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Sungjae’s spidey senses are tingling. He dives, rolls and ducks under the low-hanging branches, skidding to a stop in front of another boy, legs spread and arms crossed akimbo.
“Jung Ilhoon, sir! Yook Sungjae, reporting for duty!” he barks, saluting smartly.
Ilhoon looks lazily up at him. Even though Sungjae is younger than him, he still stands half a head taller. But nevertheless, Sungjae has never been the type to lord it over someone smaller-sized than him
“Okay, let’s move out,” he drawls, turning his back to Sungjae and hearing the younger boy leap to attention.
****
The two boys dart through the streets, the early hour making it quiet enough for them to hear the wind rustling through the leaves and the clinking of coffee cups as the locals sit out in cafés enjoying the cool morning. As they run through the park, Ilhoon suddenly comes to a stop. Sungjae continues running for several paces before he registers that Ilhoon has stopped, and he hurriedly jogs back to the older boy.
“What’s wrong, hyung?” he asks. “Why did you stop?
“Shh!” Ilhoon hisses. “Listen!”
Sungjae closes his eyes and listens intently. At first he doesn’t hear anything aside from the quacking from a few ducks nearby and the loud boofing of a big dog, but as he concentrates, he can hear the voices of some kids raised in an unfriendly manner.
He opens his eyes again, and looks down at Ilhoon. “Duty calls, right, hyung?”
Ilhoon nods firmly. “Let’s go!”
****
They run towards the source of the voices, and after running through a small thicket of trees, they come to a stop in front of some boys, who have gathered in a circle around a cowering boy.
“Stop!” Sungjae orders, stepping forward and pointing his finger accusingly at the boys. “What do you think you’re doing?”
One of the boys steps out to face Sungjae, sneering down at him. “Who the hell are you ?”
All the boys forming the circle collectively shrink back at the usage of the swear word.
“D-Dongjoon….you said a naughty word….I don’t want to play with you anymore!” one of the kids suddenly bursts out. He’s a short one, shorter than even Ilhoon, and he runs away before the rude kid, Dongjoon, can say anything.
One by one, the other kids begin losing their confidence, and one by one, they end up running in the same direction as the first kid. As more and more boys leave the circle, Dongjoon starts to become antsy, and when the final kid has turned tail and run, all fight leaves Dongjoon and he too disappears into the bushes
Sungjae stands victorious, grinning proudly at the boy still crouched down on the ground, and at Ilhoon. No blood was shed today, because like Spiderman had taught him, violence wasn’t always the answer. He had to admit though that he had quailed a bit when the boy in front of him had used a bad word - Sungjae was a good boy and as such had no experience when it came to using naughty language, so if that kind of combat had persisted, he would have lost badly for sure.
He snaps out of his reverie when Ilhoon lightly taps him on the shoulder and gestures to the boy on the ground. Sungjae leaps into action. Right. Victims must always be secured and made comfortable, because a superhero’s first priority was the safety of civilians.
“Are you okay?” he asks, bending to get on the stranger’s eye level.
Scared brown eyes look up at him. “I-I’m fine, I think,” the boy says in slightly broken Korean. “They bully me because my Korean bad,” he explains, and Sungjae’s face breaks into a wide smile.
“Ilhoonnie-hyung and I can teach you Korean!” he says proudly. “What’s your name? I’m Yook Sungjae, nice to meet you!”
“I’m Peniel Shin, it’s nice to meet you too,” the boy, Peniel, responds shyly. “I’m from America.”
“Woah, that’s so cool! You have to teach me some English, then!”
Ilhoon pulls Peniel up and dusts off his pants for him, and then the three boys make their way through the park and back onto the streets of town, Sungjae happily chattering all the while.