Chapter Text
“It’s not exactly dark magic, it just feels like it is because it’s more absence of light magic?”
“Minhyuk, that makes no sense.”
“No, hear me out Hyungwon.” Minhyuk said, leaning in. “The clan bond works through making us more aware of our own abilities within the other’s realms of magic. So light, absence of light, hmm? Get it?”
“That still makes no sense,” Hyungwon groaned. He slouched in his chair and rubbed at his temples.
“Alright, so like I can control light magic. And what does light make? Shadows! And shadow magic is technically a form of dark magic, but not really. I don’t have Changkyun’s back up system. The dark magic is just a part of my normal magic.”
“Speaking of Changkyun,” Kihyun spoke up, “I can’t believe this kid. Purposely lying to his father to mislead us into Ujje when he was actually going to follow his list and go to Banus.”
“Changkyun’s really smart.” Jooheon tapped his phone a little. “He turned off his location so we couldn’t track him, and he manages to turn off his magical signaling right as we get to Banus. I swear, this kid is going to give me gray hairs.”
“Your hair is literally dyed. You’ll lose your hair before you get gray hairs,” Minhyuk said, reaching to ruffle the curly mess of Jooheon’s hair.
“Fuck off. It’s the pot calling the kettle black.”
Minhyuk gasped and collapsed next to Shownu, gripping his arm. “My own child. Turning against me.”
Kihyun scoffed. “Who made you the mom.” Next to him, Jooheon nodded, face crinkled in disgust. Minhyuk stuck his tongue out only to be greeted with the finger next to the ring finger that wasn’t the pinky.
Hoseok stepped in. “The manager confirmed that Changkyun was staying here but he left this morning.”
Everyone groaned. “He was literally right under our noses,” Kihyun complained.
“The manager also said he left this note for us.”
Written in Changkyun’s neat chicken scratch, the note only said: going to soule .
“Chinone was number three on his list,” Hyungwon hummed from where he had returned to his bed.
“So does this mean he’ll be in Soule instead? Or is he trying to trick us again and he’ll actually be in Chinone,” Kihyun said.
Jooheon shrugged in reply. “Soule’s really big. If we did end up trying to search through all of Soule, it would give him at least a few months of time to move on.”
“He’s done this before. It’s more than likely he’s trying to pull the same stunt,” Hoseok added in.
“Hyunwoo-hyung?”
“I don’t know Kihyun. I wouldn’t trust anything Changkyun leaves behind for us because he knows that we’re looking for him and why would he lead us to him if he’s trying so hard to leave us behind? Enough to be able to deactivate his bond signaling? It just doesn’t make sense that this would be true.”
“But what if he misses us? What if he wants to be found?”
“Then his clan bond would have activated and we would have felt him. But he keeps turning it off right before we can find him.” Jooheon sighed. “This clan bond magic is weird and I don’t really understand the book’s explanation of deactivating clan bond signaling.”
Hoseok spoke up. “Changkyun’s smart and we’re going to have to play his game. I think he’s in Chinone. Who agrees?”
Minhyuk and Jooheon both raised their hands. With their hands, Hoseok raised one eyebrow. “Anyone else?” Reluctantly, Hyunwoo lifted his hand.
Trying to defend himself from Kihyun’s betrayed glare, Hyunwoo said, “Chinone is literally on the outskirts of Soule and it’s much smaller. If he’s not there, we waste less time searching Chinone than searching Soule.”
Kihyun sighed. Would Changkyun really make it that easy for them and follow his simple pattern of misleading them? It couldn’t be that simple, right?
-- --
Soule was different from the two previous cities Changkyun had visited. For one, Soule was loud. For another, Soule was modern. Soule was huge . There would be plenty to distract him from missing the other members for too long. The crowds of people that passed could easily conceal someone of his stature and appearance if they did ever make their way here.
Like any major city, the thrum of magic that usually lingered in the air where mages gathered, was quiet. But it did not mean that magic and mages were absent. As Changkyun walked down the busy street of Manggan, little pockets of magic bloomed. Clans , he thought absentmindedly, feeling the unique mix of purely elemental magic, untainted with dark magic, that intertwined with each other in perfect control. But before his thoughts could stray to his own clan, he moved on, falling into the crowd like a raindrop into a river and swept away into the current.
He had gambled with his note. It had been another lonely dinner and without anyone to keep him distracted, his mind had drifted into longing, a quiet wish for the others to appear and to enjoy a meal with them again. The last meal they shared had been a sad affair and he only wished that the next one, in the far distant future, would finish on a better note.
Night had fallen and the ache persisted. When Changkyun woke up the next day, his mark had been restored to its full color and he could sense their movement towards Banus. There was no point in turning off his signal now, they were still a day’s and a half trip away from Banus. He had time. Everything was ready, the train ticket to Soule in his wallet, clothes washed and stuffed into his bag, and the escape route set in stone.
His plans almost fell apart when he woke up in the middle night with a feeling of fullness. In the dark, he could make out the shadows of the sleeping figures and although they were not physically with him, he could almost hear their sleep talking. It was good that he was sensitive to these things.
For a moment, he let himself bask in the feeling of warmth that spread over him, let it intoxicate him with comfort. It was like a drug that he constantly craved but he knew he had to wean himself off of it. It was the only way. Dark mages corrupted clan bonds, spreading their bad luck to the rest of the clan. Changkyun loved his members too much to do that to them.
He suspected that they had found his list and probably thought he was leading them on a wild goose chase. To be fair, he was, but still. He had thought about going to Ujje and his dad must have misinterpreted him and told the rest of the clan that he was going to Ujje instead of Banus.
Knowing this, he jotted down the truth, knowing that it would throw them off if they believed he was purposely trying to throw them off course. It wasn’t a perfect plan. But his hyungs weren’t gullible enough to fall for the same trick twice. So he was playing a different trick.
He had originally decided to stay in Chinone for a while since it was cheaper, but Soule was a better city to disappear in. He could only hope that he predicted what they would decide to do correctly.
If they went to Chinone, it would take at least a week before they realized he wasn’t there. It would buy him enough time to get enough money for the stay in Soule and the next subsequent trips. Changkyun would have to visit Junggwa again soon. The money his parents had given him was still enough for now but if wanted to stay longer in Soule, he would need to find a job or do some missions soon.
Early in the morning, he dragged himself out the door to check out and ask the front desk manager to give them a message that he had written on one of the complimentary notepads if they asked where he was. With a wistful look back, he steeled himself again.
This was for the best, he reminded himself. He didn’t want to be part of the clan, not like this, when his membership would only hurt them. They could not find him. He did not want to be in the clan, he did not want to be in the clan. He repeated those thoughts over and over until the clan mark on his hand faded to a silvery gray, until the warmth in his chest turned cold, until it felt like he could believe it, before he walked to the station and boarded the train to Soule.
It was lonely, being on the run. That was easy to admit. But he had always been good at solitude, good at taking a step back from the world and just being. Sometimes he wanted to let the bond open, to feel them, and he only fell into temptation during the darkest of hours when sleep was still a hair length away and he was sure that they wouldn’t be up to sense it.
He chuckled. He sounded like a drug addict, craving for that feeling that the clan bond provided. Because the truth of the matter was, how could you move on when you didn’t let yourself miss them? The feelings always remained.
Changkyun shook free those thoughts. He did not have to move on, not him at least. As long as the others stopped trying and gave up on him, then he could take those feelings he had harbored so tightly and let them free where it would no longer affect them. He just needed to wait a little longer.
Soule was loud at night, a stark difference from the quiet city life of Junggwa and Banus. The bright LED lights replaced the blinking starlight and the city refused to sleep. It was 3AM by now but the noise never dwindled. He stood out on the balcony of the small room he was renting for the month and let himself imagine that the others were right under the lone star that managed to appear in the light pollution.
They were on the outskirts of Chinone, some distance away from where Changkyun was staying in the middle of Soule. Changkyun smiled internally. He had been right.
With a sigh, he returned to the small mattress left for him in the room. He had gotten his reprieve and now it was time to sleep. He fell into slumber just as the last star disappeared.
It had been a little over a week in Soule and Changkyun’s empty wallet was only paralleled by his empty stomach. He groaned right as his stomach growled, a chorus of sounds that called for pity. If this had been a cartoon, his wallet would have let out a pathetic cough of dust and withered into itself.
But fortunately it was not because at least the lint, the crumpled up dollar bill, and the two pennies that sat in his wallet could not laugh at him.
As he walked down the streets, he saw rows of cafes and shops lined with For Hire signs. He played around with the idea of walking in and begging for a job but he doubted that anyone would hire a boy for just a few weeks. He could stay in Soule a little longer, he supposed. The cost of the place he was staying in was cheap enough.
But the longer he stayed in one place, the more he would feel the ache of the missing clan bond and the more he would long for the rest of the members. He couldn’t afford that just yet. Maybe in another month, he mused, passing by with the smell of freshly brewed coffee.
Changkyun knew what he had to do, but he was reluctant to do it. It was technically illegal, a lone dark mage to take on jobs, but he had taken a black marker to his hand and traced the clan mark and filled it in so that from a distance, it looked complete. Looking at it both eased the feeling of missing the clan and caused anxiety because he would see the mark and feel the warmth settle in only for it to be blocked with the fear that lingered constantly.
He debated whether to ask a local clan for help as he passed a cafe that overflowed with pure magic, each element perfectly intertwined such that it radiated peace and warmth, and the For Hire sign seemed almost inviting. Maybe they had a job that he could do.
Before he could step in, the sign magically changed to a Closed sign. He sighed and stepped back. There was only one option left. Changkyun turned and walked down the street, the lights flickering behind him.
Slowly, the expensive, modern stores became ancient, run-down little shops, smooth pavement into rocky asphalt littered with potholes. The smell of smoke and dust filled the air. Magic lay thickly, just as dark and polluted as the air.
The black mage market.
Changkyun had learned about this place from one of the mages he had met in Banus. Or well… not met. Just listened in on while the mage chatted with his other buddies. It seemed mages from all over, from many clans, originated from Banus, which meant that mages who had run out of luck or who’s clans were in a bad shape and weren’t able to find work could access the Banus black mage market and solicit jobs there. There was one in almost every major city. Including Soule.
It was supposed to be easy. Find some quick jobs and make enough cash to survive another week in one of the wealthiest cities in the country. Repeat if necessary. Keep going until it was time to move on and he could return to Junggwa with some money to spare.
But it seemed fate had something against Changkyun because the first place he slipped into was a bar. The stench of smoke, alcohol, and vomit made bile rise in Changkyun’s throat before he swallowed it down and stepped towards the bartender.
“ID,” the bartender drawled out. Changkyun raised his eyebrows in surprise. Sure, he was young but he had been legal for a year now and he looked well over his age.
“Looking for something, kid,” the man finally said after staring at the ID for some time. Changkyun hastily shoved it back into his pocket (not his wallet, not after he lost it that one time when he was walking along the river).
“Yeah,” he replied. “A job.” He hoped his voice did not waver in its conviction.
The bartender stared at Changkyun with an unreadable face. Although he wanted to avert his eyes and move on, Changkyun held his gaze without wavering. The man across from his cracked a smile. “I like your guts, kid. Follow me.”
He walked around the bar and led Changkyun into a door and down a hallway, the stench of bodily fluids and who knows what else permeating the air like a warning sign. They passed several doors until the bartender stopped at one.
“Wait here,” the bartender instructed before entering and closing the door behind him.
Faintly, Changkyun could hear the man greet someone. The voices were too hushed and muffled for Changkyun to hear anything, even pressed up with his ear against the door. He stepped back right in time as the door swung open and the bartender looked at him.
“Take a seat.”
The lone receptionist in the room looked at Changkyun. “Looking to hire or looking to be hired,” she drawled out, face set in the most absolutely bored expression Changkyun ever had witnessed.
“To-” he hesitated. “To be hired.”
The shock that spread across the woman’s face did nothing to make Changkyun feel better. “Well kid,” she whistled lowly, “we’ve got some jobs for you. Follow me.” She stood up and grabbed a large key ring from behind her desk. It jingled with the many keys that hung off it and each step she took left the tinkling sound of metal in her wake. “I would stick close,” she suggested.
Changkyun didn’t understand why until she opened the door and he saw the line of people lining the halls, haggard and some with wild looks in their eyes despite their defeated postures.
“Who are these people,” he whispered, not wanting to make a scene.
She must have heard him. “Don’t pay attention to them. They’ve given up everything to request services on this market. They’ve got nothing left. They can’t pay you anything.”
“But-” Changkyun started before he was cut off.
“Here. These are the current listings for jobs. Flip through the folders, find out what you can do. Contact the person hiring and you should be good. The high paying jobs are usually taken up first by a regular here so start off small and if you’re any good, you’ll be requested by the higher paying customers.” With a pitying look, she turned and walked back leaving Changkyun alone in front of desk overflowing with folders.
He picked one up gingerly. He immediately put it back down when he saw the request. Another folder. And another. By the time he had gone through half of the folders on file, he had come to understand why these jobs were brought to the black mage market. Arson, kidnapping, brainwashing, memory erasing, revenge murder, homicide, and it only got worse.
The one currently in his hands asked for corpse reanimation . Intrigued, Changkyun read further. Necrophilia kink . He gagged and shut the folder, tossing it as far away as he could from him.
Changkyun groaned. He couldn’t do this. It was one thing being desperate money for money. It was another to murder for a few dollars. These jobs weren’t even paying well for the requests they had. He sighed.
He slowly walked back down, given up from looking through the massive pile of folders of what was undoubtedly jobs that no one wanted to take. No one has died from missing a few meals, he reminded himself. Be true to yourself first and foremost .
Before he could reach the door, he felt tugging on the back of his jacket. He turned around. Behind him, a young girl holding a tattered teddy bear was holding on to the fabric of his jacket. Changkyun slowly grabbed her hand so she could release his jacket and, still holding her hand, kneeled down so that he was eye level with the child. He ignored the stares he was receiving and gave a questioning glance to the child.
“Do you need help?” he asked, keeping his voice light because he knew his originally deep voice could be scary.
She handed him her teddy bear and it held the crumbled remains of a formally written request like the ones he had seen on the table. He unfolded it carefully, the paper brittle and thin. The writing was almost illegible, the ink worn away from all the folding and by age.
“You want me to exorcise your house?”
She nodded. In a tiny voice, she spoke. “We can’t afford to move to another house, we’ve lived there all our lives, but something is trying to scare us away now.”
“How long has this been going on?” he questioned. How long had this child been looking for help and no one was willing to help her?
“Almost a year now,” she replied faintly. “Please help me,” she cried, bowing to Changkyun to plead. “We can’t pay much but you’re the first to not ignore us.” When Changkyun didn’t say anything, she paused and looked unsure. “I thought that you would be different.” She reached for her teddy bear but Changkyun pulled it back before she could grab it.
“I’ll do it. Just,” he hesitated. “Show me the way.”
Her eyes sparkled and she grabbed his hand and dragged him out the door back into outside. Surprisingly, she did not lead him further into the rundown part of town but led to a small house in the middle of the city. It was distinctly different, eye-catching amongst the modern architecture that surrounded it, a quaint little house surrounded by high rises and towering condos. Amongst the gray drabness, the little house was painted brightly and surrounded by plants, a bit of color in an otherwise monochrome space.
She knocked on the door before her eyes lit up and with instructions to wait for her, she dashed off. Changkyun stood there awkwardly, feeling out of place.
Without warning, an older man answered the door and looked at Changkyun with guarded eyes. “I’m sorry, we’re not selling this house,” he said, before trying to close the door on him.
Before he could, the girl returned and the man stopped. “Dayoung-ah, what did you do?” he said with a sigh.
“This oppa is going to help with the ghost in the house!” she exclaimed. “Oh! Before I forget.” She turned to Changkyun and handed him a wrinkled ten dollar bill. “Your payment.”
The man, her father Changkyun presumed, looked at the two with unreadable eyes. “I’m sorry, you came all this way,” he apologized. “We can pay you a little more but Dayoung was saving her money in hopes that someone would come if we could pay more.”
Changkyun shook his head. “No, it’s okay. I need some money but I’m glad to help.
The man hesitated. “If you could help us, that would be great. But I don’t think this is some job for a kid.”
“Your daughter must have thought it was an important job if she has been waiting for someone to take this job at the black mage market for a year now,” Changkyun ventured. “There’s no harm in trying. Can you tell me what’s been going on?”
The older man sighed. “We went to the local clans for help but they couldn’t help us, said it was too dangerous and they didn’t have the right mages for the job, and we couldn’t afford a clan from outside of the city to come in. We put up a listing on the market because there were no other options. We thought since Soule was more open to mages, it would be easier to find someone but I guess we couldn’t pay enough for what we asked.”
“Dayoung said she thinks a ghost is haunting this place and causing problems. Do you happen to know anyone that has died before the problems started happening?”
“My wife and her mother were in a car accident and my wife was hospitalized for some time. Her mother died on impact.” He paused. “But it can’t be her. She loved this place more than anything, wouldn’t sell it no matter what. She spent years working on her garden. She grew all those plants that we have outside. But we almost ran into legal trouble when her lawyers put up the house for sale to pay off some of the debt from the hospital bills but luckily she had it in her will that the house would pass to Dayoung. Since she can’t collect the deed until she turns eighteen and we refused to take it from her, they couldn’t sell the house.”
“So then what happened?” By then, they had moved to the kitchen table and the man was pouring a cup of tea of Changkyun.
The man shook his head. “I don’t know. One day there started to be loud noises that sounded like robbers. When we went to check, nothing was missing, no one had broken in. There’s just been a lot of unexplained things going on. There’s wailing in the middle of the night that prevents us from sleeping. Sometimes the faucets leak sludge so we’ve had to resort to showering in the recreational center showers. Once all the tires on my wife’s car were busted so she had to call a cab to get to work. It’s just a mess.”
Changkyun listened carefully to what he said. He hesitated. “I don’t know if I can do anything about it. But I can try.”
“That’s all we’re asking for.”
“I think it would be better if you and your daughter stayed out of the house for now. I don’t know how magic will affect you guys.”
The man stood up. “Of course, of course. I’m not sure if you can do anything but we’ll be at the library. Please come get us before you leave.”
With a wave, Dayoung and her father were gone leaving Changkyun to the quiet house alone. He sat on the floor in the middle of the living room and closed his eyes, letting his magic loose. Slowly, it spread, wandering through every nook and cranny searching for any sign of the supernatural.
He opened his eyes.
In front of him, a young woman stood. Changkyun could see the faint resemblance to Dayoung in her appearance. “Hello,” he said. “Are you Dayoung’s grandmother?”
She nodded. “Dayoung is my granddaughter,” she confirmed. Changkyun just nodded. Although rare, some spirits preferred their younger forms than the ones they died in.
“Why-” he stopped, unsure exactly what to say. “Why are you haunting this house?
Her face turned indignant. “I’m protecting this house.”
“But what about everything that’s been happening?”
She snarled. “Bastards, all of them. Filthy rich chaebols thinking they’re entitled to everything.” The confusion on Changkyun’s face must have been too much because she sighed. “When I died, my lawyers tried to sell this house to pay for my daughter’s hospital bills. I don’t know what happened to the money I put aside for emergencies but those good-for-nothings probably stole that too. I have more money hidden but I didn’t leave it in the will so that those bastards couldn’t steal it too.”
“Then?” Changkyun prompted. The anger surrounding the spirit was almost tangible.
“Some corporate official wanted to buy the land and build another condominium over here. They almost bought it but my son-in-law was able to find the loophole in my will before they could. Of course, they were angry. They would do anything to get this house.”
The realization dawned on Changkyun. “Are you saying that someone is purposely sabotaging the house?”
With a grim expression, she nodded. “People tried to break in but I scared them off. They attempted to poison the water with cyanide but I managed to turn the water black so that they wouldn’t touch it. They tried to cause another car accident by messing with the brakes of my daughter’s car so I slashed the tires to make sure she wouldn’t drive.”
It was almost dizzying, the capacity for cruelty some people had. Spirits could only do so much and this one was doing the best she could to protect her loved ones. No wonder she hadn’t moved on yet.
“Well, what can I do?” he croaked out. His magic had stopped exploring and was slowly retreating back to float lazily around him.
“My daughter couldn’t file a police report because there’s no proof that there is someone messing with them. I can’t exactly be evidence, can I.”
Changkyun cracked a small smile. “No ma’am.” She smiled ruefully back at him.
“Find the money I left behind and tell my son-in-law to hire a private investigator to gather evidence. Then take them to court. My daughter is a criminal justice lawyer but she does public defense usually so she doesn’t make a lot of money. But she’ll be able to handle the case herself.”
“Can you show me where it is?”
She looked at him and smiled sadly. “I can’t leave the perimeter of this house. I guess I was too attached.” Changkyun nodded. “But, I don’t know if I trust you just yet. You did do this mission because you needed money.”
Changkyun frowned. “That’s true but I wouldn’t- I would never!”
She nodded. “If that’s true, then I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out my riddle.” She paused, watching Changkyun squirm uncomfortably. “Death follows me so,” she sighed. “What must I long most for?”
Then without a word, she vanished.
Changkyun stood up, groaning from sitting on the floor for too long. He stretched his legs and thought of the riddle. Death follows me so. What must I long most for.
She must have referred to herself because she was dead. What did the dead long for? Happiness? Peace? He shook his head. That didn’t make sense.
Changkyun thought back to the spirit. How angry she was that she could not fully protect her family. How she wanted to do something. How she wished she was… alive.
Alive? Death follows me so. I long most for life .
“That’s the answer,” he shouted into the empty house. “Life.” The silence answered back. He took it as confirmation.
Did she give the money to someone? That didn’t make sense. She obviously didn’t trust anyone. A pet? There were no animals inside the house. Maybe… outside?
Changkyun walked out through the front door only to be disappointed when he was met with silence. No barks or meows of any kind. He walked around the perimeter, searching for something, a bird, a hamster, anything that could be considered life.
By the time he made a full lap around the house, it was obvious that pets were not the answer to the question about life. He furrowed his eyebrows. She wouldn’t hide it off the property but it was in a place she couldn’t get to. So it had to be in the area surrounding the house. But what? The only things surrounding the house were the potted plants.
Changkyun facepalmed. Of course! The plants! He looked at them and groaned. There were too many of them, too many to check by himself. They were in all shapes and sizes and colors and Changkyun didn’t want to attempt to identify the plants and correlate them with a meaning. He sighed.
Slowly, he walked along to the plants and touched the leaves of one of them. It wilted in his hand and Changkyun stepped back in shock. He frowned. This was new.
Carefully, he trailed through the plants and each one he touched withered away. After a few too many, he stepped back and looked down at his hands. This couldn’t be happening. It was bad enough that he was a dark mage, it was bad enough that his magic had ruined his clan, but now his powers had manifested into some kind of death touch? This couldn’t be happening.
He needed to get this under control soon before he touched someone and accidentally killed them. Changkyun gulped when he remembered Dayoung holding his hand. This must have been a curse, he decided. Necromancers were not blessings of the gods but cursed beings mocked by cruel deities.
Mournfully, he looked at the plants. There was only one thing left to practice on. He apologized quietly in his head to the spirit of the house and focused his magic in his hand, trying to master some control over whatever was happening. He silently thanked the fact that he had been able to read and witness how new magic control manifested. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to figure out what was going on and could have hurt somebody.
With careful hands, he touched each plant. The first few died instantaneously, empty husks left in place of blooming flowers. But slowly, ever so slowly, they started dying less. Halfway through, at the point where he could sense the magic enough to control it so that the plant would collapse lifelessly and wilt instead of fully dying, one plant didn’t die.
Or better, one plant wasn’t really a plant. It looked like one, felt like one, and even smelled like one, but there was a distinct lifelessness about it. Carefully, he pulled at the flower, its stem thick enough that one hand could barely wrap around it and full of leaves and flowers. The flower fell off to reveal more layers. Changkyun kept pulling until the stem revealed itself.
At the very top, there was a small opening, large enough for a slender finger to fit in. Carefully, he poked his hand and felt a string. He slid it up against the stem’s tube and when enough of it was out, he pulled it. A click was heard and the fake plant was sprung back to reveal a spring-loaded trap box. Inside the box was a hefty envelope and when Changkyun opened it, there were more envelopes inside. How she managed that many envelopes inside the pot was beyond Changkyun although he admired the genius of the trap box.
He opened one envelope and inside was a thick stack of hundred dollar bills. Quickly, he put it away and reset the spring-loaded box inside the pot. He replaced the flowers as best he could. Changkyun made note to tell Dayoung’s father what he had discovered.
That off his chest, he resumed his magic practice. Like the trap box, he could slowly start to sense the hidden areas of magic that had manifested and he focused on bringing those under his reign. At the very last plant, he touched it and nothing happened. Changkyun sighed in relief.
The plant next to it was pitiful when compared to its full bloom neighbor. With gently fingers, he traced the dried out buds and felt his magic respond to its death. For a moment, he thought of Kihyun, thought of him watering his plants and singing to help them grow.
There was warmth in his heart and it spread to his hands and before his eyes, the flower bloomed to life. He gasped.
Behind him, an excited shout of, “Wow, Daddy, did you see that?” surprised him and he jumped when he was tackled in a hug by the small girl.
“Oppa, that’s so cool! Do it again!”
He laughed gently before prying her off of him. She firmly clung on to his leg and he could only look helplessly at her father who had a fond smile on his face.
“I’m sorry about the plants, sir,” he said, gesturing to the rest of the plants that were in a similar state of death and decay.
The man waved it off. “It’s fine. Just do your magic a few more times and it should be okay.”
With a starry-eyed girl watching him, he focused his magic on to the plants and to his surprise, each and everyone returned from the dead. After six more plants though, he found himself exhausted, his magic sluggish and the dark magic inside of him waiting to come out.
The seventh wasn’t dead, just wilted. He held out his hand and forced his magic through but nothing happened. He sighed and collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Changkyun forced himself up and walked into the house where he crashed on the couch.
A glass of water was handed to him. “Thank you,” he said quietly, taking huge gulps until it was empty.
“It’s alright. You’ve been working all day. Were you-” the man stopped before continuing. “Were you able to find anything?”
“I talked to your mother-in-law,” Changkyun said, watching the man’s face go through cycles of surprise and disbelief. “She said that she wants you to hire a private investigator to collect evidence that the owner of the buildings surrounding this house are poisoning your water and attempting to off your family.” Changkyun cursed silently in his head after he said it. That was not the way to break news like that to someone.
The man’s face settled into a hard expression. “Those fucking bastards,” he cursed. Changkyun could only hum in agreement. But then the man’s face fell. “We don’t have the money to do that.”
“Don’t worry, she said she left you money that wasn’t in her will so that her lawyers couldn’t steal it.”
The man laughed. “You’re just revealing all these secrets now, aren’t you kid.”
Changkyun just grinned and motioned to show him where the money was. The man watched in awe as he pulled open the trap box and handed him the envelope. When he opened the contents, his jaw dropped.
“Kid,” he said, voice watery, “thank you. This is more than enough. It’s enough for the private investigator, for the rest of the bills, even for a savings account for Dayoung’s college fund. I- I don’t know how I can repay you.”
Changkyun smiled shyly. “Don’t worry. This,” he said, pulling the ten dollar bill that Dayoung had given him, “is enough.”
Nevertheless, Changkyun walked home with an extra one hundred dollars despite his denial to accept the money. He also was packed dinner by Dayoung’s mother and given a soft toy animal from Dayoung as well in thanks.
That night, he settled in his room and looked down at his clan mark. It was still fully inked. He ran some water and soap over it, hoping to wash out the ink but as he scrubbed, the color did not fade despite how much stained liquid ran down the sink. Before long, the water ran clear but the mark was still completely dark.
Changkyun fell back in panic. He must have gotten so caught up in the job that he didn’t realize his clan bond signal had turned on. Now that he was paying attention, he could feel the rest of the member’s presence. They were still in Chinone, even further away than when he last checked. He let out a sigh of relief. It had been so close to revealing his location.
He shook his head. Changkyun couldn’t allow himself to get comfortable yet. If they didn’t sense him when his clan bond was active, the bond on their side was disappearing. He just needed to make sure they didn’t find him until he knew it was gone.
It wouldn’t be long until it happened. He was sure of it.
-- --
“Where do you think Changkyun could be?” Minhyuk asked Kihyun as they laid side by side. They were sharing a room again, tired from the endless days searching for Changkyun.
“I don’t know,” Kihyun responded groggily. “For some reason, I feel like he’s in Soule.”
“Yeah, same.”
It was silent for a few moments, only soft breathing filling the air.
“Do you- do you think that Changkyun really doesn’t want to be part of the clan anymore? Should we just give up?”
“Minhyuk, go to sleep,” Kihyun groaned. Minhyuk apologized but Kihyun cut him off. “If we give up, we’ll never find him.”
In the stillness, the two laid there and stared up at the ceiling. “I guess you’re right,” Minhyuk said, before rolling over to sleep for the night.
“Aren’t I always?”
-- --
Almost a month in Soule and Changkyun was running low on money again. He had been doing all sorts of odd jobs on the black mage market, mostly helping the poor that really couldn’t afford to pay for the local clans’ help for the type of job they were asking for. He made money but not enough.
Even the bartender had praised him for getting rid of the riff-raff that had littered the halls for months at a time. Changkyun didn’t respond to that, disliking the casual classism that the bartender and the receptionist had for the clients.
But it was true. With Changkyun there, many of the poorer clients had their jobs filled and no longer sat around begging for someone to help. He had helped an old man say goodbye to his wife for $10. He solved the murder of a beloved father and got the stepmother arrested for $20. He helped exact revenge on a corporate business owner who had stolen everything from a small family-run business for $25. It wasn’t a lot of money and he was spending a lot of time on these cases but it made him happy to help.
And some days, he would return back to his little room exhausted but satisfied and look down to see thick inking on his arm, a reminder that he had to be careful about letting his longing grow. It had been weeks. If they hadn’t found him yet when his clan bond was active, they wouldn’t find him anytime soon. He comforted himself with that.
But on days when he’d run into dead ends, when he’d miss dinner or find something that he wanted to share with someone else, the longing welcomed him like a long lost friend. He would allow himself to bask in the comfort of their presence and hold on to his sanity for another day.
Sometimes, he tensed when he realized that the others had arrived in Soule and were looking. But the on and off signaling made it difficult for them to locate exactly where he was but easy for him to know exactly where to avoid.
With time, they would give up, he reminded himself.
Changkyun had just finished a job with a young woman who wanted to say her last words to her fiance that had died in an workplace accident. He was paid a neat sum of $15 and was on his way to buy something to eat.
As he walked down the street, he noticed an inconspicuous black car trail after him. He sped up and the car followed after. Before he could make a run for it, the window rolled down and a deep voice called his name.
“Lim Changkyun.”
Warily, Changkyun stepped towards the car, keeping a safe distance. “Who are you?”
The person in the car pulled out a business card from his suit pocket and tossed it to the floor by Changkyun’s feet. “Kim Shidae.”
“What do you want,” he asked, tense.
“In light of your recent… activities, you came to my attention. I’m offering you a job. I’ll pay you $5000 to finish it.”
“What?”
“It’s not a morally wrong job, if you’re worried about that. I just find it… difficult to hire people of your caliber. And of course, I need this to be done in secret. You’re the best on the market right now.”
Changkyun scratched his head, confused. “If you send me the files, sir, I’ll consider it.”
Shidae nodded. “You’ve caught my eye, Changkyun-shi. I hope you do not let me down.” He rolled up the window and signaled to his driver as Changkyun watched as the car sped away. The card in his hands was tucked away and the thick ink on his clan mark was bared out for all to see.
What Changkyun did not see was the hidden figure in the shadows that clenched its fists and disappeared into the night.