Steal His Heart - Hyunlix

The Ultimatum

Hyunjin struggled to keep his eyes open as he got up from the floor to walk towards the bright light that was shining from his bed and the nuisance of an alarm tone that had ruined too many of his good dreams. The only difference right now, though, was that he wasn't dreaming. He didn't even have the chance to have a nightmare with the fact that he would have had to actually sleep for that to happen.

To make matters worse, it was currently five a.m. What could have led his mother to make the assumption that he would have his sleel schedule together enough to manage functionality that early in the morning, was beyond him. He took a shower last night in preparation for a slow morning, but he figured a shower may actually wake him up now. Not to mention, the final poster was one that he painted himself. It was a thank you from him to the center that he wanted to be a surprise during the showcase.. meaning it wouldn't be able to be worked on during the classes on Wednesdays.

Hyunjin wasn't sure if it was the cold water that he opted for running down his body, or the adrenaline of what could be awaiting him at his childhood home, whether that be memories or actual news, he came out of the bathroom wide awake. Now he just needed the energy to last him long enough to make it through the train ride and the sight of his mother.

He was his father's son after all, and to think that five years of no contact could lead to a change so drastic that he suddenly no longer had his prickly attitude on lack of sleep, was simply delusional. He would just have to be cordial long enough to get through the initial greetings.

So, deciding that he just wanted to get on with it, Hyunjin picked up his bag next to the door, put on his jacket, and stepped out of his apartment into the dark outside and crisp temperatures. With a shiver he walked over to his bike and turned the key in the ignition. As cold and grumpy as he may have been, there was no denying the peace and serenity of a quiet morning with only the bird sounds to fill the otherwise silent atmosphere.

Hyunjin had to hand it to himself, there were some things that changed over the past five years. For one, he was typically in the habit of being early without his mother to wait on. Secondly, leaving home abruptly in a matter of minutes and never staying in the same place for longer than a lease will teach a person how to pack for functionality, leading us to the present, where the artist sat on the bench surrounded by the few other early morning travelers as he waited for his train that was not scheduled to arrive for another thirty minutes.

It felt like a scene from one of those old silent movies his grandmother used to force him to watch when he was a kid. The almost comically stark contrast between the dark surroundings and the spotlight nature of the street lights that lined the center of the platform added an eery feeling. He felt like he should be wearing a detective cap like Sherlock Holmes and inspecting scuff marks on the train tracks.

Hyunjin shook his head in amusement, officially convinced that he had truly lost it.

Thankfully, the train was cleared out in a matter of minutes. Who would have thought that the two a.m train on Saturday mornings would not be a popular one?

Once Hyunjin found his seat he chuckled lightly in cautious optimism. A first class ticket usually meant that you weren't walking into a trap.. right?

The two hour train ride went by relatively quickly, mainly due to the fact that he was in and out of sleep for more than half of it. When they stopped at the station, a wave of memories came flooding back, from summers at his grandparent's, to the time he snuck out of the house to go to a party across town with Wooyoung, only to have to be dragged across this very platform when he got drunk off his ass. He still had the scar on his ankle from where it was rammed into the edge of the bench. Turns out, a drunk seventeen year old having to drag an even drunker sixteen year old, that was taller than him, home, was not without its dangers.