Round 1 2023: Quotes

[hwarium]

Status: Closed This round has closed. It remains open for fills, comments and remixes, but prompts are no longer accepted. Seventeen Holidays Round 1: Quotes About "Someone will remember us, I say, even in another time." "How inconvenient to be made of desire." "It's me, hi, I'm the problem its me." Calling all readers, lovers of poetry and music, screen and stage. Quote collecters and lyric hoarders, unleash your archive. For this round, every prompt must contain a quote - you can combine them, add commentary, link to articles, do whatever. Steal from a literary classic, or copy WeVerse drama. 🛑 HOLD UP If this is your first time on 17hols please check out our About Page which contains helpful information and links to pages explaining dreamwidth and HTML. We are a prompting fest where all the action happens in the comment section. Rules Sign up is not required. Fills have a minimum of 400 words for prose, haiku-length for poetry (3 lines), and 400px by 400px for art (memes are also art). Other mediums are fine too! There is no maximum cap. Tag and provide content warnings at your discretion, but a good guide are the Ao3 four (Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage) and this list of common CWs (cr: SportsFest). NSFW/Explicit content should be tagged NSFW art should not be visible, please provide a link and a warning. You may crop the artwork and embed a SFW preview. How it works Prompting Click on [Post a New Comment] at the bottom of this post; Change the subject; Copy+Paste the following HTML into your comment and edit the sections. Feel free to add as much detail as you want! Need ideas? Check out our 2021 and 2022 Quote rounds. <strong>Ship/Member:</strong> Any <strong>Major Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Additional Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Do Not Wants:</strong> None <strong>Prompt:</strong> <blockquote>[QUOTE GOES HERE] </blockquote> Filling Reply to the original prompt; You must change the subject to [FILL] - this is to help the mods track. Feel free to add a title Copy+Paste the following HTML into your comment, edit the sections, and add your text. You may also upload your fill to the AO3 Collection. <strong>Ship/Member:</strong> Any <strong>Major Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Additional Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Permission to remix:</strong> Yes/No/Please ask *** Remixing Post as a reply to the fill you are remixing, using the same HTML as above; Change the subject to [REMIX]. Art/media Upload your work to any platform (twitter, imgur, youtube, soundcloud, google maps, etc.) Using the same HTML code as above, copy the link into your fill or remix. That's it! Optionally, you can embed a picture into your comment. Please use the following code instead. (To explain, the HTML resizes your picture to 400x400px so that it fits on most screens. Users can view the full size if they click on it. You can also add a link to your work on twitter so that others can share it, or to any other website you want) <strong>Ship/Member:</strong> Any <strong>Major Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Additional Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Permission to remix:</strong> Yes/No/Please ask *** <img src="INSERT IMAGE URL" width="400px"> <a href="INSERT ANY URL YOU WANT">TEXT THAT DESCRIBES THE LINK</a> Note! On dreamwidth, you can't edit a comment once someone has replied to it. Navigation ABOUT FAQ CHAT BAITS ✧ FILLS ✧ < ROUND 1: QUOTES > ROUND 2: ALTERNATE UNIVERSES 2021 2022

Comments

[FILL] i did it all for love

[thembocollector]

op are you me because i was about to prompt this. thank you so, so much
xposted on ao3

Ship/Member: gyuhan
Major Tags: major character death, minor character death
Additional Tags: female original character, just watched glass onion aha !, non-linear narrative
Permission to remix: Yes

***

There's an email from Dr. Kim Haesoo about how Jeonghan's missed his last three appointments in a row. Jeonghan marks the email as read on his phone and looks up to stare at the garage. Mingyu's Merc W123 headlights are on. The engine's running. Jeonghan doesn't dare touch the car.

It was Mingyu's idea to move into the woods. He'd wanted to get away from society. Something that Jeonghan had scoffed at when they'd signed the lease together, but, well. It's clearly working in his favour, now.

***

Yuri looks just like Jeonghan. She has a nasty smoker's cough like him, too. Jeonghan was immediately able to clock her within the first hour they'd met.

"I've heard so much about you," Jeonghan had said, extending a hand. He tucked his hair behind his ear and smiled sweetly.

Mingyu looked like he wanted to throttle him. "Jjong-jjong," he says, by way of warning.

"You don't get to call me that anymore," Jeonghan says, still smiling.

Yuri looks at the two of them. "Should I make tea for us?"

***

The first half is easy.

Jeonghan crushes four strips of Valium into strong, black tea. All prescribed to him from his psychiatrist. He's not stupid. All he had to do was endure a hellish two months without his own meds.

Yuri is easy. She takes Jeonghan's tea with a smile. "Is this an olive branch of sorts?"

Jeonghan has to laugh at that. "Yeah, you could say so."

Even when she falls over, she slumps daintily to the ground. Jeonghan picks her up easily and puts her in Mingyu's bed.

Mingyu returns from the gym not too long after that.

"Yuri?" he calls out from the entryway.

"She's asleep," Jeonghan says. He makes the mistake of looking at Mingyu.

Jeonghan still loves him.

"Take this," Jeonghan says, handing over the second mug of tea. He retreats to the hallway bathroom and throws up.

***

Mingyu is asleep on the sofa when he returns; mug cradled carefully in his hands. Jeonghan reaches out to touch the side of his face.

***

Jeonghan has a gas mask on. He leaves the engine running. Stares at the both of them. Yuri's head is buried in the crook of Mingyu's neck.

Strangulation would be easier, Jeonghan thinks.

***

Yoon Jeonghan is in border control by the time the news breaks out. Something about a young couple found dead in a rural cabin in the middle of the woods. A tragic incident. Gone too soon, etc.

Once he gets through, he opens his phone and begins typing.

To: kimhaesoo@daum.net
From: yjhyjhyjh@daum.net
Subject: N/A

Re: [FILL] reach inside

[leomoonwonu]

THIS IS SO CUTE I SAID THIS EXACT SAME THING ON AO3 BUT I DO ADORE THIS FILL VERY MUCH!!! THANKS SO MUCH FOR WRITING THIS <333

Re: [FILL] how to feel finger to finger

[citadis]

thank you so much for your lovely comment! :)

Re: [FILL] i did it all for love

[kwontent]

HOLY FUCK HE REALLY FUCKING KILLED THEM OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD YOON JEONGHAN YOU MONSTER im obsessed with this NOT HIM EMAILING HIS THERAPIST AFTER omg my jaw was on the GROUND

Re: [REMIX] break my heart for what breaks yours

[moonlitmelodiesfic]

A REMIX FOR ME!! THANK YOU! where do i start…i am still in shock at the direction in which you took this. i think initially i’d imagined mingyu to be a sort of sacrifice that jeonghan takes for himself (altar, goddess, all that) and that he was a bit of a loner hunter living in the woods, so he had no one. given that none of those details were in the fic itself, i figured that’s where the ambiguity came in. but you took advantage of it and expanded this world so much with a few more characters and details about their backgrounds and the world and life that existed outside of the woods. i never imagined. this is so great.

SEUNGCHEOL CHILD OF APHRODITE. i love how you took the implication that jeonghan had snared multiple others before and ran with it and seungcheol and this whole twist was the result. so cool. op your brain! also, i’m curious: what happened on Aeaea? any connection to circe and odysseus?

also the repetition of “jeonghan knows best” (*sings mother knows best under my breath*) and the hints of dogboyisms re: He had done what Jeonghan wanted him to, and poured the contents of certain vials into the palace drinking wells. It was very hard! He had to find it in the dark. this made me chuckle haha.

and the final twist!!! i had to reread it several times before my brain caught up. did mingyu do it on his own or did jeonghan make him! also this: Seungcheol whips to Jeonghan, “Save him.” / Jeonghan sounds stunned, “Impossible, I saw you drink. That was my strongest concoction.” it’s interesting how sc’s demand was that jeonghan save mg, but jh’s first response was that it’s impossible sc wasn’t under his spell, implying that mg was never his first priority. so cold and godlike. AHHH. op thank u so much for this remix. it’s brilliant and you’ve added so many layers to this plot and world!!

[FILL] plum blossom

[tangerinekth]

Ship/Member: joshua/junhui
Major Tags: none
Additional Tags: yearning, mild sexual content, mention of alcohol use, minor wonhui, the intimacy of playing the piano for someone, inspired by plum blossom by chen yi
Permission to remix: please ask

***

at 23-years-old, wen junhui is still unsure whether he chose the piano or the piano chose him. he likes to believe it was the former. little 3-year-old him clambering onto a piano bench at the mall and tapping at the keys while making noises of absolute joy. but sometimes he wonders if it's the latter.

he wonders that now, sitting in the waiting room before his audition. less than 100 people make it past the preliminary round of the chopin competition. there are some people who have won enough major competitions that they can advance without needing to be here. like joshua hong. joshua is someone who truly chose the piano.

joshua is probably sitting in his apartment 7,736 kilometers away.

junhui runs through the five pieces he is about to play in his head again. étude op. 10, no. 1; étude op. 25, no. 6; nocturnes, op. 55, no.2; fantaisie, op. 49; and mazurkas, op. 17; and op. 41. absolute gibberish to almost everyone in junhui's life, but wonwoo had assured him they were all the best choices. his long fingers will benefit him for the first étude and hopefully, the judges will give him extra points for perfecting étude op. 25, no. 6, regarded as one of the most difficult of chopin's 24. the mazurkas are what worry junhui the most. op. 17 is around 14 minutes long and the two of them combined will leave him truly exhausted.

but it's fine. he will have plenty of time to rest on the eleven-hour flight back to seoul.

a door finally opens. a woman calls his name. junhui drags his heavy bones towards the room and doesn't take a proper breath until he's finally seated. he looks at the keys and counts to ten. when he gets to five, he contemplates running out of the room. he reaches ten and places his hands on the keys.

his mother had told him when he was younger that he had the perfect hands for a pianist. he wonders if she would have still said that if his relatives hadn't all gushed over him when he played für elise at age five. he had smiled and told her thanks because the idea of being a genius is everything to a child.

junhui does the same thing now. he bows to the judges after playing his last note in a-flat minor and smiles and thanks every face he passes until he finds himself on the streets of warsaw again. the second he smells fresh air, he begins taking off his suit jacket and then proceeds to yank his cummerbund off his waist as if it were a shackle around his neck.

it's july and the sun is beating down on his face. he considers calling someone before his flight in two hours. wonwoo because he's probably curious how he did, and then joshua because—

no reason. he has no reason to call joshua.

he ends up calling no one and texts wonwoo that he'll be in incheon at around 7am. wonwoo responds in seconds that he'll be there with mingyu to pick him up. joshua will have to know he's back the same way everyone else will, through a text in the group chat by mingyu. junhui wonders if it will hurt his feelings, him not updating joshua on his whereabouts whenever he leaves. junhui thinks he would be hurt if joshua did the same thing. but then again, joshua is not in love with junhui.

and junhui swears he is not in love with joshua.

-

the school year starts again, and joshua is there sitting in the second row of junhui's graduate-level composition seminar. it is instinct to sit beside him, but it is the reality that he will sit three rows back and four seats to the left. the person that fills that seat by joshua is a stranger to junhui and something ugly rears its head in junhui's mind when he sees them so casually leaning on joshua, shoulders touching, lips near his ear as he whispers something junhui doesn't care to know.

because whatever may or may not go on between them is not junhui's business. he and joshua are friends in the loosest terms. two people who do not hang out but are pushed into the occasional proximity by others, two people on similar paths that started in different countries but have led them to the same school, same room on a cool august morning.

the junhui from four years ago had thought it was fate. the winner of the ettore pozzoli competition, joshua hong, living in the dorm room across from him in seoul, south korea. junhui had wondered if it was appropriate to call himself a fan. if it was too much to ask joshua if he remembered him from the competition where junhui had been his runner-up. he embarrassed himself by doing both.

joshua laughed in response, but kindly. he apologized for not recognizing junhui, he said he was too stressed at the time to notice anything going on. then he invited junhui to lunch. conversation was easy, they had what could have been too much in common. foreigners in a country they blended into, artists labeled geniuses too young, two men who had given up their youths for the sake of music, an intangible thing that reaped them the benefits of money, prestige, another trophy on a shelf, another certificate for their parents.

"who is your favorite composer?" joshua had asked him. it was no longer lunch. the moon was high up in the sky and the bench was wet where the two sat. joshua was too close. his breath smelled like the white grape soju from the convenience store they passed. heat radiated where his bare arm leaned against junhui's.

"chen yi," junhui answered. joshua furrowed his brows as he tried to recognize the chinese composer junhui had named. if junhui was feeling less honest, he would have just said schubert. but joshua's gaze on him could and would pull out whatever truths they wanted. junhui wondered if they could be soulmates.

"i don't know them. i've always been a fan of liszt, the romantic period classics." joshua replied. junhui didn't say that he knew that already, from the youtube videos of all of joshua's performances. instead, he wondered if joshua was feeling whatever he was, something nameless that felt taboo. but he never asked, only gave joshua his number when it was requested and walked beside him back to their dorms, hands brushing every other step.

"i'll see you around?" junhui had lamely said. joshua nodded with flushed cheeks.

"yeah, see you, jun."

that first semester of university for junhui ended up being the closest he ever had to peace. joshua understood him in a way no one else did. he was his solace, his lifeline, understood the pressures of the world they were both in, and let junhui release his pent-up stress by going on runs in the park, spending hours taking turns playing the piano in the music hall, talking until the sunrise about the homes they missed, and a kiss.

one kiss.

it was snowing. junhui initiated it. joshua had looked too beautiful with his hair dyed chestnut brown. joshua kissed him back until he wasn't anymore. until he was squeezing junhui's hand and smiling while saying, "i don't think we should be doing things like this, jun-ah." junhui wanted to ask what he meant. who "we" were? was it because they were both men? was it because they were competing against each other the next month? was it because joshua had simply never seen him as more?

junhui never got to find out. he doesn't remember the rest of that evening, only his response, "you're right. sorry, hyung." and then he was waking up the next day and joshua was treating him the same as always. nothing changed even though something should have.

at the next competition, they both traveled to paris, and junhui placed first and joshua took fifth. when junhui congratulated him, joshua didn't hug him back. he pulled away and didn't tell junhui he was leaving france a day earlier than him. junhui toured the louvre alone and sent joshua a horribly zoomed-in photo of the mona lisa.

when joshua did not respond, junhui realized the magnitude of what he'd done. flown too close to the sun, touched it, burned too fast, and fell too hard.

when he returned to south korea, he made the choice to stay away before joshua could make it for him. the new year passed alone and the next semester, junhui met jeon wonwoo. wonwoo was not a pianist but his father was a composer. he could talk about music too, understood the pressure, and saw parts of junhui that used to only be joshua's. but joshua was still the one junhui met in foreign cities, oceans away in a black suit, waiting for his time in front of the audience. they would take turns placing higher than the other. joshua in budapest, junhui in munich, joshua in brussels, junhui in leipzig.

they got dinner together once in brussels. they were five tables apart but there were red flowers on both their tables in a restaurant of white and yellow. fate, junhui did not call it. because it cannot be fate if you are not a part of each other's lives. but dinner went well anyways. junhui got the shrimp and joshua got the steak. they decided not to drink and opted out of dessert. they walked together on opposite sides of the road to the same hotel.

"i'll see you next time," junhui had said to the moon, and only the moon.

he did not wait to see if the moon responded back.

-

"i didn't know you're close to shua hyung." junhui looks up from his phone to see his underclassmen friends, seungkwan and chan, sitting beside him on the grass.

"i'm not," junhui corrects. "we just used to live on the same floor and now hang out with you guys." the first part was not essential. half of junhui's friends don't even know where he lived freshman year. yet junhui chooses to establish a connection before them anyways.

"but you guys are in piano competitions together all the time, right? so don't you guys see each other when you're both out of school?" chan asks, connecting the dotted line further. "why don't you guys fly out together?" junhui remembers that seungkwan and chan joined the friend group wonwoo introduced junhui to one year ago. that's why they ask. not to tease, not to belittle, not to remind junhui of his failure. but because they're curious why two of their friends who have so much in common do not speak to each other.

"i don't know," junhui responds, smiling.

"oh, speak of the devil! shua hyung!" seungkwan calls as he spots the graduate student walking out of the arts building. joshua sees them and his smile fractures for only a second when he sees junhui with them.

"i should go," junhui says when joshua is nearing less than ten meters away. chan says something in response but junhui doesn't catch it. he throws his backpack over his shoulder and walks too fast for someone who shouldn't be afraid, for someone who should be able to look joshua hong in the eye.

junhui wonders as he runs away, if they put every moment of their lives on a map, how many times he and joshua would intersect. they were both three when they touched a piano for the first time, both six when they won their first competitions, both in middle school when they moved to south korea, both too old yet too young when they realized they were one of tens of thousands of "geniuses."

on a map, they have met in over two dozen cities. they have gone on what neither should know as dates in at least four of them.

-

"are you in love with him?" wonwoo asks, the week after junhui returned from warsaw. junhui is in the middle of playing hungarian rhapsody no. 2 on the keyboard in wonwoo's apartment.

"who are you talking about?" junhui responds, not looking up from the keys. he knows this piece as if it were a lullaby his mother sang to him as a child, as if it were in the background of a dream.

"joshua," wonwoo answers. he comes up behind junhui and lays his arms over the elder's shoulders as the song ends. "i'm pretty sure you're in love with him." playing the piano makes you vulnerable, honest. junhui thinks that's why wonwoo thinks he can see through him.

"i don't know what you're talking about," junhui says with a laugh. the last time he had seen joshua was when they had both made it to the final program. junhui played piano concerto no. 1, op. 11, and joshua played piano concerto no. 2, op. 21. joshua got first, as junhui expected, and junhui placed third. they had gotten lunch after.

wonwoo nods and presses a kiss against the crown of junhui's head, where his hair has started to grey. you age quicker when you let an instrument consume you, let the piano strip away the parts of you that used to shine.

"whenever you play romantic period pieces, you get this look in your eye. it's the same way you look at him from the across the room sometimes," wonwoo goes on. his lips meet junhui's nape, then the side of his neck. his arms tighten as he pulls junhui to rest again his chest.

"i don't think of joshua hong," junhui tells him, eyes on the middle c of the piano. he grasps wonwoo's hands on his arm and turns to look up at him.

"can you prove it?" wonwoo asks, no hint of amusement on his face. the younger has always been genuine in his words.

junhui answers by placing a hand on the back of his head and pulling him into a kiss. wonwoo kisses back immediately and deeply, like he is trying to pull truths out of junhui's mouth with his tongue. they end up on the bed with wonwoo looking down at him and junhui can tell that he is waiting. for a confession, a plea, an explanation, or perhaps a song. junhui gives him none of those and pulls his shirt over his head instead.

wonwoo is gentle and holds junhui the way he sees himself in the mirror: fragile, like glass, one push away from breaking. he provides momentary pleasure in the life junhui sees as an endless cycle. they kiss again and again. junhui only imagines it is joshua three times during the act. the first when wonwoo sucks a dark mark into the side of his neck, the second when wonwoo runs his hands over his ribs and calls him beautiful, and the third after they have both reached their highs and wonwoo collapses on top of him.

after wonwoo pulls out, throws out the condom, and wipes them both down, he lays beside junhui in bed, and tugs the blanket to both of their chins.

"if you did love him, how would you?" wonwoo asks. junhui wonders if wonwoo is a masochist. but wonwoo values honesty, so junhui answers with the truth.

"i would love him with everything i had. love him so much that i would burn the world for him if he asked. turn everything to flames, the piano, music, myself." he looks wonwoo in the eye. "i think i would love him like that. i don't think anything would be able to stop me."

wonwoo does not seem surprised by junhui's answer, hardly phased as he closes his eyes and rests his head against junhui's chest.

"the next time you see joshua, i think you should really talk to him." wonwoo says this like there's a secret he knows that junhui does not. junhui does not beg for it, only runs a hand through wonwoo's dark hair and squeezes his hand.

-

the next time junhui sees joshua is in sydney. joshua is waiting for him outside the concert hall and their eyes meet. they walk next to each other in silence out of the opera house and do not stop until they reach a red light.

"was i imagining it when you kissed me back four years ago?" junhui asks as the streetlight flashes at them.

"no," joshua responds. the light turns green. when junhui speeds up half a step as they cross, joshua does too. they race down the road like children and junhui runs until he is out of breath and shaking with laughter.

when he turns back, joshua is a block behind, and he is laughing too.

Re: [REMIX] break my heart for what breaks yours

[hwarium]

I know you did HAHA, honestly it was on the 4th reread where I was like, ohhh I get it. Artemis, crescent moon necklace, final 'sleeping' draught I see. The dots are there and I just drew my own picture haha. I'm so glad you gave permission to remix because I always have one foot in the Mingyu->Jeonghan->Seungcheol grave and when I first read your piece I got so excited I couldn't sleep for 2 hours, just writing this ending out in my head. Like the line "will you die for me" immediately think of jeonghan wanting to use mingyu in some way, and the "perfect guinea pig" quote was like "oh but what if Mingyu IS a guniea pig and the real prize is out there" (seungcheol). Remixing was super super fun so thanks for the seed and the opportunity!!

yes aeaea!! I wanted to drop a location bc I love that trope ("just like budapest") and I wanted that connection to circe because witch x hero parallels to jeonghan x seungcheol. In my head it was a similar story, witch falls in love with hero, tries to get him to stay until hero realises he has a true love back home. but the situation with jeongcheol is complicated by the fact Seungcheol is cursed as a child of aphrodite (mini helen) and jeonghan's own love may not have been 100% genuine, ahhh, I had thoughts but left it ambiguous because it's fun thinking of ways to fill the gaps painfully :')

I LOVED the pov of bewitched dogboy Mingyu, that was also so fun to write and came so easily. happy 17hols <3

Re: [FILL] i did it all for love

[hwarium]

oooh this gave me the tingles I love it. I /love/ that he's going back to his therapist like his demon got exorcised but I love the implication about his reasons "is this an olive branch of sorts" - yuri looking like jeonghan - mingyu being mad that jeonghan is faux-nice.

And then the parts that hurt: jeonghan knowing that he's going to kill mingyu but looking at his face and realising he still loves him AND THROWING UP RIGHT AFTER. AHHH OP this was short but you packed so much into it!! thank you for writing, I loved reading this

Re: [FILL] plum blossom

[hwarium]

oh, oh, OH.

OP I like this a lot, this is exactly the kind of relationship/setting I like (yearning, ambiguous) and it was so lovely to sit down with a tea and make my way through this and discover what's going on. This is probably my first junshua but I love it!! I really do.

I love the relationship between junhui/joshua. like how it's implied that they probably haven't spent a lot of time getting to know each other at first, but still do anyway, "artists labeled geniuses too young", and especially "they had what could have been too much in common". The implication they (or at least Junhui) jumped straight to knowing Joshua through the similarities to himself, latching on to the comraderie with someone experiencing this very niche experience of ethnic (immigrant?) kids pressured into music and running around the world competiting in international music competitions. Knowing /of/ each other, but not knowing each other. ahhhHH and the added layer of love (and junhui not asking)

that first semester of university for junhui ended up being the closest he ever had to peace. joshua understood him in a way no one else did. he was his solace, his lifeline, understood the pressures of the world they were both in, and let junhui release his pent-up stress by going on runs in the park, spending hours taking turns playing the piano in the music hall, talking until the sunrise about the homes they missed, and a kiss.

I /love/ how this is so one-sided. We see Junhui's perspective and how joshua makes him feel, but not the other way around. In a way that's very RL josh as well, having that wall between politeness and intimacy. Oh dear I'm rambling.

Just wanted to say I loved the way you built this nebulous relationship in the story, I love wonwoo's part in it as well, who understands in his one way but not quite (and maybe that distance was large enough that they made an effort to get to know each other? unlike joshua who is too close). I love this brand of yearning, the backdrop of prestige and glamour tinged with melancholy and unresolved love.

oh! lastly, what were your inspirations going into this? I loved the setting because it brought back all the images from the 2021 Chopin Competition (Cateen/Hayato Sumino), Nodame Cantabile, Given (the BL manga, and the relationship between on/off relationship between Ugetsu and Akihito). Within the first few paragraphs it just felt so rich for me, and there seemed to be so many details based off real experience.

thank you for writing! I really enjoyed reading this

Re: [FILL] a ghost is a wish

[hwarium]

ahhh, this was really fun to read. cute little drunk soonyoung getting ideas and then making his way up a mountain to befriend a tiger (and I will now imagine them being friends forever)

Re: [FILL] too funny to laugh about

[kisoap]

UMMM ELLIE... HOW DARE U!! junhui pulling the "haha i didn't understand haha i'm a foreigner" card hoping that wonwoo will take the bait and be forthright but both of them continue this unsustainable dance around their feelings because they continue to misinterpret the other. it's too good! also i love the joke/punchline references and the tie back in the end *___* ♡

Re: [FILL] i did it all for love

[thembocollector]

HE WAS IN A SILLY GOOFY MOOD!!! HE HAD TO!!!!!! thank you so much omg i hope you ENJOYED THIS MURDEROUS ITERATION i know you said minor jealousy LKSDJFLKSE

Re: [FILL] i did it all for love

[thembocollector]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING AND COMMENTING..... my gf was literally like "bro if my ex dated someone who looked exactly like me i would [CAR HONKS, AMBULANCE NOISES]"

thank you so much for your hard work running the fest! i just discovered it like, two days ago but im so keen on participating even more <33

Re: [FILL] plum blossom

[tangerinekth]

ahhhhh!!! thank you so much for saying all this TT i also love yearning and really appreciate how well you understood the emotions i was trying to portray. i'm so glad you got the part where junhui's perspective is v one-sided, and how he latches on to, as you said, the similarities he sees with joshua. this really means so much to me thank you for reading TT

and concerning my inspirations... i actually did classically trained piano for over 9 nine years, and then i hit a really long rut that resulted in me hating it and then quitting. my relationship with piano has always been strange as i used to love it but having the pressure of winning competitions made me eventually burn out. i wanted to portray that here, the desire to give up everything for an art but also being so close to the edge that you aren't sure what you're doing it for anymore. oh and i have been meaning to check out more manga and given so i'm v curious as to the pairing u mentioned!! thank you!!

I will never again dream of having the whole world

[citrinecowboy]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: take this wherever you're called!
Do Not Wants: non-con, unhappy ending

Prompt:

The truth is this:
My love for you is the only empire
I will ever build.

When it falls,
as all empires do,
my career in empire building will be over.

- Mindy Nettifee, excerpt from This Is The Nonsense of Love (highly recommend reading the whole poem!)

love: the final frontier

[citrinecowboy]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: sci-fi, (star trek au if you're so inclined), tenderness even in the darkest nights
Do Not Wants: non-con, unhappy ending

Prompt:

I have this theory that somewhere
across the universe,
there is a planet just like ours
but their forests float on water,
their whales dance through the sky,
there are twice the amount of stars
visible from their skies,
and the people there were given the choice
to love or to live forever
and still, still
every single one of them chose love.

- Nikita Gill, Space Theories

Re: [FILL] plum blossom

[hwarium]

oh wow, thanks for sharing!! I can reread and see those emotions coming through in Junhui. What a feeling - that reminds me to prompt that RM interview where he's afraid of falling out of love with music.

Highly recommend Given!! the art is gorgeous and the story is very character driven. There was a scene that left a deep impression on me: in high school, Akikito is gifted violin player but then he overhears Ugetsu practising and has this shock moment where he realises what a 'true' genius is and how it's something out of reach, and he is filled with so much resentment that he stops playing violin (but the love between them is really powerful, just like how Junhui would be so crazy if he could love joshua - I'm still thinking about that!). Your story reminded me of that interplay between music and love, and how sometimes music (unhealthily) could influence the direction of love.

[citrinecowboy]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A (hannibal au very much not necessary, go anywhere you want with this!)
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

HANNIBAL: Do you fantasize about killing me?

WILL: Yes.

HANNIBAL: Tell me. How would you do it?

WILL: With my hands.

- Hannibal S2E8

it was a dark and stormy night

[citrinecowboy]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I knew she was trouble the second she walked into my 24-hour deli, laundromat, and detective agency, and after dropping a load of unmentionables in one of the heavy-duty machines (a mistake that would soon turn deadly) she turned to me, asking for two things: find her missing husband and make her a salami on rye with spicy mustard, breaking into tears when I told her I couldn't help--I was fresh out of salami.

- John Farmer, winner of the 2022 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, a challenge to write "an atrocious opening sentence to the worst novel never written"

[FILL] so we could call it even

[kisoap]

Ship/Member: Jeonghan/Nayoung
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: New year same me (she means tswift inyyjh-isms)
Permission to remix: Please ask

***

Nayoung stares at him, incredulous, “What are you doing here?”

“You’re the only person I know in this master’s program,” Jeonghan states plainly. He holds out the bouquet of pale blue roses to her. “Congratulations.”

Nayoung wordlessly adds them to the pile already gathered in her arms. The gold tassel on her graduation cap hits the side of her cheek when she re-rights herself. She’s wearing the navy slip dress under her gown that Jeonghan remembers hooking off her shoulders at his apartment a week ago while his mouth sucked a mark over her clavicle. She’d hated him for it to the point that she refused to respond to his texts for days, and Jeonghan can still see the faint line of it under the midday sun now.

“You can’t be here,” she warns, readjusting her collar. “My parents are out front, and all of my friends, and…” Nayoung trails off while her eyes shift away from his face. “Do you even know what these mean?” she finally asks about the roses.

Jeonghan shrugs, taking a step closer to where she’s standing a stair above him. His dress shoes pinch at his toes. “No,” he admits. He reaches over to tuck the strand of her hair that’s falling into her face behind her ear. “I just know that you like them.”

Nayoung chews her lip. “You’re impossible.”

“What are you doing later tonight?” Jeonghan says just for her to hear.

“I don’t know,” she replies, wary. “I’ll be busy for a while. And I have to go take pictures now.”

“Okay,” Jeonghan steps back with a smile. “Text me when you get home.”

Nayoung pushes past him, bumping his shoulder with hers. “You’re not my boyfriend, Yoon Jeonghan,” she reminds him.

He laughs at that, “I can pretend, can’t I?” Nayoung shoots him one last withering glare before walking off. “Congratulations again!” he calls after her, watching until she’s out of sight. She doesn’t look back once. Not like Jeonghan expected her to, anyway.

***

“You and Nayoung are more alike than you think,” Jisoo points out when Jeonghan resolutely refuses to continue talking about her.

Jeonghan picks at the remnants of his pasta with a fork. “How so?”

“You’re both too terrified to take a leap of faith for love.”

“You haven’t spoken to Nayoung one-on-one before,” Jeonghan grins wryly, trying to call his bluff.

Jisoo gives him that, “I haven’t.” But it wasn’t rocket science, either.

“I would do it,” confesses Jeonghan after giving it some thought. They’d agreed to eat at this restaurant for the beach view, but it was overcast and storming outside the floor length windows that they were so famous for. “Just not with Nayoung.”

“No?”

Jeonghan takes a stab at a cherry tomato, but it goes rolling off the plate. “Because I don’t know if she’d meet me halfway.” That’s what made it all so frustrating, yet impossible for Jeonghan to stay away.

***

In their second year of university, Jeonghan went to excruciating lengths to set Nayoung up with their mutual friend Seungcheol. It was a relationship that was doomed to fail though, because Jeonghan knew from the outset that Nayoung had a crush on him instead.

“There’s something clinical about your ambition,” is what Nayoung always said when they came back to the topic. Today, she’s sitting with her back to him in his bed, trying to zip up her dress. The light filtering in through the cracks between the blinds catches in her hair. “You’re always waiting for the other person to spill their guts first,” she adds this time around.

“You say that like you’re different.” Jeonghan walks across the room to her, stooping over to pull up the zipper. His knuckles brush the skin on the small of her back, collateral damage, to which she shivers.

“I wish I was,” Nayoung laments as Jeonghan moves to sit beside her. “But I don’t think I am.” She turns to look at him, gaze flickering down to his mouth momentarily before settling to meet his eyes. “And on top of all that, I don’t get you.”

Jeonghan twines his fingers with hers in slow motion. “What do you mean?”

Nayoung says distractedly, “I don’t know.” She tenses when he presses his forehead against her hair and relaxes again when he moves to kiss the side of her neck, featherlight. “I feel like I should know what to expect from you, but I never do.”

Jeonghan suddenly wishes he could give her that predictable kind of love. “But what’s the fun in that?”

Nayoung leans away so they can look at each other, head on. “You’re no good for me.” She sounds like she barely believes it, either. Even in the skewed light with the shades closed she’s beautiful.

Jeonghan feels the corner of his mouth quirk up, apologetic. “Maybe,” he agrees too easily. And then Nayoung closes the distance between them again and kisses him, like every second they spend apart kills her inside the same way it kills him.

Re: [FILL] so we could call it even

[hwarium]

hehehe taffy it's fun to be early (also the deja vu whitlash of risa prompt + taffy het fill. this feels like something that as already happened before, if not, then in a dream or an parallel universe. feels like all is right with the world).

I'm being blessed with another unresolved feelings fill!! oh god it's so /satisfying/ for me when the protag refuses to let themselves honestly, I love it with the depth of my gremlin heart. I love how Jeonghan is always in Nayoung's face, being at her graduation, setting her up with Seungcehol even though he knows she likes him instead, knowing themselves well but refusing to do anything about it (urgh) (in a good way).

I like that Jeonghan only tries when he knows he can win, and Nayoung knows that she's the same!! And jeonghan, being gremlin, stops the conversation with shenanigans before it gets any deeper. "His knuckles brush the skin on the small of her back, collateral damage, to which she shivers"

Thank you for writing!! I liked reading this <3

Re: [FILL] too funny to laugh about

[arundels]

"I mean, you're not even my type." THE LADY DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH!!! ellie you have such a lovely feel for wonhui I adore this piece, the nervous "hahaha just kidding... unless...." energy of junhui versus the stony-faced "unless what" energy of wonwoo. it feels so achey and you can feel the longing between them that they WON'T ACT ON! augh!! also I've already told you this but the random drop that they kissed once as a joke makes me feel UNHINGED

Re: [FILL] so we could call it even

[lachrymosy]

Okay, so 1) do I have to look up a picture of Nayoung every time you post a fic that includes her? Yes. 2) Will I willingly do this every time you post a fic about her? YES. This was such a good read! I love the way you write their dynamic with neither one willing to cede the ground it would take to get what they probably want but are afraid of. This is such a good bit of imagery to introduce their relationship here: She’s wearing the navy slip dress under her gown that Jeonghan remembers hooking off her shoulders at his apartment a week ago while his mouth sucked a mark over her clavicle.—you're so good at writing really memorable images like this! In the same vein I absolutely love the ending scene and their conversation; idk how to express it all at the moment but I will probably shout at you about this months later because I will still be thinking about it!

[REMIX] versions of these belong to you

[seokmin_liker]

Ship/Member: Seokmin/Seungcheol (background Jun/Seokmin and Seungcheol/Joshua)
Major Tags: infidelity, mentioned drug use and sex
Additional Tags: eternal sunshine AU, angst
Permission to remix: please ask

***

“Alright,” Jun says, standing up, “I’m gonna go get some air. Is that alright, Seungcheol?”

Seungcheol doesn’t reply, focusing on his work. Seokmin likes that about him, the furrow of his brow as he does god-knows-what at the computer.

“Seungcheol?” Jun calls again.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Seungcheol replies, still not turning away from his work.

Jun is still for a second. He seems to be deciding whether it’s worth waiting around. Then he turns to the door and leaves the apartment, as easily as if it’s his own.

It may as well be, given how long they’ve been up here. Seokmin got here at around half ten, and Jun and Chan were here at least an hour before him. Chan left to go sort something out with his new guy, and then the guy on the bed—Wonwoo? something like that?—started causing problems for Jun.

In hindsight, part of it may have been Seokmin’s fault. Once Chan left, Jun and Seokmin had the whole place to themselves. Maybe it was the weed, making Seokmin a bit too relaxed, or maybe it was the thrill of being in someone else’s house, but Seokmin and Jun couldn’t keep off each other. So what if Jun wasn’t as focused on the whole computer setup? It was on autopilot, he said, so it should all have been fine. They could have fucked. They nearly did fuck, and then Wonwoo-or-something started glitching.

Secretly, Seokmin is kind of glad they didn’t fuck. Fucking doesn’t do much for him anymore—or rather, fucking Jun doesn’t do much for him anymore. Not that he’ll tell Jun that though.

Regardless, Wonwoo-or-something glitched, which is why Seungcheol is here. Bold, smart, competent Seungcheol. He looks serious, with his razor-sharp focus and the determined glint in his eye. The lights are dim in the room, but they frame Seungcheol’s face perfectly, showing off the line of his slightly clenched jaw, the arch of his long fingers.

He cares about his work. He cares about it the way Jun should. Jun’s probably gone out for a cigarette in the middle of this sleeping guy’s brainwaves being fucked up, and he didn’t even think to ask Seokmin to join him. But that doesn’t matter. Seokmin can watch Seungcheol fix it.

“Seungcheol,” Seokmin calls from where he’s sprawled on the couch, “d’you like quotes?”

That makes Seungcheol look up. He doesn’t look confused, just curious. “Quotes?”

“Yeah, like famous ones. There’s a nice one, goes like this.” Seokmin closes his eyes tight. “‘Blessed are the forgetful, because they get the better even of their blunders’.”

Seungcheol smiles, a tentative thing. Seokmin’s heart melts.

“That’s a good one,” Seungcheol replies. “Nietzsche, right?”

“Oh. You already know it. Dammit, I feel so stupid-”

“Hey, it’s ok! It’s a great quote. I like that we both know it.”

And suddenly Seokmin feels better. It’s magical, the way Seungcheol does it. The way he makes Seokmin feel special, like they’re tied together by knowing a quote he read in Bartlett’s one time.

“You’re too nice to me, Seungcheol. There’s another one that I like, too. It’s by- fuck, is it Pope Alexander? The poet guy?”

“Alexander Pope.”

Seokmin groans, buries his face in his hands. “God, I really am the most stupid-”

“Easy mistake to make. Go on, what’s the quote?”

“It’s something like-” Seokmin closes his eyes again. “How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned.”

Seokmin opens his eyes again. Seungcheol isn’t really smiling anymore. He looks like he’s been stunned, like he’s been told some great secret.

“Did I say something wrong?” Seokmin asks.

“No, not at all,” Seungcheol replies, a little breathless. “It’s beautiful.”

“It’s poetry, right?” Seokmin gets off the sofa, wandering over to the chair next to Seungcheol’s. “Like, obviously it’s part of a poem, but it’s poetry. It’s beautiful. I’m totally dense about this kind of thing, but eternal sunshines and spotless minds… it’s powerful, you know?”

Seungcheol just turns back to the computer, nodding.

“And that’s why what you do is so great,” Seokmin adds. “You’re giving people that spotless mind. It’s like a whole new page they can use to rewrite their story.”

Seungcheol swallows. Seokmin knows because he can’t take his eyes off Seungcheol, off the golden skin of his neck, off the bob of his throat.

“It’s more complicated than that.”

“Is it?” Seokmin asks, tilting his head to the side.

“Well, I may be giving people a fresh start, but they have to give something up for that, right? Like, this guy, Wonwoo. He’ll wake up with nothing left of Mingyu. He won’t just lose the bad times, he’ll lose the good times too. Giving up all those memories… it’s not an easy thing to do. I don’t know if I could do that.”

“But once you give it up, you’re free! You get to forget all these things that have happened to you, and you get to try again! Wouldn’t it be great if you could just forget everything about someone? You wouldn’t ever be hung up on them, and you wouldn’t remember all the bad stuff they did to you. It’s like being a kid again, right? You get to do everything over, without being scared or overthinking the past or whatever. That doesn’t appeal to you a little bit?”

Seungcheol’s jaw clenches again. “No, not really.”

“I suppose it’s a good thing not everyone thinks like you, or you’d be out of a business.”

Seungcheol smiles wryly. “I suppose so.”

Seokmin can’t help the grin that spreads across his face. He likes Seungcheol, so much. Seungcheol shouldn’t be paying attention to Seokmin. Seokmin’s just the receptionist at his clinic—he shouldn’t even be here right now. But he listens to Seokmin, like Seokmin’s worth listening to, like he has something smart to say. Somehow, Seokmin can’t remember the last time someone has treated him like this, like he’s worth having a real conversation with.

He should tell him. There’s no harm in telling him, is there?

“Seungcheol,” Seokmin says, sliding onto his knees, closer to Seungcheol’s chair, “you’re lovely. You know that, don’t you?”

Seungcheol stiffens. “I- well, thank you-”

“Look at me? I want you to hear it.”

Slowly, Seungcheol turns his head towards Seokmin. The air is hyper-electric, his eyes big and full of something Seokmin can’t quite place. Seokmin’s insides feel like jelly. He can feel his breathing getting quicker, and he doesn’t know what to do with his hands.

“Seungcheol,” Seokmin breathes, “I can’t- I need-”

“What?”

Seungcheol puts a hand on Seokmin’s shoulder to brace him, and that’s when Seokmin leans in and kisses him. Seungcheol doesn’t kiss back, though. He’s frozen against Seokmin, turned to stone, Gorgon-like.

Seokmin pulls back. “Oh God. I’ve fucked it up, haven’t I, I’m so sorry-”

“Seokmin, no, please, it’s not you, it’s just- you know I’m married, don’t you?”

“I do, I do, but-” Seokmin grips his hair. “I just thought- I didn’t think, I just-”

“Seokmin.”

A warm hand tilts Seokmin’s chin up. He lets go of his hair, silently begging for Seungcheol to forgive him. Seungcheol doesn’t. He gets off his chair, kneels opposite Seokmin, and kisses him again.

Seokmin didn’t know he could feel as happy as this. He didn’t know that his limbs could feel so warm, that sparks could shoot through him like this. He pulls Seungcheol in closer, gripping at his waist, wanting more and closer and everything and-

A car horn honks outside. Long and loud. Seungcheol pulls away, goes to the window to see what the matter is, says,

“Oh God.”

“What? What is it?”

“My husband. He’s here. I need to go outside.”

Not looking at Seokmin, he runs out of the apartment. Seokmin follows him into the piercing night air. He sees Jun, standing near the clinic van, and next to that there’s Seungcheol, leaning down to a car window. The car starts to drive off, and he runs after it.

“Joshua!” Seungcheol calls. “Please, this was just a one-time mistake.”

Seokmin instinctively rushes to catch up.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “It won’t happen again, I’m just a stupid guy with a stupid crush, I practically made him do it, so don’t be-”

The car suddenly brakes. Joshua turns to look at them. He’s handsome, sharp. He doesn’t look like he’s caught his husband kissing someone else.

“What?” he asks, frosty-voiced.

“It’s all my fault, so don’t-”

“Seungcheol. You didn’t tell him?”

“Tell me what?”

Joshua turns to look at Seokmin, smiles mirthlessly. “You can have him. You did.”

With that, he drives off. Seungcheol lets him, not taking his eyes off the car until it turns away.

“Seungcheol,” Seokmin asks, “what does he mean?”

Seungcheol turns towards Seokmin, but doesn’t look at him. “We have a past. We had an affair. And then you wanted the procedure done. You wanted to get over- you know.”

Seokmin’s heart falls away. He wants to crumble to the ground.

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way,” Seungcheol continues. “I have to finish the job upstairs, but we can talk about this. Ok?”

Seokmin doesn’t move. His limbs feel dead. All he can do is watch as Seungcheol heads back to the apartment. His head is swimming, his thoughts curling away like the misty air he breathes out. He doesn’t notice footsteps coming towards him until he hears,

“Hey. Seokmin.”

Jun’s standing there, hands in his pockets.

“What?” Seokmin asks, voice cracking.

“Lift home?”

“Did you know about this?”

“Know- about your procedure? No, God no.”

“And you didn’t know me and Seungcheol were…”

Jun fidgets a little. “Well, there was one time. You were at his car, and you were talking to him, and you looked- happy. Happy and secretive, I guess. But I never saw you two together afterwards so I thought I was making it up. I should have-”

Seokmin shakes his head. “Don’t.”

Jun sighs. “I really like you, Seokmin. You know that, right?”

Seokmin does. He can’t look Jun in the face.

“I’ll get my stuff in the morning,” he says.

And with that he walks to the clinic, staring at the ground the whole time.

***

“Ok, do you want to just tell me what you remember?”

“Yeah. I liked you from the start. It was hard not to like you, Seungcheol. You really noticed me. Not in like a creepy way, but in a way that felt like you cared. You never talked down to me. People talk down to the receptionist a lot, and we all know I’m not the smartest, but you never made me feel like that. Even though you’re smart. I wanted to impress you so bad, you know? Pretending to know all these big words and quotes. But you must have seen right through me. It didn’t matter, though. I wanted everything with you. I wanted to shack up with you, properly. I wanted to live with you, I wanted us to take care of each other as we grew old. Stupid, right? Given how married you were. But your marriage didn’t seem to matter to you. What we had together made me so happy, happier than I ever knew I could be, and- oh Seungcheol, I don’t think I can do this.”

“We agreed, didn’t we? It’s best for both of us.”

“I know, but- I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t know what I’ll do without you.”

“You’ll live. And so will I. We have to. You said we have to, right?”

“I know, I know, but- God, it’s hard. I want you. I want so much. I guess that’s why I have to let this go, but it’s still hard. And I-”

The door opens. Seokmin hits pause on the file, quickly wiping his eyes.

“Seokmin?”

Seokmin’s blood freezes.

“Seokmin,” Seungcheol continues, walking towards him, “please tell me you weren’t playing your file.”

Seokmin watches as Seungcheol gets closer, gradually illuminated by the lone amber light.

“I have a right to know, don’t I?” he says, lacklustre.

“Look. You chose to get the procedure done. We both did. We both thought it best for you to move on, and we decided this was the best way to do it.”

“Nobody told me it would be like this. How was I supposed to know?”

“I didn’t want you to forget me, you know,” Seungcheol says, louder than before. “You think I did? I wanted you to remember me well, and to think of me as someone who was kind to you and who loved you. I didn’t want to forget you either, otherwise I would have had it done myself. But you were so desperate to move on. You wanted me out of your head so badly that you wanted the procedure, so I did it for you. I just- I wanted to take care of you.”

“What?” Seokmin snaps. “Take care of me? You think that was taking care of me? Seungcheol, you sat there for god knows how long, listening me tell you how much I adored you, and you did nothing! I told you everything, and you did nothing! You never even tried!”

Seokmin doesn’t try and stop the fresh tears stinging his eyes. Seungcheol says nothing.

“You know what?” Seokmin continues. “When I played that file, I wasn’t surprised by what I said about you. I still think you’re as charming and clever and kind as I did then. But what I didn’t know was how much I could feel. I didn’t know I was capable of loving you that much, of wanting you that much. I didn’t know just how much I wanted to care for you. I didn’t know how happy I could be. But now I realise there was a part of me that was that happy, that could feel so much and love so deeply, and I don’t have that part of me anymore. I’ve lost a part of me. You have it. And now I can never get it back.”

Through Seokmin’s tears, Seungcheol blurs into the light. Seokmin can’t bear to look anymore. He turns his head away, wiping fiercely at his eyes.

“Seokmin,” Seungcheol says, voice hollow, “I don’t want you to-”

“Please,” Seokmin whispers. “Please just leave. I’ll have my two weeks on your desk tomorrow morning.”

Seokmin leans on the table, buries his face in his hands. He hears footsteps getting further away. The door closing. Silence. Then his own sobs echoing through the room.

***

Dear Mr Jeon,

My name is Seokmin Lee. You won’t remember me, but I am the receptionist at the Lacuna clinic. If you receive this, it’s because you came to the Lacuna clinic to have your memories of a particular person erased. I don’t know who that person was, and it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you have the files and the CD accompanying this letter. The files and CD have everything you’ll need to know about the memories you erased, and why you did it.

You might be wondering why I’m sending this back to you. It’s because I’ve decided that this clinic is horrible. It’s a horrible thing to do, to take someone’s memories away. I used to think it was a great idea, giving someone a fresh start, without remembering someone you can’t have anymore. But I have come to realise that it’s not just the other person that you’ll forget. It’s yourself. You’ll forget who you were around this person, and you’ll forget how this person changed you. Who you were back then is part of who you are now. You shouldn’t be able to lose that so easily.

I’m sure you had a good reason for wanting to erase those memories. Maybe they’re painful. Maybe they remind you of something you couldn’t fix, someone you couldn’t know, someone you couldn’t be with no matter how hard you tried. But it’s the trying that counts, right? It’s the trying that makes it all worth it. It’s the trying that tells you you’ve lived. And I think we should all remember that. Our memories, however bad, tell us that we’ve lived.

Maybe this wasn’t the smartest idea. Maybe you’ll never even look at these files. Maybe they’ll go straight in the trash. But please, at least think about it. Listen to the CD. You might find something that you thought you lost a long time ago. I promise that it’s worth it.

Re: [FILL] But nothing is like the heart of a person

[lovekyeoms]

Wonwoo’s expression crumpled. He stepped out from under the overhang to join Mingyu and tried to say something, but the street was already becoming a long river of black, and the lanterns were sputtering out.

reading this was such an Experience... the atmosphere you create here is so good it feels suffocating, almost, like being caught in the rain on the one day you didn't want to, you know? your prose is wonderful as always, and the parallels with interviews and the bittersweet mv just make this that much more painful and bittersweet itself! thank you so much for this, you hit it out of the park as always.