serpentine

(...) he blinks, ointment being dabbed onto his split lip as he furrows his eyebrows. “i don’t think i’m allergic to anything,” he offers as helpfully as he can, but it’s kind of difficult when medical care is such a rarity where he’s from. “i’m fine, i’ve been through worse.”

(aren’t you a bit too young? people ask him when he says stuff like that. he tells them to fuck off.)

“what’s your name?”

once again wei’s already friendly expression makes way for an outright beaming smile when the fighter guesses his origin right from the first try. he gives a quick couple of nods with his head to indicate the young man is right, not at all ashamed of the fact that anyone could guess from his accent alone what country he’s from. he doesn’t pretend to be more than he is, after all, and what he is is not very good at korean. yet.

when he’s told that the younger-looking male does not have any allergies, wei is quick to screw the lid back on the tube of ointment he just used and then rummage through his back until he can take out the homemade concoction against bruises - always useful to have one heal a little faster when you can’t have anyone knowing you’ve been where you’ve been, after all.

“i bet you have,” he responds to the words, before declaring almost enthusiastically: “but i’ve got just the thing for your bruises then too,” he's simply glad to be able to help the young man out a little more, and hopefully ease some of the suffering that will definitely follow the next day. there is little in him that comes close to shame or embarrassment, and so he’s soon already pulling up the younger man’s shirt to reveal the nasty bruise on his ribs.

“i’m wei,” he responds easily, beaming another smile at the young male quickly before focusing his gaze on the bruise again and opening up his new salve. “this can smell a little bad,” he warns, knowing that some people don’t appreciate the smell of medicinal herbs. “but it works like a charm, trust me.” his lips automatically fold into that dimpled smile he tends to be so well-known for, fingers already dipping into the new ointment and scooping out a handsome amount.

to say wei and seojun had gotten off on the wrong foot, would be an understatement. he hadn’t taken all too well to the other at first. learning that wei was, in fact, joo’s roommate luring a certain jealousy out of him that he didn’t know he possessed.

it had taken some convincing from both joo as wei’s side that their relationship didn’t work like that, seojun being rather apologetic when he had finally come to his senses. there was no denying wei was good to joo and he was glad she had someone like him by her side. as well as grateful that wei had been willing to move past their initial struggles and eventually embraced him as a friend as well. a friendship they had gotten to continue, despite him and joo seperating years ago.

seojun had felt undeserving of joo in many ways. different in many ways as well. she was kind of gentle with a promising career ahead of her, while he was often taken on as aggressive and brutal. something people learnt he was not if they took the time to get to know him, but that didn’t take away the fact that he was a low-life with no real future ahead of him.

but here they were, seated opposite of each other. wei treating him as if they were old friends catching up with each other, instead of his friend’s ex.

“i’m exhausted,” seojun admitted, “i didn’t know finding a fitting acquirer would take this much time.” however, choosing to only let wei in on parts of his current situation and not mention his money issues. “how about you, man? it’s been a while.”

“i’ve been good,” wei responds almost instantly, nodding his head to underline his words and humming shortly. there’s a permanent smile on his features, reflected in his eyes, that seems to never truly go away whenever he’s around friends, and he lifts his glass at seojun in some sort of salute.

“perhaps you can’t find a proper buyer because you’re overcharging the place,” he then suggests, playful grin starting to play around the corners of his mouth. “i mean, real estate prices have been steadily rising over the past couple of years, but who wants a bunker with blood on the walls? that’s a bitch to clean off, trust me.”

he’s just teasing, of course, but that doesn’t stop him from raising his eyebrows at seojun as if he’s bringing up a valid point, and he gives a slight shrug of his shoulders as if to say there’s nothing to be done about it. the next moment he’s taking another sip from his drink to hide the grin that’s blooming fully on his features now.

when he puts the glass back down, his expression is schooled into regular amusement again, before he grows slightly more serious. “no, but, how come you’re having so much trouble? is it the price, or are the people just picky about the type of building? did you consider talking to some developers? they might be willing to pay good money for it so they can demolish the current building and build some new fancy shmancy apartments instead.”

(...) “of course i did. you should see the other guy.” he blurts out, much like the stupid nineteen year old kid that he is trying to sound stronger in the presence of delicate beauty, specifically one that’s fixing his wounds up for him like some sort of angel. he bites his tongue to stop himself from asking dumb questions and winces again, shifting.

a pause. “i don’t mean to sound stupidㅡ fuck, this hurts like a son of a biㅡ but, uh, i’m not in heaven or something, right?”

wei can’t help the chuckle that bubbles up in his chest, and he lets it out freely, without pausing in his care. there are plenty of cuts to be taken care of, after all, and from the sounds filtering in through the relatively thin walls, it won’t be all that long before the next fighters come out back again. somehow the way the young man is looking up at him from that lying position, with stars in his eyes it seems despite the hurt there should be, makes wei want to stay right there for at least a little longer.

and then the fighter talks again and the lingering smile turns into bright amusement, wei temporarily halting in his movements to throw his head back and laugh. his korean has improved quite a bit since coming to the country a year back, but he doesn’t need any linguistic skills to know the young man is swearing in the middle of his sentence and it’s all directed at the work he’s doing.

taking a moment to recompose himself, wei puts the ball of cotton he’d been working with aside and calmly picks up the tube of wound-healing ointment so he can spread that out over the cuts instead.

“this should help,” he tells his charge, before dabbing some of the ointment on the cut above the man’s eye with his ring finger, doing his best to be gentle this time around. only after he’s done with that one does he speak up again, temporarily locking gazes with the stranger as he does so. “and i would hope that heaven doesn’t have you...” he hesitates for a moment as he tries to remember the exact wording the other man used. “hurt like a son of a bi--”

he can’t help but grin again at those words, then puts another bit of ointment on his finger to treat the next wound. “you’re just in the back of the fighting ring. you got knocked out so i started treating your wounds,” he explains after a moment, uncaring of the clear accent that still tints his voice, betraying his foreign background.

kai’s paws happily tapped against the hardwood floor of the dormitories. earning himself a series of softly whispered scoldings before yoora picked him up from the floor and carried him out of the building in her arms. she had done it many times before, sneak out of the agency to visit jinhwan or take kai for a walk, but silence was still key and the pup’s excitement was about to sell her out.

yoora had made sure to complete all her tasks before she left, finish up on them thoroughly so no one might come looking for her while she was gone. the effort she had put leaving her both mentally as physically worn out, but not to the point where it would stop her from chasing after kai as soon as his tiny legs found their way to the ground. she let him roll around the grass with the other dogs and fed him treats every time he properly performed a trick.

joy fell from her face quickly when she turned and came eye to eye with wei, one of her advisors. he was more than that, though. wei was her friend, one of the very few she had made in the 5 months she had been involved with the agency, and their relationship had little changed after his promotion. but that didn’t take away the fact that he had new responsibilities and he could get her into serious trouble if he told on her.

“w- wei!” she stuttered, eyes growing wide as she picked kai off the ground before he could take off again. “what are you doing here?”

it’s not often that wei finds himself doing a quick patrol of the trainee building to make sure they’re all well. it’s even less often that he finds something amiss, but admittedly he’s not much surprised to see who it is doing the insubordinate thing. yoora has a little bit too much of a strong head for her own wellbeing, perhaps. it has never stopped him from liking her, however.

and so he follows quietly, not scolding her right away but instead trying to figure out what it is exactly that she’s taking her puppy out for. and he’s not disappointed when they eventually end up at the park, where yoora allows the little pupper the freedom to run and play with the others. it brings a slight smile on his face that he doesn’t try to hide. just like the way he ends up stepping into view calmly a little later.

still, with all her attention on the tiny dog, it still takes a disappointingly long time for his friend to notice him, and when she does it is everything he can do not to grin. then, after a moment, he grins anyway, because she just looks that funny with her eyes wide and the puppy dangling in her arms, tail already wagging heavily at the sight of him.

“watching you break the rules, apparently,” he responds easily, and the words are accompanied by a motion of his hand to the surrounding park. “i do quite believe you are not actually allowed to do this.” he steps closer, reaches out a hand to crawl the dog behind its ears before giving yoora a pointed look. “i also do believe there are plenty of grassy fields around our own buildings for you to walk your dog in.”

The familiar voice draws Joohyun back to reality, and her head tilts in the direction of the voice, a smile tugging on her lips as she sees the face of her dearest friend. “Mm, have I?” she said, a smile on her lips.

Her and Wei were close, they had been for a long time. He was the one person who had been there through everything she had experienced being a part of the Kingsman team, and he was someone she cherished and held near and dear to her heart.

She liked to think she knew him well enough, could expect his behaviours and actions before he did them, but he always had a way of surprising her. When he had brought her the gift for a wellness centre, one that was well known as of late, she was touched by the gesture. Wei always was the one taking care of her, one of the many other things that she was thankful towards him for.

As strong as she liked to think that she was, she knew she would be lost without him.

“I did,” she laughed, taking the drink that he had brought her and adjusted herself to sit up more properly before taking a sip. “Ah~ that tastes good, thank you Wei, this was all so lovely and just what I needed,” she said, smiling for a moment before reaching over with her free hand to pinch his cheek.

“What were you doing while I was out? I hope you weren’t watching me sleep, that wouldn’t be any fun for you.”

there is a particular warmth that always blooms in his chest when he talks to joohyun, one that he has come to associate with the way he feels whenever he thinks of or looks at his mother. joohyun is family as much as anyone not related by blood can be family, and definitely much more of a source of strength and support for him than any of his actual family outside of his mother.

and every time they do things like this he feels it all the more. the way that she, despite them being there to help her relax, still somehow finds a way to reach right past anything that might be on his mind and pulls him out of there to enjoy some time not thinking about too many of the things that keep him occupied in his day to day life. (work, mostly work.)

when she reaches out to pinch his cheek, he’s smiling again, that warm kind of affectionate smile that shows how much he truly cares for her - adores her really. she’s one of the few people who can do that and make him feel like a young boy again, like he is being fondly carressed rather than awkwardly pinched.

“don’t worry, i wasn’t watching you sleep. i was reading.” he nods his head over to the magazines that are freely offered by the wellness centre, of which he has by now devoured several, to the point where one might be wondering if he holds an actual interest in women’s beauty trends and men’s skin treatments with how emmersed he’s been in the things. but it’s always good to read up on things he’s not knowledgeable about, to garner more random information he can use when he’s doing one or the other undercover mission again.

ah, but he’d agreed on not thinking about work anymore today after the seventh magazine, and that’s where the cocktails come in. so he raises his a little, then nods over at hers.

“they say these are a few of the best ones in their selection, so i decided we should treat ourselves.” he grins loosely then, amusement sparkling in his eyes. “it’s been a long time since we got appropriately drunk, don’t you think?”

(...) soon enough, min locates the office and steps inside, a bit of an incredulous look on his face as he actually sees the thin line of smoke leaving the computer case. “wow — i — i haven’t seen something like that since robotics lessons.” he lets out with a laugh before he heads inside, kneels down and pulls the case from where it was, so that he can open it and try to locate the problem. “what were you doing with it ? did you plug something in the wrong hole maybe ?”

“thanks a lot, man, i appreciate it,” wei speaks into the phone as min says he’ll be right over, then puts the thing into his pocket again and just kind of stands there looking at the smoke still trickling out of the computer block as if there are smouldering coles inside the thing.

by the time min makes it to the office, he’s taken a half-seat on one of the other desks in the room, keeping proper distance and not touching anything as he had been instructed to do. instantly breaking out into a wide, relieved smile upon spotting the other male, wei gets up again to get closer just in case min needs him to give a hand or explain what had happened - for as far as he has any idea about that, of course.

he can’t help the light chuckle that gets pulled from him at min’s incredulous words, shrugging his shoulders lightly and bringing up his hands in a sort of defence.

“i didn’t do anything with it, i just came in and started using the computer as usual. it was a little slow but they do that sometimes, you know?” he blinks at the waft of smoke coming out of the computer block as min opens the case. “definitely didn’t light it on fire myself,” he states in a confident tone of voice, before trying to peer into the device.

“perhaps someone else plugged something in the wrong way? or maybe it’s just old.. how old are these things anyway?” it’s a kind of rhetorical question, as wei gives min the space he needs to do his job, watching from a distance and considering what he can do to help - nothing much, really.

sungil kneels down, thumbs smoothing over mimi’s head, fiddling with her ears as he makes kissy noises to her. the dog lets out a small yip, leaning forward to nose around at his chin, and he laughs, helplessly endeared. he’s had her for the better part of two years, and even though she’s not done growing she’s already huge, weighing almost as much as he does, compared to when he first picked her out of the pups and she was nothing more than a chubby ball of fluff. 

it’s odd that he’d been asked to bring her to this meeting, but he supposes it’s just one of his many final assessments: she had done training with him after all, been with him for nearly the whole thing, and so they must be wanting to look at her as well.

no matter. she’s grown so much, and sungil’s as proud of her as he is of himself. 

sungil knocks at the door, standing straight as he waits. 

there is much to say about his new position, like the way he quite enjoys sorting through paperwork and keeping up with all the trainee’s files. also something to be said about the new clearance level he got into other people’s files because of being an advisor. he can’t just go poking around in every file the agency stores, but there definitely is a lot more for him to look at than there used to be.

he’s been doing well these past few months, sifting through the files, getting to know the trainees, adjusting to his new position within the agency. he’s quite fond of his new colleagues, of watching the younglings grow as they undergo the rigorous training. it’s brought back plenty of memories of his own time in training, and he’s definitely been enjoying the trip down memory lane.

but this part, this part he doesn’t like so much. what he’s supposed to do next is not something he looks forward to doing. he still remembers how he felt about it himself, not very fond of guns to begin with and then given one to do something so artrocious with it. he’d been hard pressed to shake of the lingering feeling of disgust for weeks and months after the actual event.

to be asked to make someone else go through the same thing now feels almost just as disgusting.

(...) Joohyun put her own portion on a plate as well and grabbed the forks and with her free hand, she grabbed Wei’s and tugged on it lightly. “Come on, lets go back to the couch and watch something on TV. Tonight feels like a good night to just sit around and do nothing, doesn’t it?”

nodding his head several times incessantly when joohyun asks if it’s that good, wei flails his hands a little bit more to make sure she understands that it is honestly and truly delicious. a moment later he swallows the bite and instantly starts to grin widely. “it’s amazing!” his gaze goes down to the cake again as she cuts him, and when she states the entire half is his, the happiness and giddiness in his expression is more than enough proof of how happy he is with that decision.

instantly picking up the plate she put it on as well as the fork he just ate with, he makes sure to hold both things close to his chest, as if unwilling to give either of them up again - and unwilling he is. still, the grin he showed her is still there and he’s not actually as on edge as he pretends to be. this is all in good fun, after all, as everything between them always is.

“sit around doing nothing sounds so great!” he instantly agrees to her suggestion, following along with her to the living room so he can flop himself down in the couch once again. the only thing he pays attention to is not to spill any of the japanese cheesecake on himself, her or the couch considering it would only be a waste of delicious dessert.

getting comfortable in his seat, he glances over at joohyun for a moment, unable to stop himself from smiling at her warmly. “thanks for the cake, hyunnie, it’s a great way to end this day!” smiling at her for a little longer only, he then proceeds to take a good new bite of his dessert.

“At thirteen? Wow, look at you being all scandalous,” Sehun teased. “Good, you punk. What kind of a person does such a thing in a school?” he said with a look of mock horror on his face. Of course, he was kidding and it wasn’t like he was exactly innocent of that either. 

“Was it her first kiss too? I hear some people freak out, especially girls, so maybe she just freaked out. You just hunt her down and ask….and then tell me what she says because now I’m committed to this first kiss story,” he shrugged, as though this mere suggestion was normal behaviour and completely acceptable. “You should kiss her again too and see what happens.”

At Wei’s words Sehun went overboard with pretending to gag and be completely and utterly repulsed by his friend’s playful manner. “See if I ever tell you about my promiscuous endeavours again Wei,” he scoffed, but of course, it was just playful banter. “If you try planting one on me I’m going to throw a chair at you. I’ll only accept a flower pot on the head as a form of planting one on me.”

wei laughs at sehun’s instant interest, as well as at the teasing that follows. he expected as much from his friend, so it doesn’t bother him all too much, but he does find it amusing that apparently the other male seems surprised by his age as well as where it happened.

“i wouldn’t know if it was her first kiss, but i don’t think it was,” he responds easily, giving a light shrug of his shoulders. “but perhaps it was and it was like you say. doesn’t really matter anymore now, i’ve left it long behind me.” he chuckles lightly. “kissing her again now would require quite a trip and an elaborate search mission, both things i don’t feel like undertaking for that girl.”

he grins a bit wider again, once again leaning slightly closer to sehun. “it’ll be much easier for me to just find someone goodlooking here in seoul to try my kissing skills on, wouldn’t you say?”

he laughs again at sehun’s instant and blatant rejection of the mere thought of wei ‘planting one on him’ in any other way than it actually involving a flower of sorts. “well then, i guess that tells me where i stand with you,” he deadpans, pretending to be terribly saddened by said knowledge. “i guess i’ll have to start taking down all the pictures i have of you decorating my bedroom walls.”

(...) another laugh leaves his lips at that, nodding, one hand absent-mindedly playing with the straw of his drink before he leans forward, taking a bite of the food himself. once he swallows the food down, he can’t help but ask. "so, are you good at cooking ? or just eating ? i’m disastrous in the kitchen, ramen and eggs are as far as i can go —” it’s probably the fact that he never needed to cook for more than one person, and extravagant dishes were out of the table in almost all of those occasions. he wonders if that’s the situation with wei too, or whether he is a wonder in the kitchen instead.

the question junho brings up after his comment about being good at eating instantly sparks a wide smile to appear on wei’s face. “cook, yes!” he responds happily, excitement over the idea of it brimming in his voice as well as his features. he puts his chopsticks down this time around, so he can have both hands to help explain all of his enthusiasm about the hobby.

“i make food at home always,” he starts. “sometimes joohyun, but i do it rest of the time.” there’s a bit of a stint in his korean, which he knows and hates, but for the current subject he’s more than willing to live with it if it means being able to talk about food and making food more.

“make things from home, try out new things, prepare dessert.” he pauses a moment, tries to think of the right word, then instantly beams as he finds it. “experiment with food.” it helps that as long as nothing’s burned, there’s hardly any type of food or taste he doesn’t like, so he can throw a bunch of things together to attempt a new dish and never come out cheated.

admittedly not all of his creations are necessarily good or delicious, but it’s a male to eat for the day, and whenever he does find a good combination of food, he never hesitates to let joohyun try it out, as well as to send the recipe to his mother so she can try it out as well and give him her opinion.

there has been a certain amount of time in which his mother was not in any way or shape capable of making her own food - hence the reason he knows how to - but it’s been quite a while since that time and these days she’s more than happy to share good recipes with him as well whenever they speak on the phone.