Work Text:
Here’s the problem:
Kihyun is in debt. Almost cripplingly so. The glamor of college in a big name city was enticing to a freshly graduated boy from a town in the middle of nowhere— and sure, maybe he was too confident in his ability to nab a scholarship—but it was all in the name of furthering his education, and getting a well-paying job that would shoot him to a world of comfort. But life was difficult, and life gave him debt.
His obvious solution would be to go to financial aid, get some help for his debt, quash two or three percent of that heavy weight resting on his shoulders and continue getting the education he deserves. However, Kihyun hates financial aid because they’re all vultures and Minhyuk had jokingly suggested summoning a demon who dealt in finance to deal with all of his problems.
And Kihyun, well, he was a little desperate.
So that’s why he’s sitting cross-legged, surrounded by candles and a nicely drawn summoning circle he snatched off a sketchy website on Google. “Oh, demon of finance, if you’re really out there or whatever,” Kihyun starts, staring at a spiderweb in the corner of the attic he told Jooheon he was going to borrow, “please show yourself and help me because college is hard and expensive and I’m going to die in debt if I don’t magically produce some money by tomorrow.”
Nothing happens, which, granted, is what Kihyun expected. He sighs and stands up, dusting off his jeans and blowing out the candles. He would feel like an idiot if he wasn’t so desperate, and grumbles to himself about stupid nonexistent demons and stupid colleges guzzling money before there’s a rustle behind him and a hand settles on his shoulder, sending him jumping five feet in the air in fear. “Jesus, what the fuck,” he snaps, turning around and smacking the hand on his shoulder.
“I’m not Jesus?” The owner of the voice looks down to the hand Kihyun had hit earlier, rubbing it absentmindedly. “You summoned me, didn’t you?”
Kihyun looks at him properly. He’s tall, tall enough that Kihyun has to crane his neck to see his face and he’s wearing a turtleneck in summer and he has such a baby face that contrasts the way his body fills out said turtleneck and god, Kihyun really outdid himself this time. “Maybe so,” he says, ignores the way his voice wavers.
“Did you,” the demon fidgets with his hands again. It seems to be a habit. “Did you summon me for any particular reason?”
Oh.
He forgot.
“I’m in debt,” Kihyun says. “I have no money, and college is expensive, and I need to pay my semester fees by next week. Can you help me with that?”
“If you make a deal with me, yes,” he replies.
“Okay, good,” Kihyun says, and he holds his hand out. “Let’s make a deal then.”
“Wait, just like that?”
“Just like that,” Kihyun repeats.
“You don’t want to know about the terms we’re agreeing on or—or what you’re getting out of this?” The demon’s clearly surprised, and he takes a step away from Kihyun. If kihyun didn’t know any better, it was as if the demon (big, bad, a sucker in the Bible) was afraid of him .
“Listen,” Kihyun says. “I am very tired, and I have no money. I’ve eaten cup noodles for two weeks straight and washed it down with tap water that tastes like copper. I sleep on a terrible mattress, and my joints crack in places I never knew they could crack. So yes, just like that, I want to make a deal with you.”
The demon suddenly looks very sympathetic. “Is that how humans live nowadays?”
“Only the ones who call themselves college students.”
“Okay,” the demon says, before he holds out his hand. “I’ll fix all your wealth related problems, but only if you show me what it’s like to be a ‘college student’.”
“You want to know what it’s like to be sleep deprived and running on nothing except coffee and pure spite?”
“Yes,” the demon replies. “That’s all I ask.”
“Fine,” Kihyun says, and he shakes the demon’s hand. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
The demon smiles, and it’s unexpectedly endearing. Like a classic keyboard emoji. “I’m Hyunwoo.”
“Kihyun,” he replies. “And thank you, for helping me.”
**
The first thing Kihyun does when he sees his bank balance at a healthy and livable few hundred dollars (right after settling all his responsibilities, like a good student) is take Hyunwoo shopping. Just looking at the demon standing around in a turtleneck, crouched on the balcony and poking at Minhyuk’s plants makes him feel like he’s inches away from heatstroke.
“Try this,” Kihyun says, throwing a white, fitted shirt over the door and into the dressing room Hyunwoo was in. “This too.” He throws a pair of dark wash jeans.
“Isn’t this a little plain?” Hyunwoo asks.
“Sometimes, simple looks better,” he calls out.
It takes a moment, and Kihyun hears a thud as Hyunwoo (probably) crashes into the wall. There’s the squeak of shoes before the door is pushed open, and Hyunwoo steps out, still tugging at his shirt.
“This might be too tight,” he murmurs, glancing towards Kihyun.
Kihyun has truly never been a blasphemous person until this moment.
“Nope,” he replies, and takes a quick picture while Hyunwoo is distracted. It’s for science—supernatural science . “You look great.”
“Really?” Hyunwoo asks, and he looks so happy at the compliment that Kihyun can’t help but laugh.
“Yeah,” he says. “You look really good.”
**
When Hyunwoo discovers the wonders of an all-nighter, it’s when Kihyun is busy cramming for an exam, hunched over his low table as he scrawls as many notes as he can into the one cheatsheet their professor had allowed.
“Why are you writing so small?” Hyunwoo asks as he sets down a cup of tea beside Kihyun.
“It’s a cheatsheet,” Kihyun says, before he straightens his back and stretches. “You wanna see?”
Hyunwoo nods, and Kihyun scoots over. Hyunwoo squeezes into the small space next to Kihyun, legs drawn up to his chest. Kihyun sips at his tea while Hyunwoo reads.
“I don’t really understand any of this,” Hyunwoo says, gesturing to the whole paper.
“Oh,” Kihyun says, and he sets down the tea before he picks up his pen. He ends up going over his entire cheatsheet with Hyunwoo, carefully explaining concept after concept and answering any questions Hyunwoo ends up asking. He scrawls in little notes too, when discussing principles ends up being more helpful than he had bargained for.
By the time he crawls into bed four hours before his exam, he remembers Hyunwoo telling him how he was familiar with psychology, and realizes that Hyunwoo had just been helping him revise.
The thought warms his heart significantly.
**
“Do you want to watch a movie?” Hyunwoo asks Kihyun one day, and Kihyun looks up from his cup noodles.
“Sure,” he says. “What do you have in mind?”
That’s how they end up sitting side by side on the floor, Kihyun’s laptop playing Your Name on full volume.
“Does this movie end sadly?” Hyunwoo asks, voice quiet in the dark of Kihyun’s room.
Kihyun shrugs. He’s never had a chance to watch it, too occupied with studying and sleeping and studying some more. He does, however, focus a little too intensely on how close Hyunwoo’s hand is to his.
“Watch it and see,” Kihyun says.
They stay quiet for a few more minutes, until Hyunwoo says, “I think I like you.”
Kihyun slowly turns towards Hyunwoo before he closes his laptop. Hyunwoo startles and makes a soft noise of discontent.
“Say that again,” Kihyun says. Hyunwoo finally looks at him, eyes crinkling up into a smile.
“I think I like you,” he repeats.
“Okay,” Kihyun says, and he’s smiling so hard as he hooks his finger into the stupid turtleneck Hyunwoo has always insisted on wearing to bed for weeks, drawing him closer. “I think I like you too.”
“Is this the part where we kiss?” Hyunwoo asks, mere centimeters away from Kihyun’s lips.
“Yep,” Kihyun replies, before he finally, finally kisses Hyunwoo.
**
“We never got to finish that anime movie,” Hyunwoo says from where his head is on Kihyun’s lap, eyes never straying from the cat collecting game on Kihyun’s phone. Kihyun glances toward Hyunwoo, takes a moment to ignore his studies before he shrugs and pinches Hyunwoo’s nose.
“Someone wanted to spend the whole night kissing,” he replies, and Hyunwoo reaches to smack his chest.
“I don’t regret it,” Hyunwoo says. “But I need to know if that movie ends sadly or not.”
“It doesn’t,” Kihyun says, and then he picks up a loose leaf of paper and drops it down onto Hyunwoo’s face. “We can watch it after I finish this chapter.”
“Is that a deal?” Hyunwoo asks, and Kihyun can practically hear the smug smile.
“Yeah,” Kihyun says. “It is.”