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The synchronized ticking of twenty clocks replaced Felix’s heartbeat somewhere between his apprenticeship and his official partnership with famed horologist Hwang Hyunjin.
Sometimes, Felix wondered if the same cogs and springs and levers he placed carefully in delicate pocket watches had wedged themselves beneath his skin and tick-tocked their way into his bones. Mr. Hwang said he worked with a rhythm and that gave him success in his clock-making. Because understanding a timepiece is the first step to creating one.
Felix found Mr. Hwang himself to be a peculiar sort. The brand of brilliant that made even the electric lights appear dim, but largely reclusive and unsocial. A gentleman above all things, but always beneath the shade of his hat. Never a fair hair out of place, and never a speck of dust in his shoppe.
A different pair of gloves for every occasion and time of day. He changed his gloves to handle different materials and fit the social setting. But Felix had never seen Mr. Hwang’s bare hands. He imagined they must be fair and soft as any lady’s for all the care he took of them.
But he took pity on Felix’s trembling fingers and gifted him at the first snow a pair of supple brown leather gloves to keep out the chill.
The bell over the door chimed as Felix unlocked the shoppe and stepped inside from the sharp claws of the bitter winter wind. The days grew ever darker and ever colder, and the wool of Felix’s scarf scratched his windbitten cheeks.
“Good morning, Mr. Hwang,” he called, shivering in the lingering drought as he hung his coat and scarf on the hook by the door. He placed the gifted gloves carefully in the pocket of his coat to be sure he didn't lose them.
The grey light of not-yet-dawn played through the large front windows and set wicked shadows lurking on the walls. The intricate clocks ticked in perfect synchronization and Felix felt his heartbeat align with their rhythm as it did every morning. Glass, brass, and polished wood glinted when Felix powered on the electric lights. They carried with them a sort of hum, but Mr. Hwang enjoyed the novelty and Felix had never been one to complain.
The clocks that lined the walls ticked and tocked with their flashing pendulums swinging and their intricate hands shifting by a hair’s breadth every passing second.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Mr. Hwang designed each clock as a work of art. No two alike. No two with the same expression on their polished face. Indeed, Mr. Hwang was a genius. And Felix counted himself lucky to land such a prestigious apprenticeship and subsequent partnership.
“Mr. Hwang?” Felix called again as he sorted through yesterday’s post and put each letter in its proper place. “There’s a Mr. Seo inquiring about a repair.” He opened the letter and skimmed it. “It’s an easy fix, shall I ring him this morning and tell him to bring it in?”
Even with the electric lights, the back of the shoppe remained in shadow. Mr. Hwang’s workshop and office lay behind a perpetually shut door near the front desk, but even having worked in this shoppe for years, Felix had never seen the interior. Nor had he ever seen the door open. Logically, Mr. Hwang had to open the door to travel between spaces, but Felix would not have been altogether surprised to learn that Mr. Hwang simply passed through the door as if it were not there.
“Yes, lad,” Mr. Hwang’s voice behind Felix startled him. When he spun around, he found an amused pull to the shadows of Mr. Hwang’s mouth. “You may do the repair if you like.”
Felix rubbed his cheeks and his ears, still flushed from the cold. “My, but it’s wicked out there.” He strode to the window, heartbeat locked in time with the synchronized clocks, but noticeable in his chest. “Will it snow, do you think?” He peered out the window, but saw little aside from his own reflection on the glass. And Mr. Hwang behind him, all in shadow. Just a silhouette really.
The silhouette shook his noble head. “I do not think so. Not today.”
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Felix turned away from the window and rubbed his chilled hands together. “Is there another task you'd have me do today? In addition to the repair?”
Mr. Hwang hummed. “I’d like you to make a few pocket watches before the spring. Pretty things. I think they’ll be in vogue.” He watched Felix carefully from under his hat. “You do excel in making pretty things, my boy.”
Felix bowed his head at the praise. “Thank you, sir.”
When Felix lifted his eyes again, Mr. Hwang had vanished. Likely into his office.
Felix suppressed a chill and checked the time before he lifted the telephone receiver. “Mr. Seo Changbin please,” he told the operator. When the call connected, a gruff voice greeted him and Felix checked the note in his hand to be sure of the details. When Mr. Seo confirmed them, Felix relaxed a bit. “I’d be happy to fix your clock, sir. It won’t take but a minute. Please, bring it down to the shoppe, and do be mindful of the cold.”
—
When Mr. Seo arrived, he did so with the full bluster of a winter windstorm. Felix rushed to latch the door behind him, shivering in the lingering chill.
“Welcome in, sir.” Felix indicated the front desk, but Mr. Seo accepted no assistance with the mid-sized table clock.
A lovely work with delicately carved leaves and branches. A hinged door to hide the cuckoo. Hands of iron shaped like leaves as well.
“‘Tis a beautiful clock, sir,” Felix observed. He turned it round with great care to get the gears at the back.
Mr. Seo did not take the seat in front of the desk. He paced the shoppe, studying the grand timepieces Mr. Hwang created. “Do you work here alone, boy?” He did not look at Felix while he spoke.
“No, sir.” Felix used a delicate tool to tap the gears back into order. “I am recently a partner with Mr. Hwang Hyunjin.”
“And where is he?” Mr. Seo looked about the shadows. “Does he leave you alone in the daytime?”
“Not at all.” Felix tightened the offending screw at the back of the clock. “I'm afraid I've never known him to go on holiday either.” He turned the dials to set the time. “He works harder than any man I've met.”
Mr. Seo didn't seem to believe him. “And have you ever seen his face?”
Felix froze, blinking at the spinning gears. “What an odd question.” Indeed, who would ask such a thing? As if it were some great mystery to be revealed? “I've been his apprentice for three years, of course I've seen his face.”
“Describe it to me then.” Mr. Seo crossed his arms. “No one's seen his face, only the shadows of his hats.”
The beat of Felix’s heart slipped out of time with the tick-tock of twenty synchronized clocks. Confrontation lurked behind Mr. Seo’s body language. Danger even. “What do you mean to imply?”
“That Mr. Hwang is a creature of darkness.” Mr. Seo’s hand rested at his hip, near a silver knife. “That he hides his face because it is a masque of death.”
Felix had no answer to such ridiculous accusations.
“Good morning, sir.” A gloved hand rested solidly on Felix’s shoulder. “What seems to be the trouble?”
Mr. Seo looked past Felix with hatred that could curdle milk. “I know what you are.”
Felix stepped away from them, out of the crossfire. “Mr. Hwang, sir,” he began, nerves catching at the edges of his voice. “He claims that you're a creature of darkness and you haven't got a face.”
Mr. Hwang laughed leisurely, as if the whole thing were an old joke. He lifted his hat from his head and bowed with it held to his chest. “‘Twould be a horrible thing to live without a face.”
His fair hair swept back in a black ribbon tied at the nape of his neck. His nose angled just so and his full lips hid the edges of his straight teeth. A jaw angled to slice stone met at the point of a regal chin. A heavy brow indicative of his hidden strength raised in good humor over dark eyes. Eyes into which one might fall forever and never reach the bottom.
For the first time since he met the clockmaker, Felix thought of him informally. He thought - very clearly in that moment - My Hyunjin is a handsome man. He scolded himself for such a thought.
Mr. Seo stepped back and made his own bow. “Apologies, sir. Perhaps I was misinformed.”
Mr. Hwang straightened and closed the back of the clock on the desk. “No shame in that. It happens to the best of us.” He lifted the clock and deposited it into Mr. Seo’s arms with all the care a father might give his baby. “Do not suffer the cold too long.” he dismissed the man kindly despite his accusations.
Mr. Seo glanced once more around the shoppe, and at Felix, but let himself out the door without complaint, which Mr. Hwang shut behind him before the cold crept in.
“What a strange fellow.” Felix tried to laugh, but something kept him unsettled. He rubbed his chilly hands together in a sort of restless nervousness.
“Felix.”
A chill traveled down Felix's back, but his heartbeat remained synchronized with the ticking clocks. A hand gloved in black silk - a delicate glove for handling delicate gears and wires - lifted his chin.
“What is the matter, lad?”
Felix felt trapped in the depths of those dark eyes. “Why would he say such things?” Felix whispered. “You are a gentleman of honor. Why would he call you… a masque of death?”
The gloved hand fell from Felix’s chin. “Do not trouble yourself with the idle threats of a madman.” A smile drew at the edges of his mouth, but did not reveal his teeth.
But Hyunjin, Felix accidentally thought of him informally again. He swallowed thickly. “But he seemed so sure.”
Mr. Hwang returned his hat to his head and his handsome face to shadow. “I hate to see you upset, my boy.” He stood before the window, enveloped in the yellow light of dawn so the details of him sank back into obscurity. “What shall I do to have you smile again?”
A sudden thump of his heart set Felix out of time with the ticking clocks. He considered what had never occurred to him. Take off your hat for me, Hyunjin. Let me gaze upon your face and pick apart the pieces in my mind so I may reassemble your features like clockwork in my imagination. So I may guess what hides in shadow when you speak to me.
But Felix had better manners than to voice such thoughts, so smiled shyly and said only, “Simply ask, sir.”
“You are a darling boy, Felix.” The silhouette of Mr. Hwang drifted past Felix close enough for him to catch the scent of silver polish. “Do not give this morning any thought.”
So Felix put the strange account out of his mind and set to work crafting a pretty pocket watch.
—
Mr. Hwang did not show his face again in the following week, though Felix wished he had the nerve to ask him to. They sold two large clocks, each a masterwork. Felix only missed them for a day or so before Mr. Hwang replaced their empty spaces with new and equally wondrous timepieces.
Felix had been studying horology for years, but he still didn’t know how Mr. Hwang managed to fit all the cogs and gears and screws together so artfully. It came easy to him as buttoning a shirt or combing his hair. Whenever Felix asked, he insisted only years of practice earned him such skill, but Felix felt sure he had some divine gift or magical talisman that made his clocks come together so flawlessly.
He said as much to a visitor who asked about a particularly intricate clock almost as tall as Felix himself. It depicted a pastoral scene that pulled nostalgia even from a city-dwelling heart like Felix’s. “Isn't it incredible? I cannot fathom how he does it.”
Mr. Kim - a clean-cut gentleman with a dandy feather in his cap - traced the filigree side of the clock with one finger. “How long did it take him to create such an artwork?”
Felix brushed a speck off the clock’s face. “It's difficult to say. A few days, certainly, perhaps a week.” He smiled at Mr. Kim apologetically. “He works privately and I suspect he does not sleep when has an inspiration such as this one.”
Mr. Kim hummed thoughtfully. “And does he often hide himself away in the daytime and show you his creations after the sun is set?”
Felix deemed that an odd question. “No, sir. He lives above the shoppe. I live a street over to the west. I only see him in the daylight hours.”
Another hum, this time disappointed.
Felix cleared his throat. “I'll admit this clock is my favorite at the moment, but may I also present this one.” He stepped a few clocks down and patted the side of another tall, grand clock. This one displayed no scene, and sported much less filigree, but the polished wood fitted with brass and glass cut a classic and refined figure. A long swinging pendulum counted the seconds back and forth in time with Felix’s heartbeat.
“It's very nice,” Mr. Kim agreed. “And Hwang Hyunjin made this one too?”
“He did,” Felix admitted. “My specialty is pocket watches. Mr. Hwang enjoys the larger works.”
“How strange,” Mr. Kim mused.
Felix did not think it was strange at all to have a preference for grander projects.
“Does he have other strange habits, I wonder?” Mr. Kim watched Felix from the corner of his eye, though he pretended to examine the clock. “For example, his eating habits? Does he eat in your company, Mr. Lee?”
The question smelled like a trap. Felix wondered how to respond and felt his heartbeat speed past the constant tick-tock of the twenty clocks in the showroom. He tried to remain polite. “I'm not sure what you mean, sir.”
A gloved hand on his shoulder steered him away. “Ah, this is a fine clock.” Mr. Hwang faced Mr. Kim and patted the top of the clock. “Very versatile.”
“Indeed.” Mr. Kim scrutinized the shadows of Mr. Hwang’s hat. “Might we discuss the price over luncheon? I know a fine place-”
“I'm afraid my prices are not up for negotiation.” Mr. Hwang dipped his head graciously. “I make sure they are fair and cover the costs of production.”
“A friendly lunch then.” Mr. Kim forced a smile. “I should like to pick your brain for-”
“Again, I must refuse your kind offer.” Mr. Hwang lowered his hand from the clock and stood straight. “I am a busy man and my work demands that I do not make time for social visits.”
A light in Mr. Kim's eyes made Felix nervous. “But surely you must eat.”
“I appreciate your concern-”
“Perhaps it is what you consume that keeps you from polite company.” Mr. Kim’s voice rang through the shoppe, triumphant. “Perhaps you are a monster after all.”
“What blind accusations are these?” Felix inserted himself defensively between Mr. Kim and Mr. Hwang. “And how dare you come into this respectable shoppe and call the mastermind behind the clocks you admired a moment ago a monster?”
“Felix,” a soft voice behind his ear, a gloved hand at his wrist.
Mr. Kim pulled Felix forward by his collar. “Who are you to defend a creature of darkness? Has he got his venom in you?’ He pulled the collar away from Felix’s neck to examine the skin there.
Felix pushed him back. “Unhand me.” His heartbeat raced at odds with the synchronized clocks. “Leave this shoppe. You are not welcome here.”
“Felix.” Mr. Hwang scolded, pressing him back with a gloved hand to address Mr. Kim. “I assure you, I am no monster. I enjoy my solitude and my craft, that is all.” He inclined his head politely. “I pose no danger to anyone.”
Mr. Kim scoffed and straightened his coat. “I have more sense than to be taken in by your charm, devil. Leave this place and return no more to torment the people of this noble city.” With a flip of his scarf, he left into the blustering wind.
Felix followed to make sure the door was latched, feeling heated and irritable. “The gall of these people.” He shook his head and leaned against the door. “What has given them this insane idea?”
Mr. Hwang perched on the side of the desk cast in shadow. “I apologize for your sake.” He spoke softly. “You should not defend me so ardently.”
“Why would I not?” Felix’s heartbeat remained out of synchronization with the clocks and it felt odd and wrong in his chest. “You are an honorable gentleman and my friend.”
The shadow of Hyunjin's mouth pulled into a smile that showed the glint of his teeth. “Thank you, Felix. I am glad to have your friendship.”
Felix’s heartbeat settled into the even tick-tock, tick-tock of the twenty synchronized clocks and he felt some measure of peace.
—
It was just two days later that Felix’s thoughts became burdened again with the accusations strangers made against Mr. Hwang. A creature of darkness, they called him. Monster. Devil.
The wind tore at the wide glass panes of the showroom and the delicate tools in Felix's hands hesitated over the pocket watch he’d made a good start on.
Might there be any truth to the bizarre slander? Felix had never seen Mr. Hwang eat or drink, but he also never had reason to. Surely he ate and drank as any man. A foreboding crept into the rhythmic tick-tock of Felix’s heartbeat.
He fixed a mug of tea for himself as he often did, and poured a second for his business partner. ‘Twas not so odd, was it? To offer tea to a peer?
His heart skipped out of synchronization with the clocks before he rapped on the office door. “Mr. Hwang?”
The door opened only a crack on silent hinges and Mr. Hwang slipped out with his hat low over his face. “Is something the matter?”
“No, sir.” Felix offered the second mug. “The chill seeps into my fingers so, I thought you might like some hot tea to warm you up.”
Mr. Hwang faced away from the window, silhouetted in the afternoon light. He accepted the mug with gloved hands - thick, rough gloves, used for soldering and pouring brass. “I… Thank you, lad. I am humbled by your thoughtfulness.”
He sounded so. Felix had never seen him at a loss for words, but the shadows of his face seemed unsure and gloved fingers shifted on the mug.
“I don’t know how you take your tea,” Felix apologized. “I hope it is to your satisfaction.”
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Hyunjin - for Felix thought of him as such in that moment - lifted the mug to the shadow of his full lips.
A soft laugh followed the mug down. “I cannot recall a better tea than this. It does warm one, doesn't it?”
Felix exhaled a breath he hadn't meant to hold. “I'm glad to hear you like it.”
“Thank you, Felix,” he sounded genuine. “I- This is a welcome gesture.” He indicated the chair on the side of the desk shrouded in shadow. “May I join you for your tea time? I think a break would do me good.”
“Certainly.” Felix bowed his head to hide his wide smile as he sat, and when he lifted his head, he found the gloves on Hyunjin's hands were now lighter and white. An appropriate tea glove.
The shadow of a large clock in the window fell over the desk in a diagonal dividing line. Felix noticed that Hyunjin never crossed that line with his gloved hands.
“I have a question, sir,” he spoke carefully, curling his hands around his own mug. “Forgive me if it is an intrusion, but I am merely curious.”
The shadows under the hat shifted indistinctly, and Hyunjin’s voice sounded warm and inviting. “Sate your curiosity, my boy, I shall answer to the best of my ability.”
Felix gathered his courage. “Might it be a medical condition, sir, that keeps you from the light? A sensitivity to the sun?” He hoped he didn't sound rude. “I am no physician, so I know next to nothing about skin conditions, but I have heard tell of terrible rashes and burns on sensitive skin exposed to the sun.” He dared a look at the shadows under Hyunjin's hat. “Might it be something like that?”
Hyunjin exhaled a shallow laugh. “Indeed, you are very perceptive.” He glanced toward the window, but only very quickly. “It is something like that.” He set his mug aside and rested his hands on the desk. “I fear you've given thought to the accusations made against me.”
“Never.” Felix reached across the desk to cover Hyunjin's gloved hands with his own. “You are no monster and no number of madmen could convince me otherwise.” The shadow across the desk sliced Felix's hand at the wrist. He squeezed the hand there and returned himself to his own tea, embarrassment heating his cheeks.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
“I do not know what I’ve done to deserve your friendship,” Hyunjin said finally. “I fear I shall be indebted to some deity for the time I spend in your company.”
“Nay,” Felix scoffed. “It is not right to wax poetic over afternoon tea.”
Hyunjin bowed his head politely. “I hope you'll forgive me, my boy.”
He stood and returned to his office. His mug remained on the desk - cooled, but still full.
—
Four o’clock chimed in the shoppe and startled Felix from his concentration. He pushed aside his pocket watch and peered out the window at the snowstorm that darkened the sky and raged past the glass in drifts and biting wind begging entrance to this peaceful sanctuary.
It showed no sign of stopping and Felix dreaded braving the tempest to return home.
A gloved hand on his shoulder startled him from his thoughts. “Mr. Hwang?”
“The noise of the blizzard made me worry for you.” He passed the desk to peer out of the window. “You are a delicate creature and you should not suffer the cold.”
Felix rose to join him at the window. “I have a good coat and warm gloves.” He watched the wind tear at a flag hanging from the shoppe across the street. “I will not fare so badly.”
The shadows beneath Mr. Hwang's hat didn't seem convinced. “Won't you stay here for the night? It's no trouble. It will be warmer and dryer than venturing out in the gale.”
Felix covered his heart with one hand, feeling the beat of the ticking clocks under his skin. “Your hospitality is most generous, sir.”
“I would be remiss to leave a friend out in the cold.” Hyunjin - for Felix did think of him as such - tilted his hat back a bit to reveal the shadows of his handsome face. “What shall I do to convince you not to venture out in this blizzard?”
Show me your face again, Felix wished to say, Take tea with me and leave your hat on the hook. Be a friend and not a master. Look at me with your dark eyes and tell me the secrets you hide to make men call you “monster.”
Felix only smiled a little. “Only ask, sir.”
So when the time came to close the shoppe, Felix did not don his coat and scarf and gloves. He locked the door from the inside and followed Mr. Hwang through the shadows at the back of the shoppe, up a narrow flight of stairs, and into a tidy drawing room.
Mr. Hwang stopped short so Felix almost bumped into him. “You'll be wanting dinner,” he realized. “Of course.” He beckoned Felix into a small kitchen. “Shall I make tea?” He wondered, setting an old kettle to fill with water under the spigot. “Soup?” The shadows under his hat seemed imploring. “I can make a broth, I think.”
He busied himself, bumbling around the small kitchen like a clumsy bee and swatting Felix's hands whenever he tried to help. It set a fond feeling in Felix’s chest.
Eventually, he managed to assemble a bowl of bone broth and a mug of tea to set at the narrow table before Felix. A humble meal. Meager, really without even potatoes in the broth, but Felix still felt fond and would not refuse such genuine hospitality.
But he paused with an old wooden spoon in the bowl. “What about you?”
The shadows under the hat looked surprised. “Oh.” He sat carefully across from Felix. “I don't- Broth doesn't agree with me.”
Felix didn't raise the spoon to his mouth. “What do you mean?”
The faint tick-tock, tick-tock of the clocks in the shoppe whispered through the walls.
“It is a condition of the stomach,” he spoke quietly as if unsure of himself. “Like my skin’s sensitivity.”
A weight sat on Felix's chest and made breathing a labor. “Is that so?”
A gloved hand removed the hat casting Hyunjin's face in shadow. The electric lights spilled yellow on his fair skin and the crease between his brows cut deeper than they could reach. “What would you have me tell you, lad?”
Felix drank in his features; a bust carved from marble, an angel outside a cathedral, a legend or mythology or history preserved in amber light.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
“You said yourself I am no monster.” Hyunjin sat straight with his shoulders rigid, jaw set, but deep eyes awash with hurt. “You said I am an honorable gentleman.”
“You are.” Felix believed those words. Hyunjin had shown him no evidence to the contrary.
“Then ease my mind,” he bade with a wave at the bowl. “Drink the broth. I'm afraid it is all I have to offer.”
What do you eat? Felix wished to ask. Not something awful, surely. Not like those madmen suggested. You would never, my sweet, gentle Hyunjin. I know you wouldn't.
But he minded his manners and sipped his broth and accepted the dressing gown Hyunjin offered him after dinner.
The wind raged against the windowless walls and shook the electric lights so most of them flickered out. But candles were lit and Felix was led to a plain bedroom with a certain dusty look as to make it seem unused. But candlelight plays tricks on the eyes and Felix refused to consider.
“Where will you sleep?” Felix asked as Hyunjin turned the blankets down.
He straightened, awkwardly. “I sometimes wish you were not quite so clever,” Hyunjin said very quietly. Turning to face his guest, he dusted his hands on his trousers. “I will retire to my office tonight. I have work that needs finishing.”
Felix did not move, but his heartbeat quickened out of synchronization with the ticking clocks below them. Might there be truth to the wild accusations? Might there be danger here?
Gloved hands clasped Felix’s. “Do not trouble yourself for my sake, Felix,” Hyunjin soothed. “I do this often, you see?” he forced a breathless laugh that didn't reach his dark eyes. “My work consumes me. It is my one love, as I've told you before. It is hardly cause for concern.”
Felix rubbed his thumbs over the soft fabric of the gloves. “Of course.” He could push, he knew. If he asked another question, Hyunjin would break and tell him the truth of the secrets he kept. But Felix found he would rather go on in ignorance, so he released Hyunjin's hands. “Goodnight then. Thank you again for your hospitality.”
Hyunjin’s shoulders sagged in what Felix assumed was relief. “Sleep well, Felix. Goodnight.”
—
The weather did not let up the next day, but Felix insisted on returning to his own home, on principle of not taking advantage of Hyunjin's hospitality.
He lay awake for some time, however, turning over possibilities in his mind. He could not think ill of Hyunjin, but he could not deny the curious coincidences. Hyunjin did not seem to eat, drink, or sleep. He did not expose his skin to sunlight, and he had few friends. When Felix tried to bring another to mind, he failed and had to concede that he might be Hyunjin's only friend.
And why should such a brilliant man be so lonely? Why should a handsome man with unmatched skill hide himself away in his shop?
Felix tossed and turned in his bed, unable to find a satisfactory answer.
—
In the next few days, the hum of the electric lights and the tick-tock of twenty clocks surrounded Felix in a bubble of comfortable familiarity. He twisted a screw, snapped a final lever, and turned over the new pocket watch in his hands. Copper with brass details. A lovely little thing, and synchronized to Felix's heartbeat and all the other clocks.
“Mr. Hwang?” he called, holding the watch up to the electric lights since the sun had long given up on the day. “I've finished it at last.”
A gloved hand reached for the watch and Felix deposited it gently into the delicate dyed linen.
“My boy, it is so late,” Mr. Hwang scolded, passing Felix to glance out the windows and draw the curtains closed. “I did not realize- You should have gone home hours ago.”
Felix ducked his head, but offered an apologetic smile. “I was so close to finishing my work. It could not wait for the morning.”
Mr. Hwang watched him from the shadows of his hat, but Felix couldn't read his expression away from the electric lights. Emboldened by the late hour, he reached up to take Mr. Hwang's hat.
Fair hair and fair skin. A mouth that did not smile as much as it ought. Hyunjin did not protest or take the hat back, but he watched Felix with curiosity or wonderment or apprehension.
“The watch I made, sir,” Felix indicated the thing still in Hyunjin's gloved hand. “What do you think?”
Hyunjin's dark eyes did not leave Felix’s face. “Beautiful.”
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
He seemed to catch himself, and so made a show of examining the watch and expressing his appreciation of the details.
Felix had never been so sure that Hyunjin was not a monster.
“I'll start on the next.” Felix couldn't help his wide smile or the warmth in his chest. “I had an idea. I might take-”
A sharp rap on the door startled both men. Neither moved for a moment, unsure who would call at this late hour.
“Hwang Hyunjin,” a female voice called, pouty and coquettish. “I’m sure ye hate me, but I can't think what I might’a done.” She knocked again and Hyunjin took a step back. “Ain't seen ye in weeks, love. Come let us in, this wind’s a bitch, ain't it?”
Hyunjin held up a hand to quiet Felix. His expression, bare to the warm electric lights and free from a shadowy hat, pinched his handsome features in a grimace.
More vigorous pounding on the door. “Answer the door, love,” the woman demanded. “I'm freezing my tits off out here and that's half my business.”
Felix gasped softly in realization. He had not considered how a lonely man would desire company.
Hyunjin’s chest rose and fell with the labor of his breaths, all wide-eyed and alarmed like Felix had never seen before. He did not wish to see his composed mentor this out of sorts. He wished even less to imagine him at some brothel.
A kick to the door. “Haven't ye any appetite left? So hungry were ye before. Come have yer fill, love, I'm here. I'm ready. All juicy sweet.” punctuated by another bang on the door.
“I'll take my leave,” Felix whispered, heat in his cheeks and the tips of his ears. “I would not stand in the way of your…” he trailed off, unable to finish the thought.
Quietly, he gathered his coat and scarf, but Hyunjin’s gloved hands found his wrists. “Please, Felix,” he whispered urgently, close enough for Felix to smell the oil he'd been working with. “You must not think- It isn't the way it sounds.”
“Hwang Hyunjin!” The woman outside screamed and Hyunjin flinched as if struck by a blow. “I don't make house calls for anybody, love. Just worried about ye. So regular, ye are. Like clockwork. Had to make sure yer alright.”
Felix inhaled through his teeth. “I do not think less of you, sir. I would not begrudge a man his… love.”
The gloved grip on Felix's wrists tightened. “No, you must understand. I do not- Any amorous relationship I might have formed was only-”
A final bang on the door. “Wasted my time, haven't ye, sir?” The woman groused. “Came all the way out here for nothing.”
Hyunjin did not relax until she had surely turned the corner to the next street.
Felix forced a smile and shook his head tightly. “You should not have let her go.”
“It was a trap,” he muttered, releasing Felix. “They want to catch me–” he stopped himself and folded his arms over his chest, regret obvious in his expression. “I am sorry, my boy.”
“You owe me no apology.” And it weighed on him to see Hyunjin upset. Felix pulled his scarf tighter and gathered his courage. “What shall I do to see you smile again?”
Hyunjin’s mouth fell open, but no words left his full lips.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
He closed his mouth with a tight smile. “Merely ask.”
He bade Felix a good night and disappeared into the shadows. Felix rested a hand over his chest where the beat of his heart battled the synchronized tick-tock of twenty clocks.
—
Were there any time at all between the events, Felix might have called it coincidence, but as it stood, he was forced to wonder whether Mr. Hwang’s abstinence might be the cause of his growing weakness.
Mr. Hwang’s hands trembled around the tool he held to demonstrate a quick fix to Felix’s question about the delicate mechanics of his new project. “It’s just a matter of-” He caught himself on the back of the chair and steadied his balance. “Apologies. This bit here.” He indicated a group of cogs. “Too tight.” His voice sounded strained, as if speaking took an enormous effort.
“Are you quite alright, sir?” Felix asked for the fifteenth time that afternoon.
“Yes, of course, lad.” He ruffled Felix’s hair fondly, but still leaned on the chair for balance.
A question rose to Felix’s mind. A question he knew he should not ask, but one that pressed at him all the same.
“Please,” Felix stood to perch on the desk and indicated the chair with a wave. “Sit with me for a moment.”
Mr. Hwang sat and Felix checked that the sunlight through the window only hit the far side of the room before he removed the hat casting Hyunjin’s face in shadow.
“Why?” Hyunjin asked wearily. His face looked gaunt. Skin so fair as to be called pale stretched tightly across his cheeks. His dark eyes seemed sunken.
“I like to see your face,” Felix admitted. “It comforts me to see your expressions.”
A hoarse laugh. “You are a darling boy, Felix.”
“Boy,” he repeated. “You call me boy and lad and child, but sir,” he dared to smooth a hair back from Hyunjin’s face. “You do not appear much older than I.”
Felix knew he’d made a grave mistake when a wave of sadness drenched Hyunjin’s features. “I am enough your elder to call you child.”
How old? Felix longed to ask, but could not. He bit his tongue, bowed his head, and felt his heartbeat break away from the steady tick-tock of all the clocks.
Hyunjin’s unsteady hand raised to rest on Felix’s chest above his heart. “Be not troubled. Do not dwell on these things that make you unhappy.”
“You wish me happiness?” Felix asked, knowing the answer and knowing that the darkness of Hyunjin’s eyes would swallow him if he drew too close or looked too deep.
“I wish you every happiness, Felix.”
Felix believed him. He could not look at this kind, honorable gentleman and see a monster. Even if he might, in all truth, be one.
He cupped Hyunjin’s cheek in his hand. A familiar gesture, perhaps too much so, but Hyunjin did not protest and did not flinch away. Felix covered his hand on his chest and bent forward a bit to be closer.
“I am happy,” he whispered. “You need not wish, Hyunjin. I am happy.”
Hyunjin’s eyes widened at the use of his given name, but still, he did not protest.
He turned his face into Felix’s hand and Felix thought he felt the brush of his full lips before he dropped it and rose to his feet once more, cheeks and ears hot with embarrassment.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
“I’m afraid you are unwell,” Felix said cautiously.
Hyunjin took his hat back and fitted it on his head. “I am well enough.” He rose stiffly to his feet, but walked haltingly the few steps to his office.
Felix worried for him.
—
Felix did well to worry.
When he entered the shoppe the next morning, a note on the desk greeted him with sincere apologies. Hyunjin felt unwell and would remain in his rooms above the shoppe with what remedies he saw fit.
He signed the note with a flourish of his given name, and addressed it to “Dear Felix” without honorific or suffix. Those details warmed Felix’s heart and he decided to give the man some rest. He could run the shoppe alone.
Though he did worry. And he did consider rushing up the stairs and throwing open the door and demanding to know what would improve Hyunjin's condition. His suspicions led him to wonder if he might be insane for his willingness to help.
But he tried to put such thoughts out of his mind and work on his pocket watch.
It was midmorning when the door opened noisily for Mr. Kim and Mr. Seo, who looked altogether surprised to see Felix sitting there.
He rose with a frown. “This is a clock shoppe. I would be happy to sell you a fine timepiece, but I will not hear slander on my business partner.”
“Are you not dead?” Mr. Seo asked, approaching Felix cautiously. “Has he not sucked you dry?”
Felix felt his heartbeat speed past the clocks, and drew up to his full height. “He would not hurt me. He is not the monster you claim.”
“Let him grow desperate enough,” Mr. Seo sneered. “He will bite anything with a pulse.”
“Where is your partner?” Mr. Kim asked, snooping around the shadows.
Felix could not let them find him. So weak already and so dear. So often he defended Felix and protected him from discomfort. Now Felix could return the favor.
He crossed his arms. “Mr. Hwang waits for my signal,” he bluffed “You have underestimated his brilliance. He thought you might come back and so asked me to test you.” He paused to gauge reaction. Both men seemed guarded, cautious. “Should you refuse to leave him be, I shall shout for him and he shall have his vengeance.”
To imagine Hyunjin with any vengeance in him at all might have made Felix smile on any other day, but now he kept his jaw firm and his posture threatening.
Mr. Seo exchanged a look with Mr. Kim. “Does he think we will succumb to him? Does he think we are unarmed?”
Felix tossed his head, pretending courage he did not feel. “You said yourself he is desperate and volatile.” Felix took a final gamble at the exact nature of the beast. “He mentioned to me once that fear makes the blood taste sweeter.”
Mr. Seo took a few steps back, but Mr. Kim narrowed his eyes. “If you know what he is, why do you live untouched?”
Felix shrugged one shoulder. “He is fond of me. I am useful. A pet of sorts,” he guessed. “It matters little why he spares me. He has no need to feed on me when he has the both of you.”
That seemed to make Mr. Kim uncertain enough.
“Shall I call him?” Felix asked, jutting his chin out.
Another look passed between Mr. Kim and Mr. Seo. Mr. Kim raised a finger. “We will return. This is not over.”
Felix stood still for a moment after they closed the door. Then he rushed to lock it and flew up the stairs. “Hyunjin,” he called.
Just inside the upper rooms, Hyunjin lay crumpled on the ground with his hat resting next to his head and his clothes in disarray.
Felix dropped to his knees and gently rolled him onto his back. “Hyunjin?” He whispered.
Dark eyes fluttered open, weary and weak. “My Felix,” his voice sounded dry and hoarse.
Like ice was his skin when Felix cupped his face between gentle hands. And just to be sure, just to be absolutely certain, he pushed the side of a full lip up with the pad of his thumb to reveal a long, sharp fang.
His heart skipped a few beats, but strangely, he did not feel fear.
Hyunjin flinched away and drew an unsteady breath. “So run,” he dared weakly. “Flee. Tell them where I am and bring with you knives of silver and stakes of wood.” He coughed shallowly. “Run away.”
Felix turned his face up and gazed into the depths of his dark eyes. “You are no danger to me and I will not run from you in your hour of need.”
The shock and awe evident on Hyunjin's features seemed to render him speechless.
Gathering courage, Felix helped him sit up against the wall. “How should I give you blood, sir?” He wondered. “That is what you need, is it not?”
“Felix.” A slight shake to his head and wonder in his eyes. “You should not-”
“Nonsense,” Felix scolded. “Shall I find a knife, or will you…” he trailed off for a moment, lost in the darkness of those eyes. “Bite me?” he whispered.
The words made Hyunjin's lip curl and reveal the wicked fangs he hid so well. His inner struggle played out clearly in his trembling body and open face.
“Bite me,” Felix repeated. “I will not lose you for your good manners. Bite me.” He sat calmly on the floor with his hands in his lap. “I am not afraid of you.”
“Perhaps you should be.”
“Perhaps,” Felix agreed. “But I am not.”
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
“Tell me what you need from me,” Felix bade him. “I will give it. Merely ask.”
Hyunjin nodded slowly, still awed and confused. “Your hand,” he spoke softly, and took Felix's hand in his gloved ones when he offered it.
Gently, he turned it over and ran a gloved thumb over the exposed wrist.
At Felix’s soft inhale, he looked up beseechingly. “Please, Felix. It will hurt. I cannot-”
“Will it turn me?” Felix interrupted urgently
“No,” Hyunjin sounded appalled at the idea. “I would never condemn another to this fate.”
“Then bite me.” Felix pressed his wrist closer to Hyunjin's mouth. “I trust you.”
Hyunjin caved, ducked his head, and pressed a soft kiss over the delicate skin of Felix’s wrist.
He shut his eyes, braced for the sting.
And sting it did. A dreadful, sharp tearing pain in his wrist that drew a sharp gasp from his throat and rendered him frozen, paralyzed though every base and instinctual part of him wanted to pull away and nurse the wound.
But as quickly as it set in, the pain faded to something else entirely. It lit Felix’s senses up like the electric lights that hummed around them. He could feel his heart working hard to pump blood that roared past his ears, thrummed through his body, and heated him from within.
The pressure of Hyunjin's fangs in his flesh seemed intimate to Felix’s mind. Tender as any lover.
He took hold of Hyunjin's arm with his free hand and allowed himself to sink against him. His head rested easily on Hyunjin's shoulder even as the labor of his breathing rocked his chest and sent tremors down his spine.
“Hyunjin,” he breathed, strangely aware of the blood flowing through his arm and into those fangs. Yet this awareness caused no horror for him. His senses licked with the taste of lightning and his rapid heartbeat echoed in every appendage.
Hyunjin hummed softly against his wrist. Such an intimate little sound, little sensation, yet Felix felt it in every fiber of his being. But he could not spare it a thought, for the pressure at his wrist lessened and shifted as Hyunjin removed his fangs.
An ache, deep and hot and heavy, settled where those fangs had been and spread through Felix’s hand, up his arm, over his shoulder, into his very heart.
“Felix,” Hyunjin murmured, mouth still at his wrist, pressing soothing kisses, licking softly over the wounds he created, “My Felix, are you alright?”
Felix found he had not the strength to lift his head nor to speak, so he hummed an affirmation and tried to catch his breath.
“Oh, dear.” A final few kisses to Felix's wrist. “Dear, dear.” Hyunjin coaxed Felix's head up from his shoulder. “Did it hurt terribly?” He asked, gloved hands cradling Felix’s face with all the care he showed his clocks.
Blinking away the dizziness and admiring the health and subtle color that had returned to Hyunjin’s cheeks, Felix managed a breathy, “No. I am well.”
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
“You should not stay on the floor like this.” Hyunjin fussed, and with surprising strength lifted Felix as he stood. He set Felix carefully on a sofa and disappeared from view.
Felix allowed his eyes to drift closed and his thoughts to wander. His arm ached. Deep and unforgiving, but satisfying in some strange way. And to see the life return to Hyunjin so quickly, it must all be worth it.
“There you are.” Hyunjin's voice prompted Felix to open his eyes and accept the cup of water and stale pastry offered to him. “Regain your strength,” Hyunjin encouraged. “I know it isn't much. I should plan better for company.”
“You did not expect me.” Felix nibbled at the pastry and sipped the water. “Though you should have,” he scolded. “You should not have allowed your suffering to go on so long. You should have asked me for help.”
Hyunjin exhaled a sharp laugh and sat beside Felix on the sofa, not too near. “How does one ask a friend for a taste of their blood?” All humor left his face. “You should not be burdened with this knowledge. You should never have known me in this way.”
“But I wish to know you,” Felix protested. “In every way.”
Heat rushed to his cheeks and ears at the odd look Hyunjin gave him.
Hyunjin turned away and cleared his throat. “I endeavor to retain my humanity. Though it is a losing battle, I'm afraid. I find no satisfaction in food or drink.” He tugged at his gloves but did not remove them. “I should not have entangled you in my… damnation.”
Felix sat straighter. “I would not be here if I did not wish to be.”
Hyunjin's deep eyes appeared a bit heartbroken. His mouth did not smile as often as it ought.
“Hyunjin, you are no monster and I have never known you to be.” Felix insisted. He examined his wrist. Two puncture wounds, already scabbed over, aching, but neat. No savage tearing of flesh or rending of bone. No monster could have made that mark. “You are an honorable gentleman and I will not leave your side as long as you'll have me.”
Hyunjin gasped a breath, emotions raw in his expression.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
He stood and guided Felix to lay down. “You'll want to rest, dear boy.” He draped a blanket over him and leaned close enough to smooth his hair with a gloved hand. “I am indebted to you, Felix,” he spoke softly. “This is not the first time you have saved my miserable excuse for life.”
Felix wanted to ask what he meant by that, but Hyunjin pressed his lips to Felix's hairline and made briskly for the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Felix asked, not keen to be alone, but afraid to ask Hyunjin to stay. It might cross some line between them. He couldn't be sure where they stood.
Hyunjin paused to pick up his hat and hide his face in shadow. “I am stronger now than I’ve been in some time. I must take advantage of my strength while I have it.”
He disappeared down the stairs and Felix nestled closer into his blanket, worried for his friend. For his vampire.
—
Felix woke to the sound of the door and the rustle of Hyunjin's entrance.
“Hyunjin?” Felix stretched his aching arm and sat up, more steady than he'd been before his nap. “What time is it?”
“Later than I intended.” Hyunjin set a large pie on the table in the corner.
He pulled some jars of fruit, small glazed cakes, and a loaf of bread from a bag slung over his arm and arranged them.
“You must eat.” He rushed to Felix and pulled him to his feet, sat him down at the table, and fussed over him, not unlike a mother hen might fuss over her chicks.
“Sit with me.” Felix indicated the other chair, which Hyunjin took, and removed his hat. Felix did not hide his smile. He helped himself to the spread of food because smelling it made him realize how hungry he was.
“I must admit,” Felix paused in his feast. For someone who had no need for food, Hyunjin had wonderful taste. “I only came up here because the two men who accused you returned this morning.”
Hyunjin stiffened, alert.
“I told a lie,” Felix confessed. “I said you would come at my call and rid the world of their ill-manners.”
Hyunjin did not laugh as Felix wished he would. He merely shifted in his seat, considering. “Not so much a lie,” he said carefully. “I would come at your call. Though I would never cause harm except in defense of myself or of- of you.”
That settled warm in Felix's chest and he feared the consequences of such fondness. “They will return.” He set down his bread. “They told me so.”
“I do not doubt it.” Hyunjin picked at his gloves restlessly, but did not remove them. “I made an effort to speak with their guild leader today. He would not see me.”
“Then they are…” Felix hesitated to say the word, “Hunters.”
Hyunjin gave him a sharp look. “I have a deal with the guild leader.” He spread his hands on the table. “I may stay and make my clocks and bother no one. I cause them no trouble and they cause me no trouble. I have not considered them in years.”
“Then why are they after you?”
Hyunjin shook his head, at a loss. “I cannot imagine.”
The clocks ticked from the showroom while Felix finished the pie. He considered what Hyunjin might have done to awaken interest or malice.
“The woman who came knocking-”
“She consented.” Hyunjin’s gloved fist clenched tight on the table. “Every time. I am so careful. I always asked, I always paid, I never mistreated her.” He raised his gaze to Felix with urgency. “How badly did it hurt?”
Surprised, Felix rubbed his wrist. It ached deeper when he did so. “It hurt badly for a moment, then not at all. It was so strange. I felt…” He had no words to explain it. “Quite indescribable.”
Hyunjin pushed the canned peaches across the table. “Eat. Eat your fill, lad. The venom is worse on an empty stomach.”
The bread crumbled in Felix's hand, but he took a few bites to placate his friend. “Venom?” He asked, then set the bread down again. “You did not- You didn't have relations with her,” he realized. “You only…” It did not feel polite to mention blood at the dinner table.
The sour expression on Hyunjin's open face confirmed his deduction. “You are correct, clever boy.” Felix felt no pride at the praise. “Our arrangement was mutually beneficial.”
“Why did you stop?” Felix pushed his luck, trying to fit the pieces of this puzzle together.
“She asked too much of me.” Hyunjin didn't hesitate. He nudged the peaches again. “The venom,” he bared his fangs in a grimace, “Keeps the bite from being unbearable. But it's stimulant. An aphrodisiac.” Another grimace. “She grew addicted to the high. There is nothing more dangerous and my respect for her life keeps me away.”
Felix exhaled a short “ah” and nibbled at his bread. “Then you have no- No source.”
“Do not fret, lad,” Hyunjin soothed. “I will find one.”
“Will you bite me again?” Felix didn't quite mean to say it out loud. He hadn't yet decided what he hoped the answer would be. The ache in his arm deterred him, but the memory of the sweet pressure of those fangs in his his flesh - an intimacy unlike any other - caused him doubt.
“Never,” Hyunjin assured him. “I would never, unless…”
Felix watched the tips of his fangs behind his parted lips. “Unless?” He prompted, unjustified in his breathlessness.
“Unless you asked me to,” Hyunjin whispered.
Unbidden heat rose to Felix’s cheeks and he found himself smiling. Embarrassed, he nibbled at the crust of his bread and kept his eyes trained on the empty pie dish.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Hyunjin cleared his throat, examining the peaches once more. “I should ring the guild leader. See if I can reach him that way.” He stood and excused himself, bringing his hat with him.
Felix watched him go and wondered what manner of disaster he'd brought up on himself. To flirt with danger and respond so willingly to darkness's seduction. He examined the two neat wounds on his wrist, healing miraculously. He knew they would leave no scar and in a few days time there would be no sign of the encounter.
He pressed his thumb between the scabs to intensify the ache. In spite of that pain and the objective horror of the thing, Felix knew that if Hyunjin needed to feed again, he would volunteer.
Rather than dwell on the macabre, Felix rose and began gathering his dishes. He would not be an ungrateful guest and the least he could do was clean up after himself.
—
Among the ticking clocks in the shoppe, Felix tinkered at a pocket watch. He worked slowly, distracted by curiosities and daydreams.
Every time he caught sight of his own wrist, he wondered whether Hyunjin thought about him too. Whether fate brought them together for some purpose, or whether fate laughed at his own cruel joke.
But the clocks chimed as the hours passed and nothing changed.
Hyunjin remained in his workshop for the better part of the day, and when he stepped into the shadows of the shoppe, he greeted Felix with the same practiced cordiality he had always done. Before Felix knew the truth of him. Before he had his fangs in Felix’s flesh.
And keeping his manners, Felix acted the same. Like nothing had changed. Like he did not know why Hyunjin didn’t smile as often as he ought.
Felix put away the pieces of his pocket watch for the evening and donned his coat and scarf and gloves.
Hyunjin appeared before he made it to the door. “Goodnight, Felix,” he inclined his head and his hat cast his face in shadows. “Rest well and do not suffer the cold.”
Felix lowered his own head, polite. The ache in his wrist had abated, but now a low ache in his chest took its place. “Goodnight, sir,” he said, and unlatched the door to step into the cold night.
And so the day passed and Felix had to wonder whether he dreamed the whole thing up in his own mind.
—
The next morning passed the same way, but Hyunjin seemed nervous, pacing behind the door to his office, dropping things with a clatter and muttering under his breath.
Felix rose from the desk the third time it happened and knocked softly on the door. “Hyunjin?” He realized too late that he should not speak with such familiarity, but the door opened a crack and Hyunjin slunk out, hat low over his face.
“I did not mean to disturb you,” he apologized.
“I am concerned for you.” Felix held his own hands so he would not be tempted to reach for Hyunjin's. “Were you able to contact the guild leader?”
A crack in the façade. Hyunjin deflated a bit and paced through the shadows. “Yes. But he will not listen to reason.”
“He does not know you are a gentle soul.” Felix stood still, aching for Hyunjin's sake. No one deserved peace more than he, yet these hunters robbed him of it in the name of safety and justice. “I know you would cause no harm to a living being.”
Hyunjin paused, leaning with one hand on the wall, faced away from Felix. “I fear it might come to that.” He spoke softly. “Or else I must run before they chase me away.”
It struck Felix how unfair life was for Hyunjin. In all probability, he used his loneliness as a shield to protect him from the heartbreak of betrayal. But Felix refused to be another break in his heart.
“Where will we go?” he asked.
Hyunjin turned around to face him. “Felix…”
“I will not abandon you.” He stepped cautiously forward. “I'm going with you.” Another step brought him close enough to distinguish the expressive shadows under his hat. “As long as you'll have me.”
He reached out as if to touch Felix's face with his gloved hand, but a bang at the door made him spin away.
Mr. Kim and Mr. Seo were not alone. A few more strong men filed into the shop after them.
“Here he is, the wretched thing.” Mr. Seo raised a wooden stake at Hyunjin.
Without a thought, Felix stepped in front of Hyunjin protectively. “You would come into a man’s place of business to terrorize him?”
A gloved hand on Felix's shoulder moved him out of the way with more strength than Felix would have given him credit for. “This is not your fight, lad.”
Mr. Kim stepped forward with a silver knife brandished. “You know what manner of beast he is and you would defend him?”
Felix took a sharp implement from the desk and dashed in front of Hyunjin once more. “I would defend him to the death.”
Hyunjin moved him aside once more. “You will not.” He held up his gloved hands in a placating gesture. “Good sirs, I ask that you spare my clocks. I am amenable to a negotiation. I can be gone from this place by morning, and you shall never hear whisper of me again.”
“Does the monster beg for its life?” Mr. Seo tapped his stake on his hand threateningly.
“I only appeal to your decency.” Hyunjin remained calm and polite. Much better than Felix could do, though he stayed put when Hyunjin shot him a warning look.
“Perhaps the monster should beg,” one of the other men suggested.
“Never.” Felix could not hold his tongue. “Away with you. Leave my shoppe and bother a real villain.” He brandished his little tool as a weapon, but the hunters laughed at him.
The ticking of the clocks burrowed under Felix’s skin. He had no skill in fighting, but he would face these hunters for Hyunjin's sake.
“Forgive him,” Hyunjin remained polite while Felix saw red. “We have no need of violence here. There shall be no sign of me by morning. You have succeeded in your mission.”
Mr. Kim tilted his head. “We cannot allow you to leave this place only to terrorize another town.”
“The country then.” Hyunjin bartered. “Far away from people.”
Mr. Seo wandered over to the beautiful classic clock with clean lines and brass fittings. “I'm afraid your word means nothing. We shall have to make sure there is no opportunity for misshap.” He traced the delicate minute hand, then took it between two fingers and snapped it in half.
Felix noticed Hyunjin's gasp. The tension in his shoulders. The angry draw of his mouth under the hat. “Felix. Go upstairs. I will fetch you when we are finished here.”
Felix glanced between Hyunjin and the broken minute hand Mr. Seo flicked to the floor. “I will not leave you-”
“Felix.” Hyunjin's voice had never sounded so sharp. It set Felix's heartbeat racing. “Now.”
Felix obeyed, sulking up the stairs, upset to be useless and excluded. Worried of all the terrible outcomes that might come to pass.
The ticking of the clocks covered subtle sounds, but bumps and clatters and cries carried up through the wood floor.
With each cry or plea or shout, Felix felt a knot from in his stomach. Might Hyunjin be hurt? Might he be ever the gentleman so the hunters would take an advantage in playing dirty? Might Hyunjin… win?
The footsteps climbing the stairs sounded too heavy to be Hyunjin's, and Felix hid himself behind the kitchen wall with a knife clutched to his chest for defense.
“Felix?” Hyunjin's voice; weary, heavy, and full of regret.
Felix set the knife aside and ran to him. “You're alive! Dear God, I was so worried–” he cut himself short at the sight of a vampire.
Hat discarded, Hyunjin removed bloodstained white gloves and shucked a blood spattered coat from his arms. His boots too, left a dripping trail where he stopped just inside the door.
A weary frame held him up, much more slender without his jacket. His hair fell in fair wisping waves around his face, satin ribbon lost somewhere in the brawl. He toed off his shoes and left his soiled clothes in a pile next to them.
“I must leave by dawn.” He stumbled to Felix and rested a bare hand on his shoulder. “You need not come with me.” He searched Felix’s face for a moment and Felix couldn't be sure what he found there. Another cool bare hand rested over his racing heart. “Be not troubled, dear boy. You have nothing to fear from me.”
Felix could not tear his gaze from Hyunjin's mouth. Not a trace of blood there. Not a speck, not a smear. His lips and cheeks lacked color and Felix guessed that blood would do him good and repenish the strength he lacked. Felix also guessed that Hyunjin killed or seriously injured most if not all of the hunters. There had been plenty of opportunity. So why not feed?
“Are you- Have you not-” he tried, but could not think of a polite way to phrase the question. “Forgive me, aren't you hungry?”
Hyunjin dropped his hands and took a step back. “I sometimes wish you were not so clever.” He examined his hands. “I am,” he admitted. “Activity takes a lot out of me.” He turned away and paced past Felix into the kitchen. “You'll want to know what happened to the hunters.” He filled a basin at the spigot. “Two are dead. The rest ran.” His hands splashed cold water around the edge of the porcelain as he washed them. “You'll also want to know, why then, if I need sustenance, did I not drink my fill.” Water flew from his hand as he flicked them dry. “The reason is twofold. First, I swore to myself I would never condemn anyone else to this cursed half-life.” He walked past Felix again to fetch a towel from a shelf. “To bite the deceased would turn them.” The towel looked rough in Hyunjin's soft hands as he dried them. “And second, I swore to myself that I would never take blood not offered freely.”
Felix shivered in a sudden chill. “I knew you were an honorable gentleman.”
Hyunjin scoffed and tossed the towel onto the kitchen cabinet. “No one deserves this fate.”
Curiosity got the better of Felix’s manners. “How came you by it?” He asked at a whisper. Hyunjin could have pretended not to hear.
But he paused with a hand on the doorway. “I was deceived.” He looked up at Felix with such intensity, Felix felt sure he could see his very mind. “The devil never announces himself, does he? He wears a disguise. Dons the visage of a fair lady and teases and taunts until one falls in love.” He sagged against the doorframe. “Only then does he show his fangs. Only then does he snatch a man’s soul and leave him cold and alone.”
“Hyunjin…” Felix felt his heart break like brittle glass.
He raised himself up and stopped an arms length from Felix, half reaching for his chest. “Do not trouble your heart. You should never be unhappy.”
Felix took his hand, but stepped no closer. “A kind and noble man should never face such tragedy,” he argued. “I am allowed this heartache at the injustice of fate and heaven.”
Hyunjin squeezed his hand, then released it with a tight smile. “I must pack my clocks.”
“I'll help you,” Felix told him before he passed to the door. “I'm coming with you.”
A weak shake of his head sent his loose hair into his eyes. “You should have run away,” he said softly. “You should not stay by my side.”
“But I will.” Felix steadied him by his upper arms. “You cannot move the clocks by yourself anyhow.”
Hyunjin shrugged out of his grasp with a sharp exhale and made his way to the door. “I could if I–” he stopped the thought with a shake of his head and a dismissive wave of his hand, nearly to the door.
“Hyunjin.” Felix caught his arm and stopped him. “Bite me. That's what you need, isn't it?”
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Hyunjin wet his lips. “I will manage.” He backed away from Felix’s loosened grip. “Help me with the clocks, lad.”
So Felix packed clocks carefully into crates and set the crates on the back of a wagon. No mess in the shoppe. No sign of a struggle other than a few spattered stains and scuffs on the floor.
Hyunjin helped move smaller crates of supplies and struggled with those, teeth gritted and lean muscles straining. Felix allowed him his pride and did not interfere, but wished to.
He did not carry Hyunjin up the stairs either, though he wished to. No sooner were they through the door, than Hyunjin collapsed onto the sofa, eyes shut in a grimace.
Felix bent over him, concerned. “You need strength, I know you do.” He pushed fair hair out of Hyunjin's face. “I'm here, Hyunjin. I'm–” he offered his wrist again where the mark from his fangs had mostly healed. “Bite me. Take what you need.”
Hyunjin opened his eyes slowly. “I know a butcher,” he sounded so weary. “He will give me some blood in the morning.”
Felix sat beside him, not too close. “But I'm here now. We must be gone in the morning and you need your strength for the journey.”
“You should not come with me.” His eyes slipped closed again and he laid against the back of the sofa.
“What is left for me here if you go?” Felix wondered quietly. Not the clocks, not his mentor, not his friend.
A bare hand rested on Felix's knee. “You are young and clever. You could start your own shop. Have your own apprentice in time.”
“Or I could stand by my friend and help him in his hour of need.” Felix angled himself to face Hyunjin. “I have recovered, if that is your fear. It has been nearly a week. And I don't believe you took much.”
Hyunjin opened his eyes. “You are stubborn, my boy.” He removed his hand from Felix’s knee in favor of taking his hand to examine the marks of his fangs.
The silent absence of the clocks in the shoppe rang in Felix’s ears.
“Where shall we go?” Hyunjin asked, finally, thumbs smoothing over Felix's palm. “In the morning?”
Unbidden, the heart in Felix's chest beat faster, echoing in his ringing ears. Then he could stay by Hyunjin's side. He could not help his wide smile. “The seaside?” He suggested. “I hear it’s beautiful and the air is better.”
Hyunjin nodded, full of thought, holding Felix’s hand between his own soft hands. “The seaside. Would you believe I've never been?”
“In all your years?” Felix could not hide his surprise.
“Not so many years.” Hyunjin pulled Felix's hand against his chest. “Not really.”
It surprised Felix to notice the coolness of Hyunjin's skin through his shirt. And to feel the stillness of his chest. He had no heartbeat.
“Seventy-nine this year,” Hyunjin said. A secret. Felix would take it to his grave.
“Then let's go to the seaside and build a house with no windows and electric lights.” He shifted closer to Hyunjin, who still trapped his hand against his chest. “And a telephone and a workshop. You won't have to always hide your face and we can make clocks, beautiful artful clocks like the people there have never seen before.”
Hyunjin smiled a little, but his fangs got in the way and the smile slipped. “I must hide my face, lad.” He released Felix’s hand. “I must wear my gloves and my hats. For when you grow old and I do not…”
Deep melancholy marred his features and caused Felix to inch closer still. “Do not trouble yourself with these things that make you unhappy.” He turned Hyunjin's face to him to peer into those bottomless eyes. “You should always be happy.”
Hyunjin's lip quivered and leaned closer to whisper, “Do you wish me happiness?”
“I do,” Felix assured him, cupping the back of his neck to steady him. “I wish you every happiness.”
Hyunjin searched his face, and seemed to find what he sought. “You need not wish, Felix.”
The whisper of his cool breath on Felix’s face drew him in. “I am happy.”
Some force of gravity pulled Felix closer. Hyunjin did not protest, so Felix pressed his lips to the corner of his mouth. Brief and shy.
It still caused Hyunjin to gasp and to raise a hand to the curve of Felix’s shoulder. He tilted his face just so, and his full lips covered Felix’s for the space of two rapid heartbeats.
With their foreheads pressed together, Felix wondered at his own sanity. But he wrapped his arms around Hyunjin and guided his head to rest on his shoulder.
“Then we are both happy,” he whispered into the quiet air.
Hyunjin's lips brushed the skin of his neck and made him gasp. Never had Felix’s heart felt so full. It might burst in his chest and bleed more emotion than Hyunjin could ever lap up.
Hyunjin’s weight rested heavily on him and he knew - felt - his weakness. He tilted his head to bare his neck.
“Bite me,” he spoke breathlessly. “You need your strength for our journey.”
He did not expect Hyunjin to acquiesce without an argument, but perhaps he knew his own limits.
The sting of the bite made Felix cry out, but it faded quickly so he only felt warm and tingling as blood rushed past his ears and through his fingertips and into the gentle pressure of those fangs.
Without the steady tick-tock of twenty clocks, Felix could not say how long he trembled under an honorable gentleman’s caress, but it felt too soon when the pressure shifted and the ache began.
Hyunjin's cool tongue soothed the wound and the sweet kisses he peppered around the broken skin kept Felix gasping. He shifted to stand, but Felix clung to him tightly.
“Wait. Just a moment,” he pleaded. “Just a moment more.”
Hyunjin cooed soothingly and petted Felix's hair. “There, there. Dear boy, you may have more than a moment.” His lips brushed Felix’s forehead. “But you must eat and you must rest.”
“Hyunjin,” Felix protested, pressing his nose against a sharp collarbone. “I could not ask too much of you…” The ache in his neck seeped down through his shoulders and chest, but left him satisfied.
“Whatever you ask, I will give you,” Hyunjin held him in strong arms. “What is it you want?”
With some effort, Felix lifted his head. He could not bring himself to speak, so he followed his gaze to Hyunjin's mouth. A clumsy kiss, but Hyunjin corrected it. Sweet and gentle. Chaste, but steeped in longing.
Hyunjin broke away to soothe the torn skin on Felix’s neck again.
“Thank you,” Felix whispered, sinking deeper into Hyunjin's embrace.
Hyunjin pulled him close and held him tight, lips against his ear. “No, lad. Thank you.”
—
The synchronized ticking of twenty clocks replaced Felix’s heartbeat somewhere between the seaside and the city in a stone shoppe with electric lights and no windows.
And Hyunjin did not hide his face in shadow so often, and he smiled more than he had. Felix liked to think it was not only the clean sea air that brought a subtle color to his lips and cheeks.
With his fingers entwined between Hyunjin's, he looked up at the stars with the green smell of spring in his nose. “You need not wish,” he told him. “I am happy.”