#kenhd

THEY’RE UNDER THE WINTRY GLARE OF YET ANOTHER EVENING IN DECEMBER, and yeonseok still finds himself warm. suffocated under bright white lights and rivulets of champagne. sons of investors and daughters of executives, and they’re all charmed, all delighted to meet him. they hear his accent and ask how he’s enjoying seoul. they hear of his age and ask if he’s started drinking. yeonseok is nothing if not sincere, so he answers: 1) i’m not enjoying it, and 2) i prefer banana milk. but for all of his sincerity, what he receives in response is only a prerecorded laugh track. something canned: fizzy and effervescent and ultimately tasting of nothing. almost every conversation that follows, with few exception, abides by this paradigm. he feels one corner of his mouth twitch upwards in answer, but his eyes meander the walls like he’s planning an escape. that is, until—

they catch upon him. tucked into the margins of the room like an afterthought, a trick of the light. contemplating the celebration like a detached third party. he’s doing nothing to demand anyone’s attention, but he's still so distracting. does he know this? the night, in all its radiance and exquisite luster. and then, okamoto kentaro, dark and silent as the eclipse.

yeonseok stares, shamelessly.

haru  believed  that  he  had  never  really  been  the  swiftest  of  individuals.  many  would  have  said  otherwise  and  described  him  as  fast,  yes,  however  he  could  only  attribute  that  to  his  long  legs;  they  granted  him  the  long  strides  that  he  needed  to  make  up  for  any  inherent  lack  of  athleticism,  at  least  when  it  came  to  speed.  yet  in  spite  of  the  disbelief  in  his  own  capabilities,  haru  was  still  fast  enough  to  dash  over  to  where  the  other  male  sat  and  catch  the  book  that  had  fallen  off  the  stranger's  face  right  before  it  landed  onto  the  ground.

the  little  burst  of  commotion,  as  quiet  as  haru  thought  he'd  been,  was  unfortunately  enough  to  stir  the  unknown  male  awake  and  haru  took  a  step  back  after  realising  how  close  he  had  unintentionally  gotten  in  his  attempt  at  rescuing  the  book  from  its  potential  demise.  he  took  a  quick  glance  at  the  spine  of  the  book  and  found  it  to  be  one  that  he  had  not  only  already  read  in  the  past,  but  was  one  of  the  more  memorable  works  in  his  archive  of  past  reads.  there  were  many  times  he  would  finish  an  unmemorable  book  solely  for  the  satisfaction  of  being  able  to  critique  it  as  such  in  its  entirety,  however  this  one  joined  the  ranks  of  those  that  haru  could  recall  not  only  the  generic  synopsis  of,  but  even  key  events  and  significant  plot  points.

haru  thought  it  would've  been  lovely  if  he  could  discuss  the  book  at  length  with  the  owner  of  the  copy  he  had  in  his  hand  now,  so  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  face  of  the  stranger  that  wasn't  as  unfamiliar  to  him  as  he  initially  thought.

"you...  you're  also  a  japanese  trainee,  right?"  haru  inquired  in  standard  japanese  with  his  tone  gentle  and  his  speech  refined.  the  other  male  seemed  to  be  younger  than  him  but  haru  preferred  not  to  make  such  assumptions  out  of  the  fear  of  seeming  impertinent,  and  haru  was  never  really  the  prideful  kind  that  liked  to  assert  rank  or  seniority  in  the  most  mundane  of  situations.

HE’S HALFWAY THROUGH PAGE 58 OF HIS ALCHEMY TEXTBOOK WHEN HE FEELS IT— a sharp, searing pain that starts just behind the shell of his ear and cuts a thin, angry red line across the side of his neck. something warm and liquid trickles out of it, drips down to the jut of his collarbone. it’s not blood. yeonseok feels his body grow heavy with dread, but he doesn’t look up from his textbook.

“… guess someone still has a crush on you.”

he knows what— or rather, who— has caught The Passenger’s attention. for one, they’re tucked into a corner of the library with nothing and no one else around. for another, this is a scene so familiar now that it may as well be routine. yeonseok can’t even begin to guess at the purpose behind his parasite’s most recent fixation, but what he does know is this: that he’d been interested in kentaro first and that The Passenger's interest had followed. resigning himself to this truth was torture. and it came with the explicit understanding that no thought or feeling would be his own ever again; nothing would be.

YEONSEONG ISN’T SURE HE’S REALLY MADE FOR SPRINGTIME. as with all children of the ryu family, he’s expected to meet each of the seasons with a certain composure and presence of mind. find solace in the cyclical nature of the rhythm: the avidity of summer. aching of autumn. frigidity of winter and romance of spring. — it’s the last of these he still cannot comprehend ( and, with a considerable sort of dread, he worries he never will ). tonight, he stands obediently in the corridor outside his sleeping quarters. having spent the better part of his day trying to wring the art of calligraphy into muscle memory, his fingers now are stained with ink. his attendant has just left to retrieve a washcloth and a basin of water, and his father is getting ready to receive yet another distinguished dinner guest: progeny of an imperial line, a romantic prospect for their youngest. yeonseong cannot afford to be late. he was raised to know, and do, better.

HYDRA LABELS @HYDRALABELS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 🎁 To. @kenhd

@hdrookies instagram update !

HYDRA LABELS @HYDRALABELS

VARSITY 버시티 THE FIRST EP - 'VARSITY' OKAMOTO KENTARO

side a

1. thrift store find (polaroid camera, slightly broken but still pretty) 2. film pack (12 shots. don’t waste them all on your facecard) 3. cigarette lighter (stolen, sparks too easy, like you)

side b

4. playlist scribbled on a napkin (songs i actually like, don’t tell anyone) 5. photo strip from itaewon (you laughing, me pretending not to) 6. this dumb note (sorry, didn’t have cash for a card)

runtime: as long as you keep it.

released: august 22, 2025.

- 建 

ken, only you would make a mixtape without any music on it and somehow still have me playing it on repeat. i’ll take the polaroid camera as proof you think my face deserves all 12 shots. lighter’s already in my pocket - guess that makes me the spark now. and the napkin playlist? bold move. i’ll decide if it makes the cut for my soundtrack.

thanks for the one-copy-only release. feels kinda nice knowing i’m the only one who gets it.