The Way It Burns - BbangNyu

[46]

"Briar Ridge, Isn't that like 4 hours from the city?" Kevin asked, eyes firmly focused on the map in his hands. 

"Yeah I think so." Juyeon replied. "We're in for a long drive." 

Glancing back and forth between, the small paper (given by Eunji), and the map. Kevin worked hard to locate their destination. It's not like he'd ever used a map before, but he was stuck with the job, since he was in the passenger seat. 

"Off him now." Younghoon snapped, glaring at the demon, who was currently latching on to his boyfriend. 

Hyunjae huffed, moving away from Chanhee. "It's so unfair, you guys get to cuddle, and who do I have? Oh yeah, I'm the only one here, who had to leave the love of their life behind." He whined, stroppily leaning his head against the window. 

Rolling his eyes, Younghoon pulled Chanhee closer to him, snaking his hand around the angels waist. It was still so unbelievable, instead of getting married, Chanhee had left, and was now totally and unconditionally his. It wasn't the most ideal that they had to run away, but as long as he was with Chanhee, he was fine with anything.

"This is all such a mess, I feel awful right now." Chanhee said, keeping his voice low to not disturb the others in the car. "I've dragged all of you into this, I can't help but feel like I'm ruining your lives."

Younghoon went to speak, yet, hesitated. His mouth hung slightly open, as he shook his head at the angels words. Bringing his hands up to the angels hair, he stroked the boys blonde locks, bringing some comfort to his distress. "Don't ever say that again. We're all involved with this because we care about you Chanhee, you haven't ruined any of our lives. I mean look at Kevin, he literally ran away on his own accord. There are bad people in this world, those who want to hurt you, so don't blame yourself, it's them who should take the blame." 

"But if you could of stayed, if it was only me who had to go, would you?" Chanhee stared up at the demon with innocent eyes, displaying how genuinely he wanted to know. 

"What kind of question is that? Of course not." Younghoon scoffed. He moved his hand to the angels face, softly running his finger along the bridge of his nose. "You know, I've been crying all day."

"Really?" Chanhee asked. It was shocking since Younghoon hardly ever cried, the only time he'd had ever seen it, was when the demon was talking about his family. 

"Mm hmm, I couldn't stop myself. I don't think anything would have ever prepared me for losing you. Honestly Chanhee, If you aren't with me, I can't be happy. I need to be with you, and know that you're with me. No matter where we have to go, even if it's to the farthest ends of the earth, I'll go. Because without you Chanhee, I have nothing." 

It's as if those words stopped time, just to bring Chanhee piece of mind. If his life really is filled with fear, and worry, he won't need to be afraid, because he has Younghoon by his side. Interlocking his fingers with the demon's, his frail fingers fall between Younghoon's own rough ones, fitting together like a perfect set of puzzle pieces. 

"Well I am here, and from now on, I'll always be with you." Chanhee spoke softly, peering up to the demon. "So you don't need to cry anymore."

With a small squeeze, and a silent smile, Younghoon let those words soak in. All he wanted was Chanhee to be his, and this was the reality. The world could throw anything at them, but they would face it together, nothing on earth could break them apart now.

____

The sun had long set, when the car pulled down the quiet street. Only yellow tinted street lamps lit the way, revealing the tall shadowy silhouettes of suburban style houses trailing along the concrete. You could see the faint outline of 'Briar Ridge' mountain in the distance, currently topped in a dusting of snow, due to the cold weather. 

Juyeon kept the car rolling, until they reached the 23rd house on the street. The garage had seemingly been left open, so the demon decided to park in there, as an extra layer of protection.

"It's a bit sketchy, don't you think? We're putting our trust in some random person, who chose to take in 5 runaways." Kevin said, opening the car door, and stepping out.

The garage was painted an anchor gray, with white skirting along the bottoms of the walls. There were few neatly organised shelving units, filled with tools, and what some would refer to as old junk. 

"We're not putting our trust in some random person, we're putting our trust in Eunji." Chanhee replied. "She told us to come here for a reason." 

"I guess you're right."

A sudden high pitched grinding noise, echoed through the garage, causing four of the boys to flinch. As the darkness enclosed in the room, the group looked towards the slowly closing door, and the demon pressing the button beside it.

"Maybe warn us next time." Younghoon suggested. He glanced around the room for a source of light, finding a switch next to a door, that probably led to the house. He didn't waist time switching the light on, bringing the group out of the dark. 

Hyunjae let out an exaggerated groan, as the door finally reached the floor. "Can't you just be grateful? Anyone could have seen us." 

"Yeah, whatever, thanks." Juyeon mumbled, eyes meeting the door that Younghoon had discovered less than a minute ago. "Should we go in?" He asked, gesturing to the door.

"I don't know, it feels a bit rude just wandering into someone's house." Chanhee responded.

"Plus we're not even 100% sure we're in the right place, what if we're wrong? They might call the police, or something." Kevin added.

Younghoon bit his lip, both of the angels concerns were valid. But they had to go in eventually, they couldn't stay in the garage all night. "Okay then just one of us should go, I nominate Hyunjae."

"What?! Why me?!" Hyunjae whined, dropping his jaw in disbelief. 

"Well Juyeon's the driver, Kevin reads the map, I'm the brains, what do you do?"

"I can fight, don't forget that I saved your asses on multiple occasions. Why can't Chanhee go? He actually does nothing." Hyunjae moaned, receiving a scoff from the angel.

 A smirk tugged the demons cheeks, as he pushed Hyunjae towards the door. "You must be out of your mind to think I'd send Chanhee in there. If you're such a skilled fighter, then you'll have no problem with whatever creatures behind that door." 

"Nope I fully refuse, someone else should go." 

"I don't really care, you're going to go."

As the demons squabbled over who was going to open the door, they hadn't notice that very door starting the open. Kevin was the first to realize, gulping at the creature clutching onto the handle. The lady wasn't scary, quite the opposite actually. She had short brown hair reaching to her neck, and a slim figure hiding under her dressing gown. Yet, the most captivating thing, was that she looked so familiar, almost identical to someone they knew very well.

"Here you guys are, come on in."