"Be safe." (1/1)

The sun is already dipping low into the horizon by the time Park Chanyeol finishes writing up his piece for next week's Sunday issue. He skims over the words once or twice to make sure there are little to no mistakes, then stretches where he sits and relishes every crack and pop his bones make. Hours of sitting in one position are hell on a body, Chanyeol should know that more than anyone, but like any reporter, the gratification sacrificing physical comfort for a finished article gives makes it all worth it. He pushes the twist lever and delicately pulls the last sheet of paper from his typewriter, moving to stack it atop the rest before leaning back in his chair and sighing contently."Done already, are you?"Chanyeol looks to his side and blinks as a familiar face comes into view, looming just at the edge of his desk. Oh Sehun, the photographer he's most frequently paired with when it comes to articles, flicks through the papers nonchalantly, non-descript expression settling into his features. Chanyeol scoots closer and keeps his eyes keenly attached to the article for fear of unsettled ink smudging through the paper, but Sehun is as careful as ever as he peruses the piece."What's it about?" The younger of the two asks in his tell-tale, montone voice.Chanyeol clears his throat and pushes his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "Y'know those weird disappearances that have been happening around town lately? The unconnected ones? Old Man Kim just told me to write about those. Said the public needed a general idea of what's going on or whatever.""Hm." Sehun nods briefly and picks up the top sheet of paper. He's being oddly attentive, Chanyeol thinks, for somebody so usually detached from the literary side of news world. "What kind of pictures would you be looking for then? It's not like I can get a picture of somebody getting nabbed.""I don't know, actually." Chanyeol scratches at his chin and shrugs. "I mean I suppose you could gather some pictures of anybody missing and paste them next to the headline, right? That would be good."The photographer's expression falters just the slightest bit, indicating all too well his keen disinterest in cut-and-paste. Chanyeol knows the boy is a better photographer than anyone would ever give him credit for, but cameras are large, cumbersome objects better suited for professional shoots. Never has there ever been an 'action shot' (as Sehun calls it) quality enough to grace the front cover of a Sunday issue. The older male reaches out to squeeze the young man's elbow in assurance and offers a smile where he can."Don't worry kid. Maybe if you come up with something before the deadline old man Kim will let you run it with the piece."Sehun takes the suggestion in stride and nods, moving out of the way when Chanyeol scoots his chair back to stand."You doing anything interesting for the weekend?" Sehun asks while leaning back against Chanyeols desk, arms folding across his body.Chanyeol's shrugging on his coat and pulling on his hat but he manages a response anyway, a lop-sided grin stretching itself wide across his face. "Nothing too interesting. Just gonna go home to the missus and spend some quality time with her, that's all."The younger male grins and crosses his arms across his body. "Ah. The life of a newlywed couple. Refreshing, isn't it?""As if you would know!" Chanyeol punches Sehun lightly on the shoulder. "You're quite a bit younger than myself. What would you know of marriage and all its refreshing affairs?"The photographer looks caught off guard by the retort for only a second, then he blinks and laughs quietly. "You're right. What would I know?"Chanyeol lends Sehun a curious, inquisitive look before plucking his report from the desk and tucking it away into a leather case made especially for his final drafts. He'll take it home for a few more revisions and rewrites, then leave it as is by the time the next deadline comes around."Alright then. I'm off." The reporter tips the brim of his hat once more as an indication of his leave and makes his way toward the main entrway. Seoul is strangely wet, brisk, and cold when Chanyeol opens the door, but it's with a wide, excited, toothy smile that he opens it and takes a step outside."Chanyeol?"He turns to look back at Sehun, whose voice, so small and obscure in the darkness, sounds strangely unfamiliar saying his name. All he can make out from Sehun's thoroughly silhoutted figure are his eyes reflecting what little light there is left in the office."You be safe out there, tonight, okay? Keep yourself sharp. We wouldn't want you disappearing somewhere too."Chanyeol binks and wonders if it's normal for such genuinely meant statements to run chills down his spine. He keeps his gaze locked with Sehun for a beat longer than intended, but musters a smile for good measure and waves as he backes out into the street."Will do, Sehun. Will do."- = - = - = -Han River is calm and quiet that night, trickling a low, quiet melody to the tune of Chanyeol's footsteps ricocheting off the low-tide canals. He usually forgoes paying it any attention since it's a sight he's prone to seeing every single day, but just for tonight he lingers by the river side and watches the lights glisten along the miniscule waves. It's calming really, more calming than the last time he remembered, but life has been hectic what with the endless stream of promotions at work. Taking a moment to smell the flowers, or watch the water rather, makes the man feel more at ease than he has in a long time. By the time he catches himself drifting in his silent reverie, it's already far later than the time his lover expects him home.Rushing to his house along the river doesn't take long since it's only a few more houses down the street, but Chanyeol decides to make a run for it in any case, feeling peculiarly revigored by the momentary meditation. He fumbles for the right key to open the right locks, but he finally gets it right after a few more tries. In one moment the male is on his feet, eyes closed and expectant arms spread wide open. In the next, a flurry of warm clothes and brown hair is tackling him, pushing him quite a ways out the door and into the street."You're back!" A soft voice exclaims quietly into the crook of his neck. "I've missed you. I've missed you so, so, so much--""Baekhyun." Chanyeol warns, eyes lurking around the street as he moves to push the smaller male now wrapped around him back into the house. "Not out here, there are eyes much too curious for their own good that would have us hang for this."Byun Baekhyun laughs as he tiptoes upward and pushes back against his lover, mouthing at the taller male's jawline with repressed bouts of affection. "Well then let them see. If worse comes to worse, to die by your side would be such a lovely way to die.""That's terrible." Chanyeol looks down at the considerably shorter male and smiles knowingly at him, carding his fingers lovingly through the silky locks of brown hair tickling at his chin. "It would be best if neither one of us had to die, ever, thank you very much."In spite of the warning tone, Chanyeol leans down and peppers soft kisses all over a laughing Baekhyun's face, kicking the door closed while relocating them further into their parlor. The warm, buttery scent wafting in from the kitchen comes as a much welcome change from the chilly, winter air that bit at his insides all the way home, and it takes all of Chanyeol to stop himself from curling up on the soft carpeting with Baekhyun in his arms. He becomes progressively more affectionate as he shucks his coat and shoes, and makes it known just how much he missed his boyfriend by the way he finally pins him against a nearby wall, smiling lips pressed firmly against smiling lips."Chanyeol--" Baekhyun mumbles, laughing quietly into the kiss. "--Chanyeol wait, wait a moment, would you?"Chanyeol shakes his head and continues sucking softly away at the lower peal of Baekhyun's lips, hands splaying around his slightly older lover's hips to keep him securely in place. For a second it seems as if Baekhyun finally gives in, but with a few twists of his limbs, he manages to wrangle out of Chanyeol's grasp and slinks away slyly, playful expression much too coy for Chanyeol's liking. "I have to finish dinner!" The shorter male exclaims, "We can finish after dinner, okay? I promise."Chanyeol blinks rapidly and whines, much like a puppy would after being rejected a much anticipated play session. Baekhyun plays along and wags his finger at the younger male, taking a step back whenever the other would take a step forward."Behave, Park Chanyeol. Dinner will be finished soon. Besides," Baekhyun breathily commands, "we still have the rest of the night. As we always do."Huffing, but regressing nonetheless, Chanyeol pulls in for one more kiss to Baekhyun's forehead before letting him slip away into the kitchen. The taller male watches after his disappearing figure and smiles to himself at what the rest of the night will entail, then leans down to pick his quickly discarded leather case up from the floor, dusting it off and inspecting it for any damage. He's just about to slip into his study to proudly assess the paper once more when he freezes in place and lifts the case up and down, brow furrowing in confusion with each repeated movement.It feels oddly lighter in comparison to how heavy it became when the full article was inside.Chanyeol blinks and lifts the flap keeping the contents of the case securely in place. It's empty -- no essay, no article, not even one measly sheet of paper. The reporter feels his chest tighten, but the confusion of having absolutely no paper where there should be eight makes him more confused if anything else. Looking down at the floor, he scans to see if maybe they had fallen beneath his feet or slipped under a table, but there's nothing to be found, nothing at all. After finally deciding the piece is nowhere in the immediate vicinity, Chanyeol walks over to the kitchen doorway and peeks his head through."Hey, Baek? I think I might have left my article at the office. I'm going to head back and pick it up."Baekhyun turns to look over his shoulder from where he's standing at the stove, a look of confusion running stark across his features. "You-- you what?"Chanyeol's skin heats up in embarrassment because he understands why Baekhyun would be flabbergasted by the statement. Never before has he acted so carelessly about something as precious as his livelihood, both of them know that more than anyone."I left my paper at the office." he confirms, sheepish eyes now falling downcast."That's... odd. That usually doesn't happen to you. Or rather, forgetting an article just doesn't seem like you at all." Baekhyun's attention is turned back to the fish currently frying in the pan, but he doesn't fail to flicker his glance toward Chanyeol every now and then. "Are you sure it's not somewhere hidden in your suitcase?"The younger male shakes his head and bites at his lower lip. He doesn't say anything else, but waits until Baekhyun finally acknowledges the fault and shrugs."Well I know how much that thing means to you. Just be safe, okay? Weird stuff has been happening out there, I hear."At the sound of the eerily familiar command to 'be saf'e' rings clear through Chanyeol's ears, he freezes in place and feels foreign feelings overtake him. It's as if his gut-instinct is telling him to stay here in the kitchen with Baekhyun because it will be safer than anything he'll ever face in Seoul at night. He struggles internally for the word amidst the sudden desire to forget about the paper, then recognizes it as a sense of foreboding keeping him rooted firmly to the spot. After awhile, Baekhyun realizes that Chanyeol is still there, which he finds odd enough to pull away from the stove-top."...What is it?" he asks. "What's bothering you?""I-" Chanyeol gulps and blinks, drowning in the circumstantial confusion. "It's nothing. Hey, Baekhyun?"The older male looks imploringly at his lover for an explanation for the strange behavior. The strain of worry isn't hard to detect, not when his eyebrows furrow toward the center of his face like that."I love you," Chanyeol manages to stammer out. "Don't forget that."Baekhyun smiles at that, and waves the man off with his spatula, expression soft. "You know I never do." - = - = - = - Walking back through Seoul when it's later in the night proves to be far more unsettling than Chanyeol expects. Where as the walk to his home was peaceful and serene, the steps now echoing off the river canals ruffle him more with each unnerving click and clack into his ear. The reporter tightens his coat around his body and sucks the air rapidly in and out of his teeth to lend the illusion of warmth, but the icy cold is too difficult to shake off and grips at him like a vice. Streetlights give him security for a few moments until he's once again shadowed by the darkness in between -- it only works to make him think about what might be hiding out there."You need to man up, you little pansy." Chanyeol murmurs to himself, despite his eyes still fluttering nervously around the empty walkways. "There's nothing out there that can hurt you. You're six feet tall for fuck's sake."He manages to make it a few more blocks away from his house when he feels an indescribable pull tug at his entire being by the very same spot he'd lingered at just hours before. Chanyeol blames it on paranoia, but doesn't find confusion in much else when he finds his body slowing down to a deathly slow tread along the riverside. He whips his head around this way and that and expects to find an estranged figure leaping from an alleyway and coming frenziedly at him, knife at the ready.What he finds instead makes his skin crawl even more."Sehun?" he calls out, making out the just barely visible features of Sehun's face staring at him from the darkness. "Sehun, is that you?"The boy takes a step into the cone of a streetlight. Shadows drape down the length of his body and the hollows of his face making it difficult to see his eyes, but there's no mistaking the shock of hair so meticulously styled a la Oh Sehun. Chanyeol thinks that maybe he should be breathing a sigh of relief at this point, but he still feels the need to walk on pins and needles, even in the presence of a familiar face."You forgot your report." Sehun pulls a black case from behind his back and holds it up between the two of them. It's ragged, and old, and looks nothing like what Chanyeol would tote around a heavily prized article in, but Chanyeol finds within it some imperative element anyway. "You're not usually so careless, Chanyeol.""Yeah. Silly me." The reporter mumbles beneath his breath, his chest straining with the heavy beating of his chest. "Did you come all this way to hand it to me yourself? I thought you lived on the other side of town, right? Or am I mistaken?"Sehun fails to reply and instead lowers the package down to his side with a loose grip. Something about the photographer's posture seems off, defeated perhaps, but he doesn't say another word and instead moves closer in an almost glide-like stance. When he's only a few feet away, Chanyeol notes with increased levels of adrenaline that Sehun's staring at him with a mix of apology, regret, and something far more... predatorial."I told you to stay safe. I told you to keep sharp. Why didn't you listen to me?"The taller of the two struggles to breathe and wills his body to run, or to fight, or to just do something because this is Oh Sehun for goodness sake, but his body fails him, paralyzed to the spot by a force beyond his control. He feels a scream bubble and die away in his throat with each desperate attempt to break free from the madness holding him down. Sehun sighs and shakes his head, finally within arms-length distance, as he lifts the case up and pulls a single sheet from within. "...You should have listened to me. You should have just stayed home."The sheet of paper held delicately in between Sehun's bony fingers wisps to and fro in the late night air. Sehun stares at it and shakes his head before turning it to Chanyeol, his eyes now glowing a bright, piercing, slate blue. It takes a few moments for Chanyeol to see that it's a photograph and not his article, but when he sees how familiar the man in the photo looks, Chanyeol sobs internally and feels the fear well up deep inside of him.It's a photograph of him with a price listed just next to his head, and an insanely large amount of zeroes placed next to the initial number.Chanyeol's not exactly sure what it means, but he certainly knows that he's done for.- = - = - = -a/n: yeah it is what it is. feedback pls thx ily. allllsoooo I'm in dire need of a beta so if you know how that works on AFF then feel free to let me know thaaaanks.Also if you're confused, this is set around the 1890's. Typewriters and big, fat, cameras were the thing back then. Yaaaaaay history lessons.