Eunhyuk woke in his bed, neatly tucked under the black covers. He squinted at the golden sunlight streaming through the window to his left and lifted his hand to shield his eyes. A sharp pain stabbed at his side when he moved.

“Ouch,” he gasped. As the dull sense of sleep faded, Eunhyuk realized that his whole body ached. Working through the pain he forced himself to sit up and ran his fingers through his hair.

“Why am I so sore?” he wondered out loud, gently stretching his back. The movement sent another sharp stab of pain through his body and a dark image of a man with a dragon tattoo flashed through his mind.

“Ah, that’s right. The men in the alley.” Eunhyuk sat in bed, trying to remember everything that had happened last night. The last thing he remembered was being surrounded by men, beating him, and then . . .

“Donghae!”

Eunhyuk scratched his head, trying to make sense of the jumbled images from last night. Donghae, wearing a ridiculous blue and silver spandex suit, wielding a metal pipe with deadly precision, and then flying.

Eunhyuk shook his head. “Pabo. Donghae can’t fly. I must have gotten hit in the head. But then, how did I end up back at the dorm?”

Suddenly, Donghae walked into the bedroom, carrying a large tray full of food. Startled, Eunhyuk jumped and then let out a moan as the pain flashed through his body.

“Eunhyuk!” Donghae set the tray down and gently pushed Eunhyuk back down on the bed. “Are you okay? You need to rest.”

Eunhyuk settled back onto the bed and leaned against the wall, rubbing his neck. “I feel like I got run over with a truck,” Eunhyuk confessed as Donghae set the tray of food in front of him. Eggs, kimchi pancakes, and rice were piled high. Eunhyuk’s stomach rumbled at the sight. He grabbed a pair of chopsticks and started to eat.

“Yeah, you had a pretty rough night,” Donghae replied as he picked up an egg and started to eat.

“Yeah. You know, I must have passed out or something because I was seeing the craziest things.”

“Like what?”

 “You’ll laugh at me, but I thought . . . I thought I saw you flying.” Eunhyuk laughed a little. “Pretty crazy, right?”

Donghae frowned at his friend. “But, I did fly.”

Eunhyuk paused, the kimchi pancake he was about to eat falling to the tray with a splat. After a moment he laughed. “Right. Don’t think that just because I got hit on the head I’m going to fall for that.”

Donghae stood up. “But it’s true.” Then, as though it were the easiest thing in the world, Donghae rose a few feet off the ground . “See?”

“Yah!” Eunhyuk jumped again, unable to believe what he was seeing. “H-how are you doing that?”

Donghae smiled. “I don’t know. I just do it.”

Donghae began to fly in slow circles around the room as Eunhyuk stared on in amazement. Soon he was adding in little flips and twirls. During the middle of one of his flips, Donghae accidentally flew into their clothing rack, which toppled to the floor, taking Donghae down with it. As he pulled a pair of jeans off his head, he looked at Eunhyuk sheepishly. “I haven’t been flying very long. I still need some more practice.”

Eunhyuk wasn’t sure what to say. His head was spinning. None of this made any sense. Suddenly Eunhyuk snapped his fingers. “I’m still asleep!” He laughed hysterically, beating his pillow. “I’m not crazy. I’m still sleeping and this is all a dream!”

Donghae cocked an eyebrow at his friend. “You sure you’re not crazy?” Donghae said skeptically as Eunhyuk rolled over on his back, still laughing.

Eunhyuk sat up, still smiling. “No, this is definitely a dream. Soon, Kim Yuna is going to walk through that door and say she’s in love with me and wants to marry me.”

Eunhyuk stared at the door expectantly, while Donghae stared at his friend with a look that said “Good-god-this-man-has-gone-crazy!”

As the seconds ticked past and no Yuna appeared, the smile slipped off of Eunhyuk’s face, reality sinking in. He looked at Donghae and whispered soberly, “I’m not dreaming, am I?”

Donghae shook his head. “Nope.”

Eunhyuk sighed and fell back against the wall. “This is crazy! Since when can you fly?”

“It’s been about a month,” Donghae said, joining Eunhyuk on the bed. “But, I’m so excited you know now! It’s been really hard trying to hide it from you.”

“Why were you trying to hide it from me?”

Donghae shrugged. “That’s what superheroes do. They hide their powers, have secret identities, and then use their powers for good.”

“So, you’re a super hero now?”

“Pretty cool, right?” Donghae said, a childish grin plastered to his face.

Eunhyuk shook his head, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that his best friend could fly. “Maybe you could start at the beginning. How did this happen?”

“I’m still trying to figure that out myself,” Donghae sighed. “It all started at the beginning of last month. Every night, I was having the same dream. Me, standing on the balcony of our dorm, looking down at the city, and then suddenly—WHAM!” Donghae clapped and Eunhyuk jumped again. “I would jump off the edge. But I never fell and instead I would start flying around the city.

“At first it was really fun, flying in my dreams. I wouldn’t want to wake up, because the feeling of flying was so wonderful. Soon, I couldn’t think of anything else. During rehearsal, at shows, when I was eating—all I could think about was that feeling of flying in my dreams.”

Eunhyuk was listening intently and nodded. He remembered how distracted Donghae seemed the past month, spacing out during rehearsals and appearances. Suddenly that all made sense.

“So, one morning I found myself awake before anyone else and I walked out to the balcony. The sky was a light purple, blue and I could still see a few stars as the night was slowly becoming morning.” Donghae spoke, recalling the memory, with a far-away look on his face. “The breeze tickling my cheek, the smell of the river, and the color of the sky—it was exactly like my dream.”

Donghae paused, frowning at the sheets, as though looking for the right words to continue. Eunhyuk waited patiently, enthralled in his friends story.

“I . . . I can’t really explain the feeling. Everything felt so familiar and so right, but there was also this empty feeling right here.” Donghae placed a hand over his chest. “Like, suddenly my dream was all ready and laid out before me, waiting for me to experience it in real life. And I wanted to have that feeling of flying be for real and not just a dream.”

Donghae sighed and the dreamy look faded from his face as he lowered his hand from his chest. He looked Eunhyuk in the eyes. “Looking back, it was probably a crazy thing to do, Hyuk Jae, but I decided to jump. I got up on the railing, took a deep breath, and jumped.”

Eunhyuk’s mouth hung wide open. “What happened next?”

Donghae laughed. “Obviously, I flew! I’d be dead if I hadn’t, pabo.”

“Wah!” Eunhyuk grinned. “Daebak! Was it better than your dream?”

Donghae grinned back. “Much better. Flying is better than sleeping and better than eating. After that day, I couldn’t get enough. Every spare second I got, I flew. But, I still had work and didn’t have as much time to fly as I wanted. So I started flying at night, when all my schedules were over.”

“So, that’s what you’ve been up to,” Eunhyuk said, the puzzle pieces starting to fall into place. “I knew something was off and that you weren’t sleeping, but I never imagined this was why. So basically, you’re just flying around the city all night.”

“Well, that’s what it started out as, yes.” Donghae rubbed a hand through his dark hair. “But, now it’s become a lot more important than that.”

“Important how?”

“As I flew I began to notice things. Women screaming as their husbands beat them, masked men breaking into stores, and one night a girl standing on the edge of the bridge looking down into the water.

“When I got closer I could see that she was crying and the look in her eyes scared me. I couldn’t help it—I called out to her.

“‘Are you an angel?’ she asked, the tears streaming down her face. ‘Has God answered my prayer and sent an angel?’

“I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded and the girl smiled. ‘God is kind to send an angel that looks like Donghae,’ she said. ‘He has kind eyes. You have kind eyes too, angel.’

“‘Why are you up here?’ I asked. ‘It’s late. You should be home in bed.’

“She began to cry again. ‘I don’t want to live in this rotten world anymore,’ she said. ‘It’s too hard! People are too cruel. All I see is darkness now. There’s no light.’

“She told me about her life. Her family was poor and she didn’t have any friends. Her classmates made fun of her because she was poor and didn’t do well in school. Then last year, her mom died.” Here Donghae had to pause, but when he continued his voice was thick with emotion. ““And her classmates began making fun of her because she didn’t have a mom.”

Tears spilled down Donghae’s cheeks. Eunhyuk’s throat felt tight and tears stung at his eyes too. People were too cruel sometimes.

Donghae shook his head and looked at Eunhyuk through his tears. “So, she wanted to end her life to get away from the people who hated her and be reunited with her mom. Before I knew what was happening, she jumped. I dove after her into the water, but I couldn’t find her. I couldn’t save her.”

By now, Donghae’s body was shaking. “I found an article online two days later. Nam Ji Min was her name.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Eunhyuk said, placing a hand on Donghae’s knee. “She would have done it with or without you there.”

Donghae nodded and took a deep breath. “I couldn’t help Ji Min, but after that night I began to look at all of this differently. I began thinking about everything I was witnessing as I flew and then I started to feel guilty. Do you remember in Spider-Man where the man says, ‘With great power comes great responsibility?’ I’d been given this great power, but what was I doing with it?

“So, I did what Peter Parker did—decided to use my power to help people, especially those who are too weak to defend themselves.”

“Daebak,” Eunhyuk whispered. He had always loved and respected Donghae, but after hearing this his love and respect for his friend had deepened so much more. “You really are a superhero.”

Donghae smiled sadly. “I’m trying. But I soon realized there were a couple problems with my plan to be a superhero. First, I wasn’t very good at fighting, and second, if I was close enough to help people they would recognize me. So, I started taking Taekwondo lessons and asked our coordi noona to make me a super hero suit.”

“Really? So that blue and silver suit really exists? Cape and all?”

Donghae nodded and laughed. “Cape and all. I told her it was for a special stage I wanted to do.”

“Wow.” Eunhyuk shook his head, staring in awe at his friend. “I seriously don’t know what to say right now.”

“You don’t have to say anything. I’m just glad you know now. That’s going to make things a lot easier. And it’s always nice to have a friend on your side.”

Eunhyuk smiled at Donghae, when suddenly his phone started vibrating loudly on the nightstand. Eunhyuk reached over to see that Leeteuk was calling him.

“Ah, hyung,” Eunhyuk answered casually. “What’s up?”

“Where are you?” Leeteuk shouted and Eunhyuk quickly pulled the phone away from his ear. “We have the Inkigayo recording in 20 minutes! Please tell me you’re on your way.”

Donghae and Eunhyuk stared at each other in horror. “Um . . . we’re still at the dorm.”

“WHAT? Crap. You’re never going to make it in time.”

Both Eunhyuk and Donghae stood from the bed and hastily threw on some clothes from off the floor.  As he tugged a t-shirt over his head, Eunhyuk replied into the phone, “We’re on our way, don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry? Your dorm is at least 30 minutes away from Inkigayo and the roads are horrible with morning traffic! How are you going to get here?!”

Suddenly, an idea struck Eunhyuk. “Don’t worry, hyung. We have a special ride. We’ll be there in 10 minutes.”

Without waiting for a reply, Eunhyuk clicked the phone shut and turned to Donghae, grinning. “Let’s see how fast you can really fly.”