Chapter Text
"Do you want to play with me?"
It was seven-year old's Minseok's last attempt at making friends after getting rejected by almost everyone at the playground. The sandbox was the only place that was almost deserted, sans a little kid that looked the same age as him and wearing an all-black jumpsuit who was building something Minseok couldn't decipher. When Minseok received no response even after hovering in front of the kid, he was ready to sit on the bench in the far corner and wait until his mother came back, but then the kid suddenly stopped playing and raised his head.
"Can you really see me?"
Minseok found himself blinking as he stared at the kid in front of him. He didn't know why, but it seemed like the kid's facial features were a blur and his voice was low and monotonous. The only distinct feature that Minseok could make out were those obsidian eyes that stared back at him.
"O-of course I can..."
There was a flash of confusion through those obsidian eyes, but before Minseok could ask, the little boy scooted over to give Minseok a space on the sandbox. All questions were erased on young Minseok's mind as he plopped down beside the kid - even ignoring the sudden coldness engulfing him - and started gathering handfuls of sand.
"I'm–"
"Minseok. I know." The kid said in a monotonous tone as he focused back on the sand. "I'm...you can call me Yeol."
Minseok blinked once more, tilting his head in confusion but soon brushed it off as he followed how the kid arranged mounds of sand on neat rows. Hey, someone finally agreed to be his playmate, the least he could do is try and avoid annoying Yeol with questions (like how he knew his name and answering a question Minseok was just thinking of asking, perhaps), right?
Wrong. Because soon enough, the quietness caught up to Minseok and being a kid, he craved to talk while playing. So with a deep breath and a small prayer that Yeol wouldn't stop playing with him, Minseok let out the thing that has been plaguing his mind.
"What are we doing exactly?"
There was another stretch of silence and Minseok thought Yeol didn't hear his question. He was about to ask once more when Yeol blurted out his answer almost lifelessly.
"My home."
"Your home? But how could rows of mounds be your home?"
Yeol shrugged, ending the conversation and resuming on placing neat mounds on straight rows. Minseok didn't understand but in fear of being pushed away again, the little boy kept his mouth shut and proceeded on lining up the shaped sand until it filled the sandbox. Only then did Minseok noticed that the sun was close to setting and that his mother had been waiting for him by the bench with a confused look.
"Hey Yeol, I need to go," Minseok muttered and stopped halfway when he saw that he was alone at the sandbox.
Yeol was nowhere to be seen and even as he and his mother walked home, his mother insisted that he had been playing all alone when she arrived.
--
The next weekend, his parents brought Minseok to the cemetery to pay respect to a distant relative who recently passed away.
Somehow, the neat rows of tombstones seemed familiar to Minseok even if it was his first time going to the cemetery.
--
The loud music bouncing through the walls, as well as the smell of sweat and alcohol-spiked punch, was enough to make him dizzy.
17-year-old Minseok knew he shouldn't have come to the party when he was clearly not invited. Not that it matters anyway, almost everyone seemed drunk and way too high to notice him. Even his friend Lu Han left him after spotting that tall sophomore he had been pining on for quite some time now.
Another sigh escaped him as he decided to just ditch Lu Han and go home. But it seemed like fate was against it when he was suddenly face to face with , one of his classmates and the owner of the house he was in.
"Oh, look who decided to come by and finally have a life." There was something different about Joowon, Minseok thought, with the way he slurred and swayed and looked at him with glassy eyes and grin that was far too stretched out.
"Um, I was just about to go, actually…" he started before trailing off uncertainly.
"Nonsense. Come with me, and I'll show you where the real party is." Despite Joowon's blissed-out façade, he was surprisingly successful at dragging Minseok upstairs, where the music and grinding bodies disappeared into a fog of greyish smoke and dim lit rooms. Minseok had to squint his eyes to see and was met with the sight of some of his school mates half conscious and lying on the floor with the same glassy eyes as Joowon. Some were making out by the corner before it quickly escalated into something more, but Minseok's attention was caught by the table in the middle of the dark room. There was a mess of strips of foil, lighters, and something else laying on the surface in the center of the crowd.
Minseok's blood went cold as the realization hit him.
His classmates were smoking joints and with Joowon's persistent tugs on his hand, he is sure he will be forced to smoke one too.
"I…I don't think I can–"
"Are you being a pussy now, Kim? Just one joint wouldn't hurt."
And then suddenly, it seemed like all the occupants in the room were wide awake and coaxing him into taking one of the foil packets containing the drugs. Joowon's smirks and taunts didn't help and Minseok soon found his hand holding a piece of foil and a joint.
"Go on, Minseok. It's time to let go of your uptightness and let loose for once. You just have to light it up and inhale it, you'll feel better, I swear."
Minseok found himself thinking Should I really? They look all so…carefree… Maybe one pack wouldn't hurt, before raising the joint towards his mouth.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
There was a deep voice that resonated through Minseok's mind, and it felt as if everything had stopped. In one dark corner was a lanky kid that Minseok has never seen before. He looked like the usual emo guy he saw at school; with ripped skinny jeans, a black, graphic tee and a mop of messy hair. Yet, no matter how hard he tried, it seemed like he couldn't quite make out the kid's facial features except his tall nose and a pair of obsidian eyes.
A rush of familiarity swept over Minseok, because deep inside, he knew he'd seen those eyes somewhere but just couldn't exactly remember.
"Who…who are you? What are you doing there?"
"Ah, you don't remember. That's good." The kid then started walking towards Minseok, and everything around seemed to blur out. His eyes were locked onto those painfully familiar obsidian orbs that pulled him in with every second that passed. "I'm just here to…fetch someone. Why don't you go ahead and meet your friend downstairs? He's been looking for you."
There was something authoritative in the monotonous voice, powerful even, and soon enough Minseok was turning around. His legs started moving out of their own accord and his hand carelessly tossed the joint onto a nearby dresser. Once he was out of the room, he heard the kid calling out to him.
"Hey Minseok, it was nice seeing you again."
Did he ever give the kid his name? Minseok couldn't remember. His senses seemed to have dulled by the time he arrived downstairs with the music blaring, only regaining his wits when Lu Han shook him violently; And even then, his mind was still fuzzy.
"You look drunk, how much punch have you had? Where have you been anyway?"
It's a wonder that Minseok could still hear Lu Han's voice amidst the loud bass thrumming through their ears. He threw a shrug at his friend because everything that happened since he bumped into Joowon was hazy. No matter how much he tried to, he just couldn't remember a thing, except…
"There was a kid…with obsidian eyes."
"Did you hook up with somebody?" Lu Han chuckled at Minseok before he dragged him out of the house. "Let's get you some fresh air. Your sister will kill me if she finds you in this drunken state."
--
The next day, amidst hangovers and body aches, Minseok's SNS was flooded with comments about how rave Joowon's party had been, along with how untimely and shocking his death was, due to a drug overdose.
--
"Fuck. Stupid alarm clock." Minseok cursed as he frantically wore his jeans while taming his wild bed hair. He only has barely fifteen minutes to get to his class (all thanks to his old alarm clock who decided to not wake him up), and he prayed to all the gods and deities that there's no delay with the campus transportation (Line 428) that day.
Five more hurried minutes and Minseok found himself sprinting down the stairs from his 5th floor room, because of all the days that the dormitory's elevator had to be on maintenance, it had to be the day he's running late. Though as soon as he stepped out of his dormitory building, he almost threw a fit upon seeing the long queue on the bus stop across the street that guarantees yet another tardiness mark in his record.
"This is just great." Minseok mumbled dejectedly as he crossed the street. By the looks of it, he probably won't even reach the university in time. Another sigh, eyes scanning his watch that read 9:15 AM, when Minseok decided to look around his surroundings to pass time. All too sudden, he felt a shiver run down his spine. He unconsciously turned towards his right, where a dimmed alley was located along with a lanky guy that's probably the same age as him, only a little bit taller. Oddly enough, though the sun was already high up the sky, Minseok could only make out the guy's curly hair, tall nose, quite big ears and piercing obsidian eyes.
Quite frankly, Minseok knew he had seen the guy somewhere but he just couldn't remember when and where. There was a nagging feeling inside him to call out to the mysterious being with the obsidian eyes.
Who are you?
Minseok swore the guy had an amused expression (even if it was blurry to Minseok) before he started walking owards the other end of the alley. Despite the knowledge that he's going to be late, Minseok found himself deviating from the queue and following the guy.
What's weird enough is whenever Minseok's about to reach the guy, it seems like the distance between them rapidly increases. Calling out to the mysterious guy appeared futile since Minseok's calls were ignored. It was frustrating, amidst the twists and turns of the dimmed alley. Heck, has this alley always been this long and winding?
Another turn and suddenly the guy seemed closer than before. Minseok found himself reaching for the guy, barely even touching the guy's clothes on his fingertips before he lurched forward into the bright street in front of the university. What’s strange is that the guy he’s following suddenly vanished into thin air, the alleyway he just went out of was a dead end and barely five minutes have passed.
“What…what has just happened?”
--
Later that day, after Minseok’s first class, news of the terrible bus accident was rampant around the campus. The bus lost its brakes and fatally crashing on an incoming train, killing everyone inside instantly. Goosebumps quickly formed on Minseok’s skin when he read the headline. The bus was Line 428, and it met its end at 9:20 AM.
--
“See you later Minseok!”
Minseok grunted a reply, eyes focused on the monitor of his computer. It was Friday night, his colleagues going out to relieve the weeklong stress from work and yet here Minseok was, left all alone in the dimmed office with tons of paper work to finish.
Well, it’s not like Minseok spends his Friday nights out with friends while drinking his brains out and hooking up with someone from a club.
An hour or so later and Minseok found himself unusually giving up. A satisfying crack from his back resounded in the nearly empty office before he stood and gathered his things. It was Friday night, and he deserve a much-needed break (or maybe some shots of soju while watching soccer reruns at home). And besides, there was something…spooky in his office that night, something that made Minseok’s hairs stand on its end. It was like he was being watched. So, without looking back, he quickly strode out of the office and onto the dark lobby.
“This is all Lu Han’s fault and his horror stories.” Minseok grumbled when he jumped at the sound of the elevator arriving.
He bid the guard on duty as soon as he exited the building and involuntarily shivered when the cold December breeze hit him. It was weird that the streets were nearly empty with only a few pedestrians considering it was a Friday night and that Minseok’s office was located downtown where most of the entertainment establishments were.
As Minseok neared his bus stop, he finds it very weird to see that the area was empty. Even cars weren’t passing by the road when it was one of the main roads of the district.
“Has it really been that late?” He muttered to himself, eyes locked onto his watch as he stepped in front of the pedestrian lane.
Another shiver went up his spine just as Minseok looked away from his watch. There, on the other side of the road, was a tall man wearing a black suit and black leather shoes topped off with a black heavy wool coat and a black fedora hat on his rather large hand. The man, which Minseok deduced was almost the same age as him, looked like an ordinary office worker.
But there was something oddly familiar with him.
Minseok strained his eyes as he tried to make out the other’s features. From the plump lips to the tall nose, those rather large ears and curly mop of brown hair, everything was so unfamiliar yet familiar to Minseok. And then Minseok’s eyes locked onto the other’s eyes.
They were the shade of pure obsidian.
And then Minseok’s brain went into overdrive; memories of him meeting a lanky guy with obsidian eyes in Joowon's house flashed through his eyes, as well as him following a tall guy through a loop of alleys during college. Minseok hadn’t even noticed that he was already halfway through the pedestrian lane, with the other guy passing by him. His fingertips barely touched the fabric of the other guy’s coat before his mind conjured yet another repressed memory of his.
Fragments of a seven-year-old Minseok playing on the sandbox with a kid with obsidian eyes flooded through his vision.
Yeol.
Minseok gasped and stayed rooted on his spot in the middle of the road. Everything suddenly clicked in place. It was Yeol, the same kid from the sandbox who stopped him from taking a joint and possibly saved him from that bus accident years ago.
With shaky legs, he forced himself to turn around, Yeol’s name already at the tip of his tongue when suddenly there was a loud screech and Minseok’s eyes were blinded by a white light.
--
“You know, I really don’t get why you’ve been prolonging his death. You were supposed to fetch him when he was seven years old in front of the local playground. Typical kid getting ran over by a truck while hastily crossing the street kind of case.”
Chanyeol sighed before taking a gulp from his canned coffee. It was too early to have this conversation again with Sehun.
“You even went through the trouble of disguising as a kid.” Sehun chuckled, his knees bumping against Chanyeol’s and it made the latter annoyed. It was a Friday night, and he and Sehun decided to hang out on a bus stop in the downtown area of the city. They were both wearing official clothes and almost everybody can say they look almost as normal as business men off from work – that is if anyone can see them.
Nobody was supposed to see them for they were grim reapers – sinful beings in between life and death that fetches the souls of the deceased. Chanyeol had been a grim reaper for the past eight centuries, having committed a grave sin from his past life that he couldn’t even remember. He had been a diligent and responsible one until he was assigned young Kim Minseok twenty years ago.
As soon as he looked at the kid’s wide eyes, there was something that held him back from fetching him. Those eyes looked almost familiar.
But it made no sense for Chanyeol for he doesn’t have memories.
So from that day on, he tried his very best to save Minseok from the call of death just so he could see those expressive eyes. And each time he saved Minseok, he was rewarded by tons of paper works and sermons from the higher ups. And just when he thought the boss gave up on taking Minseok’s soul, an envelope arrived that morning on Chanyeol’s desk.
Death from getting hit by a car.
It was easy to dodge, Chanyeol had done it before, if only it wasn’t his last soul. Along with Minseok’s envelope was a letter of dismissal, signaling the end of his term as a grim reaper. How ironic, that his last soul had to be the very one he was saving from death this entire time.
It had to be done, Chanyeol thought as he finished his coffee and tossed the can on the bin nearby. It was better this way instead of letting Minseok suffer a much violent death with another reaper to fetch him.
“He’s coming. I better go.” Sehun let out a huff before wearing his black fedora hat, pitch black eyes twinkling as he smirked at Chanyeol. “It was nice working with you Chanyeol. I hope you rest peacefully.”
“Thanks Sehun, see you in a couple of centuries, I guess.” Chanyeol sent a nod, smiling as he watched the other walk towards the other side of the road just as Minseok stopped a few meters away from him. With one last huff, he stood, not even bothering to wear his hat for he knew Minseok will see him.
A rush of adrenaline coursed through him when their eyes met and Chanyeol knew Minseok recognized him, if not for the recognition in his expressive eyes.
He started crossing the street, fully aware that the drunk driver would come by the corner. What he didn’t anticipated was for Minseok’s fingertips to brush against his coat. There was a whirlwind of memories that flashed through Chanyeol’s mind, memories of hundreds of years forgotten and flowing out rapidly that he stopped his tracks a few steps away from Minseok.
It all happened too fast and before he knew it, there was Minseok lying down on the street in a pool of blood while his soul looked confused and staring at him. In that moment, Chanyeol saw Minseok in a different light.
“So that’s why you look so familiar…”
“I…what…happened?”
The envelope was heavy on his pocket and Chanyeol had to force himself to talk due to the emotions inside him. Chanyeol watched how Minseok’s expression changed when he saw his supposed body on the road before he blurted out his usual lines.
“You’re Kim Minseok, twenty-seven years old and born on March twenty ninth. Cause of death, hit by a car. Kindly confirm.”
There was barely a nod from Minseok and Chanyeol couldn’t help but let out an enigmatic smile.
“If you would please follow me, Minseok.”
--