Christmas Alone - 2
Title: Christmas Alone
Pairing: HanChul, find as you go
Genre: fluff, romance, potential smut?
Rating: PG
Summary: Kyuhyun stumbles upon a young man who offers help.
Kyuhyun's been running.
He's tired, but he kept on running, afraid that his dad had somehow caught up to him.
After 2 days running and walking aimlessly, he stopped at a nearby park, taking a breather. He checked his wallet, making sure he still has enough money to last for a while.
It was around sunset on a calm Sunday evening. The snow had started falling again and the temperature had dropped several degrees. Kyuhyun was surprised when he found himself shivering because the past two days he's been able to withstand the cold. He looked around, bringing his hands together and breathing some warm air to it, hoping it would return some feeling.
After 5 minutes of thinking, Kyuhyun stood up and walked out of the park, crossing the streets, passing the stores. He looked around, wondering what he could eat for dinner. After a while though, he lost his appetite and decided on to continue walking.
People who passed him didn't bother looking at him. He knew that they all knew who his father was, and Kyuhyun wanted to scream it out loud so bad, but he had to stay low if he didn't want his father to find him and potentially abuse him even more. So he kept his hood up and his head down, not really paying attention to where he was going.
That is, until he bumped someone and that someone fell over. He looked up, hood falling back.
The man who fell looked like he just ended his shift at a cafe somewhere nearby. "Sorry... I wasn't looking..." Kyuhyun mumbled, helping him up. He was a bit shorter than Kyuhyun himself, with dark brown hair that covered part of his left eye. A black jacket was worn over a white button down shirt, but Kyuhyun could see the logo sewn on the white shirt.
House of 15 Cafe
The man smiled. "Don't worry. I didn't see you coming." He looked up to meet Kyuhyun's eyes.
Kyuhyun couldn't help but notice the tiny glint of playfulness in those dark chocolate brown orbs. "Uhm..."
"Oh, right, sorry. I'll be going then. See you around," he waved and passed by Kyuhyun, who stood with his shoulders slumped. He didn't even bother turning around or waving back.
Kyuhyun stared up the sky, breathing out, watching as his breathe turned into mist when someone tapped his shoulder. He turned to find the man he bumped into earlier.
"Do you have a place to stay tonight? You look kind of lonely," he said.
"It's fine," Kyuhyun mumbled, turning away but not moving.
"Come on, come over to my place, spend the night. It won't hurt, would it?"
Kyuhyun raised an eyebrow. "You do realize when someone picks up strangers from the streets, offers him a place to stay and says it won't hurt, normally the stranger would either think something along the lines of 'I will murder you along the alleyway and leave your body behind', right?"
The man grinned. "I like your personality kid. Come on, let's go back to the cafe where I work. Coffee's on me."
"I'm 19," Kyuhyun mumbled.
"And I'm 21."
Kyuhyun didn't say anything, but after some thought, he nodded.
"That's more like it! I'm Donghae, by the way."
"I'm... Kyuhyun..."
The two began walking down the sidewalk. "Ah, son of the rich Cho family. It's a wonder why you're here."
Kyuhyun stopped walking. "I ran away. I'm sick of my dad treating me like crap."
Donghae stopped and turned. "Wanna talk about it? I'm pretty sure the cafe's still open."
With only one look from Kyuhyun, Donghae dragged the boy all the way to the cafe.
The cafe was still pretty crowded, considering the fact that it was a bit late for a normal hang out place. Donghae smiled and nodded at the man behind the cashier, who smiled and pointed at another man serving a table.
The shorter man pointed at an empty table at the corner of the cafe. "Sit, there. I'll be back in a bit."
Kyuhyun nodded and walked over to his designated table. Along the way, he heard girls giggle whenever he passed their table. They tried to get his attention, but Kyuhyun know those kind of people. They think he, a stranger, would just please them whenever they wanted.
'For all they know... I might take them home and slit their throats...' he though to himself, taking the seat and waited for Donghae to return.
In about 2 minutes, the man who dragged him there returned, but he had taken off his jacket so he was wearing his uniform. "I ordered our caramel mocha for you, if it's okay."
Kyuhyun just nodded.
"Hey, come on," Donghae nudged the boy. "Kyuhyun, I'll ask you again. Do you have a place to spend the night? Because if no, I'm more than willing to let you stay until you feel like going back home."
Kyuhyun mumbled something, but Donghae didn't quite catch it. "What?"
"I said I don't want to go back home. That's the whole point of me running away, isn't it?"
"Kyuhyun, I'm sure whoever you live with is panicking right now, you just running away like that. For one, you're son of a Cho. Your dad will be looking for you by the time the clock strikes 12, I'm sure of it. Second, you can't be running around the streets like this. If I were to guess, your dad have many people that hate his guts and just want to take advantage of him, and I'm pretty sure these people know you. Ah thanks Wookie," Donghae said, looking at the man who served him.
Kyuhyun looked up for a while, still expressionless. The man who served them was fairly shorter than him, but he estimated that he was as tall as Donghae. His name tag read 'Ryeowook'. He had a petite frame, dark brown hair swept to the right and dark chocolate eyes that seem to twinkle despite the dim light. "Will that be it hyung?"
'Yeah, thanks Wook," Donghae smiled.
"No problem." Ryeowook left to attend other tables.
"Now back to what I was saying..."
"Donghae-sshi, when you see my father on screen, what kind of impression does he give?" Kyuhyun asked.
Donghae raised an eyebrow. "Um... A rich man who has a lot of time in his hand and a good family?"
Kyuhyun laughed a laugh with no trace of humor. "Do you want to know the real him?"
"Ah, well..."
"Take me to the employee's dressing room. There's something I want to show you."
A part of Donghae was screaming The hell with this kid? Call the cops! but the more caring part said Hear him out. How bad can it be? "Uh, okay..." He stood up to lead the way, glancing back once to make sure the tall fellow was behind him. He led Kyuhyun to the back of the cafe, where the chatter was less overwhelming and it was somewhat brighter. Donghae opened a door leading to the room Kyuhyun requested, and was not very surprised to find one of his fellow employee in there...
... with another fellow employee...
... making out like there's no tomorrow.
"Uh, Heechul-hyung? I know you really love Hangeng-hyung and all, but can you two... boot?"
The shorter of the two, the one Kyuhyun assumed was named Heechul, turned to look at Donghae. He had feminine features, with long dark locks tied behind his head to a tiny ponytail and deep cocoa eyes. "Looks like Hae's got someone tonight~"
Donghae turned a light shade of pink. "Hyung!"
"C'mon Hannie... Let's go somewhere a bit more... private..." Heechul dragged Hangeng, who shot Donghae an apologetic look, out of the room. Hangeng was a tall guy, about as tall as Kyuhyun himself. He had dark, dark brown hair with dark eyes, and Kyuhyun had to admit, he looked pretty nice.
"Hangeng-hyung's Chinese. He speaks Korean, but sometimes, when we ask him a question or ask him to do things he doesn't want to, he seem to forget all the Korean he knows," Donghae smiled. "Now, what was it you wanted to show me?"
"Would you mind locking the door?" Kyuhyun asked.
Now Donghae was a bit more worried, not to mention confused. This kid, who was the son of a tycoon, who he just picked up from the streets, who claimed he ran away from home, dragged him (well, more like asked him to show him) to the employee's room, said he wanted to show him something and told him to lock the door. That Call the cops thought still lingered...
"It has nothing to do with me hurting you, Donghae-sshi. I want you to see the other side of my father, but I don't want this to leak out. Please, lock the door," Kyuhyun calmly said.
"Drop the honorifics, will you? Makes me feel old," Donghae said and nodded, and when the resounding click bounced off the walls of the room, Kyuhyun took off his jacket and shirt.
"Wow, kid... hang on wha-" Donghae's words were stuck on his throat.
Scars and bruises, some more healed than the others, decorated Kyuhyun's toned back. The boy turned around, showing more of the same kind of wounds across the front of his chest. Kyuhyun's face was turned away from Donghae, but the older of the two didn't have to see his face to know how painful it must've been. "Oh Kyu... Was he...?"
"Every single cut and bruise you see," Kyuhyun simply replied before putting his shirt back on.
"Oh, Kyuhyun... The police, you could've called..."
"He was my main support. After my mother died... this started."
Silence filled the room with the sound of breathing and the clock ticking filling it. After a while, being the bubbly kind of person he was, Donghae couldn't take it. "Kyuhyun would you like a job here? And would you like to live with me?"
Kyuhyun looked up. "But Donghae-sshi..."
"Aish, again with the honorifics. Kyuhyun... Yes, I'm offering you a job here... Though you have to prove to me what you can do. Sing, serve, cook..."
Donghae stopped when Kyuhyun began singing. Voice so deep and and smooth like chocolate, a voice Donghae know that's been trained to sing since he was just a little boy.
Kyuhyun sang like he's never sang before. He put whatever was left of his heart into the song he composed long ago, back when his mother was still with him. Subconsciously, his hand went up to the locket he wore, gripping it tight, not wanting to let go.
When the song ended, all Donghae could say was, "Oh, Kyu..."
"So? What do you think?"
"First of, I've never heard of that song."
"Self-composed. Called 7 Years of Love."
"Ah, and secondly, Teukkie-hyung, what do you think?" Donghae said louder, almost a shout.
"YOU'RE HIRED!!" Kyuhyun heard another voice yell from the other side of the locked door.