The door fell shut behind him, lock clicking into place and muffling the cold downpour on the streets. The burble of the thick raindrops sinking into the stream of the river now replaced by the constant drip, drip, drip of water beads falling from Yeonjun's hair and clothes and splitting into a million pieces on the beige parquet of the pastry shop.
The books were gone, Beomgyu had confirmed it after he had watched the exchange happen behind the 'library closed for the day'-sign during the early hours of the morning.
At least Black Charon didn't have them either.
Yeonjun wasn't even surprised that those books had piqued their interest because while Lunar Deity specialised in occasional theft from the authorities and the upper class, Black Charon specialised in just about everything and everyone else that meant gaining something by causing harm with their magic.
They must have either been fairly sure of their triumph if they had sent an initiate to prove himself or not all that drawn to the trophy — Yeonjun guessed the former to be true seeing that these manuscripts could revive the magic of this world.
And Yeonjun could only guess what Charon intended to do with them and how exasperated he was not to have them in his possession.
The four of them were just as frustrated, however equally relieved that the night had only been a near miss and not a total catastrophe.
Besides, Yeonjun had other things to concern himself with. Taehyun and Kai had spent the entirety of the day before prodding and digging and came back with almost nothing, which was no wonder considering that it couldn't have been long since Soobin had moved here.
And yet, the knowledge that he seemed to like a specific pastry shop in town was all Yeonjun needed to know as long as mondays were still for treats to stand at least a chance at making it through the week alive.
Yeonjun left his jacket on the coat rack and looked around.
There he was, sitting at a table by the windows and digging his fork into a slice of lemon cake around the corner, the sitting area secluded from the counter for passer-by customers.
Yeonjun's heart trembled in his chest at the thought of how this, yet again, could go terribly wrong.
He pretended to take a seat at a table on the other side of the shop, one that would definitely find its way into Soobin's field of vision. Just as Yeonjun wanted to pull the chair back, his and Soobin's eyes crossed.
“Oh, Soobin, hi! What are you doing here? I've never seen you around,” Yeonjun smiled when he saw recognition course into Soobin's eyes after a short moment.
Soobin blinked, puzzled, staring at the last person he would have expected to see, and Yeonjun's amusement sprouted sincerity at seeing Soobin go through the same feeling of confused disbelief as him two nights prior.
The lies were falling into Yeonjun's air easily, all these times he'd stood on stage and put on false passion into his smile paying off like acting lessons he'd never taken, like he'd studied this play as well.
“Hi, it's good to see you.” Soobin flashed him a genuine laugh, and Yeonjun could have sworn he was eighteen again for just a second. “I moved here a few months ago and have been liking this place a lot.“
Tell me about it, Yeonjun thought and walked over to him. Two crutches leaned against the round table, and Yeonjun's bandaged hand prickled knowingly. He saw a purple bruise stretch over Soobin's jaw and silently thanked Kai for having covered Yeonjun's matching lookalike up.
“Can I take this seat?“
Soobin nodded without hesitation and moved his half-drunken latte closer to him, so Yeonjun had enough space.
YOU ARE READING
you left your shadow here ; yeonbin
FanfictionSoobin was attractive, nothing less than striking, maybe even more so than when touches of youth had still framed his face when they had last seen each other - or it was just Yeonjun for once not dismissing the hard reality of how Soobin was still a...
