mar

Dongmin knows he’s been good all day.

He helped you lace your long heels up, took you on a nice date, and even now he’s eating you out.

Not once did he hear your usual pet name for him; “Good boy”.

Not even when he pulled out an orgasm out of you within minutes. He starts to wonder if you’re teasing him, staying tight lipped because you know how much he likes to be praised.

When Dongmin’s head starts to cloud up, he pulls away from your heat, resting his chin on your v line. You gasp at the loss of contact, and pick your head up to see the problem.

“What’s the matter, babe?” You barely breathe out, the oxygen previously in your lungs being sucked out by your boyfriend.

“Please..”

Dongmin doesn’t finish the sentence, he debates if you didn’t like the date or are mad at him. He looks into your eyes, trying to tell what you’re thinking.

“Please what?”

You tilt your head, a coy smile forming on your lips. He instantly glances away, a faint red dusting his cheeks.

“Please— I don’t know what I did wrong, tell me I’m doing good.. please.”

You raise your eyebrows in surprise, you start to wonder what you could’ve done to get him this worked up. You don’t waste your time dwelling on it, though, you have an idea.

“Lay down.”

Dongmin obeys almost immediately, crawling onto the bed next to you. You kick a leg over his waist and straddle him, a soft gasp coming from each of you from the sudden contact.

He watches your bare pussy start to move on the seam of his jeans, hands shooting out to your hips on instinct, guiding you.

“Fuck.. that’s good baby, just like that.”

A whimper falls pathetically out of his mouth, the praise and the pleasure mixing in his mind. Any thought that Dongmin previously had vanishes, the only thing that matters now is how soaked you’re making him.

You lean down, teeth grazing his neck in a way that has him squirming. You suck hickeys down to his chest, soothing them as you go with your tongue.

“Such a good boy— My good boy.”

Dongmin throws his head back, his hips bucking up into your cunt for more friction.

“Treated me so well today too, took me on a date, tied my shoes and even treated me in bed. You deserve a reward.”

You know well he can’t respond to you, not when you’re buttering him up, lips grazing his ear as you too.

He presses you down further on his cock, drinking in the gasp that spills from you.

“Shit! Keep doing that… Good boy.”

He swears he saw stars, as soon as you finish your sentence he cums with a loud moan, glossy eyes watching your juices spill on his designer jeans.

Your hands come up to his torso, caressing up and down while your lips pepper kisses down his neck.

“Now how about that reward?”

a / n : sub taesan propaganda will live on join us!! THANK YOU FOR REQUESTING ANON 🤍

Dongmin knows he’s been good all day.

He helped you lace your long heels up, took you on a nice date, and even now he’s eating you out.

Not once did he hear your usual pet name for him; “Good boy”.

Not even when he pulled out an orgasm out of you within minutes. He starts to wonder if you’re teasing him, staying tight lipped because you know how much he likes to be praised.

When Dongmin’s head starts to cloud up, he pulls away from your heat, resting his chin on your v line. You gasp at the loss of contact, and pick your head up to see the problem.

“What’s the matter, babe?” You barely breathe out, the oxygen previously in your lungs being sucked out by your boyfriend.

“Please..”

Dongmin doesn’t finish the sentence, he debates if you didn’t like the date or are mad at him. He looks into your eyes, trying to tell what you’re thinking.

“Please what?”

You tilt your head, a coy smile forming on your lips. He instantly glances away, a faint red dusting his cheeks.

“Please— I don’t know what I did wrong, tell me I’m doing good.. please.”

You raise your eyebrows in surprise, you start to wonder what you could’ve done to get him this worked up. You don’t waste your time dwelling on it, though, you have an idea.

“Lay down.”

Dongmin obeys almost immediately, crawling onto the bed next to you. You kick a leg over his waist and straddle him, a soft gasp coming from each of you from the sudden contact.

He watches your bare pussy start to move on the seam of his jeans, hands shooting out to your hips on instinct, guiding you.

“Fuck.. that’s good baby, just like that.”

A whimper falls pathetically out of his mouth, the praise and the pleasure mixing in his mind. Any thought that Dongmin previously had vanishes, the only thing that matters now is how soaked you’re making him.

You lean down, teeth grazing his neck in a way that has him squirming. You suck hickeys down to his chest, soothing them as you go with your tongue.

“Such a good boy— My good boy.”

Dongmin throws his head back, his hips bucking up into your cunt for more friction.

“Treated me so well today too, took me on a date, tied my shoes and even treated me in bed. You deserve a reward.”

You know well he can’t respond to you, not when you’re buttering him up, lips grazing his ear as you too.

He presses you down further on his cock, drinking in the gasp that spills from you.

“Shit! Keep doing that… Good boy.”

He swears he saw stars, as soon as you finish your sentence he cums with a loud moan, glossy eyes watching your juices spill on his designer jeans.

Your hands come up to his torso, caressing up and down while your lips pepper kisses down his neck.

“Now how about that reward?”

a / n : sub taesan propaganda will live on join us!! THANK YOU FOR REQUESTING ANON 🤍

you’re out with sungho during a surface run. it’s nothing too out of the ordinary - a quick run because the pantry is growing worryingly empty and riwoo’s on the edge again and leehan has been gone for a few hours already. you had cornered a wild boar into a dilapidated tunnel - but it had lunged at you with a ferocity that comes with owning the city. you froze - something you weren’t exactly proud of.

but sungho didn’t.

he moved with such composure and assuredness you didn’t truly process it until it was over. sungho had click back his rifle and wiped his hands clean on his jacket, looking at you with the simplicity that came with something like filling up a glass of water rather than shooting a bullet in between the eyes of a boar.

“are you okay?” he asked softly.

“fine,” you stuttered.

sungho acted akin to a domesticated cat, but he had that instinct underneath anyways - that human desire to stay alive, no matter what it took. he didn’t even flinch at the creatures with human faces either - the ones that had the wrong shape and limped at you. sungho puts them down clean and doesn’t lose sleep over it. they’re gone anyways, he said, wiping down his rifle with a rag, we’re doing them a kindness.

you toss and turn at night, trying your best not to rouse the other members curled up in their kots.

“can’t sleep?” he towers over your makeshift bed like a statue, the faint glow of the light casting his shadow over you as his hair falls into his face. he casts a look at woonhak, who is curled up next to your head, inches from falling off the edge of his mattress.

“i’m too old for bedtime stories,” you whisper, scooting up until you’re sitting up against the wall. he sits down anyways, and you curl into him, his arm coming up to wrap around you.

he tells you them anyways, his voice quiet so he doesn’t wake up woonhak who is snoring away beside the two of you.

“sungho.”

“mm?”

“we’re not going to sleep, are we?”

he looks down at you.

“do you want to?”

you look him in the eyes.

“no, not really.”

then you kiss him, unhurried like you have all the time in the world.

his hand moves to your jaw, and the bunker around you disappears completely.

when you break for air, he nudges his forehead against your’s, mumbling against your lips.

“since you don’t intend on sleeping, why don’t we do something fun? you’ll have to be quiet, though.”

#리우 RIWOO

the thing about riwoo is that he’s actually funny.

it’s like his brain never switches off - he jumps at any opportunity to crack jokes and entertain you. if this was before, he’d probably have an audience of thousands - but he’s stuck doing stand-up for seven people in a reinforced basement and they love him for it possibly more than any crowd ever could.

for a brief moment, when he comments on woonhak’s stumbling of words or make noises nobody expects, it feels normal - your concrete home turns momentarily human with riwoo in the center.

chef riwoo claims the makeshift kitchen as his own. its a poor excuse of one - a few stacked cardboard boxes and rusted tins. riwoo makes do with what you have, which isn’t a lot to begin with. he’ll spend an hour on a can of beans, coaxing them into something that tastes like deliberation. he’ll somehow scrounge up a bundle of sad, dried herbs from behind a shelf and savour them like how a sommelier might with wine. a sprinkle of rosemary, he says, deadly serious, even though it smells like nothing to you. he’ll serve you it on a platter, paired with our evening crackers. you’ve realised he likes to watch while you eat, a set line in his forehead until you take that first bite of food and smile.

the other thing about riwoo is that he doesn’t like it here.

you realised when, two months in, he cheerfully gestured to the bare walls and laughed. it’s like summer camp! he says lightly, and we’re all dorms mates. isn’t this basically just a very underground camp? leehan played along, laughing, and riwoo’s face had a flash of something that looked like relief.

he doesn’t talk about outside, even though he’s probably old enough to remember something like sungho. he reroutes any conversation that edges in that direction with a precison of a surgeon with a scalpel. he hums loudly when jaehyun tries to walk through logistics, and when sungho starts talking about skyscrapers he pointedly gets up and walks away, or produces a story wholly unrelated, usually involving himself in some comedic situation, and usually very successful in changing the subject.

you catch him one day, standing in front of his corner, not moving - his face doing something it rarely does - stock still and serious.

he clocked you in about two seconds and the smile came back up like a blind snapping shut.

“oh, good. it’s just you,” he says, “we’re… running low on some stuff.”

you cast a look at the empty shelf, pitiful with just a few cans of who-knows-what.

“hey,” you say, stepping closer and taking his hand.

he looks at it, and then drops his forehead onto your shoulder, like how a tree branch might fall under it’s own weight. your arms naturally come back up, encircling around him.

“i don’t know what to do,” his voice is muffled against your skin.

“it’s okay.”

“it’s not -”

“it’s fine.”

he’s quiet for a long time, simply breathing in your space. when you pull back he flinches, but he doesn’t run. the edges of his eyes are rimmed red, but when you lean back in he doesn’t turn away.

you give him a chaste kiss on the lips, his eyes fluttering shut at the sensation.

when they open back up, he has a smile on his face again - not the one from earlier, but something more gentle and tender.

“chef riwoo -” he says, pulling back, “- is going to need a minute.”

“take all the time you need.”

#명재현 MYUNG JAEHYUN

jaehyun’s natural inclination to leadership is both a blessing and a curse, and jaehyun carries it with grace - and that’s the most terrifying part. he doesn’t look tired, he doesn’t crack under the pressure, he holds it together with an air of practice that scares you.

he’s good at it, being a leader. he’s so good at it he might be the best in the world - and since the world is so small right now, that phrase might actually be true.

jaehyun authority is embodied in his maps - the ones spread across the rickety table in one corner of the room. it’s littered with his handwriting, covered in symbols and dots only he can decipher and you try to understand. you sit with him while he thumbs at the edge, constantly reworking, rewriting, redrawing - trying to make sense of a world that is constantly shifting and is far too threatening.

he used to bury his head in his arms and sleep directly over the maps, almost like if he could splay out on the map he could control the world that lays under his fingertips. then you’d come over, place a hand on his back as he shuts his eyes, then, fifteen minutes later, he’d pull himself back together and sit up again.

“i’m glad you’re here,” he whispers one night, when everyone is asleep and your shadow casts your figure across his maps, “you’re the only one who understands me.”

you find his hands under the table and he brings them to his lips, kissing them like how a knight would to his grace. then he intertwines your fingers and turns back to his map, picking up his pen. romance blossoms under the dim light of a lamp that’s running out of time.

“you’re rerouting,” you point out quietly.

“i need you to be safe,” he squeezes your palm, “i - i…”

“i know,” you say softly, “it’s okay.”

he doesn’t look at you, his eyes still downcast as he draws an assertive line across the green.

“you need to drink,” you push the cup towards him.

“later.”

“now.”

he frowns at you but acquiesces, pulling the cup towards him. eventually it becomes half empty, and eventually jaehyun picks up his pen again.

you cup his cheeks and turn him towards you.

“tell me.”

“the east route -” he falters, “it’s… worst than i thought.”

“how bad?”

jaehyun stops, “i don’t know.”

you can tell by the scrunch in his nose that he hates himself for saying it. he’s supposed to be the one who always knows, the one who understands, the one who has a plan.

he not supposed to not know. he can’t afford to.

you run your thumb across his cheek and he leans into it, his eyes fluttering shut in the warmth.

“we’ll figure it out.”

“you don’t know that.”

“no,” you press your forehead against his, “but i know you will.”

jaehyun’s eyes blink open, and he shifts, ever so slightly, so his lips graze against the palm of your hand. he stays there for an exhale, then two, and three, and then he finds it in himself to pick up the pen again.

maknae line later

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The villa’s communal garden at 4 AM was as dead silent as you expected. The dim lights from the pavilion were still on. Reading in the dark was bad for your eyes, sure, but trying to read with no focus—or giving up entirely—was bad for your grades.

You slumped down under the eaves, letting your legs dangle. It was a blind spot, perfectly hidden by the bushes next to it. Honestly, it was a bit sketchy, but come on... it’s 4 AM. 4 Fucking A.M. Who in their right mind would be taking a moody midnight stroll in this tiny garden?

You kept your head down, muttering formulas and trying to shove as much knowledge into your brain as possible.

"...Criminal Law... Section 257. Whoever physically assaults another person, causing bodily harm, shall be punished with imprisonment for not more than seven years... or a fine of not more than ten million won... Ugh, I’ve recited this a hundred times..."

While you were grumbling to yourself, you suddenly picked up on a murmuring voice not too far away. A voice infinitely less boring than your law textbook.

You tried to ignore it—

"What the fuck is his problem? Hasn't he swallowed enough of my boots to learn his lesson?"

You froze. Not because you wanted to eavesdrop, but because the silence made it too clear.

Whatever, just keep ignoring it...

"I already lured him out. If he doesn't drop this bullshit, I'm taking down his whole crew. I'll make sure they never show their pathetic faces around us again."

The voice dropped an octave. You bit your lip.

Uh... this definitely wasn't an acoustic solo by Jaehyun.

You... tried...

"Drag him out this Friday. Tell him if he doesn't stop fucking around, I’m actually going to try this time."

…You tried to peek over the bushes to see who was spewing such barbaric, vulgar words and ruining your study session.

A dark silhouette shifted behind the leaves—a tall, lean figure, shoulder tilted slightly like he was holding a phone to his ear.

"Yeah, I'm fine. A loser's weak punch can only give me a busted lip. He’s the one who’s probably on his way to the ER right now."

The figure stepped out slightly from the tree line. The slanted light from the pavilion hit him, revealing—

Fingertips stained with blood.

…Then bruised, busted knuckles.

…Then a tightly clenched jaw.

You swallowed hard.

And when he tilted his head up slightly, the light caught his split lip—the dark crimson blood hadn't even dried yet.

The thoroughly pissed-off guy stood there in absolute shambles, spitting blood onto the ground, aggressively running a hand through his messy hair, and barking a string of profanities into his phone out of pure irritation. He was standing right there, just on the other side of the bush.

You should have kept your head down.

You knew you should have—

…But it was too late.

Your heart dropped to your stomach. You didn't know if it was because of the situation... or the person standing in front of you.

And when he finally looked up, his eyes locking directly with yours as you sat frozen in the dark corner—

The curse word about to leave his mouth was swallowed whole. The feral, murderous glare from a second ago melted into an eerie, deadpan calm. He hastily wiped the blood off his lip with the back of his hand before a soft, dreamy voice—the exact one he used with the neighborhood aunties—broke the silence.

"Y/N-ssi?"

For a bit of context, let me introduce you to Lee Sanghyuk, better known as ‘Riwoo.’

The youngest son from Unit 303, legendary for his 'ideal husband' visuals. He was 100% polite, well-mannered, and had this sweet disposition that made every elder in the vicinity adore him. He had an easygoing humor that clicked with the older folks, earning him the title of the 'Dream Son-in-Law' among every mom, dad, aunt, and relative in the villa. (Basically the same vibe as Jaehyun, but Riwoo actually seemed to have a functioning brain and was way more reliable. Or so you assumed.)

Every afternoon or evening, you’d see this Dream Son-in-Law walking his two fluffy white Pomeranians, showing off their cuteness with that gentle, affectionate smile of his.

As for his relationship with you? — Nonexistent.

Except for the fact that your housemate was the daughter of Riwoo's mom's best friend. Or the occasional head-nod when you were forced to walk your shared house’s corgi-mix, ‘Nyang-Nyang’ (a name that constantly made you question the landlord's sanity). Other than that... literally nothing.

"Y/N-ssi?"

Huh?

Wait... how did he even know your name?

Why?

"Y/N-ssi?"

"Oh... yes?"

Fuck.

You immediately realized how incredibly stupid you sounded, but your brain had completely flatlined the second you made eye contact with him.

If it weren't for the blood and the bruises, the impulsive, unhinged part of your brain might have thought, ‘Oh, I’m in love.’ — But obviously, your heart was hammering against your ribs right now not because he looked dangerously hot, but because you were terrified those bloody knuckles were going to be planted on your face next.

You didn't even process what he said next. After nodding along mindlessly (maybe the 'Confusion' debuff from the law book lasted this long?), he stepped a little further away, dropping his voice several octaves, but continued his phone call.

Uh... he was probably apologizing for being loud and telling the person on the phone he'd keep it down, right? Or maybe he was growling at his underlings to use your law textbook to smash the caller's head instead of Jaehyun's?

You should go back to reading. (Duh.)

You should go back to memorizing Section 257. You should act like nothing happened.

But you couldn't. Because even though he walked further away, his voice lingered.

"...I told him, I'm not letting it slide this time."

Quieter—but not far enough to fade.

You stared at the neat rows of text in your book. They were perfectly legible, but you couldn't comprehend a single word.

"...Yeah, I know."

The sound of his black shoes crunching against the gravel was slow, unhurried—completely unlike a guy who looked ready to commit murder just three minutes ago.

You swallowed hard again.

Okay...

That's enough.

You should get up and go back to your room. Honestly, you shouldn't have sat in this blind spot in the first place! If Riwoo or his gang decided to silence you right here, they'd never find your body!

You placed your hands on the pavement, bracing yourself to stand—

"Not asleep yet?"

Huh...

The voice was closer than it had any right to be. You froze for a split second before snapping your head up.

He was standing less than two steps away. Way closer than where he was just a minute ago. The phone was still pressed to his ear, but his eyes weren't focused on the conversation anymore.

...They were glued to you.

"...I'm studying."

What a stupid answer.

You knew it. He definitely knew it.

Riwoo just gave a slight nod, a small smile revealing his little fangs right next to his busted lip—the contrast was jarring as hell.

"It's 4 AM."

"I... know."

Silence.

The rustling of the leaves above suddenly sounded obnoxiously loud because everything else was far too quiet.

You tried your best not to look at him directly, but avoiding his gaze felt impossible.

Too close.

Close enough that you could see fresh blood slightly welling up from the split in his lip.

"Does it hurt?"

The words slipped out before you could stop them. The second you realized what you said, you wanted to bash your head against the concrete. Why the hell are you being nosy, you loudmouth?!

He raised an eyebrow.

"...What?"

"The cut..."

Stupid x2.

You really should have shut up after the first syllable!

He went quiet, not answering immediately. His eyes slowly scanned your face—like he was calculating something. (Probably calculating how dumb your question was, honestly.)

"Not really."

He replied in a flat, nonchalant tone, acting like it was no big deal despite looking like he just walked out of Fight Club.

You bit your lip.

Okay—stop meddling, you idiot. You can barely survive your own life and tomorrow's exam. Why do you care about a wound he doesn't even feel?!

You bent down, grabbing your book, fully committed to leaving this time.

"But you might get hurt more."

huh?

Your hands halted mid-air. Was that my inner voice? No, it wasn't?

"...Excuse me?"

"If you keep sitting here."

He said it like it was the most casual thing in the world... but his eyes told a completely different story.

He took a half-step closer. So close that his shadow completely eclipsed the light from the pavilion, enveloping you. The faint scent of sweat mixed with the metallic tang of blood hit your nose.

"Blind spots like this..." He tilted his head slightly, and that fanged smile suddenly looked ten times more lethal. "...are dangerous, you know."

You didn't know what to say. Because the person telling you it was dangerous, towering over you right now, was undeniably the most dangerous thing in a ten-mile radius!

He stared at you for another long second before breaking eye contact and bringing the phone back to his mouth.

"Yeah, I'll call you back..."

And then he actually turned and walked away. (Hopefully.)

His footsteps gradually faded, along with his voice returning to that harsh, icy tone.

"...Don't make me repeat myself."

Meanwhile, you were still sitting there, hand frozen on your textbook.

Your brain should be returning to Section 257 regarding physical assault, but the only thought spiraling in your head was—

Exactly how long did he know I was sitting there?

Whatever. You shot up, hugged the thick textbook to your chest a little tighter than usual, and speed-walked back to your house without ever looking back.

The exam went surprisingly well. (Or at least you thought so, for now.)

The bags under your eyes were so dark that even your housemate pointed them out when you bumped into each other that evening. Obviously—besides pulling an all-nighter, the main reason you looked like a corpse was the lingering paranoia that Riwoo might show up to silence you or chuck a Molotov cocktail at your share-house.

"Y/N-ah—take out the trash for me, will you?"

The landlord's daughter called out from the kitchen, accompanied by the clatter of pots and pans. You groaned in response, dragging your feet to grab the garbage bags she left by the door.

"Woonhak is coming over for dinner tonight. Want anything special? Since you're done with exams and all."

"Nope. Make whatever you want, Unnie. That kid's going to eat us out of house and home anyway."

The house angel laughed, diving back into the fridge. As someone who couldn't tell salt from sugar, you gladly banished yourself to garbage duty outside.

Usually, taking out the trash at this hour meant exchanging pleasantries with Mrs. Kim from across the street while she watered her plants.

You fully expected to see the sweet, gray-haired lady giving you a warm smile. But the first thing your eyes landed on was... Riwoo.

Riwoo... dressed in crisp, casual clothes, chatting brightly with Mrs. Kim in the most wholesome atmosphere imaginable. He had the leashes of his two Pomeranians in hand.

And on the corner of his mouth was a ridiculously cute, brown teddy bear band-aid. A stark, hilarious contrast to his 4 AM aesthetic!

"Oh, Y/N dear!" Mrs. Kim’s kind voice called out, making the younger man turn around. His eyes locked with yours.

He flashed that signature, Dream Son-in-Law smile and greeted you with the most normal, pleasant tone ever. "Hello, Y/N-ssi. You were up late studying last night, weren't you? Take care of your health."

Mrs. Kim beamed at him. Meanwhile, you just gripped the garbage bags tighter, immensely irritated by his Oscar-worthy acting skills—and equally irritated at yourself for the slight shiver that went down your spine at his smile.

As soon as Mrs. Kim turned her back and walked into her house, looking utterly charmed by the Perfect Boy, the warm aura surrounding Riwoo vanished into thin air like it was never there.

The leashes in his hand pulled taut as the two fluffballs started sniffing around your Crocs. Riwoo didn’t even look down at them. He just stood there, arms crossed, head tilted slightly, staring at you with those same deadpan eyes from last night.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" His voice was still soft... but the affectionate warmth he used with the elders was completely stripped away. "Or is the band-aid not cute enough?"

You raised an eyebrow, thoroughly annoyed that this guy was acting like nothing happened. That cut on his lip... it was blatantly a result of a Section 257 violation.

"No. I just think it suits you," you replied flatly, trying not to show your wariness. "How exactly did you hit the edge of the cabinet to get a gash that wide?"

You threw his own stupid excuse back at him—the one he just fed Mrs. Kim about being 'clumsy.' (And you were the only one who knew exactly where it came from.)

Riwoo let out a small scoff, smirking on the un-bandaged side of his mouth. He took a step closer, causing the two tiny dogs to let out soft whines at your feet.

"Well... the same way you saw at 4 AM," he murmured, his voice dropping low enough for only you to hear. "What do you think? Did the penalty for that Criminal Law section scare me enough to not hit the cabinet a second time?"

His deadpan threat made your heart skip a beat. But your inherent irritability and short temper outweighed the fear. You crossed your arms and glared right back at him, refusing to back down.

"If a ten million won fine isn't scary enough, maybe next time, instead of hitting a cabinet, you can try walking into a courtroom? I'd be happy to be your pro bono defense attorney!"

Riwoo froze for a split second. A flicker of genuine surprise flashed in his dark eyes... before he let out a low, breathy chuckle. It was the same rough laugh from last night, completely devoid of his 'Perfect Son-in-Law' persona.

"Hah... You’ve got quite the mouth on you, Law Student." Riwoo glanced down at the dogs and pulled the leash, stepping back slightly. "Let's make a deal. My little 'cabinet' secret... in exchange for me not interrupting your 4 AM study sessions anymore. Deal?"

"I didn't ask for that. And honestly, neither of those things should be happening anyway!" You fired back instantly, spinning on your heel to march back into your yard.

"Oh, Y/N-ssi." Riwoo's voice trailed behind you, forcing you to stop.

"What now?"

"Even if you aren't scared of anything, the pavilion behind the neighborhood at 4 AM..." He raised a hand, slowly tapping the teddy bear band-aid on his lip. He looked completely relaxed, but his eyes were dangerously sharp. "...You should still be careful. Next time you decide to sit there... You need to put an earphone. Shut out everything around you."

He took a half-step closer, a faint, fanged smile returning.

"...Otherwise, if you accidentally hear something you shouldn't again... you might just be the one wearing these bandages next."

You took a deep breath, fully prepared to rip into his audacity, but before you could even move, the sound of lazy, dragging footsteps echoed from behind you. Someone stopped right next to you.

"Why are you blocking the gate?"

A flat, apathetic voice laced with pure RBF energy—it was your black-cat housemate. The same one who pointed out your dark circles. She blinked, looking between you and Riwoo with utter confusion.

And that was the exact second you witnessed Riwoo’s Full HD Oscar-winning performance again. The dangerous aura evaporated instantly. He switched back to 'Sweet Older Brother' mode in a millisecond.

"Oh, you just got back?" Riwoo greeted her warmly. Right... your deadpan housemate happened to be his mom’s best friend’s daughter. Of course he had to keep up the charade.

She didn’t smile back. She just stared at him, her blank eyes landing on the corner of his mouth. "Cute band-aid... Did you walk into a cabinet again?"

You almost facepalmed at the sheer density hidden behind her intimidating face. She actually bought his cabinet excuse hook, line, and sinker! (And honestly... you genuinely wondered how she managed to survive living next to a guy like Jaehyun while being this clueless!)

"Yeah. I haven't been sleeping much lately, so I was a bit out of it," Riwoo laughed softly, flashing a gentle smile that made you roll your eyes.

Your housemate gave a slow, wooden nod. "Are you not coming inside? Or were you guys talking?"

"Nope. Nothing to talk about!" You replied quickly, snatching the opportunity to bolt. You grabbed your housemate's arm and dragged her inside. But right before slamming the gate, you couldn't help but shoot one last glare at the tall guy standing outside.

Riwoo was standing with his hands in his pockets. He was still giving your housemate a soft smile, but the gaze he shifted over to lock with yours... carried the exact same underlying threat as his 'You need to put an earphone' comment.

You ripped your eyes away and slammed the gate shut.

This guy... is an actual menace! Why does my share-house have to be surrounded by these weirdos?! You fumed internally, stomping back into the house with your perpetually unbothered housemate trailing beside you.

You’d think criminal law couldn't make your life any more miserable. But alas—Civil Law, the bane of your existence, was scheduled right in between waiting for your Criminal Law results. And heaven apparently despised law students like you.

The scene waiting for you at the bottom of the stairs, heavy textbook in hand, made you want to pull a 180 and march right back to bed.

"Oh, hey Y/N!"

A cheerful voice rang out from the living room sofa. It was none other than Myung Jaehyun, grinning like an idiot and shamelessly squishing himself right next to your black-cat housemate.

"Didn't realize I had a new roommate," you snapped sarcastically.

"Well, if you ever have an opening, the room next your door seems like a great place to live."

"Huh?"

Your housemate, who had been zoning out the entire time, suddenly snapped her head toward him, finally registering that she was part of the conversation.

"In your dreams! One dog in this house is more than enough!" You bared your teeth at Jaehyun.

"Woof!"

Jaehyun tilted his head at Nyang-Nyang, who barked in absolute agreement, as if the dog actually understood human sarcasm. He then flashed you an unbothered, cheeky grin that made you want to pinch him until he bruised.

Whatever.

For the sake of your sanity and emotional regulation, you packed up your iPad, your books, and your fried brain, and evacuated to your usual sanctuary: the cafe at the front of the neighborhood.

The rich aroma of roasted coffee beans and the blast of cold AC should have been healing... if not for the massive Civil Law textbook splayed open on your table, alongside the chaotic lecture notes from your balding, perpetually menopausal professor.

You sighed for the millionth time, massaging your throbbing temples. Your eyes darted between the iPad and the dense legal jargon. Your sleep-deprived brain was violently trying to shove contracts and juristic acts into your head. Just thinking about the professor's face made your urge to drop out skyrocket!

Ding-a-ling...

The cafe bell chimed, signaling a new customer. You didn’t even bother looking up; you had zero interest in the outside world. That is, until the scraping of a wooden chair echoed from the table diagonally across from you.

Annoyed by the distraction, you glanced up to shoot a glare at whoever chose the most obnoxious seat possible... only for your brain to instantly short-circuit.

Lee Sanghyuk... or 'Riwoo.'

Dressed in a crisp white button-down with the sleeves casually rolled up, looking like he just stepped out of a fabric softener commercial. He was sitting there, legs crossed. That ridiculously noticeable teddy bear band-aid was still on his lip (though he swapped it for a bear with an even dumber expression). He held an iced Americano in one hand.

He didn't greet you. Didn't even utter a single word as he casually scrolled through his phone. He looked like the picture-perfect, wholesome guy-next-door that anyone would swoon over.

But it would have been a lot more 'normal'... if those deadpan eyes didn't flick up to lock directly onto yours every single time you looked up from your book!

It wasn't a dreamy, romantic gaze. It was a cold, calculating 'I’m watching you' stare. A silent psychological warfare that was rapidly shredding your remaining focus (at least in your thoughts)

You ducked your head, mentally reciting the codes, but the little red Anger in your brain was growing ten times its size. Civil Law was already a nightmare, and now you had to deal with this band-aid-wearing thug playing a silent staring contest with you?! Every fucking time you shifted in your seat or flipped a page, he’d subtly adjust his cup or shift his posture—a quiet reminder through those dark eyes: 'I've got my eyes on you.'

Half an hour later, your naturally thin patience snapped. Excuse me, was it my fault I saw you brawling at 4 AM?!

SLAM!

You slammed the heavy Civil Law textbook shut so hard the barista jumped. You shot out of your chair, grabbed your iPad, and marched straight over to his table, slamming your hand down on the wood.

You lowered your voice, glaring daggers at him. "What do you want?"

Riwoo didn't even flinch. He slowly lowered his phone. A flicker of amusement danced in his eyes before melting into a faint, fanged smirk that was equally soft and infuriatingly smug. He took a slow sip of his iced Americano, tilted his head, and replied in a voice so smooth it made your hands itch to slap him.

"Just drinking coffee... Or what did you think I was doing?"

The sheer audacity of his deadpan, upper-hand response made the vein in your temple throb faster than when you were cramming civil codes!

"If you're just drinking coffee, then why do you keep staring at me? Are you a stalker?!"

Because you were 100% sure you weren't famous enough to have a sasaeng fan. Ergo, this guy was just a psycho.

Riwoo let out a low, breathy laugh. A real laugh—completely devoid of his 'Perfect Boy' act.

"I guess I just can't control my eyes... What can I say? I think I like you... so I keep accidentally staring."

He gave you that fanged smile he usually reserved for everyone else... but the words tumbling out of his mouth made your heart skip a treacherous beat. And it wasn't just you who heard it! You caught the muffled squeals of high school girls at the next table, and suddenly, you could feel the judging eyes of the barista and half the cafe. (Okay, maybe partly because you yelled first, but still!)

"You're turning red..." The band-aid guy teased smoothly, tilting his head with a smirk.

"You're so annoying!"

You hissed, aggressively snatching up all your belongings and storming out of the cafe—absolutely refusing to look back at whatever smug expression he was wearing!

And of course, things somehow got worse. Your Criminal Law grades were out.

The bags under your eyes were so dark that your neighbor pointed them out again. Aside from cramming for the next exam, the other main reason was your crippling paranoia that a gang of thugs would ambush you in the alleys. (Okay, maybe you had an overactive imagination, but who wouldn't be paranoid?!)

"Y/N... Are you seriously not going with us?"

You ignored the whining voice in the background and refreshed the university portal for the thousandth time today.

Today was another chaotic day in the neighborhood. Woonhak and his giant man-child babysitters—Taesan, Leehan, and your arch-nemesis, Jaehyun—were doing some loud activity at Woonhak's house (right next door) and had inevitably spilled over to annoy your share-house.

"Come onnn, Riwoo takes his dogs for a walk at the park around this time too, you know."

Let's be clear—you weren't close to Jaehyun this much at all. But watching him whine and cling to your perpetually annoyed, housemate (who looked like she was carrying the weight of the world) made you want to punt him into the sun.

"And why would I go? What does that guy have to do with me?"

"Well, Riwoo hyung is hitting on you..."

Leehan, who had been completely silent until now, chimed in. Honestly, if that’s what you were going to say, you should’ve stayed quiet.

"Let's just go, hyungs. Y/N noona needs to check her grades..."

Thank God Woonhak had some sense. He physically shoved his older brothers toward the door, dragging Nyang-Nyang the pom out with them. Finally, peace and quiet.

The cursor on the screen kept spinning until you were ready to write a furious email to IT. But before you could, the page loaded, and your grade popped up...

B+

…

B+??

Your fingers aggressively typed out an email to your advisor. You frowned... it wasn't terrible, but it definitely wasn't what you aimed for, and it certainly wasn't worth the sleep deprivation.

An email notification chimed shortly after. You zeroed in on the professor's comments: 'Analyzed Section 257 far deeper than the prompt required. It seemed as though you were applying an external, real-life scenario to the case, leading to a loss of focus on the core issue.'

You flashed back to the exam. The essay question was a hypothetical case study on 'Physical Assault and Self-Defense.' And instead of answering strictly based on legal theory, your oxygen-deprived brain had superimposed the image of Riwoo’s 'split lip' and 'bloody knuckles' right onto the exam paper!

The result? You completely over-analyzed it, dragging in concepts like 'Mutual Combat' and 'Proportionality of Defense' until you missed the main point entirely! — All because of Riwoo! Because of his sheer audacity!

Your rage hit a boiling point. You needed to cool down... right now!

To lower your core temperature from a nuclear meltdown, your body operated on autopilot: slam the laptop shut (Smack), shove your wallet into your pocket, and stomp out of the house straight to the convenience store!

Ice cream! You needed a freezing cold quart of Mint Chocolate Chip to aggressively shove into your mouth immediately!

But God really must hate angry people like you. Because the moment you angrily bit into the ice cream bar you bought as an appetizer, marching past the quiet zone near the communal pavilion—the exact spot of the 4 AM incident—your eyes met an unfamiliar group blocking the path.

Three thuggish-looking guys were glancing around like they were searching for something. The biggest one, a towering brute, stood right in your way. He looked down at you with a hostile expression that told you asking him to move politely would be entirely useless.

The lingering rage from the B+ mixed with your naturally short, sarcastic temper. You didn't even think about turning around. Instead, you marched right up to him. Sure, you were smaller, but when you stood toe-to-toe with the guy, you aggressively tilted your chin up to assert dominance!

"Do we have a problem here?" you snapped, chewing on the popsicle stick while crossing your arms.

The guy’s dark eyes scanned your scowling face. His scarred eyebrow twitched. He looked intimidating, but not nearly as scary as you thought he’d be.

"You look familiar..." His voice was a raspy growl, meant to be threatening.

He took a step closer. His bruised smirk didn't piss you off nearly as much as Riwoo’s teddy bear band-aid. The other two lackeys noticed and slowly boxed you in.

"...You're the little princess that puppy keeps protecting, aren't you?"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" you fired back without missing a beat. "Do I even know you? Is blocking people's paths considered good manners where you're from? And who’s protecting who?! Stop spouting nonsense and move!"

Instead of backing off, the guys let out a collective, creepy laugh. The raspy chuckles and their complete lack of concern made you want to stab them in the eye with your popsicle stick! "What's so funny, huh?!"

"What's funny?" The scarred guy sneered, stepping so close you instinctively took a step back. The cheap stench of his cigarettes made you grimace. "I'm laughing at how painfully clueless you are, sweetheart. Do you have any idea how many times that bastard Sanghyuk has beaten us half to death every time we tried to get to you for revenge?"

You froze. The popsicle stick nearly fell out of your mouth. "...What?"

"Trailing behind you, guarding you like a dog with a bone. That busted lip he got the other day? That was from taking a hit meant for you!" Another lackey chimed in, cracking his knuckles. "We got lucky today that he wasn't glued to your side like usual. We were just gonna use you as bait to lure him out, but look who walked right into our hands!"

Your brain was working on overdrive... That guy? Protecting me? The busted lip that night?

Wait... so when he was staring you down at the cafe a few days ago, he wasn't just trying to annoy you (well, maybe he was), but he was actually... guarding you?!

Before you could even open your mouth to yell or process your own feelings, the scarred guy’s rough hand lunged out to grab your arm. Survival instinct kicked in. You squeezed your eyes shut, bracing to dodge, but then—

The sound of something heavy slamming into a body echoed loudly, followed by a groan of pain. The massive scarred guy was sent flying, crashing into his lackeys behind him from a brutal kick straight to his chest!

Your eyes flew open. You whipped your head around.

Lee Sanghyuk... Dressed in a black tee and sweatpants, looking like he just sprinted a 100-meter dash. Those dark eyes that usually looked at you with teasing amusement were now ice-cold, feral, and blazing with a terrifying rage you had never seen before.

There was no teddy bear band-aid. No fluffy Pomeranians. Because the second he got a text from his juniors saying, ‘The rival gang is sniffing around the back of the neighborhood,’ he shoved the leashes into Jaehyun and Woonhak’s hands and sprinted here like a madman!

"I thought I warned you guys..."

Riwoo's voice was deathly low, sending chills down your spine. He glared daggers at the thugs scrambling to their feet. His hands were casually shoved into his pockets, but the sheer murderous intent radiating off him made even you shudder.

He stepped smoothly in front of you, completely shielding you from view. His broad back looked unshakeable—a complete 180 from the soft Boy-Next-Door aesthetic.

"If you ever crossed the line and touched 'my person'..." Riwoo tilted his head, a chilling smirk spreading across his face. "I won't just stop at busting your lips this time."

The temperature around the pavilion plummeted. The suffocating bloodlust radiating from Riwoo’s back made the three thugs gulp nervously. But driven by bruised egos and outnumbering him three to one, the scarred leader spat on the ground and signaled his boys.

"Motherfucker... Talk big all you want! You don't have your little lapdogs with you this time! You think you can take us down alone like last time?! Get him!"

With a roar, one lackey charged forward with a wooden bat. You gasped, about to scream a warning, but everything happened way too fast for your brain to process!

Riwoo didn't even flinch. He waited for the swing, dodged smoothly like he could read the future, and snatched the guy's wrist. With a sharp twist, a sickening CRACK echoed through the air. The guy shrieked, dropping the bat. Without giving him a second to breathe, Riwoo drove his knee brutally into the guy's gut, dropping him to the ground, coughing up air.

BAM! CRASH!

The other two rushed him simultaneously. Riwoo slipped past the scarred leader's first punch, smoothly shifted his stance, and delivered a devastating right hook straight to the other lackey's jaw. The guy's head snapped back, and he hit the pavement, completely knocked out. The raw, calculated brutality of how he dismantled them left you standing frozen like a statue...

This... is Mrs. Kim's Dream Son-in-Law?! This guy is a literal gang boss!

Only the scarred leader was left. Seeing his crew decimated in seconds, and seeing the absolute lack of mercy in Riwoo’s eyes as he cracked his bloody knuckles again, completely shattered his nerve. Survival instinct told him that if he stayed, he'd be eating through a straw for the rest of the year!

"Y-You'll regret this, Sanghyuk! Next time, you're dead!"

He yelled shakily before grabbing his two unconscious buddies by the collars, dragging them away into the darkness as fast as his legs could carry him.

"You said that last time too... Weird," Riwoo called out lazily, fake-yawning just to rub salt in the wound.

Dead silence returned to the pavilion. A cool breeze swept through, washing away the boiling tension. Riwoo let out a long sigh, standing up straight and casually adjusting his black shirt. He shook out his bruised hand before slowly turning around to face you.

The grim reaper aura vanished instantly. All that was left were those same deadpan eyes that suddenly sparked with amusement when he saw you... The usually explosive Law Student, now standing completely frozen, eyes wide, blankly chewing on an empty popsicle stick.

You immediately snapped your mouth shut and crossed your arms tight, trying desperately to hide your shaking legs and the heat rushing up to your cheeks.

"What... what the hell were you saying just now?!" You shrieked, voice trembling, desperately trying to use anger to mask your fluster. "Who... who is 'your person'?! And who's a weak spot?! Stop spouting nonsense!"

Riwoo raised an eyebrow. That tiny, fanged smile crept onto his handsome, slightly ruffled face. He took a slow step toward you, bringing back the exact same tension from that 4 AM night.

"Well... if I didn't say that, do you think they would have backed off?" he asked innocently, his maddeningly soft voice returning. "Or... did the Law Student overthink things again?"

"I did not overthink anything!" you snapped back, your face burning red all the way to your ears.

"But I meant it, though..."

You shot him a look, frantically fanning your burning ears with your hand.

"...I do like—"

"RIWOO!!!! Y/N!!!!"

Before he could finish that sentence, a chaotic, screeching yell echoed from the park entrance, followed by the frantic slapping of flip-flops. The neighborhood man-children had arrived.

Myung Jaehyun sprinted ahead of everyone. In one hand, he held the tangled leashes of Riwoo's two Pomeranians, who were running in zig-zags. In the other hand, he was wielding Woonhak's bright yellow plastic baseball bat, looking ready for war but looking absolutely ridiculous instead. Taesan, Leehan, and Woonhak trailed closely behind, looking panicked.

"Are you guys okay?! Riwoo! Did we make it in time?! Your dogs almost dragged me face-first into the concrete..." Jaehyun yelled, panting heavily before skidding to a halt. He took in the scene: faint blood on the ground, and Riwoo standing face-to-face with you.

All four of them (plus the two Pomeranians barking happily at their owner) looked back and forth between you two with highly suspicious eyes!

"Wow... Guess we're late. Riwoo hyung looks like he just got out of a dogfight," Taesan muttered, slowly lowering the coconut-leaf broom in his hand (an equally pathetic weapon!).

Leehan squinted at your flushed face before a teasing grin spread across his lips. "See... I told you Riwoo hyung was hitting on Y/N. Look at him, ditching his dogs to run to the rescue. So manly!"

"Leehan! Shut your mouth!" You instantly shrieked, baring your teeth at the impromptu, highly annoying fanclub!

As for Riwoo... he immediately snapped back into his 'Perfect Sweet Brother' persona. He smiled warmly at the boys, gently taking the leashes back from Jaehyun. But the hand hidden behind his back... was still clenched tight, subtly rubbing the fresh bruises.

He looked down at you, still scowling and blushing furiously.

"Let's go home... I'll walk you back," Riwoo said softly. "Consider it compensation for making you lose your temper... smart cookie."

What the hell!

His eyes, these butterfly-inducing words!

And what the hell are these guys staring at us like that for?!!

A/N

Because your boyfriend is standing in front of you with bright red hair. In theory, it should look strange. It should be one of those changes you need time to adjust to. But it isn’t. Not even close. If anything, it makes it worse in the best way possible, because Taesan looks unfairly good like this, and your brain seems to short-circuit on sight.

A warm rush floods through you at the way the colour frames his face, sharpens his features, makes him look even more infuriatingly attractive. You press your legs together without thinking, as if that alone could ground you.

Taesan, on the other hand, looks like he’s bracing for impact. He rubs the back of his neck, gives an awkward little laugh, clearly uncomfortable under your silence. “I lost a bet with the guys,” he admits. “This was my punishment.”

You don’t answer. Not because you’re upset, but because words have officially stopped working for you. Your brain is still buffering.

The lack of response only makes him more uncertain. He waves a hand in front of your face. “What? Is it really that bad?”

That snaps something in you. Bad? He thinks this is bad?

If only he knew what it was doing to you.

Your voice finally returns, but it comes out softer than you expect. “Tell your friends I said thank you.”

He barely has time to process that before you step forward and kiss him.

It isn’t gentle. It’s immediate, hungry in a way that surprises even you. You nip lightly at his bottom lip, slipping your tongue against his, and for a second he freezes—caught off guard—before he melts into it, matching your intensity with a slow, growing heat.

Any restraint disappears quickly.

You don’t care how desperate it feels, or how obvious you’re being. All you can think about is him, the warmth of his mouth, the way he responds when you pull him closer like you’ve been waiting for this without realizing it.

When you finally break away just enough to look at him, he’s breathless. His red hair is slightly tousled now, eyes a little glazed, lips parted like he’s still catching up. It only makes everything worse in the best way.

You kiss him again, immediately, like your self-control never stood a chance in the first place.

This time it deepens, faster, more consuming. His hands find your waist, firm and sure now, pulling you in until there’s barely any space left between you. You let out a quiet sound against his mouth when he shifts you backward without breaking the kiss, guiding you until your back meets the wall of your apartment entryway.

The change in position makes your breath hitch.

Taesan doesn’t stop there. One hand stays at your waist, the other slides lower to steady you, holding you there like he’s decided he’s done being startled and fully committed to this moment instead. You cling to him without thinking, fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt, like letting go isn’t even an option anymore.

The kiss turns slower, deeper—less rushed, more deliberate—but no less intense. It’s the kind that makes time feel slightly irrelevant, like everything else has been pushed out of the frame except the two of you and the way he’s looking at you when he finally pulls back just enough to breathe.

His forehead rests briefly against yours. He laughs softly, breath still uneven. “Babe,” he murmurs, voice low, “I need to breathe.”

That alone almost makes you forget how to function.

He presses a light kiss to your cheek, then your jaw, like he’s trying to steady both of you back into reality without fully letting go. His hands are still at your waist, anchoring you there.

“So…” he says after a moment, a teasing edge creeping back into his voice, eyes flicking over your face like he already knows the answer, “I take it you like the new hair?”

You let out a shaky breath, still a little dazed, still not fully recovered. Your hands don’t move far from him either. “Yes,” you admit simply.

His smile widens at that—soft, knowing, entirely too satisfied.

He leans in one more time, brushing his lips against yours, gentler this time, almost playful. “Good,” he murmurs.

Then, with a faint laugh, he tilts his head slightly, red hair catching the light again as he adds, “So the hair stays?”

© All rights reserved @gigisnextdoor 2026.

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The garden slowly faded without ever becoming fully dark.

The sky of Aetheris never fell into night like in your world. Instead, it shifted tones, as if someone were layering deeper colors over the same canvas. Soft pinks, denser violets, blues that seemed to move gently into one another.

The light was still there.

Just calmer.

You fell asleep without realizing it.

It wasn’t sudden. It was more like your body finally gave up resisting the exhaustion that had built up since your arrival, as if it had finally decided to stop fighting.

While you slept, somewhere else in the temple-garden, the guardians were gathered.

It wasn’t a formal meeting.

There was no table or defined structure. Just the group in one of the open spaces, where the air was more stable and the sound of the garden came in softly.

Sungho spoke first.

“It’s not just that Astra Veil let her in.”

Leehan was leaning near the inner water channels, watching the small currents move without him touching them.

“We already know that,” he replied.

Taesan wasn’t fully sitting. He was simply observing the ground, as if listening to something the others couldn’t hear.

“The forest reacted the same way as the lake,” he said quietly.

Jaehyun crossed his arms.

“And the wind doesn’t push her. It circles around her.”

Woonhak looked up from his notebook, more serious than usual.

“That shouldn’t exist in any record.”

A brief silence followed.

Then Riwoo spoke.

“Her body is adapting too quickly for a human.”

Sungho looked at him.

“Or too well.”

No one responded immediately.

Because that was the part none of them wanted to say out loud.

Aetheris wasn’t just tolerating you.

It was recognizing you.

The night passed without incident.

At least, it seemed that way.

The next morning, soft light entered the room from the garden.

But you didn’t wake right away.

Something was around you.

Soft.

Warm.

As if the air itself had taken form while you slept.

When you slowly opened your eyes, you realized you were inside a giant flower.

But not a normal one.

Its petals were translucent, like a bubble made of light and soft texture. They surrounded you without pressing against you, as if they had been protecting you all night.

The inside was silent.

Too calm.

You blinked, confused.

And then you heard voices outside.

Footsteps approaching.

The floral structure reacted slightly, as if it could “feel” their presence.

Riwoo’s voice came first.

“She’s here.”

The flower opened a little wider.

And then you saw them.

Riwoo.

Leehan behind him.

Sungho watching in silence.

Jaehyun unusually still.

Woonhak holding something that was probably food… and staring at you like he had forgotten how to blink.

“We brought clothes and food,” Riwoo said calmly.

But he didn’t finish the sentence.

Because everyone was looking at the same thing.

The giant flower you had slept in.

Leehan frowned slightly.

“That wasn’t here yesterday.”

Sungho stepped forward.

The flower didn’t react aggressively.

It just… lingered for a second.

As if waiting.

And then it dissolved.

Not withering.

Not breaking.

Just fading into soft particles of light that blended into the garden air.

Silence.

You were still sitting on the bed, half confused.

And then you noticed it.

On your ankles.

Small marks.

Pink.

Like freckles, but forming tiny stars.

Also on your wrists.

And a few softer ones near your collarbones.

You stared at them without understanding.

The garden air didn’t change.

But the boys did.

Woonhak was the first to speak.

“…That wasn’t in any record.”

Leehan said nothing.

Sungho neither.

But his gaze sharpened.

More serious.

Taesan stepped slightly forward.

And Riwoo…

Riwoo didn’t come closer.

He just watched in silence.

As if for the first time since meeting you…

he wasn’t looking at a human.

But at something Aetheris had already started marking as its own.

The silence lasted a few seconds longer than usual.

Then everything started moving again.

They gave you clothes, light and adapted to Aetheris’s climate.

And food too—different from human food, but not strange; more like something alive in a way that was hard to explain.

They left it in the garden room without pushing you.

But the problem appeared quickly.

When you tried to change.

No one had mentioned privacy.

Literally no one.

Leehan was leaning against the door.

Jaehyun was looking in through an open window.

Woonhak already had his notebook in hand again.

Taesan stayed silent in a corner of the hallway, as if the concept of personal space was still being processed.

You stood still for a moment.

Looked at them.

Then pointed at the door.

Softly.

“Out.”

It wasn’t aggressive.

Just clear.

Silence.

Leehan blinked.

“…Out?”

“Yes.”

Jaehyun tilted his head.

“Why?”

“…Because I’m changing.”

Woonhak immediately wrote something down.

“Interesting human social behavior—”

“Out.”

Stronger this time.

Leehan let out a short laugh.

“Ok, ok.”

They left.

Without much resistance.

Just curious.

Before closing the door, Leehan spoke.

“Can we come in later?”

“…knock first.”

Sungho nodded.

“Understood.”

The door closed.

From that moment on, things didn’t change all at once.

They just adjusted.

They started observing you more often.

Not in an invasive way, but constantly.

Riwoo was the most attentive, always noticing if your breathing or condition changed with the environment.

Sungho asked direct questions that rarely sounded like questions.

Leehan spent time near the water whenever you were close.

Taesan stayed quiet, but the environment still reacted to you even inside the garden.

Jaehyun unintentionally shifted the wind depending on his mood.

Woonhak wrote everything down.

And you started noticing a pattern.

Every night, small changes happened.

Marks appearing or becoming more visible.

The giant flower returning without explanation.

Creatures lingering near your room, watching quietly without trying to scare you.

With time, you stopped reacting to it as much.

You also started dreaming.

About your world.

Your room.

Your bed.

One day you woke up there.

Suddenly.

The air felt different. Heavier.

Your room was the same.

You sat still for a moment.

Until you felt it.

The drawer.

Your father’s room drawer.

You opened it.

There were things you didn’t remember seeing before.

Old scrolls.

Folded letters.

Papers written in a language you didn’t understand.

But when you touched them, something inside you recognized them.

You took them.

Without thinking too much.

That night you fell asleep holding them.

And returned to Aetheris.

When you opened your eyes, the flower no longer surprised you.

Leehan was already there before you spoke.

“Ok,” he said. “that’s getting weird even for you.”

You sat up and took out the scrolls.

Silence immediately fell.

Woonhak stepped closer first.

“…that’s not human.”

Sungho studied them without speaking at first.

Taesan leaned in slightly.

Leehan stopped joking.

Riwoo approached more slowly.

When Sungho took one of the papers, the atmosphere shifted.

“It’s written in ancient Aetheris language.”

Silence.

Woonhak opened his notebook.

“That language doesn’t exist in human records.”

Leehan read another scroll quietly.

“…these look like letters.”

They looked at each other.

Then at you.

No need to say it out loud.

They were love letters.

Sungho said it quietly.

“…Elyria.”

The name lingered in the air.

Riwoo looked up.

“The ancient entity?”

Sungho nodded.

Leehan set the scroll down.

“That would explain too much.”

Taesan didn’t speak.

But he didn’t look away.

Woonhak was already writing.

“If this is real…”

Jaehyun interrupted without thinking.

“…then she’s connected to you.”

Silence again.

Heavier this time.

Because no one had an answer.

But they were all thinking the same thing.

Aetheris wasn’t just accepting you.

It was recognizing you.

It wasn’t pain. It was a sensation, like something inside you was fitting into place for the first time. The letters were no longer completely unfamiliar, not entirely, but enough for you to understand them, and then you heard it—not as an external voice, but as a thought that wasn’t yours.

“If you are reading this… it means the world has not forgotten me completely.”

You froze. Sungho noticed your expression.

“…What did you see?”

You didn’t answer.

Another line appeared.

“You are the continuation of what could not remain.”

The air in the garden stopped.

And then it changed.

The light around the parchments began to flow toward you—first softly, then more intensely, as if the paper wasn’t showing text anymore but releasing it. The glow spread through the garden in shades of pink and purple, filling the space without breaking it.

The flowers leaned at the same time. The water stopped moving. Even the wind went still.

Leehan took a step back.

“…okay, that wasn’t happening before.”

The letters began to rise from the paper. They were no longer inside it; they floated in the air, as if ink had learned to exist outside the page. And every sentence was not only read—it was heard.

“Elyria did not disappear from the world.”

The voice was not one. It was the entire garden repeating it.

“She was divided so that balance would not die with her.”

Butterflies appeared after that. They didn’t fly in. They were simply there, as if they had always existed, slowly circling around you, brushing near your hands, your shoulders, the air you were breathing.

Sungho frowned.

“…this isn’t just reading.”

Riwoo didn’t take his eyes off you.

“It’s not the parchment… it’s you.”

Another line appeared, stronger, as if the world itself was speaking through it.

“One part remained in the world. One part in magic. And one part… in humanity.”

Your breathing stopped for a second.

The glow intensified, and the ground reacted as if it couldn’t support what was happening.

Jaehyun stepped back.

“…the wind isn’t following anything.”

Taesan didn’t speak, but the forest behind him stopped moving completely.

Woonhak closed his notebook.

“…this isn’t in any known system.”

The last line didn’t appear like the others.

It broke into the air instead.

“When the system breaks, the last part will choose where it belongs.”

The light expanded all at once.

It wasn’t violent, but it was too much.

Your legs gave out and you fell to the ground. Not in pain—just exhaustion—while the glow stayed around you, as if the system had already finished speaking.

You were still conscious.

Just breathing.

Leehan stepped toward you.

“Are you—”

“She’s fine,” Riwoo said before he could finish.

Sungho didn’t look away from the garden.

Because something was still changing.

The light began to rise—not toward you, but toward the sky.

And then it happened.

The sky of Aetheris flickered.

A crack appeared between the colors.

Not destruction.

Just separation.

As if something that had always been connected had remembered it could split apart.

The garden fell silent again.

Deeper than before.

Sungho spoke quietly.

“…Astra Veil reacted.”

No one answered.

Because above them, the crack was still there.

Han Dongmin has always been a force of nature – headstrong, determined, relentless – and in a Jaeger he’s truly unstoppable. At least that’s what he likes to think.

In reality, whenever Siren Fury is dispatched, there’s a chance he won’t make it back. Or at least, not as the same person he used to be.

Jaegers are built to be as indestructible as possible since they are humanity’s only hope against the Kaijus that emerge from the Pacific oceans. They are practically humanoid metal robots as tall as buildings to be able to fight back the dinosaur-size extraterrestrial monsters. Nothing of this size and delicacy can move on its own effectively like a toy car. So after trial and error all working models of Jaegers are built like humans: with a neural network running through their limbs and a control panel acting as their brain. The Conn-Pod needs at least two pilots to work because only one person cannot possibly handle all that without lasting brain damage. When attached to the Jaeger with their Drivesuit’s spinal clamp digging into their back, the pilots’ minds basically become one. That’s the only way proper coordination can work. Like the right and left halves of the brain working together.

Or at least that’s what Dongmin was taught at his Academy classes by J-technicians who never actually drifted with another person or saw what the world looked like through the eyes of a Jaeger. Dongmin is a soldier though, he doesn’t actually care how it works as long as it gets the work done. As long as humanity is winning against these monsters.

So it’s not often that he’s sentimental enough to contemplate the fragility of human life, but now he’s in the middle of the ocean waiting for the pick up team in the damaged Conn-Pod of Siren Fury with his unconscious co-pilot in his arms. The Jaeger’s half arm is in pieces scattered in the water with the remains of a Category IV Kaiju after they blew it off. Later, the Marshal tells him that it will take weeks to fix it up and it makes him feel useless because that means weeks of forced standby.

A Ranger is nothing without their co-pilot or their Jaeger after all.

Dongmin used to hate this fact, this dependance. All his life, there was nothing he couldn’t do alone. He learned early on that in his family’s dictionary there was no such thing as ‘can’t’. Not having the ability to do something was a weakness he couldn’t afford. Not if he wanted to make his father proud.

Three generations of navy soldiers, that was the dream they cradled since he was young. Then the Kaijus came and turned the world as they knew it upside down. So he was one of the first ones to sign up for the newly established Jaeger program in Busan, one of the youngest ones too.  It’s been six years since, two since he finally found a drift compatible partner and now, the girl who was in his head half the time went quiet.

Nevermind. A few hours later she’s up like she merely took an afternoon nap.

Dongmin crosses his arms in front of his chest at the leg of her hospital bed.

“He bought you flowers?” He asks with a grimace as he’s having a staredown with the bowl of water and flora that certainly wasn’t there when they were both brought in for post-mission check ups.

“Aquatic ones! These won’t just die,” his co-pilot glances at the gift dreamily and Dongmin sighs. If he thought it was annoying when she and that Kaiju researcher guy were both pining he might have had to re-evaluate. This could be so much worse now that they finally confessed their undying love for each other or whatever.

“Such a nerd,” he mutters under his breath, unimpressed.

“It’s romantic!” Even bedridden his military partner has energy to argue with him.

Dongmin rolls his eyes and sneakily picks up the honey butter peanut box from her bedside table to pop some into his mouth.

“Whatever. Just try not to think about kissing him when we’re drifting,” he says dryly and dramatically shudders at the thought just for the effect.

“You’re just jealous,” his co-pilot jabs back at him and snatches the snack back from his hand.

“Of you kissing Kim?” Dongmin makes a face and that earns him the pillow thrown at his head.

He knows it wasn’t what she meant but between rigorous training and fighting alien monsters, annoying her is the closest thing he has to normalcy in his life.

It’s a soft sound, somebody clearing their throat, that’s saving her from getting the pillow thrown back at her, hospitalized or not, because when Dongmin sees the presence of a nurse their age, he haphazardly hides the soft material behind his back as if to hide evidence of the childish fight.

“Sorry, I need to check on her vitals,” you say, pulling a clipboard close to your chest and raising your gaze. Soon enough, soft eyes meet his.

Now, this is the part when you should look away shyly, like a blushing, giggling mess. He’s used to that. Girls reacting to his presence like that. And he gets it, Rangers are idolized by the media like stars, they are heroes after all. He has given out autographs and taken selfies with fans who came to congratulate on their victories, so with the way you can’t take your eyes off of him, he thinks that maybe you will ask for one, too.

“Can you–” Ah there it is, just another fan request. He should have brought a pen. “–move aside?”

Wait, what?

“You’re in the way, idiot,” his co-pilot chides and he makes sure to scowl at her before stepping aside, so you can check on the monitor and how much liquid is still in the IV bag.

Embarrassment burns in the pit of his stomach but he doesn’t let it show. He leans against an empty bed, hopefully looking as nonchalant as humanly possible, even as his gaze follows your figure until it disappears down the corridor.

“Is she new?” He blurts out against better judgement but lucky for him his partner is too preoccupied with a text she got most likely from loverboy to notice the weird tone of his voice.

“Who? The nurse? I think so, why?”

Dongmin shrugs like he doesn’t care. Because he doesn’t. It just irks him that you didn’t even spare him a second glance before leaving. He’s not used to being disregarded.

With nothing better to do Dongmin throws himself into Kwoon combat practice. It isn’t like fighting with his co-pilot (not just with words) but she has been advised to not strain herself for at least a while, so he has to suffice with cadets. Not to brag but he can easily take two at a time, three on a good day or if they are really bad. Kwoon is about balance, about connection, it’s more of a dialogue than an actual fight to win but there is no balance if Dongmin is freaking bored with these kids. So he pushes himself more: morning Kwoon sessions, afternoon drift simulations with his co-pilot (if she doesn’t stop thinking about Kim Donghyun’s smile, he will put bleach into her shampoo), strategy discussions with the Marshal and late night gym visits. He watches the numbers climb on the war clock and the J-Techs slowly re-build Siren Fury’s arm while restlessness brews in his stomach.

Then Park Sunghoon visits from the Gangneung Shatterdome and beats his ass on the mat without breaking a sweat. Dongmin grits his teeth as he gets up, leaning more of his weight on the fighting stick.

“What’s with your left side? You rely too much on your right,” the senior Ranger points out calmly while putting the wooden prop away. Dongmin considers lying, saying he just prefers this way, but in the end just sighs.

“Just a bit of a strain, nothing serious,” he shrugs, slowly rolling his left shoulder back, grimacing at the ache seeping into his bones.

“Have it looked at in the infirmary just to be sure,” Sunghoon suggests and grabs his stuff from the floor. Before he leaves, he turns back once with a hint of a smile in the corner of his mouth. “Then find me for a re-match.”

And Dongmin is nothing if not disciplined. It has been drilled into him through military training since childhood, so there he is, at the infirmary. He hasn’t been back since his co-pilot has been discharged but it’s surprisingly empty. Still, it surprises him that the only person at the nurses’ counter is you.

“Oh, are you alone?” He blurts out and it makes him sound stupid when you glance up from the book you’re reading and pointedly look around.

“Do you see anybody else here?”

“I’m just asking. I didn’t know they allow new nurses to be on duty on their own,” he explains his surprise quite poorly if your unimpressed look is anything to go buy. So professional. You really don’t want his signature, huh?

“We don’t really have the luxury to have proper rotations. I guess you know how that is,” you shrug and turn the book upside down, leaving it open on the desk before standing up. He tries to catch what it’s about but the angle is off to read the title properly. You round the counter and point at the examiner table. He takes a seat with a straight back but his eyes are following you. 

You tie your hair back and pull a folder out of a drawer. His check up data most likely. He wonders what they say about him. If that folder catalogues all the injuries he has suffered ever since he joined the Jaeger Academy, if it even contains the result of his psychological evaluation that cleared him stable enough to pilot, if it made him seem like a soldier through and through or just somebody who bled through their teenage years to be here.

You move around with a confidence that newbies don’t have. It makes him want to ask where you came from but you beat him to it.

“So what’s wrong?” You step in front of him after leaving his files on the desk and look up. A hint of jasmine hits him and it has him inhale sharply. With him sitting, you’re pretty much eye level and suddenly he can’t make himself look away. You missed a strand of hair when tying your hair up but you’re too focused to care about it. His fingers itch to brush it back, so he curls them into a fist.

“My left shoulder feels off for a few days now,” he ends up saying. It’s the oversimplified version of the truth but admitting that he overestimated his limits and overworked himself to the point to strain a muscle sounds pathetic. He should have known better.

You don’t say anything, just hum quietly and round the table. When you touch him, thumb pressing lightly into his upper trapezius while the rest of your fingers rest on his shoulder, he tenses up for no reason at all.

“Does this hurt?” You ask, voice coming from much closer.

“No,” Dongmin lies because this much is nothing. He has once showed up to his Academy evaluation with a broken rib and nobody noticed. You hum again, contemplating, then press into the skin near his shoulder blade harder and he nearly blacks out from the sharp pain. “Ah, fuck.”

“Yeah, thought so.” That’s your only comment to his outburst before your hands leave him to rummage through a cabinet. “Take off your top.”

You say it like it’s nothing with your back to him, so you miss how fast his ears redden.

“What?” Dongmin’s voice jumps half an octave, dumbfounded, nearly getting a whiplash from how fast he turns to you, not making any moves to follow instructions. An exasperated sigh escapes you and turning back to look at him,  you put a hand on your hip.

“Do you always ask so many questions? Be glad I didn’t ask you to pull down your pants,” you raise an eyebrow almost challengingly which has him gaping like a fish. He had no idea being a nurse at the Shatterdome includes such duty.

“You do that too?” 

You cross your arms in front of you and deadpan:

“Yes, if some idiot needs a rabies vaccine.”

“Which idiot?” Dongmin is quick to inquire but you just give him a look, so he shuts up. But he would bet that it was Myung Jaehyun. That J-technician is a self-hazard.

“Come on. Shirt off. I need to apply ointment on your back,” you explain and he clears his throat to collect himself.

Right. Get it together, Han Dongmin, don’t act like you haven’t been in the infirmary before.

Dongmin would like to think he’s unaffected. Like totally. Why wouldn’t he be? But the fact that you were unaffected the entire time you had him half-naked on that uncomfortable examination table, fingers gently rubbing something that smelled strongly of peppermint into his skin bothers him more than it should have. Half the girls in the Shatterdome would have liked to be in your place just to ogle, so why do you act like it was nothing?

And yes, he knows that it doesn’t make sense. He’s usually annoyed by the amount of unwanted attention he’s getting. He’s usually busy making sure to keep people at an arm’s length. But now he’s staring up at the grey ceiling from his bunk bed, turning the dog tag of Siren Fury that hangs in his neck between his fingers and can’t sleep. He thinks of your eyes, neutral and never lingering longer than they should, and he couldn’t help but wonder: are you like that, professional and distant, with everybody or do you have something against him personally?

Dongmin kicks the blanket off himself and hauls himself out of bed. He grabs a jacket and his shoes and slips out of the room without waking his roommate. PPDC’s favourite or not, he doesn’t get the luxury of having his own room. Instead he’s roomed with a politician’s son. The Marshal said it’s because they’re the same age and moved to the Shatterdome around the same time but Dongmin has a feeling that it has something to do with how they both have powerful fathers. Commander Han and National Assembly member Lee might not be friends but they are both avid campaigners for the Jaeger Program funding over those useless Anti-Kaiju walls. Chanyoung is a good enough roommate though, he’s quiet but friendly, he knows when not to bother Dongmin.

On nights when Chanyoung can’t sleep, he goes for a swim. On nights when Dongmin can’t, his feet take him to the Kwoon combat room. However, this time around it’s not empty despite the late hour. The boy on the mat is tall and lanky, hasn’t built much muscle yet. He’s practicing hits with the wooden stick but he puts more effort into channeling strength than precision. He doesn’t even notice Dongmin watching from the open door, not until he pushes himself away from the frame and approaches the mat. The younger boy clearly startles and bows with widened eyes, his swift apology cut off by the Ranger:

“Straighten up properly. You put too much of your upper body into the swings. Like this you will tire yourself out before getting any hits,” Dongmin says matter-of-factly as he kicks off his boots and grabs a stick for himself.

When he turns around, the cadet still stands in that awkward position of just having stood up straight after a polite bow like he can’t quite believe he’s seeing an actual Ranger from up close. Dongmin gets it, he used to be starstruck too when he first met senior Rangers but he sure as hell did a much better job at hiding his fascination. This kid is practically vibrating out of his skin and effectively ignoring his previous advice.

Dongmin sighs and lands a soft hit on the boy’s lower back that effectively has him fix his spine.

“I said, straighten up,” he repeats like he’s bored already and nods towards the stick hanging uselessly from the cadet’s hand. “Try to get a point.”

The boy does not manage to get any hits.

Dongmin didn’t actually expect him to. If he managed anyways that would have meant that Dongmin was in a much worse form than he would have liked to admit it despite his healing injury. So the real achievement he wanted to see wasn’t any points but the cadet improving his stance and attacks. And to his credit, the boy tried his best and he has potential. He’s determined and doesn’t give up, not even after the dozenth hit Dongmin gets in lazily without actually straining himself to attack.

“What’s your name, cadet?” He asks when the boy is sprayed out on the floor with sweat dripping down his forehead and neck soaking the collar of his uniform. Dongmin offers him a hand.

“Kim Woonhak, sir,” the cadet rushes to answer while still trying to catch his breath once upright. Dongmin’s mouth pulls into a grimace at the formality that makes him feel much older than he actually is. 

“Just hyung is enough,” he corrects and he swears he sees Woonhak’s eyes sparkle.

“Yes, sir– Hyung!”

Dongmin cracks a smile and adjusts his grip on the stick.

“Again.”

When the next Kaiju emerges from the ocean near Brisbane, two Australian Jaegers are dispatched since they are the closest but it doesn’t change the fact that Dongmin feels useless watching the fight through the monitors hung up in the Shatterdome’s halls. What ifs plague his mind about the defenseless Southern coastline of the country and even though he knows that Kim’s idea saved them from being dragged into the water and being torn apart, rebuilding Siren Fury takes more time than he expected. Jaehyun also told him they might not be able to build a plasma charger in the new arm because funding is low and the component parts are crazy expensive. Most of the money goes into the new Mark-6 Jaeger they are building, hopefully launching next year with brand new pilots. At times like this the PPDC’s priorities boil the Ranger’s blood. Is it really better to have two half-built Jaegers than one proper one?

Later that night, after Jake and Leo defeats the Category III Kaiju, he visits the hangar bay smelling of grease and metal to check on Siren Fury. She stands tall and proud, all sleek steel and battleworn scars. Her left arm is open, wires and rods peeking out showing its half-finished state. Dongmin walks over the elevated walkway to get a closer look but halts as soon as he notices a figure already there. At first he thinks it might be his co-pilot driven by the same restlessness he feels but when he gets closer he recognizes you.

For once you don’t wear your usual nurse uniform and don’t have your hair tightly tied back either. Instead you have sweats and an SNU Med t-shirt on, hair falling into your face. It’s the first time he has seen you look so… casual.

Dongmin has half a mind to slip away like he hasn’t even been there but then his shoes made a squealing sound against the grated metal flooring and you look up straight at him. Whatever excuse he was about to say then freezes on the tip of his tongue when he sees your red-rimmed eyes in the hangar’s dim night light. Oh.

You look away quickly, sniffling as you wipe your face clear of evidence and Dongmin just stands there awkwardly, not knowing what to do with the situation. Should he leave you alone and pretend he saw nothing or offer some kind of comfort even though he’s shit at it? One would think having a girl co-pilot helps navigating situations like this but the Ranger girl has always had Kim Donghyun by her side and Dongmin never had to be the shoulder to cry on. Not to mention, you and him aren’t even close, so it probably would be weird if he suddenly initiated anything… right?

“How is it?” You speak up quietly before he could make up his mind. You don’t look at him, just keep staring ahead but it feels like a permission to stay. Like maybe you would actually appreciate some company.

“What?” Dongmin asks as he lowers himself into a sitting position against the railing in a decent arm’s length distance from you.

“Going out there and fighting in this,” you point at his Jaeger and while your words are emotionless, there’s a strain in your voice that most likely has something to do with why today’s Kaiju attack triggered something in you.

So Dongmin takes your question seriously, gives it a moment to think it over properly, instead of just blurting out the first thing that comes to his mind. Everybody has seen Jaegers on TV, some has seen them in real life but only a handful have ever been in a dispatched one. Dongmin is one of the few but he isn’t sure how to describe the feeling to somebody who has never ever sat in a simulator.

“Like you’re on the top of the world,” he says as he stares at the helmet of the blue-washed Siren Fury, at the Korean flag proudly painted on its side. His voice is tethering on the edge of sounding awed. “Piloting a Jaeger isn’t like piloting a plane. It’s not a separate entity. Once you’re attached, it becomes the extension of your own body. Practically, you, your co-pilot and the Jaeger become one after the drift. It’s hard to explain but suddenly you are more.”

Dongmin’s gaze drops to the robot’s legs. Somewhere on its mechanical ankles there are marks of two scratchy names. Him and his co-pilot carved their names into the steel with a knife after their first successful mission. The J-Tech must have noticed but nobody has ever said a thing.

“Isn’t it scary?” You ask quietly and he isn’t sure what you mean. The drift, the control over something so big or the fight against Kaijus? His answer is the same nevertheless:

“Only if you let it,” he says because he has long gotten used to all that. He has come to terms with the fact that he will probably die young in a Jaeger. He just wants to take as many Kaijus with him as he can. He can’t afford to let fear dictate his life. Nobody should, so he tries to crack a joke: “Otherwise it’s just a hyper realistic video game.”

When a hint of a smile graces your features, he considers it a win even if you don’t say anything.

For the first time, silence settles comfortably between the two of you. You don’t cry anymore and he lets the railing dig into his back more as he relaxes his shoulders. Siren Fury glows under the moonlight shining through the glass dome.

“I think being stuck on land having nothing to do is scarier,” Dongmin admits, quieter than before, his fingers mindlessly following the engraving in the dog tag that hangs from his neck between his pulled up legs.

Who is he if he is not out there fighting? It’s a question he has been turning in his head all day but he would like to think there was nothing in his voice that warranted you to look at him with all doe eyes. He clears his throat as he looks away.

“Why leave Seoul? It’s relatively safe there,” he stumbles to fill the void. It’s only fair if it’s his turn to ask, he justifies, and it seems like a neutral enough question. The assumption is also mostly a guess based on your shirt, but you don’t correct him.

“My younger brother joined the Busan Academy as a cadet. He’s all I have,” you answer simply, like it explains everything and maybe it does. The you followed him here part goes unsaid but it’s clear enough. Dongmin wonders what else you left behind in Seoul other than university.

He also wants to ask what happened with the rest of your family but the intensity you’re staring at the Jaegers towering over you is an answer too, he supposes. Wrong time, wrong place and a Kaiju. Everybody seems to have a story like this these days.

“Are you not… proud of him?” He asks instead. Tentatively because it sounds like you don’t approve of your brother’s decision to join the military, to work for keeping the country safe while you’re also on the frontline even if in a different role. Shatterdomes are built right by the water which makes them the closest targets when a Kaiju attack comes. Everybody risks their life by being there, not just the cadets who might pilot a Jaeger one day.

“I am,” you’re quick to protest but your voice breaks when you continue. “But I don’t want to lose him. Why does it have to be him who plays the hero?”

Dongmin clenches his jaw at the clear concern in your voice and stares out at the sea through the giant windows.

He grew up in a household built on discipline, diligence and loyalty. It has never been a question to him if he will put his life on the line for his country, it was a given. He still remembers the warmth of his father’s palm squeezing his shoulder when he officially became a Ranger and the smile on his mother’s face as she told her friends that her son had defeated Kaijus. He cannot disappoint them.

“Somebody has to do it,” he says.

He has gotten used to it: people expecting him to be that somebody. He was the best of best, they said, if somebody could do it, it would be him. It has always filled him with pride, the trust they put into his abilities and the way they justified the hard work he has put into getting there. But listening to you talking about your brother with such unabashed care, he can’t help but want that. Somebody to care enough to worry about him too. It’s stupid because he’s better off without it and yet, now it keeps plaguing his thoughts.

Thoughts you break easily when you shift until you face him, you knee almost bumping into his side.

“You’re his role model, you know? That’s why he applied here,” you tell him and while it doesn’t sound like you’re blaming him, he feels a pang of guilt anyways. He doesn’t let it hurt though.

“Want an autograph?” He raises his eyebrows and flashes a charming smile at you. At the girl who has every reason to hate him because her brother might die one day because of his influence.

You snort at his silly question regardless and he finds that he doesn’t even mind it, at least you’re smiling. That’s good enough.

Dongmin hisses when the wound stings under running water. The bleeding has stopped already and now he just feels stupid trying to clean up broken glass with his hands. He brings his hurting hand up to his face to inspect the injury. Luckily it’s nothing serious, barely more than a paper cut. He normally ignores such things, because while sure, they’re mildly annoying for a few days when in contact with something, soon enough they’re gone without a trace. But now for some reason his feet take him to the infirmary’s floor, his brain already racking up explanations like how even such a small wound could get infected or affect his job if not taken care of professionally. You don’t ask for any of his excuses when you see him, just have him sit down and treat his cut with careful hands. It takes less than five minutes and he’s out of the infirmary with a plaster on his finger.

The thing is, normally Dongmin doesn’t get injured or sick often. At least not seriously enough to ask for help. No wonder even his co-pilot looks at him weird when after a Kwoon combat session, he’s off to the nurse station to have a freshly reddened bruise looked at. He leaves with a cooling cream in hand. You didn’t even ask him to take his shirt off!

One time he goes as far as pretending to have fever after his skin heats up from blow drying his hair but you just put a cool hand against his forehead and brush his fringe out of his face before dropping a sour candy wrapper into his hands. He’s not sure whether this is more humiliating or when only Mrs Hwang is in and he bolts after she tells him that it’s your day off.

So now he’s at the hangar bay, sitting on a stool too small for his long legs, while Jaehyun is working on his Jaeger’s hand. Dongmin is there to supposedly help, wearing a motion capture glove and bending his fingers every once in a while when the J-Tech guy tells him to, but he mostly just complains about the dissatisfactory health care service he has received lately as in not being able to talk with you properly because you always send him away once he’s treated.

“Dude, if you want her attention so badly, maybe talk to her instead of giving her more work,” Jaehyun advises while checking on the hand sensor settings on his tablet and making some modifications to the sensitivity levels.

“I don’t want–” Dongmin is quick to argue but he bites his tongue when his friend sends him a knowing look. He sighs begrudgingly. “I’m not that desperate.”

He has a reputation to uphold after all. He’s the Jaeger Academy’s best for a reason. The Pan Pacific Defence Corps’s favourite role model to parade for young cadets. Commander Han’s eldest son. He’s not some lovesick male lead from a tv drama.

And yet, somehow, half an hour later he’s back in the infirmary wing because he touched something on the workstation he shouldn’t have and now he has a fresh burn mark on his palm. For once, he feels more embarrassed than sneaky when he walks through the double doors and you look up from your desk. You don’t even seem surprised anymore to see him there.

“You know, for a Ranger, you’re kind of careless,” is the first thing you tell him after he shows you his newest injury.

“Excuse me?” The snarky reaction escapes Dongmin as defensiveness takes over. The callout feels unfair, because no matter what anybody says, he is one hell of a Ranger. He has medals the president awarded him for god’s sake.

You look him in the eye, unwavering, and press a pad of disinfectant against his wound as if to prove a point. Dongmin hisses and deflates like a balloon.

“Oh, that. Right,” he mumbles, casting his eyes down like a child that knows they were in the wrong.

You hold his hand gently while applying the disinfectant properly and spread a thin layer of cream over the burn. He already misses the subtle touch when you let go to get the gauze and wrap it around his palm. When your fingers linger a bit more than necessary after securing the bandage with a plaster, he might have just imagined that.

“You should be more careful,” you tell him belatedly, half scolding, half worried, while sitting down in front of the age-old computer to log his newest visit into his files. Dongmin has to turn his head away to hide his smile.

After that things slowly start to change.

You don’t ignore him anymore when he looks your way in the canteen. The first time he sits down at your table, the girls nearby stare and whisper and giggle not-so-subtly. But at least he gets to talk to you about how his burn is healing and that he managed to beat Park Sunghoon at Kwoon combat the last time they sparred. When you notice he doesn’t eat the eggplant on his plate, you steal it from his tray and give him a piece of chicken instead. He can’t stop smiling behind his can of soda.

During one of his now semi-regular practices with Woonhak, who is slowly growing on him despite his best efforts, you show up and he gets distracted enough for the cadet to easily land a hit straight on his chest. Only when Woonhak waves to you with wide smiles does he understand why you don’t seem surprised at all to see the two of them there. When you and Woonhak get ready to leave, he kind of expects you to tell him to go easy on your brother next time now that you’ve seen him get in several hits but instead, you mouth a thank you towards him. Dongmin watches you ruffle Woonhak’s hair dotingly which makes the younger boy whine with something squishingly soft forming in his chest.

One time he catches you in the gym on the treadmills and challenges you to a race. Unexpectedly you agree and get him the vending machine soda he asks for when he wins without complaining about his unfair advantage. Both of you are sweaty while you’re sitting there with your legs aching, slurping on your drinks, but when Dongmin is glancing your way, you’re smiling.

And then there are the late night meetings in the Jaeger hangar. Sometimes you’re just lying on your back on the catwalk and searching for stars on the pitch black sky through the glass dome. Sometimes you talk about everything and nothing. He gets to know you there slowly.

You like the hangar because your father was a mechanic and the district smell of oil, burning metal and fresh paint reminds you of his garage. Your voice breaks when you tell him that your father was working on the Anti-Kaiju wall that was destroyed by the Category III bringing catastrophe to the Southern shore years ago. He asks about your university days and tells you about the Jaeger Academy and how it wasn’t that different from growing up in a military family. You’re the first one to ask him about what he would do if one day the monsters stopped coming. He doesn’t have an answer, not then, but later, lying in his bed alone, staring at the starless ceiling, he hopes you’re there in a future like that.

"Category IV Kaiju alert! J-Tech, prepare Siren Fury for dispatch! Rangers report to Conn-Pod immediately! I repeat: Category IV Kaiju–”

The sirens are blaring throughout the Shatterdome, waking everybody up at 4AM. Dongmin laces up his boots haphazardly and swings the door open. Down the corridor he sees his co-pilot leave Kim Donghyun’s room.

“Are you ready?” She asks while she’s zipping up her jacket.

“So ready. Let’s kick some Kaiju ass,” Dongmin grins. Finally the restlessness he has felt in the last few weeks has a space to go as they are making their way to the Conn-Pod.

Chanyoung is already at LOCCENT, tracking the Kaiju’s movements on one monitor and checking the Jaeger’s energy levels on the other with other comm officers. When Dongmin puts on the Drivesuit, he hears him in his in-ear.

“I hope you slept well, it’s a really ugly beast.”

“Don’t worry, we will send it right back where it came from,” he says, ever so confident, wincing quietly when the spinal cord is attached. Some say it’s bad luck to celebrate early but Dongmin thinks it boosts morale. Not to mention no Kaiju could take them down before, isn’t that proof enough that it’s warranted? His roommate just wishes him luck, then starts the countdown.

“Initiating drift in 3, 2, 1…”

Dongmin closes his eyes and lets memories flood him. It’s a mix of old and new, his and his co-pilot’s. A Kaiju that has left him shaking, a beach town in ruins, late night practices until his body was sore and useless and still not good enough, Kim Donghyun smiling under the sunset, ice cream smeared on his lips, and your voice echoing in his ears, the sour candy he got from you tasting sweet on his tongue.

“Drift successful, connection stable. Rangers, confirm!” Somebody yells just and he opens his eyes, feeling the familiar presence of a companion in the back of his mind. He turns his head towards his partner who smiles and he already knows what she wants to say even before she opens her mouth.

“That was so cheesy.”

“You’re one to talk,” he rolls his eyes but with no malice and they move their hands at the same time, the Jaeger’s mechanic limb following their movements swiftly.

“Siren Fury is ready for deployment,” he confirms and when the Jumphawks hatch onto the mech’s shoulders to airlift them, he imagines you watching it happen through the big monitor in the hallways. It gives him one more reason to win.

It’s not an easy victory but it feels good. Every landed punch and every plasma hit right on target. After weeks of restlessness, Dongmin finally feels like he’s doing something useful. By the time the Kaiju’s lifeless body collapses into the Japan Sea, he’s sweating, his muscles ache and there’s a beginning of a throbbing headache in his temple. Yet, he feels delirious, the good kind, like he can take on the whole world.

It’s always a bit disorientating when they are back in the Shatterdome and the Conn-Pod is detached from the Jaeger. Suddenly it’s a lot quieter in his mind even though his co-pilot’s thoughts linger for a while like ghost touches.

“Let me guess, you will go for a check-up right away,” she wiggles her brows as she’s getting out of her Drivesuit.

“Shut up and go make out with your boyfriend or something,” Dongmin rolls his eyes instead of reminding her that medical check-ups after an actual drift were important. It would be hypothetical because he used to not care much despite the protocol. It would also be useless because he can already see Donghyun waiting like a puppy behind the Conn-Pod station’s glass doors.

He gives the Kaiju nerd a nod when he walks by him into the LOCCENT and accepts the pats on the back and congratulations from the officers with his usual nonchalance. He doesn’t intend to stay long but before he could escape, the Marshal finds him and tells him about an event they should attend to secure more funding for the Jaeger program. He agrees like a good soldier would because he doesn’t really have a choice anyways, then asks for permission to leave. When granted, he slips away through hidden corridors before anybody else could stop him.

Usually he loves the part when every resident of the Shatterdome gathers to celebrate the new win of humanity. These are the only few times when they get to relax before the next Kaiju appearance. They are allowed to have fun, to drink, to forget that the attacks are getting more and more frequent and the world might be doomed. Dongmin also likes the post-Kaiju fight high, the adrenaline pumping in his veins and the feeling of being invincible. He knows he will crash soon, either with the headache worsening or exhaustion taking over, but for now he feels like he could do anything.

When he opens the door to the infirmary, he catches you pacing from one end to another.

“–would be such a bad idea to–”

You stop when you notice him and another girl jumps off the counter. It’s Minju, Dongmin recognizes her from Donghyun’s lab.

“Uhm, I will go get coffee,” she exclaims abruptly even though there’s clearly a mug half-full of dark liquid on the counter where she just sat. When she passes by Dongmin’s side she shows him thumbs up and offers a “Good job today!” cheerily.

“Thanks,” Dongmin says and waits for you to agree, to comment on his performance, to say anything but when the door is closed behind your friend, you turn your back on him and shuffle back to the computer to pull up his charts. The examination table makes a creaking sound in the silence when Dongmin sits down without having been told. He knows the drill by now.

“How are you feeling?”

When you speak up, it’s in your usual work tone, all professional. He’s a bit disappointed but he refuses to wilt like a flower.

“Good. Just a little headache,” he says and watches you get up to grab a few things.

He knows what comes, he has been in the same situation multiple times just with different nurses. Mrs Hwang who works the alternate shifts is such a mother hen, treating all of them like children. The previous nurse who left before you came was so chatty, always had a new gossip whenever he sat there. He never really craved either of their acknowledgement, but with you he almost feels desperate for it.

“Did you watch us?” He asks when you fasten the blood pressure monitor’s cuff around his arm but you just shush him. He casts his eyes down, sulky, like a scolded child all the while the cuff tightens then loosens and the machine beeps. You jot down his results before stepping closer again. Your fingers are soft on his skin while you slip the medical device off his arm.

You don’t look him in the eye when you eventually answer. “No.”

It has Dongmin reeling. All this time he has thought that everybody was busy following the broadcasts of the Kaiju fights, he thought that you saw him defeat this newest alien monster, that somehow this could maybe appeal to you, but now he’s just confused.

“Why?”

You ignore his question and pick up the penlight instead.

“Follow the light with your eyes,” you tell him and he begrudgingly follows the instructions like a champ. However, when you drop your hand and turn away, he grabs onto your wrist to pull you back. You’re clearly startled as you stumble and have to catch yourself with a hand against his chest to not fall completely onto him.

“Why?” He asks again and there’s something defiant in your eyes when you finally make eye contact with him, your arm flexing under his hold, your fingers curling into his uniform shirt. He has half a mind to let go of you but he’s also relishing in the fact that you haven’t even tried to pull away, that you’re staying close on purpose. He’s basking in your subtle jasmine scent and the warmth of your shaky exhales.

“I don’t like seeing you hurt,” you whisper into the barely there space between the two of you and it ceases the ugly disappointment burning in the pit of Dongmin’s belly.

“I’m fine though,” he insists and swipes his thumb over the inner side of your wrist. It’s supposed to be soothing but when your breath hitches, he can’t help a grin at the reaction he finally got out of you.

“Ranger Han–” You raise your voice and it sounds like he’s in for a reprimand or a warning. He decidedly ignores it.

“Dongmin,” he corrects with a smirk as he tilts his head and continues the caresses on your skin.

For a long moment you just stare at each other as if to see who can take it longer. He can feel his cheeks heat up despite the confident act he puts up and when your gaze drops to his lips, his pulse jumps. There’s a tremble in his fingers when you lean closer and then…

“Noona! Have you seen–” Somebody barrels through the infirmary’s double doors and Dongmin has to hold himself back from dramatically sighing when you step back until your back hits the nurse desk. “Oh, hi, hyung! Oh my god, you were so cool out there!” 

Woonhak is all smiles and pure enthusiasm. He’s also totally oblivious to what he has interrupted. Still, he’s your brother, so Dongmin puts on a smile and answers all the questions Woonhak has about this new Kaiju and their strategy against it. He also promises to give him a tour around Siren Fury’s Conn-Pod one day. You drop a piece of sour candy into his hands before he has to leave.

The next time he ends up in the infirmary, it’s not on purpose and totally not his fault.

He was looking for his co-pilot so they could run a drift simulation but she was hanging out with her boyfriend in the labs. Apparently the K-scientists found something breakthrough regarding the anatomy of the Kaijus but Dongmin was busy checking on the different shades of blue vials labelled synthetic Kaiju blood to really pay attention. Nobody around him wore masks or gloves, so he assumed it was safe enough. That little piece of shiny rock on the petri dish wasn’t even blue, so the last thing he expected when he poked it was for his skin to stain a fluorescent color.

Apparently it was a sample from a beach that got exposed to Kaiju Blue, the deadly toxic agent in the aliens’ blood, and since the team was currently working on how to reverse its destructing effect on nature, they already had an antidote on hands for small exposures. Donghyun quickly had him drink something awfully bitter that stopped the pins and needles feeling slowly spreading in his arm.

Still, it caused quite a bit of fright for everybody present, so his co-pilot dragged him to the infirmary just to be sure he would be okay. You keep it professional while she’s in there explaining what happened but as soon as she leaves, you start scolding him.

“You know very well that Kaiju blood contains toxins. What were you thinking?” You tsk, flashing him a severely disappointed look before getting something from the cabinet. Then suddenly turn back to him and point an accusing finger at him. “You’re officially banned from the labs, got it?”

You don’t even wait for an answer, just keep mumbling something about him being so eager to put his life on the line under your breath while pulling out an IV bag. When you turn back to him, you have a cannula in your hands.

“There’s really no need–” He tries to protest but you cut him off with the authority of someone who has bossed men around all her life.

“Sit back down,” you tell him and Dongmin’s bottom hits the mattress even before his mind can process the words.

He has faced a dozen Kaijus. He has faced death. But apparently nothing scares him as much as you do when you’re mad at him. He has never seen you so agitated, frantic and frustrated. So he bears it without complaint as you put him on IV drip even though when you stab the needle into his arm, he’s pretty sure you do it with more force than necessary.

Even after you make sure the fluid is flowing into his bloodstream properly and that the last remnants of blue discoloring disappeared from his fingers, you’re still hovering over him. It makes him feel bad.

“I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me,” he says, trying to coax you into a more relaxed state.

“Then stop getting hurt!” You shove at his chest but it’s weak because you clearly don’t want to cause him more pain.

Dongmin has the audacity to smile when he catches your hand and pulls you down to sit on the bed. You let him more easily than he expected. You also make no moves to pull your hand away.

“I will try, I promise,” he tries, gentler, rubbing gently your palm.

“You better,” you huff with downturned lips and avoiding his eyes like a sulky cat and Dongmin is awfully endeared. Who knew that he just needed to get exposed to almost deadly chemicals to see this side of you? It makes him want to push his luck.

“What about a get well soon kiss?” He asks playfully and you scowl at him, unimpressed.

“You don’t deserve it.”

He pouts, playing his disappointment up, and you roll your eyes at him. Your hand remains in his though and you don’t move from his infirmary bed, so he’s not complaining.

He can’t tell whether it’s from the IV bag’s contents or the antidote from earlier, but soon his eyelids start getting heavy. Just before he tips over the edge and slips into a dreamless sleep, he feels soft lips against his forehead. He falls asleep with a stupid smile on his face.

Before meeting you, Dongmin used to think that nothing can compare to the feeling of being invincible in a Jaeger. Now, he’s not so sure anymore. You make him feel on top of the world too.

END NOTES. title from the keshi song. header pic from the BEAT High magazine behind cut.

☆ BOYNEXTDOOR masterlist

💌 askbox

Sungho finally said it.

His voice cut through the moment without completely breaking it.

And they started guiding you away from the shore.

The path they took was different.

Deeper.

The lake slowly faded behind as the landscape shifted.

The air turned cooler.

The sound of water blended with something else.

Life.

The forest appeared without a clear transition.

First, the trees.

Tall.

Too tall.

Then roots covered in flowers.

And after that, the creatures.

Small shadows between branches.

Bright eyes watching you without fear.

Taesan was walking in front of you now.

He didn’t talk much.

He simply set the pace while the massive being following him moved silently between the trees.

At first, everything seemed normal.

Until the forest didn’t react the way it should.

The branches didn’t close in.

The creatures didn’t hide.

And the wind between the trees didn’t shift into something strange.

It stayed… neutral.

Like it didn’t know what to do with you.

Taesan noticed it first.

He stopped slightly.

Turning his head just enough toward you.

“It’s not rejecting you,” he murmured.

Sungho lifted his gaze.

“That doesn’t make sense.”

Taesan didn’t answer right away.

His eyes stayed on the ground for a second, watching a small forest creature approach your feet without hesitation.

Normally, they didn’t do that with strangers.

But with you, there was no distance.

No defense.

Only curiosity.

Leehan, a little further back, saw it too.

And this time, his expression turned more serious.

“The lake and the forest don’t react the same way to anyone,” he said quietly.

“There’s always a limit.”

Woonhak looked up from his notebook.

“That’s scientifically impossible within magical records.”

“This isn’t in the records,” Sungho replied.

The path continued.

But the atmosphere wasn’t simple anymore.

Because now it wasn’t just the lake.

Or just the water creatures.

The forest was accepting you too easily.

Taesan slowed down slightly until he was walking beside you.

He didn’t look at you directly at first.

He only spoke after a few seconds.

“It’s not normal,” he said.

No softening. No question in it.

His eyes finally turned to you.

“None of this is normal about you.”

The forest behind you moved gently.

Not dangerous.

But like it was listening.

Leehan, from behind, didn’t say anything.

He just kept watching the lake creatures that had followed you a little from the shore.

Like they didn’t want to leave you completely.

And for the first time since you started walking through Aetheris…

they all stopped treating it like curiosity.

And started treating it like something they needed to understand.

Before the world did it for them.

The silence that followed wasn’t uncomfortable.

It was heavier than that.

Like the forest itself was waiting for someone to define what you were, but no one wanted to be the first to say it out loud.

They kept walking.

But it wasn’t the same anymore.

You could feel it even when no one was looking directly at you. Not in a human way, but in the way the world itself seemed to shift slightly around your presence. Branches moved a fraction slower near you, like the environment was paying attention without deciding what to do yet.

Jaehyun broke the silence without meaning to.

“The wind isn’t acting normal.”

Everyone glanced at him for a moment.

“What do you mean, ‘not normal’?” Leehan murmured.

“It means it’s not reacting to me the way it should.”

Jaehyun frowned, like that bothered him more than he wanted to admit. The air around him shifted slightly, but not in its usual chaotic way. It was… steadier. Like something else was subtly balancing it without permission.

Sungho noticed it too.

His gaze sharpened for a moment.

“That’s not normal either.”

Taesan didn’t speak, but his eyes moved briefly toward you again.

It wasn’t accusation.

It was calculation.

Like everything happening was starting to connect in his mind, but still didn’t have a shape yet.

Leehan, meanwhile, stepped closer to the edge of the path where water still ran through the forest.

The glowing creatures that usually followed him weren’t as active as before. Some floated more slowly, like even they were uncertain.

“This is weird,” he said quietly.

“Not ‘human in Aetheris’ weird,” he added after a pause. “More like… the world isn’t reacting properly.”

Woonhak looked up sharply.

“That’s not documented.”

“Because it never happened,” Leehan replied without looking at him.

Woonhak went quiet for once.

That already said a lot.

The path began to open up ahead.

Between the trees, something different appeared.

It wasn’t the enclosed forest anymore.

It was wider. More structured.

And in the distance, white buildings started to appear among the vegetation, connected by bridges and elevated paths that seemed to float between water and branches.

The city.

Aetheris wasn’t just forest or lake.

It was life built on top of something alive.

But even before reaching it, something shifted again.

The air grew lighter.

And for the first time since you arrived, you felt the environment… hesitate.

Not rejection.

Not acceptance.

Hesitation.

Sungho stopped abruptly.

“Wait.”

Everyone stopped with him.

His gaze was fixed ahead, but not on the city itself.

Something else.

The space in front of them looked slightly distorted. Like the air was denser in a specific point along the path.

Taesan stepped forward.

“There’s a barrier.”

Leehan tilted his head.

“There shouldn’t be one here.”

Jaehyun lowered his voice for the first time.

“The wind doesn’t pass through properly either.”

Woonhak slowly closed his notebook.

“That’s… not a normal structure in Aetheris.”

No one looked directly at you.

But somehow, you still felt like the center of everything remained you.

Sungho exhaled slowly.

“It looks like the world is trying to decide something.”

Silence.

And then the air in front of you moved.

Not like an attack.

Not like defense.

Like something on the other side was… responding.

Leehan stepped slightly closer to you without thinking.

“If this is what I think it is…”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

Because the barrier reacted.

And for a brief moment, the air shimmered.

Like Aetheris had recognized you again.

The barrier didn’t open abruptly.

It didn’t disappear either.

It simply… yielded.

As if something on the other side had made a decision without saying it out loud.

The air in front of you lightened for a second, and then the space distorted just enough to allow passage.

Sungho moved first, watching every detail like he expected it to change its mind at any moment.

Taesan crossed after him without hesitation.

Leehan followed naturally, as if he had seen something like this before.

Jaehyun passed through with a soft shift of wind reacting at the threshold, and Woonhak almost tripped as he crossed, too busy writing even then.

And then it was your turn.

The moment you crossed the barrier, something in your body changed.

Not immediate pain.

More like a loss of balance, as if the air inside you no longer matched the air of this place. Your breathing became heavier without warning, and the ground felt slightly farther away than it should have been.

You stopped for a second without meaning to.

Leehan noticed it first.

“Hey…”

Sungho turned immediately.

“She’s reacting.”

Woonhak looked up sharply.

“The human body shouldn’t—”

“Woonhak, later,” Leehan cut in, more serious.

But you were already feeling the exhaustion hit you all at once, as if crossing had confirmed your body simply didn’t belong here.

Aetheris was too “full.”

Too alive.

Your vision slowed slightly.

And then someone appeared beside you.

Riwoo.

You didn’t see him approach clearly, only felt his presence close, more stable than everything else around you.

“Don’t push your body,” he said softly.

Before you could respond, he gently took your arm and guided you closer to him—not fully holding you, but giving you something steady to anchor yourself to.

His warmth was immediate.

And with that contact, something shifted.

A soft sensation spread through your body, as if the air around you became less hostile.

Your breathing stabilized slightly.

The weight didn’t disappear, but it stopped feeling like you were about to collapse.

Riwoo didn’t say anything else at first. He just kept the contact steady, as if he already understood your body’s reactions before you did.

“The magic here is too concentrated for you,” he murmured. “You need gradual adjustment.”

Woonhak raised a brow.

“That shouldn’t be possible without prior training—”

“I know,” Riwoo replied without looking at him.

Sungho watched in silence.

Leehan, meanwhile, looked at you with something more focused than before. Less curiosity. More attention.

Taesan didn’t speak, but his eyes stayed on your condition.

Jaehyun lowered his voice slightly.

“Hey… the air around her is stabilizing.”

As if even the world had noticed the change.

When the discomfort eased enough, Riwoo loosened his hold slightly, but didn’t let go completely.

“Better,” he said.

And then you continued walking.

Aetheris’s city unfolded fully in front of you.

White and gold structures stretched across glowing waterways and floating bridges. Nature wasn’t separated from architecture—it was fused with it, as if everything had grown together from the beginning.

Small creatures flew between buildings.

The sky above was still that impossible gradient of pinks, violets, and golds, but here the light felt more structured, as if the city filtered it.

And yet…

something still felt off.

Not rejection.

Not acceptance.

Just… observation.

As if Aetheris still hadn’t decided what to do with you.

Leehan noticed it as they walked.

“The city is quieter than usual.”

Sungho nodded slightly.

“It’s aware.”

Woonhak looked around, completely absorbed.

“This isn’t documented in any transition record…”

“None of this is,” Taesan replied quietly.

You kept walking, still slightly leaning on Riwoo.

And for the first time since arriving in this world…

you felt it wasn’t just the place watching you.

His voice was calm.

Soft.

But it still made your skin prickle.

You opened your mouth, but no words came out.

Because honestly…

what were you even supposed to say?

The boy slowly stepped down from the bridge without taking his eyes off you.

Calm movements.

Elegant.

And the closer he got, the more you noticed tiny crystals of ice forming over the nearby plants.

As if the cold followed him naturally.

He finally stopped in front of you.

His gaze moved quickly over: your soaked clothes, your bare feet, and then your face.

Something in his expression shifted slightly.

Confusion.

Suspicion.

And something else you couldn’t understand.

“Astra Veil does not allow humans inside.”

he murmured, more to himself than to you.

Astra Veil.

The lake.

So that was its name.

You swallowed nervously.

“I don’t know how I got here.”

His eyes immediately lifted to yours.

Like he was trying to figure out if you were lying.

But before he could respond, another voice appeared behind you.

“Because she probably doesn’t understand it yet either.”

You turned quickly.

The boy from the lake was sitting casually on a rock near the water as if he had been there the entire time.

The glowing creatures still floated around him.

And when he smiled slightly, you noticed the amusement in his expression.

“You’re scaring her, Sungho.”

Sungho didn’t answer immediately.

He kept watching you.

And the longer he did, the more aware you became of how strange everyone there was.

Not frightening.

Just…

too beautiful.

Like they didn’t belong to the same world as you.

The lake boy —Leehan— still had droplets of water slowly sliding down his neck while tiny glowing creatures floated around him like they adored him.

And Sungho…

Sungho looked like he had stepped out of an ancient painting.

The pink light from the sky barely filtered through his dark hair while thin layers of frost continued forming over the flowers near his feet.

Everything in Aetheris felt too perfect.

Too alive.

Leehan finally stepped down from the rock and walked closer to you both.

“Well, now that we know she actually is human…”

He looked at you.

“What’s your name?”

You told him your name, still completely confused.

Leehan smiled slightly.

“Pretty.”

Sungho immediately glanced at him.

“Don’t act like this is normal.”

“I didn’t say it was normal.”

Leehan shrugged.

“I just said she doesn’t seem dangerous.”

You blinked.

“‘Seem’?!”

“Hey, in my defense, humans are basically mythical creatures here.”

he replied calmly.

“I’ve never seen one before.”

“Leehan.”

Sungho’s voice sounded more serious this time.

The other sighed.

“Okay, okay…”

Then he looked back at you.

“Aetheris has been separated from the human world for centuries. Nobody crosses Astra Veil.”

Your brows slowly furrowed.

“But I did.”

“Exactly.”

Leehan pointed at you like that was precisely the issue.

“And that’s weird.”

Apparently way too weird.

Because Sungho was still staring at you like he was trying to solve an impossible puzzle.

“The lake allowed you through.”

he murmured.

“I don’t understand why.”

The birds around you started moving again.

Leehan glanced upward toward them.

“Oh.”

That didn’t sound good.

“What?”

you asked.

But before he could answer, several branches shifted violently near the forest.

Heavy footsteps.

Your body immediately tensed.

And seconds later, someone emerged from between the trees.

Tall.

Much taller than the other two.

Dark hair falling over his eyes.

Black clothes lightly covered in dirt and leaves.

And honestly…

he was intimidating at first.

Not because he looked aggressive.

But because the entire forest seemed to react to him.

Branches moved aside slightly as he walked.

And behind him came a massive creature resembling a deer with antlers covered in crimson flowers.

Your breathing stopped for a second.

The boy noticed you too.

And froze.

His eyes quickly moved over your face before briefly stopping at your bare feet.

Silence.

Leehan lifted a hand casually.

“Taesan, don’t kill her. She got here like ten minutes ago.”

“WHAT?!”

Taesan didn’t even react.

He kept staring at you.

Then he slowly shifted his gaze toward Sungho.

“Human?”

His voice was low.

Deeper than the others’.

Sungho nodded once.

“Astra Veil allowed her through.”

That seemed to surprise him slightly.

Very slightly.

But enough for you to notice.

The massive creature behind him slowly approached you.

You immediately stepped backward.

Taesan barely lifted a hand.

The creature stopped instantly.

“It won’t do anything.”

he said calmly.

Though honestly, that didn’t help much when the creature was almost the size of a car.

Leehan laughed quietly.

“You look like you’re about to faint.”

“Because it has giant horns!”

“It has a name, you know.”

You stared at him in horror.

“THAT MAKES IT WORSE!”

Even Sungho seemed to hide a small smile.

Very small.

But it was there.

Taesan lowered his gaze slightly.

And for the first time, you noticed something different about him.

Not intimidation.

Nervousness.

Like he wasn’t used to humans staring at him for too long.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

Then another voice suddenly echoed from farther away.

“WHERE IS SHE?!”

Everyone turned immediately.

And seconds later someone came running through the trees.

Messy hair.

Leaves stuck to his clothes.

And several papers floating behind him because apparently he couldn’t hold anything properly while running.

“IS IT TRUE?! THERE’S A HUMAN?!”

Leehan sighed.

“Oh no.”

The boy stopped right in front of you completely out of breath.

His eyes widened dramatically.

“Oh my god.”

Silence.

Then he pulled a tiny notebook out from somewhere inside his clothes.

“Do humans actually need eight hours of sleep? Does your favorite food still exist? What is Wi-Fi? Is it true microwaves explode if you put metal inside—”

“Woonhak.”

Sungho interrupted immediately.

Woonhak looked up.

“What? This is important!”

“You’re overwhelming her.”

“Oh.”

He finally seemed to realize that you were probably confused, soaked, and mentally close to collapsing.

He slowly lowered the notebook.

“…Sorry.”

Pause.

“But technically I still have A LOT of questions.”

And honestly…

for the first time since waking up there,

you felt like laughing.

_

You probably should’ve been panicking.

Honestly.

Somehow, you had woken up in another world, surrounded by ridiculously attractive magical guardians, giant creatures, glowing birds, and a lake that apparently decided who was allowed to exist there.

And somehow…

your main thought at the moment was:

Woonhak really needed to stop looking at you like you were a museum exhibit.

“You blink differently than I imagined.”

he said suddenly.

You stared at him in confusion.

“…What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know yet.”

And he immediately started scribbling something into his notebook again.

Sungho let out a quiet sigh.

“Woonhak.”

“What? I’m researching.”

“You met her thirty seconds ago.”

“Exactly. First impressions matter.”

Leehan laughed softly nearby while crouching beside the water again. Tiny glowing fish immediately gathered around his hands.

You stared at them in disbelief.

One of them jumped directly into his palm.

“…I feel like nobody is reacting enough to the floating fish thing.”

Leehan looked up innocently.

“What floating fish thing?”

“THE GLOWING ONE IN YOUR HAND?!”

“Oh.”

He looked down at the fish.

“I forgot humans can’t do that.”

“That sentence somehow made everything worse.”

Taesan looked away slightly like he was trying not to laugh.

Which somehow felt even more offensive.

You immediately pointed at him.

“No, because why are YOU smiling now?”

His expression instantly went blank again.

“I wasn’t.”

Liar.

Complete liar.

Before you could keep bothering him, sudden dizziness hit your body.

Hard.

Your vision blurred for a second.

The ground beneath your feet suddenly felt strange.

Leehan stood up immediately.

Sungho’s expression changed instantly.

And Taesan took a step toward you without thinking.

“…Hey.”

Leehan’s voice sounded more serious this time.

“You okay?”

You nodded automatically.

Bad idea.

The movement made your stomach twist painfully.

Woonhak’s notebook snapped shut.

“She’s reacting to the atmosphere.”

Everyone turned toward him.

Woonhak quickly adjusted the papers in his arms.

“Humans aren’t built to handle pure magical exposure for long periods of time.”

You blinked slowly.

“I’m what…?”

“Your body doesn’t understand this place yet.”

he explained while stepping a little closer.

“Aetheris contains too much magical energy. For us it’s normal, but for a human…”

He made a small face.

“It’s kind of like trying to breathe underwater.”

That definitely did NOT help.

“Am I going to die?”

“WHAT?! No.”

Woonhak’s eyes widened dramatically.

“Well—probably not.”

“WOONHAK!”

“WHAT? I’m being honest!”

Leehan dragged a hand down his face.

Sungho closed his eyes for a second like he regretted existing.

And Taesan…

Taesan was still staring at you.

His brows slightly furrowed.

Like he was worried.

That was strangely comforting.

Then another voice appeared behind the group.

“Move.”

Everyone turned.

A boy was walking toward you through the tall flowers.

Dark hair falling softly over his eyes.

Light-colored clothes.

And honestly…

he looked so calm that the air itself seemed to relax slightly when he arrived.

The small flowers near the path slowly bloomed as he passed.

He stopped in front of you.

And the second he looked at you, his expression shifted slightly.

Immediate concern.

“She’s already feeling the shift.”

he murmured.

Sungho nodded once.

“It just started.”

The boy stepped closer to you without hesitation.

“May I?”

he asked softly.

You barely nodded in confusion.

He gently took your wrist.

His fingers were warm.

A soft glow slowly appeared around his hand, blending with tiny sparkling particles floating between you.

But instead of letting go…

Riwoo leaned slightly closer.

And before you could process what he was doing,

his lips pressed softly against your forehead.

The entire group went silent.

Warmth immediately spread through your body.

The dizziness disappeared almost instantly.

Your breathing stopped feeling heavy.

Even the ache in your head faded away.

You blinked in surprise.

Riwoo pulled back slightly after a few seconds, still holding your wrist.

And only then did he seem to notice the strange silence around him.

Leehan was staring at him with raised brows.

Woonhak’s mouth was literally hanging open.

Even Sungho looked confused.

Taesan was straight up staring at him.

Riwoo blinked once.

“What?”

Leehan immediately pointed at him.

“You never do that.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Not with us.”

“Because none of you are human.”

he replied calmly.

Then he looked back at you.

“Physical contact helps stabilize magic faster in human bodies.”

Pause.

“Especially near the head.”

Woonhak immediately raised his notebook again.

“That was NOT in any of the books.”

Riwoo sighed.

“Because there’s never been a human here to test it on.”

That honestly did not help you feel calmer.

But it did explain why you no longer felt like you were about to collapse.

Riwoo slowly let go of your wrist.

“Better?”

You stared at him for a few seconds.

Still slightly surprised.

“…Yeah.”

Leehan smiled slightly.

“Wow.”

Sungho glanced at him.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Leehan hid an amused smile.

“I just didn’t expect Riwoo to be that direct that quickly.”

“That’s not what it was.”

Riwoo answered immediately.

But the tips of his ears turned slightly pink.

And honestly…

that somehow made everything worse.

_

“So officially, I survived my first… thirty minutes here?”

you asked, still trying to process everything.

“Technically, yes.”

Woonhak replied.

“Although there’s still a possibility that—”

“Woonhak.”

“Okay, okay. I got it.”

He hugged the notebook against his chest with a dramatic sigh.

Riwoo kept glancing at you from time to time, making sure you weren’t about to pass out again.

And honestly… that was hard to ignore after he had literally kissed your forehead in front of everyone.

Your brain was still stuck on that.

Leehan seemed to enjoy it way too much.

Because every time he caught you looking at Riwoo, he smiled slightly, like he was waiting for something entertaining to happen.

Sungho, on the other hand, remained quiet.

Though he no longer looked as suspicious as before.

Just thoughtful, like he was still trying to understand why Astra Veil had allowed you inside.

Then suddenly, a strong gust of wind swept through the path.

Your hair flew back.

Several flowers shook violently.

And Woonhak’s papers went flying into the air.

“MY NOTES?!”

Woonhak nearly yelled while desperately chasing after them.

Leehan immediately burst out laughing.

Sungho closed his eyes like someone mentally preparing himself for something.

And seconds later, you heard a voice in the distance.

“IT WASN’T MY FAULT!”

Another gust rushed through the trees.

Stronger this time.

Branches shook violently and leaves started spinning across the path.

Then someone came running out of the forest.

Dark hair completely messed up by the wind.

Clothes moving along with the air currents surrounding him.

And honestly… he was ridiculously attractive.

But he also looked like a complete disaster.

“I swear the wind started it first!”

he said the second he reached the group.

Woonhak immediately pointed at him from the ground.

“YOU ALMOST KILLED MY NOTES!”

“That was accidental!”

“ONE OF THEM FELL INTO THE LAKE!”

The boy’s eyes widened in horror.

“…Okay, that one was my fault.”

Leehan was fully laughing now.

The newcomer finally seemed to notice you.

And instantly froze.

The wind around all of you stopped too.

Silence.

He blinked once.

Twice.

Then slowly pointed at you.

“…Human?”

“Yes.”

Sungho answered, already sounding tired.

“Real. We’re done being shocked about it.”

The boy kept staring at you in disbelief.

And while he did, a small current of air gently started moving your hair.

Like the wind itself had gotten curious too.

You noticed it.

And apparently, so did he.

Because his eyes widened immediately.

“Oh no.”

he murmured.

Too late.

Another gust swept through the area.

This time several flowers went flying across the path.

“Jaehyun.”

Sungho’s voice sounded dangerously calm.

“Control yourself.”

“I’M TRYING!”

he immediately answered.

Which was clearly a lie considering the wind around him was still moving like it had a mind of its own.

You were barely trying not to laugh.

Because honestly… he looked more embarrassed than dangerous.

Jaehyun quickly ran a hand through his hair before stepping a little closer to you.

“Wait, wait…”

he looked at you with wide eyes.

“You’re really from the human world?”

“…Yeah.”

“Like… phones? Internet? Movies? Claw machines? Those actually exist?”

Leehan laughed again.

“He literally asks the same questions as Woonhak.”

“Because this is important.”

Jaehyun looked back at you with fascination.

And then you noticed something.

The wind calmed down slightly whenever you spoke.

But every time he got excited again…

something went flying.

“So…”

you said slowly.

“Does the wind do that whenever you get excited?”

Silence.

Jaehyun blinked.

Woonhak answered before he could.

“Yes.”

“WOONHAK!”

“What? It’s true.”

Leehan rested his head against his hand, clearly enjoying the situation.

“It also happens when he’s nervous.”

“LEEHAN.”

“And when he gets embarrassed.”

Even Taesan looked entertained now watching Jaehyun slowly start losing his mind.

The wind picked up around all of you again.

Your hair moved once more.

And several leaves started spinning near the ground.

Jaehyun partially hid his face with one hand.

“Please ignore that.”

You were already smiling.

“I can’t.”

That definitely made things worse.

Because another gust swept across the path immediately afterward.

And this time…