Chapter Text
“Good night friends of the mystery and mystery friends!!” Hyukjae smiled into the microphone as he began the livestream. Over his head, on the screen, a cute mothman gif flew in circles and the chat started to quickly move up with the usual people leaving emojis, hellos and requests for background music. A quick wave into the camera and he pressed play, his soft spooky playlist filling his ears.
“It's the first Friday of the month and, well, you all already know this but,” he gave an excited clap followed by another smile, "but just in case there's someone new here today..." a brief pause as he checked the chat to see if he spotted any names he didn't recognize. There were always a few, even more since he had gone kind of viral a couple of months ago when he almost gave Donghae a heart attack after having dragged him for one of his videos. In his defense, it had been completely unintentional. “Okay, I see some new people here, so a special goodnight for all of you and I hope you'll stick around!”Hyukjae's eyes closed for a second as he tried to put his thoughts in order and quickly keep talking, a cheerful tone in his voice.
“As I was saying, first Friday of the month! That means today is our little get-together here live to plan the month ahead. Some of you left some really cool suggestions back on my channel but let's have a proper voting now you and I, okay?”
The next couple of hours were a blur of links to shady websites that swore to all and any gods that there had been weird sightings somewhere, lists of locations of abandoned buildings, a couple of blogs and reddit posts with some creepypasta rituals he was going to definitely try during the month and some lame jokes sprinkled here and there. So by the time he turned the camera off and just let himself fall into bed, he was feeling exhausted.
People really didn't know just how tiring keeping an audience entertained actually was, no matter how much you actually loved what you were doing.
It was nice, though. It felt good.
And, if he was being completely truthful to himself, he didn't really know how he had ended up like this, and by this he meant being a weird youtuber/streamer talking about the paranormal and doing things that were kind of illegal once a month. Well, he already did those things before, as a hobby, but now people were actively paying him to keep going so yeah, definitely weird. But good. At least he had managed to move out of his friend’s flat and rent a small studio for himself, even if he still ended up crashing there at least once a week. He missed him, okay?
The soft lights of the city night came through the window, drowning the room in an eerie unnatural color as he sighed and turned around to check the time. 2 am already, and he hadn't had dinner yet.
A groan.
He was probably doomed to not having an average proper life by now but he was somewhat starting to make peace with that fact. Kind of. At least that's what he kept repeating to himself again and again at the small hours when all of his friends were already far gone into sleep because people are expected to wake up early in the morning in this society.
Another groan as he covered his face with his hands and an echo rippled down his stomach. He was almost sure there were some leftovers somewhere in the fridge that wouldn't take much energy to just toss on the microwave so, holding onto that thought, he finally left the bed and headed to the small kitchen.
A few minutes later he was back in front of the computer, headset over his ears while the playlist still went on and he munched over the now warmish leftovers. It felt nice working at that time of the night, all sounds of human activity on hold during the dark with the exception of a few cars on irregular intervals crossing the street down below. With a soft sight as he crossed his legs on the chair as he started to close the dozens of tabs he had opened during the livestream, most of them having been suggested by his viewers, until the few of them that had really caught his attention were the only ones left.
A subscriber, someone who claimed to work in construction, had said that an abandoned day care center had been scheduled for demolition next month. It hadn’t been categorized as in risk of collapse, which was always good news, and if his subscriber was right, there wasn’t supposed to be any kind of security around it. More good news then. A quick search pulled up the website for the place, which was still online somehow, and he started taking notes on the distribution of the building. It’d definitely make for some nice pictures, more so if it had been abandoned for a while. With a bit of luck there would still be some wheelchairs and creepy equipement around, unless looters and punks had gotten to it first and people just loved that shit in his pictures. A quick stretch on the chair as he pushed the now empty bowl away and he checked his phone. 3:32 am, the only notifications on his screen from his channel social accounts. Well, of course; who else would leave him messages at 3 in the morning?
A yawn echoed in his room, one born more out of boredom than sleep, and he scribbled down a few more notes. There was going to be a full moon in nine days, he should probably go check that building then: less need for flashlights.
Now all that was left to do was pick a ritual for the monthly video. A few of them had really caught his eye and, if he was lucky enough to find an old mirror on that old building, he was definitely going to snatch it up and use it. People were going to love that. Maybe he’d even ask for a few extra donations if they wanted that specific mirror to play the game. That’s marketing for you all. It’s awful, but it paid the bills.
A few more notes quickly scribbled down, a few more tabs going into his bookmarks (he had a tendency to misplace stuff, so, better safe than sorry) and he finally turned off the computer to go lay down on the bed, his cellphone in his hands, as he quickly checked his personal sns accounts, just in case he had missed something.
It looked like Donghae’s café was really thriving and he found himself smiling at the pictures his friend had uploaded to his instagram. He had worked there before, back when he used to live on Donghae’s couch after his sister relationship turned out to be more serious that both Hyukaje and her had imagined and he decided to just quietly leave the flat one day so her boyfriend could move in with her.
And Donghae had sworn that he was actually doing him a favour for working at the café. “ It’s hard to find someone to work with that truly gets your way of doing things, you know?” He had told him again and again, and Hyukjae knew it was a lie, but it was a white lie after all, something said to try and lift his spirits after a long streak of work interviews that never called him back. The fact that they had known each other for almost 25 years now and the guy still cared this much about him still astonished Hyukjae. People usually didn’t stick that much around him.
And there went his mind again. A quick streak of likes on Donghae’s pictures and he closed instagram. He really shouldn't have been thinking about that, not if he wanted to catch any sleep before the city woke up and the lights and noise would make it impossible for him to rest.
“What is a cutie like you doing all alone in a place like this? Got any plans for, let's say, Sunday, next week?"
It was almost a quarter past two when he let himself fall unannounced on a free chair next to Donghae. The cafe was almost empty at that hour and the waiter, a guy more or less his age that had been his replacement once he finally quitted, waved at him while cleaning one of the tables. Donghae just sighed as he quickly tapped something on his tablet before looking up towards him.
"I thought we agreed that I'm not going to be in any more of your creepy videos." Even if the words might have sounded harsh, Hyukjae recognised that tone in his voice, a tone meaning that, even if last time his friend had probably lost a few years and earned a couple of white hairs, he was not completely opposed to the idea.
"Oh, no, don't worry. That's scheduled for the Friday after. On Sunday I'm just gonna check out this cool place." He pulled up his cellphone and started swiping through his gallery where he had already downloaded a few screenshots from Google maps and from the old website of the now abandoned building.
"I swear, you should really quit that urban exploring thing. One day you're so gonna get into trouble."
"Always so positive." A wide smile formed upon his lips as he let his back rest into the chair. "You really should come with me at least once, and okay, it might not be 100% fully legal , but I ain't doing something bad and you know it."
"That's not the point here" Donghae looked away for a moment as a thought seemed to cross his mind, tapped something else on the tablet and locked it. "Have you eaten today?"
"Hmm?" Hyukjae's gaze had returned to his cellphone as he absent-mindedly replied to a few tweets here and there asking about some videos from last month. 'Oh yeah. Well. Kinda. I had breakfast before coming here" That answer made Donghae sigh again.
"At least tell me you're getting a shower once a day."
"One time!" Hyukjae raised his index finger before Donghae's face who was now trying and failing to contain his laughter at the burst of fake anger steaming from his friend "I do that once and you'll never ever let me forget about it!"
"You didn't shower for a full week. I almost had to throw away my couch" He wasn't even trying to stop his laughter now, and the clear sound echoed on the walls.
“I was having a rough time! And you know it!” His hand was now trying to keep Donghae quiet, even if he was laughing with him, but he was failing miserably.
“I know, I know…” And, they’re finally getting their heads together again. “Any luck with job interviews?”
"First my sleeping schedule, then my eating habits and now this. Did my mom possess you?"
"No, but she did phone me a couple of days ago. Mostly to catch up, but…"
"I know, I know, you don't have to say it."
"You really should call her more, Hyuk" A frustrated groan escaped from his lips as his hands pushed back the loose strands of hair that fell over his eyes.
"This isn't funny anymore, you broke the magic, Lee Donghae."
"I…" He looked away for a few seconds, his fingers lazily playing with a pen as he tried to collect his thoughts. "I care about you, Hyuk. You know that. I wouldn't be such a mood killer if I didn't."
Something shifted in the air and restlessness took hold of Hyukjae’s body and mind yet again. He could manage to keep his thoughts at bay if he was the only one digging into everything about his life that made him anxious but… not if it was someone else.
"I know you do." He finally managed to say, trying to push back every thought that was running wild through his mind. And there it was again, that itch to just fly the scene, to not stand up and face his troubles. Shit. He avoided Donghae's gaze for a while, trying to think what he could even say after thar, but his friend was again quicker:
"Anyways, I'm glad to see you. Now, tell me all about the new video, do you want us to guest again?" And, like a magic spell, all his troubles left his mind, at least for the time being.
"Oh, is Donghee joining us this time too?" And Hyukjae knew he was smiling, because he could see it reflected back on the one that now hung upon Donghae's lips.
"Yeah, he saw me losing it on that one video and asked specifically to be called for the next one."
"Oh my god, great, because he's gonna love this one. Okay, first of all, I'm gonna try to find an old mirror back at that building on Sunday, and with it..."
His cellphone was again in his hands as he tried to find the website he had sent to himself for safekeeping, his eyes sparkling with pure happiness and Donghae wished there was a way to keep his friend like that, forever. Even if he knew he couldn't.
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the city, the trigger of a camera went off.
"And we're done here. I'll send you the final edits by Wednesday."
The family smiled as they paid and left the small studio. By the time the bell over the door stopped swinging he had already left the camera downloading all the pictures back at the computer and he was sitting at the table, softly nibbling at his lower lips as a pale finger swiped through open tabs.
"Nice..."