TUL saw the sunrise earlier than Ajin, feeling a bit of soreness in their back and a lot of pain in their crooked neck. They threw the pillow beneath them into the center of the room, and TUL had no idea how it ended there.
But it was all worth it when he looked down horizontally at TINE. The man so resistant to him last night was now cuddled up with him, his arms holding him tight, snuggling in his chest.
TUL didn't want to move, stay like this forever even though it hurts, TUL gets a bit of Teary eyes, but it's common nowadays. It feels great to have his TINE back. After all this time in any universe, he will always choose to be with him, ALWAYS.
TUL shifts a bit to wipe off the tears, that have accumulated in his eyes.
"Ehhh" whines AJIN.
"Not an early riser, are you?" TUL looked down at him fondly.
"bugger off, let me sleep" Ajin snuggles even deeper in his chest.
That gets a laugh out of TUL, maybe a sob. He doesn't know
AJIN gets up in a span of milliseconds and looks directly at TUL. His hair was a roughled mess, sleepy eyes squinting at him, prone to the light.
"What?" TUL asked.
"What? What, what was that?"
"What was what?"
"What was- uhh leave it, how are you up already? What time is it?" AJIN grumbly got up
"The sun is up already! Let's go down and have breakfast already, come on!" TUL tried to look energetic, getting up himself.
"Phew" AJIN sleepily strolled around the room and threw himself on his bed.
"Oh ho AJIN, Get up! Get up now and go take a shower." TUL dragged him by his hand and pushed him inside the shower.
"Ay, asshole" AJIN yelled from inside.
TUL smiled, satisfied, and went down to have breakfast.
He wasn't surprised to find ANYA already there, the early bird she is, she always makes breakfast for both of them before the kitchen maid arrives, just some new recipes she found on ig.
But MJ was here too, obviously, it's his house strolling around the kitchen holding a mug on which was written "It's hard being the coolest person alive" while ANYA was cutting food for breakfast.
TUL sat on the chair by the counter, his mind still not able to catch the fact that he slept the night with TINE.
"TUL!" said ANYA, clattering the tip of the knife in her hand on the staple, and by her tone he knew that it wasn't the first time she called his name.
He is distracted... the cause is TINE.
"Yea? What?" He looked up at her with a jolt.
"MJ said good morning" She raised her eyebrow
"Ohh! Yea, sorry, good morning MJ" He smiled at him
"Yea, never mind that, are you okay?" MJ leaned against the counter.
"Yea, just i'm a bit fussy, you know about everything" he gestured his hand in the air to make some sense. it made none
"Oh yea, man don't worry , everything will be alright, we'll discuss everything with AJIN once he is down"
TUL smiled at him.
"Is AJIN up yet? I reckon he's still sleeping" MJ's right hand went on his lower back, a mother's gesture.
"He is in the shower" TUL said, then snaped his mouth shut so violently that his teeth clicked together.
MJ looked at him wide eyes and ANYA behind him holding her laughter, TUL tried hard not to figit or shift restlessly.
"UM. It's- I mean"
"Why" MJ says slowly with the dramatic pause and everything, "you sound so sure about that."
TUL could lie, could say that he was passing by and poked his head in AJIN'S room. But... he is so freaking bad at lying. Anyone can see through him.
He looks at ANYA for help and ANYA... an angel, that's what she is. She moved at once, taking a nicely sliced piece of apple with her.
She kept a hand on MJ's shoulder and the one holding the apple near his face. "Taste it for me please" she says sweetly.
"I- what?" MJ turns his head, face flushed at once.
"I dipped it with honey and sprinkled sugar power in it. I want to know how it tastes? Will you do it for me?" she winked at him, their faces dangerously close.
MJ, flustered, started to ramble mindlessely "oh, yea, it must be delicious, of course"
Tuyl crossed his hands over his chest and looked down to hold his laughter, MJ really is in love with ANYA. Kilter but also midlessely.
ANYA winked at him and he gave her a smiley nod, teasing her.
----
AJIN came down after 10 mins or so Hair damp and still yawning. He sat by the counter and leaned against MJ, maybe trying to have a quick nap
TUL is a jealous man, he really is. The resists the urge to take the man who slept by his side the whole night. Take him by the head and let him rest it on his shoulder.
MJ patted his cheeks while he leaned more into him. "Good morning AJIN, tea or coffee" ANYA asked.
"Morning, tea please" AJIN said sleepily.
"Ohh AJIN wake up! It's already 7:30!" MJ patted his back gently.
"Yea it's 7:30, that's the problem" he deadpans.
"did you get a good sleep?" ANYA asked, keeping the kettle on the stove.
"Yea, but my back is sour" AJIN said, giving TUL a nasty look.
TUL just wants to lick his lips real bad.
ANYA eventually bought AJIN'S tea and a plate of fruits in front of him and sat across him.
"So, what are we doing next?"
---
Shit! This is bad, really really bad, no way out of it now.
GORYA bit her lips, hands folded below her chest, pacing the kitchen.
Okay, so, since yesterday the Actress ANYA has been missing the news reporters are running from director to director, interviewing everyone. Every news channel talking of nothing else.
The huge TV in her cafe is on and a reporter around 40ish currently speaking how ANYA was last seen entering her penthouse in the cameras, and the servants who worked their saw her last.
"All the workers of her penthouse are being interviewed and it was reviled that she had a step-brother, but by our sources we know that her parents were dead, she was very young and lived with her aunt who also died when she-"
The voice of the TV reporter was dimmed by the sound of the door being brutally opened and MR. KORN coming inside very hastily. GORYA flinched at the sight of his angry face.
He usually comes from the back door attached to the secret room. He looked very angry, maybe, just maybe someone is about to die And GORYA has no intentions to so she continues in her polite tone, ignoring the fast impulse going through her body.
"Sir? What are we going to do next?" She said hands clasped by her upper abdomen.
He looked at her in disgust, "You're useless, freaking everyone is useless! Call AJIN!" he said sighing and rubbing his index finger and thumb on his forehead.
"Yes sir, right away" GORYA half-bowed and turned around to reach for her phone.
"He is the only one who get's things get done right, everyone else is useless" He angrily said on GORYA'S back and headed inside the kitchen of the cafe to go to the secret room.
GORYA internally smirked at the irony. AJIN called her last night and revealed everything. TUL and ANYA are safe, he didn't say where but right now they are out of korn's reach. That's good.
He said he will come early today and take care of the matters outside. He will be the main suspect in the eyes of media. Obviously. He was her said boyfriend and also her personal assistant, AJIN would need a strong alibi to stay innocent.
GORYA had sent FA home, giving her some days off. Even after dealing with her violent attempts to stay back. The more she stays away from her, the safer she will be.
She ringed AJIN, it was almost 9:00 AM. He answered, "Hello"
"AJIN, things here getting worst, you need to get here as soon as possible" she said, worry in her tone.
"Yea, don't worry i'm on my way" he said, she also heard some honking so maybe he was driving.
"Yea, okay I will talk to you once you're here"
"Yea bye" the phone went off.
GORYA sat on the chair beside her. Thankfully there were no customers this early in the morning, just some office workers or university and high school students grabbing their dose of caffeine before heading to their destination.
She wonders what KORN is doing inside. Maybe taking care of internal matters.
She thinks how, his behaviour has changed from when she first met him, she was 12, she remembers, remember every single bit of it.
After all it's her potential. Remembering.
---
GORYA had always had a depressing life. She could say that, not having a genuine happy memory from her childhood and the worst part is that she can't forget it.
She remembers how her mother used to struggle keeping GORYA in her belly, starving, struggling to get a piece of bread, maybe not for herself but for the baby in her belly.
She was a vain maid, working in a house of a big government official. She got pregnant by him, but he had a official wife and children, no place for GORYA and her mother. So the moment he found out about her pregnancy
He threw her out of his house.
She did some laborious jobs, but how long could a sick pregnant work? She found shelter in a sewer, her new home
That's where GORYA was born. She remembers her still being attached to her mother, rat's nipping on her small soft toes.
All the power that her mother had, she used it to walk to the nearest store. The owner panicked at the sight of a women holding a blood covered baby who wasn't even crying.
He called an ambulance, and her mother and GORYA were transported to the hospital.
She remembers the doctor telling her mother that her baby wasn't alive. She had borne a dead baby, a girl.
She was delivered before time only seven and a half month but strangely her body and nutrition was complete.
She heard her mother's grieving sobs. She remembers being wrapped in a white cloth and being left alone with her mother. Her mother got on her knees and clasped her hand together in prayers.
She was a religious women, she believed in god and had hopes for the better but isn't god too cruel?
Her prayers soon turned to heavy sobs and then to begging. She begged to the entity out there to give her child a soul, even wanted to exchange her's.
Soon, GORYA'S body started to flicker faintly and then shaking and then she started properly crying. she was alive, her mother looked at her eyes filled with tears, she didn't touch her scared to stain her pure soul instead smiled, genuinely, glad that finally her prayers were answered.
moments later some doctors and nurses entered the room at the sound of a baby crying, they found two humans. one alive, one dead. Contrast to their knowledge.
She was later given out in an orphanage, and her mother to a graveyard.
Growing up, she started to dispite the world, hating everything, how could her life be so cruel? Was taking birth in this world such a sin?
Other kids at the orphanage started hating her for her attitude. The teachers and matrons naming her as a "hopeless case".
She used to rebel out of everything. 'if her life was so painful, then so let other's also be'. She used to run out of ongoing classes, not eating her food, drawing on the corridors walls.
Being a pain in everyone's ass
There was a constant visitor at the orphanage, named as "MR. KORN" from what she knew, he was a donator and used to constantly come there to spend time with children.
He doesn't used to spend time with them, rather observe them, looking for something inside them. He used to ask them wierd questions.
One day, he came for GORYA too
GORYA was almost 16 at that time and she was running laps around the ground for being caught while smoking.
"Hello there, GORYA right? I've heard very much about you from your teachers" he said politely. She didn't answer.
He continued, "GORYA, I know everything must be hard for you and you might think nobody understands you" he paused, "I feel the same, I think I'm all alone in the world, but I think it's okay the world will know me when I'm powerful, holding power is the only answer, GORYA, or else you die in a sewer like a rat."
GORYA gasped not looking at him, staring straight at the ground, "And when I'm powerful, I'll need a heir to hold it after me."
"You will adopt me?" She finally looked at him
"Yes"