Chapter Text
I first met my best friend and my boyfriend when I was 12 years old. Not that I knew it at the time, but there they both were, following my cousin Rika’s boyfriend into her house, matching sets of red hair and golden eyes staring at me. They were identical and I was in awe; I’d never seen twins in real life before that moment. The only physical feature that distinguished one from the other was the set of round glasses one wore, but their personalities were another matter. The one with glasses had a wide grin on his face and was nearly vibrating with excitement while his brother stood behind both him and V, watching me with an expression I didn’t understand at the time. I definitely did not hide behind her legs at the intrusion, and I certainly didn’t stutter when one of them spoke to me.
Let me back up a bit. My name is Yoosung Kim and I’m a 22-year-old college student at SKY University. My major is veterinary medicine, although I’ve lost a lot of my drive to complete my classes. In fact, the only reason I reliably come to school anymore is because of Seven driving to my house and dragging me there. I’m not sure why he’s so insistent since it’s not like he goes to many of his own, but every morning he’s at my place without fail. Well, he was, but recently his life has changed in a way that’s causing him to become even more reclusive than normal, which is not a good thing. I had hoped the days of me forcing him out of his apartment were long gone, but apparently not. He won’t even let me in to speak with him right now, something I find incredibly irritating since the only other way is to learn Arabic to get past the completely unnecessary lock he has on his door.
Honestly, what 23-year-old does that? Puts a password-coded lock in a different language on the door to their apartment on the 12th floor? My best friend, that’s who. Whatever.
He’s always been strange, though. I knew that from the moment I met him. He grabbed hold of his brother’s hand, running up to me without any hesitation to introduce himself.
“Hi! I’m Luciel! This is my brother, Saeran. He doesn’t talk much, so don’t worry if he doesn’t really respond to you, that’s normal. What’s your name?” He spoke at an incredibly fast pace and didn’t seem to mind when his voice cracked a bit, his eyes eagerly watching me as he waited for an answer.
Rika stepped away from me, revealing me completely to them when I didn’t really want to be. I’ve always been on the shy side until I feel comfortable with someone, and randomly having two new kids thrust at me certainly wasn’t my idea of fun. I fidgeted a little before finally willing up the courage to answer. “I’m Yoosung,” I said quietly, waving my hand weakly. I wasn’t sure what else to say, but lucky for me, I didn’t have to come up with anything.
He pounced almost immediately, giving me a quick hug before jumping back with a huge smile. “It’s nice to meet you! Let’s go and do something fun.” Pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, the smile changed into something mischievous that I had no idea how to react to. I was always the good kid when I was little, dutifully focusing on school and whatever else my parents told me to. My only real break from this came when Rika would babysit me; she would make sure I did whatever homework absolutely needed to be done, but she never forced me to sit and study for hours like I had to at home. I used these breaks to read some of the fantasy stories I’d unearthed at the school library, delving into a world that enraptured me to my core.
“F-fun?” I stuttered, returning his smile with uneasiness. “L-like what?” I had a sudden foreboding feeling at what this could mean; something about Seven’s presence, even back then, had thrown me off-kilter because I couldn’t predict what would come next.
In typical Seven fashion, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me along after him without answering, Saeran following behind sullenly. When we were seated comfortably on the couch, he pulled out something I’d only seen at a distance before: a gameboy.
And that’s about when my gaming addiction was born.
After that point, we saw each other regularly whenever Rika would babysit me. Her and V hadn’t been dating all that long so they grabbed the chance to be together as often as possible. I didn’t mind; I quickly grew close to Seven. Although at the time I called him by the name he had introduced himself as… Luciel. We became nearly inseparable, and I loved getting to play that gameboy when we hung out. Eventually Saeran stopped coming, but at the time I didn’t particularly care. He never really joined in on the fun, and usually only sat alone as far away from me as possible, quiet and shooting me hostile looks. Not having to worry about his presence and moodiness actually made me feel rather relieved; now, I just look back and realize it was jealousy. I don’t know much about the twins’ past before they started living with V, but it sounds as though it was literally them against the world. And then in I come, the outsider who all but steals his brother from him - even though that was hardly the case, I’m sure it felt like that.
We didn’t go to the same school because we lived in different districts. Seoul is a large city, after all, and V grew up in a very wealthy area. Once high school came around and Rika was no longer in charge of me when my parents were busy, it became harder to hang out, but we still managed. If he was free, V generally had no problem giving Seven a ride over to my place. It was around that time that he started to go by the alias 707, saying that it made him sound like a cool secret agent. I just laughed and went along with it, because why not? His weird and quirky sense of humor was one of the big reasons that I enjoyed hanging out with him so much. We talked about what we wanted to do with ourselves in the future and what college we wanted to go to. We even went so far as to make a stupid pact to get into the same university - something we actually managed to hold ourselves to. For a while, things seemed to be going fine in our busy lives.
But sometime mid-high school Saeran started to make friends with people who were headed down a bad road. I only heard bits and pieces from Seven when we’d talk, but it never sounded good. I know that he graduated with high marks (although Seven seemed oddly evasive about the how in that) but didn’t make it much long after before taking a turn for the worse. He ended up getting into a pretty dangerous gang and doing all sorts of drugs. There were rumors of a white-haired boy with mint eyes who was particularly deadly, a description disturbingly familiar to Seven’s description of his brother’s new look. I don’t know the specifics because again, Seven is very evasive about a lot of things to do with his family, but somehow Saeran ended up arrested and then sent to rehab. That was a relief, for both of us; Seven always felt guilty about his brother’s bad choices (and to be truthful, I blamed myself a bit too) and I was happy to see the weight lifted off my friend’s shoulders.
It was around the time that Saeran joined the gang that Rika disappeared. No word, no goodbye, nothing, just gone. I tracked down V a few times to try to find out if he knew anything, but all he gave me was a lot of non-answers and empty apologies. To this day, I still feel like he knows something about her but refuses to tell me. I used to respect him; now, not so much.
Fast-forward to today, where I’m still lying in bed at noon, having chosen not to go to my morning classes. I stayed up way too late raging on LOLOL last night knowing full well that Seven wouldn’t be coming to force my butt to school, and had then slept in without a care in the world. I honestly feel a little guilty about it, but what’s done is done. School hasn’t even been in session for a full month yet and here I am, skiving off already. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Checking the clock, I see that I still have time to take a shower before I have to get ready to leave for the afternoon round. Fair enough. I definitely shouldn’t skip these as well, even though I desperately want to.
So I get up and drag myself into the hot water of the shower, still tired even though I’m fairly certain I slept more than enough to operate at least better than a zombie. Scrub, scrub, scrub. Wash the hair. Brush the teeth. Yep, I’m guilty of doing that in the shower sometimes.
It doesn’t take long for me to finish and dry off, making sure to put my patented hair clip in and grab a bagel on the way out to the bus stop. Normally I cook my breakfast, but I just don’t feel like it today. Today feels… different. I’m not sure why, honestly, although my phone chirping at me might be a hint.
Seven [13:02] Hey, sorry I’ve been MIA lately. Should be good now. I’ll see u tomorrow morning?
I climb on the bus when it arrives and sit down on the first available seat, smiling at my phone. It’s nearing a month since I last saw him properly, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss him. I type back a reply quickly letting him know that I’m counting on it before pocketing my phone, leaning back against the rough seat and munching my bagel. I watch as the scenery of the city flies by, wondering what we’d talk about today in my psychology course. A lot of people in my year took the class as freshman, wanting to get it out of the way, but not me. Nope. No idea why, but I just… didn’t. Which is okay, honestly; part of the reason I have been able to make sure I at least make it to my afternoon classes is because I find it genuinely interesting. The human mind is so… complex, and interesting. Also confusing. I mean, look at Seven; We’ve been friends for 11 years and he still manages to baffle me.
The ride passes uneventfully and I get out at the stop near campus, trudging along the sidewalks toward the building my class is in. I pass a few of my friends and wave at them in greeting, smiling when they shout jokingly at me. Everyone always likes to tease me, and I guess I leave myself open to it a lot. It can get on my nerves sometimes, but for the most part I don’t mind. I’m used to it by now.
The class is held in one of the bigger rooms on campus since it’s generally very large, and by the time I get there it’s nearly full. Everyone is buzzing with excitement and anticipation, and a quick glance at the whiteboard at the front reminds me why: today is the day we find out who our partner for the first paper is. The semester is split into three major papers and a final; the first paper is done with a partner, proposing and then following a simple experiment to learn about the human mind. The second is done by yourself, and the third is unknown; the professor says she likes to switch that one up every semester, so I guess we’ll see when it’s time.
The assignments for our partner is done randomly, so we won’t have any say in who we get. I can see this as both a good and bad thing; good because I don’t have any friends in this class yet, so I don’t have to stress out about picking someone, but bad because I literally have no say. I could get a slacker, or someone who doesn’t care. Or I could get the take-charge person who doesn’t give me any choice in the matter. Who knows?
The class goes by fairly quickly, focusing on memory and short term vs. long term, etc. It isn’t until the last fifteen minutes that the professor finally brings up the assignments, telling us all to log into our school email accounts, as we should have received a list detailing who is paired with who. As soon as we know, we are to spend the last few minutes of class meeting them and exchanging whatever info is needed to contact each other. Sure enough, when I open it, one among the many unopened (oops) emails is from her, and I select it apprehensively. There’s an attachment and I click on it, bringing up the list and scrolling down until I find my name. Sucking in a breath, I bring my finger to the screen and drag it over to see the name listed next to mine. My eyes widen and I feel shock rushing through me at what I read, staring at it utterly dumbstruck. I’m not really sure how long I stay like that, but it’s long enough for him to find me.
The chair next to me screeches in protest as it’s dragged across the floor, and I gulp before turning to look up at an eerily familiar face. His eyes meet mine but he looks away quickly as he sits, folding his hands in his lap in a pose I haven’t seen for many years. “Hi, Yoosung,” he says quietly, still not looking up at me even as I continue to gaze at him, my mind reeling from the unexpected meeting.
“Saeran,” I breathe, one hand coming up to push some of my blond hair out of my eyes. “It’s been a while.”