Chapter Text
The air is light, and packed with the beginnings of humidity sunlight cutting through the increasing heat with the promise of yet another warmer weathered day.
But Kyungsoo didn't mind much as long as the day remained great, it wasn't something he was unprepared for after all he had chosen to come here, and all of the sights in Japan had proven thus far totally worth it in his eyes.
Although today his travels garnered him less exciting things that he had been through such as climbing mount fuji, and getting to see some of the older shrines and temples that were scattered across the lands.
Although one advantage that he could say Tokyo had was the air conditioning in all of the stores that he had gone through thus far.
It negated the feeling of sweat that wanted to build up all over his body under his clothing, and there was nothing he hated more than that feeling so if he could spend a few more minutes looking over things he needed for dinner then he was more happy to do that.
But what couldn't be avoided was the laundry that he was needing to do, and unfortunately for him at the moment, his washer and dryer were still waiting to be serviced so he had to go out to one of the public laundromats.
The only saving grace, is that with the sun going down, turning the city over to the night, orange reflecting off of the various skyscrapers and buildings, but they would soon be replaced by the various amount of neon lights that gave the city its life during the night, filled with people even when it was seemingly unacceptable to remain out.
Almost like day and night clashing for their collection of who could have the most people.
Kyungsoo got lost in watching a television show on one of the screens hanging in a corner while he folded some of his freshly dried clothes, the gentle scent of his fabric softener wafting up gently with the actions.
There were few other people hanging around, doing their own laundry, so it was a pleasant atmosphere to get this work done in, and would ensure that it would actually be done in a timely manner, having a couple more washers at his disposal.
Kyungsoo finishes up folding his last pair of pants, just as the timer goes off on his phone for him to grab his last load out of the drier to fold so that he could very well be on his way home, probably to enjoy a beer or too, and a variety show that he had come to like during his stay here.
He grabs the last bundle of laundry, not minding the heat coming from the pile of clothing, as he mother had taught him that folding them like this decreased the amount of wrinkles he was likely to have than if he had left them to completely cool.
"Excuse me, I think you dropped this." A soft tap on his shoulder accompanies a soft voice, grabbing Kyungsoo's attention from one of the shirts he had been worried had been permanently ruined when he had accidentally spilled wine on it a while back.
Kyungsoo turns to face the voice, the small thanking smile that he had he was sure turned into one of probably embarrassed staring. The owner of the voice was apparently as nice looking, if not more, than his voice had suggested. Taking in the taller man, black hair still slicked back from his face, brown eyes with a twinkle in his eye, and a face that made Kyungsoo think that he walked straight from a magazine if it weren’t for the casual jeans and shirt that graced the other man’s form.
Soon his eyes finally travel down from the other man’s face.
"Thank you." he clears his throat, thankful upon his inspection that the piece of clothing in the other man's hand is merely a single black sock. "I'd actually been looking for this." he waives the piece of clothing.
The other man gives a blinding smile. "Well I guess that I could help... it'd be a shame for someone like you to be missing a sock.”
Kyungsoo chuckles a little. “Indeed… and annoying.” he adds the missing sock to its missing pair.
The man gives him another charming smile, this only seems to enhance the attraction that the other man wielded, almost to the point of otherworldliness. "Jongin."
Kyungsoo stares dumbly for a moment at the hand offered to him, before shaking it in response. "Kyungsoo."
The man then surprises him by taking his hand and pressing a light kiss to the knuckles, the action immediately has Kyungsoo blushing a little bit, and causes his gut to turn. "A lovely name... for a lovely looking individual."
Jongin straightens then, releasing Kyungsoo's hand, still with a slight almost boyish smile on his face. "Hopefully our paths will cross again."
Kyungsoo finds himself nodding in agreement before he can think of doing otherwise. "Yeah..."
With that Jongin turns from him again, heading towards the entrance of the laundromat, giving him one last glance over his shoulder before he's enveloped by the evening, and the people walking outside.
Seemingly vanishing into thin air between one blink and the next.
***
Once he's back at his place of residence, he couldn't shake off his meeting with Jongin, it was like an itch that wouldn't go away, as if his brain were telling him there was something he needed to recall.
So, that's what he tries to do, recall if he had ever seen the man in passing anywhere else, while he had been here, but nothing came, and Kyungsoo was for certain that he would remember that face.
His brow furrows underneath the soft lighting of his lamp, and the artificial glow of the lights of the buildings around him, the pile of laundry waiting to be put away greeting him, but instead he pulls out another object, his fingers brushing the smooth surface of the album as he removes it from his bag. The cover was slightly worn, and it almost looked stuffed, another sign that it was probably time to look for another one before this one filled up as well like his first.
But he flips through the photo filled pages of places and people he couldn't remember, no matter how long he had tried, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to why this happened to him. Every time he departed one trip to the next destination, he could never recall his time there, no matter what he did, all that was left were the photos stored in his books.
Kyungsoo flips through memories of cities, their lights and people, looking like it would have been the best of times, sunsets and the water that they captured immortalized into a single moment on a piece of paper that was subject to permanent loss and ruin upon contact with water or fire.
One could almost say the true essence of a physical memory.
Even if it was all that he had.
A smile comes to his face as he flips through the pages, but his wandering soon freezes as he had been going through so fast that he had almost missed it-- the face-- The very familiar face standing in one of his polaroid pictures.
Kyungsoo is careful as he removes it from the plastic covering, to take a better look at the image that should've been all but impossible, but there it was in his slightly shaking hands as he analyzed it, looking back at him was the same charming smile he'd encountered this evening.
But instead of the backdrop being the fluorescent lit laundromat, it was the fading glow of a sunset briefly, orange just barely at the bottom of the picture while the top was completely the velvet of night.
But right there front in center was Jongin, flash lighting up his smile more, making the obviously casual photo seem more like a photoshoot save for the drink in the other man's hand.
Kyungsoo is quick to flip through the book once more, finding Jongin once again scattered through the books, in the background of some, the forefront of others, and some even with himself .
He could feel his heart rate quicken, was it fear or excitement? He couldn't really decipher at the moment as he pulled out his first book, older and a little more worn than the rest but nonetheless it was more of the same, it was as if he was now hyper aware of the man in the photos.
Placing the original back into place he closes the book, running a hand through his hair, when his eyes drift to his camera.
There’s no way.
But still with apprehension in his throat, he takes the camera, flipping through photos he had taken just yesterday and the day prior to that, taking special care to look out for the charming smile, and almost inhuman visage.
His breath catches in his throat when he sees it, sees him, in a photo that he had taken at one of the shrines he'd visited, the surrounding landscaping beautiful with cherry blossoms blooming it almost seemed at every corner.
But yet, there Jongin was, standing just a few feet away, dark eyes locked onto the camera. Although most would just merely say he had been looking far off into the distance and Kyungsoo had just happened to catch him.
But his gut was telling him better, the way the eyes burned in the photo were telling him better.
Holding the camera in his hands, he thought over the interaction.The other man hadn't acted like he knew of Kyungsoo or even knew him, but his photos and his camera told him what his absent memory couldn't.
The question was now, did he move on, or did he confront the man.
For all he knew he could be a stalker, and the photos he had taken with the man might've been just to placate someone bothersome.
But why store them like precious memories? His mind supplied.
If that were truly the case then he would've just simply deleted the photos after they parted, probably in the safety of a hotel or whatever rental he was staying at.
Kyungsoo places the camera back on on the night sand next to him, making sure to power off the device, as he turned his gaze into the all consuming night.
***
The next day found Kyungsoo going through his normal schedule, even if he was feeling a little off kilter working his way through the crowds of people with a bottle of water in his hands. His eyes constantly searching out the face he'd decided that it would probably be best not to search out.
Although he knew he wasn't listening to the logical side of him, as he'd been scanning through the crowd this morning as he left his residence for the day, not sure what he was expecting. Maybe Jongin to suddenly appear from thin air after realizing that Kyungsoo knew exactly what was up, but it hadn't happened, much to his relief and the disgruntlement of his need for answers.
The day was once again a little bit stuffy, and walking amongst the crowd was only making it a little bit more miserable, and Kyungsoo didn't honestly know why the hell he was still out there, it would be better just to turn back and spend his day inside looking at some random television shows. Instead here he was like Alice trying to find a rabbit hole that maybe didn't want to be found, and maybe, just maybe, Wonderland wasn't wonderland after all.
Kyungsoo is about to do exactly that, he could already feel the air conditioning of his room, and cool of his sheets against his skin, cuddled up to his favorite snacks, and maybe some takeout later on in the evening for dinner.
But it's immediately subverted as he meets striking eyes again, followed by a charming smile, but this time they weren't merely a copy on a piece of paper.
No, Jongin's smile and eyes were very much three-dimensional through the pane of glass as he sat in what looked to be a cafe, two drinks on the table, and the other seat completely empty.
The spark in the other man's eyes told Kyungsoo all he needed to know, and with little hesitation he entered the establishment from the heat of the outdoors, greeted by a blast of chilly artificial air, and conversation around him.
But he only has eyes for the man sitting beside the picture window, looking like he himself had actually stepped out of the photos from Kyungsoo's book.
He takes the seat, noting that the drink on the other end of the table was seemingly untouched.
"Is someone with you?"
Jongin shakes his head, grey shirt, flexing as he leaned forwards, sitting straighter in his seat: "Waiting for you... I hope you don't mind that I ordered?"
Jongin's piercing eyes analyze him, as Kyungsoo takes in the drink, one of his favorites, a green tea lemonade, now that he was here he could see the slight beads of condensation that were rolling down the plastic cup.
It certainly looked more appetizing than the thought of his warm water bottle that was resting in the bottom of his bag, so he took a sip. mouth relishing in the way that the drink immediately cooled down his tongue, only when Kyungsoo stopped drinking did Jongin open his mouth to speak again.
"I'm sure you have a lot of questions, Hyung."
Kyungsoo blinks, but then nods, fingers tapping against the plastic, slightly surprised by the use of the honorific. Although it did make things a little clearer about the nature of their relationship, and it was obvious he knew about the photos.
Perhaps more than Kyungsoo even did, but he wasn't sure how he felt about that just yet, at the moment his brain wasn't sending up anymore red-flags.
Jongin leans in a little bit closer, moving his own drink aside, looking like it was an ice coffee of some sort, the low timbre of his voice lowering down into a whisper between them. "It's time to come back, Hyung."
"Come back where?" The words fill him with a little confusion.
"To work, of course."
"But... I am working." Kyungsoo takes another sip of his drink, ignoring the fact that the words in some shape or form actually felt like a lie.
Jongin merely hums, swirling the straw around in his drink. "Do you remember what your job is?"
Kyungsoo's mouth opens to answer, of course he would remember why he was here, but with another gut twisting moment he realizes that he can't remember exactly why he's here in this city, when it all seemed clear, and his mouth closes as fast as it had opened.
Jongin gives him a smile, comforting he could tell from the way the other man's eyes softened, cutting through their intensity.
Kyungsoo was briefly thinking about what other possibility their seeming relationship, brought along with it, in some of the photos he'd seen something more.
"Don't worry, I know... I can tell you." Jongin finally takes a sip of his coffee, his eyes drinking the light from the window, and Kyungsoo thinking for a moment that his eyes flash gold.
"Then what am I doing here? Why are you in the photos?"
For some reason he felt like the other man wouldn't lie to him, whatever this was.
Jongin's voice cuts to a whisper. "You'll have to trust me... but, you're an assassin to an organization that is older than human civilization itself. And your assignment has finally come to order."
Kyungsoo blinks, drinking in the words, and he snorts a little looking into Jongin's eyes, there was nothing playful about the way the other man was looking at him.
He had been right, the other man wouldn't lie to him.
"I... What?"
Jongin continues upreturbed by Kyungsoo's shock, as if it were a normal occurrence and this was something he had to deal with on a daily basis, like walking your dog.
"Actually you're quite special... the only human member recorded in the organization's history."
Kyungsoo kind of splutters. "Only... human? What--"
Jongin cuts off his question by standing gaze outside at the people walking past, and Kyungsoo turns his gaze in that direction too, he wonders what Jongin saw.
"Do you trust me?" Was the next question was asked, and Kyungsoo turned his attention from the outside back to the man in front of him who was now searching his eyes once again, any normal person would've probably told jongin now.
But Kyungsoo was shaking his head before he could explore the implications of believing what Jongin said to be true.
Jongin holds out his hand, and Kyungsoo takes it. "Let's go then."
Kyungsoo allows himself to be pulled from the shop, Jongin leaving his drink behind, but Kyungsoo taking his own as he adjusted his backpack to a more comfortable level, and it was interesting going through the crowd, Jongin usually not having the usual struggle that he'd been. It was as if it were just walking through water the way people walked around them on the sidewalk.
"Wait." Kyungsoo slightly tugs on Jongin's hand. "My things." He didn't really know why he'd said it, but the feeling came to him that he wouldn't be returning to his place of residence anytime soon, if not ever.
Jongin gives him another smile. "Don't worry, we've got it handled."
Before Kyungsoo can ask Jongin about 'we', they're walking again into a more secluded area, an alleyway to be exact and this is the moment Kyungsoo thinks that he'd made a mistake.
But apparently none of his instincts do, as he doesn't feel as scared or worried as he probably should.
"Hold on to me." Jongin adjusts his grip, making him leave the green tea lemonade behind, throwing it into a nearby dumpster. "Don't worry, I'll get you another one if you want it later."
"What are we doing?" Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow at their sudden closeness.
"I'm taking you to get your answers, remember I said I would."
Kyungsoo nods, biting this lip, looking up at him but this time he knows it's not trick of the light when he sees Jongin's eyes flash gold right before he feels all sense of ground go from around him, and then in the next second they're no longer in the alleyway, and he can no longer hear the sounds of the streets, cars honking outside, people talking on their phones and such.
"Oh, my god..." Kyungsoo stumbles back a little bit, taking in a little bit of his surroundings, this certainly wasn't Tokyo much less Japan he was even certain anymore.
"Welcome home."
Kyungsoo's eyes snap back to Jongin who was still observing him with such ease. "You... You..."
"Teleport? Yes, sorry... I would've told you, but your reaction never gets old." A bit of a mischievous smile comes to his face. "And even if I had told you, I still think you would've had the same reaction."
Kyungsoo tries to swallow some of his shock and take more presence about his surroundings. There were... people? He wasn't even sure if he could actually call them people walking around the area, and in front of him seemed to be a building old looking, but strong.
"Yeah, to the outside world, it just looks like a warehouse." Jongin gestures for him to follow. "Come on, I've got to get you to Yixing and Junmyeon."
Kyungsoo kind of stumbles along, not wanting to be left alone in whatever this was, wherever this was, as Kyungsoo comes up to Jongin's side he takes another good look.
The other man seemed completely human based on appearance, but the abilities and the eyes had told him different.
"So... what are you?" Kyungsoo is almost hesitant to ask the question.
Jongin is silent as he leads Kyungsoo inside the building, in front of them a pair of stairs leading downwards. "An interdimensional being is the easiest way to describe it."
"Like an alien?"
Jongin hums. "No, not quite."
Kyungsoo wants to ask more, but he figures that he should probably not be thinking too much about this, as his brain at the moment wasn't going to be able to wrap his mind around such a thing. It was still trying to catch up with the whole teleporting idea.
Once they're at the bottom of the stairs, Kyungsoo is surprised to find that the place actually looks a little modernized, like an empty lobby or the entrance scene from Men In Black, except there was no one sitting at the door to guard it.
Maybe the guards were the things he saw outside.
Jongin places his hand on the wall and soon a door opens, and then he gestures for Kyungsoo to do the same with his own, and he hesitantly does, but is relieved when it lights up the same way it had before the pair enter the elevator.
"No one should be able to get in unless they're a part of the organization... it's coded by blood."
"Blood... Why blood?"
Jongin chuckles. "Ah, one of our Hyung's completely bypassed security without anyone knowing before he joined. He was the one to suggest they implement it."
"In that case couldn't anyone just kill one of you and bring your blood here?"
Jongin shakes his head. "It has to be living blood.”
Kyungsoo shakes his head as the elevator comes to a stop, and unlike the lobby below this one, it was filled with all sorts of humanoid looking creatures, as well as non-human looking creatures, his mouth is slightly open in shock.
"Kyungsoo, Jongin... welcome back!" A voice greets them.
Jongin immediately smiles, and Kyungsoo gives an awkward dip of his head, things like this keep happening as they pass more people Jongin seemingly searching for someone or something.
Maybe it's those two people he had mentioned.
"Sehun!" Jongin calls back to a person in the distance, a tall, and regal looking man standing just aways from them, turning at the sound of his name being called. His black hair swept stylishly away from his face, showing off the structure, although he looked quite stern upon first glance Kyungsoo could see the way Sehun's eyes slightly softened at the sight of them.
"Hyung... Jongin." Sehun greets them both, even that movement within itself seemed more graceful than Kyungsoo thinks that he would ever be able to manage.
Kyungsoo blinks, looking up close now, he could see that Sehun's ears were actually pointed at the ends, causing his eyes to widen a little.
A small frown crosses Sehun's face then, and then his eyes shift back over to Jongin. "Ah, he hasn't seen Myeon and Xing yet?"
Jongin shakes his head. "No... Do you know where they are?"
"They were back in the training rooms, I think they should just be about done." Sehun checks his wrist, sighing a little. "I've got to go."
"What job do you have this time?"
Kyungsoo finds it almost impossible as he listens to the pair talking about Sehun's recent job, apparently he was being dispatched to kill off an incubus who had gotten a little too comfortable for their organization’s liking.
But then man leaves them both with a small smile, and the promise of dinner later when he returns, as it turns out that there was a bit that they needed to catch up on.
What that was, Kyungsoo had a little bit of morbid curiosity about.
"What is he? He looks like he came out of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel or something." Kyungsoo says once they continue walking through the facility, letting Jongin lead them towards wherever this training room was.
Jongin shoots him another smile, and a soft chuckle: "Well, you're not wrong, he's an Elf."
Kyungsoo's mouth fell open a little in shock, vampires for some reason in his mind seemed a little bit easier to swallow than an Elf .
"What are Junmyeon and Yixing?"
"Warlocks, Witches... I believe they've been called more titles over the years." Jongin. "Don't worry, they're not going to do anything to you." He assures him upon seeing the concerned expression that had fallen across Kyungsoo's face.
While they're passing through the hallway, they're greeted by an energetic duo, both of them seemingly in an heated argument, only briefly broken when they turn to say their greetings.
Jongin lets out a little sigh. "That's Chanyeol and Baekhyun. Chanyeol is a phoenix and Baek's a Fae."
Kyungsoo stores the information, and somehow he didn't feel that this was the last time, or was going to be the weirdest thing that he was going to encounter here.
"Soo-yah! Nini!"
The voice has the pair of them stopping and turning their heads to meet the next voice, and Kyungsoo's eyebrows felt like they were going to head into his hairline once he saw the man approaching them, clothes riddled with bullet holes and what to looked to be blood covering the majority of his clothing, but despite this the man was approaching them with a bright smile like nothing was absolutely wrong. And that he should've been a deadman walking practically.
To Kyungsoo it only gets stranger once the man comes to a stop in front of them and he can see the skin where the holes in the shirt are, where there should've been a corresponding hole underneath was practically unmarred skin, if not only stained with the blood like looking substance.
"Have you seen Xing or Myeonie?"
Jongin gives him a once over. "Rough job?"
The man looks down at his clothing, large eyes blinking a little bit, and then he sort of pouts before he sighs. "Yeah, they were kind of antsy. Started shooting at me while I was talking to them." the man frowns. "I hate it when they do that, this one actually nearly got me in the head."
Kyungsoo just stands watching the man before his attention turns to him, and there's a brief moment they just look at each other before a look of realization comes over his face, and while he doesn't say anything Kyungsoo was coming to interpret as 'He hadn't been to see Yixing and/ or Junmyeon yet'.
A smile stretches the man's lips as he looks at him. "Don't worry... this is mostly wine. They shot through the glass of wine I'd been drinking." The man sighs again as if that was the thing that troubled him the most. "Such a waste, it was a really good vintage."
Jongin chuckles again. "Hyung..."
"What? I was waiting and bored. And if they weren't going to be drinking it anymore anyways, why waste it?"
"We're going to see Junmyeon-hyung and Yixing-hyung right now." Jongin says instead, answering his first question.
The other man's eyes light up then. "Let's go then. I want to get out of these clothes, but I need to ask them a question." then he just turns away down the hall without waiting for them.
Kyungsoo shoots Jongin another questioning look.
"That's Minseok-hyung, he's immortal... the one I told you about on the way up."
"Oh..." Kyungsoo doesn't know quite what that would mean in Minseok's terms, but by the looks of the shirt and not the other man's body himself, Kyungsoo would guess that he's pretty good at being an immortal.
Minseok continues chatting with them, eventually asking about someone Jongdae. Who Jongin tells him is a demi-god, a son of Zeus to be exact, when they finally arrive at their destination where two kind looking faces immediately greet them, one of the men immediately showing off a sweet pair of dimples.
"Hyung."
Their conversation is lost on him as Minseok and the other man sort of turn away from them, but Kyungsoo does pick up the briefest mentions of something about clothing as he’s noticing the man with the dimples approaching.
"I'm Yixing." The man provides almost immediately, shaking his hand.
Kyungsoo couldn't help but return his smile, as something about his presence is calming, even given the situation. "And I'm sure that you know who I am already."
Yixing gives a small laugh. "Quite right..." And then his gaze turns to Jongin. "This took you a little bit longer."
Jongin's expression turns pretty serious, more so than Kyungsoo had ever seen it thus far. "Yeah, Soo-hyung was being tailed a little more than usual. I think they're starting to catch on."
Kyungsoo's brow furrows. "Who is following me?"
Yixing frowns a little too. "We'll discuss that later." he releases a little sigh, gaze once again returning to Kyungsoo. "I'm sure Jongin here filled you in, well, as much as he could anyways."
Kyungsoo nods, swallowing the little lump at the back of his throat at the mention of him being tailed by someone, or something, and having seen things thus far he could only assume that it was definitely more than human.
"He mentioned I was... am , the only human here."
Yixing nods, satisfactorily. "This also plays a part in your memory. You're curious why you never remember the city you've been in. It was our way to protect you, as you're usually alone during your assignments and more often than not move city to city or country rather than coming back here."
"So... you've altered my memory?"
Yixing nods a little. "In a way, it's made so that once you leave the city of your past assignment, all recollection is locked away until a time such as this when you make it back to us."
"All of this in case of?" Kyungsoo crosses his arms.
"If you're captured. No one has really seen your face, the charm they put on you helps with that too. But in that event there is a fail safe, in the most extreme danger you'll remember everything so you can defend yourself." Jongin answers.
Kyungsoo nods taking this in. "So, the photos?"
"A way for Jongin to be able to approach you... or rather you approach him, when the time comes." Yixing answers.
"I see..." Kyungsoo mumbles more to himself than the others, and looks up again. "So I'm assuming that it's time for another assignment."
Yixing nods again.
"Will this hurt?"
Yixing shakes his head. "You might feel a little pressure but, Junmyeon and I make sure it's as painless as possible, we don't want all of your memories rushing back at once so all of the important things come to you first, and then everything else will fall into place."
"Usually you only have a headache for a few hours. A day at most." Jongin supplies.
"Well... let's do it then. It's already too late to turn back now if I've made the wrong choice." Kyungsoo claps his hands together, trying to dispel his nervousness, and then he looks at Jongin one more time. "You owe me a Green tea lemonade."
Jongin smiles at that once again, raising Kyungsoo's hand to his lips in a kiss reminiscent of the one in the laundry mat, but this time there was something different in his eyes as he pulled back. "It'll be there when you wake up."
Kyungsoo nods, trying not to be nervous as they led him over to a table and laid him down making sure he was comfortable, the last things that were in his sight were Jongin's smile, Junmyeon coming on the other side of him, and Minseok giving a thumbs up before he fell back into himself.