Chapter Text
“How much do you love me?”
The question is asked as the world burns down.
As fire ignites around them and the Great War comes to its climax. The cries of the wounded sound from under their ledge, guttural screams as bodies from both sides are dismembered—as both pure and adulterated blood are spilled into the oceans below. The waters are colored black, the sky is an ashy gray. The blood moon rises in place of the sun, the world is shadowed by death.
He asks the question again, “How much?”
“More than words can you describe.”
“Enough to make a sacrifice?”
No hesitation, “Anything.”
“What if I asked you to die for me?”
“I would in a heartbeat.”
“What if I asked you to die with me?”
He knew the other couldn’t stand the idea of him dying, “If… that was what you really wanted.”
“What if I asked you to kill me?”
“No.” The answer was final. No room for debate.
Still, he asked, “I can’t exist in a world without you. If dying was the only way to stay with you, would you kill me?”
“No… There’s no world where your blood would be on my hands.” The other paused, “Our plan will work, I won’t need to kill you—not that I could. You’re too precious to me.”
“As are you,” he laughed bittersweetly. “I love you way too much. Look at what it did to the world.”
“Then fuck the world,” The other took his hands, brining them to his chest—where a heartbeat should’ve been. “I’ll follow you to the afterlife, to hell, the in-between—”
“Do you really mean that?” He moves the hands to his face, then slowly they bring their foreheads together.
“With all my being,” the other breathes. “I would follow you anywhere.”
This is a love story that culminates at the end of mankind.
As the Great War brings humanity’s most powerful creatures into insatiable bloodlust that would result in an irreversible destruction of planet Earth, two souls share a final kiss.
In the horizon, an army of light descends with Heaven’s blessing.
~*~
“SOOBIN, RUN!”
Taehyun’s voice was airy, completely out-of-breath as he pushed the baton into Soobin’s eager hands, feet already getting ready to bolt. Fingers wrapping securely around the metal stick, Soobin willed his feet to gather up all his energy and launch himself forwards.
Kang Taehyun was fast, incredibly fast. He was the smallest one on their four person relay team (not that any of them were short since Taehyun stood at a whopping 5”11), but he moved like a squirrel. Precise, agile, speedy . He was the reason Soobin was currently in first place, ready to cross the finish line even as his teammates were slowly catching up.
Run, Soobin.
On the edge of the track, he vaguely heard his other two relay partners shouting obscenities at him. Beomgyu was screaming for Soobin to move his ass, whereas Kai the angel was just using all his might to cheer Soobin on. He felt a pang of embarrassment at the theatrics, but used the motivation to go faster. Just a little faster.
Run. Get the baton over the finish line. Just a little faster—
In his peripheral vision, he could see his opponents slowly gaining on him, and Soobin knew the head start Taehyun, Beomgyu, and Kai had given him weren’t going to be enough if Soobin didn’t power through. His legs were going numb, the pounding of his sneakers on the pavement the only sensation he could hone in on.
Run, run, run .
The person to his immediate left had caught up. They were neck in neck. The shouting from his teammates had reached incredible volumes, Soobin felt his heart pounding inside his skull, like at any moment, his insides would stream out of his body in a mushy goop. By now, all the opponents had caught up to him, all four runners sprinting towards the finish line.
40 meters…
30 meters…
Taehyun had joined Beomgyu and Kai on the sidelines, all three of his dongsaengs screaming their heads off. Soobin kept running.
20 meters…
10 meters…
Run, Soobin, run, Soobin, RUN!
He threw his chest out a second too late as all four runners bounded over the finish line—Soobin hurdled several meters past the finish line, crumbling so his knees hit the synthetic rubber of the track.
He groaned, rolling onto his back in a reverse child’s pose as he worked to catch his breath. Above him, the sun shone directly into his eyes, and Soobin cringed, feeling the sweat trickle down his forehead in little beads.
He was graced with a few seconds of peace to calm the ringing in his head before he was toppled upon by his three dongsaengs with a resounding “Soobin hyung!”
“H–Have the times come out?” he heaved, still trying to catch his breath.
“Not yet,” Taehyun said. “Coach Jeon is still getting them.”
“How close was it?”
“Incredibly,” said Beomgyu. “It looked like a four-way tie.”
Huening Kai nodded, “Hyung, that was the fastest I’ve ever seen you run!”
“You were awesome!” Taehyun agreed. “It’s never been that close before, you’ve improved so much.”
Soobin felt a pang of pride, closing his eyes with his head still on the track ground. After a few moments, his calves stopped vibrating from over exertion and he managed to sit up. The four of them watched eagerly as Coach Jeon finished tallying the times.
They held their breaths in anticipation as the Coach said. “Amazing improvement everybody, especially Soobin. That was your fastest time all year by almost 5 whole seconds!”
Taehyun, Beomgyu, and Kai cheered beside him, clapping Soobin’s back. Soobin’s eyes were wide with shock. Was there a chance? Perhaps…
“The fastest time goes to Heeseung, Jay, Sunghoon, and Jake.” Coach Jeon said. “The rest of you were only a few seconds off. Remember, only the fastest relay team will be able to compete at the track meet, so continue practicing until qualifiers. That’s it, you all are dismissed.”
Soobin watched the Coach congratulate Heeseung and his team, feeling only slightly bitter (that was a lie). He huffed, kicking his heel into the asphalt and trying not to make eye contact with his dongsaengs. “I thought I was fast enough this time… I really thought that was it.”
“Hyung,” Taehyun said immediately, “You did amazing! You heard the Coach, you cut off almost 5 seconds off your average time. That itself is incredible.”
“But it’s not enough,” Soobin said glumly. “I’m sorry… maybe you guys should find someone else—”
“Hyung don’t be ridiculous,” Kai interrupted. “We talked about this, we aren’t replacing you.”
“But we only have two more practices before the track meet,” Soobin insisted. “If I don’t cut off another second before qualifiers—”
“Soobin we know,” Beomgyu said, grabbing Soobin’s hand and helping him to his feet. Taehyun handed him a bottle of water which he scarfed down instantly. “We all want to qualify this year but as a team . All four of us. We have time, and you’ve been doing incredible. Just one more month, and Coach Jeon will be calling out our team’s name instead of Heeseung's.”
“Did one of you loser’s say my name?”
“Speak of the devil…” Beomgyu grumbled, rolling his eyes. They all turned to look at the lanky, sly-faced boy with a permanent sneer etched into his face.
Lee Heeseung snickered, “Did you say something Boogers?” he taunted. Beomgyu growled but kept mum. “I heard some mumbling from this side. Which one of you needs to wash my pretty name out of your mouth?”
“Talk about self absorbed,” Taehyun jibed. “And fucking annoying.”
“What was that, four-eyes?” This came from Jay.
“I don’t even wear glasses!” Taehyun admonished.
“Glasses would make you even more of a four-eyes.”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” Taehyun said in exasperation. “Talking to you four makes me lose brain cells, holy shit .”
“As much as I’d love to keep entertaining you losers,” Heeseung said. “The boys and I are going out for drinks. Early celebration, you know? Since we will be the ones representing our school at the track meet. Sucks since the three of you,” he points a finger at Beomgyu, Taehyun, and Kai, “actually have talent. It’s that idiot that’s bringing you down—” he pushed past Beomgyu and shoved Soobin back to the ground.
“You fucking shut your mouth,” Beomgyu hissed, standing up right in Heeseung’s face. “How dare you touch him!”
Taehyun and Kai were beside Beomgyu in an instant, Soobin still on the ground trying to get his bearings.
“It’s not like he said anything wrong,” Sunghoon shrugged. “Your team would be a thousand times better if you just dropped him. He’s showed minimal improvement with only a few weeks left till qualifiers—”
“And what’s it to you?” Kai barked. “Why the fuck do you guys care? His progress is beyond acceptable. Admirable even. Besides, if he doesn't make qualifiers, then you guys will. So what is the issue?”
“It’s fucking embarrasing,” Heeseung spat, and Soobin looked away in shame, rising to his feet.
“He’s bringing our entire team down!” said Jay. “He’s consistently been the slowest on our team, every single week! Always at the bottom of the rankings—”
“For fucking short distance,” Beomgyu said. “Jay your 5k time is atrocious, but hmmm who is always in the top five for that? That’s right, Soobin.”
“Oh well, too bad we’re not running a marathon in the qualifiers.” Heeseung sneered. “It's a 4x400 relay , you dipshits. 100 meter sprints aren’t that fucking hard.”
Taehyun groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose, “ Again , Soobin went from a 17 second sprint at the beginning of the year to almost 12 seconds just now. Give him another month, and I can guarantee you, he’ll be at 11 which—” Taehyun smirked. “Considering the rest of our times, might be enough to beat you all, Hee.”
Heeseung sucked in a breath of air, gllowering at them before saying, “Shut the fuck up. Come on guys, they aren’t worth our time.”
The four watched the boys trudge off the field and towards the locker rooms. Meanwhile, Soobin stared at the ground awkwardly, trying not to let Heeseung’s words affect him that much as he got back to his feet. He knew his improvement was negligible and well past overdue, but he had worked hard. He’d spent almost every afternoon in the grueling sun training to improve his sprint times. He worked hard, and he knew that. His friends knew that, and so did Coach Jeon.
Despite all that, still falling a few milliseconds short was disheartening to say the least.
“Hyung, are you okay?” Kai asked, and Soobin came out of his head.
“Y–Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” he huffed. “Thanks for that…”
“My blood is still boiling, why the fuck did he push you like that,” Beomgyu seethed. “Dipshitted asshole . When I get my hands on his fucking face—”
“Beomgyu,” Soobin warned.
“No Soobin,” Beomgyu snapped. “He can’t treat you like that. Where the fuck is your self-respect?”
Soobin winced, because ouch that hurt. Beomgyu seemed to realize that too because he sighed.
“Sorry, that was out of pocket—”
“No, it’s… you’re right,” Soobin laughed sheepishly. “I really don’t have any self-respect.”
“Soobin…” Beomgyu said, almost pitifully. Desperate. “I didn’t mean that.”
“It’s still true,” Soobin brought his palm to his forearms, rubbing there and hugging himself a bit. “I freeze up… I can barely say anything to them without sounding like I don’t mean it.”
“Cause you don’t,” Kai said, rubbing Soobin’s belly. “You’re too nice to insult them back.”
“Beomgyu has a point through, hyung,” Taehyun said. “They don’t deserve your kindness.”
Soobin shrugged, not wanting to think about this anymore. He gestured towards the locker rooms, “You three go on ahead, I’m going to stretch out a bit more before heading home.”
“A–Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” he insisted, gently nudging Taehyun (who was closest to him) in that direction. “My calves are still tingling, I haven’t really cooled down properly yet.”
“Hyung…”
“Really,” Soobin said, even adding a good-natured chuckle. “I’ll be fine, you guys go.”
They looked dubious, but Soobin stood his ground. Eventually Taehyun nodded, tossing Soobin’s water bottle back towards him. Kai gave him another belly rub, and Beomgyu squeezed his shoulder, mumbling another apology.
Soobin shook his head, “No, seriously thank you guys for always standing up for me.”
“What are best friends for?” Beomgyu smiled, patting Soobin’s shoulder before the three headed towards the locker rooms, leaving Soobin on the track.
Once they disappeared through the locker room doors, Soobin collapsed onto the turf of the football field beside the track. He took in several deep breaths, mind meandering through Heeseung’s words.
“Embarrassing.”
Soobin wiped his brow and decided to be productive and actually do what he said he’d do. He collected his phone from its place on the sidelines and pulled up a cooldown stretch video on YouTube, following along as the sun set in the horizon. A cool breeze replaced the hot air around him as the sky darkened.
Practice had officially ended at 6pm, and it was well past 7 now.
The field was barren except for him.
Or… at least it should’ve been.
As Soobin gathered his belongings to pack up for the day, he heard some shuffling coming from the locker room complex. Glancing up, he saw four darkened silhouettes making their way back down to the field. Soobin didn’t pay them any attention (assuming them to be students), taking a swing from his bottle to drain the last of its water. The figures got closer and for whatever reason, dread began to pool in Soobin’s stomach. Why the fuck was he nervous? It’s not like he could get mugged in the middle of school grounds. By classmates , that too.
Right?
He warily kept his eyes on the approaching boys who seemed to be coming straight towards Soobin. It’s then that Soobin recognized them to be Heeseung as his relay team.
Keep calm, Soobin commanded himself. They probably just forgot something. All… four of them. Why not?
Taking a deep breath, Soobin willed himself to appear unfazed as Heeseung approached him with a, dare he say, polite smile. Soobin knew something sinister was hiding underneath.
“Hey loser, you still here?” He said, grabbing Soobin’s empty water bottle from his hand and shaking it. “Bummer, I was thirsty.”
“Hey Heeseung,” Soobin said through a sharp exhale. “What do you want?”
“Came to talk, spending time with my favorite underdog,” Heeseung, thankfully, handed Soobin his water bottle back. Then he planted an arm across Soobin’s shoulder, making him flinch violently. “Woah, there! Easy, we just wanna have a chat.”
“About?”
“Just a friendly man to man thing,” Heeseung said with a thoughtful air to his voice, a feigned playfulness. “Teammate to teammates. Runner to runner?”
“Just hurry up and spit it out.” Soobin scoffed, trying to keep his panic at bay when he saw Jake, Jay and Sunghoon slowly encircling them.
“Oooh, feisty. Did Boogers teach you that?”
“Get off of me,” Soobin threw his arm off of him, putting as much space between them as the other boys would allow. Heeseung put his hands up, like he was trying to tame a feral beast.
“Jesus slowpoke, I was trying to be friendly.”
“You’re making me late, I have places to be,” Soobin knows he sounded utterly pathetic the moment the words were out of his mouth.
Heeseung and his gang burst out in laughter. “How precious, of course we’ll respect your time.” He narrows his eyes. “Right after I make something very clear to you.”
Before Soobin can react, two sets of strong arms coil around his torso and arms, pinning him in place. He could feel Sunghoon and Jay’s breaths against his neck as Soobin struggled in their hold. In front of him, Heeseung slowly approached him, using his fingers to grab at Soobin’s chin and harshly tilt his chin down. Honestly, their height difference should’ve been laughable, but nothing about Heeseung glowering up at him through slits for eyes was funny.
“My team is going to nationals,” he spat, fingers digging further into Soobin’s chin, making him suppress a whimper. “There’s nothing you can do in a month to change that. Train all you want, prance that fat ass of yours across every corner of the track if you think that will help you.”
“Heeseung, careful, that baby might cry,” Jake taunted from behind him, and Soobin tried to hide the tell-tale prickly feeling in his eyes.
“Honestly, how did this fag even make the team?” Heeseung scoffed, grabbing a handful of Soobin’s shirt. “Fucking crybaby.”
“Not even a crybaby,” Sunghoon laughed. “This guy can’t even make eye contact for more than two seconds. At least crybabies can do that.”
“Shy -baby, then,” Jay sneered. Soobin thought 'shybaby', which should’ve sounded endearing and laughable, felt disgustingly venomous on their tongues. It made Soobin feel dirty. It made him feel weak .
And scared.
Heeseung was thoroughly amused, “Shybaby. What do you think, loser, you like that name?”
Soobin didn’t respond, pointedly looking away from Heeseung. The latter snarled, grabbing Soobin’s face with his freehand and painfully redirecting his gaze.
“Answer me! Make fucking eye-contact—”
In one rapid motion, Soobin bent down, sinking his teeth into Heeseung’s wrist which made the boy cry out in pain. He sent his heel hurling back into Jay’s groin, making both him and Sunghoon release their holds on him. Soobin took the opportunity to immediately put some distance in between them, getting onto his feet as fast as possible and running.
Except sprinting was never his strong suit. Even with the adrenaline boost.
Jake tackled him within five seconds, and Soobin lashed out underneath him, feeling the nylon chunks of the turf digging into his skin. He heard Heeseung approaching, enraged and fuming. Jake scrambled off Soobin and was soon replaced by Heeseung who barked, “You piece of shit, you’ll fucking pay for that!” He pulled back his arm, fingers bent into a fist.
Soobin closed his eyes, bracing for the hit. For the pain…
…that never came.
On the opposite end of the field, Soobin was blinded by bright blue… headlights? And the revving of an engine as it drifted onto the football field, sending bits of turf flying dramatically around the sleek black vehicle. The image of an SUV pulling up onto the football field was enough of a shock to momentarily render Heeseung and his group frozen in incredulity.
Soobin himself was beyond confused.
And then the driver’s seat door flew open, a polished black boot coming into view, then a leg that extended forever, up and up until a torso was visible.
Then the face.
Soobin stifled a gasp, a shout, a cry of joy and surprise and melancholy.
Maybe a plea for help, because he’d 100% lost his mind. This had to be a dream.
Maybe Heeseung had already beat him up, and Soobin was going through an out of body experience.
Maybe he was seeing some elaborate hallucination and was actually at the hospital.
Maybe this was a prank.
Maybe Soobin died.
All the above was more probable than Choi Yeonjun, his childhood friend, pulling up out of nowhere onto his school’s football field in an SUV with an AK-47 assault rifle.
It seemed Heeseung and his group had also arrived at the same conclusion (minus the childhood friend part) as the former had slowly removed himself off of Soobin, eyes bloodshot and terrified.
Heeseung’s lips were trembling violently at the sight of the gun, arms coming up in a surrender gesture. “W–W–Who–Who—”
Yeonjun yawned, arms coming up above his head to stretch, casually bringing more of the assault rifle into view. “Sorry, the ride here was pretty long. Give me a moment,” click was the sound of the gun being reloaded.
Heeseung looked ready to pass out, “W–We meant no trouble—We’re about to l–leave actua—”
“Shut up,” Yeonjun groaned, massaging his temples. “Giving me a fucking headache.”
“S–Sorry—”
“I said shut your fucking mouth,” Yeonjun took a few steps forward, casually spinning his gun around as he passed Heeseung who stiffened up even more when Yeonjun brushed his shoulder. The interaction (excluding the rifle and monster-sized car) was innocent enough, but Heeseung crumbled to the ground, not daring to maintain eye contact. Yeonjun barely spared the other three boys even a second’s worth of acknowledgement before focusing his attention on Soobin.
Immediately, the menacing scowl was replaced by the same childhood innocence that Soobin remembered from… hell it had been years ago at this point. Yeonjun’s grin grew tenfold and he offered a hand out to Soobin who took it without a second thought for the rifle in Yeonjun’s other hand.
This was his childhood friend, a figure that he'd practically grown up with. Even as said friend showed up unannounced after years of minimal contact—after basically disappearing to the other side of the planet at the end of middle school.
This was Yeonjun.
Yeonjun who’d matured significantly during his time abroad.
Yeonjun whose shoulders had broadened, whose height was just a few centimeters shy of Soobin’s now, whose all-black leather outfit looked way too enticing than was socially acceptable—for fuck’s sake, the tight vest hugged all Yeonjun’s muscles in the most perfect way that (in ay other circumstance) would’ve left Soobin reduced to a pile of mush.
But there was something else. Yeonjun had always been pretty. Even as a middle schooler, Soobin always thought his friend looked like an angel—but as soon as he remembered that, angelic seemed like absolutely the wrong word to describe Yeonjun.
Yeonjun was hot now, yes, but there was something more to that. Something… darker? Something Soobin couldn’t quite put a finger on and frankly didn’t at present have the energy to think about. Maybe it was merely the fact that Yeonjun had grown up, gone through puberty, and Soobin was altogether bothered, down bad, horny, in shock, and significantly shaken up from this evening.
Still, Soobin couldn’t shake off the fact that Yeonjun looked almost unrecognizable. And then there was the fucking gun in his hand. The assault rifle . And the whole car facade.
Psychotic.
That was the word. Soobin almost felt scared.
Then Yeonjun smiled. A real smile. The smile that Soobin remembered from his childhood. He realized their hands were still clasped.
And Soobin couldn’t help himself, he threw himself onto his friend, arms wrapping around the elder’s neck.
“Hyung…” he mumbled, voice muffled as he buried his face into Yeonjun’s hair.
“Soobin-ah, hey,” Yeonjun said, hand coming around to hold Soobin against his chest. A hand was rubbing circles into Soobin’s back, Yeonjun turning his head to kiss Soobin’s temple—and Soobin almost keened, heart jumping out of his chest.
He’d almost forgotten about the existence of the rifle until he felt the cold metal graze against his shirt. He shivered, and Yeonjun pulled away.
“Hyung,” Soobin said again, wariness and concern leaking into his voice. “Hyung what the fuck—”
“Shh,” Yeonjun silenced him, hand coming up to cup Soobin’s cheek. And if that wasn’t both a sufficient and extremely effective way to shut Soobin up, Yeonjun’s thumb trickled over, just a ghost of touch away from touching Soobin’s bottom lip.
Immobile. Soobin was rendered immobile. Unable to do more than stare at Yeonjun.
Heeseung let out a croak, and like a light switch was turned on, the deathly glare was back in Yeonjun’s eyes as he whipped his head in their direction. The hand on Soobin’s face felt both ice cold and burning hot, but maybe Soobin was imagining that.
“I don’t give a shit about you four,” Yeonjun said simply. “Whether you walk out of here alive or dead, doesn’t matter to me. But, I’d rather not have the military after me within 24 hours of being in this country so let’s agree on a compromise.” The hand dropped from Soobin’s face, and Yeonjun practically frolicked over to Heeseung who’d resorted to curling in on himself. “You stay away from Soobinnie, or I’ll cut your fucking hand off for touching him. Agreed?”
Heeseung didn’t answer right away, choking on his breath when Yeonjun pushed the butt of the rifle right in between Heeseung’s collarbones. “Y–Yes–Yes, Y—”
“Get the fuck out of my sight.” Yeonjun growled.
In an instant, all four boys scrambled to their feet like they'd all been released from a spell. They practically sprinted off of the football field, and in a moment of irony and cynicism Soobin realized that those four were definitely fast.
Much faster than him.
Soobin’s shoulders hung glumly, but then Yeonjun’s eyes were back on him and Soobin snapped back to reality because what the actual fuck?? How the hell was Yeonjun back in Korea? Why was Yeonjun back in Korea? Last he’d heard from the elder, his family had permanently relocated to the States… So why was he back?
And of course, there were the more superficial questions like holy shit , Yeonjun could drive?? Yeonjun had a gun? The gun, goodness, why did Yeonjun have a gun?? How did he even get an American assault rifle through airport security? Why was he carrying it—
Soobin gasped, “Hyung, are you in danger? Are you okay?”
Yeonjun blinked at him, then burst out laughing. He dropped the gun onto the turf, coming back to Soobin to embrace him and the younger felt his arms wrap around the elder almost instantly. The hug was intimate, personal, a transferral of something unspoken.
Yeonjun sighed, Soobin felt a tickle by his neck. Was Yeonjun… breathing him in? “I could hear the questions inside your pretty head, and that’s the one you decide to ask? Not even a ‘ How the fuck did you find me hyung?’ but instead asking me if I’m okay?” Yeonjun sounded teasing, leaning back to inspect Soobin. A gentle hand ran through Soobin’s hair, and the latter leaned into the touch. “Always so caring. So kind.”
Soobin grumbled sheepishly, feeling patronized, “I’m kinda in shock hyung, can you blame me?”
“Guess not,” Yeonjun pulled them even closer, as if that was possible. Their chests were flush against each other now, and Soobin tried to ignore how he could feel Yeonjun’s abs against his stomach. How he could feel a lot more than that if he focused on the area below their torsos. “I’ll explain everything. Later. Not today. For now, can I crash at your place? I need a place to stay.”
Soobin really wanted to protest, the main motivator being that damned rifle sitting inconspicuously on the football turf. Just a few feet away from them. In fact, the smart thing to do would be to call the police and have them figure out whatever the fuck had just happned.
Instead, a fraction of a second passed before Soobin wholeheartedly agreed with an, “Of course, hyung,” and followed Yeonjun back to his black SUV.