Chapter Text
Call it fate or maybe don't call it fate, either way works for Cale. His friends (if he has any) would call it an epiphany; his family would call it a quarter life crisis; Cale would call it a natural progression.
"I'm moving out."
Clatter, was the sound of his dad's fork falling down. Flutter, was the sound of his mother dropping her handkerchief. Anything other than those sounds was just stunned silence all across the lavish dinner table. The expressions of Cale's family ranged from disbelief (Basen) to unreadable (his father).
On the night of his 18th birthday, Cale Henituse made a declaration that rattled the Henituse household.
-
Maybe, just maybe, Cale should have thought this through better. 'You're free to do whatever you want, Cale,' his father had said. 'As long as you are healthy, Cale,' his mother had said.
Bullshit.
It hasn't been a week since Cale started living in the college dormitory (and doing his classes) and yet his family is still calling him everyday. 'Why the dorm? We can afford an off campus apartment,' his father. 'Are the dorms clean? Are you eating enough there?' His mother.
Don't get Cale wrong, he loves them both dearly but there are lines where one can understand their parent's overbearing tendencies.
And Cale hasn't even gotten to the worst of his parent's overbearingness…
"Young master-nim, it is rude to move your leg while drinking tea." Speak of the devil and he shall answer.
Cale turns to the old man wearing a pristine suit next to him. "Ron, why are you still here?" Meaning: go away.
"I am ordered to help the young master settle in," Ron says with the ever present benign smile of his. Meaning: I am staying.
Cale suppresses a flinch as Ron stares at him head on with that smile of his (smile of the devil, if you ask Cale). Why in the world does a rich family need a butler that acts more like an assassin? Cale swears he's had at least five moments where Ron spook the life out of him by sneaking up without a slight of sound.
And two out of those five moments happened after Cale's eighteenth birthday. It was as if instead of getting less intimidating with age, Ron merely became even more vicious.
"I'm pretty settled in at the moment, Ron." Meaning: please, go away.
But if it was that easy to get the old man to fuck off, Cale would have already retired him. No, it was never that easy, especially for Cale Henituse. Truth be told, fate hates his guts.
"Young master, would you like some light desserts to accompany that tea?" Meaning: I am staying.
Even before Cale could speak a word of disagreement, Ron had already placed the dessert next to his tea. Ah, how lovely. His 'favorite' dessert with his 'favorite' tea; lemon pie with lemon tea.
"Beacrox made this especially for the young master. He would be very displeased if the young master did not finish it." Ron that bastard, using Beacrox to gut punch Cale.
Beacrox made it his sole life mission to terrorise Cale, glaring at him if he ever leaves his food unfinished. Maybe Cale should renew his will, in the event of him suddenly dying, the first suspect shall be this scary father and son duo.
'In the case of his death, all his possessions are to be burned at the stake.' Yes, what a fitting will.
-
All of Cale's college classes are night classes. A feat to be wowed at, considering how he's one of the only people crazy enough to even attempt doing such a weird class routine.
There are no particular reasons other than 'I distaste the idea of meeting too many people' for Cale to attempt a full night class roster. He didn't want people to gawk at his last name and then talk about his bad reputation (he had a less than tasteful rebellious teen phase).
So he tried the weirdest option he has, a full night class.
It worked, miraculously, and it has yet to blow up spectacularly in Cale's face. College classes leave him sleepy but he comes back from classes very kate in the day but it's all fine because Cale barely sleeps in the night anyways.
A chronic insomniac, people might say, but it's fine (really it is) Cale sleeps in very often during the day. Sure, it might make his sleep schedule backwards from normal people, but it has yet to fail him.
But, then again, the problem of having a shadow following his every move off campus still persists. The main problem is Ron who keeps trying to babysit all that Cale does. And Cale couldn't just pass off being busy in the day with classes because he does not have day classes (Ron loves to rub this one in his face everytime he tries to deny it).
Ron resides in an apartment not far from campus where he often drags Cale to spend afternoon tea inside the apartment. The apartment was supposed to be Cale's but he was very adamant about living in the college dorms.
During that particular afternoon tea session, Cale stood up from his seat. "I'm going out for a walk," he says. "I want to be alone," he adds without missing a beat.
To his credit, Ron didn't even move from his spot as Cale walked out. But to Cale's discredit, he took one step, noticed the gloomy sky and had to walk back in to grab an umbrella. Ron, that conniving bastard, was already standing in front of the door with an umbrella ready in his hands.
"Missing an umbrella, young master-nim?" He says with such a serene tone accompanied by that smile of his. Cale could only nod and suppress a shiver while taking the umbrella and stepping back out.
In truth, Cale had no destination in mind. He had only wanted some alone time away from the nightmare of a butler and his hoard of lemon flavored things. But because of the rain and coldness of the weather, he might have to walk back to the apartment sooner than he wanted.
Cale stopped by a convenience store to potentially grab a pre class snack (that wasn't lemon flavored). He grabbed a random piece of bread from the racks and paid for it before walking back out into the pouring rain.
Just as he was about to start walking back to the apartment, he saw a lump of black clothes sitting on a wet park bench. No, it wasn't a lump of clothes, it was a person.
The black haired drenched person was looking down and his body language seemed haggard and tired. With a sigh of defeat, Cale walked up to the mystery person and tilted his umbrella to cover the black haired man. He himself was going to get wet because of such actions but he can handle it.
When the person looked up in surprise at the feeling of droplets falling on his head being gone, Cale came face to face with a young looking face staring back at him.
"Staying out in the rain isn't a bright thing to do," Cale comments dryly. When the stranger doesn't respond, he continues, "are you lost or something?" The stranger shakes his head. "Don't you have anywhere you can go other than being drenched in a park bench?"
This time, the stranger makes a pained looking face before slowly shaking his head. Looking perfectly as if he was a kicked puppy being thrown out into the pouring rain.
Cale solemnly looked up towards the sky and asked fate 'why in the world would they want to push this stranger up to him?' When he looked back down to the stranger, he was staring at Cale's convenience store bag with thinly veiled interest.
Taking a deep breath and saying another quick prayer to fate; Cale pushes the bag into the stranger's arms. "Follow me," he says while gesturing for the black haired teen? Boy? To stand under the umbrella with him. They both ended up drenched but it was better than nothing.
The walk back did not take long. Consisting of the stranger staring at Cale all the way and Cale vehemently ignoring the curious gaze. Nobody talked, Cale because he had more interest in getting back home without looking like a drenched rat and the stranger probably because of being occupied with the need to stare at Cale all the way (or maybe he was mute?)
Just as Cale was about to unlock his apartment, the stranger whispered something to him. So low that Cale could barely catch it.
"Choi Han."
Huh, he wasn't mute after all.
"Nice to meet you, Choi Han. I'm Cale Henituse," he responds without much fanfare and pushes the apartment door open. Cale, however, did not expect to open the door to see Ron right in front of it. As if he had never moved from the position when he offered Cale the umbrella. Creepy old man.
"You are drench," Ron says as soon as Cale opens the door wide enough for the butler to see his state of dress. "And you are about to be late for your class, young master-nim."
Fuck. He forgot about that.
"Ron, take care of this guest. Give him warm clothes and some food," he orders while frantically going to grab a towel and change clothes. Cale could hear Ron and Choi Han talking in the hallways in front of the door but he could barely make any of the words out since he was busy with running against time.
As he walked out of the room he was in, now in dry clothes and with dry hair, Cale heard the coattails of whatever conversation the two were having in the hallways.
"...drench and with a punk following him," was what he heard Ron mutter under his breath. "Young master, should I call for a cab to take you to campus?" He asks without missing a beat, no single trace of his previous distaste readable in his posture and tone.
Cale shakes his head. "No, it's faster to walk." It really was, the campus was just a few blocks away and waiting for a cab would take time that Cale did not have.
He grabbed the umbrella that was discarded on the floor and moved past both Ron and Choi Han to stand next to the door. Just before he opened it, he looked at the two of them and said with utmost sincerity.
"Don't kill each other while I'm gone."
Maybe it was a tad overkill to say such things but Cale could not afford blood on the carpet. Especially after seeing the two's body language prior to noticing that Cale had stepped in the same room as them.
With one final look towards the two of them, Cale closed the door behind himself.
Amazingly, he came into class not late. Less amazingly, he got a slight flu from standing in the rain too long.
-
"Cale, you want us to, ahem, sponsor this… upstart gentleman?" His father asks from the other side of the skype call.
It was a routine skype call (or as routine as his family can get; meaning once a week) and in this particular skype call, Cale had introduced his father to Choi Han and offered for their family to help Choi Han 'get back to his feet'.
"Yes, father. Choi Han has recently had some experience with a troubling land owner and it would be very noble of our family to help him in ways we can-"
"Very well."
"By giving him monetary help- I'm sorry?" Cale stops in his rant of convincing his father to help Choi Han.
"We can sponsor him if you really want to." His father smiles a smile that Cale could only describe as 'my child had grown up' type of smile. "And get Ron to handle this 'troubling land owner'."
Well damn. Cale had readied a full three paged speech to convince his father and now he said yes without even hearing a quarter of it. (And why would he get Ron to 'handle' the land owner? Is he or is he not some type of contract killer?)
"I see. Thank you, father," Cale says and his father nods his head resolutely. Deruth Henituse said words for Cale to take care of himself before the call went offline.
Once the line went dead, Cale turned to Choi Han who was standing next to him, eight outside of the camera's view, and said, "you heard my father. Tell Ron all the details of your 'land owner troubles' and you can continue to live in this apartment."
"Thank you, Cale-nim." And that's also another weird part of Choi Han. The black haired individual (boy? Teen? Man?) has found it suitable to call him 'Cale-nim'. Cale himself had tried to get the others to refer to him as either Cale or young master like everybody else but Choi Han was dead set on calling him 'Cale-nim'.
Cale stared at Choi Han who had a bright smile on his face and the relaxed droop of his shoulders. He looked much better than when Cale first saw him.
"Now that it's all settled, I should get going," Cale says while standing up and grabbing his things.
"Should I accompany you, Cale-nim?"
"No, I'm going home." Cale's words made Choi Han even more visibly confused. 'Home? Isn't this your home?' Was what his eyes had said as it starred incredulously at Cale. "Choi Han, I live in the campus dormitory. I've only been staying here to help you settle in." And to not let Ron kick you out or kill you in your sleep, wasn't said but it was much his true motive.
"...then I would live here alone?"
"I guess so." Well, alone with Ron.
Before Choi Han could say anything further, Cale grabbed his things and went outside to walk back to the campus dorms.
-
What was the best invention of man? Alcohol. Cale knew this sentiment rings true especially after a tiresome week full of meddling black haired individuals (Cale-nim, I could never accept this apartment-) and meddling might be assassin butler (Young master-nim, you should come over to drink some refreshing lemonade).
But after a tiresome week, he finally did it. He not only managed to get Choi Han to accept the sponsorship as it is already, he also (somehow) managed to get Ron to fuck off.
No, the butler is not retired (Cale doesn't think he would ever retire). But, instead, Ron is back in his family's home. The disturbing old man said how he was happy that his puppy young master had grown up and settled himself so nicely into a new life. Cale merely nodded and told him that he served him well before happily waving him goodbye.
Cale finally, finally, had some down time for himself. Some very well deserved down time, he might add.
Sitting in a deserted pathetic 'common room' (really, the school could absolutely afford more than this sad looking common room) with a bag full of convenience store beers to accompany his night of drinking. Sure, he could have gone for some higher quality alcohol but this was good enough for Cale.
While he had only drunk one can and was nursing a second one, another student rounded the corner and walked into the 'common room' (more like a corner where the school had set down seats, a table, and a vending machine). The student that walked in had blond hair and what appears to be blue eyes. If it wasn't three am in the morning and the stranger didn't look half as sleepless as he did, Cale might have called him majestic looking with the prince-like look and everything.
When the stranger nor he said anything, just staring at each other confusedly, Cale moved to offer an unopened beer can.
"Want one?"
"Sure."
The stranger grabbed the beer can and sat down on the vacant seat across from Cale. The blonde haired stranger unceremoniously opened the can and took a long drink of it.
"Another one?" Cale offers because hell, if Cale had a hellish week, it appears as if this stranger had just walked back from hell. "You look like you need it," he adds as an explanation while pushing his bag of beers towards the stranger.
"It was a tiresome week," the stranger says while sighing with a tired smile.
Cale was only half listening to the other's words and half leaning on the table with his hand propping his chin. "Hmm," he hums since the stranger looked as if he was expecting Cale to say something.
The two of them didn't say anything else throughout the night. Cale was happy with just sitting in silence with alcohol to accompany him and the stranger looked as if he came into the common room to find some peace and quiet anyways. It was nice if you asked Cale.
Later that night (or dawn, depending on who you ask) when Cale had walked back to his own dorm room. He remembers something.
"Dangit, the stranger drank more than half of my beer."