"There was a walk-in client who wanted to book for an appointment," he began, "everything was fine until he removed the scarf covering his face..."
"What's wrong with his face, babe?" Changbin asked this time, the others getting goosebumps at what Hyunjin was explaining.
"He looked exactly like Felix." Hyunjin finally said, taking everyone aback, all shivered at what he said, "I know that it sound crazy, but the freckles, the eyes- it's Felix, guys! He's Felix."
"Did he introduce himself to you before revealing his face?" Jisung asked, hoping to find anything that made sense.
"Daleun..." Hyunjin softly muttered, then he mustered up all the courage he could collect and repeated, "His name is Lee Daleun."
"The new admin?" Minho questioned in disbelief.
"Hyunjin, you too?!" Changbin wailed in despair, holding his head in his hands.
"What do you mean 'me too'?" Hyunjin yelled in offense, "I know what I saw! His voice is deep as I remembered, he has the same face but he has lost a bit of weight, his hair is bleached, and his face - freckles! Each and every one intact!"
Jisung rolled his eyes and groaned in frustration, "I'll go and check for myself," he said as he turned his heels to head for the stairs, "if Hyunjin thinks he saw Felix down there, I might as well see him for myself too."
Minho quickly grabbed Jisung by the wrist in order to stop him. Changbin and Hyunjin were still bickering in the background.
"Are you crazy?" Minho protested to Jisung's actions, the younger male trying to pry his way out of Minho's grasp, "You can't just suddenly go downstairs and try to inspect what the Lee Daleun looks like!"
"Let go of me!" Jisung escaped Minho's grasp and ran for the stairs, Minho tailing him. "I need to know if Daleun is just a lookalike or the real Felix with a different name."
As Jisung set his feet at the bottom of the stairs, he walked swiftly to the tinted glass door that led to the shop, and lo and behold, there he was. Lee Daleun, still browsing for a tattoo.
"Impossible," Minho softly gasped under his breath, thinking that his own eyes were deceiving him.
"I don't believe it either," Jisung whispered in reply, "go entertain him, he probably found a tattoo that he likes, make sure he's real."
"Hyunjin is in charge with the entertaining and the talking," Minho argued, he wasn't just going out to talk to Daleun out of nowhere. "I can't just walk up to him instead of Hyunjin doing it- Besides- I'm not good at talking to people!"
"Just figure something out already!" Jisung demanded as he ushered Minho out the door.
As soon as the door closed with a small creak and click, Daleun looked up at Minho curiously.
"Found what you want?" Minho asked, controlling his voice to not shake in the process, a forced smile nailed to his face.
Daleun nodded with a narrow smile, "Yes," he said, voice deep and as identical with Felix's, "I'd like this one, please," he requested as he pointed at Chan's minimalist compass tattoo sample, "I'd also like to schedule for next Friday, is that alright?"
Minho hummed and picked up Chan's portfolio in order to take out the sample of his tattoo to be scanned.
"I'm sorry if Hyunjin couldn't be here now," Minho said while the image was being scanned, "he went to take a call from his sister," he explained, inserting a white lie, then he proceeded to type down the schedule, Daleun's assigned tattoo artist and Daleun's name.
"You people are fine if you kept this a secret?" Daleun asked nervously, "I just really snuck out of the palace to make it here," he explained.
"Yeah, no - yeah," Minho replied, he then printed the information, noticing just now that he doesn't have an accent like Felix did as he remembered, "just so you know, we are good in keeping secrets, as long as you don't tell Taeyong that some of the gladiators that reside here are working part time," he said, to which Daleun nodded, and so Minho posted the image on the schedule chart that was on the wall behind him, "your tattoo artist is gonna be a guy named Bang Chan, I bet you've seen him in action at the Amphitheater earlier today."
Daleun nodded at the realization, "Oh, yes, yes," he answered with a shy smile, "he is very, very interesting," he added.
"Indeed, he is," Minho replied, picking up a calling card from the drawer to give it to Daleun, "here is a calling card, call us if you have any remarks for the appointment."
"Yes, I will call," nodded Daleun with much enthusiasm, lips stretching into a smile, "thank you." Daleun bowed as he put his scarf on, followed by his hoodie.
"You're welcome," the older male replied as he watched Daleun exit the shop.
Minho huffed out the oxygen that he didn't know he was holding in until now. Jisung quickly ran out the door that lead to their shared apartment and he stood beside Minho, equally as shocked.
As Daleun exited the shop and took a right into an empty alley, he accidentally bumped into someone, a young lady who was carrying a basket of assorted fruits, the citrus fruits were rolling away, but Daleun quickly helped the lass.
"I'm sorry," he briefly apologized as he swiftly collected the lemons and oranges, "I didn't look where I was going," he explained further as he fixed his scarf.
Abruptly, pain struck his head as he had properly laid his eyes on the female. He groaned and hissed in pain, one hand holding his head as he gently tugged on his hair, in hopes that it could help make the pain go away.
But then a sudden surge of memories flashed before his eyes, putting him in a trance.
"Bok, you know I can deal with this on my own, right?" He heard the voice echo in his head, the face of the lass he just bumped into came to view, "You don't really need to help me."
"Are you sure?" He heard his own voice this time, only he sounded different. "Those seem heavy."
"I can manage," the lass replied.
Another image flashed - fruits were rolling down the street, people screaming and gasping followed and a panicked car horn erupted, only to take Daleun back to his own senses.
"Are you alright?"
"Y-Yeah," Daleun exhaled, still feeling the slight pain that the sudden headache brought to him. He leaned his back onto the wall and took deep breaths.
That was the fifth flashback, although it brought back more questions than answers to Daleun. Glancing over confusingly at the stranger with the fruits basket, he raised his brows at her and started asking.
"Why are you still here?"
The lass flinched, eyes casted down to the concrete path.
"I just wanted to make sure you're alright," she timidly answered, her head still hung low as she stole glances from Daleun.
"Well, thank you for looking out for me," Daleun said with a smile as he shook the lass' hand, but he felt his heart drop the slightest as he remembered that he was covering half of his face, "your name? So that I can remember your face as much I remember your name."
"My name is Chaewon," the lass said with a polite and brief bow, having Daleun notice the servant symbol on the girl's arm.
"You work for the government center?" He whispered, brows meeting in concern, "Are they treating you well?"
"I wouldn't say they are, but if it's to keep the family alive," Chaewon replied with a forced smile, Daleun could see all the endured pain and fatigue behind the smile, all he could feel that moment was pity.
"Chaewon..." Daleun fished out some money from his satchel, before taunting to hand it to Chaewon, "here, take this."
Chaewon stepped back in refusal, shaking her head vehemently, cheeks flaring in embarrassment. "You're too kind, but I would accept your money, however I don't take money from strangers."
"I'm not a stranger," Daleun replied as he stepped closer to Chaewon and took her hand in order for him to give the money to the lass, "I know you..." Daleun slightly hesitated to say that, then he asserted, "perhaps, we both know each other."
Chaewon smiled warmly at Daleun and tucked the money into the pocket of her long servant skirt.
"Thank you," she said with a bow.
"I best be off," Daleun announced before taking long strides through the alley, "I'll see you another time, Chaewon."
As Daleun walked further into the darkness, Chaewon's eyes followed him until his figure disappeared into the dimly lit alley. The young man's manner at how he took leisure steps reminded Chaewon of someone, she knew that walk all too well as well as the voice that the man owned, but she brushed it off as it may be a coincidence that Felix had the same behavior as another person.
Chaewon proceeded into the shop and was about to greet the men, but was met with Hyunjin sobbing while somehow arguing with Changbin, his words were intangible due to his sobbing. The others were there, trying to comfort Hyunjin as much as Changbin was already doing.
The first person to notice Chaewon entering the shop was Jisung, the male approached Chaewon, he smiled at her and politely took the fruits basket from her.
"What's going on?" Chaewon whispered to Jisung, still in the dark of what happened inside the shop while she was finishing some chores.
"You might want to sit down for this one." Said Jisung before he turned the 'we are open' signage to 'we are closed'. He then went to the desk and placed the fruits basket there before settling at the lounging area of the shop, everyone was settled on a chair or standing up, in the background, all that everyone heard was Hyunjin's silent sobs and Changbin's whispers of apology and admittance of his action.
"So, as some of you aren't aware of, Hyunjin is crying not because he just had a fight with Changbin," Jisung slowly explained as Minho and he were standing in front of the throng, "he saw someone who looked like Felix, and who goes by the name Lee Daleun."
Hyunjin then proceeded everything that happened to him, then Minho and Jisung both justified that Hyunjin wasn't just seeing things and made a follow-up of information that Daleun did look like Felix.
Gaho and Jakob then arrived, bags of food in their hands, but confused facial expressions drawn on their faces. With that, Minho filled them in with what happened while they were gone.
"Felix is Daleun?" Chaewon whispered to herself as she stared off into the void. Jeongin was beside her and heard what she first whispered to herself, "It can't be..."
"I know that I always hoped that Felix would be back, but..." Jeongin sighed before he continued, "but if it really is true, then maybe what Gaho saw was a misunderstanding."
"It can't be!" They both crane their heads to the direction of Gaho's voice, hysterical and in utmost confusion, "I saw it! I saw it with my own two eyes!"
"Then what do you think what we saw was?!" Hyunjin yelled back, "There are three witnesses! Triple the evidence to prove that whatever you saw was a misunderstanding!"
"Then go and ask Taeyong for yourselves!" Gaho growled, "I saw his men aim for Felix's head and they shot him! How else would I ever consider that Felix did die that day?!"
"Enough!" Chan yelled, making everyone quiet down, "I think everyone needs to take a break from whatever happened tonight, Hyunjin, close the shop early, Seungmin, pay Jeno and Jaemin their daily pays and close the clinic, we're going to rest early."
Everyone agreed to Chan's suggestion, Chaewon, Gaho and Jakob went to set the table for dinner, Seungmin and Jeongin went to close the clinic early, Hyunjin and Changbin, with a bit of help from Minho and Jisung, closed the shop, while the others started cleaning up the interior of the shop. No words of exchange were made, just a heavy and uncomfortable silence covered their atmosphere. Yet there were so many questions running in everyone's heads, yelling and screeching, all hungry for answers, logical explanations to make everything make sense.
Everyone had no mental state to check out the package that Taeyong had sent them, their mind were too occupied between thinking and trying to understand the events earlier and going to sleep.
Changbin stood at the doorway as he watched Hyunjin prepare for bed. The crimson haired male's eyes were puffy and reddish from all the crying, and he was still sniffing and sighing. Changbin couldn't help but feel utter guilt for losing his composure is front of Hyunjin earlier, for indirectly calling him crazy, an equal to Chan and Jeongin.
He wanted to say sorry, like he usually does, but what he did tonight, what he said, was far more painful than the faults he had in the past.
"Babe?" Changbin croaked, stepping into the room and shutting the door.
He saw Hyunjin freeze in the middle of fluffing the pillows for a short second, then he continued on, not answering.
"I'm so sorry for yelling at you like that." Changbin whispered, reaching out to Hyunjin's hand.
"Not the time, Changbin," Hyunjin yanked his hand away from Changbin's grasp, a bit of venom in his choice of tone, "we need rest... I need rest."
Hyunjin lied down on his side of the bed, eyes never looking at Changbin, back facing his boyfriend.
"Can we just talk?" Changbin whispered as he sat down at the edge of the bed.
"You weren't so good on that either," Hyunjin groaned.
With a sigh, Changbin lied down, facing Hyunjin's back. He slowly snaked his arm around as if to embrace the younger male and pecked his cheek.
"I already told you, I'm so sorry for yelling at you and for indirectly calling you insane," Changbin whispered, and he could feel Hyunjin sobbing again, "I'm just as shocked as you are and I didn't know how to deal with what you told us, but now, I believe you, and I don't care how annoying it is to keep telling you this, but I will keep apologizing as much as until I will get your forgiveness and until I won't feel guilty anymore."
Hyunjin's sobs stopped as he sighed, he then turned around to face Changbin, face stained with new and warm tears.
"I still fucking hate you, you know," Hyunjin said, a tad humor in his tone.
Changbin kissed Hyunjin on the forehead and pulled him close, "I know, baby, I know, I've been a real jerk. I'm sorry."
▂ ▃ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ █ ▇ ▆ ▅ ▄ ▃ ▂
Moti had been pacing around Daleun's room, worried, antsy is even an understatement to how heavy he was feeling for the man that was out of the palace walls. He looked out of the edge of the balcony again for a sign that Daleun was back, but to no avail. No mysterious figure in a raggedy cloak, or even a figure trying to climb up the walls.
Moti sat at the balcony and waited by the makeshift rope, leg bouncing in his extreme anxiety, and as he looked down, he saw Daleun, struggling to climb up.
"Daleun!" He whisper-shouted, jolting up to his feet, "Hurry up!"
Daleun let out an exasperated huff as he rolled his eyes, his hood slipping off of his head as he struggled in his attempt to climb, "Help me up!"
Moti quickly pulled Daleun up to the balcony, once Daleun had set foot on the balcony, his head suddenly started to hurt so bad as a sudden surge of memories flashed before his eyes. A flash of images appeared before his eyes like a movie on fast forward. All the flashbacks showing him nine blurred faces.
"You're so dead, freckle boy!" A short boy let go of a taller boy and picked up a handful of mud, throwing it at Daleun, but he was quick to dodge it.
"Mud fight!" One of the the, yelled and he picked up a handful of mud, hitting the shortest blurred figured and the tallest at the same time.
"Felix, you're a lifesaver!"
Another flashback, his head started to hurt before he could conjure up questions of the flashback, having Daleun curl up on the floor, groaning in agony.
"Hey," A blurry figure, somehow paler looking than the rest, awkwardly greeted, "good morning, Felix, sunshine."
Then all of a sudden, the blurred faces revealed themselves, having Daleun gasping in shock and confusion as he continued to suffer the pain that his head has been giving him.
Suddenly, everything went dark.
"Daleun? Daleun?" Moti tried to shake Daleun, but no response, "Help! Help! The president's cousin has lost consciousness!"