[Fic] Play For Me - Part 3
Seoul, Joseon Dynasty, 1700s
Jinwoon has Jo Kwon lying on his lap in his bedroom. They had just finished a round of sex and are deliciously lethargic, Jo Kwon slightly more so, from the blood loss. Jinwoon bends over and drips blood discreetly from his cut lips over the puncture wounds, kissing the area slowly as it heals. Jo Kwon hums and turns his head to take Jinwoon’s lips in his.
The tender kiss comes to a natural end and Jinwoon smiles down at Jo Kwon who turns his head to look at something on the opposite wall.
“I like that painting,” Jo Kwon says out of the blue.
Jinwoon follows Jo Kwon’s eye line. It is a painting of fierce waves crashing onto high cliffs, and in the corner, as indistinct as it is the main point of the picture, a small rowboat taking the challenge. It’s a picture of bravery, of confidence, of knowing what one wants. It’s not surprising that Jo Kwon is drawn to it.
“It’s yours,” Jinwoon smiles down at the boy who is slowly and surely becoming very important to him.
“Really? Thank you!” Jo Kwon jumps up all excited. He takes the painting down from the wall and rolls it up. He goes back to Jinwoon’s lap as soon as he tucks the scroll in a corner.
Laughing at Jo Kwon’s antics, Jinwoon says as he bends down to kiss him again, “You’re amazing.” Jo Kwon beams up at him, eyelids fluttering.
It has always been easy for Jinwoon to claim whatever he wants whenever he wants it. It has been like that for a long time. However, with Jo Kwon, it’s different. Every time he sees the boy, Jinwoon is overtaken with his usual selfishness to keep the boy by his side for eternity, and yet, he stops himself, because Jo Kwon is the most vibrant human being he has ever met. Being with Jo Kwon, surrounded by his warmth, allows Jinwoon to rediscover his humanity, the human he once was.
At this very moment, as Jinwoon drowns in everything that Jo Kwon is, every fibre in his being hurts when he thinks of Jo Kwon’s mortality, that he will only have a short time with the boy. 70 years at best, if his relationship with Jo Kwon even lasts that long, and those years don’t even make a dent in the timeline of eternity. It drives Jinwoon into a sudden panic, and it shows in his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Jo Kwon asks tenderly, reaching a hand up to stroke Jinwoon’s face.
“Stay with me, forever,” Jinwoon asks. Jinwoon never asks, he just takes.
Jo Kwon smiles indulgently, as though he had heard the same preposition countless of times, “That’s not possible.”
“What if it is? What if it is possible?” Jinwoon’s voice is serious, and Jo Kwon sits up.
For the very first time, Jinwoon reveals himself to a human, a human he doesn’t want to kill, telling Jo Kwon of the creature that he is, and what he can do. Jo Kwon doesn’t move as he listens. Jinwoon constantly searches for signs of fear, of terror, but there is none. If anything, there is a growing curiosity in Jo Kwon’s eyes, and Jinwoon thinks just how much he loves this boy.
When Jinwoon tails off, Jo Kwon straddles and kisses him.
“What was that for?” Jinwoon can’t help but ask.
“A reward. It must have been hard for you to say all that to me.”
“Aren’t you afraid I might harm you?”
“You wouldn’t have told me all that if you were going to,” comes Jo Kwon’s wise reply and Jinwoon wants nothing more than to turn him, to make him forever his lover.
“I love you,” Jinwoon confesses, pulling Jo Kwon closer. He takes hold of Jo Kwon’s slim wrist and shows Jo Kwon his fangs. Jo Kwon’s eyes widen but he doesn’t pull away. Jinwoon punctures the wrist and sucks gently at the trickle of blood. Jo Kwon groans and takes hold of Jinwoon with his other hand. He works on Jinwoon until Jinwoon is about the crumble.
“Jo Kwon,” Jinwoon whispers as he moves faster, surrounded by Jo Kwon’s fist.
“Yes, my lord?” Jo Kwon’s soft cadence brings Jinwoon to the edge.
“Stay with me,” he says as he comes, searing hot in Jo Kwon’s hand.
He recovers from his high just in time to hear a soft reply, “No.”
*
Seoul, present day
He is on his sellout tour around the country. He travels in his custom-made, heavily tinted bus by day, and emerges the dark rock god at night, shining on stage, letting himself be worshipped. He goes through the motions, feeling for the first time that everything he had ever done from then up till now is all for naught. For years, 10 years at a time, he would emerge and take the entertainment world at the time by storm. He spent the other long years off the radar, hunting, feeding, writing songs, and practicing new instruments.
Everything that he did, everything that he is doing, he is doing because of words said by someone that meant, that means, the world to him. And he had never resented it until now.
Jinwoon had never expected to see Jo Kwon again. Through the hundreds of years, JInwoon carried with him guilt and a broken heart. The only thing that keeps him going, the only reason he hasn’t ordered Changmin to severe his head, are the gentle, inspiring words that Jo Kwon had uttered before everything happened that left him with this empty void. What he wouldn’t give to have Jo Kwon back in his arms, to hear that soothing voice speak once more.
But, this chance meeting that should have been one to mend the brokenness has somehow shattered his heart further. The Jo Kwon now is not the one that has been with him all this time. The steadiness and confidence is still there, but there is this hardness that Jinwoon is not used to. But, what can Jinwoon expect, when the fault is his?
Against his better judgment, Jinwoon wants Jo Kwon to be his again. He knew it the minute his lips crashed into Jo Kwon in that brutal kiss. However, he also knows that he is not what Jo Kwon wants, he never was, and never will be.
The sound of the encore chants gets louder, and Jinwoon fights the urge to take flight. Maybe it’s time to disappear again, go underground, to not be Jung Jinwoon for a millennium. After all, there is no longer any purpose, not anymore.
He rises up through the smoke, face cold and emotionless as the crowd cheers. The drumbeats start up behind him, and he strikes the first chord of the song. He holds the note and looks up, at the blur of faces that he can see clearly if he wants to. His eyes catch a glint, and as the reverberations fade, he finds that he is locked in a gaze so strong, so powerful. Not human. Jo Kwon.
*
Seoul, Joseon Dynasty, 1700s
It has been a year since Jinwoon met Jo Kwon, and Jinwoon is not showing any signs of getting tired of the boy. If anything, he is getting more and more enthralled, falling deeper and deeper. Jo Kwon is everything Jinwoon wants as a partner for eternity - beautiful, intelligent, fearless.
“Stay with me,” Jinwoon asks, over and over.
“Never,” Jo Kwon laughs, tugging at the bow of Jinwoon’s nobleman robes.
Jinwoon stops Jo Kwon’s hand.
“Why not? Do you not love me?”
Jo Kwon’s laughter ebbs, changing into a soft smile that speaks volumes, but in a language JInwoon does not understand. Instead of replying, Jo Kwon strums a few strings of the Gayageum nearby.
“Play for me?”
It is a request made many times in the course of their relationship, and Jinwoon always accedes to it.
*
A while later, when Jinwoon looks up from his playing, his fingertips still holding on to the last bit of song. Jo Kwon is lying on his back, head turned in his direction, eyes fixed on him. He has a wistful expression on his face, and something more unreadable that makes Jinwoon curious and a little cautious. Jinwoon pushes the instrument aside and moves towards Jo Kwon.
“My lord?” Jo Kwon asks as he leans in to Jinwoon’s touch on his cheek.
“Hmm…?” Jinwoon is slightly distracted by Jo Kwon’s pink lips.
“Do you have dreams?”
Jinwoon chuckles.
“Creatures like me don’t exactly dream. My sleep is dreamless. But when I see you though……” Jinwoon runs a gentle thumb across Jo Kwon’s lower lip.
Jo Kwon smiles that mysterious smile again.
“How about before? Did you have a dream?”
No one has ever asked him that before, and Jinwoon takes a while to answer. Truth be told, it takes some effort to dredge up forgotten memories. When someone turns, the transformation takes away a lot of what is human, and the early years are primal, almost animal-like, with little recollection of what it was like before. As the years pass, human aspects return, but not for everyone, and not completely. Just enough to survive in the world.
“I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it.”
Jo Kwon sits up and waits for Jinwoon to go on.
“My human life began more than 300 years ago. My family was working-class but my father earned just enough to feed and clothe our small family with his small carpentry business. My elder brother took on the responsibility of taking over. There was no money for us to go to school, so I grew up either running errands for my father or running around with the street urchins. I was turned when I was 20, so I never got to know what it was like to be an adult.”
Remembering is not easy, and Jinwoon pauses, posture freezing. The journey down memory lane is not one he likes to take as it opens images and emotions that had taken him centuries to block out.
“My lord?” Jo Kwon melts him in an embrace and Jinwoon marvels at the comforting warmth this boy provides.
“Hmmmm?” Jinwoon buries his face in Jo Kwon’s hair, inhaling the unique and delectable scent of his skin and blood.
“Wasn’t there anything you enjoyed?”
Jinwoon sighs gruffly. Jo Kwon is not letting the subject go.
He takes a moment to think, and replies, “I used to sneak into the old theatre and listen to the performances from the rafters….”
Jo Kwon nods encouragingly.
“…. My father sometimes repaired old instruments, giving them new bodies. Before the owners picked them up, I would tinkle on them a little, teaching myself how to play, trying to recreate the tunes I heard.”
“Why did you do that?” Jo Kwon breathes as he arches from Jinwoon’s soft, cold touches under his thin robes.
“I think I must have liked the idea of performing one day,” the minute those words leave his lips, Jinwoon realizes that he had forgotten that feeling of hope for the future.
“Mmmmm…” Jo Kwon acquiesces, letting Jinwoon push him down and open his robe. He hisses as Jinwoon kisses and nicks a trail down his torso, but manages to say as he tangles fingers through Jinwoon’s hair, “See? You have a dream.”
Jinwoon gives a quiet chuckle and says, more to himself than to Jo Kwon, “What good is it now?”
Jo Kwon is rendered speechless, but for heavy breaths, as Jinwoon bites and draws small amount of blood from different parts of his body as part of their foreplay. But, as things move further, and Jo Kwon is laid spread wide open under Jinwoon, he whispers, “Promise me……”
“What, my love?” Jinwoon growls deep, distracted, the sweet taste of Jo Kwon’s blood on his tongue.
“That you will fulfill your dream,” Jo Kwon gasps his words as Jinwoon moves further south, licking and sucking, driving Jo Kwon to the brink.
Jinwoon is silent as he covers Jo Kwon with his body. He pushes in, allowing the hot walls to encase him. “Why?” he groans as he moves in and out.
“Just…hnnn…..” Jo Kwon presses out the words as he climbs higher and higher with pleasure. “For me,” he sighs as he comes, hugging Jinwoon tight, waiting for Jinwoon to do the same.
*
Seoul, present day
“JO KWON!! DON’T RUN FROM ME!!” Jinwoon shouts as he glides at inhuman speed through the shadows of the night, chasing the person he has never been able to catch.
The younger vampire has always been light and nimble, and his reluctantly acquired powers have made him more so. He is dangerously swift and agile, and even Jinwoon, with centuries of seniority, is only just able to keep up. Jinwoon forgets that Jo Kwon is wily too, his mind works much faster than Jinwoon’s and it is the reason Jinwoon loses him somewhere between Mapo and Seoul.
Jo Kwon being at the concert means something, Jinwoon thinks as he slows his pace in downtown Seoul. But what? Jo Kwon has a penchant for secrecy, for hiding within himself, so that no one, not even Jinwoon can see what lies beneath all that beauty, warmth and smiles. Jinwoon looks around for his next feed. He is feeling a little malicious, given the nature of his night so far. Instead of choosing desperate souls, he chooses to charm a rich young man coming out of a stretch limo. It doesn’t take a lot of seduction, the young man falls under his spell easily. Jinwoon has his way with him at the back of that limo, biting down harder than he usually does with his victims, letting his rage consume him for a few short minutes. Jinwoon does not kill the man, but drains him enough that he would be unconscious for a long while. Feeling vindictive, Jinwoon leaves the bloody gash on the neck gapping open as he slips away, invisible.
*
“Welcome,” the man named Seulong doesn’t even flinch when Jinwoon appears in front of him. Seulong is dressed only in a pair of tight black slacks, fabric hugging a taut ass; button and fly open to expose a distracting tuft of wiry hair. Seulong’s bare shoulders are broad, connecting to well-defined strong arms. His pectorals curved markedly, dark nipples pointing downward, leading the eyes to a perfect 6-pack abdomen and jutting hipbones. Along with a face decorated with warm chocolate eyes, high cheekbones, a Roman nose and full lips, Seulong is an exceptional specimen.
Jinwoon sits on the couch he sat in previously, he himself elegant and majestic.
“Brandy?” Seulong asks and Jinwoon nods.
“Don’t you ever leave this room?” Jinwoon is curious as he watches Seulong walk towards him with almost feline grace.
“I do, in the day. At night, Jo Kwon likes me here,” Seulong says calmly as he hands Seulong an expensive crystal glass swirling with golden liquid. He sits opposite Jinwoon in a similar couch, holding a similar glass, filled with similar contents.
“So, what are you? His blood on tap?” Jinwoon attacks, sipping his brandy.
Seulong simply smiles, and shrugs, “If that is what he wants me to be.”
“Why?”
“Why?” Seulong echoes, his eyebrow raised.
“You obviously know what he is, and it doesn’t seem like he has you under his spell, so why? Why are you here? Aren’t you afraid of what he can do to you?”
“There’s nothing to be afraid of. He is Jo Kwon. He will never harm me,” Seulong replies so casually that it seems abnormal. Jinwoon squints when he sees a glint in Seulong’s eyes when he mentions Jo Kwon’s name. It is a glint he hasn’t seen in a human for a long long time.
Jinwoon sighs, “You love him.”
“Is there any other reason a human would stay willingly by a vampire’s side if it is not love?” Seulong’s words are rhetorical.
“And if I’m not mistaken,” Seulong continues, “you had a human once that stayed with you exactly like how I’m staying with Jo Kwon.”
Jinwoon pretends the words don’t affect him as he drains his glass.
“More?” Seulong doesn’t wait for Jinwoon’s answer. He reaches for the chalice and leans over to fill the glass up.
“Don’t you want to be with him forever then?” Jinwoon probs, accepting the refill.
“More than anything, but he hasn’t given me the choice,” Seulong says, a wistful tone in his voice.
“Choice?”
“Everything about Jo Kwon is about choice. He lets people choose their paths, and doesn’t resent them for rejecting his offer, whatever it may be. He tells everyone that works here who he is, and only feeds on those who allow him to. There are several boys in the brothel who he goes to, but he comes to me most. It is my choice, I chose this for my life,” Seulong sits back and cross his long legs. Jinwoon can hear his blood travelling through his veins.
“Why hasn’t Jo Kwon given you the choice of immortality then?” Jinwoon thinks he knows the answer, but wants to hear it anyway.
Seulong looks sad, “He doesn’t believe it’s a choice a vampire should ask a human to make. The choice is a burden that one should never have to carry.”
The words Jinwoon hear unlocks a fury within him, a rage that has built up from the endless guilt and sorrow he had to bear for centuries. He gets his feet and pins Seulong to the wall by his throat. Seulong gags, but his eyes are steady.
“Newsflash, hot shot,” Jinwoon growls menacingly, baring his fangs, “Becoming a vampire is never a choice.” He tears into Seulong’s throat and takes big mouthfuls, hearing the man choking on his own blood. His life is fading, Jinwoon can feel it, and he should stop, but he can’t, because this man is Jo Kwon’s. Seulong slips from the wall and Jinwoon follows, mouth still locked on the gashing wound. Almost there, just a little bit more. Jinwoon can feel Seulong’s heartbeat slowing. Almost there…..
“JUNG JINWOON!! DON’T YOU DARE!”
The voice rings out high-pitched and furious. Jinwoon releases the dying man and raises his head, blood dripping from his mouth down to his chin. He comes face to face with Jo Kwon, eyes flashing red.
Jo Kwon takes a swipe at Jinwoon, who, unprepared and drunk on blood, is flung to the far corner of the room.
“If he dies,” Jo Kwon warns, voice dangerously controlled, “You will watch me die all over again.”
*
Part 4