𝕕𝕠𝕡𝕖 / 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨 *

@LGCENT just posted a photo!

summer nights are the best, don’t you agree? 😌

“i don’t think that’s possible unless you’re pretty much brain dead, which you’re not.” yohan replies in a more blunt tone, pulling the blanket completely off sejun and throws it across the dorm, which he knows will probably annoy sejun even more. “it’s already late, hyung, get up, come on, let’s just get some food; you don’t even have to talk, i just want you eat something. and i miss you, so,” yohan tries to pull at sejun’s heartstrings using hyung in a sweet tone, followed by telling him he missed him, he would stand here for an hour trying to get him to agree.

sejun doesn't expect yohan to go away and though he may prefer to be left alone, he still doesn't have the heart to actually push yohan away too hard. for one, he thinks yohan doesn't deserve it, especially after having such a hard time with his own sadness and motivation levels last quarter. sejun also thinks he would perk up with a night out to buy one of his favorite people snacks. but the problem is, sejun doesn't want to. he wishes, with the utmost pessimism, that the people in his life who cared about him would just let him rot.

"brain dead," sejun hums, fantasizing. he gasps when the blanket is being thrown off him. sejun looks at yohan again, his expression silent and thinking for a moment. before he can speak, yohan cuts him off with more simple but kind words to get him off the couch that he has so happily made his coffin. "fine," he finally says with a sigh. "but only because you asked so nicely."

           she was unhappily in search for a new hobby. when it had first been brought up sori could very well see the positives in it, and then she’d continued not even considering picking up a hobby, but then it wasn’t a choice anymore. legacy stood in front of her and let her know she should find one, listing why it was good and blah blah blah, and sori had been forced out into the world to find a hobby. she’d had quite many hobbies in the past, as in during high school, but when university came around and she began taking being a trainee more seriously she left behind any hobby she had as they were now nothing more than a waste of time to her. she’d considered picking up an old hobby again, but nothing seemed very appealing, so she was out trying new hobbies. it felt like she wasted too much time on finding a hobby, but nothing seemed quite right.

in the search of a new hobby she’s also begun her search for new friends, because she is terrible socially, having barely any friends, and completely struggling to make more (asking herself ‘why don’t i have any friends?’ like the answer isn’t right in the mirror). so in her search for a new hobby she’s decided to include others, in the hope that she’ll finally become closer to more people. 

sori is good at art, but she doesn’t enjoy it as much as her brother and dad, and it’s been a while since she’s picked up a brush. “what will you be paining?” she asks sejun, staring down at her own bowl of clay she can’t quite figure out how to decorate.

his hands are grasping the ceramic cup, blank and ready for glaze painting, looking up at sori who has asked him a question. he pauses and thinks, looking at the blank canvas a little too long, hoping to see something in the soft lines of the delicate, unfinished mug.

“our cupid … ” sunhwa echoes. she’s so very careful, a bit hesitant even, as sejuns passes the kitten to her. it’s so small and fragile, but the kiss he leaves upon her lips, soft and open, helps ease the tension collecting in her shoulders. out of habit, she finds herself chasing after him as they part. “how do you always come up with the sweetest ideas for me?” her words are barely above a whisper, but the fond grin on her lips gives her feelings away.

sejun grins at sunhwa's reaction to their furry new companion. the slight fear he had of her not necessarily knowing if sunhwa would be excited or not is relieved and he feels happy knowing his present to her was a good choice in the end. it also weighs a little heavy on his heart, absolutely not in a bad way. it's not as if they needed another reminder to how committed they are to each other, but this animal is another reminder all the same.

"perfect?" he repeats, only with a little laugh. "i'm glad you think so." he reaches up to give her cheek a touch, letting his thumb touch the edge of her mouth. "it was kind of a spur of the moment thing," he admits to her question. "i saw him and i knew we needed him. he's really pretty, isn't he? one of those ragdoll instagram cats for sure."

sejun walks further into the apartment, back to where he was sitting on the ground with the kitten. "he likes to chase the feather wands," sejun says twirling one of the plastic rods in his fingers. "you should see," he tells her. "he goes crazy for it." he takes a slight pause, reaching to push his hair from his face and smile at the image of sunhwa with her new pet. it really was a good idea, he thinks to himself. he's never seen sunhwa look at anything like she's looking at the cat.

@LGCENT just posted a photo!

found this in my mom’s albums. happy (late) children’s day! 🐣

kiha shrugs his jacket off, hanging it over the back of his chair before shoving the long sleeves of his sweatshirt up towards his elbows. “maybe i did. thanks for entertaining one of my bad ideas.” he says, sliding a menu across to sejun, allocating the second to himself. his eyes glaze over the menu— they were spoilt for choice. truly. 

"never?" sejun wonders after taking a moment to look around the place, before settling into the table across from kiha. "no mcdonald's barely counts. ours is a lot different. i mean, in the long run, i think going to in-n-out is more american, right? it's at least made a little better even if it's still fast food."

he misses LA a lot when he thinks about it, mostly because of the beaches and how close they were so he could go surfing after practice or early in the mornings. here, he has to travel quite a bit to go to the best surfing locations. there was also a different quality to america that he had enjoyed too; people of all types, shapes and sizes, languages he didn't recognize, a clash of cultures he wasn't used to.

     she’s debating on actually going back to dancing and cutting her break short when she notices someone out of the corner of her eye, standing in front of the practice room door. she squints slightly, glancing over at nahee and then back, realizing it’s sejun. somin raises an eyebrow, a bit confused but she shifts to look at the note in front of the door. she has to stifle a laugh, though the music playing is enough that nahee probably wouldn’t notice. also, somin is fully aware that the only boy that management seems to be wary about around her is yohan so she’s not too concerned about them seeing her interacting with sejun.

     she grabs a pen from her bag, and quickly scribbles a reply back and slides it under before pacing the room. 

the fact that somin has a manager with her, even when she is just practicing alone in the legacy building seems a bit much. but he is not one to judge legacy's rules out loud. the big all seeing company stays fearsome and he supposes that is the point of what has happened during the past quarter.

he takes his time to write back a message, slipping it under the door.

Her flare of anger, however, was cooled off hearing his apology, and she swallowed her initial reaction. “I can tell,” she scoffed, bending down to reach for the contents of her bag strewn across the floor, “it’s fine.” 

And that was it of that odd interaction, Yuxi thought. It was not. When she opened her sketchbook later in the day, she quickly came to realize that something was wrong. First of all, she didn’t use that many colours. Secondly, she was not a portrait artist. Yuxi quickly came to the realization that she and that weird guy from the morning must’ve swapped sketchbooks by accident. She massaged her temples in frustration. 

well, so he thinks until he finally sits down again that night and realizes that the sketchbook he has isn't his. the lack of color and people for references has him confused until he thinks harder about his unfortunate interaction. so now he must do something he really hates, face someone who already has a terrible impression of him.

but in his honor, he has to try to at least find her and return her sketchbook, especially when her work is as wonderful as it is. sejun hopes he can also ease the perception of him in her mind, maybe with a little art heart to heart. emphasis maybe.

“it is… nice, i think. but it also feels like everyone else is so busy, but i guess i shouldn’t be complaining, since we were really busy throughout the summer… and the months before that. maybe we’re all workaholics in a way,” yushin sighs, thrumming his fingers along his knuckles, in his relaxed poise. “i wish that they’d let us actually work together on things. like.. mentorship or something? not that i’m a mentor, i’m your friend first and foremost, don’t worry, my ego isn’t the size of mars. what do they have you guys doing anyway? catch me up to your schedule.” 

"that's true," sejun says with a smile. "although nina and i always end up just playing roblox or making some kind of trash song that will never see the light of day. we're too stupid together. and well, kiha's too hard to catch. he spends the majority of his time in the gym with me and dorms with me so i think he'd rather skip out on studio time." sejun shrugs. he wants to work with as many voices as he can for the experience, having a debuted idol in his grasp is exciting for his ever ongoing repertoire.

"feels like everyone's always busy always," sejun agrees. "yeah, we're all kinda masochistic, aren't we? kiha's graduating soon. i'm graduating soon, or at least, unless i drop out. which is probably what's going to end up happening. the like 80 hour work weeks are so draining; it doesn't feel like we have time for anything." not even sleep, sejun wants to say. "and when we do, it's almost shocking... physically, i mean. you know?"

"i agree," sejun says, looking up from his computer. he laughs at yushin's comment, shaking his head. "that would be cool though. i mean, i think it's kind of like... learning from the best source, right? you guys probably have better advice then some of the coaches here."

“a nice long break? it doesn’t really feel that long,” he laughs. the breaks always seem too short compared to the back to back schedules that come with the holidays coming up ( even if they’re not back to back, sometimes, they can feel like it ). “new?” he thinks for a moment and then shrugs his shoulders. “i’m not sure … just been busy with schedules and you know how things will get soon with the end of year. what about you?”

"well, i mean," sejun says with a shrug and a smile. "i guess, long enough, right?" sejun wishes that they all got more downtime. it seemed like the problem of this kind of lifestyle: there was always something to do. too much to do, if sejun's being honest. for a long time, sejun wondered if he wasn't in the right place for the kind of work he wanted to do but in the end, he's decided that he's already worked too long and too hard to change courses now.

"ah, the life of an idol. i wonder if it's as glamorous as it looks," sejun says with a smile. he's kind of joking but still a little serious. idols do get to have more fun than the trainees, that's for sure. sejun's sure that he'd actually be invited into a professional studio and his suggestions would be taken in consideration. maybe he'd be able to even write a song or two for an album. until then, sejun's stuck trying to fix his dancing abilities to become good enough to be seen on stage.

yohanlgc

          “hey,” yohan calls out in a quieter tone, softly poking him before slowly pulling the blanket off so he could see his face. “what are you doing?” he asks, curious to why he had pretty much hidden himself beneath the blanket. “are you dressed? i’m getting you some food from 7/11. let’s get some fresh air.” he ushers the other, hoping that he just gives in and lets yohan drag him out. “i’m buying, if that helps.”

sejun's mind feels disconnected from his body, like he is trapped on a train that's headed no where, watching the world move past him at high speed. he's not really sure what's the cause of this sudden sadness but he doesn't have time to introspect when he's focusing so hard on gathering the energy to get out of bed. as the days go on, things don't seem to be getting any easier.

he's apprehensive to talk to anyone about it. kiha and yohan seem to be doing a lot better and have found a healthier routine again, one that he doesn't want to disturb. sunhwa is busy with the finale of her first ever drama and getting ready to go on a much deserved vacation. sejun's found solace in his head, where no one can hear him complain or whine about his disastrously tedious life.

so sejun's set on rotting, at least for the next month or so. today, instead of doing anything productive, he's listening to the same moody frank ocean playlist on repeat. sejun even puts his phone on do not disturb, muting all notifications (except sunhwa, of course), and he's set on dissociating for the rest of the night.

that is until he feels the blanket slip off his face and feels yohan's eyes on him. his airpods fall out of his ears with the subtle action, pausing his music and bringing him back into a world he hates right now.