#ugksb

[ a few summers ago . . . ]

there’s something familiar about one of the members of pretty and boys.

kim something. has to be a kim, bokyung thinks. normally bokyung doesn’t give a shit, knowing it’s best to mind your damn business, but this must be the third or fourth time he’s seen pretty and boys live and familiarity still nags at him.

he’s watching from afar, guitar case on his back and fingers numb, trying to place a name to a face and a face to a name and coming up with nothing. the drums kicks his chest and the bass thrums along his skin. the music’s good, and even if bokyung is wrong, it shouldn’t hurt to introduce himself.

when the set’s over, bokyung quietly follows the bassist outside.

“hey!” he calls out, quickening his pace. “do you play the violin?” 

when bokyung was a kid, he was forced to go to recitals because that’s what the other kids did. he hated it. sitting around hundreds of people you don’t know and they later watch you fuck up beauty and the beast on the piano? yeah, he prefers to remember the fun parts: running around with a boy around his age in a starchy suit, becoming friends for the night, the boy’s older sister calling after them.kim something.

“i mean,” bokyung scratches the back of his head, the heat rising on his cheeks more unbearable than the summer night, “you’re really talented, so i wouldn’t be surprised. you’re good!”

there were many times in his life when he felt like the unfortunate protagonist with really bad luck — relatable, somewhat pathetic and kind of laughable? there was his first heartbreak (yes, unrequited love, what’s new?) and that one time his cat scratched his brand new boots before he even got the chance to wear them out. ouch. there was also that time he got fired the night before his rent was due and well, let’s just say, that might’ve been his lowest of lows. point is, moments like these were starting to be a cliché in his story and you’d think he’d be used to them by now. (he’s not.)

on today’s episode of how much more pathetic can he get, woong finds himself in yet another shitty situation. thank god this one had nothing to do with embarrassing first loves and feline scratches. still, packing old mouldy dvds in a dusty storeroom that reeked of mothballs was not how he had envisioned spending his christmas eve. not only was it beyond pathetic to be working on a holiday (with no date, might he add), he was here packing boxes of old dvds nobody was going to rent in this day and age. granted, this was one of the reasons he signed up for the job, like, who even rents dvds nowadays, right? that just means he’d be getting paid to sit at the counter and do his own thing; write some lyrics, read some comics and maybe get on tinder? 

there was just one little thing he forgot to take into consideration, though. what happens to all those dvds no one was renting? well, he had to sort them out, arrange them according to genre and alphabetical order. it was an arduous process that was made no easier with his dust allergy, leaving him in fits of sneezes. lucky for him, he wasn’t alone in this ordeal. he had with him a fellow comrade, another lonely soul, also nose deep into mouldy boxes of untouched dvd cases. y’know what they say about strong bonds forming through shared sufferings? he gets it now.

“finally.” he breathes out, heaving a sigh of relief as he pushes in the last dvd case on the shelf of action movies. it took him one whole hour to sort through the action films alone, though it didn’t come close to three hours of sieving through the abundance of romance films. (to be fair, they did get distracted by some, uh, adult films, but hey, could you blame them? two young, robust boys cooped up in this cursed shop without any customers, not even a pretty face to distract them? putting on the film and fast-forwarding to certain scenes was a well-deserved break for the pair.)

and now, they’re left with the last box, ironically fitting for the occasion — a box of family-friendly christmas movies to watch over hot cocoa and cookies. how nice. can’t relate. “it’s like they’re mocking us.” he deadpans, staring motionlessly at the box before him. “look at all these happy people in ugly sweaters and christmas hats...” he grumbles, pointing at the first dvd on the stack. “sure, they look ridiculous as hell but they do look a lot happier than we do.” he jokes, letting out a pained laugh.