Chapter Text
Hyeonjun had a bad habit of staring. He tried to convince himself it was a people watching hobby, but it really was just staring. He pretty much only did it while working at the store. He just found it interesting to see the way people’s faces would contort with thought, the way their eyes examined every little mushroom, crystal, and plant, or the way they would murmur to themselves from time to time. He had the consciousness to get embarrassed every time he was caught, his gaze flashing away as his ears turned a bright red, but more often than not his gaze would drift back to whatever subject he was observing.
Jihoon said he didn’t used to stare. Hyeonjun replied he wouldn’t know.
Jaehyuk asked if he was bored. Hyeonjun said he would do homework if he was bored.
Siwoo unhelpfully suggested he was eyeing up prey. Hyeonjun immediately shot him down. The customers weren’t appetizing.
Wangho had simply said, “Well, you lost your memories, didn’t you? Maybe you are simply observing people because you forgot what it’s like to see them.”
They weren’t actually that interesting. For the most part, people came in, got what they wanted, he’d ring them up, and they’d leave all with only an exchange of superficial greetings. He only bothered to remember the interesting people.
It’s Wednesday, nearly ten, and the subject who has piqued his interest is a young looking siren. He’s short with a dusty purplish color to his hair, large puppy-like eyes, and scales of reddish pinks that speckle his cheekbones and sparkle under the fluorescent light. This isn’t the first time he’s come in, Hyeonjun’s only worked here a few weeks and he’s pretty sure he’s seen him at least once a week. He always seemed to be wearing hoodies far too big for himself. Just like usual, the siren returns Hyeonjun’s customary greeting with a friendly smile.
With a basket tucked under one arm, the siren paces through the store, back and forth, unusually indecisive compared to his various visits. Hyeonjun’s eyes follow his figure, occasionally snapping back to the book he was pretending to read. The siren grabs some items with confidence and others he holds in his hand and subjects to intense scrutiny. His face looked incredibly serious and Hyeonjun has a sense of curiosity (or nosiness) to know why.
The siren eventually stops in front of one of the fridges across the store. If he remembers correctly, there were a few different options of magical fruits in those fridges. He swears the siren stays there for at least ten minutes, mumbling something inaudible to himself under his breath while rocking back and forth on his heels. With the siren’s back facing him, Hyeonjun couldn’t study face.
Hyeonjun is a little startled when the fridge door is practically ripped open before the siren hurries over with two packages of fruit in his hand. Hyeonjun frantically glanced down at his neglected book before shyly smiling at the siren. “Are you ready to check out?”
“I actually have a question. I’m trying a new recipe for muffins, but I can't decide what berries to put in them. Do you think I should use these sunflare berries or these frog egg berries?” The siren asks, his purplish pink eyes looking back at Hyeonjun as if this was the most important question.
Hyeonjun blinks. His fox unhelpfully remarks how cute the little mole under his eye makes him.
“Um…what?” Hyeonjun doesn’t even know what either of them are. He doesn’t know if it was information lost to him or something he never knew.
The siren slides the two fruits across the counter. One has a vine of berries, almost like grapes, about the size of blueberries with a darker middle pulp or possibly a seed surrounded by a translucent white fleshy part. He could only guess these were the frog egg berries considering they looked like frog eggs. The other baskets had raspberry-like berries with a fiery orange-red color.
“I’m making them for friends,” the siren sighs. This didn’t really help Hyeonjun. “I like both of them but I’ve never put either into muffins before. I’m not even sure if either of them would work in muffins.”
“I’ve never had either.”
Hyeonjun had intended for the statement to get the siren to choose on his own, but it instead prompted him to describe the flavor of the berries to him. Hyeonjun, ever so polite, didn’t stop him.
“The frog egg berries have two flavors, the clear part tastes like citrus and the black part tastes like blueberries. The sunflares taste like a mixture of mango and banana, a more tropical-like flavor. I know my friends really like the sunflares, but I really like the frog egg berries and they’ve never had them before,” the siren explains enthusiastically.
“I’ve had lemon blueberry muffins…” Hyeonjun murmurs, nothing more than useless words to accompany the ambient hum of electricity.
“OH!”
Hyeonjun’s fox ears pin to his head as he stares at the overly enthusiastic siren, who just let out a loud high-pitch exclamation, with large eyes. Even larger eyes stare back at him with a bright smile on his face, even without a tail, Hyeonjun could practically see it wagging behind him.
“You’re so right!” The siren squeals as he puts his basket on the counter.
He practically bounces away, putting up the sunflare berries before grabbing something else. He returns with a small pouch of poppy seed and a glowing smile.
Cute.
“You’re a genius.”
Hyeonjun only murmurs a refute.
The siren, now buzzing with excitement, thanks him and when he gets to the door he says, “If they are good, I’ll bring you some!”
Hyeonjun doesn’t even get to refuse before he’s gone.
————
Another person drags themself in at midnight.
Hyeonjun throws out their customary greeting while he finishes restocking the collection of bones. He’s not surprised when it’s ignored. What does surprise him is looking up and seeing a man standing at the other end of the aisle, looking straight at him. Now that he has fox ears, his hearing has gotten very sensitive, yet he didn’t hear any footsteps at all.
This man is someone new, at least to Hyeonjun. He is tall, with dark wavy hair, and cold eyes hidden behind round glasses. He’s dressed rather clean for someone coming in so late; jeans, black shirt, dark blue jacket, converse. The look in his eyes doesn't lie either. He’s just as dead inside as most of the other people who show up this late. Hyeonjun is pretty sure he’s not human, but he could tell what he was, not from this far away at least.
He’s hot. His fox uselessly notes.
Hyeonjun tilts his head and quietly asks, “Can I help you?”
The man shakes his head before disappearing into another aisle. A frown pulls at his lips and he can’t shake the strange pressure the man’s gaze left on him. It felt a little dangerous, but not exactly threatening. It was as if the man’s natural aura told you to be wary of him rather than him actively threatening you. He can’t help but stare again as he returns to the stool behind the register.
He leans forward and turns his head, resting his elbows on the counter, as his three tails swish behind him curiously. The man stands looking down at his phone in one hand while holding a case of an alcoholic beverage Hyeonjun doesn’t recognize. He’s not completely turned away from Hyeonjun, so he can still see the way his face scrunches into a look of annoyed exasperation as he types on his phone with his thumb.
Abruptly, the man looks up and turns, nearly catching Hyeonjun’s eyes. Luckily for Hyeonjun, his eyes snapped to the flickering light within the same general vicinity of the man (it’s the only time he was grateful for Jihoon neglecting his promises). He can only hope the man can’t see the way his tails have bristled up. In his periphery, he sees the man’s eyes narrow, and for a second Hyeonjun is sure they are glowing. The sense of danger from before spikes but quickly mellows out in only a few moments where the only sound is his beating heart.
Hyeonjun has half the mind to be a little annoyed by the situation. Why was the man so jumpy about being watched when he had been doing the same to Hyeonjun only a few minutes ago? And what’s with the feeling of impending danger? He didn’t really care for the answers. None of it stops him from stealing a few more glances.
About five minutes later, the man walks up to the register with the alcohol and two one-liter bottles of orange juice. As Hyeonjun goes through his regular checkout routine, asking short questions that are answered with short responses, the man interrupts him. “You’re new here.”
The flat, steady tone of voice carried a tiredness to it that didn’t really indicate if he was asking a question or not. Hyeonjun simply answers it as if he had. “Yes, I started working a few weeks ago.”
The man hums in response, sliding a pack of gum across the counter, but doesn’t say anything else. Hyeonjun takes the opportunity to steal a glance at his face as he pays. The man’s sharp dark orange eyes have a methodical expression that make Hyeonjun believe he’s the kind of person who would be rather popular at school. However his attractiveness seems to only add to his somewhat aloof and unapproachable demeanor.
He’s your type. Hyeonjun ignores his fox. After all, it made the same comment about Jihoon, so Hyeonjun believes his fox doesn’t really know his tastes.
“See you around.”
Hyeonjun blinks as he looks up, but the man is already out the door. Is he a regular?
————
One to two in the morning was always an interesting time since usually it was college students who would find their way into the store. Some would be there to stock up supplies for whatever project they were working on, others looking for a quick snack, and some simply didn't care for their already awful sleep schedules. There was also the occasional high schooler. Every time Hyeonjun wondered what his high school life was like, he could never remember it. There were also the people who just lived during these hours like an office worker at noon. Hyeonjun has seen a number of celestial mages, moon witches, and dream weavers come by so it was no longer a surprise to see their brighter expressions anymore.
There were already a few others in the store when the new subject of his fascination walks in. He’s young looking, probably high school aged, with fluffy black hair and sharp features yet an innocent look in his dark eyes. He wears a simple black shirt, shorts, and sandals like he had made the last minute decision to be there. He’s pretty awkward, almost like he’s never been anywhere by himself before. He offers a quick, nervous, bow when Hyeonjun greets him before wandering around the store. It’s a little cute.
His fox scoffs. Unripe. Unappetizing.
People aren’t appetizing.
His eyes follow the high schooler around the store, only looking away when he needs to help one of the other customers. He didn’t really seem to be browsing, it was almost as if he was stalling for something. Hyeonjun wanted to know why, his tails unconsciously swish behind him.
That something turned out to be everyone else leaving. He waits until all the other customers have filtered out before he awkwardly waddles up to the register. Hyeonjun doesn’t even bother to hide the fact that he is staring, the high schooler is too busy looking at the ground to notice it anyways.
“Do you need something?”
“Y-Yes! I have—uh—I came in the other day looking for something and Son-ssi told me you guys didn’t have them but that he would order them for me and I could come pick them up and pay for them when they came in so I was wondering if they happened to come in,” the high schooler asks, basically in one breath.
“Oh. Uh… I can go check in the back, do you remember what you were looking for?” Hyeonjun asks.
“There were a lot of things… ummm…”
“Did Son-ssi get your name? He might’ve put it in a box together.”
The high school blinks at him before shyly smiling, “Ah… he did. It's Kim Suhwan.”
Sure enough, there was a rather large cardboard box with a bright pink sticky note slapped on the front that said “Suhwan” as well as a scribbled number, written in Siwoo’s distinctly messy handwriting. Despite the size of the box, whatever is in it is light making it easy for him to carry back to the register. Hyeonjun sees Suhwan’s eyes light up when he places down the box and the boy softly says, “Ah, thank you.”
“It’s nothing.” Hyeonjun smiles as he rings him up.
It isn’t until after Suhwan leaves that Hyeonjun wonders why he decided to check so late into the night.
————
It’s been a quiet night. Usually between nine and midnight was decently steady and then it slowed down until around three when people would abruptly stop coming in. It’s only two in the morning and yet it already seems like pretty much no one else is going to be coming in until the early rises who trickle in at the end of his shift. Hyeonjun doesn’t care either way, he finished up his homework and actually started reading the book he was pretending to read hours ago.
When the soft tune of the door chime alerts him of a new customer, he doesn’t immediately look up from his book. His greeting goes unanswered, but he hears a hesitant couple of footsteps as the person approaches the register.
Hyeonjun looks up to find a man with blond hair, tan skin, piercing blue eyes, and a pair of white tiger ears on top of his head. His hair and fur is a bit of a mess, like he had just gotten out of bed and didn’t bother to put a brush to it. His round glasses were a little crooked like he was in a hurry and he was wearing a pretty revealing white tank top that showed off his muscular arms.
Handsome and strong. His fox trills.
“Can I help you?” Hyeonjun asks.
“Do you guys carry null magic stones or whatever they are called? My friend got mad at me and kinda electrocuted my whole kitchen…” the tiger says, a little sheepishly as tail flicks behind him.
“Electrocuted…you kitchen?” Hyeonjun blinks.
“Yeah, none of the appliances work, not even the lights, but just in the kitchen. I get electrocuted just trying to touch the light switch. Been like that for hours. He only texted me like ten minutes ago that I could use a null stone to absorb the lightning magic and all my stuff should start working again,” the tiger explains.
Hyeonjun nods even though he doesn’t really understand. It doesn’t really sound like normal lightning magic. “Um, we have a few stones grade D through B. How many do you think you’ll need?”
“I think a couple D grades will be fine…uh let me ask him.” The tiger quickly pulls out his phone and sends a few texts.
Hyeonjun watches as the tiger nervously fidgets with his phone, his eyes occasionally glancing around the store and then back at Hyeonjun. After a minute, Hyeonjun goes to the back room to grab the small container they keep the null stones in before placing it on the counter.
“Any luck?”
“He told me ‘I could figure it out’,” the tiger laughs. His tail flicks behind him, Hyeonjun can’t tell if it’s excitement or annoyance.
“You must have pissed him off real bad,” Hyeonjun murmurs.
“Yeah…it was my fault,” The tiger sighs. Even though he smiles like it's a joke, his ears droop.
“If it’s your whole kitchen, I’d suggest the B grade stone. They have the most capacity and can handle chaotic magic pretty well,” Hyeonjun suggests.
“Umm, do null stones work like normal magic stones?” The tiger asks, his tail almost seeming to make a question mark behind him.
“It works exactly like normal magic stones and once they absorb magic, it will act like a stone of whatever kind of magic it absorbs. It will return back to normal once you use all the magic. Depending on the grade, you can repeat this a number of times.”
“Alright, let’s get this and hope it fixes my kitchen.”
Hyeonjun quickly rings him up before handing him the little paper bag they would put their stones in. “Good luck.”
“Thanks for your help!” The tiger bows almost exaggeratedly.
“Um, don’t thank me until your kitchen is fixed,” Hyeonjun laughs softly.
The tiger smiles so brightly that his sharper canines poke out.
Charming. His fox purrs. Prince Charming.
————
By three, Hyeonjun is convinced no one else was going to come in until the end of his shift. He had long since grown bored of his book. He had abandoned his phone playing some youtube video at the register in favor of restocking the shelves that didn't really need to be restocked and even fixing the light Jihoon promised to a week ago. Maybe he had lied about not caring, slow days really were the worst. He switched to “watching” some drama on his phone, slumped over the counter in a way that was probably bad for his back.
Hyeonjun was falling asleep when the door chimes. He sits up too quickly causing his stool to rock slightly and his phone to make a loud sound as it falls flat onto the counter. If that wasn't bad enough, he lets out a startled cry at the sudden loud noise. He makes eye contact with the man in the doorway and feels his human ears turn red as his fox ears flatten against his head. He stammers out a greeting, his voice so quiet he doesn’t even know if the other man could hear it.
The man’s sharp eyes, which were expressionless a moment ago, seem to soften. Or maybe he’s hallucinating, wouldn’t be the first time. His lips, which had a slight natural upturn to them, seem to smile a little as he nods in response. Yup, he was definitely hallucinating.
The man appears back at the register just as Hyeonjun manages to collect himself, placing a handful of hard candies and two pieces of triangle kimbap onto the counter. He can’t help but notice the man’s aura. It makes the air prickly and Hyeonjun’s tails naturally bristle at the feeling of a potential threat. He tries to ignore this, quietly counts the candies before asking, “Is this all for you tonight?”
“That’s all,” a calm, measured voice answers.
When Hyeonjun looks up, the man’s dark reddish eyes are already looking back at him. His face is calm, no sign of the tiredness he sees in a lot of the people who come in. His black hair is neatly styled out of his face, leaving only a few shadows of his face, yet Hyeonjun is still hallucinating a flicker of fondness. He has elegant features; clear eyes, fair skin, and a sharp jaw that all seem to be highlighted by the suit he wears. Really, he’s just wearing the white button up, the first few buttons undone, sleeves rolled up, and the tie pulled loose. He carefully holds the blazer in one arm—and god his arms.
Hyeonjun’s tongue pokes at his own sharp canines. The man wasn’t particularly muscular yet he still wonders what it would feel like to sink his teeth into those arms.
Hyeonjun’s eyes flick back up, only to find that the man’s eyes seem to have never left him.
He’s your type.
Hyeonjun swallows hard.