#dichotomousvariable

[satindupe]

♡ : reflections backdated to a couple months ago

"alex?"

this isn't the first time taeri has come across him. that familiar frame has been regarded amongst the halls of sua before, but her anomaly did not grant her the power of superior vision or discernment on whether his familiarity was that of an old friend, or a misjudgment. he was too far to confirm, and the threat of abashment swallowing her whole if she were to approach him only to find it was a mistaken identity was enough to keep her at bay.

but her suspicions are confirmed in this moment as she crosses his path by pure happenstance in the library, searching for a vacant table to study ( see: update the curious current's social media while doomscrolling on her own ) at and finding the familiar frame hunched over his laptop at a lone table. gazing at him this range, he's recognizable yet distant ⏤ the young child that she ran around the her new york neighborhood with was still there, though his features have been chiseled out with age and time. still, there's a smile that blooms upon her face at his presence, a connection to a time of normalcy, and she unconsciously continues in english, "like, be so for real right now. is that you, alex?"

and before taeri even realizes it she's making herself home at his table, disregarding if there was another he was reserving the opposite seat from him ⏤ that was no longer important anyway. "oh my god what the hell ⏤ like i knew you moved to korea but i didn't think that you'd be like ⏤" as she motions wildly to him there's an almost piercing sshhh! shot their way at her raised volume, to which she rolls her eyes and continues whispering animatedly, "you'd be here out of all places! and you still look so adorable, aww! how have you been! what are you doing here? wait⏤ you're a fucking anomaly too?" and the emotions roll through her face like a movie screen while she speaks: astonishment, elation, a faint moment of pondering before awe once more.

[euiphoric]

STARTER    ⨯   @dichotomousvariable Status: Private  &&.  Euijin + Wooseok

Even his knocks sounded aggressive, but Euijin merely intended to announce his arrival. Somewhat impatient, a fourth knock followed on the door to Wooseok's room after the first initial three. He took a few steps back to make space for her door to swing hopen and not hit him in the face, as with his luck that wasn't far-fetched. In one hand he'd carried a thin white plastic bag with some snacks, drinks and other items and in the other he was holding the strap of his guitar bag. The simply black case was covered in various stickers of bands and brands he was interested in. Absolutely in the most 2012 tumblr emo esque way possible of course.

The two had previously met and discussed music as it was a mutual interest for them. Though coming from two completely different backgrounds, Euijin was certainly interested in seeing in what way their musical tastes would be able to merge together. He'd confided in the male about his own musical non-career, where he would occasionally write and produce music and upload it online as he did not see this becoming a real career for himself but it was a nice outlet regardless. Push came to shove and Euijin suggested the actually musically trained friend to write something with him instead. He fully expected this to either go horribly wrong and result in a fight, or something beautiful would be created in the room that night.

[key2earth]

@dichotomousvariable

of course, the concert was amazing; it was a one-of-a-kind experience. he and ziying had met at a concert like this—small venue, tight space, so few concertgoers that it was almost a private show—and it only felt more meaningful now that they were more than vague acquaintances. how much more? wooseok didn't like to think about it; it made his head hurt. leaving the venue, laughing, it feels like nothing could go wrong on this night. that is, until he checks his phone: email after email, delays, inclement weather, cancellations. the snow around seoul picked up, which leads to… "ah, fuck… z, i think we're stuck here. they cancelled the night trains back."

being overseas for college means that ziying doesn't get to go home often. which isn't all bad, since going home means dealing with huitian and her dad's silent wars over turkey imported from america that none of them really like but eat anyway because mom liked it when she was still here. it's not so bad, being in sua for the holidays. she's got friends to make christmas special.

friends, which is a technical category she thinks she could get away with not counting wooseok under, even if they're taking a train to gyeongju together on christmas because they've got shared interests in indie music and bands with no spotify listeners.

( there is an asterisk around the word friends, prerequisite for what people normally label this thing between them as. ziying is strangely okay with admitting the benefits part, and not the one about friendship. )

but fine, he's not bad company. if she laughs a little too close, and drinks from his cup when she thinks he's not looking, no one's around in whatever part of korea this is to notice them for it.

that doesn't mean she wants to stay here, though, guy who cancelled their train back!

she glares at him, reaching out to pinch his nose—not gently. "on christmas? dude," ziying complains, "i'm not sleeping at the train station!" letting go of offending feature to tap his phone screen, the woman leans over his shoulder to frown at the screen. "there should be, like, a hostel somewhere, probably... or a jjimjilbang? the ones with the," two hands over the crown of her head, an imitation of the lamb head towels, "towels?"

[key2earth]

@dichotomousvariable

( ... ) maybe? maybe. there aren't many people there, though, so it's hardly a crowd. he drinks from the plastic cup in his hand—it's some gross, cheap beer, but maybe it would make him less all in his head about this. he's overthinking it, as he tends to do. he turns his attention back to the finale songs. he doesn't hear her anymore. for a bit, at least. then, curiosity gets the best of him, and he wonders if she's noticed him, too—he focuses back in, straining to hear that familiar voice through the nullivi-induced haze.

it's not difficult to spot someone in a concert when it's thinner than the crop of hair from a guy in his forties. but look, she likes it that way ( crowds, not hair ). ziying's at the concert less for the actual music and more for the way it sounds when the band's got all of thirteen listeners and that's counting their second cousins with the pity follow. it's fun, the sort of unpolished rawness that she could sink her teeth in. plus—she wouldn't be caught listening to basic, silly pop!

as it is, the band opening today has attracted just enough people to count on both hands and a friend's, so yeah, it's pretty easy to spot the together for daehan's treasurer in the bar, head of deceptively fluffy hair nodding along to the music. it's not the best notch on her record that she knows exactly how it feels, but eh, sometimes mistakes are made. not again, she thinks, and remembers he might be able to hear it. not happening again! she yells in her head, just for emphasis, and receives no reaction back.

boo, that's boring. ziying flicks a broken matdongsan crumb at wooseok's head. swish, miss. it's the rum and coke in her that goes hello and drags it out in her thoughts, trying to see if he'll turn and get hit in the face with the peanut snack. matdongsan two goes sailing over his head, the awful shot landing in some grandma's drink. she bets it's the bassist's grandma, they've got the same nose. hey! hey! turn around if you can hear me, weenie!

[satindupe]

wooseok ⏤

[ ♡♡♡ ] the same couldn't be said for her. she looks... so different, changed by over a decade. wooseok supposes that it's easy for him to miss change in himself; he sees himself every day, after all, so she might be having the same thoughts as him. for once in his life, he wishes he wasn't wearing the stupid nullivi patch, so he could know for sure. "goddamn, we have a lot of catching up to do, huh? i can't believe you're here. i mean, my family moved so suddenly, i feel like i didn't even get to really say goodbye. they found out i was a freaky anomaly kid and basically had to leave almost immediately. little did i know it wasn't even actually goodbye." another pause. there are so many things he wants to say, but he's not sure how. "ah... never mind about me, what about you? how did you end up here?"

madison. when she was living in america, the name 'taeri' sounded like a girl outside of herself, something used more with korean grandparents than anything else, a foreigner that she didn't connect to. and as she's here with one of those that knew madison well, there's a sense of distance along with the joy ⏤ now, it's madison that feels like the foreigner, with taeri feeling more familiar and the other now more removed from her than she's ever known.

nevertheless, nostalgia triumphs all and it does her heart well to see alex here after all this time ⏤ it was almost as if he had dropped off the face of the earth after he moved away, a memory only known by name and the faint scar upon her calf that was caused by chasing him around the neighborhood as a child. she gives him a couple of nods followed with a "yeah!" at his recognition. there's some comfort in the fact that she still looks like herself even with the bottle blonde dye job and heavy eyeliner around her eyes.

it's easy to catch the color on his cheeks at her compliment, and the bashfulness that follows has her teeth sinking into the flesh of her lip as to not alarm him with a squeal. "no! like i wouldn't say you have a baby baby face, and you do look different. i swear to god i saw you around before but didn't know it was you because i wasn't used to seeing you as a ..." eyes blink as her hands spread out towards his direction, "a man, y'know? but you look good. and you still have those cheekies so that was kind of a dead giveaway," chuckling, taeri places an upon the table while her jaw rests upon a palm, enthralled at their conversation.

"i could say the same about you! but wait, that's why you moved? like, hearing it now it makes sense but as a kid it was like you were here and then you weren't and i was just like damn, alright i guess. i missed you a lot! we could have been freaky anomaly kids together maybe," she pouts at the news, though she only could imagine what he went through spouting an anomaly during the years of puberty. the body was already changing enough as is, but adding powers on top of that?

"so true, we are here now. i hope you realize that you're not getting rid of me so easily this time. i have ways of finding people, you know," she states amusedly while a placing a pair of fingers in front of her eyes, then casts them in his direction as if it were some type of warning, grin giving away her silliness. when the conversation shifts to her taeri's eyes widen, mind going through all the events that brought her up to this point. "you got a couple hours? no i'm kidding, but uh, to make a long story short ... turns out my dad wasn't actually my dad but raised me anyway, which i always thought because obviously," a finger circles around her face, "where is he here, right? but my actual dad found me in high school after i got suspended for kicking this girls ass because she was talking shit about emily," her younger sister, "and he was like 'american education is shit i work in korea come be with me you'll be better here' and like, i couldn't go to school anyway so i went and yeah. dude's apparently stupid loaded here and tries to act like he's more korean than me when he's not and it's weird? but it's whateverrrrr, i've been here for like ..." there's a pause a she uses her fingers to count mentally, "six... seven years now? so it's wild that we're only seeing each other now. have you always been in seoul?"