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

this is so beautiful that it hurts and it also hurts of its own accord and mingyu as atlas i am ... oof

you…… shaking my fist and also hugging you terribly… i absolutely loved this. you are so good. do you know that? you must, by now. I FEEL SO MUCH OF MINGYU’S GRIEF AND HIS SADNESS and i admire how well you explored all the themes of disbandment alongside other larger themes in life (ie. did mingyu do good — which let’s face it it also absolutely devastating bc who is kmg without his acts of service if he cannot be of use, his loneliness in the end, the lives they lived vs the one he ended up with). and oh!! OH for him to walk into minghao’s wedding day was another T____T MOMENT…i gasped like how could you but also I Understand It Had to Be This Way. Wow i am just obsessed with your writing you are in a league completely of your own. it is whimsical but also frenzied and a lot bit sad. its sooooo rich the amount of detail you put in!!!! you inspire me so much!!! i’m so happy to call you my friend!!!

lines i screamed over:
- This is how it will end, then. One knee tucked against his chest because there’s never enough room for all of him, all of his big and yearning body. It’s absurd. All of it is— that he is running out of time, running out of time at a moment and place like this.
- the thirteen boy-isms and how family is layered into kmg recollection and thinking about other lives. the seungcheol part where’d he would post on wv, we miss you, we want to see you (feels like an alternative to i love you that means so much more)
- The only thing that made those mornings bearable was his best friend asleep in the backseat next to him, smelling like something officially called cypress and amber but something Mingyu only knew as Minghao in the morning. pain
- Jumping ship for their wives and children and dinners. Ordinary endings.

Isn’t that enough, though? Choosing to end your days with the people you love? pain (2). i think also though the imagery is so fresh. i love the vision of little businessmen in suits (succession?) hopping off the boat into the deep deep ocean. at the end of the day you do flee your job and you run back home to your little life, private from the rest of the world
- also the we all still dream our little dreams part UGH YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE DREAMS
- He smells a winter morning in their old car. sometimes life is a series of concentric circles. GOODNESS. using this to pull minghao back in you are genius
- The rings are white-gold. The melting point of white-gold is nine hundred and twenty nine degree Celsius. When the stray planet collides with the surface of the Earth the atmosphere will burn and crumple. Someday, even the stars will end. Despite all your choices, everything must.
reference to your quote alongside svt rings i see. haha. i am perfectly fine.

i adore you!!! thank you for this my wonderful buddy

i feel like someone reached into my brain and shook loose every emotion i feel when i listen to state of grace. this is so lovely.

they organised their quote archive so nicely for me, right on time for 17hols...

Ship/Member: Junhui/Yanan
Major Tags: Mild Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Character Death, General Sword Stabbyness
Additional Tags: Forbidden Love, Betrayal ?, Royalty, Kingmaking
Permission to remix: Yes

918 words, Teen and up
if you peer at this too closely youll realise it has nothing at all to do with the prompt which .. idk how that happened but lets all collectively agree NOT to do that

https://archiveofourown.org/works/36052324

Ship/Member: Minghao/Jungkook
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Future Fic, Fluff, Outsider POV
Permission to remix: Yes

A/N: This specific outsider pov is inspired by this one brilliant hq fic uhh....yeah, dreamwidth user klav, I love you.

***

Darling, when you get older
I want to lose my way with you at my side.
-Kim Kyung Ju, trans. by Jake Levine, I Am a Season That Does Not Exist in the World

Noah can’t think of a single customer before them who has made him feel quite as invisible in his own space, in all his years driving a taxi.

It’s not that the guys he’s driving are ignoring him—they’ve been polite, shared some small talk about the weather and how it’s not their first trip to L.A, despite the language barrier that was obvious the minute he picked them up.

(They had been waiting at a signal and the guy with the piercings, the one who was carrying most of the conversation had turned to his companion and said something Noah didn’t understand and yet he was certain it had been something along the lines of but it’s our first time here together. Noah had caught only the beginnings of two twin pleased blushes on both their faces before the light turned green and he pulled his eyes back onto the road.)

It’s not even the fact that they’re the first couple he’s seen in their honeymoon phase because they’re not and whatever this is, is decidedly not the shy giddy spark of the early days of a romance but something entirely different.

There’s a palpable familiarity and comfort between them and yet the glances they steal when the other isn’t looking betrays an anxiety that is just as ill-disguised as their affection. Perhaps what they have now hasn’t come to them as easily as it may seem at first glance.

Midway down the Los Feliz, Piercing Guy pokes the other one, lifting the hem of his bucket hat and drawing him closer to his own side of the car as he points outside and says something in rapid Korean, bubbling with excitement.

Bucket Hat Guy’s response is calmer, his soft tone belying the way his body has turned entirely towards Piercing Guy, already in a forward motion as if all it needs to fall is the call that beckons him to come.

Noah hasn’t missed the fact that their hands haven’t stopped touching each other the entire time they’ve been in his car. Only briefly were they entwined, when they had been stalling in traffic and Noah had turned back to ask them if they wanted the radio on only to find Bucket Hat Guy press his lips to their joined knuckles.

He had spun back to face the front, his own cheeks heated.

“Hey,” Piercing Guy calls out to him, “I think we’ll get down here—we’ll walk.”

Noah doesn’t have to ask where they’re walking to, two sets of eyes steadily fixed on the Observatory looming on their right.

“Seen La La Land?” He asks when he’s handing back their change.

They both nod eagerly and Piercing Guy starts humming, what Noah presumes must be one of the songs from the movie. Bucket Hat Guy throws an arm around his shoulder and mumbles something against his cheek, half-speech half-laughter, giggles pealing forth like champagne bubbles into the other guy’s ear.

Piercing Guy, who can’t be anything but his lover, watches him in a trance as if trying to memorise this sound of pure, unadulterated joy. It’s like a moment made of spun gold, gleaming under the early afternoon sun.

Noah clears his throat. It feels wrong to be allowed to watch this kind of ostensibly private happiness. It’s strange, how it turns him into a thief and a voyeur at the same time.

They turn away from each other as they disembark and thank him profusely for the ride, hands clasped tightly between their bodies.

“Have a nice trip!” Noah says before getting back on the road, letting their silhouettes slowly dissolve into the stream of sunshine lighting the road he leaves behind.

Ship/Member: Any, Jeonghan/Seungcheol, Jun/Wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Any, toxic relationships?
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I wanted freedom, bound and restricted
I tried to give you up, but I'm addicted
Now that you know I'm trapped, sense of elation
You'd never dream of breaking this fixation
You will squeeze the life out of me

— Muse, Time is Running Out

'Cause I want it now
I want it now
Give me your heart and your soul
And I'm breaking out
I'm breaking out
Last chance to lose control

— Muse, Hysteria

Ship/Member: Soonyong/ Wonwoo, whoever u like
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: domestic
Do Not Wants: angst

Prompt:

in the same way, each morning, I
keep myself from saying too loud I
love you until the moment you flush
the toilet, then I say it, when the
rumble of water running down through
the house could mean anything: flood,

your feet descending the stairs any
moment; any moment the whole world,
all I want of the world, coming down.

- Carl Phillips, Domestic

consider, wonwoo op. 1 concept pics (https://twitter.com/17wonwoogif/status/1451528308877758475?s=21)

my longest yeah boi ever!!!!!!!!!!! oh this is so SPOT ON. i love!!!!!! self-recognition through the other!!!!!!! (DEROGATORY) ah this is wonderful i adore when these two are at odds and picking at each other. it's perfect.

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A (you can go for MCD if you feel like it)
Additional Tags: hero turned villain? descent into darkness?
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I've been up in the air
Out of my head
Stuck in a moment of emotion I destroyed
Is this the end I feel?
Up in the air
Fucked up on life
All of the laws I've broken loves that I've sacrificed
Is this the end?

— Thirty Seconds To Mars, Up In The Air

MY EMOTIONS MY EMOTIONS!!!!!!!!! oh fuck they're so damn perfect i'm in love with them i'm in love with you i'm SICK THIS IS BEAUTIFUL PLEASE!!!!! the passage about minghao telling his mother AND WANTING TO BUY A HOUSE FOR JK I'M GONNA PASS OUT. BEAUTIFUL.

Ship/Member: jeonghan/seungcheol(/joshua)
Major Tags: infidelity (implied)
Additional Tags: none
Permission to remix: please ask!

*

When Seungcheol proposes to Jeonghan, Joshua is the first to know.

It’s on purpose, he’s sure. It has to be deliberate. Jeonghan’s eyes stay on him as he retells the conversation, laughing as though it’s nothing. Isn’t Seungcheol so funny? It was ridiculous of him to ask, Jeonghan says airily, waving a dismissive hand. It’s not like they can even do it for real.

“So you aren’t going to do it?” Joshua asks, then, unable to keep the words trapped beneath his tongue where they belong, and Jeonghan’s gaze cuts to his, sharp.

“Of course I am,” he answers immediately. Not quite a snap, but close enough. All his humour gone just like that. Joshua smiles at him, blank and bland.

“I’m happy for you, then,” he says, heart slamming against his ribs.

He is.

He is happy.

Why wouldn’t he be happy?

*

“Marriage is such a big step,” Seungkwan says at dinner when Jeonghan tells the group. The words may be careful but his eyes are wide and impressed, clearly excited at the prospect. Jeonghan’s grin is smug, the cat who got the canary. Having his cake and eating it too.

“Well, it’s just Seungcheollie,” he says. “I’ve known him forever, you know. There’s no one I trust more.”

Seungcheol is sitting next to him and ignoring the rest of them to beam at Jeonghan, eyes liquid with emotion, arm not budging from its perpetual rest around his shoulder. Joshua can’t stop staring, imagining the warm weight of it.

Jeonghan is so loved. Has always been so loved.

On the other side of the table Joshua sits next to Junhui, three friendly centimetres between their arms, and says nothing, does nothing. Eats nothing, even when Vernon gestures questioningly towards the grill with the tongs. When Minghao excuses himself for a smoke a little white later he follows him out without a second thought, making an excuse about needing to get some fresh air that no one hears except Junhui next to him, who barely even looks up from his food.

Outside the restaurant Minghao tilts his head in polite bemusement when Joshua comes up next to him, hesitantly offering a cigarette and looking relieved when he refuses. Joshua shoves his hands into his pockets and just stands there. It’s awkward, honestly, but not enough to make him want to go back in.

“You’re not happy for him?” Minghao asks, finally, around an exhaled mouthful of smoke. Joshua freezes.

“Of course I am.”

Minghao doesn't look convinced, a flat expression of disbelief on his face.

“You're out here,” he points out. Joshua’s stomach roils, turning itself into knots. His palms are clammy.

“I am happy for him,” he lies, tasting ash in his mouth. “He's my best friend. I love — I am happy.”

Minghao stares at him as he stubs out his cigarette.

“Okay,” he says, finally. “Do you want to go back inside?”

Joshua doesn’t.

“Sure.”

His mouth forms the word on its own.

*

When it’s time to leave the three of them share a cab, Seungcheol whining and laughing when Jeonghan makes him squeeze into the middle. Joshua stares out the window and wonders if this means Jeonghan is going to move out. Seungcheol isn’t even technically on their lease. Surely they’ll want something more permanent. Something that’s only for them.

Back at the apartment Seungcheol goes to the bathroom first, leaving Joshua and Jeonghan together in the kitchen. Joshua didn’t drink at the restaurant but Jeonghan did — his cheeks are flushed pink with it, an irritated little scowl on his face that means he’s already starting to get a headache.

Joshua’s hand is so much bigger than Jeonghan’s when he passes over a glass of water. They were the same size once, he remembers. He’s broader now, stronger, but Jeonghan is almost as narrow as he was when they were nineteen. His face looks soft and young in the light of the kitchen.

“Are you going to move out?” Joshua asks quietly, taking a sip of his water. “When you guys — you’ll want to get own place, right?”

“Why would we do that?” Jeonghan asks, face impassive, and Joshua flounders.

“Right,” he says, voice weak. “I just thought — ”

“We’re happy here together, aren’t we?” Jeonghan asks, not letting him finish. It isn’t really a question. The way he’s looking at him is making Joshua’s skin itch. The guilt bubbles in his stomach, nauseating and sour.

“Jeonghan,” he blurts out impulsively, setting his glass down on the counter. “I — ”

Jeonghan’s gaze sharpens. He says nothing, a silent challenge as he waits for Joshua to finish.

“I — ” Joshua starts again, trying, but at the look on Jeonghan’s face the words die in his throat. He’s a coward, he realizes. He’ll never say it out loud. He’ll never be able to tell Jeonghan what he did.

The softness from earlier is all gone from Jeonghan’s face, now, his expression obstinately blank. He’ll never admit that he knows, either. Joshua wonders if it’ll be like this forever. If he’ll ever pull himself free.

Between the two of them, he isn’t sure who he hates more.

“Everything okay?” Seungcheol asks, startling both of them as he comes up behind Jeonghan to wrap his arms around his waist. Jeonghan flinches before he relaxes into it, leaning back to rest his head against Seungcheol’s shoulder. Joshua wonders, as he always does, what it would be like to have that for real.

You did, he reminds himself. He did have it, just that once. It’s just that he didn’t do it right.

It’s just that he wasn’t enough.

“Yeah,” he manages, now, his tongue heavy and swollen in his mouth. “Everything’s fine.”

Seungcheol smiles at Joshua, warm and pleasant, before he presses a kiss to Jeonghan’s temple. Joshua smiles back, but Seungcheol doesn’t see it.

“Great,” he replies, already distracted by the curve of Jeonghan’s neck. “I’m glad.”

But I always said I wanted him to be happy, & now I know it was true all along. I do want that. Even when it looks like this I still want it.

Ship/Member: Jeonghan/OMC (unnamed); Jeonghan/Seungcheol
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: sexual content; navel gazing while getting railed i guess
Permission to remix: Yes

this kind of got away from me and is only semi-what you prompted, sorry!
***

The concept of virginity is archaic but he does think that maybe sex was ruined altogether by Big Dick Seungcheol and his lovesick puppy eyes.

Seungcheol is a standard that not many people can touch, despite the constant need for assurance, like a desperate weed sapping the life from an already dying tree.

But Jeonghan does still think of him. In anger when he remembers the things that annoyed him, or with fondness, seeing a friend fall in love.

But usually, he thinks of him when he needs to get off, thinks of the rough callouses of his palms, the kiss-perfect pout warm and plush against his own lips, slow and syrupy makeup sex to amend the hours or days of sniping at each other over next to nothing.

Sex with others ever since has been a hallway of memories, the paintings come to life for a fleeting moment before taking a step forward and finding each would-be masterpiece counterfeit.

It makes him feel like a stranger in his body, trying to learn the secrets that the past taught him and failing to get it right. Used goods. Never the same, unable to be made new.

So he closes his eyes and thinks of Seungcheol and his slow and steadying voice. About what it felt like, being touched with that much love.

The body on top of him may not even remember Jeonghan’s name in a matter of days, but he will leave with pieces of Jeonghan that he won't be able to erase.

Teeth sinking into the flesh of his lobe. His eyes, glinting in the dark. The soft oh when the man swallows him down, wringing out sounds that he has made for others, but will never make for him again.

His hips turn down at an angle and the light flashes behind his eyes like a bulb, photographing the memory to start to overwrite the past. For now, they're still overlapping layer by layer by layer.

The space between himself and Seungcheol will eventually be an ocean, with only the distant whisper of salt and sea spray at his back.

“Do you like this?” the man asks. The pace is too arrhythmic, despite himself, more indulgent in his own pleasure than theirs, but he presses himself closer, legs around his waist until he has no choice but to slow down.

“Like that,” Jeonghan replies, reaching between them. The weight of his body flattening him into the mattress is nice. Hiding his face in his shoulder he nips at the skin, kisses it.

Edited 2021-12-29 20:32 (UTC)

this is so delightful gosh the "intruder" pov works so well. it's perfect. beautiful. i love these two and i love you. ughhhhhh

Sunburst you must be crazy or smth coz every time i come to look for some seventeen fanfic in the corners of the internet kind of discreet like an action movie spy type character sweeping a hotel room for bugs it's always ALWAYS your stuff crawling out of the woodwork n making me transcend human emotion n the surfacelvlness of kpop in general n forcing me to comment so I don't lose my mind. Loved this so much i can't even talk about it n honestly idk how I can even thank for all that u do but pls don't stop writing ever

APE??? APE???? APE????? WE APING TONITE????????? WE'RE BELLOWING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DARK FOREST??? WE'RE CRASHING THROUGH THE UNDERGROWTH, TWIGS SNAPPING, UNTIL WE RUN STRAIGHT INTO A SEMI ON THE HIGHWAY???? THAT'S WHAT WE'RE DOING TONIGHT???? BECAUSE IT SURE FEELS LIKE THAT!!! IT SURE DOES!!!!

THIS WAS SO RANCID, BABE, IM OBSESSED. JOSH UR GONNA SUFFER FOR THE REST OF UR LIFE IF U KEEP LIVING LIKE THIS. I FEEL CWAZY!!!

Mingyu falls silent behind him. And because Seokmin doesn’t do too well with a quiet room, he whirls around to find Mingyu staring right back at him.

“You meant it, didn’t you,” Mingyu says quietly. “Is there really nothing you like about me?”

lmao fuck!!!!!!!!!! i love the way you wrote this, it's so unpleasant but in the best possible way. the feeling is so unfortunately relatable... that childish insecurity that makes you quick to judge and just as quick to regret it. like it's not just recognizing yourself in the other person it's this need to bring them down to your level, almost, only to realize as soon as you've done the horrible thing that you didn't need to do that at all, actually. holding the power over them as soon as you think you have it, and convincing yourself it's okay because the parts of them that you hate are the parts that remind you of yourself. but it's not okay it's just horrible! brutal!!!!

oh no i fear i will never recover from this!!!! WEN JUNHUI!!!!

Ship/Member: seokmin/jeonghan

Major Tags: fantasy au, reincarnation

Additional Tags: character death bc well lol, blood, mentions of violence

Permission to remix: yes

i started writing this with something else in mind but my permanent bbc merlin brain disease & my permanent arthurkyeom brain disease both did a number on me. i'm sorry and i hope jeonghan waiting for seokmin for more than 600 years makes up for it. <3

***

People have found love worth dying for ever since the beginning of time. If I can die for you, then I can live for you. I have no regrets. You have never cried before, don't cry for me.
Priest

seokmin shall fall very soon, as all kings should. as they all do at some point.

a younger jeonghan, a decade ago from here, used to be terrified of this moment. his sleep was plagued by nightmares of flames and smoke swallowing seokmin, of a sharp sword crossing seokmin's back and making its way out of his chest, of a soil red and wet with blood of the once and future king. in those nightmares, jeonghan screamed and cried pathetically in front of their kingdom's foes, an embarrassing mess of a boy who refused to accept his and his king's fate.

time, though, is the most powerful kind of magic. the only kind of magic jeonghan will never master. and what once would've brought him to his knees now is nothing but a painful rite of passage to him.

watching the fall of seokmin and his great kingdom hurts. jeonghan watches from the shadows as the battlefield turns into wreckage, bodies piling up and blood tinging everything -- soil, flags, weapons, other people's faces and hands and armor. he helps without being seen; saves knights without them ever noticing and plays tricks on the enemies to try and hold them back. despite knowing the outcome of this battle for years, jeonghan still tries to do some damage control. it's not enough.

at the top of the hill, seokmin fights magic with wit and strength. he swings his sword against invisible enemies and takes more hits than he has ever taken before. seokmin is the best warrior this land has seen and his skills are unrivaled but he is a fair man through and through and his enemies are the exact opposite of that.

and even if he were to play dirty, there's only so much one can do against fate.

chan shows his face only when the first rays of daylight start to adorn the dark sky above them with delicate shades of gold. the king is already on his knees.

somewhere in the woods behind the field that is bound to be seokmin's grave, jeonghan shivers. fully aware that the time has come.

“where is your wizard friend now, knight?” chan asks, mockingly resting the tip of his sword on seokmin's right shoulder. seokmin raises his head, defiantly stares at chan straight in the eyes. he's panting heavily and jeonghan knows that even without that final blow chan so desperately wants to give, seokmin won't be able to hold out much longer.

“he has more important battles to fight,” seokmin replies, spiteful until the very end. “i don't need him to fight mine.”

it almost breaks jeonghan's resolution.

the urge to stay is only suppressed by one thing, the undying truth that has brought them here: seokmin does need him. but not this seokmin, the one in the future, centuries from now.

chan looks at seokmin with disdain. “i'm tempted to believe you do, look at you.” he scoffs, slowly walking around seokmin and swinging his sword swiftly, putting on a performance of sorts. it's both graceful and pathetic. needless. everyone knows how this ends. “i guess you can blame this on your father as well. today you're atoning for his sins more than yours.”

“i've kept my promises,” seokmin says and his voice is filled with pride. it makes jeonghan smile -- it always does. “and i shall die with no regrets.”

chan sheaths the sword and when he speaks, his tone is surprisingly solemn.

“then die for once, knight.”

with a wave of chan's right hand, the light in seokmin’s eyes is gone. there’s no thunder and lightning, no fire, no smoke. just painful silence until seokmin’s body falls flat with an ugly sound, face to the floor where his own blood had painted an abstract picture of loyalty and courage throughout the night. it's different from jeonghan's nightmares but that doesn't make it any easier to witness.

it doesn't matter how the king dies, it matters that he's dead.

now jeonghan's hardest mission as the king's magician, confidant and longtime companion can finally begin.

🗡️

after the first 500 years, jeonghan stops searching. it is not a matter of hope; fate is inescapable. it is a matter of when but maybe their when is still very far away.

the longing never ceases but jeonghan learns to live with it, carries it around him like a cloak, allows it to knock him down once in a very long while just so he can get up again.

he keeps his promise.

he tells stories about seokmin, the once and future king, makes sure the memory resists the test of time and prepares the soil for his return.

jeonghan busies himself with magic, with people, with silence.

he learns how to change his appearance but is always too afraid to do it because this face of his is the face seokmin knows and jeonghan fears not being recognized.

for countless times throughout the centuries, jeonghan wishes he had someone to ask questions regarding this situation but, apparently, he is the only one to ever experience this. other wizards and mages have more questions than answers and, soon enough, jeonghan stops telling them the entire truth. turns out that he knows more than any other magical being has ever known; and yet, even after so much time, he feels like he's learned nothing.

🗡️

the endless wait makes jeonghan lower his guard. he stops looking for seokmin in every child and man that slightly resembles him.

the king will arrive when the king arrives.

and arrive he does at last.

the scorching sun above the street market punishes everyone with blinding brightness and high temperature. jeonghan walks slowly, hand protecting his eyes in an attempt to see anything in front of him. his own annoyed thoughts are buried under the noise coming from crowd buying and selling goods, people shouting one over the other in pure chaos.

sometimes jeonghan wonders how he came to like humanity so much.

as he makes his way to a calmer spot, a hand grabs him by the wrist and his annoyance rises. jeonghan turns around ready to be rude at someone for the first time in a long while but, before he does, a voice that he hasn't heard anywhere else except his own dreams for more than 600 years speaks.

“oh, finally!” seokmin singsongs. it's casual and carefree as if he hasn't been gone for centuries. jeonghan's heart jumps inside his chest and his knees almost fail him. the king, his king, speaks again. “thought i'd never find you!”

in the sky, as though orchestrated by fate itself, a thick cloud covers up the sun just in time for jeonghan to see seokmin smiling triumphantly at him. the heat and the noise disappear as jeonghan's eyes scan seokmin's face -- it's the same face he's known and loved and longed for. every mole in its rightful spot and he wants to place a kiss in every single one of them, loses himself a little at the thought.

the warm grip of seokmin's fingers around his wrist is what brings him back; it feels insufficient and unbearable all at once. if they hold each other right now, jeonghan knows he won't be able to let go, so he waits a little longer. such selflessness! if there's a heaven, this alone should earn him a nice spot over there.

“there you are!” jeonghan manages to say and his voice comes out surprisingly firm. being ancient does have its advantages. the smile he offers seokmin carries endless joy and an honesty that he doesn't think he will ever be able to convey with words. he hopes it's enough but if it isn’t, he has the rest of their lives to keep on trying. “i was almost giving up on you and going after someone else to show my little tricks to.”

Ship/Member: Wonwoo/Jeonghan
Major Tags: drunk confessions, bonus if jeonghan is the one that confesses and flirts but pretends it never happened when he's sober
Additional Tags: pining, light angst, not one-sided but one person is resistant
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

[ you asked to walk me home, but i had to carry you ]

Edited 2021-12-29 20:59 (UTC)

despite the constant need for assurance, like a desperate weed sapping the life from an already dying tree oh for some reason i really like this sentence. also cheol Has A Big Dick. he does he does. grr. poor jeonghan can never recover.

it is a truth that universally acknowledged that,

hello i'm in love with you thank you for this comment it made me fully lose my mind

Mingyu touches his face because his eyes feel funny. He’s sort of crying. He turns away. Out of the corner of one eye, he sees Seokmin come closer, raise his hands up, careful. nOT THE HEY HEY WHOA HORSE INTIMACY!!! oh christ. i had to reread this like forty-seven times because it needed to really sink in, the way it felt so grimy but there was something so honest there at the same time, like mingyu's perception of seokmin was hopeful enough that it rubbed off on me, even though actually the outcome looks pretty bleak. i'm always so impressed by the way you can set by a mood and this was no exception! thank you so much for sharing it with us ♡

ouch (adoringly)

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 25 of 73

2022 Round 1: Quotes

Re: [FILL] Throughout heaven and earth

Re: [FILL] Throughout heaven and earth

Re: [FILL] all we know (don't let go)

Re: love/loss languages

[FILL]: Like Giants

[REMIX] from blossom to impossible blossom

no subject

wonwoo in shorts eating a burger

Re: [FILL] let me push, let me shove

a thousand times i tempted fate

Re: [FILL] sick w/o you

[FILL] maybe we could all have dinner together

FILL: what's left of you

Re: [REMIX] from blossom to impossible blossom

Re: [FILL] Throughout heaven and earth

Re: [FILL] maybe we could all have dinner together

Re: [FILL] i (dis)like you

Re: [FILL]: Like Giants

[FILL] for tomorrow

pheobe bridgers bot is ruining my life

Re: FILL: what's left of you

Re: FILL: what's left of you

Re: [FILL] Throughout heaven and earth

Re: [FILL] This is not for tears

Re: [FILL] maybe we could all have dinner together