ahhhhh thank you so much ;__; and thank you for this prompt!! it really bonked me over the head at an insane hour of the morning. honestly i wish i could say i had a good and meaningful reason for setting this during sc's hiatus but really it was bc i needed a reason for why chan and coups would run into each other with no one else around LOL. then things fell into place after that.
it's always so interesting to wonder about how people might be different if something else changed in their lives!! i think in this universe, cheol has still learned to "grow into" his position but he's definitely not in the headspace right now where he feels like he's a good leader, and chan has become way more jaded with every passing year that debut never comes. and you're right, at fourteen chan wouldn't have been able to see through coups (who he probably saw as an Adult Figure given the age difference), but now he knows that cheol is just a guy, just like anyone else, but what are two guys who used to be close but aren't that close anymore realistically supposed to do about it??
Re: blasting the aloneness wide open [FILL]
it's always so interesting to wonder about how people might be different if something else changed in their lives!! i think in this universe, cheol has still learned to "grow into" his position but he's definitely not in the headspace right now where he feels like he's a good leader, and chan has become way more jaded with every passing year that debut never comes. and you're right, at fourteen chan wouldn't have been able to see through coups (who he probably saw as an Adult Figure given the age difference), but now he knows that cheol is just a guy, just like anyone else, but what are two guys who used to be close but aren't that close anymore realistically supposed to do about it??