#xtaem

Mini Excuse Highschool episode with Key

JS: SHINee is in their 16th year, I’m surprised

SJ: You’ve renewed your contract for the third time then?

SJ: (contract renewal) is not long ago then!

KEY: Yeah! yeah, even if we leave, we’ll leave together!

SJ: Woah! That’s incredible..

KEY: Together… always!!!

It’s been too long since he’s actually had a project to look forward to. While the past couple of months have been relatively interesting when it’s been coming to politics and international relations, there hasn’t been a lot happening with things that he enjoys writing about. Music, movies, plays… there haven’t been a lot of exciting happenings. His articles have started to become sort of monotonous.

He finds himself thinking about this again as he’s wandering around the city off-assignment, looking for… something. Something to write about, someone to walk home.

The sky is gray, threatening rain, and in the distance he hears the beginnings of thunder. It’s dreary. He’s thinking about heading inside when he notices a man standing just in front of the glass doors up ahead. Normally, he wouldn’t think twice about a stranger, but something about the guy’s face and the way he stands is familiar to him. He’s seen it all before. He’s seen a million pictures. And it clicks.

Lee Taemin, from SHINee. Or, at least formerly. As he recalls, the dancer split a couple of years back. The limelight has been sticking pretty far away, too. Nobody’s been able to figure out what happened to him.

This could be something interesting.

He veers to the right as he gets closer. Smile: on. Charm: turned up.

“Ah, excuse me! Hi! Would you have a moment to talk?” He starts fishing through the pockets of his messenger bag for a business card, and leans in a little closer, so that he’s not talking loudly enough for passers-by to hear him. “You’re Lee Taemin, right? From SHINee?”

His fingers brush against a sharp cardstock corner and he pulls it out.

“I don’t want to seem too forward, but my name’s Jinki and I write a lot for some popular magazines and newspapers, and I was wondering if you’d want to do an interview with me? I think it would be interesting to get to know what you’re doing now that you’re no longer with SM.”

He takes a breath, offers the card.

[ sms ] so that’s where that went. i thought i lost it on the bus or something [ sms ] you can keep it if you want– [ sms ] or you can give it back. it’ll probably smell like pizza. god i love aromatherapy

( sms ) uh

( sms ) do i smell like pizza all the time?

It’s been too long, too long since he’s hung out in the light of day. For weeks, he’s spent his sunshine in the form of a bird or a dog, wandering through the mountains. He’s been keeping to himself, which, honestly, is a disservice to society. He needs to be there.

So today he finds himself wandering the streets of the center of the city, looking for something to do. Someone to entertain him for a little while. He’s looking for a temporary fix - he’s not sure how serious.

He was able to scrounge up a checkered casual button down, nice shoes, and some black slacks that are a little too short from a house on the outskirts. Picked up some white socks and a wifebeater from a laundromat closer to his current location. A safety pin from the ground is keeping his lobe piercing open. Now, he doesn’t stand out so much.

Gangnam is much more inviting to him than anywhere else he’s been so far. He wonders if he should hit up Itaewon. People tell him that a lot of foreigners flock there after they ask if he’s Korean native. He has to keep from laughing. It’s rare that he manages such kindness. They don’t know that, though.

It’s around two when he decides to take a break. He’d picked up a half-empty packet of cigarettes next to a dumpster a while back and he finds them now, pulls one out. And he drops onto his ass on the stoop of a building with a big glass front, then takes out a match and lights up. Idly, he plays with the turquoise bracelet he took from his mother and wishes he had a little peyote.

The door behind him opens and a small group of people flows out, like blood from a paper cut. He’s about to leave it at just a glance when someone he actually knows emerges from the back of the throng. Well, he doesn’t know the guy - he knows of him. Because of his mom. That one raises an eyebrow.

A pop star - the locals call them idols. But right around the time he ended up in this country, he quit.

Dojin finds this… interesting. He hums low and considers the possibilities, eyes locked on the blonde. Should he go for it? Is it too shallow a reason? His vindictive nature is inclined to disagree.

@xtaem​ / reaction starters / accepting!

easy as cake. he’s never been fond of the saying. cakes never turn out as planned–pale, lop-sided, soggy at the bottom. if they’re not under-baked and raw in the center, they’re always burnt to a crisp, dry as a cocktail of sand and sawdust on the rocks. each ingredient carries their own litany of variables to juggle, tangling with one another both in and out of the oven to form a labyrinth that spans the entire nation. cakes are a mess. pies are easy, with a formula as reliable as it is familiar: make the crust and add filling. garnish with a lattice on top, though this step is optional. there’s something almost therapeutic about pressing chilled dough into a tin, nothing like the stress that comes with baking a single, sticky mass of batter.

which is why kyungsoo was reluctant to dive into this project of sorts, but here they are.

five minutes was all it took for smoke to flood the kitchen. the oven door was the only dam keeping the chaos contained, but the repercussions of temporary suffocation had sounded more pleasant than those of a homemade batter bomb. running on a spike of panic, he’d reached into the oven to remove the tin, only to drop the bubbling mess after realising he had forgone oven mitts. somewhere between tripping over a balloon whisk and taemin returning from the corner mart, kyungsoo lost track of everything.

only by the time the smoke has thinned to a fog does any semblance of executive functioning choose to return. they’re both sat on the kitchen floor, backs against the cupboards and a bag of frozen peas on kyungsoo’s hand. there’s flour everywhere–in the utensils drawer, along the windowsills, and even behind their ears. he doesn’t want to think about the milk creeping across the floor or the egg yolks on the ceiling. eventually he’ll have to, but… not right now.

useless headcanons ★ accepting !

📂 Theo has a graphic novel (he regularly posts 1 to 2 full-color pages on his blog once weekly) and all the main characters are female! The story is very in depth and all his girls have full biographies and personalities. But the blog is entirely anonymous and he shies away from speaking about his artwork, so this is something you’d most likely never hear him speak about.

📂 Theodore has a habit of picking out imperfect things when given the option. For example-- if he’s at the grocery store buying produce, he might choose the funny shaped bell pepper over the pristine shaped bell pepper. And the dented can of spaghettio’s tastes just as good as the normal ones. He loves Butters even more for this reason-- finding the fact that the feline has no tail very endearing, that it adds to his charm.

📂 After some important research over the last few weeks, he’s figured out that his melting point is 100% when people thread their fingers through his hair. He’s a sucker for it. Granted-- if he isn’t comfortable with you and you try and put your hands in that mop of hair, he’s gonna be scared, but if you’re close enough to him the light is green and he’ll be appreciative of the affection.

📂 ‘Continue Watching For Theodore’ list on Netflix: Big Mouth, Forensic Files,  She’s Gotta Have It, The Office, Murderous Affairs, Cold Case Files, The Truth Behind: UFOs.

Jongin arrived at the apartment with an armful of groceries and a nervous smile. This was the first date they would be going on since meeting each other years ago and he let himself be sad that they skipped this part of their relationship before snapping out of it and taking a bracing breath. Everything would be fine. They loved each other so this would go smoothly. He was going to cook for Taem and ask him questions and keep the conversation flowing and the pants were staying on.