Work Text:
12 movie posters.
Jamie has 12 movie posters hanging up around his bedroom.
There are horror movies with over-exaggerated lighting and shadowy figures, rom-coms with cheesy puns for titles scrawled in hideous colorful fonts, action films with bright explosions in the background of the lead characters — You name any genre, and he’s got a poster for it adorning the walls. Sunwoo isn’t sure what’s more impressive: The man’s shit taste in entertainment, or the fact he’s actually managed to find space for all 12 posters and still have room for family photos, jerseys, and other decorative goods to fit in the scenery. Who the hell needs that many posters? How the hell do you even find the right spot for them all? He’s a madman. A madman who will watch just about anything, and claim it’s the best movie he’s ever seen. A madman who plays tetris trying to fit everything on his bedroom walls. A madman who wins this game of organization every time.
And Sunwoo, she’s going mad herself just waiting for him to return. She’s holed up here at base, twiddling her thumbs, having staring contests with the clock when the hands turn too slowly for her liking. All she can do is wait for him to come back from wherever work had called him to, but the time seems to be deliberately moving at whatever pace it pleases. It’s far too sluggish. Insult to injury; Her other two closest colleagues, Raze and Killjoy, are out on the same mission. Plus, Yoru’s spending the day with Skye, and Neon’s deep in her Radiant training as Reyna and Sage pull her back and forth in their teachings. So yeah, Jett’s as bored as can be, and the chaos around base is at an all-time low. Great news for say, pissy-and-old woman Viper or sensitive-to-sound Sage, but incredibly mind-numbing to little miss Sunwoo. Mind-numbing, and cold.
It’s cold when Phoenix’s warm embrace isn’t around to hold her. It’s freezing when she can’t wear his jacket while she sits all curled up in his lap like a cat claiming its rightful seat. He runs his fingers through the fluffy, white cloud she has for hair and whispers sweet nothings into her ear, and peppers her face in more kisses than either of them can count. But there’s none of that now, none of that today. Hasn’t been any of that for 2 days now. It’s lonely, and it’s quiet, and it’s too chilly for her tastes. The bed isn’t as comforting without his arms around her when they lie in it. It’s just empty.
But the sight of his room reminds her of him, and he’d told her before she’s allowed to come in whenever she feels like it, essentially. Technically. He did say she could, “Stop by whenever she'd like,” something along those lines. That’s why she welcomes herself in on some nights and joins him in bed. It’s why she swings by on weekend mornings to surprise him with breakfast too. Did it apply to when he wasn’t even in the country? She had texted him to ask, but he hadn’t found the time to answer. No response, even after several hours. Not even confirmation of it being left on, ‘read.’ She figured as long as she didn’t touch anything, it’d be cool, so here she is. Bored, cold, and lying upside down with her head hanging off the edge of the bed. Counting.
Counting the 12 movie posters he has on his bedroom walls.
The 12 movie posters, the 9 copies of the exact same white jacket in his closet (again, he’s a madman, really, ) and the 5 polaroids that he keeps hung up on a small bulletin board by his bed. Three of them are photos of their whole gang together — Sunwoo, Jamie, Ryo, Klara, Tayane, and Tala. V signs thrown up, smiles dazzling bright, half of them were in the middle of a laugh when the photos were taken so their jaws are agape in huge grins. One of the other photos is just Jamie’s handsome mug. He’s making some silly smirk for the camera while he poses and wears an obnoxiously vibrant pair of shades with orange lenses. They look dumb as hell, but hey, Jett had been the one to gift them to him. He wouldn’t stop going on and on about how much he’d wanted them, and the smile he wore when she’d surprised him with the shades was… Glowing, really. Something she wishes she could have snapped a photo of. As stupid as they look, they were worth the joy they brought him, and it showed in the polaroid too.
But not as much as his joy seeped through in the last photo.
The last photo is the two of them; Jett and Phoenix. His right arm wrapped around her shoulder, her frame huddled close to his, beaming smiles on them both. Love dancing in their bright eyes. His left hand and her right hand meet in the middle to form a heart. At the bottom of the photo, on the white border, he’s got a few words scribbled out in black Sharpie; “Me & my shining Sun.”
… It’s suddenly a little warmer in here. She feels the heat in her face, where her cheeks are simmering up and going from pale white to flamingo pink. The girl struggles to sit up on the mattress, and once she’s pulled herself upright, she fans herself tirelessly with her hands. God, that pretty boy didn’t even have to be here to fluster her up. She’s glad he can’t see her now, because she’s sure he’d have some proud grin that’d make her want to flip him onto the floor. He’d be delighted that he’d managed to embarrass her. Sunwoo doesn’t fluster easily, no, but love conducts itself in some inexplicable way that makes even the impossible seem possible — it changes people, and brings out sides of them they didn’t even know existed. That’s what their love does to her. But the sides of them that they’re both more than familiar with was the prideful and cocky edges they had, and his would make her red cheeks a feat worth celebrating. Perhaps with a kiss. The very thought just makes her turn even redder.
The very thought makes her miss him that much more.
Teasing from him was okay, because when she pretended to be fed up with it, he’d give her a million kisses to make up for it. Or, it’d give her a chance to have some witty tease of a clapback in response — but the kisses were a much more fun outcome, so she usually aimed for that. Nothing wrong with earning a little more attention and affection, and if you knew Jett, you’d know she loves having undivided focus. That’s what makes today that much harder. The love of her life isn’t available, her best friends are all occupied, and her phone’s as silent as can be. Put quite plainly, this fucking sucks.
The girl has nothing else to do with herself. There’s nothing she wants to do. She can’t paint her nails with Killjoy, or graffiti the base’s walls with Raze, or most importantly, convince Phoenix to give her a piggyback ride around HQ as they laugh aloud through the halls. There is no fun in trouble pursued alone. She preferred to travel in a pack when it came to having a good time. For the first time in a long time, there is truly nothing she can do but wait.
And if you know Sunwoo, you know there are very few people in this world more impatient than her. The only thing shorter than her patience and temper is her height, and Neon, maybe — but the point is that if she has to go even 5 seconds longer without so much as a text back, she’s going to combust into a million little Jett-bits. Nobody wants that.
But the time counts down on the clock, just as it had already been, with no regard for her feelings.
1 second becomes 2.
Then 3, and 4, and–
Bzzz!
Just—Just what the hell was that?
Bzzz! Bzzz!
There it is again, and then it chimes up a third time, that wretched, bzzz! It’s a sound that has been missing so long, she’d nearly forgotten just what it meant. Yes, she knows that sound, the buzzing ringing in her ears from her left — In an instant, she’s turned her attention over to the nightstand sitting by the head of the bed to find the culprit behind this illusive noise. A cue that has eluded her all morning, the light at the end of the tunnel that she has been yearning for this entire time;
Her phone. Her phone is going off; the screen’s lighting up with notifications as the little device trembles and vibrates on the table. It’s too damn good to be true. It seems that moping around and hoping things would finally go her way actually worked! (Which is definitely something she will keep in mind for future reference. Whoever is messaging her has no idea how much they’re spoiling the girl rotten.) Without a moment’s hesitation, she yanks it off the table and brings it in close to those bright blue eyes.
A few messages sit on the lock screen, piled atop each other like building blocks. At the top of each is the same contact name, written in black letters, “Pretty boy.” After all this time, all this moping and whining about, he’s finally texted her back. It fills Sunwoo with so much joy, she could almost squeal aloud and jump on the bed — and there’ll be time to do all that in a moment! But right now, the priority is talking to the fellow troublemaker in her messages. In an instant, she unlocks her phone to read the texts for herself.:
[pretty boy]
pretty boy: aw shit
pretty boy: i didn’t mean to leave you hanging this long, j
pretty boy: you holding up okay?
Glancing down at that glowing screen, Jett merely chuckles to herself. Just dying of boredom, but yeah. Thanks for asking. Though it’s hard to deny that hearing from him is already cheering her up quite a bit.
sunwooshine: i get to touch all your shit and roll around in your bed and nobody’s stopped me
pretty boy: don’t even know why i was worried then
pretty boy: you can get into plenty of trouble on your own
sunwooshine: it’d be nicer if you were here tho
sunwooshine: theres nothing to do when you guys are all out ㅠㅠ
pretty boy: yoru and neon are still there, arent they?
pretty boy: arent you guys together?
sunwooshine: neon’s doing radiant training shit
sunwooshine: take a wild guess who yoru’s with
pretty boy: ohhh i should’ve known
sunwooshine : he’s been gone swapping spit all day
sunwooshine: so now i get to be your problem
pretty boy: we both know you’d rather be swapping spit all day with me
sunwooshine: ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
sunwooshine: whatever helps you sleep at night pretty boy
pretty boy: hey, actually speaking of sleep real quick
pretty boy: have you been resting alright?
pretty boy: it’s the first time in a while we haven’t been able to fall asleep together, yk? just wanna make sure
The genuine care seeping through the screen makes a little smile pull at Sunwoo’s lips. She can just imagine the sound of his voice asking the question himself. She can hear every loving word of it, and in her mind, can already paint the picture of his arm around her as he’d ask it, looking into her ocean blue eyes with his earthy brown ones. He’s always sweet like that. It’s part of what draws him to her.
It’s part of what makes it harder for him to be away.
It’s true; sleep is something that evades her on occasion. Really, it happens to anyone in this protocol, no surprise there. Endless months of gunfire and life-threatening scenarios around every corner would, reasonably, make rest difficult for anyone — but for Sunwoo, sleep always haunted her in the form of her own dark thoughts. Her own monsters.
Seeing herself as the monster she always fears.
From the dreams about the shattered shop windows and dismantled tables and floorboards surrounding her in whirling winds, to her reflection planting that damned spike square in the middle of Venice, sleep isn’t an easy topic for her. Vivid images of ravaged buildings, dangerous cyclones, torn up streets, and clear sounds of horrified screams played in her mind like a rewinded tape. Sometimes she’d go weeks without any terrors, and other times, there’d be one night after night, until she’d conditioned herself to stop sleeping altogether because even two seconds of her eyes shut meant a risk of reliving those all-too-real memories. She’d wake up in tears, shaking. Hands trembling, mind racing, blood pumping. She’d run to him, and every night, he’d throw his arms wide open and let her into his embrace. Every night, she could soothe herself to the sounds of his sweet voice and even sweeter words, “It’s alright,” and, “I’ve got you,” just little things, little sentences, but big amounts of sincerity behind them. Being with him made it all that much easier. She hadn’t had any nightmares recently, sure, but that didn’t make being without him pleasant either.
So she settles for a very simple response:
sunwooshine: i’ve just really missed you
And one more, for good measure:
sunwooshine : the bed is too cold without you
Sappy words, with far more mushy and gushy affection than what she typically preferred, but hey. They’re honest, and straight to the point; she wants to be by his side again. You can’t really go wrong with candor. And maybe at the start of their relationship, baring her heart so much would have embarrassed her too greatly for her to even send the texts. Or maybe she would have sent them, but she’d have immediately regretted it after. But right now, right this second and in this very moment, there’s nothing she feels greater than a weight lifted off her chest.
pretty boy: i’ll be home tonight, okay?
pretty boy: wait for me
As if she’d been doing anything else.
sunwooshine: don’t keep me waiting forever
pretty boy: ‘course, sunny
pretty boy: i’ll see you soon
sunwooshine: ㅂㅂ pretty boy
The second she locks her phone screen, Sunwoo can’t help but bounce around on the bed with joy. Child-like energy surging through her, excitement overflowing every inch of her. The mattress creaks and cries under her, but she couldn’t give a damn less, and hell, she’s making even more noise as she happily squeals about. It only ends when she finally flops back onto it like it’s her trampoline.
Finally.
The waiting game’s almost over, and she’s going to be the winner (as if she ever settles for anything less than first place). In the meantime, she can get back to her counting – because she swears she can spot at least 10 different lip balms sitting about on his dresser, and that’s a lot, even for her. The girl’s in love with a madman, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.