#but then yoon won showed up on my screen

[oyeicher]

Lee Mi Ra as Yoon Won | The Eighth Sense Ep 1 & 2

[whumparound]

Alice (2020) K-Drama

Whumplist

Park Jin-Gyeom (Joo Won) is a detective, who doesn't show emotions. While investigating a mysterious case, he realizes the existence of time travelers. The time travelers come to the present day from the future through a space called Alice. Park Jin-Gyeom struggles to prevent negative things happening through Alice. During this time, he meets Yoon Tae-Yi (Kim Hee-Seon) again. A woman who looks erily identical to his deceased mother. Yoon Tae-Yi is a genius physicist and she holds a key to time travel. While they unravel the secret of time travel together, she discovers secrets hidden in her past.

This is a Whump list for Park Jin Gyeom (Played by Joo Won)

I actually had a lot of fun whating this drama, whether it was me laughing at it or with it. The story was all over the place and lacked continuity even if it was a time travel drama, but the characters were great.

______________________________________________________________________________

1x01 - crying, grieving, holding loved one as they die

1x02 - time was stopped but is resumed and hes hit by a truck, passes out, wakes up in hospital, broken ribs, bandaged wounds, takes out IV, Hit with smoke grenade holding eyes, coughing fough briefly, struggling to get up, almost hit by a car, Gets out of his car while its moving and jumps onto another car (not whump but I was crying) gets thrown off this car, fought, holding knife blade with hands, emotional upset

1x03 - fought smoke stuff in eyes again, fell from a good height, tried to chase but was too hurt, upset concerned for loved one, crying

1x04 - Fought, car accident, woke up on the street but in the past.

1X05 - woke up on street Clutching head ringing head pain, crying reliving mothers death, woke up present day where he crashed, ears ringing pass out nose bleed, woke up in hospital

1x06- fought, concerned for Someone

1x07 - fought

1x08 - Sleeping, smacked (comical), (flashback/forward…you still believe in time?) Loved one crying while holding him, possibly dead definitely not awake

1X09 - fought, Shot in the arm, at gunpoint, stops time before another bullet can get him, ears ringing, nose bleed, relieved after finding him mom, passes out from exertion, bandaged trying to wash hair (this scene is actually really cute)

1X10 worried, sleeping, woke up, anxious on a rollercoaster, unsteady getting off, hit by a car (to no consequence)

1x11 small fight, worried for someone, handcuffed to sign, crying, Yelling, wrist bleeding from struggling, at gunpoint

1x12 - angry, crying, loved one dies in his arms, grieving, comforted while crying, bleeding through Bandages

1x13 - Adult Jin gyeom Wakes up on the street, passes out again, nose bleed, in hospital, hearing voices, Panicking screaming, unconscious, woke up. Teen - Passes out, nose bleed, time rash Unconscious in bed, wakes up Suspicious as hell, hearing things

1x14 - crying, upset, stabbed with a sword, passes out, (off screen surgery) woke up, holding side, asleep, bleeding through shirt, concerned for, rewrapping wound, out of breath, delusions, almost stabs partner

1x15- crying, punches mirror, coping With major realization, comforted, concerned for someone,drugged, passes out, holding hand as someone important to him dies, holding loved one as they die, crying

1x16 - time travels, wakes up, crying, reliving same death of mother again

《Sorry for any spelling errors, english is my first language and I suck at it🙂》

[noonaishere]

Online/Offline [C.S] - fifty-seven | five yeets deep

The whole group had Keeho’s stream up on their screens. It was his room, empty, with his chair and microphone set up in front of the camera. You all began humming Pomp and Circumstance, as Keeho entered the room in the background. He opened the door, T-posed awkwardly in the doorway for a moment, walked into the room and closed the door behind him. He stood, purposefully awkwardly for another moment, before walking over to his desk and sitting in the chair and putting his headphones on.

You all cheered.

“Woo!”

“Yeah!”

“It’s our boy!”

“Our boy is back!”

Keeho pretended to shush you in a solemn way.

“Yoon Keeho,” you said, effecting a reporter’s voice, “how do you feel about JUPiTER’s combined seven music show wins from this comeback?”

Keeho pulled one of the Music Bank awards towards him from where it was hidden from the camera and pretended to get choked up.

“He has one!” Yeji shouted and started laughing.

“MuBank!” San yelled.

“Ooooh,” Mick and Bracken said together.

“Show off,” Ryujin laughed.

“If you win, you might as well flaunt,” Keeho said as he dabbed at the no tears he had on his face with an imaginary handkerchief.

You laughed.

“But yeah, it’s actually really cool we won so many. The producers worked really hard in making us some amazing songs, the choreographers and dancers worked really hard making choreos that made us look good, the staff worked really hard with our costumes and hair and makeup and getting us where we needed to be and making sure were taking care of ourselves in the flurry of it all, and we took all that and worked really hard to bring the fans something they would love. And then our fans worked so hard voting and streaming and coming out at 1am to see the recordings and cheer for us… We’re all really proud of all of us and how we did, I think our wins were well deserved and extremely appreciated.”

“Do you get to keep the award Keeho?” Yeji asked.

“No, I have to give it back to my manager tomorrow so they can put it in the case at the company.” He put it back out of the camera’s view.

“They put all the awards in one case?” 

“Yeah, each artist or group has a case and they put any awards you win in it. Our dance team has a huge case actually, since they win so many contests.”

“That’s really cool.”

“Oh yeah, they totally deserve it. They’re called To The Beat and you should check out their youtube channel.” He winked and fingergunned at the camera.

“We’re all super proud of you, big guy.” You said.

“As my oldest and bestest friend, that means a lot, Cat.”

“It better.” 

He laughed. “Now, can you introduce me to the new guy?”

“Oh!” You said. “Keeho, this is Morn. MorningStar. I asked him to stream while you were away during your comeback.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” San said.

“Mhm, mhm.” Keeho nodded. “And what is this, you talk to boys now?”

“I’m talking to you, dumbass.” You said.

“I’m telling your parents that you’re meeting boys.”

“Tell them I met you, stupid.”

“Should I leave the stream?” San asked.

“Don’t pay attention to him, Morn, he’s an idiot.”

Keeho jokingly slammed his hands on his desk. “I don’t care how polite he is, he’s a boy!”

“I’m going to call your mom.”

Keeho’s eyes went wide and the other group members laughed.

“Anyway, so what games do we have lined up?”

“Yeet!”

“Yeet!”

“Yeet!”

“Yeet!”

“Yeet!”

“That’s it. The stream is out of control,” Ryujin said. “We are five minutes into this game and are already five Yeets deep.”

You laughed and hit the button to flip the table again. “Yeet!”

“Stop flipping the table! We’re not getting anywhere!” She yelled.

“I can’t believe you guys planned virtual board games for my return stream.” Keeho said.

“I can’t believe you’d think we’d plan anything else.” Mick retorted.

“Touché.”

“Touchy,” Bracken said, flipping the table.

Ryujin’s icon lit up as you heard her sigh loudly.

“Maybe we should take it easy on our lovely hostess, everyone.” San suggested.

“Maybe…” Keeho trailed off as the table reset and then flipped again. You knew he was the one who did it.

You all laughed again.

“Yeji, what are you doing?” Mick asked. “You’ve been quiet for a while.”

“Playing Lost Ark on another screen.” Bracken gasped. “During our game of Cluedo?”

“Clue.” Keeho corrected.

“Stephen, I will not have--”

“Not again.” You said.

“Are we really playing the game, Bracken? Or have you all been flipping the table since we started and we haven’t even handed all the clue cards out yet?” Ryujin asked.

“Cluedo,” Bracken corrected.

“I meant the cards have clues on them--”

“They are clues, Bracken,” Keeho said forcefully. “Not ‘cluedos’.”

You still had the streams of the members who used webcams - Keeho, Mick, and Bracken - up and you laughed as you watched Bracken widen his eyes and sighed incredulously.

“You can’t just just not call the game by its name, Keeho.”

“Umm, I am calling it by its name, Bracken? It’s called Clue.”

“Mate, it’s from the UK and it’s called Cluedo.”

“What about you, Mick? You’re from the US and moved to Australia, which do you call it?”

Dead air for a second and then Mick said, “...No entiendo.”

“Why is it even called ‘Cluedo’ anyway?” San asked. “My English isn’t great, but that’s not a word, right?”

“I’m looking it up,” you said. 

One of the reasons you were thankful to have Keeho in your life is that, as someone who lived in Canada when he was younger, he was invaluable when it came to high school English classes. Teachers thought you put a ton of time into studying when really, it was just that you had a friend who was fluent in English. And that wasn’t a fact that was known to many, since he didn’t want to be bothered by people who wanted to be his friend because they thought he could do their English homework for them, in addition to the people who were already bothering him because they wanted to be friends with an idol trainee. It was easy enough for you to open google and type ‘Why is it called Cluedo’ in english. You opened a link and scrolled for an answer as Keeho and Bracken continued to argue.

“Huh.” You said.

“What?” San asked.

 “I honestly didn’t expect an answer like this: apparently the word ‘Cluedo’ is a portmanteau of ‘clue’ and ‘ludo.’”

“What’s ‘ludo’?” Yeji asked.

“‘Ludo’ is the latin word for ‘play’, and the title ‘Cluedo’ is supposed to mean that you use the clues to play the game and solve the mystery.”

“Huh.” Mick said.

“Or you flip the table a million times and don’t even start.” Ryujin said.

“Or that,” you chuckled.

The table flipped.

“Cat, if that was you--!” Ryujin yelled.

You laughed. “It wasn’t! I was reading the thing! I would have said it if I did it!”

“Lowkey, kind of want to play Lost Ark with you, Yeji.” Ryujin said.

“Come play.” Yeji responded.

“Do you all mind if we leave to stream that?”

“I don’t mind.” You said.

Everyone else agreed.

“Before you go, Ryujin…”

“Yeah?”

“I wasn’t the one who flipped the table just then.”

“...I believe you.” She left.

“That’s because it was me,” Mick said and laughed evilly. Two seconds later, he laughed hysterically.

“What are you laughing at?” Bracken asked.

“Ryujin’s cursing me out in my chat.”

“Deserved.” San said.

“Yeah… most of the flips were me. I’m sorry Ryujin. I’ll host the game next time and you can flip the table on me.”

“I like how you avoided the name of the game that time,” Keeho said.

“Speaking of,” Bracken interjected, “I can’t play this game with a man who refuses to call it by its correct name.”

“Uh huh.” Keeho said. “If you look up the game it literally says ‘called Clue in North America’ on every single link. It’s almost like they did it themselves.”

“Do British people speak a lot of Latin that they’d know it’s ‘clue’ and ‘ludo’ together?” San asked innocently.

“Bracken?” You asked. “Thoughts?”

He didn’t say anything for a few moments.

“You’re part of the Commonwealth, did you immediately know those were the words it was made from when you first saw or heard the title?”

Silence.

“You there?”

Di-Dng!

“Did he just leave?!” You yelled.

Mick laughed. “He’s going ‘AHH!’ in the other room. I’ve never seen him this worked up about something before.”

“I win.” Keeho said.

“How did you win?” San asked.

“Did he really have a horse in the race for no reason?” You asked no one in particular.

San laughed.

“I’m going to get going, I think,” Mick said. “We actually have to take the dog to the vet tomorrow and that’s always a chore.”

“Shouldn’t have gotten a husky.”

Mick chuckled. “Yeah, I could do without the screaming. From both of them. But we’ll see you guys later.”

You all said bye and Mack left.

“So, what do we do now?” Keeho asked.

“Mmm…” You mused.

“...mmmmmMinecraft?” San asked.

“Yes!”

“I can’t believe you started playing Minecraft again,” Keeho said.

“Why?” 

“You were so bad at it,” he laughed.

“Hey!” You laughed. “I’ve gotten better.”

“I saw some of your streams, Cat: not by much.”

“Heyyy,” you pouted.

“She hasn’t done too bad,” San interjected. “She built a whole section of our house. Come look at it.”

San invited Keeho to the world the two of you shared and all of you hopped into it. Keeho spawned in a random spot and San sent him the coordinates, and suddenly Keeho was with the two of you in the house.

“Come see,” San’s avatar ran off and you and Keeho followed behind. Once you all made it outside, he ran over to the wing you built all on your own. “See?”

“Oh, wow, that’s actually pretty nice. Did you do it in Creation Mode or regular?”

“I did it in Regular.” You said proudly.

“Wow…” Keeho walked around the building for a bit.

“She worked really hard on it, you need to acknowledge that.” San said as Keeho looked around at the house.

Keeho walked back and looked at him for a second. “Yeah. You did a really good job, Cat.”

“Thank you.” You said.

San’s avatar turned to look at you and you wondered if it meant he was smiling at you. You smiled back reflexively, feeling a little silly as you did so since he couldn’t see it.

“We should find a group of bandits and fight them.” You said.

“Let’s go!” San said and ran off, You and Keeho following behind him.

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@rachs-words • @stayatinykatsy •

[mirambles]

Crash Course in Romance - First Impressions

I started Crash Course in Romance purely for Jung Kyung Ho only to discover it is directed by HomeCha director and has all of my favourites in the supporting cast. And now I am firmly sucked in to it cause of Jeon Do Yeon. It’s my first time watching her and she is such an amazing natural performer - it’s like acting is in her blood. She just has to show up and she will make sure your eyes are fixated on her.

There maybe many actresses who are more beautiful than her , but I’m dead sure there are very few who can surpass her acting skills. I didn’t even know what a big star she is, until I saw this series and went and looked up her acting resume!

I adored Jung Kyung Ho in Prison PlayBook and Hospital Playlist ( a drama that didn’t hook me but his charcater did) and was dying to see him as a main lead and I’m absolutely loving him in every scene. He has to be one of the best actors out there who has picture perfect comic timing.

All his outbursts and expressions when he is startled by JDY’s character are downright hilarious. But he is also delivering on the emotional scenes, the scene where he cried eating her food for the first time - it hit home hard. It reminded me of the scene in Chocolate when the younger Ha Ji Won cried after eating the younger Yoon Kye Sang’s mom’s food at their restaurant. The connection she holds dear for the rest of her life in that drama. Food is so integral to KDramas and Korean culture and to see it form the foundation of the leads’ relationship, her food healing him - could it get better than this?

KDramas do found families the best - take Reply 1988, Prison Playbook, Hospital Playlist, Be Melodramatic, Hometown Cha Cha Cha - people bound by love, friendship and hearts. JDY looking after her autistic brother and her niece as her own kids, running a food store with her best friend is all kinds of heartwarming to me. She who had to give up on her handball dream, she who carries no grievance, no regrets, no sadness in her heart for having to bear the burden of raising a family at a young age. She who hasn’t had a chance to live her own life selfishly , but is selfless, pure hearted, free spirited, never once cynical, loving and a kind hearted soul. Her positivity is contagious.

Even when her autistic brother is misunderstood, she is polite and apologetic even though they are not at fault. Even when her daughter NaHee bears the brunt of unfairness from the academy and manipulation by the evil moms, she fights for fairness but doesn’t grudge the people.

JDY and Lee Bong Ryun’s friendship will hit the top 10 female friendships in KDramas if they keep going strong. I crave for the scenes between these two - pulling each other’s legs, egging each other on, encouraging and complimenting each other and most important reminding each other how valuable they are. Here’s to more women friendships! KDramas have often got this part right!

I don’t usually care for teenage romance or love triangles, but there is something endearing about the budding love triangle between Na Hee, Sun Jae and Geon Hu. Na Hee is married to her studies and completely oblivious to these two guys crushing on her and I love that! Also the scene in the park where Sun Jae and Na Hee tell each other their secrets - just a glimpse of how at the bottom of it all their friendship is pure and I hope that doesn’t change.

The moms don’t impact me after having seen Sky Castle, they are the toned down version of those monster moms from Sky Castle. Plus if you cast Kim Sun Young (love her in freaking every role and drama) and Jang Young Nam ( my favourite coach in BokJoo) - how am I supposed to hate them! I mean I want to whack the shit out of them for the nastiness they bring to the screen, but I love how well they are doing it. Do you get my conflict?

Crash Course in Romance has complete HomeCha vibes, Ms Sunshine meets Mr Grumpy trope, with backdrop of the competitive Korean education system pressure on kids and parents alike, which was dealt brilliantly in Sky Castle.

In summary, Crash Course in Romance is 100% Hometown Cha Cha Cha meets Sky Castle. I loved both dramas and it’s no surprise am enjoying this fine mix too right now.

What about you lot?

[chocodreamer]

Life Risking Romance (K-Movie Review)

Overall Rating: 6.5/10 (A great watch when you have nothing else to watch)

Genre: Comedy/Romance/Mystery/Thriller

Found on: Tubi (for FREE), Kocowa, Amazon Prime

Summary: During a long period of writer's block, Je-In (Ha Ji Won), a mystery crime novelist, comes across a flirtatious neighbor, Jason (Chen Bo Lin), whom she believes is a murderer. However, due to her infamy of repeatedly filing false reports on her neighbors, nobody believes her. To inspire her to write before her looming author deadline, she decides to investigate Jason, with the help of her best friend (and policeman) Rok Hwan (Chun Jung Myung). However, her budding feelings towards Jason interferes with the investigation, leaving Rok Hwan heartbroken and Je-In with more questions than answers.

🏁First Impressions:

After reading the summary, I thought this would be a sappy, over-dramatic romance like the telenovelas my mom would watch. To my surprise, the words "sappy" and "over-dramatic" are not the first words that come to mind when describing this show.

The first scenes show a "crime" taking place--the tension rising as a young woman, Je-In, hides, trying not to make a sound. This is all broken as Je-In lets out a fart that comically stinks up the whole room. (This joke is repeated some times throughout the movie. It's funny, I swear)

Just like it was clear this was going to be a thriller and comedy, it was clear Je-In and Rok Hwan's relationship was a long-time loyal one. With their light-hearted and witty bickering, it was hard not to immediately ship them.

However, Rok Hwan's tender feelings are unrequited. To my dismay, Jason enters the scene and takes Je-In's heart.

Although the charming Jason seemed like the man of everybody's dreams, I was already fond of the ever-so-loyal Rok Hwan (though he hadn't had much screen time yet), and rooted for him for the remainder of the movie.

🏳️Lasting Impressions

Although no scene left me cackling, bits of entertainment through characters, like the banter between not only Je In and Rok Hwan, but Yoo Mi (Yoon So Hee) and her secret boyfriend were happily anticipated throughout the movie. Even side characters like Rok Hwan's selfie obsessed co-worker got a smile out of me when they were on screen.

Apart from its silliness, the movie also had a few suspenseful scenes at just the right times. As Je-In scoured through Jason's apartment in search of clues, as Yoo Mi was chased in a dark alleyway, and even as Je-In fought a criminal (could it be the mystery murderer?).

I applaud the suspense and mystery highlighted carefully throughout this comedic movie, even if some of the action scenes ruined the suspense with its mediocrity.

With two male leads, there would of course be some romantic tension. Being a murder mystery, the true tension came when ...

SLIGHT SPOILER!

...a solid (and SHOCKING) clue was revealed to suspect Rok Hwan as the murderer. Not only was Je-In caught between two romantic interests, but two possible pyschos.

The chance that the beloved Rok Hwan be the murderer instead of new perfect boy-next-door Jason was agitating, but perfectly added the "mystery" into murder mystery.

The mystery wasn't clever, and it wouldn't have taken much brain power to find out who was the real killer, but that wasn't the point of the movie. The point of these two potential perpetrators purposefully tugged at your (and Je-In's) heartstrings to choose a side--loyalty and unwavering companionship or a thrilling romance that will end as soon as it starts (but never forgotten)?

[consumeronionbulletin]

See You in My 19th Life (2023)

I unabashedly love this show. The actors, the characters, the way it was shot, the convoluted dramatic plot that seems to bend back on itself, it all works for me. But you have to keep in mind that this is not a romcom: it's a weepy dramedy with big romantic feels.

What worked

This cast is so great. Beautiful people acting out big feelings while telling a good story. The cinematography was excellent, restrained when it needed to be and leaning hard into the fantasy to tell the story in other places. The plot didn't always make logic sense, but the writing was very good at getting across the feelings it wants you to feel.

What Didn't Work

Some of the musical cues bothered me, especially when it tried to play up this big mystery about Kang Min-gi. (Was he a bad guy? Yes. Did he deserve his own sinister background music when he came on screen? No.) Also, there were a few logic breaks that I feel like would have been ironed out if they'd had 16 episodes instead of 12. Finally, I'm not an expert, but people who have read the webtoon it was based on were disappointed with some of the departures from the original story. None of this bothered me, because it had so many high moments.

The Performances

Shin Hye-sun as (19th lifer) Ban Ji-eum. I would die for this character. I would love to see her play a short season of the Korean version of Doctor Who, because she would nail that role. It wasn't just the moments of a beautiful person looking sad about drama, she played the comic parts well, she played the angry parts well, she was downright weird at times in a way that was unsettling, and that totally worked for this character. I now have to go back and see everything this actor has been in before now.

Ahn Bo-hyun as (sad rich boi) Moon Seo-ha. This actor was also really good. He had to play it straight and stoic through much of the series, and that could come across as wooden in some scenes, but then they would let him loose in a scene and it was amazing to watch. His chemistry with Shin Hye-sun was so good, as well.

Ha Yoon-kyung as (spring sunshine) Yoon Cho-won. I loved her in Extraordinary Attorney Woo, and this is even better. Her best role yet. The second lead couple in this was (somewhat) less emotional, and that made the slow burn more enjoyable in some ways. But I really loved the scenes with Cho-won and Ji-eum. Just as much fun to watch as the romantic scenes.

Ahn Dong-goo as (the driver) Ha Do-yoon. Somehow, this guy had to be more stoic than Ahn Bo-hyun's character, which made the moments when the emotions leaked out of him even more electric. I wish we'd had a few more episodes to get some happy romantic moments towards the end of the series, but he was still great to watch on screen and did an excellent job.

Cha Chung-hwa as (the niece) Kim Ae-kyung. She was good in Hometown Cha x 3, but I would riot if something bad happened to her character in this drama. Did I riot? Watch and find out!

Lee Si-woo as (the little brother) Ha Do-jin. A delightful character played really well by Lee Si-woo. It was always a fun scene when he showed up.

Lee Chae-min as (one weird guy) Kang Min-gi. I always felt unsettled when this guy was in a scene. In case you had doubts about the guy, he had creepy music following him around the entire series, but the actor didn't really need it.

Kang Myung-joo as (the sad mother) Jo Yoo-seon. I really loved her performances even though they were usually the saddest scenes. She had so few lines, and managed to do alot with them.

Bae Hae-sun as (evil stepmom) Jang Yeon-ok. I especially disliked her. The actor did a great job of playing a shameless, entitled backstabber. Nice to see her get a bigger role (liked her in It's okay to not be okay), even if it is as someone not very nice.

Baek Seung-cheol as (all time bad dad) Ban Hak-su. I hated this character so much, which shows the actor did a great job.

Moon Dong-hyuk as (bad brother) Ban Dong-woo. I loathed and pitied this character, overall another good performance.

Kim Si-a as (the 18th lifer) Yoon Joo-won. She did a very good job in some tough scenes. I'm always amazed at how good some of these young actors are.

Park So-yi as (the young 19th lifer) Ban Ji-eum. Very good in the episodes she showed up. Was fun seeing her onscreen opposite Ahn Bo-hyun.

Lee Han-na as (mystery girl) Han-na. They should have done more with this character or figured out how to do without her completely. They just didn't have the episode time to do her justice. Overall, an okay actor that was completely overshadowed by the other actors.

Seo-ha's Family. I'm usually indifferent to chaebol corporate nonsense, but the actors did an excellent job of making you feel like part of the family. A terrible family, that treated Seo-ha terribly. The uncle (played by Lee Hae-young) was a standout, but they were all good in their own way, including the step-brother.

The past lives. I really enjoyed the different past lives. They didn't always have alot of lines, but they still made you feel something as you got little snapshots of harrowing moments in their lives.

The bad rich boy society guys. Honorable mention. I didn't always know their names, but every scene where they mistreated Ha Do-yoon's character was still infuriating, and that was on the actors as much as the writing.

TL;DR

This show is something special. I highly recommend it if you have any kind of interest in the premise. I will definitely be rewatching it.

[gateau-chocolat]

somebody (2022) grievances

This show looks gorgeous and it’s exciting to see a kdrama with an unique vibe, a comparatively diverse cast, explicit content, etc. but the writing was soooooo weird. 😭

- Going into this drama I was kinda like hmm idk if I want to see a show about a stereotypical emotionless sociopath serial killer and a stereotypical emotionless autistic genius, and like...unfortunately, those stereotypes are indeed EXACTLY what the main characters are like. Nothing more and nothing less lol.

- Oh wait, I guess there is the additional detail where it’s seemingly implied that since the main character is autistic, she has no meaningful concept of why killing or harming other humans is bad, and she has been like that since childhood??? Edit: I guess maybe this is kind of subverted by Sum’s final actions...maybe??? I had NO idea what we were supposed to make of Sum for the entire show orz;;;

- Tbh, i think there actually is potential for a “torn between the knowledge that the guy I just met is probably a murderer vs my love for him and my relief at getting to know a fellow loner/outsider” storyline that could be....maybe not “”“good”““ (b/c it would still be very much resting on those cliche character types), but at least kinda compelling? We’re not getting that, though!

- I basically stuck with this story for Mok-won and Gi-eun, but even they feel a little off, tbh? First off, the circumstances surrounding Gi-eun’s first encounter with Yoon-o feel so unrealistic and contrived (ah yes, I love to meet guys from online in the middle of the woods, sight unseen!), but even though there were some nice moments of familiarity between all of the women, they also feel oddly....distant?

- Like, I know Sum wasn’t super helpful to Gi-eun the first time she asked for help, but it makes no sense that she didn’t make more of an attempt to continue to engage Sum in tracking down her guy over the app that Sum made? For that matter, when Sum also gets attacked by someone on the app, why didn’t Gi-eun go “hey, maybe that’s the same guy I met”? Sum was telling Mok-won about meeting someone but being afraid she’ll kill him, and Mok-won seemingly just went “huh, ok lol” instead of like....having a conversation with Sum about what was going on with all that?

- I was sort of anticipating a plotline where the women would work together to investigate Yoon-o, but at many points it felt like the complete opposite - it feels like the show was going out of its way to avoid very natural conversations and interactions between these characters.

- Btw, Sum killed a guy, this fact is known to police(???), and it’s seemingly caused NO disruption to her life whatsoever beyond the immediate aftermath of the incident? I know it was in self-defense and I know Sum wasn’t bothered by it(???), but surely, like....police would be continuing to want to  interview her here and there, or SOMETHING?

- Why does Yoon-o do such a shit job of killing Gi-eun not once, but twice? If he doesn’t intend to kill her, why not?? And if he doesn’t intend to kill her, why is he being so casual about showing his face in front of her? Why does he threaten both her and Mok-won later in the series?? He’s acting like a Marvel villain whose identity can’t be traced, but he’s fully just a regular guy lol???

- This is a tiny detail, but something that's been haunting me today is in ep 6 or 7 when the ear is discovered....what was with the decision to have text on the screen identifying it? The guy getting attacked was shown onscreen, the fact that he lost an ear was explicitly referenced later, iirc there's even a scene of Yoon-o talking about the ear or something...? The ear was like one of the only plot points that actually had been thoroughly set up in previous scenes, and it's not even something that's hugely consequential to the overall story - why did they think THAT, of all things, was something viewers needed to have very explicitly spelled out???

- What’s with the flashback at the end of ep 7? If it’s supposed to be Yoon-o’s serial killer origin story (the first person he hooked up with via the app was a woman who wanted to be choked and that, like, awakened something within him or whatever) a) that’s dumb and b) there’s also a kind of weird misogynistic undertone of like....blaming that woman for enticing him to murder or something??

- This is (maybe??) a story where a special dating app is a major part of the plot, but almost nobody uses the dating app in a way that makes sense and the story has nothing interesting to say about the impact of apps on how people interact with each other or form relationships or anything. Also the app is literally just Tinder lol. 🤷‍♀️

[boysplanetrecaps]

Boys Planet Episode 10: Recap/ Guide

Hi there, fellow Star Creator! This post will be a general recap of Episode 10 of Boys Planet. I’ll dive into more in-depth discussion of each team and its performance in separate posts, which will be linked within when they’re ready. So, click “read more” and let’s go!

As usual, all my time stamps are from the Viki version. 

Most of the time when people are talking, their name and current rank shows on screen. So, in case you’re wondering who’s saying what, here is a list of the current trainees in rank order, with their three mission songs to help jog your memory or make connections.

Sung Hanbin Love Me Right - K /Tomboy /Say My Name

Zhang Hao Kill This Love - G/ Tomboy/ Over Me

Han Yu Jin Back Door - K/ Law / Say My Name

Seok Matthew Kill This Love - G/ Love Killa /Say My Name

Kim Ji Woong Back Door - K /Love Killa /Say My Name

Kim Gyu Vin Love Me Right - K / Love Killa/ En Garde

Kim Tae Rae Back Door - K /Man in Love /Switch

Keita Kill This Love - G /Zoom /Switch

Park Gunwook Kill This Love - K /Tomboy/ En Garde

Kum Jun Hyeon Back Door - K /Gang/ En Garde

Hui Love Me Right - K /Tomboy/ En Garde

Jay Love Me Right - G/ Home/ Over Me

Park Hanbin Hot Sauce - K/ Law /Switch

Ricky Back Door - G/ Rush Hour/ Over Me

Yoon Jong Woo Back Door - K/  Home  / Switch

Haruto   Love Me Right - G/ Zoom /Supercharger

Yoo Seung Eon Very Nice - K /Home /Say My Name

Seo Won Very Nice - K /Love Killa/ Supercharger

Wang Zi Hao Kill This Love - G/ Law /Supercharger

Na Kamden Back Door - G /Law /Switch

Lee Seung Hwan Danger - K/Gang /En Garde

Chen Kuan Jui Kill This Love - G /Butterfly /Over Me

Zhang Shuai Bo Back Door - G /Feel Special/ Switch

Lee Jeong Hyeon Love Me Right - K /Gang /Over Me

Takuto Danger - G /Rush Hour /Supercharger

Cha Woong Ki Very Nice - K /Feel Special /Supercharger

Ollie Hot Sauce - G/ Zoom/ Supercharger

Hiroto Very Nice - G /Rush Hour/ En Garde

1:15 Checking In With the Boys

We start off with some “hang out with the boys time.” 

They’re rehearsing until late in the night. They’re so tired they can barely move. They’re eating snacks, they’re putting blankets over each other. There’s a budding bromance between Hui and Gyuvin.  Yoo Seung Eon farts at Keita, which (1) indicates that Keita is, in fact, good friends with the other boys contrary to how he’s been edited in the past and (2) ensuring that Yoo Seung Eon will not make Top9, per my theory about smells. Jay and Yoon Jongwoo compare notes -- Jay is sitting on a bed that has Na Kamden’s nametag on it -- and Jongwoo says he feels like he’s growing from this. He sounds exhausted. We see many of the trainees practicing their weak spots -- Z-Bo is working on his lyrics, Tae Rae is dancing in the stairway. It’s actually pretty interesting insight into their states of mind.

3:38 Back to Showtime

We return to the performance night. The judges are talking about how much better the trainees have gotten in general, and the editors use their conversation as a way to sort of review the first two performances of the night, which we say in the previous episode. They all agree that Supercharger did a great job. Their praise for En Garde seems focused mostly on Gunwook and Gyuvin.

5:41 Time for Some Filler

Star Master Key announces that before we can see more performances, we will be watching a video! Yay…?

The boys get sent somewhere for a secret mission, and someone comes out, already singing -- it’s Jo Kwon, the leader of 2AM and noted high heel enthusiast, I guess. If you’re not familiar with them, 2AM formed at the same time as 2PM. The idea was that 2AM would perform ballads and 2PM would do dance songs.  (You know at least one 2PM song -- “My House.”)  I don’t really know a lot about 2AM, and this is my first time “meeting” Jo Kwon, too. 

Jo Kwon is there to reveal a surprise mission -- the trainees will pair up and perform a scene from musical theater, specifically, a scene from the musical of The Little Prince.  

They have two special guests who will judge: Jung Dong Hwa and Nam WooJu, neither of who I recognized. The stakes are high -- the trainees will be given a rank out of 4 stars, and if they win 4 stars, they get a huge collection of cosmetics and promotion on social media. The best trainee of the day will get big posters of his face hanging in store windows all around Korea. That’s huge.

They pair up and have to hold hands with their partners, which is an opportunity for skinship, and for Matthew and Haruto to speak English, and this weird part where Hui is forced to choose between all the trainees who want to work with him, and he chooses Gyuvin. Relevant side note: Hui has actually acted in musical theater before, because he’s a 30 year old man who shouldn’t be on this show.

They see the scene that they’ll be performing, and it looks really difficult -- tons and tons and tons of lyrics to learn. You, dear reader, are going to learn a bit of Korean in this scene -- swibji ahna (sounds like they’re saying “ship-shee ahna”) -- which means “it’s not easy.” The performances begin at 20:45.

I’ll summarize the pairings and results below, because I don’t want to spend too long on this:

Yoo Seung Eon is with Lee Junghwan, and they both get 2 stars, mainly for not knowing the words. Wow, going last here is a huge advantage if you’re graded based on whether or not you’ve learned the lyrics. 

Park Gunwook and Han Yujin also both get two stars, I think

Yoon Jongwoo and Keita- Jongwoo raps (looking at the lyrics) while Keita beatboxes, and they both get 1 star, I think

Ricky and Ollie - they get 0 stars, probably have lyrics problems

Sung Hanbin is with Zhang Hao, and girls worldwide actually explode watching them hold hands. They do great, so great I almost wonder if the show gave them the lyrics the day or two before, I mean, wow. They both get All Star

Hiroto and Takuto - Takuto is stuck with the Fox role, and really can’t sing it at all, and this is a form of torture for all of us. 

Kim Ji Woong is with Kum Junhyeon - Junhyeon is stuck with the fox part and has trouble memorizing the lyrics, and they kind of go off the rails. 

Hui is with Kim Gyuvin, and of course Hui seems like a professional because he IS one, and shouldn’t be on this show, and they both get All Star

We don’t see: 

Haruto and Matthew  

Park Hanbin and Seo Won

Na Kamden and Jay 

Kim TaeRae and Chen Kuan Jui

Cha Woongki and Lee Seunghwan

Wang Zi Hao and Zhang Shuai Bo

It’s especially weird that we don’t see Kim TaeRae and CKJ because CKJ gets All Star. Also I wanted to see TaeRae doing things. I also especially wanted to see Woongki and Haruto. I get it that they can’t show the same scene 14 times in a row, but they could have put it online, and they didn’t, so screw you, MNET.

The winners get nice beauty products from Olive Young, which is like the Korean Sephora, a big deal kind of store with tons of locations. And Hui wins the top prize, which means he gets to have his photo up in stores all around the country. Fun fact: Olive Young already sells a few albums by Pentagon! So Hui’s photos have probably already been up in Olive Young stores! Because Hui shouldn’t be on this show! Sigh. 

I swear, I’m a Pentagon fan and I like Hui. I just… you know. You get it, right? 

30:00 Switch

The boys come out and introduce themselves as Smushies, here to smush our hearts. Consider my heart fully smushed already, you cuties. 

In the rehearsal footage, the focus is primarily on the trouble that TaeRae is having with the dancing. Yes, of course he is. He’s a main vocal. Main vocals traditionally need to work harder at dancing. Also, it’s hard to “dance powerfully” when hitting the B above middle C, a fact that the psychopath dance teacher seems completely unaware of, since the only things he knows about are (a) dancing and (b) completely destroying the emotional well being of others.

Park Hanbin takes over leadership from Na Kamden and teaches everyone how to dance. 

The performance is super cute and cheery, with a set designed to look like a video game. Their bright pinks and greens are such a nice change from the all black landscape of kpop these days.Even if the song isn't your style, I think the performance is so cute that it deserves a watch. I actually prefer the dance practice to the stage performance, because I feel like you can see the dancing so much more and they’re actually really great. Also, I actually kind of like the song, if you listen to the official audio. The mix in the live version doesn't do the song justice.

Afterwards, we find out that Zhang Shuai Bo got the low score, with an obviously punitive 402 points. Poor Z-Bo -- I think he did a good job in the performance, and it’s a shame that the audience just… hates him. The high score is obviously Park Hanbin, with 741 points.

For a more detailed description of the rehearsal and performance, click here (it’ll be ready soon). 

49:30 Say My Name

It’s time for the show to focus back on Soek Matthew for a while, and the whole Say My Name team. Well, we barely see Han Yujin but maybe that’s good. Keep that boy safe. 

The gist of what’s going on is that Matthew still isn’t handling it well that his team wants him to be Sub Vocal 2 instead of Sub Vocal 1, which they think should go to Yoo Seung Eon. Matthew is really defensive and upset for a while, and makes up some bullshit about wanting to sing in English for his mom (I’m sorry, but it is complete bullshit), but in the end he realizes that the team is what matters most, and he pulls it together, and good for him. I don’t hate the guy or anything, to be clear. It’s just that when something is bullshit, it’s bullshit, you know? 

In the end, they put on a cute performance with no mistakes. It’s not my kind of song, but it’s cute and they do a great job. Matthew is the standout in terms of stage presence, Seung Eon does a fantastic job with the vocals, and Hanbin wins the audience vote with 826 points. (We don’t find out who came in last.)

For a more detailed description of the rehearsal and performance, click here (it’ll be ready soon). 

1:09:45 Over Me

The gist of what’s going on is that Zhang Hao isn’t the best leader because he’s trying too hard to be nice and listen to everyone, so the team is getting frustrated. Also, it seems that they’re a little embarrassed about how sexy the song is. Then Zhang Hao requests a meeting with Solji, who advises him to be firmer and more in control as a leader, which he does, and then things get better. 

The performance goes fine, even if I think most of them hold back a little and don’t really pull off the sexy concept. I think Chen Kuan Jui is the only one who fully commits to what he’s doing, and I think that Jay’s vocals are a highlight when you’re listening to it. 

Then audience puts Jay in last place with 485 votes, which upsets me really deeply, like, I have been stomping around my house swearing I’m going to just stop watching. But of course that’s not really true. Zhang Hao comes in first place with 852 points. 

For a more detailed description of the rehearsal and performance, click here (it’ll be ready soonish). 

1:33:00 The final results

The boys gather to find out which team won the audience vote and will get the benefit. Heartbreakingly, Switch team thinks they have a chance to win, and hope to at least not come in last. But they come in last. 

When the Over Me team finds out they won, they’re, you know, exquisitely happy. Chen Kuan Jui pretty much breaks down.

Ollie, Woongki, and Z-Bo congratulate him.

Remember how I said, over and over again, that people vote with their genitals? People vote for the thing that gives them sparkles in their pants? Well, Switch team was cute and charming and I personally liked it, even if no one else did, but it wasn’t sexy, so it came in dead last. 

Supercharger was a tiny bit sexier, so it came in second. En Garde was trying to be sexy, and had Gyuvin and Gunwook, who people find sexy, so it came in third. Say My Name was “cute sexy”, like NCT’s Touch. But Over Me was overtly sexy, and won. 

Remember, when I say “sexy”, I don’t necessarily mean that I find it sexy. I mean that it supposed to be sexy or is likely to be perceived as sexy. 

Consider, what was the sexiest performance of the following lists: 

Backdoor, Hot Sauce, Kill This Love, Love Me Right, Danger, and Burning Up 

It was Backdoor, specifically the one with Kim JiWoong lifting up his shirt. That’s also the song that won the night.

Tomboy, Man in love, Limousine, and Not Spring? 

Tomboy was the only one that was at all sexy. And it won. 

Love Killa, Home, Feel Special, and Butterfly

It’s pretty obvious which one is the sexiest -- Love Killa -- which, not coincidentally, won. 

Law, Zoom, Gang and Rush Hour  

Law was definitely the sexiest of that group, and it won. 

Before this battle started, I predicted that Over Me or Say My Name would win. I wasn’t totally sure if sexiness could overcome Sung Hanbin, Matthew, Kim JiWoong, and Han Yujin all in one group, but it did. That’s the power of sexiness. 

I don’t know, my friends. I liked Switch best, I guess. Is it because it had Park Hanbin and Kim TaeRae and Keita? Maybe? But I genuinely like the song (the studio version) and it was so cute to see bright happy colors for ONCE. It was never going to win, of course. 

I liked Over Me too, of course. And I’m glad they won, because those 200,000 benefit points will help ensure that Jay makes it into the finale. 

I think at this stage of the show, the trainees are all tired and anxious, and it’s starting to show in their performances. I also think the audience has largely already made up their mind as to who they’re voting for. 

I still like all these trainees as human beings, yes, even Matthew and Z-Bo, and just want all of them to be ok. 

And that’s about it for this recap! We’re at the home stretch -- the finale is on April 20th!  

I’ll see you in the next one! It’ll be another elimination episode, featuring hours and hours of filler! Whee!! (And those individual song posts are drafted and should be up soonish.) 

🥰Thanks as always for reading! 🥰Right now, though you can't see, I'm holding up a handmade sign with your name on it! 🥰Yes, you! 🥰You! 🥰The one reading this! 🥰RIGHT NOW! 🥰

[idolskpop]

Kim Seon Ho Wins His First Movie Award for ‘The Childe’ at 2023 Buil Film Awards

Kim Seon Ho, the rising star of the Korean entertainment industry, has bagged his first movie award for his debut film ‘The Childe’ at the prestigious 2023 Buil Film Awards. The actor impressed the critics and the audience with his portrayal of a mysterious and ruthless chaser in the action thriller directed by Park Hoon Jung.

Kim Seon Ho’s Successful Movie Debut

‘The Childe’ is a film that follows the chaotic events that unfold when a group of gang members, including the enigmatic Childe (Kim Seon Ho), pursue Marco (Lee Je Hoon), a boxer who fights in illegal arenas in the Philippines. The film showcases the intense and violent clashes between the characters, as well as the psychological and emotional struggles of Childe, who is trying to survive in a harsh world.

(Photo : Next Entertainment World Instagram) Kim Seon Ho made his big screen debut with ‘The Childe’ in June 2023, after returning to the stage with the play ‘Touching Void’ in 2022. The actor, who had faced some controversies in the past, proved his acting skills and charisma with his first movie role. He received praise from fans and viewers for his transformation into a villainous character, which was a departure from his previous roles in dramas and variety shows.

(Photo : Next Entertainment World) Kim Seon Ho - The Childe Despite the low box office performance of ‘The Childe’, which only attracted 680,000 moviegoers until its last day in cinemas in Korea, the film was acclaimed for its sophisticated production and good narrative, which are the trademarks of Director Park Hoon Jung. The film also highlighted Kim Seon Ho’s charm and potential as a movie actor.

(Photo : Next Entertainment World )

Kim Seon Ho’s First Movie Award

Kim Seon Ho was nominated for the New Male Actor award at the 2023 Buil Film Awards, which were held in Busan on October 5. He competed with Byeon Woo Seok for ‘20th Century Girl’, Jung Il Woo for ‘Highway Family’, Lee Shin Young for ‘Rebound’, and Lee Soon Won for 'The Childe’. Kim Seon Ho emerged as the winner of the category, earning his first movie award. He calmly went to the stage and received the trophy, expressing his gratitude to everyone who had supported him in his first movie. He said that he was honored to receive the Rookie Award. “I’m very grateful to Director Park Hoon Jung, who gave me this opportunity. I also want to thank my co-stars, especially Lee Je Hoon sunbaenim, who helped me a lot on set. And of course, I want to thank my fans, who always cheer me on and love me. This award means a lot to me. Thank you so much.” Kim Seon Ho’s acceptance speech was met with applause and cheers from the audience, as well as congratulations from his fellow nominees and actors.

(Photo : Next Entertainment World)

Kim Seon Ho’s Future Projects

Kim Seon Ho is currently one of the most sought-after actors in Korea, as he has been receiving multiple offers to headline big projects. The actor is being courted to star in Hong Sisters’ romance drama ‘Can This Love Be Interpreted?’, where Han So Hee and Go Yoon Jung are also rumored to appear. He is also in talks to make a cameo appearance in IU and Park Bo Gum’s series ‘You Have Done Well’, which is expected to air in 2024.

(Photo : Kim Seon Ho Instagram) Additionally, he is teaming up with Park Gyu Young in the mystery drama ‘Mangnaein’, which will be his first lead role in a TV series. The drama will follow the story of a detective (Kim Seon Ho) and a profiler (Park Gyu Young) who team up to solve crimes using their unique abilities. Kim Seon Ho is showing no signs of slowing down, as he continues to challenge himself with different genres and roles. He is also gaining popularity overseas, especially in Southeast Asia, where he has a large fan base. What do you think of Kim Seon Ho’s first movie award? Are you excited for his upcoming projects? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below! Don’t forget to share this article with your friends and fellow fans of Kim Seon Ho! Subscribe to IDOLS KPOP for exclusive updates and captivating content. Read the full article

[aigoofanfiction]

All's Fair In Love (1/?)

Han Ji-pyeong x Reader

Summary: Park Dong-cheon asks your help to deliver a bit of bad news to his boss and unwittingly sets the stage for an office romance.

Words: 1.3k

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Park Dong-cheon sighs as he stares at his screen. Displayed on his monitor is the monthly report from one of SH Ventures’ overseas investments, and, well, the numbers aren’t good. He risks a quick glance over to the desk by the window where he sees team leader (and resident slave driver) Han Ji-pyeong staring resolutely at his own screen. His lips are moving silently, which, as any employee who's lasted six months knows, is a tell-tale sign that he's concentrating especially hard and must not be disturbed.

Dong-cheon reverts his attention back to the dismal report, swallowing the lump in this throat.

Despite Mr. Han’s reputation as an angel investor, he’s not one to mince his words when it comes to those he genuinely cares about, whether they be people or investments. In fact, the only time his boss sings anything or anyone praises is when he can’t be bothered to be honest.

“Why bother to check and criticize the condition of the car if you’re not going to ride it?” Mr. Han often says during their one-on-one meetings.

Still, the knowledge that his boss trusts and cares about him enough to be honest doesn’t make the dressing-down any easier to bear. Mr. Han can be frank to the point of being cruel, and Dong-cheon has always been more tender-hearted than most.

What’s helped keep his spirits up, however, is the fact that he now has someone to share the brunt of Mr. Han’s temper with.

He grabs his phone and sends you a message.

[Do you want coffee? My treat!]

Last year, one of the start-ups at Sandbox received a lot of negative press. Although it was not entirely their fault, the company still had to deal with a tsunami of backlash from angry netizens. It was Director Yoon who suggested getting an external agency to handle the media firestorm. While three teams pitched their strategy, it was your presentation, one that clearly stemmed from a genuine desire to right a wrong, that won the bid.

His phone lights up after a few seconds.

[I don’t want cafeteria coffee.]

Dong-cheon nods to himself. It's not that the cafeteria coffee is bad, but after a while, it can get boring. He quickly types out a reply.

[Okay, let’s go to A Twosome Place.]

Dong-cheon remembers staying up late with you and the start-up's team on so many nights, carefully planning your next move and anticipating every possible scenario. On more than one occasion, Mr. Han even stayed behind to offer his own two cents as well as buy everyone coffee from the cage, claiming that no one would be able to function at 100% without caffeine.

Eventually, the company recovered from the bad press, but the incident showed Sandbox that they needed to beef up their own PR department. It took Mr. Han a record time of two days to ask Dong-cheon to hire you at all costs.

In his opinion, you’re one of the best things to happen to SH Ventures (and to his nerves). As early as that incident with the start-up, which he likes to refer to as your audition, he’s seen how well you work under pressure. Not even Mr. Han’s offhand comments about how your idea will never work brought you down, and when you officially joined the team, Mr. Han’s treatment of you didn’t escape his notice either.

Usually, Mr. Han keeps his interactions limited to Director Yoon, the board, the CEOs, and Dong-cheon himself, letting the latter handle the rest of the junior employees. But he seems to have made an exception for you, and to Dong-cheon's delight, he doesn’t seem to shy away from telling you what he thinks either.

For someone like Mr. Han, Dong-cheon thinks, it's akin to getting invited over to one's in-laws for dinner.

His phone lights up again.

[Meet you down the lobby in five.]

Dong-cheon gets up from his seat, hands just about to grab his jacket, when Mr. Han’s voice stops him. “Oh, Dong-cheon ah, where are you going?”

Dong-cheon turns his head nervously. “I’m just going to get coffee, Mr. Han,” he says.

His boss moves to stand up. “I could use one, too,” he says. “Let me go with you.”

“Ah, you can’t!” he cries out.

Judging by the way his boss’s eyes widen, he knows he’s about to be severely reprimanded, so in the interest of self-preservation, Dong-cheon tells him he’s meeting you for coffee.

“What? Why?” Mr. Han asks.

Dong-cheon stammers. “Sh-She wants my advice on something!”

“On what?” Mr. Han asks again as he advances closer.

Dong-cheon shakes his head. “It’s something personal,” he answers, slowly backing away from his boss. Before he can move further away, however, a hand pulls at his sleeve.

“Tell me,” Mr. Han demands.

Pushing his glasses up his nose, Dong-cheon forces himself to think fast. He snaps his fingers as he blurts out an answer. “She likes someone, and she wants my help getting his attention!”

Without warning, Mr. Han abruptly lets go of Dong-cheon’s sleeve. Not one to waste an opportunity, he scurries out of the office. With any luck, Mr. Han will have forgotten all about this incident when he returns.

***

Given its proximity to Sandbox, A Twosome Place is pretty popular, but in the middle of the day, there are only a handful of customers. You and Dong-cheon manage to get a seat by the window where you’re now sipping your vanilla iced latte thoughtfully.

“So you see, I need your help spinning this into something less disastrous,” Dong-cheon concludes. He’s just spent the last 10 minutes walking you through the depressing performance of one of their overseas investments.

You take his phone in your hand, scrolling through the report he’ll need to show Mr. Han later, before fixing him a look. “You know my philosophy when it comes to bad news, don’t you?”

Dong-cheon smiles weakly. “Short and straight to the point.”

“I don’t think you need my help at all,” you say, returning both the phone and the smile.

“But it always sounds better when it comes from you,” Dong-cheon says. “And frankly, Mr. Han seems to take the news less badly when you say it, too!”

You clear your throat. “That’s not true,” you say. “You two have been working together for longer.”

“And yet he’s a whole lot nicer to you,” Dong-cheon mutters. His phone lights up, alerting him to a message. “Ah, and now he wants me to bring him back some coffee. Give me a few minutes, and then we can go back.”

Dong-cheon excuses himself to order a coffee to go for his boss, while you sit back, reflecting on your experience working with Mr. Han. The truth is, you’re more than aware that you and Dong-cheon receive slightly different treatments from the man. While you like the fact that he doesn’t sugarcoat his words with you, you get the sense that he’s still holding himself back. With Dong-cheon, he seems more relaxed, and you can see that they’ve comfortably established a rapport, even if your friend doesn’t seem to realize it.

You absently swipe the beads of condensation that have formed on your cup, wondering if Mr. Han thinks you need to be coddled. Or perhaps he just doesn’t feel comfortable enough with you. Either way, you count yourself fortunate for having the opportunity to work with him.

When you first booked Sandbox as your client, you were immediately impressed by the famous Han Ji-pyeong. You had read about him in magazines before, but nothing had prepared you for his larger-than-life presence. He’s handsome, sure, but rarely do you find that paired with competency and efficiency, both of which he wielded with great mastery during the whole PR debacle.

It's no wonder you find yourself nursing a bit of a crush.

Not that you plan to tell anyone that though, not even Dong-cheon, especially not Dong-cheon. As much as you love your friend, he has a tendency to get rattled when it comes to Mr. Han, and then he’ll probably end up divulging your secret to the very object of your affections.

You chuckle at the thought. It's the type of thing that only happens in romantic comedies, but it's certainly an entertaining thought.

Part 2

[drivingsideways]

Kdrama women I love (Part 2)

 Part 1 (here)

Sorry, not sorry, I just can’t stop thinking about them!

Cha Soo-hyun from Signal: Imagine having a powerhouse like Kim Hye-soo on your cast and then saddling her with an awkward/tragic workplace romance in lieu of idk actual character development that happens ON SCREEN as opposed to off it. I mean, Signal is excellently made, but there’s no denying that Cha Soo-hyun got a raw-ish deal. I would have loved to see her grow into the badass cop she is when we meet her first, but most of her time onscreen is spent reacting to events set in motion by The Men, and just, like, why. In my head, the perfect fic for Cha Soo-hyun would cover the years after Lee Jae-han’s disappearance and before Park Hae-young’s entry; so much of her struggle in the early years was to be taken seriously as a cop, and I want to see her doing that without Lee Jae-han’s help. I would also NOT be opposed to a post canon OT3; it could be incredibly fun to write the tangled dynamics of that, especially now that Cha Soo-hyun isn’t the wide eyed rookie that Lee Jae-han knew, and Park Hae-young’s YEARNING to belong would neatly fold into what his sunbaes could offer. 

Ahn Young-yi from Misaeng: My god, this woman suffered in Misaeng. I just want the fic in which she lets herself be angry. I fully understand her choices in Misaeng- the tightrope that she’s walking in the hopes of survival- but I won’t deny that I felt robbed of the satisfaction of seeing her hurl a rock or three at the heads of her misogynist colleagues and boss. There’s probably a fic out there about how Young-yi starts to build her networks with the other women at One International, and how she climbs the ladder to power. I want this to be a story about women making space for the ones after them, and pulling them up with them. It’s the story she deserves, along with all the other women in that series, whose stories were sidelined to make space for The Men. 

Yoon Hee-soo from Into The Ring: That woman is going to be President in ten years and nobody will convince me otherwise. Love her pragmatism, her wicked, trollish sense of humour, her ambition and the fact that she cares deeply but isn’t performative about it. She’s the one I would trust to Get Things Done, just as I would trust Goo Se-ra to rock the comfortable status-quo. Together (and with the intrepid Gong-myung) they will CHANGE THE WORLD. Where’s the fic, world, where??? ( side-eyes self) ps. I hear there’s a season 2 in the works and if it doesn’t give me some version of this fic, I shall be very sad. 

Jang Ro-sa from Hospital Playlist : WHERE is the 70 episode show about the Life of Jang Ro-sa? I loved her from the first episode where she’s so matter-of-fact about her marriage of convenience; how on earth did she manage to raise a bunch of kids who ALL fell in love with God first and forever? Why didn’t she become a pianist? What are she and Jeong-su doing on that pilgrimage/ road trip ? I just want to know ALL of it. Someone write it * puppy face *

Kim Sang-sook from Into the Ring- Jang Hye-jin brings so much sparkling charm to her role as Se-ra’s mom, I just fell crazily in love with her. I just love how much she’s just herself and unfazed by other people’s opinions of her; i love that she fucks up on the regular but with STYLE. I think that’s a lovely trait that she’s passed on to her daughter- one that will carry her through her chosen life of MAKING THE WORLD BETTER. Anyways, where’s the fic where Sang-sook gets involved in some pyramid marketing scheme and Gong-myung has to bail her out of it and they both have to keep it secret from Se-ra and her dad? I demand this be put in my eyeballs AT ONCE. 

Do Hae-won from Beyond Evil: My god, a villain’s villain. Gil Hae-yeon puts the fear of the devil into you every time she slithers onto the screen with her weaponized cloying, subservient femininity. She seems so brittle, but beneath it is the hard rock of years of bitterness. The show doesn’t bother to do more than hint at the reasons why- because of course, female villains are never afforded the interiority of their male counterparts, or even chance for understanding- but I think Gil Hae-yeon manages to convey both her resentment at this world ruled by men and their rules. and her contempt for them as a class in every scene. I wonder how things would have been different- if they would have been- if she’d had a daughter, instead of a son. Anyways, an absolutely riveting performance, and I think that’s the only reason I am sort of tempted to contemplate a post canon fic for her. How does she survive jail? What does she do after? Who’s going to write it for me? (SIGH.)

Jung Geum-ja from Hyena- I don’t think a lot needs to be said about why Jung Geum-ja is literally one of the best female characters ever to be written in a kdrama. Kim Hye-soo is in her element in her role as this half-gangster/ half- vengeful angel, 100% unforgettable woman. Love to see sexpot Ju Ji-hoon fold like a pack of cards in the face of that unbearably sexy combination of wit, grit and panache; but ALSO love watching every woman in a radius of 5 kms faint from lust and longing to be her and be with her at the same time. Luckily for me, I don’t have to write any of the fic, everyone who’s watched the show just head over to Gin’s AO3 page and treat yourself. 

[bbugyu]

hi! could i request a jeonghan enemies (or friends that bicker a lot) to lovers? ty and i love ur writing !!

i am so glad you requested this because i have had this in the works for so long that i had to throw it into a case converter because it had capitalization and i was Not gonna finish it if i had to type it proper (i'm a fucking gremlin ok)

thank u for reading my work and thank u for giving me the perfect excuse to be hopelessly in love with jeonghan!!!!

falling + yoon jeonghan

finally, he thought. someone on his level. what’s the catch?

part one | part two

wc.10009 (fuckin oops) | fluff, humor, uni/coffeeshop/enemies to lovers au, gender neutral reader, slow burn, drinking, like lk too much drinking, swearing, throwing it back to sistar, copious argumentive flirting, everyone is MEAN but like in a funny way, bff!mingyu, it's your resident mingyuzi shipper, the only person more of a little shit than jeonghan is y/n

i used to be a barista and i would get exceptionally hateful towards customers for really stupid reasons and the only thing that could stop it is if they were really hot. this seems to hold great jeonghan energy. also i made y/n, like, mean as hell. like not actually mean but like. Mean. sorry. also all bars mentioned are real bars on capital hill in seattle that i love so if you recognize them that’s why. enjoy this enemies to lovers courtship.

*

you were pretentious, jeonghan thought. you acted like you were better than everyone else, and he hated that he had yet to find a reason to call you wrong.

he saw you almost every day during the week, between the class you shared on tuesdays and thursdays, and the cafe he worked in that you frequented to study. your demeanor was always polite, but what most people would describe as cold. you had caught his attention the first day of the semester, something about you seemed familiar, but he couldn't place it until he made your coffee the next day. you usually sat in the row in front of him, a few seats over, and he would chew on his cheek and wonder how you could sit back in your chair, arms crossed and eyes hardly opened, but still get the highest essay scores in the class. at the end of lecture, after he was done spending all his brain power stewing about your ability to succeed in visual culture without really trying, he would text his friend that took the class last quarter and ask, panic stricken, if he still had his notes, the irony of the situation completely lost on him.

at the cafe, you would come in, order an americano, and sit yourself in a well lit corner to work on your classes for a few hours, the coffee mostly undisturbed on the table beside your favorite armchair, then leave. there was never a smile on your face, and you were always alone. jeonghan watched the ice in your americano melt, watering down the coffee he made. maybe he had let the shots of espresso sit too long before saving them. maybe he let them burn on purpose just to see the face you made. but alas, you hadn't even put the metal straw to your lips. he wondered why you even ordered a coffee if you weren’t going to reap the benefit.

joshua spotted him leaning against the counter as he came out of the kitchen and laughed, setting down the freshly washed milk pitchers. “ask them out.”

he stood up straight. “why?”

“why not? you clearly like them.”

“i really don’t,” jeonghan laughed. “you’re crazy for thinking i do.”

joshua rolled his eyes. “no one spends as much time as you do staring at another person if they don’t find them at least a little attractive. have you ever even talked to them? outside of taking their order?”

he hesitated. “no?”

“so what if they’re actually really wonderful and you have a lot in common?”

“as if.”

“wow,” joshua said, leaning against the counter. “i can’t believe yoon jeonghan is afraid to talk to his crush.”

jeonghan shoved his friend's shoulder, giving him a look. “absolutely not. i'm 99% sure they're a pretentious asshole.”

he crossed his arms. “what does that make you?”

“shut up.”

“whatever, han. i’m just saying it’s kind of pretentious to hate someone solely because they don’t smile wide enough for you when they’re saying thanks.”

“it’s not that hard!” jeonghan said, maybe a little too loud. “i don’t wanna smile either, shua! but i do it! so can they!!”

joshua laughed. “lower your voice and go say hi, you freak.”

much to his chagrin, jeonghan got shoved towards your spot in the cafe with the front of the tables needing to get wiped down. he looked at joshua and seokmin with a furrowed brow as he wrung the towel, both of them giving him thumbs ups with wide grins. begrudgingly, he slowly made his way over to you.

“hey,” jeonghan said, doing his best to project something other than the absolute turmoil going on inside his head. you looked up from your textbook, pulling the earbud out of your ear. “why don’t you drink the coffee?”

you furrowed your brow and looked at your untouched americano. “i- uh, what?”

“you never drink the coffee,” he repeated, nodding at the glass. “why do you get it anyways?”

you blinked up at him. “are you offended that i’m not drinking your coffee?”

he almost laughed at the look of disbelief you were giving him. “no, i just don’t get why you waste the money here if you don’t even need the caffeine.”

“it’s cheaper to buy an americano than it is to rent a stall at a study cafe,” you said, habitually hitting save on your notes document. “why are you so worried about me, yoon jeonghan?”

he faltered, surprised. “you know me?”

“nametag,” you didn't miss a beat, pointing at his chest and giggling. “do you know me?”

jeonghan’s lip twitched, feeling almost embarrassed by not thinking of his own nametag, and definitely not an involuntary reaction to seeing you smile for the first time. “uh, yeah. we have a class together,” he said as casually as possible as he folded the washcloth in his hands. “visual culture.”

you nodded, looking into space for a moment. “hmm. weren’t you also in child psych with professor moon last winter?”

he blinked back at you. “yeah? you were in that class?”

you nodded, holding in a laugh. “yeah, yoon jeonghan. i was. head in the clouds?”

for some reason, the way you said his full name made his ears heat up. “maybe you were easy to forget,” he said dismissively, even though you both knew that wasn't the case. “isn’t it better to study in a library? that one’s free.”

“there’s never any open tables at the library,” you said, unfurling your legs and sitting straight, textbook in your lap. “and the chairs are uncomfortable, unlike this armchair. and people usually don’t bother me here.”

jeonghan sighed. “well, if you’re insistent on going to a cafe, there’s one down the street with a better espresso bean and it’s less busy. less people to bother you and a better tasting americano that you won’t drink.”

you cocked your head, closing your laptop. “is that an invitation?”

and for the first time, you saw jeonghan stutter. “n-no? just a suggestion. i think it’s cheaper, too-”

“don’t you work here?” you asked, eyes shining. “shouldn’t you be happy i’m wasting my money here?”

he eyed you, beginning to turn his body to leave the conversation. “do whatever you want. i’m not your dad.”

you grinned, leaning forward in your chair. “are you busy after class tomorrow?”

“why?”

“i need you to show me where this cafe is.”

jeonghan sighed. “can’t you just look it up? cafe nomu.” he wrote the characters with his finger in the air. “no-mu. use naver.”

“i get lost easily,” you said, standing up. jeonghan wondered if you were telling the truth. “we can go together?”

jeonghan watched you pack up your things, confused. “why?”

you paused, looking at him. “why not?”

he was getting real sick of people asking him why not.

“did i drive you away?” he asked instead, nodding at your now packed bag.

“no, i was headed out soon anyways.” you swung the bag over your shoulder and picked up the untouched americano. “do you want this?”

jeonghan couldn’t help but scoff as you handed him the glass that had been the subject of his staring all afternoon. “you can't be serious.”

you grinned and patted his shoulder. “i’m y/n, by the way. i’ll see you in class?”

he squinted at you as you walked away, suddenly confused by the quick succession of questions you had thrown back and forth. you were cute, sure, and his distaste for you was misplaced, perhaps, but he couldn't help the annoyance that bubbled up in him as you sauntered out of the cafe like you had won a debate. he walked back to the counter and set down the americano, an excited seokmin waiting for him.

“so?” he grabbed the glass and dumped it in the sink behind the counter. “how’d it go?”

jeonghan looked at the door you had left out of. “i think i just got asked out.”

“what?” seokmin’s hands made fists in front of him while he grinned. “y/n did? are you serious? you said yes, right?”

“not really,” he replied, looking back at the younger and exhaling deeply. “but i don’t think i can avoid it.”

you had known of yoon jeonghan for a while. a class here and there, a few mutual friends, and of course at the cafe. but the night you learned his name really stuck out to you, when he had been singing at a karaoke bar right after finals last quarter.

it was common to celebrate the end of finals week with partying and drinking, and your friends had invited you out to barhop until the sun came up. you started at a dance club, had way too much rum at a hula themed place, took tequila shots at a gay bar, then landed at a karaoke bar with a can of beer in your fist and a grin on your face. your friends liked to sing, so you had fun encouraging them to get on the slightly raised stage and show their chops. 

“no, no, no,” mingyu said, grabbing your hands as you tried to push him towards the dj. “no way, i recognize the names on the list. there’s real singers here.”

you looked at the screen that displayed the queue. “what do you mean? who?”

“that guy,” mingyu said, pointing at the screen easily, despite you having to crane your neck to even view it. “no way. he’s in jihoon’s band, i’m not following that guy.”

“hangguk’s angel yoon jeonghan,” you read, squinting. “sounds like a pretentious asshole.”

mingyu laughed. “wait til you hear his voice, you’ll see how he got the name.”

"y/n's right," jun interjected, leaning heavily against the standing table your quad squad had claimed, pouring more soju for himself and whoever would claim the other glass. "he is a pretentious asshole."

you pointed at him, brows raised at mingyu. "jun is never wrong."

mingyu rolled his eyes. "pretentious assholes can still sound like angels."

“where the fuck have you been,” you asked, startled by your third and final friend suddenly appearing beside you.

“around,” vernon said, sipping at the nondescript brown liquid in his glass through a bright pink straw. he laughed when you quirked an eyebrow at him. “soonyoung’s here with his posse, he caught me while i was getting another drink.”

“see!” mingyu shook your shoulder, nearly choking after downing jun’s companion shot. “i told you! jihoon’s band.”

you whacked his bicep. “who cares? just go queue a rap song or something, you pussy.”

the singers cycled through and you cheered on many of your fellow drunk university students as they sang with no remorse. jun dragged you onto the tiny dancefloor and forced you to help him hype up soonyoung - his dance team captain - as he screamed along to hurricane. then one of vernon's friends performed a near flawless rendition of shake it by sistar after yelling something about bringing the summer to this cold winter night, earning him a cheering and dancing crowd, and you had known far more of the choreo than you had thought. mingyu was whooping and hollering at you playfully every time you threw your ass out to the song, and he only got louder when jun and vernon did their best to follow along with you, and you had almost forgotten about the name that everyone insisted was to be feared.

“that guy?” you asked, the self-proclaimed angel stepping onto the stage. you recognized him immediately. “that’s my barista.”

mingyu made a noise that almost resembled whistling, if he had been capable of doing so. “i should start studying with you next quarter.”

and when he sang, it clicked. despite the tonal difference, you couldn't help but become enthralled by his voice. gyu was right. pretentious assholes could still sound like angels, and perhaps that was by design.

his voice drifted through your head again when you noticed him in your visual culture class, seated and giggling at his phone on the first day of the quarter. 

"you have another class with him?" mingyu groaned a week later, walking beside you. "why you? why aren’t there hot guys in my major?"

"because pre-med kids are too busy to be hot."

he gave you a look. "damn, okay. like, you're not wrong, but damn."

you rolled your eyes. "don't act like you don't love being the pre-med heartthrob. you would be pissed if you had competition."

"anyways, are you gonna ask him out?"

you pause at the stop light to wait for your turn to cross, turning towards him. "why would i do that?"

“because he’s hangguk’s angel yoon jeong-honey voice,” mingyu said, moving his head as he dramatically pronounced each syllable in your face. “if you’re not already in love with him, you will be soon, and it sounds like fate's trying to bring you together. didn’t you say he’s your barista?”

you rolled your eyes. “yeah, and his americanos suck now. i don’t even drink it when he makes them anymore.”

he looked at you with a cocked eyebrow. “what the hell? why do you still go there, then?”

you pouted. “it’s quiet and there’s a comfy armchair.”

weeks passed, and you continued to spot jeonghan in your class when you arrived, hearing the faint sound of his singing voice in your head. when he took your order at the cafe, he had a vague snottiness to his voice, and while you absolutely believed that this was the same person as the one you saw sing a soft love ballad with a sobering intensity at two in the morning, you still struggled to connect it to the one you watched run off the stage, immediately curling into himself and laughing with his friends in embarrassment.

you became more and more fascinated by yoon jeonghan as time passed, but his americanos continued to suck. so when he suggested a cafe with better espresso, you lit up. and when he got flustered, letting down his guard unintentionally, you lit up even more. that was the drunk, embarrassed boy you had seen, pink faced and giggling as he hid behind his friends.

jeonghan sat in his usual seat in class, anxiously glancing up at the door every time a group of people entered the lecture hall. when you arrived, your usual minute before the turn of the hour, he rubbed his palms against his sweats. the sweats that he had worn with the specific intention of making sure you didn't think he was trying too hard to look nice around you. despite that fact, part of him still felt annoyed that you were also dressed down, swimming in a hoodie several sizes too big for you. he tried to make sense of the sudden nerves he had, but not once did he consider they were because he thought you were disgustingly adorable.

instead of taking your usual spot, you marched right up to jeonghan’s table and grinned. “is this seat taken?”

he blinked at you. “yes.”

you laughed and slid into the seat beside him anyways, ignoring the dagger stare from a girl across the room that usually sat beside jeonghan silently. “you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“how do you expect me to react? you’ve never even smiled at me before yesterday.”

shrugging, you put your bag on the table and leaned back in your seat, assuming your usual position for this particular class. “you didn’t deserve it before yesterday.”

jeonghan wanted to argue with you, but the professor cleared his throat and introduced the subject of the lecture.

after only ten minutes, jeonghan could have sworn he heard you snoring. he poked your shoulder with his pen.

you looked over at him, eyebrow quirked. you mouthed a “what” at him.

he exhaled suddenly, mouth forming a vague smile more in disbelief than from being entertained. he seemed annoyed with you, despite the fact that he was the one interrupting your allocated meditation time. he leaned forward, turning his body towards you and spoke in a hushed tone. “how can you do that every day and still be top of the class?”

you mirrored his body language, leaning forward over the desk and resting your cheek on a fist, speaking in the same hushed tone. “visual culture is subjective. as long as you understand the concept; i-e, how we as humans visually design the world around us and how that becomes an important aspect of our place in nature, in the universe, in existence, etcetera; then you can write about literally anything. my last essay was about skate parks. the more opinionated the essay, the better score you get.” you pointed a finger at the man speaking at the front of the class. “i watched the prof’s ted talk before the quarter started - every lecture is just a regurgitation of the same concepts. it’s an easy a, as long as you have strong opinions.”

jeonghan stared at you for what felt like an eternity. “you do seem like you have strong opinions.”

“and you don’t, yoon jeonghan?”

he supposed he couldn’t argue with that, but it still frustrated him to no end that you had found some kind of loophole that he had missed. you gamed the system better than he could, and he had been stuck pouring over his friend’s notes from the previous quarter and bullshitting some essays about architecture that he didn't give a shit about. and so, instead of spending his whole class stewing like he normally did, he decided to waste no time adopting your approach, pulling his sweatshirt hood over his head and catching up on some missed sleep. when he woke up again, it was to your prodding finger.

“what time is it,” he said immediately, squinting at his surroundings. he suddenly remembered he was in class as he saw fellow students packing up their things and filing out. he looked at you, blinking at your grinning face.

“time for coffee,” you said, tugging on the drawstrings of the light blue hoodie he wore. “did you have any sweet dreams?”

jeonghan shoved his blank notebook into the tote bag he used for classes and stood. “of course not.”

“i did,” you said, throwing your bag over your shoulder and following him down the hall steps. “i dreamt you paid at the cafe.”

he turned, eyeing your shiteating grin from behind his hood. “yeah, keep dreaming.”

“worth a shot,” you said, trotting down beside him. “so, what’s your major, yoon jeonghan?”

he rolled his eyes, almost forgetting about your habit of calling him by his full name. “do you really care?”

“what else are we gonna talk about, my drinking problem?”

despite himself, jeonghan laughed, looking over at you as you left the lecture hall. “maybe! how bad is it?”

you grinned, feeling successful from making him break his serious persona. “wouldn’t you like to know.”

he clicked his tongue, pushing open the doors of the social studies building. “no fun.”

“you’ll have to invite me to a bar next time,” you said, following after him out the door into the sunshine that cascaded over the quad. it was a beautiful spring day, but a bit chilly, and you shoved your hands into your sweatshirt pocket.

“hmm,” jeonghan said, letting his blue hood fall off his head as he stretched in the sun. “i only really go to one bar.”

you watched him bask for a moment, wondering how many sides of him you had yet to see. his hair was dark, but the lighter chocolate tones reflected in the sun. “bet i can guess which one.”

jeonghan paused on the sidewalk, making you walk ahead of him a couple steps before you turned towards him questioningly. “okay, yeah. guess. you won’t get it.”

you size him up a moment, taking his words as a challenge. “if i guess right, you buy coffee?”

he exhaled, an amused smile on his face. “why are you so obsessed with me buying you coffee?”

“it tastes better free.”

“okay, fine. but if you’re wrong, you buy.”

you groaned. “do you know how many bars are in this city? that doesn’t seem fair.”

jeonghan resumed walking, gesturing for you to guess. “i’ll give you three tries.”

you chewed your cheek, trying to conceal your sly grin. “okay, three tries. deal?”

he nodded. you made it way too easy for him to win. “deal.”

“let me think.” jeonghan watched your feet fall easily into step beside him. “what bar has a stupid gimmick you would be into... pie bar?”

he shook his head, almost laughing at your teasing. “i’ve been there before, but it's not really my thing.”

you exhaled sharply. “shouldn’t that count for a stick of gum or something?” jeonghan laughed, insisting that this was an all or nothing situation. “then i give up.”

“you can’t give up!” jeonghan said. “you said deal. no going back.”

“fine," you pouted. "why can't i remember any bar names? uhh, r place?”

he stopped. “the gay club?”

you stopped, looking at him expectantly. “well?”

jeonghan laughed as he walked again. “no, not r place. jesus. you have one last chance. i’m really excited to order something expensive today.”

you chewed your cheek. “where would someone like yoon jeonghan go to drink… hanguk’s angel yoon jeonghan…”

he stopped in his tracks. “what did you just say?”

you tapped on your chin with a finger, arms crossed. “yoon jeong-honey voice… where would someone like him go? maybe… a karaoke bar?”

“hey, hey-” jeonghan pointed at you accusingly. “are you serious? you’ve seen me?”

“hmm,” you continued, laughing as you avoided his gaze. “oh, i know! the rockbox!”

“yah!” jeonghan was laughing, pointing at you in disbelief. “what the hell! this isn’t fair!”

“you said deal, no going back.” you grinned in victory. “wow, maybe i’ll order something expensive. i can’t believe i won.”

jeonghan’s tongue ran over his teeth as he watched you giggle and happily trot ahead of him. “fine, fine. you win. when did you see me there?”

“after winter finals,” you said, cheesing. “i was there with friends and you sang.”

he tutted. “damn. did i just miss you or did you not sing?”

“i don’t sing,” you said, smiling as he continued walking with you. “my friends do, though. and i was forced to be in soonyoung’s hype squad for hurricane.”

jeonghan clapped suddenly, remembering in his perhaps too drunk stupor that seungcheol had pointed you out, calling you “the cutie that keeps looking at him.” he had, admittedly, checked you out, despite the fact that he had been too embarrassed by his too-serious song to go and talk to you, and he had thought you looked familiar. “oh my god! yes! i did see you! how do you know soonyoung?”

“mutual friends,” you said. “chwe hansol?

he nodded. “we’ve met once, i think. were you there with junhui?”

“yeah, actually,” you said, remembering the opinion of jeonghan your friend had volunteered up for you. “how do you know him?”

“i haven’t talked to him a lot directly, but i know both his roommates pretty well,” jeonghan said. "we do music together.”

“ah, yes,” you nodded in recollection, but refusing to acknowledge how insanely pretentious it was of him to say something like we do music together. “jihoon’s unnamed but immensely prolific band.”

he rolled his eyes. “why is it jihoon’s band? why can’t it be jeonghan’s band?”

“don’t ask me,” you said, putting up hands in innocence. “i didn’t even know it existed until that night. mingyu wouldn’t shut up about it.”

the name sounded familiar to jeonghan, but he moved on as the two of you reached a stop light. “do you go there a lot? or was that a one time thing?”

you eyed him. “this is starting to sound like an invitation, hannie.”

he didn’t comment on the nickname, despite the weird way his arms tingled at it. “you should learn what an invitation actually sounds like. you tend to assume a lot.”

you laughed heartily, and jeonghan ignored the way his stomach flitted while you started to cross the street. “call it wishful thinking, but i think i get you, yoon jeonghan.”

“the hell is that supposed to mean?”

you never answered his question, but grinned instead, which gave jeonghan a sense of unease and a touch of curiosity. as he led you to cafe nomu, he caught himself smiling. laughing. enjoying your company and conversation.

maybe shua hadn’t been completely off base.

by the time jeonghan had realized that his feelings towards you might have evolved from vague malice into something more akin to genuine interest, he was pushing open the door to the cafe for you and mentally double checking that he had put on deodorant that morning, cursing his inability to control his own nerves. ah, he thought. that explained the weird feeling he got waiting for you in class, too. and why he got flustered the day before at his work. he only snapped out of his crowded mind when he heard you ordering an iced americano.

“and for you?”

jeonghan blinked at you, then at the barista that was addressing him. “make that two.”

“thank you for the coffee,” you said, pressing your hands together as he inserted his card.

he waved you off, chuckling, but kept his eyes as far from yours as he could. “a deal is a deal.”

you looked around the quiet cafe, quickly scoping out the seat options as jeonghan accepted the buzzer for your order. he thought it was a little silly, considering the two of you were half of the customers in the cafe currently, but said nothing as he turned it over in his fingers, standing next to you.

“there?” you asked, pointing at a table by a window.

jeonghan bit his cheek, thinking about how joshua would likely be walking down this street to go to his shift, if he had one. “yeah, wherever.”

you were already on your way to the seat when he responded, and he followed, dropping his bag off his shoulder to hang on the hook under the table.

“i thought you were going to get something expensive,” he teased, sitting across from you.

laughing lightly, you pulled your phone out of your hoodie pocket and set it on the table. “you said the espresso was good, i wanted to try it.”

“don’t you not like coffee?” jeonghan asked, squinting at you.

“i love coffee,” you said, quirking an eyebrow.

“then why don’t you drink the americanos i make?”

he was leaning forward, staring at you, fingers folding over each other on the table. you pouted, avoiding his eyes suddenly. “no reason.”

leaning back again, he kept a wary eye on you. “that’s convincing.”

“good, it’s the truth.”

jeonghan decided to put a pin in that interrogation in favor of asking you your major.

you laughed again, making a small smile appear on his face. "communications," you answered, despite thinking of how he denied the same question from you earlier.

he let out a low "wah" and cocked his head. "what's up with that? same major."

"really?" you leaned over the table. "what year are you?"

"third."

you put a peace sign next to your eye like you were posing for a photo. "second."

you couldn't help but giggle at the "pfft" that spilled out of jeonghan's lips as he laughed at you, muttering a "really" under his breath at your pose. he was running a hand through his extremely soft and fluffy looking hair when the buzzer went off, and you blinked yourself awake from your trance to nod after he said he would go get the drinks. 

admitting to it was the last thing you wanted, but you couldn’t help but hear mingyu’s voice rattling around your head, telling you that you would fall for jeonghan eventually. you had once thought he was completely up his own ass, but you kept getting glimpses of this really cute, really sweet version of him, and it made you want to get to know him better. additionally, it was getting harder to find people that would happily play along with your teasing, and he had no qualms teasing you right back.

when he returned with the americanos, you pressed your hands together in another thank you before taking a sip. he slid back into his seat and looked at you expectantly. "well? what do you think?"

you paused a moment, appraising the flavor. "delicious. thank you."

after he sipped at his own, he nodded. "the beans here are really good. balanced. i wish i could convince my boss to source better stuff."

you watched him sip again, letting out a praise under his breath. you sighed. "i have a confession."

his eyebrows quirked at you, and he did his best to not show the way his stomach flipped. "what kind?"

"i don't drink your americanos because they're shit."

there was silence as he processed your words, and you wondered if you had royally fucked up by saying something. suddenly, he was laughing, and you stared at him in shock as he calmed down. "oh my god, yeah, they are."

"wait, you know?"

"i-" jeonghan paused, rubbing his face, still laughing. "god, this is so stupid. i burn your shots."

your jaw dropped open, but a smile creeped across your face as you understood. "wait, on purpose?"

"you never smile!" he attempted to explain himself with a bit too much enthusiasm, finding his own pettiness ridiculous in hindsight. "not even when i smiled at you. i had a grudge. i'm sorry."

you were sipping your non-burnt americano with a sly look on your face. you wanted to be mad at the wasted money on countless gross americanos, but somehow, you couldn't be. "do you hold grudges against everyone or am i just lucky?"

"uh, depends," jeonghan said, crossing his arms and thinking. "when the prof that failed my roommate comes in, i burn his shots, too. i think he might like it that way, though, because he's always really nice to me."

you almost snorted. "well, you owe me a lot of coffee."

he nodded and sighed, resigning to his fate. "when you come in, your coffee's on me. and i won't burn it this time."

you pouted a second, and jeonghan barely caught it, but he thought the expression was far too cute. "i was hoping you would invite me out again."

"again?" he asked, letting a few 'ha's fall from his lips in quick succession. "you mean for the first time?"

you gestured to the cafe you sat in. "was this not your idea?"

he rolled his eyes. "you invited yourself out and held me hostage."

"does that mean you have stockholms?"

he laughed at the diagnosis, remembering the class you claimed you had both taken the year before. "you're a very charming captor."

you smiled at the compliment, despite the sinister implication.

the next time you saw jeonghan, it was saturday. you had rolled out of bed far earlier than you had intended to when you had fallen asleep at 4 am after a very drunk and extremely conflict heavy game of uno with the guys. you winced at the sunlight streaming through your shitty dorm blinds, fumbling your way to the water dispenser on your desk to rehydrate.

you stared at your roommate's empty bed, remembering they had said they worked early shifts this weekend as you brushed your teeth, and you wondered how they had dealt with you stumbling into the dorm in the wee hours of the day.

you almost gagged on your toothbrush. an empty room on a saturday morning with too little sleep and a nasty hangover, you thought. bad decisions could never be made under these circumstances.

"does jeonghan's cafe do breakfast sandwiches?" you thought aloud with a mouth full of toothpaste, leaning over the sink to spit. you kind of remembered seeing them on the menu, though you never thought to get anything beyond the occasional muffin. maybe today was the day.

after washing your face and cleaning up your hair a bit, you had to dig in your clothes to find your favorite pair of black sweats and a shirt to tuck in. you last minute decided to bring your good headphones, just in case hanguk's angel wasn't there to bug, and ran out the door with your wallet and phone, a pair of sunglasses shoved onto your face.

the walk to his cafe is short from the dorms you lived in, which was another reason you liked it there. it was warmer than it had been during the week, and you watched a big muscular dog running alongside its owner. before long, you were tugging open the door, seeing no line. you grinned at how lucky you were as you pulled your headphones down to your neck.

"yoon jeonghan! you are working!"

he seemed startled by your voice, his shoulders raising slightly as he turned towards the door. "oh, what the hell? what are you doing here at 9:30 on a saturday?"

you pouted, walking up to the counter and tugging off your sunglasses. "are you not happy to see me?"

his laugh was genuine and completely out of his control. "sure i am. nice eyebags."

that, you noted, was the first time jeonghan had ever greeted you with a smile, and it seemed appropriate that it was paired with an insult. "thanks, i'm violently hungover right now." you said, noticing your best friend's roommate standing further back behind the counter, pretty obviously pretending to not be listening to you.

"do you wanna redeem a free americano?" he asked, poking at the touchscreen register.

you hummed, crossing your arms and staring at the menu board. "not today, i wanna try a latte. something tasty, and something for breakfast. what do you think?"

jeonghan stared at you, and you stared back, a small smile on your face. he blinked. "have you ever tried lavender?"

"lavender?" you shook your head, genuinely surprised. "is that a good flavor?"

he nodded, looking down at the screen and adding items to your order. "we have this seasonal syrup that we make in house," he said. "it's my favorite one of the year. honey, lavender, and vanilla bean. big one?"

you blinked at the cup sizes, trying to remember how many bottles of soju you had bought the night before, and subsequently how much money was left in your account. "uh, yeah."

"will you be offended if i give you a vegetarian sandwich? it's the best one."

you cocked your head. "i mean, if it's the best one…"

jeonghan smiled slightly, pulling out his wallet from his back pocket. "it's the best one. and it's my secret hangover cure."

you noticed his card too late. "hey, what are you doing?"

he quirked an eyebrow at you. "buying your coffee. like i said i would."

"that was way more than an americano."

"and i've burned way more than an americano," jeonghan reminded you. "and if you don't accept that, i'm buying you breakfast as a peace offering."

your eyebrows raised. "a peace offering?" 

he avoided your gaze. "i've decided you're not a pretentious asshole."

you laughed at his word choice, and how it mirrored your own. "i mean, i can be kind of pretentious sometimes. and a major asshole a lot of the time."

jeonghan grinned. "me too."

he washed his hands and passed along the sandwich order to his coworker as he moved to the espresso machine, briefly explaining to you that he was completely useless with food as soon as a heat source becomes involved, but assured you that seokmin was a master with a turbochef, and that your sandwich was in the best hands.

you giggled, watching his hands as he found a squeeze bottle and shot the contents into a glass. "i trust you."

his eyes flicked to you briefly, and you leaned against the drink pickup counter, squinting at the syrup. he held the glass that would soon be your drink up for you. "see the specs? real vanilla."

you hummed. "it smells good."

"it tastes like sunshine, i swear to god."

your eyes followed his hands as he expertly filled and packed the portafilter with fresh grounds. he felt you watching him, and did his best to suppress the itch to fumble. you watched him not burn your shots, stirring them with the syrup and pouring milk from a jug. he added ice, put a metal straw in the tall glass, then placed it on the counter in front of you.

you made sure to smile when you told him thank you, and jeonghan was pretty sure he would have collapsed from how cute he found you if he had slightly less resolve. 

"veggie sando for… y/n?" seokmin announced to the cafe, eyes creasing into a laugh as he appeared with a plate.

you gave seokmin a nervous smile. "sorry for staying over so late. i didn't know you worked this morning."

jeonghan looked between you suspiciously as seokmin assured you it was fine, claiming he was knocked out by midnight and didn't even know when you left. who did seokmin live with again? jeonghan chewed on his cheek as he put your drink and sandwich on a tray.

your eyes flicked over to the front counter as a few customers entered the cafe, seokmin already heading over to greet them and begin the order. you tried not to let your disappointment show when you told jeonghan you should probably let him get back to work. he tried to not let his show, either, when he nodded in agreement. neither of you did a great job.

"someone's clocking on in half an hour, i can take a break then. don't leave?"

his almost pleading tone made your lip twitch upward. "don't act so clingy, hannie."

he grinned, then stopped you before you picked up the tray. "first- hang on," he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and unlocking it, quickly going to the keypad as he looked over his shoulder at the customers. "give me your number."

your eyes met his briefly as you took the phone, quickly punching in your digits and tapping to add yourself to his contacts. he smiled at the profile name - "americano" - as you picked up your tray and headed to your favorite armchair. even as he was making other drinks and serving other customers, he couldn't take his eyes off you, sitting in your armchair with your headphones on. it had only been two days since he saw you last, but he hadn't thought of anything but you the entire time. he had almost considered asking shua to swap shifts with him so he could have a chance of seeing you the day before, but he knew his coworker would refuse to take the saturday opening shift. he spent his whole afternoon off sitting on the couch in his apartment, staring at the back of his roommate's chair, trying to figure out why he didn't ask for your number.

"hey," jihoon said, and jeonghan had only then noticed that his roommate had spun his tall cushioned chair around to look back at him. "i said, do you know when seungcheol invited people around tomorrow?"

jeonghan stared at him for a second, then sighed dramatically, rubbing his eye. 

"woah," the younger laughed and leaned back in his seat. "who'd you sleep with last night? i need to warn them you're crazy."

"no one," jeonghan pouted. "what the hell? i'm not crazy."

"hyung, i say this with the most respect i can," he said, leaning forward. "you're batshit, especially when you catch feelings for a one night stand."

"ugh, whatever," jeonghan pushed the pillow off his lap and ran a hand through his hair. "we didn't even do anything."

jihoon squinted at him a moment. "okay, hang on, i feel like our definitions of not doing anything are different."

he rolled his eyes. "we didn't do anything," he repeated, standing from the couch and walking over to the kitchen to get water. "like, nothing. we didn't even touch each other. not once."

jihoon looked around, trying to understand what he meant. "i'm confused. you didn't touch your one night stand?"

"it wasn't a one night stand!" jeonghan threw a dagger glare at the other before he drank his water, muttering a "really" beneath his breath.

jihoon's face didn't change. "so… you went on a date?"

jeonghan swallowed the water hard, putting the glass down on the counter and leaning against it. "kinda."

"you are really not making this easy for me at all."

"we got coffee," he said finally. "we have a class together, and we made a stupid bet over who would pay, and they fucking tricked me, so i had to pay for it and we talked for, like, a stupid long time, and i think i actually really…" he exhaled, both hands rubbing his face. "i think i really like them."

jihoon whistled. "i just wanna say before the moment passes that it is incredibly on brand for you to fall for someone because they conned you into buying them coffee."

jeonghan glared at the younger, but he couldn't argue. "we got coffee and talked and then they just…" his palms faced the sky as he gestured, shoulders raised. "they just left. i didn't even get their number."

"okay, and?" jihoon swivelled back and forth in his chair. "you have a class together. you'll literally see them next week."

he groaned, pressing his forehead against the fridge. "but i wanna see them now."

and now, he was seeing you. much sooner than he had expected, yet not soon enough. the saturday morning rush began to pick up, and even when an additional barista arrived, jeonghan wondered if he would actually be able to slip away for a break.

"go ahead," seokmin said, grabbing the steamed milk pitcher from his hand. "me and hyejoo can handle it for a minute."

jeonghan looked at the shrinking line and nodded, quickly pulling off his apron as he walked around the counter. he knew he didn't have a lot of time, and pulling up a chair seemed silly, so he instead just squatted and folded his arms over the arm of your favorite seat.

you looked up from your phone at the motion, pulling your headphones off and grinning. "hey! the drink is delicious and extremely not burnt."

he smiled, noticing it was almost gone. "i'm glad! it's still busy, so i can't really take a proper break, but i wanted to ask you something."

you squinted at him. "what kind of something?"

"do you have plans tonight?"

"depends," you said, turning your body to face him better as you sucked on your cheek. "what's going on?"

jeonghan exhaled, amused. "my roommate is having people over for a few drinks or something, it'd be cool if you came by?"

you looked at a light, gauging the state of your hangover. your voice almost cracked when you asked "tonight?"

"you don't have to drink," he said, remembering what you had told him earlier. "and you can, like, bring a friend if you want. i know it's weird that i'm inviting you to my place."

you thought a moment. "don't you live with lee jihoon?"

jeonghan blinked. "uh, yeah?"

"i'll bring a friend," you said, tapping your fingers on the back of your phone. you looked back to him and smiled. "text me details?"

jeonghan stood. "yeah, i'll text you," he said, glancing up at the door where more customers were walking in. "fuck, i should go."

you followed his gaze. "i think i'll stick to weekdays. this place gets crazy on the weekends."

"tell me about it." he started to walk back to the counter. "i'll talk to you later?"

you smiled and nodded at him, and you waved enthusiastically at him as you were headed out about ten minutes later.

"i'm still waiting for a text," you teased, peeking over the counter as he made a drink.

he laughed. "i'll get to it when i get to it."

"thanks for the sandwich, seokmin! it was delicious!"

seokmin waved at you with a big grin and you looked back at jeonghan.

"i'll see you tonight?"

he nodded, a smug smile teasing his lips. "yeah, i'll see you tonight."

you didn't show the way your stomach flipped when he made eye contact with you, but you slid your sunglasses back on and put your headphones back on your head, and walked to the rhythm of love songs in the sun on your way to your friend's apartment, a stupid childish giggle threatening to surface the entire time.

"hey, is mingoo around?"

minghao blinked at you, standing at his front door with a smile on your face. "dude, you left like four hours ago. what are you even doing here."

"uh, no, myungho, i left like seven hours ago, get it right." he let you walk past him into the apartment. "is he still asleep?"

"is that actually a question?"

you trotted into mingyu's room, humming along to the song playing through the headphones around your neck as you pulled open his blinds.

"god, what the fuck," his rough voice went behind you. "the hell is wrong with you. go home."

"that's not a very nice way to treat the person that's gonna set you up with your future ex-husband."

mingyu's hair stuck in several different directions and his eyes were still squeezed shut, but he had pushed himself off his pillow enough for you to know you caught his attention. "which one?"

you grinned. "the one with the pretty voice."

"wait," mingyu fumbled with his comforter as he tried to sit up. "wait, hang on. jihoon?" you laughed and nodded as he sniffed noisily. "he is not my future ex-husband, y/n. he's it. he's the one that's gonna make an honest woman out of me."

"well, lady, get ready to be honest, because i got an invite to a kickback at his apartment tonight and i snagged a plus one."

he squinted at you. "what's the catch?"

you rolled your eyes. "there isn't always a catch. maybe i'm just trying to be nice."

"yeah, uh huh." mingyu flopped back onto his bed, rubbing his eyes. "why didn't you just text me or something? it's so early."

"it's like, barely morning."

"it's ten."

you exhaled. "it's 11:17, asshole. are you going with me or not?"

mingyu groaned and flopped around, his head aching from the drinks that had stopped too recently. "when?"

"uhh," you stalled as you checked your phone. no new messages. "not sure yet. i'm waiting on a text."

he squinted at you. "who's texting you? soonyoung?"

you shrugged. "sure."

"oh my god, it's jeonghan, isn't it?"

"whaaaaaat?" you deadpanned, walking over to mingyu's bed to sit on the edge, staring at your phone. "why would i be waiting on a text from that loser?"

"i knew you were acting stupid yesterday for a reason," he accused. "and you asked jun what his deal was. you like him, don't you? what did he do? did he corner you?"

"absolutely not," you said, sighing and throwing your phone down on his bed, slightly offended by him saying you were acting stupid but truly not being able to remember if he was wrong. "i cornered him, at his workplace, no less. then i made him buy me coffee. then i showed up to his workplace, again, incredibly hungover, and he still asked for my number."

mingyu's lips formed a pout as he hummed, rubbing his eye again. "never would have pegged jeonghan as the simping type, but sure."

"shut up," you laughed, and mingyu whined about whether or not you had washed your hands when you plopped your palm against his face. he pushed your wrists away. "do you still have that bottle of white wine?"

"you mean the one hao refuses to drink even though i spent good money on it for his fucking birthday? yeah, why?"

you grabbed your phone again, despite it not vibrating. "it'd probably make a good first impression if you bring a nice bottle to the kickback you were last minute invited to. i bet jihoon will be so impressed by your manners."

mingyu blinked heavily. "you're devious. what about you?"

"i don't need a good first impression," you said. "i already made an awful one and he still likes me."

he sighed. "you always have been a charming dickhead."

you grinned at your best friend. "thanks, babe."

mingyu groaned against his palms. "god, fuck, i was supposed to study for my exam today."

you clicked your tongue. "that sucks dick."

"you suck dick."

you pouted out your lips when you got a text from an unknown number. "i'm trying."

you hadn't fully decided yet how you were going to make sure jeonghan really liked you, especially after jun regaled his "disgusting sexcapades," as he described them. you took his words with a grain of salt, considering the guy had an extremely low opinion of him from the get go, but either way, could you really blame jeonghan for putting his incredibly good looks and charm to use?

you, however, found flings incredibly uninteresting. most of the men that went after you were dull at best, and definitely would have fallen for any stupid prank you had played on them. with jeonghan, though, there was a challenge. there was always the chance he would out-trick you. it was new and exciting. playing with people, you decided, was only fun when there were some stakes involved.

inviting you to have drinks at his place seemed like such a transparent ploy to get laid, but you couldn't help but expect more from him. something told you he knew that you wouldn't be that easy, and you wondered what his game was.

i think i'm here >

which apartment was it? >

you definitely could have scrolled up in your conversation with jeonghan to check, especially since mingyu was complaining next to you on the street outside the apartment building, but you preferred the power move of asking again. you hadn't considered, though, that jeonghan was absolutely the type to know exactly what you were trying as soon as he saw the notification and make you wait. you squinted at the window that clearly had a party going on inside of it, willing the boy to respond.

"bro, it's apartment 2-b. soonyoung says he's 'the b in 2-b' like, every chance he gets. let's just go up."

"hang on, i'm plotting," you said, putting up a finger and scrolling through your contacts.

mingyu groaned as you put the phone to your ear, pressing the cold wine bottle against his eye. "you are the most annoying person i've ever met."

"yet you ask me to hang out constantly."

mingyu glared at you with his uncovered eye. "i also watch a lot of shit television, so don't take my taste as gospel."

inside, soonyoung patted down his pockets when he heard his ringtone, then looked at the kitchen counter where he had left it when he was making drinks. he grinned wide when he saw the contact info and practically yelled when he answered the phone. "y/n! please tell me you're finally coming over?"

jeonghan heard your name, his head whipping towards the sound. he stared at soonyoung, phone to his ear as he laughed into it, and he exhaled when he realized what you had done. he looked down at the ignored notification on his phone, his thought process being that you would call as it became more urgent.

and you had, just not him. he cursed under his breath. you were always one step ahead.

"yeah, second floor! come on up, i'll meet you at the stairs!"

jeonghan watched soonyoung shove his feet into a pair of slides and exit the apartment, then quickly downed the rest of his drink. he was gonna need an excuse to ask if you wanted one.

you followed soonyoung down the hall as he excitedly chattered about how he didn't know you were coming.

mingyu laughed. "yeah, we didn't either. y/n got an invite from jeonghan this morning."

"jeonghan?" soonyoung looked at you. "i didn't know you knew each other."

"i enjoy being a mystery," you said, checking quickly to see if your message had been seen yet.

soonyoung couldn't help but laugh at the idea of you and his roommate, especially with a few drinks in him. "you definitely suit each other."

jeonghan hadn't lied when he said people were coming over for drinks, but he had definitely made it seem much smaller than it was. the living area had enough people that you didn't want to bother counting, but probably somewhere in the twenties. there was music playing, but the conversational chatter was still audible over the beat, and people were laughing with each other on just about every surface you could see. you noticed jihoon by the kitchen counter as you were taking off your shoes, and grabbed mingyu's arm to face him towards you.

"jesus, fuck," he stumbled over his own shoes. "why do i hang out with you?"

"he's in the kitchen and he's alone," you said, your fingers digging into his bicep. "now's your chance. ask him where you should put the wine."

mingyu peeked over his shoulder, then looked back at you with wide eyes. "are you serious? right now?"

"right now," you reassured. "you got this, big guy. you're hot, smart, and tall. say you like his music and blow his mind."

he exhaled, his lips forming an o, and shook his hand nervously. "okay. okay. thank you. i love you. i'm sorry i ever called you annoying."

you laughed, smacking his arm. "love you too, goo."

he shut his eyes and spun, walking towards the boy of his affections. you watched him for a moment, though slyly, as you wandered into the party. you wondered where soonyoung had gone so quickly, then clenched your fist in victory when you saw jihoon get wine glasses out of a cupboard and laughed at something mingyu said.

"oh, y/n!" you spun to the familiar voice, spotting jeonghan leaning against a wall casually, half engaged in a conversation. he pushed off it as you closed the short space between you. "you made it! why didn't you tell me you were here?"

"i did," you said, cocking your head at him. "but you probably knew that."

a sideways smile creeped onto his face. "hey, are you drinking tonight? i don't wanna tempt your self proclaimed alcoholism, but i've been sitting on an empty drink for a while, i could make you one too."

you eyed the red cup in his hand. "what's on the menu?"

"paloma," he said, lifting the cup. "but i can make you something else."

you thought for a second, then looked at him. you hadn't had tequila since the night you saw him sing. "i trust your taste."

he tilted his head as he moved, gesturing for you to follow him to the kitchen. you nudged mingyu with your hip as you settled against the counter next to him to watch jeonghan make a drink for you. he looked down at you, then put an arm on your shoulder as he sipped the wine he had brought, and you noticed jihoon had a matching glass. you smiled proudly.

"mingyu?" jeonghan asked, gesturing.

you nodded, then looked up at your best friend. "this is jeonghan," you said, pointing.

mingyu smiled at him. "good luck with this one. jihoon, this is my worst friend, y/n."

"i'm also the reason he's here," you said, leaning forward to direct the speech at boy you were being introduced to. "you're welcome."

jihoon looked at you, mouth parted into an almost smile. his eyes went to jeonghan, remembering their conversation the day before, then to mingyu again, who was covering his eyes with a palm in embarrassment. "this is why they're my worst friend."

jeonghan laughed, pulling your attention back as he popped open a soda with a bottle opener. "so you're like this with everyone?"

"i’m sure i don't know what you mean," you quipped, sliding out from mingyu's arm to grab the bottle and inspect the label. "jah…ritos?"

"jarritos," jeonghan corrected, pronouncing the h sound. "mexican grapefruit soda. it's the best for palomas."

"see, this is why people think you're a prick," you said, putting the bottle back on the counter. "you get fancy soda specifically for your fancy cocktails."

he just laughed at you as he poured tequila from a bottle into two cups of ice. "if i cared what people thought, i would have changed my ways years ago."

you let that marinate for a moment, then decided the two of you were much more similar than you had originally thought. he grabbed the bowl of cut lime wedges that seungcheol had prepared and squeezed two into each cup, and you watched as he topped the drinks with the soda.

"can you handle heat?"

you looked at him. "that's a loaded question."

he laughed again, and you wondered how many palomas he had before you arrived. "i like chili on the lime, but i wanted to be nice and ask before i did it for you, too."

"i'll try anything once."

then you tried it again.

and again.

jeonghan really was charming, you thought. and pretty. and he had a lovely voice.

at some point, soonyoung found you again, just to waggle his eyebrows at jeonghan when he thought you weren't looking, and you got introduced to seungcheol, who you both recognized and were recognized by. jeonghan rolled his eyes and shoved him away when he gave him a look, remembering how he described you at the bar ages ago.

you barely even noticed the time passing, but your drinks kept draining and you kept accepting more, and you wondered if you were really stupid enough to say yes if he asked you to join him in his bedroom tonight. but the more jeonghan talked, the more you were kind of okay with the idea.

"do you wanna get out of here?"

you blinked, chin in your palm and elbow on the counter, face inches from jeonghan's as he put down his cup. "and go where?"

he pouted as he thought. "i could really go for tteokbokki right now."

at that moment, you decided jeonghan really liked you. you grinned. "that sounds so good."

he smiled back at you, and you didn't comment on the way his eyes lingered on your lips, even if you really wanted to. "better tell your chaperone."

you rolled your eyes at the title mingyu had given himself earlier when he was trying to convince you to not take a fourth drink. "don't let his stupid height trick you, he's more of a lightweight than me."

"at least you don't have to worry about him, jihoon would never try anything. the poor guy is so shy, he was probably flustered just when mingyu said hi."

you quirked an eyebrow at him. "does he have to worry about me?"

jeonghan laughed. "if i wanted to get you drunk, i would have poured heavier."

"speaking of," you said, tipping your cup. "this one suspiciously tasted like not tequila."

he stood suddenly, palms on the counter, trying to force down the blush on his ears. "if you're gonna complain about every drink i make you, maybe you should stop asking for them."

you giggled, standing and imitating his stance. "just admit you care about me, yoon jeonghan."

he looked at you, a smile teasing his lips. "only after you admit you're in love with me."

you squinted. "a draw."

he grinned. "tteokbokki?"

[peepspersonalperspective]

MY PICKS: Top 10 K-Dramas

Disclaimer: These are totally subjective choices and I've justified them as per my preferences. Consider them friendly recommendations and let me know if you disagree. Also, I've discovered the wonderful world of K-Dramas over the last couple of years and they've really evolved not just in storytelling but also production value so I personally prefer the more recent ones. So for example I haven't put a very popular pick like My Love from the Star simply because I've seen better stuff since (don't shoot me). Anyway, 가자!

MEMORIES OF ALAHAMBRA

This is my first recommendation for anyone who's just starting out watching Korean television content simply because it's so different from what new viewers expect it to be. It's so gripping and thrilling. I would expect nothing less from Song Jae Jung's writing.

So it's a sci-fi show, set in Spain, about an augmented reality game, that seems to have physical implications in the real world, sending the lead, Hyun Bin on a rollercoaster ride to find answers. Exo's Chanyeol has a recurring role as the game developer, so that's exciting too. I learnt that he was cast because of his love for PubG. Lol.

Every episode will leave you wanting more, and you'll find yourself as desperate to search for answers as Yoo Jin Woo (Hyun Bin).

Granted, mid season, it gets a little complicated, especially with newer nuances of the game unfolding, but fret not because the characters are discovering the secrets of the game with you. So they're as confused as you would be, and that's why this show is so good! More so because the graphics are excellent! You can tell they really spent money on ensuring high quality work. You will really feel like you're part of the game with Yoo Jin Woo.

Anyway, if you are an EXO-L, or you like gaming, sci-fi, thriller and Hyun Bin, this show is great!

2. W - Two Worlds

Another piece of awesome from Song Jae Jung. I would still rank this show a little below Alahambra, because I think the makers made improvements from this sci-fi drama in Alahambra, in the sense of storytelling. Still, W is just as intriguing.

Oh Yeon Joo (Han Hyo Joo) gets sucked into a comic book where she falls in love with the lead character of the comic book, Kang Chul (Lee Jeong Suk). Sounds like a typical romance drama right? Don't be fooled because there are many many twists and turns along the way.

I feel like there is metaphor in there somewhere about existentialism, the creation and destiny. But maybe that's just me reading into things.

Lee Jeong Suk is extremely desirable as Kang Chul, unsuspectingly charming and endearing, and Oh Yeon Joo is an absolutely relatable character, and how she deals as an ordinary girl thrown into extraordinary circumstances is genuine.

I would say this drama is wholesome, with sci-fi, suspense, thriller, action, romance, filial relationships, and more. And while it's usually difficult to jam pack all this into one show without screwing it up, W emerges exceptional.

3. Extraordinary You

This show is so cute! If you want just a light hearted, quirky show, this is the one for you.

It's about characters in a cartoon becoming aware of their existence in a cartoon. But don't worry this is NOTHING like W.

The best part about the show is that it's not about the main characters of the said cartoon. It's the story about the extras finding their way in that world, hence the pun intended in the title. The main characters (of the cartoon) are actually the most dull, because they are bound by the laws of stereotypical high school romance. But the real stuff is happening on the sidelines, with Kim Hye Yoon as Dan Oh and Rowoon as Haru.

Dan Oh is a hilarious character and Kim Hye Yoon does a fantastic job of switching emotions when she's in and out of a scene in the cartoon. One minute she goes into character mode, next minute she's bitching at the sorry fate of her character when she wakes up, to the astonishment of the characters surrounding her (who aren't aware of their reality yet).

Rowoon has a quiet charm about him that perfectly complements Hye Yoon. Check it out for a chuckle and a taste of something different.

4. Crash Landing on You

This show is hard not to like. Apart from the poorly picturized tornado carrying our leading lady over the border to North Korea, this show is a wonderful Netflix and Chill kind of show, I think.

The cultural disparity between the South and North is interesting to watch and also entertaining. Like when they mention buying mobile games at an App store (a literal application store in a Pyongyang market).

Ri Jung Hyuk (Hyun Bin again) and Yoon Seri (Son Yejin) are such a delight in comedic, romantic, and dramatic scenes. But the scene stealer for me was Yang Kyun Won as Pyo Chi Soo, and his unshakeable nationalism that he is ready to set aside for some shampoo and conditioner.

The interesting thing is going into the show, you have an idea of the longevity, so ofcourse, Seri's journey back to the South ain't going to be easy, also her relationship with Ri Jung Hyuk is doomed, and yet you find yourself rooting for them at each step, crying with them during their failures and crying with them even in their triumph. But the most tears were shed for the least expected character, who simply left us all heart broken.

5. Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo

In a world where women are expected to behave and look a certain way to be considered attractive by someone they're vying for, here's a food hogging, tomboy, weightlifting champ, with her first crush.

The premise may rope you into the show, but midway you realise that the heart of the show is in its characters, and without realising you become so invested in them that you feel their fears, insecurities, and cherish their victories with them.

This coming of age show really relishes on the quirks of each character, friendship, love and aspirations. It's not a very dramatic story which is probably why it didn't rate very high during its broadcast, but that's part of its charm, and that's why it's been able to gather a significant cult following since.

Lee Sung Kyung and Nam Joo Hyuk portray the most sincere friends and eventual couple. Their relationship blossoms in the most organic manner and it's so heartwarming. They're not cheesy or unrealistic; they even beat each other up! I don't think I've seen that level of comfort portrayed on screen so well before.

Watch out for guest appearances by Ji Soo and Lee Jeong Suk.

6. Strong Girl Do Bong Soon

I'll be honest, this recommendation is mainly for Park Hyung Sik. He's amazing in the show. And there could be no better supernaturally strong petite girl than Park Bo Young, either.

So there are actually a lot of things happening in the show, story wise, but I promise it all comes together in the end. There is quite a build up and I'm happy that it pays off adequately.

This is like a superhero show with all the spices and flavours of a Marvel movie, but K-Drama style. There's an invincible villain, some idiot gangsters for comedic value, romance (a love triangle infact), functional training, a point of lost hope for Bong Soon, and then her resurrection as a superhero.

It's all there, and more.

But Park Hyung Sik.....

7. Itaewon Class

This recommendation is simply for the refreshing change of representation on TV. I know a lot has already been spoken about it already, but I have to admit that that's what sets this revenge drama apart. That, and the music. Dayum, Start by Gaho is so catchy! And let's not forget V's Sweet Night.

This show starts off slow but give it 3 episodes before it gets to the real shit.

Park Saeroyi is almost too good to be true, and in that lies his shortcoming. His character is so strong that while watching him I forgot that Park Seo Joon was acting. And despite some unnerving moments I found myself rooting for him. He has some strong motivational lines too, like about his choice for a better life. His determination is almost unreal, as he goes on to take down his mortal enemy.

Some of the best scenes, though, are of Jo Yi Seo (Kim Dami), a sociopathic enterprising genius. She was the one who actually kept me hooked to the series. She added some much needed flair to the show, and as it appears to Park Saeroyi's establishment.

Actually, every character was strong, every character had a strong backstory and motivation for the action, and most importantly they never broke character.

Watch out for Park Bo Gum's special appearance.

8. Love In The Moonlight

Speaking of Park Bo Gum...

This show is all kinds of weird in the best way! A girl pretends to be a palace eunuch and falls in love with the crown Prince. That is so messed up!

But that's the fun part! And Park Bo Gum and Kim You Jung make it a wonderful ride. Full of quirky romance, political conflicts and hidden identity issues, this show is addictive af!

And even though this wasn't in the show and was just a promo, be sure to watch Park Bo Gum's Bombastic dance. It's adorable!

9. The Third Charm

I'm sure this is my least popular recommendation. But something about watching this show was so cathartic. I highly recommend it for those who may have gone through heartbreak ever in their lives.

This is probably one of those rare times when I was lost in the story instead of Seo Kang Jun's eyes. Hehe. This story is about an on again off again couple and their journey through life together and apart.

This was meant to be a healing drama, and it really does take you through the emotional evolution that comes with growing up. I think it's the perfect medicine for a healing heart.

10. It's Okay Not To Be Okay

This show! This is my current obsession. Kim Soo Hyun's comeback couldn't have been more perfect. Seo Yeji couldn't have been a more perfect casting. And the two leads couldn't have had a better chemistry.

This show is all kinds of whimsical and I love it. Also a healing drama, this show deals with.... Baggage....to put it simply. Some baggage may be bigger than other baggage, some even irrevocable. But seeing all the characters overcome this baggage is so fulfilling.

But the charm of this show is in Ko Moon Young's (Seo Yeji) craziness and the Tim Burton-esque setup, that really makes one perceive fairytales in a whole new way. I mean I always knew that fairytales were sanitized German folklore, but I never thought to find a very different messaging from the material. The parables are ingenious, and it really is a pleasure to watch each and every person on this show.

Special mentions: Goblin, Reply 1988, 30 but 17/ Still 17, My ID is Gangnam Beauty, Hotel Del Luna

[tbass2201]

2020 K-Dramas Ratings

These K-dramas were dramas I watched this year so far. Not all were released this year. Rating them from least to most favorite. I struggled so much to not rank these and not have multiple ties as well. (*crying emoji*) 

8. Where Your Eyes Linger (Series) 

This BL (boy love) drama focuses on two best friends, Tae Joo and Kang Gook, an heir to a family run business conglomerate and his bodyguard. Under the strict and constant eye of Tae Joo’s father, they start to realize jealousy and constant tension is the result of feelings the two have subconsciously developed for each other. The drama was so short. I wished there was more story development and build up for the two male leads characters. But they didn’t fail to deliver that tension of their fiery romance on screen for the short drama. Drama has also been recently made into a movie as well. 

7. Melting Me Softly 

This romantic comedy shows that the feelings love can bring can raise our body temperatures to detrimental levels. At least for Go Mi Ran and Ma Dong Chan that is. In 1999 the two participate in a frozen human cryongenic experiment that was supposed to last twenty-four hours but intead lasts for twenty years. The two then have to continue where they left off and adapt to lives in a completely new age while also trying to remain healthy with abnormal body temperatures. Falling in love of course, doesn’t help. The plot to this drama I felt like could easily have been messed up, but the delivery was the best it could’ve been. Lots of funny moments with just as many cute scenes. Also for my fellow Ji Chang Wook fangirls, the steamy kissing scene definitely won’t disappoint. (*wink*. With the main lead at least. *double wink*).   

6. Sweet Munchies 

If you couldn’t taste the bittersweet flavor of a third-wheel looking at the gif above then lucky for you, you’ve never had to be one. A Jin a PD director, Jin Sung a talented chef, and Tae Wan a famous fashion designer all fall into an awkward love triangle while working together on a show called “Sweet Munchies”. A Jin seeks a gay chef after finally getting an oppurtunity to direct her own show. In order to help her and due to financial issues Jin Sung lies about his sexuality to be a part of the show. He doesn’t realize though how his lie affects lots of people of around him, and lots of drama and tension ensues. Tae Wan hands down is my favorite character in this show due to his story and performance in the drama. Maybe even one of my favorite kdrama characters in general. 

5. One Spring Night 

A librarian and a pharmacist develop feelings for each other among circumstances where there are tons of factors against them. Simutaneously Jeong In tries to end her four year relationship and deal with her father. While Ji Ho fights the constant battle of doubt after a previous partner leaves him and their son. Makes you really think about the ultimate purpose of relationships and why people pursue them. Also how feelings can stem unpredictably, even when they seemingly shouldn’t.  

4. 100 Days My Prince 

A historical romance drama with a little bit of everything. Action packed fight scenes, romance, comedy, and Do Kyungsoo (I mean I’m not the only one who feels this way). The two leads Lee Yul and Hong Shim (what she’s commonly known as) create romance under forceful circumstances ordered by their prince not knowing they have met prior in their youth. Lee Yul also has amnesia and tries to re-discover himself only to find out, he is actally a royal prince. 

3. Touch Your Heart 

What happens when you have a perfectionist lawyer and a washed up actress work together in a law firm? At first you get lots of disagreements and arguments. But then you eventually see love blossom. Yoon Seo works as Jung Ruk’s secretary for three months in order for her to make her acting comeback after her career is tarrnished due to a drug scandal. We see office romance in a pure, innocent light that’ll touch your heart. 

2. I’ll Visit You When the Weather is Nice 

Life in Seoul isn’t great anymore. Hae Won, a cellist, comes back to her hometown for a change of pace. Working alongside Eun Seop her former classmate at his bookstore, we see into different aspects of their lives. They take us on journey of self-acceptance, rage, grief and love in this small town. But Hae Won doesn’t plan to be staying there for long. In this drama we have leads but we see perpectives from lots of characters that we can relate to and that provokes us to re-evaluate problems we may be holding on to. 

1. Extra-Ordinary You 

Life in Dan Oh’s eyes is perfect. Until she becomes aware that she’s an extra character in a comic book. Determined to change her fate and control her life despite what the writer has made for her, she realizes she can’t do it alone. Another extra even more insignificant than her called “Number 13″ helps her and is the only one who can change the story. But once she names him Ha Ru changes in the story don’t come with benefits, but can the two win the fight to control their own lives? One of the most refreshing kdramas out there with a unique plot and lead actors Kim Hye Yoon and Rowoon nailing their first lead roles.  

[consumeronionbulletin]

Doona! / Lee Doo-na! (2023)

The silent, hangry, chain-smoking, giving-no-f-ks version of Bae Suzy that I didn't know I needed.

This series felt like a lighter version of Something in the Rain with a much better soundtrack, which is how I found myself spending most of my weekend watching it.

The show is an extremely no plot, just vibes, slice of life type of thing. I liked that, but I know it'll be slow going for some people. I haven't read the webtoon this is (allegedly) based on, but I can already tell writers for the show took more than a few liberties with the material.

What Worked

Bae Suzy's performance as a sad, jaded, burned out, misunderstood idol worked. This feels like something Hollywood has already done to death. Kind of a cable TV version of a pop star (male or female) who's slumming it with ordinary people and ends up finding their voice again. Along with true love.

The reason why this never felt cliche is because Suzy made you believe in it, and because the directors and cinematographers were so good at their job that you just had to believe in it too. I was willing to suspend disbelief, because I wanted to just live in the moment with them in that beautiful fantasy.

What Didn't Work

Look, Yang Se-jong had great chemistry with Suzy, and with most of the cast, but it is a complete fantasy that an ordinary, decent, hardworking guy would have that many women chasing after him. It works in a webtoon because you know what kind of story you're in for. It kind of worked here, but there were moments when I had to just actively accept the premise and move on with it. It was okay since there were only 9 episodes, but if we'd had 20, I think it would have been too much.

The Performances

Bae Suzy as "smoking idol" Lee Doo-na. Whatever they paid Suzy, it wasn't enough. She was willing to put her dignity on the line to get a good performance. There are like three other idol / actors that maybe could have made this script work, and I still think she would have beaten them out if they had open casting. I know there are people who loved her in Start-up, but this is the performance from Suzy that I'll remember most.

Yang Se-jong as "Gary Stu" Lee Won-jun. I really want to read the webtoon just to figure out how many liberties the TV show took with this character. I liked this actor in Still 17, and I enjoyed his performance here. I liked how this was (in some ways) a gender-flipped version of the sweet caretaker love interest girlfriend that you'll find in so many other forms of media. I just had trouble believing that guy could grab as much attention as he did in the real world.

Shin Ha-young as "Fake High School Girlfriend" Kim Jin-joo. The actor did a good job with what she was given, and I liked the fact that she's the same age as the two leads, but the character was just not given enough to do in the story. In a longer drama (with maybe a different actress like Roh Yoon-seo) they would have made her a viable option for Won-jun. As it is, we spent 1/3 of her time dealing with her backstory (which was mostly just to make Won-jun look good), and 1/3 of it having her pine after Won-jun and ultimately get dumped. It just felt like a waste.

Park Se-wan as "Fake Grade School Girlfriend" Choi I-ra. The actor was entertaining as heck in this show. I liked her love-line in the background and she brought some good moments of comedy to the show. But the character definitely felt like something from a webtoon (for good and bad).

Kim Sun-young as Doo-na's mother. I'm always happy to see her on my screen, but why didn't they have her do more? It's a waste of top notch talent. She could have been a menacing record executive, or the fun landlady who messes with (and secretly looks after) the young cast. If they were gonna cast her, they should have been given more than a few scenes where she yells at Doona and steals all her money (off screen). What a pity.

Everyone else. They managed to bring in alot of extras and fun little side characters that made the show feel bigger than it was, and I enjoyed that.

TL; DR:

This show is all mood and very little plot. If you like the first episode or so, then you'll probably like the rest of it. Otherwise, you might want to skip it.

[lgcyonghwa]

happy anniversary!

warning: this post is LONG AF! next year i am so not gonna do this - will make a graphic or something instead - because i legit typed for hours. don’t feel obligated to read the whole thing - feel free to scroll down to the sections where you are mentioned. 

holy ravioli, i can’t believe legacy is turning one! the last year was chaotic for me real life wise and legacy provided a great place to escape and enjoy writing with my friends. i chatted with so many of you wonderful people and have no doubt i’ll be missing some on this list. if i happen to skip you by accident, just know i love you anyway.

both of my muses went through a lot. yonghwa i’ve had since the very beginning and his journey did turn out differently than i expected. i created him to be perfect on the outside, slowly rotting on the inside. he has a lot of insecurities that he refuse to acknowledge and a crippling greed for money...to the point i legit created a list of free stuff available at legacy and still track his earning. he ended up not deteriorating horribly as i expected due to having an overwhelmingly strong support system. dang it, y’all, i wanted to fuck up my character. 

as for daehyung, he’s proven to be the ticking time bomb comedic relief asshole that everyone can’t help but respect for not having his ass kicked out of the company already love - he’ll continue to be a pest and harass people that he find fancy in. career wise, i am surprised he is doing so well despite hating the world and most of the people in it. guess deep down inside he actually cares about acting and finds joy in it. one day, hopefully, he’ll be singing his own ost. 

i would like to thank our cute sara, who played yonghwa’s brother @lgcyoon​ and currently plays @lgcseojin and @lgchana​~ sara was one of the first people i plotted with at legacy and i really enjoyed the friendship between seojin & yonghwa. seojin was an adorable tsundere pupper and yonghwa is over-affectionate and secretly appreciated. they had their ups and downs and in season 2 of the future dreams, that really came out. i am glad they were able to work through their issues and i think that is why their friendship feels so believable to him. seojin also had a part in daehyung’s life...can we get that communal shower yet, buddy? yoon, though you are too busy to play him now, will always be yonghwa’s doting older brother. i don’t think i’ll put up that wanted connection again because yoon is so perfect and yonghwa already latched onto him with both legs and arms. 

second up, i gotta thank my girl gabby for always being there. @lgcparkdohyun and yonghwa’s brotherly bond is incredibly strong and in fact, one of my best plots to date. we’ve essentially plotted them out from diaper days and they are as close as two guys could be without screwing each other, really. we’ve also been here since the beginning together and high fives man, our boys technically both made it. 

@lgcxcharlie is yonghwa’s supportive girlfriend and she is so adorable. a much needed ray of light in his life. funny thing is that they met a long time ago, via bread. did charlie know that she’ll end up getting a boyfriend out of her kind bread donation? see, this is what happens when you feed a hungry cat - he’ll keep following you for more. now you are just going to have to keep him~

for my beloved rose who plays @lgcjude, @lgcjina and @lgcwon, i love youuu. with them on tour together and sharing a room, i hope jude is not annoyed yet by the fact yonghwa keeps on climbing into his bed. as for jina - hello, fellow season one winner, high fives. they might have to keep some distance due to opposite gender, but at least they’ll always have that respect for each other. now won, sorry, the devil is never letting you gooooooo. he’ll continue to harass you for years to come. 

@lgcseolmi​ + @lgcichika​ & @lgckit​ - my typo queen nam~ we haven’t known each other for very long but damn did you rise quickly on my favoritism list. i love you lots, even though you are a dork who can’t spell anything right! :3c we’ve threaded already with the girls and now i am waiting for the new baby boy!

my al is the best person for cat gifs ever. every so often, i’d get a cute gif and feel my happiness grow. in fact, like we talked before, you send me so many cat pics that i believe you are a cat and will treat you like one. pet pet pet pet! @lgcinsoo​ and @lgcyue​ are both great babies, but you know i have bias towards our insoo. he is such a kind, loving puppy and both of my characters appreciate him. one more obviously than the other. 

em, how the hell do you post so fast even though you got three characters? also, how on the earth have we managed to talk so long without doing a single thread together? oh wait, shoot, it is me isn’t it? @lgcaaron​ is still waiting on his starter and my ass typed this long af thank you note instead of that hohoho-

i still have so many boys i want to interact with for the project origin group but those i’ve already had a chance to thread with, i’ve all loved. our @lgcxpv​ is a wild child but so precious in yonghwa’s eyes. we’ll always have their shower scene to reflect back on. also, your precious max is one of dae’s only semi-acknowledged friends. our @lgcxhaneul​ is the sweet mandu that will keep on getting squished by his loving hyung. we love @lgcseul​ who deserves all the hugs and @lgcminjun​, who will definitely become one of yonghwa’s favorites. @lgcjiho​ & @lgcharu​ are both soft cute boys that i am still planning on hitting up more.

though we’ve only had one thread, i strangely really enjoyed the interaction between yonghwa and @lgceunho​. i feel like they still have more to explore and hopefully will find themselves together in a future event!

also jia, we’ve been around since the very beginning too. i miss writing together. @lgchyunjin​ should come and love on yonghwa more. ; v ; we are the early day boys ya knowwwww. i enjoyed chatting with you on twitter, can always count on you to be around liking people’s posts to show support. 

lately, i’ve also gotten to plot with @lgcsubin​, who is a sensitive boy with depth. i love his character and i hope to write more with you, nic! also, thanks for being around and asking what’s wrong whenever people are upset. i think it is so precious.

stef, i am so glad you joined legacy and see, it is fun, right? daehyung will continue to bully @lgcxjunghwan​ but he does it in an affectionate way, alright? love to lulu ( @lgcminseok​) & simone (@lgctee​) for always being there to chat about stuff~

jen, thanks for teaching me how to gif. i’ve enjoyed our chats via discord and we should do it again sometimes KEKEKEKEKE @lgcxjinah​ and @lgcxjongsuk​ both have their places on my character’s heart - i love them both!

here, i just want to acknowledge some of the people that dropped but still had a huge impact on yonghwa’s life. i don’t know how many of y’all will remember them, but back in the day, yonghwa had a best friend called kiyoung and a crush on yujin. when those two dropped at the same time, oh, that was a huge blow. thank them both for being a part of his life. also, jane was a heavy loss for me because i adore her quirkiness. bobby come back, you can blame it all on me. 

lastly, i want to thank all of the mods for their hard working maintaining the rp! thanks so much, legacy wouldn’t be fun without you! 

for the head admins, i have a few extra blurbs because we’ve been together for a whole year. for our admin l, you’ve worked hard. it is not easy to run events and i feel like i’ve definitely pushed you with some difficult questions before. i am glad we are friends and get to chat often about random tidbits. i am also happy you are taking time for yourself and taking care of real life concerns. your wellness is always the priority! character wise, i have a feeling @lgcmiso​ and daehyung will actually get along well~ 

marie because i can’t even remember what is your official admin letter OTL i just remember you as the mother of merlin and writer of @lgcxking​. it is not like i don’t like jin, but that king is the one i had the most threads with. i really love yonghwa and king interaction because in a place where everyone must be civil and friendly, their hate for each other is so damn refreshing. i still think five years from now on they’ll be friends, but not before trying to claw out each other’s eyeballs first over their smutty fanfics. sorry for keep harassing hyuncheol and calling him papi, please continue to feed me merlin content. he is the best boy. 

FINALLY admin g our grace you are so awesome. i can always count on you to hear me bitch for the two minutes before my angy fade and for last minute cramming. on the week before date lottery is due and i am wailing pathetically for my points, grace is always here to pull through! @lgchanbyul​ and yonghwa as on screen couple is actually pretty adorbs. also @lgcjaesun​, thanks for dealing with daehyung as a dorm mate. the devil is gone now but his influence will always be there

i have so many more people i want to mention but only so much time. just know i appreciate everyone. thanks for a great year, hopefully there’ll be many more!