— coup de grâce.

Hey, lovelies! This is a sentence starter meme for everyone! You’ll be able to reblog this meme for fourteen days starting today but feel free to continue answering memes after that if need be. Go wild with them and have fun! (Feel free to use this for sentence starters or drabbles; the most important thing is to get everyone writing. Hopefully, it’ll spark some new plot ideas and interactions too!)

Remember to reblog this if you’re interested receiving a meme, and to send some to everyone that reblogs it too! Feel free to skip over this if you’d like to; it’s by no means mandatory to participate. Most importantly, though, have fun!!

If the laughter surprised her, she was most definitely even more surprised by his comment. Her eyes widened as she processed it, then more awkward laughter fell from her own lips. “Oh, man, you’re too sweet. Thank you, though! You’re not bad yourself. I guess I should probably thank that asshole, too, huh?” She laughed again before abruptly stopping and briefly closing her eyes. “I, um…” She cleared her throat, trying to will away the blush on her cheeks. “I really am sorry for interrupting your workout. I should probably watch where I’m going. I see you around here a lot, though. I guess I’m not the only one that likes to punch something that won’t punch back every now and again.”

the girl seemed nice enough, which took coup by a little by surprise. it wasn’t until he processed that he felt surprised that he realized just how dark his life typically was. that’s gang life for you, he thought to himself, suppressing the chuckle that threatened to slip past his lips. “thanks,” he replied, giving the girl a subtle smile. “guess we’ll both be thanking him, then? but, afterward, we should probably warn him not to throw his dirty towels everywhere. not saying i’m looking at the glass half empty, but… if i hadn’t been here to catch you, that pretty face of yours easily could’ve gotten hurt. wouldn’t want any of that, now, would we?”

That was soon going to change, unbeknown to her as she made her way over to her own usual spot. She wasn’t expecting to get tripped on a towel that someone left on the ground, not being able to steady herself in time and falling over into the taller man. Nervous laughter fell from her lips as she steadied herself on his sweaty body and quickly let go as soon as she could stand. “Oh my god, I’m so, so sorry.”

boxing was one of seungcheol’s favorite hobbies, as it provided a healthy way for him to vent all of the pent-up rage that he constantly found himself dealing with. after all, he just couldn’t be that unflappable without dealing with his anger somehow, could he? if there was one thing he wanted to ensure, it was that his anger would never get the best of him. his father had been driven by his anger, controlled by it—seungcheol wanted to be nothing like him.

Turning wide eyes to Seungcheol, Sana slowly nodded in agreement with his suggestion. “There’s a new coffee shop a block over? Well,” she paused, correcting herself, “I don’t know how new it actually is to you. It’s new since you left.”

The sound of the old man loudly clearing his throat startled Sana so badly that she actually jumped in surprise. Without waiting for the other to agree to her plan, she grabbed Seungcheol by the wrist and made a beeline for the front doors, pulling him along behind her without glancing back at the old man.

She didn’t need to. She could feel his glare on their backs until the moment their feet hit the sidewalk outside.

it’s new since you left. seungcheol realized now that there was a pattern in her words, meaning that it had been more than an accidental slip of the tongue. still, there would be time to discuss that later, once they were no longer pestering this old man in his quest for cabbage. he was just about to agree with her suggestion of the nearby coffee shop when the old man loudly cleared his throat, and he’s unable to stop the light chuckle that escaped him as a result of sana jumping in surprise.

She wasn’t ready to let go of him quite yet.

“Are you back in the neighborhood?” She asked, nearly bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement. “I can’t believe you even remember this place. How much time did we spend here when we were in school?”

A new voice chose that moment to pipe in, startling her so that she flinched closer to Seungcheol, eyes widening in surprise at the interruption.

“Nice as this is, how’s about you two move it to another aisle?” an old man griped, wholly unimpressed as he looked between them over the glasses perched low on his crooked nose. “You’re blocking the cabbage.”

"you got me there,” he agreed in an amused tone, a wide smile forming on his lips. “you always were the prettier one, i can definitely attest to that. but, hey, at least i have the curls, right? that’s something that i can be proud of.”

“i’m back in the neighborhood, yes,” seungcheol confirmed, nodding his head ever so slightly as he spoke. “i’m living in my own apartment now, can you believe it? but of course i remember this place! this store was like... a paradise to me back then. i’m willing to bet that i would have slept here if they’d let me.”

Of course, her smile wavered when he redirected her question back at her. And really, she should have expected that exact response– he still thought that she’d returned to Japan with her aunt right after her family’s memorial service, when in truth her anxiety had forced her to lock herself away in her empty home. She’d been too scared, too ashamed to face Seungcheol who had always been so strong and sure, and so she’d lied to him. She’d lied to him, and by the time that she found the courage to reach out to her friend more than a year later, Seungcheol had disappeared.

“I’ve been back for a while now,” she hedged, hesitating perhaps a moment too long before offering him a shadow of the smile she’d managed earlier. Before she could actually ruin the moment though, she abruptly ruffled his hair. “Just when did you go and get taller than me? And I definitely don’t remember these curls.”

it’s in that moment that seungcheol began to remember the guilt that he felt. sana had gone through so much, yet somehow he had allowed himself to lose contact with her all those years ago. in his mind, no one was to blame but himself. he had good reason for abandoning his old life, that much he didn’t doubt (his sister still meant the world to him), but he can’t help but wonder how things might have worked out had he spared just a small amount of time to focus on the friendships that had meant so much to him.

he’s about to ask ‘you have? for how long?’, but he’s pulled from those thoughts the moment sana began to ruffle his hair, and yet another genuine laugh slipped past his lips. “that’s a very good question. i’m not sure how i ended up so tall, but...” he shrugged, a playful smile on his lips. “it just kind of happened. the curls, though? that’s something a little more recent.”

And then he said her name, and the basket of groceries clutched in Sana’s hand dropped to the floor beside her feet, forgotten. A wobbly laugh spilled past her lips as she took another hesitant step forward. “It really is you,” she breathed, a slow smile beginning to form the closer her feet carried her.

It was impossible. After so many years, she still knew him anywhere. He was taller now, his shoulders broader and his hair longer than she remembered it, but any doubts she had that the man standing before her was Choi Seungcheol were banished by the sound of that familiar laugh. Without a second thought, she threw her arms around his shoulders and hugged her old friend for all she was worth as soon as he was within reach.

“When did you get back?” she asked, chin hooking over his shoulder as she clung, earlier hesitance forgotten, “Are you staying long?”

for a moment, seungcheol’s fear of having a personal life faded from his memory, and all he could focus on was the happiness and relief he felt from seeing the girl again. it had been too long since their last meeting, far too long, and it went without saying that he had assumed he’d never see her again. “it really is me,” he noted in response, his smile becoming increasingly visible with each passing moment.

before he could fully process what was happening, seungcheol was returning sana’s hug, a warm smile remaining unwavering on his lips. in that moment, he felt an alarming amount of hope, though not even he could tell you why.

It helped that her route to and from work took her directly past the convenient store that she’d frequented during her school days. The store was familiar and unchanging, and even if her hands still trembled as she clutched her shopping basket and wandered the aisles, she managed. The store was a tiny piece of her past, maybe one of the only things that hadn’t changed in the years since she lost her family, and sometimes she could almost swear she saw a familiar mop of dark hair peeking over a display shelf or heard the twins’ laughter drifting from the snack aisle.

Today was different.

Today, when Sana reached the produce aisle, she found herself rooted to the spot in surprise. How many years had passed since she last saw him? There was no denying the similarity though, and without conscious thought her feet drew her closer. “Seungcheolie?” she breathed, voice too timid to carry far.

for a moment, seungcheol assumed he’d been hearing things. seungcheolie. no one called him that anymore, other than his sister; and she was miles away, so it was easy to rule her out. was this nothing more than his own imagination running wild? he lowered his gaze to the floor in front of him, swallowing hard as he braced himself for whatever came next.

and when he looked up, he saw her.

it had been years since the last time he’d they’d seen each other, but seungcheol had recognized her in an instant. "sana?” he questioned in a voice full of disbelief, making it clear that he could hardly believe his eyes. the kid inside of him wanted nothing more than to bring the girl into a long-awaited hug, asking if she wanted to sit down somewhere so that he could catch up on everything he missed. but things were different now—he was different now.

Hey, lovelies! This is a sentence starter meme for everyone! You’ll be able to reblog this meme for fourteen days starting today but feel free to continue answering memes after that if need be. Go wild with them and have fun! (Feel free to use this for sentence starters or drabbles; the most important thing is to get everyone writing. Hopefully, it’ll spark some new plot ideas and interactions too!)

Remember to reblog this if you’re interested receiving a meme, and to send some to everyone that reblogs it too! Feel free to skip over this if you’d like to; it’s by no means mandatory to participate. Most importantly, though, have fun!!