Happy Ending

oddly enough, working out was something that duri actually enjoyed. which would probably be obvious with the muscle and being able to carrying dogs, after all. so, he always would enjoy those more physical activities in his free-time. however, most people weren’t actually like that, and sometimes duri almost forgets that not everyone enjoys bike riding.  however, the two had found something to do that was even better, so he was rather excited.

he nodded his head as he smiled some more. “yeah!” he responded. “ah, i grew up in seoul and have been around the city a lot, so i know a lot of areas like they’re on the back of my hand!” he responded, giggling softly. especially as an older child and teenager, you spent a lot of time roaming around the streets and different neighborhoods of seoul with your friends. he’s gonna to memorize where he’s going. he giggles, “well, today is the perfect day to eat out!” he says. with a nod of his head, he begins to lead the way to the restaurant. it wasn’t that far of a walk, at least duri believed that it wasn’t. but, they’d be there in just a few minutes. 

hearing duri talk excitedly about his past, siwoo listened along with interest as he followed the other towards the unknown destination. it was always nice to hear people’s origin story, and in a sense siwoo envied those who had managed to have a base in a place throughout their whole lives. some might argue that it was more exciting to move around, but he would counter that moving to a place where you didn’t know the language or the culture was also very stressful.

biyu was considerably less thoughtful with her trip to the convenience store. she was here for herself alone, not an entirely surprising fact if you knew her well. she was utterly, profoundly unconcerned with being recognized, hair down and makeupless. truthfully, she didn’t intend to meet anyone during that trip, even less so someone from the industry. who could have predicted such a thing? anyone, she supposed, but hindsight was twenty twenty.

biyu didn’t mean to be right behind the guy, honestly. he had appeared before her as she searched for her favorite chips. she was about ready to give up looking as he stepped back and directly into her. it felt much like she expected a ghost would at first, the gentle give of flesh on flesh, then hardness as both bodies realized it wasn’t quite the intention. annoyed, the inhaled slowly through her nose to calm herself. 

“it’s alright,” she lied, returning the bow. “these things happen.” the exclaimation from the - apparently younger, now that she got a good look at him, unless he had a bit of a baby face - dissolved her irritation as she let out a chuckle. “i’m fine, thanks. how’s your, uh, tinned meat of choice?”

.

fortunately it seemed like the girl didn’t take things too hard as she quickly dismissed his apologies with a smile and polite words instead directing the attention towards the can of meat siwoo had picked up from the ground. rather odd phrasing he thought, but he couldn’t help but enjoy it. anything that was odd or out of the ordinary always managed to catch his attention and amuse him, and he obviously saw it as a cue to continue down the same lane.

“it must have been a rather startling experience,” he admitted with a serious expression on his face, telling that he was actually contemplating the state of being of his grocery. honestly it didn’t seem like anything had happened to it other than a dent in the edge of the can where the impact had happened, and he doubted the quality of it had lessened. even so, he would feel like a douche for not paying for it now that it was damaged goods at his hands.

duri had decided that it was probably best to not go with the bike ride around han river, right? he’d probably do it at some later time, maybe when it wasn’t so hot. truth be told, it was probably a bit better in the autumn, anyways. but, there was most likely more summer days coming up where it would be cooler to ride a bike around the river. he’d just get a workout later on. plus, food was a lot more important, that was for sure. 

he nodded his head excitingly, “anything at all! anything you want!” he said, giggling happily once again. duri quite enjoyed treating people to meals. not the mention, simon did debut not that long ago, so it was like a celebratory type of meal. plus, he was fine with whatever the cost may be, considering he makes good money now. “that sounds great!” he said, beaming some more. “there’s really good samgyupsal around here!”

it seemed at least duri was reasonable to not press the matter further, but siwoo did feel slightly bad about turning him down in such a way considering exercise seemed to be a way for duri to spend his pastime and have fun. siwoo on the other hand had never been fond of needless exercise, and something like that was a very negative addition to having to keep his body in shape to be able to keep up with singing and dancing for hours upon end sometimes. but maybe that was exactly why he preferred to keep it out of his private life.

truth be told, duri could probably bike the entire river by himself. but, that was probably obvious by the way he was built, after all. but, he had to remind himself that if he wasn’t going to do it alone, other people probably wanted nothing to do with biking an entire river. to duri, it seemed like a fun activity, to other’s, it probably wasn’t so much. 

duri shook his head. “from my knowledge, it doesn’t exist!” he said, giggling softly. however, if siwoo did have something wrong with his white blood cells, that could be a cause of concern. but, duri was just assuming that the other might have misheard or something along those lines. duri did pretty good at school, so he can remember most of anatomy and biology. 

he nodded his head, “okay!” he said, moving past the subject. “is there anything special you want? you can have whatever you want, as your debut treat!” he said, giving a firm nod. 

fortunately it seemed like duri had eventually acknowledged that there would be no tour-de-han today (not that siwoo couldn’t bike the ride because he totally could. totally) and had moved on to the subject of nutrition instead. after all, it was important to keep yourself adequately well fed, especially after straining your body. admittedly the straining had not happened today, but nevertheless the point still stood!

CLOSED STARTER.  ORLANDO, FLORIDA — LATE MORNING. ( * ) WRITTEN, WITH LOVE, FOR VIVE’s MAIN VOCAL #2, GO SIWOO!

The life of an idol is similar to living the life of a wanderer; even a bon vivant in certain cases. Lately it seems like—more often than not—Rioh and the others in his group are residing in planes; setting out to new locations to engage with their fanbases from all around the world, and although they all had just returned from the USA, they’re already back on American soil—that awfully long flight more than enough to drive anyone crazy. Despite their jet-lag, it’s exciting to wander around a new location; to inhale new air and experience the many cultures in America’s large melting pot that are different than his own. These trips are ones he should be grateful for, so he does his best to keep a positive outlook through all of the madness… even when its terribly hard to keep composed in certain situations, or at certain events. Luckily for the rest of the day today, they have an opportunity to take in some of Orlando’s most beautiful sights; to have fun for once in the midst of all the chaos.

One thing that Rioh’s always wanted to do is rent a boat and go sailing, and when he heard of the Lake Eola Park in Orlando, he knew that he had to go. However, he didn’t want to go alone, so he invited Simon to tag along with him—glad when the older of them agreed. His excitement is extremely notable as the pair of them make their way over to their desired location, the sights surrounding them only adding to the experience. It was a city like any other, but it had its own charms about it—many that are very different from anyplace in Korea. Eyes gaze out at the water before them, and the sight of a few people already sailing along the surface in their swan-shaped boats made him all the more giddy for it. “Isn’t that cool? And cute?” He chimed, pointing towards a couple on one of the sweetly-designed sailboats. “You sure you’re okay with doing this? I’ll take us out for brunch afterwards! Ooh, that, or we can ask and see if we can go to Disney World sometime later? Which sounds like the most fun to you?”

Maybe he’s getting way too ahead of himself, but he can’t help it; it’s been forever since he was able to do something like this, and with a wad of cash saved up in his wallet, he’s prepared to go all-out… but only if Simon’s cool with it, too. Rioh wouldn’t ever want to drag his senior into anything that he wouldn’t find fun. “We can also do anything that you wanna 

it seemed that the past week had consisted of nothing much outside of riding planes, performing and then going straight to bed. with the time difference between korea and new york siwoo had suffered severely from jetlag that was only just starting to calm down and it was already their third stop so far, so he couldn’t say he had got much of a chance to go out and see the area. which was actually kind of sad considering that last time he had been in america he hadn’t much time for sightseeing either. but he supposed that this was simply how circumstances were for a touring idol. he wasn’t special and he didn’t have any reason to complain about things. even so it was nice to finally get to spend a day out as they had arrived early in orlando and didn’t have the showcase until the next day. bags dropped off at the hotel, a stern reminder from their manager about public behaviour, and then he and rioh had gone off to paint the town red or whatever the saying went.

honestly siwoo himself couldn’t see why it was so special to sail around a lake in a swan boat -- that was something they could just have done on the han river after all -- but rioh’s excitement about it had been amusing and rather endearing to him, so who was he to say no? that was how they found themselves in their current situation with siwoo listening gleefully to the younger ramble on about everything and nothing at all. it was kind of nice he had to admit: sail around with not a care in the world as though time stood still, as though they didn’t have a ton of responsibilities and a busy schedule to upkeep. he would never have thought he would come to appreciate moments like this so quickly after debuting. a chuckle left him at rioh’s neverending suggestions as though they had all the time in the world. maybe it would be nice to indulge in that thought if only for a bit.

location: backstage at inkigayo date:september 19, 2021 with: @fmdsimon

For reasons Chunhwa can’t even begin to understand, Dimensions gets her a slot to be a special mc for Inkigayo for one week during their promotions. She’s never done this before, is not usually the one invited for that sort of thing, and she’s pretty sure, as she rehearses what she’s supposed to say, that she’s gonna fumble her bag pretty badly. Chunhwa is not looking forward to checking social media lately and seeing the jokes people are inevitably going to make, or the complaints that are going to come up over her being the chosen one for this gig, rather than one of the girls with a more solid solo fanbase. It’s almost as if Dimensions wants her to be hated. 

Right now, though, Chunhwa isn’t in mc mode. Instead, she has her make up partially done and her hair ready, only waiting to change into today’s stage’s outfit so she can go with the rest of Lucid record their performance. She’s hungry though, as she had to arrive early and barely had any time to eat, so she drops by at the cafeteria to get a sandwich. Yet Chunhwa is met with more frustration when she realizes the options without meat are already gone and she pouts, turning to the person standing next to her. “You didn’t happen to have gotten one of the egg sandwiches, did you?”

in a sense it felt weird to be back at this again -- not that one could say he really had a break from it in the first place, but music show promotions were, in the end, very different from holding a full showcase for a crowd of enthusiastic foreign fans. this was definitely more chill: although of course he couldn’t make mistakes all the same at least they were allowed a few takes before deciding on the final cut for the actual show. today however, he simply wanted to get things over and done with quickly as vive had no time to be spending on prerecordings considering they would be performing live later in the day. being given an early morning slot, he was already done for the day and siwoo alongside the rest of the boys were just waiting for their manager to pick them up so they could move on. 

king of mask singer was a program he had watched since it aired -- as an aspiring vocalist it was always an impressive show to watch when celebratory sensations faced off against one another in a battle of singing finesse. he would sit and admire the masked singers and dream of one day standing on the stage himself, but never had he believed that he would actually get the chance to do so. siwoo would genuinely have believed his fellow vocalist to be the first to be given the chance if any of them, and not until much, much later into their career. but perhaps it was because he was the oldest in the group, and perhaps it was to ride the wave of their supposed fame following both their debut and hot topic.

haneul looks at the older with a thoughtful expression, knowing full well himself that it is difficult to stop doing something you are used to – but if anything, haneul knew that he had to start somewhere. where else would be better than here? where he could check him and correct him, though it was rather late and so he knew that things would not go the way that he’d want them.

glancing towards the clock he saw that fifteen minutes had passed already– he felt tired but he didn’t want to show it, he had finished hours of vocal and rap practice himself. though he hadn’t practiced with his body– he was allowed to feel tired wasn’t he?

even if he was now dancing next to siwoo, haneul didn’t want to brag about how learns choreography easy– he was a dancer after all. that was how he had gotten accepted to gold star media in the beginning– then he had learned to rap and sing. thankfully it made it easy for him to watch the others while dancing. he could tell that siwoo waited for his comments, “ it won’t be perfect the first time– it looks better than what you were doing previously though. ”

haneul wondered how honest he should be– looking at the clock, he doubted anything good would come out of his mouth if he was more honest, “ let’s go over it a few more times, then practice more tomorrow. right now what your body needs is sleep. ”

hearing haneul's words of praise, as much as the other could give to him at least, siwoo didn't know whether he should feel happy about making progress or annoyed that the guy was right about his habit dragging him down. he felt as though his mixed feelings were valid though -- who would actually enjoy being wrong about things? there was a certain amount of pride involved in this and despite his tendency of putting himself aside for the sake of a cheap laugh he did have his principles and pride. 

"of course it's better than before!" he instead opted to insist. After all my performance right now reflects on my teacher, isn't that right?" a slightly sly smile spread on his face. if haneul was allowed to be cocky, so was siwoo. admittedly though, he was starting to look forward to going back home and get a good night's rest for at least the short bit he could allow himself to sleep before a new day of preparation began. the thought alone made him shiver.

suppressing a yawn he stole a longing glance at the clock that was slowly nearing half past. "sorry for dragging you into this," he apologised genuinely. had it not been for his stubbornness haneul would have been home by now.

duri was going to take as much free time that he could get and do what he could with said free time. he knew things were about to get rather busy with schedules, as well as everything in between. there was his solo song coming out, a knight tour on it’s way, as well as preparations for other things that he couldn’t actually discuss. so, soon enough, free time wasn’t going to be much, so he’d take it with stride, and do what he can before he’s really busy, and his only free time will be to breathe. at least, that’s how it always felt like. 

truth be told, the older probably should have been a bit more quiet, to say the least. but, he was working on a hope that no one actually heard him call out to the younger, and at this point, he was hoping for the best. nonetheless, he still approached siwoo, hoping no one ended up actually hear the other call out. it seemed like no one paid much attention to the both of them, could have been a completely different siwoo and duri, you know? plus, with duri choosing to be casual, it may have paid no mind to anything. duri liked to be more on the casual side of things, anyways.

he giggled happily when the other had agreed. “i mean… probably not the entire river?” he suggested. however, his eyebrow rose a bit as the other bent over and grabbed his side “um… i don’t think lymphocondrius is a thing… and lymphocytes are white blood cells,” he said. “did you hear wrong? ah, do you need to sit down? we can just go for food instead.”

hearing the other correct himself, siwoo was much more relieved. it had been a reasonable concern with the way duri had phrased it though, and he wasn't about to bicycle himself to the pits of hell with a man he barely even knew. not even he was that crazy. alas, his attempts to get out of the assumed bind had not gone unheard either, and poor, gullible duri was already raising concern. 

"ah, lymphocondriuses don't exist?" he questioned back with his expression definitely showing he made a blunder here. what could he do? he was a literature and languages kind of guy, not medicine and anatomy. but now that duri mentioned lymphocytes he had to admit that was a word he was familiar with but had just pushed to the back of his mind. oh well. 

listening to the older it did make sense what he said– at the same time he wanted to be honest with the older, “ i don’t think it’s a bad thing not think of it as our song… because right now you are struggling, right? ” what was the purpose of feeling ownership if you couldn’t concentrate on the dance, “ once you know the moves i think it’s fine to think of it as covering the song – there is nothing wrong with that! ”

“ well even if it’s something you have always done, maybe you should just focus on the dance for a little? while you practice and then when you get the hang of the choreography you can start singing? ”

haneul understood the frustration of not being able to do something you are expected to manage– he remembers his time on hot topic and the critique he had gotten as a rapper. it was what he was supposed to do well but he had faltered and messed up just as much as everyone else. the only difference was the end result, he had gotten the first rank– meanwhile there were so many that had not made it.

“ let’s try a few more times but try it without singin– put everything into the dance ok? ”

siwoo knew very well he was being way too hard on himself -- it was only the beginning of the preparation period, but they just had so much to do this time in such a short time and the workload was pressing on his mind. he felt as though he shouldn’t have this many problems not even this early on and he also felt disgusted with himself in being upset with haneul for making it sound so easy when it really wasn’t. after all the guy was just trying to help when he didn’t even have to go out of his way.

he only just stopped himself from making a snappy comeback about how it wasn’t really easy to just change a habit in a matter of seconds. it’s just because it’s late you’re being like this, he told himself in his quiet mind. “i mean, if it’s going to be like this every comeback then i definitely have to pull myself together and change my way of learning yes,” he instead opted to admit. “they’re really not giving us a break on the dance department that much is for sure.”

for all his density and idiocity in dealing with her brother and their budding relationship, yuzu did adore siwoo. he was as sassy and creative as yuzu herself and definitely the type of person that kept you on your toes. 

he was quite the perfect match for yunho.

“close but nope,” she replies flatly, pulling up the tap about flower language she had pulled open to aid her in her own quest to learn everything. “i thought so as well but it actually comes closer to pure innocence and being worthy of someone. they also get associated with heaven so if you gift someone white roses it basically translates to you deeming them worthy and heavenly,” the female explains. “not all roses have positive meanings too. yellow ones for instance- what do you reckon those could mean?” there is a mischievous twinkle in her eyes as she picks one up, tapping it against her nose.

“what’s with the sudden exam?” he asked, giving yuzu a suspicious glare. he didn’t recall signing up for this for such a purpose. admittedly he didn’t know what the purpose was, but this couldn’t be right. “i haven’t even taken the class yet, mate. do you just want to see me fail or something?”

honestly he wouldn’t put that past her, but he didn’t voice that out loud. she would readily admit it herself after all if that was the case.

◤the stars are looking

❝ they can’t be themselves without being anxious i was afraid to be judged so i hide amongst the regular @fmdsimon

“you can call me basic all you want, i have homemade scones, with homemade jam and cream. yes, i did get yorkshire tea as well.“ he points to the kettle that was still boiling the water. simon had been one of the few people jihoon didn’t have to tone his british accent and he was pretty happy about that. the fact that he barely spoke with anyone from home and everyone around him learning the american version of english had really toned it down. in reality, he really hated the south accent england had, people from the north just.. sounded better. now that he would ever voice that out loud.

“i couldn’t remember what time you said you’d drop, so i made those things.“ jihoon continues his explanation, waving simon to follow him further into his flat. “congratulations on your debut by the way, crown is super catchy.“ he adds, patting one of the stools on the kitchen isle. sometimes the charm vocalist managed to get rather lost at how many years had passed since his own debut, 2015 feels like it was just yesterday. he can only imagine how it must feel for simon nowadays.

he hadn’t made it far into jihoon’s place before the lovely odeurs reminding him of home reached his nostrils and although the older was busy talking himself down for his uncreativity, there was no end to the amount of joy and anticipation siwoo felt with every word that left his mouth. “you really did think about everything, didn’t you?!” he couldn’t help but voice excitedly. it felt nice to be able to speak english every once in a while -- the queen’s english and not the american version he had been forced to learn ever since coming here. school hadn’t exactly been fun when you were better than your teacher and was therefor mocked for your supposedly incomprehensible accent. but that was a story long past.

alice couldn’t help feeling a little bad about her response, but any effort now to retract it in favor of something sweeter would feel artificial, right? she could mention rioh, but what if they didn’t get along? well, okay, that was hard to imagine, everyone must have loved rioh, but what if siwoo was the type to want his own identity outside vive? it was early to chase that aspiration just yet, but perhaps he didn’t realize that? she chose to let the moment pass.

“ah, so polite!” alice beamed at him approvingly. she did love good manners in a friend, after all, and that was her end goal here, she decided. she would befriend this boy. he seemed terribly sweet, after all, and funny on top of that. a good friend to have, clearly. “you were raised well!”

she giggled at the finger guns but allowed siwoo to elaborate. it clicked to her of course - lucid had initially pushed a concept that felt completely alien to her, and though she didn’t necessarily have trouble keeping up, it was a bit difficult at times. adding onto that that she’d been expected to rap with nearly no training, and she could relate. “ah, i understand. lucid has me rap now and then, but i wasn’t trained to do that much, so what i do is probably the last thing you want to hear, but i rehearse constantly. it’s best for me to dance while i do, so i imagine you should make a point to sing. if you ever want, though, i’d be happy to help! i pick up on choreography quickly, so i could walk you through the steps as many times as you need and help you build up your stamina!”

having his upbringing praised, siwoo took a moment to feel proud on his grandparents’ behalf. sure it wasn’t always the easiest having elderly people as your substitute parents, but if anything they had definitely taught him the value of being polite in korea. certainly england also had a certain conduct code, but it was quite different from korea in the end and as his parents had wished him to fit in as much as possible in foreign lands and raised him with that mindset it had been a difficult transition to suddenly get used to something entirely different.

“i will pass your words on to my grandmother!” he assured her happily. not that his grandpa wouldn’t appreciate knowing too, but he always pretended to be a grumpy old man, so siwoo liked to indulge in his pretense and tease him in that way. beside, his grandma would tell him either way sooner or later and he would be proud and satisfied with himself. siwoo could see right through him.