prompt: You live in a world when your chest glows when you found your soul mate.

Being the son of an inventor wasn't fun, especially when you became their favorite test subject. It was even more irritating when you were testing the invention and your father refused to tell you what it was supposed to do.

"Let's just see if it works first. Then you'll know. Finding out if half the fun, don't you think?"

No, no it really wasn't. Most of the time the inventions didn't work, and Woohyun would end up in the doctor's office yet again with a new laceration or burn. And worst of all, if the invention didn't do what it was supposed to, his father would never tell him its purpose. He was too ashamed. Which left Woohyun in a perpetual state of curiosity. He spent many sleepless nights wondering what these gadgets were supposed to do (other than land him in the hospital). Then eventually he took matters into his own hands. Behind his father's back, he would take the discarded, failed inventions from the dumpsters and fix them. And he did fix several of them. The flying machine soared through the sky, and the pocket hand warmer actually warmed his hands and not set them aflame. Every time he would fix something, he would want to run and tell his father about it, but each time he stopped dead in his tracks. The only reason why he was successful was because his father had failed. And for the sake of their relationship, after fixing them, Woohyun would break them again and return them to the dumpster in the alley. It would have to be his little secret.

But Woohyun came across something that he couldn't fix. Since birth, he had a weak heart, and all of his father's experimentations only made it worse. Then, when he turned 20, his heart stopped after one of his father's inventions had sent a jolt through his body. He died that day; the doctor even pronounced it at 2:43 in the afternoon.

But at 2:46, he was alive again. His father had quickly rewired the invention, sending constant jolts to restart his son's heart. And with the help of the doctor, they were able to attach the gadget into his chest so that it could always set his heart's pace. It wasn't what the invention was for, but it saved his son's life. And that was the best result he could ask for.

Woohyun, thankfully, healed well. His heart stopped barely long enough for his brain to become damaged, but he had to live the rest of his life with a clunky piece of brass attached to his chest. He was very self-conscious of it, and since it could always be seen through his thin button down shirts, he took to wearing vests to cover it up. Even when the air was hot and muggy, he would still wear his wool vests. It made him look nice, but also made him very sweaty.

But the protection of his vest did not ward away the analytic eyes of his father. "Has it done anything yet?" he would always ask after Woohyun would catch him staring.

"Except for keeping me alive, no." Then his father would look disappointed and turned his attention back to tinkering. But Woohyun's curiosity was once again ignited. "Why? What's it supposed to do?"

His father would shrug and a knowing smile would form on his face. "Let's just see if it works first. Then you'll know. Finding out is half the fun, don't you think?"

Woohyun figured that he would never find out at this rate. This gadget, he was too afraid to try to fix it. He had asked his doctor if there was something odd about it, but he just replied that it just seemed like a make-shift pacemaker and nothing more. 

And when Woohyun asked if that he could replace it with an actual pacemaker, the doctor shook his head. It was too risky. His heart could stop again. And so Woohyun had to live with this bronze mysterious chunk on his chest, not knowing what exactly it was. His curiosity was slowly eating him up.

And it seemed like he would never receive an answer, or at least not from his father. In an ironic twist of fate, Woohyun’s father did die because of an invention; it just wasn’t his own. A rouge steam-powered car hurtled down the street and took his father along with it. His father was just running a simple errand with his mother. And now, after witnessing the metal crunching around and enveloping her husband, she was never the same.

That’s not to say she was normal to begin with. Just like his father, Woohyun’s mother was not without her eccentricities (at times, Woohyun thought he was the only sane one in his family). She always had a habit of talking to herself, narrating her daily activities. And for some reason, she always distrusted banks. These little oddities were only amplified after his father’s death. Not only did she talk to herself more, but Woohyun could swear that she heard him address his father from time to time like a ghost haunting her. She also withdrew all of their money from the bank and hid it within random places all around the house. On more than one occasion she had accidentally burned a large pile of money that she had hid earlier in the oven for “safe-keeping.”

Her only solace in her tumult was baking. The mixing and stirring and whatnot distracted her from her own thoughts. And so she baked from almost dawn until desk dusk. Woohyun decided to make the best of it and helped his mother open a bake shop. He, however, had his own shop to tend to; he had converted his father’s old gadget store into a repair shop. He worked there while his mother tended to the bakery. They would meet each other for meals, when they would chat (and sometimes his mother would try to involve her “husband” into the conversation). But other than that, they practically lived parallel lives, leaving Woohyun to wonder if he had lost a mother along with his father.

Woohyun wasn’t lonely though. He had a friend, Myungsoo, who was the son of his doctor, and so it was natural for them to become friends after Woohyun visited the doctor’s office so frequently. Even their fathers became best friends because of it.  And just like everyone else in his life, Myungsoo also had a slew of his own quirks. He was spacey, yet erratic, loyal to a fault, and fell in love too easily. Which was the reason why Myungsoo had forced Woohyun to close up his shop early and was now dragging him down the streets. Myungsoo had fallen in love with a florist, and he needed Woohyun to come and see the girl who stole his heart (and hopefully give his approval). She had long, wavy hair and an innocent looking-face. She was his perfect girl all except…

“She doesn’t even understand Korean!” Woohyun argued. Lately, several immigrants had been flooding into the city from countries across the globe, and Myungsoo’s new love happened to be one of them. “And you think she speaks French.” Myungsoo wasn’t even fazed and kept nodding happily, tugging his friend down the packed street. “You don’t even know French!”

“I can always learn,” Myungsoo retorted. He stopped and turned around. “Bonjour!” he greeted with a large smile and wave, but then his face fell into a serious expression. “See, I’m already learning.” He tugged again on Woohyun’s arm. “We have to hurry. Her shop will close soon.”

“Myungsoo,” Woohyun said with a warning tone, not looking forward to nursing a heartbroken friend again. He pulled his arm from Myungsoo’s grip.

Myungsoo turned around. “Hyung! Oh…” his voice dropped along with his eyes. He was now staring at Woohyun’s chest, right at his pacemaker.

Woohyun self-consciously put his hand over the slight obtrusion and stepped closer to his friend. “What?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Myungsoo immediately shook his head. “I just thought…nah, that’s crazy.” He turned around. “Come on. Let’s go! Allons-y!” Woohyun just rolled his eyes and followed his now Francophile friend.

And the visit to the pretty florist went pretty much how Woohyun had expected. Myungsoo went up to the register with a single rose, and said “Bonjour” proudly. The florist was delighted to see someone speak her mother tongue and French words began spilling from like a river. Myungsoo’s face quickly fell and his eyes darted around in confusion. He didn’t know how to respond or even what she was saying. And after saying “oui” multiple times, he roughly dropped a couple of coins onto the counter and ran out of the shop with the rose. Woohyun laughed and put his arm around the shoulders of his now depressed friend, who was picking off the petals from the rose. “Next time,” Woohyun encouraged, giving the shoulder a couple of pats. “Next time you’ll know what to say.” Myungsoo just nodded and muttered something about studying more. But when they reached closer to home, Myungsoo finally lifted up his head and was about to say something to Woohyun but he stopped in his tracks and his jaw dropped. “Huh? What is it?”

“Hyung…you’re glowing,” Myungsoo stuttered, pointing at his chest.

Woohyun looked down and sure enough his pacemaker was emitting a pulsating light. The beam was so strong, it was shining through his thick gray vest. “Holy !” Woohyun exclaimed putting his hands over it. “What’s going on?”

“I-I don’t know!” Myungsoo stammered, peeling himself away from the other and staring in astonishment. “I-I thought y-you were glowing earlier but…”

“I what?! Why didn’t you tell me?” Woohyun yelled, stepping closer to Myungsoo threateningly. Myungsoo was stepping back with each step the other took forward. “Wh-“

“Oh, it stopped,” Myungsoo spoke with an odd calm.

Woohyun looked down, and sure enough, all he could see was dark gray wool. He threw back his head, sighing in relief. His heart was okay, but then again…it did something. His father’s invention did something. Was this it’s original purpose? What was it? His curiosity was ignited, and now its flame was consuming him whole. He stepped backwards, once, twice. His chest began glowing again. He looked about him for any hanging wires that might be interfering with the electromagnetic field. There were none. Woohyun closed his eyes. Of course, if that was it, this would have happened when I walked by before. He opened his eyes again and saw Myungsoo, whose eyes were glued to his chest in amazement. “Myung, do you notice anything new around here?”

Myungsoo quickly looked around and shook his head. “No.” Woohyun groaned. His friend was too oblivious to notice subtle changes. But then again, was he oblivious too because there seemed to be no new wires, no new anything that would probably interfere with his pacemaker. But it must be something in this area, Woohyun concluded.

After exploring the spot on the street for half an hour and finding nothing (not even when Woohyun jumped or rolled on the ground), the two called it a day and went home. But Woohyun’s curiosity was not sated. The next day was Sunday, and so he could devote his whole afternoon to finding the answer. He practically jogged to that patch of street, excited to solve this riddle, but he was disappointed to see that his pacemaker remained still and cold. No matter what he did, whether running or spinning or rubbing up against the wall, it wouldn’t glow like it did the day before. With slumped shoulders and a heavy heart, he went home.

But as he was laying in bed that night, his mind busy trying to work out this new puzzle, Woohyun almost didn’t notice that his chest began to glow again, faintly and weak. He hurriedly looked around his bedroom and out the window. All he could make out in the moonlight was a slim figure walking down the street. The pacemaker’s light went out as soon as that figure turned the corner. Woohyun then slumped back down onto his bed in confusion as he rubbed his chest. Was it possible that whoever made his pacemaker react like this wasn’t a thing but a person? Woohyun shook that ridiculous thought quickly out of his head. That person must have had a pacemaker too or something to that extent.

He placed his head on his pillow and let out a sigh, with his hand still laying on his chest. “Dad, what is this?”

The next day he closed up his store again. He was going to do what he should have done when it first happened: he was going to see Dr. Kim. As he was hanging the “closed” sign on his door, he turned around and yelped in surprise. “Myung! Don’t scare me like that!” he exclaimed, clutching his chest.

“Sorry!” Myungsoo quickly apologized, giving Woohyun a loose hug.

“Forget it,” Woohyun replied, pulling away from his friend. “I was actually about to go to your place. Maybe your dad knows something.”

“Oh about,” he gestured towards his own heart. Woohyun nodded. “But before we do that, can you come with me to the floral shop again? I learned some more French yesterday. I think I know what she said to me.” His eyes widened. “I shouldn’t have said yes to some of those things.”

Woohyun sighed. “Alright, just for five minutes.”

“Thanks hyung!”

They were walking down the street on their way to the pretty florist, and Myungsoo was practicing his speech in French that he had prepared earlier. Woohyun stopped paying attention to that nonsense as he noticed that they were approaching that peculiar spot on the street. And as he stepped within it, he began glowing again. Woohyun cursed, “This didn’t happen yesterday.”

“Hm? You came here yesterday?” Myungsoo asked. But then he excitedly hit Woohyun on the shoulder repeatedly as he pointed to the sign right across of them. “Oh! It must be the bank! It’s closed on Sundays.”

Woohyun stared at the brick building curiously. “It might be,” he mused. Then he felt a slight shove. “Hey!”
“Hyung! Just go inside and take a look around. What can go wrong?” He had a good point. There was no harm in just browsing. Myungsoo could tell that he had won his friend over. He smiled widely and pushed Woohyun into the bank. “Allons-y!”

“Yah! Do you even know any more French?” Woohyun teased.

“! He has a bomb!”

“Merde,” apparently Myungsoo did know some more French, and apparently it wasn’t so harmless for Woohyun to walk into the bank, especially with a chest lit up like a timed bomb. Within a few seconds, he and Myungsoo were tackled to the ground.

“Howon, don’t be a hero!” some woman cowering behind her desk yelled at her coworker who was now straddling Woohyun and tearing at his clothes. The buttons from his vest and shirt were sent flying into the air.

“Yah!” Woohyun yelled, trying to push off the other and protect his chest. “It’s not a bomb! It’s my heart!”

However, the aggressive banker didn’t believe him until he peeled the shirt away from Woohyun’s chest. “It-it’s not a bomb,” he stammered in shock.

“No ,” Woohyun retorted, pulling his shirt back over his exposed chest. “Now get off!” He tried to get up again, but he was quickly pinned back down.

“Not so fast. We have a few questions to ask you, Woohyun-ssi,” the man declared and smirked, revealing his sharp canines.

“H-how do you know who I am?”

With his hands handcuffed behind his back, Woohyun was lead into an interrogation room, which was apparently lined with something that blocked out frequencies and magnetic fields because as soon as Woohyun entered and the door was closed, the light in his chest dimmed. “Oh it turned off,” the man apparently named Howon announced. “Why did it do that?”

Woohyun held his shirt closed over his chest. Most of his buttons were still on the lobby floor. “I don’t know. That’s why I came into the bank,” he answered with a shrug.

Howon cocked an eyebrow. “You came into a bank because your chest was glowing?” he challenged.

“My chest glows because of the bank,” Woohyun snapped back.

“But it’s not now.”

“I know!” Woohyun grumbled. “I know.” He closed his eyes and attempted to calm down his anger boiling inside of him. Getting angry will only worsen the situation. But Woohyun’s fuse was getting shorter. Not only was Howon-ssi treating him contemptuously, but now he was now closer to solving the mystery of his pacemaker. What is it? Why is my heart like this?

“Curious, especially considering your mother’s feelings towards the bank,” Howon said with his cocky smirk.

“Huh?”

“Look. It’s common knowledge that your mother irrationally hates banks. She made a huge scene the last time she was here.” Woohyun swallowed hard, recalling his mother screaming at the tellers and throwing potted plants (the bankers couldn’t understand why she wanted to withdraw everything). It was only a few days after they’d buried his father. She was sensitive. “Obviously,” Howon derailed his thoughts. “She coerced you into doing this. All a part of her master plan of destroying banks everywhere.”

Woohyun snorted. “That’s ridiculous.”

Howon opened his mouth again, but he was halted by a knock at the door. He got up from his chair, walked over to the door, and opened it. “Ah! Sunggyu-ssi, do you have the files?”

“Yes, it’s rather thick, isn’t it?” Woohyun could hear a second voice but  could not see the source. The heavy door was blocking him. Howon and the other man was making idle chatter about the silly file, but Woohyun was too caught up in this familiar feeling, like a warm heat sending sparks across his skin. Don’t tell me? He looked down. His pacemaker was glowing again.

“Yah!” was the only intelligent thing he could imagine saying at the moment. But it worked. Howon turned his attention away from the man and looked at Woohyun. His jaw dropped.

“Y-you’re glowing again!” he exclaimed, pointing at Woohyun. He then turned towards his colleague. “Yah! Leave the room.” The man apparently did because Howon was able to close the door, and the light went out in Woohyun’s pacemaker. Howon opened the door again. “Come back in,” he ushered the other. The light returned to Woohyun’s chest. After making the man cross over (and back) the threshold multiple times, causing Woohyun’s pacemaker to flicker like a lightning storm.  Howon allowed the man to enter the room completely. “It’s you.”

“Me?” the hidden man finally walked away from the cover of the door, and Woohyun could finally see him. He was…a little disappointed. He was expecting someone extraordinary, and possibly part robot. Someone big and impressive enough to cause his pacemaker to act erratically. But this, this Kim Sunggyu was average, all except for his eyes. Those were smaller than average. Woohyun pouted and slumped in his chair. Slowly he looked up again, and their gazes met. “I’m doing that to him?”

“Looks like it,” Howon concluded with his hand on his hips. He then patted Sunggyu’s shoulder. “I’ll leave the paperwork to you then. It looks like this is your problem.” Howon left the room.

Sunggyu fell into the chair, a large pout forming on his face. He narrowed his eyes on the man across from him. “Thanks a lot,” he grumbled.

Woohyun scoffed, “I could say the same.”

The door suddenly opened again. It was Myungsoo and his father. Myungsoo was looking around frantically searching for his friend, and when his eyes landed on Woohyun, he ran over to him, threw his coat over his friend’s chest, and gave him a hug. Woohyun chuckled a little at his friend’s reaction. “I brought my dad. He told them about your situation. You’re cleared to go.” He then pulled away. “Oh, you’re still glowing.”

Woohyun nodded and then looked past his friend to the doctor behind him. “Hey Doc, can we bring this guy with us to get checked out?”

Dr. Kim nodded. “Sure thing.”

“Yah! Who are you calling guy? And where do you want me to go? I’m not going to the doctor. No way!” Sunggyu argued, clutching onto his chair, refusing to move.

But they did manage to pull Sunggyu off of the chair after much struggling (and it wasn’t until Myungsoo started tickling him, did Sunggyu let go). And now both of them were shirtless on a sterile table in Dr. Kim’s office. Dr. Kim was listening to their heartbeats and taking notes on them. And Sunggyu was growing exceedingly nervous, if his shaking legs were any indication. Woohyun had to admit that this was an awkward first encounter, but seeing that he was approaching closer to the truth of his pacemaker, he didn’t care much. “Yah! Stop moving. You’re making the whole table shake,” Woohyun spoke the first words to the other since the entered the room.

“I can’t help it. I’m nervous,” the other mumbled, glancing at the clock.

Woohyun followed his eyes. It was almost dinnertime. He had to go back to his mother. “Do you need to go home? Is someone waiting for you?”

Sunggyu shook his head. “No, I live alone,” he spoke, looking down at his still swinging legs. “I just moved here.”

Woohyun chewed on his lower lip. This man was looking sadder, more pitiful with each passing second. Sunggyu obviously had a fear of doctors, and Woohyun forced him right into a doctor’s office and a barge of tests. And now to learn that he was living alone, Woohyun felt worse. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. Sunggyu looked up at him, confused. Woohyun let out a deep breath before continuing. “It’s just that I don’t know why this,” he pointed to his still glowing chest. “is happening. But you’re part of the reason.” Sunggyu nodded and diverted his gaze. “Do you want to come over for dinner?”

Sunggyu snapped his head back towards him. “Huh?”

“As an apology,” Woohyun quickly blurted out. “You just said you were lonely.”

“I said I lived alone, not that I was lonely!”

“You should go,” Dr. Kim interjected. Woohyun blinked. He had forgotten that the doctor was still there. “His mother is the best baker in the city. You won’t regret it,” he ended with a closed lip smile much like his son’s.

“O-okay,” Sunggyu relented.

“Now Sunggyu-ssi, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I need to inspect Woohyun’s pacemaker, and I prefer if it wasn’t glowing,” the doctor joked.

“Yes, sir,” Sunggyu slid off of the table and reached for his shirt.

“Oh, don’t put that on just yet,” Dr. Kim warned. “We still have some tests that we need to run on you.”

“Great,” Sunggyu mumbled as he walked out of the room and was met with a nurse who led him to another examination room.

Once Sunggyu was gone and Woohyun’s chest became normal again, Dr. Kim began examining Woohyun’s pacemaker. “It seems fine. It appears to be made to emit that light, and for a long time too. It has enough energy to do both, so there’s no need to worry,” the doctor concluded after poking around inside of the gadget. As he was closing it back up again, he admitted with a small smile, “Your father was a brilliant man.”

Woohyun blinked in astonishment. “Y-you know what it does?”

“I have my suspicions,” he teased.

Woohyun scooted closer to the edge of the table. “Tell me, Doc!” he begged. “Tell me,” he added a slight whine.

The doctor just laughed and threw a shirt at the other. “Finding out is half the fun,” he joked.

“Aish! No wonder why you two were best friends.”

That night, Sunggyu followed Woohyun home. The other was quite shaken because they made him get a full body scan in this loud and cramped machine. Sunggyu kept complaining about how his ears were still ringing from it, and he became gloomy after hearing that they didn’t put Woohyun through the same torture because of his heart. And Woohyun hoped that his mother’s excellent cooking would be enough to finally put a smile on this man’s face. Woohyun made him frown too much today for his own liking.

When they entered the house and found Woohyun’s mother cooking in the kitchen, Woohyun called out to her (before Sunggyu could realize that she was talking to herself). She turned around with her dulled eyes, but as soon as they fell on her son’s chest, they reflected the glowing light, making them look alive once again. “Oh, sweetie, you’re glowing,” she spoke in a monotone voice.

“Eung, and I brought a friend. Mom, this is Kim Sunggyu. He makes me glow,” he said cheerfully, hoping that his mother would adopt a cheery demeanor as well.

“Um, hello, m’am,” Sunggyu greeted her with a deep bow. And as he pulled himself back up straight, Woohyun saw something grace his mother’s face that he hadn’t seen in ages.

“It’s good to meet you, Sunggyu,” her voice even sounded lighter. “Please take a seat. Dinner will be ready in a bit.”

The dinner was delicious like Woohyun had expected it to be, but he didn’t expect the conversation to be so lively and jovial. His mother smiled and laughed and didn’t act as if she’d been living with a ghost for years. Woohyun’s chest grew as warm as it looked. And even Sunggyu smiled too. Woohyun liked it. He wished that the other would smile more. But somewhere in the evening, Woohyun realized how his mother managed to be so happy. Sunggyu was sitting where his father used to, filling in the seat that been empty for so long. Their table was complete.

And Woohyun was tempted to invite Sunggyu over for every meal; it made his mother happy.

But he didn’t, and because he had closed up shop for a whole day, Woohyun was holed up in his shop for the next few days, doing repairs. Sunggyu, he assumed, continued to work at the bank. And life went back on track, for the most part. But everytime Woohyun found a little roll of bills that his mother had stuffed in a crevice in his shop, he wondered what the banker was doing, if he was eating well, where he was. He was tempted to use his chest as a radar to find the other, but Woohyun held himself back. He had already put the other through enough strange things to last the other a lifetime. Sunggyu wasn’t used to being a human guinea pig like Woohyun was.

And so one slow afternoon, Woohyun was surprised when he felt his chest heat up and tingle. He looked down. He was glowing again. Sunggyu was close. He immediately put down the radio he was working on and rushed to the window, seeing if he could catch a glimpse of the man. His eyes scanned the street, but Sunggyu was nowhere in sight. Woohyun decided that he must’ve had a blind spot from the window, and so he went outside to see if he could see better. But he still couldn’t find Sunggyu. He looked down again. “No. No!” The light was growing dim. He must have just missed the other. Woohyun slumped down onto the stairs leading to his shop. With his elbows resting on his knees, his chin was fixed to his chest, watching the light dim into nothing. He then sighed when it went entirely out. A part of him felt silly, being so excited to see the man who he met just a few days before. But he has this effect on me, Woohyun thought as he rubbed his chest. I want to know why.

But then the tips of his fingers began to glow pink. Woohyun quickly removed his hand and saw that he was glowing again. Sunggyu’s back. He quickly stood up and looked down the street, his head darting back and forth until he saw him. Sunggyu was walking, clutching a bag from his mother’s bakery and stuffing a powered sweet into his mouth. Woohyun waved and called out to him, “Sunggyu-ssi!”

Sunggyu was startled and quickly swallowed the food in his mouth as he approached Woohyun’s steps. “Woohyun-ssi,” he coughed out after inhaling too much of the powdered sugar. “I just came back from your mother’s shop.”

“I can see that,” Woohyun replied, resting on the iron handrail for his stairs.

“She didn’t seem to remember me though,” Sunggyu remarked sadly, wiping the crumbs and sugar dust from his face. “Honestly, she seemed out of it. Is she doing okay?”

Woohyun bit his lip, wondering how much to divulge to this almost stranger. “No different from normal,” he answered, tapping his fingers on the railing nervously. “Last time, you found her in a cheery mood. Normally she’s…”

“Depressed?” Sunggyu filled in the blank. Woohyun hung his head and nodded. Sunggyu then cleared his throat, realizing how tense things were getting. He changed the subject, “I was also trying to find you. But I didn’t know that you had your own shop.”

Woohyun lifted his head and a charming smile appeared across his face. “Do you want to come in and see it?”

“Sure.”

Apparently Sunggyu had never been in a repair shop before. He was impressed by the mass of gadgets and such littering the store. He was fascinated by Woohyun’s tools that could fix such things. Woohyun thought him to be like a kid walking through a candy store for the first time. Sunggyu’s eyes lit up at everything he saw. And his curious hands touched everything within reach (which Woohyun had to slap away on more than one occasion).

“So you said that you were trying to find me?” Woohyun asked as he pulled Sunggyu away from a faulty radiator. Sunggyu nodded. “Why?”

“I was curious,” he said in a distracted voice as he examined a toy train. “Did you ever figure out why it does that?” He finally looked up at Woohyun and nodded towards his glowing chest.

“No, but I’m starting to think it’s a Sunggyu detector,” Woohyun joked. “It always knows when you’re around.”

Sunggyu put down the train and side-eyed Woohyun. “It doesn’t light up for anybody else?”

“Not that I know of,” Woohyun replied. Then he saw a quick and big smile flash across Sunggyu’s face. “Hul! You like it,” Woohyun jeered at the other.

“No I don’t,” Sunggyu blubbered, pretending to find something interesting on the other side of the room. But he couldn’t hide from Woohyun who was following him, and he also couldn’t hide his smile which was growing larger.

“Yea, you do! You’re beaming,” Woohyun teased, poking the other in the cheek.

Sunggyu slapped Woohyun’s hand away and pointed to Woohyun’s chest. “Well, you’re glowing,” he argued.

Woohyun blushed and put his hand over his heart, clutching it. “I know. I wish it would stop,” he muttered under his breath.

Sunggyu looked him up and down with an odd expression. “Well…in that case. I guess I’ll see you around,” he suddenly announced and made his way to the door.

“Sunggyu-ssi! I didn’t mean …” but it was too late. The door closed behind Sunggyu, and Woohyun’s light began to dim again. Woohyun sat down on his stool at his workbench, flicking the screwdriver in front of him in circles. He didn’t know what he’d said wrong. He didn’t mean for the other to leave. He just wanted to stop glowing. Woohyun let out a groan and hung his head. And that’s when he realized that he hadn’t stopped glowing, and the bell on his shop door rang.

“I left something,” Sunggyu spoke sheepishly, reaching for the bag of baked goods.

But Woohyun grabbed them first and placed them out of the other’s reach, earning a very annoyed glance from the other. “Sunggyu-ssi, you can stay,” Woohyun said carefully, putting the bag down. “I don’t mind.”

Sunggyu sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I know it can’t be easy for you to be with me. It’s okay,” he explained. He then stared down at his feet and softly spoke, “I…I don’t want to mess up your heart.”

Woohyun chuckled, causing the other to snap his head up again. “It’s already messed up,” Woohyun said between chuckles. “I already died once. And if that taught me anything, it’s to appreciate the moment, right now.” He then leaned across the work bench and brought his face closer to Sunggyu. “And right now, I want to spend it with you.”

Sunggyu retched and pushed the other’s face away. “Keep saying stuff like that, and I’m really out of here,” he declared. And Woohyun quickly pursed his lips and made a gesture, pretending to lock them shut. Sunggyu laughed, but then something on the bench caught his eye. “Oh, what’s this?”

They passed the rest of the afternoon casually talking as Woohyun fixed various gadgets. Every so often, he would have to answer Sunggyu’s questions about what something did or how it worked. And Woohyun was impressed by how quickly the other absorbed information. Soon Sunggyu was using the technical vocabulary Woohyun often spoke in, and asking more specific questions, referring to certain valves and circuits.

But Woohyun had some questions of his own, not about banking though (that topic bored him). His were of a more personal nature. And after Sunggyu had talked so gently about his parents and sister, Woohyun found himself asking, “Why did you move?” Sunggyu put down the wrench he was playing with and tilted his head. “I mean, you seem to actually like your family. They’re not weird and strange like mine. So why did you leave?”

“Because,” Sunggyu began slowly, either fighting to find appropriate words or fighting with himself, wondering how much he should reveal to the other. “I felt…average there, and I didn’t want to be. I wanted to stand out, become something. So I moved to a city with a larger population and became a banker.” He laughed sadly at the irony of it all. “I’m fading even more,” he said with a great sigh. He then shly glanced up at Woohyun. “I never felt like I was special…until now.”

Woohyun looked down and pointed to his radiating pacemaker. “Because of this?” Sunggyu nodded. “Because of me?”

Sunggyu ignored the last question and leaned forward. His eyes did not leave the pacemaker. “This is weird, isn’t it?” he whispered like it was a secret. “Why does it do that?”

Woohyun was starting to feel uncomfortable under the other’s intense gaze. His hand flew to cover the pacemaker. “I don’t know,” he whispered.

Sunggyu inched closer. “Does it hurt?”

“No.”

“Does it feel hot?”

Woohyun rubbed his chest. “No, not really,” he answered. “Just warm.”

Sunggyu’s eyes finally left the pacemaker and met with Woohyun’s. “Can I see it?” he plead, his eyes shining with curiosity. Woohyun wondered if he looked like that too whenever curiosity overtook him. So Woohyun indulged him and ed his vest and shirt. He then pulled it to the side, revealing the ugly brass hunk that had been attached to his chest. And it was even uglier now, since his own skin had fastened itself to the metal and growing over it slightly. Now it was so assimilated into his body, it was nearly impossible to remove. But as ugly as it was (and perhaps it was made prettier because it was glowing and blurring out its imperfections), Sunggyu still looked upon it with such wonder and amazement. And like with everything else in the shop, his hand started to slowly come closer to it. His fingers were as curious as his eyes. But Sunggyu stopped it about an inch or two from Woohyun’s skin. He looked up at Woohyun. “Can I touch it?” he asked. Woohyun nodded. And Sunggyu’s cold fingertips made contact with his warm skin and brass.

But then Woohyun felt a spark fly, and Sunggyu immediately retracted his hand and stared at his fingertips. Woohyun placed his hands on the other’s forearms, rubbing them gently. “What happened?”  he whispered, searching Sunggyu for some sign of a feeling other than being stunned.

“Weird,” Sunggyu murmured. “This is really weird, isn’t it?” he looked up at Woohyun and spoke more loudly. But Woohyun didn’t respond. Sunggyu then grabbed his bag and headed towards the door.  “I’m leaving. It’s late.”

But to Woohyun it didn’t feel weird. It almost felt…natural.

A week went by, and Woohyun hadn’t seen Sunggyu. That’s not to say that he didn’t glow, though. Woohyun passed his bank several times, and Sunggyu apparently passed his shop too probably on his way to the bakery (and Sunggyu must have had a major sweet tooth because he was visiting the bakery almost daily). And so Woohyun had opportunities to go and find the other, but he thought, given how the other left, that it would be better if Sunggyu approached him first.

But Sunggyu’s last words had haunted him: “This is really weird.” Was the situation weird? Woohyun’s pacemaker? Or just Woohyun? Maybe Woohyun was eccentric just like his parents. He had tried so hard to be normal, but those efforts seem to be in vain. Fruits born from crooked roots are not well, apparently.

Myungsoo eventually visited him and asked about Sunggyu. Apparently, he had been able to wheedle out the purpose of the device from his father, but he refused to tell his friend. “This isn’t the type of thing you tell people. They have to find out for themselves. It’s better that way,” he stumbled to that conclusion.

“You’re just like our dads,” Woohyun scoffed. “Finding out is half the fun,” he mimicked with a sneer.

Myungsoo shook his head. “I didn’t say it was more fun. I said it was better.” Woohyun gave him a look, willing him to elaborate more on that point, but Myungsoo waved his hand and changed the subject. “Don’t worry about Sunggyu. He’ll come back. But did I tell you about the pretty florist? We actually talked today. Like a real conversation. And she told me her name too! It’s…”

Woohyun half-paid attention to his friend’s excited rambling. The other half of him was curious. How did he know that Sunggyu would come back? Why didn’t Myungsoo think that Woohyun was being a little obsessive about Sunggyu (because Woohyun sure felt that way sometimes)? Why didn’t he think this was a problem? And how did he know that he’d seen Sunggyu after their first meeting?

Woohyun dropped the brass plate that he’d been polishing. The cogs in his brain were finally meshing. He suddenly recalled the tests that Dr. Kim had run on Woohyun and Sunggyu. It wasn’t surprising that the doctor was concerned with Woohyun’s heart, but the doctor was also trying to figure out Sunggyu’s heartbeat and the frequency his body emitted. Woohyun had been right initially. His pacemaker was reacting to some sort of frequency or magnetic field, but not emanating from a coil or a wire, but from a person’s heart. And Sunggyu had just the right one to make Woohyun’s pacemaker go haywire.

Woohyun leaned against the work bench and rubbed his hands down his face. “No wonder why it felt so natural. Ugh! I can’t believe my dad made something like this!”

“Oh, did you figure it out?” Myungsoo guessed. “I told you that it was better for you to figure it out. I can’t just tell you that you’re supposed to be in love with someone. That’s weird.”

Woohyun let out a strangled laugh. “Yea, really weird.”

Myungsoo started to play with a receipt that was laying on the table. “I think it’s sweet,” he mused. And Woohyun watched his friend carefully fold the paper. “Your dad must’ve known that he’d end up in some incident. You know, given that he wasn’t exactly the safest person. He wanted to set you up. Help you find love. He was a good dad.”

Woohyun cocked his head. “I guess so…”

“Sunggyu will come back. He has to,” Myungsoo said as he got up from his stool. “But I have to go. I have a date. And this,” he showed Woohyun the little paper crane that he had just made, “can be your date for the night,” he ended with a chuckle. “Be nice to him.” And then he went out the door with a spring in his step.

After he left, Woohyun collapsed onto the table. His nose almost met with the beak of the crane. He the neck carefully with the tips of his fingers. “What am I going to do with you, Gyu?” he murmured. The bell on his door rang. “Yah! Kim Myungsoo! You can’t take my date. I won’t let you!”

“You have a date?” Sunggyu’s voice was weak, and he was hunched over as he entered the shop. He was nervous.

Woohyun straightened up and looked down. He must have not noticed that he was glowing earlier because his head was rest on the table. “Oh yea,” Woohyun choked out. His throat felt tight. He quickly cleared it. He put the crane in his palm and displayed it to Sunggyu. “Meet my date. Myungsoo made it for me.”

Sunggyu chuckled, and some of the tension lifted from the room. “With all this tech in here, I would think that you could build a better date,” he joked.

“Yea, but nothing compares to the real thing,” he blurted out and immediately wish that he could take back those words. How to tell someone that he’s supposed to love you without sounding crazy? Myungsoo was right. It’s better not knowing from the onset. In this case, finding out was the fun of it. Woohyun had already discovered it. And how to make Sunggyu see it too?

While his head was whirring with these thoughts, Sunggyu sat down right across from him. “Did you not get that fixed?” Sunggyu said, pointing at Woohyun’s pacemaker. The banker then picked up a screwdriver and pointed it against Woohyun’s heart. “Should I fix it for you?” he teased, gently screwing the head of the driver into the fibers of his vest.

“I think you already have,” Woohyun confessed. And it was true. All the pain and scars Woohyun held in his heart seemed to heal in the other’s warm presence. He didn’t even know how alone he felt until Sunggyu came along. And now it didn’t feel right without him. There was still that empty seat at their dinner table.

“Huh? How?” Sunggyu blubbered, retracting the screwdriver from the other. He inched closer and for just a second, his gaze fell from Woohyun’s and onto his lips. “Woohyun-ssi…”

Woohyun took this opportunity and leaned in, planting a short but soft kiss on the other’s lips. It was so brief that it felt like nothing more than a warm breeze. Woohyun smiled at seeing the other’s delightfully stunned expression. “By being you. By being my special someone.”

And either it didn’t take that much convincing to make Sunggyu see that they were supposed to be lovers, or perhaps he knew it all along because Sunggyu was quick to return the affection. His hand reached for Woohyun’s glowing heart, pulling him closer, and he kissed Woohyun back. It lasted longer than the one before but not by much. “Thanks for making me feel special.”

Woohyun chuckled and picked up the paper crane. “Sorry, buddy. It looks like I have a real date now,” he apologized and tossed the fake bird over his shoulder.

“You’re weird,” Sunggyu snorted, and Woohyun froze. But Sunggyu just smiled and rubbed his thumb along the other’s cheek. “But I like it.”

This time Woohyun didn’t hold himself back. He kissed Sunggyu with all the passion his weak heart could muster, and the other responded with just as much force and with his hand still holding the vest tightly right over the glowing light. They weren’t about to let each other go again.

And eventually, Woohyun did stop glowing. It was two weeks later, when Sunggyu had whispered in his ear for the first time, “I love you.” And Sunggyu almost had a heart attack of his own, thinking that he had broken Woohyun’s pacemaker…and Woohyun may have been playing dead for a bit to make Sunggyu think that way. But even in spite of that, Sunggyu still remained by his side and was a permanent fixture at their dinner table.