Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

And the day that Gaia officially recognised Seon-il and Jihan as lovers became the day they got together, no matter how strangely it occurred. 

After that original talk, Jihan did stay a while longer for the two to talk through the weighted issues that were grudgingly dragged up by both parties. It was safe to say that this relationship had Gaia’s blessing. Literally. Gaia is probably messing with the both of them and could be a Fujoshi. If we consider the fact that Jihan was given the ability to game in real-life the thought wasn’t all too far-fetched. 

Seon-il and Jihan approached the blossoming relationship with delicacy, both worried that one wrong move could destroy everything. One wrong move and they’d lose both the blinding bliss love embraced them with and the strongly built friendship that stacked strong over the years. 

Not to say there wasn’t a spark, but fire wasn’t lit from nothing so it was inevitable that affection shone stronger than lust. At least for the two of them, that is. Skipping past the heated sex because we’re dealing with a very fluffy couple here and this is not what the fic is about. 

As the days passed, touches and stares began to linger, and so did the sweet taste of the other on their lips. Everything was quite private except for one thing-

The marks. 

Probably inevitable. Since they’d been getting more intimate, the purple-red bruises that danced across Jihan’s skin became more evident. And harder to hide. Jihan didn’t understand why, he had a gamer’s body, and a gamer’s body didn’t receive bruises or scratches, not even a lost arm or leg. He was supposed to have an unchanging physical body. 

But maybe it had something to do with the title Seon-il got. 

Jihan saw his group of friends, what Seon-il now comfortably called his ‘harem’, every other day because they were all in the same class and pretty close. The only difference was that Seon-il was around more. With how long Seon-il had been keeping the crush for, it was simple to see why no one had figured it out yet. 

It had been about a month now, his mother was back and even she had yet to see through the true nature of their relationship. It was a mutual decision that it was probably better to keep quiet otherwise Seon-il’s grandpa would have a heart attack and things might get weird in the friend group. Which was the least desirable outcome because they still went to school together dammit!

Jihan’s mother would probably support it with vigor and that was the concerning part. 

“ Seon-il!” Jihan whined. He was in front of his bathroom mirror at home and was getting dressed and ready for school. The hickeys were just peeking out over his shirt collar and it was not nearly cold enough yet to be wearing a scarf. “ I told you to stop leaving marks!” 

Eyes fixed on the reflection of his bruised skin in the mirror, Jihan didn’t spare a glance at the figure he was berating, screen up to the side with his useful video call abilities. Memories of the night before brought up the phantom sensation of Seon-il’s touch. But Jihan threw the memory out the closest window before he could get distracted. 

“ Shit.” Jihan mumbled to himself, hand pulling his collar down and craning his neck to try and get a good look at the marks. “ Now I have to do another quad spell again.” 

“ Just do it.” Seon-il spoke through the call, voice coming through clearly. “ It’s not like you don’t have enough mana.” The man wasn’t really affected by the issue, knowing the broken extent of Jihan’s powers. 

“ Why a quad spell though? Can’t you just make it go away or something?” 

“ I have to layer them otherwise a part of my neck would just go invisible.” Jihan surveyed the damage this time. Keeping to himself that he didn’t just manually heal it away because a part of him didn’t want to. If he ever admitted it Seon-il would only be encouraged. 

‘Invisibility, camouflage, normalisation, cover.’ He thought mentally as the spell started up. Silent spells were actually getting easier. Huh. 

“ But your mana recovers scary-fast.” Seon-il tried pointing out once more. 

“ I’m not making it disappear. I layer an illusionary patch over it to hide it then recreate the regular visible texture of my skin. And since I don’t want to draw attention to it and our whole group of friends are all abyss people, I have to normalise the mana flow in the area to draw attention away from it to make sure it doesn’t get discovered.” It was a pretty long rant he just went on, complaining about technical Sorcery stuff, but not once did Seon-il shift his attention away. 

“ If someone finds out they’re going to start calling you the player instead of the gamer.” Seon-il joked. 

“ I don’t even want to think about it.” Though he was still technically the ‘player’ of the ‘game’. Jihan buttoned the collar of his uniform back up with practiced ease, a single lazy hand fiddling with the buttons. His gaze went back to Seon-il. “ Anyways, see you at school.” 

Seon-il blew a kiss as the call ended and Jihan laughed away the light flutter in his chest while the screen glitched back out of existence. Jihan bit his bottom lip in a failed attempt to contain the grin that stretched across his features, talking to Seon-il somehow made him feel like he held his heart out for the other and got a hug in return. 

He closed his eyes with a pleasant exhale, hands going up to press against his warm, aching, cheeks. Dusted a pastel hue, his face hurt from smiling, he needed to school his face into a normal level of bliss before walking down or his mother would basically see the words ‘love’ written across his face. 

The floaty feeling that lifted, all fluttery in his chest tickled strong, but he managed to school the smile on his face from ‘in love’ to ‘had a good morning’. One of these days his mom would probably come to suspect that something had been making him consistently happy, but he doubted she’d question it all too much since it was a positive thing. 

The bounce in his step was such a common sight these days that Jihan’s mom barely noticed it anymore. 

Everything was calm for now. But it was going to get a lot more chaotic. 

Chapter Text

Quad spell aside, Jihan had come to the conclusion that Seon-il actually did get jealous of the presence of the three other girls in the ‘Jihan Harem’, though he tried not to show it as much. The dumb way Jihan had realised he liked Seon-il is highlighting an even bigger problem. 

He lost touch with some of his emotions since he’d gained the passive of the gamer’s mind. When there was little that made him feel fear or worry, there was also less to feel. It made it a little harder to sense the feelings of those around him and the ones he himself had, and that was why he only realised he liked Seon-il romantically after a particularly heart-stopping, gentle, careful, measure and absolutely loving kiss. 

He wasn’t complaining now, but he’d like to be more aware of his own emotions if he could. So he’s been trying, and one of the things that catching his attention was just how smitten he was with Seon-il. Honestly kind of ridiculous how before he’d never even given the other a second thought, but now he didn’t think he could get through the morning without a call from him. 

Another thing that drew his perceptive eye was how Seon-il felt. Now that they were actually together, all the small gestures of worry, the small smiles that Seon-il sent him, the practically non-existent distance between them as they walked, talked or even just stood still, these markers were all there before he’d even realised and now they only proved to further display the sheer affection and regard Seon-il felt for him. Enough for Jihan to feel like his heart had melted into a sticky goop that would forever stick by Seon-il’s side. 

Even the way he seemed to get a little incensed when some of the others in their friend group got a little too close and personal for Seon-il’s liking. Evidenced by the occasional firm possessive grip that adorned Jihan’s thigh, all he could do in response was place a comforting hand and give Seon-il a gentle squeeze. Evident in the way Seon-il threw an arm around him in a deceptively friendly manner, and Jihan nearly falls each time not expecting the other to practically throw his weight onto Jihan. 

The third instance hasn’t happened yet, but Jihan worries that soon Seon-il’s just going to jump him in front of the three girls in a fit of jealousy. Far-fetched but not impossible. 

The largest factor in his deduction was the notifications that appeared. 

[BLOODLUST DETECTED]

A short talk with Seon-Il had informed him that the ‘bloodlust’ could at times, simply be jealousy. That was an application he’d never thought of before, and Jihan was also seriously beginning to believe that the system was much too heavily invested in his personal life. 

Seon-il felt somewhat sure that some of the girl’s had a some sort of a crush on him. As much as he wanted to deny it, he was smart enough not to trust his own denseness after the whole ordeal of not realising that Seon-il had been crushing on him since they were children. 

The idea that the ‘harem’ was indeed crushing on him was a valid hypothesis. And he had to find some way to circumvent it. 

[QUEST ALERT

THE GAMER’S LOVER IS GETTING JEALOUS. LET’S CALM HIM DOWN BEFORE HE DOES SOMETHING RASH IN PUBLIC.

TIME LIMIT: 15 MINUTES

REWARD: CLOSER RELATIONSHIP WITH SHIN SEON-IL

PENALTY FOR FAILURE: SEON-IL WILL BE UPSET. ETERNAL BANISHMENT FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT. ]

Case in point, Seon-il looked pretty mad at Shi-Yeon’s insistence to have the two of them sit together in the cafe. Jihan looked across him to where Seon-il sat helplessly, wishing he were next to Seon-il instead of Shi-yeon, leaning into Seon-il’s warmth instead of having Shi-Yeon next to him. Kim Yoojin had gone off to attend some tuition of a sort, while Hwan Seong-A was next to Seon-il, glaring a little at Shi-Yeon.

Jihan tried to, as discreetly as he could, give Seon-il puppy dog eyes. Seon-il’s angered expression seemed to melt when faced with Jihan’s sticky side. He wanted to sit with Jihan too. He caught himself at that very line of thought. Jeez, he’s been getting even cheesier. But now that Jihan was being cheesy with him, neither of them really had the ability to call the other out for cheesiness anymore. 

“ So, when are we going?” He threw out tentatively, gaze flicking the three of them. 

“ Thursday.” Shi-Yeon responded almost immediately. 

“ I can’t make it on Thursday.” Seon-il pointed out with a sip of his frappe.  

“ Then Friday.” Shi-Yeon called out again. It was Tuesday today and all of them had some sort of university application talk after school tomorrow so there wasn’t much of a choice for tomorrow anyways.

“ Yoo-jin isn’t here but she has a family dinner on Friday.” Seong-A softly pointed out. 

“ Nevermind.” Shi-Yeon seems to have given up. “ You pick the date then.” Her eyes flicked away from the conversation, pulling out her phone to scroll through it casually. 

“ Saturday?” Seong-A tried to suggest but Jihan answered. 

“ Nah, Seon-il has some family meeting then.” Jihan and Seon-il should literally just go on a date to the amusement park themselves. 

This whole ordeal began because Seon-il was jokingly complaining about the time that time Jihan and his ‘harem’ left for the amusement park without him, and now, being his boyfriend, Jihan wanted to bring him to the amusement park to make up for the time they went without him. But they were making plans after school yesterday and the girls caught on and when he implied going without them, he received an unprecedented amount of bloodlust. And thus, the current situation. 

“ Should we just go without Yoo-jin?” Shi-Yeon carelessly suggested. 

“ How about me and Jihan go without the rest of you.” Seon-il glared at Shi-yeon. Seong-A probably interpreted Seon-il’s glare as him standing up for Yoo-jin’s inclusion, but Jihan knew better. 

“ Absolutely not.” Shi-Yeon gave an intense glare, fire burning in the depths of her eyes. “ Why don’t we go without you on Saturday?” Shi-Yeon’s eyes locked with Seon-il’s then and she seemed to threaten him. 

“ Because the whole reason why me and Jihan were going to go was because you guys went without me the last time.” He whined, looking back to his boyfriend for help. Seon-il really wanted that amusement park date. 

“ Jihan, why don’t jus the two of us go to the amusement park!” He suggested. 

Jihan was this close to face planting in the slice of cake he’d ordered. 

“ I mean,” Seong-A cut in once again, like angel who’d extended their grace from heaven. “ We did go without Seon-il the last time, so I guess Jihan owes him.” She spoke calmingly to Shi-Yeon and the bloodlust alerts that Jihan had been repeatedly receiving the past few minutes died down a bit. 

It was a little strange at first, what with Shi-Yeon, Seong-A and Yoo-Jin having personalities that starkly contrasted with one another, almost like night and day, but they seemed to get along quite well. 

How Seong-A managed to calm Shi-Yeon down without any blood being spilt, Jihan never understood. 

Shi-Yeon looked like she was made to swallow something bitter then looked to Seong-A. They seemed to be communicating something even without any words being expressed. Soon enough, Shi-Yeon gave up with a sigh. 

“ Fine.” She  turned on Jihan with a glare. “ We’ll let you off just this once.”  Then she worked on finishing her drink. 

“ Yandere.”

“ What?” Her head snapped up at Seon-il’s voice.

“ I said ‘it’s yummy right’?” Seon-il quickly covered up quickly. Jihan could have given Seon-il a kiss for that quick cover up. 

“ Whatever.” Shi-Yeon brushed it off and stood up after slurping up her drink, stepping out away from the rest of them and leaving the establishment. As blunt as she usually was. Never change Shi-Yeon, never change.

Jihan sat on the inside of the booth and all three of them stared after Shi-Yeon like they’d just witnessed a bomb go off. That was usually the effect Shi-Yeon had on people. 

“ So, you and me? Friday?” Seon-il raised his eyebrows at Jihan, looking hopeful at the prospect of another date. 

“ Yeah.” Jihan gave a happy smile as another cloud of floaty feels just whipped him off his feet. Being on the receiving end of Seon-il’s love always seemed to leave him blissful and a little breathless. 

“ I’m still here you know.” Seong-A pointed out, eyes wide, observing the two of them like a cat that just caught a few rats in her trap. 

Jihan nearly jumped at the reminder. 

“ We know.” Seon-il replied almost regretfully, staring at the empty space next to Jihan, he just wanted to plop himself down right next to Jihan and snuggle up to him, so he stared into the empty space forlornly for a few good seconds, looking like a dog that was so close, yet so far from getting a treat. 

“ You guys really aren’t subtle.” Looking between Seon-il and Jihan, Seong-A made the observation as she spooned another mouth of ice cream. 

“ What?” Jihan asked, turning in synchrony with Seon-il to stare at Seong-A. Under the gaze of the two guys, Seong-A shifted a little, uncomfortable with the attention suddenly all on her. She flushed a little as she realised she didn’t really mean to say that aloud. But now that it’d been said, might as well roll with it, right? 

“ You guys are dating right?” Jihan’s heart stopped when Seong-A pointed it out. Was she disgusted? Was she angry? Did she feel cheated or something? What if-

Then Seong-A turned to Seon-il and said, “ Go and sit with your boyfriend if you really want to. You’re making me feel bad with the way you’re staring at the seat next to him.” 

Jihan’s rapidly palpitating heart seemed to calm, he kept his eyes fixed on Seong-A though. He was a little shocked. C’mon INT, don’t fault him now. How could she have known? Well it made sense that out of the three, Seong-Ah was the first one to figure it out. She was the most quiet and she tended towards being quite observant. 

The real question is, were they really that obvious? 

“ Yes, you are.” 

Oh crap, he said that aloud. 

Seon-il looked between the two of them and dismissed the quest alert that told him to comfort his worried lover. So he got up and switched seats, leaning into Jihan as he sat down and casting an illusion barrier. 

“ You guys should tell Shi-Yeon and Yoo-Jin soon.” Seong-A continued nonchalantly. This was . . . unexpected. Jihan honestly thought that she would have had a bigger reaction to finding out about their relationship. Unless she’s known for a while? 

Seon-il placed a gentle kiss on Jihan’s forehead, and as much as his mind wanted to go wild with worry over the fact that they’d just PDA’ed’ infront of  Seong-A, she herself didn’t have much of a reaction, aside of a rosy hue taking on her cheeks and turning away, and Jihan knew they were in an illusion barrier, so nobody else could see them.

Knowing all this, Jihan felt mollified by the gentle contact of lips against his warm forehead. Seon-il’d said before, Jihan would feel warm when he thought too much. He still didn’t think that was true, but the gentle peck was calming nonetheless. 

“ How did you know?A hand sliding along the curve of Jihan’s own and carefully intertwining their fingers, Jihan could feel his breath catch in his throat as it always did whenever he did something like this with Seon-il. He let his lover handle this, sitting back and watching as Seon-il regarded Seong-A with the same death glare that he gave Jihan when Jihan first approached him about the abyss. 

Seong-A turned back to look up at them, a little confused. “ I just thought you were. You always look at each other like the other is your entire world or something.” She tilted her head, thinking back to all the times she caught the snuck glances between Jihan and Seon-il. “ I thought it was obvious, I don’t know why Shi-Yeon and Yoo-Jin don’t see it.” 

In his anxiety, Jihan gripped Seon-il’s hand a little tighter. 

“ Oh but, congratulations!” She smiled happily, as if she were congratulating them on a marriage or something. The smile her face broke into was wide and soft, like she was truly happy that her friends had found each other. Upon seeing the expression, both Jihan and Seon-il let go of some of the tension they’d been holding back. 

They looked back at each other once more, cheeks red and all, a little unsure of how to respond, kind of embarrassed when they met each others; eyes so they quickly turned back to face Seong-A. 

“ Thanks, I guess.” Jihan scratch the back of his head with his free hand a little sheepishly. He could feel the tell-tale  glow of warmth rushing his cheeks and flushing his neck. 

Seon-il wasn;t as quick to accept Seong-A’s knowledge though, so he looked up, at her and questioned further, scouring for any more knowledge on the incident. 

“ And you’re okay with this?” As opposed to the open hostility Seon-il displayed in full earlier, this time, he was looking at her with a doubtful eye, suspicion bleeding through both his tone and his features. 

“ Why wouldn’t I be?” Looking up, the very picture of innocence, if she were an animal her ears would lay flat upon her head, eyes wide with pleading. 

And we all know that Seon-il is weak against puppy dog eyes. Seong-A had learned the art of making puppy dog eyes to escape Seon-il’s wrath from Jihan so it wasn’t difficult to get Seon-il to give in. 

“ I got it.” With a sigh, Seon-il looked away. 

Jihan felt the urge to laugh in the moment but tried to supress it because it was supposed to be a serious moment. 

Seon-il turned to Jihan who was giggling quite obviously under a hand, but only huffed softly, puffing out a breath of relief and giving Jihan’a hand a squeeze. 

Turning back to Seong-A, slower this time though, not as on guard, he regarded her casually and allowed a sliver of worry to crack through his features. 

“ You can’t tell anyone though.” Eyebrows pinched together, Jihan’s heart warmed at the frown that curled onto Seon-il’s face for him. 

Seon-il was worried it would affect Jihan if anyone knew about their relationship. Korea wasn’t a very open-minded society after all. 

Jihan leaned a little further into his boyfried, hoping the added weight against his shoulder would act as a form or comfort or grounding. His eyes fixed onto Seong-A too. 

“ Korea isn’t really accepting of couples like us.” The small smile that might have existed earlier all but dropped from his features as Jihan told Seong-A. They were lucky enough that Seong-A didn’t really care about this sort of stuff. 

Jihan tried as best as he could to banish the ‘what if’s of either his mom’s or Seon-il’s family’s non-acceptance. 

It was hard to do but the current situation served well enough as an ample distraction to his traitorous thoughts. 

Seong-A paused at their request. 

Jihan subconsciously tensed again at the implication. He didn’t even want to entertain the thought that Seong-A would just go around spilling something this big against their wishes but dammit, he just did didn’t he-

“ Sure.” She agreed easily. Jihan could feel Seon-il relax along side him and he nearly wanted to laugh at the sheer amount of tension he’d just been holding in over a small issue like this one. He met eyes with Seon-il’s hopefully. 

If Seong-A could accept them then maybe the rest could too. 

“ Thanks.” 

“ But I still think you should tell Shi-Yeon and Yoo-Jin.” If they were both going to react this way then they would. 

But no matter how Seong-A responded, it would be pretty hard to banish these thoughts from his mind. 

The worry Jihan felt resurfaced at the thought of having an important relationship rejected by his two friends. He didn’t really have many others. 

“ I don’t think they’d make a big deal out of it.” Seong-A continued, as if she hadn’t just thrown Jihan into a churning pit of self-doubt. 

Seon-il must have caught a glimpse of his expression because soon enough, he could feel the comforting digit of Seon-il’s thumb draw soft circles on the back of his worried hand. 

Seong-A must have sensed the weird tension that refused to diffuse despite her complete acceptance of their relationship. 

She stood up nimbly, a caring smile on her face, leaving some money on the table for her share of food. 

“ I’ll go first then.” She slung the backpack around a shoulder and slipped out of the booth. “ You guys enjoy your date.” 

They sat there, watching as Seong-A left the two of them to their mutual comfort leaning into one another in the solid quiet of their protected space, soft whispers crossing the space between them as they entertained the idea of actually revealing their relationship to any of the others.