Work Text:
Out of all the ways Joonghyuk had imagined meeting Kim Dokja in his new lives, this scenario had never crossed his mind. Although maybe he shouldn’t be too surprised, as Kim Dokja always did have a knack for getting himself into ridiculous situations.
College freshmen Yoo Joonghyuk had been tiredly wandering back home to his off campus dormitory near midnight after a late night study session when he uncharacteristically tripped on an unseen object in the dark. He was normally extremely coordinated, so the fact he managed to trip and fall compiled onto his high level of irritation after having to deal with incompetent group project members for the last couple of hours.
After fumbling with his hands to right himself on the ground, he grabbed onto the offending piece of wood that tripped him only to find that what had appeared to be wood, was actually a foot and a leg. Much to his confusion.
There was a sudden break in the clouds and the moon managed to peak through and illuminate his surroundings. With his vision no longer hindered by the darkness, Joonghyuk’s gaze fell on a pretty but disheveled salary man passed out in a pile of trash that had been left out on the street. The man reeked of alcohol. Now that Joonghyuk’s confusion had lessened and he was able to process the situation, his nose wrinkled in disgust at the burning astringent smell assaulting his nose. He recoiled and stood up quickly, ready to leave the disgusting drunk to his own devices when a wave of dizziness suddenly overcame him.
Then memories flooded into his head, tons of them, all at once, rushing into his mind and slotting themselves into his current self.
Joonghyuk gazed downward at the passed out man. “God dammit, Kim Dokja.”
Joonghyuk was just so tired, and worn out, and now frustrated with the fool laying before him. Had it been any other time, he would’ve tried a kinder approach to awaken the man he so dearly loves, but as things stood, Kim Dokja had been foolish enough to get himself into this situation, thus he deserved a fools awakening.
So Joonghyuk kicked him harshly in the foot.
He received a low groan in return but no further response. After a few more pokes and prods, Joonghyuk gave up on the idea of waking the drunken man up.
“God dammit Kim Dokja.” He muttered with frustration, the end of Kim Dokja’s name coming out as harsh hiss. There was no other option: he’d have to carry him.
Of course, carrying Kim Dokja wasn’t a problem given Joonghyuk’s muscular frame and Kim Dokja’s lithe body, but it was an annoyance when he was running on very little sleep and exhausted from school. He’ll just tack it on to the mental list of what Kim Dokja owes him. Although Joonghyuk, will never admit it, he gets his himself into a lot of troublesome situations as well due to his brash behavior and prickly personality. Kim Dokja has saved him countless times over the course of their many lifetimes. It became an unsaid habit(no matter the lifetime) that when they help each other out of bad situations, they could lord it over the other to get something they want. It was more playful than malicious, a teasing kind of game where the other would have momentary control over a situation.
Joonghyuk usually played out various sexual scenarios in return for his help, like when he was a college professor and Kim Dokja his student, and he had the smaller man suck his cock from underneath his large desk at the front of the classroom while all the other students took a test. In that life he had a particular like for classical music and a dislike for the sound of numerous pencils scratching on paper, so he’s always played classical music during tests—which of course drowned out the sounds of his and Kim Dokja’s indecent deed. It was quite fun watching Kim Dokja time his movements and sounds according to the crescendos and decrescendos of the music.
As for Kim Dokja, he occasionally asked for sex but for the most part he took his payment in softer things such as making Joonghyuk come with him and stand in a long line for an author’s book signing or having Joonghyuk be his pillow as he read for the whole day.
He picked the drunken man up into a bridal carry with half a mind to just thrown him over his shoulder like a sack of rice, but a massive bruise on the passed out man’s stomach from doing so wouldn’t give Joonghyuk a very good first impression. He got some strange looks by the few people out this late but otherwise he made it back to his dorms without issue. He did pass by a fellow student that lives on the same floor as him but he simply blurted out that it was his friends brother who had gotten himself into trouble. The other student seemed satisfied with the answer and didn’t ask him to elaborate any further.
He entered his dorm, and no sooner had he closed the door, when the sleeping man began to wriggle in his arms.
“Stop struggling.” Joonghyuk grunted out after a unintentional harsh jab to his gut. “I’m going to place you on the sofa.” Which he fully intended to do except suddenly he found himself bending forward as smooth soft hands gripped his face tightly.
“Handsomeeee . . .” The man in Joonghyuk’s arms slurred out. “My perfect type.” Kim Dokja added while patting Joonghyuk’s face.
Kim Dokja looked to be in utter awe of Joonghyuk, looking as if the man before him was a heavenly spirit come down to earth. Joonghyuk was just as captivated by Kim Dokja, gazing into eyes that held his universe.
Dokja continued his slurred mumbling. “I-I think? Yea I think I met you on a subway once.”
Joonghyuk dropped Kim Dokja on the ground. There was a long drawn out groan when he hit the ground and then silence as the drunk man passed out again.
He hadn’t been expecting Kim Dokja to say such words. They had thrown Joonghyuk off balance, his world faltering for a brief moment as his heart recklessly jumped for a false joy. Kim Dokja didn’t remember him, at least, not in the way Joonghyuk wanted him too. What few memories remained in the fragments of Kim Dokja’s soul scattered around the multiverse came to Kim Dokja subconsciously in dreams, random thoughts, faint memories, and deja vu.
Hearing familiar words fall from Kim Dokja’s lips was always bittersweet for Joonghyuk: on one hand, it was consoling to know that the memories they shared were still there, but it was also painful, because Joonghyuk desperately wanted Kim Dokja to be able to call him his companion and truly understand what it meant and the full weight of their relationship.
Sighing deeply, feeling exhaustion of both his body and soul, he leaned down to pick up his foolish companion. Shit, there was definitely a bump on his head
It wasn’t like him to be so forlorn, especially not when he had such an ambitious goal to focus on. Maybe it was the soft street lights piercing through the blinds and lighting up the darkness, or the gentle features of Kim Dokja’s face illuminated by both the darkness and light, or perhaps it was the unconscious state of the man, that was analogous to the state of death, that brought forth his unusual melancholy. It didn’t feel too bad to revel in his sorrow at the moment. It was useful to remind himself that while there was great suffering in his painstaking task, there was also joy as well.
He brushed Kim Dokja’s bangs out from his eyes as they were a bit longer than normal and were irritating his eyelashes causing them to flutter. Clearly the man had been doing an especially poor job at taking care of himself given his ill fitting suit and a lack of a decent hair cut.
After taking his time to admire and stroke Kim Dokja’s prone form, admiring the beauty and aliveness of his star, Joonghyuk moved on to his next task: searching through Kim Dokja’s pockets and brief case to learn everything about who Kim Dokja was in this life.
The first thing he took note of when rummaging through the unconscious man’s pockets was that his body was extremely slight. His hands easily covered the majority of Dokja’s hips. He had to hold back a groan as his mind immediately began to dance through thoughts of using Dokja’s hips as hand holds, while he fucked lovingly into his star. It was always difficult regaining his memories and not yet being in a relationship with his star where he could delve into the pleasure of their bodies. He wanted to own Kim Dokja, claim him both in body and soul; he wanted to just skip to the good part where his star finally gives in to his more wicked and dark desires and becomes just as possessive and needy as Joonghyuk himself.
He first rummaged through Dokja’s left pants pocket, quietly taking gratification from the unconscious shiver that coursed through his star’s body when he stroked his hip. The only things in the left pocket were two torn open energy bar wrappers and a mint.
Joonghyuk felt his eye twitch at the sight of the poor and lacking meal replacement bars. He swears the man unconsciously starves himself in each life just so Joonghyuk will have to fatten him up again with his delicious home cooking.
He then checked Dokja’s right pants pocket and found a few coins and a train pass. He then checked Dokja’s right back pocket, copping a feel of Dokja’s plump ass (despite being skinny and malnourished, his body always liked to store fat in that location) and found Dokja’s phone. It had the kind of passcode that requires you to connect dots in a particular pattern rather than numbers, so he gave up after a few tries. He did take notice that Dokja’s Lock Screen was of a fluffy white cloud of a cat. Joonghyuk would bet all of his savings that the cat was named Biyoo.
After learning that there wasn’t anything useful in Dokja’s pockets that could provide him with information, he moved on to his brief case. The case had a coded lock; he could have just broken it but as he was kind of enjoying snooping through Dokja’s things, he decided it would be rather fun to guess. He tried Dokja’s birthday from his first life, then his own, followed by 01864, and few more memorable numbers. Nothing seemed to work and he was getting ready to break it when a slow epiphany rolled though his head.
00999.
It opened with a soft click.
Joonghyuk’s turned to look at Dokja with a petulantly bitter look. “Playing favorites are we?”
There would be punishment in the future for that. Delicious for Joonghyuk’s sadistic side and pleasurably maddening for Dokja.
Once the case was fully opened a few poorly secured and slightly crumpled work papers fell out. From the papers, he gathered that Kim Dokja was a coder at a second tier gaming company. Chucked into one of the brief cases internal pockets was Kim Dokja’s wallet, which he snapped open quickly, noting the crumpled bills and a single debit card, while immediately going for the thing he wanted to look at the most: Kim Dokja’s ID.
It wasn’t a great picture of his star, he looked tired and worn out and like he would rather be anywhere else than taking this picture.
Name: Kim Dokja
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Age: 33
Joonghyuk eyes narrowed. They had an age gap this time, which surprised him since his star looked to be on the younger side.
He could already see how this was going to play out. Dokja would first apologize profusely to Joonghyuk for his impropriety and thank him awkwardly for carrying him to a safe place. Upon learning that Joonghyuk’s place was in a college dorm, Dokja’s embarrassment would sky rocket at the fact that he, a thirty-three year old salary man, an adult who was supposed to be at a more responsible stage of life, was helped and carried by someone so young. Joonghyuk would insist on asking Dokja out but his star would refuse on account of their age difference. After Dokja’s refusal, Joonghyuk would at least manage to get his number but despite his insistence that he wanted to date the fool of a man, Dokja would still continue to refuse saying useless things like: He was too old for Joonghyuk; they were at different stages in their lives; Joonghyuk would grow tired of him or out grow this fanciful attraction; Joonghyuk would meet someone better and closer in age down the road, so why even bother dating him?
If Joonghyuk was a normal person then he would be inclined to agree with Dokja’s protests, they were at very different stages in their lives, but as Joonghyuk is not in anyway a normal person(and neither is Kim Dokja even though he doesn’t know it) he was inclined to ignore such futile points of contention.
Still, Dokja would no doubt ghost him and probably even try running away by switching jobs or moving. Then years down the line—frustrating years without his star— Joonghyuk would meet Dokja again when he finally entered the workforce after college and then would finally prove to the fool that he hadn’t once forgotten about or given up on the idea of being with him.
Just the thought of going through that process made Joonghyuk weary. It’d be much easier to just confine Dokja until his star accepted that the love at first sight feelings he felt, weren’t just some intense attraction brought about by Joonghyuk’s handsomeness. Unfortunately, given Joonghyuk’s current circumstances, that wouldn’t be possible; he would be caught far too quickly.
He resigned himself to the long and unnecessarily drawn out process of wooing and seducing his star, when he saw a stack of Mia’s romance manga that she left on his table when she came to visit.
He had an epiphany.
It would be cliche, and also morally grey, but Joonghyuk was now so far outside of the realms of morality, that it hardly mattered; he had a way to more quickly obtain his star.
It was a bright morning, with the sun rising early, birds singing, and coffee dripping soothingly, but Joonghyuk was more focused on the grotesque groaning from the man on the couch. The groaning was quickly followed by coughing as Dokja transitioned into wakefulness, quickly followed by sounds of gagging as he threw up in the small trash can that Joonghyuk had placed by the couch.
Joonghyuk finished making coffee, adding extreme amounts of milk and sugar to Dokja’s; the man would be too hungover to bother questioning why Joonghyuk had somehow made a cup of cofffee for him to his exact preference. He then rounded the couch and placed the coffee before Dokja who, quite frankly, looked like shit, with deep set bags under his eyes, pressed lines on his face from the couch fabric, and a very wrinkled suit, Dokja gazed at Joonghyuk with a level of confusion equating to that of new born creature first entering the world.
Dokja slow blinked, taking in Joonghyuk’s tall and imposing form before mumbling, “Who are you?”
Joonghyuk sighed, acting like Dokja had just asked a very stupid question. “The man who helped your unconscious drunk ass out of a pile of trash.”
Joonghyuk watched the slow and labored process of Dokja’s mind on his face as his neurons tried to fire and piece together last night’s events. At first he was thoughtful, no doubt remembering whatever work dinner he had gone to, and then he looked assured, confirming that he had in fact been drinking a lot but surely not nearly enough to pass out drunk, and then horror and mortification upon realizing that at some point on his journey home he had no recollection.
Dokja hopelessly placed his face into the palms of his hand, unwilling to meet the handsome stranger’s eyes. “I passed out in . . . a pile of trash?”
“Yep.” Joonghyuk affirmed mercilessly.
“And . . .” Dokja dragged out the word almost unwilling to say the next part out loud. “You carried me all the way to your home?”
“Yep.” Joonghyuk affirmed, taking a sip of coffee, enjoying Dokja’s misery far more than what was appropriate. He noted that Dokja’s ears had turned adorably red and he could practically hear his star’s frantic thoughts: Such a handsome man carried me—no, a drop dead gorgeous man picked me up out of a pile of trash?
It wasn’t embellishment when Kim Dokja had literally told him such things before, besides, even without Kim Dokja’s personal thoughts on Joonghyuk’s “protagonist looks”, he was still very confident in his own handsomeness and sex appeal.
Joonghyuk’s watched every little movement Dokja made, patiently waiting for his chance. His eyes narrowed in as Dokja tensed, the panic in his form clear. No doubt the bastard was getting ready to extricate himself from this situation as fast as possible.
Dokja hurriedly stood up and frantically and clumsily grabbed his brief case and patted himself down to make sure he had his phone while at the same time desperately trying to locate his shoes. He refused to meet Joonghyuk’s eyes.
Joonghyuk stood in place, calmly sipping his coffee.
“I’m so sorry—I’m not normally like this—really, I don’t usually drink that much. I’m sorry, really sorry for the trouble, I-um-I’m late for work. Once again I’m really sorry! Here! I’ll give you money for your trouble.” Dokja’s apologies and verbal vomit streamed out unrestrained before it finally ended on him bending into an apologetic bow and attempting to hold out money for Joonghyuk to take.
Joonghyuk put his coffee down and Dokja missed the feral grin widening on Joonghyuk excited face. Now he could begin.
“I won’t accept it and you can’t leave.” Joonghyuk commanded, making his voice sound more furious that he actually was. He was so wound up now that he was on the hunt to capture his star that it was hard to keep the excitement out of his voice as he spoke his next words. “You have to take responsibility.”
Dokja froze in confusion before slowly lifting his gaze to finally look at Joonghyuk. Joonghyuk watched as beautiful starry eyes took in his countenance, and then reveled as a more horrifying realization came to light and dawned across Kim Dokja’s face.
On Joonghyuk’s neck were a series of marks or to be more specific— hickeys. And that wasn’t all, his lips were bruised and swollen, and with a swipe of his own tongue, Dokja realized his own lips were swollen too.
Joonghyuk had made the hickeys, by pinching the skin on his neck between his fingers. Joonghyuk was so sure that Dokja was inexperienced that he wouldn’t be able to tell that the bruises weren’t quite like the marks one can make with their mouth. And as for the kissing, well, could he really be blamed for stealing a taste of his unconscious star? They had been apart for so long.
Joonghyuk went in for the kill. “You stole my first kiss and tried to take advantage of me, so take responsibly and take me out on a proper date.”
A bold faced lie, but Dokja literally couldn’t refuse Joonghyuk’s demand. It wouldn’t bode well for him that he had apparently tried to take advantage of a college student. And Joonghyuk had no doubts that Dokja would believe he had tried to seduce Joonghyuk, given that Joonghyuk was quite literally his dream man.
Joonghyuk pretty heavy handily forced Dokja to give him his phone number, home address, and work address. Had someone else been the person to find Dokja drunkenly passed out in pile of trash, Joonghyuk was sure that with Dokja’s cunning and bastardy, he could have wiggled out of such a situation. But for as much as both Joonghyuk and Dokja could handle each other, there were certain aspects of their personalities that always threw the other of balance. In Joonghyuk’s case, Dokja could somewhat handle the regressor’s stubborness and his ‘I’ll do whatever I want regardless of the consequences to anyone around me’ attitude, but the handling of it was like handling a situation in emergency mode with the world on fire.
So he bulldozed his way into Dokja’s life and the man could do nothing but manage the situation from that point forward.
He took Dokja on endless strings of dates spending as much time as possible with his star, biding his time and waiting for the change that would occur in Dokja once he finally gave into his true desires. Dokja constantly insisted that Joonghyuk could do better than an old man like him, that he would be better off with someone else, that he would eventually get bored of some broke and useless salary man.
That endless self-deprecating record continued on for two years, even continuing after they had moved into together on their second anniversary. Despite Dokja repeating those claims, Joonghyuk could see that those words were weighing on him and bothering him more and more. Joonghyuk could physically see the battle warring in Dokja’s overthinking brain as it manifested as anxiety. Dokja was clinging to Joonghyuk more and more, pampering Joonghyuk, and more easily acquiescing to Joonghyuk demands, almost like, he was afraid Joonghyuk would really leave.
They were having a nice Sunday breakfast, all cooked by Joonghyuk as Kim Dokja was a hazard to everyone and everything when in a kitchen, when Dokja made a passive comment that Joonghyuk would be better off with someone who could actually cook. There was bitterness and resentment in those words.
Joonghyuk was standing behind Dokja as he placed the food on the table, so his star missed his possessive smirk of victory and his calculative eyes.
It was time.
The last piece of Dokja’s wall would fall today.
Joonghyuk set the plate down harshly, the ceramic plate clinking harshly against the wood table almost to the point of breaking, making Dokja startle. Joonghyuk leaned down low before growling in Dokja’s ear. “Is that what you really want my love? Me being with someone else? Loving some else like I love you? If that’s what you want then I’ll leave.”
Dokja gripped Joonghyuk arm in a tight grip, leaving nail marks on the skin with how desperately he was hanging on.
“Don’t you dare.” His star’s voice came out hoarse but commanding. There was an underlying fierceness that hadn’t been there before as it has been hidden. But now, Joonghyuk gleefully noted, his star’s true nature was coming to light.
His star turned around and stood up, molding himself against Joonghyuk’s body and squeezing tightly. There was obsession and possessiveness now clearly displayed in Dokja’s beautiful eyes. He looked just as crazy as Joonghyuk, dyed in moral grey, with a soul that spans across more time than any person in this world can comprehend.
“You can’t be with anyone else. Just me! Of course I don’t want you to be with anyone else! How could I want such a thing?” His star cried out.
Jeweled tears were beginning to wet the brown lashes of his star’s eyes, pleading for Joonghyuk’s love, pleading for Joonghyuk to give all of himself to him, as if Joonghyuk hadn’t already been doing that in the first place.
Dokja buried his face in Joonghyuk’s muscled chest, lightly crying, even though he was trying his best to hold it in. “Don’t leave me Joonghyuk-ah, please . . .”
It was like Dokja was that small pitiful child again, pleading for help, pleading for kindness, pleading for someone to love him.
Joonghyuk smiled into the crown of Dokja’s head, inhaling the scent from his fluffy hair. He was both elated at his star’s confession and the way he was clinging needily to him. Given everything Joonghyuk had done to obtain a space beside his star, desperately fighting against all odds, it was nice to see Kim Dokja suffer a bit with the feelings that Joonghyuk had felt. He was sure that when Dokja was whole again, he would pay Joonghyuk back for his torment but that hardly mattered now when he was just so happy to hear his star’s devotion.
“I would never leave you Dokja.” Joonghyuk consoled. “I love you more than anything.” More than you will ever know
“I love you too.” Dokja sniffled out, his face still buried in Joonghyuk’s chest. No matter the lifetime it was Dokja’s favorite place to put his face when he wanted to be consoled.
Kim Dokja belongs to Joonghyuk just as Joonghyuk belongs to him. He won’t ever let petty worries separate him from his star, as Dokja’s anxiety ridden mind was want to do.
“I’ll never let you go.” Joonghyuk swore while placing a sweet kiss on his star’s lips