Pokedex Log #017: One-Way Mirrors
Title: One-Way Mirrors
Length: 573 words
Fandom: FT Island
Characters: HongKi, JongHoon
Rating: PG
Warning: AU
Summary: Sometimes you think you know someone. Did they change, or did you?
A/N: Part of the Pokemon!AU, new drabble every 2 days. Masterlist/Character List | Request Thread
Requested by augmenti
Even though the small diner was full of chatter, it couldn't make up for how silent their table was. Food hadn't arrived, nothing to distract them, but they didn't talk. Just looked, one at his companion, the other down at the hands loosely gripping his coffee cup. The liquid had probably gone cold by then.
"What happened to you?" JongHoon asked quietly. HongKi was silent.
Once upon a time, HongKi had been his everything. Best friend, confidant, protector. Though their ages were mere days apart, HongKi had gleefully insisted on being called 'hyung' even if he acted nothing of the sort. And JongHoon had idolized him, sure. HongKi had dreams, visions, something JongHoon couldn't decide on himself. Somewhere along the lines he'd thought he knew all about HongKi there was to know.
Maybe he hadn't known anything at all.
Opening his mouth to ask again, JongHoon was cut off when HongKi sipped at his coffee and made a face. "Gross." He leaned back in his seat, lounging against the bench. "Service here is slow, maybe we should have met somewhere else. That ice cream place across town still open?"
"You can't have ice cream for lunch," JongHoon refuted, lips thinning.
"Says who, ice cream's the best," HongKi grinned widely. "Show me around after? You still live in that tiny apartment?"
"Yeah, not everyone makes a professor's paycheck."
"Professor's assistant's paycheck," HongKi corrected, trying another sip of the cold coffee before shuddering and giving up. "It's not that much, but at least I get a place to stay. Out in the middle of nowhere, but still."
"You're the one who decided to move to some no-name town," JongHoon tried a smile, eyes bleak.
"Yeah well, all in the name of progress, right?" HongKi grinned. "I'll stay out there for a couple more years, learn everything I can, and then set up my own lab somewhere. Hey, maybe you could be my assistant then, better than the Poke-Mart."
"Anything's better than the Poke-Mart." JongHoon stopped when their food finally arrived, watching HongKi wolf down his share. "I don't have the credentials."
"I'll teach you, the professor taught me the same way," HongKi swallowed.
"I don't want to know what he's teaching you," JongHoon replied tersely.
HongKi fussed with his chopsticks. "I don't know what's your problem with him, he's a nice guy."
"Then let me see those papers hidden under your coat, before you sneak them off to some shady guy while pretending to want to visit me."
The blond-haired man looked up at JongHoon, grin spread across his face. "No."
Suddenly JongHoon wasn't hungry anymore. He leaned back in his seat, staring at HongKi as the other man continued eating like nothing had happened. A large part of him wanted to get up and leave just then, angry that HongKi hadn't even bothered to correct him when he accused HongKi of not really wanted to see him anymore. But he knew he wouldn't leave, because HongKi was his idolized hyung, with the dreams and the starry eyes, whom JongHoon felt that he had to protect somehow.
Had HongKi always been like this, even before he left to be a professor's assistant, and JongHoon had just never noticed? He wanted to believe his smiling, angel-faced friend had been corrupted during his absence, and that JongHoon could save him if he could just shake some sense into him.
But HongKi had always liked playing with fire.
Length: 573 words
Fandom: FT Island
Characters: HongKi, JongHoon
Rating: PG
Warning: AU
Summary: Sometimes you think you know someone. Did they change, or did you?
A/N: Part of the Pokemon!AU, new drabble every 2 days. Masterlist/Character List | Request Thread
Requested by augmenti
Even though the small diner was full of chatter, it couldn't make up for how silent their table was. Food hadn't arrived, nothing to distract them, but they didn't talk. Just looked, one at his companion, the other down at the hands loosely gripping his coffee cup. The liquid had probably gone cold by then.
"What happened to you?" JongHoon asked quietly. HongKi was silent.
Once upon a time, HongKi had been his everything. Best friend, confidant, protector. Though their ages were mere days apart, HongKi had gleefully insisted on being called 'hyung' even if he acted nothing of the sort. And JongHoon had idolized him, sure. HongKi had dreams, visions, something JongHoon couldn't decide on himself. Somewhere along the lines he'd thought he knew all about HongKi there was to know.
Maybe he hadn't known anything at all.
Opening his mouth to ask again, JongHoon was cut off when HongKi sipped at his coffee and made a face. "Gross." He leaned back in his seat, lounging against the bench. "Service here is slow, maybe we should have met somewhere else. That ice cream place across town still open?"
"You can't have ice cream for lunch," JongHoon refuted, lips thinning.
"Says who, ice cream's the best," HongKi grinned widely. "Show me around after? You still live in that tiny apartment?"
"Yeah, not everyone makes a professor's paycheck."
"Professor's assistant's paycheck," HongKi corrected, trying another sip of the cold coffee before shuddering and giving up. "It's not that much, but at least I get a place to stay. Out in the middle of nowhere, but still."
"You're the one who decided to move to some no-name town," JongHoon tried a smile, eyes bleak.
"Yeah well, all in the name of progress, right?" HongKi grinned. "I'll stay out there for a couple more years, learn everything I can, and then set up my own lab somewhere. Hey, maybe you could be my assistant then, better than the Poke-Mart."
"Anything's better than the Poke-Mart." JongHoon stopped when their food finally arrived, watching HongKi wolf down his share. "I don't have the credentials."
"I'll teach you, the professor taught me the same way," HongKi swallowed.
"I don't want to know what he's teaching you," JongHoon replied tersely.
HongKi fussed with his chopsticks. "I don't know what's your problem with him, he's a nice guy."
"Then let me see those papers hidden under your coat, before you sneak them off to some shady guy while pretending to want to visit me."
The blond-haired man looked up at JongHoon, grin spread across his face. "No."
Suddenly JongHoon wasn't hungry anymore. He leaned back in his seat, staring at HongKi as the other man continued eating like nothing had happened. A large part of him wanted to get up and leave just then, angry that HongKi hadn't even bothered to correct him when he accused HongKi of not really wanted to see him anymore. But he knew he wouldn't leave, because HongKi was his idolized hyung, with the dreams and the starry eyes, whom JongHoon felt that he had to protect somehow.
Had HongKi always been like this, even before he left to be a professor's assistant, and JongHoon had just never noticed? He wanted to believe his smiling, angel-faced friend had been corrupted during his absence, and that JongHoon could save him if he could just shake some sense into him.
But HongKi had always liked playing with fire.