Work Text:
It was another hot day in summer. Three men were resting on the grass under the tree on a small mountain, two of them were laying down while the other was reading his book.
“Rok Soo-ya, didn’t you say you want to be a slacker? Why are you doing such a brain-twisting activity?” Choi Jung Soo complained while rolling himself closer to Kim Rok Soo.
“Reading novels is a hobby,” Kim Rok Soo replied while sliding away from Choi Jung Soo.
“Aigoo, how could you exhaust your brain in such hot weather, Rok Soo? Come and nap with us!” Lee Soo Hyuk then sat up and circled his right arm around Kim Rok Soo’s neck.
“Yes, Rok Soo-ya, let’s snuggle with this hyu-” Choi Jung Soo again rolled towards Kim Rok Soo and was getting ready to hug Kim Rok Soo’s waist, though Kim Rok Soo shoved CHoi Jung Soo's face away.
“You’re not my hyung. Also Team Leader-nim, you’re heavy,” Kim Rok Soo commented while looking at Lee Soo Hyuk who had put his head on Kim Rok Soo’s shoulder.
“Oh really? That means that you’re tired! Let’s nap, Rok Soo~” Lee Soo Hyuk threw a sneaky smile at Kim Rok Soo.
“Yes, Rok Soo-ya! Let this hyung rest on your other shoulde-” Choi Jung Soo once again sat up and tried to hug Kim Rok Soo yet he, once again, got shoved away.
“No. You’re not my hyung. And my arm will break if you sleep on it,” Kim Rok Soo commented while staring at Choi Jung Soo.
“SO MEAN! You let Soo Hyuk-hyung rest on your shoulder even though he’s even more buff than I am! Look at those muscly cheeks! At least mine is soft!” Choi Jung Soo complained while poking his cheek. Lee Soo Hyuk chuckled softly.
“Hyung, Rok Soo is being mean to me,” Choi Jung Soo put on his puppy eyes while crawling towards Lee Soo Hyuk.
“Aigoo poor Jung Soo, come here,” Lee Soo Hyuk smiled softly towards Choi Jung Soo then patted and ruffled his hair, while Choi Jung Soo smiled happily (like a dog getting their pet).
“Poke my soft cheek, hyung!” Choi Jung Soo moved forward offering his right cheek.
“Whoa, so soft! Like a chipmunk~” Lee Soo Hyuk commented as he repeatedly poked Choi Jung Soo’s cheek.
“Rok Soo-ya, wanna poke my chipmunk cheeks too?” Choi Jung Soo looked at Kim Rok Soo with his sparkly eyes.
Kim Rok Soo looked at Choi Jung Soo with his stoic expression then sighed. It seemed like the two men would continue to pester him until he stopped reading. Well, not that Kim Rok Soo felt bothered though. In fact, he loved it when his favorite people cuddled around him. Feeling the warmth of being with his family was something Kim Rok Soo had forgotten ever since he lost his parents, until he met Lee Soo Hyuk. Although he never admitted it, he always treated Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo as his family and enjoyed their company a lot. Though, accepting Choi Jung Soo as his hyung would never happen.
Since there was no way he could continue reading in peace, Kim Rok Soo took off his glasses when suddenly, a bright light was reflected from his glasses into his eyes, making him squint and alerting the two others.
“Hey Rok Soo, are you okay? Am I putting too much weight on you? Does your shoulder hurt?” Lee Soo Hyuk worriedly looked at Kim Rok Soo.
“Did you work your brain so much that now your head hurts?” Choi Jung Soo stared at their youngest.
Kim Rok Soo was speechless at his overprotective family. Although he was weaker than the other 2 physically, he wasn’t that weak. That being said, although their worries were exaggerated, deep inside, Kim Rok Soo loved that feeling. It showed him that people would worry about him and stay by his side. That he was no longer alone. It felt so warm that it took him a while before his mind stopped wandering around and came back to the issue.
“I’m fine, it’s just the sun. I think there’s something on the tree that reflected the sunlight into my eyes.”
Relief could be seen on the two men’s faces before they looked up the tree and saw a round item reflecting the sunlight. Choi Jung Soo quickly climbed the tree and grabbed the item, while the other two were just thinking about how the way he climbed resembled that of a monkey - very fast and flexible.
Choi Jung Soo showed the item to the other two, “It looks like a crystal and there’s this note on it too: Wind buddy for adoption. Start by naming her!”
It had been a decade since the fight against monsters concluded with humanity's victory. Upon confirming that the city was safe and monsters no longer appeared, the three men went to reside at the mountain where The Chois used to live in, as they previously decided on. They created their own farm and orchard around their house and spent their days peacefully. Most things had returned back to normal. Though, old habits were hard to change, including the ‘passion’ Lee Soo Hyuk had on naming any living beings they interacted with.
This was why Lee Soo Hyuk’s ears sharpened when he heard the word ‘naming’. He had successfully named a good portion of the unranked monsters in Korea and was proud of his amazing name selections. Although to be fair, each person had a different definition of ‘amazing’.
“Can’t be helped then,” Lee Soo Hyuk put his hands on his hips and smiled proudly, “Your name shall be-”
“Nino,” Kim Rok Soo cut Lee Soo Hyuk before he bestowed the wind buddy a name. The wind buddy then glowed and turned into a small tornado-shaped buddy. Right beside the buddy was a crystal plate with her name written on it: Nino, and some blank spaces below it.
“So its name is Nino~ I didn’t know that you also have a hobby of giving names, Rok Soo!” Lee Soo Hyuk commented while reading the crystal plate.
Kim Rok Soo stayed silent, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. If anything, the only thought that came to his mind was that he couldn’t let their future buddy have a ridiculo... unique name that Lee Soo Hyuk came up with. Kim Rok Soo observed 2 patterns on Lee Soo Hyuk’s naming: 1. It was very descriptive; 2. It usually consisted of 2 words. For example: electric eel = an eel that fires electric attack, and lion dragon = monster with lion head and dragon scale. If he was to guess, Lee Soo Hyuk would most likely pick ‘Windy Crystal’, and that would be a no for him.
“By the way, Rok Soo, why ‘Nino’?” Lee Soo Hyuk asked curiously and added, “I’d definitely pick ‘Windy Crystal’!”
‘Bingo,’ Kim Rok Soo thought internally, then responded, “Because it’s wind-element and we found it under warm weather. A warm breeze reminds me of El Niño, so Nino.”
“I don’t know what that is but Nino sounds adorable! I love it!” Choi Jung Soo exclaimed.
“Indeed,” Lee Soo Hyuk agreed while ruffling Kim Rok Soo’s hair.
After settling with the name, the three men then looked at the crystal plate
“There are 6 spaces for 'Skills', so we can teach Nino 6 skills?”
“I think so, Team Leader-nim. It also said that to teach the skill, we need to imagine the outcome of the skill while saying the skill name.”
Lee Soo Hyuk thought for a bit and suddenly mumbled while looking at Nino, “wind whoosh.”
Suddenly, cool air started flowing out of Nino. The crystal plate then glowed and under the 'Skills' section, ‘wind whoosh’ was now listed as a skill.
“Ohh Team Leader-nim, did you just teach Nino a skill? How did you do that?”
“I was just thinking how nice it’d be to have a cool breeze and the phrase ‘wind whoosh’ just came to my mind. So I just said it out and it worked! Maybe I have an affinity with Nino!”
“TEAM LEADER-NIM, SO COOL!” Choi Jung Soo clapped while whistling to Lee Soo Hyuk.
As they were chatting, rain suddenly started pouring. Lee Soo Hyuk carried Nino and the three men ran into their house. They were all wet from the rain. Lee Soo Hyuk suddenly thought of a great idea and called the other 2.
“Come here, Soo twins!”
“We’re not twins, Team Leader-nim,” Kim Rok Soo mumbled as he approached Lee Soo Hyuk and threw him a towel.
“Yes, Team Leader-nim. I’m his hyung!”
“Self-proclaimed hyung, you mean?”
“Don’t be shy, Rok Soo-ya~”
“...”
After the 2 men arrived at his side, Lee Soo Hyuk then looked at Nino and said, “Nino, hair dryer!”
Warm air started flowing out of Nino, warm and plenty enough to dry them all. The crystal plate then glowed and under the ‘hair dryer’ was now another skill.
Choi Jung Soo’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Lee Soo Hyuk, “TEAM LEADER-NIM, YOU’RE A GENIUS!!”
Kim Rok Soo, although he did think that it was a good skill for Nino to learn, was lamenting over the fact that the two skills that Nino had learned were named ‘wind whoosh’ and ‘hair dryer’. ‘Well, a skill is a skill, I guess,’ Kim Rok Soo thought.
After drying themselves, the three men and wind buddy went for a nap.
Lee Soo Hyuk woke up a few hours later feeling hungry, “Wake up, Jung Soo, Rok Soo! It’s almost dinner time! Let’s harvest some fruits and veggies to cook tonight!”
The two men sleepily rubbed their eyes and slowly got up. As they were getting up, they saw Nino’s plate lit up and 2 new skills were observed under a new section called ‘Self-learnt skills,’ which are ‘sleep’ and ‘wake up’. There was also a notice explaining what ‘Self-learnt skills’ were.
“So it seems Nino can learn things as she sees fit in her daily life. Like survival necessity, per say. While the 6 spots we saw before were for some special skills we could teach Nino,” Kim Rok Soo analyzed the situation.
“OHH NINO SO SMART!” Choi Jung Soo’s eyes sparkled while he clapped his hands towards Nino.
“As expected from our little buddy! Nino is definitely amazing, just like us!” Lee Soo Hyuk patted Nino's head(?).
The little tornado started spinning faster while emitting little warm air from her tornado.
“Oh! Is Nino shy when we praise her? That’s adorable!” Lee Soo Hyuk started ruffling the tornado upon seeing her reaction.
As they were adoring the little tornado, they heard a loud growling stomach sound. The two men looked towards the origin of the sound and saw Kim Rok Soo looking away with his ears red. The two men started laughing, “Rok Soo-ya, that was so loud! You must’ve been very hungry!”
Lee Soo Hyuk then walked towards the door while chuckling and said, “Let’s go get food now.”
Choi Jung Soo then followed while inviting Nino, “Nino, come on let’s go!!”
Nino then followed Choi Jung Soo and walked out. At that instance, Kim Rok Soo saw Nino’s plate shone with another skill listed under the 'Skills' section: ‘come on let’s go’.
Kim Rok Soo stared at the plate for a solid 5 seconds and slowly mumbled, “... seriously?!”
The three men headed towards their farm to harvest some potatoes and vegetables, then headed to their orchard for fruits. Choi Jung Soo suddenly looked towards Nino, who was following the 2 men, then smiled sneakily at the other 2 men.
“Team Leader-nim, Rok Soo dongsaeng, beware of the glory this Choi Jung Soo is about to show you!”
“Ohh what does our Jung Soo have in mind?”
“Not dongsaeng by the way.”
Choi Jung Soo then bowed his head, like what you did at the beginning/end of a performance, and looked at Nino while pointing at a tree branch with a fresh ripe apple hanging on it.
“Nino, wind cutter!”
Nino let out a wind that cut the apple into 2 halves: top and bottom. The bottom half fell towards Nino and got ‘swallowed’. At that instance, Nino’s plate glowed with 2 new skills: one is called ‘wind cutter’, listed under the 'Skills' section, and another under the ‘Self-learnt skills’ called ‘eat’.
“Oh!! Nice Nino! Eating is important indeed!”
“But Choi Jung Soo, you need to train Nino to cut the apple at the stalk.”
“Worry not! This genius Jung Soo has an idea! Come on let’s go, Nino!” Choi Jung Soo shouted while climbing up the tree with Nino following him.
“See here? You want to use your ‘wind cutter’ here! Try it~”
Nino let out another small ‘wind cutter’ and this time, it was perfectly at the stalk.
Lee Soo Hyuk caught the whole apple that fell from the tree. “Oh! Good job, Jung Soo, Nino!” He said while munching the apple.
Nino twirled faster. She then quickly went down the tree and upon arriving on the ground, Nino let out several ‘wind cutter’s on ripe apples, all of them right at their stalk.
“Ohh!! This is amazing! It really saves so much time and trouble from climbing each tree! You’re amazing, Nino!” Lee Soo Hyuk acclaimed while patting the little tornado, making her twirl faster.
“Good job, Choi Jung Soo, for teaching Nino, right?” Choi Jung Soo said while winking his eyes and doing an idol-like pose. Lee Soo Hyuk responded with a double thumbs up.
“Come on, Rok Soo, help out in picking up all the apples Nino has harvested for us!”
Kim Rok Soo, who was amazed by Choi Jung Soo’s for once smart idea, finally started moving to pick up the apples. “Good job,” he softly mumbled while patting Nino as he passed by her.
That day, they finished faster than usual thanks to Nino’s help. They also got to snack on some apples and tomatoes as they were collecting the fruits.
Suddenly, Kim Rok Soo looked at his family with a wide smile, or smirk, on his face.
“Soo Hyuk-hyung, Choi Jung Soo.”
“Eehhh? No hyung for me? How mean!”
“Nino and I are going to the empty field to do some work.”
Lee Soo Hyuk had his eyes wide open at Kim Rok Soo while Choi Jung Soo fell off the branch he was on, though luckily, he managed to grab onto another branch before fully falling on his butt.
“Oi, Rok Soo-ya, could you repeat that one more time?”
“Rok Soo, did you just say you’re going to do work ?”
Kim Rok Soo just smirked at their remark and looked at Nino, “Let’s go, Nino.”
However, Nino just stood there, unmoving. Kim Rok Soo thought ‘Short form of the skill name won’t work eh?’ and sighed before he said another sentence, “Come on let’s go, Nino.”
Nino then followed through, while the 2 men were still dumbfounded over what they heard as they were following Kim Rok Soo.
As they arrived on the empty field, Kim Rok Soo crouched down by Nino’s side and pointed at the field while giving his instruction, “So Nino, use ‘wind whoosh’ into the soil, a very soft one, just to reduce the water on the soil.”
Nino did exactly what Kim Rok Soo said flawlessly with Kim Rok Soo smiling satisfactorily.
“Ohh what are you doing, Rok Soo-ya?”
“The soil was wet because of the rain so it became quite compacted. We need to make it less compacted before we sow the seed so the roots can grow.”
“Ah… I see,” Choi Jung Soo replied, looking confused.
“Well, we can leave all the technical details to Rok Soo! Our Rok Soo is the best!”
“Indeed, Team Leader-nim! We are the proud Kim Rok Soo’s hyungs!”
“You’re not my hyung.”
“OI ROK SOO-YA~” Choi Jung Soo shouted at the back, totally being ignored by Kim Rok Soo, when Kim Rok Soo took out some seeds from his pocket then pointed at the field.
“Now Nino, spread.”
At that moment, Nino’s plate glowed with ‘spread’ listed under the 'Skills' section. Nino then started spreading the seed across the field at an approximately equal distance among each of them.
“Rok Soo, this is amazing! You’re a genius!”
“As expected of Rok Soo-ya! Our brain!”
“Now that Nino and I have worked, Team Leader-nim and Choi Jung Soo can do the rest,” Kim Rok Soo smirked at the other 2 men while patting Nino, who was twirling faster, seeming to be proud of her work.
“Eh?! Rok Soo, that was only Nino doing the work!”
“Who taught Nino?”
“You did. But-”
“Didn’t you say that doing brain-twisting stuff is work when I was reading my novel today?”
“Ehh I did… but…” Choi Jung Soo pouted while Lee Soo Hyuk chuckled and patted Choi Jung Soo’s shoulder.
“Now now, let’s quickly finish this so we can go back and eat dinner. It’s a small field anyway, we don’t need 3 people to water this.”
The two men then started watering the seeds, and they all headed home pretty soon after.
The three men and their buddy arrived home and ate their dinner while they were looking at NIno’s plate.
“So now we’ve used up 5 out of 6 the 'Skills' quota we can teach Nino?”
“We have ‘wind whoosh’, ‘hair dryer’, ‘come on let’s go’, ‘wind cutter’, and ‘spread’.”
“I really love ‘come on let’s go’! Don’t you think it’s great?”
“Nice name, Jung Soo! A little bit long, but very energetic!”
“Too long.”
“Team Leader-nim, our little Rok Soo is very mean to me today,” Choi Jung Soo went to hug Lee Soo Hyuk.
Lee Soo Hyuk ruffled Choi Jung Soo’s hair, “There there, let’s go shower and sleep.”
“Yes!” Choi Jung Soo dashed towards the bathroom.
“Rok Soo, you’re not coming?”
“Team Leader-nim, the bathroom is gonna be cramped with the three of us.”
“Rok Soo doesn’t want to bathe with us?” Lee Soo Hyuk put on his puppy eyes.
“But Team Leader-nim, it is really cramped.”
“Rok Soo didn’t say no! So it’s a go!” Lee Soo Hyuk tried dragging Kim Rok Soo to the bathroom.
“W-wait hyung,” Kim Rok Soo held onto the wall like a cat getting dragged to bathe.
“Oi Jung Soo, come and help me grab Rok Soo!”
Choi Jung Soo then came topless and smirked, “Come come dongsaeng!”
“Ahh whatever! Nino, try to use… haah, ‘hair dryer’ on the plates. Not too strong, just enough to dry the plate.”
And thus, Kim Rok Soo got carried into the bathroom with his hyung(s?). At the same time, Nino twirled really fast while emitting warm air as she used ‘hair dryer’ to dry the plates. Is it because of the topless view she witnessed? A mystery.
After an eventful bath that night, Kim Rok Soo and Choi Jung Soo went straight to bed after Nino helped dry their hair. Lee Soo Hyuk smiled looking at his 2 younger brothers, put blankets over them, and patted their heads. It was such a peaceful night with his family.
“Sweet dreams, Rok Soo, Jung Soo,” Lee Soo Hyuk softly mumbled as he got off the bed, getting ready to turn the lights off. He then saw Nino and carried her to bed and softly whispered as he patted Nino, “Nino, rest.”
At that moment, Nino’s plate lit up and her 6th skill was listed as ‘rest’. Nino then turned into a crystallized form, showing a completely different state from when Nino used ‘sleep’.
Lee Soo Hyuk then softly chuckled and put the crystallized Nino by his pillow so that the other 2 (and probably himself) wouldn’t kick Nino in their sleep. He then proceeded to turn off the light and headed to the bed where the other 2 and Nino were sleeping.
“Good night, Jung Soo, Rok Soo, Nino. Rest well, sweet dreams.”
Lee Soo Hyuk had one last glance at this peaceful scene before he wandered off to his own dreamland.
Epilogue: The next morning
It was a rare morning when Lee Soo Hyuk woke up earlier than everyone and woke Choi Jung Soo, Kim Rok Soo, and Nino up with his sudden loud scream.
“AAAHHHH!!! I COULD HAVE NAMED THE SKILL ‘SLEEPY BREEZE’ INSTEAD OF JUST ‘REST’!!! NOOOO”
Choi Jung Soo seemed to not care and went back to sleep, while Kim Rok Soo and the just-got-out-of-her-crystal Nino just stared at Lee Soo Hyuk, with a slight relief seen in Kim Rok Soo’s face. ‘A normal name this time,’ he thought.
“Nino, rest,” Kim Rok Soo said to Nino before they both went back to their dreamland.