#Begin had a Korean one (rare as shit but it exists) though that was published a bit before Strive came out

[solradguy]

Some day ASW is going to release a piece of Guilty Gear media that REALLY goes into depth on Gears/Gear cells and I'm gonna translate it in record time. I NEED to know, Daisuke, the secrets of your interdimensional beasts

[launenji]

Center of Your Universe - A KNJ Fanfic | Prologue

Pairing: idol!Kim Namjoon x idol!Reader Status: Ongoing Word Count: 3031 Genre: Rivals2Lovers. Fluff. Eventual implied smut and angst. Slow burn. idol!AU Summary: It’s 2019 and Kim Namjoon is conquering the globe with his Bangtan brothers by his side. However, BTS can’t seem to shake their top girl group rival from chasing their names across music charts and award nominations worldwide. Now, the boys have no problem with that in any way; in fact they’ve come to respect the girls of HELIOS and their never ending climb to fame that seemed to match their own success. The only real “problem” Namjoon sees is that HELIOS’ confident, fearless, and overall badass of a leader seems to absolutely hate him. And as much as he doesn’t want to admit it, it does keep him awake at night. A/N: Hello! After a year of diving into BTS and reading fanfics about the boys, I wanted to write my own with the beloved Rivals2Lovers trope, because who doesn’t love that good shit? So this is my first official fanfiction, this will be ongoing although I’m not sure how many parts I’ll be producing, but I have the entire story line written out! I also am fairly new to how kpop fanfics are generally published on tumblr, but I’ll do my best. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I have creating it! Prologue | Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3

Prologue: Definitely a (fan)Boy with Luv

March 2019 There was an unspoken rule that came about RM of BTS’ personal life, and that was to live as Kim Namjoon as soon as he steps foot in his hometown of Ilsan. RM existed while he was at work in Seoul; busy with performance schedules, writing lyrics, producing beats, recording content, and basically leading the biggest boy band of the generation to great heights of fame and success. That’s who Kim Namjoon is on a near daily basis. So when Namjoon can find the time to take a few days off and head back to his childhood home for some much needed rest, he’s only Namjoon; a regular twenty five year old guy who loves long walks among nature and grabbing drinks with old friends. And right now he was Namjoon; a regular twenty five year old guy at his parent’s home, dressed in a tank top and sweats, head bopping to his latest musical discovery on Spotify as he pours an entire bag of chips in a bowl for a mid afternoon snack in preparation for some much needed catching up on his netflix shows. Pausing the song on his phone and housing his earbuds in their case, he shimmies over to the couch with his bowl of chips in a small celebratory dance for these rare days where he can go home and actually relax. No pressing schedules to attend, no pulling out his hair to create the right lyrics for their next song, no band/roommates screaming and chasing each other around their shared Hannam apartment after yet another failed prank attempt; just him alone in the house ready to kick back and finally relax.

Armed with his snacks, drink, and the tv remote, he makes himself comfortable on the couch and finally finds that one show he’s been dying to catch up on. However, just as he’s about to press play, the front door swings open with a loud bang. “PUT. THE REMOTE. DOWN.” 

A shrill voice echoes through the family apartment as the newcomer rushes in, hastily chucking her bag and keys on the counter before skidding to a stop between Namjoon and his only source of rest and relaxation for the night. Kim Kyungmin, loving younger sister to BTS’ beloved leader, stands before him with arms folded and with an unyielding glare. “Just because you’re home for the weekend doesn’t mean you can hog the tv the whole time you’re here, hand it over.” She extends out her palm, fingers flexing for the remote. Namjoon groans. “Minnie, I was LITERALLY about to watch my show, can’t you just record what you want to watch and watch it later? Y’know, when I’m usually not here?” Namjoon scoots to the other end of the couch in an attempt to continue on with his planned afternoon of relaxation. However Kyungmin manages to lunge for the remote and swipe it away at the last second, holding it above her head much to her older brother’s annoyance. “Not when you’re watching something you can literally watch anywhere else.” She shifts her pointed glare at his phone then at him before plopping down in his original spot on the couch, quickly switching through the channels to find the show she’s desperately looking for. “That doesn’t solve my solution to you recording your show and watching it later.” Namjoon points out, shoving a chip in his mouth as he watches his sister reach her designated channel. It’s a Knowing Bros episode that seemed to have just started. “If I do that then I can’t react to the episode in real time with Miyoung.” Kyungmin states matter of factly, thumbs flying across her phone as she texts her friend in question. Feeling defeated, Namjoon gives up his quest for his solo Netflix and Chill night he originally planned and settles to watch along with his sister. At least it was a show he actually did enjoy, especially when he was able to be on it with his members at one point. He reminisces his time on the show as he watches as the cast banter over some new found popular trend, the guests of the episode haven’t seemed to arrive just yet. “So who’s on the show this time?” In an immediate response to Namjoon’s question, the classroom door on tv whips open revealing four of the most recognizable women in Kpop; Lee Yuna, Chung Sumi, Han Hyojin, and their leader, Y/N L/N “It’s HELIOS!” Kyungmin lets out a high pitched squeal that Namjoon cringes away from. HELIOS. Arguably the most famous idol girl group to come out of Kpop history to date and BTS’ current standing rivals in the game. Namjoon internally scoffs; okay, so maybe the term “rival” seemed a little too harsh for their relationship to the girls. Let it be clear that there was no beef between Kpop’s fastest rising boy and girl groups despite what the media may try to spin about them. Namjoon and the boys actually do respect the ladies of HELIOS to a high regard and honestly believe that they deserve every inch of recognition and success they’ve received over the years. If the boys of BTS can understand anything, it’s the struggle of trying to make it in such a competitive and demanding environment that is the world of Korean entertainment. Much like them, HELIOS came from humble beginnings; hailing from a small entertainment company established by one of the most respected music producers in the industry. Despite debuting a couple years after BTS, HELIOS grew to be a well known name among teens and young adults. Their unique take on the “girl crush” concept and their unconventional practices of flourishing naturally as an idol group captured the hearts of many, and soon became a trending topic alongside BTS. Namjoon saw many similarities between BTS and HELIOS in the way they’ve grown to their current point of success. Much like the boys, HELIOS liked to connect with their fans personally, most of their viewership grew from watching their growth as an idol group on social media. In fact, the girls each had their own social media accounts and were good at posting daily doses of their lives on and off stage whenever they could. Their fans felt like they could really relate to them on a personal level; recognizing that, at times, these four beloved idols were just girls following their dreams. Other times, their fans were often reduced to a squealing-to-near-tears mess, as currently exhibited by Kyungmin. Namjoon was surprised she hadn’t started frothing at the mouth at this point. “Ugh! I just love them sooooo much!” Kyungmin groaned, voicing out her text message before tossing her phone aside and giving her undivided attention to the tv. On screen, HELIOS stood at the doorway as the hosts of Knowing Bros gaped in awe at their presence. The three women stood strategically in formation with you front and center. Namjoon let out a quiet sigh through his nose. Now while BTS and HELIOS had no history of any animosity towards each other (actually the only interactions they’ve really had was congratulating each other on a job well done in between set switches), the only “problem” Namjoon could find was that you, HELIOS’ renowned leader, seem to hate his fucking guts. He has voiced his concerns plenty of times to his members, especially after passing you and the girls by during music shows. You had a tendency to give everyone but him the time of day, and Namjoon didn’t know why. “You’re probably looking too much into it, hyung,” He remembers Jungkook telling him after another failed attempt to talk to the fellow leader. “I mean, you never talk to her, so I don’t think she has a reason to hate you.” “He’s right,” Jimin pipes up from across the dressing room. “It could be the way she is, after all she always looks like she’s got a 1.5 meter pole stuck up her- Ow! What!? I was just kidding!” His remark was short lived with a swift smack to the back of the head and a warning glare from Hoseok. Though it was rude to say, Namjoon couldn’t deny that, to a certain extent, you did look a little uptight most of the time. 

Watching closely on screen, he studied your resting bitch face-like expression. Despite being dressed in a standard school uniform that admittedly made you look cute, you looked like you were ready to take names and kick some ass while poised in your signature power stance. One hand over a hip cocked to the side as your sharp gaze trailed over the Knowing Bros cast before walking in. Even your movements seemed powerful, as if they were carefully calculated with one foot strutting in front of the other in perfect sync with the sway of your hips, not that he was paying attention to that specific detail. His eyes quickly shifted over to your other members as they moved more naturally on to the set and waved their hi’s to the hosts. Everyone gave their applause as the girls took their place at the podium in front of the classroom. “Please introduce yourselves!” Clearing your throat, you throw on a smirk before making a creative introduction. “Hello, we are from the “Top Tier Global Rising Stars” High School.” The other girls share similar smiles as you before dropping into their standard greeting. “2, 3, Shine On! Hello, we are HELIOS!” The studio erupts in applause and awes of amazement welcoming the girls. Namjoon looked over to Kyungmin with her knees drawn to her chest and chin resting on top, staring intently at the tv. “What? No more weird orgasm sounds for your favorite girls?” That earned him a hard smack to the face. “Shh!” Well, this was his day off to relax. So as he slumped lower into the couch, Namjoon carried on watching the show alongside his sister. About 10 minutes into the show’s friendly banter, Namjoon realized that wasn’t much he knew about the ladies that made up HELIOS until now. For instance, he learned that Lee Yuna was actually the eldest of the group, being the same age as Yoongi. Their fans, appropriately named HALOS, dubbed her as one of the most beautiful women in Korea as she joked about her nickname “The Universal Beauty” to rival Seokjin’s title of “Worldwide Handsome.” 

He also learned that the second youngest, Chung Sumi, was actually a naturally talented rapper who freestyled over beats she found on Youtube and posted them on soundcloud during her highschool days, which prompted her to be the first signed trainee at their entertainment company. It reminded him slightly of his underground rapping days leading up to his own path to an idol.

He even learned that Han Hyojin, their own maknae, could basically do anything from singing to rapping to dancing, making her a deadly triple threat for her young age. She could definitely give Jimin, Taehyung, Hoseok, and Jungkook all a run for their money. But what intrigued him the most was your backstory, something that you never revealed until this point. “So Y/N, you’re not actually from Korea?” Kang Hodong inquires. You shake your head in affirmation. “But you speak Korean so well!” Seo Janghoon chimes in, “Where are you from?” “The States, California specifically.” You respond, prompting a stock sound of amazement over the broadcast. “Another idol from California!” “Speak English for us! Come on!” This causes you to scoff, shaking your head. “What would you want me to say?” “Introduce yourself in English!” Yuna urges you with a bright smile, a round of cheers in the room encourages the idea. Namjoon stared in awe as he watched you introduce yourself in your native tongue to the camera. You seemed more comfortable and natural talking in English and it captivated him in a weird sort of way. Both Kim siblings kept their attention on you as the cast prods on with questions about your personal life and Namjoon can’t help but feel much more admiration for you as an idol and leader who’s made it this far after hearing your story. You share to the cast that you were nothing short of ordinary growing up. You’ve lived a normal life with your hard working parents and siblings. You were an average student with no strong ambitions to pursue for the future. The only passion you did have growing up was dancing, and it brought you as far as signing with your company to become a trainee after graduating high school. Without anything else to lose, you eventually made your way to Korea in hopes to find a suitable career that included dancing, however being an idol was totally out of your range. “So you initially didn’t want to be an idol?” Kim Heechul asks earnestly, you give a small shrug. “I didn’t think I was really cut out for it.” You answer cooly, then turn to your members with a soft expression. “But training with my members made me realize that I could do it and make something out of it.” Your girls return the heartfelt smile, something only Namjoon could completely recognize as a genuine bond between members. It tugged at his heartstring seeing this; despite your cold demeanor, you actually do care immensely for the people around you, which he could heavily relate to. If Kim Namjoon wasn’t impressed by you before, he surely was now. However that still doesn’t change the fact you can’t seem to stand him whenever he’s around you. The show finally cuts to commercial, giving Kyungmin enough time to call her friend and squeal about the events of the show. “And she was a cheerleading captain during high school! Can she BE any cooler!?” Namjoon watched incredulously as his sister took her conversation to her room for a quick break. He remembered teasing her once, when his fame with BTS began to rise exponentially, to never ask him for autographs or connections to any idols she may find herself gushing over in the near future, because he swore he’d never do it. Kyungmin only scoffed at her older brother’s feigning arrogance. “Oh please, you’ll never catch me drooling over any idol group at your expense.” If only she could see herself in a few years giving into the HELIOS craze and buying every single piece of merch she could. The look on Namjoon’s face was unbelievable when he came home one day to find Kyungmin framing a huge poster of your face to put in her bedroom. Her piercing glare stopped her brother from prodding any further with her newest obsession. “Not one word.” And with that, she carried your framed face off to her bedroom where it hangs next to her doorway. Well at least she hasn’t asked for your autograph. Not that he could get it anyway, you would definitely reject him if he even so much as breathed in your general direction. Despite finding out his sister was a die hard HALO, he was proud that she at least had good role models to look up to. However, the idea of her number one bias being the very person that hated him wouldn’t stop bothering Namjoon. Would he ever figure out why you just flat out disliked him? Should he even care at all? Why should he? It’s not like you two were friends. Did he want to be friends with you? Namjoon is pulled out of his inner monologue by his sister walking back into the living room with her hand over her mouth and eyes wide at something currently on her phone. She honestly looked like she was ready to cry. He rolled his eyes at her, now that’s just being a little too dramatic. “Alright, what is it now?” 

Kyungmin wordlessly turned her phone towards her brother, revealing your personal twitter profile and your newest post. It was a new concept photo of you with the silhouettes of the rest of HELIOS behind you. Dressed in shades of burgundy and maroon, you held a finger to your red painted lips. The caption that goes with it is simple and vague, but gets its point across. “HALOS, you ready? One more time~ D-10”

Namjoon counts down the days quickly in his head, leading up to what seems to be your comeback date. Coincidentally, it’s the day after BTS’ planned announcement for their own comeback; Map Of The Soul: Persona. 

He sits back and bites the inside of his cheek, deep in thought. If HELIOS was releasing their new album the same time BTS is, then you will most likely be promoting on music shows within the next coming months too. That meant more chances to pass you by in the studios and more time to figure out what the hell was your problem with him. Was it weird that the thought alone made him a little excited for your comeback more than his? His eyes caught sight of the show that just returned on air, now with you on screen teaching the hosts the moves of your latest single. He felt his cheeks heat up just a bit as he witnessed you sway your hips to the beat of your song before forcibly ripping his gaze away to look out the window instead. Yeah, it was pretty weird, and he really needed to stop dwelling on you so much. But that night, he laid in his bed, unable to get you out of his mind. 

Even though he told himself to not get hung up over you, here he was under his covers at 3 AM scrolling through your Instagram, looking at every single selfie, candid shot, and freestyle dance video you’ve posted since your debut; still thinking about the fact that even though you intrigued him, you still didn’t like him. Eventually he scrolled back to your teaser photo he saw earlier that day, brows furrowing at your post before locking his phone out of frustration. Okay, he had to stop. At this rate he was going to turn into his sister, another  HALO sucked into the HELIOS craze. But was that really a bad thing?

[kihyunswrath]

Ok but. Seriously though. It’s been a couple of days since the news of Wonho’s solo career and I’ve now clarified my head again.

And here’s the thing.

Starship lost a LOT of money when Wonho was kicked out. Like. A fuckton. Album sales, video views, general popularity. Dozens of videos they had probably filmed and taken back when Wonho was still within the group, could no longer be published. Projects, shows and other things where Wonho had been in a major role had to be cancelled. And because of how desperately they then tried to cling on to the rest of the Monsta X schedules that were still, in theory, feasible, they made everything look very sloppy, greedy and shitty, and made a whole lot more fans unsatisfied. They even ended up overworking Jooheon to burnout which meant yet another big blow to their sales. And then, what a surprise, comes coronavirus and kind of kills the rest of the mood, if there was any, and makes it very hard for them to continue with their world tour plans.

And let’s not even talk about the shady shit they were involved in during the Produce X 101, because that’s another topic, but hey, SSE probably wasn’t too happy about that being revealed either, right? It isn’t like they can be 100% convinced their new boy group could solve their financial issues with a snap of a finger, not anymore.

So. What can they do? The fandom, from their perspective, is split into half: those who couldn’t stand the idea of Wonho ever being mentioned ever again, and those who absolutely loathed Starship for being so cowardly stupid that they couldn’t stand up for him, when he had done basically nothing wrong.

If they truly let Wonho go, there goes Starship’s popularity outside of Korea. Those overpriced world tour tickets they tried to sell are still not sold out, as far as I know, and that fact is probably still stinging them like a bitch. They know what we’ve been up to, what projects, events, fundraisings and other shit we put up, just for Wonho. They saw the dollar bills flying right past them, out of their reach, because those dollar bills were spent on keeping Wonho’s name public, when Starship had promised themselves they would never mention his name again.

But if they don’t let him go, Joseon dynasty people are jumping up from their Naver forum graves and wherever the hell in the medieval past they lurk, and claiming that Wonho doesn’t deserve to be in any position whatsoever, ever again. He is basically a reborn Satan because he told us he was also a teenager once. And you know, we can’t let people think idols have been teenagers, because then we’d basically admit they are humans too. And humans need to, you know, eat, sit, shit, sleep and meet people in total freedom, because that’s their basic human right. We can’t have that. We can’t have that because this industry’s fundamental rule, the very base of its existence, is not letting idols do any of those things. So if we admitted they’re humans, too, then clearly we’re also abusing their basic human rights. No, says the Joseon dynasty hypocrite who is also known as a knetz, perfect demigods idols must be, and if they want to keep their career, they can’t tell anyone they’ve existed as human beings in this mortal material plane.

It’s a lose-lose situation for Starship, because they’re not only sharing the same values with those Joseon dynasty people, but they’re also thinking about money, and money, funnily enough, can come from multiple parties. From people who hate you for doing what you’re doing but who hope you to change your ways, and from people who support you exactly because of what you’re doing right now but who don’t want anything to change ever.

The former group is much bigger in numbers, but it’s far away from the field Starship actually operates on. The latter group is probably awkwardly small and stupid, but they are the real time bullies, and they are right there in front of Starship’s house, punching right where it hurts, ready to spew their bullshit 247.

And then, all of a sudden all this is solved with a seemingly easy fix: a new company is ready to take Wonho under its wings and bring him back to his former glory. New fancafes and social media platforms open in an instant and Wonho himself is back to his old apologizing self, behaving like a proper idol, being all modest and selfless. Where the hell did this company come from? Who are these people it manages? Why doesn’t it even have its own website or email address? Who is its CEO, who are the workers? Why haven’t I ever heard of this fucking agency before?

Now I don’t want to sound like a conspiracybebe or anything, but I’m 99% sure this Highline Entertainment isn’t technically a real company at all.

There were no actual idols under it before Wonho, and it doesn’t have official websites or any detailed information available. It’s apparently been there since the end of 2017, but what has it been doing during those two and a half years, because there is no visible promotion campaigns for the existing artists who work for it? And why the hell would Starship have bought that company, given how it couldn’t give a lot of profits to them? And now that Highline does have Wonho under their wing, why can’t they stand up for Wonho when he still faces backlash from the Korean media? He HAS officially made a contract with them and has all his charges cleared and therefore could technically sue anyone for trying to defame him? But no, instead they censor fans and stop them from spreading Wonho’s fanletters because they’re... you know, just as afraid of their fans as Starship once was.

I might be wrong but I don’t think I am, while I say that Starship is clearly trying to kill two flies with one hit (or however the hell that proverb goes). They can now earn profit from BOTH fans who ���hate” Wonho and fans who love him. 

With this whatever nugu company no one knows or gives two shits about, they can pretend Wonho is permanently removed from Monsta X and has started his own career elsewhere and won’t technically bother ot6 fans anymore, so they can earnestly support the remaining Monsta X members with their new comeback and whatnot. But they also placed him close enough, right outside of their own premises, with all the same US managers, logos, stage names and other similarities from before, that we, who still hoped things to end up well for both Wonho and other Monsta X members, could stay optimistic about their future and offer our money for all of them at the same time.

You know, now we’ll get albums from Monsta X, and then albums from Wonho, and a lot of us will buy both - it’s even more merchandise and sales than it used to be. Funny, huh?

No challenging of the old conservative idols-are-Jesuses-but-better belief system, and no challenging the huge social justice movement that was born out of love for Wonho and other idols that have been treated like disposable trash. No, this way Starship technically doesn’t have to turn their back to either of us, but instead can go and pretend they’re the noble saint who gave an exceptionally rare new chance to an idol, while still keeping him in the backyard, just in case it turns out Wonho’s existence is too “scandalous” for their pristine reputation as a good old Confucian company.

Convenient.

I’m not saying they’re necessarily being smart, innovative or actually farsighted, but I’m saying that all this is pretty damn convenient for Starship. And yes, having said that, I do continue to support Wonho and Monsta X. I am intending to see the end of that, like I’ve said before. But I still don’t have to like what Starship is doing, not one bit. None of this needed to happen. And a lot more things could have been fixed, had Starship made those mistakes in the beginning and then actually reflected on them, instead of... well, whatever convenient shit-plotting this is.

My only comfort right now is that Wonho and Monsta X members can now be with each other probably a bit more often than not, and that’s technically the only thing I truly care about. I do also damn hope Wonho shows his popularity, power, wits, charms and superiority to Starship too and makes them hope they could still have him in Monsta X one day, when it’s too fucking late.