“Keeho, the princess thinks she’s a spacecraft engineer now!”

Hwang Intak’s loud voice echoes off Harm0n1’s inner walls and you have this innate urge to throw something at him. Lucky for him, you’re civilized enough not to give him a concussion just because he’s stupid and annoying.

“I’m just saying that maybe your overheating engine wouldn’t melt the pipes off every month if you had a water cooling system,” you explain, fighting very hard to keep your voice levelled as you repeat yourself. Maybe you should have stayed quiet in the first place but you’ve had enough of listening to the guy whine about having to change the pipes for the fourth time this year. The very same guy who now stares at you with raised eyebrows and his arms crossed in front of his chest as if he could intimidate you with his wide shoulders and the scowl on his face.

“Sure and what the heck would you do once the water starts boiling?”

The answer ‘push you into it’ is on the tip of your tongue but you bite it back.

“We’re in space for the stars’ sake, shouldn’t it be easy to cool it down?” You throw your hands up in the air because no, you’re not an engineer and you have never claimed otherwise, but it just sounds logical which must be a hard concept to grasp for somebody who spends half his day perfecting his smirk in front of a mirror.

“Easy as pie, sweetheart, why didn’t I think of that before?” The guy’s voice is dripping from sarcasm but of course, he wouldn’t tell you why it wouldn’t work. Maybe he also doesn’t know or he likes to think that you’re too stupid to get it.

“Let me guess, because this thing called thinking is not your strong suit?”

You see the moment your words hit a nerve and Intak’s face morphs from mildly irritated to something close to pissed off, which is pretty satisfying to watch.

“You–”

“Okay, let’s calm down,” Keeho steps in like he always does when things get a bit heated. He sighs like a tired father of six and steers you out of the maintenance room. The spaceship’s rusty railings creak as you haul yourself upwards.

“Did you make him cry?” Taeyang calls out from the cockpit where he has his legs lazily thrown over the control panel. Harm0n1 is on auto-pilot as you’re going through a calmer corner of the galaxy at normal speed to save fuel and not overheat the entire vehicle with another engine malfunction.

“Almost,” you answer with a satisfied smile. The pilot rewards you with a high five as you drop down in the co-pilot’s seat which is usually reserved for Keeho.

“Stop encouraging her! At this rate they will murder each other before we could reach Luminos,” the crew’s captain grumbles behind you and you would argue if it wasn’t true. Ever since you set foot on Harm0n1, neither of you knew peace but it’s clearly Intak’s fault. He started it.

“Water recycling units cost a fortune, not to mention a cooling one for the engines,” Jiung walks in as well, the hologram of the weekly inventory list floating above his watch.

“Well, he could have just told me that instead of being all annoying,” you huff and while the guys discuss whatever they need to get at the next docking stop, you turn your gaze at the holographic map in the middle of the control panel, scanning through unfamiliar names and places you only know from stories. Among the many blinking stars and planets, there’s one that you’ve known as your home your whole life and it’s getting farther and farther away.

How did you get here? Now that’s an interesting story.

You have never known life outside of Zasnez, the planet always covered in snow with the tragic history of its fallen royal family. At the orphanage where you grew up the housekeeper lady liked to scare the kids with that story from fifteen years ago when the Palace burnt down killing every remaining royal who hadn’t run away when the rebellion had started. Some whispered that the young princess survived but even if the rumours were true, the rebel-led Zasnez wouldn’t have welcomed her back if she came to claim her crown. You didn’t care much whether it was true or not, you had better things to do than to gossip about politics. Things like getting enough money to leave the planet.

The truth was you had no memory of most of your childhood. The lady at the orphanage said that you were transferred to the institute straight from the hospital that treated your head injury. You didn’t remember anything about who you were or what happened to your family. Based on your clothes they assumed you were a daughter of a kitchen staff from the Palace and they named you based on the engraved characters in the medal of the necklace you had on when they found you. The same medal that was apparently a custom made piece according to the pawn shop owner who wanted to buy it off you. You might have been poor, doing all sorts of odd jobs just to survive after being kicked out of the orphanage but you would have never sold that necklace. That was the only thing you had from your past, the only thing that could help you figure out who you really were.

Ever since you were on your own, you have been saving up what you have earned so you could buy a ticket to Luminos-V, the planet where the medal was forged in a jewellery shop so small they didn’t even answer your message sent via the Link. After years of hard work and mostly eating stale bread and porridge, you had enough money to get a commercial spaceship ticket and some. The last thing you expected to stop you was bureaucracy but as it turned out you would need ridiculously priced and guarantor-signed inter-galaxy travel documents to leave the planet through the official means.

So you did the next best thing: wandered around the sketchy-looking area of the spaceship dock stations and asked around. You had the money, so you just needed a ride. You thought it wouldn’t be that hard to find somebody willing to take you at least somewhat closer to your destination. Unfortunately a lot of pilots were creeps and the only woman you met headed in the opposite direction, so you were about to give up when you ran into Keeho and Intak. The Captain heard that you were looking for a way to get to Luminos, so he offered you a deal:

“The old Queen Dowager fled to Luminos-I fifteen years ago. You must have heard that she offers reward money to anyone who finds her granddaughter,” he said, closely watching your reactions, then lowered his voice and leaned closer. “You’re at the right age… what about pretending that you’re the lost princess until we get the money?”

“What if she doesn’t buy it?” You narrowed your eyes at him because the Queen Dowager might have been stripped off her rank officially, it still felt wrong to deceive her.

“Nothing, we just leave. You don’t really have much to lose,” Keeho shrugged and you had to admit that he had a point. You would get to the Luminos solar system, dress up like a princess for a day and then jump ships to a neighbouring planet.

“Yeah, okay, let’s do it,” you reached out a hand to shake on it which had the Captain grinning. The guy next to him not so much. He looked at you with barely concealed disdain.

“Are you sure you can act like a princess?” He interjected out of the blue, scanning you from head to toe, from your worn, dirty boots to the torn holey gloves you wore and the belittling disbelief in his voice gave you enough spite to want to do it even more just to prove him wrong.

“That’s Your Highness to you,” you corrected him with the best impression you could do of someone born into privilege and nobility. Intak scoffed but he had no smart comeback to that, which felt satisfactory in itself.

And here you are, on board of Harm0n1, with Keeho’s crew, heading towards Luminos to live out a one day princess fantasy. But if Hwang Intak keeps on being this annoying, one of you won’t make it there.

“Remember, guys, only bring back things that can be actually sold, we don’t have more space for junk. I’m talking to you, Shota. No more useless stuff.”

The landing on Moon VTSH-147 went smoothly and now you’re standing over the wreck of a spacecraft that wasn’t so lucky. The guys are already climbing over the scattered pieces and digging under some overturned parts, so you follow their leads.

Keeho likes to call themselves businessmen but it didn’t take long for you to figure out what they really are. They’re smugglers, bounty hunters and space junk scavengers at the same time. Anything that makes money and secures their freedom, keeping them from being chained down. You have dug through dirt for coins before, so you get it and don't look down on it at all, but Intak has the habit of acting surprised whenever you join them.

“Not very princess-y of you,” he would say just to see you roll your eyes at him.

“I’m not actually a princess, you know.”

“Could have fooled me. You like bossing people around.”

You don’t but you do have a habit of sharing your opinion and somehow it almost always clashes with his. Whether it's about how stews should be cooked or whether he should wipe up the splashed out water after he finishes showering in the communal bathroom. And sure, you have never left your home planet before, so you know nothing about lightspeed spaceships or intergalactic politics or exotic languages but you have lived on your own, getting by just fine as a woman in the harsh conditions of Zasnez. You’re not helpless or spoiled or whatever he thinks just because you look more presentable now that you have access to proper heated water everyday and your hair is not sticking together with icy snowflakes from subzero weather and constant snow.

“Could this be worth something?” You point at the dust-eaten discharged radio you found in a corner of the split open cockpit.

“Yeah, that’s a good find,” Jiung shows you thumbs up before turning back to the cabinet he’s clearing out. You hear the others moving around through different parts of the ruins. Intak’s laughter echoes through the steel as he jokes around with Jongseob. The obvious reminder that he gets along so easily with the others lodges something sharp in your ribcage even though it’s unreasonable. They have been part of the crew for a long time while you’re just a temporary addition, of course he would be on good terms with everybody else. Still you just don’t get why he’s being a jerk to you since day one.

“Is Hwang such a pain in the ass to every new person he meets or am I special?” You blurt out while opening drawers in case you find something valuable.

“Intak? Nah,” Jiung tilts his head, thinking. “He doesn’t trust people easily, that probably comes with the job though, but he’s a charmer usually. Once he even flirted his way out of prison.”

You snort because somehow that doesn’t surprise you.

“Great, so he just hates me,” you mutter under your nose. It’s not exactly news to you but the confirmation that he’s usually not like this tastes bitter. Not because you care much about his opinion or because you want everybody to like you because for the stars’ sake, he’s just a guy, who cares what he thinks? But it’s still a few weeks to reach Luminos without using hyperspeed and the journey would be much less exhausting if this dude wasn’t breathing down your neck about everything you’re doing.

“I don’t think so. He’s just a puppy barking,” Jiung chuckles and pauses. “He’s from Zasnez too, you know? Left as a child and met Keeho during his rebellious teenage years. He’s still a bit hot-headed but he’s good at getting the jobs done. He’s loyal, too. Don’t tell him I told you but he cried when our droid was taken apart by other scavengers on Kassiopeia.”

Now that’s a bit hard for you to imagine. Intak seems a bit too self-centered to care about mere humanoid robots regardless of their programming. Nevertheless you promise Jiung that you wouldn’t tell the other guy you know about it from him and soon you make your way back to the ship with an arm full of your findings. Taeyang is especially happy about the half-charged battery and Jongseob is promising everybody a fiber-rich dinner with the cans of beans he found while Keeho is busy scolding Shota for testing out his newest explosives without warning anybody.

Once everybody is back on Harm0n1, the engines whir to life and Taeyang sets the coordinates to the closest planet with a busy marketplace to sell and buy goods.

Even though the spacecraft is not big enough for you to completely avoid the bane of your life, you’re perfecting the art of ignoring Hwang Intak. You have been mostly hanging out in the cockpit or watching Jongseob work on his computer, trying to catch and interfere with communication signals from other ships or planets. Keeho has been adamant about giving you ‘princess lessons’ which are mostly just history bits about your own country’s past or how to act around the Queen Dowager when you meet her.

So when you dock on Ramlia, a planet with two moons and way too much sand, you expect him to be the one to take you princess attire shopping but apparently he has different plans. The moment you step off the ramp and see Intak with his arms crossed in front of his chest and a stern look on his face, you know its reason.

“Wait, why do I have to go with him?” You point at him while squinting at the Captain.

“Intak knows Zasnez royal wardrobe the best and I’m busy meeting with some of our buyers. You two will be fine unless you kill each other,” Keeho waves you off seemingly more worried about Shota wandering off than the two of you.

“I’m not too thrilled about this either, princess,” Intak grumbles and you roll your eyes at the title he likes to call you by as if he couldn’t even be bothered by remembering your name. You suck it up and leave it without a comment.

“Then let’s get it over with,” you tell him and head straight towards the busiest part of the station waiting for the guy to catch up. Neither of you say anything as you navigate through the crowd on the main streets of Ramlia lined up with booths of all kinds of goods: perfume, oils, scarves and vehicle parts. Deeper into the market you see dark corners where people trade with weapons and illegal matters. The smell of spices around you is richer than anything you have ever experienced and even though you have a hard time opening your eyes properly because of the sand the wind brings, you’re eager to take in everything from the cave-like structures, the colorful patterns, the rhythm of the foreign language all around. It’s all so different from where you came from. Your stares must be too evident when Intak has to pull you away from a stall selling solar-powered fans.

“Have you really never left Zasnez?” He asks, for once sounding genuinely curious instead of derogatory.

“No. Not because I didn’t want to, I just didn’t know where to go,” you shrug.

It wasn’t exactly fear of the unknown that held you back. You have always been fascinated by the stories of travellers coming from other parts of the galaxy or even outside of it, but there was something about the grandness of it. So many places to go and yet none called out for you. And there was a silly, naive part of you that was hoping for your family to come and find you. You came up with ridiculous theories over the years just so you wouldn’t have to accept the truth that they’re most likely dead. But even if they were, you still wanted to know who you were, where you came from and that’s why your life suddenly had purpose after that pawn shop owner figured out where your necklace was from.

“And do you know now?” Intak inquires and pulls you into an alley by your elbow. Normally you would be more annoyed by his actions and even now you shake his hands off you but follow him anyways.

“I guess that depends on what I find on Luminos-V,” you admit and try to steer the topic away from you. “I heard that you left Zasnez when you were young.”

“Yeah. I hid in the cargo of the first ship I saw. I didn’t care where it went as long as it took me away,” he says and you want to ask if he ever misses it but then he suddenly stops in an alcove of a carmine-painted door. “We’re here.”

From the outside it doesn’t look like anything special but once you’re inside, you get why this is the crew’s go-to place to shop at for ploys. Racks of clothes made of different fabrics and colors and types are racked up. It reminds you of those costume stores that were busy before Zasnez’s annual carnival.

“Takki! Oh my gosh, it’s been so long, how have you been?” A woman in eccentric clothing and heavy makeup emerges from behind a wardrobe. Her eyes literally glint golden as she hugs Intak while your immediate reaction is:

Takki? Eww.

“Hi, Rosa,” the guy flashes her a charming smile and gets his cheek pulled like it’s made of dough. He just smiles through it. “Can’t complain, Keeho keeps us busy. How’s business?”

“Same old, same old,” the shop owner shrugs before her attention zeroes down on you and her eyes narrow as she gives you a onceover. “And who is she? Don’t tell me you got a girlfriend, I will get jealous.”

“Oh stars, no!” You protest immediately, imitating gagging, even though you can’t tell if she’s just joking or not. The last thing you want is for people to think you and Hwang Intak are close. You take a step away from him too for good measure.

“Yeah, no girlfriend,” the guy laughs like it’s a good joke. “We’re planning a big con, we need her to look somewhat like a princess. Do you have any layered dresses and hair pieces in white, silver or gold color?”

Since you don’t really have memories of the royalty before they were chased away, the only thing you associate with their wardrobe are white fur coats you have seen rich people wear on the street. However, since Luminos has a warmer climate, those are hardly necessary. Intak’s description sounds convincing though since Zasnez is a mining planet famous for its precious metals. Of course, they would be incorporated in how the royals dressed.

“I know exactly what you mean. Come with me,” the woman grabs you by the wrist and pushes you into a small dressing cubicle. “Come on, strip, chop-chop!” She tells you before pulling the curtains closed and leaving you there alone.

You have your boots, hip holsters, jacket and jumpsuit on the ground by the time Rosa makes it back with arms full of expensive-looking fabrics more beautiful than what you have ever worn. The first outfit you try on has intricate lace motives all over the dress, however it makes your skin itchy, so you quickly rule it out. The second is a silver gradient dress made of silky material that glides over your body like water. As soon as it’s on, Rosa makes a content little sound in the back of her throat and reaches for your messy bun to untangle it. You haven’t had your hair done by somebody else since… You aren’t even sure when, but the feeling of a brush undoing the knots in your hair and her nimble fingers securing an updo with a silver piece of jewellery is almost like it’s from an old memory.

“Hah, not bad,” the woman says as she turns you to the mirror and it’s almost like a new person looking back at you.

Before you could even decide whether you like it or not, Rosa pulls the curtain aside and your gaze meets Intak's, who has been busy shifting through a row of what looks like dress shirts. The moment he sees you though, he freezes and just stares, his gaze slowly following the line of your bare shoulder. His mouth drops open like he wants to say something but ends up just shaking himself out of it.

“Pretty, isn’t she?” Rosa asks, fixing the positioning of your hair.

“Yeah,” the guy mumbles, almost starstruck, then gulps and blinks rapidly. “I mean… the dress is pretty, so yeah… I guess.”

The woman chuckles next to you and closes the curtains again, uncuffing the dress and putting it aside into a bag. The next dress she pulls down from a hanger is a soft metallic gold. It’s more modest than the previous one and it doesn’t make you feel like you could tear it at any moment.

“Wait, I might have a tiara too somewhere,” Rosa says suddenly after she replaces the silver hairpin with a gilded one. When she comes back there’s indeed a head ornament in her hands. “Well, aren’t you quite a princess?”

You look into the mirror, at the glint of light on the tiara and suddenly it’s like watching a dream through a foggy window. The dress, the hair, the crown, all of it seems so eerily familiar. You can almost reach for this vague memory, you’re almost there…

“We have to go,” Intak’s impatient voice cuts through your train of thought and you blink yourself back to the present. Has it really been that long already since you left the ship?

“Now? Let me change ba–” You give the tiara back to Rosa and reach for the zipper of the dress when the guy cuts you off.

“No time. Somebody snitched on Keeho, so we need to leave now,” he says and he sounds desperate, very unlike his usual easygoing annoying self, so you decide to take it seriously.

“Here,” the salon’s owner thrusts a haphazardly filled bag into your hand and covers your shoulders with a long beige-colored overcoat, so you wouldn’t look so out of place in that gorgeous dress. She also helps you put your boots and holsters back on while you pull the coat’s hood part over your head. “Hey, Takki, transfer me the money once you get back on your ship.”

“Thanks, Rosa!” Intak grins and then the two of you leave the shop like you were chased.

Somewhere in the middle of the busy market street you lose sight of the guy’s dark hair but before you could worry about getting lost on a foreign planet, there’s a hand curling around yours and Intak is pulling you after him through dozens of bodies of strangers. Twice you almost trip on the dress which makes you curse inwardly while trying to keep up with the pace. By the time you get to the dock, Harm0n1 is already levitating over the edge with an open ramp, engaging in laser gun fight with border control officers. 

“Come on, guys, you need to jump,” Keeho yells over the sound of explosion and smoke that was caused by the small round object Shota threw at the attackers.

“Give me that,” Intak takes the bag of clothes from your hand and throws it into the cargo of the spaceship. Then he backtracks just enough to gather momentum and jumps onto the ramp, Keeho pulling him up between firing at the authorities.

You yelp when a stray laser shot at Harm0n1 grazes your shoulder and duck down. Really, the timing of this couldn’t have been worse. Out of all the times you’re attacked, it has to be that one day when you wear something so inconvenient.

“Argh, stupid dress,” you mutter under your nose, frustrated, and you ruck up the lush skirt part of your dress to make a run for the spaceship. There’s a moment when you’re in the middle of the jump, the weight of the dress pulling you down, only the smoke and sound of shots around you, when it feels like gravity shifted. But then your feet touch the boarding ramp, the hem of your skirt gets caught in something and you’re suddenly falling backwards…

Until Intak grabs your lower arm and yanks you back to safety.

You’re panting hard, blood roaring in your ears, trying to catch your breath when the gunfire ceases or at least the sound of it gets muffled through the now closed thick cargo doors of the spacecraft. Relief washes over you and you almost let your arms give out just before you realize the exact position you’re in: lying right across Hwang Intak who is pretty much starfished on the cold metal floor, staring up at you with almost comically wide eyes. You can feel his hasty breathing on your cheeks and the wild thuds of his heart under your palm over his chest.

Oh, for the stars.

“Sorry,” you mumble and spring to your feet as if he burned you. You pretend to be busy smoothing down your skirt just so you don’t have to look at him. “And uhm… thanks, I guess.”

“Yeah, it’s… nothing,” Intak clears his throat and you can hear Jiung and Keeho whisper something among themselves while stealing looks at you before Taeyang’s voice booms from the intercom:

“We need to go on hyperdrive for a while to get rid of them, so buckle up, everybody! It will be a bumpy ride,” he warns and you can already feel Harm0n1 shake under your boots.

The awkward atmosphere between Intak and you soon defaults back to your fighting over everything, so the order of the universe is restored. Still, now you kind of get what Jiung meant when he said that he was loyal. They all are. They could have left you on Ramlia with no remorse since they barely knew you and risking their life for you sounded a bit too much between strangers, but they waited until you were safe. Sure, it could be for money but with the way Jongseob excitedly shows you his newest endeavors about by-passed firewalls or Taeyang is telling you about how he got his hands on his baby (the starship) or they light up when you occasionally you make that potato dish that’s famous in Zasnez, it feels more than that. The thought of separating soon saddens you more than you show it.

Using the hyperdrive almost made the engines cough up its insides in the middle of the space, but nevertheless after an emergency landing on a moon with toxic air, you got closer to the Luminos solar system than ever. It also meant that Keeho takes the ‘princess lessons’ more seriously, pulling up all sorts of articles and holo-photos of relatives and events you should know about. Sometimes you look at somebody’s old picture and you really feel like you know them but if the orphanage lady was right, your mother might have worked in the palace kitchen, so it makes sense. The Captain is clearly surprised that you know practically nothing about your planet’s royal past, so now that you trust him you tell him about your childhood head injury and the amnesia it resulted in. He looks at you for a long time, pondering, then purses his lips and tells you to keep close to the truth when the Queen Dowager asks. The less you have to lie about the better. Then he goes back to the demonstration and you pretend not to have a headache.

Whether it’s because of anxiety or homesickness or something else, you don’t know but these days you can’t sleep properly. The nightmares are always the same: it’s all dark and hot, the air infused with smoke, people you don’t see are shouting behind the walls and you’re crying for some reason. In some dreams you’re hiding alone and in some you’re running from faceless shadows.

Now, you’re being chased. Everything feels so big and so scary. The walls feel like they are closing in on you. The corridor feels endless and the footsteps are coming from closer and closer. You can barely breathe, it’s suffocating. There’s a door at the end of the hallway, that’s your only chance, so you run and run. You feel rough hands grabbing onto your arms and clothes to pull you back just before you could finally reach the door. You twist the knob and yank the door open.

Everything is going up in flames.

You scream.

You awake abruptly and sit up. It takes a moment to recognize the lumpy couch you had fallen asleep while watching the vast galaxy on the other side of the spacecraft’s window. It takes even more to realize that you’re not alone.

“Hey… Y/N?” Intak’s voice is gentle. You have never heard him speak like that. You have never heard him call your name like that. Or at all.

He’s leaning over you, his hand hovering over your shoulder like he’s unsure what to do. Any other time you would make fun of him for that. Now, your clothes are sticking to your skin with sweat and tears are dripping down your cheeks. You can’t stop shivering.

“It felt so real,” you whisper, weak and barely audible, teeth knocking together. Your fingers tremble as you curl them into the blanket thrown over you.

Intak slowly sits down next to you and tentatively puts a hand on your back, almost like he expected you to bolt. At the first touch, you tense but then your body relaxes into his caress.  

“It’s okay. You are safe now,” he says quietly but firmly and in that moment you feel your entire body go lax as you sob into his neck. You press your cheek against his shoulder and wrap your arms around him, the warmth and solidity of his body slowly expelling the remaining panic from you. Intak keeps murmuring reassuring words as he strokes your back. He doesn’t push you away nor does he demand any answers. He just lets you hug him until you calm you down.

You have no idea how long it takes you to feel normal again, not paralyzed by the dream. Then you immediately start feeling awkward as you pull back but Intak handles it unexpectedly smoothly. He asks if you want hot chocolate from his secret stash and tells you that when he used to have nightmares, a sweet treat like that helped him.

“Do you feel better?”

It’s later when you are both in the kitchen, stirring your drinks that he asks about it and when you look up, the first thing you see is his eyes. Big, brown and genuine.

“Yes. Thank you,” you mutter and put down your half-empty mug on the counter.

“It’s nothing. I didn’t do anything special,” Intak shakes his head and then it’s quiet for a bit again but you can tell he wants to ask more. He still looks worried. “Does it… happen often?”

Your first instinct is to deny, to build up your walls because you’re not used to anybody to care, but with a little sigh you give up on pretending. He has already seen you at your most vulnerable after all.

“Lately, yes. I used to have a variation of this dream from time to time back in the orphanage but never this frequent or vivid. I think it has something to do with talking about the past. Imagining Zasnez before the royalty fell makes my head hurt,” you admit and you can still feel the dull ache in your temples.

“Do you really not remember your childhood?” The guy furrows his brows, curious, almost pensive.

“Yeah, nothing before the hospital. This–” You pull out the gilded medal on your necklace from under your shirt to show him. “–is the only thing I have from my past. That’s why I need to go to Luminos-V. For answers.”

Intak hums, staring intently at the medal before you slip it beneath your clothing again. Not because you’re afraid he would steal it from you but rather because you feel better with the cold touch of metal against your skin.

“What about your name? Is it the real one?”

“Probably not, that’s why I don’t have any travel documents either,” you shrug and reach for your abandoned drink. Since nobody has ever called you by a different name, you never really considered it ‘not real’ but it’s true that you don’t have papers to prove it. You were never officially registered in the chip system either but most orphanage kids weren’t either, so it wasn’t anything out of ordinary. Yet, Intak looks at you like he’s reconsidering everything he has learned about you. You narrow your eyes at him. “What?”

He startles at first but then a slow grin makes its way onto his face.

“I guess I will keep calling you princess then,” he says with that infuriating tone of his that usually makes you want to throw things at him.

“Whatever,” you roll your eyes and look down at the hot chocolate in your hands with a smile tugging on the corner of your mouth.

You’re perched up in front of the window, looking out at the vast galaxy when Harm0n1 gets attacked. Space pirates. Probably. At least that’s what Taeyang says.

“Let’s just say we have a few enemies across the universe,” Keeho shrugs sheepishly before he instructs everybody to take their place: Jiung to one of the laser turrets, Shota to the blaster cannons. Jongseob has already been working on hacking the other spaceship’s communication systems while Taeyang tries to outfly the smuggler ship and its laser beams.

“Shit. Why do the deflector shield generators fail when you need them?” The pilot grumbles uselessly tapping on the shield console.

“I’m on it!” Intak jumps in and Keeho jerks his head in his direction, so you follow wordlessly.

“Does it happen often?” You ask, burying the memory of the same question asked while watching the guy opening the generator tank for better inspection. He seems to move around with a confidence that suggests it’s not the first time he has to check on the generator.

“About one out of three times,” Intak laughs like it’s a joke but at least he doesn’t seem too worried. He fixes some wires, secures some screws, even kicks into the generator while you’re holding onto a railing for your dear life because the ship is not quite steady with the constant hits on its rear.

“This ship is falling apart,” you say it exasperatedly yet more fondly than you probably should considering the circumstances.

“All the best homes are,” Intak grins and when the generator whirs to life, he yells at Taeyang to try again. “But yeah, that’s why we need the money, Harm0n1 deserves a rebrand.”

As he says that, he pats the top of the tank gently as if he didn’t ram his feet into it just a minute prior. Tough love.

Things between Intak and you have been… okay since the nightmare incident. He didn’t bring it up, he didn’t tease you with it. You still argue about ridiculous things and he still has an innate talent at riling you up. But at the same time, you talk more, properly. He tells you about what he remembers about Zasnez, about the mines and sneaking around in the palace whenever his mother brought him with her. When you tell him that maybe you met back then, he just smiles and nods, maybe, he repeats. You tell him how it was to grow up in the orphanage, to see how the rebels shaped the planet’s future not necessarily in a bad direction but definitely differently than what you heard about the monarchy. He tells you how he met the crew when it was just Keeho and Taeyang and how all the others joined. He talks about them with fondness you aren’t sure he’s even aware of.

“We have a trespasser in the cargo!” Jongseob’s voice through the intercom pulls you out of your thoughts and your hand is immediately on your holster as you run towards the back.

Zasnez is not the safest place, especially for a girl alone, so you had to learn how to protect yourself. Still, you can practically feel your heart pounding against your ribcage because it’s not everyday that you engage in gunfights.

Intak goes down the ladder first, his hand secure on his laser gun but the cargo level is eerily quiet. It makes it even more nerve wracking. You must be visibly tense because Intak thinks it’s the perfect time to crack a joke.

“Try not to shoot me, okay?” He teases with a grin on his face like he isn’t worried at all.

“Very funny,” you scoff and snap your head towards the source of sound when something clicks. Suddenly light floods the storage room (probably Jongseob’s doing) and you don’t have to squint your eyes to make out the containers of junk treasure in the dark. You stumble a bit, trying to keep your balance when the ship takes a sharp turn, gravity straining against the baggage belts that keep the containers secured in place. Except… one of them slowly starts to slide sideways.

You nod at Intak when he gestures to you to surround the container from two sides. However, before you could catch sight of the trespasser hiding behind it, a laser beam flashes in front of  you and it bounces off the walls. You swear under your breath when Harm0n1 shakes again probably from another blast cannon hit and you have to jump clear from the way of the sliding container lest it presses you against a wall like a dried flower between pages. That’s also when the trespasser launches into action. He leaves his hideout, runs into Intak with enough force to knock him to the ground and then presses the big red button on the wall. The sound of mechanical cogs turning fills the space and suddenly the boarding ramp opens providing a clear view at the attacker ship. The moment it happens, it feels like a giant vacuum cleaner is sucking everything out: the loose container, some debris and you.

You scrabble to get a hold of something and somehow you manage to grab onto a hanging piece of chain in the middle of the rattling inside of the ship. You yell Intak’s name over the roaring sound of wind tunnel effect only to see him dragged across the cargo’s floor, struggling to find something to hold onto. He’s getting dangerously close to the edge of the ramp where he could tip over any moment into space without any protective gear.

“Catch!” You call out for him and throw another piece of these chains at him that’s seemingly used to secure the containers or other baggage in place. Intak manages to catch it and keep himself upright. You let out a sigh of relief as you watch him waddle towards the wall and press the blue button.

Once the ramp is closed again and the air pressure normalizes you collapse onto the floor panting heavily. It’s almost like the past repeating itself with Intak just an arm’s length from you.

“Now we’re even,” you tell him between two ragged breaths and it punches a laugh out of the boy. Then he laughs some more just because he can and Shota calls you weird when later he finds both of you still giggling on the floor.

You have heard countless stories about Luminos, the planets of light. They are almost always bright, if not from sunlight then from moonlight. From Luminos-I to Luminos-VII less so but people adore these places for their natural lighting. That’s what you get for two suns and three moons in a single solar system. When Harm0n1 docks on the biggest and brightest planet three days after the unfortunate piracy incident, all the tall white buildings with large windows and gilded railings seem blinding. After the darkness of the space and the dim lights on the spaceship you need time to get used to it and be able to look around without squinting.

“Yeah, that’s definitely the kind of place fleeing royalty would settle down,” Taeyang mutters with barely concealed judgement and you have to agree. You have never been to a place so… expensive-looking. You feel out of place just by standing there in the docking station.

“Okay, so the three of us visit the Queen Dowager during afternoon tea time,” Keeho announces, pointing at you and Intak. You’re pleasantly surprised by the specific plan.

“Oh, we have an audience?”

“Not quite but we brought her granddaughter back, didn’t we?” He grins and you suppose he’s right. So when the time comes, you put on a pretty, frilly dress out of the pile of clothes Rosa has given you and brush your hair out to make yourself look more presentable. The ribbon you use to get some hair out of your eyes is a little lopsided on the back of your head but it’s the last of your worries. You put on a smile when you leave the cabin but Intak sees right through you.

“Are you nervous?” He asks as if he didn’t fidget with the elegant dress shirt’s cuffs. Looks like a meeting with a former royalty isn’t in his everyday schedule either. He didn’t style his hair artistically out of his forehead either. Like this, with his fringe falling into his eyes, he looks younger, softer.

“A bit,” you admit, because it seems useless to deny it. Even if he teases, it wouldn’t be mean.

“Don’t be. She’s gonna believe you. Just… show her your necklace,” he says, strangely convinced and mysterious. You narrow your eyes at him.

“What do you mean?”

“Just trust me,” he dismisses your question and you want to protest, to push more, to ask what he knows but then almost offhandedly like it doesn’t matter, he adds: “You’re pretty by the way.”

It’s such an obvious trick to distract you and unfortunately it’s working because apparently your cheeks heat up regardless of whether he means it or not.

“Hm, you clean up nicely as well,” you reply mimicking his nonchalance and before you could divert the topic back to your necklace, Keeho shows up ushering you to leave.

Once you arrive at the Queen Dowager’s residence, everything happens so fast. The old lady is not quite receptive at first, which you understand, she probably has been scammed dozens of times by fake granddaughters and you feel a bit bad for her. She waves off Keeho’s long-winded explanation about how they found you and calls you closer. You fidget a bit under her curious eyes, self-conscious in your new clothes, new shoes, new hair. You’re not used to being so… lady-like. Nor being watched like this.

“Bring in the droid,” the elder lady commands and you bite into your lower lip. She hasn’t sent you away yet, that must be a good sign, right? She wouldn’t call for a droid to punish you, right?

The robot that rolls in front of you is small, barely reaches past your knees, and it seems like a pretty old model, rusty around its ports. Its sensors must be a bit off too because it bumps into your leg instead of stopping in front of you.

“Your hand,” the Queen Dowager instructs in a tired voice and you look down at the blinking blue light on top of the droid. Your fingers shake a bit as you reach down and you can practically tell that Keeho and Intak are holding their breaths back behind you. Maybe even the old lady too.

The moment your index finger covers the light, you feel a sharp prickling sensation that has you hissing. Yanking your hand away you see that your finger is bleeding. In the meantime the droit makes a whirring noise like an old computer before it stills.

“99.87% match. Welcome home, Crown Princess,” the robotic voice concludes and the Queen Dowager stands up from her seat with tears running down her wrinkly face while you just stand there, bewildered.

You are the lost princess.

When you look back at the guys, Keeho is grinning from ear-to-ear, showing your thumbs up while Intak has one of his close mouth smiles on. Neither of them seem really surprised. They must have known all along. You’re not sure how to feel about that but you don’t have much time to ponder over it before you’re whisked away by the Queen Dowager.

It turns out the medal you’ve worn all along stores a chip in a hidden compartment, a chip that has all your lost memories on it. Putting it back is painless physically but it’s quite a lot mentally. Everything that you thought you knew about yourself is suddenly not true. It’s almost like you have lived two different lives.

Now that you remember her, reuniting with your grandmother feels like a dream. You feel like a child again as her servants show you around the residence, they make a room for you, and prepare your favourite dishes from childhood. She dotes on you the same way you remember but instead of good night stories, now she’s recounting what has happened since your paths diverged. She keeps asking about your life too, about the crew that brought you here. She’s making sure that you feel at home.

Your grandmother invites all six guys over to dinner one day to thank them for bringing you back and pays them the promised sum of money. When she hears about Harm0n1’s condition, she even offers to buy a new spaceship for them but everybody is vehemently refusing that.

Over the dining table, your gaze meets Intak’s and he gives you a smile, a small, restrained one. You’re so focused on the way he’s fiddling with the wine glass you almost miss it when Keeho tells your grandmother that they’re leaving tomorrow.

“What?” You turn towards the others as if you’re looking for somebody to correct him. “So soon?”

Of course, you knew that you would go your separate ways sooner or later, that has always been part of the deal. But after spending the last few weeks together you feel strangely empty at the thought of not having them around. No more conspiracy theory discussion with Shota, no more dissing sessions with Taeyang, no more bothering Jiung in the kitchen, no more… whatever it is that you have been doing with Intak. The late night talks and bickering over stupid things.

“Yeah, well… we need to buy some stuff for Harm0n1, you know. And people on Luminos are not eager to buy space junk, so…” Keeho trails off with a half-smile on his lips and you force yourself to do the same. You know he’s right and that you shouldn’t be dramatic. It’s not like you won’t see them ever again, right?

Still, you’re distracted during the rest of the dinner and your sour mood must be obvious when the guys are getting ready to leave.

“Hey, don’t be so sad. You can’t miss my fantastic cooking that much now that you have a private chef,” Jiung grins and you can tell he’s trying to cheer you up. It’s partly working because the corner of your mouth twitches and you give him a hug. You have never been affectionate, not since being separated from your family, but it would feel wrong to let them leave without a hug. Even if Taeyang is making faces and acts like a skittish stray cat, awkwardly patting your back. Keeho’s full on bear hugging you though like you’re his personal teddy bear.

“Don’t worry, we will visit. And you know who to call if you need something, we will dig it out for you from the end of the galaxy if needed,” he promises before stepping back. The five of them are pretending to look away, suddenly super interested in the architecture on Luminos when it’s Intak’s turn to say goodbye. You can tell his smile is somewhat forced but his voice is genuine when he speaks up:

“I’m glad you could find the answers you were looking for about who you are.”

The lost princess, huh, who would have thought? Maybe he knew all along but there’s something else you’ve been wondering about ever since you got back your childhood memories.

“We… we knew each other, right? As kids? You were always sneaking around in the palace and messed with my droit. You… it was you who showed me the secret passageway to hide when the rebels broke into the palace,” you rambled because looking back now it wasn’t that hard to pierce together the pieces. He still has the same sparkling eyes and mischievous grin.

“I never thought we would see each other again,” he admits with a nod and it’s crazy, really, how you ran into them at the ship docking station back at Zasnez.

“Did you recognize me immediately?”

Intak shakes his head no. “I had no idea then. But when I saw you at Rosa’s and then the necklace… it all came back.”

You have half a dozen questions on the tip of your tongue but not enough time. You want to ask why he didn’t tell you but it’s obvious, you wouldn’t have believed him. You can barely believe it now.

“So that’s why you started being more friendly with me after that,” you tease instead because you have questions you aren’t sure you’re ready to hear the answer. Not when he’s leaving.

“Yeah, sure,” Intak laughs, going along with it easily, no pushing back, no riling you up, just letting you. You expected him to quip back at you, asking for your reason for the change of heart but it doesn’t come. It’s almost disappointing. Even his eyes when he looks at you lack the usual mirth, there’s just something malleable and bittersweet in there.

“Stay safe… princess,” he whispers and with that he turns his back and you watch him leave.

That night you can barely sleep. You’re pacing in your room, keep looking out of your window at the two moons shining down brightly at the planet as if you expect something to change. You have already dressed up once then thought it was ridiculous and changed back into pajamas. Now, you’re back in your everyday clothes. No dress, no heels, just some comfortable clothes. You keep weighing the pros and cons about going down to the docking station. Why would you do that? You have already said goodbye. And if it’s not just for doing that, then why does it matter? You shouldn’t leave with them. It would be stupid of you. Not to mention, you just found your grandma and while she seems to be in good health, she isn’t young either. Guilt and restlessness come and go in waves.

You’re in the middle of a spiral when there’s a knock on the door. When you open it, your grandmother stands on the other side, looking more like a regular grandma than a Queen Dowager in her nightrobe and her wrinkles making her eyes look like she’s smiling.

“What’s keeping you up, dear?” She asks before you could apologize for waking her up.

“It’s nothing, really,” you shake your head and help her to the sofa, so she could sit down with you by her side. You feel ungrateful even just thinking of leaving. You should be happy that now you have a proper roof over your head and you could probably live your life comfortably without ever having to do odd jobs again just to have something to eat the next day. It should be enough.

And yet…

“It’s the Harm0n1 boys, right?” Your grandma guesses nevertheless and there’s no judgement or anger in her voice. If anything, she looks at you proud as she holds your hand.

“I just… I felt the most at home when I was with them,” you admit quietly with your eyes cast down.

“Then why are you still here?” The Queen Dowager asks and to say that you’re taken aback by her question is an understatement. You thought she would be hurt at the very least.

“What about you?”

“Don’t worry about me. I have gotten used to missing you over the last fifteen years. Now that I know that you’re alive and well, that’s all that matters to me,” she smiles and caresses your cheek like she used to do all the time when you were young. “You should listen to your heart. If it tells you to go, go!”

So now you’re running. Not from something but towards something. You aren’t even sure it makes any sense. They might have left already. Or they might still be sleeping soundlessly. Still, you’re running like every second matters. By the time you get to the docking station, your hair has gotten loose so it’s in your face and you’re starting to sweat in the jacket you grabbed before leaving the residence. It’s quiet in the area except for a cargo ship being unloaded and the familiar buzz of machines running all the time.

You spot Harm0n1 easily thanks to its painted side even if some letters are faded with time under rust. Instant relief floods you and you finally let yourself to slow down and catch your breath with your hands braced on your knees. It’s only then when you realize you didn’t prepare with anything to say, you have no explanation or excuse why you came, but you refuse to back down because of that. As you walk closer, you notice that the boarding ramp is lowered and two figures sit on it while drinking canned beer.

“So that’s it? You will really just leave without telling her how you feel?” You hear Keeho’s voice, disappointed and almost scolding. His words make you halt mid-step, your breath hitched in your throat.

“Princesses don’t get together with scavengers anyways,” Intak shrugs and his resigned tone reaches you. You involuntarily let out a scoff. Even now, he’s great at pushing your buttons, even without talking to you. Why is he deciding on this on his own? Why does he act like he knows you so well?

“Well, maybe they don’t, but I guess I’m not really good at being a princess,” you speak up, revealing your presence as you step in front of the two guys. Both of them scrabble to their feet, clearly surprised but while Keeho’s face turns satisfied like he knows something nobody does, Intak remains dumbfounded.

“What are you doing here?”

“Do you perhaps have an opening for a permanent crew member?” You answer his question by turning to the Captain instead. Now this lights up Intak almost immediately.

“Keeho, the princess thinks she’s a scavenger now,” he teases with a grin, his voice dropping into that low register he uses when he taunts you. He pushes his half-empty can into the other guy’s hand and steps closer to you like he still can’t believe you’re there.

“Shut up, Hwang Intak!” You say but you’re smiling while you’re at it because you can see his eyes sparkling under the double moonlight like he’s filled with stardust.

“Make me,” he replies without missing a beat like it’s a challenge and you would be a fool to back down. You grab him by the collars of his worn out jacket and pull him close enough to taste his smile on his lips and it’s like two stars meeting, colliding, exploding.

The universe quiets down next to your heartbeat but Taeyang’s tired voice cuts through it:

“Ah, my eyes! We will need to make a rule for that. I just lost my appetite,” he grumbles and impatiently taps his feet on the ramp. “Get in, lovebirds, we have a long way ahead of us.”

A laughter escapes you as you pull back, lips still tingling. You still have a lot to talk about but it takes quite a time to get to the next planet, so there’s no rush.

You follow the guys onto Harm0n1 and steal food from Intak’s plate at the breakfast table while listening to Jongseob list off the best markets he found for spaceship parts. All of them welcome you back with open arms and you soak in the warm atmosphere as you watch Jiung and Keeho bicker about something ridiculous, like the amount of onions in the rolled omelet. One of the lights flicker above but nobody cares.

Yeah, this is what home feels like.

END NOTES. header is from the most wanted concert poster behind

☆ P1H masterlist

💌 askbox

i. grown ass men btw

ii. trust you will be dealt with

iii. hanging with an old friend

iv. random-2 , intak-0

you could see it from the end of the hallway, always a different color and gently fluttering in the artifical breeze from the apartment complex's air conditioning. for the last few weeks, you never knew whether or not you'd come home to a new message on your door. usually, they were scribbled on colorful sticky notes in smooth black ink, and the contrast made them impossible to ignore.

well, the contrast and the messages themselves.

you probably should have been creeped out, but they were actually kind of sweet. "you look pret-tea today," one had read, scrawled on sticky purple paper under a doodle of a tea bag. you once slammed your door closed after a particularly frustrating day. the next morning, you had found doodle of a rooster on an orange square: "just chicken in on you."

and now, as you approached your apartment, you could see a glint of baby blue flittering against the dark wood of your door. there was no pattern to follow. you could find three in one day, or you could go three days without one at all. if nothing else, this "secret admirer" kept you on your toes.

you fished into your bag, rummaging through seemingly everything you had ever owned to find your keys. your keychain jingled as you turned the key in the lock, the sound of metal on metal signaling to everyone on the floor that you were finally home. and before you could even turn the knob, the door to the apartment next to yours swung open.

like clockwork, intak leaned candidly on the chiseled wooden post of the doorframe. his black zip-up made him appear even more casual as he looked down the hallway, over your head, and at the floor, all with his lips pursed and brows furrowed in faux contemplation.

"oh, hi," intak's eyes finally landed on yours, which were visibly unimpressed by his routine performance. he was usually out here when you got home, seeking the latest scoop on your note situation. he glanced at the imaginary watch on his wrist, "you're, uh, twenty minutes later than usual. I almost thought you'd moved."

you tried not to give into his antics too much, but it was more difficult than you thought. he was undeniably charming, maybe too charming for his own good, and he had been kind enough when you first moved in to show you which staircase was the least life-threatening.

"you don't have to wait for me to get home, you know," you crossed your arms, matching his relaxed stance on your own doorframe, "you can literally just step outside and read it. its on the door."

"yeah," intak sucked his teeth, weighing his options, "but then its just weird. i'd be lurking around outside your door."

you furrowed your brows at him, partly amused but mainly curious, "and waiting until i get home to come outside and lurk is somehow less weird?"

intak opened his mouth to speak, but he immediately closed it, rubbing his jaw with his hand as he pressed his lips into a thin, defeated line. "okay i see how that would be," he paused a beat, sighing deeply, "weird."

"do you just, like, watch through the peephole for an hour?" you taunted him. the corner of your mouth pulled up into a smirk as you watched him grow increasingly defensive.

"how i know is not the point, although you do have very recognizable footsteps," intak waved his hands around as if to swipe away the current conversation, "can you just tell me what it says? i mean, first one in four days- it better be good."

you rolled your eyes at him, pushing off your doorframe to face the door itself. the blue note was stuck haphazardly at eye level, a bit crooked, and was curling up on the edges from having been pulled off a stack. you reached out and smoothed the bottom edge until it was flat against the wood grain of the door. your fingers pinned it in place as your eyes scanned the dark ink.

you felt intak's eyes burning into the side of your face as you started to read it. this one was different. "its, um," you lifted the note off the door, bringing it closer, "its a phone number."

intak leapt from his place in his own doorway and craned his neck to peer over your shoulder. "that's bold," he said, "there's not even a drawing on it."

honestly, you didn't hear a word from his mouth. you were suddenly hyper aware of how close he was, how broad his shoulders were, how the heat from his body contrasted with the harsh stream of air surging from the ac unit. your interactions had never breached a three foot distance. and you'd never been close enough to smell the sweet, woodsy cologne melted into his skin.

all at once, your mouth went dry and your knees grew weak and your palms became damp. you'd never felt this way about him before. he was just your annoying neighbor who played his music too loud after 10 pm. he slept through his alarm every morning, the buzzing of his phone and the blaring alert tone seeping through your walls again and again as he snoozed it. why even set an alarm if he was gonna sleep three extra hours?

"are you okay?" intak asked. his tone was sincere, and you realized you'd never heard him speak normally, delicately. it was always banter, always teasing.

"yeah," you breathed, crumbling the note up in your hand and stepping forward, leaving more space between the two of you. "yeah, sorry. it just got... too real, i think."

"oh," intak breathed, as he took one big stride back to his own doorway, "yeah, agreed. that was suuuuper weird to do."

out of the corner of your eye, you thought you saw a frown. you thought you saw his big, brown eyes cast to the suspiciously stained carpet. you thought you saw him wipe his own palms down the thighs of his jeans.

you finally turned the knob on your door, the note still crumbled and tucked between the metal and your hand. you felt something crack somewhere deep within you, something wistful. you wouldn't miss the notes, assuming that writing their phone number was the final piece of the puzzle your admirer had been assembling. they were just paper. yes, the doodle were cute, and, yes, the messages were sweet. but you wouldn't miss them.

maybe you'd miss something else.

intak pushed open his own door, too. you watched him force his lips into a small smile as he locked eyes with you. "have a great night," he said, "if you want."

"you, too, intak," you laughed, "if you want."

but as you stepped inside your apartment and pushed the door closed behind you, something compelled you. something small and blue, scribbled with black ink. you held out your hand and opened the note back up. you could still make out the number through the hundreds of fold lines.

you flipped the paper over, and doodled on the back was an ice cube with a scribbled out attempt at a message. all you could make out was,

"if you call me."

what happened next was not your own doing. you were simply possessed by someone more confident, someone with way less to lose, as you pulled out your phone and punched in the numbers. one moment your finger was hovering over the green call button, and the next, you were hearing the dialtone.

and to your surprise, right as the droning signal began to thrum in your ear, you heard a ringtone. you put your phone down at your side, and you heard the phone ringing in the apartment next to yours.

You would have sworn that Hwang Intak’s life mission was to annoy you to hell and back. You wouldn’t have been surprised if it was on his daily to-do list to get your attention and do something stupid. Because there was no way it was all a coincidence that he always managed to show up in front of you despite being assigned to different teams and more often than not, he did something that made you roll your eyes or question what the heck he wanted to achieve.

It all started at the Renegades Trials.

People with superpowers from all over town came forward in hopes of joining the superhero organization, the Renegades that helped keep Seoul safe and worked on rebuilding it after the civil war between villains and heroes. Even though most rebels, villains, Anarchists, however you wanted to call them, went into hiding after the defeat, people still had to be on watch and be prepared. That’s what the Renegades was for: an organization to gather, train and employ people with superpowers called prodigies.

You had wanted to join them ever since Firefly had saved you from falling out of a malfunctioning ferris wheel when you had been just a kid. Back then you didn’t even have a power, it manifested later when you were in your teens with a traumatic event like in most cases and it took a while for you to understand what exactly you could do and how it worked. You could bend reality using mirrors; anybody who looked into a mirror you touched saw exactly what you wanted them to see.

You were a great distraction on the field ever since you joined the Renegades at sixteen and became Reflection. Your life had been as normal and peaceful as it could be as a superhero but then two years later, Hwang Intak showed up at the Trials. He wore his senior school uniform and a lazy smile. He had no weapon on him yet he claimed he could survive any attack sent his way. He sounded awfully confident for somebody who chose a lame alias like Undead which made you exchange an unimpressed glance with your teammate, Seoyeon.

Trials usually went like this: the applicant prodigy demonstrated their power which could be anything from turning rocks into paper cranes to reading minds or controlling fire and then the active Renegades teams could decide whether they wanted them to join their team or maybe even challenge them to show more of their skills. If nobody came forward, it was the end of the show. If multiple teams liked the applicant, then the new prodigy could choose which Renegades team they wished to join. Despite their team, every Renegade trained in the same building and was under the same system but it was an important decision because their teammates would have been their closest friends and allies from then on because they would patrol and go on missions together.

“So you say that you can’t die?” Theo (whose alias was Sharpshooter because he never missed a shot) from another team asked just as dubiously as you felt after the guy’s claim.

“Yepp.”

“But you can’t prove that without somebody here trying to pretty much kill you,” you interjected, unimpressed, and Intak turned towards you, his twinkling brown eyes finding yours for the first time as he pulled his mouth into a smirk.

“I guess. But no hard feelings, I promise,” he shrugged, looking at you so challengingly that you wished you could have wiped that look off his face.

“We will take him,” Keeho (aka Timeturner because he could go back in time by 5 minutes but couldn’t change anything, just observe) stood up from his booth after a brief pause, which took everybody by surprise.

“But you don’t even know if what he says is true,” you argued because it just didn’t make sense to you to take in somebody with no evidence while people who had less ‘useful’ powers like excellent smell that they could prove had been rejected before.

“Well no, but who would be stupid enough to claim that knowing that they would be most likely sent for deadly missions if it wasn’t true? Plus, his application also says he had taken taekwondo classes for four years which could come useful as well,” Keeho explained way too optimistic and you shrugged because you really couldn’t care less. If they wanted to take this kid who acted like the organization should be lucky to have him, who were you to stop them? Since he would be on a different team, you wouldn’t have to interact much anyways.

Or so you thought.

Ever since Intak joined Keeho’s team, they had been on fire. It seemed like their group just needed this new guy to really amplify their teamwork because suddenly they gained a reputation for being one of the most well-balanced teams with a great mission success rate. As you heard, Intak’s superpower really came pretty handy because it really did seem like so far that he was unable to die. Be it falling from the 37th floor, getting hit by a truck or being shot, he always got up just fine. This way he could be safely sent even to clear hazards but somehow he was stupid enough to almost die in the most ridiculous ways even when it wasn’t supposed to be a dangerous situation. One time he blew up a warehouse by lighting a candle to ‘see in the dark’ while the Anarchist they were looking for were known for emitting flammable gases. Another time you heard he choked on a chicken drumstick in the canteen.

You knew he wasn’t a bad guy. Hell, one time he went into a burning building to save a cat. He had burns and scratches for weeks after that because not being able to die didn’t mean he couldn’t get injured. But still, he was stupid and you didn’t waste your time on stupid people. You shouldn’t have been envious of their team either but it annoyed you greatly when they received a mission that you wanted for yourselves and that’s how the rivalry between your teams began… and how Intak became progressively more annoying.

You were pretty sure that it was because you openly doubted him and his powers during the Trials and that must have hurt his ego but he just had to rub their achievements under your nose every single time. Then while chatting your ears off about how cool it was actually to fall from the top of a hotel and trying to keep up with you, he managed to walk into a glass door which made you give him a side eye. That didn’t seem to defer him though, next time he sat at your table in the canteen and asked how did you know about your powers since it wasn’t a very obvious skill like pyrokinesis either. In the meantime he put so much gochujang onto his bibimbap that his mouth was on fire for the rest of the lunch that he tried very hard (yet failed) not to show. Then his recent favourite was to pester you in the training room whenever he found you alone.

“Need help, Mirrorgirl?”

“Leave before I punch you in the face,” you grunted because you just wanted to practice your short combat skills and his presence was not helping.

“Ouch,” Intak put a hand over his heart before plastering himself against the other side of the hung punching bag, keeping it steady for you.

In the end, you gave in and let him tag along, practicing your right hooks and uppercuts, rolling your eyes when the guy just chuckled whenever you almost accidentally (or maybe not so) hit him instead of the gear. But overall, he wasn’t a bad training partner, not that you would have ever admitted it to him because he would have never let you live it down. He was insufferable enough after that day already acting like you were besties.

Seoyeon had the audacity to tell you that she thought Intak was actually flirting with you which was ridiculous because at the very most he was like an overexcited dumb labrador.

“No, but like, think about it! He keeps showing off in front of you whenever they finish a mission. Sure it sounds like he’s bragging that his team is better than ours but he keeps going to you to say that shit as if he wanted you to be impressed or something. And he keeps looking for excuses to talk to you about the most random stuff like the new sweet potato fries on the canteen’s menu. And Jaehyun says he saw him nearly break his neck to turn and look at you one time when you showed up at the headquarters after a mission.”

“That’s crazy. He just has a grudge against me since I assumed he was lying about his power last year at the Trials,” you shook your head and dragged the girl to the surveillance room to do some boring investigation with you for this new mission you got.

It was actually one of the biggest tasks you had received recently and you not only wanted to prove yourself to the HQ (and that annoying Hwang Intak) but you really hated when villains preyed on people’s weaknesses, so this paranoia-inducing prodigy called Fearbearer really deserved a place in the prison. Tracking him down was the easier part of the mission, capturing him turned out to be much harder than expected. Your part was crucial in success because your power was similar to his, so only you could get close enough without being reduced into a trembling mess due to your fears. That is if you managed to make him look into a mirror that allowed you to make him think that he was alone, so he wouldn’t use his powers on you.

Chasing him into the mirror maze of the amusement park where he looked for his victims sounded like a good idea due to the excessive amount of mirrors but you forgot that your own fear could easily manifest in a setting like that since you had gained your powers after being buried under a collapsing building’s mirror-like glass windows. A graze of the villain’s cape against your uniform was enough for Fearbearer to push you back into your memories and while you struggled to come back to reality, he blew the mirror maze up around you which sent shards in all directions.

Your whole team came back into the headquarters with cut wounds and Seoyeon even had to be taken into the infirmary because she wouldn’t stop bleeding. The others patted your shoulder and said not to blame yourself but it was easier said than done. You couldn’t stop thinking about how it was all your fault: the Anarchist’s escape and Seoyeon’s condition. Needless to say you weren’t in the mood for chit-chats, much less for Intak’s loud ass. You didn’t want to hear how you failed miserably and that his team would have done better, nor did you want his pity.

“Hey, what happened to you? Are you okay?” He jogged up to you when he saw you trying to escape towards the rooftop to be alone.

“I’m fine. Leave me alone,” you muttered, trying to keep your voice stable and cold but the guy didn’t realize that his presence was very much not wanted. As always.

“You don’t look fine. You should at least disinfect those cuts or else they will heal weirdly,” he added before gently taking your wrist and stopping you. “Wait here, I will get a first aid kit.”

You really didn’t understand why he was so intent on doing that but you let him do his thing as long as he left. You didn’t expect him to find you at your favourite place on the rooftop though, this time with the promised first aid kit.

“You didn’t wait for me,” Intak said with a pout and you laughed at him dryly.

“As if you ever do what I tell you,” you rolled your eyes, keeping your gaze ahead, not looking at him. Not even when he sat next to you and opened the metal box, letting the disinfectant smell into the air.

“I heard about the mission in the infirmary. It wasn’t your fault,” he said, which made you grit your teeth. You didn’t want to talk about it but Hwang Intak really didn’t know when to shut up. “Nobody could have known that it would happen. You shouldn’t blame yourself over something like thi–”

“Why do you even care?” You snapped at him, turning towards him with fiery eyes and harshly bitten lips.

“Because I like you,” the boy blurted out right away, without thinking and you could literally see on his face when he realized what he just said. His eyes widened and he withdrew himself as if your closeness burnt him. “Shit.”

“Are you being serious?” You furrowed your brows because if he thought this was the right time for joking around, you swore you would find a way to kill somebody who couldn’t die.

For the first time since you have known him, Intak seemed nervous.

“I… Yeah. I think you’re very cool and pretty too,” he muttered, fixing his messy fringe while avoiding your gaze.

You didn’t say anything. You just narrowed your eyes and watched as he fidgeted in front of you. Then you took the cotton pads and disinfectant from his hands and got to work on the deepest cut on the back of your right hand.

“Wait. Aren’t you going to say anything?” Intak asked in surprise after brief silence and finally looked at you for the first time since his accidental confession.

“Not until you properly ask me out,” you gave him an ultimatum because he seemed genuine but you would have preferred if his actions were intentional too.

“Ah okay. You won’t reject me then, right?” The boy chuckled but when you didn’t answer, he asked a bit less sure of himself. “Right?”