i'm crying

dongha never thought he’d come across his hidden past within the walls of the legacy entertainment training facilities of all places. he caught glimpses of it before, but he managed to chalk it up to his active imagination and the unsatisfying ending that he wrote up for his webtoon—but now, that same enamel keychain of his main character is right in front of him, attached to another trainee’s bag. what a coincidence!

there’s no way he’d mistake it for any other character, or any other fandom. dongha remembers arguing with the printer vendor when they messed the test run up, needing to move to another vendor with the event deadline so close—it’s his design, clearly, and @lgcminnie has it strapped to her bag!

just as she was fully tempted to pull out her phone and search up those dolls, her attention is pulled. "huh?" she's surprised that anyone would ask about the keychain, considering it wasn't that eye catching. she glances down, despite knowing exactly what keychain he was talking about. "oh yeah! it's a great webtoon that i read! honestly would've been a favourite, had it been finished."

“oh, was it not finished?” he questions, playing dumb and clueless, despite knowing that it was his fault it got discontinued. dongha got busy, uninspired, wasn’t sure how to end the story. he technically had an ending, but it was so rushed and abrupt it wasn’t a proper one… and then came the discontinued announcement he had to post.

“trust me, i’m an avid reader!” and a writer who once stood amongst the names of webtoon creators. “my ears are open, i’m ready for a session of infodumping.” truth be told, dongha also purely wanted to know what readers thought of his masterpiece so far, and he thinks minnie is someone who can be 100% honest with him. even more so because she doesn’t know it was him who created the webtoon.

friendships—the most colourful ones—can begin from something completely out of pocket. kickstarted by common interests, or a brave and determined individual popping out from the corner of your eye demanding you be his friend, with little to no explanation. it’s one hell of a first impression, but he thinks that part of @lgcdom’s personality is exactly why their friendship has survived contract extensions ( both literally, seeing the setting they’ve met in, and figuratively ).

“my good friend,” dongha nudges dom’s elbow with a bright and toothy grin on his face, holding a brown paper folder close to his chest. he coughs, his voice dropping lower as an attempt to sound a lot more professional than he needs to be. “your performance last year had been outstanding! i wasn’t confident that project golf-dongha-up would work out like it had, but you’ve proven me wrong. swinging a stick was not as boring as management—i—thought it would be.”

slowly, he opens up the folder and takes out a piece of paper, adorned with a logo of dongha’s own design. the words ‘friendship contract extension’ is printed with bolder and capital letters on the top of the page, followed by both their names in succession and a few paragraphs detailing ‘terms and conditions’, similar to what dom had read last year. he hands the letter over to dom, pointing to a space on the bottom right corner. “please sign here to finalize the extension,” he says.

perhaps being recognized had nothing to do with his disguise and every bit to do with his behaviour. eyebrows knitted together, lips pressed into a downward curve, arms folded across his chest — these were the trademarks of dominic ahn. and it just so happened that standing there, very seriously reading dongha’s very not serious ‘terms and conditions’ checked all three boxes.

“you’re serious?” for a moment, his expression made it look as if he was going to berate dongha for playing with him, but then his eyes softened into wide, shaking circles. the tiniest smile he was trying hard to suppress slipped through. yes, even if this was a joking matter, he was deeply moved. “i accept these terms.” he had to ask a nearby street food vendor for a pen, all while dodging the look that read what kind of shady dealing is this. it didn’t matter to him because his friendship with dongha had been renewed.

“we’ve had a lot of good experiences this past year,” dom reflected, because it felt like the appropriate time to do some reflection. they had gone on several golfing, boating, and gastronomic trips. he had drilled what every utensil on the table was meant for, and most importantly, he had showed dongha how to laugh in wealth. all of these things were in preparation for one goal and one goal only: a promotion from good friend to close friend. “i would like to take it a step further.”

dom paused, not for dramatic effect, but to order five of everything at the chicken skewer stall – yes, five. and while those were grilling away, he turned back to dongha.

he can hear small whispers around them, probably a bunch of confused food tenants confused, wondering what the hell is going on. to any passerby, it looked like dongha is probably pulling dom into a suspicious deal, perhaps even recruiting the other man into a cult. no one steps up to voice their concerns though, which is fine—dongha is just renewing the terms of their friendship, nothing shady here!

dongha doesn’t forget to add his own order to the mix though, his stomach is actually growling and he wants something sweet too—he’s half-distracted picking between hotteok and bungeoppang that he finds himself caught off guard by dom’s next request.

i want you to meet my parents.

he blinks—because he hadn’t expected dom to say such a statement so seriously, almost sounding like he’s taking dongha to meet his parents because they’re getting married or something. it draws a laugh out of him, whole body reaction really, needing to rest a hand against dom’s shoulder to stabilize himself.

“wow, really? me? color me shocked! i feel so honored!” he says in between laughs, despite feeling genuine that he is honored. that means he really is on dom’s good side, right?

"thanks for the recommendations!" dongha smiles, taking her suggestions into account and placing the items into his plate. "if i could, i'd take everything back to the dorms with me, honestly!" he says, acting sneaky with his plates, playing around a bit as if he's going to hide his plate in his jacket. as if, all that'll do is spill all over his clothes, he would've been caught within seconds!

"yeah, i think i'm also the type that can't do anything on an empty stomach," she admits, a chuckle escaping afterwards. "i can't be too full but i need something to fuel me, you know?" if she didn't, rua's sure that her mental would be more frayed since she'd also be thinking about how hungry she might be. wouldn't it be embarrassing if her stomach growled while on stage too? no thank you.

rua laughs freely seeing dongha's behaviour, grinning still once she speaks again. "well, i wouldn't stop you if you did. i wouldn't tell anyone either." her smile turns conspiratorially as she makes sure to say this in a lower volume as if she was actually being secretive. in reality, with all the noise of people chatting and singing, and the general ambience of a get together with so many people like this, no one's really paying attention to them-- or anyone else outside their bubble. "i'd even make a distraction if you really needed it," she laughs again.

at rua’s offer for a distraction though, dongha laughs, winking at her—his newly acquired potential partner in crime. “bet! maybe not now, i feel like i’m being watched by too many eyes even though i haven’t done anything… probably the post-performance paranoia? next time though, definitely. i’ll take you up on that offer immediately! or… hey, were you just offering that so you could get out of performing?” dongha raises his eyebrow, half-questioning half-suspicious. it’s all lighthearted though.

“there is a lot of choices—i’m glad i had another brain with me to choose a song instead of working through the selections all on my own!” it helps that he performed with a partner, that won’t currently help rua’s stance right now however. “have you filtered your top three choices, at least? top five? maybe if you have, you can just spin the wheel and let fate decide!”

“let me listen to the song again really quickly,” dongha says, pulling out his phone and playing the song on speaker, not too loud that it would disturb whoever was up. he lifts his phone close to his ear, playing the song and humming along, mumbling the lyrics under his breath.

he stares at his friend for a long moment as the other pulls out his phone to pre-listen to the song. who doesn't know bang bang bang off the top of their heads? that's crazy. /

though, he doesn't say anything and just lets dongha do it, deciding not to be impatient (for once in his life) and starts singing it under his breath. it's one of his favourite noraebang songs, so he doesn't think he'll need any help.

“bet! show me your moves!” dongha insists, taking a few steps forward so he can watch iseul demonstrate. he doesn’t just observe though, he claps a few times eagerly as if he’s setting the mood—and also to hype iseul up himself.

that's why rua finds herself inside the large conference room reserved for the trainees that night, and is currently standing--read: definitely not hiding--next to the food table, a cup in her hands filled with some drink she's been nursing since she stationed herself here, hoping no one would notice she hasn't sang yet. it's not like she had stage fright or was embarrassed to (if she did, why would she spend so many years as a trainee who would do exactly that if she got to debut?) but she was just waiting for the right time! or something.

"thanks for the recommendations!" dongha smiles, taking her suggestions into account and placing the items into his plate. "if i could, i'd take everything back to the dorms with me, honestly!" he says, acting sneaky with his plates, playing around a bit as if he's going to hide his plate in his jacket. as if, all that'll do is spill all over his clothes, he would've been caught within seconds!

but, in this case, he's already pretty excited about the party that when the karaoke part is revealed, he's entirely hype.

“let me listen to the song again really quickly,” dongha says, pulling out his phone and playing the song on speaker, not too loud that it would disturb whoever was up. he lifts his phone close to his ear, playing the song and humming along, mumbling the lyrics under his breath.

helloooo everyone! it’s been a while since i posted a plot call 😵‍💫 but i wanted to use this opportunity to get more threads for minki and @lgcdongha related to the new side event that just dropped!

MINKI needs… another member of MZSD to thread with about the photoshoot (he will be struggling to believe he can be… cute)!

DONGHA needs… another trainee to thread with about the event happening in the conference room (he is vibing as always)!

he manages to stand up thanks to the hold dongha has on his hand, and he decides to laugh it off. wenjun is gonna be a sunbae, he can't look like a complete fool. even if he is one – sort of – at times.

instead, he circles back to what dongha says, and playfully he nudges the boy with his elbow. "oh yeah, i did forget about you. what was your name again? dong... hee?" he jokes. it's clear that wenjun hasn't forgotten about dongha though. despite his apparent bad memory when it came to things like his glasses, he remembers dongha quite well. they were after all, friends.

dongha rolls his eyes when wenjun teases him, but he doesn’t stop holding wenjun’s hand. he’s not a monster! besides, he did start the joke, assuming wenjun would’ve taken the bait. instead, he squeezes wenjun’s hand as if he’s pretending to crush it under his own. just to be annoying in return.

“really? donghee? that’s the best you can come up with?” he shoves wenjun a little, not enough that it’ll make wenjun lose balance though, still holding onto the older boy. “give me something… cooler, like a stage name. or a superhero name! but make it realistic still, something that still fits my face. don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how i look either!” he whines, a junior pandering to his senior, nothing new. especially with dongha’s eccentrics.

It has been quite some time by now that Seojin became more comfortable with the concept of having a studio of his own. ( Instead of hogging time in the one of his other group members who had access before him. ) Nowadays, he spent as much time holed up inside it as he did in the practice room and, eventually, more than his own dorm. It certainly was of no help that he insisted on there being a comfortable couch against the wall — large enough to support him for all his dozing needs when the time called for it. Oh, and a mini fridge.

Sooner or later, the overtly social being that Seojin happened to be, extended the occasional invitation to some of his friends to lounge with him in the studio while he worked on some project or recorded something completely random and irrelevant. Having his alone time was rather sacred, but there was something to having company to look to when the atmosphere became a bit too quiet without the music filling the room.

"You're really lucky I decided to let you in here, y'know," the heel of his foot digs into the plush carpeting underneath him, serving as an anchor for his idly spinning back and forth on the desk chair that was far too comfortable. The tone his voice takes is a teasing sort — the kind he uses on his actual younger brother that he trainee shouldn't be unfamiliar with by now.

Dongha wasn't exactly too different from himself, anyway, he knew he would be able to take a little bit of banter, out of anyone.

when seojin calls out to him and speaking to him, dongha is stood up, his gaze fixated on the wall before him, trying to figure out if there’s a slight dent on a certain spot. he looks rather concentrated as well, comedically so, eyebrows furrowed slightly as he attempts to solve the trivial mystery that won’t make any sort of impact on the world.

“i know, i’m so lucky! you’ve been so busy… if you left me hanging for too long i would’ve worn a disguise and barged into a versus schedule just to catch your attention!” he declares dramatically, as he often does, easily falling back into banter with the older boy. “i’ll dress up as one of your dogs,” he announces, as if he’s committed to the bit. truth be told, if push comes to shove, he is.

seojin’s question makes him hum, pondering on his answer. “kind of? why, do you miss your trainee life?” definitely not, seeing as seojin called it boring. “i don’t know what to do with my life, i still don’t know what i want to be!” he has known seojin for a while, so speaking candidly like this isn’t too difficult of a task for him—even though he’s still playing it off as a joke. “what do you think, hyung? now that you’re on the other side, do you think i have what it takes to be an idol?”

he stumbles into the practice room with his nose a particularly bright red colour. in truth, wenjun doesn't really expect to see anyone else here at this time of night – mostly because it's late, and because the winter nights in korea are harsh. and while he's thankful for the facilities provided for him as a now confirmed member of mzsd, there were days where he missed these sort of facilities, the ones he'd frequent as a trainee back then.

"so cold, it's so cold," he mumbles to himself, as he enters the practice room. he's foregone wearing his contacts for today, too lazy, and instead had decided on wearing his glasses. only to realize halfway through his journey that he'd left his glasses back at the dorms.

and so, his eyesight is terrible. his astigmatism acting up, and everything looking like fluff. which should be fine, really; until he notices a figure in the practice room and he blinks. "huh?" he tilts his head, taking a step closer. the face seems familiar, but wenjun can't quite make it out. he blinks, rubbing his eyes and it's only when he's a meters away does he realize who it is.

he does wonder what it’d be like if he was an idol, what type of criticism he might receive when he debuts. dongha forgoes the thoughts, instead pouring out his energy in the practice room for no particular reason. putting in extra effort would surely get him results, even though he doesn’t know where he’d want to allocate those results in the first place. oh well—that’s something for future dongha to worry about!

someone walks into the practice room suddenly, dongha half suspects it’s a ghost and thinks he could make a living off of submitting a verified photo evidence of a ghost—turns out it was just wenjun. not that he’s disappointed. “oh! it feels like it has been so long, i was starting to think you’d forget about me.” he announces, dramatic in his speech, playing with wenjun’s heartstrings playfully. he doesn’t mean it, of course.