Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sunoo’s job would be so much easier if a certain someone wasn’t being so damn difficult to kill. What kind of luck does Park Sunghoon have to evade an entire truck coming his way at full speed, it’s crazy!

“If they gave me a case with a guardian angel, I swear to all nine levels of hell,” he clicks his tongue in annoyance and zooms in on the footage of his daily failure, his face basically glued right to the screen of his work computer. There, his human is crossing the street without looking. People with no sense of road safety have always been the easiest jobs to finish, and yet. And yet! Sunoo's newest and longest case so far miraculously gets pulled back by an oh so kind and reckless stranger and evades the truck Sunoo had sent his way.

Yeah, yeah, his job description sounds a bit crazy, he knows. But listen! It's not like he has much of a different choice in hell unless he wants to become a grim reaper, a contractual devil, or – Satan help him – the ruler of hell himself. No, Sunoo's job is much, much easier and way less painful and comes with way less expectations. All he has to do is make sure a person dies, and let the grim reapers steal their soul. So really! He's not even the one killing people. He just… injures them. Heavily. Until their soul is weak enough to be reaped and thrown straight into hell, because God hasn't been around to judge people for entire millennials. No holy approval, no Heaven. Hell is packed with people who would've made it, and Sunoo caused at least one quarter of those deaths in this human year alone.

Working overtime has become a thing most recently, because he's limited to one try within thirty minutes that is randomly assigned whenever (!) before he has to move on to another case. And this one case, this one guy, Park fucking Sunghoon, just won't die! He's been assigned basically every day for the last week now, and Sunoo's records of him and all of the attempts on his life he's survived are taller than Sunoo himself.

Sunoo wildly, almost restlessly, clicks around the paused frame and zooms in on every single pixel shown on his screen, and he swears to all nine levels of hell, this guy has a guardian angel. The last time Sunoo got assigned a case with a guardian angel, the woman died peacefully of old age (although, when the case got assigned, she was already well over eighty)! Hell doesn't reap those souls, grim reapers only collect them when they know for sure that this person is supposed to die.

“You still can't kill him?” a voice sounds out with a sigh, and its owner steps into Sunoo's dimly lit office with his leather shoes clacking against the white marble flooring. Sunoo's coworker and assigned partner, his grim reaper, does his job well. He's great at the job, he's never let a single soul escape yet. But Park Sunghoon's soul can't be reaped, and Sunoo has to do the paperwork explaining why they keep failing once a day, why they don't meet their daily quota by only one. His track is already better than most, even if Park Sunghoon continues to live, but Sunoo wants to be employee of the month for a reason!

“I'll find proof,” Sunoo insists, like all the days in the past two years before, “There has to be evidence that this Park Sunghoon guy has a guardian angel, Riki.”

“Well, good luck finding it,” Riki snickers quietly and walks up to gently pull Sunoo's head back from the bright light of the screen, “What if the blessing has a sixth curse sense and hides behind the blur?”

Riki pats his head gently as if to cheer him up, but Sunoo knows better. Despite the somewhat sympathetic smile on his pale face, lopsided and boyish even though he is like seventeen thousand years old, Riki is having fun with this. He likes watching Sunoo complain and throw a fit over an unfinished job that's been unfinished for four human years now.

“I'd kill you. And then myself.”

“But not this Park Sunghoon guy?”

“Oh, fuck off, Riki.”

Because how will Sunoo find the guardian angel – the so-called “blessing” (angels are so fucking pretentious) – behind the blur that shows up on his screen where his target’s face is supposed to be? He can't turn off the blur, that defeats its whole purpose of not letting him see the face of his target so he won't get attached and feel guilty. Not that he, as a lesser demon, would ever be able of such sentimental nonsense, but still! He needs to trick the system, or he will lose his job and get demoted to a suffering soul.

Scratch that, he's already suffering. The moment the red timer runs out on the small screen on top of his big one, the screen flickers to the footage of his next target, and a stack of papers with thirty double-printed pages appears from a cloud of white smoke on his desk. Fuck!

“Have fun working overtime, Sunoo!” Riki cackles and vanishes into the thick air that suffocates the entirety of hell. Menace. He knows very well that Sunoo hates working overtime. Even when he's filled out this form often enough to do it in his sleep – he already works twelve hours! There is no need to make his job more miserable and complicated than it already is.

Park Sunghoon can go to hell!

—

Sunoo likes to pretend that he can't be bothered to do anything, or to put in the extra work. Nonchalant and indifferent, that's the best way to act around the neighbourhood here in hell, and quite frankly, it's what makes his job so easy. Because Sunoo doesn't care when he walks home past someone and hears the name of one of his targets, finally gets to see their face after only getting a blurred picture for thirty minutes. Not that it actually takes him all thirty minutes to have their soul reaped, but, well, some humility can remain in his body. Sunoo isn't human, hasn't been for thousands of years, he doesn't feel guilt. This is just his job.

What isn't his job is going through every recorded footage of Park Sunghoon's survival. He was supposed to die at the horrible, teenage age of thirteen in a tragic ice skating incident that broke his leg but was supposed to break his neck, and now he's seventeen, almost done with puberty, and still alive.

Today's footage is the prime example of the ridiculousness of Sunoo's predicament. Sunghoon isn't even watching where he's walking, instead opting to reading his english vocabulary, there is not even a pedestrian crosswalk. This guy is just crossing a street in the most dangerous way ever, so Sunoo went the usual, almost clichéd, truck route. It usually goes well, for Sunoo, not his target, and he always finishes the job in that way. It's efficient, it's effective. It's a death sentence for a soul ready to be reaped.

Except, Park Sunghoon, that lucky fucker, gets pulled back by an old lady that appeared out of nowhere! And the worst part is, she was no guardian angel. There are no shadows of wings, no golden light softly emitting from her – that was just a regular old lady! There is nothing in the frames from today‘s footage, so Sunoo goes through the footage from the day before and the day before that and the day before that. He should have been home hours ago, should have eaten dinner hours ago, should have slept hours ago. And yet, Sunoo is stored away in his stupid office with his face practically glued to a screen the same size as the entire wall, looking for something that doesn‘t exist.

“You know you can just give up, right?“ Riki tells him, and it‘s the worst thing he has ever suggested to Sunoo, “Or have his case transferred to someone else.“

“Are you calling me incompetent?“ Sunoo hisses through gritted teeth and zooms into another pixel of the frame. If there is just one, one singular, tiny fucking pixel that‘s even remotely close to golden light or shows a fraction of a white feathered wing, he will be right, and Park Sunghoon has a guardian angel. That, and Sunoo is too stubborn for his own good, too fixated on proving that he‘s good at his job, at being a lesser demon. He has to. Hell doesn't let you mess up three times without consequences. And Sunoo's record isn't blank.

“I‘m just saying,“ Riki laments and walks around the desk to plant his ass right under Sunoo‘s nose, “If you want to prove that Park Sunghoon has a guardian angel, just check yourself.“

“I am, if you haven‘t noticed yet,“ Sunoo huffs and forwards to the next millisecond. This is a wild goose chase, even Sunoo knows this at the back of his mind. But there is no way he can just accept that Park Sunghoon survived four years, four entire fucking years, of Sunoo trying to kill him without the protection of a guardian angel. He‘s not that incompetent, and Sunghoon can‘t possibly be that lucky.

“Or you go check for yourself in the human realm,“ Riki keeps pitching ridiculous ideas. Lesser demons can‘t just go to the human realm without a good reason. Last time Sunoo went to the human realm, he had just become a baby demon, and it was to fight in a war that wasn‘t his, and a war that was lost before Sunoo ever got to draw his sword. He‘s already failed once there, Satan won‘t allow him to go back like that, just to prove something that might not hurt his ego.

—

“Let me go to the human realm.“

“Sure.“

What the fuck. Well, that was easy.

The current ruler of hell, a demon that‘s been around since the first creation of time itself, better known as Satan, just shrugs casually on Their throne and crosses Their legs. They don‘t even look at Sunoo while he‘s cowering and kneeling on the ground like a fucking loser, but it‘s better safe than sorry. Sunoo isn‘t looking at Them either. Demons can ‘die‘, after all.

Or rather, they‘re stripped of their title and status as demon and get thrown into the ninth level of hell where there is no escaping, no mercy, no hope. Hell is already cruel enough as it is, but the ninth level of hell is an absurd amount of cruelty and nothingness. Sunoo doesn‘t want to end up there, and he doesn‘t want to stop being a lesser demon, a curse. He likes his job. Even when he can‘t seem to kill Park Sunghoon.

“Just – Just like that?“ Sunoo stammers, because he still can‘t believe it. He can go? Just like that? He had always assumed it needed a war for lesser demons to be allowed in the human realm.

“Well, you want to prove something that I‘ve been curious about for a while now, too,“ They hum in contemplation, “If angels are messing with the human realm again, it‘s just fair we join them, isn‘t it? I‘ll send you. And the moment you spot more than one angel, you report back.“

Sunoo almost scoffs. Since when have they ever been a kind for fairness? Still, he‘s grateful. And a little worried. ‘Messing with earth‘ could mean anything. Either another world war for the humans to slaughter each other, or a war between heaven and hell. Sunoo prays it will be the first. He‘s not made for war, and he knows how to choose his battles. Preferably one without angels.

“I‘ll do my best,“ Sunoo promises, but is immediately cut off by Them going, “Oh, and take Riki with you. He‘s been in the human realm more often than you and can act as guide.“

Sunoo would rather kill himself. Riki barely knows how to socialise with other demons in hell, how is he supposed to be a guide on humans when he himself hasn‘t been human for seventeen thousand years? Riki can rot in hell, for all that Sunoo cares.

“And because your mission is still to kill Park Sunghoon. What if Riki isn‘t around to reap his soul?“

Fuck the ruler of hell for always being right.

—

“Do you have everything?“ Riki asks him the next morning wile he waits for Sunoo to finish packing, tapping his feet in impatience and everything. This sucks. Riki can't wait to annoy Sunoo with his ‘human customs knowledge’, even though they got a brochure for that! “Man, I can't wait for my vacation.”

“This is not a vacation,” Sunoo scolds him and throws his bag of necessities out of his bedroom and into the hallway, “We're going to stake out the human realm for a ploy of war, Riki, this mission needs utmost focus."

"Technically, we're going so you can kill Park Sunghoon,” Riki grins widely when Sunoo pops his head into the hallway to glare at him. If only grim reapers could die. “And until you manage to do that, I am on vacation.”

“You're calling me incapable again,” he accuses him and throws another bag, “Where is your luggage?”

“I got a human realm stakeout,” Riki shrugs lamely and kicks one of Sunoo's black sports bags, “Most of my stuff is there anyway.”

“Is that where you disappear to after work?” Sunoo scoffs, “What's so great about the human realm anyway.”

“The air is less suffocating.”

“Are you talking about the air or the realm on general?”

Riki doesn't answer, so Sunoo doesn't dwell on it. Riki can think about the human realm whatever he wants, he can't stay there anyway. At the end of the day, if Riki doesn't pop back into hell every thirty minutes, he'll be forced back by the system and stripped of his realm travelling privileges. He'd be demoted to a curse, over something as silly as ‘less suffocating air’. So really, how good could the air be?

“Are you ready to go?” Riki asks him and lets Sunoo shoulder both of his bags. Sunoo looks around his apartment one last time. It's simplistic and modest, like he never properly moved in. Who knows for how long he won't come back, killing Park Sunghoon could take literal ages.

Well, attachment has never been Sunoo's style anyways. Not anymore. He nods at Riki.

“Good,” Riki nods and takes a deep breath as if to mentally prepare himself for what comes next, “then hold my hand.”

“Uh, fuck no.” Sunoo slaps Riki’s hand away. Both of them are full grown demons, why would they need to hold hands on a little realm travel?

“Knew you were gonna say that,” Riki cackles, and just to spite him, Sunoo grabs his hand. Shit, now he fell right into Riki’s trap. “I need to hold the thing I wanna bring to the human realm in my hand.”

“’m not a thing,” Sunoo mutters, and next thing he knows, he's reeled through the realms by the hand.

It's a horrible feeling. Sunoo has to tighten his grip on Riki’s hand (although, it kind of feels like they're glued together anyway) and clamp his eyes and mouth shut to make sure he doesn't throw up from realm travelling. It feels like Sunoo is in an elevator, and it rises and falls at the speed of light in both directions at the same time, like Sunoo is being stretched from hell all the way up to earth and also squished into a pancake from the impact of it. Sunoo hates stretchy pancakes.

Just as fast as the feeling came, it was over.

“Sunoo,” Riki laughs quietly, “Sunoo, you can let go now. We're here. This is Park Sunghoon‘s school.”

Sunoo can absolutely not let go of Riki’s hand. He'll stumble and drop to the ground as if he just learned how to walk, and then he'll empty his stomach of the breakfast he never had. Sunoo can, however, gasp for air like a fish taken out of the water, and it's probably the closest comparison to how he feels right now – the air so, so fucking thin. And it's so biting cold in his lungs, in his entire body. There is no pressure pushing on his shoulders, no suffocating feeling that constricts his chest with its weight. Fuck, how does anybody survive like this? Sunoo feels so… light. It's unnerving.

Speaking of light. It's been an eternity since actual sunlight has burnt his eyes. Fuck, Sunoo has completely forgotten how bright the human realm is, with it's seemingly open sky and the actual sun. The sun! Incredible. Sunoo can barely contain his anticipation to see the stars in the night sky again. He wonders if he can still remember the names of the constellations.

“Ugh, this is horrible to look at,” Sunoo groans and looks up at the iron gate of their new school – Decelis Academy. Ugh. Sunoo is thousands of years old, he doesn't want to go to school again. Then again, the school also looks like it could be thousands of years old, from the way the white plaster of the walls are crumbling and peeling off. This is already the worst idea Sunoo has ever had. And he‘s made a fair share of bad decisions, courtesy of being a fool, a clown, too human. “Where is your stakeout?“

“Just across the street." Riki points at a dingy convenience store with flickering signs and lights. Yeah, sounds about right. “I‘ll grab my stuff and you go look for the secretary’s office. Meet you in ten!“ Riki runs off before Sunoo can nag him again. Uh, hello? What is Sunoo supposed to do in a realm by himself that he hasn‘t existed in in forever? There is no way he can just walk up to the secretary’s office, tell them his name and get ready to settle in.

—

“And here is your student ID, your dorm keys and your name tags!“ the secretary tells them as she hands over a little card made out of plastic, with Sunoo‘s picture, full name, and fake birth year. He was definitely not born in the year 2003 but whatever. “You can pick up your uniforms at the student council‘s office, the president should be free to give you a tour. Room 012.“

Things are going a little too well. Sunoo has met enough bad omens to know that the rest of his mission won‘t sail as smoothly. He‘s always been plagued by bad luck like that. Still, he thanks the woman politely and leaves her office without wasting another second. Hell, this mortal doesn't know that Sunoo knows she will die in an airplane crash when she‘s on her vacation to the Fiji islands. Her fault for killing Mother Earth.

Sunoo drags himself and his two bags – Riki is still nowhere to be seen, he probably ran away to slack off and Sunoo is going to kill him for that – to Room 012, just a few steps down a hallway. The school is grand, and probably a little younger than thousands of years old. It‘s hard to tell. On one hand, the chandeliers hanging from the tall ceilings are fully equipped with LED lamps, and there are electric outlets lining the side of the walls, but on the other hand… The wooden floor smells a little rotten and it squeaks and heaves under each of Sunoo‘s light steps. The white paint is peeling off the brick walls and scattered in little flakes on the floor, and the huge staircase looks like it might collapse in on itself any minute. What a prestigious academy he has to attend now. If it smelled of sulphur and heat, Sunoo would feel right at home. The only thing missing would be the oppressing feeling of despair and emptiness and pure depression paired with blissful ignorance. He already misses it. Then again. It's a school. This is hell on earth, no doubt.

Arriving in front of a tall, heavy wooden door with a golden plaque that reads ‘012‘, Sunoo halts in his steps. It‘s 7:30 am, there is no way students are already busy with something and taking care of their responsibilities, right? They‘re kids, they should live a little! Ridiculous.

‘Just act like you want to be here.‘

‘But I do want to be here.‘

‘To study, not to kill someone.‘

‘Crap.‘

Putting on his friendliest smile, Sunoo knocks on the wooden door and almost breaks his knuckles. What the fuck, why are wooden doors so painful? And who just almost slammed the door into his face?!

“Woah, watch it," someone warns him. He should watch it? Sunoo just got attacked by a wooden door! “Oh God, are you another transfer student?“

“Oh, was Riki already here?“ Sunoo didn‘t see Riki enter the school before him, nor did he pass him on the way. What he sees is a guy who is too short to be Park Sunghoon. The boy also can‘t be Sunghoon because his name tag reads ‘Kim Seungmin‘. Either that, or Sunoo forgot how to read.  

“Who‘s Riki.“

“Oh.“

Okay. So still no Riki. Sunoo has been abandoned in the human realm with no way to go home unless he kills himself. Like, actually kills himself. Realm travel rules are weird.

“Never mind then,“ Sunoo laughs nervously. As long as he seems friendly, he can find someone who can tell him about Park Sunghoon. And the sooner he can find Sunghoon, the sooner he can prove that he has a guardian angel, and the sooner the case will be closed. Hell doesn‘t give a shit about the few souls that have guardian angels, there is not that many anyway. Heaven isn‘t overstuffed with souls, after all. “It‘s just me then. I was supposed to pick up my uniforms?“

“You‘re in luck,“ this Seungmin guy huffs and leads Sunoo into the office. It‘s spacious, with a whiteboard, a circle of bean bags in one corner, five desks pushed into a U-shape, and two couches and a coffee table. There even is an electric kettle and a mini fridge. Holy shit, the student council is privileged. On one of the bean bags, a girl is napping. She must have worked herself to exhaustion at 7 am in the morning. “Sunghoon just went to town yesterday with the other transfer students to buy a bunch of them.“

Sunghoon. As in, Park Sunghoon? Things are going way too smoothly for Sunoo‘s liking. Still, he‘s excited. That means Sunghoon is somewhere close by, and Sunoo can work his little demon magic and kill him almost immediately – nope. He celebrated too son. Riki is still nowhere to be found. Where is Sunoo‘s grim reaper?

“Oh, Sunghoon is the student council president by the way,“ Seungmin tells him, and Sunoo soaks the information up like a sponge, “You can bother him about anything anytime, that‘s his job after all. My job as the treasurer is, you know, club funds and stuff. I‘m Seungmin.“

“Sunoo, nice to meet you.“

Sunoo doesn‘t give a wet fuck about Seungmin and club funds. What he cares about is the fact that Park Sunghoon is in charge of babysitting the transfer students. Transfer students like Sunoo, who is going to bother him anytime, alright. Bother him with murder attempts. Oh, this is almost too easy, how did Sunoo fail this often before.

“The sleeping beauty over there,“ Seungmin continues his introduction and opens the wooden closet locker thing that‘s built into the antique shelves, “is the vice-president Jang Wonyoung. If Sunghoon isn‘t around, she can also help you. Once she wakes up.“

Sunoo doesn‘t need help from Jang Wonyoung. He only needs the help of Park Sunghoon to finish Sunoo‘s job, by not having a guardian angle and dying for him. Still, he sends Wonyoung a friendly smile even though she‘s still asleep and probably can‘t see through the face mask. She responds with a quiet snore and a light twitch of her hand. Okay, definitely still asleep.

Seungmin pulls out a bunch of clothes, slacks and a blazer and a woollen sweater vest, as well as a sports uniform consisting of a black and white striped shirt and white shorts. This has to be the ugliest uniform Sunoo has ever had the displeasure to lay his eyes upon. He still doesn‘t know if the regular uniform is black or a very dark blue. Even the emblem of the school logo makes no sense, he has no idea what it‘s supposed to depict, nor does he want to know. He also doesn‘t want to know who came to the great idea to make their ties with red and blue diagonal stripes, because, hell, it‘s a color combination to look at, okay. Seungmin hands all of the pieces of clothing to Sunoo who receives them with a skeptical look.

“You only have to wear it during school days,“ Seungmin reassures him with a laugh, “Sunghoon should be here any minute now, he just needed to pick up the other transfer students from yesterday afternoon.“

Perfect. Sunoo can hardly wait to see who this unkillable boy is.

In that very moment, the door opens. Sunoo holds his breath, fully expecting to see Park Sunghoon, but is deeply disappointed by the sight of Nishimura Riki in flesh and blood and human form. Fuck off! Sunoo has other people to look at.

The door swings close, Seungmin starts his short introduction again and struggles to find a uniform for Riki because he is taller than their average male student (why did Riki have to pick a form that makes him stick out from the crowd like a sore thumb). Sunoo almost sighs in annoyance. How long could Park Sunghoon possibly take just to fetch other students? He wonders what he will look like, what kind of person Sunghoon is. Where his guardian angel is. Maybe Sunoo was completely wrong and he‘s trying to kill the new Christ. No wonder he won‘t die then! Sunoo can‘t kill God‘s son, who is also God himself. This is just ridiculous. Is he supposed to chew his teeth off by trying to kill Christ himself? Satan should have done a background check on just who Sunoo is supposed to kill.

Sunoo doesn‘t have to debate any longer, because the door opens again and reveals the most handsome, most gorgeous, most average human guy Sunoo could have possibly ever imagined. Oh fuck. Park Sunghoon is handsome. Ah, okay. That‘s why the system blurs faces. Holy fuck. Sunoo, for the entire time he stares at Sunghoon‘s tall, elegant figure standing in the doorway, forgets everything about the human realm and his mission as a whole. No way. No way. How is Sunoo supposed to kill this beautiful creature and not feel guilty about it?

Park Sunghoon is not only handsome, but his overall vibe is just attractive. From the way he stands, to the way he tugs at his necktie and runs a hand through perfectly tousled dark brown hair that's already pushed back messily. He's oddly cute.

‘Satan must be laughing Their red ass off while watching me.‘

‘This is why we blur faces. Holy shit.‘

To snap Sunoo out of his trance, Riki grabs the top of Sunoo‘s head and turns it to the side. Okay. That‘s good. As long as Sunoo doesn‘t look at Sunghoon‘s handsome face, easily ranked second of handsome human faces that he‘s been able to look at, Sunoo can focus on the task at hand. Which is, find Sunghoon‘s guardian angel. Or, step one: Meet Park Sunghoon.

That‘s accomplished. Sunghoon is still standing in the door, quietly discussing something with Seungmin in hushed whispers that grow from desperate to panicked fairly quick, so Sunoo decides to dare a second glance at Park Sunghoon, looks at the moles on his face and his straight eyebrows and his pushed back dark brown hair. And then, Sunoo‘s gaze drifts a little to the side, just past Sunghoon‘s ear, and lands on –

Someone who should have died thousands of years ago.

‘No fucking way am I looking at him.‘

There, in flesh and blood, and still alive, nineteen thousand years after they first met in the human realm, stands Sunoo‘s proof that he is still too human, can still feel all of his emotions a little too strongly.

There, just behind his target Park Sunghoon, stands Sunoo‘s first and only love ever since he became an immortal demon.

‘Jay?’

Chapter Text

The 'P' in Park Sunghoon stands for ‘paranoia’.

That‘s what Heeseung always tells Sunghoon, but Heeseung also isn‘t the one who almost tripped down the stairs and broke his neck first thing in the morning and then almost became a victim of hit and run on the short way (twenty meters across a four-lane-street) from the school dormitories to campus! Sunghoon is.

Okay, both were his fault. Kind of. Sunghoon was too busy trying to study for his English pop quiz (he can never remember the spelling for neccessarry… necessary? Neccesarry? Neecesary? Fuck, he's so going to fail the quiz) to watch where he was going, so he missed like three steps, and he accidentally jaywalked. But this is  important for his survival, too! If Sunghoon messes up his perfect grades, then he messes up his full-ride scholarship to Decelis, then he messes up his immaculate standing with all of the teachers, and then he messes up his chances to get into a good college and work towards a nice future.

A nice, imaginary future that flashes behind his eyes once a day, as he almost dies yet again. Today, it was a truck. Yesterday, it was a flower pot falling from the school‘s third floor. Tomorrow, it could be too much cheese on his pizza slice. Sunghoon is never safe from death. It‘s horrible. It‘s tragic. Sunghoon will die before he ever gets to hold a boy's hand romantically.

“That is your biggest concern?” Wonyoung giggles behind a prettily raised hand in front of her pretty face over lunch. There is no need to pretend she has an image to keep in the student council's office. “That's so lame.”

“Excuse me?” Sunghoon complains, because it's not lame. He's a romantic! He wants to experience some romance before he dies. “Just because you aren't interested in dating doesn't mean everybody else feels like that, too.” Trust Sunghoon on this. Wonyoung does not care one bit about dating, he has tried. It was pathetic and fruitless. Sunghoon kind of wishes he would die from tripping down the stairs and being hit by a truck just to escape the embarrassment of remembering his attempts.

“Yeah, but, Sunghoon, you're a bit desperate,” Jake tells him ever so kindly and comforting. Why is this guy Sunghoon's best friend. Jake doesn't know anything, he's been dating Heeseung for three years now. “I bet you'd get a crush on the next new person that you meet, just to be delusional again.”

“Delusions are half of the fun of crushes!” Sunghoon argues his point, because they are. Crushes are funny because Sunghoon can delude himself into being happy, and isn't that just what he needs to distract himself from the fact that he's choking on a potato?

Wait, what –

“Sunghoon!”

—

“Student Park Sunghoon, please come to the secretary’s office immediately.”

Oh shit. Oh no. What did Sunghoon do now? He's in the middle of math class, he can't just leave. Jake's notes are incomprehensible and he explains new topics like a college student, which means that Sunghoon will not understand at all!

Not only that, but having him called to the office via the school speakers means that every student has heard it, and now all of his classmates are looking at him curiously, even turned their heads towards where he sits in the third row, and he has to walk across the entire classroom with eyes glued to his back because he has to be a main character and sit next to the windows. Oh God. Oh fuck. Why is he so bad with people looking at him when he literally has to give announcements and speeches in front of the entire student body in the auditorium once a week. This is his worst nightmare, right after dying alone.

So Sunghoon, as normal and quickly as possible, to not make himself look like a weirdo, makes a run for the hallway. Just be normal, it can't be that hard. Right? Right.

‘How did I become student council president.’

‘Dashing looks and awkward charm?’

‘None of these people even wrote my name right.’

This better have to do with his duties as a student council president. If they're calling him in to tell him he's lost his scholarship, or – God forbid - he's not even in the top 5 in the year anymore, he's going to cry so hard. Fuck dignity, Sunghoon has academic validation to seek.

—

Never fucking mind. Sunghoon has pretty boys to look at, and Jesus fucking Christ, is Park Jongseong pretty. Woah. Wow. Okay. Cool. Wow.

‘Jake was right,’ Sunghoon thinks as he stares at the boy in front of him, 'I'll crush on the next guy and get a little delusional.’ Jake would also totally understand why Sunghoon can't help it. Because Jongseong is about as handsome as he is also intimidating, and that says a lot. Sunghoon is easily thrown off his game, sure, but never intimidated.

But this Jongseong guy, he's intimidating all around. From glaring eyes, to sharp features and an everlasting frown. He's a bit shorter than Sunghoon, but he's carries himself with a hint of confidence and he’s also sleeveless, holy shit –

“He'll be your go-to-person for any questions about our school,” the secretary chirps and points at Sunghoon with a pleased smile. Right. She hates doing her job, that's why showing the transfer students around suddenly falls under Sunghoon's duties.

Transfer students like Park Jongseong, holy shit. Sunghoon needs to play this cool, or the first impression he makes on him – and the other transfer student who Sunghoon willingly pushes into the background of his vision – is that of an incompetent fool. He's calm and collected and competent. Sunghoon has the image of a student council president to maintain all year round, this is just part of his job. So what if Jongseong is super attractive and totally his type? Sunghoon is a professional (loser).

“I'm Sunghoon,” he introduces himself and holds the door open for the both of them as they leave the office. One quick, perceptive glance at the other boy's name tag in his fiddling hands tells him ‘Yang Jungwon’. How cute! What a cute name for a cute little boy. “How come you two are transferring in the middle of the semester?”

“Oh, eh, jobs and such,” Jungwon sputters, caught off guard by Sunghoon's question. Was it so unexpected for him to ask? It might be a sensitive topic, shit. Sunghoon should know better than to ask invasive questions. “It's a bit complicated.”

And that is Sunghoon's cue to stop talking about it.

“Well, either way, I hope you settle in just fine,” he laughs nervously. Great, he already sounds like a loser. This is so unlike him, Park Sunghoon, the most handsome student crush of boys and girls alike, to stutter like a fool, but of course he has to do it in front or Park Jongseong, who has done nothing but stare at Sunghoon for the entire time. Oh God, he needs to stop staring or Sunghoon will humiliate himself even further. “Uhm, let's go to the student council office to get your uniforms first.”

That was a bad call. Sunghoon completely forgot that he was drying his sports uniform in there. And his underwear.

“I'll clean up first!” Sunghoon yells and slams the door shut in their faces after he scrambles inside. This is embarrassing. Sure, the student council slacks off here and there. They're students, after all. But drying one's underwear in the office is a bit… weird. Sunghoon admits, he's weird. But he's got a good reason to do it, okay? His clothes were drying in his dorm’s living area but Heeseung decided to smoke weed and then, the smell clung to Sunghoon's clothes and he wanted to air them out! What kind of student council president smells of weed? None, that's what kind.

Scrambling and stumbling, Sunghoon drops his socks twice and curses under his breath as he quickly stuffs all of his clothes into his sports bag, scurrying around to also clean some of the paperwork and opened snacks lying around. Fuck. Why does the student council have to be so messy? Okay, nobody actually comes into the office without making an appointment first, but they could still try to keep a neat appearance.

Sunghoon kicks one of the neon green bean bags to the side and opens the wooden door with an almost crazed grin, “Okay, done!” Because, really. He doesn't want Jongseong to think of him as a slob. Or Jungwon. Jungwon should also think that Sunghoon is a reliable person who has his life together and isn't two seconds away from being in shambles. This is not just about Sunghoon's dumb and funny crush on Jongseong, this is about his appearance and image, okay? He'd like to keep that for everyone's sake, and also so people will forget that one time he got so jealous of a transfer student who was hitting on Wonyoung by flaunting his great English (the fucker was from the US, he better speak good English) that Sunghoon tried to impress her with his English skills and blurted “Hawaii you” into a suspiciously quiet dining hall. His dignity hasn't quite recovered from that yet, but neither Jungwon nor Jongseong know that. And they should never learn about it, but with Sunghoon‘s non-existent luck, Seungmin is going to expose him anyway, or Wonyoung herself. Menaces, the both of them.

“The student council does everything the school board is too lazy to do themselves,“ he explains when he opens the door to let them into the office. It used to be a small classroom but was turned into the student council‘s office when they kept using it as meeting room. “Like, distributing the uniforms for new students, club funds, planning the school events and competitions. Or the tutoring. If either of you have any subjects you have troubles with, you can always come to me and we can see who‘s free for you guys. If your uniform gets ripped or something, you can go to the sewing club.“

“You have a sewing club?“ Jungwon snorts and looks around. Ah. Perceptive little kid, good thing Sunghoon cleaned up.

“And a knitting club, and a crocheting club, and,“ Sunghoon cuts himself off, “actually, I think all of those were merged into the home eco club because the clubs didn‘t have enough members alone.“

“How long have you been president?“ Jungwon inquires further. Superficial questions to keep small talk going. Good. Sunghoon can‘t small talk to save his own life.

“About three years in a row now,“ Sunghoon likes to brag about it. Not only does it look good on his basically non-existent resume with no other accomplishments, but he‘s also been dedicated to his job. Before Sunghoon, the school was going down the shitter. Yeah. The school’s good reputation? Sunghoon did that. And God, did he work hard for it. The old student council were lazy bums who stole from the club funds and couldn‘t be bothered to organise any events or other things like a welcoming committee (fine, Sunghoon also didn‘t organise a welcoming committee, but that‘s because he knows this school inside out and would rather do it himself), so Sunghoon‘s first task as student council president was to choose other hardworking students he could depend on. His first two choices, Chan and Jake, were the perfect candidates because they were capable and goal-oriented, as well as model students (yes, even when Chan only made it because Jake introduced him to Sunghoon). Wonyoung volunteered, saying something about a women‘s quota on the team, and Seungmin basically blackmailed his way into the student council by collecting weird videos of Sunghoon while he was in the ice rink. Either way, Sunghoon‘s era better go down in the history of Decelis Academy. “I‘m usually the one who shows transfer students around.“

Frankly, they‘ve only had two transfer students in the last three years. But that‘s still two people who had to be shown around and guided into the boarding school lifestyle. And two people who took the spare school uniforms that Sunghoon usually orders in bulk. That‘s why, when he opens the closet where he stores the spare uniforms, he‘s met with an awkward lack of uniforms. Shit. He really though he had more on stock.

“Uh, that‘s… unfortunate,“ Jongseong comments. Sunghoon can see that! He‘s just an unfortunate soul, with no spare uniforms. Great. Now he looks completely unprepared for them, even though it‘s technically not his fault because he wasn‘t even told there would be new transfer students. Thanks a lot, Miss Secretary!

“That‘s okay,“ Sunghoon laughs awkwardly and closes the closet again to hide away his embarrassing failure, “I‘ll show you to your dorm, and then we can go to the city and get the right size in the shop. And a bunch of spares.“ Sunghoon likes to be prepared.

—

Sunghoon was not prepared for Jungwon and Jongseong to live in his shared dorm with Jake and Heeseung. That‘s why he coughs into his fist as Jongseong stares at the empty and messy cups of ramyeon on the sink after Sunghoon opens the door to the dorm. Fuck. Why does the first room have to be the octagon-shaped communal area anyway?

“My – Our roommates,“ Sunghoon stammers through a possible lie he could tell to save his face, “We‘re not very clean. Right now. It‘s mock exam week.“ Yes. Great. Now Sunghoon sounds like an idiot who can‘t balance his studies and chores. Husband material in its rarest form. Jungwon doesn‘t seem to mind at all, instead opting to drop the bag on his left shoulder on the floor with a quiet, cheerful ‘Let‘s go!‘. Jongseong meanwhile makes a beeline past the couches and dining area to the kitchenette and throws the cups into the overflowing trash. He scrunches his face with distaste, and Sunghoon wants to melt through the floor and disappear forever.

“Jay, stop embarrassing him!“ Jungwon scolds him and drags Jongseong – Jay? –  away from the trashcan that he was about to empty out, “Sorry, he‘s a bit of a clean freak.“

“I – Too much trash attracts bugs!“ he argues weakly but lets himself be dragged back to Sunghoon at the main door anyway with a pale face, “At least let me make sure I don‘t shit myself when I have to use the kitchen.“

Okay. That‘s a little embarrassing. But also really cute.

‘Weird,‘ Sunghoon smiles to himself, ‘He doesn‘t look like the type to be scared of bugs.‘

“That‘s cool, I needed to do it anyway,“ Sunghoon waves lamely and looks around. Jake‘s room is the first door on his right, Heeseung‘s is the second door on the right. Between their rooms is their shared bathroom. Technically, the rooms are supposed to be occupied by two students anyway but Sunghoon used his student council privileges to get a single room for himself and his friends. Fine, maybe he does abuse his power a little.

Sunghoon‘s room is the second one on the right, which leaves the only empty room to be the first one on the right. Which means that Sunghoon has to share a bathroom and give up his ‘his own bathroom‘ privilege. Man, life is rough.

“Your room is this one,“ Sunghoon announces, like that was the plan all along and Sunghoon didn‘t have to use his great deduction skills to figure out which one is unoccupied. He opens the door and is immediately attacked by a wall of thick dust swirling up from the wind he creates, so naturally, he proceeds to aggressively cough his lungs out. Literal dust is out to kill him. Sunghoon can never catch a break from merely surviving his environment, or humiliating himself in front of the people he‘s deluded himself into having a crush on.

Thank God Jongseong doesn’t seem to mind, instead even going as far as patting Sunghoon‘s back in a sad attempt at comforting him. Oh God. He’s Sunghoon‘s life saver. Now Sunghoon has to date him.

“Are you okay?“ Jongseong mutters to him and continues to rub his back, “Are you allergic to dust or something?”

“No,” Sunghoon heaves and forces a nonchalant grin – as nonchalant as he can be while fighting death once again, “Just breathed in too much, I’ll live.” He will also cry himself to sleep tonight. Who on earth is loser enough to die from inhaling dust, right in front of their forty-five minutes long crush? The answer is simple; Sunghoon is.

“We so have to sweep the floor,“ Jay agrees and peers inside the room. It‘s not exactly the dream interior, only equipped with two twin beds pushed to opposite walls,  two desks and two closets, as well as two wall shelves and a circular carpet that has definitely seen better, less dusty days. “After we got the uniforms.“

Thank God he doesn‘t seem to mind that Sunghoon doesn‘t clean unoccupied rooms that he never even sets foot into. The kitchen was already a bad impression, Jongseong does not need to think of Sunghoon as someone who never cleans. Just to prove it, Sunghoon kicks the door to his own room open, the two beds pushed together into one, the blanket on top neatly folded, and even his desk in pristine cleanliness. There‘s not even a pair of socks somewhere on the floor.

“This is my room,“ he tells them almost too eagerly, “If anything‘s bothering you, just walk in. I can‘t hear knocking most of the time.“ Because Sunghoon, for some reason unbeknown to himself, can only study when he listens to classical music blasting at full volume. Maybe even an opera. Either way, Jake and Heeseung always have to literally slap Sunghoon in the face to get his attention.

Technically, he knows he‘s setting himself up for humiliation. What if Jongseong wants to ask him something and just walks in while Sunghoon is changing into sweatpants? What if he catches Sunghoon in the middle of a nervous breakdown? All of those situations and more sound like problems for future Sunghoon, so he sticks to his words with a wide smile. Good job, Park Sunghoon. He‘s sure to regret it later on.

—

“You can call me Jay, by the way.”

Sunghoon almost breaks his neck from how fast he turns his head to Jay. He looks like an idiot, hands clinging desperately to the stacks upon stacks of differently sized uniforms he‘s trying to carry by himself, and his eyes opened wide (not that Jay looks any different with his own uniform thrown over his arms). Okay. Cool. They‘re on nickname basis already and they‘ve known each other for one afternoon.

‘I‘ll kiss him by the end of the week, holy shit.’

‘Can you not.’

‘No.’

‘What do you mean, no?’

‘I mean no, Sunghoon. Get a grip.’

‘This super hot guy just offered me to call him by his nickname, I’m gonna kiss him by the end of the week.’

‘Then at least say something. Before Jay‘s head explodes.’

‘His what will what.’

Jay’s head is not about to explode, but if his ears get any redder, he might turn into a living tomato – like, actually a living tomato. Sunghoon has never before seen someone turn this shade of bright red, and it’s slightly concerning.

“Uh,” he adds eloquently, “My friends call me Hoon sometimes. But only when they make fun of me.” Nice. Very good impression he’s making here, introducing himself as someone who is weird enough to be made fun of. What does ‘only’ even mean in this context. Sunghoon wants the ceiling to fall on his head. “Actually, please don’t call me that.”

“I – yeah,” Jay easily agrees and nods dumbfounded. Reasonable reaction, because what Sunghoon just said is pretty dumb. Why does having a crush mess with all of his braincells, how is Sunghoon supposed to get a boyfriend like this. “I’ll go try on the uniform.”

“Okay,” Sunghoon smiles because he doesn’t know what else to do with himself, “I’ll go pay for these in the meantime.”

Jay hurries out of sight into one of the changing cabins, and Sunghoon can’t help the sigh of relief that escapes him. Great. Cool. Nicknames. Today just keeps getting better and better – or worse. First, the stairs. Then the truck. Then the announcement in the middle of class, and then meeting Jungwon and Jay and humiliating himself as student council president because he was drying his socks in the office. Then the kitchen in the dorm he has to share with Jay. Now ‘Hoon’. Sunghoon pays for the spare uniforms in the hopes that the sheer sum of money the student council has to pay will distract him from his misery. He really has other things to focus on, even when he deliberately lets harmless crushes run through his mind because he doesn’t want to think about all of his responsibilities. Whatever.

No, not whatever. Where is Jungwon?

“Jungwon?” Sunghoon calls out as he stuffs the uniforms into a big paper bag (save the planet and all that stuff), and looks around for the boy who just seemingly disappeared into thin air. The top of his head doesn’t peek out from behind the shelves and he doesn’t respond to Sunghoon’s call. “Where did you go?” Which is kind of a stupid thing to ask, considering that Jungwon is nowhere to be seen or heard.

“I think he went to the restroom,” Jay tells him from behind the curtains of the changing cabins, only to be proven wrong when Jungwon calls out, “Please help me. I got stuck in the necktie.”

‘What.’

When Sunghoon carefully draws the curtains to Jungwon’s cabin back, he is met by the sight of him with his arms tangled and tied in the air, caught between the fabric of the striped necktie. How did he even manage to do this, not even Sunghoon struggled with a necktie this badly when he started middle school.

Group Chat: HeeJake+Thirdwheel

Sunghoon

Guys help

How do u untie a tie

Aussie boy

U loosen the knot

Sunghoon since when do u struggle with ties

Math failure

Unknot it

Deknot it

U know what I mean

Sunghoon

[1 image sent]

Its not me

Math failure

Oh damn

Looks like abstract performance art

Aussie boy

Performance art is always abstract

Actually nvm wtf happened here

And who is that -`д´- 

Sunghoon

I have no idea

Jungwon just was like this when he came out the changing cabin

Jay is trying to help him

Nvm

He just got entangled too ㅠㅠ 

Aussie boy

That doesn’t answer the question who these people are

Who tf is jay

Why are you dressing strangers in our school uniform??

Math failure

I know! Transfer students (´ з`)♡ 

Sunghoon

Ten points to heeseung

Now help us before I also get tied up and cant type

Math failure

Uuuuh kinky

Aussie boy

Transfer students??

Hoonie…

No.

Sunghoon

Too late

Jay is like rly fkn hot

Aussie boy

He looks more scary than hot to me

Math failure

Well

U arent into bondage that’s probably why ;)

Sunghoon

TMI

TMI EW

But yea mark me down as scared and horny

Aussie boy

WHAT did I say about crushing on the next person?!

Sunghoon

That its very likely to happen ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა 

And u were right

Now help me untie this tie

Jahdd

Aussie boy

Sunghoon??

SUNGHOON??!

OMG NO

Math failure

Human pretzel pile :D

Aussie boy

NOT the time lee heeseung!

—

Once the sun sets and Sunghoon finally manages to detangle himself, Jay and Jungwon from the deathly knot of Jungwon’s necktie (it took way too long), he can take a proper look at how the uniform fits them. Read: he can ogle Jay in the uniform because, yeah, sure, sleeveless guys are hot, but Sunghoon is a bit of a weak man when it comes to modesty and suits. Holy fucking shit, Jay in a suit. His honey-tanned skin makes the white dress shirt look like it’s glowing, and even though Jay is not wearing the blazer, Sunghoon can stare at his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the forearms they don’t hide. After the somewhat loose pant legs got fitted to Jay’s legs, they now end just above his ankles, revealing a sliver of white socks. Is this what the people during the Victorian ages felt like? Sunghoon understands them fully.

“That was… something,” he huffs and tugs at his already loosened necktie. Sunghoon’s is also hanging loosely from his neck, because it wasn’t just something. Sunghoon is traumatised and can still feel the fabric of the necktie digging into his throat, cutting off his airways. That’s right. He almost suffocated from a school uniform. Today is just not his day. “Jungwon, are you okay?”

Jungwon looks far from okay. In fact, the poor boy is trembling as he tugs at the necktie that Sunghoon tried to tie around his neck as carefully as possible, and his hair is sticking out in every possible and every seemingly impossible direction. If it weren’t for those two things, Jungwon would look like a model student.

“I’m good,” Jungwon insists and smiles weakly with empty, wide eyes. It’s unsettling, and it triggers something akin to fear within Sunghoon. This is what a serial killer looks like. “Are we ready to go back?”

Sunghoon checks his paper bag one last time and decides, “Yea, let’s go back.”

—

Jungwon is still so out of it from being almost strangled to death (poor boy, near death experiences must be new to him) that Sunghoon decides to just show them around the next day, after all of them got settled in the dorm. They make a quick stop by the student council office to drop off the uniforms and to quickly introduce Jay and Jungwon to Seungmin who was working overtime, and then hurry over the street to the dormitories across where Jake and Heeseung greet them… warmly.

“Do I even want to know,” Jay deadpans and stares at them sprawled across the two couches in the living area, eleven cups of ramyeon scattered on the floor surrounding them.

“I won,” Jake declares completely out of breath and pumps his fist weakly in victory, “I ate six.”

Great. Wonderful first impression there, Jake. Totally not lame and uncool and weird, and why is he Sunghoon’s best friend if he can’t even help him romance a guy he just met? How on earth did Jake and Heeseung even start dating? Life is so unfair.

“Please tell me there is still food in the fridge,” Sunghoon complains and kicks his shoes off into the next corner, “At least eggs and kimchi.”

“There’s mint chocolate ice cream,” Heeseung offers not so helpfully, because none of them even like mint chocolate ice cream! Why do they have mint chocolate ice cream in their fridge? Only weird people like to eat ice cream that tastes like toothpaste for dinner. Oh God, Sunghoon doesn’t have anything to make dinner with and show off that he’s husband material except for mint chocolate ice cream.

“You could’ve warned us that the transfers are moving in with us,” Jake groans and miserably fails to sit up on the couch. Instead, he just flops back with another groan and a weak kick that lands nowhere.

“I assumed the bags and luggages were hint enough,” Sunghoon sighs and shakes his head. Never mind. Jake may be book smart but he’s rarely been able to prove it in real life. Like that one time he was convinced that with enough force, he could walk up a tree and ended up breaking his arm. So much to being the best student in physics.

“They weren’t,” Heeseung hums, and he actually manages to sit up and flash Jungwon and Jay a wide grin, “Welcome to hell!”

Jay gasps.

Jungwon straight up faints.

(Sunghoon has to make dinner with two eggs and half of a tomato, which, unfortunately, doesn’t impress Jay at all. It doesn’t help that Sunghoon burns a hole through the pan.)

Chapter Text

When Jay wakes up, he’s not in heaven. Sounds weird out of context, because he technically shouldn’t wake up in a place where only dead people are but he gets to, okay? Jay is immortal, even when he doesn’t feel like it most of the time. Even when he shouldn’t be, not anymore.

No, Jay wakes up in a dusty dorm room that he shares with a quietly huffing Jungwon who keeps rolling around in his sleep (thank heavens that Jay is a heavy sleeper) and the responsibilities of keeping someone who isn’t himself alive weighing on his shoulders. Jay’s job is shit. He, as a guardian angel, better known as a blessing, has to keep a close eye on his mission and keep him alive. And Park Sunghoon either has five different curses working on killing him that Jay has to battle, or he is simply one unlucky boy. Just to check, Jay and Jungwon had somehow managed to convince the Holy Council that they should enter the human realm.

Jay hasn’t been in the human realm for twenty thousand years, and he’s now only allowed back because Jungwon – unlike himself – has a pristine record of obedience and white wings and a perfect halo. Yes. Jay is inferior to someone who is two-thousand years younger than him. But that’s okay. Jungwon is cute, and he has always managed to keep Jay in check and on track. Like his babysitter. Jungwon is Jay's babysitter.

Except, it wasn’t part of his plan at all to wake up at 7 am in the morning to clean the dorm kitchenette and throw away eleven empty cups of ramyeon. Humanity. Jay has to do so many silly things now that he’s a mere human with only a fraction of his holy abilities left.

“They’re trying to kill me,” he mutters under his breath as he stuffs yet another empty ramyeon cup into the overspilling trash can and shakes his head. Jay is one of God’s agents, and yet, he’s cleaning a kitchen that isn’t his own. He eyes the pan with a hole burnt through its bottom with suspicion. If Sunghoon really doesn’t have multiple curses, then this was just bad luck. There was no feeling of evil when Sunghoon almost set the kitchen on fire, or when Sunghoon almost got strangled to death by Jungwon’s necktie (frankly, that could have never been a curse’s fault, because angels can’t be influenced by them), or when he almost choked on dust. No, the only time a curse was involved yesterday was when Sunghoon almost got hit by a truck. Giving that old lady who pulled him back super fast reflexes to react was an effort that Jay wishes he never has to give again. It was horrible. He almost failed.

Jay, after only one afternoon that he got to know Sunghoon personally, came to the conclusion that Sunghoon is just clumsy. So really, there is no reason for him to stay any longer, if it wasn’t for the weird gut feeling he gets whenever he thinks of leaving. It might be something that has to do with Sunghoon. More likely, it’s because Jay prefers earth over heaven. Even when he really shouldn’t.

“Oh, you’re already awake?”

Sunghoon’s voice startles Jay so badly that he jumps back from the trashcans and crashes right into one of the eight chairs at the dining table. There, still half-asleep and with his hair sticking up wildly, stands Park Sunghoon in the door to his clean room while clad in thin, royal blue pajamas.

“Yeah,” Jay breathes and scrambles to his feet again, “Couldn’t sleep any longer.”

“First days are always the hardest,” he agrees with a soft hum and rubs his eye with the back of his sleeved hand, “You’re a second year, right? Just stick to Jake and me, and I think you’ll be fine.”

No wonder Park Sunghoon is one of the humans who got a guardian angel assigned. People like him are too nice for their own good sometimes. People like him deserve heaven.

Quietly, because it’s still early in the morning and everyone else is still asleep, Jay thanks him and lifts the trash bag out of the can. Luck is not on Jay’s side, and neither is God. The plastic bag breaks, and Jay spills all of the trash onto the wooden floor. Great.  Park Sunghoon's bad luck is already rubbing off on him.

Jay stares at the broken bag, then at the trash on the ground, then at Sunghoon. He's noticed that Sunghoon gets this weird look whenever Jay looks at him for too long, so he looks down at the trash again. Most of the content in the bag was empty ramyeon cups and the occasional can of an energy drink. Typical student stuff, as expected.

He did not expect to find a used and tied condom.

“Ok, ew,” he grimaces and steps away from it, “I'm not touching that.”

“Well, someone has to clean it up,” Sunghoon reminds him. Not that Jay needs a reminder for that, Jungwon was right to call him a clean-freak but still.

“Sunghoon, that thing was inside of someone.”

“That’s kinda what condoms are for, yes.”

“Sunghoon.”

“Specifically, it was in Jake's ass.”

“I’m not touching that.”

Sunghoon just cackles dryly, even though this is no laughing matter. Jay is not touching a used condom from the kitchen trash – dear God, that was probably the nearest trashcan, wasn’t it. Jay is also never sitting on one of the two ugly, orange couches. No, screw that. He’d rather be thrown to the ninth level of hell.

“We can just yell at Jake and Heeseung later,” Sunghoon shrugs and bends down to pick up everything else, “I suggest you invest in noise-cancelling headphones, if you’re so disturbed by sex.”

‘God help me.’

—

After breakfast that consisted of cereal and milk that ‘smells funny’ according to Jungwon, Sunghoon leads Jay and Jungwon back to the school grounds. It’s an exhilarating twenty minutes walk, mainly because Sunghoon trips down the steep set of stairs twice and is then almost run over by a bike. It doesn’t stop there. When Sunghoon wants to swing the huge, double-winged door to the school open, he almost gets hit in the face by a soccer ball coming from somewhere in the packed hallways. Just how dangerously could this guy live? Jay and Jungwon have to pull him back every time.

“And this is the student council office,” Sunghoon explains to them in front of the door with the ‘012’ plaque, as if getting hurt multiple times before 8 am is nothing out of the ordinary. Okay, it isn’t for him, and Jay knows that. He has been watching over Sunghoon for seventeen years now and knows how unlucky Sunghoon is. Honestly, it’s no surprise that he has two guardian angels looking out for him. “But you know that already.”

“Who else is part of the student council?” Jungwon asks. He’s always been better at smalltalk than Jay, so it’s good that he is basically glued to his side at all times. Jungwon is just so much more competent and serious about this job than Jay is.

“You met Seungmin yesterday,” Sunghoon looks deep in thought, like he doesn’t see the other members of the student council very often, “and Jake, too.”

“Jake is part of the student council,” Jay deadpans, because he doesn’t quite believe it. They are talking about the very same guy who competitively ate six cups of instant ramyeon, threw it all up after an hour, and woke up looking like he’d been mauled by a beaver before he fell asleep and face-planted right into his bowl of cereal. “Are you serious?”

“Jake is top of the year,” Sunghoon laughs nervously and shakes his head, “and captain of the soccer team, and part of the school choir, first violin, and friends with, like, everyone.”

“He doesn’t seem like it,” Jungwon mutters under his breath.

“I, yeah,” Sunghoon rubs his neck awkwardly and fixes his gaze to somewhere that isn’t Jungwon’s scrutinizing look, “There’s a big gap between student Jake and roommate Jake. But that’s okay, he really wants to get on Chan’s good side so he never slacks off in student council.”

“Chan is another member?” Jungwon asks and tilts his head.

“Yep,” Sunghoon smooths out the wrinkles in his blazer – or tries to dry off the nervous sweat on his hands, “He’s a third year, so, um, very busy. Wonyoung usually works for three people since she’s the vice president and has to help me out sometimes, too.” Sunghoon audibly gulps at the mention of this ‘Wonyoung’. Whoever she is, she must be terrifying and terrifyingly competent.

“I think we’ll just run into Seungmin at this hour, though,” Sunghoon adds and places his hand on the shiny door handle, “Wonyoung might just be sleeping so you won’t be able to meet her just yet.”

Sunghoon opens the door, and there are more people than just Seungmin in the office.

Jay has to look at reddish brown hair that shines in the sunlight filtering through dusty windows, at sparkling amber eyes that widen almost comically once they spot him, at a glowing complexion of the most beautiful face that Jay can remember, at pink lips that he should have never even looked at, at a boy he met nineteen thousand years ago and could never forget.

He expected Seungmin, he expected Wonyoung. Jay did not expect Sunoo to stand in front of him.

As if to pray, Jay discreetly clasps his hands together in front of his stomach, and calls out to Jungwon in his head (telepathy can be so useful when he’s not getting scolded by Jungwon’s voice invading his mind) for help, to warn him,

‘That’s Sunghoon’s curse.’

‘How do you know?’

‘It’s Kim Sunoo.’

Without wasting another second, Jungwon grabs his hand and pulls him down the hallway, only shouting the word “Restroom!” as explanation.

—

Jungwon doesn’t know the exact details of Jay’s downfall (although, he hasn’t fallen, not yet at least), doesn’t know why he ended up needing the help of someone else for something as simple as flying, doesn't know why the Holy Council want him to supervise him at all times. What he does know is that it’s Kim Sunoo’s fault. Jay won’t tell him any more than that, he has been judged and punished enough. Just thinking about it makes his wings hurt.

“So we found his curse,” Jungwon concludes and locks the door to the restroom after checking that it’s completely empty, “What is he doing on earth? Curses operate from hell. Are we sure he’s not the reaper?”

“I’m sure,” Jay shakes his head with a heavy sigh and runs his hands over his face. Fuck. Shit. “Sunoo doesn’t like getting his hands dirty.”

“He’s a demon, for God’s sake,” Jungwon groans and slumps against the door he just locked, “And he’s got business with Park Sunghoon. I’m sure that’s why he’s here.”

“He could also have business with another student.”

“It doesn’t matter. If he’s not a reaper and he’s on earth, it means nothing good, regardless of whether it’s related to Park Sunghoon or not. Demons never mean anything good, Jay.”

Jay already knows that, better than Jungwon even.

“Then what’s our next step?” he asks with a heavy sigh. Protocol demands of them to immediately report back to the Holy Council, to Archangels, to God themself. But for doing so, neither of them could show up for a whole human week, and that would just raise suspicion if Jungwon and Jay are merely dismissed with the task return to earth and keep a close eye on Sunoo and Sunghoon. That, or Jay comes back to heaven with news that could start a war. Again. “We can’t jump to conclusions.”

“Let’s look for proof,” Jungwon suggests and runs a hand through his black hair, “If he’s just a curse to kill Sunghoon or somebody else, nothing changes. We protect Sunghoon’s life, he dies naturally, heaven gets his soul, he can decide if he wants to become an angel. If Sunoo is out for funny business like starting a war – “

“The war was devastating for all three realms,” Jay intercepts, “Satan is not going to start another.”

“Satan has also collected more souls in the past thousands of years,” Jungwon argues, and he makes a good point, “How many of those are lesser demons now? High ranking demons? They probably outnumber heaven by billions. We need concrete evidence for the Council or they won’t take us serious. And then, if a war starts, it will be our fault!”

“Fine,” Jay sighs again. He doesn’t want to be at fault for anything regarding war anymore. “You protect Sunghoon, I watch – “

“No,” Jungwon cuts him off firmly and his tone leaves no more room for arguments, “Sunoo will be under my watch, and you protect Sunghoon. I don’t know what Sunoo did to you, but I won’t take any chances that it will happen again.”

Sunoo didn’t do anything to Jay, and exactly that is the problem. His existence alone has ruined Jay’s immortal life, and it will continue to do so forever, will continue to haunt him forever. Jay’s mistake almost cost them the entire realm of heaven.

“Aw, Wonie,” Jay coos, just to make the situation less tense, “You care about me.”

“Like hell I do.”

—

Group Chat: HeeJake+ThirdwheelZ

Sunghoon

u’ve been gone for a while now

did u guys fall into the toilet

Jay

no??

does that happen to you a lot

Sunghoon

uhm

no.

Jungwon

jays taking a shit

Jay

AM NOT WTF

jungwon broke the sink

Jungwon

ಠ_ಠ

DID NOT

Sunghoon

guys please,, if we have to fix a bathroom again, seungmin will kill me

Jake

only if u don’t die before that

Heeseung

^

what he said

Sunghoon

a little more trust in me please

I only tripped twice this morning ^^

Heeseung

omg congrats

Jungwon

were oow back

jays done

Jay

I NEVER USED THE BATHROOM WTF

Sunghoon

btw heejake

I forgot to tell u during breakfast

and bc I didn’t want to ruin my own appetite

but NO SEX in the communal area!

Riki

what.

Heeseung

homophobe

Sunghoon

that’s right •́з•̀ ٥

Riki

I’m scared.

Jay

you should be

Jake

welcome to hell

Jungwon

NOO

Sunoo

lol

—

Jungwon does care about Jay, despite his claims of the opposite. Either that, or he really doesn’t trust Jay around Sunoo enough to even let go of his arm as they get their tour of the school. Or he just wants to break some of Jay’s bones for no reason. It could be anything.

“Jungwon,” Jay mutters into his ear, “You’re gonna break my arm.”

“You’re not that fragile,” Jungwon replies with an innocent grin and tightens his grip. Jay just lets him, because 1) Jungwon is cute, and 2) if Jay doesn’t let him, he will break Jay’s arm and sulk a whole day. He can’t have that. Jungwon once refused to eat for a whole week because Jay didn’t let him pet a cat. Even though Jay was just looking out for him because he is allergic to cats!

Jay would love to say that he is completely unbothered by Sunoo’s presence. Unfortunately, he is very bothered by an unavoidable pair of bright eyes drilling into the back of his head as he follows Sunghoon around, only partially listening to what he’s saying about the classrooms, the school’s history, the teachers. Jay is too busy trying to ignore Sunoo and the heat creeping up his neck.

‘Don’t look,’ he warns himself, ‘Don’t look.’

‘I almost forgot what Sunoo looks like.’

‘Don’t lie to yourself.’

‘Just let me be sentimental for a bit, will you?’

‘Just… focus.’

‘On Sunoo?’

‘No! Focus on Park Sunghoon.’

‘His name sounds like Sunoo’s.’

‘Not now, me!’

“And this should be Sunoo’s class,” Sunghoon stops in front of one of the classrooms on the ground floor to check on the notes he got scribbled down by Seungmin before they went on their tour, “Class 1-3. Don’t forget to check the blackboard for clubs later.”

Jay clasps his hands together again. Jungwon mimics him by pretending to grasp Jay’s arms with both hands now.

‘What did he say about the clubs?’

‘Did you not listen to him?’

‘Kind of going through a crisis right now.’

‘Clubs are mandatory. We have to join one for the credits and social competences and stuff.’

‘Humans think of the weirdest reasons to explain their rules.’

‘Not like heaven is any better.’

That’s true.

Jay watches with what he hopes is a neutral face as Sunoo slides the door to the classroom open and throws one last lingering gaze back at Jay before his face splits into a grin and he skips inside. Fuck. Sunoo is too adorable for Jay’s heart.

Now, it’s only Sunghoon, Jay, Jungwon and Riki in the hallway. The tall boy seems unbothered, save for his hands fiddling with the tip of his necktie. His eyes are trained on Jungwon. Jay suppresses a scoff and frees his arm from Jungwon’s grip to slide it over his back and rest it around his shoulders. He knows that look. Jungwon doesn’t seem to notice, or to care about it, but Jay cares about Jungwon. So Riki can keep his eyes to himself.

“Riki’s and Jungwon’s class should be two doors over,” Sunghoon points at the door closest to the staircase up, the sign above it reads ‘1-1’. Jungwon is a first year? Oh God, Jungwon is a baby!

“Let’s join the home eco club later,” Jungwon suggests and slips away from Jay’s arm to walk over to the door to his classroom – with Riki trailing behind him, “Jay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Alright. See ya!”

Jungwon disappears into the classroom and Jay can do nothing but watch helplessly as Riki follows him inside, but not without sending a triumphant smirk towards Jay. No! Jay’s baby, who is also technically his superior!

Sunghoon is oblivious to the horrible fate he just threw Jungwon into, and to the inner misery it causes in Jay’s mind, so he, nonchalantly because he is unaware of the horror he just gave way for, slaps a hand onto Jay’s shoulder with a wide grin and says, “And you’re in my class. That makes things a lot easier.”

No! Jay is twenty-thousand years old, he should’t be attending high school classes!

—

Jay, as a blessing himself, is cursed.

Either that, or Kim Sunoo made it his personal mission (besides whatever mission he is on earth for) to stick himself to Jay’s side and it’s not good for Jay’s heart or for his wings. Because Sunoo, despite his innocent and cute exterior appearance, is a demon through and through, and holds knives in a very concerning, very deathly way.

“You’ll get hurt like that!” he snaps at him and takes the knife away from his soft, warm hands before he can hurt himself or others. Others, like Park Sunghoon who ‘just wanted to make sure they’ll be okay’, and is standing a few meters away from Sunoo, just out of reach of a knife attack.

From the corner of his eyes, Jay sees Jungwon watch him cautiously. And because Jungwon is here, Riki is also here. This is a bad group constellation, basically destined for chaos. Mainly because Jay is fully convinced (like, 99%) that Sunoo is Sunghoon’s curse, and Riki is Sunoo’s grim reaper. Fuck. If Jay doesn’t get Sunghoon to leave any time soon, he’ll be immediate danger and die, right in front of Jay’s eyes. Why is the school kitchen so equipped for deaths and safety hazards?

Except for Jay, Jungwon, Riki and Jungwon, the home eco club only has one other member. Third year student Lee Felix, who doesn’t even show up most of the time,

“He only uses the kitchen for ‘special’ brownies,” Sunghoon told them and pointed at the purple tupperware with leftover baked goods, “He always leaves some as a bribe.” Then, Sunghoon ate two pieces.

Where are the teachers? Where is the janitor? Where is any kind of responsible adult? Jay got so stressed that he also ate one, much to Jungwon’s horror, who followed his example. And then, Riki and Sunoo didn’t want to be left out and also ate a piece each. Now all of them are high in the school kitchen for the home eco club for extra credits, and Sunoo is close to stabbing someone. Yeah, Jay is not a good role model.

“Well, since we don’t really care about cooking now anyway,” Riki gets seated on top of the kitchen counter that Jay was just about to wipe down so he can start cooking something, “Let’s just chill.”

“The semester is about to end so you guys actually have to come up with a stall idea for the school festival,” Sunghoon says, munching on yet another weed brownie. This is the guy Jay is supposed to keep alive? He also needs another brownie. “Or, like, anything.”

“When’s the deadline for the submission?” Jungwon asks and slings his arms around Jay’s neck. Personal space? The ability to breathe? Jay is very much mortal in his human form.

“Today.”

The moment Sunghoon is finished saying the word, his eyes widen and bulge out of his head like he is about to explode from the inside out, and he spits his brownie into Jay’s unsuspecting, previously brownie-less face. The bits he doesn’t spit out get stuck in the back of his throat and Jay has to focus on keeping Sunghoon alive and shaking him violently, rather than on wiping his face clean. Not even a knife. This is not even a knife! Sunghoon, get a grip! Sunoo’s job must be so easy.

“Sunghoon?!” Jungwon exclaims and slams both of his open palms against Sunghoon’s back. To anybody who could possibly walk in, it probably looks like Jay and Jungwon are the ones trying to kill him.

Hell, if Jay gets fed up enough, he might just kill Sunghoon, then everybody else and then himself.

“The deadline is today!” Sunghoon heaves through a gasp and grabs Jay by the shoulders to shake him, “I need to go. President stuff. Bye!” Just like that, Sunghoon is gone. Not from life, just from Jay’s field of vision. He bolts out of the school kitchen like the Satan themself is chasing him and almost trips over his own feet and slams his head agains the doorframe.

No, really. How have Jay and Jungwon managed to keep this guy alive for so long?

“So… the stall,” Sunoo is the first to break the silence that had fallen over the room, “Any suggestions?”

“Let’s just bake brownies,” Riki suggests with a mischievous grin splayed across his face that quickly falls when Jungwon audibly scoffs, “Without the special ingredient, of course. Just basic brownies. We can try a few recipes and pick the best one. How hard can it be?”

Yeah. How hard can it be?

—

Jay is never baking again.

‘Are we sure your Sunoo isn’t trying to kill us?’

‘No. Not sure at all.’

‘Fuck.’

‘Does this count as a declaration of war?’

‘I hope it doesn’t.’

The last thing that Jay needs next to a broken oven and five trays of either burnt brownies or raw brownie liquid is another holy war involving Kim Sunoo.

“Seungmin is going to kill us,” Jungwon groans and flops back against the kitchen counter miserably, “Quick, Jay, how much does an oven cost?”

“Hopefully less than what we’ll make at the school festival.” Jay looks at the five trays of failure. Not even God could help him with this.

“What if we pay out of our own pocket before anybody notices?” Sunoo suggests, at the same time as Riki says, “Let’s put the blame on his Lee Felix guy.” See, this is why they aren’t angels.

See, this is why Jay needs to grow a backbone.

Because Sunoo whines quietly when Jungwon denies the both of them, and he flutters his eyelashes so prettily and he starts pouting (pouting, Jesus Christ) at Jay with begging eyes, that Jay, weak as he is, pulls out his wallet in one swift movement and says “Let’s go with Sunoo’s idea.”

Fuck Jungwon and his judging look, and fuck the holy council and their punishments. If Sunoo asked, Jay would set another kitchen on fire, and maybe earth itself.

—

‘Jungwon, help me.’

‘Help you? Help you?! Help me, Jay!’

‘No, you don’t understand. Are we sure demons have no effect on angels?’

‘I’ gonna effect your ability to reproduce if you don’t deal with the consequences of your own actions and rid me of the consequence you brought upon me in the form of a grim reaper, or God help me – ‘

Jay rips his hands apart and stuffs them inside the pockets of his blazer to avoid Sunoo’s curious eyes constantly glancing down at him. Except, he doesn’t stop staring, and he apparently wasn’t looking at Jay’s hands but at what was behind them. His fucking crotch.

‘Is this the consequence I deserve?’

Because, yeah, Jay might be foolish enough to agree to Sunoo’s every whim (like, buy a new stove for the school and hope that nobody notices that he’s dragging it to the third floor to the school kitchen past all of the students and teachers) but having someone so blatantly stare at his private area is a bit much. It’s too much, even for Kim Sunoo. Help!

The atmosphere is tense. Or maybe it’s just Jay who is tense because he hasn’t seen Sunoo in thousands of years and has no idea what he is thinking, or how he feels, or if he has forgiven him. How Jay made it into heaven with his streak of sins and hurt he’s caused, he has no idea. At this point, he doesn’t even want to know anymore.

At this point, all he knows is that Sunoo is peering up at Jay’s face through his bangs, and that he has never looked cuter before.

Fuck. Does Sunoo even remember Jay?

“This one looks okay,” Jay blurts and slaps his hand on top of the stove right next to him. The one that looks like it came out of a science fiction movie, with too many buttons, and a price tag that’s longer than Jay’s di –

“You look familiar.”

Fuuuuuck.

Jay can't even call Jungwon for help because his hand is still on the stove plate.

—

Jungwon also wouldn't be able to answer. Jungwon is too busy poking around in burnt brownie batter and figuring out whether it actually looks like the human depiction of Jesus or not.

“I'm telling you,” Riki insists and pokes the brownie with his long index finger, “It looks like Jesus! Here's his hair, and that's obviously an eye. I think.”

“You say that like you've met Jesus,” Jungwon snorts.

“I, uh, no!” he stumbles over his words, “What human has met Jesus in this time? I'm sixteen!”

Oh. So Riki is trying to keep his cover as human, even with Jungwon. Does he not know that Jungwon is also immortal, just like him? Not that it matters in this case, because Jungwon only became an angel after God's disappearance, and thus, also Jesus’ disappearance. So technically, he's not human and hasn't met Jesus.

But if Riki doesn't know that Jungwon is an angel, then Sunoo also doesn't know. And if both of them think that Jungwon is human, then neither of them think that Jay is an angel.

Jungwon takes his fingers out of the brownie and wipes them clean before he interlaces them behind his back. He might be smiling at Riki on the outside, but he’s yelling on the inside. Hopefully loud enough for Jay to listen to him.

‘Jay! They think were human!’

—

(“Sunghoon.”

“Hm?”

“Why are two of our new transfer students dragging a stove onto the school grounds?”

“What the fuck.”)

Chapter Text

“If you're going to compare me to the roblox smirk meme, save it.”

Okay. So Jay does not remember Sunoo, and he definitely isn't the same Jay as Sunoo's Jay. Sunoo’s Jay has also been dead for thousands of years, so there is that. What are the odds that Sunoo comes back to earth and he runs into the reincarnation of the love of his immortality? Too many, apparently. How else could he explain this.

‘But he looks like Jay.’

'It's not my Jay.’

'He's just as nice.’

'He's not the same.’

‘His dick is the same.’

‘Focus. Stove.’

“Uhm, this – this one is too expensive,” Sunoo changes the topic. Honestly, anything to get Jay's attention from him. That, and Sunoo can't bear to look at this Jay for too long before he is reminded of his Jay, and the last thing Sunoo needs is a distraction. He has a mission, and a very handsome guy to kill.

‘Or we stare at this very handsome Jay.’

‘Focus!’

—

Private Chat: Death

what are the chances

that my past human lover from the holy war on earth has been reincarnated

instead of going to hell

what

just tell me a number

52

what do u mean

is this about this jay guy

riki im going crazy here

he looks the exact same

10.3 cm flaccid and all

what

WHAT

EW

DID U RLY JUST TEXT ME HIS DICK SIZE

was there nothing else that resembles him??

no other telling points like idk his haircut or smt???

that’s not his dick size

dick sizes are measured when erect

o good tip

HEY

ARE U A CURSE OR A FKN SUCCUBUS

Imma suck alright

EWEWEWEWW

—

Sunoo needs a lot of focus.

To push the stove uphill towards the school campus because neither of Jay nor Sunoo have a car or a driver's license, and they didn't pay for delivery. So pushing the stove it was. Up a hill. A very steep hill.

And it was… something. Sunoo didn't even have to cry and think about his long lost and long dead love who was now reincarnated into the body of a boy who looks the exact same. This Jay even has the heart-shaped birthmark on the side of his neck that Sunoo used to kiss! He will be devastated for weeks.

From the pure torture that it was to push this stupid stove all the way to the school.

“I hate this!” Sunoo complains through gritted teeth and tries to push his back against the cardboard box of the stove to get it moving. It barely works. This is the workout of his lifetime, and Sunoo isn't even supposed to die. “We should have just paid for delivery!”

“We're almost there,” Jay groans and – shit, that's just as hot as before, “Just… another three hundred metres.”

Sunoo wails in despair.

“Let's try something else,” he suggests and struggles to stem his entire weight against the stupid stove and its stupid metal weight. “Close your eyes.”

“How is that supposed to help?” Jay argues but he backs up from the stove with closed eyes anyway. It almost rolls over Sunoo and flattens his ass (which would have been a tragedy, that's like Sunoo's main asset) (heheh, asset), and Sunoo has to use so much of his demonic power to save his bones. This stove is heavy. Sunoo should not be struggling this much to keep it standing still with telekinesis, but it seems as if he was severely weakened.

Checking left and right, and all around (and Jay out, hot damn), Sunoo makes sure that there will be no eyewitnesses to his little (very big, very big, it's so goddamn difficult) magic trick and forces the stove uphill by sheer willpower and spite. Sunoo hates this stove. He just wants it on school grounds so he can make Riki carry it up the three sets of stairs.

And because Sunoo's hatred runs so deeply, is so overwhelming, he almost shoots over his goal and trashes the stove when it lands on the ground again. Fuck. That was a close call.

Wiping off the sweat on his forehead (damn his weak human form), Sunoo checks that nobody saw this for the second time and turns around to Jay.

“Okay, I'm done!”

Jay opens his eyes and blinks in confusion when he realises that it's only Sunoo standing in front of him, without a stove. His eyes widen (hell, his eyes are really big, wow) when he spots the stove all the way up the hill in front of the school gates.

“How did you – “ he stammers, but Sunoo is quick to cut him off to not blow his cover as human. The less this Jay thinks about the admirable feat he just achieved, the more Sunoo will seem like a normal person with no supernatural powers. All according to the brochure. Sunoo should have been allowed to work as hell’s spy instead.

“Let’s borrow a cart from the janitor!” he chirps and tugs Jay along by his arm.

Sunoo has better things to worry about. He has a boy to kill, and Park Sunghoon, that lucky asshole, only has one blessing. The blessing of too much good luck. Good thing that Sunoo, now in his weakened human form, isn’t restricted to one try per day and has a lot more time and a lot more space that he can plan and execute his attempts on Sunghoon’s life. Sunoo already knows exactly how.

—

Attempt 1: Ask Sunghoon to build the stove into the kitchen.

“I have never even held a screw driver in my hands before, Sunoo,” Sunghoon tries to excuse himself weakly and pushes back against Sunoo at his back. It’s no use. Weakened form or not, Sunoo seems to be stronger than buff Park Sunghoon with… his very… nice back.

“Best time to make your first experience, then!” Sunoo grins encouragingly, even when Sunghoon can’t see him because he doesn’t have eyes on the back of his head like angels. Angels have eyes everywhere. Sunoo never wants to see another angel ever again, he has seen enough of them and their eyes and their white, holy pretentiousness.

“But Sunoo – “

“Thank you, Sunghoonie!”

Now, how will Sunoo kill Sunghoon by having him fix the stove? It’s simple. This stove is heavier than the earth’s core, and Sunoo’s little telekinesis has been charged up enough to tip it over again and have it fall right on top of Sunghoon’s head. It’s a plan of gore. Thankfully, Sunoo doesn’t have a weak stomach. He’s done much, much worse before.

Sunghoon, despite his protests a few moments before, squeezes himself between the wall and the new stove and gets to work under the watchful eyes of the home eco club. Only his head is peeking out from behind the stovetop, and then it disappears when Sunghoon crouches even lower to connect the gas cables or something. Sunoo doesn’t exactly know, he has never installed a stove before. In hell, you just hold your food over an open flame that bursts from the ground somewhere where hopefully your kitchen is and hope it doesn’t burn anything else.

Sunoo elbows Riki in the side to signal him that he should prepare himself for reaping a soul. Riki gives him a tight smile and a quick thumbs up in response.

Poor Jay and Jungwon. They will be so traumatised by what Sunoo is about to do.

Except, Sunoo doesn’t get to do anything. Jungwon is quick to climb on top of the kitchen counter next to the stove and stick his head inside the hole to ‘help’ Sunghoon. He looks a bit funny, with his butt sticking out like this. That on itself isn’t a problem. Sunoo can kill other people besides his target to finish his job. No, the problem is Jay. Sunoo would have just squished Sunghoon and Jungwon and have Riki reap both souls, or maybe Jungwon would have been lucky and gotten away with a major injury. But this Jay puts his hand on the edge of the stovetop that faces the wall and pulls it away from Sunghoon and Jungwon’s peeking heads. 

Sunoo wonders how much he can make it look like Jay isn’t strong enough and make the stove ‘accidentally’ slip from Jay’s fingers. The answer is: he doesn’t. Sunoo tries to tip the stove back so it stands fully on the ground instead of tilted away from Sunghoon and Jungwon’s unsuspecting heads but it won’t move even a millimetre. Jay doesn’t look like it from how much the uniform hides his form, but as far as Sunoo can tell, he is strong enough to hold the stove in place with one hand.

‘God fucking dammit, why do you have to be so Jay?’

Riki elbows Sunoo in the shoulder and cocks his head into the direction of the trio. Sunoo has to shake his head. Attempt one (1) of killing Park Sunghoon in person and finishing his mission has failed, and Sunoo’s powers need to be recharged slowly.

“Hey, I don’t think that goes there,” Jungwon says and reaches down with one arm, almost slipping off the counter and falling head first into the hole. “Where are the instructions?”

“I’m literally watching a YouTube video as instruction, of course it doesn’t go there!” Sunghoon complains, “Or wait. Does it?”

“Let me see,” Jay offers and switches places with Sunghoon by climbing over the stove an pushing him out of the hole. While he moves, his ass jiggles. Sunoo isn’t sure why Jay had to be reincarnated into a body with a fat ass, but he’s not complaining. “Actually, I’ve never installed a stove before, too.”

In the end, they had to get Seungmin and got scolded while he was professionally installing the stove into the school kitchen.

—

“So,” Riki speaks up after Sunoo locked the door to the restroom, “That was a fail.”

“It’s okay,” Sunoo shrugs and checks his hair in the mirror above the sink, fixing a strand that’s sticking out like an antenna (and another two strands that look like horns), “Now that the oven works again, we can use plan B to kill him.”

“Set him on fire?” Riki suggests. See? Sunoo is not the only crazy demon here. Riki is just as messed up as him after seventeen thousand years in hell with no ounce of humanity left in his soul.

“No?” Sunoo snorts and turns his head from side to side to make sure that he didn’t miss any weirdly sticking out strands of hair – or his horns, by accident, “We bake him something laced with poison, duh.”

“Oh, yeah,” he takes a step back from Sunoo and eyes him cautiously, “That’s a lot easier. And after that we go back to hell?” If Sunoo’s powers weren’t as drained as they are after moving a stove back and forth, he would just make Sunghoon a victim of random human combustion. Well, with his powers and maybe some addition chemicals he’d have to get his hands on first. But with Sunoo’s luck when it comes to Park Sunghoon, he’d sweat it off during a workout or out of constant fear for his life.

“Of course we go back,” Sunoo scoffs, “One day as human and you already got attached to earth?”

Riki doesn’t answer but he doesn’t need to. Sunoo knows that Riki’s attachment has been building up slowly with every thirty minutes he spends on earth to reap the souls of Sunoo’s victims. That, and Riki is not exactly the most subtle starer.

“You prepare the baking stuff,” Sunoo tells Riki and fixes him in place with a glare through the mirror, “I’ll see where we can buy some cyanide around here.”

Attempt 2: Feed Park Sunghoon poison.

—

Buying cyanide is surprisingly easy. That part of the plan is almost too easy for Sunoo’s liking.

That’s why, even after this afternoon that proved that Sunoo likes setting kitchens on fire (by accident, of course), it’s no surprise when everything goes wrong in the evening, Riki and Sunoo make a huge mess with flour and eggs, and Sunoo burns another tray of brownies. And Riki. Sorry, Riki.

“There is no way he’s eating that,” Riki coughs out a cloud of flour and possibly smoke as he stares down at the completely black, and completely charred tray of brownies. Maybe some icing will help.

Sunoo wants to cut into the one big brownie to make it multiple smaller brownies, but the moment he puts more pressure on the tip of the knife to have it slide into it, the blade breaks and shatters right under Sunoo’s eyes. The shards scatter on top of the very smooth, singular brownie, and Sunoo can stare right back into his pretty, wide-eyed reflection in them, before he decides to dump the whole thing into the trashcan. Along with the handle of the now broken knife.

“Not a word about this,” Sunoo warns Riki. He agrees wordlessly.

Together, they clean up the kitchen. Attempt two (2) of killing Park Sunghoon has failed, and it was Sunoo’s incompetence that caused him to mess this one up. Not even a guardian angel around, only flour and eggs and an oven that was able to almost kill Riki but not Sunghoon.

—

Sunoo and Riki go to pick up their bags from the student council office, and walk in on a Park Sunghoon they can’t kill, and who is going through all of the submitted forms for stalls and events for the school festival with Jang Wonyoung, who is now finally awake at ass o’clock. Sunghoon is sitting at the desk in the middle of the U-shape, with Wonyoung on his right, and a tall stack of papers that threatens to collapse on his left. His lips are pursed in concentration, and he furrows his eyebrows more and more with every line of the submissions that he reads. Clearly, being this handsome while doing paperwork doesn’t take the load of work off of his shoulders, nor does it make his job any easier. If Sunoo doesn’t kill him, Sunghoon might just kill himself with paperwork.

Jungwon and Jay are idly sorting through another stack of papers, as if they were part of the student council, too.

“What are you guys doing here?” Riki asks them, and only receives a distracted hum from Jungwon as answer. When he reaches for another paper, his head knocks against Jay’s loudly, but neither of them seem to notice.

“Seungmin can’t come in for a few weeks and they volunteered to help,” Wonyoung replies for them, even while looking through another submission. Ah yes, girls and their ability to multitask. “A helicopter crashed into his dorm, but someone needs to check the funds for the school festival. So they’re now honorary members of the student council after one day at Decelis. That’s a new record.”

“You say that like you didn’t volunteer to join in your first week here,” Sunghoon laughs and puts the paper he’s holding into the shredder. Interesting. What are the chances that Sunoo can kill him with that? Who knows, people bleed a lot when their hands get shredded. Sunoo might get lucky, and Sunghoon might die. “Which club wrote ‘Truck simulator, but in real life and it’s not a simulation’? What activity is that supposed to be?!”

“At least it’s not the ‘arm wrestling to death’ from the soccer team,” Wonyoung giggles, crumples the paper she was previously holding, and lands a three-pointer in the trashcan.

“Soccer team?” Jay wonders and looks up from the stack of papers he’s hiding his face behind, “Isn’t it Jake then?” Oh fuck, Sunoo almost forgot how cute he looks with wide eyes. No, focus! He is not here for romance or thirsting, even when Park Sunghoon looks very attractive when he isn’t moving.

Sunghoon stops whatever he’s doing and freezes on the spot. He seems to think vey hard, before he slowly turns his head to Jay with a blank stare.

“It’s Jake.”

—

Group Chat: HeeJake+ThirdweelZ

Park Sunghoon

jake u fucker

wtf was ur school festival submission and whats arm wrestling to death

Sim Jake

what do u think arm wrestling to death is

Park Sunghoon

can u take this serious

were srting through all of the submitted shit rn

and u are NOT helping

more than half of the clubs need to submit another activity bc theyre not getting approved

do u know how much paperwork that is

do u know how many trees u are killing with ur stupid arm wrestling to death

Sim Jake

0.00012 trees

so 0.00024 trees for two submissions

Lee Heeseung

my boyfriend is smart AND environmentally friendly!

Park Sunghoon

ur boyfriend is an idiot and a fucking asshole

he has never even won a single arm wrestling match

Sim Jake

I have never lost wdym

Park Sunghoon

u lost against HUANG RENJUN

Sim Jake

NA JAEMIN WAS STANDING BEHIND HIM AND GLARING AT ME

that one doesn’t count

I was distracted

na jaemin is hot when he glares okay

Lee Heeseung

im right here

Sim Jake

yeah but ur handsome, not scary

u know what

I get the scared and horny thing now @Park Sunghoon

Maybe Jay?

lmao what

Park Sunghoon

NOTHING

nothing, I have no idea what he means

Death

lmaooooo

Yang Jungwon

Oh?

Oooooh

Park Sunghoon

no oooooh-ing in my groupchat please

Yang Jungwon

understood ;)

Park Sunghoon

no winking either

Sunoo

;)

Park Sunghoon

kim sunoo pls

I am a weak man

Sim Jake

I second that

Park Sunghoon

still stronger than u

—

Sunoo, as a curse himself, is also so damn lucky, it resembles a blessing.

Really, what are the chances that he gets to live in the same dorm as Park Sunghoon? Now, Sunoo can just sneak into his room at night and suffocate him in his sleep with the basic pillow over his face. That, and if that plan ever fails (which Sunoo doubts, no human survives without oxygen), then the forced proximity is the perfect opportunity to spend more time around Sunghoon, thus getting even more chances to kill him. Sunoo is so lucky.

“This is great!” Sunoo whisper-yells to Riki and closes the door to their dorm behind him while he steps into the communal area as the last person. The two boys that Sunoo only got to know in the group chat, Heeseung and Jake, are already waiting to welcome them. Or rather, welcome them and give Sunoo a not so subtle hint about the relationship dynamics in this dorm by making out on one of the two couches. Next to Sunoo, Riki shrieks loudly and turns his entire body away from the sight in embarrassment.

“Stop that!” Sunghoon scolds them and slaps the top of Jake’s head, so he only ends up knocking their heads together even more, “Jake, did you move all of your stuff to Heeseung’s room?”

“Uuuh, something like that, yeah,” Jake responds sheepishly and rubs the back of his neck as he sits up with a nervous smile, “You see. I broke one of the beds.”

“You,” Jay deadpans and looks at the first door on the left, which supposedly used to be Jake’s room, and slowly raises his hands to cover Jungwon’s ears, “As in, you by yourself, or you two?”

“Me by myself.”

Jay sighs in relief and releases Jungwon’s head again, although the boy looks relieved enough to have heard Jake’s answer just fine, too.

“Let’s do something fun!” Heeseung suggests, “We redistribute the beds through a few rounds of rock-paper-scissors and change up the roomie constellation.”

“I don’t want that,” Sunghoon denies, but his gaze flickers to Jay. Oh? Sunoo fully understands.

“I’m saying this as your senior.”

“I’m saying this as the student council president.”

“As a second year.”

“I can have the coach kick you off the basketball team.”

“Try me,” Heeseung flashes Sunghoon a challenging grin full of confidence, “I’ll have sex on your bed.”

“That’s an empty threat!” Sunghoon sputters, “Jake has more decency than that.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Heeseung smirks, “Tell him, Jake.”

“No, I don’t,” Jake agrees. Sunoo doesn’t even know anymore what this argument is about. It’s just that absurd to have people shamelessly talk about having sex on their best friend’s dorm bed. Then again, Heeseung and Jake totally seem like that kind of couple.

“Fine,” Sunghoon raises his hands in defeat, “but if I get one of your beds, I’m taking one of my mattresses!”

“Great!” Heeseung sinks back against the couch with a satisfied smile. Whatever he wanted to accomplish, whether it was to mess with Sunghoon, or to get them to play rock-paper-scissors, he got it done. “First place gets the single room, second and third get the other one on the left. Fourth and fifth get the room on the right with the windows, and the losers get the leftovers.”

Sunoo needs to room with Sunghoon. Maybe, if he pushes him off his bed hard enough, Sunghoon will hit his head on the nightstand and bleed out from an open wound. Maybe he can try to suffocate him all night long. Oh yeah. Just thinking about it has Sunoo grinning from ear to ear in excitement.

The seven of them gather around the coffee table, fists raised to their faces. Everyone is serious about this, Sunoo even more than the rest. This is a matter of life and death to him. The life and death of Park Sunghoon. And his own. But that’s irrelevant. Sunoo can worry about it another time, when he doesn’t have a rock-paper-scissors match to lose.

Now, the only way to room with Sunghoon is to match whatever he plays. Sunoo can do that. He’s good at reading body language.

In the first round, Sunghoon plays paper. Nobody wins, because Sunghoon and Sunoo played paper, Jake and Riki played scissors, and Jay, Heeseung and Jungwon played rock.

Heeseung and Jay win the second round, because they played scissors when everyone else played paper. In their one-on-one match, Heeseung plays paper and Jay plays rock, which makes Heeseung the winner and Jay second place.

Jake wins the third round by making everyone believe he plays scissors so everyone would pull out stone and he can play paper instead. That’s what Riki claims, but Sunghoon says that it’s reversed psychology, so everyone plays stone, and Jake actually plays paper. Riki does not look happy about it, and neither does Jay.

“Do me a favour,” Jay pleads of Jake, voice laced with desperation, “Take Heeseung’s old bed and only have sex in his room.”

“Okay.”

“Thank you.”

Riki wins the next round by sheer luck, which leaves Sunghoon, Sunoo and Jungwon as the contestants of the last round. Correction, multiple last rounds. Apparently, Sunoo is not very good at reading body language, because five rounds end in draws because everyone plays something different.

And then, Sunghoon wins by playing rock, beating Sunoo and Jungwon’s scissors.

‘Fuck!’

Sunoo pulls Riki to the side to tug his head down by his collar and harshly whisper into his ear, “Switch with me.”

“What?” Riki squeaks high in pitch as his gaze trails to Jungwon and his face turns red, “I can’t do that. You two lost fair and square.”

“If we switch, I can weaken Sunghoon faster,” he reasons. Sunoo doesn’t care about Riki’s crush on a human, Sunoo cares about killing Park Sunghoon! Riki needs to focus.

“You can just hang out in our room all the time,” he tells him quietly and shakes Sunoo by his arms “Don’t make me switch with you, I will die before I get to reap Sunghoon’s soul.”

“You can’t die, that doesn’t even make sense.”

“I’m not going to switch with you, Sunoo.”

“Fine.”

—

Yang Jungwon is very unsettling when he stares at Sunoo with wide, dead eyes like he has never seen a person before. Frankly, he could be very cute like this, too, but something in his gaze terrifies Sunoo down to his bones. He feels Jungwon’s eyes glued to his back, and they seem to look straight into his rotten, demonic soul when all that Sunoo wants to do is unpack his stuff and kill Park Sunghoon. Jungwon wants to say something to him, but Sunoo is too scared of him to strike up a conversation with him.

He shrieks when Jungwon finally speaks up and asks, “Are you very close to Riki?”

What. That is what he wanted to ask Sunoo?

Sunoo slowly turns around to look at Jungwon, because there is no way he’s seriously asking about Riki of all people. He has seen the kid warm up his strawberries on his scythe, cry over puppies’ souls and slip on trails of blood multiple times.

“You want to know about Riki?” Sunoo is ludicrous. Jungwon is too cute for Riki. That, and Sunoo knows that Riki has also taken an interest in Jungwon after only one day, so it will be Sunoo’s side quest to set him up. For embarrassment and failure. There is no way in hell that he will help Riki get a human boyfriend. Who knows how long they’re going to be on earth, maybe Sunoo succeeds in killing Sunghoon tomorrow. Then what? Riki will have to return to hell with him and leave his human toy behind. Sunoo knows what attachment can do to a demon. As much as he hates to admit, but he doesn’t want Riki to be demoted to a curse.

“I, well, you don’t have to tell me anything,” Jungwon stammers through his answer and finally, finally averts his gaze away from Sunoo and to the bed he’s sitting on, “I just, uhm, yeah.”

“He’s like my brother,” Sunoo tells him, and it’s the truth. Riki is like Sunoo’s brother, because he is annoying and likes to bother him, and taller than him even though he is younger, and he steals all of Sunoo’s snacks and plays stupid pranks on him just to make him mad, and he likes to see Sunoo fail and pissed and miserable. Sunoo hates Riki more than he can fathom. “What about you and Jay?”

The moment Sunoo is done speaking, he already regrets that he let the question slip from his lips. Why should he care about this Jay? He’s not Sunoo’s Jay, even when the soul stays the same in the reincarnation cycle. But it’s not the same. This Jay doesn’t share the same memories as Sunoo, so he has no reason to get close to Sunoo. And Sunoo has no reason to get close to this Jay either, because he will return to hell once he kills Park Sunghoon, which is (hopefully) very soon.

That, and Jungwon immediately purses his lips and glares at him.

“Don’t even think about getting close to Jay,” he warns Sunoo. Now, the situation is very confusing. Jungwon is either very platonically protective over Jay, or he’s trying to cheat on him with Riki. The second option sounds like a lot more fun than the first, and the only reason why Sunoo should help Riki and Jungwon and their blooming little love. For his own entertainment, and because he loves some good gossip.

“You’re right,” Sunoo grins brightly at Jungwon and laughs as friendly as he can manage, “We gotta focus on you and Riki, right?”

Jungwon vehemently shakes his head in denial and turns his back to Sunoo. Rude.

But it’s okay. Sunoo needs to focus on other things anyway. Like, killing Park Sunghoon. And maybe finding guardian angels, or even just normal angels, on earth. But mostly killing Park Sunghoon. Fuck Satan and their insatiable greed for chaos, Sunoo is not starting a holy war for them.

Chapter Text

Sunghoon thrives on routines and habits, that’s probably why he loves ice skating so much. They’re easy to build, and all the more difficult to unlearn, that’s probably why he is utterly lost and disoriented in his dark room with changed layout because he let Riki move in with him and had to move his furniture around, and stumbles over a chair and hits his head against the wall first thing in the morning. He’s off to another great start in the life of Park Sunghoon.

“Are you okay?” Riki asks, his voice still raspy from sleep, and turns the lamp on his nightstand on as he props himself up on his elbows to check on Sunghoon. He looks very cute with his hair pushed back because he had his face stuffed into his pillow while sleeping on his stomach, and he is too tall to properly fit his feet in the bed, so they’re hanging off the end of the bed. “Does this always happen?”

“No, just sometimes,” Sunghoon shrugs and gets up from the floor. This is nothing. One time, he fell out of bed and hit his head on the nightstand, which caused him to bleed from a cut on his forehead for three days. Wonyoung was only slightly concerned about him back then. “You can go back to sleep, it’s still early.”

Riki’s head flops back into his pillow with a muffled noise. Cute.

Sunghoon leaves his room, the same one as before, but with a different layout and a new person sleeping in it, and gets ready for his day. It’s finally Friday, which would usually mean that his student responsibilities would end before lunch. Unfortunately, Sunghoon is student council president, the school festival is in two months, and he has tons of work to do before and after class. With Seungmin and Chan now out of business thanks to the helicopter crashing into their dorm, the usual workflow is interrupted and slowed down, no matter how fast Jungwon and Jay can adapt. Although, he's still grateful for their helpful hands. Very big, rough looking, calloused hands that look like they know how to work hard. On paperwork. (‘Or on – nope. Don't even go there, Park Sunghoon.’)

Quietly, because it's six am and he's already woken up Riki once, Sunghoon closes the door to his bedroom and sighs. While Riki is cute, he is not exactly the roommate Sunghoon was hoping for. How much money would he have to promise the soccer club to get Jake to switch with him?

“At least double of the current funds.”

Sunghoon does not squeal. He's a seventeen year old almost-adult and doesn't squeal, okay? No, Sunghoon escapes a very manly, high pitched scream when he hears Jake's voice answering his question like he just read his mind.

He already looks like he is ready to start his day, unlike Sunghoon, who is still in his pajamas. Although, Jake is wearing black sweats and a light, black t-shirt that is definitely not his own but borrowed from Heeseung’s closet, and is sitting on the couch to tie a pair of sneakers to his feet. A baseball cap pushes his hair back and out of his face, which means that Jake’s teasing, wide eyes are on full display for still sleepy Sunghoon.

“You were totally thinking you wanted to switch with me, right?” Jake asks him and wriggles his eyebrows in mock.

“No,” Sunghoon denies but it comes out weak, and his voice breaks in the middle of the short word. Damn him and his dry throat when he wakes up. Sunghoon has a best friend to lie to.

“Aww, but weren’t you so in love with him yesterday?” he presses further, and, God, Jake really knows how to get under Sunghoon’s skin and crawl inside his brain. “If you double the soccer club’s funds, I’ll switch.”

“We don’t have the money for that,” Sunghoon cuts him short curtly and stumbles his way into the bathroom, “And Seungmin will kill me once he finds out. Besides, my feelings should not influence my work as student council president.”

Except, it already did. Back when Sunghoon was dead set on dating Wonyoung (embarrassing, he knows), Sunghoon had agreed to let her join the student council without a student vote, and got all the bean bags for her to nap on with the little money they had (even more embarrassing, he knows that, too). All that, and then, he spent the next six months trying to impress her with his diligent work attitude and formidable figure skating skills, which totally failed because he twisted his ankle and face planted on ice. Needless to say, Wonyoung never became his girlfriend, and Sunghoon can totally understand.

Which is why he can’t let his funny delusions interfere with his duties, even if Jay walked into the student council office like a knight in shining armor yesterday and saved Sunghoon from a huge tower of paperwork that was threatening to fall over, and a deadly paper cut on his left thumb. Even if Jay (and Jungwon, but he isn’t the one Sunghoon gets distracted by… yet) is now filling in for Seungmin until the school festival is over. Fuck, which also means he will also join them on the student council trip in roughly three weeks.

“You don’t have to switch with me,” Sunghoon throws Jake one last, triumphant grin before he disappears in the bathroom, “I’ll get to room with Jay soon enough.” When it comes to love, Sunghoon is an evil mastermind (not that anything ever goes according to plan).

(“By the way, where are you going?”

“A secret underground arm wrestling society to gamble and make lots of money.”

“Is it to death?”

“Not yet.”

“Will you pay your own ramyeon with the money you win?”

“No.”

“Do you even win?”

“No.”

“Then why are you going?”

“So I won’t have to do student council work.”

“You – Hey!”)

—

Jay makes them breakfast, and Sunghoon falls in love a little harder, a little deeper. Holy shit, this guy is totally boyfriend material, right? Heeseung just shrugs when Sunghoon gestures wildly at Jay’s back turned towards them as he hovers over the kitchen, but Heeseung doesn’t get to judge his standards, considering his own boyfriend only knows how to make ramyeon with spam. Not even eggs or anything, just spam as side dish.

Jake still hasn’t returned from his secret trip to somewhere (Sunghoon doesn’t believe that he goes to an underground arm wrestling society, Jake is physically not strong enough to stay there for a long time), so there is an empty chair between Jay and Heeseung. Sunghoon sits at one end, like a dad, and the chair opposite of his is empty. Ah. The troubles of living in a dorm as seven people that is intended for eight. Sunghoon has nobody to look at while he eats.

Which also means that he can turn his head to his left and stare at Jay while he eats, and choke on rice, spitting some grains into his previously grain-less face once he recovers.

Nice going. That’s ought to seduce him in no time.

Wrong. Jay looks very unimpressed with Sunghoon’s waste of his lovingly made food.

—

Wonyoung is asleep when Sunghoon enters the student council office with Jake, Jay and Jungwon, whom he affectionately dubbed the ‘J-trio’. If she ever sleeps in her own dorm? Sunghoon will never know, he is too afraid to ask her about anything. Especially after last time, considering his last question was ‘Do you want my love?’ which was a very humbling experience when she rejected the offer politely. Humbling, and humiliating.

Jake fishes the soccer club’s admission for arm wrestling to the death out of the trashcan because he will ‘totally own it, just watch, Sunghoon!’ and approves the submission on his own account.

“That’s totally abuse of power,” Jungwon judges him and scrunches his nose, “We could report you to the school board for that.”

“Yeah, but you won’t,” Jake grins cheekily at him and slides the paper somewhere into the middle of the pile, “You never saw anything. Right, Jay?”

“Don’t rope me into this,” Jay deadpans as he picks up another submission from the file to look at. Absentmindedly, he pushes the pair of rimless glasses higher on his nose bridge. Oh fuck. Guys who look smart are way too attractive. Sunghoon won’t get any work done if Jay keeps sitting next to him, so he grabs a pile of papers and sits down on one of the bean bags, with one left between him and the one Wonyoung sleeps on.

Jungwon sits himself down between Jay and Jake, either to help Jay, or to stop Jake. Just like that, they spend an entire hour going through more submissions.

Those three do, at least. Sitting away from Jay apparently does not stop Sunghoon from tracing along the curve – or rather, the line – of his sharp jawline with his eyes and imagining what it’s like to kiss it. Either way, Sunghoon gets another paper cut that Jay has to tend to with hands that are gentler than they look. Sunghoon’s hands, meanwhile, are wet. From blood, or from sweat, God knows.

—

Jake is not in his class, and neither is Heeseung, but Jay is. Which means that Sunghoon is free to stare at Jay’s broad back in front of him without being judged, because thank God Jay also has major Main Character syndrome and sits next to the windows. It suits him. The sunlight is highlighting his cheekbones (Jay has an amazing bone structure, wow), and the wind blows gently into the classroom through the open window, through Jay’s slicked back, black hair - right into his face.

Sunghoon should probably focus on English class rather than his crush, considering that he is failing this class almost miserably (his grades fell under 90 marks, which is not a failing grade according to the curve, but a failing grade according to Sunghoon and his full-ride scholarship) but listen. Jay has a very nice back, and he took his blazer jacket off before class started, which means that Sunghoon can see his subtle muscles under his white dress shirt. Which, wow. Heh. Jay has a muscular back.

And then, Jay raises his hand for a question and answers in perfect, fluent English pronunciation, “It’s a quote from William Shakespeare’s A midsummer night’s dream.”

‘Oh my God.’

Oh God, indeed, Sunghoon. He just found a way to improve his grade and spend even more time with his crush that he lives with, and works with after school classes, and is already practically glued to. All he has to do is ask Jay to tutor him in English. He’s a genius!

A genius that’s failing English class.

Private Chat: Jay

psst hey

why are you texting me during class

ur english is very good

mhm

used to live in the us

wow

that's so cool

well, my english is very bad

and together

pfft together hahah

anyways

our average english is average

and I need exactly that to keep my scholarship so

tutor me please?

didn’t jake live in australia

ask him

jake just corrects my grammar and doesn’t tell me why its wrong

he cant help me, we’ve tried

also, hes too busy helping heeseung with physics

… actually helping him with physics?

if they ever say theyre gonna study physics

leave the dorm for four hours

noted.

FOUR HOURS???

Yes.

So? Tutor ??

sure, I’ll help you

again

what do I get in return?

all of my love and affection

and?

you want more than that?

okay okay I see you ;)

I want everyone out of the dorm kitchen.

that can be arranged

is that what u wanted

yes

oh okay

that’s easy then

Sunghoon was definitely not hoping Jay was going to ask him for a kiss, or maybe even a date.

(Scratch that, he totally was. He’s a single teenage boy with no boyfriend, let him be a little delusional.)

—

Jay wants to tutor Sunghoon after they're done with the submissions for the school festival (how are they not done with them yet, Sunghoon's been working on them with three other people for hours), so they walk side by side to the student council office.

“No, you don't get it,” Sunghoon laughs and weakly pushes Jay's shoulder, “Miso sounds like 'me so’ and it's funny!”

“It's not, can you stop?” Jay groans and pushes Sunghoon back with more force. Yeah, Sunghoon is a bit stupid when he gets a crush on someone. He gets stupid, and a bit annoying, and Jay will think about this joke for weeks. It's a foolproof plan.

“Stop being funny?” Sunghoon mocks him and pushes back, because, hey, anything to get a slight skin to clothes on warm skin contact that Sunghoon can daydream about. Jay's biceps are firm. He will daydream about it for weeks.

“Stop being an idiot,” Jay laughs and pushes back, but Sunghoon, being light on his feet and apparently without any sense of balance, stumbles over his own feet and would have hit his head against the wall. At this point, Sunghoon doesn't even do anything to try and catch himself. His head is already used to it enough to be extra thick, so he doesn't even get any bumps on his head anymore. That, or his head is just one big bump now.

Instead of hitting his head, Sunghoon is engulfed in the smell of a rich, expensive smelling cologne, and strong arms, and lands on the wooden floor of the school with his face squished against man boobs. Holy fuck, he's so attracted to men. It's sickening.

Under him, Jay moans in pain.

“Are you okay?” he groans and rubs Sunghoon's upper back, “Sunghoon?”

“I’m good,” Sunghoon says but it’s muffled by Jay’s shirt. There is no way he can look up. Not because Sunghoon wants to burrow his face deeper into the warm fabric and Jay’s scent, but because his face is too red, and he is too flustered by whatever this is to face anybody. Or even breathe. Sunghoon can’t breathe.

He bolts up from Jay’s chest (holy shit, it’s only day three and he already had his face in Jay’s chest) and scrambles into a kneeling position with his heels digging into his ass bones and his hands placed on his knees. His gaze stays locked on his fingers that are slowly turning red. Never mind Jay turning into a tomato. Sunghoon is about to turn into a tomato, and there is no way he can look into Jay’s face now, after Sunghoon just had his own face in said boy’s chest. God help him. Where is Jake to knock Sunghoon on the head when he’s being stupid again.

“Are you okay?” he asks Jay timidly, “You didn’t have to feather my fall.”

“It was kinda my fault anyway,” Jay laughs breathlessly and it knocks Sunghoon’s air out of his lungs. That sound is so attractive. What the fuck. “Sorry for pushing you too hard.”

“Yeah, apologize to me,” he sulks jokingly, just so he can make fun of something again. Mostly himself. “You almost killed me there.” Which is true. Sunghoon almost died from embarrassment and heart palpitations. Jay is just that bad for him. That, and Sunghoon just seems to be even clumsier around him with how much he fumbles around.

“Sorry, sorry,” Jay repeats and laughs louder, “But hey, I still saved you.”

Jay is, like, Sunghoon’s life saver now.

—

“Would a non-pg version of ‘Heathers’ get approved for the theatre club?” Jungwon asks into the room as he holds up the last of his submission stack. They’re almost done now, after three gruesome hours of going through submissions and checking the funds and the size of the stalls and rooms and everything. “Like, the broadway version, not a high school version.”

“We’re a high school,” Wonyoung chimes up and stamps another submission as ‘rejected’. She’s done that before, multiple times. On other submissions, on Sunghoon’s forehead. It hurt his head, and his ego. “So that’s a hard no.”

It’s just them in the student council office. Jungwon and Wonyoung were already working when Sunghoon and Jay walked in after the whole ‘falling over and saving Sunghoon’ disaster, Chan and Seungmin still need to fix their dorms, and Sunoo is just… there. Chilling on one of the bean bags and giggling to himself like a madman.

Honestly speaking, Sunghoon doesn’t know what to make of the boy. One minute, he’s grinning from ear to ear at everybody and everything, and in the next minute, Sunghoon catches a glimpse of something akin to a malicious, dangerous glint in his eyes. And the next moment, when Sunghoon turns his head to Sunoo to take a closer look, it’s gone again.

Just like Jake, who mysteriously disappeared from earth. Or to his secret arm wresting club.

“If he doesn’t show up by midnight, I’m calling the cops,” Sunghoon speaks his threat to a group that does not include Jake, because he isn’t present, “Or locking him out.”

“Group chat,” Sunoo sing-songs and wriggles in the bean bag like a fluffy, little worm, “I think Riki knows where he is.”

Group Chat: HeeJake+ThirdwheelZ

Riki

soo

idk about u guys

but I don’t think studying physics should be this loud

nobody enter our dorm

I am traumatized

Jay

OH GOD

@Sunghoon is this what u warned me about??

Sunghoon

yeah

so who wants to grab dinner outside tonight

Riki

this will go until AFTER dinner???

where are u guys

sunoo comfort me

Sunoo

lol

Riki

don’t lol me

im a baby!

this is horrible

Jungwonie

student council office

come help us plan the school festival

Sunoo

or just chill

I get why wonyoung sleeps on these bean bags

theyre so comfy

it’s like I’m in heaven

Jungwonie

yeah… no

come help Riki

ill pay for your dinner

Riki

I love you more than sunoo

omw now

if u see wet tracks on my face, that’s sweat

Jay

u were totally crying werent u

Riki

no

Sunghoon

yes.

cute

come here u big baby

Riki

OMW!!

I want bungeoppang

Jay

that’s not dinner

eat it after dinner

Riki

I don’t have to listen to u

ur not my mom

Jay

ill pay for it after dinner

Riki

free dinner AND dessert??

what do u need help with

ill do anything

Sunghoon

we gotta walk around the clubs that need to re-submit their festival activities

six is better than five so we’ll be done faster

Jungwonie

but were only four

Sunghoon

@Sunoo ur helping too

Sunoo

:/

do I get free food, too?

Sunghoon

do you like mint choco ice cream

Sunoo

how much of it

Sunghoon

lots

like, 1 kg

Sunoo

deal

Jungwonie

at least its not his soul lol

Sunghoon

why would it be my soul

Sunoo

haha yea

why would it be his soul

Jay

…

—

Wonyoung ditches them in favor of eating at her dorm (so she does have a dorm), which leaves Sunghoon alone with the transfer students that he has known for three days at most. Which would be okay, Sunghoon likes making new friends and making his parents proud that way. They’ve always wanted him to make more friends than just Heeseung and Jake, because, well, what if they’re off marrying each other and starting a family and Sunghoon will forever stay the weird single uncle who doesn’t have any other friends besides the kids’ parents, and he becomes a total screw up? Okay, they didn’t word it like this, but this is how Sunghoon feels about it. And he's fine about it, really.

But new friends are exhausting to be around, and Sunghoon has never before spent this much time around new people. His social battery is completely drained, and Sunghoon is starting to feel it suck out his actual life battery by the time they make it to the Japanese restaurant and order curry.

“Are you okay?” Jungwon checks up on him quietly when he ducks his head towards Sunghoon so they can have a private conversation. “You look tired.”

“I’ll sleep in until afternoon tomorrow,” Sunghoon groans and slumps against the backrest of the booth they’re squished into, “Organizing school festivals suck.” He can’t even enjoy his tasty curry that Jay paid for (the man can cook and has money, why hasn’t Sunghoon married him yet) with how much is on his mind. There are still details to be figured out, more re-submissions to look over, and with Seungmin gone, Sunghoon has to handle the club funds and the basketball club literally broke the gym floor. How did they even do that? Repairing it costs way too much money, and Sunghoon isn’t sure how much money they can win from the upcoming semi-finals against Sunshine High. Money is so fucked. Capitalism is so fucked. Sunghoon hates capitalism.

“You might now want to do that,” Riki warns him, “I overheard Jake and Heeseung – “

Riki breaks into shivers so bad that he drops his spoon. His face is twisted in anguish.

“They’re gonna study some more the whole weekend.”

Everybody groans. Great. Sunghoon needs to lock himself in the student council office anyway. That, or he can kick the hockey team off the ice rink and twirl around a bit until his thoughts get catapulted out of his head by centrifugal force.

“You can show us around town,” Sunoo suggests happily and kicks his feet when he shovels another spoon full of curry into his mouth. His cheeks puff up like a hamster’s, so Sunghoon, brain dead as he is, pokes them. Oh. They’re soft. Sunoo whines in complaint. “Anyway, we haven’t seen much of the town yet. Newcomers and all. Be nice, I’m bothering you here, prez.”

“Fine, fine,” Sunghoon agrees and waves lamely, “I’ll show you around town. But eat your dinner first.”

“And then bungeoppang?” Riki pipes up, and his face lights up with excitement. Aw, Sunghoon’s underclassmen are so cute. What to do? Sunghoon looks at Jay to wait for his answer, who sighs in defeat.

“And then bungeoppang,” Jay agrees breathlessly.

—

They do not get bungeoppang.

Just when they’re about to round the corner to walk through the park so they can get to one of Sunghoon’s trusted street food stalls, Riki crouches into everybody’s way, mostly Sunghoon’s, and has them trip into the gravel path. Again, mostly Sunghoon. This time, Jay isn’t fast enough to catch him because Sunoo is walking between them (dammit, Sunoo, Sunghoon was so ready to have those cute little romance scene moments where their hands brush against each other and Sunghoon can feel the warmth seep from his fingers all the way to his cheeks from simple skin contact with his crush), but he’s the first one to crouch down and check up on him. Yeah, Sunghoon is so in love with Jay. It’s pathetic.

“What the heck was that for?” Jungwon scolds Riki and pulls at his arm to get his attention that is averted to somewhere in the bushes. Which is totally not creepy at all. No, the bushes are just unlit and a few meters away from the path they’re walking on, and it doesn’t rustle, and Sunghoon is not scared.

Well, he’s definitely not scared enough to ignore Jay grabbing the back of his shirt with clenched fists.  

“Are you okay?” he whispers to him and twists his upper body to sling an arm around Jay’s shoulders in a totally platonic way to protect him from the rustling bushes and the danger that’s hiding behind them. Sunghoon can be cool and protective, too.

“I’ll be better once we make it out of this park,” Jay mutters into Sunghoon’s shoulder and, oh shit, he’s being so cute, what the fuck.

“Riki, where are you going?” Jungwon scolds him when the tall boy starts walking into the direction of the bushes and runs after him, “Riki!”

“Jungwon?” Sunghoon wants to stop him but his arm is a little trapped. Jay is now not so cutely clinging to him. Okay, that’s a lie, he’s still cute. Next to them, Sunoo scoffs and shakes his head.

Riki and Jungwon disappear into the dark, and Sunghoon can’t do anything but stare at their dimly lit silhouettes crouching down in front of the bushes.

“Guys!” Riki yells and seems to start waving his arms to get their attention, “Get over here!”

“What?” Sunoo scoffs, but he starts walking off the path anyway, “We’re not coming!” Then what is he doing right now, walking to them? Sunghoon might be right in his assumption that Sunoo is a little crazy.

Jay pulls Sunghoon to his feet, hands still fisted into the back of his shirt, and glances between the three younger boys and Sunghoon with flickering eyes and a thoughtful pout. Oh God, he pouts when he thinks hard? Sunghoon is a goner. Then, because Sunghoon is so whipped, and because the others are still in the fucking bushes, he flashes Jay an encouraging smile and nods into the direction they wandered off to.

“Let’s go?” he offers and grabs Jay’s hand to give it a tight, reassuring squeeze, “I won’t let you die.”

“Me neither,” Jay says and pulls Sunghoon along with a determined frown replacing his pout. In Sunghoon’s hold, his hand is shaking with fear.

This moment will go into Sunghoon’s next journal entry as his first successful romance moment (journal, because it’s not a diary, Sunghoon does a lot more than write about his feelings into the book, thank you very much). He is romancing Jay so hard, even Heeseung and Jake, unofficial kings of flirting, would be proud of him. This is amazing. He’s actually holding Jay’s rough, sweaty hands, and Sunghoon is actually too scared to celebrate his success, or realize how unromantic this moment is.

“Jay, look!”

Jungwon pops out of seemingly nowhere and pushes something into Jay’s face. Jay lets out a scream, and he jumps back and sends Sunghoon stumbling with him to the ground, away from the horror he just had to look into bright, beady eyes.

It’s a tiny, dirty kitten.

“We’re gonna keep her.”

“Like hell we are!”

Chapter Text

There are four things wrong when Jay wakes up.

One (1): He wakes up. It's a truly cruel fate, one that he will never be able to escape because he is immortal and can't sleep forever. Don't misunderstand. Jay doesn't want to die, but he also doesn't want to wake up knowing that he is in his human form rather than his angel form that doesn't actually needs to sleep (he just likes to do it). In his angel form, he can at least explain why his back hurts. Waking up as human with back pain is just… a pain in the ass. But higher.

Two (2): He wakes up in a dorm bedroom that isn't his own. While he also lives in a dorm as an angel, this one is simpler to explain than the first thing. It's neither his old room in heaven, nor is it his new room on earth. Jay wakes up in a room without windows, so it's easy to tell that it's not the one he lost rock-paper-scissors for. Thanks a lot, Jake and Heeseung. Jay has seen more unholy things than the reflection in mirrors now.

Three (3): Kim Sunoo is sleeping on top of his shoulder. Why on earth is he there? Jay can't remember this early in the morning, but he knows that it's bothersome and wrong, wrong, wrong. Even though it feels right, like Jay has finally done something that makes sense for him and what he is destined to do. But how can he not, when Sunoo looks so serene while he's sleeping peacefully, and is so warm against Jay's body. He'd call him angelic, if it wasn't blasphemy. Instead, Jay is an idiot and presses a kiss to the crown of his head. As one does, you know.

Four (4): A tiny Calico kitten is sitting on top of Sunoo's head, staring straight into Jay's fractured soul with its orange, unblinking eyes.

Yesterday, after they got bungeoppang, and Jungwon refused to put the kitten down despite the rashes appearing on his arm, Jay let him keep it.

“Her,” Riki corrected him after he swallowed his bite behind a raised hand when they were on their way back to the dorms and scratched him behind his ears – Jungwon, not the female kitten, “Manifesto is a girl.”

Which was just weird. The name, and the ear scratching. Riki needs to keep his grubby, sticky iPad-kid hands to himself.

Actually, there is a fifth wrong thing when Jay wakes up.

Five (5): Nishimura Riki is also asleep in this room. More specifically, also in Sunoo's bed, sandwiching him between himself and Jay. While Jay is not weak, both of them combined are still heavy and pressing down on his fragile human lungs.

From the corner of his eyes, Jay can see Jungwon judging him when he carefully, as to not wake them up and throw Manifesto off of Sunoo's head, wriggles free and rolls out of bed onto the cold, unforgiving floor. Today, he lands with on his shoulder, which is a lot better than on his back like yesterday when he pushed Sunghoon too hard and almost sent him flying through a wall (that’s an exaggeration, Jay’s form is too weak to break walls… probably). This one wasn’t even Sunoo, and Sunghoon almost got hurt again. He just has the bad luck of having a curse and an incompetent guardian angel.

Jay has the bad luck of being allergic to cats. He sneezes, loud, and startles Manifesto so badly that she jumps off Sunoo’s head and onto his shoulder.

“Get her away from me!”

Jungwon makes his point of ignoring Jay’s cry for help by getting out of bed and leaving the room without another word. Brat. Jay is still older, he can at least pretend to respect him. Jay struggles to get Manifesto’s claws out of the green fabric of his shirt all morning, so if anybody saw him sneeze while brushing his teeth – no, they didn’t.

—

Jay’s struggle with Manifesto continues all throughout breakfast.

“She likes you,” Jungwon coos and goes on his tiptoes to pat Manifesto’s head resting in Jay’s disheveled and un-styled hair. As cute as she is, Jay can’t walk around with a kitten on his head for the entire day. He has dignity, an image. An allergy.

“She’s trying to kill me,” Jay bemoans and swats his hand away from his face. He can’t see the knife he’s holing like this. “Stop petting her, you’re also allergic!”

“I am,” Jungwon agrees, “what parental love does to a little boy like me.”

Jay isn’t so sure if only Riki and Sunoo are the demons here. Or if Jungwon is just losing his mind and just meowing at her for the fun of it. It could be either, it could be both. Jay has to make sure he doesn’t accidentally stab himself when he sneezes again, because if he dies in his human form now, he would fail his job of keeping Sunghoon alive.

“Please make enough breakfast for nine people.”

Speak of his human.

“Nine people?” he scoffs, “We’re only seven.”

“Jake and Heeseung will need it.”

“Okay, ew. Whatever.”

Sunghoon’s laughter is loud in the silence of the morning. With the sunlight streaming through the dusty kitchen windows, Riki playing Animal Crossing on the couch, Sunoo laughing at something on his phone, and Sunghoon and Jungwon setting the table while Jake and Heeseung are still sound asleep in Jake’s (and Jay’s) bedroom, it almost feels domestic, almost makes Jay wish that he was an actual human and could grow old and die like everybody else. But no. Jay knows what the afterlife holds for him, and it’s nothing pretty, or domestic. When Jay is done with saving Sunghoon’s soul, he will go back to heaven and get to his next mission.

He stares at the tree on the other side of the window, sees a few streams of sunlight filtering through its leaves, and breathes. The air on earth is thicker, warmer. It holds more oxygen for things that need to breathe, much like Jay himself right now.

Which is easier said than done, especially when Manifesto adjusts her position on his head and swishes her tail right across his nose.

“Fuck!”

—

Jay isn’t sure if he should be thankful of Riki for pulling Manifesto out of his hair (along with a few strands of his hair because she wouldn’t let go, Jay might be twenty-thousand years old but he is still too young for bald spots), or if he should curse the boy for bringing her home in the first place.

Under the breakfast table, he interlaces his fingers,

‘I’m suddenly not too sure if their mission isn’t to kill us.’

‘What’s brought this on? Did you read Sunoo’s mind while you kissed his head?’

‘No? I’m talking about adopting an animal that the both of us are allergic to!”

“Pure coincidence. They still don’t know that we’re angels.’

‘Are we sure about that?’

‘Like… ninety-nine percent sure. Now eat, before anybody notices that you’re basically praying.’

‘God won’t hear me anyway.’

‘Blasphemy, God is always listening.’

Manifesto makes a happy noise before diving nose first into Riki’s breakfast cereal.

Sunghoon laughs so hard that he chokes on rice. Again. This guy seriously needs a third guardian angel.

—

Following Sunoo’s request from the day before, Sunghoon shows them around town. Jay is only paying attention to half of what he says because Jay has been following Sunghoon for seventeen years now, and said boy has never moved. Which means that Jay knows every street where Sunghoon almost got hit, every café and restaurant that Sunghoon likes to frequent and regularly gets held at gunpoint at, every park that Sunghoon jogs through and takes his family dog to on the weekends where he is almost always attacked by a bigger dog and has his flesh torn apart, or get rabies from.

The rest of Jay's attention goes to Sunoo. Of course it's Sunoo, it's always Sunoo with him.

Jay keeps glancing between Sunghoon's back as he walks through the streets and tells them anecdotes about all of his near death experiences that Jay already had to live through once and Sunoo's soft, pretty side profile. The thing about Sunoo is, that he’s always smiling. Once he catches someone looking at him, he puts on this small, friendly smile that he must have perfected in his past life as a human to get anything he wants, and it’s like his resting face never existed. Sunoo’s resting face is still friendly. He just radiates softness and warmth and this tiny hint of confidence that pulled Jay in in the first place, like a moth to an open flame. But Jay is biased, and he knows that Sunoo’s resting face is more intimidating than he perceives it as through rose-colored glasses.

Now that twenty-thousand years have put some distance between Jay and his feelings for Sunoo, his longing to hold his face between his hands and kiss it until they’re both breathless, Jay can see the faults in his logic, the danger that Kim Sunoo truly is. Sunoo’s eyes sparkle with all the stars of the universe, and something that Jay hasn’t seen in them before. Bloodlust. It’s sudden, it’s terrifying. Jay follows his hungry gaze and helplessly has to stare at the back of Sunghoon’s head.

Okay, maybe not helpless. Jay can do a lot of things to help, one of which is pulling Sunghoon back from an incoming speeding motorbike and make sure he doesn’t get run over or sent flying across the street.

“Oh, that almost got me,” Sunghoon laughs, as if most people wouldn’t be disturbed by the chance of almost dying. “Thanks, Jay.”

“No problem,” he huffs in annoyance. Was this bad luck, or was this Sunoo’s doing? When he turns his head to check Sunoo’s reaction, it’s just in time to see Sunoo’s annoyed scowl turn into a faked, adoring grin. So it was Sunoo. Jay exchanges a silent look with Jungwon, that’s supposed to say ‘Sunghoon is their target’ but it might as well could mean ‘Let’s watch out for those guys’. Either way, Jungwon nods.

“That was so cool!” he exclaims, and the words leave his mouth so easily that Jay can’t believe he’s in love with someone like him, something like him. A lying demon, a curse. Someone who can kill humans like it’s nothing and not feel any guilt for it. No remorse? No doubt about what he’s doing?

(Maybe it’s this way of thinking that got Jay into heaven.)

—

They come to a stop in front of a small café. Jay recognizes it as the one that fucked up Sunghoon’s order of a latte with oat milk and gave him normal cow milk instead, and he remembers how absolutely stressed he felt as he tried to save Sunghoon from fucking lactose intolerance in a public restroom. A shiver runs down his spine. Never again.

“This is where I usually go to work on my homework during the weekends,” Sunghoon is about to pull the door open when it’s simply flung into his face and almost breaks his forehead if it weren’t for Manifesto suddenly pulling his head back like Ratatouille. Huh. Useful kitten.

Jungwon sends him a smug grin.

“Oh my God,” the girl exclaims with a gasp and comes rushing out, her cup filled with piping hot coffee getting a little too close to Sunghoon’s chest for his liking. While nobody has died from a second degree burn from hot coffee, Jay would rather not risk it. He can’t take any chances with Park Sunghoon, ever. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Sunghoon says through gritted teeth and plucks Manifesto out of his hair. He gives her a tight-lipped, confused smile. “Thanks, I guess.”

“Uhm, you’re… welcome?” the girl who almost killed Sunghoon in front of Jay’s unsuspecting, unprepared eyes. She giggles nervously and tightens the grip on her paper cup as she flutters her eyelashes at him. The coffee is dangerously close to spilling over the rim. Oh hell no. Not on Jay’s watch. He grabs the girl’s wrist and pulls her hand up to stabilize the cup and prevent the coffee from spilling over – before Sunghoon does something stupid like get distracted by the sight of a pretty girl and order a milk shake for himself or something.

“Your coffee almost spilled,” he tells her shortly and pushes past her into the café. Sunghoon is quick to follow, basically tripping over the one single step of stairs and his own feet. See. This is what Jay meant with ‘getting distracted and almost killing himself’. Jay lets Jungwon choose the table that he deems the safest – the furthest away from both the counter with the coffee machines that could explode into Sunghoon’s face, and the door where armed robbers could walk in and hold him at gunpoint. Again. This guy, seriously –

At least Sunghoon seems to subconsciously understand that Jay is trying to keep him alive, and squeezes himself between Jay and Jungwon into the booth (he has to climb over Jungwon’s lap for this circus act) with an excited grin. Sunoo scoffs, but sits down opposite of Jay, Riki and Jungwon separating him from Sunghoon, without audible complaints. Only visible ones. He rolls his eyes and sulks.

Manifesto meows on Riki’s lap, then climbs on top of the table to tumble over Jungwon’s arms right into Sunghoon’s lap. No! Go away! Jay can’t keep this guy alive when he is dying from allergies! She doesn’t understand. Of course she doesn’t, she even dodges Jay’s hands that try to push her back to Jungwon’s equally allergic ones. Is this cat the devil themselves? Why is she trying to sabotage Jay’s mission? No, Manifesto just wants to bite the strings of his hoodie.

A waiter comes to take their orders with a smile that holds nothing but contempt.

Sunghoon orders a latte with oat milk, and Jay almost wants to fall to his knees and thank God – if only he wasn’t so ungrateful. Instead, Jay orders a milk tea and thinks that Sunghoon will now be safe from any possible dangers that Jay is almost instinctively prepared for. Sunoo orders a plain coffee – black, no sugar, no milk.

'It's scary.’

‘What is?’

‘That this is the soul I fell in love with.’

‘Divine punishment?’

‘Very funny, Jungwon.’

‘I have to admit. Loverboy is good at his job.’

'Isn't that why we should be scared of him?’

‘That, and the yearning in your eyes. Cut it out, I'm gonna throw up my iced tea.’

‘Look who's talking, Mr Let's-stare-at-a-grim-reaper.’

‘What was that?’

'Nothing, nothing.’

‘I can hear your thoughts loud and clear – hey! Did you just cuss me out?!’

Jay pulls his hands apart and avoids looking at Jungwon at all costs. Not even God can save him from Yang Jungwon’s wrath.

—

See, here is the thing about Park Sunghoon: He is a boy full of surprises and likes to catch Jay off guard.

That's why Jay isn't prepared for Sunghoon to suddenly reach over and take a sip from his milk tea, which is not only unhygienic but also with lactose.

“That's with normal milk,” he warns him, unsure of how to react appropriately to his mission deliberately trying to make himself suffer. And Jay. Dear God, if Jay has to watch Sunghoon on the toilet to make sure he doesn't slip on a wet tile and hit his head against the sink, he will gladly just throw himself into the ninth level of hell to escape his personal hell – Park Sunghoon and his stupidity.

“I know,” Sunghoon shrugs, “One sip doesn't hurt, right? You wanna try my latte?”

Jay takes the half empty cup that Sunghoon offers him without a single word and downs the thing in one go. Better save than sorry.

“Hey!”

Heaven did not prepare Jay for the guardian angel emergency of him choking on a drink and almost dying.

—

Group Chat: HeeJake+ThirdwheelZ

Sunghoon

r u guys done studying

Heeseung

No

Why is jake teaching me about quantum entanglement when it's not even on the syllabus

FOR MATH

Riki

What's quantum entanglement

Heeseung

THAT’S WHAT IM ASKING

Jake

MAYBE

If u paid attention

U would know

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Jungwon

Wait

U guys are actually studying

Jake

Yeah??

Heeseung is failing math and physics

Heeseung

i'm only failing math tho??

ಠ_ಠ

Jake

Then why haven't u understood quantum entanglement

Heeseung

BECAUSE ITS NOT MATH

Sunoo

So all the times u said u were studying physics

…

U were actually studying physics?

Heeseung

Listen, I know what sunghoon's been telling u guys

But unfortunately that’s not the case

jake's been torturing me with physics when I wanted help with MATH

Jake

Eh

Same thing basically

Heeseung

Math is not physics

Jake

Oh I meant torture and sex

Heeseung

U think of sex with me as torture??

I want a break up

Sunghoon

Not again :|

Sunoo

Lmaoo this happens a lot?

Sunghoon

Basically every week

Jake

Heeseung cant stay away from me for long anyway

Break up with me

See what happens

Heeseung

we're over babe

Jungwon

Relationships sound very confusing

Jay

Just don't pay any attention to stuff like that and you'll be fine

Sunoo

Ooooh

Speaking from experience, ay?

Jay

…

Yes

Riki

Spill the tea sis

Sunghoon

Yea tell us about the downfall of ur last relationship jay

Jay

It was a downfall alright

What are the chances we can't go home in the afternoon because of make up sex

Heeseung

100%

Jake was right, he's irresistible

Jungwon

Grandma come pick me up i'm scared

Riki

We give u until 9 pm

Jake

U don’t get to dictate my sex life fetus

Riki

I’M OLDER THAN WRITTEN HISTORY ITSELF STFU

Sunghoon

huh

Sunoo

RIKI WTFH

Riki

I mean

i'm sixteen

which is still oder than a fetus

Jungwon

…

Heeseung

9 pm, the dorm will be clean and sex-free

Sunghoon

Thank you :|

Jay

And?

Jake

In Heeseung’s bed, roomie ;)

Jay

Thank you.

—

Group Chat: No third wheeling

Jungwon

here's the plan

since we can't go back to the dorm

let's perfect our brownie recipe for the school festival

Sunoo

Sounds good

@Sunghoon u in?

Sunghoon

i'm not helping

I gotta do student council work

Sunoo

>:o

I helped u!

Now help me!

Sunghoon

I did

I paid seungmin to install the new stove

Sunoo

Touché

Jay

Jungwon we have nothing to make brownies with

The school fridge has been ransacked

Riki

I can get groceries

Jay

I gotta buy a lot of groceries tho

Riki

it's okay, I can transport them

:))

Sunghoon

How

Riki

i'll meet u guys at the kitchen, you'll see

—

Of all the things Jay didn't expect to see in the school kitchen on the third floor was Yang Jungwon passed out on the floor while ‘his baby’ Manifesto napped on his slowly reddening face.  He went to the restroom for five minutes!

Sunoo is kneeling next to him and trying to peel Manifesto off of Jungwon’s face, but she seems like glued to it. Either that, or Sunoo isn't really trying. But Sunoo's biceps is bulging, and there is sweat trickling down the side of his face and down his soft jawline, and his bangs are sticking to his forehead with effort.

“I'd ask you to help,” Sunoo grunts and stems his feet against the floor to pull at Manifesto with his entire body weight – which, apparently, is lighter than a kitten’s, and Jay would totally believe it, too, “but you're also allergic.”

It throws Jay horribly off. Because, the thing is, Sunoo is nice. Jay knows that Sunoo is nice. But Sunoo, who is trying to save Jungwon’s life from ending by suffocating in cat fur, is also trying to kill Park Sunghoon for no good reason at all. There is never a good reason to kill, but Sunoo doesn't even have a single reason for doing so, and why he's so adamant about it.

From previous cases, Jay knows that most curses give up after a few tries.

Park Sunghoon, however, has had one bad incident after another bad incident for four continuous years now. Years! Why is Sunoo trying so hard to kill Sunghoon when Jay knows exactly that it goes against his… well, maybe not nature. Sunoo is a demon, after all.

“He'll live,” Jay tries to reassure him, but Jungwon’s face is taking on a blueish tint, “Okay, step aside.”

Sunoo abruptly lets go of Manifesto and falls on his butt. He makes a pained noise, something that Jay has always hated to hear that, so he checks on Sunoo with a concerned glance before he saves Jungwon’s airways from Manifesto and her deadly fur with ease. Manifesto basically starts floating in his hands.

“Why did you struggle so much?” Jay laughs and pits Manifesto down on the floor, “You're so weak!”

“I swear she was heavy just a second ago,” Sunoo defends himself and crosses his arms, “I bet she made herself heavier for me on purpose.”

“She's a baby, how heavy could he possibly get?”

“I don't know, how heavy before Jungwon’s skull would've gotten crushed?”

“Definitely light enough to be picked up.”

“Nu-uh!”

“Uh-huh.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No,” Sunoo repeats and glares at Jay. It's not dangerous, or threatening like Jay has caught Sunoo look at Riki or Sunghoon sometimes. No, this is his Sunoo, cute and playful and harmless.

“Yes,” Jay insists chuckling and ducks his head closer to Sunoo's, lowers his face until their noses are basically touching. This isn't good. It reminds Jay too much of the holy war and how he met Sunoo and how much he loves to stare into bright, amber eyes until they nervously flicker to somewhere else. Just like right now. “I take this as my win, Sunoo.”

His name rolls off his tongue to easily, considering he hasn't said ‘Sunoo’ in so long. At the same time, Jay's spine feels like it was doused in gasoline and set on fire.

“You should wash your hands,” Sunoo mutters and takes a step back. It hurts Jay more than the flames licking at his back. “Before you rub her fur into your eyes.”

“Uh, yeah.”

Jay barely turned on the sink when Sunghoon waltzes into the kitchen as if he hadn't excused himself from showing up a few hours ago. Shit. As shitty as it sounds, but Jay was glad that Sunghoon wasn't anywhere near Sunoo and Riki for once because it decreases his risk of getting killed and dying.

“Hello, friends!” Sunghoon exclaims happily before his eyes dart down to Jungwon on the floor and he senses the awkward tension between Jay and Sunoo, “Uhm, bad timing?”

Jay is just about to reply, when Sunghoon’s face suddenly disappears from his field of vision and is brutally slammed into the floor.

“What the fuck!” he yells, and stares at Riki in the hallway. “Riki, what the fuck are you doing?!”

Riki gapes at Sunghoon and Jungwon on the ground in shock, eyes widened to the size of saucers. But Riki doesn't get to be surprised at the scene in front of him because it's simply the mere consequence of his own actions.

How did Riki even manage to drive the Go-Kart to the third floor?

—

“I'm sorry,” Riki mumbles and insists on staring down at his shuffling feet instead of apologizing to Sunghoon while looking into his eyes.

Sunghoon recovered almost too quickly from the impact of his head hitting the linoleum flooring, while Jungwon is still knocked out. If Manifesto stays wrapped around his neck, he might continue to be unconscious until the next day.

“Why on earth do you have a Go-Kart anyway?” Sunoo laughs so hard that he almost falls to his weak knees. Jay can only scowl at the sight of Sunoo's pure, unfiltered joy. Sunghoon almost died in a Go-Kart accident!

“I don't have a driver's license yet,” Riki looks close to tears, and Jay almost feels bad for him. Almost. He did also almost kill Park Sunghoon by running him over with a Go-Kart.

‘God, why is this the most insane mission ever.’

God, of course, doesn't answer.

Jungwon moves in his unconscious state. Is he just asleep or passed out? Jay only knows that his hand moves on its own to scratch a purring Manifesto under her chin.

"So you use a Go-Kart to transport groceries?” Jay asks ludicrously, because, truth to be told, he still hasn't fully processed the situation yet. When he wakes up later tonight, hopefully in his own bed, he will overthink this until the early morning hours. What the fuck. What the fuck is even going on. Jay's life can't be real.

“Yeah?” Riki dares to look up from his feet to meet Jay's gaze through his eyelashes, “I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to.”

Sunoo is still laughing.

Even when Jay goes to sleep, after ruining then cleaning the ruined kitchen, sneaking into a suspiciously quiet dorm, washing flour out of his hair, crawling under his thin blankets to go to sleep and staring at Jake's back in the darkness of the room, Jay can still hear Sunoo laughing.

‘Jungwon?’

'I'm busy kissing Manifesto.’

‘At least it's not Riki.’

‘Uh, no. What do you want.’

‘Perform a lobotomy on me. I'm going crazy here.’

‘Yeah, no. I'm not qualified to do that.’

‘Jungwon, I'm still in love with Sunoo.’

Jay's only answer is a fire between his shoulder blades.

Chapter Text

Sunghoon has mastered the art of barely escaping death and getting up like it's nothing after almost dying in the past four years of his life. It’s probably not something he should brag about, or something he should take pride in, but listen. Sunghoon has gotten really good at it, even when he’s extremely unlucky. Last week, it was a speeding motorcycle that Jay pulled him back from, the door that almost broke his nose and possibly his skull, the sip of milk tea he really shouldn’t have stolen (that one wasn’t luck, Sunghoon is just an idiot with a crush), and getting run over by Riki’s Go-Kart that is now stored away under his desk. The following days were filled with missing steps, cow milk packaged in oat milk boxes, hard rice clumps getting stuck in his throat, a literal Rottweiler falling from the sky and attacking his face, multiple cars crashing into his classroom on the second floor, and again, Riki’s Go-Kart. Today, on his way to the student council office at 6 am because he couldn’t sleep any longer, it took new heights. Today, it was – He –

“I just got attacked by a flying trashcan!”

Laughter.

“Wonyoung! This is not funny!”

Wonyoung is too busy failing to stifle her giggles behind her pretty hands that Sunghoon used to dream about holding to care. Quite frankly, it’s rude. Sunghoon just wanted to finish up the last of his paperwork for the school festival and the student council trip since he was already awake, and on his way to campus, a trashcan came out of nowhere, assaulted him, hit him on the shoulder with its stupid plastic wheels and spilled all of its content over his clothes. Thank God Jay was still asleep and didn’t witness that whole scene. The black banana peel sticking to the back of Sunghoon’s shirt is not attractive at all.

“The theatre club will do their own take on Romeo and Juliet instead of Heathers,” Wonyoung tells him through more, quiet laughter as sunghoon pulls his shirt of and takes his PE shirt out of the closet in the office, “How come you didn’t take your shirt off when you were flirting with me?”

“Wonyoung, I was trying to date you, not sexualise myself,” he rolls his eyes with a huff and slips the shirt over his shoulders. Although, maybe walking around the dorm shirtless might just be what’s going to fluster Jay. Okay, no. Sunghoon isn’t that desperate for a boyfriend just yet. Maybe in a week, and then he can consider the idea again.

“How are the transfer students doing?” Wonyoung asks and sorts through the stack of papers one last time, “Since they haven’t come to me yet, dare I assume you’re doing a decent job?”

Sunghoon thinks about Sunoo setting the school kitchen on fire, about Riki cruising through the school hallways on a Saturday night and bumping into pretty much every wall, about Jungwon breaking the rules and keeping a pet on school grounds in their dorm despite his allergies, about Jay… actually, Jay has adapted just fine. But it’s only been like ten days, so it’s hard to tell. And then, Sunghoon thinks about how comfortable everybody looked at the restaurant, about Jay scolding Niki for eating ice cream up until they sat down to have dinner, about Jungwon and Jake suddenly inventing their own language over breakfast, about Heeseung poking fun at Sunoo who scoffed and rolled his eyes dramatically, and everybody laughed.

“Yeah, I think they’re doing fine,” he hums quietly and pulls out the paperwork from last year’s student council trip.

Group Chat: HeeJake+OG Thirdwheel

Sunghoon

@Aussie boy where do u wanna go for student council trip this year

Aussie boy

why are u planning the trip at 6 am in the morning

on a Sunday??

Sunghoon

no reason

why are u awake at 6 am

Math failure

jake felt sick and threw up

Sunghoon

oh god

not the untagged mpreg

Aussie boy

bro wtf

I just had some bad ramyeon

again

Math failure

pretty sure sunoo said that he made it for sunghoon though

Sunghoon

u were having midnight ramyeon with sunoo instead of me??

Not even two weeks and u already replaced me

Aussie boy

u fell in love with jay in one day so shush baby

Sunghoon

jay’s great! jay hasn’t replaced my best friend yet

lee heeseung how could u

Aussie boy

YAH

ur best friend is ME

wtf

I ate ur poisoned ramyeon and this is how u thank me??

Sunghoon

lmao what are u talking about

sunoo wouldn’t poison me

hes too busy being jealous of me and all the attention that jay gives me and

omg

sunoo tried to poison me??

Aussie boy

That’s what i'm saying

Math failure

wth are u both talking about lol

sunoo just wanted to be nice and made ramyeon with a pack that was expired

and hes not jealous, hes also known jay for ten days

Sunghoon

which are enough days to get a crush

I knew it

jay is too perfect and charismatic

ofc there will be competition :(

and sunoo is so bbygirl!! How am I supposed to win

Aussie boy

says the guy that people pull numbers for to confess

Math failure

u realise we clean out ur locker three times a day from love letters right

every single day

Sunghoon

thanks for doing that for me (´ з`)♡

what if I get a paper cut and die from an infection

Math failure

how are u still alive

Sunghoon

jay saved me yesterday and the day before

and the day before

and the day before

guys I really have to date him hes so great

Math failure

whipped

Aussie boy

I saved u plenty of times

Math failure

U have a boyfriend ಠ_ಠ

me

hello??

Aussie boy

I can have two boyfriends

Math failure

i'm dumping you

Aussie boy

i'm pregnant

Math failure

no ur not fuck off

Sunghoon

we’re going off track

jake, sc trip

u room with jungwon

Aussie boy

heck yea

love that boy

Math failure

don’t tell that jay lol

or riki

or me

Aussie boy

u broke up with me remember

Math failure

i want u back

jake come back to me babe

jake pls

i'll give u all the cuddles and kisses u want

Aussie boy

let’s go to germany

Math failure

don't ignore me!!

Jake i'm sorry ㅠㅠ

i'll make u ramyeon!

Sunghoon

something cheaper

Aussie boy

Germany

Math failure

hello??

i'll buy u legos

the bouquets and the infinity gauntlet

jake please

Sunghoon

u fucker, I’ll ask wonyoung if we have the money

Turns out the student council is richer than Sunghoon thought. Wonyoung shows him the bank information for the student council and the number is so big that Sunghoon almost cries and throws up. Holy shit.

And then, she says, “The school pays for the trip, though” and Sunghoon cries and throws up.

—

“I’m not taste testing your brownies, Riki.”

While Sunghoon was fully aware he would be turned into a test subject for the home eco club, he refuses to be one for Riki and his bubbling, bright orange brownies. Especially in the middle of school hallways when he's on his way to the dining hall for lunch. Riki’s brownies don’t look edible, they don’t smell edible. Fuck, they’re bright orange! How did Riki get the colour so wrong when it’s literally in the name? Brownies should be brown, not orange. Riki can pout and beg and shove the box of brownies into Sunghoon’s face as much as he wants to, Sunghoon is not eating those. He has some sense of self preservation.

“Please, Jungwon won’t try them and I don’t know if they’re good,” Riki complains, “I even put powdered sugar on them!”

“Powdered sugar is not going to save these, Riki!” Sunghoon argues and pushes the box away from his face. Who knows, maybe Riki will trip and catapult these into his unsuspecting mouth. “Give them to Sunoo or something!”

“But Sunoo also made them.”

“Then eat them yourself.”

“No, I'll like them,” Riki complains  and crowds Sunghoon against his locker. What on earth did they feed this child to become so intimidatingly tall? “Because I made them. Come on!”

Sunghoon’s gaze flickers between the bright orange brownies waiting innocently in the clear tupperware to be eaten by someone – that someone hopefully not being Sunghoon – and Riki’s pleading eyes. God, fuck, if he wasn’t taller than him, Sunghoon would probably call him cute even. But no. There is nothing cute about this first year high school student pinning him against his locker with his hand placed next to Sunghoon’s face and those deadly looking brownies ready to kill Sunghoon shoved basically into his mouth already. The plastic rim of the tupperware touches Sunghoon’s lips.

‘Does he want me to eat it out of the box like a goddamn dog?’

“Fine,” Sunghoon drops his head in defeat, and his forehead knocks agains the tupperware. He’s about to lose his life to a bunch of brownies. “I’ll eat your stuff.”

Riki pulls away with a cheerful little jump and knocks over three people passing by in doing so. This boy has zero spatial awareness of just how much space he and his long limbs actually take up.

The world moves in slow motion. Sunghoon’s grandma did always say that his entire life would flash in front of his eyes when he dies, he just didn’t expect his life to be so boring and short and unfortunate. Looking back on it, Sunghoon almost laughs at how often he almost got hit by cars and survived it. Now look at him, grabbing his own impending doom with bare hands and staring at it, knowing that this is on nobody but himself. If he eats this brownie and dies, Sunghoon can’t blame bad luck. The brownie still doesn’t smell very edible, not even up close when Sunghoon sniffs it. Not like chocolate, not like anything baked. If Sunghoon had to compare it, it resembles the poisoned apple from Snow White.

It’s when he raises the brownie to his mouth to take a bite out of it under Riki’s watchful, anticipating eyes, when Sunghoon is shoved against his locker again and gets his fingers bitten off. Not literally, but someone chomped down on his poor fingers and almost ate them – along with the brownie that is now nowhere to be seen.

Sunghoon has a hunch, he’s not a master of deduction for no reason. But only because Jay’s cheeks are full and his face is slowly but surely turning paler with each second that he just stands in front of Sunghoon and chews the brownie.

“Jay?” Sunghoon can’t believe what he’s witnessing. “Oh fuck, spit that out!”

Jay spits the brownie onto Sunghoon’s uniform.

—

After Jay’s self sacrifice for Sunghoon and Sunghoon’s little outfit change into clothes that weren’t covered in half-chewed brownie bits (he really has to date him, that’s the least Sunghoon can do as a token of gratitude – throw himself to the ground in front Jay’s feet and do anything that he asks of him), Sunghoon follows Jay and Riki to the school kitchen to see if here has been any damage added to it when Riki and Sunoo made those brownies. Surprisingly enough, the biggest damage is the floor covered in flour and eggs. All of the ingredients look right. Two entire chocolate bar wrappers are laying empty on the kitchen counter, so it makes no sense for their brownies to be a radioactive orange. Even the stove is still intact.

“I don’t get it,” Sunoo huffs in annoyance and crosses is arm, “I swear, we followed the recipe.”

“You clearly didn’t,” Jay tells him gruffly and pokes the second tray of brownies cautiously. The half-baked batter sticks to his skin like slime and follows his had when he tries to pull it away. “How did you do that?”

“We followed the recipe,” Sunoo repeats stubbornly, and they leave it at that.

(Sunghoon is too busy assessing the kitchen to notice that Sunoo hides away a bottle of bleach in one of the cabinets.)

—

Sunghoon likes Manifesto. Sure, he’s more of a dog person himself, and he has a cute little puppy at his parents’ house that he regularly likes to get updates on in the form of photos and videos that his parents have to send him once a day, but a cat is still cute.

“You totally wanted to keep her because she looks like Jungwon, don’t you?” he asks Riki and lifts Manifesto a lá Lion King. She meows loudly and happily, as if she knows the significance of Sunghoon’s gesture.

Riki cowers deeper into the couch of their dorm and shakes his head, “No idea what you’re talking about. I like cats.” Which is a total lie. Riki’s phone lockscreen shows a small, kind of silly looking dog. Only dog people have dogs as wallpapers, Sunghoon is the prime example for that. His lockscreen is also his cute, little, perfect Gaeul.

“And you like Jungwon,” Sunghoon states. Riki gasps loudly and scrambles over Sunghoon’s lap to press a hand to his mouth and muffle his words, but it’s too late. Now that Sunghoon has started his teasing, he will continue his teasing. “Aww, young love.”

“No, shut up!” Riki hisses through gritted teeth and takes Manifesto from Sunghoon’s hands to let her climb on his shoulder, “What if Jay hears you? Or worse – Sunoo?”

He turns his head back and forth to see if anybody walked in on them. Fortunately for him, it’s only Sunghoon and Riki in the dorms with everybody else scattered… somewhere. Jay is in the school kitchen with Jungwon, that much, Sunghoon knows. Sunoo is out with Heeseung, and Jake is finally carrying his own weight in the soccer team as the team captain.

“Jay?” Sunghoon mutters dumbly, “I get that Jay is a bit overprotective of Jungwon, like, obsessively so but – “

“Sunoo said those two are dating,” Riki tells him with a nonchalant shrug and sinks back against the couch.

“Dating?” Sunghoon does have a streak for self destruction. His willingness to eat Riki’s horrible brownies that were definitely not edible and ended up in the trash are proof of that. His further questioning about his delusional crush is also proof of that. “What makes him think that?”

“Oh, Sunoo just asked about them,” Riki shrugs and pets Manifesto gently, and gives her a little boop on the nose, “He didn’t tell me what exactly he asked but whatever Jungwon answered was enough to convince him they were dating.”

“So he’s not, like, actually sure about it,” Sunghoon concludes. Hm. He’ll just have to find out himself then. Because, yeah, sure, Sunghoon’s crush on Jay is not serious enough to break his heart if he was dating Jungwon, but Sunghoon also wants to cling to his feelings without being a home-wrecker. Then again, he can just pick another crush, like all the times he’s done before. “Nothing’s confirmed.”

“I don’t know,” Riki pulls Manifesto off his shoulders and holds her in his palms. Correction, he holds her in one hand, and his other just supports that hand. Manifesto is not that big yet. In fact, she hasn’t grown at all in the last two weeks that they’ve had her. Strange. “I’d rather not get my hopes up. Besides, I have other things to focus on.”

Riki doesn’t elaborate, so Sunghoon doesn’t press any further.

“That,” Riki continues after a while, and his whole body shivers at whatever he's remembering, “And Jay always glares at me when I talk to Jungwon.”

“Jay is literally just squinting because he's not wearing his glasses,” Sunghoon snorts and shakes his head, “If anything, he's just a blind loser. That's the least intimidating kind of loser.”

“You're right,” Riki agrees easily and earnestly, and rubs Manifesto's tummy with his thumbs slowly, “The most intimidating kind of loser are entitled white supremacists with guns.”

Manifesto starts purring in agreement.

Sunghoon is too afraid to ask what any of those words mean. Wow, Riki sure knows a lot of big words.

—

Sunghoon could have probably just asked Jay straight forward how he feels about Jungwon. But the risk of him saying they were boyfriends out loud was too big, and it scared Sunghoon too much for him to just do that. So Sunghoon, intelligent and nosy as he is, decides to take the second route that his younger sister always recommends to him and attentively watches them instead. Because, the thing is, Sunghoon actually doesn’t know anything about Jay, nor is he close enough to him for Sunghoon to just butt his head into whatever isn’t his business like that, so watching him from a distance (that’s called stalking) is probably the most that Sunghoon can do.

He learns nothing new. Jay is allergic to cat fur, scared of bugs and ghosts and the dark, and says grace over all of his food in silence before he starts eating. He prays at night, and he likes fashion and cooking, but can’t do much when it comes to baking. The kitchen is always clean after Jay uses it, but his clothes are scattered everywhere in the dorm despite them having a uniform. He stores snacks under his bed (?) and shares all of them with everyone. Just like everyone else but Sunoo, Jay doesn’t like mint choco. He likes soccer and Jungwon, and almost died from saving Sunghoon from Riki’s godawful brownies yesterday.

‘This isn’t helping me,’ Sunghoon huffs and stares at Jay’s hands scribbling down some notes for their English class in a horrible, illegible chicken scratch. He can’t make out the words because their desks are so far apart, but he’s sure he would barely be able to read Jay’s handwriting anyway. ‘I already know all of this stuff!’

Group Chat: HeeJake+OG Thirdwheel

Sunghoon

Quick

How to stalk a boy and find out if he has a boyfriend

Aussie boy

Check his socmeds lol

Math failure

Jay doesn’t have any

Aussie boy

Sunghoon u cant seriously want to date someone who doesn’t have any socials

Not even a snapchat??

Sunghoon

Who tf even uses snapchat nowadays bro

Aussie boy

Heeseung does

Sunghoon

Heeseung is old and a fuckboy

Math failure

Excuse me

Aussie boy

You heard him.

Math failure

Sometimes I wonder why im dating u

Aussie boy

• ́з•̀ ٥ love ya

Sunghoon

Guys pls

Stop with the affection and couple stuff until I get a boyfriend too

Math failure

Defeats the whole gc name lol

Sunghoon

>:( lee heeseung

Ur stupid basketball club can pay for the new net themselves right?

Math failure

I’ll stop with the couple stuff and pda

Aussie boy

ㅠㅠ

Just bc u feel single and cant just ask jay out on a date doesn’t mean all of us have to be single too

Sunghoon

Idek if he has a boyfriend

Or likes guys

Ive been watching him the whole day and nothing

This guy could be straight for all I know

Or dating jungwon

Aussie boy

JUNGWON??

The boy who stares at riki like hes some kinda angel descended from heaven??

Sunghoon

Listen

Idk

What if hes just like,, a straight older brother/father figure to jungwon

Then hes still straight

Math failure

STRAIGHT LMAO

He slapped rikis and jungwons ass like twice each this morning

And sunoos five times

That was more groping than slapping tho

Sunghoon

Cant blame him

I would also slap sunoos ass if I wasn’t lowkey scared of him

Aussie boy

???

LMAO
scared of sunoo hahah

Sunghoon

YOU said he tried to poison me

Aussie boy

I was kidding

Slap jays ass and see how he reacts

Sunghoon

That’s gay

Math failure

u ARE gay

and single

Sunghoon

Thanks for reminding me

—

Sunghoon does not slap Jay’s ass. No, what Sunghoon does after class, is almost more ridiculous and dangerous than slapping his friend’s ass. After all, nothing screams more like stalking than climbing a tree to watch Jay interact with Jungwon in the school kitchen on the school’s third floor while Riki fetches Sunoo from his last class.

‘And how will you get down again?’

‘That’s a problem for future Sunghoon.’

‘You are future Sunghoon! In, like, two minutes!’

‘Shush! I gotta focus.’

‘On holding onto the fucking tree branch tighter, I swear to God, I’m gonna fall to my death.’

Sunghoon clings to the branch a bit tighter. Just in case.

Although, he probably didn’t even need to do this. Jay and Jungwon are just quietly chatting away, probably talking about what they did in class today while they set up the kitchen to make more deadly brownies because they haven’t figured out a good recipe yet, and prevent Manifesto from climbing into the oven. Jungwon holds her against his chest laughing, and Jay takes a few steps back from Jungwon with a forced, unimpressed grin. Neither of them seem to notice that Sunghoon is hanging onto his dear life in a tree.

(“Jungwon.”

“Yeah? If you’re telling me to put her down – “

“We’re guarding a fucking dumbass.”

“Excuse me?”

“Sunghoon is in the tree.”

“Oh God – “)

And then, Jungwon whips his head around to look out the window and directly into Sunghoon’s eyes so suddenly, that he jumps back in shock – well, tries to jump back in shock – and falls out of the tree.

The fall from the tree to the ground is a long one. At least, it feels very long to Sunghoon, considering he’s literally falling about 13 metres to his death. Not straight down, of course it’s not straight down. No, Sunghoon almost catches himself on another branch, slips off because his grip strength is weak, falls for a few moments, then does it again. Thank God most people are already in their clubs and can’t witness this, because not only is it embarrassing, it’s also traumatising. The universe wins, Sunghoon has learnt his lesson. No more climbing trees.

‘Fuck, shit, fuck!’

‘Just hold the damn branch!’

‘I think I broke something.’

‘Less complaining and falling and more dangling please!’

Sunghoon lands face down on the surprisingly soft ground after an eternity of struggling. Except for the slight ache in is shoulder, he seems to be unharmed and pretty much not dead. Wow. The ground smells good.

“Ow,” someone whines under him, and Sunghoon lifts his head to watch Kim Sunoo trying to curl up in pain. He can’t, though, because Sunghoon is sprawled across his lower body. “Sunghoon? What the heck?”

Next to them, Riki stands frozen in shock and with a gaping mouth, as if he can’t believe what he just had to witness. This is a very hard situation to explain, unlike Sunoo’s ass that Sunghoon is still lying on. When Sunoo raises his head, there is blood trickling down the side of his pretty face, and it’s clumping together a few strands of his reddish brown hair.

“Oh shit,” Sunghoon gasps and rolls off of Sunoo to grabs his face and push his bangs away from his scraped forehead, “We should go to the nurse’s office.”

“What were you even doing in that tree?” Sunoo whines and shoves Sunghoon’s hands away, “You couldn’t have found a different timing to fall on someone else?” Sunghoon snorts. This situation is so ridiculous, from Sunghoon’s reason to climb into the tree to Sunoo’s blood face.

“Does anything hurt a lot?” he asks instead, because he doesn’t quite want to tell Sunoo he was trying to stalk Jay, “Can you walk?” Sunghoon helps Sunoo back up onto his feet with shaking hands. He’s fine for now, but the moment he steps into the student council office, he will cry about this to Jake and Wonyoung.

“I’m fine,” Sunoo huffs and glares at Sunghoon with puffed up cheeks. Cute. “Except for my pretty face, how dare you!” Riki breaks out of his stupor and into loud, wheezing laughter.

“Pretty face,” he chokes out and holds his stomach, “As if.”

“Hey!”

—

“This is going to sting a bit.”

“I know what disinfectant does, Sunghoon.”

Sunoo rolls his eyes and lets Sunghoon carefully dab the cotton swab across his wound. It looks superficial, a mere scratch that will heal within a week with no scars, thankfully, and Sunoo doesn’t even flinch when Sunghoon presses the cotton swab against his forehead. It smells distinctly of disinfectant, and the smell reminds Sunghoon of he one time he had to go to the hospital after his ice skating accident. Ugh, just thinking about it brings the phantom pain back. Technically, he’s not even supposed to feel phantom pain, because his left leg is still very much attached to his body and all of his bones are healed. It’s just hard to remember, how scared he was, how much it hurt when his bone literally shattered and broke through his skin.

It was bleeding a lot more than Sunoo’s forehead.

“Do you want, like, a bandage or a band aid on it?” Sunghoon asks carefully and swipes Sunoo’s hair away from his face.

“So I can walk around looking like a hospital patient?” Sunoo scoffs quietly, “No thanks.”

Sunghoon nods and steps back from the bed that Sunoo is sitting on. Riki left them in favour of the home eco club. The school nurse is nowhere to be found, as always when Sunghoon goes to her office, so he had to patch Sunoo up. That, and he caused this wound after all. He should at least fix it.

“Nothing else hurts?” Sunghoon asks again, just to be sure, “I’m really sorry I landed on you.”

“I’m not that fragile,” Sunoo rolls his eyes. Ah. So much sass in such a tiny body. “You’re still alive?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“Too bad.”

“You want me dead?”

“I’ll switch rooms with Riki and get to sleep alone that way, so, yes.”

“Hey!”

Sunoo laughs and throws his body agains the white sheets of the bed, a sigh escaping him.

“Tell the others I was so traumatised that I passed out,” he tells Sunghoon with a content smile and closes his eyes, “I’m taking a nap.”

“I’m not lying to them for you,” Sunghoon denies his request and pulls at Sunoo’s hand, “Come on. No brownies for you?”

“I’m sick of brownies,” Sunoo complains and whines, “Let go of m – hey!”

Sunoo, while trying to pull his hand out of Sunghoon’s grip, clearly underestimated just how strong he is, and how flimsy Sunghoon is. One moment, Sunghoon is still standing next to the bed above Sunoo, and next thing he knows, he has his face buried in the crook of his neck and breathes is the scent of citrus and vanilla and cinnamon.

‘This is the second time in thirty minutes,’ Sunghoon notices when he pulls back again. Oh, and how his heart skips a beat when he pulls back. ‘Shit.’

Sunoo is pretty. Even with the skin of his forehead scratched up from when he took the fall with Sunghoon, he’s pretty. And he looks so, so cute when his face is flushed red and he draws his eyebrows together in an embarrassed, half-hearted scowl as he looks at Sunghoon through half-lidded, shimmering eyes.

“Are you stupid?” Sunoo croak and weakly tries to push Sunghoon away. Whatever strength he used to possess before is gone, and Sunghoon doesn’t move in the slightest. “What is wrong with you?”

“Hey, Sunoo,” Sunghoon laughs breathlessly and catches Sunoo’s wrists in his hands, “Can I kiss you?”

‘Oh shit.’

Chapter Text

“Okay.”

A slap resonates through the silence of the nurse’s office.

It’s not Sunoo slapping Sunghoon after the crazy question he just asked (and Sunoo responding just as insane), but it’s Sunoo holding his own cheek in shock as it turns red for a whole different reason than before. Sunghoon stares down at Sunoo under him, at his face that was caged between his arms just seconds ago and adjusts his knee so it’s not resting on top of Sunoo’s stomach anymore.

“If you guys are done defiling this bed,” Jungwon scowls down at them with the most scrutinizing, judging glare he can muster on his cute face, “Riki told me that you're skipping home eco, Sunoo.” With that, Jungwon turns on his heels and leaves the office with hurried steps. After him (Sunghoon can only see their heads poking out from behind the door) slowly follow Jay and Riki back to the school kitchen. Shit. Oh fuck. Oh, he fucked up. Real bad. Snapping out of his daze, Sunghoon jolts back from the bed like he’s been burnt and stumbles away from Sunoo.

‘What the hell was that?’

‘So much to crushing on Jay.’

‘Oh my God, Jay!’

“I, uh,” Sunoo gets up from the bed and fixes his hair with shaking fingers and trembling eyes that won't look at Sunghoon's miserable existence in front of him, “I should go.”

His cheeks are tinted a rosy pink when he hurries out of the room and disappears from Sunghoon's lingering gaze.

“Oh shit.”

‘Oh shit’ indeed, Park Sunghoon.

“Who the fuck said that?!”

Group Chat: HeeJake+OG Thirdwheel

Sunghoon

I fucked up

I almost kissed sunoo

And now i'm losing my mind

Math failure

SUNGHOON

This is not the love triangle I was imagining for u

But good for u

Aussie boy

No not good

i'm drowning in paperwork for the trip and ur taking a walk through gay world history and kissing any pretty boy you see?

Get ur gay ass here

Sunghoon

Jay saw

Math failure

Oh yeah!

The jealousy plan

Never worked before

Aussie boy

Fix it on the sc trip

COME TO THE OFFICE RN

Sunghoon

I don’t even wanna kiss sunoo???!

But I kinda do??

Like I asked and everything but it was a spur of the moment kinda thing ig

Math failure

Have ur gay panic later

so I can record it

Aussie boy

Have ur gay panic in the sc office

So I can smack you on the head

Sunghoon

But sunoos kinda hot ngl

Aussie boy

PARK SUNGHOON ISTG

Math failure

Lmaoo

—

Park Sunghoon is, officially, an idiot.

Once he's back in the student council office as he was supposed to be instead of the tree in the schoolyard and then on top of Sunoo and then the nurse's office and then on top of Sunoo again, he dramatically collapses on top of a bean bag and starts sobbing. Jake and Wonyoung, as expected, ignore him.

“It's so horrible, guys,” he sniffles and finds Manifesto hidden somewhere in the folds of the bean bag. Weird. How come she's not in the school kitchen with Jungwon? Better for him, because she seems to be the only living being that cares about him. Manifesto, kind and cute as she could possibly be as a tiny kitten that never seems to grow, eats cereal instead of being nursed from the bottle, and drives Riki’s Go-Kart (?), soothingly starts patting his head with clumsy and soft paws. “Thanks, Manifesto.”

Manifesto meows in response. Sunghoon has no idea what she just said.

“You're being dramatic,” Jake laughs and throws a few papers after Sunghoon but they scatter in the air and flutter to the ground, unlike Sunghoon less than two hours ago. His shoulder still hurts. “Start working.”

“Yes, I survived my fall from 13 meters out of a tree, thanks for asking,” Sunghoon rolls his eyes.

“You survived what?!”

Sunghoon wriggles around in the bean to turn to Jake (which is a lot more physically draining than his workouts, what the hell do they put in bean bags to make it impossible to move in them) and glare at his shocked face. That's right. Be concerned for him, he could have died there!

“I fell from a tree,” he deadpans, “And I lived, bitch.”

“How did you, Sunghoon, oh my God,” Jake groans and drops his head into his arms, but his forehead crashes against the surface of his desk with a loud ‘thud’, “Is it just me or is your bad luck getting worse? What the fuck do you mean, you survived a fall from a tree?”

“Like, a tree in the schoolyard?” Wonyoung clarifies and looks up from her phone, “Aren’t all of them as tall as the school building?”

“I’m just indestructible,” Sunghoon reasons proudly and lets Manifesto climb onto his shoulders, “Like, it’s actually insane. Sunoo caught me.”

“You have a thing for saviors,” Jake concludes unimpressed and sighs, “You just fall for any guy who saves your life, which could be anybody, because you’re, like, two seconds away from death at any given time.”

“How is he supposed to date any of them when he’s dead?” Wonyoung muses, and that. That catches Sunghoon’s attention. She’s right, of course. Sunghoon can’t date anybody when he’s dead, and just because he is used to almost dying every day doesn’t mean his future boyfriend is. Oh God, what if Sunghoon kisses a boy and is then hit by lightning before he can ask him out? He will die a virgin, like a loser!

“Jake, it’s a serious problem actually,” Sunghoon insists and gets up from the bean bag with a desperate groan. No more bean bags for him. Sunghoon could sink and suffocate in the folds. “I can’t date Jay when I’m dead!”

“Jay?” Jake laughs, “I thought you wanted to kiss Sunoo?”

“Heat of the moment because it was a cliché romance movie moment,” he snaps and walks over to his desk, “I am still very much in love with Jay. Yesterday, he saved me from slipping on a banana peel like a cartoon character. The other time, he caught a baseball that was about to hit my face. Holy shit, Jake, that was so hot.”

“You are so hopeless,” Jake shakes his head.

Sunghoon pouts and wants to disagree, because he’s really not that hopeless, okay? Jay has shown a great amount of care and worry for him, which can only mean that he is also in love with Sunghoon.  

“That’s not how it works,” Wonyoung comments but Sunghoon isn’t listening to her.

The only thing that Sunghoon hear when he sits down, is the sound of his chair breaking. His ass isn’t that fat, is it?

—

Whatever Sunoo’s deal is, it’s freaking Sunghoon out.

Late at night, all seven of them are seated around their dining table and hoping to finish their homework for the next day (fuck Mondays, honestly), and the atmosphere is tense. Jungwon, who usually sits next to Riki at the other end of the table from Sunghoon, switched seats with Heeseung and is now sitting between Jake and Jay. Every time he occasionally glances up from his workbook, he sends Sunoo a nasty glare that even has Riki next to him swallowing audibly. Riki keeps glancing between Sunoo and Sunghoon with a strange look on his face, something between horror and judgement. He purses his lips, twirls his pen between his fingers, then goes back to his homework without saying a word. Sometimes, he sneaks a quick look at Jungwon’s answer and tries to copy it to his best abilities, if he manages to read t upside-down. Jake and Heeseung are struggling the least, both with their homework and with the weird tension in the air, because Heeseung keeps bemoaning his physics homework and Jake only laughs at his overreaction to something as simple as gravity that he fakes just to lighten the mood. Unsuccessfully.

Jay meanwhile, is leaning against the backrest with his eyes closed and his homework untouched in front of him. His hands are folded on top of his lower stomach, and it looks like he’s sleeping, except for the telltale sign of fluttering eyelashes every now and then.

Sunoo seems to be the only one unaffected by the awkwardness. How lucky, because Sunghoon can feel it literally eating away at his insides, just like the echoing sound of Sunoo’s quiet giggles. Okay, the sound doesn’t actually echo in the room. The floor is made out of wood, and, while Sunghoon doesn’t exactly know what the wallpaper is made out of, it also doesn’t let sounds echo. Rather, Sunoo’s giggles keep replaying in Sunghoon’s mind, doubling, quadrupling, multiplying, until there has to be at least a million Sunoo’s giggling, and nobody but Sunghoon can hear them. Couple that with the intense, basically seductive looks he keeps giving Sunghoon, and it’s the most unnerving and freak-out-worthy situation that Sunghoon has ever found himself him.

Sunghoon is freaking out. He’s never been in this kind of constellation where he lives with his crush, and the boy he asked to kiss even though said boy isn’t his crush.

Oh God, what if Sunoo thinks that Sunghoon is interested in him? He’s totally leading the poor boy on, and he deserves better than that.

Private chat: Sunoo

please stop looking at me like that

like what?

sunghoon, if u wanted to have a private conversation

the school kitchen is empty rn ;)

no, that was already everything I wanted to say

just,, please stop looking at me

why?

can I not look at you?

this is just a misunderstanding

I probably hit my head when I fell and was a bit out of it when I asked

you did hit your head

on my ass

u can do that again ;)

ooookay

ur not listening to me, so I will turn off my phone now

sure

the offer for the school kitchen still stands tho

just tap my foot or smt

I can come up with any kind of excuse why we have to leave

Yeah I politely decline

:(

Ok so no semi public sex in the school kitchen

WHAT in the name of sweet baby jesus

is WRONG with you

All sorts of things ^^

This is not taking Sunghoon anywhere. If anything, it just unsettles him even more that Sunoo just threw himself so willingly at Sunghoon without any concerns for his own safety. What if Sunghoon is a serial killer? Quite frankly, he’d make a terrible serial killer and would probably just end up stabbing himself by accident while he’s chasing his victims, but still. Sunoo needs to be more careful. There are dangerous guys out there, and Sunoo is just a sweet, little guy!

(Sunghoon pointedly ignores the fact that Sunoo, and his socked foot that keeps tapping Sunghoon against the calves, are anything but innocent.)

—

Jake likes to sleep in Heeseung’s bed because they’re ‘boyfriends, you don’t get it, Sunghoon’, even though the twin sized mattress is probably anything but comfortable and spacious when shared, so Sunghoon takes his chance to slip into Jay’s room while nobody is looking.

Correction: he wants to slip into his room to clear up the misunderstanding and ensure that he is not interested in Sunoo at all, but stops when he catches a glimpse of Jungwon on Jay’s bed.

Jungwon sits cross-legged on the white sheets with his eyes closed and Manifesto purring in his lap. An occasional sniffle escapes him because of allergies, along with a content sigh. Jay is giving him a massage, hands kneading what seems to be stiff shoulders. They’re quietly talking amongst themselves, hushed mumbles and hums exchanged in their shared space that goes no further than the bedside where Jay’s leg is dangling off. It’s so obviously an intimate moment between them, that Sunghoon just knows that he shouldn’t interrupt.

‘So Riki and Sunoo were right.’

‘This is just a fucking massage, Jake massages my shoulders all the time.’

‘Don’t be rational, how else are we going to include the misunderstandings trope?’

‘Sunghoon, you’re more mature than a trope, let’s talk about this like grown almost-adults.’

Sometimes, Sunghoon’s maturity can be a curse. He’s no coward, and he doesn’t want to assume anything. If nothing is said out loud, nothing is confirmed. So Sunghoon, communicative and ready for heartbreak, swings the door open and forgets what he wanted to say.

‘Good fucking job.’

‘Shut up.’

‘That’s the exact opposite of what I came here for.’

‘You’re right. Say something!’

Sunghoon opens his mouth and says, “Good evening, fellow classmates.”

Yeah, what the fuck, Sunghoon.

But he doesn’t have the time to feel embarrassed about the nonsense he keeps spouting around Jay (he must be so charming, how is Jay not his boyfriend yet), because the door falls out of its hinges and almost strikes down Sunghoon with its entire weight. Almost, because Jay jumps up, reaches over Jungwon’s head and holds the door up before it can kill Sunghoon.

“You okay?” he asks Sunghoon and slowly climbs off his bed to lean the door against the wall, “You should be more careful, the building is pretty old.”

“Oh yeah, I once broke through the floor,” Sunghoon laughs nervously. Even after Jay let go of the door and double-checked that it wouldn’t move anymore and flatten Sunghoon into a pancake, he doesn’t step back. Instead, Jay stands close enough that only a hand could pass between their rib cages, and that Sunghoon can see his own silhouette reflecting in Jay’s concerned eyes. “It’s only happened once, though. Didn’t even break my leg or something.”

“You got some bad luck,” Jungwon comments and opens his eyes at the same time as Manifesto, “Or good luck, I don’t know.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Sunghoon laughs awkwardly. Shit. This is not what he came here for. He clears his throat. There’s no point in beating around the bush. “I just wanted to, uh, like, I…” Whatever he thought he was going to say trails off into more awkward silence between the trio. Or rather, between Sunghoon and the duo in front of him.

“Are you gonna tell us why you were in the tree after classes?” Jay teases him and raises and eyebrow. Shit, okay, that shouldn’t be as attractive as it is to Sunghoon.

Oh wait, the reason why he was in the tree? Sunghoon can’t say it’s because he was stalking them to find out if they were dating, can he?

“I was stalking you to figure out if you’re dating.”

Wow. Sunghoon is such a good, impeccable, believable liar. It’s almost like he was telling the truth – oh wait. Oh shit. Fuck. This is really embarrassing for him, probably one of his lowest moments. Now, Sunghoon has no other choice but to hide his face in his hands and hope the floor breaks again, so he won’t have to continue this conversation. Especially not when Jay and Jungwon are laughing at him this loudly! Hello? The whole dorm can hear them, now that the door is gone.

“No thanks,” Jungwon grimaces while laughing and shakes his head, “No offense, but Jay basically raised me. My dad. My father figure. I could never.”

“Some people are into that,” Sunghoon blurts, and, yep, he really needs to stop talking. Now it sounds like he is into that!

‘Abort mission, abort mission!’

‘Change the topic!’

“Well, I’m not,” Sunghoon continues the topic, “Just like I’m not into Sunoo.”

What a smooth transition. Like Sunghoon sailed across flat waters without any storms or problems, and only the wind directing him to God knows where. He coughs awkwardly into the silence that settles over the room.

“Well, I, uh, it’s late,” Sunghoon fakes another cough into his fist, “I should go to bed.” He reaches for the door handle to close the door, only to realize that he quite literally tore it out of the hinges just a few minutes ago, and claps his hands together like a middle-aged chemistry teacher in a checkered shirt.

“Right,” he wheezes breathlessly. Is it getting hotter at night? Winter just ended, after all. Or maybe the room is just stuffy, even though fresh air now streams from the open kitchen window into the room because the door can’t be closed. “I, uh, I’m just gonna… Good night!”

Sunghoon has never walked past the dining table to his own room this quickly before, which is probably why he hits his toes against one of the chair legs and trips over absolutely nothing but his own bullshit and slams his door shut with more force than necessary. He slumps down to the ground with a heavy sigh and his back pressed against the wooden door.

Well, that was humiliating.

Group Chat: HeeJake+OG Thirdwheel

Math failure

why are u slamming our heavy doors during these ungodly hours @Sunghoon

I was just about to sleep man

Sunghoon

good news! Jay and Jungwon are not dating

bad news. I embarrassed myself in front of jay so bad that he will forever remember me as an idiot and never even think of dating me because i'm an idiot

Aussie boy

that’s okay news

its not even news anymore tbh when do u not embarrass yourself in front of jay

Sunghoon

jaaaaake hes not gonna date me if I keep this up

how will I get a boyfriend like this

Aussie boy

remember before I started dating heeseung

Math failure

whats that supposed to mean

ur sleeping in my bed watch what youre typing next

I can see you typing jake

Aussie boy

I thought he was an idiot too

Math failure

HEY

Aussie boy

and now he’s MY idiot :)

Math failure

:)

Sunghoon

:(

that’s cute and all but jay is not u

also, I broke his door

so technically ur door too jake, sorryy

Aussie boy

boi

how tf

Sunghoon

a very low moment okay

it almost hit me on the head but jay saved me

guys im serious I need to date hhim wtf he’s so perfect im gonna cry.

Math failure

Stay alive first

Sunghoon

I will

u know why?

cuz Jay keeps saving me ㅠㅠ

the loml, literally

Aussie boy

lol whipped

Sunghoon

YOU DON’T GET TO MAKE FUN OF ME WHEN U ALREADY HAVE A BF OKAY

U don’t know anymore what its like to wanna bash ur head against the wall so u can stop thinking about that nice, round jass

Aussie boy

about what

Math failure

jay ass

Aussie boy

ive never thought about jass before

why tf would I do that

Sunghoon

DON’T

I am already my worst enemy when it comes to this relationship

I don’t need a love triangle with a cute australian who can speak perfect english and has perfect plump lips and ass cheeks that jiggle

Math failure

And WHY are you listing all of these things about MY boyfriend??

Aussie boy

Omg u should be jealous more often

That’s hot

Sunghoon

guys omg jays accent is so attractive wtffff

when he

he

when he

“Sunghoon,” Riki groans and draws his blanket over his face, “Please turn off the light and have your breakdown in silence.”

“Jungwon is single.”

“What the fuck.”

Riki sits up in his bed like a corpse rising out of the grave, the blanket falling off and revealing a completely dumfounded, surprised face. His hair is already disheveled, despite having lay down for half an hour at most. It’s not even midnight yet. Even his light blue pajamas are already crumpled. This kid looks absolutely rough.

“What do you mean by that?” Riki mutters and starts frowning, “Are you saying that Sunoo lied? Because that’s actually not a surprise at all – “

“I just asked,” Sunghoon cuts him off and laughs a little crazed. Because what else is he but a crazy man. “Well, technically I didn’t mean to ask but Jungwon said that Jay’s basically is a dad and he’s not into fake-incest.”

“How exactly did the conversation go for Jungwon to say that,” Riki deadpans, “Sunghoon, we’re still kids, you can’t corrupt us.”

“Don’t play the child card when it’s convenient for you, I’m only a year older.”

“I play whenever I want to, thank you very much.”

“You kid – “

“So you do think of me as a kid.”

“Riki, why – “

—

Sunghoon obviously didn’t reject Sunoo hard enough. Either that, or Sunoo just suddenly grew incredibly obsessed with Sunghoon overnight and won’t take a hint thanks to delusions that are even more unreasonable than Sunghoon’s crush on Jay.

Or Sunoo just likes to be a creep and press himself impossibly close to Sunghoon’s back, soft hands tightly wrapping around his biceps, nose buried in the hair behind Sunghoon’s ear that Sunoo breathes against, and whisper an invitation for a shower together while everybody around them is busy with getting ready for the day. No! Sunghoon is still pure and innocent, he will not be taking any showers with other people.  How is he supposed to marry anybody then?

“You don’t want to?” Sunoo pouts, but Sunghoon can’t see it. He doesn’t even have to see it, because Sunoo juts out his lower lip, and it presses against the shell of Sunghoon’s ear, soft and wet and warm. Sunoo is way too close. What the fuck. What the fuck. Introduction to gay did not prepare him for the situation of a boy so blatantly flirting with him. Where is Sunghoon’s script? Not even flashcards? Help.

“No thanks,” Sunghoon squeaks because, what if he talks too loudly, Jay overhears them and completely misunderstands the situation again? He can’t think that Sunghoon wants to shower with Sunoo, how is he supposed to date him. For fuck’s sake, Sunghoon needs to shoot Sunoo down, and he needs to do it now. “I’m really not interested in you.”

“For now,” Sunoo hums and finally lets go, finally lets Sunghoon breathe again. But only, as he said, for now. Sunoo can and will strike again, and Sunghoon has no idea when.

‘I feel like I’m in danger.’

‘You probably are in danger.’

‘And what do we do then?’

‘I don’t know, danger is basically my middle name at this point.’

‘Thanks for the great help, Sunghoon!’

‘Any time, Sunghoon.’

Sunghoon doesn’t have to fear that Sunoo will just drag him into the shower despite his rejection because Heeseung finally leaves his room with Jake trailing behind him, both of them slipping on their neckties as they talk about the upcoming school festival and Jake’s arm wrestling to death training.

“I’m telling you,” Jake insists, “I won the match with physics and simple lever mechanisms.”

“You’re just telling me that you’re physically weak, love,” Heeseung laughs and elbows Jake in the side to send him stumbling a few steps into the couch, “See? A light breeze could tip you over.”

“You don’t even work out,” Jake huffs and pouts, “All you have to do as basketball player is be tall and lanky.”

“You love that I’m tall.”

“I do but that’s beside the point here, Heeseung. You’re saying I’m gonna lose my arm wrestling matches.”

“You won’t! I believe in you.”

“Believe in lever mechanisms!”

“What kind of boyfriend doesn’t want their – “

“I don’t need your beliefs, Lee Heeseung, but the both of us need physics!”

“Fuck your physics!”

“Fuck you!”

And there goes Sunghoon’s peaceful morning and all of his hope that Jake and Heeseung can save him from Sunoo. Thank God that Riki pulls him to the side and cups his hands around his ears to whisper something to him. Whatever it was, it must have been so disturbing, so shocking, that Sunoo’s wide grin morphs into a gaping goldfish face.

Sunghoon has no time to laugh at Sunoo’s facial expression (it looks really funny, okay), because Jay and Jungwon come out of the bathroom together, Manifesto lazily perched on top of Jungwon’s red arm. Jay has no business looking this good in their crappy school uniform but he does, mainly because he always, always rolls the sleeves of his dress shirt up to his elbows to reveal muscular, tan arms that have saved Sunghoon more often than he can count already.

Somewhere in the background, because Sunghoon is too focused on Jay and his arms and his face and the everlasting frown that draws his eyebrows together and the adorable pout on his lips, Sunghoon can hear Heeseung say, “Okay, unfuck your physics or whatever” and the HeeJake daily argument number one is resolved.

“Toast?” he offers them and points at the smoking toaster on the stove next to him.

Smoking toaster?

“Sunghoon!”

—

Okay, fine. Maybe the student council didn’t run out of their school uniforms because there has been an influx of transfer students that need new ones, or because the already enrolled students tear so many holes into theirs. Maybe, just maybe, the student council doesn’t have any spare uniforms to give out because Sunghoon keeps ruining and replacing his own.

“That’s shirt number twenty for this semester,” Wonyoung comments as Sunghoon buttons up his new shirt. Of course she keeps count, they have to keep track of how many uniforms they need to order every single year. Most of which go to Sunghoon. Maybe he should donate a hefty sum of money so Seungmin will continue to be the treasurer. “We should open a new account just for the damage that you have done.”

“I haven’t done any damages,” Sunghoon denies, but Wonyoung quickly shoots him down.

“A new ceiling and floor in the dorms, multiple uniforms,” she starts counting, “Two new basketball nets, an entire new ice rink and you won’t tell me how you did that, five chairs in the student council office, eighteen in your classroom, three new doors in the dorms, a new railing for the main staircase, two new school gates, twenty-eight new trash containers, fifty-seven new lunch trays, six new tables in the dining hall – “

“I get it, I get it,” Sunghoon snaps. It’s barely even 8 am, he doesn’t need to be reminded that he’s a walking natural disaster taking apart the school.

“You’re fucking expensive, Sunghoon,” Jay muses and sends him a lopsided grin. Oh, did Sunghoon mention that? Since they’re classmates, Jay follows him around at all times, even to the student council office in the morning. Like a boyfriend walking him to class.

‘Obviously he walks to your class, he’s also in that class!’

‘Shush! I want to be delusional.’

‘This is going too far.’

“This school won’t get a single penny from me,” Sunghoon jokes and ties a new necktie around his collar, “I love being a scholarship student they can’t kick out for misbehavior.”

“Oh, so you’re not a bad boy?”

Right. Sunoo is here, too.  If the boy hadn’t spoken up with his soft, teasing voice, Sunghoon could have easily pretended that it was Jay checking him out while Sunghoon changed his shirt (which he didn’t, Jay turned his back to Sunghoon so he could face the corner of the walls instead) instead of Sunoo, who even went as far as whistling at him. Whistling! Is Sunghoon a woman minding her own business while walking on the street?

“Just unlucky,” Sunghoon forces a grin and turns to Wonyoung on the bean bag next to Sunoo, “Are you taking a nap here again?”

Wonyoung nods and closes her eyes. Sunghoon has no idea what her timetable looks like, and he doesn’t want to ask. As far as he’s aware, Wonyoung doesn’t have any classes at 8 am and isn’t skipping any of them.

Sunghoon, Jay and Sunoo leave the student council office, and Sunghoon locks it just in case.

“Well, I gotta get to class,” Sunoo says smiling and skips down the hallway to his classroom, “See you at lunch!”

Sunghoon has never felt more relief flood his system. Honestly, being around Sunoo is not good for him, it triggers all kinds of things within him. Like, horniness. Sunghoon should have take a cold shower this morning.

Jay doesn’t comment on Sunghoon’s noticeably improved mood as they drag themselves up the two staircases to their classroom on the third floor. Instead, he starts rambling about the horrible, downright deadly brownies that Riki made (again), and that Manifesto now insists on sleeping on Jay's pillow at any given time when he doesn't shoo her away and that it's been triggering his allergy all night long.

And then, right before Sunghoon opens the door to their classroom, Jay stops him with a hand on his arm (holy shit, Jay is touching his arm) and quietly says, “Don't get close to Sunoo.”

What's this. There is no way. Holy fuck, is Jay jealous? It's hard not to notice that Sunoo has been especially clingy since yesterday, so obviously, Jay also noticed. And now he's saying he doesn't want Sunghoon to get close to Sunoo.

“He's bad company,” Jay adds, and wow, now he's really just coming up with anything to keep Sunghoon away from Sunoo (and closer to himself).

“Sunoo is not going to kill me, Jay,” Sunghoon chuckles and smiles at Jay to hopefully reassure him before his face forever gets stuck in this concerned and doubting frown of his, “But okay, I'll stay away.”

“Who says he's not gonna kill you.”

“He's harmless, Sunoo’s not gonna kill me.”

—

Group Chat: HeeJake+OG Thirdwheel

Sunghoon

Guys help

I think sunoos gonna kill me

Math failure

Maths is killing me rn

Get in line for the sweet escape of death

Sunghoon

I don’t wanna die yet tho

I have a jay to date excuse me

Aussie boy

Why would sunoo kill you

The guys harmless

He shrieked and cried when he had to pick up a wet dishcloth

Sunghoon

[1 image attached]

Then what's this.

What's this, Sim Jaeyun.

Why is he sending me a skull and an eggplant emoji?

WHAT IS THE SKULL FOR

Aussie boy

Oh my…

Math failure

So we all know what the eggplants for yeah?

Sunghoon

NOT helpful lee heeseung

Chapter Text

Okay, maybe Sunoo is overdoing it with his attempts on Sunghoon’s life.

The last week has been exhausting. Sunoo has never had this many tries in a day before, much less with only a small portion of his power. There were banana peels and slippery stairs and small grains of food and exploding toasters and too wet showers and multiple cars crashing into everything and everyone but Sunghoon. Hell, he even once made him break the toilet bowl!

And yet, the one time Sunoo doesn’t even do anything, Sunghoon falls four stories down from a tree and almost dies. If only Sunoo hadn’t caught his fall and saved his life. Sunoo! Of all people who want Sunghoon alive, he has to fall on the one guy who wants him dead? What cruel twist of fate is that supposed to be, it has to be some kind of sick joke. Are you laughing, God? He couldn’t have fallen on Jay or Jungwon who have been saving him basically every single day, every time that Sunoo uses his powers to try and kill Park Sunghoon? What’s their deal anyway! Sunoo has already tried to manipulate them, have the knife slip from Jay’s hands when he cooks so he can stab Sunghoon, or have Jungwon throw Manifesto into Sunghoon’s face with her claws out and poke his eyes out or something, and nothing. Neither of those things happened, and Sunoo noticed that his demonic powers have no effect on those two.

Sunoo also noticed that he hasn’t had a good fuck in nineteen-thousand years.

Fucking hell, sexual frustration is a different kind of torture when it has been bottled up for far longer than hundred generations of human life last. And of course, it all came crashing down yesterday, when Sunghoon looked utterly crazed and completely out of it from desire. Sunoo could basically taste the sin on his tongue when Sunghoon leaned in, close enough for Sunoo to smell the laundry detergent clinging to his collar, close enough for their noses to touch. And he was pressing down on Sunoo’s stomach with his knee, holy fuck.

Yeah, sure. Technically, Sunoo still hasn’t moved on from his Jay. Whenever Sunoo snaps out of his own thoughts, he finds himself fiddling with the silver earring he got from him, which is all the time. And yes, Sunoo sneaked into the current Jay’s bedroom before he woke up (he even put an alarm for it) just to stare at his embarrassing, kind of impressive morning, uh, thing showing through a bulge in his relatively light, grey sweatpants. (And his face. Jay, even during times of war and destruction and misery, always looked so peaceful when he slept. Like the last ray of hope in this universe.) He compared it to his Jay. It’s the exact same.

“Why are you telling me about his dick?” Riki grimaces. They’re the only ones back in the dorm for lunch, because Sunoo’s class before got cancelled and Riki is skipping. Manifesto doesn’t seem to mind that the time in which she is usually left on her own is so rudely invaded. If anything, she’s glad that Riki is here to press little kisses to her wet nose over a cup of coffee. “What is this behavior, Kim Sunoo? I get that we're demons, but you need Jesus.”

“What, just because you wanna take Jungwon out on ten dates and date him for a year first, doesn’t mean I can’t just hook up with someone,” Sunoo scoffs and rolls his eyes. Manifesto sneezes in disagreement.

“You’re talking about the reincarnation of your dead human lover,” Riki reminds him, his face awfully deadpan. Is he judging Sunoo? Yes, very. Is he denying what Sunoo just said about his intentions with Jungwon? No. “And our literal target, what is wrong with you?”

“No, listen,” Sunoo waves lamely, “When are humans the most vulnerable? During sex! I lure him into a room, just the two of us, you wait outside, I stab him, he’s dead, you reap his soul, we dump him into hell. Job finished!”

“I am not waiting outside a room where people have sex!” Riki protests and almost throws Manifesto at Sunoo, “I’d rather you kill me instead.”

“I’m not actually going to have sex with him.” Sunoo rolls his eyes, but he knows damn well that it’s a lie. Maybe he’ll have some sex with a human before he returns to hell. Preferably Jay, but Sunghoon is just as hot. Almost. Nobody is more attractive than Jay, or even as attractive. And heck, Sunoo would probably sleep with the current Jay, too, if he wasn’t so adamant about keeping all short interactions that he has with Sunoo to a surface level of niceties and greetings. His Jay used to do that, too, for a week. And then, he realized that Sunoo is simply irresistible and fell for him.

The current Jay would probably rather fall into the ninth level of hell before he even looks Sunoo in the eyes. Rude.

“Don’t lie to me, I can basically see the tip your horns poking out of your hair,” Riki groans and buries his face in Manifesto’s fur, “You are so horrible. Baby, don’t ever listen to this man, he’s evil and rotten and horrible.”

“You love me.”

“I’d rather kill myself.”

Manifesto wails in protest.

—

Group Chat: HeeJake+ThirdwheelZ

Yang Jungwon

@Death where are you

Why are you skipping class

Death

I felt a disturbance in the force

Manifesto was in the microwave when I came back to the dorms

Not Jay :(

Did u clean the microwave

Sim Jaeyun

Is manifesto okay??

Yang Jungwon

MANIFESTO WAS WHERE

Death

In the microwave

But its okay I saved her and she’s sleeping in jays pants now

Not Jay :(

Why always my stuff

Death

Sunoo cleaned the micorwave from her fur dw

Lee Heeseung

U skipped class to free manifesto from the microwave?

I thought we threw it away after it exploded last week

Not Jay :(

sunghoon wanted a new one

Yang Jungwon

For some reason :/

Its just gonna explode in ur face again

Park Sunghoon

That’s okay

U can pull me back again

my little hero underclassman

Sunoo

?

—

Jungwon is suspicious. Not just in the way he turns disgustingly soft around Riki, and blushes, and tries to focus his gaze on Manifesto in their hands. No, Jungwon is suspicious to Sunoo because he keeps interfering with all of Sunoo’s plans to end Park Sunghoon’s life.

Take the microwave incident from last week. Sunoo was so sure that all it needed was a little spark and a short-circuit for it to catch on fire and explode in Sunghoon’s face while he was heating up his cup of ramyeon, and that’s just what it did. Except, it didn’t kill Sunghoon, only left his face covered in soot and the dorm in smoke, because Jungwon pulled him back in the very last second and saved his life.

There is more. Jungwon also regularly pulls Sunghoon back from incoming cars, catches him when he slips, catches all of the balls and doors and flying trashcans that Sunoo sends Sunghoon’s way.

A few days ago, Sunghoon was supposed to slip in the shower. Guess who left a wet towel on the bottom of the shower cabin, making it non-slippery for the one-hour-long shower that Sunghoon took? Yang Jungwon. Apparently, he just ‘forgot’ to clean it up again, and Sunghoon just didn’t care that he was stepping on a wet towel because ‘well, everything gets wet during showers’. He didn’t even get caught in the towel and tripped or something, because the towel was just there. Like a shower carpet.

Later that day, Sunoo wanted to hit Sunghoon on the head with a heavy book from the school library that just ‘accidentally’ fell out of the shelf, which is just out of reach for Sunghoon, so he would have to stretch his arm up. Who got him a ladder and held it steady? Yang Jungwon.

In the evening of the same day, Sunoo thought he could make Sunghoon cut his own finger off while he was helping Jay in the kitchen. No, he couldn’t. Guess who took the knife from Sunghoon’s hands and cut those potatoes? Jungwon, with Manifesto dangling from his left elbow. He even went as far as shooing Sunghoon back into his room to study until dinner was ready!

Many more incidents similar to that followed, and now, Sunoo is sitting on the couch opposite of Jungwon and glaring back at him. That’s right. Back at him, because Jungwon was the first one to start glaring at him. Sunoo isn’t even doing anything! He’s just sitting on the couch in tiny shorts with his legs pulled up and his back arched while he’s leaning over the armrest and stretches his arms over it in a weird, uncomfortable way to hold his book, there is nothing to judge here. Sunoo just wants to read in peace. And have Sunghoon’s last thread of sanity snap so he decides to drag Sunoo to the next more or less private room.

“Do you have to sit like this?” Riki chastises him, but he doesn’t get to complain. Sunoo is basically two-and-a-half thousand years older than him; he gets to sit however he wants, thank you very much. He doesn’t even have to say anything for Riki to understand that he is inferior to Sunoo, and just wordlessly cover Manifesto and Jungwon’s eyes so they won’t see Sunoo anymore. “You’re a menace.”

“A hot menace,” Sunoo hums and, just because he knows he has his ass turned towards Sunghoon sitting at the dining table to ‘do homework’ arches his back and pushes his ass out further.

‘This probably counts as sexual harassment, Sunoo.’

‘I’m just getting comfortable.’

‘Sunoo, you are very uncomfortable in this position, mainly because the armrest digging into your collarbones is made out of fucking wood. This can definitely be reported to some authorities.’

‘Dick.’

‘No, shut up!’

Before Sunoo’s embarrassment can fully settle in (he gets it, okay, he’s overdoing it and it’s embarrassing as fuck how desperate he is for some mediocre dick), a soft, light blanket is draped over his back – and also his ass. He can barely crane his neck around in time to catch Jay letting go of the blanket’s end that he was previously holding with a worried frown directed at Sunoo.

“You’ll catch a cold like this,” he tells him softly, “Do you need another?”

Okay, first of all, Sunoo is a demon. His body doesn’t get cold, and he can’t catch a cold. Cold doesn’t exist in hell. Sure, the earth’s air is colder than the air in hell, and Sunoo can feel it on his scorching hot skin, but it has no effect on his body and immune system whatsoever.

Second, what the fuck, he is so cute and nice and… Jay!

‘He’s the exact same.’

‘Not the same.’

‘The exact same!’

‘Okay, what are you gonna do? Kiss him?’

‘Yeah.’

‘No.’

Sunoo just plops his hips down with a pout, buries his face in his arms and shakes his head. He’s not going to kiss this Jay, and he doesn’t need another blanket.

Across the coffee table on the other couch, Jungwon scoffs in annoyance and turns his full attention to Riki and Manifesto. Good. That means that, whatever Sunoo has done wrong now, wasn’t bad enough to get yelled at for by a random, feline teenager who’s crushing on Nishimura Riki – of all people, seriously.

Right, Jungwon. There was something about Jungwon that Sunoo was thinking about. What was it again?

—

Jake is a strange guy.

Somewhere between roommate Jake who acts like a golden retriever with the brain of a goldfish and is too competitive for his own good and student Jake who is a model student, top of his class, captain of the soccer team, member of the student council and everybody’s favorite ever, Sunoo got kitchen Jake. And kitchen Jake is… something entirely else. The difference is huge. It’s baffling, and Sunoo isn’t sure if Jake isn’t just Satan in disguise. Or just a fucking idiot.

“Jake, that’s bleach.”

“I know.”

“What.”

Jake looks up from the bowl on top of the school kitchen counter that he is pouring the bottle of bleach into (the one that Sunoo kept trying to kill Sunghoon with and hid in the deepest corner of the cabinets) and grins at Sunoo almost wickedly. Whoa. What’s this? Sunoo is getting goosebumps. And nobody will hear him scream for help, because it’s almost midnight on a Tuesday night, and they’re in the school kitchen instead of the dorm (thanks, Manifesto, for breaking the oven). Sunoo doesn’t even know why he followed Jake out to the school kitchen at this hour. He needs his beauty sleep, and gets a tray full of inedible, deathly brownies with bleach instead. Bleachies.

“You’re not gonna eat these, are you?” Jake asks him, a little too happily for someone who’s pouring indigestible liquids into brownies.  

“Nope.” Usually, it’s Sunoo poisoning people with bleach. He’s not sure how to react now that they are being offered to him, so he chooses to climb onto another countertop and watch Jake stir the wet batter enthusiastically. Whoever these are for, he must have done something horrible. Lee Heeseung, what on earth have you done?

“So,” Jake starts nonchalantly, and he doesn't sound like he's scheming something or anything like that, no. This is just Jake's normal tone of voice. “What's your deal with Sunghoon?”

Is Sunoo getting the shovel talk right now (pun intended)?

“Oh, uh.” Sunoo can't exactly tell him that he has to kill Sunghoon, can he? No, that is the exact opposite of what he should say. But saying that he just wants a fuck before he has to go back to hell sounds just as bad, if not, worse. Then again, anything sounds better than killing him. “I like him.”

Wow. Sunoo sounds a lot more innocent than his earlier acts of seduction would imply, considering he was literally just showing off his ass and hinting (‘hinting’, yeah) that he wants to sleep with Sunghoon. Just for the fun of it. Sunoo's job is stressful, okay?

“Okay, okay,” Jake nods diligently, as if Sunoo was telling him something important for a life and death matter – in Park Sunghoon's case, it is, “I'm just checking because he's my best friend. I can't let him get hurt.”

How sweet and sentimental. Sunoo would rather throw himself to the ninth level of hell before he considers Riki his friend. That, and he's going to be the first reason why Riki gets hurt in the first place. Demonic nature can be so cruel sometimes.

“What do you like about him?”

Haha. Good joke. Sunoo doesn't like Sunghoon. He wants him dead, for fuck’s sake! Liking is for losers who want someone to hold power over them and get them hurt, and if Sunoo doesn't want one thing, it's someone thinking they're better than him. Sure, he is a lesser demon, but his first task, before he was demoted to a curse, was to kill Archangels. Sunoo has done worse than feel indifferent about humans.

“He's hardworking,” he lies, straight through his teeth showing in his grin, “And very attentive. I can tell he cares a lot about pretty much everything, especially people he considers his friends. It's nice.”

Yeah, nice and gagging.

Jake gives him a quizzical look, as if he could see right through Sunoo's trivial lie. Then, he continues, “You're a little dense, aren't you?”

“Excuse me.”

Sunoo is a bit taken aback by Jake's blunt honesty, even though hell usually carries a harsher tone. Maybe it catches him off guard because it's so late at night and Jake – so far – has left a rather nice impression on Sunoo. Or Sunoo is getting soft.

Jake laughs, and it sounds surprisingly… not malicious.

“I’m just saying,” he explains kindly, “Sunghoon likes someone else.”

That has never stopped Sunoo before. Then again, it has also never happened to Sunoo before. The first time Sunoo remembers liking someone, or at least being a little bit interested in them, was his Jay and that was about three hundred earth resets ago. How God manages to reset earth, flood it, explode volcanos all over it, dry the magma or lava or whatever, then repopulate and re-shape it, three hundred (300) times at that, all while staying hidden from heaven – they literally have the best monitoring system in this universe – Sunoo has no idea. But he does know that Sunoo has never before had his affections not reciprocated (mainly, because he has only pursued one relationship in his existence as a demon). Does this mean he has to rethink his seduction plan again?

‘Maybe I just need to add a few steps.’

‘Or you use a different plan.’

To be honest, and it’s humiliating to admit, Sunoo is at his wit’s end. He is running out of plans, unless he actively wants to stab Sunghoon in front of everyone and become the first ever demonic human killer. He’s not that desperate yet. If the word spread that Sunoo had to use his own hands to kill his target, rather than his powers, he will become the laughingstock of hell for eternity! Even the ninth level of hell would laugh at him.

“For now,” Sunoo counters annoyed and scoffs lightly, “We’ll see.”

Yeah, just wait and see, Park Sunghoon. Sunoo isn’t this pretty for nothing.

(Sunghoon sits up in his bed with dread twisting his guts. The back of his shirt is sticking to his sweat drenched back, and Riki screams in shock, his gaming console dropping from his hands to his lap.

“Fucking hell, don’t sit up like you’re being exorcised!”

“Riki… Someone is threatening my life.”

“No. Nobody is doing that, what are you talking about.”

“Why are you even awake?”

“You can only catch Stringfish at night.”

“Riki, you’re in bed.”

“I’m talking about Animal Crossing.”

“You need to stop this addiction before it kills you.”

“Huh?! Nobody’s getting killed!”)

—

Jake only went into the school kitchen to talk to Sunoo undisturbed, and the bleachies were a distraction that he ended up throwing in the trash. A waste of food, if you ask Sunoo, but right now, he is too tired to function to even think about food waste and that Jake will probably end up in hell like everybody else. Who knows, maybe he’s good at killing people. Should Sunoo just kill Sunghoon and Jake and recruit one of them as replacement for his grim reaper?

“Why would you need a new grim reaper!” Riki complains. Again, it’s only them at the dorms during lunch. They’re skipping classes again. “I do my job well.”

“You’re good at reaping,” Sunoo agrees with a yawn and crosses his legs on Sunghoon’s bed. He prefers sitting there over sitting on Riki’s bed with Manifesto who keeps hissing at him whenever he tries to pet her or gets too close. Huh. Maybe he should kill her, too. Sunoo is not above animal cruelty. “But you’re horrible to tolerate.”

“Is that why you’re hanging out with me instead of pretending to sleep so you can ignore me?” Riki snarls and cups his palms around Manifesto’s little body. Shit. He got Sunoo there.

“No,” he lies but it comes out so broken that it sounds completely unbelievable, even to himself, “I’m just here to tell you that you should hurry up.”

“With what?” Riki narrows his eyes in suspicion. That’s right. Don’t trust anything that Sunoo ever says. Except for the next thing, of course, that one might be very important to Riki and his silly, little feelings for his silly, little, incredibly hostile human that slapped Sunoo not too long ago.

“With dating Jungwon, of course!” Sunoo exclaims in exaggerated excitement and laughs loudly, “Jake told me something funny. See, Sunghoon likes someone else.”

“And that someone is Jungwon,” Riki deadpans, but he doesn’t sound like he’s taking the bait. Instead, he shakes his head and raises Manifesto to eye level. “Can you believe this guy? He’s saying that Sunghoon likes your other dad.”

“I wouldn’t bet my money that I’m wrong,” Sunoo insists stubbornly, and it has Riki scoffing and rolling his eyes.

“Of course you wouldn’t,” he sighs, “You’re stupid enough to think that you’re always right. You also thought Jay and Jungwon were dating. But no! They’re just family. Who says you aren’t wrong this time, too?”

Manifesto meows loudly, as if agreeing with Riki. Stupid cat, maybe Sunoo should really kill her.

“I’m saying,” Sunoo huffs and crosses his arms over his chest. Riki won’t agree with him, but that’s fine. Sunoo has nowhere to be and all the time on earth to argue. “Sunghoon probably has all the reasons. Have you noticed how often Jungwon has saved him already? Literally moments ripped out of bad movies.”

Before Riki can reply anything, Heeseung walks into the room with a dull, unimpressed look.

“You’re not in class,” he says, or realizes, and taps his finger on the door handle, “Why?”

“Why aren’t you in class?” Riki retorts childishly but immediately shrinks in on himself once Heeseung fixes him with a tight, forced grin – and glaring eyes. It’s a little unsettling to look at, so Sunoo averts his gaze away from Heeseung. “Sorry.”

—

See, Sunoo already knew that Riki wouldn’t believe him when he said that Sunghoon is interested in Jungwon before he even brought the topic up in this conversation with him. Riki isn’t stupid, and he has known Sunoo and hell and demons for long enough to know that he should always doubt everything that comes out of a demon’s mouth – himself included. But Riki is also too predictable when it comes to anything related to humanity and feelings, so Sunoo gets to watch Riki’s tiny facial expressions while he sits on one of the couches and observes Jungwon and Sunghoon going over homework together. Sunghoon is better in chemistry, Jungwon is better at English. They’re sticking their heads together over the dining table, Jay busied in the kitchen behind them, and from the looks of it, they’re getting along great. What else to expect from someone who is constantly threatened by death and someone who constantly saves him.

Sunoo can hardly stifle his giggles when Riki’s left eye twitches from not blinking for five minutes. He shoots him a look that says ‘Told you’ with a smug grin, but Riki is too busy not blinking and staring at Jungwon’s back to even notice. Manifesto seems to be so utterly concerned with Sunoo, though, that she leaps across the table and lands on his face.

“Hey!” he yells and tries to yank her out of his hair. It’s no use, Manifesto bites herself into some strands and slaps his hands with her tail. “You little – “

“Sunoo, stop being mean to Manifesto,” Jungwon warns him, and when Sunoo turns his head to look at him, Jungwon’s face is schooled into a blank expression, “She just wants to play.”

“She’s attacking me!” he argues and tugs at Manifesto’s little body. Seriously, why can he never move this stupid kitten anywhere? “Get her!” Jay comes to his (or rather, Manifesto’s) rescue and gently pulls her away from Sunoo. What, and she just lets him? This cat has a personal problem with him, and Sunoo has no problem throwing her out of the window.

“What did you do to her?” Jay laughs quietly and puts Manifesto down on the couch, basically right next to Sunoo.

“I didn’t do anything,” he whines and squeezes himself against the armrest. That’s a lie, of course. Technically speaking, Sunoo once picked her up and threw her into the next trashcan. It was morally wrong and unnecessarily cruel, but Sunoo can’t find it within himself to feel guilty about it. Besides, she's fine! Heeseung fished her out and scolded him for it for an hour. “She just hates me for no reason.”

“What are you talking about?” Riki complains and finally turns away from Jungwon, “She's so tiny, hatred doesn't even fit inside her!”

“She's been going against me all this time! I bet she's plotting my demise in that tiny bird brain of hers.”

Manifesto yowls in disagreement and scratches his exposed thigh. Fuck small animals! She's not even cute!

“Oh shit,” Riki just starts laughing and picks her up. Manifesto, that beast, just melts into his palms and starts purring like she didn't just try to kill Sunoo! Maybe he was wrong, and Park Sunghoon doesn't just have an insane amount of luck. What if his guardian angel is this stupid baby cat?

“Riki, do you want the notes from today?” Jungwon asks, and Riki’s grin widens. Even Manifesto, although she doesn’t even go to class, nor would she need notes, perks up.

“Yes, please!”

“Then you should have gone to class.”

“Oh…”

Riki’s grin drops immediately, and now, it’s Sunoo’s turn to laugh. Serves him right.

(Maybe, Yang Jungwon isn't so bad.)

—

Yang Jungwon is suspicious. In fact, Sunoo has only become more wary of him.

Today, it all comes down when Sunoo makes sure that the shrimp croquette Jay made for dinner gets stuck in Sunghoon’s throat so he would choke on it, and Jungwon used the Heimlich maneuver to get it out of him. What sixteen year old knows the Heimlich maneuver? It’s so absurd, that Sunoo tried it a second, then a third, then a fourth time. Every single time, Jungwon jumped up from his chair, ran around the table and saved Sunghoon. One time, Sunoo even had Sunghoon’s chopsticks almost stab his eyes out, and Jungwon threw his own chopsticks and hit them out of Sunghoon’s slender hands. Like, what the fuck, are they in a spy movie or something? Either, he has been blessed by Sunghoon’s guardian angel to randomly know survival tactics, or he is the guardian angel (although, Sunoo has never heard of a guardian angel being allergic to cats, and Jungwon keeps sniffling and rubbing his eyes with the back of his fur-covered sleeve).

“I’ll get you guys new chopsticks,” Jay sighed and stood up from the table. While he got up, he petted Sunghoon’s back, and it reminded Sunoo too much of how his Jay used to pet his head. Memories can be so cruel.

But that’s not the only thing that makes Jungwon suspicious. No, he is also suspicious, because, every two days, he slips out of their shared dorm room and walks across the entire dorm to go to Jay’s room. In the middle of the night. And Sunoo knows that Jay’s room is usually empty, because Jake always sleeps in Heeseung’s room. Which means that Jungwon, for some reason, despite saying that he isn’t dating Jay, goes to him when everyone is supposedly asleep, and doesn’t come back until a few hours later, right before Sunoo’s alarm goes off.

Private Chat: Death

I’m telling you

there is something about yang jungwon

yea he’s special

I’m glad you’re finally seeing it too

mhm

especially fishy

uh… yeah

we had seafood for dinner

I guess all of us smell like fish

riki

are u just pretending to be oblivious?

he’s literally in jays room rn

just the two of them

while everybody sleeps

we arent sleeping

sunghoon isnt asleep either

its three am

wtf are they doing awake

ur being paranoid

im just not an idiot

:(

im sending manifesto to kill you

try me

I wont get u a new cat

so?

they grew up together, im sure jungwon just needs smt familiar to sleep

??? that makes no sense

remember when I was a newly turned demon and u let me sleep in ur bed

so I would stop feeling sad and miserable

yeah

u starfished on my bed and I was pressed against the wall

I’m never doing that again for u

°3° u love me

accuse me of that again

jungwon will be child less and widowed

!!!

I havent even held his hand yet omg

ur not gonna

bc I am 100% convinced he’s dating jay

that’s already been debunked 

im gonna check

if they’re making out

ill send u a vid just to torture u

okay, maybe u do hate me :/

That, and Sunoo also hates being wrong. Nothing is funnier than breaking someone’s heart, and quite frankly, the sooner Riki stops wasting his time with chasing after some dumb human boy, the sooner he can help Sunoo with his schemes to kill Park Sunghoon. Sunoo is doing all the work here, even though Riki is now just as human as he is! They’re here together, they can kill Sunghoon together.

So Sunoo, as quiet as he can in his flower slippers, sneaks out of his room. The communal area is dark, but the small streak of light that comes out from under Jay’s leaning door (that he repaired, holy shit, handy men are so attractive), tells Sunoo enough to know that they’re awake. Sunghoon’s and Riki’s room is not as well-lit because it’s probably only Sunghoon’s desk lamp. Which means that Jay is either using the big light from the ceiling, a tiny, pretentious, electronic chandelier, or his bed lamp. Either would be horrible light to have sex with.

The window over the kitchenette is open again, so it’s just unnecessarily cold. Fuck earth being colder than hell, Sunoo will die from a common cold before he can even put a scratch on Sunghoon’s body. Shivering, he wraps his arms around himself and shuffles his feet across the floor. Probably not the quietest way to move, but very effective apparently, because neither Jay nor Jungwon notice when Sunoo peeks inside the tiny gap through Jay’s room.

He can’t see much, because Jay’s bed is behind the door, but he can hear them talk quietly among themselves. Well, it’s mostly Jay murmuring something and Jungwon letting out content sighs. Oh shit. Is Sunoo really witnessing two people having sex? Ew.

“You should really take care of them better,” he hears Jay say.

“I move faster when they’re unfolded,” Jungwon replies quietly, “But I guess you wouldn’t know.”

“What, are you flying to Sunghoon?” Jay laughs breathlessly. Sunoo holds his own breath. What? Why would Jungwon fly to Sunghoon, what the fuck are they talking about?

‘Wings,’ his mind decides on, ‘They’re talking about wings!’

‘Why would they. I’m just jumping to conclusions again.’

‘Can you stop flip-flopping between making assumptions and then not wanting to make assumptions.’

‘This is important for my mission.’

Right. Sunoo’s mission to kill Park Sunghoon, which is impossible to finish, because he might have a guardian angel. Or two. Just the thought of Sunghoon needing two entire guardian angels to survive Sunoo strokes his ego, he must admit. But that also means that he needs to report back to Satan and tell him there is more than one angel on earth.

And it means that this Jay… could be thousands of years old. 

‘My Jay wasn’t an angel.’

‘He was.’

‘Metaphorically. It’s an exaggeration, a hyperbole.’

‘No, Jay was an angel.’

‘He was human, dumbass. Angels were fighting demons, he wouldn’t have helped you.’

‘But – ‘

‘No. This is not my Jay. This is a coincidence.’

It has to be. Sunoo’s Jay wasn’t an angel, he was human. Kind and warm and beautiful and human. This ‘what if’ that Sunoo’s mind is flooded with means nothing because this Jay also can’t be an angel. Humans who help demons don’t become angels. And even if his Jay turned into an angel, Sunoo can't be mad. Nobody remembers their lives as humans in the afterlife, in hell and heaven alike. The only way for this Jay to be Sunoo's Jay, is if he already was an angel when he met Sunoo. But that doesn't make sense, because they met during the Holy War. So either, Jay has been an angel all along, or he turned into one despite helping a demon, or he's never been one to begin with and was reincarnated as some kind of, what, messenger? 

“Fuck it,” Sunoo whispers to himself and pushes the door lightly. Just enough to see inside the room properly, just enough to see the chandelier lighting up the room, just enough to see Jungwon and Jay sit cross-legged on Jay’s bedsheets, just enough to see Jungwon’s eyes closed and his back turned to Jay.  

Just enough to see the shadow of wings cast against the yellowish wallpaper.

Jay isn’t massaging Jungwon's back. He’s preening his wings.

An angel’s wings.

Chapter Text

Jay noticed that Sunoo has been… off.

Today is Friday, and after class, the student council consisting of Sunghoon, Jake and Wonyoung, joined by their volunteers Jay and Jungwon are leaving for the biannual student council trip. It's a bit nerve wracking to know they're taking a plane to Paris with no layover. Roughly fourteen hours of flight time in a small, metallic tube with no leg space, tiny restrooms and other passengers. Usually, when Jay ‘flies’ (it's really just Jungwon carrying him around while the other boy does the flying), he can feel the wind and pass through his feathers. The coldness of the clouds brings little relief to the scorching heat on his back.

Which brings him back to Sunoo.

While setting the breakfast table and arranging the cutlery for everyone, Jay glances out of the corner of his eye. Sunoo is silently sitting on the couch with one leg pulled up to his chest and his head resting on his knee. He's not scrolling through his phone, he's not bickering with Riki, he's not reacting to Manifesto biting into his ankles. Instead, he reminds Jay of a statue, frozen in time, capturing someone who is supposed to be Sunoo in something that looks like day two of his existential crisis. Jay would know. He has a lot of those.

Sunoo has been like this eerily out of it since he woke up yesterday, which is starting to become very concerning. Jay knows that Sunoo tends to spiral, especially when he doesn’t talk to someone about his worries. From what he has deducted based on pure assumption, Sunoo and Riki don't exactly talk about feelings. Maybe it's a demon thing, or maybe they're just not that close. Either way, Sunoo is basically a stranger to everyone here. To Sunghoon, Heeseung and Jake, because they didn't even know he existed until a few weeks ago. To Riki, because Sunoo doesn't seem to like him a lot. To Jungwon and Jay, because they technically haven't ‘met’ him until he transferred to Decelis Academy, too.

Jay isn't supposed to know Sunoo as he is, but he does. That's why it makes sense for him to walk up to Sunoo and pat him on the arm to get his attention. The touch burns Jay's fingers, Sunoo is warm. If he didn't know that Sunoo is a demon, he'd probably assume the boy was coming down with a fever.

Sunoo snaps his head up to look up at Jay through long lashes, the look in his eyes is still dazed. He seems to be looking right through Jay as if he was invisible.

“Are you okay?” Jay asks him quietly. Jungwon is just in his room with his door open, and while he can't hear Jay with the music Riki’s blasting through a bluetooth speaker, Jay doesn't want to risk it. Jungwon scolds him enough, even when Jay just wants to be nice. To Sunoo. Especially Sunoo, because Jay never thought he would see him again. “You seem a bit out of it.”

“I, yeah,” Sunoo's gaze sharpens. Not in a threatening way, just sharp enough to show Jay that he is now focusing on Jay's face instead the air next to his ear. “I just got a lot on my mind.”

“Ah, the usual transfer student worries I guess?” Jay assumes, even though he doubts that Sunoo is concerned about fitting in with humans. Still, Sunoo gives him a slow jerk of his head that can barely be counted as a nod. “If you need someone to talk, you can come to me. Us transferees gotta stick together, right?”

It's probably a bad idea of Jay to offer Sunoo an opportunity to catch him in a private conversation. He just can't help it. Jay can't stand to see Sunoo so unusually quiet and deep in thoughts, whether they're supposed to be immortal enemies or not. This is his Sunoo, demon or not. Jay got to know and care for this Sunoo, demon or not. He's never been the type to follow heaven's rules anyway, what's being friendly to a demon compared to marrying one anyway?

“I will keep that in mind,” Sunoo mumbles softly and turns his head away with a crease in his eyebrows, “Thank you, Jay.”

“Anytime.”

Jay can hardly suppress his smile when he catches the slightest tug upwards of Sunoo's lips. If he still remembers Jay? It's been nineteen thousand years, and time passes weirdly when you know that it never really passes for you.

There is no time for Jay to (internally) celebrate his tiny victory (what exactly is he winning here?), because Sunghoon steps out of his room and grins at Jay brightly.

“Are you done packing?” Sunghoon asks him and tugs at his necktie to loosen it. One strand of his bangs is sticking up like a cowlick, even after what Jay already knows is Sunghoon’s typical hair styling routine of water, a hair dryer and gel. “We can put our bags in the student council office.”

“That’d be great,” Jay agrees nodding and walks back to the dining table, leaving Sunoo and Manifesto behind on the couch, “But let's have breakfast first.”

—

The thing with guardian angel cases that bothers Jay the most is that he can watch all of them grow up and live out their limited life the way he wants to live his own. Some cases took longer than others, and the age range that Jay and Jungwon operate in reaches from newborn babies to fragile seniors. Regardless, Jay always has to watch over them until they die. Some cases are sadder than others, where they die of old age either surrounded by their families, or alone in some hospital. Either way, Jay and Jungwon always stay until the heart monitor flatlines, their case closes their eyes and dies. Then, they guide them to heaven. The restrictions for entry have long been altered since God disappeared, and it’s no angel’s job to judge whether someone makes it through the gates or not. Instead, all souls that guardian angels manage to save from their curse (which aren’t a lot, heaven simply doesn’t have enough guardian angels to watch over all eight billion people on earth) are led to heaven, the paradise in the sky, closer to the sun and stars than these people have ever been while they were alive. Not that they would remember that they lived somewhere beneath the clouds. Souls, as opposed to what Jay would like to believe, carry no memories of their previous lives.

And then, the cycle repeats. Jay has seen people grow up, go to kindergarten, go to elementary school, go to middle school, drop out of middle school, go to high school drop out of high school, go on to college, drop out of college, start working or be jobless at one point in their lives. He’s seen them gain and lose friends, gain and lose families, gain and lose their lives.

Sunghoon is no exception to that. Ever since Sunghoon was assigned to Jay and Jungwon four years ago, Jay knew that Sunghoon would be a tough case. The moment he was assigned, Jay barely managed to make him twist his body enough to not break his own neck and die in an ice-skating accident. Sunghoon’s soul, Jay noticed while going through his file that he keeps holding in his hands over and over again, has always managed to escape his curses for as many lives as he has lived – as well as the afterlife. That is why Jay keeps meeting Sunghoon. Sometimes, with a different face and a different name, every few hundred years, but undoubtedly his soul.

Jay has seen him become a fisher man, a king, an enslaved person, has seen him marry someone and start a family of five, has seen him die alone, has seen him die surrounded by a loving family. Sunghoon has lived more lives than the average soul, and this time, because the Holy Council and his higher-ups absolutely despise Jay, he has to make sure that his soul ends up in heaven once and for all.

This Sunghoon, the high achiever student whose hard work balances out the bad luck (or rather, the curse) he has to deal with, is no different from the ones before. In every life, Sunghoon has had a curse. This time, it just happens to be stubborn and ruthless Kim Sunoo, the very same demon that Jay didn’t want to meet again.

Private Chat: Jungwon

that’s a lie lol

u didn’t even know he existed until three weeks ago

it’s only been three weeks?

feels like much longer lol

that’s just because we have a bad sense of time

well

we got all the time in the universe

what are three weeks anyway

u think three weeks is long?

We have to stay with sunghoon for the rest of his life

mhm

why don’t u marry him

hahahah

how about u marry him

:P not a single chance

sunghoon is neither my type, nor would he be interested in me

YOU however… ;)

I however what

Sunghoon is not my type either

nvm :|

what are the chances the plane will crash?

1 in 11 million

since sunoo’s powers are weakened, I doubt he can make the airplane crash without being IN the engine

meh

good enough

o God imagine the paperwork for killing all of the other passengers too

how do we know hell has any paperwork

what if they just throw them into hell and go

“here u go, now suffer for eternity”

with how many people they manage to kill…

again, hell also has more workers than heaven

jayyy

I don’t wanna be in that airplane ㅠㅠ

me neither

flying would be so much better

we ARE flying

in a huge, metallic tube

Im gonna miss manifesto

we’re gone for one week

ㅠㅠ

also

only manifesto?

oh shush

every time I tap into your brain, youre thinking

“I missed Sunoo”

you don’t get to judge me

I have a dramatic and intricate history with sunoo

full of anguish and betrayal and horrible sin

ew

not that kind of sin

jesus

what im trying to say is

YOU have no reason to miss riki

DON’T CALL ME OUT OK

he’s like a cute brother

:|

I thought u weren’t into incest

son

okay

maybe not brother

I just dk how to socialise with people my age

this is very new to me

I would have preferred if it stayed unknown to u

besides, we don’t know if he’s your age

and stop randomly tapping into my brain and not saying anything

I hate telepathy

no other angels have telepathy, why us

better teamwork ;)

will you ever tell me the full story with sunoo?

ur history of sin that took your wings

not before I die

youre immortal :|

correct

see you after class

see ya!

lets go shopping in paris

I want to buy manifesto a dior collar ^^

… yeah sure

drain my fake bank count

the humans will never know anyway

—

Departing is more emotional that Jay thought it would be.

For some reason, everyone in Wonyoung’s dorm is gathered in the student council office, as well as Jay’s dorm mates. Riki says goodbye to Jungwon with a tight hug they’re squishing Manifesto between their chests while Sunoo watches them with a blank stare that is completely unfocused and goes right through them. Heeseung is clinging to Jake’s waist like a koala, not ready to let go just yet, even for one weekend. Not that Jake is faring any better, if he holds into the back of Heeseung’s blazer like that for any longer, he might tear two fist-sized holes into it.

“I can’t believe you’re going to the city of love without me,” he keeps complaining and fails to hide his disappointment behind unfunny jokes and a tight smile. Jake’s pout worsens. It doesn’t look half as cute as Sunoo’s usually does.

Sunghoon is checking the tickets one last time, all of their passports are balanced on top of his head while he runs around the office like a headless chicken to make sure that all the shelves and drawers are locked. Jay shoulders Sunghoon’s bag that he left discarded somewhere between the beanbags and watches with a fond smile. Yeah, Sunghoon’s soul hasn’t changed in the slightest.

“We should get to the taxi,” Wonyoung suggests into the room and breaks free from the group hug of her friends, “Check-in is in two hours, right?”

“And we need forty minutes to the airport,” Sunghoon agrees, takes the passports off his head and runs a hand through his hair, “All the doors and windows are locked, I’ve got all the tickets. My bag – “

“I got it,” Jay pats the black sports bag and smiles at Sunghoon’s relieved sigh, “You should give me the tickets and passports, too, before you lose them.”

“Okay, I’m clumsy but not an idiot,” Sunghoon rolls his eyes but complies anyway, handing the items over to Jay while sulking, “But thanks. I take no responsibility in case you lose them, though. Be warned.”

“Noted.”

Jay turns to leave the office first after the girls from Wonyoung’s dorm filter out. As he passes Sunoo, they make a brief eye contact, and something flashes across Sunoo’s face that Jay can barely decipher before it’s gone again and Sunoo’s blank expression returns. Anger. Sunoo is angry at him. He stops in his tracks and glances at Jungwon who is still saying goodbye to Manifesto, so he takes this chance to grab Sunoo by the top of his head and shakes it playfully with, what he hopes to be, a comforting smile. Sunoo doesn’t return whatever expression it is that Jay makes.

“You can tell me how you feel or what you’re thinking about,” he offers Sunoo one last time before he turns his back to him and leaves. Waiting for Sunoo’s reaction would have been too nerve wrecking, too heartbreaking. Has Sunoo figured him out after all?

—

Group Chat: HeeJake+ThirdwheelZ

Jake

guys I already miss you

Riki

please come back soon

it’s no fun playing fifa with heeseung

Heeseung

ur only saying that because you keep losing

Riki

true

[1 video attached]

@Jungwon manifesto has been making biscuits on ur bed since you left

Jungwon

:((((

I gotta wash those sheets

Sunoo

she has also been wailing like a siren

make it stop

Riki

I wasn’t aware u were processing anything that's happening

guys how do I keep someone conscious

Sunoo

how do I keep my eardrums intact

Jake

don’t ask us

we’re sitting in front of an entire row of KIDS

Heeseung

I thought u like kids

Sunghoon

not when theyre kicking our backs

Jake

^

what sunghoon said

Jungwon

I still think theyre cute

Jay

you also think manifesto is cute

even tho she almost killed you on multiple occasions

Jungwon

my allergy cant kill me so it wont keep me away from my baby

ㅠㅠ

I miss her

Riki

manifesto misses you too!

Sunoo

yeah

manifesto :|

Riki

pls go back to being a statue

I hate when u call me out

Jungwon

?

Heeseung

hows the flight going

Sunghoon

horrible

there are kids everywhere and the stewardess almost spilled hot coffee over me

Jungwon

none of us even asked for coffee

Sunghoon

you were there

you saw it happen

the cup almost splashed into my face

Heeseung

lmao

maybe coffee is also addicted to u

Sunghoon

:/

its so hard being this popular

Jay

that’s why that kid keeps pulling your sleeve huh

Sunghoon

SHE JUST CALLED ME DAD

ABORT ABORT

Jungwon

too late, you’re a father now

judging from her height, for a few years now lol

Heeseung

damn, didn’t know sunghoon had a baby

Sunghoon

she’s gonna rip my sleeve

someone help me

Sunoo

its just a kid

Riki

u don’t like kids either

Sunoo

that’s right

I like people who can think :|

Jungwon

lmaoooooo

Jay

hey.

Jungwon

sorry

Sunoo

?

—

“Who chose France as our destination,” Sunghoon complains and collapses in the hallway of their AirBnB. Fourteen hours of flight, followed by a one-hour drive to their rented little apartment, coupled with seven hours of time difference is probably the worst thing that can happen to a student. Jay already knows that by Monday after the trip, he will sit in class jet-legged and tired. “I’m blaming Jake.”

“Okay, rude.”

Jake ignores Sunghoon on the ground and steps over him into the living room – equipped with bed and dining table. The hallway at the end merely leads to another bedroom, the one bathroom they have to share and a tiny kitchen nook that looks about as modern as it could be for the cheapest prize. It’s not a bad accommodation but Jay would have gladly paid for a hotel out of his own pocket, too. At least everything seems clean, save for the tiny spider in the corner.

“Jungwon,” he calls out too happily for someone who should be jet lagged and tired (even when they slept for a good ten hours during the flight, Jay especially), “Let’s share this bed.”

“Okay,” Jungwon easily agrees and flops into the white sheets with a groan, “I think, my spine has a dent in the form or a tiny foot.” Wonyoung laughs quietly and passes by the living / dining / bedroom to one of the two (other) bedrooms. She peeks her head inside and turns the light switch on, then closes the door behind her.

Jay looks at Jungwon and Jake on the not yet pulled out couch, then at the only other door in the living room left that probably leads to another bedroom, then at Sunghoon. He sighs. Great. He’s not opposed to sharing a room with Sunghoon but with both of their luck, they are going to wake up on the floor, Jay dead asleep, and Sunghoon just dead. Then again, Sunoo isn’t here to try and kill Sunghoon, so they might get lucky, and both of them get to live another day.

“Oh, what the hell.”

Never mind then. Jay doesn’t have enough luck to open the door to the bedroom and find two beds in it. Okay, technically, he does, but one of them is a toddler bed barely big enough to fit a toddler, much less will it fit Jay or Sunghoon. The other bed is only a twin size, buried underneath a thick, light green blanket (which is definitely intended for a bigger bed) and three pillows. Listen, Jay has no problem sharing a bed with Sunghoon. He’s done it before, in his angel form, to blanket the boy in warmth and make sure he doesn’t die of hypothermia from the window that suddenly had its panel fall out thinking back on it (that as definitely Sunoo’s doing). The problem is that Sunghoon looks like he is about to pass out if he stares at the bed any longer.

“I can just squeeze myself between Jake and Jungwon,” Jay offers quickly and forces a reassuring grin.

“Uh, no,” Sunghoon denies just as quickly and steps into the room, his back turned towards Jay so he can’t see the face he’s making. Except, Jay can tell from the way his cheeks bunch up that Sunghoon is grinning. “It’s fine, let’s just share.”

“Okay.”

—

Since it’s close to midnight, they decide to find the next fast-food restaurant and get takeout. Jay and Jake lose rock-paper-scissors, so it’s only them while the rest get to get settled in and throw themselves into the paperwork that Sunghoon packed (the stacks of paper used up an entire half of his luggage, so he forgot to bring spare socks of all things) for the school festival in four weeks and the end-of-semester dance that follows the week after. The student council is as busy as ever.

Jay almost loses his mind when he has to act like Jake’s guardian angel, too, and prevent him from crossing a red light and getting hit by a truck by pulling at the back of his jacket because Jake is too busy giggling at his phone and texting Heeseung (even though it has to be early morning, around six am for him with the time difference) to notice where he’s going. First Sunghoon, and now his best friend, too? How on earth are any of the people that surround Sunghoon still alive with this amount of recklessness? Surely, Sunoo doesn’t care enough about other civilians to keep them away from whatever plan he tries to end Sunghoon’s life with, considering that the car he once let into their classroom almost took out Jay, too.

“Can’t you watch where you’re going?” he snarls at Jake and tugs at the back of his collar one last time for good measure, “Really sweet to see you so in love with your phone but I won’t bother to tell Heeseung your last words if you die on this trip.”

“Hey,” Jake whines dramatically before his face splits into a wide grin, “You like Sunoo, right?”

“What the fuck.”

What the fuck.

‘What the fuck.’

‘Jay, are you okay?’

‘What the fuck, get out of my head.’

‘Jay, what’s going on?’

‘What the fuck.’

‘Jay, why aren’t you answering me?!’

Jay doesn’t have to answer Jake’s question. He gets to avoid his wide grin and raised eyebrows and curious puppy eyes and anticipation and excitement for gossip written all over his (objectively speaking, very handsome) face, because his phone starts ringing in his pocket.

Thank you, Yang Jungwon, for always spying on Jay’s thoughts.

“I have to answer this call,” Jay swallows around the lump in his dry throat and fishes his phone out.

Caller ID: Jungwon

“Before he starts spamming every group chat we’re in.”

Jake gives him a reassuring nod, but the gaze that he fixes Jay to his side with as he slings an arm around his shoulders tells him, Jay can be on the phone with Jungwon for as long as he wants to. This conversation isn’t over yet. Still, Jay answers Jungwon’s call with the hope that whatever the boy is about to say can distract him for long enough until they’re back in their AirBnB and Jay can hide from Jake in the bathroom. Forever.

“You’re on speaker,” he warns Jungwon before he can burst out with something that might blow their cover. Not that Jay has anything to hide from Jake, no way. Hah. Just that he is a guardian angel sent from heaven to protect Sunghoon from a curse, and that said curse is the love of his life, Kim Sunoo. And that he might or might not once helped himself to the last cup of ramyeon late at night that Jake then sadly looked for with a low head for the entire week instead of just buying another one. But that’s about it.

“Jay, I just got a mirror selfie from Riki without Manifesto and it’s like five thirty am there. What does this mean?”

He couldn’t have come up with a better excuse than boy problems. Damn you, Yang Jungwon.

“Depends,” Jake butts into the conversation with a nonchalant hum, the arm he has around Jay’s shoulders now tightening around his neck, “Was he naked?”

Jungwon’s answer comes in form of a loud, shrill shriek, followed by a splash and then – silence. Jay stares at the screen that indicates that their call has ended, Jungwon doesn’t call back immediately. Did he really just drop his phone into water?

‘God, help me.’

—

Group Chat: HeeJake+ThirdwheelZ

Sunghoon

this is jungwon

I am not available privately until further notice, so please send any important requests into this group chat

Riki

Is that why you haven’t answered my text yet

Jake

LMAO

yeah lil guy

what happened

Sunghoon

you happened @Jake

I dropped my phone into the toilet bowl thanks to your obscene question

@Jay please buy me a new one tomorrow

Heeseung

… when u called jay ur dad

did you mean sugar daddy

Sunghoon

NO!

I mean parental figure that raises and feeds me and buys me stuff

Jake

so, a sugar daddy

Riki

????

Sunghoon

stop this madness

sunghoon is laughing so hard that he choked on his spit

where is sunoo

Heeseung

dead

Jay

uh what

Riki

he needs his beauty sleep

we’re playing mario kart

why are u asking about sunoo

Sunghoon

no reason dw :)

Jake

Ooooh, and the tea keeps boiling

Heeseung

oh ur making tea?

enjoy, love

Jake

lol no, jay and I are getting takeout

Heeseung

ur walking around the streets of the city of love

to get food

with another man???

Jake

check ur dms

Jay

[1 image attached]

he just took a selfie like this…

Jake

DON’T EXPOSE ME

Jay

YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELF

Riki

I DIDN’T HAVE TO SEE HIM EXPOSE HIS COLLARBONE LIKE THAT TWICE

Jake

lotta words for someone who sent jungwon a shirtless mirror selfie

Riki

I WASN’T SHIRTLESS WHAT

jungwon, what on earth did you say to them??

how am I supposed to marry if I acted this indecently

Jay

u’ve known jungwon for three weeks

who said anything about marriage

Riki

0.o

I gtg

Sunghoon

I want full custody of manifesto

Riki

we’re not getting a divorce, why am I about to lose custody

Sunghoon

ur right

we’d have to be married to fight over custody

Jay

nobody is getting married to anybody

Heeseung

ur no fun jay

let the kids get married and divorced

Jake

he just sobbed out loud

—

It’s almost three am in the morning when Jay finally gets to wash off the remains of the airplane flight, stumble through a dark hallway and an even darker living room because Jake and Jungwon fell asleep with food basically halfway chewed still in their mouths, and fall into bed with a tired groan. Sitting in a cramped aisle of an airplane took a toll on his joints, and to be honest, it didn’t help that Sunghoon almost fell off the bench at the dining table and hit his head against the corner of the table. Sunoo is literally on the other side of the world, and he still keeps almost dying. Jay’s job will never get any easier.

Sunghoon is seated on the floor next to the bed, with more paperwork scattered around his legs. His thick eyebrows are creased in concentration, even when his eyes keep fluttering shut from tiredness.

“Let’s keep working tomorrow,” Jay suggests quietly and reaches out with his hands until he can feel Sunghoon’s hair under his fingertips. “Too bad this is not a vacation.”

“No can do,” Sunghoon sighs and pushes his head against Jay’s palm, who combs his fingers through the soft strands. It’s oddly nice, being able to actually feel Sunghoon under his touch and let his warmth seep into the tip of his fingers. Usually, Jay’s hand and then his entire arm fall through, and his particles scatter in the gaps between Sunghoon’s. “Although, if I get to sleep in on Monday, that’s good enough.”

“You’d really need it. Your eye bags are ugly.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know, I’m plenty handsome with eye bags.”

“Sure, sure,” Jay rolls his eyes but he doubts that Sunghoon can see, “Let’s go to sleep?”

Sunghoon complies with a tired nod and a small smile as he gets up from the ground and leaves all of the blindingly white sheets of paper on the floor  to crawl under the blanket with Jay. He’s warm, Jay notices when he throws one of his arms over Sunghoon’s side and pulls him closer so neither of them fall off the bed, brain already riddled with sleep.

Of course he’s warm. Sunghoon is well and alive and warm. Jay has done a fucking great job at keeping him save for the past four years, despite absolutely “sucking ass” at it (thank you again, Yang Jungwon). He just never fully grasped how it effects his missions’ lives that they get to keep, to live to their fullest.

If Jungwon hadn’t talked the council into letting them take on human forms, Jay would have never gotten to talk to Sunghoon, would have never met him. It annoys him a bit, that he never gets to see the souls that he has saved already. This, talking to Sunghoon, interacting with him, seeing him alive and knowing that Jay is doing his job because, hey, Sunghoon hasn’t died right in front of his eyes and Jay hasn’t felt his fingers turn cold just yet, it’s nice. It’s the affirmation that Jay wishes would come from his higher-ups, or, dare he say, God themselves, but no. Jay had to let Jungwon beg and plead and prepare a Powerpoint presentation with two-hundred slides arguing with the Holy Council as to why they have to be around Sunghoon in human forms to save him and get his soul to heaven.

It sucks even more to know that, if Jay had been the one to ask and plead and argue and beg and grovel and kiss asses and offer his wings, he would have been denied. Mainly because his words, as well as his wings, are worthless, and he can’t be trusted.

Not after Sunoo.

“Are you not uncomfortable like this?” Sunghoon whispers into the dark room, and despite his question, he buries his face deeper into Jay’s shoulder. For a second, he wonders if Sunghoon only clutches tighter at his shirt because he knows that Jay is his guardian angel who’s trying to keep him alive, but the thought is thrown aside just as quickly as it was shoved into his head.

“Are you?” he replies instead and pulls the blanket up higher over Sunghoon’s shoulder, “As long as neither of us sleep on the floor.”

“Or the toddler bed?”

“Or the toddler bed.”

—

Someone is asleep on the toddler bed.

It’s not Jay, it’s not Sunghoon.

The person sleeping on the toddler bed is a lot smaller than Jay and Sunghoon, not by a lot, but small enough to fit his body onto the mattress and only have his legs dangling off the low mattress despite being pulled up to his chest. He didn’t even pull the blanket over himself, instead just pitifully lying on top of the now crumpled sheets like an overgrown fetus. While it might be around two pm now, it’s still too early for some dumbassery like this. Jay’s head flops back into Sunghoon’s hair. It’s better to just go back to sleep and ignore everything.

“Jake?” Sunghoon rasps and raises his head to stare at the boy across the room, “What the fuck?”

“Someone is in my bed,” Jake yawns and tries to stretch his limps, shirt riding up to reveal his pale stomach, only to almost fall out of bed.

“Yeah, you wanted to share the couch with Jungwon,” Sunghoon reminds him. He’s talking too much. Discontent with Sunghoon’s constant wriggling around, Jay tightens his grip around Sunghoon’s waist (since when were they spooning?) and huffs in annoyance. Seriously, he’s still jet lagged. Nobody should be awake at this hour. (Two pm. It’s two pm.)

“Yeah, with Jungwon,” Jake whines and rolls himself out of bed and onto the wooden floor just a few centimetres below, “Not Jungwon and Riki. The couch isn’t big enough for three people.”

Jungwon and Riki. Just he thought irritates and worries Jay back to heaven. Fine, sure, he’s happy that Jungwon isn’t a robot and infallible and has some sort of human emotion left. But did he really have to fall for a demon? Maybe he should tell Jungwon his backstory with Sunoo, as a cautionary tale, so he won’t repeat the same mistake with Riki —

With Riki.

Riki?

“What do you mean, Riki is on the couch?”

Chapter Text

“Riki – “

Sunoo stops dead in his tracks. All he wanted to do was bother Riki and terrorise Manifesto a bit before he’d start watching another random sitcom and die from boredom since Heeseung is still asleep, and nobody else is in the dorm. Turns out, Riki was also about to disappear from his room, if Sunoo hadn’t so rudely interrupted his bag packing. How else could he explain that Riki, at 1 pm in the noon, is holding a sports bag with all of his essentials packed, and dressed in all black, with his boots tied and the hood of his black leather coat puller over his head. Manifesto, the only thing on Riki that’s not black, peeks out from inside the hood and hisses at Sunoo. Rude. Sunoo only fed her some chilli oil the evening before, surely, she can’t hate him that much? (That’s sarcastic, of course, Sunoo would hate himself, too, if he was a tiny, innocent little spoiled shit that’s fed blended wagyu beef from a bottle. Riki really goes all out for this cat.)

“What the hell?” Sunoo sputters out loud and judges Riki’s shocked face, like he’s a little kid getting caught in the act of drawing all over the walls with crayons. “Where are you going?”

“Skipping class,” Riki lies immediately with multiple cracks in his voice, because it’s a Saturday noon. They don’t have school for two entire days (of which only one and a half is left), are granted a tiny break from this hell on earth, and this is the lie that he comes up with. Sunoo fixes him with a warning glare and crosses his arms in front of his chest, shoulder resting against the wooden, splinter-y doorframe. If Riki already lies to another demon, he should at least make it believable. Instead, he just ducks his head and throws another towel into the bag. “I’m going on a trip. For the weekend. Uh, Saturday night. Don’t call the police if I’m not back by Monday?”

“Trip?” Sunoo inquiries and raises an eyebrow. Riki’s bag is too stuffed with clothes and snacks to last him for only the weekend, unless he expects to change his outfit three times a day. “To where?”

“Uh…”

Riki bites his lip as he avoids Sunoo’s gaze. Suspicious. Sunoo glares harder.

“You can still teleport, right?” he asks Riki. While he hasn’t seen the boy teleport in the last three weeks, Riki has also always been the first one to sit at their dining hall table, despite always going ‘to the restroom first’, according to Jungwon.

“Yes,” Riki admits reluctantly and gulps. He turns his head to look out of the window instead of at Sunoo, one hand coming up to gently pet Manifesto on his shoulder. She cries miserably and rubs her head against his fingers in a sad attempt at getting attention from the one parent that hasn't left her yet.

“You were going to France, weren’t you.” It’s less of a question, and more of a fact. Sunoo knows that Riki was going to teleport to France, because, where else would he go with his teleportation ability? With his dumb puppy crush on Yang Jungwon, Jay’s guardian angel partner, he’d obviously follow them to Paris. Especially if Riki can still teleport.

After a while, Riki admits with a defeated sigh, “Yes.”

That works for Sunoo, too. He was wondering how he’d kill Sunghoon if he was gone for a whole week, but now, Sunoo might not have to die of boredom after all. With a grin splitting his face, Sunoo demands,

“Take me with you.”

 Riki sputters and pulls the ziplock of his back close. “Wha – No way!”

“Take me with you,” Sunoo insists and pushes into the room. Sunghoon’s bed is neatly made and untouched since yesterday afternoon. “You can show Manifesto Paris during the night, and we finally kill Sunghoon during the day.”

“You seem more determined than ever,” Riki notes and raises an eyebrow. Next to his face, Manifesto hisses again. Shush, pitiful ball of fur. The demons are talking.

“His guardian angel,” Sunoo explains, because why else would Jay be on earth if not for Park fucking Sunghoon. Heaven is not starting a war; Sunoo would bet his soul on that. No, Jay is here to guard Sunghoon and protect him from his curse – Sunoo. And it pisses Sunoo off. Jay probably knows that Sunoo is the curse, too. Fuck. Is it more paperwork to kill an angel, too?

“I thought we ruled that out,” Riki says confused and shoulders his bag. Wow, he really can’t wait to teleport to the city of love that Sunoo is about to turn into the City of Death – with capitalisation and all.

“No, he has one,” Sunoo corrects him, and his own misconception. They had been too reckless, too oblivious. Sunghoon’s guardian angels had been right in front of their noses, and they didn’t notice because Sunoo was too busy reminiscing about his human-lover-slash-angel-slash-turned-angel (he’s still not sure how or when Jay turned into an angel, just hopes, fucking prays even, that it was after the war because if it wasn’t… Sunoo doesn’t want to think about it). But now that Sunoo knows who his blessings are, killing Sunghoon will be a lot easier. All he has to do is distract Jay and Jungwon. “Two, to be exact. And I wanna see their souls absolutely crushed when I kill Sunghoon in front of them.”

Maybe it’s unnecessarily cruel. Sunoo is already killing a random person with no remorse, he doesn’t have to rub Sunghoon’s death into Jay’s face. But he just feels like doing it, especially because Jay is too kind for his own good. And because if Jay has been an angel all along while he knew Sunoo, then he’s already stopped him from Sunoo’s biggest mission, whose failure led to Sunoo being one misstep away from the ninth level of hell. That, and…

‘Don’t think about it.’

‘He lied to me.’

‘I lied to him, too.’

‘He lied to me!’

‘I lied, too.’

‘But he knew you were lying.’

“Okay,” Riki complies with another sigh. He doesn’t question Sunoo’s sudden rise in spitefulness, only ushers him into his own room to pack, and checks one last time that he has all the stuff for Manifesto packed in the easiest accessible pocket of his bag. “Let’s go to Paris and kill Park Sunghoon then.”

Sunoo pointedly ignores the hint of bitterness and pity in Riki’s voice. Fuck that, and fuck guardian angels. They’re only here to kill Sunghoon, after all. It's too early for regret, he's not even dead yet.

He rushes into his room and throws whatever mismatched clothes he can find in his dresser, as well as some toiletries and his little collection of bleach and other poisons that he’s accumulated over the past three weeks. Riki watches him from the middle of the room, eyebrows furrowed with doubt as he scratches a silently crying Manifesto behind her ears. At least he stopped wailing until the windows broke from the frequency.

This Paris trip will be Park Sunghoon’s ticket to hell.

(“Hey, did you know?”

“Know what?”

“That Jungwon is an angel.”

“…”

“Fine. Your silence is answer enough.”

“Don't forget to pack fresh underwear.”

“My underwear is none of your business – “

“Are those lace panties?!”)

—

Teleporting still sucks when Sunoo has to go through it a second time. He will never get used to the feeling of shooting into space and being squished down to hell at the same time, especially because Riki is apparently focusing most of his “let’s not get lost somewhere in the space between” power on is left hand that he’s clutching Manifesto to his chest with (Like, hello? Sunoo needs a lot more stabilization than her). It doesn’t help that it’s seven am in the morning when they land in Paris, and the sun barely reaches over the classic Parisian style roofs while it was already peaking back home.

That, and they’re standing on top of the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile.

The street down below is filled with people on their walk of shame, while others – mostly elderly people that Sunoo could easily kill – are on their way to a nearby bakery that happens to be open. Sunoo does a slow twirl to take in the scenery presenting itself to him. Arc de Triomphe stands proudly in the middle of a huge round-about that looks like everybody’s worst nightmare to navigate. Ten, what Sunoo can only assume, main streets lead away from the spot he’s standing on, and all of them look the same to him. Sunoo has heard of Paris’ weird infrastructure and their architecture from someone once, way back… huh. He doesn’t remember. While he’s without memories, Sunoo is left with the annoying feeling of a déjà vu settling in his guts instead.

‘It’s not Jay again, is it?’

‘Depends.’

Because if Jay was human when he first met Sunoo, then it was probably, very likely him. If he already was an angel back then, then Sunoo has no explanation. Fuck. How is Sunoo even supposed to find that out without bluntly asking ‘Hey, Jay remember me? Back from the Holy War!’ and blowing his cover as human. Then again, if it’s the same Jay, he already knows that Sunoo is Sunghoon’s curse, and only Sunoo believed the other was reincarnated.

He’s going in circles (quite literally, he hasn’t stopped spinning on top of the Arc de Triomphe just yet), so he comes to a stumbling halt and focuses on the task at hand. Making Riki feel bad.

“Great spot landing, Riki,” Sunoo chirps with a wide grin and crosses his arms. Shit. He’s not used to being dizzy this high up in the sky. Hell is, as assumed correctly, underground, buried deep within the earth’s core. Next to him, Riki is still clinging to his hand with a trembling grasp, and when Sunoo turns his head, he knows why. Manifesto has quite literally bitten through Riki’s shirt into his collarbone. Heh. Sunoo chooses to ignore the clown show in favor of asking, “This is where they sleep? Could get a bit cold at night.”

“Shut up, it’s somewhere nearby,” Riki grits his teeth and slowly loosens up Manifesto’s jaw by wriggling his pinky finger into her mouth. Not that it fits into her mouth, but hey, suckling at the tip of his finger is better than biting a chunk out of his collarbone. “Jungwon sent me the address, hold on…”

Private Chat: Lee Heeseung

where are u guys

did you eat my ramyeon :(

we wont be back for a while

uuuh ok

definitely doesn’t sound suspicious

did u run away

were skipping school

for a week

family matter

oh is it smt bad?

wait u guys are related??

cousins

our grandma is dying

oh ok

ill try to tell ur teachers then

why thanks

see you in a week!

ur in paris arent u.

what.

who told u

[1 image attached]

Riki did.

uhm…

manifesto missed jungwon

u bought an entire THREE tickets

bc his cat missed jungwon

no?

two tickets

we smuggled her in

WHY

BECAUSE RIKI DOESN’T GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT THAT STUPID THING

AND HE MISSED JUNGWON

THAT FUCKER

there

are u happy

u went to paris to hang out with all of our friends

without me??

u were asleep when we left

WTF

ok fine whatever

if u see jake flirting with someone beat them up for me

I don’t think I want to beat up jake

he’s so fragile and whiny

I mean the person he’s flirting with

don’t beat up jake omg

but jakes the one flirting in this scenario right

my jake is just like that

that’s fine

but the other person being enamored with him…

hes just irresistible and unaware of it

so beat the other person up

right ok

I can do that lmao

thanks

have fun ig :|

without me ://///

will do

bye heeseung!

Shit. Why did Riki leave a sticky note for Heeseung anyway? And it even read “We're in Paris for a week, bye! P.S.: Please eat more than just ramyeon. At least cook an egg or something” – like it's their responsibility that an eighteen-year-old stays alive by himself!

—

“This is still not the right address.”

“I know that!”

They’ve been walking around Paris for three hours now and Sunoo’s feet are hurting. Fine, maybe he can't put the blame solely on Riki and his horrible sense of direction for this one. Sunoo has to admit that all the streets look the same to him, and that he's been using the stupid Eiffel Tower as guide on where they are currently located, which might not be the best idea, considering he can see that stupid tower from basically everywhere in the city (he already knows that he will definitely wreck this stupid tower, even if he has to sleep for a week). Although, he can definitely blame Riki for ripping the map out of his nimble fingers and proclaiming himself their official guide, despite Manifesto slipping off his head and into his face all the time. His sense of direction is even worse than Sunoo's!

“At this point, we'll never find them,” Sunoo groans as his bag falls from his shoulder and to the ground with a concerning ‘clink’. Yes. Just in case Sunoo has to take drastic measures, he packed a knife. “Just call Jungwon or something.”

“I already texted him,” Riki sulks and folds the map into a tiny block of paper that he stuffs into his pocket. He collects Manifesto into his palms and shakes his head. “No response. He might be knocked out from his jet lag.”

“Whatever suits your ego best,” Sunoo laments and grabs his hand, “I'm tired of walking. Teleport us.”

“I haven't fully recharged yet and – “

“Off we go!”

Riki teleports them to the next rooftop.

And the next.

And the next.

And the next.

After countless more attempts, he stumbles to the ground when he lands, dizzy and disoriented and utterly exhausted, and Sunoo has finally gotten used to teleporting. He lands on his feet and releases Riki’s hand when he falls to the concrete of the balcony on all four like a dog, so quickly that Manifesto scrambles to hold onto his shirt to not fall off of his shoulder with a protesting wail.

Looking around, this also isn't the right address.

“This won't do,” Riki heaves between his gasps for air and comes to stand on shaking knees. He runs a hand through his black hair that's damp from sweat (ew) and leans against the wall to support himself. Sunoo takes the map from his hands. “One more try, and that's all for this week.”

“Really? I thought we could check out the Palace of Versailles before we find them,” Sunoo chirps sarcastically and receives a scoff in response – and then, some more gasping for breath.

“You can't kill Sunghoon if I'm too dead to reap his soul,” Riki reminds him annoyed and takes a shuddering breath. Now, Sunoo is also annoyed. He's right, killing Riki would set his mission to kill Sunghoon back by at least three steps – not that Sunoo actually has taken more than one step towards his goal.

Manifesto rubs the top of her head against Riki’s jaw with a pathetic little ‘mrrow’, which seems to cheer him up immensely. He straightens his back and swishes a hand through the map, letting it disappear in a cloud of black smoke. So, no more demon map. Riki must be getting very desperate if he wants to walk around this city without the help of a demonic map straight from hell (it even has all of the historic places of misery and despair – of which there are a lot of since it’s Paris – marked, like sightseeing spots).

“I just remembered something,” Riki explains, even though Sunoo never asked anything to begin with. He would have been fine walking his human form to death. Still, he curiously watches Riki take out his phone, copy Jungwon’s text message with the address of their AirBnB and open a different application by pressing on its funny little icon. ‘Maps’ it reads. Oh. “Humans have something similar… but in better.”

The screen loads, and bam, a little needle icon shows them where the AirBnB is located while the roads they have to walk are colored in blue. Another blue icon shows their current location. Wow. Modern technology is crazy.

“And you remembered this app just now,” Sunoo deadpans, very unimpressed by Riki’s memory as opposed to being very impressed by human innovation. It was already crazy enough when they introduced phones to hell, but this? Sunoo is being stalked by an app on a phone and he’s even grateful for it. Now, at least, he won’t have to walk himself back to hell.

“You just reacted like you’ve never even seen a phone before!” Riki argues.

“I don’t spend all of my free time running off to the human – “

Whatever Sunoo wanted to insult Riki with, it disappears in the space between. Literally, because Riki aggressively slaps his hand to Sunoo’s wrist and teleports into the AirBnB. That’s right. Into the AirBnB, because nothing is easier to explain than suddenly showing up in their accommodation instead of in front of the door. That was sarcasm, Sunoo almost grabs Riki by the shoulders to throw him to the ground and scold him before he notices – it’s dark. The curtains are all pulled back and nothing is moving, everything is silent. Except for Jake’s quiet snores. Shit. They’re still home and asleep.

Sunoo only sees Manifesto’s reflective eyes in the dark, peeking out from inside Riki’s quivering hood.

“And now?” Sunoo hisses harshly and watches Riki slowly sink to his knees with a hardly muffled groan. “How do we explain what we’re doing inside this apartment?”

“That’s your problem now,” he breathes harshly and flops to the side with a thud that only sounds louder because everything else is still quiet, “I’m passing out.”

And then, Riki dies.

Okay, no. He doesn’t die, but Sunoo would really like to kill him right now if it wasn’t for Manifesto circling Riki’s head protectively with her tail raised high and her gaze locked onto Sunoo as if to say ‘Try to kill him. I dare you’. But he’s not in the mood to get his shit absolutely wrecked by a tiny Calico kitten, so Sunoo pulls out a sleeping bag from… somewhere and decides that it’s a problem for when he wakes up. Hopefully, that’s never.

—

“Why is Sunoo sleeping under the table?”

Groggily, Sunoo lifts his head from his makeshift pillow in the sleeping bag and looks for the source of the voice. Not that he would never recognize that it’s owner is Jay, but the first question that his sleep-riddled brain can come up with is ‘Where are you?’. Hopefully, the bitter taste in the back of his mouth is just morning breath and not something entirely else, like the remaining longing he has been trying so hard to ignore (and failing miserably at it, because Sunoo is stupid and he apparently really enjoys thinking about and longing for Jay).

The living room – now, that Sunoo can finally see – isn’t dark anymore, so he can finally take a proper look at the interior. It’s a simplistic room, with a wooden dining table he’s lying under, two wooden benches on the long sides of it, and a pulled-out couch with crumpled sheets and two people stacked on top. The small, round coffee table is pushed to the foot of the bed. Opposite of the bed is a door that seems to lead to another room, and Jake is curled up on the floor in the doorframe whining, with Sunghoon and Jay standing behind him and staring at Sunoo with shocked faces. Oh. Jay.

Sunoo tears his gaze away again, before he throws up, and decides that now is the best time to go back to sleep and act like he is supposed to be here, in Paris, instead of in their dingy, oddly quiet, and empty dorm room.

“Don’t just go back to sleep!” Jay scolds him, and Sunoo has to bury himself deeper into the sleeping bag to muffle his voice. He doesn’t want to hear it, he doesn’t want to talk to him. If he could, Sunoo would go back to hell and avoid Jay for the rest of his eternity – which won’t be long if he doesn’t finish his mission. So, yeah, Sunoo is only here to kill Park Sunghoon and be petty about it.

“Why are you yelling so early?” Jungwon complains yawning and shuffles around under the blanket – and Riki and Manifesto, “Jake?”

“Jake’s at our feet,” Sunghoon cackles quietly and rubs the sleep from his eyes, “You got Riki on your back.”

“Wah!”

People tumble out of the bed, and quite frankly, it’s annoying. Sunoo just wants to sleep for a bit longer but instead, he gets Riki groaning out in pain next to him on the floor. Oh well, that’s actually not so bad. If he was any more awake, Sunoo would point a finger and laugh at him. This is music to Sunoo’s ears.

Alas, Sunoo is still tired and when he peeks out from his sleeping bag, he sees Riki passed out on the floor again. Oh, poor boy. He should work on his powers more if he doesn’t want to overexert himself like earlier again.

“How long have you been here?!” Jay exclaims and puts a protective arm over Sunghoon’s chest to shield him – from Sunoo.

“Riki missed Jungwon,” he explains, like it actually explains anything instead of raising more questions, “So we booked a flight and now we’re here.”

“Who did what.”

“Good night.”

“It’s two pm!”

—

There is something unsettling about the way Jang Wonyoung looks at him over the breakfast table.

It’s three pm now, way too late to have breakfast and not call it an afternoon snack instead, and everyone is finally awake. Everyone except for Riki, of course, because he’s still knocked out on the floor with his head in Jungwon’s lap and Manifesto perched on top. It would be cute, the way she’s standing on her hind legs and raising both of her front paws to her chest so she can playfully fight with Jungwon, if it wasn’t for the fact that she has scratched the back of his hands multiple times and is now swishing her toe beans through bright red blood. Jungwon doesn’t seem to mind at all. He’s sniffling and laughing under his breath, and continues to stick his hands out to her. Sunoo briefly wonders, if the angel is stupid as hell or just a masochist.

Neither Sunghoon nor Jay are there to stop him, busying themselves with preparing breakfast in the kitchen while Jake is out buying some bread.

Sunoo’s eyes cautiously flicker back up to Wonyoung who hasn’t said a single word this afternoon. Even this early, before she has put on makeup and got ready for the day, she’s objectively speaking pretty. Her big eyes blink owlishly at him, alluringly, impatiently even, as if she was urging him to tell her the truth and talk about how often Riki had to teleport through the different streets of Paris that all look the same before they finally ended up in the AirBnB. Black bangs frame her slim face perfectly, and her skin is smooth, and her lips are pressed into a thin, pink line on her face. Sunoo would be self-conscious and insecure, if he didn’t know that he’s just as pretty.

‘Jay always told me.’

‘Let’s stop with Jay, shall we?’

‘No!’

‘Yes!’

With a sigh, Sunoo drops his head into his arms on the table and decides, that’s enough getting distracted for the day. He still has a human to kill, he can’t afford to waste any of his time on an angel that either doesn’t remember him, or does remember him and how he left Sunoo dangling over the ninth level of hell. Not that Jay was actually there to witness Sunoo being picked up by the horns and held over the pit in hell, but still. Jay probably knew what the consequence was for Sunoo’s failure in the holy war, and it pisses him off. Just thinking about him pisses him off, so Sunoo hopes that Jay was a human when they first met. That it was accidental and not on purpose, that Sunoo’s didn’t get played like a fiddle and used to win a war. Crap. And now he’s thinking about it – Jay, and the war, and his feelings, and his first ever failed mission that almost landed Sunoo in the nothingness of existence, had he not taken his role as curse.

Group Chat: Conseil des étudiants

Sim Jake

I just embarrassed myself so hard

french class is nothing like real french!!

Jay °-°’

just buy us some damn baguettes

Sim Jake

I bought twenty :|

Jang Wonyoung

why twenty

Sim Jake

because the cashier asked what I wanted and I stumbled through my french

I didn’t pay attention in french class

Park Sunghoon

decelis doesn’t offer french class

Sim Jake

EXACTLY

I used a web translator on the way and practiced the pronunciation and everything

and the moment I step in, she talks to me in english

so I fucked up and I said I wanted a lot baguettes

Yang Jungwon

how on earth do u mess up english and buy that many baguettes

Sim Jake

I PANICKED AND JUST SAID ANYTHING

but that’s not the worst

she looked at me weird after I said that okay

and the started talking IN GERMAN

SO I ANSWERED IN THE LITTLE GERMAN I KNOW AND BOUGHT TWENTY BAGUETTES

is my english that bad??

Jang Wonyoung

arent u from australia tho

jake how did you talk lmao

Sim Jake

by opening my mouth and making noises that ive technically been making since I learnt how to

Sunoo

id be spooked too

if a random guy just suddenly moaned in my bakery

Sim Jake

im about to moan into ur baked ass sunoo

Jang Wonyoung

:o

le gasp

Jay °-°’

what the hell

Park Sunghoon

LMAOOOOO

Sunoo

btw I meant to tell u from heeseung

that I gotta slap u when u flirt with someone

so dont come back until we forgot about this

Sim Jake

SUNNY ㅠㅠ

why would u set me up like this

Sunoo

i'm telling heeseung

Sim Jake

WE JUST GOT BACK TOGETHER

DON’T

HELEPSNDM

Jay °-°’

what is it now

Park Sunghoon

probably smt stupid

Jang Wonyoung

says u?

Park Sunghoon

very rude

jake whats up

Sim Jake

PIGEONAGSGA

SO MANY OF THEM

I threw them a baguette and now

[1 image attached]

Sunoo

LMAO

Sim Jake

THEYRE EVERYWHERE

THEYRE STEALING MY BAGUETTES

Jay °-°’

why are u losing against pigeons

Sim Jake

jayyyyyyyy

save me

Jay °-°’

save our breakfast

Sim Jake

I JUST GOT SAVED BY A BLOND DUDE IN A LATEX CAT SUIT WTF

HE’S MAKING BAGUETTE PUNS

Jang Wonyoung

please just come back with breakfast

Sunoo is still laughing at the picture Jake sent into the group chat – a selfie with only the upper half of his face visible, and a bunch of pigeons in the background, on his head, on his shoulders, on the many baguettes he’s holding, fighting for his life – when he startles back as Jay sets down a plate with scrambled eggs in front of him, his arm brushing against Sunoo’s cheek.

“Sorry,” Jay mutters but he’s distracted by another plate he puts down. His lips are jutted out in an adorable pout, and he’s frowning in concentration. If Sunoo wasn’t so damn pissed at him to the point he has to blink aggressively so he won’t burst into frustrated tears, he’d coo at him.

(Jake comes back, completely unhinged and debauched, with only one baguette they all have to share. Seems like the pigeons won.)

—

Fine. Maybe Sunoo is overdoing it. But listen, the loud yelps Sunghoon lets out whenever he gets yet another paper cut, even though the many bandaids Jungwon used to patch him up, are hilarious, even if ineffective. By the time it’s five pm in the evening, Sunghoon’s hands are more paper cuts and bandaids than skin, and he’s left a trail of blood all over his paperwork.

This has been going on for an hour now. Riki is still knocked out on the floor, so Sunoo can’t kill Sunghoon just yet unless he wants to lose his soul and have him reincarnated into yet another baby he will have to kill, and the best way to cure his own boredom – because, no, he will not be of any help for the student council – is mess with Sunghoon who’s seated at the table and cutting his fingers on paper left and right. Wonyoung is sitting to his right, quietly giggling whenever Sunghoon gets another cut. Jungwon on his right clicks his tongue, adjusts his hold on Manifesto clinging to the front of his shirt and pulls out more bandaids from the seemingly bottomless pockets of his sweatpants. Jay glances up every now and then to check on Sunghoon and take the form from his hands before blood gets on it, and Jake… Jake has been busy in the shower for a while now.

Private Chat: Lee Heeseung

ur not doing smt nasty are u

define nasty

because the concoction I just put into my ramyeon looks really disgusting

… what

ur not video calling jake?

no?

he hasn’t replied to my texts in forever

sunoo, did u alr have to punch someone

only myself

NOOO

 Okay, never mind that then.

Sunoo places his phone next to him on the ground and looks at the picture he got to draw with crayons. His masterpiece. Then, he looks at Riki in front of him, still snoring away. The whole teleporting must have really tired him out.

“Okay, we’re done for today,” Jay decides gruffly after yet another paper cut (that one wasn’t even Sunoo’s doing, he was just happily drawing with his crayons like a toddler) and takes the paper from Sunghoon’s bleeding hands, “No more work today. You’ll bleed out.”

“I’m fine,” Sunghoon protests but winces when Jungwon presses down on the cut on his palm, “Okay, fine. We’re done for now. Where is Jake?”

“Still in the bathroom,” Wonyoung hums and stacks her paperwork neatly, “Should we get ready to go out for dinner? No offense, but if we have to rely on Jake to get the groceries again…”

“Nope,” Jay immediately cuts in and sighs, “We can take a walk, too. See something of the city.”

Sunoo has seen enough of the city. Riki also teleported them to pretty much every sightseeing spot in Paris, starting from the Arc de Triomphe, to the Louvre, to the top of the Eiffel Tower, to the Champ d’Elysée and the Seine. He’s seen it all in a day already.

But being outside gives Sunoo more chances to kill Sunghoon. All he has to do is wake up Riki and drag him along so he can reap his soul in a state of deliriousness and haze. Sunoo scoots across the floor with a wide grin and kicks Riki in the back.

“Get up!” he laughs, “We’re getting dinner.”

Riki rolls on his stomach and groans.

“I’ll eat you one day.”

“No thanks.”

—

If Sunoo thought Sunghoon’s yelps with every paper cut were the highlight of his day, he obviously didn’t consider that making him choke on his Quiche Lorraine would end up in Sunghoon’s face turning literally blue because Jungwon did not manage to use the Heimlich maneuver on him. He must have been close to finishing his job, because even Wonyoung got worried and was ready to call an ambulance. Riki, meanwhile, was fidgeting with his bracelet (which is his scythe, hidden in plain sight) nervously.

But it isn’t until much later, after Sunghoon was saved and they left the restaurant and a very concerned French waiter behind, when Sunoo is literally buzzing with excitement to kill Sunghoon that he knows he will succeed. His powers are fully recharged, the energy prickling through his fingers like electric shocks with every breath of thin air he takes. This is it. There is no way Sunghoon will survive this, especially not because Jake pulled Jungwon, Wonyoung and Jay to the side to buy the group some crêpes. Too bad that one of them will go to waste.

Sunoo gestured Riki to get ready by digging his elbow into his side. They exchange quick looks before they both turn to Sunghoon taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower to send his mom (how sweet of him as the last text he will ever send to her) and take a step to the side. One, just one is enough.

“Here?” Riki whispers harshly while he tugs at his bracelet and looks around anxiously, “You're kidding.”

“Watch, Riki,” Sunoo giggles to himself, “This is why they wanted me to kill Archangels.”

The skin of Sunoo's fingers burns with bloodlust, and it's about to get real fucking bloody. It takes all of his concentration to rip the Eiffel Tower out of the ground, and even more willpower to tip it over into Sunghoon's direction. Sunoo relishes in the chaos that erupts, the amount of people screaming and running away, the panic that flashes over Sunghoon's face and the absolute horror that roots him to his spot. People aren't kidding when they say that disaster strikes in slow motion, and Sunoo gets to enjoy the long moment of terrified screaming in the background and the metal bars breaking and shattering from the impact on the ground. This is crazy. Sunoo is absolutely crazy for this. The tower keeps falling and falling and falling –

It's Riki who tackles Sunghoon out of the way.

Sunoo is left standing with the tip of the Eiffel Tower crashing to the ground mere centimeters in front of his shoes, and the person he's supposed to kill alive, buried under his grim reaper somewhere in the space between metal bars instead of under them. His powers are completely drained. He's dizzy. He's pissed.

‘What the fuck?’

‘What the fuck?!’

“Riki, you crazy fuck!”

From shock, from exhaustion, from the sheer amount of anger that's boiling inside of him until it explodes, it doesn't matter what it is. Sunoo passes out.

—

He's still passed out, so Sunoo doesn't know, but it's Jay who screams his name first, and Sunghoon who yells to know if anybody is hurt.

It's Jake who wants to call an ambulance and Wonyoung who sends everyone who is still conscious and well to give first aid to the people around them.

It's Jungwon who stays rooted near the crêpe stall, all seven servings balanced in his arms and Manifesto wailing on top of his head.

“You crazy fucker,” he mutters under his breath, “This is his weakened form?”

Riki refuses to call an ambulance for Sunoo.

Jay is the one to carry him home.

—

Sunoo regains his consciousness to the worst headache of his life, and the sound of two heartbeats on his ear. He buries his nose deeper into the fabric that smells like Jay and cheap laundry detergent and groans. A gentle yet cold hand caresses his cheek. 

“Sunoo?”

“Hm?”

“Are you okay?”

“Fuck off, Jay.”

“Okay. Just – sleep a little longer, okay? You must be shocked.”

“Stop being so fucking nice to me.”

“Okay. Sorry. Good night.”

Sunoo pulls himself away from the body next to him and rolls his head into the pillow. The sheets faintly smell like Jay, too. Already.

—

(Late at night, Jungwon rolls over on the couch and finds Riki already looking at him. He carefully reaches out to cover his hand with his own, ice-cold against hellish warm, and can't help but smile when Riki turns his palm to intertwine their hands.

“Hi, Riki,” he whispers because it feels wrong to talk any louder into the darkness of the room and the peace that settles over the night.

“Hi, Jungwon,” he greets back and smiles, too. For a while, neither of them says anything. They let the silence blanket them warmly, although Jungwon is shivering. There is this feeling gnawing at his heart, and he's not sure what it is.

“You know, don't you?” he quietly asks Riki after a while and watches his smile fade.

“Do you?” Riki takes some time to answer as he tries to look at Manifesto curled up into a cat loaf between their chests instead of Jungwon. So he knows what Jungwon is trying to learn about him.

“I do.”

“Then you don't happen to know how to help me, do you?”

“You want me to help you?”

“Please, Jungwon.” Riki holds his hand just a bit tighter, and the touch burns with anguish. “Save me before we fall.”

Jungwon doesn't ask, who he means with ‘we’.)

Chapter Text

Here's what nobody told Riki when he was forced to take the job as grim reaper: watching people die in horrible and unfortunate accidents makes you feel things.

Or maybe, just maybe, he's simply not made for it. It's probably from way back, seventeen thousand years ago, two thousand years after the last Holy War that left all demons who participated hollow and cruel after tasting the golden blood of angels, when Riki was handed a scythe and told to reap his first soul. Even then, Riki was more sensitive to everything going on in hell, to the cruelty he had to watch day after day after day. There was no escape, there is no salvation. He will forever spend his time surrounded by misery.

Riki doesn't remember how, probably part of the process of dying, but he woke up in a lake of black slime or goo, emerged from the stuff that was also clogging his throat and clawed his way over other souls and drowning people until he made it to burning, solid ground. So what if he had to push other people down to save himself? Riki’s selfishness is probably what got him there.

He gasped for air, but his lungs were only filled with gas and fire. Everything burnt. The ground, the air, Riki’s lungs, Riki himself, the screams that echoed through the large cave and multiplied and multiplied and multiplied. It felt like it would never stop, all the screaming and gurgling and drowning and burning. Even then, Riki was shivering from a coldness that seemed to come from within him.

‘This is hell.’

And he couldn't have been more correct.

Next to him, more coughing people were able to drag themselves out of the slime, although it stuck to their bare forms and (thankfully) covered most of their bodies like it was about to melt into their skin. When Riki threw a glance back, he saw people being pulled down, away from the surface, and all that was left of them were air bubbles that popped and let out their last scream. Needless to say, he was shitting his slime-suit in fear. He didn't know anything. Not where he was, not who he was, not what was going to happen to him, or anything about the concept of afterlives. Nobody bothered to explain, not even the demon (although, Riki didn't know that it was a demon back then) who grabbed Riki by the neck and pulled him to his stumbling feet.

“You did well, kid,” the female demon said, and Riki had to lower his head to look into her yellow eyes. He still doesn't know how, but he managed to read ‘Chaewon’ on her name tag. “Follow me.”

—

Bathed in something that seemed to melt his skin off his bones and dressed in simple black clothes and a long leather coat, Riki was pushed into a small lecture hall where Chaewon stood at the front and played a video introduction to hell. He had no problems seeing the big screen, being taller than most of the people around him. Thinking back on it now, he wishes he would've laid down on the floor and sunk through it like it was the slime lake he managed to escape from.

Here are basics that Riki learned:

• He was in hell because he didn’t make it into heaven for God knows what reason.
• The people who drowned in the slime lake got to ‘enjoy’ their afterlife as simple, rotten souls who would be used as foot soldiers if another holy war were to be started.
• Riki, along with the few souls who managed to fight their way out of the lake, succeeded in the test to become a lesser demon.
• From here on, they can be promoted.
• But for the start, the first few thousand years, they will be grim reapers.
• Whoever refuses can jump into the void of the ninth level of hell.

A grim reaper. Someone who takes someone's soul and brings then down to hell, where those souls have to go through the trial that Riki was just put through, with no information or hint how it would affect his eternal afterlife.

Someone who kills people just to make them their co-worker.

Riki was handed a small silver bracelet with his initials N.R. carved into it. He almost screamed when it suddenly grew into a scythe, taller than himself, made out of black metal. Blood dripped from the tip and filled his stomach with dread.

“Don't break it,” the demon in the front warned them with a grin, as if he couldn't wait for one of them to mess up or break one of the bracelets himself, “It’s a part of your soul.”

When he looked around, nobody seemed to be as scared and disturbed as he was. He was the anomaly, so he bit his tongue, swallowed the metallic taste in his dry spit, and thought to himself,

‘Fine. Killing people it is.’

His hands shook, but not from anticipation or excitement. Around him, his fellow grim reapers erupted into wild cheers.

—

Riki remembers it so clearly, the moment he was shoved into a dark office where he met the very first curse he had to work for. Their first meeting is something that still haunts him in his nightmares, not because curses are so horrible to look at when they're in their demon form – all horns and uncountable rows of teeth and glowing eyes – but because this curse was on a whole different level of unhinged. A demon through and through.

“Here's your first case, Riki,” she explained to him in a nonchalant tone, like they weren't about to end someone's life. This is how everyone seemed to talk about death. Nonchalantly, like they were talking about the weather or what to have for dinner. “His name is Benjamin, and he's one fuck a selfless man.”

“Isn't… that good?” Riki asked, although he wasn't sure if he was allowed to talk. He was told that curses were one level above grim reapers, their superiors. That, and Riki wasn't sure which words would or wouldn't get him thrown into the ninth level of hell.

“It is,” she hummed and zoomed in on Benjamin’s blurred figure. Riki couldn't tell what he looked like because his face was blurred out, but his stance alone already looked friendly and welcoming. He was holding a kid by the hand and teaching the little boy how to slide over the frozen lake, swaddled up in thick clothing and seemed to laugh fondly with the boy. The sight twisted his stomach, something about it felt so familiar. “That makes him predictable and easy to kill. The perfect first target for my new grim reaper.”

Riki noticed how she didn't say that selflessness was a good trait for souls who could go to heaven. Only how convenient it was for a target. A target! Riki’s target was a living person?!

He tried to remain calm, tried to show that he wasn't some weak pushover. Still, his voice shook when he decided to continue the conversation.

“What happened to your old one?”

“He got promoted.”

Oh well. At leash he wasn't turned into conscious nothingness. Then again, what did a grim reaper have to do, how many souls did they have to kill, to get such a promotion? Riki wasn't sure if he wanted to know, and at the same time, the question was at the tip of his tongue.

“Focus on Benjamin,” the curse advised him kindly, “If you think hard enough to be next to him, you will be there.”

“I can teleport?”

“Forgot how little they tell you newbies. Yes, teleport to Benjamin. You'll know, when to reap his soul.”

She turned her chair sideways, a wicked grin spread across her face. Her eyes were twinkling wildly in the darkness of the room, seemed to reflect the light that came from the many screens that she was stalking Benjamin with.

Riki’s glaze flickered from her eyes that seemed to see right through his tough act to the screen that showed this Benjamin guy. To his platinum blond hair and his kind body language and the toddler he was holding by the hand. He seemed young, no older than nineteen. Then again, how young was Riki when he died? He didn't remember, still doesn't. It's not something he will ever learn.

'Benjamin.’

He clamped his eyes shut and repeated the name to himself, over and over again, and his powers seemed to know which of the many Benjamins that roamed the earth he meant, because he found himself gasping for thin, freezing air. Maybe it was because he was already used to the burning gasses of hell, maybe it was because Riki already felt cold in hell, but his first breath of air on earth that filled his lungs burned him in a different way than the fire he was breathing just moments prior, shocked him back to life. That was, until he remembered that he was dead. Still, the short sensation, the tiny moment in which he could believe that he was just a person, not a grim reaper, it was addictive.

Riki wasn't next to Benjamin, but he could spot him from a distance, tucked away in the forest surrounding the frozen lake. A pale complexion and a handsome face. It wasn't only his body language that looked kind, even his grin was warm. He watched Benjamin slide across the ice with the little boy, fiddled with his bracelet to calm his nerves. He'd know when to reap his soul? It wasn't something Riki wanted to think about.

There was not much time to think, anyway. Before his very eyes, the boy let go of Benjamin’s hand and declared that he wanted to try by himself. He let him, of course, sent him off with encouraging smiles and made a big turn around the boy to the other side of the lake.

Oh.

This had to be it. Riki held his breath, cold air stinging into his lungs, and listened with horror as the ice cracked and the boy fell through. The little one, not Benjamin. No, Benjamin leapt forward with a cry, onto his stomach until he made it to the hole that was slowly growing in size with every bit of ice that crumbled into the water underneath. And then, Benjamin stripped off his jacket and dove into the water.

Fuck. If both of them drowned, would Riki have to reap both souls? How does he even reap a soul? What is he supposed to do? His instinct wasn't telling him anything, only that he should probably turn his bracelet into his scythe. And how? Shit!

Riki was panicking. There were two boys drowning in front of his eyes, and instead of helping them, he was supposed to kill them? That's crazy!

‘Why would I do that?’

‘Why wouldn't I?’

It was scary, how easily Riki’s attitude switched, how confidently he suddenly held his scythe, how quickly he strode across the ice until his next step was straight into the ice-cold water.

It was even more terrifying when the low temperature of the water shocked him back to his senses, the cold prickling into his skin like needles. Riki realised too late that he forgot to hold his breath and that he, in fact, couldn't breathe underwater despite being dead and not needing oxygen anymore. He was supposed to collect the soul of a drowning person, and yet, he was also drowning.

Stupid as he was, Riki flailed his limbs around until he got a grip on something - Benjamin's ankle. And instead of swinging the blade of his scythe through his body to reap his soul, Riki did the next stupid thing.

He pulled Benjamin to the surface.

Somehow, Riki had half the mind to swim closer to the shore of the lake until his feet could touch the ground, a limp boy under his arm and his scythe in his hand, and hacked a hole into the ice until he could crawl out of the lake on all fours, gasping and freezing and saving his target. His face hit the snowy ground when he collapsed, Benjamin under his arm still, and before Riki could blink twice, the cold winter air and the frozen lake with holes in the ice was replaced by hell.

He found himself next to the slime lake in hell again, the difference in temperature too sudden to not startle him, or hurt him, and he crawled away from the slime because it was too hot, and his boots were smoking from the condensation. Everything was burning again, but Riki had no time to complain or to get used to the sudden spike in temperature, because next thing he knew, he got kicked into the black goo and was cooked into grim reaper soup.

“What the fuck was that?!” his curse barked at him and wrestled him further away from the shore, “Not only did you take longer than thirty minutes, but you also saved him!”

All accusations were simply said to be said, not because she actually wanted an answer from Riki. If she did, she did a terrible job at getting them out of him, considering that she gripped him by the top of his head and dunked his head under the goo until it filled his lungs, burnt him from the inside.

And the worst part of it was, Riki didn't die from it.

He stayed alive all throughout, because his new definition of ‘alive’ had become ‘still dead’, and he stayed conscious all throughout, because he couldn't pass out from a lack of oxygen since he didn't need oxygen in hell. If the air in hell even was oxygen and not pure sulphur or other toxic gasses.

No, all that Riki could do, was struggle against the hand holding him down, let the slime burn him from the inside out after his lungs were just frozen, and hope that he'd never have to experience it again.

Hell fucking sucked ass.

—

Like that, the centuries blurred together. Riki, at one point, came to the realisation that it was easier to reap souls on instinct, to stare straight into the horrified eyes of whoever's soul he had to reap and watch their light slowly fade away, to let something inside of him loose that he lost countless of sleepless nights over, simply because it terrified him. This urge, this instinct – it was a part of him. A small part of Riki, no matter how much he tried to deny it, found it easy to end someone's life, to play God. Despite, he slowly earned his title as ‘the grim reaper with shaking hands’.

He tried to forget about it no matter what. He snuck to the human world after his shifts, talked to people, played with children, fed stray animals. Anything to remind him that he's not a demon, even if he was supposed to be. That he's not cruel, even if he was supposed to be. That he didn't fit in with the other demons, because he's not cruel. That he'll never be human again, because he's dead.

Time and time again, he met Sunghoon's soul. Each time, he let it slip through his fingers, missed the swing of his scythe. He was never sure why. He never debated it. But the moment he felt Sunghoon's soul, like an invisible string pulling him towards something that seemed to shine even outside of his body, Riki would pull back and refuse to reap his soul. Every single time, he'd be teleported back to the lake and pushed beneath the surface as punishment.

Because of Riki’s failure, his old curse disappeared one day.

He didn't reap Sunghoon's soul again, and when he tried to crawl out of the lake gasping for the thick air of hell to fill his insides again, he thought,

‘Just sink. Stop fighting it.’

And then, a hand clasped around his wrist and pulled him to the surface. Riki screamed in frustration, or fear, he's not sure, but he tried to get away from the demon in front of him as fast as he could while blindly stumbling away and falling flat on his ass.

Sunoo didn't look like the average demon. Maybe that's why Riki knew that he was more dangerous than the others, a demon that looked like what Riki thought to be an angel.

A soft image, fluffy hair, and a smile that seemed so kind, so worried about Riki that he almost cried.

“You work for me now,” Sunoo immediately smashed that image to bits, his grin turning into a sharp glare that made Riki wish he would have just drowned in the black lake, “Don't mess this up for the both of us. I'll be sent to the ninth level, and I'm taking you with me.”

Riki only had to drag his way to the shore once while working under Sunoo. It was a close call, and the liquid weighing him down felt heavier than his guilt.

“You're not supposed to feel that,” Sunoo once pointed out to him when he was wrapping up his shift, neatly stacking his paperwork for all of the cases they cleared today. Twenty-three deaths that Sunoo caused, and twenty-three souls that Riki collected for him. “Guilt. Empathy. Whatever you want to call it. Are you broken?”

Riki never found the words to answer.

—

Sunoo didn’t seem to be the ideal demon either, despite his indifference to death.

“A holy war does that to you,” he explained with a shrug after Riki brought him another soul, “Be grateful that Satan doesn't want to start another one just yet.”

Still, Sunoo showed an odd, misplaced sense of understanding for Riki, in his own twisted ways. It shone bright through the time Riki messed up his teleportation back to hell – mostly because he wondered how long he could stay in the human realm if he didn't willingly teleport back – and ended up getting ripped away from earth when a hole in the ground opened up and swallowed him whole. It spat him out into the black lake, and that was probably worse. Riki used to find himself in the lake by default, he's never had to fall into it from the ceiling of the cave. He couldn't save himself or his back from splashing against the black slime, and the stupid surface hardened at the impact before it shattered under his weight. It hurt. It disoriented Riki until he didn't know which way was up and which way was down.

It was Sunoo who used his telekinesis to make a cut into the slime, all the way to Riki, and part it into two. He stood at the shore, arms held behind his back with a casual, almost amused expression, and he whistled through his teeth as if he was impressed.

Riki didn't have the time to see the hint of concern on his face because he was still desperately gasping for the suffocating air to fill his lungs, still coughing out goo and hell’s water, still wondering how many ribs he broke and if he even could break any ribs in hell. Fuck. This was how he'd be forced back after thirty minutes? Riki would rather teleport himself onto the solid ground of Sunoo's dark office.

“Word of advice?” Sunoo offered, and continued even though Riki wanted to decline, “Don't do that.”

He knows that now!

“Let's do the rest tomorrow,” Sunoo said and walked up to where Riki was still stuck in the slime by his limbs to pull him out. Riki tripped over his own feet, too dizzy from the pain shooting up his back, and Sunoo let him throw an arm around his shoulder to balance himself. “Good work today.”

And because Sunoo wouldn't be Sunoo if anything nice wasn't followed by someone mean, he slapped Riki’s back.

—

Sometimes, when Sunoo and Riki were on their way home and had to walk through the first level of hell, past all the souls they collected and whose lives they had ended, Sunoo would get this weird look on his face. Every time Riki noticed it, he'd watch Sunoo’s eyes scan over the crowd as if he was looking for someone he'd recognise, even though the faces on their screens were always blurred. If Sunoo wanted to see who he had killed, which souls he had collected, he wouldn't do it like this.

With every face that didn't seem to be the one Sunoo was looking for, his steps got slower. Was it something akin to hope that slowly dimmed in his eyes?

“Who are you looking for?” Riki asked him one day, “I can show you the ones we have collected.”

“That's not the one I'm looking for,” Sunoo admitted quietly and tore his gaze away, giving up for that night with a shake of his head, “Forget it. Don't ask me that again.”

“Okay.”

—

Riki didn't have to ask again. One day, when he and Sunoo were in Sunoo's home and boiling a kettle of green tea – or at least hell's version of green tea, something just as mild and bitter, with an odd aftertaste – Sunoo opened up all by himself.

“I saw you sneaking around the archive,” he told him nonchalantly. There was no judgement in his voice, nothing that threatened another punishment. “What were you looking for?”

“Something about the holy war,” Riki shrugged, “Older demons keep talking about it but none of them continue speaking when I try to listen.”

“We make an odd pair of outsiders,” Sunoo hummed and poured Riki a cup of tea, “I'll tell you a bit, if you'd like. But my story won't be the same as the others’. Is that okay?”

“Yes.”

—

Sunoo's story went like this:

He blinks and finds himself inside the slime lake that Riki now knows like the pocket of his leather coat. Instead of struggling his way out, scratching at others for anything to hold onto, pushing them out of the way, believing and fearing that he would drown, Sunoo simply pulls himself up and stands on top of the black, bubbling goo.

(“Like Jesus?” Riki interrupted, because it sounded absurd.

“I just got started with my story and you're already interrupting?” Sunoo rolled his eyes, but there was no bite to his tone, “Not like Jesus. Like a demon who knows how to use their powers.”)

Surrounded by other struggling souls, some of them making it to the shore, others sinking through and falling to the next level of hell, Sunoo simply stands in the middle of the lake and watches carefully. He locks eyes with one of the demons on the shore, the tallest one, and simply waits for everyone else to make it to the shore and get pulled to their feet by other demons.

A beat of silence follows the last person getting pulled to the shore. The only soul left is Sunoo, still standing on the lake, unblinking, waiting. What is he supposed to do?

“Come here,” the demon urges him, so Sunoo follows. While the others are ushered into a lecture hall that Sunoo has to pass by, he follows the demon through all the eight levels of hell they can walk through, to a bigger cave, with only one soul inside. Satan.

They sit on top of a throne made out of bones, with a black hole in front of their feet. A pointed tail cuts through the air, visibly rips into it, and leathery black wings flutter in excitement as a grin spreads across their face when their gaze falls on Sunoo.

“This one's different,” the demon explains with a booming voice, forces Sunoo to his knees, then quickly retreats. The air in the eight level is thick and sluggish, and when Sunoo stands up again, he can feel it weighing down on his shoulders.

“A bold one, aren't you?” Satan hums amused and glides off their throne until they're nose to nose with Sunoo. “You already know what your job will be, right?”

Sunoo, despite having a blank mind, nods slowly.

He watches curiously as Satan grabs ahold of one of their own horns poking out of their head, slender and tall, and rips it out, root and flesh and everything. In Satan’s hand, the horn turns into a thin blade, black metal that fades into a bright red towards the tip.

“Take it,” Satan urges him and twirls the sword in their hands until they hold it by the blade, the black handle pointed at Sunoo's nose, “It's yours.”

“It's an honour,” Sunoo mutters, still staring into Satan’s eyes. He takes the sword; it doesn't seem to weigh anything. “What is it for?”

“To kill archangels, of course!” Satan laughs carelessly, as if the task itself was as easy as breathing – although even that is difficult enough in hell, “We're at war, after all.”

Just like that, Sunoo goes to war in the human realm.

He doesn't see much of it, is only ordered around and told to wait until one of the archangels show up. Two pair of wings used both as a shield for protection and blades that behead all demons, a halo that shines brighter than the sun and hides their faces in lights, white robes that are stained black at the bottom. It's when the first row of demons fall that Sunoo knows he found his target.

The first one, he kills with ease. The second, he kills with a scratch on his cheek that doesn't seem to heal as quick as the wounds caused by lower class angels. The third escapes, or rather, wins by a landslide, and Sunoo doesn't have the strength to make it back to the quarters, has to drag himself by one arm into the next abandoned cabin to bleed out on the floor.

(“But you didn't die,” Riki interrupted him again.

“I didn't,” Sunoo agrees, “The cabin wasn't abandoned.”)

There, Sunoo meets Jay. His Jay.

He's half delirious from pain and blood loss, barely breathing, barely alive. The sword in his hand shrinks and wraps around his index finger, a ring that he doesn't feel worthy enough anymore. The fucking angel got away with both of his wings unscathed. How many demons can say they've been tasked with the impossible, to kill something that's the closest to killing God without killing God. If Sunoo managed to kill all of them, heaven would fall. But he's failed after two kills, and now, he has to pay with his own immortality.

That's why, when he hears the distinct sound of the door creaking open, he doesn't move. He'd rather be finished off than return to hell as a failure. Surely, getting killed in the human realm is the smaller evil, the more tolerable punishment that could await him.

Fate isn't that cruel. Jay isn't that cruel.

He crouches down next to Sunoo and carefully cards his blood-drenched hair out of his face. Their eyes meet. Sunoo would greet him, if he had enough energy to do so.

“What happened to you?” Jay whispers and receives no reply. He doesn't seem to expect one, just shakes his head quietly and disappears into one of the rooms.

Sunoo passes out, but when he wakes up, he's methodically bandaged from head to toe to stop all of his bleeding, and a thin blanket is covering him up to the shoulders. He sits up, pain shoots up his side and through his entire body, his head feels like it's going to explode any second, but he pays no attention to it.

At the foot of the bed, curled up and declined on the rocking chair, is another person silently watching him.

“You're up?” he asks him, and it's not malicious. His kindness is misplaced during the times of war, but Sunoo's throat is too dry to croak an answer or a rude comment. “I'm Jay.”

Jay nurses him back to health in only one month. Actually, he does so much more than that.

Sunoo re-learns how to live, how to care, how to love. He learns how to tend to smaller and bigger wounds, learns how to make the perfect fried egg, learns how to take care of a bunch of chickens that are constantly trying to pick out his eyes.

Most importantly, he learns about Jay. His favourite way to drink black tea, the fact that he doesn't like carrots in his food, that he cares deeply about Sunoo. It's too good to be true, too different from the bloodshed of war that Sunoo was thrown into, and for a whole decade, he gets to escape. He throws all of his responsibilities away, hopes, and prays, and pleads to God, that hell won't find them, that they will be kept safe. For ten years, an entire decade, God seems to listen to a demon's prayers and grant his wish. 

Sunoo's little paradise only lasts a decade.

That's how long it took for heaven to lose the last battle but to win the war altogether, that’s how long Jay stayed with him.

He wakes up one day, and the sky isn't grey anymore. But his bed is cold, and the cabin is empty. All of his chickens, Henrietta, Pick, Orange and Diane, are dead. Beheaded and hung up to bleed out from their open necks.

Sunoo is wrestled to the ground by some low-level demons, his head hits the wooden floor harshly, but Sunoo doesn't care. In his frenzy, he kills all of them with the sword that was supposed to kill archangels, and he wanders around the cabin barefoot, searching. He checks every room of the cabin again, the small barn they kept their chickens in, the tiny patch of farmland Sunoo was trying to plant radishes in. Everything is still intact, but nobody is alive.

Jay is nowhere to be found.

—

“That was a horrible story,” Riki deadpanned and was dignified with a snort.

“That's my story, you brat,” Sunoo chastised him and poured him another cup of tea.

“Is that who you're always looking for?” he asked and watched Sunoo go rigid, “This Jay guy?”

“Ask me anything else,” he huffed and leaned back in his armchair, “Anything but that.”

It was answer enough.

“He seemed nice,” Riki said instead, “Who would have thought a human would live in isolation in the middle of a war?”

Sunoo didn't bother replying. He just nodded solemnly and sipped on his tea to keep his mouth occupied. To Riki, that was his cue to change the topic. Clearly, they've been talking about this person for too long already.

“How did you make it back to hell?” he asked instead.

“With my tail tucked between my legs and the sword at my neck,” Sunoo scoffed and slammed his cup down, “Satan gave me the choice between the ninth level and forever being a curse to pay off my debt that I am allowed to live. It was an obvious choice.”

It wasn't too obvious of a choice for Riki. Then again, he was the broken demon, not Sunoo.

“So do me a favour,” Sunoo continued grimly and slapped Riki’s forehead, “Don't mess up again. We've already got one foot in the ninth level.”

So Riki didn't mess up again.

—

That was, until he met Yang Jungwon.

Riki isn't sure where exactly he messed up, maybe he's still messing up. It could've started at first sight, Riki’s gaze lingering on the boy's back as he hurried away to the restroom with Jay. Their first meeting was cut short because of that, but Jungwon’s impression remained.

A cute boy, who smiled at Riki so warmly, who didn't fear him for being a demon (not that he knew back then… or did he?). Everything about Jungwon radiated warmth and comfort and something amazing, seemed to come off of him like a light surrounding him.

‘Is this what Sunoo was going through?’

Although, he felt a bit bad. Comparing his situation to Sunoo who loved during a war, with a far bigger mission to accomplish, felt wrong, so Riki didn't do it again. Instead, he chased after Jungwon’s light like a moth drawn to a flame and burnt himself in the process. It didn't even take longer than one day for Riki to notice.

Jungwon’s shadow has wings.

In the blink of an eye, the appendage extending out of Jungwon’s back was gone again, fast enough for Riki to think that it could have been an illusion. But when he watched Jungwon interfere with Sunoo's plan to crush Sunghoon with the new oven, there was no space for doubt, only space for Jungwon to stick his head behind the oven.

Riki is no idiot, but he also doesn't like jumping to conclusions. With every passing day, every avoided attempt on Sunghoon's life that Sunoo sent his way, Riki’s suspicions grew. At one point, he just knew. Jungwon and Jay are guardian angels.

And he knows what Satan told Sunoo, knows that they should report back to hell because, shit, there are two angels messing with the human realm from the inside, but he can't. He just can't do it.

Reporting back would increase the possibility of another war breaking out, and he's not sure if Sunoo would be able to handle it. He's not sure if he would be able to handle it. Riki has killed enough people, collected enough souls. He doesn't want to fight in a war that other demons would be dying for.

So he kept his mouth shut about their true identities. That was his second mistake.

Riki is constantly torn between just telling Sunoo, saving him from all the frustration of not being able to kill Sunghoon, and keeping three people save. Who knows how Sunoo would react to the news, what he'd do?

When everyone is asleep, Riki regularly sneaks out of his room with Manifesto curled up to his chest and goes out for a walk around town. Quietly, he talks to her because there is nobody else to listen to his concerns.

“What do I do, hm?” he asked her one time, not expecting an answer. He just needed to vent, needed an outlet for everything that he's been bottling up in the last few centuries. “Nobody will win. I can't reap Sunghoon's soul, and I don't hate Jungwon enough to make him fail. But if I don't, I'll fade into nothing.”

Manifesto comforted him by nibbling on his fingers.

One time, Jake and Heeseung caught him in the middle of sneaking back in, and kind as they are (humans and their stupid kindness), they offered him a serving of ramyeon with spam. Riki went to bed with a weight lifted off his chest and a full stomach.

—

Another mistake he made on the first day at Decelis Academy was stare at Sunghoon for far too long while they were waiting for the other two to come back. It was undoubtedly the same soul that Riki refused to reap all those times before, and he's not sure if he can afford to spare his life again.

The only question was, how would Sunoo kill Sunghoon?

And then, Riki had to save Park Sunghoon from being crushed under the fucking Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower!

He knows that Sunoo is crazy, a little unhinged, and breaks the power scale of demons with his abilities but ripping out a national monument made out of wrought-iron that's been standing for almost 150 years is too much.  Even for Riki’s standards – and he let Sunoo catapult a car into the third floor of a building.

Riki is still trembling when the Eiffel Tower officially fell, caught somewhere between the lattice of the enormous iron bars. In the last moment, he managed to twist himself and Sunghoon so Riki could feather his fall, could hold his head to his chest protectively and pray to God that he wouldn't have to reap Sunghoon's soul. That his soul was intact and strong.

“Riki?” Sunghoon's voice is shaking almost as hard as himself. It's muffled against Riki’s hoodie and comes out weakly, so different from the careless (read: reckless) way that Sunghoon usually acts after he survives something crazy. “Riki, are you okay?”

“I'm okay,” he breathes shakily and can't help but laugh. Neither of them should be okay at the moment. At least, not mentally. “Are you?”

“Yeah, I'm fine.”

The climb over the ruins of what once was France’s most famous landmark and find Jay just a few meters away, cradling an unconscious Sunoo to his chest. Wonyoung and Jake are the next to arrive at the scene, and Jake catches Riki when he almost falls off the stupid metal lattice.

Relieved, Riki spots Jungwon far away from the scene of destruction, rooted to the ground with seven crêpes in his arms and Manifesto on his shoulder. He's safe. Technically, that's all Riki needs to know. But for some reason, he needs to hear him say it, needs the words to come out of Jungwon’s mouth, so Riki straightens his shaking knees and bolts.

“Jungwon!” he yells, more panicked than when he had to tackle Sunghoon, “Are you okay?”

“You're asking me?!” he shrieks in a high-pitched voice and drops all of the crêpes, “You – You were in the fucking Eiffel Tower! You could've died!”

“I didn't!”

Riki laughs. He fucking laughs, louder than he's ever had. The peaceful times of his immortality are going to absolute shits, and he has lost his mind enough to laugh and throw himself into Jungwon’s arms.

“It's okay,” he tells him breathlessly, still laughing, “I'm okay.”

For now.

—

Riki spends the rest of the night helping people. It's so absurd, a grim reaper tending to the tiny wounds of random french people, finding children and bringing them back to their parents, giving first aide to people who passed out. He's helping.

By the time they're back in the AirBnB, he's so tired that he falls into the sheets of the pulled-out couch and doesn't bother with washing up.

From the corner of his eyes, he watches Jay carry Sunoo into one of the bedrooms. Sunghoon and Jake carry the mattress of the toddler bed and Sunoo's sleeping bag into Wonyoung’s room because she’s nice enough to share. Sunghoon, before disappearing into the hallway, sends him a playful wink. He's already back to his happy idiocy.

Group Chat: HeeJake+ThirdwheelZ

THE Lee Heeseung

GUYS

WHY TF DID THE NEWS JUST REPORT ABOUT THE EIFFEL TOWER COLLAPSING

Jakey

because it did

THE Lee Heeseung

WHAT

Hoon

we're all okay dw

well, most of us

THE Lee Heeseung

WHAT

Riki

only sunoo passed out from shock

jay's taking care of him tho so we're all good

just tired

Jakey

YOU don’t get to talk young man!!

that was totally reckless of you!

THE Lee Heeseung

what happened

guys wtf is going on in paris

Hoon

I almost died but riki saved me

THE Lee Heeseung

WTF

don’t say that so nonchalantly

sunghoon, that's insane??!?!

Wonie

heeseung, go to bed

everyone else too!

Hoon

yessir o7

Jakey

okay

THE Lee Heeseung

I just woke up wtf

Riki

then go back to sleep lol

THE Lee Heeseung

THIS IS NOT A LOL MOMENT

DON’T L-O-L ME

JAKE COULDVE BEEN HURT????

Hoon

u only care about jake :(

THE Lee Heeseung

excuse me

is YOUR boyfriend in another country where an iron tower that's been standing for over 100 years just randomly collapsed??

io???

then STFU

Jakey

heeseung, i'm fine

I was the furthest way from the eiffel tower

THE Lee Heeseung

jake :((

I love you

please come back in one piece

Jakey

I will!

I love you too

Riki

damn :/

Hoon

double damn ://

Wonie

GOOD. NIGHT.

—

“Okay,” Jungwon exhales sharply after Riki begs him for help, “I'll help you. I promise.”

“Thank you,” Riki manages to smile. This is possibly one of the worst moments he's been trying to run away from, the confirmation that Jungwon is an angel. Sunghoon's angel, on top of that. Now what? They're not exactly supposed to be friendly with each other, but Riki can't help it. Jungwon has only ever been nice to him, he doesn't want him to stop. Maybe it's pathetic that Riki feels the need to ask, but he wants one person to be kind to him, too.

“No need to thank me.” Jungwon holds his hand tighter, shuffles closer under the blanket they share. His fingers are cold, almost as cold as the ice lake that Riki first saved Sunghoon's souls from once, and his fingers prickle with the memory creeping up on him. “Saving people is my job.”

“And babysitting Jay.”

“You're too damn perceptive.”

“Do you know?”

“Know what? Whatever's going on between him and Sunoo?”

Riki blinks. Jay and Sunoo? Jay and Sunoo. But if Jungwon knows that there was something between them, that means –

“Was Jay an angel during the holy war?” he asks Jungwon, and he's not sure which answer would be better for him. For Sunoo.

“He was,” Jungwon purses his lips, “He won't tell me anything.”

Riki hesitates. This could be it. The moment he's been waiting for, the person he can confide in. The turning point of his mission. If he tells Jungwon what Sunoo has told him, then they could make Sunoo and Jay talk. Maybe, they still love each other enough to talk and work something out. Either that, or Sunoo will be so pissed that his last string of sanity snaps and he pushes Riki to the ninth level of hell himself. The only way to avoid that is by making Jay act like he doesn't remember Sunoo. Either way, if Riki warns them that Sunoo knows, something can be avoided. Either Sunghoon's death, or Riki’s. Or both.

If he doesn't tell Jungwon, then nobody can do anything, and Sunoo will find out sooner or later that Jay can remember him. Right now, he's still in doubt whether he can blame this Jay or not. But once he knows that this Jay is also Sunoo's Jay…

Jungwon is already drifting to sleep when Riki finally makes up his mind and says,

“I think I know something.”

Manifesto stirs in her sleep, her fluffy tail brushing against Riki’s and Jungwon’s interlaced hands. Mere centimetres away from Riki’s face, Jungwon blinks the sleep out of his eyes and looks at him with wide eyes. After taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, to focus his mind on something other than Jungwon’s hand in his and the way his eyes reflect Riki’s figure against the light that shines through the gap in the curtains, he whispers,

“Here's what Sunoo told me…”

Chapter Text

Jay knows better than to assume that Sunghoon is fine. Courtesy of being his guardian angel.

When it's time for lunch the next day, Sunoo is still asleep. He's probably exhausted from overexerting his powers to tip over the Eiffel Tower, all ten thousand plus tonnes of it. Just to kill Park Sunghoon.

Sunghoon, who’s cracking jokes to lighten the mood and cutting his fingers on paper and messing up Jay's cooking, is currently shaking salt into his beef stew. Literally shaking. His fingers grip the salt container with so much force that Jay is afraid he'll break it and end up with the splinters in his palm, trembling so horribly that the salt spills out in a dry, white river of grains.

“I think that's enough salt,” Jay tells him quietly and pries the little box of salt out of his warm hands, “Thanks, Sunghoon.”

“No problem!” Sunghoon tries so hard to sound cheerful, but he's still shaking, still avoiding eye contact. It's as if he's afraid that the walls will collapse any moment, too, and bury him under the rubble of the ceiling. “You think we can trust Jake again to buy some bread?”

“Eh, doubt it.” Jay prefers to go along with Sunghoon's antics. He knows Sunghoon by his soul that has always been the same, knows that he needs a little more time to process some traumatic events before he breaks down – and what could be more traumatising than the Eiffel Tower falling on your head? “We can go. The stew just needs to boil a bit with the leftover heat.”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

They part in the hallway. Sunghoon goes into the bedroom he now shares with Wonyoung and Jake, and Jay walks into the living room where Jungwon and Riki are still asleep on the couch. Jungwon is lying on his stomach, face hidden in the pillow, with Riki diagonally draped over his back. Manifesto is already awake, and when she sees another moving person who can give her attention, she hops off Jungwon’s butt and runs over to Jay with an excited meow.

“Can’t pet you, sorry,” Jay murmurs and moves her away with his foot. Well, he tries to. Manifesto doesn’t take the hint and climbs up his pants leg until she can crawl into the pocket of his hoodie. “Hey, you’ll kill me.”

Manifesto just purrs happily, so Jay gives up with a sigh and creeps into his own bedroom. Sunoo is still asleep, almost too quietly. The sight in front of him reminds Jay too much of the holy war, Sunoo in a king-sized bed, his hair sticking up wildly. He’s lying on his back, arm stretched out like he’s still waiting for Jay to return to bed and sleep on it. Like this, Sunoo looks peaceful again, resting in ethereal beauty. Jay stares, for far too long, before he puts on a light jacket and walks up to the bed.

“You haven’t changed at all, my love,” he whispers and cards a hand through soft, tangled locks. “Let’s talk when you’re up again.”

Jay has so many things to say to Sunoo, things he never wanted to tell him. Stuff like ‘I’m sorry I left without a goodbye’ sounds kind of bad when you’re meeting again while trying to work against each other. But he and Sunoo – they used to be a team. Not them against the world, but more of a ‘them and their world’ kind of thing. Jay, as delusional as he sounds to himself, wants that back. He missed Sunoo, more than anything. He’s still missing him, more than he misses his wings.

He misses their chickens, and their potato farm, and their dumb little cabin that didn't even have a proper shower, only a bucket and a wooden stool in a wet room, misses seeing Sunoo struggle to pluck the carrots from the earth, misses seeing Sunoo tend to wriggling and fighting chicken and cussing at them, misses the pointless little arguments they had over who walked into their clean cabin with dirty shoes (Sunoo always, always stubbornly insisted that it had been Jay, even if it was his shoes that were covered in mud), misses going to bed knowing that whatever he had left behind was worth it as long as he could wake up to Sunoo and stare at his sleeping figure until the sun had already risen. He misses them, as they were and how they will never be again.

Because, of course, Jay has a duty – had one back then, too – that he can't run away from with Sunoo in his arms. But Jay was punished for a lot more than running away from the holy war that had already lasted for thousands of years, and his actions had the loss of his wings as consequence.

Fuck heaven, honestly. Jay already had it, even if it was on earth.

Silently, as to not wake up Sunoo, Jay leaves the bedroom again and comes face to face with a grinning Sunghoon who’s ready to leave. He's wrapped in a jacket that Jay knows is from Jake, hands fisted into the end of his sleeves cutely. All of Jake's clothes are oversized, so Sunghoon, lanky and awkwardly tall as he is, drowns in the fabric. It's cute.

“Let’s get this bread!” he sing-songs in a whisper and skips towards the door. Jay follows with a chuckle, Manifesto still hiding in his pocket. He stands close enough to Sunghoon to stop the door falling out of its hinges before it hits Sunghoon, his arm stretched out past Sunghoon's ear and pressing a flat palm against the wooden door. After eighteen-thousand years of being a guardian angel, Jay gets to pride himself with good reflexes.

He hasn't really felt satisfied and fulfilled since they made it to earth, though. Back when Jay wasn't in his human form, he saved Sunghoon and patted himself on the back. Now, Jay is a human, a friend to Sunghoon, and he's too worried about said boy's frozen form in the doorframe to give himself a thumbs up.

“Hey,” he mutters under his breath and nudges Sunghoon out the door and into the hallway, “Are you okay?”

“Never been better.”

Which is a total lie. Sunghoon's grin has never looked more forced, and his hands have never shaken harder.

“Don't worry,” Jay tries to sound more chipper than usual for Sunghoon's sake, and because he knows, as long as he's next to him, neither of them will die, “I won't let the french doors kill you.”

“How romantic.”

—

Group Chat: HeeJake+ThirdwheelZ

Heeseung

updates people

I need updates on you!

Jake

sunny, jungwon and riki are asleep

JayHoon are out buying bread

wonyoung and I are working

how are you?

Heeseung

better now that I know ur alive

what if ur fucking building collapses too and u die?

how will I know??

sunghoon how do u live with this paranoia

Sunghoon

no thoughts, head empty -> no paranoia

:D

it's better not to think about it too much

Heeseung

HOW DO I NOT THINK ABOUT IT WHEN I HAVE ALL MY ROOMMATES AND THE LOVE OF MY LIFE ON A DIFFERENT CONTINENT WITH A SEVEN HOUR TIME DIFFERENCE

Sunghoon

oh I see

NOW ur worried after my bad luck stained jake

Jay

don't word it like that please

Jake

we're fine dw! Still a bit shaken but mostly hungry now

@Jay when's the beef stew done?

it smells so good holy fuck

Jay

:/

it'll be done when sunghoon and I get back from the bakery

set the table please

and do it quietly

Riki

jungwonie and I are already awake tho!

only sunoo's asleep now

Jungwon

yup

question tho

where's my baby.

Riki

i'm here

Jay

no.

Riki

‘°~°

Jungwon

my other baby.

Jay

u only have manifesto -.-

she's with me

Jungwon

Give. Her. Back.

Sunghoon

she's clawed into jays hoodie

[1 image attached]

I tried to take her and she just starts crying

Jungwon

jay u catnapper

i'll sue u

Heeseung

why is this the craziest cat to ever exist

Jake

look at her dads

u’d start screaming too

Riki

of delight!

Jake

of desperation.

Riki

why are u always bullying me

i'm the youngest! be nice to me!

Jake

get ur ass to ur paperwork and i'll be nice

Riki

says the guy who's less at the sc office than me

Jake

that's exactly why

help me with my paperwork please

Heeseung

LOL

Riki

what, no >:(

Jungwon

lmaoooo

i'll help too

Riki

jake, come to the dining table instead

Jake

and NOW u wanna help?

Riki

yep

but i'm not entering wonyoungs room

Jay

out of respect?

Riki

out of fear.

pretty people intimidate me

Jungwon

ur scared of mirrors?

Jay

hello? this is a group chat fyi

Heeseung

the gc name says it all

we're thirdwheels

Jay

for YOU and JAKE

I can live with THAT but not this

Riki

want me to kill you?

Jay

what :D

Jake

LMAOOOO

Heeseung

lol

Jungwon

riki

o my god

please don't

Sunghoon

just take a break for now

and set the table please

jay and I are almost back

we bought four baguettes

Jake

how

Jay

by saying “nous prendons quatre des baguettes”

Jake

YOU SPEAK FRENCH???

Jay

a little

Jake

that's dumb

Sunghoon

that's hot

Jungwon

LMAOOOOOO

hurry and give me my cat back.

—

Jay almost tears up when he fills Jake’s bowl with beef stew.

This used to be him and Sunoo. He’d make the food, plate it for Sunoo, Sunoo’s eyes would glisten with excitement even though their food was always vegetarian because they had no meat (that’s what they were raising the chickens for – to eventually eat them once they died), and he’d give noises of approvement and kick his feet happily because Jay’s cooking is good. But now, Sunoo is still asleep, and he’s not at the table to eat Jay’s food. It’s only him, Jake, Jungwon, Sunghoon, Wonyoung, Riki and Manifesto seated around the lunch that Jay made, with a basket of baguette slices in the middle.

Jungwon, from across the table, sends him a sharp look, which would have looked intimidating if he wasn’t so cute, or if he didn’t have Riki clinging to his side, arms wrapped around his shoulders and Manifesto clinging to the fabric of his hoodie between their faces. Jay sits down and clasps his hands together in his lap. He’s in for another scolding.

‘Stop making that face.’

‘Stop distracting me. I’ll spill soup over Riki.’

‘What?! The soup is still hot! Besides, why Riki?’

‘Your dumb crush is gonna go bad soon enough.’

‘Oh, like yours?’

‘This is nothing like my feelings for Sunoo.’

‘Ah yes, ten years of living together to run away from a war is the same thing as helping a demon try and escape hell – ‘

‘How do you know that.’

‘Sunoo told Riki, and Riki told me.’

‘…’

‘Jay?’

‘…’

‘I’m sorry. I took it too far.’

‘What do you mean, you’re trying to help Riki?’

‘He doesn’t want to reap any more souls. I’ll save him.’

‘And what’s the plan for that? You can’t save demons. We can’t save demons.’

‘Sunoo can’t kill Sunghoon without Riki reaping his soul. When Sunghoon dies in a few decades and we return to heaven, I’ll put in a good word.’

‘You think, the holy council will listen to you? Think about what they did to me.’

‘Well, were you trying to save Sunoo? Or were you just running away.’

Jay had enough. He’s not going to sit there and let Jungwon tell him what he should or shouldn’t have done. Not when the other angel hasn’t heard his side of the story yet. Not when it’s about him and Sunoo. Not when it’s about the life he was supposed to spend with Sunoo, the eternity, once they both realised that they were both immortal.

He stands up with enough force to push his side of the bench back, his glare fixing Jungwon in his place.

“Out, now.”

Jungwon follows immediately.

They leave everyone behind as Jay storms out the apartment, Jungwon hot on his heels – and Riki. Why Riki, of all people? As if Jay doesn’t have enough demons to deal with! He’s already pissed enough that Jungwon got to hear about the war from the grim reaper, Jay was planning on never telling anybody. He’s branded for the rest of his immortality, which isn’t long but it’s long enough for Jay to have to deal with all of the gossip, all of the nasty remarks in heaven. And for what? For not wanting to fight in a war that he didn’t start? For abandoning all of his duties and hiding away in a cabin in the human realm and try to live a normal life? With a demon? Who cares about stuff like that! Jay only cares because it was his life, his story to tell. Riki doesn’t get to tell Jungwon about it. Even if it was Sunoo’s side of it.

“Where are we going?” Jungwon yells after Jay as they speed-walk through the Parisian streets.

“Somewhere private,” he replies curtly, “I’ll send you back to heaven, and Riki back to hell, I swear to Go – “

“Don’t finish that,” Jungwon cuts him off and continues to run after him. Riki follows with less hurried but bigger steps. Damn him and his stupid, long demon legs.

—

“Is this far enough?” Jungwon heaves and reaches for Jay’s shoulder to stop him from walking even further. They’re somewhere in the outskirts of the big city, and the noise of Paris has long quieted into the occasional car passing by. “My wings hurt, Jay!”

“Welcome to my personal hell,” Jay scoffs, “Literally.”

He turns on his heel and stops, Jungwon crashes into him, and Riki crashes into Jungwon. Manifesto wails in complaint when she’s squished between Jungwon’s hood and Riki’s chest.

“Better?” Jay scoffs as he looks at the two heaving boys completely out of breath and hair sticking at their sweaty foreheads. None of them are even wearing shoes. Fuck, they just ran all the way here in socks.

Group Chat: Counseil des étudiants

Jake

where did you go??

dudes, the stew is getting cold :(

Wonyoung

you didn’t even put on shoes

Jay

don’t wait for us

Sunghoon

we’ll save you some stew

you made it, you should have some :/

Jay

thanks, sunghoon

Jay sits down in the middle of the sidewalk, just randomly somewhere on some house's stairs. Jungwon and Riki do the same, except they plop down a lot more exhausted than Jay because they weren’t driven by anger. This always helped Jay. Taking a walk with no direction in mind and listening to Sunoo complain that they’ve been walking for far too long and that his feet hurt. Fuck, Sunoo. Jay’s life would have turned out so much better if he had just stayed with Sunoo.

“What did he tell you?” he asks Riki, voice coming out sharper than he means to. He rubs his neck sheepishly and looks anywhere else but at Jay. “Riki.”

“Just the basics,” he mutters and runs a hand through his black hair with a sigh, “He was wounded, you tended to him, you grew close and, uh, kissed and held hands and, umm, hugged. And after ten years, you just disappeared. He got ambushed by other demons, looked around, and you were nowhere to be found. He just doesn’t know if it was because you were killed by those demons, or if you had fulfilled a weird job at stopping him from killing all the archangels. By playing with his feelings. He feels lied to, Jay.”

“Wait, you didn’t mention that to me,” Jungwon cuts in and turns to Riki, “Sunoo was supposed to kill – “

His eyes fall on Jay, worry written all over his face,

“ – archangels?”

Shit. That complicates Jay’s situation by a lot more.

—

Jay came to be in front of the pearly white gates of heaven. Only him, nobody else. He was standing on clouds, which should have been weirder than he thought it was, but his memory was wiped of any earthly customs and normalcy. There wasn’t anybody to greet him, nobody to tell him where he was, or who he was, or what he was supposed to do now. And with an open gate in front of him, and a staircase that led to seemingly nowhere, what else was he going to do but walk up those stairs and hope he wouldn’t have to walk forever.

He was wrong.

Well, mostly. It felt like forever when he climbed up those stairs that were becoming steeper and steeper with each level of clouds he was passing. He didn’t even know there were multiple levels of clouds. Was that something he was supposed to know? Either way, Jay kept walking. And walking. And walking. And walking. He spent an eternity walking.

He didn’t look back, he didn’t notice the wings slowly sprouting from his back. First, they were small. and then, with every step he took, they grew from fluff to long, white feathers. And suddenly, he found himself at the top of the stairs with four wings on his back, surrounded by more glowing beings. Ethereal beings, dressed in all white, and a little sun above their heads. Archangels. He just knew. And he was one of them.

‘One of them?’

They didn’t look very friendly. Or angelic. If anything, they were intimidating, with everlasting frowns and straight backs and stone eyes. It certainly didn’t help that they were sitting high up on six out of the seven thrones made out of white marble, hands folded in their laps. They were looking down on him already because Jay, despite being one of them, was on the bottom of the food chain here.

Turns out, Jay took longer than most archangels to climb those stairs. Around a thousand years and some. Was that a lot? Jay didn’t know. He didn’t get to ask either, because a sword manifested in his hands, a golden blade with a pointed tip. It was light in his hands, weighed basically nothing. Jay’s wings fluttered, and he became aware of them for the first time. They were nervous, and bright, and warm. Jay had two suns of his back, packed into a million of tiny feathers. His feathers. His wings. All four of them.

“There is a demon on earth,” one of the archangels told him, “He’s already killed one of us. You’re here to take revenge. Kill him.”

That was all the information he got before Jay blinked and found himself on earth.

It was way colder on earth, even if Jay was dressed warmly in all black clothing. The suns on his back didn’t warm him at all, and he didn’t know where he was again. Great. This was great. What did the killing demon even look like? How was Jay supposed to kill him?

It didn’t matter in the end. Because Jay spent days, weeks, months, years, decades wandering the earth, seeing demons and angels kill and get killed alike, and he decided that he wasn’t made for bloodshed after all. He was an angel, for God’s sake! Wasn’t it supposed to be his job to keep peace? Why would he fight? This is probably where he went wrong. Not that he regrets anything of it, sneaking away from the war, hiding away in a small cabin and chasing after wild chickens that he had to fly after (why did God make these things so flighty?) and planting potatoes. The one thing he does regret, sometimes, but could also never regret for as long as he gets to live, is saving Sunoo.

Sunoo. His Sunoo.

Jay found him close to passing out in his cabin after he came home from a wild goose chase for more chickens (he was unsuccessful, he’d have to live with four of them) and stupid, or helpful, as he was, he helped him. Jay didn’t know that Sunoo was a demon, much less did he know that Sunoo was the very same archangel-killing demon he was supposed to kill. Back then, Jay had just wrongly assumed that Sunoo was a human who got caught in the crossfire of the holy war. What he got right however, was, that Sunoo was close to dying. So, he took care of him. He had to. Jay did it without much thinking, without any worries that the little food he had grown and conserved over the years might not be enough for two people. But it didn’t matter.

Nothing really mattered when he was with Sunoo.

Happy, and bright, and lovable cutie Sunoo, because Jay was in love with him. Still is. This is what an angel’s heart was supposed to look like. Filled with love and care and empathy. Their routine was always the same ever since they had first fallen into it. It was always the same. Jay woke up before Sunoo in their bed, arms encircling his slim waist and stroking the skin of his hips under his shirt. He’d stare at Sunoo until he woke up, and he always woke up to Jay staring at him.

“Good morning,” Jay whispered into the silence of the morning, undisturbed by the waging war. Sunoo smiled, brighter than the sun shining through the window because the sky was always cloudy, and pressed a sweet kiss to Jay’s lips. And another. And another. And another, until they were giggling quietly to themselves. This was heaven on earth. Jay’s heaven. Jay’s home. “How did you sleep?”

“I slept well,” he hummed and pressed another kiss to the side of his neck, “Breakfast now. Please.”

Breakfast was simple. More potatoes, more vegetables. Sometimes the corn that Jay managed to keep fresh. Sunoo loved to take walks in the forest and forage for mushrooms and other edible herbs, so they sometimes had mushrooms. They sat around the small round table, shoulders touching, and legs thrown over each other's, with a pot of green tea to start the day. They’d talk about everything and nothing at all, because there were no memories to fondly retell of. Jay only had the story to tell of him walking upstairs for years and years on end, and Sunoo. Well, Jay just assumed that he grew up in the war – which was a correct assumption – and didn’t want to talk about it now that he finally found some peace – which was also a correct assumption.

On a good day, when it didn’t rain and storm like the earth was going to break into two and end, they tended to their farm and chickens. Okay, Jay tended to the chickens, and Sunoo was fighting with them because they always tried to eat him.

“You are the corny one!” he complained whining and hid behind Jay, “Why are they trying to eat me?”

“Did you know that chickens eat sugar?” Jay told him laughing and turned around to cradle Sunoo’s cheeks in his palms. Sunoo was always so warm. “You’re just the sweeter one.”

“See? This is what I mean.”

On rainy days, they stayed in and lounged in front of the fireplace that Sunoo always managed to light no matter how dry the wood was. That probably should have raised concerns for Jay, but he never wasted another thought on it because he was freezing. He was always cold, and the only things that helped were the fireplace and Sunoo against him. It didn’t make much sense because he had four suns on his back. Four suns on his back, and one in front of him. Heaven was clouded but Sunoo never was. That's why he paid no attention to it.

“Do you think the chickens are cold?” Sunoo asked him, even though he had just cussed them out the day before. He moved closer to Jay until their sides were pressed against each other and placed a fleeting kiss to his cheek, so Jay turned his head and kissed his plush lips.

“I think they’re fine,” he replied in a murmur against his lips and smiled, “The barn’s pretty isolated.”

“But they’re probably scared,” Sunoo pouted, lips brushing against Jay’s softly. They were so close, Jay could see his reflection in Sunoo’s amber eyes. “It’s storming so badly.”

In the end, Jay had to chase chickens around their pen in the barn and pick them up to carry them inside. Sunoo was happy, the chickens were happy, Jay was happy. And if they had egg drop soup for dinner late in the evening? The chickens didn’t need to know. Sunoo was eating heartedly, and he praised Jay’s cooking every time. After they put out the fire, they went to bed. Every night, Jay would pull Sunoo into his chest, hold him close. Every night, they’d kiss until either of them fell asleep and woke up to repeat their routine.

“I promise that I'll love you for the rest of my life,” Sunoo said one night, and Jay’s heart was overflowing with love. He loves Sunoo so much. He didn’t want to do anything but love Sunoo. He still doesn’t.

“And I promise,” he repeats to him, grinning from ear to ear, “that I’ll love you for the rest of my life.”

Which is pretty long. Jay was immortal, after all. But even after Sunoo would eventually die (as all humans do), Jay would keep him in his heart, forever. For eternity.

And even if he had died right then and there, it would have been fine.

—

“You sound like you were happy,” Riki frowns, “Then why did you leave?”

“I didn’t want to,” Jay admits with a sigh and shakes his head, “The archangels just found me and summoned me back to heaven. I went to bed with Sunoo, fell asleep, and woke up in front of five archangels ready to punish me for what I’ve done.”

Jay leaves out the part where he cussed them out with all the insults that he could come up with in every language that he spoke as a polyglot, where he threw a temper tantrum like a little kid who didn't get his wish, where he tried to fly away, down the stairs back to earth – to Sunoo. He leaves out the part where they caught him with a fucking net, like he's one of his chickens, and dragged him back, sobbing and screaming and kicking. The sword he was supposed to kill Sunoo with for killing two archangels was wrapped around his halo like a crown of thorns, and he wielded it against them, and he killed three of them. Cut off their wings, stabbed them in the heart. He oh so selfishly thought that they deserved all of it and more.

It's probably what worsened his sentence, what shortened his life span. Blasphemy of the second highest degree, betrayal of the worst kind. Jay's sins were piling up, and he'd have to repent for them.

“Well, shit,” Riki huffs a dry laugh and runs a hand through his hair again, “Not only did you not kill Sunoo, but you also saved him.”

“I didn’t know,” he groans and hides his face in his hands, “I didn’t know back then. I didn’t know until they told me what I got punished for!”

“For saving a demon,” Jungwon’s voice is monotone. If he says it like this, it sounds like a disaster for his situation with Riki. He must be crushed. But this is nothing like his goal to save Riki, because Jay didn’t just save Sunoo. Or love him. Or spent ten years of the war he was supposed to win playing boyfriends in the woods with the demon he was supposed to kill. Jay did something far worse according to angels. And it wasn't just killing them.

“No,” he laughs humourlessly. This situation isn’t funny, and it never will be. Jay can’t even make fun of that stupid reason, because every time he thinks about it, his wings hurt, and the flames grow hotter, and his heart breaks a little more. “Do me a favour and don’t do what I did. For Jungwon’s sake. Because I got punished for marrying a demon.”

“You what.”

—

(There's another detail that he doesn't tell Riki and Jungwon. Especially Jungwon.)

(Jay couldn't move for years after the archangels were done with him. He didn't know how they did it, why they had something like that in heaven in the first place, but they torched the tip of his wings with hellfire.

His two pair of wings, his suns, his immortality – set aflame, never to carry his weight again.

“I didn't know!” Jay begged and writhed on the floor in pain. He could barely breath with how heavily he was sobbing. Then again, did he even need oxygen? Was he allowed to live? “I didn't know! Please - Don't – I'm sorry! Make it stop!”

“When all of your feathers are burnt,” the archangel told him solemnly, as if they regretted that they had to do it – something that they did by their own will. They just watched as Jay, soaked in blood and fire, violently convulsed on the floor, the flames brushing against his back, his halo. It was too hot. “You will fall.”

“To earth?” he managed to force out through gritted teeth. It hurt. Everything hurt, but nothing hurt more than knowing that he was torn away from his blissful life where he was still ignorant to Sunoo's true nature. It just couldn't be true. Sunoo was kind. He was Jay's everything, his home, his heaven. His little Sunoo.

“To the ninth level of hell.”

Jay was so fucked.)

—

Group Chat: Conseil des étudiants

Sunghoon

you've been out really long

are you guys okay?

Jungwon

we're lost

riki has a horrible sense of direction

Riki

please don't roast me :(

i'm doing my best :(((

Jake

obviously not good enough little guy

Riki

i'm taller than you >:(

tiny human

Jake

i'm older

Jungwon

LOL

Sunghoon

how about this

sunoo is still asleep and idk how much longer we can stay quiet so let's meet here

[1 location attached]

it's literally time for dinner now

Jay

was the stew not enough??

Sunghoon

It was.

For us three.

i'm sorry, we ate all of it

Riki

what :(

Jake

us THREE???

wonyoung and I both only had one serving!

Sunghoon

okay fine

I ate all of it

it was a good stew okay?

great even

Jungwon

you're a stress eater aren't you

Sunghoon

stress

what stress hahah

idk what stress ur talking about

i'm great :D

Jay

Sunghoon…

yeah let's meet there

I’m paying.

“You go there,” Jay tells Riki and Jungwon, “I'm gonna go back and get our shoes and my wallet.”

“You mean…” Jungwon can hardly hold back his grin, “Your porte-monnaie?”

“What the fuck is that.”

“Wallet in french.”

Manifesto slaps a paw into Jungwon’s face.

—

Jay sneaks back into the dark and empty AirBnB like he's about to rob it. Which he's not, okay? He's just making sure that Sunoo can get some rest, even if his exhaustion comes from trying to kill the guy Jay is supposed to keep alive. Fair game and all. Jay only makes a living thanks to curses anyway. Quite literally.

He walks into his bedroom to his suitcase laid open at the left side of the bed – the side that Sunoo peacefully sleeps on and crouches down to dig through his stuff and find his wallet. It shouldn't be this dark outside, it's only 6 pm. Damn early spring and the lack of sun, Jay is freezing his ass out here and being depressed. Next to him, so close to his ear, Sunoo exhales slowly. He dares to turn his head, dares to take another look at Sunoo while he sleeps. Nineteen thousand years, and he still looks the same. His furrowed brows covered by fluffy bangs, his nose cutely scrunched up in disdain from whatever dream he might be having, the slight pout on his lips even while he sleeps that Jay wants to kiss –

If it weren't for Sunoo's amber eyes, shimmering lowly in the dark, staring back at him.

(Or maybe, that's exactly why Jay wants to kiss him. Because Sunoo is awake, and he's looking at Jay.)

“You're awake,” he notes dumbly. Sunoo doesn't respond for a while, and for one moment, Jay thinks that he's sleeping with his eyes open.

“You remember me.”

Sunoo's voice is raspy with sleep, cracking towards the end of his sentence. Shit. Fuck. God help him. Jay is not ready to have this conversation. Fuck, he never thought he'd get to talk to Sunoo ever again.

“I do,” he says simply, quietly. This tender moment between them could snap if he raises his voice, if he says a wrong word. “But I didn't know.”

“You wanted to talk,” Sunoo continues and pulls the blanket back to sit up with his feet dangling off the edge of the bed, his legs brushing against Jay's shoulders.

“You were awake?”

“I was. I woke up, you kissed my forehead and left.”

“Were you angry?”

“At first.”

Jay gingerly takes Sunoo's ankles into his hands and drops his knees to the ground. He's not sure what to do, whether to beg for forgiveness or yell at him for making his life so damn hard. He almost laughs when the second option flashes through his mind. As if he could ever be angry with Sunoo. As if Sunoo could stay angry at Jay.

“You didn't lie to me,” Sunoo whispers and cards a warm hand through Jay's hair, “You really didn't know?”

“That you were the demon killing the other archangels?” Jay laughs drily and rests his head against Sunoo's knee, “No.”

“The others?” Sunoo repeats, curiously. He tilts his head and frowns down at Jay. “Jay, what are you?”

“Yours.”

Sunoo giggles at how quickly and seriously Jay answers. Oh, how he missed that sound.

“You're an archangel?” Sunoo clarifies, because that's what he needs the most right now. Clarification. What Jay is, what Jay was supposed to do. Why he left him.

“I am,” he admits, “I was tasked with revenge for the other archangels. I was supposed to kill you.”

“But you didn't.”

“I didn't. I didn’t know what you looked like, or that it was you I was supposed to kill when we first met.”

“Would you have killed me if you'd known?”

“No,” Jay shakes his head lazily, rubs it against Sunoo's knee. He runs his hands up his calves until both of them are resting on Sunoo's thighs, “Would you have killed me?”

Sunoo doesn't hesitate when he responds, “I might have.”

“Will you kill me now?”

“I might. But I'll let you live if you tell me why you left.”

“It wasn't because my mission was to stop you from killing us until the war ended, or anything like that.”

Sunoo cups his cheek, a warm palm against Jay's heating face. He looks up through his eyelashes, squeezes Sunoo's thighs slightly.

“They found me,” Jay continues solemnly, “and pulled me back to heaven. I didn't want to leave.”

“So this guardian angel gig,” Sunoo pries, “is this your punishment?”

“A part of it.”

“Mine, too. I'm a curse because Satan would rather, I live eternally in hell than fall to the ninth level.”

“Hell must be miserable.”

“It's no heaven.”

“Heaven isn't you.”

“Corny,” Sunoo giggles quietly, “Isn't that blasphemy?”

“I've done worse,” Jay huffs and grins, “Who are the archangels anyway? They're not God, and God isn't here to judge me.”

“How sad,” Sunoo smirks, and for one moment, Jay remembers what he's doing. Who he's with. Who he wants to spend his eternal life with. What an embarrassing position he's in. “The angel has no God to worship?”

“I've never worshipped God,” Jay confesses.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” Sunoo grins down at Jay where he’s kneeling on the ground between his knees, devilishly, because he is one. Jay’s devil, his personal sin. And despite his nose held high in confidence, his voice trembles and his eyes shake with his next words,

“Worship me.”

“You don't have to tell me twice.”

(Jay has no excuse for what he does that night. Hell might be hot, but Sunoo is hotter. He doesn't have time to think about the fire on his back, not when his mind is filled with Sunoo, Sunoo, Sunoo, Sunoo, please – )

—

“We still need to talk.”

“About what?”

“Sunghoon. You have to kill him, and I have to save him.”

“I can't kill him anyway. He's got two guardian angels and a stubborn grim reaper.”

“So you're giving up?”

“For now. Do your best to convince me.”

—

Private Chat: Sunghoon

hey uh

whats taking so long

jungwon and Riki still don't have shoes

we're already at the bistro

are u okay?

jay?

hello?

do I have to call the police?

jay seriously, this is not funny

[3 missed calls]

jay??

Chapter Text

Group Chat: HeeJake+OG Thirdwheel

[Sunghoon changed the chat name to “HeeJake+Forever Single]

Aussie boy

I think you're exaggerating

Sunghoon

ok mr had-my-boyfriend-for-four-years

say that to me again

or to riki, who's having a breakdown in jungwon’s arms because of what he saw

or to sunoo and jay after everything that ALL OF US saw

Math failure

omg what

WHY am I not in paris

should I also volunteer for the sc??

what's going on!

Aussie boy

oh, uh… nothing

sunghoon is just stressed and sad

Sunghoon

of course i'm stressed!

I had the fucking EIFFEL TOWER collapse around me and the school festival is in a month

we're not even halfway done with fully planning it

I didn't have dinner yet

I miss my sister

I miss my mom

I miss my dog

midterms are in two months

manifesto is taking a piss on my homework

and my crush just fucked the boy who was showing his ass off to me not even a week ago

Math failure

who did what :D

Aussie boy

more like… who did who

Math failure

guys seriously

what tf is going on

Aussie boy

so we wanted to meet up for dinner right?

jay went back to the airbnb to get his wallet

although he could've just asked one of us to bring it to him because we were already THERE

but he never came to the restaurant

Sunghoon

it was a bistro

Aussie boy

same difference

so sunghoon got worried, we had no money, we went back

BOOM

riki walks into jay’s bedroom that he shares with sunoo

they're entangled in their bedsheets and shirtless.

doing the nasty.

Math failure

wow

I definitely didn't fall for you bc of ur storytelling skills

THE NASTY????

Sunghoon

yes heeseung

the nasty :/

if we hadn't been talking, we probably wouldn't have had to walk in to know

Aussie boy

I DON’T wanna know that

or think about it

Math failure

sunghoon :(((

you'll be fine, it's just a crush right

sunghoon?

sunghoon

Aussie boy

he went to the bathroom and left his phone

heeseung, i'm really worried :(

Math failure

he's known jay for three weeks lmao

how bad could it be?

Aussie boy

someone is sobbing under the shower.

it's not Riki.

Math failure

his favourite food is samgyeopsal right?

Aussie boy

don't touch anything in the kitchen except for the microwave

please

Math failure

don't doubt me jake

I just licked the stove out of spite

Aussie boy

what ㅠㅠ

[Math failure changed the chat name to “OG Roomies”]

Math failure

jake

we're his best friends

what else to do but make his fav food so he can stress eat happily

Aussie boy

I know but why would you lick the stove ㅠㅠ

—

Group Chat: OG Roomies

Sunghoon

i'm gonna throw up

i'm sick

i'm running a fever

I’m still working and studying

but my vision is dizzy and my hands are shaking

and i'm about to cry

this is the worst trip of my life

and I shat my pants on a cruise ship once

Math failure

you'll be back in four days, right?

Sunghoon

yes.

IF I even make it back

Aussie boy

sunoo and Jay even offered you the big bed

Sunghoon

jake

do I sleep in your or heeseungs bed

Aussie boy

no

why do you not do that btw

Sunghoon

excuse me?

who knows what else was in that bed

Math failure

me or jake

my sheets

my math homework

my tears

Sunghoon

and?

Math failure

sometimes…

on occasion…

I leave my dirty shirts under the blanket to make my room look cleaner

Sunghoon

lmao what

don't talk like a virgin

Math failure

I BEG YOUR PARDON

what's wrong with talking like a virgin

what's wrong with being a virgin

Sunghoon

what.

Aussie boy

sunghoon omg

i'm christian??

we’ll wait until marriage??

Math failure

and some lol

Sunghoon

you've been dating for FOUR (4) years

not even a bj??

Math failure

ok are we sure you get crushes

or do u just get horny

Aussie boy

he'd like sunoo too then

Sunghoon

:/

Aussie boy

wow

no way

there's just no way

I have no words

since WHEN

HOW

YOU FELL FOR SUNOOS ASS?!?!??!??

Sunghoon

I once fell ON sunoo's ass

but the whole crush thing came to me in a dream

you know those videos of hamsters with the nomnomnom background music??

I had that but with sunoo

the whole capcut template ㅠㅠ

and now I constantly get this urge to bite his cheeks??

Aussie boy

we're talking about his face cheeks right

Sunghoon

yes.

like,, doesn't he look like a really cute acorn when his hair is down?

he's so cute wtf

I want to bother him all the time

and like, squish his face and shake him until he stops being cute

we also walked in on them shirtless yesterday and boy is BUFF?!?!?!!!?!

like,, how.

look at him

he looks round and soft and squish-able :,(

how is he fluff AND buff I don't understand

Aussie boy

oh you're down BAD

Sunghoon

but he's with JAY

and I can't even be mad bc jay's great :(

like,, dream guy

10/10

wanna smooch him too ㅠㅠ

Math failure

omg so this is not horniness??

Sunghoon

unfortunately

Math failure

jake comfort him!

i'm bad at feelings and on the other side of the word so I can't slap his back!!

Aussie boy

on it!

Sunghoon

thanks heeseung

jake just slapped me

I don't feel better.

Math failure

you like both??

and now they're, like, a thing?

Sunghoon

yes :/

thanks for reminding me

Math failure

i'm about to say something so un-christian now

jake, close ur eyes

Aussie boy

domw

Math failure

become a throuple!

Sunghoon

a what

Math failure

a threesome couple

a throuple

three people dating each other

Aussie boy

HEESEUNG

ur not helpful!!

Math failure

whyyy did you open ur eyes :(

Sunghoon

sounds great but no thanks

[1 image attached]

they're literally only looking at each other :/

Math failure

mkay

thanks for the stalker picture in stalker angle

sunghoon wtf hahah

THEYRE BOTH LOOKING AT YOU WDYM

Sunghoon

please don't get my hopes up

Aussie boy

SUNGHOON

STOP LOOKING AT UR PHONE

THEYRE LITERALLY WALKING TOWARDS YOU

Sunghoon

STOP THEM

I DON’T WANNA SEE THEM UP CLOSE RN

Aussie boy

I got you bro

(Jake, like it's second nature to him, rips the window open and dives out.)

(They're on the second floor.)

(Jay and Jungwon both jump after Jake and manage to land on the tree just outside their window, but now, all three of them are stuck. Riki calls the fire department with the little French he knows, which is not a lot.)

—

Fine. Maybe Sunghoon is overdramatizing the situation. After all, he's had a lot of crushes that never worked out! Naming Wonyoung, Jake, that one older figure skater at the rink whose name he never got, his neighbor from kindergarten, pretty much everyone in his current class… This is nothing! Sunoo and Jay can date each other, and Sunghoon won't care.

What Sunghoon cares about is preparing the school festival like the apocalypse will start that day. There are so many things that could go wrong. A fire could break out from the food stalls. The stall could collapse and hurt people. The school building’s tower could crumble and crush someone. All the sports clubs are running danger signs. Jake's arm wrestling to death could genuinely kill people! There are so many safety hazards, and Sunghoon needs to think about all of them and how to prevent them, or at least decrease the risk of danger.

And not even a month after, they have midterm exams.

Sunghoon needs to get good grades, or he loses his scholarship. He can be sad and heartbroken in the week after that when everyone gets asked out to their end-of-term formal, and Sunghoon gets to watch all of his roommates (‘Friends. They're my friends.’) have fun and dance together and be those cheesy couples that slow dance and twirl around and kiss – while he has to stand at the side and take photos or something.

No, focus. The school festival first, then the theme of Hamlet, then being single. The list of priorities should go like that. Who cares if Jay just put down a cup of latte in front of Sunghoon and Sunoo is quietly giggling at something on his phone again. Who cares if Jay sits down next to him and helps him with the paperwork and ordering fireworks for the festival and Sunoo's cheeks bunch up when he laughs, and his hair bops up and down. Who cares if Jay’s hand pressing against Sunghoon's is rough and oddly cold and Sunoo is twisting his upper body around so he can grin at Sunghoon.

It's not Sunghoon. Sunghoon does not care about any of that.

How many fire extinguishers are on campus around the stupid fountain in the front? Wait, do they even need a fire extinguisher there when there's a fountain? Fuck.

“I think that's enough for today,” Jay decides and pries Sunghoon's pen out of his clammy, disgustingly sweaty hands, “You should rest.”

“I can rest later,” Sunghoon frowns down at the school grounds map laid out in front of him and the little corner that's drying from coffee he spilled onto it, as well as the sweat that dripped off the tip of Sunghoon's nose, “I need to get this done.”

“Nope,” Sunoo skips over and puts his hands on Sunghoon's shoulder, very close (a little too close) to his neck, “You heard the man. Rest.”

“I'm almost done with this anyway.” Which is a total lie. Sunghoon marked exactly one of the two hundred fire extinguishers on their school grounds, which is the exact opposite of ‘almost done’. But he doesn't want to rest, because resting means lying down, which means not doing anything, which means getting bored, which means thinking, which means overthinking, which means… Sunghoon is going to cry and worsen his headache with how heavy he will probably sob. He can already feel his head hurting by just thinking about it.

No, wait. He actually has a headache. Because he's sick.

‘Get a fucking grip, Sunghoon.’

‘You get a grip, Sunghoon.’

‘I am you!’

He's so delirious. He's talking to himself now! Or has he always done that? No, focus. Fire extinguishers. Who cares about the people Sunghoon talks to? He's got fountains to fire – what.

“You're going to sleep,” Jay decides and pulls Sunghoon to his weak knees by the neck, “No complaints.”

Sunghoon can only groan stubbornly, because he doesn't want to go to bed. Especially not Jay's bed. Or Sunoo's bed. Same difference! Except, before Sunoo came to Paris, it used to be his bed. Sunghoon used to sleep in that bed! And now, he has to sleep in Sunoo's child-sized sleeping bag on the floor, next to Jake who curls up on the toddler bed mattress like a dog! This is all Sunoo's fault.

Still, Jay supports Sunghoon's body, disoriented from standing up too fast, by throwing an arm around his shoulder and dragging him the entire short way to the bed like Sunghoon weighs nothing (holy fuck, strong men). So what if Sunghoon melts against Jay's side and shamelessly lets his head loll against his shoulder as if the boy Sunghoon is throwing himself at doesn't have a boyfriend? Sunoo doesn't seem to mind. If anything, it's almost like Sunoo knows exactly how Sunghoon feels and giggles at how pathetic he is.

“There you go,” Sunoo smiles and pats Sunghoon's shoulder encouragingly, “You'll feel better after a nap!”

Something about Sunoo's tone makes Sunghoon think that he will, in fact, not feel better.

He lets Jay basically body slam him into the bed because Sunghoon simply doesn't have the bones or strength to do it dignified. With another groan, and even more dizziness shaking his vision and throwing his brain around his skull, Sunghoon rolls on his back and chokes back a sob when he forces his eyes open.

The last thing he wants to see is Jay slapping Sunoo's butt.

He gets it, okay? Sunoo's ass is great, Sunghoon got enough evidence for it after he landed face first in it from a tree. But what's wrong with his butt? Why isn't it slap-able?

—

Sunghoon does not feel better after a nap. In fact, he feels worse than before, and Jake's pitying stare isn't helping him feel great.

“Your fever got worse,” Jake flips the thermostat he had just shoved into Sunghoon's ear with a frown, “I think you should sleep some more.” But Sunghoon just slept! He should be feeling better now, instead of worse!

“I'm gonna throw a fit,” he rasps with a dry throat and coughs harshly, “I'm gonna cry. I am so upset.”

“I can tell,” Jake laughs quietly and shakes his head, “The preparations are going well, if you're worried about that. Sunoo is looking over the fire extinguishers with Jay, and Riki and Jungwon are checking finances. Wonyoung got the stall placements down already.”

“And what have you been doing?”

“I was watching you drool in your sleep.”

“Gross, creep.”

Jake laughs again, and it reminds Sunghoon too much of why exactly he had a crush on him when they first met. Ah yes, Sunghoon and crushes, and Sunghoon's crushes on people that never work out because they start dating someone that isn't Sunghoon, and he can't even bring himself to be upset because, fuck, it was him who set Jake up with Heeseung after all.

Maybe that should be his mission. Playing cupid. That way, at least, he won't have to go through having to watch Jay pepper kisses on Sunoo's face through the tiny gap in the door and feel his heart literally slow down at the sight. Where is his life support machine? Sunghoon is kind of dying over here!

“You'll get over it,” Jake sighs when he follows Sunghoon's gaze and what its locked onto and runs a hand through his matted hair, “As you always do.”

Sunghoon would, if this was his average ‘romanticize everything they do’ kind of crush. This time, it feels like a little more (a lot more) than that. He can't quite explain why he can't tear his gaze away from Sunoo and Jay, especially since they're now just straight up making out at the dining table. Jay's hands are cupping both of Sunoo's cheeks, the rosy flesh spilling out from between his fingers, and the front of his shirt is tightly fisted in Sunoo's hands. What the fuck. What the fuck!

“I will be miserable forever!” he groans loudly and pulls the blanket over his head just so he can stop ogling people making out like a fucking creep. This is horrible. He lives with these two guys, for God's sake! There's no way he can stay calm and not pop a hormonal boner (thanks a lot, puberty!) when this is what he'll have to look at. Jake and Heeseung have at least the decency to kiss where nobody (read: Park Sunghoon) is looking. “Just end me, Jake. Force a knife through my skull, it'd at least help with the headache.”

“Yeah, don't think that's how it works.” Jake gives a gentle pat to Sunghoon's chest through the blanket and tugs him in like a petulant child that doesn't want to sleep. And in some way, that's the best way to describe Sunghoon's current mood. He doesn't want to sleep. He wants to be useful and plan the stupid school festival and study for his stupid exams, so he won't have to think about Sunoo and Jay and kissing. “Want me to make you a chicken noodle soup?”

“Please don't cook for me unless it's ramyeon,” Sunghoon sulks and crosses his arms over his chest, “I don't trust you to not poison me with anything else.”

“I make some sick chicken noodle soup, just so you know,” Jake argues.

“A sick soup is exactly the opposite of what I need,” he deadpans in response and scoffs, “I want a book. Or water. I need a shower.”

“You gonna try and drown yourself in the shower cabin?”

“I'll flood this city with the amount of water I'm about to waste.”

“Whatever you say, bro.”

—

Sunghoon doesn't take a shower in favor of sitting up and immediately flopping to the side to knock out. Turns out he did need another nap.

It's completely dark when he wakes up again, save for the little light invading the room through the gap under the wooden door. Sunghoon lies still in his bed and won't move. Mostly because he can't, all of his muscles ache like he just finished the most intense workout of his life, and his head is still spinning little pirouettes with his brain. Great. He's out here, dying on this stupid bed that's too big for only one person, being squeezed to death by the blanket winding around his body like a boa constrictor, and he has to listen to the rest of the student council crack jokes over something they're planning for the school festival.

“We can make it the entrance fee!” Jake exclaims enthusiastically, and even in his head, Sunghoon can imagine the tail wagging behind him.

“You want a pile of dead bodies in front of our school gates?” Jay scoffs. It's muffled through the door, but Sunghoon has heard that sound often enough to distinguish it. People tend to scoff around him, mostly because they're annoyed, only sometimes because they jokingly do it out of habit. “Stop pushing your arm wrestling to death, you'll barely make any profit!”

“We're not even paying for anything, there is no money to lose,” Jake argues back, “Only money to make. That's profit!”

“Stop yelling, guys,” Wonyoung giggles and shushes them, “Sunghoon's still sleeping.”

Wonyoung, oh Wonyoung. If she hadn't rejected him so often already, Sunghoon would've asked her out on a date again. But alas, he's sick, and he doesn't want to pressure Wonyoung into agreeing to a date in Paris. Which would've been romantic, were it not for their history together of Sunghoon being desperate, and Wonyoung politely letting him down every single time. All twenty-three times.

“I'm awake.”

Fuck, his throat is killing him. Why do fevers always have to dehydrate a body so much?

Sunghoon doesn't have to die from dehydration for much longer. Jay walks in, Sunoo hot on his heels and wrapped around his shoulders, with a glass of water and some medicine for him.

“Went to the store earlier,” he explains softly and hands Sunghoon both. No, he can't just do that! Sunghoon is so close to death that he can taste it on the back of his throat, Jay has no business taking such good care of him and going out of his way to buy medicine. “You’ll feel better after some more rest.”

“I’ve been resting the whole day!” Sunghoon whines and throws his head back to swallow the little pills and chase them down with water. Sluggishly, because he’s still sick, he sinks back into the pillows and sniffs miserably. God, he feels like Jungwon after Manifesto decided to cling to his face again. Absolutely horrible. Sunghoon hates being sick. He’d rather die than be sick.

“It won’t go away after one day,” Jay chuckles and pulls the blanket up to Sunghoon’s chin, carefully tug him into bed, “You like chicken noodle soup?”

“Sure,” he rasps and closes his eyes. He can’t bear to look into Jay’s fond eyes and watch his face soften into a tiny smile that’s directed at Sunghoon of all people. Jay has a boyfriend! Smile at him, or something.

“We’ll make you some,” Jay tells him, and at that, Sunghoon pries one of his eyes open after all. ‘We’. Like Jay and Sunoo can’t be separated anymore and are now one entity that has to be referred to with a plural pronoun. Great. They haven’t even been together for more than a day, and Sunghoon is questioning pronouns of all things now. There are plenty people who refer to themselves and someone else as ‘we’, not just couples. Jake always uses it to refer to himself and Sunghoon, for example.

Still, something inside of Sunghoon’s heart stings, and it’s not the sudden realization that Jay cares enough about Sunghoon to make him soup. It’s more likely the doubt that Sunoo only tends to Sunghoon because Jay cares about him, not because he himself cares much for Sunghoon. Somehow, it hurts Sunghoon’s head a lot more than it should.

He’s had two moments with Sunoo, at most.

One: falling on his ass after Sunghoon fell out of a tree when he tried to stalk Jay

Two: asking if they could kiss in the nurse’s office immediately after and Sunoo agreeing, because he’s just as indecisive as Sunghoon when it comes to people he’s into. Seriously. What were all of those ass-showings and seduction attempts about if Sunoo starts dating Jay not even a week after anyway?

“Hey, Sunoo,” he calls out weakly before said boy can follow Jay out into the hallway / living room again. Sunoo comes to a bouncing halt and turns his head around curiously. “You still wanna shower together?”

It’s Jay who closes the door into Sunoo’s flushed face.

Sunghoon puts the glass down on the floor while cackling quietly to himself. Yeah, he’s just a little bit petty. Just a little bit.

—

Sunghoon is being physically assaulted by Manifesto because Jungwon and Riki decided to let him kitten-sit her while they went to buy groceries when Sunoo walks in with a bowl of chicken noodle soup for him. The bowl is filled to the brim, a clear broth in white porcelain with little suns drawn on it. His head is ducked low but it does little to hide the bright red on his round cheeks. Manifesto bites into Sunghoon’s earlobe

“I was kidding,” Sunghoon announces nonchalantly and shrugs Manifesto off his shoulder. She falls off with a loud cry and lands in Sunghoon’s hands where she curls up into a little loaf of cat. “You can stop thinking about taking a shower with me.”

“I wasn’t thinking about that!” Sunoo denies harshly and whips his head up to glare at Sunghoon, reddish brown hair flipping away from his creased forehead, “But I’m considering to spit into your soup now.”

“No spitting in patients’ food please, Mister Kim,” Sunghoon hums and cradles Manifesto against his chest. She seems to immediately notice that there is something wrong with his health – mostly his heart – and starts rubbing her face against the front of his shirt and purring in a very adorable way to soothe Sunghoon’s heartbreak. Thank you, Manifesto. At least someone loves him. Even if it’s just a baby cat they found abandoned in a bush.

“Don’t test me, Park,” Sunoo warns him half-heartedly and laughs, “I might just put bleach in it.”

“And waste any of Jay’s food?” Sunghoon scoffs, “As if.”

“You never know.”

“I do know.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“Do no – “

“Why are you still standing in the door?”

Hello? Sunghoon and Sunoo were having a moment here! But now, Sunoo’s head is peeking outside of the room again and from the little side profile that Sunghoon can see, he can tell that Sunoo is looking at Jay now. Well, that, and he recognized Jay’s voice. Jake is out with Riki and Jungwon, after all, and Wonyoung might just be taking yet another nap. So really, it only leaves Jay.

Ah, crap. That means Sunghoon can’t even sulk a bit that he doesn’t get to play around with Sunoo anymore. Boyfriends come first, and all that. Whatever. Who needs a boyfriend when Sunghoon has a kitten (why did that sound a lot more suggestive than Sunghoon’s current situation actually is)?

“Jay, help me!” Sunghoon sighs dramatically and flops back against his pillows, “Sunoo is trying to kill me!”

At that, Sunoo drops the bowl of soup on his feet, the porcelain seemingly indestructible and clattering to the floor without breaking, spills the contents all over the floor, and squeaks, “Am not! Jay, don't listen to him!” Jay chooses not to listen to him and rushes past Sunoo to frantically check on Sunghoon as best as he can without touching Manifesto still clinging to Sunghoon's neckline.

“Oh, my poor mortal human form is so weakened,” Sunghoon continues and chokes on his laughter, “I can see the light!”

“The soup is literally on my socks right now,” Sunoo whines and shuffler over, leaving behind a trail of soup like a snail leaving a trail of slime, “I wasn't doing anything!”

“Are you okay?” Jay asks Sunghoon and puts the back of his cool palm against Sunghoon’s forehead, completely ignoring Sunoo now. His eyes flicker between his own hand and Sunghoon’s eyes. Oh. Jay is actually worried. “I think your fever went down a bit. Do you want me to bring you another bowl of soup? You should eat something, if you can.”

“I’m feeling okay,” Sunghoon coughs awkwardly. Jay’s hand is still on his forehead, and for some reason, it feels like his fever is actually returning. He’d celebrate this moment of tenderness, if his stupid gaze hadn’t shifted just a bit to the side to see Sunoo pouting and looking away guiltily, like a child waiting to be scolded any moment. Right. Sunghoon doesn’t get to celebrate because of Sunoo. Sunoo and Jay, and Sunoo with Jay. And Sunghoon with a fever. “You should check Sunoo’s feet. The soup was still hot.”

“I’m okay,” Sunoo mutters and taps Jay’s shoulder to get his attention. He doesn’t seem to get it, considering that Jay doesn’t look away from Sunghoon, but he still continues to talk. “You get the soup. I’ll clean up the mess, yeah?” Sunoo’s voice tilts up so adorably that Sunghoon almost grins at his tone. And then he remembers that it’s not directed towards him, this unusually soft side of Sunoo, so he can’t even pretend to smile.

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Jay finally tears his gaze away from Sunghoon’s burning face and gives Sunoo a little pat on the head. “We’ll be right back, Sunghoon, okay?”

He asks like Sunghoon isn’t a seventeen year old almost-adult that doesn’t need to be supervised and pampered like a toddler anymore. Who knows. With how hard Sunghoon is sulking, he might as well be. But who can blame him when his gaze lingers after Sunoo and Jay as they step out of the room, shoulders bumping and hands brushing gently against each other’s. When he has to watch Sunoo playfully kick after Jay’s shins with a soft giggle and a fond grin. When he has to watch Jay press a slow kiss to Sunoo’s lips.

“Do your thing,” he murmurs, more to himself than to them, and presses a little kiss to Manifesto’s wet nose, “I got all I need.”

Realistically speaking, Sunghoon needs a lot more than a small cat that isn’t even his own. Technically speaking, he needs some soup.

Group Chat: OG Roomies

Math failure

how you feeling @Sunghoon

Sunghoon

peachy

@Aussie boy why are u taking so long with the groceries

Aussie boy

we don’t know what type of potatoes we should buy

Sunghoon

the one that looks like nobody else wants it

Aussie boy

… so ur still feeling like shit

Sunghoon

I don’t think I’ll get any better :/

Math failure

but if u buy it

doesn’t it mean that you want it

Aussie boy

bad news Sunghoon

riki picked the purple sweet potatoes

Sunghoon

I don’t think that’s the type you were supposed to buy

Aussie boy

did you know that potatoes make great batteries

@Math failure I’ll teach u about it when I’m back

Math failure

I need help in math, not potatoes >:(

Sunghoon

I wanna hear about potato batteries

Aussie boy

ur my favorite

Sunghoon

u’d be the only person to say that

When the floor creaks and Sunghoon looks up from his phone again, Sunoo and Jay are standing in the doorframe with another bowl of soup and a mop. He sends them an awkward smile because he's not sure what to do, and trying to think of anything to do gives him a headache, a buzzing in every corner of his brain. Silently, he lets Jay prop up the pillows so Sunghoon can sit up and takes the bowl of soup from Jay's calloused hands as he watches Sunoo mop of the bit that he's spilled. Jay sits down at the edge of the bed, his butt basically planted on top of Sunghoon’s leg. Together, they watch Sunoo.

The soup smells heavenly. Tastes even better. Hot, soothing broth that goes down Sunghoon's dry throat faster than it probably should and warms him from the inside and perfectly al dente noodles. He's fucking sweating this damn fever out of his system. 

Manifesto shuffles around until she can comfortably curl up against Sunghoon's stomach. She purrs loudly into the silence of the room, and it drowns out the sound of Sunghoon’s brain pulsing inside of his skull.

Maybe it’s just the fever, but Sunghoon feels so warm and fuzzy. It’s sickening. He’s sick. He’ll throw up his soup if he has to witness Jay’s eyes shape into crescents whenever he smiles at Sunoo like that, with his eyes filled with adoration and pure, unfiltered love. Sunoo is literally just mopping the floor. And Sunghoon would probably scoff out of pettiness and jealousy, if he didn’t understand Jay at least a little bit. Sunoo’s lips are jutted out in a concentrated pout as he sweeps the mop across the floor, barefoot because his socks were soaked. His bangs fall over his eyes that, even in the dark room, sparkle with determination as if it’s Sunoo’s life mission to mop the floor.

“Thanks for the soup, guys,” Sunghoon whispers. If he can’t tell them about his embarrassing crushes on the both of them, they should at least know that he appreciates their soup.

Sunoo and Jay don’t make it better. Sunghoon’s sickness only gets worse when the both of them turn their heads to smile at him like they care.

“No big deal.”

It’s a big fucking deal. Ginormous even. Sunghoon is crushing so hard that it twists his insides.

He throws the soup back up.

Chapter Text

Paris is a very boring city when you can’t explore it and spend the entire day holed up in a cheap Airbnb.

Sunghoon spends the next two days passed out in bed because the fever keeps breaking, then getting worse, then breaking again. It’s hell. Sunghoon is in hell, and none of his friends care about it.

Instead, Sunghoon has to facetime Heeseung with Jake and third wheel them. When that is done, and he finally manages to kick Jake out of the room he occupies by himself, Jungwon and Riki bring Manifesto into his room because she keeps scratching at the door and screaming like a demon. So Sunghoon, sick and innocent Sunghoon who lets the cat rub her head against his collarbone, has to watch Riki and Jungwon make heart eyes at each other when one of them isn't looking. Usually, it's Wonyoung who comes to his rescue, by kicking them out and taking a nap next to Sunghoon to avoid her student council responsibilities. She always leaves by her own volitions, and Sunghoon is left alone in the bed with Manifesto (on the occasion that she refuses to be picked up from his chest).

And then, the worst parts of the routine enter the room. Jay and Sunoo always bring him soup. Jay must have made a huge pot of it, because it's everything that Sunghoon has eaten in the last three days. He's growing sick of it, and that's probably not helping him with getting better.

"Soup delivery," Jay announces cheerfully and opens the door with his foot. Sunghoon groans dramatically. Soup again. It's always soup. Sunghoon's blood must have been replaced by soup at this point. "You can eat dinner with us later if you're better. We were thinking of going out."

"Please take me out," he blurts out and bites his tongue before he can add anything stupid, like 'on a date'. Sunoo is peering over Jay's shoulder, after all.

Now that Sunghoon isn't in a fever-induced daze, he's got all the conscience to actively process how they're a couple now. Like, an actual thing. Boyfriends, but not his. Not that he wants to be this jealous or possessive of a person, especially because he has no reason to be, but Sunghoon can't help it. Wonyoung's short appearance in his room gives him just a little break from couples and heart eyes and fond smiles. Having to watch a third couple that day, two boys that he kind of has a crush on, is Sunghoon's tipping point. It surely doesn't help that Sunoo always has a hand on Jay's shoulder, at all times, as if it's glued there. Not only that, but Sunoo and Jay always exchange those looks. Sunghoon can't interpret them properly, doesn't know them enough to distinguish every minuscule way they express themselves, but he's constantly left in the dark. In the end, it doesn't really matter anyway, because Sunoo breaks into giggles when Jay shakes his head and chuckles quietly, and then, both of their attention is back on Sunghoon.

"Your fever is completely down," Jay tells him with a relief sigh and pulls his hand away from Sunghoon's sticky forehead, "No dying today."

"Yay."

Sunghoon doesn't sound as lively as he most likely is. Truth is, he's never felt worse, mentally. But he can't burden Jay with that, not when said boy is one of the two main factors as to why Sunghoon is sad. What even is he supposed to say? 'Please break up with Sunoo so I can go on a date with him. Or you'? No. That's insane.

Heeseung's idea of becoming a throuple is just a farfetched idea anyway.

Aside from the anonymous love letters that he can't even respond to because none of them even want to confess, only tell him about their adoration for him, and his title as 'school crush', Sunghoon hasn't lived up to his own wish to be someone's boyfriend. Or, like, actual crush. Unless, of course, he counts Sunoo's weird phase of trying to get into his pants, but that could just be hormones. Who knows. Kim Sunoo is an enigma, what with the whole 'I don't like Riki but I'll take a flight to Paris with him so he can see his crush' and the odd looks, smirks and ominous smiles, that he gives Sunghoon.

"Maybe some death later," Sunoo chirps happily and makes a tiny jump on the tip of his toes but quickly stops when he catches the warning scowl that Jay shoots him, "Fine. No death today."

Sunghoon is very glad to hear that, considering that every time Sunoo talks about death, it sounds like a threat. On Sunghoon's life especially.

"You should rest some more after you eat," Jay turns his head back to Sunghoon and pats his head softly. Sunghoon, while he's not delirious anymore but he'll always blame it on that rather than being shameless, leans into the touch like he's been starving for affection. "I can wake you up when we're gonna leave?"

"I'll be awake anyway," he shrugs and takes the bowl of soup so he can try and fail to balance it on his knees, "I've slept enough."

Manifesto gives an agreeing meow from the top of Sunghoon's head, almost aggressively so, as if she has been (im-)patiently waiting for him to get better and play with her again. To get her point across even clearer, she swipes a paw across his forehead and whines loudly. But it makes little sense when she has two dads, and Jake just likes to play around with anything that moves.

Speak of the devils.

Jungwon and Riki march into the room while Sunghoon just wants to cry into his soup a little and eat it in peace. Jungwon makes a big show of pushing Sunoo to the side to stand next to Jay with a victorious, innocent grin.

"We're back!" Riki announces proudly and shows off his shopping bag with a tiny luxury brand logo printed on the middle of it. Pfft. Rich kids. "Manifesto, come here!"

Manifesto doesn't move away from the top of Sunghoon's head.

“Looks like you’re the chosen one, Sunghoon,” Sunoo jokes and grabs at Jungwon’s shoulder to push him to the side again. Jay remains unbothered by the fight over him and continues to spoon feed Sunghoon the soup as he’s always done since yesterday (since when is that a thing now?) with a fond smile tugging at his lips. “Hey – Jay!”

“If we ignore them hard enough,” Jay wonders out loud and leans in closer to Sunghoon to fake-whisper, “do you think they’ll leave?”

“I can hear you,” Sunoo deadpans and shakes Jungwon in his grip, “Hello? Sunoo to Jay, stop ignoring me!”

“Seems unlikely,” Sunghoon fake whispers back to Jay and laughs. Sunoo and Jungwon’s bickering is kind of endearing, especially since they look so much alike. Small and cute. Squishable cheeks. Sunghoon should pinch their cheeks one day.

Manifesto decides she’s rebelled enough against her dad and hops off Sunghoon’s head, landing only a hair’s width away from his bowl of soup. She clumsily climbs over Sunghoon’s legs with more screaming (this is the most talkative cat Sunghoon has ever encountered) and runs up to Riki with her tail held high.

“Look what we bought,” Riki coos at her quietly and pulls a tiny, (hopefully fake) diamond embezzled collar out of the bag with a grin. It’s pastel yellow, with a tiny golden ‘M’ dangling from the middle. Fuck. If they were going to buy pet accessories, Sunghoon should have joined. His dog always gets so incredibly cold unless it’s a summer’s heatwave.

Manifesto, however, seems less impressed by the collar. She shoves it away with a firm paw and taps Riki’s hand with a sad meow.

“Okay, that’s enough people in this room,” Jay decides sternly and ushers all three of them out of the room, “Sunghoon is technically still on bed rest, so he needs to rest.” He closes the door with a sigh when Sunoo starts to whine and presses his back against it with a grin directed at Sunghoon.

“You’re still good?” he asks Sunghoon gently and comes back with the spoon that Sunghoon is supposed to eat with, “Always so much stress with these four kids.”

“I assume Jake is the fourth?”

“Yep.”

Jay laughs like it’s the funniest joke he’s ever told, which, truth to be told, isn’t setting the bar very high. Still Sunghoon laughs, too, especially when Sunoo repeatedly knocks on the door like he can’t just open it and complains,

“Jay, stop hogging Sunghoon all to yourself!”

Which, wow. It shouldn't have the kind of effect on Sunghoon that it does. He feels his face heating up again. Is his fever coming back? At least that way, he won't have to explain Jay that he's stupidly crushing on his boyfriend. Why does this keep happening to Sunghoon, all he wants is be delusional and romanticise someone! It's probably that want that was the start of his mental health declining. That, and the amount of pressure he gave himself by attending a school for rich people's kids with a full-ride scholarship and the responsibility of being the student council president that he's been neglecting for three whole days now. That's almost half a week! Fuck!

"Rest some more," Jay tells him and ignores Sunoo's incessant knocking and whining, "I've got the rest."

Hah.

Yeah, Sunghoon's heart is so fucked.

—

Group Chat: HeeJake+ThirdwheelZ

Math failure

this is heeseung

Sunghoon

who else would it be lol

Math failure

i am so bored without you guys

help me

Jay

it's almost midnight for u

just go to bed

Math failure

don't tell me what to do

anyways what are you guys up to

Jungwonie

about to eat dinner

we're just waiting for sunoo to finish his makeup

Sunoo

excuse me??

i'm only putting on sunscreen with SPF!

this face is all natural °3°

Jungwonie

naturally difficult to look at?

Riki

jungwon no -

Sunoo

I’ll make you have to look at me just to spite you

Jungwonie

it’ll throw up my dinner in ur face °3°

Sunoo

WHAT THE QUACK

Riki

quack quack

Math failure

lmaooooo

Sunoo

wtf

what is this quacking shit

quack

*quack

QUACK

WHAT THE QUACK

RIKI

Math failure

icb

what is this hahahha

Aussie boy

OMGGGG

laughing and crying and shitting

Riki

wasn't me :,)

Jay

it was me

you curse too much