Short Stories-Kai Ships Only! Volume 3

🧶TXT- Change for Me- Part Three

"So what's so important about the card?" Beomgyu watched the shape shifter grumble profanities to himself after stepping through the sliding door.

"It's nothing really."

"Nothing?"

"Yup." Hyuka flopped onto the couch with a massive headache. His legs then lifted to allow Beomgyu to sit beneath them.

"You sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"I'm sure. Taehyun or Soobin get back to you yet?"

"They haven't seen him either."

"Great... well I'm going out again tonight. Don't wait up for me."

"Again?!"

Hyuka's hair turned red as an involuntary reaction to his irritability. His headache wasn't subsiding. "Yeah..."

"Okay. That's it. What's the big deal with that card?" Beomgyu slapped the redhead's calf then asked it again. "The card. What is it?"

"Ow!" Hyuka's hair turned back to green as he sat up straight. His head then hung backwards while slouching down cushions. "It's a key. Kind of. It keeps a record of all of my past clients. If Yeonjun figures out how to activate it, he can go through the list which will eventually get him to my very first client.

"And who was that?" Beomgyu watched the taller sink further down. He kissed his forehead in an effort to make him feel better but Hyuka didn't even smile. Extremely worried, he asked "what happened?"

"I fucked up... I got a little boy killed which lead to a war. Thousands of people died Beomgyu."

"How did he die?"

Hyuka opened his eyes for the first time since he arrived at the Choi house. The ceiling was white with thick wooden beams running across. He focused on one of them so he wouldn't have to look at his Beomgyu. "The country was already on the brink of war. One the soldiers discovered my secret and paid me to take his place for a night so he could be with his wife. What he didn't tell me was that he was supposed to be helping the transfer of the King's son. I had no idea what I was doing that night. My incompetency of a failed perimeter check lead to him being kidnapped and killed."

"That- that wasn't your fault."

"It was. I could've told them it was my fault and not his but I changed form and ran like a fucking coward. The boy and my client were killed. The... the most shameful piece of my past is forever written in textbooks as one of the most shameful things to ever happen to that country. Yeonjun can't find out. It'll just prove what his kind believes and we'll never stop being hunted."

"Hyuka. That wasn't your fault."

"It was but it doesn't matter. I NEED that card back."

"Sure... but can I just ask you one more thing?"

"What is it?"

"Why the card in the first place?"

"The um... the history isn't just for me. All of my kind has one so we can avoid each other's clients..."

"You can't just see your client list. You can see everyone's..."

"Yeah... I'm going to head out now. Like I said, don't wait up for me."

Beomgyu quickly stood up to grab his car keys before he was abandoned again. "Wait! I'm coming with!"

"No you're not!" Hyuka kept walking despite hearing footsteps frantically run behind him. When it was clear he wasn't going to be left alone, he decided to turn into a falcon and fly onto the nearest tree branch.

"Seriously?!" Beomgyu panted in the shadow. He felt ridiculous for having to talk to a bird. "Why can't I go with you?!" The falcon screeched into the wind. Though no words were actually spoken, he knew exactly what that pitch meant. "I'll be fine! Yeonjun won't hurt me! Now change back because this is fucking ridiculous!"

Hyuka turned back into his familiar human form. "He can't hurt you if you stay here!"

"I'm your boyfriend! I'm not going to sit on my ass and wait anymore!"

"Don't make me keep you in your house."

"You won't!"

"I easily could."

"Get your ass down here and do it then because I'm either going with you or you're going to have to lock me inside!"

Hyuka jumped down from the branch he was sitting on so he could give his boyfriend a piece of his mind. He marched up to him in a blazing anger. Every fiber of his being was ready to tell him off until he saw his scared Beomgyu looked. Those fearful brown puppy eyes made him cave. "Fine. You can come with."

"Thank you! Thank you!" Beomgyu quickly kissed the taller before he was forced to stay home again.

"What are you going to tell your parents?"

"That I'm spending the night at a friend's place."

"This is such a bad idea..."

"Nothing is going to happen to either of us."

"I'll believe that when he peacefully gives me my card back." Hyuka sat in the passenger seat and tried to think of where to go. If Yeonjun really did figure out how to unlock the card then he would probably be interrogating past clients for accuracy. It was a good theory. One that was only partially tested because admittedly, he couldn't remember his past client before Beomgyu.

His other theory was that Yeonjun was trying to find another shape shifter so he could force them to unlock the card for him.

Silver blood was harmless to humans. For beings like Hyuka, it meant certain death. One touch could strip them of their abilities while mixing the two bloods together was enough to make their heart stop. The only real chance a shape shifter had against a silver soul was to make them bleed to death. Something that was impossible to do if Yeonjun managed to imprison one.

Beomgyu's phone lit up when Soobin began calling him. The stone cold silence from Hyuka made him not want to pick up. He let it ring. Five seconds later, Soobin called again. This time, he answered. "Hey."

"Hi... is um... is Hyuka with you?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Soobin's voice trembled over the speaker. "Wh-wh-where are you guys?"

A second voice, one Beomgyu was sure was Taehyun, yelled "DON'T TELL HIM! GET THE HELL OUT OF-"

The call went dead.

The couple in the car knew that Yeonjun had taken them as leverage against who he really wanted. Hyuka couldn't leave Beomgyu now. His mind started racing with places they could go. Staying at the Choi house wasn't an option. Going to his clan's base was an even worse. He didn't know what to do.

Beomgyu nearly wanted to cry when he wasn't getting a response back from his friends. "Answer me god damn it! Answer!"

"Baby stop..."

"We need to go to them! You can save them!"

"I need to bring you somewhere safe first."

"No! I'll kill Yeonjun myself!"

"You can't..."

"Then- then-"

"-baby stop. I'll figure out how to help them but my first priority is you."

Beomgyu attempted to negotiate with the taller for ten more minutes but Hyuka wouldn't budge. He had never felt so helpless before. Seeing his parent's white SUV pull up in the driveway next to them made him feel so much worse. He came to the same conclusion that the other did 20 minutes ago. They couldn't stay. If he couldn't go save his friends then they had to at least go somewhere else. In a low grumble, he asked "what now?"

Hyuka still didn't know. His gaze focused on the setting sun as if a miracle was going to appear within. No miracle came. After one more minute of complete silence, all he could genuinely think to say was "drive."