Seong-Su couldn’t care less about Christmas. He hadn’t celebrated it in years. If his agency wasn’t forcing him to attend some stupid festival, or appear on some local broadcast to wish his fans a happy holidays, he shut himself in his room and slept the whole day. He didn’t want to see all the families coming together to celebrate. Seong-Su wanted to be alone.

You were a complication.

Even when Micah had been his sidekick, Seong-Su hadn’t done anything with him for the holiday. Micah always seemed distant on these days, like he was mentally somewhere else. At least now Micah was back at his old agency, far from Seong-Su. You were his new sidekick, and unlike Micah, you showed up Christmas Day like you’d expected something.

“It’s ten in the morning,” he said, not bothering to open the door any further for you. “Why are you here?”

Surely you had better things to do. Seong-Su was aware he was little fun to be around. When he donned that costume, called himself Frostbite and forced smiles as people screamed around him, that was all pretend. He might as well be an actor. Saving lives? Seong-Su knew what being a hero meant in this city, and it had nothing to do with helping others. Enhanced were entertainment for those the world considered normal. The only thing separating him from being considered a danger to society was having a pretty face.

The only blemish on his record was his inability to keep a sidekick. A hero was seen as popular when they had one. They were one of the ‘good’ Enhanced capable of paving the way for more. That’s how the public viewed it. Seong-Su—no, Frostbite should be honored to have you.

But in reality you were a weakness his agency fully intended on exploiting. No matter how aloof and detached Seong-Su acted, he still cared. About humanity, about you. He pretended to see you as an annoyance for both of your sakes.

“I didn’t get you a present.” Except that was a lie. He had gotten you something, but he planned on giving it to you long after Christmas. A scarf, one similar to to his own, so that you’d stay warm next winter. It was tucked under his bed completely out of sight. “So if that’s what you wanted, you can leave.”

Please. Seong-Su couldn’t stand to be around anything that reminded him of hero work today.

He could hear the people on the streets below. Christmas was special in Initium City. It represented the day the first heroes came together to form the agencies and keep the world safe. What a joke. Even Enhanced believed the made up story. At one point he had too.