Bottom Sunoo

fire drill (Anonymous)

The TV on the living room flickers on as soon as the door closes behind Sunghoon, with Sunoo slumping down on the couch. If Sunghoon was still here, he wouldn't put his feet up the coffee table, but it's not like there's anyone around to snitch on him, so he makes himself comfortable for another long day of nothing.

A strong gush of wind came in through the wide open doors of the balcony, making the curtains dance in its way. Sunoo watches them for a moment, and bedrugdingly decides to stand up and close them before the upcoming storm unleashes itself in full force and gets everything in its vecinity soaking wet.

Sunoo hasn't had the oportunity to meet sadness face to face, really.

When Sunghoon found him, he was a meek little thing covered in soot and smelling like burnt who's been scared mute by something Sunghoon never got to find out. The first word the hybrid muttered after agonizingly long months of care and nursing was daddy, and it came with a little smile and such a good natured temper that seemed to emerge from the ashes of whatever had happened to the boy in the past. He wasn't much older than a toddler, and the most probable cause was he'd buried his trauma in a deep corner of his mind, a corner Sunghoon didn't have the intention to let his baby fall back into.

The following years of Sunoo's raising were marked by cute little outfits the child always picked out in the same shade of pink he'd picked out for his room, a room that had been stuffed with toys first, and then with materials for soon to be abandoned hobbies. Sunghoon never said no, even if he knew how quickly the younger's fascination with a harp or collectible toys from a niche show would subside.

It would only take for Sunoo to climb on his lap with glistening eyes, fluffy red tail wagging from excitement as he told Sunghoon everything about a newfound interest in a messy speech, for the older's heart to melt. Anything for my baby, he would say, and let the hybrid order carnivore plants and exotic orchids that had the house heating on all year round, making things a little uncomfortable in summer.

Sunoo doesn't know how coddled he's actually been because the human made sure to shield him from any knowledge regarding his biology and the treatment it usually elicited from other humans. He didn't call Sunghoon master, and he's never been used in the way hybrids were originally meant for.

The lenghts of Sunghoon's care go completely unnoticed by Sunoo who, by the time he reaches the balcony, is itchy and uncomfortable.

In the park across their street, people seem unfazed by the imminent rain, and keep walking, and playing, and living the kind of lives Sunoo's been desperately longing for.

The hybrid couldn't remember when his obsession with The Outside, as he calls it in his head, has started, but their living room looks pretty much like a botanical garden by now, and Sunghoon pays for every single streaming service so the TV can always show Sunoo the newest documentaries on wild life and nature.

It's that desperate longing the main reason Sunoo's been silently mad at Sunghoon for a few days now. He asked, and then begged while doing the little jumps on the older's lap that always seemed to please him so much, but to no avail. Going outside was out of the question. Sunghoon had asked him if he wanted more plants, or even a pet to play with, and while Sunoo would adore a little cat to keep him company, he knew all those were mock replacements for the real deal. The view from their balcony was a constant reminder of what he's missing on.

Sunoo knows it can't be that bad. The sounds of laughter and children playing usually reach his ears, and the conclusion he arrived to was that Sunghoon must have been lying about all those supposed dangers that, according to him, creeped in The Outside.

Surrounded by the shadows of the night in the same room that used to bring him only comfort and security (even when lately had started to feel like a prision), Sunoo makes the first rebellious decision in his life, and skips the medicine Sunghoon has been having him take ever since he could remember.