#PLEASE GOD ONE CHANCE ELO-HIM I BEG

[boxwinebaddie]

jk really needed his own playlist i’m sorry ( it’s a wip )

[khiphopfrictionals]

Ten Toes Down: (1/10) Gray Scenario AU

Ten Toes Down

//

‘Sunghwa,“ A voice calls out as the figure approaches him.

He recognizes her and walks toward her. He stretches out his arm to reach her. Before he could touch her, he hears gunshot being fired – bang, bang, bang. She goes falling down blood covering her chest.

‘Sunghwa!’ He hears her scream, ‘Sunghwa!’

With that, Sunghwa jolts up from his nightmare, sweat soaking through his shirt as he breaths heavily. He rubs his face and touches his wet tears – however, he feels numb to all of his surroundings. He falls back onto his bed, closing his eyes but images of her keeps on coming.

He wonders when the heavens will forgive him for all the sins he committed. But who was he kidding? How many lives have died at his hands?

Countless.

It’s too late to beg the gods to pardon him now.  

//

Many people dubs New York as the city that never sleeps – clearly, they haven’t been to Seoul.

You arrived in Seoul, Korea three years ago as a lost soul and an outsider. It was a struggle to find a place to live and a job but you somehow managed to survive. Till this day, you don’t know exactly what captivated you to this city.

Perhaps it’s because of your mom. Your mom always spoke of Seoul as a beautiful place – and the people as kind as they can be. You do not doubt any of that. However, you do not find Seoul to be as beautiful as how your mom described it.

Nonetheless, you feel closer to her here than ever – and that’s why you came to Seoul, right? You want to find a place to call home again.

Look around at the flashing lights; you realize that you can never get tired of this sight. Flipping your wrist up to glance at the time, five minutes till 9pm and at this rate you will probably be late.

You hurriedly walk pass the flashing neon signs that caught your attention earlier as if they didn’t catch your interest at all in the first place.

//

“Boss, where to?” The driver asks, looking into the rear mirror.

“Just drive.” Sunghwa commands as he stares out the window.

The street of Seoul has changed a lot through the years –he should know, he grew up on these streets. Sure, Seoul has become a modern city – and every modern city has its model citizens to distract from the unruly underworld.

Sunghwa wishes he’s a part of the latter but he chose this life long ago.

As the car drives on, Sunghwa watches the streetlights dance passes him through his window. Every now and then, he’ll lock his gaze on a figure walking, talking on their phone perhaps, and laughing with friends perhaps. His gaze would not last long as he losses interest in them quickly.

When the car comes to a standstill at a red light, Sunghwa watches the people on the crosswalk but focusing on no one in particular. As the crowd on the crosswalk dies down, a female figure quickly jogs cross –and Sunghwa just happens to catch a glance of her face.

His eyes follow her figure until he could no longer do so as she disappears into the crowd. It’s like he just saw a ghost of his past.

“Turn.” He barks at the driver.

He feels a sense of relief when he catches sight of her again. She looks like her –the woman that still haunts his dreams. He watches her take a turn to a one way street and the panic of losing her sets in.

“Stop,” Sunghwa commands and before the car could arrive to a complete stop he’s already out of the door. He feels the blood pumping through his veins as he runs down the street toward the direction where he last saw her.  

His eyes focus hard, trying to pick her out from the crowd. When he spots hers, he sees her entering a bar.

//

“Don’t look but someone’s checking you out.” The bartender whispers conspicuously while still wiping off a glass. “The last booth, on the left.” He says.

You wish to have the nerve to confidently snap your head back to take a look, but really, this is the last thing you need right now – to have some drunkard ogling at you in this shithole. But curiosity always kill the cat so you just submissively turned around in the pointed direction.

The guy is, well, dark, because the lights are dimmed and it’s his only clearly visible trait. A comb over, with a face smooth like a baby’s bottom. To your surprise, the guy is a total babe and could ogle at you all he wants, shithole or not.

The man catches your eyes with his smoldering orbs and that is when you become aware of the fact that you’re staring –straight at the shadowed stranger.

Shaking your head and flushing up, you return to your beer and gulps it down in one swing. You put your bottle so that it reflects what is happening in the left booth and resume eating and talking at a leisure pace with the bartender.

The bartender shouts something at the man and he stands up. You turn your head, just a millimeter so that you could follow the man’s movements.

He is tall, jackpot you think to yourself. He’s wearing dark trousers and a white shirt that accentuated his form. And the way the guy moves! He’s obviously completely out of his element in this shithole bar, yet he manages to appear absolutely at ease, despite the manner in which his eyes darts from one corner to another. You would never even dream of looking that self-confident.

Then the man somehow escapes from your field of vision. You, desperate not to lose him, whips your head around to scan the other side of the bar for him. Suddenly, you heard a flat, “Fuck!”

You spin around only to see the dark stranger just next to you and the bartender eyeing the peanuts rolling on the floor. The guy is just trying to take his peanuts and clearly planning on sitting next to you when you knocked a plate of peanuts out of his hands.

“I’m so sorry,” You mumble out your most frequently used line but this time you truly wish with all your heart to be forgiven, “I didn’t see you.”

“You’ve got a good aim then,” the stranger says.

You grin, hoping to warm him up to yourself.

“I’m really sorry,” it takes every ounce of your control not to openly gape at the man. Up close he’s even more handsome.

“I’m ___,” you blurt out, extending your hand.

The man smirks as he takes your hand. You blushes.

“Sunghwa.” The man says.

“Sunghwa,” You repeat after the man.

“No one calls me by my given name.” The comment makes you tilt your head to look at the not-so-strange stranger. Not his eyes, mind you, but his chest. His subtly rising and falling chest, mirroring the beats of your heart.

“Wh-what do they call you?” You licked your lips and all but squeaked at the sight of a small crystal stud in the man’s ear.

“Gray,” the name comes out emphatically as the man watches your reaction carefully. When you give him no reaction in particular, he continues, “My… coworkers, you could say, calls me that. However, you can call me Sunghwa if you like.”

“Well, I’m not your co-worker,” you smile a little, “That is, I work at The Reds so unless they’ve done some employing since this morning…”

“The Reds?”

You couldn’t read the weird tone.

“It’s a café, I mean, I’m a waitress here…”

The man laughs. You turn red.

“A café? God, you’ve had me here for a moment,” the man shakes his head.

“Excuse me?” You asks.

“I thought you actually worked at The Reds,” You display no recognition still so he adds, more forcefully, “Soccer team.”

“Oh-oh,” you pretend to understand what he’s saying, “No. It’s a café.”

Then, to avoid further questioning that would lead to sure embarrassment and losing all your chances with the man, you blurt, “What do you do?”

Another shrug. “Nothing fascinating,” He motions to the bartender to give him another drink, “I make people buy stuff they couldn’t possibly ever need.”

“You’re a sales agent?” You say quickly. The man glares at you as if you suggested something completely outrageous.

“I work at an ad agency,” he snaps, “But then, I guess it’s hardly different.”

You try to appear apologetic for causing such a great offense, suddenly deciding that the man is like a dog with more bark than bite. You suddenly feel a welcoming warmth in your chest.

“You know,” the ad guy begins, “Before you destroyed my peanuts and completely threw me off, I was going to walk up to you and say something like ‘I’ve never seen you around here’.”

You work up the courage to meet his eyes. They were sparkling with amusement.

“But I bet it’s for the better I didn’t get the chance. It’s probably the lamest pick-up line ever.”

You inwardly agreed. It’s a line that always made those romantic comedy characters walk out.

“Besides,” the man says, some of the amusement creeping into his voice, “It would be the fattest lie, too. It’s exactly the first time I’ve been here and you must get people hitting on you every night.”

Talk about burning up. God, did the man just imply you’re hot, attractive and get a lot of offers? More compliments in one sentence than imaginable.

“Actually,” you just have to clear up some misconceptions before he makes a fool of himself, “You would be right saying it.”

“Oh, I assumed…”

“No, I just was stood up by my friend and ended up here alone,” you spot a barely-hidden frown forming on the man’s face, “He probably went out with her other friends, because, truthfully, we’re not that close friends,” you desperately want the man to understand you’re not in a relationship.

It couldn’t have been the best way to put it, but the man seems to be pleased with the news.

“He’s a jerk,” the man says, “Feel free to inform him of that.”

You couldn’t help but snicker at that. You would be definitely ‘informing’ Elo of everything that had happened.

“So, a beer?”

You laugh and soon the man snickers too. The ice is broken.

It turns out that ‘Sunghwa’ is a great guy, just as you had thought from the very beginning. You even feel at ease enough with him to confess why you decided to come to Korea with no plans and just $1,000 to your name.

The sorest spot of the whole conversation is when Sunghwa calls you an idiot and demand to know what you would have done if you couldn’t find a job or a place to stay. You never even entertained the possibility in your head, so you gape, splutter, realizes that Sunghwa may think you lack any common sense as a human being and finally admits to him that you hadn’t envision such a scenario.

Sunghwa gives it a rest then, shrugging, which seems to be his favorite gesture, but didn’t apologize for being crude.  

After those few hours in his company you come to a conclusion that Sunghwa simply didn’t do apologizing, no matter what he says. And he keeps on saying a lot. Not in many words, but in spot-on phrases. Half of which a normal person would classify as down-right offensive. But you’re not a normal person but a person with a half-develop crush of the size of Asia.

Sometime later, after Sunghwa had somehow managed to move his barstool so that his knee is touching your thigh, a wave of panic hit you so hard you almost run away. Sunghwa’s idea of a personal space is a bit flawed from the start, if you take into consideration how often he pats, pets or just fleetingly graze his fingers on different parts of your body.

It’s a Friday night and he’s a handsome guy –you’re pretty sure he may be expecting something more than a sappy conversation.

You shut your eyes. God, did you truly believed that a gorgeous ad exec would want to play a high school crush with you?  

You jerk away from Sunghwa’s touch as if he burns. Sunghwa leans back too, apparently confused and irritated.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s past midnight,” You whisper, trying to get off your own stool.

“Yes, and what?” Sunghwa pins you down with his hard glare.

“I have work tomorrow. I start at eight, and it takes me ages to get home and to get to The Reds and I really don’t want to take a half-deserted train…” you babbles on, feeling torn between a heartfelt desire to stay with Sunghwa and your voice of reason suggesting you should get out before things get messy.

Sunghwa shocks the hell out of you when he simply glance down at his watch.

“I guess you’re right,” he admits, “But the trains won’t be that empty yet.”

You slump forward in relief, congratulating yourself for jumping to conclusions yet again. Then, you quickly stands up from the stool because you just declared you had to leave. You begin buttoning up your jacket with clumsy fingers under Sunghwa’s stare.

“Why don’t you give the gentleman your number?” The bartender suggests, making you put the button into a wrong hole.

“Why don’t you stay the hell out of our business?” Sunghwa spats at the bartender before you look up.

You watch the bartender raises up his hands in mock-surrender and fervently wishes you thought of that. You could try giving Sunghwa your number, because what harm could be in it? The worst would be if he never calls, but that wouldn’t be surprising.

Sunghwa’s arm breaks your train of thoughts.

“What?” You look up to see Sunghwa smirking.

“Here,” Sunghwa carefully puts a rolled napkin into your pocket, “Call me.”

//

As soon as the girl is out of sight, a man approaches Sunghwa and takes a seat right next to him. Sunghwa takes no notice of him and signal for the bartender to get him another drink.

The man holds up a box of cigarettes –offering one to Sunghwa and he takes one without saying a word in return. The man takes out a lighter from his back pocket –lighting up the cigarette for Sunghwa.

“Not every day does the all mighty Gray show up at my bar.” The man begins. Sunghwa remains quiet as he continues to pay the man no attention.

It didn’t seem to offend the man in the least, “I don’t think Jay would be please to know that his right hand-man is going around dropping his identity to a girl.” The man says.

“And I don’t think Jay will be please to know that his left-hand man is fucking around in this shithole of a bar,” Sunghwa retorts back, blowing out a cloud of smoke as he answers.

The man by the name of Simon simply laughs, unaffected by Sunghwa’s ill-mannered behavior towards him.

//