Archive of Our Own

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Nice jawline. Good hair. Nice laugh. Well-groomed.

Sunoo tilted his head.

Okay. That deserved some points.

He was wearing a nice fitted polo shirt. The watch on his wrist wasn't flashy but it wasn't cheap—he wasn't trying to be someone he's not.

More points.

Then the guy got up from his seat to get a drink from the bar, and he stood up to his full height, and—

Ah… Pass. He's short… What a shame.

He was—listen, he wasn't bad, objectively, and frankly slightly above average even by Sunoo's standards. But Sunoo cared about visual chemistry and he was already not that tall. If he stood next to this guy, the resulting image would be something that people described patronizingly as, "awww you guys are cute," and it was deeply unsexy.

If Sunoo had to share a picture frame with a man—the man better pull his weight aesthetically. Sunoo didn't do visual charity, he wanted to look ridiculously hot together that left people wondering what unholy deal was struck to make it happen.

Sunoo tore his gaze away and moved on. 

The pub had fairy lights along the ceiling that was going for a warm, intimate atmosphere but instead made everyone look jaundiced and unappealing. Sunoo sat near the drinks table, chin propped in his hand, tracing the rim of his glass with one idle finger.

"There is no one interesting."

Jungwon, who had dragged him here on the basis of it'll be fun, Sunoo, there will be hot freshmen, Sunoo, put your jacket on, we're going, Sunoo—did not look the least bit apologetic.

"In my defense I said there would be hot freshmen. I never said they'd be hot by your standards." Jungwon leaned back and smiled cutely toward one of the freshmen waving his hand at him. "Can't you see that I'm having a great time?"

The thing about freshman mixers was that this wasn't the type of prospect convention Sunoo normally entertained. Sunoo had made this known on multiple occasions, to multiple people, that he did not date younger. This was a deeply held personal philosophy. He liked being the younger one. He liked being doted on. He liked getting the attention from someone who thought he was the fascinating, slightly chaotic, and cute little thing that needed looking after.

Dating someone younger inverted this entirely. Suddenly he was the one who was supposed to have things figured out. Terrible, unacceptable, totally not his style. He'd said as much to Jungwon three times on the walk over and once more at the entrance.

"—more seniors coming?"

"Who?"

"Jay sunbaenim is coming I heard?"

"Really—"

"Will Park Sunghoon sunbaenim come too?"

"Would he even bother? It's a freshman mixer."

Sunoo wasn't listening. The names went in and out like weather. Sunoo was already texting Riki with one hand to pick them up.

come get me now we're going somewhere that actually deserves me.

He was having fun, in a way. He wasn't a killjoy about it. He'd been here for, what, thirty minutes? And in that time, he'd been approached, complimented, hovered around, and looked at like he was some kind of celebrity. Which, to be fair—

Sunoo pushed his hair back, catching his reflection faintly in the glass of a bottle.

—he kind of was.

Being blond had been so much fun. Not many people could pull off blond. But Sunoo was blond the way Sabrina Carpenter was a natural blonde. 

It wasn't necessarily the hair that got him the attention. It came natural to him. He had been getting attention since preschool. Maybe even from the moment he arrived on this earth.

They said all babies are cute. This was objectively, demonstrably false. Some babies were ugly. Sunoo had seen babies that made him smile very hard and say wow, isn't the little one cute! while his eyes were visibly terrorized. Ugly babies existed, people just didn't say it because that'd be a terrible and idiotic thing to say to wonderful women who carried them for 9 months. 

Sunoo however, had been a genuinely, legitimately cute baby. He had the photos to prove it. He'd grown into a genuinely, legitimately good-looking person, and he'd been blessed with the personality to match. And perhaps his appearance helped him somehow. Sunoo had never struggled to make friends, nor did he struggled to fit in. If anything, the world loved to adjust itself around him.

"Riki is here, let's get out of this place."

When Sunoo got up to leave, he had not accounted for the fact that sometimes the fastest way to walk toward your fate… was to walk directly away from it. Physics, or something like it. Like a rubber band stretched between two people—pull far enough or too much, and eventually, it would snap and pull you crashing into your fate.

Congratulations, Kim Sunoo. That day has come.

His foot caught on absolutely nothing—the floor was flat and there was nothing in his way. However, gravity somehow pulled him forward while his feet fell behind. There was a split second where he thought, I can recover this and he could somehow make this out to be a graceful stumble with a small bashful laugh and a cute, "ha, clumsy me!"

He reached out on pure survival instinct and grabbed—

Arms.

His hands closed around someone's forearms and oh, okay, wow, that was—that was some big… muscular arm. Then the rest of him caught up because he'd face-planted directly into a broad chest. 

Sunoo looked up.

Sunoo's brain, running on three hours of sleep, academic fatigue, mild loneliness, one beer, supplied helpfully: HOT AS HELL!!!!!!!

Sharp dark eyes under thick brows, a straight nose with a cute little mole on it, soft full lips resting in a slight frown. Overall appearance that just looked expensive. There were faces that did not suit poverty and this face was the prime example of it.

Standing ovulation.

The last time Sunoo had felt like this, he was fourteen, home alone, and had googled "hot muscular men" on the family computer and sat very still for a contemplative moment and came to realize that, oh, that's what this is.

He felt the same enlightenment. He thought he'd known the full spectrum of gayness but at this point he wasn't even sure if he knew his own gayness. Perhaps he hadn't been properly gay until this moment and that he had to come out again as a gay 2.0 because this face in front of him was the face people go gay for. 

Sunoo's hands were still on his arms. He did not want to let go. He was, in fact, considering never leaving them. He could just live in these arms and sleep on this chest. He'd give up his apartment. The rent was getting ridiculous anyway. 

Sunoo hadn't noticed the sound of thunder following the lightning, the owner of the arms he'd been feeling up was furious. He hadn't realized the crash had sent his beer directly into his jacket.

The jacket. Sunoo's gaze dropped to the jacket and his stomach dropped with it. That's Prada.

"Oh. Oh, I— I'm so—" He reached out and grabbed the man's hand. It was warm, large, and perfect to encapsulate Sunoo's smaller body parts in numerous ways, but also rigid with what Sunoo was reading as justifiable irritation.

He snatched a marker from a nearby table and he wrote his number on the man's palm.

"I am so sorry." The face, up close, was even more attractive. Goddamn. Sunoo wished he could stay longer if it weren't him who also practically whined about getting out of here. "I have to go— my friends— my ride is here, but please text me. I'll cover the dry cleaning. However much it costs."

The furrowed brow had not un-furrowed. No problem. Kind of rude but he looked hot like that. Sunoo allowed himself one last look. That man hadn't spoken a word beside the glaring he'd been giving Sunoo.

Sunoo muttered one last apology and slipped out of the pub, looking over his shoulder to grieve his hot lost love.

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"He hasn't texted. It's been almost fourteen hours."

Jungwon, walking next to him, shrugged. "Maybe he's busy."

"Jungwon." Sunoo abruptly stopped walking. A student had to swerve around him. "He's either forgiving me for the jacket or acknowledging that I was flirting with him. Either way there's a reason to text. The two options cover the full logical space of possible motivations."

"Oooor, he's annoyed and he doesn't want anything to do with you."

"But I was giving him this." Sunoo grabbed his arm, stopped him, and batted his eyelashes innocently. His go-to face that had never, not once, failed to seduce a man. "This face, Jungwon. I was heavy flirting."

"Again, maybe he's not interested?"

Sunoo huffed and fell back into step beside him. Sunoo swirled his noisy iced coffee that had mostly ice and diluted coffee but he was loud sipping it anyway out of spite.

"He is a freshman, right? I described him to you. Tall, dark sinful eyes, pretty buff, big biceps—" Sunoo made a chest grabbing motion. "Nice pecs—"

"I get it—"

"Do you? Do you get it?"

Jungwon was doing the I know something you don't but I'm trying to figure out if telling you is going to make my life harder face. Sunoo knew that face.

"What," Sunoo accused, narrowing his eyes. "You know something. Spill. NOW!"

"There's no freshman that matches that description."

"You don't know every freshman."

"I know the freshmen that would have that description." 

Sunoo thought about this. His face looked rather defined, and the way he was holding himself was not the pretentious confidence of a freshman at all.

"...Well, he did not look like a freshman at all. Now that I think about it."

"Right."

"So he's second year? Third?" A pause. A gasp. "Older?"

Jungwon groaned. "I don't know! Why are you asking me?"

"How much older," Sunoo said slowly. "Tell me, Jungwon. You know something. So, how much older. Give me a number. Give me a range."

"I don't and how would I know? I just know there's no freshman that looks like what you're describing, that's all I'm saying."

They almost walked past a crowded brochure stand. Until his brain caught up and said, wait, why is there a crowd around a brochure stand.

A faculty staff member had just restocked it. Brochures on display that only had approximately 40 seconds of existence before more than half of them vanished into the hands of people who had been waiting around it. He watched someone take three. He watched two people nearly elbow each other for the same copy. He watched a girl tuck a handful into her bag.

Sunoo drifted over to satisfy the mild Fear Of Missing Out itch. He took a look and it was a student exchange program brochure.

This was what people were losing their minds over? An exchange program? Who even grabbed physical brochures anymore? Everything was available online.

He picked one up anyway.

Program overview. List of universities all around the world. Academic requirements. Testimonials from former participants with short paragraphs, small portraits.

Second from the left was a testimonial, with a low quality photograph taken with faculty's shitty camera. The lighting was off, the color was not the best, but had nonetheless resulted in Sunoo stopped breathing for a moment.

He lowered the brochure and looked at the stand, where the staff member had already returned with a second armload of restocked copies.

Sunoo's hot guy radar, he thought, with pride, had never once failed him. 

Park Sunghoon had simply been in Milan for a year while Sunoo was a freshman, living his best life and returning precisely in time to meet Sunoo. Sunoo had always known things would always work out for him but it never failed to surprise him with delicious treats.

Sunoo tucked the pamphlet under his arm and grinned. 

Somewhere across campus, a Prada jacket was at the dry cleaners, and a phone number that was written in marker on the palm of a third-year architecture student had been scrubbed clean.

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To have a face like Park Sunghoon and be completely unlocatable was, frankly, offensive.

Not in a desperate way, Sunoo didn't do desperate. Sunoo was simply curious. He was a curious person by nature because he liked people and he liked knowing things. He liked following a thread to its end just to see where it went. Park Sunghoon was frustratingly a thread with no end in sight.

He hadn't skipped anything this week. Sunoo went to every party, every hangout, every last-minute "come through we're at Wonyoung's", and every overcrowded house party. He went because his social life was thriving and he definitely wasn't showing up with a slightly more thorough scan of the room everywhere he went or hoping he'd bump into Sunghoon "naturally" and perhaps pick up where they'd left off.

He'd tried looking him up and came up with almost nothing. Sunghoon's Instagram was private. No meaningful traces of digital footprint. Was he some kind of mystical creature or something? Was Sunoo imagining him at all?

After a week, he decided to let it go. It wasn't like him to fixate on one person for too long anyway. Sunoo liked options, so he was putting himself back out there tonight.

He arrived at Yeonjun's party with Jungwon, Riki, and some friends from the department. He came in already bored with his arms crossed over his chest. The party was already full with people he half-knew, but he still scanned the room just for the sake of it. Who knows?

From across the floor, a group of people were heading in their direction. Some faces he recognized from high school. Jake and Jay. They chatted for a moment and did a bit of catch up.

And then the man of the hour himself, Park Sunghoon, casually slid into the group and stood behind Jake. Sunoo's eyes widened and he blinked. 

Sunghoon's outfit for the night was a denim jacket with sleeves pushed up to his elbows, and Sunoo's eyes made it to the godly veiny forearms before he realized he was openly checking him out and wiped the growing grin off his face.

Jake turned, noticed Sunghoon had rejoined, then looked between them. "Oh—Sunoo. Do you remember Sunghoon?"

Sunoo halted his train of thoughts. "Huh?"

"He went to Decelis High too."

Sunoo was baffled. It didn't even register to him yet what that actually meant. "Did he?"

Sunghoon tilted his head sideways, mirroring Sunoo amusedly.

"Yeah, Sunghoon used to come to the student council room, remember? He hung around—"

There had been exactly one person who crashed the student council room on a recurring basis during specifically one semester of his high school years. An upperclassman who happened to be Jake's friend which made it his excuse to hang out there. Sunoo didn't remember much of it but he remembered getting an overwhelming urge to throw a padfolio at him at some point. Lanky. Kind of dorky. Somewhat forgettable face.

Sunoo looked at the man standing in front of him.

Sunoo tried to reconcile Sunghoon in front of him and the dorky upperclassman from memory. He didn't remember Sunghoon to be this… attractive. Sunoo would remember if he saw someone this attractive in high school.

"Ah…" Shit. "Congratulations." When and how did you get so hot?

"Congratulations for what?"

"Nevermind." Sunoo shook his head sheepishly. "You… you never texted me. I'd still pay for your laundry, or maybe I can buy a drink?"

Sunghoon gave him a slight smile. He shook his head disbelievingly and Sunoo just waited with furrowed brows and a halfway smile.

"You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

Sunghoon cracked into an amused laughter. "Nevermind. I'll see you around. Enjoy the party."

Riki let out a low whistle watching Sunghoon left with his friends. "Your friend, hyung? He's hot—"

Sunoo shushed him, index finger pressed on Riki's talking mouth. "Shush. He's mine, Riki."

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Sunoo tapped his phone to his chin, curled in the beanbag inside the theater clubroom. "Jungwon. You remember Sunghoon, right?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"That he's hot now."

Jungwon looked up from his script. "Uhhh… Why would that come up in conversation?"

Sunoo sniffed around, it smelled like cup noodles. He got up and opened the window to air the room. Why did people always do this—eat instant noodles in an enclosed space and just leave.

"I don't know. He's our high school friend. I'd like to be kept informed about things. What he's up to. His general situation."

Jungwon snorted. "You only care about what he's up to because he's hot now."

"Is he seeing anyone?"

"Not as far as I know."

On the normal chance that Sunoo was making a fool out of himself, he made sure again, "And he— I mean, he's into guys too, right? Like, that's a thing?"

"He pretty much swings everywhere I heard."

Sunoo frowned. That did not make him feel any better. He dropped back into the beanbag and pulled out his phone.

He opened Instagram and stared at the little lock icon on @sunghoonppp. He hated making the first move.

"Fuck it," he muttered, and hit follow request.

Barely 10 seconds, his phone buzzed.

@sunghoonppp accepted your follow request.

That was fast.

The profile wasn't much to work with. He did not have many posts, and the oldest only went back to last year, which meant Sunoo was either dealing with a private person or someone who had done a clean sweep of their digital past (probably the latter). Sunoo scrolled through anyway, then pivoted to the tagged photos.

Sunghoon had hidden his old tagged posts too. But he probably did not think that anyone would go through his friends' very public accounts. Which was, honestly, an oversight. Rookie mistake. Nothing got past Kim Sunoo.

He found it buried deep in some friend's archive: Park Sunghoon in high school wearing a goofy ass Elmo headpiece.

Sunoo laughed out loud. The club members were giving him looks.

Sunoo finally remembered Sunghoon.

Was that really the Sunghoon he knew, though? He remembered Sunghoon to be a huge dork. He would bother Sunoo around the school for his attention. Sunoo was a bit used to teenage boys' antics because he'd been told that he gave funny reactions and somehow teenage boys liked that. And who's Sunoo to turn down attention from boys? 

Sunoo's only impression of Sunghoon was just that he was an annoying upperclassman who needed to get a hobby. Nothing about his looks.

He looked at the Elmo photo again. Then Sunghoon from last night.

The glow-up was genuinely insane. Whoever had handed Park Sunghoon a gym membership, exposed him to a better skincare routine, and told him to get a better haircut had performed a public service. Sunoo wanted to shake their hand.

But strangely, knowing Sunghoon had been a borderline loser at one point in his life made Sunghoon more appealing to Sunoo. Like Sunghoon was the delicious prey he could sink his teeth into. After all, Sunoo had always had a thing for it.

He was still scrolling when Jihoon, the club president, came in and the meeting started around him.

The Korea University Festival was coming up. This year they were doing a pop-up pub with a vampire theme. The meeting was about that. Sunoo wasn't really invested.

"Jinsol," Jihoon called. "What's the update on Park Sunghoon from Architecture? Did you ever get him to agree?"

Jinsol sighed. "He still said no. Let's just get someone else."

"We need someone who can actually pull off the vampire look, and he's literally perfect for it. You told him that it's a part-time job, right? So he technically still get paid—why is he like this—"

Sunoo's ears perked up. "Park Sunghoon?"

Jihoon rolled his shoulders. "Yeah, we've been trying to get him to help us. He didn't seem into it though."

"I'll do it. I'll ask him."

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Sunghoon pulled into the parking lot, grabbed his bag from the passenger seat, and stepped out of the car. He swung the door shut behind him.

There was a person standing on the other side of his car.

Sunghoon flinched and nearly dropped his keys, a cuss word was sitting on the tip of his tongue.

Sunoo had his arms folded against the roof of his sedan, chin propped on top of them, staring at Sunghoon with a smile.

"When did you get there?"

"Hey, hyung. Going to class?"

Sunghoon shook his head, slung his bag over his shoulder and started walking. Sunoo fell into step beside him. Sunghoon kept his eyes forward.

"So," Sunoo said. "The theater club—"

"I already said no."

"I haven't said anything yet."

"But that's what you're here for."

"I was going to ease into the festival thing," Sunoo said, sounding genuinely offended at the characterization. "You skipped the part where I asked how your morning was."

Sunghoon said nothing.

"Fineeee." Sunoo hadn't lost his cheery exposition yet. "You just have to be a vampire waiter. It's very low commitment, I'm told. You just stand there and look—"

"I'm not into that kind of thing."

"What kind of thing?"

"Costumes, performing, people staring at me."

Sunoo chuckled. "Okay, and I mean this respectfully—you know you're not invisible, right? People already stare at you. You're just not wearing a velvet cape while it's happening."

"Not interested."

"You'd be really good at it though. You already have the whole—" Sunoo squinted at Sunghoon's entire face and demeanor. "Thing. You wouldn't even have to act. Just stand there and be cold to people. We'd pay you."

"I have money."

"Free food?"

"Still no."

They pushed through the building doors. Sunghoon took the stairs and Sunoo followed.

"Is it a stage fright thing? Because that's valid—"

"It's not a stage fright thing."

"Okay, what is it then?"

"It's a no, I don't want to do it thing."

They were halfway up the staircase when Sunghoon felt a quick tug at his hand. He looked down and Sunoo had stolen his phone.

"Hey—"

Sunoo pointed the screen to Sunghoon's face to unlock it and started typing something into it. Then he held the phone up to his own ear. He stood there staring at Sunghoon. Openly and unabashedly looking at him—eyes traveling up, then down, then settling back on his face. He wasn't even pretending to be subtle.

Sunghoon stared back and kept his face very still. Sunoo's phone buzzed in his pocket.

He checked it with his other hand and reached into Sunghoon's jacket pocket—completely unbothered by any concept of personal space—and slid Sunghoon's phone back in.

Sunoo looked up through his lashes. Smiling.

"You didn't even save my number." He was already stepping back, already turning to go. "I'll call you, hyung. I'll ask again if you change your mind."

And then he was gone, back down the stairs, leaving Sunghoon on the staircase landing.

Sunghoon turned toward the wall, pressed the back of his hand to his mouth, and stood there with his eyes closed, fighting a grin so hard his face muscles almost got a cramp.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

If he were a dog right now (and he was deeply, profoundly grateful that he was not) his tail would be an absolute liability. It would be wagging non-stop no matter how straight he kept his face. He was literally sweating through his pits. If he took off his jacket right now there would be sweat stains all over his t-shirt. The restraint it had just taken to keep his face neutral the whole time Kim Sunoo was there was the single greatest performance of his life.

Kim Sunoo was still bad for his heart.

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Ever since Sunghoon appeared on the goddamn brochure for the student exchange program, his face somehow became the university-sanctioned promotional material. 

He found out when a girl he'd never spoken to in his life slid one across a table toward him in Urban Design and asked him to sign it. It was a weird experience.

People started recognizing him. It was unnerving the way strangers smiled at him like they knew him, and how his Instagram began getting followers and message requests from people he didn't know. He had to private his account entirely.

He didn't know what to do with the attention. He'd never gotten this much attention from people. 

He'd always been comfortable with himself. He went through what all teenagers went through when they shed their baby fats during puberty. He had experienced getting acne and feeling awkward with his growing body. But other than the puberty canon events, he never really had the urge to change anything about himself.

But discovering that he was gay happened, and he started looking at these super good looking men on Instagram. Partly because he was heavily attracted to them, also he liked how they looked so much that on top of wanting to be with them, he also wanted to be them. 

He'd started experimenting with his appearance and copying what he liked to see. He started going to the gym after he saw a shirtless picture of Mingyu from SEVENTEEN on his explore page for obvious reasons why it was there in the first place.

He'd spent a chunk of his life being largely invisible to the people he'd wanted to notice him, and now those same people were texting him out of nowhere with coffee invitations. He felt smug about it for only two weeks. Then the excitement collapsed under the weight of actually having to respond to people and his social energy had only been used sparingly all his life, he couldn't handle that.

He didn't expect that Sunoo would be one of those people too.

"Do you… want to go out with me?"

"You? No… thanks."

Yeah, that happened. Before Sunghoon graduated high school, he confessed his feelings to Sunoo. Obviously he got rejected and had to live down the shame since.

And recently Sunoo was suddenly into him but had no recollection of rejecting him at all. He didn't even seem to recognize Sunghoon.

That freshman mixer wasn't the first time they met after they both graduated high school.

Before Sunghoon left for the student exchange, Sunghoon was doing all the necessary paperworks in the library. Sunoo passed by him with his earphones on and Sunghoon's eyes glued entirely on him not believing what he saw. He'd fumbled everything he was holding and left them scattered on the ground.

Sunoo saw and helped him gather his stuff from the floor. 

Sunghoon thanked him and Sunoo smiled politely with a small, "no problem" before leaving.

Sunoo hadn't remembered him then, he also didn't remember him now. The first time wasn't as offensive as the second time.

Sunoo, to Sunghoon, was the kind of person that's never been not good looking in his life. He was somehow untouched by the curse of puberty hormones. Perhaps that's why he was moving at life like that. Without so much care and just that specific brand of confidence.

As much as Sunghoon wanted to just say, YES PLEASE DATE ME I AM HOT YOU'RE HOT LET'S BEND BIOLOGY AND MAKE HOT BABIES TOGETHEEER, there were still scores to settle.

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It had been three days and Sunoo hadn't called or texted. Sunghoon wasn't waiting for it and he was definitely not checking his phone every hour to see if he missed a notification. 

Sunghoon was parking his car and stayed in the car for a moment to have his mandatory 10 second silence before starting his day when he saw Sunoo and Riki cross the lot together toward the campus building. 

Sunghoon grabbed his bag, got out of his car, and headed toward the building.

The mandatory second-year class in the lecture hall was the lowest point of his week. The required attendance was a bit of pain in the ass. Sunghoon had been taking it to fulfill a requirement from his exchange year and had made peace with that.

Sunghoon spotted Sunoo on his way up, sitting toward the back with his friends. He kept climbing, scanning for his own friends. The second time he glanced over, Sunoo was already looking at him.

Sunoo sweetly smiled and made a phone gesture, hovering beside his ear. He mouthed, "I'll call you tonight," and winked.

Sunghoon didn't react. Or trying really hard not too.

Sungchan was waving from the fourth row, gesturing at the empty seat beside him. "Sunghoon! Over here —"

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Sunghoon was sitting on his knees in his bed at 9:47 PM with his phone placed directly in front of him waiting for Sunoo's call. He felt oddly courteous at this moment he even gathered his hands together on his stomach.

What a crazy suspense, who'd do that? 

Sunghoon panicked when his phone finally buzzed with an incoming call from Sunoo. At 10 pm on the dot. What the hell? He waited until the fourth ring before he cleared his throat and picked up the call.

"Hello?"

"I know your secret."

Sunghoon swallowed. Does he have a secret he wasn't aware of? Sunghoon slapped his own face. Sunoo was totally playing mind games with him. Be cool. "What secret?"

"You confessed to me in high school."

Oh, that. Took you long enough. Although right now it didn't feel like something worth celebrating. "And?"

"You liked me… but you pretended you didn't know me."

"You didn't recognize me either, so what's your point?"

"Surely, you'd feel a certain way seeing me again, no?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"I want to know what you were thinking. When you saw me at the freshman mixer."

"I was thinking," Sunghoon said, his lips twisted into a smirk. "that you still don't look at faces properly."

"What does that mean?"

"It means, when you look at my face, you better stare properly and remember, Sunoo."

"But you're not in front of me right now." Sunoo was probably smirking on the other end. Probably in bed, fresh out of the shower, legs bare. Sunghoon inwardly groaned at the image. "I'll have to see your face first to do that, right?"

Sunghoon bit his smile and swallowed it but the smile kept reappearing. He had to slap his own face again to be cool.

"I'm not doing the vampire cosplay thing for the theater club," Sunghoon said. "I know you're only calling me to convince me to do that."

"I'm not trying to convince you to do it. Do it, or don't do it. Do whatever you want. I don't care, actually. I just think that you'd look really hot in a vampire costume."

Sunghoon thought he could just do the opposite of whatever Sunoo wanted just to get on his nerves. But right now it felt like he was the one being played.

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Sunghoon was a weak man.

A weak man in a VAMPIRE COSTUME. 

He raised his phone and squinted at himself through the front camera. The theater club's makeup artist had done a fantastic job. He pulled the corner of his lip back with his pinky to check the placement of the fake fangs. Still secure.

He looked hot. But the one person he'd dressed up to be hot for hadn't seen him yet, because the pop-up pub was packed and busy and he had spent the last two hours actually carrying drink trays and posing for photos with strangers instead of just standing around and charming people (Sunoo).

Perhaps he had to blame it on his face. Because his face was the marketing itself (quoting Jihoon). Sunghoon had smiled at that because what else do you do when someone's both complimenting you and constraining you.

After serving two giggly customers who made him sit and drank with them, Sunghoon took his chance and escaped the pub. 

He looked around and made his way inside to the clubroom. He let the door fall shut behind him, stood still for exactly three seconds just to appreciate the silence, then dropped onto the couch. His limbs out and one arm draped over his eyes.

Fuck.

Sunghoon had never worked a day in his life. What the fuck was that? Was that the frustration he had to endure for the rest of his life when he finally got a job?

He felt something cold pressed against his forehead. He removed his arm from his eyes.

Sunoo was standing over him, holding a canned coffee against Sunghoon's forehead.

"I haven't seen you anywhere," Sunghoon said, reaching up to take the can. "What are you doing here?"

"Avoiding duty." Sunoo was standing right between Sunghoon's sprawled-apart legs. "Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"Do you want me to die."

Sunoo laughed and reached down, brushing the stray strands of Sunghoon's hair back from his face. "You look good."

Sunghoon hated thinking with his dick. But alas he did. Because Sunoo looked cute under the dim lights of the clubroom and that face was the only thing he'd been looking forward to seeing all day. With half-lidded eyes, he put his hand on Sunoo's waist.

"Come here."

He pulled. Sunoo stumbled forward with a small yelp, catching himself with one knee pressed between Sunghoon's thighs, hands braced on Sunghoon's shoulders.

"What do you want?" 

"I was looking for you all day," Sunghoon said it plainly, because he was tired, tipsy, and slightly stupid right now. "How could you just leave me out there to work like that?"

"That's literally what you signed up for. What does that have to do with me?"

Sunghoon sulked. It was not a cool look on a vampire. "You're not close enough."

Sunoo's eyes narrowed. "Are you drunk?"

"I had a little drink."

"You were drinking on the job? I'm telling Jihoon hyung."

"Noooo." Sunghoon's hand tightened on his waist. "Customers made me do it. It was only…. Three shots? It would've been rude. Besides, I had fun. You're supposed to have fun at festivals."

Sunoo pressed his lips together. Then he exhaled through his nose and shifted his weight, and sank down sideways onto Sunghoon's lap. 

"You must be thrilled as hell right now."

"Why?"

Sunoo looped both arms around Sunghoon's neck. "Because there's only the two of us here and I'm sitting on your lap right now."

Sunghoon raised his shoulders. "Maybe two years ago."

"So you don't like me anymore?"

"Wow," Sunghoon said, letting out a short laugh. "Yeah and suddenly you're into me. Even though you barely knew me."

"I don't barely know you." A small furrow. "I know you."

"You didn't even recognize me."

Sunoo huffed. "You're holding grudges."

"Any sane person who's been rejected would." Sunghoon tilted his head. "Why did you reject me back then anyway? I wasn't hot enough for you?"

Sunoo laughed. "No, hyung."

"Liar."

"...That's not the main reason."

"I knew it."

"Okay, but—" Sunoo shifted so they could face each other. "Put yourself in my shoes for one second. Would you go out with someone who only talked to you when they were pulling your pigtails?"

Sunghoon opened his mouth.

"Also," Sunoo added. "I had a lot of people asking me out back then."

Sunghoon rolled his eyes. He let his head fall back against the couch in dramatic defeat. Sunoo reached up and pulled him upright again by the front of his shirt. 

"I mean this in the least conceited way possible. When you get asked out a lot, after a while none of it feels genuine. It starts feeling like people only liked me in shallow ways."

Sunghoon pointed at Sunoo with his chin. "And this isn't shallow?" 

"I'm not thinking about going out with you right now."

Sunghoon pressed a hand to his chest. "Just keep going. It's fine. Keep hurting me like that.

"Sillyyy." Sunoo grabbed his arm, grinning. "Listen to me first—"

"You have one minute." Sunghoon raised a hand. "Clock starts now."

Sunoo pulled a breath. "It's not black and white, hyung. Right now I might be entirely thinking about how hot you look and how good it would be if I could just make out with you but that doesn't mean that's all I'd ever feel. Relationships aren't just that. They're more than physical attraction or sexual chemistry. But before I get there, I like to test the chemistry first."

"Okay…" Sunghoon said slowly. "Okay. So. Hypothetically. If I kissed you right now, would you at least consider entertaining the thought of the possible possibility of a relationship? Not even a relationship. Just the possibility."

Sunoo pursed his lips. "I might."

They stared at each other and the gears in Sunghoon's head were visibly turning.

Sunghoon shook his head. "Nevermind. Can't do it."

"What? Why?"

"Because," he said it simply, looking away. "If I kiss you right now I might immediately catch feelings for you."

"You'd catch feelings from kissing?"

Sunghoon was offended. "Any normal person would. I'm not you."

"And that's... a bad thing?"

Sunghoon didn't answer. He was busy avoiding Sunoo's gaze and sulking. Sunoo somehow could see dog's ears flattened against Sunghoon's head, like a dejected puppy. Sunoo inwardly chuckled.

Sunoo asked, "Did you lock the door?"

"No, why—"

Sunoo kissed him.

His hand curled into the ruffle collar of the vampire costume, the other finding the side of Sunghoon's jaw. It lasted exactly just five seconds but it sent a major shock to Sunghoon's operating system.

"Wait—" Sunghoon held up one finger. He reached into his mouth and removed both fake fangs. He set them on the side table. Sunoo stared at the fangs, perhaps a little disgusted by them. Sunghoon grabbed his chin to bring their lips back together.

Not the way Sunoo had kissed him—that had been a beginning. This was the rest of it. He held Sunoo's jaw with one and while the other found the armrest and then he was leaning in, pressing forward.

It happened in increments with gravity doing its thing until Sunoo's back met the couch cushions and Sunghoon was above him, one knee sinking into the cushion beside Sunoo's hip, the other foot still braced on the floor, cape falling forward around them both.

Deep down he felt ridiculous doing this in a vampire costume and wished he could do a do-over later when he wasn't wearing foundation impossibly paler than his skintone and red smoky eye makeup that had probably smudged across his temple by now.

Still, Sunghoon felt like his ears were on fire each time Sunoo's soft lips moved tenderly against his.

Sunoo, for his part, seemed entirely unbothered by the haunting visual of being kissed by a flustered vampire while Sunghoon felt the breath go out of him.

He broke the kiss just enough to breathe and Sunoo opened his eyes, still heavy-lidded. 

Sunoo's mouth curved into a smile. "Your ears."

Sunghoon's hand flew to his ear on instinct like it could stop the heat from spreading.

Sunoo pressed his lips together, trying very hard to not laugh. "They're very—"

"Please."

"—red."

"I will get up."

"No, you won't."

He was right. Sunghoon did not get up. Because something else in his pants had gotten up and it would be embarrassing and uncool as hell if Sunoo saw it.

He dropped his forehead down to rest against Sunoo's shoulder instead, because it was that or let Sunoo keep looking at him and popped even worse public boner. 

Sunoo lifted one hand from Sunghoon's waist and tucked it into his hair instead. 

Sunghoon was sad. Why couldn't they continue kissing forever. It was so good kissing Sunoo's lips. It was so soft and sweet. He felt defeated, he felt like his whole world was crashing and burning down because they stopped kissing. Sunghoon wished they didn't have to stop kissing.

Sunoo was watching him with delighted devastation. Sunghoon was totally oblivious that those thoughts had actually left his mouth.

"What a puppy," Sunoo mumbled.

"What?"

The clubroom door opened.

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Jihoon entered the clubroom and made a beeline for the cupboard on the far wall, and started rummaging through it.

"Oh—Sunghoon? You're here."

"Hey. What's up?"

"What are you doing here alone?" Jihoon pulled a duct tape from the cupboard, checked it, and put it back.

"Just taking a break."

"Right, right." Jihoon nodded, already half-turning back toward the door, after he found the right duct tape he was looking for. "We got slammed out there. Don't take too long though. We need you. Your face is literally on the poster."

"Yes, yes, hyung."

"Five minutes."

"Yes."

"Four now."

"Hyung, I will be there."

Jihoon left. The door clicked shut. Sunghoon counted to five before he reached down and flipped the cape off his front.

Sunoo was curled against his side, one hand loosely fisted in the fabric of Sunghoon's shirt, cheek pressed to his chest. Blinking up at him from approximately six centimeters away.

"Is he gone?" Sunoo whispered.

"Yeah. You can get up."

"But I'm comfortable."

Sunghoon's heart almost lurched out of his ribcages.

"Your heart is beating really fast," Sunoo observed and glanced up curiously. "Are you okay?"

Sunghoon stared at the ceiling for one second, this was torture.

He had to rip off the band-aid before he changed his mind. He pushed Sunoo sideways off his chest with both hands, stood up, straightened his cape once before bolting off the clubroom.

Sunoo shrugged and yawned, and he collapsed back on the couch to nap.

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Sunghoon was doing his assignment at the designated outdoor study area of the architecture department building. His laptop was open. He was the perfect picture of academic diligence. A young man engaged earnestly with his coursework, investing diligently to his own future.

No. That was a lie. Sunghoon was writing a text to Sunoo on his laptop.

Can we meet

Are you free

I want to talk

Hey what's up

I've been thinking and I think we should address what's been going on with us because I'm not the kind of person who can just let things sit and I need you to know that I'm not bringing this up because I'm in love with you yet I'm bringing this up because of the principle of it and I think we should talk like an adult instead of these mindgames of us trying to figure each other out

 

you know i can see you've been typing for 10 minutes right?

Shit. 

Sunghoon ditched the chat, switched tabs to Sunoo's Instagram.

He double-tapped a photo from eight months ago. A pouty mirror selfie from Sunoo's brown hair era. Sunghoon physically moved his face closer to the screen. He saved it into his Kim Sunoo folder. 

He scrolled further. With each picture Sunghoon exhaled very slowly and blissfully through his nose like a pervert old man.

"Hey, puppy."

Sunghoon slammed his laptop shut and straightened up on his seat.

Sunoo was perched on the edge of the table in front of him, one leg dangling.

"Puppy?" asked Sunghoon.

"You are."

"Why?"

Sunoo reached out and hooked two fingers into Sunghoon's collar and tugged once. "Let's go get something to eat."

He hopped off the table and turned, already walking.

Sunghoon grabbed his laptop, grabbed his bag, shoved the laptop in, stood up too fast, knocked his chair back, caught it, and followed like he was being tugged by invisible leash.

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They did not get food.

They'd gotten to the campus convenience store, and Sunoo had been looking at the drink fridge and Sunghoon had been standing behind him thinking very loudly about Sunoo's neck and the possibility of him turning into a vampire because his neck suddenly looked very delicious.

Sunoo had glanced back at him over his shoulder.

"Actually," Sunoo had said, putting the drink back, "I'm not that hungry."

He'd looked at Sunghoon's car in the lot, then at Sunghoon.

The trap had been set for longer than Sunghoon realized. He'd walked into it with his eyes wide open. What a sly fox.

The backseat of Sunghoon's car was not that spacious. But Sunghoon had been thinking about Sunoo's lips for eleven days. The softness of them, the way they'd moved against his, the small sounds that Sunoo made whenever Sunghoon nibbled too hard that he'd been repeating on a loop in the back of his mind. 

He kissed Sunoo messily, his hand had made a home on Sunoo's waist. He braced against the seat as he crowded Sunoo back toward the door. Sunoo's mouth was just as soft as he remembered except now the door was locked and the windows were tinted so he could pay attention properly. His tongue swept against Sunoo's lower lip and Sunoo sighed against him and Sunghoon chased it immediately, kissing him deeper.

He hooked a hand under Sunoo's knees and pulled, drawing his legs sideways across his lap until Sunoo was half-reclined against the door and half-held by Sunghoon.

Sunoo tasted like the strawberry candy he'd been sucking on. Sunghoon was going to think about that forever. He was going to be 60 years old one day and tasted strawberry candy and his ears were going to turn red, he was so sure—he could see his future clearly.

He pulled back just enough to breathe then went straight back in because why wouldn't he. Sunoo laughed into the kiss a little and made it worse for Sunghoon's heart.

He kissed the corner of his mouth, the hinge of his jaw, the spot behind his ear and felt Sunoo's laugh. He pressed his lips to Sunoo's neck, he kissed down, sucked gently at the curve where neck met shoulder, and felt Sunoo's fingers tighten in his hair.

He started going lower.

Sunoo's hand pressed against his chest.

Sunghoon stopped immediately without question. He stayed where he was for a moment, forehead resting against Sunoo's collarbone, breathing.

Then he sat back, hair wrecked, and panted.

Sunoo smiled and patted Sunghoon's head. A reward for listening. "Good boy."

His ears were red again and the fox smiled.

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