𝐎𝐃𝐘𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐔𝐒

𝒗𝒊𝒃𝒆𝒔,  reconnecting with familiar souls, a taste of jeju. 𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔,  a closed starter written for 𝒚𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒂𝒆𝒋𝒊𝒏. 𝒔𝒚𝒏𝒐𝒑𝒔𝒊𝒔,  chaeri goes out to dinner with an old friend.

while the atmosphere is beautiful in its own quaint way, chaeri can’t help but feel as though she’s extremely overdressed — her ensemble incredibly eye-catching in a way that makes her stand out obviously. the other patrons aren’t dressed down, per se, but their attire is nowhere near as carefully curated as her’s is. they’re business casual, she’s decorated as if she’s dining at the most expensive eatery in the city — donning a satin slip dress she’s been aching to wear since she bought it, her hair & makeup pristine per usual, & her fingernails freshly manicured ;; tying it all together. it’s very her, for those who know her. in truth, the reason for the elaborate wardrobe is because she wasn’t sure what to expect when invited out to this dinner. taejin is notoriously unpredictable, as always, but much like their past, she was down for the adventure ;; strapping herself into the passenger seat while he takes the wheel. their bond is one that she’ll always remember, she knows that, & it seems like he feels the same way, too, if he still makes himself a prominent presence in her life.

bathroom door clicking shut behind him, taejin makes his way through the minimalist layout of the restaurant back to their table where chaeri, easily the best-dressed in the room, waits while looking into a compact mirror.

"so i took a look around while coming here, and we're kind of the main characters of the night." taejin gestures to his own clothes as he sits back down: dark dress shirt rolled past his forearms, hair styled into a slick, comma part, his slacks, shoes, and coat from brands he can't pronounce and worn once a year at most. but this is a special occasion. the debut of a childhood friend, and their last dinner together before said debut preparations sweep her away to spain. his original plans to celebrate had been of a bigger scale than this, but when reservations fell through for a restaurant booked full for the next two years, taejin had to improvise—pick a direction on the spot, and it was just like old times. taejin taking the two of them into uncharted territory and chaeri, ever-trusting, along for the ride.

with their orders placed in the kitchen and still some time before their meals arrive, taejin rests his hand on the rests his hand on the tablecloth and tilts his head with a half-teasing smile.

"i'm not a life-saver! i'm just here to help!" he says, another giggle leaving his lips.

his eyes looked around once they were on the ski lift, just taking in the scenery. though, he was also looking out if he could somehow spot a phone from where he was. it wasn't quite realistic, but suho was going to try anyways, to see if he spot the case from way up where he was.

nonetheless, he looks to where taejin had pointed out where he had lost his phone. he nodded his head as he listened. "ah, trees do look the same from above... but, i'm sure we can find the middle area!" he said, nodding his head firmly.

he raises a brow as he listens to him mention the lifespan of his phone. "really? ah... i've had my phone for two years now," suho says, before giggling softly. maybe suho needed an upgrade; though, maybe he'll wait until he debuts, that could cause for him to treat himself to an upgrade on his phone. "did you leave the sound on? i could try calling it when we're close to where you think it is!" he says. "or maybe someone found it and that person will answer it!"

the lift approaches the drop-off point, and taejin disembarks easily off his ride, adjusting his goggles on his head and making the necessary preparations to head down the slope. he turns to his friend, grins, ("ready?") before pushing off into the pillowy white ——

money had never been something taejin thought about. which is one way of saying that money, for him, had never been a concern. barely a subject of conversation. it ran quietly in the background of his mother's cafe, which served more as a hobby than a true source of income, and took some form in the handful of buildings his father owned in jeju city and along the seogwipo coast. it was the weight his name carried on the island — yang — and the family it referred to, old as the island itself. money had just always been there, an unquestioned constant.

which is why, when it comes down to it, losing his phone shouldn't be this big of a deal. there's nothing on it that wasn't saved to a digital cloud, and he could obviously afford a better replacement. objectively, it would take less time and effort to order a new phone back at the resort than the time and effort it's taking now to drag a friend through this snowy search party with him.

maybe it's just sentiment then. having bought this phone in his first few months of living in seoul, maybe it's come to mark a period of his life without him even noticing how it's collected all this significance along the way. there's a small panic he feels at the thought of never seeing it again, which shocks him in the moment of it flashing through his brain. this doesn't happen to him often — or at all. where an object becomes something more than an object. it's unsettling.

truth be told, she can’t quite hear taejin from how hard she’s concentrating on finishing the daunting task of putting on a bowling shoe. she has look up at him to compute what his intentions are, and finally puts it together when the tablet screen comes into view. she shuffles a bit closer and slams the lemon lime slushy picture with the tip of her nose, accompanied by a slight grunt, then she gets right back to business, her fingers still firmly gripping her shoelaces.

❝ who would have thought that… shoelaces… will be my… downfall… ❞ she murmurs under her breath, then bites her lip down in concentration. it only lasts so long — her precious bunny ear falls apart in the blink of an eye. ❝ bloody hell, mate! ❞ she summons her best, overly-exaggerated british accent for this one, immediately aborting her previous plans of making her shoelaces look perfect to simply producing two messy double knots in a matter of seconds. ( whatever. it will have to do. )

with a few more taps, taejin finishes their order and cranes his neck to check what lane they were in before putting down the number for the delivery. "hope you brought your appetite, hien, because a ridiculous amount of food is on its way." he looks up and smiles, sunny with a hint of menace. "not that it really matters. i won't be paying for it, anyways."

he sees her go to the panel for their nicknames and pretends to think about her suggestions — makes a whole show of tilting his head and tapping his chin about it. "well, i'm already jeju's it-boy, so the obvious answer's out. let's go with taeloser." he walks over to where she's standing and playfully checks her hips. "all the more funnier for when i beat you in every set"

because things with taejin have always been easy. it hasn't been long since he first sauntered into minseon's sleepy little life, all playful charm and confident gait, and already, minseon feels as if he should know more about taejin than he does. he wants to know more. he finds himself perfectly swept up in taejin's tide, and the water is welcoming and warm. minseon has no knowledge of the anatomy of waves, can't even begin to guess at his roommate's go-to drink order, yet still, he allows himself to drift. he thinks it's only a matter of time before he's tempted to look back and see just how far he's come from the shore, but today, minseon is wholly content to indulge in soothing flights of fancy...

isn't it such a pretty thought, after all — the notion that he could drown himself in yang taejin?

before his mind can register it, he takes one hand off the steering wheel and holds the one that had just touched his neck. he gives it a firm squeeze, like he's checking the temperature, and waits for maybe a beat longer than necessary to release it.

"cold to the bone," he says, the tone of a diagnosis. he shakes his head with the faux gravity of a doctor. "this isn't good. first the hands, then the arms, what's next, the heart? i can't just sit back and watch my roommate turn into a block of ice." he glances at minseon and breaks into a smile. "good thing i'll be taking you somewhere warm, huh? here it's just hot, but sokcho gets a different kind of sun than seoul. trust me. you won't be the same person when you leave."

he says it with a conviction that runs bottomless in him, a deep well that feeds into every thought, every vague nonsense he pushes out to the world, and imbues it with possibility. his party trick is pulling down castles from the sky. he lives in the brackish zone of whimsy and reality, where he creates, endlessly, the conditions of his own existence.

it’s early in the morning when the hydra troublemaker duo ( also known as hien and taejin ) meet up. they have much to do, so why would they waste any time? besides, she rather likes hanging out with him — as they are both impulsive and adventurous people, they just clicked from day one. it’s no wonder that he is the first person she hits up after arriving to the resort.

their first stop is the infamous bowling alley, which hien may or may not have been looking forward to from the moment she got invited to this trip. everything about it sounds like something out of a coming of age movie, maybe one that’s about the coolest friend group you’ve ever seen, and hien would never deny her fondness for certain clichés. ( listen, there are worse things to enjoy… )

...or they could go bowling. the two of them fit right in with the kitschy exuberance of the place, loud neon colors and the sharp clatter of bowling pins breaking any chance of stillness settling in the air. he nudges hien back, having already put on his shoes and now fully engrossed in scrolling through a tablet where they can place their orders. "two cheese nachos, one large set of curly fries, mozzarella sticks—hey, what flavor do you want your slushy? there's blue raspberry, wild cherry, lemon lime—all appropriately highlighter colored." he angles the screen towards her and gestures towards the photos.

a burst of cheering erupts in the lane next to theirs, and taejin glances over to a group of friends swarmed around someone who'd just scored a strike. half of their party is up and elated; the other half slumped on the couch in decidedly worse spirits. a thought flashes through his mind and he turns to hien, a wicked grin on his face

nonetheless, suho was more so standing at the bottom of the slopes, scoping out as others were skiing and snowboarding. he wasn't doing much of the activity because he didn't want to get potentially injured; it probably was a bit weird that he was trying his hardest not to. he didn't even really go up the hill yet, not entirely sure he wanted to actually go down the slope. maybe he should go again, get the skis again to try, but he wasn't sure.

"yes. you're a life-saver, park suho. a hundred blessings upon your family, for real—"

it's only when they're on the ski lift going up that taejin thinks that it'll probably be best if they think of a game-plan before going down. he voices this to his friend while craning his head slightly out to the side, looking ahead at how much further to go before they reach the area where he'd dropped his phone.

"the thing is, i lost it right as i was passing over the wooded area, but i can't remember exactly where i dropped it. just that it was towards the middle half... and you know how every tree looks the same from above..."

 Both decided to focus on cardio and run on the treadmill. Jae enjoyed controlling his breathing while running, taking his mind off wanting to stop running. Focused on running, he was still present in his friends' company. Taejin’s sudden question was enough to break Jae’s concentrated breathing. Shooting him a confused look before bursting into laughter - Jae was tickled at the question being asked. The two had hung out for some time but had tunnel vision in what they discussed. “No, bro, I was born in Seoul but grew up in the UK.” He wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or questionable when he understood his name came up in conversation. 

"isn't the uk also an island? what was it like growing up there? different weather from jeju, i bet—not exactly a tropical country." he says this, but taejin's own conceptualization of anything past the peninsula is limited. he has a vague idea of what europe looks like in his mind, but it's an image that draws heavily from movies and stories from his friends' travels. prone to fancy and stereotype. nothing like actual lived experience, which is what taejin wants—what he'll do, eventually, once his run with the idol industry is over. make his little marks all over the globe, packing it with his footprints.

– from riches to rags @hdtaejin

"i don't understand how you just wear gym clothing every day, all day long." sebastian comments quietly after throwing a critical eye onto the garments taejin was wearing, nose scrunching up almost as if the sole existence of those jogger pants that were covering the younger's legs and sweat shirt he was wearing were insulting him. clearly, they were. the older male liked to pride himself in his fashion sense. every day should be a moment to express oneself and be able to show new colors, and surprise others. a metamorphosis of yourself, really. he liked that he could wear whatever he saw fit, and it made him feel confident in his appearance. he knew he was far from not good looking, he grew up teased for his pretty appearance. it was something he had held against himself for the longest of times, but now he was able to wield it almost as if it was weapon in its own regard.

he was proud of himself for how far he had come, and everything had lead to this singular moment. judging taejin and his fashion sense. "you need a make-over." he stated simply, reaching out with his fingers to tug on the front of the male's shirt, watching as it nearly drowned his friend in its fabric, eyes dropping to the formless sweat pants, the look was giving nothing, he made sure to tell his friend that, "like.. you're la blob like form. there's no shape. you could be showing off your legs and waist more better than this, and your chest too. and the colors you're wearing? where is the aesthetic? the goal? are you not trying to impress the people who look at you?"

the words come out fast, almost as if sebastian had suddenly so much to say in the confides of taejin's bed room, they were supposed to hang out and maybe grab something to eat, but as soon as he had seen his friend in this horrendous attire, sebastian changed his mind and decided the one thing his friend needed the most at the moment was a make over. he was adamant about it.

pausing from flipping through his collection of cds, taejin turns towards sebastian, arms folded and pose jokingly defiant—but unable to hide his amusement. whenever sebastian got like this, all ablaze and pointedly fierce, it was hard to imagine how this was the same person who had a reputation for being shy and reserved among the other trainees.

taejin laughs when he hears the words 'blob-like' and pretends to be fatally shot, staggering back with one hand to his chest. "all my hours at the gym... only to be called 'blob-like'... you're too cruel, junnie. absolutely cold-blooded."

he watches sebastian tug at his clothes and copies him by pulling at the fabric too. with a thoughtful hum, he looks down at his sweatshirt like he's seeing it for the first time. "is it really that bad?"

it's not that he doesn't pay attention to fashion... it's just that his style tends to lean pretty heavily towards athleisure. he makes the case to sebastian. "hey, aren't models going out wearing sweats all the time nowadays? i could totally layer an oversized white shirt under this and call it a fit."

training as a trainee is seemingly something that's just... wild, is probably the easiest way to put it. constantly put together in different formations with different people to see what works as a trainee; though often times, suho was doing a lot of evaluations on his own, over the group ones that felt every now and then. he was really glad to just finally have a team, in a sense. with two good friends and a newer friend that he looks up to.

after thirty-some months of training, it was exciting, but also scary, to finally be put in the debut candidate team. suho was going to work really, really hard to make sure that he stays in the team; that he ultimately ends up debuting as an idol in a group - reach the dream that he's wanted for so long.

"i really like our current lineup and i hope it stays the way!" he said, nodding his head excitingly. "i really want to be able to debut with you and yejun because you're my really good friends! and i really want to debut with hwan-hyung because he's cool and i really look up to him with what he can do," he said, giggling softly. "i think so... maybe it'll work out like we start with youth-fresh and mature into something else? like apink and twice-sunbaes." he says with a firm nod. "i think it would be fresh to start out as youth-fresh," he added on. "what about you? what do you think about it all?" suho asked, curious.

suho's taking a sip of water once more, before taking more bites of food. he watches as the other nudges the container of spicy jokbal towards him, eyes looking upon it. he giggles softly at the sticker of the logo on the container. "hey! that sticker is adorable!" he says, giggling softly once more as he looked upon the sticker. though, his eyes move back to the spicy jokbal that's sat in front of him.

"do you know if the jokbal is cooked with rice wine like it usually is?" suho asked, curious. "i tend to avoid anything with traces of alcohol because it very weirdly makes me sick," he says, that and the constant itch and redness that occurs upon his skin - he's never sure if he should be embarrassed by that or not. though, sometimes he's even embarrassed asking because he feels a little bit foolish, in a sense. of course, only suho would be the one to know what goes into a recipe and how to cook it - he really does miss getting to cook good meals as often as he can.

it was an industry as impatient as he was. always onto the next best thing, the latest hot trend. everything timely and temporary, and he appreciated that. there was too much that taejin wanted to do, too many things he wanted to try... it felt like a waste to be looking anywhere but ahead.

"i like the idea of starting with youth-fresh," taejin says, decisively, like he's at a board meeting and not in his living room eating chicken. "for practical reasons too. it won't be long before we're too old to be wearing school uniforms. i know all of us will be young and beautiful forever, of course, but those things really have an expiration date." he does the opening hand motions for "fancy" and grins at his friend. "i want to debut with you guys too. i really can't imagine any other lineup working this well, and i bet the producers see that too. they're not blind."

taejin hears suho's question about the jokbal and widens his eyes. "yeah i'm pretty sure they used rice wine—it's a good thing you caught that." he pushes the container closer to him and replaces it with something that he knows has no trace of alcohol, waving away suho's apology. "no problem at all. if anything, it's my fault for not checking beforehand."

vaguely sensing that suho might feel awkward for asking, he smiles to reassure him. "any other allergies i should know about? it won't be long until we're living and eating together on a daily basis, anyways. we should know these things about each other." he lifts a hand to his chest. "i, for one, can't eat shrimp. which is terrible for me because i love shellfish."

the brunette turned a few times, cracks coming from his back that even made him halt for a moment in surprise. “there is no way a nineteen year old’s back should be sounding like that, this place is gonna kill me man— hey.. maybe that’s how the hydra ghost came to be! they died practicing!" after a couple more minutes of stretching, yejun stood back on his feet and let out a dreadful sigh, pulling up the video of the choreography.

seeing yejun review his choreography, taejin pulled out his tablet to do the same. as bloated as his self-confidence could be sometimes, taejin wasn't delusional. even with two weeks to prepare, replication was impossible. he'd have to be smart about this, tailor the dance to play to his strengths and hide his weaknesses. and to do that, he needed impact. impact that had less to do with technical skill than it did stage-sense. performance over choreography.

the solid weight of yejun's hand paused taejin's train of thought. he lifted his eyes from his screen and slung his arms around his friend's shoulder in reply. "you can't die on me yet, buddy. we still gotta go to that popular bbq place and eat our weight in marinated pork once all this is over. i even saved us a table in advance."