It was kind of an open secret.  There were some things that were hard to hide as an idol, being part of a masked taskforce was one of them.  Their managers knew and pretended they didn’t, it was something that Sungkyu was eternally grateful for, he wasn’t sure he could handle the embarrassment of being confronted by the fact face to face. 

 

And it was thanks to their managers that they were able to keep it as an open secret rather than public knowledge. Sungkyu wasn’t sure how the rest of them felt but this was not the kind of side job he was proud of (nor was it the kind of side job that paid, but more on that later).

 

Yes, the rest of them.  All of them, the members of the boy group Infinite, were part of the masked taskforce, Team Infinity.

 

He wasn’t sure how it had happened for each of them and technically they weren’t supposed to know each other’s “secret identity” but it was kind of hard not to between living together and the whole thing not being subtle at all.

 

Just thinking about it made Sungkyu’s ears go red.

 

“They should at least have padded his costume,” Woohyun commented idly from across the table.  It was an ungodly hour of day and Sungkyu would have preferred to be sleeping instead but they’d just finished fighting…something.  To this day Sungkyu wasn’t sure what exactly it was they fought, sometimes it was a bug that fed on stage fright, sometimes a phantom that made the performer’s pants rip on stage.  It was the kind of thing that no one would notice whether they fought or not.   They didn’t even get robots or proper weapons; Sungkyu was half convinced their “weapons” were stage props.

 

That was not what Woohyun was talking about.

 

His comment had made Sungkyu choke stupidly on his tea, hot fluid going down the wrong tube.

 

“We’re not supposed to talk about that,” Sungkyu managed hoarsely after he caught his breath.  Since they weren’t supposed to know about each other they definitely weren’t supposed to talk to each other about their secret identity.  But they all knew so they all talked about it, except Sungjong and Myungsoo.  Myungsoo might have talked about it with Sungyeol; Sungkyu wasn’t sure since he didn’t ask.  He was never the one to bring up the topic of their masked taskforce but he’d talk about it when someone else started, like Woohyun tended to. But what he was trying to talk about was an exception.

 

“It’s not like any of us don’t know Sungjong is Yellow.  Except Myungsoo, maybe he doesn’t know,” Woohyun continued casually as if he was talking about the most recent episode of a popular drama.  Or rather a kids’ show. 

 

Sungjong was the only one that still pretended it was a secret even if everyone had realised he was Yellow after roughly three weeks.  Hoya and Woohyun had been the first to figure it out and Sungyeol the last. He had just thought the “girl” of their team happened to be an extremely flat girl.  To be fair he had also thought that Sungjong was a girl when he first met him as a trainee, so in a way it made sense.  For Sungkyu what gave it away had been the combination of Sungjong’s voice and his hands, a girl just didn’t have hands that big.

 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he whined half-heartedly, it was out of respect for Sungjong really.  And Sungkyu didn’t really blame the younger boy for not wanting to talk about it with the costume he was stuck with.  “Besides it’s not like he’s wearing a skirt, those are shorts.  Kind of.”

 

Technically they were skorts with leggings.  It was truly awful, possibly a skirt would have been better.

 

Woohyun laughed, as if to point out that in spite of his complaining he was in fact talking about it.  But if nothing else it was the one thing that Sungkyu would not make fun of Sungjong for, it’s not like any of them had chosen to join this taskforce of their own free will.  Not even Woohyun and if anyone was going to dream of being a superhero even as an adult it was Woohyun.  He just had the ego for it.

 

Not that he’d really call them superheroes, honestly they were just weird.

 

“Do you think Myungsoo realises Sungjong is Yellow?”

 

“I really don’t want to talk about that.”

Looking back it was really, very awkward in the beginning.  Because none of them knew that the others were in the same bizarre situation whenever they got a call for “duty” everyone had to make a stupid excuse as to why they had to go somewhere.  Even after they found out about each other and couldn’t openly acknowledge the situation it was awkward.  There was only one bathroom and even though whoever managed to call that excuse first must have jumped out the tiny window after a few minutes the next couldn’t very much barge in and try to use the same excuse.  That would just be weird.

 

The room sharing left them with a similar problem in claiming to have a headache or stomach ache or anything that would require someone to lie down in the bedroom.

 

One time Sungkyu remembered climbing out of their dorm and running into Hoya stepping out a telephone booth in his suit.

 

“Kind of like Superman, right?”

 

Sungkyu recalls laughing awkwardly and going on his way as if he didn’t recognise Hoya’s laugh and that it wasn’t weird that Hoya’s purple and white Team Infinity suit was less purple than most of his sweaters.  

 

“I hope Sungjong gets out through the window okay.”

 

“We’re really not supposed to know each other,” Suungkyu muttered in exasperation.  It probably would have been best to just pretend he didn’t hear it.

---

 

“I wanted to be a superhero when I was a kid, so isn’t this sort of cool?  In a way?”

 

Even Dongwoo with his endless positivity had trouble making this sound anything less than crazy.  There were a few problems with his comment though.  Sungkyu had never wanted to be a superhero, he wanted to be a singer.  They weren’t kids anymore either, even if some of them acted like it sometimes (or all the time).  Besides, “I really wouldn’t call us superheroes.”

 

He didn’t want to be ungrateful, Sungkyu was thankful for his life, the fact that he was an idol, that he had the rest of Infinite.  It was getting a bit hard finding free time between their schedule as idols and fighting useless though.  They were getting more popular, he was thankful.  Now if only his back wasn’t killing him from a really awkward fall.

 

“Hey, we saved Sunny from a wardrobe malfunction.  Maybe.  That counts as something.”

 

Sungkyu made a face; it was really just him squinting until his eyes completely disappeared.  “I don’t think her fans would necessarily thank us for that.”

 

“Maybe but they don’t have to know.”

 

“Yeah and neither does anyone else,” it wasn’t like he was starved for acceptance or anything but this fighting unseen forces of mundane accidents was really…pointless.

 

Dongwoo sighed and traced ugly doggy faces into the playground sand. 

 

“Maybe we’ll take down something that causes idols to fall for no reason.  That might benefit Myungsoo.”

 

It’d also be the most productive thing accomplished as Team Infinity.  It was frankly a sad thought.  Sungkyu fiddled with his transformation badge in his pocket.  “You know you’ll never get the girl in this situation, right?  Secret identities and all.  And saving them from really stupid things.”

 

Dongwoo laughed, his weird hyena laugh.  Thanks to that laugh everyone had known who Green was after the first mission.  He didn’t even remember the actual mission, just Dongwoo’s victory laugh. 

 

“I wouldn’t want to get a girlfriend like this, they’d have to know about the whole,” he gestured, flicking sand everywhere.  “Embarrassing masked taskforce thing.”

 

“Team Infinity,” Sungkyu offered, in hopes of saving them some dignity.  It was a really futile attempt though.  “God, why is that our name?” Dongwoo asked with another laugh, dropping his head to his hands.  It was a terrible name and when they debuted every time someone mispronounced Infinite as Infinity Sungkyu had a mini panic attack.  He did not to be that idol group that ran around in ugly plastic jumpsuits. 

 

They sat quietly for a moment, thinking.  Probably about their crazy lives, Sungkyu was anyways.

 

“Myungsoo sort of gets the girl,” Dongwoo comments suddenly, apparently thinking totally different things from Sungkyu.

 

He gives Dongwoo that look again.  “Sungjong does not count as the girl.”

 

“Do you think he realises?”

 

“I don’t know!” And it was driving him nuts.  It was driving them all nuts, of all things.

“He has to know,” Sungkyu finally spoke up, tired of just listening to Woohyun and Sungyeol gossip.  Would it be considered gossiping if no one outside of the seven of them cared?

 

“I’m telling you he doesn’t!  He’s never mentioned anything to me!”

 

It was true that if Myungsoo was going to talk to about any of this with anyone it was probably Sungyeol.  But Sungkyu found it hard to believe that after more than three years in this taskforce Myungsoo could possibly not know the identity of their requisite girl member. 

 

He also found it hard to believe that Team Infinity had been around that long, if they got any funding he’d call it a waste of funding. 

 

“Yeah but he doesn’t really talk about any of it,” Woohyun chimed in reasonably, as reasonable as he could anyways considering the topic. 

 

Sungyeol thought about it for a moment as he took a long drink from his sweet iced coffee.  “He said once that he was glad his costume was black,” he commented slowly.  It amazed them all that Myungsoo and Sungjong had managed to remain so tight lipped about it.  For all he tried Sungkyu usually could barely wait to rant at someone about how pointless and crazy their last mission was.

 

“He has to know, Sungjong defeated the last thing with a girl group dance.  How can he not know?”  That had been what brought them here to begin with, to talk about the new level of weird their “enemies” had been elevated to.  They might as well have been fighting Jo Kwon.  Except Sungjong may not have won that fight if it was really against Jo Kwon.

 

“I’m surprised you’re not insisting that you don’t want to talk about this,” Woohyun gave Sungkyu a slanted grin. 

 

Sungkyu waved him off, “It’s just too obvious at this point.”

 

“I’m just going to ask him,” Sungyeol said determinedly as if it was actually important.  It really wasn’t, they all knew that but that didn’t stop them from wanting to know.  Except Hoya, he seemed content to mind his own business as long as they were all relatively healthy and sane.

 

With Myungsoo the skinship had given him away.  Even in his masked costume he touched and hugged and invaded personal space as always.  They’d all suffered their share of helmeted headbutts.  It took him forever to remember that there was something in the way of him getting any closer.

 

Sometimes Sungkyu thought he sulked about it afterwards.

 

He was hovering close, close to Sungjong (Yellow) now, just enough space between them to avoid that unromantic helmet clack.  And it looked like a romantic moment even with their ridiculous helmets.  Or a fan event.  It seemed like Black was touching Yellow more and more, Myungsoo likewise was touching Sungjong more and more.  Skinship increasing at the exact same rate.

 

Black made the same motion there, reaching out to touch Yellow’s…helmet, the same way Myungsoo brushed aside Sungjong’s bangs.

 

“He totally knows.”