After Dusk || Im Changkyun

35. Innocense

Chapter Thirty Five

Changkyun's mother's eyes widened at the sound of his name. She placed her other hand on top of yours, looking at you eagerly,
"How do you know my sons name? His real name too. I only told you his name was Daniel." She looked at you, completely flabbergasted. The bun that was so neatly tied at the top of her head was coming out with how much she was shaking.
You were making a mistake. You were making such a big mistake.
You pulled your phone out of one of the pockets, not knowing when you had put it there. You unlocked it, scrolling through your pictures before landing on the selfie he'd posted on his private Instagram while you were in Milan. The selfie from when you fell asleep on his shoulder.
You can't believe that you had the audacity to do that. Sure, it was a few days before you started dating but still.
You showed her the picture, watching her face spread into the warmest smile you'd ever seen.
The smile of a mother.
You handed her your phone, watching her slowly trail her finger across the picture of his face.
"Are you both together?" She asked, not taking her eyes off of Changkyun. You hesitated. You couldn't be all this honest with her. You shouldn't have told her that you knew him. She had the right to know, but you were still guilty about this entire situation. Changkyun didn't know you were doing this at all. He deserved to know too. You sighed before uttering the words you hadn't said about him in a very long time, making sure your hair was covering the chest pocket of the jacket,
"We're just friends."

•—•

"Kyun, you here?" You asked sleepily into the emptiness of your apartment as you slipped off your shoes beside the door, wishing to just be engulfed into comfort because all of that was anything but comfortable.
"I am." You saw Changkyun peek out of your bedroom door with Ollie in his arms. You smiled softly at the sight, throwing down the bag you'd received from them, filled with clothes they wanted you to have just because. Changkyun pushed the bag aside, not even bothering to look at it thankfully. He placed Ollie down on the ground and just looked at you slowly.
You don't know why you assumed he'd be here but he was anyways.
"Did it suck? They called you in out of nowhere." He asked you, examining your tired face carefully.
"Can we not talk about work? I just need a hug." You breathed out, your eyes fluttering close for the first time in a long time.
"My arms are always open for you." He told, wrapping himself around you at your request, kicking the door close since you'd left it open behind you. You hid your face into his black t-shirt, taking in his warmth, yawning and instantly being greeted with comfort at the feeling of him.
Exactly what you needed.
"I'm sorry your childhood was so sucky." You mumbled into his shirt, feeling his grasp on you tighten. He perched his head on your shoulder, resting his chin on it while he asked,
"Why are we talking about that all of a sudden?" He backed you both up, sitting down on the couch. As soon as you felt his grip on you loosen, you grabbed his arms, crossing them around your body firmly. Changkyun scoffed at your neediness but you just needed to feel his touch.
"I'm so sorry that you had to go through all of that. You didn't deserve it. You deserved all of the love in the world." Changkyun pulled you away from him, resting his hands at your shoulders and slouched down so you both were at eye level. He looked at you quizzically, tilting his head to the side,
"It's okay, Eggeles. I'm happy everything went down the way it did. I would've been a different person if my family life was functional, and I kind of don't hate the way I am when I'm with you." He smiled softly, almost as if he was the one that was comforting you when it should be vice versa.
"You quite literally made me a better a person."
You scoffed at him, but you couldn't hide the small grin that was threatening to spread across your lips.
"Can you stop flirting with me and let me be serious for once?" You laughed quietly, making his smile brighten.
"Maybe then you should stop making me fall for your every move." He shrugged, getting cocky again. Except, he was getting cocky about you. You didn't know how that was supposed to work.
"You're just an annoying hypocrite to me. Mr. Annoying Hypocrite." You grinned, remembering that old nickname you'd given to him. You should change his contact name back to it just to tease him. It's not like you actually called him Danny Bear, and you were confident that you never would.
"If I'm just Mr. Annoying Hypocrite, why did you kiss me goodbye?" He argued, raising his eyebrow while poking his cheek. He was referring to what had happened earlier.
"Because you were being annoying and I needed you to stop doing thing that are going to get you in trouble."
"Then I guess I'll have to be more annoying." He wiggled his fingers in the air, giving you a cheeky smirk. You immediately reeled back, knowing exactly what he was going to do. He pounced forward, ending with you lying on the couch with him hovering over, tickling you everywhere with an evilly joyous cackle. You giggled uncontrollably at the painfully hysteric sensation, trying to wriggle out of Changkyun's grasp. You tried to stop his hands, your eyes squeezed shut as you wheezed out laughs, tearing pooling around your eyes and streaming down your face.
You tried to tell him to stop but you were to busy laughing your lungs out. You were eventually able to grab a hold of his hands, clenching his fingers together, and pinning them to either sides of your body.
"I hate you." You breathed out, a few more stray tears falling down your cheeks and attempting to catch your breath.
Your diaphragm was not okay.
"Love you too." Changkyun easily slipped one of his hands out of your grasp. You tried pushing yourself farther back into the plush cushions, in hopes of avoiding another tickle attack. It wasn't the best dodge seeing as you were still trapped between his arms. Changkyun chuckled sweetly, simply just wiping your tears with his finger and then collapsing on the couch beside you.
"I was annoying. Can I get a kiss now?"
"No."
Changkyun furrowed his brows, disappointed. He really thought that that little plan of his would work. How naive.
"Then I guess I'll have to annoy you more." He brought his fingers closer to you and you squealed, trying your best to avoid the inevitable. You were able to somehow squeeze through his massive body, leaving him lying where you were a few seconds ago while you you stood beside the couch, looking down on him.
"Well, I tried." He finally gave up, jumping off the couch and dusting his hands off despite the fact that there was nothing on them.
"This is why Jooheon hyung called us the 'fastest slow couple' during one of those stupid tea session." He muttered, dropping down to the ground holding his arms out for Ollie, who was walking peacefully towards the kitchen, his little feet trotting around.
"I'll get kisses from Ollie. Come here!" Changkyun pat the ground, coaxing Ollie to come towards him. Ollie turned to spare his attention towards the desperate man for only a second before continuing on his little trot to the kitchen. Changkyun sighed, getting up off the ground and slouching his shoulders down, letting his hair get in his face.
"I guess I will be getting no love today."
You crossed your arms and cocked your hip, staring at the slouchy, pouty man in front of you with an amused smirk.
"Are you trying to get me to pity you?"
"Yes. Is it working?"
"No."
"God damn it."
"I like it."
"Seriously?"
You giggled at the sight of him, waddling around like a child, muttering god who knows what to himself. What happened to the man you met almost a year ago? The one that you had an unspoken rivalry with? The one that acted like a big tough boulder?
Who was the three year old in your living room? You swore you walked into this relationship with an emo vampire, not a toddler.
Changkyun turned to you for a second, tilting his over sideways before saying,
"Wait, there's something on your face." Changkyun pointed towards your face. His hands directed your hands mindlessly from a few steps away from you, gesturing to where this thing was but you just ended up clawing at your face, not knowing what could possibly be on it. He sighed, shaking his head at you in disappointment before tsking and walking back towards you. He hovered his finger over your mouth for a few seconds, seeming to be contemplating something in his head instead of wiping whatever it was off.
That was until he dived down and captured your lips in his, catching you off guard completely.
"Correction. Something will be on your face and it's my lips. Grammar was never my strong suit." He smiled against your lips, pinching your pink cheeks. You glared at him, pulling yourself away slightly.
Curse his smoothness. Now you had butterflies flying around in your stomach. Or stabbing it. You couldn't quite distinguish the difference.
"You really had the audacity." You exhaled, pressing your lips into a thin line while examining his satisfied smirk, scrunching your nose at him.
"Shut up, you love it." He ruffled your hair with his hand, chuckling at your annoyed expression. You yawned, stretching out your arms and finally taking a step back from the man in front of you. You looked at the clock, wondering where the sudden wave of sleepiness had came from.
It was only 8 PM.
"Hey, Kyun. I'm going to turn in for the night." You pointed towards your bedroom door, strolling over to your kitchen counter and grabbing the small bag of dog food that was lying there and pouring a small amount of it into his food bowl that you kept right at the foot of the kitchen island. You heard the padded footsteps of Ollie's paws as soon as the pitter patter of the food hitting the porcelain of the bowl.
You knelt down to his level, petting his fur gently, yawning again.
"Need a cuddle buddy? I don't mind breaking my sleep schedule for you." Changkyun offered, lifting you up off the ground and slipping off your... well his jacket from your arms.
"You have work to do. Finish it. Don't ruin your work ethic." You placed a hand on his shoulder, tapping it gently with a small smile,
"I'll see you in the morning."