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every time you come around (you know i can't say no) [2/2]
title: every time you come around (you know i can't say no)
pairing: sunoo/jungwon
rating: teen
summary: he knows. and he knows he knows. sunoo also does a lot of realizing. how many times can someone have a revelation about someone? the answer is a lot. a whole fuckin' lot.
or
in the aftermath of jungwon's presentation, sunoo deals with the unresolved tension with his best friends and how he finds solace in the newly presented omega.
notes: take a shot every time you see the words, "sunoo knows." **
** please don't actually do that.
sunoo doesn’t question jungwon. he smuggles everything he scents out in a scent proof bag, leaving it with the front desk of the heat clinic, hoping that he’s not too late. the thought of jungwon suffering is enough to set him off again.
instead, he’s sitting at his desk, holding the crayon drawing he found in jungwon’s room.
it's crudely drawn, but sunoo can tell it's a picture of heeseung and jungwon. the tear is deliberate, with the jagged edges nearly straight down the middle, dividing the two of them. whatever happened, jungwon took care when he destroyed this picture.
sunoo knows heeseung is the one that set jungwon off. jungwon probably confronted heeseung about his birthday party and his presenting coinciding, and heeseung was an asshole about it and somehow won the argument.
if he went back to jungwon’s room, he’d bet his left arm all of the destroyed art is everything jungwon had ever drawn of heeseung. jay must’ve been at the wrong place at the wrong time and suffered part of jungwon’s mental break.
sunoo purses his lips, dropping the torn art back onto his desk.
for once in his life, he doesn’t know how to approach the situation. one part of him wants to do what he's always wanted to do and beat the living shit out of heeseung and leave him bleeding and crying in a dark alley or ditch in the middle of nowhere. another part thinks that isn't nearly enough suffering for lee heeseung, and damn does sunoo want him to suffer.
"knock, knock."
great. perfect. of course. sunoo's never in the mood to deal with his friends anymore. his patience has worn so thin, just hearing sunghoon's voice grates on his nerves in a way it never has before. it's only a matter of time before something in him snaps.
unfortunately, it doesn't change that fact that sunghoon is standing in his doorway, small smile on his face. behind him is jay, and sunoo is glad he has the decency to look somewhat guilty.
"sorry, not sorry for coming over unannounced. i figured you'd've thrown a fit if we told you we were coming." sunghoon makes himself at home in sunoo's room, just like he's always done. jay takes a seat on the floor, leaning against sunoo's bed, one leg bent.
"you're not wrong." sunoo looks back and forth between sunghoon and jay. sunghoon actually looks worried for once when he meets sunoo's eyes. jay, on the other hand, is fidgeting on the floor. sunghoon must've forced him to come.
the silence is deafening between the three of them, so sunghoon does what he does best, and he breaks the ice.
"how's jungwon?"
"you fucking lied to me," sunoo says immediately, jabbing his finger at jay. "you told me you didn't know where he was."
jay turns away from sunoo, rubbing the back of his neck. "i did." the boy doesn't even ask how sunoo finds out. sunoo always knows.
"why the fuck would you lie to me? you saw how worried i was about him." sunoo narrows his eyes at jay, who suddenly seems really interested in his hands. "don't fucking tell me you lied to me because you were still jealous."
"okay. i won't then."
a strangled gurgle escapes sunoo's lips as the urge to punch him rises. "jungwon and i are friends, jay! is jungwon not allowed to have friends? are you that much of a petty, jealous bitch that you can't stand to see him with other people?" sunoo's voice gets louder with each sentence, disbelief painting his features when jay slams his hand on the floor.
"you spend so much fucking time with him! jungwon doesn't shy away from you. he lets you touch him. he laughs and jokes around with you. it's not fucking fair!" jay is suddenly in front of him, dragging him up to his feet by his collar, snarling at him.
sunoo returns with a warning growl and shoves back at jay. "don't you fucking turn this on me, park jongseong! i know he told you why he hates you, and this is a prime fucking example. don't tell me about what's fair and what's not when it comes to jungwon. nothing is fair for him, and you fucking know it!"
the two of them are sizing each other up, teeth bared, one step away from exploding at each other. sunghoon's done watching and steps in between them, hands up, gently pushing them away from each other.
on one side, jay's scent is overpowering. sunghoon feels like he's going to suffocate if he stands too close for too long. and on the other side, he smells nothing from sunoo. sunoo always wears scent blockers, no matter where he goes and who he's with. sunghoon doesn't remember the last time he actually smelled sunoo. he used to be able to pick up on the slightest changes in his scent, but sunoo's been hiding behind kim sunoo far too often lately.
"we're all friends here, remember? we're all we have. best friends. it's obvious both of you care a lot about jungwon and just want what's best for him. c'mon. take a couple deep breaths."
sunoo and jay glare at each other for a few tense moments before sunoo backs down first. he takes a few steps back, sitting down gingerly on the edge of his computer chair. jay's gaze lingers on him for a little longer before he takes a few of his own steps back and sits down on sunoo's bed.
sunghoon lets out a breath he doesn’t remember holding, glancing between his two best friends before putting his arms down. “okay. good. let’s have a civil conversation now, yeah?”
sunoo crosses his arms over his chest. he closes his eyes and lets his chin dip down to his chest. and when he looks up again, the deadly glint to them tells jay he's talking to kim sunoo now, and he needs to choose his words carefully.
"what else did you lie to me about?" when sunoo sees jay is contemplating lying to him again, he leans forward, resting his arms on his knees. "i'm going to remind you that you're a horrible liar. if i have to dig for what i want, it won't be pretty when i'm done."
so, jay spills everything. he tells sunoo about jungwon's break down, how he could smell the anger on him, and that's how he knew he was presenting soon. he tells him about how he tried to talk heeseung into moving his party to another day, but heeseung shrugged him off, saying it wasn't his problem. he tells him about how he called jungwon non-stop for almost an hour until he finally answered his call, and it took another thirty minutes for him to worm out which clinic he was at. he tells him about how jungwon asked him if he could ask sunoo for some of his clothes for his nest at the clinic, and jay said he would try. but he didn't. he tells sunoo about how he kept all that information to himself because yes, he is a petty, jealous bitch, but he should've known better than to try and hide something from kim sunoo.
and so now, sunoo is posed with another question. if he knew all of this sooner, would it have made a difference? would he have been able to do anything different? his mind is blank for once.
"is that all?" sunoo asks, sitting up, running a hand through his hair.
"that's it. that's everything. i'm sorry, sunoo. i really am. i didn't mean... i didn't mean for anything to come between us. especially not jungwon. it's just so fucking hard to watch him open up to everyone but me."
"jungwon doesn't talk to me," sunghoon muses. jay and sunoo's eyes are suddenly on him. the looks they're giving him clearly say they both forgot he's in the room with them.
"that's because you don't give a shit about him. i catch glimpses of what it's like to be friends with him, and- sometimes jungwon'll slip up, and he'll make a joke, or he'll complain about class, or something sunoo said to him. i'll ask him a question about his art, and he just goes, he gets so excited talking about it until he realizes it's me he's talking to. then he just stops. all he fucking does now is talk about sunoo. i got jealous. what else do you want me to say?"
"you should've told me about him wanting stuff from me for his nest. he's a presenting omega. this is his first heat. he's hurting and confused, not to mention the mental breakdown he just had because of it." sunoo raises an eyebrow at jay. "at this point, you're not hurting me. you're hurting jungwon. i know omegan needs are lost on you alpha types, but don't take it out on him because you're pissed at me. if you can't control yourself around him now, what makes you think you'll be able to after he presents?"
jay presses his lips together. nothing sunoo says is wrong, and jay hates him for it. "you're never gonna fuckin' learn how to treat jungwon like he deserves if you're too busy chasing away anyone that looks at him."
sunoo scowls at jay. "i won't actively meddle with you two. but the second i catch wind of anything funny happening like that day, friendship be damned, i won't be the only one out for blood. jungwon may not tell me everything, but he tells me enough."
then, jay’s phone rings, and whoever is on the other line is important enough for him to stare at the name and excuse himself, answering the phone as he leaves the room.
sunghoon is staring at sunoo like he used to when they were kids, when he thought sunoo didn't notice. the expression on sunghoon's face is fondness mixed with something else sunoo's never been able to figure out. the two of them have been on thin ice with each other lately, more on sunoo's side than anything else.
"sunoo?"
sunoo makes a noise in his throat in answer, eyes distant.
"i'd stop if you asked me to. you know i would."
well, alright then. i guess we're doing this today, too, sunoo thinks.
"i also know you know i've been in love with you since we were kids. despite how many times i say it, you're not actually stupid." sunoo closes his eyes tiredly and takes sunghoon silence as an acknowledgement.
"what i'm waiting for you to figure out is if i'm important enough for you to make your own decisions when it comes to me."
when sunoo finally looks at sunghoon, he sees guilt on his features. he sees something that looks a little bit like regret, and a lot like confusion.
"you're important to me, 'noo. you've always been important to me."
sunoo shakes his head. "the question is, am i important enough?"
and sunghoon is quiet. sunoo knows he doesn't understand. not just yet.
"get out of my house, sunghoon. take jay with you. i'm too tired to deal with anything else right now."
when jungwon shows up on sunoo’s doorstep, sunoo’s body sags with relief, pulling the boy into a soft hug. "how did you get here? did you walk?"
"i asked my mom to drop me off here after she picked me up from the clinic. she said it was a good idea, since heeseung's been acting out at home, apparently."
sunoo just takes his hand and drags him inside to his room, closing and locking the door behind him. he slides the deadbolt for good measure, and stuffs towels underneath the door. then he flits over to his window and raises it, letting in some fresh air. "does jay know you're out of the clinic?"
"do you see him breaking down your door to get to me?" jungwon asks sarcastically, throwing his bag onto the floor.
"jake scared the living shit out of me when he called me. i thought i was dead. you don't just get a phone call from a sim and expect to be alive later."
jungwon is digging through his backpack, chuckling to himself before pulling out a few worn sketchbooks, along with a newer one, stacking them on sunoo's bed.
sunoo takes a few tentative sniffs. "you're wearing scent blockers?"
"yeah. jake sent me the industrial stuff. the kind he uses. he said to give you some, too."
ah, jake knows, sunoo muses. he takes the bottles and sticks from jungwon, throwing one of the smaller ones into his school bag. good scent blockers are hard to come by, and these particular ones are used in heat and rut clinics to scent proof the rooms.
jungwon crawls onto sunoo's bed and pats the space beside him. "i promised i'd tell you everything, right?"
"you don't have to. we all have secrets. some more than others," sunoo says softly, but he sits down next to jungwon anyway as the boy reaches for the book on top of the stack. he opens it up and hands it to sunoo, leaning back on his hands.
the drawings start with sunoo as a kid. jungwon's drawn him with jay and sunghoon. he's almost forgotten how happy the three of them were as kids. jay and sunghoon teased him mercilessly, still do, but sunoo knows they would be the first to destroy anyone that tried to hurt him.
"everything was so much easier back then... the most annoying thing about sunghoon was that he just liked to smear icing all over my face. jay tried too hard to be cool. he didn't start making people call him jay until we were in middle school." sunoo smiles fondly at the picture of the three of them posing with victory signs next to their faces. "you've been watching us for a long time, huh?"
"you could say that."
sunoo finishes with the first book and reaches for the next one. this one is full of sketches of sunghoon and himself. it starts out innocent, and most of the early ones are of sunoo yelling at sunghoon while he laughs. then, as they get older, he sees sketches of fond smiles and furtive glances, and private moments he thought no one else knew about while they held hands and cuddled up next to each other.
"am i just obvious or are you terrifyingly observant?" sunoo looks up at jungwon, who just snorts.
"a little bit of both. sunghoon looks at you like you hung the stars in the sky."
sunoo sees that in the way jungwon draws sunghoon. and deep down, he knows it, too. "he's got a hilarious way of showing it."
"he's the one that told jay to start sleeping around with people to make me jealous, isn't he?"
"he is. how did you know that?"
a slow smile appears on jungwon's face, but there's no emotion behind it. it feels like a killer's smile if anything. "i overheard heeseung telling him to do the same thing a while ago."
"that stupid fucking idiot," sunoo mumbles, slamming the sketchbook closed.
"if it means anything, he hasn't been over in a while. the last few pages of that book, he looks really sad. i think he misses you."
the next book addresses how terrifying jungwon actually is. the pictures are all of sunoo. it starts off with his smiles, grins, eyerolls. there's sass practically dripping from the pages, and sunoo is proud of how he looks. but as the pages turn, the smiles become absent, and his eyes are dark and piercing. he no longer looks soft in the drawings. he's no jay when it comes to the planes of his face and hard angles, but they're there when he's not hiding them behind bright smiles and puffy cheeks.
sunoo stops at a page, eyes going wide. he feels like he's looking into a mirror on the days where he hates seeing himself. he looks tired, eyes hard from work. there's an outline of a large puzzle piece over his eye, and jungwon's written some words on the side of the page: saffron, sandalwood, amber, vanilla.
then it hits him. he's seen this sketch before. this was the one he was working on when sunoo approached him during lunch at the beginning of the school year.
"how long have you known?" sunoo asks simply, looking up at jungwon.
jungwon tilts his head from side to side. "a while. i've got a very sensitive nose. i could smell scents faintly even when i was unpresented. sometimes, i can smell through scent blockers, depending on how long it's been since you've applied them."
sunoo can't look away from the picture. it's a side of him he doesn't see very often.
the alpha side of him.
"have you told anyone?" sunoo turns the page, and he's faced with another portrait. this time, it's of his side profile, and his face is tilted up. sunoo's eyes sweep over his jawline and the slope of his nose. it's a stark difference from how he presents himself in public.
"no. it's none of my business. it's one of those things you have to do, isn't it? because of your family. because of what you do."
sunoo flips the page again, and he spots both sides of him, half and half on the page. there's sunoo, the cute omega with an attitude. then there's kim sunoo, the alpha that appears as a harbinger of pain and suffering.
"i was supposed to be an omega. my entire family is omegan. everyone thought i was going to present as an omega. look at me. how could i not? having an omegan son in the family meant we could potentially reach a lucrative part of the information market." sunoo gives jungwon a wry smile. "but as fate would have it, i presented as an alpha. i became my family's best kept secret. wear scent blockers. wear the manufactured scent. pretend you're an omega. don't jeopardize the family business. people are already expecting you."
sunoo leans over the side of his bed and digs underneath for some blocker removal wipes. "most days, it wasn't hard. i was already raised to be the perfect omega. there were some days, where i could feel my alpha simmering beneath my skin. it wanted out, and fuck it was hard to control." he starts wiping off his scent blockers, and jungwon perks up beside him, closing his eyes and sniffing the air. the smell of aged leather and vanilla slowly fills his senses, and he nearly tackles sunoo, falling into his lap and wrapping his arms around his waist, burying his face into his chest.
"i've never been tempted by omegas until you came along. pretty sure watching you suffer added to the anger and resentment building up inside me. i'm bound to explode one day, and honestly? i'm a little scared. i've never lost control before."
jungwon sits up and grabs the wipe from sunoo's hand, rubbing at his own skin. sunoo is waiting for the smell of lavender and tea tree, but when jungwon is done, sunoo's eyebrows raise in question.
"you weren't the only one wearing manufactured scents."
sunoo leans forward and noses at his hair, breathing in deep. jungwon smells like cashmere. there's a sweetness behind his scent that's inherently omegan along a hint of vanilla and some sort of wood underneath.
"alpha, you smell so good," jungwon whispers, leaning against sunoo again and making himself comfortable in his lap.
sunoo's alpha howls with happiness. "likewise, little omega. it suits you." he smiles, closing his eyes and leaning his head against jungwon's.
they take comfort in each other in silence. sunoo's never felt so free before in his life. for once, he doesn't feel like he's wearing a second skin. around jungwon, he's free to be an alpha because jungwon already knows.
at this moment, sunoo knows he's in trouble. he's grown too attached to him, and even now, sunoo knows, he's barely scratched the surface of the iceberg that's yang jungwon.
sunoo knows something is wrong with jungwon before he even sees the boy. now that the weather's frozen over, sunoo manages to convince jungwon to spend lunch in the cafeteria with him, jay and sunghoon. most days he's okay, sitting quietly and drawing while the others talk around him.
today, jungwon's head is on the table while jay rubs his back gently. sunoo's late to lunch because his teacher wanted to talk to him about something, but he doesn't remember what it is anymore, mind going blank when he sees jungwon feeling bad.
"wonnie? are you okay?" sunoo sits down next to sunghoon and reaches across the table to grab jungwon's hand, lacing their fingers together.
"just didn't sleep too well last night," the boy mumbles.
but sunoo pretends nothing else is wrong for the rest of lunch, keeping jungwon in the corner of his eye. when lunch is over, sunoo pulls him over to the side, slight frown on his face.
"are you sure you're okay?"
jungwon smiles at him, and sunoo realizes the dark circles underneath his eyes are darker than he's ever seen them.
"really, sunoo. i'm fine. one too many sleepless nights. brain just won't turn off sometimes, you know?"
it happens a few more times. jungwon looks beyond tired at school, but sunoo thinks there's more to it.
sunoo's phone rings in the middle of the night, making him groan as his hand shoots out to answer it. there's only three people that could call him late at night and his phone would ring.
"hello?"
"sunoo? did i wake you?" jungwon coughs violently through the phone, and sunoo sits straight up, rubbing sleep away from his eyes.
"won? wha's goin' on? 're you okay?"
"i... i'm at the park. can you come get me? it's so cold... 'm too cold to walk anymore."
"why the actual fuck are you- i'll be there in a few minutes. you better be dressed up warm, or i swear to god i'll let you freeze out there." sunoo's threat is empty, of course, already sliding out of bed, not bothering to change out of his pjs, and pulling on a thick coat, grabbing a blanket for jungwon just in case, and running for the garage.
he has a car, but he doesn't like to drive often, preferring to make jay or sunghoon drive. sunoo's pretty sure he breaks every driving law to get to the park in five minutes flat, seeing jungwon shivering on the bench in the dead of night.
when he sees the car pull up, jungwon gingerly pushes himself up to his feet and shuffles over to the car, opening the door and falling into the passenger's seat, grateful for the heat inside the car. sunoo throws the blanket on top of him before stepping on the gas to make their way back to his house.
"take this time to collect your thoughts because i want answers when we get back to my house."
"i know," jungwon says quietly, pulling his face mask up higher over his nose, hair obscuring the rest of his face. the car ride is completely silent until sunoo pulls into his garage, and he waits for jungwon to grab his hand at the door before they make their way to his room.
"don't get mad."
sunoo huffs. "now i know i'm going to get mad. spill it, wonnie. what's going on?"
jungwon carefully starts pulling his jacket off, and sunoo goes unnaturally still. jungwon is wearing a short sleeve shirt underneath his jacket, and his arms are covered in bruises in various stages of healing. some of them look fresh. they're finger-shaped bruises, sunoo numbly realizes.
then, jungwon takes off his mask, and sunoo sees red.
there's a bloody cut through his lip and on the corner of his mouth. a bruise on his cheek reaches up towards his eye. sunoo's eyes go wide. those weren't dark circles. they were black eyes he was hiding with makeup.
"who." sunoo's voice is barely a whisper, but it carries a quiet deadliness with it.
"heeseung," jungwon whimpers. "he's been in a bad mood since sunghoon stopped coming around."
"how long has this been going on? no. don't tell me. fuck. all this time. all this fucking time you've been hiding this from me? does anyone fucking know? do your parents know?"
jungwon nods. when the younger boy doesn't say any more, sunoo weighs the implications in his mind. his parents know. and if this has been going on for as long as sunoo thinks it has, they also didn't care. if jungwon has been shouldering the burden of this quietly until now, one of two things happened: either he trusted sunoo enough to tell him, or what happened tonight was particularly bad. the latter made his blood run cold.
sunoo gets up and leaves his room for a moment, coming back with a first aid kit. he gently starts cleaning up jungwon's visible injuries, murmuring sweet words to him. "my poor, sweet, little love. look at you. he thinks he can lay his hands on you with no consequences?"
jungwon tries not to flinch as sunoo cleans up his cuts and rubs some cream on his arms. "i'm sorry, wonnie. i'm being as gentle as i can."
"i know. there's... more..."
sunoo closes his eyes. he's this close to losing his shit, but for jungwon's sake, he reins it in. jungwon swallows and carefully pulls his shirt off. sunoo is almost scared to open his eyes, and when he does, he hisses. "you're not going back there. i don't fucking care what people say. you're not fucking going back there. i need to call sunghoon. this is out of my expertise."
he picks up the phone with shaking hands and swipes on sunghoon's name. it rings once before sunghoon answers.
"what's up?"
"i need you here yesterday. bring your kit. it's an emergency."
"where?"
"my house."
"e.t.a. ten minutes." then he hangs up.
"sunghoon will be here in a little bit, okay? he's good at patching people up. are you sleepy?"
"it hurts too much to sleep," he mumbles, and sunoo's heart shatters. sunoo wraps his blanket around jungwon as loosely as he can and reaches out to gently scratch the top of his head.
"just sit tight. i'm gonna head to the office down the hallway really quick, and i'll be back soon."
jungwon nods, pulling the blankets around him a little tighter. "don't take too long. i don't wanna be by myself tonight."
"don't worry about it, wonnie. i'm just going to cool off a little and take care of a few things before i come to bed, okay?"
"... okay."
sunoo leans over and presses a soft kiss to his forehead before leaving the room and bolting towards the office. as soon as the door is locked behind him, he calls jay.
"sunoo? what're you still doing up?"
"i should be telling you that. are you working?"
"yeah. what's wrong?"
"it's jungwon."
"heeseung is fucking abusing him, jay. he called me from the park tonight asking to come pick him up, and he's covered in fucking bruises and cuts, and he's got a fucking black eye, and something else that looks suspiciously like burns." sunoo hears jay sucking in a deep breath. then he hears crashing noises in the background, and sunoo knows jay is breaking something.
"i took care of his injuries as best i could. i think he needs to be examined at the hospital. it had to be bad tonight if he called me. i already called sunghoon. i told him he's not going back to that house."
"i never liked his family. i'll have my parents take a look at the contract they made with them when i first claimed him and terminate it. we have some properties here he can stay at. i'll send people to get his stuff and move with him."
"at least talk to him first before you do that, jay. jesus fuck."
"you said so yourself, he's not going back to that house. i'm not gonna leave him alone. i'll get accounts set up in his name, so he won't have to worry about money."
"we can talk more details in the morning. if jungwon's feeling up to it, i'll bring him to the office. i'm also calling in my favor, jay. i need to borrow one of your family's warehouses. and maybe a few of your people. it's time i had a talk with lee heeseung."
jay is quiet for a moment.
"i'll take care of it. i'll send you time and location."
--
sunghoon enters sunoo's room like a silent phantom, finding sunoo at his desk, eyes darting around his computer monitors, information scrolling through them rapidly. he puts his backpack on the ground, clearly confused.
"you look fine."
"it's not me." he turns his chair to look back at jungwon asleep in his bed. when sunghoon doesn't look surprised, sunoo feels his blood starting to boil again.
"don't tell me you fucking knew. if you tell me you knew heeseung was abusing him and didn't say shit, you're dead to me," sunoo hisses.
"i didn't know for sure. i had a feeling. i'd never seen him do more than make fun of jungwon when i was there. i swear, 'noo." sunoo narrows his eyes at him before turning back to his computer. "please make sure he's okay. jay's taking care of some things, too."
"he's working tonight," sunghoon says quietly, dragging his bag over to sunoo's bedside, gently shaking jungwon's shoulder. "jungwon? hey. it's me, sunghoon. i know you're tired, and you're hurting, but i've gotta look you over to make sure nothing requires immediate medical attention, okay?"
jungwon whines and pouts, turning away from him. "he's just like jay. god. they were made for each other," he mumbles, gently turning jungwon over.
sunoo dismisses the messages on his phone, a slow smile appearing on his face. he knows he's going to snap as soon as he sees heeseung's face. all of the anger, all of the hatred he's bottled up for the man has reached its fever pitch, and sunoo doesn't have it in him to control his anger anymore.
prev | next
pairing: sunoo/jungwon
rating: teen
summary: he knows. and he knows he knows. sunoo also does a lot of realizing. how many times can someone have a revelation about someone? the answer is a lot. a whole fuckin' lot.
or
in the aftermath of jungwon's presentation, sunoo deals with the unresolved tension with his best friends and how he finds solace in the newly presented omega.
notes: take a shot every time you see the words, "sunoo knows." **
** please don't actually do that.
sunoo doesn’t question jungwon. he smuggles everything he scents out in a scent proof bag, leaving it with the front desk of the heat clinic, hoping that he’s not too late. the thought of jungwon suffering is enough to set him off again.
instead, he’s sitting at his desk, holding the crayon drawing he found in jungwon’s room.
it's crudely drawn, but sunoo can tell it's a picture of heeseung and jungwon. the tear is deliberate, with the jagged edges nearly straight down the middle, dividing the two of them. whatever happened, jungwon took care when he destroyed this picture.
sunoo knows heeseung is the one that set jungwon off. jungwon probably confronted heeseung about his birthday party and his presenting coinciding, and heeseung was an asshole about it and somehow won the argument.
if he went back to jungwon’s room, he’d bet his left arm all of the destroyed art is everything jungwon had ever drawn of heeseung. jay must’ve been at the wrong place at the wrong time and suffered part of jungwon’s mental break.
sunoo purses his lips, dropping the torn art back onto his desk.
for once in his life, he doesn’t know how to approach the situation. one part of him wants to do what he's always wanted to do and beat the living shit out of heeseung and leave him bleeding and crying in a dark alley or ditch in the middle of nowhere. another part thinks that isn't nearly enough suffering for lee heeseung, and damn does sunoo want him to suffer.
"knock, knock."
great. perfect. of course. sunoo's never in the mood to deal with his friends anymore. his patience has worn so thin, just hearing sunghoon's voice grates on his nerves in a way it never has before. it's only a matter of time before something in him snaps.
unfortunately, it doesn't change that fact that sunghoon is standing in his doorway, small smile on his face. behind him is jay, and sunoo is glad he has the decency to look somewhat guilty.
"sorry, not sorry for coming over unannounced. i figured you'd've thrown a fit if we told you we were coming." sunghoon makes himself at home in sunoo's room, just like he's always done. jay takes a seat on the floor, leaning against sunoo's bed, one leg bent.
"you're not wrong." sunoo looks back and forth between sunghoon and jay. sunghoon actually looks worried for once when he meets sunoo's eyes. jay, on the other hand, is fidgeting on the floor. sunghoon must've forced him to come.
the silence is deafening between the three of them, so sunghoon does what he does best, and he breaks the ice.
"how's jungwon?"
"you fucking lied to me," sunoo says immediately, jabbing his finger at jay. "you told me you didn't know where he was."
jay turns away from sunoo, rubbing the back of his neck. "i did." the boy doesn't even ask how sunoo finds out. sunoo always knows.
"why the fuck would you lie to me? you saw how worried i was about him." sunoo narrows his eyes at jay, who suddenly seems really interested in his hands. "don't fucking tell me you lied to me because you were still jealous."
"okay. i won't then."
a strangled gurgle escapes sunoo's lips as the urge to punch him rises. "jungwon and i are friends, jay! is jungwon not allowed to have friends? are you that much of a petty, jealous bitch that you can't stand to see him with other people?" sunoo's voice gets louder with each sentence, disbelief painting his features when jay slams his hand on the floor.
"you spend so much fucking time with him! jungwon doesn't shy away from you. he lets you touch him. he laughs and jokes around with you. it's not fucking fair!" jay is suddenly in front of him, dragging him up to his feet by his collar, snarling at him.
sunoo returns with a warning growl and shoves back at jay. "don't you fucking turn this on me, park jongseong! i know he told you why he hates you, and this is a prime fucking example. don't tell me about what's fair and what's not when it comes to jungwon. nothing is fair for him, and you fucking know it!"
the two of them are sizing each other up, teeth bared, one step away from exploding at each other. sunghoon's done watching and steps in between them, hands up, gently pushing them away from each other.
on one side, jay's scent is overpowering. sunghoon feels like he's going to suffocate if he stands too close for too long. and on the other side, he smells nothing from sunoo. sunoo always wears scent blockers, no matter where he goes and who he's with. sunghoon doesn't remember the last time he actually smelled sunoo. he used to be able to pick up on the slightest changes in his scent, but sunoo's been hiding behind kim sunoo far too often lately.
"we're all friends here, remember? we're all we have. best friends. it's obvious both of you care a lot about jungwon and just want what's best for him. c'mon. take a couple deep breaths."
sunoo and jay glare at each other for a few tense moments before sunoo backs down first. he takes a few steps back, sitting down gingerly on the edge of his computer chair. jay's gaze lingers on him for a little longer before he takes a few of his own steps back and sits down on sunoo's bed.
sunghoon lets out a breath he doesn’t remember holding, glancing between his two best friends before putting his arms down. “okay. good. let’s have a civil conversation now, yeah?”
sunoo crosses his arms over his chest. he closes his eyes and lets his chin dip down to his chest. and when he looks up again, the deadly glint to them tells jay he's talking to kim sunoo now, and he needs to choose his words carefully.
"what else did you lie to me about?" when sunoo sees jay is contemplating lying to him again, he leans forward, resting his arms on his knees. "i'm going to remind you that you're a horrible liar. if i have to dig for what i want, it won't be pretty when i'm done."
so, jay spills everything. he tells sunoo about jungwon's break down, how he could smell the anger on him, and that's how he knew he was presenting soon. he tells him about how he tried to talk heeseung into moving his party to another day, but heeseung shrugged him off, saying it wasn't his problem. he tells him about how he called jungwon non-stop for almost an hour until he finally answered his call, and it took another thirty minutes for him to worm out which clinic he was at. he tells him about how jungwon asked him if he could ask sunoo for some of his clothes for his nest at the clinic, and jay said he would try. but he didn't. he tells sunoo about how he kept all that information to himself because yes, he is a petty, jealous bitch, but he should've known better than to try and hide something from kim sunoo.
and so now, sunoo is posed with another question. if he knew all of this sooner, would it have made a difference? would he have been able to do anything different? his mind is blank for once.
"is that all?" sunoo asks, sitting up, running a hand through his hair.
"that's it. that's everything. i'm sorry, sunoo. i really am. i didn't mean... i didn't mean for anything to come between us. especially not jungwon. it's just so fucking hard to watch him open up to everyone but me."
"jungwon doesn't talk to me," sunghoon muses. jay and sunoo's eyes are suddenly on him. the looks they're giving him clearly say they both forgot he's in the room with them.
"that's because you don't give a shit about him. i catch glimpses of what it's like to be friends with him, and- sometimes jungwon'll slip up, and he'll make a joke, or he'll complain about class, or something sunoo said to him. i'll ask him a question about his art, and he just goes, he gets so excited talking about it until he realizes it's me he's talking to. then he just stops. all he fucking does now is talk about sunoo. i got jealous. what else do you want me to say?"
"you should've told me about him wanting stuff from me for his nest. he's a presenting omega. this is his first heat. he's hurting and confused, not to mention the mental breakdown he just had because of it." sunoo raises an eyebrow at jay. "at this point, you're not hurting me. you're hurting jungwon. i know omegan needs are lost on you alpha types, but don't take it out on him because you're pissed at me. if you can't control yourself around him now, what makes you think you'll be able to after he presents?"
jay presses his lips together. nothing sunoo says is wrong, and jay hates him for it. "you're never gonna fuckin' learn how to treat jungwon like he deserves if you're too busy chasing away anyone that looks at him."
sunoo scowls at jay. "i won't actively meddle with you two. but the second i catch wind of anything funny happening like that day, friendship be damned, i won't be the only one out for blood. jungwon may not tell me everything, but he tells me enough."
then, jay’s phone rings, and whoever is on the other line is important enough for him to stare at the name and excuse himself, answering the phone as he leaves the room.
sunghoon is staring at sunoo like he used to when they were kids, when he thought sunoo didn't notice. the expression on sunghoon's face is fondness mixed with something else sunoo's never been able to figure out. the two of them have been on thin ice with each other lately, more on sunoo's side than anything else.
"sunoo?"
sunoo makes a noise in his throat in answer, eyes distant.
"i'd stop if you asked me to. you know i would."
well, alright then. i guess we're doing this today, too, sunoo thinks.
"i also know you know i've been in love with you since we were kids. despite how many times i say it, you're not actually stupid." sunoo closes his eyes tiredly and takes sunghoon silence as an acknowledgement.
"what i'm waiting for you to figure out is if i'm important enough for you to make your own decisions when it comes to me."
when sunoo finally looks at sunghoon, he sees guilt on his features. he sees something that looks a little bit like regret, and a lot like confusion.
"you're important to me, 'noo. you've always been important to me."
sunoo shakes his head. "the question is, am i important enough?"
and sunghoon is quiet. sunoo knows he doesn't understand. not just yet.
"get out of my house, sunghoon. take jay with you. i'm too tired to deal with anything else right now."
when jungwon shows up on sunoo’s doorstep, sunoo’s body sags with relief, pulling the boy into a soft hug. "how did you get here? did you walk?"
"i asked my mom to drop me off here after she picked me up from the clinic. she said it was a good idea, since heeseung's been acting out at home, apparently."
sunoo just takes his hand and drags him inside to his room, closing and locking the door behind him. he slides the deadbolt for good measure, and stuffs towels underneath the door. then he flits over to his window and raises it, letting in some fresh air. "does jay know you're out of the clinic?"
"do you see him breaking down your door to get to me?" jungwon asks sarcastically, throwing his bag onto the floor.
"jake scared the living shit out of me when he called me. i thought i was dead. you don't just get a phone call from a sim and expect to be alive later."
jungwon is digging through his backpack, chuckling to himself before pulling out a few worn sketchbooks, along with a newer one, stacking them on sunoo's bed.
sunoo takes a few tentative sniffs. "you're wearing scent blockers?"
"yeah. jake sent me the industrial stuff. the kind he uses. he said to give you some, too."
ah, jake knows, sunoo muses. he takes the bottles and sticks from jungwon, throwing one of the smaller ones into his school bag. good scent blockers are hard to come by, and these particular ones are used in heat and rut clinics to scent proof the rooms.
jungwon crawls onto sunoo's bed and pats the space beside him. "i promised i'd tell you everything, right?"
"you don't have to. we all have secrets. some more than others," sunoo says softly, but he sits down next to jungwon anyway as the boy reaches for the book on top of the stack. he opens it up and hands it to sunoo, leaning back on his hands.
the drawings start with sunoo as a kid. jungwon's drawn him with jay and sunghoon. he's almost forgotten how happy the three of them were as kids. jay and sunghoon teased him mercilessly, still do, but sunoo knows they would be the first to destroy anyone that tried to hurt him.
"everything was so much easier back then... the most annoying thing about sunghoon was that he just liked to smear icing all over my face. jay tried too hard to be cool. he didn't start making people call him jay until we were in middle school." sunoo smiles fondly at the picture of the three of them posing with victory signs next to their faces. "you've been watching us for a long time, huh?"
"you could say that."
sunoo finishes with the first book and reaches for the next one. this one is full of sketches of sunghoon and himself. it starts out innocent, and most of the early ones are of sunoo yelling at sunghoon while he laughs. then, as they get older, he sees sketches of fond smiles and furtive glances, and private moments he thought no one else knew about while they held hands and cuddled up next to each other.
"am i just obvious or are you terrifyingly observant?" sunoo looks up at jungwon, who just snorts.
"a little bit of both. sunghoon looks at you like you hung the stars in the sky."
sunoo sees that in the way jungwon draws sunghoon. and deep down, he knows it, too. "he's got a hilarious way of showing it."
"he's the one that told jay to start sleeping around with people to make me jealous, isn't he?"
"he is. how did you know that?"
a slow smile appears on jungwon's face, but there's no emotion behind it. it feels like a killer's smile if anything. "i overheard heeseung telling him to do the same thing a while ago."
"that stupid fucking idiot," sunoo mumbles, slamming the sketchbook closed.
"if it means anything, he hasn't been over in a while. the last few pages of that book, he looks really sad. i think he misses you."
the next book addresses how terrifying jungwon actually is. the pictures are all of sunoo. it starts off with his smiles, grins, eyerolls. there's sass practically dripping from the pages, and sunoo is proud of how he looks. but as the pages turn, the smiles become absent, and his eyes are dark and piercing. he no longer looks soft in the drawings. he's no jay when it comes to the planes of his face and hard angles, but they're there when he's not hiding them behind bright smiles and puffy cheeks.
sunoo stops at a page, eyes going wide. he feels like he's looking into a mirror on the days where he hates seeing himself. he looks tired, eyes hard from work. there's an outline of a large puzzle piece over his eye, and jungwon's written some words on the side of the page: saffron, sandalwood, amber, vanilla.
then it hits him. he's seen this sketch before. this was the one he was working on when sunoo approached him during lunch at the beginning of the school year.
"how long have you known?" sunoo asks simply, looking up at jungwon.
jungwon tilts his head from side to side. "a while. i've got a very sensitive nose. i could smell scents faintly even when i was unpresented. sometimes, i can smell through scent blockers, depending on how long it's been since you've applied them."
sunoo can't look away from the picture. it's a side of him he doesn't see very often.
the alpha side of him.
"have you told anyone?" sunoo turns the page, and he's faced with another portrait. this time, it's of his side profile, and his face is tilted up. sunoo's eyes sweep over his jawline and the slope of his nose. it's a stark difference from how he presents himself in public.
"no. it's none of my business. it's one of those things you have to do, isn't it? because of your family. because of what you do."
sunoo flips the page again, and he spots both sides of him, half and half on the page. there's sunoo, the cute omega with an attitude. then there's kim sunoo, the alpha that appears as a harbinger of pain and suffering.
"i was supposed to be an omega. my entire family is omegan. everyone thought i was going to present as an omega. look at me. how could i not? having an omegan son in the family meant we could potentially reach a lucrative part of the information market." sunoo gives jungwon a wry smile. "but as fate would have it, i presented as an alpha. i became my family's best kept secret. wear scent blockers. wear the manufactured scent. pretend you're an omega. don't jeopardize the family business. people are already expecting you."
sunoo leans over the side of his bed and digs underneath for some blocker removal wipes. "most days, it wasn't hard. i was already raised to be the perfect omega. there were some days, where i could feel my alpha simmering beneath my skin. it wanted out, and fuck it was hard to control." he starts wiping off his scent blockers, and jungwon perks up beside him, closing his eyes and sniffing the air. the smell of aged leather and vanilla slowly fills his senses, and he nearly tackles sunoo, falling into his lap and wrapping his arms around his waist, burying his face into his chest.
"i've never been tempted by omegas until you came along. pretty sure watching you suffer added to the anger and resentment building up inside me. i'm bound to explode one day, and honestly? i'm a little scared. i've never lost control before."
jungwon sits up and grabs the wipe from sunoo's hand, rubbing at his own skin. sunoo is waiting for the smell of lavender and tea tree, but when jungwon is done, sunoo's eyebrows raise in question.
"you weren't the only one wearing manufactured scents."
sunoo leans forward and noses at his hair, breathing in deep. jungwon smells like cashmere. there's a sweetness behind his scent that's inherently omegan along a hint of vanilla and some sort of wood underneath.
"alpha, you smell so good," jungwon whispers, leaning against sunoo again and making himself comfortable in his lap.
sunoo's alpha howls with happiness. "likewise, little omega. it suits you." he smiles, closing his eyes and leaning his head against jungwon's.
they take comfort in each other in silence. sunoo's never felt so free before in his life. for once, he doesn't feel like he's wearing a second skin. around jungwon, he's free to be an alpha because jungwon already knows.
at this moment, sunoo knows he's in trouble. he's grown too attached to him, and even now, sunoo knows, he's barely scratched the surface of the iceberg that's yang jungwon.
sunoo knows something is wrong with jungwon before he even sees the boy. now that the weather's frozen over, sunoo manages to convince jungwon to spend lunch in the cafeteria with him, jay and sunghoon. most days he's okay, sitting quietly and drawing while the others talk around him.
today, jungwon's head is on the table while jay rubs his back gently. sunoo's late to lunch because his teacher wanted to talk to him about something, but he doesn't remember what it is anymore, mind going blank when he sees jungwon feeling bad.
"wonnie? are you okay?" sunoo sits down next to sunghoon and reaches across the table to grab jungwon's hand, lacing their fingers together.
"just didn't sleep too well last night," the boy mumbles.
that's not it. you're lying to me, jungwon. what actually happened?
but sunoo pretends nothing else is wrong for the rest of lunch, keeping jungwon in the corner of his eye. when lunch is over, sunoo pulls him over to the side, slight frown on his face.
"are you sure you're okay?"
jungwon smiles at him, and sunoo realizes the dark circles underneath his eyes are darker than he's ever seen them.
"really, sunoo. i'm fine. one too many sleepless nights. brain just won't turn off sometimes, you know?"
it happens a few more times. jungwon looks beyond tired at school, but sunoo thinks there's more to it.
--
sunoo's phone rings in the middle of the night, making him groan as his hand shoots out to answer it. there's only three people that could call him late at night and his phone would ring.
"hello?"
"sunoo? did i wake you?" jungwon coughs violently through the phone, and sunoo sits straight up, rubbing sleep away from his eyes.
"won? wha's goin' on? 're you okay?"
"i... i'm at the park. can you come get me? it's so cold... 'm too cold to walk anymore."
"why the actual fuck are you- i'll be there in a few minutes. you better be dressed up warm, or i swear to god i'll let you freeze out there." sunoo's threat is empty, of course, already sliding out of bed, not bothering to change out of his pjs, and pulling on a thick coat, grabbing a blanket for jungwon just in case, and running for the garage.
he has a car, but he doesn't like to drive often, preferring to make jay or sunghoon drive. sunoo's pretty sure he breaks every driving law to get to the park in five minutes flat, seeing jungwon shivering on the bench in the dead of night.
when he sees the car pull up, jungwon gingerly pushes himself up to his feet and shuffles over to the car, opening the door and falling into the passenger's seat, grateful for the heat inside the car. sunoo throws the blanket on top of him before stepping on the gas to make their way back to his house.
"take this time to collect your thoughts because i want answers when we get back to my house."
"i know," jungwon says quietly, pulling his face mask up higher over his nose, hair obscuring the rest of his face. the car ride is completely silent until sunoo pulls into his garage, and he waits for jungwon to grab his hand at the door before they make their way to his room.
"don't get mad."
sunoo huffs. "now i know i'm going to get mad. spill it, wonnie. what's going on?"
jungwon carefully starts pulling his jacket off, and sunoo goes unnaturally still. jungwon is wearing a short sleeve shirt underneath his jacket, and his arms are covered in bruises in various stages of healing. some of them look fresh. they're finger-shaped bruises, sunoo numbly realizes.
then, jungwon takes off his mask, and sunoo sees red.
there's a bloody cut through his lip and on the corner of his mouth. a bruise on his cheek reaches up towards his eye. sunoo's eyes go wide. those weren't dark circles. they were black eyes he was hiding with makeup.
"who." sunoo's voice is barely a whisper, but it carries a quiet deadliness with it.
"heeseung," jungwon whimpers. "he's been in a bad mood since sunghoon stopped coming around."
"how long has this been going on? no. don't tell me. fuck. all this time. all this fucking time you've been hiding this from me? does anyone fucking know? do your parents know?"
jungwon nods. when the younger boy doesn't say any more, sunoo weighs the implications in his mind. his parents know. and if this has been going on for as long as sunoo thinks it has, they also didn't care. if jungwon has been shouldering the burden of this quietly until now, one of two things happened: either he trusted sunoo enough to tell him, or what happened tonight was particularly bad. the latter made his blood run cold.
sunoo gets up and leaves his room for a moment, coming back with a first aid kit. he gently starts cleaning up jungwon's visible injuries, murmuring sweet words to him. "my poor, sweet, little love. look at you. he thinks he can lay his hands on you with no consequences?"
jungwon tries not to flinch as sunoo cleans up his cuts and rubs some cream on his arms. "i'm sorry, wonnie. i'm being as gentle as i can."
"i know. there's... more..."
sunoo closes his eyes. he's this close to losing his shit, but for jungwon's sake, he reins it in. jungwon swallows and carefully pulls his shirt off. sunoo is almost scared to open his eyes, and when he does, he hisses. "you're not going back there. i don't fucking care what people say. you're not fucking going back there. i need to call sunghoon. this is out of my expertise."
he picks up the phone with shaking hands and swipes on sunghoon's name. it rings once before sunghoon answers.
"what's up?"
"i need you here yesterday. bring your kit. it's an emergency."
"where?"
"my house."
"e.t.a. ten minutes." then he hangs up.
"sunghoon will be here in a little bit, okay? he's good at patching people up. are you sleepy?"
"it hurts too much to sleep," he mumbles, and sunoo's heart shatters. sunoo wraps his blanket around jungwon as loosely as he can and reaches out to gently scratch the top of his head.
"just sit tight. i'm gonna head to the office down the hallway really quick, and i'll be back soon."
jungwon nods, pulling the blankets around him a little tighter. "don't take too long. i don't wanna be by myself tonight."
"don't worry about it, wonnie. i'm just going to cool off a little and take care of a few things before i come to bed, okay?"
"... okay."
sunoo leans over and presses a soft kiss to his forehead before leaving the room and bolting towards the office. as soon as the door is locked behind him, he calls jay.
"sunoo? what're you still doing up?"
"i should be telling you that. are you working?"
"yeah. what's wrong?"
"it's jungwon."
"what happened? is he okay?"
"heeseung is fucking abusing him, jay. he called me from the park tonight asking to come pick him up, and he's covered in fucking bruises and cuts, and he's got a fucking black eye, and something else that looks suspiciously like burns." sunoo hears jay sucking in a deep breath. then he hears crashing noises in the background, and sunoo knows jay is breaking something.
"i took care of his injuries as best i could. i think he needs to be examined at the hospital. it had to be bad tonight if he called me. i already called sunghoon. i told him he's not going back to that house."
"i never liked his family. i'll have my parents take a look at the contract they made with them when i first claimed him and terminate it. we have some properties here he can stay at. i'll send people to get his stuff and move with him."
"at least talk to him first before you do that, jay. jesus fuck."
"you said so yourself, he's not going back to that house. i'm not gonna leave him alone. i'll get accounts set up in his name, so he won't have to worry about money."
"we can talk more details in the morning. if jungwon's feeling up to it, i'll bring him to the office. i'm also calling in my favor, jay. i need to borrow one of your family's warehouses. and maybe a few of your people. it's time i had a talk with lee heeseung."
jay is quiet for a moment.
"i'll take care of it. i'll send you time and location."
--
sunghoon enters sunoo's room like a silent phantom, finding sunoo at his desk, eyes darting around his computer monitors, information scrolling through them rapidly. he puts his backpack on the ground, clearly confused.
"you look fine."
"it's not me." he turns his chair to look back at jungwon asleep in his bed. when sunghoon doesn't look surprised, sunoo feels his blood starting to boil again.
"don't tell me you fucking knew. if you tell me you knew heeseung was abusing him and didn't say shit, you're dead to me," sunoo hisses.
"i didn't know for sure. i had a feeling. i'd never seen him do more than make fun of jungwon when i was there. i swear, 'noo." sunoo narrows his eyes at him before turning back to his computer. "please make sure he's okay. jay's taking care of some things, too."
"he's working tonight," sunghoon says quietly, dragging his bag over to sunoo's bedside, gently shaking jungwon's shoulder. "jungwon? hey. it's me, sunghoon. i know you're tired, and you're hurting, but i've gotta look you over to make sure nothing requires immediate medical attention, okay?"
jungwon whines and pouts, turning away from him. "he's just like jay. god. they were made for each other," he mumbles, gently turning jungwon over.
jayjay: 2am tomorrow. [location shared]
jayjay: dont be late. or else ill take care of him myself.
sunoo dismisses the messages on his phone, a slow smile appearing on his face. he knows he's going to snap as soon as he sees heeseung's face. all of the anger, all of the hatred he's bottled up for the man has reached its fever pitch, and sunoo doesn't have it in him to control his anger anymore.
lee heeseung, you're gonna wish you were dead.
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