#02 - for judysaurus, from your secret santa!
Title: Dealing with the villains, I’ll be your foxman
For: judysaurus
Pairing/Focus: jinyoung/cnu
Rating: pg13
Word Count: 8k
Summary: Sunwoo likes to call it a call-center, where you order a hooker to help you out. In a way he is right, except the hookers are superheroes and the helping out is definitely not related to anything sexual.
Notes/Warnings: Hopefully this comes close to what you wanted. Thanks for giving me so many prompts - even though I might have cursed you a couple of times because I had ideas for every prompt - after this I will be busy finishing the other things I started based on your prompts (so really, thank you for giving me inspiration). Merry Christmas!
pony canyon is a place full of modern buildings, new technology and every futuristic thing that isn't supposed to exist yet. that's why nobody knows where pony canyon is exactly - there isn't a sign that says welcome to pony canyon when you cross the border. no, it's hidden and exclusive, and the only way people know it exists is because of the business cards and advertisements everywhere.
sunwoo likes to call it a call-center, where you order a hooker to help you out. in a way he is right, except the hookers are superheroes and the helping out is definitely not related to anything sexual (okay, maybe that happens to every hero once or twice, but it's a rule to pretend it doesn't).
they're superheroes who save the earth, one little problem at the time. successfully. most times.
+
if he says so himself, jinyoung is quite a successful hero. he’s saved a countless amount of puppies and kittens, prevented little kids from falling into ponds, solved arguments between couples and last week he even got to save someone out of a fire (it was this kid on campus who set his kitchen on fire and technically jinyoung wasn't on duty, but the instinct - he just had to go and save him).
sunwoo on the other hand, is not that successful. he stumbled upon pony canyon by accident, or on purpose, but he was never supposed to be part of the program. he didn't have the natural instinct that made him want to save people, he thought the whole training was one big joke, yet he still completed the whole year. being a superhero was sort of special, after all.
the trainers didn't have too much faith in sunwoo being alright by himself, so jinyoung and chansik were appointed as babysitters. chansik, because he inherited all the right genes (or simply because he was born into a superheroes' family and had been saving people since he was three) and jinyoung was there because sunwoo wouldn't listen to anyone younger than him, even if they were some super-super-superhero with superhero genes.
despite all the rumors, superheroes didn't actually live in pony canyon. the place was just one big training area with a prison for the villains and a huge alarm centre. that was all. the superheroes lived among the normal people, never saying a word about who they really were.
when chansik was old enough to get into college, all of them moved into a dorm together. jinyoung only had one year left, but it was more convenient like this. no need to worry about roommates as he had to change into his superhero attire, or open his interactive screen in private. if anyone came into their dorm, they would think they walked right onto the set of some superheroes movie. it's just the way they lived.
+
jinyoung is in the middle of lecture when he feels his phone vibrating inside his pocket. it's not the regular buzz of you've got a message, no it's the buzz of it's superhero time (buzz buzz - pause - buzz buzz buzz - pause - buzz). he calmly puts his stuff in his bag and gets up, walking out with the excuse of having a terrible headache.
he starts running once he's out of the building, hopping over a fence to take the shortcut to his dorm. once he's opening the door of his room, he gets his phone out of his pocket and reads the message. someone's stuck in the elevator in the library. huh.
shaking sunwoo's bed on his way to the bathroom, he calls out a good morning. “why aren't you out of bed yet?” he asks, taking his clothes off. he puts on his tights, making a face as the fabric squeezes his junk tightly and sees sunwoo is slowly crawling back under his covers. “seriously get up. my alarm just went off, you want to help me out?”
sunwoo just makes an incoherent sound, before he peeks from under the covers. “and look as ridiculous as you in those tights? no, thanks.”
jinyoung scoffs, holding the cape in his hands and wondering if he should go with or without it today. it's a bit windy, so if he's just standing, people will surely remember the cool hero with the cape, but flying with this wind and a cape might be a little dangerous. he decides against it and puts on his mask instead, blinking a little to get used to the feeling of something covering half of his head. “whatever you say man. just get up, we're grabbing lunch at that new place later.”
as he opens the window, he hears a murmur of agreement and something about salmon, then he jumps out and flies off to save some people.
+
some people turns out to be one guy. who's stuck in the library's elevator. and called pony canyon to help him out. heroes aren't just there for the exciting stuff.
“i think i might be a little claustrophobic,” the guy explains, wiping the sweat from his forehead. jinyoung peeks at him through the small gap he managed to create by pushing the elevator doors apart a little and he smiles an encouraging smile, hoping that the guy can see it.
“you're going to be fine, i'll get you out of here in no time.” jinyoung knows he shouldn't be lying to victims (first rule learned at the training), but the guy looks like he needed those words. truth is, jinyoung really doesn't know how to get the guy out. normally he would tear open the doors of the elevator, but new policies don't allow them to do that anymore. apparently their budget got cut and their main goal was to get the victims safe as soon as possible, as cheap as possible. so no tearing doors apart for him.
he really wishes chansik was with him right now, because he could use the help if he's being honest. chansik has saved people from elevators multiple times, so he knows the most efficient way to get them out. jinyoung tried calling the boy, but he was on a mission himself so he couldn't help.
jinyoung takes a deep breath and evaluates the situation. he could call pony canyon's help service, but even if he got hold of someone other than a machine, it would go on his record and he would never be able to do some actual missions. not that he didn't like helping people, but seriously? elevators or saving people out of a burning house? he knew what to pick.
that leaves him with one option. “hey, what's your name?”
“dongwoo.”
“okay, dongwoo. i'm going to the next floor and fly through the lift shaft, so i can get you out of here. i'll be gone for a bit, but -” he sees the guy freaking out and he tries to make his voice as soothing as possible, “-but i will get you out of here. it will only take a minute or two. alright, dongwoo?”
+
it actually takes him ten minutes to get to a floor where the elevator doors do open, but after that it's easy. he flies down towards the elevator, avoiding the electric cables and cutting the top of the elevator open. he sees dongwoo looking up at him with big eyes as he lowers himself into the cabin.
“hey, i told you i would get you out of here.”
“we're not out yet,” dongwoo says, wry smile on his face. and okay, that was true, but shouldn't the guy at least be a little grateful he was here?
“yeah okay. alright. eh. can you stand up?” jinyoung looks at dongwoo expectantly, who hesitantly gets up. the cabin shakes a little and dongwoo looks at him wide-eyed.
“we're not going to fall are we? oh god, what if the cables can't hold on any longer and we just crash down - i'm going to die, right? this is not - this is - i can't -”
jinyoung tentatively reaches out, patting the guy's arm. dongwoo immediately clings to his hand, still going on about crashing and dying and jinyoung can't help but sigh. “it's going to be fine, don't worry. just -” he looks between the gap in the ceiling and dongwoo, immediately dismissing his initial plan of helping dongwoo climb through it himself. that wouldn't be safe, seeing as the boy can barely keep himself upright right now. “hold onto me,” he says eventually.
dongwoo looks at him questioningly, his fingers clenching around jinyoung's arm even tighter. “what?”
“come here,” jinyoung mutters, taking two small steps forward. he pries dongwoo's fingers of his arm, slowly moving them until dongwoo's arms are around his neck and he's holding dongwoo around the waist. “i'm going to...fly through that gap,” he's not sure on the how just yet, “so you will need to hold onto me real tight, okay?”
dongwoo just nods, breathing unsteadily.
“it's going to be alright.” jinyoung's heart clenches a little as dongwoo lets out a whimper. “i'll count to three and then i'll jump up, so don't let go.” after dongwoo lets out a shaky okay, jinyoung starts counting down. on three he bends his knees and then they're moving towards the gap, and oh fuck they're never going to fit through the gap like this they're going to get stuck or bruised or god knows what and shit this isn't - “oh.” jinyoung pretends he didn't say that in surprise.
+
it isn't normal courtesy to stay behind after saving a victim and all (because the risk of people finding out your real identity is too big), but dongwoo looks so shaky and pale, that jinyoung can't bring himself to leave. if the board ever mentions it, he will just say that he was looking out for his victim's well-being. everyone knows it's rude to fly off after saving someone.
dongwoo is huddled under a bunch of blankets, cup of coffee in his hands, as he stares at the table. the only thing he did after jinyoung saved him, was calling his roommate, but he just did that after jinyoung kept telling him he needed someone to take him home.
jinyoung tells himself he's just waiting around until said roommate arrives, but there's something about dongwoo that makes him want to stay around and make sure he's okay.
which is really pathetic and he will never tell sunwoo that, because if there's one thing he will never forget, it's the rule of not getting attached to your victims. the whole thing about superman and lois clarke - yeah, one big fat lie and it's never going to happen in real life. victims and superheroes aren't supposed to mix up and that's that.
so really, jinyoung should leave.
“so...are you feeling a little better?”
dongwoo looks up, pushing his glasses up his nose and nods slowly. “i think so. still a little shaky, i guess.”
“good thing you had a card of pony canyon with you, god knows how long you would've been stuck there otherwise.” not a good thing to say. dongwoo's eyes get wide and the shaking gets worse. “i mean, you know...” jinyoung trails off. “sorry. that's not what - i'm just glad you're out of there.” smooth.
“yeah. me too.” dongwoo gets that lost look on his face again, which makes jinyoung lean forward and stroke his arm reassuringly.
“you're alright now. it's going to be fine. just take some rest after you get home and forget about this whole thing.” and apparently that is a good thing to say, because dongwoo gives him a small smile, taking another sip of his coffee.
“thanks for saving me,” dongwoo says, flashing him a genuine smile, making jinyoung blush slightly under the mask (it's not blushing, he's just flushed because wearing a mask for two hours does that to you).
“no worries, it's my job.”
+
“dude, wake up - come on, i need your help.”
jinyoung groans, putting his pillow over his head as he tries to ignore sunwoo's attempt to wake him up properly. he just wants to go back to sleep. his body is aching all over because he fell down from a tree while trying to rescue a very aggressive kitten yesterday (he was too shocked to try and float in the air, okay) and he is not in the mood for whatever sunwoo wants him to do.
“come on - ugh you're so annoying when you aren't trying to save kittens out of trees.” sunwoo starts shaking his shoulders, kicking his shins and yelling into his ear.
“alright, alright, i'm up,” he grumbles, pushing sunwoo away from him, smiling in satisfaction when sunwoo hits the opposite wall. jinyoung should really learn to control his powers in the morning. he sits up, scratching his chest and shakes his head to clear his head. “why did you wake me up?”
“what the fuck,” sunwoo says, trying to get up from behind the bed. “i take back my words. you aren't annoying, you are a fucking bastard in the morning.” jinyoung raises an eyebrow and waits for sunwoo to continue. “seriously. ugh. now you really need to help me out.”
“what did you do?”
“you say it like i get in trouble all the time. besides, i didn't do anything yet. you need to help me out, i got a mission and they said there was fire, which is pretty fucking cool because they asked me to do it, not chansik or you.”
“why are you still here? go fight fire. or something.” jinyoung lets himself fall back on the bed, his eyes already closing and then sunwoo starts shaking him again.
“come on, i've never done something like this before. just tell me what to do and then you can stand at the sidelines and help me in case i do something wrong.”
“oh no, that does the trick.” jinyoung yawns, rolling his eyes. “ask chansik.”
“i am not asking the kid to help me out. come on.”
“no.”
“come oooon.”
“no.”
a sigh. “please?”
+
the only reason jinyoung's here is because sunwoo said please. he never says please. he simply didn't know how to deal with this somewhat polite sunwoo.
“i got called out for a kid who set his fucking microwave on fire?”
somewhat polite being the keywords here. jinyoung frowns, looking around the room. something seems very familiar. then there's a squeak and it suddenly hits him.
“junghwan?” the boy whirls around, the small fire lunging towards sunwoo with the sudden move of air and then sunwoo's cape is on fire. jinyoung really shouldn't laugh, but he's still not fully awake and this situation is very funny for some reason. he holds the wall as junghwan keeps apologizing while sunwoo keeps slapping at his cape. and then someone's coughing next to him and he comes face to face with dongwoo.
“hi.”
dongwoo lifts an eyebrow, looking at the fire and then at jinyoung in confusion. “shouldn't you help?”
“no, it's not really my mi-” right, he isn't supposed to tell non-heroes about missions or anything superheroes-related-stuff. “i - yes, i should. i -” he vaguely motions towards the chaos in the small kitchen, before he darts into the hallway, grabbing a fire extinguisher out of nowhere (one of the many perks of being a superhero - one call and you get helpful things popping out of nowhere) and moves back into the room. he quickly puts the fire out, thinking the solution to all of this is just a simple rule for all students to have a fire extinguisher in their room, and he glares at sunwoo.
junghwan interrupts their little mind-fighting by darting around the room, moaning about not knowing how to get a new microwave and jinyoung just smiles.
“at least we managed to put out the fire and you're safe.”
“my microwave.”
sunwoo rolls his eyes and opens his mouth to say something, but jinyoung has already moved an hand over his mouth. “well, if you would excuse us, we're going back to our other hero duties.”
“no, no,” junghwan says, moving his hands all over the place. “i need to thank you. this is the second time you saved me. not you, i don't know you,” he says as sunwoo smiles brightly and points at himself. “let me at least give you breakfast or something, seeing as i probably called you out of bed. do heroes even sleep? or are you like robots who just need to charge their battery every once in a while? oh, so pony canyon is just this huge fabric where superhero robots are made?”
“i - we're supposed to go back now,” he says at the same time as sunwoo says “of course, we'd like breakfast.”
it's silent for a couple of seconds, before junghwan starts moving around again, saying something about getting dressed and after a couple of minutes filled with awkward silence (and jinyoung checking dongwoo out), junghwan's back.
“okay, let's go.”
+
wearing your hero's attire and sitting in the middle of a restaurant at 11am is a bit weird. and awkward. and highly inappropriate. all jinyoung's protests get ignored by junghwan or stopped by sunwoo, so he can't do much about it.
“so...how long have you guys been doing this?” junghwan asks.
jinyoung shrugs, they're not really supposed to answer those kind of questions, but sunwoo is already babbling. “around two years? not including the training that is. and i've only been really active since this year. this guy though,” he pats jinyoung on the chest, “has been saving the earth since he finished his training.”
“do you guys have names?” when both jinyoung and sunwoo raise their eyebrows, junghwan flushes. “of course you have names. i know. but i mean - hero names? like what do people call you when they see you?”
“nothing really,” jinyoung says before sunwoo can say anything. it's a discussion they've had before, multiple times even, and it always ends up in sunwoo threatening to write a letter to the board about how unfair it is they don't have a name. “only the real, well known heroes get a name. like neokill, evil rose, gigglehound...people need to know their names, because they're actually doing something useful. the other heroes, like us -”
“you're useful too.” dongwoo locks eyes with jinyoung. “it may not seem important to you, but saving us - that makes you a hero too.”
jinyoung can't look away from the intent look dongwoo gives him. eventually he snaps out of it when sunwoo kicks him under the table. he coughs, then nods. “i guess it's important. it just isn't worth a name.”
“but there are three of you in this area right? because i've only seen one other hero apart from you two.”
“yes.” jinyoung doesn't really see where junghwan is going with this. he just hopes it isn't-
“we need to give you three a name then. because you're the heroes here and people need to know who to thank.
jinyoung sighs.
+
by the time they had left the restaurant, half of the campus knew about them. foxman, squirrel prince and captain pup. apparently junghwan thought they all resembled animals and that was the best way to remember them by, so there. the names were formed and the next day people would clap them on their back, muttering about how foxman did such a great job saving that kitten from the tree and captain pup actually managed to save three people from falling into the water. and people assumed squirrel prince was their mascot. jinyoung couldn't bother to tell them they were wrong.
after a couple of days, posters appeared on the walls and billboards, people were asking for hugs and autographs and mothers were dying to get a picture of their kids with the awesome three. needless to say, when jinyoung came back from classes that afternoon (taking his time because it was nice to walk around with nobody recognizing him for once), chansik and sunwoo were already waiting on the couch, the interactive screen showing a scowling trainer.
jinyoung really couldn't be bothered to listen to the conversation - he had two essays to write, three books to read and his alarm would probably go off in the middle of revising, so he just nodded along with everything the board said and sighed in relief when the call ended. all he understood was that they had to keep a low profile, try to spend as little time with future victims as possible and they had to stay out of trouble.
chansik glared at him and sunwoo, telling them it was their fault to get involved with their victims in the first place, but jinyoung just ignored them. “i'm actually here to study, so if you can just back off and continue this conversation after i've finished this shitload of homework...” and of course, that's when his alarm went off.
+
“we really need to stop meeting like this,” jinyoung says, looking at the camera that shows dongwoo shivering in the corner of the elevator. he knows the other boy can hear him, because he lifts his head and groans.
“it's not my fault these stupid elevators stop working once i'm inside.”
jinyoung nods his head in agreement, realizing that dongwoo can't hear him and speaking into the microphone again. “yeah, i know. we should file a complaint about it.” when dongwoo doesn't reply, he straightens his shoulders. “i'll be right there, okay?”
this time he actually knows where to go, so it only takes him two minutes to get to dongwoo. but those two minutes were probably too long, because dongwoo looks up at him with tears in his eyes.
“i really don't like this,” he says, furiously rubbing his eyes. “i knew i wasn't fond of small places, but this is not working for me at all. at this rate i won't be able to take the elevator anymore.”
jinyoung squats down, awkwardly patting dongwoo's arm. “those elevators are shitty, but not all elevators are like that. the university just doesn't have enough money to upgrade the ones in this building. maybe you should take the stairs next time?”
“too many stairs,” dongwoo complains, looking up at jinyoung. “can't i just call for help whenever i need to be in this building? when i need to do research, you can just stay by my side and fly me to the different floors.”
“it's good to hear you can still joke around,” jinyoung laughs, taking dongwoo's hands in his to pull him up. “come on, let's get you out of here.”
+
“so, foxman.” jinyoung cringes at the name automatically, he will never get used to it. dongwoo grins, taking a sip of his drink. “okay, if you're not comfortable with me calling you that, you will just have to give me your real name.”
jinyoung raises an eyebrow, then shakes his head. “no, f-fo-foxman is alright.” he scowls as dongwoo laughs at him. “shut up.”
“okay. foxman. i was just wondering about something. just tell me if you can't answer it, but...you guys being here, keeping the place safe. why are you here? and not somewhere else?”
jinyoung shrugs. “we just got assigned to this place.”
“don't you have a say in where you go at all? what about your family and friends then?”
he knows he should stick to the story he was taught during the training, but something makes him want to tell dongwoo the truth. or part of the truth anyway. “if you ever tell this to someone else, i will have to kill you. heroes are assigned to an area close to where they used to live. my family actually doesn't live near here, but...i was already admitted to the university before training started. so they assigned me here.”
dongwoo nods. “so you're just a regular student then?”
oops. maybe he had been too honest. “no.”
“hmm, i bet you are.”
“i'm going to get in so much trouble,” jinyoung mutters, scowling at the table. when he looks up, dongwoo is grinning at him. dongwoo pretends to zip his lips and jinyoung shakes his head. “okay, that was enough for today. i should get going.”
“sure. thanks for saving me, foxman.”
jinyoung stands up, ignoring the way dongwoo looks at him intently as he untangles his cape. taking a deep breath (and making a mental note to fly into a couple of trees later), he leans closer to dongwoo and whispers “jinyoung.”
+
to his surprise, he doesn't get a phone call from the board. it might be because they saw him flinging himself into five threes on the way home, or because they simply didn't hear his little slip up. which wasn't really a slip up, so he might be a little confused.
+
the next couple of weeks aren't that busy. either the board is giving them an easy time because they know exams are coming up, or people are simply staying out of trouble. there's only one person that needs their help constantly and it's become a little routine between the three of them. they're rotating shifts, so that everyone has enough time to study, eat and sleep while saving the person from whatever trouble he has gotten himself into.
“he gets a little clumsy when he's stressed and nervous.” dongwoo looks at junghwan, who's sitting on the couch with a blanket wrapped around himself.
jinyoung takes a sip from his tea and smiles as junghwan burns his tongue on a sip of hot chocolate. he holds out a glass of water immediately, ignoring how junghwan protests. “come on, you don't want to have a sore tongue while revising.”
junghwan accepts the glass eventually, saying “i should never have befriended superheroes.”
his arm stops mid-air, the tea sloshing inside the cup, as he gapes at junghwan. jinyoung had gotten used to the idea of having sunwoo and chansik as his only friends for the rest of his life, because it was common knowledge that heroes only befriended other heroes. even if they lived a double life - they didn't try to interact with other people. but here he was, in the dorm of a guy who's life he had saved at least ten times already (depending on how you define saving someone's life), who told him they were friends.
“i think you broke him,” jinyoung hears dongwoo say and he snaps his head towards the sound. perhaps dongwoo thought they were friends too.
“did i do something wrong?” junghwan asks in a small voice. chansik had discovered the trick of puppy eyes and used it on him all the time, but instead of getting immune to it, jinyoung only got weaker when faced with those eyes. junghwan makes a very cute puppy too.
“no, it's not - you - we.” jinyoung coughs. “we're friends?”
junghwan slowly nods, tilting his head to the side. “you saved my life,” he says the words slowly, as if contemplating what will be the right thing to say, “and you show up here. and stay behind and talk to me. you let me give you guys names. despite me needing your help all the time, you guys never protest. and don't say it's your job, because i saw you never stayed behind after helping other people.”
when he puts it like that, jinyoung sets his cup on the table, running the past couple of weeks through his head. maybe they learned the wrong things in training. maybe it was just a way to protect themselves, to avoid getting caught up in a web of lies. junghwan was right though - he didn't mind staying behind after helping, he enjoyed making small talk and watching junghwan flail around. he didn't wait for the alarm anymore, he just tuned in and waited for the guy to get in trouble.
“we're friends.” it isn't a question this time. dongwoo hides his grin behind his cup as junghwan jumps off the couch and wraps jinyoung in a hug.
“i'm friends with superheroes,” he squeals.
jinyoung pats junghwan on the back awkwardly. “yeah. you are.”
+
it's still awkward when junghwan demands the five of them should get lunch together in the cafeteria. jinyoung is used to walking around in his hero' attire, but it's weird to stand in line and get lunch while wearing tights and a cape.
sunwoo complains about it constantly, but chansik just shuts him up when he sees junghwan pouting. jinyoung would complain about it too, but he's too caught up in actually having friends to really care about it.
“okay, i don't know what the chances are, but...wouldn't we at least have one class together?”
jinyoung was wondering when this question would come up. “maybe,” he says, looking at junghwan. “there are a lot of classes though. a lot of different majors. i'm not that good at math, but i think chances aren't that big.”
“oh.” junghwan bites his bottom lip. “but we could be, right?”
“we can't tell you,” chansik says, poking at his food. jinyoung bites back a grin at the disappointment in chansik's voice. in the last couple of weeks the boy was converted from the perfect hero to a hero who didn't follow the rules. it probably had something to do with junghwan and his ability to pry information out of them.
“this means one of you or maybe all of you have at least one class with me.” the guy was too smart for his own good. chansik was lucky his hair was covered by his mask, otherwise junghwan would have associated the black curls with the boy in his english class right away.
sunwoo didn't have any classes with the rest of them and even if he had, he didn't show up half the time anyway. jinyoung used to have one or two classes with dongwoo, but after telling the guy his name, he had switched. even when he didn't have to worry about people connecting foxman and jinyoung the student (back in the day sunwoo created an alter ego, which involved wearing a bracelet that would dye his hair a bright red, as long as he didn't take the bracelet off), he couldn't take the risk of dongwoo putting the pieces together.
“i'm so going to look around and see if i recognize any of you in my classes.” junghwan takes a bite of his sandwich contently. chansik splutters and tries to convince the boy otherwise, which just results in a firm denial that no, he wasn't in any of his classes while trying to explain this was just confidential information that could get them in trouble.
dongwoo steals his pudding, smiling at him mischievously and sunwoo protests, claiming he never got to do that and why was he being such a dick, hadn't they been friends longer? and jinyoung can't help but think how much he likes this being-friends thing.
+
“can we go back to your dorm for once?”
“no.”
jinyoung yawns, listening to chansik and junghwan bickering, while he stretches himself, groaning as his muscles clench in protest. after exams were over their heroes duties had increased again, resulting in having to overwork themselves. all his muscles were aching, the magic salves not actually able to keep up with the damage he did to his body (being tired made him careless and he made countless mistakes).
dongwoo looks at him questioningly, but he shakes his head. “heroes' stuff,” he mumbles, stifling a yawn behind his hand. his phone vibrates in his pocket and at the familiar buzz he groans. “is it just me?” he asks, turning to sunwoo and chansik.
the two grab their phones and show an empty screen, making jinyoung groan once more. “seriously? i might be the oldest, but that doesn't mean i - wait, i'm older, they should let the young guys do this shit.”
chansik shakes his head. “no, you're older and therefore more responsible. go. save the earth.”
jinyoung feels like throwing a tantrum, but that's really not hero-like, so he just kicks at a stone in frustration. “yeah. whatever. i guess i'll see you guys later.” he makes to turn around and fly away, but then dongwoo grabs his arm. he stops mid-turn, looking at dongwoo in surprise.
dongwoo takes a step closer, his fingers stroking his wrist for a moment, before he lets go. “be safe.”
now would be the time to throw in a comment about how this will probably be just another kitten stuck in a tree, but the warm feeling that spreads through his body, make the words get stuck in his throat. he just nods, smiling at dongwoo and flies off.
+
“you told me it was just the elevators in the other buildings.” dongwoo is yelling at him and that is really unnecessary, but then again, it's dongwoo with his claustrophobia stuck in an elevator and okay, now is not the time to ponder about the appropriateness of yelling.
“i didn't know, i'm sorry!” he doesn't know why he's apologizing, but somehow he has a need to do it. “if you would've offered me money to fly you around the building, maybe this wouldn't have happened.”
dongwoo lets out a pained laugh and it makes jinyoung relax a little, knowing dongwoo isn't in full panic-mode just yet. “i'm going to get you out of here.”
“i know,” dongwoo says, leaning his head back against the wall. “just hurry up, okay?”
jinyoung stands up and frowns. he really wants to throw any policy out of the window and just force the elevator doors apart, getting dongwoo out of here being his main priority, but he knows he can't do that. if the rumors are true, he will need to pay the costs of a new elevator himself and even though dongwoo would be worth it, he simply doesn't have the money to buy a new elevator.
this building is more complicated than the library and it takes jinyoung twenty minutes before he has finally found a floor where the elevator doors open. he has to fly all the way down, because of course the only doors that would open were on the fifteenth floor and dongwoo is stuck between the sixth and seventh.
he cuts open the top of the cabin, making the gap big enough for him and dongwoo to fly through, and is met with dongwoo looking at him, eyes wide. apparently dongwoo was closer to full panic-mode than he thought.
“it's okay, i'm here. i'm going to get you out of here. come on, just stand up.” jinyoung strokes dongwoo's back, who just keeps shaking in the corner. he doesn't even attempt to get up, which makes jinyoung lean closer worriedly. “dongwoo? you need to get up.”
dongwoo just shakes his head and the shaking gets worse. “can't.”
“can you hold onto me?” as dongwoo shakes his head, jinyoung sighs. “we need to get out of here. you can trust me. come on.” after a couple of minutes, dongwoo seems to have calmed down a little and jinyoung tries again. he gets dongwoo to stand up, and just when he's about to say something, the cabin tilts slightly to the side.
dongwoo lets out a yelp as they crash into the wall, jinyoung pressed up against dongwoo. “what was that?”
jinyoung looks up, but doesn't see much except the dark shaft. “i don't know. we really need to get out of-” the cabin slams against what jinyoung presumes is the side of the lift shaft and suddenly dongwoo is sliding down the wall. “what are you-” it's obvious what's going on, when dongwoo starts shaking again, clinging to jinyoung's legs.
“we're going to die. we're going to crash to the floor and die, aren't we? i shouldn't have taken the elevator, i'm going to die.” he keeps repeating the same sentences and jinyoung looks up worriedly.
“dongwoo. dongwoo!” he crouches down and shakes dongwoo's shoulders. “hey. listen to me. you're going to be fine. but you need to calm down fist, otherwise i can't fly us out of here.” his words don't seem to have much effect, dongwoo just keeps muttering and staring around the room listlessly.
jinyoung tries shaking his friend again, but it still isn't working. they can't stay here much longer, he has no idea what is going on, but staying here longer than necessary doesn't sound like a safe option. he moves his right arm under dongwoo's legs, the other arm around his waist and then he slowly stands up, cradling dongwoo to his chest.
“i'm going to get us out of here,” he says, looking dongwoo in the eye. dongwoo nods at him blankly, still shaking slightly, then wraps his arms around jinyoung's neck.
+
jinyoung mentally ticks the box of saving someone superman style, and looks at dongwoo. after they got out of the building dongwoo still hadn't stopped shaking, so jinyoung had taken him to the park. he figured a quiet place would calm the guy down, and surprisingly it worked. he had gotten a call from chansik, saying the elevator had crashed to the floor just five minutes after they left. jinyoung decided to keep that piece of information to himself for now and instead he offered to take dongwoo home.
that's where they are now. outside dongwoo's and junghwan's dorm. standing awkwardly. not talking at all.
“thanks for saving me. again.”
jinyoung just nods and smiles a little. dongwoo doesn't say anything and jinyoung contemplates just turning around to go home, but that seems a bit rude. “are you okay?” he asks eventually.
“hmm. don't want to think about what happened. i'm here and i'm safe, so. yeah. i'm okay.” dongwoo looks up, tired smile on his face. “thank you. really, i - just. thank you.”
“it's okay. i'd do anything to keep you safe.” he snaps his mouth shut after he said it, because that was another cliché that belonged in the list of cliché heroes movies, but it makes dongwoo grin, so maybe it's alright. “i should get going now,” he says, making a vague motion that is meant to indicate he shouldn't be here. “make a report about what happened.”
“okay.” dongwoo bites his lip, contemplating about something. “i just - maybe -” he lets out a deep sigh. “okay, don't hate me.”
“what, why would i-” jinyoung finishes the rest of his sentence against dongwoo's lips. he lets out a surprised sound, but dongwoo just presses harder, clenching jinyoung's shirt in his fists. after a couple of seconds he pulls away, blush tainting his cheeks.
“bye,” he whispers, opening the door to his dorm and slipping inside.
after a minute jinyoung lifts his arm to wave. “bye.”
+
he knows he's behaving weird around dongwoo, but no one mentions it. the five of them still have lunch together and dongwoo doesn't seem to act any different, so he tries to relax. but it's really hard when all you can think about is kissing your friend.
and it's really unfair, because despite being a hero, he's still a young adult too and he wants to date. he wants to have a girlfriend or boyfriend (he is open for everything), preferably a tall guy with glasses and an adorable smell who smells like soap and cinnamon and whose lips feel very nice pressed against his, and go on dates with them.
but as things are right now, he doesn't see anything happening. especially not when he's dressed in tights. wow, that just makes things really awkward, doesn't it?
jinyoung has come to terms with it though, because it's just not happening and dongwoo doesn't seem to make a move either. so really, it's okay. he'll just pine from a distance. from across the table. he can do that.
+
“you're not supposed to do that,” jinyoung says, trying to move his head out of the way. it's sort of hard when you're holding a guy and trying to fly out through a shaft smoothly. dongwoo's fingers are very persistent though and before jinyoung knows it, his mask is lifted up an inch. “no, really-”
“shut up,” dongwoo mutters. “you saved me out of an elevator three times, saw me in panic-mode, i kissed you after i had a mental breakdown...oh, and you saved my friend countless times. and we're friends. so don't tell me i can't. i think i have a right to know.”
“it's not that i don't want you to know - dongwoo, stop.” they reach the right floor and jinyoung pries the elevator doors apart with one hand, then lands onto the ground softly, steadying dongwoo as he stumbles slightly. dongwoo looks at him intently, taking a step closer. “why were you taking the elevator in the first place? i thought you said you were never taking the elevator again.”
“do you know how many stairs i need to take before getting to the seventh floor? i was going to take the stairs, but it was too much. and don't change the subject. i want to know. you can't just leave me here, only knowing your name.”
jinyoung groans and takes a step back. “dongwoo...you can't. it's not allowed.”
“heroes' rule?”
“yeah.”
dongwoo looks torn for a moment, then sighs. “okay. i won't do it if it's going to get you in trouble.”
“i -” jinyoung feels slightly disappointed at that. he knows it's against the rules and that he'll get into so much trouble if the board finds out (which they will, because they're just creepy like that), but it takes everything inside of him not to pull his mask off himself. he isn't good at pining from a distance. but apparently there is still some hero-conscience left inside of him and he says “i guess i'll see you around then?”
“yeah, sure. hopefully not in an elevator though,” dongwoo says, small smile on his face. “because we really need to stop meeting like this.” jinyoung nods, smiling back and that's how chansik finds them a couple of minutes later, just smiling at each other.
“okay, i don't want to know.” he shakes his head. “come on, i need your help with junghwan. i don't know how he did it, but he got his head stuck between the toilet and a wall.”
jinyoung scrunches his face up, wondering how the hell someone could do that, but then he finds himself getting pulled along. “yeah - i - bye!” he yells at dongwoo. “we'll keep you updated on the junghwan thing, i'll see you later!”
+
“don't do it.” chansik doesn't even look up from his book and jinyoung wonders if telepathy is a new trick he didn't know about yet.
“do what?” he asks, pretending to be completely clueless.
chansik sighs and briefly glares at him as he turns a page. “don't ask dongwoo out and don't reveal yourself. it will get you in trouble and god, do you know how much paperwork that is? and don't get me started on the consequences for us. well, for me actually, because i don't think they expect sunwoo to be a good influence on you.”
“hey, i never did anything to reveal our identity to someone. it's all you. or him. it has nothing to do with me.”
jinyoung raises an eyebrow. “you forgot to wear your mask last week.”
“i didn't -”
“you did and then we had to come save your ass. i can still tell my dad about that...”
sunwoo jumps over the couch and lands on top of chansik. “you can't,” he says, slapping chansik. “i will tell your dad that you...you...you...”
“that i what?” chansik asks, smiling sweetly. sunwoo just rolls off, throwing his hands up in defeat, muttering something about hating all of you. chansik snorts, turning his attention back to jinyoung. “you're not going to tell him.”
“i'm not.” and really, jinyoung isn't going to tell dongwoo. he's just going to find him, ask him out and go on a couple of dates with him. he won't mention anything about superheroes.
chansik looks at him thoughtfully, then there's a small smile. “nothing is wrong with that, i guess. as long as you don't tell him...”
they lock eyes for a moment and jinyoung should really give chansik more credit, because he actually realized his master plan. maybe it wasn't a master plan, but it was pretty smart. “i won't say a word.”
“good. have fun on your date!”
sunwoo looks between the two of them skeptically and frowns. “did i miss something?”
+
if anything, jinyoung is still a normal college student who has a crush on someone and tries to get their attention. so it isn't weird that he's feeling nervous. you don't get instructions for this in pony canyon. you aren't supposed to ask your victims out in the first place.
“hi.” jinyoung puts his platter down on the table, sitting down opposite dongwoo. he smiles, hoping he doesn't look too creepy (although they're technically still strangers and him being here is sort of creepy) and waits for dongwoo to say something.
dongwoo just looks at him questioningly, chewing his food slowly. “eh. hi?”
hi. he could work with that. “nice day, huh?” what the hell was that. jinyoung clenches his chopsticks in his right hand, snapping them in half and he sighs. this was not a good start.
looking between the chopsticks and jinyoung, dongwoo squints at him. “do i know you?”
“yes - no. maybe. technically not.”
“you aren't the guy who's stalking my roommate, are you?” when jinyoung gives him a blank look, dongwoo shrugs. “i've never seen the guy, but apparently he has a habit of snapping his chopsticks too. or popping up out of nowhere. pretending he knows us. he probably can't do much, because the guy looks like a puppy, but then he breaks chopsticks and punches holes in walls, so i don't know.”
jinyoung frowns. that sounded awfully familiar actually. puppy, chopsticks, explaining why there were suddenly holes in walls. oh. he was so going to have a talk with chansik later. “no. definitely not a stalker. just me.”
“hmm. and who is that exactly?”
“eh. that is...i can't tell you?” jinyoung scratches his neck and feels his heart sink as dongwoo frowns. he didn't know why he thought this was a good idea, because obviously it wasn't. he couldn't even tell dongwoo his name, so the guy probably thought he was a creeper and there was no way he could ask him out on a date now. damn, he had to go back to pining from a distance.
“are you here to ask me out on a date?”
jinyoung feels something snap in his neck as he looks up quickly. “what?”
“just...never mind.” dongwoo shrugs, a hint of red covering his cheeks. and that's all jinyoung needs to get his courage back and before he knows what he's doing, he's leaning across the table, his hands coming up to cradle dongwoo's face as he presses their lips together. it's not that special, not like their first kiss anyway, but when jinyoung pulls back his whole body is tingling.
“is this your way of telling me who you are?” dongwoo's voice is raspy, cheeks a nice tint of pink and jinyoung resists leaning over the table to kiss him again.
“i didn't say anything.”
dongwoo just stares at him intently for a minute, then snorts. at jinyoung's questioning look, he shakes his head. “just imagined you in tights.”
“i'm so not taking you on a date.”
“hmm, guess i just have to get stuck in the elevator again.”
“don't.”
“i'm not looking forward to it either, but if you're not taking me out on date...maybe someone else will come and save me.”
“friday, 7pm. i'll come pick you up.”
“does this mean i'll have a superhero as my boyfriend?”
“maybe. don't tell junghwan though. he might want one too.”
--
a/n: pony canyon was inspired by the japanese label b1a4 signed with. also the random real heroes’ names popped out of a heroes/villains name generator. i'm not that creative.
For: judysaurus
Pairing/Focus: jinyoung/cnu
Rating: pg13
Word Count: 8k
Summary: Sunwoo likes to call it a call-center, where you order a hooker to help you out. In a way he is right, except the hookers are superheroes and the helping out is definitely not related to anything sexual.
Notes/Warnings: Hopefully this comes close to what you wanted. Thanks for giving me so many prompts - even though I might have cursed you a couple of times because I had ideas for every prompt - after this I will be busy finishing the other things I started based on your prompts (so really, thank you for giving me inspiration). Merry Christmas!
pony canyon is a place full of modern buildings, new technology and every futuristic thing that isn't supposed to exist yet. that's why nobody knows where pony canyon is exactly - there isn't a sign that says welcome to pony canyon when you cross the border. no, it's hidden and exclusive, and the only way people know it exists is because of the business cards and advertisements everywhere.
sunwoo likes to call it a call-center, where you order a hooker to help you out. in a way he is right, except the hookers are superheroes and the helping out is definitely not related to anything sexual (okay, maybe that happens to every hero once or twice, but it's a rule to pretend it doesn't).
they're superheroes who save the earth, one little problem at the time. successfully. most times.
+
if he says so himself, jinyoung is quite a successful hero. he’s saved a countless amount of puppies and kittens, prevented little kids from falling into ponds, solved arguments between couples and last week he even got to save someone out of a fire (it was this kid on campus who set his kitchen on fire and technically jinyoung wasn't on duty, but the instinct - he just had to go and save him).
sunwoo on the other hand, is not that successful. he stumbled upon pony canyon by accident, or on purpose, but he was never supposed to be part of the program. he didn't have the natural instinct that made him want to save people, he thought the whole training was one big joke, yet he still completed the whole year. being a superhero was sort of special, after all.
the trainers didn't have too much faith in sunwoo being alright by himself, so jinyoung and chansik were appointed as babysitters. chansik, because he inherited all the right genes (or simply because he was born into a superheroes' family and had been saving people since he was three) and jinyoung was there because sunwoo wouldn't listen to anyone younger than him, even if they were some super-super-superhero with superhero genes.
despite all the rumors, superheroes didn't actually live in pony canyon. the place was just one big training area with a prison for the villains and a huge alarm centre. that was all. the superheroes lived among the normal people, never saying a word about who they really were.
when chansik was old enough to get into college, all of them moved into a dorm together. jinyoung only had one year left, but it was more convenient like this. no need to worry about roommates as he had to change into his superhero attire, or open his interactive screen in private. if anyone came into their dorm, they would think they walked right onto the set of some superheroes movie. it's just the way they lived.
+
jinyoung is in the middle of lecture when he feels his phone vibrating inside his pocket. it's not the regular buzz of you've got a message, no it's the buzz of it's superhero time (buzz buzz - pause - buzz buzz buzz - pause - buzz). he calmly puts his stuff in his bag and gets up, walking out with the excuse of having a terrible headache.
he starts running once he's out of the building, hopping over a fence to take the shortcut to his dorm. once he's opening the door of his room, he gets his phone out of his pocket and reads the message. someone's stuck in the elevator in the library. huh.
shaking sunwoo's bed on his way to the bathroom, he calls out a good morning. “why aren't you out of bed yet?” he asks, taking his clothes off. he puts on his tights, making a face as the fabric squeezes his junk tightly and sees sunwoo is slowly crawling back under his covers. “seriously get up. my alarm just went off, you want to help me out?”
sunwoo just makes an incoherent sound, before he peeks from under the covers. “and look as ridiculous as you in those tights? no, thanks.”
jinyoung scoffs, holding the cape in his hands and wondering if he should go with or without it today. it's a bit windy, so if he's just standing, people will surely remember the cool hero with the cape, but flying with this wind and a cape might be a little dangerous. he decides against it and puts on his mask instead, blinking a little to get used to the feeling of something covering half of his head. “whatever you say man. just get up, we're grabbing lunch at that new place later.”
as he opens the window, he hears a murmur of agreement and something about salmon, then he jumps out and flies off to save some people.
+
some people turns out to be one guy. who's stuck in the library's elevator. and called pony canyon to help him out. heroes aren't just there for the exciting stuff.
“i think i might be a little claustrophobic,” the guy explains, wiping the sweat from his forehead. jinyoung peeks at him through the small gap he managed to create by pushing the elevator doors apart a little and he smiles an encouraging smile, hoping that the guy can see it.
“you're going to be fine, i'll get you out of here in no time.” jinyoung knows he shouldn't be lying to victims (first rule learned at the training), but the guy looks like he needed those words. truth is, jinyoung really doesn't know how to get the guy out. normally he would tear open the doors of the elevator, but new policies don't allow them to do that anymore. apparently their budget got cut and their main goal was to get the victims safe as soon as possible, as cheap as possible. so no tearing doors apart for him.
he really wishes chansik was with him right now, because he could use the help if he's being honest. chansik has saved people from elevators multiple times, so he knows the most efficient way to get them out. jinyoung tried calling the boy, but he was on a mission himself so he couldn't help.
jinyoung takes a deep breath and evaluates the situation. he could call pony canyon's help service, but even if he got hold of someone other than a machine, it would go on his record and he would never be able to do some actual missions. not that he didn't like helping people, but seriously? elevators or saving people out of a burning house? he knew what to pick.
that leaves him with one option. “hey, what's your name?”
“dongwoo.”
“okay, dongwoo. i'm going to the next floor and fly through the lift shaft, so i can get you out of here. i'll be gone for a bit, but -” he sees the guy freaking out and he tries to make his voice as soothing as possible, “-but i will get you out of here. it will only take a minute or two. alright, dongwoo?”
+
it actually takes him ten minutes to get to a floor where the elevator doors do open, but after that it's easy. he flies down towards the elevator, avoiding the electric cables and cutting the top of the elevator open. he sees dongwoo looking up at him with big eyes as he lowers himself into the cabin.
“hey, i told you i would get you out of here.”
“we're not out yet,” dongwoo says, wry smile on his face. and okay, that was true, but shouldn't the guy at least be a little grateful he was here?
“yeah okay. alright. eh. can you stand up?” jinyoung looks at dongwoo expectantly, who hesitantly gets up. the cabin shakes a little and dongwoo looks at him wide-eyed.
“we're not going to fall are we? oh god, what if the cables can't hold on any longer and we just crash down - i'm going to die, right? this is not - this is - i can't -”
jinyoung tentatively reaches out, patting the guy's arm. dongwoo immediately clings to his hand, still going on about crashing and dying and jinyoung can't help but sigh. “it's going to be fine, don't worry. just -” he looks between the gap in the ceiling and dongwoo, immediately dismissing his initial plan of helping dongwoo climb through it himself. that wouldn't be safe, seeing as the boy can barely keep himself upright right now. “hold onto me,” he says eventually.
dongwoo looks at him questioningly, his fingers clenching around jinyoung's arm even tighter. “what?”
“come here,” jinyoung mutters, taking two small steps forward. he pries dongwoo's fingers of his arm, slowly moving them until dongwoo's arms are around his neck and he's holding dongwoo around the waist. “i'm going to...fly through that gap,” he's not sure on the how just yet, “so you will need to hold onto me real tight, okay?”
dongwoo just nods, breathing unsteadily.
“it's going to be alright.” jinyoung's heart clenches a little as dongwoo lets out a whimper. “i'll count to three and then i'll jump up, so don't let go.” after dongwoo lets out a shaky okay, jinyoung starts counting down. on three he bends his knees and then they're moving towards the gap, and oh fuck they're never going to fit through the gap like this they're going to get stuck or bruised or god knows what and shit this isn't - “oh.” jinyoung pretends he didn't say that in surprise.
+
it isn't normal courtesy to stay behind after saving a victim and all (because the risk of people finding out your real identity is too big), but dongwoo looks so shaky and pale, that jinyoung can't bring himself to leave. if the board ever mentions it, he will just say that he was looking out for his victim's well-being. everyone knows it's rude to fly off after saving someone.
dongwoo is huddled under a bunch of blankets, cup of coffee in his hands, as he stares at the table. the only thing he did after jinyoung saved him, was calling his roommate, but he just did that after jinyoung kept telling him he needed someone to take him home.
jinyoung tells himself he's just waiting around until said roommate arrives, but there's something about dongwoo that makes him want to stay around and make sure he's okay.
which is really pathetic and he will never tell sunwoo that, because if there's one thing he will never forget, it's the rule of not getting attached to your victims. the whole thing about superman and lois clarke - yeah, one big fat lie and it's never going to happen in real life. victims and superheroes aren't supposed to mix up and that's that.
so really, jinyoung should leave.
“so...are you feeling a little better?”
dongwoo looks up, pushing his glasses up his nose and nods slowly. “i think so. still a little shaky, i guess.”
“good thing you had a card of pony canyon with you, god knows how long you would've been stuck there otherwise.” not a good thing to say. dongwoo's eyes get wide and the shaking gets worse. “i mean, you know...” jinyoung trails off. “sorry. that's not what - i'm just glad you're out of there.” smooth.
“yeah. me too.” dongwoo gets that lost look on his face again, which makes jinyoung lean forward and stroke his arm reassuringly.
“you're alright now. it's going to be fine. just take some rest after you get home and forget about this whole thing.” and apparently that is a good thing to say, because dongwoo gives him a small smile, taking another sip of his coffee.
“thanks for saving me,” dongwoo says, flashing him a genuine smile, making jinyoung blush slightly under the mask (it's not blushing, he's just flushed because wearing a mask for two hours does that to you).
“no worries, it's my job.”
+
“dude, wake up - come on, i need your help.”
jinyoung groans, putting his pillow over his head as he tries to ignore sunwoo's attempt to wake him up properly. he just wants to go back to sleep. his body is aching all over because he fell down from a tree while trying to rescue a very aggressive kitten yesterday (he was too shocked to try and float in the air, okay) and he is not in the mood for whatever sunwoo wants him to do.
“come on - ugh you're so annoying when you aren't trying to save kittens out of trees.” sunwoo starts shaking his shoulders, kicking his shins and yelling into his ear.
“alright, alright, i'm up,” he grumbles, pushing sunwoo away from him, smiling in satisfaction when sunwoo hits the opposite wall. jinyoung should really learn to control his powers in the morning. he sits up, scratching his chest and shakes his head to clear his head. “why did you wake me up?”
“what the fuck,” sunwoo says, trying to get up from behind the bed. “i take back my words. you aren't annoying, you are a fucking bastard in the morning.” jinyoung raises an eyebrow and waits for sunwoo to continue. “seriously. ugh. now you really need to help me out.”
“what did you do?”
“you say it like i get in trouble all the time. besides, i didn't do anything yet. you need to help me out, i got a mission and they said there was fire, which is pretty fucking cool because they asked me to do it, not chansik or you.”
“why are you still here? go fight fire. or something.” jinyoung lets himself fall back on the bed, his eyes already closing and then sunwoo starts shaking him again.
“come on, i've never done something like this before. just tell me what to do and then you can stand at the sidelines and help me in case i do something wrong.”
“oh no, that does the trick.” jinyoung yawns, rolling his eyes. “ask chansik.”
“i am not asking the kid to help me out. come on.”
“no.”
“come oooon.”
“no.”
a sigh. “please?”
+
the only reason jinyoung's here is because sunwoo said please. he never says please. he simply didn't know how to deal with this somewhat polite sunwoo.
“i got called out for a kid who set his fucking microwave on fire?”
somewhat polite being the keywords here. jinyoung frowns, looking around the room. something seems very familiar. then there's a squeak and it suddenly hits him.
“junghwan?” the boy whirls around, the small fire lunging towards sunwoo with the sudden move of air and then sunwoo's cape is on fire. jinyoung really shouldn't laugh, but he's still not fully awake and this situation is very funny for some reason. he holds the wall as junghwan keeps apologizing while sunwoo keeps slapping at his cape. and then someone's coughing next to him and he comes face to face with dongwoo.
“hi.”
dongwoo lifts an eyebrow, looking at the fire and then at jinyoung in confusion. “shouldn't you help?”
“no, it's not really my mi-” right, he isn't supposed to tell non-heroes about missions or anything superheroes-related-stuff. “i - yes, i should. i -” he vaguely motions towards the chaos in the small kitchen, before he darts into the hallway, grabbing a fire extinguisher out of nowhere (one of the many perks of being a superhero - one call and you get helpful things popping out of nowhere) and moves back into the room. he quickly puts the fire out, thinking the solution to all of this is just a simple rule for all students to have a fire extinguisher in their room, and he glares at sunwoo.
junghwan interrupts their little mind-fighting by darting around the room, moaning about not knowing how to get a new microwave and jinyoung just smiles.
“at least we managed to put out the fire and you're safe.”
“my microwave.”
sunwoo rolls his eyes and opens his mouth to say something, but jinyoung has already moved an hand over his mouth. “well, if you would excuse us, we're going back to our other hero duties.”
“no, no,” junghwan says, moving his hands all over the place. “i need to thank you. this is the second time you saved me. not you, i don't know you,” he says as sunwoo smiles brightly and points at himself. “let me at least give you breakfast or something, seeing as i probably called you out of bed. do heroes even sleep? or are you like robots who just need to charge their battery every once in a while? oh, so pony canyon is just this huge fabric where superhero robots are made?”
“i - we're supposed to go back now,” he says at the same time as sunwoo says “of course, we'd like breakfast.”
it's silent for a couple of seconds, before junghwan starts moving around again, saying something about getting dressed and after a couple of minutes filled with awkward silence (and jinyoung checking dongwoo out), junghwan's back.
“okay, let's go.”
+
wearing your hero's attire and sitting in the middle of a restaurant at 11am is a bit weird. and awkward. and highly inappropriate. all jinyoung's protests get ignored by junghwan or stopped by sunwoo, so he can't do much about it.
“so...how long have you guys been doing this?” junghwan asks.
jinyoung shrugs, they're not really supposed to answer those kind of questions, but sunwoo is already babbling. “around two years? not including the training that is. and i've only been really active since this year. this guy though,” he pats jinyoung on the chest, “has been saving the earth since he finished his training.”
“do you guys have names?” when both jinyoung and sunwoo raise their eyebrows, junghwan flushes. “of course you have names. i know. but i mean - hero names? like what do people call you when they see you?”
“nothing really,” jinyoung says before sunwoo can say anything. it's a discussion they've had before, multiple times even, and it always ends up in sunwoo threatening to write a letter to the board about how unfair it is they don't have a name. “only the real, well known heroes get a name. like neokill, evil rose, gigglehound...people need to know their names, because they're actually doing something useful. the other heroes, like us -”
“you're useful too.” dongwoo locks eyes with jinyoung. “it may not seem important to you, but saving us - that makes you a hero too.”
jinyoung can't look away from the intent look dongwoo gives him. eventually he snaps out of it when sunwoo kicks him under the table. he coughs, then nods. “i guess it's important. it just isn't worth a name.”
“but there are three of you in this area right? because i've only seen one other hero apart from you two.”
“yes.” jinyoung doesn't really see where junghwan is going with this. he just hopes it isn't-
“we need to give you three a name then. because you're the heroes here and people need to know who to thank.
jinyoung sighs.
+
by the time they had left the restaurant, half of the campus knew about them. foxman, squirrel prince and captain pup. apparently junghwan thought they all resembled animals and that was the best way to remember them by, so there. the names were formed and the next day people would clap them on their back, muttering about how foxman did such a great job saving that kitten from the tree and captain pup actually managed to save three people from falling into the water. and people assumed squirrel prince was their mascot. jinyoung couldn't bother to tell them they were wrong.
after a couple of days, posters appeared on the walls and billboards, people were asking for hugs and autographs and mothers were dying to get a picture of their kids with the awesome three. needless to say, when jinyoung came back from classes that afternoon (taking his time because it was nice to walk around with nobody recognizing him for once), chansik and sunwoo were already waiting on the couch, the interactive screen showing a scowling trainer.
jinyoung really couldn't be bothered to listen to the conversation - he had two essays to write, three books to read and his alarm would probably go off in the middle of revising, so he just nodded along with everything the board said and sighed in relief when the call ended. all he understood was that they had to keep a low profile, try to spend as little time with future victims as possible and they had to stay out of trouble.
chansik glared at him and sunwoo, telling them it was their fault to get involved with their victims in the first place, but jinyoung just ignored them. “i'm actually here to study, so if you can just back off and continue this conversation after i've finished this shitload of homework...” and of course, that's when his alarm went off.
+
“we really need to stop meeting like this,” jinyoung says, looking at the camera that shows dongwoo shivering in the corner of the elevator. he knows the other boy can hear him, because he lifts his head and groans.
“it's not my fault these stupid elevators stop working once i'm inside.”
jinyoung nods his head in agreement, realizing that dongwoo can't hear him and speaking into the microphone again. “yeah, i know. we should file a complaint about it.” when dongwoo doesn't reply, he straightens his shoulders. “i'll be right there, okay?”
this time he actually knows where to go, so it only takes him two minutes to get to dongwoo. but those two minutes were probably too long, because dongwoo looks up at him with tears in his eyes.
“i really don't like this,” he says, furiously rubbing his eyes. “i knew i wasn't fond of small places, but this is not working for me at all. at this rate i won't be able to take the elevator anymore.”
jinyoung squats down, awkwardly patting dongwoo's arm. “those elevators are shitty, but not all elevators are like that. the university just doesn't have enough money to upgrade the ones in this building. maybe you should take the stairs next time?”
“too many stairs,” dongwoo complains, looking up at jinyoung. “can't i just call for help whenever i need to be in this building? when i need to do research, you can just stay by my side and fly me to the different floors.”
“it's good to hear you can still joke around,” jinyoung laughs, taking dongwoo's hands in his to pull him up. “come on, let's get you out of here.”
+
“so, foxman.” jinyoung cringes at the name automatically, he will never get used to it. dongwoo grins, taking a sip of his drink. “okay, if you're not comfortable with me calling you that, you will just have to give me your real name.”
jinyoung raises an eyebrow, then shakes his head. “no, f-fo-foxman is alright.” he scowls as dongwoo laughs at him. “shut up.”
“okay. foxman. i was just wondering about something. just tell me if you can't answer it, but...you guys being here, keeping the place safe. why are you here? and not somewhere else?”
jinyoung shrugs. “we just got assigned to this place.”
“don't you have a say in where you go at all? what about your family and friends then?”
he knows he should stick to the story he was taught during the training, but something makes him want to tell dongwoo the truth. or part of the truth anyway. “if you ever tell this to someone else, i will have to kill you. heroes are assigned to an area close to where they used to live. my family actually doesn't live near here, but...i was already admitted to the university before training started. so they assigned me here.”
dongwoo nods. “so you're just a regular student then?”
oops. maybe he had been too honest. “no.”
“hmm, i bet you are.”
“i'm going to get in so much trouble,” jinyoung mutters, scowling at the table. when he looks up, dongwoo is grinning at him. dongwoo pretends to zip his lips and jinyoung shakes his head. “okay, that was enough for today. i should get going.”
“sure. thanks for saving me, foxman.”
jinyoung stands up, ignoring the way dongwoo looks at him intently as he untangles his cape. taking a deep breath (and making a mental note to fly into a couple of trees later), he leans closer to dongwoo and whispers “jinyoung.”
+
to his surprise, he doesn't get a phone call from the board. it might be because they saw him flinging himself into five threes on the way home, or because they simply didn't hear his little slip up. which wasn't really a slip up, so he might be a little confused.
+
the next couple of weeks aren't that busy. either the board is giving them an easy time because they know exams are coming up, or people are simply staying out of trouble. there's only one person that needs their help constantly and it's become a little routine between the three of them. they're rotating shifts, so that everyone has enough time to study, eat and sleep while saving the person from whatever trouble he has gotten himself into.
“he gets a little clumsy when he's stressed and nervous.” dongwoo looks at junghwan, who's sitting on the couch with a blanket wrapped around himself.
jinyoung takes a sip from his tea and smiles as junghwan burns his tongue on a sip of hot chocolate. he holds out a glass of water immediately, ignoring how junghwan protests. “come on, you don't want to have a sore tongue while revising.”
junghwan accepts the glass eventually, saying “i should never have befriended superheroes.”
his arm stops mid-air, the tea sloshing inside the cup, as he gapes at junghwan. jinyoung had gotten used to the idea of having sunwoo and chansik as his only friends for the rest of his life, because it was common knowledge that heroes only befriended other heroes. even if they lived a double life - they didn't try to interact with other people. but here he was, in the dorm of a guy who's life he had saved at least ten times already (depending on how you define saving someone's life), who told him they were friends.
“i think you broke him,” jinyoung hears dongwoo say and he snaps his head towards the sound. perhaps dongwoo thought they were friends too.
“did i do something wrong?” junghwan asks in a small voice. chansik had discovered the trick of puppy eyes and used it on him all the time, but instead of getting immune to it, jinyoung only got weaker when faced with those eyes. junghwan makes a very cute puppy too.
“no, it's not - you - we.” jinyoung coughs. “we're friends?”
junghwan slowly nods, tilting his head to the side. “you saved my life,” he says the words slowly, as if contemplating what will be the right thing to say, “and you show up here. and stay behind and talk to me. you let me give you guys names. despite me needing your help all the time, you guys never protest. and don't say it's your job, because i saw you never stayed behind after helping other people.”
when he puts it like that, jinyoung sets his cup on the table, running the past couple of weeks through his head. maybe they learned the wrong things in training. maybe it was just a way to protect themselves, to avoid getting caught up in a web of lies. junghwan was right though - he didn't mind staying behind after helping, he enjoyed making small talk and watching junghwan flail around. he didn't wait for the alarm anymore, he just tuned in and waited for the guy to get in trouble.
“we're friends.” it isn't a question this time. dongwoo hides his grin behind his cup as junghwan jumps off the couch and wraps jinyoung in a hug.
“i'm friends with superheroes,” he squeals.
jinyoung pats junghwan on the back awkwardly. “yeah. you are.”
+
it's still awkward when junghwan demands the five of them should get lunch together in the cafeteria. jinyoung is used to walking around in his hero' attire, but it's weird to stand in line and get lunch while wearing tights and a cape.
sunwoo complains about it constantly, but chansik just shuts him up when he sees junghwan pouting. jinyoung would complain about it too, but he's too caught up in actually having friends to really care about it.
“okay, i don't know what the chances are, but...wouldn't we at least have one class together?”
jinyoung was wondering when this question would come up. “maybe,” he says, looking at junghwan. “there are a lot of classes though. a lot of different majors. i'm not that good at math, but i think chances aren't that big.”
“oh.” junghwan bites his bottom lip. “but we could be, right?”
“we can't tell you,” chansik says, poking at his food. jinyoung bites back a grin at the disappointment in chansik's voice. in the last couple of weeks the boy was converted from the perfect hero to a hero who didn't follow the rules. it probably had something to do with junghwan and his ability to pry information out of them.
“this means one of you or maybe all of you have at least one class with me.” the guy was too smart for his own good. chansik was lucky his hair was covered by his mask, otherwise junghwan would have associated the black curls with the boy in his english class right away.
sunwoo didn't have any classes with the rest of them and even if he had, he didn't show up half the time anyway. jinyoung used to have one or two classes with dongwoo, but after telling the guy his name, he had switched. even when he didn't have to worry about people connecting foxman and jinyoung the student (back in the day sunwoo created an alter ego, which involved wearing a bracelet that would dye his hair a bright red, as long as he didn't take the bracelet off), he couldn't take the risk of dongwoo putting the pieces together.
“i'm so going to look around and see if i recognize any of you in my classes.” junghwan takes a bite of his sandwich contently. chansik splutters and tries to convince the boy otherwise, which just results in a firm denial that no, he wasn't in any of his classes while trying to explain this was just confidential information that could get them in trouble.
dongwoo steals his pudding, smiling at him mischievously and sunwoo protests, claiming he never got to do that and why was he being such a dick, hadn't they been friends longer? and jinyoung can't help but think how much he likes this being-friends thing.
+
“can we go back to your dorm for once?”
“no.”
jinyoung yawns, listening to chansik and junghwan bickering, while he stretches himself, groaning as his muscles clench in protest. after exams were over their heroes duties had increased again, resulting in having to overwork themselves. all his muscles were aching, the magic salves not actually able to keep up with the damage he did to his body (being tired made him careless and he made countless mistakes).
dongwoo looks at him questioningly, but he shakes his head. “heroes' stuff,” he mumbles, stifling a yawn behind his hand. his phone vibrates in his pocket and at the familiar buzz he groans. “is it just me?” he asks, turning to sunwoo and chansik.
the two grab their phones and show an empty screen, making jinyoung groan once more. “seriously? i might be the oldest, but that doesn't mean i - wait, i'm older, they should let the young guys do this shit.”
chansik shakes his head. “no, you're older and therefore more responsible. go. save the earth.”
jinyoung feels like throwing a tantrum, but that's really not hero-like, so he just kicks at a stone in frustration. “yeah. whatever. i guess i'll see you guys later.” he makes to turn around and fly away, but then dongwoo grabs his arm. he stops mid-turn, looking at dongwoo in surprise.
dongwoo takes a step closer, his fingers stroking his wrist for a moment, before he lets go. “be safe.”
now would be the time to throw in a comment about how this will probably be just another kitten stuck in a tree, but the warm feeling that spreads through his body, make the words get stuck in his throat. he just nods, smiling at dongwoo and flies off.
+
“you told me it was just the elevators in the other buildings.” dongwoo is yelling at him and that is really unnecessary, but then again, it's dongwoo with his claustrophobia stuck in an elevator and okay, now is not the time to ponder about the appropriateness of yelling.
“i didn't know, i'm sorry!” he doesn't know why he's apologizing, but somehow he has a need to do it. “if you would've offered me money to fly you around the building, maybe this wouldn't have happened.”
dongwoo lets out a pained laugh and it makes jinyoung relax a little, knowing dongwoo isn't in full panic-mode just yet. “i'm going to get you out of here.”
“i know,” dongwoo says, leaning his head back against the wall. “just hurry up, okay?”
jinyoung stands up and frowns. he really wants to throw any policy out of the window and just force the elevator doors apart, getting dongwoo out of here being his main priority, but he knows he can't do that. if the rumors are true, he will need to pay the costs of a new elevator himself and even though dongwoo would be worth it, he simply doesn't have the money to buy a new elevator.
this building is more complicated than the library and it takes jinyoung twenty minutes before he has finally found a floor where the elevator doors open. he has to fly all the way down, because of course the only doors that would open were on the fifteenth floor and dongwoo is stuck between the sixth and seventh.
he cuts open the top of the cabin, making the gap big enough for him and dongwoo to fly through, and is met with dongwoo looking at him, eyes wide. apparently dongwoo was closer to full panic-mode than he thought.
“it's okay, i'm here. i'm going to get you out of here. come on, just stand up.” jinyoung strokes dongwoo's back, who just keeps shaking in the corner. he doesn't even attempt to get up, which makes jinyoung lean closer worriedly. “dongwoo? you need to get up.”
dongwoo just shakes his head and the shaking gets worse. “can't.”
“can you hold onto me?” as dongwoo shakes his head, jinyoung sighs. “we need to get out of here. you can trust me. come on.” after a couple of minutes, dongwoo seems to have calmed down a little and jinyoung tries again. he gets dongwoo to stand up, and just when he's about to say something, the cabin tilts slightly to the side.
dongwoo lets out a yelp as they crash into the wall, jinyoung pressed up against dongwoo. “what was that?”
jinyoung looks up, but doesn't see much except the dark shaft. “i don't know. we really need to get out of-” the cabin slams against what jinyoung presumes is the side of the lift shaft and suddenly dongwoo is sliding down the wall. “what are you-” it's obvious what's going on, when dongwoo starts shaking again, clinging to jinyoung's legs.
“we're going to die. we're going to crash to the floor and die, aren't we? i shouldn't have taken the elevator, i'm going to die.” he keeps repeating the same sentences and jinyoung looks up worriedly.
“dongwoo. dongwoo!” he crouches down and shakes dongwoo's shoulders. “hey. listen to me. you're going to be fine. but you need to calm down fist, otherwise i can't fly us out of here.” his words don't seem to have much effect, dongwoo just keeps muttering and staring around the room listlessly.
jinyoung tries shaking his friend again, but it still isn't working. they can't stay here much longer, he has no idea what is going on, but staying here longer than necessary doesn't sound like a safe option. he moves his right arm under dongwoo's legs, the other arm around his waist and then he slowly stands up, cradling dongwoo to his chest.
“i'm going to get us out of here,” he says, looking dongwoo in the eye. dongwoo nods at him blankly, still shaking slightly, then wraps his arms around jinyoung's neck.
+
jinyoung mentally ticks the box of saving someone superman style, and looks at dongwoo. after they got out of the building dongwoo still hadn't stopped shaking, so jinyoung had taken him to the park. he figured a quiet place would calm the guy down, and surprisingly it worked. he had gotten a call from chansik, saying the elevator had crashed to the floor just five minutes after they left. jinyoung decided to keep that piece of information to himself for now and instead he offered to take dongwoo home.
that's where they are now. outside dongwoo's and junghwan's dorm. standing awkwardly. not talking at all.
“thanks for saving me. again.”
jinyoung just nods and smiles a little. dongwoo doesn't say anything and jinyoung contemplates just turning around to go home, but that seems a bit rude. “are you okay?” he asks eventually.
“hmm. don't want to think about what happened. i'm here and i'm safe, so. yeah. i'm okay.” dongwoo looks up, tired smile on his face. “thank you. really, i - just. thank you.”
“it's okay. i'd do anything to keep you safe.” he snaps his mouth shut after he said it, because that was another cliché that belonged in the list of cliché heroes movies, but it makes dongwoo grin, so maybe it's alright. “i should get going now,” he says, making a vague motion that is meant to indicate he shouldn't be here. “make a report about what happened.”
“okay.” dongwoo bites his lip, contemplating about something. “i just - maybe -” he lets out a deep sigh. “okay, don't hate me.”
“what, why would i-” jinyoung finishes the rest of his sentence against dongwoo's lips. he lets out a surprised sound, but dongwoo just presses harder, clenching jinyoung's shirt in his fists. after a couple of seconds he pulls away, blush tainting his cheeks.
“bye,” he whispers, opening the door to his dorm and slipping inside.
after a minute jinyoung lifts his arm to wave. “bye.”
+
he knows he's behaving weird around dongwoo, but no one mentions it. the five of them still have lunch together and dongwoo doesn't seem to act any different, so he tries to relax. but it's really hard when all you can think about is kissing your friend.
and it's really unfair, because despite being a hero, he's still a young adult too and he wants to date. he wants to have a girlfriend or boyfriend (he is open for everything), preferably a tall guy with glasses and an adorable smell who smells like soap and cinnamon and whose lips feel very nice pressed against his, and go on dates with them.
but as things are right now, he doesn't see anything happening. especially not when he's dressed in tights. wow, that just makes things really awkward, doesn't it?
jinyoung has come to terms with it though, because it's just not happening and dongwoo doesn't seem to make a move either. so really, it's okay. he'll just pine from a distance. from across the table. he can do that.
+
“you're not supposed to do that,” jinyoung says, trying to move his head out of the way. it's sort of hard when you're holding a guy and trying to fly out through a shaft smoothly. dongwoo's fingers are very persistent though and before jinyoung knows it, his mask is lifted up an inch. “no, really-”
“shut up,” dongwoo mutters. “you saved me out of an elevator three times, saw me in panic-mode, i kissed you after i had a mental breakdown...oh, and you saved my friend countless times. and we're friends. so don't tell me i can't. i think i have a right to know.”
“it's not that i don't want you to know - dongwoo, stop.” they reach the right floor and jinyoung pries the elevator doors apart with one hand, then lands onto the ground softly, steadying dongwoo as he stumbles slightly. dongwoo looks at him intently, taking a step closer. “why were you taking the elevator in the first place? i thought you said you were never taking the elevator again.”
“do you know how many stairs i need to take before getting to the seventh floor? i was going to take the stairs, but it was too much. and don't change the subject. i want to know. you can't just leave me here, only knowing your name.”
jinyoung groans and takes a step back. “dongwoo...you can't. it's not allowed.”
“heroes' rule?”
“yeah.”
dongwoo looks torn for a moment, then sighs. “okay. i won't do it if it's going to get you in trouble.”
“i -” jinyoung feels slightly disappointed at that. he knows it's against the rules and that he'll get into so much trouble if the board finds out (which they will, because they're just creepy like that), but it takes everything inside of him not to pull his mask off himself. he isn't good at pining from a distance. but apparently there is still some hero-conscience left inside of him and he says “i guess i'll see you around then?”
“yeah, sure. hopefully not in an elevator though,” dongwoo says, small smile on his face. “because we really need to stop meeting like this.” jinyoung nods, smiling back and that's how chansik finds them a couple of minutes later, just smiling at each other.
“okay, i don't want to know.” he shakes his head. “come on, i need your help with junghwan. i don't know how he did it, but he got his head stuck between the toilet and a wall.”
jinyoung scrunches his face up, wondering how the hell someone could do that, but then he finds himself getting pulled along. “yeah - i - bye!” he yells at dongwoo. “we'll keep you updated on the junghwan thing, i'll see you later!”
+
“don't do it.” chansik doesn't even look up from his book and jinyoung wonders if telepathy is a new trick he didn't know about yet.
“do what?” he asks, pretending to be completely clueless.
chansik sighs and briefly glares at him as he turns a page. “don't ask dongwoo out and don't reveal yourself. it will get you in trouble and god, do you know how much paperwork that is? and don't get me started on the consequences for us. well, for me actually, because i don't think they expect sunwoo to be a good influence on you.”
“hey, i never did anything to reveal our identity to someone. it's all you. or him. it has nothing to do with me.”
jinyoung raises an eyebrow. “you forgot to wear your mask last week.”
“i didn't -”
“you did and then we had to come save your ass. i can still tell my dad about that...”
sunwoo jumps over the couch and lands on top of chansik. “you can't,” he says, slapping chansik. “i will tell your dad that you...you...you...”
“that i what?” chansik asks, smiling sweetly. sunwoo just rolls off, throwing his hands up in defeat, muttering something about hating all of you. chansik snorts, turning his attention back to jinyoung. “you're not going to tell him.”
“i'm not.” and really, jinyoung isn't going to tell dongwoo. he's just going to find him, ask him out and go on a couple of dates with him. he won't mention anything about superheroes.
chansik looks at him thoughtfully, then there's a small smile. “nothing is wrong with that, i guess. as long as you don't tell him...”
they lock eyes for a moment and jinyoung should really give chansik more credit, because he actually realized his master plan. maybe it wasn't a master plan, but it was pretty smart. “i won't say a word.”
“good. have fun on your date!”
sunwoo looks between the two of them skeptically and frowns. “did i miss something?”
+
if anything, jinyoung is still a normal college student who has a crush on someone and tries to get their attention. so it isn't weird that he's feeling nervous. you don't get instructions for this in pony canyon. you aren't supposed to ask your victims out in the first place.
“hi.” jinyoung puts his platter down on the table, sitting down opposite dongwoo. he smiles, hoping he doesn't look too creepy (although they're technically still strangers and him being here is sort of creepy) and waits for dongwoo to say something.
dongwoo just looks at him questioningly, chewing his food slowly. “eh. hi?”
hi. he could work with that. “nice day, huh?” what the hell was that. jinyoung clenches his chopsticks in his right hand, snapping them in half and he sighs. this was not a good start.
looking between the chopsticks and jinyoung, dongwoo squints at him. “do i know you?”
“yes - no. maybe. technically not.”
“you aren't the guy who's stalking my roommate, are you?” when jinyoung gives him a blank look, dongwoo shrugs. “i've never seen the guy, but apparently he has a habit of snapping his chopsticks too. or popping up out of nowhere. pretending he knows us. he probably can't do much, because the guy looks like a puppy, but then he breaks chopsticks and punches holes in walls, so i don't know.”
jinyoung frowns. that sounded awfully familiar actually. puppy, chopsticks, explaining why there were suddenly holes in walls. oh. he was so going to have a talk with chansik later. “no. definitely not a stalker. just me.”
“hmm. and who is that exactly?”
“eh. that is...i can't tell you?” jinyoung scratches his neck and feels his heart sink as dongwoo frowns. he didn't know why he thought this was a good idea, because obviously it wasn't. he couldn't even tell dongwoo his name, so the guy probably thought he was a creeper and there was no way he could ask him out on a date now. damn, he had to go back to pining from a distance.
“are you here to ask me out on a date?”
jinyoung feels something snap in his neck as he looks up quickly. “what?”
“just...never mind.” dongwoo shrugs, a hint of red covering his cheeks. and that's all jinyoung needs to get his courage back and before he knows what he's doing, he's leaning across the table, his hands coming up to cradle dongwoo's face as he presses their lips together. it's not that special, not like their first kiss anyway, but when jinyoung pulls back his whole body is tingling.
“is this your way of telling me who you are?” dongwoo's voice is raspy, cheeks a nice tint of pink and jinyoung resists leaning over the table to kiss him again.
“i didn't say anything.”
dongwoo just stares at him intently for a minute, then snorts. at jinyoung's questioning look, he shakes his head. “just imagined you in tights.”
“i'm so not taking you on a date.”
“hmm, guess i just have to get stuck in the elevator again.”
“don't.”
“i'm not looking forward to it either, but if you're not taking me out on date...maybe someone else will come and save me.”
“friday, 7pm. i'll come pick you up.”
“does this mean i'll have a superhero as my boyfriend?”
“maybe. don't tell junghwan though. he might want one too.”
--
a/n: pony canyon was inspired by the japanese label b1a4 signed with. also the random real heroes’ names popped out of a heroes/villains name generator. i'm not that creative.