everything is permitted

she is: flawless pirouettes, stunning timbres and prettiest pouts.

see this. there is little room for error in a pageant queen’s repertoire. she is unfamiliar with imperfections, only that of bruised lines on pretty ankles.

( here, she performs a grand jeté. watch how she moves into starting position. she takes a deep breath before a graceful leap— but mother tuts as critical eyes trace the curve of her spine. you must curve it more, my darling, mother says. the cane strikes her bruised ankles. again. )

she is: pink perfection. ( say it. )

and yet, here is our pageant queen now, tripping ungracefully over both her pokémon and herself as she races towards the beeping of the oven. manicured eyebrows furrow in frustration as she fiddles with the foreign controls of the contraption, and before long, she jerks the lid open, only to be attacked by smoke. rue coughs momentarily at the onslaught, and once the smoke clears, the image that greets her are unnaturally large cookies that are quite imperfect. she frowns at the sight.

( you’d think that for someone who bakes cookies for sunbin without fail every time he comes by, that she’d be somewhat good at it. her only excuse is that she had been experimenting, thinking that it was necessary to reward him with newer, more attractive cookies, given the favour she’s about to ask of him. )

as if she is part of fate’s comedic narrative, the doorbell rings at that very moment.

“coming!” her scream is followed by an exaggerated groan, as she sloppily tips the cookies onto a plate and dashes towards the door. she takes a deep breath before wearing her picturesque smile.

“heeeey, sunbin!”

the tone in which she uses is suspicious at best, but she brushes it aside before shoving the plate towards him.

“i made cookies for you today. they’re extra special!”

a nervous smile. she balances the syllables of her favour on the tip of her tongue, but smartly opts to divert the conversation with the justification of easing him into the idea first.

“so, uh… how’s your day? busy?”

on her lips, a grin. decidedly innocent.

she had said that she would be home at this time, though sunbin had to check his watch again just to make sure he was actually on time and hadn’t shown up when she wasn’t even around. that would have been a disaster because he had other deliveries he was supposed to make and he couldn’t spend all his time standing around waiting for her to come back. 

luckily for him he didn’t have to worry about that as she finally appeared at the door, opening it up and almost instantly shoving a plate of cookies towards him. 

rue always did like to feed him and it was something he supposed he could appreciate seeing as he did spend all his day riding around on a bike and wearing himself out. not many other people decided to be nice enough to give him food and it was not like he had enough time for a proper lunch break or anything. the only food he got was what he decided to pack with him in the morning and what other people decided to give him, which was never a lot. 

“been experimenting?” he just wondered as he stared at the cookies piled up almost haphazardly on the plate in front of him. they hardly looked the most appealing, but food was food and he wasn’t going to complain just so long as they weren’t burnt and actually taste alright. so, he conceded and reached out and took one. and if it did taste terrible, he supposed the two pokemon still wandering around where he left his bike might want some. 

“my days are always busy, this is nothing new,” he just responded with a shrug of his shoulder. breaks were not something he ever got and every day was always busy. people were always sending and receiving packages- especially at this time of the year. the run up to christmas and new year was always far too busy for him and he would appreciate at least one day off, but that never happened. 

sylveon runs straight into said umbreon, chirping loudly in response as she overtakes the umbreon with little to no effort. it doesn’t really seem to make too much of a difference but it just makes yoonho laugh a little bit. how cute. he supposes that she’s missed her playmate and usually umbreon only lightly play-fights with her. and sylvie has always liked that kind of competition.

he goes to greet sunbin but a shiver runs up his body. the mask. off? hell no. “hyung, no,” he states, uncaring if sunbin doesn’t even like the idea of having the mask with him. It’s cold outside and my skin isn’t good. just please let me keep it on until we eat or something.” 

or maybe he should just try and add more explanation to it. or not. he doesn’t really know how else to proceed because he knows that sunbin is anal and also stubborn, kind of like him in that way. but he just hopes that maybe, maybe, sunbin will actually let him get away with this. maybe. potentially.

“please spare me hyung~”

He just smiled as he watched the two eeveelutions play around with each other. The two Pokemon had practically grown up together thanks to the fact their two trainers were close friends, so whenever Sunbin was meeting up with Yoonho he made sure to take Umbreon along as well as no doubt Yoonho was going to be bringing Slyveon. 

“Hyung, yes,” he just corrected without hesitation, uncaring much of the reason why he didn’t want to take it off. He got that he had fans and he was a popular face and wanted to keep up appearances, Sunbin just generally didn’t care about any of that. “I’m sure you look fine, you’re just being dramatic. Now take it off.” And he wasn’t going to be asking that question twice and he certainly wasn’t against tackling him and trying to wrestle it off his face, either. 

@hcsunbin​

this was not going to cut it.

yoonho has been staring at his face for way too long now. he has a few pimples starting up on his chin, not to emntion eye bags that look like they’re ready to carry their own luggage with him. he hasn’t been sleeping well lately, and although he has a new salandit, he’s been trying to comfort her. she’s a little unsure of where she is right now. so he’s sacrificed his sleep for her. and now it’s clearly showing.

it also doesn’t help he doesn’t slept well just in general yet. the holidays always make him nervous anyway. but this event was going to be the perfect distraction. but his face isn’t cooperating. he cannot go out like this. he will look hideous. so he decided to try something different. he puts a black cotton mask over his face. good enough.

he throws on his black winter coat over his olive sweater, glancing at his outfit once more. he has light blue ripped up jeans and he pairs them with a pair of black doc martens. when he’s done he hails a cab and grabs his sylveon, who is wearing a nice black scarf around her neck. she likes dressing up (but only a little bit). 

once he’s there, he sets off to find sunbin. it shouldn’t take him long, it’s not like sunbin is hard to find- he and his umbreon are always off doing something. he approaches the other, waving.

“sorry about that, traffic was bad.”

Sunbin wasn’t really planning on bothering with this event. While it was celebrating the upcoming league, the league he was most certainly going to be taking part in, he wasn’t really a social sort of person. Which was surprising when he spent most of the time cycling around meeting different people, though that was only delivering mail and packages, it was not like he hung around having conversations. Most of the time. Sometimes he did hang around talking just because he really was not a fan of his job and it helped take his mind off things and put everything off. 

But he had the day off so he could attend the festival only because he was going with Yoonho, though the problem with that was he was taking ages to show up. 

“He’s late,” he just stated as fact, glancing at his watch before looking down at the Umbreon sitting patiently at his heels, “It’s like that kid can’t keep time.” This was not the first time he shown up late for something, Sunbin was almost considering buying him a watch so he might be able to show up when he was wanted. Not that he really minded the additional wait, it wasn’t that long and he was sure he was going to come along soon enough. 

Leaning up against a tree, Sunbin had his arms folded across his chest, eyes moving back and forth over the crowds coming and going from the festival. Umbreon was the first to notice the arrival of his friend, letting out an excite squealing noise as he sprinted off towards the familiar Slyveon. 

→ @hcsunbin​ ⁉

“flareon, stay down,” chaemi said, pulling her flame pokemon off the kitchen counter. she then glanced back at her laptop, sighing as her father laughed from the video call she made. “what!? he’s being a jerk! i’m trying to make dinner for everyone here, but he keeps jumping up the counter, like the rebellious fat pig he is, and stealing everyone’s share of food!” she exclaimed as she stared at flareon from the corner of her, watching out for his next move. chaemi could see him, wiggling his butt, getting ready to pounce back up on the counter. “hey!” she shouted, scaring the pokemon. “i will throw you back in your ball and make sure you are never seen again for the next ten years. got it?”

the pokemon stared at her as he rocked his tail back and forth. the trainer sighed, returning back to the call as she chopped the chocolate pieces. “what did you send me this time?” she asked, pouring the chocolate in a bowl. her step-father shook his head as he spoke, “it was your mother who packed the package this time, so i don’t really know. but it should be arriving soon though, just be on the lookout for it.” before her father could speak again, chaemi could hear his phone ringing off-screen. he took a glance at it before turning back into the camera. “i better go, it’s work.”

the female trainer nodded with a smile, “all right, pa. love you. i’ll talk to you again later.” and with that chaemi ended the video call. despite, being a grown adult, the young woman didn’t mind if her parents often checked up on her. she was living by herself in country that still felt foreign to her. chaemi then moved the chocolate to the microwave, just as her doorbell rang. she quickly closed the door and ran to the front door. “hello again, sunbin!” the female greeted the male at the steps. “i’ll take it as usual.”

Sunbin was not really the greatest fan of his job. He’d been doing it for almost ten years now and he had never really enjoyed doing it, but it didn’t require too much things or any degrees so he couldn’t really complain all too much. Sure, it also didn’t have the best pay, either, but money was not a problem when he made a nice profit for himself from the Battle Club, always betting on himself when he was quite sure he was going to win. And while it was not huge bets, he always seemed to make more money from doing that then he did while doing deliveries. Though he could hardly drop the day job otherwise he was quite sure his mother was going to get suspicious of how he was still making money. 

Besides, being a delivery man was not all bad, he got a nice workout having to lug people’s packages all over the place so never had to worry about going to a gym to try and keep in shape. And some people were nice enough to offer free food when he made deliveries- and one of those such people were Chaemi, though he also had to say that her parents kept sending her really heavy things. The current package was really weighing down the back end of his bike, making it somewhat hard to cycle at a decent pace. 

♠     The subtle gesture the male gave was noticed by Hwayoon and she quickly picked Pina off of his hands. Helping the pokemon onto her head, she held onto Pina before bowing again. Hwayoon was an apologetic person so to whoever is on the receiving end: if you don’t like or know how to deal with too much apologizing, today is going to be one heck of an annoying day. Fortunately, she did decide to stop after five or so bows and ‘sorry’s. 

“I’m glad you’re alright. Pina still has some trouble controlling herself. She tends to run off a lot too. I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to jump on you again in the future…” As if on cue, the Pichu on her head bounced up and down in excitement as if hoping to hop on the man again but with her trainer’s hand on her small body, it was preventing the electric type from doing so.

“But can I thank you in any way for catching Pina for me? If it weren’t for you, my search for her might not have ended quickly enough.” She smiled a bit, the awkwardness she was emitting was as thick as fog. 

This woman really did know how to lay on the apologies, and Sunbin didn’t really understand why she felt as though she needed to say sorry so many times. Now she had taken her Pokemon back then there wasn’t a problem anymore. The amount of times she was actually saying sorry about this situation was actually starting to grate his nerves. Saying sorry just the once for bothering him would have done this trick, this was just overkill. 

“Have you tried trying string around her or something so she can’t run off?” He did have to offer with a small shrug of his shoulder. Or just keep the pesky little Pokemon in a Pokeball so she couldn’t run off even if she wanted to, but he wasn’t going to suggest that because he did know some people and Pokemon didn’t like Pokeballs all that much. 

♠     It took the young adult some time to locate the pokemon since she had to use her Skarmory to look for the small Pichu. Once she locked onto where Pina was, she made her way quickly. She had only hoped the opening didn’t cause any trouble but it seems like it was all just wishful thinking. When she saw the man holding the Pichu out to her and asking her if she was hers while implying what she had done. Surprise was an understatement for Hwayoon right now. She felt bad upon realizing what Pina had done. She ran over to the male and bowed apologetically. 

“I’m so sorry! I hope Pina didn’t cause you any trouble!” Although she had a feeling she knew what the answer would be already. She wonder if she should stretch her hands out to collect her Pichu back. Kind of weird of her to wonder but the girl was way beyond clueless at this point. 

“Thank you so much for catching her…” Hwayoon tried to continue, albeit awkwardly.

He did know to be careful with the little Pichu in his hands. He knew that they could be rather electrifying when they got scared and did tend to accidentally shock people and Pokemon, and even themselves, without really meaning to. And Sunbin had no intentions of getting himself hurt because the Pichu in his hands got scared, then again, it might just shock him to try and escape, so he was rather hoping that the owner would come along rather sharpish to take the small Pokemon back before it came to that. Because he was quite sure this was not just a wild Pichu running around and did belong to someone. 

Though it did seem as though he had found the owner of this little runaway, just putting on a small smile as he held the yellow and black Pokemon at an arms length. Not that he supposed that would save him from a shocking. “No, it’s fine,” he just responded with a small move of his hands, almost urging the woman to take her Pokemon back now. He didn’t really want to be standing there holding her for much longer. 

♠     The young lady walked through the streets to get back to her apartment, rubbing her hands against her Pichu, Pina, to keep herself warm as well as make sure the pokemon was getting the affection she wanted. Pina was a very clingy pokemon and loved when she got the attention she craved for. Hwayoon had came out with the pokemon in her arms for a walk in this cold weather. What prompted the breeder to do so was classified information. Pina was restless inside the apartment and kept crying out to her while looking out window. She decided to come out for a walk to cure the small pokemon’s restless body but started regretting it when her ears began to get really red. Her hands weren’t doing any better as her gloves weren’t really doing well in keeping them warm.  Pina jumped out of Hwayoon’s loose arms, startling the female who yelped out the pokemon’s name. Chasing the small Pichu, Hwayoon realized that she was a quick one for being such a small pokemon. Out of breath, she was about to give up running after Pina when the pokemon let out yet another cry, surprising Hwayoon again who looked up to see the Pichu in the hands of a stranger.

“Ah… um…” Left her lips quietly, she didn’t know what to say due to the lack of air in her lungs.

@hcsunbin

While he might be pretty tall, that didn’t really mean he appreciated being used by Pokemon as some sort of climbing post. And it was something which actually happened surprisingly often for some reason and Sunbin was not all too sure why. It was not like he had some sort of aura which should attract all sorts of Pokemon over to him, but it appeared to happen to him all the same. Not that he was really complaining too much about it, he liked the company of Pokemon and it was sometimes rather amusing for him, but that particular day he was not really in the mood to be clambered on my Pokemon. It was just cold out and all his attention was on trying to get home before he froze to death. At least he wouldn’t turn into a Popsicle, he could always call out his Pyroar to warm him up if he started freezing. 

His hands were shoved deep into his pockets as he hastily walked back home. Though he did pause with surprise as a Pichu suddenly came bolting around the corner, coming right for him. The small Pokemon didn’t even hesitate, trying to quickly scramble up his leg, though Sunbin was quick to catch it before it got too far, pulling the little Pokemon off his leg. “Oh no you don’t,” he just sighed, holding the Pokemon gently in his hands, quickly looking around to see if he could spot the owner of this little runaway.