Nobody Knows

@xithdctr​

usually when minseok doesn’t know exactly what to do of himself, he tends to take to cafes. usually starbucks is his go to place, but he has yet to see one such establishment in this godforsaken place and instead he has taken refuge within a small settlement. linden cafe it seems that it prides itself with the name of, but honestly minseok hasn’t the faintest clue what that means. as long as the choco mochas were good he can’t care less. 

beverage in hand, he finds himself an empty table with a nice view out towards a quaint street that seems rather aesthetic. if there’s anything he appreciates about this situation, it’s the chance to draw new scenery instead of the same old tall-rise buildings, being trapped in a concrete jungle like he usually is in seoul or tokyo. and thus he begins drawing.

for a good 30 minutes he sits, body bent over the table only rising to take a sip from his coffee every so often. that is when a melody enters his head and refuses to leave. without thinking too much about it he starts humming along to his memories of the song. it’s a recent release by a big girl group and although minseok is not really much into kpop (ironically so considering what he’s training for) it’s really catchy and easy to listen to. and boy if it doesn’t get stuck in your head.

“Risky risky wiggy 위기 This is an emergency Help me, help me, somebody stop me 'Cause I know I can't stop me”

@ultpxychometry666​

so. new world and everything, huh? parallel or whatever it is, he is currently located within its premises, but if there is one thing that does not change it is the fact that he has to take coco for walks. while she is small and easy to handle (thankfully as his usual schedule doesn’t really allow for much pet care) she does appreciate getting outside too, and no amount of magical world hopping is going to change that. when a dog gotta go it gotta go.

thus it doesn’t take long before he finds himself yet again walking the premises of what he has come to know as kester park. funnily it seems like his path leads him here a lot, but then again he hasn’t exactly been in this self procraimed country for long enough to be able to find a ‘usual spot’ yet. not that he wants to be here. he has business to attend to after all, and minsek is dreading having to explain the cause of his sudden absence to his coaches back at trc. ‘well you see,’ he imagines himself saying. ‘i kind of got kidnapped into an alternate world.’ say sike. he’d rather die.

sodasexual​:

Kester Park is a location close to the living area I was assigned to, so it was to be expected that I’d pass by here occasionally in my walks around Terra. The days have been getting colder, so I put up the scarf that I found among my things when I first arrived here.

I’m glad for its presence. It gives me a sense of courage to live each day properly, I’d say. …It’s complicated.

The natives of this world seem to enjoy spending their time here. And I can’t fault them. We are nearing the end of fall, yet the trees and the flowers still retain a liveliness in them that could easily fool you into thinking that it’s still summer. It’s kind of funny, even. Even with my special memory, I can’t really notice any big markers of the passage of time in this park - save for the bizarre shrubs, that is.

Being that I have no computer of mine yet, and that I’m still on the search for a job, I found myself coming here sometimes to have something else to look at while checking on my phone. Though, admitedly… the view here is quite a treat by itse-

*HONK!! HONK!!*

“Geeeeh?!”

What the- a goose?! What is one of those doing here? Shoo, foul beast, shoo! You won’t spoil my day! Go away!

Well, looks like it got the message. The goose flies away, alongside a few more of its colleagues in spreading chaos and misery. Now I can return back to my comtemplating-

“Hey, watch where you’re going.”

…Is that guy talking to me? What the hell, I never saw him before! What could he have a problem with me about? The birds? He can lift his ass up and go after them, if he so wishes!

I was about to go my way… when I noticed the language switch. Now that caught my attention. From my experience back in Hive City, in a setting like this, there is this thing where people automatically perceive others speaking in their native language, even if the speaker never actually learned it. Back there, I believe that the scientists made it so to ease communication, thus lifting a barrier for their so called ‘social experiment’.

However… Sometimes, when people want to emphasize the language they are using, that automatic translation is undone. Such is what just happened, thus allowing me to learn that this guy know Korean.

How interesting.

“[You are a newcomer, aren’t you?]” I ask in my perfectly fluent Korean, pretty much indistinguishable from a native speaker. “[I’m a foreigner, just like you. First time experiencing another world?]”

now, minseok is not one to consider himself a genius in any way, not even when it comes to the things he’s actually good at, but even he would say that it seems like the guy is reacting to his words. great. communication succeeded. even more so does it relieve him when the other responds back in perfect korean. maybe had minseok been a native speaker himself he might be able to catch a slip up or two, but at his level he is not able to catch any flukes and does not think to look for any either.

at first he thinks he has found an ally, but soon the word ‘newcomer’ enters the conversation, and minseok can’t help but scoff. so this guy has been here for a while, was it? somehow the way he speaks irks the artist and he cannot quite explain why. maybe it’s just because he’s easily irked by people who has the slightest hint of a know-all aura.

“where i’m from,” minseok begins, clicking his tongue in the process, “other worlds tend to be something you don’t experience. it’s just fiction.” trying to act indifferent and unbothered, he switches to a new paper in his sketchbook and chews a bit on the end of his pencil while deciding on a new target. well, he might as well pick the guy before him since it seems like he’s not going anywhere any time soon. guys like this tend to like tho show off and be superior from his experience so he might as well distract himself all the while. “so no, i can’t say i’ve ever experienced another world.”

pencil smoothly running over the paper, he remains in thought while drawing the outline. is he supposed to keep the conversation going or what? probably. what a pain in the ass. “you make it sound like you’re some kind of expert on the subject.” his tone is a bit snarky as he keeps his eyes locked on the paper before him, only glancing upwards every so often for reference. if anything, speed drawing is a talent he’s always been proud of and quickly depicting what he sees has earned him many an impressed onlooker.

not that he cares to impress others, but come on, who can say they don’t enjoy a bit of cheer and amazement from those around?

“ah how nice, to be young again,” he suddenly seemingly changes the subject, but in minseok’s mind it still relates. “world-hopping and fighting dragons and monsters and whatnot. the only thing i fought when i was your age was depression and now i’m too old to be in the hero business.” of course he is being sarcastic, and his tone of voice is probably impossible to not understand that much from.

@sodasexual​

his day thus far can only be summarised in a very big ‘what the fuck’. yes, he has read manga about the protagonist waking up in a new world or dying and arriving in some parallel existence where he has to fight monsters and rise to power. but this is not a manga, and he is no protagonist. an unimportant side character, maybe one who gets an arc or two centred around him, but definitely no main character. so why the fuck does he currently find himself in this situation?

honestly he doesn’t understand, not really. it was supposed to be another day of training, another day spent pointlessly reaching towards a goal that might never come, but thus are the circumstances of minseok. he could just be satisfied with a desk job, but oh no, he just has to aim for something bigger, something grand, like the idiot he is. but even that much he can handle. what he can’t handle is finding himself waking up in some random fucking place he can’t even pronounce the name of: what the hell is a vraelgard? 

stuff like this just doesn’t happen in real life.

“shit,” he mutters to himself, letting his mother tongue come out. it’s not like it makes a difference anyway if he’s not even in korea anymore. minseok decides to sit down on a bench in what appears to be a park, mainly in order to take in everything. that’s the thing he’s the most upset about: why doesn’t his isekai experience come with a fucking manual? someone telling him that he needs to join a guild, fight the evil overlord, whatever it is that heroes do? he’s just the same old dong minseok he’s always been and that’s a pain in the ass unlike any other. in his frustrations he takes out his sketcpad and drawing tools -- if anything he supposes he still has this to cling to -- and starts drawing his surroundings. it helps calm him down and think. or not think is probably more accurate, empty his head and let his frustrations go away.

that is when he notices some kid who looks just as lost as he feels.

dishevelled look and donning a bright red jacket that seems way too colourful for him, he stands out like a sore thumb somehow to minseok. he is especially annoyed because movement from the guy chased away the bird he was in the middle of drawing. “hey,” he calls out. “watch where you’re going.” then it strikes him. can he even communicate with people here? somehow he was lucky enough to understand the people welcoming him, even though minseok can’t really wrap his head around whether it was korean or japanese or some whole foreign language that somehow just made sense to him. it is just too weird an experience.

rkvok​:

@rkxars

Though he’d never actually say it out loud, Moonbok had ended up having some misgivings about practically forcing Youngjae into first going to the Starbright Auditions, and then to the subsequent TRC audition. He hadn’t thought ahead to what the consequences of a potential rejection might have done for his friend’s mental health.

Thankfully, Tiger JK proved that he could spot the talent in other and had signed Youngjae. Which now meant that Moonbok could be unashamedly big-headed about the whole thing.

“What did I tell you? Hm~? What did I say? Didn’t I tell you you’d succeed?” smirking at the younger boy as they take a break in their evaluation practice (the companies were certainly throwing the new trainees straight into the deep end). Moobok flipped his hair out of his eyes.

“No need to thank me, either. Though if you want to shower me with graditude, I won’t refuse either~”

One would imagine that it was human nature to remain modest about accomplishments -- Youngjae himself was of course living proof this wasn’t the case, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t complain about others being a pain in the ass when they were. And Moonbok was very much so right now.

“Oh shut up,” he simply returned the other’s strange way of congratulating him (he much preferred the meal that had been cooked in his favour) and pulled himself closer to the climbing frame to better stretch his legs against the wall. One thing was the fact that the other was right -- another was him flaunting it like that.

He had thought himself lucky to not be signed to Sphere again in a way as seeing Moonbok both at home and at work would be enough to drive anyone insane, but apparently he wasn’t lucky enough to escape the guy completely. Then again he could have just declined when the other had asked him to become part of his evaluation group.

* welcome wagon ,

@rkxars

when he first became a trainee, he was always aware of all the new casting events. he liked to pass by the practice rooms often during those times to try and see what the potential new people were bringing, and so he could get a feel for what the company as a whole was looking for. as time went on, however, such news began to elude him for whatever reason—whether it was because the coaches were tired of filling him in (which would be weird because they still always told him about the new people who were coming), or because of a lack of time, or some other unknown cause—which makes him all the more grateful that he’s pestered the staff enough over the years that they give him information about the new people when it’s available.

he learns of the two new incoming trainees the day they’re signed, and so has enough time to prepare his signature lunch boxes the night before. this time, he goes with some kimchi fried rice, chicken katsu, and kimbap, and while it’s a bit simpler than what he’s done in the past, it’s still made with a lot of love and care. with the information he’d been given, he goes on his search for the second trainee during free training time, during which he finds it to be the most convenient, since it offers the most amount of time. sure, it may be harder to find said trainees due to the fact that not everyone is congregating in the cafeteria like during meal hours, but because he gets more time anyway, it evens out.

finally, after about a half an hour of searching, he spots who he’s looking for, and he takes long and quick strides in order to close the gap between them. once he’s within earshot, he begins calling out toward the other, waving him down as he picks up the pace into a light jog. “hey, you!” he yells enthusiastically, a bright smile on his face. once he’s closed the distance, he switches to an inside voice (which some would say is not much of a different from his yelling) and bows in greeting. “you’re the new kid, right? youngjae?” he grins, holding out the lunchbox, which has a sticker placed on it of his own face and name. “i’m park chanyeol, nice to meet ya. welcome to trc!”

Honestly speaking he hadn’t expected to get a second chance, and especially not so quickly afterwards. Obviously his chances with Sphere had been utterly blown, but while he did long for the familiar, there was no denying that even the company he had been signed under before was still going to be foreign to him, as he now knew no one. Perhaps in that way, as obnoxious as it was to start anew, maybe it was a good chance to get to know new people rather than being ‘the sunbae who everyone left behind’. Something like that would just be too depressing.

Then again, in between that weird guy popping a goddamned party popper in his face as a welcome and returning to Sphere, the latter might have seemed more appealing -- at least in his former company the attempts at hazing had fallen completely flat thanks to a certain trainee messing up. But it only made him realise that he couldn’t be safe no matter where he was from the looks of it. So when someone called out to him again, Youngjae’s first instinct was to walk faster or run away. It was too late though because the stranger quickly approach him whilst the artist was still considering his next actions.

rkjordan​:

the word was that trc had a couple of new faces after some recent casting, so jordan was, of course, going to have to look into this. it would be fun to have some fresh meat around the place. especially when he had gone and learned that one of the new faces happened to be his mini chaos apprentice, beomgyu. now that was something that jordan had been expecting, but it would be fun with the younger boy around the place. but the kid was not in jordan’s sights for the time being. instead, he was more curious with the other guy who had gotten signed. 

he hadn’t really planned on just following him silently around the place, but that seemed to be happening. and he wasn’t getting any recognition, which was just annoying. how was he supposed to welcome someone who wasn’t stopping and was just ignoring him? but jordan, being jordan, was not someone who was going to give up, so simply continued to just follow the guy around. he was going to have to be acknowledged at some  point. and finally he was, though jordan didn’t actually say anything. 

instead, he scanned the guy up and down before slowly reaching into his pocket and pulling out a party popper and then promptly popped it right then and there, “woo, welcome to trc.” 

Paranoia rising with every move of the stranger, Youngjae was already imagining the worst case scenario and the whole reaching down into his pocket didn’t help much either. Either way Youngjae was certain that he was going to die right there and then. Closing his eyes to accept his fate, it didn’t last long before he heard a loud ‘bang’ and collapsed in shock with the sound.

What hit his body was however not a bullet piercing him, but something soft and tickling falling down upon him. Slowly, hesitantly Youngjae opened his eyes and saw the boy’s figure, party popper in hand as he shot out is happy greeting. The artist could feel his heart beat out of his chest, so rapidly it sounded within him.

@rkjordan

He supposed there were always little traditions he would come to know about as time passed. After everyone walking around wearing masks during his first time in Sphere, Youngjae would have thought that no new trainee introduction ceremony could be worse. And maybe TRC didn’t have anything resembling what Sphere did in its customs. After all, he hadn’t seen anyone else who appeared out of place from the general populace -- it was just this boy.

For the longest time Youngjae had tried to ignore him. Figured that if he didn’t get any reaction then he would eventually give up and find some other person to bother. But it seemed that this guy had more persistence than Youngjae had patience, plus the way he was getting closer and closer every time Youngjae dared look back reminded him of something straight out of a horror movie. He wasn’t really one who believed in ghosts, but if they did exist he wouldn’t question it either. so honestly he was a bit unnerved once his silent stalker brought his mind to such a thought process.

@beomgyurk

This was laughable to say the least. That he had struggled so much to find a job within his actual profession, but that he had simply just decided to go for it and ended up able to call himself a trainee of nothing less than Triple Crown Entertainment. Honestly Youngjae couldn’t care less if it was Sphere or TRC or heck even some small no name company that no one knew about, simply the fact that he had made it through here and not as an artist was laughable. But oh well. It was a means of making money he supposed, even if he had to cut down on commissions again to keep up with this life that he had already lived once before.

There were many feelings running through Youngjae’s mind right now, most of them centring around how fucking annoying it would be to establish his worth all over again. He was just the newbie now and would remain so for gods knew how long. Knowing no one in an environment where everyone knew each other. But if there was one thing that he sought solace in, it was that he wasn’t alone in this.

Do you ever just feel everything you believe in coming apart

プルスウルトラ「ARS」🔒 @.arslonga333

Kamui.............................

プルスウルトラ「ARS」🔒 @.arslonga333

rkxren​:

tw violence

All things considered, the younger man’s reaction was a lot better than Ren could have actually hoped for. At the very least he’d expected to be insulted, if not outright attacked. He knew his brother hated him, their father had said as much to him as he was being thrown out of the house.

That said, it still threw him for a loop, with Takashi speaking to him in Korean and then simply walking off. It took Ren a moment or two to regain his bearings, and by the time he’d regained his senses, Takashi was almost out of sight. Gritting his teeth, Ren sped after his younger brother, unashamedly shoving others out of his path, heedless to their complaints.

「Hey! Hey, you! Wait!」Unsurprisingly, but frustratingly, the other simply ignored his calls in their mother tongue. Cursing under his breath, Ren increased his pace, almost running after the younger. If Takashi got into the maze of residential blocks before Ren caught up with him, he had no doubt that he’d lose sight of his brother for good this time. 

And he couldn’t let him go without finally explaining his side of the story their parents and the gang had poisoned Takashi’s mind with.

“Yah! Choi Youngjae, fucking wait for me!” To use his brother’s Korean name felt so strange. As far as Ren could remember, neither he nor his brother had been called anything but their Japanese names for their entire lives until now. (In fact, he probably wouldn’t have even known what their Korean names had he not started snooping around during his rebellion and found them on some papers their father had hidden away). It had the desired effect, however. At the sound of his Korean name, his brother stumbled to a halt in shock, which allowed Ren to sprint the last few meters separating them and grab his elbow.

(How long had it been since he’d last touched his brother in any way…?)

「You… You’re quicker than you look!, Listen, Takashi-kun– ARGH!」His comments were cut off as his brother suddenly snapped out of his shock and nailed him with deadly accuracy, sending Ren to his knees in pain.

God. Fucking. Dammit!

{ tw: violence }

Hearing the words call out to him amidst the commotion behind him Youngjae thought to himself that there was no fucking way that he’d actually wait and that this guy had to be an absolute lunatic to think he would. Clutching his sketchbook tighter all the artist could think about right now was to get away, escape, get out of this guy’s sights forever.

But then he actually had the audacity to call out the name Youngjae meant to use to distance himself from his past and everyone in it. The name that should grant him a safe zone. Not that him running around and yelling his Japanese name was any better. No matter what this bastard did it was just plain wrong. 

Still not deciding to grace him with an answer, Youngjae had to collect himself and continue his retreat, but that was when he felt a hand on his elbow, forcing him to turn around and face the one pursuing him. “Get your filthy hands off me,” he spoke, his mother tongue slipping out and voice cold like ice. Twisting his body he got the other’s hand off him and in an instant he had jumped back to get some space between them and landed a kick right in the other’s solar plexus.

However, he already knew that his escape was futile and in the next manner of seconds Youngjae had to devise a new plan. If he could get back home he could have the upper hand for sure if the worst case scenario came through and he had to defend himself, but it was simply too far to get there. And he had already drawn enough attention to himself by kicking someone in public. He needed a place with no witnesses.