Archive of Our Own ^beta

“I need to speak to you for a moment,” Daeyoung said, when Sijin was finally finished with his report. He was sitting at the desk next to Sijin’s and Sijin realised that he must finished his own report some time before. He hadn’t heard him typing for at least half an hour.

“Can it wait?” Sijin asked. “It’s been a long day…”

“I’m afraid not.”

Sijin looked at him, trying to gauge his expression. But in the few weeks that they had known each other, Sijin has learned that trying to read Daeyoung’s expression is like trying to read the body language of a rock or a tree.

Sijin sighed and sat back in his chair. His body was sore, the kind of soreness that comes from exhaustion and stress and way too many close calls in one day. And also maybe freefalling three stories out of a hotel building into a dumpster. VIP protection jobs are usually uneventful and even boring, but when they go wrong they tend to go spectacularly wrong.

“Better if we go somewhere private,” Daeyoung said, getting up.

He didn’t leave room for argument, striding off to the door that lead outside. Sijin frowned at the tone. It was really more of a command than a request, and Daeyoung seemed to expect him to just follow. He did, mostly because it was too much of a bother to start an argument. The guy probably wanted to ask advice for asking out his girlfriend, or something.

Daeyoung lead him around the building to a storage room, which he opened with a press of his finger to the fingerprint scanner. Inside, he switched on the light. Sijin looked around in the dull glare of the bluish light at the rows of equipment. Behind him, Daeyoung shut the door.

“I’d think you want to shout at me,” Sijin joked, turning around. “Dragging me out here to a secluded place.”

The look on Daeyoung’s face wiped the smile off his own. The man was positively glaring at him, his lips pursed tightly. 

“What in the hell where you thinking?” Daeyoung asked flatly, not a honorific in sight.

“Excuse me?”

“I asked what in the hell you were thinking. You broke every protocol in the book and nearly your back. You should not have gone after the assailant alone and you fucking knowing it.”

Sijin gaped at him. He had never, in his wildest dreams, thought that he would live to see the day when Seo Daeyoung spoke informally to a superior officer. Let alone swear at him.

“Master Sergeant Seo-”

“Shut up,” Daeyoung growled and Sijin did, without really meaning to. He half wished that Daeyoung would go back to being expressionless. The scowl in his face was impressively intimidating. “Don’t speak unless it is to admit your mistakes and make an apology. You could have died today.”

“I’m a soldier!” Sijin protested. “What do you want me to do, sit around on my hands all day?”

“What I want you to do is not to take unnecessary risks. You know how you could have avoided being thrown from a third storey window by a maniac? By having me with you, or anyone else from your team. Preferably all of us .”

“You could have come with me.”

“We could have if you had communicated with us. A simple ‘let’s go after that bastard’ would have sufficed. Instead we were left high and dry, running up and down hotel corridors with no idea where the hell you were, Yoo Sijin.”

“Yah!” Sijin gave him a warning glare. “I’m your superior.”

Daeyoung merely took a step closer, folding his arms across his chest.

“Do I look like I give a fuck? Because as it happens I don’t, Sijin-ah. Not right now. Write me up if you want. But first I’m going to make damn sure that you never endanger yourself like this again.”

“Fuck you,” Sijin said, a blind rage building in his chest. Daeyoung had no right to talk to him like that, no goddamn right. “You wouldn’t dare to do shit to me. I will get you court-martialled, you fucking son of a motherfucking bitch.”

Daeyoung grabbed him by the front of his uniform shirt. Sijin expected a punch to follow on from that, anticipated it really, eager for the fight. Instead, he was jerked forward. He ended up dangling over one of Daeyoung’s thighs, the older man’s foot propped up on a nearby shelf.

“Yah! What the hell are you doing?”

A hand slammed into his butt. The surprise was so great that Sijin quite forgot to struggle. He just dangled there, as Daeyoung brought his hand down again and again and again. His ass was on fire. On literal fire. He had never thought it humanly possible for someone to hit this hard with just their bare hand, but here he was.

Then, he was deposited on his feet again. Daeyoung didn’t let go of him, instead grabbing hold of both his shoulders. His foot was still propped on the shelf in what seemed to be a vaguely threatening manner.

“Do you understand how serious I am now, Sijin-ah?”

Sijin nodded slowly, not quite trusting his voice to speak. His ass knew how serious the situation was, if nothing else.

“Good,” Daeyoung said grimly. “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to bend over that shelf.” He pointed at a bare shelf behind Sijin. “Then you’re going to tell me exactly how you fucked up, why you did it and how you’re going to avoid doing it in the future. If you give me any kind of attitude, or if I’m not happy with your commitment to answering my questions, you’ll end up bare. If you do what I say, you may keep your underwear on.”

Sijin tried to step back, opening his mouth to protest, his face flushing. But Daeyoung tightened his grip on his shoulders and brought him a little closer.

“I have no problem making you bend over, Sijin-ah. But if I have to do that you automatically lose the pants. Your choice.”

“You have no right to do this,” Sijin said.

“As a master sergeant under your command probably not,” Daeyoung says. “But as someone who was already in this line of work when you hadn’t even graduated high school? As your elder? As someone who cares about you, Yoo Sijin? I have every damned right in the world.”

Sijin lowered his eyes, feeling suddenly young and very awkward. Daeyoung was right, of course. He was Sijin’s senior in all ways but one - rank. And that was only because Sijin had the money and the connections to become a commissioned officer, while Daeyoung didn’t.

“Will you obey me now?” Daeyoung asked.

Sijin nodded. He turned away wordlessly, and this time Daeyoung let him. The shelf was a little higher than hip-height, which meant that Sijin would have to stretch onto his toes to bend over it. Before he could bend over, however, Daeyoung cleared his throat.

“Trousers, please.”

Sijin shot him a look over his shoulder. “I thought…”

“The bargaining chip here is your underwear,” Daeyoung said. “Lose the trousers, Sijin-ah. You can always argue about it and lose the underwear too, if that’s what you want.”

Fumbling, Sijin undid his belt and zipper. He lowered his uniform pants to his knees and then shuffled the last few steps to the shelf. Behind him, as he bent over, he heard the clink of a belt buckle, a snick of leather on loops and then the second telltale clink as Daeyoung folded the leather strip in half. Sijin grabbed the edges of the shelf, closing his eyes.

“What did you do?” Daeyoung asked.

Right. He had to tell him how he fucked up, why he did it and how he planned on not doing it again. A tall order, considering the fact that all Sijin could think of in that moment was the belt in Daeyoung’s hand and the fact that he wasn’t really wearing any pants to speak of. Boxers wasn’t worth shit when it came to protecting your ass from a belt, that he knew from experience.

“Yoo Sijin.”

Sijin jumped at the warning note in the older man’s voice. Yeah, boxers wasn’t really worth shit but it was the thought that counted. “Uh…yeah, sorry. I broke protocol and almost got hurt because of it.”

“What protocols did you break?”

“Communicating all changes to the plan during an active operation, proper pursuit of an enemy, unassisted pursuit of an enemy and…uh…the protocols for safe descent from an urban building?”

Daeyoung was quiet for a moment. “Considering that the bastard threw you out a window I think we can argue that you didn’t do the last one of your own free will.” If it wasn’t completely ludicrous, Sijin would have thought that there was a tiny bit of amusement in his voice.

“Okay, not the last one, then.”

“There’s one protocol you’re missing, however.”

“Uh…” Sijin racked his brains, coming up short after a few anxious moments. “I’m not sure?”

“Endangering the life of a serciveman due to neglicence, the taking of unnecessary risks or the improper use of equipment? Does that ring a bell, Yoo Sijin?”

Sijin shifted uncomfortably. “Fine, if you want to look at it that way.”

“Are you a serviceman?” Daeyoung asked.

“Yes.”

“Did you endanger your life by taking an unnecessary risk?”

“But I’m not convinced that it was unnecessary. The guy would have gotten away.”

“Absolutely. But how could you have easily mitigated the unnecessary parts of the risk?”

“By not going after him alone,” Sijin said reluctantly, feeling a bit like a kid being made to repeat a lesson in school.

“Precisely. I’m not telling you not to take risks. I would have to tell you to leave the military then. But I sure as hell am telling you to not take stupid, completely avoidable risks that could cost you your life. You’re a damn good soldier and a damn good CO, Sijin-ah. We’re not losing you over something this stupid.”

With that, he brought down the belt for the first time. Which was entirely unfair, of course, because being told that he was a good soldier and a good CO by Master Sergeant Seo of all people…it wasn’t something that you could hear and not feel a little like you wanted to cry. Sijin let out an undignified yelp at the sudden blow, almost banging his head on the shelf above him.

“Ow! Daeyoung!”

Daeyoung didn’t answer, instead laying down stripe after stripe across Sijin’s ass, meticulously covering the entirety of his bottom. Sijin managed to clamp down on the urge to whine and try to move out of the way. He clenched his hands tightly around the edge of the shelf, trying to focus on the sharp edge digging into his fingertips, rather than the horrendeous burn that was growing in the backside. When he was sure that he couldn’t take one more smack without jumping up and begging for his life, the belting stopped.

“Next question,” Daeyoung said, his voice completely even, like he had not just wreaked absolute havoc on Sijin’s poor backside. “Why?”

Sijin groaned. “I don’t know?”

“Sijin-ah.”

“I’m not trying to be uncooperative, I honestly don’t know. Everything happened so fast. I just…did it. Without thinking. I suppose that’s why, maybe. Because I didn’t think.”

There was another reason, a fleeting memory of a thought that he had while chasing after the man who had tried to shoot their VIP, but Sijin pushed it away quickly.

“You didn’t think?” Daeyoung prompted.

“I didn’t think about protocol or about anything, really. I just wanted to catch him. That’s all, I promise. Really.”

“A little tip,” Daeyoung said. “Don’t ever say that to someone who’s interrogating you. That tells me, clear as day, that there is something else and that you don’t want to tell me about it. Got it?”

“Y-yeah,” Sijin said, nervously.

“What is it, then? Why else did you go off half-cocked like that?”

Sijin closed his eyes. The metal of the shelf was cool against his forehead.

“Yoo Sijin, answer me.”

Still, Sijin kept his mouth shut, willing Daeyoung to just move on.

A finger hooked into the waistband of his boxers. Sijin’s hands flew back of their own accord, grabbing onto the small measure of protection that he still had left.

“I’ll say it! Daeyoung, please, I’ll tell you! I’m just ashamed.”

To his great relief, Daeyoung let go of his waistband.

“I’m waiting.”

Sijin gripped the shelf again, taking a deep breath. “I…I thought, well, I thought that I could do it on my own.”

“You were arrogant?”

“Yes.” Sijin squeezed his eyes shut. “And…well, I thought that it would be cool if I caught the guy. That…uh…that…”

“That what?”

“Thatyouwouldbeimpressed.”

Daeyoung didn’t reply for a few long moments. Sijin wished, quite earnestly, that the ceiling-high shelf would just collapse on him and bury him from sight.

“I’m sorry to tell you,” Daeyoung said then. “But I will never be impressed by this kind of stunt. You only made me angry today, didn’t you?”

“Y-yes.”

“I’m impressed when you do your duty and when you make good decisions and when you lead your men well. I’m never going to be impressed by foolhardy arrogance. You got that?”

“Yes,” Sijin said, his voice coming out all shaky and horrible. “I’m sorry, I truly am.”

“Let this serve as a reminder for you, then,” Daeyoung said. “If you’re ever tempted to be thoughtless or arrogant or to endanger your life because you’re trying to show off.”

He started spanking again. The belt felt even worse on Sijin’s pre-tenderised backside and it was all he could do to not cry out with every blow. He could feel tears starting to well up into his eyes, his throat and chest hurting like it always did when he desperately wanted to cry. The belt was eating into his thighs with a vengeance now and he clenched his fists around the edge of the shelf.

Daeyoung turned his attention a little higher, to the sensitive undercurve of his butt. His eyelids could no longer keep the tears at bay. They spilled over his cheeks, and he felt a treacherous sob catching in his throat.

“I’m sorry,” he choked. “Daeyoung, I’m sorry. Please.”

The belt left another searing lash across his sit spots, but then Daeyoung paused again.

Sijin sniffled miserably, remembering that there had been a third question.

“How are you going to avoid a situation like this in future?”

With the little brain he had left that was preoccupied with the hellish burn in his ass, Sijin managed to formulate and answer. “I won’t…I’ll communicate, I’ll tell you when I plan on something that wasn’t in the plan. And I won’t do something on my own again, or take a stupid risk that isn’t necessary. And I’ll work on my arrogance, I really will. I’ll think about this and about how much this fucking sucks if I’m tempted to do any of those things again.”

“Good man,” Daeyoung said. “Let’s finish up.”

He brought the belt down with a crack and Sijin sobbed into the crook of one of his arms. He simply did not have the capacity to hold himself together anymore. And Daeyoung did not soften the last few blows - if anything, he seemed to hit even harder, as if to really drive the message home.

But then it was done. In the quiet, Sijin could hear his own crying and sniffling and the soft clinking of a buckle as Daeyoung threaded the belt back into its proper place.

Still crying, Sijin struggled to his feet. He dragged his uniform back into place, despite the horrid way in which it seemed to trap even more heat against his flaming skin. He zipped and buckled his belt as well, if not as tightly as he usually did. Then he turned to face Daeyoung, squaring himself into some semblance of attention.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Please forgive me.”

A firm hand close around the back of his neck, while the other hand gripped his chin, tilting his face up so that Daeyoung could look him in the eye. Sijin would much rather not have looked at him just then. He was an absolute mess of snot and tears. But Daeyoung did not seem to mind. He searched Sijin’s face quietly, almost like he was looking for something.

Then he carefully brushed the tears from both of Sijin’s cheeks, using his thumbs.

“It’s okay,” he said. “It’s over now. You’re forgiven. I’m not angry at you anymore.”

To his own mortification, Sijin burst into a fresh wave of tears. Daeyoung pulled him forward, embracing him tightly against his shoulder, his hand gently cradling Sijin’s head. He didn’t say anything and neither did Sijin, until he was no longer sobbing.

Then he drew back, giving Daeyoung an awkward look. Daeyoung merely dug around in his fatigues’ pockets for a moment, before he held out a white square to Sijin. It was a handkerchief.

“Ah, thanks.” Sijin quickly buried as much of his face as possible into it, trying to scrub away as many of the traces of tears as possible. It did nothing for his swollen eyes, however.

“You okay?” Daeyoung asked.

“You absolute murder me and then you ask if I’m okay?” Sijin peered at him over the edge of the handkerchief, affronted. “Are you even serious right now, Master Sergeant Seo?”

“Oh, entirely, sir,” Daeyoung said pleasantly. “I was referring to the state of your mind, not of your ass.”

“You can’t say ass to your superior,” Sijin said with mock horror. “Whatever am I going to do with you, Seo?”

“You are entitled to report me to the proper authorities, sir. Although you may want to consider the awkwardness that could arise when you have to tell them in what way, exactly, you were attacked. And you also may have to consider that some of your superiors may have received similar treatment from their non-comms, in their younger days. It’s not entirely unknown, sir. One has to deal with you young military academy brats in some way.”

Sijin grinned, as an idea entered his mind. “You mean…our dear Lieutenant Colonel Park may have had his ass handed to him by some gnarly sergeant at some point?”

“Very likely more than once, given his disposition, sir.” The slight quirk in Daeyoung’s mouth indicated that he was equally entertained by the mental image.

“I wasn’t planning on reporting you in any case,” Sijin said, a little more soberly. “It…you’re right. I acted like a fool and you had every right to call me on it.”

Daeyoung nodded stiffly. “Thank you for not taking offense, sir. I meant what I said. You’re a good soldier and a good officer. We’d hate to lose you just because you’re young and an idiot.”

“Well, I may have to take offense to that,” Sijin said. “How about you buy me a drink to make me forget that you called me and idiot?”

“With pleasure, sir,” Daeyoung said. And if Sijin hadn’t known him, he may have thought that Daeyoung was agreeing to accompany him to a funeral.

He threw an arm around Daeyoung’s shoulders as they left the store-room - Daeyoung meticulously switching off the lights and making sure that the door was locked behind them.