Chapter Text
The whispers of his seatmates, the loud voice of the teacher, and the view of his empty notebook. Kim Dokja did not miss any of them at all. After having lucked out on getting a seat by the window, he thought that something might change in his last year of high school. He thought that he could maybe make new friends or he could maybe get better grades, but, alas, he was proven wrong as he stared at the teacher without a thought in his head and with no classmate to talk to.
Riing! The bell rang loudly across the whole school which made Dokja jolt in surprise. The random thoughts in his head, none of which were anything related to what the teacher was saying, were gone in a snap as he was brought back to reality.
“Yoo Joonghyuk! Hurry up, or you'll be late for your job!” he heard a voice behind him.
He turned his head to see his classmate, Han Sooyoung, calling another person with her loud voice.
‘Oh yeah, I’m in the same class as these two this year,’ he thought as he recalled the things Sangah, his only friend, said ‘She said that they’re really rowdy, but I don’t think they're as bad as she says.’
As he was observing the pair, he suddenly heard the sound of a chair being dragged as Sooyoung pulled Joonghyuk’s bag from it. As the girl successfully stole her friend’s belongings, she immediately ran towards the door. At least, she tried to. Before she could even make one more step, Joonghyuk grabbed her collar from behind to stop her from running.
'Ah… I can see what she means now, ’ he thought while having a look of disbelief.
“Han Sooyoung,” his classmate’s deep voice reached his ears.
'A handsome face and a handsome voice. No wonder so many people like him.’
He moved his gaze away from him and back to the girl whose body was currently slumped.
She grunted, “You already agreed to it, so stop acting like that and hurry up. You barely have any time to get ready now.”
Joonghyuk let out a sigh filled with irritation before responding, "Is it so hard for you to just wait?"
He let go of his grip on her collar and hurriedly put his things away before dragging Sooyoung out of the room.
“I wonder where they’ll go in such a rush,” he whispered as he cleaned his desk.
“Joonghyuk-ssi probably has another part-time job,” a voice beside him spoke. He looked to his side to see his beloved friend, Yoo Sangah.
“Ah, Sangah! You surprised me for a second there. Are you coming with me to the bookstore today?”
Sangah pursed her lips, "Well, I can’t again today… until the end of the week, actually.”
“Student council again?” he asked, despite knowing the answer well.
She nodded, “Yeah, sorry. I swear I’ll join you once we have less workload.”
Dokja shook his head, “It’s fine. You’re the student council president after all, so of course you’d be busy.”
“But…” Sangah added to what she said.
“But?”
She quickly opens her bag, seemingly in search of something. After taking out some notebooks, a few pens, and bits of paper, her face glowed with a smile. She took out a small coupon and gave it to him.
"I know a new book released from your favorite series, so go and buy it with that!" She said while packing her things back up.
Dokja was dumbfounded. He didn’t know what he was expecting her to pull out, but it sure wasn’t a 30% off coupon for the bookstore.
“30% OFF?” Dokja silently shouted as he stared at the piece of paper. “That’s a really big discount. Are you sure you don’t want it for yourself?”
Sangah paused what she was doing and looked up at her friend.
“I’ll take it back if you don’t want it,” she said in a teasing tone while her lips curved up to a playful smile.
Dokja hurriedly pulled the coupon to his chest “No, no! I’ll gladly take it!”
His friend let out a small giggle before she hung her bag on her shoulder. She turned around to walk away before pausing and looking back at Dokja.
“Go buy the new book and tell me all about it tomorrow, okay? That’ll be my way of making up to you.”
She waved goodbye to her friend before leaving. Dokja watched as Sangah’s figure slowly disappeared from his sight. He looked back down at the coupon with a smile forming on his lips. He couldn’t hide his happiness from what his friend gave him. The small act of kindness she did made him realize something.
‘Who cares if I don’t have as many friends as others when I have a friend that cares for me so much like Sangah,’ His smile grew bigger at the thought.
He took a deep breath to calm down his feelings of excitement and started putting his notebook and pens into his bag right after. As he finished packing up, he looked around to realize that he was the only person left in the room. Dokja stood up and moved his gaze towards the window. He saw some students running on the field and some walking out of the gates with their friends.
'I guess it’s time for me to leave too,’ he thought as he slowly walked out of the classroom and closed the door behind him.
As he walked on the busy streets of Seoul, Dokja couldn’t hide his excitement. He didn’t even realize that he was walking faster than normal just to reach the bookstore. He looked ahead of him, finally catching a glimpse of the sign he’d been wanting to see. He hurriedly entered and went to the fiction section to see the novel he had been waiting for months. Dokja let out an excited gasp as he finally saw it, Let The Sturdy Swords Break.
The reader hurriedly took a copy of the book and admired its beautiful cover. The book series released its final volume, the one in Dokja’s hands. He looked at the artwork in awe. It was of his favorite character, the majestic Punisher holding her blade covered in the dull red blood of her enemies. After a few seconds of staring at the book, he put himself back together and walked towards the counter.
He excitedly placed the book on the counter and looked through his bag to find his wallet. Slight panic filled his body, thinking that he had lost it. Thankfully, he found it in his pocket, making him sigh in relief. He pulled out the coupon and the remaining cash he needed to pay. He looked up to the person manning the counter, only to freeze in surprise.
'Punisher…?' the reader thought to himself as he continued to stare at the person in front of him.
The same eyebrows that were seemingly drawn by a single, uninterrupted stroke of a famed artist’s brush. The same pair of deep eyes seemingly carved out of a beautiful jewel containing all the misfortunes found in this world. The girl in front of him looked just like how he imagined Punisher to be. He was so stunned that he didn’t notice how long he stood frozen in front of the worker.
“Is there a problem?” another worker asked, bringing Dokja back to reality.
“Ah, no. Sorry, I didn’t mean to just stand here,” he replied, followed by an awkward laugh.
He passed over the coupon and cash to the Punisher cosplayer and gave a slight bow to apologize for what he did. The other worker looked at him and realized why it happened.
She let out a short laugh and said, “Don’t worry~ I acted like you when I first saw them dressed up like this too.”
Dokja’s face flushed. It was as if his thoughts were revealed to the people around him, “No, that’s not it-”
As he was trying to explain himself, he felt a paper bag touch his arm. He looked back at the Punisher cosplayer, who was trying to give him the book he bought.
“Oh, thank you,” he grabbed what he bought and immediately left the bookstore out of embarrassment.
He walked in a hurry, trying to forget the embarrassing actions he just did. He slowed down his pace after a while and stopped when he saw something that caught his attention. It was a small bakery that had been in their city for years. He then remembered that Sangah’s favorite cake was being sold there.
'She treated me, so I might as well buy her something too,' he thought as he took steps towards the bakery.
It was another school day, and after hours of hellish morning classes, it was finally lunchtime. Dokja walked through the noisy hallways of his school, trying to find Sangah to give her the cake he bought yesterday. Tired students filled his vision, together with a few teachers whose faces were filled with fatigue. Although different in position, it was quite obvious to see that both parties just wanted to go home.
While he was walking down the stairs, his eyes caught a glimpse of a familiar brown hair.
“Sangah!” he called his friend and ran down to catch up to her.
Sangah looked behind her to see Dokja hurriedly coming down, “Oh, what is it?”
Dokja brought out a box and gave it to her, “A little thank you for the coupon you gave~”
She opened the box and her eyes shone when she saw what was inside, “Uwa! Thank you Dokja!”
She grabbed the box he was holding while trying to balance some of the papers and books she was carrying. Being used to this type of occurrence, she managed to not let a single thing fall from her hands.
“So, how was the book?” she asked with a curious tone.
Dokja looked at her with wide eyes, but no reply came out of his mouth. He let out an awkward smile and turned around in an attempt to flee.
“Hey, what are you even running away for?” she asked.
Usually, Dokja would go on and on about a new book when he finished reading it, but his reaction this time was quite different. This left Sangah dumbfounded.
“What do you mean running away?” he asked as if he knew nothing about what she was talking about.
She looked at him with her usual gentle smile, but for some reason, it seemed a bit more menacing than usual. Dokja saw this and immediately went back to her.
Sangah returned to her usual self and asked, “How was the book? Or is it better to ask what happened because you're avoiding the question?”
Dokja looked down at the ground and scratched his nape before responding, “I might have… not read it yet”
He looked back up at his friend to see a look of surprise.
“I mean… that’s not much of a problem, but it’s still unexpected coming from you.” Sangah replied “But that still doesn’t explain why you're avoiding the question.”
He sighed and gave up trying to hide it, “Something else happened…”
Sangah grabbed Dokja’s shoulders, looked all over his face, and asked in a worried tone, “What? What happened? Are you okay?”
“It’s nothing bad, Sangah!” Dokja let out a chuckle at his friend’s actions “It’s just that there was this Punisher cosplayer…”
“And…? What does that have to-,” she paused for a moment before letting out a sound of realization, “Oh, I see”
Dokja looked at his friend and his eyebrows raised while wondering what she was thinking. The two of them stood in silence for a few seconds before Sangah let out a gentle smile.
“So, was she pretty?” she asked.
With the unexpected yet straightforward question, Dokja froze, and his mind was suddenly filled with images of the cosplayer who had been living rent-free in his head since yesterday. He just stared at Sangah with a blank face, unable to give a response as warmth suddenly crept up to his cheeks.
Sangah’s eyes widened as she witnessed her friend acting like a lovestruck maiden for the first time.
“Is that a yes?"
Dokja lowered his head and covered his face before slowly nodding in response. He looked back at her moments after and took a deep breath to calm down. He was back to normal after that. Well… not really.
“How about you cool off before going back to class?” she suggested
He brought his hand to his face, “Am I still that red?”
Sangah nodded in response.
“Okay, fine I’ll do that,” he said while fanning his face “I’ll go back to the classroom right after, you can go in first.”
His friend waved goodbye as he walked towards the toilet to rinse his face in an attempt to hide the blushing mess he was.
He returned to the classroom after aggressively rinsing off the redness of his cheeks, only to see one other student there. It was Yoo Joonghyuk. While Dokja was quite curious as to why he was in a rush with Han Sooyoung yesterday, he wasn’t really the sociable type. This led him to just go back to his seat that was only a few seats away from his classmate’s.
Dokja minded his own business for a few minutes. He stared at the view outside the window which was filled with his fellow students playing soccer. Moments after that, he moved his gaze to his notebook filled with doodles instead of notes. Then, he looked back up to Yoo Joonghyuk and saw something he thought only he had in the class.
“Is that Let the Sturdy Swords Break ?” he asked absentmindedly after recognizing his favorite book. His classmate, however, stopped what he was doing and looked at him. Not giving any sort of answer.
“Nevermind…” Dokja moved his attention back to the notebook dejectedly.
A few seconds later, a late response came, “Yes, it is.”
The reader slowly looked back up at his classmate with a big grin, “Have you finished it?”
Joonghyuk looked at the book, looked back at him, and responded with a nod.
Dokja was pleasantly surprised. Someone was just like him! Someone loved Let the Sturdy Swords Break as much as him to the point that they would also finish the latest release in one day.
With this, Dokja stood up from his seat and sat beside his classmate. Shortly after moving seats, the two started talking all about the book, or at least Dokja was gushing about it while Joonghyuk was sitting there attentively listening to him. It was as if all the awkwardness that was in the room suddenly disappeared, and the invisible wall separating the two from talking to each other was gone.
Dokja talked and talked, while Joonghyuk listened and nodded to acknowledge what his classmate was saying. The pair was in their little world, one where only the two of them were in. They didn’t even realize the amount of time that had passed and the smiles that were painted on both of their faces as they enjoyed each other’s company. They would’ve continued to enjoy their time together if it wasn’t for the loud ring of the bell signaling the end of their break.
“Ah, I didn’t even realize that we were taking so long,” Dokja said “Sorry for taking your time Joonghyuk-ssi”
Joonghyuk let out a small smile that was unlike him and shook his head, “It’s fine.”
Dokja was about to go back to his seat, but he went back to his classmate and asked in a whisper, “Is it alright if I talk to you about it again next time?”
“Yeah, it’s fine,” he replied.
Dokja’s eyes widened and happiness was written all over his face, “Thank you!”
Routines. Dokja never had them. This was mostly because he couldn’t commit to doing the same things every day all over again. But, strangely enough, he managed to follow a routine for the past few days, and it was all because of a cool girl standing behind a bookstore’s counter and a new friend he made in class. The routine consisted of him waking up, going to class, talking to Yoo Joonghyuk during lunch, leaving school, and going to the bookstore to sneak a glance at his newly found crush.
After a few days of talking, he eventually got closer to Joonghyuk, and he even managed to tell him all about the cosplayer without it being obvious that he liked her. To his surprise, his friend suggested for him to talk to her, but that was a task that was easier said than done. Unlike the progress he made with his new friend, he still couldn’t approach his crush despite Joonghyuk’s suggestion.
Today was a Saturday, so the routine he accidentally made wouldn’t be followed for the first time in the whole week. While he would want to spend more time with his new friend, he decided to do something else. Something opposite to what he would usually do. He decided to get the cosplayer, he had been crushing on, a gift. It was a not-so-simple decision for him though as he had been thinking about it for a few nights after the conversation he had with Joonghyuk. But, he finally got persuaded by Sangah to do it.
After a quick chat with his best friend, he decided to give the cosplayer a small necklace, a copy of Let the Sturdy Swords Break and some snacks. A few nights of tossing and turning went by before the day finally came.
The thumping of his heart. It was all that Dokja could hear as he stood in the middle of the sidewalk. He peeked into the paper bag he was holding which had his presents and slowly looked back up at the large sign that read 'Nebula Bookstore'.
It was time.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them with his last obstacle in view: the door.
‘Okay. Just walk through the door and give her the gift, it’s going to be fine,’ he thought as he felt his heart rate going faster.
Before he could chicken out on his plan, he immediately dashed through the store’s door, went to the counter, and placed the gift right in front of the cosplayer before running out of the store. As he exited, he felt his knees slowly giving out, so he bent them and used his arms as support. He stood in the middle of the streets for a while, trying to calm himself down after what had happened. This caused a few passersby to stare at him, but that didn’t matter to Dokja. All he was feeling at the moment was happiness and relief after (kinda) successfully doing his plan.
It was Sunday, the day after he gave the cosplayer a gift. After not hanging out much for the whole week, Dokja and Sangah decided to eat brunch at a cafe. Normally, this time would be spent on the reader gushing about the book he was currently reading, but today was a different case.
“See? I managed to do it so well!” Dokja said with a proud grin as he retold what happened to Sangah.
He told her everything from buying the gift and running out of the bookstore after giving it. His best friend, on the other hand, had an unsure look on her face. It was hard to say that he did it well when he ran off immediately, not letting his crush even utter a word to him. But it was Dokja and he wouldn’t normally do things like give his crush a gift, so Sangah couldn’t help but still feel a bit proud.
Her unsure look slowly turned into a small smile, “Yeah, you did so well!”
Dokja’s proud grin curved up even more as he remembered another thing that happened, “I made a new friend too by the way!”
Sangah, who was eating the pie she had ordered, stopped. Her lips, which were about to take a bite, turned into an even bigger smile.
“Wait really?” she asked in a happy tone.
Dokja nodded, “Yup, and it’s Joonghyuk!”
A surprised look was present on her face, “That’s quite unexpected.”
“Right? I didn’t expect to be friends with him either,” he said “It’s all thanks to Let the Sturdy Swords Break!”
“Does he read it?” Sangah asked curiously.
Dokja clasped his hands, excited to tell another story to his friend “He finished it! Amazingly enough, he already finished it the day after the last release came out”
“He’s just like you,” Sangah commented as she let out a laugh.
The two friends happily enjoyed their brunch together and talked for hours on end about the things happening in their lives. They see each other almost every day, but, in times like these, they still don’t seem to run out of things to talk about. Before they knew it, it was already 3 p.m.
Sangah sighed, “Sorry Dokja, I still have some things to finish, so we can’t be out together all day long.”
“It’s fine~ Plus, you’ll be free starting tomorrow right?” he asked.
“Yeah, I guess you're right,” she replied.
The pair left the cafe with the view of children playing outside. They waved each other goodbye, and they focused on their different plans. While Sangah will be busy with her student council work, Dokja will be happily visiting his crush.
He was now standing in front of the store he visits every day, 'Nebula Bookstore'. He took a deep breath as if he was going to give a gift to his crush once more, and entered the store with a big smile. He’d normally go straight to the fiction section, but he decided to go to the counter this time to try and talk to the cosplayer. Dokja took small steps, with anxiety slowly filling his body as he got closer to the counter. He was looking down at the ground while he walked because he was too shy to look at his crush after what he did yesterday. A couple of steps later, he finally caught a glimpse of the counter. He looked up, expecting to see Punisher, but it wasn’t her.
“Yoo Joonghyuk…?”