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CHAPTER 17
Doom's Arc
EP: FINAL
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Through the narrowed view of the display windows, Yeosang kept his eyes peeled for any pedestrian that could possibly peer from the direction of the main road, or any type of vehicle approaching the premises of his shop.
Knees bouncing as if he'd gotten coffee jitters, fingernails scratching back and forth along the edges of the open envelope on the table, he glanced at the clock on the wall of his display room for the nth time.
12:12 p.m., which was exactly twelve minutes later the time his client promised to pick up their order.
Alongside the artisan stood a marble tiger in a prowling stance above the rocky terrain, baring its flesh-tearing dentitions to declare a soundless threat.
The two black onyxes embedded in the carnivore's eyes observing the human, however, seemed to glint in sympathy.
The blond hair - long since groomed - was pulled into a ponytail of a rather impatient formation. Roots as almost the shade, if not darker, of the area under his eyes peeked from his scalp, under which the complex of nerves throbbed severely.
Needless to say, in him, feeling self-conscious could easily be outweighed by the image of a bedridden child and the content the letter inside the envelope conveyed.
Kang Jiu was a quite a lucky girl who surmounted death by a narrow margin at birth. Two dreadfully long hours of postnatal when Yeosang was unable to do anything else but stand outside of the MRI room and pray for the better while the specialists were performing a scan on his daughter was how parenthood began for him.
And he could see the pattern of the past overlapping in the present.
After three years, the hole in the child's heart they deemed to have reached a complete closure after a few weeks of monitoring had enlarged again. The cause was unknown. According to the doctor, if Taehyun hadn't rushed to the hospital immediately that day, something Yeosang didn't dare to imagine would've happened.
Not long after that, as Yeosang had foreseen, consequences trailed after him like dark shadows in the name of scant health insurance and an overdrawn account.
He had stopped going to the cafe since then to pay attention to his main source of income. If only sales hadn't been too dull to make things work...
After tying himself here without a single window-shopper coming, the last ray of hope that could instantly solve his problems eventually hit Yeosang - the remaining half of the commission fee.
That fact forced him to fend off the invisible hands that kept pushing his sanity across the border and to cultivate patience for this particular client who should be bringing the bag in person. Only then could he eliminate the rest of the defaulted payment to that old hag. The 25th passed in a blink of his eyes, and soon enough, Mrs Shim's generous "warnings" came to torture his wits.
Not being able to be with his daughter in her most fragile state most pulled every string of his heart so much that it nearly snapped.
ꔛ♡
San's hunches were wrong.
And it pissed Jongho because of all times that could get wrong, the very first had to be something that involved the blond singer.
Neither did Yeosang call nor message him throughout the days following his sudden absence.
Jongho itched to call because he was the one left hanging, both literally and figuratively. Still, his conscience to maintain social boundaries held him down. An emergency leave must only involve some sort of personal issues. If the other person had figured them out, he would've been given a call for a proper explanation.
To distract himself from his frustration with his now delayed work-in-progress (and because he didn't want to blame Yeosang for it), Jongho kept himself busy during the five days with anything outside his studio. Even that meant refreshing his red hair dye, visiting the bank, or even being a delivery boy for his father.
Did Jongho mention that not only was his father a wine connoisseur but also biased a certain predatory mammal with whiskers?? He could see where the idea for the second character of his name and the first of his brother's originated from.
{*Both characters mean ‹tiger›}
It appeared Mr Choi's spiritual connection to Beom's and Ho's had developed to the extent of squandering money for a handcrafted model of it. Jongho couldn't help raising both his brows at his fussy old man's decision not to order it abroad from the 'greatest' whatsoever artists but from a domestic store.
Since the pick-up location happened to be around the neighboring ward of his apartment, Jongho volunteered to take up the duty, only for the sake of distraction.
Letting GPS take the wheel, unsurprisingly, he got lost as soon as he left his neighborhood. The confident mistake to take a detour from the main road to avoid traffic led him to go up one slope of street and down another without getting anywhere.
Before the labyrinth of houses drove him insane, Jongho somehow reached the goddamn market street. Thankfully, it went easier from there as he safely pulled over to the second shop from the corner.
In Jongho's opinion, the craftsman in question had chosen a bad spot for his business, or maybe because he didn't want to admit he found it difficult to get there.
A peculiar name was engraved into the polished wooden board put up on the brick roof.
'Kang~latea', eh?
When his curious gaze swept down the sign, Jongho flinched at a person's silhouette inside that was partly obscured by the sunlight. His Apple watch told him he'd made the shopkeeper wait during that fifteen minutes of a fruitless detour. He scurried quickly, not forgetting his mask and the printed voucher Mr Choi's assistant relayed to him.
A mild blend of raw wood, acrylic paint and diffused incense wafted through the pores of his mask as soon as the door let him in. Engulfed in a soft yellow light emitted by the single chandelier, in contrast to the bright outdoors, the room put a relief to his eyes.
The indistinct tinkling of the metal windchime shook the distracted shopkeeper awake to let him notice that the visitor wore a mask and had a familiar hair color akin to ripe, flavorful cherries.
Amid exchanging confused stares, Yeosang's dehydrated lips parted but not a syllable fell readily.
"Yeosang-ssi?" The other man broke the silence first, ridding the mask off his face.
"This is your shop?"
Yeosang nodded as how a person being put into a hypnotic state would do.
"Wow..." was all Jongho could utter in response to Fate's doings. His delight was replaced with worry when he witnessed the shocking difference between this Yeosang and Yeosang from days before.
The blond man who had his hair up was still handsome albeit pale and disorderly, the checkered cardigan hanging too loose on his thin frame as if it couldn't be bothered to give the body warmth properly. The word 'effortless' might probably even denote a negative to describe the look.
"Are you... all right?"
Preoccupied with the illusions his sleep-deprivation had created, it took Yeosang a couple of blinks to shift his focus to reality, where the bubbling volcano lava he saw was actually just Jongho's hair.
"Ah, right, um..." the blond removed a shedded strand near his eye. "Feeling a bit under the weather is all. What brings you here?"
Whether or not a lie, Jongho nodded it off first to explain his arrival, apologizing for not being punctual as well.
"Did you make this?" Jongho trailed along the carved texture of the ruff and the smooth outlining of the anatomy.
"Yes."
While the artisan examined the voucher, Jongho went through the amount of cash he needed to pay, struggling a little because it had been a while since he'd counted money in the advancing digital age. For a moment he thought he was conducting some illegal trade.
"Hmm, you have the correct voucher but if I'm not mistaken, the order is reserved under the name, Yunbae Han. I assume you don't have any alias?" Yeosang looked up.
"I just happened to help out a friend - he's been caught up in work so he couldn't come pick it up himself," affirmed Jongho, determined not to simply say his father's secretary was the one to order it.
Yeosang hummed and checked the amount in the case thoroughly before letting out a heavy sigh and marking the voucher as 'paid'. Amid the procedure, Jongho counted how many times the artisan's eyes drooped shut on their accord, more than ten but less than fifteen.
No matter how many times he looked at this newborn-sized statue, it was evident those veiny pair of hands worked down to the last detail. Now he knew why his old man placed the order here.
"Oh, um, since we've uh, sealed the deal, would you like it to be packed?"
"It's okay, I'll keep it safe in my backseat."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. I'll make sure to deliver this masterpiece to its owner intact."
Something that was weighing the other down seemed to have lifted off visibly as the blond revealed his little charming canines for the first time.
"I should be apologizing you actually, you know... for running off at work. Not a very ideal first impression, right?"
"Nonsense! Things can happen at any time, of course, I understand."
Despite his initial frustration for the incident, Jongho didn't want Yeosang to be hung up on guilt for such things.
"So the shop name... It's actually genius if you think about it."
"I'm glad you get the idea. That was chosen by my father - he was the true founder of this business."
"I see."
Then Mr Kang did have a son mesmerising enough to think he got a blessing from Aphrodite herself... Jongho's inner voice sang as he took a nice look of the room.
Centering the reception counter, figurines and wire sculptures of varying sizes fanned out across the room, taking up the small tables and shelves. A couple of bronze and marble busts free of price tags were laid in between, complimenting the vintage, flowery wallpaper. The space wasn't much, but still outdid his cramped apartment.
Yeosang's fingers subconsciously untied the rubber band from his hair to tidy it, unaware of the dissociation of his idea of being okay to be unpresentable.
"Sorry, it's quite a shambles, by the way. Haven't cleaned in here for a week since customers rarely comes in here these days."
A door covered in plastic straps in the corner opposite the entrance, which Jongho believed to lead to where the creations took place since he didn't spot a single crafting tool lying around outside.
"Don't worry about it. It's quite like the owner. Simple and elegant."
Only after hearing a mumbled 'thanks' did Jongho realized what he blurted, nonetheless he saw no need to take it back.
When he was about to tell the shopkeeper to rest well and leave, the weird atmosphere between them was flipped pretty quickly by the shrill of the wind chime.
"Welcom- Why are you here?"
Yeosang's demeanor changed and his honorifics ceased when a group of visitors barged in unbidden.
The condescending grin on one of the four men in cheaply tailored suits heralded nothing short of good news. As bizzare as their honored ally that sent them here, those patterns underneath the blazers almost made Yeosang never want to open his eyes again.
"You should've listened to Madam's warnings unless you wanna see us again, aye shopowner Kang? Or should I say, insolvent Kang?"
In the presence of a client, Yeosang decided to be anything but too pathetic to stand his ground firmly against this hairless guy, or Dongguk, whom he already encountered a few times before.
"The money is on the way. There's no need to bring people and make a fuss here."
Dongguk scoffed. "Oh, we playing tough now? Man... it's becoming really annoying to repeat myself over and over. You know the drill - things ain't gonna change once we step in."
Nails dug deep into the wool of his hanging sleeve, Yeosang responded, calmly.
"That's why I said, go back. I'll make a transfer to your Madam right now."
"Too bad. We're already here and won't leave without having our work done."
The bald man shoved a paper into the blond's chest on which printed the ''warrant'' to practice violence before nodding at his underlings as they began whirling a storm inside the shop.
"No, wait! Don't!"
The handmade goods on the shelves crashed down like dominos, some of the transparent ones disintegrating thousandfold at the contact with the floor.
"Stop it!"
The blond's attempts couldn't keep the second vase with artificial blossoms from shattering. Sizing up the situation, Jongho's fuse was cut short by the over-the-top method of "doing their jobs" that were nowhere near rational.
"That's enough!"
With a precise aim, Jongho manhandled the hand that almost landed on Yeosang so that its owner would collide with the other man who just knocked down a whole table.
He snatched the paper given to the blond and strode up to the leader right after tripping the last henchman.
"Hey baldy, how much did your Madam pay you for this deed?"
The sudden intervention didn't give Yeosang a chance to stop Jongho.
"That's not really your business, redhead," spat Dongguk.
Defending the sold-out carving on the counter with his whole body, Yeosang watched Jongho fish out a pen and a slip from his wallet and write something on it before showing it to Dongguk.
"This should be more than enough to cancel your Madam's forceful collection."
Dongguk raised a brow at the paper in question, "and how can I even tell that it's legit?"
"Bottom right corner - see for yourself."
Dongguk's monolid eyes scanned the cheque up and down before they widened and swept down the cherry head who was a couple of inches shorter than him.
"Since you've confirmed, kindly take it and get out before I call the police. Consider your job here done." Jongho then neatly ripped the warrant paper in four ways and crumbled it.
Dongguk withdrew his glare as he shoved the slip into his coat. "Oi, get up, losers. Mission accomplished."
He turned his head to sneer at Jongho's direction before the group was gone for good.
"Nice save, chaebol boy."
Jongho almost rolled his eyes at that cursed name that he's heard everywhere before remembering that Yeosang was still there. All alarms in his head went off as he broke out in a cold sweat.
Before even having the time to cook up a believable excuse, Jongho rushed to the latter when he saw a drop of blood, then a stream, seep out of Yeosang nostrils.
"Oh my God! Are you hurt??" He pulled some tissues out of the wooden cube on the reception counter and aided the blond.
"Yeah, one moment." Flipping his head up, Yeosang excused himself and staggered through the plastic curtains and disappeared.
Some minutes later, he came back nice and clean on the face but wet around the shirt collar. Noticing the concern on the cherry-haired man's face, Yeosang felt slightly obliged to lessen it.
"I wasn't hurt. It's just stress."
He wasn't expecting to multiply it when the frown grew deeper. Yeosang sniffed the last drop of blood back in and rushed to change the topic.
"Earlier, it wasn't really necessary for you to be involved."
"It's no big deal. Those thugs wouldn't shut up unless they're handled that way."
The more Yeosang stared at him without further words, the more Jongho started to shift on his feet and couldn't help but laugh awkwardly.
"By the way, I wrote ₩70,000 on that cheque."
"Seventy wha- That's more than twice the overdue! You might as well take everything you find valuable from here then," lamented the artisan.
"How can I when they're all like this?" Jongho jutted at chin at the pile of mess open for a tripping hazard.
"Oh, right."
Jongho couldn't keep himself from breaking his deadpan character when the blond man was striving seriously for a resolution.
"A fake signature does the trick. Plus, I've recently switched banks so..." The cherry-haired man sported a teasing grin, "what? You thought I'd let them profit from their outrage? I'm not that heartless of a bystander, you know."
In disbelief, Yeosang let out a breath and hid his mouth behind his fingers. A glint of humour finally seemed to reach to his eyes, like honey glazing over rich, dark chocolates - quite endearing to behold.
It's a shame those minuscule giggles never lasted long, so far Jongho had observed.
"Regardless, it only turned into me gaining another one to be beholden to," smiled Yeosang, "except that you're a lot nicer than that old hag to make it bearable. Oh, speaking of her, do you mind waiting here for a little while?"
"Sure. Go ahead."
Jongho sat on the stool Yeosang got for him before leaving outside to the convenience store across the street.
Unable to sit still after perusing the battlefield of a room, Jongho got up to restore the ruins to order one by one, starting with the knocked down table. The word 'nicer' reverberating around him and each time becoming more melodious than the one before.
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Same day, 3:29PM
11F, HYBE Group
Mentally, Taehyun wasn't present at the office today.
He knew he wasn't supposed turn into this already within the first week of work, but for the fifth time so far, he had found himself straying to his brother and his niece.
And one of those realizations were the farthest from pleasant.
"Oi intern, the Devil's Incarnation's looking for ya!"
"God damn, how can you screw up such simple thing, you twot?!"
As clear as crystal, Taehyun came upon their team's inside joke about their honored chief and the origin of that nickname during the same span of minutes.
Let alone being "even-tempered" as he claimed, Choi Beomgyu used him as an outlet for his stress merely for getting him the incorrect kind of milk that he surely wouldn't die if he consumed in his frigging mocha latte. And if he were to die, then why didn't he make it clear in the first place so Taehyun could save time finding actual poison to put in it? Just saying.
After getting the identical treatment himself, Taehyun could now sympathize with the slaves from the Joseon era because let's be real, even if he was as equally stressed as Choi, hierarchy didn't allow him to do as he pleases and splash the steaming coffee that had the wrong milk at that nuisance anyway.
As the brunet got out of the pantry balancing a tray of mugs for everyone in the team, they had already moved on to a different topic of discussion which was presented by Soobin.
"...since they'll take responsibility for what has happened, our solid focus is to bring our products back in a positive light and regain our customers' trust," concluded the Deputy Head.
"Couldn't agree more with you, sir. In order for this launch to get positive feedback from the majority-"
Collective judgmental stares fell upon the intern when the melodic voice of a male chimed loudly from his pocket and his hand serving the last cup jolted in surprise that a couple of drops jump across the brim to land onto Kai's hand.
"My God! Don't you know smartphones must be on vibrate when you're in a meeting??" scolded the Section Chief, peeved by the interruption, shaking his head at how Huening Kai mouthed a yelp before wiping it off.
"I'm terribly sorry sir, and juim-nim!" bowed the intern continuously before pinching the tray under his arm to take his phone out and mute it.
After ditching the tray somewhere, Taehyun joined the table at his designated corner near the head seat - mind you, he's required to be as near as possible to his "mentor" at work for learning purposes - apologizing to Kai again for his clumsiness.
Haechan gave the stink eye to the newbie before clearing his throat to proceed his disrupted presentation.
"As I was saying, in order to do so, I think we also need to improvise come-ons and special offers as much as possible - people tend to fall for them 10/10 times. And also ---"
Why is hyung calling me at work? He knows I'm at the company, right? So was it by accident? Did something happen???
Preoccupied with shaking off the bad vibes brought by the call, Taehyun failed to notice Beomgyu's stare affixed to him particularly or the nuance in the latter's unreadable face.
"I see our Intern Kang seems to be lost in thoughts there. Do you perhaps have something to add? You know we're open to suggestions."
"Huh?"
When Taehyun got off of his train of thoughts, he saw Beomgyu doing his typical head tilt that ought to bring bad news.
As if a desert had prospered inside his mouth, he moistened his lips to attempt licking off his anxiety that thrived on the attention he received.
"Well, I- uh... I think... I think it'll be better if we add some ASMR sound effects to the product so we can attract players that are all about sensory aesthetics, yes?"
Once again, collective judgmental stares were cast upon him, except the intensity was incomparably higher this time than the last. Across the table, Huening Kai mouthed a few words slowly with a dismayed face.
'You did not just...' was what his friend said, making Taehyun visibly aware that he effed up for the third time today.
On his right, although Taehyun actually preferred to receive another string of insults with foreign undertones, strangely the person who asked him the question seemed to be struggling to refrain from pure entertainment.
With the most neutral expression right after a slip of a 'pft', the team-jang nodded.
"A belated but useful suggestion, I see. But good job, I'll make sure it reach the developers in Design."
The eagle-eyed Lee gwajang was rendered speechless at the scene that unfolded too fast for him to comprehend. Numerous why's, mainly why the rookie wasn't told off for being distracted as he was supposed to be, were flaming within the man.
Taehyun showed the kind of smile a civil employee who's all about getting paid would dispense, his dimple sinking into his cheek while his eyes remained humourless, when he thought his ass was safe owing to Beomgyu's leniency.
"Although!" the noirette continued, "I'm afraid they won't be able to tell what type of sounds you want unless you show them some examples."
Just when Taehyun was about to agree to looking up for videos on youtube, he almost choked at the seven follow-up words.
"Say, how about just make them yourself?"
The pen Huening Kai was twirling between his legs under the table slipped and fell like a bomb down the city named 'awkward silence'.
"... I beg your pardon?"
"I said you make the sample sounds that you think would go well with the game, so that we can save more time."
"Sorry, what? You want me to record them myself?"
The young chief hummed.
"Precisely. Say, how about getting onto it after the meeting?"
Haechan almost shouted "Eureka!" when he put two and two together, gazing upon his boss with mad respect. Truly the representation of the Devil in the flesh!
On the other hand, getting his shit together, Taehyun refused with confidence.
"I'm afraid I don't have the equipments necessar-"
"I'll request a permission to borrow from Team Six- they've just bought a whole kit for a shoot a few weeks ago. Nothing's going to lack."
Once again, the dimple bloomed when having faced a crisis.
"I don't mean to go against you but I've never done ASMR in my-"
"There's a first for everything, intern. You came here to hone your skills, didn't you?"
Will you stop being so difficult, you demanding dipshit?!
"Yes certainly, but-"
"Then this task is a good obstacle to overcome. Oh and we're having dinner today so you've got the work cut out for you. Have it done by 5:30."
If only Choi knew (oh Taehyun's damn sure he knew)... the only obstacle he'd yet to overcome was actually him and just him.
Since Beomgyu exercised his superiority till the very end, Taehyun was forced to put up the white flag.
Of course, a long day is still gonna be a long day when you work for the epitome of tyranny, who am I even kidding??
Never was a single flash of inspiration in Beomgyu of giving him hell not untimely. And as for Taehyun, never was he not a better stress-reliever above anything else for Beomgyu.
When I tell you, a more perfect match had since never been made in the furnace of inferno, it wasn't an exaggeration.
~ End of Doom's Arc ~
⋆┈┈｡ﾟ❃ུ۪ ❁ུ۪ ❃ུ۪ ﾟ｡┈┈⋆
Viola! the title said it all folks~ it's the clichéd ✨Rescuing the Damsel-in-Distress✨ (or preferably, damsel-in-debt) scenario in kdramas bc why not am i rite?
I reckon you should look forward to the hweshik 👀
and don't worry, anything but death will happen to the child ^^
also we proudly worship Brit sadist gyu in the household 🛐
lastly, I'm sorry for not being able to find an accurate pic (or any pic at all) for yeo's shop guess you'll have to use your imagination 🤧