Godori [Part One]
Title: Godori
Genre: Romance, Drama, AU, Zinnia!verse
Pairing(s): Dongwoo/Myungsoo, apparent Dongwoo/Hoya, one-sided Sungyeol/Myungsoo
Summary: With a clack the cards will fall into place and with every game there are the winner or losers. In a society strife with a need to hold onto tradition in the midst of changes, there are those who are dealt the worst hand. Myungsoo is such a one who is lost in the cracks of logic and prejudice. But who's to say that the rules can't be changed? When an exclusive Zinnia establishment purchases his contract, it seems that Myungsoo's luck has changed. But is it for the better? Or will he suffer and exit with even heavier losses than before?
~*~
There is a stench. A few stenches actually, mixing into one. The scent of unwashed bodies, and of blood. Then there is corruption, lust and greed intertwined with that of tears and pain. It all congeals into one sickening smell; black, oily and suffocating - the smell of human evil.
The young boy's eyes are half dead, glazed with a wish for nothingness. Blood coats his thighs, some of the brownish smears weeks old, and the red rivulets that drip down fresh from minutes ago before he'd finally been released. He'd stumbled straight here, falling onto the dirty coverlet he'd been issued so long ago. It seems like forever.
He can't remember anymore. His mother's smile. His father's laugh. He can't remember anymore.
A hand touches his shoulder and he starts, panicking at first, before calming down. The hand moves, wiping across his cheek, wiping away tears he hadn't even known had fallen. He'd gotten too used to them already. "Hyung..." He whispers softly, noticing the harsh sound of breathing that isn't his own. "You're hurt."
But the other boy only smiles, a dim white in the darkness. And arms wrap around him, and for a while, the young boy remembers - his mother's smile and his father's laugh.
A whisper into his ear. A promise that he's never forgotten.
"We'll get out of this. I swear."
~*~
All the lights flicker once, drawing Myungsoo's eyes to the lights. He snorts softly before returning his attention to the man who's been staring at him a while. Worn but decent clothes, shoes looking worse for wear, hair slightly matted with flecks of dirt, but his hands stray often to his pocket where there probably is an unusually high amount of money being kept. He is a customer alright - a little worse for wear, but a customer nevertheless.
Myungsoo sighs. There is a leer in the man's nervously darting eyes that he doesn't like. But what choice does he have? It's not like the others will be any much better.
So he parts his legs just so that the satiny material slides just so, catching light and drawing attention, revealing just that bit of skin. He knows when he has the man's full attention, feeling the stare, and he allows himself a small smirk before he does his signature move and looks up from beneath his fringe, eyes widening just that much.
He can hear the man's breath quicken as he's caught - hook, line and sinker.
They take it to the back row, the man's hands rough and hardly waiting. Myungsoo hardly has time to twist and slap hands away so that they enter the small cubicle first before his obi falls apart.
"Wait." Myungsoo gasps as rough hands push at his thighs. "I don't part my legs so easily. Show me you can pay first."
The man growls in impatience, but he reaches into his pocket to reveal the glint of coins. It's enough and a little more for a tip if Myungsoo pleases him. But instead of feeling pleased, Myungsoo's heart drops instead.
He can't refuse this customer without refusing him entirely. Myungsoo has no good excuse that will allow him to close back his legs and offer a blowjob for whatever coin there is instead. He closes his eyes as he thinks of Mama-san's cold face as she tells him he'd be on pain row again if he can't get at least one decent paying customer tonight.
He can't refuse this.
So he pastes on a smile and a looks of pleasure in his dead eyes as the man plasters his dirty hands onto Myungsoo's skin. There is blood and stiffness by the time the man is done, but there is also the glint of coin left on the tiny shelf near the door while Myungsoo fights to hold himself together while the customer ties back his robes and prepares to leave.
"Hmm... Ambrosia's ya name ain't it?" The customer chortles as he gives Myungsoo's ass one last squeeze. "Not bad. Not bad. Mabbe I'll come round the next pay day. Heh." Myungsoo has to hold back a laugh despite the sick feeling in his stomach. If only the customer knew.
The minute the customer's heel disappears around the wall, Myungsoo grabs the bag of coins and runs. He runs to the nearest bucket he can find and vomits. The tears falls and his frame shakes and when he closes his eyes, all he can see is the colour blue.
~*~
The taste at the back of his throat is acrid, but that again is nothing new, and it is not what has woken him either. Groaning, he squints against the light to see lips twisted as if they've swallowed something sour and he sighs.
"I did it alright." He croaks, holding the bag out, the clink of coins lost in the symphony of moans and screams echoing through the halls. "Stop staring at me like I did something wrong."
The mouth tightens and a gnarled hand reaches out, snatching the bag out of Myungsoo's grasp. "You're still at it ain't you? You should learn to get over it, being stuck in this line."
The protests are there at the back of Myungsoo's throat, but he doesn't let them escape. After all, how do you explain to a woman who has convinced herself that your psychological trauma from being raped multiple times as a child and then forced into the sex trade out of desperation is nothing but a childish pique of not getting your way? Yet, what Mama-san says is also true - he is stuck here. "It's okay as long as I get it done and don't vomit on the customer, right?" Myungsoo scowls pushing himself up and wincing.
"Yes, I did say that." Mama-san rolls her eyes and takes a long drag from her cigarette. "Get going. You might be off pain row for the week but there's still many days ahead of us yet."
Myungsoo spits the acrid taste out of his mouth and just laughs. The laugh is like death, curling like the smoke from Mama-san's mouth, disappearing like poison into the air.
~*~
"Yah... Ambrie, you go."
The urge to take the bag of coins and then toss it back at the other man's face is enormous. But Myungsoo suppresses it. Barely. It's only because the short-lived satisfaction of doing such an action would not be worth the hurt and pain he'd receive for his troubles. He's the unfortunate youngest after all, and besides, though tradition meant he had to be in a position close to a maid to his elders, at least that meant that his sunbaes would have to protect him if he met trouble in the form of a too violent customer. And at least, his sunbaes honoured that exchange, coming to his aid often since his youth tended to attract the most violent and perverted of the customers.
It still did not make the task he needed to do any more pleasant.
It takes a few minutes to get ready to go. Everything is laid out for him. The straw slippers, the chain of bells and the violent red robe. They're always hung out by the entrance - after all, there is only one reason why anyone in their position would don that ensemble anyway.
Myungsoo tries not to wince each time he takes a step, but he winces anyway because the sun is bright in his eyes, and it's been exactly a week since the last time he's stood under its scorching gaze. The warmth makes his skin crawl unpleasantly - but maybe that's because of what he knows is to come.
It's like a one-man parade, or rather, a freak show. The noise the bells make as he walks is like a mocking fanfare. And like vultures drawn to the smell of dead meat, the populace draw near.
It always starts with the whispers. Somehow, they think if they don't look at him, he can't hear them, can't feel their judgemental stares. They whisper about the story that he already knows. About how during the war with Xing, how the westerners took advantage of the royal army's preoccupation and took over the port city of Koge trying to get a foothold into Chousen's trade. How the western soldiers, with their bright blue eyes and white skin had taken whatever they wanted and also whoever they had wanted. How they had finally retreated after the war with Xing ending faster than the westerners had anticipated, but not before they had taken a few hundred commoners as hostages. How they were finally returned when trade with the westerners was finally established and the great rejoicing that had occurred. But then, the stories of the rape camps had leaked, and the rejoicing had quickly turned to jeers. The hostages had been dirtied, contaminated by the hands of the barbarians. And so they must not be touched, must not be seen, rejected so that they could not contaminate the pure, common citizen of Chousen.
Myungsoo knows all this, because he had had the misfortune, of visiting Koge on a holiday with his family, on that faithful day.
The whispers turn to how the rot from being violated by the barbarians must have gotten to their heads, all turned to selling their bodies to low-class Zinnia establishments. It's just the way the rot gathers, clinging to undeserved life where they should just die. Myungsoo thinks that it's probably soon, and wonders how long it will be until the first person gathers enough hate to speak out first.
It's a lady today, which is rarer, and makes the hatred in her voice sting even more. "Argh. Filthy jukeungot, why must you come out in the day? Just starve in your little hellhole!"
It's like a signal for all of them to start. And like clockwork, all of them do.
"How dare you come out in the day?!"
"Filthy whores!"
"Tsk, how can they still bear to live after being sullied by those blue-eyed barbarians."
"You should have just died when you got caught."
"...Cowards who couldn't even die properly."
"Get out of our sight! Disgusting!"
His face feels heavy. Maybe it's the mask his face becomes whenever he has to venture out of Wilted Alley. He learnt not to react now, not when the spit lands on his face, nor when the insults are hurled his way.
The person handing out the food to him isn't the usual guy. Even if he isn't particularly friendly, at least he doesn't sneer at Myungsoo the way this man does. And so Myungsoo is prepared when the sack of food is thrown on the floor instead of handed to him. He just places the bag of coins on the table and bends down to pick the sack up, ignoring the way the man picks up the bag of coins as if it's covered in filth.
It is a little unexpected though when his shoulder suddenly flares up in pain and he's sprawled on his back, stunned as he turns to look in the direction the attack had come from. There is another man wiping his shoe on the ground as if he'd gotten dog faeces on it. With a start, he realizes that he recognizes this man. It's one of his customers from a few nights ago. When he catches Myungsoo looking he snarls. "Damn jukeungot. Why are you still alive and leeching on our food? You should just die."
Myungsoo just wonders about the hypocrisies of humans as he picks himself up amongst the jeers. The man had seemed to enjoy himself whilst he was plunging himself deep into Myungsoo, though Myungsoo guessed that it might have been that very enjoyment that spurned the misdirected anger. Guilt and what not. And so more than that, Myungsoo wondered why a dead flower would be asked to die when it was already dead.
He doesn't notice one lone pair of eyes, watching from a balcony not too far away with a gaze filled not filled with blind hatred but anger.
~*~
This man is not like the rest.
Myungsoo had known that fact the minute that man had stepped into Wilted Alley. The ones who usually stepped in here were the bottom-scrappers, the everyday workmen. Those who needed to scrap together coin and savings for an evening of entertainment. Wilted Alley was the only place they could go to because everywhere else would be too expensive or exclusive for them. Wilted Alley was the only place where they could experience and later brag that they had had a 'Zinnia', even if the said Zinnia was one of the despised jukeungot of the daytime. At night, a hole was a hole as long it was tight enough to plunge their manhood into even if it had been plundered and infected by barbarians before.
Plus, the man had approached him, and Myungsoo wasn't lined up along pain row, or even kink row. The rich ones, as this one obviously is, only ever ventured into Wilted Alley when they wanted to be violent and needed a victim who couldn't fight back on any standing.
Myungsoo would have refused him if he could have, but he hadn't had any good paying customers for the whole week and he was just this close to getting slotted into pain row. As it is, when the customer came to him, an expectant smile on his face, he could only smile back and lead the customer to where the more expensive rooms were located.
Myungsoo is prepared for rough treatment, violent talk and at least an immediate groping of his ass, but instead, the man surprises him by walking over to the bed and plonking down on it. He probably didn't look very profession as he goggles at the man bouncing up and down on the bed to test its springiness.
"Not too bad." The man quirks an eyebrow at Myungsoo. "Well, are you going to just stare at me or are you going to come join me."
That snapped Myungsoo out of his daze. Okay, so maybe this customer was just picky about the bed they would fuck on. So Myungsoo pasted on his sexy smile and began his ritual chant in his mind to placate the nausea starting to boil in his stomach. But just as he's about to crawl atop the man when a hand is suddenly pushed into his face and he yelps.
"Geez, when I said come over here I meant just to sit on the bed." the man sighed and Myungsoo blinked, leaning back on his haunches as he re-evaluates the customer. Now he realises what else was odd about the customer - he may have fooled Myungsoo with his tall height and mature looks, but now that Myungsoo was looking for it, there was also the unmistakable gleam of immaturity in his eyes. No doubt some sort of young master trying to prove himself the man. He'd probably approached Myungsoo for closeness in age, intimidated by the thought of someone older dominating them with the edge of experience. Well, Myungsoo had never his fair share of those too. He knew what to do.
"Hello, you there?"
"Hmm? Nothing, I got distracted looking at you." Myungsoo easily covered, and at the raised eyebrow he added, "not every day I get a young looker. Usually it's slimy old geezers."
There was truth in his words despite his lie. The... teen was rather good looking. Maybe a bit too much on the scrawny side, then again Myungsoo couldn't really criticize anyone for that. He didn't understand the rich for wanting to be thin when they could feed themselves though. But that was besides the point.
"Slimy old geezers huh? Shouldn't you not insult your other customers in front of me? I probably swim in the same circles as those old geezers. What if I tell of what you've been calling them behind your back."
"Oh. I doubt you will."
"And why not?"
"You really are new to this aren't you?" And Myungsoo pastes a teasing smile on his face while he internally sighs. He'd never liked cajoling and pacifying people even if he'd a bit of skill in it. "No one ever tells of their stints into Wilted Alley among polite company. It'd be too much of a scandal."
The young man seems thoughtful at this, and Myungsoo takes the opportunity to settle himself into the other youth's lap. He feels the young man stiffen and tries to calm the man. "Shh... It's ok. There's nothing to be nervous about."
The scoff is the only warning he gets when suddenly, his thrown onto his back and there's a body pinning his down. In the midst of shock, Myungsoo can't summon any of his usual mental barriers and so when there's friction and a tongue lapping at his ear, he freezes, panic setting in. He tries to buck, but strong hands are pinning him down. There's a strong bark of laughter that makes his skin crawl. "Nervous? I think the one who's nervous is you, dear Ambrosia."
Myungsoo closers his eyes at the name and tries not to think too much of the situation. In his bid not to hyperventilate, he nearly misses the customer humming. "Ah... You don't like the name? But it's so apt! Most would think it ill-suited seeing how the idea of sex makes you sick. But then they're thinking of the new meanings associated with the word. But then, nowadays, even those in trade forget that Zinnia names should be chosen for the traditional flower meanings and that Ambrosia is then really the pious flower."
Myungsoo lets out a gasp when the weight on him is suddenly lifted. He stares blankly as the customer straightens out his clothes and turns to grin at him with a cheeky smile. "Well, I've teased you enough for today. See you next time, Ambrosia."
It's a while before Myungsoo can summon the strength to sit up from the bed. His mind swirls and he has a sinking feeling in his stomach. Some of it is from the oddness of the words of the strange young man. But Myungsoo is more worried about what Mama-san will do when she finds out that Myungsoo has not only not gotten enough customers for the week, but that he's wasted precious time for the use of one of the most expensive rooms with a customer that had obviously only came to cause trouble.
Myungsoo wasn't going to come out of this easily.
~*~
The backhand to his cheek hurts, but then again, his whole body does after the abuse. His lip lower lip feel fat under his tongue as he runs it over, and the multiple bruises on his body scream with each tiny movement. His wrist feels a little funny from when he fell on it, and he hoped that ache whenever he breathes is only bruises and not a cracked rib.
Still, he didn't think mama-san would be satisfied with this. He knows where this is surely going. But he looks up to see mama-san's expression in hope that he is wrong.
Mama-san's eyes are cold with irritation as she looks him over. Myungsoo's heart falls. "All beaten up like that, there's only one way he's gonna make the money to make up for his stupid mistake. Put him on pain row."
Myungsoo closes his eyes.
~*~
He's screaming.
There's no day and night for him in pain row. It's just pain. The brief respite, and then more pain.
In all honesty, it's probably not as bad Myungsoo thinks it to be. There are some that enter pain row voluntarily. It pays better, and those who can take it sometimes weigh the momentary pain as payoff for an easier day the next. But Myungsoo has never entered voluntarily, like most of the others here. Pain row is a punishment whenever the quota set for them isn't met.
Myungsoo has lost of what round this is each pain melding together. He barely registers that this customer is currently whipping him. His back is a bed of fire as his skin is split open. But Myungsoo knows it's not the worst pain.
Then the whipping stops and sweating hands turn him onto his back. He should probably scream but he doesn't have the air to.
Then he feels something forcing it's way inside him and he does scream. His eyes are open as he stares sightlessly at the man above him. The customer has blue eyes that phase into black and to blue again. His hair is black then gold and then black. It doesn't make sense, then what does? Myungsoo can hear the sound of screams all around, but they overlay with the sound of chains bound around his hands when there are none restricting him. The horror that overwhelms him is one of memory but feels as fresh as the bile that now crawls its torturous way up his throat.
Then suddenly, there is a shout, a door bangs open, and the obtrusion is gone. Myungsoo blinks and gasps to the sounds of shouting. It's all extremely loud but muffled at the same time. Everything seems so far away.
Light floods his eyes and he flinches, whimpering as his body catches up with the fact that the lights have been rudely turn on. His eyes can't focus, the world a blur of white and haze, turning slowly black. But he feels the arms that wrap around him and they feel oddly familiar.
There's the sound of muffled conversation. One stern, the other angry and yet another protesting. But he's too tired, far too tired.
The last thing he thinks of is of another person of long ago, a cheerful smile despite circumstances, and strong caring arms, but he can't remember who and then the world blacks out and Myungsoo remembers no more.
~*~
[ Part Two]
~*~
[A/N: [A/N: So... this took pretty long to post up because many things happened. I have a survey research project due Wednesday and today and tomorrow is actually a cosplay event for me. So, busy busy. But it's finally up, even though I have yet to officially complete it, but I'm at the last part of the fic, so this fic will hopefully be updated every other day.
Meanwhile, oops, sorry Eunhae and Qmi fans, time has moved forward in the Zinnia!verse and they're no longer the main characters. Instead, Myungsoo from Infinite takes center stage. But don't worry, our old protagonists are actually still in this story (and no they're not old and doddering, not that much time has passed). They'll be mentioned several times in the story before they actually finally appear, although you won't realize it at first.
As for Infinite fans, I'm sorry if I'm kind of writing a little ooc because this is my first Infinite fic and I actually struggled a lot with the characterization and making their personalities consistent with the context. Hope it's not too weird for you guys.
Like the rest of the fics, the Zinnia and their trade are the dominant feature of all the fics. But the idea of a Zinnia has changed since the first few fics and this one. So this fic can actually be read alone. You just need to know that Zinnia are the denizens of the night trade, a war has happened a year ago in this world, and the fact that the entire society is in the midst of some very confusing and conflicting political and cultural changes. Think the Meiji era in Japan, or the Industrial Revolution in England.
But as always, it'd be good for you to read the rest of the fics either before or after to fully appreciate the plot twists in the story.
Also, Godori is a Korean card game using Hwatu cards also known as Go-stop. I take many liberties with the game because I'm more familiar with it's Japanese equivalent, Hanafuda's Koi Koi.
Anyway, ass-long author's note. Moving on. ]
Genre: Romance, Drama, AU, Zinnia!verse
Pairing(s): Dongwoo/Myungsoo, apparent Dongwoo/Hoya, one-sided Sungyeol/Myungsoo
Summary: With a clack the cards will fall into place and with every game there are the winner or losers. In a society strife with a need to hold onto tradition in the midst of changes, there are those who are dealt the worst hand. Myungsoo is such a one who is lost in the cracks of logic and prejudice. But who's to say that the rules can't be changed? When an exclusive Zinnia establishment purchases his contract, it seems that Myungsoo's luck has changed. But is it for the better? Or will he suffer and exit with even heavier losses than before?
~*~
There is a stench. A few stenches actually, mixing into one. The scent of unwashed bodies, and of blood. Then there is corruption, lust and greed intertwined with that of tears and pain. It all congeals into one sickening smell; black, oily and suffocating - the smell of human evil.
The young boy's eyes are half dead, glazed with a wish for nothingness. Blood coats his thighs, some of the brownish smears weeks old, and the red rivulets that drip down fresh from minutes ago before he'd finally been released. He'd stumbled straight here, falling onto the dirty coverlet he'd been issued so long ago. It seems like forever.
He can't remember anymore. His mother's smile. His father's laugh. He can't remember anymore.
A hand touches his shoulder and he starts, panicking at first, before calming down. The hand moves, wiping across his cheek, wiping away tears he hadn't even known had fallen. He'd gotten too used to them already. "Hyung..." He whispers softly, noticing the harsh sound of breathing that isn't his own. "You're hurt."
But the other boy only smiles, a dim white in the darkness. And arms wrap around him, and for a while, the young boy remembers - his mother's smile and his father's laugh.
A whisper into his ear. A promise that he's never forgotten.
"We'll get out of this. I swear."
~*~
All the lights flicker once, drawing Myungsoo's eyes to the lights. He snorts softly before returning his attention to the man who's been staring at him a while. Worn but decent clothes, shoes looking worse for wear, hair slightly matted with flecks of dirt, but his hands stray often to his pocket where there probably is an unusually high amount of money being kept. He is a customer alright - a little worse for wear, but a customer nevertheless.
Myungsoo sighs. There is a leer in the man's nervously darting eyes that he doesn't like. But what choice does he have? It's not like the others will be any much better.
So he parts his legs just so that the satiny material slides just so, catching light and drawing attention, revealing just that bit of skin. He knows when he has the man's full attention, feeling the stare, and he allows himself a small smirk before he does his signature move and looks up from beneath his fringe, eyes widening just that much.
He can hear the man's breath quicken as he's caught - hook, line and sinker.
They take it to the back row, the man's hands rough and hardly waiting. Myungsoo hardly has time to twist and slap hands away so that they enter the small cubicle first before his obi falls apart.
"Wait." Myungsoo gasps as rough hands push at his thighs. "I don't part my legs so easily. Show me you can pay first."
The man growls in impatience, but he reaches into his pocket to reveal the glint of coins. It's enough and a little more for a tip if Myungsoo pleases him. But instead of feeling pleased, Myungsoo's heart drops instead.
He can't refuse this customer without refusing him entirely. Myungsoo has no good excuse that will allow him to close back his legs and offer a blowjob for whatever coin there is instead. He closes his eyes as he thinks of Mama-san's cold face as she tells him he'd be on pain row again if he can't get at least one decent paying customer tonight.
He can't refuse this.
So he pastes on a smile and a looks of pleasure in his dead eyes as the man plasters his dirty hands onto Myungsoo's skin. There is blood and stiffness by the time the man is done, but there is also the glint of coin left on the tiny shelf near the door while Myungsoo fights to hold himself together while the customer ties back his robes and prepares to leave.
"Hmm... Ambrosia's ya name ain't it?" The customer chortles as he gives Myungsoo's ass one last squeeze. "Not bad. Not bad. Mabbe I'll come round the next pay day. Heh." Myungsoo has to hold back a laugh despite the sick feeling in his stomach. If only the customer knew.
The minute the customer's heel disappears around the wall, Myungsoo grabs the bag of coins and runs. He runs to the nearest bucket he can find and vomits. The tears falls and his frame shakes and when he closes his eyes, all he can see is the colour blue.
~*~
The taste at the back of his throat is acrid, but that again is nothing new, and it is not what has woken him either. Groaning, he squints against the light to see lips twisted as if they've swallowed something sour and he sighs.
"I did it alright." He croaks, holding the bag out, the clink of coins lost in the symphony of moans and screams echoing through the halls. "Stop staring at me like I did something wrong."
The mouth tightens and a gnarled hand reaches out, snatching the bag out of Myungsoo's grasp. "You're still at it ain't you? You should learn to get over it, being stuck in this line."
The protests are there at the back of Myungsoo's throat, but he doesn't let them escape. After all, how do you explain to a woman who has convinced herself that your psychological trauma from being raped multiple times as a child and then forced into the sex trade out of desperation is nothing but a childish pique of not getting your way? Yet, what Mama-san says is also true - he is stuck here. "It's okay as long as I get it done and don't vomit on the customer, right?" Myungsoo scowls pushing himself up and wincing.
"Yes, I did say that." Mama-san rolls her eyes and takes a long drag from her cigarette. "Get going. You might be off pain row for the week but there's still many days ahead of us yet."
Myungsoo spits the acrid taste out of his mouth and just laughs. The laugh is like death, curling like the smoke from Mama-san's mouth, disappearing like poison into the air.
~*~
"Yah... Ambrie, you go."
The urge to take the bag of coins and then toss it back at the other man's face is enormous. But Myungsoo suppresses it. Barely. It's only because the short-lived satisfaction of doing such an action would not be worth the hurt and pain he'd receive for his troubles. He's the unfortunate youngest after all, and besides, though tradition meant he had to be in a position close to a maid to his elders, at least that meant that his sunbaes would have to protect him if he met trouble in the form of a too violent customer. And at least, his sunbaes honoured that exchange, coming to his aid often since his youth tended to attract the most violent and perverted of the customers.
It still did not make the task he needed to do any more pleasant.
It takes a few minutes to get ready to go. Everything is laid out for him. The straw slippers, the chain of bells and the violent red robe. They're always hung out by the entrance - after all, there is only one reason why anyone in their position would don that ensemble anyway.
Myungsoo tries not to wince each time he takes a step, but he winces anyway because the sun is bright in his eyes, and it's been exactly a week since the last time he's stood under its scorching gaze. The warmth makes his skin crawl unpleasantly - but maybe that's because of what he knows is to come.
It's like a one-man parade, or rather, a freak show. The noise the bells make as he walks is like a mocking fanfare. And like vultures drawn to the smell of dead meat, the populace draw near.
It always starts with the whispers. Somehow, they think if they don't look at him, he can't hear them, can't feel their judgemental stares. They whisper about the story that he already knows. About how during the war with Xing, how the westerners took advantage of the royal army's preoccupation and took over the port city of Koge trying to get a foothold into Chousen's trade. How the western soldiers, with their bright blue eyes and white skin had taken whatever they wanted and also whoever they had wanted. How they had finally retreated after the war with Xing ending faster than the westerners had anticipated, but not before they had taken a few hundred commoners as hostages. How they were finally returned when trade with the westerners was finally established and the great rejoicing that had occurred. But then, the stories of the rape camps had leaked, and the rejoicing had quickly turned to jeers. The hostages had been dirtied, contaminated by the hands of the barbarians. And so they must not be touched, must not be seen, rejected so that they could not contaminate the pure, common citizen of Chousen.
Myungsoo knows all this, because he had had the misfortune, of visiting Koge on a holiday with his family, on that faithful day.
The whispers turn to how the rot from being violated by the barbarians must have gotten to their heads, all turned to selling their bodies to low-class Zinnia establishments. It's just the way the rot gathers, clinging to undeserved life where they should just die. Myungsoo thinks that it's probably soon, and wonders how long it will be until the first person gathers enough hate to speak out first.
It's a lady today, which is rarer, and makes the hatred in her voice sting even more. "Argh. Filthy jukeungot, why must you come out in the day? Just starve in your little hellhole!"
It's like a signal for all of them to start. And like clockwork, all of them do.
"How dare you come out in the day?!"
"Filthy whores!"
"Tsk, how can they still bear to live after being sullied by those blue-eyed barbarians."
"You should have just died when you got caught."
"...Cowards who couldn't even die properly."
"Get out of our sight! Disgusting!"
His face feels heavy. Maybe it's the mask his face becomes whenever he has to venture out of Wilted Alley. He learnt not to react now, not when the spit lands on his face, nor when the insults are hurled his way.
The person handing out the food to him isn't the usual guy. Even if he isn't particularly friendly, at least he doesn't sneer at Myungsoo the way this man does. And so Myungsoo is prepared when the sack of food is thrown on the floor instead of handed to him. He just places the bag of coins on the table and bends down to pick the sack up, ignoring the way the man picks up the bag of coins as if it's covered in filth.
It is a little unexpected though when his shoulder suddenly flares up in pain and he's sprawled on his back, stunned as he turns to look in the direction the attack had come from. There is another man wiping his shoe on the ground as if he'd gotten dog faeces on it. With a start, he realizes that he recognizes this man. It's one of his customers from a few nights ago. When he catches Myungsoo looking he snarls. "Damn jukeungot. Why are you still alive and leeching on our food? You should just die."
Myungsoo just wonders about the hypocrisies of humans as he picks himself up amongst the jeers. The man had seemed to enjoy himself whilst he was plunging himself deep into Myungsoo, though Myungsoo guessed that it might have been that very enjoyment that spurned the misdirected anger. Guilt and what not. And so more than that, Myungsoo wondered why a dead flower would be asked to die when it was already dead.
He doesn't notice one lone pair of eyes, watching from a balcony not too far away with a gaze filled not filled with blind hatred but anger.
~*~
This man is not like the rest.
Myungsoo had known that fact the minute that man had stepped into Wilted Alley. The ones who usually stepped in here were the bottom-scrappers, the everyday workmen. Those who needed to scrap together coin and savings for an evening of entertainment. Wilted Alley was the only place they could go to because everywhere else would be too expensive or exclusive for them. Wilted Alley was the only place where they could experience and later brag that they had had a 'Zinnia', even if the said Zinnia was one of the despised jukeungot of the daytime. At night, a hole was a hole as long it was tight enough to plunge their manhood into even if it had been plundered and infected by barbarians before.
Plus, the man had approached him, and Myungsoo wasn't lined up along pain row, or even kink row. The rich ones, as this one obviously is, only ever ventured into Wilted Alley when they wanted to be violent and needed a victim who couldn't fight back on any standing.
Myungsoo would have refused him if he could have, but he hadn't had any good paying customers for the whole week and he was just this close to getting slotted into pain row. As it is, when the customer came to him, an expectant smile on his face, he could only smile back and lead the customer to where the more expensive rooms were located.
Myungsoo is prepared for rough treatment, violent talk and at least an immediate groping of his ass, but instead, the man surprises him by walking over to the bed and plonking down on it. He probably didn't look very profession as he goggles at the man bouncing up and down on the bed to test its springiness.
"Not too bad." The man quirks an eyebrow at Myungsoo. "Well, are you going to just stare at me or are you going to come join me."
That snapped Myungsoo out of his daze. Okay, so maybe this customer was just picky about the bed they would fuck on. So Myungsoo pasted on his sexy smile and began his ritual chant in his mind to placate the nausea starting to boil in his stomach. But just as he's about to crawl atop the man when a hand is suddenly pushed into his face and he yelps.
"Geez, when I said come over here I meant just to sit on the bed." the man sighed and Myungsoo blinked, leaning back on his haunches as he re-evaluates the customer. Now he realises what else was odd about the customer - he may have fooled Myungsoo with his tall height and mature looks, but now that Myungsoo was looking for it, there was also the unmistakable gleam of immaturity in his eyes. No doubt some sort of young master trying to prove himself the man. He'd probably approached Myungsoo for closeness in age, intimidated by the thought of someone older dominating them with the edge of experience. Well, Myungsoo had never his fair share of those too. He knew what to do.
"Hello, you there?"
"Hmm? Nothing, I got distracted looking at you." Myungsoo easily covered, and at the raised eyebrow he added, "not every day I get a young looker. Usually it's slimy old geezers."
There was truth in his words despite his lie. The... teen was rather good looking. Maybe a bit too much on the scrawny side, then again Myungsoo couldn't really criticize anyone for that. He didn't understand the rich for wanting to be thin when they could feed themselves though. But that was besides the point.
"Slimy old geezers huh? Shouldn't you not insult your other customers in front of me? I probably swim in the same circles as those old geezers. What if I tell of what you've been calling them behind your back."
"Oh. I doubt you will."
"And why not?"
"You really are new to this aren't you?" And Myungsoo pastes a teasing smile on his face while he internally sighs. He'd never liked cajoling and pacifying people even if he'd a bit of skill in it. "No one ever tells of their stints into Wilted Alley among polite company. It'd be too much of a scandal."
The young man seems thoughtful at this, and Myungsoo takes the opportunity to settle himself into the other youth's lap. He feels the young man stiffen and tries to calm the man. "Shh... It's ok. There's nothing to be nervous about."
The scoff is the only warning he gets when suddenly, his thrown onto his back and there's a body pinning his down. In the midst of shock, Myungsoo can't summon any of his usual mental barriers and so when there's friction and a tongue lapping at his ear, he freezes, panic setting in. He tries to buck, but strong hands are pinning him down. There's a strong bark of laughter that makes his skin crawl. "Nervous? I think the one who's nervous is you, dear Ambrosia."
Myungsoo closers his eyes at the name and tries not to think too much of the situation. In his bid not to hyperventilate, he nearly misses the customer humming. "Ah... You don't like the name? But it's so apt! Most would think it ill-suited seeing how the idea of sex makes you sick. But then they're thinking of the new meanings associated with the word. But then, nowadays, even those in trade forget that Zinnia names should be chosen for the traditional flower meanings and that Ambrosia is then really the pious flower."
Myungsoo lets out a gasp when the weight on him is suddenly lifted. He stares blankly as the customer straightens out his clothes and turns to grin at him with a cheeky smile. "Well, I've teased you enough for today. See you next time, Ambrosia."
It's a while before Myungsoo can summon the strength to sit up from the bed. His mind swirls and he has a sinking feeling in his stomach. Some of it is from the oddness of the words of the strange young man. But Myungsoo is more worried about what Mama-san will do when she finds out that Myungsoo has not only not gotten enough customers for the week, but that he's wasted precious time for the use of one of the most expensive rooms with a customer that had obviously only came to cause trouble.
Myungsoo wasn't going to come out of this easily.
~*~
The backhand to his cheek hurts, but then again, his whole body does after the abuse. His lip lower lip feel fat under his tongue as he runs it over, and the multiple bruises on his body scream with each tiny movement. His wrist feels a little funny from when he fell on it, and he hoped that ache whenever he breathes is only bruises and not a cracked rib.
Still, he didn't think mama-san would be satisfied with this. He knows where this is surely going. But he looks up to see mama-san's expression in hope that he is wrong.
Mama-san's eyes are cold with irritation as she looks him over. Myungsoo's heart falls. "All beaten up like that, there's only one way he's gonna make the money to make up for his stupid mistake. Put him on pain row."
Myungsoo closes his eyes.
~*~
He's screaming.
There's no day and night for him in pain row. It's just pain. The brief respite, and then more pain.
In all honesty, it's probably not as bad Myungsoo thinks it to be. There are some that enter pain row voluntarily. It pays better, and those who can take it sometimes weigh the momentary pain as payoff for an easier day the next. But Myungsoo has never entered voluntarily, like most of the others here. Pain row is a punishment whenever the quota set for them isn't met.
Myungsoo has lost of what round this is each pain melding together. He barely registers that this customer is currently whipping him. His back is a bed of fire as his skin is split open. But Myungsoo knows it's not the worst pain.
Then the whipping stops and sweating hands turn him onto his back. He should probably scream but he doesn't have the air to.
Then he feels something forcing it's way inside him and he does scream. His eyes are open as he stares sightlessly at the man above him. The customer has blue eyes that phase into black and to blue again. His hair is black then gold and then black. It doesn't make sense, then what does? Myungsoo can hear the sound of screams all around, but they overlay with the sound of chains bound around his hands when there are none restricting him. The horror that overwhelms him is one of memory but feels as fresh as the bile that now crawls its torturous way up his throat.
Then suddenly, there is a shout, a door bangs open, and the obtrusion is gone. Myungsoo blinks and gasps to the sounds of shouting. It's all extremely loud but muffled at the same time. Everything seems so far away.
Light floods his eyes and he flinches, whimpering as his body catches up with the fact that the lights have been rudely turn on. His eyes can't focus, the world a blur of white and haze, turning slowly black. But he feels the arms that wrap around him and they feel oddly familiar.
There's the sound of muffled conversation. One stern, the other angry and yet another protesting. But he's too tired, far too tired.
The last thing he thinks of is of another person of long ago, a cheerful smile despite circumstances, and strong caring arms, but he can't remember who and then the world blacks out and Myungsoo remembers no more.
~*~
[ Part Two]
~*~
[A/N: [A/N: So... this took pretty long to post up because many things happened. I have a survey research project due Wednesday and today and tomorrow is actually a cosplay event for me. So, busy busy. But it's finally up, even though I have yet to officially complete it, but I'm at the last part of the fic, so this fic will hopefully be updated every other day.
Meanwhile, oops, sorry Eunhae and Qmi fans, time has moved forward in the Zinnia!verse and they're no longer the main characters. Instead, Myungsoo from Infinite takes center stage. But don't worry, our old protagonists are actually still in this story (and no they're not old and doddering, not that much time has passed). They'll be mentioned several times in the story before they actually finally appear, although you won't realize it at first.
As for Infinite fans, I'm sorry if I'm kind of writing a little ooc because this is my first Infinite fic and I actually struggled a lot with the characterization and making their personalities consistent with the context. Hope it's not too weird for you guys.
Like the rest of the fics, the Zinnia and their trade are the dominant feature of all the fics. But the idea of a Zinnia has changed since the first few fics and this one. So this fic can actually be read alone. You just need to know that Zinnia are the denizens of the night trade, a war has happened a year ago in this world, and the fact that the entire society is in the midst of some very confusing and conflicting political and cultural changes. Think the Meiji era in Japan, or the Industrial Revolution in England.
But as always, it'd be good for you to read the rest of the fics either before or after to fully appreciate the plot twists in the story.
Also, Godori is a Korean card game using Hwatu cards also known as Go-stop. I take many liberties with the game because I'm more familiar with it's Japanese equivalent, Hanafuda's Koi Koi.
Anyway, ass-long author's note. Moving on. ]