"what are their phobias? do they have any at all?"
wesley isn't scared of much, though paranormal activity does frighten him, as it does to many others. however, a phobia that wesley has somewhat grown out of is cynophobia. one time, as a kid, his neighbor's dog chased him down the street, which ( for a young kid ) was a bit scarring. it was his first experience with dogs, which is why, for the longest time, wesley avoided being near any dog. the phobia sort of went away as he grew up because a lot of his friends began adopting dogs, so he doesn't walk the other way when he sees one. he's more tolerant of them, but, once dogs start barking, wesley starts freezing up and getting anxious.
yes, he's aware this comes off as a strange fear to many, but he's also aware that not many people have been chased by a dog two times their size in their childhood years.
sieon has a leo venus and a capricorn placement in his 7th house, which makes it easy to say that he loves gift giving.
he doesn’t have much money, as he doesn’t have a high paying job ( and college loans are still eating him alive ), but, for those he loves, he will work twice as hard to give them the world.
he takes mental ( and physical ) notes of what his loved ones ask for in the year, and then he’ll work extra hard to gift them said gifts during their birthdays and/or the holidays.
sieon is also the type to create sentimental gifts for his loved ones ( poems he writes, mixtapes, etc. )
love language ( receiving ):
both words of affirmation and acts of service
a no brainer because most of his chart is virgo and leo placements ( also that cancer rising. . . )
he’s always so stressed and busy about taking care of his mother while also trying to pay off his debt ( and save for his future dreams ). hence, he often feels happiest when people either appreciate his hard work or help him out.
sometimes it seems as though he doesn’t like when people praise him or try to help him
‘too much’ praise = “okay, okay! it’s not like i saved the world. you can shut up now.”
‘too much’ help = “no i got it! you’re not helping, you’re making things worse!”
but really he appreciates it all, no matter how much or little affection he gets in these ways. typically he’ll circle back to those who give him affection and give them something as a token of gratitude.
bonus ( how he reacts to other languages ) !
physical touch: you can’t hug him for more than 5 seconds or else he starts curling up into a ball and cringing. he’ll suck it up for those who have this as their love language, but it is so hard for anyone to convince sieon to do any pda.
quality time: he doesn’t have a huge problem with this one, but sieon tends to busy himself most of the times. so, most times, he ends up feeling bad if the person wanting to spend time with him waits up for him or sits there while he works on side projects or his job. sometimes he’ll try new hobbies if it makes the other person happy just to spend time with him, but he’ll cover up his enjoyment with a bunch of nagging.
what they wanted to be when they grew up vs what they do now. @ ahri!!!
when she was younger . . .
like any other kid, ahri had a big imagination. i’m sure at one point she thought she was going to be an astronaut, but after quickly discovering that she’s afraid of heights. . . it obviously wasn’t going to work out.
many other times she wanted to be a combination of things due to her lack of time management ( or i guess time awareness? ). some ideas she had were a full-time chef and part-time olympic gymnast, an elementary school teacher with a superhero alter ego, and a zookeeper with her own fashion brand.
she never settled on one career path in particular; her answer to this question would change every time you asked.
what she does now . . .
she had to get realistic when her father left, and she realized that those around her mattered more to her than her own dream. ( giving bing bong’s ‘take her to the moon for me’ and her younger siblings are the ‘her’ in question whenever her sibs leave the nest )
because of her love for her family, she decided to start her own small business in the town in order to help out with family funds.
Go, Go Kkut! ( 고고꽃 ) is the name of her little flower & trinket stall in town, where she sells handmade bouquets, cards, and more!
future plans . . .
she isn’t necessarily the happiest with her job, as much of it requires a lot of time and effort both on and off the clock ( hand-making each card, bouquet, fruit basket, ordering/making trinkets on her off time ). what she wants most is a day of peace, where she doesn’t feel overwhelmed by the burden placed on her ( not only by her family but by herself ).
desperately wants to settle down and start a family of her own— at this point she would rather marry rich than to be stuck working her whole life, but she hasn’t found anyone due to the fact that she plays matchmaker for other people ( but is a horrible one for herself ).
that sounded quite harsh. maybe she should tone it down a bit. “i’ll appreciate the fact that you called me pretty, however. because you’re not wrong.” she studies him quickly from his head to his toes. “though i can’t say the same for you, for obvious reasons.” she scoffs. “and yet i’m the mean one.”
the biggest difference between his jia and this one was this one’s skepticism. seojun has fought space aliens, thousands of robots, and even traveled through the multiverse to find himself fighting his ex-boyfriend. yet still, out of everyone, it is this jia who is the most hypervigilant around him. truthfully, in his opinion, if he really wanted to he could have killed jia by now. was his friendly alliance not enough to prove his loyalty?
he knew she wanted to see the man under the mask, and anyone who knew seojun’s real feelings towards jia would have the same thoughts as she probably did right now. why? why would you hide yourself when you’re face to face with the woman you once promised to marry?
for one, seojun wasn’t too sure whether or not he could entirely trust jia either. this was a new world to him, so he wasn’t sure what to really expect! with cal being a villain in this universe, who knew what motives a radioactive jia would have! and then there was the fact that seojun knew that the person that this jia loved most was him. how could he show up in a different world, begging jia to feel the same feelings as he did for her, despite all that jia had been through with. . .the past seojun? it wasn’t entirely fair for the hero to dump his feelings on to the heroine— even if his heart yearned for her embrace.
but, above all, the friendly neighborhood spiderman was scared.
he was scared about the consequences of his own actions, his own selfishness. what happens if he takes off the mask again? what happens if she falls for him again? what happens if she loses her life again because of him?
seojun wore the mask to not only protect himself but jia too. at least that’s what he told himself. because if seojun were to lose her again. . . if he were to never be able to properly say goodbye to her again. . .
“aah, y-yeah i guess it doesn’t make a lot of sense.” seojun retracted his hand and threw it behind his head to scratch the back of it, “my mom always said i was the brightest kid when it came to everything except making friends. . . i’m starting to think she’s got a point.”
god, he felt like a child being scolded by his parent. and while jia did make some fair points, seojun didn’t know what else could really get her to trust him without taking off his mask. ( and we all know he’s too scared to do that, no matter how much hat hair he got from the damn thing! ) “i know it’s true! you are the prettiest. see? i didn’t lie to you. just another reason why you should trust me.” seojun rocked back and forth between his heels and toes.
“i can promise you that this. .” the masked hero waved his hand in front of his face, “is nothing special. but, i understand that maybe some of us are having our doubts about forming alliances with other spiders.” once again, seojun offered his pinky to jia, in hopes that maybe this time she would actually take it. “how about this. if you promise to stop lecturing me in front of. . . this guy. . . then i’ll keep my promise of being better, and i’ll tell you what some of my friends call me back home! and maybe. . . i’ll even tell you a little bit about my home. . . maybe.”
spider boy? well that wasn’t very nice of her. seojun thought they moved past all the snarky comments and were actually friends. he was sleeping in her apartment rent free; although, in his defense, he didn’t pack his wallet before getting sucked into the multiverse. but perhaps he was truly mistaken. perhaps they were never even friends to begin with.
surely she knew all of his intentions were pure, right? seojun never meant to bother jia, and, honestly, the vigilante never intended to overstay his unintentional visit either. he just didn’t have a way back to his universe. and, although seojun will admit to being rather harsh to her during their patrols, he never meant to make her feel like any less of a hero! in fact, the only reason why he tried to mentor her was because he wanted her to be better than he was.
after all, she was the light of his life.
it was jia, and whether or not it was his jia did not matter to the young hero. despite the suit and mask, when seojun looked at her, he felt like he was home. for the first time in a long time, he felt a sense of belonging, yet, fuzzy feelings aside, his heart felt like it was being steamrolled over by the one person he yearned for. could seojun really be upset? sure, this was another jia, but that didn’t erase what happened to the first jia he encountered. it wasn’t something he was proud of, nor was he fully over the immense grief his actions— his identity— gave him. if anything, seojun deserved the distance that jia shoved between them. no matter how much he wanted to get close to her again— to just feel her embrace him once again— he knew what the end result would be, and what kind of hero would be so selfish to let something so cruel happen twice?
maybe this jia did not need to be loved or saved, but, because it was jia, he owed it to her to be the best hero he could be. even if it meant not being the best hero that seojun needed.
“woah, hey!” seojun threw his hands up, “in front of the bad guy? awkward!” being a good hero ( and a good friend ) meant that seojun would have to be humble and empathetic to those around him. no matter what his original intentions were, he needed to right his wrongs. “my apologies. i didn’t mean to come off too strong. i just. . . kind of wished you invited me to the fun that’s all.” seojun held out his pinky to the heroine, “listen! i’ll be better next time, i promise.”
“so you thought you could escape me.” seojun slowly ascended from his web. the vigilante always hated crashing other people’s parties, but he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed by the lack of invite to this specific gathering. not to mention, by the look of it, the party seemed to be close to coming to an end. great, now he was not invited and late? come on!
his fingertips touched the ground, view of the world remaining upside down, and, in one swift motion, he flipped himself right side up. “ahh, man!” he sighed in frustration, “you don’t know how hard this is for me! it’s just so frustrating when you think you finally have a friend and then, just like that, they ditch you to hang out with. . . i’m sorry, what’s your name?” seojun leaned to his side to look at the unfamiliar criminal, “actually, you know what? you can tell me all about yourself after me and my friend over here have a chat.”
that’s right. after only a week or two of finding another friend in the multiverse, this one also decided to abandon him ( even if it was only for an hour )! seojun was aware that most spiders preferred to hunt alone, but man! he thought this one was different. “okay, be honest.” the masked vigilante threw his hands in the air, “i thought we had something special! what is it about me that made you want to leave for your morning swing without me?”
before he could give jia time to respond, seojun shot his web out to pull her closer. “seriously, am i too much?” even his mask couldn’t hide his pout, “you make me so sad, silk. and it’s a shame that i know i can’t stay mad at you for long because you’re just too darn cute! i just wish the pretty lady would let a guy know when she was planning on having fun without him.”
for: ahsu
wc: 1,735
tw: character death, gun violence
“he knew he had her no matter what happened. the thought that she would leave never even crossed his mind. she dealt with him on his worst days, even when he would pick her apart like her feelings meant nothing to him, so what could possibly cause her to leave now?
the unthinkable, of course.
hyunsu was nowhere close to being a saint. he didn't consider himself to be someone with a strong set of morals, nor did he ever claim to be a perfect candidate for the throne— he just wanted the queen dead. with her alive, it felt like his darkest secrets held a tight grip around the prince's neck. there would always be one person who remembers seonwoo, which meant there was always someone who remembers how lost hyunsu was. they would know how each morning hyunsu would wake up and fulfill his role as the prince's puppet. how hyunsu would humiliate himself just for 60 seconds of the prince's day. and, surely, they would find it awfully suspicious of the prince's death and the new shell of a person that hyunsu grew into.
in a way, hyunsu needed the queen dead because if he were to start this new life. . . with her. . . then he would need to erase all remnants of his past.
but now was the time to focus on ahyoung. the plan was already going well, hyunsu and the other like-minded royals had already met up to discuss further actions earlier in the day, and now the prince was meant to focus on himself and his future. besides, why would the prince risk his life if he had no reward waiting for him?
today felt like it was going to be a lucky day, and hyunsu wanted to take advantage of it.
——————————
as the two sat in the car on the way back from the nearby village, hyunsu played around with the ring in his pocket. after months of testing the waters with ahyoung, hyunsu was finally ready to ask for her hand in marriage.
“i was thinking of ending the night on a good note.” hyunsu turned to ahyoung, his hand reaching out for her’s, “you’re not tired, are you? the sky is too pretty tonight to retreat to our room. why don’t we take a stroll around the garden?”
“i’m not tired.”
“then it’s settled! we’ll stay out longer. i’ll convince the knights to leave us be when we return, that way we can just enjoy each other’s company tonight.”
something felt off, though the prince couldn’t exactly pinpoint what was the cause of the awkward tension. perhaps ahyoung was truly tired but was unwilling to give up the night in order to please hyunsu. part of him began to feel a little guilty, especially since he was working on not overshadowing the royal’s feelings, yet, in his defense, after their stroll he was sure ahyoung would find the extra hours spent awake to be worthwhile. hopefully she wouldn’t regret it.
“you seem—” hyunsu went to tease her before he was abruptly interrupted.
“can we just stop the car now? i’m feeling a little car sick.” ahyoung’s head was pressed against the car window, hands gripping on the fabric of her dress, “we can just walk over there for a bit.”
hyunsu looked out the window to see the plot of land ahyoung was gesturing to. “the middle of the woods? i know i call you bambi, but i wasn’t aware you actually enjoyed frolicking in the middle of the forest—”
“oh, shut up.”
the prince let out a laugh before tapping the driver on the shoulder, “just let us out here, please. we’ll only take a minute.”
——————————
“if we’re in the spot i think we’re in, i think there’s a meadow nearby.” hyunsu walked deeper into the woods with ahyoung trailing behind him, “hurry up... well, hurry up but watch where you walk! i don’t want to have to carry you back to the car.”
this was perfect. if he could get her in the middle of the meadow, hyunsu could get down on one knee and propose to her under the stars, surrounded by hundreds— maybe thousands— of moonlit flower petals. what a romantic way to end the night.
“we’re almost there! are you following me? you better not be taking a break!” hyunsu called out. the prince slowed down, closing his eyes so he could focus on the sounds of her footsteps. though, what he was met with was something entirely unexpected. he could hear her walk two steps closer to him, yet, before he could turn around, hyunsu felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed to the back of his head.
“woah. . . what?” hyunsu sharply inhaled. he wasn’t sure if it was really ahyoung behind him, but he knew any sudden movement could cost him his life.
and then he heard a click.
“you lied to me.” ahyoung pressed the gun further into hyunsu’s head. her hands were trembling just as much as his heart was, he could feel it. “how long were you going to keep it a secret? did you think i was just that dumb? did you even plan on ever telling me that. . .”
“that what?”
“how could you kill someone for your own self benefit? i knew you were selfish, but god, hyunsu, this is a whole new low even for you.”
what? how did she find out? he swore he would never tell a soul about what happened that night, even those closest to him. there was only one person who could have ever discovered what happened, one person who could ever unravel his secret. the queen herself.
hyunsu knew what he had to do, but he didn’t know if he had the guts to do it. because, for the first time in his life, he was genuinely terrified, and not because hyunsu was afraid of dying. he was scared of leaving behind his hopes of a happier future with her.
in one swift motion, hyunsu stepped to the side and turned his body to face ahyoung. his hand immediately reached out to grab her wrist in order to disarm her, though he only missed her pulling the trigger by a split second. the sound of the gun being fired rang throughout the entire forest. his eyes widened as he rushed to grab her, pulling her into his arms before she could reach for the pistol.
“go ahead! kill me!” ahyoung yelled, “it’s not like the kingdom would care anyways! you can kill me just like you did with him, and that way you can live in this sick fantasy you made for yourself, hyunsu. will that make you happy? discarding yet another royal that finds out that you’re no more than a piece of shit—”
“can you shut the fuck up?” his voice raised as he felt each of her words pierce his heart, “please shut up and listen to me. i don’t want to hurt you. i never meant to hurt you.”
for a moment the two remained silent as they tried to regain their own breath. hyunsu’s eyes closed as he pressed his forehead on the back of ahyoung’s head. and as much as he wanted to stand there and linger in her presence, the feeling of her body shriveling up to his touch grounded him with a harsh reality he knew he had to face: the love they shared was gone.
“she sent you here to kill me?” hyunsu’s whispered, the adrenaline he was hit with moments ago now being replaced with hurt and anxiety.
he thought she would have loved him forever.
“it doesn’t matter who—”
“you’re right. i’m sorry.” he could feel his eyes begin to water, “i’m going to let you go now, but don’t move, okay? i’m going to grab the gun for you.”
i don’t want to let go. i don’t want to die. i want you.
“how do i know i can trust you?”
after all we’ve been through? how can you not?
“because i can’t kill you. i know how this is supposed to end even if i live past this there’s no future for me.” the prince squeezed her tighter in hopes it would ease the pain in his heart.
there’s no future for me if it’s not with you.
hyunsu took a deep breath and let go of the royal. slowly, he moved to pick up the pistol ahyoung had dropped, and, with slight hesitation, he placed it back into her hands. before ahyoung could speak, hyunsu dropped to his knees, looking up at her as he placed his hands over her’s, guiding her through the motions.
cocking the pistol back, placing it against his forehead, and grazing their fingers over the trigger.
he needed to know that she wanted this, and that it was not just a burden that was unfortunately placed onto her.
“what are you—” ahyoung blurted out.
“fuck, ahyoung, i’m sorry i refuse to be shot in the back of the head at least make it a bit more personal, like you loved me.” hyunsu spat out, “just— we’re going to do this together, okay? i’m going to count to three, and then we pull the trigger. . . together.”
“don’t make me look at you like this.”
“close your eyes.”
and, with one last deep breath, hyunsu began to count.
“one.”
would you believe me if i told you that i love you? would you pull me into your arms if i told you the truth? would you surrender and hold me close?
“two.”
what hurts the most is that you are no better than him. i let you take every inch of me, only for you to be the one pressing a gun to my head. at least this time, i’ll be put out of my misery instead of living each day knowing that you could never love me enough. and i was such a fool to think you believed that i deserved happiness.
it is you, kwak ahyoung, who has betrayed me.
his eyes filled with tears as he let out a soft laugh.
who am i kidding? i betrayed myself the moment i let you see me for anything but a monster.
hyunsu took one last look at her face before shutting his own eyes.
