Chapter Text
Monday, August 14 2006.
"Honey, will you be okay?"
"It's not a big deal. It's only 2 days, right?"
Kyuhyun nods and plants a lovely forehead kiss on the smaller man, Ryeowook, his lover. As Kyuhyun pulls himself back, Ryeowook held the taller's hand, pulls him closer to his body and gave a kiss on Kyuhyun's lips. A fiery yet sad one. The younger one smiles as his limbs approaches the door, walks out of the apartment and leaves the older man alone inside the apartment.
━ ⚜ ━
Tuesday, August 15 2006.
Ryeowook decided to leave home early to his workplace. After a plate of freshly cooked fried rice and a cup of warm coffee that he made for himself (knowing that Kyuhyun is out of town until the next day), the 19 year old man walks to his workplace under the blue sky and soft sunshine showering him. He places a pair of earphones on his ears, blessing them with soft instrumental melodies that accompanied his way to work. The street of Seoul is always crowded especially in the morning, but Ryeowook loves the crowd and the noise around him. He enjoys the walk, without knowing that someone is watching him the whole time. The mysterious man with shades and a mask walks silently behind the lonely man.
The young man finally arrives at the cafe that he works for after a solid 20 minutes walk. He was greeted by the fresh scent of coffee lingering in the air and the presence of Hyukjae behind the counter. The older one shoots his gummy smile to the younger as he waves his hand.
"Ryeonggu! You're early."
"Hi, hyung! I don't want to be alone at the apartment, it's scary.." Hyukjae lets out a soft laugh before letting Ryeowook prepares himself.
The day goes by as usual. The cafe's crowd peaked at lunch time, around 12 PM until 2 PM. Ryeowook and Hyukjae thought that everything will be okay, looking at the never ending wave of customer. Everything went good until they hear screaming and loud gunshot noise outside of the small cafe. Both of the guys ducks at the same time, hiding from the chaos outside incase the shooter decided to go inside. Another staff helps the costumers to escape from the cafe while Hyukjae and Ryeowook are trapped with the one who causes the chaos inside the cafe.
"..."
"I know you are here, my Ryeowook."
Hyukjae instantly looks at his best friend, and the other man shakes his head. He know nothing. He doesn't have any problems with someone before. He is a loner before he meet Kyuhyun, and that was 6 years ago in Seoul. His mind brings him back to his childhood, Incheon, and his childhood friends. Nothing seems particular and peculiar from his memories of the past. The sound of the mysterious man's steps lingers hauntingly. Making both Hyukjae and Ryeowook hold their breath. The younger's hand shakes until the sound of the steps stop. Ryeowook didn't dare to open his eyes as he senses another life near him and Hyukjae.
Both of the helpless men were dragged out from their hiding spot and were forced to kneel in front of the perpetrator with mask and shades to hide his identity from the public. Hyukjae keeps moving with the hope he'll be free from being restraint. Ryeowook's head hangs low. Avoiding eye contact with the shooter that clearly wants him. One filthy hand tilts the petite man's chin, making their pair of eyes met with each other. Ryeowook feels sick. He avoids that eyecontact once more, imagining Kyuhyun is there instead to soothe him. The perpetrator smiles, a sickening smile to everybody who see it.
"Let him go, you bastard!"
He laughs before landing a fist on Hyukjae's cheek. A merciless punch. Hyukjae fell as a result from the hard punch.
"At last, we meet again, Ryeowook. Let's go, boys."
"Ryeonggu! Ryeowook! NO!"
Hyukjae watches the world collapses in front of his eyes, as the cries of Ryeowook calling him echoed on his ears. He tries to wake up and run to take his best friend back, but his legs says no. His body freezes on spot as he looked at one of the right-hand man, pouring oil all over the cafe. Before he lights his match and drops it to the floor, Hyukjae runs as fast as he can to the backdoor with all of his and some of Ryeowook's things with him. His pair limbs brings him to the backdoor, escaping a second before the whole building was consumed by the red fire.
The man watches the whole accident in horror, frantically searching for his phone on his jeans' pocket. His trembling hands scrolls through the contact that he saved.
His thumb stops at a name that he's been searching. He dialled the number, and holds his breath as the other party accepts his call.
"Kyuhyun.."
"Ryeowook,
Ryeowook is gone-"
━ ⚜ ━
It has been 15 years since Ryeowook disappeared, and it has been a year since the case was closed and declared that the man's status is dead.
The tall man moves his limbs closer to the empty apartment room. Slowly, he opened the room with a four-digit password, then the door swings open with the soft power from his hands. It belongs to a couple, his and his boyfriend's. The first thing that catches his attentions is a photo of them, framed neatly, hanged in the living room. He sighs heavily, imagining how will Ryeowook look like after 15 years. Will he still looked the same? Will there be any gray hair among the black ones? Will his face still lit up everytime Kyuhyun cracks a joke, eventhough it's not funny?
Kyuhyun drops to the floor on his knees.
After 15 years, he still puts all the blame on him. What if scenarios always filled his mind. What if he didn't go out of the city that day and stayed instead? What if he decided to drop Ryeowook to work and visit the cafe when he have free time?
"Kyu.."
"Did you sleep on Ryeonggu's bedroom last night?"
A weak nod is the only answer from the sorrowful man, kneeling on the entrance of the house. The other party locks the door of the unused bedroom.
"Hyukjae hyung.. If I didn't go out from Seoul that day, he would still be here. Right?"
"We could live a good life together, waking up beside him everyday, eat the meals that he cook. Right, hyung?"
He let out a sob. Kyuhyun just let out a sob that ends up being a messy crying. Hyukjae felt that. Hyukjae was there when the whole tragedy happens. He was there when that guy took Ryeowook with his hands, his cries still lingers on his ears until now. His eyes were the camera that records it and the brain as the storage. That memory is like a file that cannot be deleted, even though Hyukjae tried so hard to do it for the past 15 years. The older man sits in front of the sobbing mess, pulls him into a warm and tight embrace. Letting him cry on his shoulders. "I miss him, hyung."
"Hyung misses him too, Cho Kyuhyun. I want to see him working, making coffee, cooking foods."
"If you really want to find him, you should figure out a different approach than the police."
"You will find him, genius. I believe in you."
Kyuhyun nods once again, wiping his dried tears from his cheeks. It's his first time thinking about Ryeowook after 5 years slowly forgetting him, so he can move on and accepted the fact that maybe Ryeowook is already dead and will never return. All of this time, he has been focusing on a big project that helps him distract his mind from thinking about his lost lover for the last 7 years. The project that will change a lot of lives once it was finished and tested.
Wait.
A project that will change a lot of lifes. That includes his own life, right?
The younger man stood up in a flash, shocking Hyukjae who is sitting on the floor. He tried to figure it out from a different approach. And maybe, he will get the answers he wanted to for 15 years. An answer where he can finally trace the path of the people that took his lover. That took his Ryeowook away from him.
"Hyung, I will find Ryeowook. I will find him. You have to believe me."
"I believe in you, brother. Now go."
━ ⚜ ━
Cho Kyuhyun, a quiet and cold guy, if you just knew him for a few minutes. If you have known him for years, he loves to tease people around him and laugh when they scold him. He's the Cho Kyuhyun that his family and friends know, including the Shin Corporation's CEO, Shin Donghee. The place that Kyuhyun work for. Donghee has known the younger man for a while. Not as long as Ryeowook or even Hyukjae, but they are very close. Shin Corp.'s big project that people talk alot these days is handled by their own CEO and his trusted genius boy, Kyuhyun.
The people working on the lab knew that Kyuhyun is a workaholic. But they didn't expect him to arrive this early. 7 AM. The Cho guy looks like he barely gets some sleep, judging from the thick and dark eye bags hanging on his face. The lab crew lets him go in after he cleaned himself, and Donghee even approached the younger first.
"Hyung, I know this is crazy. But hear me out."
"I figured out how to find Ryeowook and the people who took him."
Donghee looks at him with frowned eyebrows and doubt painted on his pair of eyes. He knew that Kyuhyun can get crazy with his theories sometimes, but this statement of his makes Donghee even concerned for the younger one.
"Let me time travel to the day when it happened with the time machine, hyung."