pairing: superman! seungcheol x reporter! reader
genre: superman au, fluff(?)
summary: breaking news! your cute nerdy coworker might actually be the one saving the city between meetings
(a/n): wrote this last minute because apparently i cope with deadlines by giving seungcheol a cape 🎃 happy halloween!! (doesn't he look like clark kent🤭)
wc: 1.2k
The office was quiet, unnervingly so. The hum of computers had faded hours ago, the city beyond the windows a restless blur of headlights and sirens. You should have gone home. But the story wasn’t done, and the glow of your monitor was the only thing keeping your exhaustion company.
It felt a little less lonely tonight, though. Seungcheol was still here—he’d gone to the washroom a few minutes ago, leaving his half-empty mug and scattered notes by your desk. He always worked late, double-checking every fact, somedays staying back because he couldn’t leave a sentence unfinished, refilled everyone’s mugs, ran errands, and somehow still looked perfectly composed by morning.
You’d never admit it out loud, but you liked the quiet when it was just the two of you. The soft clack of his keyboard, the way his voice gentled when he asked if you’d eaten.
Thunder cracked somewhere over Metropolis, followed by the deep, distant boom of something exploding. Your heart stuttered. You turned toward the window and froze.
The skyline was on fire. A building several blocks away was collapsing in on itself, smoke curling upward like black ribbons. People below screamed, running for cover as debris rained down.
You grabbed your phone, hand shaking, and took a step back. The glass trembled from the shockwave.
Then, almost too fast for your eyes to follow, a streak of blue and red sliced through the night.
Superman.
You exhaled shakily, half in relief, half in disbelief. You had seen him before. Everyone in Metropolis had. The flash of his cape over the skyline, the blur in the news footage, the miracle stories that filled your inbox every week. You’d spent months trying to get an interview with him, chasing leads and unanswered messages, but he never showed. Somehow, though, Seungcheol always managed to get quotes. Short, exclusive ones that no one else could verify but were always too sincere, too precise, to be fake.
You used to joke that he had Superman on speed dial. He’d just smile, hiding it behind a sip of coffee, and say, “something like that.”
But now, watching Superman catch a falling beam mid-air, muscles straining against the weight, face set in focus, you couldn’t deny it. He was real. And terrifyingly human in the way he moved, in the way he looked toward the people below before flying off again.
Suddenly, the ground shook.
The blast must have hit a gas line nearby, because the next second, the building opposite yours erupted, and the shock threw you backward. Glass shattered. You hit the floor hard, pain shooting through your arm.
When you looked up, the entire office was chaos. Lights flickering, papers spiraling in the air, wind howling through the broken windows. You tried to crawl toward the exit, but the world tilted, a beam cracking from the ceiling and plunging toward you.
And then you weren’t on the floor anymore.
Strong arms had caught you mid-fall, holding you so tightly you could barely breathe. The air around you shifted, no, rushed, as the world blurred into streaks of light and smoke.
When you blinked, you were outside. On a rooftop you didn’t recognize. Your heart thundered. The city stretched endlessly below, sirens wailing in the distance.
And standing before you, cape fluttering, eyes sharp even in the darkness, was him.
Superman.
He set you down carefully, gaze scanning you for injuries. “Are you hurt?”
You shook your head, words tangling in your throat. Up close, he wasn’t as untouchable as you’d imagined. There were faint bruises along his jaw, dust in his hair, his chest rising fast beneath the blue suit.
“I was at the Planet,” you managed. “Seungcheol.. my coworker, he had gone to the washroom. He must be stuck. I—"
“He’s safe,” Superman said quickly, and something in his tone made you freeze. That voice, calm and careful, a little breathless like he’d run up the stairs instead of flown through fire.
You looked up, really looked. The curl of his hair falling over his forehead. The faint scratch along his cheekbone. The warmth in his eyes.
You had seen all of it before.
“Seungcheol?” you whispered, the name slipping out before you could stop it.
He stilled.
Then, slowly, he smiled. “Stay safe,” he said softly.
And before you could move, before you could ask why, he was gone, a streak of color vanishing into the burning skyline, the echo of his voice hanging in the air.
You stood there, the city spinning below, the wind cold against your skin.
It didn’t make sense. It couldn’t. And yet, somehow it did.
The wind stung your face as the city lights flickered below. Your heart thudded unevenly, chasing the blur that had vanished into the clouds.
“Seungcheol,” you whispered, because what else could you possibly say?
pairing: choi seungcheol x oc
summary: after a long, tiring day and a case of birthday blues, seungcheol realizes when his best friend shows up past midnight with cheesecake slice, a candle, and her warmth that she’s the only light he needs.
genre: fluff, slowburn, friends to lovers
length: 587 words
a/n: i wrote this out of pure brainrot on cheol's birthday and originally had the dialogues in filipino but i feel like posting that version more on my x account. let me know if i should write a longer one cause i feel like practicing my writing again haha
a piece of unlit cigarette stick and a lighter sat on his dashboard waiting for him.
seungcheol doesn’t exactly know why he felt like shit or if it’s just a case of birthday blues. That was until his best friend knocked on his car window holding a slice of cheesecake with a small candle on top of it.
he leans his head through the headboard with a smile as he lowered the car window down.
“happy birthday to you!” she still smiled brightly as if they weren’t working non-stop for a project all day. “i know it’s past midnight. my greeting’s late but i have cake. with a candle, too.”
she extends her hand and reaches for the lighter on his dashboard dropping the cigarette stick. “oh shit. sorry!”
he shrugged it off. “it’s fine. get in.”
she slid in the passenger seat, brought out the lighter, lit the candle and held the cake slice towards him.
cheol’s lips pulled upward into a soft smile, patiently stares at the burning wick until there was a silent pause. “aren’t you supposed to sing again?”
“i thought you already made a wish, dummy!”
“i wish for 8 hours of sleep” He says then closes his eyes.
“no, that doesn’t count.”
“what do you mean it doesn’t count?”
“because you said it out loud!”
“but that is MY wish!”
“8 hours of sleep. that is so lame. that’s impossible.”
“wha—why are you so concerned about my wish. it’s my birthday.”
“fine! you get your 8 hours of sleep. 4 hours at night and then another 4 in the morning. geez. whatever.” she moved the cake closer to him, the burning candle almost too close to his face.
“thank you.” he sighed. rolled his eyes. looks her in the eye and sees her staring back at him anticipating as she finishes singing him another happy birthday song.
another pause.
“you look so excited. is it really my birthday?” he chuckled and watched her shoulders drop.
“god, i swear, i can just throw this cake away.”
“alright! i’ll make that damn wish.” he then closed his eyes. for real this time. all he wished for at the moment was a pause. a time to rest. that rest that he forgot about because he chose to drown himself of work as soon as he got the birthday blues.
“happy birthday!” she handed him the cake and he placed a hand over hers to get it until the cake slice was sitting on his palm. there was lingering warmth.
“thank you.” he said softly. he knew to his core that she wasn’t the type of person who did this for others. only to those who mattered most to her. so this. this meant a lot to him. especialy after a tiring heck of a day.
“hey!” one of the studio staffs, joshua calls out. “we’ve wrapped up an hour ago. go home, you two.”
they both smile at him. “yeah, we were just talking. be safe!” cheol replied with a salute.
as joshua walked away, she unlocked the door and stepped outside. “i don’t owe you any special birthday shoutouts now.” then half-closed the door. “oh right! forgot i wasted that cigarette of you—”
“s’fine. i don’t need it anymore.”
“okay.” she pushes the door shut.
“can you get your stuff real quick? i’ll drive you home.” he told her as if it was a command. “as a thank you… for the cake.”
she smiles. “copy, boss. you’re welcome.”
seungcheol watched as she walked away from the car and exhaled.
maybe he didn’t need to light another cigarette stick again.
all he needed was his best friend.
she does things that instantly light up his world.
Ugh, he looks so good. And it's inspired by the Korean traditional hanbok. It looks so good on him. It fit him. HE LOOKS SO GOOD. I'm so glad he had a great time even though he was really nervous.