Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

His eyes glanced at the words in front of him, moving ahead as his brain stubbornly stood in place, fixated on one word. He would finish an entire sentence without remembering any more than that one word, let alone decipher the meaning of what he just read. 

It frustrated him to no end to have to go to a hangwon after school when all the other third graders in his class got to go home and play with their friends. All his efforts were in vain anyway, no matter how much specialized attention he was given, Oh Sangwoo was simply unable to understand what he was reading. It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand the sounds the symbols represented, he had difficulty processing what he saw.

He wasn’t dim witted in any sense, his mother had told him he was an early talker and would ceaselessly ask questions about the world around him. His teachers had described him as precocious, eagerly absorbing information and actively participating in his classes all the way from preschool up until the third grade.

The third grade reading curriculum had suddenly become impossible for Sangwoo when he was expected to start reading paragraphs and answering questions based on their content. He didn’t understand why his brain, who had served him so well before, sabotaged his academic endeavors with such little regard for his well-being.

Not only was he ostracized by his fellow students for being ‘the stupid kid who can’t read’ and ignored by his teacher, who turned a blind eye to the bullying he faced, but his beloved mother had passed away and he was constantly beaten by his father for failing to live up to his absurdly high expectations. 

So there he was, it was 17:00 and he was just leaving the hangwon with more questions than answers, an entire day wasted trying to get his brain to function normally. It felt like insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each time. He thought about how his day would be better spent playing soccer with friends in the field by his apartment building. Then he remembered he didn’t actually have friends. 

After picking up a lemon iced tea from a nearby convenience store, Sangwoo trudged home through a narrow alleyway, dragging his feet with each pace. “What’s the point, it’s not like being home is better than being stuck at the hangwon,” He thought to himself. He suddenly heard the sound of bicycles approaching behind him. 

“Hey! Look, It’s Tardwoo!” yelled a boy who stood on his bike pedals and coasted toward Sangwoo “Did you just come from the hangwon trying to learn how to read?” the two other boys on bicycles laughed. “Don’t you have anything better to do Jungnam?” Sangwoo sighed with a worn out look on his face.

“Lemon iced tea, it looks so good! It would suck if you dropped it,” Jungnam sneered as he slapped the drink out of Sangwoo’s hand, spilling all over his sneakers. “No...crap! These are new, my dad is gonna kill me!” Sangwoo said, trembling.

“Uh oh, my bad, Tardwoo. It’s not all bad though. At least if your dad kills you, you could come back as a donkey, then your body would finally match your brain!” Jungnam cackled as he rode away, his posse laughing behind him. 

Sangwoo stood in the middle of the alley and started to cry, fearing what would happen when his father discovered the sticky residue on his shoes when he heard another noise behind him. He steadied himself for a fight when a small voice came from the shadows in the alleyway. 

“Uhh...little boy, I saw what happened...are you okay?” warbled the voice. “Y-yeah, I’m alright. My dad is gonna kill me though. I don’t know what to do,” Sangwoo sniffled “w-who are you anyway? Come out, I can’t see you.” Then, from behind the shadows appeared a noona who looked like she was in middle school. 

The girl was very thin, very pale, and not much taller than Sangwoo, she had straight black hair that went down to her ears and was parted at the center. She wore an oversized white sweater with a frog character on it and a pair of knee-length shorts. Her most striking feature was her eyes, they were huge, and underneath them she had deep, dark eye bags, just like Sangwoo. “Maybe her life is hard too,” he thought as he stared at the approaching figure. 

“I don’t know if this will work but let’s try.” the girl smiled up at him, taking out a wet nap from her book bag, “My uncle always takes a bunch of them when we eat at a gogi-gui place.” She wiped most of the dried iced tea off of Sangwoo’s shoes, making them look as if nothing happened. 

Sangwoo stood frozen in place until he managed to move his mouth again, “Wow...thank you so much, they’re clean. You’re amazing,” He said with astonishment. “Don’t worry about it, here,” the girl handed him a bottle of lemonade, “my favorite, they were two for one at the convenience store, great, right?!” she said with a cheerful smile on her face. 

“Yeah…” Sangwoo stared at the bottle in his hand. “Well, take care of yourself little boy, try taking one of the main roads on your way home next time,” said the girl in a gentle voice. Sangwoo continued to stare at the bottle, that was the first time he had been shown kindness in awhile. “Hey, noona, what’s your name?” he said as he looked up and realized she had already left.

Sangwoo sighed and continued his trudge home, thinking about the mysterious girl in the white sweater the whole way there.

*********************************

It had been a year since he had seen the girl. He couldn’t get her out of his head, he had searched for her everywhere he could think of but nobody knew what he was talking about when he mentioned a thin, pale girl who had straight black hair down to her ears that was parted in the middle. 

He even tried to interrogate the local middle school students who hung out by the park after school. They told him they didn’t know of any girl who looked like that and to leave them alone, they had no reason to speak to ‘little elementary school kids’.

Sangwoo was crushed, the truth was, he not only regarded her as very kind but had grown to idealize her as very beautiful as well. She wasn’t conventionally attractive, but something about her made her stand out like a lily among the weeds of his town. 

He had an overwhelming desire to spend all of his time with her. If only she would let him, if only he could find her. She could be his only friend and they would have each other to weather the difficulties of life with. He could tell her life was hard, just like his, and it would feel amazing not to be alone anymore.

Sangwoo crossed the street, deep in his thoughts when suddenly, he saw her there, standing in line for the ice cream truck a couple blocks away. “Oh my god, finally!” he cheered internally. He ran towards the ice cream truck with all the strength he could muster, he wouldn’t forgive himself if he let her slip away again.

Sangwoo got in line behind her, heaving and panting out of breath, and tapped her on the shoulder, he had grown quite a bit in the past year and wondered if she would recognize him. She turned around, “Hey...remember...me?” Sangwoo said with a smile on his red, sweaty face. 

She looked at him quizzically, she looked different too. She was in her school uniform, a white dress shirt under a navy blue blazer, dress pants, and a red tie. Sangwoo would have called it a boys’ uniform if he didn’t know any better, she was probably just quirky like that.

“Uhh...I’m sorry but I don’t think I do,” she said. “It’s me! The boy from the alley? You cleaned my shoes and gave me lemonade,” Sangwoo chuckled. The girl’s eyes widened, “Oh...oh my god...you’ve gotten so big! How are you?” She beamed at him. “I’m good, I’m just glad I finally found you, I’ve been wanting to say thank you for such a long time noona!”

“Uhhh...noona?” the girl giggled nervously as she scratched the back of her head, her cheeks turning redder with each passing second. “Y-yeah, you are older than me, right?” Sangwoo asked, his eyes shifting between the ground and the person in front of him.

“I’m...I’m a boy,” they said as they stared at the ground, still giggling. Sangwoo couldn’t believe it, the girl he had obsessed over for nearly a year wasn’t a girl at all. They weren’t his noona, they were his hyung. 

“Oh...oh my god, crap, craaaaap! I’m so so sorry hyung, please forgive me!” He kneeled at the other boy’s feet. “It’s okay!” the boy laughed, “A lot of my grandma’s friends think I’m a girl at first too, you’re not the only one.” 

“No, this is embarrassing, how could I make it up to you?” Sangwoo hid his face in his palms. Before the boy could say anything the ice cream truck started to drive away. “Oh no! Wait, I still want ice cream!” he lamented as the truck drove out of view.

“C’mon we could catch it,” Sangwoo grabbed the boy’s wrist and ran with all he could. His legs started to burn as he already expended most of his energy running toward the boy, who was barely catching up and hyperventilating; that was Sangwoo’s cue to stop.

“Man, I’m sorry, it’s all my fault. If I didn’t distract you, you could have gotten your ice cream,” Sangwoo said, sense of guilt apparent in his voice. “It’s...okay...don’t worry,” the boy huffed, out of breath. “I have an idea!” Sangwoo stood straight with renewed energy, “Let’s go to the store, I’ll buy you some ice cream!”

“W-what? No, you can’t, I’m your hyung I’m supposed to buy things for you,” the boy said, frazzled. “Nah, I’m paying you back for the lemonade remember?” Sangwoo grinned ear to ear.

Afterwards, the boys headed to the park with chocolate drumsticks in hand. “By the way, what’s your name?” Sangwoo asked. “it’s Yoon Bum, you can call me by my given name if you want,” said the boy as he voraciously gnawed at his ice cream. “Alright, let’s be friends Bum.” Sangwoo grabbed Bum’s hand and held it in his own. Bum glanced at their hands and smiled. “Sounds good to me.” They sat down on a pair of swings and swung languidly while eating their ice creams, hands still joined.

Chapter Text

Time had continued to pass and before either of them knew it, they had been best friends for about six years. They had supported each other through various hardships and celebrated each other’s triumphs. 

Sangwoo had become quite popular with his peers, a far cry from the frustrated little boy who believed his brain had betrayed him. For one, his tormentor had a name, dyslexia. With a diagnosis he was able to get the accommodations he needed to excel again, he was no longer called ‘stupid’. 

He played soccer for the school team as one of their most talented athletes, his coach was actually Bum’s uncle, so his best friend had been to nearly every game.

He had also grown into a handsome young man, he was tall, well-built, with soft brown hair and gray eyes. His easy going nature and undeniable charm attracted young girls in droves. 

Despite all of that, he still couldn’t muster interest in anyone at his school. He was content simply hanging around Bum after school and if a girlfriend got in the way of that, he wasn’t really sure he wanted one then.

Sangwoo had a daily routine, everyday after class and soccer practice he would wait for Bum at the park by the swings. Today he had bought two lemonades from the convenience store; he sat on the swing and waited. 

While waiting, he indulged in some daydreaming. His daydreams varied, sometimes he would imagine himself as a star player on Korea’s national soccer team, or he would envision himself teaching children in some underdeveloped country, lauded as an educator who made students love to learn, and then, there was his most personal fantasy; Bum nestled in his arms, looking up at him with devotion. 

The feelings Sangwoo had developed toward Bum had never really left him, even after discovering he was actually a boy. He wasn’t exactly gay, he just didn’t really care what was between his partner’s legs as long as they were good company and aesthetically pleasing to him, and Bum matched his criteria perfectly.

He made sure his affections lay dormant when they were together, he didn’t know how Bum felt and would never want to jeopardize the relationship they already had. 

Sangwoo was deeply entrenched in thought when something had caught his eye, it was Bum out on the open field kicking a soccer ball to a group of four small children, he was wearing the same white sweater with the frog on it he had worn all those years ago. It amazed Sangwoo that it still fit perfectly, he had grown so much, but Bum had barely grown at all.

He watched in amusement as the children easily out-maneuvered Bum and laughed with glee as he tried to head the ball to them only to end up getting hit in the face and taking it in stride, laughing along with them.

Sangwoo sighed in contentment, that was Bum, his Bum, who always prioritized bringing happiness to others even when he looked foolish in the process. He waved out towards the field and caught Bum’s attention, who in turn, walked to the swings.“Hey! So, what did you think of my moves back there?”

“With moves like that, it’s hard to believe your uncle’s a soccer coach,” Sangwoo chided. “Stop it Woo, that’s mean!” Bum pushed him lightly. “Here.” Sangwoo passed Bum a bottle of lemonade, “Do you forgive me?” “My favorite! Okay, I guess I’ll let it slide this time,” Bum said playfully.

The pair sat there for hours talking about what was going on in their respective lives, from Sangwoo’s upcoming game that weekend, to Bum’s part-time job. The conversation flowed easily and and all was well, until the topic of their futures came up.

“When I graduate in two years, I want to go to study to become a teacher. I don’t want any other kid to have to go through the bullshit I went through, y’know,” Sangwoo said with a poignant look in his eye. “I’m sure you'll make an amazing teacher, Woo. Those kids would be lucky to have you,” Bum responded enthusiastically. 

“What about you, Bum? You’ve been out of high school for almost two years now, aren’t you going to study at the university?” Sangwoo asked. Bum looked at the ground sheepishly, “I don’t know...I don’t think so, my uncle says it would be a waste of time and money.” 

Sangwoo protested, “What? There’s no way that’s the case, if anything, Coach Yoon is the one trying to push me into getting a sports scholarship to study abroad, even when I tell him I’d rather study locally. I’m sure if you just talk to him he would help you out.” 

Bum just sat there carefully contemplating what to say next. “I think...he pushes you because you have something I don’t have...you’re smart, talented, charming, I’m-I’m none of those things. You have a bright future,” He said, smiling weakly. Sangwoo’s cheeks burned at the praise he received, it meant so much coming from Bum, but his elation was quickly replaced with frustration. 

“Bum, that’s crap, don’t say that about yourself. Where’d you even get ideas like that in the first place?” Sangwoo admonished. 

“I-I don’t know Woo, just an observation. You were able to overcome so much and become successful at just 16. I just feel like I have nothing to show for myself, I’m 20 and I work a crappy part time job at a convenience store selling cigarettes and porn magazines to middle-aged guys,” Bum chuckled with a tinge of bitterness. 

“We’re such an odd pair too, just look at us. First of all, I’m an adult who spends most of his free time with a high school boy, isn’t that pathetic? You should be out with people your own age, going to the mall, going to karaoke bars and getting drinks with fake IDs, talking to girls, stupid teenager stuff. I feel like I’m holding you back.” Bum tried to maintain a weak smile on his face but his eyes wore a forlorn expression that betrayed how he actually felt.

Sangwoo couldn’t help but feel hurt by Bum’s sentiments, “Are you kidding me? We’ve been best friends since we were kids, sure there’s an age difference, but you’ve always just seemed to ‘get’ me in a way nobody else my age has. You’re kind, smart, and resourceful, seriously. Now, stop talking crap about my best friend.” Sangwoo beamed at Bum as he moved a stray strand of hair from his face.

Bum held Sangwoo’s hand in place and stroked the back of his hand with his thumb, making Sangwoo shudder slightly. “Woo, I have something I need to tell you, promise you won’t freak out,” Bum muttered. “...What is it?” Sangwoo said with concern in his voice. 

“I’m starting my military service next week. I think it will be good for us- good for you, to have some time apart from each other…” Bum said as he continued to stroke Sangwoo’s hand. 

Sangwoo stared at Bum with an incredulous expression and slowly slipped his hand out of Bum’s. “Why…” Sangwoo mumbled. “I don’t have a choice, Sangwoo, I tried to get the exemption because of my body weight but they just denied it. I would have to complete it sooner or later, and I just-“ 

“No, why did you wait until now to tell me when you're leaving in a week?” His voice began to waver and Bum looked off to the side, “I just didn’t want our remaining time together to be about that.” 

“What did you mean when you said you think it would be good for me to spend time apart from each other?” Sangwoo muttered, chagrin simmering beneath his eerily calm exterior. 

“Well...like I said, I think I’m holding you back, Woo. You need to be with people your own age...my uncle...he tells me you don’t really associate with anyone else at school, and that it’s my fault...that I’m being selfish.” 

Sangwoo clenched his fists at the thought of someone getting between him and Bum, “That’s a crock of shit, who I spend my time with is none of his concern. I can associate with whoever I wan-“ 

“Woo, he’s right, I’m being selfish,” Bum grabbed onto Sangwoo’s fists and looked into his eyes, “I’m a loser, I don’t have much of a future ahead of me and I feel like I’m dead weight. I just depend on you too much, and it’s unfair.” 

Sangwoo got off the swing and knelt on one knee in front of Bum, tears had begun to mist his eyelashes, “Bum...Bumi, I wish you would just see what’s in front of you.” He wrapped both his arms around Bum’s midsection and rested his head on his thigh, “I’m...I’m in love with you, Bum, I’ve loved you since I met you in that alleyway seven years ago…” 

Sangwoo’s breath hitched as the realization of his feelings set in, he had never said those words out loud before and uttering them somehow validated his feelings and magnified them tenfold. 

“I love you, Bum...please, just say something.” His head was still firmly pressed against Bum’s thigh, unable to handle eye contact.

For a while it was just silence between them, nothing to fill their surroundings but the sounds of Sangwoo’s slow heavy breaths and Bum’s shallow quick ones. Suddenly, Sangwoo felt two clammy hands cup the sides of his face and lift his head up. 

“Bum-” Sangwoo was interrupted by a pair of lips placing a gentle kiss on his own. He closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss when he felt Bum’s tongue brush against his lips so he opened his mouth, relishing the play between their tongues, the texture of his mouth, only taking a break to occasionally take a breath. 

They went on like that for what felt like hours, when realistically it must have been a few minutes. Sangwoo was dizzy, it felt like his senses were only attuned to the energy Bum gave off while they blocked all other external stimuli, he was lost in the moment. 

Bum sighed into the crook of Sangwoo’s neck as they held each other in an awkward position, Sangwoo still kneeling and Bum on the swing. He then stood up and held Sangwoo’s hand willing him to stand without saying anything. When Sangwoo did, he led him to the slides in the playground. Darkness surrounded them. How late was it, exactly? Sangwoo didn’t even notice the sun go down.

Bum lightly pushed Sangwoo onto the slide, took off his white sweater, and proceeded to straddle his hips. He continued where they had left off on the swing, Bum pressing his lips onto Sangwoo’s and exploring the wet cavern of his mouth, making sure no surface was left untouched. 

Sangwoo felt an intoxicating sensation as Bum rubbed himself against his lap in tandem with the lunging of his tongue into Sangwoo’s mouth. His pants began to feel uncomfortably tight.

Bum then slid off of Sangwoo’s lap and placed himself between his knees. He looked up at him with his eyes half open, pupils nearly the size of dimes, with a look as ravenous as a starved carnivore gazing at a freshly slaughtered carcass. 

It was a sight to behold for Sangwoo who trembled beneath Bum’s fingers slowly undoing his belt buckle and unzipping his pants, freeing his painfully stiff erection from his boxers.

He only felt the cold air on his genitals for a few seconds before being plunged into the heat of Bum’s mouth, if he thought his tongue felt good in there this was the epitome of pleasure, Hallelujah Chorus and Ode to Joy all wrapped into one never-ending symphony of ecstacy. 

He felt like he was going to melt, he groaned as he couldn’t contain his voice any longer. Bum finally spoke in what felt like ages, “shhh...keep it down, we don’t wanna get caught,” he followed with a quick giggle and a wink.

“Uh-Uh huh…” Sangwoo panted, semi-consciously. He was in another world, he laid back on the slide and just looked at the stars in rapture, thanking whatever was up there for whatever was happening at that moment. 

Bum bobbed his head on Sangwoo’s length at a faster pace, caressing every inch he could reach with his tongue, drool lubricating the entire shaft as Bum simultaneously jerked his hand along his cock. He was taking it all the way to the back of his throat now, in continuous fluid motions. 

It was too much for Sangwoo to bear, he grabbed on to Bum's hair and then released into his throat, bucking his hips as he rode out his intense orgasm and disintegrated into a limp pile of flesh on the slide, breathless and panting. Bum swallowed with satisfaction and joined him on the slide. He wiped his mouth and laid on Sangwoo’s chest, nestling beneath one of his arms. 

“Ho-holy shit...Bum, what...what was that?” Sangwoo said while trying to regain his bearings. “A blow job, was it your first time?” Bum drawled lazily.

“Y-yeah...it was the greatest thing I’ve ever experienced.” He held Bum tightly, pulling a soft chuckle out of him. “You know Bum, this only solidifies how I feel,” “Huh?” Bum looked up at Sangwoo with a puzzled expression, “I love you so much it’s crazy, I don’t know how I’ll get by without you for almost two years. I need you like I need food, or water, or freakin oxygen,” Sangwoo said passionately. 

“I hate that you’ll be gone for a while, but if that’s the way it has to be, I’ll wait for you patiently, okay Bum?” Sangwoo whispered tenderly as he ran his fingers through Bum’s hair. Bum just laid there and began to weep softly. “Bumi...are you alright?” Sangwoo asked with a look of concern.

“Oh my god...what have I done, I’m such a piece of shit, my uncle’s right...I’m nothing but a no-good whore, I’m so fucking selfish,” Bum whimpered in between sniffles. 

“Bum, what are you talking about? What do you mean selfish? Is Coach Yoon really saying stuff like that to you?” Sangwoo grew more tense by the second. 

“Woo, you’re 16, and I’m 20. I just sucked a teen boy’s dick, I’m disgusting, I’m a predator. God, I’m horrible, how the fuck will you get over me now?! I stole your first blow job,” Bum sobbed into his hands. 

Sangwoo sighed in exasperation “How many times do I have to tell you, I don’t want anyone else. You didn’t steal anything, you gave me something wonderful. Please stop talking like this, it’s aggravating. I don’t know what I need to do to prove my love for you.” 

“Just don’t, please Woo, don’t. Don’t wait for me, find a beautiful girl, a real girl, who’ll add value to your life, not just take and take like I do. Please, just get over me,” Bum said as tears streamed down his cheeks. 

Sangwoo tightly clenched his fists once again, “Seriously? This is just ridiculous just listen to me, look, you’ve always understood me, what’s with you now? It’s all in your head, you’re what I want and need, and you can’t deny that it’s the same for you too. I know how much you need me, we need each other. I dare you to look at me in the eyes and tell me you don’t love me at all,” Sangwoo implored with a look of desperation.

Bum’s lower lip quivered as he struggled to pull the words out of himself, “I-I...d-don’t…” Bum squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. 

“See, you can’t even say it,” Sangwoo crooned as softly as possible to not distress Bum any further, “now, please let’s just talk about this, we can get through your military service together, we’ll keep in contact and support each other like we always have. Okay...sweetheart?” He gently pleaded. 

“No, no, I-I just can’t...it’s not right. I can’t just keep doing this to you, it’s just not right. I’m so sorry, I love you too, so much, it’s because I love you that I can’t be with you like this,” Bum stood up and walked away in tears. 

“Wait Bum! Where are you going? Come back, you left your sweater!” Sangwoo called out, but Bum ran away as fast as he could, out of sight within seconds. 

Sangwoo looked for Bum until midnight after which he collapsed on a park bench and cried like he did in the alleyway where he met Bum for the first time, this time crying into the white sweater he had first seen him in. He nearly cursed the moment they had met, if he knew it would bring him this much pain perhaps it would have been better if they had never met at all. 

No, he knew he didn’t mean that, after all, Bum loved him too. A surge of rage ran through his blood, Bum didn’t reject him due to a lack of love. Bum’s mind was poisoned by his uncle’s words, a man he had once admired and respected, he felt betrayed. 

He silently vowed his Coach would suffer for sticking his nose where it didn’t belong, for driving a wedge between him and the love of his life. Sangwoo consoled himself by visualizing himself driving a steak through Coach Yoon’s heart, just as his nephew had inadvertently done to him. The thought alone made his spirits lift and he began to feel giddy, he left the bench and stood tall, a manic grin adorning his features.

Chapter Text

It was the morning after and Sangwoo had woken up feeling empty, he couldn’t quite put what he felt into words but he would best describe it as numbness. His senses were dulled, the flowers outside his apartment building were less colorful, the food the street vendors sold on his way to school was less fragrant. 

It seemed that a world that lacked Bum was also a world that lacked any vibrancy for him.

Although, not all was lost, he still had a week left with Bum. He would make it count, he would prove to him that their age difference was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Besides, within the two years Bum would be completing his military service, Sangwoo would turn eighteen. ‘It was nothing to fret over’, he would tell Bum, they would figure it out as they went along. 

Then, there was the issue of his uncle, he grimaced when he remembered the things Bum had said about himself, no, the things he parroted from his uncle.

Sangwoo reminded himself he needed to get to the bottom of whatever was going on there, it was so out-of-left field. Bum had never mentioned anything so negative in all the years he had known him, he always seemed happy, never sad. 

Sangwoo wondered how long his uncle’s emotional abuse had been going on for, days, months, years? The thought of his sweet Bum suffering had bile rising in his throat. If something was happening he vowed he would put an end to it.

He just had to survive the school day and soccer practice until he could see his sweetheart and try to sort things out, plus, he had to return the white sweater in his bookbag to its rightful owner. 

“Jesus, Oh, you look like shit, are you sick or something?” a voice behind him sneered. ‘Great, exactly what he needed.’

“Good morning Jungnam,” Sangwoo said, with as much enthusiasm as if he was being offered an enema. 

“Heh, you sound like shit too. Listen you better not be getting sick, we have a game this weekend and we need your ass midfield,” Jungnam spat. 

“I’m fine, I’m just tired. I stayed up late last night,” Sangwoo yawned, messaging a crick in his neck.

“And? I practiced out by the field until two in the morning, but you don’t see me bitching,” Jungnam retorted, “Fine, whatever, sleep in class or something, just make sure you get the lead out your ass by the time practice rolls around.” he bumped past Sangwoo. 

That was the best idea Jungnam had the entire time Sangwoo had the misfortune of knowing him. “Yeah, that’s it, I’ll just sleep in class this once, the teachers will understand. Once I'm good, I could confront Coach Yoon and then work things out with Bum,” he thought to himself as he dragged his feet to class.

He took naps in all six of his classes that day, clutching on to the white sweater like a security blanket. His teachers gave him confused looks but figured it was a one-off situation so they allowed him to nod off.

Sangwoo breathed in Bum’s scent, the most vibrant thing he had encountered all day, as he absentmindedly rubbed his face into the folds of the sweater. Earning him equally confused looks from his peers, but he didn’t care as long as his Bumi was there with him.

Dismissal could not have come soon enough, he felt much better and was ready to get practice over with. He donned his uniform and laced up his cleats, but before going over his drills he had to have a word with Coach Yoon. 

There he was, bloated and toad-like standing on the sidelines as the team warmed-up. Sangwoo advanced toward him with a scowl on his face but decided to take the diplomatic approach and softened his features.

“Coach, can I talk to you for a second?” Sangwoo asked as he tapped the Coach’s shoulder. The squat man jolted and turned around. “Jesus, Oh, you caught me by surprise there,” he checked his watch “sure, we have some time before practice, what is it?” 

“Well Coach, it’s about Bu-” “God, son, say no more,” fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. He looked to both sides and then settled his eyes onto Sangwoo, lowering his voice to a raspy whisper. 

“Look, I know what Bum, that...that little pervert, did to you.” Sangwoo raised his eyebrows in shock “He...he told you?” “Oh, yeah, he came home late last night blubbering about how much of a bad person and a whore he was, how he...uhh... sucked you off,” the coach said with his hand cupping the side of his mouth.

Sangwoo’s face was painted in confusion, “What else did he say?” he asked as anxiety bubbled in his chest. “Just a whole bunch of bullshit. I honestly couldn’t understand half of it through all his whining. Oh, I’m so sorry you were attacked like that, your first experience of... that ...being with him.”

“That nephew of mine has been bad news ever since he was dropped on my doorstep. Thank god, that limp-wristed bastard shipped off to do his military service,” Coach Yoon vented.

Sangwoo felt his chest constrict.

“You meant ‘will be’ shipped off to do his military service, right? He told me he would start in a week.” He started to feel light-headed. 

“I chased his ass out of my house. I don’t want some pedo hanging around me, I work with kids. I think people who diddle kids should be drawn and quartered,” Coach Yoon declared. 

“So, Bum did the intelligent thing and found a way to get started earlier, you won’t have to worry about him for a long time and when he comes back you could kick his ass if you want, I won’t say anything,” he said with a smirk and a wink.

Sangwoo felt as if he were about to crawl out of his skin, his heart was racing, his left eye was twitching and he felt pins and needles in his extremities. It was as if he was deprived of oxygen regardless of how deep he would try to breathe. 

His stomach had turned and he violently emptied it’s contents next to Coach Yoon’s feet. “Holy shit! Oh, go to the school nurse, now!” The coach shouted, gesturing for two boys to escort Sangwoo to the nurse’s office. 

Jungnam rolled his eyes as he heaved one of Sangwoo’s arms across his shoulders “God dammit, Oh, I told you not to get sick.” 

Sangwoo limped across the field into the school building supported by his teammates, who then lugged him onto the pleather couch. 

“Get the fuck to sleep, I’m serious. We’re fucked on Saturday if you don’t pull through, so stop being such a selfish prick and get over whatever this is,” Jungnam snarled before leaving the room, leaving Sangwoo in a dark chasm of his thoughts.

 *********************************

“You had a panic attack Mr. Oh,” the school nurse said flatly “Just go home and rest, you should be fine in about an hour or so.” 

“O-okay…” Sangwoo murmured. “Will this happen again?” He asked meekly. “Yeah, probably, you won’t really know when it will hit you though, you could have another one tomorrow, or in two years,” the nurse responded flippantly as she began browsing through a magazine.

Two years...he wouldn’t be seeing Bum in nearly two years, and he didn’t even get to say goodbye. The thought made Sangwoo want to curl up and die, if only he could hibernate in a nest of pillows and blankets for the next two years and sleep away the hurt. 

It was incredible, just yesterday he reached the highest point of his life only to be dragged to the lowest the day after. 

Sangwoo trudged home, his demeanor sullen, as he walked to what felt like his own funeral march. He felt like the undead, sure, he was breathing and walking, but he was barely thinking. He moved on instinct, navigating through muscle memory. 

When he finally made it home, he made a beeline to the medicine cabinet, took out an unopened bottle of cough syrup, knocked back three quarters of the viscous fluid, and wrapped himself in a cocoon of sheets and comforters. 

There he laid, in the center of the bed, like a depressed caterpillar. The cocoon metaphorically digested the facade he had put up for some many years and reconfigured it into something new.

The next morning he was reborn, from a depressed caterpillar to a manic butterfly. His energy was all over the place and he scarfed down his breakfast with vigor.

“Sangwoo, calm the hell down, you’re going to choke if you eat any faster, idiot,” His father balked. 

“Can’t...slow...down...gotta...go...to...school.” Sangwoo frantically shoveled food into his mouth. His father rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Fine, just finish already...watching you eat is disgusting.”

He didn’t really rush to school, no, he was in front of Coach Yoon’s apartment, Bum’s old apartment. He didn’t get to properly say goodbye to Bum, so he was going to acquire a little ‘souvenir’ to hold him over until his beloved returned. 

He held a stake-out in the shrubbery and waited for Coach Yoon to leave the apartment.

When he did, Sangwoo creeped up the stairs onto the front door. There, beneath his feet, was a welcome mat. 

Sangwoo had known Bum for so long he had certain ‘privileged information’ regarding the Yoon family, for example, where they had kept the spare key. Sangwoo lifted the welcome mat and just as he had expected, a key on the floor, beckoning him to use it. 

He stuck the key in the lock and slowly unlocked the door; he was inside. Sangwoo slowly roamed the cramped apartment, searching for his target.

“Aha!” he whispered, Bum’s bedroom. He rummaged through his drawers, his garbage and then, the motherload, his dirty laundry. 

Sangwoo found a treasure trove of used underwear. He grabbed handfuls of dirty underwear and chucked them into his book bag, he noticed the white sweater was still there as well. 

“Excellent, all the clothes in my bookbag can now be marinated in my Bumi’s scent,” he mused with a serene smile on his face. Then, out of the corner of his eye, the holy grail shone like a beacon, a pair of skimpy black bikini briefs. 

Sangwoo’s eyes bulged out of his skull, but his eyes weren’t the only part of him that bulged at the sight of the intimatewear. 

he gasped in an exaggerated fashion, “Who knew my Bumi was such a slut, hehe, only for me though,” he giggled, placing the briefs over his head. He took a deep breath.

“Ahh, my sweet baby’s essence...so good,” he groaned lewdly, pawing himself through his uniform pants. When suddenly a frail figure appeared in front of him.

“S-Sangwoo? Is that you?” Grandma Yoon stood at the doorway, her face twisted in confusion. Sangwoo stood frozen in place and then awkwardly waved with a put upon smile. 

“Hiiii...Grandma Yoon, how are you?~” he chirped sweetly. “Sangwoo...what are you doing, what is that on your...head?” Grandma Yoon asked in her confusion. 

“Oh, these?” he pointed to the undergarment that adorned his head, “these...are...for...a…” he paused, “A school project, yes, a school project,” Sangwoo said, beaming.

Grandma Yoon looked even more confused than before, “...Why do you need my grandson’s dirty underwear for school?” 

“Well, the thing is, it’s a…science project, yes, I am trying to figure out which laundry detergent cleans most effectively!” Sangwoo started to feel anxiety at the impromptu interrogation, the underwear on his head moistened with sweat. 

“Can’t you use your own underwear for that?” the old woman continued to interrogate. “Shit, she’s on to me, more science jargon!”

Sangwoo took a moment to explain “Oh, I will, but my dirty laundry is the control for the experiment, I need Bum’s laundry to add more samples to strengthen my hypothesis.” 

“Okay, I think that makes sense,” mumbled Grandma Yoon, “but why do you have underwear over your head?” 

Sangwoo had had enough. “Okay, I have to get going now, it was great talking to you, bye~” he said as he pushed past Grandma Yoon.

He left the house in a flash, removing the underwear from his head and stuffing it into his bookbag, “Jesus fucking Christ, is that old bag nosy, ugh shit, that was an ordeal.” 

Sangwoo peeked at the spoils of his endeavor inside his bookbag, an unhinged smile contorting his lips, “But it was so worth it.” 

Sangwoo sat in class unable to focus on anything in front of him, his thoughts bounced around his skull erratically. He had never felt this highly-strung before. Something within him broke yesterday, he was tired of being the reserved model student, the reliable friend, the dedicated athlete. 

None of those things had ever brought him happiness, the accolades and praise he received had all been conditional on him playing a role, a role he was sick of. 

His mind drifted to Bum for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Bum, didn’t expect so much from him. Bum loved him just as he was, regardless of whether he was a pathetic crying child or a competent young man. 

He realized how flawed he was, he should have fought harder for Bum. He didn’t deserve his love, at least not in the state he was currently at. He vowed he would make himself the kind of man worthy of Bum’s love.

He would start that Saturday, he would make Bum’s uncle hurt, it was a drop in the ocean compared to how badly his uncle had damaged him, but at least it was something, right?

*********************************

It was Saturday, the day of the big soccer game. Sangwoo was in his uniform and cleats jogging toward the field with his teammates, his face conveying something sinister. 

“You good, Oh?” Jungnam asked, seemingly noticing the odd expression on Sangwoo’s face. “Perfect!” Sangwoo said cheerily. Jungnam eyed him suspiciously but let it go.

Sangwoo had a plan, he started by getting in his teammates’ way when they had the ball, then escalating to tripping them by ‘accident’, then blatantly kicking, pushing, and charging at his opponents, wracking up fouls. 

He was practically giving the opposing team penalty kicks. He already acquired a yellow card, but he restrained himself enough to avoid a red card. He wanted to cause as much chaos as possible and that wouldn’t be possible if he sat on the sidelines. 

“Oh! What the hell are doing out there?! Stop fucking around!” Coach Yoon yelled across the field. Sangwoo continued to sabotage his team’s efforts, he even scored a goal against his team, kicking the ball past Jungnam, the team goalie. 

He laughed hysterically as his teammates and the audience fumed, hurling insults at him. Jungnam had reached his limit and shoved Sangwoo in a fit of rage “What the fuck, man, what has gotten into you? You’re fucking everything up!” He screamed into his face. 

Sangwoo simply stood there smiling, “I don’t see what the problem is Jungnam, it was just an accident, maybe if you hadn’t been such a shit goalie, I wouldn’t have made that own goal.” 

Jungnam exploded at the accusation, “You know what? I think you should sit your ass on the sidelines, since you’re obviously too stupid to tell where you’re supposed to make the goal, Tardwoo,” he spat with a venomous smirk.

Sangwoo had lost all reason at the mention of that cursed epithet, he grabbed Jungnam by the collar and violently smashed his fist into his face, bloodying his nose. 

He then held onto the back of Jungnam’s head and repeatedly slammed it onto the crossbars of the goal until the pristine white net was covered in red. 

The gratuitous violence caused a frenzy among the riled up teenaged boys on the soccer field, prompting them to provoke each other to blows. 

Soon enough, the entire field had become a Roman colosseum. Sangwoo was aroused by the sight surrounding him, the blood, the violence, the mayhem. It brought a feeling of heady intoxication that even rivaled how he felt when Bum’s mouth enveloped his manhood. 

He laughed maniacally as he decimated his childhood oppressor, launching kicks into his gut while he barely had enough energy to cough out the blood that dripped from his split lips. 

It took four grown men to restrain Sangwoo. As they dragged him out of the field he passed Coach Yoon, “Don’t you ever show your face around me ever again! You hear me? You’re dead to me you fucking rat bastard, and I know about the underwear you crazy fucking psychopath, you and my nephew are a match made in Hell, both deranged motherfuckers.” 

Sangwoo leered at the screaming man in front of him with an unshakable sense of smugness, he only talked such a big game because he was safe while Sangwoo was restrained. 

He sensed how afraid of him he was. Sangwoo simultaneously soaked up the compliment that the coach had bestowed upon him, that he and his Bumi were meant to be together, and fantasized about breaking off a piece of the crossbar and impaling it through his thick skull. 

He cackled the entire way out of the field, deeply unnerving the poor souls who restrained him. 

Chapter Text

The next year and nine months was a period of further metamorphosis for Sangwoo, he had started going to the gym, unsatisfied with his lean frame and wanting to bulk up; he eventually gained nearly 10kg in lean muscle mass. 

He also decided to style his hair in a blond undercut, all in an effort to look as cool and attractive as possible for when Bum returned. 

Unfortunately, it had attracted the wrong kind of attention. If he thought the girls at his school were pushy before, his new look had them slobbering over themselves, fighting each other for even the most minuscule crumb of his attention.

 “Stupid, useless whores,” Sangwoo would mutter, full of contempt. All of them only wanted one thing, his cock. They didn’t care about how he felt, whether he was anxious, lonely, or depressed, they just wanted him inside them. 

He would never give them that satisfaction though, he was saving himself for someone very special.

There was one useless whore who had irritated him above the rest, Min Jieun. They shared a remedial reading class together. 

Somewhere along his transformation he had stopped caring about his studies, only focusing on working out and obsessing over Bum. His grade point average had tanked, thus, landing him in remedial classes with Jieun.

She would always try to initiate little moments of subtle contact. She would brush her arm against his when she walked past him, she would make sure to touch Sangwoo’s hand when he passed papers back to her. It was all so annoying, Sangwoo just wanted to wrap his hands around her neck and squeeze until the light left her eyes. “Fucking slut would probably like that though…” he thought aloud. 

“What?” Jieun took her eyes off the notes she was working on to glance at Sangwoo. Shit, he had forgotten he was in class working on notes for a group project with her, she had insisted they work together so the teacher forced him to do it since nobody else wanted to work with him out of fear. The incident during his final soccer game had marked him with infamy.

“Nothing, so what do you have for the project?” he said with total apathy. “Well, I’ve only gotten these notes so far but it’s nowhere near enough for the whole project. Hey! We should meet after school somewhere to catch up on our work, maybe at each other’s houses!” Jieun’s bubbly inflection grated against his eardrums.

“I would rather be castrated with a rusty pair of safety scissors,” Sangwoo mused. He sighed, “I mean, I don’t think that’s necessary-“ 

“What a great idea, Jieun.” the teacher’s heels clacked behind him, “You and Sangwoo could get your work done faster that way.” Sangwoo made a mental note to dent and key his teacher’s car during study hall. 

The bell rang for dismissal, “So what’s your address?” Jieun walked alongside him, getting uncomfortably close to his arm. He wanted to give her a fake address, lead her into a seedy bar to get beaten or raped, preferably both, but he was on the brink of failing his class so he acquiesced. 

“It’s 154-6 Hwagog, apartment 127,” he muttered, opening his locker without as much as glancing at her.

“Great, I’ll be there at 17:00! See you lat-” Sangwoo slammed the door of his locker and walked off before she finished what she was about to say. 

“God dammit, could today be any more of a shit show…” he huffed as he reached into his pocket, grabbing his keys, “Now, to find Ms. Jeong’s car.”

*********************************

It was 17:00, Sangwoo dreaded having Jieun invade his space, dreaded her trying to touch him. He would try to get her in and out as quickly as possible, no hospitality whatsoever. Sangwoo sat at the worn out dining room table, bracing himself for a headache. He heard a knock at the door and grimaced. 

“Hey, Jieun,” he said flatly. “Hi Sangwoo! So this is your place, it’s so nice!” Jieun’s eyes shined brightly as she beamed up at him. “Uh huh,” Sangwoo mumbled.

Him and Jieun sat at the table. “Uhh...I hope you don’t mind but, where’s the bathroom?” Jieun asked shyly. Sangwoo rolled his eyes, pointed to a hallway, and grunted. “Oh, okay, thank you!~” she got up and scurried to the hallway. “Bitch better not leave my bathroom smelling like tuna,” he scoffed. 

It had been a while since Jieun had left for the bathroom. “What’s taking her so long, she’s not taking a dump is she?” Sangwoo pondered. The hallway to the bathroom was also the way towards Sangwoo’s room, “Did...did I lock it?” 

Suddenly, an acute sense of panic had started to set in. “What if she’s in my room, what if she sees my things?” Sangwoo trembled as he slowly got out of his seat and walked towards the hallway. 

Jieun had walked into the wrong room, she was in what appeared to be Sangwoo’s room but something was very, very off. All across the walls of the room were photos, photos of one person at different stages of their life. 

Everything was documented on those walls, the person as an infant, the person with what seemed to be their parents, the person graduating high school, and the person with Sangwoo. 

In fact, most of the pictures included Sangwoo in them. He looked very young in a lot of them, not much older than primary school age. Then there were pictures with a Sangwoo most people forgot existed, he had brown hair, kind eyes, and a bright smile, nothing like the intimidating behemoth she and her peers swooned over. 

“Who’s the person in all these photos?” she thought to herself, their pale skin reflecting the light of the flash, making them look ghostlike; a stark contrast between their inky-black hair and deep, dark eye bags. Who was this person to Sangwoo? Her train of thought was interrupted when she found her windpipe crushed against a hulking forearm.

“Looks like curiosity killed the cunt, huh?” Sangwoo growled with a maniacal expression on his face, rage glinting in his eyes. Jieun thrashed against him, trying to escape the chokehold. She pleaded in between coughs and wheezes “P-please, Sangwoo...I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to.” 

“I didn’t mean to,” Sangwoo mocked in a crude imitation of a choking Jieun, “It’s too late, you did, so now I’m going to have to choke you to death and dump your corpse in the canal.” 

Jieun’s eyes opened wide in fear, “Please...I’ll do anything!” She begged. “There’s literally nothing you have that I want, you worthless whore,” Sangwoo snarled. Jieun was about to lose consciousness, “I-I just wanted to know...know about...them.” she weakly pointed to a photo of Sangwoo and Bum smiling into the camera with their faces pressed together.

Sangwoo hadn’t spoken to anyone about Bum in nearly two years, his obsession had festered within him like an infected wound, in dire need of attention. 

It was painful not being able to talk to someone about his soul-crushingly intense feelings of love, about the joy he experienced, or the hurt he suffered throughout that time. 

Perhaps Jieun could serve of some use after all. He released her and she crashed onto the floor, gasping and wheezing, “Fine, I’ll tell you about him, but you have to do the whole school project on your own and give me some credit, deal?” Jieun trembled as she croaked in a raspy voice, “deal.”

Sangwoo started from the beginning, the kind middle schooler he had mistaken for a girl cleaning his shoes and handing him a lemonade, finding him a year later and starting a close friendship, confessing his love for him at the park, receiving his first and only blow job afterward. 

Then he described with great pain, how his confession had been rejected because of his uncle, how he had left without saying goodbye, how he hadn’t heard from him since. Sangwoo sobbed into his hands, his shoulders heaving with every breath.

Jieun was absolutely dumbfounded, the man who had tried to murder her in cold blood less than an hour ago was now crying over a lost lover like a character in a sappy drama. 

Not only that, but a male lover to boot. She didn’t find anything wrong with that but she would have never expected it from Oh Sangwoo, the man who made nearly every girl at her school woozy with desire. She figured he would have been knee deep, practically wading in......regardless, Jieun felt compelled to console him.

She chose the words that proceeded carefully, “I’m really, truly sorry Sangwoo, that sounds horrible, but don’t you think more than a year and half is a little long to not be over someone? I mean, isn't there some way you can find...someone else?”

Sangwoo glowered at her, “Didn’t you hear anything I said, you dumb slut? I don’t want anyone but Bum. Are you trying to say that you would be the perfect ‘someone else’ for me? If that’s the case, I should have just killed you.” 

Jieun backtracked “No, no, no, of course not! It’s just, and I get it, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all...but, why him? He’s not really all that attractive, kind of skin and bones, if you ask me.” Sangwoo started to clench his fists and grit his teeth.

She tried to assuage his anger with gentler terms, “W-wait, uhh, I mean, he’s gorgeous and all but I simply want to know what else you see in him, you already talked about how nice and sweet he is, and how great his head game is—by the way, we need to have a chat about statutory rape later— but, isn’t there more to him? I mean, you’re completely obsessed.” 

Sangwoo sat there for a moment, “Well, he’s not fat, he doesn’t smell bad, he’s always smiling, never sad, oh- and I bet he takes a shower everyday?...” he said with a weak smile. 

Jieun looked at him incredulously, “Are you serious? Sangwoo, can’t you see that you’ve put him up on this ridiculously high pedestal? C’mon, you’ve given him this perfect image in your mind but he’s not perfect, far from it. I mean for fucks sake, he was this twenty year old convenience store worker who sucked off a high school kid. You’ve idealized him to the point where you love this fantasy you’ve created of him, not who he actually is.”

It was Sangwoo’s turn to stare incredulously, was he stripping away Bum’s humanity and reducing him to a faultless caricature for Sangwoo to love?... 

He began to double over in laughter “Jieun, that is literally the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Bum has been nothing but loving and kind to me while everyone else has always tried to use me for something. You’re an idiot, no wonder you're in remedial reading.” 

Jieun crossed her arms “You’re in remedial reading too, jackass! You know what, I’m done playing therapist, have fun with your issues.” Jieun stormed across the bedroom to leave when she caught a glimpse of a picture by Sangwoo’s bedside. 

It was him as a child wrapped in the arms of a thin woman with pale white skin, dark brown hair, and deep, dark bags underneath her eyes. 

“That explains a lot, where’s Freud when you need him,” Jieun thought aloud.

“What?” Sangwoo said, still laughing. “Nothing,” Jieun huffed. “Oh, Jieun, by the way, if you tell anyone a single word about what was mentioned here tonight, I’ll make sure you regret it all the way up to your dying breath,” Sangwoo said with an eerily placid expression, sending a shiver down Jieun’s spine. 

“Also, don’t forget the project is due on Monday, bye!” he chirped, Jieun rolled her eyes and let herself out. 

Sangwoo chuckled and sighed, “She has no idea what she’s talking about, doesn’t she, Bumi,” he cooed, pulling a pillow out from under his bed. 

Tattered and covered in questionable stains, it was fitted with Bum’s white sweater, a cut out of Bum’s face was adhered to it with tape, and a small vertical slit was cut into the fabric at the bottom. Sangwoo tenderly nuzzled his face against the polyfiber-filled facsimile and kissed it, “How ‘bout we make love tonight, hmmm~?”

Chapter Text

The atmosphere within the Oh household had been on the decline throughout the last twenty-one months. Sangwoo’s father just could not wrap his head around the fact that his once respectful and obedient son had become this violent, under-achieving, meathead delinquent. 

Back when his son was a small child he would simply beat him into submission after a slip-up, to simply guide him, and the boy would turn towards the right path once again. 

Things were very different now, his son had grown to be nearly 12 centimeters taller than him and weighed a considerable amount more. 

The last time he had tried to hit Sangwoo he grabbed his fist and bent it backwards as far as he could, leaving him with an agonizing sprain that took months to recover from.

But he had to do something, he found his son’s report card in the trash and the boy was failing every class, if he didn’t intervene his son would end up just another worthless drain on society, like the people who disgusted him most. 

He would rather die than allow that, after all the resources he had put into that child. It was a blow to his ego he couldn’t imagine recovering from. 

He needed to hit him where it hurt, he knew he could never defeat Sangwoo in a physical bout, the battle would need to be psychological. Which was why he was removing the lock off of Sangwoo’s door while he was away at school, he needed something on him.

The last screw fell to the floor and he was able to pry the door open. What he saw within his son’s room both deeply disturbed him and instilled him with the confidence he needed to confront his backsliding son and, once again, guide him towards the path of success.

*********************************

Sangwoo was pleasantly surprised with the recent turn of events. It appeared that him and Jieun had a lot more things in common than he had expected, they both took care of their bodies and enjoyed going to the gym, they both struggled with learning disabilities as children, and he finally had someone to commiserate about Bum with.

“I just wish I knew what he was doing, you know? Is he happy without me? Has he found someone else?” Sangwoo pulled back his blond hair in a nervous tic.

“I’m sure he’s fine, besides, where would he even find the space to screw other guys? Don’t they, like, sleep in a bunker or something with a bunch of other men?” Jieun said as she inspected her manicure. 

“Yeah, you’re probably right...and he told me he loved me so we’re good, right?” Sangwoo’s voice had a tinge of anxiety. 

“Oh babe, if I had 500 won for every time a guy told me they loved me just to get into my pants, I’d be driving a solid gold Lamborghini with The Hope Diamond hanging next to my little tree air freshener,” Jieun snickered sarcastically, pushing back a cuticle.

Jieun looked up to find Sangwoo staring right through her soul with an unnerving expression. “I-I mean, that would be true if Bum was just any guy, b-but he’s special, right?” She laughed nervously, wondering just how she became Sangwoo’s reluctant confidant. 

Sangwoo's face softened as he sighed, “Yeah, you’re right, I’m just overthinking everything, I have nothing to worry about. It’s Bum we’re talking about, he would never whore around and sleep with anything with a pulse like you or any of the other skanks in this room would, no offense, of course.” 

“None taken,” Jieun said, choking back the ire in her voice.

“You know what, Jieun? For a slut, you’re pretty damn okay. Here, have this coupon some old lady at the supermarket gave me for 15% off canned kimchi.” Sangwoo’s tone was cheerful as he roughly clapped her on the back. 

“Wow, what an honor…thank you.” Jieun’s right eye twitched violently. “Don’t mention it, you deserve it for being such a great listener!” he said with a friendly smile.

The bell rang for dismissal, “Thank fucking God,” Jieun muttered under her breath as she stood up to leave.

“Alright, don’t forget to finish up the project. Remember, make my part sound like I wrote it,” Sangwoo winked, “See you later!” 

“Yeah, whatever, bye,” Jieun grumbled, rushing toward the door. “The shit I do to stay alive,” she thought to herself.

Sangwoo was in a chipper mood, he hadn’t had anything resembling friendship in years. He felt his cheeriness was unflappable. Nothing would knock him off his good mood, then he made it to his apartment and unlocked the door.

*********************************

Sangwoo stepped past the threshold of the door and removed his shoes. He noticed his father’s shoes had already been placed by the door. It was odd considering his father should have still been at work at that time.

He heard the sound of someone rummaging through something come from the hallway to his room. Sangwoo felt a heat build up beneath the collar of his shirt, slowly creeping up his neck. “Impossible,” he thought, “I locked the door this morning.”

He tip-toed across the living room into the hallway, holding his breath to make sure his father wasn’t alerted of his presence. He finally made it to his bedroom door, only to discover in horror, that the lock had been taken off the door and it was now wide open. 

He peered into the room and there was his father, back turned to the entrance, ferreting around a drawer of his beloved’s used underwear. “What the fuck…” his father muttered as he held up a pair of black bikini style briefs and cast them aside as if they were radioactive.

Sangwoo’s blood boiled, the heat now spreading throughout his entire body. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing in here?” he spat out. 

His father jolted and turned around with a bewildered look etched on his face. “Sangwoo, I should be the one asking the questions here, what the fuck is all of this?” his father shot back. 

“None of your goddamn business,” Sangwoo snapped. “I mean, I knew you were a fuck up, but I never would have pegged you as a faggot. Is this kid the reason you’ve flushed your life down the shitter?” his father said.

Sangwoo felt himself creeping closer and closer to the edge, that familiar sensation flooding his nerves, muscle, and bone, the urge to make someone suffer.

“Shut the fuck up about things you have no idea about, old bastard.” He slowly approached his father, steely gaze focused on the older man’s greasy hands on his most prized possessions.

“Oh, but son, I know a lot more than you give me credit for.” The man’s eyes lit up with a joy manipulating his son into submission brought him, “You wrote a lot in this little notebook you keep by your nightstand. At first I thought it was some kind of poorly written gay romance novel, but then you mentioned something that happened more than a year ago at the park...You’re fucking disgusting, but not as disgusting as this Bum asshole.” 

“Seriously, to think this queer, this grown-ass man, would take advantage of my teenaged son and turn him into a violent, lazy, good-for-nothing faggot.” His father sucked his teeth in disappointment. 

“You know Sangwoo, I looked this guy up, it only took me an hour or two to find out where he was stationed, what company he was a part of, his commanding officers. I have it right here in this nasty little notebook of yours and I’m thinking I should give them a call, tell them they’re harboring a pedophile.” 

Sangwoo stood frozen in place, his lip quivering. “N-no, you can’t do that, it was consensual, h-he did nothing wrong,” he retorted, wondering how his father was able to obtain all that information in such a short amount of time, it was his ticket to finally contacting Bum, if only he could get his hands on it. 

He tabled that thought for later, as it wasn’t the most pressing issue at the moment.

“But he did, and I could fuck his entire life up with a couple of phone calls. Now, there is a way you could save him from that really shitty outcome,” His father said with a mock pout, “Cut this shit out of your life entirely, get rid of all of it, the pictures, the underwear, that god forsaken pillow, which I am not touching by the way. Also, your ass will start to get straight A’s again, that means off to the hangwon after school.”

“Then you’ll cut that silly-ass pop idol wannabe hair of yours, fix that shitty little know-it-all attitude, and finally, you’ll get a girlfriend. None of this homo shit.”

“O-okay, I think I could handle that.” Sangwoo figured he could easily find some whore to hang on his arm while still seeing Bum.

“But what about Bum?” he asked nervously. “What about him? Are you retarded? I told you to get rid of all of it, didn’t I? That means you are never to see your little boyfriend again or so help me god, I will destroy any hope of a future that little pervert may have.” 

Sangwoo couldn’t stomach a life where he would never get to see Bum again, he would do anything for Bum, except that. 

He felt like a wounded animal stuck in a trap, if he struggled too hard the wound would only get deeper, there was no reasoning with his father and who knew what other demands he would try to impose if he tried to haggle with him.

Then he realized something, something so obvious he felt stupid for not figuring it out earlier. Sangwoo started to laugh uncontrollably. 

“What are you laughing at you little shit?” his father snarled, a deep scowl on his face. “Hey dad,” he glowered at him with a dangerous grin, “how long do you think it would take for you to make that call before I snap your fucking neck…”

“What-” before his father was able to finish that thought, Sangwoo grabbed the steel lamp off the nightstand and bashed the base of it into his skull. 

His father groaned on the floor as the blood spurted out of his wound, “You little piece of shi-“ Sangwoo continued to pound the heavy lamp against his head as he straddled his father's shoulders, crushing him with his thighs.

He swung the lamp wildly as he pounded it into his father’s temple. After about 22 blows his father was barely recognizable, a swollen lump of bruised flesh, his skull visible beneath the many open wounds inflicted during Sangwoo’s barrage. 

The man was unconscious and barely breathing, Sangwoo restrained him in a full body hold and began tugging at his head. He pulled with all the force he could muster, stretching the ligaments, veins, and arteries. 

He then positioned his knee above his father’s neck and slammed all of his weight onto it, he continued until he heard a sickening crunch.  

His father went limp, Sangwoo placed two fingers against the man’s disfigured neck and felt nothing. He then checked his wrists, complete stillness. He trembled, not with fear, but ecstasy. The stillness of it all was soothing. 

His skin became hypersensitive and his clothes scratched at him so he decided to strip everything off and retreat underneath the covers. 

He pulled the pillow replica of Bum into his arms, the white sweater, thankfully spared from the blood splatters, “I’m sorry for allowing that disgusting son of a bitch to lay his hands on you, but look on the bright side, he’ll never get between us ever again,” Sangwoo crooned lovingly.

He closed his eyes and sighed, his lips sporting a dried streak of crimson and an easy smile.

Chapter Text

“Jieun, you’d never guess what I got my hands on yesterday!” Sangwoo said, sounding like a child whose mom had bought him the hottest new videogame. 

“What?...and can you tone it down? I stayed up all night finishing that damn project of ‘ours’, I’m trying to knock out over here.” Jieun tried to sleep on her desk only to be disturbed by Sangwoo again.

He got very close to her face and whispered excitedly, “Bum’s contact information.” 

“What, how?” Jieun perked up suddenly. 

“Well, it’s a funny story, really. So, I got home and caught my dad going through all my shit and then he was all like ‘Sangwoo you’re not allowed to see Bum again or I’m calling his commanding officers and telling them he’s a pedo,’ and I was like, ‘no, you can’t do that.’ So, then I beat the shit out of him, snapped his neck, and got the notebook with Bum’s mailing address and phone number on it and-”

“Wait, hold on, did you say you snapped your father's neck? As in, you fucking killed him?” Jieun whispered loudly, horrified expression on her face. 

“Yeah, I guess, but that’s not what’s important here! The point is, I can finally write to Bum now!” Sangwoo chirped. 

“Yeah, from prison, Sangwoo,” she pinched the bridge of her nose, “We shouldn’t even be talking about this here, what is wrong with you, can’t you go a week without harming anyone?”

“Aw Jieun,” Sangwoo pouted, “Why are you being such a bummer about this? I thought you would be as excited as I am.” 

“Why would-look, what are you going to do about your father?” Jieun whispered. 

“It’s not that big a deal, I already sawed his body parts into chucks and stuffed them into some old duffle bags I had. I’m going to throw them into the canal tonight so it’s all good,” Sangwoo whispered with a wink. 

“Jesus, I think I’m gonna be sick.” Jieun pressed her forehead against the desk.

“Can we get back to what I was talking about now? I have Bum’s contact information! Look, I wrote him a letter.” Sangwoo handed Jieun the letter he had hastily scrawled out, it read:

“Dear Bumi,

     How are you? I wanted to let you know how much I miss you. I think about you all of the time, everyday, morning, noon, and nihgt. You are the first thing I think about when I waek up and the last thing I think about when I go to sleep. Please don’t think I am still made about you abandoning me, it’s totaly cool. 

     Wanna hear something funny? I can’t even go to the park during the daytime anymore because every time I’m there I get a boner, and theire are kids at the park. ;)

Here’s a poem I wrote for you:

Roses are red, voilets are blue.
I can’t wait to put my weener in you.

Love you more than anything, Sangwoo”

“So, what do you think? Pretty cute, huh? You think he’ll like it?” Sangwoo said, incredibly proud of his work. 

Jieun made sure to tread carefully, “That...is really great. May I make a few suggestions?” 

“What kind of suggestions?” Sangwoo narrowed his eyes. “Well...I would type it out, that way you’d have a spell-checker. Also, I wouldn’t mention your penis that much...or at all,” Jieun gently advised.

“But why?” huffed Sangwoo. “Just trust me,” she smirked, “I haven’t failed you yet.” 

Sangwoo looked off to the side, letting out a petulant sigh. “Fine,” he relented, “Do I really need to change my poem though?” Jieun desperately tried to stifle her laughter, “Sweetheart, especially your poem.”

Sangwoo and Jieun went to the library to type up his letter. Jieun made sure to banish any mention of boners or wieners, she also tried to have him tone down how obsessive he came across. 

“Play it cool, you don’t want him to think you’re clingy,” she said. Sangwoo rolled his eyes, “But it’s the truth, I think about him all the time, 24/7, I don't see anything wrong with being honest. Why play games at this point?”

“Fine, you wanna sound like a stage 5 clinger, go right ahead,” Jieun sing-songed, knowing when to pick her battles. “Thank you,” Sangwoo scoffed. “Here, what do you think about it now?” He printed out the letter and passed it to her.

“Dear Bumi,

      How are you? I hope you are doing well. I wanted to let you know how much I miss you. I miss sitting on the swings in the park with you, talking with you, and laughing with you. I wanted you to know that I am not mad about you leaving so suddenly, I understand. 

I know your time in the military is almost up and I wanted to see if we could meet each other as soon as you get back, it would really mean a lot to me. You are always on my mind and in my heart.

Love, Sangwoo.”

“Awww Sangwoo, it’s perfect,” Jieun said tenderly. “Yeah, thanks for helping me out...I guess,” he muttered. 

“Even though there really wasn’t anything wrong with my first draft. You know what? I think I’ll show Bum that one when he gets back. He’ll love it, you’ll see!” he declared. Jieun rolled her eyes, heartfelt moments didn’t last long with Sangwoo around.

“Hey Jieun.” 

“Yeah?” 

“Wanna stay over at my place tonight?”

“S-sure, but why?” A surprised look sprung on her face. 

“I don’t want to be alone when I mail the letter tonight, I think my nerves will fuck me up. Can you hang out with me?” Sangwoo murmured bashfully and looked to the side. 

Jieun was touched that Sangwoo would look to her for comfort, it made her feel...special. “Y-yeah! Hold on let me call my parents, I’ll tell them I’m staying at a girlfriend’s house or something.” 

She wasn’t completely lying, sure, he wasn’t a girl but he would talk about boy trouble more than any girlfriend she had ever had.

“Great! it’s a sleepover then,” Sangwoo said excitedly, “come over at 21:00, I need your help with something.” 

“Need help with what?…” Jieun questioned cautiously. 

“Eh, nothing major, see you then!” he stood up and nodded farewell.

*********************************

Jieun stood outside Sangwoo’s apartment in sweatpants and an oversized sweatshirt. She had been so swept up in Sangwoo’s intensity over the letter that she had forgotten that she had agreed to spend the night at a murderer’s house. 

Was his father’s chopped up corpse still in there? Would she be sleeping next to human remains tonight? She considered turning around and heading back home when the door in front of her opened partially. 

“Are you coming in, or do you want to stand outside like an idiot for a couple more minutes?” Sangwoo said, sounding mildly irritated. Jieun couldn’t help but wonder if he had been staring at her through the peephole the whole time. 

She snapped back to the present and responded, “Yeah, sorry, I just kinda spaced out. I didn’t get any sleep last night, remember?” bitterly hinting at the project she had done all on her own. 

“Oh c’mon, you’re not still butt hurt over that are you?” Sangwoo chided, “Besides, I spared your life, doing my part of the project is the least you could do.” 

“Wow, I’m lucky you're such a kind murderer,” Jieun quipped sarcastically, without thinking. 

Sangwoo raised an eyebrow at her comment. “Shit, did I piss him off?” she thought to herself. Sangwoo threw her a crooked smile, “You’re not wrong, don’t push your luck though,” he said with a chuckle. 

Jieun wondered why the hell she had agreed to come back to the place she was nearly strangled to death in when Sangwoo asked if she was hungry. “I bought pizza, I figured it was alright if we ate like shit just this once.” He gestured for her to sit next to him on the couch.

She sunk into the cushions and tried to forget a person literally died there. Surprisingly, once she and Sangwoo got settled it was pretty easy to forget the gruesome details. They spent a couple hours on the couch eating junk food and watching sappy dramas. 

Sangwoo was visibly tense, his leg bounced uncontrollably throughout the night. 

“Hey, did you end up sending the letter? Jieun asked. 

“Yeah,” Sangwoo sighed, “What if he doesn’t answer, or I sent it to the wrong place? It sucks having to wait like this.” 

“You did everything you could, don’t stress it,” Jieun shrugged. Sangwoo leaned into the cushions and groaned.

It was nearly midnight and the two were still binging on comfort food and dramas when Sangwoo checked his phone and turned to Jieun. “Hey, remember when I told you I needed help with something?” 

Jieun eyed him with a puzzled look as he stood up and disappeared into the hallway. He came back dragging three duffle bags, “Ta-dah!” he sang cheerfully. 

Jieun’s eyes widened in terror, “N-n-no, Sangwoo, that better not be what I think it is.” 

“What do you mean? They’re just old bags I don’t use anymore,” he smirked boyishly. 

“I’m not an idiot Sangwoo, that’s—that’s him.” 

“What’s left of him,” Sangwoo said, stifling a manic giggle. 

“You can’t ask me to do this, I’ll be an accessory to murder! Please don’t,” she begged, her voice wavering. 

“Please don’t,” he mocked in a raspy falsetto, “Seriously Jieun, I thought you were my friend. I can’t take all three bags down to the canal, I just need you to hold on to the lightest one for me,” Sangwoo scoffed in annoyance.

“And what if I refuse?” Jieun said defiantly, her cheeks puffing out as she beheld him with a scowl. 

Suddenly, Sangwoo’s voice lowered to a register that reverberated through her very core. “If you refuse—after I generously let you in on some very big secrets, after I graciously let you live,” he said as he crouched down to her eye-level, an inch apart from her face, “I guess I’ll just end up with six bags to carry then, won’t I?”

Jieun shivered as she exhaled, then slowly dragged herself to the duffle bags on the floor and lifted the smallest one. Sangwoo smiled broadly, “See? I knew you had it in you, you just needed a little encouragement.” He lifted the other two bags and headed towards the door.

“Now c’mon, let’s go before it gets too cold out there,” he said, chipper as ever. Jieun trudged along, trying not to think too hard about what she was holding.

*********************************

“Pick up the pace, Jieun, I can’t keep on stopping to wait for you. What if someone sees us?” Sangwoo huffed as he waited for her to catch up with him. 

They were walking along the canal near Sangwoo’s apartment block, the plan was to drop the bags into the depths by the warehouse district, which was mostly abandoned. The journey was more difficult than Jieun had expected.

“God, what is with all this mud,” Jieun whined, wishing she had worn better shoes for this, or better yet, wishing she wasn’t doing this at all. 

“Quit your bitching, we’re almost there,” Sangwoo said as he lugged the heavy baggage on his shoulders. 

“Hey, what if they find all of this?” 

“They won’t, the place is filled with nothing but abandoned warehouses, almost nobody ever goes there. I went there a lot as a kid, when I just needed to run away from everything.” Sangwoo sounded like his mind had wandered onto something unpleasant.

Jieun wondered what his childhood was like, she hadn’t seen his mother, and he obviously didn’t have a very good relationship with his father, maybe that’s why he latched onto Bum so desperately. 

He must have been so alone, she knew how isolating being different from the other children at school could be, but she had a loving support system at home. She felt a tinge of sadness for the wounded boy in front of her, he had lost everything he had when Bum left, him going off the deep end suddenly didn’t appear so strange when she viewed his situation through a lens of intense loneliness.

She continued to psychoanalyze Sangwoo until they stopped in a desolate area with nothing but decrepit buildings and their oxidized skeletons.“We’re here!” Sangwoo turned back and smiled, “I’ll go first,” he said as he trudged through the thick mud by the bank of the canal. 

He opened the bags and placed handfuls of rubble into them and then heaved the bags into the canal. Each bag made an impressive splash and immediately sunk into the murky water, giving Jieun a strange sense of relief.

“Okay, you’re turn,” Sangwoo chirped, “Oh wait, here, let me take care of that for you.” He placed the bag on the floor, grabbed another handful of rubble and opened the bag. Jieun made the grave mistake of stealing a glance from the corner of her eye at the contents of the bag. Her eye was met with the lifeless stare of another peering from the duffle bag, she squeaked in alarm.

Sangwoo laughed, “Just couldn’t resist, huh? That curiosity of yours could get you into a lot of trouble someday.” 

No kidding, it was because of her curiosity of what was in Sangwoo’s room and who was in his pictures that she was in this mess in the first place.

“Alright, you do the honors,” Sangwoo said with a cheerful smile. Jieun sighed and slowly lifted the bag, noting the trembling of her fingers. She was having a lot of difficulty with the mud beneath her feet, she cursed her decision to wear flats that night. 

Suddenly, the mud had suctioned her foot to the ground, causing her to trip. To her horror, the old zipper of the duffle bag had given way to the impact and the bag’s contents rolled down the bank.

“Oh Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Jieun yelped as the severed head rolled closer to the water. 

“What the fuck are you doing? Go get it, we can’t have a fucking head floating in the canal,” Sangwoo hissed. 

Jieun attempted to pull her foot out of the mud to no avail, she gave up and let the mud keep her shoe as she chased the head down the bank. 

She finally managed to stop the head when she grabbed it by the hair, holding it up in disgust. “Get me the goddamn bag... now!” She bellowed while trying to hold in the pizza creeping up her esophagus.

“God, you suck at this,” Sangwoo stuffed the head back into the duffle bag. “Here, think you could handle this?” he passed the bag back to her. 

“Fine, give it to me, I’m so done with this motherfucker,” Jieun huffed as she snatched the bag and threw it as far into the canal as she could, which was not very far at all. 

The bag began to sink into the water when Jieun noticed a faded logo on the side of it; ‘Hwagog High School Boys Soccer Team’ . 

“Oh shit,” she mouthed with a look of terror etched on her features. She felt a warmth envelop her upper body, “Are you cold? You’re shaking like a wet chihuahua.” Sangwoo covered her shoulders with his letterman jacket. 

Jieun looked back at the canal, the bag was completely out of sight, swallowed by the depths. “I’m good, let’s grab my shoe and get the hell out of here.” She stared across the canal, she told herself she was overthinking things, nobody would ever find those bags anyway. 

She and Sangwoo quietly walked along the canal together, side by side. It never ceased to amaze her that she could feel so comfortable around Sangwoo despite his terrifying nature. She likened their unlikely friendship to owning a pet tiger, he was capable of so much gentleness it was easy to forget that one slight misstep could cost her her life.

*********************************

It had been a few days since Sangwoo had sent the letter out to Bum, he was on edge, barely able to think about anything else. It didn’t help that Jieun continued to fret about the bags containing his father’s remains. Didn’t she understand that there was no way they would be caught? It already felt like ancient history in his mind. 

If anything, having his home to himself liberated him. He was free to do as he pleased, return home at whatever time he saw fit, watch whatever thing on the television he wanted without drawing his father’s criticism, and best of all, he was free to experiment with his Bum pillow anywhere he wanted. 

He decided his favorite places around the house to fool around in were the laundry room, on top of the washing machine, bent over the kitchen sink, and on top of the dinner table.

Sangwoo began to daydream about experiencing the real deal, when Ms. Jeong rudely interrupted him. “Sangwoo, you were supposed to get your father’s signature on your report card,” she said with a taut frown on her face. 

He stared up at her and shrugged his shoulders. 

“I called him everyday this week, multiple times a day, and still no response,” she continued. 

“What do you want me to do about it?” Sangwoo muttered curtly. 

“I want you to let him know that I will be stopping by for a home visit,” she hissed, clearly not impressed with her student’s insolence. 

Sangwoo furrowed his brows, “What? C’mon, Ms. Jeong, you and I both know that’s a waste of time for the both of us, it’s not like it’ll change anything.” 

Ms. Jeong sighed in exasperation, “Look, Sangwoo, just expect me there next week at 18:00. I don’t get it, your father used to be so involved. I guess he just gave up,” she glowered at him, “It’s not hard to see why,” she sighed in exasperation as she walked away, heels clacking behind her.

“Fuck, shit, shit,” Sangwoo grumbled. “What’s wrong?” Jieun asked as she took her seat behind him. 

“It’s Jeong, the nosy cunt wants to come in for a home visit, says she wants to talk to my dad, fuck,” He grunted through grit teeth. 

Jieun looked like a deer in headlights, “We have to come up with a reason why he won’t be there anymore…” she whispered. 

“We have a week, I’m sure we can pull something out of our asses, besides you know what they say, two heads are better than one…I could always just off Jeong,” Sangwoo said as he grabbed on to his hair, crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out. 

“Stop it, dumbass!” Jieun spat. He could only respond with laughter. 

After school, Sangwoo and Jieun walked to his apartment building, brainstorming ideas for an explanation about his father’s sudden disappearance.

“Oh, I have one,” Jieun chimed, “How about we say he won the lottery, dumped his eighteen year old son to fend for himself, and moved to Fiji.” 

Sangwoo considered it, “I mean, he is a narcissist, so it wouldn’t be impossible...but wouldn’t they make a big deal about it on the news if someone just won the lottery like that?” 

“Ugh, I don’t know...this is hard,” Jieun whined, dragging her hands down her face.

“Well, think harder, your ass is on the line too,” Sangwoo said flatly as he opened his mailbox. “Yeah, thanks, jackass.” Jieun’s tone dripped with chagrin. 

She noticed Sangwoo wasn’t responding to her, his eyes transfixed on a brown box. “What?...Sangwoo, what is it?” she asked. He looked at her with an expression of unbridled joy, “It’s Bum, a package from Bum!! Look, see? Here’s the address of the military base!” 

“Oh-oh my God! That’s great, let’s open it!” she was legitimately curious about what was in the brown box. She then had a dark thought, what if Bum rejected him...would it be safe to be around Sangwoo if that were the case? She feared her curiosity would serve as her noose. 

It was too late, they were already in his living room. Sangwoo carefully opened the package as if he were disarming a bomb, carefully slicing the tape holding the box together. The box was opened and they both held their breath. Within it, there was a single bottle of lemonade packaged in styrofoam and a note that read:

Dear Woo,

     You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear from you! I miss you too, more than I can express in words. I am ending my service in 3 days, meet me at the train station closest to Seoul at 16:00, I’ll be on the northbound train. I can’t wait to see you again!

Love, Bum 

Jieun felt mixed emotions, she was happy that Sangwoo would finally get to reunite with his lost love, like the perfect ending to a drama, but something else she couldn’t put her finger on was eating at her. She didn’t have much time to reflect on what it was before Sangwoo lifted her up and spun her around the room, laughing hysterically. 

“Did you hear that! He misses me more than he can express in words! He was so happy to hear from me! He can’t wait to see me again! He’s coming in only three days!!” he cheered. 

“I haven’t been this happy in so long, Jieun!” Sangwoo said, grinning ear to ear. Jieun made sure to muster the widest smile she could, “I’m so happy for you, Sangwoo.” 

Sangwoo poured the lukewarm lemonade into two champagne glasses, “Here, a toast. To love!” He clinked his glass against Jieun’s.

“To love,” she said, feeling a poignant squeeze in her chest. 

Chapter Text

Sangwoo thought his obsession would ease up once he had secured a time and place to reunite with Bum, but the opposite had occurred. It was the midnight before he was supposed to see Bum, “Okay, so what should I wear, the white turtleneck with the black pants, or the black turtle neck with the khaki pants?” 

Jieun sighed over the phone, “I don’t know, Sangwoo. Honestly, I think you would look good in whatever you decide to wear.”

“You really think so? Aww...thanks, Jieun!...Okay, but seriously, white turtleneck, black pants or black turtleneck, khaki pants?” Sangwoo reiterated. 

“Ugh fine, white turtleneck, black pants,” Jieun groaned. 

“You know what, I’m gonna go with the black turtleneck and khakis, what if I get food on my shirt?” Sangwoo thought out loud as he considered each and every scenario.

Jieun couldn’t help but smother her face into her pillow and scream. “What was that noise?” Sangwoo asked. 

“The TV, and hello? I know you're excited about seeing Bum and all but have you thought about an alibi for us in case Jeong gets suspicious about your dad?”

“I don’t know, I think I’ll go with your lottery one. Besides, he wasn’t at work the day I killed him. For all his coworkers know, he could have ran off with whoever and never came back. I’ll just pretend I expected him to come back from work but never saw him again, simple,” Sangwoo said calmly. 

“This is not simple, this could fuck our lives up forever, how are you not more worried about this??” Jieun argued. 

“Hey Jieun, do you have a car?”

“Yes, but what does that have to do with anyth-” 

“Could you give me a ride to the train station? It would be really cool, you could meet Bum, we could hang out. It would be fun, don’t you think?” Sangwoo mused. 

Jieun rubbed her temples, it was like speaking to a brick wall. “Are you sure you’d even want me there, wouldn’t it be awkward?” she sighed. 

“Nah, don’t be ridiculous, why would it be awkward?”

“I would be the third wheel,” Jieun said flatly. 

“What?” Sangwoo gasped incredulously, “No way! Plus, it would really help me out if I didn’t have to rely on the bus, you know how late they could be, I don’t want to risk it,” he intoned as pitifully as possible, trying to elicit sympathy.

“So that’s what this is about,” Jieun rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever, we’ll head to the train station closest to Seoul after school.” She figured it couldn’t be that bad, and Sangwoo sounded so happy when she agreed to give him a ride, she would also give in to her curiosity and finally meet the person who had bewitched Sangwoo so intensely; meet the man behind the mania, so to speak. 

“Thanks Jieun, I really appreciate it. You’re my best friend,” Sangwoo chirped, to which Jieun subtly melted, “...right after Bum, of course. You’re the best! Goodnight.” 

Jieun really wanted to have a good look at Bum now, “Goodnight,” she said curtly, wanting to end the phone call as soon as possible.

*********************************

Sangwoo decided not to go to school that day, he had too much to prepare for. He primped, and plucked, and shaved; everything to make him look as appealing as possible. 

He had been waiting for this moment for so long, he didn’t even know how he would react. He figured he would take his cues from Bum. 

He even picked an outfit that was neither white turtleneck with black pants nor black turtleneck with khaki pants. He had decided on a black turtleneck with a burgundy jacket and dress pants. After taking a shower, slicking his hair back and donning his outfit, he texted Jieun. 

Sangwoo: Hey, can you pick me up at my place?

Jieun: Sure, I thought you chickened out, lol

Sangwoo: After everything just to get his address? Hell no 😠

Jieun: I was about to say...after all you’ve put me through 🙄

Sangwoo: 😉 text me when you’re outside.

Jieun: K

He smiled broadly, it was actually happening. He was glad he had Jieun there, sure, she was his ride but she also served as moral support. He was incredibly nervous, everything had to go perfectly or he didn’t know how he would be able to control himself, he was actually afraid of what he might be capable of if pushed beyond his limits.

He remembered the soccer game, he pondered for a while about what had happened there, what would happen if an outburst like that occurred at the train station, a place surrounded by heavy objects and moving trains, the thought brought him anxiety. Suddenly, his phone buzzed in his pocket.

Jieun: Here

“Perfect, right on time. You haven’t failed me yet.” Sangwoo beamed at the phone. He made sure to grab the assortment of gifts he had laid out for Bum and headed out the door.

Sangwoo opened the door to Jieun’s white BMW, “Damn, Jieun, I didn’t know you were loaded.” His eyes roamed the interior of the car. 

Jieun looked straight ahead, “It’s nothing, my parents got me a used one for my 16th birthday.” She then looked up toward Sangwoo and her jaw opened slightly, “Wow...you look...amazing,” she gasped softly, unable to peel her eyes away from the devastatingly handsome young man in front of her. 

“Really?? Do I look cool? If you were Bum, would you wanna make out as soon as you laid eyes on me?” Sangwoo asked eagerly. 

The question made Jieun blush, “I mean, I don’t know...maybe, just put the address on your phone, let’s go,” she huffed, trying to change the subject as quickly as possible.

Thankfully, the ride to the train station had been devoid of awkward questions. Sangwoo just talked incessantly about Bum, all the things he wanted to do with Bum, and all the things he wanted to do to Bum. 

Jieun just focused on the road ahead, trying not to think too hard about Sangwoo’s experiments with what he referred to as “Pillow Bumi”. 

“Oh, and I even washed his favorite sweater for him, he’s gonna be so happy to see it again,” Sangwoo said cheerily as he pulled the white sweater from his bag.

Jieun tried not to laugh, “What is up with that thing? Why does it have a cartoon frog in the middle of it? Sangwoo, he’s not gonna want that, he’s a grown man.” 

Sangwoo scoffed, “First of all, it looks adorable on him. Second of all, you don’t know him like I do, just drive, it’s almost 16:00.”

They made it to the station parking lot with five minutes to spare. “Alright,” Sangwoo swallowed nervously, “he should be getting here any minute now, how do I look, is my breath okay?” he asked, sticking his face an inch apart from Jieun’s. 

“It’s fine, now, back up,” she grumbled, pushing Sangwoo’s face away.

“Any minute now…” Sangwoo sighed. He bounced on the balls of his feet in anticipation. Jieun glanced up at him, “Are you alright?” 

“Not really, not until I find Bum,” he said as he chewed on his lip, “Hey look! There it is, it’s the northbound train!” Sangwoo pointed at it excitedly. 

The train ground to a stop and most of the passengers spilled onto the platform, flooding the station. Sangwoo searched diligently, his posture straight and his eyes alert, looking like a giant meerkat. 

Jieun swiveled her head to the left and right as she looked for a person who resembled the one in Sangwoo’s pictures.

It had been about ten minutes and the concentration of people had started to clear, but there was still no Bum. “Where is he?…” Sangwoo muttered as his breathing became ragged. 

“I don’t know, I’ve been looking everywhere and I don’t see anyone who looks like him.” Jieun’s forehead creased in a worried expression. 

“I mean, he has to be here somewhere, right? He wouldn’t just not come without saying anything,” Sangwoo’s voice wavered, he was losing confidence fast.

Five more minutes had passed and still no sight of Bum, Sangwoo was dangerously close to breaking. His hands held his temples as his face sported a look of panic. 

“Where the fuck is he...it can’t be, he can’t just fucking abandon me again, he can’t…I should jump in front of the next train, that should show him not to play games with people,” he said in between bouts of nervous laughter. 

Jieun was terrified this would happen, at least she was in public so it was unlikely he would lash out at her but she didn’t know how serious he was about jumping in front of the next train and she didn’t want to find out. 

She started rubbing circles onto his back, “It’s...it’s okay just breathe, maybe he’s on the other train,” she murmured gently, trying to soothe him.

Sangwoo turned to her, trembling, tears starting to form in his eyes, “But what if he’s not, Jieun...what if he fucking lied to me,” he hissed. 

“W-well, you know what? Then fuck him, yeah that’s right...fuck him. You’re too good for him anyway,” Jieun declared with conviction.

“You’re right, Jieun, fuck him...I’ll find him and slit his pretty little throat for making an idiot out of me,” Sangwoo shook with rage. 

“N-no, no, no, I meant like, move on, don’t kill him!” Jieun decided she would keep her mouth shut before she gave Sangwoo any other ideas, she simply clung to his arm, stroking it in an attempt to calm him down.

“Why not? He killed me first, it’s only fair. When I find him I’m gonna wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze as hard as I can,” he seethed, “I’ll make that bastard regret fucking with me-” 

“E-excuse me…” piped a small voice from behind them. The pair turned around immediately.

“Uh...hello, would you happen to be Oh Sangwoo?” said a rail thin man with a military rucksack on his back. Jieun quickly glanced at Sangwoo, his demeanor had changed on a dime. The tears in his eyes had now become tears of joy. 

“Bum? Is it really you, Bum?” he said fervidly, before clutching the small man in his arms and lifting him up. 

“Woo! I can’t believe it, you look so different, oh my God, I was afraid to come up to you because I thought you were the wrong guy,” Bum said breathlessly. 

Sangwoo pulled back to look at Bum, “Yes, it’s me! and you, you look the same! I mean, your hair is different, it’s shorter, but you haven’t changed at all!” They both laughed in each other’s arms, as if they hadn’t been separated for even a day.

Jieun simply blinked at the two of them, completely at a loss as to what to say. Bum noticed her standing there, “Oh, hello,” he chuckled nervously, “Woo, is this your girlfriend?” 

“Oh God no,” Sangwoo said emphatically, to which Jieun slumped a little, “Bumi, this is my good friend Jieun, she gave me a ride over here. Do you mind if she hangs out with us?” 

Bum smiled at Jieun, “Of course, I don’t mind,” he said, “I’m so glad you were able to make friends at school while I was gone.” 

Sangwoo lowered his gaze and mumbled, “Actually, Jieun is my only friend, and we only started hanging out a couple weeks ago…” 

“Oh,” Bum said sheepishly, “What about the guys on the soccer team?”

Jieun winced, “Yeah...there’s a whole fucked up story about what happened there…” 

Bum looked up at Sangwoo with concern, “Woo, what happened while I was gone?” 

Sangwoo held his gaze downward and sighed, “Jieun is right, the whole thing really is one big fucked up story,” he then smiled broadly, “but we can talk about that some other time, let’s go to the mall!” 

********************************

Jieun, Sangwoo, and Bum entered the car. Jieun noted that Sangwoo had moved to the backseat to be with Bum. “Great, I’m a ride sharing service now,” she thought to herself. 

As she drove, she heard tittering and giggling coming from the backseat.

“So, Bumi, what do you think about the new look?” Sangwoo crooned. Bum giggled and scooted up to whisper in Sangwoo’s ear, “I think it’s really sexy, it turns me on.” He groped one of Sangwoo’s pecs and gave it a cheeky squeeze.

Sangwoo was unable to contain himself, he held Bum against the seat and kissed him roughly, slipping his tongue into his mouth. The two engaged in sliding their tongues in and out of each other, pausing to softly moan or giggle, only to resume swapping saliva enthusiastically. 

Jieun noticed the vulgar courtship ritual through her rearview mirror. “This cannot be happening…so much for not being the third wheel,” she lamented internally. “Are you sure she’s alright with this?” whispered Bum. “Yeah, she’s cool, she’s totally okay with this,” Sangwoo reassured him. 

“Like hell I am.” Jieun, would do a lot of things for Sangwoo, finish an entire project by herself, help him hide a body, listen to him bitch and moan about Bum for hours on end, but something’s got to give; she would not end up scrubbing Sangwoo’s...genetic waste...off of her leather seats.

“Hey guys,” she called out abruptly, “We’re almost at the mall, what are we gonna do when we get there?” 

Sangwoo and Bum detached from each other, much to Sangwoo’s annoyance. “I don’t know, walk around, eat at the food court, catch a movie...you know, mall stuff,” Sangwoo huffed, raking back his undone hair with his fingers.

Sangwoo leaned towards Bum in an attempt to resume what they had started. 

“Oh, no you don’t.”

“So Bum,” Jieun chirped, “Sangwoo told me you just completed your military service, how was that?” 

Sangwoo’s glower was evident from his reflection in the rearview mirror. “Oh, it’s a really long and boring story,” Bum chuckled, trying to deflect Jieun’s question. 

“We have plenty of time,” Jieun said with a broad smile. “Oh, okay,” Bum laughed nervously while Sangwoo rested his chin on his hand and sulked.

“What is he gonna do, strangle me while I’m driving?” Jieun patted herself on the back for averting that crisis. 

********************************

Sangwoo couldn’t believe how well things had been going, not only was Bum still interested in him, but he was just so... amorous too. He thought he was going to have to coax it out of him, so he was pleasantly surprised when Bum made the first move. He couldn’t resist holding him again after having to go so long without. There was only one issue, Jieun. 

What had gotten into her? Why was she sabotaging him and Bum’s romantic reconciliation? Why was she being such a cockblocker? Jieun needed to take a hint, the last thing Sangwoo wanted to hear about was Bum’s military service, or the pair of running shoes she bought at the mall last week, or the project she completed for remedial reading. 

Bum just sat there nodding his head in acknowledgment with a polite smile on his face, peppering in some “Mhmm’s” and “Oh, wow’s” throughout Jieun’s endless chattering. 

Sangwoo’s erection was painfully stiff against his dress pants and the way things were going he wouldn’t get relief any time soon, he had to come up with a strategy to shut her up. 

“Hey Jieun, don't you think Bum might be a little tired from the train ride, why don’t you let him rest a bit, what’s on the radio?” Sangwoo said with feigned concern. 

Jieun eyed him suspiciously through the rearview mirror, “Yeah, you might be right...you know what might be a good idea? Why don’t you come up here with me and let Bum sleep in the back for a minute?” Sangwoo nearly choked, she thwarted his efforts at every turn.

“Oh guys, don’t worry, I’m fine,” Bum murmured, sensing the ongoing power struggle within the vehicle. Jieun and Sangwoo glared at each other through the mirror. 

“You know, Jieun, since we’re all sharing stories here, I have a good one,” Sangwoo started, “It’s about this buddy of mine, who I thought was a bro but turned out to be a huge cockblock; a complete bummer if you ask me,” he said with ire as he continued to glare at Jieun’s reflection.

“Oh really? That sounds interesting, almost reminds me of the time this friend of mine tried to get x-rated in the back of my car after telling me I wouldn’t end up being a third wheel,” Jieun snapped while throwing a sharp glare directly at Sangwoo in the mirror. 

Bum started to blush in embarrassment when he suddenly spotted a beacon of hope, “Oh look, guys, that must be the mall!...yaaay,” he cheered sheepishly.

Sangwoo and Jieun simply grunted with scowls on their faces.

They found a parking spot and got out of the car, it was a breath of fresh air for Bum as the atmosphere in there became stifling. 

“Hey Bumi, I’m starving could you do me a favor and find us a table at the food court? I have to ask Jieun a question about today’s homework,” Sangwoo said with a peaceful expression. 

“S-sure!” Bum headed towards the mall entrance, turned around and waved.

Sangwoo and Jieun smiled sweetly and waved back as they waited for him to go into the mall. Once he did, Sangwoo glanced to his left and right, making sure there was no one around to see him. 

He grabbed Jieun by the neck and pinned her to the car, eliciting a pained squeak. “What..what the fuck Sangwoo?” She struggled against his hand, he wasn’t cutting off her airway but it was still off-putting. 

“I could ask you the same thing…” he spat.

“Oh what? You’re pissed off I wouldn’t let you screw your boyfriend in the back seat of my car?” Jieun said bitterly. 

“I wasn’t going to screw him back there, how would that even work? Have you seen how tall I am? Besides, I’m saving that for a special occasion...” a gleam of innocence twinkled in Sangwoo’s eyes before turning his ire back on Jieun, “I’m not some whore who’d just lose it in the back seat of someone’s car like you would,” he cackled with a smirk on his face.

Jieun’s eyes went wide, she then connected her high heel with Sangwoo’s crotch. “Fuuuuuuck...augh...what the fuck was that for?...ugh,” he groaned, doubled over in pain. 

He released her and held onto his gonads. “First of all, you don’t fucking know me like that, second of all,” she suddenly folded in on herself in laughter, “you’re a virgin???” Sangwoo blushed, “Y-yeah...what’s wrong with that?”

Jieun pounded her fist against the car and howled, “Y-you’re gonna last like two seconds with Bum...oh-oh my God, it’s gonna be so sad,” she giggled, gasping for air. 

“Shut the fuck up,” Sangwoo pouted, “Look, let’s just forget about all that just now, I won’t try anything in your car...okay?” 

Jieun wiped the tears from her eyes, “Okay, okay…” still out of breath.

Sangwoo sped toward the mall entrance as Jieun sang behind him, “Like a virgin, touched for the very first time~”

“Shut the fuck up, Jieun!” Sangwoo sped faster with his arms crossed.

Chapter Text

Sangwoo found Bum sitting at the outer edge of the food court, smiling as he waved at them. They had settled into their seats when Sangwoo asked if anyone wanted soft serve. 

“That sounds good,” Jieun chirped. “Oh, no thanks, I’m fine.” Bum smiled politely. “Alright, I’ll be back soon, don't have too much fun without me.” Sangwoo winked before leaving the table.

The minute Sangwoo left, Bum placed his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his hands, “So, how long have you known my Woo?” his eyes squinted as he smiled. “My Woo?” Jieun mused. 

“Uh, well...we spent the whole year in remedial reading together but we didn’t really hang out until a few weeks ago.” Bum tutted lightly, “It’s awful how he ended up in remedial reading, he used to be so good at school.” 

“That’s because you blew him and dipped.” Jieun hummed in agreement while maintaining a taut smile on her lips. 

“You know, I was worried he’d hate my guts,” Bum sighed wistfully, “but that note he sent me, the way he held me at the train station...the way he kissed me, he’s still crazy about me!” 

Jieun tilted her head to the side coyly and chuckled, “Hmmm, you could say that.” 

“You should have seen him as a kid, he was so cute. He would follow me around like a lovesick puppy,” Bum sported a coquettish smirk, “...some things never change, well, except for that body,” he fanned himself, “Don’t you just wanna...lick those abs?” Bum intoned lustfully. 

Jieun turned a bright shade of red, prompting Bum to chortle at how easy it was to scandalize her. “You’re right, Bum, you have Sangwoo wrapped around your little finger,” she said, easing into a breezy disposition, “It’s not hard to see why, you have so much history together. Sangwoo told me everything about it.” 

“Huh, really?” Bum said as he chewed his bottom lip slightly. 

Jieun leaned in towards Bum, “By the way, you’re welcome for the note, you should have seen the absolute train wreck he was going to send you. Poor thing was so nervous after sending it, he wanted me to sleep over to keep him company,” she giggled, Bum’s cheerful expression cracked for half a second and she swore she saw his eye twitch. 

“And that’s how it’s done.” Jieun grinned ear to ear, without another word.

Bum sighed tranquilly, “Sangwoo is really lucky to have a friend like you...such a great friend.” 

Jieun and Bum continued to stare each other down with a smile, pulling the corners of their lips further and further back until their cheeks started to hurt. 

Sangwoo interrupted the covert cat fight with a cone of vanilla soft serve in each hand. “You guys miss me?” Sangwoo handed a cone to Jieun. 

“Woo, your friend is so fun! We were having such a good time, weren’t we Jieun?” Bum beheld Jieun fondly. Sangwoo beamed, “That’s great! I’m glad you two were able to bond so easily.” 

He sighed contentedly, “Hanging out at the mall with my sweet Bumi and my best bro Jieun.”

Bum practically squealed in delight, “Awww Woo, you're so sweet! Isn’t that right, best bro Jieun?” 

Jieun seethed beneath the tight corners of her grin,“Sweet Bumi my ass, where was this catty bitch on the ride up here? I would have dumped his ass on the side of the road.” Still, a part of her was oddly satisfied that Bum found her threatening enough to try to get under her skin.

“Hey Woo, on second thought, I do want some ice cream after all. Can I have some of yours?” Sangwoo practically tripped over himself to lower his cone at the level of Bum’s open mouth, “Have as much as you want Bumi!” Bum greedily gobbled up half of the cone, pulling back with a smidgeon of soft serve on his nose.

Sangwoo’s eyes glistened with boundless affection for the adorable creature in front of him. “Some things never change...you’re still so clumsy,” he chuckled warmly as he wiped the tip of Bum’s nose with his finger and salaciously licked the digit clean. 

The two of them gazed longingly at each other for a moment before Bum threw a glance Jieun’s way; he looked like the cat that got the cream and the damn canary.

Another part of Jieun felt uncomfortable with admitting that Bum actually did manage to get under her skin, and all the implications that came with.

********************************

The three of them puttered around the mall without really doing anything. Well, almost without doing anything, then it started...

“You’re so cute Bum,” Sangwoo cooed with his arms wrapped around Bum’s shoulders. They were sitting on a bench by the movie theaters, cozying up to each other. “No, you’re so cute Woo!” Bum sank into Sangwoo’s chest giggling.

“No, you are Bumi~”

“No, you are Woo~”

“No, you!”

“No-”

“Guys!” Jieun sat at the other side of the bench with her arms crossed, they had attracted stares from the other mall-goers. She breathed in calmly, “How about you guys go use the picture booth by the arcade and I’ll go get us the movie tickets?” 

They both just blinked at her for a second before Sangwoo cheerfully declared, “That’s the best idea you’ve ever had, Jieun. C’mon Bum!” He dragged Bum into the photo booth like a hapless ragdoll.

Jieun rubbed her temples, feeling the beginnings of a tension headache coming on. She was glad to be rid of them for a moment, the embarrassment she felt around them reminded her of a time when being out in public with her parents embarrassed her as a preteen. 

She reflected on her irritation, what exactly was bothering her? For one, Sangwoo ceased being Sangwoo when he was with Bum; he morphed into someone needy and docile. The tiger she had grown to fear and respect became a house cat, domesticated.

She found Sangwoo’s unshakable devotion to Bum infuriating and undeserved. 

Where was Bum when he had his first panic attack, when he was taken off the soccer team, when his grade point average had plummeted past the point of no return? Would Bum even do half the things Jieun would? She couldn’t picture him chucking a severed head into the canal.  

She felt wronged. 

With her by his side, Sangwoo could be happy and taken care of. She would never selfishly abandon him; Bum did, he was unable to own up to his actions or their consequences. He just waltzed back into Sangwoo’s life as if nothing had ever happened, as if he didn’t abruptly go no-contact for nearly two years. 

She mulled over her feelings, wondering if it was even worth looking into them more. It’s not like Sangwoo would ever realize how unworthy Bum was of his love, but what about Bum? Would he repeat old patterns and abandon Sangwoo again if he discovered just how much he was willing to do for him...if he discovered Sangwoo had murdered someone for him? 

Jieun picked up three tickets to some boorish romantic comedy at the box office and pondered these questions as she sat back on the bench.

********************************

Sangwoo was on cloud nine, no, to hell with cloud nine, he was on whichever cloud was over nine thousand. Bum showered him with the love and affection he had craved for so many years. 

Wishes he had had since the fourth grade were being fulfilled one after the other. He admired the overly filtered collection of picture booth photos with him and Bum, cutesy hearts and saccharine expressions scrawled over them. 

He seated himself in between Bum and Jieun in the dark movie theater, giddy with anticipation, not for the movie itself, but for all the things that could happen in a dark movie theater. 

Bum had gone to the restroom, Sangwoo missed him already. He suddenly thought of Jieun and turned to her, “Having fun?” he asked casually, “The time of my life…” Jieun leaned on her arm and sighed.

“Oh c’mon, Bumi and I haven’t been that bad.” He poked at her arm playfully, “It could be worse, you should have heard some of the things he suggested we do in the photo booth, Bum’s much freakier than I remember.” Sangwoo bit his lip and raised his eyebrows suggestively. 

“Ugh...TMI,” Jieun groaned, furrowing her brows, her reaction gave rise to Sangwoo’s thick laughter. 

Bum returned from the restroom and sat down next to Sangwoo, giving his forearm a light squeeze as he settled into his seat and smiled. “Hey Jieun, having fun?” He leaned forward to regard her. 

“Oh yeah, so much fun.” Jieun plastered a smile on her face. “How about you, did you have fun in the picture booth? Sangwoo told me you had a lot of interesting ideas!” 

Bum blushed violently and glared at Sangwoo with a look of betrayal. Sangwoo awkwardly cleared his throat and looked straight ahead, avoiding eye contact.

He thought quickly, “Hey Bumi, are you cold?...I have a surprise for you.” 

Bum’s expression softened, replaced by one of curiosity. Sangwoo pulled the white sweater with the frog on it out of his bag, Bum’s eyes lit up instantly. 

“My-my favorite sweater, I thought I had lost it forever!”  

“Score!” Sangwoo helped Bum into the woolen sweater, earning him a chaste kiss on the lips. 

“I can’t believe you saved it for me...after all this time,” Bum murmured dreamily as he looked up at Sangwoo. 

“Anything for you, Bumi.” Sangwoo gently rubbed his cheek with his thumb.

Jieun felt nauseous, she didn’t know how much more of this she could take. As circumstances would have it, she wouldn’t have to for much longer. 

“Oh? Oh Sangwoo, you scary son of a bitch, is that you?” A voice wafted from the darkness. 

Sangwoo felt a sudden jolt of rage, it was Jungnam with a posse of his old teammates and their girlfriends. “Who would have thought I would ever see you at the movies, aren’t you a shut in because of those little panic attacks you get?” he said condescendingly. 

Sangwoo leered at the man in front of him with disdain, only receiving a touch of satisfaction after noticing a silvery scar that ran down his forehead and bisected his left eyebrow.

“Jungnam, that scar on your face looks lonely. Do you want me to even it out on the other side for you? Free of charge!” a provocative grin danced across his lips, daring Jungnam to try and push him further. 

Jungnam’s shit-eating grin buckled into a snarl, “Fuck off, do you know how many stitches I needed after your little temper tantrum? 18! You also snapped my ribs you sick fuck, I couldn’t practice for weeks…” 

He ceased airing out his grievances when he caught Sangwoo chuckling into his fist. “Awww...keep going, it was getting good!” He reclined in his seat with his hands behind his head, grinning as he exuded an air of irreverence.

Now that was the Sangwoo Jieun knew...and started to believe she might love.

Jungnam looked as if he were about to explode until something caught his eye and he reverted to his shit-eating grin. 

“Hey Sangwoo, I didn’t notice your friend there,” he pointed at Bum and squinted, “is that your girlfriend? No offense bro, but she’s kinda flat-chested.” Sangwoo’s expression darkened and he removed his back from the seat. 

“Oh wait,” Jungnam said as he put a show of placing his hand over his mouth, “that’s not a girl... hyung, is that you? Are you back from your military service already?” 

Bum nodded sheepishly, “Hi, Jungnam.”

“You know, hyung,” he drawled, “You're kind of legendary, notorious, even...everyone in the Hwagog High soccer team knows all about what happened between you and Fagwoo over here.” 

He made an obscene gesture as he jerked his fist towards his mouth back and forth and pushed the inside of his cheek out with his tongue. His teammates burst into laughter behind him catching the attention of the other people in the theater.

Bum casted his gaze downward, shame shrouding his features. 

“They say you blew him so good, you scrambled his brains. Couldn’t resist that fresh, hard, high school meat, could you? Well, looks like you didn’t learn shit. By the way, there’s a debate among the guys...did you end up swallowing?” Jungnam continued to jeer. 

Sangwoo shook, hardly able to contain his anger, he didn’t give a shit whether he was in public or not, he wanted to crack Jungnam’s skull against the railing of the stairs and spill his brains onto the floor.

Jieun didn’t particularly like Bum, but she didn’t think he deserved to be humiliated in public like that. She was also afraid of what Sangwoo might do, she had learned to read his mannerisms and was attuned to his moods. She had never seen him so angry before, he looked like he was about to go nuclear.

“And Min Jieun,” Jungnam called out with fanfare, “Baby, what are you doing with these homos? Why don’t you come sit with us?” 

Jieun shook her head and rolled her eyes, “Fuck off, if I wanted to watch a movie with a babbling, baby-dicked child I would have just agreed to babysit my toddler nephew tonight instead.” Jungnam’s teammates roared with laughter.

Jungnam scowled, “Don’t be like that, come here,” he reached out to grab her wrist before he was intercepted by a large hand wrapped around his own. 

Sangwoo jerked Jungnam forward and collided his fist with the center of his face, shattered fragments of teeth were launched into the back Jungnam’s throat. He kneeled on the ground with his hand on his neck as he choked on a slurry of tooth shrapnel and his own blood. 

Sangwoo loomed over him with the same manic expression that haunted his nightmares, the memories of that day on the soccer field came flooding back.

“So...did you end up swallowing?” Sangwoo taunted his victim with unrelenting impudence, slowly passing his tongue over his front teeth. Jungnam screamed through his hands attempting to stem the bleeding of his mouth in futility. 

Sangwoo was about to indulge in his fantasy with the railing when the theater security officer burst through the doors with the intention of apprehending him. Sangwoo quickly grabbed Bum and Jieun’s wrists pulling them out of their seats and lugging them over his shoulders, he then spirited them away through the fire exit.

Jieun had found the whole display intoxicatingly primal, how Sangwoo had utterly decimated his rival and was now carrying her over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing. It had been Jungnam’s advances toward her that had prompted him to act. The thought mixed with the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She felt a dull ache throb in her loins, it was invigorating.

Bum on the other hand, looked green. Sangwoo was able to maneuver his way out of the building, settling on a corner near the mall's dumpsters. He gingerly placed his two charges onto their feet, Jieun grounded herself in an instant while Bum swayed haphazardly. 

Sangwoo immediately turned his attention to Bum, “Bumi, are you alright?” he fussed over him as Bum grasped at his own shoulder groaning. 

“S-Sangwoo...what was that back there?” 

Jieun hid a self-satisfied smirk, she knew Bum wouldn’t be able to keep up with the beast he had inadvertently created.

Sangwoo crouched down to the level of Bum’s eyes and beamed, speaking to him as if he were a child, “Bumi, that guy over there...all the nasty things he said about us, about you, I wasn’t about to let him get away with that. So...I made him eat his words, sweetheart...along with some of his teeth.” he smiled pleasantly, the expression conveying that he felt perfectly rational in his actions.

Still noticeably shaken, Bum slowly nodded in agreement, choosing not to say anything else. Sangwoo placed a quick peck atop Bum’s head and stretched tiredly, “Alright, let’s call it a day. Jieun, could you drop us off?” 

“Sure, no problem!” Jieun was eager to let Bum reflect on what he had just gotten himself into, for him to figure out that he was in way over his head. 

She wanted him to realize his lovesick puppy had grown fangs.

Chapter Text

Sangwoo walked Bum to his apartment because he figured, why not? It was only about five minutes away from his own and the more time he got to spend with Bum the better. 

He noticed Bum’s hand trembled as he fitted the key into the lock, he then remembered Bum was run out of the house by his uncle the night before he shipped off to serve. 

It upset him that Bum had nowhere else to go but his hateful uncle’s house, would he be called every insult under the sun from ‘selfish whore’ to ‘limp-wristed bastard’ again?

Bum unlocked the door and entered the dark living room warily, he seemed to relax when he realized nobody was home. “Want a cup of tea or something?” he held the door open, subtly beckoning Sangwoo to partake in something. 

Sangwoo thought about the movie theater and what a missed opportunity that had been. Sure, it was risky, but nothing worth having came easily.

He obliged, removing his shoes at the door. He remembered the day he had plundered the Yoon household of Bum’s dirty laundry, a wry smile spread across his lips. 

“What are you smiling about?” Bum asked as he handed him a drink, soju in a shot glass, Sangwoo was expecting tea but he wasn’t complaining.

“Oh nothing,” Sangwoo sighed wistfully, “just how happy I am to be in your presence again.” 

Bum’s cheeks dusted with pink, he turned his back to Sangwoo to prepare another shot, “I thought about our time together...in the park...a lot actually. It was the only thing that kept me sane the last twenty-one months,” he said before gulping the shot in his hand. “I was such an idiot…”

Sangwoo felt his pulse rise, Bum’s self-deprecating remarks had triggered painful memories of the aftermath of their romp on the playground slide. “Bum, please-” 

“I was such an idiot for just leaving you like that, I was so lonely and I had no one else to blame but myself,” Bum muttered bitterly. 

He sat himself next to Sangwoo, their thighs flush against each other. “I know I didn’t say it at the train station, I wanted to tell you in private. I’m so sorry Sangwoo, for everything. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you, for abandoning you.” Bum buried his head in Sangwoo’s chest and began to weep softly, a near perfect reenactment of that night.

“When I got off the train I recognized you instantly, even with the completely different look. But then I saw you with a girl and thought you had moved on.” He paused to wipe his tears.

“I hated myself so much in that moment, I considered leaving on the next train and never coming back,” his tears left damp stains on Sangwoo’s turtleneck, “but I thought that would be too selfish of me, that I needed to own up to my mistakes for once in my life.”

Bum lifted his chin against Sangwoo’s chest and gazed at him, “I’m so glad I did, I would have never known how much you still loved me,” Bum sniffled. 

“Yes, of course I still love you, I’ve never stopped loving you,” Sangwoo stroked the side of Bum’s face tenderly. 

He felt the weight of nearly two years worth of unresolved pain start to slough off his heart. It was everything he wanted to hear and more, he was finally vindicated; he knew Bum had loved him all along, everything he did must have been worth it.

They held each other for a while, the space around them bare of any noise but the sounds of their breathing until Bum broke the silence. “Let’s go to my room,” he whispered, taking Sangwoo by the hand and laying him down on the futon. 

“Your friend, Jieun,” Bum straddled Sangwoo’s hips and lowered himself to lick and suck at his neck while hungrily running his hands across his defined chest and abdomen, “you know she wants you bad, don’t you? It’s obvious in the way she looks at you, like you're the last drop of water in a desert.” 

It took about a minute for Sangwoo to register what Bum had said before he tossed a laugh, hooded eyes fluttering. “Jieun? Nah...she’s reformed, she knows my heart only belongs to you.” He bucked his hips into Bum needily. 

Bum chuckled and growled lustfully, “I think we might need to remind her then…” he ravenously bit and sucked on the tender flesh of Sangwoo’s neck and collarbone, pulling back to reveal blossoms of deep purple against a honeyed canvas. 

Sangwoo winced and moaned as the marks caused as much exquisite pleasure as they did pain. Bum began to unzip Sangwoo’s pants, along with his own, with a great deal of desperation. 

“God dammit Bum, you haven’t even been back for a day and you’re already racing to get dicked down by randoms?” a gruff voice boomed at the entrance of the bedroom. 

“No wonder you didn’t answer your damn phone, this isn’t a fucking bordello, you can’t just bring in men to fuck whenever your bony ass craves it.” Bum grit his teeth and made a noise in frustration before turning to regard his uncle. 

“Hello Uncle, can you please knock next time?” he intoned curtly.

“It’s my house, a man’s house is his castle, you wouldn’t ask a king to knock in his own castle, would you?” Bum’s uncle craned his neck to the side to get a look at whoever Bum was straddling. 

His discovery left him paralyzed, trapped by the doorway. “Oh Sangwoo...what the hell are you doing here?” he sneered while keeping his distance. “Didn’t I tell you not to show yourself around me ever again?”

“I didn’t exactly come here to show myself around you...” Sangwoo said flatly. 

“Shut the hell up, smartass. Get the fuck out of my house before I call the police,” his former coach threatened behind the doorway. 

“I mean it, get the fuck out! Just when I thought I had you out of my hair forever…what is it about my ugly, scrawny nephew that has you on him like a fly on shit? Don’t you have that Min Jieun girl now?” he said in a tone that sounded like a cross between taunting and begging.

Bum’s face contorted in a sour expression at the mention of Jieun, Sangwoo sighed and cupped Bum’s cheeks in his hands, “Hey Bumi, we’ll pick up where we left off tomorrow, okay?” He brought Bum’s lips to his own and kissed ardently, wanting to leave him with a positive memory of the night. 

“Oh, before I forget, these are for you!” Sangwoo rummaged through his bag and pulled out a small box of chocolates and a plush frog wearing a tiny bow tie before handing them to Bum. 

“The chocolates are probably melted by now, but I guess you could still eat them,” he said as he planted a sloppy kiss on Bum’s cheek. 

Bum appreciated his gifts, cradling them in his arms with reverence, “Thank you, Woo!” Bum’s uncle rolled his eyes.

Sangwoo stood up and headed towards the doorway but not before jumping at Bum’s uncle causing him to flinch and stumble backwards. The flustered reaction of the cowardly man had Sangwoo laughing richly, he was all bark and no bite.

********************************

Sangwoo laid in his bed and stared at the ceiling, the day had been eventful. Two things constantly replayed in the theater of his mind, Bum’s heartfelt confession to him, and his bloody fight with Jungnam. 

Two things he had savored so much yet had been cut off right before the real action had begun. At that moment he didn’t know how he would sate his lust for violence but he did have an idea on how to satisfy his lust for Bum. 

He patted himself on the back for being so resourceful, for stealthily configuring everything outside the Yoon apartment before Bum’s return, of course, he partly had Coach Yoon to thank for never changing the WiFi password throughout the years. 

Sangwoo whipped his phone out and clicked on a particular app, “MyNannyCam”. The plush toy Sangwoo had given Bum was not only a cute memento of their love, but it also served as a direct channel to Bum himself. 

The tiny black bow tie on the stuffed frog had a small hidden camera at the center of it, Sangwoo could only hope Bum had put the frog on his nightstand or anywhere else the camera could catch a good angle of him, any angle of Bum was good to Sangwoo.

He figured he would just satisfy himself as he watched Bum do whatever he was doing. His thoughts drifted to what he might find Bum doing, was he sleeping or watching TV… or touching himself to the lingering sensation of Sangwoo’s lips on his, softly moaning his name? 

He was already rock hard, any longer and he might spontaneously cum at the mere idea of catching Bum pleasuring himself.

He clicked on the app and waited for it to load with bated breath. The picture on his phone materialized, it was grainy and lacked focus. All Sangwoo was able to make out was Bum’s black hair against a loose fitting white T-shirt. Bum must have placed the toy on his futon.

Suddenly, he heard a voice, gruff and constricted, it was Coach Yoon. “You really thought you could bring that son of a bitch to my place, try to fuck him under my roof, without any consequences?” 

The hair in the frame frantically swung back and forth. “N-no, I just didn’t...I mean...we weren’t going to...” Bum’s voice was drenched in panic. Sangwoo’s eyes were glued to the screen.

A hand with fat fingers forcefully grabbed a fistful of hair and yanked Bum’s head in the direction of his voice. “Filthy lying whore,” Yoon spat out. 

Sangwoo then heard a slap followed by a yelp, the stuffed animal tilted to reveal Bum on his back with both arms held in front of his face in an attempt to shield himself. 

Coach Yoon was also in the frame, kneeling next to the futon. He slid next to Bum and maneuvered his body so that his back was facing him in a spooning position. The fat man huffed and puffed, as even a task as simple as lifting his lightweight nephew winded him. 

He then whispered words into Bum’s ear, his tone became raspy and lecherous, Sangwoo had to shove the phone’s speaker in his ear just to hear what he was saying. 

“You dirty little slut, didn’t you get enough cock at the base, is two year’s worth not enough? You had to go looking for that shitty ankle-biter as soon as you got back?...You want him inside you that bad?” He roughly bit the shell of Bum’s ear, drawing droplets of blood. 

Bum whimpered against his uncle, squirming away from the contact. 

“How about you close your eyes and imagine I’m him then…” Bum’s eyes widened, dread apparent in the way his body tremored. 

“N-n-no...please uncle, not again...I’m not a kid anymore, why do you still want to…” His uncle cackled, “Awww Bum, you’ll always be a kid to me,” he said as he lewdly stroked one of Bum’s shaking thighs, his hand rose higher with each stroke.

He then yanked Bum’s shorts down to his ankles with little fanfare, shucking off his own pants in the process. Bum began to sob into the pillow when his uncle pushed into him without warning or lubrication, causing a sharp shriek to rip from his throat. “S-stop it...please...it hurts...so much,” he choked between sobs, his uncle disregarded his pleading and slammed into him even harder.

“Yeah...I love it when you squeal like a nasty little pig,” his uncle grunted, “....makes me want to slaughter you.” Tears streamed down Bum’s face and his eyes bolted shut. He now took it silently while gripping on to his pillow for support against his uncle’s needlessly forceful thrusts. 

Bum opened one eye and peered right at the camera, his sweaty hair was strewn about his face and he was biting down hard on his lower lip in an expression of pure anguish.

He inconspicuously grabbed something off camera and slowly held it closer to him, the entire camera shifting along with it. Sangwoo’s heart shattered when he realized the plush toy he had gifted Bum was now his only source of comfort as he was being violated by his uncle. Bum was less than five minutes away and Sangwoo just sat there, watching it all unfold. 

He allowed it to happen. 

Sangwoo threw his phone against the wall and frantically searched his house for anything that could serve as a weapon. He found a heavy iron wrench in his father’s toolbox. 

Sangwoo weighed it in his hands and swung it in the air, it would do, it could crack a skull open with enough force. He shoved his feet into his shoes and rushed out the door, his stride had a steadfast ferocity to it. 

He was determined to destroy Coach Yoon like he had attempted to destroy his Bum. So many things suddenly began to make sense to him, why Bum spoke the way he did about himself, why Bum would tremble when entering his own home, why Bum looked so tired and worn out despite being so young, despite the smile he would plaster onto his face. How long had his uncle been hurting him?

Sangwoo had reached Bum’s apartment in record time, skipping three steps at a time as he raced up the stairs to Bum’s floor. His head and heart pounded, his body fueled by pure adrenaline, he felt invincible, silently vowing he would not only kill Bum’s uncle but anyone who got in his way. He wouldn’t let three, four, or even five men stop him from burying his wrench in the bastard’s gray matter.

Sangwoo was in front of the apartment door, he had planned to kick it down, or shove it, or ram it, he didn’t care, there was no barrier in existence that would stop him. He would kill the worthless wretch and free Bum. 

Sangwoo’s ultimate expression of love would prove his worthiness as someone who deserved Bum’s devotion, and he would gladly continue to prove his love to Bum forever. He then remembered something Jieun had said, “Yeah, from prison, Sangwoo.”

“Prison...”

Something rational had somehow gotten hold of Sangwoo’s brain, if he just broke in and started throttling his lover’s uncle to death without a plan he would surely be caught. Bum’s grandmother was also inside by then and their neighbors were home. 

The risk was too high that someone would witness something they weren’t supposed to. He had just turned eighteen and would be tried as an adult, meaning he could possibly spend the rest of his life in prison, away from Bum.

The thought stopped him in his tracks. The decision to kill Bum’s uncle was as indelible as ever but he decided he had to go about it another way. He would bide his time, really plan for the big event, that way he could really make it hurt. It pained him to let Coach Yoon live another day, yet he felt he had no other choice; he would not jeopardize his future with Bum.

He instead paced the halls of the building before walking off into the soccer field to clear his head.

********************************

Sangwoo roamed the open field aimlessly, the urge to kill overtaking his executive functioning and his muscles twitching for release. He decided he would stalk the field for some sort of animal to snuff out, a stray cat or rat would do just fine. His mind raced with images of Bum being forcibly fucked against the futon as he cried out in pain, tears soaking his long lashes. 

Roaming the entire perimeter proved to be fruitless, it was like all the animals sensed his murderous intent and hid from him. It was nearly two in the morning and still, no luck. 

Sangwoo was ready to relent and sneak into Bum’s apartment when he suddenly perceived the figure of another human being in the distance, what were they doing at an hour like this? It made him very curious. 

He decided to stalk the figure like a tiger hunting its prey, he didn’t know why this person intrigued him so much. It must have boiled down to instinct, he figured some primal part of his brain must have been switched at the sight of Bum, his mate, being ravaged so violently by someone else.

The closer he got to the shadowy figure the more excited he became. Although there was no actual plan of what would happen when he got there, he had a feeling whoever was out there was about to get very unlucky. 

He was finally within range, hidden behind a bush by the crossbars of the field’s goal area as the mystery figure trudged in front of Sangwoo with a slight limp. 

They dropped a ball onto the field and started kicking it with a sense of ease and control that seemed to be above average, whoever this was had been trained. Sangwoo’s chest began to swell with even more excitement, could this be someone he knew?

There was a lone street lamp that casted a dim orange hue across the field. The dark figure turned toward it and a sliver of his face was illuminated. Sangwoo immediately noticed deep shades of what looked like burnt umber against orange skin, bruising. 

Sangwoo squinted at the hazy profile and tried to catch anything that could give away an identity. Their head tilted slightly to reveal a scar carved onto their forehead that went past their eyebrow. 

He couldn’t believe it, what were the odds? His luck had turned for the better, it looked like Sangwoo would be able to satisfy at least one of his desires after all.

He hurriedly left the bushes and greeted the person he had been stalking with an inappropriate friendliness.

“Jungnam, is that you?” Sangwoo chuckled as he waved at the figure ahead, they suddenly froze in place like a prey animal that perceived danger. A puzzled grunt was given in response, questioning who had addressed them.

Sangwoo stepped into the light with his arms open in a welcoming gesture, his eyes were the size of saucers while his pupils were pinpoints, “Hi there buddy, what are you doing out here at this time…all by yourself?” 

Jungnam’s breathing hitched, he held his hands out in front of him and shook them frantically, desperately trying to convey he didn’t want any trouble. “What’s the matter? You usually have so much to say,” Sangwoo cackled tauntingly. 

He closed in on Jungnam and grabbed his wrist, twisting his arm to the point of nearly snapping. Jungnam let out a muffled scream through grit teeth. “Jungnam, it’s not really fun when you keep holding back like that, are you trying to piss me off? I can pull the screams out of you if you insist.” 

Sangwoo’s gaze was frighteningly emotionless as he continued twisting the arm past the breaking point, delighting in the popping sound of tendons and ligaments straining beyond their limits.

Still screaming with his teeth clenched, Jungnam turned to face Sangwoo with tears spilling out of his panic stricken eyes. He bared his teeth, a set-up of wires and brackets adorned his mouth. 

“No fucking way,” Sangwoo gasped with a giddy lilt, “your jaw….it’s wired shut.” 

Jungnam nodded his head frantically and Sangwoo loosened his grip on his arm. He then stuck his face in Jungnam’s and giggled softly with a manic expression. 

While Sangwoo’s reaction to his procedure deeply unnerved the other boy, what he said next made his soul leave his body. “I guess that means nobody will be able to hear you scream then…”

Jungnam screamed through the wires in his mouth as he thrashed against Sangwoo’s grip. The sound that came out didn’t project well, falling flat at his feet. 

He tried to pull himself free like an animal attempting to pry itself from a trap until collapsing in exhaustion, he was weakened from his prior encounter with Sangwoo.

On the floor, Jungnam desperately kicked at his attacker. Sangwoo noted each blow being more underwhelming than the last. He was quickly becoming bored and wanted to toy with his prey so he decided to release him.

Jungnam attempted to stand on unstable legs, he only made it about five paces before he stumbled and fell to the ground. He made another attempt at running to no avail, he just kept falling in on himself. 

The whole scene reminded Sangwoo of those videos of baby giraffes fresh from the womb, how their legs trembled with each step; they looked absolutely helpless. 

He couldn’t help but laugh at the pathetic sight before him, his childhood tormentor flailing on the ground like a wet baby animal about to be slaughtered by an apex predator.

Sangwoo perused his surroundings, looking for something that would make the hunt a little more interesting, miffed he had dropped his wrench in his frenzied state. Then something had caught his eye, a gift from the town landscapers. 

Jungnam felt relief when Sangwoo jogged into the bushes. Trying to take advantage of his good fortune, he crawled into some nearby foliage for cover. He had managed to get his torso hidden in the dense shrubbery. 

He pushed himself with as much force as he could muster, his arms shaking under his weight. Jungnam was almost completely covered, “Just one more push,” he thought to himself, one more before he was safe. 

One of his ankles was suddenly seized and he was dragged out of his safe haven, the voice behind him made his stomach lurch in terror.

“Gotcha, sneaky snake!” Jungnam looked back at Sangwoo holding his ankle in one hand and a machete in the other, the creepy smile on his lips spelling out exactly what he intended to do with it. Jungnam screamed until his throat was raw and his diaphragm ached while kicking wildly with his free leg. 

Sangwoo doubled over in crazed laughter, honestly, a little impressed with how much fight Jungnam had in him considering his jaw was wired shut and he was brutally beaten less than twenty-four hours ago. He thought his little safari hunt had panned out to be much funner than expected, he nearly forgot about what Coach Yoon had done to Bum...

In that moment he remembered what had driven him to want to kill so intensely in the first place, he ceased laughing at the drop of a hat and raised the machete above his head. 

Jungnam begged for mercy through his wires, his hands were above his body in supplications and his head shook off the tears that ran down his face. 

Sangwoo simply stared coldly, completely unmoved by the display. In fact, at that point he didn’t even see Jungnam anymore, all he saw was that bastard who raped the one person he loved more than anything that inhabited this miserable existence with him.

He swung the machete into Jungnam’s side, eliciting a shriek that withered within seconds, pain and exhaustion ate away at his ability to do anything but writhe in anguish against the blade hacked into his side. 

The pain only became worse when Sangwoo placed a heavy foot against his rib cage and roughly tore the blade out, the blood began to gush in lively spurts as Jungnam’s heart rate increased exponentially. 

Sangwoo continued to hack into him, each blow would reveal the deep red muscle tissue beneath the tender flesh, he would occasionally bury the blade into his shins and expose bone. 

It brought him memories of cooking with his mother and her butcher’s knife cracking chicken bones with ease, it was incredibly relaxing. 

At that point Jungnam had lost a critical amount of blood, he had gone into shock and barely reacted to Sangwoo’s relentless blows as he shivered and took in shallow breaths. 

He sensed Jungnam’s death knell was imminent, he wondered if Jungnam knew he was dying. “Hey, you there?” He said to a whimpering Jungnam who stared at the night sky with lackluster eyes.

“I just wanted you to know that even though I’ve hated you since we were kids, this isn’t personal,” Sangwoo stated casually, in between strikes, “it’s Coach Yoon, man...he raped Bum, and since I couldn’t kill him...I went out looking for the next best thing, you know?” 

Jungnam slowly moved his pupils and regarded him with dead eyes. “Yeah, I know it’s fucked up, you just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time...my bad,” Sangwoo said semi-apologetically.

“You know what? I think I feel better. I think I’ll just end it now, your suffering and all that.” Jungnam parted his lips only to close them again; he shed a single tear and closed his eyes, accepting the inevitable. 

It was a bit of a shame he wasn’t able to speak, Sangwoo wondered if he would apologize for being such a cunt throughout the years...probably not, but it was nice to think Jungnam would ask for forgiveness if he could.

He calculated his final strike, placing the blade against Jungnam’s throat like an undertaker preparing for an execution. In an uncharacteristic display of mercy, he took the utmost care in making sure he didn’t miss, feeling that Jungnam had suffered enough. At the end of the day, he wasn’t the one who had violated Bum. Sangwoo would save his wanton cruelty for Bum’s filthy rag of an uncle. 

He brought the machete over his head one last time, “Okay buddy, on the count of three.” Jungnam simply laid there, resigned to his fate. He was completely still, almost peaceful, like condemned royalty. 

Sangwoo could definitely respect that, choosing to go out dignified instead of the sniveling mess he started out as. “One,” Jungnam’s eyes squeezed shut tighter, “Two,” and Sangwoo brought the machete down in one fell swoop, feeling it was kinder to end Jungnam when he didn’t expect it. 

He gazed down at the corpse before him, he was definitely dead, red foam slowly rose between the wires in his mouth. He would need one more blow to completely sever the head and he would need to make work of Jungnam’s body parts before dawn. 

It probably wouldn’t be too hard since he was practically turned into minced meat. Sangwoo’s attention drifted to the head and a devilish idea popped into his own, but not before having some fun with his prized trophy. 

He completely separated Jungnam’s head from his corpse and began kicking it around the field, puttering it about his feet. 

Sangwoo challenged the invisible rival in his mind with a flurry of pull backs, shoulder feints, and jump cuts, out-maneuvering them with his cunning and athletic prowess. He then shot the severed head into the goal area.

“GOOOOOAAAAAAL,” Sangwoo shouted triumphantly, “And the crowd goes wild for Oh Sangwoo, whores from across the nation scramble to throw their panties on the field but he pays them no mind because his loving and completely devoted partner, Yoon Bum, cheers him on from the stands!” He turned to the empty stands and blew a kiss. 

Sangwoo walked up to the head and picked it up like any ordinary soccer ball. “Uh oh, Jungnam...it looks like you made an own goal,” he snickered maniacally. 

“C’mon bro, let’s get you ready for your big debut,” his tone was lighthearted, as if discussing plans with an old friend. 

Sangwoo felt lighter than air, chock-full of the effervescent mania only a fresh kill could bring, like pop rocks in his brain tickling the very essence of his being. Tonight’s hunt was not only a healing experience but it served as excellent practice for the main event yet to come.

Chapter Text

Sangwoo hadn’t slept at all that night, he was still too wired from his latest murder. “Latest,” he chuckled, thinking about how Jieun would react. He now had a whopping body count of two, did that make him a serial killer? 

It would be cool if it did, he thought. He always did lean a bit macabre, him and his mother would binge true crime documentaries when he was little more than five years old.

He remembered she would always want him there by her side to keep her company while her neglectful husband spent all his time at work. Sangwoo was never alone, until one day she faded from existence, the little white pills she used as a coping mechanism taking its toll. 

From then on he always felt alone, needing constant attention from those he felt comfortable around to feel any semblance of wholeness. Unfortunately, people he felt comfortable around were few and far between. All he had now were Bum and Jieun.

Bum...he had to do something about Bum. Sangwoo couldn’t allow Bum to live in an environment like that. He had mulled it over and came up with the simplest solution, he would have Bum live with him from now on. 

In Sangwoo’s home he would be loved and cherished, he would thrive, unlike the toxic environment he was currently stuck in, that was no place for his sweetheart. He would not make the same mistake twice and sit idly while Bum was being raped God knows how many more times.

He left the bed, washed his face and changed into clothing that wasn’t caked in blood. He was going to wait by Bum’s apartment and pick him up. 

Sangwoo walked through the foggy haze of early dawn, noting the dew drops that glistened off the grass. It was so peaceful...much like his mind, now that he had let off some steam the evening before. 

The entire town was still and empty, Sangwoo loved being the only one in a quiet, empty space. He despised loneliness, but there was a fundamental difference between being alone and being lonely. 

Loneliness made him feel as if he was perpetually out of place, too damaged and warped to fit within the other puzzle pieces of society and he often felt the loneliest when he was surrounded by people. 

Sangwoo walked the stairs to Bum’s floor expecting to find more stillness before finding his porcelain skinned angel leaning up against the railing of the hallway with a cigarette pressed to his lips. He was overwhelmingly beautiful against the sunrise, the wisps of smoke that rose out of him gently framing and caressing his delicate features. 

Sangwoo felt his heart sing at the hallowed sight, in awe he was still able to look so damn pure despite going through one of the most vile things a person could go through. He sighed in contentment, that was Bum, his Bum.

“Pssstt...Bumi!” Bum jolted at the sudden intrusion, jerking his head in the direction of the noise he just heard. Sangwoo stood there on the top step of the stairwell with a dreamy smile floating on his lips. Bum smiled sleepily and put out his cigarette, stumbling towards him, he managed to wrap his arms around Sangwoo’s neck. 

“Mmmm...Morning, baby,” he groaned as he rubbed his face into Sangwoo’s messy hair, furrowing his brows after taking in a deep breath. “Did you...just work out? You smell...sweaty,” Bum inquired as Sangwoo gently ran his fingers through Bum’s equally disheveled locks. 

“Have I ever told you how fucking beautiful you look just existing?” Sangwoo sighed as he nuzzled Bum’s loose white T-shirt, getting a contented hum in return. He suddenly picked up a whiff of something stale from the shirt, it was acrid and musty. The odor brought Sangwoo back to this dimension.

He gripped Bum’s fragile shoulders, “Bum...are you alright?” Bum looked at him quizzically, “...What do you mean, Woo? Why wouldn’t I-“ 

“Look, I know, alright...about what he does to you,” Sangwoo said with a somber expression. Bum pulled back with a panicked look, “W-what do you mean, d-does what?” 

“He rapes you, Bum…” he cut right to the chase. 

Bum shuttered and pulled himself out of Sangwoo’s grip, “How?....how did you know that?” he said, his voice impassive. 

“Does it matter? A little fro—birdie, told me.” Sangwoo caught himself before he gave too much away. 

Bum just stared at him with a forlorn look in his eyes, his body language aloof. Sangwoo huffed in frustration at Bum’s vague reaction, was he sad, angry, at least a little bit grateful to Sangwoo for coming to his rescue? He decided he would try to figure that out later, it was only a matter of time before his uncle woke up.

“Get your things, you’re staying at my place from now on. Hurry, before your uncle wakes up,” Sangwoo stated in a manner that was calm but firm, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

Bum’s eyes widened, “W-what? Sangwoo, I can’t...I-” Sangwoo pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed impatiently like the exasperated parent of a toddler who refuses to put their shoes on. 

“Bum...Bumi, listen, I’m not asking you, I’m telling you...go get your things. Just the essentials, phone, wallet, you know,” he explained sternly.

Sangwoo’s sudden paternal approach made Bum blush slightly, “O-okay Woo, just wait out here a second, let me grab a few things.” 

Sangwoo’s stern expression melted into one of adoration, “Of course, honey, I’ll be right here,” he said tenderly as he ruffled Bum’s hair.

********************************

Bum dropped his rucksack by the door and curiously scanned his surroundings, he had never actually been in Sangwoo’s apartment before. His father had always made him feel uncomfortable when he was around, so Bum just avoided going there altogether, he wondered where Sangwoo’s father was. 

According to Sangwoo he skipped town for some unknown reason and was never heard from again, it was strange.

Sangwoo noticed Bum yawning deeply, he must have been exhausted from his ordeal last night. In fact, exhaustion had begun to take a hold of him as well, he wanted nothing more than to take Bum to his bed and hold him while he slept. 

The thought brought upon a warm, tingling feeling in the pit of his stomach. Then he remembered something that might throw a wrench in his plans, his room.

Now, Bum knew how devoted Sangwoo was to him, but he didn’t exactly know how devoted Sangwoo was to him. He didn’t know how Bum would react to, say, the hundreds of pictures he had stolen from his apartment while he was gone and plastered on his bedroom walls, or the very obvious pile of Bum’s used underwear in his drawer, and the most incriminating artifact...Pillow Bumi. 

The thought of Bum discovering any of that brought a chill down his spine, so he accepted that he would need to postpone bringing Bum into his room.

“Hey Bumi, are you sleepy? I brought some pillows and blankets, how about you take a nap on the couch,” Sangwoo said with a nervous smile. 

Bum seemed confused, “I thought we might...you know...sleep in your bed.” 

Sangwoo chuckled awkwardly, “We will! For sure...I just-just need to tidy up my room before you go in there,” anxious tittering escaping his lips. 

Bum laughed, “C’mon Woo, you don’t need to do that, I’m sure your room is fine.” He brushed past Sangwoo and nearly got to the door knob before Sangwoo dramatically barricaded the entrance with his bulk. 

“Bum, I didn’t want to tell you this because it’s disgusting but...the room...it’s practically covered in semen,” Sangwoo said as he stood against the door. 

“W-w-what?” Bum murmured, trying to process what he just heard. 

“Yes, that’s right, it reeks of cum in there Bum. I can’t help it, I am eighteen after all. Isn’t that the age when a man reaches peak sexual performance?” Sangwoo continued.

Bum just stared at him, opening and closing his mouth at a complete loss for words. 

“I’m ashamed to admit this, but with you being gone for two years I had no other choice but to...you know…” Sangwoo pantomimed a jerking motion in the air, “to the thought of you every day and night. It’s so bad, there are cum stains on top of cum stains in some places, I can’t subject you to that Bumi, you deserve better!” he implored theatrically.

Technically he wasn’t lying, one look at Pillow Bumi would prove his point. Bum scrunched his face in thinly veiled disgust, “Y-yeah, maybe I should just sleep on the couch for a bit while you...clean up your room.” 

“Great, let me take you there!” Sangwoo scooped Bum into his arms and carried him bridal style, getting a surprised yelp in response, he gently placed him on the couch. “There you are Bum, now you just get comfortable here while I take care of that unholy abomination I call a room,” he cooed while tucking Bum into snug sheets. 

Bum sighed, his body relaxing into putty, “Thanks, Woo…” he slurred as his lids became heavier and heavier. 

“No problem, Bumi,” Sangwoo said before placing a kiss on Bum’s forehead, proud that he was able to handle the whole situation so well. He could only hope the heavy duty job of removing all of the Bum paraphernalia from his bedroom would be just as simple.

It was not...

Sangwoo silently cursed himself for sticking so many photos to the wall, it took so long just to scrape them off and then there was the issue with disposing of them, he couldn’t. 

Every photo was precious to him, it would have felt sacrilegious to just toss them out, so he haphazardly stuffed all of them into a garbage bag and chucked it under his bed. 

“Okay, next,” he sighed, seemingly satisfied with his handiwork. Then there was the underwear, he definitely couldn’t toss that out, he went through so much just to get his hands on them in the first place. 

He took out another garbage bag and carefully folded each pair of underwear before placing them in the bag, once he was done, he carefully placed it next to his bag of photos.

Sangwoo then stood in front of what felt like the final boss, Pillow Bumi...he was at a loss at what to do. He didn’t want to just toss him out either, his polyfiber paramour had served him so well throughout the years. It felt wrong to unceremoniously dump him like that, plus, what if Bum needed to leave town without him for a few days? How would he satisfy his urges then? 

Sangwoo grabbed the pillow and gingerly set it at the back of his closet, the fabric was so stiff at the bottom it easily stood upright without any support. “And done! phew,” he wiped his brow in self-satisfaction.

Already handling the most difficult tasks, Sangwoo relaxed as he vacuumed the carpet and dusted the furniture. After all was said and done, he had taken about two hours prepping the room for Bum, he was past the point of exhaustion and veered into delirium. 

He shuffled into the living room to find Bum sleeping peacefully on the couch so he decided to join him, lifting the comforter to slide in next to Bum, who drowsily murmured something unintelligible and laid one of his arms across Sangwoo’s chest. 

There were only two people on that couch but Sangwoo had never felt so connected to everything in existence; he let his eyelids close and nodded off with a sensation of completeness. 

********************************

It was Monday and Yoon Chanwook was absentmindedly fumbling with his keys to the equipment storage room. His mind swam with questions, where the hell had his nephew gone? When did he get so bold to just think he could up and leave like that? Did he think he would get out of this unscathed when he would eventually find the boy and drag him back to the apartment by his greasy hair, how stupid could one person be? 

Chanwook had his theories, “He must be shacked up with that Oh boy, they’re probably fucking like rabbits right now,” he grumbled to himself, bitter that someone else had their hands on what was rightfully his. 

Bum’s whore mother, Chanwook’s ex-girlfriend, had not only screwed his own brother behind his back but ran off and had a brat with him, only to dump that brat on his doorstep. 

He was glad his traitorous ex-girlfriend and brother had died, some vengeful part of him hoped there was an afterlife, just so they could see him mercilessly shove his cock into the product of their betrayal without lube. 

It enraged him that he wouldn’t get to do that anymore unless he found the little bastard, and boy, would he get it when he did.

Something snapped his attention to the present, one of the windows to the storage room had been cracked through, shattered glass littering the ground beneath it. Chanwook scowled at the mess, “God damn kids…” figuring the baseball team had done it. 

Without thinking, he turned the knob to the storage room to further inspect the damaged and was surprised to see the door was already unlocked. 

He slowly opened the door and poked his head past the entryway, he was relieved when he didn’t see anyone waiting for him on the other side but his relief was short-lived when he noted a sparse trail of rust colored droplets going from the shattered window to a corner of the room where the ball bags sat.

Was the person who had done this waiting for him there? He steadied himself as he grabbed a baseball bat off the ground and slowly advanced to the end of the bloody trail. He poked the ball bags with his baseball bat, and suddenly a flurry of flies burst forth, buzzing madly around the room. 

“What the fuck…” he growled while frantically swatting the flies away, and that’s when it hit him, one of the foulest stenches he had ever encountered. He retched violently, quickly covering his nose with his shirt in an attempt to stop the assault on his senses but it did nothing to quell the bile rising in his throat.

“What...ugh...the fuck...ack...is that?” He stammered between retches. He took in as much oxygen he could without vomiting and carefully lifted up the ball bag, it was unusually weighty. He managed the lift the entire bag up to the height of his waist when he noticed something peering at him through the netting.

Chanwook immediately let the bag drop and fell backwards, trembling, “J-J-Ju….Jungnam!?” he shrieked at the top of his lungs. There, in the ball bag, the severed head of his star goalie lay; both eyes were wide open as maggots had begun to invade the sockets and they spilled out the bottom of Jungnam’s neck through exposed veins and arteries.

Chanwook spewed his breakfast at the gruesome sight in front of him, he clumsily stood up and ran out of the equipment room and rushed down the halls with a bloodcurdling scream. A fellow teacher ran to stop him, “Coach Yoon, w-what’s going on, what happened?!” 

He stood there babbling erroneous syllables not making any sense to the woman, “Coach Yoon, you’re going to have to calm down before we could help you,” his coworker intoned firmly. 

He steadied his breath and leaned against the wall for support, “Ch-Ch-Choi Jungnam…it’s…” he started to hyperventilate, prompting the other teacher to steady his shoulders reassuringly. “Yes, what about Choi Jungnam, Coach Yoon?” 

Chanwook gave her a dead-eyed stare, “It’s...his head, it’s covered in maggots inside a ball bag in the equipment storage room,” he said with newfound clarity. 

His coworker took a moment to process what he had said before all the color quickly drained from her face, she clasped the sides of her head and let out a shrill shriek.

********************************

The previous weekend had been filled with moments of domestic bliss that far surpassed Sangwoo’s fantasies, he would wake to Bum in his arms looking like a baby bird nestled comfortably in its nest, the wholesome image would never tire him. 

Other times he would be woken up by Bum's warm, wet mouth around his member, taking it all the way to the back of his throat before swallowing roughly and constricting his throat around Sangwoo’s length. 

Most tempting of all was when he woke to find Bum suggestively grinding his backside into Sangwoo’s morning wood, softly begging for him to put it in, kicking off his shorts as he led Sangwoo’s hand onto his own leaking erection. 

Sangwoo felt lightheaded recalling how good it felt, how much he just wanted to bury himself deep inside Bum, but ultimately resisting due to his plan. He was going to make it special, even if it left him with the worst case of blue balls in history, so they settled for hand and mouth stuff instead. 

He would need to stop reminiscing about the past weekend soon because he was sitting in remedial reading class and noticed he was starting to pitch a tent in his uniform pants. He set his bookbag on his lap when Jieun sat behind him.

She eyed him curiously as she settled into her seat, she seemed to be expecting him to say something. “So…?” she leaned towards him. Sangwoo stared at her blankly, what could she possibly want? 

“How did it go?...you know, with you and Bum, after I dropped you guys off?” she continued to probe further. 

“Ohhhh!” Sangwoo remembered he had only reunited with Bum that past Friday, odd because it had felt like ages ago after everything that happened recently.

He breathed deeply and widened his eyes as he exhaled, “It went...really well actually, like, really well.” He absentmindedly scratched at his collar revealing faded hickies scattered across his neck and collarbone. 

Jieun frowned a little, “Did you guys fuck?” she asked bluntly. Sangwoo raised an eyebrow and smirked, “Why, you jealous?” 

Jieun sputtered nervously, “No, what the hell? I don’t care...it’s just that you wouldn’t shut up the fuck about Bum and-”

He laughed thickly, “Relax! I know you don’t care, but get this, Bum thinks you ‘want me so bad’ apparently,” emphasizing the phrase with air quotes. “I think my little Bumi is just a tiny bit jealous of you, isn't that cute?” Sangwoo chuckled, the thought of Bum being jealous over him spreading warmth throughout his body. 

Jieun kept her glance downward, “That’s pretty cute, I guess,” she mumbled, the thought of Bum taunting her by marking Sangwoo jabbed at her with prickly little thorns.

“By the way, we’re living together now!” Sangwoo chirped, his excitement mirrored that of a preteen boy stoked about having his best friend over for a sleepover with how innocent he made it all sound. 

Jieun nearly choked on air. “Wait, what? How?” the pained expression she had been trying to conceal broke through momentarily, “That’s a huge step, are you sure you and Bum aren’t...rushing into things?” 

Sangwoo sighed, “I had no other choice,” his countenance darkened significantly and he lowered his voice an octave, “his uncle, Coach Yoon...he was raping him, Jieun.”

Jieun’s eyes bulged out of her head, “How do you know? Did he tell you that?” 

Sangwoo folded his arms on top of her desk and rested his head on them, “I have proof, I saw it on video with my own eyes,” he said as he pulled out his phone and clicked on the nanny cam app, he scrolled through the video in front of her. 

She stared at the still images in disgust, “Fuck...we have to let someone know, the police—” 

“Won’t do shit,” Sangwoo scoffed, “sure they might throw him in jail for a couple of years but what happens when he’s a free man? My solution is a bit more...permanent.”

“You can’t be serious,” she scrutinized him with a jaded expression. 

“I swear on my life, no, I swear on Bum’s life...I’m going to end Yoon and anyone who gets in my way,” Sangwoo uttered solemnly. 

Jieun rolled her eyes at his theatrics. Was that supposed to drive his point home? As if Bum’s life was above all others in value? 

Who was she kidding, of course it was to Sangwoo. He had a one-track mind and nothing had a stronger influence on what he would fixate over next than Bum. 

He would probably light himself on fire to keep Bum warm if he had to, and murdering someone for his sake probably had the added bonus of being fun for him. There was no way Jieun would be able to convince him not to.

“Fine, consider me completely out of your way then,” she intoned flatly. 

Sangwoo flashed her a dark grin, “You know, you’re always welcome to partake...if handling a body that was already dead like last time wasn’t enough for you.” 

She shuddered, “I think I’m good for a lifetime.” 

“Suit yourself,” he shrugged his shoulders and turned around to face the front of the classroom when he found himself inches away from Ms. Jeong’s crotch. She glared at him from above.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” her sardonic tone gave rise to mild irritation in Sangwoo, if only that bitch knew he killed people, he wondered if she would keep that shitty little attitude of hers then. 

Seemingly unmoved, he glanced at her crotch and winced before turning his gaze upward, “It kinda smells like something the cat dragged in, to be honest.”

Ms. Jeong’s cheeks were inflamed, she backed up while sheepishly pulling her pencil skirt down, “God, you...you’re so...inappropriate!” she hissed. 

Jieun stifled her snickering at the flustered teacher’s expense. 

“What do you want, Jeong?” Sangwoo droned impassively. 

“Don’t you remember what we spoke about last week? Oh, what the hell, of course you don’t...the home visit...I’m stopping by today to discuss your academic progress, or more aptly, your lack of progress with your father,” Ms. Jeong huffed. 

“God dammit, are we still on that?” Sangwoo groaned, he had forgotten the home visit even existed, and what the hell was he going to tell her when she realized his father was nowhere to be found? What was he going to do with Bum? 

“Yes, we are ‘still on that’, Sangwoo. You should be taking this more seriously! I mean, honestly, do you know how close you are to having to repeat this year?” Ms. Jeong griped, gesticulating wildly as her frustration reached a fever pitch.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Sangwoo waved her off before she spent the rest of the period buzzing at his ear like an angry wasp, “What time are you coming over?” 

“18:00 sharp,” she hissed through gritted teeth, “and I hope our discussion spurs some changes...for your sake,” she added before smoothing out her pencil skirt and briskly scuttling off with tension in her shoulders.

Sangwoo rubbed his temples and groaned, “I was in such a good fucking mood too...mark my words Jieun, she’s after Yoon.” 

Jieun threw him a sidelong glance, “Third time’s the charm, huh?” she said cooly. 

Her wording jogged Sangwoo’s memory and he let out a chortle, “Fourth,” he smirked, amused by the perplexed look Jieun was suddenly giving him. 

“Fourth?” she asked in a tone that lacked the terror she had when she met him but still contained apprehension. He noted he would have to eventually erase any lingering doubts she had. 

“You’ll see soon enough,” he said while tossing her a pleasant smile.

********************************

Class was dismissed, Sangwoo and Jieun were languidly strolling through the campus when they were met with the commotion of multiple squad cars flashing red and blue lights, crowds of bystanders trying to peek at the scene, and ribbons of yellow police tape surrounding the perimeter, tightly guarding the sports equipment room. They could hear frenzied murmurs buzzing around them.

“Oh my god, they found a what?!”

“A head, a fucking head!”

“I’m going to throw up…”

“Do they know who it belonged to?”

“Choi Jungnam…”

“What?! That soccer kid? Who would do such a thing?”

“Whoever it was is fucked in the brain, Coach Yoon found his head in a ball bag covered in maggots in the equipment storage room!”

“Yup, I’m definitely going to throw up…”

A sick bystander rushed past the two of them to empty their stomach contents into a nearby trash can. Jieun just stood there in shock, she had just seen Jungnam last Friday. It was almost surreal that he had not only been killed, but decapitated and shoved in a ball bag as a perverse joke.  

She looked up to Sangwoo in order to gauge his reaction, what she saw was almost as terrifying as Jungnam’s fate. Sangwoo wore a shark-toothed grin, both corners of his mouth turned up as high and tight on his face as physically possible. His eyes were blown wide open and glassy as if they lacked a soul or any humanity behind them; he looked inhuman, demonic. 

“Yesssss...this is perfect…better than I could have ever imagined...yessss,” he whispered with near serpentine inflection. 

Jieun stepped away from him, “did...did you do this?” her voice wavered, she knew he didn’t like Jungnam, but he had already taken care of him, why did he go that far? 

“It’s amazing isn’t it?” He regarded her fondly, eliciting a strange sensation in Jieun she couldn’t describe. 

“It’s..it’s something,” she whispered, “but why?” 

Sangwoo’s expression changed instantly, his features dark and sullen, “That night, the one where I saw what...he did...to Bum, I was originally going to end him, but I remembered what you said about going to prison.” 

Jieun was oddly satisfied she actually did have some sway over him. 

He continued, “I couldn’t just do it then, I’d get caught for sure. So I went into the field looking for some animal to kill, to get it out of my system...I saw Jungnam practicing at two in the morning and...well,” his wild smile returned as he turned to her, “he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

His admission worried Jieun, that he would just kill for the sake of killing like that, for no real reason. She also wasn’t surprised, it almost seemed like a natural step in Sangwoo’s progression from man to monster. It made her curious about how and when would he progress to the next level.

There, amongst the commotion, was Coach Yoon sitting on a curb while being interviewed by police, he shivered like a blade of grass caught in a hurricane. It was satisfying to Sangwoo to see him so shaken, so distraught… ”This is just a taste of what’s to come, bastard,” he mused while glaring at him from afar. 

As if the two had some kind of telepathic connection, Yoon Chanwook’s eyes met those of Oh Sangwoo from across the field. He suddenly stood up and pointed at Sangwoo, shouting till he was red in the face, “Oh Sangwoo, you did this didn’t you? It was you! I bet on my life, you did this!”  

Everyone in the crowd turned to face Sangwoo and Jieun, their eyes oozed with suspicion. This was very bad, he had to turn this around quickly…he squeezed his eyes shut and somehow managed to push out a tear. 

“W-why would you say something like that Coach Yoon...I’ve known Jungnam since we were kids…he was my friend...I know we’ve had our differences b-but I would never do something so...so awful,” he sniffled and quivered his lower lip dramatically, earning sympathy and looks of concern from the crowd. 

Sangwoo feigned a wail and ran from the scene with Jieun following suit, “Sangwoo, wait!” 

He hid his face in his sleeve pretending to sob as his shoulders heaved, actually concealing a smirk and laughter.

“Don’t be fooled by his bullshit, he's playing you all for suckers, he’s a murderer, a murderer!!!” Coach Yoon yelled as the bystanders murmured with their hands to their faces in sympathetic gestures. 

The police had him sit to try and calm him down, “Get your hands off me! What are you doing? The murderer is right there, you’re letting him get away!” The officer calmly attempted to redirect his attention to the investigation. 

“Oh Sangwoo, you murdering piece of shit, you’ll get what’s coming to you, just you watch!” He screamed as Sangwoo disappeared from his sight.

Chapter Text

“He’s a murderer!!!” Sangwoo croaked out comically, trying to impersonate Coach Yoon. “For fucks sake, the only time he gets something spot on and everyone thinks he’s batshit crazy,” he cackled with his hands stretched behind his head, “poetic justice, if you ask me.” 

Jieun looked straight ahead with a scowl, “You’re an idiot,” she muttered. Sangwoo’s smile left his face, “What do you mean?” 

If looks could kill, Jieun had a weapon of mass destruction on her hands, “Why did you do that? It’s like you want them to catch you, drawing all that attention onto yourself. What the hell is the matter with you?” she glowered at him. 

“Oh please, plenty of serial killers add a little something extra to the whole performance, ever heard of the Zodiac Killer or BTK?” Sangwoo scoffed. 

“You’re a serial killer now?” Jieun shook her head, her breezy laugh fluttered in the space between them. “What does ‘Bumi’ have to say about that?” she taunted. 

Sangwoo scratched the back of his head before sheepishly responding, “I haven’t actually told him about that…he doesn’t need to know.” 

“Are you serious? So the love of your life doesn’t need to know you like killing people for fun now? Funny…” she said while balancing herself on a curb pondering the absurdity of Sangwoo’s worldview, he was possibly Korea’s most naive serial killer. 

“You know, one could argue,” she pirouetted on one foot to face him, “if the person who loves you can’t accept every piece of you, they don’t really love you at all.”

Sangwoo tried to come up with a rebuttal but he couldn’t deny that Jieun had a very strong point. He felt a sense of existential dread creep up on him when he questioned if Bum really could love him as a serial killer. What would happen if the answer was no…

“You have to tell him,” Jieun persisted. “I don’t have to do anything,” a frustrated growl bubbled up from Sangwoo’s throat. 

“Don’t you want to know if your love is real or not?” Jieun all but purred, fidgeting with a tube of lip gloss. 

Sangwoo wondered when the hell she had grown so bold. Did she dare question the validity of his and Bum’s love? He couldn’t let that stand unchallenged. 

“Fine, I’ll tell him and he’ll still love me, you’ll see…” he scoffed at the sight of Jieun’s shit-eating grin drenched in that gaudy neon pink lip gloss she was applying.

Sangwoo opened the nanny cam app, desperate to just look at Bum. He was in the kitchen preparing that night’s dinner in Sangwoo’s mother’s old apron. He felt his heart swell at the sight of his Bumi playing the part of perfect housewife, how did he get so lucky to find someone as sweet and considerate as Bum. 

His heart then constricted at the thought of Bum possibly rejecting him after discovering his true nature. 

“That’s fucking creepy, you know,” Jieun stated blandly, seeming unbothered as she eyed the screen while trying to balance on the tips of her toes.

********************************

“Cuddle bunny, I’m home!” Sangwoo called through the front door before removing his shoes at the entrance. Jieun gagged silently, how could a brutal serial killer manage to come up with such sickeningly sugary pet names at the drop of a hat? She heard someone scurry out of the kitchen, she couldn’t see as Sangwoo’s body eclipsed her view but she just assumed it was Bum.

“Welcome back, Woo bear!” Bum chirped. That made her choke, “Fucking hell, they’re perfect for each other.” 

Sangwoo went to greet Bum with a kiss, revealing Jieun behind him. Bum’s smile faltered and settled into a lopsided grin, “Oh, and Jieun is here...what a pleasure,” he said halfheartedly, his displeasure undetectable to Sangwoo. 

“Hi Bum, so nice to see you again~” Jieun laid the feigned sweetness on thick, jutting her ample chest out, making sure she was still in Sangwoo’s field of vision. 

She caught a whiff of something heavenly, “Wow...what is that? It smells...amazing.” She followed the scent to the kitchen. 

“It is amazing! Bum makes the greatest soup, don’t you Bumi?” Sangwoo proudly declared, wrapping an arm around a blushing Bum’s shoulder.

“Damn...I can’t even boil water,” Jieun mused, cursing herself for not paying attention to the family chef while they cooked in her own kitchen. 

“Wanna have dinner with us?” Sangwoo tossed her a inquisitive look. 

“Woo, hmmm..as much as I would love for Jieun to join us, I don’t know if I have enough for three people, especially on such short notice,” Bum lamented with put upon concern. 

Jieun sighed dramatically, “Awww...that’s too bad, I was really looking forward to it when Sangwoo asked, maybe next time…”

Sangwoo was completely oblivious to the intense scuffle of soft power playing out right beneath his nose, but he inadvertently gave Jieun the win when he protested, “Oh c’mon Bumi, I’m sure we have enough, I really want her to try how good your cooking is.” He held onto Bum’s cheeks and softly tugged at them. 

Bum relented with an uneasy smile, “If you say so Woo...I guess we have enough for three.” Jieun sat on the loveseat and crossed her legs, a smug look on her face.

Before any of them could get comfortable, there was a knock at the door. Sangwoo furrowed his brows, “Who the hell could that b-” he brought his hand over his eyes and let out a groan, “Dammit, I forgot...ugh.” 

Bum was confused, “Forgot about what?” Sangwoo let out a frustrated sigh, “It’s my reading teacher, Ms. Jeong, she wanted to meet up with my dad to bitch about my shit grades,” he checked his watch, “Why the hell is she two hours early?” 

Before Sangwoo could stop him and suggest they stay hidden until she left, Bum went to open the door. Behind it stood a tightly wound woman in a black pencil skirt, blazer, and high heels. The bun on her head looked tight enough to be the cause of her permanently raised eyebrows, she looked at Bum quizzically. “Uhh...Good evening, is this the..Oh household?” 

Sangwoo tried to retrieve Bum before he said anything that would raise Jeong’s suspicions. “Yes! This is the Oh household. Hello, my name is Bum...Kim Bum, I’m Sangwoo’s cousin.” with a smile, he reached out to shake Ms. Jeong’s hand to which she happily obliged. 

“Nice to meet you Mr. Kim, would you happen to know where Mr. Oh, Sangwoo’s father is?” Her eyes roamed across the living room. Sangwoo and Jieun tensed at the mention of his father, how would they explain it?

Bum gestured towards the living room, “Please, come in,” he said politely. He sat next to Sangwoo and Ms. Jeong sat near Jieun. 

“Min Jieun, what are you doing here?” Jeong inquired. “Helping Sangwoo with his studies, of course!” she said with the enthusiasm of a model student, Sangwoo couldn’t help but roll his eyes. 

Bum sighed and Jeong turned her attention to him, “Now, the question of Sangwoo’s father,” Sangwoo and Jieun held their breaths, “We have no idea where he went, last we heard of him, he was having an affair with a married coworker and they decided to leave town together. The whole thing was awful, she left her kids and Sangwoo’s father left his...” Bum turned to Sangwoo with a look of pity. 

“That’s why my mom, Sangwoo’s paternal aunt, told me to come here all the way from Busan. To make sure Woo here doesn’t get into any trouble during his last year of school,” Bum giggled while wrapping his arms around Sangwoo’s bicep. “I was more than happy to help, I love my little cousin. Isn't he the cutest!?” 

Ms. Jeong’s eyes softened and her tense scowl relaxed into a look of guilt, “Sangwoo...I had no idea, I’m so sorry. In retrospect I might have been a bit...heavy handed, but it was only because I was so worried about you failing this school year, which is a very real possibility considering your grade point average is below graduating-” 

Bum’s gasp interrupted her rambling, “Woo!” he admonished while laying a weak slap on Sangwoo’s arm, “You're failing?!”

Sangwoo laughed nervously, “W-well, I...Bumi...I’m not failing, She’s just exaggerat-” 

Ms. Jeong’s scowl returned in full force, “I’m not exaggerating, Sangwoo, if you don’t clean up your act and turn things around, you’re repeating your senior year.” 

He glowered at Jeong, who does she think she is, making him look bad In front of his Bum.

“Sangwoo…” Bum looked at him with wide eyes, “You can’t end up a super senior...that’s...embarrassing.” 

Despite the cool sounding name, being a super senior, someone who had to repeat their last year making them older than everyone else, was not ideal. He couldn’t argue with Jeong, she was telling the truth...but did she have to do it in front of Bum?

“You see Mr. Kim, I entered the teaching profession with the hope of influencing young people for the better. I wanted to improve their lives with knowledge. It’s just so disheartening when I see a student who started out with so much potential end up on the brink of failing…” Ms. Jeong implored poignantly, her eyes full of genuine disappointment. 

Sangwoo snickered, “You? Influencing young people for the better?...I think you need to look into another gig.” Bum jabbed his side with an elbow and shot him an icy look, neutralizing Sangwoo’s snark instantly.

“Ms. Jeong, what can we do to raise Sangwoo’s grade point average? We’ll do whatever needs to be done,” Bum promised. Her eyes grew wide at his eagerness to find a solution. 

“Well, I’m glad you asked!” Sangwoo felt his brain melting at the thought of endless studying and Hangwons. 

“I’m offering supplementary lessons, he doesn’t even have to stay in school. We can do them online, via a video conferencing platform,” Ms. Jeong smiled brightly, really trying to sell her idea.

“Perfect! You hear that Woo? You won’t even have to stay after school, thank you so much Ms. Jeong!” Bum let out an excited squeal, Sangwoo swore if that noise weren’t coming out of Bum’s throat he would have crushed the windpipe it crawled out of. 

“Of course, thank you for working with me. You’re such a good guardian. Sangwoo is so lucky to have such a loving cousin!” Jeong chirped. Odd, she seemed sincerely thrilled, as if she actually cared about what happened to Sangwoo.

Bum hopped off of the couch and regarded the inhabitants of the living room, “Ms. Jeong, I have soup in the kitchen, would you like to join us for dinner?” Ms. Jeong blushed, “Why, sure, I don't see why not.” Sangwoo and Jieun raised their eyebrows. 

“What happened to not having enough for three people,” Jieun muttered under her breath. “Bumi,” Sangwoo laughed nervously, “aren’t we pushing it, I mean Jieun is staying over as well and all…” Bum grabbed onto Sangwoo’s cheeks and tugged a little roughly, “Oh c’mon Woo, I’m sure we have enough,” he intoned cheerily.

********************************

“The soup was to die for, thank you so much for having me Bum. I’ll make sure to set up a time and date for the video lesson, buh-bye!” Ms. Jeong slurred as she staggered toward the front door. 

Bum had been generous with the wine, buttering her up in the hopes she would take it easy on Sangwoo when considering his final grade. “Okay, bye now Byeol, text me when you get home!” Bum smiled warmly as he sent her off. 

“Great, I guess they’re on a first name basis now,” Jieun smirked as Sangwoo cleared the table, she whispered lowly. 

“Hey, if you and Bum wanna get really freaky, you should call her up for a three-way,” giggling madly, she had snuck in gulps of wine when Bum and Jeong were too engrossed in their own conversation to notice.

Sangwoo pretended to retch, “Hell no, the thought makes me want to swear an oath of celibacy before I even lose my virginity.” 

Jieun’s eyes flung open, “You still haven’t?!” 

“You can’t rush perfection, Jieun,” he gave her a sidelong glance and started to wash the dishes. 

“Ohh~ look at you, so domestic, does Bumi reward you for being such a good boy? He has you so well-trained!” Jieun made a whipping noise and laughed wildly, tilting her head all the way back until she collided with Bum. 

He glowered down at her with his hands on his hips like a mother who caught their rebellious teenager raiding the liquor cabinet, 

“You’re drunk, Jieun,” his tone highlighting how unamused he was. 

“And youuu, look funny upside down. By the way, how long have you been standing there?” She cocked her head and hiccuped.

Bum brought his palm to his forehead and sighed, “I think you should stay here and sober up a bit.” Jieun was surprised when Sangwoo scooped her up from the chair. 

“Alright, c’mon,” he hoisted her into his arms and she couldn’t help but nuzzle against the pleasant warmth of his chest. She was enjoying herself until he unceremoniously tossed her onto the couch. “Ah shit, thanks, I guess,” she huffed.

After the dishes were taken care of, Sangwoo and Bum sat pressed against each other on the loveseat while Jieun occupied the couch. The two men were surfing television channels when something had grabbed their attention, Sangwoo’s in particular. 

It was a true crime documentary detailing the lives and crimes of some of Korea’s most notorious serial killers. “That’s horrible…what kind of monster would do something like that?” Bum muttered as the documentary went on about a woman who stabbed her ex-husbands’ eyes with needles in their sleep, leaving them blind before murdering them and pocketing their life insurance money.

Sangwoo grunted in response, a little disappointed in Bum’s adverse reaction to murder in the first place. Of course, it was a perfectly normal reaction but Sangwoo was no longer perfectly normal. 

Would Bum regard him as he did the others? A monster? He had violent urges but never toward Bum...but that wasn’t entirely true. 

He remembered how he felt at the train station when he believed Bum had stood him up. He was about ready to search the entire country for him, ready to slit his throat and lap the blood off his pretty little neck. 

Could Bum love a monster like him? Sangwoo hoped he could...for both their sakes. Then, as if Jieun had read his mind, she slowly lifted her head from the cushions and chuckled.

“So, who’s going to tell him?” she slurred. “Tell me what?” Bum looked at Sangwoo with creases forming between his brows. 

Sangwoo didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything. 

“Sangwoo?” 

“Who knows what she’s talking about Bumi, she’s drunk.” He desperately wanted to change the subject. He was living happily now, he didn’t want to ruin it.

“Hey Bum,” Jieun purred, “do you wanna know what really happened to Sangwoo’s dad?” 

“That’s enough Jieun, go to sleep or something,” Sangwoo snarled. 

“Sangwoo...what really happened to your father?” Bum looked at him, his eyes searching for answers anywhere, from the expression on Sangwoo’s face to the tangible anxiety in his breathing pattern. 

It was no use, Bum had learned to read people from a young age, probably to avoid triggering his uncle’s wrath. Sangwoo couldn’t lie his way out of this and part of him didn’t want to either.

He sighed deeply, “He died...Bum.” Bum’s eyes widened and he covered his gaping mouth with his hand, “Oh my God...how?” Sangwoo really struggled to bring himself to say it, with anyone else he would be proud, he would shout it from the rooftops; he ended that son of a bitch. 

But with Bum, who had known him since he was an innocent child, incapable of harming anyone...it made him feel sullied, corrupted. “How?...Sangw-” 

“Me.” 

“What...did you say?” Bum looked dazed, like he had heard something wrong. 

“It was me Bum...I killed him, snapped his neck if you want to get into specifics.” Bum looked at Sangwoo incredulously, like this was a dream and he hadn’t just admitted to murdering someone. 

“Bum, trust me, I had a good reason! He read my things he...he was going to try to ruin your life...I did it for you…” 

Bum remained expressionless, it looked like his brain had short circuited. 

Sangwoo began to raise his voice, “I had to do it, don’t you get it? If I didn’t we wouldn’t be able to be together like this...I did it for you...for us...say something for fucks sake!” He gripped Bum’s thigh roughly, causing Bum to squeak, it seemed to get him out of his head when he slowly opened his mouth.

“Sangwoo?” 

“Yes, Bumi?” Sangwoo looked panicky, like he wanted to crawl out of his skin.

Bum’s eyes started the water, “W-why did Jieun know about this...and I didn’t...don’t you trust me?” Bum sniffled and buried his face in his hands. “I...I thought you loved me.” 

Sangwoo squeezed Bum and hurriedly covered him in wet sloppy kisses. “Baby bird, I just thought you would hate me...I trust you with my life, and of course I love you, more than anything in this god forsaken existence!” 

They both began to sob in each other’s arms and kiss each other desperately, despite the fact that both their faces were covered in tears and snot.

Jieun couldn’t stomach the melodramatic scene unfolding in front of her, she actually started to miss when going to Sangwoo’s place meant handling human remains or possibly dying. She had stepped into the twilight zone. 

She tried watching TV to avoid having to watch Bum and Sangwoo’s reenactment of ‘The Notebook’ when something on the screen made her heart race.

She cleared her throat, they ignored her completely. She cleared her throat again, twice as loud this time. Sangwoo snapped his head toward her and growled “Can’t you take a damn hint, Jieun? God, you are just the best at killing the mood.” Jieun pointed at the screen.

“In this evening’s news we cover the disturbing murder of Hwagog High School athlete, Choi Jungnam. 

Law enforcement officers report the student’s severed head was found in a ball bag in the school’s equipment room by his soccer coach, Yoon Chanwook. Here is Kwon Eunjung with an interview with the school’s soccer coach.

‘Good evening Mr. Yoon, could you tell us some more about your discovery this morning? How it made you feel?’

‘It was awful, the most traumatizing thing I’ve ever seen in my life, what do you think?’

‘I’m sorry you had to witness that Sir. Now, sources tell us you know who the murderer in question is, could you elaborate on that?’

‘I know who it is alright...I swear on my mother, it’s that slimy bastard, Oh-‘

‘I’m sorry ma'am, Mr. Yoon isn’t in a state to answer questions right now. Please leave the investigation and the question of who committed this crime to the police department...come along now Mr. Yoon.’

‘Get your hands off me, you damn fascist communist…’

Thank you Ms. Kwon, truly heartbreaking situation for everyone involved.”

Bum held Sangwoo tighter after seeing his uncle on TV. After he steadied his breathing, he looked up at Sangwoo, then across to Jieun before settling back on him. “Was..was that you too?” His voice broke a little. 

“If it makes you feel better, I didn’t find out until today either,” Jieun said with a dead-eyed stare. 

“Why, Sangwoo?...Was he going to hurt me?” 

Sangwoo tenderly raked his fingers through Bum’s hair. “Nope, he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.” 

Bum shuddered at how blasé Sangwoo was about it, he was still in shock that he was capable of murdering his father but at least he had done it to protect him. Jungnam’s murder was purely incidental, like getting ketchup on a white shirt or stepping on dog shit. 

“I was going to kill your uncle first actually...I would have gotten caught though, so I decided to look for something else to kill. Jungnam just happened to be there.” 

Bum’s breathing sped up at the thought of his uncle being murdered, it brought about strange feelings he couldn’t quite place. It was somewhere between relief and dread. 

Sangwoo had a way of making Bum feel a kaleidoscope of different emotions at any given moment, an odd mix of them instantly changing into something else at the slightest provocation.

He laid his head on Sangwoo’s chest and sighed, “I don’t like it...I don’t like it at all, but...if you’re going to do it just...let me know right after, okay?” 

Sangwoo couldn’t believe it, Bum had accepted him, every part of him, unconditionally. Well, maybe with some conditions but they were fair, he felt guilty about withholding his murders from him. 

He had his answer, his and Bum’s love was real, as real as the blood spilled in its name.

Chapter Text

It had been days since Sangwoo’s emotionally charged confession of murder and things between him and Bum were surprisingly stable; nothing had really changed, well, almost nothing.

Bum stood at the sink, washing dishes from the dinner he and Sangwoo shared that evening. He felt two large arms envelop his upper body from behind and hot breath tickle his ear. “Mmmm...Bumi,” he groaned, “that was delicious, you’re amazing.” 

“It was nothing, just something I whipped up on the fly…” Bum chuckled shyly, his hair stood on end. Sangwoo sighed contentedly into his neck, “I don’t know what I would ever do without you…” 

Bum was about to respond when Sangwoo continued, “If you ever fall in love with someone else...if you ever leave me…” He slowly crept his hand up Bum’s throat and wrapped it around, subtly squeezing, gradually tightening his grip like a hungry Ball python. 

His voice trembled in Bum’s ear, softly moaning as he rubbed himself against Bum’s back. “If you’d ever try to leave me...ahh...I would have to...hnnn...wrap my arms around you...mmm...and never let go...ahh...until you stop breathing.” 

Bum’s blood ran cold, he now knew Sangwoo was more than willing to end a life, especially when it came to matters pertaining to Bum himself. Sangwoo made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that if he couldn’t have Bum, no one else could either. 

The thought had him breathing a little faster before reminding himself that there was no reason to fear the repercussions of something that would ultimately never happen. Bum told himself he had no reason to leave Sangwoo, everything was perfect, they were happy together...right?

Sangwoo’s pace behind him started to hasten…Bum braced himself, that would be the third time that week he would have to clean dried semen off of Sangwoo’s boxers. He really wished he would just ejaculate in the shower like a normal person...then he remembered something. 

“Oh my God, Woo look at the time, you’re going to be late for your virtual lessons!” Bum managed to wriggle himself out of Sangwoo’s grasp. “But...but Bumi, I was about to finish!” he whined, sounding like a disgruntled twelve year old who had his game shut off before defeating the final boss.

“Yeah, what a shame...Okay,” Bum brought his hands together, “Sangwoo, you sit here!” He had set up a chair and desk for the laptop in a corner of the living room that was free of distractions. 

Sangwoo dragged his feet to the corner and plopped down on the seat with a disinterested huff, he eyed Bum wearily, “How long is this going to be?” 

“As long as Ms. Jeong deems fit,” Bum smiled broadly and planted a kiss at the top of Sangwoo’s head as he sulked at the prospect of sitting there for what would feel like an eternity. 

Bum logged into the video conference, set up Sangwoo’s microphone and camera, and cheerily greeted Ms. Jeong. “Alright you two, have fun!” he left a miserable looking Sangwoo to hole himself up in their bedroom to watch dramas and eat snacks. 

Forty-five minutes had passed since Bum left him in the ninth circle of hell with Ms. Jeong. If he felt he had issues paying attention in class at school, this was a whole other level of distraction. 

He was at home, he could be doing literally anything else but he was sitting in front of Ms. Jeong. He was on the computer, he could be looking at literally anything else but he was looking directly at Ms. Jeong. 

He was also horny, not getting to finish humping Bum had left him pent up and antsy.

“No Sangwoo, that’s not how context clues work…” Ms. Jeong sighed, at her wits end, “Okay, let’s try reading the passage again and then you use the context clues to figure out the definition of an unknown word.” 

They had read the same passage over and over again six times, Sangwoo was reaching his breaking point. 

“Okay, here is part of the passage ‘...Mary's wonderful elocution earned her the position of guest speaker for the event.’ Using context clues, what do you think the word elocution means?” 

Sangwoo rubbed his temples furiously, “I don’t know Ms. Jeong, but I do know that if we don’t finish soon I’m going to elocution myself off the sixth floor of my apartment building…” 

Ms. Jeong’s eye started twitching uncontrollably, “Excuse me Sangwoo, I need a moment. Use this time for a bathroom break.” She turned off her camera and let out a string of expletives. 

“Motherfucker, why do I even bother with that thick-headed bastard? They don’t pay me enough to do this shit!” 

Sangwoo smirked, “Ms. Jeong…I think you forgot to mute yourself.” There was complete silence on Jeong’s end followed by a soft ‘Oh shit’. She immediately turned the camera on and cleared her throat violently.

“S-Sangwoo, my apologies, I had the television on and...and something with inappropriate language came up...m-my apologies…” she warbled through a crooked smile. 

“Can I go now?” Sangwoo sighed. Ms. Jeong looked utterly defeated, “Yes Sangwoo...you may-“ 

“How are things going?” Bum said as he opened the door a crack. 

“Abysmally…” Ms. Jeong muttered as she hung her head. “Yeah, whatever that means,” Sangwoo added. 

Bum frowned, “Well, we can’t have that, he needs to pass. Ms. Jeong, can you give us a moment?” 

“Sure…” she said dully before making sure to mute her microphone before turning off her camera. Bum turned off the camera and muted the microphone on their end, he then got down on his knees and crawled to the space between Sangwoo’s legs. 

Sangwoo raised an eyebrow, “B-Bumi...what are you doing?” Bum threw him a wink, “Positive reinforcement...every time you get an answer right you get a...reward,” he pressed his palm into Sangwoo’s already hard bulge eliciting a shudder from him. 

“So, if you do your best...you get to cum,” Bum purred in a sultry tone, “deal?” Sangwoo nodded his head emphatically. “Good!” he giggled, “Now, go apologize to poor Ms. Jeong and learn something.” 

Sangwoo turned his camera on and unmuted himself, “Ms. Jeong, sorry for being a little shit. I’m good now, I’m going to do my best!” he said with an enthusiastic smile. 

Ms. Jeong turned on her camera and gave him a puzzled look but decided she wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and went with it. “Alright...Sangwoo...let's start at that passage again.”

“Alright, ‘...Mary's wonderful elocution earned her the position of guest speaker for the event.’ Searching the rest of the sentence for clues, what do you think the word elocution means?” 

Sangwoo scanned each individual word with all the focus he could muster, he zeroed in on one word, “speaker”. “Ummm...does it mean her public speaking skills?” 

Ms. Jeong perked up, “Y-yes, you’re...right!” she looked as if she were about to jump for joy. 

Bum smiled up at Sangwoo and freed his erection from his shorts, spat on his hand and began to stroke him. 

Sangwoo breathed heavily, “Awesome…” he drawled hazily. “Yes, it is awesome! Great job! Let’s move on to the next one,” Ms. Jeong smiled.

The tutoring session had gone an extra forty minutes but time felt inconsequential to Sangwoo, Bum was now briskly bobbing his head up and down his shaft for correctly deciphering what the word ‘amnesty’ meant. 

Sangwoo saw his face on camera, he was sweaty and flushed, it was surprising Jeong hadn’t said anything. 

“Okay Sangwoo, this is a difficult one...try to figure out the meaning of the word ‘contentious’ with the help of this sentence, ‘...There was contentious debate over the use of genetically modified crops.’” 

Sangwoo sank back in his seat, it really was a difficult one, but he couldn’t stop now or he would die from a fatal case of blue balls. He poured all of his concentration on the sentence as Bum took his balls into his mouth. 

“Contentious...ahh...shit...debate...crops..mmm…”

He gave his best guess, “Uhhh, does it mean boring?” Bum pulled back and ceased sucking.

“N-n-no wait...ummmm...uhhh.” Sangwoo was desperate to get Bum’s mouth on his throbbing cock again. 

“How about this, what’s a debate?” Ms. Jeong asked. 

“Uhh, when two people argue over something?” panic dripping from his voice. To his relief, Bum began sucking vigorously again. 

“That’s right Sangwoo!” she cheered. “Ohhh thank god,” Sangwoo closed his eyes and tilted his head back. 

“Okay, now if a debate is an argument between two opposing points, let’s look at another part of the sentence ‘genetically modified crops’ there are a lot of different opinions when it comes to those, right?” She continued to probe. 

“Yeah, I guess...they're kinda conflicting...people feel kinda strongly about them?” Sangwoo strained as Bum started taking him deep into his throat. 

“Yes!!! Good Sangwoo!”

“Yes, yes, amazing…” he panted. 

“That’s right, you’re doing amazing!” Ms. Jeong beamed. 

“Oh yeah...I’m almost there, keep going,” he groaned breathlessly. 

“Yes, you’re almost at the correct answer, let’s keep going!” she said excitedly.

“Okay, here’s the big one...if a debate is an argument between two opposing viewpoints and people have many strong opinions on genetically modified crops...what happens when people who have strong opinions argue about something?” Jeong tried to pull the answer out of him with as much eagerness as Bum tried to rip an orgasm out of him. 

He could feel the sensation building up in his pelvis and groin. He was about to erupt from the overstimulation of Bum jerking him, sloppily swallowing his cock, and playing with his balls. 

Plus, he found Ms. Jeong’s enthusiastic praise weirdly hot. He figured he might have a praise kink, just another thing he would get to explore with Bum.

“Ohhh...God, I’m so close…” Sangwoo screwed his eyes shut. 

“You are so close, you’re doing great! Just give it to me...the answer, what happens when people who have strong opinions argue about something???” Ms. Jeong’s voice rose an octave in anticipation for the release of an answer.

“It…” 

“Yes?”

“It…” he strained, about to burst.

“Yes??”

“It…GETS HEATED!” 

Bum impaled his throat on Sangwoo’s cock and gagged, clamping down on it and surrounding him with a moist, quivering heat. Sangwoo slammed into his face one last time and released himself in Bum’s esophagus while crying out. “Yesssss, yes, oh God yes...I did it!” 

Ms. Jeong was equally euphoric, screaming in the height of passion, “Sangwoo!! Oh my God...yes, Sangwoo, you did it!!” 

Bum collapsed onto the floor, his jaw in absolute agony, his throat was beaten and bruised, he had no idea how his arms or knees would ever recover, but he did it, they all did it; Sangwoo learned how to use context clues. 

The three of them were breathless, delirious with a contact high they had all contracted from each other in one way or another. 

“That...was amazing…” Ms. Jeong slurred, smoking her post-lesson cigarette, “In all my years of teaching...I’ve never seen such a...dramatic breakthrough.” 

“Yeah…” Sangwoo sighed with an easy smile. Bum affectionately rubbed his face against Sangwoo’s leg like a cat, earning him an adoring gaze from the star pupil. 

Ms. Jeong spoke up again, “Hey Sangwoo...what did your cousin Bum tell you when the camera and microphone were turned off?”

He let out a lazy chuckle, “Oh nothing...just a little bit of positive reinforcement.” 

Chapter Text

At the entrance of Hwagog High School an enormous display of flowers, candles, stuffed animals, and notes of condolences and prayers had been left out in memory of Choi Jungnam. 

His violent end had rattled the entire student body. At least it seemingly did, having to pretend to give a damn about Jungnam was exhausting to Sangwoo. 

But he was left with no other choice, every time other students would ask him about Jungnam, his victim’s friends would eye him suspiciously like they were waiting for him to slip up. 

They knew Sangwoo could be merciless, they could attest to his cruelty when they saw him slam Jungnam’s head into the crossbars two years ago. Or they could cite the time Sangwoo literally knocked Jungnam’s teeth into the back of his throat, which coincidentally happened around the time Jungnam’s head was found inside the equipment storage room.

So Sangwoo had to feign sadness and shock at Jungnam’s death, even though it was one of his proudest achievements. He found the shock and horror he had caused to be delightful, especially the look he had seen on Coach Yoon’s face that day. 

He had never seen such an exaggerated look of terror on someone like that before. Sangwoo only hoped Yoon’s face would look ten times as terrified as it did when it was time for him to meet his own end.

He then reflected on Coach Yoon’s end, he still hadn’t come up with a good enough plan to murder him. He was looking for something over-the-top, something flashy that would traumatize even the most jaded coroner. 

Sangwoo was also looking for something that would cause unimaginable suffering. He wanted Yoon’s last moments on Earth to be a waking nightmare in which he begged Sangwoo for his death in lieu of his life. 

But what would work best? Should he be drowned in acid, doused in gasoline and set ablaze, or have his cock cut off and fed to him as he bled to death? 

While they were all pretty horrifying ways to go they lacked a certain panache. Sangwoo didn’t want something that would be only talked about for decades to come, but centuries. 

He racked his brain thinking of the perfect execution method but couldn’t come up with something that excited him to the point of mania.

Sangwoo walked into his remedial reading class and cheerfully greeted Ms. Jeong who smiled with equal amiability. His virtual lessons had been going incredibly well, they had become the highlight of his week and Sangwoo had gone up an entire letter grade in her class. 

It was impossible for him to forget the material they had studied when he associated it with Bum on his knees diligently sucking him off. 

He took his usual seat by Jieun and greeted her, she impassively muttered a hello and stared into nothing with this far away look in her eyes. It was a little concerning and Sangwoo thought to ask her if everything was alright when Ms. Jeong stood in front of the classroom and started to present her lesson for the day.

“Okay class, if you recall last week's lesson we had discussed 9th century England and its literature, and well, you can’t really talk about 9th century England without bringing up their mortal enemies, the ruthless Vikings.”

Sangwoo’s ears perked at the word ‘ruthless’. 

“You see, the Vikings would conquer and pillage English villages and would often torture their unfortunate victims,” Ms. Jeong lectured. Torture, now that was a word that brought Sangwoo’s heart rate up, he was more than interested to see where this was going.

“One of their most brutal methods of torture was recorded in Viking Sagas and occurred sometime during the 800’s to around the 1000’s. It was called…’The Blood Eagle’.”

Sangwoo shivered at the mere mention of the blood eagle without even knowing what it entailed. It had a gorgeously barbaric ring to it, he couldn’t wait until she actually described it, hoping it was as fearsome as its name implied.

“There is one story in particular, a story of death and vengeance that perfectly showcases the effectiveness of the blood eagle when looking to inflict unimaginable suffering on one's enemies.” 

Ms. Jeong stalked about the room with a menacing intensity, leaning into her disturbed student’s spaces to add a dramatic touch to the violent and bloody history she recounted. 

Where was this Jeong earlier in the school year? The way her eyes glinted when she spoke about unimaginable suffering was bewitching to Sangwoo.

“King Ælla of Northumbria had invoked the wrath of Ivarr the Boneless when he had his father, Ragnarr Lothbrok, thrown into a pit of snakes to die a gruesome death. In order to avenge his father, Ivarr offered Ælla as a sacrifice to the Norse god Odin by carving a blood eagle on his back...” 

Sangwoo raised his hand and waved it frantically, “Ms. Jeong, and then what happened!?” 

Ms. Jeong raised an eyebrow and smirked, “Impatient are we, Mr. Oh? I was just about to get to that,” she cleared her throat and continued.

“The blood eagle was one of the cruelest ways to torture someone. They would restrain the arms and legs and place the poor soul on their stomachs while the executioner would carve a grisly wound into their backs from their tailbone up to their shoulders with a sharp blade, like an axe, exposing the ribs and internal organs such as the lungs and intestines.” 

The entire class groaned and grimaced in repulsion, retreating further into their seats while Sangwoo leaned forward, listening intently.

“But that’s not all ladies and gentlemen, once the ribs were exposed they would crack them off of the backbone and pull them outward so they stuck out from the sides, then they would also pull out the lungs from the body and position them over the ribs so they looked like a bloody pair of wings! That wasn’t even the worse part, all of this was done while the victim was alive...sometimes the Vikings would even pour salt on the open wound, isn't that crazy?” Ms. Jeong gushed as her hands shook frenetically.

Everyone else just gawked at her overzealous rant without saying anything, hoping she would stop on her own. Sangwoo stood up and applauded, “That...was amazing Ms. Jeong! Thank you for that mind-blowing lesson!!” 

The class, including Jieun, thought he was simply being sarcastic, that he would turn around a second later and ridicule her for being such a sick freak. But then he walked to the front of the classroom and wrapped his arms around her, “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!” 

Ms. Jeong laughed nervously in Sangwoo’s embrace, “Why, of course, Sangwoo.”

Sangwoo went back to his seat and turned to Jieun, “That’s it, that’s the way Yoon dies, as a sacrifice to Odin...when I turn him into a glorious blood eagle ...” he whispered.

Jieun snapped out of her mysterious melancholy and gawked without questioning him. His eyes were wide open but his pupils were tiny blips, barely there. 

His whole body seemed to thrum with insatiable bloodlust. He then exhaled with a heavy sigh before his voice rumbled lowly, “The Blood Eagle…”

********************************

It was after dinner and Sangwoo held Bum on the couch while they watched television. He cherished those morsels of domesticity when Bum’s fatty cheek would rest on his arm and Bum would slowly doze off. 

Sangwoo could just look at him for hours, he looked like a fragile doll with ivory skin, jet black hair, and long eyelashes.“How could anyone defile something so beautiful?” He thought to himself. 

He would make Coach Yoon suffer immensely for what he had done to his helpless baby bird. Which reminded him, he should probably tell Bum the good news of his uncle’s impending execution.

“Guess what I learned at school today Bumi,” Sangwoo said as he twirled Bum’s hair around his finger. 

“What, Woo?” Bum asked inquisitively. 

“Have you ever heard of the blood eagle?” 

Bum shook his head briskly, “Uh-uh…” 

Sangwoo held him closer, “Well baby, it’s this sick-ass Viking thing where you tie someone up by their hands and feet, and then you cut their back open and expose their ribs…” Bum furrowed his brows slightly. 

“Wait, that’s not even the coolest part, then you pull the ribs out of the open wound on their back and when you’re done you pull their lungs out too and wrap ‘em around the ribs so it looks like bloody wings, neat right!?” 

Sangwoo waited for Bum to agree, but he instead sheepishly murmured, “Huh...yeah Woo, I guess that is pretty interesting.”

Sangwoo gave out a slight huff, “It’s not only interesting Bum, it's the worst pain anyone could ever experience...did I mention it’s done on someone while they’re wide awake? Could you imagine the hell that must be? Could you imagine the hell your uncle will be in when I turn him into a blood eagle?” 

Bum shouted a staccato “What?!”

 “What do you mean ‘when you turn him into a blood eagle’?! Sangwoo, you can’t be serious. I never want to see that man again but I don’t want you to actually kill him.”

Truthfully, Bum couldn’t care less about his uncle's well-being, but there was something about having his lover kill him, one of his last surviving relatives, that felt fundamentally wrong. 

The Yoon family had lost enough members over the years and Bum didn’t want to contribute to that death toll anymore than he had attempted to already with himself. 

The faded scars on his wrist were a testament of his former willingness to end his cursed bloodline, before the thought of his parents and how they would feel if they were still alive made him move on to other, less obviously destructive, coping mechanisms.

The cuts were the reason he would wear his white sweater nearly everyday throughout his adolescence, rain or shine, in sweltering heat, it didn’t matter. 

Sangwoo didn’t even know Bum used to self-harm until they reconnected, before then he would tell the naive boy he had had a run in with an angry cat he had tried to pet and Sangwoo, in his charming yet exasperating innocence, believed him. 

Bum felt telling him the truth about his scars was the least he could do after Sangwoo opened up to him about his murders. 

When Bum had shared that part of his past with him, Sangwoo had taken his wrist into his hand and pressed his lips against the part of Bum that Bum himself felt was the ugliest, inexplicably making it feel a lot more acceptable that those scars were a part of him. 

It was a pleasant memory that was unfortunately contrasted against the present reality where Sangwoo was raving about carving his uncle like a turkey. 

Bum couldn’t help but frown, wishing he could summon that Sangwoo, the calm, loving, placid Sangwoo he lived with 99 percent of the time. He wanted to live peacefully now that he was out of his uncle’s place, and he feared Sangwoo would turn the peace they had found into chaos after killing his uncle. 

It would be obvious who had done it after they would inevitably discover that Bum, the victim’s nephew, lived with the man his uncle had accused of murder. The links would be too strong to ignore. 

Bum wondered if Sangwoo could just control himself and live a normal life for both their sakes, after everything Bum had done for him: cooked for him, cleaned for him, lied for him, kissed his teacher’s ass to keep him from being held back, all for Sangwoo. Surely, it wasn’t too much to ask for him to abstain from hacking people to death.

He remembered he had told Sangwoo that he would tolerate his bloodlust, but Bum still held out hope that a part of him would start to prioritize their life together over his violent new hobby. 

Would it kill him to think before killing someone?

Sangwoo’s confused look at Bum’s ever-changing facial expressions turned into a scowl, “Hey, what are you freaking out about? I thought you said I could kill whoever I wanted as long as I let you know…besides, I’m doing it for you, remember?”

Bum sighed and muttered something under his breath. 

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you,” Sangwoo questioned with a noticeable edge.

“I said,” Bum turned to glare at him, “Your bar for what counts as ‘doing it for me’ is pretty damn low.” He continued, “I bet you’d be more than happy to shove your knife into the mailman if he happened to touch my hand by accident, it's why I never open the door for packages anymore; I don’t want to be the reason somebody dies.” 

“First of all, it’s obvious that the mailman wants to shove his dick in you, have you seen the way that bastard ogles your ass?” Sangwoo retorted.

“Are you kidding me? You think the mailman wants to fuck me while you’re still in denial about Jieun desperately wanting you to fuck her brains out?” Bum wrenched himself out of Sangwoo’s arms. 

“Is that what this is about? Jieun!?” Sangwoo scoffed and wondered why Bum was being so difficult. He was only trying to make sure he was safe from the lecherous perverts of the world. 

He was hyper aware of every man within a 10 meter radius of Bum, they all stared at him like a piece of meat waiting to put their filthy hands all over him. If it weren’t for Sangwoo’s vigilance and protection, Bum could have ended up in a ditch somewhere by now.

“No, it’s not about Jieun. It just isn’t fair that you get to go outside everyday and fuck around with your little friend while I’m cooped up at home all day!” Bum felt trapped in a cage, it wasn’t even a gilded cage, it was Sangwoo’s crummy little apartment which was similar to where he himself had grown up, it was no upgrade. 

Sangwoo’s possessiveness was stifling, he wouldn’t even allow Bum to get a job. He would recite some bullshit about not wanting Bum to ‘flaunt himself in front of middle-aged men’. 

They have been living off of Sangwoo’s father’s meager savings, the cash found between his mattress and box spring. With the unpaid bills and “past due” notices piling up, their utilities would be turned off in no time. 

Bum wondered if he wasn’t allowed to get a job wouldn’t it make more sense for Sangwoo to forget about murdering people and look for one himself before they ended up living on the street?

“Of course you can’t fucking go outside! What if your uncle sees you? What will you do then when I’m not around?” 

Sangwoo wished Bum could see it from his perspective, his uncle probably wanted to drag him back to his shitty little apartment by his hair and there would be nothing he could do about it. His uncle was at least twice his weight, he stood no chance. 

Bum had no reason to complain, Sangwoo made sure he didn’t even have to work, he just got to stay at home all day where he would laze around the apartment and eat. 

He would watch Bum through the hidden frog camera and he would lay on the couch and watch dramas from dawn until sundown, when he would hastily make dinner before Sangwoo came home. He didn’t even comment on the noticeable decline in the quality of dinner because he didn’t want to offend Bum.

“Can’t you just get me a can of mace or something? I’m older than you, I can handle myself!” Bum huffed. “Also, why do you always get to cum? Would it kill you to reciprocate a little more?”

Sangwoo crossed his arms in a state of deep offense, “What do you mean I don’t reciprocate? I’ve made you cum plenty of times!!”

“Yeah, I cum, like, once for every five times you do! Do you know how annoying it is when you bitch about your jaw or your hand hurting after ten minutes...after I’ve blown you nonstop for forty?! God, and will you just put it in me already? I haven’t had actual sex in three months!” Bum shrieked.

Sangwoo looked up and off to the side, calculating times and dates off of the words ‘three months’. The sudden revelation left him infuriated. 

“Three months?...Fucking three months!? You’ve only been back for a little over two months, who the hell have you been letting stick their cock in you?” he snarled.

“None of your damn business…” Bum quipped. “Besides, we weren’t even together back then! What? Did you expect me to just stay sexless for two years just because I blew you one time?!”

Sangwoo seemed poised to punch a hole in the wall, “Yes Bum, I did!! I stayed loyal to you and only you for two years. I waited because I wanted our first time together to be special…” He looked down at the ground and heaved a bitter sigh.

“So that’s what your uncle was talking about when he asked if two years worth of cock in the military wasn’t enough for you... whore,” Sangwoo spat before he was jolted by a slap to the face.

Bum looked at him wide eyed and trembling, “What the fuck did you just say? How did you know he said that?” 

He held a hand to his cheek, “I...I saw it.”

“Saw what?” Bum said.

“You and your uncle…” Sangwoo mumbled.

Bum sat there, speechless, when Sangwoo stood up and walked over to the plush frog by the kitchen table and tapped the center of it’s tiny black bow tie. 

“With this…” he said as he pulled out his phone and opened an app, the screen displayed a video of his finger tapping against the camera with Bum’s disturbed expression in the background.

“I...I can’t fucking believe it,” Bum’s tone was despondent. “You...you saw the whole thing...in real time...and you didn’t do anything?” He slumped against the couch and stared off into space.

Sangwoo tensed at his words, shame wrapped its tendrils around his chest and squeezed hard enough to leave him breathless. He spoke softly, “Bum...I...I was going to kill-”

“What does it matter if he’s dead after the fact when you could have stopped it from happening in the first place…” Bum said without any emotion, still giving off a vacant stare.

“I’m sorry...I-” 

“I need to go.” Bum stood up and walked to the bedroom. He began to pack the few belongings he had into his rucksack.

Sangwoo trailed behind him and begged Bum to stay, he prostrated himself at Bum’s feet and sobbed into the carpet.

“Bum...oh my God, I’m so sorry...I’m a piece of shit, a miserable, lying, psychopathic, selfish piece of shit! I’ll do anything. I don’t care if you’ve slept with other guys, we can have sex right now if you want and I promise I won’t kill your uncle, just please...don’t go!” 

“You forgot perverted…” Bum added.

“What?...” Sangwoo whimpered as he lifted his head to look at Bum.

“You’re also a perverted piece of shit, I can’t believe you bought one of those nanny cam dolls just to spy on me. Also, I know about the underwear...and the pillow with my face on it...found it while cleaning the room,” Bum regarded him impassively.

Sangwoo just laid there in a prone position, incapacitated and in great pain, like Bum had carved a blood eagle onto his back. He only blinked with his mouth agape, tears staining his cheeks.

Bum had all his things tucked into his rucksack, “We’re done Sangwoo, with everything. Please, never contact me again.” Bum’s face was blank but his voice still wavered. He walked out of the bedroom and seemed to pause, giving Sangwoo an infinitesimal amount of hope that he would stay, only to have it crushed when he heard the front door close a moment later.   

Chapter Text

All Jieun could think of the past few days was Sangwoo, how electric he looked when he spoke about slicing Coach Yoon’s back open and pulling out his ribs and lungs out through his spine. The feral look in his eyes, it was beautiful, almost majestic. 

She was drawn to Sangwoo for the same reason people were drawn to horror films and shark documentaries. There was something exciting about danger, it’s just that normal people usually kept it at that, but she had just become addicted to it the closer she got to Sangwoo, seeing him at his peak.

Seeing him with Bum turned her off so much, it began to disgust her. She had hoped Bum would have been scared off by Sangwoo admitting he was a murderer, but if anything it looked like that brought them closer together. 

She hadn’t seen Sangwoo for three days and wondered if he just gave up on being a separate entity from Bum and decided to just stay home and cling to him for eternity; the idea enraged her. 

Jieun remembered a documentary about the ocean where it was said that the male angler fish attached themselves to their mates, melding with them until they became little more than an appendage used for storing gametes. She shuddered, surprised by how dark and strange her thoughts were starting to veer.

She wondered what would happen if she anonymously let Coach Yoon know where his nephew was, would he threaten his life and send him away after violently raping him to the point of bleeding? Then Sangwoo would really make a mess out of Yoon Chanwook. 

All this wading in theoretics did nothing to quell the burning curiosity Jieun had. What was Sangwoo’s true potential? What could he become if everything that held him back was suddenly removed from his way. 

She couldn’t take it anymore, she had to see him. She needed to remind him of who he was, who he is. Jieun was done trying to stop him. It was almost as cruel as keeping a tiger caged and expecting it to play by the arbitrary rules society had imposed upon it instead of allowing it to fully embrace its predatory nature.

She wanted him to embrace what he truly was, Yoon Bum be damned. She wanted him to push past his limits with each kill, refine his skills, and show her how the art and science of murder intersected to create a masterpiece. But most of all, she wanted him to be happy. 

He had suffered enough throughout his short life and she truly believed he was a beautiful person inside and out, despite the homicidal tendencies. He only slaughtered the wicked, he was doing the world a favor. 

He deserved happiness and true unconditional love, not the parody of devotion Bum offered him when he made it evident that he didn’t really embrace each side of Sangwoo, he merely tolerated the dark parts.

She resolved to visit him after school that day with the excuse of dropping off homework assignments for him. She really did have the assignments, Ms. Jeong seemed worried when she asked if Jieun had heard from Sangwoo or his cousin at all during the last few days and suggested she check in on them just to make sure everything was fine before she passed Jieun Sangwoo’s assignments.

So there she stood, in front of Sangwoo’s apartment door like she had that first night, in what felt like years ago when in reality it was little more than a few months. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door, no answer. She knocked again, still no answer. 

She was starting to worry, had Bum done something that pushed him over the edge, had he done what he believed was unthinkable, and in his regret, decided to follow Bum. She now knocked in rapid succession, her panic growing with each second her knocks went unanswered until someone finally flung the door open.

He was a hollowed-out shell of a man, bleary eyed and lethargic. Ragged stubble grew on his chin and his hair was a greasy two-toned catastrophe that stuck out in some places and clumped together in others. 

He had answered the door with a menacing snarl and an emphatic “What?!” but when he registered who it was in front of him he immediately flung himself at her in an awkward embrace due to their height difference. 

Sangwoo began to whimper against Jieun’s shoulder, “Jieun...he….sniff...he left me…” he choked while trying to suppress a sob.

He smelled pretty awful, like he hadn’t showered or brushed his teeth in days. Jieun would have kicked any other person in such a state of deterioration on the shin if they tried to touch her like that, but there was something about Sangwoo allowing her to be there at his most vulnerable state that she found endearing. 

She then realized why he was in such a state...he was finally free of Bum. It must have been painful but she wanted him to see the bright side, what left him in agony now would be better for him in the long run.

Her lips turned up in a smug grin as he continued to whimper on her shoulder. “Come on Sangwoo, let’s talk about this inside,” she said in a soothing tone. “Okay…” he croaked. 

The living room was a mess of upturned furniture, fast food wrappers, and other miscellaneous trash on the floor. It was also sweltering and pitch black. 

“God...what the hell happened here, why is it so dark?” Jieun asked as she glanced around the room. 

“The power was cut off, I don’t have enough money to pay the electric bill, or the water bill...so no showers, I can’t brush my teeth, and I wouldn’t try to use the toilet if I were you,” he said with a sigh. 

Jieun leaned to the side to avoid his breath. “Why didn’t you tell me? Here give me that bill over there!” He hesitated, mortified with the idea of a woman paying his utility bills but Jieun managed to snatch them out of his hands anyway.

“Jieun, you don’t have to do this…” he said, trying to talk her out of it.

“Nonsense, I can’t let you live like this...it’s a pig-sty and you look and smell disgusting, it’s more for me than for you,” She dismissed him, called the companies and provided them with her debit card number.

As soon as she hung up the light flickered on and the air-conditioner started to hum, “There, welcome back to civilized society,” she chirped. Sangwoo gave her a faint smile, “Thanks…” 

“Of course, now for God’s sake take a shower, brush your teeth, and flush the fucking toilet, I can smell it from here.” Jieun pinched her nose between two fingers and gagged comically earning her a chuckle from Sangwoo.

He showered and entered the living room in nothing but a towel, he felt comfortable enough around Jieun for it to not matter to him. He noticed as soon as he stepped foot in the living room that Jieun had placed the overturned furniture in their correct spots, picked up the garbage and papers off of the floor, and vacuumed the entire area. 

Sangwoo was touched but embarrassed, he must have been pretty pathetic to get her to feel sorry enough for him to do all of that.

Jieun popped out from the kitchen with a bowl of soup, “Here, I learned from our cook, you should eat something other than fast foo-” She was stopped in her tracks at the sight of water droplets slowly sliding down Sangwoo’s toned pectorals and abs, his wet hair was parted to the side and he hadn’t shaved his stubble leaving him ruggedly handsome.

He looked down at his towel, “My bad, should I change?” his tone showing he was oblivious to Jieun’s impure thoughts. “N-n-no, you’re fine...I mean it’s fine.” Flustered, she set the bowl of soup on the coffee table in front of them. 

“So, start from the beginning,” she stated calmly after gathering herself, “what happened with Bum?” 

The mention of his name made Sangwoo’s eyes water, he inhaled deeply and recounted the entire story. How he told Bum about the blood eagle and how he was planning on doing it to his uncle, how Bum reacted negatively to his plans and lashed out about everything from Jieun to their sex life. His revelation of having seen what his uncle had done being the final straw, prompting Bum to pack his belongings and leave.

Jieun wasn’t even surprised, she knew Bum would break eventually. The whole act of accepting Sangwoo’s murders was as weak and transparent as tissue paper. But she was pleasantly surprised that Sangwoo didn’t suggest cutting off all contact with her in order to appease Bum, at least he had shown some backbone against him, as opposed to rolling over and submitting as he was trained to do.

“I think I’m going to have to cancel the whole blood eagle thing…it sucks because I was really looking forward to it…” Sangwoo mused in disappointment.

“No, you can’t!” Jieun protested.

“Why? I have no reason to end him now that Bum and I aren’t together anymore.” Sangwoo cocked his head in confusion.

“Who says everything you do has to have something to do with Bum?” Jieun threw him a steely gaze, “Why can’t you do it because you want to end the bastard?...just because.” 

Sangwoo faced her stunned, “Weren’t you the one always trying to get me to stop?”

“Well, I was wrong.” Jieun kneeled down between Sangwoo’s legs, he didn’t know how to react with her in such an intimate position. “Sangwoo,” she said as she looked at him with her eyes half-open, “you’re meant to kill, not for Bum, not for me, but for you…”

Her velvety words brought a chill down his spine, she was giving him free reign to be who he was, to kill for the sake of killing. The prospect brought him excitement that manifested in an increased heart rate and an erection that poked through his flimsy towel.

Jieun noticed the bulge underneath the towel and decided to take advantage of the situation. She would probably never get another opportunity like this again, she would risk it. 

She jumped at him and crashed their lips together when he suddenly flinched and pulled back, landing a blow across her face with a closed fist. It hurt and she could taste the blood from her nose making its way onto her lips but when she looked at Sangwoo, he showed no trace of anger or malice in his expression, he just looked stunned. 

Jieun chuckled briskly, “Sorry for just jumping at you like that, you must think I’m some kind of bitch in heat...but the truth is, it’s so much more than that. I want to take care of your needs...not only your physical needs but...your spiritual needs too, I know death is in your nature...I want to help you.”

Sangwoo’s gaze softened and he brought his hand to Jieun’s face, seeming pleased when she didn’t flinch. He played with the blood dripping from her nose, painted upturned lines at the corners of her mouth and gazed tenderly at her, “Let’s do it then, let’s turn Yoon into a blood eagle...just because.”

Jieun returned his smile, accentuating the blood smile he had drawn on her face. “Sangwoo,” she murmured softly, “Can I?” She lightly tugged at the towel, which still sported a prominent erection underneath. 

Sangwoo hesitated but ultimately, nodded his head slowly. Jieun removed the towel and allowed herself to bask in the glory of his magnificent member, coveted by nearly every girl at her school, she was the only one worthy of this honor. 

She started sucking on the head, making sure to savor the bead of pre-cum that had already developed. Sangwoo groaned in response, melting as he released the tension in his shoulders. 

She then took more of him into her mouth, her tongue swirling around the circumference of the shaft, she delighted in the texture of delicate flesh against her tongue. 

Saliva had started to run down Sangwoo’s penis and Jieun firmly gripped it and pumped away as he moaned and bucked against her hand, into her throat. She hollowed out her cheeks and applied steady suction while continuing to run her tongue up and down the shaft. 

She relished in the noises Sangwoo was making, strained grunts, and soft moans. 

She was then caught by surprise when he lifted her onto the couch and removed her pants, she braced herself for an intense stretching sensation. She was soaking wet but he was still huge and inexperienced, she feared he would try to impale her in one go. 

He then scooted his body to the other end of the couch and brought his mouth to her labia and ran his tongue up and down the lips, making sure to mix his saliva with her fluids. 

He moved his tongue at random not really knowing where to go, she figured he hadn’t had that much experience giving oral sex to a woman so she made sure to praise him when he landed on a spot she liked. 

He had landed on her clitoris by chance and Jieun praised him with a heady moan, “Right there Sangwoo..mmm...fuck...that feels so fucking good, you’re amazing.” 

Something about her praise drove him wild, he suddenly began swirling his tongue in circles on top of her clit, varying the pressure and speed he applied based on Jieun’s moans and sighs. 

He figured out he could get her to moan in high pitched gasps and make her legs tremble if he swiped his broad tongue from side to side on her most sensitive spot. “Ohh...yes, there...f-faster.”

She tensed her thighs and came harder than she ever had in her life, nearly dying when Sangwoo made sure to suck and lap up the fluids she let off as she came. 

After coming down from her orgasm, she grabbed onto his shoulders and had him sit upright. She then straddled him and lined up the entrance of her still throbbing vagina with his cock. 

“Wait,” he panted, “I want it to be special…” Jieun made a disgruntled face, “Are you still hung up on that? Look, I’m on the pill if that’s what you’re worried about...and I haven’t been with anybody else in foreve-” 

“That’s not it,” he said with a romantic gleam in his eye, “I want it to be right after we kill Yoon.” He planted a chaste kiss on her lips, she couldn’t get over how fucking adorable he could be for a bloodthirsty serial killer.

“Deal, how about I do this in the meantime?” She gave him a devilish grin and removed her shirt and bra, exposing her bountiful breasts. 

Sangwoo was amazed at how beautiful he found them, they looked soft yet firm, they were set perfectly on her chest, and her nipples were perky and pink. He couldn’t believe he never noticed them until now. 

She brought her mouth around his penis again and made sure to coat the entire length in thick, slippery saliva. 

When satisfied with the wetness she sandwiched his cock between her breasts and bounced on her knees. Sangwoo gasped at how good it felt, her chest was so soft and warm, watching his cock slip between her breasts as she massaged it was incredibly erotic. 

She would periodically lick and spit at the head between thrusts adding more lubrication, Sangwoo was already delirious as he began to desperately thrust against Jieun’s movements, “You like that?” she giggled, “Perfect, I want to make you feel good, you deserve it, you know. You’re a god.” 

A god? He had never been called that before. It brought him all kinds of euphoria, looking down at Jieun as she smothered his cock between her gorgeous tits, as she was looking up at him with the reverence one would bestow upon a god; with unquestionable devotion. 

Sangwoo couldn’t hold back anymore he wildly trusted into her cleavage, “Jieun...I’m close...I’m gonna cum…”

“Cum for me, Sangwoo.” She opened her mouth graciously to receive his seed. Sangwoo thrusted upward holding himself up with his arms against the couch and cried out roughly as he came on Jieun’s mouth and face. 

The white from his semen mixing with the red blood dripping from her nose, she looked like a work of art with splashes of white, pink, and red scattered across her countenance, the perfect marriage of eroticism and violence. He couldn’t resist kissing her passionately, smudging her canvas with his sweat.

He brought her up to the couch with him and laid their naked bodies against each other. She sighed contentedly and began to speak, “You know…” she slowly turned her chest against his, “I was thinking, why stop at Yoon Chanwook?”

Sangwoo looked at her in confusion, “What do you mean?” 

“What I mean is, if we’re talking about killing Yoons here, isn’t there one particular member of the Yoon family who did you the dirtiest? Who abandoned you not once, but twice.” 

Sangwoo’s breath started to hitch.

Jieun brought her lips to Sangwoo’s ear, “Shouldn't we also kill, Yoon Bum?”

He swallowed roughly, she noticed the soft quivering of his lower lip and his eyes slowly welling up with tears. It annoyed the shit out of her that he still showed a weakness that was so out of character for him when it came to Bum. 

Sangwoo exhaled sharply and faced her with a crooked smile, tears starting to run down his cheeks, “Let’s do it...first Yoon Chanwook...then...Yoon Bum.” His laugh contained a nervous giddiness, “I’ll rip out Chanwook’s lungs, and then I’ll rip out Bum’s heart...just like he did to mine.”

Chapter Text

Bum laid there with his legs spread apart as the man he had brought from the club rammed into him with little regard for Bum’s enjoyment of the whole experience. 

The man was significantly older, his pot belly and white body hair grazed against Bum’s body, causing irritation to his sensitive skin with each thrust. 

The bored expression on Bum’s face suggested he would rather be doing literally anything else but he needed this man’s money for food and another night in the dirty motel room he was staying at. 

“Oh yeah…mmm...yeah...so good…” Bum attempted to moan but it came out in a dispassionate monotone. 

“Yeah, you like that don’t you, baby boy,” the man grunted on top of him. Bum cringed over the man’s shoulder, baby boy as a pet name was a little too on-the-nose considering he was young enough to be this man’s grandson.

He wished he was underneath Sangwoo instead. Bum cursed himself for being so fickle sometimes, everything could be going perfectly fine with someone romantically or platonically until the one day it didn’t for whatever reason and he would split them to black and cut them out of his life. 

He regretted leaving so hastily, he was sure he could have worked things out with Sangwoo. 

What could Sangwoo have done while he was being violated anyway? Call the police and tell them he was watching someone get raped through a hidden camera?

Of course, Bum found Sangwoo’s spying creepy and inappropriate but he was no angel himself. He would rummage through Sangwoo’s things and read his notebooks, usually filled with romantic ramblings but sometimes they contained things that Sangwoo must have felt were too personal to even share with Bum. 

He would write about his mother, his crushing loneliness, his many insecurities. Sangwoo was a lot like Bum in that regard, which was why they had gotten along so well for so long, but Bum had thrown it all away when he told him never to contact him again.

The old man was getting close, he was thrusting into him erratically. It was a relief to Bum, he just wanted it to be over with. He tried to think about how amazing it felt when Sangwoo would take him into his mouth, eagerly trying to please him with an endearing willingness to do whatever Bum said made him feel good. 

He tried visualizing Sangwoo’s body above him, with his golden brown skin taut against his irresistible musculature, the image had Bum moaning in earnest until he was brought back to his dismal reality by a salty sweat droplet falling off of the man’s brow and into Bum’s eye. “Shit,” Bum hissed. 

The man must have thought Bum’s utterance was a sign of pleasure because he began to gloat as he huffed, “Yeah...that’s right baby boy, you love Daddy’s cock.” 

“Daddy?…” Bum needed this to be over sooner rather than later so he abandoned his dignity and moaned in an over-the-top fashion, “Oohhhh, yes Daddy~ please, please cum…” 

That was thankfully enough to get the man over the threshold and he pulled out and came onto Bum’s chest, “At least he was considerate enough not to do it inside,” Bum thought.

“Damn, baby boy,” the man panted while wiping the sweat off his greasy brow, “Here, get yourself something nice.” He handed Bum 80,000 won. 

Bum smiled brightly, “For me? Oh Daddy, you’re so nice!” he said with a put upon tone of gratitude. It was enough for two nights at the motel with a little left over for food, he would take what he could get. 

Bum went to buy groceries from the only place he was able to afford them, the run-down convenience store by the street corner near his motel. He picked up the essentials, liters of water, assorted snack foods, alcohol, and cigarettes. 

As he made his way past the beverages he noticed there was a two for one sale on lemonade. The neatly lined glass bottles brought a bittersweet nostalgia with them, Bum was tempted to purchase some and maybe leave one outside Sangwoo’s door as some kind of peace offering. 

He wondered if Sangwoo would even have a clue of who had left it if he did.

His hopeless romantic musings were cut short when he noticed a gruff voice ordering a carton of cigarettes at the cash register. “It can’t be,” Bum thought, “I’m imagining things.” 

He hid behind the aisle, his heart racing as he waited for them to leave. He was sure it wasn’t his uncle but figured he could never be too careful. He had stayed there, frozen in place, pressed against the aisle for what felt like hours when in actuality it couldn’t have been more than a handful of minutes. He hadn’t heard the voice in a while and thought maybe it was his paranoid mind playing tricks on him. 

Bum slowly poked his head out of the aisle to realize his face was uncomfortably close to someone else’s chest, a stained wife beater eclipsed his view. Bum’s eyes travelled up the grimy article to lock eyes with none other than the devil himself. 

“Bum?...” his uncle questioned incredulously, like he had just seen the ghost of someone long dead. 

Bum felt nauseous all of a sudden, he regretted being so stubborn when it came to Sangwoo’s concerns about him going outside on his own, he had dismissed them as overbearing and unfounded but there was, his worst case scenario staring him in the face. 

His uncle’s face contorted into a wild sneer, “It really is you,” he balked, “I’m going to make you regret your little escapade when we get home.”

“N-n-no...stay the hell away from me,” Bum’s voice trembled. 

“Awww, my sweet little nephew, that’s no way to greet family, is it?” his uncle growled as he grabbed on to Bum’s shoulder. 

Frantic, he dropped everything and wriggled out of his jacket, leaving his uncle holding on to it as he sped out through the back door. 

“Come back here, you little cunt!” his uncle strained as he received stares from the store’s other customers.

Bum ran through streets, weaving through the labyrinth of alleyways hoping to lose his uncle in the shuffle. He still heard his uncle’s heavy footsteps and heavy breathing behind him at all times. 

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this,” his uncle panted, “Even thought of going straight to that bastard Sangwoo’s house and dragging you home.”

Bum desperately searched for something he could use to defend himself, a wooden plank tossed in the trash had potential. His uncle appeared from the shadows, “Stop playing hard to get, it’s only going to make it that much sweeter for me when I turn that ass inside out,” his uncle brayed crudely. 

Bum shrieked and launched the plank in his uncle’s direction, his heart sank when it completely missed its target. His uncle just stared at the plank and doubled over in laughter, mocking how pathetic Bum’s lack of aim was. 

Bum took it as an opportunity to put some distance between them and ran as fast as he could. He found a tight space to hide in between a wall and a dumpster, he had never been more grateful for his skeletal physique. 

Bum squeezed himself into the cramped space and found a half shattered beer bottle by his side. He vowed to swing indiscriminately if he needed to, completely disregarding his previous qualms over killing his uncle. This was about more than vengeance, this was about survival.

He heard his uncle around the corner, “Hey, whatever happened with you and that murderous piece of shit anyway, what, he pump and dump you?” 

Bum felt rage subtly bubble up from within him, Sangwoo would never discard him so callously, if anything he had cherished Bum to a fault. The fat bastard had no right to speak about him that way. 

“Figures,” his uncle snorted, “he’s been following that Min Jieun girl around like a lovesick puppy.” 

“That couldn’t be true,” Bum thought, “he’s just trying to get to me, Sangwoo has no interest in Jieun.” Still, the thought of Sangwoo moving on to Jieun hurt him much more than he expected. 

“Good for him, I guess he wanted to fuck actual pussy,” his uncle’s voice sounded like it was getting nearer. Bum wondered if Sangwoo really could move on so soon after he left, he had waited so patiently for Bum for two years. Was it ridiculous to expect him to continue to stay loyal for even longer? 

Picturing him with Jieun made Bum feel sick, he wanted to hurt himself. It was his fault he was in this situation in the first place, he would give anything just to close his eyes and wake up from this nightmare in Sangwoo’s arms. 

He wished he was home, not in the dirty little motel room he inhabited, but wherever Sangwoo was, because to Bum, that was the closest he had ever felt to home. He softly whimpered into his knees. 

“Aha! There you are! Holy shit, how did you get in there? You scrawny fuck,” his uncle peered through the crack and attempted to shove his meaty arm in to drag Bum out by his hair. “C’mon...ugh...get your ass over here...little cunt.” His uncle began to get closer and closer, pushing himself into the tight space. 

Bum crawled further back into the space, tears streaming down his face “Why won’t you just leave me alone? Don’t you get it? I hate you, I want nothing to do with you…” he sobbed. 

His uncle just cackled in response, “Because I fucking own you, you don’t get to just leave me for someone else like your whore mother. Besides, you don’t even have anyone else, Sangwoo tossed you aside like the rotten garbage you are...he finally realized just how worthless you are and upgraded!” 

“No he didn’t motherfucker, shut the fuck up!” Bum screeched in a high pitched wail, gripping the shattered glass and allowing it to pierce his own skin. 

Bum’s uncle continued to laugh, “Disgusting, disposable whore, only good until something better comes along!” His bitter laughter boomed within the tiny crevice until an animalistic shriek pierced through the noise.

Bum’s uncle suddenly ceased laughing and grasped at his side, a sharp pain shot through him and he lifted his bloodied hand to his face in horror. The glass shard was lodged deep into him and he couldn’t move as he was also lodged deep in the space between the dumpster and the wall. 

“Miserable cunt…” his uncle hissed, “You better get me the fuck out of here before I decide to slit your throat with your little toy here,” he said as he awkwardly pointed to his side with one finger while the rest of him was stationary.

Bum simply gawked at him, in awe of what he was capable of when pushed far enough. “What the fuck are you waiting for, Bum?” his uncle growled. 

Bum crouched there a little longer, soaking up the image of the man who had caused him so much suffering rendered helpless. His uncle looked like a fly that got stuck in flypaper, it was pathetic. Bum decided he had had his fill and began to crawl out to the other end of the dumpster.

“Bum...where are you going?” his uncle asked nervously, “You’re not leaving me here are you? Bum? Bum!” Bum squeezed out of the crack and brushed the dirt off his clothes. He took one final look at his uncle with a bland expression and slowly turned away, he knew the adrenaline would wear out soon and he needed to be near a bed before his knees gave out. 

“Bum! I was playing around when I called you a whore! C’mon, can’t you tell I was only kidding? Bum!” his uncle called out after him, squirming against the walls he was sandwiched between. “Please Bum!” he groaned weakly as Bum disappeared behind a corner.

********************************

Bum sat in bed while his body trembled, it had been that way for more than an hour now. He was exhausted but it was not like he could just sleep, every time he closed his eyes, his uncle’s menacing sneer would be projected onto the back of his eyelids and he would have to relive the sheer terror all over again. 

He didn’t think the glass shard he stabbed his uncle with had killed him, if anything it would make his uncle even more vicious the next time Bum might encounter him. 

He realized he would never be able to live a life free from fear as long as his uncle was alive, even if Bum eventually decided to leave town or even leave the country he would always feel that gut-wrenching dread that his uncle was out there somewhere; he was out there waiting for the perfect time to take Bum away and destroy him. 

He wanted to cry, he was so close to permanent freedom, Sangwoo was going to remove the stain on humanity that was his uncle for him. 

“Safety,” he corrected himself, Bum would probably never have complete freedom under Sangwoo, but after that encounter he was willing to curtail his freedom for the promise of safety.

He wondered if Sangwoo still planned to kill his uncle, he had killed Jungnam just because he needed to kill something and he had seemed so excited to perform the blood eagle on someone. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that Sangwoo would slaughter his uncle anyway.

Bum’s mind began to wander to the sensation of Sangwoo’s hand wrapped around his throat, “If you’d ever try to leave me...I would have to wrap my arms around you and never let go...until you stop breathing.”

He felt as if all the air had been squeezed out of his lungs and his mouth was filled with cotton. What if Sangwoo wasn’t planning to perform the blood eagle on his uncle anymore and was planning to do it on him instead? He would never be able to leave his shitty little motel room for as long as he lived.

He could probably outlive his uncle but Sangwoo was younger and stronger than he was, he had no chance of outliving him unless Sangwoo’s lifestyle ultimately led to an untimely death, but Bum didn’t want to count on that.

He just sat there with his thoughts, realizing with a sort of defeatist nihilism that no matter what he did, something horrible would eventually happen to him. Even if he decided to stay in the motel room for the rest of his life, was that even a life worth living? 

Bum just accepted the inevitability of his death, whether it was by Sangwoo’s hands or his own if his uncle ever caught him. A perverse part of him preferred dying from whatever Sangwoo decided to dish out; at least that murder would be committed, in part, due to love (or obsession). 

Anything Bum’s uncle did to him was motivated by the festering hatred he held for Bum’s parents and, by association, Bum.

He sighed and reached for his rucksack, from within it, he pulled out the green frog stuffed animal with it’s intrusive black bow tie. 

Bum had no idea why he decided to take that thing with him right before leaving, maybe it felt like a direct connection to Sangwoo, maybe part of him hoped Sangwoo would try to check in on him. Whatever it was, it was too complicated for him to reflect on at the moment so he decided to continue mindlessly digging through his possessions. He found his favorite white sweater at the bottom of the bag. 

Bum noticed it had gotten progressively duller and grayer over the years, he chuckled as it reminded him a bit of himself. From pure white and innocent, to dull gray and sullied. 

He thought about how things were when he was younger, did Sangwoo fall in love with that version of Bum and decide to hold on and never let go of that image? He was so different now, trying to fill the void his uncle had carved within him with distractions like substances, food, and sex. 

It bothered him when Sangwoo had called him a whore at the revelation that he had, in fact, had sex with other people while they were apart. Not because he was particularly sensitive to slut shaming but because it felt like Sangwoo had rejected something that was so ingrained in him now, it was like rejecting him in his entirety.

Perhaps that’s what Sangwoo felt when Bum expressed displeasure with his plans to kill his uncle, like he was rejecting something fundamental to Sangwoo himself. 

He felt a pang of guilt, realizing he could have reacted to Sangwoo excitedly gushing about his plans to pull his uncle’s lungs out a little better.

Dizzy with fatigue, Bum brought the stuffed frog into bed with him and breathed in the scent of Sangwoo’s home from it’s soft fluff, facing the camera toward his chest and drifting off to sleep.

Chapter Text

Sangwoo woke on a lazy Saturday morning to the smell of gardenias tickling his nostrils. Disoriented and groggy, he slowly turned his head from side to side to investigate where the scent had come from. 

He looked down to discover Jieun curled up next to him, the expensive shampoo in her hair being the source of the heady floral scent. 

It was the second night in a row she had slept over at his apartment, he was admittedly grateful for her presence, as it had taken a bit of the edge off agonizing over Bum. 

Still, just the thought of his name had brought Sangwoo pain akin to picking at an old wound and having it open up all over again.

Sangwoo was chomping at the bit to put down Coach Yoon like the sick dog he was, but he was less enthusiastic when it came to ending Bum. 

He remembered what his mother would tell him when she tried to get him to swallow bitter medicine as a child, “Sometimes the things we need the most don’t feel good today, but they’ll make you feel so much better tomorrow.”

It coincided with what Jieun said, about Bum leaving him being a good thing in the long run. Without him, Sangwoo was free to reach his full potential, kill whoever he wanted for whatever reason. 

He really wanted to believe that killing Bum would rid him of the emotional crutch he had come to rely on and leave him with no other option but to become self-sufficient. Sangwoo had grown to hate how much influence Bum had over how he felt on any given day.

Jieun’s eyes fluttered open and she glanced up at Sangwoo with a lazy smile, “Good morning, babe,” she slurred as she stretched her arms above her head and yawned. 

“Morning, Jieun,” Sangwoo said as he gently patted the top of her head. He still wasn’t quite comfortable with pet names but he figured he would get there eventually.

“So,” Jieun rolled over on her stomach and placed her chin in her hand, “we need to start gathering supplies for the big day.” 

Sangwoo scratched his head in confusion. “To kill Coach Yoon,” Jieun scoffed, “Don’t tell me this is going to be like that reading project we had together, do you expect me to do all of the leg work?” She threw him an irritated look.

“Of course not, we’re in this together,” Sangwoo reassured. 

Jieun’s smile returned, “Good, so here’s the thing, my dad took my car for an oil change so we’re going to have to take the bus-“ 

“Why don’t you just take my dad’s car?” Sangwoo questioned, like the solution had been apparent the entire time.

Jieun stared at him blankly, “You mean to tell me, all of those times you’ve asked me for rides, that long and awkward car ride to pick up Bum...and you’ve had a car this entire time?” 

Sangwoo’s eyes wandered before muttering sheepishly, “I don’t know how to drive though…” 

Jieun sighed wistfully, “What am I going to do with you? You’re a virgin and you can’t drive? What kind of high school senior are you?” 

Sangwoo furrowed his brows in annoyance, “What does being a virgin have to do with anything?” 

Jieun giggled, “Relax, I’m just fucking with you. I’m going to shower and then we’ll head into the city to get the supplies. You need to find your dad’s car keys and make sure the engine can still turn on.” She hopped off the bed and headed towards the bathroom.

To his relief, Sangwoo was able to find his father’s car keys in a bowl by the entrance of his apartment. He headed outside to try his luck on his dad’s car when he noticed something peculiar right outside his door. 

Someone had left a bottle of lemonade on the welcome mat, he picked it up and noticed whoever had left it had scrawled a multitude of little pink hearts on the label. 

Sangwoo only thought of one person at that moment, it had to be none other than Bum. 

His Bumi had left it out for him as some sort of peace offering, he obviously wanted to come back, he obviously loved and missed Sangwoo and couldn't live without him. 

Sangwoo was elated, sunshine flooded his dark and dreary town and rainbows arched around every corner. His entire day had been made. 

Sangwoo snapped himself out of it, he was doing it again, he was letting Bum take control of his emotional state for the day. 

He had no idea if Bum left the bottle, it could have been some random neighbor who admired him from afar. He felt like an idiot for getting so excited over something he conjured up in his imagination. 

Bum told Sangwoo never to contact him again, why would he leave cryptic messages of love in the form of sweetened lemon-flavored beverages? 

He sighed and glanced at the bottle in his hand, he decided to drink it anyway, it was bad to waste things. Besides...what if...just in case, of course. 

Sangwoo made his way down to his father's car and stuck the key in the ignition. To his surprise, the car started just fine, there was even some gas in it. Everything was good to go for their trip to the city. 

He climbed up the stairs to his floor while tightly gripping an empty bottle of lemonade with tiny hearts scrawled on the label.

********************************

Sangwoo stood with Jieun in the gardening aisle of the hardware store. “What are we looking for, again?” Jieun asked inattentively, she had expected to buy tools that were suited for murder and dismemberment, not tending flower beds of perinnials. 

Sangwoo ignored her and carefully perused the wall of tools until he came across what he was looking for. “Here we go,” he chuckled darkly as he held out a brand new machete, it’s polished steel finish glittering as he inspected it for any imperfections.

“A machete? What are you, Indiana Jones?” Jieun rolled her eyes. 

Sangwoo regarded her with a smug smirk and whispered lowly, “For your information, this fine example of state-of-the-art weaponry is what transformed Jungnam from the goalie of the soccer team into its new ball.” 

Jieun eyed him quizzically, “Yeah, it worked for Jungnam, but are you sure it can slice through all of Yoon’s back fat?” 

“Trust me, with enough power behind a blow, I could gut an orca if I wanted to, just gotta put your back into it,” Sangwoo gloated as he thrusted the blade forward like a rapier. 

“This will be perfect, I can’t wait to see it’s shiny silver finish coated in red,” he gazed at the blade longingly, picturing the blood adhering to it like lacquer.

They had purchased everything (with Jieun’s money) they would need for their upcoming hunt, duct tape to restrain and gag Yoon, and the machete to cut him open and crack his ribs from his spine. 

They walked out of the hardware store and onto the sparsely occupied street of storefronts. “Are you sure this is all you need?” Jieun asked pointedly. 

Sangwoo nodded in affirmation, “If the Vikings didn’t need much else, why would I?”

“Have you even researched how to do it?” Jieun continued to prod. 

Sangwoo avoided reading heavily whenever he could, it always brought out his perceived inadequacies and the last thing he needed before planning a kill was to feel like less than. “I don’t need to, it’s all about instinct...I didn’t research shit when I snapped my dad’s neck or hacked Jungnam into tiny pieces, I just did what felt right,” he shrugged.

He caught Jieun staring at him from the corner of his eye, “What, do I have something stuck in my teeth?” Sangwoo asked while frantically passing his tongue over them. 

Jieun simply let out a soft giggle, “You really are something, Oh Sangwoo,” her expression was subtle but full of awe. He didn’t quite understand which part of what he just said had inspired such a reaction, but his cheeks reddened under her gaze all the same. 

Sometimes he didn’t know what to do with her, when had she developed such a hard on for his homicidal tendencies?

It was all so new, he was much more comfortable being on the giving end of adoring gazes, grand gestures, and love bombs and suddenly finding himself on the receiving end of it all was a bit overwhelming. 

Jieun’s face lit up, “Sangwoo look!” It was an advertisement for matching couple’s outfits. “We should get matching murder outfits, c’mon!” she said excitedly. Sangwoo snapped out of his brief moment of self-reflection to find himself being dragged into a clothing store.

********************************

They returned from the city at dusk with arms full of shopping bags, Sangwoo set them beside the door and leaned against the wall in exhaustion, “I don’t think we really needed to buy five matching sets of sweatshirts and pants,” he grumbled with a heavy sigh.

“Of course we did, we can’t just walk out of the murder scene with bloody clothes. Besides, they all looked so good, I couldn’t just choose one set.” Jieun huffed. 

“Jieun,” Sangwoo teased the clothing out of the bag with a weary look pulling on his face, “they’re all black…”

Jieun focused her attention on their purchases, “Black is slimming, Woo.” Sangwoo flinched, the term of endearment suddenly sounded jarring when uttered by lips it didn’t belong to. 

Jieun’s lips had meant a lot to him, they had soothed him, stroked his ego, brought him pleasure, revered him. But there was a certain level of intimacy that was a prerequisite for the use of that word for him. He doubted anyone else would ever reach it, so he preferred to never hear it again.

Sangwoo sank down into the couch and tilted his head back, groaning as his body ached from being used as Jieun’s pack mule for the day. He set his feet on the coffee table when he noticed the glass bottle from that morning was still there. 

He picked it up and studied it, analyzing the love hearts scattered throughout the label, looking for familiar patterns in the way they were drawn.

“What are you looking at babe?” Jieun viewed him and the object of his scrutiny with curiosity. 

“Oh this? It’s nothing special. Funny story actually, I found it unopened, just sitting there outside the door when I went to go turn on my dad’s car,” Sangwoo said, downplaying its significance. 

Her face morphed into a frown, “And you just drank it?” 

Her very valid point caught him by surprise “Well, y-yeah...it’s not like it was opened or anything.” 

“You don’t know that,” exasperation in her tone while she pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes.

“What if it was some weirdo who was trying to drug you? What if it was Coach Yoon, doesn't he hate you?” she continued to chastise him, “Some instincts you have, all for killing but none for self-preservation.”

Sangwoo avoided eye contact throughout her onslaught and simply nodded with every accusation she flung at him while sheepishly fiddling with the label on the bottle. 

“Are you even listening to me? I’m trying to make sure they don’t kill you before you kill them, and give me that!” Jieun snatched the bottle out of Sangwoo’s hands. “What’s so interesting about this thing anyway?” she spouted, inspecting the label.

“Give it back!” Sangwoo nearly snarled. 

“So pressed for a literal piece of garbage...Seriously, I don’t get you sometimes.” Jieun shook her head, “What’s with all these heart doodles on the label, did a thirteen year old girl leave this?” confusion overtaking her features.

“Weird…” she scratched at her chin until her eyes opened wide in realization, “Oh my God babe, what if it was that rat, Yoon Bum? Maybe he’s figured out our plan and he’s trying to soften you up so you’ll spare him,” she laughed darkly, “or he’s trying to poison you before you get him!”

Sangwoo glared down at the floor and muttered, “If it were poisoned we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”

“It wasn’t poisoned this time, he’s trying to gain your trust, make you feel safe just to nail you in the end...just like he always has,” Jieun pointed out, her arms tightly crossed against her chest.

“You don’t know him!” Sangwoo spat curtly and directed his glare at Jieun.

Hurt flashed through her face, “So that’s what this is about...you're still not over him are you?” her voice trembled. 

“I’ve been there for you this entire time, picking up the pieces and cleaning up the mess he made, and you’re still clinging to him...like you’re...like you’re clinging to this fucking empty bottle of cheap corner store lemonade,” she rambled hysterically in one prolonged wail.

Jieun’s tears had startled him, Sangwoo hadn’t seen her cry like that since she begged for her life in his room. He jumped off the couch to comfort her, patting her back and stroking her hair frantically, “N-no, of course not, I’m completely over him, who the fuck is Bumi- er...um...Yoon Bum?” 

He had already lost Bum, he couldn’t lose Jieun.

She sniffled and brushed the hair out of her face, “Really, so it’s okay if I throw the bottle out?”

Sangwoo tensed at the thought, he couldn’t make any guarantees he wouldn’t go rooting around in the trash for it later but he acquiesced for the sake of keeping the peace. 

“Of course, it’s trash anyway...b-baby,” the words felt unnatural as they stumbled out of his mouth, but with time and practice they would hopefully become second nature. He smiled serenely.

She returned his smile and gestured for him to come closer. Sangwoo leaned in to nuzzle their noses together when he felt the force of a blunt object smack his temple with a dull thud. 

It was the lemonade bottle in Jieun’s hand, her expression had gone from weepy and fragile to dark and ruthless in an instant. “And if you ever dick-ride that shit stain in my presence ever again, you’ll get more than a shitty glass bottle to the head,” she snarled as if suddenly possessed by some violent creature.

Sangwoo let out a pained growl, “What the fuck…” he held his hand to his temple and felt warmth slowly trickle between his fingers. He beheld the blood on his digits in disbelief, Jieun had caused that. 

She roughly pulled him toward her by the collar of his shirt while he was still pliable from his state of shock. 

“I only do it because I care. He was never worthy of you, but I know what you need, let me take care of you babe…” She purred in a breathy timbre before wantonly lapping the blood off the side of his face. 

Sangwoo looked down, prompted by sensations stirring below, noting his undeniable hardness.

********************************

Sangwoo woke in the stillness of the night, Jieun partially nude at his side, her hair and limbs sprawled across him. She seemed to take ownership of more and more of him these days. 

“I guess she must really love me…” Sangwoo thought to himself, shouldn’t he be grateful? 

Unable to sleep, he pulled out his phone and browsed miscellaneous apps, photos, social media, anything to serve as a diversion before he was left alone with his thoughts. 

He stumbled across his nanny cam app, a stifling sense of shame covered him then, he stared at the app and decided he should delete it. 

His mind then wandered to the stuffed frog...he hadn’t seen it since Bum had left, could it have been possible that he took it with him? It didn’t seem likely, he wouldn’t want something Sangwoo had unfettered access to. 

Sangwoo’s finger hovered above the app and he hesitated to click on it, what if Bum had brought it along just to taunt him and flaunt all of the guys he was fucking? 

Sangwoo steadied himself, he had to see one last time or he would never get closure. For all he knew, the frog was probably in a dumpster somewhere. He needed confirmation that Bum couldn’t care less about him, regardless of how much it hurt thinking about it like that.

He took a deep breath and clicked, squeezing his eyes shut as the screen buffered. Slowly, Sangwoo opened one eye, he could make out Bum’s loose white T-shirt from the grainy image. 

He was perplexed, the frog was with Bum, but what was he doing with it? There were no sudden movements so it was unlikely he was having sex with someone, much to Sangwoo’s relief.

He opened his other eye, the image of the shirt was clearer now. Sangwoo could make out the steady rise and fall of Bum’s chest on camera, he was sleeping. Bum was sleeping with the frog in his arms despite knowing that Sangwoo could be watching him at any moment. 

It made no sense at face value, if Bum supposedly hated him this was a very poor way of showing it. Perhaps Bum didn’t hate Sangwoo at all, maybe he had held onto the frog hoping that Sangwoo would watch him from time to time. 

Bum sleeping on camera had comforted him enough to bring about drowsiness. Sangwoo placed the phone by his cheek and was able to listen to the soft cadence of Bum’s breathing, further lulling him to sleep. He closed his eyes and sighed contentedly, “Goodnight, Bum.”

Chapter Text

It had been more than two months since Choi Jungnam’s decaying head was discovered in Hwagog high’s sports equipment room. But the question still remained, what had happened to his body?

There was a dark running joke among the school’s students that the cafeteria had it in the freezer, serving it to students with their latest mystery meat concoction. Most people assumed it was just buried on a mountain somewhere, never to be seen again. 

Jungnam’s parents lamented on the news and pleaded for information on the whereabouts of their son’s body. “Closure” was cited as the reason for their desperation, his parents felt they would be able to move on if their son’s remains were all in one place they could visit. 

Little did they know, their wish would be granted during a particularly strong rain storm.

It was the middle of typhoon season and according to the news, something was brewing over the waters of the pacific. The wind and rain had been ramping up in intensity all day. 

Students at Hwagog fretted over the inclement weather, complaining about plans being ruined, the power possibly going out if the winds gained enough speed; the atmosphere was dreary. 

“Ugh, fucking storm, why do we even have school today?” Jieun huffed, “Our entire weekend, gone to shit...just like that.” She turned to Sangwoo who was staring out the window.

“We were supposed to go to the movies...but you know...maybe watching a movie at your place might be cozier,” she batted her eyelashes coyly, lightly rasping at the skin of Sangwoo’s bicep with her fingernails.

“Uh-huh,” he muttered impassively while staring at a point outside, his eyes fixed on the breezeway below. 

The breezeway across the 200 building bustled with students on their way to class from lunch, they huddled underneath the roof of the structure to avoid the rain. 

Students pressed against one another in tightly packed currents. If anything even slightly disturbed the delicate balance they had going on, it would be absolute bedlam. 

“Hello?” Jieun waved her hand in front of Sangwoo in annoyance. 

He snapped out of his trance and flashed her a dangerous grin, “We’re about to witness something a lot better than any movie, Jieun,” he intoned darkly. 

“What?...” Jieun questioned hazily before leaning forward to peer at the scene below. 

“It’s just a bunch of students rushing to get to class, if anything it’s disgusting...I’m probably going to end up pushed against some sweaty pig on my way to next period,” Jieun griped. 

“Just wait for it...I’ve been waiting for a day like this for months now and it’s finally here,” Sangwoo looked like an excited child searching for Santa as he stared out the window in anticipation.

Jieun threw him a sidelong glance before giving in and parking herself in front of the window with him, waiting for this supposedly amazing thing to happen. 

“The wind is ridiculous today,” he turned to her, “I think it might be enough to coax Jungnam out of his hiding place,” he chirped with a wide smile. 

Jieun’s eyes opened twice their normal size, “Wh-” 

Sangwoo tenderly placed a finger to her lips. “Shhhhhh...just watch, I don’t want to spoil it,” he said with his smile firmly fixed in place. 

She wearily turned her attention to the breezeway. Her brain was stuck trying to figure out what Sangwoo could have possibly meant when he mentioned Jungnam’s hiding place.

********************************

The wind below howled violently, shaking the leaves off the trees and turning random debris into painful projectiles. “Owww…” a petite freshman girl whined as she was pelted on the side of the leg by a rogue soda can. 

It didn’t help that she was sandwiched between two members of the school’s wrestling team, one misstep and she would be crushed underneath their bulk.

She stared at the ground, carefully calculating each step. If she could just keep up with the people in front of her she could avoid being trampled on by the people behind her. 

“Doing great...not too fast, not too slow, just a little bit more before I make it to the 200 building,” she encouraged herself.

Suddenly, a fierce gust nearly knocked her 40kg frame off her feet. If it weren’t for the bulky bodies surrounding her, swaying as they temporarily lost their footing, she would have surely fallen. 

“God damn, what was that?” A girl somewhere behind her said.

“Was it really a good idea to come to school today?” she questioned internally.

Another violent gust threatened to topple the throbbing wall, eliciting screams and exclamations from the crowd. The petite girl stumbled wildly, desperately trying to ground herself as soon as possible. “Shit, shit, shit…”she muttered breathlessly, feeling faint from the blistering heat the bodies around her exuded. 

“Just keep your head down and watch your step, you’re almost there,” she steadied her shaking legs.

“Almost there,” she whispered as an affirmation. One long, angry gust brought a flurry of debris from all directions. 

One piece of debris was seemingly beamed at her face from above a rooftop high above the breezeway, it was rigid and it scratched her. 

Shell shocked, she scanned the ground for the object in question. “Fucking flying pencils? I’m gonna get my eye poked out,” she huffed. 

Her eyes locked onto a darkly colored object, it looked like it was covered in a sheath of old leather. She strained her eyes trying to get a better look at it. She shuffled her feet closer and noticed there was something attached to the sheath, upon further inspection it almost looked like a fingernail. 

She quickly bent over to pick it up, to the ire of the people who bumped into her. Her throat was instantly parched dry.

The wind knocked more debris off of the rooftop and onto the girl’s path, this time it was an assortment of blackened chunks of desiccated flesh, bone, and two more severed fingers at her feet. 

She dug her heels against the concrete full stop. The people behind her clamored angrily, asking what the hold up was for. She turned to them with a blanched expression, holding the decayed digit above her head. “It’s a finger!” she shrieked.

Those a meter or two in front of her snapped their heads in the direction of the outburst. Those a meter or two behind her pushed and shoved to get a look at the supposed human remains, and those further behind formed an outcry.

“What the hell is going on up there? Move!” 

“I have to get to class, what is happening?!”

“Hey, move it!”

“N-no, you don’t understand…” the petite girl cried as she held the finger as high as her could extend her arm while also on her toes, “it’s a fucking human finger, look at it...look!” 

The tall wrestler behind her shuddered and called out against the murmuring crowd, “Holy shit, it’s a finger!”

“A f-finger?!” A girl stuttered.

News spread fast and gasps and screams were heard throughout the breezeway.

“A finger...like a human finger?!”

“Oh my god, what is happening?”

The people ahead of the girl now began turning around and pushing to get a glance of the source of the sudden commotion. 

They shoved her into the crowd behind her who roughly shoved her back, “H-hey, stop that…” she whinged. She felt dizzy within the thrumming mass of people rapidly encroaching upon her space. 

Another strong surge of wind sprayed the crowd with various bits of decayed flesh, some of it undeniably being of human origin. The realization that they were being covered in dead body parts stirred the crowd into a frenzy. 

They ran into each other in an attempt to avoid being covered in remains, squeezing and pushing against one another, completely disregarding the flow of traffic. 

Bulky males who had once seemed unshakable screamed at the top of their lungs and scrambled through the crowd to escape the scene. 

Those who were in their way were met with an elbow to the face or they were slammed against the wall if they were lucky. Those less fortunate would find themselves landing face first onto the pavement with mere seconds to get themselves up on their feet before being trampled under the stampede. 

The breezeway had become a death gauntlet, and it only rained harder, making the concrete beneath their feet slippery. People slipped and fell on each other, scratching and tearing at those they landed on to try and reach the surface before they were crushed. 

All human decency was lost in the uncontainable mosh pit, replaced with the animalistic desire to survive above anything else; it was every man for himself.

The earthy scent of mud commingled with the metallic scent of fresh blood emanating from a slurry of the two spread across the concrete. As if to make matters worse, the soggy corpse bits were starting to smell putrid. 

This was too much for those with sensitive stomachs, causing them to lurch the contents of their guts onto the victims below who were already wallowing in unimaginable filth.

The petite girl managed to free herself from the tumult and desperately clung to a column, shaking as she beheld the raging hellscape in front of her. 

She was lucky to be alive, she reminded herself. She made it out with nothing but a bloodied nose and some patches of hair missing, she fared well in comparison to those unfortunate others drenched in blood, mud, and vomit while being trampled on. 

She braced herself against the column and shut her eyes tightly in silent prayer for all of it to be over. “Please, God...someone, anyone, help me get out of here in one piece,” she wept with her eyes still shut. 

Without warning, one of the wrestlers she was previously sandwiched between grabbed her arm in an attempt to pull himself out of the crowd. 

“No...no! Stop it...fucking let go of me!” she said in blood curdling screech, biting and clawing at his arm before she lost her grip on the column. The wrestler’s bulk sent her hurtling back into the pulsating swarm, she slipped and fell backwards onto the concrete.

Before she registered where she was she felt a crushing weight land on top of her...and then another, and another. All the air in her lungs had been squeezed out of her, she gasped for air but she was unable to draw any of it inside. 

She trashed violently against the mass on top of her, starved of oxygen. She was drowning without water, inundated beneath a sea of bodies.

As she depleted all of her energy and accepted she was suffocating, she thought of her parents, how much she loved them, and how she hoped they would be able to move on after what was going to happen to her. 

She drifted in and out of consciousness, thinking her last thought before crossing the threshold, “Almost there…”

********************************

A girl in Sangwoo’s class pointed through the window at the gruesome scene below and screamed “Oh my God! Look at the breezeway, it’s horrible!” 

Much to Sangwoo’s annoyance, the entire class crowded around him and Jieun as they bunched against the glass trying to catch a glimpse of the catastrophe unfolding in real time. 

“What the fuck is going on down there?” one of his classmates questioned with dread in their voice. 

“The grand finale of a masterpiece your pleb brain wouldn’t be able to understand,” Sangwoo muttered under his breath.

Jieun was in awe of the illusion of civility unraveling in front of her eyes, all it took was something disturbing to upset the delicate balance between people before they devolved into animals. 

It made her think that maybe anyone could become a monster under the right circumstances, the thought upset her slightly. She wanted to believe Sangwoo was special, enlightened in some way. Was he really all that special when anyone could succumb to antisocial behaviors.

No, Sangwoo was a different breed. Those down below did what they thought they had to in order to survive, even if it included killing someone else. Sangwoo had to kill to stave off spiritual death, not necessarily physical death, although she didn’t doubt he would be more than happy to protect himself that way if it came down to it.

What did that make her then? She hadn’t killed anyone but she was inexplicably drawn to Sangwoo’s blatant disregard for human life, irreverent in the face of the so-called sanctity of it. 

It was apparent in the way he would present the aftermath of his victims, whether stuffed in a duffle bag, a ball bag, or minced into pieces with the intent of having them rain on unsuspecting bystanders, causing unimaginable chaos.

She looked to Sangwoo who wore a somber expression, but it didn’t seem like he was all that concerned with the welfare of those in the breezeway. 

He seemed to be analyzing the scene playing out in front of him like a playwright viewing his own work on a stage. From time to time he would smirk and let out a quiet chuckle, clearly pleased with their performance. 

Other times he would scoff or scowl when things didn’t progress in a fashion that was gruesome enough for his liking.

Jieun ached to know what was on his mind, so she decided to ask him. She reached out and placed her hand on his as she whispered in his ear, “So, what do you think?” 

He turned to her with a Cheshire Cat grin and eyes half open, a heady expression capable of liquifying any resolve Jieun might have of ever denying him anything, “Tell me what you think first,” he purred. 

She looked up at him through her eyelashes and smiled shyly, “I think it’s incredible, how you...you planned everything. How you could just attempt something with this perfect vision in mind and have it come to life, like an artist,” she whispered against his cheek as she stroked his hair with a desire she would have previously found unfathomable before getting to know Oh Sangwoo.

He stroked her cheek tenderly, “An artist, huh? I don’t know. I felt it got kinda stale in some parts...like, how long are they just going to slip and slide on each other like that? Where are the fist fights and eye gouging? The vomit was a nice touch though,” he chuckled nonchalantly.

Jieun gazed at him with deep want. Here he was, the orchestrator of one, now two, of the worst incidents the town of Hwagog had ever been subjected to, and he was being humble about it. “More than artist,” she sighed softly, “a god...a god of chaos.”

“God of chaos?...” Sangwoo’s face lit up at the title, he remembered one of his favorite stories from Greek mythology, the fall of Troy. How Eris tossing the golden apple of discord had three of the universe's most powerful goddesses vying for the attention of Paris, a mere mortal man. 

One simple act had snowballed into a whole ten-year war, killing thousands in its wake. 

Of course, Sangwoo imagined if he were a god he would surely surpass Athena in wisdom, Aphrodite in beauty, and Hera in omnipotence, but that was beside the point. Chaos was capable of rendering everything else useless, conjuring up chaos made him feel powerful.

There was a delay in dismissal, first responders surrounded the school once again. Barricading the area around the breezeway, paramedics treated the many wounded while police and forensics collected the bits and pieces of bone and flesh that littered the floor before the winds gathered enough strength to make it impossible. 

Sangwoo was fascinated by the glimpse of the scene he was able to catch, how crime scene cleaners had to scrape the blood and vomit off the concrete, how police placed Jungnam’s remaining parts into little evidence baggies, he couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of Jungnam ending up like leftovers. 

But there was one thing that stopped him in his tracks, it was the paramedics loading a body bag into the ambulance. Someone had died within the chaos he had created. 

The thought thrummed throughout his body pleasantly, he didn’t know who it was and frankly he didn’t care very much. He had the ability to take a life without even trying, he really was a god in some respects. 

He glanced at the body bag once more, “Oh well, at least they’re in one piece...can’t say as much about Jungnam,” he chortled, wrapping an arm around Jieun’s shoulder. “Oh God,” Jieun rolled her eyes and chuckled.

“Yes?” Sangwoo said with a shit-eating grin.

Chapter Text

All teachers and staff were called in for an emergency faculty meeting despite the fact that there was a very real possibility of a typhoon coming in. There was a tense atmosphere in the room as the teachers murmured amongst themselves. 

Sharp gasps and soft whispers punctuated the stories weaved around the incident the meeting was about as it was relayed between colleagues. It had started to become a game of telephone.

“Mr. Lee said he saw a pile of kids slipping in blood and dirt.”

“You can’t be serious! Hey Kim, Hyung said that Lee saw a pile of kids fighting in blood and dirt!”

“My word! Did you hear that Ms. Gwak? Mr. Ree said that Mr. Hyung told him that Mr. Lee saw a pile of kids trying to kill each other in blood and dirt!”

“God, that’s gruesome...Ms. Jeong, did you hear-”

“Alright settle down now everyone,” Principal Park intoned sternly as he entered the room, frenzied chattering was replaced with silence.

“As you all probably know by now, tragedy has befallen our Hwagog High School family, not once, but twice now. We just lost Choi Jungnam in a senseless act of brutality a little more than two months ago and this afternoon, Hae Yoonsuh was crushed and subsequently suffocated under the bodies of multiple students during the sickening incident in the breezeway,” Principal Park sighed deeply, creases cutting into his weathered brow. 

The air was sucked out of the room and a few teachers shook their heads in disbelief, one teacher violently sobbed into her hands.

“She was still a little girl, she was so bright...one of the best clarinetists I’ve ever heard...and..and had so much...potential... why?”

“Shhh...there, there Ms. Gwak,” Ms. Jeong said as she smoothed circles onto the sobbing teacher’s back.

Principal Park let out another sigh, “The forensics team believe the debris that sparked the stampede may have been pieces of...Choi Jungnam’s corpse,” he paused to let a retching teacher excuse themselves, “The fact of the matter is, there is someone out there living among us in our beautiful town of Hwagog who is a serious threat to the students we are meant to protect.”

“That is why I need you all on high alert. If you suspect anything, and I mean anything, I need details to pass along to the detectives,” he said succinctly.

The teachers wearily tossed grim expressions at one another, as if they didn’t have enough on their plate already, they now had to fear for their lives and the lives of their students because some homicidal maniac decided to terrorize their insignificant podunk town.

Suddenly, from the back of the room, Yoon Chanwook stood with a scowl. “I got your number one suspect, Principal Park,” he declared with unfaltering conviction. 

“Oh?” Park raised an eyebrow at the bold assertion.

“How did you know!?” Coach Yoon blinked incredulously.

“What?? Coach Yoon, please take this seriously, our students’ lives are at stake,” the principal barked.

“N-no, I thought you meant ‘Oh’ as in Oh Sangwoo!” Yoon clarified while chuckling nervously.

“What about Oh Sangwoo?...” Principal Park questioned tepidly.

“Well you see, that Sangwoo is a real psycho. He bashed the hell out of Jungnam’s face two years ago, it’s the reason I booted him off the soccer team. He always hated Jungnam, probably jealous that he was a much better athlete than Sangwoo could ever hope to be. I’ve been trying to tell those good for nothing police officers to look into the creep but they would always just blow me off. That boy hasn’t been right in the head since my pervert nephew gave him the ol’ Monica Lewinsky special,” Yoon said, seemingly proud of his crude spiel. 

“What??” Principal Park squinted and shook his head in confusion.

“You know, the ol’ French flute recital, the ol’ slob and bob, I think the kids are calling it the gawk gawk 3000-”

“Coach Yoon,” Principal Park interrupted, “I don’t need to know about our students’ private lives, thank you very much. Now, please take a seat before I reconsider renewing your contract for next school year,” he spat through grit teeth.

“But Principal Park, Oh Sangwoo is the devil in a teenage heartthrob’s skin! He’s pure evil!” Yoon vehemently insisted.

“Will you stop with your incessant nonsense, Yoon?” Ms. Jeong growled, “You have no idea how much Oh Sangwoo has gone through, he lost his mother as a child, his father just up and abandoned him, of course he’s a little troubled but he’s not evil. I’m not going to sit idly while you slander one of my hardest working students!”

Coach Yoon sneered, “His father ‘just up and abandoned him’ huh? Are you really stupid enough to believe that? How does it feel to owe millions of won in student loans just to end up as gullible as some little college girl getting charmed by a handsome face.” 

“How dare you insinuate something so heinous!” Jeong hissed, “I’ll have you know that Sangwoo is living with his cousin and doing very, very well in my class now. With proper care and guidance he’s capable of becoming a responsible, productive member of society, rather than the ‘real psycho’ you paint him as.”

“His COUSIN?! That’s what he’s calling Bum?! God, just when I thought the two of them couldn’t get more disgusting. Sorry to break it to you Byeol, but Bum is just as fucked up as Sangwoo,” Coach Yoon winced while bitterly rubbing his side where a stitched up wound lay under his clothing.

Ms. Jeong looked at him quizzically, “What was that about Bum?...”

Before Coach Yoon could elaborate, Principal Park slammed his fists on the podium, “Coach Yoon, Ms. Jeong, this bickering is wildly inappropriate behavior for a faculty meeting, especially considering the circumstances. I suggest you both have a seat before I terminate your positions on the spot,” he huffed as he ran a hand through his comb-over.

Ms. Jeong sheepishly complied, unable to shake off the uncomfortable feeling from Yoon’s words. If Bum wasn’t Sangwoo’s cousin, then who was he? What had happened to Sangwoo’s father? What did Yoon mean when he said Bum was just as fucked up as Sangwoo?

“That’s all I wanted to tell you all today, I would have dismissed you all earlier to outrun the storm but we were interrupted by baseless accusations, senseless bickering, and far too many colloquialisms for fellatio for one lifetime,” Principal Park said bitingly as he glowered at Yoon’s direction.

“Thanks a lot, Yoon…” Mr. Ree muttered.

“The ‘French flute recital’? Really? as someone who is both a flautist and 1/32nd French, I am disgusted. Simply ignorant…” Ms. Gwak said before snappily swatting her ponytail into Yoon’s face.

“Ah, to hell with you too, sweetheart,” Coach Yoon spat gruffly before regarding Ms. Jeong. “You know where to find me if you want the truth about your sweet little star student, Oh Sangwoo.”

Ms. Jeong simply eyed him warily before grunting in acknowledgement.

Coach Yoon smirked, and turned to grab some things from his office before leaving. 

He unlocked the door and peered down at a small beige envelope that seemed to have been slipped beneath his door while he wasn’t there. He picked it up and opened it, there was a note written with impeccable penmanship inside.

Yoon Chanwook,

       Do you want your nephew back? To do as you please with him once again? If so, meet me outside behind the sport’s equipment room at 16:00 this coming Monday.

Your friend,

Hidden in Hwagog 

  ********************************

Bum stared at the ceiling listlessly, he moved for the first time in what felt like hours when he blew a stray strand of hair off his face. He had become a hermit since almost being dragged back into his old apartment by his uncle. 

Bum only left the dirty motel room to purchase garbage devoid of any nutrients from the corner store and reel in the occasional sugar daddy to fund his pitiful existence.

“Is being alive worth living like this?” Bum thought to himself. He felt dead inside, the only thing that kept him going were the memories he had of Sangwoo, how happy they had been together as kids and the tiny sliver of happiness they shared as a cohabitating couple before he had to go and fuck it up. 

Bum peeled himself out of bed and went to wash his face in the sink. 

He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he looked as if he had aged a decade. Fine lines ran across his forehead, the dark bags under his eyes had somehow become more pronounced, and he swore he saw the beginnings of crow’s feet starting to develop. 

“Great, at this rate not even perverted old men will want me,” Bum mumbled acridly. Sangwoo probably wouldn’t even recognize him if he passed him by on the street. 

Did Bum really have anything to worry about concerning Sangwoo? he hadn’t even come looking for him whether to beg for him to come home or slit his throat. 

Bum would be lying if he said that didn’t hurt even a little bit. After all, the opposite of love wasn’t hate, it was indifference.

He wondered if Sangwoo got the lemonade, whether he drank it or not, whether he had any idea of who had left it. Did Sangwoo notice the missing frog? Bum would fantasize about touching himself in front of the frog, hoping for Sangwoo to catch him in the act and give him a private show. 

Bum had just had sex less than twenty-four hours ago but he was starved for pleasure, he ached to have Sangwoo touch him, to plunge into him vigorously until Bum lost all sense of reality. In short, he was very, very horny. 

Bum turned on the television hoping to find something vaguely erotic to get off to. He was ashamed to admit it, but nature documentaries with animals mating had done it for him one time. 

He wished Sangwoo would just mount him like a virile mountain gorilla and fuck his brains out in a jungle in the middle of nowhere...Bum shuddered at the mental image that had his cock leaking, he really needed to lay off the nature documentaries before he became a zoophile. 

Bum clicked through various channels when he stopped at the mention of Hwagog High School. “Hwagog High?...Sangwoo…” Bum turned up the volume and focused on the screen. 

“Before the update on Typhoon Gaemi, we report another devastating incident from Hwagog High School. Tragedy struck this afternoon when fifteen year old student, Hae Yoonsuh, suffocated underneath the bodies of her classmates during a human stampede.”

Bum felt sick, that sounded like an agonizing way to go and she was so young.

“This story only gets more twisted from here as authorities believe the stampede was caused when strong winds blew in parts of human remains onto a crowd of students, prompting mass panic.”

“H-human remains…” Bum felt his erection go limp.

“A team of forensic analysts believe the remains belonged to murdered high school athlete, Choi Jungnam.”

Jungnam? That meant that this had something to do with...Sangwoo. Bum’s erection slowly started to fill with blood again.

“We have Kwon Eunjung speaking with Detective Yang regarding the details of the harrowing incident.”

“Thank you detective, could you shed light on how this might have happened?”

“Yes, Ms. Kwon, Choi Jungnam’s murderer had somehow managed to chop the body into small pieces and leave them on a rooftop adjacent to the breezeway without anyone noticing, we believe they were able to do this by covering the pieces in salt.”

“Salt?...”

“Yes, salt, it preserves tissue by absorbing water within the remains. That way the corpse pieces would be preserved and the smell of decay wouldn’t have been as obvious.”

Bum was mesmerized, salt? His Woo was a damn genius, all of that so his plan would go without a hitch. 

He began rubbing himself through his shorts, sliding a hand up his shirt and rolling a pert nipple between his thumb and index finger, while panting and mewling.

“Detective, what is the psychological profile of someone who would do something like this?”

“Whoever they are, they are incredibly dangerous. They methodically planned this with the intention of causing as much chaos as possible, this was the grand finale to their previous exploits with the victim’s severed head. They definitely have an egomaniacal streak to them.”

Bum breathed heavily at the thought of Sangwoo wielding so much power, over the townspeople, over him. He was swept up in an extreme urge for Sangwoo to dominate him, to put him in his place for being such a disobedient little wretch. 

His whole body screamed with the desire to be punished. He wanted to be torn apart by Sangwoo and thrown from a rooftop like confetti.

Bum had no idea where these perverse thoughts had cropped up from, he had a pretty low pain tolerance and was terrified of anything he thought might be painful. But there was something that sounded so appealing about being ripped to shreds by Sangwoo in the hopes he would put Bum back together again, better than he was before. 

Sangwoo had the kind of power to do that while Bum’s uncle just ruined everything he touched.

In that moment Bum yearned to lose himself in the sickly sweet sensation of suffering. He searched frantically around the room for something that would make him hurt. 

Possessed with this desire to inflict pain on himself, he found an empty bottle of soju. It was thick and long. “It’s perfect…” Bum gulped.

He decided to forgo proper lubrication and spit on the bottle instead, spreading his saliva around it with his fingers. He faced the neck of the bottle toward his entrance and took a deep breath before pushing the tip inside him. 

He cried out as the sensation overwhelmed him, the cold of the glass was a shock to his system. He slowly fed the bottle into himself while savoring the searing burn stretching himself out with something that inhumanly thick provided. 

“Ahh...hmmm…” Bum gasped and moaned as he rocked his hips back and forth on the bottle. He began to get the hang of it, finding a slow but steady rhythm as he took the bottle in deeper. 

He whimpered as he picked up the pace. The burning sensation never really went away but it morphed into something so intense it had Bum drenched in sweat and groaning with his head back while riding the bottle.

The cold sensation had faded long ago, the glass trapped Bum’s body heat and let it radiate outwards in every direction, adding to the burning sensation. He felt like his innards were going to melt, the heat also radiated toward his groin. 

Bum resisted the urge to touch himself there, only wanting to focus on the pleasure and pain he got from the bottle. He decided that if he was going to cum, he would cum through that alone or not at all, a slut like him didn’t deserve to have his dick stroked.

He had opened up to the point of being able to impale himself over the bottle at a rapid pace, screaming and crying out loudly in otherworldly ecstasy.

“Shut the fuck up!” his neighbor shouted as they pounded on the wall.

He couldn’t care less, he barely even noticed the ruckus. All that existed in Bum’s mind at that moment was him and Sangwoo, who relentlessly took him with his intimidating length, taking all he could out of Bum, who was more than happy to wring himself out for Sangwoo. 

He was getting close, the bottle hit a sensitive spot deep within him. Bum began to clench around it, accentuating the concentrated heat of the smooth glass.

Just when he thought the peak of pain and pleasure couldn’t get any higher the television proved otherwise.

“Thank you detective, we now have an interview with a student from Hwagog High School who said he had witnessed the whole thing from his classroom. Good evening Mr. Oh, can you tell us what happened?”

Bum let off a high pitched yowl at the image of Sangwoo on the TV, the camera usually made people seem less attractive than they really were, yet Sangwoo remained a vision of perfection. 

If that was how he looked on camera...Bum thrusted himself roughly on the bottle, he felt close to splitting down the middle. He wanted to tear himself in half to distract himself from his painful feelings of longing.

“It was so awful Ms. Kwon, all of those poor people,” Sangwoo looked into the camera with an over exaggerated pout, “Whoever did this must obviously be a sick freak whose only goal in life is to watch the world burn, I bet he thinks he’s some kind of god.”

Bum could see the expression Sangwoo had hidden behind his charming veneer of concern. He was openly mocking anyone who listened to any of that contrived drivel and believed it by stating exactly how the murderer at large felt under everyone’s noses.

Bum gave off a guttural groan as he pushed the bottle into himself with an inch and half to spare, “Mmmm...Sangwoo...I want you,” he moaned breathlessly. 

He rocked himself at a steep angle, the bottle lodged deep inside him and he took it in small stokes, constantly hitting the same spot.

The finishing blow came when Kwon Eunjung asked Sangwoo if he thought the murderer would strike again.

Sangwoo faced the camera with a neutral expression, but something in his eyes housed a feral mania, “Ms. Kwon, I don’t think it’s a matter of if...but when.”

Bum seized, his entire body spasmed as his orgasm felt like it deconstructed all the atoms in his body before hastily slamming them back together again. 

“Sangwoo...S-Sangwoo...Sangwoo,” he panted as he continuously spurted semen onto the sheets.

Bum felt the room spin and he slammed sideways onto the mattress, he felt a stinging sensation on his lips. He wiped them to find his fingers coated in blood, “Incredible,” he thought, he must have bit into his lip while cumming and didn’t even notice it. 

He then slowly removed the bottle out of himself, wincing from the pain, “How the fuck did I cum from that?” He figured Sangwoo had put him in some kind of trance. 

He felt good, endorphins and oxytocin flooded his nervous system and for a brief moment his life was everything he had ever hoped it would be and more. He looked at the green frog plush across from him and winked before blowing a kiss in its direction.

Bum laid there like that for a while before a burst of energy drove him to do something, anything, he just needed to move. He decided he would take a brisk walk through the area despite the heavy rain, he was too manic to care. 

He packed a taser and some pepper spray in his bag and went to reach for his sweater, he noticed it had gotten even dirtier. It was adorned with food stains, grime, and cum stains. 

Bum giggled, he found the disheveled state that sweater was in funny, like some kind of cosmic joke at his expense. 

The more debauched he became, the rattier his sweater got, his very own, ‘Picture of Dorian Gray’. It made sense, he had just gotten off to a serial killer with a glass bottle up his ass, that was a whole new low, and he was surprisingly okay with it.

He opened the door to find a soggy note on the floor, addressed “To Bumi”. Bum cocked his head and blinked while lost in thought. 

“What is this? Does my uncle know where I’m staying?” Bum cautiously picked up the note, not wanting to tear it apart as it was soaking wet, he carefully unfolded the note, the ink had run down the paper but he was still able to make out what it had said.

Dear Bumi,

I miss you so much, please come home. I promise I’ll be a better man for you. I just want you in my life again and would do anything for that to happen, if you feel the same way, come to my apartment at 18:00 this coming Monday.

Love, Sangwoo

Chapter Text

“What a beautiful day,” Yoon Chanwook chirped in a sing-song voice, a contented sigh escaping his lips, “a beautiful day to string that little bastard up by his pencil-dick when I get my hands on him.” 

He meandered around the track field after the school day had ended and checked his watch, 15:45. It was nearly time to meet this so-called ‘Hidden in Hwagog’ who would apparently be leading him to his nephew. Chanwook had a lot of time to think of what he wanted to do to Bum during the power outage that weekend. 

He fantasized about keeping Bum tied up and gagged in his room for days or weeks, using him whenever he wanted until he broke him. That would show his disrespectful nephew what happens when he has the audacity to walk out and leave like that. He would make sure to be extra rough as payback for the number Bum had done on his side.

Absentmindedly running his fingers against his stitches, he remembered to check his watch, 15:55. “Better get going to the equipment storage room,” Chanwook grumbled, not wanting to waste any time before getting his hands on that disobedient cum rag his brother had dumped on him. 

He circled the perimeter of the storage room warily eyeing his surroundings. He made sure his back was against the wall at all times in case this was another one of Sangwoo’s sick plans, it almost sounded too good to be true. Why would someone just hand Bum over to him? 

“Maybe Sangwoo got sick of his shit and ditched him for Jieun after all,” he chuckled. 

“Psssttt…” a whisper came from the shadows between the wall of the storage room and the wall of a neighboring building. 

“Ohh no, I ain’t going nowhere until you show me there’s no funny shit going on, come out and show yourself,” he said, leering at the shadowy figure. 

He heard a huff, “I’m not just going to expose myself out in the open, you either meet me halfway or the deal is off,” the shadowy figure whispered harshly. 

“Fine, but the minute I sense something is off I’m backing the hell out, got it?” Chanwook cautiously took a few steps toward his mysterious ally and waited, “Okay, you should be out of everyone else’s view, now who the hell are you?” 

They left the shadows wearing an oversized gray hoodie, careful not to expose too much of their face.

Chanwook lowered himself slightly and squinted, “Min Jieun?...” 

“Shhhh...shut the hell up, this is between you and me, old man. Do you want Bum home with you again or not?” Jieun hissed.

“Y-yeah I guess, but something smells fishy. Why do you care if I get Bum back? What’s in it for you?” Chanwook questioned with his arms crossed, far from reassured at the sight of her. Where Jieun was, Sangwoo was sure to be near.

“What’s in it for me!?” She laughed incredulously, “Do you have any idea how stuck on Bum Sangwoo still is? He thinks I don’t notice, but he’s always checking up on him through that hidden camera app he has on him. You can’t even mention Bum without him getting all sensitive and brooding. I just want Bum out of our lives forever! Think you can manage not losing him again this time?” Jieun said with a scowl.

“Whoa,” Chanwook stood there, slack-jawed, “I had no idea about the hidden camera…that’s fucked.” He lowered his gaze and scanned her body with a lecherous smirk, “You know, if I had you, I probably wouldn’t even remember Bum’s name. What a wasteful bastard that Sangwoo is, are you sure you don’t wanna try it with a real man instead?” 

“I’m leaving,” Jieun said bluntly. 

“Wait wait wait! It was just a joke! C’mon sweetheart, look, just take me to Bum and I’ll make sure he’s out of your smooth, silky hair forever.” 

Jieun glared at him, “You promise? I’ll never have to see or hear about Bum ever again and Sangwoo and I could finally move on to our future together?”

“Doll, by the time I’m done with Bum, Sangwoo won’t even recognize him. You won’t ever have to worry your pretty little head about your man getting hung up over Bum ever again. Now, will you promise to keep Sangwoo as far away from me as possible? That bastard gives me the creeps,” Chanwook shuddered.

Jieun raised an eyebrow and chuckled, “Alright, deal. See, that was easy, wasn’t it?” 

Chanwook rolled his eyes, “Yeah, we’ll see about that. Just take me to Bum already.” 

“Awwww…since it looks like you're just so eager, let’s get this touching family reunion under way, shall we?” Jieun batted her eyelashes while sporting a slightly unnerving grin.

********************************

Jieun and Chanwook stood outside of Sangwoo’s apartment door. “What the hell is this? I thought you were leading me to Bum...Why are we at Sangwoo’s place?? I’m getting a bad feeling about this,” he sputtered nervously.

“Will you relax?” Jieun spat, “It’s all part of the plan, Bum will be here soon, you just need to wait. Once he gets here, we can gag and restrain him so he doesn’t give you any trouble on the way home. Hell, if you want we can even wrap a bow around him like a Christmas present,” she laughed darkly.

The idea of Bum being covered in nothing but a bow did sound strangely appealing to Chanwook but he shrugged it off and insisted on proof that Bum would be coming before he even stepped foot in that apartment.

Jieun sighed, “Fine, if you want all the dirty details, let’s just say I left a little note at the entrance of the motel room Bum was staying at-” 

“Wait, so you know where he’s staying at? Why the hell didn’t you just take me there? Why do I need to be anywhere near Sangwoo?” Yoon interrupted.

“Will you let me finish, you shitty old man!?” Jieun growled, Chanwook pouted at being called a shitty old man. “As I was saying, I wrote him a note pretending to be Sangwoo, begging for him to come ‘home’. The reason why I didn’t just take you to the door of his motel room was because he would never fucking open it if he sensed you were out there, dumbass…” 

“Okay, fair enough, but how the hell do you know he’s going to come looking for Sangwoo though? There must have been some reason he got the hell out of here in the first place, what if he never shows up?” Chanwook retorted. 

“Oh trust me...I know exactly how he feels about Sangwoo,” Jieun said through grit teeth, “That app, the one I mentioned earlier...I decided to check it out myself and what I saw was just…” 

Chanwook’s eyes widened, “Well, what the hell did you see?”

“An entire soju bottle...shoved where the sun don’t shine...while moaning Sangwoo’s name like some low-budget porn star whore,” Jieun scoffed. 

Chanwook’s dick twitched, he couldn’t wait to shove a whole array of different items up Bum when they got home. “Huh, wow, that sounds...disgusting,” he said while licking his lips. 

Jieun stared him down as if he were lower than dirt, “There’s no need to humor me you old pervert, I know what you do to Bum.”

Chanwook flinched. “It’s none of my business though, I just want Bum gone,” Jieun sighed with an air of disinterest. “Now, are we gonna go in or what? The humidity out here is making my hair frizz.” 

“Alright, but I better not see Sangwoo,” Chanwook huffed. 

Jieun took the spare key from her purse and opened the door, it was completely dark inside. “After you,” she turned to her guest. 

“Nu-uh, ladies first, and turn on the damn light. I need to see everything before I go in,” he stood at the threshold with trepidation. 

“Sure, whatever, so paranoid,” Jieun went to turn on the lights in annoyance and the living room was unoccupied, “There, now will you come in already? The cold air is leaving through the open door.”

Chanwook entered and shut the door behind him. Jieun gestured to the couch, “Take a seat, I’m going to get comfortable and change out of my school clothes.”

“Sure,” Chanwook slowly sank down into the cushions, eyeing the entire room suspiciously. “So this is the shit-hole Bum was hanging around in for more than a month? Some grand palace to ditch me for,” he scoffed “I fucking clothed and fed that bastard for years and this is how he repays me. Now I’m sitting at some psycho’s place waiting to pick my shitty nephew’s ass up. Figures, like mother like son, both trifling whores.”

At least it seemed like Sangwoo was nowhere to be seen, Chanwook looked forward to the delicious expression Bum would have on his face when he realized he had been had. Sangwoo never wanted him back and he was going to end up going home with his uncle. 

“He’ll probably whine and sob, might even piss his pants like that one time,” Chanwook laughed thickly, “He’ll be all like, ‘n-n-no uncleeee please don’t put that in there, it hurts!’ Well tough, you’re gonna take it anyway you little skank!” he cackled at his own Bum impersonation.

Jieun returned in a black sweatshirt and black sweatpants and sat on the loveseat facing Chanwook. “So, you comfortable?” she said as she placed her elbow on the seat and leaned her cheek against her arm. 

“I’ve been better,” he wondered why she decided to turn up the hospitality. 

“Want something to drink?” she asked. “Uh yeah, no thanks, you can keep your roofies, kid. Look, I’m just here for Bum okay,” he responded gruffly. He couldn’t wait to be out of there, he decided he would make Bum pay for this awkward encounter as well.

“What’s with the all black get-up anyway? What, you gonna rob a bank or something?” 

Jieun chuckled, “Black is slimming, you know.”

“Yeah, as if you have any problem with that,” Yoon scoffed, “Hey kid, where the hell is that no good bastard, Sangwoo, anyway?”

“I’m right here, Coach!” spouted a chipper voice from behind him.

Chanwook snapped his head to follow the voice. He found Sangwoo in a matching black outfit holding a baseball bat over his head about to swing, a manic smile overtaking his features.

“Motherfucker!...I knew i-” *Thwack* 

He tumbled onto his side and everything faded to black.

********************************

Yoon Chanwook slowly woke to bright orange flickering in his field of vision, he was sweating profusely and surrounded by intense heat. Still groggy from having a baseball bat smashed against him and passing out, he had only just realized it was pitch black with the exception of a ring of candles he was placed in the middle of.

What the hell is this? Where am I?

He tried to move. To his horror, he discovered his hands and feet were bound with duct tape and his extremities were numb. His hands were underneath him, crushed by the weight of his now shirtless stomach.

Why can’t I move? Why am I on my stomach?

He tried to call for help, but all that came out of his mouth was a muffled scream. The inside of his mouth was dry, he felt like he was going to choke. He was gagged with a thick sock shoved in his mouth and it was sealed with duct tape.

Why did they gag me? Why don’t they want me to scream?

In his panic he hadn’t noticed the ominous music in the background, it was a primitive sounding medley of steady rhythmic percussion and ritualistic chanting followed by a melody on some ancient sounding instrument that reverberated down to his bones.

What is happening? What are they going to do to me?

He writhed on the floor, finding himself on top of a wide plastic sheet. It was all too much to handle, he just wanted to go home. To hell with Bum, nothing was worth whatever the hell he was in for by the looks of the strange set up he woke up to.

Will they just tell me what the hell is going on?

Sangwoo suddenly appeared from behind the bright embers, “So, Yoon, what do you think? Pretty cool, huh? Jieun and I prepared it just for you, the guest of honor!” Sangwoo looked unhinged, his eyes the size of saucers, swatches of vermillion smeared over his face.

Chanwook could only respond with muffled grunts as he wriggled vigorously.

“What was that? I can’t understand you,” Sangwoo chuckled, “Oh, my bad, let me help you.”

He kneeled to Chanwook’s level and ripped the tape off of his mouth without preamble, eliciting a pained noise from the prone man. He spit out his gags and growled, “What the fuck is this Sangwoo? What the hell is going on here, some Satanic ritual?”

Sangwoo looked taken aback, “Satanic? I would never, my mother would kill me! No, Yoon, this isn't for Satan, this is for Odin!” he said fervently, a mad grin creeping across his face. 

“O-Odin?? Like, fucking Thor’s dad? What the hell are you talking about you damn lunatic? And whose blood is that on your face? It ain’t mine, is that Jieun’s period blood?” Chanwook sneered sardonically.

Sangwoo simply chuckled warmly, “Yes, Yoon, like Thor’s dad. Odin was a Norse god worshiped by the Vikings! And this is just pigs blood, you like it? I thought it served well for added effect.” He sauntered around the ring of candles, “Jieun said I was being ‘extra’ but I don’t mind. I like extra, don’t you agree?” 

“Whatever, you fucking weirdo. Look, I don’t care what weird new age religion you're into to cope with having my nephew dump your psycho ass, since after witnessing this shit, it’s obvious to me that he left you. Just untie me and I’ll leave you to whatever fucked up business you have with your rebound over there,” he nodded his head in Jieun’s direction and laughed.

Sangwoo’s eye twitched violently for a second before regaining his composure and he smiled serenely, “I love how you could still crack jokes despite your situation. Well, keep cracking them while you still can, I’ll get to crack something very soon.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean, you degenerate,” Yoon scowled.

Sangwoo let out a burst of laughter, “I’m the degenerate? God, that is hilarious coming from you!” he wiped a tear from the side of his eye before kneeling back down and shoving the gag back into Chanwook’s mouth and sealing it with duct tape.

“Mmmphmm...mmm...mmmmpphhmm…” Chanwook choked against his gags.

“Sorry, Yoon, this whole back and forth has been really fun, but we really need to get started with the ritual soon. Jieun says she has a surprise for me after all of this is said and done,” he glanced at Jieun and tossed her a cheeky wink to which she in turn gave him a sly smirk. 

Jieun was tight-lipped about her so-called surprise but Sangwoo had a pretty good idea of what it was...she was probably wearing lingerie underneath her black sweats, ready to offer her soft, supple body to him at the altar of their shared bloodlust, a covenant of death.

“Now, I think it’s only fair that I give you a rundown of what’s going to happen today,” Sangwoo strolled around the room at a leisurely pace, “Have you ever heard of the blood eagle, Coach Yoon?”

Chanwook simply glowered at him.

“Don’t worry, I’ll fill you in. It’s this Viking torture method where they would cut the victims back open, crack his ribs from his spine and stretch them out to the sides to look like eagle wings. Then they would pull out the lungs and wrap them over the splayed ribs to make them look even more like wings, hence the ‘blood eagle’, what do you think?” Sangwoo casually regarded his captive.

Chanwook shuddered violently, “mmmm-mmm...mmmm-mmmm,” he trashed about while shaking his head.

Sangwoo was absolutely giddy, “I just knew you’d love it! Great, let’s get started! Jieun, could you fetch me my machete?” 

“Mmmmmmmmmm...mmm..mmmmm,” Chanwook attempted to worm his way out of the circle before Sangwoo placed him back in the middle with a hearty chuckle.

“Nuh-uh~ c’mon now, you need to stay put, you’re the most important part of the ritual after all!” Jieun placed the machete in Sangwoo’s hands and Chanwook could have sworn eyes of his torturer burned as brightly as the embers he was surrounded by.

“Alright, here we go.” Sangwoo placed himself behind Yoon and lightly traced a straight line down his back with the tip of his machete, Yoon trembled beneath the cool metal.

Sangwoo began to methodically slice the skin down Chanwook’s back, exposing the fat and musculature underneath as he went along. Yoon screamed hysterically through the gag and tried to move away from the blade before he was pinned down by Jieun’s foot against his neck. 

“Oh stop, it’s not that bad, I sharpened it this morning so it would slice through quickly,” Sangwoo scolded.

Sangwoo then sliced through the muscle tissue as Yoon continued to scream with streams of tears and blood now falling onto the plastic sheet below. “Almost there...man, you sure have a shitload of knots on your back, this is tough.” Sangwoo broke a sweat tearing through the muscle tissue and was satisfied when he reached the quivering mass of internal organs beneath. 

“There you are, it’s beautiful, you look way better on the inside than you do on the outside!” he chirped.

“Alright Jieun, I’m gonna need your help with this next step, get your gloves ready.” Sangwoo began to crack the ribs free of Yoon’s spine with his machete, each stroke downward had Yoon letting out a high pitched squeal. 

“Damn, you’re noisy, thank god we have this loud-ass music. Calm down, you’ll earn your wings soon enough.” Once freeing the ribs from the backbone he began the process of pulling the ribs out to the side. He took the right side and Jieun took the left. Yoon could do nothing but sob silently against the plastic, blood, sweat, and tears intermingling.

Each rib was stretched out with a sickening crack and Sangwoo was starting to see the resemblance to wings, he was all smiles, pointing at his handiwork. “Doesn’t this look fucking amazing! Seriously, how did the Vikings come up with something this metal? How do you feel Jieun?” 

Jieun giggled, “A lot better than I expected, I thought I was going to faint but this is actually really, really exhilarating.” She smiled broadly while tugging on a rib. Yoon groaned lowly beneath them. 

“Huh? Kind of surprising he's still conscious though,” Jieun eyed him quizzically. “I know right, isn’t it great? He gets to experience the whole thing,” Sangwoo smiled next to Yoon’s agonized expression. 

“Good, let that bastard suffer, he made Bum feel it all for years,” Sangwoo mused.

Sangwoo caught himself thinking of Bum and reminded himself he was not doing this for Bum’s sake but his own. It didn’t matter how Bum felt about him murdering his uncle. He had a right to take his life, in fact, a duty to do so as a god of chaos. 

“Ready for the grand finale?” Sangwoo gazed up at Jieun who looked ravishing drenched in blood, he couldn’t wait for her surprise. He would finally lose his virginity next to Chanwook’s mutilated corpse, a tasteful work of art.

“Alright, I get this lung and you get that one,” he and Jieun pulled the set of lungs out of the body cavity, taking great care not to damage any pulmonary veins or arteries, they didn’t want to kill him instantly. 

They set them on top of the bony wings, adorning them like a pair of precious red rubies. Chanwook didn’t even make a sound at that point, the only signs of life within him was the subtle inflation of his disembodied lungs. 

“We did it...it’s...it’s glorious,” Sangwoo whispered with awe and wonder. “Yeah…” Jieun sighed, soaking the gruesome sight in, “I can’t believe we actually did it.” 

Sangwoo approached her and gently stroked her blood coated cheek before leaning in to kiss her. Jieun parted her lips to allow Sangwoo entrance and their tongues intertwined. She wrapped her arms around Sangwoo’s neck and jumped to wrap her legs around his waist, deepening their kiss as she softly moaned against him. 

Sangwoo held on to her backside and lowered the two of them to the floor, where they drank each other in passionately, dizzy with a high brought about by what they had just done.

Sangwoo bit into the delicate skin of Jieun’s neck, pulling a high pitched whine from her. His hand trailed under the waistband of her sweatpants with his mouth still attached to her flesh and he began to rub in tandem with the primal beat of the drums encircling them. 

Jieun arched her back to meet Sangwoo’s eager fingers, panting heavily as she became more and more intoxicated with the inescapable scent of blood and pheromones in the air. 

They were interrupted by a knock at the door, Sangwoo froze and eyed the door with panic. “Who the hell could that be?” he reached around for his machete. 

Jieun sat up with an excited grin and her hands clasped, “Sangwoo! It’s here, your surprise!” Sangwoo stared at her in confusion, “Wait...what? My-my surprise? I thought my surprise was, you know...the sex...who the hell is at the door, Jieun?”

The door knob turned tentatively, the door was opened a crack and a thin beam of orange light illuminated a sliver of the living room. A familiar voice meekly called out, “S-Sangwoo?...Hello? Are you in there?” 

Sangwoo trembled, Chanwook’s glassy eyes wandered to the door, and Jieun’s smirk was held firmly in place, she was proud of her own grand finale.

Chapter Text

Last weekend’s typhoon had cleared, finally permitting the children of Hwagog to revel in their afterschool pastimes. Nine year old Cho Bong-Cha loved skimming the canal to look for frogs, all the other third graders in her class thought they were slimy and disgusting, but not Bong-Cha. 

She was so excited when her mother gave her permission to head down to the canal before supper. So armed with a glass jar and a net, she was going to catch the biggest and bestest frog her class had ever seen. 

She leisurely walked along the canal’s bank and combed the reeds for any hidden treasures. Bong-Cha noticed the vegetation was strewn about, the strong winds from last weekend must have blown them out of the ground. 

She shuddered thinking about the animals that had to weather the elements, hopefully the frogs were doing alright. 

Bong-cha turned over rocks by the bank in the hopes of finding an impressive amphibian, it was starting to get late and her mother would get upset if she didn’t get home before sunset. She needed to find a frog soon. 

She was hyper-focused on the reeds, scanning bunches of them without looking at the ground beneath her feet before her pinky toe collided with something hard. She sucked air through her teeth and winced. “Ouuuch!” she squealed while hopping on one leg, holding the affected toe. 

“What was that?” she glared at the direction of the offending obstruction. It was a tattered black duffel bag. She raised an eyebrow and studied it thoroughly. 

Picking the bag up, she noticed the side of it read ‘Hwagog High School Boys Soccer Team’. “Hey, cool! My big brother goes to that school!” She figured she could gift him the duffel bag, it wasn’t in too bad shape. 

She lifted the soggy bag above head, ‘Oh’ the singular character scribbled on the underside read.

“Oh...? Aww man...I guess this already belongs to someone,” she pouted. She set the bag on the floor and stared at it, twiddling her thumbs. 

“The bag is kinda heavy, maybe it has something inside.” She wondered what could be in a high school boy’s bag, her own brother never let her anywhere near his things. 

“I know it’s rude but…” she grasped at the zipper daintily, afraid the whole thing would break if she was anything but careful. Bong-Cha slowly unzipped the bag, taking care to avoid looking into it so she didn’t spoil the surprise. 

When it was finally open, she immediately screwed her eyes shut in case it was some ‘Raiders of The Lost Ark’ situation and spirits would melt her face off. She exhaled when she realized she was safe from face melting spirits for yet another day.

“Phew, okay, let’s check this out,” she craned her neck over the open bag and her face twisted in confusion. “Halloween decorations?...” at the bottom of the bag lay, what looked like a human head. It was so realistic, it was uncanny. 

She could see the skull underneath the torn and tattered ‘skin’ of the replica. The skin itself was greenish-yellowish and was slipping off the skull. 

Inspecting it further, she noted the expression on the head’s face, one eye was missing and the other was wide open, the mouth was agape; it looked like it was screaming. She wanted to bring it home despite knowing her mother would try and get rid of it as soon as she showed it to her.

Bong-Cha picked the head out of the bag, odd, it felt water-logged and a bit squishy. Out of nowhere, a small crab popped out of the eye socket. “Ahh!” she yelped, jolting the head backwards, the force of which shook the lower jaw out of place and it hung loosely by a piece of skin. 

The tongue swung about, its teeth were yellowed and cavity-ridden. She realized in horror that this was no high-quality replica, but the real deal. “Mommy!” she shrieked at the top of her lungs, dropping the severed head with a thud on the ground, and ran the entire way home.

********************************

“Is that...who I think it is?” Sangwoo hurriedly sprang from the floor, anxiously smoothing his hair along with his clothing. 

“Bum? It is! You get to kill two Yoon’s in one day, I just felt it would be more meaningful if we did away with both of them and you finally got to end that chapter of your life. So, what do you think?” Jieun beamed up at him, stroking his arm.

“I-I really wish you hadn’t sprung this up on me without w-warning,” Sangwoo stuttered, sweating bullets. She scoffed, “What’s the big deal? What, are you afraid of Bum? He has toothpicks for arms, he’s hardly a threat.” 

“That’s not it, Jieun,” he hissed.

“Hello? Sangwoo? Is anybody home? Strange, the door was unlocked.” Bum opened the door a quarter more and cautiously poked his head in. He turned to see Sangwoo shrouded in darkness, the panicked expression on his face apparent from how much of the whites of his eyes were visible.

“Bum...yes, I’m...I’m here. What are you doing here?” Sangwoo said nervously. 

The corners of Bum’s mouth turned into a subtle frown, “What do you mean? Don’t you remember?...the note you left me,” he murmured bashfully. 

“What?...” Sangwoo stood there, dumbfounded, he didn’t recall leaving Bum anything, he didn’t even know where he was currently staying. 

“C-can I come in?” Bum hung on the door frame sheepishly with his eyes fixed to the floor. 

“Uhh...how about I meet you out there instead,” Sangwoo stumbled toward the door when Jieun called out, “Nonsense, is that how you treat a guest? Come on in, Bum!”

Bum jolted at the sudden inclusion of a third voice. “Jieun? Are you there too?” Sangwoo cringed, “Yeah, she’s in there. Listen, I think-” 

Bum entered the apartment and furrowed his brows, “Sangwoo why is it so dark in here? W-what is going on?” He took a few paces forward when Sangwoo blocked him from going any further, “Bum, wait outside, I’ll talk to you out there,” he intoned firmly. 

“Why? What’s wrong?” Bum questioned, confused with how antsy Sangwoo was.

Jieun huffed, she was losing patience, this wasn’t how she expected their reunion to go. She was looking forward to bloodshed. “What are you so worried about Sangwoo? What, you don’t want ‘Bumi’ to see this?” She flicked on the lights to reveal Yoon Chanwook’s ribs and lungs on full display as he wallowed in pain and suffering on the plastic tarp, moaning softly. 

Bum stumbled backwards with a look of terror branded on his features, “W-w-what is t-t-that?” he spat out as he crawled to the corner of the room and hugged his knees against his chest. 

“God dammit, Jieun, stay out of this!” Sangwoo growled. 

“Bum,” Sangwoo slowly made his way to the corner and spoke in soothing tones, “I’m sorry you had to see that, are you okay?” 

Bum didn’t say anything, he couldn’t...he was paralyzed from the shock the gruesome scene he walked into had put him in. He just stared silently.

“Okay?…” Sangwoo mumbled, a little miffed that Bum hadn’t answered him, “Bum, what did you come here for? You said something about a note, what did it say?”

Bum opened his mouth and then closed it again. Darting his eyes from Sangwoo’s face to his uncle’s mangled body. He attempted to say something again but all that came out was air, his vocal chords were unable to come together and vibrate. So he settled on staring at Sangwoo some more with an expression that was reminiscent of a deer in headlights.

Sangwoo curled his lip in exasperation and huffed, “What, too good to even talk to me now? Is that it? You don’t want to talk to the ‘big scary murderer’ so you pretend you’re mute?”

Bum continued to stare with a worried look on his face.

“Stop fucking looking at me like that and answer me for fucks sake!” Sangwoo snarled.

Jieun leaned against the wall and regarded the whole scene coolly. Sure it was slow, but it was starting to build up, she would get her finale eventually.

When Bum didn’t answer, Sangwoo rushed at the wall and slammed his palms against it, the sound making Bum flinch. His hands rested next to both sides of Bum’s head and he was caged in by Sangwoo’s arms as he stared down at him. Sangwoo then lowered his face to Bum’s eye level and insisted on unrelenting eye contact from the terror-stricken man. 

He growled slightly, “What’s the matter? You just up and leave me, have the balls to show your face around me and reject me all over again? Why won’t you just tell me what you want… please,” his voice changed at that, sounding like he had a lump in his throat.

Sangwoo’s expression softened, “Bumi,” Jieun rolled her eyes in indignation. 

“Bumi, come here, just tell me what you wanted to say to me before you saw...that.” He looked back at Yoon laying there bleeding out. Sangwoo leaned in to put his lips against Bum’s, but as he approached him, Bum turned his head away at the last minute and pushed his hand out against Sangwoo’s chest.

Sangwoo looked absolutely crushed by Bum’s rejection, and suddenly his features contorted into an expression of unadulterated rage. “So that's how it’s going to be, huh?!” His tone, deep and gravelly. He grabbed on to Bum’s thin wrist and dragged him near the center of the room, next to his uncle. 

“Yes, yes, finally!” Jieun cheered in a hushed whisper.

Bum whimpered in Sangwoo’s rough grasp. “I do everything I can to try and make you happy, but you just make a fool out of me over and over and over again,” Sangwoo snarled, “Never again, I should have just done this when you left me the last time.” 

He slammed Bum against the floor who landed with a loud thud. Sangwoo straddled Bum’s shoulders, wrapped his hands around his neck and began to squeeze.

“What did I tell you, huh? This is what would happen if you left me. Why the hell would you come back just to reject me? Why do you like hurting me so much!?” Sangwoo screamed as he choked back tears. Bum lay there, his face red as he tried to pry Sangwoo’s hands off of him. 

“You should have just stayed the hell away from me, I was doing okay, you could have survived if you’d have just left me alone for good.” Tears streamed down Sangwoo’s face and landed on Bum’s filthy sweater. Bum only looked at him remorsefully.

Bum mouthed something and caught Sangwoo’s attention. “Now, you’re trying to say something? It’s a little late for that don’t you think?” he sniffled. Bum continued mouthing the same thing, Sangwoo relented, but only loosened his grip enough to let a little bit of air pass through Bum’s vocal chords. “What the hell are you trying to say, Bum?” 

“I’m sorry,” Bum croaked. “What?...” Sangwoo eyed him curiously, staying perfectly still. 

“You’re right...I’m sorry for coming back...I just thought you wanted me back...because of what the note said,” Bum said as he paused to take miniscule sips of air.

“And what the hell did this note say?” Sangwoo calmed down significantly but was still breathing heavily, Bum tapped at his right pocket and Sangwoo stuck one hand in while keeping the other on Bum’s throat to retrieve the weathered piece of paper. The ink on the note had smeared and it was incredibly difficult for Sangwoo to read. “What does it say?” He faced the writing toward Bum and asked with a neutral expression.

“It...it says you miss me...and you want me...to come home,” Bum wheezed, gasping like a fish out of water. 

“I never wrote this…” Sangwoo said with confusion. Bum’s expression crumpled underneath Sangwoo’s grip. A laugh was heard at the back of the room.

Jieun stepped forward and chimed, “I left the note out for you Bumi~ I had to get you in here somehow. I wrote your dear uncle over there a note too, I told him I would get you here so he could drag you back home!” She looked over to Chanwook and ripped the duct tape from his mouth, his eyes burned with fury. 

“See old man, I wasn’t lying. Bum really did come after all. And now you both get to die and be buried in the same shallow grave together, isn't that nice? Aren’t you going thank me?” Jieun cackled wildly, sounding like some off-kilter cartoon villain. 

Yoon continued to shoot daggers at her with his gaze in complete silence, Jieun gave him a hard kick to the side when he failed to respond, “Ungrateful piece of shit,” she growled.

“Killing two Yoon’s with one stone,” she giggled. 

Sangwoo stared at her wide-eyed and looked to Bum. “I had no idea she did that...I thought we were just going to get your uncle today, I swear.” He loosened his grip on Bum’s throat a little more and glanced off to the side bashfully. “So...you came here because you wanted to come back?” Bum nodded his head frantically.

“Then why the hell didn’t you just tell me that in the first place?” He glowered down at Bum, “So, what? You changed your mind when you saw your uncle, told yourself you’d never want to end up with a sick fuck like me?” He spat through grit teeth, squeezing Bum’s throat until his eyes began to bulge from his head.

Bum thrashed about and mouthed desperately, “Just say what you’re going to say, all of it!” Sangwoo barked, slightly loosening his grip again. 

“I didn’t say anything...because...because…” 

“Because what, Bum!?” he yelled out in frustration. 

“Because...I was...upset...you and Jieun…” Bum’s eyes watered and Sangwoo could feel his Adam’s apple bobbing against his hand. “I...didn’t like it...both of you together...killing my uncle as a team...I got jealous.” 

Sangwoo stared at Bum incredulously, he was about to be strangled to death and his biggest concern was seeing him with Jieun? 

“Cry me a river,” Jieun said dismissively, “We’re together because I could handle stuff like this,” she kicked Chanwook’s side, drawing a pained groan out of him, “and you and Sangwoo aren’t because you can’t,” she sneered with a self-satisfied smirk.

“By the way, before you die, I just have to ask. That bottle thing you did on camera? What the fuck? How did you get an entire bottle of soju up there? That bottle was like, half your size…” 

Bum’s face reddened, not due to a lack of oxygen, but sheer embarrassment. “You...you ...saw that?” Bum hid behind his hands. 

“Saw what?” Sangwoo furrowed his brows, puzzled. 

“Babe, that nanny cam app on your phone...it’s too obvious when you’re on it. Anyway, I took a little peek while you were showering and lo and behold, there was Bum, riding an entire bottle of soju while screaming your name, it was hilarious!” Jieun chortled.

Bum suddenly felt something harden below his waist and it wasn’t him. Sangwoo looked at him with something that was a cross between lust and bitterness. “So if you wanted me that bad this whole time, why didn’t you come back on your own?” He applied mounting pressure to Bum’s neck.

“Because...ack...I was…*cough*...afraid you’d...kill me…” Sangwoo didn’t like that answer and continued to squeeze, slowly closing off his airway. 

“So you don’t trust me, you never have, not since you’ve found out about my dad! You’ll never love me, no matter how much I love you! You’ll always have one foot out the door to abandon me the moment I do something that scares you a little,” Sangwoo ranted hysterically.

“You deserve better, baby,” Jieun walked towards them and tousled his hair. “You’re doing so good, with him gone we can finally be together without anything in the way, you’ll be free of any weaknesses,” she cooed while gently petting him.

Bum wheezed while he sniffled, tears rolling down the side of his face. Sangwoo’s lip quivered as he choked the life out of Bum, “I love you so much Bumi, I really do. I’m sorry it had to come to this. She’s right you know, you’re my biggest weakness. If only we had never met.” Sangwoo teared up, panting heavily, silvery stripes washing away the blood on his cheeks.

Bum opened his eyelids at half mast, delirious and close to blacking out. Sangwoo noticed there wasn’t anymore fear in his eyes, or even sadness. Bum managed to impart a few strained words with a smile through his constricted vocal chords, “I’m...glad...we met.” 

Sangwoo whimpered as he continued his hold on the fragile throat in his hands. In that moment he thought about that day in the alleyway, when Bum had found him scared and alone and showed him so much compassion. He remembered the ice cream they had shared on the park swings, the moment of passion they shared on the slides. 

Sangwoo’s forearms began to shake, it was as if his body didn’t want to finish the task at hand. But how could he live with the knowledge that Bum could never really love him? As much as it pained him, he would rather live in a world without Bum than in one where he could never truly have him. 

Part of him knew it was selfish; his mother had always told him that true love was selfless, giving, self-sacrificing. But what the hell did she know about true love anyway? She couldn’t even love Sangwoo enough to stay sober, to not overdose, to stay alive. There was no such thing as selfless love.

“Babe, what is taking so long? Just get it over with already...I want you,” Jieun purred, playfully pawing at his trembling shoulders.

Bum just looked at Sangwoo now, his expression was peaceful, perhaps even loving. His lungs burned but he drew in a little bit of air with all his might and softly croaked out. “Woo...it’s okay...I’m okay...with dying as long...as it makes you happy.”

“What...Bumi?” Sangwoo’s voice warbled. He processed each word, “Bum would be okay with dying as long as it made me happy?” 

Bum smiled at him, until finally, his chest stood still and his lashes fluttered as he drifted in and out of consciousness. There was such a thing as selfless love, and he was about to snuff it out due to sheer pettiness.

He immediately released his grip from Bum’s throat, “Bumi!! Dear God, what have I done?!” he cried out frantically, gripping the sides of his hair. 

Sangwoo forced air into Bum’s lungs with his mouth and rhythmically pushed on his chest. “Bum, please don’t die! I’m so sorry, Bumi, please wake up!” he sobbed.

Bum laid there, unresponsive. Sangwoo doggedly performed CPR on him, or at least some version of it he saw done in a drama once. After ten minutes of attempting to revive him, Sangwoo grudgingly accepted he may never wake up and it was all his fault. 

He wanted to launch himself out of a window, how could he have ever believed he wanted to kill Bum? He was wrong, he would rather never touch Bum again than have him leave this earth. 

“Bum...oh, Bum...I’m sorry Bumi...I love you...I love you so much...I would do anything for you to wake up...I would trade places with you in a heartbeat,” laments of unfathomable regret spilled out of Sangwoo’s mouth as he sobbed hysterically onto Bum’s lithe chest, holding him against himself. 

While Sangwoo dissolved into a bottomless pool of tears he neglected to notice slender fingers raking through his disheveled locks. 

“Woo...I can’t really breathe...with you laying on top of me like that,” Bum said with a weak chuckle. Sangwoo sprung up and wondered to himself if he had fallen asleep and the vision in front of him was nothing but a dream. 

“Bumi?” he patted Bum’s round cheeks while they slowly regained color, he inspected his eyes, and opened his mouth. “Sangu, uht ah yew duin?” Bum questioned while Sangwoo held his mouth open. 

“Bumi!!! You’re alive!!” Sangwoo embraced him in his arms and covered the crown of his head in kisses. 

“Well, it's not like I died...at least I don’t think I did,” Bum held his chin in thought.

“You did, baby, and I killed you,” Sangwoo looked deeply ashamed before moving on to a joyful expression at the drop of a hat, “Buuuut, I saved you with CPR, so I guess that evens it out!” he puffed out his chest. 

“Oh...wow, Woo, where did you learn how to do that?” Bum looked to him, dazed but inquisitive. “Hmmm...I guess episode twelve, season two of Love Explosion.” 

Bum snuggled into Sangwoo’s chest, “My hero~” he giggled, voice dripping with exhaustion. 

“Y-yeah, we could look at it that way,” Sangwoo chuckled nervously. “Did I just reset Bum? That’s pretty sweet, I wonder if he’ll do that soju bottle thing in front of me now…” he thought to himself, immediately allowing his mind to wander into lewdness.

Overcome with emotion, Sangwoo gently laid Bum on the floor and crawled on top of him, catching his lips with his own. Bum wrapped his arms around Sangwoo’s neck and pulled him in further, deepening the kiss as he moaned lewdly. 

“You have no idea how much I missed this,” Bum whispered against Sangwoo’s mouth with a breathy timbre.

Sangwoo responded with a gruff laugh, “I think I might have an idea.” He ran a hand up Bum’s sweater and explored every inch of his velvety skin, softly rubbing a nipple between two fingers. 

Bum gasped, “I forgot how good it feels when you do that,” he sighed while grinding his thigh against Sangwoo’s erection. The other man groaned in his ear in turn, making sure to pepper Bum’s neck and jawline with kisses.

Bum was blissed out, he missed Sangwoo’s weight against him more than he thought. They held, kissed, and groped each other, melding into one moaning, sighing organism. 

He began to fiddle with Sangwoo’s waistband hoping he would get the hint. Bum momentarily died, the least Sangwoo could do was make it up to him with an out-of-this-world dicking. 

Suddenly, Bum caught something from the corner of his eye. With a baseball bat held high above her head, it was Jieun with burning fury in her eyes. “Sangwoo, behind you!!” Bum shrieked.

Chapter Text

Bum pushed Sangwoo off of him before he could react and Jieun was only able to clip Sangwoo’s shoulder with her baseball bat. She immediately brought it back up to swing again. Sangwoo looked up at her, bewildered. 

“Oh fuck,” he thought to himself, he had gotten so caught up in reconciling with Bum that he had forgotten Jieun was still in his apartment. 

She sensed his lapse in memory and snarled angrily, “Aww Babe, you forget I was here? What, the second you see Bum I just vanish into thin air?!” 

“J-Jieun...let’s talk about this-” 

“There’s nothing more to talk about you ungrateful bastard,” she rebuffed with a shrill screech, becoming more and more irate, swinging her baseball bat wildly. Sangwoo tried to calm her down while dodging her indiscriminate swings around the living room. 

“Hold on-”

*Whoosh*

“Jieun, just put the bat down and-”

*Crash* 

“Can we just talk about this like adults?” Sangwoo stumbled and fell backwards.

“Go to hell Sangwoo! After everything I’ve done for you!” She slammed the bat in the empty space between Sangwoo’s legs, without hitting anything, but still- much too close for comfort. 

“That I didn’t ask for!” he retorted before grabbing hold of the bat with both hands and yanking it from her grip, “There, now stop it! Let’s be civil about this.” Sangwoo stood and approached her with his hands up. 

“Let’s sit over there and talk, you don’t want to do something you might regret,” he said with a nervous smile, Jieun released the tension in her shoulders despite refusing to unclench her fists and breathing heavily.

“There you go,” Sangwoo cooed, as if trying to soothe a raging bull. “I totally get how you feel,” he slowly sat on the couch with his hands still up in a gesture of submission, “I felt unappreciated too, it made me so angry, I could have killed Bum.” 

Jieun threw a ceramic trinket at Sangwoo’s head, narrowly missing him, at the mention of Bum’s name. “Will you shut the fuck up about Bum?! Everything is always Bum this, and Bum that. What’s so amazing about that sick little freak anyway? Do you have any idea how many guys at school would kill to have me? The only other person who would touch Yoon Bum is his uncle!”

Sangwoo felt his eye twitch at her needlessly cruel insult towards Bum but figured he should just let it go for the sake of getting Jieun to express her rage through words rather than violence. 

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry I won’t mention ‘you-know-who’ anymore.” he plastered a lukewarm smile on his face hoping his accommodating attitude would disarm her. 

“Good,” she pouted as tears brimmed the waterline of her eyes, “Why Sangwoo? Why? Why don’t you love me? Why don’t you love me like I love you?” she buried her head in the sleeve of her sweatshirt and whimpered. 

Sangwoo’s cold, black heart was somehow crushed at the sight of Jieun weakly sobbing into her shirt. It engendered empathy as it took him back to that night at the park when Bum ran off without saying goodbye.

He found himself compelled to embrace her in his arms, “Jieun, I do love you, so much,” he whispered in her ear as he raked his fingers through her hair.

“Really?” she perked up from within the folds of his sweatshirt, looking up at him with eyes full of hope, “So you would rather be with me than Bum?”

He froze, the answer was obviously a resounding ‘Hell No’ but he couldn’t say it to her like that. He searched the room for inspiration. He locked eyes with Bum who cowered in a corner, his eyes panicking, waiting for Sangwoo’s answer. 

“God Bumi, you could be so insecure sometimes,” he chuckled internally, he tossed Bum a reassuring glance that conveyed just how much he loved him. 

“Well, do you??” Jieun pulled back and noticed Sangwoo glancing at something that wasn’t her with a lovestruck look on his face, she raised an eyebrow and turned in the direction the gaze was aimed at. 

Her confused expression turned into one of unbridled rage. She popped up from her seat and practically foamed at the mouth while rattling her index finger at Bum. “You...you shitty little rat! It’s all your fault! We were in love! Why did you have to come here, you...you homewrecker! ”

Bum was flummoxed at her bizarre assertion, “You...told me to come?” He knitted his brows, indignation coloring his features. “Y-y-you know what Jieun?” Bum thought about the night his uncle tried to drag him off against his will, how good it felt to plunge that shard of glass into his side, to make him suffer. “I should thank you for writing that note. It’s all thanks to you that Woo and I are back together...” He flashed her an unhinged grin. 

He lowered his head and looked up at Jieun, making the dark circles under his eyes even more prominent while sporting a sadistic smirk. “It almost makes up for you being such a pathetic, opportunistic bitch and trying to take what’s mine the minute my back is turned.”

Sangwoo was conflicted, the last thing Bum needed to do was provoke Jieun like that, but the erection he had to hide beneath a couch cushion was proof of his implicit approval of Bum’s brutal shot at her. ‘Mine’, Sangwoo’s body tingled at the thought of Bum claiming ownership over him.

Jieun stood there speechless with her mouth agape like she hadn’t expected Bum to talk back, much less call her a pathetic, opportunistic bitch. 

Seemingly out of nowhere, she shrieked like a banshee and dove toward the bloodied machete on the tarp. “You’re going to fucking die, Yoon Bum!! If he won’t kill you, then I will,” she turned to face Sangwoo sharply, “And if you get in my way I’ll kill you too!” 

“Come and get me, rebound!” Bum jeered from his corner. Jieun let out a feral growl and leapt over the couch landing on her feet a meter away from Bum. 

Then, as if Bum’s quota for boldness had been met for the day, he breathlessly mouthed “Oh shit, oh fuck, why did I say that?” he shrieked and ran around the living room as Jieun chased him, slashing at the air with the machete. 

“Come here, you miserable...weak… terribly dressed pile of chicken shit,” she charged at him like a lioness hunting down a gazelle, “Why...the fuck...would you wear that disgusting frog sweater to see Sangwoo anyway? It looks like you wipe your ass with it!” 

“Sangwooooooo!!!” Bum cried out, “For God’s sake, help meeee!” He toppled furniture in a pitiful attempt at slowing her down. “Stay away from me, you psycho bitch!” Bum screamed from behind the loveseat, hopping side to side to avoid her. 

She pretended to head left only to push herself to the right and catch up with Bum. He let out a startled yelp and chucked picture frames at her. “Owww! What the fuck, you spineless little cunt!” Jieun spat when the pointed edge of one of the picture frames jabbed her in the forehead, drawing blood. This gave Bum enough time to run to Sangwoo’s room and lock himself in.

Jieun slammed into the door, “Open up, goddammit!” 

“N-n-no!,” Bum’s muffled voice warbled from the other side.

“What the fuck happened to wanting to die if it made Sangwoo happy? Don’t you know how much better off he would be without you? Stop being so selfish and let me kill you already!” she swung the machete at the door, chopping chunks of it out until she was able to stick her arm through an opening and turn the doorknob from inside. 

She felt the other side of the door in search of the knob when she felt something sink its teeth into her hand, breaking the skin. “Motherfucker! Did you just bite me?!” 

Bum spit the blood out of his mouth, “I-I’m warning you Jieun, stay away or y-you’ll get hurt!” He tried his best to sound confident before letting out a squeak when Jieun practically ripped the door off the doorframe. He scrambled under the bed and hatched a brilliant distraction strategy.

Jieun strolled around the bedroom and cooed, “Oh Bumi~ I’m sorry for saying all of those mean things to you. I won’t hurt you, I promise. Maybe we can share Sangwoo, I get him during the weekdays and you can have him on the weekends, what do you say? Come out and we can talk about it,” she chirped sweetly. “Ohhh Bumi~”

Bum popped from beneath the bed and flung a pair of black bikini briefs at her head, covering her eyes. “Bullseye!” Bum cheered, pumping his fist in the air. 

“What...what is this? It smells musty, like sweat and asscrack!” Jieun pulled the underwear off her face and regarded them with horror, “Eww…” she snappily threw them onto the ground, “Are these your underwear?? What are you, five??” 

She cornered him by the entrance of the closet, “You know, I was going to make your death quick and painless, but after pulling that shit, I think I would rather turn you into a blood eagle, like uncle, like nephew. But instead of binding your limbs with duct tape, I’m just going to hack them off,” Jieun snarled while brandishing the sharp blade of her machete, licking her lips.

Bum just stood there with a dopey smile on his face. “What the hell are you smiling about, moron?” She eyed him suspiciously.

Bum swayed on the balls of his feet with his arms behind his back, smiling without a care in the world. “Hey Jieun...have you ever met ‘Pillow Bumi’?” 

Her eyes opened wide and she whispered, “No...please, God no.” He tossed the semen riddled cushion at her and it landed square on her chest. “Kyaaa!” she screamed, “It’s..it’s..so sticky, and it smells weird, eww...get it off, get it off, get it off meeee!” 

Bum hopped on the bed and bounced off the other side to run through the decimated doorway. He found Sangwoo standing in the middle of the living room, having witnessed the entire wild goose chase without doing a thing. 

Bum got behind Sangwoo, and glowered up at him. “Woo! Your crazy rebound tried to turn me into the next Jungnam and you’re just standing there, do something!” 

Sangwoo turned to face Bum with a look of resignation, he knew what he would have to do to Jieun in her unrelenting crazed state, he just really, really didn’t want to. Despite needing Bum as much as he needed air, Jieun still held such a special place in his heart. 

It pained him to explore the possibility of having to kill her. It was without question that he would go there if she became a serious threat to Bum’s life, but so far Bum had been handling it beautifully, which is why he didn’t act. He was trying to think of a solution that would have all three of them coming out alive.

Jieun stumbled from the bedroom, breathing heavily. “You…” she pointed at Bum. “This has gone on long enough. I’m tired and we need to bury Coach Yoon soon, so I’ll tell you what, I’ll go back to my original offer and kill you quickly and painlessly.” 

Sangwoo stood his ground, “That’s not happening, Jieun,” he intoned firmly, his posture held an authoritative gait. “Move aside, Sangwoo,” she held the machete up tiredly. 

“Nope, you’ll have to kill me before you get to Bum, sorry,” he said bluntly. Jieun stamped her foot in frustration, “Why are you making this so hard?” she whined, like an exhausted toddler. “I just want to kill Bum so we could be together…” 

She pressed her head against Sangwoo’s chest. “Jieun,” his eyes followed the pattern on the carpet, trying to find the right words for the moment. He sighed, “Even if you killed Bum...we wouldn’t end up together.” 

“Why?” Jieun’s face crumpled, her tone was that of a disheartened child. “Because I just...don’t feel the same way about you that you do about me,” he wrapped his arms around her, rubbing circles on her back. “You’re my friend, and I love you. I just don’t think it’s fair of me to keep leading you on. Even if Bum died I would probably still be obsessed with his ghost.” He felt something poignant at the thought of idolizing the dead, after all, he was still chasing the spectre of his mother to this day.

“You deserve someone as dedicated to you as you are to them, you have so much love to give.” He gently wiped a rolling tear of Jieun’s cheek and held her. 

“You’re right,” she looked up bleary eyed, “I deserve someone who’ll put in as much into me as I would to them, because I’m fucking awesome.”

Sangwoo chuckled tenderly, “that’s right, you’re fucking awesome, and you give me a run for my money when it comes to viciousness. You’re insane!” 

Jieun laughed, “Thanks,” she wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled her cheek against his. “I know you’re obsessed with Bum and all, I just wish things could be differe-”

Sangwoo heard something being sprayed from behind him followed by a high pitched yelp in his ear. He blinked rapidly as his right eye began to sting with a scorching intensity. “The fuck...what is that? ” He turned around to find Bum jumping for joy with a can of mace in his hand.

“Yes, yes, yes! Serves you right, Succubus!” he cheered while performing a jumpy victory dance. 

Jieun shielded her eyes in pain, “Ahhhhh...what the fuck is wrong with you, you fucking freak!? I’m not even trying to kill you anymore.” 

“Bum, come here!” Sangwoo called sharply, placing a hand over his right eye. Bum ceased his happy dance and covered his mouth. “Oh no! Sangwoo, don’t tell me it got you too!” 

“That’s not the point,” Sangwoo said through grit teeth, “What the hell was that for? That was completely unnecessary. We were having a moment,” he admonished Bum, who kept his gaze low and shifted his weight on his feet like a child who was being chewed out.

“I dunno, she tried to kill us and all...and I remembered I had some mace in my bag...so I just went and grabbed it...I guess,” he muttered, seemingly embarrassed.

Sangwoo’s gaze softened, “Bumi...I tried to kill you too, and look at us now. You have to let go of petty things like ‘they tried to kill me’ and forgive. Can you apologize to Jieun and get her some milk from the fridge to rinse the mace out of her eyes?” 

“Okay…” Bum mumbled while still looking at the ground with a pouty expression. “Bumi, look at me,” Sangwoo gently held his chin up to him, “I love you. Now, go get Jieun that milk...Oh, and bring some for me too.” He placed a chaste kiss on Bum’s lips causing him to blush, “I love you too, Woo!” Bum giggled as he skipped to the kitchen.

“Ughh...fuck...ahh...my eyes, they feel like they’re melting,” Jieun groaned. Sangwoo ran his hand across her shoulders in an attempt to soothe her, he felt guilty about the whole incident despite not being the one who sprayed half a can of mace in her eyes. 

“Hey, sorry about Bum, he was just...shaken. You know, since you did chase him around the apartment with a machete.”

“Little rat could have at least faced me like a man instead of catching me off guard,” she grumbled, plopping down on the loveseat. She buried her head in an armrest and sighed, “And I’m sorry for catching you off guard with the whole Bum thing.” 

Sangwoo shrugged his shoulders and fell to the couch, “It’s alright, besides Bum was right. If it wasn’t for the note you left him, we wouldn’t have...you know,” he said, carefully dancing around the sore subject.

“I’m such an idiot!” Jieun furiously kicked her legs up in the air in frustration. “What did I think was going to happen? It’s not like I didn’t notice you falling asleep to him on your phone every night. I just thought you’d get it out of your system if you stabbed his guts out.”

Sangwoo laughed thickly, “Yeah, sorry about that. What can I say, you can’t help who you fall for sometimes.” Jieun shot him an ironic look with her red, watery eyes before chuckling bitterly, “Tell me about it.”

Bum padded into the living room with two glasses of milk in hand and a bucket. “Here you go, Woo!” He turned to Jieun coolly, “Here,” setting the glass in front of her a little roughly before settling himself in Sangwoo’s lap. 

“Bumi,” Sangwoo admonished gently, with that stern, almost fatherly, tone he had used on Bum a handful of times before; it had worked every time. “What were you supposed to say to Jieun, Bum?” Bum whined on his lap, “But she’s not even sorry for trying to kill me…” Sangwoo cleared his throat, “Bum?” 

“Sorry, Jieun,” Bum sounded like a kindergartener who was made to apologize after pulling a classmate’s hair. He said it because he had to, not because he thought what he did was wrong.

“For what, Bumi?” Sangwoo probed.

“For spraying mace in your eyes.” It took everything within Bum not to smirk, “After you tried to kill me,” he muttered under his breath.

“Great! See? That wasn’t so hard, was it!” Sangwoo nuzzled his face into Bum’s neck, he then turned to Jieun, “Okay, Bum apologized. Now, what about you?” 

Jieun washed the milk over her eyes on top of the bucket and blinked incredulously. “I’m not sorry, so no, I’m not apologizing,” she asserted. 

Bum scoffed, his arms crossed, legs dangling off of Sangwoo’s lap, “See? I told you, Woo!”

“Jieun,” Sangwoo slumped down to her eye level and shot her a foreboding glare that sent shivers up and down her spinal column. “Okay, okay!” she brought her hands out in surrender. “I guess I’m sorry for trying to kill you, Bum.”

Sangwoo grabbed Jieun and Bum by a shoulder each and smooshed their cheeks against his own, grinning boyishly. 

“Yay!! We’re all friends again!” He rejoiced with ample enthusiasm. Bum and Jieun glanced at each other impassively, cognizant of the fact that they would have to be civil with one another for Sangwoo’s sake. 

“Well, I guess I’m going to shower and head out,” Jieun stood up from the loveseat, Sangwoo pouted in disappointment. “Oh c’mon Jieun, you can’t leave now, we still have Yoon’s body to dump. You’re gonna miss the best part!” 

“No thanks, have Bum help you out. It’s his rapist uncle after all,” she tossed Bum a caustic smile masquerading as a friendly gesture, “Have fun boys!” she sauntered off to the bathroom.

Sangwoo chuckled, “That Min Jieun sure is something isn't she.” Bum collapsed onto the couch, “She’s definitely something.” And he was pretty positive he wanted to avoid whatever that something was as much as possible.

********************************

Sangwoo and Bum sat side by side on the couch, both staring distractedly into nothing. Jieun had left and it was just the two of them, alone. Sangwoo knew what was coming next, he just had little to no clue on how to initiate it. He didn’t want to make it seem forced, he wanted it to progress naturally, but God, did he want it bad.

He slowly slid his hand across the couch and placed it upon Bum’s who turned to him and smiled. Sangwoo had no idea what to say, but maybe words were unnecessary. He leaned in to gently plant a lingering kiss on Bum’s waiting lips, Bum sighed contentedly in response, licking at him for entrance. 

The two tenderly embraced one another while getting reacquainted with the inside of their mouths. There was no fight for dominance but a symbiotic dance between tongues, softly passing over each other. 

The lightheaded sensation Sangwoo felt brought him back, once again, to that night in the park, but things were exponentially better now. Both of them had grown into themselves, shedding many of the insecurities that had torn them apart in the first place. 

They broke apart for air and Sangwoo decided to take initiative, it wouldn’t take many words to let Bum know what he yearned for. “Do you want to?” he crooned softly, more of an affirmation than a question. Bum’s eyes lit up and he nodded emphatically. 

Without saying anything else, Sangwoo carefully lifted him up in his arms and placed him on the carpet near his uncle’s corpse. He worried Bum would complain, say he would rather be on the bed, but there was something Sangwoo found incredibly romantic about being intimate next to the cold, dead body of the bastard who had brutalized his Bumi.

Thankfully, Bum seemed fine with the idea of fucking next to his uncle’s corpse, panting and mewling lewdly against Sangwoo. If anything, their chosen location heightened Bum’s sensitivity to his touch as he strummed the dichotomy of soft curves and harsh angles that made up Bum’s body with his fingers. He undressed Bum as slowly as he could handle, building up tension for both of them.

Bum felt Sangwoo’s heart hammer in his chest, understandably, as it was his first time. It was also Bum’s first time in a way, he had had plenty of sex but couldn’t recall a time when he had ‘made love’ and the idea of coming together with someone he had an actual connection with drove him wild.

Sangwoo’s confidence began to falter as he revealed more and more of Bum’s bare flesh, realizing that this was actually happening. He froze momentarily, eyes trailing up and down Bum’s body, like he had no idea what to do with it. Bum laughed warmly and decided to take the lead, he sat up and gently shoved Sangwoo back into the carpet like he did on the slides those two years ago.

Bum tugged at Sangwoo’s sweatpants and lowered them with a seductive look in his eye that had Sangwoo shuddering beneath his fingers. Finally, he got them down to Sangwoo’s ankles and tossed them aside with no regard to where they landed. Bum then started playfully tugging at Sangwoo’s boxer briefs, teasing him as he brought down one side with his teeth. 

“C’mon Bumi, I’m gonna explode,” Sangwoo panted breathlessly, a deep sense of urgency in his tone as he squirmed for relief. Bum couldn’t help but chuckle at Sangwoo’s desperation and he mercifully removed the rest of the underwear in one motion, chucking them behind him. 

He exposed Sangwoo’s rock hard cock, dutifully standing at attention and weeping. Bum delighted internally in anticipation for how good he was about to feel.

He straddled Sangwoo’s hips and lined himself up with his length. “Are you ready?” Bum purred in a breathy tone, Sangwoo responded by whining and thrusting upward, tirelessly trying to connect to Bum’s entrance. 

Bum spit on his hand and then had Sangwoo add to it, there was something appealing about them already mixing like that. He slathered their fluids on Sangwoo’s dick and  lowered himself onto it, both of them groaning in ecstasy. 

Bum felt delightfully stuffed, full of Sangwoo’s girthy, warm cock throbbing against his walls, it was already miles ahead of a soju bottle. He threw his head back and cried out, frantically reaching for Sangwoo’s hands and interlacing their fingers for support while he rode him at a vigorous pace, slamming himself down to the hilt of Sangwoo’s cock.

It was all too much for Sangwoo, the impossibly tight space squeezed around him like a vice, coupled with how warm it was inside and the lewd display Bum presented him with. He had no idea how much longer he would last as he was already on the verge of cumming. 

Bum continued impaling himself on Sangwoo, rolling his hips and angling it just right where it hit his prostate dead on. The sensation had Bum’s eyes rolling to the back of his head, reducing any form of communication he was capable of to a series of garbled moans and whines. 

He grasped Sangwoo’s hands tightly while slamming onto him, Bum was dizzy and he felt the beginnings of an intense orgasm coming on. He chased the feeling doggedly when suddenly, Sangwoo spasmed and thrusted into Bum erratically, afterwards melting into a breathless puddle on the carpet. Bum could feel him soften inside him, semen dribbling onto his inner thighs as Sangwoo began to slip out of him. 

When Sangwoo came to, he realized to his horror that he must have only lasted about a minute or two. Jieun’s words echoed in his mind ‘You’re a virgin??...You’re gonna last like two seconds with Bum.’ He cursed his stubborn insistence on preserving his virginity for someone special, he fucked everything up. Her non-stop laughter in his head pelted his ego. 

He sheepishly looked to Bum, terrified of finding a disappointed expression on his face. Instead, he found one of deep endearment. “Was it good for you, Woo?” Bum whispered softly while leaning over to press a kiss onto his collarbone, drawing a sigh out of him.

“Too good, I only lasted a second...I’m sorry, you must be so unsatisfied,” Sangwoo murmured with embarrassment. Bum just laughed “Woo, nobody is amazing at it the first time! You’ll learn how to last longer.” 

He scooted up and cupped the side of Sangwoo’s face, “I really enjoyed myself while it lasted, it felt really good.” Bum’s voice took on a salacious quality, “And besides, we have our entire lives to figure it out.”

The thought of fucking Bum for the rest of his life made Sangwoo’s cock harden once more, “You know what, let’s try again,” he said lowly, “I think I could last longer for you this time.” 

He grabbed Bum and switched their positions so that he was now on top of the smaller man. Bum let out a surprised yelp before bursting into a fit of giggles as Sangwoo covered his face, chest, and neck in smooches. 

“...Pathetic…” a weak and sickly voice crawled out from a corner of the living room. Sangwoo and Bum froze to look at each other, wide eyed. 

“W-was that you?” Bum stuttered. “Nuh-Uh…” Sangwoo replied with a look of terror etched on his features. They both looked to the plastic tarp where Yoon Chanwook’s corpse lay. There he was, anything but a corpse just yet, sneering at the young lovers.

“What. the. fuck?…” they whispered in unison.

Chapter Text

Bum scurried behind Sangwoo and covered his body with his sweater. “Aww..sweetheart, you don’t need to do that. It’s not like it’s anything I haven’t seen before,” his uncle sneered through laborious breaths. 

Sangwoo snarled, “How the fuck are you still alive, bastard.” 

“That’s what I want to know...it was bad enough having my lungs pulled out through my back, but being forced to watch you blow your disgusting load into my nephew just added insult to injury...oh well, at least it was quick.” Chanwook wheezed with a smirk on his face.

“Why do you always have to ruin everything, can’t you just die?!” Sangwoo turned to find Bum shaking with his knees tucked into his sweater, blinded with rage. “Whenever something good happens to me you’re always there to shit all over it! It’s not fair, even with your lungs ripped out of you, you’ve managed to ruin this for me!” He shrieked, tears rolling down his cheeks. 

Bum’s uncle just laughed and laughed, his nephew’s tears serving as fodder for his cruelty. “That’s right Bum, you filthy little whore, I’ll always have the last laugh; even, when I’m dead and gone. Just so you know, If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing, I’m leaving without regrets, baby!” his expression teetered on demonic as he wheezed and sputtered out blood.

His uncle’s confession only made Bum sob harder into his sleeves and Sangwoo decided enough was enough. 

“So I guess what they say is true,” he intoned coolly, “Cockroaches really can survive almost anything.” 

Chanwook regarded him with an irreverent smirk. “That’s right ankle-biter, it’s going to take a lot more than you pussyfooting with your candles, machetes, and weird music to take a real man down,” he jeered.

Sangwoo glanced at Bum, who was still sobbing into his sleeves. It broke his heart to see his Bumi that way, this was meant to be such a special moment for them and his uncle really had ruined it. 

He had to give Bum the final word in some way, but how? He supposed he could just always just gag him again and let Bum say whatever he needed to say. But he wanted something bigger, flashier, something that really made a statement. 

Suddenly, Sangwoo felt a devious stroke of genius materialize in his thoughts. He could hardly contain the manic laughter bubbling up from his chest when he crawled over to Bum and whispered in his ear. 

Bum stared at him bewildered, absolutely scandalized by what Sangwoo was suggesting. “But W-Woo...we can’t do that...that's disgusting!”

“C’mon Bumi! Didn’t you hear how much he hated it? Don’t you think it would be a fitting send off?” Sangwoo said casually.

Bum bashfully fiddled with the frayed strings on the hem of his sweater, avoiding eye contact with Sangwoo. “Y-yeah, but it’s kind of embarrassing,” he mumbled. 

“Embarrassing?” Sangwoo chuckled, “It’s one of the most natural things two people in love can do, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.” He leaned in to kiss Bum, roughly squeezing one of the cheeks of his bottom and drawing out a surprised moan from his lips into Sangwoo’s mouth. 

The effect was immediate, Chanwook whinged and gruffly called out, “Hey!...Heeey! Can’t you wait ‘til I kick the bucket, you filthy animals?” 

“See? He can’t stand it!” Sangwoo beamed down at Bum, caressing his cheek with his thumb. “So, what do you say, wanna go for round two?” Bum blushed violently beneath him before slowly nodding his head, silently looking up at him doe-eyed.

“Hold on, what?! Like hell I’m just gonna lay here and watch you two play ‘hide-the-salami’,” Chanwook growled. “Just you watch, I’ll scream loud enough for someone to call the cops, then-mmmpmh.” Sangwoo pulled his hair in the middle of his rant and stuffed a dirty pair of Bum’s underwear into his mouth before re-sealing his bloodied and cracked lips with duct tape. 

He trashed against Sangwoo’s hold, “Now, for the finishing touches.” He tore a small piece of duct tape into two thin pieces and adhered one on his upper eyelid and the other on his lower eyelid, forcing Chanwook’s eyes wide open. Chanwook grunted and slammed his eyes shut, ripping the duct tape off his face. 

“This won’t do, you’re so uncooperative…” Sangwoo snapped his fingers, “hold on! I've got just the thing for you!” He stood up and ran to his father’s work bench, bottom half as naked as the day he was born, and returned with a staple gun. Chanwook peeled his eyes wide open in terror. “Yes, just like that, Yoon.” 

Sangwoo firmly held his head in place between his legs, pretty sure Yoon was able to feel his semi-hard cock against his neck, adding to the humiliation. He stretched Yoon’s upper eyelid upward and practically stapled it to his eyebrow, then he stapled his lower eyelid, repeating the process with his other eye as tears poured out from them to the sounds of his muffled screams.

“Perfect!” Sangwoo stood above him, admiring his handiwork. He faced Chanwook toward the middle of the room and set a pillow under his chin, “Here, now you’ll have the best view of the action,” he chided before throwing Bum a lustful glance, “Well, the second best view, the best is reserved for me.” 

He hurriedly tore off his sweatshirt and slowly edged towards Bum, tugging at his sweater when he made it to his side. Bum shook his head “N-no…I want it on.” Sangwoo laughed thickly, planting a kiss on Bum’s forehead. “Alright, whatever floats your boat.” 

He resumed where he and Bum had left off before they were rudely interrupted. Sucking on the tender flesh on Bum’s neck, leaving a trail of small bruises before gingerly kissing each one. Bum writhed and moaned underneath him, panting his name “nggh...Sangwoo..Sang..ahh.” He let out a sharp gasp at the sudden nip at the delightfully sore spots on his neck. 

Sangwoo couldn’t wait anymore, he spit on his hand and rubbed it on himself desperately before pushing into Bum. The clenching heat brought about a dizzying sensation he had to breathe through deeply before he lost his bearings and finished prematurely again. Bum sighed and wrapped his arms and legs around Sangwoo’s body, bringing them nearly flush against one another. 

Having Bum ride him was amazing but this position provided a level of intimacy beyond his wildest dreams, he could feel Bum’s heartbeat against his own despite the sweater in the way and he practically melted from Bum’s body heat enveloping every square inch of his skin. “Fuck, this feels amazing, I could be in here like this forever,” he sighed, dazed.

Bum chuckled before retorting, “Well, maybe not forever, moving is nice too.” Sangwoo snapped out of it and realized he forgot that sex usually involved some sort of movement. “S-sorry,” he stammered nervously, eager to please.

He began to thrust into Bum with quick shallow strokes, acclimating to the sensation before he got overexcited. Bum let out a series of breathy, high pitched moans and whines as Sangwoo rapidly plunged in and out of him.

Chanwook, groaned in his corner of the room, his eyes watering, not from despair over seeing Bum and Sangwoo together but his eyes compensating for being forced open in a cool and dry environment. He squirmed in discomfort, catching Sangwoo’s attention. 

Feeling a little more confident in his ability to hold himself back, Sangwoo sneered as he thrusted into Bum with more force, pulling garbled moans out of him. “You hear that...shitty old man?…” he panted, “I bet you haven’t heard noises like these from Bum...or anyone, with that limp chode you call a cock,” he laughed as wildly as the way he began to slam into Bum, who spread his legs wide to accommodate Sangwoo as he drove down to the hilt of his cock. 

Losing all previous apprehension with having his uncle watch them, Bum cried out as he roughly dragged his nails across Sangwoo’s shoulders, leaving a pattern of angry red stripes. “F-fuck me harder, Sangwoo! I w-want you to tear me apart...and put me back together again!!” 

Sangwoo lost it at Bum’s passionate declaration, pulling out of him and slamming him against the plastic tarp on his stomach before shoving the entirety of himself into Bum, unconcerned that they were now fucking like pair of baseless animals in a puddle of Chanwook’s blood. 

Bum steadied himself as he grasped at the bloodied tarp moaning lewdly, desperately pushing himself backwards in synch with Sangwoo’s forceful, unyielding thrusts. They communicated their needs to each other, faster, harder, or tighter, through a series of satisfied grunts and moans, forgoing human speech, becoming one.

Bum noted the wool of his sweater had absorbed a heavy amount of blood, so much so, that it looked like it had been dyed. He savored the thought of his sweater not only reflecting his own transformation but Sangwoo’s as well. From pristine white, pure, and innocent to a muddled dark crimson, dirty and violent but bursting with unbridled passion. 

He was a completely different person from that shy child in the white sweater who comforted the little boy in the alleyway, or the insecure young man who didn’t believe he was deserving of love. 

He now believed that he was not only deserving of happiness but entitled to it and he would fight tooth and nail for the feeling of boundless joy that currently filled him. Bum now wore a striking red sweater. 

Sangwoo grabbed on to Bum’s wrists and plowed into him, the angle stimulating his prostate again. High pitched moans spilled from his lips as he found himself steadily climbing towards climax, he squeezed his eyes shut, hoping Sangwoo would let him finish this time.

Sangwoo pulled them both up on their feet, bent Bum over, and continued to savagely plunge into his twitching entrance. Bum held on to an arm rest for dear life as Sangwoo snapped his hips behind him. “Fuck...ugh...fuck, I’m close...don’t...don’t stop,” he begged, his voice cracking at it’s highest range.

Sangwoo thought of any and every unappealing thing he could come up with to delay his climax, he thought of Bum’s grandma, he thought of Jungnam, he even thought of that one time he saw Principal Park at the gym and caught a glimpse of his nutsack from his shorts while he was on the exercise bike. 

The harrowing mental images were still not enough to counteract the heavenly clenching and twitching of Bum’s perfect ass. The fact that someone as disgusting and unworthy as Coach Yoon had gotten to experience this taste of nirvana before he had made him seethe, making him thrust into Bum a little bit harder. 

“Bum...you...you have to cum soon...I don’t know how long...I can last like this,” he groaned, digging his fingernails into Bum’s hips. “Are you really close?”

Bum turned his head to face Sangwoo and nodded madly, his flushed cheeks and hair soaked with sweat and blood. 

Sangwoo lifted Bum up and hooked his arms under Bum’s knees, repeatedly bouncing him up and down on his cock, all while slowly inching toward Chanwook. “Shit, I guess all that time at the gym was worth it,” he thought, surprised with how easy it was to maneuver Bum. 

Bum let out a near inhuman yowl, snapping his head back against Sangwoo’s chest as the change in position made him even tighter as Sangwoo buried himself inside him even deeper, he was rendered incapable of coherent thought and babbled an unintelligible string of “oh’s”, “ahh’s”, and “fuck’s” 

“Cum for me Bumi...right there!” Sangwoo gestured to the gaping chasm that used to be Chanwook’s back, he had forgotten to get salt to pour on the wound but he figured semen was about a thousand times worse. Chanwook screamed against his gags and thrashed about, his red eyes leaking onto the carpet. 

Sangwoo huffed his hot breath against the bright red shell of Bum’s ear and whispered lowly, “I need you to break apart for me Bumi...so I could put you back together again.” That was enough to have Bum completely unravel and he let out a lengthy moan as he released himself onto his uncle’s exposed lungs and spine. Chanwook let out a pitiful cry as his nephew’s seed seeped into his innards.

Elated he had brought Bum to climax, he bucked wildly against him, chasing his own orgasm. As he got closer he questioned with a hoarse voice, “Do you mind...if...if I pull out...and do it on your uncle?” Chanwook groaned in agony at the prospect. Bum whined, looking devastated,“N-nooo! It’s mine! I want you to do it inside me...” he shook his head vehemently.

Sangwoo couldn’t help but laugh, even while being an absolute cum slut, Bum still managed to be adorable. “C’mon Bumi, there’s still round three!” he growled lustfully. “F-fine…” Bum pouted, looking like a spoiled child.

He rammed harder into Bum until he felt like he was about to burst, he then slid Bum off of him and held him in one arm while jerking himself over Chanwook’s ribs with the other, spilling over his ‘wings’ with a guttural groan. 

The older man laid there, praying for death as he felt Sangwoo’s hot semen dribble into his chest cavity.

********************************

Various articles of clothing were scattered throughout the living room, one pair of black sweatpants, one pair of jeans, one black sweatshirt, and one tattered sweater soaked in blood were strewn about haphazardly. 

Yoon Chanwook’s corpse sat there on the tarp, humongous maroon globs of coagulated blood starting to form around it. He had died hours ago, his body already showed early signs of decay, covered in numerous ejaculations courtesy of Sangwoo and Bum, after their third, then fourth, then fifth, and finally, sixth round of marathon sex. 

It was just before dawn and Sangwoo laid with Bum on the couch in each other’s arms, skin to skin. Unable to sleep, they just talked all night when they were too physically spent for another round. 

“Woo?...”

“Hmmm?...”

“How did you come up with the salt thing?”

“Wait, what’s ‘the salt thing’?” Sangwoo chuckled, twisting a lock of Bum’s soft hair around his finger.

“You know...what you did to Jungnam? Why salt?”

Recognition flashed through Sangwoo’s features, “Ohhh! That? Easy, my mom. She would preserve fish by covering them in salt and hanging them up outside in the cool air to dry. I figured we were having a dry spell, and typhoon season was around the corner, so I thought, why not?”

Bum giggled sleepily, nuzzling into Sangwoo’s chest. “I bet salted Jungnam would have gone well with some fish sauce.”

Sangwoo looked down at Bum incredulously before giving off a boisterous laugh, rattling Bum as he tried to sleep on his chest. “That’s it! Now you’re getting the hang of it! Maybe next time, you could help me on one of my hunts!”

Bum eyed him warily, “I think I’m better off watching instead.”

“Alright, we’ll do it one step at a time then, Bumi.” He beamed at Bum, grateful he was in his arms again, he felt whole, seemingly connected to everything once more.

Sangwoo turned on the TV, Bum was snoring against him and he didn’t want to disturb him any further. He flipped through channels absentmindedly until something grabbed his attention. It was a rerun of that evening’s top news story.

“Tonight at 22:00, another severed head discovered in Hwagog? A nine year old girl ran home to her mother this evening, claiming to have found a human head in a duffle bag by the canal. Authorities were contacted immediately and confirmed that she had indeed found human remains. 

Upon further investigation of the scene, it was brought to light that the duffle bag the head was found in, may have belonged to a current or former member of the Hwagog High School boy’s soccer team as was apparent from the wording printed on the bag. 

Authorities believe there is a direct connection between the perpetrator of this crime and the murder of Choi Jungnam, who played for Hwagog High School’s soccer team as well. The bag also had a family name scrawled onto it, and investigators believe they have narrowed down a prime suspect for both murders.

More details to come as information is released-”

Sangwoo turned the TV off, he felt his chest constrict in panic, how did that bag ever surface anyway? Did the winds of the typhoon whip the waters of the canal hard enough to stir up whatever was down below? How had he not noticed that the duffle bag was an obvious clue to his identity? Not only did it note what his sex was and where he was attending school but it had his family name on it too. How could he have been so goddamn stupid?

“Stupid, stupid...ugh how can I be so fucking stupid?!” He pounded his fist against his forehead. 

“Mmmm...Sangwoo? What’s wrong?” Bum lazily rubbed his eyes and shot him a look of concern.

Sangwoo grabbed him by the shoulders, his expression sombre and his voice was full of urgency, “Bum, pack your things, we have to leave right now. Actually, we should have left about twelve hours ago, it might be too late but we have to try.”

Bum suddenly perked up at his assertion, blinking rapidly. “W-w-what? Why do we have to leave, what happened? I didn’t bring anything else with me but the clothes I had on and few things in my bag but-”

“That’s perfect, that’s less things to bog us down. Hurry up and get dressed, we’re leaving in five minutes.”

Bum scrambled off the couch and hurriedly threw his clothes on his frame while assaulting Sangwoo with questions at rapid fire.

“But, what about graduating from high school?”

“I can’t graduate high school from prison, can I Bum?”

“What about college?”

“Refer to my last answer, Bumi.”

“Oh right...but how will you get a job? How will we support ourselves?”

“We'll figure it out, I’m strong and young, I’m sure someone out there will need some extra muscle, construction maybe?”

“Where will we go?”

“As far away from Hwagog as possible, I still have my dad’s car. Hey, you can drive right?”

“Y-yeah...but where will we live?”

Sangwoo held Bum’s face in his hands, “Bumi, I’ll be honest with you, I have no clue, absolutely none at all. But what I do know is that I don’t care if we live in a garbage can as long as I get to be with you. Don’t you feel the same way?” He searched Bum’s eyes expectantly.

Bum’s worried frown melted into a tired smile and he reached for Sangwoo’s hands, lacing their fingers. “I do...and it doesn’t matter to me where we end up as long as we’re there together.” 

Sangwoo hoisted him up in his arms and spun him around the room before plopping a wet smooch onto his lips. “You have no idea how happy hearing you say that makes me,” he gushed, misty eyed. 

“But you can’t go out with that sweater though, it’s covered in blood, we’ll get stopped immediately. Here, let’s wear matching ‘murder outfits’, I’ll change into a new set and you take one of Jieun’s, I think it should fit,” Sangwoo said as he rummaged through his drawers, handing Bum a new set of black sweatpants and a sweatshirt.

Bum sulked at the mention of her name, “Do I really have to get rid of my favorite sweater and put on her clothes?”

“Bumi…” Sangwoo asserted in that paternal tone he had gotten so well at touting as of late. “I’m not asking you to get rid of your sweater, put it in your bag. We can wash it when we settle down someplace.”

Bum shook his head emphatically, “No! I like it the way it is!” 

Sangwoo chuckled, “You like your souvenir, huh? Alright, if you insist. Now, here, put these on and I’ll go grab my dad’s car keys and head out the door.”

No sooner had Sangwoo mentioned the front door than he heard a steady rap of resonant knocks at his door followed by a deep-toned voice at the other end. “Hello? Hello? Good morning Mr. Oh Sangwoo, I'm Detective Yang from the Town of Hwagog police department. I’m going to need you to come with me to the station for questioning regarding the murders of Choi Jungnam and Oh Hyunwoo. I have a warrant, and will enter forcefully if necessary.”

Sangwoo glared at the bespectacled menace through the peephole, “Fuuuuck, they’re here already?” 

He turned to Bum and pointed toward the window. “Change of plans, we can’t leave through the front door, so we’ll have to use the fire escape.”

“What?! But it’s rickety and-”

“Bum, do you think they’ll let us be together in prison? Your cum is all over your uncle,” Sangwoo stated bluntly with a blank expression.

“Okay, okay!…will you make sure I don’t fall?” 

“Baby bird, I would sooner fall to my own death than let you get hurt.” He tossed Bum a tender glance and began forcing the window open. The knocks at the front door became louder. “Mr. Oh, I’m giving you fair warning. I’m going to knock down your door unless you open it within the next five minutes.”

“Shit! Hurry Bumi!” Bum made his way to the window before making a quick stop to look over the mess they had made of his uncle, a fond smile spreading on his lips. “Bum!” Sangwoo hissed, jerking his hand out with one foot already out of the window.

“Sorry, coming!” he scurried to take Sangwoo’s hand and they both descended down the fire escape with Bum clutching onto Sangwoo’s sweatshirt, shivering like a chihuahua the entire way down.

The front door of the abandoned apartment was violently cracked open, “Alright Oh, where are you? We can either do this the easy way or the hard way, you decide. Although it looks like you’re already giving me a hard time,” Yang Seungbae growled as he made his way to the living room.

He was frozen by what he saw at the center of it, realizing he had walked into yet another crime scene. The corpse was fresh from the looks of it, the skin was pale and bruised. What horrified him most was the sheer brutality the victim had gone through by the condition the body was in. 

His corpse was mutilated, back wide open, ribs cracked off the spine, and pulled out to the sides, his lungs lay outside his body, he even had his eyelids stapled to his head. It looked like something straight out of a medieval torture museum. 

That wasn’t even the worse part, the stench of old semen made him gag and this man was covered head to toe in it. “Dear God, I-I have to call for backup.” Seungbae stormed out of the apartment while covering his nose with his shirt. 

Bum and Sangwoo hopped into his father’s car and slammed the doors shut, he tossed the keys to Bum. “We made it! All we have to do now is drive until we’re out of gas, get more gas, and repeat until we’re as far away from this shithole as possible!” 

Bum nodded enthusiastically, “I can’t believe we just did that, it’s like we’re in a movie or something!” he said, basking in the high his and Sangwoo’s daring escape gave him.

“That’s right, babe. I can see it now, we’ll travel around the world. Going from place to place, leaving when the scene gets stale. All we really need is the love we have for each other,” Sangwoo sighed with a dreamy lilt. 

“I love you, Sangwoo,” Bum purred, gracing him with a devoted gaze.

“And I love you, Bum…more than anything.” Sangwoo leaned over from the passenger seat to plant a chaste kiss on his lips. Bum started the car and they drove off into the sunrise, unsure of where they were headed but confident it would be alright as long as they had each other.

Chapter Text

“They’re calling him ‘The Head Hunter of Hwagog’ now? Cute,” Jeong Byeol said to herself, nearly choking on her bitterness. She slammed the newspaper shut as she sipped her mocha latte at the cafe, careful not to let her over-sized sunglasses slip off her nose.

An unexpected consequence of the atrocities coming to light, she was partially blamed for the ‘Blood Eagle Incident’. They accused her of exposing violent torture methods to the vulnerable minds of Hwagog’s youth, inspiring unspeakable crimes in the mind of one of her more disturbed students, the now infamous, Oh Sangwoo.

The parents demanded to the school board that she be fired immediately, blacklisted from the teaching profession. It was her fault those senseless acts of violence happened, for ‘brainwashing’ her students. 

Of course, her fault alone, not the piss poor emotional IQ of the parents of Hwagog, not the ever present sense of existential dread living in this dead town could give someone, not the staggering amount of ignorance these townies had when it came to issues concerning mental health. Nope, it was all her fault. 

She could see why they went after her so aggressively though, they needed a scapegoat since Sangwoo and his lover, that’s right, his lover had skipped town and were nowhere to be found. She felt like an idiot, Sangwoo’s ‘dear cousin, Kim Bum’ was really his older lover, Yoon Bum. 

Chanwook had been right about everything all along, Sangwoo was capable of unimaginable evil and everyone was too distracted by his charisma, good looks, and sob story to even consider he was a monster in a ‘teen heartthrob’s skin’, as Yoon had put it.

And his nephew was pretty deranged himself, what was a twenty-two year old man doing living with a high school student, anyway? She couldn’t believe she broke bread with that creep.

Nobody could come up with a plausible motive, were they a part of some strange sex cult? Did they have grievances with any of the victims? There were rumors that Sangwoo’s father physically abused him, that Jungnam bullied him since they were children, that Chanwook raped Bum repeatedly and Sangwoo seeked retribution, but that’s all they were, rumors.

Yoon Chanwook’s autopsy showed copious amounts of semen from both Sangwoo and Bum on his corpse. So much so, the coroner said that when he passed a black light over the body it glowed brighter than a Seoul rave party. 

Byeol almost felt bad for dismissing Chanwook’s assertions in the first place...almost. Part of her felt that rumor about him raping his nephew seemed rather plausible considering how he would lust over some of his students during gym class. 

It didn’t matter what gender they were, as long as they had black hair, were pale, and rail thin, he ogled them all the same; he definitely had a type. Nobody ever spoke up or did anything about his behavior though, everyone was complacent of the questionable actions that went about as long as they were hidden within the darkness of secrecy, leaving nothing but mere traces of whispers and gossip.

It was only when certain things were forced out of shadows, like the things Sangwoo had done, that the administration would in turn be forced to do something about it. If that was the way things would continue to run, then Byeol figured maybe she was better off not working at that school anymore.

Still, no matter what the motive was, Sangwoo was responsible for four murders if one counted the death of Hae Yoonsuh as being his fault despite him not directly smothering her. Byeol did consider her death to be Sangwoo’s fault, that bastard knew exactly what he was doing when he left salted chunks of human meat on a roof to be chucked at people during a storm. 

That alone, his eagerness to cause chaos and suffering for the fun of it, made his crimes unforgivable in her eyes.

Sangwoo had ruined her reputation in this town and she couldn’t exactly move without an income. “If I ever see that psycho again…” she couldn’t finish her sentence before someone from the cafe recognized her. “Hey, aren’t you that ‘murder teacher’ lady?” 

“Shit…” she hissed, “No, I’m not, and I really need to get going,” she muttered as she hurriedly grabbed her latte and darted out the door, adjusting her face mask and sunglasses.

********************************

Jieun sat alone in the living room of her large home, it was a few hours past midnight and streamers and confetti covered the floor. Her parents told her not to worry as the help would take care of it in the morning. 

She sighed, spacing out with her eyes fixed to the metallic letters of the big ‘CONGRATS GRAD!’ banner hung above the doorway. 

She wished Sangwoo was there, graduating from high school with her. She wished they were going to college together. She wished they would eventually discover their mutual feelings for each other, date throughout college, that Sangwoo would get down on one knee their senior year, that they would settle down in a house with a white picket fence, 2.5 kids, and a dog.

But that was nothing but a fantasy. It wasn’t fair, Sangwoo got to live out his fantasy. She hadn’t heard from him since the night they had killed Bum’s uncle. He and Bum disappeared without a trace, it was all the news would talk about. 

Scathing exposés putting to question how two men could have possibly escaped in broad daylight, if anything, highlighting the incompetence of the police department. How was it that no one on that task force thought to follow up on Yoon Chanwook’s accusations of Sangwoo? The detective who headed the task force was ultimately booted from the department, his career another casualty of the ‘Blood Eagle Incident’.

The media also heavily romanticized Sangwoo and Bum’s story, touting it as some sort of modern, progressive retelling of Bonnie and Clyde. Star-crossed lovers, friends since childhood, running away after committing murder together.

Jieun’s thoughts were overtaken with resentment. Bum didn’t do anything...she was the one who got her hands dirty. 

It brought her back to that day she was watching television with her parents and the news referred to Yoon Bum as Oh Sangwoo’s accomplice and lover. 

She clenched her fists beneath the throw blanket, that was supposed to be her title, she was supposed to be out on the road with Sangwoo. 

It felt like Bum had stolen her future from her, even though logically, she knew it was ridiculous to want what Bum had. Living on the lam, in constant fear of being caught and thrown in prison. 

She couldn’t help thinking about what their lives were like, part of her hoped they were absolutely miserable together, at each other’s throats, fighting constantly. 

Another part of her, the part that was selfless, hoped Sangwoo had the happiness he yearned for, finally outrunning the soul crushing loneliness that had pursued him since his mother’s death.

She laid on the couch and glanced at the kitchen table with an empty stare. There was a stack of mail, had more college acceptance letters come in? 

She languidly made her way to the table and shuffled the stack. Nothing seemed interesting, just bills, and promotions, ads, scams...junk. 

She tossed the junk mail into the trash when she came across a letter with nearly illegible writing scrawled on the front, she vaguely recognized her own name and address at the center of the envelope, but it was the sender's name and address that perplexed her. 

It was from someone named ‘Santiago Gutierrez’ and it came from a P.O Box in Bogotá, Colombia?? 

Jieun rubbed her eyes, had she read that right? What would some random Colombian want with her, it had to be a scam...someone claiming they were some long lost relative just to ask her for money. 

She rolled her eyes but found the whole situation pretty amusing, so she opened the envelope looking for a laugh.

“Hi Jieun!

    Guess who! Like my new name? Bumi says it makes me sound like some sort of Latin lover, he can’t say it enough haha. 

     Sorry I haven’t messaged or emailed you in months, the internet up in the mountains here is absolute shit and Bum complains when I spend too much time at the Internet cafe, so I decided to type out a letter for you instead. You know, since marriage is all about finding compromises and stuff.

     Oh yeah, I’m married now! The locals think Bum is a woman so we don’t really get any shit about it, I just refer to him as my wife and it’s all good. Speaking of the Missus, he’s still not really over you trying to hack him to pieces, So I think it would be best if you sent me things through this P.O Box address instead of my home address.

    I also found a great job here with the cartel! Yeah, it sounds sketchy, I know. But it has surprisingly good benefits and there’s no shortage of people for me to kill, it’s great, they say I’m a natural at it! 

   What else...my Spanish is still bad, I know how to say chicken, beef, rice, and ask where the bathroom is, but that’s about it. Rodriguez, who works with me, says I’m doing pretty well at it and I should have it down by next year, we mostly communicate through translation apps on my phone. I’m so happy!

How are you doing? Have you gotten accepted into college? Can’t wait to hear from you.

Love, Santiago (Sangwoo)”

Jieun couldn’t believe it, Sangwoo was not only alive and well but married, thriving in a career he loved, and learning a foreign language on the other side of the world. 

How did he even end up in South America? How many dicks did Bum have to suck to get them past immigration through multiple continents? She giggled at the thought.

And of course, Sangwoo was as whipped as ever, but something in that letter stood out to Jieun. It was the way Sangwoo described his new life chopping people up in the mountains of Colombia with Bum as his wife and it warmed her heart.

Her eyes glanced at the words in front of her as she re-read the letter, moving ahead as her brain stubbornly stood in place, fixated on one word. 

‘Happy’.