Chapter Text
1999
The Millennium Surge happens a few nights after Christmas.
Across a certain area of Seoul, the lights wink out momentarily after midnight, leaving the city buried under a sleepy cover of snow, save for the headlights of cars and the confused flashing of torchlights in different households. It takes 10 minutes before they flicker back on, like nothing had ever happened.
The public utilities board apologises for the power outage, is the public announcement that goes out the next morning. Have a happy new year.
Everyone forgets it and moves on, then.
Fast forward nine months later, and Felix Lee Yong-bok is born in a private hospital in Seoul to a pair of adoring parents and an excited little girl. He has large, curious eyes, dark tufty hair and wandering fists, like he’s trying to reach out and touch the world in front of him.
Once Felix is old enough, they pack up, sell the house, and move to Sydney, where Felix’s father is working on a business venture.
Life is simple, for now.
*
2005
Felix is 5 when the accidents start.
They watch the South Korean news, even in Sydney, because Felix’s mother is an editor for a magazine and needs to keep up with current affairs.
“Mom! Mom look, there was an explosion!” Rachel is pointing, over her cereal. Felix turns, little legs wobbling slightly from just having woken up, to stare at the television. He wishes he could talk as fast as Rachel does.
There’s something burning on the television screen. It’s cool. Felix likes fire. Fire means firetrucks, aka the coolest cars on the planet, and firefighters.
“…six injured, no fatalities. Authorities are considering the possibility of a gas explosion, or foul play…”
“What does it say?” Felix points, English words tumbling over one another in his haste to get them out. His mom does try to teach him Korean here and there, but she’s busy enough just trying to settle things at home and at work.
He stares at his mother (the prettiest girl in the world, according to Felix, second being Rachel), her kind but firm face set strangely. She has that look on her face, the kind when Rachel goes out to play with the neighbours without telling her, or when Felix trips on the sidewalk trying to run as fast as his sister does.
“It’s nothing,” she says in English, wearing back her smile when she looks at them. “Eat your cereal, Felix. Then we’re going to kindergarten.”
“Is Olivia coming?” Rachel sprints to the kitchen with her bowl, news report forgotten.
Felix looks back at the TV screen, eyes wide. Maybe fire isn’t so cool after all, he thinks solemnly, if it makes Mommy worried like this.
*
2008
Felix is 8 when he falls in love with superheroes.
“…and the Defenders Project will employ the talents of Korea’s very own home grown superheroes, with the help of the Enhancements, dedicated to protect and defend the country.”
“Doesn’t sound very compliant with human rights,” Felix’s father says over dinner that night, as the news plods on. He casts an annoyed glance at the television – today must’ve been a rough day at work.
“It’s superheroes!” Rachel cheers, and Felix nods. If Rachel likes it, then it must be good. “When are we going back to Korea? To see them?”
To her, Korea is still home, in a sense. But Felix doesn’t remember the place, and Olivia, on her booster seat carelessly spooning rice into her mouth, has never even seen it before.
“It’s not right,” their father continues firmly. “The government is using radiation to change people genetically to give them superpowers. Who’s regulating this? Who decides who gets the Enhancements and has the power and responsibility to look after the rest of the country? Who watches over them?”
“I want to be a superhero!” Felix raises both his hands, getting some rice onto Olivia, who whines, glaring at him.
“Anyway,” their mother pulls the conversation back down to Earth, giving her husband a warning eye. “We might not ever be moving back, Rachel. And your father is right, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the Enhancements or the Defenders. The project might be called off if the public goes against it. They’re not due to officially start for a few years, anyway.”
Rachel looks disappointed, and Felix immediately does the same.
They wait till bedtime to whisper about the Defenders, superheroes watching over their hometown, far, far away in South Korea, and that night, Felix dreams of flying.
*
2011
Felix is 11 when the rumours begin.
There’s a little boy on the Korean news, face ashen, dressed poorly for the bitter winter cold, escorted by big, scary men in black suits, from a car into a white concrete building.
He shivers when he looks a little closer, to see what looks like long, white snake-shaped marks, curled around the boy’s neck, barely visible due to the poor video quality.
“…rumours of the so-called Millennium Surge are running wild, after the first official announcement of the Defenders Project three years ago…power outage caused an errant burst of radioactive energy the night before the year 2000 in the region of Seoul which might have resulted in the genetic mutation…”
Felix is trying to do his homework, whilst at the same time catching bits and pieces of the news. He still can’t speak proper Korean, definitely not as well as Rachel does (but better than Olivia, who tunes out whenever their mother tries to teach her).
“…unknown percentage of children born between January and September of the year 2000……Choi Raesung, eleven years old, taken into custody this morning for suspected involvement in…”
He brightens up. There’s a sentence he knows.
“Mom!” He points at the television, excited for the excuse to escape his homework, even for a second. “That boy’s my age!”
“Do your math problems,” his mother chides, walking over to the television. She stops, staring at the screen for a while, listening to the words Felix can’t understand.
“Is he going to jail?” Felix gapes. That’s so cool. But like, bad.
His mother turns back to look at him, then. He blinks, a little uneasy – was she this pale just now? Is there something on his face?
“Mom?”
She reaches over, brushing his hair back lightly, a familiar and comforting gesture, before pulling on a bracing smile. “Do your math, okay?”
Then she hurries off, picking up her phone and going into the kitchen.
*
2014
The Defenders Project is an instant success.
14-year-old Felix stares, enraptured, at the television, watching the people in the monochrome camouflage uniforms, heavy-duty combat boots and tinted visors take to the sky, soaring like airplanes, some shooting bright beams of light or lifting things five times as heavy as themselves.
“…and Seoul welcomes our first Defenders Unit, SJU!”
“There’s going to be more of them?” Their father sighs. Business hasn’t been going too well over these few months.
Rachel still pays attention to the reports on the Defenders, even though she’s more into texting and makeup now. Olivia is sneaking broccoli off her plate into Felix’s.
Felix’s mother is watching him again, carefully. “What do you think of the Enhancements, ‘Lix-ah?”
“They’re cool,” he replies, stuffing a spoon of rice into his mouth and frowning at the influx of broccoli. Olivia sniggers into the back of her hand. “As long as the Defenders take care of us, right?”
“But what if people other than the Defenders get their hands on an Enhancement?” Rachel asks, losing interest in her phone. “That’ll be dangerous.”
Their mother nods without saying anything. Olivia starts talking about a Show and Tell presentation she’d had to make at her school, and they forget the topic and move on.
*
2017
The announcement comes out of nowhere.
“…confirmed the existence of the Millennium Surge. An estimated 0.005% of children born in 2000 are suspected to be affected…mandatory proceeding to the nearest government building for Registration and tagging…”
Felix is 17, now, thinking of cute boys, part-time jobs and college.
It’s the reason why he gets a shock when his parents talk about it over dinner that night.
“We’re moving back to Korea in a year or two,” his father says, with a wry smile. “Olivia and I will be staying a while more, Olivia to finish up school and for me to tie up the business. But Rachel, Felix and Mom will be heading back first, maybe next year or the year after next.”
Olivia grumbles and whines, but Rachel seems relatively prepared. After all, she does speak the best Korean out of the three of them. Their mother is still staring at the television, lips moving wordlessly to the report on the screen that Felix still can’t understand.
Rachel catches her mother’s gaze, and starts looking, too, though, so he suspects it must be something important. His Korean has improved enough for him to converse properly without tripping over every other sentence, but he still can’t understand the technical terms loaded into the subtitles blinking across the screen. The thought weighs heavy in his head, as he eats the rest of his dinner – how’s he going to get a uni placement like this? Or even a job?
Felix slumps down into bed that night, listening to Olivia sulking in her room next door and their father doing the dishes downstairs.
Rachel comes into his room, carrying a blazer. She’s almost done with college, now, she’ll be graduating next year. Life is moving too fast for Felix – what about his friends, here? What about school? He was this close to topping his standard for Bio, this close to getting to teach his own choreo with his dance crew – he’d just gotten the number of that cute boy in his Calculus class, for crying out loud.
“’Lix-ah,” his sister says seriously. “You should start learning Korean.”
“Yeah,” he grumbles, throwing an arm over his face. “Don’t remind me.”
“Did you hear what was on the news just now?”
“Huh?”
She doesn’t say anything for a moment, just watching him pensively, cocking her head, like she’s trying to see him from a new angle. “Uhm, nothing,” she lifts her phone. “Here’s some language apps you can download, they teach you real fast.”
Felix suffers through months of home Korean tuition amidst high school graduation, and eventually picks up some semblance of the language as his friends all start to apply for colleges and universities, thanks to Rachel’s hard work.
It’s a year later when he thinks about the Defenders again, staring up at the ceiling, a month before they’re supposed to leave forever.
Maybe Korea doesn’t sound so bad, after all.
*
2019
Felix enters Yonsei University later than his same-age peers. He kills himself studying for the entrance exam, and somehow, by the skin of his teeth, manages to get a place. His Korean still leaves some things to be desired and there’s parts of the culture he’s still trying to get used to, but lying on his bed in a cheery, year-old apartment in Korea, thinking of everything he’s managed so far, this isn’t so bad.
“We’re so proud of you,” his mother gushes in her own quiet way when he moves into the university dorm, amidst the bustle of students doing the same around him. Rachel is already wrinkling her nose at the dust, inspecting everything in his new single room. “Remember to call us often, okay? And come visit us, we’re just over an hour away by train.”
“It’s just university, I’m not dying,” Felix grins, hugging both of them. “See you soon.”
Life is simple, for now.