Chapter Text
Serim cheers along with the rest of the crowd when Allen scores a– what, exactly? They’ve been dating for two months already, but Serim still hasn’t learned any new terms. And it’s nearly the end of the season.
It didn’t take long for news of Allen and Serim dating to spread. Well, when your boyfriend is just about the most popular guy in school and he refuses to walk beside you without holding your hand, it’s a given. People actually recognize Serim now, which would be good if not for two things. One, Hyeongjun now uses him as a LUVITY HIGH gear ambassador, paying him in candy bars from the vending machine. It could be worse, which is exactly what the second point is.
Serim, as the Seoul Saviour, can’t exactly make his actual identity obvious. He hopes that people don’t remember the old footage of him that exists and adds a face mask to his hero attire. He’s thankful for the fact that his watch can change hair colours, because he’s dyed his hair pink and having a pink haired Seoul Saviour isn’t going to help his case.
Speaking of the Seoul Saviour ordeal, Allen seems to find it hilarious that Serim owns those gothic clothes. What’s Serim’s choice for those? Black makes him less noticeable in a crowd, as literally everyone wears black these days. Allen also finds it cute, but maybe that’s because he finds everything that Serim has or does adorable. Serim still doesn’t get how Allen freaking Ma is his boyfriend, but he’s not complaining. And neither is Hyeongjun, who has somehow gotten Kang Minhee, the team’s middle linebacker (whatever that means), onto the student council thanks to the sudden alliance(?) between them and the football team. Serim isn’t even on the student council.
Allen does another score-thingy, and the crowd roars again. This is the semifinal for LUVITY HIGH, so it’s just about the most important game ever. Serim brings his megaphone to his mouth to cheer, and since he’s in the lowest row of the bleachers, Allen notices him cheering and gives a little wave.
Hyeongjun nudges Serim. “Did you see that?”
“You’re seriously asking me that?” Serim turns to Hyeongjun, eyes narrow and teasing. “He’s my boyfriend. Do you think I give a damn about football?”
Hyeongjun shrugs. “Justified, and point taken.”
The game eventually closes with an easy win for the LUVITY HIGH Lions or Lords or Lizards or Lungfish or whatever L name their school has for their football team. Serim, like always, stays behind to wait for Allen, who’s mother is driving him back home anyways.
Allen eventually emerges out of the locker room, a smile on his face. “Was I awesome, or was I awesome?”
“I know nothing about football, but you were pretty cool,” Serim replies.
Allen lets out a small chuckle, an arm wrapping around Serim. He does this with all of his friends, Serim has learned, but it’s different for him. For his friends, it’s around the shoulder. Serim, being his boyfriend, gets the waist treatment. It’s definitely better, especially when Allen turns his head and presses his nose to the crook of Serim’s neck.
“You’re going to trip if you don’t look where you’re going,” Serim says, mainly because he doesn’t really trust himself to say anything more.
Allen presses a sneaky kiss to his neck in retaliation, smirking against the skin. It sends goosebumps all the way through Serim, and he wants to curse the younger for knowing just what to do to fluster him. “I’ll only trip falling for you.”
“Shut up.”
Allen suddenly takes off his jacket (which isn’t glued to his body, much to Serim’s surprise), draping it over Serim’s shoulders. “How long do you think it’ll be until you have to save the city again?”
Serim sighs. “Don’t remind me. I should probably tell Hyeongjun about that, now that I think about it.”
“Doesn’t Hyeongjun do the absolute most, though? He’s always chatting with people.”
“He keeps secrets, though. Like my crush on you.” Serim hums. “Yet again, he didn’t know for sure for very long before we got together. Which reminds me, why are you so adamant on, like, letting people know that we’re dating? Nobody knows me.”
Allen takes Serim’s hand, swinging their hands between them. “Well, I could always tell people that I’m taken, but I want everyone to know how cute you are.”
Serim blushes, but the smile growing on his face falls when he looks up. “Looks like today’s my lucky day.”
Allen also stares up at the gap in the sky. “So?”
“Tell your mom to give us a few more minutes.” Serim doesn’t tear his eyes away, running blindly towards the bleachers. He settles for a spot behind them and starts his way-too-long transformation. Despite having a magical watch, it still can’t change for him.
Whatever. Serim gets back onto the field, and the first thing he does is lift Allen off the ground just as he always does.
“I can’t believe how confident you are,” Allen mutters as they move through the air. Serim can’t plant him down on the school rooftop, knowing that there are parents waiting out there, so he has to settle for an area outside of the field. The locker rooms, maybe? “This isn’t my Selm.”
Serim rolls his eyes. Maybe being the Seoul Saviour does make him a bit more confident. “Well, this is still the Selm you signed up for.”
Allen grins just as they touch down, pulling down Serim’s mask for a moment to lock their lips together. Scratch everything that Serim just said, because he still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that he kisses Allen Ma regularly and it’s one of the few things that gets him weak in the knees, even when he’s trying to save the city.
“Okay,” Allen says once he pulls away. “You go save the city.”
“Right,” Serim replies, nearly dropping Allen in the small daze that he’s in. He needs to focus.
He gets back to the field, making a beeline for the hole. He tries to avoid going through multidimensional portals, but he pokes his head through the desolate galaxy that saves him from being pulled straight into another dimension to try and search for the danger.
He gets swept off of his feet.
Usually, Serim can right himself mid-air when he gets hit by an enemy, but this time around, he’s literally trapped under whatever he’s fighting. He knows that the grass is coming for him fast, and he doesn’t really have anything that he can do besides withstand the pain.
At the last second, he remembers that his shield lump has another purpose.
The animal-like being (Serim identifies it as a turtle) drives Serim into the ground, but he doesn’t sustain too much damage. The lump had enough time to absorb most of the impact, so all that Serim has to do is stand up and dust himself off.
His enemy is already using its little feet to try and swing at Serim, but it doesn’t take much for the latter to hover a few metres off the ground to get out of range. Unfortunately for him, the turtle follows his moves, which just makes this ten times harder.
Before Serim can even think of any methods to hurt the turtle, it starts moving towards it as fast as possible. The saviour barely swerves out of the way. How is he supposed to do this? The turtle can fly too, so all he can do is stay out of the way.
Stay out of range. The turtle can only do close combat, so all Serim needs is a far range weapon and some enthusiasm.
He thinks for a moment before reaching into his watch, pulling out a spear. He aims directly for the turtles right fin, and throws. While he does hit his target, the spear doesn’t consistently pierce through the fin completely and instead gets stuck.
“Oh, fuck me,” Serim groans. The blunt end of the spear isn’t too dangerous, but the turtle starts swinging it at him menacingly.
Serim panics, pulling out his shield/trampoline lump. He really doesn’t know where it came from in his thought process, but it doesn’t just double in use, but triples as a really hard rock.
He throws it at the turtle and clocks it right on top of the head as a last resort. It seems to be effective, as it disorients it for a moment and gives Serim the chance to get back his spear. Serim shoves the spear back into his watch, dives down to pick up the lump, and stretches it into a flat disk with a long handle. When he approaches the turtle again, he whacks it on the head with the disk and sends it to the ground.
He doesn’t have much time now. He quickly pulls out his multidimensional knife and cuts through the sky above the turtle, flying up towards the original portal and switching it out for universal glue.
Serim glues up the original portal with ease. When he turns around, the turtle is gone, and he assumes it’s in the new universal portal that Serim has opened. Sure enough, Serim swoops around and the turtle is inside. He begins trying to stitch up the hole, but a fin pops into his seams and starts breaking them apart faster than Serim can make them.
God, he’s not going through this again. Serim stabs the monster with the needle before continuing his stitches, managing to sew everything back up before the turtle can move anymore. Thank god that’s over.
Serim takes off his mask (despite not being changed out of his Seoul Saviour attire), drops to the ground, and finally checks his phone, pulling it out of its convenient storage in his watch. He has a bunch of unread messages from Hyeongjun, all in an intensity that he doesn’t understand.
serim [ sent 7:43pm ]
SERIM THIS IS URGENT [ sent 7:44pm ]
{Image sent} [ sent 7:44pm ]
SERIM CALL ME RIGHT NOW [ sent 7:45pm ]
ITS ABOUT ALLEN [ sent 7:45pm ]
WHY ARE YOU NOT CALLING ME [ sent 7:50pm ]
WHERE ARE YOU [ sent 7:52pm ]
DAMN IT IM CALLING YOU INSTEAD [ sent 7:54pm ]
Serim barely gets a look at the picture before Hyeongjun’s call fills his screen, but he knows exactly what it is. It’s an image of him kissing Allen– rather, Allen kissing him because he was completely unsuspecting, so he knows how bad this looks for Allen. He continues walking to where he’s left his boyfriend, and that’s when he catches sight of someone.
Hyeongjun, tapping his foot impatiently. Serim’s walking up from behind, but he knows who it is immediately.
He changes course, catching Allen’s eye for a moment past Hyeongjun before creeping up behind the younger. He stays just out of earshot, but picks up the call.
“What’s up?”
“Serim!” Hyeongjun is yelling so loud that Serim doesn’t even need to listen through his phone. “Did you see the picture I sent you?”
“No.”
“Look at it right now, you idiot!”
Serim waits a few seconds before making a comical gasp. “Oh, no! Allen?”
“Yes.” Hyeongjun sighs. “Of course he would go for the Seoul Saviour. You know, after they kissed, he just stayed right where I can see him. Should I go confront him? Where are you, damnit?”
“This would be such an issu–”
“This is an issue, Serim! I know how much you like him, but you’ve got to talk to him about this before I do. Where are you? Get over here!”
“Firstly,” Serim stifles a laugh, starting to tread slowly towards Hyeongjun. “I don’t know where you are.”
“I’m still at–”
“Secondly,” Serim cuts in, “–and let me finish this one– this would be such an issue except for the part where it isn’t. Allen can kiss the Seoul Saviour all he wants.”
He goes silent, now completely behind Hyeongjun.
“Why? Did you forget to tell me you’re poly or something?” Hyeongjun questions. “Why else would it be okay to– ah!”
Serim placing his hand on Hyeongjun’s shoulder scares the younger just the way he thought it would, having him whip around. The older drops the phone from his ear, a smile spreading across his face.
“Because it’s actually me.”
Hyeongjun laughs awkwardly. “Okay, nice copy of his outfit. You even dyed your hair back to black for this, didn’t you?”
“No.” Serim swipes a hand over his watch, bringing his hair back to the bright pink that it’s actually dyed. Hyeongjun looks less convinced by that and more confused, so Serim hovers a few feet above the ground to swoop Allen up and bring his boyfriend up to his best friend.
“He’s not lying,” Allen says.
“Nice prank,” Hyeongjun replies, but he doesn’t sound like he believes himself. “Just saying that, like, isn’t the Seoul Saviour magical?”
“Not me. It’s all the watch.” Serim takes a hand and reaches it into his watch, pulling out Allen’s varsity jacket. He continues flying as he drapes it over the younger’s shoulders.
Hyeongjun doesn’t bother making a rebuttal this time. “You’re serious?”
“We were planning on telling you.” Serim lowers himself to the ground. “Well, I was. I don’t think this is what you thought would happen, though, Allen.”
“No.” Allen reaches for Hyeongjun’s hair to rough it up a bit, the same way he does with Taeyoung and Minhee and the rest of the team. “Your reaction was priceless, though.”
“Anyways.” Serim pulls out his clothes from the watch, folding them in his arms. “Allen, is your mom still waiting?”
“She’s never impatient when it comes to you.”
Hyeongjun gags. “Please don’t. Go change and we’ll… reconvene tomorrow.”
Serim slinks away to do just that, and when he gets back, Hyeongjun is gone. He turns to Allen, looking for an explanation, but the younger only shrugs. “He said he was really confused and then he walked away.”
“Well then,” Serim hums, interlocking his fingers with Allen’s. They fall into a comfortable silence as they walk towards the front entrance until the latter decides to speak up.
“It was really fun watching you throw a rock at a turtle, just so you know.”
Serim flares red. “Look, that was a last effort! I was desperate!”
“Sure, my hero.”
Serim will always blush more than however much he may be whenever Allen calls him his hero. He’s such an awkward person, and even that’s starting to shine through to his Seoul Saviour personality. Even if he’s saved the city multiple times, he’d protect Allen in a heartbeat.
If there’s one thing that Serim has noticed in his ten months of being Nick, it’s that he’s ten times more tired than usual a day after sending another monster back where it belongs. He’s glad that there’s never any homework after game days, because he can actually rest now.
He sits at the bleachers during lunch, observing the people around him. He can see Minhee running his usual lunch time lap around the field before he eats (Serim still has no idea why he does that) while Taeyoung watches from nearby. There are a few more people sitting in the field, all conversing with each other.
Serim loves people-watching. It feels like a nice step back to the shadows, out of the public eye that he’s always under whenever multidimensional portals decide it’s time to open.
Allen suddenly appears, smiling at Serim when he takes a seat next to the older. “Hey!”
“Hi.” Serim takes a bite out of his sandwich, pushing his glasses up his nose with his wrist.
“You’re tired, aren’t you?” Allen pokes Serim’s arm, which is exposed due to the latter wearing a T-shirt for once. “You used so many muscles throwing that rock.”
Serim laughs. “Oh, sure.”
Allen turns his head briefly to peck him on the lips, and they sit in silence eating their lunches before Hyeongjun bounded up to them.
“Oh,” Serim looked up at the younger. “I thought you had student council.”
“I did, but we ended early.” Hyeongjun taps his foot against the bleachers. “I’m still in disbelief that you’re the…”
“Nick,” Allen says.
“That you’re Nick.”
“Honestly, so am I,” Serim replies, his eyes now resting on his watch. God, why did he pick this thing up? He wouldn’t go as far to say that his life was ruined, but it was definitely a lot harder than necessary. He opens his mouth to add on, but a yawn comes out instead.
“Aw.” Allen wraps an arm around Serim’s shoulders, lightly pushing the older’s head onto his shoulder. “You can sleep, it’s fine.”
Serim nods slowly, doing his best to situate himself comfortably on Allen’s shoulder. He probably should’ve gone to sleep earlier the previous night, but he had decided to reorganize his watch layout on a school night. He made an attempt to clear his mind, Allen’s finger soothingly carding through his hair until he fell asleep.
When Serim wakes up again, his head is now resting in Allen’s lap. The latter looks down upon feeling him move, smiling immediately. “Rise and shine, hero.”
“What time is it?” Serim asks, squinting at the sunlight practically streaming directly into his eyes.
“1:20-ish.” Allen’s fingers brush through his hair again. “Since we have spares, I’d figure I’d let you have some more shut eye. Do you want to sleep any more?”
There’s still so much time until their next classes. Serim could, realistically, close his eyes again, but Allen’s been sitting upright in the bleachers for too long for that. He sits up instead, careful to not do so too fast as to avoid a headache, and smiles at Allen. “I’m pretty well rested now.”
Allen smiles back, stretching a little. Serim knows that Allen wouldn’t dare to say a word about being uncomfortable just so that he wouldn’t wake him up. They continue sitting in the bleachers, silent, before Allen speaks up.
“If we win our final game, will you run onto the field and jump into my arms?”
“Um…” Serim’s practically blushing at the thought of it. “No…?”
Allen chuckles, grabbing Serim’s hand. “I hope that changes. C’mon, let’s go to the library.”
Three weeks, countless practices, and numerous multidimensional portals pass, and game day comes by quickly. Serim twists the eye black stick, making a few passes underneath Allen’s right eye. It’s going to be a sunny evening, so it’s a given.
Allen twitches the right side of his face, as though he’s trying to wink. “All of a sudden I’m itchy there.”
“Huh.” Serim rubs a spot just at the eye of the smear. “Uh… maybe don’t? For now?”
“Right.” Allen lets Serim finish up the eye smear before picking up the face paint that Hyeongjun had sold him at a “team member discount”. “Do you want the red under your left or right?”
“Your right or mine?”
“Your left or right?”
“Right.”
Allen smudges the maroon shade under Serim’s eye, taking the muted yellow and using his thumb to apply that as well. He moves his thumb once he’s done, but he doesn’t take his hand off of Serim’s face. Instead, he slides it down to the older’s chin, tilting his head downwards so he can bring their lips together.
Serim has basically accepted whenever Allen does things like this. He lets their lips stay locked for a few more moments before pulling back. “Okay, go be with your team. Win for me, ‘kay?”
Allen smiles, leaning back in to get another peck in. “When would I not?” Before he leaves, however, he pulls off his varsity jacket and throws it over Serim’s shoulders. “Go Lions!”
Huh, so that’s what they’re called. Serim smiles as Allen leaves, waving back.
Hyeongjun comes up to him from behind, slinking an arm around Serim’s shoulders. “Are you ready?”
Serim turns to look at Hyeongjun. He’s got his #1 team finger sign thing that Taeyoung has voiced his concern over having in the shop, but it did sell out yesterday. Other than that, Hyeongjun has GO LIONS written practically all over it, a pom-pom with their school colours (that Hyeongjun definitely stole from Semi (who never had her cheer gear, so it was probably Wonyoung’s)), and the same face paint as Serim. At least he didn’t do half and half on his entire face like last year.
“What if they lose?” Serim asks. It’s a thought that’s never really crossed his mind before this moment.
Hyeongjun narrows his eyes. “Are you seriously doubting the team? Allen would be so offended.”
Serim does stop thinking about that possibility at that. The football team is awesome. Amazing, even. He has nothing to worry about.
The time for the game rolls around. The bleachers are backed to the brim with as many people as they can fit, but Serim and Hyeongjun manage to snag seats in the front row. There’s just a small railing separating them from the players, followed by a seven-foot drop. Serim keeps his eyes on the sky, just in case something happens to ruin a game (just like always), but he’d just fought off a monster the previous day. It would be clear skies.
The game is nerve-wracking. Serim watches a bunch of plays that he doesn’t understand, but Luvity High is down by 2 when halftime rolls around. He’s never seen Allen, Taeyoung, Minhee, or Hyeongjun that serious during a huddle. Even the cheerleaders’ smiles falter a bit. It’s understandable, though. This is City Champions.
The halftime show runs quickly, as though even the cheerleaders want to get back to the game quickly, and Hyeongjun’s leaning so far over the railing that Serim wraps a hand around his waist in fear of his best friend falling.
It seems like Luvity High don’t want to let themselves be beat, however. Within minutes, their offensive positions are swift, their defense is tight, and it seems like things look up for them.
Serim looks at the huge scoreboard. A tie. There’s only time for one more play and it’s a tie. He watches Minhee trade places with Taeyoung and Allen (defense to offense, as he remembers), staring at the number 35 on the latter’s back. Pulling Hyeongjun back slightly so that he doesn’t tip over the edge, Serim gives the sky one final glance– still nothing– and sets his eyes on the field.
The crowd is dead silent. A whistle blows. Serim tries to make sense of what’s going on. Everyone lumps into a scrimmage, and he sees Taeyoung emerge successfully with the football in his hands. Serim gets off the edge of his seat for a moment, until he sees a green jersey heading straight for Taeyoung. He seems to notice the player too, making a throw downfield to someone that went unnoticed– number 35.
“Oh my god,” Serim whispers at the same time Hyeongjun screams it. Allen swoops past a few defenders, quick on his feet, and crashes down in the end zone.
Serim watches the scoreboard change. A whistle sounds.
The crowd roars. Some of the students are already storming the field, and Serim is about to turn and ask Hyeongjun if he should too, but the younger has already jumped down.
Serim looked over the edge of the railing. It’s not a fall that will break him or his bones, but he doesn’t exactly want to do it.
“Serim! Jump down!”
Allen appears, surprisingly quick given that he was on the opposite side of the field, pulling his helmet off and holding out his arms. Serim stares down at him, a little concerned.
“Will you catch me?”
“Of course!”
Serim gulps and jumps down. Allen catches him with ease, and Serim barely comes into contact with all of his gear underneath his uniform. How nice. “Oh, that’s ni–”
Allen kisses him square on the lips before setting him down. Serim’s never seen him smile so widely. “Was I good?”
“Yes…? I honestly don’t know.” Serim scratches the back of his head. “I’m not that good with football terms.”
Allen just picks him up again, running to the centre of the field. Serim immediately panics, arms wrapping around Allen’s neck. “What are you doing?!”
“It’s like I’m the one rescuing you now.”
Serim does let a laugh slip at that, but he still grips onto Allen for dear life. With his silence, Allen takes it as a chance to keep talking, slowing down his pace.
“You know, even if we lost, I’d still be a winner.”
Serim narrows his eyes. “You’re going to say something cheesy. I know it.”
Allen grins. “I have my hero right here.”