☁

You may be wondering how I got into this mess, believe me, I don’t even know myself. But all I do know is that the guy holding a gun to my head has god awful breath. Literally, it smells as if he hasn’t brushed in three days and consecutively ate rancid fish and lukewarm coffee in that time span. It’s so nauseating to smell that I can’t even focus on the fact that there’s a bomb strapped to some guy’s chest next to me or that there are couple guards lying dead somewhere in the room. Whimpering women and men at whoever the is barking orders. No, all I want to do is throw up because this guys breath is repulsive.

A sigh leaves Baekhyun’s lips.

Today was supposed to be the best day ever. The most important day for me, and it was all going relatively well! Then, everything went unpredictably, unequivocally wrong.

I guess I should start at the beginning;

Retro Town Hospital, May 6^th 199—

No, no no no, not that beginning! Ugh, this beginning:

Retro Town Community College, September 17^th 2017 —

A flash of green light slashed across the afternoon sky, followed by a thunderous clap of the side of a building being blown up. The fighting had come all the way from Modern City, just a few miles from the suburbs of Retro Town. It was a quaint and medium sized town, villains and hero’s fighting against one another was a scarce sight in this part of the world but occasionally, a few big supers would find their way over and duke it out.

On top of a water tower stood a menacing character, shrouded in clouds of black smoke that followed him up there. He wore black dress pants, black dress shoes, a white dress shirt, a black vest, a black tie, black gloves and he wore his signature black medical mask. The design on the mask held a smiling mouth filled with fangs, all outlined in white. His ears were decorated with piercing and his hair flew about in each direction in it’s near white color. The power of smoke he possessed flared around his eyes, giving him an edgier look and hid the shape of his eyes well. He may have been the bad guy, but he knew how to dress and present himself. He glowered with menacing eyes down at the building he had sent another human flying into, the Retro Town Community College. Before the smoke could clear, the man on the water tower jumped off, clicked his shoes together so that they jetted him down into the rubble. Screams of students and teachers alike all scrambled away from the scene, some were not so lucky to escape the crash landing, but thankfully none were killed. Just severely injured.

No one had any clue of what was going on, even the local news station van that happened to be eating lunch at a food truck nearby could barely get enough footage to film the scene. What they did catch was the cloud of black smoke and fiery shoes that dove into the still-clearing smoke and another loud “bang” was heard.

The film crew waited anxiously, not making a sound or daring to get closer in case the villain was still active. They had no idea who was fighting or who had the upper hand, so they kept their distance.

Suddenly, another body went flying out of the rubble, heading straight across the campus and into another building. It was a small campus, only consisting of three buildings with one big one in the center. The two smaller ones now had walls caved in and demolished.

Out came the first person to crash into a building and land on the quad with stead-fast and grounded feet. The camera crew immediately rushed over and recognized the colors of the outfit.

The white scarf that wrapped around his neck like a cape, the dark blue mask that encased the top half of his head had white eye covers with its flowing tail ends tied behind his head. The rest of the outfit was a skin-tight jump suit decorated in a dark blue. Accessories shone in white, pastel yellow or darker blues, with white sturdy gloves and boots over thick amounts of gauze. Just based off these colors, everyone knew who this was. This was D.Man. Rank number 10 on the list of Superhero’s; not to be confused with regular Hero’s. Supers had a bit more specialty to them, and therefore, ranked above all heroes. It is a very competitive system, but there are plenty of those who do not care for it and help all those in need. At least they try as much as possible because in this case, D.Man helped in the destruction of Retro Town Community College and incited the severe injuries of a few of its inhabitants.

Before the news crew could get any kind of word in to the superhero, he launched off, leaving an indent in the ground as he headed for the next building. A blast of black electrical looking currents shoot out as soon as D.Man lands and he’s flown straight out into the next building, flying through several walls and classrooms. It was like a game of pin-ball, taking out each building (and the statue of the university founder) in their path.

The fight went on for some time, blasts through rubble, earth shattering quakes and the blood curdling screams of students went on for at least half an hour before it subsided. Most of the school grounds was a mess, fires burning in a few spots, and one building was half standing. It was one hell of a nasty battle. No one even knew where the two went once the campus got quiet. No one knew who won.

But they could hardly pay attention to where the two supers went when they had to worry about much bigger things. Like finishing up school, paying for medical bills, paying off their student loans at an earlier time because the school was going to shut down for a while to rebuild and not help the students find new schools to attend. It was an utter mess.

Because of it, there was a whole uproar with the students and faculty, which resulted in the school suing D.Man and his archenemies, Mortekai—the villain he had been fighting at the time.

With the school shut down until further notice, that left many students unemployed, uneducated and poor. Some took a grace period, where they worked and worked to pay off the student debt of the college. Of this group of kids was Byun Baekhyun, someone who half expected to never get into school again because of financial costs. But some twist of luck landed him in Modern City’s leading university—The University of Modern aka UMod—almost a year later with a hefty sized scholarship. The travesty at Retro Town Community College ended with a large gain on his end, this was a big step in Baekhyun’s career. One that took him from his hometown and threw him into the fiery pits of Modern City.

☁

The sun was shining, flowers were blooming, animals were happy, civilians minded their own business and police sirens wailed down the streets of Main Avenue. Just your average day in Modern City. A few stray gun shots popped, a couple blood curdling screams echoed down alley ways. Yes, a completely normal and average day.

Today was finally the day, the day he was starting something fresh and new. He was moving into his first apartment to finish out that chapter in his life: college. Twenty years old and finally finishing up his bachelors in bioengineering that was on hold for the last year. So, moving to a city where all the supers and non-supers went to get ahead in life was a completely new and rather intimidating experience.

With a scholarship for Modern University, Baekhyun was not about to miss his chance and study at one of the worlds leading schools. So, after being bled dry from his first year of college and having no money to spare for another year right away, he took a year off and saved up money for rent in the city. It was cheaper to live off campus than on, so long as there were other roommates. In which case, he had two. He was nervous to meet them, only having exchanged a few words over messenger about the ad and a quick skype interview with the owner of the building. So, as he stood outside the giant brick building where he would be living for (hopefully) the next few years, he took in a deep breath and held it. There was always the option to get back in his car and turn around.

“Hello.” A rather deep voice called from his side.

Baekhyun turned his head and was greeted by a man about his height with a soft face and toothy smile. His hair was as dark as the night and perfectly slicked back in a clean pompadour.

“H-Hello,” Baekhyun said with mild restraint.

“You must be Baekhyun.” The man walked towards him with a hand outstretched. “Kyungsoo.”

Baekhyun looked down for a moment before reaching out and taking the hand. He recognized the name, but the man had no social media with a picture of his face. This was one of his new roommates, Do Kyungsoo.

“Nice to meet you.” Baekhyun smiled to match the charisma oozing from the man in front of him.

“Do you need help carrying anything in? I can carry a few things.”

“Oh, that would be great.” Baekhyun turned back to his small rinky-dink little car and opened the trunk.

“My arm’s a bit busted right now, so I’ll help best with the lighter objects.” He flashed a smile as he grabbed a duffle bag and random box. Though Baekhyun was almost surely positive that the box Kyungsoo just lifted was the heaviest of them all. It was full of his study materials and that was probably just as heavy as he was.

“That’s okay, you really don’t have to help if that’s the case—”

“I insist.” He cut the male off with another great smile, damn was he persuasive.

The trunk was shut, and the car was duly locked for the next trip, and as they walked up the front steps of the apartment building Baekhyun figured it would be polite to keep conversation going between them. “So, I must have talked to the other one over Messenger?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. He mentioned last month about someone asking about our roommate ad. Never thought it would fall through… He might be inside, I’m not sure if he’s home. I just got back myself. He tends to sleep during the day and goes to work at night.”

Baekhyun grimaced, well it would have been nice if he knew that sooner.

“What about you?” Baekhyun asked.

“Oh, I’m still a student. I’m studying for my masters at UMod.”

Baekhyun nodded and assumed he was a little bit older. “The landlord told me you were both students, what happened with the other..?”

“He dropped out,” Kyungsoo frowned but not before slipping in that they had to walk to the fourth floor for their apartment. The elevator had been broken for a few days.

“Within the last month?” Baekhyun seemed a little exasperated at the thought. “The semester hasn’t even started yet..”

“Yup. Something about it being a waste of his time, so I guess he decided to go right into the work force.”

“What does he do?” It was barely past the second flight of stairs and Baekhyun could already feel himself getting winded.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself? I can’t answer all his questions for him, there’ll be nothing left for you two to talk about!” Kyungsoo chuckled.

“Y-You’re right.. Sorry..”

“Oh please, don’t be sorry! No one was hurt, so there’s nothing to forgive.” Baekhyun caught the man’s rather genuine smile as they rounded a landing to another flight of stairs.

“So, how long have you lived here?” Baekhyun asked trying to hide that he was very much out of breath.

“Just about a year now. Had to be relocated to here, a super fight destroyed my old apartment.”

Baekhyun nodded, feeling that one-hundred percent. “Same. Except my college.”

Kyungsoo breathed in a strict breath of air, “Retro Town College?”

“Yup.”

“Oof, sorry bout that.”

Baekhyun shrugged, “It’s whatever. Our world is dominated by hero’s and villains alike. The rest of us regular folk can only stay in the background and make them look good.” Baekhyun said absentmindedly.

“I take it you don’t like supers.” Kyungsoo’s voice quieted, not by much, but there was a difference.

“No no, I like them. What they do is amazing and ultimately best for the world. It just that the rest of us have to get the brunt end just to get by, and deal with the repercussions they leave behind.”

Kyungsoo took a moment before responding, “…fair enough.”

They traveled the rest of the stairs in silence, of course, awkwardly so. Baekhyun was already afraid he had ed up his first impressions and ruined his chance for a decent relationship with one of his roommates. Kyungsoo probably really liked superhero’s and hero’s a like, maybe he was even one of those fanatics? In fact, he was so stuck in his head about the whole thing that he didn’t even realize Kyungsoo had been calling out to him as he started to climb an extra flight of stairs.

“Hey!!” Kyungsoo laughed. “Did you forget the number? It’s this level.”

Baekhyun stopped dead in his tracks and leaned backwards to take a look at the numbers on each of the doors. “Oh.” He quickly trailed back down and followed the third door on the left beside Kyungsoo. Baekhyun would never hear it, but Kyungsoo found that rather cute. Already the new roommate seemed a little airheaded.

“Welcome home,” Kyungsoo announced as he opened the door to their apartment. It was quaint and full of white-washed brick walls. Quaint was an understatement, it was a really small space, but enough to house three people in separate rooms.

The walk in was filled with shoes, one side was riddled with upturned shoes and the other neat and sparse.

“Ugh, I told him to clean up his shoes.” Kyungsoo mumbled as he leaned down to neatly replace his shoes with slippers and shove the others away.

Baekhyun watched as the man easily maneuvered, he seemed to have perfect balance and that was a complete mystery. Baekhyun would have tripped over a shoe and dropped everything at some point.

“Let’s drop your stuff in your room first, then we’ll do a house tour.” Kyungsoo turned around and offered that dashing smile once more. Baekhyun was sure that his cheeks must have hurt by now, there was so much smiling going on.

However, before either of them traveled any further down the main hall, a screeching scream echoed throughout the apartment. Then a crash of bottles echoed from a bathtub, followed by another set of screams.

Kyungsoo rushed forward without a thought to the set of small stairs that led to another wing of the apartment, but as he stopped, he noticed the trickle of cold water slipping down the three steps. Baekhyun sauntered over, listening to all the crashing that was happening in the bathroom and a little afraid to see what was happening.

Just then, a body came slamming out of the bathroom door, breaking the door down in the process. He was and surrounded in the steam from the bathroom.

“What happened?!” Kyungsoo shouted, but the man had his face covered with both hands as he slipped on the water in the hall and trampled into the walls. He ran past them, dully bumping into Baekhyun and causing him to drop his box in the pooling water.

“Hey!” Baekhyun called out after him, but the man in all his glory ran for the kitchen, just further down and furiously turned the sink on.

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo could hear the cries and groans coming from the man in the kitchen, so Kyungsoo went ahead to aid the human. Baekhyun picked up his box and decided to go look in the bathroom and stop all the running water.

To his dismay, the shower head had been busted and spraying ice cold water over the entire bathroom. All cleaning items and hair accessories and anything that once rested on the sink’s counter had been sprayed on the ground. It looked as if a very wet bomb had gone off.

Baekhyun put his box down (out of reach of the water) and braved the ice cold water to turn it off. His shirt was soaked and his pants a little less, but the feeling was overly uncomfortable. He made his way carefully to the kitchen where he found the two huddled over the sink, one shoving water into his eyes while the other rubbed comforting circles on his damp back.

“I-Is everything okay..?” Baekhyun asked carefully as he dared to step into the kitchen, it was already getting wet already from the pooling water down the hall.

“Yeah! It’s okay, Jongin just got some shampoo in his eyes.” Kyungsoo answered as the male grunted over the sink.

“Oh.”

Suddenly, the said man named Jongin lifted his back and turned around in crisp movements. His face dripped with fresh water and eyes blood shot from the last minute of furious rubbing and irritation.

“Hello. Kim Jongin. Nice to meet you.” He walked over to Baekhyun (still very much ) with an outstretched hand.

Baekhyun, looking everywhere but at the male coming for him, reached out his own hand and shook it firmly. “N-Nice to meet you.” He planted his eyes firmly on the ceiling above them.

“We spoke on messenger. You’re shorter than your pictures seem.”

“Uh—”

“Jongin, that’s not very polite on first meetings.”

“And what? You think being is any better? Might as well keep breaking the ice.” The male shrugged (mind you, they’re both still shaking hands at this point). “Your shoulders make you look bigger in your photos. Big, beefy, shoulders.”

Kyungsoo shook his head and sighed.

“He’ll hate me later anyways, so it’s fine.” He mumbled to himself. “Also, my eyes are down here.” He raised his other free hand and caught Baekhyun’s attention to bring him down to his eyeline. But poor ole Baekhyun was so awkward about their whole meeting that he just looked into his eyes with red cheeks and had no self-control to take his hand back. But as they made eye contact, Baekhyun couldn’t help but notice how blonde his hair was. It looked as if it was nearly white, not to mention how much brighter it must have looked when it was dry. And his eyes were a warm and inviting chocolate. Damn he’s attractive! Baekhyun thought to himself.

“Alright, that’s enough there.” Kyungsoo had walked over and grabbed their still shaking hands and pulled them apart. “Now, let’s get along hm? We have a year before our lease is up, so let’s try and get along for at least that long okay?”

Jongin smirked at this, it seemed a little sinister but mostly playful. “Oh don’t worry, I don’t bite… Much.”

Baekhyun gulped at that and looked to Kyungsoo for help, but the man was just giving that same old dashing smile.

Dear lord, what have I gotten myself into?

☁

It was probably a solid month before Baekhyun was adjusted to his new home and life. It was difficult getting used to the occasional blood curdling scream in the middle of the night, or the sound of some building getting its siding blown away. Turns out, superheroes and supervillains often went on spats, it was rare for there to be no crime for more than four days at a given time. But Baekhyun was able to live with it after the thirtieth day, he was just glad he was never caught in between any sort of fighting during his commutes to the university.

Living with his two new roommates turned out to be better than he expected. Despite both Jongin and Kyungsoo being ridiculously attractive (unfairly so), they both had their good sides and their bad sides.

Kyungsoo was proper, too proper. And Jongin liked to that up as often as possible. Like disorganizing the cupboards after Kyungsoo so meticulously arranged them after drying the dishes. Or hiding his phone or laptop or the remote or his house keys or just about anything that might have been important. Baekhyun wasn’t spared of those tricks either. He learned real fast that if something of his was missing then it was probably Jongin hoarding it somewhere. Even if Jongin said rude things, he was the realest of them all. He hated liars so the cold truth often left his lips. Even if he was a little , he also had a decent helping hand. He always did his chores in the communal areas like the dishes or bathroom and taking out the trash. His room though, was another thing. The door was almost always closed, but when it was open for a few seconds, Baekhyun could see the piles of clothes and trash that laid on the floor. Even a musty sour clothes smell radiated from there—though, Jongin never smelt bad; in fact, he smelt quite wonderfully.

Kyungsoo really liked a clean house so he was often on Jongin’s case about picking up after himself (Baekhyun too, as he tended to leave his things about). He was a bit dumb to add to his charms, meaning he literally could not do something simple like boil water or fix a broken lightbulb (Jongin was the handyman before Baekhyun arrived). Kyungsoo never talked about his personal life (nor Jongin for that matter) so it was always a mystery as to why Kyungsoo was so… sheltered. That’s why before Baekhyun came along, Jongin and Kyungsoo made Friday’s dinner night, where he would teach Kyungsoo to cook and they would watch a movie afterwards. Kind of like date night, but as roommates. Then Baekhyun joined and was welcomed in on their little dates.

Baekhyun found out that they had only been living for two months together before he moved in. Kyungsoo was relocated as you well know and Jongin was simply just looking for somewhere to live. Despite being such busy people and hardly ever home, Baekhyun found out that they both described themselves as homebodies. Which was funny, because Baekhyun spent more time home than either of them. They said it took away from the drama of real life/work. Kyungsoo was usually on campus until late in the evening, as he was apart of the student council and had a few late classes. Jongin went missing for days on end sometimes, and if he was home, he was usually sleeping until he had to get up and go to work. Even Kyungsoo would disappear late in the night when he thought nobody was up, but Baekhyun would hear him moving about and knew when he was leaving (their rooms were directly next to each other’s). Overall, Baekhyun really couldn’t complain much about them. They were good roommates. They respected bathroom times and being quiet late at night or early in the morning. Kyungsoo was the only morning person, but he was so quiet that no one ever realized he woke up at six in the morning to start his day.

One fall night, on the rare occasion that they were all home (except Friday’s) Kyungsoo stood outside of Baekhyun’s open door and gave a light knock to announce his presence.

“Hey,” he said with a gentle tone. It was kind of late, so there was no need to be so boisterous.

“Hey, what’s up?” Baekhyun responded when he looked up from his laptop screen. He was in the middle of filling out an internship application. Kyungsoo looked quite handsome dressed in joggers, full sweater and thick black rimmed glasses.

“Uh… Would it be weird if I… Sat in here with you while you worked?”

Baekhyun raised a brow. “Not particularly. It’d be a little weird if you sat and just stared at me while I worked, but otherwise no.” Baekhyun wouldn’t put it past Kyungsoo to do such a thing.

“Cool.” He flashed a full smile, eyes crinkling and teeth sparkling as he whipped himself around and disappeared from the doorway.

Baekhyun shook his head after he thought to himself for a moment, what an odd guy.

Not too long after did Kyungsoo return with his laptop in hand and two coffee cups filled with piping hot tea.

“I made your favorite.” He said as he sat Baekhyun’s rilakkuma mug on his nightstand.

Baekhyun reached for the mug and took a quick inhale, “Ah, raspberry hibiscus. Thanks.” A smile curled on his lips at the familiar smell.

Kyungsoo sat himself comfortably at Baekhyun’s desk (Baekhyun was seated in the middle of his bed) and began typing away on his laptop.

Baekhyun blew on the hot tea, cupping his chilled fingers around the base and eyeing the latter’s screen carefully. It was mostly dark, with a bunch of zig-zags and chart looking things, numbers appearing here and there, it seemed intense whatever he was analyzing. Even his laptop was a weird brand he had never seen before, it was crazy thin but had a bulky device in one of its ports in the back. Whatever was on the screen definitely wasn’t a game, far too less clicking for one, and he was often on it. He would use the excuse he was typing up reports based on the data, though he was never too specific about it. That bugged Baekhyun after a while. At first, he understood, but as they got closer, the whole secrecy and not opening up started to bother him. Especially if it was class related! What kind of class lecture was classified or personal!?

“Is everything alright?” Baekhyun eventually asked, the air in the room was comfortable but it seemed out of place for Kyungsoo to just ask and hang out in Baekhyun’s room.

“Hm? Oh yeah.” He turned to look at Baekhyun from over his glasses. “Jongin’s hoarded up in his room, probably brooding over nothing again. And you were in here, so I felt lonely. I just wanted to be around you. Calm my thoughts down,” he mumbled the last part as he turned back to his screen.

That was another odd thing about Kyungsoo, his mind was always somewhere else. He was always staring off into space or thinking particularly hard about something—like he was always having an existential crisis. Kyungsoo never talked about, so Baekhyun never asked.

“Do I make you feel calm?” Baekhyun asked in a gentle tone.

“Mmm.. Kind of. You at least help bring my thoughts back to the now.” He said as he typed away. It seemed as if he was just on autopilot, saying the things on his mind absentmindedly. 

Baekhyun just nodded his head and took a quick sip of the tea—it was still scalding hot. “Ever since last night, Jongin’s been a bit..strange. When he came home early from work he looked… Defeated.”

“Did he? His boss was probably on his case again.. Poor guy, he never gets a break. I hope he’s okay.” Kyungsoo leaned back in his chair and looked at the open doorway, he was quite concerned for the other. Even if they bickered often, Kyungsoo still had a soft spot for Jongin.

Baekhyun liked that about Kyungsoo, a lot. He was extremely sensitive towards other people’s feelings and well-being. It always made him feel so special whenever Kyungsoo dotted on him, and it filled his heart with warmth when he caught Jongin and him being sincere to one another. Baekhyun had caught a small cold while the seasons were changing and Kyungsoo was all over him, buying him cold medicine, (trying his hardest) to make soups and did his laundry for a week! It was honestly more overbearing that what his mother would do whenever he would get sick. Kyungsoo would even chase him around the apartment, wrap him in a blanket and hull him back to bed to rest. It was a little annoying, only a little, because Baekhyun got tired of laying in bed for four days straight. But it was Kyungsoo’s caring thoughts that made it bearable.

Sometimes, Jongin would come home late at night or early in the morning covered in bruises and Kyungsoo was always the first to respond. He would sit him down in the kitchen and get the first-aid kit, all with the most serious expression you ever did see. Baekhyun started to join in on the little ritual, he would grab an ice pack from the fridge and bandage to wrap on Jongin during those times. Jongin was usually always quiet and solemn when they did that for him. It was a rather frequent occurrence to have Jongin come home battered. He smelt of alcohol sometimes so Kyungsoo and Baekhyun both just assumed he was getting into bar fights. But Jongin never brought it up, so Baekhyun never asked. Once, though, Baekhyun couldn’t help but notice the different gaze in Jongin’s eyes as he watched Kyungsoo mend a cut on his leg. Baekhyun thought he saw a slight, ever so slight, rogue of pink on the tips of his ears as he watched Kyungsoo. Baekhyun didn’t know why but for some reason that made him blush. He sort of felt like a third wheel in that moment, but he was also soft for the fact that Jongin probably had a thing for Kyungsoo. It was kind of obvious, the way Jongin bullied Kyungsoo so often. Polar opposites the two were! But Jongin never really did truly evil things. He just messed around a little too much.

“Yeah, I’m sure he is. He’s probably just psyching himself out before going into work in a little bit.” Baekhyun assured and went back to his computer.

They found that comfortable silence between them and typed away on their computers. It wasn’t long after when Baekhyun finish filling out the online form and attached a cover letter and resume for the internship he was applying for. Even as he went to go click the submit button, a smile of satisfaction danced on his lips after filling out and gathering the material for the last hour. But as he clicked the submit button and the page refreshed, he froze when the screen read: “No internet connection”.

Baekhyun nearly dropped his hot tea all over his lap from the shock as a silent screech left his lips.

As if sensing the sudden distress, Kyungsoo turned around to find Baekhyun’s face aghast.

“What’s the matter?” He asked quickly.

Baekhyun could hardly find any words to say and just whined out an exasperated sigh.

“Baekhyun, is everything alright?” Kyungsoo stood and made his way over to Baekhyun’s beside.

“It’s gone. It’s all gone..” Baekhyun whispered coldly to himself and furiously began clicking around trying to get his wifi back up.

Kyungsoo sat on the side of his bed and leaned over Baekhyun’s shoulder as he watched the male try and figuring everything out.

“Do you still have wifi?!” Baekhyun snapped at him, their faces all too terribly close.

“Y-Yeah I do.”

“No… Why me? Whymewhymewhymewhyme—” A slew of panicked words left Baekhyun’s mouth as the wifi connected back and the page reloaded again. Of course, nothing sent, and the application was blank. He would have to fill it all out again.

Baekhyun threw his head back with a groan and let it sink into his plush pillows.

Kyungsoo leaned in and took over the laptop, scrolling around and looking to see what he was filling out and if he could help.

“SUM Research? You’re applying there?”

“Trying to. For an internship.” He groaned as he shoved a plushy into his face.

“This is unfortunate.” Kyungsoo said with a lightly amused smile on his lips.

Baekhyun heard the amusement in his tone and poked his head out from behind the teddy bear plushy. Baekhyun threw the teddy bear at his side, “Wipe that smile off your face! This isn’t funny!” Really, all Baekhyun wanted to do was strangle something until it popped. He was way too frustrated to do anything.

Kyungsoo just laughed at Baekhyun’s harmless attack, “Come on, let’s do it again. We’ll do it quickly just in case the wifi shuts off on you again.”

Baekhyun’s ears perked up at that, “Wait, you’ll fill it out with me?”

“Sure,” Kyungsoo shrugged “I’ll fill it out if you just give me the answers.”

“For real?”

“For real.” Kyungsoo flashed that beautiful charismatic smile of his.

“Ugh, you’re the best.” Baekhyun said as he sat straight up and began to give out the answers for Kyungsoo to fill in.

It didn’t take too much of their time, longer than usual, but not too bad. In fact, Baekhyun had never felt so relaxed filling out an application before. It may have taken a little longer than he would have if he did it by himself, but there just wasn’t any stress—talking to Kyungsoo made it all seem effortless. He hadn’t even realized how much time had gone by until Kyungsoo’s phone started buzzing. His phone often went off, sometimes he’d make a rather distressed and upset face, other times he’d smile like crazy or just be plain old aloof to it. His phone was always going off at such weird times—he assumed it was a significant other most of time.

Kyungsoo looked at his phone for a split moment, then looked back at the computer screen. “Alright, this is all set for you to send in again. Just double check the wifi connection okay?” He said as he handed off the laptop back to Baekhyun.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.” Baekhyun offered him a sweet smile. Kyungsoo could only respond with a soft one.

“Of course, I really hope you get this. I know SUM Research is launching their reopening sometime next spring. It would look great on your resume if you got to work with them. You’d be a perfect match.” He let a hand gently tousle the fluffy locks of messy hair on Baekhyun’s head. Baekhyun couldn’t remember the last time someone had played with his hair like that, it brought a nostalgic feeling from within and a shade of red graced the apples of his cheeks. But mostly, his chest swelled with warmth, he felt full and wholesome hearing those words, even if they might have been empty words of encouragement. “Thanks Kyungsoo, I mean it.”

Kyungsoo smiled one last time as he grabbed his laptop and headed straight for the door. “Just make sure you have wifi! I’ll see you later!” And without another word, he was gone in a flash.

Such a weird guy… Baekhyun thought to himself in the most loving way possible.

☁

Later that evening, with the sounds of sirens blaring and the quaking ground of a super’s battle somewhere across town, Jongin crawled out from the darkness of his room. It was nearly eleven at night, Baekhyun had assumed Jongin was already at work since he hadn’t come out earlier. But despite that, Baekhyun was still in his room, seated in the same position with his laptop out and perusing the internet. Jongin passed by his door with silent footsteps, so Baekhyun had no idea he was even out. Of course, Baekhyun jolted at the sight of Jongin looming in his doorway.

He sighed a fresh breath of relief when he realized who it was.

“Heh,” Jongin chuckled to himself and shoved his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants. “Thought I was burglar, didn’t ya? Yeah, I get that a lot.”

“Nope, I thought you were a ghost or demon or something come to haunt me.” Baekhyun offered a light chuckle to hide his embarrassment.

Jongin just kind of stared at him, his face indistinguishable of what thoughts ran around in his head. It was silent for a moment before Baekhyun looked back down at his laptop to finish reading the latest article on biologically engineered prosthetic body parts.

“Hey.. Wanna head downtown with me, if you don’t have homework?”

Baekhyun raised a brow at the male, “Don’t you have work?”

“Obviously not, if I did, I’d have left already.” Jongin said in a biting manner.

Baekhyun was indifferent to his tone by now, so he ignored it. “Alright, what did you wanna do?”

“Oh nothing much, just take you to my part of town and show you around a bit. You’ve been here for how long? And I bet you haven’t even been to a quarter of this city in total. Also, we never go out! Let’s hang out for a bit.” Jongin flashed a devious smile, a glint of playfulness in his eyes.

Baekhyun grimaced a questioning look, “Don’t you have work on Friday nights?”

“Yeah, I usually do. But there’s this new guy in town, so he’s all the rage.” Jongin rolled his eyes as he entered Baekhyun’s room without so much as asking. “He’s the shiny new toy that all the kids wanna play with. But they have no idea what it is, where it came from or why its so fun. It’ll only be a matter of time before it turns out to be a demonically possessed relic in the start of some horror film.” He plopped his rear right at the edge of Baekhyun’s bed, hunched over and brooding over this new guy.

“Wow, tell me how you really feel.” Baekhyun said sarcastically as he closed out of his tabs and shut his laptop screen down.

“He’s just an ! He’s like every new guy who comes in, the shiny new thing that gets all the praise, all the money, all the good stuff! And it leaves all us older guys who have been around for a while to scrape and claw our way for attention… I hate his type. Pompous and an absolute know it all.”

A silence grew over them as Jongin sat in his own misery, Baekhyun was at a loss for words but raised a hand and said a few things anyway. “I’m sure there are plenty of others who won’t like him and see him for what he really is. I’m sure he’ll get fired in time.”

Jongin scoffed, “One can only hope.” He shot up after a short moment, hands still in his pockets. “Anyways, be ready in ten. Something casual is fine.” And without another word he left Baekhyun’s room.

Of course, ten minutes later, he was ready and waiting by the entry way. Jongin however, never showed up. Baekhyun went around the apartment, searching and calling for the male, but to no avail. Five minutes later his phone rang in a familiar tone.

“Uh, where are you?”

“The question is, where are you? I’m waiting, Princess.” Jongin’s voice came from the other side of the line.

Baekhyun scrunched his face for a second in distaste. “I told you not to call me that.”

Jongin let out a breathy chuckle, “Don’t worry, it’ll catch on. Just like Twinkle Toes did for Kyungsoo. Now come on, we’re burning precious darkness.” The phone went silent without so much an inkling to where he was.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes and made his way out the front door. He thought he could hear the sounds of cars going by from his phone so he assumed the male was already outside the building. But again, no Jongin. Baekhyun sighed after looking up and down the street for the man who continued to play his stupid little tricks.

“I should have known. This was a bad idea.” He mumbled to himself as he shoved his phone in his pocket (not even going to bother texting him) and went to turn on his heels. However, a voice called out from behind him.

“Going somewhere, Princess?” Jongin’s annoyingly smug tone caught Baekhyun off guard and he whipped around to find someone in a rolled down window of one of the black cars parked in front of the building. He wore sunglasses even though the windows were tinted blacker than an abyss, letting them sit on the bridge of his nose as he smirked at Baekhyun.

“What are you doing?” Was all Baekhyun could manage, he was quite confused by this situation.

“Waiting for you, what else would I be doing? Get in!” Jongin said cheerfully and opened the door to the black car. You could tell it was new, the way it sparkled in the street lights was enough to tell anyone.

Baekhyun complied and sat in the backseat next to Jongin, thoroughly uncomfortable with the situation at hand. Jongin spoke a few words to the driver before they took off, the driver was dressed in a white button down and black pants and black gloves with a special driver’s hat adorned in black and decorative rings.

Jongin was dressed in a simple hoodie and joggers while Baekhyun put a little more effort and wore a black shirt, black pants, black beanie and a jean jacket with fluffy edges of fake wool. He felt… Out of place with his outfit choice between the high end driver and Jongin’s lack of care.

“Is this the part where you tell me you’re secretly a mogul’s son?”

Jongin looked up from the bright screen of his phone and stared a short while before laughing. “Hah! I just have a few well placed connections. That’s all.”

Baekhyun harrumphed, “Well, I don’t think I can afford this ride. Let alone even half of it.”

Jongin slid in on the seat so that their thighs and shoulders touched, clearly, he wasn’t wearing a seat belt. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. I’ve got it covered.” He smiled a sinister smile and placed a hand rather high on Baekhyun’s inner thigh. To that Baekhyun swatted the hand away.

“Alright, stop putting on this ‘I’m so cool act’, where are we going?” He asked with a firm tone, he wasn’t about to let Jongin play his stupid games.

Jongin took his hand back and stared at Baekhyun with an incredulous look in his eyes for a moment. He slid back to his spot and leaned his head against the tinted window. “You’ll see when we get there.”

Baekhyun couldn’t see it, but Jongin smiled a goofy smile to himself in the reflection of the window.

☁

 “Welcome! To my lair!” Jongin’s voice rang in the penthouse as he walked backwards through the foyer. Arms spread and smile even brighter than before. The walls and floors were white, as if made of complete marble. Gorgeous painting of landscapes and abstract people lined the walls, giant white vases held rare and beautiful flowers like orchids and some other hybrids he had never seen before.

Baekhyun snorted as the lights to the penthouse with each step Jongin took.

“Oh? Is that a naysayer I hear?”

To Baekhyun’s right was a stone statue of two angels, one clearly slain with a spearhead in its chest and the other weeping as it held the body and the rest of the broken spear. It was an odd notion, did the angel kill the other, or did they find their friend like that and tried to save them?

“Give me one good reason why I should believe that this place is yours. You live in the lower west end, under the highway, in the cheapest part of the city with two other roommates. Why live there when you could live here?” Baekhyun went to turn around and look directly at Jongin but the male was missing.

“Oh this place is only to keep up appearances. Our apartment is where I like too… Lay low.” Jongin’s voice echoed throughout the apartment in an earie manner. “This is where I take my base of operations.” Baekhyun shot his body around to where Jongin’s voice came, it felt like there was a presence there, something creepy that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. “Where I do my dirty work.” Jongin’s voice whispered right behind Baekhyun, causing the male to shriek and jump back a few paces.

Baekhyun cursed under his breath after taking a few quick puffs to catch himself. “…So do you sell your body then?”

Jongin let out a rambunctious laugh, it was so light and so filled with sincerity that Baekhyun couldn’t help but feel his heart lighten.

“If that’s what you want to think, go ahead.” Jongin ruffled Baekhyun’s hair, duly ruining his beanie and hair. Of course, Baekhyun grimaced.

“Nah, this place is a friend of a friends. Let’s have a few drinks, and dance to music nobody’s ever heard of. Just the two of us.” Jongin grabbed Baekhyun’s hand and led him further into the penthouse.

And as promised, the music blared through unseen speakers in the overly large place. Jongin made them a good number of drinks throughout the night, to the point that Baekhyun lost count. He lost count after his third drink, not only were they strong, but it felt like Jongin just kept handing him drink after drink and not to mention the few shots they did. They did this in the lounge area that held a glass bar that lit up and changed color often; it was a small size but held a large number of alcohols and mixers.

At some point the lights had gone dark and the house was lit in LED blue, a few strobe lights going off in the makeshift dance floor they made in the lounge.

The room spun with each sloppy step he took, thinking that he looked like a cool backup dancer when in reality he looked like a limp noodle. But that wasn’t stopping him! The music was lighting a passion in his heart that he could not put out with just dancing.

Who knew how many hours went by, or how many boxes of pizza littered the kitchen by the end of the night (maybe a little too many for the stomachs of two people). And maybe, just maybe Baekhyun had had one too many drinks when it felt like his vision was playing tricks on him. Across the lounge he gazed upon Jongin who was sitting atop the island in the kitchen. Their eyes met and locked in a hazy trance. But Baekhyun could have sworn he watched as clouds of black swarmed in around Jongin, a smile playing on the male’s lips as they did so. Eventually, there was nothing but black, and it was all Baekhyun could see.

That is of course, until he woke up the next morning. Sprawled out on his bed sheets, face down and drool staining his lips he woke with a grumble and heavy headache. His stomach felt full and uncomfortable and his limbs still hummed with buzz of alcohol flowing through.

He groaned as he turned his head to hide from the sun that peaked through his window shades.

He had no idea of how he got in his room last night, the last thing he remembered was seeing Jongin’s devious smile before everything went literally black.

“Oh, you’re awake. I made some coffee and breakfast. It’s cold by now, but you can just heat it up in the microwave.” Kyungsoo’s melodious and familiar voice was a lovely sound against the sirens that wailed just outside.

Baekhyun simply groaned in affirmation and buried his face directly into his pillow.

“Thought I’d let you know, but it’s one in the afternoon. I know you didn’t have much today, but you said your mother wanted to call you around this time to see how you’re doing.”

Baekhyun mentally slammed his head against a wall, of course. Today of all days. He responded by pulling his sheets further over his head and groaning once again.

Kyungsoo chuckled, “You and Jongin had fun last night huh? Though, I don’t think Jongin’s quite as hungover as you. I’ll bring you some medicine, give me a sec.” Kyungsoo left the open doorway and went on to grab some over the counter painkillers.  

Baekhyun silently thanked that he left, even though he meant well, he just wanted to sleep off this terrible hangover.

Not a little while later did Kyungsoo return with a cup of orange juice and a bottle of medicine. He came and went as silent as the night, well, as silent as the night in the country side. Modern City was much too loud and obnoxious to be silent at night.

It took Baekhyun a full hour before he could get out of bed and make his way into the kitchen for something to snack on. He was grateful for not throwing up, but it probably would have done his stomach some good. Jongin was still locked up in his room, even as Baekhyun picked away lightly at his own plate of breakfast and scrolled through his phone. Particularly his email. An email he was not expecting to see for at least another two weeks came his way—it was from the SUM Research internship affairs head, Jeon Somin. Baekhyun panicked at seeing the title of the email read: “SUM Research Internship Request Response” and opened the email without a second’s thought.

The further he read into the email the more his mouth dropped.

Kyungsoo walked into the kitchen to grab something from the fridge when he saw the male’s face.

“Is everything alright?” He asked with restrained caution.

“Y-Yeah… It’s… It’s great, actually. I just got an email from Jeon Somin from Internship Affairs in SUM Research and she said that they’d love for me to go in for an interview…” His voice trailed off, not totally believing that he was reading the email correctly.

“That’s great news Baekhyun.” Kyungsoo closed the fridge and smiled a soft and gentle smile at him. “I knew they’d like you.” He walked past the latter and ruffled his locks of bed head before sitting at the small kitchen dining table with him.

Suddenly, his phone started to vibrate and ring with the familiar tone of his mother’s caller I.D. He both cursed and cheered on the inside because he couldn’t wait to tell her such wonderful news but he really did not want to talk to his mother hungover.

Baekhyun picked up the call with great enthusiasm, pretending that nothing was wrong what-so-ever.

As the two chatted like old buddies, Jongin had trudged his way into the kitchen and reached for something deep within the fridge. The circles under his eyes looked darker than usual, like he hadn’t slept all night and his eyes were blood shot. Kyungsoo mumbled something to him but Baekhyun could hardly decipher it as he tried his best to listen to his mother’s very interesting story about what his father and the cat did to her flower vase. In fact, Baekhyun was sure he wouldn’t’ be able to repeat the story back because it was just so mundane and basic that it was hard to focus on it.

All Jongin grabbed was the carton of orange juice, he gave it a shake to see how much was left and duly poured the rest into his mouth when he deemed it too little for a cup. Kyungsoo grimaced at Jongin as he sipped his coffee. Jongin simply let out a satisfied sigh and wiped his mouth clean with his wrist. He looked down at Baekhyun and the two made direct eye contact. Jongin smirked at him before leaving a wink and turning on the heels of his feet. He took the carton with him, hoping to drink the rest up without a cup.

Baekhyun nearly spat his own cup of orange juice out of his mouth and nearly cursed a slew of words in front of his mother on the phone. But he choked it all back and furrowed his brows as Jongin made his way back to his room. Baekhyun looked up at Kyungsoo for a reaction, to hope that someone shared his dissatisfaction, but Kyungsoo just sat there with a hand on his mouth and cheeks rosy in pink. Like a bashful young maiden, even though he wasn’t even the one who was winked at!

Loudly, and quite unabashedly Baekhyun thought to himself, IDIOTS.

☁

A few weeks later had gone by and finals were upon both Kyungsoo and Baekhyun. Kyungsoo was next to never around, between studying, apparently tutoring and doing things for the student council was overload for him. Baekhyun felt bad for how busy he was and made dinner as often as possible for him. Their usual campus lunch dates every Tuesday and Thursday had to be put on hold as Kyungsoo just never had any time. Baekhyun wondered if Kyungsoo ate regularly then—he had been seeming a little famished lately. Tired mostly, but weak and drained of a few ounces of life. Baekhyun truly wished there was more he could do for him.

It was a cold fall evening, just a few days before winter really hit and Baekhyun had just gotten off the subway and was on his way to the apartment. He had just finished his first two finals of the week and felt ready for a long nap. Wrapped warmly in his coat and scarf, he carried his bag chock full of study papers and books worth hundreds of his allowance. He never thought to carry it so securely, that is until, a pedestrian walked by and rammed into his shoulder. His bag fell, causing all of the papers and books to open and spread on the ground.

Baekhyun cursed loudly and quickly went to pick them up before the dirty city ground damaged them too badly. These were rentals anyways, any extra damage he would have to pay.

“Here, let me help.” A person’s soft voice came in quite quickly and picked up the stray papers that fell further away.

“Oh no, it’s okay!” Baekhyun said in a panic, hoping that the person wouldn’t run off with his study materials. But the stranger was insistent and gathered as much as he could before handing them over to Baekhyun.

In a frantic panic, Baekhyun took the papers and shoved them all into his bag. He was frazzled out of his mind and wanted to punch something in the face after that mishap.

“SUM Research? You’re applying to be an intern?” The stranger asked after having gotten a good look at one of the papers in his hands. Baekhyun was already past the second interview and was on his way to finalizing his internship in the bioengineering program. He had gotten the paperwork early that morning before his first final, now it was smashed and crumpled because of his rather overly outdrawn panic.

“Uh, y-yeah. I’m a college student, I’m trying to get some credentials.” He said carefully and getting a good look at the man for the first time. Immediately, the man’s yellow eyes caught his attention. A morph, he thought. Morph’s were people born with typically nonhuman attributes. Like scales for skin, or cat ears to hear. They came in all different shapes and sizes, but they were different from those born with powers, like D.Man. Who could create earth shattering earthquakes that destroyed his old college. Anyways, this man was handsome, too handsome. Baekhyun was at a loss for words with his dashing good looks and auburn hair that covered almost all of his forehead. He thought to himself, Why is everyone in Modern City so damn attractive? Is it cuz I’m just a country bumpkin?? I’m not even that! I’m from the suburbs!!

The stranger just laughed a throaty chuckle, “I can tell with all those notes you have there. It’s finals season,” the man’s eyes left his for a split second to look at something past Baekhyun. Something glinted in the man’s eyes, somethings that seamed almost… malicious. Something ten times more devious and evil than whatever mischievous look Jongin could muster. Baekhyun did not like it one bit. And although the look was fleeting, he couldn’t help but notice it. “I wish you luck in the future. You’ll need it.” The stranger turned his gaze back to him and smiled something that sat unwell in the bottom of Baekhyun’s stomach.

Just then, someone went storming past the two. Baekhyun could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand with the aura that brooded from the man walking by. It was a familiar feeling, so the name naturally left his lips, “Jongin?” All thoughts of the stranger left his mind when he saw Jongin storm up the front steps of the apartment building and slam the door shut behind.

He followed quickly and called a few more times for the male, but just before he entered the building he looked back to see if the stranger was still standing where he had left him. Gone, no one even remotely fitting his description walked amongst the few pedestrians on the sidewalk.

Baekhyun thought to himself as he climbed the steps to the fourth floor, …I didn’t like that encounter.. I didn’t like that guy at all.

Not thinking much more into it, Baekhyun followed Jongin all the way to their apartment. The door was left wide open, which was a little annoying because anyone could just walk in and take their things.

As he closed and locked the door and walked into the apartment, he could hear the distinct sounds of frustrated yells and items being thrown about. Baekhyun sighed as his chest tightened. Jongin had only ever been like this twice before, which is one too many for him. He’s rather scary when he’s angry and they weren’t close enough to even talk about why he was like that. Sure, they had grown immensely close in the last couple of months, but no one ever talked about their past lives. He figured it was an ‘no topic zone’.

Suddenly, the whole apartment began to shake, the walls violently vibrated and darkness began to crawl out from the shadows.

“J-Jongin.. Uh! Jongin!” The mist of black smoke crept over his toes and caused him to yelp. He jumped up and dashed down the hall towards Jongin’s room. He knocked furiously, “Jongin! Is everything okay!? Are you okay?!”

Suddenly, everything stopped moving. The darkness in the hallway grew light and the overwhelming fear that made the hairs on his neck stand disappeared. Baekhyun took that as his opportunity to slowly open the door to his room.

“Jong..in..?” Baekhyun poked his head in to the must and newly tarnished room.

Jongin stood in the center of his room, back heaving with heavy breaths and head low. His fists were held tightly, you could tell he was still furious over something.

Normally, Baekhyun would have left him alone. But something was telling him to move into the room and console the man. His legs moved on their own, as if no regrets were holding him back. To anyone else, for comfort, Baekhyun would have placed a hand on their shoulder and offered a sympathetic smile, but this time Baekhyun grabbed for Jongin’s raging hand and held it.

“Jongin..? It’s gonna be okay..” He said softly.

The fist in his hand tightened harder for a moment before releasing. Jongin sighed and his breaths eventually evened out. It took a long moment, but he was calm after a while. Baekhyun rested a hand on Jongin’s back and intertwined their fingers. You couldn’t ask Baekhyun why he did it, but it felt necessary. Like Jongin needed it.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Jongin stood there silent, not wanting to say anything. But something in his facial expression tore at Baekhyun’s heart, like he was both guilty and sorry for whatever was going on. He held firmly onto Baekhyun’s hand and went to speak when the sound of the front door opening and closing broke their focus. Then the thump of something hitting the floor alerted them both, they broke away and went straight for the hallway. There they found Kyungsoo slumped on the ground with a hand on the wall as if he was desperately trying to get up. His other hand grasped at his stomach, like a searing pain was surging through it. Jongin was the first to respond, kneeling with one of the most worrying faces Baekhyun had ever seen. He lifted Kyungsoo up to a decent seated position and both Jongin and Baekhyun were speechless at the bruises swelling on his right eye.

Jongin’s face quickly changed to something severe. “Who did this to you.” It was not a question.

Kyungsoo chose his silence and just stared rather…lifelessly at Jongin.

“Kyungsoo. Tell me. Right now. Or so help me—”

“Jongin.” Baekhyun called out from behind him. “If he doesn’t want to talk then you can’t force it out of him. If I’m patient with you, then you have to be with him. Right now, just help him to his room and we’ll take care of him.”

Baekhyun said in a rather firm voice. Jongin rescinded into himself and helped Kyungsoo to his feet. They helped carry him to his room and made quick work over his injuries. They consisted mostly of bruising and a few scratches. So there were lots of ice packs covering Kyungsoo’s body.

That night the apartment was quiet. Jongin had nothing snarky to say and Kyungsoo had nothing he wanted to talk about. They were both solemn and deep in thought. Baekhyun let them be. He cooked them all dinner and did the dishes, knowing that both were going through a rough patch. What the oddest thing of it all was Kyungsoo’s and Jongin’s reluctance to lock themselves up in their rooms. They preferred to stay in the living room and sit silently amongst themselves while the news mildly played on the TV. Baekhyun for some reason thought it would be a good idea if he studied for his next final in the same room as them so he brought out his study material and sat on the floor and used the coffee table as leverage.

“Later tonight in the news, we’ll talk about the upcoming reopening of SUM Research. Chairman Jung has been giving press conferences revealing details of the new facility.

Right you are Yoora, and after that we have the List at Ten of all the new villains you need too keep and eye out for and have the proper precautions if you run into them. As you all know, top of our list tonight will be The Lay. A smoldering masked villain with yellow eyes and his group of goons have been tearing up parts of Modern City in the last month. Stay tuned on signs of him and his crew and how to alert the authorities.

Later tonight Mayor Jinki had bought a new cat!

Oh he has, how wonder—”

The news quickly faded out of Baekhyun’s mind once the description of The Lay processed in his mind. He had remembered hearing the name on campus lately, he was the talk of several of the students—which was odd. Most students talked about superhero’s and their dashing good looks or how powerful they were. People hardly ever talked about the bad, but if they did, that could never be a good sign.

☁

Winter came and went like the wind, of course Baekhyun spent some of it at home, but the rest he stayed in his shared apartment. Since the start of winter break and the new semester, Jongin had been home a lot more lately, while Kyungsoo was the one to always be out. When he came home, he always seemed so deflated and void of life. He looked in serious need of a vacation. But Baekhyun understood, college did that to one.

Since the day Baekhyun had experienced the apartment shaking and the weird black shadows coming out of the crevices of the rooms, he had been very weary of Jongin. Not so much in a bad way, but to catch him in the act again. He had his suspicions about Jongin and the powers he was hiding. He thought it weird, most people didn’t hide their powers, they were nothing to be ashamed of. But he was almost certain Jongin was the cause of all those times he had seen black smoke. It was a familiar black smoke, but he could never remember where he had seen it before.

Anyways, their relationship only grew stronger. Both in intimacy and decency. Jongin was very clingy and liked to snake his hands around Kyungsoo’s or Baekhyun’s waists or shoulders. Kyungsoo liked to sit closely to someone on the couch or their bed (specifically Baekhyun’s bed, as most were not allowed in Jongin’s room). Baekhyun was never really one to initiate skin contact, but it wasn’t unwelcomed to him. He liked it when the two of them smothered him in their own versions of affections. It made his heart flutter and he couldn’t deny any longer how they made him feel. But of course, like any good roommate, he kept that secret to himself. After all, he was still under the impression that Jongin only liked Kyungsoo, while Kyungsoo seemed aloof to everything.

But as the semester rolled by, Baekhyun fell into a more natural pattern with his feelings and lifestyle. It wasn’t that he forgot about how he felt, but rather he was able to bury it in his heart and focus on school—more importantly, his new internship.

Baekhyun by luck of some unimaginable force was accepted into the internship and had been waiting almost a month before the grand reopening. He even kept it to himself when he received the email that he had been accepted because the thought was still surreal. It wasn’t until the night before that Baekhyun was scrounging about his room, throwing clothes this way and that, did he tell Kyungsoo and Jongin that he needed something nice to wear for the grand opening tomorrow afternoon. It was quite funny how their faces all changed to different things in the time span of .2 seconds. In the end though, the two were over joyous with congratulations and they embraced him in a bear hug that tackled him down on the bed. It was decided in the loving muddled mess of limbs that Jongin and Kyungsoo would make Kyungsoo a special dinner, so he wasn’t allowed to eat a lot at the reception. Of course, it was to be a surprise so Baekhyun wasn’t allowed to know what he would get for dinner. Either way, the notion drew one of the biggest smiles he had ever had on his face.

That night, Kyungsoo walked into his room with a giant goofy smile on his face. He spoke a mile a minute and asked Baekhyun which shirt he wanted to wear—he had many nice ones. All of which were high quality name brands too! Baekhyun carefully choose the dark blue one, he didn’t know why it just seemed right. He made sure to thank him with a large hug, even if the shurt was a little snug up top (he did have big beefy shoulders like Jongin said all those months ago).

The next morning, Baekhyun woke up to find a nice gray suit hung on his closet door. It was newly bought as the tags were still attached. The quality was fine and the brand was probably just a smidgen better than the shirt he was going to wear. A note was shoved on on of the lapels and it read:

“You’ll be surrounded by rich pricks. You should at least fit the occasion. Just this once.

–Jongin.”

Another smile graced his lips.

Baekhyun really was lucky to have such wonderful roommates.

 

 

But all wonderful things must come to an end. With each good thing comes a bad, and with each bad comes a good.

And in the consistent amount of good that Baekhyun had been receiving lately, bad was bound to come around. And what a perfect opportunity for it to happen than at the grand reopening of SUM Research?

It was a beautiful, a little chilly, but nonetheless a beautiful spring day in the east end of Modern City. Hundreds—almost thousands—of people gathered at the front pavilion of the research center. At the top of the steps to the building stood a podium and a line of chairs, all with the board heads, top scientists, a few hero’s and a few city officials. Just as Chairman Jung had been about to cut the red ribbon locking off the building with Mayor Jinki all the speakers in the area went out with heavy feedback. It screeched like a banshee and caused all the civilians and superhero’s to cover their ears in excruciating pain. This kind of noise was not normal, it was amplified and unnatural with the way it made some people’s ears bleed.

Then, a loud maniacal laugh began to reverberate in the area. Baekhyun looked up frantically as he covered his ears. Everyone had been hunched over trying desperately to get away from the sounds.

“Ladies and gentlemen and all those who have no preference or just a specific one. I’d like to thank you all for making this to be the easiest hijack ever.” The voice laughed again, this time coming from the top of the steps.

A masked man in nothing but a deep red and black suit appeared. Baekhyun could hardly tell where he had even come from! It was almost like he had phased from nowhere!

Gasps and shrieks from closer to the stairs could be heard, then a series of “who is that, who is he’s” were answered by a shrieking, “IT’S THE LAY.”

Baekhyun stared this man directly in his eyes, noticing the eerie yellow hue they possessed. What was even more unsettling was how Baekhyun thought those devilish eyes were locked on him. But how could they? He wasn’t very close to the front nor was he any more distinguishable than any other person here.

“Now if you don’t mind,” The Lay raised a hand. “I’ll be taking this facility over.”

Baekhyun couldn’t be too sure but it seemed as if the amplified sounds of the man’s voice were stopped and he said that very last part for Baekhyun and Baekhyun only to hear.

Then, a vile smirk stretched the length of the man’s face, ear to ear in nothing but malice.

Just then, a series of explosions went off in the crowd. People lurched to and fro not sure where the sounds were coming from. But most were not able to get far as an electric blue forcefield raised from those explosions and began to engulf the building in a perfect dome. Many of the people in the audience were separated, only a handful from had been locked in while the rest ran away and the police stationed on the road shot at the forcefield. When the forcefield completed at the very top, it had completely locked in Mayor Jinki, the scientists, the few hero’s there were and most importantly, Baekhyun. A fear Baekhyun had never felt before rose in his stomach and panic quickly surged through his veins.

This was not a good situation.

Just then, a few gun shots were fired from inside the dome, then the sound of something electric striking by made the people all scream in terror. A series of screaming commands came from the The Lay’s lackeys as they rallied the people further up the stairs and into the building.

The Lay had grabbed onto both Chairman Jung and Mayor Jinki before any of the super’s could so much as react to the events. “Now, now. You know better. When there’s a precious hostage in the hands of a dangerous person, you know to be in complete and utter compliance. Don’t you?” There was a sickening amusement in his voice, though the situation was far from it. “Now be good little hero’s and obey me. I’m not too interested in killing these brainwashed fools here.” He tossed the two from his hands harshly and watched as they fell over. “No.. My game is..” He turned around to spot Baekhyun walking up the stairs as the henchman held guns and their powers at bay. “Much more… Invigorating.” With his chin tilted down and smile plastered so cruelly on his face, Baekhyun couldn’t help but shiver as they made eye contact. This time he was sure of it being so close to him now. He couldn’t hear what he was saying, but there was nothing good emanating from this man. Everything about him was pure evil.

☁

“How’s it comin’?” Jongin asked as he lazily sauntered over to Kyungsoo in the kitchen. Across the living room the news played like white noise filling space. The whole apartment smelt full and rich with the aromas of good homemade food.

The two were home for the afternoon, ready to cook a feast and to pop a bottle of champagne when Baekhyun came home.

Since Kyungsoo was an intolerable cook, Jongin had been instructing him throughout the day on what to do. Now, they were on a second batch of baked mac and cheese (the first was burned), Kyungsoo was stirring the cheese into the roux mix.

Jongin s his arms comfortably around Kyungsoo’s waist and let his chin rest on Kyungsoo’s shoulder as he responded, “It looks good. I didn’t burn it this time.” Kyungsoo turned and offered a wide smile. He stared a little longer than usual at Jongin’s sleepy face (he had just woken up from a small nap), his own heart warming at the sight.

“Good, that’s very good.” He let out lazily. If he could he’d stand there all day clinging to Kyungsoo’s side.

However, just as Kyungsoo was about to step over to the sink and grab the colander full of drained pasta, his ‘phone’ started to ring.

“Hold on a second I have to take this.” Kyungsoo said with a charming smile and left Jongin to look after the food.

He walked out of the kitchen and towards his room, touching the screen on his phone he read the contents.

“Level S threat. SUM Research Building. High ranking hostages, casualties unknown. Calling all available hero’s. Calling all available hero’s.”

Kyungsoo’s face ran pale, his lips turning further and further into a frown the more he read the message. It was clear what he had to do.

Jongin on the other hand, rubbed his face and yawned as he turned the stove off for Kyungsoo and poured the pasta into the cheese sauce. But as he mixed the two together his ear caught wind of what was playing on the news.

“…Police forces have gathered round SUM Research… A hostage situation with the well being of the mayor unknown… Reports say The Lay and his group were seen at the scene of the crime—”

Jongin had long left the pots on the stove as he walked slowly into the living room. Like in a fixed trance, his eyes were glued onto the television, listening to the reporter and watching the phone-filmed footage repeat the scene of explosions and a blue forcefield encompassing the research building.

The emotions surging through Jongin’s veins were so unexplainable in that moment that he missed hearing the front door slam shut. Instead, he dropped his spoon and sprinted for the nearest window.

☁

And now that you’ve all been caught up to how Baekhyun ended up in this tragic mess, you should be reminded that the man’s breath still holding a gun to his head will be the end of him. The man had been yelling at him in a language he could far from understand for the last half hour. At first, he was terrified and yelled back, but then he soon realized that it was pointless; the man couldn’t understand him, and he couldn’t understand the man. Baekhyun had also noticed that the safety button on the gun hadn’t been turned off, so he was taking his chances freely just sitting there with his hands tied behind his back.

Suddenly, the rushed voices of the henchman came by as a pair of clacking shoes hurriedly walked over.

“What is the meaning of this?!” A raging voice yelled in a language Baekhyun and everyone else could now understand, but it soon turned to the one he couldn’t understand.

The fish breath man slunk back and cowered into the hump on his back, much like a turtle. Baekhyun and a few of the civilian hostages had been separated from the others and were restrained behind one of the main info desks. Baekhyun had yet to be familiar with anything inside the place so he really had no idea of where he was.

Not a moment later did the screaming man walk around the desk and greet the several people frightened to death. Most of them hid in themselves or hugged one another, Baekhyun just stared at the man. He thought the voice was familiar, and those yellow eyes were a dead giveaway. The Lay.

“There you are.” A devious smile grew on his lips. He lunged forward and grabbed the collar of Baekhyun’s dress shirt, the one Kyungsoo had so generously let him borrow. “I ask for one thing to be done, but no, I have to always end up doing it myself. Henchmen, what are they good for?” The Lay seemed to be normal in the moment, as if genuinely trying to crack a joke. But if it weren’t for the fact that Baekhyun was literally lifted from the ground and toes were dangling, he would have laughed.

The fish breathed henchman went to go say something as he brought Baekhyun down, never breaking eye contact, when something vicious glinted in those yellow eyes and he turned and screamed. Without warning, the turtle man’s head blasted against the counter top and a few of the people on the ground. Baekhyun and The Lay were not spared of this, but The Lay seemed unphased, while Baekhyun could hardly feel anything in his body anymore.

“I’ve been wanting to see you for a while now.” He pulled Baekhyun close to his own face, so close that if Baekhyun hadn’t pulled his head back their noses would have touched.

When Baekhyun did not respond, The Lay dropped him, then proceeded to grab the back of the suit that Jongin had bought him and pulled him out from behind the desk—dragging him all the way down the expanse of the east end of the building with giant windows opening up to a luscious green fields of grass on the campus. Just on the other side of the grass and the forcefield sat flashing sirens, armed soldiers, passing helicopters and a few flying super’s.

“You see Baekhyun—”

“How do you know my—”

“DON’T INTERRUPT.” He shouted and Baekhyun immediately covered his ears, it added to the splitting headache he already had from the last whatever power he used.

“You see, when I was a little boy. I wanted to be a superhero. And when I found out that I had powers, I thought, hey let’s give it a try. But then I realized that my powers did more damage than actual saving. After that, I found out that heroes weren’t all cracked up to be what everyone thinks. The Hero Academy here in Modern City is filled with snot nosed ers who have only known privilege. They don’t know the true squanders of being a regular person. After a couple years of dealing with pricks thinking they were better than you, I refused to ever be like them. Then after meeting a few real superheroes, I quickly learned that they were the worst kind of humans. It’s all about money to them, appearances, smiles, no bad thing can ever come of their name. Even if the means they use aren’t so.. Pretty. So naturally. I turned my back on heroes and all super’s the like. I began to coin my powers on my own, too. Embracing that I could do more damage than hurt. Then I started to get my nose into what you would consider villainous. And there I learned that their hierarchy was even more ed than the hero’s system. Alliances practically don’t exist, it’s free for all amongst them. You either join a group or make your own. Only the greatest go solo. They’d rather kill and squash one another just to be the number one villain rather than ban together to rid the world of all heroes. Their pride is what prevents them from being truly great.”

Baekhyun had never had the opportunity to hear a villain monologue, in fact most who were not heroes didn’t live past hearing them monologue. It was kinda cool, but over all—stupid. What was the point of telling him all this? Did Baekhyun particularly care? No. This man’s past had nothing to do with him. What did, was the fact that he would kill people willy nilly and not bat a single eyelash.

By the time The Lay had finished his little monologue, he had dropped Baekhyun in front of a fountain somewhere in the center of the building. It was a rectangular and modernly designed fountain with the way it supported a small stack of cubes that had water flowing out. The room was a rotunda, leading to several wings of the first floor. His heels clacked with each step as he stood at the cusp of one of the many hallways.

“That’s when I decided, I’d do something different.” He raised his right arm and held it outstretched, “I’d take out the hero’s.” He raised his left arm outstretched, “I’d destroy the villains.” He slowly turned around and said, “And take in the rest that dared not to oppose me. And create a new set of supers. Neither hero, nor villain but all on equal standing.” His voice was not kind, it seethed with something more malcontent than just some idyllic theory.

“I’m sorry, but I really have no idea what this has to do with me. I get it, you want a lair for your base of operations, and you probably want to eventually dominate the world with this new league you’re creating. But I’m just an intern. I’ve never even set foot in the building since it’s just been remodeled. I couldn’t help you out here even if I wanted.” Baekhyun said that quickly, he only hoped that The Lay wouldn’t be too angered by his interruption.

The Lay simply let his hands fall to his sides slowly.

“Oh no. That’s where you’re wrong, Baekhyun. I don’t need this entire building to start my new plan. No.” He smiled and began to pace around the fountain with his fingers all pressed together. “What I need out of this whole spectacle… Is you.”

Baekhyun froze, feeling nothing but fear burn under his skin.

“I figured, what better way to kickstart this plan than with taking out the two people I hate most in this world.”

Baekhyun furrowed his brows. He couldn’t be one of them, he had never even met this man before.

“D.Man. And Mortekai.”

The Lay went silent. Not even his clacking footsteps could be heard. When a good long while went by without any word, Baekhyun spoke up. “I’m sorry, I still don’t understand what this has to do with me.”

Suddenly, The Lay screamed and the water in the fountain went shooting up like geysers. When it came back down it drenched Baekhyun completely, but what it did not prepare him for was The Lay to grab him by the collar and press his back to the edge of the fountain with a crazy look in his eyes.

“It has everything to do with you! You! The closest person to them! You! The one who lives in their apartment! You! The one who can be friends with both a superhero and a supervillain!” He spoke fast and severe, a crazed tinge shaking in his voice as he spoke. It was beyond unnerving for Baekhyun to look him in the eye.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Baekhyun yelled over the hysteria.

“D.MAN IS DO KYUNGSOO. MORTEKAI IS KIM JONGIN. WHAT DON’T YOU GET?!” He yelled so terribly loud that his powers made Baekhyun’s head spin. There was no way he could process whatever the man was saying.

While Baekhyun tried to gather his wits about him, The Lay lifted his body and threw him into the sloshing fountain water, or at least whatever was left of it.

He paced away with a maddening fury, his face becoming red underneath his mask.

“How.. How do you know that?! How do you even know who I am?!” Baekhyun asked as he coughed the water from his lungs.

“I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU.” He turned around and ripped his mask off and threw it to the side. Baekhyun immediately remembered the face. The handsome yet eerie face of a man who helped pick up his papers on the sidewalk.

“You…” Baekhyun said breathlessly.

“Yes, me.” He said in a mocking tone with a grimace. “The one who knocked into your bag and picked it all up for you. I’ve been watching you for months now. Watching your every move with those two freaks that you live with. There’s no possible way you didn’t know who they were. The signs were clear as day with the way they would come home at weird hours. That, or you’re too stupid to have realized it!” He spat. “But yes, I’ve seen the three of you and how you all interact together. I’ve watched you and Kyungsoo on campus eating lunch at precisely two o’clock every Tuesday and Thursday. I’ve watched you go grocery shopping with Jongin down the street or to the bodega across the way for beer on Friday nights.” He paced his way closer and closer to Baekhyun, slithering in each of his words in a vile manner. “And I know most of all how important you are to them. How they would do anything to protect you… Their precious. Little. Princess.” With each word he instigated over Baekhyun’s submerged body, smirking as he cowered into the rather deep water.

That pet name that annoyed Baekhyun so much, he shouldn’t have known that. He shouldn’t have known that.

“Call them.” The Lay said in a whispering voice, but it was nothing kind.

Baekhyun opened an eye slowly despite him being right there in front of his face. “Then.. What was the point of all this? Why not just attack us at our home if you knew where they lived? Why not just kidnap me there?” It really didn’t make sense, it was almost as if he were a serial killer wanting to get recognized for his work—

“Because why not use this whole event to broadcast to the world what I’m trying to do. Why not show everyone how I rip the heart from Mortekai’s chest and hold the remains of D.Man’s brain in my hands.” His smile grew to something toothy and crooked, that crazed look in his eye was all the more prominent.

Baekhyun breathed out as the realization settled, “So you took hostage of all these people, killed those heroes and guards, put the entire SUM Research building under lock down just so you could fight D.Man and Mortekai?” The look on his face was rather incredulous.

“Yes, and?” The Lay grimaced as if the answer was more than obvious enough.

“Don’t you think that’s a waste of time and strength? What did they even specifically do to make you hate them so much?”

The Lay’s face dropped. All the smiles and malicious intent he had before seemed childish in comparison to this expression. This was nothing short of murderous now. The Lay’s hands shot out and pushed Baekhyun’s unsuspecting body down under the water. Without hands to help him up, he could only thrash his legs and shoulders to be let go.

“You think I’m a waste of time? You think all the work and sweat I’ve put into this is a waste? Then fine, go ahead. Simple minded creatures such as yourself could never understand.” He brought Baekhyun up for a second, just a second enough for him to gather a gulp of air. He quickly shoved him back down, though. “I’ll tell you why I hate them. In the academy, Kyungsoo was everything to professors. To the scientists, to the students, he was everything. He was kind and handsome and respectful to all. He scored top grades in all the tests, he was the picture perfect student hero model. But then I found out he was fake. A product of years of lab testing to make the perfect hero. That was why he was so buddy-buddy with higherups. It was because he cheated his way to the top. And when he realized that I knew his dirty little secret, he treated me differently. He never greeted me with that charming smile of his, he never asked how I was doing. He never partnered up with me for sparing sessions.” Every once in a while, he would let Baekhyun up for a gasp of air before shoving back under. One would think that with the sloshing water in his ears he wouldn’t be able to hear what The Lay was saying, but his words were like a melody right into his bleeding ears, hearing the entirety of the story as The lay drowned him over and over.

“Mortekai I met much later in life. After I dropped out of school and started wondering about the underground world of the villains. In fact, it was just a few years back when we met. He was a rookie in the villain world, rising to the top with his group of lackeys. Everyone cooed over him because he was different. They all thought he was powerful when really, he was a sham just as much as Kyungsoo. His powers are weak, a stupid dark shadow he can manipulate to blind and choke people. It doesn’t even reach that far either. Instead, he relies on his brilliant mind and gadgets, the ones he spent years perfecting in hopes to impress his disinterested superiors. And despite having this weak power he could fool everyone into thinking he was stronger than that. He rose to the top, crushing all those who dared get in his way. Including me in that long list of villains he’s killed or..near killed. I was simply curious of him and then expressed my unpopular opinion on his methods and ideals and he let me know what he thought of that.” Half way through that monologue he had stopped drowning Baekhyun. But as he finished, he let the male go and took off one of his gloves. “He left me with a reminder for the years too come. That villains are just as scum as they claim to be.” He twirled his hand around, showing the scars on both sides. “He broke my fingers and put his filthy powers in my head. Now I hope to do the same to him. To break his fingers and let my power get inside his body and let it do it’s magic.”

Baekhyun floated on the surface of the water, breathing so heavily yet his body completely unable to do anything. He was so tired from fighting all that time and from listening to his pathetic story.

“Soon. I’ll rid the world of scum like him. And create a world there is no hierarchy. There will be no good and bad. There will just be equality.” He grabbed the lapels of Baekhyun’s suit and hulled him out of the water and to his face. “Now call them.”

 

 

“No.”

☁

Leap after leap, Kyungsoo arrived at the SUM Research building in within minutes. What would normally be a fifteen minute commute by subway was cut down to only a minute, which means he was traveling well over the allowed hero speed. It was a dumb rule, but to inflict a traveling speed on heroes was making them more human. And also created less problems with any air crafts.

“Chief, what’s the situation?” Kyungsoo asked in most of his uniform, it was thrown on quite messily and his scarf was missing. But these people he was just D.Man, he had no flaws.

“Not good sir. We have Lady Luna and Eletrik Hart working on taking down the forcefield. It’s apparently a security system installed by the scientists of SUM. But the only ones who know how to break it are locked inside.” The chief of Modern City was a burly man, round in the stomach but tall and filled out in muscle otherwise. Kyungsoo standing next to him seemed like a child with their father.

“Hostages? Do you know how many yet? Any names?” Kyungsoo asked quickly.

“Right now every one who was on the podium including the Mayor and Chairman Jung. Some of the pedestrians got caught in it but we have no idea of what’s going on inside. .Hack and Chen Machine are currently hacking into the security system to get video footage and control over the force field. We have indications that the hostages are split up in three groups. Two in the west wing and another on the east. We don’t know why but it just is. We last saw The Lay dragging one of the civilian hostages away from the group and we don’t know where he is now. We’ve had little contact with the offenders and we don’t have contact with the heroes inside, either. We have no idea what’s going on; we’re nearly blind in this one. No one’s getting in or out at this point. It’s weird… Why would they just hoard themselves up like that? They haven’t asked for anything yet.” The chief grumbled as he crossed his hands on his chest.

“I think there’s more to this than meets the eyes.” Kyungsoo muttered before thinking quickly to himself. “Sir, I’m going to take a survey of the perimeter. If I don’t come back in five, it means I’ve found a way in. Don’t follow.”

“We’ll leave it to you for now. We got other heroes in the area on the way. Don’t worry, D.Man. We’ll get the Mayor back.”

Kyungsoo just nodded, hiding the fact that he couldn’t care less for the mayor.

He needed to find Baekhyun. He wasn’t picking up his cellphone and he wasn’t amongst the many civilians that were in panic stations set a couple blocks down the road.

As Kyungsoo panicked through all the possible scenarios of what could be happening to Baekhyun, he spotted a peculiar development at the south end of the building. It was the least watched and this particular section was sandwiched between other buildings of the campus. It was a decorative court yard, white concrete paths and elegantly placed decorative trees lined the path. But what caught Kyungsoo’s eye was the mass of black energy surrounding a small person shooting a large white beams into the forcefield.

Kyungsoo landed with a thud, one knee on the ground and a hand to steady his landing behind the person.

Just as he landed the white beam stopped and black ball of smoke dissipated to show a severe gaze.

“You.” The voice said lowly and quite aggressively.

It was obvious Kyungsoo wasn’t welcome here. But that wasn’t about to deter him. He knew that smoke almost better than anyone else. His archnemesis—Mortekai.

“What business do you have here—” Kyungsoo went to speak but the lighting speed in which Mortekai moved ended up with a laser beam shooting out of his hand at an immense size.

Kyungsoo was just barely able to dodge it. Their scuffle only last for seconds when Kyungsoo laid down his might and smashed his fist into Mortekai’s chest. The ground shattered and shook with great power. Anyone normal should have died, but if it were not for Mortekai’s exoskeleton suit to protect him against the power of D.Man, he would have been dead long ago.

“I am not here to fight you today!” Kyungsoo shouted.

An anger like never before had torn through Mortekai as he gathered his wits about again. The shock took a huge number on him, but he was just wasting time playing cat and mouse here. Mortekai’s eyes turned pure black and the power of the exoskeleton under his outfit powered up to its full potential and caused electrical sparks to fly everywhere. He punched Kyungsoo square in the jaw and sent the male flying backwards into the forcefield. But as his powers surged with black smoke and his suit sparked, a malicious energy surged through the air around them. The darkness in shadows grew larger and smoke rose from every corner. As he flourished with power, he hadn’t even realized the black medical mask he wore to cover his mouth and nose had fallen off.

He panted heavy with anger as he stood up and his shoes sent him flying over to Kyungsoo’s struggling body.

“I don’t have time to deal with you today.” He said in a cold tone, this was not the same Mortekai Kyungsoo was used too. “I’ll just kill you now,” he grabbed Kyungsoo by the throat and slammed him into the side of the forcefield.

The power of his suit was what gave him so much strength, so Kyungsoo was having a difficult time fighting against it. The black smoke oozed from his mouth, eyes and ears, creating a more ominous effect as it surrounded Kyungsoo’s vision.

The power used to strangle his neck was almost enough to break his neck in half.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you now.” Mortekai spoke lowly.

Kyungsoo’s vision blurred with the black smoke entering his eyes and the lack of oxygen killing him slowly. All he could do was dastardly grip at the hand that clenched his throat and reach the other out in hopes to do something, particularly.. Touch Mortekai’s bare face. When none of that worked, he quickly changed tactics and raised a struggling hand to his face and tried everything in his power to take his mask of. Still gurgling and spitting everything he had to just breathe.

His attempts succeeded. His mask tipped over just enough so that his right eye was mostly visible. It was all he could manage and it was all he needed. Mortekai saw the mask askew and recognized the two moles on his right ear. He loosened his grip slightly but quickly stripped the mask from Kyungsoo’s face.

Mortekai dropped Kyungsoo.

“Y-You… You’re…”

Kyungsoo gasped and coughed until his face was tomato red, instead of the purple it had been accumulating. He crawled over on the ground, seeing stars fly by as he held his neck to ease the pain.

“Jong..in…” Kyungsoo managed once he could feel his neck again and breathe mostly normal.

Jongin just stumbled backwards and fell on his rear. “No. This—this can’t be. You can’t be D.Man!”

“Jongin!” He coughed. “We’ll figure this out later, right now we need to focus on Baekhyun. He needs us.” Kyungsoo was firm, and his eyes were filled with a determination that Jongin had never seen before.

It took Jongin a moment, but eventually he stood up and went over to Kyungsoo to help him up.

“Then what do we do?” He asked quite at loss of what to do for once.

“…I think I know a way in.”

☁

“What took you so long?” The Lay’s vile voice rang in the roundabout room.

He had been sitting with his legs crossed across from Baekhyun, who had been lifelessly laying on the ground, soaked, ears bleeding and nose bleeding and eyes closed. He had a splitting migraine and he just wanted it to end.

“Any longer and I don’t think poor Baekhyun’s head would have lasted..” He whined out with a jutted bottom lip. Though it was clear as day that this man held no sentiment for Baekhyun.

Baekhyun in any normal situation would cringe, but his body was too weak to do anything much from the last half hour of torture. At first, Baekhyun couldn’t see what was going on behind him, but eventually clouds of black smoke started to roll their way forward. The rotunda and everything inside began to be engulfed in the black, as it passed through his legs and trickled over his body he couldn’t help but notice how familiar it looked.

Once his entire body was covered in the substance and his vision was blinded he felt someone kneel beside him and place something in his ears. The hands were warm as they did so, unlike the cold and lifeless hands The Lay had been using on him. These hands were familiar, strong and kind. These were the hands he liked so much. Instantly, his spirits raised thinking about Kyungsoo, but who on earth was it that possessed hands so similarly to him?

“I wouldn’t try anything if I were you.” The Lay’s voice sounded from just in front of Baekhyun, the person tending to him hadn’t even flinched. “Poor Baekhyun here won’t be able to take much if I unleash my songs.” Suddenly, his voice began to hum a rippling tune. It was beautiful but melancholic all the same. The way it grew began to form a current of wind within the room, swirling and swirling the black smoke and sending it out down one of the hall corridors. There was a flaw, however, to The Lay’s power. He may have had the ability to control his voice to manipulate the world around him, but things would not listen properly unless he was faced exactly in the direction, he wanted it to go. So, as he turned back around, Baekhyun was missing from his spot on the floor. This time, on top of the waterfall stood Jongin, hands at his sides with palms up as the smoke began trickling out once again.

“That useless trick again!” The Lay snarled and let out a quick scream, the same as when he blew the turtle’s head off. Jongin jumped out of the way, backflipping to the ground safely. As he landed he shot his arm out and sent a blast of the white beam on his palm toward The Lay. Barely dodging it in time, The Lay scrapped his arm in the blast, a searing hot pain shot through his arm and refused to subside.

The Lay growled lowly, “Who said I could let you have Baekhyun? I wasn’t finished with him!”

Before he could take another step toward Jongin, overhead came a powerful gust of wind and a fist winding up. The Lay couldn’t move and simply stared as Kyungsoo came down on him with a fiery rage in his eyes.

The ground took on the shockwave when his fist met with it, shaking the building and obliterating the once beautifully modern waterfall fountain, and newly refurbished tiled floor. The walls cracked and debris of the floor lodged itself into it. No one should have survived such a blast, even if it was one of his weaker attacks.

Suddenly, a screech echoed about. The same kind of screech that made all the civilians’ ears bleed. Unfortunately, The Lay had dodged Kyungsoo’s attack just in time enough to start his new attack. He knew this would stop Kyungsoo and Jongin for a moment, so long as he didn’t use too much power to scramble their brains. But the black smoke kept pouring in, filling his vision despite having just been blown away with the shockwave punch. The Lay’s smile turned to a frown, especially when he noticed something moving in the shadows of the black smoke.

Kyungsoo appeared through the smoke with another gloved fist ready to smash again. The Lay was just barely able to dodge the attack by stepping out of the way. Kyungsoo’s arm glided past him almost like slow motion, as if his very life just flashed before his eyes. As Kyungsoo dove by he caught a glimpse of a blue light in his ears. That must have been how he was able to move through his latest banshee like scream. Jongin and Kyungsoo were wearing some sort of earplugs that stopped his attacks from reaching their ears!

But as that realization settled in it left him with little time to respond to Kyungsoo’s backlash kick. His leg twisted around punched him square in the chest with the underside of his boot. The power of the hit sent The Lay flying into the wall, he could feel a few bones break with the impact. The wall cracked with his outline, breaking all the sheet rock and plaster that once held it together.

The black smoke from Jongin rescinded just a bit, enough so that it wouldn’t mix with the smoke debris from the wall. Kyungsoo stood before the wall, waiting for The Lay to make some sort of response. The water from the fountain sprayed about, wetting him slightly in a light sprinkle from the broken pipes.

However, when the smoke of the wall cleared, there was nothing inside. The Lay had disappeared.

A scream shot across the room and Jongin and Kyungsoo both jumped up and out of the way before the sound wave could hit them.

The Lay was relentless, screaming every which way the two went, hoping to hit someone or something that would cause them to hurt. For example, one of the ceiling beams that was covered by plaster. The Lay smirked and began screaming short bursts all over the ceiling, hoping that the breaking objects above would fall on top of them. The smoke from the debris consumed a lot of their sight, so Kyungsoo missed when a chunk of ceiling fell on top of him, followed by one of the support beams. The rebar piping jutting out of some of the plaster thankfully stopped the beam from crushing Kyungsoo, but it didn’t stop the fact that it was outrageously heavy. He let out a yell of pain and frustration, now that he was stuck it would be forever before someone could get this near ton worth of weight off him.

“Kyungsoo!” Jongin yelled and quickly went back for him. “Are you okay?! Where is it crushing you?!”

“I’m fine, it’ll just be a bruise when I get out. Just forget about me! Go get Baekhyun!”

Jongin’s face contorted with a mix of guilt and regret, even if he tried using his exoskeleton suit’s power to lift the stuff off, it was near impossible. He left without another word and hoped that Kyungsoo would be able to wiggle his way out somehow.

Jongin jumped up and clicked his shoes together, kickstarting his ers and immediately went on, the ground was much too destroyed to be able to smoothly run across so he flew his way over to the hallway where they had stuffed Baekhyun. In one of the conference rooms Kyungsoo placed Baekhyun’s limp body down, but when Jongin arrived—only a trace of the damp rug where he used to be was left behind. The Lay was no where to be seen either, which could only mean one thing.

Jongin quickly ran back to Kyungsoo in hopes to free him quickly and to get an idea of where they might have gone. But his boosters were just a nick too slow because by the time he arrived, Kyungsoo’s body was already missing.

 

 

Unconscious in one of The Lay’s henchman’s arms, Kyungsoo was limp. Baekhyun was thrown over The Lay’s shoulder, bouncing up and down uncomfortably with each step they took, running down the halls to the main lobby. The Lay spoke a few words in the other language to his group of goons once they arrived at the front doors, outside past the barrier was where the cops, several superhero’s and military all lined up waiting to attack.

Baekhyun thought to himself that it really was a beautiful day. Too bad it had to be ruined by this and his lackeys.

The group of goons all left, but not before throwing Kyungsoo’s body on the ground. Baekhyun was spared no difference either. He winced and hissed at the pain of meeting the ground but he quickly crawled over to Kyungsoo and held him in his arms—Kyungsoo had freed him of his restraints when he hid him away in the conference room.

“Kyungsoo! Kyungsoo! Please wake up, oh god please wake up!” He whispered urgently, not giving a care for whatever The Lay was doing.

All The Lay had been doing though was fixing his appearance. Straightening his red suit, slicking his hair back and putting on another mask. When he finished, he walked over to Kyungsoo and knelt beside him, Baekhyun did everything in his weak power to scuttle backwards with the heavy body but it wasn’t enough. The Lay’s quite displeased face was too close for comfort as he knelt and ripped the mechanical ear plugs from his and Baekhyun’s ears.

He crushed them without hesitation in his hands, letting the parts crumble to the ground.

“Now let’s see just how strong you are without these little things.” The Lay smirked and stood back up, but not before grabbing the back of Kyungsoo’s collar and yanking him towards the front doors of the building.

“Wh-What are you doing—” Baekhyun scrambled to his feet on wobbly legs. “L-Let him go!”

The Lay did not listen and walked forward through the doors and pulled Kyungsoo onto the concrete ground. Just as he positioned himself with Kyungsoo’s limp body by his side, the force field began to dissipate.

“To all who have come, witness! As I mark the start of my revolution! To mark the end of superhero’s and villains a like!” His voice rang out for all those to hear within at least two blocks of the vicinity.

No one dared to move or fire upon him, afraid of what he might do or unleash on them all. “Watch! As I take one of your own and show an example of what a monster he truly is!”

Somewhere in the crowd of civilians down the way, a small child grew an idea in his head. A courage that bubbled within him to show this man wrong. “No! You’re the monster! Leave them alone!”

It wasn’t long before the crowd of people started to raise their voices and shout all the cruel things that had wanted to say towards him.

The Lay simply snickered at their childish behavior. He raised his arm with little restraint and held Kyungsoo’s limp body for all to see.

Baekhyun had just pushed the doors open of the building. A fear bubbled within his stomach that he wished would go away, but he knew that nothing would come of it unless he did something to save Kyungsoo.

“This man here! Is a fraud! A product of scientific ingenuity done here, in these very labs!” The Lay bellowed for all to hear. “The powers he possesses are not entirely of his own! The smiles he gives are scripted and have no genuine meaning for each person! The money the government pays him could equal the same amount that your very own Chairman Jung makes in a year! But he is not the only one. Ask any hero and they could tell you that they make good money. And any of them would do what they could to rise to the top to become the number one hero! All for riches, fame and glory. Superheroes are thieves! And I will not stop until I have purged this world of those who think themselves better than others. I will not stop until the world has been brought to a place where villains and heroes come together as one, equal! To the day we stand on equal ground!” The Lay’s face was red with excitement, the cogs twisting in his brain backwards with twisted desire. “Now watch! As I start my revolution. By taking the life of your precious D.Man!”

Gasps resounded all throughout the people, screams and cries of worry went left and right. Heroes and the chief a like all gritted their teeth, not knowing what to do. One wrong move and The Lay could set the whole place up in a blood bath.

But as The Lay gathered a breath of air, his body was smashed into and tumbled to the ground in a mess of frantic limbs. Kyungsoo had been dropped and rolled away, thankfully, but The Lay was furious.

He stood up to his feet with a wicked expression in his eyes, “You!”

“Me..” Baekhyun breathed as he struggled to stand properly.

“You insolent little!!” The Lay went to gather another breath of air to shoot at Baekhyun but was blinded by a cloud of smoke before he could do anything more. The black smoke filled every orifice on his face and both choked and paralyzed most of his senses.

“Mess with my two boys ever again. And I’ll make sure to break your back next time.” Jongin said lowly and made sure to not skimp on the hostility. Then, he let out a shot of his exoskeleton and watched as the laser sent The Lay’s body flying backwards into the crowd of heroes and police officers.

Before The Lay could even land, two of the heroes had already detained him. Baekhyun’s little stunt of pushing The Lay down was enough for them to make a move and to get involved finally.

Jongin rushed over to Baekhyun who was knelt beside Kyungsoo. He his head with ease.

Jongin spoke quickly, he only had so much time before he had to leave. “He’s okay. One of his henchmen poisoned him with sleep paralysis. I’m sure the SUM Research labs have something to help him.” He reached a hand out and cupped Kyungsoo’s cheek. “… This is a mess..” In his back pocket he fished out Kyungsoo’s head mask and put it on gently.

Baekhyun just silently sat there, Kyungsoo’s hair back.

“Did you know?” Jongin asked, even though he had a million other things he wanted to ask.

“I suspected you had powers. I just didn’t know you were Mortekai. I had no idea about Kyungsoo though.” His head lowered along with his voice. “What was that whole thing with him being a lab rat? What did they do to him?”

“I don’t know,” Jongin picked his head up and looked over in a panic at the group of heroes running over. “But I suppose you’ll find out when he wakes up.” He offered an apologetic smile. “I’m glad your safe Baekhyun. We’ll have to talk about what happened another time. Right now… I won’t be home for a long time. I need to figure out my heart. And I need to keep my distance from the two of you most importantly. But I will be back.” Jongin raised his legs, enough so that he was ready to jump away at any second. “I promise. I’ll be back.” He leaned over Kyungsoo’s body and wrapped a hand around Baekhyun’s head, leaning him in and pressing their lips together.

Without word, Baekhyun began to bawl his eyes out. Even as Jongin let go and leaned down to press his forehead against Kyungsoo’s he looked away and sobbed. Jongin stared at Kyungsoo for a solid moment before pecking his lips lightly. “I’ll be back.” He whispered and took off.

“After him!” One of the heroes shouted as they neared the stairs. One of the flying supers chased after him, but Baekhyun wasn’t worried for some reason.

Police officers, military and heroes alike all stormed the building. Baekhyun just sat there with Kyungsoo now in his arms, still crying silently. Literally so much had happened in the span of an hour and he had no idea of what to do with himself, except to cry. A few medical personnel made their way over and asked how he was doing and tried to do a short check on him, but they were directed elsewhere. The mayor and officials for some reason were more important.

“Baekhyun?” A small voice of a woman sounded from behind him, she sounded winded after climbing all the stairs.

He turned around with red eyes and recognized the woman immediately. It was his interviewer and internship head, the woman he had to report back to at the end of every week.

“M-Miss Jeon?” Baekhyun raised his brows at her.

She gave him an apologetic smile then looked to the lifeless being in his arms.

She sighed out, “I can’t believe you ended up in a mess like this… My people will take care of you from here. And I’m sure you have questions. So, let’s go get you dry huh?”

Baekhyun just nodded in compliance and she called her people over with a stretcher to carry Kyungsoo on.

A sense of relief somehow washed over him, and his legs gave out as they took Kyungsoo away. He nearly crumbled to the floor if it hadn’t been for Miss Jeon to hold him up.

She chuckled, “Looks like we need to get you to a doctor, too.”

☁

True to Miss Jeon’s word, Baekhyun really did have questions. And she answered just about all that she could while they sat in one of her labs underneath the building. This was a special lab made only for heroes and supers the like. The underground labs went for miles vertically and horizontally, each one being a different lab for a different subject. The one they were seated in was one of the healing wards. One specially designed for cases like Kyungsoo. Only one other person had been resting in a bath of bubbling salt water across the room while Kyungsoo was on a very comfortable bed resting after two hours of surgery to fix his stomach and ribcage.

Baekhyun had undergone just an hour of rehabilitation with the machines, he felt rejuvenated and ultimately more awake, but he could still feel the lingering strain on his lungs.

As they sat in rather comfy chairs beside Kyungsoo’s bed, both with cups of tea and Baekhyun wrapped in a special thermal blanket, they chatted away.

Miss Jeon was a special operative bioengineering doctor. She had a face front lab on the second level of the building to keep up appearances, but her real job was down here. Where she mended broken heroes and their body parts. Because of the nature of her job she had become close with Kyungsoo.

It was true, what The Lay said about Kyungsoo. He was a lab rat for a good portion of his childhood until he was thrown into the Hero Academy. He was orphaned at birth due to the nature of his powers and with his uncontrollable raw power, it smashed his mother’s insides during birth and the doctors were unable to stop the bleeding. Because Kyungsoo as an infant was so destructive, he was immediately handed over to the SUM Research. Where doctors raised him and simultaneously did tests. As he got older, they injected him with new serums and implanted different kinds of things to see what they could do to augment the human body. The end results turned him into the hero he is today. A human with a bone density of a heavy-duty bulldozer truck. Powers that were amplified ten times his birth strength; and various little things that all made him a little stronger and a little faster than the average super. He was born to be a hero basically, and that struck a nerve in Baekhyun’s heart. He pitied Kyungsoo.

Miss Jeon wasn’t one of those scientists who did those horrible things to him. No, she came much later in life. She was closer to their age, just a few years older, and started off as an intern like Baekhyun. She met Kyungsoo when he was seventeen years old, ever since they had grown quite close. So close that none of the other scientists that helped raise Kyungsoo got the same kind of familiarity. It made many people jealous, but Miss Jeon never flaunted their friendship. She genuinely cherished Kyungsoo and knew that no matter how scripted or hero like he was, he genuinely had a beautiful and good heart.

Had it not been for Kyungsoo to fill out the application for Baekhyun that night so long ago and leave a small message under the references section, he would never have gotten the job. It was an inside joke between the two of them, so when she asked him about it the next day Kyungsoo told her everything. She knew then, though, that she would take Baekhyun despite all the interviews and all the screening they had to go through. She trusted Kyungsoo’s judgment wholeheartedly. Baekhyun smiled to himself at that information, his cheeks growing rosy with the thought of Kyungsoo doing that for him.

Miss Jeon then proceeded to tell him about The Lay and how he had been terrorizing Kyungsoo’s work lately. Hero’s responded based on closeness and rank, and for some reason The Lay was taking the brunt of Kyungsoo’s hero work. They were constantly fighting.

One day it was so bad that while he was in the middle of a fight with Mortekai, The Lay appeared out of nowhere and everything went south after that. He demolished Mortekai’s people and took over the fight with Kyungsoo. Leaving him with a nearly obliterated abdomen; Miss Jeon’s people, though, were able to get him fixed up in no time and send him back on his way.

Baekhyun thought back to the evening he came home to Jongin storming into the apartment after he met The Lay. Then Kyungsoo coming home later with a hand on his stomach.

Baekhyun’s face grew grim at the thought, The Lay had planned everything that day. He purposefully ed with their fight and rubbed it in all their faces that he had the upper hand without letting anyone know. He could have taken them all out within a flash of his voice, yet he chose today to make his final blow. Baekhyun kept that information to himself though.

That was all Miss Jeon could offer Baekhyun for his questions. He dared not ask about Jongin though, it seemed that she had no idea who he was yet. And he didn’t want to risk if Kyungsoo would ever tell her or not in the future. But as their conversation came to an end, Kyungsoo started to stir with life. Miss Jeon got up to get a few medicines and left the two alone.

Baekhyun got up from his seat and sat on the edge of the bed, holding tenderly onto his hand.

Kyungsoo’s eyes fluttered open slowly and a smile grew on his lips once he recognized who was at his side.

“Baekhyun. You’re okay.” He tightened his grip around Baekhyun’s delicate hands.

“I’m fine.” He offered a smile, but it held a level of melancholy that Kyungsoo couldn’t quite understand just yet. “How are you feeling?”

“Oh, I’m doing just fine.” He went to sit up but quickly winced.

“Uh-huh. That’s a normal ‘I’m fine’ response.” He gently pushed Kyungsoo’s chest back down into the pillows.

Kyungsoo just chuckled and then gave a survey of the room.

“So. Somin took you under huh?”

Baekhyun nodded as he let a finger the back of Kyungsoo’s hand.

“Did she tell you anything?” His voice got softer, like he didn’t want to know the answer.

“Everything.” Baekhyun nodded again. “How did you find me?”

“There’s secret entrances all over this place. I have a special entrance that leads me to this room. So I took Jongin with me and we took some of Somin’s prototype earplugs to help fend against The Lay’s voice. But I mean, just how much use was I since I became indisposed.”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes, “Oh cut it out. You’re fine now. Thank you. For coming when you did. I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t come.”

“Anything, to keep you safe.” Kyungsoo stared Baekhyun straight in the eyes with an unwavering look in his eyes. Kyungsoo then sighed. “You know, I was originally supposed to spend the rest of my life here. Living in their dorms and only going out when called upon. But I forced them to let me go to the academy. I forced them to let me live like a normal human and go to college. If it weren’t for Somin’s influence, I probably would still be here. Never knowing anything but these walls. And with the recent attacks from The Lay, they’ll probably want to lock me up in here again. I’ve been coming way too often for healing. There’s only so much my body can handle before it completely breaks. Not even I know those limits.”

“I don’t think living outside has anything to do with it. The Lay would have attacked you either way and you’d still be in here just as much as you have already. They can’t take your freedom away just like that.”

“You’re right.” Miss Jeon’s voice suddenly appeared from behind Baekhyun. “They shouldn’t have that kind of power, yet here they are. There’s not much you or me can do.” She placed the tray in her hands on the side table down and handed him a cup of water and a small cup of a couple pills. “These are for the pain and the sleep paralysis poison. Bon appetite.”

Kyungsoo sighed and visibly cringed with having to take another bout of medicine. He had taken too much in his life and he was sick of it.

“That’s not right. He’s a human before he’s a hero.” Baekhyun said firmly.

“And you’re absolutely right about that. He’s his own person who officially has no legal obligation to stay with us. But without us, he’d never recover from a battle that leaves him half dead.

“Then why don’t you just give up being a hero?” Baekhyun whipped his head to Kyungsoo, for all he knew Kyungsoo was forced into this business and didn’t actually want to be a hero.

“Because I do enjoy it… I do enjoy saving people. I do enjoy the thrill of having the power leap so far it feels like I’m flying. I don’t do it for the money, in fact, the majority of the money I earn I give to charities because I really don’t need so much of it. And the power I have… To save the ones I love… I want it.” Kyungsoo said absentmindedly.

“Yeah, and lately he’s had more motivation to come for his monthly checkups and even ask for new updates. He’s been like this for a couple moths now and I suspect you have something to do with it.”

“Me?” Baekhyun asked bewildered. His eyes were wide and cheeks red. He looked to Kyungsoo for the answer but Kyungsoo’s head was turned to the side and both the entirety of his cheeks and ears were colored red. “B-But why.. Me?”

“Because he has something to fight for now. Before he was more of a machine, doing his programmed duty. But show him kindness, and love, and his loyalty will break all rules. Like fly three times over the allowed speed and infiltrate without clearance from the Citadel!” She raised her voice and immediately went to scolding Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo just shut an eye and shrugged his shoulders, it was only a matter of time before he’d get an earful of her.

The Citadel was the base of all hero operations, where they sent out orders, took distress calls, and regulated all the rules and laws of heroes. They were the most important organization if anyone wanted to be a legitimate hero.

“Technically, I can’t fly. I just jump really at really high altitudes.” Kyungsoo muttered, but Jeon Somin raised a fist and bonked him on his head.

“Yeah and now you’ll probably have your hero license suspended for a few weeks. Have fun with that.” She smiled something nasty, but it wasn’t anything malicious.

“Good, now I can just relax and finally heal for a little while.”

Miss Jeon just sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “What am I going to do with you.”

Baekhyun smiled at the antics between the two, it genuinely warmed his heart to see Kyungsoo act like such a child in front of her. Like he was actually acting his age and not a forty-year-old man.

“Anyways, Baekhyun. You and Kyungsoo will stay here for the next two weeks or so. The Lay has been detained but a couple of his men got away. Since the real target of this operation was you and this guy here, we’re going to put you under Civil Protection. Your apartment, your school and your family’s house will all be under careful watch. The fact that The Lay was able to get so much information on you is of our highest priority. You’ll be on a leave of absence from school, but don’t worry, you can still work your internship with me.” She smiled a sweet smile for him. “People from the Citadel will be here sometime within he week to sit you down and decide whether they want you to know Kyungsoo’s identity or not. I would say you have nothing to worry about, but I can’t. These people are severe, they could erase your memory in seconds or kill you on the spot. I’ll do what I can to keep them away, but they have reason to believe that you know D.Man’s true identity. But I really will do all that I can to keep them away. I just can’t guarantee anything.”

“That’s okay, thank you Miss Jeon. I really appreciate it.” Baekhyun smiled despite his face having gone pale at the mention of the Citadel. They did not seem like friendly people.

“Of course.” She gave an apologetic smile. “On that note, I’ll leave you two alone. Try and get some rest. Okay, Soo?” She said as she turned around and began to walk away, her lab coat gently flowing in the wind that passed by as she walked.

Kyungsoo sighed and let his head fall back into his pillows. “I’m sorry Baekhyun. I got you in this mess.”

Baekhyun just shrugged, “It’s okay.”

Kyungsoo raised his head to give Baekhyun an incredulous look.

“I mean, as long as the Citadel doesn’t kill me or erase my memory it’s okay. I’m sure it won’t be long before everything will… Mostly go back to normal.”

The two let the silence grow over them, Baekhyun had nothing he wanted to say though there were a million things going through his head.

“How’s Jongin?” Kyungsoo finally asked.

Baekhyun froze at the name, he had hoped to avoid him for a least a little while longer.

“Uh.. Well, he wasn’t injured if that’s what you mean.”

Kyungsoo nodded and rested his head back against his pillow as he stared off.

“Did.. You know? Like did the both of you know each other as…?”

Kyungsoo shook his head, “I had no idea. His mask fell off while we were fighting and I just had to show him who I was or we never would have found you.”

Baekhyun snorted to himself, “..Heh.. I guess all those late nights weren’t him going to a bar like we thought. But rather, he’s a multimillionaire notorious villain… But why did he live us?” He said more for himself really.

“Probably to do the same thing I do. I live there to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. From all the panic and treachery. It gives us a low profile and something to look forward to at night.”

“Um..” Baekhyun figured this was the best time to bring it up. “He said he was leaving.. For a little while. He said he needed to give us some space a little while before things calmed down.” He brought a hand to his lips as he remembered the kiss. “And that he needed to figure out his heart.”

Kyungsoo sighed again, this time with more longing to it. “It’s for the best. So that he doesn’t get caught in this.”

“Y-You’re not mad at him?”

Kyungsoo shook his head. “No. I don’t think I ever truly hated him as Mortekai though. We may have been archnemesis’ but he just did bad things that I happened to stop. I never really specifically hated him for any reason. He got me angry plenty of times sure, but… I never hated him as Mortekai. I don’t truly hate any villain. I’m mostly indifferent. I’m kind of like a custodian, who just picks up after the mess they make. Sometimes I get annoyed more so than others depending on how big the mess is.. Today, though. Today I was angry. Today I was angry enough to play with the idea that I hated The Lay. After what he did to you… I just…” He gathered his hands into fists and shook with anger.

“But I’m fine, aren’t I? And everyone’s fine. It’s over now and there’s nothing to be so upset over!” Baekhyun quickly grabbed his hand and calmed him down with panicked coos. The monitors he was hooked up to beeped rather furiously with his anger and Baekhyun worried a bit about that.

“Y-You’re right.. I.. I’m sorry.” He hung his head in shame.

Baekhyun chuckled and lifted his chin. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. You can feel things, you just have to control them and not go out of hand okay? Plus, you need to rest.”

“You know…” Kyungsoo started as he let his eyes stare deeply into Baekhyun’s warm chocolate eyes. The glow of the fluorescent lights let them light up beautifully.

Baekhyun stretched his hand out over his cheek and into his hair, a gentle smile was on his face as he scooted closer.

“I was kind of relieved when I saw that Mortekai was Jongin. I knew you’d be safe. And I know he’ll be the one enemy I have that will never hurt you.” Kyungsoo smiled sweetly and raised a hand to rest on Baekhyun’s. He pulled the delicate hand forward and left a kiss on his palm. Oh how Baekhyun’s cheek’s flared.

“Y-You still think you’ll be enemy’s after this?” He asked as he pulled his hand back.

“I don’t know… I know he hated D.Man. He loathed everything about me. But we were sweet as just Kyungsoo and Jongin… I hope.. I hope…” Kyungsoo’s head went down, a sadness balled in his chest and dared to come out form his throat.

Baekhyun frowned and quickly embraced Kyungsoo in a tight hug.

“I hope that how we were as Jongin and Kyungsoo is enough for him to want to stay.” He whispered into Baekhyun’s neck, hugging him so tightly against him for that much needed comfort. He let out in another shaky breath, “Why can’t I have the both of you?”

Baekhyun without even thinking just responded, “You can.” In the same low whisper. “You can have both of us.” He let that slide off his tongue. “Well.. I can’t speak for Jongin, but you can have me.”

Kyungsoo pulled away with wide and focused eyes, did he hear that correctly?

“What?” He let out breathlessly.

“You heard me.”

“B-But I thought you liked Jongin..” He said breathlessly again.

“I do. But I like both of you,” Baekhyun coughed to hide the redness in his cheeks. “A whole lot, too.”

“You like… Both of us? That’s… Allowed?”

Baekhyun scrunched his nose for a second then broke out into a mellifluous laughter. “Honey, you can like whoever the you want to like. No one’s in charge of your feelings except you.”

A smile twitched at the corners of Kyungsoo’s lips, he dove back into Baekhyun for a hug around his neck and kissed him with all the joy he had in his heart. It made Baekhyun tumble back on the bed as Kyungsoo kissed him all over his cheeks and eyes and neck. They were kisses filled with nothing but mirth and happiness and Baekhyun could do nothing but laugh and kiss back.

“You’ve never been in a relationship before, have you?” Baekhyun asked once he calmed down a bit.

“Never!” Kyungsoo beamed that infectious smile.

Baekhyun could only smile back. “Well, I’ve never been in a relationship with a super. So let’s see how this goes.”

☁

It was a month later when Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were finally allowed to leave the SUM Research facility. And in that timeframe that D.Man was hidden from the world, they found out that all the words The Lay spoke did not effect the people. They didn’t care if D.Man was augmented to be a better superhero, so long as he was kind and saved them they would support him. In fact, most people didn’t even believe The Lay’s words—they figured he was spewing nonsense to get the crowds to hate D.Man.

Their leave of absence with UMod had all been taken care of by the facility. It was unfortunate, but they were condemned to having to take another semester worth of classes before graduation.

The Citadel did indeed find them. However, Baekhyun was lucky enough to escape from their clutches unscathed. They deemed him worthy enough to know Kyungsoo’s identity and allowed them to keep living together as roommates.

It was unfortunate though, the two had to be relocated to a new apartment. Jongin still hadn’t shown up, so they made sure to pack all his things (mostly gadgets that were half finished and smelly clothes that hadn’t been washed in who knows how long). And looked for an apartment with three rooms. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were together but they figured they would share the same rooming situation as before. This wasn’t the first time Kyungsoo had to relocate, but it was Baekhyun’s and he was bittersweet about leaving their old apartment. He left a note with the landlord addressed to Jongin if he ever came looking for them. He only hoped that it would be sooner rather than later.

But to his dismay, another month went by and there was still no sign of Jongin. Even as Kyungsoo’s license as a superhero had its suspension lifted for violating a few laws, he hadn’t seen Jongin anywhere in the streets. He had gone quiet. To most supers and those in the Citadel that was a worrying factor, but Kyungsoo and Baekhyun were aware that he just needed more time.

In fact, it was the two and half month mark when Jongin finally turned up.

Sitting in his old spot on the couch one morning, Baekhyun lazily woke up to grab a drink of water before he had to wake up for his internship. He hated that he had to wake up two hours before he had to arrive now, where when he lived at the research facility, he could just roll out of bed ten minutes before hand and meet everyone there.

“Morning,” he said lazily and with swollen eyes. He and Kyungsoo had had a few drinks the night before so he was feeling kinda bloated.

“Mornin’.” The person sitting on the couch responded. It was at least five in the morning, so the sun was barely shining through the kitchen window yet.

He poured himself a glass and gave no second thought to the person sitting on the couch. Not even when they stood up and leaned up against the kitchen doorway did he think twice.

As he turned to leave the kitchen he stopped short to have it be blocked off. He rubbed his eyes for a second and furrowed his brows, “Kyungsoo? What’s up?”

“So you and Twinkle Toes are on ‘walking around the house shirtless’ terms?”

Baekhyun froze once the realization of who the voice belonged to settled in. He’d nearly dropped his cup it weren’t for the fact he slammed on the counter and launched himself at Jongin. He jumped up and wrapped his legs and arms around him, perfectly koalaing him despite being a grown man on another. Jongin held his stance firmly and hugged him, he buried his face into Baekhyun’s neck and took a deep breath of that smell he so missed.

“What are you doing here?!” Baekhyun nearly exclaimed and held Jongin’s face with both his hands, getting a good look over his face.

“I thought it was time I came back, Princess.” He smiled a toothy smile. Baekhyun couldn’t even be mad. “Things have long since settled down, and I… Think I’ve figured out my heart.. But it’s easier said than done.”

Baekhyun slid down Jongin’s torso, his bare feet pattering on the linoleum ground. “But.. Kyungsoo.. He’s..”

“He’ll be awake in an hour and I hope that… He’ll want to see me.”

“Oh trust me, he—” Before Baekhyun could finish his sentence Jongin leaned in and kissed his lips. He wrapped a hand around his waist and pulled him close while his other hand rested on his cheek.

Baekhyun pulled away baffled by the sudden intrusion and his cheeks flared up. He’d been waiting to do that for a while, but unspoken words needed to be said long before they could do anything. Baekhyun in a panic looked behind Jongin and to his dismay, found a sleepy and shirtless Kyungsoo staring wide eyed.

“Wait, Kyungsoo… I-It’s not what you think—”

Jongin turned around quickly, his expression grim but stance firm as he held Baekhyun behind. Kyungsoo simply marched across the living room from his new bedroom with an angry expression on his face. His stomps were filled with power, nearly shaking the damn apartment to pieces as he neared. But before Jongin could so much as get in another word, Kyungsoo pulled Jongin’s collar down and pressed their lips together. Jongin released his grip on Baekhyun and held Kyungsoo’s face in his own hands, kissing him back with all the pent-up frustrations he had for the last couple of months. They both cried at some point during their kiss, Baekhyun could only smile as he watched them. He knew better than anyone that they needed to have a very, very long talk.

And that talk lasted all day. Baekhyun had left and returned from his internship eight hours later and they were still locked in Kyungsoo’s room. It wasn’t until another hour had gone by when Kyungsoo came out of the room, still in his pajamas.

“Is.. Everything okay?” Baekhyun rushed to his side from the couch.

Kyungsoo smiled sweetly for him and nodded. “Yeah, we’ve been talking all day. We.. mostly figured out what we needed. But we took a nap while we started waiting for you. He’s still asleep so I thought I’d take a shower and be decent for once today.”

“You guys didn’t… You know..” Baekhyun made a gesture with his hands as if pushing something along. Kyungsoo wasn’t quite grasping the concept. “Did you guys… You know.. Sleep, with each other?”

Kyungsoo just blinked. “Of course we did, I just woke up.”

Baekhyun facepalmed. “Never mind. Why were you guys waiting for me? You could have texted me or something.”

“Well..” Kyungsoo took Baekhyun’s hand and led him to a seat in the living room. He turned the news off and focused all his attention on Baekhyun. “We talked for a long time about things. And we talked about us.” He pointed between the two of them. “We talked about the feelings we had for one another for a while too. And I told him how we’ve talked about our feelings for him, too.” Baekhyun remembered that day that the two of them talked about their feelings for Jongin more in depth. They cried a lot. “Well.. Uh.. Well, uh..” Kyungsoo scratched the back of his head. “Uh, I don’t really know how to word this—”

“What he means is, do you have room for one more?” Jongin’s voice suddenly rang from behind them. He was leaned up against Kyungsoo’s doorframe with his arms crossed on his chest.

Baekhyun just stared at his sleepy face. He looked as if he had lost weight, and his hair was a much darker shade now. The blonde was completely gone.

Baekhyun stood and kept a firm grasp on Kyungsoo’s hand.

“Well. You’re not gonna disappear on us again are you?”

“I don’t plan on it.” He shook his head.

“I know that you had too, more or less, but I’d like to not spend nights lying awake and wondering where you are and if you’re okay.”

Jongin sauntered over, his expression was unreadable. He placed his hands on either of Baekhyun’s shoulders and said, “I’m sorry. For putting you through that. The both of you.” He looked at Kyungsoo. “But I’d like to stay with you two. And I’d like to be more than just roommates.”

Baekhyun knew he wasn’t going to be able to resist him. So, he looked over at Kyungsoo and said, “and you’re okay with this?”

Kyungsoo nodded, the look in his eyes was never more sure.

“Alright, I’m fine with it. But if I find out that you’ve been killing people, so help me.”

Jongin laughed wholeheartedly. “I don’t just kill people senselessly Baekhyun. I do what I do because I hate liars and those who kill mindlessly. I hate villains just as much as I hate heroes. But I’m under no notion to reform the world under this no heroes and no villains thing. I have standards too. I just like to steal and beat him up a little.” He pointed at Kyungsoo, to whom he opened his reach too and placed a hand on his shoulder. “And I’ve promised to not do bad things when he’s around. And I won’t be pick fights with you anymore either. For the sake of appearances for the public, we should schedule some battles. People might be suspicious as to why we suddenly stopped fighting after I was seen flying away form you two from SUM Research.”

Kyungsoo nodded in agreement, honestly, he would go along with anything so long as it meant Jongin was back.

Jongin leaned in and the three of them put their heads together. “Be prepared boys, for the wildest time of your life.”

“I’m pretty sure the half hour I was with The Lay was the wildest time of my life. I’ll pass.” Baekhyun chortled.

The two others just laughed as they reached their arms around and held each other securely.

“Be prepared for a lot of talking and communicating.” Kyungsoo said once his laughter calmed down.

Baekhyun and Jongin both nodded with wide smiles. Then Kyungsoo and Jongin turned to Baekhyun, waiting for him to add his own portion.

“Uh.. Be prepared to move around a lot because dating a superhero and a supervillain can only lead to strenuous situations.”

Jongin guffawed and Kyungsoo laughed harder than he had ever before.

“And that you are so right.” Jongin leaned in and kissed Baekhyun’s cheek.

“Then why don’t we make dinner and lay down a few ground rules about protection and how this is gonna work between us?” Kyungsoo asked after he also kissed Baekhyun on the cheek.

“Sounds wonderful,” Jongin said with a mischievous smile. Then all of the sudden, Kyungsoo’s pajama shirt when flying up in the back and covered his head. He had used his smoke for the attack.

Jongin patted both their butts before running off to the bathroom to take a shower with an evil sort of laughter.

Kyungsoo stomped his foot and yanked his shirt back to normal.

Baekhyun just laughed at them and thought, yeah.. everything’s gonna be fine with these two. Weird. But fine.

And a wide smile spread his lips with that thought.

 

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a/n: The Lay is Yixing!!! A lay is techinically a song so using his voice as a power was the inspiration!

ending is weird and abrupt i know, but it was the best i could do at the time

i don't hate this as much as usual, but i'm not overly fond of it either.

i wasn't even sure i wanted this to be a romance until a week before i posted it lmao, all the writing for this came in the last hull lol

anyways please tell me what you think, i'd love to see your feed back!