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Ahn Suho wasn't granted a lot of mercies in his life.
There was always a curveball life liked to throw at him, whether it's in the form of his parents leaving him with his weathered halmeoni to try their luck opening a business in Japan and essentially forgetting about his existence afterwards, whether it's in the form of him giving up on his dream of pursuing MMA professionally due to his halmeoni's degrading health which made him pick up work at a very early age of his life, or whether it's in the form of him constantly having too much on his plate, juggling one life or the other.
In a way, Suho was raised to constantly be on edge with things, always letting go before things could get a meaning, becoming something more than just a speck in his periphery, have a name that will mean something to him. He didn't have in him wanting something just for it to be another lesson, another curveball that life will inevitably throw at him, saying "look, what made you think you could have it?"
He knew long before everything, that coveting something was not made for people like him, wanting too much and having too much, but still not enough to fill the greedy hole in his heart, to still not be wanted back in this life.
People admired him, of course, with his aloof nature and too easy going of a stature, with years of martial arts training sculpting him into what he is now. People flocked to him, of course; boys with their envy filled awe, wanting to become someone like him, strong and masculine and dependable; girls with a longing and need to bow a seed of love within him, to experience the textbook love with a textbook charming man.
But Suho didn't get it. Didn't they understand wanting him will lead to nothing? Do they know that beneath his external personality, deep within there is a boy who feels loneliness like a second skin, who has never felt wanted and needed like he wanted to be, not by his parents, not by his peers growing up, and certainly not by how people want him now.
He wants so many things in his life. He wants to experience how life looks without the burden of his living falling upon him, he wants to experience what it feels to share a connection with people, to experience their grief and their joy, he wants to experience how it feels when he's the one people look after and not the other way around. In his selfish thought, he conjures that he wants someone just like him, someone lonely and to be had, someone who can understand where his loneliness stems from, someone who can uproot it with the inexperience of someone who has never done it. And he wants to do the same to them, he wants their being to be attached to his, so that all the love that wants to seep out of him seeps right back into his person, the only one he'd want the love to go.
He's imagined his life with countless of people, looking out of the window and seeing a group of friends and imagining what it would feel like to play a match with them, examining various parents he sees on his way to his job and wonders what it would feel like to grow up being wanted, and looking at various couples that visit their restaurant and just thinking,
What would it be like to be belonged?
Out of all curveballs life has thrown at him, Yeon Sieun is the most bizarre one. And the most important.
He was yet again falling into another slumber when he was rudely woken up by a pair of hands shaking him and commotion surrounding them. He wakes up in a dazed state, yawning as he gathers his bearings when he looks forward and sees a bunch of athletes looking pissed, directing their glare at him.
Yeah, not worth it.
Feigning ignorance, he shifts his gaze to the boy sitting in front of him, his brain fuzzy with the details of what name the face belongs to, and asks him about lunch, which inevidently pisses off the baseball team even more.
Seriously, should athletes even be howling and acting like this? No decency to be found at all.
"Yah, did you hit on my Naeun?" the athlete, he assumes as the captain of the team, starts the conversation, pointing at his chest to emphasis on 'my Naeun', like that should make the question even clear, like Suho should know who he is or who she belongs to.
But the thing is... Suho doesn't remember her, or well him too.
....who?
The name doesn't scratch a bit at all in his head, and he doesn't believe he's hit on anyone in like years, usually he was the one who was being pursued by people before he gently let them down by buying them a lunch or dinner. He was lonely, yes, but he wouldn't indulge in anything just to subdue it, he's learned that they never actually end up working at all.
Still, he tries, " Naeun?..Lee Naeun? Song Naeun?"
For some reason this pisses off the athlete even more, exasperation and anger evident in his tone when he barks out, "Son Naeun, you son of a bitch!"
Ahh...oops.
He doesn't remember her well, might not even be able to point her out in a sea of crowd, but he does remember her name. He took her out on a date just to reject her politely too. She was too keen in pursuing him, dming him on insta to talk about mundane things which shouldn't be bother to her at all, commenting on every post even though he's posted them a long time ago, replying to his every story and liking them. So obvious.
He might've found her insistence endearing, should've found it endearing even, Son Naeun was pretty, evidently so, but he just couldn't find it in him to accept her advances at all, couldn't find himself be attracted to her. So, a date and ditch it is.
"Ahh, she kept dming me so I took her out on a date to let her down. She isn't my type."
Suho thought this might've been enough to curb the guy's anger, or atleast acquiesce it enough so the misplaced anger isn't directed upon him, and rather on his supposed girlfriend. But alas, he recognises the look of a person who has something to lose, and he understands immediately that he's been put upon a position where he's the one stealing it. A threat.
So, he's not shocked, albeit unimpressed, when the supposed alpha of the pack orders the other guys to start a fight with him, in the middle of the class. Suho has nothing to lose, and he's not unbridled with anger, so he lays it easy on these guys.
He dodges punches and bat swings with easy grace, just stumbling upon here and there when he's overpowered, but they're no match to him at all. Soon enough, the guys with their cockiness bigger than their strength find themselves groaning and writhing with pain as he twists the captain's ear with his one hand and slaps a textbook over his head with the other.
" Ya, Ya, Ya, Seriously, aren't you guys’ athletes? Is this what you should be doing with your free time? I'm so embarrassed, seriously."
The captain twists in his grasp, trying to get out of his hold when another guy tries his hand on him. He just kicks the chair next to him to push the guy out of his trajectory. Losers.
After just a meagre minute, the captain accepts his defeat, his ego and pride wounded, and Suho thinks this is the end of it. But it's never just enough with people with too much greed for control, and for them, their ego is their paramount.
So, to nobody's surprise, the captain swings his bat again widely, just missing a few spaces away from Suho's head and keeps swinging without a proper direction. He looks wildly out of range, like someone aiming for a pinata blindfolded. On his next swing, he swings, well rather throws his bat again, this time the bat landing on the blackboard and falling down with a clank.
Okay now, Suho thinks, this is getting annoying. Yet, he tries, his stature now presenting itself in an offensive position rather than defence,
"You should've stopped when I told you to. Don't cross the line."
This still doesn't put an end to his administration and he pulls back for another punch. Before the punch can even reach the perimeter of his face, Suho dodges and counterpoints with his own.
With a thud, the captain's body falls down, heavy as a sack, unconscious.
Just ridiculous, Suho thought.
"Take him to the infirmary," Suho points out to the rest of the 'all bark no bite' crew and then down to the body laying down below his feet, "And don't tell anyone hyung did this, hm? I'll make you pay."
The guys were now quick to obey him, tiptoeing around him meekly as they hoisted their captain, as if they're afraid of him quickly losing his temper and finish them off as well. The audacity.
As he watched the guys on work, he felt prickly eyes gazing upon him from sideways. Another distraction from his nap? He felt his attention moving quickly to the boy sitting right next to where he stands and.... wow.
Who's this total babe?
With his eyes as black as a deep ink, feels as if he's scribbling his own impression of Suho upon him. With his countenance rivalling an angel, he looks like God has given humanity's most coveted art a life, curated with love and grace. He looks he sprung out of a louvre painting, should belong to a louvre itself, instead of well, eugh, Byuksan High School.
Wait.
School. Classroom...Yeah.
Suho soon remembers where he's present, perceived by the most beautiful person he's ever seen, who is looking at him with mild annoyance, like Suho is a pest disturbing his atmosphere. Suho has never found anything this romantic.
He watches as the gorgeous guy lifts his gorgeous eyes off of him and then points down with his gorgeous gaze silently, yet it still lands like an order. Suho looks down and finds a bunch of stationaries spread out of a pouch around his feet.
"Was this," Suho points at himself, "because of me?"
"Yeah." states the boy, like it's obvious.
Suho crouches down and gently put everything back into its place, and then puts it down gently on the guy's desk.
"Sorry, my bad, bro" Suho placates, hands raising and forming a peace sign, continue wanting to look at him.
The feeling's not mutual though.
"Why do that in a classroom." With that, the guy essentially ends his conversation with Suho, turning his body towards his desk to continue what he was doing previously, studying.
Wow, Suho thinks, amusedly, tongue pressed upon his left cheek as he watches the guy, who is unbothered with the presence around him.
Cute.
Wait. Oh.
After that day, Suho's brain chemistry felt like it frizzled right out of working.
He found himself tracing back the day he talked to the pretty boy, which now he knows has a pretty name known as Yeon Sieun, remembering the way he acted so unbothered by him, like he didn't watch Suho put a bunch of guys back to their rightful places. It felt exhilarating, to be treated like someone ordinary and unknown and given a chance to be known from scratch, free from a general consensus people seem to have on his personality, already making a mental note of what Suho is and what Suho might want, and then approaching him with their own wants and needs for him. Suho doesn't care about people like them at all.
Maybe that's why he finds Yeon Sieun so extraordinary. Worth a second look over. or a third. or a fourth.... maybe also a fifth.
Suho admits, that he's scared, to reach out and make something out this, tangible within his touch and intangible within his being. Where he might find himself creating something deep within him, carving out a space just for Yeon Sieun to occupy, where he will nothing except Suho. Scared of how important that space might become to him, and what he'd have to do with it once Sieun leaves too, like everybody in his life does. Scared of himself and scared of everyone and everything around him, that could hurt him.
But it feels like his heart isn't getting the memo. And maybe, Suho wants to at least try before it just stays as a 'what if?' forever. So at least he doesn't regret not taking the chance at his own luck.
Maybe Sieun will be an exception. In his pursuit of belonging, maybe Sieun would want him too, find him first even.
"Yah! Ahjussi! Are your bones giving up on you or what?"
Suho breaks out of his stupor to Yeongi's grating voice, hands on either side of her waist, trying to look intimidating. He finds himself back to the present, feels wood under his hand and a cloth in his other.
Right. He was busting down a table before his daydreaming landed him back to Yeon Sieun. Yeon Sieun......
Wait. Work. Must work right now.
Right. Better not think about him during work. Just thinking about him makes him feel jittery. Abort! Abort!!
Suho sighs and snips back, "Yah! Ahjumma-ya, don't you have your own dilly-dallying to do instead of lurking around me and nitpicking what I do," He finishes busting down the table and flicks the dirty cloth towards her, earning him a shriek and profanities that even a thug could not digest, " Quit being in my business and mind your own, won't you?"
"I wouldn't have to be in yours if you just did yours dutily! Seriously, who hired you? I should let aunty- Yah! Where do you think you're going?"
"Delivery!" Suho says simply, rummaging through his locker and changing out of his work uniform. Suho works part as a waiter in his aunty's restaurant, a dear friend of his halmeoni who allowed him work as young as 14, and he does delivery for another delivery service company for 3 days a week. On weekends, he either finds himself working for a moving company if they need him or doing some odd jobs here and there. He rarely finds himself in a moment of tranquillity, often trading it for another job, another penny. It's hard work but he's earnest. He has to support himself and his halmeoni, because nobody else will otherwise.
"Be safe! And drive home safely afterwards!" Yeongi calls out as he leaves from the front door, the bell chiming. He and Yeongi had somewhat a difficult relationship. They were too different and fit too differently in the equation, but somehow were comfortable enough to call each other friends, even if they get on each other's nerve here and there. In a way, they shared what could be called as a kinship. Maybe be siblings...
Suho soon found himself delivering food place to place, a family sized meal here, a single meal of kimchi fried rice there. The work was exhausting, to be constantly be up and going, only finding a bit of reprieve in the form of little breaks before he has to deliver another order.
Order #348B:
Apartment 303, Block 4, Yilsung Projects. 3 medium sized Samgyetang, to be delivered. Accept?
Suho sighs as he clicks the accept button through his notification panel and clicks out of the game he was playing, getting up and cracking his knuckles above his head and loosening up the stiff muscles around his shoulder. Just when the game was getting interesting. Ugh.
The apartment complex is a big concrete jungle.
Suho soon finds himself getting lost trying to find the blocks, and then getting lost again trying to find the unit. Seriously, who designed this? Suho will find them and make them pay himself.
After taking an embarrassing amount of time, Suho soon finds the floor he should've been on like 5 minutes ago and aha! Lo and behold Apartment 303 is right in front of him. Small mercies honestly, Suho thinks.
He adjusts the food packages in his hand while he uses another to push the buzzer and waits... and waits...
"Who is it?" comes a muffled voice through the door. And wait-
That voice sounds familiar.
He doesn't think much of it though, chalking it up to a coincidence or rather just a regular customer. "Delivery!" He announces.
"...I haven't ordered anything" the voice calls back. Well excuse him.
Suho rechecks his delivery order down to everything. Yilsung Projects. Check. Block 4. Check. Apartment 303, he lifts his eyes to the nameplate, Check. 3 samgyetang orders, which smells delicious by the way and as samgyetang should, so. Check.
"What? I have a food order to deliver here! It's the right place!"
The door then opens and dark cat-like eyes peer to him and... and what was he thinking and why is he thinking anything when this divine phenomenon of a human has graced his present to a mere mortal like Suho again? Seriously, what's wrong with him?
"Wahh... It's the nerd again! You live here?" Suho says in the lieu of a greeting, looking behind Sieun to assess his apartment. Wait. That's rude of him. Oops.
"I haven't ordered anything” Sieun reiterates, and also doesn't seem to mind Suho's brashness, for some reason.
"Ahh but the address written here is the same, isn't it? Yilsung Projects... Apartment 303... Block 4..." Suho trails off, looking back at the packages, voice dimming.
"This is Block 3". Sieun responds, face blank.
"What?"
"You're in Block 3. Block 4 is the next one over. You're at the wrong place"
Well...excuse me then.
Suho looks at Sieun sheepishly, embarrassed but not so embarrassed by the little mistake he made on his route. How can he be embarrassed? The situation landed him in front of this major cutie again. But he still is... a little bit if he's honest. He doesn't want to ruin his impression of him to Sieun, if he even has any, if he even thinks of him any.
Does he think of me like I do of him? Does he want me in his life like I want him in mine? Does he even have anything to say about me? Does he- Ugh. Not right now.
Too soon. Way too soon.
For a while, they just stare at each other. And wow. Has Suho given you a rundown about how Sieun's eyes are shaped like beautiful marbles? The way they reflect everything he sees so clearly, like it's just another angle for people to look at things, to look at themselves, like a mirror. A glassy, beautiful mirror. Edible one too, like boba, chewable. And now onto the lips! Has Suho told you-
Sieun blinks down suddenly, looking down, his feet shuffling in his house slippers, and back up to him, breaking the trance. Suho finds himself having trouble to gulp down the whatever warm syrup feelings of his that are begging to let out. Nope! He finds himself admiring the way Sieun's hand clutches his too-big-of-a-shirt that pools around his hips, the way licks his chapped lips before he uses them along with his deep soothing voice to form a few sentences and, Nope! Nope! ABORT!
"Okay, Good Night then," Sieun nods in a lieu of bidding him goodbye, closing the door.
Wait... Wait! No need to abort!! Continue! Continue!
"Wait!" Suho exclaims, wedging his hand between the door and the doorframe, earning him a bemused look from Sieun. Shit. He didn't think this one through.
Mentally turning his head over for an excuse, he blurts out, rather gracelessly, "I'm thirsty."
"What?"
"Ahh, haven’t you given your hyung a look over once, huh? Don't you see he's one second away than keeling over in front of your gate and passing out from dehydration? Don't you see it?" Suho yaps.
Sieun narrows his eyes, "No, I don't."
"Well good thing hyung is here to tell you then!" Suho chirps, pushing forward towards the apartment, his body touching Sieun's momentarily as he goes past him and sits himself comfortably on the porch, his whole being thrumming with buzzing energy. Embarassing.
For a moment, Sieun just stands there, stunned, as if he cannot believe someone can be so forward with their demands. And well, being annoying.
Well, Suho thinks, He has a lot of time to get used to it!
"Ahh", Suho groans, making Sieun jolt from where he's standing, "Aren't you being too hard on your hyung, dongsaeng? Does hyung really needs to pass out for you to take his health into consideration and bring him water huh? Hey look! I'm passing out now" Suho continues, then sways lightly from where he's sitting, like he's about to pass out, obvious in his dramatics.
Sieun sends an exasperated look towards him, but he moves his feet towards the kitchen to bring him water and a cup for him to drink from. Which Suho forgoes, of course, earning him a yet another exasperated look. So rude!
He reaches directly for the almost empty water bottle and starts drinking, and wow, he really must've been thirsty because the cold water felt absolutely phenomenal in that moment. If Sieun ends up drinking from the same water bottle and also drinks it straight from the opening, would that count as an indirect kiss? Wow, Suho should start thinking a little wisely.
He gets up, dusting his pants to smooth out any curves, and partially to look a little cool in front of crush, and bids Sieun goodbye, albeit unwillingly. Duty calls. And well, he can't stall his farewell forever. Ahh, but he wishes he could.
"Thanks bro, I'll buy you a dozen water bottles as a thanks. See you later."
Does that sound cool? Suho sure hopes so.
With that, Suho leaves, waving him goodbye. But not without checking Sieun out as he closes the door behind him, of course.
"Ya! Ahn Suho! Feel ready for today's test yet?"
Shaaaa~
"Suho-ya, don’t look so out of it! I told you you should've remembered the contents from chapter 3! The teacher definitely has a number of questions-"
Lalalaaaaa~
"Yah Ahn Suho, did you hit your head or something?"
Young love in the air, Angel Suho coos in his ear, prancing around from one shoulder to the other. Young love is blooming~
Suho sighs longingly, gazing at the beautiful mop of hair that sits at the top of the beautiful piece of head, supported by beautiful neck that sits upon a beautiful set of shoulders which has a beautiful set of arms that have beautiful set of fingers that are curved beautifully around the pages as he leans forward with his beautiful posture-
"Yah!"
A book suddenly flashes before his eyes, creating a perfect arc as it lands on his desk with a thud, breaking his indolent gaze he was using to send Yeon Sieun subconscious messages. He had heard somewhere that if you love, or in his case, like someone wholeheartedly, the person you're coveting can feel it deep within themselves too, your longing.
(Baku had said it to him during one of few basketball matches they've played together. A woman had caught his eye in the park and he lamented and lamented to Suho that she was the one for him. He tried to apply the same. It didn't work.)
In a way, Suho trying to send subconscious message to Sieun was like a statement waiting to be proven. Baku is hopeless, but Suho is even more hopeless than him. Wow, that's even more embarrassing.
Yeon Sieun will be mine. Yeon Sieun, you will be mine. Yeon Sieun, you want to love me so bad it makes you look embarrassing. Yeon Sieun, by the power of Christ, I compel you to only love me. Ohmmm. Ohmmm.
"Christ, did you take something dude? Hey! Blink twice if you need help"
Suho blinks, once.
"Umm..." The guy looks around. "Okay..."
And... with another blink, he's back to the present.
He looks over from where he's sleeping and finds a bunch of guys surrounding him for no reason, and look, a book on his desk! For some reason! He didn't want even the book! He wanted the Yeon Sieun instead! He wanted the nerd, not become nerd himself.
Oh, but is it working?
Ohmm. Ohmmm.
A guy, something along the line of being named Minjae or Minhae, Suho doesn't remember it, steps forward and bends a little, pressing the back of hand against his forehead, and wow, this is torture. He wants Yeon Sieun pressed against him. Who are these people?
Suho swats the hand away, raising his head from where it has been resting below his crossed arms, and looks at them through squinted gaze.
"What is up with these looks? Shouldn't you all be busy studying?" He huffs out, giving them a once over.
"What's up with us? What's up with you!? You weren't answering us for like a minute or two, bro."
Oh.
Oops.
"Ah," he ruminates, scratching his chest, "I was just, revising some formulas in my head, you know? Like, atleast some of them might stick enough for me to use them in the exam...if they come, that is."
"Ha!" Another guy from the pipsqueak team quips out, "Is that so? So what's the constant rule of the derivatives? Hm? And when should you use them?" The other guys stand straight now, waiting for the answer. Or to just catch him red handed in his lie. Bastards.
But he's still. Busted.
Three seconds in. He hears a stifled giggle to his left.
"Yah!," They all flinch in unison, and Suho might've found them funny if he wasn't trying to save his own ass from the predicament. “Is that how you play, huh? Trying to get answers from me so that it can be helpful to you during your exams? What's in it for me? Nothing! I won't fall for this. You do you and I'll do mine." He pushes up to his feet, standing straight and stretching his hands over his head, looking at them dead-on, trying to intimate them.
The guys, to his benefit, are all shifty now, unsure whether to be scared or call him out on his bluff, but all it takes for him to look at them wryly and say "Are you guys gonna accompany me to the bathroom or what? Should we play tag together there? Scram" for them to shuffle around him and leave him be.
Ah. Peace at last.
But well. Now he has to go to the bathroom.
The bathroom reeks of cigarette smell and smoke, and whatever they seem to be putting up in these kids vapes. It is reminiscent of grapes, Suho thinks offhandedly, but it's so offputting that he doesn't even want to put a name on it.
"Ah seriously," Suho exhales, breathing through his mouth to avoid inhaling the acrid smell, "You've made this whole place your own smoking room or what? It's already terrible that you're doing this in the bathroom of all places. Ah, how terrible. Right, Yeongbin-ah?"
Yeongbin sits up straight from the windowstill that he's been sitting on, looking sheepish as if he's being reprimanded by a teacher and not just another student, much less his own batchmate. Suho knows the look though, he's not sheepish at all, he's smouldering within.
Jeongchan and Taehoon eye each other in what they think is discrete, clearly bothered by how Suho was talking with them, wanting to pick up a fight, but a sharp look from Yeongbin was enough to shut them up momentarily.
"We'll make sure not to occupy this space next time, Suho-ya. Let's be chill now." Yeongbin acquiesces, smirking. Not honest at all.
Men like him are so predictable. Someone can easily point out which buttons to push for their innate rage to come out, violence buzzing through their stream begging to be let out on another poor soul. To show them up. To make them an example. To let everyone know who they are. Like people should recognise them enough to quiver at their presence. To satisfy their greed. But men like him, Suho understands, are also just sheep in wolf's clothing, picking up on the weak to establish themselves at the top of the food chain, unaware of the fact that chewing up their own will not make them stronger in the face of predators, they'll still remain at the bottom of the pyramid.
Yeongbin must've seen his fight with the baseball team, must've heard enough about him through mouths of others, to know his background and his past with fighting, that he was enough to score him a place in the national team if he had pursued it, and drew up his own conclusions.
Ahn Suho was not to be messed with. Unless he wants to be pushed down back to the bottom, where he belongs.
"I'm chill," Suho sniffs as he enters a stall, “I don't think you're though."
"You-", Taehoon starts, before he's stopped by Yeongbin, yet again, with an aggressive hold on his arm. Yeongbin shakes his head, motioning him to shut up.
"Ah, should we do something about him? This son of a bitch thinks he rules everything." Jeongchan hisses, angry at the way Suho was behaving towards them. Condensing. Like they're worth the same as the gum that sticks on someone's shoe.
Worthless and bothersome.
"Learn to understand how you face an opponent, not all fights have to be fought physically." is all Yeongbin says, jaw ticking, before the bathroom door opens once again to reveal another familiar face.
Yeon Sieun.
Wow, Yeongbin thinks, rolling his eyes and taking a drag. Seriously, is this who can piss off Yeongbin even more competition going around here today? Who else has gotten the memo?
There had been a rage festering within him for a past few weeks, for a few months even, the rage he knew existed because of him. Because of Yeon Sieun.
It pisses him off to no end, how Yeon Sieun can just come first in anything he puts his mind into. Like it's an easy feat for him, beating Yeongbin everytime they compete in something. Like he doesn't even have to lift a finger, while Yeongbin has to work himself to the bone just to earn a second prize. Just to come second every time. To him, out of all people.
And God, it drove him absolute nuts, how Yeon Sieun does not know how to bow down. Has not learned to be submissive. As expected from people like him. The weak ones. Hasn't learned to look down and pull his shoulders inward in the face of danger. He should be scared, fearing for his life like how the others do, whenever they are unfortunate enough to stumble upon him.
And yet, Yeon Sieun does nothing of those sorts, has the gall to stare down at him even, like he's nothing, just a minor inconvenience he has to deal with instead of going on with his life like he wishes to. So indifferent. Like a parent putting up with a child's tantrum. Like he couldn't care less about him, or his anger, or his envy. Of all it irrelevant to him.
And ahh... Isn't that so humiliating? Yeongbin doesn't like it at all. It makes him want to revolt even more.
He almost succeeded in doing so, during a break where Sieun had, yet again, talked back at him, looked back up at him with his fucking creepy eyes, fingers coiled around his pen tightly like he might stab him if he dared provoke him more. Ha! Isn't that so funny? As if he could actually do it.
But they were soon interrupted when a gaggle of athletes came looking for Ahn Suho, and Yeongbin had to yet again let go of Sieun in lieu of watching what he deemed as 'Ahn Suho dick measuring competition' as he handed the baseball team’s assess right back to them. Effortlessly so.
Yeongbin quickly realised that in order to have his head above water, he needed to avoid anything and everything with Ahn Suho altogether. He couldn't take him on one-on-one, he knows, so any type of fight has to be psychological, or atleast with a group of people. But even then, Yeongbin doesn't think he will come out of it victorious. He fears it will always be the other way around.
Yeongbin knows he's smart. So as much as he can afford to, he successfully manages to not be anywhere near Ahn Suho's periphery. Which, turns out, is not a hard feat at all.
Yeongbin watches Suho dozing off almost always during school hours with a pink pillow around his head and not a care of this world on his shoulder. He hardly wakes up to anything unless a teacher wakes him up or he decides to utilise lunch break for what it is, lunch.
Wow, Yeongbin scoffs, Ridiculous. One of his nemesis acts like there's nothing in his life except studying and the other turns comatose the moment his head hits his pillow. Absolute losers. He should seriously think of raising his standards.
"Fuck you looking at, asshole?" A voice bellows out, breaking Yeongbin from his stupor. He looks forward and finds Jeongchan leaning back with one hand in his pocket and another around his vape, inhaling and puffing out air intermittently, jeering down at Sieun.
Yeon Sieun just turns his head towards the sink, washing away the blue ink spread across his fingers and palm, not acknowledging them at the slightest as he gently works on his skin.
"Ha," Jeongchan wheezed out, now completely pissed, pointing at Sieun with his thumb and facing the other two, "Did this guy seriously just ignore us all? Wow, look at this young guy, so brave" he croons, kicking his shoes lightly.
"Ya, Yeon Sieun," Yeongbin starts arrogantly, exhaling another smoke into the air, "You should address your hyungs back when they acknowledge you, don't you know that?"
Sieun doesn't even spare them a glance as he continues washing his hands, clearly doesn't want to be a bother and to be bothered at all. Not that it matters to them, of course.
Sieun's uncompromise was an act of defiance to them. It made them pissed, beyond relief, that this little punk has the audacity to push back, to ignore them altogether, like their existence is just a speck in the surrounding, easily ignorable.
Jeongchan rolls his shoulder, sighing, as he begins walking towards Sieun. "Yah! I'm seriously tired of-"
Thud!
Jeongchan yelps, stumbling back as he pinches his nose and looks at Suho pathetically, the stall door swung open.
"Ah, sorry, are you hurt? Hyung didn't mean it," Suho placates, rubbing his palm on Jeongchan's shoulder rather meaningly, and looks over to the two boys over his shoulder, tilting his head, "Seriously, picking up fights again?" Suho clicks his tongue, "Even a broken clock is right twice a day, Yeongbin-ssi."
Yeongbin is quick to hide his scowl, face changing to one of a bashful look, fake, nodding his head with a strained smile, "I apologize Suho-ya. Didn't mean it"
"Don't keep doing something that you don't mean then," Suho says, smacking his palms lightly on Jeongchan's face, condensing, not looking at him, "We won't keep finding ourselves in these situations, hm?"
"Yeah, Suho", A beat, " Won't happen again."
"I'll look forward to it," Suho says as he walks towards the sink and washes his hands next to Sieun, who seems to be done with his and is now drying his hands with the tissues next to the sink. "Next time, a sorry won't cut it." With that he leaves the bathroom with a dramatic flair.
A beat. Sieun gives them a once over, his gaze no less indifferent than his previous attitude towards them, and leaves the bathroom as well.
"What a load of bullshit," Jeongchan sneers, sucking from the vape harshly, then coughing out it right back violently, pounding his chest with his fist. Yeongbin scoffs, rolling his eyes.
"Ah...Ah shit..." Jeongchan gasps out slowly, a visible tear line on his countenance, face red, "Fuck, almost died there."
"But seriously," Taehoon drawls, speaking for the first time after the whole ordeal, "Aren't you going to do something about this? Or are we supposed to just accept it and put our tails behind our back and hand our asses to them whenever they ask?"
"Jeongchan-ah" Yeongbin ignores him, diverting the conversation.
"Yeah?"
"Don't you sit right behind Yeon Sieun?"
"Yeah," he assents, puffing out air, "He always gets so focused whenever he's giving those exams, I don't think I've seen his hands stop once until he finishes his paper. That's creepy. I get nauseous even at the thought of seeing a question paper, eugh, I'll throw up." Jeongchan shivers, as if genuinely imagining it.
Yeongbin is exasperated. Seriously, why does everybody around him hold a degree in being annoying? Whatever. He fishes out a pack of tablets from his pocket, twirling it with his fingers, catching the attention of both his friends.
"Wahh... Drugs here? Are these mind boosters or what? Are you helping us?", Taehoon gushes, reaching out for the tablet. Yeongbin smacks his hand offhandedly.
"Jeongchan-ah"
"Yeah?" Jeongchan asks dumbly, still looking at the pills.
"I want you to slap this on Yeon Sieun's neck during the exam."
Sieun didn't expect him at all.
"Yeon Yeon-Sieun-ssi" Suho sang, wrapping an arm around Sieun's shoulder, making Sieun jump in his step, both from the unexpected addressal and the arm around him.
Isn't that so cute?
"What are you doing? Get off" Sieun says, peeved, pushing Suho off of him. Suho stumbles but recovers quickly, now choosing to just hover around him.
Hmph. One point to Sieun.
"Aren't you being a little too mean to your hyung right now? Seriously, my heart is wounded" Suho laments, pitching up his dramatics to a notch.
"I hardly know you," Sieun quips back, "And we're in the same class. You're not my hyung."
"Well, that can change anytime" Suho croons.
“I hope it's not anytime soon"
Suho gasps at the statement. Excuse him? He's lovely to be around! Though he doesn't find himself really hurt by this sentiment. He knows, deep within, if he looks really closely, like really close, he knows Sieun doesn't really finds his presence annoying. He's just grouchy, having his space invaded. Suho finds it cute, actually.
Seriously, what about Yeon Sieun doesn't captivate him? Suho doesn't know.
A total babe, a major cutie and occasionally grumpy? Who's making the lottery? Keep it coming!
"You're so lovely to talk to." Suho snips, earning him a side eye from Sieun as they reach their class. Before Suho lets them be on their way, he removes his hands from his pocket and gently presses a pen into Sieun's palm.
Sieun looks at him and then at his palm, bewildered, feeling the weight of a pen on his palm. Suho gently extracts his hand, allowing Sieun to have a look at it.
It's a Pilot G2 Retractable model, Sieun recognises, he uses them diligently during exam season, finding them comfortable to work with and putting less strain on his fingers. His own busted out today, leaving a smear of ink on his desk and his palms, which took several minutes just to clean them off, from his desk and then his hands. It was a nuisance, and above all, him not being able to use the pen that he always uses was irritating him more than he thought.
Sieun looks back at Suho, mystified, and Suho swipes his thumb over his nose and then points down at his hands, hands over his waist, "You always seem to use these during these exams. So I bought a pack for you as a thank you for the day you gave me water. You always seem to work so diligently during your exams" Suho says, furrowing his brows, "And I didn't want you to be uncomfortable during your exams because of a meagre pen change, so," Suho gestures towards his palm with his hand, "So, yeah, I bought you your favourite pen. Hopefully it's a nice token of appreciation, Sieun-ssi."
For a while, it looked like Sieun wouldn't say anything at all. Just caressing the pen in his hand and peering at Suho beneath his eyelashes that frames his pretty eyes, gaze calculating, like he does not quite what Suho wants from him.
But then, Sieun nods, his face and shoulders relaxing ever so slightly, and Suho notices, of course he does. "Thank you..." Sieun starts, voice unsure, like he's never said it before, like he had meant it, tasting the words in his mouth for the first time, "You didn't have to buy me anything. But it was...nice of you to do this. For me." Sieun responds, his gaze shifty as it settles everywhere but on Suho, fidgeting with the sleeves of the hand he holds the pen in. Suho doesn't mind. But he can't help but think inwardly,
Sieun-ah, has no one showed you kindness just for the sake of it?
He pushes the thought for the moment, smiling down at Sieun with a grin, "Of course, Sieun-ah," Sieun wrinkles his nose at him using his name informally, hmph! "That's what your hyung is for, hm? I'll always take care of my Sieunnie" Suho chirps, gaze indolent.
"Don't be annoying." Sieun huffs out, pushing Suho away with this body as he enters the classroom before him, returning to his desk and resuming what he had been doing prior.
Suho takes his own seat too, yawning as he fluffs out his pillow and crosses his arm, laying his head, gently facing Sieun's direction.
Sieun-ah, Suho thinks, as his dreamland starts pulling him, Won't you look at me once?
He doesn't feel Sieun's gaze finding his sleepy state momentarily, looking back at him before turning around and starting his revision, pen sliding over his book smoothly.
The exam is exactly what Suho was certain of, absolute trash.
He didn't even have to turn the page to understand that, with or without any luck, he's not going to be passing shit. Honestly, Suho shrugs, passing the bundle of paper behind towards lovely Sieun, who will pass his exams with flying colours, he wasn't expecting much different of an outcome anyways. It's just mock test anyway. He'd have to pull through for the real one. He yawns, eyes blurry, moving towards his sleeping position.
Guess sleep it is.
He was rudely woken up by another commotion, seriously, can they stop? and his seat jostling forward, hitting his back a little painfully. He turns and finds Yeon Sieun's desk empty, the homeroom teacher calling after him as he stumbles out of the class in panic.
He's alert immediately.
He wants to go after him, gets up to go after him, but his homeroom teacher rudely interrupts him, telling him only one student can visit the bathroom at the time, and makes him take his seat again. Wow.
Stupid rule. As if Yeon Sieun is ever going to trade answers with him there! And seriously, how are they even sure he's in the bathroom? For God knows, he could've fled the property after having to take this awful paper!
Suho huffs, stretching his leg as comfortably as he can in his small seat, and takes a look at his paper again.
Ugh.
Wait.
He turns around, and finds Jeongchan in his seat, smug smile etched in his face. He catches Jeongchan's eyes, and whatever he finds in his own eyes seems enough for him to look away from Suho nervously. Coward.
But he's sure of it. Whatever seems to be wrong with Sieun has definitely something to do with these hooligans.
He'll deal with them later.
Suho is woken up, again, to a noise which sounds reminiscent of someone being slapped repeatedly.
Seriously, Suho whines, can’t a guy catch some sleep around here?
"Yeon Sieun," His homeroom teacher trails off, worried, "Are you alright?"
Wait.
The slapping noise ceases.
"I'm alright," Yeon Sieun drones out, sounding parched, "I apologize."
Suho snaps his head behind so quick he isn't sure how his central nervous system isn't damaged by the force of it.
Suho looks, and looks. Yeon Sieun's whole right cheek is red, a clear imprint of a palm visible on his face, as he avoids everyone and gets back to his paper, ticking answers with the pen Suho gave, here and there. Without stopping.
"Sieun-ah," Suho tries, bowing his head a little to catch more of Sieun's face from his angle, "Are you alright?" Suho asks, concerned.
"Ahn Suho, eyes to the front."
"Sieun-ah..." Suho goes on, perturbed.
"Ahn Suho." his homeroom teacher reprimands, louder.
Suho sucks in a breath harshly, ticked off, but obeys and moves his body towards the front. He plays with the edge of his paper, folding and unfolding, twiddling, contemplating,
That's way too much, Yeongbin-ah, way over the line.
The minute the final bell rang and the papers were collected, Suho got up from his chair and followed the three evil musketeers outside, swinging his arms around Jeongchan and Taehoon, both of them immediately unsettled at the presence of him. Without sparing them a glance, he settles his hard gaze on Yeongbin, who looks equally tense and scared, and addresses him
"Let's go over to the lab and talk right there, yeah? Let's not create a ruckus around here."
He doesn't even let them have a moment.
He closes the door immediately behind them with a bang, essentially stopping the show for the onlookers who happened to catch upon their tension and followed them back here for some free entertain. Wackers, Suho scoffs. He doesn't care about it any longer, he's here to a pick a bone with the losers.
"I'm gonna be ask you once and I'll be clear with it," Suho starts, rubbing his nose with his thumb, "And I want you to be honest with me, because I'll find about what I wanna know one way or another, yeah? I won't be nice about it later then. Regardless of your innocence."
The air feels suffocating with the tension that surrounds them, that keeps reaching another peak as the silence stretches on. Somewhere in between Jeongchan swallows nervously.
"What do you want?"
"I want you to tell me exactly what you've done with Yeon Sieun during the exam today."
A beat.
Then, a chuckle, then they all start bursting out laughing, all of them, Jeongchan muffling his snickering by the back of palm, and Yeongbin and Taehoon wiping up their tears and their chest vibrates with giggles.
Wow, look at this ballad of minks.
Suho says nothing, just takes a seat on a table that's around him and takes off his shoe, bouncing it on his hand before chucking it towards Jeongchan's head, hitting him head-on.
This essentially seeps the little fun out of the atmosphere the punks had managed to create, the air becoming tense between them yet again due to Suho's disrespect. Yeongbin glowers at Suho while Jeongchan rubs the back of his head, humiliated.
Suho isn't bothered by their little show of trying to intimidate him at all, just motions Jeongchan with 'come here’ gesture, “Bring me my shoe back" Suho asks arrogantly, massaging his shoulder as he turns away his gaze from them.
For a moment, there was only stillness to be found among the trio, unsure whether to protect their wounded pride and start a fight here, everything be damned, or let it go in hopes of not escalating it further. They've all seen Suho is perfectly capable of holding is ground well, any form of retaliation will only wound their mountainous egos even more.
"Aish. Are all of your memories shit? I'm not gonna repeat myself."
This breaks them out of their stupor, Jeongchan stumbling before he settles properly and grabs Suho's shoe, inching ever so slightly towards Suho, meek, and just dropping it next to him on the table and beelining towards his group immediately.
Ha, Suho thinks, rolling his shoulders as he grabs his shoe and fits it back on his foot, Guys around here should really question who they're scared of. All show-offs.
Without changing his position, Suho tilts his head, palms grasping on either side of the table's border, "So?"
Jeongchan scoffs, his previous bravado returning slightly in the presence of his rowdy teammates, and juts out, "Why are you even asking us? Whatever the freak was up to has nothing to do with either of us? Did you seriously bring us all here just to ask us that?" Jeongchan clicks his tongue, "Ah, school is turning into a scary place..."
Suho jumps up on his feet, startling them, and moves towards them until only an inch of a space is remaining between them. "Is that so?" He asks, rhetorical.
"Yah," Yeongbin rebuts, " How do you know that it's us that did whatever you think happened to Yeon Sieun back then? Just because Jeongchan-ah was sitting right behind Yeon Sieun, you think we did it? Isn't that huge load of bullshit?" Yeongbin scoffs, leaning forward from where he was sitting on a table himself, and asks lowly " What does it matter to you huh? Why is Yeon Sieun a concern to you all of a sudden?"
"My concern", Suho starts, removing one hand out of his pocket and placing it heavily upon Yeongbin's shoulder, making him flinch, "with anything related to Yeon Sieun is a matter to myself. What you should be concerned about is keeping up the promise you made back at the bathroom, hm? After all," Suho drawls, pressing his thumb on the trapezius muscle of his shoulder painfully, making him squirm "you promised me, so it becomes my concern, and I always deal with mine, yeah?"
With that, he slaps his Yeongbin's shoulder firmly, giving them a look over once, and saunters out of the room haughtily, closing the door and leaving them to their own bearings.
"Fuck," Jeongchan drawls out, antsy in the wake of Suho's absence, "Why is he playing inspector gadget all of a sudden now? Fuck, do you think he can-"
"Shut up." Yeongbin barks out, unsure whether Suho stayed behind outside to eavesdrop on their conversation, trying to gather more evidence, "He's running on pure speculation. As long as you both" he gives them both a warning look, "know when to shut the fuck up and keep it quiet, there wouldn't be any trace."
"Suho-ya" coos Sieun, tone unbearably fond, fingers tangled in the lock of his hair, combing gently. His head feels floaty; he can only mumble incoherently.
He dreams. The weather has never been so beautiful.
"Suho-ya..." His right cheek feels the warmth of a thigh, sand sticking all over his body, but his whole body feels rejuvenated, blood thrumming within his artery and veins insistently. The sun is beating down on his skin, but the warmth feels internal.
Has he always been this warm?
"Ahn Suho" a more serious tone now, but the fondness is still present. He finds himself in another place, a hospital, with Sieun carrying a parcel in his hand (food...?) and a large bandage on his cheek, looking at him intently.
Sieun-ah.... Who hurt you?
" Yah, you lunatic. Why would you run after him like this alone?" He recognises his own voice now, parched and panting out of exertion, his own chest beating violently. The scenery is different. It's an amusement park now.
He finds Sieun in a similar position, huffing and panting, his lips busted and cheek bleeding. Suho has never felt this scared before. Doesn't even know why he's scared at all.
The feeling of someone who has someone to lose who he covets the most.
"You came" is all Sieun says.
Why wouldn't I, Sieun-ah?
"Were we married in-"
THUD!
Suho jolts, waking up abruptly. The dream fades away, not even retaining a trace.
Suho should seriously reconsider what his life is at this point. Why is everyone so annoying?
He squints from where he's resting his head on the pink pillow, his eyes having trouble focusing against the afternoon light that baths the room in its glory, and finds Sieun stalking towards Yeongbin, shoulders tense, ready to brawl.
Yeon Sieun... trailing... Yeongbin...
Wait what?
He sits up straight, wide awake, as he watches Sieun steal a heavy book from a member of the pipsqueak squad and slam it against Yeongbin's face, and then puncturing Taehoon's hand with a pen.
Gasps and yells echo the classroom as everybody watches Sieun punching Yeongbin repeatedly while Taehoon wails, clutching his hand where the pen is still sticking out of him.
Atleast it's not Suho's pen he used...
Not the point. Suho reminds himself.
Sieun has now moved on to wrapping the curtain around Yeongbin's desk around his face, muffling his face as he continues raining down assault with this book. Blood sputters out and spreads around Yeongbin's face, and he doesn't stop until he drops Yeongbin down with a thud, standing above him. Suho realises, getting up, and Sieun wouldn't stop unless he's physically restrained.
Sieun pants, crouching down and examining Yeongbin, who’s lulling his head a little, so out of it due to the pain, "I told you to stop." Sieun says, before he straightens up and gears his foot back for a stomp-
-and finds himself tossed aside until his back hits a desk painfully, stopping his projectile midway.
Oops.
Suho didn't mean to put that much force in the action. Oh well.
Sorry, Sieun.
"Enough is enough, yeah? Let's not cross the line." Suho placates firmly, watching as Sieun gets up slowly until they're both parallel to each other.
The light seems to hit on Sieun's face so well, perfectly enlightening his features to Suho, who takes this as an opportunity to admire him. No shame.
Sieun, against Suho's interest, still looks like he's one second away from killing everybody in this room, fists balled up and eyes manic as he stares down at Suho.
Ouch.
"You next?"
"Me?" Suho asks, playing it up, “I’m just your guardian angel that you've woken up from his nap" He gloats, sending a paper plane he found on the desk next to him towards Sieun, who just looks at him incredulously, still manic.
"You think this is funny?"
Okay, so no humour when on rampage. Got it.
"Trying to make it", Suho retorts, just as fast, swiping a thumb over this nose as he awaits Sieun's next response.
Which comes in the form of an open pouch flung at him.
Suho is quick to respond to it, covering his face with his palm, and even quicker to evade the chair Sieun was trying to swing at him.
Wow seriously, Suho thinks, as he dodges another attempted damage to him with the chair, what’s gotten into him?
"Yah! Cut it out, you psycho" Suho hollers as Sieun keeps trying to swing at him, "Seriously, I'll have to punch you then."
Sieun doesn't stop, still swinging. He looks so out of it.
Ah really, Suho thinks as he punches Sieun right in his face without putting much force in it, you’re making it difficult for me. Stop it.
The punch makes Sieun stagger down, clutching his face lightly as he glowers at Suho with all his might, rising up again to his feet as he pants, defensive, shoulders taut, eyes still fixed upon Suho.
So persistent, Suho sighs. This one.
It seems like the universe has finally given a mercy to Suho, he really didn't want to fight Sieun anymore, as their Maths teacher finally makes her grand appearance and swiftly takes Sieun away, calling and ambulance while she does so. Sieun seems to start returning to himself after this whole fiasco, breathing normally as he packs his bag. Suho helps him by putting back the contents back in the pouch, the contents that had been flung at him, and presses it in Sieun's hand. Sieun accepts it, but doesn't look at him.
The following days pass in a limbo.
The whole trainwreck of the day that was mock test day had undoubtedly settled into the minds of everyone who was present at time, and even in those who weren't. Everybody in a week's notice knew what went down during that time.
Yeongbin had drugged Sieun with fentanyl path that he made Jeongchan stick in his neck, making him unable to give the exam. Even though he incapacitated one student and nearly tried to incapacitate two more, the school board determined that whatever Yeon Sieun did was under the influence of the drug that he was involuntarily put in, and made Jeongchan, Taehoon and Yeongbin transfer out of their school. Good riddance, Suho thinks, as he fluffs out his pillow for another nap, trash takes itself out.
Everyone gave Sieun a leeway since that day. Clearing out hallways and giving him space to walk, essentially stopping conversations midway when Sieun happens to pass by them, flea like pests (students) flocking towards him in hopes to twiddle out more information and try to become his friend, God forbid.
Suho's not sulking, he's not, but he still feels mellow as more days pass. He hasn't tried talking to Sieun after that fateful day, giving him space, he reasoned initially, but now it feels like he has no opportunity to try to get to talk with once more. So, he just settles at admiring from afar (his seat, which is only one row away from Sieun's), resorting to accepting crumbs.
Hmph.
Can't a guy not sulk because he's not getting any attention from his crush anymore? Since when was this outlawed, huh!?
You weren't getting any to begin with, Devil Suho quips. Suho ignores him.
Nope! He determines, pushing Devil Suho out of his shoulder, today's the day he approaches Sieun again, today's the day he asks him out officially.
After school, he decides, only a few hours and Sieunnie will be wooed so bad he would have no other option other than to say yes.
Yeon Sieun, where will you go now? Ha!
Turns out, Yeon Sieun will be going to his cram school, like he always did.
"Shit! It's 4 already? Why didn't you wake me up?!"
He squawks, glowering at the rest of the guys he was assigned cleaning duty with, both hands on his waist and sporting a bedhead, which in hindsight wasn't doing much making him scary at all.
Well hindsight be damned! He missed his chance today!
"You always want us to wake you up after we've finished our cleaning duties and are ready to leave, which ends up 4:30 by the way," Min- something points out, like Suho should care, "Why would we wake you up before that?"
"Because I asked you, nicely, to wake me up the moment the last class is dismissed" Suho snips, upset about the situation.
"And we've asked us to do the exact same thing multiple times before, and then you got grouchy with us for waking you up before, and went back to sleep right after. We didn't much of it this time around."
Wow.
Now it's his fault?
Suho should just become the fourth person to transfer out of this hellhole, really.
He huffs, but he reminds himself that no matter how he reacts, the situation is out of his hands anyways. Whatever. He'd just try to find another opportunity to woo Yeon Sieun altogether.
The opportunity falls into his lap the same night when he's out delivering food.
He finds Sieun on a bus on his way to deliver a food nearby Sieun's neighbourhood, and it's just chance luck, Suho knows, that he ended up crossing paths with Sieun who also might be returning home from his cram school.
But it all feels so fated, like they're meant to be in each other's life eventually. Suho lets the thought simmer in his head as he honks his horn repeatedly, trying to catch Sieun's attention. The passerbys give him a side eye, but it all fades away when Sieun turns to look at him, startled, pulling his earbud out of his ear and fumbling with the window lock, trying to unlock them.
Adorable.
Once the latch unhooks and Sieun opens the window wide, Suho lets out a smile, heart pounding, and asks him the first thing that comes up in his mind,
"Ah, how do we keep running into each other like this? We must've been a married couple in our past lives."
Ah, Shit. Suho realized immediately that asking whether someone were their past lover was not an ice breaking conversation at all.
Ahn Suho! Distract! Distract!
“Where are you headed?” He asks, well rather blurts out, diverting the conversation before Sieun can dwell on it. Sieun, bless his heart, doesn’t question him.
“Home.” He mumbles, almost inaudible in the cacophony of traffic sounds.
“Huh?”
Sieun looks around him, seemingly aware of the people surrounding them and wanting to be respectful. Suho does not share the same sentiments, with how he honked so much that people not in immediate vicinity of him might’ve thought there was an incident.
“I’m heading home” Sieun repeats a little loudly now, and Suho notices he seems to be a more relaxed than a he was a few days ago. He wonders why...
“Heading home? From cram school?” Suho asks him another question, looking forward towards the traffic signal which indicated it would turn green in 25 seconds for the left turn, and looked back at Sieun, who looked doubtful, like he wants to say something but isn’t sure how.
Suho just looks at him intently, face open and hopes that whatever Sieun finds in it can make him feel more open and less judged, so he can be free with him.
“I’m sorry, for earlier” Sieun apologizes earnestly, “I didn’t want to hurt you. Sorry”
Suho smiles, pleased, his apple cheeks pushing out with a smile “Are you now? Then you can apologize to me with a meal.” The light turns green. Shit. “See you later” Suho bids him goodbye, throwing him a finger heart, because he can’t help it, and turning his bike left and driving off in the night, leaving Sieun to think about him all alone.
Only then after a few minutes of riding lets Suho out breathy chuckle, giddy, loving the feeling inside of him that turns everything inside of him mushy just at the thought of him, and absolutely ecstatic, at the idea of sharing a meal with him sometime soon. Suho isn’t sure that Sieun is going to take him up on the offer, but he hopes, he hopes, that he does. Just so he can talk to him more, admire him more, give him a chance to become more.
Ah, Yeon Sieun, aren’t you so fetching?
Yeon Sieun, Suho notes, doesn’t take long to fulfil his supposed promise.
Suho, a habitual resident of his dreamland, was once again dozing off on his desk, pink pillow clutched tightly as he woke up to insistent but light taps on his shoulder.
He jerks his pillow covered hand back to deter the rude person who is disturbing him, motion instinctual and abrupt like a reflex, as he settles once again, drifting back.
Yeon Sieun, Suho also notes, is someone who is undeterred, even in the face of external violence.
If you could call what Suho did as violence. Ha.
Ahem. Anyways.
Light taps, now on his back. Ugh.
Suho wakes up groggily the second time, squinting to look at the offender that had disturbed his sleep and finds Sieun standing around his desk, looking at him blankly.
Wow, He would love to be woken to this sight every time. Should he go back to sleep just so he can wake up to this again?
“It’s lunch time” Sieun says simply, like all the answers Suho could want in this moment is satisfied by this statement alone.
“So?” Suho asks, still a bit grouchy, covering his face back under his arm, half sleepy, half playing hard to get.
“You asked me to buy you a meal. It’s lunchtime now” Sieun replies, unperturbed by him.
Oh, Suho thinks dumbly, his brain taking a while registering the words said to him.
OH.
Oh.
Suho looks at the sad cafeteria food he put in the tray in front of him, and back at Sieun, who ate his food in a portion so small even a bird would feel shameful. Incredulous.
“It’s not like I asked you to buy me an expensive lunch,” Suho starts, gesturing at the food “But I pay for my own cafeteria food, you know?”
“Don’t eat if you don’t like it.”
Now he’s also being sassed at? His complaints cease the moment he remembers, wow, he’s having lunch with Yeon Sieun, his motherfucking crushes of all crushes, who cares? He’d even find a history class with him romantic, and he hates history. A date is a date!
“I’ll eat it well!” Suho cheers, scooping up a heap of rice, pairing it with banchan and shoving it in his mouth.
Seeing Yeon Sieun up close for a second time feels as breathtaking as the first. He’s still gorgeous, hands working daintily as he plays with his food a little before picking up a bite, mouth working slowly over as he chews his food which doesn’t even look enough, licking his lips right after. Suho feels kind of dazed, and amazed, that he could soak up his presence so soon, just after yesterday.
Right. Time for an interrogation.
“Why do you always use earbuds in school? Do you like music that much? It’s kinda rude, bro.” Suho asks, mouth chewing incessantly. Sieun seems to question his manners instead, eyeing him but eventually doesn’t say anything.
“It’s effective” He mumbles, pushing 5 grains of rice in his mouth.
“Hmm?”
“It’s effective, discourages people from making a conversation with me.”
Suho huffs. This guy. “You’re a weirdo, you know that?”
“Aren’t you talking about yourself?” Sieun responds, rhetorical.
For a moment Suho is stunned, stopping midchew as he looks at Sieun, Sieun holding his gaze dropping it back to his tray, fiddling with his chopstick. Fuck, did Yeon Sieun talk back at him? Effortlessly? Wow, seriously, he should stop before Suho professes his love violently. Which anybody in their vicinity would not prefer, thank you very much.
Suho smiles as he chews, his countenance forming a youthful grin, cheeks bunched up reaching his eyes and his eyes crinkling, amusement clear on his face. His warm eyes are steady on Sieun. He has a small mole near his eye, Sieun finds himself noticing.
Yeon Sieun grips his chopsticks tighter, face warmer than before.
Sieun needs to escape this situation, whatever this is, "Why do you sleep in school?"
"It's easier to sleep here, it's a hassle going back home after work and coming back here just in a few hours. I'm afraid I'd somehow sleep through the alarm and miss school. My grandma is okay with me not attending college, but she still expects me to graduate with perfect attendance." Suho answers earnestly, licking the lone rice grain from his spoon, catching Sieun's attention towards it before he abruptly moves it back towards his eyes. Huh.
"You aren't thinking of attending college?" Sieun questions, sounding a little perplexed.
"Ha," Suho blows a raspberry, "More study, why would I want that? It's honestly enough that I'm learning all this that I won't be using in my life anyways."
"Besides," Suho continues, picking up the remaining gamja jorim from his tray and putting it into Sieun's, "It's only me and my halmeoni. I have to support her and myself after I graduate, her health has been decreasing gradually. I’ll have to look for a permanent job directly after graduation. No time for college." He shrugs, nonplussed. He’s honestly made peace with the fact that further education wouldn’t be in the books for him. Sieun is still looking at the side dish he plated on his tray, brows furrowed in what he thinks is him contemplating.
"Eat up," Suho coaxes, pointing at the braised potato dish he transferred, "You seemed to like it more than the others. Eat what you enjoy, Sieun-ssi." He continues, tone warm.
It's uncomfortable, Sieun thinks, as he picks up a potato and pushes it into mouth, savouring it. Suho’s leftovers. His heart feels weird, warm with something he can't quite name, thrumming incessantly. His brain feels mushy as the food he swallows. It’s the same feeling he had when Suho had gifted him the pen, had remembered what pen he preferred. He doesn’t know what to do with all of this kindness, doesn’t know what to do with the enigma that is Ahn Suho.
Suho was sleep-sulking, if there’s even a word for that, after Yeon Sieun had rejected his advances.
“Sieun-ssi,” Suho sang, walking besides Sieun as they eventually got up to return to their class after the bell rang. There was no space to be found between them, arms brushing each other’s with motion. Suho is giddy.
“How about I drive you to cram school today huh? The weather’s warming,” Suho sighs contentedly, a hop in his step “We can buy some ice-creams on our way. What do you say?” Suho hummed happily.
“I always take the bus.” Sieun replied, unconsidering.
“You can take the ride today then, hyung’s offering.” Suho rebuts easily, which results in Sieun’s ears turning red.
“HA! Look at you,” Suho coos, pinching Sieun’s ears, “So cute. So, what do you think? You and hyung and nobody else?”
Sieun turns him down immediately.
The next time Suho is being woken up, it’s not by the hands of his stunning Sieun.
He jerks awake when someone shakes him aggressively, feeling terribly sleep deprived now, terrible in general actually, as he squints his eyes and finds a student he doesn’t recognize looking two seconds away from shitting his pants.
Wow, Suho should just give up on sleeping actually.
“Hmm?” he groans, wiping away his drool using the back of his hands as he squints at the clock on the wall. It’s only 3:40. 10 minutes past the usual time of school finishing.
“Are you Ahn Suho?” The guy asks him, petrified.
“Who’s asking?” Suho counters, stretching his arms forward as he yawns. Shit, he’s still sleepy.
“They took him! Yeongbin, your friend, there were thugs with him too-”
“Speak clearly.” Suho snaps, becoming tense by the insinuation. My friend. Does he mean Sieun?
The guy flinches harshly, eyes wide before he squints it shut, taking a huge breath. The next sentence he utters is clearer, but it does nothing to unease him at all, the exact opposite actually.
“Yeon Sieun, your friend, I saw him leaving with Yeongbin, Jeongchan and Taehoon along with some shady guys. Your friend, I think he’s in trouble…” the guy rasps out. Suho doesn’t wait and starts putting everything in his locker haphazardly, before pulling on his windbreaker and rushing out of the class.
“SUHO!” the guy yells behind him as his figure starts to appear smaller and smaller, “Look around Bongeunsa-ro 409! He always used to take us there!”
He doesn’t hear more of it as his ears continue ringing, his feet slapping on the tile swiftly, chest beating hard. Whether it’s from the exertion or from Sieun being in danger, Suho doesn’t know.
As predictable from someone like him, Yeongbin had taken Sieun exactly at the address the guy said he would take him.
He doesn’t think much about the fact that Yeongbin must’ve taken other unfortunate people here too, to harass, to bully, for the guy to be referring in a plural form. He turns off the engine and runs towards thudding noise, his focus shifting into a one-track mind. To find Sieun and ensure he’s safe. Then beat the shit out of Yeongbin for ever having the gall to hurt him.
Sieun is laying down, squirming and gritting his teeth as Yeongbin stomps on his hand repeatedly, a sick smile gracing his face as Taehoon holds Sieun down.
Ah, fuck it.
He uses Taehoon’s back as a leverage as he jumps on it and roundhouses Jeongchan right in the face, surprising Yeongbin, who gets the uppercut treatment next. He shrieks immediately, clutching his lower jaw as Suho kicks Taehoon in his guts, jostling him back with a pained grunt.
He sighs, and looks down at Sieun, who’s looking up at him like a wounded puppy, his pouty mouth letting out a hiss as Suho pulls him up firmly using his elbow.
“Are you okay?” Suho asks worriedly, as he examines his injured palm carefully, turning it over and over. Sieun’s hands start sweating at the proximity of Suho’s own. He pulls it out of Suho’s grasp before he could notice it.
‘How did you find me?” Sieun shoots back instead, a little grouchy.
“Ah” Suho tongues his cheek, diverting his gaze towards Yeongbin who flinches when he sees the turmoil in his eyes, “Is that what’s important?” He doesn’t wait for Sieun’s response as he coils his fist tightly, his feet moving towards the trio.
A gentle hold on his arm stops him.
“Suho.” Sieun’s voice calls out, firm and persuading.
How can Suho not listen?
Sieun doesn’t shy away from looking into Suho’s eyes, his black eyes shining with what seems to a perpetual tear around his cortex. His gaze is unwavering, open and tender, all at once. Suho’s breath hitches, beguiled.
“Let’s just go.” He requests politely, seemingly not wanting to create any more ruckus than this. Suho doesn’t share the same sentiment. But he acquiesces, albeit unwillingly, holding Sieun by his sweater sleeve gently as he directs them out of the alleyway.
“Let’s just stop here, hm?” Suho drawls out, a warning and a farewell, “I’m asking you nicely.”
Not even a second later he hears heavy footsteps behind him, filled with the intent of inflicting more violence.
Ah, Suho sighs mentally, as he pushes Sieun out of the way and ducks the upcoming punch from behind, thrown by one of the bigger thugs. They just don’t know how to stop.
“Sieun-ah”, Suho orders Sieun, “Run. Don’t look back.”. He dodges another jab towards him.
He acts quickly, pulling his own counterpunch which is narrowly dodged by the crook. He finds Taehoon moving in the direction of Sieun and kicks the chair near him harshly, making him stumble and fall on his feet. His joy is short-lived, as the thug manages to land a good punch on him.
Fuck, he grunts begrudgingly, he’s kinda good.
But he’s no match to Suho.
Soon, this whole mess turns into a barrage of punches here and kicks there. Suho manages to avoid the most of it easily, his sturdy body built upon hours and hours of physical training learning counterattacks, dodges and punches. But the guy he’s fighting is nothing but resilient. He finds himself being thrown upon a truck once, a headlock which he manages to detangle himself from with a sharp kick to the shin, and now him straddling Suho as he punches repeatedly while Suho arms his hand over his face for protection.
Seriously, Suho grunts, as he manages to de-straddle this 20-something guy off of him and then out him in a headlock, watching as the big guy’s head turn red gradually from the lack of oxygen.
“Tap out,” Suho spits, as the guy tries to escape his hold “You know you can’t win this one. Don’t make this harder than it is. Just tap out.”
A bottle crashing against a surface makes Suho tune back into the surrounding. He turns and watches, in horror, as Yeongbin who had a broken glass bottle around his hand was moving towards Sieun, who was busy fighting both Jeongchan and Taehoon lethargically.
Fuck. He had told him to run.
“Yah!” He yells, pushing the guy out of the headlock and rushing towards Sieun, who was struggling as Taehoon and Jeongchan get a hold of him. Suho’s jaw snaps harshly as the guy pulls his leg and crashes him down on the ground, getting up on top of him before he tried to get back on. He grunts, eyes watering as he struggles against the hold.
Taehoon manages to kick Sieun harshly around his ribs, making him wheeze painfully and lose his defensive stance, which then him and Jeongchan use as they hold him from either side as Yeongbin pulls back to strike.
“YAHH!!”
Suho’s yell full of anguish and unbridled rage reverberates deep within the alley, making Yeongbin and everyone else flinch harshly at the terrifying shrill. Suho grits his teeth, eyes filled with fury, overpowering his extreme fear for Sieun, “Don’t fucking do it Jeon Yeongbin. One step and I’ll fucking kill you. I’ll certainly kill all of you.” His statement hangs within the air, making it heavy and suffocating. For a minute nobody takes a breath, the guy holding him loosens his grip on him. Yeongbin’s clutch on the glass bottle falters.
Yeon Sieun comes to his senses far faster than everybody else.
He smashes both Jeongchan’s and Taehoon’s head against each other, both shrieking in unison, and before Yeongbin could react in response, he kicks Yeongbin hard in his groins, Yeongbin wailing as he drops the bottle and clutches his small dick instead. Sieun kicks the bottle away from him, the glass shattering in small shards as it hits a wall. Before anybody could do something more, a scrawny guy comes panting and yells in alarm “Seok Dae hyung, we gotta go! Someone called the cops! They’re almost here!”
Suho pushes the bulky guy off of him with too much force, earning him a grunt as he rolls away and gets up on his feet. He grasps Sieun’s bag firmly in his hand and takes Sieun’s hand in his other, who’s gaze is reminiscent of a deer in a headlight. With their hands entangled securely, they take off to a run.
Sieun, if he focused more on the surrounding like Suho is as he navigates them out of the alley and dodges police here and there, could’ve faintly recalled the chaos that surrounds them, the thugs that scream in retaliation as officers handcuff them few alleys away, the sirens blares distantly. But all Sieun can focus on the hand that holds his, calloused and tender. He can only focus on Suho as he looks back behind to look at him, bashful smile making his boyish face, youthful and handsome. All he can focus is the growing warmth that nestles within his ribs, emotions bubbling effervescently, till it has nowhere to go, till Sieun will have to carve a place within him to give it a home.
All Sieun could recall is how Suho made him feel. Makes him feel.
Like he swallowed the sun itself.
Sieun found himself once again in an unprecedented situation, this time it’s much more welcome than the one before. They had stopped earlier in a quaint and small convenience store, tucked alongside huge scraps of industrial waste just spread out haphazardly due to the area falling into the redevelopment project.
They fulfilled Suho’s wish of eating ice cream while waiting for police to clear out the area, Sieun sucking delicately on his grapefruit flavoured ice lolly (that he checked the contents and the expiration date thoroughly of, of course) as Suho worked diligently removing gravel from his wounds on his hand, using a side of his handkerchief he wet with water and then dabbing antiseptic liquid he bought with the other. He also made sure to keep the area covered, putting paw patrol bandaids on either of his wounds, much to Sieun’s complaints.
“Sieun-ah” Suho had whined, whined, “they don’t seem to have any gauze left. Let hyung treat your hand, hm?”
Then he made Sieun ride shotgun on his bike, promising him food at his aunt’s restaurant (“But Sieun-ah” Suho had whined again, again, when he reluctantly tried to turn the offer down, and Sieun realised, in horror that it seemed to work on him “Hyung’s starving, and you must be too, hmm? Let hyung feed you’’). So, they drove through the breezy weather, the air cool on his warm skin, making his cheek tingle at the sensation. He had never had such an eventful day before, he ponders as Suho’s windbreaker flaps behind him, tickling his stomach,
It feels exhilarating. To live.
It’s where he finds himself now, watching Suho restock soju bottles into the fridge as he hands him one, one by one. Suho’s muscles bulge as he grips another bottle from Sieun, making a different type of warm settle low around his hips. Shit.
“Do you always work two jobs a day?” Sieun asks, trying to take his mind off of the…indecent thoughts that’re trying to pop.
“I only deliver food thrice a week.” Suho answers, reaching for another bottle of soju.
Sieun delivers it into his hand “Isn’t that hard?” he asks solemnly. Working two jobs a day alongside attending school, no wonder he always dozes off during class, Sieun thinks.
“Hm?” Suho hums, giving him a fond smile “Why? Worried about your hyung?” he asks, smugly.
“Go die.”
“Ah-” Before the whine can take its full form, the bell chimes, indicating that a customer has arrived. Suho slips in his customer service smile, winking at him and telling him to restock the rest as he turns around and greets the patron, leading them towards an empty table. Even in performance, Sieun thinks as he watches Suho tend to the customer, he’s still the kindest in the room.
The workers in the aunt’s restaurant must have to fulfil the requirement of being a chatterbox, Sieun thinks, disgruntled, as he listens to Yeongi prattle about everything and anything her mind supplies the content of.
Suho has yet to return to the table where their food lay in front of them, Yeongi grilling the meat and putting it on both of their plates as she talks about so many things that Sieun has trouble recalling conversation that happened just moments ago.
“-and I had to ask Seokdae hyung about whether he thinks he thinks my purple-coloured bangs made me-” Sieun loses the trail of the conversation immediately as Yeongi continues without noticing, because he knows the name. The person who it belongs to even.
“Seokdae?” He interrupts her, rather brusquely, “Jeon Seokdae?”
He remembers him because Yeongbin had referred to him as his cousin who came to beat him up, when he was intercepted by them on the way home. The scrawny guy had also referred to him directly, looked at him only, as he informed them about the cops.
“Ah. Yeah.” Yeongi confirms, sounding a little tense now. “Can I ask…. How do you know him?”
“He’s a cousin of my ex-classmate.” he answers nonplussed, picking up a single piece of meat and chewing it delicately “He used to talk about him a lot when he was still attending. Just remembered when you started talking about him.”
“Ahhh...” Yeongi sighs out her response, shoulders relaxing, “Small world, eh?” she remarks, taking in a bite.
“Should I not know about him?” he asks, gaze inscrutable, looking directly at Yeongi instead of the food like he was doing a couple of minutes ago. His gaze is kinda unnerving, Yeongi observes, shuddering inwardly.
“Ha.” Yeongi balks, then settles her face in a neutral countenance, “Why shouldn’t you? He’s a nice guy, one of my honest friends,” Ha. “Why…is there something wrong?” she stutters.
Sieun doesn’t answer, just observes her, scrutinizes her, then after seemingly drawing up a conclusion, goes back to his food and resumes eating.
“Nothing’s wrong.” He answers, stone-faced, “Let’s just eat.”
“Ah, yeah”, she agrees, taking her own bite, apprehensive.
For a while neither of them talked as the restaurant continued its own cacophony in the background, Suho busting a table here and taking someone’s order there, giving him a wink or a smile every time they he caught Sieun’s eyes. Sieun just rolled his eyes, but his heart skipped a beat. Suho wasn’t allowed to take a break yet, with him arriving late, so he still had a few minutes before he could join Sieun for dinner, Yeongi replacing Suho while he’d eat.
The silence is broken by a notification beeping on Sieun’s phone, his dad asking him about him missing cram school. Sieun checks the message before he swipes it out from the notification panel and placing his phone down. Yeongi intercepts it and takes the phone, inputting something in it as Sieun watches, appalled.
Yeongi places his phone back where he had initially put it and laughs when she looks at Sieun’s flabbergasted face. Rude. “Wahh. BAHAHA. Aren’t you funny, Yeon Sieun?” She snickers “Don’t worry, I didn’t steal like your credit card details or whatever you seem to have it in here. I’ve just put my number in it. Aren’t I gracious?” She hums amusedly.
“Why? I didn’t ask you to.”
“Wah...Look at this guy. Can nobody try to be friends with you anymore? Do I have to sign a declaration or something, somewhere?” She sneers, putting the last piece of meat in her mouth, her plate now empty. “What if you were my type huh? Can’t a girl like assholes anymore?”
Sieun shot her a disdainful look, “No they can’t.”
“Well too bad” Yeongi retorts, shrugging, unbothered by his grumpy act, “You have my number. Feel free to give me a call anytime you want” she winks.
“Ya, Sieunnie, is this twerp bothering you?” Suho asks as he takes the seat next to him, ruffling Yeongi’s hair as he passes.
“YAH!” She slaps Suho’s head harshly, making him yelp. “I told you to not mess with my hair, you fucker!” Suho sticks out his tongue to her and moves back laughing as Yeongi tries to cuff him. Sieun watches, unimpressed.
“Ah,” Suho grouses, looking at the lack of meat on the plate, shooting Yeongi a dirty look, “How big is your stomach, you glutton? There’s hardly anything left anymore!”
“There’s plenty of meat remaining” Yeongi shoots back, referring to the sample sized portion left on the plate, “and I wasn’t even the only one eating?”
“Yah! Our Sieunnie can eat however much he wants, he needs it” Suho coos, looking over at him. Excuse him. “And I’m buying him food. You’re just a freeloader.”
“HA!” Yeongi jeers, as she gets up from her seat and puts on her apron from where she had kept it beside her, “I ate from my portion and he ate from yours. That’s why the meat is less.” She smooths her face when she addresses Sieun next, a polite but careful smile on her face “Sieun-ssi, I meant it. If you need help with anything, I’ll be there.” With that, she leaves them be, going back into the kitchen.
“Yah,” Suho huffs, squinting at him, “What’s her deal? What’s bothering you Sieun-ah? Tell hyung,” he puffs his chest “He will deal with it.”
“You.”
Suho chokes on his food, coughing repeatedly and garnering attention from the nearby patrons. Sieun passes him water and pats his back comfortingly, he heard it somewhere that it is meant to soothe the person and bring comfort to them. But all Suho does is shudder and turn bright red, so Sieun isn’t sure if it’s helpful.
Suho takes a huge breath, eyes red and watery as he picks up the glass and drinks from it, his throat bobbing with each gulp, all while maintaining eye contact with Sieun.
Sieun squirms, pressing his thighs together inconspicuously to alleviate the budding situation down there, face warm as Suho finishes drinking, the last drop travelling down his face, making its way to his neck and chest, and disappearing beneath his shirt, making the touched skin glisten in its wake. Wow.
Sieun suddenly feels terribly parched. The tongue in his mouth feels heavy. Sieun wants to press it against his chest, following the line all the way up to his mouth, wants Suho to shudder at the sensation as he moves-
Wait. That’s not...
Suho groans, startling Sieun out from his indecent thoughts, as he wipes away the trace the water left behind with his hand and smiles at him cheekily, gaze sweet. Sieun has never gotten a whiplash this bad.
“Are you full yet, Sieun-ah?”, Suho asks considerately, as he puts a small amount of meat on the piece of lettuce and smearing a decent smear of ssamjang, wrapping it up and shoving the whole thing in his mouth. Sieun watches him eat, bemused. Well, a little amused, if he’s honest, watching Suho chomp down his food, relishing it. Sieun can tell he enjoys the food by the way his eyes crinkle downwards and his shoulders doing a little hop initially when he took the bite.
“Hm” Suho repeats, as he continues chewing down his food, looking at Sieun patiently.
“What did Yeongi meant by me eating out of your portion?” Suho freezes, his hands hovering awkwardly over the meat plate, “Did you feed me out of your own dinner that your aunt provides you?”
“You’re listening to that brat?” Suho scoffs, fake, “Has she ever been honest a day in her life? Seriously, one time she told me-”
“Ahn Suho.” Suho shuts up. “Be honest.”
Suho holds his gaze, giving him his best puppy eyes, wanting to be let off. But Sieun is unshaken. After a moment, Suho sighs.
“It’s not a big deal anyways,” Suho starts, not acknowledging the glare Sieun sends his way as he creates another wrap, this time a little heavier than before “I had asked aunt to put more food than she usually does, told her I was sharing it with you. The meat should’ve been enough,” he grumbles, “But that little imp must’ve gotten carried away while she kept you company. What were you talking about anyways?” Suho asks, feigning nonchalance.
“Nothing important” He answers, then adds “I could’ve paid for my food”
“Don’t be ridiculous” Suho scoffs, offended, “I told you I would buy you a meal. Why would you pay then? The extra portion’s going to deducted from my salary. So, technically, its already paid off for.” His face smooths into a pleased smile as he finishes making the hefty wrap. “Yah, open your mouth for hyung” he coaxes, pushing the wrap towards Sieun’s lips.
Sieun turns away his face slightly, “I’ve already eaten.” He states.
“There’s always space for affection laced food in a human’s stomach, don’t you know that?” Suho argues, petulant.
“You sound laced.” Sieun retorts. Suho doesn’t mind his words as he continues pushing the wrap to his lips.
“C’mon open up for hyung, hm?” Suho drawls out, voice raspy “Say Ah. Ah-”
Sieun lets Suho shove the wrap into his mouth before he can spew out more of his innuendo, his tongue and teeth grazing Suho’s thumb accidentally, tracing the ridge of his nail bed and tasting the salt of his skin. The sudden redness of Suho’s face is as of a ripe apple, sweet and tart and plump, making Sieun’s teeth ache with want, even when his canines and molars work rigorously against the food.
“It’s good, yeah?” Suho fidgets, flustered, creating another wrap hastily to busy his hand, and his mouth, Sieun adds, as he shoves it before he even wraps it properly. His neck is a lovely mix of honey and carmine.
Yeah, Sieun thinks, tranced, watching Suho lick the smear and a coat of his own saliva off of his thumb,
It’s really good.
Suho had dropped him off to his house before he could start his delivery job. Sieun didn’t resist him this time.
“Isn’t the moon so beautiful today?” Suho had asked, as he thrusted his helmet into his hands. The night air was breezy today, giving little reprieve to Sieun as Suho took the helmet off of his hand and put it on him himself. The breeze did little to surmount Suho’s warmness that seemed to seep into him constantly. It did little to take away the warmth of his body as Sieun had shuffled around closer to him, his hands clutching Suho’s windbreaker as they drove through the night, the streets of Seoul bustling with life. And it did nothing when Suho had brushed his bangs gently after he removed the helmet for him, telling him he’d see him later. Sieun couldn’t give much more than a hum, his mouth feeling like cotton.
His heart hadn’t gotten the memo to stop thrumming relentlessly, his cheek feeling warm as he moved to touch them. He was incandescent.
See you later.
Sieun hopes he does.
“Son?.......Are you home?”
Shit.
Suho hadn’t stopped feeling giddy since that night he accompanied Sieun. They had become what can be called best friends. Just one step away, Angel Suho coos, skipping around his head clockwise, the line between friendship and love is thin. Suho hopes it is. At least in their case.
Suho had taken both of them to play pool during Saturday, Sieun winning against him effortlessly just made him a little aroused. Just a little, sue him. He had no such luck during Sunday though, Sieun banishing him to the bed as he took his time revising and perfecting notes. Suho had made a noise which meant he’d start his whining again, but Sieun had shot him a glare, which ceased it before it could even begin. It wasn’t a wasted time though, Suho sighs dreamily, reminiscing. He had taken his time admiring him while he played zombie tsunami on his phone muted.
And to top it all off, Sieun hadn’t turn the lights on when he arrived in the classroom today, studying with the dawn light that reflected from the windows, as Suho slept peacefully back on his makeshift bed. He had never done that before. He always used to wake him up with the bright fluorescent light, leaving Suho to fend using some books to block his eyes.
Ah, Yeon Sieun... Are you romancing me?
A beautiful, beautiful summer.
Suho thinks, his breathing heavy, as he watches Sieun run laps among the rest of the boys, his sweaty body glistening under beating sun. He’s quite lagging behind, heaving heavily as he takes a break here and there trying to keep up with his stamina, which is kinda shit, Suho laments.
“Yah, fucking look at him,” someone sniggers, catching Suho’s attention.
He finds a gaggle of twats gathered around at the bottom of the stairs where he sits, ridiculing Sieun as he struggles to make another lap, their laughs feeling like pin prickling in his ears.
It hasn’t even been two weeks since Sieun beat the shit out of Yeongbin, Suho thinks, derisive, have they all forgotten who he is?
Suho has no qualms reminding them.
He flicks his shoe over the one that was mocking Sieun’s run by acting like a zombie, hitting him on the back of the head. The noise fades away immediately. The guy looks back, his lips curled, all the swagger leaving his body immediately when he figures out who had hit him. Fucking wuss.
“Get me my shoe.” He doesn’t even look at them as he orders, watching Sieun start his last lap.
He hears some shuffling and mumbled conversations, but eventually the guy brings him his shoe back, looking uncomfortable as Suho puts his shoe back on. He sighs, rolling his slanted shoulders as he acknowledges him, eyes furrowed in concealed rage, “Talking shit?”
“We were just joking around….” mumbles the guy, not meeting his gaze.
“Think you’re funny? Yah.” He kicks him lightly around the shin “Keep your crowd downer jokes to yourselves, yeah? Don’t make me deal with you again.” With that, he shoos him off with his hand, getting up to meet Sieun halfway as he huffs and huffs and huffs. “Shit. Sieun-ah, wanna go to the nurse?” Suho asks, handling Sieun his own water bottle but Sieun’s towel, he’s not nasty like that.
“No...” Sieun rebuts, his gasps reducing to the minimum as he drinks from his bottle, not questioning it “I’ll be fine.” He grimaces, “What’s in this water?”
“I put some electrolytes in it. Grapefruit flavoured. It’s hot, you need to get your energy right back, yeah?”
“It doesn’t taste like grapefruit. Not even a cheap copy.” Hmph.
‘Yah, just drink the damn drink.”
Suho was playing one of his poci games, occupying the seat besides Sieun who was busy highlighting important events the teacher had doled out during the lecture, when a shadow fell upon them, followed by a grating voice he so recognises.
Suho looks up from his game and finds Yeongbin standing near Sieun’s desk, looking penitence. Sieun looks up as well, annoyance clear on his face as he takes off his earbuds.
“Yah! Who allowed you back here? This is private property!” Suho jeers. Yeongbin covers a scoff with a cough.
“Yeon Sieun,” Yeongbin starts pathetically, “Can we talk in private?”
Suho scorns, looking more perturbed by the minute. “Why should he?”
“Fine.” Sieun agrees, getting up.
“What?” Suho scoffs “Are you insane?”
“I don’t want to drag this more than I have to,” Sieun responds, calm as ever “Besides, you’re coming with me.” Just audacious, this one.
Yeongbin sounds even more fucking inane than before.
Suho is sitting on the counter of the science lab where Yeongbin had led them both, Sieun standing parallelly to the punk that just asked them to accompany him to talk to his lawyer.
“Wow Yeongbin-ah,” Suho starts, leaning back on the table, “did you hit your head on the way here, huh?”
“Suho,” he begs, eyes teary with regret “Try to understand. I cannot have a drug related offense on my record. My mum has been worried sick, meeting with lawyers and judiciaries here and there. She hasn’t slept in days and I feel so regretful, my mum is my everything Suho-ya..”
“Yah.” Suho mocks, “Drop that informal tone. We’re not friends.” He adds, “and you should’ve thought about your mum you love when you drugged Sieun and tried to jump him with your delinquent friends with the thugs you bought. Anything you’ve done was voluntary and you did because you wanted to, right?”
“Suho-”
“What do you think, Sieun?” He cuts him off, directing his stern gaze towards Sieun now, “You wanna let off this punk with a slap on his wrist? Heard he goes to the prestigious Jiseong High now, clearly a drug record on this rich punk hasn’t stopped nobody from enrolling him. But if you’re fazed by his crocodile tears, then I’ll be off.” Suho asserts blankly, but he knows Sieun can sense the underlying warning in his tone. Don’t, it says, don’t believe a word from his mouth.
“So, what do you say, Sieun-ah?”
Sieun dismisses Yeongbin with a firm no.
“Ahh I’m hungry,” Suho complains as they leave the school in tow, their hands brushing against each other as they move. Sieun had felt somewhat doubtful of his decision but a firm look from Suho had shut him up, so now he’s back to being grumpy. The afternoon sun has gone back to become blazing, no summer breeze flowing gently around the atmosphere.
“Should we have ice cream again today, Sieun-ssi?” Suho sings, giving Sieun the best puppy eyes he can conjure, “Ah what’s the mood calls for today, huh? Cherry, vanilla..” Suho lists on.
“I have cram school.” Sieun reminds him, unfazed by the other clicking his tongue.
“You always seem to have cram school.” Suho huffs, but he’s not really mad about it. Sieun knows he understands. Sieun, like everyone, is a creature of habit. A creature who is now fitting Suho deliberately into his habit, shaping his schedule around him, eradicating tasks that aren’t as indispensable as Suho is to him. Sieun is glad to have someone like him. Although cram school isn’t essential to him, his parents still expect him to be diligent about it, to ensure he maintains his top position in school. So, he attends, for the sake of his parents and their acceptance, even if he’d rather spend his time enjoying it with Suho, too.
Sieun ponders as they start walking down the road, should he buy them both ice-creams from the nearby store? Suho seemed to enjoy his raspberry one….
“Ah, didn’t know lawyers wore the attire of crooks now.”
Sieun snaps out of his thoughts as Suho stops abruptly, his posture changing from relaxed to defensive as the guys in front of them stood straight, a man giving them a roguish smile. Yeongbin stood amongst them, smirking as Sieun’s eyes met his. He sighs, face going blank.
A sleazy man steps forward, who he assumes is the head of the supposed gang, and greets them with fake cheeriness, “Yah, let’s talk somewhere quiet, you little troublemakers.”
Somewhere quiet turned out to be a basement parking of a building.
Sieun had clutched Suho’s windbreaker-less uniform tighter than usual, as they followed the van on Suho’s vespa, the other gang members following them closely behind on their own vehicles.
The basement parking they were led to had bluish lighting all over the space, making them all appear grimmer than anticipated.
“So, what’s this all about?” Suho sniffs, rubbing his nose, “You clearly haven’t invited us here for some fancy chit-chat. What’s up?”
The thug guffaws amusedly, eyes manic as he weighed both of them, “Yah, this little hyung right here is so ambitious! That’s commendable,” His laugh trails off to a sigh, lamenting “But what’s not commendable is the little act you put upon one of my members.”
Then he bellows out, “Seokdae-ah, look, your friends have arrived!”
What?
Sieun watches, wide-eyed, as Seokdae emerges from one of the vans, looking timider than he did before. Suho shuffles closer around him, stance protective.
He huffs, “Yah, if it’s about the police thing, then you-”
“It’s not about the police,” the thug interrupts him brashly as Seokdae settles his feet beside him, “Though I still haven’t found who had done it.” He looks at Suho calculatingly, “Did you?”
Suho snorts, “I was fighting this big guy,” he juts his head towards Seokdae, “when the police were called. How would I be able to call the police, man.”
“Ah,” The thugs eyes turn dark with malicious intent, “You seem healthy, yeah? Both of you do. Our guys haven’t given you much trouble physically,” he sighs, bereaved “So, tell me, why did you break our Seokdae’s arm like this, huh?”
What?
“What?” Suho barks, echoing his thought, “I’ve never hit any of your little crooks hard enough to fracture their bones,” He then added disdainfully “and I’ve only hit him around his shin and abdomen, never his arm.”
“Yah,” Suho bellows, eyes crinkling in mock amusement, his narrowed gaze fixed upon Seokdae, “Cut the crap. When did I fucking hit your hand, huh? Is your hand even broken”
“So you don’t remember break-break-breaking his hand,” The thug asked manically, emphasizing on the break part with his coiled fist repeatedly pounding over Seokdae’s fracture, never actually touching it “like this and him screaming in pain? Yah,” He beckons, a girl shuffling towards him and handling a paper. The thug shook it aggressively as if to make a point, “Take a fucking look at it. This rascal didn’t have any insurance so I had to pay the whole bill with my own money. And that fucking hurt more than that damn fucking hand, I’ll you.”
“Sorry for your mishappening then.” Suho quips, aloof “Is that you want us both to say?”
“What I want from you both,” he starts, his smile taking a demented form, “is you to pay me 15 million won as compensation, for the hospital trip and the bails I had to make.”
Suho snorts, although his shoulders become tense, “Yah, are you kidding us? Asking compensation from highschoolers, this must be another new low for you.”
“I’ve gone lower than this kiddo,” he says lowly as he lights a cigarette and takes a drag “And I’ll go even lower if you don’t pay me my due back in 3 days. That’s all I’m gonna say.”
“And you expect us to obey you just because you asked us? Why-”
Suho cuts off when the thug brandishes a pocket knife and presses it against his neck, the tip of it just above his major artery. Suho shuts up, unnerved. Sieun feels an unboundable protectiveness taking over him, his shoulders straightening up, gaze calculating and fierce as he examines the territory and the rest of the crew.
If things go awry, Sieun decides, they can take down some of the less brawny ones, and if need be, somehow distract the leader and make a run for it. They’re still in a fairly populated area; these guys wouldn’t want to chase them if they usually stay low profile.
“I’m expecting you to obey me when I’m being nice to you. I don’t need my money to be sourced ethically to get it back, do I?” the thug drones out, “I can just have my men kidnap you right here and extort it out from your parents. Bet they’d be more willing, eh?” he sneers, “Or I can just sell you both to the black market, have your organs harvested as I get my cut. It’ll be far easier than this. Don’t drag this out, yeah?”
“Do you have the proof that we did it?” Sieun interjects, ignoring the warning glare Suho shoots in his direction “Or are you just trying to scam either way?”
“Ah fuck. You both fucking talk too much. Hey, listen kid,” The thug flips out, waving his knife blindly at both of them making them flinch “I’ve made people disabled for less. I’ve killed people for less” he then slashes Suho’s wrist deliberately, making him jerk back, yelping. Sieun’s heart sinks. “And I’ve made people bled for far less than this. Don’t mistake my leniency as weakness.”
“Three days, I’ll give you both three days to give me my money. Otherwise, you’ll be borrowing it from me.”
They find themselves both in a nearby convenience store again, this time its Sieun wrapping gauze around Suho’s wrist after he had disinfected it properly. The cut was superficial, so they didn’t need to check it out with a clinic. Suho tried to cheer him up with some jabs and hyung is fine, Sieun-ah stop worrying and got shut up real quick when Sieun shot him a sharp glare. He’s ridiculous, how can Sieun not worry about him?
They now sit opposite at the seating area, sucking on their ice lolly as they contemplate what they should do about this situation. Asking his parents extortion money is not on the table obviously, Sieun ruminates, and Suho will put his down against it even if that’s their last option standing, his strict morals and ethics would never allow it.
“Sieun-ssi, I meant it. If you need help with anything, I’ll be there”. Right. Yeongi.
“Should we go the police? Say everything? It’s not we have any other option, right?” Suho asks, verbalizing his dilemma, his tongue and lips red as he sucks on his ice lolly languidly. Sieun’s own lolly feels like a heavy weight as it rests on his tongue, him forgoing sucking it to watch Suho enjoy his. “Hm?” Suho hums around his lolly, his gaze fixed on him as he licks it from side.
Sieun’s dick is on fire.
“Yeah..” Sieun sputters, before catching on what he said “No.”
Suho twirls his tongue over the tip of the lolly, his gaze intent “No?”
“No, I, it wouldn’t be appropriate if we did it right now,” Sieun clears his throat, face flushed as he resumes finishing his own ice lolly with much more finesse, “We don’t have much prove or evidence about who the gang is or how they operate. Without that, our words wouldn’t hold much water to the police. So, we need to gather more information for leverage.” Sieun completes, biting into his lolly gently, making his teeth tingle unpleasantly at the sensation. Suho watches him the whole time, eyes flickering between his eyes and his lips.
“Sieun-ah” Suho rasps out, sucking the last piece of ice into his mouth to chew, “Just suck it.”
What???
“What?” Sieun exclaims, his face and, ahem, on fire, looking at him in equal parts of incredulousness and desire. Suho still maintains a calm countenance, although his honey eyes twinkle mischievously “Your teeth is sensitive,” Suho points out “It wouldn’t do good if you kept biting into ice. So just suck it till you finish it. We have time.”
Doesn’t this guy get tired of his innuendos?
Sieun huffs mentally, but obeys as he sucks his ice lolly here and there, listening to Suho yap about the new video game he’s gunning for (Sieun takes a mental note of that, just in case) his halmeoni who’s bingo friends had a fall off over a match gone wrong (apparently old people loved their bingo) and some gossips ear and there. Sieun noticed, pleased, that he wasn’t the only one affected, that Suho kept fidgeting with his hands, his eyes glazed over as Sieun sucked his lolly a little too deep, and he licked his lips and when Sieun licked his own after he had finished his lolly.
The tension was still buzzing between them as they left the convenience store together, Sieun allowing him to put his helmet on him again, Suho’s fingers caressing his cheeks gently, his calloused fingers rough against his skin, before he slapped the visor on. Sieun has never wanted someone this much in his life.
“C’mon Sieun-ah,” Suho cajoles, patting the seat behind him, “I’ll drop you off to cram school on the way.”
Wait. Yeongi.
“Take me to your restaurant,” he deflects, “We have to talk to Yeongi.”
“What do you want to know?” Yeongi asks, as they take a seat, the restaurant now empty due to the time being way past closing time. They hadn’t had the chance to talk during the restaurant’s working hours, so they waited before everything can be settled and they could talk without any interruption. Yeongi hadn’t said much when they said they needed to talk; she must’ve already assumed by their solemn faces and Suho’s injury.
“Who’s the guy Seokdae works for?” Sieun questions, straight to the point.
“Ah, Gil-su, he’s a piece of shit,” Yeongi scoffs, “He’s a bloodthirsty demon with too much lust for money and power. Fuck, he’d literally do anything that will earn him money, no matter how grimy the task is.” She shares as a sad smile with them, “Has he gotten his grubby hands on you both too?”
“Tell us how we can get rid of him for good.” Suho interjects, his face stern in a resolute way, arms crossed as he watches Yeongi pour soju in her glass.
“Aren’t you too ambitious?” Yeongi hammers, then sighs as she takes a shot, “Have you ever heard of free money?”
Yeongi had pitched them in whatever she remembered while she was working under Gil-su.
"He scams students" Yeongi claimed, while she took her sixth shot, looking a bit toasty which resulted in Suho prying off the half empty soju bottle away from her "He and his partner overseas run this gambling website which is quite popular among students. It's all a sham because nobody ever wins after the first few rounds, because they let them. They all fall into debt eventually, which allows Gil-su to prey on them."
"He lends them money to pay off his debt, and makes them steal valuable items or money from their parents in return to pay it off again. If they cannot pay then he fucks them over or make them do his dirty work. He's a fucking scumbag who needs to rot in hell for centuries, and it still wouldn't be enough to atone for the crimes he's committed."
In a way, her input had been quite useful to both of them, as she revealed where the evidence of Gil-su's crimes can be found.
"He keeps all of his dirty work's record in a bunch of journals, along with the hoard of valuables he hasn't sold off yet. It's all in the locker of his office back in the safehouse. The address is 17-1, Sanggye-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul. It's a detached house with a blue door."
"Don't do anything for the next 3 days" She added fiercely, " Someone always stays back in the house so you wouldn't be able to get in without being caught. Gil-su also always never leaves his abode too. He'll pull up with the whole gang on the 4th day around your school, so that's your best shot. Here, I'll send you both photocopies of some documents I had sneaked pictures of back when I used to be under him. It's old, and probably invaluable, but keep it just in case."
With all of the information on hand they had perfected a plan,
Suho will accompany Gil-su back to the house with the excuse of bringing him more customers with his business idea, while Sieun would use the old photocopies to bring police and catch them red handed. It wasn't perfect, Sieun hated the idea of leaving Suho alone around such violent men, but Suho had reassured that he'd be careful and return safe and sound to his Sieunnie.
“Ah, one more thing,” she tacked on as she locked the restaurant while they got on the vehicle, “He’ll follow you both around with his goons for the next few days so he can keep an eye on you, so don’t get any funny ideas.”
True to her words, they were both stalked for the next few days. Even if they both fantasized about going full James bond and steal the evidence prior to the set date, they simply couldn’t because they were always watched. Sieun had made Suho share his location so and shared his own, so they would always know where they are and if they need help. Suho had preened internally when Sieun lectured him sternly about his safety and how he should not provoke anyone in the house. He also didn’t refute the idea of Suho teaching him basic defence, which would require a whole lot of touching, but it’s for safety measures, obviously. Ahem.
“Feet apart to shoulder width. Turn your feet out diagonally.” Suho instructed, watching as Sieun did exactly that, although pouting. Suho had made him do 3 laps around for warmup, which wasn’t exactly a warmup for Sieun, watching as he huffed and puffed terribly as he finished it in far more time than it should’ve taken. Damn, this kid’s stamina is shit. Suho can help with that. Ahem.
“The chin must always be tucked..” Suho grasped his chin between his fingers, his cheek rosy warm due to the exercise, “Raise your fists like this. Your arms must always protect your chin. Remember that. Chin.” He muttered, knocking the balled-up fist over Sieun’s chin in repetitive motion as Sieun watched him intently, his lips parted. Fuck. He cleared his throat, moving back “Let’s get onto the takedown.”
“Next. There's someone in front of you. He's telling you he'll beat you to death. In that situation, don't look at his eyes. Look at his shoulders. Watch,” Suho rolled his left shoulder back as he prepared for a punch, pulling a slow jab that rested a few inches away from Sieun “See that? That’s how you predict a punch. Watch the shoulders. When a shoulder
is about to come toward you, bend your body 90 degrees.” He demonstrated, bending his own “In this position, grab his knees and push him to the ground. One, two, three, like this.” Suho grabbed Sieun’s legs around his knees as he pulled down both to the ground. Suho’s breath hitched, eyes wide as he watched Sieun’s eyes turn heavy, desire burning within. Suho’s cock twitched in the confines of his track pant. Shit.
“This is called the take down." Suho rasped out eventually, pulling Sieun’s attention towards his lips, as he got up and offered him a hand “After that, don't beat him but run for it. Don't even look back. Make a run for it while your opponent is on the ground. Don't try to fight. You'll get hurt. Got it?”
Sieun had merely hummed. Suho’s hand had burned in the wake of Sieun’s touch.
“You remember what we’ve discussed right?” Yeongi’s voice blared through the tinny speaker of his phone. The computer lab was awfully quiet, unaffected by the chaos of the lunch break.
“Yah, Ahjumma-ya, are we hijacking a plane? I’ll be fine.” Suho mocked, watching as Yeongi’s expression turn more peeved than ever.
“Yah! This is serious!”
“Suho” Sieun sterned. Suho stopped talking immediately.
“Keep training him Yeon Sieun,” she cackled, amused before her face settled into a solemn expression “I don’t know how you guys might feel about this but I’ve talked to Seokdae oppa about our plan,” she interjected immediately when she recognised the matching appalled looks on their faces “Yah, you know how he had helped me escape Gil-su back when I was under him, and I want to do the same for him. He’s gonna intervene and make an excuse to be left behind with Sieun, along with the more naïve guys. I hope it’s okay.’’
It’s not okay, Suho wants to hiss, but he understands Seok-dae’s importance in Yeongi’s life. Even if he would’ve liked to be her to be more upfront about it previously. He hopes Seok-dae is worth Yeongi’s trust, and by far, theirs.
Before long, they found themselves stepping one foot out of their safety and into the lion’s den.
Sieun had given him another lecture, posture equal parts of steely and frightened, as he went on and on about him figuring out possible escape routes if need be and possible other tactics they can adopt if all fails. Suho would’ve found it endearing if he wasn’t feeling the pit in his stomach growing as Gil-su and his gang started appearing larger with each step. He takes a deep, mentally steeling himself for the events for the next possible hours.
“And perhaps you should think about possibly arming yourself-”
“Ah, Sieun-ah,” he interrupts Sieun’s nervous rambling “I’ve never heard you talk so much before. Should hyung get into situations like this more often, so I can have you more?”
Sieun’s perpetual teary gaze narrows with annoyance, “Don’t talk nonsense.” He spits, then recovers and pinches Suho’s windbreaker as an apology, pout deepening “You have always had me.”
Ah, Yeon Sieun, living up to his major cutie title again. Suho’s heart thuds against his chest, this time not with anxiety.
“Yah, look at me,” Suho lilts, bowing his head a little to face Sieun directly and holding his palm gently “I told you I’ll be careful. Why are you scared hm?” he boops his nose, making it scrunch “You’ll always have me Yeon Sieun, as I have you.”
He ruffles Sieun’s hair as his shoulders untense by his declaration, his eyes returning to its original light beneath the sun’s warm rays, his mood lifting towards softer disposition. He looks raw, open and intense. Suho wants to scoop up his entire being, keep him safe and warm and loved, where no harm could touch him. And if anyone tries, they’ll have to go through his ribs, innards and appendages, and even then they wouldn’t find him. He’d be in his pulse, in the way his cells recuperate and function, in a way that fuels his entire being. And he’d let Sieun have him the same. Suho realises, as Sieun caresses his hand that holds him, that he’d ruin himself and everyone else to continue having him.
Wow.
“They’re looking..” Sieun mumbles, his face forlorn again, snapping Suho out of his fervour. He looks back and finds Gil-su turn agitated by every passing second, his goons sneering at them. Suho’s running out of time. Suho sighs, but caresses his hands one last time before he turns to walk away, the nerves getting a hold of him steadily.
“Be safe, Suho-ya,” Sieun calls out,
Shit. He’s going to start puking his feelings and anxiety.
“I will,” he calls back, “If need be, come be my hero.”
Gil-su is exactly as he was last time he had the misfortune to interact with him. A huge piece of bullcrap.
“Had fun feeling up each other, eh?” Gil-su scorns, his goons snickering. Seokdae looks like he wants to be anywhere but here. “Suck each other off while you’re at it. You looked awfully close to it anyway”
Suho snorts, of course he’s a bigot “Why are you worrying about me getting my dick wet? Nobody ever touched your shrinked up ones yet?”
That enraged Gil-su, who looked like he’s about to box him right here. He takes a deep breath before he asks unkindly “Yah, where’s the money?”
“Instead of money, let’s talk, man to man.” Suho retorts, sniffling “I have a proposition for you.”
Gil-su lets out an annoyed heave, his jaw ticking as he acknowledges Suho, “So you don’t have the money?”
“Forget about the money. Hey listen, you know I’m the top dog of this school, right? Your gambling website can earn more money with some little tweaks to the business plan”
Gil-su looks alarmed, furrowed gaze looking around his goons, before he replies in a low voice “Hey, how did you know about this?”
“His cousin” Suho points at Seokdae, “was my classmate. He showed me the website.”
“Ahh.”
“Instead of giving 70,000 won once when they join” Suho explains, exaggerating his entrepreneurial persona “We should give them thrice and implement a referral system. Since I’m quite popular around here, I can bring you more customers by allowing them to be in my wing. It’s not hard to turn a school into a gambling house.” Suho finishes, watching Gil-su ruminate over his idea. He catches Seok-dae’s eyes for a moment, he nods subtly.
Gil-su’s going to buy it.
Gil-su claps his arm suddenly, making him flinch slightly “This little hyung is quite ambitious!” Gil-su exclaims, impressed.
Suho lets out a relieved sigh inconspicuously, before he tacks on “You must have your office somewhere. Let’s have a conversation over some tea and coffee. We can discuss about everything in detail.”
Gil-su appears doubtful for a minute, gaze calculating as he just observes him for a minute. Suho is undoubtedly put upon a hot spot in his mind. The moment doesn’t last for long, as the thug’s face changes imperceptibly before it settles in his previous pleased expression.
“Works for me. Let’s go then.” With that Gil-su orders his men to start the vehicle, the men shuffling around as they get in their respective ones. Seokdae doesn’t move, as intended.
“Gil-su” Seokdae began.
“Hm?”
“Should we wait here for the other one?” He nods at Sieun who was engaged in a conversation with one of the students, the guy talking animatedly while Sieun nods here and there. Seo Juntae, Suho’s mind supplies. He was one of the only people Sieun enjoyed holding conversations with, he remembers.
“Just in case,” Seokdae adds, “He’s clearly important to Suho. We’ll bring him in if he betrays you.”
“Okay then,” Gil-su acquiesces easily, motioning Suho to get into the van. Suho complies, sitting besides one of the brawnier guys in the backseat. After a while, a skinny guy joins them, sitting besides Suho as Gil-su slams the door shut. Suho lets out a sigh, the a/c air cooling against the sweat that gathers around the length of his neck, after a while Gil-su joins them and they drive off, leaving Byuksan high far and far away as they go.
It was just a 20-minute drive.
The van stops smoothly and Gil-su gets out immediately, the bang of the door closing echoing in the closed space he now shares with 4 people. Both of the guys next to him aren’t paying attention to him, appearing tense as Gil-su argues with someone loudly in front of the car. He pulls out his phone discretely, and sends a one-word text to Sieun before he closes the app immediately.
Sieun-sieunnie
Arrived
Read at 4:04 pm.
The door opens once again, Gil-su only putting his head inside. His manic smile has returned on his face,
“Ready to go?”
Gil-su’s house is quite pretty, vintage in a way Suho enjoys. It’s a shame it belongs to a scumbag like him.
They are now seated inside, the leather couch accommodating his tall and athletic body perfectly. He sighs and wiggles a little in it as Gil-su takes a seat across him. He has an ominous smile on his face as he asks him “Would you like tea or water?”
Suho entertains him with a forced smile “Just water is fine.”
“Water.” Gil-su drawls out, before he orders “Yah, hand me your phone.”
Shit. Suho clears his throat, unnerved “Why?”
“Ah, you know how it is, I have to make sure we have a secure conversation around here. And one of the ways you can be transparent with me is to give me your phone to check.”
“That speaks of a serious lack of trust.” Suho tries to argue, forcibly making his shoulders untense and appear annoyed instead of scared “I take my privacy very seriously. I cannot work with you with conditions like these.”
Gil-su just hums “Is that so?”
“Then you leave me with no choice.”
A metal bat slams against the back of his head with great force, making him stumble to his knees clutching his head and groan in pain. The pain is excruciating, making his vision double then blur significantly, before his knees give out and he rolls over to his body completely on ground. His mouth feels like cotton. He can’t here much above the ringing of his ears, the frantic yelling before he’s kicked in the face, then again, then again. His neck feels awfully wet, and he’s rapidly losing his consciousness. He feels himself being lifted upon someone’s back and he remembers a final name before his consciousness gives away finally.
Sieun-ah.
He wakes up to the cacophony of noises and winces immediately, his ears ringing harshly before dulling out. He squints his eyes slowly, taking languid blinks as he adjusts to the surrounding and the noises. His mouth feels a metallic taste and blood crusts around the back of his neck. He remembers slowly, everything that happened before he blacked out. Gil-su, Seok-dae…Sieun.
Sieun-ah.
“Sieun-ah” he croaks out, earning the attention of one of the goons standing near him. He swallows down the bile that rose when his head tilted abruptly before managed to get a hold of it, “Yeon Sieun..”
“Yah, keep your mouth shut” the guy barked out, taking a drag out of his cigarette. His nose twitches at the acrid smell.
“Yah, aren’t you being too mean to someone who’s tied up,” he rasps out, complaining. If anything, he has retained his audacity quite well. “And smoking is injurious to health. You can die. But I don’t want to.”
He gets kicked in his chest for that.
Ugh seriously, Suho whines, his head feeling full of pins and needles, does he have ‘kick me!’ written somewhere around him or something?
With strenuous effort, and a scoff from the guy patrolling him, he got up in a sitting position eventually. His nerves feel on fire, but his headache had subdued enough for him to take a look around him. He’s in an amusement park. He’s not amused at all, he scoffs.
“Yah, shut up.” See? Point proven.
“Seokdae-ah.” A voice bites out. Shit. Gil-su.
What the fuck is Seok-dae doing here? Where’s Sieun-ah?
“Did I upset you in any way?” Gil-su raves, “I kept you under my wing, I fed you, I gave you work. Is this how you decide to pay me? Where’s that fucking punk Yeongi, huh?”
“Don’t bring her into this.” Seokdae snips, “If you’re angry, take it out on me”
“Yah, Yeongi never said she had a boyfriend,” Suho grins, touched. “I wonder how-”
“Don’t wonder anything,” the guy snaps, “just shut up.”
Gil-su lets out a sigh, before his face turns resolute “Fine then, get a fucking beating.”
Suho watches as Gil-su starts beating Seok-dae up, punching him and slapping him harshly, all while he takes the beating with stride, never acting in defence. Suho isn’t sure if he’s idiotic or extremely sentimental. Probably both, his mind supplies.
“Ah shit,” Gil-su heaves heavily while Seokdae coughs out, his face bleeding, “Shit, are you a fucking statue? Fuck, doesn’t matter,” Gil-su picks up an iron rod, bouncing it lightly in his hands, “Just die here, you punk!”
Before he can even take a swing, a distant noise starts catching up rapidly, which Suho distinctly thinks is the police siren.
Police…?
Sieun emerges out of nowhere, heaving heavily. His eyes find Suho’s, who watches him in bewilderment. He rasps “It’s over. The police are here. They must be searching your car down the hill, too”. His eyes never Suho’s during the conversation.
“Fuckkkk!!!” Gil-su yells at the top of his lungs, running before his mind can understand what he’s doing. He yells out, looking at his gang from behind “What are you doing fuckers? Let’s go!!”. It worked like a trigger for these NPC’s, who startled and started running behind the crooks of all crooks.
He suddenly had a handful of Sieun.
He gasped, more from shock than pain, as Sieun pressed his face in the crook of his neck, sighing heavily as he wounded him in his arms tightly. Suho felt like he had won the world’s biggest lottery, his exhilaration off the roof. He sighed contentedly, his cheek starting to hurt from how big he was smiling “Sieun-ah. Untie your hyung, hm?” he crooned.
Sieun pulled off of him, albeit unwillingly, eyes widening at the crust of blood that decorated the back of Suho’s neck. His eyes watered immediately before turning into rage. His body shook from it as he struggled to untie Suho, failing and failing before he untied him completely. Suho understood, sighing in relief as he rubbed his wrists to elevate the pressure off of it, Sieun was coming down from the rush of adrenaline.
He turned to look at Sieun, who was watching him quietly, his body trembling. Without thinking, he pulled him in his arms, hugging him tightly as he rubbed his back soothingly. Sieun stiffened, before loosening up completely against him, sighing as Suho rubbed his cheek against his hair, muttering softly “Hyung is here, hm? I’m right here, with you. You’re right here, with me.”
Suho pulled away after a moment, rubbing Sieun’s hands comfortingly as he led them out of the little shack he was tied up from. They could continue this later, in a place Gil-su hasn’t stinked up.
The blaring siren sound catches up to them again, this time its Gil-su and his crooks the harbinger of it. Gil-su lets out an exasperated laugh as he pulls out a phone out of his pocket, Sieun’s phone, an app playing siren sounds out of his speaker. Gil-su slams the phone against the pavement harshly, the phone clattering before it switched off. Gil-su runs his hand annoyedly before he turns to look at them, “You fucking morons,” he starts, “you fucking faggots have been getting on my fucking nerves for so fucking long. You played me well; I’ll give you that. But I can’t let this go on, Can I?” he pulls out a pocket knife, same one he used to threaten Suho. Suho pushes Sieun behind him “So come here and die. Get them!” Gil-su hollers, running towards both of them manically, swinging his knife. Seokdae kicks him out of their way from where he was standing sideways, out of view.
Shit. Suho forgot about him.
“Yah, you fucking punk,” Seokdae drawls out, “Going after high school kids, aren’t you ashamed? Fucking fight me like a man.”
Suho couldn’t hear much of their conversations as the rest of the gang charged against them. He got busy dodging punches and bats, ugh, kicking people in the shin as he thrusted his palm under the chin to disorient them. Sieun was in the same position, using stools and leftover scraps to fend him off from the goons. He slammed a guy against the metal railing and then slammed his elbow straight into the guy’s nose from behind, making him shriek in pain as he clutches his broken nose.
Don’t ask Suho or mini-Suho how he felt about it.
Suho is trying to hurl a guy off of him when he notices Gil-su moving towards Sieun, Seok-dae busy dodging two guys with bats.
“Sieun-ah!” he shrieks when Gil-su manages to slash Sieun’s face superficially as he moved back to defend himself. He kicks the mutt he’s fighting in the face, rushing over to Sieun who keeps evading Gil-su’s blade narrowly.
“Everybody freeze!”
A voice shouts heavily, making everybody turn to look at it.
Fuck. Suho thinks as he watches a police officer point a gun at all of them. Finally.
“Everyone raise your hands and freeze.” The officer reiterates, turning his head towards the attached speaker to signal more authorities. “Respond, 220. This is 43. Regarding report number 2917”
Suho watches, hands raised next to his head, as Gil-su moves closer and closer to the police offer, smiling ear to ear in what he thinks Gil-su believes is an amiable smile, stopping merely a few inches away from one of his goons when the police barks at him to stop.
“There must be misunderstanding,” Gil-su starts, inching a little close, just a little, “You see-”
“Explain your innocence back at the police station, not here.” the officer retorts firmly, pointing his gun directly at Gil-su when he inches closer again “Stop it.” He warns “This is a real gun.”
“Ah I understand. Officer, don’t you remember us playing golf just this weekend-”
Suho balks when he pushes the goon in front of him towards the officer and takes off running. He’s appalled when Sieun runs after him.
“Yah! Yeon Sieun!” he yells as Sieun chases the thug, running after Sieun to follow him, “Where do you think you’re going? Yah!!” He distinctly hears the officer yelling after both of them to stop, but he can’t. Suho heaves, his headache returning slowly but insistently. It’s Sieun. He cannot not run after him.
He finds Yeon Sieun sprawled up against the pavement as he reaches both of them, the thug above him ready to stab him.
He gets hurled the fuck off even before the knife can come close to Sieun’s proximity.
Gil-su groans in pain when he gets roundkicked in the face, rolling sluggishly on the ground.
Suho clicks his tongue in annoyance as he holds out a hand for Sieun, who gets pulled off to his feet and examined from all sides. He has bruises here and there, but nothing’s been broken.
“Yah. You’ve really pissed me off now.” He drawls out, cracking his neck side by side as he watches Gil-su get up on his feet “So take a beating.”
Gil-su lets out a really exasperated sigh from deep within him “Why are all of you messing with me today? Fuckk” he pulls out his pocket knife “Fine, you fuckers. Deal with me.”
He jumps Suho first, swinging his knife at him as he ducks and kicks him in his ribs in retaliation. Sieun kicks his knees from behind, and then jumping back quickly when the blade gets swung at him. Suho grabs him from behind before he could advance towards Sieun, and to his horror gets hurled over and down on the pavement harshly, making his head pound harshly in pain. Suho would’ve puked right there if he wasn’t being strangled, him struggling against his grip. The weight gets pulled off of him as he coughed harshly, as he watches Sieun strangle Gil-su with his belt, now him struggling against the force as Sieun keeps up the pressure. Gil-su manages to unwrap his neck from the belt but before he could get any ideas, Suho roundkicks him in the face again, using enough force he knows will knock him out.
Suho keeps heaving as he moves back to rest against the railings, catching his breath and to move less so that he can avoid another sharp pain that will make him puke, “Yah, you lunatic. Why would you run after him like this alone?”
“You came,” is all Sieun said, in a similar situation as him.
This guy. “You’re a real weirdo, you know that?”
“Aren’t you talking about yourself?” Suho huffs. Fucking brat.
Sieun had let Suho play with his hands as they both waited in the ambulance, both of their wounds treated already. The siren wailed continuously as police kept stuffing the resisting goons into their vehicles to take them to station. Sieun is still grumbling in anger, which subsides gradually as Suho persuades him with his affection.
“Sieunnie.” Suho sings, rubbing his thumb over Sieun’s knuckles gently “How long are you going to be mad at me, hm?” Sieun huffs, but its half-hearted. His face is so gentle against the harsh light of blue and red fluorescent light, it’s like his beauty is perennial, all-consuming that leaves Suho keep coming for more, even in his battered and bruised state.
“Cmon,” he coaxes, “talk to hyung.” he whines.
“I told you to be careful.” Is all Sieun says, his brows furrowed as he finally gives Suho attention. Suho scoffs, turning it into a cough as Sieun gives him a glare.
“Sieunnie, I told you it’s not my fault. I got jumped from behind, it was really scary! Seriously.”
“……”
“Sieun-ahhhh seriously if I could’ve predicted I would’ve never gotten myself kidnapped. How is this any of my fault?”
“………”
Suho sighs, kissing his knuckles gently “Fineee” Suho acquiesces “I should’ve been more careful. I’m sorry for making you worry, Sieunnie.” He doles on, earnest. Sieun’s face is even more red than the police’s headlights. Oops.
“I’m glad you agree,” Sieun mutters, letting Suho sway their joined hands together, eyes crinkling adorably as he watches the motion and then back to Suho, who watches him back gaze filled with love. “And I’m sorry.” he sighs, caressing Suho’s hands back, making his heart skip and skip and skip. “I know it’s not your fault. It just scared me, seeing you like that when I found you back there in the park and your blood..” he breaks off, voice hitching. Suho looks at with his melancholy, “I’m here, Sieun-ah. I told you I’m always here, hm? Where will I go?”
“Ahn Suho.” A gentle voice calls out, wanting Suho surface out of the deep ocean he has been submerged him. His dreams are in a constant state of blur, he can’t recognise anything and he can’t remember himself. He’s never this felt out of control before.
“Yah, Ahn Suho. Wake up, you twerp.” A shrill voice grates his ears now, making him wince. His dreams are leaving its grasp on him, as he struggles waking up.
“Yeongi.” The gentle voice returns again, sounding sterner than before. He recognises the voice. He’d recognise it everywhere. Sieun-ah.
“He’ll be fine. Look, he’s waking up now.”
Suho groans as he wakes up, the pain in his head dulling into a quiet throb as he struggles to sit up. Sieun ends up helping him, grasping his biceps gently as he made him sit up properly on the bed. If Suho flexed his muscles for Sieun to feel him up, it’s nobody’s business but his. Shhh.
Sieun takes a seat on the adjacent bed, next to Yeongi, as he finishes helping Suho up, looking at him with his cat eyes furrowed in worry. Pitiful. Suho immediately wants to settle his worries. “It’s fine. Doctor wants to keep me here for a few days for observation. But after that, I’ll be free.” Suho gives him a charming smile, feeling elated when it seems to untense Sieun’s shoulders “How did it go with the police?”
Sieun was asked to give a statement to the police as Suho had been raving and raving about craving ox bone soup. “What are you, a glutton?” Sieun had quipped, regretting it immediately when Suho started whining to him about it.
“It went fine,” Sieun answered, twirling the end of the hospital blanket kept next to him, Suho wishes it was him. Pathetic. “My parents were called since I’m a minor, but they’re both out of town so they let me go when I couldn’t give them my relatives’ information. Kim Gil-su is under custody.” He sighs, looking at Yeongi, who has a sombre emotion on her face “But so is Seokdae. They know Seokdae is innocent like the few of the members, so he’d be put in a reformatory rather than jail.”
Suho doesn’t care much about Seokdae, but he cares about Yeongi. She’s annoying, but she’s the little sister he never had. He sighs, gaze tender as he looks over at Yeongi, “It’ll be fine Yeongi-ah” he tries “He’ll be back in no time. And then you can annoy him again with your silly little gossips, yeah? Better start gathering them now.”
Yeongi sniffles, annoyed but a gentle smile graces her face, “Shut up, you twat.”
“Aren’t you talking about yourself?”
Sieun lets out of despaired sigh. A beat passes.
“Yah,” Suho begins, teasing “When were you going to tell us about your boyfriend, eh?”
He gets a pillow hurled at his face.
Suho was off sailing in his dreamland after his brain finally gave up trying to give him a scare by cryptic dreams when he was woken up by a light tap on his shoulder again. Suho smiled, still dreaming, because he knows who the culprit is. No one would be ever so gentle with him.
"Ahn Suho.” Sieun’s voice calls out. Ah, there it is.
Waking up from sleeping is still a bitch, so he groans as he squints his eyes open, the first thing that revealed itself was Sieun's gorgeous figure. Ahem.
He hears a crinkle from besides him and looks over and finds Yeongi deep into a greasy burger, complaining about gaining weight and how Sieun is so inconsiderate. Suho huffs, getting up to sit as he peers over to find Sieun doing the same, eyes unbearably fond. Suho sighs dreamily, he’ll get over this view in his lifetime.
“Eat.” Is all Sieun says.
“Ha…You?”
Yeongi snorts, which turns out to be a coughing fest as food goes in the wrong way, huffing and puffing. Sieun’s face is a lovely shade of red as he looks at him bashfully. He’s beautiful. Suho’s breath hitches.
“Your food.” Sieun supplies, nodding at the parcel placed before Suho on a makeshift table. Since when was this here?
He frowns as he opens up the food package, finding a bowl of ox knee soup steaming against the lid, the aroma all too familiar. It’s from the place he always gets his soup from. Sieun remembered. He went out of his way to get him this.
He chokes, his throat hurting from the amount of emotions he’s feeling right now, as he looks over and finds Sieun still hovering around him, watching him intently.
“What’s with this emotion” he chokes out, catching Sieun’s attention at the sound. He frowns back “I’m getting goosebumps.”
“What?”
“I mean you,” he reiterates, nodding at him. His heart feels its going to jump out of his chest and lay itself bare in front of Sieun, all of his love and devotion itched all across the mass. He doesn’t believe that will make Sieun realise his Suho’s true feelings for him, he already knows its written all over his face. Nowhere to hide, in his eyes and his gaze, in his smile and his bearing, in him all open. In his sayings, “You’re so warmhearted,” He starts and he can’t stop “Your eyes, how you behave, how you speak, and your face. It feels awfully strange.” Like it isn’t natural to him, to want someone so much they become your cause. For your happiness and mishaps alike. Suho cannot believe he can survive without Sieun, he believes it will kill him. No longer a loss of a limb, but a loss of himself.
For a while Sieun doesn’t say anything, looks at Suho and looks and looks. Like he cannot believe someone could be this kind to him, love him this much. Like he’s not easy to love, like Suho wouldn’t crawl over to the ends of the world for him, his salvation.
And then, Sieun smiles, his face bright with happiness, his own love reflected back towards him, adoration and elation clear on his face. His smile, all for Suho.
Suho is a goner.
Yeongi was long gone when Sieun returned again the next day after school. His doctor had cleared him for discharge the next day, so Suho had to spend one more night in this hellhole. Between the usual cacophony of the hospital and the whirlwind of the emotions he had, he hadn’t gotten any sleep. So now he’s grumpy as he watches Sieun pull out his textbook and start studying next to him, and he’s in love, because he ditched cram school to spend more time with him. It’s a mess of emotions, but he’s still elated by yesterday. It feels like the elation will never go away.
“Sieunnieeee” A poke to his cheek. “Yah, Yeon Sieun.”
“……”
“Hyungie is bored. Pay attention to him.”
“…..”
“My Sieun. Sieun-sieunnn.”
This only earns a twitch of a smile, his eyes crinkling lightly as it roams over the words on his book. It should be roaming over him! Suho huffs, petulant, before he realises.
Right. Time for the big guns.
“Sieun-ah,” Suho whines, making Sieun freeze. Gotcha. Suho smirks inwardly. He goes all in, eyes wide and lips quivering as Sieun finally looks at him “Are your books more important than your hyung, hm? Is that it?”
Sieun huffs, pinching his flushed ears in annoyance. He’s annoyed Suho can have an effect on him so instantaneous. Ha!. But he obeys and puts his book back into the bag, where it belongs. Evil be gone!
“My education is important,” Sieun quips but doesn’t agree with the more part, Suho notes ecstatically. His face settles back into his gentle disposition, his usual fondness he always has with Suho “What do you want to do?”
“This is ridiculous” Sieun hisses, when a nurse tends to a patient next to them and eyes them warily. She’s right to be, as both Sieun and Suho are huddled closely on Suho’s bed, Sieun’s head placed near the crook of his neck as they watch Ponyo on his phone. They’ve already finished Howl’s moving castle.
“Fujimoto searching for his daughter is ridiculous to you?” Suho retorts, snuggling close towards Sieun’s hair. It smells like eucalyptus and lotus, and it brings comfort to him as he snuggles a little closer. Sieun’s warm body around him feels like a dream, and he can’t even accept Sieun’s complaints because he knows Sieun doesn’t really mean it. He’s been trying to merge into him by how he keeps moving closer and closer. Suho scoffs inwardly. Brat.
“You are ridiculous.” Sieun scoffs, “do we have to do this here?”
“Any place is a good place to cuddle my Sieunnie” Suho sing songs, then yelps when Sieun pinches the waist his hand is holding. “Don’t be annoying.” Sieun reprimands, sighing as he cuddles his face a little closer, lips touching the erratic pulse of Suho’s neck. Suho rebukes his previous statement, this is torture. “I need to go home now, should I bring you food before I leave?”
“Thinking of wining and dining me in hospital?” Suho teases lightly, but his heart skips a beat due to the genuine consideration. The hospital has been feeding him foods that are a toddler’s worst nightmare, bland and too much texture. Suho had to hold down his gag as he ate his lunch, he’s not even sick, he doesn’t have to subjugate himself to this. Sieun had to hear it all by Suho, of course.
Suho sighs as he exits the website they were torrenting from, sue him, and turns to caress Sieun’s hair gently, pushing them out of his face. Sieun looks at him with so much want, carnal and romantic, but all Suho does is tweak Sieun’s chubby cheeks with his fingers and caressing them lightly. The nurse had just been wary of their gestures; but Suho’s sure she would pass out of appal if she sees them having a heavy makeout sesh in a public ward of the hospital.
Suho snuggles him closer, if that can even happen, and hugs him while he mutters “You don’t have to. I’ll survive a little hospital food,” he pauses “I think.”
Sieun lets out a muffled giggle against his neck, the vibration making the exposed skin tingle. Suho’s heart feels so warm. “Don’t be dramatic.” Sieun sighs, snuggling him one last time before he gets up languidly. Suho supresses his whine at the action, feeling a little pathetic. Ahn Suho, Devil Suho quips in his head, be quiet!
“I’ll get going,” Sieun starts in the lieu of adieu, tucking Suho delicately “Call me if you need anything.” He picks his bag and shares one last smile with him before he turns to leave.
“Sieun-ah,” Suho calls out, making Sieun pause in his step. He doesn’t have to turn around for Suho to address him again,
“You wanna meet my halmeoni?”
Sieun feels like he’s going puke out of nervousness.
The bus jolts backwards when it halts for another traffic sign, and it does nothing to shake him out of his stupor and only makes him more nauseous. He grips the gift he bought for Suho’s halmeoni tightly, his sweaty palms interacting with the flimsy wrap, making it a little damp. He wipes his hand against his jeans roughly when the bus starts moving towards the next stop, the next stop he has to get off on, oh god. He’s contemplating killing himself and everybody in this vehicle to escape this predicament, that he agreed on. But how couldn’t he? Suho had asked him so nicely. His cheeky smile turning into a wide grin as Sieun had given him a yes, the nervousness fading away as his shoulders slanted downwards. Sieun covets it all.
Sieun smiles gently as the gentle rain thrums against the window he’s resting his face against, swaying gently with the bus’ motion. He wants to Suho again, regardless of any predicament. He’d agree to them all.
There’s a usual anticipated liveliness in the area where Suho’s house is located. It’s a well-known old neighbourhood around the outskirt of Gangnam district, and is a quite a fair distance from Byuksan high and his own place. Sieun doesn’t mind the travel, but he understand why Suho has to sleep in the school.
The bell chimes pleasantly when he presses the bell, announcing his arrival. He can distantly hear Suho yelling behind the door and his halmeoni chastising him, and the thud noises of his feet slapping against the floor. Sieun’s lip twitch for a smile. The door opens and Sieun’s voice hitches in his throat because wow.
Suho stands in front of him with a beaming smile, hair damp and sporting a black tank top and matching shorts, his muscled arms and legs on display. Sieun gulps down the saliva gathering in his throat, lest he drools right in front of him. He clears his throat when Suho notices his rapidly flushing face, a sly grin replacing his previous one.
“Like what you Sieun-ah?” he teases, then he has the audacity of check him out in return, his eyes darkening significantly as he hums in approval. Sieun isn’t sure what he finds appealing in his attire, he’s just wearing some bootcut jeans and a diesel top, pairing it with a denim jacket. His hair is slightly wavy and damp due to the light drizzle outside. It’s all it is. Suho still looks at him like he wants to eat him alive.
Sieun huffs half-heartedly, ignoring the growing arousal in the pit of his stomach as Suho continues feasting on him with his eyes “Do you mind?”
This seems to startle Suho, as he blinks rapidly before his eyes settle on him again, this time the desire in them subdued. He smiles warmly when he sees the gift in his hand, already presuming it is for his halmeoni. He opens his mouth-
“Suho-ya! Has your friend arrived already?” Halmeoni’s voice calls out, interrupting him from somewhere in the house. The gentle aroma of something spicy and delicious weaves through the door, making Sieun’s stomach churn in hunger. His mouth now waters for different reason altogether.
“Yeah, he’s here!” Suho responds back, before gently grasping Sieun’s wrist in his hand and leading him in the house. “Let’s get you in Sieun-ah, hope you like spicy food.”
Halmeoni had loved his gift.
“You didn’t have to.” Halmeoni gasped, grasping his arm gently with her weathered hand which held the gift “It’s already a delight to meet you finally. I’ve heard so much about you from Suho.” She cooed, her eyes bright and warm as she led them towards the couch. Sieun feels immediately at ease with her. He can find remnants of Suho in her, her eyes that have the same twinkle as Suho’s, her gentle but firm disposition, or the way she dotes on Sieun immediately, telling him he’s too skinny and he needs to eat better and then chiding Suho for not looking after him properly. Suho huffs from where he’s sitting next to him, but its all fond, like he can’t appear mad at his halmeoni for long. Sieun understands.
His halmeoni had gasped again when she opened up her gift, her body buzzing with light excitement as she smoothed the floral patterns of the knitted scarf he had got for her. Suho had told him in one of his rambles about how his grandma had found a newfound obsession in scarfs, clipping newspaper outlets and buying knitting supplies to make one, but couldn’t because of her arthritis. Sieun sighed in happiness mentally when halmeoni gushed about him and kissed his cheek in appreciation, calling him warmhearted. Sieun felt really elated in that moment, a kind of a peace that settles over you when someone appreciates your efforts and you wholeheartedly, without expecting much in return. Because he was sure, somewhere in his heart, that his grandma would’ve accepted him with just as easily if he hadn’t brought any gift. Much like Suho did.
He’s really happy.
Sieun, in turn cannot handle spice at all.
Suho rushes over and handed him water as Sieun coughs when the spice of Galbi jjim hit his tongue and throat, leaving a burning sensation in its wake. Sieun’s eyes water as he gulps down the water, Suho soothing him by running his hand over his back gently. His halmeoni coos, remorseful, as Sieun’s coughing fit subsides gradually, and then gently wipes away the tears from his face. Suho hovers around him cautiously, and only recedes when Sieun tells him he’s fine. He still takes the seat next to him instead of his previous seat across him. Sieun rolls his eyes at the gesture, but a smile still forms at his face. He loves that Suho cares for him so much.
His bowl of Galbi jjim gets swiftly replaced by another small bowl of bulgogi and rice. He feels awful instantly. They shouldn’t have to go out of their way to cater to his whims.
“It’s fine, halmeoni. I can-”
“It is fine, son” she waves him off, pushing banchan plates next to him, “I already anticipated that spice might not do you good nor your stomach. Don’t eat something that you can’t enjoy just to be polite, you already are. Here, son,” she pushes the plate of gamja jorim next to his bowl of rice “have some gamja jorim, my Suho says that you enjoy it. He made it himself.”
Sieun feels such strong wave of emotions that he immediately has to hide it with stuffing his face full of rice, ducking to sniff quietly. Suho reaches under the table and rubs his hand lightly above his knees, before he lightly opens his palms. Sieun entangles their fingers, looking over to peer at Suho, eyelashes fanning over his eyes daintily as Suho works over the bowl of galbi jjim he couldn’t finish, taking bites here and there. Sieun’s breath hitches and he looks down at his own food, picking up the potatoes and stuffing them in his mouth. It’s infinitely better than the ones he had back in the cafeteria, perfectly roasted with a good balance of sweet and salty. He smiles.
Halmeoni bites back her own, knowing.
Sieun had surprised him and Suho both immensely when he gave him a proposition.
“Do you wanna,” Sieun hesitates, when he begins putting in his shoes back on, Suho watching him intently. He had been ruminating about it for later part of their day, about how forward his idea is and how insinuating.
“Do I wanna what, Sieun-ah?”
Sieun takes a deep breath. Its now or never.
“Do you wanna go back to my house?”
For a moment Suho looks shocked, mouth agape as he stared at Sieun without blinking. Sieun panics, rushing out his explanation immediately, “It’s fine if you don’t want to! It’s just that you-it’s going to be quite a travel for you to reach school tomorrow and your bike is still at the school. So I thought since my house is near and-”
“I would love to stay over, Sieun-ah.”
Suho doesn’t even give them a chance to properly get into the apartment before he kisses him silly.
“Suho-ya” he gasps, head hitting the door as Suho smashes his lips against him, both of his calloused hands holding his face. Sieun’s own hands finds Suho’s waist, gripping it tightly as Suho moves his lips against his insistently. His foot stumbles upon something (Suho’s duffle bag, his mind supplies) as his back arches, Suho dragging his lips against his cheek before he gasps out “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do this with you.” Sieun mewls.
“Suho-ya,” he drawls, moans, when Suho bites his skin near his ear. He writhes against his hold as Suho sucks and sucks and sucks, creating a litany of bruises on the juncture of his neck. Sieun cant take it anymore, so he clutches Suho by his hair and presses his lips against him again, moaning open mouthed as Suho sucks at his tongue and licks the back of his tongue. His dick is now rock hard, leaking persistently against his boxers and jeans, making it damp under its weight. Suho’s hand move towards his shirt, down and down until he reaches the end of it and slips his hands beneath. The effect is instantaneous. Sieun moans loudly as Suho’s warm palm comes in contact with his stomach, spread across them as his stomach contracts and churns with arousal. His hips twitch with want, finding no relief as it fails to touch something, most importantly Suho’s thighs.
“Suho-ya,” he moves his lips away to speak, which Suho brings it back immediately by grabbing his face by his fingers and pressing Sieun’s lips against his own again, demanding. Sieun’s eyes roll back as he clutches Suho’s broad shoulders, his nails biting him through the shirt. They keep moving their lips against each other greedily, hands roaming everywhere and anywhere their heart desires, but just frustratingly, not down there.
“Suho-ya” Sieun mewls in frustration when his hand gets smacked away when it tried to brush up against Suho’s hard length. Suho smiles slyly from where his face is pressed against the crook of his neck, before he bites the skin over the collarbone, licking it right after.
“What baby?” he rumbles.
Shit
“Suho-ya,” he gasps out, the heat of his groin now bordering on unbearable “help me.”
Suho removes his face from his neck where he had been putting on his ministrations and bites his fingers which were holding the side of his face. His eyes are pitch black, hair tussled and lips swollen “What do you need help with, hm? Tell hyung-ah.” He pulls Sieun’s thumb in his mouth, sucking it erotically “hm?”
“I need hyung to make me cum.”
Suho smiles, before he picks him up by his legs, putting them on either side of his waist and carries them to the bedroom.
“Your wish is my command.”
Sieun suggests there’s always a first time for everything. Even for the things he wasn’t sure he would ever experience.
He experienced his first turmoil when his parents fought hard and blamed each other on the day he had broken his arm, and understood that he was the cause of their pain and suffering. He experienced his first heartbreak on the day his parents announced their divorce, crying his heart out in the restaurant’s bathroom they had taken him to break the news. He had done everything to earn their love, even if it came in the form of crumbs, practiced and studied and studied and became the filial son he thought they had wanted, so that they could stay together, that they could stay with him. In the end, they never wanted him and they never wanted each other. In his short life of 17, he had accumulated various memories that were unpleasant and nudged out no good feelings out of him. Sieun had accepted it, that his heart may forever be half, that the vessel may never hold the love that may be poured in him, that it’ll seep all out, leaving him emptier than before. He didn’t think anyone could ever want him, broken and all,
Until a quiet summer day and the disruption of his surrounding brings him his Ahn Suho.
Sieun experiences various firsts with him. He experienced what friendship is when Suho had come to his defence when he was being jumped by Yeongbin and his friends. He experienced what attraction is when Suho held his hands as they ran off from the police. He experienced what fear is when Gil-su had kidnapped Suho. He experienced what rage is when he attacks Gil-su for the harm he caused Suho. He experienced what warmth is when Suho had looked at him from his bike, so earnest and forgiving as if Sieun hadn’t nearly incapacitated him. He understands, what love looks like when its reflected in Suho’s eyes everytime he looks at him. Like he’s the one he had been waiting for his whole. When Suho gasps it out when cums against him, honest and open and real. And he understands, what love looks like on him, when its itched all over his face whenever he looks at Suho, too.
It’s then Sieun realises, that he’s not broken nor his vessel empty, it fits perfectly against the heart of Suho’s own. So the love they build will stay within them forever, where there’s no chance of it bleeding out, no chance of it ever escaping, something only theirs. For it’ll be a prove of them, that loneliness is not inherent, that love is not selfish, that nobody is unworthy of it.
Suho-ya, Sieun cries as he reaches his own climax against Suho’s insistent fingers, I love you too.
With Ahn Suho, Yeon Sieun experiences his first and last love.