Chapter Text
Not everyone has an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, and that’s partly because the devil cannot be in that many places at once. For those that do have an angel on one shoulder they’ll often have a demon on the other. However, some humans just have angels, others just have demons, but the majority of humans have nothing except their own stupidity guiding them through life.
Im Changkyun, however, has a demon. A very tired demon.
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The demons that sit on the shoulders of their unlucky victims are not there to harm their human, well maiming is okay, but death no. Death is in fact not on the list whatsoever. How would a demon cause mischief to their human or others if their human were to die? That’s not useful to them whatsoever.
Demons were there for mischief, to help their humans make poor choices, to mess up their day, to ruin a surprise or to make their victim and those around them miserable. And most demons were pretty dang good at it.
Obviously with such a large population of humans, angels and demons can’t be given to each newborn, so there’s a lottery. This lottery ties the angels and demons to their humans with a contract. The 90 year contract.
There are obviously terms and conditions applied, which can make it a lot trickier than one may think. The human must live for those 90 years for the contract to be fulfilled, and once the contract is complete, the angel or demon may be reborn into the world. If their human dies before the contract ends, the angels and demons are sent back to their realm for menial labour and compulsory re-training, which could last a couple hundred years. There are more terms and conditions, but those aren’t important to this story.
Those uneducated in angels and demons may think this feat would be easy, humans live over the age of 90 all the time. Surely, you may think, that angels would be fantastic at keeping their humans alive. Alas, good samaritans die all the time. And who do you think created those good samaritans? As for demons, they’re so busy thinking of the mischief that could be caused in the present that they rarely think about the long-term effects.
But the rewards are worth it. To be reborn into the world is a privilege. At least that’s what angels and demons are taught to believe.
This story centres around the human, Im Changkyun. 28 years old. Born and raised in Gwangju, South Korea, until one day he had an epiphany that he should move to Seoul to pursue his music career, and that he did.
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Changkyun is a music producer, working behind the scenes with a plethora of famous Korean and international artists. And he’s good at it. So good, in fact, that he is consistently busy throughout the year. His studio is less like his second home, rather it’s the place he occupies the most, because why not pay double the rent. Of course this decision was made with the help of his demon.
While Changkyun is a talented and successful producer, the rest of his life kinda falls flat. Or, well, he falls flat. Frequently. Changkyun has got to be one of the clumsiest people alive. His near death experiences exceed what one may think is justifiable for a 28 year old, and yet, he’s still here. Alive.
Others in his apartment building may say that it was unlucky that the building’s gas got cut off so frequently. So many tenants were up in arms, fighting with their building manager and the gas company, cursing about the building, threatening to cut their leases and move out. Changkyun, however, didn’t particularly notice the gas being off. It always tended to happen in the mornings after he’d gotten home exhausted from pulling an all nighter, quickly cooked up the easiest meal possible (ramen) and then crashed on his bed for the next six hours.
Yoo Kihyun, Changkyun’s unimpressed demon, on the other hand, was enthused that he had the ability to have the gas shut off. How often did his human forget to turn the gas off after eating ramen at 5am? Too fucking frequently.
It was only year 28 of his 90 year contract, and Kihyun was over it. Rarely any mischief is caused due to having to constantly save his dumbass human. How was this fair? How had he been given this human cheat code for death?
While many of Kihyun’s demon friends may have failed the contract, at least they had 60 odd years of fun. Kihyun wasn’t even half way there and he was tired. So dang tired.
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It was a normal day, Changkyun sat in his studio working on his latest track for a rookie boy group. Humming the chorus as his fingers mindlessly swept over the latest bandage on his forearm. It was from a freak accident the night before. One second he had been walking along the sidewalk, next thing he knew he was flung backwards just as a car careened off the road slamming into the fence right where he should have been. Changkyun always seemed to have this kind of luck, surviving freak accidents. He thought he must have some guardian angel looking out for him.
To be honest, Changkyun hadn’t even seen the car coming, he was a bit too engrossed in his phone at the time. Jooheon, his co-producer, always told him that he was a bit too addicted to that thing for someone so clumsy. Not that either of them knew it, but Kihyun agreed with Jooheon.
Kihyun didn’t actually sit on Changkyun’s shoulder, that would be weird, he’s a normal sized man. He’s average height. The same height as Changkyun, he personally believes he’s a bit taller, but semantics. So obviously, sitting on someone’s shoulder was just a metaphor. He did, however, always stay close to Changkyun. Close enough to whisper in his ear at any moment. Close enough that he could always hear Changkyun’s whimpers and hushed breaths when he thought he was alone, but that was neither here nor there.
As Changkyun sat mindlessly in his studio chair, listening over the chorus once again, tweaking little sections, Kihyun stood leaning over the chair’s backrest, guiding his human into creating the perfect ear worm. A chorus so catchy that no matter who it was would have it stuck in their head for days. This, of course, is one of the reasons why Changkyun was so sought after as a producer. His songs almost always went viral.
Hitting save on the project, Changkyun sighed leaning back in his chair which groaned and creaked beneath him. Jooheon had been telling him for months that his chair was a literal death trap waiting to happen, yet Changkyun refused to buy a new one.
“It’s still sturdy” he had defended one night as Jooheon sat horrified that his friend had leaned a little too far back on his chair, hearing the cracking as miraculously the chair righted itself again. But Jooheon didn’t believe him, and had already been thinking of ways to stealthily replace the old thing.
Unlike Changkyun, Jooheon had an angel on his shoulder, Minhyuk. And, not that it’s important but, Kihyun found him real fucking annoying.
“You’re a demon, why don’t you just let him fall?” Minhyuk queried, nodding his head at Kihyun who was squatting behind the chair with two hands planted on its back, holding it up. “I thought your lot enjoyed chaos? What’s a little bump on the head gonna do?”
Kihyun had sighed, adjusting his hands as he pushed himself to his feet. “Not that it’s any of your business” he spat, “but he already walked into a wall this morning, and then again on the subway on his trip over here,” he sighed looking at the unsuspecting human in front of him, “one more bump will send this idiot to the emergency room.”
“Aw” Minhyuk had giggled, “you like him”
Rolling his eyes, Kihyun knew better than to argue with the angel. Instead he leant down to Changkyun’s ear and whispered, loud enough for Minhyuk to hear, “You’re feeling tired, Changkyun,” he looked right at Minhyuk “tell Jooheon that he should head out so you can go home and sleep.”
“That’s not very nice” Minhyuk whined as Changkyun told Jooheon just that as he began ushering his co-producer out of the studio.
“I’m a demon,” Kihyun simply said with a wink.
That was weeks ago, and the chair was still here, creaking. Maybe Kihyun should have let him fall just to get rid of the stupid thing. But alas, he already had to watch Changkyun inadvertently injure himself multiple times a day, he could put up with this for a little longer.
Angels and demons were able to hear what their humans were thinking, which was a handy trick in leading them to make choices that they would then assume were their own. However, this trick didn’t help when your human was constantly thinking a thousand things at once while simultaneously overthinking a couple hundred other things. And boy, Changkyun sure was talented in the scatter brain department.
This is why Kihyun was often surprised when dominant thoughts would appear. And unfortunately (or fortunately, though Kihyun would deny) those dominant thoughts were often horny. It was a lot more unfortunate (again, fortunate) that Changkyun’s latest fixation was a Korean webtoon about dokkaebi, Korean folklore creatures that were depicted with blue eyes, elf-like ears, and a pair of short horns sticking out either side of their foreheads. And while Kihyun was a demon, the depiction was eerily similar to how he looked.
The first few times Changkyun had these fantasies, Kihyun had fumed with the idea that Changkyun was getting off on characters that looked like him (but nowhere near as good looking). Was this jealousy? Kihyun would deny it. However, after realising that these fantasies weren’t going to stop anytime soon, Kihyun might have gotten more involved than any self-respecting demon should have. If Changkyun was going to picture these creatures, he may as well picture the most handsome one - Kihyun.
Maybe it was a bit unethical to insert yourself into your human’s dreams and get off together. But Kihyun was a demon, ethics weren’t really his forte.
So when Kihyun started to realise the direction of Changkyun’s current activities, he got prepared. Being inside Changkyun’s head wasn’t unusual, Kihyun had been around him for 28 years by now, but still he had only done this with Changkyun a handful of times now, and each time made his chest tug in odd ways.
In Changkyun’s fantasies sometimes Kihyun had his mouth full of Changkyun’s (rather girthy) dick, other times he had his human on his hands and knees in front of him as he helped Changkyun angle his dildo to hit his prostate just right. One time, after Changkyun had watched an octopus documentary, Kihyun had found himself with four pairs of tentacles coming out his sides. He’d like to forget that. Never in these fantasies, though, had they kissed, that was too intimate for these weird ass fantasies his human had. It was just a quick fuck, to help both parties relieve their stress - and god Kihyun had so much stress.
This fantasy wasn’t any different. Changkyun pushed his chair out from his desk, giving him space to loosen his sweat pants. In his fantasy, Kihyun straddled him, hands on his shoulders and already completely naked. Changkyun didn’t waste time, Kihyun thought, making himself comfortable on his human’s lap. This position was new, which only gave Kihyun all too much opportunity to watch Changkyun’s face as the pleasure built up.
Kihyun knew Changkyun was handsome, his nose that protruded like a hill above his kittenish lips. But Kihyun had never been this close to him during one of these fantasies. He didn’t know how that handsome face would twist and turn as his hips thrusted up into his hand (and Kihyun), nor did he truly know how tempting his mouth would be with his tongue peeking out to wet his lips every few seconds.
Kihyun would swear it was an accident, that he had just had the best orgasm of his life as Changkyun had filled him to the brim. But he didn’t truly intend on willing Changkyun to kiss him. He was just so caught up in the moment that he hadn’t noticed being pulled into a hot breathed, open mouth kiss. It wasn’t, however, an accident when Kihyun pulled himself closer, twisting his fingers into Changkyun’s hair.
The kiss was too brief for their liking, but alas Changkyun had to breathe. He pulled back from Kihyun, his eyes opening for the first time since his fantasy began. Unsure if he was still dreaming.
Kihyun realised a little too late that the fantasy was over as horror splashed in Changkyun’s eyes and fingers gripped his skin a little too tightly. Changkyun could see him, could feel him. This wasn’t right. This couldn’t happen.
Both sat still, terrified of the situation. Processing what the actual fuck was happening. Changkyun shouldn’t be able to see his fantasy, and Kihyun should be just that, a fantasy, an eyes closed fantasy not a living breathing dokkaebi (demon) sitting pretty on Changkyun’s lap with a dick still thoroughly buried up his ass.
Before either of them knew it, Changkyun began floundering, flailing his arms and pushing Kihyun away. Then they heard the creak and the groan, then finally the crash.
“Fuck!” Kihyun cursed as he pushed himself off Changkyun, who lay unconscious on his now completely broken studio chair. “What was that?” He quickly redressed (a click of his fingers, really) and assessed the unconscious man beneath him. He knew this chair was a death trap, and now his human had hit his fucking head again, probably concussed.
Kihyun often thought of himself as pragmatic, but right now he was panicking. This shouldn’t have happened, this couldn’t have happened. And now his human was one more concussion away from having a brain injury. He didn’t know what to do. Should he lift him from the ground? Or will moving him cause more injury? He was a demon not a fucking paramedic. God, he should’ve paid more attention every other time Changkyun had to seek medical care. At least he should tuck Changkyun’s now flaccid dick back in his pants.
Moments later he heard the studio door unlock, watching as Jooheon and the annoying one entered the room. Kihyun stepped back away from Changkyun, hoping this was a freak accident, that Changkyun hadn’t actually exited his fantasy. But his hopes were quickly dashed when Jooheon looked at him with surprised eyes.
“What the fuck happened?” Jooheon asked as he ran to his friend’s side. When there was no answer he looked up at Kihyun, “What the fuck did you do?”
“We… uh… he…?” Kihyun said with a shaky breath, looking over to Minhyuk who was quiet for the first time in his god damn life. “We just kissed?”
He heard a groan behind him, and looked over to see Changkyun rubbing his head. Relief flooded his body, this was fine, Changkyun was fine.
“Joo” Changkyun groaned looking up at his friend, “I had the weirdest dream about a dokkaebi” (I’m a fucking demon, Kihyun thought) and then my chair just broke,” he coughed a little laugh, “I guess you were right about this chair though dude.”
Jooheon, however, was not laughing. He wasn’t even looking at Changkyun anymore. No, he was looking at the dokkaebi (demon!!!) in the corner of the room, blue eyes, elf-like ears, and a pair of horns sticking out his forehead, really seeing Kihyun for who he was for the first time, and suddenly all the relief that had drowned Kihyun’s panic had evaporated.
“Kyunnie, I don’t think that was a dream?” Jooheon said, grabbing Changkyun’s chin and directing his gaze to Kihyun.
“Kihyun” the concussed man gasped, “I knew you were real” before fainting again.
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Okay, so I lied. Yes obviously there were more terms and conditions related to this story, but it’s not like Kihyun had read them all to know.
But this did mean that he didn’t know that a consensual kiss filled with passion could bind an angel or demon to the human world, nor did he know that the 90 year contract would be dissolved. Kihyun could no longer be reborn at the end of the contract, because he already had. His affection had already tied him to Changkyun, and Changkyun’s reciprocation had just confirmed the deal.
He was no longer a demon sitting on his human’s shoulder, but a demon feeling very confused sitting in the corner of a darkly lit studio while a judgemental angel stared down at him, berating him for his actions, as his human’s friend glared at him from across the room as he placed a damp wash cloth on Changkyun’s forehead.
Well, Kihyun thought, this is going to be interesting.