Chapter Text
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Lee Dongmin knew, from the second he opened the door, that something wasn’t right.
Eyes wide, he peeked behind it.
There was a guy, and Dongmin watched as he stumbled getting to his feet and gripped tightly onto his nose. Next to him, on the floor, lay a pair of neglected, thick-rimmed glasses.
“Did I just hit you?”
“No,” the boy grumbled as he tilted his head back. Dongmin winced at the blood trickling down his nose. “I think the door totally hit me by itself.” With the way he squeezed his nose shut, his voice came out incredibly nasally. “They do that these days, engineering and stuff, you know? Very clever things.”
Dongmin blinked in response.
“Yes, you hit me,” he deadpanned.
Dongmin pursed his lips, moving away from the door. “Let me see.”
The boy’s eyes widened. “What? No!” In an attempt to avoid that from happening, he threw his head further back, but that, unfortunately, did not work in his favor.
Dongmin watched as he nearly toppled over had it not been for the actor’s reflexes reaching for his arm.
As he stood back up straight, he was just about Dongmin’s height. The white sweater he had on was littered with red spots, and though he pinched his nose to stop the bleeding, the bottom half of his face also looked worse for wear.
“Do you see my glasses anywhere?”
“Uh—yeah,” Dongmin said, bending down to pick them up and place them in the hand that wasn’t on his nose.
“Thanks,” he said, awkwardly putting them on with one hand and most of his nose covered.
Frankly, Dongmin should have seen this coming. Once the glasses were situated, the boy let out a loud gasp.
“Wait,” he said slowly, “aren’t you Cha—”
He could not have anyone overhear, and considering the fan meeting had ended about half an hour ago, Dongmin wouldn’t be surprised if fans were still waiting for him to come out of the venue's front door.
Despite how disgusting it was, he did the only thing he could think of and covered the boy’s mouth with his hand. The way he needed to bend his hand to cover his mouth was awfully awkward, as the boy was still holding his nose.
“Are you going to yell out my name?” asked Dongmin sternly.
The boy shook his head.
“Promise?”
The boy gave him an unimpressed look, and Dongmin slowly removed his hand.
In fear of losing consciousness, he decided not to check the state of his hand and simply let his arm rest by his side.
The boy didn’t seem to care about Dongmin's queasiness. “You have blood on your hand now.”
Dongmin cringed, almost as if he was hoping it would’ve been clean. He cleared his throat using his other hand. “Has—uh—Has the bleeding stopped?”
The boy gave him another one of those dead-panned looks then waved a nonchalant hand. “Oh, it stopped ages ago. I just love the sound of my voice like this.” Dongmin did not find that funny at all. “Oh, you don’t think I sound charming like this?”
That question shocked Dongmin, but thankfully so, because he'd been out there way too long.
To round it up, he crossed his arms over his chest and attempted to appear serious. “Anyway, what were you even doing back here?”
“Oh,” he said, “my sister was at your fanmeeting. She left me to wait in the car but I had to pee.”
Dongmin furrowed an eyebrow. “You are aware that you could’ve gone to any of the nearby restaurants?”
The boy seemed to struggle holding his arm up this long.
He let out a sigh. “I’m not from around here and I think it’s rude to use the bathroom without buying something. And before you ask, I wasn’t gonna sit at a bar to get myself a Fanta. Besides, the car wasn’t parked. It just stood at the side of the road with the warning lights on.”
Dongmin squinted at him. “Then why didn’t you just park it somewhere else?”
The boy grimaced. “I—uh—can’t drive.” He scratched the back of his neck with his unoccupied hand. “And, well, the whole point of me going with her was to avoid parking. I was waiting for her to return. But seriously, why on earth are parking fees so expensive here?”
Dongmin ignored the question. “So you didn’t try to sneak in?”
“No,” he said solemnly, “I genuinely didn’t even know this was where the fanmeeting was held. The car’s quite a few blocks away. I really just needed to pee.” He paused for a second, then continued, “And I still need to.”
It seemed that Dongmin’s previous observation about the boy not being able to hold his arm up was right, as he, clearly reluctantly, replaced his right hand with his left. As he swapped them, some blood dripped out at the loss of contact.
Dongmin looked away quickly. “It’s... still bleeding pretty heavily.”
“Well, you did ram the door open in my face.”
“It was an accident!” Dongmin said seriously. “It’ll probably stop bleeding soon.”
“Woah,” said the stranger, slightly glaring. “I can’t believe you’re an actor and a haematologist. Your parents must be very proud.”
Now Dongmin glared back. “Yah, don’t be like that.”
The guy rolled his eyes. “My nose bridge has probably shattered, I think I’m allowed to be a little upset.”
Dongmin sighed. This dude was quite the dramatic. “I hardly think it’s broken.”
“Oh, so you’re also an orthopaedic?” The boy then sighed exasperatedly and looked up at Dongmin. “Look,” he said, “I just need to pee. I’ll pretend I’ve never seen you. Heck, I’ll pretend I have no idea who you are. Can I please just use the bathroom and wash this off?”
He didn’t enjoy admitting it, but Dongmin had to agree the boy seemed really desperate. Next to that, he himself wanted to get this guy’s blood off his hands, too.
Biting his lip, he looked back at the door and then back at the boy.
“Okay,” Dongmin said finally, taking the cap from his head and securing it on the boy’s. “Stay quiet and keep your head down, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, okay, cool. Thanks. Like, a lot.”
Dongmin opened the door, then instantly closed it, removing all sources of light.
“God, why is it so dark?” asked the boy. Dongmin put his hand on the back of the boy’s neck, keeping his head down.
“Shhh,” Dongmin hissed. Taking the fastest route to the nearest bathroom still wasn’t very fast. He had already bid his farewells to his staff members and suddenly being back would surely raise suspicion.
“Are we almost there? My head’s starting to hurt.”
Dongmin fought the urge to kick him. “Almost.”
And then, all of sudden, at the end of the hall, he saw a member of his security team. Just like he’d seen in many dramas, and even performed in some of his own, he threw himself and the boy in a different direction, out of sight.
“Jesus,” the boy cursed, breath having been knocked out of him.
“Shhh,” Dongmin hissed again, more persistently.
“I’d like to use my back after this,” he whisper-yelled.
Dongmin couldn’t resist the urge anymore and kicked his foot.
“Ow!” he yelped.
Within an instant, a “Who’s there?” rang through the hall. Dongmin cursed under his breath, then stuck his head out from the wall.
He flashed a smile. “Hi. Just me. I forgot something.”
He received a simple nod in response, then waited until the security guard was out of sight.
Thankfully, the bathroom was just a few steps further down the hall.
Dongmin checked the hall once more before looking back at the boy, who, for the first time, willingly kept his head down.
“Is the coast clear?” he whispered.
“Yeah.” Instead of the back of his neck, Dongmin took his arm this time. They took the last few necessary steps and then the actor slowly opened the door in an attempt to check if anyone was already in there, but before he could even start checking the boy already stepped in and moved towards the mirror.
“Jesus Christ,” he said, and Dongmin honestly wasn’t expecting a different reaction. There was blood everywhere on both his face and hands but it did seem like the actual bleeding had finally stopped.
Dongmin turned on the faucet, pumped out some soap and began washing off the blood on his own hands. The boy copied his actions, but took off his glasses to splash water onto his face in an attempt to get everything off.
Dongmin tapped his shoulder and handed over some tissue to help dry his face.
“Thanks,” he said gratefully.
Now that the blood was mostly gone and a hand was no longer covering his nose, Dongmin could really see him. Dark hair, long face, sharp eyes.
Handsome.
The actor leaned on the sink a bit, watching the other clean the last bits of red from his fingernails. “You said your head hurt earlier? How does it feel now?”
The other chuckled dryly. “Like it might fall off.” He lifted his glasses to rub at his eyes. “But like, I’m in university so this is kind of similar to how it usually feels.”
That got a little laugh out of Dongmin, then he said, “You done?”
The boy chuckled awkwardly, then his eyes moved to a cubicle. “I still need to, you know....”
Dongmin’s eyes opened a little wider. How could he have forgotten that that was kind of the point of this bathroom run?
“Right. Uh—yeah. Right.” They looked at each other for about two seconds before the boy moved inside one of the cubicles.
And then Dongmin just stood there.
He tried his hardest to play literally any song in his head, all to avoid listening in, he thanked the heavens it worked decently well.
After hearing the toilet flush, the stranger walked out holding the ends of his sweater, then looked up at Dongmin. “You think I’d get arrested walking around like this?”
Dongmin blinked, then grimaced. “Honestly?” Looking back at him, he noticed the boy’s eyes weren’t meeting his, but were rather on his chest, or better said, the jacket Dongmin wore. “Absolutely not,” he said, pulling the jacket closer to his body.
He looked slightly surprised at the blatant refusal. “I’m literally gonna get arrested because you slammed a door in my face.”
Dongmin looked to the side, tilting his chin like a stubborn child. “You said the door opened because of engineering. It wasn’t me.”
“Yah,” the boy squinted and pointed at him, “don’t use my jokes against me.”
Dongmin, at this point, just wanted to get to his hotel and sleep. He opened the door to the bathroom and motioned towards the hall like some airplane host.
“Am I going to have to sacrifice my back again?” asked the boy with a whine, walking towards the door.
The actor sighed. “They won’t be able to arrest you if you’re already dead.”
At the mention of death, the stranger took ahold of Dongmin’s hand in his and placed it on his neck. “Lead the way!”
The actor predicted everyone had already left by now, including the security guards, but he wasn’t going to take any risks.
And that appeared to be a clever thing to do, because the new voice that rang through the hall ran a shiver down Dongmin’s spine. With a hand still on the guy’s neck, Dongmin looked over his shoulder at his manager, or otherwise said, his father.
He gave him an awkward grin. “Hi, abeoji.”
The man raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing?”
“Uh—” There was a pause. Dongmin could literally hit himself in the head. He was an actor, for Christ’s sake, and he couldn’t come up with something on the spot. “Nothing?”
“The hell you mean ‘nothing’?” his father retorted, walking closer to the two. “Did you get into a fight?”
“With a door,” the stranger mumbled. Dongmin didn’t hesitate in kicking his shin. “Ow! Stop hurting me!”
Dongmin sighed, running his other hand over his face. “Long story short, I hit him with a door and brought him to the bathroom to clean off the blood. I’m taking him outside now.”
“Okay? Why are you holding him like he’s a prisoner?”
“I’d like to know, too,” came from the boy.
Dongmin just shrugged.
“Okay, well, take him out,” said the man dismissively. “Did you get all your stuff?”
“Yeah,” Dongmin said with a nod. “I’ll see you tomorrow, abeoji.”
The second the stranger stood up straight, about three bones popped and he let out a relieved breath of air. “Remind me to never commit any crimes.”
“No one should have to be reminded of that,” Dongmin said as they finally reached the exit, and the bag he’d originally meant to put in the car lay neglected next to the door.
He figured he'd grab it once he made sure the boy had left. He couldn't have this guy steal his time and his belongings.
“Well,” said the actor as they made it back outside. “Have a nice night.”
The boy bowed quickly in thanks, then started fishing for his phone in his pocket. Dongmin walked back to the door, but found himself just standing there watching the boy and he had no idea why. In his mind, he was telling himself he was just waiting to see the guy off, to really make sure he left, but that somehow seemed only partially true.
The guy put his phone to his ear, and the person on the other side of the call spoke loud enough for Dongmin to follow the entire conversation.
The actor face-palmed himself.
Apparently, his sister had waited for her brother’s return for longer than she had been able to and eventually drove back to their hotel.
The boy cursed a handful of times before he noticed Dongmin was still standing there. “Oh, you’re still here?”
He felt a bit caught, and to give himself more time to come up with a plausible answer, coughed into his hand. “I ... wanted to make sure you left.”
“Well,” he mumbled, waving his phone momentarily, “I’d also love to leave but my sister drove off without me with no plan of coming back to get me and I don’t have my wallet.”
“Just use Apple Pay.”
He hissed between his teeth. “I use Android.”
Dongmin sighed. “Of course you do.”
The guy seemed offended. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Why did your sister drive off?” Dongmin asked, ignoring the previous question. Surely his sister wouldn’t leave him stranded in a city he apparently wasn’t familiar with.
The boy scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “Long story.”
“Go on,” the actor said persistently.
He gave him a look, then sighed defeatedly. “My sister and I came to Seoul because she wanted to go to the fan meet and I, as a good oppa, decided to go with her. Besides, I don’t get to see Seoul that often. So she drove us here and quote unquote parked somewhere.” He was looking everywhere but at Dongmin. “So, I have the—uh—let’s say tendency to get, well, distracted? So Sua made me promise to stay in the car and not get distracted and ultimately leave the car. Which may have happened … often, and then she had to go look for me and I’m not the best at picking up my phone yadayadayada. And I was doing well, you know, just playing Subway Surfers until I had to pee. And then this all happened.”
Dongmin blinked. “And then she just ... left you here?”
The boy shrugged. “This isn’t the first time she’s done that. To be fair, it’s my fault anyway. I should’ve stayed in the car.”
“But you had to pee,” Dongmin said, kind of surprising himself. Was he sympathizing?
That clearly also surprised the other.
He scratched the back of his neck. “Yeah, well…”
Dongmin took his bottom lip between his lips. “So what now?” It was already pretty cold and late and the guy apparently had no wallet on him.
He shrugged again. “Don’t know. I think I have enough battery life—” he lifted his phone to check, then grimaced, “—scratch that, I have 5% left.” He cursed.
Dongmin had no idea what to do. What if this boy was a new sesaeng? Then again, he had no camera on him, not even a jacket, and he wasn’t trying to hide his face like most of them. He didn’t seem like one, and though Dongmin didn’t have any good functioning lying detecting senses, he believed him.
And in the end, he did hurt the boy.
He sighed, grabbed his bag and left the door, walking closer to the boy. “What’s your name?”
The boy looked a little taken aback. “Moon Bin.”
Dongmin found himself nodding his head a little, then asked, “Do you have any sort of identification on you?”
“Uh—yeah, hold up,” said Moon Bin, scrolling through his phone.
After a few second, he showed Dongmin a picture of his college ID. There was a mug-shot-looking photo, as there always was, and next to it his name and his birthdate; Moon Bin, born on the 26th of January in 1998.
Dongmin didn’t know what to really do with this information. At least he now knew the boy’s name and what university he attended, but he wasn't sure how to move on from there.
“What hotel are you staying at?”
Bin scratched his eyebrow. “This is gonna sound a bit stupid,” he said sheepishly, “but my sister always takes care of everything. Let me look up the name.” He went back into his gallery.
“She sounds more like your noona than your dongsaeng.”
That got a little laugh out of him. “That’s what everyone always says. But... I don’t know, we work well together.” He smiled fondly. “Some things I take care of, some things she takes care of. Oh, I found it, it’s this one.” He turned his phone so Dongmin could see, and he recognized it easily. It wasn’t too far away by car, but quite a walk. “You know it?”
“Yeah. I know it.”
Bin seemed relieved. “Awesome. Could you maybe give me some directions? Just like a general direction I need to go in, I can ask other people to help me along when I’m lost.” That seemed a bit scary, if Dongmin was honest. “Should be fine, right?” Dongmin’s eyes moved down to the boy’s sweater, who then also looked down. “Oh, right. Fuck. I forgot about this.” He sighed frustratingly, then grabbed the bottom of his shirt and started pulling it towards his head.
“What the he—” Dongmin hissed, stepping forward and pulling the sweater back down. “You’re gonna walk around half-naked!?”
“No,” said the other, face very close to Dongmin’s own, “I was gonna turn it inside out.”
Dongmin blinked, then released his hold on the sweater. “Oh.” He put a hand on his forehead. This situation was incredibly fucked up. In front of him stood a very cute yet very strange boy whom he found oddly endearing with a high probability of getting lost in a city he didn’t know looking like an ax-murderer. He was gonna get arrested for sure, either for looking like a killer or for ‘harassing' people trying to get to a hotel and it would all be Dongmin's fault.
“Bin-ssi?” Dongmin said, barely a whisper.
“Bin’s—uh—Bin is fine,” he said with a small cough, “but yes?”
He was going to say it, he was really going to offer this.
“I’ll take you to your hotel.”
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