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

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[blankpostit]

Ship/Member: hoshi/wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: idolverse? band au? consider this snwu moment during ofd japan and also this fansign thingy
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I want more than ever to travel with you; it seems to me now the height of my desire, and I get into despair wondering how it can ever be realised. Can it, do you think?

Vita Sackville West to Virginia Woolf

[FILL] reach into the sky

[verneeverse]

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/Wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Band AU, Nana inspired, roommates, seemingly unrequited love, open ending
Permission to remix: Yes

word count: 1500
things got a bit out of hand here and i may have digressed from the original prompt a little, hope that's okay!
would highly suggest listening to the nana ost (starless night) while reading because it’s a masterpiece

***

Wonwoo is everywhere. From bus stops to TV ads. Soonyoung turns on the radio, and it’s Wonwoo’s raspy voice he hears over Wonwoo’s rhythmic electric guitar. Soonyoung opens the door to his apartment, and Wonwoo is there too, headset pulling his hair back as he sweeps the floor.

This Wonwoo has less makeup on, doesn’t wear contacts and lets his facial hair grow until it itches. The Wonwoo that Soonyoung knows makes him coffee everyday, listens to him while he rants about the annoying customers he had to deal with during the day.

Some days, it feels like all Soonyoung can see is Wonwoo. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

—

Wonwoo’s band gets offered a record deal and a tour. He comes home after celebrating with his band mates, smelling like alcohol and sweat.

“Soonyoung!” He calls out before even closing the door behind him.

Soonyoung comes out of his room, already in pajamas. Wonwoo takes him in, grins, and pulls him in a bone crushing hug. They don’t do that often - hugs and skinship in general. Most of the time, Wonwoo creeps up behind Soonyoung’s chair and throws an arm over his shoulder. It’s enough to make Soonyoung’s day.

“We’re gonna have another studio album,” Wonwoo whispers in his ear. Soonyoung holds him back twice as hard.


“That’s amazing! I’m so proud of you.” He is. More than he could ever put into words.

Wonwoo leans back, brushes the bangs off of Soonyoung’s forehead with both of his hands and just holds him. Looks at him. He’s smiling. “And a tour.”

Soonyoung’s face lights up. “Holy shit!”

“I’m bringing you along,” Wonwoo decides.

Between the both of them, they barely have enough to cover rent and groceries. Soonyoung knows he’s not going anywhere, not if he wants to keep his job. He smiles with all his might anyway.

—

“Seokmin has been asking about you,” Wonwoo says over breakfast.

Soonyoung, eyes barely opened and puffy from sleep, mumbles around his spoonful of cereal. “What is he asking?”

“How you’re doing, if your job is killing you, if he could take you out on a date sometime, if you’ve seen the last Spider-Man movie, if you think people who play bass are very sexy.”

He nods. “Wait-” He looks up and Wonwoo is staring at him, chin resting on the palm of his hand, grinning like a cheshire cat. “He wants to take me out on a date?”

“Yep!”

Soonyoung’s jaw tightens. He drops his hands under the table, just so he can hide the way his fingernails dig into his flesh. “What did you say?”

“I said that you are single, and that last Valentine’s day you were sugar high from how many chocolates you ate while crying in the bathtub.”

“I did not!”

Wonwoo laughs. “Oh yes you did, I have photographic evidence of it.” Soonyoung fights him to delete the pictures. Wonwoo declines, but he eventually agrees to have them password protected. He doesn’t tell Soonyoung the password, but he’s smiling sweetly while he types it in.

Soonyoung leaves for work and Wonwoo goes to sleep. On the bus, he thinks about Seokmin. He has a nice smile too.

—

After their third date, Seokmin asks him to be his boyfriend. Soonyoung agrees, because why would he say no. Wonwoo slaps his back and tells him, “Nice!”

—

Seokmin still wants to take Soonyoung out on dates, because he likes the adventures they go on. He leaves for tour before their fourth date, and Soonyoung comes home to an empty apartment for a month.

It’s nice not to have to clean up Wonwoo’s hair around the sink. It’s nice to not be disturbed at 3 am by the sound of Wonwoo coming home from a show.

Wonwoo’s mug isn’t at the front of the cupboard anymore. There’s seafood in the fridge.

It’s nice. Even if Soonyoung doesn’t feel it.

—

“I called you as soon as I landed!”

Soonyoung scoffs. “Oh, so your plane had a 3 hour delay?”

He can almost hear Wonwoo roll his eyes. “Fine. I called you when I thought Seokmin would be done talking to you.”

Seokmin called - Soonyoung let it ring.

“Fine,” he mumbles. “Tell me about the Berlin concert.”

“Didn’t you hear it from Seokmin already?”

“I want your perspective.”

—

For the first time in three years, Wonwoo is everywhere but home.

Soonyoung wanders around town at Christmas. Couples everywhere. Seokmin called him earlier today, he was sweet. He’s always sweet.

Everything feels sour. Even the snow.

—

The band comes back to more fans than they anticipated. A couple of their performances in the US went viral, and Wonwoo is known in parts of the world Soonyoung ignores.

He makes a little more money now, enough to move out and get his own nicer place. Soonyoung did the math. Wonwoo never brings up the idea.

—

“Did you break up with Seokmin?”

Soonyoung stirs the vegetables. “Yeah.”

Wonwoo is leaning against the counter next to him, eyebrows brought together in confusion. “But you were so good together.”

“We were.”

“Soonyoung. I’m serious, what happened?”

He shrugs. “I wasn’t good to him.”

Wonwoo scoffs. “That’s just wrong. And stupid. How could you not be good to someone?” Soonyoung doesn’t answer. “Did you ever love him?” Wonwoo asks, barely above a whisper.

Soonyoung smiles sadly at his uncooked yet slightly burnt vegetables. “No. What a shame.”

—

Seokmin is far too good for Soonyoung. He invites him to the band’s next show, explicitly stating that he’s not expecting anything from him. He just missed seeing his friend.

Soonyoung is in the front row, right in front of Wonwoo. He brought Seungkwan with him as a distraction. Or a buffer. He doesn’t know which is less incriminating. Either way, Seungkwan didn’t complain. His eyes don’t leave Vernon on the lead guitar for the entire show.

Wonwoo smiles at him every time he looks down to tune his guitar. Soonyoung hasn’t felt this light in months.


Wonwoo says he’s bringing home some girl he met at the bar. Soonyoung prefers to crash at Seungkwan’s place and sit awkwardly on his couch while Seungkwan and Vernon argue on what movie to watch.

—

“I’m bringing you with me this time.”

Soonyoung should refuse. A three months leave is gonna make him lose his job. Not that he cares about it anyway. Especially not when Wonwoo is holding him by the waist, disheveled hair and the smell of cigarettes enveloping him like a coat.

“Okay.”

—

Wonwoo doesn’t ever bring someone back to his and Soonyoung’s shared hotel room.

In the deep quiet of a foreign city at night, Soonyoung allows himself to hope.

—

They’re all going out for drinks. Wonwoo’s arm is thrown over Soonyoung’s shoulder, not letting him leave his sight this time.

In the previous stop, Soonyoung got too hot from the alcohol and wandered off. Wonwoo shouted his name in the empty streets until he found him and brought him back to the hotel, never letting go of his hand.

The problem with not being allowed to wander off, is that Soonyoung can’t escape his vices. He stares at Wonwoo as he tells everyone a story. No one laughs at his jokes, so Soonyoung giggles and kisses his neck. Wonwoo freezes for a second before holding him closer.

His hand is cold, pressed against the skin of Soonyoung’s lower back.

Seokmin stares at both of them from across the table.

Soonyoung was never good enough for him.

—

“I don’t think I could ever do this without you again,” Wonwoo says.

They’re back home for the last show. It seems silly to book a hotel room when they live just 30 minutes away by subway. But it’s covered by the label, so they indulge and let the shower run hot until there’s fog on every window.

“I wish we could travel just the two of us,” Soonyoung confesses. He’s never seen the city from that angle before, so high he can almost guess where the sea should be.

Wonwoo hums from the bed. “Where would we go?”

Soonyoung shrugs. “I don’t know. I don’t really care. Just want it to be with you,” he finishes in a whisper. A bus passes through the street below him, it’s surprising how familiar the noise is.

“I will take you everywhere.”

Soonyoung turns around. Wonwoo is on his back, staring at the ceiling with a smile. He looks funny from that angle, but Soonyoung can’t bring himself to tease. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I just need the funds,” Wonwoo rambles to himself. He reaches in front of him, stares at the back of his hand, fingers stretching far and wide. “Just a little bit more money and I will take you everywhere you want.”

Soonyoung climbs on the bed, slots his fingers between Wonwoo’s. They fit perfectly, and he holds onto him like he’s going to disappear. “Wherever we go, it doesn’t matter. It just needs to be us.”

***

a/n: wonwoo’s pov: my guy pretty like a girl

[blankpostit]

Ship/Member: jeonghan/any, jeonghan/seokmin
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: magical realism, maybe?, light angst
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

How can you be happy in this world? You have a hole in your heart. You have a gateway inside you to lands beyond the world you know. They will call you, as you grow.

Neil Gaiman

Hoshi

[pamantha]

Ship/Member: Hoshi
Major Tags: Hoshi
Additional Tags: Hoshi
Do Not Wants: No Hoshi

Prompt:

The tiger
He destroyed his cage
Yes
YES
The tiger is out

- Nael, age 6

[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.)

the saddest song vernon has ever heard is white ferrari by frank ocean

[seokmin_liker]

Ship/Member: Vernon/Minghao
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: first love?
Do Not Wants: any character death

Prompt:

I didn't care to state the plain, kept my mouth closed, we're both so familiar

- Frank Ocean, White Ferrari

soonwoo chanel because .

[seokmin_liker]

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/Wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: wonu bi
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

My guy's pretty like a girl, and he's got fight stories to tell, I see both sides like Chanel

- Frank Ocean, Chanel

[FILL] go on and ask him if it's really so silly

[vampiredumpling]

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/Wonwoo
Major Tags: a very vague fantasy setting
Additional Tags: an intersection of frank ocean and hozier, soonyoung is literally so pretty the forest is in love with him, wonu bi
Permission to remix: Yes

“Your betrothed thinks we’re in love with each other.”

Soonyoung’s face is flushed red, and there are many reasons as to why that is: the chill air of a passing winter, the leftover adrenaline from his night swim, the alcohol buzzing through his system.

All three are likely. Likelier, at least, than feeling embarrassed, an emotion Wonwoo isn’t sure Soonyoung even knows how to feel.

The first time Soonyoung had drunkenly slurred this, Wonwoo’s heart had jumped out of his chest. He almost dropped Soonyoung too, and Wonwoo would have, if Soonyoung’s arms hadn’t been so tightly wrapped around his shoulders.

Soonyoung’s chin digs into his shoulder, and his breath is warm against the back of Wonwoo’s neck as he says it again. This time, he giggles at the end of it too, adds, “Isn’t it silly? The two of us, in love.”

That first time, all Wonwoo could do was tighten his grip on Soonyoung’s thighs as he carried him on his back. From the pub to Soonyoung’s house, Wonwoo swallowed down every stupid thing that threatened to spill from his chest. It was dangerous, how all the words he'd ever known wanted to be Soonyoung's so badly.

It’s the fourth night in a row Wonwoo’s carried him home, so he knows which words he can afford to let go. He frees a few of them now, tucks them into the night where it’s safe, where all of Soonyoung’s words stay too.

“I know,” Wonwoo gives in and gives up. “Maybe it wouldn’t have been so silly if it wasn’t us.”





Soonyoung had been dancing when Wonwoo first saw him.

Back when the forest was still generous, when it welcomed their people instead of swallowing them up, when Wonwoo was a crownless boy who spent his days running away from the palace.

Splashing in the water with his arms in the air, Soonyoung was a boy who danced to no music.

“What are you doing?” Wonwoo calls out, and the boy slips. He seems so comical that Wonwoo can’t help but laugh as he lands on his butt.

“Whoa!” he exclaims. The tips of his hair are dripping as he stands. "You, yelling out of nowhere, aren't you a rude one?"

That was how Wonwoo found him. It’s how Wonwoo keeps finding him every day too. He visits him by the river as the sun rises, and Soonyoung welcomes him each time. Feet bare and trousers soaked to his knees. Glowing red underneath the sun in a way only a careless boy could.

It’s the same way Wonwoo loses him, years down the line, around the same time the forest starts losing its patience too.





The solid weight of Soonyoung against his back is comforting. Wonwoo wants to carry him through the streets, out the city gates, and into the winding forest they knew as kids. He wants to carry Soonyoung far away, to a place where Wonwoo can keep him.

But the sun rises like it always does. It peeks through the thin curtains of Soonyoung’s only window, and Wonwoo knows he has to leave. The hour hand of the universe calls for him to.

A tiny voice stops him by the door, and it’s the first time Soonyoung's woken up before Wonwoo could leave. “Wonwoo?”

“What?” he turns around.

The house is bare, hardly lived in. There are cobwebs on the ceiling, and a few dust bunnies in a corner of the room. When Soonyoung came back, Wonwoo gave him this house to settle in. Seeing it like this, cold and dusty, worries him.

“Let’s go to the river," Soonyoung says easily, the way he used to when they were boys. As if he hadn't disappeared for five years and only resurfaced a week ago.

Wonwoo frowns, not because he doesn’t want to, but because “We can’t.”

“Are you scared?”

Wonwoo is terrified. Of the forest. Of the wedding, his wedding, tonight. And of Soonyoung too.

This Soonyoung, especially, frightens him. The blankets pool around his waist. The sun streaming through the curtains dust his forehead and nose with a soft light that begs to be kissed.

“I’m not,” he lies. Wonwoo is scared, but in this moment, he wants nothing more than to be that blanket, to be the sun. To be truly, properly silly.

“Then let’s go.”





Of Wonwoo’s many questions, the only one he can manage is, “What do you think of her?”

Soonyoung thinks about his answer, and it makes Wonwoo nervous. He isn’t sure why he wants his approval. Jieun is beautiful and smart. She’s a person who suits him, even if she doesn’t love Wonwoo. She likes him, at the very least, enough to humor him.

Jieun is perfect and safe, and Wonwoo wonders if Soonyoung understands that. If it matters to him.

“I think she’s lovely and that you two would make beautiful babies.” Without pause, Soonyoung asks, “Do you love her?”

“No,” Wonwoo admits. “But I can see it happening.”

Soonyoung hums, “I can see it happening too.” He's dipping his feet in the river, pants rolled up to his knees. He's tall enough now that the water hardly goes past his ankles.

Wonwoo can't bring himself to join him. Fear keeps him rooted as far away as possible, back touching the city's walls. Somehow, Wonwoo feels the border between them instead.

It might be too soon to ask. It's only been days since Soonyoung showed up at Wonwoo's council, dirt in between his fingers and toes, leaves in his hair. That day, he looked as if the earth swallowed him whole and spit him out.

Today, he looks nurtured by the earth. Loved, with sun-kissed skin and the gentle breeze blowing through his hair. He didn’t look this beautiful as a boy, or maybe Wonwoo never knew how to see him that way until now. Until the world introduced him to Jieun and said, this is what beauty looks like.

It might be too soon to ask, but seeing Soonyoung in the water, more at home than he had in his house, Wonwoo feels like he's running out of time.

"What happened to you? Where did you go?"

Soonyoung smiles, like it's a secret. And it’s unfair, how pretty it looks on him. "It's not something princes should know about, I'm afraid."

Disappointment cuts like a knife in his throat, but it doesn’t get too far down because Soonyoung steps forward in the next second. Palm open in an invitation, a challenge, and a proposal, maybe, because Wonwoo wants to see it that way.

“But I could never say no to you, if you ask.”

[maritimo]

Ship/Member: Vernon/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Genderbend, femslash
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Lotta fun to be seen / When you've got this dog back on your leash / Giddy up for you baby ya any time of day you like it

Puppy Grin by Peach Pit

[FILL] Puppy Grin

[citadis]

Ship/Member: Vernon/Seungkwan
Major Tags: genderbend, femslash
Additional Tags: decently explicit sexual content, petplay, doggirl vernon, side gyuhao
Permission to remix: Yes

Sorry y'all, alas there is no cut function for dreamwidth comments. Also looking at the original prompt and may have extrapolated this way outwards. Bon app the teeth

***

At this point, Seungkwan couldn't even remember whose idea it was originally. Which was code for, it was hers, but she would never admit to it.

It was simple, really. Mingyu had regaled Seungkwan of some particularly depraved adventures with Minghao over brunch one day. Unprompted, of course. Seungkwan had mostly just made faces of distaste and judgment while sitting across from her best friend that day – but the gears were turning.

It really wasn't that big of a change, Seungkwan rationalized to herself. She was already partial to being the one in charge in the bedroom, and Hansol was – she was good. So how much of a difference would it be if she started calling Hansol good girl while grinding against her mouth, really?

She had mostly been nervous about bringing it up to her girlfriend. Like, they both knew neither of them were prudes and were always open to trying new things. Hansol had even let Seungkwan choke her last week – a fact which she would regret bragging about to Mingyu after the older accused her of being vanilla.

In reality, Hansol would say, "sure, that sounds nice," with a hint of blush across her cheeks when Seungkwan would hurriedly explain that maybe it would be fun if we did this thing where you were a dog and I could tell you what to do –

Seungkwan would heave a sigh of relief afterwards, wrapping Hansol into a hug and saying a thankful, earnest I love youinto her ear. After that, she figured her chance to tell Hansol that maybe she had also been imagining her with a thick leather collar around her neck in all her fantasies lately was over. At that time, at least.

They had settled into it pretty easily, and Seungkwan liked it more than she could have imagined. Hansol was just so good. Seungkwan knew that when other people did this sort of thing, there could be lots of like, hitting and punishments and bad dogs and all that. And like, she wasn't ruling that out completely, but it never really crossed her mind when Hansol was just so obedient and good and cute.

The first time they really did it was about a week after Seungkwan had brought it up. They had briefly discussed it one day after dinner, Seungkwan having taken Mingyu's advice (a rare occasion) and savvy on the subject that they just should discuss their boundaries, or whatever. After Seungkwan had finished giving the dictionary definition of petplay and giving a clinical overview of the history and cultural significance of the kink, gleaned from a website Minghao had passed along on Mingyu's word, and she paused to ask Hansol if she had any questions –

Vernon had just smiled, and shrugged, and said, "I trust you, Seungkwan-ah," as casual as ever. "But you can continue, it seems like you researched this a bunch," she added, earnest. Seungkwan was embarrassed, pursing her lips, before rolling her eyes and capturing Hansol's lips in a kiss.

"It's okay," Seungkwan said after pulling away. "We'll find out more about it soon enough."

—

"Um, Seungkwan, do I have a collar?" Hansol had asked from the ground. Seungkwan's head spun, half from the sight of her girlfriend at her feet and half at the question.

"Well, uhm, we hadn't talked about it yet, you know, I didn't want to force it on you or anything –" Seungkwan quickly explained. Had Hansol been expecting one?

Hansol laughed. "It's okay, I had just kind of thought that, you know," she shrugged. "You're not the only one privy to Mingyu's sex life." Seungkwan rolled her eyes and rubbed her brow. Next time, Seungkwan told herself. She could hardly hold herself back from opening up the website (another link courtesy of Minghao) and hitting the order button on the things she had been imagining Hansol in for a week right that moment.

Gathering her head and looking down at Hansol now – she couldn't help but notice how puppylike she was, even without the signifying collar. Fluffy, short hair, that Seungkwan couldn't hold herself back from reaching out her hand and petting. So she didn't.

"You're so cute," Seungkwan said, simply. Hansol was in an oversized t-shirt and grey, worn out boxers. She really looked cute.

Again, even without that telltale collar, Hansol still had the demeanor of a dog. Eager and seeking while she nosed between Seungkwan's legs. Hurried when she finally licked across Seungkwan's cunt. It was all a matter of perspective. She treasured that moment when she first put a hand in Hansol's hair and told her she was a good girl. Now, Seungkwan's not sure she'll ever be able to unsee Hansol as her cute dog, even in the most innocent of ways.

When they finally received that box in the mail, Seungkwan could tell that not only was she excited, Hansol seemed to be too. When she had seen the box the day it got delivered, she raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Is that…?" She asked, Seungkwan nodding in response.

"Can I try it on?" She had asked, casually. Seungkwan's eyes widened. She wanted to say yes, yes, yes, and she knew she should save it for later – but who was she kidding. She grabbed the box and opened it. She had already gone through the box's contents, more stuff should they need it – and this time Seungkwan had actually consulted her girlfriend. She had left the collar at the top, for this occasion, though she had been expecting it to happen later.

Seungkwan picked it up, thick, light brown leather heavy in her hands. She undid the buckle, aware of Hansol's eyes looking at it the whole time. Hansol's breath caught when Seungkwan placed it on her neck, before looking up at Seungkwan with a smile. Once she had it done up nicely on her girlfriend's neck, not too tight, she stepped back.

Hansol, like most times, was in a simple, lazy outfit, oversized shirt and sweatpants, her hair ruffled and messy. The collar was both juxtaposed with her outfit and fit in with it completely. And while Hansol in it conjured up images of what they'd get up to lately, Seungkwan could only think of how cute and lovely and hers Hansol was. Or course, her more innocent thoughts were quickly derailed by imagining the sound Hansol would make when Seungkwan had her from behind and she tugged on the back of her collar –

"Does it look good?" Hansol asked after a moment, a sheepish smile on her face. Seungkwan rolled her eyes. Understatement of the century, she thought, and told Hansol as much when she brought her in for a hug.

mingyu acts of service

[seokmin_liker]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Anyone
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: (possibly) unrequited love, friends with benefits
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I may be younger but I'll look after you, we're not in love but I'll make love to you, when you're not here I'll save some for you, I'm not him but I'll mean something to you

- Frank Ocean, Nikes

i do want to see this lyric explored from mingyu's pov, but you can ignore the bit about being younger if you want to write a 97z!

[FILL] if i lack love (i'm nothing at all)

[yeollama]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Seungcheol; side jicheol
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: unrequited love, friends with benefits, light angst, minghao is the best person ever
Permission to remix: Yes

***

When Mingyu meets Seungcheol, he’s in his third year of college. He’s interning at the local entertainment company that’s just a block away from his dorm, and Seungcheol is the man he’s meant to report to.

It all feels like one of those cliche romance movies that Mingyu isn’t embarrassed to admit he loves. Seungcheol is, for lack of better words, perfect, and everything that Mingyu dreams of in his ideal man. He wonders, his mind reeling through all his failed relationships in the past and the battered, bruised condition of his poor old heart, if maybe, this will be different. Maybe Seungcheol, who’s older and wiser and smarter and better, will understand Mingyu in a way no one has before, maybe Seungcheol will be the one to stick a bandaid on his heart and kiss it better. Mingyu admires him in a way he hasn’t admired anyone before, and honestly thinks that the older man could do no wrong. Maybe he’ll be the one.

He hopes, and hopes and hopes, that Seungcheol will see it; will recognise the ardent desire in Mingyu’s eyes for what it is.

Of course, it doesn’t really go Mingyu’s way, as most things usually don’t. Mingyu imprints on him like a baby duckling, but Seungcheol doesn’t see that - is hilariously oblivious to the star eyes that Mingyu makes at him whenever they grab lunch together at the cafeteria. Mingyu perseveres anyway. Maybe this could be different, he tells himself. Seungcheol just needs some time.

“You’re my best friend,” Seungcheol slurs one day, when they’ve reached the stage in their friendship where they could drink themselves to death in the older’s apartment and wake up sprawled over each other on the couch. “You’re my best friend, Mingyu. Thank you.”

Mingyu almost cries that night. Maybe this - maybe Seungcheol - could be different. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Maybe, his heart whispers again, when they’re in a club and Seungcheol presses into him, god knows how many pounds of pure muscle tingling against Mingyu’s spine. The older man presses his lips to the back of Mingyu’s neck, warm and wet from the beer he’s been drinking. Mingyu arches his back, presses into Seungcheol even more, and lets it happen.

Maybe, his mind wonders, when after they wake up in the morning sprawled over each other as usual, but naked and in a bed this time, Seungcheol flashes him a heart-stopping smile and asks if they could make this a thing.

“We’re both so busy with life,” he says, a blanket draped over his legs, his pecs on full display, “And this is convenient, isn’t it?”

Mingyu is a fool. Mingyu swears he isn’t in love. Mingyu tells himself it’ll be so easy, so simple. Mingyu tells himself he’ll get over it.

Mingyu says yes.

And he knows, he knows he’s too far gone at this point, he knows he’s just making it harder on himself, but loving (not loving, he shakes his head, but he knows he’s just fooling himself) Seungcheol is a pleasure. It’s an absolute delight. It makes Mingyu’s entire day to send him good morning texts that are answered too late, to put an extra blanket over him at night because he knows his hyung gets cold, to make him his mum’s recipe of kimchi jjigae so he’d stay for breakfast.

Mingyu would go as far to say that he feels blessed beyond his wildest dreams to be allowed to love Seungcheol, even if it isn’t reciprocated in the slightest - to be given the chance to shower him in his brand of single-minded devotion and probably overwhelming affection. Everyone else before has taken Mingyu aside and told him “Hey, this is cool, but also too much for me, dude. Please take a step back, or maybe just go away entirely,” but Seungcheol hasn’t. Maybe it’d be kinder on Mingyu’s heart if he had, but Mingyu convinces himself that if he gets his heart broken at the end of the line, it’ll all be worth it.

Seungcheol listens when Mingyu rambles on about the significance of some ingredient in a recipe that he has the least interest in, and engages in midnight arguments about the ethics of owning pets; and maybe it’s because when Mingyu is talking, he has a earphone in one ear blasting one of Jihoon’s new tracks; and maybe it’s because to Seungcheol, they’re still best friends and arguing over dumb shit is just what best friends do. Mingyu doesn’t know. He tells himself he doesn’t care. It’ll all be worth it, he promises his heart, it’ll all be worth it in the end.

He’s not in love, he tries to convince himself at night, when Seungcheol is snoring next to him but his back is turned away. He’s not in love, but he takes great pleasure in making love to Seungcheol. It’s okay. Even that is enough for him. He may be younger, more foolish, more inexperienced than anyone Seungcheol has been with before, but Seungcheol is with him now, and that’s all that matters. He lets Mingyu take care of him, lets him fuss, lets him cook for him, lets him fuck him on nights that he feels like it. It’s more than Mingyu ever thought he’d be allowed.

It truly does feel like a blessing to him, to be allowed to hold Seungcheol’s attention, even if it’s just during stress-induced fucks and the sweet morning-afters when Seungcheol is in such a rush that he skips breakfast and lets the bowl of oyakodon that Mingyu had painstakingly made for him go cold, but he ruffles Mingyu’s hair before leaving and his heart soars higher and higher.

It’ll be alright. It’ll be alright.

Seungcheol is in his life and he lets him into his home and sometimes helps fold Mingyu’s bedsheets.

It’ll be enough. It is enough. Mingyu will make sure that it is.

==

Mingyu meets Minghao about seven months into his whatever-it-is (not a relationship, he repeats it in his head like a mantra before they fall asleep sticky and sweaty and oh so naturally, it’s not a relationship) with Seungcheol.

His new friend takes one look at him in the morning, after Seungcheol’s left to go meet Jihoon, and sighs.

“You’re fucked, aren’t you?” Minghao isn’t one to mince his words.

Mingyu’s eyes widen. “What?”

“That guy,” Minghao jerks his head towards the shut door, then eyes the untouched plate of French toast on the table. “You like him. Hell, you probably love him.”

Mingyu doesn’t know what to say. It’s been barely a week since he and Minghao bonded over their shared taste in weird, abstract art and photography and stupid romantic movies after a chance encounter in his favourite camera shop. He doesn’t know if it’s appropriate for Minghao to be commenting on his pathetic (not pathetic, he has what he wants, he has Seungcheol (does he?)) love life, doesn’t know how he feels about a practical outsider instantly knowing how stupid and lovesick he is.

“Uh. No?”

Minghao snorts. “Oh, Mingyu,” he sighs. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Mingyu learns one week into knowing Minghao that he doesn’t seem to care much for how appropriate (distant, guarded, aware) he should be around new friends. It’s a refreshing change, meeting someone so unaffected by societal pressures. Mingyu would be too scared to try, too scared to live the way Minghao does - unapologetic, with clear, set boundaries and a vision of what he wants his life to look like. Mingyu just knows he wants Seungcheol. Doesn’t know anything else.

It’s so, so pathetic. Minghao is kind enough not to say it to his face.

“It’s unhealthy,” Minghao says, one hand resting on Mingyu’s, one hand curled around the cup of coffee that Mingyu had made for him as payment for listening to him and his lovesick woes. “It’s really unhealthy to live like this, Mingyu.”

“It’s enough,” Mingyu insists, although he’s unsure himself. “He’s my best friend. He listens to me. He sleeps with me. Isn’t that what they say love should be? Best friends, but with benefits?”

“Not benefits,” Minghao says patiently, more patient than anyone has ever been with Mingyu. They’d usually just roll their eyes and tell him to get his shit together. “Love is not an idealised friends-with-benefits relationship, Mingyu. It’s more than that. This is just hurting you.”

Is it? Mingyu doesn’t know what hurts and what doesn’t anymore. He just knows what it feels like waking up next to Seungcheol, all sleep-ruffled and adorable, and he knows that he wants that forever.

“I can only tell you how I see it,” Minghao says before he leaves that morning, looking straight at him, his eyes seemingly seeing through everything that Mingyu tries his best to hide. “I can’t tell you what to do, Mingyu, but I hope you think about it more. Think about it without thinking about your love for him.”

“How can I do that?” Mingyu asks, a bit desperate. “How can I think about him without thinking that I love him?”

Minghao doesn’t have an answer for that.

When he leaves, Mingyu opens his text thread with Seungcheol.

mingoo
hyung, do you want me to bring you lunch?

When he hits send, he feels a bit pathetic, and a whole lot of stupid. Minghao’s words cling to him like unwanted mud after a walk in the rain. They echo in his brain loudly, menacingly. Mingyu wishes they would stop. His head hurts too much.

cheol hyung <3
sure! do you mind if jihoon joins us?
AAAA mingyu i think i like him, pls say yes. u gotta be my wingman bro!!

Something in Mingyu’s heart stops. Something snaps. Something breaks and tears and Mingyu feels like he’s choking on his blood.

How had he been so blind? He wants to break his phone. But -

mingoo
sure! waah hyung, you never told me u liked him

- he’s just a foolish, foolish boy. Just a boy, trying to tell a man that he’s enough. How could he ever be?

But Mingyu doesn’t know how to stop. He doesn’t know who he is, without his love for Seungcheol. Doesn’t know who he is, if he doesn’t have someone to love.

If Mingyu isn’t in love, he’s nothing at all.

[maritimo]

Ship/Member: Seungkwan/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Idolverse (not necessarily canon compliant)
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

You were such an idol / Yeah, you were the whole world / Now you see you look pretty broken

Pretty by Girlpool

[Fill]

[depozyt]

Ship/Member: Seungkwan/Vernon
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: angst, idol!seungkwan, past betrayal, internalized homophobia (?), open ending
Permission to remix :Yes

i wrote it very spontaneously and i don't know how to tag it frankly. also, first-ever seventeen fic so I'm sorry if messed something up
***

Seungkwan isn't sure what he's doing in this district. What he can recount from yesterday's night is, in order, getting wasted, flirting with some guy, telling him about his idol years, and then somehow managing to end up in his apartment. Nothing came out of it in the end, he fell asleep on the couch and then woke up at 2 PM, made himself a pathetic breakfast consisting of a cup of black coffee and some cashews he found in the bowl standing on the coffee table.
Then, he exited promptly, the doors with an electronic lock closing behind him. All he feels is burning shame.

He knows this street, its nooks permanently carved into his memory. He'd lived here for most of his teenage years. Until he debuted, until his life forever changed. He can't say whether it was for better or for worse because he doesn't know what would happen if he never auditioned. Maybe he would've stayed here or moved to a different country. Maybe he wouldn't have to hide behind a fake name when going to a hotel just to fuck some dude who's probably cheat—

Almost tripping on the pavement, Seungkwan feels his head throb. This is enough. If he thinks too much about it, he'll panic and end up making himself feel more miserable than he already feels due to the hangover.

Looking around, he can tell that while the asphalt on the street hasn't been renovated and the street lights are covered in even more gunk than he remembers, the whole area has changed. For some reason, his heart aches and the pain isn't hard to bear, but Seungkwan still would rather not think about its source. Nothing stays the same. Not the homes he grew up around, not the playground on which he used to fight wars with sticks and plastic guns. Not even his career has remained the same throughout over a decade.

It was a different time, he catches himself excusing his treatment, they didn't mean to—he didn't mean to betray him. But it's years too late, nothing he can do to change his actions at seventeen, right before his debut.
He wonders what Hansol is doing now. Seungkwan thinks about it more than he cares to admit. Some days the questions fill his mind, making everything but shame or regret fuzzy and unfocused. There's no excuse for outing Hansol. There never had been even back then, almost fifteen years ago.

Even jealousy.

If Seungkwan remembers correctly, Hansol's father had a shop somewhere near. The two boys grew up playing together on the same street. They knew each other and maybe weren't close to call each other friends, but they got closer as teens. They both wanted to make music, see themselves one day on big billboards and perform on stage before a screaming crowd.

They auditioned together and both go in. Then, by some miracle that Seungkwan doesn't understand to this day they were selected to debut in the same group.

Seungkwan was too young to understand his feelings back then—didn't know what love felt like and what its consequences might be. He saw Hansol with another boy in their dorm. They were kissing, touching each other and Hansol looked at that boy so tenderly, with so much affection that Seungkwan's heart shattered, broke into million pieces like a car window after a crash.

His rage was blinding and just hours later he found himself talking with their manager with a slur staining his tongue. He hates himself for it. Maybe he always will.

He finds the shop, right where it stood a decade and a half ago. He opens the door and what greets him is the image of Hansol, sitting behind the cash register, scrolling on his phone. Behind him is an old ice cream commercial Seungkwan did four or five years ago. His face on the cardboard is faded, the colors washed off. Even despite that, Seungkwan thinks he didn't look as broken back then. His clean image never matched his turbulent private life.

"Hi," he says, hoping Hansol notices him.

He's older now, shallow wrinkles starting to appear around his eyes. His hair isn't dyed like it was in their pre-debut years. They both changed—Seungkwan probably for worse.

"You look like shit."

"You think I haven't noticed?" He smiles despite himself.

Love As

[leomoonwonu]

Ship/Member: Seungcheol/Any, Jihoon/Any, Jeonghan/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: none

Prompt:

I really like the idea of love as a violent act—not to the person that you love, but against the world. To say to somebody, "I love you; by extension, I hate all other things." - Hozier

FILL: to your knees

[infrequencies]

Ship/Member: Jeonghan/Seungcheol/Joshua
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: very loose Iron Widow AU; glossed over violence and murder as you do
Permission to remix: Yes

iron widow is like.... well, let author xiran jay zhao explain it. this is vague to dance around potential spoilers and this fill cannot do this book justice but please read iron widow thank you

***

The sky is screaming when Jeonghan realizes that his fingers have sunken into dirt and he’s no longer co-piloting at Joshua’s side.

From the ground, he can only watch helplessly as the Vermillion Bird staggers, stumbles, sways from side to side.

An unholy sound escapes from the Bird’s mouth, taking blow by blow.

“Has Shua gone insane?” Seungcheol hisses, scrambling to his side. A Chrysalis isn’t meant to be piloted alone, not without a death wish.

But Joshua has nothing left to lose in this life other than his top ranking. Sacrificing himself for the sake of Jeonghan’s self-prescribed mission is—

The earth shakes, ground threatening to split in two under their bellies. Another Chrysalis aims their Qi in the Bird's direction.

A flash of light illuminates their faces, Joshua’s bio-stats tickering across the screen of Seungcheol’s wristlet.

The readings pull a hiss from Seungcheol that have little to do with the blooming stain at his hip. Joshua’s heart rate starts to drop as the Bird takes another hit, a beam of light to the sternum of the mech.

Jeonghan’s wings shudder as he tries to spread them, teeth gnashing when the armor crackles, too damaged from impact of being ejected. His head is still too cloudy from the fall, and Seungcheol’s hand on his shoulder feels more like a collar than recompense.

“We need to get back,” Jeonghan spits, feeling the soil and grit between his teeth. “I need to get back in—I need to…” He trails off, staring back at command central. Realization dawns on him then, eyes fixed on the blood red sky.

“They never were going to let us live, were they? They were always going to clip our wings.”

Seungcheol grimaces, pulling Jeonghan to his feet. No words pass them.

Jeonghan takes off in a sprint.



When he allowed himself to become enlisted, Jeonghan kept his head down until it was time. Fought like hell to stay alive when they paired him with a high-powered pilot known for killing off his partners.

One by one, the upper class swallowed up the commoners and turned them into a number. Nobodies like Jeonghan. Felons like Joshua. The forgotten, left to fade into the background of history.

Of the three of them, only Seungcheol stood a chance, even as the bastard son of a noble. The three of them came together to form a triangle—”The strongest shape,” Joshua had said, hands cupping Seungcheol’s face. “Three equal sides.”—a unit worth fearing.

Even leaned on their sides, even with a third of his heart taken away, their foundation is stronger than ever.


Jeonghan was the eighth pilot to fly with a noble more concerned with power and maintaining privilege than letting his partners thrive.

With the man's blood still dripping from his hands, Jeonghan swore then and there he would never become a statistic.

“Welcome to your fucking nightmare,” he’d smiled to the cameras. The room had erupted into shrieks.



At the end of the battle, Jeonghan takes over the left seat of a Chrysalis of legend. The public still remembers the sound of his deranged laughter, the blood coating his teeth.

His threats of bringing the oppressing class to their knees makes him both a target and a legend in the making.

Taking Joshua was their first mistake. Don’t they know that a diamond forms under pressure?

On his right, Seungcheol projects a map onto a sidewall inside the cockpit. In the top corner, he spies their target, a prison tucked away in the mountains, and they set sail.

When they get Joshua back, they’ll bring the world permanently to its knees.

[leomoonwonu]

Ship/Member: Wonwoo/Any, Jeonghan/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: idolverse/BBB-ish, clashing love languages, first love/second love or any combo of these!
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I fear I will be ripped open and found unsightly. - Anne Sexton

what souls are made of

[infrequencies]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: violence (romantic)
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Our fingers curl together, much gentler than when we were trying to take each other's lives.
—Iron Widow

[FILL]: what claws are made of

[slytherminie]

Ship/Member: Joshua/Soonyoung, Soonyoung/Seungkwan (implied)
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: spiderman!soonyoung, black cat!joshua, mj!seungkwan, spiderman videogame inspired, violence (romantic), the ghost of past relationships, villain joshua as a t(h)reat
Permission to remix: Yes

i bet this is NOT what you expected for this prompt but. but listen. allie said black cat joshua and i blacked out. have fun!!!
***

Soonyoung raps his gloved fingers against the bulletproof glass, smiling to himself.

“The Seventeen Carats is safe,” he says lowly, eyeing the painting on the other side of the screen. He chuckles as Seungkwan’s sigh vibrates in his ear, his familiar voice coming through the comms.

“Keep an eye on it, still. Just in case.”

Soonyoung turns around, his eyes surveying the empty museum room. He scoffs.

“Who do you take me for? Of course I’m going to…”

A soft crash calls for his attention, his senses on high alert as he turns towards the sound.

It’s not what he expects.

“Fuck,” he says, eyeing the person tumbling down from a hole in the wall to softly land on his feet, graceful as ever.

“What’s up? Trouble?”

The man on the other side of the glass smiles at Soonyoung, all pretty cat-like eyes and white teeth.

“Uh,” Soonyoung intelligently says, watching as the figure clad in black gets closer to the screen. “Kind of. I’ll call you back in a minute.”

“Soon-” Soonyoung cuts the connection before Seungkwan can even say his full name, eyes glued on the man standing on the other side of the room.

“You look good,” Joshua’s voice comes muffled from the protection of the bulletproof glass, his smile sharp enough to make Soonyoung’s skin crawl. “Been working out?” He asks, walking up to where Soonyoung is standing, crestfallen.

“No,” he immediately replies. “Uh, I mean. Kinda.”

“I can tell,” Joshua says, dragging his clawed fingers against the inside of the glass, the sound making Soonyoung physically recoil.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“What do you think?” Joshua says, winking at Soonyoung. His moves are as fluid as water as he stands on his tiptoes to detach the painting from the wall.

“Aren’t you tired of stealing art?” Soonyoung asks, looking for a way in, a break through to stop Joshua from committing yet another theft.

“Who said I’m here for the art?”

It’s a flash of movement - Joshua is strong, stronger than Soonyoung would be without his powers. The canvas is broken in half in front of Soonyoung’s disbelieving eyes.

“I was looking for this.”

There’s a small space between the painted side and the back, an alcove so thin that Soonyoung knew nothing about. Joshua shakes one half of the broken painting, then the other. A small plastic bag tumbles out of it.

“Ah, there they are.”

Something sparkles between Joshua’s fingers. It takes a moment too long for Soonyoung to realize that it’s diamonds - real diamonds, at least twenty of them. Joshua’s grin grows, the black mask around his eyes doing nothing to cover the rest of his handsome face.

“Sorry, spidey. I can’t stay for a chat.”

“Josh-” Soonyoung starts, but Joshua raps his claws against the glass. “Look behind you,” he says, pointing at something behind Soonyoung’s shoulder. As distracted as he was from Joshua’s sudden appearance, Soonyoung missed the footsteps of the two men standing behind him, guns raised.

“See you, Soon,” Joshua cackles, as the sound of the first bullet being fired rings in the air.

It’s more than two men, it turns out. It’s a whole small army, and by the time Soonyoung has managed to immobilize them all with his webs, Joshua is already long gone.

Seungkwan yaps in his ears, annoyed by the sudden radio silence, - “I was worried, you prick,” - but all Soonyoung can think of is the ghost of a man he hasn’t seen in too long.

🕷

When they meet again, Soonyoung is on his back before he can even blink, a kick to his gut that he wasn’t expecting upon opening a fire exit door.

“Fancy meeting you again, spider,” Joshua says as he straddles him, claws ready, eyes ablaze.

Soonyoung is a bit too distracted with the low cut of his suit to reciprocate the greeting, the naked expanse of tan skin making his head spin more than the roundhouse kick that got him to the ground.

“What is it, cat got your tongue?” Joshua taunts, claws dangerously close to the hollow of Soonyoung’s throat.

It’s just like a game of cat and mouse, and Soonyoung is always on the losing end.

“Joshua.” Soonyoung finally regains part of his composure when he notices the self-satisfied smile on Joshua’s face. “Where are the diamonds? You’re playing with dangerous people.”

“Aw, but I like to play.”

The punch that Joshua tries to land on his face is barely avoided just thanks to his spider senses. He rolls out from below Joshua, managing to miss his brass knuckles by an inch.

“I missed you,” Joshua says, pouting in his direction as he fixes his short white hair by running his fingers through it. “It feels like old times.”

“You tried to kill me,” Soonyoung reminds him, snarling. “More than once.”

“That’s why I said, just like old times.”

The stunning grenade comes out of nowhere, launched at his chest with too much force to avoid it. Soonyoung stumbles back as it goes off, his ears ringing, his eyes watering as gas clouds his vision.

“Fuck,” he says, hearing Joshua’s taunting laugh growing closer.

“See you around, spider boy,” it says, but when Soonyoung fully regains his senses there’s not a single trace of him.

“Fuck,” he repeats, eyes moving left and right, but to no avail. He sees his own reflection on one of the glass panels of the door - there’s a heart cut through the front of his suit, on his chest, clawed with careful precision.

“Seungkwan’s gonna kill me,” Soonyoung tells himself, and then he’s gone, swinging into the night in hope of finding an inkling of where his past lover has disappeared to.

🕷

Running behind a cat between roofs isn’t an easy task - that’s why Soonyoung is almost out of breath when he finally catches sight of white hair and a black-clad ass that he would recognize anywhere.

“Stop!” Soonyoung yells into the night, but Joshua is jumping away yet again, agile and fast. Soonyoung runs behind him, but Joshua stays always ahead.

Before he can overthink it, Soonyoung is shooting a spiderweb into the night. It sticks to Joshua’s calf, and he manages to drag him down from his jump, his body hitting the cement of the roof with a loud thud, sliding against the wet surface until he’s falling off the edge.

Soonyoung is on him in an instant, hand outstretched to catch his wrist, making him dangle off the side of the building as he sticks to the roof.

“Can we talk now, like humans?”

Joshua looks up at him, eyes big behind the mask. There’s not a single drop of fear in his gaze, despite the fall that awaits him if Soonyoung lets go of him.

After all this time, Joshua still trusts him with his life.

“You know we’re anything but that.”

It’s astounding how Joshua still manages to catch him by surprise. With incredible ease - and an amount of flexibility that has Soonyoung thinking impure thoughts - the Black Cat is using his body as some sort of ladder to land himself back on the roof, safe and sound, on his own two feet.

“You need to give me those diamonds,” Soonyoung tells him, sitting on his heels to catch his breath. “They’re gonna land you in trouble.”

“Oh, you’re such a generous soul, Soon.” Joshua is right next to him, crouching down to his level. His fingers gently caress the side of his masked face, longing in his gaze when it drops to Soonyoung’s covered lips. “Always a knight in shining armor.”

Before he can stop himself, Soonyoung’s hand is covering Joshua’s, his fingers filling the spaces between Joshua’s own.

“I missed you, too,” he confesses in a whisper, shaky. Joshua smiles at him, squeezing his hand back.

“I’m sorry,” Joshua whispers, his mouth a breath away from Soonyoung’s. His eyes are so big and dark, and Soonyoung is so fucked.

The punch comes out of nowhere, hard against his nose, making him recoil backwards.

Then, he’s falling, the sole of Joshua’s boot landing against his chest and making him fly backwards, off the side of the building, down towards the hard ground, down, down.

Betrayal stings just as much as Joshua’s lips briefly pressing against his own before he’s kicked to his defeat.

[madeoutcreek]

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

Prompt:

Don't let me in with with no intention to keep me
Jesus Christ, don't be kind to me
Honey, don't feed me, I will come back

Don't you hear me howling, babe?

- It Will Come Back by Hozier

until the next truck comes

[icarusundone]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Wonwoo
Major Tags: Minor Character Death
Additional Tags: College AU, kmg horatio jk unless
Permission to remix: Please ask

***

And I just think you should know
That nothing safe is worth the drive
And I would follow you home
- Taylor Swift, “Treacherous”



Two months before his father dies, Wonwoo broke up with Mingyu.

“I just think we’re better off as friends,” he said, his gaze focused on the black stone in his hand. They had finally sat down to finish their long-term game of Go. Wonwoo had started it at the beginning of the semester as he set up his board on his desk, suggesting that they play at their own leisure and place stones whenever they had time. A correspondence game. The last move had been Mingyu’s, his white stone ending a capturing race in seki. Mutual life. Mutual destruction.

“I don’t understand,” Mingyu said. Wonwoo hadn’t shown any signs of discontent. Earlier that day, he had eaten lunch with Mingyu’s friends and had joked around with them. “Did you have a problem with my friends?” Did you have a problem with me?

Wonwoo shifted his gaze to the board, still not meeting his eyes. “We have different goals,” he finally said. “After I graduate, you’ll be finishing school and I’ll be busy.” What Wonwoo left unsaid: he would be right back under his father’s thumb, set to inherit the family business.

Mingyu voiced as much. “I didn’t know that learning how to run a company prohibited you from visiting your alma mater.”

Wonwoo’s brow furrowed. “Don’t be childish, Mingyu.”

You’re the child, Mingyu wanted to retort, giving up at without even trying, but that would only prove Wonwoo’s point.

“So you’re just giving up?”

Wonwoo laughed hoarsely. “It appears so.” A group of white stones had surrounded the group of black stones that Wonwoo was playing. Instead of forming a second eye, Wonwoo simply abandoned the group by placing a black stone down on an empty section of the board, leaving the group dead.

Mingyu frowned. He was certain that if he reviewed the game, then he would see that Wonwoo’s turns had been riddled with holes. Although Wonwoo was avoiding Mingyu’s gaze by looking at the board, it was clear that he wasn’t registering the moves. It was like he had said all that he needed to be said and was now waiting for the game to end.

Did you stage this whole game just to break up with me, Mingyu wanted to ask, but that was ridiculous.



Mingyu wins the game. He watches Wonwoo sort the stones into the wooden bowls and then carefully place the lids on, the sound of the lid slotting over the wood like latching a coffin closed.



Because Mingyu is a masochist, they stay roommates. And then one afternoon, Wonwoo receives a call from his mother and goes deathly pale, clutching his phone like a lifeline.

“My father died,” he whispers after the call ends, like it will be false if he doesn’t speak it. He finally meets Mingyu’s eyes, his own shiny with grief, and Mingyu finds himself opening his arms, offering some semblance of comfort. He lets Wonwoo collapse into his arms and hide his face in his sweater, his tears seeping into the yarn.

“Hey,” Mingyu whispers as not to spook Wonwoo. He very carefully tilts Wonwoo’s face up, cataloging his splotchy eyes before he kisses his tears away, like a dog licking his owner’s face, begging to be noticed.



Title from “The Leash” by Ada Limón

astra inclinant, sed non obligant

[fleurissons]

Ship/Member: Wonwoo/Any, Soonyoung/Any
Major Tags: Graphic Depictions of Violence and/or Character Death
Additional Tags: star-crossed lovers, urban fantasy, paiiiiiiin.
Do Not Wants: None

** tags not set in stone, feel free to alter as you see fit!

Prompt:

He was another knife, I could feel it. A different sort, but a knife still. I did not care. I thought: give me the blade. Some things are worth spilling blood for.

— Circe, Madeline Miller

"You destroy me and then you kiss me. You give me a reason to hate you and then you give me a reason to love you. Is this a lie or the truth? Is this a ploy or your heart reaching for me?"

— These Violent Delights, Chloe Gong

Love was meat and drink for betrayal — by allowing the greatest intimacy, it nurtures the greatest betrayal, poisons what is most intimate.

— Cristina and Her Double, Herta Müller, translated by Geoffrey Mulligan

[FILL] astra inclinant, sed non obligant

[oeillet]

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

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

***

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

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

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

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

-

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

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

Two factions, wanting to only have one standing.

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

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

Until the day Mingyu arrives to him in a dream.

-

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

“Jeon Wonwoo.”

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

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

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

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

“I didn’t mean to.”

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

-

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

“Then he shall be the one to end it.”

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

-

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

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




An impermissible communion, they call it.

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

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

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

-

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

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

-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-

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

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

“Won’t you join me?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-

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

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

“Were you not going to tell me?”

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

“Tell you what?” Wonwoo stops.

“What the runes around your neck actually do.”

“It’s a parting gift.”

“Meant to kill you.”

“Meant to protect—“

“Stop lying.”

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

“Kill me?”

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

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

“What?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You’re tasking me with something impossible.”

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

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


-

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

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

i thought it'd be harmless

[fleurissons]

Ship/Member: Jeonghan/Any, Mingyu/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: bad habits die hard, lying in bed with someone you love while trying to convince yourself you no longer love them
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Gotta catch my flight, but I want more time
Gimme one more night to be wrapped up in you, oh
And I know that I'm losing my mind
And it feels like I'm losing you twice
Is it worth the price? What have I gotten into?

— Sex (With My Ex), FLETCHER

FILL: i thought it'd be harmless

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: actor wonwoo; alcohol mention; unbroken cycle of dubious decisions
Permission to remix: Please ask

400 words exactly!

***

It's a classic.

Boy meets boy in a self-serve ice cream shop drunk off his ass on New Year's Eve. Boy ends up going home with boy after some minutes of miserable flirting.

Boy discovers that the newest entry to Top Five Best Lays of His Life is a famous actor by tripping over a poster of his face.

But Mingyu doesn't fit into the life of someone who's a tabloid staple, and he's seen enough of himself online to start to feel anxious about the whole thing.

Wonwoo keeps his distance. Mingyu hopes that he'll start to forget. But Seoul is a small town that disguises itself as a big city, and Wonwoo claims that he favors the bakery closer to Mingyu's apartment than his own. Every time feels too close to breaking the illusion.

//

In an episode of his currently-running drama, Wonwoo asks his love interest, "What do you want?"

When Mingyu peels himself from the warm arm around his waist, it's Wonwoo's sleepy sigh making him want to stay. "You're so real."

Reality is overrated.

//

He thinks he's fine, and then Wonwoo invites Mingyu's roommate to film screening, and Soonyoung insists on him being a plus-one.

Until Mingyu catches Wonwoo shrinking into the wallpaper after being barraged by press, and asks him if he wants company.

Until Wonwoo responds, "Anywhere but here," and leads him to the elevator.

Until they're splitting bottles from the mini-bar in his private suite talking about their life aspirations and how different things would've been if only, if only.

Until he's asking Mingyu if this is okay, and his heart screams yes. Even when his costar flirts and drapes herself on Wonwoo's body for the rest of the night, Mingyu goes home knowing that she can smell him.

He doesn't feel the shame until Minghao asks him what he wants.

The plane ticket to Shenyang shows up in his inbox two hours after they hang up.

//

Boy gets in the cab on his way to the airport and hears an interview with the person he's trying his hardest to stop missing. The music doesn't swell, and Mingyu doesn't cry. But he does unblock Wonwoo's number.

"What are you doing?" gets met with "Waiting for you."

Wonwoo's face stares down at him from a bus ad. Mingyu sends Minghao an apology and redirects his cab from Incheon to the other side of town.

[slytherminie]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: character study, lost hope
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

“You're the sort of person who, on principle, no longer expects anything of anything. There are plenty, younger than you or less young, who live in the expectation of extraordinary experiences: from books, from people, from journeys, from events, from what tomorrow has in store. But not you. You know that the best you can expect is to avoid the worst.”

― Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

[FILL] to dream big and small

[seokmin_liker]

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

going for the rarest pair!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You think so?”

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

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

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

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

Except. Except maybe he can.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Is it good?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

그 안에서 나의 모습이 보여

[arcsecond]

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

Prompt:

It’s interesting because he often reminds me of myself before my personality changed.

- Jake, ENHYPEN Debut Interview (x)

how to become a good dog

[citadis]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: kim mingyu dog traits
Do Not Wants: N/A

Prompt:

Do you think it’s easy,
not biting
the one you love?
Try loving someone so much
your mouth is only at home
in the place where your teeth
meet the flesh
of your beloved. Try
not tasting the flesh, not taking in your mouth
the beloved, not
going all the way.
Jim Moore, Teaching the Dog Not to Nip

additional material

[FILL] how to become a good dog

[brigand]

Ship/Member: mingyu/jeonghan, implied mingyu/others
Major Tags: camming, pet...play??
Additional Tags: -
Permission to remix: yes

***

Mingyu pouts into the camera lens, which blinks stoically back at him. "I think I look good," he says - doesn't really say so much as whines, doesn't really whine so much as makes his voice so much smaller than it has any business being, coming from a body like that. A face like that.

Some of his viewers agree, and they say so freely. Chat is always in a mood but tonight especially. Because it's Friday, and Friday is Request Night. They tend to get riled up - rowdy, he calls it - on Request Night. (Not that they're not like this every other day of the week. Not that Mingyu has ever encouraged anything less.) Whenever he points this out someone inevitably asks him who was doing the riling in the first place; and then he has to duck his big strong head against his big strong chest, and rub the back of his big strong neck with similarly adjectived fingers: "Sorry," he has to say, so mournful, so penitent, but the grin at the corner of his mouth (never fully on! He's too well trained for that) tells them just how sorry he is. Just how much sorry he still has to give.

The ears kind of itch. It's just a cheap headband he found somewhere - he didn't actually find them, Jeonghan did, they were out shopping for his sister's birthday so they'd stopped at one of those vendors that sells sparkly stuff, pink stuff, girl stuff; the other headbands had sparkly stars and big pink pompoms which Mingyu was idly running his fingers through because he liked the texture, the softness.

He hadn't seen the dog ears, but Jeonghan had, because Jeonghan always sees that kind of stuff. When Mingyu felt the headband settle against his crown he hadn't noticed that it itched yet; he was looking up at Jeonghan's hands, reaching to pet his hair back into place, and then down at Jeonghan's mouth, already laughing at him, not with him.

"We found them," Jeonghan had said, in a tone too full of mocking to leave any room for fondness, no matter how much other, more romance-inclined individuals might strain to hear.

"Found what?" Mingyu had said - pouted - whined, ducking his shoulders to make himself smaller for Jeonghan, pinning his arms into his chest soldier-like so that Jeonghan could maneuver his body however he liked, do with Mingyu anything he liked. Jeonghan lets him do this without stopping him, even when it makes Mingyu's back and knees and pride ache. Especially when.

"Your real ears," Jeonghan had said, patting the back of Mingyu's head - not even the fake pleather ears, but right above the nape of the neck, the place which would make a real dog shiver and shake. Mingyu didn't shiver and he didn't shake, but he had to bite his tongue, a bloody bite, and Jeonghan let him sit with that whine trapped between his teeth until he was satisfied Mingyu had agonied enough. The next time Mingyu speaks the inside of his mouth is a different shade of red, and it glints in Jeonghan's eyes.

Mingyu adjusts them now. He doesn't take them off, even as they itch, and even when one of his top donors pays for a super message to flash across the screen: take the costume off ,, no furry shit tonight, nobodys pay ing for that

Mingyu just tilts his head. "What costume?" he asks, and grins, big and wide and showing all his teeth. Full muzzle on display.

His phone, off to the side and out of the camera's unblinking gaze, lights up. Jeonghan never watches but he saw the ears laying around innocently before he left this afternoon; smirked mean when he saw Mingyu's neck flush red.

Mingyu doesn't need to check what the text says in order to sit up a little straighter, puff out his chest a little, lift his chin so they can see him. Jeonghan is always so good at reminding him about all the important details the camera wants to see. His neck. His mouth. His face. His ears. Everything they're paying for. What a good boy he can be.

[infrequencies]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: BBB-isms, especially "acting out testing boundaries because you're simultaneously all-powerful and incredibly trapped"
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

All that
matters is you want to hurt me.
All that matters is you want me.
-yves olade

[blankpostit]

Ship/Member: jeongcheol, jihancheol
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Things were somehow so good that they were in danger of becoming very bad because what is fully mature is very close to rotting.

Clarice Lispector

[blankpostit]

Ship/Member: soonchan, wonsoonchan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: magical realism, steampunk-ish
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I turned you into a stranger in order to forget you and now I'm the stranger.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón

[FILL] i would know you anywhere

[sunwalkr]

Ship/Member: wonwoo/soonyoung/chan, soonyoung/chan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: au - heroes, magical realism (kinda), it's all very vague, logistically, sacrifices have to be made, chan the martyr, chan the lovely and terribly brave, what happens after you save the world together but not all of you returns whole, moving on but never forgetting, a sort of homecoming - except home isn't a place but two very important people, a happy ending i promise
Permission to remix: please ask!
wc: 920

> going for rarest pair (4 works in the tag!)

bells i love you very much <3 happy new year

***

Chan doesn’t even think twice about what decision he has to make. Wonwoo is frowning the entire time Chan explains the plan, eyes glassy and far away as he runs the calculations. When Chan finishes, Soonyoung looks at Wonwoo, who lets out a discontented huff.

“He’s right. It’s the only way,” Wonwoo heaves a sigh. Soonyoung wants to break something.

“This is for the good of the world,” Chan offers determinedly, with the air of someone who has already made amends with their fate. It’s not fair. It’s not. Soonyoung hasn’t made his peace yet. Doesn't he get a say in this too?

There is a cut running along the edge of Chan’s cheek, a gentle reminder of his ― their ― mortality. He’s not yet eighteen but there’s something in the way that his shoulders straighten as his eyebrows draw themselves together, chin set so stubbornly and headstrong that makes Soonyoung want to throw everything away to cradle him closer to his chest. To protect him for just a bit longer.

Chan’s bottom lip is quivering the entire time. It’s the only thing that betrays how scared he is.

Soonyoung wants to shake him silly. It’s okay to be afraid. You don’t have to do this. We can figure something else. Together. You don’t have to go. It doesn't have to be you.

Instead, he says, “Our lives are gonna suck so much without you in it,” and wraps his arms around Chan for the hug of a lifetime. Soonyoung squeezes him extra hard, just so Chan knows how much Soonyoung hates this, but also so that Chan knows that he is so incredibly loved.

“You’ll have Wonwoo,” Chan reminds Soonyoung gently. He turns to Wonwoo. “And you’ll have Soonyoung. You guys will be alright.”

Soonyoung tries to smile back, but his heart hurts too much to fake it. But you’ll be all alone, he thinks. Who’s going to look after you?

It’s futile, Soonyoung knows. Lee Chan, the unsung hero, ever so self-sacrificing. Willing to put the weight of the world on his back so everyone else can breathe just a little easier.

Chan takes Soonyoung and Wonwoo’s hands, joining them together. His breath is shaky but the smile he gives them isn’t. It’s still so brilliant.

“Ready?” Chan asks.

“Nope,” Wonwoo quips one last time, mouth curling upwards into his trademark grin. The light in his eyes is soft, though. Fond, even.

“I’ll come find you,” Chan promises, voice breaking. “When it’s all done and over, I’ll come find you guys. Don’t think I’d let you guys go that easily. Alright?”

“Alright,” Soonyoung says softly, even though he knows the chances of that happening are a zillion to one. He agrees anyway, because hope is what keeps them going.

There’s a glittering tear on Chan’s cheek. It leaves a trail of water in its wake as it quietly falls, shining and shimmering.

It’s the last thing Soonyoung remembers before everything fades to black.





Soonyoung wakes up to nine missed phone calls from Jeon Wonwoo.

“Hello?” Soonyoung croaks, throat bruised like he’d been screaming. His body feels like it is filled with grief, all twisted and bent with its mourning. There’s a heavy weight on his shoulders, an incessant feeling of something being wrong. When Soonyoung tries to reach inside his mind, to figure out what it is, he comes up strangely empty. Something else occupied this space, his brain tries to say. Someone else was here. They mattered to you, a lot. They existed. They took up space.

Remember. Remember. Remember?

Soonyoung doesn't. Can't. Isn't able to. There's nothing there. It's gone. A whole expanse of darkness stares back at him when he tries to conjure up a face, to pin a name to this ghost haunting him. An immense wave of guilt rises up, threatening to swallow him whole.

Wonwoo sounds equally wrecked. His voice is tinny and a little bit lost. Distant. “Hi. Do you feel … different, too?”

Soonyoung nods, beginning to cry.

There is some part of them missing. He can feel it.





But here’s the beautiful thing about life: it goes on. Soonyoung and Wonwoo get swept up in all of it. They exchange kisses, hugs, then rings, and then vows, in front of some of their closest friends. They leave a chair in the front row empty, because Soonyoung had insisted and Wonwoo would have never disagreed. Besides, it just felt right. Wonwoo buys them a home, a real one to always return to, one where Soonyoung can hang all the silly pictures he’s taken of Wonwoo throughout their time together. Even if his thumb is on the lens in almost all of them, Soonyoung wants them up anyways. It makes it a little bit more real. Their life together always feels like a dream.

The ocean breeze is nice on Soonyoung’s face. Wonwoo sits on the edge of the pier, shoulder to shoulder with Soonyoung, their legs dangling over the water, explaining some niche topic that he’d just learnt about. Soonyoung is content to listen.

“See,” a voice says. It’s wry and a little bit sharp but oh so familiar. Soonyoung turns around to find a boy staring back at them. There’s a lovely grin on his face. “I told you guys that I’d make my way back. What did I miss?”

Soonyoung sees him and suddenly, all the puzzle pieces slot back into place. It feels like he’s finally woken up. Wonwoo is already up and running, bare feet pounding against the planks.

“A lot,” Soonyoung says as he barrels into the bodies of two boys he truly really loves. “You have so much to catch up on.”

Chan laughs. The sound is bright and sharp and free. “Good. I’ve got all the time in the world now.”

[maritimo]

Ship/Member: Minghao/Any, Seungkwan/Any
Major Tags: Graphic Depictions of Violence (to your taste, not necessary)
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Someday, I hope for a lover to kill me / It's the closest I can hope to get to anybody / It's the closest I can come to being really free / And there's a ring of questions on my mind lately / Like will I find a love that lasts as long as my life? / Or will I die before ever becoming a wife?

Deeper Than Love by Colleen Green

[FILL] love is a thing with teeth

[cruelsummers]

Ship/Member: Vernon/Seungkwan
Major Tags: hitman AU, depictions of violence, semi-explicit sexual content
Additional Tags: killing eve vibes, vernon the horniest hitman ever
Permission to remix: pls ask
a/n: this is,,, a very loose interpretation of the prompt

***

When I first saw you
The end was soon
To Bethlehem
It slouched and then
Must've caught a good look at you
Give your heart and soul to charity
'Cause the rest of you, the best of you
Honey, belongs to me
-Hozier

Seungkwan is too good. He’s the type to soothe a crying child in public, help an elderly person with their groceries. Whenever Vernon meets up with him, he always asks if he’s eating well, if he’s taken his vitamins. Vernon lies, says he is, just to see Seungkwan smile.

“Where did you go this time?” Seungkwan asks eagerly, tugging at Vernon’s sleeve.

“New York,” Vernon says, indulgent. “Wanna see pictures?”

“Yes!” He spends the rest of the day with Seungkwan, answering his questions, taking him out for Thai Food and then fucking him until Seungkwan sobs his name.

“Can’t,” Vernon says when Seungkwan sleepily requests for him to spend the night. He presses one, two, three kisses to Seungkwan’s pouty mouth. “See you on Thursday?”

“Fiiine,” Seungkwan flops back into bed, waving Vernon away. “Goodbye, stupid boyfriend.”

Seungkwan really is too good to him.


–


Vernon wasn’t in New York. He was in Beijing, doing a job. A “job” as in -

“Messy,” he comments casually at the scene Jun’s left behind. Josh sent him in for backup because a member of Chinese intelligence that’s been tracking Jun’s movement caught up with him. It’s cool, Vernon shot him in the head before anything could happen.

Jun beams at him, a bloody Joker smile. “Vernonieee, you came to save me!”

Seungkwan thinks that Vernon travels for work, taking pictures for magazines. He does take a lot of pictures, but nothing that anyone would pay for. It’s an easy enough cover story though - he and Seungkwan aren’t at the point in their relationship where Seungkwan pries for details.

He thinks about it though. Spilling his bloody guts, and wondering if Seungkwan would still kiss in that tender way he does. The way that makes Vernon keep coming back to him.


–


This kind of life, you either inherit or get recruited.

Vernon is the latter, Joshua is the former. He thinks that’s why Joshua has no problem calling him up at the last minute to take care of things, even when Vernon is on a date with his very cute boyfriend.

“What’s wrong?” Seungkwan asks when Vernon hangs up. His poker face hasn’t budged, but Seungkwan can somehow read his displeasure. Huh. How about that.

“Work emergency,” he sighs. Seungkwan’s expression falls and Vernon reaches out to cup Seungkwan’s cheek. “I’m sorry,” he says, and means it. Whoever he has to kill is really unlucky, because Vernon has a personal vendetta against them now. “I promise I’ll make it up to you.”

Seungkwan pouts. “You better.”

Twelve hours later, Vernon is sitting in Joshua’s office, giving him the flash-drive they needed so badly. Vernon had strangled his mark, outside his usual MO. It was pretty satisfying, but he still misses Seungkwan. Little tease had snapped Vernon a picture of him stretched around a dildo, the perfect revenge, and Vernon is still recovering from it.

“Good job.” Joshua takes a better look at him and raises an eyebrow. “You’re unhappy.”

“Nah,” he says. He knows that everyone is aware he has a civilian in his life, but they don’t know too much about Seungkwan. Which is how he likes it. Vernon is quiet about him for a reason. “Can I have a bonus? Since it was last minute.” If he has extra cash, maybe he can buy Seungkwan concert tickets for that girl group he likes so much.

Joshua eyes him for another minute before conceding. Vernon texts Seungkwan the ticket confirmation, grinning at the barrage of heart emojis that he gets in reply. Forgiven.


–


“Oh no, you’re too cute for this,” Jun groans the first time he meets Vernon. It’s standard for the “babies” the ones with less than five years in the field, to shadow a more experienced hitman before taking jobs on their own. “What are the bosses thinking?”

“Sorry hyung,” Vernon says politely. Jun curses under his breath in Mandarin and Vernon doesn’t bother telling him that he can understand him.

Later that week, Jun takes it back after Vernon comes up with a way to hit their mark with poison in a cologne bottle. “You’re kinda half-plastic aren’t you,” he says, ruffling Vernon’s hair.

Wonwoo, who’s driving their getaway vehicle, looks back with a frown. “What the hell does that mean, Jun?”

But Vernon gets it.


–


He can’t pinpoint the exact moment he decided he wanted to keep Seungkwan. He picked him up randomly at a club one night, desperately horny, wanting to bury himself in a warm body and stay here until morning. But Seungkwan had been too nice, and didn't let him go too fast that first time, softening Vernon with sweet kisses and caresses. It had been too long since Vernon had been touched in such a tender way, that he melted instantly.

“I’ll take care of you,” Seungkwan had said, an angel on his knees. Speechless, Vernon let him.

He’s been a sucker ever since.


–


“Your skin looks really nice,” Wonwoo says, bewildered, the next time Vernon sees him. Vernon blinks, and touches his own cheek.

“Oh. Thanks. I drink a lot of water.”

He texts Seungkwan what Wonwoo said on his personal phone after he stabs a prominent member of Japanese parliament in a subway, stepping out right where the cameras are dead. He tosses the blade, just as Seungkwan texts an ecstatic, I told you so! Skincare is important, Vernonie!


–


Vernon knows he’s a bad person. Good people don’t kill other people. The ‘half-plastic’ label is something that he clings to. He’s bad, but not all bad. Nice, but not too much. Good enough to touch Seungkwan with his dirty, dirty hands because Seungkwan wants him to. Seungkwan, who deserves a better, sweeter romance. Preferably from a person who hasn’t killed twenty people in the past year.

The truth is, Vernon would probably kill anyone else that tried to touch Seungkwan.

After all, he’s only partially a nice person. He’s not good enough to let Seungkwan go.


–


Seungkwan kicks him when his work phone buzzes at two in the morning. Vernon slowly blinks awake, looking at his angry boyfriend. Even like this, Seungkwan is cute.

“Tell Josh Hong to respect peoples’ sleep schedules!” Yeah, as if Vernon is going to tell Josh that a civilian knows his name. He kisses Seungkwan lazily, before getting up. Seungkwan melts back into bed, with a huff. “Ridiculous. You’re lucky I love you.”

Vernon pauses in the middle of pulling up his boxers. Seungkwan loves him?

He thinks about it. It’s been a year. Wonwoo has found him a cover at a magazine company that one of the bosses has his hands in, to make his photographer cover easier. Seungkwan knows Wonwoo and Jun are his closest coworkers. Outside of his job, Seungkwan knows practically everything about him. He definitely knows everything about Seungkwan.

Well, shit. He loves Seungkwan too.

“You don’t have to say it back,” Seungkwan says shyly, misinterpreting Vernon’s silence.

“You’re too good for me,” he says honestly.

Seungkwan scoffs. “You’re the sweetest man in the world.”

Vernon smiles, Seungkwan’s words echoing in his skull, as he goes into work.

was I in your way?

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: any! but consider verkwan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: falling out of love (slowly, quietly, soundlessly,) meeting again years later, looking not at someone but past them, belated realizations, missing something that you aren't sure ever existed
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

was I in your way?
when the cameras turned to face you
no room in frame
for two

[...]

and I guess it's not a failure we could help
and we'll both go on to be lonely with someone else.

- no room in frame, death cab for cutie

[Fill]

[depozyt]

Ship/Member: Seungkwan/Vernon
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: angst, falling out of love, thinking about love that wasn't meant to last, accepting the hurt
Permission to remix: Yes

written at the speed of light bc i love this kinda angst. i didn't really make them meet after years, sorry ://
***


There are days when Hansol's mind is violently pulled towards Seungkwan. Some days it's caused by an old t-shirt he finds during spring cleaning in his closed, other times it's the smell of his one-night stand's cologne and a week after that it's hearing a song he remembers Seungkwan had on their shared playlist, back when they had only one Spotify account and fought to play the music they liked.

Most of the time he thinks about Seungkwan, he's remembering, not wishing for things to change or magically improve, he's just… torturing himself with the memories. And memories are never the true reflection of past events and feelings—they are curated, polished, photoshopped into perfection by his mind's eye. And he knows, he knows, but he still misses that idealized past that never existed.

He wants his Seungkwan back. Not his true self, but the version that will go on to live in his head. And it's not possible.

They are both doing well with their careers, busy with meetings and packed schedules that never seem to slow down the pace, leaving them burnt out. Maybe that's why it didn't work out, Hansol thinks sometimes. Maybe that's the reason Seungkwan stopped looking at him with so much love in his eyes one day. It didn't happen in one day, Hansol understands that, but he noticed it a month before their breakup and it was the moment he knew this was over and the feelings would never come back.

Hansol never texts him, he deleted the number from his phone. He still remembers it, but whenever he catches himself mindlessly typing it on the keyboard, he turns off the device. Seungkwan has called him once over the past two years. It lasted half a minute and Hansol never picked up, just stared at the number on the screen, mesmerized by the way his chest ached.

This wound won't scar. It will always bleed, drop by drop, and all he can do is to stop picking at it so much. He's not sure he can.
He saw Seungkwan with someone in a coffee shop a few days ago. He was laughing, an untouched cup of black coffee standing on the table before him. Hansol imagined himself in the place of Seungkwan's partner for a few seconds.

He couldn't.

That's not what he wants—he wants their past back. He wishes he was twenty again, struggling to balance his job and studying. He misses sharing headphones with Seungkwan and making shitty ramen in their small kitchen at 3 AM. Their love wasn't meant to last.

[maritimo]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: Graphic Depictions of Violence
Additional Tags: Horror
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I buried your fangs in the heart of a deep well / Your mouth was on fire and bone sore / I know you dug for years below the ground
In an instant your predator hands reached to the throat / I knew you were waiting to die the whole time / Your legs they swung for hours in semi-spires

Fangs by Little Red Lung

the illusive space of a memory

[(Anonymous)]

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

Prompt:

these keen shafts of memory that stung like fire.

one grows out of pity when it is useless.

- the plaugue, albert camus

gimme just one reason

[furniished]

Ship/Member: Seokmin/Any, Minghao/Any, filler's choice!
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants:

Prompt:
Wanting someone to give you an excuse to love them

Why do you keep smiling at me
Just one tear is all it takes
Cry for me, let me please forgive you
-Cry for Me, Twice

Make it up to me, you know it's better
Make it up to me, you know it's better
Be sweet to me, baby
I wanna believe in you, I wanna believe
Be sweet to me, baby
I wanna believe in you, I wanna believe in something
-Be Sweet, Japanese Breakfast