Work Text:
*knock knock*
“Oppa, could you sign this document?”
Lee Jin Joo opened the door to Lee Soo Hyuk’s team’s office and handed the leader a piece of paper recording the details of his team’s recent hunt.
“Look at how our little Jin Joo has grown~ oppa is touched!”
Lee Soo Hyuk reached out his hand ruffling Lee Jin Joo's hair.
“Oppa, please sign quickly before I broadcast out loud on how you fell asleep in the middle of last week’s international conference.”
“Okay okay~ Hey, Jung Soo, grab me a pen.”
“Hyung, where do I find one?”
“Hmm, not sure, ask Rok Soo.”
“He just went out to buy food.”
“...”
“...”
It was an open secret that only Kim Rok Soo dealt with all paperwork in Lee Soo Hyuk’s team, and that it would be a complete apocalypse for their office without that said youngest. But to the point of not knowing where their pen was? Lee Jin Joo definitely didn’t expect this. Maybe only Kim Rok Soo had a pen and he always carried it with him as there was no point leaving it in an office with two muscle heads? Sighing at this sight, Lee Jin Joo took out her pen.
“Just use mine already, here.”
“Oh little Jin Joo is so reliable~ Oppa is tou-”
“Sign now or broadcast.”
“Aww okay~”
Lee Soo Hyuk ruffled Lee Jin Joo’s hair again before grabbing and twirling the pen. He signed the document, but suddenly…
“Hey Jin Joo, why did you give me a red pen?”
“Huh? It’s a blue pen?”
“No, it’s red,” Lee Soo Hyuk showed the paper to Lee Jin Joo.
“... What the…?”
It has been 10 years since the time when they met the 38 years old Kim Rok Soo, or also known as Cale Henituse. That man occupied the 20 years old Kim Rok Soo’s body and helped them through their early battles with the unranked monsters, which were now all ridiculously named by Lee Soo Hyuk’s unique naming sense.
Cale Henituse polished their ability and showed them the battle against the unranked monsters in his world, fully preparing them for their own battle to avoid the tragedy repeating itself in their world.
Now they had passed the age when another ‘them’ died in a different world, and here they were, kicking and alive. Fighting monsters had now become a routine rather than a challenge. They fought monsters to see what gem they would acquire upon their victory, just like the cintamani from the electric eel, the scale of the lion dragon which they turned into their weapon, and also this supposedly-blue-yet-turned-red pen.
Lee Jin Joo found this pen by the battle site with a piece of paper beside it, written in a language she didn’t understand. She decided to take the pen while still keeping the paper, in case she found someone who could read it and that the text was something along the line ‘please return to xxx if found.’ The pen was very smooth, and the blue ink was really pretty. She never had to refill the ink, maybe because it has infinite ink? Which was possible since this pen could have been a unique item just like the cintamani, but “Nah, no way, it’s just a pen,” was her thought until she witnessed the pen’s exotic… action(?) today.
“So you said that you found this pen lying around where a monster was defeated?” Lee Soo Hyuk asked.
“Yes, and there was this paper beside it, but I can’t read the text”
“This is definitely not Korean, I’m 100% sure of it,” Choi Jung Soo proclaimed proudly, not realizing that Lee Jin Joo was staring a hole through his back.
“That’s English,” Kim Rok Soo, who just came back, chimed in.
“Oh! You know about it, Rok Soo?”
“I needed to learn it because I had to cover for a certain someone who was supposed to be attending and paying attention to the conference last week yet somehow went awol to his dreamland throughout the conference. Well, technically that certain someone should’ve been familiar with this language as well. Just saying,” Kim Rok Soo nodded and replied with his stoic expression.
“Kim Rok Soo is our brain. His brain remembers all the brain-twisting stuff for us, while our muscles remember all the muscle-twisting stuff for him. Right, Jung Soo?”
“Yes! Our dongsaeng is so reliable! Let this hyung give you a hu-”
Kim Rok Soo pushed Choi Jung Soo’s cheeks away before he was hugged and grabbed the paper.
“Apparently it said that it is a special pen that won’t run out of ink.”
Lee Jin Joo was surprised at her initial guess, ‘Maybe I have a sixth sense!’, she thought.
“It also said that the colour will be blue when it’s cool and red when it’s hot.”
“Oh? So maybe it felt hot because it saw my muscular body?” Lee Soo Hyuk smirked while flexing his muscles, with Choi Jung Soo clapping and whistling to his hyung.
“Team leader-nim, the pen doesn’t have eyes, I don’t think so,” Kim Rok Soo blatantly commented, and added, “Maybe because you were twirling it before using it? In a sense, it felt like it was lifted and spinned."
“Oh Rok Soo? How did you know I was twirling it when you weren’t here?”
“...”
Kim Rok Soo used to use his ability, Record, to record the monsters’ movement patterns, habits, and weaknesses during the early days of his awakening. Overusing it would cause his body to heat up, which happened a lot previously. But now that they were already familiar with all the possible movements of any appearing monsters, they didn’t have to rely on Kim Rok Soo’s Record ability as much. Kim Rok Soo could now fully use this ‘reserved energy’ to record his beloved family’s antics, including Lee Soo Hyuk’s habit to twirl anything he held, be it chopsticks or swords. Not that he’d ever admitted that openly though.
“Rok Soo-ya, just admit that you are always observing us, your hyungs~” Choi Jung Soo poked Kim Rok Soo’s cheeks.
“You’re not my hyung.”
“ Aigoo~ Look at our dongsaeng being shy, Team leader-nim~”
“Another possibility is,” Kim Rok Soo ignored Choi Jung Soo’s pokes and brought the conversation back to the original topic, “Maybe Team leader-nim’s palm made it feel hot.”
“Maybe it thought that my palm was hugging it? Awww that sounds so lovely~ hugging a pen!”
“Team leader-nim, you’re a genius! If you hold the pen like this, it feels like your fingers are hugging the pen tightly!” Choi Jung Soo took the pen and demonstrated his hand holding the pen the way he wields his sword.
“And if you do this, it looks as if you’re escorting the pen!” Lee Soo Hyuk made a pose with his thumbs circling around the pen while his fore and middle fingers acted as the ‘legs’.
“Oh and this! Now it feels like you’re dancing with it, like you know how gentlemen usually hold their ladies when they lean back!” Lee Soo Hyuk held it exactly like the ‘escorting the pen’ pose, but now had his hand slightly tilted to show angle.
“Ohh!! Amazing! Maybe the pen is happy we’re dancing with it!”
Lee Jin Joo watched the two amused adults in awe, awed while wondering if those two adults ever held a pen before considering their random poses in holding the pen.
Kim Rok Soo, who had been ignoring his two teammates while being deep in thought suddenly spoke up, “If we want to use the full functionality of the pen, maybe we should try cooling it down so we can also use the blue ink?”
“Oh then, should I swing the pen around to cool it down? WIND GOES WHOOSH!” Choi Jung Soo took the pen, raised it up high just like how it was with Simba from The Lion King, and started spinning it around. He then wrote his name on a piece of paper. “Eh? It’s still red though?”
“No no, Jung Soo. Cool means ice! Maybe we should put it in the fridge!”
Lee Jin Joo was speechless, not knowing what to say. Items obtained from the monsters were usually not normal, so that could actually work. But at the same time, her sane mind thought that it wouldn’t work.
“Team Leader-nim, Choi Jung Soo, if you don’t go now, you might actually be late for ice cream.”
Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo snapped out of their conversation about the pen and looked at the clock with the short one nearly hitting the number 6.
“THE ICE CREAM DEAL! IT ENDS AT 6!” Choi Jung Soo shouted and slammed the table.
“Shoot! Jung Soo, let’s go now!” Lee Soo Hyuk quickly rushed towards the door.
“Hyung, this way is faster. Let’s take the roof route!” Choi Jung Soo opened the window and jumped out of it.
“Big brain Jung Soo!” Lee Soo Hyuk rushed towards the window.
“Don’t forget your wallet,” Kim Rok Soo tossed 2 wallets to Lee Soo Hyuk before he jumped off the window.
“Jung Soo, let’s race!” Lee Soo Hyuk tossed a wallet to Choi Jung Soo while running through the top of the buildings.
“Deal! The loser will pay for everything! If it’s a tie, Rok Soo will pay!” Choi Jung Soo shouted back while jumping through the roofs.
Meanwhile, Kim Rok Soo who heard their shouts sighed with his stoic face. He personally didn’t mind buying ice creams for his, well, hyungs, especially when he didn’t have to move to buy those ice creams. Energy preservation. Not that he’d ever call them hyung upfront.
Kim Rok Soo then turned to Lee Jin Joo, “You should go home too, it’s getting late. Can I have the pen though? I’ll give you my pen in exchange since there are things I want to confirm about this pen.” Kim Rok Soo said while pulling out his pens from the drawer under the table.
Lee Jin Joo thought for one second, ‘Those muscle heads really didn’t know where to find a single pen in their own office…’ She then took one of the pens Kim Rok Soo offered and replied “Yes, of course, hyung! I think you can figure out the best way to use it.”
“I’ll let you know if I figure out something interesting about it.”
“Yes! Then, I’ll go now. Take care, oppa! Don’t work too hard!” Lee Jin Joo then excused herself, leaving Kim Rok Soo alone with the pen.
Kim Rok Soo grabbed the pen and walked towards his desk. He tried out the pen and it was still red-inked.
“Perfect. I actually need a red pen right now.”
Kim Rok Soo started drawing circles on top of some black circles on the paper.
“Those two muscle heads never hold a pen huh? How is this a hug? No, in the first place, do you even hold a pen like this?” Kim Rok Soo tried out Choi Jung Soo’s ‘hugging a pen’ hand pose, and then tried Lee Soo Hyuk’s ‘dancing with a pen’ hand pose.
“Well, dancing is acceptable, I guess, since the hand is moving dynamically when people write. But still, dancing with a pen huh,” Kim Rok Soo slightly chuckled as he kept using the pen, which remained red-inked throughout the process. Kim Rok Soo continued his paperwork in silence.
An hour had passed when Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo returned to the office. They lightly chuckled as they witnessed Kim Rok Soo laying his head on the table, snoozing off, with the pen under his left cheek. They glanced at the paper Kim Rok Soo was working on and felt the urge to jump at him yet refrained from doing so, not wanting to wake their precious dongsaeng up. The paper he was working on was a list of attack formations for their team, red-lined with the analysis on the most effective attack position.
“You’re working too hard, Rok Soo. It’s okay now, we will protect the three of us, and everyone,” Lee Soo Hyuk quietly whispered while stroking Kim Rok Soo’s head.
Choi Jung Soo then expanded the sofa mattress in their office. It was the sofa that the 2 adults secretly got without their youngest’s consent, resulting in Kim Rok Soo making them eat only instant noodles with eggs for 3 days straight upon witnessing the sofa delivered to the office. He said that they needed to be thrift after making such a big unnecessary purchase, while the older 2 laughed it off.
It proved to be useful now though. The main reason why Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo bought the sofa mattress was because they knew how much their youngest overwork himself and wanted to give him a comfortable space to rest in the office, just like what was happening now. Well, a normal couch would suffice if they just needed to lie Kim Rok Soo down, but they also want some family snoozing bonding time.
Lee Soo Hyuk slowly carried Kim Rok Soo over to the expanded mattress and laid him there. He covered their dongsaeng with a blanket and laid himself on Kim Rok Soo's right side while slowly patting his back, “We love you, Rok Soo. Rest well.”
“Let us spoil you, Rok Soo-ya. We will work for some more years, then retire to farm together,” Choi Jung Soo added as he positioned himself on Kim Rok Soo’s left side while poking their youngest's cheek.
The three men then slept together in the office. Everything felt very warm, so warm that there was a drop of red ink coming out of the mysterious pen. Maybe it was feeling too hot? It was a mystery.
Behind The Scenes: The Pen’s PoV
When I opened my eyes, I was inside a novel.
My pen name is Pen. I am a loyal advocate of SOOpremacy along with my co-leader, Nino. One day, my whole online entity as pendwelling was transmigrated into this world resembling a novel I love and I woke up as a literal pen.
A character with a similar-sounding name, Lee Jin Joo, found me. And since Lee Jin Joo is a character in the world where THE SOOS exists, maybe I could meet them, right? RIGHT?
My dream came true sooner than I expected. I witnessed the oldest Soo, Lee Soo Hyuk, flexing muscles in front of me. Kim Rok Soo said that I had no eyes, but nope, the whole ink within this pen worked as my eyes and ears. So yes, I see you, I hear you, and those flexing muscles were indeed hot.
Hyung Soo and the middle Soo, Choi Jung Soo, then twirled me around (read: ‘hugged’ and ‘danced’ with me). I was even lifted up like Simba from The Lion King when Choi Jung Soo tried to ‘cool me down.'
Finally, the youngest Soo, Kim Rok Soo, tried everything his hyungs did with me (again, read: ‘hugged’ and ‘danced’ with me) while looking at me with a very warm gaze. Well, he was probably thinking about his hyungs dearly, but still, it was me, PEN, who witnessed that warm gaze. He also used me to actually write, or dynamically moved his hand with me (read: ‘danced’ with me) and fell asleep with me poking his (soft)cheeks.
And guess what? The three Soos, MY IDOLS, slept together warmly that night all cuddling together. Such a lovely snoozing bonding!
Today was a great day. If anything, I have only one regret: there is no way I could ever cool down with my idols, THE SOOS, surrounding me. So my apologies, Kim Rok Soo, I shall remain an eternal red-inked pen around the three of you, THE SOOS. I am a proud co-leader of SOOpremacy after all. When I return to be a part of Penino leading the SOOpremacy one day, I shall proclaim every single detail of this important witnessing of the precious Soos and their charms to the world.
ALL HAIL SOOPREMACY!!!