The Way It Burns - BbangNyu

[34]

"Stupid bachelors party...I didn't want to go anyway." Changmin mumbled, kicking the ground as he walked down the street. 

He'd just got off the phone with Kevin, who cancelled their plans to work on a group project, to go on a surprise bachelors party weekend with Chanhee. Apparently, he booked it when they weren't on good terms, but Changmin was still annoyed.

"Sucks for them, they'll have no fun without me- Ow!" Changmin yelped, feeling his body crash onto the floor. He hadn't paid any attention to where he was going, so it wasn't shocking that he ended up on his ass. 

"I'm so sorry." Changmin heard a voice say, followed by a few sniffles. Ignoring his pain, Changmin looked up to see a familiar face, who he allowed to help him up.

"Hak?" 

Ju Haknyeon, or Hak, was an angel Changmin had attended school with his whole life. They were never close, like best friends, but they did hang out from time to time. 

The angel looked a mess, his eyes were red, and swollen, his cheeks were stained with tears, his whole body was shaking. Changmin wondered what awful thing must have happened, to make the boy this upset. 

"Are you alright? What-" Changmin paused, noticing the array of bags sitting beside Haknyeon. There was a suitcase, that was almost bursting from how full it was, along with 5, or 6, plastic bags, all equally stuffed full of various items. 

Haknyeon noticed straight away where Changmin was looking, and knew fair well how the angel would feel once he told him the truth. Though, he didn't want to care anymore, the angels, his own kind, didn't accept him, he had nothing to lose. "You see this." Haknyeon said, rubbing his wrist so hard, Changmin was worried it would leave a red mark. However, there was already a mark there, a dark, black, burnt one. "Are you disgusted by it? I bet you think I'm unpure! Loving a demon, I did the worst thing I could have ever done. Go on! Tell me how disgusting I am!" He screamed, unable to hold back the tears that streamed down his face.

"No-" Changmin muttered, stopping himself from saying anything more. He was still processing everything, and now Haknyeon was screaming in his face. Truthfully he always thought that if someone he knew was marked by a demon, he'd be repulsed, but seeing how hurt Hak was, he didn't care about the mark at all. He just wanted to make sure the angel was alright.

"You're not disgusting, it's okay, please stop crying." Changmin said, trying to ignore the judgmental looks from passers by. 

As Haknyeon composed himself, he seemed confused, since he knew how the angel felt about dark creatures. He did relax though, as this was much more preferable, than having nasty words spat at him. 

"Did your parent's kick you out?"

"Of course they did."

Changmin frowned hearing that answer, it was so harsh, he didn't think Haknyeon deserved such a mean punishment. "Where are you going to go?" He asked, wanting to know that the angel was going to be safe.

Picking up a few of his bags, Changmin's question reminded him that he needed to go. He couldn't stay uptown, he didn't want to endure the belittling and abuse he'd surely suffer from sticking around. "I'm going to my boyfriends apartment, downtown." Hak replied.

"Really? Is it safe for you there?"

Haknyeon let out a chuckle, receiving the classic response angels gave when talking about downtown. It's only unsafe if you don't know how to handle yourself, and luckily, Haknyeon met the right people, he knows exactly how to handle himself. "I'll be fine, but if you really want to know, you can come with me." He joked, assuming the angel would never accept his offer. 

"Alright, let me help you with those." Changmin said, picking up the rest of Haknyeon's bags. His parents had warned him about going downtown, but he was so stubborn, it's not like he did what his parents said anyway. At this rate, he wasn't getting his halo until he was 45, what's another 10 years added on to that?

____

'Mama Kim's Heaven House'

Changmin squinted his eyes at the neon sign, the lights could barely be seen since it was still light out. He didn't know what kind of place this was, he'd never heard of a 'heaven house'. 

"I thought we were going to your boyfriend's apartment." Changmin commented.

"He lives upstairs." Haknyeon replied, not hesitating to head inside. 

The angel didn't wait around, speed walking after Haknyeon. The building smelt heavily of a strange mix of scents, some woody, and smoky, whilst some sweet, and light. The walls were white, but changed colour, depending on the lights, which were currently a deep red. There was red velvet carpet lining the floors, that muffled the sounds of your footsteps. It seemed like a nice place, apart from the sexual grunting, that wasn't something Changmin could ignore.

Running up the angel, Changmin lent over the boys shoulder. "Hak this is a-"

"I know." He laughed, keeping his pace through the hall. 

Changmin furrowed his eyebrows, completely thrown off by this weird place. He could never understand how Haknyeon could feel safe, living in an establishment like this. Nonetheless, Changmin followed Haknyeon, heading up a flight of stairs near the back of the building. It was clearly labelled, for employees only. 

"Shit baby, what happened?" 

Eye's widening, Changmin fumbled backwards, nearly bumping into the unit behind him. He watched as Haknyeon was engulfed in a hug, by a creature with the darkest of red eyes. They spoke for a few minutes, but Changmin didn't take any of it in, he was still so taken aback. He'd seen demons, everyone had, just never in person. He could have passed one in the street, and never knew, though, he very much knew this time. 

"Changmin...Changmin?...Changmin!" Haknyeon shouted, finally snapping the angel out of his trance. "This is my boyfriend, Sunwoo." 

"Oh, hi, it's nice to meet you." He mumbled.

"Yeah nice to meet you too." Sunwoo replied, walking over to Changmin. He noticed the nervous energy from a mile a way, finding it quite funny, it was something he liked about angels. He took the bags Changmin was holding, releasing the boy from the heavy weight. "You can stick around if you want, I really appreciate that you weren't hard on Hak. He needs angel friends to remind him that he's not the unpure beast people make him out to be." 

Changmin really wondered how he would have acted if this all happened a few weeks ago. Maybe Kevin was right, he shouldn't say such mean things about dark creatures. Considering at this very moment, the true evil ones, seemed like the angels. 

"Do you drink?" Sunwoo asked, receiving a head shake from Changmin. "You've probably never had the chance to, well if you are staying, you're welcome to have a few drinks with us. I must warn you though, my friend Hyunjae's coming over, and he can get pretty rowdy when he's drunk."

____

Some development for Changmin🥳
With some possible Milcob drama on the horizon

Hope everyone had a good day!