Pairing: Sunggyu/Sungyeol

Prompt: Sungyeol is the prince on the moon and is very lonely, so he travels down to Earth to cure his loneliness. And there, he runs into Kim Sunggyu.

Warnings: None

Word Count: 10,155

A/N: Thank you to all of the mods for their hard work, and thank you to all who subbed to the event and all those reading! I hope you enjoy this little present. And finally, happy birthday to our beloved Sunggyu!!

The Moon Prince

When the Earth was young and wild, untouched yet by human hands but still teeming with life forms that she’d long forgotten, she fell in love with the Sun. The Sun ran hot and was prone to flare suddenly, but he had a certain charm that drew not only the Earth to him but eight other consorts as well. There were consorts that the Sun had held more closely to his side, like Mercury, but because of his volatile nature and hot temper, those who were the closest to him also had long-dead hearts that were shut off to the Sun and to anyone else. Conversely, those who were the furthest away from the Sun grew cold from lack of care and attention. But then there was the Earth who was perfect in her position with the Sun, and because of that, she was the liveliest, with a tender and warm heart. With the Sun’s affection, she grew and grew. Her body transformed. She became more beautiful. And the Sun noticed and became just as drawn to the Earth as she was to him.

At the zenith of their love, the Earth gave birth to the Moon, whom she held close to her side ever since. Even though he was under his mother’s perpetual care, the Moon grew lonely. Unlike some of the Sun’s other consorts, the Earth only had one child, and so the Moon had no one to play with. Because of this, he began to resent his parents and grew dark, threatening to immerse himself into the pitch black shadows, shunning his father entirely.

Noticing the worsening state of her son, the Earth searched among the creatures of her surface for a companion for her son. Disguised as an old beggar, she came upon a monkey, an otter, a jackal, and a rabbit and asked then for food. The monkey offered her fruits from the trees, and the otter collected fish from the river. The wicked jackal pilfered a lizard and a pot of milk-curd for her. But none of those gifts could compare to the one that the rabbit offered, its own life. The rabbit threw itself on the fire that the Earth was stoking, offering itself to be eaten because it only knew how to gather grass, which would never stave off the beggar’s hunger. As a reward for its sacrifice, the Earth rescued the rabbit from the flames and allowed it to live with her son. And since he’d gained a companion, the Moon stopped immersing itself into the darkness and passed his time playing with his rabbit friend. However, he kept a dark side to him and his loneliness never really went away.

And so one day, the Moon left his spot in the heavens and came down to the Earth, where he met a little girl who chased the black loneliness away.

*******

Sunggyu woke up in cold sweat, jolting from his sleep. He had another anxiety dream; he’d been having them all month long. And because of that, the little rest he got never really felt like rest at all. Sunggyu sighed as he looked over at his nightstand. His mother’s book laid there, still opened face-down to the page where he left off last night. He probably had read her books hundreds of times and heard them being read to him even more. But as he was in China, miles and miles away from home, having her books nearby was a comfort to him. It was like having her by his side.

However, maybe it wasn’t the most brilliant idea to be reading about the moon when one is having anxiety over it. Sunggyu was the only Korean member on a team at the CNSA and was a late addition to it, when the project extended more much longer than its projected lifespan. His team guided Yutu, the lunar rover, which only was expected to ‘live’ for three months but now was encroaching into its 31^st month, which means at any point it time, it could just cease to operate. And Sunggyu hoped that he wouldn’t be liable for the ‘death’ of such a spectacular project. For some strange reason, he had a feeling that he would be. The Moon and him had a bizarre relationship. It was a source not only of anxiety for Sunggyu but bad luck. Nothing good ever happened to Sunggyu the night of a full moon. And unfortunately, tonight would be another bad night. Sunggyu looked out his window and saw the white, full orb hanging in the dark blue sky, taunting him.

I have a bad feeling about this.

*******

Sunggyu’s premonition was right. They’d lost Yutu that day. Yutu was just happily roving along the craters of the moon, when a large shadow loomed over it. The screen went black and stayed that way. Yutu stopped transmitting. It was entirely inexplicable! They’d assumed that the rover would suffer a mechanical error or fall into a deep crater. But that shadow! There was something off about it. And Sunggyu must’ve been losing his mind from lack of sleep because the shadow almost looked as if it had a profile, a human profile. Sunggyu kept replaying that split second where he swore he saw a nose and hands with long fingers reaching for poor, innocent Yutu.

But aliens don’t exist, Sunggyu reminded himself. Well, they might exist, but they surely don’t live on the moon. He quickly corrected. The universe was full of infinite possibilities, he knew that. But the possibility of what he saw was actually real, was slim to none. There’s no man on the moon.

But the CNSA being the CNSA, Sunggyu was thanked for his services and asked not to talk about what he’d seen to anyone. He was never debriefed about what could’ve happened to Yutu. He was just given a nice bonus check and was sent on his way back to Korea.

And so for the first time in over a year, Sunggyu was taking a vacation. And for the first time in two years, Sunggyu was going home.

*******

The plan originally was to spend an entire month in Jeonju (to recuperate his sanity and catch up on sleep) before returning to KARI and telling them what he could about his mission with CNSA, which wasn’t much. However, Sunggyu was quickly growing restless in his hometown after a few days. It was a hard shift for him to go from working like a dog to laying around like one. But returning home had a few perks. He spent time with his family and reconnected with old friends, like his old hoobae Kim Myungsoo who owned the coffee shop where Sunggyu now spent his mornings, or entire days like today, drinking more Americanos than he should. But it was okay. Sunggyu was the one who gave Myungsoo money to start up this café in the first place. So he should be able to drink as many Americanos as he wanted without the owner judging him and his now erratic heartbeat.

Other than drinking coffee all day, Sunggyu was reading, or he was pretending to as he just watched the people around him or waited for Myungsoo could walk by so that they could chat. Now the book was just laying on top of his face as he leaned back in the lounge chair and slept. After an hour or so of napping like this, Sunggyu felt the book being peeled back from his face.

“Surely you have more books than just these in your house, hyung,” Myungsoo remarked as he took the elder’s book into his own hands and began flipping through it. “I like this part,” he muttered below his breath as he read.

Sunggyu sat up, leaning forward onto his thighs. “I was reading it again when I was in China, and I didn’t finish it,” he explained through a yawn.

“Haven’t you read them like a hundred times already?” Myungsoo asked with his eyes still reading through the text, a smiling widening on his face as he did so. Sunggyu closed his mouth. I’ve heard them read even more, he kept to himself, recalling when he was dragged around to his mother’s schedules in his youth, and when he actually wanted her stories to be read to him at night. He rubbed his eyes. He didn’t even need to read the book. He knew all of the words by heart.

It wasn’t just one book, but three of them. It was a series about a girl from a small village who encounters a princely looking boy who claimed to be from the moon. And as the story unfolded, the boy showed himself to be truly from the moon, a god in his own right, with the ability to manipulate his own gravity. In other words, he could float in the air, which became useful in his adventures with the young girl. In the first book, the boy was an outcast. Everyone from the village thought he was lying, even the girl, but the girl became his friend regardless, and later was the first to believe in him. At the end of the first story, he won over the village when he saved it from a flood.

The second book, the Moon Prince (what the villagers now called him) and the girl were in their teens and were racing to become like adults, even though they still acted and played like children. They both had their first kiss, their first loves. They fought hotly, disagreeing over ideals. The Moon Prince had been abusing his new popularity and powers and status of a god, amassing a small cultish following. So the girl left him, and he was alone again like he’d been on the moon. They made up when the Moon Prince rescued her from falling off a cliff. But some things between them were irreparable.

In the last book, they were in their early twenties, struggling with their identities and trying to find their place in the world. And the Moon Prince’s rightful place was on the moon. No matter how much the girl begged and pleaded, he still left, after climbing up to the highest mountain peak and launching himself back into the dark night sky, never to be seen by the girl again except every night when the moon shone bright in the sky.

And it was the third book that Sunggyu was rereading now. Even though he was almost thirty now, he was still struggling to find his place in this world. I wish I could just fly up to the moon too, escape all of this.

“I was just in the mood to read it is all,” Sunggyu finally gave his answer to the other.

Myungsoo closed the book and handed it back to him. “I’m surprised that you aren’t sick of them yet,” he said.

“But I am,” Sunggyu admitted with a nervous chuckle. “But I always seem to come back to them.” Myungsoo nodded as if he understood and then left to finish cleaning up. But he didn’t understand, he couldn’t. Sunggyu himself could barely understand why he kept reading them. It was as if there was a string tied between him and the books, tethering him to them, sometimes pulling him towards them. A twisted but strong tie of fate, and Sunggyu was about to find out just how twisted it was.

When Myungsoo finally closed the café, the two of them went out to eat, a lot. Sunggyu’s appetite was ravenous as of late. Probably because he felt this incessant need to fill all the holes in his life, starting with his mouth. After eating a hefty dinner, Sunggyu insisted on getting ice cream afterwards. He had scarfed his down quickly, but Myungsoo was still holding onto his, occasionally eating it, cherishing it instead of shoving it down like his hyung (which probably said a lot more about their personalities than anything else).

Sunggyu began to make his way home, and Myungsoo was following him, either for a lack of anything better to do or he really wasn’t paying much attention as to where he was going because he was still eating. But Sunggyu didn’t tell him to go home. The company was nice and it was a long walk to his house, situated at the edges of the city, near a large park, which they were walking by right now. Sunggyu looked over and saw several people in the park stopping, with their heads lifted towards the skies. He stopped too (as did Myungsoo). What are they looking at?

He had to squint his eyes to make it out, but it soon became clearer and clearer. A light was streaking erratically through the sky, from one edge of the horizon to the other. “What the hell?” Sunggyu cursed under his breath. Shooting stars didn’t travel like that. Heck, even airplanes didn’t. Others started to sense that something was wrong and left the park, going to take cover. But Sunggyu, a true scientist at heart, wasn’t going to leave until he got a damned answer (and Myungsoo was still blissfully ignorant, eating his ice cream).

The ‘star’ then actually paused for a moment, in the middle of the sky. Then it grew bigger and bigger. No, it wasn’t growing in size! Whatever it was, it was coming closer, and it was heading straight for the park. It seemed to light up the entire sky, and then it fell behind the cover of the trees.

“Wah!” Sunggyu exclaimed when it finally disappeared from the sky. He whipped his head over towards Myungsoo. “Did you see that?”

Myungsoo was in the middle of the melted ice cream streaming down his hand when Sunggyu had asked the question. He lifted his head and looked around. “See what?” he asked.

“That!” Sunggyu yelled, pointing at the sky. “That meteor hurtling towards us! You didn’t see it?” Myungsoo shook his head and then raised his eyes to the skies, trying to find it fruitlessly. “Seriously? It was a giant, friggin flash in the sky!”

“I was eating,” Myungsoo answered, showing his ice cream cone to the other.

“Yea, but…still,” Sunggyu stammered in disbelief. He knew that his dongsaeng could get fixated on food, but this was a bit much. He threw his hand back up in the air, gesturing widely. “Meteor! There! How could you not see it?” he asked again. And Myungsoo nodded with a grin on his face. Sunggyu lowered his hand, stuffing both of them into the pockets of his coat, and let out a great sigh. He began ranting as he walked towards the trees, “I swear, one of these days, you’re going to get robbed or kidnapped but you’re not going to notice it because you’re paying more attention to your ice cream cone than the whole world!”

“I think I’d notice if I was being kidnapped,” Myungsoo retorted, still following the elder.

“I thought you’d notice a friggin meteor hurtling towards us!” Sunggyu snapped back.

“No one else seemed to notice it, hyung,” Myungsoo argued.

And that made Sunggyu finally stop. He rolled his eyes at his dongsaeng. “Yea, sure, no one else noticed it. Look!” he commanded. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and gestured around, at nothing. There was no one around him. Everyone had left. He was the only crazy one who wanted to figure out what was going on. Sunggyu lowered his arms. “Well, people were here. I saw them. I wasn’t the only one who noticed. I swear,” he added because now Myungsoo was staring at him with a skeptical gaze.

“Are you sure you’re not seeing things, hyung?” Myungsoo asked. “Remember that shadow on the moon…”

Sunggyu rushed over and covered the younger’s mouth. “Sh!” he hissed. “That shadow is classified!”

Myungsoo peeled the hand off from his lips. “Then why did you tell me?” he cracked into a laugh as he asked.

“Because…” Sunggyu began but he sealed his lips. Now wasn’t the time to get into that. It would just be a waste. That thing, whatever it was, was still out there. And Sunggyu wanted to find it. So he waved his hand in the air. “Let’s just forget about that,” he suggested. “Do you want to walk with me?”

Myungsoo nodded. “Yea, sure. I could go for a walk.”

*******

“Where are we going?” Myungsoo asked once they entered the thicket of trees. He’d finally finished his ice cream, and just in time too. “Ow!” he yelped as he tripped over a tree root, almost stumbling completely onto the ground.  But he regained his footing, staying low to the ground as he took a few hurried steps. “I’m okay,” he told his friend, who hadn’t even noticed that Myungsoo had tripped. Sunggyu was several meters ahead, hot on the trail of the fallen star, if that was what it was.

“I think I saw it fall over here,” Sunggyu yelled back at the other.

“Are you still on that meteor, hyung?” Myungsoo asked, apparently thinking that Sunggyu genuinely wanted to walk through the woods for no reason.

“Meteorite. If it landed, it’s a meteorite,” Sunggyu corrected the younger. He then jumped onto a rock and narrowed his eyes as he scanned his surroundings before deciding to jump down and march towards the left. “I saw it burn out, but it could be possible that it actually survived.”

“Oh right,” Myungsoo muttered under his breath, which was growing short as he tried to keep up his pace with Sunggyu’s who kept walking faster and faster and faster. But then he just stopped, standing on top of a tree stump. Eventually, Sunggyu had noticed that the other stopped following him and walked back to his friend who was still on the stump. Once Sunggyu reached him, Myungsoo asked, “Hyung, once meteorites land, they’re done moving, right?” His eyes then went over to the other, wide and scared. His voice was just above a whisper when he asked, “They don’t jump and run around, right?”

“Of course, it’s just rock,” Sunggyu whispered back. Myungsoo’s demeanor was making him nervous too. “Why?”

Myungsoo didn’t answer with words. He lifted his arm and pointed off into the distance, between two trees. Sunggyu stretched up and forward to get a better look, steadying himself on Myungsoo, but he could see it. A flash of red and…white. It was a long red fabric, trailing behind…something, something that Sunggyu had never seen before in these parts. What is it? It can’t be…right as he was thinking that, the red fabric, shimmering in the low light, shot straight up like a bolt of lighting, traveling up to the tops of the trees.

“I definitely saw that this time,” Myungsoo remarked lowly as his eyes tried to chase the flashes of red.

“What the Hell?” Sunggyu murmured. He couldn’t follow the red anymore with his eyes; he’d lost it when he blinked. And so did Myungsoo because the younger was now spinning around on the stump, trying to find it again. Unlike Myungsoo, who seemed more curious as time passed, Sunggyu’s stomach grew heavier and heavier. He had a bad feeling about this, starting from his feet which were itching to leave to his fingers that were now grabbing for Myungsoo’s sleeve. “Let’s go,”  Sunggyu said before letting go of the other and walking away, his speed picked up with every step until he broke out into a sprint. “Go, go!”

“Hyung! Wait up!” Myungsoo called after him. He hadn’t expected the other to leave so quickly (or be able to run that fast).

“Hurry up!”

*******

Sunggyu was able to walk again when he they were a good block or two away from the park. Whatever they saw, it didn’t follow them, which was all that Sunggyu could ask for. And Myungsoo was thoroughly worn out from it all.  He wished the elder ‘good night’ with his eyes nearly closed and left to get some well deserved sleep. Sunggyu decided to do the same, especially after noting the time. How long had they been wandering around in the woods for it to be after midnight now? However, he wasn’t the only one who was having a late night. When he passed the gates to his house, he saw that the lights were still on in the first floor. Mom, he thought as he opened the door. And sure enough, his mother was there to greet him when he came through the door. “You’re home late tonight,” she remarked from her desk set up in the living room by the window.

“You didn’t have to wait up,” Sunggyu responded and walked over to her in order to greet her with a kiss.

“I’m working,” she stated, gesturing to the open notebook that laid in front of her. Sunggyu peered over her in order to get a better look. The pages were filled with fractured thoughts, scribbled out words, and arrows pointing every which way. They were notes that only his mother could understand, even though they were written in Korean. But Sunggyu could tell what she was doing. He’d seen this for years.

“New book?” he asked.

“Eung,” she hummed and turned to a new page with an aggravated sigh.

Sunggyu rest his hands on her shoulders. “What’s it about this time?”

“I’m still trying to figure that out,” she answered. His mother then put down her pen and turned back towards her son. “So what kept you up late? Did you meet with someone?”

“Only Myungsoo,” he replied. But then his hands fell away from her as he backed away and crossed his arms over his chest. “I saw a meteor tonight. It looked like it landed nearby, but when we went to go check it out, there was nothing except some weirdo out there.” He noticed that his mother’s face gradually fell from a smile to a worried grimace. “Don’t worry. We’re safe now,” Sunggyu quickly assured her.

“Good,” she responded, as she reached for his hand.  “The world isn’t what it used to be, Sunggyu. It’s a scary place now.”

“I know,” he muttered. His mind didn’t go straight to what he saw that night, but what had been plaguing his mind every night. That eerie shadow on the moon. And even out of this world is scary. Sunggyu squeezed his mother’s hand. It was good that all she had to worry about were hooligans in the forest and what her next book would be about. He smiled warmly to her. “Good night, Mom. Don’t stay up too late.”

“I won’t,” she promised, picking up her pen again. The woman began jotting a few things down after Sunggyu had walked a few steps away. She had no idea that her son had stopped in his steps to watch her, and he observed her for a few moments as his mother was hunched over her desk.

That eerie feeling that he had in the woods, seeped into him again. What is she writing now?

*******

The next morning, Sunggyu woke up the latest that he had all break. He rolled out of the bed and recoiled at the feeling of his bare feet on the cold floor. He half-considered falling into his bed again and curling up in his blankets, but he decided against it, mostly because he had to pee. So he shuffled quickly into the bathroom, glancing for a moment at his reflection. His hair was overgrown, hanging like black drapes down the sides of his face. He’d gotten in the habit of carelessly parting it down the middle because it was too much of a bother to do anything else with it, like getting it cut. And apparently, it was almost too much of a bother for Sunggyu to shave as well. His stubble was now on the verge of becoming an actual beard. His hair had always grown quickly and Sunggyu couldn’t even recall the last time he’d shaved. He picked up his razor and stared at it for a second or two before raising his eyes back to his reflection. He immediately put the razor back down. What was the point of looking nice? He’s on break. Who did he have to impress? It wasn’t like he was going into a secure building filled with millions of dollars worth of equipment, anymore. Sunggyu groaned. What was the point of looking nice ever again? He’d already hit his peak and now he was falling from it, hurtling down into a bleak future.

What would KARI think of me now after I killed Yuta?

Sunggyu let out another groan and hung his head before splashing cold water onto his face. Snap out of it, he reprimanded himself. And the cold water seemed to do the trick, shifting his focus from future concerns to immediate ones. First, he needed to warm himself up. Second, he needed to figure out what he was going to do that day.

Fortunately, his older sister had cleared away his second concern. She owned a knit shop just a few blocks away. She had asked if he could help her watch the shop as there was a sale and several knitting circles were going to hold their meetings there. When Sunggyu had gotten to the store, he thought it was telling that there was nothing better to do in this neighborhood than to knit because the store was filled with women and some men of all ages. All of them were much more knowledgeable about the yarn and the needles than Sunggyu was. The only thing he knew was how to operate the cash register, which he soon took over when his sister realized that he was helpless in showing the customers around. When the sale’s rush had died down, Sunggyu some how got tied up, literally, in a knitting circle of elderly women, all around his grandma’s age. They took turns in winding their skeins around Sunggyu’s hands as they gossiped around him. And Sunggyu joined in on the gossip. Strangely, even though he’d been absent from this neighborhood for years, he still knew some of the people that they were talking about. Their grandchildren had been his classmates. Once the women noticed that, they began asking Sunggyu about his job, which spiraled into several series of questions after he said that he worked for KARI. One of them even asked if he believed in aliens, which Sunggyu could only laugh off. Luckily one of her friends stepped in, chiding her. “Of course he doesn’t! He’s a scientist! Scientists don’t believe in those things!”

“Uh, right,” Sunggyu answered with a tight throat. His eyes were on the floor, watching the shadows of the elderly women close in on him.

After that, they asked a few questions about his mother, wondering what the city’s great author was up to. They were disappointed that he couldn’t tell them more about her new book, even though he’d just heard about it last night himself.

Because Sunggyu proved himself to be a poor source of gossip, they began talking about the men their granddaughters had married or would marry (or their grandsons doing the same). And Sunggyu just sat there, listening, as a woman wound dark red yarn around his hands. These were his former classmates getting married, or had married already, and Sunggyu had no idea. He hadn’t even been invited. But they were all pairing off together, leaving Sunggyu behind (or did he leave them when he left town to pursue his studies). And now Sunggyu felt alone, even though he was amidst a gaggle of chatting grandmothers, with red string tying him to…himself. This is fitting, he thought, sighing.

Now he felt like there was even less of a reason for him to look nice anymore. Really, whom did he have to look nice for?

*******

When his sister closed up shop, she left her brother with her card, telling him to treat himself to dinner with Myungsoo. Sunggyu nodded as he took the card. Now Myungsoo was the only proof Sunggyu had that he had someone outside of his family in this town. I should reconnect with more people, Sunggyu thought as he tucked the card away in his back pocket. But another thought quickly followed on that one’s heels: Why bother? I’m just leaving again at the end of this month. Why bother with anything?

“What is he wearing?” Sunggyu heard someone next to him whisper. First thing Sunggyu did was look down and assess his own outfit. There was nothing wrong with the way he was dressed. It was just jeans and a sweatshirt. So the second thing he did was to glare at whoever had said that, only to notice that the person was looking off towards the other end of the crosswalk. The third thing, Sunggyu’s eyes followed their gaze. Fourth…! Not this again!

At the other end of the crosswalk, a man stuck out amongst the crowd of people that were now gathering around him. It wasn’t because of his height, even though he was at least a head above the rest, or because of how he was acting. He was just patiently waiting for his chance to cross the street. But it was how he was dressed that attracted attention, from his slicked back chesnut hair to his shiny white shoes, which clicked against the pavement with every step he made as he now crossed the street. A crimson cloak attached underneath the lapels of his white suit swayed in the light breeze. That, Sunggyu squinted as he stared at the red cloth dance behind the man. That looks familiar. He then laughed at that notion because the whole outfit was incredibly familiar to Sunggyu, almost like a brother, if you could consider one of your mother’s fictional characters as that. This man was dressed like the Moon Prince, or he tried to. Sunggyu stared as the man came closer and closer. Something seemed off about the man, but Sunggyu couldn’t put his finger on it. And he didn’t want to. He snapped out of his daze and tried to hurry past the man.

He wasn’t successful. The man stepped in front of him before Sunggyu could step off from the sidewalk. “I’m sorry but do you know where Kyungsook is?” the man asked.

“Kyungsook?” Sunggyu repeated and then scoffed. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he spoke lowly with a snarl. Not only did he look like the Moon Prince, but now he was searching for his fictional counterpart. Sunggyu didn’t want to know how long this person would keep up the charade (or if he knew who Sunggyu really was). Since the man blocked his way down the crosswalk, Sunggyu turned and continued down the street. It looked like he’d have to go to Myungsoo’s place the long way.

The man, however, had legs almost as long as his cape and easily caught up to and kept up with Sunggyu. “Yes, Kyungsook,” he repeated, thinking that the other had asked a question. “She’s about this tall with eyes like this,” the man paused to slant his fingers across his eyes. Then he clapped. “Like yours! Hey, that’s a crazy coincidence.” While the man described ‘Kyungsook,’ at the same time he’d confessed. Sunggyu rolled those said eyes and finally stopped to face the other. So he does know who I am. The man kept acting, “And her hair is always tied back so tight that it’s going to give her a receding hairline one day.” Now that was a line straight out of the books. “So have you seen her around?” the man asked. His voice quivered a bit as he asked, probably noticing Sunggyu’s (intentionally) hostile demeanor.

The Moon Prince wannabe waited for the other to answer, but Sunggyu crossed his arms over his chest and cocked an eyebrow. The man shifted nervously, possibly regretting that he’d ever asked. Good, Sunggyu thought. Maybe if he pushed the man a bit more, he’d go away. “Don’t you have something better to do?” Sunggyu challenged. “This isn’t funny.”

“I wasn’t trying to be funny,” the wannabe denied, shaking his head fervently. “And this is why I came here, for Kyungsook,” he claimed, and was surprisingly standing his ground against the other. “So do you know her, or not?”

Sunggyu actually laughed this time. This was getting to be ridiculous. “Right, like you don’t know who I am?” Sunggyu called his bluff.

“I don’t!” And wannabe still denied it. “Should I?” he turned the question around, cocking his head as he studied the other. “Have we met before? I have a pretty good memory. I feel like I’d remember if we did,” he spoke, his voice dropping as he continued. His gaze drifted from Sunggyu to their surroundings. “But…I don’t remember…any of this. Strange,” he muttered more to himself than to the other. After his eyes darted around, as if he were looking for a sign, they fell back onto Sunggyu. “I am in Jeonju, right?” he sounded lost and confused.

There’s something more wrong here than his outfit. Sunggyu lowered his arms. Does he honestly think…No, I’m not getting involved in this. This isn’t my problem. “Yes, you’re in Jeonju. The real one, not some fictional place from 50 years ago,” Sunggyu tried to bring the other back to reality before he went to leave. “I’m going.”

“Huh?” the man caught up with him again. “Fictional? Like fake?”

This time Sunggyu kept walking, but he still answered the question. It sounded like the guy needed to hear it. “Yes, fake.” Sunggyu glanced over at the man, and he looked so silly with the red cape trailing behind him as he kept up with Sunggyu’s quick pace. And he was staring at Sunggyu so seriously that Sunggyu had to look away. “The Jeonju you have in your mind doesn’t exist,” he told him.

“And Kyungsookie?”

Sunggyu halted his step. “Her too. She’s not real,” for some reason, he answered this question quietly.

“B-but…” the man stammered. He stopped too, but he wasn’t facing Sunggyu anymore. He was searching the crowd on the other side of the street. He’s still looking for her. He doesn’t believe me.

Sunggyu had been in this position before, several times. People would approach him dressed up as the characters from his mother’s famous series or with her books, expecting him to feel flattered by their passion. But he wasn’t. He would feel annoyed more often than not the older he got. The series wasn’t his accomplishment. But he came famous, or at least well-known, because of his mother. And it was hard to escape from her shadow, even harder to escape from the Moon Prince’s.

But this encounter was a first. Sunggyu pitied the other. This fan was aggressive, but not as much as others. And although the ‘Moon Prince’ wanted to meet with his ‘Kyungsook,’ never once did he ask Sunggyu for his mother’s autograph or for her whereabouts. This is strange. This guy seriously thinks he’s the Moon Prince, Sunggyu thought, glancing over the other once more. What was wrong about the outfit was the fact that nothing was wrong with it. Sunggyu had seen the covers of the books for his entire life, and the image of the Moon Prince was seared in his mind. From head to toe, his golden buttons and sapphire cufflinks, he almost looked genuine. Almost, because the Moon Prince didn’t exist. Sunggyu’s gaze stopped on the man’s face, which looked distraught as he searched the crowds. Something is wrong with him, mentally. Sunggyu hesitantly (and he nearly didn’t) placed a hand on the man’s shoulders, getting him to face him once more. “Do yourself a favor and come to your senses. Get some help,” Sunggyu urged him. “Reality is just as a good place as the one my mother made, even better sometimes.”  He dropped his hand from the other. The fan didn’t even turn around. “Are you even listening?” he asked. Sunggyu dragged a hand down his face. What am I doing? This guy is too far-gone. This is way beyond my capabilities. I’m a rocket scientist, not a shrink. “I’m going,” he might as well be speaking to himself.

“Huh? Were you saying something to me?” the guy finally turned around and asked. “Oh, I thought you were talking to someone else,” he said as he followed Sunggyu once more.

“I might as well be,” Sunggyu thought out loud. This guy wasn’t listening to him, but hopefully, he’d hear this: “Go home. You won’t find anything here except disappointment.” He kept his eyes forward as he spoke and he suddenly turned the corner, going down the block, hoping to shake the other off.

“But I’m not looking for that!” the man shouted from the corner.

Sunggyu spun around to look at him but kept walking backwards. “Just go back!” he yelled back, before spinning back around.

“I can’t!” the man wouldn’t let him go. “Yah!”

“Yah?” Sunggyu repeated in disbelief, turning around again.

“What year is it?” the man asked, approaching Sunggyu again.

Sunggyu took a step back, but still answered with caution, “2017?”

“2017,” the man muttered as he slowed to a halt. “2017, 2017.”

While the guy was mumbling to himself, in deep thought, Sunggyu took this opportunity to finally escape. “What a weirdo,” he grumbled, casting one last glance at the fan, who had reached back for his cloak and was now fiddling with it in his hands. Sunggyu closed his eyes and looked away, hoping to never see him again.

*******

Sunggyu came back home that night from dinner, slightly drunk. Myungsoo also had a rough day, training a new barista who cried whenever he’d chided her in the slightest. Myungsoo had hired her because he thought her soft heart would be good for customer service, but her heart wasn’t soft, it was made of glass. And now Myungsoo needed a glass or two in order to unwind from a tense day. Sunggyu’s sister probably wouldn’t appreciate the bottles of soju she unknowingly paid for, but Sunggyu would be sure to express his gratitude late, perhaps working for free.

But for now, Sunggyu was having a hard time standing up straight. In fact, he was leaning against the wall as he took off his shoes.

“Oh, Sunggyu!” He nearly fell over when he heard his name being called, but he caught himself. He whipped his head up and saw his mother, smiling warmly at him. “How was your day?” she asked.

Sunggyu stood straight up and stepped inside, into the hallway. “Someone was looking for you,” he spoke coldly.

“Who? Your dad?” she guessed as her son walked past her. “Sister?”

“A fan,” he grumbled.

“Oh,” she muttered lowly. “Sunggyu, I…”

“I’m going to clean up,” he interrupted her, still continuing on his way to his bedroom.

“Oh okay,” he could hear her say before he shut his bedroom door.

Sunggyu let out a deep breath and deflated onto his bed. He knew that his mother wanted to apologize, but he didn’t want to hear it tonight, especially when his mind was so lucid and he might say some things he’d regret. Sunggyu with a groan lifted himself off of the bed already. For now, he should sober up and shower. After that, he’d need to plaster a smile onto his face and assure his mother that he was just fine before she went to bed.

It wasn’t her fault that someone had lost his mind in her stories.

*******

He was able to come out later that night, with a cleaner body and mind. His mother had left her desk, giving up on writing for the time being. She was now sitting on the couch and watching the news with her arms clutching onto a pillow. Sunggyu forced a smile onto his face and slipped into the spot next to her.

“Why aren’t you writing?” he asked with a light tone.

But she responded darkly, “I’m not motivated.”

Sunggyu’s smile faltered. A new book always came with several false starts, he had to remind himself of that. It wasn’t because of what happened earlier. He drew his eyes away from his mother and turned them to the television screen, hoping for something to distract the both of them. But that face which was now darting all over the television screen was hardly a distraction at all from the problem. It was the problem.

Sunggyu leapt off from the couch. “That’s him! That’s the fan from earlier!” he exclaimed, pointing at the man on the screen. He was still dressed up as the Moon Prince, which had not only caught the attention of passerbys but of the news stations too, especially when he was pacing back and forth in front of the oldest house in the city. It wasn’t so much of a house anymore but a landmark, a spot for tourists, Kyungsook’s childhood home. And the fan was calling out her name, as if he expected the real Kyungsook to walk right out from the front door.

“Wah!” Sunggyu exclaimed, shaking his head as he fell back down onto the couch. “He really is out of touch with reality, right?” He looked over to his mother who was watching the screen intently, hiding half of her face in the pillow that she was clutching even more tightly to her chest. Sunggyu wrapped his arm around her. If the encounter was awkward for him today, Sunggyu couldn’t imagine what his mother was feeling right now, besides scared. “Don’t worry. I told him off earlier. I’ll make sure he doesn’t come near us,” he assured her. He focused back on the news. “Just look at him. Look at how he’s dressed. It must’ve taken a lot of effort to make that.” He scoffed before continuing, “If only if he put that much effort into being a productive member of society.”

While Sunggyu was ranting, on the news, the reporters kept calling to the fan, asking for his name and why he was there. Every time he was asked, he’d answer, “I’m the Moon Prince, and I’m looking for Kyungsookie. I don’t get why this is so hard for you to understand. Can you just tell me how to get inside here?” he’d shoot the question in return, tugging on the doorknob of the entrance. “Please?”

“Wah!” Sunggyu exclaimed once more. “He’s really committing to the bit. And…” Words flew away from him, escaping both his tongue and his mind. Instead he leaned forward, blinking, and brought his hands to his lips as he entered deep thought. What was that? He chuckled in disbelief. “He can fly?!”

Moments earlier, the man shot up to the roof of the house and landed there, with his cape fluttering behind him. Sunggyu rubbed his eyes. That bolt of red from last night, was that him too? There had to be a logical explanation for this. “Wh-what? Is he Iron Man or something?” he half-joked. “They really make things like those?” He quickly glanced to his mother, or attempted to. His eyes stayed on her when he saw tears welling up in her eyes. Sunggyu drew her in closer. “Mom?” he called to her, trying to get her to look at him. “Mom, are you okay?”

But her attention was still on the screen, watching as her old home was being surrounded by police cars and as the man on the roof bounded over to the roof next door and disappeared into the dark night. A tear spilled onto her cheek when she told her son, “Sunggyu, that’s really him. That’s really Sungyeol…the Moon Prince.”

*******

His mother then proceeded to tell him that the stories were real. She was Kyungsook, both in this reality and in that one (she had published under the penname, Song Haesik, in order to separate her work life from her private life, or so Sunggyu had thought). “Sungyeol is real,” she told him once more because Sunggyu was staring at her slack-jawed. “I didn’t make any of it up. Well, not all of it.”

“Wh-what?” he blubbered. He still couldn’t wrap his mind around it, and he was getting a headache from trying to do so.

“You saw him fly,” his mother pointed out, gesturing towards the now blank screen. Sunggyu had turned off the television after the report was finished.

“I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for it,” Sunggyu responded. Maybe it was an optical illusion, fooling them all.

“There is,” she said calmly. Sunggyu looked over at her with anticipation and was disappointed when she remained steadfast, “He’s from the Moon.”

“Mom!” Sunggyu raised his voice and himself from the couch. “I’ve seen the moon! And there’s nothing there except rocks and dust!” Nearly.

“And Sungyeol,” his mother would not relent, even though her voice was starting to fail her. It shook as she spoke. So she tried to clear , but landed in a coughing fit. “Sunggyu, can you get me some water?” she wheezed.

“Okay,” he yielded and went into the kitchen. When he came back into the living room with a glass of water, his mother had her face in her hands and was muttering to herself. Her sanity was slowly crumbling like her son’s.

“Are you okay?” Sunggyu asked after he handed her the glass.

She took a long sip, soothing , before answering, “I just never thought I would see him again.”

Sunggyu’s gaze flitted back to the screen. That man, if he was really Sungyeol, then Sunggyu knew very well what he’d meant to her mother, and why she was falling into pieces right now. “Did…did you love him?” he found himself asking even though he didn’t want to hear the answer.

His mother wiped her face and replied, “Our relationship was…complicated, to say the least.”

“He’s back. He’s looking for you,” Sunggyu reminded her. “What are you going to do?”

This time, she drained the glass of water, as if it were alcohol, before answering, “I’ll just let have fate handle this. If he comes, then he comes.” Sunggyu was going to press her further, but at that moment, there was a loud clamor coming from their front door. He froze. Did he find us already? No, he hadn’t. His mother knew exactly who it was, getting up from the couch with a faint smile on her face. “Your father’s home!” she announced excitedly, probably happy both to have her spouse home and for a change in subject.

“That’s not a solution,” Sunggyu grumbled below his breath as his mother left to greet her husband. “Waiting isn’t a solution.”

Suddenly, two large hands cupped Sunggyu’s face from behind, playing with his son’s round (and hairy) cheeks. “Sunggyu! My precious son!” his father slurred, who probably had drunk too much at his work dinner.

“Dad,” Sunggyu whined, just barely because his father had squished his cheeks together, pursing his lips. “Go to bed!”

*******

Meanwhile on the other side of town, Myungsoo was behind the counter of his café, reckoning his accounts. He didn’t have to, but it was part of his routine to do it every night. And it would soothe his mind, helping him sleep easier at night. However, his nightly routine was about to be up-ended. There was a banging at his door.

Myungsoo walked over to the door and opened it. “I’m sorry, we’re clos—Hey! I saw you on the news!” he exclaimed excitedly as if he’d just seen a celebrity. And maybe he had because this man in front of him was quickly becoming a sensation.

“Good, so you know who I am,” Sungyeol said, his head was on a swivel, searching about themselves as he talked. “Can I come in?”

“Uh…” Myungsoo hesitated. Would this be considered harboring a fugitive if he let this man in? He’d just seen policemen surround this guy on national television. It wouldn’t be the wisest choice to let him in. But Sungyeol took advantage of a dazed Myungsoo and walked right past him, into the café. “Okay, sure. Come on in,” the barista welcomed him belatedly. “So who are you?”

“Hm?” Sungyeol hummed, turning to face the other.

“I’m Kim Myungsoo, local barista. I own this place,” he introduced himself as an example. He then gestured towards the other with an open palm. “And you are?”

“Sungyeol, the Moon Prince,” the man spoke so matter-of-factly that it made Myungsoo laugh.

“No,” Myungsoo argued, shaking his head. “Who are you really?”

The man placed a hand over his heart and raised his voice, as if the other was hard of hearing and not disbelieving, “Sungyeol, the Moon Prince.” Myungsoo must’ve still looked skeptical to the other because the man went into further explanation about who he was, “You know, that big white thing in the sky.” Sungyeol then shook his head and corrected himself, “I mean, it’s not white anymore. But it normally is.”

“What?” Myungsoo muttered.

“Yea, every time I leave, the moon turns blue,” Sungyeol answered with just as much confidence as when he told the other his name. “Go look at it for yourself, if you don’t believe me.”

“No way,” Myungsoo mumbled as he raced towards the window. With his jaw unhinged, he gazed up at the sky, at that glowing orb. It was pale blue and a sad-looking thing, if satellites could look sad. “Huh, it is. Imagine that.” He then looked over at the man next to him and yelped, “WHOA!” The man was floating a foot off from the ground. His brown hair was brushing against the ceiling. “You’re flying!” Myungsoo exclaimed, completely astounded.

“No, I don’t have gravity,” Sungyeol amended, slowly drifting back down to the ground. His feet lightly landed onto the ground. “And now I do,” he boasted with a cheeky smile. He was obviously entertained by the other’s reaction, especially since Myungsoo had actually clapped at the ‘trick.’

“Wh-what are you?” the barista stammered.

“I’m the Moon Prince,” Sungyeol repeated once more, sounding very irritated this time.

“Oh,” Myungsoo muttered. All of the sudden, he felt the need to sit down. He was feeling dizzy as the reality he once knew was being its head. “The Moon Prince,” he whispered to himself as he sat down at a nearby table.

Sungyeol followed him, but did not join him at the table. “Can I stay here for the night?” he asked with an apprehensive smile on his face.

Myungsoo sprang to his feet again. “Yes, your highness…moon-ness. You,” he struggled to address the other properly. How do you address a god?

“Hyung, hyung. Just call me hyung,” Sungyeol offered a solution to that problem.

“Yes, hyung-nim!” Myungsoo called to him respectfully. “Just this way. Follow me,” he ushered the god up the stairs to his apartment above the café.

And that’s where the Moon spent his first night on earth, in a shabby and strange apartment. He fell asleep with the last thing he saw being the stars and that bright blue circle that he called home.

*******

Sungyeol didn’t sleep much that night. This world was far noisier than the one that he was used to, far different from his world of darkness and solitude (with the exception of one celestial rabbit). So when Myungsoo began stirring in the living room, the god was roused from his sleep. After over 50 years, Sungyeol had forgotten what it was like to live amongst the humans, namely loud and awkward. Should he walk out and say ‘good morning’ to the kind (and kinda scared) mortal and thank him for letting him stay the night? He didn’t particularly want to, and as a god, they weren’t things he was obligated to do. He decided that just this once, it was okay to not greet the human, to ‘borrow’ some of the human’s clothes (his attracted too much attention and would continue to, especially after last night), and to just casually jump out the second story bedroom window.

Yea, there was nothing strange about a man dressed head to toe in black, jumping out of a window in the wee hours of the morning. Or at least that was what Sungyeol was telling himself.

He pulled down his hood off from his head as he scanned the block. Sungyeol had an impeccable memory; everything was permanently recorded in his mind as if it had been etched on stone. But none of this looked familiar to him. Nothing even sounded the same. This wasn’t the Jeonju that he knew. Since when was Kyungsook’s home flanked by giant skyscrapers? And what were those flat blocks that everyone was staring at? And where the Hell was that music playing from on the streets (if you could call that music)?

Sungyeol was growing disheartened with every step that he took. He sat on a set of stairs, not far from the café where he began. He pulled the hood over his head again and closed his eyes. Maybe he ended up in some different dimension. Was that possible? Some of the other gods could venture in alternative realities, but could he?

“No, I just came too late. Way too late,” he concluded. “2017, huh?” 50 years had passed and rendered this place unrecognizable, making it seem like a whole other world.

The world that my mother made…who was that kid? Sungyeol didn’t like how that kid treated him, with so much contempt. And they had just met! Sungyeol had been nothing but friendly to him. And it wasn’t a crime to ask where someone was, or at least it wasn’t 50 years ago.

Sungyeol groaned. He needed help if he was going to survive in this world. He needed Kyungsook. “You’re not going to find her sitting down. Come on, let’s go!” he urged himself and popped back up. “She has to be here somewhere.”

*******

Unfortunately, Sungyeol didn’t know how to find ‘somewhere.’ He ended up walking in a large circle that led him straight back to the café. He would’ve asked someone for directions, but after last night, and after seeing his face plastered on every tv, Sungyeol decided that it was better to keep a low profile. So he came back to the only person that he could trust for now, the barista. Luckily, Myungsoo believed him, which Sungyeol knew was a rare thing. People scarcely believed him when he came to earth the first time, and now they were even more skeptical.

Once inside, Sungyeol walked over to a table, sat down, and draped the upper half of his body over the small table. His long arms hovered in the air, his white cheek pressed against the dark grain. And although he was exhausted, he was glad to see Myungsoo take notice of him and come over to the table.

“You came back!” the barista remarked cheerfully. “I was beginning to think that last night was all a weird dream.” His voice was just above a whisper, and so Sungyeol did the same when he replied.

“No, yea, I’m real,” Sungyeol was already getting tired of saying that.

“So where did you go this morning?” Myungsoo asked, but then his eyes grew wide when he realized, “Oh sorry. I’m probably not supposed to know, am I? It’s a secret, right?”

Sungyeol lifted his head from the table, cringing at the strange feeling of his cheek being pulled from the wooden surface. There was so much about this world he’d have to get used to, even small things like that. He then shook his head. “It’s not a secret. I’m still looking for Kyungsookie, but I can’t find her,” he revealed. His eyes glided over towards the window. Several people walked by, each one was a stranger, each one even stranger than the next. Sungyeol sighed and dropped his gaze to the table. “I think I’m too late.”

“Well, um,” Myungsoo began to speak but then he soon stopped. “Never mind.”

“What?” Sungyeol whipped his head towards the other. He might’ve been away from humans for a long, long time, but he could still call their bluffs. “You know something. Tell me.”

Myungsoo moved his head a bit and averted his eyes. “I don’t think it’s my place,” he denied.

“I am a god. It’s your duty to tell me, mortal,” Sungyeol was hoping that Myungsoo wouldn’t be able to tell that he was all bark and no bite. There wasn’t much Sungyeol could do if the barista denied him once more, except beg and ask more politely.

Myungsoo sputtered into a laugh. “Really?” He tilted his head and began to talk more excitedly, “I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around the whole ‘you’re the moon’ idea.”

“Well, I am,” Sungyeol didn’t know what more he could say. He never did. “So tell me, please,” he begged. “She’s not dead, is she? Did I come that late?”

“Well,” Myungsoo began. “I know a Kyungsook, and I’m pretty sure that she’s the one you’re looking for.” He then added, which put Sungyeol’s agitated heart at (slight) ease, “And she’s alive.”

Sungyeol felt energized at that news, the best thing he’d heard since he landed. He jumped up onto his feet (sort of, they were hovering off of the ground). “Great! Take me to her!” he shouted. “Lead the way!”

Myungsoo put a finger to his lips as his eyes darted over to his customers. Sungyeol followed his gaze. Yes, people were now staring at them, but did it matter? Sungyeol was only moments away from reuniting with his best friend. How could he not be excited? How could he calm down? But he had. Myungsoo was gesturing at him to sit back down, which Sungyeol did in a daze. What was going on now?

“I don’t know if I should,” Myungsoo whispered as he took the seat right across from Sungyeol. The god opened his mouth to speak, but Myungsoo cut him off with a raise of his hand. “I know, I know. You’re a god. But…” the barista’s voice drifted off as he looked over again to his customers with a warm smile. “I am a mortal, so my allegiance lies with my fellow mortals.” He then faced Sungyeol again and admitted, “I don’t know if she wants to see you.”

What Kyungsook wanted, Sungyeol hadn’t really thought much beyond his own desire to see her again. But what she wanted should matter to him because they were friends. And after 50 years had passed, had she moved on? Had she forgotten him? Did she hate him? “Fine. I understand,” he was irritated but he understood. What now? he thought. I’m getting nowhere. This was all a mistake. Maybe I should just go back home. Sungyeol looked back at Myungsoo. “Do you know how to get to the moon?” he was half-joking when he asked. Only a very few beings on earth new how to get to the moon, the last time that Sungyeol had checked, and none of them were mortals.

“No, but I have a friend that used to go there all the time,” Myungsoo replied. Sungyeol narrowed his eyes as he studied the human. He appeared to be telling the truth. How? Myungsoo then pushed back his chair and stood up. “Speak of the devil,” he said, looking past the god.

“The Devil?” Sungyeol repeated, aghast. “He’s in Jeonju too?”

“Ah no, it’s my friend. My moon friend,” Myungsoo amended. “Hyung! Come over here! Hurry! Hurry!” he called to his friend as if Sungyeol would disappear at any second.

Sungyeol turned around, curious to see this mortal who could go to the moon whenever he wanted. “You again,” the prince sneered as his eyes fell on the ‘moon friend.’ Sungyeol had a good memory. He would he able to recognized those slanted eyes and hairy face anywhere. It was the guy who insulted him the day before. “I don’t want to go with him,” Sungyeol muttered lowly to Myungsoo as he spun back around in his seat. “Infidel.”

“Not anymore. I believe you now,” hairy face said when he approached the table. His almond eyes burned through the god. “We need to talk.”

A/N: “What? The story can’t end there?” You’re right! It doesn't! I realized that this story was, unfortunately (but typically for me), too big for a one-shot. This is will be a chaptered fic, and my first chaptered gyuyeol fic! If you have any good ideas for a title, please let me know! I hope you enjoyed, and I’m sorry for not completing the whole story here.