Work Text:
If there was one thing Johnny believed he'd done well in his life, among all his mediocre achievements and substandard waypoints, it was creating Moon Taeil. A bunch of lines on a page that came together intricately to form the delicate features and smaller-than-average proportions that subconsciously became a visual representation of an ideal type which Johnny had never truly specified.
Johnny had never really consided graphic design his calling, preferring the more monotonous day to day life of an office worker but that never once stopped him from gravitating back towards his tablet after a long day of work and waiting impatiently for the end of the drawn-out start up process.
Taeil had started out as nothing more than a childs doodle, a stick figure with a scribble of messy blond hair and uneven proportions but with every passing year, as Johnny's artistic ability increased, Moon Taeil truly began to take shape and as Johnny grew so did the fictional character that had become such a big part of his life. He never told anyone about the drawings, afraid that they'd laugh or not understand why it meant so much to him but at the end of every tiring day, the serene slope of Taeil's lips, a curve drawn by his own hand, was something that never failed to make him feel better.
That day as he left for work, Johnny failed to realise that he'd left the tablet on in his rush to leave, the faint glow of the screen to low to significantly drawn his attention.
Though a mistake, that event would lead to much more than just a higher-than-average electricity bill.
•
The apartment was quiet when he returned, which wasn't unusual considering he lived alone and he'd come home to nothing but a dark, quiet living space for the past fleeting years. The lights were flicked off, save for a dull glow which radiated from the office, arousing Johnny's curiosity enough that he went to check it out as soon as he'd toed off his expensive shoes and slung his jacket over the designated hook. He had a fairly good idea of what could be causing the unexpected light but the boyish side of him was still eager to chek it out.
Standing in the entrance to the enclosed space, he was rewarded with total darkness save for the small arc of light that illuminated the area around the tablet, which as he'd suspected, was indeed switched on, draining his electricity faster than the hot water when it was freezing cold.
Feeling silly for getting excited, Johnny ran a hand through his neatly combed hair and made his way towards the device, stopping when he was in front of it to observe what he'd been doing before he'd neglected to switch it off. The screen was strangely familiar and yet completely unrecognisable to him.
From the overly bright screen, stared the modelesque face of Ji Hansol, a character he'd created to be Taeil's love interest while experimenting with the idea of writing an actual webtoon. The boys hand was extended and cupped as though he was caressing someone's face, except the spot where he clearly remembered drawing Taeil was now blank as a new storyboard.
"Looking for something?" A soft voice voice inquired from somewhere behind him, causing Johnny to knock the pencil pot that had been sitting on his desk to the floor with a noisy clatter. The action earned him a soft tinkling laugh which sent a warm tingle up his spine despite still not being able to see the one who'd made the sound.
"Who's there?" Johnny questioned in return, squinting to try and make out more than the silhouette which taunted him from within the inky darkness. He hesitated to move closer before he had more information despite the almost instinctive pull which urged him forward in a way that was much more than distracting.
"I don't know whether to be offended that you don't recognise me or amused at the face you're pulling right now trying to see me in the dark." The quiet voice admitted, humour clear in his voice as frustration apparently was on Johnny's face. His mind raced through a hundred and one possibilities but he couldn't stop it from shooting to the most unrealistic one any more than he could stop himself from moving forward.
"That's not possible--" He murmered, more to himself that his unwhitting audience but he received a chuckle in response none the less. "Then you're... Taeil? Moon Taeil? As in-- the comic book character I've been drawing since I was twelve?"
"In the flesh--wow, that's something I didn't think I'd ever say." The boy returned, finally stepping out of the darkness to reveal messy blond hair and piercing brown eyes, filled with soft amusement at the strange predicament that they found themselves in.
"How...?" Johnny trailed off, struggling to find the words to express his bewilderment in that moment without choking inherently and making himself look like more of an idiot that already unintentionally had. "How are you here?"
Taeil seemed to find the question funny (although Johnny struggled to find the same reaction) as he lifted his hand to his mouth too cover another chuckle, his too-long sleeve barely revealing petite fingers and clean-cut nails. "Well, it isn't too far fetched really... You drew me as a Korean citizen so of course I'd be in South Korea and you even modelled the room from that scene off the very room were standing in now. It almost feels like I never left." It was immediately obvious from the way his eyes sparkled that he'd deliberately misinterpreted the question but Johnny found it hard to care, too distracted by the way his fingers fiddled with the slightly frayed hem of his jumper.
"Are you staying?" Johnny asked the question that was most prominent in his mind, pushing the millions of others aside for later should the answer be yes. As strange as he found the situation, he knew for sure that he didn't want it to come to an end so soon.
"Unless circumstances make it otherwise, I have little desire to return to the side of Hansol who'd spend hours upon hours talking about his Japanese Soccer star crush if I didn't stop him." Taeil whined, the heightened pitch which was supposed to make him sound irritated, just making Johnny find him cuter than ever instead.
It was strange to think about the characters he'd spent hours drawing, having lives of their own, interactions that he didn't create and personality traits that he'd never intended them to have. Ji Hansol had been created solely as a love interest for Taeil but despite that clear purpose, he'd always hesitated to draw scenarios that portrayed them as such (because some small part of him wanted Taeil to look at nobody but him despite the absurdity of the thought at the time.) So to hear that tall blond boy had his own quasi-love life going behind the scenes was beyond mind-boggling if not slightly reassuring.
•
Having moved from the dark, cramped space of the den to the slightly more spacious living room, Johnny took the time to properly admire Moon Taeil for the first time. The small boy was perched on the couch, legs drawn up to his chest with his chin resting on top in a way that made him look impossibly smaller that he usually did. He was watching Johnny with soft, sleepy eyes as he waited for the younger to say something to break the silence they'd fallen into.
"Why did you draw me? It's all a bit strange to me... that I only really exist because one day, a kid decided to pick up a pencil and let his imagination run wild. That Hansol, my friend, only exists because you decided I needed a companion." Taeil looked perplexed, his eyebrows drawn together in a way that made Johnny want to run his finger across them to smooth them out. He didn't really have an answer for the older boy, the facts being that he'd been bored and somehow ended up getting attached over the years.
"There was something about you, something-- magical almost. After the first time, it was impossible to stop putting pen to paper and tracing the familiar lines that made up your smile because I was lonely whenever I couldn't see it for a long time. I guess I considered making it a profession but it all felt too personal, I didn't want to share you with the world." The words flowed naturally, things that Johnny had never admitted to himself, let alone spoken aloud for someone else to hear but it felt like the right thing to do when trained with the steady gaze of Moon Taeil.
"If either of us is magical, it'd be you not me... It's nothing short of magic that I'm sitting here right now and that certainly wouldn't have happened without you Seo Youngho." Sincerity laced every word that flowed from Taeil's mouth like silk, soft, enchanting and beautiful and Johnny could do nothing but agree because disagreeing with such a voice would be a travesty.
Johnny didn't realise he'd gravitated towards the older until he was suddenly standing before him, hand outstretched as though he wanted to assure himself that the ethereal boy was actually real and not a figment of his overworked imagination. Taeil seemed to catch on to what he was doing and leaned into the touch, unerringly trusting of the one who's created him and appeared to put him on the highest pedestal despite the fact they'd technically only just met for the first time.
It was anticlimactic, Johnny staring at his hand which was cupping Taeil's cheek much like Hansol had been in the panel he'd drawn the previous night. Taeil's eyes were closed, savouring the moment while Johnny marveled at the feel of soft skin beneath his fingertips and came to the conclusion that everything happening was indeed, very real. They stayed like that for several moments, neither of them eager to break the contact or willing to break the serene silence that had engulfed the room in its entirety, save for the rhythmic ticking of the clock.
"I'm real," Taeil finally muttered, bringing his own, much smaller hand up to cover Johnny's which still rested against his cheek. The contrast was striking but not in a bad way and Johnny found himself caught up in thoughts of never letting go, thoughts that he tried to push aside on favour of enjoying the moment instead of spoiling it with musings of what would happen later.
"I feel your soft skin, see every perfection that becomes you but I still find it hard to believe you could really exist on this plain of reality. You're too good to be true, yet you're right here." Johnny felt fourteen again, writing poetry about the beautiful boy that was way out of his league and yet not being able to turn his face away. In many ways that was the case, because Johnny had only ever loved one person in his life and that person had always been entirely unattainable, though not for the typical highschool reasons. Moon Taeil had always been a dream, a fantasy that was so far out of reach that Johnny could barely see him and yet he was sitting in his living room with that very same person and the dream had yet to shatter.
"I'm as real as you are, I can exist in the same place and feel your warm hands against my skin because you made it so. It was never a dream, just a reality that you were too afraid to attain for yourself." Taeil meant every word, not understanding how Johnny could see him as so perfect when he got to see himself in the mirror every day and get a glimpse of what perfection really looked like.
"Be it dream or reality, it's something I'm excited to experience now and nothing's holding me back." Johnny admitted, pulling to smaller boy into a standing position and wrapping his arms around him like he'd wanted to since seeing him for the first time.
"Then don't hold back," Taeil replied earnestly, leaning into the embrace as though he belonged there, and it really felt like he did.