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clemencetaught · 7 months

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and we'll find some version of okay, one day ( ft. myungdae & hyuk || verse two )

a/n: did someone say hyurick? today is alex ( @jeoseungsaja )'s birthday SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRIENDO :DDDD thank you so much for the all the wonderful stories, muses, smiles, and laughs u've given me ( and all ur friends and ppl on dash ) over the years; i hope this trip around the sun will be a happy one for you!! care you lots <3 <3 <3

Being in a relationship with Hyuk is surprisingly easy.

No, easy, isn’t the right word. ‘Easy’ implies a lack of effort to make what is between them now. ‘Easy’ implies what they have is intuitive when it is anything but. Hindsight is 20/20- it becomes more apparent to Myungdae that perhaps the last five years didn’t have to be as painful.

( He could have told Hyuk what was happening from the beginning. He could have revealed himself to Hyuk when he arrived in Seoul. He could have taken a moment and realized that perhaps keeping this undertaking to himself was only going to cause more grief for all parties involved. Maybe then, Hyuk wouldn’t have gotten fatally stabbed. Maybe Hyuk wouldn’t dissociate, wouldn’t be considered invalid in the eyes of the public, having ‘lost the plot’. The should-haves and could-haves echo in Myungdae’s ears like his ghosts and if Myungdae thinks too hard about it, they’ll start piling the guilt one on top of another, like the stack of essays he still hasn’t graded. And when that happens, the stacks will climb higher and higher like Icarus until it inevitably burns and falls- )

So being in a relationship with Hyuk is not easy.

But it is simple.

Their relationship reminds Myungdae of a heist, except not as nearly meticulously calculated. But the principle is ultimately the same- watch your back and watch your partner’s back. If your partner needs help, even if you can’t do anything, be there for them. Or in Myungdae’s case, in the aftermath. Wounds are like cats- easy to see, harder to catch in the moment.

Of course, simply being there is a plan too vague for the Black Knight’s standards. It’s a concept with one too many external factors and one too many uncertainties to consider.

And yet somehow, their relationship works.. Actually, it might be even more painless than any heist. Sure, the obstacles come unexpectedly, but the solutions don’t require nearly as much finesse. As a matter of fact, the most effective solutions to their obstacles are much…simpler. Less thinking, more doing in the moment.

For example, Myungdae needs to bolt? Well he can do it, but Hyuk’s going to have to follow him or at the very least find his hiding spot once the smoke bomb has cleared up. Hyuk needs space after an episode of derealization? Catch Myungdae lingering just around the corner, waiting to be let in. Myungdae doesn’t mind the wait either.

He’s always been good at abiding for time- most times.

There’s still more to figure out about each other though. It’s not like they can go back five years. And no single conversation is going to give Myungdae everything he needs to know about his dear…friend? Partner?

( Myungdae decides he’s not going to think about that right now- he’s also not going to say anything about it to anyone. Nell and Alfred already have their suspicions, and god forbid if Quinn and Taiyang found out. Myungdae already wants to stab the latter two whenever they cross paths. And he doesn’t need one more tempting reason. Not that he thinks Hyuk would mind too much- okay, maybe Hyuk would. A quirk of being part of law enforcement, but no one’s perfect. )

Besides, Hyuk reveals himself in layers- like a book, one page at a time. It’s an incorrect metaphor, the open book one, Myungdae can’t help but think. An open book implies all the facts and details laid out, plain and easy to interpret. That’s no book. Or at least not a novel- to read a novel and understand it in its entirety takes more than one read-thru. It takes turning one page at a time, studying every scene and word to comprehend how it contributes to the whole, making careful annotations in the margins, and recalling the most vivid of phrases and moments to truly know a book.

And isn’t that what Myungdae and Hyuk have been doing all this time?

Granted, once more, that isn’t to say it’s been easy. Old habits are, well, the cliché could not be more accurate- old habits die hard. Like how Hyuk still zones out for hours on end without saying a word to anyone and how he’s given up on art in favor of reading and rereading files with yellowed papers on cases that have lost relevance years ago. Or how Myungdae refuses to show skin in front of anyone and how he barely reads and reads only for necessity.

Or how they both still have nightmares.

Sharpened teeth need to sink in somewhere. If not someone else, then themselves. Maybe those habits will never die. Maybe even if they have each other, they’ll never be okay, never be whole once more.

Nevertheless-

“Your hair’s getting long,” Myungdae murmurs, hand carding through Hyuk’s hair. It’s a Sunday at an hour too early to be awake and of course, they’re in Hyuk’s office. Myungdae didn’t sleep well the previous night and he suspects it’s the same for Hyuk, from the way he couldn’t stop moving. Or the way Myungdae heard him gasp in the middle of the night, only to curl a little tighter against him on the sofa bed.

( Of the new couch- the old one, that two seater with deflated green cushions and scratchy fabric that must have been repurposed from a potato sack, Hyuk had replaced not too long ago. Myungdae won’t admit that he likes the new one- a three seater with chenille fabric that can fold out into a bed- more now that he’s had time to get accustomed. )

Hyuk grumbles, head in Myungdae’s lap. “It already is.” His arm loosely draped around Myungdae’s waist, Hyuk peeks up at him. Myungdae can see the lines under sleep deprived eyes. “Do you like actually being a pigeon? It’s too early, Dae-yah.” A warm hand finds purchase on Myungdae’s hip as Hyuk groans, groggy. “Lie down.”

Next to me, Myungdae can hear from the breeze blowing in. The lilies of the valley on the window sill jingle, tinkling and singing.

“You should get it trimmed.” Myungdae says instead, fingers tangling themselves between the strands of hair. They’re smooth. Fresh-smelling too like his shampoo. “It’ll get in your way.”

Hyuk flips to his back and looks up at Myungdae. “Don’t need to.”

“It falls over your eyes when you’re reading.” An observation, on Myungdae’s part. Hyuk grumbles.

“Doesn’t matter.” Which is translation for ‘I’m fine’. But Myungdae knows this is Hyuk’s way of saying, ‘I don’t want to.’

‘I can’t.’

Myungdae tilts his head, thinking as his fingers knead down to the scalp. What would make Hyuk steer away from hairdressers? How does this connect to the full picture of his dear friend now?

There are still so many things he has to learn about Lee Hyuk.

“...What If I did it?”

Hyuk raises a brow and suddenly, the window where the lilies of the valley sit looks very tempting to jump through. It would take him, say, eleven seconds to through the window if he doesn’t grab his jacket with the smoke bombs along the way.

“Do you even know how to cut hair?” Hyuk asks. It’s not a ‘yes’ but it’s not a ‘no’ either.

It’s a silly overreaction, Myungdae realizes he just had. Myungdae could ask Hyuk a question and Hyuk would give him the truth. This is the way it’s always been- they don’t, or rather they can’t lie to each other. Sooner or later, the truth comes out and that’s a lesson Myungdae has been learning the hard way.

They probably need to have a conversation about that sooner or later.

But once again, it is a Sunday at an hour way too early to be awake. This time, they can take the detour. Hyuk might think there’s no time like the present these days, but Myungdae is more than content to take the roundabout way.

“If I can use a sword, a pair of scissors can’t be any worse.” Myungdae says. It’s a half-lie. Hyuk still looks at him skeptically. “I’ll cut straight- you won’t lose more than a few inches.”

Hyuk huffs, a loose strand still landing in front of his eyes. Myungdae tucks it behind his ear. “...I’ll think about it. But on one condition-” Myungdae yelps. Rolling off of his lap, Hyuk half-coaxes, half-wrestles him into the spot next to him. Alarm rolls in, only to recede once Hyuk’s hand presses against his back and Myungdae is once more face-to-face with his dear friend.

“We rest for longer.” Hyuk finally finishes, triumphant.

“We’ll have to get up soon.” Myungdae points out. “Nell is no good in the kitchen. Hiro’s going to complain.”

Hyuk huffs. “They can wait a few hours. Who gets up at six on a Sunday morning, huh? Huh?”

Myungdae snorts, a hand carding through Hyuk’s hair, his fingertips padding against his scalp. Hyuk leans into it and sighs in approval. “Okay. Just a few more hours then. We can get up later.”

Yes, between the two of them, they still have a lot of problems and no actual solutions: ANACHRON is still at large, Hyuk’s caseload never dies down, and the Black Knight still has heists to execute.

Hyuk still zones out and Myungdae still doesn’t relax for any occasion. But at the same time, Hyuk doodles more now and his derealization episodes come around less often. And Myungdae sometimes wears short-sleeved shirts and will even pick up a short story to read for leisure.

It’s not quite perfect, but it’s progress.

The lilies of the valley tinkle in the sunlight. Myungdae presses closer to Hyuk- maybe they’ll never go back to the way they were before, maybe they’ll never have something easy, but if they have each other, they can be something like okay, one day.

fin.

#turn your lies into truths for you ( hyuk — verse two. )#the knight ( verse two. )#jeoseungsaja #ALEX!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRIEND!!!!#pls accept this little something from me <3 <3 <3 #i'm so so SO grateful to be able to call you my friend and to be considered ur friend #and i'm very sure many of your partners ( and our mutuals ) would agree!!#absolutely a joy to see whether ic or ooc; WRITE WITH ALEX OR FACE MY 🔪🔪🔪#( i borrowed it from myungdae he said 'talk to my b(f)f or i'll 🔪🔪🔪 you' JFLKSDJFLSKDJF JKJK )#of course this is hyurick themed - this year i gave myungdae the chance to talk #and he?? ran with it <3 #i put this in the future when they get together/are reunited #so i hope it's okay that i jumped a bit in the timeline <3 #of course nothing here has to be considered canon....i was also just thiinking about the haircut thingy we talked about once #AND THIS?? happened :'D #ANYWAYS MOST IMPORTANTLY!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX MY DEAR FRIEND <3 <3 <3 #i hope 2day is a wonderful day 4 you and that you get to relax a lot with friends and family/doing the things you want to do <3 #and if not i will curbstomp the fates 😤😤😤#OKAY HAVE A WONDERFUL BESTEST BIRTHDAY OKAY??? :DDD

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