17hols | 2022 Round 1: Quotes

2022 Round 1: Quotes

Status: Closed

This round has closed. It remains open for fills, comments and remixes, but prompts are no longer accepted.

Seventeen Holidays

Round 1: Quotes

About

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

"What is grief, if not love persevering?"

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

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

Examples

Minghao + Ocean Vuong

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

Ocean Vuong - night sky with exit wounds

Hoshi/Anyone; "Beauty is terror"

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

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

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

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

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

Tom Watts - Martha

Rules

Sign up is not required.
Fills have a minimum of 400 words for prose, haiku-length for poetry (3 lines), and 400px by 400px for art (memes are also art). Other mediums are fine too!
There is no maximum cap.
Tag and provide content warnings at your discretion, but a good guide are the Ao3 four (Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage) and this list of common CWs (cr: SportsFest).
NSFW/Explicit content should be tagged
NSFW art should not be visible, please provide a link and a warning. You may crop the artwork and embed a SFW preview.

How it works

Prompting

Click on [Post a New Comment] at the bottom of this post;
Change the subject to something interesting;
Copy+Paste the following HTML into your comment and edit the sections. Feel free to add as much detail as you want!
Ship/Member: Any Major Tags: N/A Additional Tags: N/A Do Not Wants: None Prompt: <blockquote>[QUOTE GOES HERE] </blockquote>

Filling

Reply to the original prompt;
Change the subject to [FILL], you may add a title or stay chaotic;
Copy+Paste the following HTML into your comment, edit the sections, and add your text.
You may also upload your fill to the AO3 Collection.

Ship/Member: Any Major Tags: N/A Additional Tags: N/A Permission to remix: Yes/No/Please ask ***

Remixing

Post as a reply to the fill you are remixing, using the same HTML as above;
Change the subject to [REMIX].

Art/media

Upload your work to any platform (twitter, imgur, youtube, soundcloud, google maps, etc.)
Using the same HTML code as above, copy the link into your fill or remix. That's it!
Optionally, you can embed a picture into your comment. Please use the following code instead.
(To explain, the HTML resizes your picture to 400x400px so that it fits on most screens. Users can view the full size if they click on it. You can also add a link to your work on twitter so that others can share it, or to any other website you want)

Ship/Member: Any Major Tags: N/A Additional Tags: N/A Permission to remix: Yes/No/Please ask *** <img src="INSERT IMAGE URL" width="400px"> <a href="INSERT ANY URL YOU WANT">TEXT THAT DESCRIBES THE LINK</a>

Note!

On dreamwidth, you can't edit a comment once someone has replied to it.

Navigation

❮ ROUND 1: QUOTES ❯

ROUND 2: ALTERNATE UNIVERSES

ROUND 3: LAST WORDS

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Top chan is so underappreciated!!! Especially with wonchan imo... So glad others agree<3 Thanks for commenting!! ^^

Edited 2022-01-08 21:08 (UTC)

<3333 so glad i was finally able to deliver some much needed dalnip to you ^^

oh i love this!!! angsty in love seokmin and gyuhao who are just like him so much… and the pool sets the mood for it so well… thank you so much for writing and sharing this!!!

EEEEEEEEEE CAT YOU'VE DONE IT AGAIN !!!!!!!!

Ship/Member: Seungcheol/Junhui
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: idolverse, moonjun
Permission to remix: Yes

flying on a wing and a prayer hoping my understanding of dorm arrangements is up to date

***

It’s been dead quiet in the dorm most of the time since Mingyu and Wonwoo moved out. Joshua and Minghao drink together some nights, and their voices and the music they play will carry, even as soft as they are, just because there’s nothing at all to dampen it. Like a blush on an especially pale cheek. Seungcheol supposes they probably hear him too when he’s gaming with voice chat on, although he tries to keep it down, especially if it’s a particularly bad raid. Other nights, Hansol comes up from his floor to watch a movie with one of both of them. And sometimes, most rarely, Junhui will accompany Hansol up the stairs and then split before the film starts, slipping into Seungcheol’s room without any particular excuse.

Two days before Jun and Minghao are set to fly out, Seungcheol leaves his room to find them arguing in the kitchen, the most noise the apartment’s been host to in weeks. He’s nervous at first; he’s learned to live with the unease that accompanies every major and minor shift in the group’s path, but there’s been a new and special kind of dread lately. In spite of all his work at recognizing and sitting with his feelings, he can’t make himself look at it straight on.

But at least the most immediate fear is misplaced, he realizes, as Minghao’s sharp tone turns to laughter mid-sentence while he dodges the spoon Junhui is pushing at his lips. That’s when Jun notices him and grins, his most honest smile with the full curve of his lips and all his crowded teeth showing. He switches to Korean without missing a beat: “Hyung, come try it!”

Seokmin’s using the kitchen downstairs, he learns. “Hao said it was okay to use this one,” Junhui says, a little shy. “I just wanted to practice again before going home. It’s my mom’s favorite dish.” His movements suddenly tentative, he offers the spoon to Seungcheol like he’s feeding a sickly kitten.

“I told you it’s too hot,” Minghao says when Seungcheol tears up.

*

Neither Seungcheol nor Joshua use the kitchen much themselves. One evening in November, they meet in the process of throwing their delivery boxes away at the same time.

“It’s been pretty quiet, huh,” Joshua says.

Seungcheol doesn’t say, You think?

*

Seungcheol has caught Hansol raiding Minghao’s closet more than once since he’s been away, so he tries not to let himself be too embarrassed when Hansol finds him in Junhui’s room. He’s not even touching anything, anyway. He’s looking out the window and feeling stupidly frustrated that he can’t find the moon. The air pollution in Seoul is something else, or he needs to check the lunar calendar again, or Junhui somehow managed to steal it away entirely when he left. He wouldn't put it past him.

“You lost, hyung?” Hansol asks gently.

“Maybe,” Seungcheol admits.

Edited 2022-01-09 00:46 (UTC)

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/Wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: idolverse, humor, fluff with just a smidge of angst, drunk hoshi kissing everything that moves, hoshi just wants a good movie kiss from wonu, but also he likes kissing the homies a whole lot
Permission to remix: Yes

myri i hope you enjoy this silly "little" snwu. mwah.
***

Wonwoo always enjoys watching Soonyoung progressing through the stages of drunkenness.

One drink, and Soonyoung becomes spacey, distracted.

They’ve stopped to eat something on their way to the house the Going Seventeen production team rented for the following two days. Soonyoung has already finished a beer by himself and now he’s giggling, staring in the distance while the rest of them have normal conversation over their food.

It’s cute how red Soonyoung’s cheeks become, Wonwoo thinks to himself, watching as Soonyoung leans into Jeonghan’s space and opens his mouth wide, waiting to be fed.

It’s cute how he doesn’t care about the cameras catching him in this state, needy and whiny when Jeonghan refuses him, teases him a little bit before pushing a spoon full of rice between his awaiting puckered lips.

When they finally get to the house, they all scatter around to do different things, and Wonwoo loses sight of Soonyoung for a while. He hangs out with Mingyu while the younger man gets in his stupidly expensive bathrobe that makes him look so posh and which the rest of them make fun of. Not that they really need any excuses to make fun of Mingyu.

It’s Soonyoung’s voice that gets to his ears first, several decibels louder than the rest of the boys gathered around the karaoke machine.

Two drinks, and Soonyoung becomes a little too loud.

He’s clutching the microphone in his fist and belting at the top of his lungs, a tiger-striped shirt hugging his torso and a beanie resting low over his forehead.

Seokmin humors him, singing as loud as he can too - and well, the boy does have lungs. It’s a battle of endurance. After a short while, Seungkwan joins in, completing the trio. They end up dragging Chan into it as well, and then Jihoon.

From the sidelines, Wonwoo enjoys the show as he entertains himself with one of the arcade games the crew left for them to try out. When Soonyoung’s voice cracks, he laughs along with the others, clutching his belly with his arm to stop his giggles.

It’s not long after that they find themselves sitting down together at the dinner table, eating and downing even more alcohol. Wonwoo doesn’t like drinking that much, so he limits himself and tries not to get caught in the more and more elaborate drinking games that his bandmates like to make up on nights like this one.

Three drinks, and Soonyoung starts to dance unprompted to any kind of sound that resembles music. If there isn’t any music, he produces it himself.

At first it’s with the freshly made “S.Coups game,” to which Soonyoung manages to create a whole choreography out of thin air, making everyone laugh with his exaggerated moves and the way he shouts in excitement at every possible occasion.

The Hongsam game is always what they circle back to - it’s fun, and it’s something they’ve been doing for years.

The entertainment comes both from the game itself, which becomes so fast-paced it’s hard to keep up, and the way Soonyoung wriggles his body around every time he can, a dancer in all of his movements, even the smallest ones.

Obviously, as he trashes around like a little worm, Soonyoung ends up losing a couple of rounds. He downs his shots like a champion.

A little after four drinks, Soonyoung starts demanding kisses.

First it’s from Seokmin, who’s sitting right next to him. Seokmin calls for everyone’s attention when Soonyoung manages to land the first one on him, pretending to be a bit disgusted and begging for their help in getting out of his clutches.

Seungkwan diagnoses Soonyoung with tipsiness, and they all laugh at the way Soonyoung juts his lips and plants another smooch on the back of Seokmin’s hand.

The second victim is Mingyu, as Soonyoung climbs onto his back while they play futsal in the back garden and presses his mouth against his neck. Mingyu’s cheeks brighten, but he accepts the kisses in stride and then starts running with Soonyoung attached to his back like a backpack, tripping on his feet right after and making them fall to the ground in a pile of uncoordinated limbs.

Vernon just puts his cheek out when Soonyoung asks him for a kiss and waits for him to be done with him. It’s quick and cute. Jeonghan cooes from the side, and Soonyoung turns to leave one on his hyung’s face as well. Always accommodating Soonyoung’s wishes, Jeonghan lets him do as he pleases, chuckling a little when Soonyoung hides his face against his neck and yawns.

Seungcheol, Minghao, and Junhui all get three little pecks on the top of their heads as Soonyoung passes by them sitting at the kitchen table to get another drink, and they all smile at him when he disappears, twirling on himself.

Jihoon is the one giving Soonyoung a sweet forehead kiss to placate him when he starts to whine about wanting to play more drinking games.

Seungkwan and Joshua somehow manage to avoid the whirlwind of limbs that is drunk Soonyoung, but Chan gets trapped between him and the wall, and Soonyoung doesn’t hesitate one second before pressing their mouths together.

“Hyung, that’s too much!” Chan protests, but Soonyoung is just happy and giggly as he moves away, leaving a spluttering Chan behind him.

When he finds Wonwoo, Soonyoung has gotten a fifth and sixth drink for sure. His cheeks are rosy, his eyes are liquid and wide. Wonwoo has to put his hands on his shoulders to stop him from toppling over.

“Wonwoo-yah, kiss?” he demands, tapping his forefinger against his mouth. Hyper aware of all the cameras scattered around, Wonwoo chuckles and keeps his arms extended, avoiding getting too close to Soonyoung’s puckered lips.

“Didn’t you get enough from the others?” Wonwoo asks him, sinking his fingers in Soonyoung’s shoulders and rubbing circles over his clothed skin.

Soonyoung’s pout gets more pronounced, his eyebrows knitting.

“I want one from you,” he says, struggling against Wonwoo’s hold to reduce the space between them. “I want a real one.”

Wonwoo is quite sure his ears are burgundy by now, hot with the knowledge of all the eyes - real and glass ones - pointed at them.

“Soon-ah, c’mon, you’ve got plenty of kisses.”

The way Soonyoung’s scowl deepens tugs at Wonwoo’s heart, but he doesn’t budge from his position.

“I want a kiss from you,” Soonyoung says.

Sighing, Wonwoo gives in. It’s quick, just a small peck to his temple - Wonwoo makes sure that his face is out of frame from the camera closest to them.

When he meets Soonyoung’s eyes, he’s still wearing disappointment on his face.

“A real kiss, Wonwoo. Like in the dramas,” he says, little fists banging against Wonwoo’s chest. “A kiss that gives me butterflies.”

Wonwoo laughs at that, a bit choked up.

“I can’t do that,” he says, feeling his heart break at the expression that passes over Soonyoung’s face - disappointment, for sure, maybe hurt. Out of the corner of his eye, Wonwoo can still see the camera pointed at them. He’s not giving in.

“Fine,” Soonyoung sighs in the end, mouth pursed. “I’ll go get another drink.”

“That’s not a good idea!” Wonwoo yells after him, but Soonyoung has already disappeared from view.

Wonwoo makes eye-contact with the camera, and then he’s gone as well.

After the sixth drink, any glass could be the tipping one that leads Soonyoung to pass out exhausted in a corner for someone to pick him up and tuck him into bed.

That night it’s Jeonghan who drags him up and and puts him to sleep - Wonwoo watches as Mingyu trails behind them, making sure that Soonyoung can walk on his own to feet. When Mingyu looks in his direction, Wonwoo pretends to be engaged with Chan’s performance at the karaoke machine.

It’s not that much later that Wonwoo drags himself to bed, the dejected expression on Soonyoung’s face seared into his retinas.

The morning after is quiet enough - saved for Seungcheol waking them up with karaoke so loud that the walls shake.

Soonyoung refuses to meet Wonwoo’s eyes over breakfast; he avoids Wonwoo while they clean up and gather their things before leaving; he gets in the car and hurries out of the parking lot with Jihoon and Jeonghan as his passengers, before Wonwoo has even time to process what's going on.

“You screwed up big time,” Mingyu tells him, a hand squeezing his shoulder as he passes by.

Maybe he did.

Maybe he should have kissed Soonyoung as he asked, and as he wanted to do, but it wasn’t the time or place.

The camera, the filming crew, the members. It wouldn’t have been a kiss like the one Soonyoung craved. It would have been a watered down version, a half-hearted one that would have left them both disappointed.

When they finally get to their dorm, Soonyoung disappears into his room in a flash, cheeks puffed out and eyebrows still knitted.

Wonwoo finds himself knocking on his door not even ten minutes later - just enough time for Jeonghan to scold him into asking forgiveness for having hurt Soonyoung’s feelings.

“I’m sleeping!” Soonyoung responds from inside, but when Wonwoo says “Please, Soon-ah, I just want to talk!” he appears at the door, arms crossed over his chest.

“Then talk,” he urges, rolling his eyes when Wonwoo fidgets instead of speaking.

“Can I come in?” Wonwoo asks, attempting a small smile.

Soonyoung huffs but lets him pass through, closing the door behind them and slumping against it.

“I’m still hungover, Wonwoo-yah, make this quick. I want to take a nap.”

Wonwoo has always been the type of person who solved problems with words, because he doesn’t like leaving arguments open. Wonwoo has always been the type of person who talks first, acts later.

Not today.

Today he crowds Soonyoung against the door, hands on his waist, and dips down to slot their mouths together.

Soonyoung’s small gulp of surprise is silenced by Wonwoo’s lips pressing against his; his whole body feels on fire where it’s in contact with Soonyoung, his skin a hundred degrees hotter than Wonwoo’s.

Wonwoo expects Soonyoung to protest, to argue that Wonwoo can’t solve all their problems with a stupid kiss, but all Soonyoung does is melt in his hold - his arms tight around Wonwoo’s neck, bringing him closer, his hands in Wonwoo’s hair, tugging at strands until Wonwoo is opening his mouth for Soonyoung’s tongue to slip inside.

The soft happy sounds that come out of Soonyoung’s mouth are swallowed down by Wonwoo, fuel him to drag his hands down from Soonyoung’s waist to the back of his thighs. He bends down just to pick Soonyoung up by his legs, pushing him back against the door once his thighs are secured around Wonwoo’s waist.

Soonyoung kisses him like Wonwoo has never been kissed: with passion, with heat, with love. It leaves Wonwoo breathless, the love that Soonyoung pours through his mouth and down his throat.

When they separate, Soonyoung isn’t scowling anymore.

“Did that give you butterflies?” Wonwoo asks, because he can’t help teasing, not when Soonyoung’s cheeks are so red and his eyes are so dazed. He briefly wonders if he’s in the same state - he probably is.

Soonyoung doesn’t reply, just bends his neck down to kiss him once more.

“To the bed,” he orders, “if you really want to give me butterflies.”

Away from the cameras, Wonwoo is more than happy to comply.

THIS WAS SOOOOO GOOD im clenching my first really hard right.... i don't even know where to begin... first of all in 2022 i am working towards writing canon compliant + learning to appreciate fic rooted in real life instead of AUs, my weakness. i've always been hesitant about the genre but i love reading it ESPECIALLY when it's so well done like in here.

like pb said, i love how you focused on two Very Real Things (cheols break from OTY and chan either being the youngest in svt or leader of a boygroup that never came to be) but also how you kept weaving the themes of mentorship / that age gap / how chan is the youngest but acts so old vs. seungcheol's sudden realization that he's the oldest + people have to look up to him when he was used to being the youngest in the family

chan gnaws on his lower lip, and the illusion breaks instantly - he looks every bit the child he is. seungcheol isn't very old, either, but eighteen feels like generations away / lee chan is twenty-one years old, but he carries himself like someone much older - there's a heaviness to his eyes that seungcheol doesn't think he had at twenty-one.

AND AND AND THE BITS AT THE END FROM SEUNGCHEOLS MIND...
why did you think it was a good idea to ask me for advice? seungcheol almost cuts back. i barely knew anything more than you did. between the two of us, i thought you had a better head on your shoulders. the admittance that sometimes even if it looks like you've got it all down from the outside looking in we are all terrified on the inside.

i'll be thinking about this for a very long time thank u for writing..

one last part:

all the time, he wants to say. sometimes, i don't think i'm strong enough for this. i wake up and i think someone else should be doing my job.

but to say that would be to tell chan that he's wasted the past seven years of his life chasing a dream that turns into a nightmare that you never know when you'll be able to wake up from.

so instead, he shrugs. "it's hard. but i'm not sure that anyone else could lead the group and have it work.""

oh, i love this so much. thank you for writing!

ohh this was such a nice read--I like when such short pieces are telling of more deeper details and suggestive of like subplots? background action with interpersonal relationships? which is what I get here from josh and jeonghan. it makes stories so full especially with the setting of a party and the classic juxtaposition of not being present in a space that's meant for you to be present. I haven't read much Vernon pov as well so this was really refreshing; as well as the ambiguous take on verkwan that reveal there's always something more.

Ship/Member: junhui/minghao
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: character study, idolverse, fame but not the way you wanted it, what does it cost to be an idol and what does it look like on other people, love as a duty at first but also love of that duty makes it also a choice in a way
Permission to remix: please ask!
wc:1354
hello wife <3 thank u for this delicious quote i have been thinking about it ever since i saw it.. not sure if i actually filled this prompt correctly but i think for a first junhao this is a valiant attempt

***

Minghao was always serious.

Immovable but not immutable. So proper, not prone to bending or breaking. He reminded Junhui of a tree.

Minghao was the type that liked to place down roots and settle, for lengths on end, sifting through the mysteries of the universe with the patience of someone way beyond his age, even if the answers never revealed themselves in the end.

Junhui was nothing like that.

He’d tried to, at first.

You have a handsome face, Seungkwan would always despair while disciplining himself on some newfangled health routine that he’d picked up from the depths of the interwebs, wrangling whoever he could into doing it with him, couldn’t you be a little bit more serious, Moon Jun? You have an image to protect! And because he had 12 other people to think about – 12 other dreams to think about – Junhui tried.

It didn’t work. It felt like putting on clothes that didn’t belong to him. A part of Junhui ached when he saw everyone else around him put on theirs, too, mouths pinching themselves into polite smiles even when it got too uncomfortable underneath the spotlight. It hurt to hold himself a certain way all the time. He was one of the older ones, a hyung to look up to, but the role always felt clunky in his hands when he’d wielded it.

Sometimes Junhui would look at himself in the mirror and fail to recognize the picture staring back.

This is how you have to be, their CEO said, and they’d all accepted it, heads bowed and fingers trembling as they slipped their rings on. Back then, everyone had just wanted to be liked.

A little folding, a pinch here and there – it was all worth it in the end, if you earned some love. A small part of Junhui wanted that too. Of course he did. But in the wake of all he’d lost to get to this point, Junhui was suddenly nervous. Who could he be if someone else decided all of that for him?

Minghao never wavered. He nodded once, and that was that. Nothing else had to be said or taken into consideration. The burden was his to bear.

Junhui wanted to reach out to stop him, to at least make him think a little carefully about what was being done to him – to them all – but when Junhui looked into Minghao’s eyes, determination blazed bright and true. He held so much more courage than Junhui could ever hope to have in a lifetime.

So he held his tongue and let Minghao step past.

He’d tried. It didn’t work.

This was, in part, because Junhui was extremely flighty.

He knew this. His members knew this, and they loved him regardless.

Junhui, as they all knew, was the type to go online shopping in the middle of the night to acquire the necessary materials for a niche product he’d spotted on Weibo, only to lose interest by the time it made its way from the supplier to their dorm. He liked to hop from one thing to the next as they sparked his interest, bouncing around from place to place, sending texts into the group chat regardless of an answer. Calls to nowhere.

The first years were suffocating. They had debuted yet, but they were hardly free, always set in motion. Always on the run from something and towards another. Junhui found it hard to take a breath. He struggled with the weight of expectations that strapped him down into place.

He wanted to be free.

He wanted to stay.

He didn’t know what he wanted anymore.

Those first years, Junhui was always lumped next to Minghao. He hardly minded. Sometimes it felt nice to be a part of a whole, even if they weren’t that similar in the first place. It always ended up being Minghao who had to take care of Junhui, instead of the other way around.

On paper, it made sense: both performance unit members, not the best at speaking just yet, foreigners in an industry where sameness was the best way to survive.

A marriage of convenience, he joked, to which Minghao always rolled his eyes.

“Everything becomes convenient to you,” Minghao pointed out.

Junhui wondered if it was the same for Minghao. Minghao, who was infinitely more thoughtful than Junhui was, always so careful about everything that he did, so that in the end it looked like an act of deliberation instead of something he’d mindlessly just stumbled into.

Junhui caught himself before he asked the question. He didn’t know which answer was worse.

Somewhere along the way the pressure lifted. They all felt a little more free. But there Minghao remained, by Junhui’s side. Constant.

One time Junhui was lazing around in the dressing room, clips in his hair. He’d turned the volume of his phone all the way up because everyone had already left to get their makeup retouched or their wardrobe fixed, and it was better to hear the sound coming back at him than nothing at all.

There was only Minghao in the room, anyway. He was always listening to Junhui, ever since Junhui had walked up to him in that green room and accidentally spat on his face trying to use a language that was neither of theirs. He was always listening even if he pretended that he wasn’t.

Minghao looked up at him from where he was reading, clearly irked by the sound but trying to be a better person about it. Minghao held his tongue, and Junhui wanted to ruffle his hair for it.

Sometimes it felt like an unspoken victory, when Junhui was able to annoy Minghao, just to see if he could get a reaction out of him.

“Doesn’t it bother you? The sound?” Minghao asked instead.

Junhui took a moment to think about it.

“Nope,” he answered easily. Minghao twisted his lips into a half-grin, half-grimace, and all fond, Junhui liked to think.

They returned to their respective universes without saying another word. Minghao stayed in the room and Junhui dialed down the volume just a bit.

Another contract renewal came and went. This time all thirteen of them decided not to sign, even without talking about it. They’d laughed when their votes were revealed, though for some their throats were thick with tears when it happened.

Junhui was one of the members who were not as affected. In a way he had begun, without even realizing it, preparing for the end. Like it was inevitable instead of something to be avoided.

He’d reasoned with himself: he could hardly expect to be the same person he was when he started this journey. Sometimes a dream turned sideways, turned into something else entirely. What their story really needed was to come to an end, in order for the next chapter to begin.

Minghao was somewhere in the middle. He stayed stone-faced throughout the entire meeting, so still that Junhui wondered if he would finally crack.

He hoped Minghao knew that he was allowed to break, if he needed. Junhui would be there to catch him. They all would.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Minghao says when everyone else is out of earshot.

Junhui pretended to play dumb. “Like what?”

Minghao was the only one, still, after all these years, who never let it slide. “Like you’re worried about me. I’m fine.”

Junhui shrugged. “If you say so.”

“Do you think you’re going to try anything else?” Minghao asked, quietly. Junhui knew what he was really asking — will we have more time together? Will I see you on stage again?

Junhui took a while to craft his answer. “I don’t think so,” he mustered up brightly, but the end of his sentence came out stilted. “I think I’m done.”

Minghao became silent and Junhui smiled, folding him into a hug.

“It’s not the end of the world, Minghao. You know where to find me.”

Besides, Junhui knew: Minghao was different than he was.

He would make it.

Edited 2022-01-09 04:55 (UTC)

BRO. i love the way you went with this. wonhui was not the pairing i was expecting but it was perfect, it fit so well, junnie's exuberance tempered by exhaustion meeting wonu's introversion trumped by the thrill of his love being home. there are so many details of this i could pick out (the handwritten sign!!!!!! who handwrote it!!!!!!! enquiring minds need to know!!!!!!! and did they get confused while writing because of the big letters?????) so i'll just mention a few.

- going to wonu bc he can't Not. the pillow feeling wrong bc even though he picked it out for himself specially, and even tho presumably wonu is still using the ones that came with the bed, even tho he's drooled all over them and the stuffing is all gone, they are the only pillows that junhui can possibly sleep on
- wonu falling asleep with the lights on and his hand clamped around his phone like the horrid little goblin he is. junnie nagging him to sleep better. he won't god bless <3
- WONU CAT PAWING YOU AWAKE. my mother's cat likes to sit next to her on the bed Staring at her until she is presumably woken up by the instinctive fear provoked by two big yellow eyes fixed on her. she (the cat) does this at six am. i feel like (apart from the early morning) this is wonu.
- sleepy messy early morning sex. i think i will live in this image for the forseeable future. not that i'm struggling with my ldr haha :)))))

anyway! this was amazing and you really took the prompt and ran with it in such an interesting way and i'm so glad i left it so loose bc it gave an amazing writer like you space to go where you wanted. thank you so much for filling my prompt!

oh god, oh my god. you had me the minute i saw juncheol that im always, always hungry for, its such a special pairing and /rare/ and then you made it idolverse and i was prepared for a treat but this is so beautiful. you're so good at setting a mood, i can physically feel the emptiness and the quiet grow and grow in the dorm and how seungcheol grows lost and wistful with it.

In spite of all his work at recognizing and sitting with his feelings, he can’t make himself look at it straight on. how very scoups of him to do the right thing and take note of his feelings and yet be unable to really confront them, the pressure of the slow dismantling of the group around him and then this, ah, you really create a picture.

“You lost, hyung?” Hansol asks gently.

“Maybe,” Seungcheol admits.

this quiet admittance really did me in, the whole thing comes to a head so beautifully, god this was such a treat for me, i cant thank you enough for writing and sharing this, op <3

OHHHH THIS IS SO SWEET AND TENDER. i love it so much, it's domestic and sweet and ugghhh my heart is so full reading this. soonwoo!! i love but, but i burned breakfast I CACKLED that is so good. love this soft love and fond exasperation mixed all in one, unable to surprise each other bc that's just how well they know each other! Soonyoung wonders when the notions of yours and mine began to feel arbitrary. All around him, he only sees us, ours. i'm dead on the floor, thank you for such a lovely fill!!

oh my god OH MY GOD. THE YEARNING HERE... IS SO INTENSE. i can't! i CAAAAN'T. seungcheol!! i want to wrap him up in a big hug ahh. i think you were so genius in the way you described his reaction to jihan's relationship - warmth and happiness bc of course! his best friends! go well together! then something giving way when nothing changes, there isn't enough to put distance between them... and he is STUCK. STUCK!! i'm crying. JISOO'S HAND ON HIS RIBS YOU'RE KIDDING ME... ur the only friend(s) i need... sharing beds like little kids...

In the dark like this, they become one, they become everything Seungcheol wants and needs, every childish fantasy he’d love to make come true. CRYING

cheerfully rude guy joshua hong!! yeah!!! wow user jibes you have done it again, i'm speechless. there is so much left unsaid in this, but the little details speak volumes. the ring that minghao STILL wears... his memories of reading with joshua... JOSHUA NEVER SHOWING UP AT THE AIRPORT BUT MINGHAO WOULDN'T BEG. ugh, this is so bitter in the best way!!

KARINAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WIFE IM HOWLING this is me being extremely selfish but also as a general public service too i hope you will write more idolverse, i cant believe this is you 'dipping your toes' into it please, i read this twice and now im ruing the lack of an ao3 floaty review box to scream your lines back at you.

He reminded Junhui of a tree. how could you do this, take a known quote about jun and flip it around like this, im rattling you...the sturdiness that people see in jun but he sees in hao and not in himself T____T

the way the narrative flows, how jun has to stifle what he thinks is flightiness and yet some part of him knows it's not right, "make him think a little carefully about what was being done to him – to them all" and then biting his tongue and getting on with it....jun acts of service are so personal and dear to me, though im not sure this counts as that exactly

A marriage of convenience, he joked, to which Minghao always rolled his eyes.

“Everything becomes convenient to you,” Minghao pointed out.

Junhui wondered if it was the same for Minghao. Minghao, who was infinitely more thoughtful than Junhui was, always so careful about everything that he did, so that in the end it looked like an act of deliberation instead of something he’d mindlessly just stumbled into.

Junhui caught himself before he asked the question. He didn’t know which answer was worse.

jun's practicality versus minghao's thoughtfulness......head in hands, this is my shit, this right here. of course jun would wonder whether it's deliberate for minghao and minghao would feel what goes, goes is how jun is looking at it!! UGHHH

and oh how you drew it to a close
“Do you think you’re going to try anything else?” Minghao asked, quietly. Junhui knew what he was really asking — will we have more time together? Will I see you on stage again?

Junhui took a while to craft his answer. “I don’t think so,” he mustered up brightly, but the end of his sentence came out stilted. “I think I’m done.”

Minghao became silent and Junhui smiled, folding him into a hug.

“It’s not the end of the world, Minghao. You know where to find me.”

Besides, Junhui knew: Minghao was different than he was.

He would make it

even till the end, the kind of unwavering steadiness he sees in minghao but actually he holds all that and more when it comes to believing in minghao and his potential and his future....im just a simple 8junist and canonverse fucker you have really given me everything for this prompt, thank you...put this on ao3 already so i can bookmark it hehe ily <3

oh my god,,,, oh wow. what an incredible chan moment to tie in, to briefly make real through this fill-- i'm kinda really torn-up. but also so relieved that this was not actually Our lee chan's fate!

i absolutely loved the juxtaposition of "chan should be fine. he's driven and talented and has years ahead of him... lee chan is twenty-one years old, but he carries himself like someone much older". like oh man.. the jaws of growing up really snapping down on our beautiful, determined, beaten-down lee chan. it's really wonderful how you explored... that helpless feeling of being looked up to as a slightly older 20-something. of struggling so hard with even how to help ourselves, of constantly learning just how few answers we hold in our hands. of coming to terms with the inevitable loss of each person's seemingly endless potential. O, the regret, the guilt, the grief of our 20's! you did such a beautiful job.

Edited 2022-01-09 07:45 (UTC)

oh i am Crazy!! this is so delightful!! the intrigue, the yearning, the Yoon Jeonghan Knowing Everything Always. i loved it!! thanks for writing <3

Ship/Member: Seokmin/Minghao
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Sci-fi, space, vague interstellar-esque timey stuff
Permission to remix: Pls ask!

***

It was a soft kind of science, but he enjoyed it anyway. He didn’t speak to many people since it wasn’t necessitated by the job. He woke up every day at 0500, at the first blue limning of the pods, although the neurologists had designed it to be a gradual and gentle awakening. He drank tea alone in the mess then retreated to his lab to continue his efforts to try and save the fate of humanity off-planet. He tended to his hydroponics trials, experimented with the ionic balance of the water, grew baby carrots half the size of his little finger, and read poetry to the potato eyelets.

“Wow,” Lee Seokmin said, “would you look at that!”

Seokmin was the pilot, and as such had no reason to be standing as close to Minghao as he was.

Tucked into one corner of the lab was a nascent bloom of a camellia flower Minghao had been working on reverse-engineering, its green stem curled into a delicate C-shape in the terraplanter. Minghao had forgotten to hide it. Flowers were a waste of time. A farce, nothing as important as the real crops. But above the upturned collar of his leather bomber jacket, Seokmin’s face glowed, entranced.

Science was about admitting what you didn’t know. Minghao didn’t know Seokmin.

The sound of his laughter, his cheerfulness in the face of the dark silence of space, the loose and easy way he moved through the gray, disconsolate walls of their government-chartered ship. The way he looked at Minghao sometimes although they were nearly strangers to each other, just two people both hired to spend the formative years of their lives on an impossible mission. Minghao’s worldview was set by then, it was minimal, he did his job, he survived. People like Seokmin, with that ridiculous, unsteadying smile — Seokmin was incomprehensible. Made Minghao all off-kilter.

“So you’re the botanist.”

“Yes,” Minghao said, resisting the urge to say, No shit.

“Did you work with hydroponics on Earth, too?”

“No.”

In college, he’d interned in a greenhouse. He had risen with the sun every morning. Now his lab didn’t even have a porthole.

Seokmin rested his elbow on the table and leaned his cheek against his palm, grinning as if to say, Go on. Minghao cleared his throat, unaccountably flustered.

“Well, my grandfather was a farmer,” he said reluctantly.

“What kinds of things did he grow?”

“Maize and sorghum, mostly.”

“Ah. Do you remember them much? The fields?”

“Look, Captain Lee. With all due respect, I have a lot of work to do today.”

Up close, the larger-than-lifeness of Seokmin’s personality became something sweet and intimate and unstudied. When he smiled at Minghao now, it made Minghao want to hide his own face in his hands.

“Of course. I completely understand. But I had just one question. Why all the flowers?”

Shit. Seokmin must’ve caught a glimpse of the other flowering terraplanters Minghao had inelegantly shoved behind a wall of maize net pots when the knock on the lab door first came. Minghao took a deep breath, immediately on the defense. “I know it’s not— I know it’s not a part of my duties. You have to understand I never work on them on paid time, and—”

Seokmin leaned forward. Minghao’s words caught in his throat.

“They’re lovely, Minghao,” Seokmin said softly.

Minghao exhaled. Looked away. The flowers were really what he lived for. What got him up in the morning. He could rationalize it as a mystery he was trying to solve. Really, though, their beauty sustained him.

“Abscission,” Minghao said eventually.

“Abs-what?”

“I woke up one morning, before I’d tried anything with flowers. There were petals on the floor, under the wick systems… pink petals. I didn’t know where they’d come from, if it was some kind of— developmental mutation, or what.”

“Petals…”

The only other soul Minghao had told was their physicist Wonwoo, who had a working theory about wormholes and time dilation. Minghao wasn’t sure what to believe. And despite himself, he preferred a touch of romanticism. He reflexively said, “The way they’d fallen… they reminded me of patterns in a maize field, like… like crop circles. Like birds in migration. Biology tries to tell us things, sometimes.”

“I remember birds,” Seokmin said wistfully. “My eomma loved to feed them. They’d sing all day long outside our window.”

“Seems like a silly way to spend the time. Maybe that’s why they died off first.”

Seokmin looked briefly startled before he laughed.

“I always forget how dry your sense of humor is,” he said, almost to himself. This didn’t make much sense, because it was the first time the two of them had talked to each other like this. “Maybe you’re right. I guess we can’t afford to waste time like that, under the circumstances.”

Earlier this morning at 0530, after drinking his tea, Minghao had spent fifteen minutes outside the showers listening to Seokmin sing. Staring off outside the porthole at the moons of Jupiter. They were passing by Europa, the moon of ice. Beneath the ice there was thought to be an ocean. Privately, after months of watching his flowers bloom and color even under the barest of experimental conditions, Minghao thought that theoretically there could be flowers on Europa. Flowers with a parabolic shape that grew in the dim slant of the sun.

Sunflowers. On a moon of Jupiter. What a silly, beautiful thought. But it meant life. It meant, perhaps, another place for humans. Another place under the sun.

The flower in the terraplanter abscissed. It was sudden. One minute Seokmin was smiling at him and Minghao’s entire being felt flooded with warmth, and the next minute Minghao broke eye contact to look at the bloom and it was limp, lying on the table.

“Oh,” Minghao said, frowning.

Seokmin picked the flower up, then impulsively tucked it behind Minghao’s ear.

It made Minghao feel like he was standing on Earth again. On solid sunwarmed ground, barefoot. Seokmin was looking at him with those big eyes the way he always did, but now he was so close, so unbearably bright, getting closer and closer.

“Please don’t look at me like that,” Minghao whispered.

“Like what?”

“Like that. You look at me like that whenever I see you. Even in passing. I don’t know what it means.”

“Sorry,” Seokmin said. Seokmin didn’t look; Seokmin stared. He stared like he had known Minghao for years and years, like he knew Minghao entirely, like he knew much, much more than that, too. His thumb ghosted against Minghao's mouth, and the fluttery feeling in Minghao was familiar, as if he could remember it from somewhere, sometime.

Memory was a strange thing. The earliest one he had was as a child on his grandfather’s farm. Watching the birds fly above the green, green field.

It occurred to Minghao then that the first time he’d heard Seokmin sing was the same morning he’d found the petals on the floor. The same morning he'd crouched down and thought: This could mean something, couldn't it.

***

their strange and unfamiliar intimacy that somehow still just feels Right... it comes across so well here T.T and their individual characteristics and flaws so perfectly captured too , such a lovely and quaint work, thank you so much

Ship/Member: Jun, implied (really just implied lmao) gyujun
Major Tags: post breakup
Additional Tags: finding yourself after a relationship ends, self love, just jun giving himself time and stuff
Permission to remix: Yes! please tag me if you do :)

Exactly 400 words!

(this is a small thing and it feels very ramble-y and i know this prompt was filled before but i really haven't stopped thinking about it since i read it. i hope you like it *hides away*)

***

Find your lost self, find it now
Your color, your scent
I like me better now
The flowers just bloom in different seasons
It’s your time now, I look forward to it
Your color, your scent
I like me better now
Better now

— Gfriend, Better me

Took a deep breath in the mirror
He didn't like it when I wore high heels
But I do
Turn the lock and put my headphones on
He always said he didn't get this song
But I do, I do

— Taylor Swift, Begin Again

It took some time, but Jun could finally watch his favourite movies again without wondering if he thought of him whenever someone mentioned them, or when they came on the TV. It took some more time, but every song stopped reminding Jun of him. His favourite books and passages stopped irrevocably being about his heartache and were about other grandeur things again. The love letters and notes he never sent stopped weighing a ton on his shoulders and finally became feather light in his trash bin.

The world shifted in its axis. Maybe it went back to its rightful place.

When Jun would try something new and not wonder about what he would’ve thought, he knew he was going to get better.

Heartbreak could not last forever, he had hoped when he cried until his pillowcase was filled with nothing but tears. It turned out to be truth, eventually.

He got scared one day, when he suddenly could breathe easily. What did that make of his previous feelings? Feelings that felt absolute and immovable at some point in his life. Feelings that kept him alive.

“You cherish the good memories,” Minghao had told him. “And learn from the bad. It doesn’t mean it was all worthless. It just means that part of your life is over, but that doesn’t make it less important.”

He picked himself back up slowly through the waves of sadness. He played games online again and made friends. He cooked for his friends unprompted, just to see them smile and fish for compliments. He went out dancing with them after way too long. He went on walks and let his mind spiral out of control, until one day his heart nudged him back and said it’s okay. It’s okay now.

***

“Hyung, I made these for you.”

One day, those words stop confusing Jun. They do not shock him anymore. They fill him with something warm, something familiar, yet somewhat different. The frame engulfing him is, for one, taller than Junhui, but much softer. Little actions that would've driven him away before, now pull him in, inescapably (not that he wants to escape.)

After a few weeks of being taken care of, Jun lets himself get used to it. He gives as good as he receives, and thinks it’s worth trying again every time his lips and his hands are met with a such tender eagerness.

Edited 2022-01-09 19:43 (UTC)

thanks so much for the kind words <3

pb!!!!! thanks so much for always being so kind and sweet to me <3 i really was nervous because i don't think i'm that good at keeping things short/concise so this felt quite new to me. also i am obsessed with seungcheol i don't think i would voluntarily choose to not write from his pov (or jun's lol) unless i really had no other option lol but i do agree with you that it's usually jeonghan or joshua that would've been hiding their feelings. i like to think that while he's very open about his feelings he's also very protective of them, hence his reluctance to just open up and kiss his friends lmao

thanks so so much again <3 <3

omg!!!!!!! i'm happy and relieved that you've liked this!!!! seungcheol is really like something something about being so in love it feels like it will burst out of you at anything but refuses with his whole being to be vulnerable like that!!! i couldn't stop thinking about it, honestly. i kept going back to both quotes as i wrote i love this concept. thanks so much for the prompt and for your comment, i am sooooo happy you enjoyed this, i certainly loved writing it <3

I loved it

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 65 of 73

2022 Round 1: Quotes

Re: [FILL] fortune cookie

Re: [FILL] fortune cookie

Re: [FILL] you could miss it.

Re: [FILL] you could miss it.

[FILL] take the moon

[FILL]: one good honest kiss

Re: blasting the aloneness wide open [FILL]

Re: [FILL] everyone blooms in their own time

Re: [FILL] heliotropism

[FILL] are any of us ever truly alone?

Re: [FILL] if my heart was a house / you'd be home

Re: [FILL] take the moon

Re: [FILL] i found me in you

Re: [FILL] to know your heart

Re: [FILL] afterward

Re: [FILL] are any of us ever truly alone?

Re: blasting the aloneness wide open [FILL]

Re: [FILL] to surrender to the sea

[FILL] There will come soft rains

Re: [FILL] There will come soft rains

[FILL] i'm getting used to receiving

Re: [FILL] to know your heart

Re: [FILL] to know your heart

Re: [FILL] to know your heart

Re: [Fill] The Way You Make Me Out to Be