#roo writes

GOLDEN HOUR jinuxrumi; in the year following jinu, rumi learns how to heal - and to be all that she wanted to be, for real this time. (post-movie, canon compliant, jinu lives) AO3 | TUMBLR

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ONESHOTS

DRAMA huntrix gen; mira teases rumi. AO3 | TUMBLR

The hose nozzle sputters as the water comes down to it, spurts and then sprays over his shoes where he points it. There isn’t much left on him from the run here, most of it has dried up with all the dirt and dust he kicked up in the great migration of escapees he led about an hour ago. Damn, it just feels like minutes ago, his heart is still thrumming.

He doesn’t dare point the nozzle at his face, content with leaving only clear watery footprints on the floors from the back door. Besides, Martin was already asleep, he’d set him down in bed ages ago. Tommy craned his neck, he couldn’t hear the soft tones of Martin’s bedtime vinyls. Yeah, he was done for the count. The moonlight glinted on the metal handle as he reached for it, but he caught himself. His hands were positively coated in the stuff.

Tommy looked to the hose, then back to his hands. But he was already so farrrruh… it was a problem for future Tommy, this Tommy right here wants to get in the shower and stay there for a while. He deserves a shower of sweet victory after demolishing that hell site of a ‘juvie’, especially with those soaps he got in a couponing deal last week, lavender and cotton were two scents he was very much looking forward to at this moment.

His pace is leisurely as he enters the Leonia house, the runner on the stairs still a bit stiff under his boots, but the plush feel of the crimson carpet in the second floor corridor was tempting enough for him to peel them off. His tired feet thank him as they land on such sweet softness.

He had to savour it, nice things don’t stay nice around him, not for long, anyways.

Tommy passes his room, his room isn’t connected to a bathroom anyways but he walks past that too, just enough to peek through the small gap he always leaves in Martin’s door. He can see the old man still there, can hear him now without the music. Slow, steady, deep, nice breath sounds, just what he wanted to hear.

Now, his shower awaits.

The sleeves and gloves of his Speed suit are well and truly caked in dirt and blood, such much so that when he goes to pry it off he realises something. The mess he’ll make taking it off now will be worse then if he just gets in the shower in his gear. He laughs at a memory.

“I’m washing me and mah clothes,” is mimicked under his breath as he tugs off his goggles, pressing around at his pouches to remove them and any tech he had stored in them. A small note with a city and an address on it. Right, he has to visit them tomorrow, early, too.

Can’t just leave all the teen and adult mutants he just liberated to their own devices, they need a hand at least. He has some numbers he can call, but first, shower.

It doesn’t take long for the stream to heat up, he smiles at the cracking feeling washing away from his face and arms. The warmth and wetness is reminding him of what he’s just done, what he’s proud of doing. Guard after guard, scientist after scientist, doctor after doctor.

Puff. Puff. Puff. Puff. Puff. Puff. Puff. Puff.

Splat.

It should say something about him that he imagined all of them had the face of the main doctor at the facility he was held at. That fucking creep, that coward, running away from his fate, the fate Tommy swore he’d deal him, after another night of needles and restraints and shocks. No one can outrun him, not for long. Head resting against the pink tile of the retro bathroom, he watched as the dirt-blood blood-dirt circles down the drain. That blood was all that remained of them, it was the only memory they deserved, going down the same drain he pisses in every now and again, the drain he washes down all his aches and pains, it’s the perfect place for people like them.

The suit comes off well now that it’s clean, well, hosed down. Lathering up a bar of his choosing is like clock work. Chest, stomach, sides, pits. Shoulders, neck, arms, hands.

Lavender hit his nose. Hm, a bit too strong, but he didn’t care, he just wanted more of that clean feeling.

Back, thighs, calves, feet. His hand dumped the lavender and groped around for the bar he used for his face, it’s more milky touch frothing well as he rubbed at his face with a fury. His hair felt like shit.

He could feel himself swaying with tiredness but he needed to stay awake. He doesn’t risk staying to condition, the best his hair gets is a rough shampooing and rinse. It’ll be fine, it’s been through worse. His suit gets hung over the side of the shower and his boots are left on the bath mat. He looks into the shower for the first time since he got back.

The fic opens in Han's POV towards the end of a dance rehearsal. Tired, he sits down for a moment and wonders how the others continue to push when they are exhausted. Changbin comes over to check on him, as tomorrow is the evaluation they have been practising for and he is sure that Han is nervous.

In Han's POV still, we turn to the aftermath of the evaluation, in which the company heads watching them are unhappy with their performance. Upon dismissal from the room, Han, restless, tells the others he is going to the bathroom and retreats down the hall alone. He does not stop, but instead continues all the way to the street outside, trying to outrun his nerves.

His head hurts; he stops to rub at his eyes and breathe. When he opens them again, he is no longer on the street, but in a strange, abandoned warehouse-type of building. Among other things, there is a piece of a mirror on the floor - when he picks it up, he sees a reflection of himself crying, even though he is not.

His efforts to escape the building lead him to an elevator with five floor buttons that don't work and a single button labelled 'hell'. When he presses this button, the elevator starts to move up, shuddering through a black shaft. It stops in the centre of an open field of purple flowers - before Han can consider how strange this is, he hears a song playing far off in the distance and finds he can't think of anything but the need to find where it is coming from.

In Chan's POV, the other boys search for the missing Han. A hooded figure on the street who seems vaguely familiar informs them of the direction he had headed in - presently, the seven of them come upon the building Han had found himself in.

Minho insists that he can hear Han singing inside and leads them into the elevator. It delivers them to the same strange field, just in time for them to spot Han running away from them. Chan gives chase, dragging the other boy to a halt. Han comes back to himself long enough to point to a city reflected in the sky and the two moons visible there, and then they all lose consciousness, described as 'the ground falling out from beneath their feet'.

We're introduced to the situation Stray Kids find themselves in through several POVs. Chan wakes up in a garden of silver plants and a black sky when he sees a red flower growing within the hedge. An unseen machine speaks in his head, demaning that he tell it his name, and then cajolling him back to sleep when he refuses.

Jeongin wakes up on a bus driving through the dark to the machine asking what his name is; a question that, unlike Chan, he answers immediately. The machine claims to remember him from a time he has been here before. Jeongin insists that he has never been here before, and the bus stops at a bus stop, at which a second version of himself sits.

The second Jeongin claims his name is I.N and this is a dream, and that Jeongin needs to follow his instructions to find Chan and escape from the place they are in - District 9. Jeongin realises the memories the machine is playing back to him from the time he has allegedly been here in the past are I.N's.

Han wakes for a moment on a stage, surrounded by a crowd of people dressed in white who do not speak or sing, but just stare. The machine convinces him to keep singing until he has finished the song.

Chan wakes again, and finds Felix; the other boy stares into nothing and won't respond when Chan tries to reach him. He leaves Felix behind to find Jeongin, who is awake, and can explain what is going on - District 9, and the machine, and what Chan needs to do for them to escape.

Following a disturbance in the sky, Chan leads him to the bottom of the garden where there is a hole in the 'sky' - a glass dome covering the facility. They are caught there by two men controlled by the machine. Chan leaves Jeongin behind in order to destroy the machine and save all the boys, following that voice in his head to its source and breaking its will.

Picking up right where the previous chapter left off, we open with Minho standing in front of a blackboard, having just written the words I AM NOT on it. He hears Chan's voice in his head in place of the machine, asking him to go and find Han, who refuses to wake up. Minho does so, only for the two of them to realise Chan in turn is also in trouble.

They find him in the same room he had sat down in in the last scene, and force him to withdraw from the machine. Chan explains that he has woken all of the occupants of District 9 from their stupour, and Minho reasons that they should now go and find the rest of their group.

From Hyunjin's POV, he, Changbin and Felix are fighting through a crowd gathered in a large mess hall, as Changbin is sure he's seen Seungmin in the crowd. Felix slips out of Hyunjin's grip and so they split up; Hyunjin finds him cornered by a crazed man, who tells them several nonsensical things that he claims to have 'seen', including that 'I see the men that own this place coming in thirty seven minutes and fourteen seconds'.

They find their group at the edge of the crowd, just in time for Seungmin to appear claiming he has found a bus and a gate. The gate is locked and the glass dome covers it; Felix remembers that the man he'd been cornered by had said 'I see you breaking the glass and opening the gate'.

Chan tells them to get into the bus, and crashes it through the gate. Hyunjin hits his head in the crash. They come out the other side into a misty, dead forest in the mid-afternoon, and watch as the denizens of District 9 run past the bus, down the road to freedom.

We cut to a new location of 'deserted white halls flooded in blue light’, where a phone is ringing. A man named Shanyu answers, receiving the message that District 9 has been 'unlocked’ and its patients have fled into the city beyond. The boy on the other end of the line insists that his forces are not enough to catch them all and that he needs the assistance of something called the Isekai. He also informs us that a door to Miroh is open and reachable in the city.

Shanyu assures him that he will deal with it, and hangs up the phone. He hesitates before he makes a second call, and then decides against it for now, opting to wait.

Outside of District 9, Seungmin stands outside the bus and surveys their surroundings, contemplating what they should do next. He sees a city in the distance and a building just down the hill before Changbin and then Chan calls him back inside. Before he returns, he mentions to Changbin that he is worried about Chan, and Changbin agrees.

They agree as a group to continue down to the building nearby rather than towards the city, as Hyunjin is injured and they are tired and hungry. The youngest members lead the way, finding an abandoned warehouse-like building waiting for them. The centre of it is a large, circular room, where they find food and clothing, and a bank of computers which control the warehouse.

Chan looks after Hyunjin as best he can, and then turns to the desks and computers scattered around the room. He finds he can’t read anything there, but picks up a strange key that feels warm to the touch. He wakes the main computer in the room and finds a map on it, with seven doors marked on it numbered one through eight. There is no number four, and all except one are marked as ‘closed’.

Han convinces him to leave it alone for now, reasoning that they can’t go anywhere except the city anyway. He wants to show Chan something that he has found instead; a music production program on another computer, filled with half-finished tracks. Han also says he has a song he wants to write, and so they sit down together to create it.

Still in the building they found in the previous chapter, Seungmin is woken in the middle of the night by a small disturbance in the building. He comes face to face with a girl in the darkness who is dressed in the same clothes as the other patients from District 9 and seems very scared.

She introduces herself as Hana, and Seungmin offers her food, encouraging her to stay when she offers to leave rather than face all eight of them. While she eats, they talk; she points to Chan and asks if he ‘invited all of you here too’, and explains that she expected to meet some people in this building who knew the way to Miroh where 'they wouldn’t be able to catch us again’.

Seungmin admits freely that they have no idea where they are or where they are going. Hana informs him that this is Injeon, and also gives him more information on the purpose of District 9, the Six, and the Cle.

Han wakes up in time for them to hear the sound of engines running on the hills outside and the echoes of voices shouting. Hana tells them it is a group of people called the Isekai, coming to take them back to District 9. They wake the other boys and start moving, first towards the door they entered the building through and then towards a second exit when they hear the sounds of people entering through that door.

The Isekai chase them out into a rocky valley. Chan wants to keep moving down the valley, hiding behind the rocks - Hana insists they will get caught that way and that they should steal the car parked on the ridge. She asks him why he wants to go down the valley when they have 'been that way before, and been caught’.

Chan doesn’t have time to ask what she means; the Isekai chase them as they climb the hill, nearly catching Felix. All nine of them make it to the truck parked there, and they take off down the road towards the city.

Stray Kids drive through the rain to the city. Chan falls asleep for a while - when he wakes, Hana is waiting to speak to him. She asks not to be left behind when they reach the city, apologising for being angry at him in the valley, and Chan assures her that he won’t do that. He asks how she knew not to go down the valley, and she is surprised that he ‘doesn’t remember’ the same thing. Chan is sure that they have never met before but Hana insists, saying she has also met Felix and Changbin in other instances. Chan starts to doubt if his memories are real or if there is something he has forgotten.

Hana also tells him that there used to be a girl called Jinae, who was also a glitch like him, someone who couldn’t be controlled by the machine. She explains that Jinae was taken away to another place for being a glitch - when she asks if Chan knows how they escaped, he lies.

In the driver’s seat, Changbin and Jeongin are the first to see the city, and immediately notice that it is a ruin, the buildings blown out and collapsing like something out of an apocalypse film. As they drive into the city, a futuristic-looking jet appears above them, chasing them; Hana directs them down a highway towards a tunnel. The jet fires at them, narrowly missing them, and they slide into the tunnel, which is pitch black and seems to go on endlessly.

Changbin stops the car at the bottom, in a tunnel that goes on straight towards the heart of the city that is partially flooded. The headlights on the car aren’t working - he manages to turnt hem on long enough to see the tunnel and a man standing in the water ahead of them.

The man turns on a flashlight, and then many more turn on around them, illuminating the tunnel. Changbin asks them what they want, and the man replies that they are looking for the door to Miroh, that they 'know you know where it is’ and 'I know you know how to get there’. Changbin asks what will happen if they don’t know the way, and the man shows them a knife, imitating the slashing of a neck.

Captured by the 'twisted men' who accosted them in the tunnel, Stray Kids are walking through the tunnel towards an unknown destination. Hana tells them that they can get to anywhere in the city from the tunnels, and that the men want to go to Miroh. She also informs them that the Cle is made up of eight worlds, except that one - Meori - is unreachable now.

Coming out of the tunnels, Changbin is threatened by a young boy with a knife who he notices seems more scared than threatening. They emerge into the centre of the city, and notice immediately that unlike the outer buildings, this part is in pristine condition, as if the people had just walked away a moment ago.

Changbin starts to talk to the boy with the knife as they walk, ascertaining that his name is Seonhwa and he is indeed more innocent than threatening - and a bit weird, just like Hana was when they first met her. Seonhwa tells him that he was sent to District 9 for painting something, and stresses that District 9 is not a prison but a hospital. He also has the presence of mind to state that 'I don't want to be the Same yet. I like being Different.'

They reach an apartment building and are split into two elevators. Changbin considers fighting the men when he is placed with Minho and Chan, but decides to wait when Chan doesn't move to do anything to defend them.

There are mirrors in the elevator, and Changbin's reflection catches his eye, only as he looks the POV switches suddenly to Jeongin, who sees not the reflection of the elevator, but a room with a wide window outside of which many lights can be seen. There is a scar on his cheek in the reflection and it doesn't move with him - instead, it mouths the words 'door six' and 'Miroh'. Someone bumps him, breaking his line of sight, and when he looks back, the vision is gone.

In the apartment at the very top of the building, Changbin tries to convince the man that locks them in that they are too high to escape if someone comes to search the building for runaways. The men won't listen - Changbin considers fighting again, but still stays his hand.

Chan and Changbin sit down together. Changbin is surprised that Chan admits he's scared, and that he thinks he might know where the door they are looking for is located. Changbin suggests that they could fight, but Chan declines. Han brings them a map and they are able to identify where they'd seen the marker that indicated an open door on the map they'd found in the warehouse.

Changbin goes to take a shower. When he looks in the mirror, the POV changes again to Jeongin in another bathroom. This time, he sees Chan in place of his reflection, the boy staring into the distance without noticing Jeongin.

He exits the bathroom, meaning to join the others in the main room while they discuss where to go and what to do, but Hyunjin stops him, convincing him to lie down with him instead.

While discussing their next move, the group are interrupted by one of the twisted men, coming to collect Chan. They bring him to another apartment, where he is greeted by their leader, Jaehyun, in a way that indicates they already know each other. Jaehyun claims to have met him before, and to have been waiting in the city for a girl named Jinae - the second time she has been mentioned, the first being by Hana.

Jaehyun explains that he is the leader of the dokkaebi, a rebel resistance, and then brings Chan to the roof to show him the ghosts that haunt the city. Neither he nor Hana will explain what happened in Injeon or why there are ghosts, despite being asked.

SUMMARY

While discussing their next move, the group are interrupted by one of the twisted men, coming to collect Chan. They bring him to another apartment, where he is greeted by their leader, Jaehyun, in a way that indicates they already know each other. Jaehyun claims to have met him before, and to have been waiting in the city for a girl named Jinae - the second time she has been mentioned, the first being by Hana.

Jaehyun explains that he is the leader of the dokkaebi, a rebel resistance, and then brings Chan to the roof to show him the ghosts that haunt the city. Neither he nor Hana will explain what happened in Injeon or why there are ghosts, despite being asked.

Chan returns to find Minho sitting up waiting for him, and they talk for a time about whether or not to trust Jaehyun, and if Chan really could have known him in another time. In the end, Chan convinces Minho to go along with the dokkaebi, and in the morning, together, they make a deal with Jaehyun.

ANNOTATIONS

There's a lot of backstory finally revealed in this chapter; hints about Injeon's fate and the introduction of the dokkaebi, as well as another new character, Jaehyun, who quickly turns from an enemy to a potential ally.

Both Hana and Jaehyun explain a little of Injeon's history - a purpose-built city to supply water to Miroh when the rain stopped there, and that an industrial revolution caused economic problems prior to some kind of monster attacking the city. Later, we find out the sound monster was the one that attacked, leveling the outer reaches of the city and turning all its inhabitants into the ghosts.

Jaehyun is the leader of a failed revolution, hiding in this city and waiting for something

Jinae was sent into District 9 to retrieve something for Jaehyun, later revealed to be Seonhwa. Her whereabouts is now unknown.

We see the ghosts that haunt Injeon for the first time - foggy apparitions that seems to wander aimlessly and will chase lights and heat signatures.

The middle scene with Minho adds character work and a baseline for how each character is currently feeling

Chan and Minho discuss Chan's fears that what he remembers is not real, or that he has forgotten a whole other life. This is an ongoing theme for Chan up until Yellow Wood - the struggle with his identity and being able to trust his own mind when multiple people claim to have known him in a time he doesn't remember.

Summary

Captured by the 'twisted men' who accosted them in the tunnel, Stray Kids are walking through the tunnel towards an unknown destination. Hana tells them that they can get to anywhere in the city from the tunnels, and that the men want to go to Miroh. She also informs them that the Cle is made up of eight worlds, except that one - Meori - is unreachable now.

Coming out of the tunnels, Changbin is threatened by a young boy with a knife who he notices seems more scared than threatening. They emerge into the centre of the city, and notice immediately that unlike the outer buildings, this part is in pristine condition, as if the people had just walked away a moment ago.

Changbin starts to talk to the boy with the knife as they walk, ascertaining that his name is Seonhwa and he is indeed more innocent than threatening - and a bit weird, just like Hana was when they first met her. Seonhwa tells him that he was sent to District 9 for painting something, and stresses that District 9 is not a prison but a hospital. He also has the presence of mind to state that 'I don't want to be the Same yet. I like being Different.'

They reach an apartment building and are split into two elevators. Changbin considers fighting the men when he is placed with Minho and Chan, but decides to wait when Chan doesn't move to do anything to defend them.

There are mirrors in the elevator, and Changbin's reflection catches his eye, only as he looks the POV switches suddenly to Jeongin, who sees not the reflection of the elevator, but a room with a wide window outside of which many lights can be seen. There is a scar on his cheek in the reflection and it doesn't move with him - instead, it mouths the words 'door six' and 'Miroh'. Someone bumps him, breaking his line of sight, and when he looks back, the vision is gone.

In the apartment at the very top of the building, Changbin tries to convince the man that locks them in that they are too high to escape if someone comes to search the building for runaways. The men won't listen - Changbin considers fighting again, but still stays his hand.

Chan and Changbin sit down together. Changbin is surprised that Chan admits he's scared, and that he thinks he might know where the door they are looking for is located. Changbin suggests that they could fight, but Chan declines. Han brings them a map and they are able to identify where they'd seen the marker that indicated an open door on the map they'd found in the warehouse.

Changbin goes to take a shower. When he looks in the mirror, the POV changes again to Jeongin in another bathroom. This time, he sees Chan in place of his reflection, the boy staring into the distance without noticing Jeongin.

He exits the bathroom, meaning to join the others in the main room while they discuss where to go and what to do, but Hyunjin stops him, convincing him to lie down with him instead.

Characters

Changbin takes the lead again here, though this time it isn't so deliberate; he shows his strength instead by offering comfort to younger members and the charisma that drives him to speak to Seonhwa, the speed at which he breaks down the other boy's walls. He's also very logical, considering carefully the layout of the city as he sees it and how spending the night so high in a building with so few exits could compromise them if the Isekai catch up to them.

We meet Seonhwa this chapter - straight away, he comes off as young and innocent, ignorant perhaps of what the men he is with want and what they might do to get it. He's also naturally very curious, asking many questions once Changbin convinces him that nothing is going to happen if he does so. I think straight away he comes off as a loveable type of character, but also one with that side of intrigue attached like Hana, as he is revealed to have gone to District 9 because of a painting.

Seonhwa is the second representation of Stay found in Nevermore, joining SKZ shortly after their escape from District 9 and remaining with them through to the conclusion of the Miroh arc. Seonhwa was created out of a need to offer SKZ a connection to the twisted men, via Changbin's conversation with Seonhwa, and later the gimmick that takes them to the street in Miroh rather than the Citadel, where the Six live. Seonhwa is also another representation of sorikkun, a concept the fic won't explore for a long while yet.

Plot

I spent a lot of time thinking over the logistics of the city of Injeon in this chapter, which we see through Changbin's eyes as the world opens up to them:

In the previous chapter, Changbin noted that there are no suburbs or farmland around the city, just a stark line of buildings cutting through the wasteland.

The city is destroyed on the outside but perfectly preserved within its borders. This seems strange to Changbin, but will make sense later on when the story of Injeon becomes clearer.

Changbin notes it takes several hours to walk across the city. I included this specifically because I thought that people often forget in apocalypse and dystopia-type stories just how big a city actually is, especially one surrounded by dense suburbs, and how long it takes to cross one on foot 😂

The tunnels are long and extensive and partially flooded, but not completely filled with water despite the obvious amount and prevelance of rainfall, meaning that someone is at least partially draining them, or the water is going somewhere. This is related to later chapters in which it is stressed that there is no water in Miroh - all the water in Miroh is brought in from Injeon, even though Injeon is abandoned.

Sikmul-ro is the street they emerge onto, a street named for botany. This is because this area of the city is designated to greenhouses and food production, as seen by the description of the street they walk down.

All of these details are meant to build upon the idea that Injeon is a city purpose-built by the Six here to bring water to Miroh, rather than a civilisation that has naturally sprung up over time due to necessity and the gathering of people in a common place. The city is grid-like and orderly, the roads are built to maximise efficiency in crossing the city, and specific parts of the city are devoted to specific uses. There are no suburbs and scattered streets of houses because the exact number of houses have been built according to the size of the population sent to live there.

There are also a few points relevant to the plot included in this chapter, though again, this is a very character-driven chapter rather than being a source for plot points:

Hana tells us that the field of purple flowers seen in the first chapter is another world in the Cle - Beiseu.

As mentioned before, the water in the tunnels and the amount of rainfall is mentioned, setting up later the water being the reason that there is a door to Miroh open in the city.

Changbin recalls the evaluation from the first chapter, and then realises suddenly that he'd forgotten all about it and that they'd been so scared they would be split up. He still doesn't have time to ask Chan about it though, saving that plot point for later.

Seonhwa mentions a painting being the reason he was sent to District 9, a story that will be explored in more detail later.

Jeongin begins to see visions of himself and other SKZ members in reflections. This is the first manifestation of his powers that we see, like Han with the music earlier.

In the vision Jeongin sees of himself, he has a scar under his eye. The scar is an important indication of which version of Jeongin we are looking at - this one, with the scar on the face, is the Other Jeongin, who we also saw at the bus stop.