If there was one thing Yesung was proud of, it was his ability to plan, to prevent things from going out of his control. After all, his job was basically only that, things that could go out of your control as easily as peeling an apple is. 

 

Being a Super Villain (in uppercases, it’s crucial) of his caliber wasn’t easy, you see. 

 

So many things could go wrong, even when he planned everything perfectly. Take, for example, his last villainous action; his goal had been to freeze the entire Han River running through Seoul; for that, he made sure to rest quietly for at least two weeks; he would need a massive amount of his ice powers to freeze something as huge as a river, so he made sure to take care of himself, let the city thinks he was dormant, making them dread for his next Evil (also in uppercase) action after all fear was also a huge part of his job. The following preparation he made was to find a good time and date for this; after all, freezing a river was relatively, well, easy to see, so he needed to start in a quiet place, one that would be hard to find once they knew what he was doing. He also needed to do it when most people wouldn’t be around. 

 

So, all in all, his plan was perfect. He was rested enough (his skin was glowing; it was amazing what good sleep would do to one man). He found the perfect location where no one ever went to while trying to get fresh air near the river, and at a time no one should be awake (well, except him, of course, being a Super Villain meant your sleep schedule was a mess) 

 

And yet, his perfect plan had been undone in a few seconds. 

 

He swore he wasn’t always so unlucky, but how should he have known the police would be here this day because they suspected a murder victim of being buried here??? His powers were Ice, not reading the future!!! 

 

Anyway, here is the lesson in this: A promising Villain didn’t only prepare a good plan to spread Evil in the world but also was a master at creating the most essential plan of them all: 

 

Escape Plans. (also, in uppercase, that’s how important they were.) 

 

Because the police could be annoying, but they weren’t as annoying as what they could call to help them against Super-Villains: the ban of his existence, the reason why most (but not all!!!) of his plans failed, Super Heroes. 

 

So Yesung created a perfect escape plan for this one in particular, one that made sure that, if anything went wrong, he would escape safe and sound (he already went to prison, it , really): running.

 

Yeah, it wasn’t his most impressive plan, but running usually worked if you had superpowers and were against people who didn’t. Well, in his case, his superpowers weren’t very useful, considering following a trail of ice would be easy, but hey, it was great as a distraction.

 

So yes, this plan had failed, but his point still stands: Yesung, the best (and only, really) Villain of Seoul, WAS prepared for everything. He took great pride in that; his worried and anxious mind would not let him do any other way. He sure had great powers, ice that could freeze everything, but he also had a great mind. Sure, his brain wasn’t as good as some of the Supers who had powers, turning them into geniuses, but it still was great! He even invented the “Canine Commando Contraception” (C3 for short) for his dogs to help him during their misfit adventures! A great machine capable of shooting ice balls, just with the power of a bark, wasn’t he great? He found a way to include his babies with him! (now, if he could control them a bit better so that they could bark at their enemies and not at him while they were using it, it would be great) 

 

Well, he’s digressing, but overall, there was one thing to remember.

 

Yesung prepared himself for everything, even the craziest ones, even the ones that had a 0,000000000000000000001% chance of happening, the ones that just were too stupid to happen. He considered everything, and that’s how he survived as a Villain until now. 

 

So it says a lot that the situation he found himself in right now, was something he didn’t prepare for. 

 

The “situation” whined in pain in his sleep, and Yesung's attention instantly returned to it. 

 

He already did everything he could with what he had, which was a lot considering he was a Villain, but he still wasn’t a doctor. Even though his skill in tending might have been more significant than others, he wasn’t sure if it was enough for the state of his “situation” inside his Villain’s Lair.

 

He looked once again at the “situation” and sighed.

 

Why was he doing this?

 

See, a few minutes ago, he was still relaxing in his hide-out, playing with his dogs, reading the last results of the NBA league, ready to prepare his next Evil plan in peace, far away, but not too far, from Seoul, hiding in the middle of the mountain, if you took the right turn and looked at the right tree, then, under a lot of leaves you would find a trap door. This door would lead you to his lair, his home, his land of peace and quiet where no one dared to bother him cause no one was, at least until now, supposed to know where it was. 

 

So yes, he was peacefully minding his Villain’s business until he heard a massive knock on the trap door, which made him jump out of his sofa, and his two little dogs started barking at the sound. 

 

It wasn’t his proudest moment, but he started to panic. 

 

He wasn’t prepared at all for a visit! To be discovered! He wasn’t in his costume of Yesung, Ice Prince of Doom That Will Lead You with His Voice To The Coldest Place (yes, it was his entire Villain’s name). Right now, he was just Kim Jongwoon, a Korean male, in his red boxers and no shirt, with the rest of a cup of noodles near the sofa. This place had known glorious days. 

 

So he panicked, started to yell random Villain’s catchphrases he wasn’t sure made any sense, and put on his spandex icy blue costume and created a mask of ice covering his entire face, his signature look. He took a deep breath and pushed a button to open the trap door after putting his dogs in a safer space. (Of course,) 

 

He expected a lot, but what he didn’t expect was for a lump of a man dressed in a costume he would recognize anywhere to fall on his ground, covered in cuts, panting harshly on his floor, then, the man looked at him. And, even though an eye mask covered it, he would recognize this face anywhere. 

 

The man he fought the most against since he started his career as a Super Villain, the man Seoul screamed in joy whenever he appeared to defeat him, the man whose smirk could make people faint as much as it annoyed him, the man who could rile him up while he was monologuing like a good Villain, the man with a white costume that wasn’t spandex but cotton because, and he quoted “it was more comfortable,” the man who could control the four elements as if he was the Avatar himself, his natural enemy, his foe, his opponent, his rival.

 

His Nemesis. The man he hated the most on Earth,

 

Tetrarch, the master of the four elements.

 

It was a bit pedant if you asked Yesung, but nobody ever asked him. 

 

He was a bit dumbfounded at first by a non-Super Heroe-like entrance, and he hadn’t had the time to recover from the shock that Tetrarch (seriously, it ) started speaking with apparent difficulty:

 

“You…were the only one I could think of…” 

 

And then he fainted.

 

So.

 

What was Yesung supposed to do, let him die on his floor? When he just installed a new beautiful wood parquet floor recently? Hell no. Do you know how hard it was to get the material up here? 

 

So he saved him.

 

Well, Yesung guessed he had saved him?

 

Yesung looked at the man on his sofa worryingly, not that he’d admit it, but he looked terrible; cleaning his wounds was more complex than he thought; they weren’t deep, quite shallow in fact, but there were many. But what worried him more was his fever; when the Super Hero arrived, he just looked tired, as if he ran too hard for too long, but Yesung fought many times against him; he knew tiring him wasn’t easy. 

 

He hesitantly touched the Super Hero's still-masked face with one of his fingers; seeing him in this state made him bitter.

 

Yesung never put the Hero in this state, no matter how hard he tried. 

 

It made him remember the first time he ever landed a wound on Tetrarch years ago.

 

…

 

They had been fighting for a long time, and Yesung could feel his power decrease every minute that passed. And yet, the smirking man flying in the air didn’t look bothered; Yesung sometimes wondered if he was just good at faking it or if life was that unfair. 

 

“Yesung, why not give up and follow me? Prison is cozy during summer, don’t you want to catch up with your fellow criminal?”. 

 

Yesung scoffed at that, and the flying man's smirk widened; he knew he wasn’t friends with his fellow criminals; at least, he couldn’t find camaraderie in people who didn’t share powers like him and were not Super-Villains. 

 

But the hero had a point: if this continued, he would end up in prison (again), and escaping was a pain, even more so; keeping a secret identity inside those walls was also pretty annoying. So he needed to escape quickly, but the thing was, he wasn’t sure how.

 

The thing with Tetrarch powers is that it’s a cheat code. You might think you can, even with difficulty, escape things made out of water, fire, air, or earth is possible. Still, then, you’ll realize that everything can be controlled once you have mastered all of the elements enough, and now you’ll realize how ed you are if you ever had to fight someone who controlled all of them and your meager power of ice might not be sufficient. Yesung realized that years ago, and yet, it didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try over and over and over. 

 

 Until the day he was the winner, he would never go down. Tetrarch was his Nemesis, his enemy. The one he will defeat, and when the day is here, he’ll instill fear in all of Seoul. Great thing his ice powers made him slow down his aging process cause he wasn’t sure if he would be able to do it in one human’s lifespan. So yes, he will never go down.

 

That doesn’t mean he was stupid enough not to make a strategic retreat when he needed to do it. 

 

Yesung thought. One advantage he had over Tetrarch was that controlling all the elements at once could quickly turn a battlefield into a mess. And today hadn’t been an exception to this rule; you could see lumps of earth rising into the sky while the land he was on was wet, both from his ice powers and the Hero water’s control. It was good for him; he had something to work with instead of controlling ice from thin air. It was manageable, but it was hard for him to make it appear in his tired state.  

 

Yesung fought against Tetrarch so many times he knew his attack patterns the best, so he knew he was tired of waiting for him to answer and would land an attack soon. He needed to act fast and in a way the hero would not expect. The downside of fighting someone for so long and knowing them by heart was that your opponent knew everything about you as well, so Yesung stopped thinking for once and acted.

 

He bent his arms to the ground fast, and before Tetrarch could think about it, he made an ice slide to go directly to him in the air; the hero's eyes widened for a split second, not expecting the villain to go this near to his face, and before he could react, Yesung created a small razor-sharped icicle and sent directly to his face. The hero almost had no time to react, just enough to throw his face away, but it wasn’t fast enough; the icicle still found his mark and scratched the hero’s face.

 

Yesungh’s heart started to beat up faster. Joy started to spread on his face. Finally, after years of nothing, he was able to touch him. To scratch him, to put his mark on him as the hero did to him so many times already. He remembered during this split-second all the times he had to tend to his wounds in his lair alone, remembering how the hero gave him this wound and this one. Yesung felt a satisfaction he had never felt before, knowing this time the hero would be put in his place; he hoped the wound would last a long time, long enough that for days, weeks, the hero would only think about him when he will need to tend to it. 

 

The hero was still in a shocked state, and slowly, he made his hand reach his wound as if he couldn't believe Yesung finally touched him. 

 

Good, that was the effect he wanted. 

Before the hero could return to his senses, Yesung created an ice mist from his ice slide, so thick you could barely see shadows from a few centimeters away, and fled, his heart still racing from what had just happened. 

 

Tetrarch never went after him.

 

…

 

Yesung touched the hero’s right cheek; he still remembered perfectly where he had landed his blow and where the wound had been; for weeks after, the hero wore a bandage there; even though Yesung was sure there was nothing under anymore, he still did. He still wasn’t sure why, but nothing could compare to his satisfaction every time he saw it. 

 

But this small wound was nothing against the state the hero was in, and finally, after he checked Tetrarch’s temperature and noticed it had gone down, rage filled him. 

 

Today, the hero almost had been entirely defeated, and it hadn’t been by his hands. 

 

Who dared to touch his prey, the one every Villain never approached cause they knew they’d have to fight him if they did? Seoul was under HIS jurisdiction, which had been the case for at least 60 years now! 

 

He decided not to think about how the hero knew where his hideout was and why did he think he was so safe here (Yesung probably thought he had gone mental ten years ago anyway; the man was old now, well, like him, but he still felt young compared to this oldie) and tried to know exactly why the hero was in this state in the first place. 

 

The man was powerful, he knew, after all, he had been fighting against him for nearly 60 years as well now, he knew everything about his attacks, his reactions, his fighting style, and how he would react depending on what was thrown at him, what was the situation and in what conditions they were in, in knew all of that and still didn’t win. 

 

It was hurting his ego as well. 

 

Yesung decided to leave the hero’s side for now. He couldn’t do much more except go to a hospital, but the fastest way would be to use his powers, and it left a foul taste in his mouth to make it look like he was the one who put the hero in this situation when he wasn’t and went on his computer, just a few steps away from the sofa. 

 

He tried to look up recent news about the Super Hero. Still, the only things he saw were him visiting children in the hospital just yesterday and publicly supporting a homeless shelter, meaning someone not only beat up the Hero but also did it in such a discreet way no one knew yet about it; it was maddening. His fights with him never were that quiet. 

It made him mad how the hero dared to almost lose to someone else except him; he glared at him with great annoyance. 

 

Well. If the internet couldn’t help him, he needed to do something else.

 

Some good old kidnapping. 

 

On that, he looked one last time at the Hero resting on his sofa, hesitated for a few seconds before putting another blanket on the shivering man, looked at his cute dogs still in their robot suits, pet them, asked them to take care of their home and kill anyone who tried to enter, and left his lair, creating a path of ice beneath his feet, and lured directly into the city. 

 

He hid his spandex costume under real layers of clothes and put a hood over his face before vanishing his ice mask and blending in the streets as an average Seoul citizen. He never really liked doing that; it made him feel uncomfortable as if he never really belonged here, but it’s not like he didn’t have human needs, and some of his actions needed to be more discreet than others, so he had to do it once in a while. However, today’s visit to the city wasn’t because he needed to buy anything or create a new scheme; it was more about visiting a friend. Well, not HIS friend, but Tetarch’s one.  

 

He looked around the familiar building and discreetly entered it by the secret passage he created years ago to “visit” this old friend; he still had no clue how it hadn’t been discovered yet, but it was more practical and less smelly than the sewers so he’ll take it. Then, he faced a family door after taking the lift. 

 

Appartement number 21, second floor.

 

He sighed, put an ice mask only covering his eyes, and knocked.

 

“Coming!”  a joyful voice answered through the door.

 

He heard the man he was visiting play with his lock until he heard a final click, signifying the door would finally open.

 

“Hey, you came sooner than expected, was-”

 

The man before him stopped speaking when he saw his face; his smile faded while a vague annoyance replaced his previous joyous expression. 

 

“Yesung.” He said after a minute or two, only staring at his face, as if he stared him down, he would disappear.

 

“Kim Ryeowook.”

 

Ryeowook sighed so hard when he finally said his name, as if he was carrying the entire world on his shoulders and couldn’t wait to give this task to someone else.

 

“Yesung,” he repeated, “what did we say about Friday night's kidnapping?” 

 

“....That we must avoid them if possible?”

 

“No, I didn’t say that,” he glared now, “what did I exactly say?”

 

Yesung hesitated.

 

“What. Did. I. Say?” 

 

“That Friday night wasn't for me, so it was prohibited.”

 

“Indeed, I did say that. Now, tell me what day it is?”

 

“...Friday.”

 

A pause.

 

“....Why are you still here then? Go away, come back tomorrow,” Ryeowook started to whine, “I told you before, I finally found a nice girl who didn’t care I was kidnapped so much, who is pretty and sweet, and I really want everything to work out with her, that’s why we agree on Fridays, cause at least I have a day in the week where I don’t have to bare with either your bull or Tetrarch one while you throw at each other terrible punchlines-”

 

“My punch lines aren’t bad!” He said, offended.

 

“I DON’T CARE.” Ryeowook ended up screaming, “Listen, come back tomorrow. We can do the same routine we do every time: you capture me, my best friend goes out of his way to save me while we eat cookies, watching Tetrach break every trap you made for him and laugh at his dumb face covered in glue or whatever, I go home, you go back to wherever you live, and we’re done. But that’s for tomorrow, not today; now, go away.”

 

Ryeowook looked so firm, and seeing how he looked at his watch and how well he was dressed, he clearly wanted him to go away before his new girlfriend came. He understood, he indeed did; the last time he kidnapped Ryeowook, he told him everything about this woman he finally found after so many years of failing to find someone who didn’t mind his weird life, but…

 

“Ryeowook.” He said a bit more seriously, “I’m not here to kidnap you today.” He hesitated again, looking at the empty hallway he found himself in, wondering, for how long will it still be empty? “.... Can I come in? It’s important.”

 

Ryeowook eyed him suspiciously but still with a hint of worry inside. He pursued his lips, looked again at his watch, and sighed, defeated.

 

“Come in.”

 

Yesung stepped inside Ryeowook's apartment awkwardly; he never really entered his house just to chat, and it felt weird to him to do so. He looked around, noticing for the first time the decoration and the types of furniture. What kind of life does Ryeowook live here.

 

Ryeowook laid his body against the door, crossed his arms around his chest, and looked at him sternly.

 

“What do you want?”

 

Yesung paused at that; this sentence reminded him of the past again, from ten years ago.

 

…

 

“What do you want?” A fearful voice asked him; a young Kim Ryeowook looked at him anxiously as he glid away with him to an abandoned building he had occupied a few weeks ago, carried like a -heavy- potato sack; this plan was perfect! 

 

First, create a maze of traps just for his Nemesis, one more dangerous than the other! He called it the “Maze of Perilous Predicaments.”  The Hero will suffer and struggle to go against all of the homemade traps he spent weeks creating! And if, by any chance, he finally got to the top of the building where he was, he’ll be so tired that Yesung will finally win against him! 

 

But he needed a reason to come for that, and here it was, on his shoulder! 

 

The New Best Friend!: 

 

Yesung smirked at the anxious man on his shoulder and said:

 

“Behold! Friend of my eternal foe! Fear for your life, and blame yourself for daring to associate yourself with such a man as this sick Tetrarch! Do not blame me, but blame him for all your current predicaments! I will-”

 

“So you kidnapped me to get back at K- I mean Tetrarch?” 

 

Yesung sighed.

 

“Youngsters have no respect for the theatrics nowadays,” he mumbled. “Yes. You’re here 'cause Tetrarch cares about you and will come to your rescue, happy?” 

 

Ryeowook looked skeptically at his pouting face; today’s mask was only an eye one, and said:

 

“You realize I only spoke to the man a few times, right? And only because I was a journalist.”  

 

Yesung sniggered at that; he would not be fooled!

 

“You know of his secret identity; do not lie to me, fiend!” He proclaimed.

 

“How do you know I know his identity???”’ He said, shocked. “And I know it only by accident! We are not at a point where we can call each other friends! Maybe in a few months after we-”

 

“Stop your whining, fool!” He interrupted, “It doesn’t matter how I know; I just know he’ll come for you.” He pursued his lips. “He always needs a reason to come.” 

 

Ryeowook eyes widened. 

 

“What are you imply-” 

 

“Silence now! We arrived.” He interrupted again, he didn’t like where this conversation was leading. 

 

They finally were at the top of the building.

 

Yesung smirked while putting Ryeowook on a chair. 

 

“Now we wait.”

 

Yesung never had to wait long.

 

He saw him coming from miles away. Excited, he finally his camera, his face appearing over all the screens circling the building.

 

“Behold Tetrarch! For I have captured none another than…” A pause built up anticipation. “ Kim Ryeowook!” He said dramatically as he turned around to show an awkward Ryeowook waving at the screen, “Look at his face full of fear! Don’t you want to save him, my dear Hero?” He smirked at the camera, looked at the retransmission, and looked down at Tetrarch. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see much from up here. 

 

But he could hear. Tetrarch used his powers to make his voice boom through the night wind, making it reach his ears even from downstairs

 

“Really, Frosty?” He scoffed; he hated this nickname “Kidnapping? That’s a new low even from you!” 

 

“Low?” He exclaimed, “I call that a strategic maneuver; it got your attention, didn’t it?” He smirked at the camera, ah, what would he give to see his foe’s face right now! He would need to install cameras for next time. 

 

‘You’re so predictable.” He couldn’t see but knew the hero was sighing, “What’s the game this time?” That made Yesung angrier.

 

“There is no game, my sweet Nemesis! This is a matter of life and death for your friend. Do you have no shame? You are playing with fire!”

 

“Well, sweetheart, death will not come for my friend when I am here, no? So tell me, what must I do to reach you?” A pause. “Also, if we must play with fire, let it consume us both, and we know who will come out victorious of our fire play.” 

 

Yesung tsked; he couldn’t lose!

 

“Fire might try to burn me, but ice will endure! I’m not afraid to dance with fire, I will win in the end!” 

 

“Oh my, dancing now? I didn’t take you for such a romantic soul, Frosty.” Yesung gritted his teeth; he was winning in the humiliating each other showdown! 

 

“Silence now, my Nemesis! Don’t you care about my hostage? You must rescue him before you can even try dancing with me!” He yelled before calming down, “but for that, you will need to go through my…” Another pause, “Maze of Perilous Predicaments! A building full of traps that will neutralize you this time; beware of the thousands-”

 

“Alright, be right back..” 

 

Yesung sighed. Tetrarch was a fantastic foe to oppose such the amazing Villain he was, but he lacked presentation sometimes. 

 

Yesung cut the camera showing his face and the ones inside the building, finally looking at his Nemesis, who wasn’t worried about his warning. 

 

Nothing new here as well, but could he at least try? 

 

“...What the did I just listen to.”  Yesung almost forgot his hostage.

“What do you mean?” He asked him, after all, until the Hero came here, died, or was neutralized, but even Yesung wasn’t optimistic enough to think it was a real possibility; they both were alone with nothing to do, so he might as well talk to him. 

 

“Just…” Ryeowook frowned, “do you hate each other?” Yesung scoffed at that. 

 

“Of course we do! We are mortal enemies; we have been fighting for fifty years now! You must be aware, aren’t you born in Seoul?” 

 

“I am! Just…” He hesitated, and he then sighed after looking at his face. “forget it. Also, why is Tetrarch going through your traps?” 

 

“...To rescue you?” 

 

“Couldn’t he just fly to the top of the building? It’s not like you protected it or anything.”  The regular citizen might have a point.

 

“Well, my opponent is an amazing  foe, but he also can be quite stupid after all.” He retorted. Ryeowook only hummed at that.

 

“The man I know isn’t that stupid though.” He whispered, looking at the screen, showing a Tetrarch covered in glue in deep annoyance; ah, Yesung knew this one would make him struggle; too bad it wasn't one of the mortal ones.

 

They both looked at the screen for a while until Ryeowook sighed again. 

 

“I’m bored.” 

 

“...Cookies?”  Ryeowook glanced at him in disbelief, and then, as if he was resigning himself, he nodded.

 

Yesung fled again that day, but a new routine of kidnapping an innocent citizen had been added to his Super Villain’s one. 

 

…

 

“Yesung? Yesung? I asked you a question.” Ryeowook’s firm voice made him snap out of his reverie. 

 

He looked once again at Ryeowook. 

 

He changed so much in those last ten years; long was gone the naive young kid he once kidnapped on an impulse, and now stood a man who understood the world a bit more than yesterday. It made him smile a little bit.

“Just…Is there any other Villain in town I might not be aware of…?” Ryeowook looked at him and then raised an eyebrow.

 

“...You came here just to ask me that? How would I know.” 

 

“Well, you’re a journalist! You always know when things are coming down with Tetrarch, so it’s not-”

 

“I know those things 'cause he tells me!” He half-yelled, half-sighed.

 

“So… Did he tell you anything?”

 

Ryeowook eyes got sharper; he was no fool, and the way Yesung was fidgeting wasn’t normal. 

 

“What is this really about Yesung?” Yesung sighed.

 

“I….well, I found Tetrarch in a bad state.” That got Ryeowook’s intention.

 

“What? Where???”

 

“...Somewhere, out there?” 

 

A pause. 

 

“So you found him how?” Ryeowook asked slowly.

 

“Well, I was walking my dogs and found him.”

 

“...In a bad state.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Another pause.

 

“Alright, so you found, by perfect coincidence, our common friend-” 

 

‘Not friend, mortal enemy,” Yesung corrected while Ryeowook rolled his eyes. 

 

“Alright, so you found your eternal foe, by pure coincidence, on the ground, somewhere, while walking your dogs, in costume, in a bad state, where no one else but you found him, am I right?”

 

Not even Yesung thought his lie was convincing, but he wasn’t sure what else to say. He only nodded while Ryeowook sighed.

 

“So what did you do then?” Yesung frowned.

 

“What do you mean?“

 

“Well, I didn’t hear any report of our dear favorite superhero landing in a hospital, so what did you do? Did you capture him? Defeat him? Kill him?”  Now, Yesung was offended.

 

“What do you take me for? I want to win fair and square! I treated him!:” He said, scandalized.

 

But Ryeowook eyes only got sharper.

 

“I don’t know, Yesung, what should I take the Bad Guy who kidnapped me for the last ten years for except than a criminal? You tell me. Should I expect fairness from you? The man who tried to kill our hero for God knows how long now? The guy who had been terrorizing the city every few weeks because he could? The guy who almost froze the Han River just last week? Please tell me, what should I take you for?”

 

And to that, Yesung had no answer.

 

Yesung never really felt shame for his job; being a Villain was what he must be; terror was his goal; it was what he had done for the last sixty years, almost entirely unpunished, and even though he had a moral code, no killing, no permanent harm, he knew he wasn’t a good guy, he caused more damage than anyone else to the city, he knew. 

 

But tonight, for some reason, under Ryeowook’s eyes, the closest he had to a friend in his lonely life, after being shaken by the view of his Nemesis in a state he never saw him in, for once, he felt something shake his core.

 

“....Someone who would not kill the man he tried to defeat the most in such a cowardly way when he wasn’t even the one to put him in this state.” He answered quietly.

 

It was silent for a few seconds; he could feel Ryeowook’s heavy gaze on him, but for once, he didn’t feel like meeting it.

 

“Jongwoon hyung.”

 

That made him look up. His eyes filled up with anger again.

 

‘You don’t have the right to-”

 

“I don’t care, I’m tired, hyung.” He interrupted him, “You and Kyuhyun are always this way, putting up appearances we both know are useless.”  Yesung panicked.

 

“Don’t pronounce his name like that!!! I don’t want to-”’

 

“I don’t ing care what you want right now” Ryeowook started to get angry, “what’s the issue, Hyung? You know his name, after all, right? What lies under the mask. Why can’t I say it? Because it makes you feel uncomfortable? Well, I’m tired of pretending for both of your sakes; you’re both so old and yet act like such children.” He sighed. “Hyung. Jongwoon Hyung, I-”

 

“I should never have told you my name if I knew you would use it like that,” He said quietly, with more vulnerability than he wished to feel right now, “it was stupid.”

 

Ryeowook fell silent at that. 

 

Of course, Yesung knew Kyuhyun’s name, how could he not? 

 

He had been following him for over sixty years, after all. 

 

But the man Kyuhyun was wasn’t the one he knew, and he never had wanted to. Tetrash was an icon, and Kyuhyun was human. And Yesung didn’t fight against normal humans. 

 

“...I just wish sometimes you and Kyuhyun could talk.”

 

Yesung pursued his lips. 

 

Ryeowook was still young, and no matter how close they got, there were still things he didn’t know about. 

 

There was a time when they talked.

 

…

 

  “I’m tired.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Yesung looked at the state of their battlefield; as always, everything around them was a mess. Trees were blown out, the ground under their feet was frozen, yet some part was on fire, and you could see a mist of ice surrounding them. He then looked at his Nemesis and concluded how not into fighting he was today; he looked bored, his actions mechanical, as if he decided to stop playing pretend, and quite frankly, Yesung felt a bit offended, but what could he do except try harder? He hated when his enemy was in this state, bored of their fights, bored of their banters, bored of him. He could never become bored of him; he needed always to be careful and always be on guard because Yesung was as much his enemy as he was his. He gritted his teeth and started throwing even more icicles at him.

 

But his Nemesis only threw them away with a wave of his hand, sighing. 

 

“Yup, today is boring, let’s stop.” He said, getting back on the ground.

 

“Wha- Wait! You can’t decide that!” Yesung yelled after him, “I’m still good to fight!” The Hero sighed again.

 

“Yes, but I don’t want to; I’m bored,” He dared to say, pouting,  before dodging another icicle. “Let’s do something else today.” He decided. He then looked at Yesung. “Do you have civil clothes with you?”

 

“Oh yes, I do I try- WAIT, WE’RE STILL NOT DONE HERE!” He yelled, “Why would I stop fighting with you because you said so???” 

 

The Hero sighed again while putting off his mask and putting it in his pocket. Yesung gulped, he hated the reminder there was someone behind the mask.

 

The hero, no, Kyuhyun, looked at him with those doe eyes that didn’t belong on an all-powerful hero, twinkling with mischief.

 

“Let’s stop for today, hyung,” Yesung sighed, he guessed he wasn’t a Villain anymore for today. “I promise I’ll let you choose our next battlefield if you want.” 

 

“I always chose our battlefield,” he mumbled, “Remember, I’m the Villain, I’m the one who provoked you.” Kyuhyun chuckled at that.

 

“True. Well, next time, I’ll let you choose an element, and I’ll only fight you with that, how about it?” This gave him a pause, it was a good proposal. 

 

“...Alright, I accept, let’s stop for today.” Kyuhyun smile widebed. 

 

“Great hyung! So what do you want to do, Hyung?

 

“What do you mean? I’m going back to my secret lair while you do…Whatever you were going to do.” Kyuhyun pouted at that, and once again, Yesung felt something weird going in his chest; he truly didn’t like it when he showed him his human side. 

 

“That won’t do hyung! My proposal is only valid if we do something else for once! Come on, change your clothes, I’m taking you to a place that sells good tteokbokki!” 

 

And, before he knew it, he had been dragged from the battlefield to a weird restaurant in a hidden corner of Seoul to eat tteokbokki with his arch Nemesis.

 

Sometimes, Yesung wondered what exactly was his life. 

 

Yesung looked at the man sitting in front of him, fixing him with his beautiful eyes and a smirk on his face.

 

“...What.”  

 

“I just thought it was a shame such a pretty face was hidden from the world~” Kyuhyun sang. Yesung scoffed.

 

“Please stop teasing me. It’s also not like it’s the first time you saw it, so stop staring; it’s rude.” Kyuhyun hummed in his hand, still staring.

 

“But it’s been so long! Why did you adopt the full-on mask these days? I can’t even look at your angry face when I tease you  too much!” Yesung almost broke his chopsticks at that.

 

“That’s exactly why!” He whispered angrily, not a fan of other people listening to their conversation, “Do you think I like seeing your satisfied smirk after you got the best out of me?!!” Kyuhyun only chuckled, apparently way too happy to get a rise out of him.

 

“Aaaah, right here! The angry sneer, I truly missed it.” He whined, “Please stop wearing this mask, hyung, I hate it.” Yesung groaned.

 

“Why would I ever do something to make you feel better? You are my Nemesis!” 

 

“Because a happy Kyuhyun turns into a happy Hero! A happy Hero will be much more fun to fight with!” Yesung raised an eyebrow at that.

 

“Curiously, I never read or saw anything about that; it’s always the opposite.” 

 

“Well, they aren’t me, a happy me is a better opponent for you, trust me.” And Yesung gave up on this conversation. He exhaled and then nodded. Why couldn’t he win arguments even here?

 

Kyuhyun smirked, triumphant, putting in his mouth another tteokbeokki, almost in pure joy at the taste.

 

“Ah hyung, we should return to this place together; it is delicious!” 

 

“Don’t you have real friends to go to this kind of place with instead of me? May I remind you I’m your mortal enemy?” He mumbled, not meaning it at this point, but Kyuhyun kept smiling, his eyes getting softer 

 

“Yes, but you know hyung,” he started saying, looking at a point through the window Jongwoon couldn’t see, and then looked back at his face, with a certain sadness and something else Jongwoon didn’t -couldn’t- understand.

 

“Amongst them all, I’ll still choose you.”

 

…

 

After that, they kept going to eat together a couple of times, but Yesung stopped accepting and stopped going, no matter how many times Kyuhyun insisted. Kyuhyun was stubborn, but Yesung was even more, and then, one day, after one of their many fights, he didn’t ask anymore, with eyes duller than he ever saw Kyuhyun have, and he knew he gave up. Yesung doesn’t think about the emotions on Kyuhyun’s face. He doesn’t think about the pain in his own chest cause if he did, he’d have to ask himself questions he didn’t want to answer. He’ll have to wonder if it had been the right choice, and Yesung didn’t want that. 

 

Ryeowook looked at him one last time with a hint of sadness and pity he wanted to get out of his eyes.

 

“...Look, as far as I know, no new Villain is in town, why don’t you go ask Kyuhyun-” Yesung bit his lips, forcing himself to say nothing, “-yourself? He probably knows better than anyone else who beat him up.”

 

“He was still unconscious when I left.” Ryeowook massaged his head; he could feel the start of a headache forming.

 

“So you left him here all alone? Defenseless???” 

 

“He is not alone, my dogs are there!” He protested, “And the place he is in…No one should know where it is.” 

 

Ryeowook sighed for the hundredth time since Yesung came to his house ten minutes ago. 

 

“Then go back to him and wait for him to wake up. I don’t know what else to tell you.” He paused “Now, go away. My girlfriend is almost there.”

 

Then, Ryeowook opened his door, indicating for him to leave, and Yesung, for once, just felt like listening.

 

Just as he was crossing the door, Ryeowook said something.

 

“Hyung.” Yesung paused, looking at him, waiting. He hesitated for what felt an eternity, looking left and right, and then looked back at his face.

 

“I just want you and Kyuhyun happy, hyung. And…” He sighed. “I don’t think the path you chose those last decades is one that made you him or you happy at all.” 

 

Happiness huh? 

 

Jongwoon’s heart softened at those words. It looks like he still had a part of his youth’s naivety. 

 

“Thank you, Wookie,” he smiled without saying anything else. 

 

And then, as quickly as he arrived, he left. 

 

Jongwoon decided to walk a little bit around the city before returning to his lair, he made his mask vanish and started strolling around. He was in a weird mood after his talk with Ryeowook.

 

It happened sometimes.

 

Sometimes, the world felt too heavy. Sometimes, the role he had felt more like a burden than something he truly enjoyed. Sometimes, he wondered what his life would have been if he hadn’t decided all those long years ago to change his life and become a Villain. 

 

It sounded like such an amazing idea when he was young, making everyone around him suffer for all the pain they caused him, making people aware of how lucky they were for how much they had by taking it away. Fighting strong opponents in an eternal fight of Good against Evil, people finally respect him for what he is, fearing him, trembling just as a simple mention of his name. 

 

It sounded fun for the young him, but once you get the job, you realize how lonely everything is. Once the ones responsible for your suffering are dead or too old to care anymore, what is left? 

 

Jongwoon often thought he would have left long ago if his Nemesis hadn't been here. If Kyuhyun hadn’t been the Hero who gave him an exciting fight since the first day he started, if Kyuhyun hadn’t been so fun to banter with, to fight with. If he hadn’t given him a goal to accomplish: to beat him. 

 

That’s why he couldn’t afford to know or appreciate the man behind the mask, because if he did, if he lost his motivation to fight, then what was left for him? 

 

Jongwoon looked at the streets around him, He remembers fighting Kyuhyun in every one of them, he remembers the building he destroyed in an attempt to provoke Kyuhyun to come, and he remembers the roads he froze to try to catch up to his Nemesis. 

 

He stopped at a particular corner, where he saw a particular school, one he destroyed with Kyuhyun, something like five years ago.

 

Truly, today was a day for memories.

 

…

 

It had been a few weeks since Kyu-Tetrarch gave up on inviting him to a restaurant after their fights, and since then, he looked even more vicious than usual, quieter. He also looked more ready than usual to throw him in prison. 

 

In a way, Yesung liked it, this passion, he liked how his Nemesis was so focused on him, so determined to catch him, but he also hated the lack of banter, it was a huge part of the fun of being a Villain! He hoped he’d stop sulking soon; it’s not like he’ll never find someone else to enjoy some meals with. 

 

What offended him today was how Tetrarch was fighting him today. 

 

He only fought with ice to taunt him as if he tried to prove a certain superiority. 

 

It happened once in a while,  their ice powers clashing against each other, after all, as someone who could control the four elements, it was logical that he could bend ice as well. But it was rare, as if he somehow had some respect for him, in a way. Yesung would never admit it, but he liked it, it was the only kindness he would accept from him.

 

But today, this kindness was gone, replaced with a certain rage and bitterness, one that felt heavy, and Yesung couldn’t help but get troubled by that, a lump in his throat he didn’t know how to swallow. 

 

However, it wasn’t time to wonder because the Hero would not let him think today. 

 

“What’s the matter today, Yesung? Afraid of comparing our powers?” The Hero taunted with a vicious smirk.

 

Yesung decided not to answer then, gritted his teeth, and concentrated again on the battle.

 

Tetrarch started throwing icy projectiles from the ground. today, he wasn’t flying after all,  but Yesung was used to controlling these kinds of icy shapes and started to redirect them at his Nemesis in the middle of the air, which the hero dodged by rolling fast on the left. Yesung took advantage of this opportunity to summon icy tendrils from the ground just below Tetrarch, attempting to ensnare his enemy. Still, he dodged again and, with a wave of the hand, turned the tendrils into icy mist. 

 

The battlefield turned into an area made of ice crystals, and both started to use humidity to create even better weapons for themselves. The Hero started creating blizzards made of ice in the hope of blinding his opponent, but Yesung was fast and quick on his feet. He was a fighter, after all, and started creating a dagger made of ice into his hand as he quickly ran towards his opponent. Kyuhyun, surprised at being attacked so directly, conjured an icy shield as fast he could, the dagger clashing against it in a matter of micro-seconds, their eyes finally met. Yesung was surprised at the furry he could read in his enemy’s eyes, The hero gritted his teeth and started yelling, suddenly, Yesung felt himself being projected to the other side of the field, his foe's enormous force was impressive today as well, he thought. But Yesung had never been one to give up, using the frozen wind, he started to drive himself back to his opponent, conjuring even more ice against him that Tetrarch made disappear instantly with a smirk.

 

“Give up, Yesung, and come with me to your forever home, even on this, you can’t beat me, you never did and never will.” 

 

Yesung eyes sharpened at the obvious taunt; he was trying to rile him up, and usually, it would have done the job.

 

But not today.

 

Today, he had a thing to prove.

 

So, using all the ice they created around them, he started building a nice prison for the Hero, and before the Hero realized it, the ice started to form on his feet and legs, making it impossible for him to move. 

 

The hero was surprised as Yesung watched him struggle to get rid of the ice, concentring hard to get rid of it, he didn’t notice his own hands starting to freeze. Before he knew it, his hands and feet were bound.

 

“What can’t I!!”

 

Yesung smiled at the hero. 

 

“Do you know at what temperature a river can freeze?” 

 

The hero frowned, cautiously watching his every movement.

 

“0°C?” Yesung smiled.

 

“Well, in theory, yes, but a river is big in density, and many factors are to be taken into consideration to be sure a river will freeze, however, if you want to be sure your river will freeze, a good estimation would be around -48°C” He paused and looked at the hero, smiling “do you get what I mean?”

 

“....Your ice is colder.” 

 

“Indeed, my ice is colder. Consequently, yours is hotter. Well, as hot ice can be.” He chuckled, but it felt empty. “You just can’t control the ice I formed around you because you never tried to control ice colder than that, it’s just that simple.” 

 

“...I see.” 

 

Yesung looked at the hero’s face through the holes of his own mask. The furry was gone; only a vague tiredness and sadness were left.

 

“What are you going to do with me now?” He finally said.

 

And that’s when he said that that Yesung realized something. 

 

He won. 

 

And yet, while looking at the Hero, he knew he didn’t. 

 

Such an empty victory. 

 

He could, right now, kill the Hero or beat him up enough to send him to the hospital, making it a statement, look! The Villain won! Fear for your life, you ants, because your beloved Hero can’t help you anymore!

 

But it would be a lie, and right now, Yesung was tired of lying. 

 

“Did you forget you have fire powers? You can get rid of all this ice, you know,” he said. The Hero’s eyes widened. 

 

“But you won! Isn’t it what you wished for? You beat me in a fair battle! Come on, why are you not bragging, why aren’t you happier? Celebrate, do something! Just…” He sighed.

 

But the Hero didn’t finish his sentence, he just looked at Yesung one last time and burned his icy prison away.

 

Before flying away, he said one last thing.

 

“...Nothing will change, right?” Yesung just smiled, but as his laugh, it felt empty.

 

“Why would anything change at all?” 

 

The Hero didn’t even answer that before looking at him one last time and flew away

 

…

He sometimes wondered what would have happened if he had taken this win, if he accepted victory, would things have changed? Or would they have not?  Thinking about this day always made him feel uneasy, the emotions hidden behind the Hero’s mask hadn’t been well hidden this day: the furry, the rage, but most especially, the sadness he could feel against his attacks had been something he thought about for a long time after the act. 

 

But the past is the past, after all, and even if his with the Hero was long, there is no choice but to go toward the future. 

 

It may be time to go back home after all.

 

And, as quietly as he entered the city, he left.

 

When Yesung came back home, he noticed two things: 

 

One, his dogs found a way to escape C3, again, making him sigh, He needed to review his machine, it kept malfunctioning like that. 

 

The second and more important thing is that the Hero woke up. 

 

Yesung hesitated for a few seconds, should he put his mask on? Should he not? It had been long since they saw each other out of it, the last time being a coincidence. He was walking his dogs as usual, and Kyuhyun was hiking with some friends in the mountain, and as their tacit agreement went, they ignored each other. Yesung doesn’t like to think about it; it bothers him. 

 

In the end, he decided against it, he felt tired today; what’s the point? 

 

Kyuhyun wasn’t wearing his mask either, he got up and put himself in a sitting position, looking at his surroundings, a hint of curiousness in his eyes, his stare landing on Jongwoon’s personal LEGO collection, a small smile gracing his lips.

 

“I see you still like them.” He said, not even looking at Jongwoon, Jongwoon wasn’t surprised he noticed him, after all, it’s not like he had been discreet while entering his lair.

 

“Why would I stop?” He answered, walking towards Kyuhyun, “It appeases me.” 

 

Once he was close enough, Kyuhyun’s eyes left the LEGOs and landed on him. Yesung wasn’t sure what he was waiting or hoping for, but the utter affection inside them wasn’t it. 

 

“Don’t look at me like that,” He muttered.

 

“Like what?” Kyuhyun answered with such calmness that Jongwoon wasn’t sure what to feel.

 

“You know how.” 

 

Kyuhyun fell silent after that, an argument they almost had so many times, so many things they didn’t say, never say, words almost pronounced but never falling out of their lips. 

 

Yesung looked at Kyuhyun’s wounds, now that he didn’t look like he was dying, he looked pretty healthy, all things considered, all the cuts had been quite shallow after all; it made him frown, he still had no idea who dared to put him in this state.

 

“I have so many questions for you right now” Kyuhyun stiffened. 

 

“I suppose you do.” He answered cautiously. 

 

“First….how the do you know where my lair is??? I’ve been so cautious all those years!”

 

Kyuhyun looked at him in surprise as if he didn’t expect this question in particular and started laughing after seeing his pissed-off face. Jongwoon pouted even harder at the sound, and yet his heart wavered, it had been a very long time since he heard this genuine sound out of Kyuhyun’s mouth, the last time had been…Well, he guessed the last time they ate together.

 

“Hyung, I almost always knew where your lair is, I followed you years ago because I thought you were scheming something and found this place, I’m more surprised you never moved in sixty years,” He said, putting his head in his hand, looking at him with those mischievous eyes he hadn’t seen for so long.

 

Jongwoon, as he often did, felt a little bit offended.

 

“This place is comfortable,” he muttered, “why would I move if I thought no one knew I lived here?” Kyuhyun only kept smiling.

 

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t, I would have felt very dumb if no one answered.” Jongwoon looked up at that.

 

“Who…” He started with, “Who did this to you?” He finished and, with hesitant fingers in a slow manner, touched one of the small wounds on his forearm, caressing it absently, frowning at what it represented.

 

Kyuhyun only watched him quietly, trying to analyze Jongwoon’s facial expressions, but as always, Jongwoon never had been easy to decipher, Kyuhyun thought that if it had been the case, maybe all those years would have been different;

 

Kyuhyun sighed, but didn’t answer. Jongwoon frowned even more, growing impatient at every second that passed.

 

“Please tell me, every villain out there knows better than that, no one should even have tried, you’re mine to defeat!” He barked, “Who was it? I’ll take care of it.” 

 

But the hero didn’t answer, he had the same look he had all those years ago when he took Jongwoon out to a restaurant, a certain sadness and yet a stubbornness one couldn’t equal. 

 

Jongwoon hated those eyes the most.

 

“Kyuhyun!” He yelled, “Stop daydreaming and ing answer me! Who was it?”

 

As if he broke out of a spell, he snapped out of his reverie and looked directly into Jongwoon’s eyes, his own opened wide.

 

And then his smile grew.

 

“How long has it been since I heard my name from you, Hyung?” Jongwoon looked at him, full of disbelief.

 

“Wha- Seriously? This is what you decide to get stuck on????”

 

“Yes,” Kyuhyun smirked, and then suddenly, his face got a bit closer than necessary to his own face, “can you repeat it?” 

 

Joingwoon couldn’t believe this kid. 

 

Seriously, why did such an old man keep acting like this, was it such a big deal, a name? If it had been a normal day, he would have gotten angry, yelled at Kyuhyun to stop acting like this, treated the situation more seriously, cursed him, and told him how enemies didn’t need to tell each other’s names. But today wasn’t a normal day, after all. And he was so tired. 

 

“...I’ll say it again if you answer me.” He asked, giving up, “Tell me, you did this to you?” 

 

But Kyuhyun didn’t answer, he just kept looking into his eyes and, with slow movements, grabbed his left hand with his own while Jongwoon stiffened. 

 

“What are you doing? I don’t understand your actions today.” Jongwoon was so confused.

 

First, he got badly injured, then instead of going to a hospital, he went to him instead, and now, the only reason he could think of for him to come to him instead of anywhere else so that he could get help get rid of the nuisance who hurt him, he wasn’t answering.

 

And Kyuhyun kept smiling.

 

“Is it so hard to understand hyung? Why would I act like this? Or,” He paused, “is it instead very easy to guess why, but you just don’t want to think about it, as always?” 

 

Jongwoon had no answer to that. So he kept quiet, looking away, feeling more guilty than usual.

 

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Hyung never liked thinking about our relationship.” 

 

“There’s nothing to think about, you’re my Nemesis.”  He said, stubborn. Kyuhyun just sighed.

 

“Hyung, I’ll answer you; don’t worry,” That, Jongwoon listened to.

 

“But first, Hyung, do you remember our first meeting?”

 

Of course he did, how could he not? Sixty years had passed, but the memory was still fresh in his mind. 

 

….

 

It was a great summer day. 

 

Jongwoon looked at the people just below him under the bridge nervously, he checked his blue costume under his regular clothes, checking everything was good, and sighed in relief when nothing seemed out of order.

 

Today, he would debut as a Villain. 

 

And not any Villain! The greatest the world would ever see, he knew he could do it, trusted his abilities, trained for months before this moment, and even created his costume himself as all good Super must do! He admitted it was a bit tight, but the color was perfect, combined with his mask made of ice, he’d create a great identity for himself, one that would mark history with ice prints (oh, he liked that), he’ll make people tremble before his feet, cry and shake in fear just by mentioning his own name, oh he couldn’t wait!

 

It would be great if he could eliminate the stupid stage fright he was feeling right now.

 

Jongwoon sighed, stupid brain. 

 

A true Villain doesn’t have stage fright, he just needed to do great, he knew he could, he just-

 

“What are you doing here?” A foreign voice suddenly called him, next to his ear, he gasped in shock and almost fell if it wasn’t for the hand that grasped him before this terrible fate.

 

“Wow, are you okay?” The foreign voice suddenly said with a hint of worry, “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to  surprise you like this; you just looked pretty nervous here.”

 

“I’m- I’m fine!” Jongwoon answered, a bit embarrassed, “I, I just was- I was looking at the view and-” Suddenly, he looked at the young man face who just saved him. 

 

With such doe eyes, beautiful lips, and fair skin, he looked a bit skinny, like a newborn fawn, a man who couldn’t be older than 25 and still looked a bit like a college student, yet he didn’t. Jongwoon was speechless.

 

“Oh, you’re really handsome.”  Fun fact about Jongwoon: he didn’t have a filter.

 

The handsome man blushed a bit at those words, his ears turning red at the compliment while he started looking away in embarrassment 

 

“Oh…Thank you, you’re quite good-looking yourself.” Jongwoon smiled at that.

 

“I know, right?” He laughed.

 

 The young man looked back at him, a bit shocked at his narcissism, but looked quite amused at his laughing face.

 

“Say, huh?” 

 

“Kim Jongwoon, I’m 27.” The young man's eyes shined brightly.

 

“So you’re a hyung then! I’m Cho Kyuhyun, 22, nice to meet you, Hyung!” Jongwoon chucked at the younger man’s energy, it was cute. 

 

“Nice to meet you, Kyuhyun,” he said back. The young man looked at him brightly at hearing his name pronounced. 

 

“So hyung, can you tell me what was worrying you? They say confessing to a stranger could free one’s soul.” Well, the kid was right, Jongwoon thought, maybe he just needed to talk to someone for a bit before starting his new career.

 

“I’m…I’m starting a new job today,” he started with, picking his words carefully, “It’s quite a public job in a way, I’ll have to be in front of many people at once, I guess I’m nervous.” The kid nodded seriously.

 

“Oh yes, I understand, my new job is also like that! Many people expect great things out of me… I wonder if I can keep their hopes up.” He answered, “but you know what hyung? I’m confident in my abilities!” He smiled “Are you hyung?”

 

“Yes, of course,” He answered instantly, “I chose this path cause I thought I might do well after all.” 

 

“Then you have nothing to worry about!” Kyuhyun exclaimed, “I’m sure you’ll do well! I’ll support you!” 

 

What a cute kid, Jongwoon thought.

 

“You’re right,” he said, his confidence a bit higher than before, “Thank you, Kyuhyun, I need to go now, a job is waiting for me!” The younger man smiled encouragingly, 

 

“Fighting hyung, you can do it!! I hope we’ll see each other again!” Jongwoon's smile widened.

 

“Me too! See you soon!” And on that, he left, readying himself to start his new career with a bang.

 

He didn’t expect to see Kyuhyun so soon again, though.

 

There is a cliché out there of two people knowing each other without their costumes and not recognizing each other once they put it on. 

 

It didn’t happen to them; they needed to look at each other in the eyes once on their new battlefield, and they instantly recognized each other. 

 

“WHAT THE ” they both yelled at the same time, 

 

“I- hyung! What are you doing here????” The kid said in a panic, seeing his new hyung in the middle of people running away because suddenly a bad guy appeared, trying to freeze the Han River before their eyes

 

“I could say the same, Kyu-” Panicked flashed inside the Hero -oh my god he was a Super Hero- eyes.

 

“My name is Tetrarch, not anything else you hear me, Tetrarch!”  Jongwoon arched an eyebrow.

 

“Tetrarch? Wow, that’s quite pompous of you.” The kid looked at him, offended

 

“No, it’s not! It’s a perfect name for someone who can control the four elements like me!” He replied, “But please tell me, oh great hyung, how should I call the man who is freezing my off right now, Frosty?” It was Jongwoon's turn to be offended now.

 

“Frosty isn’t my name! My name is.” A dramatic pause, and then “ Yesung, Ice Prince of Doom, That Will Lead You with My Voice To The Coldest Place! Tremble before me, you mortal!”

 

Silence.

 

“Isn’t that a bit long? I think I prefer Frosty.” Jongwoon would deny it later, but he whined.

 

“Fine! Yesung is okay as well.” 

 

The fight that followed this banter had been awkward.

 

Both were debutants in the world of Supers and even though Jongwoon controlled his powers a bit better than Kyuhyun, his inner talent made it hard for Jongwoon to win. In the end, he didn’t, as many fights that would follow, he had needed to escape, and the rage over the failure of this first day still followed him for years to come. 

 

…

 

“You called me handsome.” Kyuhyun chuckled, and Jongwoon started to blush.

 

“‘Yah, you ing bastard, did you want me to remember this awful memory just to tease me? You’re such an !.” He screamed, hitting Kyuhyun’s back with his right hand, the one that was free from Kyuhyun’s grip, while the little bastard kept laughing.

 

“Okay, I’m sorry, hyung, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it like that, stop hitting me!” Kyuhyun finally said after a while.

 

“I’ll stop when you’ll stop laughing!” He yelled back.

 

“Alright, alright, I’ll calm down! Please just stop hitting me.” Jongwoon humphed and then stopped while Kyuhyun's giggles finally stopped as well.

 

“But is it so awful to you, Hyung? It’s a fond memory to me.” He almost whispered.

 

“Of course, it’s a fond memory to you. You won. I lost.” 

 

“Yeah, it always had been about that with you.” Jongwoon wanted to reply something to that, but Kyuhyun didn’t let him. “Do you remember how I looked after our first fight?” Jongwoon frowned.

 

“Why does that matter?”

 

“It does, hyung, it matters to our situation right now, please remember.”

 

Alright then.

 

He remembered it had been one of Kyuhyun’s first fights, his control over his powers had been shaky at best, he remembers him hurting himself while controlling earth, accidentally sending projectiles against his own face, he remembered how exhausted he looked at the end of their fight as if he spent all of his energy because he couldn’t control his strength well, he remembered how sicked he looks, and how he had almost fainted. 

 

He remembered a face covered in small cuts, panting hard, and before he fled away, he always wondered if he ended up fainting. 

 

And it’s when he remembered that it finally clicked.

 

Kyuhyun was smiling. 

 

“You did this to yourself.” It was the only conclusion he could reach, and yet it didn’t make sense, why, just why, he waited for Kyuhyun to correct him, to tell him he was wrong, that he was just reaching the wrong conclusion, because why would he even-

 

“You’re right.”’ Kyuhyun interrupted his train of thought. “I did this to myself.” Confirming what he feared.

 

“But-” Jongwoon was so confused, “why? Why do that? And why come here?”

 

Kyuhyun was silent for a few seconds, looking at his poor hyung in such a state of confusion he felt bad for him.

 

“I’m tired, Hyung.” 

 

“What-” 

 

“Let me finish, Hyung, don’t interrupt me.” Jongwoon fell quiet.

 

“I’m tired hyung. I’m quitting being a superhero tomorrow.”

 

Jongwoon’s entire world crumbled before his own eyes.

 

“You- You can’t do that!!” 

 

“But I can, Hyung, I’m doing it right now.” Kyuhyun looked at him, and oh, those tired eyes he had seen for so long, maybe it was deeper than he thought.

 

Jongwoon was in shambles, trembling, how could he, how could he do this, why, it didn’t make sense.

 

“I just- I don’t understand.” Kyuhyun sighed.

 

“Hyung, we’ve been doing this for how long now, sixty years? More? I’m just tired of it.”

 

“But the city needs you!  Who will protect it if not you?” 

 

“Others will come; they didn’t before because I made sure no one else did, but the world doesn’t lack people with powers nor ambition, who knows, someone greater than me might come.” 

 

“Don’t say that, no one is greater than you!” He snarled,

 

“Thank you, Hyung, but we only fought each other for so long, how could you know?” Kyuhyun's calm tone made him even angrier than he already was; the emptiness in his chest kept growing, and his emotions became more unstable.

 

“I know because it’s you!” He snapped, “You can’t go away! I still-”

 

“Hyung, it’s not your choice, it’s mine. I will leave tomorrow, and that’s final.”

 

Jongwoon didn’t have any arguments to make him stay, yet he desperately needed him to because if his Nemesis went away if Kyuhyun went away, then…

 

“....Then what about me?” He whispered, he could feel unwanted tears gather around his eyelids, “I spent sixty years of my life trying to beat you, and you’re asking me to- to-.” A sniff, unwanted emotions he hid deep inside coming up in the form of crystal icy tears falling down his eyes, “...Are you asking me to give up, just like that…?”

 

“Oh, hyung.” Kyuhyun’s voice was full of grief and sadness as he started to envelop his small hyung in a -what he hoped- was a comforting hug. Jongwoon was too tired to fight against, and so, for once, he let him be and cried. Jongwoon hadn’t cried in so many years. 

 

“Why- Why did you come here to tell me that? You could have just disappeared, it would have been easier,” He finally said between two hiccups. He could feel Kyuhyun’s body stiffen at those words.

 

“Hyung,” he hesitantly began with.

 

“Hyung, I love you.”

 

Jongwoon cried harder. 

 

He knew.

 

He knew, okay, it’s not like he spent, what, the last fifty-six years ignoring those gazes, ignoring what they meant, ignoring what they could be under different circumstances, ignoring the pain in his own chest, ignoring everything he knew just to keep going, just to have something in his life, something he could accomplish. Just to satisfy his selfish desire to have one victory over Kyuhyun. 

 

He knew, and knowing didn’t pain him as much as finally hearing those words after so many decades, fights, and unsaid things between them. 

 

“...You’re such a food for still loving a man like me after all those years.” Kyuhyun chuckled at that.

 

“You’re an even bigger one for loving me back.” Jongwoon didn’t correct him, after all, what was the point now? Kyuhyun was leaving. 

 

Kyuhyun was leaving him. 

 

“I wanted to talk to you before leaving.” He said after a few quiet minutes. “I knew you wouldn’t listen to me if I approached you directly, whether I had been in costume or not. I was desperate, so I hoped you would at least listen if I came to you injured. I’m glad it worked.” 

 

“...You’re such an .” Kyuhyun hummed while caressing his hair.

 

“I am, aren’t I?” 

 

“Glad you know it.” 

 

Kyuhyun laughed.

 

“Hyung, I’ He hesitated, “Truthfully, I didn’t come here just to tell you I’m gonna leave.” 

 

“What then? To train your successor? Cause I assure you I’m going to beat him hard.” 

 

“No, Hyung”, he smiled, “I’m not asking you to beat anyone.

 

I’m asking you to leave, with me.”

 

“...Huh?”

 

“Hyung, aren’t you tired as well? I tried once to lose to you, but you didn’t accept it, you thought it wasn’t fair enough, I tried to go along with everything you did, but it wasn’t good enough, I tried inviting you to normal dates like normal human beings do, but it wasn’t enough. I love you, Hyung, in a way, by being so adamant only to fight each other, this city had been protected by the both of us, but if I leave, then would you have the energy to drive every other Villain out there to fight my successor? 

 

I can’t do it anymore. I can’t stay here, but I’ll be honest, hyung if I can leave with you, I can at least hope for a happy retirement instead of only a peaceful one.” He breathed. “Wouldn’t you like that, Hyung, a happy retirement, the both of us, far away from Seoul, where we can live in peace, you collecting LEGOs and walking your dogs, in a quiet place, far from everything? I will cook for you every day, and we will go to sleep, hands in hands. Doesn’t it sound like a sweet dream?”

 

It did.

 

It did sound like a nice dream. 

 

Jongwoon imagined it once, in the quiet of his room, while he knew no one could spy on his thoughts, it had been a nice dream of quiet hours and muffled laughter and robbed kisses. It had been a sweet dream to fall asleep to, to ease his loneliness just a little bit, even though while waking up, he had never felt as lonely as this moment.

 

He looked at Kyuhyun, who looked at him with an anxious gaze, Jongwoon smiled, Kyuhyun had never been great at hiding his emotions, he would have lost terribly to any other Villain except for him. He had always been weak to Kyuhyun’s emotions, after all. 

 

“...Okay.”

 

A gasp.

 

“O-okay?”

 

“Yes, Kyuhyun, let’s leave together.” Jongwoon laughed a bit at Kyuhyun’s surprised face, but he couldn’t blame him, if he had asked yesterday, he probably would have said no. Yesterday, he was still ready to fight.

 

 Today, he was just tired.

 

“Kyuhyun, I love you too,” he whispered, “If you’re not here to fight me, then what’s the point? You’re the only one I want to beat.” 

 

“Hyung…” 

 

Kyuhyun looked at him, dreamingly as if he couldn’t believe it was actually happening, as if he couldn’t believe they finally confessed after all those years. 

 

It’s alright; they had long lives and all the time in the world to adjust. 

 

“Kyuhyun,” 

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Kiss me.” 

 

And for once, he didn’t need to repeat himself. 

 

When Kyuhyun's lips fell on his own, Jongwoon never felt so right. It was as if all those years of anguish had been at least for something as if his loneliness could finally be cured, as if the work that awaited them to make this work after so many years of bitterness and misunderstandings would be alright, and Jongwoon finally felt at peace. 

 

When they separated after this small peck, they both were smiling.

 

“...I am still pissed off I’m never going to beat you, though,” Jongwoon ended up saying, but it lacked the usual bitterness it carried. 

 

“What are you saying, hyung?”

 

Kyuhyun was beaming at him. Jongwoon noticed how it was an expression he had never seen before, and curiously, he didn’t mind it turned his heart warm, how many of them would he discover again in the future that was coming?

 

“I lost to you the moment I saw you.”