Chapter Text
“Are you sure this is okay?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Let me rephrase this, are you sure this is legal?
“Changkyun, when have I ever done something illegal?”
Changkyun stares blankly at him. He doesn’t need to speak to answer. Minhyuk knows the answer, everybody knows the answer.
“Okay, okay. But, have I been caught though?”
“He’s got a point.”
“Hyungwon, you are not helping.”
“I’m just stating facts.”
Changkyun grunts in irritation, there was no way he could be getting out of this one. He was silently wondering why God punished him with these friends. Maybe it was karma. Years of not sending back those email chains must have come back to bite him in the ass.
“Look,” Minhyuk directs his eyes to Changkyun’s hands. “We are almost there, I can feel it. We just need to take the video and we get the money. Simply as that.”
“You can even bring it back if your consciousness doesn’t let you sleep at night.” Hyungwon says as he starts moving closer to Changkyun.
They stand close, towering him with their giant lanky bodies. Like a chihuahua being cornered by two german shepherds. Changkyun did not want to give in the peer pressure, but the money was too good to miss. He’s been saving for a new game for weeks.
So he sighs audibly, making it a point to show annoyance at his so called friends.
“Okay.”
Both Minhyuk and Hyungwon prepare their phones to record, two different angles showing legitimacy of the act in case they didn’t believe them. Changkyun crouches slightly to grab the handle and rolls the garbage bin from the bakery shop to the street. He speed walks afraid of being caught, while Minhyuk and Hyungwon with their hands uselessly stifling their laughs. The sight of a tiny man trying to move a gigantic bin comical in their eyes. The garbage bin is heavy and of course, stinks. Changkyun regrets every second of agreeing to this bet, he is reciting in his mind the many ways he could murder Minhyuk and Hyungwon in their sleep without leaving trace until he hears the back door fence opening.
Fuck.
“Shit!”
Minhyuk and Hyungwon run right away leaving Changkyun to fend for himself, but he is not swift enough and trips over the wheels of the bin. In a state of panic, he tries to get up even though his limbs are shaking with adrenaline. A light shines on his face, blinding him, and he tries to shield it with his arm.
“Who’s there?!”
He turns around to check if Minhyuk or Hyungwon are still in his view, and of course, they are gone. Those bastards.
Changkyun keeps his mouth shut, he doesn’t know how to react. Or what to do for that matter.
He can’t quite see because of the light in his eyes, but he can hear someone is approaching by the sound of footsteps on the gravel.
“I-I’m so sorry! I can explain—I didn’t do anything,” Changkyun kneels over, wincing at the sudden pain in his knee. He looks down and sees a cut through his jeans probably from the fall after he tried to escape. “I’m sorry.”
He is so fucked up.
The person will call the police, and he is going to go to jail, and it’s all because of Minhyuk’s fault.
“What the fuck is going on?”
“Please don’t send me to jail, my dad is going to kill me.”
The person moves the light rapidly in his eyes as if preventing him from fleeing. “Shut up. Just explain what’s going on.”
Changkyun didn’t want to upset the person anymore, who was probably one of the employees at the bakery, so he started explaining while he was sitting with his eyes closed on the floor.
“My friends made a bet that if we could stea—, take, the garbage bin and record a video we would get money. I was against the idea! My friends pressured me to do it—I swear to god I was going to return it after we took the video. I am so sorry, please don’t call the police. I don’t want to spend my life in prison,” Changkyun babbles in one breath, his nervousness making his hands shake.
“Calm down, I won’t call the police. But you do know that stealing is a crime, right?”
“Yes. I know. Fucking Minhyu—” He shuts his mouth immediately. He might want to strangle Minhyuk (and Hyungwon) right now, but he was no snitch. “Please forgive me.” Changkyun bows his head in a form of apology.
“Your knee. It’s bleeding.”
Changkyun opens his eyes to look at his knee, and it is, indeed, bleeding. A lot. Unsure of what to do, he just stares at it. The stranger turns off the flashlight and walks closer to him. Changkyun looks up, vision still shaky from being blinded for so long. He doesn’t see the hand extended in front of him though. So the stranger hoists him up instead, and he yelps at the unexpected action.
“Come on, let’s get that knee checked.”
The interior of the bakery’s kitchen is immaculate, the marble countertops so sparkling clean that he can see his reflection on them. Everything is stored away, all the utensils are hung on the walls already, but Changkyun can still smell the faint aroma of vanilla and baked goods lingering in the air.
After ogling the place for a few more seconds, the stranger comes back with a box of first aid and instructs Changkyun to sit on the stool he pulled out next to the counter. With pained effort, he manages to sit down, groaning quietly. While the other is rummaging through the contents of the box, Changkyun reflects on the events that transcurred tonight. He didn’t want to make this a bigger deal than it already was, after all, the stranger still had the chance to call the cops on him. So he plays his best behavior in the hopes that he gets out without a hitch. A night in jail didn’t sound too hot.
“Roll up your pants, I’m going to clean the wound and apply antiseptic.” The boy said without looking at Changkyun. In return, Changkyun does as instructed and takes the opportunity to peer at the other boy while he is not looking at him. He was not wearing an uniform but a white hoodie. His light brown hair falls easily on his eyes, and soft round cheeks frame his face. He looked young, slim, and stern. Now that he thinks about it, the other boy did not have to treat his knee, he could just have left him limp his way out. Changkyun feels a sudden wave of appreciation for the other’s care.
“I can clean myself, you don’t need to bother,” Changkyun receives a glare in response and shuts up immediately.
The other person worked silently, so Changkyun for some odd reasons trusts him to do the job and get his knee cleaned without a problem.
However.
“Shit! That stings!” He clutches his jeans as a reflex to the pain and looks down to the other boy with only one eye open. He sees a cotton ball and clear liquid on his knee, most likely the antiseptic that caused his cut to sting, and a smirk. Unbelievable.
“Maybe if you didn’t pull that stunt earlier, you wouldn’t have fallen in the first place.” The smirk transforms into a mischievous grin with the slightest pull of his lips, and Changkyun can’t help but think he is dealing with Satan himself (well, after Minhyuk of course). Maybe cleaning his knee was part of his plan to have him trapped and call the cops on him when he was vulnerable.
He wants to protest that it wasn’t his fault but Minhyuk’s although that wouldn’t change his current situation.
Fuck his shitty friends, honestly.
The smirk disappears and is now replaced by a judgmental look. He inquires with an arched brow, “What the fuck did you think you were doing anyway? Are you drunk?” Changkyun squirms under his gaze and panics internally. Self preservation is telling him to choose his words wisely. He looks down at his knee and swallows quietly.
“No. I am sober, and I am really sorry. My friends bet us to do this stupid prank that I was against to begin with,” He pauses to observe the other’s reaction, the glare is even more judgmental if that’s possible. “If we rolled the garbage bin to campus, we’d win some money.” Changkyun feels ashamed, he can’t bring himself to look at the other in the eye, so he casts his eyes to his knee. His knee was all cleaned up perfectly, he conjures.
“I am sorry for the trouble I caused. I swear I was going to bring it ba—Agh!”
The other boy dabbed on his cut with the wet cotton ball with more pressure than before, mischievous grin back in place.
“That’s what you get for being stupid.” He gives him a pointed look, but sees that Changkyun actually looks guilty and feels bad for him. Perhaps he did get pressured into doing it as he recalls the other mentioning that before. He turns to the box and pulls out a bandage package and starts bandaging the now cleaned-up knee.
“What’s your name?”
Changkyun pauses and looks back at the boy, considering whether or not telling him his real name, after all, he was on a disadvantage here. The other’s eyes are clear and show no sign of deceit. For some odd reason, Changkyun trusts him to not do anything against him.
“Changkyun.”
“Well, Changkyun,” The other rolls his name as if mocking him. “Do not do shit like this in this bakery anymore, understood? Now scram.” Changkyun stands up and gets to move to the back door without complain. Before he gets out, he turns around.
“What’s your name?”
“Why?”
“I just want to thank you for treating my knee and not calling the cops. You could have just left me out there bleeding.” Changkyun says with a thankful smile on his lips.
The other takes a while to respond, putting away the first aid box and grabbing his backpack.
“...Kihyun.”
“Thank you, Kihyun.”
“Yeah yeah, now shoo, I wanna go home. It’s late.”
After Kihyun closed the place, they both walk their own separate ways. An hour already passed since Changkyun, Minhyuk, and Hyungwon came to the bakery for the prank. The air was colder, biting into Changkyun’s cheeks, and the streets were darker after they got out of the bakery. Changkyun is tired, he wants to get home as soon as possible, but his injured knee is making the walk home take longer. He sighs and pulls out his cellphone to play music to distract himself. When he unlocks his phone, he is swamped by text messages from both Minhyuk and Hyungwon, and Jooheon, his roommate. They are all asking where he is, but he can’t bring himself to respond to Minhyuk or Hyungwon without wanting to cause physical pain. Those snakes. So he replies to Jooheon first that he is walking home, and then sends the middle finger emoji to the other two.
Fuck you, assholes.
The walk home wasn’t so bad, however, it took 15 minutes longer than needed. Changkyun leans against the doorway to shift his weight from the injured knee and looks through his pockets to get his keys. His hands find nothing, so he looks for his keys in his jacket using his phone’s flashlight to help him see in the darkness. Panic starts to boil inside of him, the possibility of dropping his keys on his way home becoming more real after each second that passes. Changkyun pales at the idea of having to come back to the bakery and see Kihyun. The shame and the trouble he caused to said boy impeding him to show his face at the place again.
A breeze hits him in the face, shivering at the cold air, he texts Jooheon to come open the entrance door. He will deal with Kihyun later.
It was not long before Jooheon came to pick him up. Jooheon showed at the door wearing his pajamas already, worry on his face. It was those moments where Changkyun appreciated his friend for always taking care of him. They both walk as quiet as possible through the lobby and the hallway to their shared apartment, trying to not disturb the other tenants at this late hour.
As soon as they enter their room, Jooheon bombards him with questions.
“What happened, man? Minhyuk and Hyungwon have been calling me nonstop asking where the hell you were. Are you okay?”
Changkyun looks at him with tired eyes. His body and brain were drained, it has been a long night, and he just wanted to go to sleep.
He sighs, “Those idiots left me before we’d get caught, but I got caught in the end. And I scrapped my knee.” Jooheon sensed that there was more to the story, but he will wait until tomorrow morning to ask for details. Changkyun looked like he was ready to drop at any moment.
“Okay. Go to sleep, we'll talk tomorrow.”
“Thanks. Sorry for worrying you.”
“It’s cool, you might want to text Minhyuk and Hyungwon back though.”
“Nah, let them worry to death. They deserve it. Those assholes.”
Jooheon chuckles and retreats back to his desk. He still had some work to do.
Changkyun walks to his room with heavy steps, not bothering to change into clean pajamas and opting instead to just sleep in his underwear. He lies in bed drowsily, an image of a boy with round cheeks the last thing he sees before he drifts to sleep.