"Do you ever wonder what it's like to be a superhero?"

"Um...yeah Binnie."

Moon Bin loved superheroes. A lot. Ever since he was able to read, he had loved the Avengers and Superman and Green Lantern. Classmates would sometimes make fun of him and his big glasses and Iron Man t-shirts and especially his Batman lunchbox with the muscled man in all of his glory posing on the front. Still, it didn't matter. It didn't matter because Bin believed he would someday see his heroes.

Lee Dongmin did not want to tell his friend. He did not want to destroy his fantasies about meeting the one and only Bruce Wayne, but Bin would need to find out sooner or later. The superheroes from his comic books looked nothing like real superheroes. Real superheroes did not have hulking muscles or chiseled features. They were simply humans who happened to undergo a genetic mutation that left them with enhanced strength and an unnatural inclination towards helping others.

Dongmin knew this more than anyone. Why? Because he was a superhero in training.

When he met Bin on his first day of school, he thought the kid was crazy. Of course, he told his parents about the ignorant little boy who knew nothing about superheroes. Their answer was that Dongmin should be friendly to the boy and make him the best person he could be, to get him as close to being like his heroes as possible, because that was as close as he was ever going to get to them. Dongmin felt terrible for acting as if there was a chance that the boy may meet his heroes, but what else was there for him to do to a little boy who believed in superheroes like others believed in Santa? He couldn't just say, "Those guys aren't real. Real superheroes are built like skinny gymnasts."

And maybe it was because of this acting that Bin, years later, still believed that his superheroes were off somewhere fighting crime. He was the only one in the entire senior class who still wore his DC Comics t-shirts under his uniform and swung his Batman lunchbox on the way to the cafeteria. His classmates all thought he was a bit weird...that is, all of them except for Dongmin. He found his friend to be a bit cute in a dorky kind of way.

One particular day at school, Bin asked the question Dongmin hadn't heard in years: "Do you ever wonder what it's like to be a superhero?"

The question caught Dongmin by surprise. No, I don't really wonder what it's like to be a superhero, he wanted to say. Training is more than enough for me. But he couldn't say it. He couldn't bring himself to admit that he had been lying about his interest in superheroes because, in actuality, he didn't want anything to do with them. Really, he did not have any desire to be a superhero. Maybe he would have found the idea fascinating if not for the intense workouts and the directional pamphlets and the spandex.

So, unwilling to make his friend sad, Dongmin said, "Yeah, Binnie, I really do." The beaming smile on his friend's face made the lie worth telling.

"I really wish I could meet Batman someday. He's so cool," Bin said, hugging his lunchbox to his chest. "Dongmin, do you think I'll get to meet one of them?"

He thought for a moment, not wanting to give the wrong answer. "Yes," he said.

Dongmin would never be able to let Bin know that he had, in fact, already met a superhero.

Later that day, Bin met Dongmin at his locker. "Hey, do you want to come over?" he asked, his brown eyes finding their way to Dongmin's heart. "My mom's ordering Chinese."

Between the puppy dog eyes and the Chinese food, there was no way he could say no. I'll just tell the agency not to call me today, he thought. Being a superhero was hard.

Very hard.

As the two were walking out of the school, a loud voice shouted from behind them, "Hey, Bin!" They turned around to find a lanky guy with two friends walking towards them. Dongmin could only sense trouble. "Are you ever gonna let go of that lunch box?"

The guy on the right laughed. He sounded like a rat and happened to look like one, too. "You've had that since, what, first grade?"

Bin's mouth formed a straight line and his eyes narrowed. "Bin, let's go," Dongmin said quietly.

"No. I wanna know why this jerk thinks my lunchbox is stupid."

The lanky guy rolled his eyes. "Kid, you should have thrown that out a long time ago. No one cares about Batman anymore."

Dongmin could almost feel the steam coming out of Bin's nostrils as the boy yelled, "Batman is better than you'll ever be!" He paused and the three guys smirked at him. "Someday, I'll meet him, and he'll see it and—"

"He's fake. He's not real."

Dongmin wanted to punch the guy. How could he say something like that? Bin was so innocent, and it hurt Dongmin's heart to seem him so angry. "Bin, let's go," he advised again.

Bin wasn't paying attention. "Prove it. He's real."

The third guy, who hadn't said anything the entire time, spoke up. "Why don't you go to the top of the school and jump off? Then we'll see if he comes to get you." The other two laughed hysterically.

Before Dongmin could tell Bin to let it go, the boy had already swung his fist into the chest of the third guy. However, the jerk was faster and punched Bin's cheek, knocking his glasses off. That was the final strike for Dongmin. If he had wanted to punch the guys earlier, he wanted to send them to the moon now. He pulled third guy away from Bin and punched him in the chin, sending him onto his backside. He went light on him, since the last thing he needed to do was use his super strength to kill someone on school grounds. He kicked the other two, leaving him and Bin standing in front of three sobbing guys.

"I told you to stop more than once." Dongmin picked up Bin's glasses and put them back on his bruised face. One side was broken, causing the frames to sit crookedly atop his nose. "Let's go, now."

They walked in silence for a while. Dongmin could tell that his friend was disturbed by what they had said about Batman. He walked with his head down, lifting his lunchbox to his chest ever now and then. His school shirt was ed to show the Captain America t-shirt that he had worn underneath.

"He is real. He's real, right, Dongmin?" His bottom lip quivered. "Because...if he's not real, then everything I looked up to until now has been a lie, and there's no point in living if the first eighteen years has been filled with lying and..." He stopped and turned away.

"Ah, Binnie, please don't do this." Dongmin looked around frantically, almost embarrassed by his friend's sudden break down. "Look at me. Look." Bin shook his head. "Fine. I honestly don't know if Batman specifically is real, but I can tell you for sure that there are superheroes out there. You just need to look harder."

He stared at Bin's back for a while. When his friend's body stopped shaking, he reached his arms around him in a hug and folded his hands on the other's stomach. "Don't be sad. When you cry, I want to cry, and then we would just be a blubbering mess sitting out here on the sidewalk."

Bin chuckled, sending a warm feeling through Dongmin's body. "Dongmin, people are going to think you're crazy, hugging me like that." He started to pull away, but Bin grabbed his hands. "Hey, I didn't say I didn't like it."

Dongmin hoped that his pounding heart wasn't too noticeable.

"Let's go home. My mom's getting Chinese."

They walked the rest of the way without any interruptions, talking about random things as they went. Dongmin did everything he could to keep his heart from leaping out of his chest. He said he liked it he thought. He liked my hug. Still, no matter how infatuated Dongmin was with his friend, he knew that he would never have a chance. They were both guys, after all. Bin was probably after someone like Wonder Woman or Black Widow.

Finally, they arrived at Bin's house. "Hi mom," he called. "I brought Dongmin."

"Hey boys," a voice called. A lady with long brown hair and pretty eyes walked out of the kitchen with a towel in her hands. When she saw Bin's face, he jaw dropped. "My baby!" She ran over to him and brushed a finger across the bruise on his cheek.

He flinched and turned away. "Mom, I'm fine."

She continued to reach for him, saying, "Let me see. Is it a bruise? Why are your glasses broken?" Each time she tried to touch his cheek, he turned his head away. It reminded Dongmin of the way dogs moved their head away when you tried to pet them.

"There was a little fight after school," Dongmin offered. "Bin got punched, and his glasses fell of. I dealt with them, Mrs. Moon.

She sighed, eying her son evilly. "Dongmin, what would we do without you? I swear, this kid probably would have gone crazy already if you weren't always there to stop him."

He laughed and watched an embarrassed Bin take his glasses of. "Mom, do you need help setting the table?"

She shook her head. "Go fix your face."

"It's fine."

"Have you looked in a mirror."

He shook his head. "I'd rather do that after I eat. I'm starving."

At that, they sat down to eat. Mrs. Moon asked typical questions, like, "How's school, Dongmin?" and "How are your parents?" By the time they were full, there were still three boxes of teriyaki chicken. "Please bring this home and share it with your family," Mrs. Moon said, handing a package to Dongmin. "And Bin, go fix your face."

Bin groaned and walked straight into his room and flopped onto the bed. "My face isn't bad, is it?"

"Um...I don't want to give you my biased opinion..."

Bin pouted and marched off to the bathroom. Half a minute later, he came back, a surprised look on his face. "I'm sure it will go away...right?"

Dongmin shook his head and reached a hand out. "May I?" he asked for permission before touching the mark. Bin winced and turned his head away. "I need to make sure he didn't do anything completely horrible."

"And this isn't completely horrible?"

"Calm down," Dongmin laughed. He felt to make sure nothing was terribly damaged. "You feel fine. Are you dizzy?"

"No."

"Can you see fine?"

"Well, my glasses aren't on..."

"Okay, you seem fine...aside from the bruise. I'll go get you an ice pack." When Dongmin entered the room after a quick trip to the kitchen, Bin had already hung up his uniform blazer and shirt.

"Thank you," he said, taking the ice pack and putting it on his cheek.

"No problem." He gave Bin instructions for what he should do for the rest of the night so his bruise would disappear sooner. Suddenly, his phone rang. "Hello?" Dongmin said, already sensing who it was. Mr. Kwon from the agency called him to give him a mission. "Does it have to be now?...Okay, I'll be right over, then." He hung up.

"Do you need to leave?" Bin asked.

"Yeah. Sorry I couldn't stay longer."

With that, he ran out of the house and towards the city. He tapped his watch and a map lit up on the screen. While he watched the red dot leading him through the streets, he put on his mask, which only left his nose and mouth exposed. Conveniently, it stretched into a full body suit. He hated it: blue spandex suit that stretched from his neck to his feet, black gloves and boots, belt tied around his waste. What was there not to hate?

"Cha Eunwoo!" called a voice, using his undercover name. Well, here I go, he thought.

-------

The next day, Dongmin walked into school with a scratch on his arm. No, it wasn't from fighting some villain with a sword, or a giant robot with claws. He had tripped while running after a burglar making a getaway on a motorcycle. That was it. He managed to tear his superhero apparel, which was a plus. Sadly, the agency said that it would be good as new in 3 to 5 business days, whatever that meant.

He didn't see Bin. Usually, he would be waiting at his locker with a textbook on his lap and his phone up to his face. Maybe he went to the library.

Sure enough, there he was sitting at a table by himself. "Binnie, what are you doing in here?" he asked.

He looked up sadly. "People were looking at me weird. I—I think they heard about the fight."

Dongmin felt terrible. He should have pulled Bin away from them the minute he sensed trouble, but he knew that Bin would have to deal with fights on his own at some point. He had not expected things to go the way they did. "Don't worry..."

"They were laughing, Dongmin. And my face still hurts." He looked down again, causing his glasses to fall off his face.

Dongmin sighed. "I can't help your cheek right now, but I can fix those glasses for you." He took a roll of duct tape out of his bag and began mending the broken frame. "I meant to do this yesterday."

Bin watched as he worked on his glasses. "Where did you go?" he asked.

"Um, something came up. My uncle called me." It was a very vague excuse, but Bin nodded his head anyways.

"Dongmin," he said after putting his glasses on his face again. "Do you think...hypothetically speaking...someone would save me if I fell off the building?"

"Bin—"

"Hypothetically speaking."

Dongmin sighed. "Don't even think about it."

"I won't."

The days went by quickly. Bin did not say a word about superheroes. In fact, he barely talked at all. Dongmin began to worry about his silence. When the weekend came around, the only thing Bin said was "bye" and he was off on his way. There was no "Can we go to the park tomorrow?" or "Do you wanna come to my house?" Dongmin really started to worry then. He sent Bin messages, but he didn't read any of them. Did I do something wrong? he thought. The last thing he needed was for Bin to hate him.

The weekend lasted longer than usual, but thankfully—Dongmin never thought he would feel that way—Monday rolled around as it always did. He walked to school and was met by a lonely locker. Bin was nowhere to be found. At that point, Dongmin felt like screaming. He didn't know why he was being ignored. He didn't know if he was hated or not, or if Bin 
was even in school that day, as the library was completely empty. He hated not knowing things.

When the chaos in his head began to calm down, he began listening to the conversation happening behind him. "He's really going to do it...wow, that kid's got some guts." There was laughing.

"He's going to die and he doesn't even know it!" another voice said. Dongmin turned around. The kids talked over each other, laughing and shaking their head.

"He's so dumb. What was his name again? Something like Moon..."

Bin. Dongmin was bolting up the stairs before he could even finish his thought. Does he really think someone is going to save him? Well, now he's right. He pulled out his black mask and placed it over his eyes. As always, his superhero costume came on automatically. When he made it to the roof of the building, there was no one there.

You can do this. You're trained to do this... Why can't you do this? He looked around frantically until he saw that familiar black backpack and Batman lunchbox. He dove off the edge of the building and spotted his friend falling fast towards his death.

You're Cha Eunwoo, he told himself. Time moves slower than you. There's no way you won't make it. Maybe if he had been plain old Lee Dongmin he would have never caught up to him. But he was Cha Eunwoo, and Eunwoo could do things twice as fast as Dongmin.

He felt the thud in his arms as he caught Bin. Changing direction as quickly as he knew how, he flew back up to the roof where Bin's bag was still sitting. When he landed, he put Bin down and knelt beside him. "Wh—who...Who are you?"

"My name is Cha Eunwoo."

Bin stared at him, eyes wide in shock and a laugh playing on his lips. Dongmin couldn't help but feel a little jealous of the fact that Bin seemed to love his superhero self, but not his average self. He did feel glad that he was being admired by Bin, though. It just wasn't in the way that he wanted.

Dongmin leaned in towards Bin's face. What are you doing? he asked himself. He couldn't give up the opportunity. He could do what he wanted, and Bin didn't need to know it was him. He cupped his hand under Bin's chin and placed a kiss on his cheek.

He ran towards the edge of the building. Why did I do that? he thought. I'm going to have to live with that, now. Before he could fly away, he pulled off his mask. The superhero costume quickly transformed back into Dongmin's school uniform. "It's Lee Dongmin," he said, running back to his friend still sitting down. He pulled Bin's face towards his again and squeezed his eyes shut. However, this time Dongmin's kiss landed on Bin's lips.