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Just as Sunoo is putting the finishing touches on his outfit — and resolutely ignoring his sister suggestively wiggling her eyebrows at him, mouthing it’s a date over and over again — two things happen, almost at the same time: the TV screen, which had previously been broadcasting the new episode of the latest drama his mother had fallen in love with, gets interrupted by the grim face of a news anchor; and Sunoo’s phone lights up with a text notification.
im sorry!! grandma just asked for my help, the heater broke at her house :(
And then, rain check?
On the screen, a few buildings in Myeong-dong are being enveloped by rapidly rising flames, dark smoke already forming overhead, as the news anchor informs the viewers about the latest damages caused by the Pyroslinger — as he himself had requested to be addressed as in his fancafè last month —, Seoul’s new up-and-coming villain.
“My goodness,” his mother murmurs, shaking her head. “Isn’t it the third time this week alone?”
Now the view is focused on the street, with people evacuating the buildings, guided by the firemen, and then it spans to the sky, where a figure seems to be leaping from building to building, chasing the Pyroslinger.
“Everything okay, Sunoo-yah?” His mother must have noticed the dampening of his earlier sunny mood. “Oh, you were supposed to go to Myeong-dong with Jungwonie today, weren’t you? Ah, what a shame, it’s-“
“Yes, we had planned to do some shopping today,” Sunoo says, fingers already flying on his phone’s keyboard to type a reply to Jungwon. He knows it won’t be seen for a good few hours, but Jungwon, as observant as he is, would start feeling suspicious if Sunoo didn’t send anything at all. “It’s no matter, it seems like Wonie is busy anyways!”
His sister hasn’t moved from her spot on the sofa, but she flashes him a comforting smile, her gaze an invitation to sit next to her and spend the afternoon together instead — Sunoo appreciates the feeling, but he has to shake his head in refusal.
As soon as he is back in the safety of his room, Sunoo’s thumb hovers over Riki’s contact name, before deciding to send him a text, just in case he had already been dispatched to the scene as well.
Keep Jungwon safe, he settles on sending in the end, after a little internal debate on how to go about this, trying to keep the rising worry at bay, and yourself, too. He knows Riki will understand.
The reply is almost immediate: i wasnt even called in :<, and Sunoo can imagine Riki’s whiny tone in his head as if he was right in front of him.
I will bring two bungeoppangs instead of one on Tuesday, Sunoo adds then, to sweeten the deal — Riki would have gone either way, because no matter how bratty and lazy he can be, he still cares about both of them, but he doesn’t like for it to be known, so some sort of bribe is always to be involved.
deal! but make it three, since im your fave tutee anyways
The text gets a smile out of Sunoo, but the worry is still there, swirling low in his gut, steadily rising its way up, all the way to the knot forming at the base of his throat.
Jungwon is already out there, chasing that pyromaniac, and Riki will be there in a second, too, aided and protected by his shadows; and there will be their seniors as well, as Riki had once called them, who will ensure everybody’s safety, and Sunoo is frustratingly human and nothing else, so he couldn’t help either way, but he still wants to—
Sunoo worries, and frets, and constantly checks the news broadcast, and there is nothing he can do but pray for their safety from the confines of his room.
The thing about Sunoo, and Jungwon, and Sunoo and Jungwon together , is this: they keep secrets.
They aren’t bad secrets — those that can end friendships, or those that make you feel so guilty you will start having trouble sleeping at night — or even huge ones, for that matter, but they are secrets all the same. There are things that they don’t tell each other, hardships they suffer through alone — even if, at first glance, both Sunoo and Jungwon look like the types to wear their heart on their sleeve.
They deal with their own issues alone, just to then talk about it weeks (or, on a few memorable occasions, months later), when everything has already settled and neither will be at risk of feeling like a burden to the other.
They are both aware of this, and it’s something that works for them, even if in all the novels Sunoo has read — and the movies and shows he has watched with Jungwon during countless sleepovers — best friends always tell each other everything, and not doing so is equivalent to an intentional betrayal.
Before this whole… Superhero Thing, as he had started calling it in his head, capital S and T and everything, Sunoo was actually the one who had kept the biggest secret between the two of them: somewhere along the way, quietly, without even realizing it until it had been too late to do anything about it, Sunoo had fallen in love with Jungwon.
If at first the realization had blindsided him a little, now Sunoo is certain it couldn’t have gone any other way — sweet and sensible Jungwon, who doesn’t push Sunoo into doing anything, but only ever gently encourages him to live life together; smart and reliable Jungwon, who never complains about having to juggle so many responsibilities, but instead always tries to find a way to make everything work.
Jungwon, who knows Sunoo can’t help but cry, sometimes, when he gets so overwhelmed that tears start running down his cheeks even if he doesn’t want them to, and still doesn’t press him into talking about it, just offers him a warm embrace and words of comfort, confident in Sunoo’s ability to deal with his own hurdles alone, but still wanting him to know Jungwon is there for him.
How could anyone ever not fall in love with Jungwon?
Sunoo has experienced probably the most natural and cliché situation in the world — falling for your best friend, and planning on never acting on your feelings —, so he guesses Jungwon’s own secret had to be the opposite, to balance it out: unconventional, and possibly life-changing for basically everyone involved.
As always, though, they have stuck to their tried-and-true routine, so neither has ever commented on any changes they may have noticed in the other.
Sunoo would also like to think that, between the two of them, he is the most unreadable one, but the truth of the matter is that he had been pretty off track in his guesses before Riki had — involuntarily!, if Riki’s complaints about that particular series of events are to be believed — given him a hands-on demonstration of just what kind of new world Jungwon was now a part of.
After the discovery, the pieces of that hitherto unsolvable puzzle had fallen into place, and it was easy, as always, for Sunoo to adapt himself to their new normal.
If Sunoo sometimes noticed Jungwon favoring only one leg while walking, or caught sight of bruises on his back (did he crash into a building? Did a villain throw him around a bit, before Jungwon could overpower them?), or, if, as it happened the most frequently, Jungwon had to suddenly cancel their plans while being able to offer only flimsy excuses, Sunoo never confronted him about any of it.
From the moment he had discovered Jungwon’s secret, Sunoo had decided to quietly support him from the sidelines — no matter how worry ate at him whenever the news announced a new villain attack and Jungwon disappeared to deal with it, or how he was spending less and less time with his best friend, because Sunoo and Jungwon haven’t been walking along the same path for a good while, now.
All those sappy quotes he used to giggle about with his sister, back then, weren’t lying: loving someone makes you patient, content, even to just stay by their side without demanding for more.
Around two hours after the news broadcast had first interrupted his mother’s beloved drama — and thirty minutes after Sunoo had finally given up on wearing a hole in his bedroom floor with the way he had been pacing back and forth across the length of his room — his phone had alerted him of an upcoming notification with a soft chime.
everything ok, Riki’s text had read, and then: u better keep your promise >.>
Sunoo hadn’t been able to contain the relieved sigh those few words had brought out of him, his heart rate finally slowing down a bit — Riki probably doesn’t even realize it, but Sunoo is incredibly grateful for his newfound presence in his life —, so he had replied, the first pleased smile of the day on his lips as he had quickly typed: I will! You better have done all of your practice worksheets, tho (^_^)
The sun has just set now, though, and Jungwon still hasn’t contacted him in any way.
Should Sunoo text him? Call him? Would Jungwon become suspicious of his secret being found out, if Sunoo for once let his instincts win? Sometimes, he wishes he had stayed blissfully ignorant — Sunoo is pretty sure all of this stress is going to make wrinkles show up on his forehead before he even gets to become twenty.
Just as he is beginning to spiral, his ears pick up on a soft, almost imperceptible knocking sound. Then, his phone rings, and Sunoo picks up on autopilot — it’s the specific song he had set for Jungwon.
“Hey,” his voice is coming out a bit staticky, but it’s him. “Let me in? It’s freezing out here.”
“J-Jungwonie!” Sunoo rushes to his window, opening it as fast as his eye-hand coordination will let him. He almost drops his phone in the process, too, before he gathers his wits about him, ending the call and tossing it carelessly on his bed. “Oh my God, get inside, quickly!”
Somehow — his powers, maybe? — Jungwon manages to land on Sunoo’s bedroom floor with an easy elegance, a small smile already tugging at his lips. “Hi,” he says, as fresh as a rose, as if he hadn’t climbed a tree to get to Sunoo’s window in the middle of the winter. “Thought I’d drop by, now that the heater is completely fixed.”
“You are—“ and what can Sunoo even say , now? He had been agonizing about Jungwon just a few minutes ago, Riki’s reassurances only somewhat able to tide him over, and now Jungwon himself is here, in front of him, looking as normal as ever, bundled up in his favorite dark coat, the straps of his beige backpack a contrast on each of his shoulders. “— you could have rang the bell downstairs. Like a normal person. You know how to act like a normal person, right?”
“I know how to act like a normal person, yes,” Jungwon says, humoring him, eyes crinkling at the corners. Sunoo is helpless to do anything but smile back. “It wouldn’t be half as fun, though, and you know it.”
Then Jungwon sets his backpack on the floor, sheds his coat and toes off his shoes, before flopping on Sunoo’s bed as if he owns it.
“Yah, Wonie!” There is no real heat behind the reprimand, and they both know it, but he wouldn’t be Sunoo — they wouldn’t be Sunoo and Jungwon — if he didn’t complain about something like this.
“I’m not wearing shoes on your bed, so you can’t complain about anything,” Jungwon says, a familiar script that has been repeated over and over through the years. “I’ll magnanimously allow you to join me, as well,” he adds, a teasing haughtiness in his tone, making space for Sunoo on his left, arm outstretched, ready to welcome him to his side.
As cliché as it sounds — as many secrets as they keep from each other — Sunoo would rather do nothing else.