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Hyuntak had a future. He had a future in Taekwondo; it was promised with how amazing he was. His mom knew it, and so did Baku. It was promised until Baekjin broke it, until he destroyed Hyuntak’s knee, because if Baekjin couldn’t have Baku, then why was Hyuntak allowed to?
The lines Baekjin was willing to cross just to keep Baku for himself were maddening. So, when he joined the Union, it wasn’t for Baekjin.
It wasn’t even for himself.
Everything he did was for Hyuntak. Nothing else or no one else.
He didn’t blink when Baekjin tossed a heavy envelope towards him, landing on the other side of the table.
“Here’s your pay,” Baekjin said without looking up from his math homework.
Baku stood there silently, processing the other boy’s actions. He didn’t understand why, but they made his blood boil. The skin of his hands stung with pins and needles, and his throat clogged up. He wanted nothing more than to pick that lamp up and punch Baekjin in the face with it, to tell him that he didn’t want—he couldn’t say need—the money.
“I don’t want it,” he said instead as he turned and walked away with controlled steps.
“Take it.”
In another universe, Baku would’ve ignored him and walked out of the room with Hyuntak on his mind. In this one, he spun back around and stopped in front of Baekjin. The only thing stopping him from clocking the other boy in the face was the table between them.
Baekjin looked up from his homework with a gaze that could cut through stone.
“You don’t want it, but you need it.”
There was nothing Baku wanted or needed from him except to leave Hyuntak and his friends alone. He’d rather spit in Baekjin’s face than take the envelope that lay innocently on the table, inches away from his grasp.
“Keep your money. I don’t need it,” he hissed.
Baekjin hummed as his lips turned into a smirk—it didn’t reach his eyes. He picked up his mechanical pencil that rested in the crevice of his math book’s binding and resumed writing his numbers down.
Baku scoffed.
He opened his mouth to speak, but multiple voices echoed down the hall. They were angry. He turned his head to better catch what was being said.
Disbelieving laughs and mutters.
Someone had said, “Oh? Why’re you here?”
Another voice asked, “Here to save your boyfriend?”
It took seconds for Baku to make it out of Baekjin’s suffocating room.
He stopped at the other end of the hall, the entire bowling alley now in sight. His eyes locked on a familiar shade of blue that stood at the bottom of the entrance’s stairs.
What the fuck was Hyuntak doing here?
He wasn’t supposed to be at the damn bowling alley. He was supposed to be at home, or with Sieun and the others, at school even.
Just anywhere but here.
Clicks of footsteps sounded behind Baku, knocking him out of his stupor.
He needed to get Hyuntak out of here.
He shoulder-checked Baekjin’s lackeys as he rushed to the boy in the stupidly familiar blue hoodie. Only when Hyuntak’s wrist was securely in his grasp did he face Baekjin’s lackeys.
“If any of you touch him, I’ll kill you.”
His gaze ended on Baekjin, who took his place, by the open hall.
He ignored their snickers and Hyuntak’s scolding as he dragged his best friend up the stairs, out of the bowling alley.
“What are you doing here?” he yelled.
His hand felt cold after he let go of Hyuntak.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Hyuntak was supposed to be safe.
He wasn’t supposed to be near Baku.
Hyuntak stared at him like he was stupid.
“What am I doing here? What are you doing here? You monkey! I thought you were done with the Union!”
Frustrated with Hyuntak’s stubbornness, his hands bunched the collar of the blue hoodie in a bruising grip and shoved the other back into a wall.
“You’re not supposed to be here! You’re supposed to stay away from me!”
Icy fingers wrapped around his wrists, forcing a flinch out of him. He had forgotten how cold it was at night.
Stupid Hyuntak, wearing thin layers late at night.
“You’re my best friend, you idiot. Why would I stay away from you, huh? Your ninety-nine IQ is showing.”
With all the emotions and exhaustion piling up inside of Baku, he was speechless. He was angry at Baekjin, frustrated at Hyuntak’s stubbornness, and worried about those fucking lackeys going after the reason he joined the Union.
He wanted to lay his heart bare for Hyuntak, to give him a home, to make sure he wouldn’t remember the pain of being injured ever again.
There was nothing more he wanted than to hide Hyuntak from the undeserving world they lived in.
Releasing the vibrant blue hoodie, his hands slid down to hold Hyuntak’s hips. It was a reflex to step closer to rest his forehead on Hyuntak’s shoulder.
“You’re supposed to be safe.” It sounded like a plea.
Hyuntak’s voice was soft, “I don’t give a shit. You joined the Union.”
“It was all for you. I never wanted you to get hurt.”
Baku stiffened at the chilled hand that cupped the back of his head. Hyuntak’s fingers threaded through his hair, and he practically melted. He wanted to stay in his best friend’s arms because that was where he belonged—in the arms of someone who smelled a faint scent of green tea.
Hyuntak was home.
“I think I’ll go insane if you don’t listen to me, just this once,” Hyuntak murmured. It was said almost painfully. “I’ll keep going here until you come back.”
Selfishly, Baku lingered in his best friend’s hold just a little while longer.
He was homesick.
With the will to get his best friend home safely, he quietly began walking in the direction of his house.
“You won’t go back?” Hyuntak wondered when he caught up, tugging on his sleeve.
“No. No, I won't,” he answered.
“Oh. Okay.”
He almost started crying at how relieved the other’s tone was, almost breathless as if the weight of the world was lifted from his shoulders.
Neither of them brought up how Hyuntak’s hand never left his sleeve the entire walk home. Hyuntak ended up unlocking the front door without letting him go, like Baku would disappear if he did.
He waited for Baku to step inside before he released his grip.
They moved around each other wordlessly, taking turns to place their shoes on the shoe rack before stepping into the kitchen.
It made Baku stutter when he realized that they understood each other with every beat of their hearts.
Everything between them was natural.
“Are you tired? Hungry?” Hyuntak whispered in the warm, dim lighting of his home.
“Tired,” his voice cracked.
It felt like a taboo to ruin the comfort of Hyuntak’s house, destroying the serenity and peace it brought with just his voice.
He was dragged into the bedroom he knew all too well—there wasn't a crevice in Hyuntak's room that didn't spell his name. Robotically, he slid his zip-up off and hung it behind the door. All he did was blink and, suddenly, he was lying down beside Hyuntak in his bed.
Finally home, finally safe, the exhaustion coming pouring down over him as hard as a waterfall. His eyes fluttered shut against his will, and he was out like a light.
And then, he jolted awake in cold sweat. He sat up with a pounding heart as he took in his surroundings. The first thing that caught his attention was weight atop the lower half of his body. Eyes blurry, he still managed to clearly see a leg draped over his own.
Oh, right.
“Hyuntak,” he exhaled his name like an invocation.
His eyes darted to the LED clock decorating the wall in front of him. It read 3:08 AM.
It took everything in him to leave. He had to tear himself away—like a plant ripped from the earth, roots clinging desperately to the soil. Hyuntak was that soil. The only ground Baku had ever known.
He eased the front door shut, the soft click echoing louder than it should have. He tested the handle once, twice. Locked.
Hyuntak believed him, trusted him when he said he wasn’t going to go back to the Union.
Will He ever forgive him?
If Baku had taken three seconds longer to fall asleep, he would've heard Him whisper, "Thank you for coming back."