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“Are you sure you want to try this? It isn’t exactly pleasant.”
He should’ve thought this through.
His stupid heart jumped at the idea before his head could catch up, and now his pride won’t let him back down, not with everyone watching. Not with Joon-gi watching.
Joon-gi skillfully twirls the stun gun in his hand then gives it a test fire. The arc of electricity makes his eyes glitter with white light, and Ichiban’s pulse skyrockets for more reasons than he’d like to admit. Joon-gi tends to make him feel this way — a strange mixture of fear and awe that has him throwing out the little bit of sense he has left.
Getting tased for fun isn’t the smartest thing he’s ever done, but it’s nowhere near the dumbest. He’s well-known for being passionate bordering on impulsive. You’ve made worse decisions and turned out fine, he tells himself, but somehow, it feels like this is the time his confidence will finally be tested.
“You’ve done this before, right? What’s it like?” he asks, half for reassurance and half to stall for time. His overactive imagination is insisting that this will end in disaster. None of the mental images he’s getting are pretty. Running his big stupid mouth may have gotten him into this situation, but maybe it can help delay the inevitable.
“I wouldn’t do it by choice, but in terms of methods of incapacitation, it isn’t terrible. I’d take it over being pepper-sprayed any day.”
He can’t remember what incapacitation means, but it sounds like a fancy way of saying you’re fucked. Joon-gi’s calm, unbothered tone is simultaneously comforting and unsettling.
“That’s, ah… good to hear.”
“It only lasts a few seconds, fortunately. Your muscles will lock up and you won’t be able to move, so we’ll need someone to spot you.”
“This sounds like a horrible idea, I’m in!” Adachi immediately volunteers. “I’d never say no to front-row seats for Ichiban making a fool of himself. We had to do this back when I was on the force.”
Ichiban is already regretting everything. He stands, weakly leaning on the bar for support, and Joon-gi takes a step towards him. Joon-gi smiles, and Ichiban catches a hint of a devilish sparkle in those alluring dark eyes.
His brain short-circuits.
Hot guy plus weapons equals hell yes. Weapons being used on me equals bad idea. Bad idea plus possibly looking cool in front of said hot guy equals… good idea?
God, this man is gonna turn me into a masochist.
Adachi pats him on the back, and it startles him enough to make him jump. “Got any last words, buddy?” He’s smug, way too smug, in a way that just screams bad idea.
“Don’t say that! You’re not making this any easier.”
“You look nervous.” From anyone else, it would seem like a taunt, but he can tell that Joon-gi is being genuine. “It’s not too late to back out, you know.”
He could just tap out. There’s no reason why he has to do this. But he hates giving up, and after escaping one too many near-death scenarios, he won’t let himself be deterred by a little pain.
Not to mention the fact that he has a hopeless crush and would do anything to get attention from the object of his affection. That kind of ruins the tough guy act, though.
“Hell no. Let’s do this.”
“Good. Don’t try and fight back, it won’t work,” Joon-gi warns, pressing the stun gun to Ichiban’s arm with his finger on the trigger.
If I die, at least let me look cool in my final moments, Ichiban silently prays, his fear flooding back again. R.I.P. Kasuga Ichiban, our neighborhood Hero, badass until the end.
His thoughts are scrambled the second the electricity hits him. He can’t even attempt to resist it. Everything in his body tenses up so quickly that it knocks the wind out of him. Like Joon-gi said, it definitely isn’t pleasant.
Adachi catches him and carefully lowers him to the ground. He stays sitting on the floor for a moment, too dazed to even speak.
“Are you alright?” Joon-gi offers him a hand up and he eagerly takes it, scrambling to his feet.
“Fine! I’m fine!” he squeaks out, sounding much less fine than he claims to be, forcing a wide grin to prove his point. He’s aching all over and still catching his breath, but it wasn’t nearly as disastrous as he thought it would be. He didn’t die, so that’s a plus.
“So? How was it?”
Not fun. Kinda scary. An honest answer would make him seem pathetic. His head is too foggy for him to come up with a suitable lie, so he’s stuck with his jaw hanging.
As his dizziness starts to subside, he realizes that he’s still holding on to Joon-gi. He pulls back in a hurry. “T-that was nothing! I barely even felt it.” He tries to add some enthusiasm to his voice, but what comes out is crackly and strained, so obviously fake that it makes him cringe.
Joon-gi laughs and it makes his stomach do flips. “You sure are interesting, Kasuga-san…”
He doesn’t seem impressed — of course he wouldn’t be, Ichiban thinks, cheeks burning from embarrassment — but there’s a fond look on his face that makes Ichiban’s heart spark with love.
Yeah, that was worth it.