinking owlishly as he saw Hyunjoong in the doorway. The store-keeper’s own eyes blinked just as owlishly back.
“You lost?” Hyunjoong asked, and it was then Taemin remembered when he’d been in this room before - on the second day he was here, and he had been trying to get out. This was one of the rooms he’d waited in for Hyunjoong to get him.
“No.” Taemin shook his head with a wry smile.
“Trying your luck then?” Hyunjoong raised an eyebrow as he shut the door behind him.
“No again. Just exploring.” Taemin laughed at the assumption and the mildly surprised expression on Hyunjoong’s face. He thought he caught a glimpse of satisfaction, but it was gone before he could determine it had been there. “Hmm…”
“So… tell me.” Taemin asked after a few moment of silence, and it became apparent that Hyunjoong wasn’t really doing anything beside peer at the rubber duckies with his pince-nez. “Why is there a room full of rubber duckies?”
“They’re payment.” Hyunjoong answered half-heartedly, concentrating on a task Taemin wasn’t apparent of. “Usually for maturity, but sometimes other things.”
“Rubber duckies?” Taemin raised an eyebrow, unable to see how they had any value to be payment for a wish fulfilled.
“Not rubber duckies.” Hyunjoong raised a finger, seeming to locate the exact rubber ducky he wanted, and picking it up and placing it in Taemin’s hand. “Memories.”
And suddenly, Taemin wasn’t in the room anymore, but standing on a wide-field filled with green grass blowing in the strong wind. And then there was two boys playing it in, their kites flying carefree in the wind. Blue was one, yellow was the other. Strong, vivid colours - too strong to be real. And then there was a promise - a promise to be together forever, corny words out of a Disney movie and then-
“Ahem.”
Taemin started at the new voice, turning around to see a beautiful man that he’d never seen before, folding his arms, and raising a decidedly bothered eyebrow at Hyunjoong. “Showing others my childhood again, store-keeper?”
“Heechul-sshi.” Hyunjoong smiled and bowed, and Taemin guessed that that was the name of the man that brushed off his fussy Victorian winter coat as he stalked in. “I’m sure you don’t mind. It’s so normal after all.”
“Ha. Ha.” The man named Heechul snorted, pulling off his velvet top-hat, and then Taemin realized that this was not so much a man, but a cat-hanyou - a half-demon, with the ears of a cat peeking out through the strands of his long, strikingly red hair. “Well, you should know what I want and what I need. I’m a busy man, so let’s have it here.”
Hyunjoong laughed and nodded, plucking the rubber ducky out of Taemin’s hand and handing it to Heechul, who had pulled out a simple, silver pocket-watch, and held it out to Hyunjoong.
“Excellent.” Hyunjoong commented in return to Heechul’s grunt. “Well, I’ll be seeing you soon then?”
Heechul sighed, flicking his hair behind as he replaced his top-hat. And Taemin was startled to see that the man seemed to have aged in a second - the start of wrinkles on his once flawless face, the beginnings of crows feet. “Of course you will, you know I can’t stand being old like this.”
“You could always have my job.” Hyunjoong chuckled, “Then you wouldn’t need to worry about that at all.”
Heechul snorted, waving his hand. “If there’s anything that I hate more than the unforgiving nature of time, it’s being trapped. So, I’ll take my freedom over your offer anytime.”
“Goodbye, Heechul.” Hyunjoong smiled wryly, stuffing the pocket-watch into his pocket as the red-head stalked out briskly, and Taemin jumped as the door shut sharply behind him, staring after the closed door in confusion.
It wasn’t missed. “That was Kim Heechul. One of our regulars.”
“Regulars?” Taemin turned back to Hyunjoong. “We have regulars?”
“All stores have their regulars, what more the Store.” Hyunjoong smiled, moving towards the door, Taemin scrambling after him. “Heechul comes often because of his job, not that I can disclose it - it’s top secret stuff after all. But sometimes he needs something, and sometimes he needs to be in lack of something, and this is the best place he knows to suit his purposes, so he comes here. Today, it was the need to look older, more mature and to be more sympathetic. So…” Hyunjoong pulled out the pocket-watch, dangling it down and letting the silver glint into Taemin’s eyes. “It was his time in order to get back his memories.”
There was an obvious order in Hyunjoong’s eyes, and Taemin held out his hand on reflex for Hyunjoong to drop the key-chain into. It glinted in the dull light of the room they were passing through - a room of papers and documents, before Taemin closed his hand around it.
“I know it’s your day off, but do it as a favour won’t you? Since you’re exploring.” Hyunjoong asked, probably out of politeness, because Taemin had technically already agreed. “I’d shelve it on my own, but there’s another customer coming, and I don’t want to keep him waiting.”
“Another customer?” Taemin was surprised. He had gotten used to weeks of inactivity, of boring administrative jobs. Then all of a sudden, the customers seemed to be flooding in when it was their supposed day off.
“It’s a day off for you, but not for me.” Hyunjoong laughed, before turning around, a glint in his eyes. “But that’s not what’s really on your mind, right? The customers have always been coming, but whether you know it or not is a different thing.”
Ah, so it was that again. Taemin would have been much more bothered if this had came up a few weeks ago, but now, he was kind of used to it. Besides, recently, he’d been feeling that he wasn’t too sure if he really wanted to know everything that went on in the Store. Hyunjoong had assured him that everything was legitimate, but he never said it wasn’t dangerous.
“Well, if you need my help, just call me.” Hyunjoong quirked an eyebrow as he turned around at the offer. The smile shared between the both of them was significant of the understanding of the laughable reversal of roles, and Hyunjoong nodded, waving an elegant hand before moving out. “I will.”
Taemin stayed in the room for a while, staring at the after-image of Hyunjoong long after the store-keeper had left. Somewhere, a cloud moved, letting streams of sunlight flood through glass yellow-stained through time, colouring the dust motes floating in the air.
Then, another cloud took its place, and the room darkened again, the dance of dust interrupted. And sighing at the moment, Taemin stuffed the watch into his pocket and left as well.
~*~
He was in the library, haven’t yet found the room that contained pocket-watches as percentages of a person’s time and hoping to retrace his steps from there, when he heard the shout of alarm, then the sound of a fearful roar that shook the very foundations on which the Store stood upon.
Taemin was out into the corridor before he himself realized it. There were sounds of fighting in a distance, desperate clashes of metal, and the toppling over of furniture, and Taemin swore he heard precious glass breaking as well. It only made him run faster, raising a wind to aid his speed. And within a minute, he was outside the drawing room, violently shoving the door to a side, the rice-paper quivering in its frame. “Hyunjoong-sshi!”
The store-keeper was being pinned down by someone, his slim cane-sword barely blocking the weight of an ostentatiously crafted claymore. And without thinking, Taemin drew out his daggers with one smooth action, dashing forward to at least help distract the brute so that Hyunjoong could get up and do something.
But before he’d even reached near, his strike was deflected by the interference of a swift rapier. Taemin barely managed to contain his shock and deflect the almost immediate counter-strike, the elegant gold-lined blade snaking out like a one meter miracle.
“You dare draw your blades against my master?!” Taemin looked up to see, a rather scantily clad girl in black brandishing her rapier against him, a look of outrage on her face. “Get up, you fiend and fight me like a man!”
Taemin stared, because he hadn’t heard anyone speak in a manner like that since Tiffany had gone on a true-blood Victorian craze and had forced upon them teas and scones and affected British accents. And because of the fact that they were accusing him of being unmanly when it was them drawing their blades first.
There was a moment of silence - silence that dragged to a point of anti-climax when the girl shrieked in a manner much like Tiffany and waved her rapier in a haphazard agitated movement. “Well?! What are you waiting for? Come on! Get up and fight!”
“Nicole! What are you doing? Lower your blade!”
Taemin blinked, looking up when a shadow was cast over him, and spotted two more new arrivals coming in. He caught a glimpse of Japanese kimono, and what looked like a Maiko rush into the room. “You too, Jungmin! What in the name of the seven lords are you doing?”
There were cries of “But Leeteuk-oppa!” and “Awww… but I was having fun!”, but the melee slowly cleared, and Taemin heard Hyunjoong saying, among all the noise, “thank God, Leeteuk. You have the timing of a saint.”
“With these two, I have to.” The kimono-clad man named Leeteuk pointed at the two medieval-looking people who had assaulted Taemin and Hyunjoong, of which the girl was now sulking while the Maiko tried to pacify her, and the red-haired male was laughing raucously. “Anyway, shall we get down to business?”
Hyunjoong straightened out the black-silk kimono that he must have put on just to greet them and raised an eyebrow. “Well, before that, I have something to do…”
And then, Taemin was treated with a sight he’d never thought he’d see. It was Hyunjoong taking just a step right, then appearing right behind the red-haired male in a move so fast, Taemin didn’t even see it happen. Then, there was a thud, and almost in slow-motion, the eyes of the male rolled up to the back of his head and collapsed to the floor.
There was a moment of silence, before it was broken by a distressed shriek of “MASTER!” and the rushing of the black-clad girl to his side. Taemin had to cover his mouth, which had fallen so wide, to choke back a laugh of surprise - which was way too delighted to be polite.
“There.” Hyunjoong huffed, replacing his cane-sword, into its sheath, having used its blunt end to do the deed. He turned back to Leeteuk who was shaking his head wryly, but looked a little too amused for his own good as well. “Now. Didn’t we have matters to discuss?”
~*~
They were a group of exorcists, Taemin found out, and common customers of the Store because of their job. Ironic somewhat, because they themselves were part of the pantheon which they deal with. But as it was, they toured the human world as cosplayers in order to blend in, which explained their outlandish outfits.
Taemin also found out their names, after some quick introductions when he brought in the Oolong tea. The girl in black whom Taemin had crossed blades with was Nicole Jung, and she sulked all the way through the introductions. The girl in the Maiko costume, all the while trying to conspicuously nudge Nicole, assumingly to berate her, was Go Hara. The rowdy one with red hair, who hadn’t once stopped badgering Hyunjoong, even after waking up with a painful looking bump on his head, was Park Jungmin. And the one in the kimono was Park Jungsu, or Leeteuk, and he was the leader of the whole rowdy bunch, and apparently, there were others in their gang - a Yesung, a Shindong, a Sungmin and some others whose names Taemin didn’t manage to catch.
Taemin somewhat sympathized with Leeteuk for needing to deal with just Jungmin, yet alone all of them. And he’d been ready to dismiss himself, since he figured they were the customers (or rather, Leeteuk was the customer, since Hyunjoong had earlier referred to a singular male), and Hyunjoong would like to be alone with them.
But just as he was about to leave, Hyunjoong called out to him. “Why don’t you stay, Taemin? Since you’re here.”
“You don’t mind?” the question came out before Taemin thought better of it, and he got a surprised expression in response.
“I never mind,” was Hyunjoong’s reply. “It’s usually the customers who do, but Leeteuk doesn’t, right?”
The kindly bespectacled man shook his head, smiling at Taemin, and gesturing for him to sit. And Taemin did so, settling into a stool against the wall, a little off from the rest, ignoring the glower he got from Nicole.
“Now.” Hyunjoong took a final sip of his tea before putting his cup back down onto the low black-lacquered table. “What do you have for me?”
The air seemed to change as Leeteuk eyed Hyunjoong for a while, and even Jungmin seemed to sober up as Leeteuk untied the sword around his waist and placed in down on the lacquered tabled as well.
It seemed a normal sword at first - a Japanese kodachi, really, but when Taemin set his eyes on it properly, he found his hands curling into fists, and his teeth clenching together in fear. For the sword had a strange air to it - odd and blood-curling. There was a hiss, and as everyone turned to look at him, he realized that it had come from him.
“Hmm…” Hyunjoong gave him a strange, knowing look, before turning back to look down at the sword. “I thought it might be this. What did you use to bind it?”
Leeteuk only gave Hyunjoong a pointed look, who held up his hands. “I thought you might have used something special for something this strong… Hmm… amber prayer beads…” He leaned down, giving the sword a sniff. “Salt infusion… No ofuda?”
Leeteuk frowned, casting a sharp eye at the sword, then quickly pushing Hyunjoong back, pulled out a piece of paper, and slapped it onto the sword.
Taemin jumped as there was the crackle of black lightning at the contact, and a soul-piercing shriek. Everyone else in the room had tensed, hands going to their weapons, with the exception of Hyunjoong, who chuckled, and leaned down again, so near to the sword that Taemin wanted to go over and pull him back. “Now, now there was no need for that. You’re all perfectly safe here…”
“Well, since you seem confident of dealing with this, I’ll leave the necessary payment before making my move.” Leeteuk got up, preparing to leave.
“Ah. No, no.” Hyunjoong raised a hand, stopping Leeteuk, and thus also the other three, in their tracks. “I said you were safe here, didn’t I? I can’t promise that if you leave now though.”
Leeteuk stiffened. “The others?”
“Were they exposed?”
There was a nod, and a hard look. Hyunjoong hummed, rubbing his chin as he always did when deep in thought. “I’ll make something… Hara can make it back I think, because of her nature, she should be fine. But the remaining three of you should stay the night. Just in case.”
There was a silence, and Taemin was surprised to find an uncomfortable atmosphere at the thought of spending the night here - Nicole rubbing at an invisible spot on her rapier, Jungmin look down at the carpet, as if its pattern was the most interesting thing in the world, Hara picking at a stray thread in her skirt. And he was even more surprised to hear Leeteuk’s next words.
“You know we’d rather not… Key…”
“Will be away for two more days.” Hyunjoong supplied. Taemin thought he looked just as astonished as Leeteuk did. “I told him you were coming, and he asked for three days leave.”
“Oh.” Taemin was bemused to see the sadness reflected in all the exorcist’s eyes. Leeteuk’s the saddest of all. “I see. Well, then. I suppose we should stay the night.”
Hyunjoong nodded, before gesturing at Taemin. “Taemin… could you do me another favour and help prepare the rooms? I promise I won’t disturb you any more after this.”
“No, of course I’ll help.” Taemin immediately stood up. He could tell from the atmosphere in the room that his presence had stayed its length, and that there were things that needed to be said that he wasn’t supposed to hear. And Hyunjoong had already gone out of character to let him stay so long anyway.
“Thank you, Taemin. I’ll show them to the rooms later.” Hyunjoong nodded, and Taemin quickly fled from the room. Occupying his mind with trying to remember the instructions Onew had given him in case there ever came a need for him to entertain guest - anything to take off his mind from the strange and stifling atmosphere in the room.
But even then, his mind couldn’t help but wander back to that sword, its black lacquered sheath, and how it had glinted a sickly sheen in the light. The sick feeling he had got when Leeteuk slapped on that ofuda, and the unearthly scream it had loosed.
And he also thought about the black lightning, and how similar it was to the one that had been released that night a few weeks ago, when Taemin had grabbed onto a knife belonging to one usually grumpy house-spirit named Key…
~*~
“You really didn’t need to.”
Taemin sighed for the fifth time in three minutes, turning around to face Hyunjoong with a baleful sigh. “I heard from the other three what happens when you try to make anything in the kitchen. And I really think that I did need to.”
Hyunjoong laughed, scooting backwards as Taemin bustled past him to check on the soup. And he ran wry fingers through his hair as he finally gave his ascent. “Yes, that’s true. I’m useless in the kitchen… So, I give you my thanks, Taemin.”
Taemin replied with a non-committal grunt, deeming the soup ready and turning the fire off the stove. Then he was struck with a thought. “What happens when you’re left alone like this then?”
“Key usually puts enough food in the fridge enough for as long as he’s gone.” Hyunjoong explained, moving again as Taemin tried to reach behind him for the pepper. “I’m not that bad that I can’t use the microwave. And I do know how to make cup ramen. It’s not beyond my skill to boil water.”
Taemin raised an eyebrow and snorted. “That’s not what Key said.”
“Ahem. Key has a very low opinion of anyone who doesn’t know how to cook, so I don’t think you should depend on him for judgments.”
Taemin was about to rebuke when down the hallway, there was a horrid scream. The two looked at each other for a split second, then both were out in the hallway, the argument over Hyunjoong’s skill with food totally forgotten.
They were the first to arrive, the scream also drawing out the other exorcists from their rooms. But they were still too late.
Hara was already inert on the floor. Her throat sliced open, ruby blood staining the tatami floor.
She had been killed. And from the wound, Taemin could guess exactly what the weapon was that killed her.
~*~
[ Chapter 6]