stage⤺down

hayun grasps up a small tote bag and slings it around her arm, as she tucked in a water bottle and a couple small snacks for her outing. it was then she sees agatha nearby wandering that she decides to go greet the other classmate. the two rarely talk but it would be a nice change of pace for her since she liked getting to know people better.

although, being caught not paying attention to her surroundings and with ears burning red, agatha shakes her head. "no, please. it's my fault for not paying attention."

when she fully turns to see who it was, agatha's smile brightens a little. "hayun, right?" her eyes narrow a bit as if to cast doubt if she really knew the latter but agatha recognizes faces and names well enough. "i just thought taking a walk was well overdue, i've been sitting and painting for the past hour." she stretches a little, thinking that that may prove her point. but she really did need to stretch out her legs and take a walk.

what started out as a fairly neutral day, or as neutral as it could be when she’s being forced (read: willingly signed up for) to spend the day camping, soon turned into what she might consider one of the best days of her life, it would certainly make the list, if she was keeping one. though, as usual, that had turned out to be too good to be true. 

yerim sighs as she stares blankly into the dying flames of the bonfire. she doesn’t know why she stuck around, really — the sight of the flames alone did nothing but remind her of exactly what, or rather who, had ruined her seemingly perfect day, and she can’t say she’s particularly fond of being around this many drunk people, either. still… retreating back to her room, all by herself, felt difficult — perhaps more than it should. 

the appearance of a familiar presence beside her snaps yerim out of what was beginning to look like a thought spiral, and she can’t help the relieved, somewhat tired smile that graces her features. 

“mmm,” she hums, gently leaning her head against agatha’s shoulder. it’s more affectionate than she usually is, even with someone as close to her as agatha, but she craves the closeness tonight. “i am,” she agrees, slightly frowning. she hadn’t realized just how tired she felt until it was brought up, too caught up in her own thoughts to pay attention to anything her body tried to tell her. 

she doesn’t lift her head, though she smiles at agatha’s offer. “we’re not in the same room, though,” she mumbles as a reminder (internally, yerim makes a reminder to have words with whoever was in charge of the room assignments, and had decided to keep her away from three of her closest friends). “but yeah.” a nod. “please.” part of her was praying there might, somehow, be an empty bed, allowing her to switch rooms. 

"who says you can't sleep anywhere else? i'm sure we'll find a space for you in our room," she says softly. the dorm assignments were a mess now anyways, no matter how much order the instructors tried to get the students to stick to. and agatha contributed to it too, anyways, whispering to the students that they can just switch so long as there's the same number of students in a room. rules have already been broken and it isn't like she or yerim will get into much trouble with it anyways.

"then let's go?" she says, standing after the other, pulling yerim's hand to hook their arms together. she doesn't want to part with the warmth of the fire but even though the beds in the rooms weren't ideal, at least they can cover themselves with lots of blankets then. that's what she did after jumping in the lake last night. but no one needs to know that.

agatha weaves the both of them through the path, passing students both sober and not until they finally reached the dorms. it's quite late into the night anyway and whoever is not in the dorm at this time probably means that they don't plan on sleeping here and if anything, agatha plans to give yerim her top bunk anyways. her body definitely is tired but her mind are whirring from today's events alone. though agatha tries to quickly erase the thoughts from her head.

she explains a little more in detail, pulling up a youtube video tutorial on how to make a leaf. it seems easy enough, and she turns to show the video to agatha with a smile on her lips.

"okay, lets start with this," she says, happy to have someone to share crocheting with, especially since it seems that the other girl is actually into it and is picking it up relatively quickly too.

they sit mostly in silence, pausing and replaying the video every once and a while, and she helps whenever it seems that the other might be struggling a bit. she doesn't want to overextend or help too much though, knowing that sometimes she could be a little bit overbearing when it came to sharing her hobbies with people.

(that text post comes to mind, the 'i'm the opposite of a gatekeeper' one, because that's definitely how jiahn is. she would love to share common interests with anyone!)

so she nods as jiahn decides that the leaf would be something good for them to start with. she figured that having hobbies other than looking at her phone or doing paperwork would be good for her. she tries her best to keep up with the video as well as letting jiahn be a guiding hand for her.

"i'm wondering that if i become better at this, it'll actually be more relaxing?" she looks at her very sad half of a leaf in contrast to jiahn's straight lines. right now, it's only causing her cheeks to be dusted pink with embarrassment. she's only ever had sketching as an artistic hobby, her creative mind usually running on data and analytics that she sometimes forget to stop and take a breather.

Looks like three months have flown by already.

We know it sounds repetitive at this point, but when we first opened we never imagined the community would grow into what it is today. Thank you for your continued support, creativity, and dedication to making this space thrive. We’re so grateful to everyone who has been with us since the very beginning, and to all the new faces who have joined along the way.

For the three month anniversary, we’re introducing the Scrapbook Meme. Think of it as a keepsake for your muse: fragments, doodles, and little memories gathered from their time at Yeonhwa so far. By reblogging this post, you’re opening the door for others to send you emojis from the prompt list, and you can answer however you’d like: through writing, headcanons, edits, moodboards, whichever way you’d like. It’s open-ended and meant to be as creative as you want!

This meme will run from September 20th to October 4th, which will give you about 3 weeks to reblog. If you choose to participate, please ensure that you send a question to everyone who has reblogged the post as well, whether this be on your character’s account or on anon. Once again, thank you so much for the amazing three months and we hope you have fun with this meme!

the early bird catches the worm, so they often say. hwaryun is one of those early risers, dedicated to an early morning routine. wakes up, catches the sunrise and then goes on a jog before going on breakfast. these mornings has been a little more special with the mountains, and today he was called by the instructors. strange, even agatha was called over. he wonders if they were going to be dumped with last minute duties considering the two of them are part of the student government? surely, not?

the boy quickly greets the girl with a bright smile on face, before turning to listen the instructor’s… ramblings about stolen LEDs. ah, are they going to deal with missing items again? hwaryun silently prays that wouldn’t be the case, already remembering the headaches they had during yeonchella with the missing shoes.

agatha's eyes were ever so slighty glazed as she tries to fully wake herself up. from her sleep or a dream, she doesn't know now. all she knows is that her cheeks have been dusted with pink due to staying out in the early morning cold to watch the sunrise. but she trudges down the stairs with her stuff to be loaded on the buses anyways.

she's about to head towards the cafeteria for breakfast when she catches the instructors calling her over and hwaryun joining them right after. she crosses her arms over chest in an attempt to warm herself up, but also to brace herself for whatever it was the instructors may assign the both of them during the last day of the trip.

upon hearing that the instructors are looking for information on the stolen camp items from last night, agatha listens more closely.

"do you guys know about what happened last night? where the items went?" one instructor asks.

she was there last night. she knows exactly who took the LEDs and started handing them out to students. she knows who took what but what came after capture the flag, she can't really pin point if ever the items were brought back.

usually, agatha will have her signature smile, the same one she teaches her friends whenever they're put in a precarious situation. but agatha's face is blank, her dead set on something behind the instructor's heads.

"i have no information to provide regarding the missing items, i went back to the dorms with choi yerim and you can corroborate my word with hers. but as for who took it, i have no idea."

she finally turns to hwaryun, her eyes expectant. she doesn't know if he gets what she is trying to communicate, doesn't know if he notices the flat cadence of her voice.

he brings his beer back to his lips, in between rounds, he's lost count which beer it is, but the weather was still hot and he never said no to a cold brew while playing a silly little game. oh how wrong he was about how it would be a silly little game.

she is being overly confident. so confident that she can beat minhyun just because she knows tennis? a complete oversight on her part. it's pr best practices to never overpromise and underdeliver. but here she was, eyes flickering from the net to minhyun on the other side, her head tilting to the other students around them, to the group that was doing yoga, to the group that was heading into the short hike that leads to the lake.

the lake…

agatha’s eyes flit over to minhyun, sparkling with a new profound idea, her thoughts is in direct opposition to what the faculty has told her: no one is allowed at the lake after 9pm and skinny dipping is strictly prohibited.

"of course, of couse, i never said you didn't make time for your friends. afterall, here you are with me." eunwoo turns around, smile wide on her lips as she looks at agathe "star gazing was fine, learned some cool facts. you can see so many stars here, the lack of light pollution really shows." she explains, turning around yet again only to be greeted by another paddle board not so far away from them and aggie's voice rings behind her in such a way it makes eunwoo laugh.

"i'll keep it in consideration then," she says, glancing down at eunwoo. "it would honestly save so much time. and of course i'd be here, i did make a promise."

and speaking of promises, the reason why she didn't have much time to look at the stars yesterday was because she was looking down at the water instead. not that she could see anything anyways. the vibe of the lake is vastly different now from the way it was last night.

"sound like you had fun though, it's definitely harder to see the stars in the city," agatha looks up then, to the vast blue sky with a cloud here and there that would sometimes block the sun from scorching her back or her arms. it helps with the water that she's wearing her rash guard, but it's most definitely hot whenever the sun is on them.

it wasn't until eunwoo mentions the pile up in front of them that agatha looks back down, and right at that moment a paddle board rears them from behind, causing agatha to stumble forward, breaking the fragile equilibrium that she and eunwoo have been maintaining the past hour and a half.

"woah- watch out!" she manages to say as she wills her body to fall to the right as to not topple over eunwoo and the board slopes up behind them.

agatha goes down for the second time in this lake but she quickly resurfaces with the life vest she has on. she had the mind to close her eyes and her mouth though right as her face meets the water.

the thing about avoiding something is... it can't be forever. he doesn't want to, he can't. he can't avoid her, never. so he does a half measure.

park minjoon hates half measures.

eyes shift and meet, watches amusement hide behind her lips... he shouldn't look but he does. watches her lips, feels the chills up his forearms. he manages a little good natured eye roll with his tired, heavy-lidded eyes. "comforting, thank you."

he freezes up under her touch, ever so slightly, so subtle in the way his muscles tense at the sensation of her fingers in his hair. it's a manual thought process to uncoil his abs and unroll the straightness of his spine. "please," he sigh laughs it, looking away from her to poke at his food as he speaks (grumbles really, sleep heavy voice, barely a quarter as articulate as usual), "are you not used to how i look first thing in the mornings yet?"

she doesn't even have to see to know the thoughts that lapse through his eyes. but it is comforting to know she isn't the only one. her hand was still patting his hair down, but then her fingers find themselves moving through them, her nails grazing his scalp. her smile remains in place as he turns toward her, meeting his gaze then.

"i am used to it," she says, her hand trailing from his hair, to his neck, down to his shoulder, giving it a light friendly pat before retracting her hand and focusing on her food, muttering softly, “but it’s weird that your bed head isn’t because of me.” innocent really, she doesn’t even glance back at him as she takes her first bite, nodding to herself in praise of the food that she didn’t have much expectations on. his comment about her doesn’t fall on deaf ears either, a laugh bubbling out of her.

“today? maybe take a walk around, i’m meeting eunwoo by the lake later. i heard there’s paddle boards available,” her eyes sparkle at the thought, turning to look at him now. “yours? i’m sure you have lots to do, lots to see, lots of orders to boss people around with.” a smirk plays by her lips then, teasing.

nothing much has changed between them, really. the warmth in her chest is still there whenever she looks at him, the tingle in the tips of her fingers present whenever they touch. the way her heat beats a slow steady rhythm in his presence. and yet… her gaze flits to his lips, then up to his eyes, then back to his lips. agatha sighs as she folds the blanket covering her shoulders and places it on the empty seat beside her. she makes a move to stand, her fingers tapping the back of his hand. she leans down to his ear and whispers, “be right back.”

“look, i’ve got no problem with being by myself,” he dismisses her claim, choosing to ignore that it might’ve been him that incited this verbal scuffle in the first place. regardless, he’s ready to walk away while the scoreboard is in his favor.

who’s keeping score? nobody. why does he think he’s winning? nobody knows. but then out of nowhere, she hits him with that line — somewhat akin to a blindsided slide tackle — and now the game must go on.

clearly, she is baiting him; unfortunately, he thinks it’s still worth the bite. plus, he simply cannot be defamed like this and be expected hold his tongue. far from the most insulting or childish things he's been hit with (he hears worse on the daily in the locker room), but it's something about the fact that it's agatha trash talking that just irks him in inexplicable ways.

“okay. rude,” he begins, voice oddly calm but the way he stares back at her translates roughly to 'what the hell?'. “strange. uncalled for. unfounded. untrue, actually,” he ticks off with increasing speed as he live processes his thoughts out loud, uncovering more things to take offense to as he goes (mostly to the latter part of her statement).

“and what do you mean that’s ‘too bad’?” he narrows his eyes at her. “do you want me to make more friends? or have more se-- nevermind.” he sighs, abandoning that statement at the last minute. a heroic effort from his brain to somehow finally catch up to his mouth. briefly, that is.

by the time he gathers his wits, he’s somehow holding her beer — or was it his beer now? muscle memory from earlier must have kicked in, because he doesn’t remember asking for it or willingly taking it.

“also i don’t have to ‘exert' effort... have you looked at me? i’m mad cute.” it’s sickening how hard it is to tell if he’s joking or serious; voice deadpan, but his eyes subtly give it away as they dart around, hoping nobody else is in the vicinity to overhear (in fact, he does have a modicum of shame). thankfully they're alone; a dangerous green light for him to proceed.

sober agatha would've already taken a step back before she bites off more than she can chew. but agatha's definitely not sober still, and her processing is in third place if it ever participates in a race.

he isn't wrong to say the least. she has spent enough hours of her days staring at jinyoung's face in the last few months that she agrees he's 'mad cute' or whatever it is he used to describe himself. agatha takes a step towards him, her free hand settling on his arm, (mock) concern in her gaze. "i'm saying this from the bottom of my heart," she prefaces. "you do need to find more friends, i can't be the only one willing to hang out with you."

the implication that she's making is surely false. agatha knows he probably has other friends, people he hangs out with outside of herself. but it wasn't herself talking at this point. it's the mask, the game, the rush of hearing the defensiveness in jinyoung's voice that urges her. she doesn't blame the alcohol anymore, not when her inebriation makes her mind so muddled, the words falling out of her lips doesn't even sound like her own.