2022 Round 1: 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 "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! <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; 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. <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 DATES FAQ BAITS ✧ FILLS ✧ ❮ ROUND 1: QUOTES ❯ ROUND 2: ALTERNATE UNIVERSES ROUND 3: LAST WORDS

Comments

Re: [FILL] it's all good till the crescendo

[slytherminie]

i absolutely adored how sour this tastes. it's all about having loved and having lost and still finding yourself craving for what once was, despite still having someone else at your side that you love lots. it's beautiful!!!

Re: [FILL] held my breath for a decade

[slytherminie]

i love seokhoon SO MUCH. and i love how you portrayed Seokmin's feelings, uncertainty written in every interaction, afraid of reading too much between the lines even if he IS hopeful at the bottom of his silly little heart. oh, delightful.

[FILL] 겨우 (barely)

[nunssaum]

Ship/Member: jeonghan/wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: unrequited love, being on the other side of it, childhood friends, mentions of past relationships, ambiguous ending.
Permission to remix: Yes


***

“don’t take me home,” jeonghan says from the backseat. he doesn’t know why he had called wonwoo in the first place. he should have taken the bus home, ordered some chinese food and slept the day off. like it was any other day.

wonwoo meets his eyes through the rear view mirror for a brief moment, asking why without asking. why did you leave work early? are you okay? what did you need me for?

jeonghan wants to close his eyes and sleep this away. he wants to go back to his office and take the invitation he left there on purpose. “seungcheol is getting married next month.”

there he said it. a name he hasn’t spoken for the past two years. the world doesn’t fall silent like he had imagined. but that doesn’t mean he isn’t affected. it’s like a ghost that had been sleeping for a long time had woken up and he remembers all the haunting.

wonwoo looks at him once again, quick and studying. “oh,” is all he says. 

jeonghan closes his eyes and buries himself into the seat. “anywhere. it doesn’t matter. i don’t want to be home now.”

 

in his dream, he sees mingyu, a shattered plate on the floor, his fingers bleeding. then there is seungcheol, raised voices and slamming doors. he hears wonwoo calling his name.

when he wakes up, he finds himself three hours away from home. in gongjin. where the ocean waves sound like i like you, i like you, i like you.

 

the first thing jeonghan realizes is that he’s hungry. he doesn’t remember eating anything apart from the sandwich he shared with seokmin that morning. wonwoo drives them to the seafood restaurant that jeonghan likes.

jeonghan orders maeuntang for him and ramyeon for wonwoo because boy can’t even stand the fishy smell let alone eat something fish. “we could have eaten somewhere else.”

wonwoo pours water in a glass and pushes it towards jeonghan. “you loved their maeuntang last time we came here.”

the second thing jeonghan realizes is that seungcheol is somewhere at the back of his head. he isn’t going to vanish anytime soon. but with wonwoo in front of him, it doesn’t feel like his world is about to end tomorrow.

jeonghan looks out at the sea through the glass windows. it’s beautiful as he remembers it, the sun bleeding gold over the waters. it’s calming and daunting at the same time. the last time they were both here, wonwoo almost drowned in the very same place.

“i am sorry about the last time,” jeonghan says.

wonwoo turns to look out at the sea. to see what jeonghan is on about. he stays quiet for a couple of minutes. “aren’t you like, eight years late?” there is a small smile when wonwoo looks back at him and jeonghan takes it, lets himself relax in that familiarity.

 

at eighteen, jeonghan learns nothing good ever comes from playing pranks.

wonwoo isn’t the one to get fooled by his antics. he has known jeonghan long enough to see through jeonghan’s lies. one time when jeonghan falls into the water purposely to deceive wonwoo into thinking he’s drowning, jeonghan expects him to call him out from above. in case he really falls for it, to cry for help because he can’t swim.

wonwoo calls his name once, in panic. then the next thing jeonghan hears is the loud splash of water and the rest of the events are blurry in his memory. he doesn’t remember how he brings a passed-out wonwoo to the shore nor does he remember how much time it takes for wonwoo to gain consciousness. even when wonwoo wakes up, he doesn’t meet jeonghan’s eyes.

at some point, jeonghan holds back his tears because wonwoo is supposed to be the smart one between them, he shouldn’t have jumped into the water because something worse could have happened, he should have known that it was a prank—

“since when were you this gullible?” jeonghan turns to him, glaring, “even if i was really drowning, you can't jump into the water like that. this isn't a movie, wonwoo.”

jeonghan is being too much, he knows. if anyone should be mad and yelling, it should be wonwoo. jeonghan is the one responsible for wonwoo almost dying. but jeonghan is the one angry and asking questions because what fool believes him?

wonwoo, who is now curled up, knees drawn closer to his chest, looks down at the sand. his face doesn’t look like he’s mad anymore. that’s wonwoo, he doesn’t stay mad for more than fifteen minutes.

“i was scared. i didn’t think at all,” wonwoo’s voice shakes a little. he must be still in shock and jeonghan feels so bad. they don’t say anything for a while because jeonghan lets what happened to sink in and wonwoo looks like he has more to say. then wonwoo looks up at jeonghan, meeting his eyes and says something with a sad smile, in a very quiet voice. jeonghan almost doesn’t hear it over the sound of waves crashing behind him.

(he hears it clearly even in its quiet but he doesn’t let those words take root in his heart. he carries them gently in his hands, puts them down and lets the waves take them far away from him.)

 

when it comes to love, jeonghan thinks he’s always afraid; that he’s too much. that he is giving too little—afraid of not being enough.

eventually, the word love became too heavy for him to carry.

 

“do you wanna go watch the sea?” wonwoo asks after they finish eating.

jeonghan doesn’t say no.

 

they say the water remembers. when jeonghan lets the first of the many waves gather at his feet, he is back to that day. he turns to look at wonwoo a little far away watching him.

suddenly wonwoo is that sixteen year old boy from years ago. with his knees drawn closer to his chest, he smiles at jeonghan, his eyes sad. even when he doesn’t say anything, jeonghan hears the waves.

i like you.

i like you, hyung.

[FILL] wanted to pull me closer

[symbolised]

Ship/Member: Seokmin/Minghao
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: non-idol au
Permission to remix: please ask

***

Looking at Seokmin for too long is like looking directly into the sun.

Minghao met him on a Thursday in October, close to Chuseok. He’d just moved to Seoul for university and found himself in a crammed apartment with Junhui. He’d started taking walks for air, and then to take photos and videos once he’d upgraded his phone and camera. That’s how he met Mingyu, and then, Seokmin. They all had nowhere to go for the holidays. Minghao didn’t really celebrate, Mingyu said something about not being welcome at home and Seokmin had given a non-answer, so they’d all stayed, crammed themselves into Mingyu’s slightly larger apartment.

Mingyu was loud, boisterous, and Junhui could be too, so together with soju it was…a lot. Seokmin could hold his own but he had a gentleness to him that Minghao could see and feel. He looked at Minghao like he was interesting, like he was a real person, which is something that hadn’t happened in a while. People in the city minded their own business, which was nice for the most part, but made Minghao feel a little crazy sometimes. Like he was invisible.

Seokmin never made him feel that way.

—

“I can’t believe you took all of these,” Seokmin says, flipping through the album on Minghao’s phone. Minghao sits next to him, smiling, pleased in that warm way, how he imagines a cat feels when it stretches in the sun.

“You think they’re good?”

“Ah, Myungho, I think they’re amazing!” Seokmin falls back on the bed dramatically, smiles his bright smile at Minghao and laughs. Minghao laughs too, helpless to do anything else.

“You’re too nice Seok-ah.” He leans down carefully, leaving the length of a hand between them on the bed. He looks at Seokmin’s profile for a moment, his jaw, the strong line of his nose, and holds back a sigh. He’s not lovesick. He’s not a teenage girl in one of those dramas Junhui watches to “improve his Korean.” He’s an adult. He can handle having a slight crush on his friend.

Seokmin turns to look at him, smiles again, but there’s a sad tilt to it this time. “I’ll miss you when you’re gone,” he says softly, so softly it makes Minghao’s breath catch.

He’s only going for the holiday break. It’s the first time he’ll be back in China in two years. He misses his mom. He misses his dad. He misses everything, really, but he’ll miss Seokmin too.

“I’ll come back,” he says, reaches out to touch Seokmin’s cheek. Seokmin holds his hand there, grip gentle, gentle. “You know that? I’ll come back.”

Seokmin doesn’t answer, just turns his head to kiss the center of Minghao’s palm. Minghao flushes, warmth spreading through him like the first step outside in the spring sun.

Re: we had our turn but it can't stay [FILL]

[greycheonsa]

Ship/Member: jicheol
Tags: canonverse, post-disbandment, mentions of domestic violence (as a fact of life, but it doesn't happen to/between any of the main characters and is not explicitly described) and societal homophobia.
Permission to remix: Please ask

i'm physically incapable of writing anything else for 17hols besides jicheol i guess. this is... maybe less anger and hurt than you wanted but i hope this suffices. ao3 fic in comments if i repost later!

***

seungcheol is forty-one. he has a girlfriend (it seems too juvenile to call her that when she's thirty-six and they've been together for four years, but he doesn't have anything else to call her yet. the ring box he'd bought eight months ago sits in the cup of his first place 2006 daegu youth taekwondo tournament trophy in the little awards cabinet where he stores the accolades he's been allowed to keep. he's still waiting for the right time to take it out.) jiae is an attorney who works with women affected by abuse and domestic violence. the pay is garbage for the amount of work she puts in and the stress he sees under her eyes every night, but she takes pride in the work she does. he takes pride in knowing that he can take care of her at the end of the day.

she's a better person than he will ever be.

he says as much to jihoon, who just laughs, taking another drink from his bottle of cola.

they don't meet up very often - a far cry from seventeen codependency rumors! that used to follow them in their 20s - but seungcheol makes it a point to try to spend time with everyone one-on-one at least once a year. of course, he sees some of them more often: mingyu goes to the same gym as him, soonyoung likes to call him up to go drinking, and jeonghan likes to pop in at random intervals whenever he gets bored of hanging out with his cows. some of the others are a little harder to get ahold of, like chan and junhui, but they always text back.

and jihoon...

he sees jihoon once every few months, which is more often than he thought he would when they went on indefinite hiatus (which really means they're not getting back together to make music until their twenty-fifth anniversary or something.) even when they were actively promoting he and jihoon didn't spend all that much of their free time together. jihoon was often whisked away by soonyoung, being same-aged friends, and seungcheol found more emotional solace in jeonghan and wonwoo. there was a time early on when they were attached at the hip, bonds forged by fire that still couldn't be broken, but seungcheol tries not to think too much about the schism that formed between them shortly before debut and never truly went away.

in some ways, they're the closest - the only one i'd consider my real brother, jihoon had said once - but sometimes jihoon feels like he's a thousand miles away even when they're in the same room.

"you should propose to her already," jihoon grouses, poking at the remnants of his cup ramyun. "oppa, has seungcheol-oppa mentioned anything?" he pitches his voice up in a poor approximation of a feminine tone. "one of my friends got engaged last weekend, and i'm the last one left but we've been dating the longest!"

seungcheol pushes at jihoon's shoulder, rolling his eyes. "you know i have the ring. i just--"

"don't know when to do it, i know." jihoon rolls his eyes. "you think she doesn't know? just put us all out of our misery, hyung. what are you waiting for?"

seungcheol finishes off the rest of his beer instead of answering. he's never had a good answer for that question, and he's fielded it for ages.

he doesn't not want to marry her. every future he can possibly think of includes her by his side. maybe a kid or two - he's always liked them, and he has all the time in the world to be a house husband.

he loves her. 

she's a bit like jihoon, in some ways. extremely driven, bad with sudden change, not the greatest at starting a conversation but could talk for hours about whatever their primary passion is. they have the same twinkle in their eyes when they realize that the person they're talking to actually gives a shit about what they have to say.

maybe that's why they get along so well.

maybe there's the codependency. none of them would ever have felt truly comfortable dating someone that the rest of the members didn't like, and he doubts that any potential significant others would've wanted to stick around if they didn't like the rest of them. they've gone through it with almost everyone - first with a girlfriend of jeonghan's in their late 20s who didn't like that he kept talking about the rest of them all the time, with minghao's now-wife seven years ago, and most recently a girl seokmin started seeing a few months ago. seungcheol remembers looking to the others when he first brought jiae around after they'd been together for a year, remembers the weight off his chest when jihoon said i like her, hyung. i hope she sticks around. i think she's good for you.

seungcheol's met a couple of people that jihoon's been involved with over the years, but he's never introduced anyone to the group at large. seungcheol's never asked why, but soonyoung's lamented about it more than once.

hyung, don't you think jihoon is lonely? he's always been such a romantic, but why do you think he's never been able to find anyone? all he does is hide in his studio and make divorce music.

jihoon points at one of the green bottles on the table between them. "you got any glasses? pour me some."

seungcheol raises an eyebrow. "since when did you drink?"

"maybe i just feel like it."

seungcheol digs out a couple of shot glasses from the kitchen cabinet and pours jihoon a quarter-shot before he fills his own. they clink glasses and seungcheol downs his shot while jihoon scowls at his before tipping his head back. jihoon's face screws up from the taste; seungcheol chuckles as the younger sets the glass back down.

he's quiet for a bit, playing with the glass in his hands. seungcheol waits.

"seungcheol. you--i--we--remember all those years ago?"

seungcheol nods. how could he possibly forget his first love?

"sometimes i wonder about what could've happened if i didn't say stop."

jihoon doesn't look him in the eye, but seungcheol knows the face he's making well - lips pursed, little dimple in his cheek poking in. it hasn't changed much since they first met over two decades ago.

the words trigger a floodgate of feelings, moments, memories - all things that seungcheol had neatly packed up in a box and shoved into the back of his brain years ago. put aside, but never lost or forgotten.

they never could have been anything when they were young. it would've meant career suicide and made them social pariahs, and the power of young love was nothing in the face of everything else they'd been working so hard for. the feelings never truly went away, but seungcheol learned to compartmentalize, learned to appreciate the relationship that he and jihoon had for what it was.

he knew some of the other members were involved with each other to varying degrees, but he and jihoon never crossed that line, an unspoken agreement that it would take them somewhere they couldn't walk back from. it certainly wasn't for lack of desire - seungcheol lost count of the times his shapeless handjob fantasies suddenly morphed into having jihoon's fingers, his smile, his eyes. he wonders if that was the case for jihoon, too.

maybe ten years ago they might've tried something, when seventeen the group was on the decline and korea started becoming a little more accepting of gay relationships. maybe one of them should've said something when they no longer needed to worry so much about what other people might think. maybe one of them shouldn't have been so afraid of change. maybe then, they'd be having a different conversation instead of the one they're having now.

if this were a movie, seungcheol thinks, this would probably be the part where he captures jihoon's lips in a passionate kiss and they ride off into the sunset, consequences be damned. but this is real life and their lives are what they are, as much as he might want to think about the what ifs.

"jihoonie," seungcheol says, reaching out to cover jihoon's hand with his own atop the table and ignoring the way his voice is a little too thick. "thank you for trusting me."

jihoon's lips quirk up a little at the corners, but there's something still so distant in his eyes. "you don't need to be so sappy with me. i've had a long time to get over it."

are you over it? seungcheol wants to ask. i don't know if i was ever truly over you.

"i'll still sing at your wedding, though. i promised jiae i would. she's giving me free reign to choose the song, y'know?"

"promised? why are you making plans for my wedding without me?" seungcheol whines. jihoon's taking this a little too well, but he doesn't want to--can't pry now, not when he's certain jihoon just wants to move on from this tonight.

"i keep telling you, she's five steps ahead of you. she's way too good for you, hyung."

he's right, of course. "well, if there's anyone who's going to sing at my wedding, i would definitely want it to be you, jihoonie."

"don't tell seungkwan. he'd be devastated."

he sees jihoon off to his taxi, promising that he'll pop the question soon as he hugs jihoon tight.

if it were seokmin, they'd throw out casual i love yous before departing. since it's jihoon, he just smiles and watches the black cab leave before heading back inside.

he takes the ring box out from the cabinet, opening it up just to check that the ring is still in there. it's simple, five small diamonds in a row like she'd shown him, but it sparkles in the dim light nonetheless.

seungcheol snaps the box closed and hides it in his underwear drawer before heading to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

he'll do it this weekend.

 

 

seungcheol doesn't know when he fell in love with jihoon, but he distinctly remembers the day jihoon broke his heart.

it started and ended with a kiss. he and jihoon kissed - well, more than once, and there's grainy video to prove it (i'm taking jihoonie's first kiss!) - but they kissed once behind closed doors and it meant something.

they were sixteen and seventeen and to this day seungcheol has no idea how they ended up like this, but jihoon was sitting in his lap and seungcheol had his hands on jihoon's waist and it was objectively an awful kiss, no finesse and misaligned but it was seungcheol's first kiss with someone he thought he might actually love, and that made everything seem perfect.

until jihoon jerked his head back, cheeks red and chest heaving. "we can't--we shouldn't," he stammered, hands curling into fists over seungcheol's t-shirt. "hyung, i--sorry, i--"

"you're right," seungcheol said, ignoring the way his chest twisted up tight alongside the cotton jersey. "even if we're not... like that, hyung will always be here for you. you know that, right?"

"yeah," jihoon replied, a soft exhale as he rested his forehead against seungcheol's shoulder. seungcheol swore he could hear jihoon's heartbeat, too fast but just the same as his own. "me too. always."

Re: you've never seen a devotion so stubborn & foolhardy

[greycheonsa]

;; thank you!! yes, i think coups really has aspects of both but it really is a matter of which part will show its face in any given situation.

[FILL] 画蛇添足

[arcsecond]

Ship/Member: Junhui/Minghao
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: vaguely canonverse, projecting my personal pain onto wen junhui
Permission to remix: Yes

sorry op for hijacking your prompt part 2... not a single part of this fill relates to any other part of it

***

Junhui gets canker sores in his mouth often. Wo you shang huo le, he’ll whine to Minghao, opening his mouth up wide and jabbing at the puffy, inflamed insides of his oral cavity no matter how many times Minghao makes it clear it’s not a very pleasant sight to see. Little white pus-filled circles ringed around the edge in a vicious scarlet. Just looking at them makes the skin on the inside of Minghao’s cheeks sting a little.

Again? Minghao will ask, not even pretending to be surprised. Any old lady off the street back home could tell Junhui that it was because he eats too much spicy food, especially in Seoul’s more temperate climate. But Junhui never listens. It’s because my body constitution type is bad, is his perpetual excuse, to which Minghao can’t help but fire back with then stop eating things that don’t match with your body constitution!

Did he apply ointment to the sores? He did, but then he licked it off. Did he try eating more cold foods? He would, but he’s suddenly picked up an irrational fear of cucumbers. Did he at least try drinking chrysanthemum tea? He will if Minghao makes it for him.

This is how Minghao finds himself boiling tiny dried flowers in a strainer at two in the morning every other week, watching the petals slowly unfurl.

Last week, in the waiting room half an hour before their last music show performance before their promotions ended, Junhui had been playing a game on his phone with his legs stretched out to the other end of the couch and his head pillowed on one of Minghao’s thighs. Minghao had been resisting the urge to comb an aimless hand through Junhui’s already-styled hair and valiantly trudging through the Korean translation of a novel originally written in Chinese, pretending that he didn’t desperately want to switch to the original version instead.

Just as he was about to set the book down and pull up Taobao, Junhui let out a loud cry of despair. LEVEL FAILED was all Minghao could see on the screen before Junhui dropped it onto his stomach with a sigh. Then, without missing a beat, he looked up at Minghao and asked, “Why do you never bring me to museums with you?”

“Huh?”

“You always ask Wonwoo, or Hansol, or Mingyu to go with you,” Junhui pointed out. “But never me.”

Minghao hadn’t known what to say, at first, to what was an objectively correct observation. He finally settled on, “You wouldn’t like it.”

“You don’t know that,” said Junhui. “I could love it.”

But Minghao already knew he wouldn't. He’d do a very good job of pretending to, for Minghao’s sake, but he wouldn’t really enjoy it for himself.

Still, Minghao said, “Okay. I’ll ask you next time, then.”

---

“If you complain too much I’ll send you home early,” Minghao threatens. Jokingly.

“Promise I won’t,” says Junhui, holding his pinky out. Minghao completes the connection. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

This time it’s some contemporary abstract art museum he’d found on Instagram. He’d shown Mingyu the profile and Mingyu had laughed, eyes shooting open wide as he covered his mouth with his hand. “You’re taking Jun-hyung there?” he’d asked. “That’s like throwing him straight into hard mode.”

“Art is art,” Minghao had grumbled. He’d wanted to visit, and Junhui had wanted to come with him. So they’d both get what they wanted.

True to his word, Junhui doesn’t complain at all. He follows Minghao around obediently and takes a billion pictures on his phone and pulls Minghao into blurry selfies and reads all of the borderline incomprehensible descriptions on the wall and asks engaging questions like he really cares about what Minghao thinks about all of this art, all the way up until they’re about to exit the last exhibit. It’s a different experience from going with Wonwoo, who brings two lenses for his DSLR and takes discerning pictures with the quiet click of the shutter going off in the background, or Hansol, who bounces off Minghao’s comments with observations of his own, or Mingyu, who takes it all in quietly and then argues with Minghao about it on the way home, but Minghao finds he enjoys it all the same.

“What’s this one supposed to be?” asks Junhui, pointing at the last piece on the last wall.

Minghao loves art. He believes in the value of every piece, no matter how simple or silly it may seem. He always tries to scope out the artist’s meaning and intention, careful eyes picking out each careful detail, and thinks of his own personal connection to it.

But sometimes he has to admit that he truly doesn’t know.

“No clue,” he says, and laughs.

An hour later finds them at a restaurant they stumble across on the way back from the museum. After the hotpot goes cold enough for the oils to float to the top of the broth and Junhui wins the obligatory fight over the bill by slapping his card down on the plastic tray first and quickly ushering the waiter away before Minghao can even argue, Minghao slumps down into his side of the booth and rubs his belly, feeling the heat from the soup spread through his body. Junhui had wanted their spiciest mala broth, as usual. He’ll be complaining to Minghao about another canker sore soon.

“I like you a lot,” Minghao tells him. Junhui’s still drinking the broth like it’s water. “You know that, right?”

Junhui sets his bowl down to blink at him. “Are you saying this because I treated you?”

“Because you treated me? I was supposed to treat you!”

Junhui laughs. “I like having you in my debt, Xiao Hao.”

Minghao makes a face. “So I can make you more tea?”

Junhui laughs again. He rests his elbows on the table and cups his face in his hands, uncaring of the thin film of oil covering his palms. “Because I like you a lot too.”

“You didn’t have to come today,” Minghao says, feeling warm. He thinks about the color of sunlight seeping into freshly boiled water and dried, wrinkly petals turning sleek and soft once again.

“But did you like that I did?” asks Junhui.

The answer, surprisingly—or unsurprisingly—is yes. Minghao nods and receives a lazy, satisfied smile from Junhui in return. Mouth curled up at the edges like a cat out in the sun.

“Then I’m glad,” says Junhui. “I liked it a lot. It’s always fun hanging out with you, Xiao Hao.” He pauses. “Let’s go to a different place next time, though.”

Minghao barks out a surprised laugh and agrees. Next time, they’ll go somewhere else.

Re: FILL: what's left of you

[infrequencies]

<3

[FILL]: call me pretty, please

[slytherminie]

Ship/Member: Seungcheol/Jeonghan/Joshua
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: implied sexual content, praise kink, cheol just wants to be called pretty, jihan evil twins
Permission to remix: Yes

there was a silly little evil seed planted in my head ever since i saw this prompt and i physically couldn't stop myself. excuse moi.
***

Since he was young, Seungcheol has always been told that he’s pretty.

“You’re so pretty, Seungcheol-ah,” his aunties used to say, pinching his cheeks. “Look at these cute little dimples.”

“You’re so pretty, oppa,” his girlfriend in middle school used to tell him, kissing his cheek. “Look at your eyelashes. I wish mine were long like yours.”

“You’re so pretty, hyung” Jihoon huffed against him on one of the first days they were sitting together in the melona room, sounding as if he was annoyed by that fact. “Your face was made for this shit.”

“You’re so pretty,” everyone used to say, until he grew up, until he hit puberty and his body started to change, until he was shaped into a man, muscles filling his shirts and pants, his face sharpening, losing its baby fat.

Until he met Yoon Jeonghan, and then everyone started calling him pretty.

Seungcheol has eyes; he knows that Jeonghan is pretty, in the effortless way that only he can be.

In the way that his wide shoulders don’t look too masculine even when he’s wearing a suit, in the way his narrow waist seems made to be held by big hands - Seungcheol stares, as Joshua’s large palms wrap around the curve of Jeonghan’s hips, stares at the way Jeonghan tilts his head back to rest it against Joshua’s shoulder and laughs.

Maybe Jeonghan’s laugh is the only thing that isn’t pretty about him, but even then, his sweet voice makes up for it. Even the way he yells is pretty, or well, at least cute.

“Jeonghan hyung is so pretty,” Soonyoung used to marvel during their debut days, staring at long hair and a saccharine sweet smile. “He can really pull this off.”

And Soonyoung was right, Jeonghan could. His hair stayed long for a while longer, and all Seungcheol wanted was to run his fingers through it, pull it not so gently. He wanted Jeonghan to look at him, really look at him.

He wanted to be called pretty, as well. And he wanted the word to come out of Jeonghan’s mouth.

It wasn’t jealousy. It wasn’t jealousy, of that Seungcheol was sure.

Maybe envy; for the way Jeonghan could just sit there, staring off into space, and look ethereal and pretty, a vision of grace and beauty.

Joshua caught up on it faster than Seungcheol wished, when he still didn’t know as many words in Korean as he does now, when he still liked to pretend that he was gentle and sweet, and not the menace that he really is.

“Oh, Cheol-ah, you look good in that shirt,” Joshua used to say, and then, “You’re handsome,” “You’re cute,” “You’re the best, Cheol-ah. So charming.”

Searching for the right word, eyes always round, innocent, as if he wasn’t conducting a social experiment at the expense of Seungcheol’s pride. As if he didn’t gain joy in watching him blush and sputter at the compliments, always ducking his face to avoid the sharpness of his gaze.

In the end, it was Jeonghan who guessed the right word.

“So pretty, our Cheollie,” Jeonghan cooed one morning, hugging him from behind as he and Joshua sat together to have breakfast. Seungcheol froze in his embrace, holding his breath, and the spark in Joshua’s eyes became so bright that Seungcheol thought he would combust on the spot. “Isn’t he, Shuji?”

“So pretty,” Joshua agreed easily, smiling like a cat who got the mouse, and the cream, and whatever else cats like. “The prettiest.”

Jeonghan caught up on it fast, because his brain is just as pretty as the rest of him.

And well, it snowballed from there. Leave it to Joshua and Jeonghan to team up against him, cheeky as always. Leave it to them, to peal him apart and put him back together just by using their words, gentle compliments and a choruses of “oh, pretty, so pretty, all for us,” whispered between Seungcheol’s hair, between his parted legs, in his bed, in theirs, in toilets, wherever they could catch a small break.

“So pretty, our Cheollie,” Jeonghan says again, and again, and again.

“So pretty,” Joshua echoes back, as they kneel in front of him and stare up at the hem of the tight mini skirt they made him wear just for their own pleasure.

And well, who is Seungcheol to refute them?

How can he, when Jeonghan, the prettiest man on the planet, calls him pretty?

How can he, when Joshua’s big hands travel up the expanse of his thighs to peel his knee-high socks down, to tug at the zipper of the skirt, slow, deliberate.

Who is he, to refute their attention, when all he wants is to be called pretty?

Re: [FILL]: call me pretty, please

[infrequencies]

you would think i would know better than to open my eyes in the middle of the night and open my laptop next but i SENSED THIS and i'm dead now you've killed me tell seungcheol he's pretty >:(

Re: [FILL] it's all good till the crescendo

[fleurissons]

this is so beautiful and vivid!

Mingyu, with his golden skin and the charming way he used to lisp Jeonghan's name, believed in eternal summers. Lived in a sleepy town where everyone was young and beautiful and the sun set on the same brilliant, saturated day, forever. -- going to be thinking about this description of mingyu for a long, long time.
and: Kim Mingyu was the heaving, cresting middle, the crescendo— and now he's gone. ;____; hhhrgghhhh.

jeonghan being spiteful at the end reminds me a lot of habit's lyrics i rather wish you were having a hard time / i want you to think of me...

thank you for writing this!!

he is me and i am him

[lovelibrary]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags:
Do Not Wants: Major character death, sad/ambiguous endings

Prompt:

“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”

― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“He was like a heart that was beating in every pore of my body. His heart was beating in my heart. His heart was beating in my head. His heart was beating in my stomach. His heart was beating in my legs. His heart was beating in my arms, my hands, my fingers. His heart was beating in my tongue, my lips. No wonder I was trembling.”

― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World

please do go crazy go stupid with these prompts !! i just want them to be madly in Love .. and Alive :D

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

[fleurissons]

wow feeling a bit insane rn. it went in a direction that had me like... i didn't see that coming but i should have. the guilt!!! shoving everything down deep!!! so awful in the best ways. thank you for this whoa

[FILL] it's the eye of the tiger

[hwarium]

Ship/Member: Hoshi/J-Hope (yes you read that right)
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: everytime someone says horanghae he gets stronger, crack/comedy, the horanghaefication of dante’s inferno
Permission to remix: Yes ahaha you can try

***

It starts on December 27, 2021. J-Hope instagrams a porcelain tiger, caption:

HoRanghae 🐯

On December 27, 2021. Soonyoung goes to the gym with Jihoon, and breaks his personal best on the bench press.

Not his own record, Jihoon’s. 85kgs. 190 pounds.

“What the fuck,” Jihoon says, in his black sleeveless muscle tee and tiny gym shorts, “How the fuck.” A vein on his bicep trembles delicately.

Soonyoung looks at his hands, “I think I can take another 5.”

“No this is impossible,” Jihoon turns to their trainer, “What did you give him. Steroids? Coffee?"

Jaewoo eyes the weight stack, “You’re in great condition Soonyoung, how about adding 10?”

Jihoon gets out his phone and calls Seungcheol.


///


They come home from the gym and Jisoo pushes past him like an American bully in a high school movie where all the actors are in their twenties.

"Hyung!" Soonyoung yelps, "Whats the rush."

Jisoo smiles at him but his eyes are narrowed. Soonyoung's not sure what he should look at for social cues. He chooses the mouth, Jisoo is a nice guy. The nicest hyung.

"Heard you beat Jihoon at the bench Soonie-ah," Jisoo purrs. Soonyoung notices his immaculate posture, oh wow hyung's pecs look great in that white shirt. And those grey sweatpants are doing wonders for —

"Ah yes haha," Soonyoung scratches the back of his neck, "Jaewoo said I was in a great condition."

"Great condition?" Jisoo's voice cracks at the end, a high pitched squeak that he coughs down. "95kg? With those puny arms," he adds breathlessly, voice a pained whisper.

"Sorry I missed the last part?"

"I mean," Jisoo's smile grows even sweeter, "How do you feel about another round? Hyung needs a workout buddy and if you're in a great condition..."

"Aha," Soonyoung shuffles back a bit, "I'd love to hyung but I need to meet Hobi at the studio later -"

"Just one set Soonyoung, I'll buy you ice cream."

"Um... I ate already."

"You can borrow my tiger jacket. The Paco Rabanne one."

"The furry one?"

"Yes, the furry one," Jisoo's eyes glint, "And if you beat my record, you can keep it. How about that?"


///


"Dude, nice jacket!"

"Thanks! It was a gift," Soonyoung beams. He only spent 5 minutes in the gym before rushing back to the HYBE building. He didn't want to be late his first time inside the Hope World studio. There was work to do, music to create, money to make et cetera. "Wearing it gets me in the zone.”

"Thanks for agreeing to feature. I wanted to do a tiger theme for next mixtape and knew you had to be in it." Hoseok spins around in his chair and started clicking around his computer, "Seokjin loves you by the way, Beomju showed him the horanghae song when they went fishing. It inspired him to make Super Tuna. So many years in the industry and he didn’t realise there was music that could touch your soul like that. Authenticity.” Hoseok smacks a chef’s kiss into the air.

"Horangi power?"

"No the original horanghae, the one you made on vlive," Hoseok clicked something and a loud autotune HORANG HAAEEE boomed from all directions, every single speaker enjoined in heavenly chorus. Hoseok wipes his eyes, "so beautiful.”

"Are we filming an MV for this?" Soonyoung asks. His limbs were itching, choreography already speeding through his mind. Hoseok was an amazing dancer and if they combined their brains they could make something great. Something so fantastic, SuperM's Tiger Inside would feel like a prequel.

"Absolutely, I can pass on ideas to the concept team."

"I want to ride a tiger, the biggest tiger possible."

"No problem our CGI team is dope, it'll be like Idol. Flashy, loud.”

"10 tigers? Can there be 10 of me dancing on 10 tigers? Fighting 8 dragons?"

"Can't see why not."

"Oh, oh!" Soonyoung bounces in his seat, "Can we have Lightning McQueen?"

"The...designer?" Hoseok furrows his brows.

"No the car. From the movie, Cars. It's my favourite movie," Soonyoung grins "After winning the dance battle against the dragons, I want to turn into a tiger, parachute into Lightning McQueen, and drive into the sunset."

Hoseok cups his chin, deep in thought, "There might be a problem with copyright, but we can ask HYBE to buy Pixar, just for a month. Otherwise it'll blow our budget."

"That sounds perfectly logical," Soonyoung snaps his fingers, "Can we buy SM and get NCT as back up dancers?"

"Woah woah, slow down down tiger, let's make the song first."

Sparks tingle up Soonyoung's spine, electric and extraordinary. His brain seems to fire up and energy flashes into his fingertips. He feels like he could lift up a building or run 10 miles.

"What did you just call me?"

"Tiger? It's just an expression -"

Sparks, electricity, flashes. Soonyoung flexes his fingers. "I like that." The fluorescent lights above them flicker.


///


“Soonyoung-ah!” A voice rings behind him. Soonyoung spins around just as the lift doors starts to close. He sticks a hand out and Bang Si Hyuk stumbles inside.

“Bang PD-nim!” Soonyoung bows. Bang PD flaps his hand at the formalities, “Don’t mind don’t mind. The face ID for these lifts never work for me…”

“Ahaha is that so, Jeonghan has the same problem,” Soonyoung bows again, just for good luck and proper manners.

“I have an excellent feeling for your collaboration with Hoseok,” Bang PD smiles, “Very timely, with the year of the tiger and all. Great merchandise potential, tiger versions of BTS, oh, you and J-Hope first of course. We’ll time it with the mixtape drop… make a Mcdonalds meal and an Samsung theme song and —”

Soonyoung perks up, “Tiger versions of me?”

“Yes yes,” Bang PD nods, “I believe in the western market they are called, hmm, fursonas. Very lucrative, yes.” The elevator starts to slow down and Bang PD leans in, “One more thing, excuse me if I’m presumptuous but since you’re the authority on this…”

Soonyoung glances around the empty lift before leaning in as well. Is this the part where the CEO finally recognises his talent and gives him NCT as back up dancers?

“Would it be appropriate to say, bangranghae?”


///


“Hyung, did you get taller?”

Soonyoung looks to his left. It’s Minghao, styling clips still in his hair and bare-faced, joining him at the television to watch the news broadcast. Nothing seems off, he’s looking to Minghao at eye level.

“No?”

“I’m wearing heels hyung.”

Soonyoung looks down. That’s true. Minghao is in these fashionable leather heels with a split toe. It makes him look like a cow, but Soonyoung’s not going to say that out loud. Minghao’s been sensitive lately, something about the fengshui and the qi being off.

" — thank you to all citizens of the Republic of Korea. We would not have made it through this difficult year without your tenacity and spirit," on the television, Moon Jae-in bows his head, broadcasting from the Presidential Office.

“Oh, you’re right,” Soonyoung turns to scan Minghao up and down, “I guess I’m still young and spritely, hohoho.”

“These are 7cm heels,” Minghao squints, “You’re 27 years old. I swear last week you weren’t this tall.” He stretches his neck back, “Hey Mingyu, come over here!”

“Mmph?” Mingyu perks up from a pile of clothes in the corner, like a corpse from the grave, “What?”

“We’re using you as a yardstick. I think Soonyoung’s grown.”

“— I wish you all a warm, cheerful Lunar New Year —”

Mingyu grumbles but he makes his way across the waiting room. On the way, he trips over Wonwoo and causes two more members to look in their direction. Soonyoung shuffles so that he’s back to back with Mingyu, squares his shoulders and straightens his back.

“Huh,” Minghao says, on the tips of his toes, “No not quite, Mingyu’s taller.”

“— and a blessed year of the tiger —”

“Aren’t they around the same?” Wonwoo contributes.

“No Mingyu’s definitely tal—”

“— horanghae!”

“...”

“Was that —”

“Did the President just…”

“...Yep.”

“Oh my god,” Minghao gasps, stumbling backwards, “Soonyoung’s taller than Mingyu.”


///


“Report,” Seungcheol taps two fingers on the coffee table. The members have assembled in the living room with Seungcheol sitting on the sofa like a yakuza boss. Soonyoung is kneeling on the floor like a criminal about to be executed. He opens his mouth.

“Wait,” Seungcheol holds out his hand, “where’s Jihoon.”

“He’s barricaded himself inside Universe Factory,” Vernon speaks up, “He says only true counter-revolutionaries can enter.”

Seungcheol snaps his fingers, “Minghao go get him.”

“Um, Minghao is with him.”

“Wonwoo.”

“Wonwoo too,” Seungkwan verbally rolls his eyes so heard you can hear don’t you know who is in the anti horanghae squad.

Seungcheol slaps the table with a bang. The room falls silent. “Okay. Seungkwan,” his voice is cold, “We’re not starting this meeting until everyone is here.”

15 very awkward minutes later, the three of them shuffle in behind Seungkwan and their manager, Younghwan.

“Okay where were we.”

Soonyoung opens his mouth.

“No not you,” Seungcheol points at Seokmin, “Report.”

“Sir — I, I mean. Hyung,” Seokmin jerks into a half bow and stops himself, freezing at an angle, “I went to 7-11 to buy ice cream and they were selling valentines day stuff. All, all the greeting cards said horanghae.”

“It’s trending on naver,” Seungkwan interjects, “It’s beating shingi banggi bboong bboong banggi.”

From somewhere in the corner, Jeonghan splutters.

Jun holds out his phone with both hands. Wonwoo leans over and presses play. APINK is doing a vlive, all six of them curling their fingers in cute claws, “Pink Pandas, horanghae~,” they echo.

Chan falls to his knees, gasping for air.

“Excuse me,” Younghwan coughs, “Lee Soo Man called. He wants Hoshi to headline SM Town. He’s going to center Tiger Inside with TVXQ as back-up dancers. Keone Madrid will choreograph.”

“What about Super-M?” Seungcheol asks.

“They’re in charge of the fan chant.”

“Bruno Mars just tweeted,” Seungkwan clutches his phone with a shaking hand, “and I quote, Hoshi is my favourite Seventeen member.”

Jihoon faints.

Seungcheol stares at Jihoon, then looks at Soonyoung. He crosses his arms, “this needs to stop.”

Soonyoung’s heartbeat pounds in his ears. There’s been something thrummig under his skin for more than a month, and he feels like a balloon about to burst, like his body is drawn tight over a ball of energy.

“Soonyoung? What do you have to say for yourself?”

Soonyoung flexes his hand, makes eye contact with Seungcheol, thinks of Avengers Endgame, and snaps his fingers.

Seungcheol disappears in a puff of smoke, his clothes collapse in a heap on the crowd. The room bursts into chaos. Jihoon, already on the floor, rolls over to poke at the bundle. It moves, Seungkwan screeches, and everyone runs back. A few tense seconds later, something small crawls out.

“You turned Seungcheol into a hamster!” Minghao yells.

“Cool,” says Vernon.

“He was a capitalist anyway,” mutters Seungkwan.

Soonyoung looks at his hand again, and looks up. The first person he sees is Minghao. “What am I?”

“Excuse me?” Minghao scrunches his face.

“What am I, Minghao? Tell me.”

“You’re human?”

“Wrong answer.” Soonyoung snaps his fingers. Minghao disappears. Another hamster appears on the floor, frozen in shock, then turns to scurry under the sofa. Soonyoung turns to Jeonghan.

“I’m —, you’re my favourite dongsaeng!” Jeonghan declares.

“Really!” Soonyoung beams, “I knew it.”

“Wait I thought Seungk —” Chan’s voice breaks off into a muffle. Seungkwan, in a marvellous display of agility, had leapt across the room to slam a hand over his mouth.

“Oh Chan,” Soonyoung redirects his attention, “if you had to do a Seventeen visual ranking again —”

“You’ll be first, Hoshi number 1!” Chan scrambles backwards, and after a beat, “Seungkwan is last.”

“Very good,” Soonyoung spins around, “Mingyu.”

“Yes!” Mingyu squeaks. He’s curled up into a little ball in the corner.

“Tell me,” Soonyoung approaches slowly, each step ringing on the tiles, “who won four-wheeled rider.”

In a surprising turn of events, Mingyu does not say anything. His mouth is clammed shut. There is evidence that humans can learn from their mistakes.

Soonyoung walks a step closer, “Who should have won four-wheeled rider.”

“... you?”

“And why is that?”

“...”

Soonyoung raises his hand, fingers poised for a snap. Mingyu curls in on himself.

“I don’t know, I’m sorry, I’m sorry I don’t know —”

Soonyoung shakes his head in disappointment. “The booster Mingyu. If I had the booster as I rightfully deserved, I would have won.” He snaps his fingers and Mingyu disappears. “I knew it. All capitalists are bad.”

He makes eye contact with Seokmin in the corner, eyes wide open and shaking. “Not all capitalists.”

“Anyway,” Soonyoung continues, “Seokmin, can you tell me what am I?”

“.... a tiger?” Seokmin squeaks out.

Power surges inside Soonyoung.

“Very good, again.”

“You’re a tiger, a tiger.” Wonwoo joins in.

“Again!”

“A tiger, tiger, TIGER,” the room chants.

Soonyoung cackles. Electricity sparks at his fingertips. He grows even taller. Outside, a car alarm sounds. He is unstoppable. He will unveil is true form, everyone will know that Kwon Soonyoung is a tiger and soon, the whole world will horanghae.







///


“Oh you’re awake.”

“Huh?” Soonyoung blinks. There’s a crick in his neck and a pulsing pain behind his temple, “Where am I?”

“My studio,” it’s Jung Hoseok, blurrily appearing at the edge of Soonyoung’s vision. He hands Soonyoung a bottle of water and reaches out to cup Soonyoung’s cheek tenderly. Soonyoung leans in. Huh, he doesn’t remember this developing so quickly. Or at all.

“Beomju introduced us,” Hoseok explains, “we went out to drink and started talking about a song? A collab between the two of us? You had an idea, got really excited, but then suddenly passed out.”

“Oh, haha, I do that sometimes,” Soonyoung scratches the back of his head, “Sorry.”

“Don’t mind, When you feel better, let me play what we got so far.”

“Does it have a name? The song?”

“Eye of the tiger,” Hoseok grins.

------

Scenes I was too sane to writes Key confesses his undying love, Hoshi sends DK to the shadow realm and turns into tiger godzila.

(+ Yang Jaewoo is actually SVT’s PT and you can hear him spill the beans here.)

Re: [FILL] it's the eye of the tiger

[seokmin_liker]

I'M JJKSJDFDKFJJFDK
this whole thing was absolutely hilarious and so so so fun but i think i LOST it at "Lightning McQueen" / "The designer?" !!!!!!!!!!!!! incredible. i hope this inspires a wave of j-hosh fics. fantastic stuff

Re: [FILL] !! NSFW !! one is not born, rather becomes

[fleurissons]

yes!!!! yes a thousand times!!!! jeonghan immediately getting into the role without batting an eye, teasing but still making sure it's want seungcheol wants, too... sexy. thank you for the treat. <3

Re: [FILL] it's the eye of the tiger

[hwarium]

HAHA thank you for reading <3 feels nice to create something good out of the drama this week

[FILL] my best heart is a century of hunger

[deadwine]

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/Jeonghan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: possibly one-sided attraction, volleyball (sigh), the miyatwinsification of Jihan, the spectre of Lee Jihoon, the innate setter-isms of Yoon Jeonghan
Permission to remix: Yes
WC:401
Going for hall of fame-horanghae.

A/N: I wrote this in one hasty sitting and it shows, sorry for mucking up blake, svt and hq in once clean sweep...impulsive decisions etc.

***


When Kwon Soonyoung walks into the first KGC Ginseng practice of the season in a team jersey, bright red horanghae emblazoned on his chest—bigger, broader and brighter than the last time Jeonghan saw him, it is a reckoning of the only kind Jeonghan believes in: one he has foretold.

Jeonghan waits for him to come to him but he’s done more growing than the width of his thighs betray and it is Jeonghan who relents, Jeonghan who finally answers the call he knew would come.

When Sooyoung soars up towards the ceiling, the wind under his feet leaving all of them awed in its wake—when Soonyoung calls for Jeonghan with every steady kick-off propelling him closer to the skies: who the hell is Jeonghan to deny him?

He’s watched gods fall at Soonyoung’s feet for far less.

The ball bounces off Myungho’s forearms across the court and Soonyoung turns to Jeonghan, godless grin alight on his cheeks.

For a moment when their eyes meet, everything is air, weightless and devoid of the ghosts they’re both lugging behind them.

It doesn’t last.

Outside the court, Jeonghan is not Soonyoung’s favourite—and you never will be, goes unsaid in the protective arm Seungcheol throws around Soonyoung every time Jeonghan approaches.

Somewhere in Los Angeles, Joshua is having the last fucking laugh, and Jeonghan hates it, this constant, debilitating need to show up someone who’s not even there but that’s just one of the side-effects of severing a limb.

Perhaps that’s what Seungcheol is trying to tell him.

You can’t grow back a limb, Yoon Jeonghan. Nor can you carve it out of someone else.

Jeonghan bristles at the implications. He would kill to have Joshua standing where he is, by his side, but Joshua doesn’t come close to the monster pushing him for another toss after every practice.

Sometimes when Soonyoung’s playing, luminescent and feral, gaze so serrated it could draw blood from Jeonghan’s face if he let himself be looked at for too long, Jeonghan wants to ask him the truth of his creation.

What part of himself did he destroy when he was making you? Are you the severed limb or is he? What did it take to take to untether a flightless beast from the concrete?

Nothing. The ball flies over over his head and hits the floor. Everything.

After all, he didn’t make me. I made myself.

Re: [FILL] it's the eye of the tiger

[(Anonymous)]

this was Soooo funny omg i feel cwazy thank u for writing!!! i’d like to think dream!hosh just gets bigger n bigger until he can befriend persona giant namjoon n they can take over the world together<3333 i think my favorite part had to be the hamster transformations as well as hoshi’s grudge holding capabilities i Love This Guy shdkfkdjs

Re: [FILL] it's the eye of the tiger

[vampiredumpling]

kjlskjgsdfsskdfjgsfsfg this is the best thing to come out of the jhope instagram post i couldnt control my laughter, especially the bangranghae ohmygod get him OUT of here!

i see this is what minghao was afraid of. hoshi's true power as a tiger being unleashed. but like nael, age 6, said, yes. YES. and when cheol said, "this needs to stop," oh escoups we have only just begun!!! thank you for making my night with this i'll be cackling about this for days <3

Re: [FILL] it's the eye of the tiger

[deadwine]

SCREAAAAAAM
i cant believe i grandma'd you off to bed this is silly in the best way possible. the real fill that the horanghae hall of fame deserves. i cant believe the amount of detail in this?!!! hwa-ranghae or whatever i guess :

Re: [FILL] a thousand roots, growing

[vampiredumpling]

THIS WAS SO BEAUTIFUL (╥﹏╥) the yearning and pining that grows and grows no matter how much hansol tries to tamper it. i adore the way you wrote seungkwan. lovely, lovely boy. and the fact that hansol sees and thinks of him with so much love makes him just as lovely! thank you for sharing i loved it so much ❤️

Re: FILL: we are venom

[vampiredumpling]

nonbinary symbiote hoshi???? i ADORE them so much. hoshi and wonwoo's little back and forth is so cute and the bit about wonwoo crying over rescued kittens? relatable guy! the handholding under the table got me so good too. i hope hoshi gets to eat some human heads soon though i just think they should be spoiled. thank you for sharing <3

the most blessed thing

[yeollama]

Ship/Member: Jun/Wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: human/immortal, magical realism, wonu my lil meow meow i'm so sorry
Permission to remix: Yes

i don't quite know if this fulfils the prompt, but i tried.

***

Wonwoo thinks he had a fever - an incurable, all encompassing one - until he met Jun.

When he tells this to Minghao, a few months after he and Jun begin meeting regularly at the library to read and recommend each other their favourite works, Minghao’s eyes widen.

“Hyung,” he says, his voice thick, “Do you know of the gods?”

Wonwoo nods, a bit confused. “Of course I do,” he says. “Why?”

“Your Jun,” Minghao smiles painfully, and Wonwoo’s heart flutters at the possessive term, “is one of them.”

Wonwoo blinks owlishly. “What.”

“Wonwoo,” Minghao says, heartache painting his words the most desolate shade of blue, “Jun’s one of them.”

“No he’s not.” He can’t be.

Minghao sighs at him pityingly. “I’m sorry,” he leans forward and brushes a kiss to his cheek.

“How do you know?” Wonwoo chokes out, his voice hoarse. His mind is reeling.

“I have a gift,” Minghao stares down at his fingernails, perfectly maintained. “I can always tell. I’ve seen him before, at the library, and I knew then.”

“But,” Wonwoo thinks his world has stopped spinning, “Jeonghan saw me too - he saw us together. He didn’t say anything.”

Minghao shrugs. “I’m sorry,” he says again, his lips quivering sadly. “I should go,” he says after a pause. Wonwoo nods absent-mindedly, his mind running a mile a minute.

Minghao spares Wonwoo, who’s sitting in his chair by the open window, one last glance before he walks away, leaving him right at the eye of the storm he had unleashed.

Wonwoo doesn’t know what to do; what to think.

He stares at the clock. He counts in his head as the seconds tick by, and it feels like forever. A minute goes by, and Wonwoo thinks he’s lived a lifetime. How does Jun do it - how does he survive? Seconds and seconds and minutes and minutes that all feel like forever, that all feel like a lifetime of their own. How does Jun do it?

Living forever must be a curse, Wonwoo thinks.

He wonders how he’ll ever compare; ever be enough for a god. A god. Jun is a god. Wonwoo is, perhaps, hyperventilating.

He’s gone ahead and fallen in love with a god.

He glances towards the book that Jun had gifted him that lays on his table, flipped open to the first page.

To my avid reader Wonu, it reads. I hope you read this well. From, your Jun.

Wonwoo traces the flourish of Jun’s name with his thumb till the ink bleeds onto his skin, black staining peach. He traces and retraces the characters till they’re engraved onto his mind; and his blood stains the parchment a vibrant red when he cuts his finger on its sharp edge. How fitting, he thinks darkly.

Wonwoo closes his eyes and the only thing he sees is messy Hangul inked by a careless, loving hand.

The characters supposedly spell Jun. All they do is spell out pain.

///

Wonwoo meets Jeonghan at the corner of Main Street when he’s on his way to the library. At once, anger erupts in his heart. He stalks towards him, eyes ablaze. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Jeonghan doesn’t look surprised to be confronted. “I couldn’t,” he hesitantly reaches a hand out to rest it on Wonwoo’s shoulder, and he lets him. “There’s a curse, for other immortals. I couldn’t tell you, even though I wanted to.”

“You could’ve told me to stay away,” Wonwoo doesn’t let his tears fall, but it is a close call.

“Wonwoo-yah,” Jeonghan says gently. “Falling in love with him isn’t the end of the world.”

“He’s a god,” I’m nothing, Wonwoo doesn’t say.

“So? If it were possible for mortals to ascend, you would,” Jeonghan raises his eyebrow. “You’re no less than a god, Wonwoo.”

“That’s not the problem, hyung,” It kind of is the problem. “Well,” he amends, shaking off the hand on his shoulder, “He’ll never fall for me now, will he.” It’s not a question as much as it is a statement.

Jeonghan scoffs. “That’s mercy, my dear.”

Wonwoo stares.

“Imagine if he loved you too,” Jeonghan’s eyes are laser focussed. “Imagine what a tragedy that would be.”

No it wouldn’t, Wonwoo wants to argue. Jeonghan can see it in his eyes that he doesn’t agree.

His hyung sighs. “Don’t do anything stupid, Wonwoo-yah. Don’t go chasing him and making him fall in love with you now.”

“Why not?” Wonwoo is nothing if not stubborn.

Jeonghan too stares at him with pity dripping from his eyes. Wonwoo hates being pitied. “If you don’t know why, then there’s nothing more I can say to you.”

Wonwoo turns and walks back home.

///

“You know.” That’s the first thing Jun says when Wonwoo goes to the library an hour later than their standing arrangement to meet.

“Know what?” Wonwoo tries to play dumb, but he relents when he sees the expression on Jun’s face. “Yes,” he sighs, “I do.”

“This changes nothing, Wonwoo,” Jun sounds a bit pleading, a bit desperate.

It changes everything. It changes absolutely everything, even at a molecular, fundamental level, for Wonwoo. “No,” he says, attempting a smile, “It changes nothing, Jun.”

Jun smiles. “Thank you,” he says.

///

Wonwoo wonders how Jeonghan thinks this isn’t tragedy. This - Jun smiling at him with the stars in his eyes and the moon setting his ethereal skin aglow; Jun lending him books and brushing his fingers against Wonwoo’s steel-rimmed glasses; just Jun in all his otherworldly glory sparing Wonwoo his precious attention - reads out like the most heart-breaking tragedy that Wonwoo has ever read.

This is tragedy and pain and everything that makes Wonwoo’s heart squeeze and shrivel and dry up. Why does Jeonghan think this isn’t a tragedy?

He wonders how it’s called mercy, when being in love is the same as being alone. He wonders what goes on in that mind of Jeonghan’s.

“Wonwoo!” Jun calls him, and Wonwoo blinks out of his wondering.

He can wonder later, when he’s lying on his blankets at night and Jun’s words and Jeonghan’s pity will revolve around spinningly in his mind. Now, he’ll soak up every last bit of the attention that Jun deems appropriate to bestow upon him.

Imagine what a tragedy that would be, Jeonghan had said.

Wonwoo thinks it would be the most blessed thing in his life.

///

It’s months and months later for Wonwoo, and barely a second for Jun, and Wonwoo thinks it’s so unfair. It’s so unfair, being in love with a god. He wishes he could stay away, but Jun’s hands are gravity, and Wonwoo’s hands are just another meteorite pulled into his orbit. There’s nothing he could’ve done to stay away.

“Wonwoo,” Jun breathes into the silence at the library, interrupting their nightly reading. “I-” he breaks himself off, sounding hesitant.

“What is it?” Wonwoo asks gently. He turns to look at Jun, whose eyes are lowered.

“I’m going to say something that’s extremely unfair to you,” Jun looks serious, more serious than he ever is. “You must promise not to hate me, Wonwoo-yah.”

“I could never,” Wonwoo swears. Never.

Jun breathes. “I love you.”

Wonwoo’s glasses fall off his face. His heart beats wildly against his soft, mortal ribcage, and he thinks he’s flying. “What,” he croaks out. He thinks he’s misheard.

“I love you,” Jun repeats with something in his eyes that Wonwoo refuses to identify as pity. “I love you, Wonwoo, and I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” Wonwoo can feel a hot tear trailing its way down his left cheek. Jun reaches out a delicate finger to brush it away, and he shudders.

“It’s a curse,” Jun laughs sadly. “Wonwoo-yah, I’m a curse.”

“No,” Wonwoo shakes his head vehemently, pushing himself closer to the god. “No, no, don’t you dare say that. You’re not a curse, you’re a blessing, Jun,” he says it fiercely and defiantly. “You’re my blessing. My life was nothing without you.”

Jun scoffs. “Don’t say things you won’t mean a few years later,” he lays a hand on Wonwoo’s shoulder, so reminiscent of Jeonghan that Wonwoo gets deja vu. “You’re so naive,” he huffs, but it sounds fond.

Wonwoo feels hurt. “I’m not,” he says. “I know I love you. You say you love me too. That’s all that matters to me.”

“It shouldn’t,” Jun bites his lip, “You should turn your head and run in the other direction.”

“I won’t.”

“It’s a death sentence, darling,” Jun sounds resigned. “It’s a death sentence when you love a god and they love you back.”

“It’s not,” the tears falling down Wonwoo’s cheeks are relentless now. “It’s not,” he says again.

Jun sighs and shakes his head. “I love you,” he whispers. “I’m a selfish, arrogant creature, and I will stay until you make me leave, even though I shouldn’t.”

“You can stay forever,” Wonwoo says.

Forever means different things to you and me, Jun doesn’t say. He only curls an arm around Wonwoo and pulls him closer.

///

This feels far from the opposite of mercy, Wonwoo thinks later, when he’s swathed in sheets of silk, this feels like enlightenment.

It’s not a tragedy. It’s the most blessed thing in Wonwoo’s life.

///

A decade down the line, and Wonwoo thinks it’s been less than a minute for Jun. He pretends it doesn’t hurt him.

“Wonwoo!” Jun calls out from outside their home, as young and sprightly as he was ten years ago, twenty years ago, a century ago, a lifetime ago.

“I’m in here,” Wonwoo says quietly. His hands are not as strong as they were before. His bones hurt and his joints creak.

“There you are, darling!” Jun smiles at him with the stars in his eyes, and Wonwoo feels young again.

Jun is still the most blessed thing in his life.

Wonwoo doesn’t talk to Jeonghan anymore.

///

“I’ll carry you,” Jun offers another twenty years later, his arms strong and warm as they support Wonwoo's frail spine.

Wonwoo, with his weak limbs and weaker heart, says yes.

Jun is still a blessing, but Wonwoo is second guessing if this is enlightenment.

///

“I wish I could live forever with you,” Wonwoo dares to say one day.

“No, you don’t,” Jun says, a bit cold, a lot dismissive.

Wonwoo’s heart lurches.

Oh, he thinks.

This is tragedy.

Re: [FILL] it's the eye of the tiger

[(Anonymous)]

KEY CONFESSES HIS LOVEFNGJDBFNFN this is insane (extremely positive) oh my god. i read the setup and thought oh thats good, thats really funny, thats probably most of the joke but you managed to KEEP making it even funnier throughout omg