Chapter Text
“What do you want, you old bastard?” Seongje asked, already considering hanging up. His father rarely called and if he did, it wasn’t usually good news and often always something to do with family.
“Hello to you too, son. How did you do in your last exam?” His father drawled in his typical sarcastic tone. “Most kids would be thrilled having their parents check on them. You were too, once upon a time.”
‘Because I was eight years old and didn’t know you were cheating on my mom.’ hung on Seongje’s lips as a retort but he held his tongue. He had no love lost for his father, but they had entered some sort of odd truce-like state in the past year and none of them was going to give the other the satisfaction of being the first asshole to break it. “Why did you call?” The Union was dead and gone and his father was least bothered about it, just telling him to not get in too deep and paying his hospital bills so it couldn’t have been that.
“Chuseok is coming soon. You know what that means.” His father said darkly. Unfortunately, Seongje did. It meant having to get on a bus from Mapo to Busan to go spend his designated holiday time with his family. And when that got invoked, it usually meant there was something going on with his father’s side of the family.
“You know inheritance talk’s coming up again, right? Well, I’ve got it in the bag of course but there’s one snag.” His father replied, smooth tone holding a bit of strain. “Your grandpa’s not going to let it go unless you get engaged to someone.”
“No.” Seongje replied automatically and heard a sigh on the other end.
“Naturally, I’d go the easy route and just let the clock tick down and take the inheritance anyway, but he could spring a will change on me if I don’t do what he asks. You’re not getting married off when you reach home but it would be great to report if you had someone you were serious about coming to see us.” His father explained. “You gotta throw me a bone here kid. If I don’t get those business shares and inheritance money, your ass is gonna be on the streets right with me. Or worse you’re gonna have to go all in on the gang shit and get killed before you’re even 26.”
“Alright, fuck. Might as well get on your knees then. So what, I just got to show up with someone and say I’m dating them?” Seongje asked.
“Yeah. And I don’t care who you get, but get someone you can actually stand to be around. Make it natural because trust me, you’re a real shitty actor. If you got some schmuck off the street, even your grandpa’ll call you out on it.”
Seongje wanted no part in this confidence game at all. Not even out of any love of his grandfather who was a strict taciturn man that was well on his way to senility, nor his cousins and aunt and uncle who were all living their own lives nearly disconnected from his own. He was just doing this to get his dad off his back, that’s all.
“Fine then. Tell Soyeong-ssi I’m still wishing her success with the divorce papers.” He relented.
“Cheeky bastard. I’ll tell her you said hi.” His father finally hung up and Seongje needed a smoke.
His pack was empty so he took a stroll to the convenience store while left with his thoughts. If all he needed was to show up with someone, then sure he’d just go hire some escort who looked close enough to his age and take her home, but if he needed to ‘sell it’, that wasn’t possible. Emotionally constipated was one of the nicer things he’s been called in his sporadic stints in dating, the others being anything from ‘raging lunatic’ to ‘apathetic asshole’, so his options were narrowed considerably.
As he paid for his cigarettes, he spotted a group of boys in a deep blue uniform. Seeing them reminded him of the Eujang freaks. Probably all living their merry lives without fear of being treated like Union punching bags. Frankly, they all irritated him to no end. All except one.
He remembered the runt of their litter, with the big brown eyes that had a resoluteness one didn’t see every day, especially in someone young. He remembered that display of loyalty had sat in his mind for a while before banishing it. And now that he thought about it, he remembered how that runt looked beat up and defenseless, making it obvious why the other Eujang freaks flocked to defend him. Honestly, he was kind of cute. He definitely looked like he could be quiet and listen to instructions if Seongje asked. And, he owed him after he got saved by him. A smile crept up on his face as he took out a cigarette. After all, the old bastard never said he had to bring a girl over.
Life moves on, even after high school gang related uprisings. Juntae had settled into his life with his friends and it finally felt like he had achieved the high school experience he was robbed of the moment Hyoman honed in on him as a lackey. But just because Eujang’s unity post fight and Humin’s heavy hand had brought any bullying to a minimum in his school, it hadn’t meant that delinquents were absolutely eliminated in the area. Moored Union members still skulked around and went back to hassling high schoolers on the streets and doing shakedowns, though they mostly gave Eujang students a wide berth because of the battle.
But it wasn’t a non-zero chance, proven by him getting surrounded by delinquents from some other high school. Sieun was already in cram school and Gotak and Humin were training for an upcoming game so he was truly alone. He wasn’t nearly good enough to fight and hold his own against a group so he resigned himself to minimizing as much damage as possible. But before the first fist was thrown, a familiar orange windbreaker whizzed past him and punched the delinquent on the face.
Some of them took off the moment they realized who just joined the fray but it still turned to a free for all. Juntae wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth and started to run only for a firm hand to tug him right back by his jacket.
“You stay right here. I gotta talk to you.” Seongje instructed before he got socked in the face and got drawn back into the fight so Juntae had to stand there and wait until he was done.
When Seongje bounded over to him again, he seemed absolutely delighted to see him, which didn’t bode well.
“We keep meeting like this, huh? What are you, some professional damsel in distress?” Seongje asked, grin now bloody. Juntae was sure that was supposed to be some kind of joke but he didn’t find it very funny.
“Um, thank you again. For, helping me.” He muttered, thinking that was probably what Seongje was angling for and judging by his grin, that was probably correct.
“Yeah. I saved your ass again , haven’t I? You’d think I’d be up for some sort of compensation by now. It’s only the polite thing, since you owe me and everything.”
Juntae grimaced. He did want to repay the favour, but he didn’t actually expect Seongje to call it in. And that made him nervous. He couldn’t get a read on him at all and couldn’t imagine what exactly he would want from him.
“Give me your phone.” Seongje asked, making Juntae obey uncertainly. Was he going to steal it or something? But instead all he did was key in a number and then call his own phone before handing it back.
“When I call, you pick up. When I text, you reply. Oh, and don’t tell anyone else about this. Got it?” He ordered and Juntae nodded, not wanting to piss him off.
“Yeah, this is definitely gonna work. You just do what you’re told, don’t you?” He cooed, pinching Juntae’s cheek making him recoil.
“Is that all you wanted?” He asked. It was still a little unsettling having Seongje have his number but if he was just going to play errand boy then maybe he could manage this.
Then Seongje held his shoulders and threw him one hell of a curveball. “No. You and I, Eujang Runt, are going to be boyfriends.”