They faced each other, their hands in position, ready to fire. They were staring fiercely into each other's eyes. The aquarium had suddenly transformed into the setting of the duel of the century. Only one would walk out alive, or actually, only one would walk out with a dry hand. An equally desirable destiny, and it was going to be him. Daesung was sizing him up, probably trying to figure out what kind of bullet would be best suited to end his life. The sheer determination in his eyes was adorable. He was grasping at straws, his life as he knew it was already over, Seunghyun was going to make sure of that.

Daesung was too easily distracted and Seunghyun was planning to make full use of that fact. He peered his eyes slightly, raising his left eyebrow just a smidge to psych him out. “Ready?” he asked in a confident tone, smirking like he had already won. “Oh I'm ready. The only question is, are YOU ready?” Daesung countered, trying his best to be menacing but his overly cute expressions betrayed him. Seunghyun swallowed a giggle, fighting to keep his cool in the face of such cuteness. Instead of trying to be all gangster like, Daesung would have more luck tapping into his innate power of cuteness. His cuteness attacks could be lethal. The power in that one was strong. But Seunghyun wasn't going to be the one to hand out pointers, he had a lot invested in this duel, he had to win.

The moment of truth.

“Kawi..” they said in unison. One could cut the air between them with a knife, that was how loaded with anticipation and determination it was.

“Bawi..” they were both holding their breaths, trying to keep their hands from trembling.

Now was Seunghyun's moment to shine. He had to time it perfectly for his dirty trick to work. All was fair in love and war, and this was both. It felt as time had slowed down, his senses heightened. As Daesung's fist started moving up for the third and final time, drawing his last breath as a flesh eating fish , Seunghyun could feel it. It was time.

“ROCK!!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, yet managing to join Daesung in the final “Bo.”, hoping against hope it would work.

“DAMN IT!!” Daesung watched his still balled up hand with disappointment written all over his face, silently trying to figure out how it could have betrayed him like that. His own flesh and blood.

“You prooomiiised.” Seunghyun chanted while he danced around the fish tank, holding his winning paper up high, waving it around to rub it in. He was elated, getting completely carried away in his haze of victory. Aigoo, that Daesung was just too easily manipulated he giggled to himself.

Daesung was watching the tiny innocent fishies with disgust. He looked at his hand, his eyes wandering towards the hole in the tank and then retreating back to look at his hand again. In desperation they found Seunghyun's eyes, pleading for mercy. He would have been lying if he said he didn't waver a bit, but still he stood firm, shaking his head silently and nodding towards the place of execution. There was no mercy to be found here. He could see Daesung's heart sinking, trying to take his own heart down with it, but he wasn't giving up so easily. He had won fair and square, well, at least square, so Daesung would just have to take a bite from that sour apple called defeat.

As Daesung approached the tank, every muscle in his body retracted at the mere thought of having to touch that icky water again. Seunghyun was torn, it was like having an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, fighting for control over his actions. On the one hand he wanted to be the knight in shining armor, saving Daesung from the yucky evilness ahead, but on the other hand his cells were buzzing with excitement to see how he would react as the fish started nibbling at his hands. The devil was stronger, his voice was louder. There was nothing he could do. Sorry Daesung-ah, you are on your own, he thought.

Daesung hesitantly put out his hand, quickly pulling it back in, only to reach it out again. He was clearly having trouble bending his mind to his will. He could see him trying to talk some courage into himself, trying to gather enough resolution to overcome his fear. It was that captivating sweetness Seunghyun had fallen for, that endearing stubbornness hidden within that oh so charming loveliness that defined his entire being. Seunghyun admired him greatly and had on numerous occasions decided to aspire to be more like him. But he was always too lazy to actually do something about it.

As Daesung's trembling hand began its descent down the rabbit hole, or in this case, fish hole, his whole body started wriggling around in protest. He clenched his teeth, cringing as he forced it further down. He stopped abruptly when the tip of his middle finger grazed the surface of the water, letting out a high pitched squeak, biting his lip and running in place. Yet he didn't remove his hand, desperately trying to jedi-mind-trick it into the water without much success.

Finally, with fiery resolve in his eyes, his hand dived in. The surface line had just passed the cuticle of his middle finger, when one of the tiny creatures darted in its direction. The squeal Daesung let out nearly shattered Seunghyun's eardrum and his hand came flying through the air, sprinkling tiny drops of water over the floor.

“I can't do it, I can't do it, please don't make me do it!!” he pleaded, grabbing Seunghyun's elbow and shaking it slightly for emphasis. Seunghyun's heart did an extra lap around his rib cage. He took a breath to calm himself before he spoke. He was having way too much fun with this, so much so that he kind of felt guilty towards poor Daesung, torturing him like this. But extreme situations were known to wake up extreme feelings, so this might just be the jolt he needed to realize his true feelings. There was always hoping.

“Hey, you did promise..” he reproachfully reminded him. Furtively, Daesung found a spot on the floor to stare at with intensity. “I'll help you!” he snorted, giving him a cheeky wink. With his Daesung-free arm he reached for Daesung's hand, intending to use a bit of force to get the job done. But before he had managed to grab his wrist, Daesung's hand had sneakily let go of his elbow, sliding down his forearm and using its fingers to chain itself to Seunghyun's hand.

Feeling Daesung's fingers entwine themselves around his own made his arm go limp. His heart had forgotten its original purpose of beating blood to his extremities, resulting in full paralysis. With his heart frozen in shock, his lungs stopped working, his breath getting stuck midway in his throat. The touch of Daesung's skin against his created tingling electricity that penetrated his hand. He could feel an electric current traveling up the length of his arm, jump starting his heart again. It reacted with too much enthusiasm, beating so hard that it almost hurt, knocking the wind right out of him. At least he was breathing again.

Daesung looked innocently into his eyes, squeezing his hand gently. “Let's find Youngbae.” he said in his sweetest of voices, smiling brightly. Oh, he was good. He was way too good! Well played! He knew exactly what he was doing. Without waiting for confirmation, Daesung started heading in the opposite direction of that scariest of all scary fish tanks, dragging him along, acting like it was the most natural thing to do in the world, using skinship to manipulate him, to blackmail him into forgetting their deal. And the worst part was that it was working. Or, that might be the best part, he hadn't really decided yet what to make of this new development between them.

He was clay in his hands, surrendering to him without having any say in it, his body had already made its decision and he was forced to follow, whether he liked it or not. Oh he liked it. He liked it too much, that was the problem. Not only had he forgotten all about Daesung's punishment, which had without a doubt been Daesung's plan all along, but he had forgotten everything else as well. There existed nothing else, only the two of them. And he wanted it to remain that way. He would do anything to not have to let go of his hand, to share this warm connection with him a little longer. He felt like he was a part of something bigger. It wasn't just him anymore, now there was an 'us'.

He felt a bit woozy, his heart was beating too fast so the blood rushed through his veins. And round and round it went. What did this mean? Had it only been a devious plan to escape the guillotine, to cheat death, or.. or.. was Daesung really coming around? Had the idea of them being together managed to erode his defenses, little by little, so that now his resistance was hanging by a thread?

Daesung had actually taken the initiative. He could hardly believe it. It had been Daesung that had taken his hand in his, and even though he had accomplished his objective he hadn't let go yet. No matter how he looked at it, it was a step in the right direction. It was definite progress.

Seunghyun took advantage of the opportunity, his thumb slowly, tenderly the edge of Daesung's palm. When he didn't object, Seunghyun allowed it to continue its path, traveling up the middle of the inside of his palm, disappearing in between their hands. He applied a little more pressure on the way down again, massaging the center of Daesung's palm. He could feel his thumb sinking into the softest part in the middle, skin on skin, creating heat and a bit of sweat. As it returned to its original position, he squeezed Daesung's hand lightly, using it to communicate his feelings silently. He waited for a reply. At first there was none, the excruciating wait weighing on his heart, but then it came. A squeeze back! Daesung had squeezed his hand back!

A swarm of butterflies burst out of its enclosure in his gut, flying all over the place, making him feel all giddy and silly. He felt like he was going to burst open, the excited butterflies wanted out, they wanted to fly free and tell the whole world what a glorious day it was. He could feel hope invading his heart. He knew it might be a bad idea, he knew the fall would be bigger if he let himself hope, but it was too late. There was no stopping it. He was no longer in control of his own feelings, his feelings were being lead by Daesung and they would follow him to the ends of the Earth and beyond.

“Hey! Youngbae!!”

“Penguins are a type of fish right? Bird-fish?” Daesung snorted, smiling his pretty little angel smile.