Archive of Our Own ^beta

The thing about superheroes is that they always have a plan.

For example, Seokjin has a plan to get home by ten and to be in pajamas in front of the TV by eleven. Luckily, he doesn’t have a roommate who will question why he’s been out so late when they both know Seokjin has to be up early the next day for class.

He also has a plan to catch the bad guy currently running away from him. The plan includes chasing after the motorcycle the bad guy happened to hop onto, a chase that might be an issue for the average person. Luckily, Seokjin’s always been better than the average person - and that was before he got his superpowers. 

The plan unfortunately still isn’t going well; just because Seokjin has a plan, doesn’t mean things always go according to them. And at the moment, the current plan is in a bit of a rough spot because somehow, the city’s crime couldn’t stop for one night and give Seokjin the long past due break he deserved to go out with friends.

Seokjin had been halfway to the noraebang when the world had called upon him for help. The world being Jung Hoseok, and the call being a text message from him: ‘ I’ve got a baddie for you .’

And Seokjin had been a little stupid, because he could catch the bad guy and just show up a little late to meet his friends, couldn’t he? Certainly, Kim Seokjin, an experienced and professional superhero, could catch a simple robber within an hour, right? In fact, Seokjin had been so confident in himself that he hadn’t even bothered changing out of his normal citizen clothes, throwing on his superhero mask and running off to save the day.

It turns out, chasing after bad guys in skinny jeans is easier said than done.

“Oh? Did you dress up just for me?”

Seokjin may be busy trying to run in his favorite pair of jeans without ripping them, but he still has enough energy to push RM to the side while rolling his eyes.

Superheroes always have a plan, and while Seokjin’s plan of getting home on time or the plan of catching tonight’s robber appear and disappear within the day, Seokjin’s plan to kick RM out of his city has been ongoing for months now.

"You wish," Seokjin says, feeling only slightly dumb when the words leave his mouth, and then feeling entirely dumb when RM's smile grows even bigger. He only considers himself lucky when RM doesn't say anything else, winking at Seokjin before running off ahead, superpowers giving him a head start that Seokjin is quick to chase after.

"Oh, I was wondering if you two would finally catch up," the villain says when Seokjin and RM finally corner him against the city’s buildings; today's villain is someone who's popped up on Seokjin's radar before, but it's been more than awhile - he hasn't seen the man since before RM arrived in the city. "I have to say, I find it quite an honor that the city now sends two superheroes after me rather than just the one." He tilts his head, looking at Seokjin. "How have you been, my friend?"

RM raises his eyebrows at Seokjin. "You know this guy?"

Seokjin sighs. "He's a regular."

RM clicks his tongue. "And you still haven't caught him?" Seokjin tries to not look too annoyed with the comment, but he knows he's failed when RM grins, dimple on display. It's times like this where Seokjin wishes RM's mask covered more than just his eyes - he's really tired of thinking how pretty RM's smile is.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure we get him for good this time," RM says. He turns back to the villain and declares, "It's nice to meet you. Hoping this is the last time we see each other though!"

The villain chuckles. "Oh? The last time a superhero told me that, I escaped with my treasures successfully. I'm hoping today will go the same."

Seokjin ignores RM gaping at him. "You let him get away and you let him escape with his stolen goods?"

"Look, the last time I saw him I was in the middle of finals week, and I had been up until five the night before-" Seokjin cuts himself off, realizing he's revealing way too much of the life of his secret identity. RM doesn't need to know about Seokjin's excuses - he only needs to know about Jin, the city's one-and-only superhero. "It won't happen again."

"Of course not," RM says, shrugging. "I'm here to help this time."

Seokjin is in the middle of groaning in frustration when RM charges forward - he still doesn't understand the entirety of RM's superhero powers, but he knows that RM's strength and speed is part of it. It doesn't mean that Seokjin doesn't try to catch up though, ignoring the gust of wind pushing against him as he chases after RM for what feels like the millionth time.

RM has been in his city for too long, but Seokjin's been here for even longer - which is why he hates how RM makes him feel like a beginner when it's his home field.

Unfortunately, this bad guy knows Seokjin's moves - and they call the man the Earth Shaker for a reason. Sure enough, just as RM and Seokjin are becoming in grasping reach of Earth Shaker, the ground begins to shake below them. It's just like Seokjin remembers last time; just a few meters away, the Earth stands perfectly still, but somehow the ground underneath the Earth Shaker begins to crumble, and just like last time Seokjin tried to deal with the guy, he finds himself stumbling over the quickly forming cracks in the ground.

Seokjin blinks in surprise when he notices RM isn't having the same struggles - and it dawns on him that even though RM is running, his feet aren't hitting the ground the Earth Shaker is trying so hard to knock him off of, and for the first time Seokjin realizes that the wind that follows RM is actually carrying him.

"Unfair!" Seokjin shouts, and it looks like he's not the only one frustrated with RM's superhero powers - Earth Shaker also looks distraught, eyebrows becoming more and more furrowed as he tries to concentrate his powers into shaking the ground even more - but it's futile, when RM continues to let the wind hover him just above.

Earth Shaker realizes that RM is getting too close, and Seokjin watches fear begin to take over his expression - something Seokjin never got to see when he tried battling Earth Shaker the first time he caused chaos in his city.

He ignores his frustration for the moment, though he only snaps out of it because RM, who has run past to the other side of Earth Shaker, shouts, "Jin, catch!"

The last thing Seokjin wants to do is take orders from RM, but the long rope is already been tossed Seokjin's direction; he's quick to jump up into the air and grab it, just a little higher than the average person would've been able to, and he takes the chance to glare at RM. "If you and the wind are such good buddies, couldn't you have manipulated it to come a little closer if you were going to be such shitty of a throw?"

RM doesn't look perturbed by Seokjin's criticism. "I knew you could catch it. You know what you're doing." Seokjin isn't really sure if it's a compliment or not, and either option makes him upset; Seokjin does know what he's doing, but he doesn't want to hear that from the guy who's trying to take his job as the city's superhero. "Now hold on to that for me, okay?"

It only takes Seokjin a moment to realize what RM is doing, as he begins to run around Earth Shaker. Unfortunately, it only take Earth Shaker a moment to realize what's going on as well, and he tries to avoid the rope that's starting to wrap around him, running away from it.

Earth Shaker glares at RM, and god does Seokjin miss the days when the city's villains used to glare at him like that. He misses the days where he was the threat and not just some stupid sidekick that holds onto the real superhero's fucking rope.

Seokjin is five seconds away from letting go of the rope and making RM handle it himself - since apparently he's such a good superhero - when he notices that Earth Shaker is approaching a group of trees, and he sees him lift up his foot before stomping down. The earth shakes, and the tree begins to sway, and Seokjin can see what's going to happen before the tree even begins to fall in RM's direction.

And RM - the fool - is still too busy trying to hook the rope around the Earth Shaker that he doesn't even notice the ground of trees starting to fall down, and while RM's winds are fast, gravity's pull on the trees is even faster, and Seokjin has to think even faster.

So he tugs the rope as hard as he can, pulling it taut and then pulling even harder against the resistance of RM's surprise - and then RM comes flying Seokjin's direction, shouting in surprise as the rope he's holding onto tugs him Seokjin's way. And maybe Seokjin should've thought a little better about how violently the winds were going to bring RM crashing into Seokjin, but it doesn't matter because by the time Seokjin starts to think about it RM has already crashed into Seokjin and they're both come tumbling to the ground.

RM, who looks incredibly light riding the wind, is actually incredibly heavy, much to Seokjin's demise. It doesn't help that the ground below them is concrete and no matter how light RM would've been, it would've still hurt to have him fall down on top of Seokjin with the force he did.

"Alright, RM, tell me the truth, do you actually have any control over the wind?"

Seokjin is only half joking, but he's still expecting a witty quip in return from RM, because that's just how it always works. He's also expecting RM to say something inappropriate about the position they've landed in; RM flat on top of Seokjin, their faces only a few inches apart from each other as RM starts to push himself up with his hands.

But when Seokjin looks at RM, there's no smug smile or smirk to be present - there's not even a look of annoyance over Seokjin's implication that RM doesn't actually have control over his powers. Instead, there's just a look of surprise.

"Kim Seokjin?"

What.

Just as Seokjin is thinking that there's no way RM could've realized his secret identity with his mask still on, Seokjin realizes that his mask isn't on, and that it must've fallen off during the tumble downward. Usually, physical activity isn't something Seokjin has to worry about when it comes to his mask staying on securely, but he winces when he remembers the hurry he had been in when had quickly thrown on his mask to hopefully beat RM to the scene of the crime.

"Fuck," Seokjin whispers, and then fuck, he shouldn't had said anything, he should've pretended like RM was crazy. He can barely think about how horrible his luck has to be for RM out of all people to recognize Seokjin's secret identity when he's not wearing his mask. Instead, he focuses on shoving RM off of him, quickly rolling around so his face is facing the ground and hopefully can't be seen.

"Shit, he's getting away," RM mumbles. Seokjin can't see him, but he's sure that Earth Shaker is already trying to make his retreat while RM and Seokjin are distracted.

"Go and get him, I'll join you in a moment, I've got to find my mask," Seokjin says, ignoring how panicked he sounds. There's too many things going on right now to worry about RM knowing his secret identity.

"Hey, let me help you," RM says, crouching. The city lights are barely enough to make it easy to see in the dark, especially when the black fabric of seokjin's mask blends in with the pavement of the street. Seokjin reaches to grab his phone out of his pocket before remembering he's wearing his one pair of jeans that are too tight to fit anything into the pockets and that he probably unsafely left his cell phone in the car.

"It's fine," Seokjin says, keeping his head down. His next hair cut is overdue, and his bangs flop in front of his eyes and since the first time he noticed he was in need of a haircut, he's grateful for the extra length. "Why don't you go ahead and secure the bad guy? I'm sure you'll do fine on your own." He tries to not sound too bitter, and usually he'd never admit to it; but he's desperate to have RM leave him alone.

"We can catch him another time," RM says, and Seokjin hates it. We . As if RM and Seokjin were some sort of team. They definitely aren't. There's nowhere on Seokjin's plan that includes working with RM. If anything, Seokjin's plan consists of ways to upshow RM and finally have the advantage on him in a way that allows Seokjin to kick RM out of his city.

"Shut up," Seokjin grumbles, growing more and more worried that not only is RM going to know his identity, but the entire city will soon if he can't find his mask. He could always run home and hope none of the cameras capture his face, but they're in too public of a spot in town - there has to be some eyes on them at least. The only thing helping Seokjin right now is the fact that RM is ridiculously big and tall and blocking any prying eyes.

RM snorts. "You're so stubborn," he says. Not angrily, like how Seokjin has been spitting his words out, but something along the lines of amusement. Annoying . "Come on, this is important to you, right? I think two pairs of searching eyes is better than one."

Seokjin doesn't believe RM has any good intentions of helping Seokjin protect his secret identity, but he's tired of arguing so he quickly grunts, waving his hand in RM's direction. "Whatever. Just don't blame me when Earth Shaker makes fun of both of us next time."

RM laughs. "It'll be a team bonding experience."

Seokjin would never murder, but if he accidentally killed RM, he doesn't think it would be too bad.

"Found it," RM calls out, and Seokjin puts a halt on his plan to push RM off a building the next time he refers to them as a team .

"Oh my god, it's wet," Seokjin says when RM hands the mask over to him, damp from whatever rain must've been leftover from the morning. "That's so gross. Fuck, I really don't want to put this on my face."

"Then don't," RM says, shrugging. "You're considered a hero to this city. I don't know why you're worried about them figuring out who you are."

Seokjin glares at RM. "I don't see you masquerading around without a mask on."

"Fair enough," RM says. He licks his lips, staring at Seokjin. Seokjin feels naked, and he realizes he might as well be without his mask on.

Seokjin stares down at the damp mask in his hands, and he sighs. He closes his eyes, and thinks about how this would've gone so much smoother if he hadn't made plans to socialize with his friends.

Seokjin had never planned on being a superhero, but now that he is, he's had to sacrifice some other plans.

And then the weight of the mask disappears from his hands, and Seokjin opens his eyes in shock just to see RM adjusting Seokjin's mask on his own face, grimacing when a wet part touches his skin.

"What are you..." Seokjin blinks, confused. "What are you doing?"

And then a mask is thrown in his face. A much more dry mask that smells like honey.

"I promise I did laundry just the other day," RM promises, nodding in Seokjin's direction. "Now are you going to go home, or will you stay and help me out?"

"You don't need my help," Seokjin says. He thinks about how unsuccessful he's been at fighting crime recently. "You know you don't need my help."

RM shakes his head.

"You think I don't need your help. And you're wrong, Seokjin ."

RM runs off, back to attacking the Earth Shaker, who's started to run away during Seokjin and RM's little intermission.

Seokjin looks back down at the mask in his hands.

You think I don't need your help. And you're wrong, Seokjin.

Seokjin doesn't think he's wrong.

But for some reason, he puts on the mask, and chases after RM anyway.

+++

Seokjin looks hesitantly down either side of the hallway of the apartment complex when he's leaving for school. He has early morning classes today, so he's not sure why he's expecting to see anyone, but the fear of running into RM has settled deep into his heart during his night's worth of sleep. Before Seokjin's mask dropped, he was safe when he was Seokjin, no matter how much trouble Jin got himself into.

But now RM - Seokjin's arch-nemesis - knows Kim Seokjin and Jin are the same person, and that means Jin who used to run away at the end of the night is easily traceable back to Kim Seokjin's apartment. RM hadn't said much else that night, but Seokjin is positive he must be thinking up some evil plan to ruin Seokjin's life, and while Seokjin doesn't know what he can do about it, he's sure going to do his best to avoid the crisis until then.

"Are you looking for someone?" Jimin asks him when they meet each other at the front of the college. Jimin is dressed in what Seokjin assumes to be Taehyung's sweater, far too oversized for his small frame, and the scarf Seokjin got him last Christmas. Jimin's hair is currently blue, and Seokjin grins every time he sees it because he remembers the fun they had the night they decided to spontaneously dye Jimin's hair.

Seokjin frowns. Jimin is his best friend; he isn't allowed to know about Seokjin's secret identity. Seokjin would trust Jimin with his life in a heartbeat, but Seokjin is a superhero, and superheroes always have a plan; his plan for Jimin is to make sure he's never dragged into superhero Jin's troubles. And for that reason, Seokjin has kept such a big secret from his friend.

However, Seokjin has never had to worry about someone else telling Jimin, and his stomach churns, because there's nothing stopping RM from ruining Seokjin's years of hard work. Seokjin doesn't like RM, doesn't like him at all, but he would especially hate him if he dragged Jimin into his mess.

Seokjin swallows. "What makes you say that?"

Jimin shrugs. "You keep looking around. Are you expecting someone?"

"Not at all," Seokjin lies. He's pretty good at lying, maybe better at lying than someone who's supposed to fight for justice should be, but when it comes to Jimin, it doesn't matter how good Seokjin is at lying; Jimin tends to read him like an open book. "I thought I saw someone I knew, but I must've been mistaken."

Seokjin bites his lower lip nervously as he waits for Jimin to decide whether he buys the lie or not; it ends with Jimin shrugging again, not necessarily buying Seokjin's answer but not seeming bothered enough to investigate it any further. Seokjin internally sighs in relief.

"So are you going to buy me a coffee to make up for ditching me last night?" Jimin asks as they head towards their classroom. They're both early, and the crowds of their classmates have yet to arrive. "It seems that your stomach bug has gone away?"

Seokjin winces. He had forgotten about his half-assed lie when he had ditched noraebang last night after Hoseok's urgent text. It hadn't been the first quick lie to escape an outing to go save the city, but it had probably been the most urgent call, especially now that Seokjin is trying to compete against RM and arrive first to the scenes.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better now," Seokjin says, wondering what the point of continuing the lie is when Jimin clearly sees through it. He supposes that if he admits that it's a lie, he'll have to come up with some sort of truth to supplement it, and there's nothing he can think of that he could let Jimin know. "Maybe again some other time?"

Jimin stares at Seokjin, like he's trying to find the truth that Seokjin is holding back like it's physically being held in Seokjin's arms. Eventually he pulls away though, shaking his head like he had a thought that he decided to dismiss.

"Then what about today? I did my homework yesterday since I ended up having the time, so I'm free this afternoon," Jimin says, looking up at Seokjin with hopeful eyes.

Seokjin sighs. Unlike Jimin, Seokjin has definitely not completed his homework. Doesn't really have any intentions of completing it until the hour before it's due, which isn't until midnight. Then there's another assignment he has due in the first hour of his morning class tomorrow, but surely he could finish that if he wakes up half an hour earlier. Surely.

"Sounds good to me," Seokjin says, subconsciously shoving his hands into his pockets and feeling for his cellphone. He keeps the ringer on silent during class, which doesn't usually cause too much trouble if Hoseok tries to call him during that time because he's usually staring at his phone anyway.

Once class is over though, he usually turns the ringer back on, and he reaches into his pockets to do so before hesitating. If he turns the ringer on and Hoseok calls, there'd be no way for Seokjin to ignore it. If Seokjin picks up Hoseok's call, not only would Seokjin have to ditch Jimin again , but he would also have to see RM again, and neither of those situations end in a win for Seokjin.

Seokjin takes his hand out of his pocket without touching his phone, and slings his arm around Jimin and pulls him close.

“Alright, today sounds good. When’s your last class of the day?”

“I finish right after two. You?”

Seokjin has a class that starts at four. So far this term, he thinks he’s only attended the class three times, two of those times to hand in printed assignments.

“Sounds perfect.”

+++

“Someone called you, by the way,” Jimin announces when Seokjin comes back to the table with two coffees in hand. Seokjin sets the taller of the two coffees in front of Jimin, and frowns as he snatches his phone back from Jimin.

“Were you messing around with my phone?” Not that Seokjin is worried that Jimin would see anything suspicious if Seokjin’s phone password did it’s job. If anything, he’s more worried about seeing a spam of Jimin’s selfies on his camera roll later.

“Who’s Mister Squirrel Emoji?” Jimin says, gesturing to Seokjin’s phone. “Is he why you keep ditching me?” He doesn’t sound accusatory, but he definitely sounds curious. “Is he cooler than me? You wouldn’t think that, right?”

Seokjin laughs nervously, glancing down at his lockscreen. Sure enough, there’s a missed call from Hoseok, logged in as a single squirrel emoji in Seokjin’s contacts list. It was a decision Seokjin made while laughing as he put Hoseok’s number in his phone, but it’s a decision he’s been made grateful for multiple times, including now.

“He’s my boss,” Seokjin says, trying not to wince at the idea of calling Hoseok his boss. It’s not technically a lie, but Seokjin still doesn’t like to think about it anyway. “So I guess, kind of? About the ditching thing, not about the cooler thing. You’re definitely cooler.”

Jimin grins. “You should text him that.”

Seokjin laughs. “Are you trying to get me fired?”

Jimin huffs. “Yes. Then you would have more time to hang out with me , the cooler person.”

Seokjin smiles, leaning back in his seat and unlocking his phone. He sees a voicemail left behind from Hoseok, but he ignores it and in lieu sends Hoseok a quick “can’t today” message before shoving his phone back into his pocket. He picks up his drink, and tries to wash down the guilt of ignoring his duties with the bitter taste of coffee.

Jimin picks out the arcade, but somehow Seokjin is the one who ends up giving the directions on how to get there. It's not too far of a walk from campus, so they decide to walk the twenty minutes to get there, unbothered by the rising temperature. Seokjin's phone feels heavy in his pocket, and halfway there, it buzzes in his pocket. There's two people who text Seokjin for things on a regular basis. One of them is Jimin, who's currently leaning his full-weight against Seokjin and laughing as Seokjin struggles to hold both of them upright.

One of them is Hoseok. Seokjin's phone continues to go untouched.

Besides, Seokjin figures out what the call was for only a little bit later when they arrive at the arcade and a tree goes flying past - only a few inches away from their faces - and almost hitting RM until he manages to dodge it at the last second.

"Oh shit, I didn't know that villains came out of hiding this early in the day," Jimin says, eyes wide as he stares at the bad guy who's standing on the other side of the street, glaring at RM as he goes to pull another tree out of the ground.

Seokjin feels frozen in place. He doesn't have his disguise on him right now, so it's not like he can just suddenly jump in and help out. On one hand, it should be perfect; it's exactly what Seokjin planned. No time to be a superhero, just a good day of hanging out with Jimin and avoiding RM. A really good plan. Seokjin should definitely follow it.

"Jimin, hurry up and go inside," he says, pushing Jimin towards the building. "It'll be safer there."

Jimin frowns. "Are you not coming with me?"

Seokjin hesitates. "Yeah, in just a moment. I think I see someone I know who I'm," he purses his lips, "concerned about. Just head inside and I'll join you in a second."

Jimin looks hesitant, but when he realizes that Seokjin isn't budging, his frown drops into something more defeated, and nods before running off.

All the other citizens have already retreated, leaving the open area empty except for RM and the villain. So Seokjin stands out like a sore thumb, and it's only a brief second until he pops up onto both of their radars.

RM's eyes widen when he spots Seokjin, and Seokjin tries not to wince at the fact that RM recognizes Seokjin without his superhero suit on. Luckily the villain doesn't have a similar reaction, probably wondering why an innocent civilian hasn't evacuated yet and much more concerned about pulling a stop sign off of the road and getting ready to aim it at RM.

“Hey, watch out!” Seokjin says, waving his hands at RM who’s become distracted by Seokjin’s appearance. He hates how quickly RM becomes vulnerable, and he's running over to RM's side before he even realizes that his feet are moving underneath him, barely dodging the stop sign that comes flying in their direction.

"You shouldn't be here," RM says, casually placing his hands on Seokjin's arm. His brows are furrowed, lips frowning. "Why don't you go inside with your friend? It's dangerous out here."

Seokjin scoffs. "Are you accusing me of being too weak to fight? You know, I did my job plenty fine before you arrived in this city."

RM shakes his head. "You know I didn't mean it like that."

"Then what in the Hell am I supposed to interpret it as?"

RM's expression softens. He leans forward, way too close, almost so that their foreheads bonk against each other.

"You look cute today," RM says suddenly, catching Seokjin off guard. "You're not ditching me today to go on a date, are you?"

Seokjin frowns. He was hoping that RM wouldn't mention the fact that Seokjin's obviously skipping out on his superhero duties. Seokjin hates feeling guilty, and he especially hates feeling guilty towards RM, who doesn't deserve it. They aren't friends, not like Seokjin and Hoseok are. And it's not like RM needs Seokjin's help, like the city does. And really, if RM is there, it's not like the city needs Seokjin. 

Seokjin shouldn't really be feeling guilty at all, yet here he is.

"It's not a date ," Seokjin hisses, not sure why he needs to explain his private life to RM. "Just a friendly outing."

RM smiles, and Seokjin watches his shoulders relax. "Good. It looks like you're having a good day off."

"Wait, no," Seokjin protests, digging his hands into his pockets as if he'll pull out his superhero mask and be able to jump in and help. It'd be too obvious even if he did have his mask. Still, Seokjin hates just /standing/ there when he could obviously be helping. "It's not my day off, I'm just-"

Suddenly, there's a finger pressing against Seokjin's lips.

RM grins. "I'm glad you're having fun. Enjoy your day off."

"But I-" Seokjin felt guilty about abandoning Jimin so many times to attend to his superhero duties, which he thinks is normal. Jimin is his friend. Of course Seokjin feels bad about ditching out on him constantly.

He can't really find an explanation for the sinking feeling in his gut, something far too close to guilt . Seokjin doesn't owe RM anything. He doesn't even like him. 

Seokjin stares down at the ground, fists clutched at his sides. 

RM ruffles his hair, smile widening when Seokjin looks up at him with wide eyes.

"Don't worry about it. Let me just lead this guy out of here, and you just enjoy your day, okay?" He winks. "Just let me handle this for today, okay?"

Seokjin watches helplessly as RM charges the bad guy, who looks shocked by the sudden change in pace. As RM promised, the bad guy starts to back away, retreating out of the area as RM chases after him, surely to have another successful day of being a superhero.

Seokjin doesn't move from his spot until they're out of his sight, and it's Jimin who pulls Seokjin out of his daze, appearing out of what feels like nowhere, grabbing onto Seokjin's arm.

"Hyung? Did you manage to help the person you knew?"

Seokjin sighs.

"I tried. I just don't think there was much I could do to help."

Jimin frowns. "You're the most helpful person I know."

Seokjin blinks at his friend, who's staring at him with an encouraging smile. Maybe Jimin has realized how out of it Seokjin's been for the last few days. He definitely feels tired. A little hopeless. RM knows his secret identity, and yet, it wasn't even a worry on his mind compared to his worry about not being able to help RM. 

Seokjin wonders how nice it would be, to finally tell Jimin all the things he's been struggling with.

"Hey, where did this nice attitude come from?" Seokjin exclaims, shoving Jimin gently. "You're never this nice. What are you up to?"

Jimin grins. "Absolutely nothing. But you will feel like going easier on me if we play some games together, right?"

Seokjin exclaims that he will definitely /not/ be going easy on Jimin, but it's not like he can ever fully compete with a giggling Jimin, who tugs on his arm, dragging him into the arcade and insisting that at least for the first round, Seokjin should try to let Jimin win.

As they walk into the arcade, Seokjin stares outside, one last time, in the direction RM had led the bad guy.

"You're never this nice. What are you up to?"

With RM's gentle, kind voice in the back of Seokjin's mind, he wishes he could ask RM the same thing.

+++

It’s not until five days later that Hoseok calls Seokjin alerting him of a new job, and to Seokjin, it feels like it’s been five years. Because for the last five days, Seokjin has been peeking his head around every corner afraid that it'll finally be the day where RM confronts him and reveals his secret identity to the whole world.

Seokjin doesn’t even pay much attention to the night’s fight. It’s some villain that Seokjin’s never heard of, and most likely from the weak fight that the villain put up, it won’t be someone Seokjin ever hears of again. Besides a few words of communicating their plans during the fight, Seokjin barely speaks to RM, still too nervous to talk after capturing the bad guy.

The cops take the bad guy away, and at this point in the night, Seokjin is usually quick to escape and retire for the night. But now that he’s no longer focused on saving the day, his thoughts quickly drift to RM - his expression the night Seokjin accidentally dropped his mask, the look he gave Seokjin when he spotted him with Jimin a few days ago. He thinks it’s a little ridiculous to be so concerned over someone seeing his face when he just went head-to-head with a dangerous villain, but not only is keeping identity secret vital, it’s RM. Who, until now, Seokjin has seen as an opponent on equal grounds. 

But now RM has the upper hand, and Seokjin is scared.

Instead of finding the closest alleyway to duck into before making his disappearance, Seokjin turns around to where everyone is. He quickly spots RM, and tries not to become too unnerved when he realizes RM is already staring at him.

Seokjin takes a deep breath. Then, with the same speed he captures bad guys with, he approaches RM, grabs him by the wrist, and pulls him away from the incoming crowd (for once, he’s too nervous to get annoyed over the fact that they chant RM’s name louder than his) to a darker, quieter nook between all the buildings.

RM doesn’t look surprised by Seokjin’s sudden act, and he doesn’t resist Seokjin’s tugging at all. It’s frustrating how calm he looks about the whole situation when Seokjin’s heart is racing in his chest because this is it . If RM plays his cards the way Seokjin would if he was in his place, Seokjin’s out of the superhero business for good.

“Did you take me all the way over here just to makeout with me? Because you know, you could’ve just asked,” RM says with a smug smile, and for a moment Seokjin relaxes because even though RM’s teasing drives him crazy, it’s what he’s used to. Even though in the back of his mind, he’s screaming that RM currently has information that could end him, for the moment, he’s able to relax.

(He must be going crazy, because he swears he sees RM look satisfied when Seokjin’s tensed shoulders go slack. He must be going crazy, because if he did see that, it might mean that RM’s purposefully trying to get Seokjin to relax.)

Seokjin gestures up. “Meet me at the top? We need to talk.”

Seokjin doesn’t wait for RM’s reaction, terrified of what it might be. Instead, he focuses on scaling the side of the building, half praying that his superpowers fail him for once and let him fall off so he doesn’t have to face RM at the top.

Unfortunately, they both make it to the top and Seokjin barely has time to prepare himself when RM asks, “So if this isn’t an attempt to steal some kisses without prying eyes, what did you want to talk about?”

Seokjin sighs. “You know exactly what this is about.”

“Oh? Is it about us kissing-”

“What do you plan on doing with my secret identity?” Seokjin finally gets out, taking his finger and pushing it against RM’s (notably firm) chest. “It’s been days and you obviously haven’t told anyone. What are you planning?”

RM laughs. “What makes you think I want to tell someone?”

“Why wouldn’t you tell someone?” Seokjin narrows his eyes. “Unless you were planning something far worse. Which you obviously are.”

RM shakes his head. “Seokjin,” it’s weird hearing his real name leave RM’s mouth, “have you ever considered that maybe I have no intentions of sharing your identity?”

Seokjin frowns. “Now why would you do that?” A bad thought crosses his mind. “If you’re not saying anything out of pity, I’d rather you not.”

“What if I said it’s because I have no desire to share a cutie like you with the rest of the world?” RM catches Seokjin by surprise, and takes advantage of Seokjin’s momentary shock from his words to reach forward, grab Seokjin’s mask, and pull it off again.

Seokjin immediately tries to cover his face with his hands, but realizes his attempt is pointless when RM stares at him funnily - he’s already seen Seokjin’s face, Seokjin knows that, but it still feels like he’s standing naked in front of RM without his mask on. Still, he surrenders his hands to his sides.

“See, how could I share this cute face when I could keep it all to myself?” RM teases, pinching Seokjin’s cheek. It’s humiliating, and Seokjin feels his cheeks heat up, certainly red from rage.

“And I’m simply supposed to believe that?” Seokjin whacks away RM’s hand, ignoring the tingling sensation from RM’s fingers brushing against his skin. 

“You don’t trust me?”

“Of course not!” Seokjin quickly says, shaking his head in disbelief. He points his finger at RM. “You’re the one who decided to show up in my city and try to steal my job!”

RM looks at the finger pointed at him, amused. “Well, if it bothers you that much, why don’t we make a deal?” He grabs Seokjin’s outreached hand and pulls him closer than Seokjin’s liking. “A deal that means in exchange for something from you, I won’t share your secret.”

The last thing Seokjin wants to do is owe anyone, and he especially doesn’t want to owe anything to his (self-declared) arch-nemesis, RM. But no matter how much RM (lies) promises to keep Seokjin’s identity a secret, Seokjin knows there’s no rest unless he knows he’s taken some of the extra cards from RM’s hand. Even if it does require making a deal with him.

Seokjin bites his lip. “And what did you have in mind?”

RM smiles. “I’ll keep your identity secret for the low price of one kiss.”

Seokjin looks at RM in disbelief. The words take more than a few moments to process, but Seokjin is absolutely positive every moment of it he's staring at RM with wide eyes, jaw dropped and there’s definitely, definitely , not a rising blush to his cheeks. 

"What?" Seokjin almost chokes on his words. He's definitely not stuttering. 

"Oh, did you want me to say it again?"

Seokjin shakes his head, because if he has to hear the word kiss come out of RM's mouth one more time, he thinks he'll shoot through the roof (so maybe it's a good thing they're actually standing on the roof to begin with).

"You can't be serious," Seokjin says, a bit frozen in shock. He's aware that RM is still holding onto his hand, but RM's proposition is still echoing in his head, and with all the noise in his mind, he can't figure out how to pull his hand away like he should. "You can't actually want a-" Seokjin can't finish the sentence, and the blush spreads to the tips of his ears as he hisses, "What do you actually want?"

RM shrugs. "I just told you."

Seokjin whines, "Something else." RM has to be joking, Seokjin knows that, but even if he does it doesn't mean RM's teasing doesn't have him ready to disintegrate into the floor. Usually he's better about deflecting RM's flirtatious teasing, but - literally - he can't hide behind a mask anymore. 

"Well, I told you the truth," RM says, looking annoyingly amused. Seokjin despises him. "I don't plan on telling anyone. You don't have to give me anything to keep your secret."

"Bullshit," Seokjin says, narrowing his eyes at RM. He doesn't care how many times RM tries to trick him into thinking he's not going to blow Seokjin's cover - Seokjin will never be foolish enough to believe him. No amount of nicery from RM will convince him of that.

RM sighs, though he doesn't look annoyed - unlike Seokjin, who is very, very annoyed. "I don't know what to tell you, Seokjin." Seokjin flinches at the sound of his name being spoken by the enemy. "I'm not going to tell anyone, so you don't need to worry about it."

"Unacceptable," Seokjin says. They're still holding hands. Also unacceptable. Seokjin finally remembers to pull his hand away, taking a step back from RM so that if anything, he can remember how to properly breathe. "Just tell me what you want in exchange for your silence."

"Nothing?"

Seokjin groans. "Say that one more time and I'll fucking push you off the building."

RM laughs, annoyingly not perturbed by Seokjin's threat. Mostly because the bastard would probably just let the wind float him down safely anyway.

"I already told you, Seokjin. If you really want to pay, all it'll cost is one little kiss."

"Absolutely not. Please try again."

"Then I ask for nothing."

Seokjin takes a step forward and with both hands, shoves RM as hard as he can; which would really send him over the edge of the rooftop, if RM wasn't another superhero. Instead of flying off the building like Seokjin would prefer, RM grabs Seokjin's hands once again and Seokjin's beginning to think he's stuck in a loop.

  "You know, if you keep rejecting my offer for nothing, I'm going to start to believe you actually want to kiss me," RM teases, and it's bad, because Seokjin and RM are in the same space bubble and in the cold of the night, Seokjin can feel how warm RM's breath is against his skin.

"You can believe that all you want," Seokjin says, or at least, he thinks he says it. It feels like his breath is caught in his throat, words sticky as they leave his lips. "But that's not the case."

They stay like that for a moment, Seokjin staring directly at RM's masked eyes. He wonders, for a brief moment, how easily he could reach and try to snag RM's mask. Seokjin is fast, but RM has to be expecting the attack from Seokjin, and all attempts from Seokjin would probably just lead him to looking like more of a fool in front of RM.

"I'll take your silence as you accepting me keeping your secret," RM says a moment later, backing away and letting go of Seokjin's hands - Seokjin hadn't even realized how warm RM had been keeping them.

It feels like the end of every crime fighting night - Seokjin and RM go different directions, not looking at or acknowledging each other as they both go home to their civilian life, where any relationship between RM and Jin ceases to exist; because they're not supposed to know each other outside of being superheroes.

"Wait," Seokjin says, reaching out for RM. He manages to snag him by the back of the shirt, and he begins to regret his decision the moment RM stops, waiting just like Seokjin asked, facing Seokjin with curious, surprised eyes.

"I told you, I won't tell anyone about your identity, so you really don't need to worry-"

By the grip on RM's shirt, Seokjin pulls him all the way up to where Seokjin is, and then he lets go, closing his eyes as he grabs RM's face with both of his hands.

And then he closes the distance and kisses him.

It's meant to be a brief kiss. In Seokjin's mind, the moment he chose to do it, he really hoped to not think of it as a kiss at all. The smashing of lips in a purposeful movement, almost like a fistfight. It didn’t sound so bad, when Seokjin thought of it that way.

The kiss is meant to be brief, it really is. In an afterthought, Seokjin wants to blame it on the fact that he hasn’t kissed someone in forever; he knew how to start the kiss, but he forgot how to actually end one. He’s not sure how to stop, not when the tips of his fingers brush against RM’s hair, tempting him to grab onto the messy blond hair. It feels like he’s driving, driving as fast as he can to get to the end, but in the process he’s run over the stop sign and now there’s an issue. The issue is that he’s still kissing RM, and he really shouldn’t be.

Seokjin pulls away, followed by the loud pop of their lips separating. 

“Uh.” Seokjin has had a lot of bad plans, and he’s absolutely positive this was his worst one yet, “I expect your silence in exchange for…” He knows his cheeks are bright red, and his ears feel warm as well. “For that .”

RM stares blankly at Seokjin, cheeks red. For a moment, Seokjin is worried he’s sent him into shock, but then he remembers it would be a great opportunity to run away if that was the case.

Unfortunately, RM finally moves, gently wrapping his hands around Seokjin’s wrists - Seokjin notices in horror that his hands are still holding onto RM, and he quickly tugs his hands away, arms slamming to his sides.

RM blinks. “You know, I really wouldn’t have told anyone.”

Seokjin huffs. “Yeah, right.” There’s no way RM wasn’t planning on ruining Seokjin’s life now. It’s still probably on his agenda. “Well, you’ll be a really shitty person if you say anything now.”

“Then good thing I don’t plan on saying anything,” RM says. He stares at Seokjin for a moment, like he’s trying to read Seokjin’s thoughts. Seokjin can only pray that RM properly takes in Seokjin’s glare and feels intimidated enough to keep his mouth shut.

They stare at each other for what feels like forever, and Seokjin hopes that RM isn’t any better at reading Seokjin than Seokjin is at reading RM. Eventually, RM breaks the staring contest (which Seokjin will count as a win) and backs away, shrugging his shoulders.

“While I could stare at your cute face all day, I unfortunately need to pick up groceries on my way home, so I’m a bit tight on time,” RM says, shocked expression slowly fading into something more familiar, more confident, more annoying . “But I’ll look forward to seeing you soon.”

Seokjin has nothing to say in response, glaring at RM the entire time he walks away.

“My name is Namjoon, by the way,” RM - Namjoon - says when he’s at the edge of the building. “You gave more than enough, so I’ll make it fair.” He winks, and then proceeds to jump down the building, and Seokjin is so frustrated that he only checks a minute later to make sure Namjoon safely made it down.

Namjoon, huh?

The name echoes in his mind, and the taste of Namjoon’s lip balm lingers on Seokjin’s lips.

+++

Seokjin has a plan.

It's not a good plan, according to Hoseok at least. Seokjin thinks it's a wonderful plan though, and while Hoseok is right on a lot of things, Seokjin decides it's about time for Hoseok to be wrong, right? After all, Seokjin deserves a win that isn't from beating Jimin at Mario Kart.

Well, technically, Seokjin just won a battle against another bad guy, because Seokjin's a superhero, and that's just what superheroes are meant to do. The only problem was that Namjoon was there too, and even if the bad guy was properly arrested by the cops thanks to Seokjin, it's also thanks to Namjoon , and for that, it's a loss for Seokjin.

While the battle had been considered a loss in Seokjin's books, it had also occurred right in the middle of Seokjin's afternoon math class, so not only was having an excuse to ditch a small win, it also meant it was still daylight when Seokjin and Namjoon were finished with their job. And while usually Namjoon sneaks off into the dark of the night like Seokjin does, this time, with the sun on his side, Seokjin is able to chase after Namjoon when they say their goodbyes.

His plan consists of this: casual clothes, a mask to cover his face, a baseball hat and a pair of glasses that are purely for fashion because Seokjin wasn't in the mood to take his contacts out. Seokjin ditched his superhero outfit for something more civilian looking, and when Seokjin catches a glance of himself in the window of a shop he passes by, he nods in approval. Completely inconspicuous, and certainly nothing Namjoon would notice, who's walking several meters ahead of him.

' this plan is TOTALLY going to work ' Seokjin texts Hoseok, biting back his grin at Hoseok's quick response, which is a line of eyeroll emojis.

Of course, the first part of Seokjin's plan to figure out Namjoon's secret identity was to ask Hoseok. Hoseok, who knew more about the world of superheroes more than any Seokjin knew (including himself). It seemed like a solid plan, perhaps even better than the plan Seokjin is currently acting out: ask Hoseok, and laugh maniacally as Hoseok told him.

Unfortunately, not only was Hoseok pretending to have some sort of moral code to not spill anyone's secret identity, Hoseok also had no clue. In fact, RM was one of the few superheroes Hoseok had no information on besides when RM started popping up in Seokjin's city.

Seokjin finds it interesting that so far, Namjoon hasn't found any mode of transportation to get himself home. In fact, Seokjin might say he's impressed by the fact that Namjoon isn't using his superhero power to help escort himself home. Perhaps he does when the curtains of the night are more forgiving, as Seokjin does. It's definitely harder to run away from a battle when you've already changed yourself back into a civilian.

When Seokjin's phone rings, he almost jumps high enough to give away his identity. He's glad he bit back the shriek threatening to escape his mouth after being disturbed during his incognito mode, but he does his best to retain his calmness and pick up the phone without looking suspicious.

"Hey, hyung, you're not outside your classroom."

Seokjin groans. "Jimin, if you're trying to make me feel guilty for skipping class, you're doing a very good job."

"I literally haven't gone to class in two days. I don't give a shit about your habit of playing hooky," Jimin says, and Seokjin can hear the eyeroll. "I was going to ask if you wanted to order takeout and watch a movie at my place, but let me guess - you're at work again."

Seokjin winces. He knows how sketchy he sounds when he dismisses any of his superhero work as 'work' that he's unable to describe the details of to his friends, but he's yet to come up with a better idea for explaining his multiple disappearances without constantly faking sick.

"I'll actually be home soon," Seokjin says, crossing his fingers that he's not lying. He knows that Namjoon probably lives in a different city, but even if Seokjin has to follow him on a bus trip to the next door city, it shouldn't take more than another hour, right? "Why don't you pick out a movie, and I'll pick up takeout on my way over."

Jimin sighs. "You won't call out sick last minute?"

"I'll even pay."

Jimin laughs at that. "Hyung, if you thought I wasn't going to make you pay to begin with, that's very cute of you." And then Jimin hangs up on him.

Seokjin almost misses Namjoon making a turn onto another street, and he curses Jimin for distracting him. He gives Namjoon a moment to walk ahead, to make sure there's an adequate amount of distance between them, before charging ahead and ignoring the way people's heads seem to snap around to look at him. It must be his shoulders, he tells himself. Certainly, he can hide his face all he wants, but his wide shoulders are still probably enough to give himself away in a crowd.

Luckily, it doesn't seem like Namjoon has noticed. In fact, Namjoon has barely glanced back at Seokjin at all. He walks peacefully, sometimes even skipping , and Seokjin wonders if it had to do with the pair of earbuds in Namjoon's ears. Seokjin wonders what kind of music Namjoon listens to. Not that he cares about Namjoon and his interests. It's just that Namjoon's music tastes could reveal one of his weaknesses, that's all.

Seokjin almost pulls out his own earbuds, preparing himself for a long trip, when Namjoon suddenly stops in front of a building. Seokjin is shocked, because they've barely been walking for ten minutes, and Seokjin had always assumed that Namjoon lived in a different city.

He checks to see what the building Namjoon has entered is, expecting a cafe or some other kind of shop; and he's shocked to find out that Namjoon has just walked into a hotel.

Seokjin blinks. He certainly didn't expect Namjoon to be sleeping at a hotel, and he quickly checks to see if the hotel has any other businesses running inside of it before confirming that Namjoon's most likely staying at a hotel. Which is strange, because Namjoon has been ruining Seokjin's superhero plans for a couple of months now, and a hotel doesn't seem like a reasonable place to stay for that long.

Seokjin shakes his head. Maybe Namjoon moved recently and was still looking for a new place. Either way, there's no way of determining the reason behind any of it, so Seokjin dismisses it for the moment and watches Namjoon check in at the front desk, standing outside the building and praying he doesn't look too creepy staring through the windows.

Once Namjoon heads to the elevator, Seokjin casually walks into the hotel, keeping his head low and quickly spotting the stairs. The elevator doors have already shut with Namjoon inside of them, and Seokjin formulates a plan: run up the stairs and pray that Namjoon is staying on one of the lower levels.

He's not as fast as Namjoon, but he manages to make it up the fourth flight of stairs only slightly out of breath. He's relieved to hear the ding of the elevator arriving, and when he peeks out from the staircase, he watches Namjoon exit the elevator and go a few rooms down before pulling out his key and entering the room. The door shuts behind him, and Seokjin's plan starts to fizzle out when he realizes he hadn't actually made the plan a long-term thing, and the last thing to check off had been to find where Namjoon is staying. The plan didn't account for Namjoon staying at a hotel though, and there's no mailbox to check what Namjoon's full name is, and there's no hints to any other part of Namjoon's life.

Seokjin sighs, catches his breath, and thinks of a new plan.

His next plan starts when he's exited the hotel again, figured out what side of the building Namjoon is on, and has climbed up the building next to the hotel until he's about level with the room Namjoon is in. The universe must've approved of Seokjin's plan, because it's kindly granted Seokjin with a big window where the curtains are drawn open and easy for Seokjin to peak inside the room and spot Namjoon.

Seokjin grins, knowing he really doesn't blend in with the fire escape on the side of the building and fixing the issue by bending down and hugging his knees to his chest to become as small as possible. He congratulates himself for thinking ahead and wearing black clothes, and mentally pats himself on the back before pulling out his cell phone.

His cellphone has two purposes in his new plan. The first purpose is to text Hoseok a picture of Namjoon's hotel room window, because certainly as much as Hoseok protests Seokjin's idea, he has to be a little interested in Seokjin's success. Or even if he's not, Seokjin is happy to send him the photo anyway, positive that it will lead to some sort of scolding that Seokjin can laugh off later tonight.

The second purpose of his cellphone is to take a picture of Namjoon's face once he takes his mask off.

Seokjin's plan looks like this: while he might not be able to get Namjoon's full name, the fact that Namjoon seems to know Seokjin means that surely, Seokjin knows Namjoon, right? Seokjin likes to think he's pretty good at remembering faces, and even if he doesn't remember, he figures that as long as he can get a photo of Namjoon's revealed face, there has to be someone Seokjin knows that could identify Namjoon and finally put Seokjin and Namjoon back on equal grounds.

From his spot at the fire escape, Seokjin triumphantly sends a picture of Namjoon's blurry masked face to Hoseok, and a moment later Hoseok is calling Seokjin.

"Hyung. What the fuck."

Seokjin laughs. "I can't imagine what would draw such a reaction out of you." He grins, turning the call into a video call and letting the front camera focus on Seokjin for just a moment (a small treat to make Hoseok's day, surely) before switching it to the back camera and zooming in on Namjoon once again. "Is it because you're jealous that my plan is actually going to work?"

Hoseok keeps his camera off, but his sigh is audible enough for Seokjin to picture his expression. "Hyung, what the fuck are you doing?"

"Winning, obviously."

"Hyung, I'm pretty sure what you're doing right now is illegal ."

Seokjin huffs. "Look, I'm a fulltime superhero. I think I deserve a little bit of crime in my off hours."

Hoseok groans, but he doesn't hang up on Seokjin either. "Do you just plan on creeping on him all day then?"

"I'm not creeping , I'm investigating," Seokjin whines, carefully watching Namjoon take a seat on the hotel bed and turn on the TV. He kicks his shoes off to the side somewhere, and Seokjin hums. Of course Namjoon is messy. A very important villain trait and an even better weakness for Seokjin to write down about his rival.

Unfortunately, Namjoon still hasn't taken his mask off, which Seokjin finds infuriating. Seokjin has definitely forgotten to take off the small piece of cloth that covers his eyes before, only to find out hours after arriving home, usually when he goes to take a shower. However, it doesn't mean that Namjoon's refusal to remove his mask in the safety of his hotel room doesn't annoy Seokjin.

"Hyung, I think it's time for you to go home," Hoseok suddenly says, interrupting Seokjin's train of thought.

"Huh? No way, I've almost got him."

"No, hyung, I think it's really a good idea for you to stop looking now," Hoseok says, which is a really good thing to say to make Seokjin look back at the window where Namjoon is, and he's expecting to see Namjoon without his mask.

He gets ready to take a picture, but then he looks up just to see Namjoon pulling off his shirt and tossing it somewhere in the room. Not that Seokjin really notices where.

"Oh." Seokjin says. It's suddenly unusually warm outside, and Seokjin wonders if he had missed the increase in temperatures on the weather report. "He's taking his shirt off before his fucking mask. What the hell."

"That's what you're concerned about?" Hoseok asks. "Hyung, turn your fucking camera off!"

"Yeah, yeah," Seokjin mumbles, quickly turning his camera off. "Do you think this was his secret plan? A defense mechanism? A technique to scare off prying eyes before he takes his mask off?"

"I don't-" Hoseok begins, and then he sighs. "Hyung, you're not still watching, are you?"

"Absolutely not,"  Seokjin says as he definitely continues to watch. For the sake of the mission, of course. “Hoseok, I think I’m gonna have to go, I’ll text you later.”

Seokjin catches a few more scolding words from Hoseok before he manages to hang up, shoving his phone into his pocket and resuming his position on the fire escape, hoping to look like a good set of stairs and not a person staring into Namjoon's hotel room window.

Seokjin rolls his eyes as Namjoon continues to walk around his room shirtless, no signs of finishing changing into his civilian clothes. 

While Seokjin is trying to look like a very good set of fire escape stairs, he also wonders if it's acceptable for fire escape stairs to glare, because a few minutes later he's glaring at Namjoon, who's disappeared into the bathroom only to come out wearing the same apparel.

Finally, Namjoon stands up from where he's been lounging on the bed (with the same dirty pants he fought crime in - disgusting) and begins to undo the buttons of his pants, and it's only when Seokjin is staring intently at the zipper of Namjoon's pants being pulled down that he realizes that maybe, just maybe, Hoseok had a point. Seokjin should definitely not be watching. He should definitely not know that Namjoon's underwear has cute little teddy bears all over it, and he should definitely not be watching Namjoon's pants fall to the ground, revealing strong, thick thighs that Seokjin thinks would intimidate even the bravest of villains, and-

Namjoon's fingers slip underneath the band of his boxers, and Seokjin gawks; was it really necessary for Namjoon to change in such a dramatic manner? Shouldn't he have his hotel window curtain shut? Is he not thinking about poor Seokjin, who is definitely not watching, before he starts stripping down naked?

Seokjin is about to give up, hands already reaching for his face to cover his eyes (because goodness forbid he actually just looks away). But just as Seokjin's hands are about to cover the view, Seokjin makes eye contact with Namjoon.

Seokjin freezes.

Even from a distance, Seokjin makes out Namjoon's smug grin. He doesn't look surprised to see Seokjin at all.

Namjoon winks, and pulls the curtain shut.

Seokjin, a really good set of fire escape stairs, starts to think he doesn't actually look like a really good set of fire escape stairs, and he really starts to think that maybe, just maybe, Namjoon knew Seokjin was following him all along.

Bastard.

Seokjin sighs; another failed plan. 

+++

Seokjin feels really confident in this plan. He also feels like he's lying, when he tries to tell himself that he's definitely going to succeed this time, but all he has to do to fix that is increase the volume of the music blasting into his earbuds and: perfect. He can't hear his own thoughts trying to convince himself it's a bad idea if he can't actually hear them.

He licks his lips, staring down at his phone screen. His last sent message to Hoseok has been left on read, no response, but Seokjin can only pray that Hoseok actually took the message seriously. Seokjin's never been the one to alert Hoseok, and he knows that Hoseok doesn't want any part in Seokjin's plan to reveal Namjoon's secret identity. Unfortunately, Hoseok is Seokjin's only form of communication with Namjoon.

Seokjin waits, standing outside of the old shed outside of the small, rarely used stadium. It's about a twenty minute drive from Seokjin's apartment, and it's been twenty-three minutes since Seokjin sent the message before hopping in the car to drive over.

Seokjin's waiting finally comes to an end; he watches as a car approaches the stadium from a distance, but not too far of a distance to watch Namjoon hop out of the passenger side. He waves at the person in the car, whoever must be driving, and they drive off a moment later.

Seokjin thought he was discretely waiting in his spot, but the moment Namjoon is done watching his ride drive away, he looks over to where Seokjin is and makes direct eye contact. Seokjin bites his lip, hoping he doesn't look too suspicious.

Namjoon makes short time of the small amount of distance, and Seokjin rolls his eyes that even in a non-emergency situation like this, Namjoon uses his superpowers; gusts of wind blow at Seokjin's hair as Namjoon approaches.

"Do you take a taxi to all of your superhero appointments?" Seokjin asks once Namjoon is in earshot. "Do they give out superhero discounts? Or do they just look at your superhero getup and assume it's really shitty cosplay?"

Namjoon laughs, which is annoying, even if Seokjin was trying to be funny. His jokes are for him to find funny, not Namjoon. Seokjin doesn't want to entertain Namjoon.

"Not a taxi, but I'll definitely look into the discount thing next time I miss the bus when I'm in a hurry," Namjoon says, smiling. Seokjin realizes that he can't think of a time when Namjoon isn't smiling around him, and then he becomes a little more annoyed, and he's definitely not smiling. Stupid Namjoon laughing at his jokes without his permission. Stupid dimple that has the audacity to mock Seokjin everytime he's getting annoyed with Namjoon's smile.

"So, you just have your friends drive you around to your missions?" Seokjin asks, making sure he doesn't actually sound interested in Namjoon's personal decisions. Maybe he's a little jealous at the idea of sharing his superhero lifestyle with his friends and having their support when he needs them.

"Usually not, but I wasn't really given much of a heads up this time," Namjoon says, tilting his head. "I have to say, I wasn't really expecting you to reach out to me via Hoseok."

Seokjin huffs. "Well, excuse me for not having your phone number."

Namjoon winks.

"If you wanted my number, you could've just asked."

Seokjin huffs again, crossing his arms and turning his head the other direction. "No, I'll be fine without it, thank you very much. I would very much like to continue enjoying not talking to you on my days off."

Namjoon raises an eyebrow. "Is today not your day off?"

"Uh." It is Seokjin's day off, but according to the message he had texted Hoseok to relay to Namjoon, it's not Seokjin's day off. In fact, he told Hoseok to tell Namjoon that there was some very Important Superhero Stuff that he needed Namjoon's assistance with.

Part of Seokjin's plan was deciding what the Very Important Superhero Stuff would be by the time Namjoon actually arrived. Unfortunately, Seokjin forgot that part of the plan.

"It was my day off, but then I, uh, ran into something," Seokjin says, looking over at the shed. "That's what I messaged for you to come check out with me." Seokjin claps his hands together. "I think a second superhero is exactly what the situation needs."

"Seokjin, I think you'd benefit a lot from learning how to ask for things in a more direct manner," Namjoon says, and Seokjin freezes when Namjoon casually throws an arm around his shoulder. "You're allowed to ask for my number, and you're definitely allowed to ask for help, you know?"

Seokjin's eyes widen. He doesn't shrug off Namjoon's arm.

"I'm not asking for your help ," Seokjin hisses, glaring at Namjoon. He is definitely not asking for Namjoon's help, and the idea that Namjoon might think that Seokjin needs his help makes his skin crawl. "I just need you to look at something real quick."

"I'm assuming the something is the inside of the shed you keep glancing at?"

Seokjin internally curses for being so obvious. "Yeah, there's something in there that I'm a little concerned about. I think the quicker we go and look at it, the better."

"What exactly is it?"

"You'll see!" Seokjin says loudly, and in a panic, he puts his hand on Namjoon's back, ignoring how there's almost no distance between them as he pushes Namjoon towards the shed.  "I think it'll be really good for you to check out!"

Seokjin sighs in relief when Namjoon doesn't resist getting pushed towards the shed, seemingly believing Seokjin's story. With his free hand, Seokjin pulls out the key to the shed, making sure Namjoon is slightly ahead of him when he reaches forward to put the key into the shed door lock, holding his breath at the sound of it unlocking.

"Alright, so what's the thing-"

Seokjin slides the door open, and once there's enough space, he shoves Namjoon inside.

" Oh -"

Seokjin slides the door shut as quickly as he can, persisting through the fact that he's definitely being pulled at, probably an attempt from Namjoon to stop Seokjin as it starts to dawn on him what's happening.

 The door auto locks as soon as it's shut, and Seokjin is about to celebrate his victory when he realizes something is very, very wrong.

The shed door is shut, Seokjin's key has fallen out of his hands, and somehow, Namjoon is standing right next to him.

"Fuck."

While Seokjin stares at the closed shed door in shock, Namjoon has already walked away, inspecting the inside of the small shed.

"If you wanted to be alone in a small space with me, there are really better ways to communicate that," Namjoon jokes, looking far too relaxed for the fact that Seokjin has managed to lock both of them inside a shed.

Seokjin tugs at the door, hoping it'll budge. Nothing. And strength definitely isn't one of Seokjin's super abilities. His hands are empty of the key, and he drops to the ground to search for it, praying that he's dropped it inside the shed.

He groans when he peaks through the small sliver between the door and the flooring where the smallest of light peeks in, and he can see the smallest reflection of light off the metal of the key.

"Namjoon, do you think you could use your powers to move the key inside the shed?" Seokjin asks, attempting to shove his finger underneath the door despite the fact that it’s far too narrow for Seokjin to even get his pinky through.

Namjoon is sitting down at this point, inspecting the pillows that Seokjin set up before Namjoon arrived. "I have to say, for having a plan to lock me up in a shed, you were pretty nice about the whole thing." He rolls over to the mini cooler that Seokjin had stolen from Jimin, and he opens it to find drinks. There's a bag full of snacks right next to it. "I'm going to assume you meant to trap me in here alone, but this makes for a pretty cute date night."

"Don't kick me while I'm already down," Seokjin groans. He gives up staring at the key and rolls over towards Namjoon and reaches into the bag full of snacks, pulling out the first thing he grabs a hold of.

"I'm just saying it's very nice to leave your captive with things to eat and drink. And warm blankets." Namjoon takes one of the blankets - pulled randomly from Seokjin's living room - and throws it over his shoulders. "I think it's a good thing you're a superhero. I don't think you'd make a very good villain."

Seokjin gasps. "I would be an excellent villain, thank you very much." He stands back up, offended.

Namjoon's eyes twinkle.

"I'm sure you would. And it would be my honor to capture you."

Seokjin frowns. "You could try."

"And succeed?" Namjoon licks his lips, staring Seokjin down.

Seokjin shakes his head. He's not confident that he could beat a superhero like Namjoon if he was a villain, and maybe for that reason, and that reason only, he's a little glad that he and Namjoon are fighting for the same side.

"That's fine, I like us better as a team anyway," Namjoon says, patting the ground next to him. "Come sit down, I'm assuming we're going to be here for a while."

Seokjin doesn't sit down, appreciating the fact that he can finally look down at Namjoon. "We won't have to be in here for that long. I'll just call someone to come open the door." Seokjin shoves his hands into his pockets, and panics when he finds them to be empty. He doesn't squat back down to look underneath the door, but he thinks he might honestly lose it if he sees his phone next to the key on the ground. "Okay, maybe you'll have to call someone to open the door."

Namjoon shrugs. "I left my phone in Jungkook's car."

"You didn't bring your phone?"

"Well, it would've been a bit uncreative if both of us dropped our phone outside the shed, don't you think?"

Seokjin doesn't really know what to think about that, so he huffs. His plan for the day had been to lock Namjoon up in the shed until the evening so that if any crime occurred, Seokjin could go off and resolve the issue all by himself, and prove that he didn’t need Namjoon to help him. The only reason Seokjin had a key to the shed in the first place is because he knows the custodial staff that cleans up every evening, so he knew at some point that the janitor would show up later in the evening to discover Namjoon locked inside and let him out. So he's not worried about being stuck in the shed forever , but being stuck inside such a small space with Namjoon for so long is definitely not part of Seokjin's plan.

"Alright, Namjoon, your job is to huff and puff your wind powers until the key comes sliding inside the shed," Seokjin says, glaring at the door. His own powers aren't very useful in the situation, but he won't admit to that. "That should be easy enough for you, right?"

Namjoon shakes his head. "It doesn't work like that, unfortunately. All of my wind originates from me, so the most I could do is push the key away, not push it back towards us. At least, not with the door in the way."

"Really?" Seokjin tries to think about how he's seen Namjoon lift things up with his wind powers before. It correlates with what Namjoon is saying, but it doesn't make Seokjin any more pleased with the answer. "So the door blocks you from moving the key?"

"Blocks me from pushing through a strong enough wind current to move anything," Namjoon explains, and as he talks, Seokjin can feel a gust of wind blow against his face, like Namjoon is attempting to retrieve the key anyway. "But I could probably move anything that's within the shed."

Seokjin doesn't have to ask for evidence of Namjoon's claim, because a moment later he's being floated up into the air, the wind billowing at his feet.

"Hey!" Seokjin isn't being held too high up, considering the shed walls aren't that tall to begin with, but it doesn't feel like he's standing on a solid platform that allows him to safely jump out of Namjoon's grasp. "I didn't ask for a performance!"

"You aren't scared of heights, are you?"

"Of course not!" Seokjin quickly retorts, proving himself by trying to jump off of the small wind storm Namjoon has put below him. He was right; it's a lot different than jumping down from a solid platform, and even though Seokjin is supposed to never have a poor landing, he finds himself stumbling down from the foot of air that Namjoon had placed him upon.

The landing isn't graceful, and Seokjin falls arms first into the whole ordeal. He feels impact before he should though, and the wisp of the wind passing by his ears almost feels like laughter, pillowing his fall.

He lands right at the spot that Namjoon had been patting just a minute ago, and as he settles himself in his seat he looks over to glare at a smug looking Namjoon.

"See, isn't this nice?"

Seokjin jabs his shoulder against Namjoon's, laughing when he manages to dodge the jab that is quickly returned. It results in him lying on the ground, fingers gently grasping at the blanket below them.

Seokjin stares at Namjoon, quickly annoyed with his smile and bringing his stare downward, and he frowns. "You're not wearing your superhero outfit."

Namjoon blinks at Seokjin. "Wait, you didn't actually think I bought your story that you texted Hoseok, right?"

"Uh." Seokjin mentally face palms, because when he looks back on it, it seems far more likely for Namjoon to realize his plan was a trap than to not. He doesn't know how he didn't suspect that his plan had been foiled from the moment Namjoon showed up in casual clothes, his superhero mask paired with a white t-shirt and jeans.

Seokjin finally decides on not answering the question, turning his head to look upward to the ceiling. He can spot a few spider webs, and he decides that it's best to close his eyes instead. "So if you knew it was a trap, why did you decide to show up?"

"To see your cute face, of course."

Seokjin rolls his eyes even though he knows Namjoon can't see. He offers a grunt in response, and gently whacks Namjoon's arm with his hand. "That doesn't seem like a very good reason."

"I'd have to disagree with you there," Namjoon says, catching Seokjin's hand and holding onto it. "Your face is very inspirational, you know? Sometimes I'll show up at a crime scene feeling too exhausted to fight crime for the day, but then I see that you're there and I gain all my energy back."

Seokjin's face feels warm. He flips over so that he's laying on his stomach, resting his forehead on top of his arms. "Of course you do. My face is very inspiring," he says, followed by a force laugh that's higher pitched than normal. He wonders if he presses his face into the floor hard enough if the ground will do him a favor and swallow him whole. "All of me is very inspiring, actually. I'm a great superhero, didn't you know?" A great superhero who is horrible at making plans that actually succeed as of lately, but Seokjin doesn't need to mention that.

"I did know, actually," Namjoon says. "I guess that was my second motive for showing up today."

Seokjin rolls onto his side so he can look at Namjoon. "Your second motive? Was it to finally reveal my secret to everyone and ruin my reputation? Because if that's the case then I'm happy I locked you in this stupid shed."

Namjoon laughs. "I was actually thinking that if you had time to invite me out here, it meant you were free, and that we could try going on a date."

Seokjin shrieks, and kicks at Namjoon. "Absolutely not!"

Namjoon laughs, not perturbed by Seokjin's reaction. "Why not?"

Because I don't like you. Because we are not friends. Because I have no interest in going on a date with you.

"Because you're still wearing your mask!" Seokjin sputters, gesturing at Namjoon's mask. "You can't expect to go out in public like that."

Namjoon raises his eyebrows, corners of his lips tilted upward. "Am I not allowed to take it off or something?"

That catches Seokjin's attention, and he quickly sits up, staring at Namjoon in disbelief.

"Wait, that's seriously all it would take?" Seokjin feels like he's finally found the silver lining on his cloud; maybe his plan to lock Namjoon in the shed would work to his advantage after all, if it meant revealing an opportunity to get Namjoon to take his mask off and reveal his identity. "Just a date? And you'll let me see your face?" He could act more discreet about his intentions, but at this point, it's not like Namjoon doesn't know.

Namjoon shrugs. "Well, I would've, but now that you've locked us in here, it'd be a bit hard to go out on a date. But I'm sure you could think of another way to convince me."

Seokjin scrunches his nose. "Like what?"

"I don't know, Seokjin. How else does one ask for things?"

Seokjin hesitates. His brain has already drifted off to the last time he asked Namjoon to do something in return for something else, and then suddenly he's thinking about kissing Namjoon. Which is bad, because Seokjin really doesn't like Namjoon, not at all, but his eyes drift down to Namjoon's lips and then he's thinking about how he wants to kiss Namjoon.

Seokjin comes to the conclusion that his brain must be broken, overworked from the past week or so of Seokjin coming up with plan after plan to finally take down Namjoon, because he doesn't understand why he's suddenly leaning in, hands placed awkwardly on Namjoon's shoulders before he closes the distance between them and kisses him.

Seokjin's lips press against Namjoon's, and Namjoon's lips part. Seokjin feels his whole face warm up, unsure of what to do, and then his face feels even warmer when he realizes it's Namjoon gasping and oh god Seokjin did the wrong thing . And then Namjoon reaches out and cups the back of Seokjin's head, and Seokjin thinks he's going to melt when Namjoon finally kisses him back.

Seokjin has already kissed Namjoon, and if he was a really good superhero, he would've come up with a plan for how to survive a second time kissing Namjoon, because the whole thing makes him feel warm and gooey inside, and he's clutching at Namjoon's shirt desperately because he feels so unsure of what he's doing as Namjoon guides his mouth open and deepens the kiss. At some point, his back starts to ache from leaning over awkwardly as he sits next to Namjoon, and with the help of Namjoon's hand on his back, he's guided towards sitting on Namjoon's lap, knee placed on either side of Namjoon's hips.

If Namjoon begins leaning back or if Seokjin pushes him down, he really isn't really sure, but eventually Namjoon's back hits the ground and Seokjin is leaning over him, pinning him to the ground and for some reason still kissing Namjoon.

He pulls back at some point, if only to catch his breath, leaning back and looking down at Namjoon. His stomach twists when he sees Namjoon's messy hair, red cheeks and puffy, swollen lips.

"Uh." Seokjin isn't sure if he's supposed to say something at this point, but probably not, considering the only words his brain is providing him are something along the lines of how cute Namjoon looks.

He closes his eyes so he doesn't have to look at Namjoon for a moment, just to clear his mind. He takes a deep breath, tries to calm his rapidly beating heart, and opens his eyes again. Namjoon is still cute. Damn it .

"Was that good enough?" Seokjin asks, and oh boy does he think it's the worst thing he could've said because what if Namjoon says no , Seokjin sucks at kissing and of course it wouldn't be good enough.

Namjoon blinks at Seokjin, eyes wide, and he slowly nods.

"I was just thinking of the word please , but that works too. Uh. Works really well."

Oh .

Oh.

Oh no.

Seokjin doesn't have super strength, but at the moment, he thinks running and slamming himself against the door seems like a great plan. Not necessarily because he thinks he'll be able to break through the door and escape, but it should be enough to at least knock him out, right? It has to be better than where he is now, still sitting on top of Namjoon with the taste of Namjoon's chapstick on his lips.

(Which really, isn't all that bad, except Namjoon is Seokjin's enemy and somehow even though there's no real reason to kiss Namjoon, Seokjin keeps doing it anyway. Damn it.)

"Of course it does," Seokjin manages, still debating his Throw Self at Wall plan. It's hard to proceed with the plan when Namjoon still has a grip on Seokjin, hands secured around Seokjin's waist. It's not a firm grip, and certainly not something Seokjin needs super strength to move away from, yet he feels stuck in place nonetheless. Perhaps it's another hidden, secret superpower of Namjoon's that Seokjin is yet to discover, some sort of magnet that Seokjin struggles to pull away from. "My kisses aren't something to take for granted."

Namjoon licks his lips, fingers pressing against Seokjin's bare skin, just where the bottom of his shirt has begun to ride up. "And I would never dare think something like that."

"Good," Seokjin says, a little breathless. He kind of wants to kiss Namjoon again, just so Namjoon doesn't forget - the only motivation behind the want, obviously. "Now, are you going to take your mask off for me, or do I have to do all the work?"

"Well, I suppose I could do it, but you see-"

Seokjin is annoyed, and while he doesn't know what Namjoon planned on saying, it wasn't going to be anything worthwhile listening to judging by the mischievous grin that had started to make its way upon Namjoon's lips. So really, Seokjin's only solution is to surge forward and kiss Namjoon again.

Then they're kissing again, and this time Seokjin can feel Namjoon smiling into the kiss, and their teeth bump and it's all kinds of awkward. It's strange, because Seokjin can't help but smile too, and he's about to make fun of Namjoon's squeaky laughter that's muffled between their lips, but then Seokjin realizes it's his squeaky laughter. It must be from how lightheaded he feels.

"Seokjin," Namjoon mumbles against Seokjin's lips, pulling away just enough so that they can both catch their breath. "Can I ask you something?"

"It depends. Will you end up asking anyway even if I say no?"

This time, the squeaky laughter is definitely Namjoon's.

"I'd rather you just let me ask my question."

"Then no."

Namjoon snorts, but his eyes still twinkle. "What are you thinking right now?"

Absolutely nothing , would be the correct answer to Namjoon's question, because right now, Seokjin isn't thinking, because not only would that take a lot of effort, but whatever thoughts his brain would conjure if he tried thinking would not be thoughts he has a desire to have.

"I don't know what you mean by that."

"You're smiling and laughing," Namjoon says, and he takes one hand to cup Seokjins' face, thumb brushing along Seokjin's cheek bone. "You have to be thinking about something, right?"

"Nope, not a single thought," Seokjin says, which only becomes a lie after the words spill from his lips because he does begin to contemplate whatever the buzzing in his mind means. He thinks about Namjoon, considering he's sitting just a breath away from Seokjin. He thinks about the first time he met Namjoon, and how Namjoon had rudely invaded Seokjin's city by trying to resolve crime and stealing Seokjin's job of being the city's superhero.

He thinks about Namjoon helping him out during the (very rare and few) times that Seokjin might've needed a little assistance. He thinks about Namjoon's laughter whenever Seokjin jokes around, and Namjoon's smile despite all the times Seokjin has found something to be annoyed at him about.

Seokjin thinks, and like reaching the end of a tunnel, he can see the light and the answer the trail of his thoughts is leading to. Just a little bit further and...

The thoughts end when the shed door suddenly bursts open, and as the light from outside shines in, Seokjin can clearly make out the silhouette of someone standing at the entrance.

"I'm so glad you found us," Namjoon says, still lying on the floor underneath Seokjin. He sits up, propping himself up on his elbows, and turns to face the boy standing at the shed entrance. His blond hair is tucked behind his ears, revealing several piercings on both ears.

Namjoon glances down at the object in the boy's hand. "Oh, you brought my phone. Sweet."

"And now I'm really wishing I hadn't," the boy groans, slapping a hand over his eyes. " Sorry Jungkook, I got a sudden call to go fight some crime, can you drop me off? " The boy - Jungkook - says in an exaggerated deep voice, most likely mocking Namjoon. He returns to his regular voice to say, "Fight some crime, huh? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?" Seokjin doesn't get what he means until he gestures to where Namjoon and Seokjin are still positioned and oh .

“Shut up, you are the kids ,” Namjoon grumbles, lifting Seokjin up just enough to put him to the side and stand up. He brushes off his pants, and he thrusts his hand out towards Jungkook. “Phone?”

Jungkook rolls his eyes, but tosses the phone to Namjoon. “I only realized because it started going off. Hoseok called you a few minutes ago, so I would work on calling him back ASAP.”

“Ah, do I have to? Can’t you handle it?”

“You’re the one who said I wasn’t allowed to do anything until I got my grades back up!”

Namjoon sighs. “I did say something like that, didn’t I?” He glances down at his phone, and Seokjin stands up quickly so he can glance at Namjoon’s screen as well. Sure enough, there’s a couple of missed calls from Hoseok and a text asking if Namjoon’s okay.

“Well, I guess we have some work to do,” Namjoon says, pocketing his phone and stretching his arms upward, groaning quietly. “I’ll see you there?”

Seokjin blinks. “Uh. Yeah. I’ll be there.”

Namjoon smiles. “Sounds good to me.” Jungkook gags in the background. “I’ll have to take a raincheck on the face reveal though, hope you don’t mind.”

Namjoon runs out, Jungkook quick to follow, and Seokjin sits in an empty shed debating whether the day’s plan was actually successful or not.

+++

They meet again, once again side by side; but this time, both of them are wearing their full superhero outfit.

Namjoon grins. ”You know, we’re like partners in crime.”

“Namjoon, we’re fucking superheroes . There’s no partners, and there’s definitely no crime.”

Namjoon hums, and grabs Seokjin’s hand. “I suppose you’re right,” he says, pulling Seokjin’s hand close to him and pressing a kiss to his palm. “We’re much more like boyfriends.”

Seokjin groans. “ Absolutely not .”

His face burns, and he can’t help but wonder what it would be like if they were.

He runs even faster, leaving his thoughts behind and more than happy to replace them with thoughts of taking down another villain.

+++

Seokjin is starting to grow desperate.

So maybe he's a superhero who always has a plan - it doesn't mean his plans have to necessarily be any good. In fact, he thinks it's really unfair to expect some poor, busy college student like Seokjin to have plans that are actually good.

Seokjin sighs. Fuck, his plans aren't just not good, they're not even passable. Every attempt of his to catch Namjoon's real identity has been rendered useless, and it's starting to drive him insane. The worst part is that Namjoon can very clearly see all of the futile attempts to reveal his identity, and he just knows that Namjoon is having the time of his life watching Seokjin suffer.

"You okay?" Jimin asks, looking at Seokjin with a small pout. He looks worried, which makes Seokjin feel even worse, because not only is he bad at being a superhero, he's bad at being a good friend.

Seokjin sighs. "It's just... difficult homework," he lies. They're in the library, and Seokjin is supposed to be finishing his research proposal assignment. He has the document open, and then there's the title page and... not much else, admittedly. The page is hidden behind multiple web browsers, all of them attempting to find articles to include.

However, Seokjin has abandoned all of it to open up one more web browser. So maybe he can't find out Namjoon's true identity, but it doesn't mean that the internet can't, right? The internet is supposed to know everything. And like his research teacher keeps telling him, he just has to know what to search to find it.

Seokjin stares at the blank search bar. It stares back at him menacingly. He glances over at Jimin, who seems to be actually focused on his assignment. Seokjin does a small, mental clap for Jimin, who will not be like Seokjin and stressing over his assignment the day before it's due, before Seokjin turns back to the search bar and types: "Namjoon". And then he hits enter.

A billion and one search results pop up, most of them related to some sort of k-pop group. Seokjin sighs. He's not exactly sure what he expected to happen. He felt like it would've worked if he was the protagonist in some detective movie. 

Seokjin tries to recall what he knows about Namjoon. And then he's quickly annoyed, because he doesn't know much. He doubts there's anything regarding Namjoon and his superhero powers, so he doesn't add any key words relating to the wind or heroes.

Seokjin does his best to picture Namjoon in his head. What exactly does he think of when he thinks about Namjoon? In his mind, he has the image of Namjoon smiling at him, the sound of his laughter, the feeling of his lips pressed against Seokjin's-

No.

No, no, no no .

Seokjin takes a deep breath, shakes his head, and types in a few key words.

"cute tall dimple namjoon"

He hits enter, and the internet has the gall to give him absolutely nothing useful. In frustration, he quickly adds to the mess of words: "cute tall dimple namjoon annoying".

"Hyung, do you need help? You look a little troubled."

Seokjin jumps in his seat at the sound of Jimin, eyes widening when he sees Jimin leaning over his shoulder, glancing at Seokjin's screen. Seokjin scrambles to exit out of the web browser, but the moment he tries to move the mouse Jimin quickly restrains his hands, smile growing as he continues to investigate.

"Cute, tall, dimple Namjoon annoying?" Jimin asks, giggling in between each word. "Hyung, this doesn't look like your research proposal."

Seokjin whines, kicking his feet underneath his desk. "Why are you looking at my screen?"

"Because it seemed like you were struggling. I can now see why," Jimin says, mirth evident in his voice. "Hyung, I hate to break it to you, but this isn't how you meet guys."

"I'm not trying to-" Seokjin starts, but he ends his sentence with a sigh of defeat. "Jimin, don't worry about it. I was just trying to see something real quick."

"See cute, tall dimple Namjoon?" Jimin teases. "Though I have to say, hyung, most people don't tend to favor guys who are annoying. I never expected it from you."

"He is annoying," Seokjin says, shaking Jimin off so he can close out of the web browser. "I don't favor him or anything else like that. I simply was trying to find him." At this very moment, Seokjin regrets not telling Jimin about his superhero life, because at least then he'd be able to properly explain himself rather than get caught in a tragic situation where Jimin thinks he likes Namjoon. 

"Sure, I see how it is," Jimin says, muffling his laughter with his hand. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about your little crush on this Namjoon guy."

"It's not a crush!"

The subject is dropped when one of the librarians approaches Jimin and Seokjin's table with a stern expression.

+++

"So we're waiting for Taehyung, you said?" Seokjin asks. They've officially finished their studying for the day, and while Seokjin's research proposal still only consists of a title page, he's also changed the font to something else, which he counts as a success.

"If you don't mind? It's been forever since we've all had lunch together," Jimin says, hands jammed in his pockets. He looks up at Seokjin pleadingly, as if Seokjin would ever consider denying one of Jimin’s requests. Besides, Seokjin really doesn't mind; while he hasn't seen Jimin's boyfriend as of recently, he does enjoy Taehyung's company, even if it does mean Seokjin's forced to third wheel the two of them.

"Oh, look, I can see him heading over!" Jimin announces excitedly, waving his hands high in the air as if Taehyung didn't have a personal Jimin-radar on him. The hallways are starting to crowd again, and it'd be easier if Jimin just waited for Taehyung to head over, but Seokjin isn't surprised when Jimin grabs Seokjin's wrist and starts dragging them through the crowd of people so he can more quickly be reunited with Taehyung.

"Hey you," Taehyung says with a grin when Jimin finally busts through the entirety of the crowd. 

Seokjin tries not to roll his eyes at Jimin and Taehyung's mid-hallway spectacle, where Jimin hurriedly rushes to throw himself into Taehyung's arms, and Taehyung is more than happy to catch him, wrapping his arms around Jimin and briefly using his grip to lift Jimin off the ground. 

"I missed you," Jimin says, and really, it's cute. Seokjin would never dare say it in fear that Jimin and Taehyung's couple shenanigans would get any worse, but for the most part, he's secretly a little endeared. Sometimes, he even wonders if he's missing out, if something like what Taehyung and Jimin have is something he wants in his own life. The thoughts always end with Seokjin remembering that he's a superhero, and it's already too much of a risk to have civilian friends, much less a civilian lover.

"You guys just saw each other the other day," Seokjin reminds them, laughing when Jimin turns in Taehyung's embrace just so he can properly stick his tongue out at Seokjin.

"Practically forever," Jimin tells Seokjin, giggling when Taehyung begins to nose at his neck, hands proding Jimin's stomach.

"I have one of my friend's joining us, by the way," Taehyung says once he's done tickling Jimin, who continues to giggle even after Taehyung is done. "We have a study group to head off to after lunch, so I ended up inviting him. Is that okay?"

"You have too many friends," Jimin grumbles, though they both know he's not actually upset. "You really need to narrow it down. Like Seokjin. His only friend is me."

"Hey!" Seokjin shouts, but he can't sound very mean when he's smiling, which he is as Jimin starts laughing again. "I have plenty of friends." He can't mention Hoseok, who isn't exactly on the news like Jin and RM, but is still known to be not your typical civilian. And then he definitely can't mention Namjoon, because not only does Seokjin have no intention of being affiliated with Namjoon, Namjoon and Seokjin are definitely not friends.

"It's okay hyung, I'll be your friend," Taehyung offers, and once again Jimin complains about Taehyung having too many friends. He's only settled when Taehyung offers to give him a piggyback ride to the cafeteria, which Seokjin is probably equally amused and embarrassed as they walk through the school hallways with most of the people sparing at least once glance for Jimin and Taehyung's shenanigans.

"Oh, it looks like he saved us a table," Taehyung says when they arrive. Around halfway through the walk, Taehyung had given up carrying Jimin, which meant Jimin had to settle for simply leaning on Taehyung's back for the rest of the walk there. "See the one with the beanie? That's him."

They walk over to the table with the one guy sitting at it, and at that point Taehyung calls out to get the guy's attention - currently tapping away at something on his phone.

"Hey Tae," the guy says, grinning. He has dimples, and Seokjin is already wondering how Taehyung has stupidly cute friends. "Oh, you must be Jimin, right?" Jimin looks delighted that the guy already knows about him. "And Seokjin. Nice to meet you guys."

Seokjin bites his lip. Seokjin is an attractive guy, and apparently his only friend is an attractive guy, and his only friend's boyfriend is also an attractive guy. He's used to seeing attractive people, used to dealing with them, but the way Taehyung's friend says Seokjin's name has Seokjin's cheeks heating up. 

Seokjin shamelessly stares at Taehyung's friend, but his shameless attempts at staring are caught off guard when he realizes he's being just as equally stared at, and he feels even warmer. 

Something about Taehyung's friend seems eerily familiar to Seokjin, but he shakes his head. He must've seen him around campus or something. Taehyung's friend seems to know Seokjin, but Seokjin doesn't think they've had a class together before; Seokjin knows he wouldn't have forgotten a face like that in one of his classrooms. Maybe it would've even inspired him to skip class less often.

"I'm Namjoon, by the way," Taehyung's friend says, smile accompanied by dimples, and Seokjin thinks that's funny, because while his search for his super-arch-nemesis Namjoon is certainly failing, the universe has presented him with another Namjoon. This Namjoon is also stupidly tall, with stupidly cute dimples, and the longer Seokjin accidentally stares at Namjoon's face the more Taehyung's friends smile seems to widen, just like super-arch-nemesis Namjoon's smile does when he's laughing at Seokjin-

Oh fuck.

"Namjoon," Seokjin echoes, blinking blankly at Namjoon.

Namjoon .

"That's my name," Namjoon says, and oh fuck , how did Seokjin not realize that Taehyung's friend Namjoon has the same stupid smug smile as Seokjin's Namjoon. "I think we might have met once before."

Taehyung blinks, surprised. "Have I introduced you before?"

Namjoon shakes his head, ignoring the glare that Seokjin is directing at him. 

"Somewhere else, I think." He looks over at Seokjin and raises his eyebrows. His smirk is more hidden, probably to avoid raising suspicions with Taehyung, but his smile isn't completely innocent either. "Right?"

Seokjin's mouth feels dry; any words feel stuck, tongue heavy in his mouth. He licks his lips, hoping some sort of words will begin to form. All he manages is an awkward grunt and some movement of his head, not necessarily a nod or a shake, unable to determine if he should confirm or deny.

Jimin interrupts before Seokjin can come up with a better answer.

"Wait, you're tall," Jimin says, narrowing his eyes at Namjoon. He walks up to him, and stands on his tiptoes and thrusts his hand forward to poke Namjoon's cheek. "And you have dimples."

Namjoon nods warily, Jimin's finger still mushed against his face. "I guess you could say that." He doesn't move Jimin's hand, only briefly glancing down at the finger pressing against him before looking back at Jimin. "Is that a problem?"

Jimin huffs. "Well, I'm not really a fan of people who are taller than me-"

Taehyung laughs. "Babe, that's like half of the population."

Jimin quickly glares at Taehyung before returning to address Namjoon. " Anyway . You're tall. You have dimples. You're Namjoon." Jimin spins around and faces Seokjin with a wide grin. "He's ' Cute Tall Dimple Namjoon' , right?"

Shit.

"Jimin!" Seokjin shrieks, stepping forward so he can grab the back of Seokjin's shirt and pull him back with a heavy grip on it, as if the movement of pulling Jimin backwards can pull his words back as well, away from Namjoon's ears.

But it's too late; Namjoon is already looking at Seokjin with eyes that sparkle with mischief, amusement more apparent than ever now that Seokjin is finally facing Namjoon without his superhero mask on.

"Cute?"

Seokjin shrieks again, if only to cover up the sound of Jimin's giggling, and he pushes Jimin to the side and reaches to grab Namjoon by the arms. He keeps his head down, avoiding eye contact, and loudly announces, "Sorry, I need to talk to Namjoon for a moment!" Before dragging Namjoon away from their friends, not stopping until they're at the corner of the room, away from any ears that could overhear their conversation.

"What are you doing here?" Seokjin hisses, fingers digging into Namjoon's arms. He briefly glances back at where Jimin and Taehyung are, to make sure they're not spying. They are, not even bothering to pretend like they're not when Seokjin makes eye contact with them. Seokjin can only sigh, closing his eyes and hoping that when he opens them again, he'll wake up from whatever weird dream he's having. A weird dream where Namjoon has finally cornered Seokjin stuck in the form of his secret identity, and Seokjin's friends are on the other side of the room watching.

"I thought you wanted to see me without my mask?" Namjoon asks innocently, batting his eyelashes at Seokjin. He leans forward, and when Seokjin can feel his breath hitting his face, he instinctively opens his eyes, flushing red when he realizes how close Namjoon is. He stills holds on tightly to Namjoon's arms, and he lets go when he realizes, taking a step back from Namjoon. “Just making good on the raincheck.”

"Not here ," Seokjin says, fidgeting with the belt loops of his jeans. "Why are you here ?" Because there's a million places Namjoon could've chosen to meet with Seokjin, and yet he managed to chose the worst place: in front of people Seokjin's desperate to keep his identity secret from, in a place where Seokjin is completely exposed, and worst of all, in a place that Namjoon could hear things about Seokjin calling him cute .

"Am I not allowed to attend class?"

"Class?" Seokjin looks at him incredulously.

'Yeah, class. I hear you don't go to yours too often?"

Seokjin closes his mouth, lips pressed into a tight line. "I don't see how that's any of your business," Seokjin finally says. He crosses his arms over his chest, hands tucked tightly underneath his arms.

"So you can ask about my classes, but I can't ask about yours? That doesn't seem very fair."

Seokjin groans. "I don't care about your classes." A lie, really, because now Seokjin's mind is a flurry. How long has Namjoon been going to the same school as Seokjin? What classes does he take? What is he studying? Has he ever taken a class with Seokjin? How long has Namjoon known who Seokjin is?

"No?" Namjoon raises his eyebrows. "Then what did you want to talk to me about?" He reaches and places a hand on Seokjin's cheek, thumb brushing along Seokjin's cheek bone. It's a familiar touch at this point, it feels like, and Seokjin isn't sure what to think about it. What is he supposed to think when Namjoon's touch feels so comfortable to him?

"About how you're not supposed to be here!" Seokjin whines, frowning. "You're going to spill my secret identity, and then what am I supposed to do?"

Namjoon shrugs. "Stop making bad excuses on why you have to ditch your friends in the middle of meeting up with them?"

Seokjin winces. "Look, my excuses aren't that bad." He thinks about it for a moment, how nice it would be to be able to tell Jimin what he's actually doing when he's abandoning him in the middle of one of their outgoings. Or be able to explain that he hasn't finished the homework not because he decided to put it off for weeks, but because every time he comes home from a night of fighting crime, his grades and assignments are the last thing on his mind.

"I'm sure they're wonderful," Namjoon says, smiling. "But alright, you want to keep your secret, that's fine." Namjoon’s thumb traces down to Seokjin's lips, and Seokjin's lips instinctively part when the pad of Namjoon's thumb presses against them. "I kind of like it anyway, you know? A secret for just the two of us."

"Hey!" Seokjin swats Namjoon's hand away, ignoring how red his face must be. "I never planned on sharing my identity with you!"

"But now that I've shared my identity with you, isn't it kind of romantic? An exchange of trust?"

" Romantic ?" Seokjin wants to slam his face into the wall. "No, no no . And I don't trust you. Definitely not."

Namjoon shakes his head. "Have I given you any reason not to trust me?"

Well. Seokjin knows the answer to the question, but there's no way he's going to admit to the fact that Namjoon, in a basic sense, should be a very trustworthy person to Seokjin. It's been weeks since Namjoon figured out Seokjin's secret identity, and if it was Seokjin, he would've blackmailed Namjoon with his secret identity within days of figuring it out. It's been weeks, and Namjoon hasn't shown even a drop of interest in spilling Seokjin's secret.

Seokjin frowns. A couple of students pass by them, and he silently waits until they're far enough away. He can still feel Jimin and Taehyung's gazes on them from across the room.

"Let's not talk about this here," Seokjin says, pulling out his phone. He unlocks it, and hands it to Namjoon. "We need to meet somewhere else more private, so I'll message you about it later."

Namjoon grins. "Are you asking me for my phone number? Very bold of you."

"I am not ! I just don't think it's very logical to text Hoseok every time I need to contact you," Seokjin says with a huff, turning his head away. "This is just to make things easier for me, okay?"

"Whatever you say," Namjoon says, as he takes Seokjin's phone, not sounding convinced at all. Bastard.

It takes only a quick moment, and then Namjoon hands Seokjin's phone back to him.

"Not that I wouldn't love to keep you here all day, but it looks like our friends are waiting on us," Namjoon says, gesturing over to where Jimin and Taehyung are indeed still staring at them, eyes widening when they realize that Seokjin and Namjoon are finally done talking. Seokjin can't even begin to imagine how confused they must be.

They walk back to the table where Jimin and Taehyung are, and before the two of them can ask any questions, Namjoon mentions that he's going to go grab food for Seokjin and him, waving a quick goodbye accompanied with a wink that leaves Seokjin speechless as he runs off, and Seokjin doesn't realize until a few seconds later when Namjoon has disappeared that he's been left alone for all the questions.

"So..." Taehyung leans against the table, looking at Seokjin with narrowed eyes. "Have you been ditching Jimin all this time to hang out with Namjoon?"

"Uh." Seokjin internally groans that there's no good way to explain that yeah , he's been kind of hanging out with Namjoon when he's skipped out on things with Jimin. Not on purpose though, and certainly not willingly. "No?"

A few minutes later of screaming later, Seokjin manages to dodge out of a proper explanation (or at least, he promises he'll explain later, which is hopefully never) by promising to buy lunch for the two of them, and he runs off to the cafeteria in the same direction that Namjoon went.

+++

Seokjin doesn't get a text until he's at home, much later in the evening.

'So you wanted to talk?'

Seokjin glares at his cellphone when the contact name pops up.

'Cute Tall Dimple Namjoon'.

He doesn't bother changing it, though.

'Yeah. When are you free?'  

The message takes an embarrassingly long time to type out, Seokjin being hyper aware of any meaning behind his words. He doesn't want Namjoon to think that Seokjin wants to hang out with him. He just needs a good place to finally talk to Namjoon so that they can figure out what to do now that they both know each other's secret identity.

'Is this a date?'

Seokjin rolls his eyes despite the fact that no one can see.

'It's a business meeting.'

'Sorry, too busy for that.'

Seokjin begins to type something about Namjoon definitely having time to meet up with Seokjin, especially if he has time to meet Seokjin to make fun of him in front of his friends, but then another message pings.

'But I have time next Thursday. In the evening. Work for you?'

He quickly thinks about his schedule. He technically has a class at five. Which means he's completely free.

'Ok. Where do you want to meet?'

The next message takes a couple minutes to come through. It's a link, and when Seokjin clicks on it, it leads to the homepage of a restaurant in town.

'Here. 6pm. Wear something nice.'

Seokjin frowns.

'Sounds like you’re asking me on a date.'

The next message is quick.

'That’s because I am.'

Seokjin throws a pillow across the room, falling forward onto the couch and shoving his face into the couch pillows to muffle his scream.

(He answers a few minutes later that he'll be there).

+++

The next time Seokjin meets up with Namjoon, it thankfully isn't a date .

Unfortunately, it is for another evening of crime fighting, and Seokjin makes sure he's in his full uniform for the night; basketball shorts, some t-shirt that he might've pulled out of the dirty laundry basket, and more importantly, his mask tightly secured to his face. He even managed to remember to wear a beanie out, only reminded due to the fact that he got the call just as he was leaving the gym and his hair is a sweaty mess.

"Miss me?" Namjoon asks when they meet up. Normally, Seokjin would roll his eyes, or quickly deny any sort of accusation that involves him actually caring about Namjoon. Certainly, it feels a little different now, that he knows the eyes that are hidden behind superhero RM's mask. He's seen RM's smile more than enough, but there's something disarming about knowing that behind the mask, it isn't just Seokjin's superhero arch-nemesis; it's Namjoon.

"In your dreams," Seokjin retorts, sticking his tongue out at Namjoon. "Now let's hurry up and finish this, alright?"

"In a rush, huh? I don't suppose you have a hot date tonight," Namjoon feigns a moment of thought, tapping his finger to his lips, which curl up into a smug smile. "Oh wait, that's tomorrow."

Seokjin can't argue, very aware that it's Wednesday and that means tomorrow is Thursday which is the day that for some reason, Seokjin agreed to go out on a date with Namjoon.

Seokjin can shove Namjoon to the side through, grumbling about how Seokjin didn't agree to calling it a date, before running ahead to approach the evening's villain.

The takedown feels easier than usual. Seokjin doesn't even catch the villain's name, and he doesn't think he's met them before; which is probably a good thing, because it only takes Seokjin about five seconds to realize that they have control over the weather when rain and lightning starts to strike the ground.

Namjoon does perfectly fine with the poor weather; not a single drop of water hits him, his wind propelling the rain away from him. Seokjin doesn't have the same luck; in fact, when he's using his superpowers, he hates the rain more than ever. It does inspire him to work a little faster though, not that he needs much help; somehow, like they're reading each other's minds, Seokjin and Namjoon manage to almost flawlessly work together to secure the villain and hand them over to police for further processing.

Seokjin and Namjoon are about to leave when the villain shouts out, "Wait, RM? This isn't your territory."

Namjoon freezes in place. He doesn't turn around to face the villain, and Seokjin waits a moment, so that Namjoon can make the first move. But a few moments pass, and Seokjin realizes that Namjoon doesn't have any intention of turning around, so Seokjin glances back.

The villain grins. "I would've never thought of RM as someone to abandon his city to go play hooky with the superhero next door." They tilt their head. "I wonder how your city is doing, without anyone to protect them?"

Seokjin blinks. He had never really thought about what Namjoon had been doing before he showed up in Seokjin's city. It had never occurred to him that before being a superhero in Seokjin's city, RM might've been patrolling the streets of another city, serving the citizens there. Seokjin had wished multiple times for Namjoon to leave his city, but he had never thought past Namjoon being gone .

And now that he does think about it, he can't really imagine Namjoon anywhere that isn't by his side.

Wait .

"Well, I guess it was your just bad luck for you to come to this city instead," Namjoon finally says. He doesn't turn around, and his shoulders are tense. Instinctively, Seokjin reaches out for him, placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing lightly. "Really, you should be worried about yourself, first."

Then Namjoon continues to walk forward, as if he hadn't said anything at all, and Seokjin has no choice but to follow behind him, not letting go of Namjoon.

They're silent, at first. The sounds of the crowd that gathered to watch the show begin to fade away in the background. Seokjin still has a firm grip on Namjoon.

"Good work tonight," Seokjin says without really thinking about it, after they've walked away from the scene. It's really only his best attempt to fill the silence. In the distance, Seokjin can still hear a few fans shouting out for them, and he turns around to briefly glance at the crowd that's gathered. He frowns. He used to be better about addressing the crowds, or at least acknowledging them. After all, they are the people he's fighting as a superhero. Lately, he's been so busy worrying about Namjoon invading his space that he's almost forgotten.

"I couldn't do it without you," Namjoon quietly replies. He subtly leans into Seokjin's grip. "I really like not having to work alone." He finally lifts his gaze from the ground to look over at Seokjin, wearing a small smile. "And I really like getting to work with you, Seokjin."

“Of course you do. I’m a very enjoyable person to work with, I’ve been told,” Seokjin says, shooting a quick thumbs up at Namjoon. “Really, you should count yourself lucky.”

Namjoon smiles. “I do.”

(Seokjin thinks briefly that he must be a little lucky too.)

+++

"It's not a date," Seokjin insists to his reflection, spinning around once again. He's wearing the same clothes that he would wear if he was going out with Jimin. So what if he bought them today, and they're a little nicer looking than his normal t-shirt and jeans? Seokjin looks good whatever he wears, but he feels confident in the way his button up shirt tucks into his jeans. He's sure if he was hanging out with Jimin tonight, Jimin would happily tell him how cute he looks. That would be nice.

Unfortunately, Seokjin's meeting up with Namjoon tonight; and he definitely doesn't care if Namjoon thinks he's cute or not.

Seokjin arrives at the restaurant before Namjoon does, which is awfully rude of Namjoon. Usually Seokjin is the late one, a bad habit he's picked up from Jimin. It has a lot less to do with the fact that Seokjin is bad at getting ready on time and a lot more to do with the fact that he hates waiting for people.

Namjoon arrives exactly five minutes late, and by that point Seokjin's foot has been tapping impatiently on the ground for so long that he worries he might've left a mark behind. He's ready to complain, or at least make fun of Namjoon for being late. But the words are forgotten considering Namjoon arrives from above Seokjin, hopping down from the roof of the building next to the restaurant.

"Did you fly here?" Seokjin asks, eyes wide. While it's always tempting, Seokjin tries to avoid using his superhero powers if he's not in disguise; it's not worth the risk of being caught.

Namjoon's hair is tousled, only worsened when Namjoon runs a hand through his hair and smiles sheepishly.

"I promise I started out on a bus."

Seokjin narrows his eyes. "Started out?"

Namjoon shrugs. "Traffic was bad."

"I could've waited for your bus to arrive!" Seokjin says. He originally thinks it's a lie, but it's not like he would've left if Namjoon didn't show up. And maybe Seokjin would've yelled at him for being late, but it's not like he would be actually upset.

"Well, I couldn't," Namjoon says, pouting. He shoves his hands into his pockets. "I was really excited to see you."

Well. How is Seokjin supposed to be mad about that?

"Then why weren't you here five minutes ago?" Seokjin says, gently nudging Namjoon. He hopes he's pushed Namjoon far enough away that he can't see the pink tinge of Seokjin's cheeks. "Let's hurry up and go inside, okay? I'm starving."

Namjoon grins. "Were you lonely, waiting for me?"

This time, Seokjin nudges Namjoon a lot harder.

Seokjin wasn't expecting there to be a reservation waiting for them, but when they walk in Namjoon drops their names and they're quickly shown to their table. Namjoon apologizes for being late to the reservation, and the waitress tells them not to worry about it and hands them a menu.

"So if this is a date, does that mean you're paying?" Seokjin asks as he scans the menu. Thankfully it's nothing too pricey, and totally in Seokjin's price range. But that doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy the idea of making Namjoon pay anyway.

Namjoon's eyes sparkle. "Is this a date?"

Seokjin huffs, shoving the menu at Namjoon. "You're the one who said it! Not me!"

"I know," Namjoon says, leaning forward with his chin propped up on his hands. "I just like hearing you say it. You're welcome to say it again, if you'd like."

Seokjin huffs. "Are you paying or not?"

"It wouldn't be very nice of me to ask you on a date and then not pay," Namjoon says. "You can pay next time."

"Next time?"

Namjoon laughs at Seokjin's aghast expression, which is really mean because Namjoon's laugh is dumb but it's also cute and Seokjin really likes Namjoon's smile. It's different than RM's smug smile that drives Seokjin crazy. It's something horribly contagious, and Seokjin can't help but smile as well.

"Shouldn't you be too busy for that anyway?" Seokjin finally says, wanting to find a way to change the subject because he hasn't found an excuse for why he couldn't go on a second non-date with Namjoon. "Between school and the whole, well, you know , I barely have time for anything. And I'm sure your academic attendance rate is much higher than mine."

"Taehyung was telling me how Jimin always raves about how impressed he is that you manage to pass your classes considering how often you skip," Namjoon says.

Seokjin frowns. "Hey, that's not fair."

"What's not fair?"

"That you get to know all of things about me because of Taehyung!" Seokjin wonders how often Taehyung has talked to Namjoon about him. Namjoon at least knew Seokjin's face before he realized that Kim Seokjin and the city's superhero Jin were the same person. So it's not like Namjoon asked Taehyung about Seokjin in an attempt to find blackmail material against Jin.

"You have a friend who you can ask about me from, if you’re really that curious."

"Who?"

In response, Namjoon happily points at himself. "You're welcome to ask me anything you want to know."

Seokjin isn't interested in Namjoon, not at all, yet there are plenty of questions that come to his head: how long has he been a superhero? When did he get his superhero powers? Why did he leave his old city?

Seokjin bites his lip.

"So, what are you studying in school? You go to the same college as us, right?"

+++

"Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Namjoon asks on the way out. It takes way too long for Seokjin to realize that Namjoon's hand has found a place on his waist, holding him close to his side as they walk out. It takes even longer for Seokjin to want to do anything about it, and at that point it's not worth the trouble of shaking Namjoon off, right?

"You're the absolute worst," Seokjin huffs, like he hadn't been laughing at Namjoon's jokes just a few minutes ago. He thinks about Namjoon's squeaky laughter, and he has to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from smiling at just the thought of it. "You kept me out way too late. Is this part of another plan of yours? Keep me out so late that I sleep through my morning classes tomorrow?"

Namjoon grins. "Like you weren't planning on sleeping through them anyway."

"I feel like you have this really bad image of me," Seokjin pouts, wondering what kind of things Taehyung has told Namjoon. "I promise I'm actually passing all my classes."

"I wouldn't doubt that you are," Namjoon says, and when he leans forward, Seokjin instinctively closes his eyes, only opening them when Namjoon's forehead bonks against his and he can feel Namjoon's breathy giggles against his face.

"So what did you think of the date?"

Seokjin has his hands placed on Namjoon's chest. Both of Namjoon’s hands have found their way to Seokjin’s waist. There's not even a breath of distance between them.

"I told you it wasn't a date!"

Namjoon laughs. "Oh, right, my bad. What did you call it again? A business meeting?"

Seokjin nods.

"Then let's talk business. What do I have to do to have you keep my identity a secret?"

Oh. Seokjin had almost forgotten about that. It almost seems like a distant dream, his plan to discover Namjoon's identity so that he could finally be on equal ground with Namjoon and reformulate his plan to kick Namjoon out of his city. Now he has Namjoon's identity; yet none of the drive to send Namjoon away.

So what does he plan to do with Namjoon now?

"A kiss," Seokjin says quietly, clutching onto Namjoon's shirt. "I suppose I could keep your secret for the low price of one kiss."

Namjoon's eyes widen, and Seokjin can't help the deep feeling of satisfaction that spreads through his body as he spots Namjoon's cheeks turning pink.

However, Namjoon manages to maintain his composure (unlike Seokjin, who is starting to regret his decision because god he must've sounded dumb ) and places his hands on Seokjin's face, cupping his cheeks. He squishes them together, and Seokjin pouts.

"You know what, I don't need your kiss after all, thank you very much-"

And then Seokjin is being kissed by Namjoon, again , and maybe at this point in time Seokjin is slightly willing to admit he likes kissing Namjoon. It was never really part of the plan, but that's fine; Seokjin's plans never seem to work out like he wants them to anyways, and this time, he's really not that mad about it.

Namjoon pulls away, but his lips still linger, brushing against Seokjin as he whispers, "Good?"

"Absolutely horrible," Seokjin says, laughing at Namjoon's shocked expression. "You'll have to do it again, I think."

Namjoon relaxes, and just as he laughs, Seokjin silences him with another kiss.

"People are staring," Namjoon mumbles, and Seokjin remembers that they're still in public. It's nothing like the stares Seokjin gets when he's playing the role of the city's superhero with cheering crowds, but it's more than enough to have him take a step back from Namjoon. He never completely lets go of Namjoon though, letting his hands remain clutched around Namjoon's shirt.

"Let me drive you home?" Seokjin offers, but he wonders how he's going to drive home if his hands are occupied holding onto Namjoon. It's strange; he's never had to worry about walking away from Namjoon before, but now that Namjoon is next to him, he feels like a magnet, unable to pull away.

"Is this part of your evil plan to figure out where I live?" Namjoon teases, pinching Seokjin's cheek. "Or is this your sneaky way of trying to take me back to my place so you can," Namjoon wiggles his eyebrows, " you know ."

"Definitely the prior," Seokjin huffs, definitely not thinking about you know with Namjoon. "This is all part of my evil plan, actually. Don't let your guard down."

Namjoon smiles. "I would never dream of it. And as much as I would love to assist you in your evil plans, I can't bother having you drive out that far. But thanks for the offer."

Seokjin lingers until the bus arrives, and Namjoon sneaks in one final kiss before heading off. Even once the bus leaves, Seokjin lingers, letting the chilled night air cool him down. His heart beats rapidly, Namjoon's laughter still echoing in his ears. He licks his lips, and he thinks he can taste the remains of whatever lip balm Namjoon uses. He can't pinpoint the flavor, but maybe he'll ask the next time he sees Namjoon. It won't be that long; the city's crime never stops, and even if Seokjin doesn't see Namjoon, he's positive he'll see RM sooner than he wants too.

 "I wonder how your city is doing, without anyone to protect them?"

Seokjin's heart sinks in his chest.

Is it selfish to keep RM in his city?

His plan had always been to send Namjoon back home, away from Seokjin. The plan hadn't been working out well, and Seokjin was starting to wonder if it was the best.

Seokjin stares at the empty bus stop, staring at the road as if he could see the remnants of the tire tracks, hinting where Namjoon had gone home to. Namjoon's home. Where he's supposed to be.

Certainly, Namjoon's home isn't by Seokjin's side.

Seokjin sighs.

He thinks he can see his plan finally working out.

He really wishes he couldn't.

+++

Just like last time, Seokjin texts Namjoon late into the night. This time, Seokjin's hoping Namjoon's not awake to answer.

No such luck. Namjoon's response is almost instantaneous.

'Miss me already?'

Yes.

'Where do you live?'

'Really, a late night booty call?'

Seokjin almost throws his phone across the room.

'Does your city not have that much crime or something?' Seokjin knows that his city has always been the worst in the area, but that doesn't mean there's not villains in the neighboring cities. Sometimes Hoseok will send him a profile of the villain, and Seokjin can see other places they've visited. Certainly, Seokjin isn't stopping all the crime in the world by defending his city only. He's never asked Hoseok about other superheroes (he doesn't think Hoseok would tell him if he did) but if there's Namjoon out there, surely there's others too, right? Did someone fill the hole that Namjoon left?

Namjoon's reply doesn't come for a couple of minutes, and Seokjin's wondering if Namjoon went to sleep when his phone pings.

'I wish.'

Seokjin frowns.

'Do you still work over there?'

Namjoon’s response doesn’t come, and after a few minutes, Seokjin’s convinced Namjoon has fallen asleep or is busy with something else. That is, until his phone rings, and Namjoon’s name pops up onto his screen.

“You’re thinking about what that guy said, aren’t you?” Namjoon says, voice low and groggy, and Seokjin doesn’t think he was too far off from assuming Namjoon was sleeping.

Seokjin bites his lip. “If you knew that was what I was talking about, then you must’ve been thinking about it too, no?”

Namjoon is quiet for a moment, and then he sighs. “I think about it every time I hear a police siren drive by my apartment.”

Seokjin nods. He remembers when he first became a superhero, with almost no motivation to leave his house, much less motivation to leave his house and try to save the city. He remembers the guilt that ate him up inside when sirens passed by, when the news on TV reported crime after crime. Is that what Namjoon’s city looks like now?

“So there’s no one else to help?”

“It was just me,” Namjoon says. “And like I told you, I don’t really like working alone. I wasn’t too good at it, to be honest.”

“I can’t believe that,” Seokjin says, blurting out his thoughts. All he’s seen from Namjoon is nothing but confidence and excellent superhero work. Seokjin can’t remember having a failed night of work since Namjoon started helping him.

“That’s because I’ve been working really hard to impress you.” Namjoon teases, but Seokjin can tell his voice is tense, words tight. “Is it working?”

Yes .

“Don’t you worry about your city?” Seokjin asks. He feels sick to his stomach.

“Do you think I should?”

Part of Seokjin’s mind is screaming yes . The other part is screaming that the only person Namjoon needs to be worried about is Seokjin.

Seokjin swallows. “I mean, I think I would.”

Silence. The other end of the phone is quiet, while Seokjin’s heart beats loudly in his chest, anticipating Namjoon’s response.

“You’re right,” Namjoon finally says; and maybe it’s the worst thing Seokjin has ever heard. “I guess it wasn’t really fair of me to abandon the city.”

It’s not fair to abandon me, either.

When Seokjin doesn’t reply, Namjoon quietly sighs.

“It’s been fun working with you, Seokjin.”

There’s a click, and the line goes quiet.

+++

The next time Hoseok texts Seokjin about a case, he barely remembers to change at all, running to the crime scene, hoping that when he arrives, Namjoon will be there. So that they can fight together, like they have been. Like Seokjin has grown to love.

When Seokjin goes home that night, he accepts that Namjoon never planned on making an appearance. Namjoon had gone home to protect his own city.

If only he was as good at protecting his heart as he was at protecting the city.

Seokjin cries himself to sleep that night.

++++

A month passes, and the city is doing just fine without Namjoon’s presence. After all, that’s what Seokjin always said, right? That he could save the city plenty fine without Namjoon’s help.

And he can. He does. Seokjin finds the bad guys, beats up the bad guys, and hands them over to the cops - and the entire time he’s thinking about how much he misses having Namjoon by his side through it all. Seokjin’s a good superhero. He can work alone.

He just doesn’t want to.

The city is doing just fine without Namjoon, but Seokjin isn’t.

Each text from Hoseok, Seokjin feels more and more hopeless. At first, Seokjin was hoping he had failed; that his plan hadn't worked, and that RM would show up in his city all over again and be just as annoying as when Seokjin first met him. He would call them a team just to annoy Seokjin, and Seokjin would make sure to tell him off for it. And then together, they could go save the city.

With Seokjin's Get Rid of RM plan officially completed, he goes back to his old plan: being Jin, and saving the city with the powers he's been granted. It's always been Seokjin's plan, a plan that he should've never strayed from; because now that he's gone back to it, he realizes it sucks .

The night comes to an end. Seokjin texts Hoseok that he's taken care of things. He hesitates for a moment, wondering if he could ask about Namjoon. Seokjin hasn't had the courage to text him directly. He doesn't really have the courage to ask Hoseok either, so he pockets his phone after confirming the good deed has been done, and he runs home.

Seokjin gets home and throws himself on the couch, landing face first into the pile of pillows that have all been stacked on the one side of the couch that Seokjin actually uses. For the first time, Seokjin wonders what it would be like to invest in enough pillows so that his couch is usable for more than one person.

He turns to his side, digging into the crevices of the couch to find the remote before turning the TV on, letting the news play before tossing the remote to the side and snagging a blanket to throw over himself. This is fine , he tells him. He has plans to see Jimin tomorrow, which he hasn't really had the energy for recently. It turns out, fighting crime by yourself is a lot more exhausting than Seokjin remembers.

He lets his eyes close, even though he knows it's a recipe for disaster; the disaster being Seokjin falling asleep on the couch instead of his much more comfortable bed. It's also a disaster because his phone charger is in his room, and sleeping out on the couch (something Seokjin has too much experience in) usually results in Seokjin's phone dying and none of his morning alarms going off.

It doesn't motivate him to move though, and he figures, fuck it , he can deal with the consequences of missing another day of class later on. Save the issue for future Seokjin. Seokjin doesn't really know what's going to be going on with future Seokjin, but hopefully he's doing a lot better than current Seokjin. Currently Seokjin feels like a mess, he's tired, and thinks it'd be nice if he had the energy to cry.

It's dumb, how much he misses Namjoon. It's dumb, because Seokjin should be happy that his plan finally worked. After weeks and weeks of Seokjin's failure of plans, he should be happy that his plan to get Namjoon to go back to his own city worked. Seokjin never wanted to work with Namjoon, and there was definitely never a plan that involved becoming sad over Namjoon's absence.

Seokjin sighs into the pillow. It's an embarrassingly loud sigh, and Seokjin's glad he lives alone, so no one but the TV knows how pathetic he sounds. At least the sound of the TV drowns out some of his thoughts.

"Superhero RM is struggling more than usual today, it looks like."

Seokjin's eyes shoot up, and he quickly turns to his side and stares at the TV screen. His heart aches at the site of a familiar face, despite the mask that the face hides behind. His heart aches even more when he watches Namjoon get blasted across the street, following some sort of explosion that originates from a building.

Seokjin is tired. He spent all day saving his city, just like he's supposed to do as the city's superhero. He works alone, and he saves his city. That's just what he's supposed to do. It's certainly not his responsibility to care about someone like RM, who he shouldn't even know.

Seokjin is off of his couch and running out the door before he can even stop himself.

He practically jumps out of his car when he arrives at the scene that the TV portrayed, even leaving his phone behind, still announcing that he's arrived at his destination. Seokjin doesn't care, more concerned about securing his mask over his eyes before barging into the scene just as another explosion goes off. 

The explosions aren't nearly as big as the TV screen made them appear to be, but it's still enough to make Seokjin sway on his feet, and a fair amount of dust clouds the air, making it harder to see.

When the dust does clear, Seokjin can finally see Namjoon, flat on the ground.

"Fuck." Seokjin wants to call out for Namjoon, but he bites his tongue. This isn't Namjoon, not to the people listening to them at least - it’s RM, and Seokjin needs to help him.

Seokjin quickly rushes to Namjoon's side, falling to the ground next to him and shaking his shoulders. "Hey, come on, let's get you up."

Namjoon groans in response, and Seokjin has no other choice but to grab Namjoon from underneath his arms and pull him up himself, letting Namjoon lean against Seokjin once they're standing up. Seokjin struggles to grab Namjoon by the waist to steady him, and only manages by hugging Namjoon tight against himself.

“Seokjin?” Namjoon’s voice is quiet. Scratchy. A little broken. “What are you doing here?”

“Why wouldn’t I be here?” Seokjin retorts, trying his best to support Namjoon’s weight. “We’re partners in crime, remember? I can’t just let you fight alone.”

Namjoon turns in his embrace, blinking at Seokjin. “I must’ve hit my head pretty hard if I’m seeing you here, huh?”

Seokjin frowns. “I mean, I hope you didn’t hit your head that hard. Though I am actually here. Sorry to disappoint.”

Namjoon blinks again. He rubs at his eyes, staring at Seokjin like he doesn’t actually believe he’s there. But a few moments pass, and Seokjin stays holding onto Namjoon tightly, wishing he had never let go to begin with.

“You’re actually here,” he finally says, slowly. His eyes are wide, but the corner of his lips begin to peak up into a smile. “You’re actually here.”

“Of course I am,” Seokjin says, as if he hadn’t spent the last month being too much of a coward to even try texting Namjoon. “Had to show up and let you know you look like shit right now.”

Namjoon laughs, and fuck , Seokjin missed that laugh.

“I told you I don’t do very well working alone,” Namjoon says; as if the conversation with Namjoon that night had ever left Seokjin’s mind.

“Then it’s a good thing you don’t have to,” Seokjin says, looking over Namjoon’s shoulder to watch another explosion go off. At the sound of the explosion, Namjoon finally stands up on his own, letting go of Seokjin so that he can take a stance, looking warily over the explosion site.

Namjoon raises his eyebrow. “He’s a pretty tough guy to deal with. You think you can take him on?”

“Nope!” Seokjin says, unable to hold back his smile at Namjoon’s surprised face. “But I think we can.”

Namjoon’s smile matches Seokjin as they run forward to once again, save the day.

+++

Once the city is saved, Seokjin’s first plan of action is to drag both himself and Namjoon away from the press with their bombarding questions. It’s more difficult than he expects, and he’s thankful the press in his city aren’t nearly as determined as he finally manages to pull Namjoon to the side, allowing them to climb up the side of the building and once again find themselves chatting on top of a roof.

“We need to talk,” Seokjin says, staring at the ground. Something about the whole thing feels reminiscent. This time though, Seokjin’s fully aware that he’s holding onto Namjoon’s hand, and he’s not really interested in letting go.

Namjoon grins. He’s still obviously fatigued from earlier, and Seokjin can already makeout the beginning of a couple of bruises on his face, adding onto the handful of scratches. However, compared to earlier, he seems a lot brighter, and he has enough energy to wiggle his eyebrows at Seokjin before asking, “Did you get me all alone like this so we could make out?”

Seokjin feels his cheeks flush, but before he loses courage, he says, “Yeah, yeah I did.” He takes a deep breath in. “And I was also thinking maybe afterward you’d let me take you out on a date, and then you could come back and fight at my side again?”

Seokjin stares breathlessly at Namjoon, peeking up to catch Namjoon’s reaction. He’s happy to see Namjoon looking just as shy, eyes wide while color floods his cheeks.

“You really are out to get me, aren’t you?” Namjoon finally says, and before Seokjin can even comprehend what that means, he’s being pulled into a tight hug, Namjoon squeezing him tightly.

“I still need to work out some things with Jungkook to see if he’d be willing to defend the city again so I can go back, but even if that doesn’t work out for awhile I think I’d still like to be by your side,” Namjoon says, breath tickling Seokjin’s ear. “If that’s okay with you?”

“I think I would be okay with that,” Seokjin says, pulling back so he can look at Namjoon, unable to hold back his smile, “for the low price of one kiss.”

Namjoon laughs, music to Seokjin’s ears.

“Only if you let me pay for it now.”

Seokjin smiles, already closing his eyes and leaning in towards Namjoon.

“Sounds like a good plan to me.”