fic: 2am productivity, kyumin, pg13
Title: 2 am productivity
Author: pinefir
Genre: angst
Summary: sungmin and kyuhyun are out of the school and in the workforce, they don’t think they’d ever meet again, thinking that it would be the last of them. a game concept , wood spirits, damaged necklaces and cutthroat gaming industry with greedy psychology has their paths crossing again.
Rating: PG-13
Words: 3823
AN: supposed to be for soundslegit (but where is he now?), this is a sequel to among arrays and transits, told from kyuhyun’s point of view. written in the same verse of recursive recursive recursive
AN2: it’s a never ending loop of running away, it had to stop at some point.
AN3: inspired by this mini
Three years into working into the gaming industry as a junior concept manager, Kyuhyun is far from his goal of having his own company but he doesn’t really care. He was raking in the money anyways, so he didn’t mind. Most people would think he’d be having the time of his life programming games, it was after all his dream, but they’re mistaken, because Kyuhyun stopped dreaming about this a long time ago.
“Cho-ssi, you have to meet a client in 30 minutes,” his secretary Soonkyu, said as she entered his office.
Swinging his chair around, Kyuhyun turns to face her. “What is it?”
“It’s the developer for the simulation program,” Soonkyu says, looking at her notes. “He says he wants to discuss some terms for the mapping you’re going to release for the new quest.”
“Didn’t we have that discussion already?” Kyuhyun asks her, not really remembering any simulation programmer he contacted for the quest he conceptualized.
“It has been scheduled since last week,” Soonkyu explains.
“What’s his name?” Kyuhyun asks.
“Engr. Lee Sungjin?” Soonkyu says, deciphering the scribbled name.
“An engineer?” Kyuhyun echoes. “What’s he doing programming? Okay, just leave the papers here,” he says motioning towards his file cabinet. “I’ll read it later.” Soonkyu nods doing what her boss told her to do and then shows herself out of the office.
Kyuhyun turns around again and closes his eyes. Lee Sungjin? That’s a letter away from Sungmin’s name. He wonders what could have happened to him.
When Kyuhyun graduated from university, he didn’t return to his university for the march. He asked his mother to get his diploma from the registrar instead. His mother was furious, part of graduating is walking the march, she argued, but Kyuhyun does not care because he doesn’t care for the recognition he’s about to get when he graduates. In his mind, no amount of congratulations can make him feel happy and accomplished if he doesn’t get to hear from Sungmin anyway.
He buries himself under a pile of blankets, complaining about the fact that graduation has to happen when spring just started. It’s been an awfully cold winter and spring doesn’t look like it’s gonna be that forgiving, he thinks as he rubs his nose red. His phone vibrates and a small part of him hopes that it is Sungmin.
“Hyung! You’re graduating today right? Drop by our department later! We’re having a send-off party for your whole batch!”
It was Joon. Kyuhyun only groans. Send-off party, tch. He turns around to face the wall, ignoring the text that was sent and goes back to sleep. He hopes Sungmin would send him even a small smiley but that’s a bit too far to hope for, after all, it’s been two weeks since he didn’t contact Sungmin.
Which was weird, to be honest, because he can’t believe he’s honestly missing him when he got to survive throughout college without Sungmin. Maybe, he mutters, it’s because I’m graduating. And leaving for good And I won’t be seeing him around anymore.
Crap, Kyuhyun thought as he anxiously waited for the elevator to come up to his level. Why aren’t these elevators coming any quicker? He was about to push the up button a second time around when it suddenly opens, revealing a packed elevator. Although a bit adverse to squishing in with other people , he has no choice but to stick his thin self inside, after all, he’s going to be late and he’s pretty sure he’s not gonna hear the end of it from his senior.
On the other side of the building, Soonkyu is still trying to decipher her scribbles.
“Fuck,” Soonkyu mutters. “It’s not Lee Sungjin.”
“Nice of you to join us, Cho,” Ahn ChilHyun, a senior programmer who was working with Kyuhyun on the concept says as he enters conference room number 3. Kyuhyun bows his head in apology, proceeding to sit down across his senior.
“You have an awfully nice view up here,” the client who had his back turned to Kyuhyun says. Kyuhyun looks up from his papers, slightly familiar with the voice.
The client turns around and Kyuhyun freezes. He was looking at Chilhyun, he must have not noticed Kyuhyun yet.
“This is Engr. Lee--,” Chilhyun starts to introduce the client who was still looking at Chilhyun.
“Ming?” Kyuhyun cuts his senior off. And then, as if in slow motion, the client turns to look at him.
“Kyuhyun?” the client now identified as Sungmin says, shock clear on his face. Kyuhyun starts to stare him down, hoping to hold Sungmin’s gaze long so that he could see what Kyuhyun’s been trying to say, but Sungmin looks away first.
“You know each other?” Chilhyun asks them. Kyuhyun nods, while Sungmin mutters a soft yes. “Great! Whew, isn’t that nice? I mean how often do you find a client who has known you?”
Kyuhyun snorts in response, thankfully Chilhyun didn’t hear it. Sungmin only smiles politely.
How often do you find someone you’ve thought you’ve lost forever? Kyuhyun echoes in his mind.
“Surveying party my ass,” Kyuhyun bitterly mutters under his breath as he sifts through Sungmin’s newly uploaded album in his cyworld. “I doubt you did any surveying,” he says as he clicks on the pictures, each one of them showing Sungmin having lots of fun with his course mates. He paused on the picture that has Sungmin drinking soju and frowned, Sungmin was never a fan of soju. He clicked on the next picture, hoping that it wouldn’t be another picture of Sungmin drinking something other than wine but he wasn’t so lucky. A particular comment caught his eyes.
Ming hyung! GE’s King of Soju! XD
Kyuhyun wondered when Sungmin started drinking soju.
Kyuhyun finds out that Sungmin was apparently the one who designed an algorithm for integrating stereograms in motion. When Kyuhyun was stuck in making the quest look more realistic but at the same time easier for the video card, he came to Chilhyun asking for help.
“It keeps eating my memory!” Kyuhyun says as he storms into Chilhyun’s office. “Your junior’s animation is nice, okay, but it keeps eating my memory. I can’t even finish loading the whole map!”
“Have you ever thought of using stereograms?” Chilhyun says.
“No.”
“I’ll go look for someone who’s good with stereograms,” Chilhyun says as he waves Kyuhyun away.
It turns out, this expert in stereograms and depth analysis is no one else but Lee Sungmin. Apparently, Sungmin’s thesis and masteral work were centred on digital imagery and depth analysis.
“What kind of an engineer are you again?” Chilhyun asks Sungmin. Sungmin smiles a tight smile, trying not to lash out on people who don’t know of his profession, but before Sungmin can answer him, Kyuhyun beats him to it.
“Geodetic Engineer,” Kyuhyun answers, and Sungmin looks at him with some unreadable expression. Kyuhyun shrugs and Chilhyun clears his throat.
“Oh I see,” Chilhyun says, narrowing his eyes at Kyuhyun, before turning back to Sungmin. “So, what exactly do you do? I hope I don’t come off as ignorant, but I’m not sure I’ve encountered a lot of geodetic engineers,” he chuckles, Sungmin’s smile is a bit less tight now.
“Land surveying in general,” Kyuhyun answers yet again for Sungmin, and this time even Sungmin narrows his eyes at him. He mutters a soft apology in response.
“Wow,” Chilhyun starts, trying to make light of the situation that he’s currently in, he can feel tension running high between Sungmin and Kyuhyun. “You really do know a lot about Engr. Lee!” Kyuhyun kind of nods in response, finding himself unable to answer his senior while
Sungmin looks pointedly at anywhere but him. “Well, that’s jolly good, right?” Chilhyun asks them but of course they don’t answer properly.
“I’ll be leaving you two, then,” he says as he stands up and makes his way for the door. He was out of the door before Kyuhyun can even tell him how he’s doing such a good job as his senior.
Kyuhyun facepalms wondering how he could get stuck with a senior like him. Of all the seniors in the company, he thought. He wanted to go after him, asking him to be there with him but a throat clearing brings him back to Sungmin.
“I guess we’re done here then,” Sungmin says as he stands up and moves towards the door, but Kyuhyun is quick to grab him. Sungmin looks between him and their hands and manages to shake Kyuhyun off. “I have somewhere to go to, Kyuhyun,” he says.
It was now or never, Kyuhyun thought. “Have lunch with me?” he asked as he finds his hands latching onto Sungmin again just as Sungmin steps out of the conference room. Sungmin looked at him once, blinking, caught offguard at Kyuhyun’s sudden offer; he looked like he was going to refuse. “Please,” Kyuhyun finds himself begging. “Just for old times’ sake.”
And then as if in a trance, Sungmin nods, after all, it’s the first time he’s ever seen Kyuhyun beg.
There was a time, in the brief period after graduation and before employment, when Kyuhyun thought he should drop by his alma matter and talk to old friends. He snorts as he boards the bus heading towards his university, old friends. If he was being honest with himself, he’s going back to uni for the last time just so he can see Sungmin and ask about him. He wasn’t sure if Sungmin was really avoiding him, or he was jut busy with his new course, after all he doesn’t know what those GE students do anyway.
He steps out of the bus, after spending 30 minutes in it, thinking of the places where Sungmin could be. Then he stares around, feeling oddly out of place with his surroundings even if it was only months since he’s been here. Before he could even turn into the direction of where the engineering complex would be, a guy knocks him out of balance.
“Aish,” Kyuhyun mutters, annoyed. He refuses the offered hand and was about to give the guy who bumped into him a scolding when he is suddenly faced with the person he’s been looking for. “Ming?”
“Kyuhyun?” Sungmin asks, eyes wide and wondering why Kyuhyun was here.
Kyuhyun smiles at him, glad to have found him without any effort. Sungmin bites his lips.
“Ming-hyung?!” a guy suddenly shouts from the door of the bus. “Come on! We’re gonna be late!”
Before Kyuhyun can even say hi, how are you doing hyung? Sungmin kind of smiles shyly at him, probably apologizing for what he’s about to do. Kyuhyun was right. “I’m sorry,” Sungmin says, but it was easy to see that he wasn’t. “I have to go.”
And then Sungmin turns his back against him and starts running towards the bus he just alighted. Kyuhyun wanted to follow and when asked, he would tell Sungmin that he was here to see him. But he frowns, he would just wait for the bus to return and head back home. He wasn’t about to make a fool out of himself.
“The cafeteria food is bad,” Kyuhyun says as he ushers Sungmin out of the building and into the parking lot. “I know a restaurant a few blocks away, we could walk but we might have to get in line for a table,” he muses, Sungmin only hums in response. “We should take my car.”
It was awkward, the walk to the car was awkward and it was only a few feet away. Kyuhyun wondered if they’d break the tension once they’re inside the car, but he doubts it. If anything, it’d probably be more awkward. Knowing himself and judging Sungmin by the way he’s acting, it’s gonna be one, long ride.
Once inside the car with Kyuhyun opening the door for Sungmin, Kyuhyun turned on the ac and put on his seatbelt . He turned around to help Sungmin into his seat, not really thinking about what he was doing when Sungmin suddenly stops him. “I can do it myself,” Sungmin says as he pushes Kyuhyun away from him gently. Kyuhyun blushes, suddenly aware of their close proximity and then goes back to his seat. Breathe in, breathe out, he told himself.
Once he was sure that both of them were ready to go, Kyuhyun starts his car and turns on the radio. Music, he thought, Sungmin loved music as much as he did. He glanced at Sungmin who was smiling slightly as they rolled out of the company compound, and suddenly, he felt as if going to lunch with Sungmin is not going to be so bad.
“How have you been, Ming?” Kyuhyun asks Sungmin as soon as the waitress left with their orders. Sungmin looks at him calculatingly, before answering.
“I’ve been good,” Sungmin said, his answer short and brief. Kyuhyun frowns at this, Ming never was the kind of person to give short answers, if any, he was the kind of person who would go on and on as long as someone’s listening. Though dissatisfied with his answer Kyuhyun does not press.
Kyuhyun holds Sungmin’s gaze, questions threatening to spill out of his mouth, but then Sungmin looks away, again.
“Ming,” Kyuhyun says, his hand reaching for Sungmin’s hand across the table and Sungmin looks at him. “I,” Kyuhyun starts and stares at Sungmin who has this expecting gaze. “I’ve missed you, Ming.”
Sungmin smiles a bit, but even Kyuhyun can see through his forced smile, nevertheless he squeezes Kyuhyun’s hand in assurance. “I’ve missed you too.”
“It’s not supposed to be like this,” Sungmin mutters under his breath as he pulls his tie loose. It’s 2am and here they are, in Kyuhyun’s office, trying to figure out why nothing seems to be in 3D. Sungmin rubs his temple in frustration, he just can’t understand why the things he’s doing are not working out. “Augh!” Sungmin groans, hands slamming down the desk. Kyuhyun looks up from the storyboard.
“Are you alright?” Kyuhyun asks as he looks over Sungmin’s shoulder to take a peek at Sungmin’s code.
Sungmin pouts, turning around to look at Kyuhyun. “It’s not working,” he complains.
Kyuhyun takes in the sight of him, eyes widened and lips pursed in a pout, and he is suddenly reminded of their university days. He chuckles as he pinches Sungmin’s cheeks, just like old times.
Sungmin freezes and then turns his back on him, returning to his programming as if he was burned by Kyuhyun’s affection. Kyuhyun is slightly offended by this, even if he does know that they’re still awkward after not talking to each other all those year and he shouldn’t expect affection and familiarity from Sungmin. He swallows it all though, because he realizes that he made Sungmin that way and no one can be blamed but him for their situation. He only wished he knew how he did it.
“Stereograms, when stationary, don’t look 3D,” Sungmin says , pulling Kyuhyun out of his thoughts. “But when they’re in motion and the overlap because of this, the depth should be realized,” he continued, Kyuhyun nodded. “I don’t understand why they’re not that 3d. I can’t be going blind , can I?”
Kyuhyun looks at the test scene and thinks. “You’re not going blind, Ming,” he says. Sungmin utters a soft thank God in response. “But have you checked your coordinates? They seem a bit wonky?”
Sungmin checks the code and types in some commands Kyuhyun can’t recognize. “There. I tweaked it a bit. The coordinates I used before were right, I just added some “wonky factor”.” Kyuhyun checks it again and nods.
“Just a little more wonk?” Kyuhyun asks. Sungmin chuckles and says okay, going back to his code.
As Sungmin continues coding and tweaking the test scene, Kyuhyun decides to go back to the storyboard he was correcting; looking for loops and weak spots in the game theory. Soon enough they lapse into another comfortable silence with Sungmin typing away on the computer and Kyuhyun looking for new hooks. Kyuhyun reads over one of the hook suggestions a junior proposed.
“Love Hook”
Objective: To keep player in the game by creating a pseudo-love interest of some sort for the character.
Level Requirement: Level 20, must pass Quest 3 on Rising Island and Story Arc 2: The Rise of Machines.
Approach: Character gains half a necklace from Rising Island. Character throws damaged necklace in Rise of Machines as bait for Revolts. Character gets haunted by wood spirit. The wood spirit is the owner of the damaged necklace.
Task: To protect the wood spirit, in exchange of the lost damaged necklace.
Progression:
In order to pass the Love Hook, character must protect wood spirit at all costs. If character ceases to protect the spirit, the character dies for the character is now linked with the spirit.
In game purchases: Yes.
Part of protecting the wood spirit is nourishment. Character spends money on wood spirit’s needs.
Opt Out:
Character returns to Rising Land and retakes Story Arc 2 Rise of Machines.
Psychological proof:
A never-ending loop where player is given no choice but to be with the wood spirit until player completes all quests and finishes the entire game. Since the player has intention to win, the player could choose nourishing wood spirit or he could opt out of it by returning to the previous level. The player would always be forced to part with the damaged necklace as such it’s a sure-fire way to ensure wood-spirit companionship.
Love hook, huh? Kyuhyun thinks. It was a weak name for a proposal, but the proposal itself seems promising. As the proposal said, it’s gonna be a never ending loop of buying of game credits. He wonders how his junior could have thought of this hook, but then he realizes that he himself could have thought of this. He looks at Sungmin who was deeply engrossed with his coding and thinks.
Sungmin is easily the wood spirit. The one the gamer would not be able to live without, the one he can’t live without, Kyuhyun belatedly realizes. The damaged necklace must be something he must have thrown away, which made Sungmin and thoughts of Sungmin haunt him until to this day. Now that Sungmin’s back in his life, he had a choice. It was between accepting his task as a gamer and take responsibility for how he was currently feeling, and opting out of the task. But life is no game and there certainly wasn’t a repeat level in life. Because if there was, he wouldn’t have thrown away his and Sungmin’s friendship and pretended to be okay.
“Ming?” Kyuhyun speaks up, and he hated the fact that his eyes seem to have gotten watery and he cringes at the way his voice sounds.
“Hmm?” Sungmin hums in reply, not even bothering to look at him.
“Did I drive you away?”
Sungmin pauses and turns to look at him. Kyuhyun bites his lip, anxious as to what Sungmin would say. “Why do you ask that?” Sungmin says with a smile, appearing as if he was unaffected, but both of them knew that Kyuhyun has hit a spot.
“I’m not dumb, hyung,” Kyuhyun starts, suddenly the music Sungmin put on for the night was inaudible and all he could hear was a pounding in his heart and Sungmin gulping. “You loved this, you wouldn’t leave it if it weren’t for something else,” he says, daring Sungmin to look away and deny him. Sungmin holds his gaze, but Kyuhyun could see him faltering. “It was me, wasn’t it?”
Sungmin doesn’t answer. Maybe because he doesn’t want to offend Kyuhyun because a “yes it’s your fault” was threatening to spill out of his mouth. Or maybe, it’s because he has seen Kyuhyun try so hard, but it was him this time who was rejecting him. Again.
“I’m sorry,” Kyuhyun says bowing his head as he approaches Sungmin.
Sungmin doesn’t do anything, he just watches Kuhyun kneel in front of him.
Kyuhyun takes Sungmin’s face in his hands and pulls his face against his. Sungmin could feel wetness on his cheeks, he was pretty sure that he wasn’t crying, could it be Kyuhyun?
“I’m sorry,” Kyuhyun repeats. “I’m sorry that I drove you away,” he says through sniffles and Sungmin’s heart constricts. Didn’t he once want Kyuhyun to be happy too? “I’m sorry, I never meant to harm you.”
“I,” Kyuhyun starts again. “I don’t know what I did, to be honest,” he says as he looks up at Sungmin, tear-stained eyes boring into Sungmin’s soft ones. “But I missed you, and I hate feeling like this.”
“Kyuhyun,” Sungmin starts, bringing Kyuhyun’s face up, wiping the tear tracks from his face. “Don’t cry, I was-.”
“No, Ming, let me finish. I’m sorry I ever treated you like crap. I knew what you were doing, and I’ sorry I hated you for it,” Kyuhyun confesses. “But when you left, and when we didn’t bump into each other like you said we’d do, I was a mess. I’m still a mess. I don’t know. It took me fucking five years to realize, I’m so sorry, Ming.”
“Kyuhyun,” Sungmin tries again. “Stop.”
“Ming,would you forgive me?” Kyuhyun pleadingly asks. Sungmin looks away yet again, removing Kyuhyun’s hands from his face.
“Kyuhyun, it’s late,” Sungmin says, pointing at the clock which read 3 am. Running away again, are we? Sungmin asks himself derisively as he stands up to get out of the room. Kyuhyun shakes his head and stands up holding onto Sungmin. Sungmin stops, and Kyuhyun pulls him into a tight hug.
“I like you,” Kyuhyun says. “It took me five fucking years. It’s late. And I know you’re mad, and.”
“And, please, just don’t run away again,” Kyuhyun whispers. “Please, let me make it up to you,” he says as he nuzzles Sungmin. “Just, please. I’ll make it up to you, I swear.”
Sungmin doesn’t answer, not because he can’t trust himself not to say I love you so fucking much to Kyuhyun because he’s got way more pride than that, and if Kyuhyun does really want to make it up then he has to work for it. But actually, it’s mainly because Sungmin has already laid his head against Kyuhyun’s chest and pressed himself tightly against him, that’s why he can’t utter a word in response anymore.
It would probably take time, because first they had to mend their friendship because neither wanted going in too deep when they’re admittedly still awkward with each other. And then after that, they’d have to go through the process of being infatuated and in love like teenagers, because they were both robbed of that chance. It seemed long and tedious, but if there was anything Kyuhyun and Sungmin were good at, it was making things work even at the oddest of times.
//AN4 this is short, and things happened way too fast. but i'm satisfied with it so. yeah. idc.
Author: pinefir
Genre: angst
Summary: sungmin and kyuhyun are out of the school and in the workforce, they don’t think they’d ever meet again, thinking that it would be the last of them. a game concept , wood spirits, damaged necklaces and cutthroat gaming industry with greedy psychology has their paths crossing again.
Rating: PG-13
Words: 3823
AN: supposed to be for soundslegit (but where is he now?), this is a sequel to among arrays and transits, told from kyuhyun’s point of view. written in the same verse of recursive recursive recursive
AN2: it’s a never ending loop of running away, it had to stop at some point.
AN3: inspired by this mini
Three years into working into the gaming industry as a junior concept manager, Kyuhyun is far from his goal of having his own company but he doesn’t really care. He was raking in the money anyways, so he didn’t mind. Most people would think he’d be having the time of his life programming games, it was after all his dream, but they’re mistaken, because Kyuhyun stopped dreaming about this a long time ago.
“Cho-ssi, you have to meet a client in 30 minutes,” his secretary Soonkyu, said as she entered his office.
Swinging his chair around, Kyuhyun turns to face her. “What is it?”
“It’s the developer for the simulation program,” Soonkyu says, looking at her notes. “He says he wants to discuss some terms for the mapping you’re going to release for the new quest.”
“Didn’t we have that discussion already?” Kyuhyun asks her, not really remembering any simulation programmer he contacted for the quest he conceptualized.
“It has been scheduled since last week,” Soonkyu explains.
“What’s his name?” Kyuhyun asks.
“Engr. Lee Sungjin?” Soonkyu says, deciphering the scribbled name.
“An engineer?” Kyuhyun echoes. “What’s he doing programming? Okay, just leave the papers here,” he says motioning towards his file cabinet. “I’ll read it later.” Soonkyu nods doing what her boss told her to do and then shows herself out of the office.
Kyuhyun turns around again and closes his eyes. Lee Sungjin? That’s a letter away from Sungmin’s name. He wonders what could have happened to him.
When Kyuhyun graduated from university, he didn’t return to his university for the march. He asked his mother to get his diploma from the registrar instead. His mother was furious, part of graduating is walking the march, she argued, but Kyuhyun does not care because he doesn’t care for the recognition he’s about to get when he graduates. In his mind, no amount of congratulations can make him feel happy and accomplished if he doesn’t get to hear from Sungmin anyway.
He buries himself under a pile of blankets, complaining about the fact that graduation has to happen when spring just started. It’s been an awfully cold winter and spring doesn’t look like it’s gonna be that forgiving, he thinks as he rubs his nose red. His phone vibrates and a small part of him hopes that it is Sungmin.
“Hyung! You’re graduating today right? Drop by our department later! We’re having a send-off party for your whole batch!”
It was Joon. Kyuhyun only groans. Send-off party, tch. He turns around to face the wall, ignoring the text that was sent and goes back to sleep. He hopes Sungmin would send him even a small smiley but that’s a bit too far to hope for, after all, it’s been two weeks since he didn’t contact Sungmin.
Which was weird, to be honest, because he can’t believe he’s honestly missing him when he got to survive throughout college without Sungmin. Maybe, he mutters, it’s because I’m graduating. And leaving for good And I won’t be seeing him around anymore.
Crap, Kyuhyun thought as he anxiously waited for the elevator to come up to his level. Why aren’t these elevators coming any quicker? He was about to push the up button a second time around when it suddenly opens, revealing a packed elevator. Although a bit adverse to squishing in with other people , he has no choice but to stick his thin self inside, after all, he’s going to be late and he’s pretty sure he’s not gonna hear the end of it from his senior.
On the other side of the building, Soonkyu is still trying to decipher her scribbles.
“Fuck,” Soonkyu mutters. “It’s not Lee Sungjin.”
“Nice of you to join us, Cho,” Ahn ChilHyun, a senior programmer who was working with Kyuhyun on the concept says as he enters conference room number 3. Kyuhyun bows his head in apology, proceeding to sit down across his senior.
“You have an awfully nice view up here,” the client who had his back turned to Kyuhyun says. Kyuhyun looks up from his papers, slightly familiar with the voice.
The client turns around and Kyuhyun freezes. He was looking at Chilhyun, he must have not noticed Kyuhyun yet.
“This is Engr. Lee--,” Chilhyun starts to introduce the client who was still looking at Chilhyun.
“Ming?” Kyuhyun cuts his senior off. And then, as if in slow motion, the client turns to look at him.
“Kyuhyun?” the client now identified as Sungmin says, shock clear on his face. Kyuhyun starts to stare him down, hoping to hold Sungmin’s gaze long so that he could see what Kyuhyun’s been trying to say, but Sungmin looks away first.
“You know each other?” Chilhyun asks them. Kyuhyun nods, while Sungmin mutters a soft yes. “Great! Whew, isn’t that nice? I mean how often do you find a client who has known you?”
Kyuhyun snorts in response, thankfully Chilhyun didn’t hear it. Sungmin only smiles politely.
How often do you find someone you’ve thought you’ve lost forever? Kyuhyun echoes in his mind.
“Surveying party my ass,” Kyuhyun bitterly mutters under his breath as he sifts through Sungmin’s newly uploaded album in his cyworld. “I doubt you did any surveying,” he says as he clicks on the pictures, each one of them showing Sungmin having lots of fun with his course mates. He paused on the picture that has Sungmin drinking soju and frowned, Sungmin was never a fan of soju. He clicked on the next picture, hoping that it wouldn’t be another picture of Sungmin drinking something other than wine but he wasn’t so lucky. A particular comment caught his eyes.
Ming hyung! GE’s King of Soju! XD
Kyuhyun wondered when Sungmin started drinking soju.
Kyuhyun finds out that Sungmin was apparently the one who designed an algorithm for integrating stereograms in motion. When Kyuhyun was stuck in making the quest look more realistic but at the same time easier for the video card, he came to Chilhyun asking for help.
“It keeps eating my memory!” Kyuhyun says as he storms into Chilhyun’s office. “Your junior’s animation is nice, okay, but it keeps eating my memory. I can’t even finish loading the whole map!”
“Have you ever thought of using stereograms?” Chilhyun says.
“No.”
“I’ll go look for someone who’s good with stereograms,” Chilhyun says as he waves Kyuhyun away.
It turns out, this expert in stereograms and depth analysis is no one else but Lee Sungmin. Apparently, Sungmin’s thesis and masteral work were centred on digital imagery and depth analysis.
“What kind of an engineer are you again?” Chilhyun asks Sungmin. Sungmin smiles a tight smile, trying not to lash out on people who don’t know of his profession, but before Sungmin can answer him, Kyuhyun beats him to it.
“Geodetic Engineer,” Kyuhyun answers, and Sungmin looks at him with some unreadable expression. Kyuhyun shrugs and Chilhyun clears his throat.
“Oh I see,” Chilhyun says, narrowing his eyes at Kyuhyun, before turning back to Sungmin. “So, what exactly do you do? I hope I don’t come off as ignorant, but I’m not sure I’ve encountered a lot of geodetic engineers,” he chuckles, Sungmin’s smile is a bit less tight now.
“Land surveying in general,” Kyuhyun answers yet again for Sungmin, and this time even Sungmin narrows his eyes at him. He mutters a soft apology in response.
“Wow,” Chilhyun starts, trying to make light of the situation that he’s currently in, he can feel tension running high between Sungmin and Kyuhyun. “You really do know a lot about Engr. Lee!” Kyuhyun kind of nods in response, finding himself unable to answer his senior while
Sungmin looks pointedly at anywhere but him. “Well, that’s jolly good, right?” Chilhyun asks them but of course they don’t answer properly.
“I’ll be leaving you two, then,” he says as he stands up and makes his way for the door. He was out of the door before Kyuhyun can even tell him how he’s doing such a good job as his senior.
Kyuhyun facepalms wondering how he could get stuck with a senior like him. Of all the seniors in the company, he thought. He wanted to go after him, asking him to be there with him but a throat clearing brings him back to Sungmin.
“I guess we’re done here then,” Sungmin says as he stands up and moves towards the door, but Kyuhyun is quick to grab him. Sungmin looks between him and their hands and manages to shake Kyuhyun off. “I have somewhere to go to, Kyuhyun,” he says.
It was now or never, Kyuhyun thought. “Have lunch with me?” he asked as he finds his hands latching onto Sungmin again just as Sungmin steps out of the conference room. Sungmin looked at him once, blinking, caught offguard at Kyuhyun’s sudden offer; he looked like he was going to refuse. “Please,” Kyuhyun finds himself begging. “Just for old times’ sake.”
And then as if in a trance, Sungmin nods, after all, it’s the first time he’s ever seen Kyuhyun beg.
There was a time, in the brief period after graduation and before employment, when Kyuhyun thought he should drop by his alma matter and talk to old friends. He snorts as he boards the bus heading towards his university, old friends. If he was being honest with himself, he’s going back to uni for the last time just so he can see Sungmin and ask about him. He wasn’t sure if Sungmin was really avoiding him, or he was jut busy with his new course, after all he doesn’t know what those GE students do anyway.
He steps out of the bus, after spending 30 minutes in it, thinking of the places where Sungmin could be. Then he stares around, feeling oddly out of place with his surroundings even if it was only months since he’s been here. Before he could even turn into the direction of where the engineering complex would be, a guy knocks him out of balance.
“Aish,” Kyuhyun mutters, annoyed. He refuses the offered hand and was about to give the guy who bumped into him a scolding when he is suddenly faced with the person he’s been looking for. “Ming?”
“Kyuhyun?” Sungmin asks, eyes wide and wondering why Kyuhyun was here.
Kyuhyun smiles at him, glad to have found him without any effort. Sungmin bites his lips.
“Ming-hyung?!” a guy suddenly shouts from the door of the bus. “Come on! We’re gonna be late!”
Before Kyuhyun can even say hi, how are you doing hyung? Sungmin kind of smiles shyly at him, probably apologizing for what he’s about to do. Kyuhyun was right. “I’m sorry,” Sungmin says, but it was easy to see that he wasn’t. “I have to go.”
And then Sungmin turns his back against him and starts running towards the bus he just alighted. Kyuhyun wanted to follow and when asked, he would tell Sungmin that he was here to see him. But he frowns, he would just wait for the bus to return and head back home. He wasn’t about to make a fool out of himself.
“The cafeteria food is bad,” Kyuhyun says as he ushers Sungmin out of the building and into the parking lot. “I know a restaurant a few blocks away, we could walk but we might have to get in line for a table,” he muses, Sungmin only hums in response. “We should take my car.”
It was awkward, the walk to the car was awkward and it was only a few feet away. Kyuhyun wondered if they’d break the tension once they’re inside the car, but he doubts it. If anything, it’d probably be more awkward. Knowing himself and judging Sungmin by the way he’s acting, it’s gonna be one, long ride.
Once inside the car with Kyuhyun opening the door for Sungmin, Kyuhyun turned on the ac and put on his seatbelt . He turned around to help Sungmin into his seat, not really thinking about what he was doing when Sungmin suddenly stops him. “I can do it myself,” Sungmin says as he pushes Kyuhyun away from him gently. Kyuhyun blushes, suddenly aware of their close proximity and then goes back to his seat. Breathe in, breathe out, he told himself.
Once he was sure that both of them were ready to go, Kyuhyun starts his car and turns on the radio. Music, he thought, Sungmin loved music as much as he did. He glanced at Sungmin who was smiling slightly as they rolled out of the company compound, and suddenly, he felt as if going to lunch with Sungmin is not going to be so bad.
“How have you been, Ming?” Kyuhyun asks Sungmin as soon as the waitress left with their orders. Sungmin looks at him calculatingly, before answering.
“I’ve been good,” Sungmin said, his answer short and brief. Kyuhyun frowns at this, Ming never was the kind of person to give short answers, if any, he was the kind of person who would go on and on as long as someone’s listening. Though dissatisfied with his answer Kyuhyun does not press.
Kyuhyun holds Sungmin’s gaze, questions threatening to spill out of his mouth, but then Sungmin looks away, again.
“Ming,” Kyuhyun says, his hand reaching for Sungmin’s hand across the table and Sungmin looks at him. “I,” Kyuhyun starts and stares at Sungmin who has this expecting gaze. “I’ve missed you, Ming.”
Sungmin smiles a bit, but even Kyuhyun can see through his forced smile, nevertheless he squeezes Kyuhyun’s hand in assurance. “I’ve missed you too.”
“It’s not supposed to be like this,” Sungmin mutters under his breath as he pulls his tie loose. It’s 2am and here they are, in Kyuhyun’s office, trying to figure out why nothing seems to be in 3D. Sungmin rubs his temple in frustration, he just can’t understand why the things he’s doing are not working out. “Augh!” Sungmin groans, hands slamming down the desk. Kyuhyun looks up from the storyboard.
“Are you alright?” Kyuhyun asks as he looks over Sungmin’s shoulder to take a peek at Sungmin’s code.
Sungmin pouts, turning around to look at Kyuhyun. “It’s not working,” he complains.
Kyuhyun takes in the sight of him, eyes widened and lips pursed in a pout, and he is suddenly reminded of their university days. He chuckles as he pinches Sungmin’s cheeks, just like old times.
Sungmin freezes and then turns his back on him, returning to his programming as if he was burned by Kyuhyun’s affection. Kyuhyun is slightly offended by this, even if he does know that they’re still awkward after not talking to each other all those year and he shouldn’t expect affection and familiarity from Sungmin. He swallows it all though, because he realizes that he made Sungmin that way and no one can be blamed but him for their situation. He only wished he knew how he did it.
“Stereograms, when stationary, don’t look 3D,” Sungmin says , pulling Kyuhyun out of his thoughts. “But when they’re in motion and the overlap because of this, the depth should be realized,” he continued, Kyuhyun nodded. “I don’t understand why they’re not that 3d. I can’t be going blind , can I?”
Kyuhyun looks at the test scene and thinks. “You’re not going blind, Ming,” he says. Sungmin utters a soft thank God in response. “But have you checked your coordinates? They seem a bit wonky?”
Sungmin checks the code and types in some commands Kyuhyun can’t recognize. “There. I tweaked it a bit. The coordinates I used before were right, I just added some “wonky factor”.” Kyuhyun checks it again and nods.
“Just a little more wonk?” Kyuhyun asks. Sungmin chuckles and says okay, going back to his code.
As Sungmin continues coding and tweaking the test scene, Kyuhyun decides to go back to the storyboard he was correcting; looking for loops and weak spots in the game theory. Soon enough they lapse into another comfortable silence with Sungmin typing away on the computer and Kyuhyun looking for new hooks. Kyuhyun reads over one of the hook suggestions a junior proposed.
“Love Hook”
Objective: To keep player in the game by creating a pseudo-love interest of some sort for the character.
Level Requirement: Level 20, must pass Quest 3 on Rising Island and Story Arc 2: The Rise of Machines.
Approach: Character gains half a necklace from Rising Island. Character throws damaged necklace in Rise of Machines as bait for Revolts. Character gets haunted by wood spirit. The wood spirit is the owner of the damaged necklace.
Task: To protect the wood spirit, in exchange of the lost damaged necklace.
Progression:
In order to pass the Love Hook, character must protect wood spirit at all costs. If character ceases to protect the spirit, the character dies for the character is now linked with the spirit.
In game purchases: Yes.
Part of protecting the wood spirit is nourishment. Character spends money on wood spirit’s needs.
Opt Out:
Character returns to Rising Land and retakes Story Arc 2 Rise of Machines.
Psychological proof:
A never-ending loop where player is given no choice but to be with the wood spirit until player completes all quests and finishes the entire game. Since the player has intention to win, the player could choose nourishing wood spirit or he could opt out of it by returning to the previous level. The player would always be forced to part with the damaged necklace as such it’s a sure-fire way to ensure wood-spirit companionship.
Love hook, huh? Kyuhyun thinks. It was a weak name for a proposal, but the proposal itself seems promising. As the proposal said, it’s gonna be a never ending loop of buying of game credits. He wonders how his junior could have thought of this hook, but then he realizes that he himself could have thought of this. He looks at Sungmin who was deeply engrossed with his coding and thinks.
Sungmin is easily the wood spirit. The one the gamer would not be able to live without, the one he can’t live without, Kyuhyun belatedly realizes. The damaged necklace must be something he must have thrown away, which made Sungmin and thoughts of Sungmin haunt him until to this day. Now that Sungmin’s back in his life, he had a choice. It was between accepting his task as a gamer and take responsibility for how he was currently feeling, and opting out of the task. But life is no game and there certainly wasn’t a repeat level in life. Because if there was, he wouldn’t have thrown away his and Sungmin’s friendship and pretended to be okay.
“Ming?” Kyuhyun speaks up, and he hated the fact that his eyes seem to have gotten watery and he cringes at the way his voice sounds.
“Hmm?” Sungmin hums in reply, not even bothering to look at him.
“Did I drive you away?”
Sungmin pauses and turns to look at him. Kyuhyun bites his lip, anxious as to what Sungmin would say. “Why do you ask that?” Sungmin says with a smile, appearing as if he was unaffected, but both of them knew that Kyuhyun has hit a spot.
“I’m not dumb, hyung,” Kyuhyun starts, suddenly the music Sungmin put on for the night was inaudible and all he could hear was a pounding in his heart and Sungmin gulping. “You loved this, you wouldn’t leave it if it weren’t for something else,” he says, daring Sungmin to look away and deny him. Sungmin holds his gaze, but Kyuhyun could see him faltering. “It was me, wasn’t it?”
Sungmin doesn’t answer. Maybe because he doesn’t want to offend Kyuhyun because a “yes it’s your fault” was threatening to spill out of his mouth. Or maybe, it’s because he has seen Kyuhyun try so hard, but it was him this time who was rejecting him. Again.
“I’m sorry,” Kyuhyun says bowing his head as he approaches Sungmin.
Sungmin doesn’t do anything, he just watches Kuhyun kneel in front of him.
Kyuhyun takes Sungmin’s face in his hands and pulls his face against his. Sungmin could feel wetness on his cheeks, he was pretty sure that he wasn’t crying, could it be Kyuhyun?
“I’m sorry,” Kyuhyun repeats. “I’m sorry that I drove you away,” he says through sniffles and Sungmin’s heart constricts. Didn’t he once want Kyuhyun to be happy too? “I’m sorry, I never meant to harm you.”
“I,” Kyuhyun starts again. “I don’t know what I did, to be honest,” he says as he looks up at Sungmin, tear-stained eyes boring into Sungmin’s soft ones. “But I missed you, and I hate feeling like this.”
“Kyuhyun,” Sungmin starts, bringing Kyuhyun’s face up, wiping the tear tracks from his face. “Don’t cry, I was-.”
“No, Ming, let me finish. I’m sorry I ever treated you like crap. I knew what you were doing, and I’ sorry I hated you for it,” Kyuhyun confesses. “But when you left, and when we didn’t bump into each other like you said we’d do, I was a mess. I’m still a mess. I don’t know. It took me fucking five years to realize, I’m so sorry, Ming.”
“Kyuhyun,” Sungmin tries again. “Stop.”
“Ming,would you forgive me?” Kyuhyun pleadingly asks. Sungmin looks away yet again, removing Kyuhyun’s hands from his face.
“Kyuhyun, it’s late,” Sungmin says, pointing at the clock which read 3 am. Running away again, are we? Sungmin asks himself derisively as he stands up to get out of the room. Kyuhyun shakes his head and stands up holding onto Sungmin. Sungmin stops, and Kyuhyun pulls him into a tight hug.
“I like you,” Kyuhyun says. “It took me five fucking years. It’s late. And I know you’re mad, and.”
“And, please, just don’t run away again,” Kyuhyun whispers. “Please, let me make it up to you,” he says as he nuzzles Sungmin. “Just, please. I’ll make it up to you, I swear.”
Sungmin doesn’t answer, not because he can’t trust himself not to say I love you so fucking much to Kyuhyun because he’s got way more pride than that, and if Kyuhyun does really want to make it up then he has to work for it. But actually, it’s mainly because Sungmin has already laid his head against Kyuhyun’s chest and pressed himself tightly against him, that’s why he can’t utter a word in response anymore.
It would probably take time, because first they had to mend their friendship because neither wanted going in too deep when they’re admittedly still awkward with each other. And then after that, they’d have to go through the process of being infatuated and in love like teenagers, because they were both robbed of that chance. It seemed long and tedious, but if there was anything Kyuhyun and Sungmin were good at, it was making things work even at the oddest of times.
//AN4 this is short, and things happened way too fast. but i'm satisfied with it so. yeah. idc.