17hols | 2022 Round 1: Quotes

2022 Round 1: Quotes

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

"If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more."

"What is grief, if not love persevering?"

"You kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath"

Calling all readers, lovers of poetry and music, screen and stage. Quote collecters and lyric hoarders, unleash your archive. Each prompt must contain a quote - you can combine them, add commentary, link to articles, and more. Steal from a literary classic, or WeVerse drama. Have fun!

Examples

Minghao + Ocean Vuong

The most beautiful part of your body
is where it's headed. & remember,
loneliness is still time spent
with the world.

Ocean Vuong - night sky with exit wounds

Hoshi/Anyone; "Beauty is terror"

Thinking about these two quotes together and the idea of on/off-stage personas:

"Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful we tremble before it. And what could be more terrifying or beautiful, to the Greeks to to our own, than to lose control completely?" - Donna Tartt, the Secret Histories

"I am calm in everyday life but when I put on my in-ear device and step on stage, I can feel the tension and hear the cheers getting louder as the music gets louder. When the staff tells me it's time to step on stage, I feel something boil inside me. I feel it steaming inside and I think I have to give a burst of something, spill what is inside me." - Hoshi in Hit the Road Ep. 04

Any ship; "It's been so many years"

Hello, hello there, is this Martha?
This is old Tom Frost
And I am calling long distance
Don't worry 'bout the cost.
'Cause it's been forty years or more
Now Martha please recall
Meet me out for coffee
Where we'll talk about it all.

Tom Watts - Martha

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 to something interesting;
Copy+Paste the following HTML into your comment and edit the sections. Feel free to add as much detail as you want!
Ship/Member: Any Major Tags: N/A Additional Tags: N/A Do Not Wants: None Prompt: <blockquote>[QUOTE GOES HERE] </blockquote>

Filling

Reply to the original prompt;
Change the subject to [FILL], you may add a title or stay chaotic;
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.

Ship/Member: Any Major Tags: N/A Additional Tags: N/A Permission to remix: 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)

Ship/Member: Any Major Tags: N/A Additional Tags: N/A Permission to remix: 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

❮ ROUND 1: QUOTES ❯

ROUND 2: ALTERNATE UNIVERSES

ROUND 3: LAST WORDS

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

thank you haha may 17hols continue to birthe more minghaoyixings ~

'that he himself acts and lives like a ghost' wjf gosh thank you for that!!! i feel like I'm gonna look at my own writing in a new light !!!

aaaa peb thank you, as always!!!

ah ;_; thank you <33

this is SOOOOOO good i’m head in hands even the way u write it reminds me of schoolgirl crush — it’s feverish and a little bit dramatic and a lot bit [svt voice] CRUSH. I GOT A CRUSH ON YOU. plus the scathing tones and commentary on religion and god its really so perfect.

i also want to throw back the sentence that cat quoted at u, Sometimes Jeonghan comes to their room a second before curfiew, smiling and tired, and forces her way to Jisoo’s neatly made bed in her outside clothes, tucks her head into the crook of Jisoo’s neck, and tells her about how she’s been playing volleyball with Seungkwan and Junhui all evening and Jisoo gets so mad because Jeonghan didn’t invite her even though she hates volleyball but swallows it down because maybe she’s crazy on the inside but no one else needs to know about it, not even Jeonghan there is an insanity to jisoo that i love dearly she just feels so tangible n real (and the object of her desires, yjh) and maybe hinting a little as to how she can be prompted to act on said desires. thank u for writing this was perfect!!

thank you for your kind words, ki :(((

<333

youuu. ah. thank you, you're too good to me ily

wife ;__; gosh the way you infused themes into it so amazing, thank you, im definitely gonna keep coming back to this comment.

thank you for that prompt. i kept putting it aside and then went fuck it and...somehow this happened. I'm glad you liked the back and forth, i was a little hesitant on including that.

oohmygod thank you so much!!

KLAV T____T
i hope you get me back with even more sad terrifying horny watery introspections <333

Ship/Member: Wonwoo/Mingyu
Major Tags: Implied character death(s?)
Additional Tags: descriptions of violence, blood, urban fantasy (but really this is just fantasy), slightly non-linear, implied sexual content, pain. as requested.
Permission to remix: Please ask!

Thank you for the bait op ^^ though i don't know if this was what you expected and if this fits the quotes, but i hope this brings some enjoyment still!

***

The first time Wonwoo sees Mingyu in the flesh, Dongdaemun-gu’s sky splits into an ocean of fire and ash.

Several news stations reported is as a comet brushing the earth. If its orbit had shifted, it would have painted the sky with debris and extinction, instead of the now swiftly circulating imagery of the sky, painted in blood.

Jeon Wonwoo recognises it as his end; one he’s met before in countless dreams, sceneries just out of grasp every time he closes his eyes. Wisps of smoke, slipping through his fingers.

It—He is a long prophesied tragedy for his faction. And Jeon Wonwoo was the one sent to put an end to the end.

-

There has always been two. Two forces battling over the city, unbeknownst to those who aren’t magically attuned.

They aren’t that much different, despite numerous claims of the opposite. One beguiles their enemies with the moon and drown them in its tides. One blinds theirs with the sun, incinerates them with its flames. Both inclined to violence when the other is involved.

Two factions, wanting to only have one standing.

That way, Seoul would be the strong bastion of magic it’s meant to be, instead of a city rife with never-ending conflict.

Wonwoo was nothing but an inconsequential cog in the interlocking wheels of this war. More harmonious with the moon than anyone else, yes, but nothing still.

Until the day Mingyu arrives to him in a dream.

-

“Kim Mingyu,” the boy had said, “I’m Kim Mingyu.”

“Jeon Wonwoo.”

For his first dreamscape, his surroundings stand with a quite impressive stability. Wonwoo applauds himself, but stops when there is movement in his peripheral.

Mingyu sits by a pond where a few fishes swim, face bright as the sun. He dips his hands in the water, hands drawing invisible patterns beneath the surface, following the paths of the fishes.

It’s fascinating to watch, until red blooms from his hands and decimates everything in the pond. Water included.

When he looks at Wonwoo, his eyes burn red. A child from the sun.

“I didn’t mean to.”

“I know,” Wonwoo says. He doesn’t back away from the boy. “I know.”

-

“He has seen it. He’s the one chosen to have visions.”

“Then he shall be the one to end it.”

A mission set in the stars, looming over Wonwoo for the remainder of his time in the academy. Training serves one purpose from then on, to forge him into a weapon.

-

The single sheet of Wonwoo’s dream journal proliferates into thousands over the years. He writes them in ink that would only appear to the hum of his magic. His safety measure, to keep the academy from finding his hesitance.

He doesn’t know what would become of him if they found out. How in all his years wielding magic, none complements his as much as Mingyu’s does.

An impermissible communion, they call it.

Beneath the moonlight and the venomous gazes of the academy, the sea claimed his journal. Water turned into icicles, their sharp tips graze Wonwoo’s neck, drawing blood. It’s the oldest form of promise, only to be broken by fulfilment or failure.

It proves to be the most painful hour of Wonwoo’s life. Not physically, for the most part, no.

And yet, the torturous hour dissipate into nothing when Mingyu comes home to him again that night. His touches as gentle as ever, an everlasting hearth, tamed by Wonwoo’s control.

-

What kind of weapon only has a singular purpose? One doomed for failure.

Wonwoo knows his target, and he will aim. As the binding runes around his neck dictates. The exit wounds, he knows, won’t be where the academy wants it to be, though. He’s going to make sure of it.

-

It has been a few days since impact. People of science still busy themselves finding the rogue piece of the comet, landing somewhere between the peaks of Taebaeksan. It’s winter, their efforts will recede soon enough.

There is no comet to find, anyway. The splitting of the sky was Mingyu, homing in to the place where he promised to meet Wonwoo in their dream. Putting up a barrier had been a herculean task, but it was his best one in all his life.

“You made it,” Wonwoo says, the last vestiges of his energy escaping with every breath.

“Wonwoo-hyung. What is around your neck? They weren’t there last time.”

They use different runes, of course Mingyu wouldn’t know what’s written. Something Wonwoo’s grateful for.

Instinctually, Wonwoo brushes his neck. The touch burns. “It was a parting gift from the academy. A protection band.”

“That is nice of them. I stole this from the inner sanctum before I left so I hardly doubt they’d give me a parting gift if I stayed any longer.”

In Mingyu’s hand lay a scroll, its make and binding an indication of its importance.

“It’s our oldest, most well-guarded scroll. I wanted to know if they have an answer, about the dreams, about us. I’ve yet to figured out how to open it, though.”

Somewhere beneath Wonwoo’s sternum, a void rips open.

“You don’t need to. We don’t need any answers.”

You don’t need to find out what I’m destined to do.

When Mingyu moves to touch him, Wonwoo stops him, hands firm around Mingyu’s wrists.

Wonwoo is terrified. Mingyu is already a wound in his heart, his tangible touch would be Wonwoo’s ruin.

-

If Wonwoo sings to order, Mingyu plays the tune of chaos—together, matrimonial.

Wonwoo would have believed the notion, if it weren’t for the prophecy and the ever growing thrum of certain death around his neck.

“Won’t you join me?”

For someone sun-born, Mingyu looks divine under the soft brushes of moonlight. Wonwoo’s element. He looks beautiful, he looks deadly.

If they were destined for destruction, wasn’t it cruel for fate to Mingyu so easy for Wonwoo to love?

Bile crawls up Wonwoo’s throat. He didn’t realise the wound has turned into something much worse.

There is nothing beneath the sheets, and Wonwoo knows an acceptance would be the ultimate treason. He doesn’t want to hurt Mingyu this way.

And yet, and yet Mingyu’s gaze puncture right through him, almost pleading.

No matter how the scenes will play out, they are always going to lose each other. So tonight, against the sirens inside his head, Wonwoo relishes the brief moment where Mingyu is his.

His hands roam, the ridges and the depressions and everything in between. His lips follow suit, whispering prayers before swallowing the responses spilling from Mingyu’s mouth. Wonwoo doesn’t deserve them.

Wonwoo works slowly, religiously as though he has all the time in the world. Mingyu is liquid beneath him. Wonwoo, Wonwoo is ablaze.

-

The clock is ticking. Its hands race against Wonwoo’s consciousness, he knows his end draws near.

It is spring now, and Mingyu looks at home between Taebaeksan’s azalea bushes. The furrow in his eyebrows expresses concentration, so Wonwoo didn’t expect Mingyu to notice his approach.

“Were you not going to tell me?”

Mingyu has the scroll open, the long stretches of parchment sitting atop his crossed legs.

“Tell you what?” Wonwoo stops.

“What the runes around your neck actually do.”

“It’s a parting gift.”

“Meant to kill you.”

“Meant to protect—“

“Stop lying.”

“You. From me.” With the revelation, Mingyu stills. Wonwoo continues, “There won’t be anyone else who would be able to kill you. Not for another century, at least.”

“Kill me?”

“It’s what written in the stars, does your scroll not say that? I was forged to put an end to you,” Wonwoo touches the runes. “This is to ensure that the deed is done. But I won’t let that happen.”

With the speed of lightning striking earth, Mingyu rises, enters Wonwoo’s space in a matter of seconds. “They lied to you.”

“What?”

“We are two halves of a whole. We have been reincarnated for centuries, and us being together means an end to the conflict.”

The scroll only exacerbates the thorn in Wonwoo’s chest. It all makes sense now. There has always been two, meant to be one.

“Not in the way they want,” Wonwoo breathes out, all air escaping his lungs. “But they didn’t lie about me being the only one who can kill you.”

“Were you going to sacrifice yourself so I could live? Why didn’t you tell me of this?”

Wonwoo has no answer for that. The single thing on his mind is: Would this hurt less, if they hadn’t come here?

“Hyung.” It’s the softest way his name has ever been uttered. Wonwoo wants to keel over, but doesn’t.

“There is no way we could be together now, Mingyu.” Wonwoo looks at Mingyu, and devastation hits him.

Water doesn’t suit Mingyu, after all, the tears mar his face in a way Wonwoo doesn’t want to witness ever again.

“If you had told me before, there could have been a way. Your death isn't necessary for me to live.”

“If I had told you before, would we have the chance to be together like this?”

The bright spring afternoon shines over them. Wonwoo wishes it would rain.

He reaches forward, palms finding home on the soft skin of Mingyu’s cheeks. It’s the first time he feels water burn him, but he doesn’t stop wiping away the onslaught of tears.

“I don’t want my last memories of you to be you crying.”

“You’re tasking me with something impossible.”

“I’m sorry,” Wonwoo says, leaning forward. He can smell spring on Mingyu when he’s this close. “My biggest regret is not making you hate me.”

“It’s okay, we have our next lives, don’t we? You can make me hate you, though try as you might, I don’t think that’s possible.”

-

The last time Wonwoo sees Mingyu in flesh, the sky brings forth the biggest storm earth has ever seen.

It’s like the earth is grieving, the articles write.

Edited 2021-12-29 10:12 (UTC)

thank you so much for writing this - I could sense the love in the details, even just in the small things Soonyoung or Seokmin was doing. And then the mundane magic of it all, delivering souls to a god in an abandoned convenience store <3

YEAH YOU GOT IT. you got the thesis down bestie. i'm going to eat this. i'm going to eat YOU. thank you

this was so poetic, the metaphor of the knife carrying throughout the story, the trope of toxic ex yoon jeonghan (scribbles notes), followed by the last scene, where they meet years later. thank you so much for writing, and for contributing to the wonhao angst pile this 17hols season haha

(btw that mitski lyric... very familiar... seem to recall it from last year.... I almost filled it...)

Ship/Member: Seokmin/Jihoon
Major Tags: Idolverse
Additional Tags: N/A
Permission to remix: Yes

A/N: not that anyone asked, but i'm the same anon from this (https://17hols.dreamwidth.org/7664.html?thread=319728#cmt319728) fill lol here i am writing about jihoon again 🤸 i hope this doesn't suck too much

***

"Sometimes I just need to get out of the building," Seokmin said, the first time he showed up outside Jihoon's bedroom door. "That way I can trick myself into thinking that I'm walking away from it."

The smarter version of Seokmin, the one who lives in his head and doesn't do stupid things, scoffed and rolled his eyes. Walking away. More like walking into oncoming traffic.

Jihoon hummed, a hand coming up to rub at his eye. "Walking away from what?"

"The stuff I'm dealing with. Like, in general," Seokmin said nervously, wondering if Jihoon could tell he was lying. Wondering if Jihoon could see into his brain, where a huge neon sign probably reads: I drive myself crazy thinking about how much I want you. I'm terrified that you'll find out and never want to speak to me again. I need to see you, I need to touch you, I need to hear your voice, to convince myself that I haven't ruined this.

If Jihoon suspected anything, it didn't show on his face. "Okay," he said, shutting his bedroom door behind him, slipping off his indoor slides in favor of his outdoor slides. "GS25?"

-

kyeomja
hyung are u awake

wooja
yep

kyeomja
🏪🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️🔜🍜🍬🥤🥺🙏

wooja
why don't you ever ask like a normal person
come down in 10min!

He'd do this for any of us, Seokmin tries to remind himself, but still can't tamp down the fluttering of his heart.

"So, what's on your mind?" Jihoon asks, shoving his hands into his puffer coat. He looks cute in the winter cold - pink ears, pink nose, pink lips.

"There's this audition I'm going to," Seokmin replies. It's not really a lie, and that makes him feel a bit better. "It's for this new musical. The timing is kind of bad, rehearsals will probably overlap with the comeback, but…"

There's a beat. Jihoon waits to see if Seokmin will finish his thought. When Seokmin doesn't continue, Jihoon shifts closer to nudge Seokmin's hip. "You know that none of us will take it against you, right? We know how much you care about the group."

I care about you the most, Seokmin wants to say. Your opinion matters to me more than anyone else's.

Seokmin nudges back, trying his best to put on a playful smile. "If I get it, will you be sitting in the front row?"

"Always," Jihoon says easily, reaching up to pinch Seokmin's cheek.

Seokmin wants to die.

Jihoon is never too loud about his affection, but over the years, Seokmin has learned where to look. He notices that Jihoon makes it a point to reach out first - resting his head on Seokmin’s shoulder as they sit in the corner of a practice room, cheerfully climbing onto Seokmin’s back when they play fight, laying a heavy arm around Seokmin’s waist and snuggling in close if they’re sharing a bed.

Seokmin is convinced he’s not an exception to the rule. Jihoon is just attentive like that, making subtle adjustments to his demeanor depending on the situation, depending on the person he’s talking to.

Out of necessity, all thirteen of them have learned a thing or two about this intricate dance, through a lengthy process of trial and error. People who grow up together don’t have to stay together, and Seokmin knows how rare and wonderful it is to have what they have. He could never forgive himself if he ruined it all because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

Later, Jihoon finds Seokmin in the candy aisle, where he's debating between getting gummy sharks or gummy worms. "Hey, check it out," Jihoon says with a grin. He holds out a perfectly puffy bag of chips for Seokmin's approval. "Pizza flavor. Do you think it's worth a shot?"

Seokmin stares at Jihoon's hands - they're pretty, he's always thought so.

"Sure," Seokmin says, and wishes it were true.

this is so hauntingly beautiful - just the idea of Wonwoo trapping a god in his kitchen, taking the form of a college classmate, a god that's unkind and knows his own doubts. *__* so much to unpack, thank you for writing!

Ship/Member: Seokmin/Vernon/Minghao
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: post-disbandment, ambiguous relationship(?), domesticity
Permission to remix: Yes
Word count: 1654

going for the rarest pair!

also, dear lilli, i'm sorry this kind of isn't really the prompt... it got away from me lol
***
What do they dream of, once Seventeen disbands? Vernon has big dreams. Seokmin has smaller dreams. Minghao doesn’t dream at all.

It made sense for them to move in together after it all ended. When Seungcheol gathered them all together after that fateful company meeting, he made it perfectly clear. Just because they’re not performing together anymore, it doesn’t mean they can’t still be together. Everyone nodded, silently pledging to keep their bond alight, pretending not to notice the thickness of Seungcheol’s voice and the way he couldn’t quite look them in the eye. So, when they discussed their future plans, it made sense for them to group together. Vernon, Seokmin and Minghao. Their dreams were closest together, so they found a place and tried to make it work.

Vernon still dreams big. His idol dream didn’t quite work out, but he still works for Pledis as a songwriter and producer. He caught the bug - that’s how he prefers to phrase it. He started writing music and now he can’t stop. So he still works with Jihoon, holed up in the studio, patiently working things through. Even in their apartment, Minghao sometimes gets to see Vernon mulling things over, changing a word or two when it doesn’t quite feel right, humming fragments of melodies to himself. It’s a relief, really, that Minghao still gets to see this much.

Vernon wants to write music that will change something. He admits as much, on one of Minghao’s lonelier nights when he needs someone to drink with. He says, in the same calm way in which he’d talk about the weather,

“If I could get even one person to change their way of seeing the world, that would be a success for me. If I can get one person to think from a different point of view, that’s enough for me.”

“Isn’t that hard?” Minghao asks, swirling his wine around in his glass. “To change perceptions like that?”

“I think it’s important.” Vernon’s eyebrows rise a little as he speaks. Minghao likes that about him - you can tell when he really cares about what he’s saying. “I think we need to be able to change our minds and change other people’s. Music is fun and light-hearted and all of that too, but I think sometimes music needs to move things forward.”

Minghao just nods. He knows, of course, that Vernon’s more thoughtful tracks are buried somewhere on a hard drive. He knows that right now, he’s busy writing title tracks for groups whose dreams might fizzle out like Minghao’s. But Vernon is so persistent with what he wants, and so quietly confident in his own words, that Minghao can’t help but believe in him. Minghao himself hasn’t had anything to motivate him like that.

Seokmin, meanwhile, dreams smaller. He doesn’t want to change the world or shape minds. He just wants to make people happy. He wants to get up on stage and perform, and make people happy that way. He’s not really sure he belongs anywhere else.

“I think I’m a bit greedy, actually,” he says one day, as Minghao helps him with his makeup before he heads to a musical audition. His eyes are closed, and Minghao’s fishing eyeliner out of the makeup box. “I want to be able to sing and act and make people feel something. I want people to be impressed by me when they see me perform.”

“Is that greedy?” Minghao replies, starting a smooth line on Seokmin’s right eye.

“Kind of. There’s something magical about it, Myungho-yah, when you perform for people - you know what it’s like. It’s hard work and it’s tiring but when you’re up there it feels like nothing else matters, like you’re floating somewhere really high up, like you’re untouchable and- and loved. And I want that all the time. I want people to see me perform and love it, all the time. Isn’t that a bit greedy?”

Minghao knows that greed. He hasn’t felt it for a while.

“I don’t think that’s greedy,” he says, moving to Seokmin’s other eye. “You’ve worked hard, and you want people to know that. It’s natural, if anything. You deserve whatever love they’re giving to you.”

“You think so?”

“Of course I do. Seokmin-ah, you’re one of the best performers I know. You can open your eyes now.”

Seokmin does, fluttering his eyelashes a little. A small smile plays on the corner of his lips, and he looks at Minghao like he’s said something revolutionary. He hasn’t. He’s just told the truth.

Minghao hasn’t dreamed. He can’t. His dream was crushed by that company meeting, and he can’t find it in himself to dream again. What good is dreaming, if he can’t expect anything good to come from it?

Seokmin and Vernon can dream because, at the end of the day, they can expect to reach it. Minghao doesn’t have that luxury. Sure, Minghao teaches at a dance studio and cooks Chinese food and lives a perfectly reasonable life, in a country that he can just about call home and where he’s had to squeeze to fit in. But his first big dream has collapsed, and now Minghao can’t even hope for a new one, let alone expect anything. Vernon is defiant and persistent, Seokmin is dedicated and passionate, and Minghao lost all of those things long ago. Now, he can’t even bring himself to dream.

Except. Except maybe he can.

Today has been a tiring one at the studio. He’s been teaching classes at all skill levels the whole day, and he just wants to get home. He opens the door, and is greeted immediately by the smell of cooking.

“Seokmin-ah?” he calls out to the air.

“Myungho-yah, come here!” is the reply.

So he does. He makes his way over to the kitchen where Seokmin is standing over the stove, moving some rice around in a pan. His sleeves are rolled up, and his hair is a little ruffled, probably from the exertion of the cooking. He’s wearing loose shorts and a big hoodie that he used to wear years ago in the Seventeen dorms, one that Minghao would recognise anywhere. The sizzling of the pan is almost drowned out by a Paul Kim ballad playing over the speaker, which Seokmin is softly humming under his breath. When Minghao shuffles over to greet him, he turns to face him with a big smile, one that Minghao has seen for years but still manages to ease the storm in his mind.

Being around Seokmin is always easy. How lucky that this is what Minghao sees when he gets home.

“How was work?” Seokmin asks.
“Tiring.”

Seokmin makes a sympathetic noise, before scooping out some of the rice and holding it out for Minghao to try. Minghao blows on it and eats it, trying not to burn his mouth.

“Is it good?”

Minghao nods enthusiastically, giving him a thumbs-up. Seokmin grins, before turning back to the pan.

“This will be ready in about a minute,” he says, concentrating on the rice. “Vernon’s just finishing up some work on his laptop, so can you go call him?”

Minghao makes his way over to Vernon’s room, knocking gently on the door before opening it a fraction. Vernon wouldn’t hear the knocking anyway - he’s usually got these big headphones on.

Minghao’s right, of course. Vernon does have the big headphones on. Minghao has seen this exact scene pretty much every day for the past two years. Vernon works so hard all the time. Minghao walks over and taps him on the shoulder.

“Hyung!” Vernon exclaims, pushing off his headphones. “Hi, hyung. How was work?”

“Tiring. Seokmin says that dinner’s ready.”

“Thanks, hyung. I’m starving. Really really starving.”

Minghao smiles at that. Vernon has grown so much, but sometimes he sounds so much like the scrawny teenager from all those years ago. It’s nice, to have something so constant.

“How was your day?” he asks, gently knocking into Vernon’s shoulder.

“Good, good. Jihoon-hyung says he never gets to see you. You’d better work something out with him.”

Minghao’s stomach tightens at that. He can never really hang around with his former bandmates that much. It always makes him want something that has slipped far out of reach. He nods anyway, as they take their places at the low table.

Seokmin has already set everything up. He’s careful like that. And he’s good at cooking too - if Minghao weren’t eating, Vernon’s wide eyes and noises would have told him as much.

“Hyung,” Vernon says, still chewing, “this is really really delicious. Really delicious.”

Seokmin laughs, bright like a bell. “Really really delicious?” he replies, imitating Vernon a little bit.

Vernon nods, taking the teasing in his stride. “You have to teach me how to make this!”

“Vernon-ah,” Minghao interrupts gently, “last time you tried to cook you turned our chicken to ash. I think maybe we should stick to the cooking for now.”

Vernon grins sheepishly, just as Minghao knew he would, and Seokmin laughs again, his fond gaze warming the room, and it all feels so easy.

“And you?” Seokmin asks. “Do you like the food, Myungho-yah?”

“You know I like it, I tried it earlier.”

“But I want to hear it from you again,” Seokmin replies, leaning towards Minghao, almost like he wants to knock into him gently.

“It’s good,” Minghao says without hesitating. “It’s always good.”

Seokmin beams at Minghao, and Vernon beams at Seokmin, and the room is so full of simple warmth and joy that it makes Minghao want to burst. He carries on eating until his stomach and his mind are full, until he thinks that nothing else in the world could make him feel this peaceful.

Minghao’s dreams are the smallest. He dreams he can eat dinner with Seokmin and Vernon every day. For him, that’s enough.

Edited 2021-12-29 10:44 (UTC)

I looped this song so much last year and loved the way you carried this into gyuhao and how they're not perfectly in love, like a possibility that had already been considered in their hearts and dismissed, but at the end of the world they come together, and that is the closest they get <3 tysm for writing

tbh this is all because of jihoon mentioning soonyoung in his marie claire interview and being all like "he responds to my music with his whole body and jumps around" ...ugh shut up!!! not everyone has a soulmate!!!! anyway thank u so so much for reading and for ur kind words T_T

Ship/Member: any, wonwoo/any,
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

but we both know how it goes – i say “i want you inside me” and you hold my head underwater, i say “i want you inside me” and you split me open with a knife.
-- richard siken

*subtly pushes for wonu ships*

OH YOU'RE SO KIND... i'm not the same anon but thank YOU for inspiring me to write again!!! this time last month i posted something to ao3 & it was the first time i had written fic in over a decade T_T i couldn't believe how much i enjoyed the process but after that nothing seemed to come out right and i thought maybe it was just a one time thing lol SORRY FOR OVERSHARING but. thanks for starting 17hols and helping me rediscover my love for writing <3 i was really nervous tbh

if i tell you it's written this way because i couldn't think of a good enough reason for the fallout... can it be our little secret

just kidding (kind of) but thank you soooo much for reading and taking the time to leave a comment <3 <3

you say didn't stick to the prompt BUT listen. it's perfect. it made me think of yoongi, and all his words about not having dreams and how your life is worth living for the small things, words that always stick with me because, guess what? i don't have big dreams. not at all. but it's alright, isn't it? to live just to live, and find pleasure in the small things. find love in the people that are always around you. ah, this was perfect nj, really. i love how you write seokmin, so bright, always so bright and wanting to be loved, and vernon with his little quirks and aquarian want to change the world, one step at a time. and minghao, well. he's down to heart and very lovable, even if he lost his big dream, he can find another smaller one that will make him happy!!!

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Page 22 of 73

2022 Round 1: Quotes

Re: [FILL] what was left when that fire was gone?

Re: [FILL] what was left when that fire was gone?

Re: [FILL] what was left when that fire was gone?

Re: [FILL] love, persevering

Re: [FILL] et in arcadia, ego

Re: [FILL] love, persevering

Re: [FILL] love, persevering

Re: [FILL] love, persevering

Re: [FILL] love, persevering

Re: [FILL] hungrier/tides

Re: [FILL] hungrier/tides

Re: [FILL] hungrier/tides

[FILL] astra inclinant, sed non obligant

Re: [FILL] in love with the villain

Re: [FILL] i (dis)like you

Re: pull it out without questioning why

[FILL] held my breath for a decade

Re: there is no aging. there is only changing.

[FILL] to dream big and small

Re: [FILL] in another world, would we have been in love?

Re: [FILL] don't you hate it when you love someone

wishbone again

Re: [FILL] don't you hate it when you love someone

Re: [FILL] don't you hate it when you love someone

Re: [FILL] to dream big and small