#renjunrk

        he takes a long breath, in and out, before approaching the park bench,  eyes shutting for a second and squeezing tight despite how dramatic the whole scene feels feels.  two months ago,  he had still thought of him as the one he craved to share his ups and down with  --  present day,  not much has changed.  not much,  except he can’t share that little tidbit of information with the very person it concerns. 

       it hurts.

       he tucks his hands into the pockets of his pants,  hidden from plain sight so he’s not tempted to play with his fingers and distract from the conversation and undo all the effort he’s made getting here today.  he doesn’t stop when he’s a few feet away,  instead continuing to go until he’s seated right next to the person on the bench,  eyes faced forward and catching on a group of children playing something,  loud and rambunctious. 

       “feels like it’s been ages already.”

       one child throws a ball,  and the other stumbles trying to catch it.  a different friend reaches forward to steady the kid,  giggle on her lips and yangyang’s heart clenches a little but not entirely because of the sight. 

       “how’s life treating you?”

       he turns his head to offer a polite smile at the same time,  one quickly tinted with a longing he doesn’t want to acknowledge.  they’re over with,  the pain will fade away eventually,  that’s what they tell him.  

       he turns his sight back to the playground and takes a breath.

        as per usual, and to absolutely no one’s surprise, kun is stressed.  funny thing is -- the trip is supposed to de-stress him.  a weekend getaway to the beach?  it’s the perfect time to sink into a lawn chair, sip fresh fruit juice, and ease his mind from everything that had happened in the last several months.  so why is he not doing that?  well.  to put it simply without any theatrics:  the bus broke down.

        yes.

        worse:  the bus broke down in a smaller town on the outskirts of seoul.

        even worse:  the temperature is at a record’s high, and staying inside the bus would only suffocate them.

        so like most people, they step out.  and like most people, they decide to explore the small little town until the next bus comes.  all is well until they walk into an antique shop and are met with scorn in a dialect that goes over his head.  

        “sorry, can you say that again?”  

        the woman behind the counter scoffs and says something else.

        he blanks, looks at renjun for help, before quickly turning back to the woman.  “we don’t understand.”

        she rolls her eyes, then points to the object in renjun’s hand.  “bad,”  she says.  “it seeks misfortune.  you touch it, you take it.”

group sms, Trolls(TM) 

➝ hey guys ➝ good news and bad news ➝ the good news is it’s april!  ➝ the bad news is i’m moving back to toronto :(

jaemin didn't go out as much as he used to. in the past, he couldn't bear the idea of staying at home with his father -- even if they were in two separate rooms all the time. there was a looming presence, feeling, in their home that made it almost impossible to spend time there. he knew back then that if he did stay longer than necessary, he'd have lost his mind and would have done things that he'll regret today. but being with donghyuck helped him become less anxious, more level-headed. more social opportunities opened up when he was leaving the house for fun rather than to run away from his inner demons.

these days, jaemin's the one asking his friends to hang out at cafes, maybe even a stroll in the park. the young man who once declined every single invitation to spend some time with those he was closed to was now the one initiating it. the event at the jung community & cultural center was announced at the perfect time. jaemin had been thinking about where he and renjun could go. he looked over the classes that were able and he figured that his friend, having been learning the language, would likely appreciate a more in dept class on calligraphy too.

he sends renjun a text to meet him there, leaving the house with a smile on his face, a habit that's stuck with him for a few months now. he goes over the classes available again, thinking of another one he could take with haech or hwi the following day. when he wasn't overthinking things, he was able to do so much more with people he cared about. donghyuck was right about moving out, it was a chance to start over. it was a chance to be a better friend to the others. he spots renjun approaching and he waves at him, jogging over to him before wrapping an arm around his shoulder, "you ready for this, birthday boy?"

( a rkcomcenter starter w. @renjunrk ).

     there’s a split moment where nayeon can feel her stomach drop slightly, the force with which their shoulders had collided surprising her enough to make her drop her lukewarm tea, the cup falling to the ground as she stumbles in the attempt to keep herself from falling right on her ass in the community centers cafeteria— the last thing she wants to do is embarrass herself even more than she’s sure she just did. but then, she catches sight of the liquid that’d spilled into the other person sleeve ( a younger looking boy ), and she feels even worse.

@renjunrk

The napkin was pulled from Yuta’s pocket, fingers flattening it out on the table that was between him and Renjun. His eyes curving with a childish delight as he looked at the list of ideas for what they could do while they hung out. There was a belief that if he could convince Renjun to do one of these, they would make some wonderful memories and be friends for life -- which was the excuse that Yuta had for why he had even made the list. It was more that he wanted to see how far he could push the younger out of his comfort zone. “See, this is it! We have... bungee jumping, skinny dipping in frozen water, uh...” Yuta pointed them out as he spoke them, glancing towards Renjun and then flashing a smile. The first few on his list made sense for the winter season, but slowly they became more ridiculous and far-fetched as they went along. 

One of the final ones being a scribble of making a deal with a crossroad’s demon for Renjun’s soul. Yuta might have been watching a horror movie recently.

            not to be dramatic, but this is how he goes:                                            not with a bang, but with lungs full of smoke.

            in all honestly, he’s not entirely sure what happened.  one moment, he’s stirring a small pot of spaghetti sauce  ( and scrolling through twitter at the same time, ‘cause he’s a multitasking king )  --- and the next moment, there’s smoke everywhere.  now, lee suwoong prides himself in knowing a lot of things, but he didn’t know that spaghetti sauce could burn . . until today.  in his defense, water doesn’t burn, and spaghetti sauce is similar to water.  except with tomatoes.  and a bit of ground beef.  and maybe some cheese.

            okay, so he fucked up.