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gyusbambi · 4 years

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humph; han seojun (pt 4)

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 5

click here for humph masterlist!

story: frenemies to enemies to lovers, high school au

synopsis: seojun and you have known each other since kindergarten. you’re neighbors and even attended the same singing and piano classes. despite knowing each other for such a long time, you don’t enjoy spending time with seojun. even though you are aware of his unfairness, you keep spending time with him. when will you finally leave your childhood frenemy?

note: humph! is a story inspired by pentagon’s “humph! / 접근금지”. originally, this is a seungyeon fanfiction, which i posted on my wattpad. words: 3.8k

to claim that the cupid-team is surprised to witness han seojun getting along with his long term frenemy would be an absolute understatement. in fact, they seem completely and utterly dumbfounded as they watch you both laugh at a joke seojun pulled in the middle of the bus ride back home. needless to say, the childhood friends tease each other now and then like they’re used to it, this time without hurting any feelings. all of these observations, including the fact that you decided to sit next to each other in the bus, lead to several assumptions and without you knowing, rumors start to develop.

for whatever reason, neither you nor seojun are aware of the gossip regarding both of you. perhaps it’s thanks to kim chorong, who’s apparently really skilled at being inconspicuous.

it’s been one day since you arrived home and you find yourself sleeping in till two pm on a saturday.

seriously, you should fix your chaotic sleeping schedule.

when you finally leave your room to get some food into your stomach, dressed in your favorite hoodie and sweatpants, your mum and juyeong are already eating lunch. like expected, they give you a quick judging look without interrupting their conversation. while you’re putting some rice in a bowl they talk about juyeong’s crush on some girl. soon their conversation moves to something related to seojun, and that's when you suddenly pay attention instead of playing with the cold food on your plate.

"y/n, is seojun’s mother in a better condition now?"

instantly you look up to react to your mum’s question. instead of looking at you, she puts more vegetables on juyeong’s table,

"it's been a few days since i last visited her, maybe i should do it again soon. i really hope she gets better."

"what are you talking about?"

"seojun hyung's mum is in hospital." juyeong answers, his mouth stuffed with food while pushing the vegetables away with a scrunched face.

"what?"

"hasn't he told you about his mum? i thought you guys would tell each other everything." my mum questioned with a small pout forming on her lips, finally meeting your worried eyes.

"they broke up.", your annoying brother fails the attempt to whisper.

"we're not together!"

displeased, you hiss at your brother, voice getting higher.

"you guys act like a married couple sometimes. it's annoying."

"shut up!"

"both of you stop now." your mother sighs while her hands move in the air in attempt to stop you from attacking your own brother.

"seojun’s mum is seriously sick and i'm going to visit her tomorrow morning. y/n, maybe you should do too? or talk to him a little since he's probably not doing so well."

"i will."

feeling upset that you’re just finding out about seojun’s mother’s condition, you can’t stop thinking about it for the whole day. besides that, you are worried and consider visiting them the next day.

even though their house is quite near to yours, you have to go through the dangerous part of your quarter. as you make your way to the han’s, your hand moves to your right pocket to grab the pocketknife, which seojun gifted you in your freshman year of high school. for defense reasons, he said.

"you need to be careful when you're walking down this street. here, have this."

however, instead of seeing a group of dangerous men, you spot han seojun himself, walking towards your direction with hands in his pocket. thinking of a casual way of greeting him, you clear your throat before taking a few steps forwards in order to greet him,

"hey!”

"hey, what are you doing here?"

surprised to see you in this area, seojun raises his eyebrows.

"well, i actually wanted to visit- what the hell happened to your face?"

rapidly, you interrupt yourself when the boy is finally close enough for you to spot the multiple bruises on his pale skin. this causes you take a few steps forward and reach for his cheek instantly, worry written all over your face.

he looks horrible. bruises all over his face, lip bleeding, knuckles visibly red.

seojun catches glimpse of your worried eyes and feels embarrassed for you to find him at this state. instead of making the attempt to explain the situation, he grabs your hand which rests on his cheek. the touch of your warm and soft hand causes a pressure building in this chest. seojun doesn’t dare to take his eyes off of yours.

suddenly your cheeks feel like they’re turning into the shade of a tomato. besides that, your heart starts acting all weird when you catch glimpse of his intense eyes.

"what happened?" you question once again, this time with even more concern.

"it's not important-"

"did you get into a fight?"

"that bastard lee seungyong was getting on my nerves again, it's not important." he sighs after running his hand through his hair.

"alright. come on, we need to clean those bruises before they get worse." you mutter after grabbing his right arm and pulling him towards your house.

seojun hisses with a painful expression as you attempt to clean the awful wounds on his cheeks. with a concentrated look crossing over your face, you focus on the terrible cut. however, you impatiently drop your hand on your lap when seojun can’t seem to stop moving, an annoyed sigh followed after.

“could you stop moving the whole time? i’m trying to do something here.”,

positioning yourself closer to the boy sitting on the edge of your bed, you’re ready to treat his wounds for the third time. seojun only grins playfully despite the painful bruises,

“look at you acting like a doctor.”

ignoring his comment, you raise your hand once again to reach for his chin. fingers brushing on his skin, you are able to focus. this time seojun doesn’t flinch. quite the contrary, he’s like frozen on spot. the only thing he seems to be able to focus on are your features.

nothing but silence dominates your room as you decide to clean the cut on his bottom lip. you fingers brushing over his soft lip, eyes completely focused on them, the poor boy’s heart is about to explode in front of you. he internally thanks to god that you don’t notice his chest rising up and down or his ears turning into a darker shade of red. breath taken away, his eyes linger on your lips, blinking frequently.

yet, his relief only lasts for a couple seconds when the silence eventually makes you look up to seojun, only to find him already staring at you, eyes gazing at your lips.

not aware of your slightly surprised eyes, he continues staring. clearly, your bodies are almost attached to each other. not to mention, you leaned in a little earlier, grip on his shoulder to prevent him from moving. the young boy practically prays that you won’t hear his heart racing in his chest.

aren’t you even a little nervous? it almost makes him annoyed how the closeness doesn’t seem to bother you at all.

little does he know that you feel the exact same way. in fact, you’re so bothered by the butterflies in your stomach that you suddenly wish that he would just continue making dumb jokes or rude comments.

pulling your hand away from his shoulder in a swift move, you blink. still, you’re not able to look away which seems so stupid and unbelievably odd.

seconds after you catch glimpse of his hand getting closer to yours but that isn’t enough for you to look away.

why would someone look attractive with a beaten face? that doesn't make any sense.

seeing him in this state, bruises, messy hair, intense gaze, flushed face, makes you want to hug him, ask him what was wrong, tell him you were here for him.

however, right when you think he is going to say something or reach for your hand and hold it...

"guess who just ate two big delicious menus-"

juyeong.

the second your brother lays eyes on seojun sitting super close to you, his eyes widen in horror.

"o-oh adult business, i get it. i'll leave now. bye, hyung!"

yet, of course, before leaving your room he doesn’t miss the chance to make gagging noises.

"and y/n, sadly, there wasn't enough food for you."

his fake pout makes you want to throw your slipper at him but you just close your eyes for a second and exhale, trying to remain calm.

seojun only chuckles with amusement.

"mum! y/n and seojun hyung are a couple again. can she move out now?"

juyeong’s annoying voice can be heard all the way too my room. embarrassed, you glance at seojun, who is obviously trying to hold in his laugh.

"i'm sorry for my brother."

"you don't need to be."

"a-anyways, are you better now? i mean your bruises?" you stammer while pointing at his face, wanting to ignore what just happened.

"yeah, a lot better. thank you."

he trails off, eyes darting through the room,

"i-i should probably leave now."

right, your stupid self forgot to ask him about his mum.

"i heard about your mum. i hope she's doing better?"

“thankfully, she is. it's a little difficult for us but we’re going through this."

“hopefully she’ll feel better soon. i’m sure you’re taking good care of her,”

you’re always like that. caring about others more than yourself.

“if you need anything, i’m here.”

he smiles genuinely, “thank you.“

and that's when he leaves.

the sun shines outside the next day. but instead of going out and enjoying the nice weather like other normal people, you lay on your bed while thinking about the previous day. strangely, you couldn’t stop thinking about the way seojun made you feel.

why did your heart race? why were you left speechless?

in the corner of your mind, there’s been an explanation for your weird feelings for your childhood friend. although, you’ve always tried to ignore it and distract yourself.

but now, thinking about all the times seojun made your heart flutter, it just made sense.

you like him.

“no!”

with widen eyes you swiftly stand up, not believing yourself.

it couldn’t be, right? everyone feels this way to their friend at some point of their friendship, no?

but the thing is: you’ve been feeling like this the whole time.

letting yourself fall on your bed, you scream into your pillow.

you like han seojun.

and there’s no way your former frenemy likes you back.

it’s another school morning as you walk into your class. this time however, you’re nervous to enter the room. after all, you’ll have to be around the one person you now feel nervous talking to. what if he notices your odd behavior. praying that he won’t approach you in a way that made your heart flutter, you eventually enter the classroom.

however, it seems like the universe is making fun of you when you’re met with something hundred times worse the moment you step into the room. instantly, all eyes land on you and all you hear are cheers and screams from your classmates,

“congratulations on dating, y/n and seojun!”

“you’re so cute together!”

“y/n and seojun sitting on a tree!”

at the sight of chorong and his group wearing t-shirts with your shipname printed on them, your eyes widen in horror. they think you’re dating han seojun?!

“why didn’t you tell me anything? i’m your close friend after all!”

sua pouts, hitting your arm playfully while your eyes are still glued on the ridiculous t-shirts.

“is it true, y/n?”,

from the corner of your eye you see soojin giving you a teasing smile.

“listen, guys. there has been a huge misunderstanding.”,

when you can finally focus on your friends, who surround you with curious looks, han seojun enters the classroom, completely unaware of what’s happening right now.

the young boy frowns at chorong after setting his bag on his table. yet soon his confused face changes to a shocked one, as he eventually notices the t-shirts, everyone congratulating him with cheerful laughter.

turning his head to you, he notices your helpless look while you tilt your head to the side. totally surprised by everything, seojun has no clue how to act at the beginning.

finally, both of you manage to stand in front of the class, facing your classmates as they continue asking several questions,

“since when have you been dating?”

“no way! did anything happen during the school trip?”

“tell us the truth!”

frustrated, you move your hands in the air, trying to speak with a loud tone so that everyone can understand you,

“i don’t know how you came up with this rumor but seojun and me are only friends, okay?”

hearing your statement, everyone groans at the same time, not believing you at all,

“it’s so obvious! just tell us the truth.”

letting out a sigh, you turn your head to face seojun with an annoyed look,

“could you at least say something?”

however, seojun only raises his eyebrows before taking his hands out of his pockets,

“would you hate it that much?”

his sentence makes you frown and multiple questions appear in your head. not quite understanding his point, you continue staring at him with furrowed eyebrows before he finally slams his hand on the desk in front of him, catching everyone’s attention,

“you guys better stop spreading all those rumors around. she’s only my friend...,”

disappointed, many students groan before going back to their seats while others still don’t seem to believe seojun and shake their heads in denial.

seojun bends down to your height so that his face is only a few inches apart from yours before whispering with one eyebrow raised,

“...right?”

nervously you blink, sadness starting to grow inside you after hearing his words. of course, he only considers you as his friend. there’s no way he would see you as something more.

friday nights are always the same for you: watching your current favorite tv show while snacking on whatever you have at home. whereas other people from your grade probably club somewhere.

that night your phone rings and an unknown number appears on the screen. thinking it’s a stupid prank, you pick it up with an annoyed sigh.

"hello?"

"hello. is this y/n?"

"yes. who am i talking to?"

there is a short silence before the unknown person starts talking again,

"look, i work at this club near your neighborhood and this dude randomly passed out here. i found your number on his phone so i thought of calling you. can you maybe come and get him? he's seriously wasted a– dude, what the hell, stop spilling all the drinks!"

"i'm sorry but who are you talking about?"

you heard the unknown man mumble before answering, "seojung? seung- seojun?"

"han seojun?"

"yes! that's his name."

a short silence takes over when you sit up in shock.

"so, are you coming?"

you sigh before replying, "i need the adress.”

the moment you enter that club, you want to return to your house. many people dance on the dance floor, totally wasted. everyone is pressing their bodies against each other's. the loud music makes you feel even more uncomfortable. you look around and let out a relieved sigh when you find a bartender with a phone on his hand.

"hello, i'm here for seojun. the guy who–"

"hey, finally! he's right here."

you follow the man to the other side of the club, where people are sitting on the couches and drinks were sold every minute. it doesn’t take you long to spot seojun sitting on the couch. his eyes are closed but his head is swinging from left to right. you can’t believe your eyes. you’re pretty sure you haven’t seen him in a state like this ever before.

"don't worry. your boyfriend didn't hook up with anyone." the bartender next to you said.

"he's not my boyfriend."

"what are you then?"

"i'm his..." you trail off before answering,

"neighbor! i’m his neighbor!"

seojun shouldn't know that you came to pick him up at this time.

without waiting any longer, you help seojun getting up and wrap his arm around your shoulder. before leaving the club, the bartender reaches you seojun’s phone and makes sure to call a taxi. after thanking him you leave with seojun’s heavy body.

while waiting for the taxi to arrive, seojun keeps rambling stupid things you can’t understand. it’s getting harder for you to stand with him by yourself every minute, so you decide to sit on the bench with him, which is a couple steps away from the bus station.

you let out an exhausted sigh after sitting down and then turn your head towards him. suddenly you grab his face and make him look at you. he smiles like an idiot after you brush his bangs away from his forehead. his cheeks are extremely red, his lips pouting slightly and his eyes struggling not to close. your cold hands hold his warm, soft cheeks while you analyze his expressions. you have to admit: seojun looks cute.

after a few seconds he suddenly frowns. he narrows his eyes and tilts his head to the side slightly, looks you up and down considerately before asking,

"who are you?"

“you don't know who i am?"

"hmmm..." he rubs his chin carefully, acting like he’s solving a mystery,

"no."

"good."

"you're telling me that that's fine?" seojun giggles and covers his mouth.

"yes, absolutely."

"alright! i'm han seojun. who are you?" he stretches his hand out for you to shake.

"does that matter?”

“of course! who are you, young lady?”

"that's not important right now. what matters is that you're extremely drunk. what were you doing here?"

"you're rude!" he pouts and crosses his arms,

"you won't even tell me your name."

"why are you acting so childish?"

"i-i don't know."

"never mind. that's fine."

"really?!"

"yeah, you're good."

you notice how his lips form a small smile,

"you're nice and then rude and then nice and then- you remind me of someone you know?"

yes, that's you.

"my friend y/n."

"oh, really?" you sarcastically laugh.

"yeah! she's like you. but prettier. like so much prettier. she’s pretty."

"that doesn't even make sense."

"huh?" seojun asks confused.

oh no, why do you have to be so cute.

"actually, it’s hard for me to be her friend." suddenly he’s all sad,

"sometimes i cross the line and don’t know my limits. but she's so dumb and stubborn!"

"and why is that?” frowning, you cross your arms in front of your chest, waiting for his response.

he only sighs with tiredness, "never mind–"

and then he falls asleep on your shoulder.

finally you arrive at seojun’s house and fortunately all the lights are out. with his heavy body pressing to your small one, you struggle to carry him up the stairs. quietly, the door is opened by you before seojun falls into his bed. your head starts hurting, which makes you sit down next to him and massage your temples. however, you help seojun standing up and carry him to the bathroom carefully, in order to wash his face. he lets you take off his jacket and his shoes. finally he lays down on his back, with his face facing the ceiling.

"don't lie on your back." you demand.

"hm?" seojun’s eyes are firmly closed when he mutters with tiredness.

"lie on your side." you pull his body to the side, so that he could face you.

definitely, his facials expressions change. his lips are no longer pouted, his eyes extremely tired, his cheeks pale. from analyzing his face once again, you fail to notice him staring at you with his eyebrows drawn together. soon his confused expression changes to a sad one when you cover his body with his bed sheets.

"i'm sorry." seojun mutters suddenly. you expect him to continue, as he grabs both of your hands and slightly pulls you closer to him. a shiver goes down your spine.

"y/n, you deserve better."

he knows it’s you?

"i know i treated badly but i need you."

his eyes are barely opened, his words barely understandable. your hands start shivering as his grip tightens.

"i-i should go."

"no! please stay here." he rambles drunkly.

you decide to stay a little longer, just until he would fall asleep and hopefully forget everything that has happened this night.

“i mi..."

you aren’t able to understand his quiet mumbling, so you lean in a little,

“what did you say?"

“i miss y/n."

silence takes over the room before you finally reply,

“i missed you too, seojun-ah.”

your words make him open his eyes immediately. with a surprised face he tilts his head slightly and narrows his eyes,

"y/n?"

instead of saying anything, you hold his hand while he’s still questioning your identity. all of the sudden his hands leave yours to grab your face. without waiting too long he pulls your face closer to his. instantly, your eyes widen when you notice the small gap between your noses. intensively, he looks into your eyes. so many emotions can be read from his look, yet you can’t figure out what he‘s feeling exactly. they have the most beautiful brown color you have ever seen. so deep, that you could get lost in them. only seconds pass, but it still feels like you were staring at each other for an eternity. you can even feel his soft breath on your face, which causes your ears to turn a dark shade of crimson.

seojun then glances at your lips before looking back into your eyes again. without waiting any longer he presses your lips together, one hand holding your cheek while the other grabs your waist. you let out a small gasp, your eyes remain closed, your whole body frozen. is this really happening?

when you’re finally able to kiss him back and hold firmly into his shoulders, he tilts your head, deepening the kiss. you feel your heart beating thousand times faster, almost exploding in your chest, as his soft lips press against yours. your face is glowing when you eventually wrap your arms around his neck to pull him closer, unable to resist the warm feeling. without doubt, you are sure that you've never felt something like this before.

seojun slowly pulls back when he feels your fingers softly tugging at his hair, leaving a small gap between your lips. you feel his breath on your face when he hums something before his lips meet yours for the second time, not giving you enough time to open your eyes,

“hmm, strawberries.”

feeling his lips forming a small smile, your heart is about to explode in your chest. seojun was insanly drunk but clearly enjoys the taste of strawberry lip balm, brushing his thumb over your cheek softly.

soon you break the kiss only to find seojun falling asleep on his bed seconds later. not believing what just happened you stare at him, admiring his features before panic takes over you and you rush out of his house.

would he remember any of this tomorrow?

to be continued...

(p.s: sorry for making you wait for so long🥺)

#han seojun #seojun #humph #true beauty #hwang inyeop #han seojun imagine #han seojun imagines #han seojun x reader #han seojun fluff #seojun x reader #seojun fluff #seojun imagine #seojun imagines #scenarios #fanfiction

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barbenheimer-core · 3 years

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AUDERE EST FACERE !

둘. balenciaga : part one — 3.6k words

Getting used to the new way of things definitely wasn't as easy as she thought it would be. There was no guidebook available to advise her on how to live in a fictional, but very, very real world where the people she knew were reduced to mere caricatures of what they once had been.

She wasn't even kidding. If she thought she had already seen the worst of it when her mother had yelled at her brother, oh boy was she mistaken.

As she had come to find out, no matter if she was in the right or wrong, Ahyeong was no exception when it came to being at the other end of her mother's disappointment.

It became apparent when Hwayoung had arrived at the ER to collect her daughter following a phone call from the receptionist alerting her of Ahyeong's injury.

Drowsy from painkillers and weighed down by the heavy cast on her ankle, Ahyeong gripped the crutch at her side as she walked to her mother's car in the parking lot. The bruising on her foot had looked awful at first, but upon further checking and x-ray scans, her bone was only fractured and the discolouration was the result of the harsh impact on concrete.

Her mother had been eerily quiet ever since she had picked her up at the gate, but as Driver Oh — her parents' designated chauffeur — embarked on the way to their home, Mother finally broke the silence.

Ahyeong didn't know what she was expecting. No, wait, she knew exactly what she expected to hear: the same words her mother had told her when she had scraped her knees on asphalt when she had been a little girl trying to learn how to ride a bike for the first time, asking if she was feeling okay, or if it hurt too much.

Instead, what she got from her mother was: "I wasn't expecting this from you."

Despite the internal heaters of the car that provided respite against the chill of the night, the air around them felt impossibly cold.

"How could you be so careless? Getting injured right before school? If this is your way of rebelling against me, let me tell you, young lady, it will not work," she scoffed.

"Perhaps I've been too ignorant in letting you out of the house so freely. From now on, you're to ask for my permission every time you decide to leave the house. Understand?"

She didn't even wait for her daughter's response and continued on, jaw set in annoyance as she almost spat her next words, "And also, next time you decide to afflict yourself on your escapades, call the housekeeper to get you instead. I had to leave a conference with foreign investors just to pick you up. Honestly, you call yourself my daughter. I wonder what I did wrong in raising you that you ended up like this."

Ahyeong looked on, processing the poisonous words that pricked her skin, and accepted one of the many cruel realities of her situation.

Song Hwayoung, a businesswoman with expectations that were higher than the tallest mountains and a personality as explosive as active volcanoes.

That was the woman sitting across from her at that moment, not her mother.

Her sigh was barely heard over the static hum of the engine and passing vehicles. This was definitely going to take a while.

If she thought that she would be cut slack with a fractured ankle and be left alone to wallow in her thoughts, she was terribly wrong.

New world meant new info, things that didn't exist before but existed here in this world. Thank whatever entity existed in the cosmos that the Internet was created, because Ahyeong didn't think she would've known half the things she did now if she hadn't seen the news feed on all her SNS accounts — which thankfully were the same — feeding her with all she missed out on.

First order of business was finding more information about whatever may be relevant to the story she was dropped in. For better or for worse, Ahyeong instinctively knew that she was going to be a big part of whatever charade she was thrown into, and if she went into this blind as a bat, she was bound to crash and burn. Even if she could find a way to get out of here, and it really was a dream (her ankle vehemently protested against that fact), she was not counting on false hopes and delusion. So in order of relevancy, it was.

One person that jumped in her SNS feed far more times than she could ignore was Jung Seyeon. She knew the gist of it; a friend of Suho and Seojun, debuted idol with a soulful voice and wonderful personality, ruined by falsities and someone's needless hate.

Upon laborious scrolling and exploration of trending tags, she gathered that it had been his birthday yesterday, the first after his untimely death the previous year, which also explained the memorial she had seen the other day while on the verge of falling.

What disturbed her was that she had stood in the same place as Seyeon, same building, same roof. It put Suho's reaction into perspective when he had found her, and further mounted her guilt in bringing up bad memories.

Digging up things she needed to know about the story — which was more inclined towards the drama than the webtoon; she had just started watching the show when she'd been swept away so her foreknowledge didn't really count for much — also meant that eventually, she would end up finding out something or the other about herself too. Which she did. She found out a lot of things, on the Internet and also in real life from people she was rather horrified to be associated with.

"Young Miss, you have guests. Shall I send them up?"

Eunjung knocked on her door to get her attention, relaying her message, and waited for her response with all the patience of a saint. She was a godsend and the Song heir couldn't be more grateful for her being present in the family.

Meanwhile, Ahyeong frowned, a confused look passing her features for a second.

Guests?

People coming over to the Song Mansion was not unheard of, but it was rare, and they were all either her parents' acquaintances or some of her brother's classmates. Ahyeong wasn't big on inviting people to her house or making friends beyond the usual superficial ones. She had a few who she loved having around, but never at her house.

Maybe they heard of her injury and came over to check? Dohwa hadn't texted her in a long while — was his number still in her phone? — so he probably visited?

Ahyeong lit up in excitement and sat up in her desk chair — her ankle had gotten considerably better and the cast would be off in a few days — and nodded at Eunjung, who almost chuckled at her eagerness and went downstairs to lead the guests up to her room.

She needed some semblance of familiarity from before and Dohwa was perfect for it. He even was Ahyeong's partner-in-crime when they read the True Beauty webtoon together in the rare days off that they had in the library, so maybe, just maybe, Dohwa would remember.

They didn't know each other too well, only bonding over trash romance manhwas that he dug up from the deepest corners of Seulli High — her former school; she had transferred to Saebom now, albeit unwillingly — but she liked to think he really did care about her.

Footsteps echoed up on polished stairs, advancing towards her bedroom located at the end of the west wing, and Ahyeong was almost vibrating with nerves at the implications of her train of thought.

She might not be the only one who was self-aware — that's what she had come to call this phenomenon — and quite frankly, she was counting on the fact that she didn't have to suffer through this alone.

Misery loves company and all that.

Well, turns out, the misery part of that statement was going to be more prominent when her guests stepped in through the door and Song Ahyeong recognized a gaggle of faces that definitely did not belong to Dohwa.

"Oh my goodness, Ahyeong-ah! Long time no see! I heard you were back so I came to see you! It's been so lonely without you, years go by so fast. How was New York?"

"Did you get souvenirs?"

"Did you really meet that hotshot makeup artist Selly? I saw your post on SNS. Waah, you're really living the life."

Fragile hope that had bloomed in her chest shattered into a million pieces, being flooded by a wave of horrified realization at the presence of the group of girls in her room.

She had been trying to deny it, pretending that she hadn't seen and read what she had, that the description was just that way because of a trick of light, that her eyes hadn't been working, her mind had been frenzied in panic.

Song Ahyeong, The Bully.

As Park Semi and her gang of tormentors stood in front of her with lips painted crimson and sharp teeth gleaming with an unnatural whiteness, Ahyeong realized just what type of crowd she was supposed to be a part of here.

The smile was ever-present on her face, cheeks aching from keeping it up for so long. Having moved their long-awaited meeting to the parlour on the first floor (damn that girl was rich), Semi's hands moved in elaborate gestures to demonstrate her encounters with their favourite victim- er, classmate, Im Jugyeong.

After three long years, Ahyeong was back. The queen b, the it-girl, the ideal student, her "best friend": Song fucking Ahyeong.

Honestly, Semi almost forgot the girl existed. Seeing the Song Heir trending on SNS for having landed back in Seoul was a shock for the girl who had been trying to establish herself as the person-in-charge after Ahyeong had left.

Semi had been trying so damn hard to build her reputation from scratch and was finally at the point where everyone in the surrounding neighbourhoods knew her as "Park Semi" instead of "one of Song Ahyeong's lackeys". But of course, the bitch just had to come back and ruin all her hard work.

She had to restrain herself from turning her smile into an ugly scowl.

She wouldn't do it, though. More like she couldn't, couldn't afford to burn the bridge that she had so painstakingly formed in middle school to rise from the rear end of the social ladder, going from an invisible nobody to a person who turned heads wherever she walked.

And when the opportunity presented itself, she seized Ahyeong's reputation in her absence and made it her own.

How could she keep it up now? How could she manage to compare to her when people kissed the very ground Ahyeong walked on?

Her smile wavered, fingers clenching around the handle of the teacup as she looked at the girl sitting in front of her on a chair that looked akin to a throne, calmly listening to one of the others talk about a particularly funny prank on the class pig with an amicable smile on her face.

The years had done her well, she grumbled in her mind. Ahyeong had gotten noticeably taller. Her occasional ventures into the modelling industry were justified. She'd seen those editorials in high-end fashion magazines. Semi wouldn't be surprised if her height counted in the 170's. It was a far cry from her own small stature.

Moreover, her aristocratic features were sharper and finely regal, lips perfectly plump and full of colour, the natural flush on cheeks that complimented her skin, her elegant posture and long dainty fingers that curled around the teacup, nails impeccably manicured, long legs crossed at her ankles.

For shit's sake, Ahyeong had no flaws. She was the epitome of perfection, anywhere she went, she belonged.

Semi scoffed in her mind, cogs already turning in her mind and forging the beginnings of a plan.

Enjoy the time you've got now, bitch. I'm going to make sure you run back to whatever hole you came from.

Calm. She looked calm. At first glance, that is. People didn't usually try to look deeper into appearances and took everything at face value.

Never had Ahyeong been so grateful for the ignorant nature of human beings.

Her hands looked normal. No, they were shaking with tremors as she tried to control them by clenching them around her cup until her knuckles turned white.

Her face looked passive. Her eyes were dry from not blinking for so long in fear that one of them would do something unsavoury the moment her eyes closed.

She looked fine. No, because she knew for a fact that she was staving off a panic attack.

Bullies. Fucking bullies, tormentors, tyrants, thugs, why the fuck were they in her house and talking to her like she belonged with them?

Her chest was constricting in odd ways, throat clogging up painfully.

When was the last time she breathed?

Was the parlour always this small?

Their mouths were moving, oh, they were talking.

Were there windows in the room? She really wanted to jump off one right now, anything to get away from this mess.

The door slammed open, cutting off the conversation — was it a conversation she was supposed to be a part of? Couldn't remember, she wasn't really talking, too busy trying to get oxygen in her lungs — and snapping the guests' attention to it.

Relieved from the unwavering attention of such unpleasant companions — although they were behaving well and were friendly, too friendly — Ahyeong breathed, taking in as much of the stuffy air as she could before slowly letting it out.

One... two... three...

When she reached ten on her count and everything shifted back into focus, she turned to the person who'd interrupted them and at the same time saved her.

(She hoped to any higher being up there that her guests hadn't witnessed her like that. She'd rather not give them anything to use against her, even if they hadn't shown any hostile intentions.)

Gilyeong stood by the unlit fireplace with a sneer that would've made Severus Snape proud.

"Look what the cat dragged in."

Semi huffed, setting her cup down, and put her nose in the air, flipping her hair back, "A princess, of course."

"I was thinking of something along the lines of a toy rat made of plastic."

Did he just accuse Semi of having her face done?

Bless her brother, she was going to shower him with flowers and gifts for this, because Ahyeong was forever going to treasure the memory of the mortified look on Semi's face.

She barely kept herself from snorting out loud, while Semi's friends held no such reservations, or maybe failed to control themselves, and dissolved into a fit of giggles and hysteria.

"You little-" Semi shook in anger as she rose from her chair, pupils blown wide with rage, "how dare you, you piece of-"

"Careful, Semi."

Said girl froze in her attempt to slap Gilyeong, and all laughter ceased at the sound of Ahyeong's bone-chilling voice that rang loud and clear in the room.

(She was vaguely aware that it was the first words she'd said the entire evening aside from the meekly spoken pleasantries and affirmations.)

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," she warned, eyes narrowed as she pinned a cold glare at the offending hand that was a couple inches away from her brother's face.

As much as Ahyeong liked to playfully gripe with her brother, she never tried to lay a hand on him. And anyone who dared to do so would be spared no excuses by her, much less by a person with such a notorious history.

Semi visibly gulped at that, lowering her hand and letting out a nervous chuckle, "C'mon, Ahyeong, it was just good fun!"

"You and I have very different ideas of 'good fun', Semi," Ahyeong replied, setting her cup of untouched rose tea down and standing up, the other girls exchanging a look and following suit.

"Now, Gilyeong, what were you here for?"

"Umm..." His eyes moved over his sister, the girls and then to the door, "Eunjung said it was getting dark."

She turned to the guests who stood awkwardly in front of her, smiling wide — too many teeth, she later thought, after her brother commented how she looked like a shark — to hide the beginnings of boiling irritation that replaced her prior panic.

"I believe our time has been cut short, and I'm sure we'll have many opportunities to sit and chat again," God, she hoped not, "let's say our goodbyes for now, yes?"

It came off as more of a statement than asking for permission. There was no room for argument.

Gilyeong was boring holes into his sister's head with how hard he was staring, standing beside Eunjung as Ahyeong waved off her old friends — yeah, right, "friends" — and stepped back inside the foyer.

She had obviously noticed him doing so, because she raised an eyebrow at him, "What?"

"You're fucking terrifying, you know that?"

Eunjung looked affronted and hissed vehemently beside him, immediately launching in a tirade of "where did you learn such language?", "I should put soap in your mouth" and all that jazz. But he tuned her out, focusing solely on his sister who looked at him like he'd grown a second head.

If it was anyone who had grown a second head, it would be her. Because what in the ever-living heck was that back in the parlour?

Admittedly, a weird feeling had been pooling in his gut ever since he had seen a pale-faced Ahyeong entering the first-floor parlour with people who he didn't recognize in the slightest, and upon asking the housemaid, he came to find out they were some friends from middle school.

That immediately sent warning bells tolling in his mind because the grinch having friends? It was unheard of.

Not that he believed Ahyeong couldn't make friends, it was just that she often didn't have enough patience to deal with their bullshit with the workload that their mum often insisted on piling upon her.

When the thread of nerves in his mind had finally snapped in an hour, he all but barged into their conversation — which looked to be one-sided because Ahyeong wasn't speaking at all, only nodding her head at times, and when he looked close enough he could almost see her shaking- no, he wasn't spying on them — and was pretty sure he was the only one who had noticed her struggling to breathe properly.

Seriously, who were these people?

And then he makes a comment that blows one of the pissy girls' wig off and then he's flinching back because the rat's about to slap him and then he's shivering because his sister looks like she's about to commit murder.

Even their father's monthly tennis matches at the country club didn't give him so much whiplash.

He swore the room's temperature had dropped at that moment. He had scrambled to pull up and excuse as to why he had come in the room, roping Eunjung into it, and he thought he'd seen something akin to relief in Ahyeong's eyes.

But of course, that was soon overlooked when she pulled out her baby-eating smile and dear lord, why the fuck did she look like she would rip their heads off if they didn't leave right now?

She looked like a shark out for blood. And now, he told her so.

Ahyeong looked contemplative for a while before she shrugged and walked past him and Eunjung, who was still ranting about his use of such demeaning language — clearly, she hadn't seen him around his online friends when they went on raids in LOLOL — saying a few words that raised a lot of questions about his sister's overall mental well-being.

"Well, better get used to it because that's how the writer wrote my personality."

It was a mystifying feeling to be in front of a place that was inherently fictional but also real. The school in the drama was located at Yonsei University, but this building's address was further away from the original location that existed in this world.

It was beautiful. The hedges, the undergrowth, the ivy hanging off the old building. Students in Saebom's signature uniform milled around in clusters, either chatting idly or rushing off to their classrooms before the bell would ring.

The sun hit the scene just right, making it seem as though the scene came straight out of a painting. Well, it was supposed to be fictional anyway.

Ahyeong breathed in deep, straightening out her skirt and adjusting the nook of her tie that rested beneath her grey sweater vest. The tailored uniform was fitted snugly on her form.

The cast had come off the previous week after the doctor had given the all-clear, and now her legs were adorned by a pair of ankle-length boots, stockings and thigh-high socks.

She glanced at her watch that peeked out under the sleeve of her plum blazer.

7:43 am.

She needed to be at least fifteen minutes early to get her paperwork sorted out before classes began at eight.

With one last exhale to get rid of her nerves, she nodded at Driver Kwon, grabbed her backpack, and stepped out of the car and right into the eye of the storm: Saebom High.

And so, the plot begins.

TURN.

masterlist

#true beauty #cha eunwoo #hwang inyeop #moon gayoung #lee suho #han seojun #im jugyeong #kang sujin #extraordinary you #lee suho x reader #lee suho x oc #korean drama #kdrama fanfic #kdrama imagine #kdrama scenarios #webtoon

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twicelq · 4 years

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true beauty

like or reblog if u save

#true beauty seojun #true beauty icons #true beauty #han seojun #team seojun #hwang inyeop #hwang inyeop icons #eunwoo icons #eunwoo #eunwoo scenarios #moon gayoung #suho x jugyeong #suho icons #team suho #lee suho

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fanfic-wonderland · 3 years

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If you could, please check out my recent Harry Potter fanfic 🥺 it only has 3 parts so far, but I will be posting more and I would like it if you guys could give some feedback! 👉👈😄

Synopsis:

One would think that a student in their sixth year at Hogwarts would already know how to use magic properly, but unfortunately that was not the case for Violet Gomez. She comes from a family full powerful wizards and yet she can't even cast Expelliarmus correctly. Will she ever be able to do a spell without it setting something on fire, or without turning someone's hair into noodles? How about when she starts getting some extra practice from a handsome boy who has to help her against his own will?

Follow this story about a teenager struggling with high school crushes, keeping up with classes, and aiming to become the powerful witch she has always wanted to be.

***THIS STORY IS SET IN THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER, BUT IT DOES NOT REALLY FOLLOW THE ORIGINAL STORY. ALTHOUGH SOME CHARACTERS ARE EXISTING ONES FROM THE BOOKS/MOVIES, MOST OF THE CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY ARE MADE UP BY ME.***

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fyeahfandomtrash · 4 years

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random thoughts while watching tb ep 6

yes ya girl is back :)))))))))) can’t get a break from my annoying ass for too long!

since i didn’t do an ep 5 recap, just my two cents: cha eunwoo’s acting in this scene was top-tier. my heart was breaking for suho. moon gayoung and cha eunwoo really delivered.

ah yes right before suho was gonna tell jugyeong he doesn’t pity her but because he likes spending time with her we get the convenient emergency scenario (false fire alarm) to further the angst and misunderstanding :))

some of the lighting in this show has been kinda ass.

jugyeong has been the best part of this show. really says something when i’ve been really disliking the character in recent episodes of the webtoon.

cinematography choices have been more hit than miss, but definitely not at the same level of consistency that extraordinary you delivered. regardless, it’s a really well-shot show.

wow suho’s father really be a grade A dick. he was not this awful in the webtoon. the fact that he was tied to seyeon’s death in this show makes him even worse !!

han siblings are so cute. that scene lasted for a minute but i rewinded it like fifteen times.

no one at saebom high is like... normal. maybe y’all should respect the really introverted student at your school and NOT expose that his father is a celeb? ya know... privacy?

gosh i’m really disliking jugyeong’s mom. she was also not this awful in the webtoon afaik. at least her dad is there and is a really loving and supportive figure in the household :))

i really have no words for that scene, other than that hwang inyeop is a comedic genius (also, thoughts and prayers to seojun. poor guy)

awww i’m uwu-ing so much over gowoon and jugyeong’s friendship. so so cute :3 jugyeong really is such a loving and sweet person

lmaooo looooovee jugyeong’s lil brother. he’s a lil shit but is still looking out for jugyeong in his own way. cute!!

this show really... this writer really thrives on chaos, huh?

1) suho really needs to go to therapy, and 2) suho and seojun really need to talk out their problems and explain what went wrong. i’m going to be so pissed if these two don’t reconcile before episode 9.

absolutely love that they’re having jugyeong be so honest with suho. it’s in line with her character, too, since she can be the most honest version of herself with him. anyways this angst really got me feeling some type of way. i wish suho was more forthcoming with his feelings with her, but i get that is also part of his character.

awww heekyung is soo cute. she was great in the webtoon and i love her in the drama too.

ah... so suho is leo... :((( aww i’m so... :((( i just want to give him a hug :((

BOY IS WHIPPED *insert michael scott meltdown* folks we are not going to be okay for the rest of the show !!! hop on board the pain train !!!

oh no.... they found out about jugyeong.... i’m so mad can these bullies fuck off???!

seojun and suho are both hurting so much. the best thing they should’ve done was to lean on each other but because of misunderstandings and repressive guilt they’ve since turned their backs on each other. i get this isn’t the first time a work of fiction has done this but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt every time it happens :(((

absolutely LOVE jugyeong’s friends. that whole karoake scene was pure chaos and one of the most insane scenes i have seen in any contemporary-set high school kdrama. not only that, we got love triangle shenanigans, the audience kind of feeling touched that jugyeong has a group of people that are willing to be there for her, and freaking amor fati??!?!? absolute gold, i tell ya.

#true beauty #now what are we gonna do with the one week break :((

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kyanmapng · 4 years

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Since I've started following True Beauty hashtags on Twitter I've noticed very interesting patterns. I've seen multiple Seojun/Hwang In Yeop stan accounts, which were also praising Cha Eunwoo for his looks or acting. But when I came across Suho stan accounts, in the best case scenario they never mention Hwang In Yeop and in the worse they write harmful/rude comments about him. Not about Seojun (I mean, since he apologised they basically has nothing on him, so...), but on the actual actor. Somebody was even suggesting he had plastic surgeries or call him ugly?! Like... Who are those people? Where did they even come from? Haven't they watched behind the scenes, where In Yeop and Eunwoo are such cute friends?

I don't know, how delusional you must be, to write rude comments about the actor, actual human being, because you want Suho to be the endgame/ you're mad, because so many people prefer Seojun. Get a hobby, for God's sake.

I commend you for being such a brave soldier and looking at twitter TB stans. Twitter is always one of the craziest places for any fandoms. And you are absolutely right!

People can’t seem to grasp that actors and the characters they portray are two different beings. Disliking Seojun for being in the way of your OTP shouldn’t lead to hate towards the actor. It always annoys me when people do this. Do we really lower ourselves to mean comments about someone’s look when his character doesn’t sit with you? Childish. It also comes from the crazy standpoint of liking only one guy and hating on the other one. It’s like you can’t enjoy both of their characters, you HAVE to pick and then waste your own time by writing insulting comments on the bird app for clout that will go away once the story ends.

But too bad for them, because Inyeop shall shine bright and get more roles and have fun. Eunwoo and Inyeop are clearly friends and have great chemistry, so people need to stop being mean to Inyeop because they are hardcore Eunwoo stans or whatever. He is my Astro bias as well, but his character simply doesn’t speak to me as much as Seojun does. Doesn’t make me any less of Eunwoo fan, I can still enjoy his talent and his way of portraying Suho and bringing him to life. Some people clearly have too much time on their hands to act like this.

#i feel like i’m so old anytime i get into fandom and i see people bash actors like this #it feels so childish #enjoy their acting and hardwork #i also don’t click with certain actors and their characters but that doesn’t make me go on bird app to insult them #replies #true beauty #cha eunwoo #hwang inyeop #han seojun #lee suho

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skzfelixity · 4 years

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Ok random request but um could write something for Han Seojun where he is dating his s/o (who has like waist length hair) and she shows up at school one day with like short shoulder length hair and with a different color. I just got a hair makeover like my hair came to my butt and I decided to cut it and dye it the color I wanted for a while (pastel pink) and like everyone has been telling me I look so different so this CUTE Seojun idea popped up in my head-💀

This idea was so cute and I had fun writing it!!! ALSO YOUR HAIR MUST BE SO COOL! I am sure you look great<3 I hope you enjoy reading it!💖

New Hair | Han Seojun [True Beauty]

Seojun x Fem!Reader (ft. Taehoon, Sooah, Chorong & Juyoung)

Summary: Seojun reacts to your new hair.

Warnings: none

You looked at yourself in the mirror one last time before leaving your house. You didn’t tell anyone about your new hair, you wanted it to be a surprise. You couldn’t wait to see everyone’s reaction, especially your boyfriend’s. Seojun usually picked you up and walked you to school every morning but this time you told him not to. It got him a little suspicious since you didn’t explain why but he chose not to question you, maybe you needed a little space or something.

You had cut your long hair and also dyed it pastel pink, it was undoubtedly a big change. You weren’t sure if Seojun would like it, you never talked about this kind of matter. You didn’t need to worry, this boy supported you in everything you did anyway. However, he has his likes and dislikes when it comes to appearance and you wanted his honest opinion on your new look.

As you were walking through the school’s gate, you could feel everyone staring at you. They threw nice comments about your hair and how beautiful you looked, some waving at you and giving you a thumbs up. You expected the attention, you were kinda popular in school after all. You smiled at them, grateful for their kindness.

“Is that a new girl?” Someone from behind you asked, you just knew this voice belonged to Taehoon.

“That’s Y/N, idiot! Look at her backpack!”

You laughed at the familiar couple playfully fighting with each other. “Hi Sooah, Hi Taehoon!” You turned around to greet them with a bright smile. Sooah gasped and ran to you, leaving Taehoon behind. “Y/N, you look amazing!” She gave you a hug while jumping up and down, obviously happy about your change. You giggled and patted her head to make her stop jumping, “Thank you Sooah.”

“I almost didn’t recognise you!” Taehoon added, “You look beautiful as always.”

Before you got the chance to thank him, Sooah smacked the back of his neck. Her jealousy was too much sometimes. You decided to let them be and with a look of support to Taehoon, you left to find Seojun. Butterflies started growing in your stomach as the time to reveal your hair to him was approaching. Everyone gave positive reactions, you didn’t expect nothing different from your boyfriend but you still had doubts.

As you were going up the stairs, you bumped into Chorong. He was too busy eating his breakfast bars to notice his surroundings. “Y/N?” He narrowed his eyes to take a better look at you. You nodded at him, chuckling at the sight of six chocolate bars in his hands. “Nice change! You look cooler now!”

“Thank you!” You were overjoyed to receive all these compliments today, nevertheless you waited for a certain boy’s opinion. “Have you seen Seojun?”

“He’s in your classroom, probably sleeping on his desk,” he shrugged, taking a bite out of his bar. You headed to the classroom, heart beating faster at every step. Would he like you the same or view you differently after seeing your new hair? Pushing those thoughts aside, you entered the classroom.

Seojun’s had his head down on the desk, eyes closed while facing the window. You stood on his right side, admiring his facial features. You were definitely lucky to have him. You tapped his shoulder in order to wake him up, “Seojun.”

He lifted his head up at the sound of his name being called. He opened his eyes for a second and went back to his previous position, “I have a girlfriend, sorry.”

Assuming by his comment that he only saw the pink colour of your hair, you giggled. At least you found out that he was loyal, not that you didn’t know already. “Seojun, it’s me. Y/N!”

He jerked up and looked at you, his eyes and mouth wide open. He thought that you were so beautiful, he could get a nosebleed. You nervously waved at him, he seemed way too shocked. “You look amazing! This colour really suits you!”

You smiled at him, relieved that he liked it as much as you. Maybe even more because he is a simp. “Now you won’t have that much trouble brushing them,” he reminded you one of the perks of having shorter hair, which in fact was really beneficial. “So you like it?”

“Of course I do!” He ran his fingers through your hair, admiring the colour. No one knew that he actually adored pink and he loved it even more on you. “Should I dye it pastel pink too? So we can match.”

You liked the idea but still you wouldn’t want him to dye his hair just because of you, “Your natural colour is fine, don’t say nonsense!” You both laughed, Seojun was so whipped for you and he never failed to show it.

“Oh shet! My eyes! A goddess!”

Your laughter got interrupted by Juyoung, who hit his head on one of his friends’ back because he was looking at you. Seojun immediately covered you with his body, using his hands to hide your hair. “Mine!” He stuck his tongue out at the younger boy, who rolled his eyes and left. Seojun was known to be overprotective of you, even though he had no reason to be. You weren’t going anywhere any time soon, you’re both stuck with each other.

“You know what? Let’s go, I want to show you off!” He grabbed your hand and started dragging you in the hallway. He wanted the other students to see what he had pulled. He was so proud of you and so in love with you, he wanted to shout it to the whole world.

“Class is about to start, Jun!” You placed your free hand on his grip, stopping him from walking any farther. He sighed at his plan getting ruined, “We’ll walk through the school during breaks.”

You didn’t have a choice, not that you minded though. It was one of his ways of showing his love for you. You kissed his cheek and agreed. If the stares of people got too much for you, he would take you somewhere quiet. You were sure of it, one of his priorities was making you comfortable.

You had to deal with his staring during periods, throwing winks and hearts at you from time to time. Thankfully, he didn’t get caught by the teachers, he is a sneaky one. He loves you regardless of your appearance but he thought you looked really breathtaking with your new hair length and colour.

#true beauty #seojun x reader #han seojun x reader #han seojun #seojun imagine #seojun imagines #seojun scenario #seojun scenarios #seojun #hwang inyeop #hwang in yeop #inyeop

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barbenheimer-core · 3 years

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AUDERE EST FACERE !

in which song ahyeong wakes up in the world of 'true beauty' and accidentally changes the plot.

a true beauty x extraordinary you crossover fic !

Chapter Index —

하나. chanel : part one - part two - part three - part four - part five

둘. balenciaga : part one - part two - part three - part four - part five

#true beauty #cha eunwoo #hwang inyeop #moon gayoung #lee suho #han seojun #im jugyeong #kang sujin #true beauty fanfic #true beauty imagine #lee suho x reader #lee suho x oc #kdrama #tvn drama #kdrama imagines #kdrama fanfic #kdrama scenarios #extraordinary you

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barbenheimer-core · 3 years

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AUDERE EST FACERE !

하나. chanel : part five — 2.9k words

Ahyeong scrambled back, head still spinning from the fall.

She had done something. She did not know what, but Suho's scene at this moment was supposed to be with Jugyeong, not her.

Her breathing was erratic, exhales condensing against the frigid air on the roof. She regretted wearing a dress in that weather. Thinking she was gonna die anyway, she had not even bothered with a coat.

And help her, Lord, she was actually about to die just then! What kind of twisted being decided that it was a good idea to make Ahyeong almost kill herself?

She physically winced, cringing at the hypocrisy of her own thought. After all, she had come to the rooftop of her own accord with every intention to jump, the person behind the curtain was just seeing it through to the end.

Her inner ramblings screeched to a halt when Suho shifted on the hard concrete, letting out a muffled groan as he sat up with a dazed face, briefly glancing down at his elbow that had to have been bruised from the harsh drop before aiming a stern look at her figure, eyes piercing through her own like sharp daggers.

Ahyeong gulped in nervousness. This was not going to be a fun conversation.

He stood up from his spot, Ahyeong hesitatingly doing the same, her right foot throbbing in pain. She didn't bother inspecting her source of agony, too caught up in Suho's intense glare and afraid of ruining his already bad mood by looking away and further aggravating his spite in one way or another.

"What were you up to just now?"

Pulse racing, she opened her mouth to say the first flimsy excuse that came to mind, that she was just admiring the view or something when her brain decided it was a good idea to topple over.

"I was—"

But the writer was choosing all the wrong moments to be a pain in the ass.

TURN.

"Were you going to jump?"

She looked away. That was the same thing she had said to Jugyeong, now those words were being aimed back at her by a person she didn't even know. Hold up, how did this thing know that she said this to Jugyeong?

"Are you insane?" Suho said, pupils dilated in an emotion Ahyeong recognised, because she looked like that too when she had confronted her mother.

Confronted her mother for what? Goodness, why couldn't someone just dump her entire fictional backstory onto her already, she was sick of finding out through contextual clues and word of mouth.

"Have you lost your mind? What could be hard enough to make you want to die?" His eyes were glazed over, his stuttering breath visible in the cold air. Sure, he was seeing her, but Ahyeong felt like he was looking at someone else.

"How could you give up on your life like this!?"

Ahyeong flinched at his furious voice reverberating in the empty space (she knew it was her genuine reaction). Suho's tone was becoming increasingly desperate in a way, and she didn't know what was bringing that on.

"You should try to overcome the difficulties instead," his voice trembled, "Have you even considered how devastated your loved ones would be?"

His throat choked up, eyes almost desperate in a way, fisted hands trembling by his sides.

"Someone might forever live in guilt for not being able to save you."

At this moment, with a light melody that still rung out through the abandoned headphones, Ahyeong finally understood what was happening.

He was projecting, spilling his thoughts about Seyeon's death right onto her. What he wished he could've said to his best friend before he had taken his own life.

Lee Suho was guilt-ridden, shifting the blame of having killed Jeong Seyeon onto himself.

"Understand?"

TURN.

Ahyeong chose to remain silent, a thought invading her mind.

Was he just a character, or a real person?

"There's nothing you can do for a dead person. So don't die."

Suho seemed to have come to his senses, taking a deep breath to calm himself, and then snatched his headphones to walk out of the roof, no longer in the mood to stay.

The Song heir stood still on her feet.

It was just one existential crisis after the other. She had come to the conclusion that she would try to live in this warped reality when she had been standing on the ledge, to see if it would be better than dying altogether. But now the dilemma arose. Were these people she had seen and read about actual human beings? With feelings and thoughts of their own? Or were they just caricatures made for the sake of a story?

How was she supposed to treat them?

Lee Suho stopped in his tracks when he did not hear her footsteps behind him.

Twisting his head, he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Why aren't you coming?" he asked, snapping her out of her thoughts, "is it to jump once I leave?"

"No, that's not it," she shelved her thoughts for later. Exhaustion had already begun creeping into her form after the trying day.

She moved to follow him, struggling to keep her eyes open. But a few steps forward had her realising that the pain from before had become non-existent.

Ahyeong would have been relieved if it were not for the fact that she could not feel anything in her right foot at all.

Looking down, she almost tripped in shock.

The once previously pristine clear skin had turned into ghastly shades of blue and purple, veins pulsing against swelled skin in a way that made bile rise into her throat.

Oh no.

Suho had already started moving ahead, and Ahyeong unsteadily stumbled after him, her heels not helping her case at all.

"H-hey, wait up!" she protested, struggling to keep pace with his long strides as they exited the rooftop and made way to the elevator.

At least she would be able to properly check on her ankle while the giant metal box made its way down.

But when Suho's frustrated sigh and retracting footsteps caught her ears, she halted, spotting the 'Out of Order' sign in front of the elevator.

"You've got to be kidding me," she swore under her breath, belatedly remembering that scene from the drama.

Luck was not on her side in any way nor form.

Lee Suho's luck that day had been practically non-existent.

The first thing that graced his eyes on the T.V. that morning had been the face of his father, immediately souring his day.

He knew what day it was, but he tried his best to forget to bring some sense of normalcy into his life.

But the world was intent on reminding him at every twist and turn that it was Seyeon's birthday. The radio, in memoriam billboards, posters with little messages on them, and even the conversations between every student at school.

"Poor guy, he had so much potential."

"He was such a sweet person."

"How tragic."

Suho fought back the urge to remind them what brought upon that tragedy.

He set off to Prince Comics in hopes of finding peace and quiet. But the bookstore had been closed, which was odd for the shopkeeper to do since it was always open on business days.

What was even more unusual was the reason for him having closed the shop, which was conveyed through a piece of paper taped below the wooden sign:

"The shop has been closed until further notice because the owner is having a mental breakdown due to a supposedly fictional character's newfound awareness."

Suho thought the man had finally lost his marbles and decided to go to Cloud9 Officetel's terrace, hoping to stew in his thoughts and memories of his best friend on his special day.

Opening the metal door, he always imagined a phantom Seyeon standing on the ledge and on the verge of jumping. It wasn't new. It happened every time. It went away whenever he blinked his eyes.

And so, he blinked.

Someone was still there.

It wasn't until the LED screens lit up with their neon hues reflecting off the person's black dress did Suho realise that no, that wasn't a phantom Seyeon, it was an actual person about to jump and end their lives.

His legs hadn't moved so fast since he ran track in middle school and pushed through in the final sprint, and pulling that person back as soon as they leaned forward had felt the same as running through the finish line and scoring a gold medal.

He felt like he had won.

It was surreal. Doing something he had been fantasizing about in his dreams for months on end. It felt like he had finally saved his friend instead of killing him.

He knew the person lying on top of him wasn't Seyeon, it wasn't a boy altogether, but one thing he did know was that he wanted to relish in the feeling of having saved someone from their demise, Seyeon or not.

He forgot the last time he felt so relieved.

When the weight was off of him, he laid still for a moment, waiting for the adrenaline to wear off before he got up, barely noticing the bruise on his elbow before he registered the person staring at him with disbelief.

Wait- wasn't this the girl from Prince Comics the other day?

Was another person he was familiar with about to kill themselves? Was he cursed? Was everything he came upon doomed to a bitter end?

It was like a fuse blew in his mind, the dam cracking to let a deluge wreak havoc on everything. He tried hard to control it. But it was slipping through.

What he saw wasn't the Song girl from the bookstore, it was all the people that had been taken away from him.

His restraints were close to breaking, and he voiced what he wished he could've to his dead friend to a complete stranger. If only he had picked up damn the call.

The haze eventually passed, so did his anger, and he came back to his senses.

He was too overwhelmed at that moment, so he did what he usually did best. He turned away.

This time though, he made sure that the girl turned away with him.

Now that brought him to the present, going down the almost endless flight of stairs and keeping one ear out to make sure — what was her name? Nahyeon, Gayoung? — was steadily following him.

He stopped.

He couldn't hear the click of her heels behind him.

Was she back on the rooftop?

He snapped his neck to look up so fast he almost got whiplash.

Click. . . . . . .clack. . . . .

He relaxed, trying to calm his palpitating heart. Why was she walking so slowly?

"Uhh. . .y'know, a little help would be appreciated considering the fact that my ankle looks like a sludge of mashed peas, except that it's bluer, painful, and more disgusting?" her voice rang out from more than five flights above.

She sounded out of breath, her words slurring at the end like she was drunk.

Now that he thought about it, he didn't exactly pull her back in the most ceremonious of ways, and she was wincing a bit when he had been telling her off.

A blue ankle? Did she — correction, he — accidentally break something, or was she just trying to deal with the fact that she almost offed herself and was yapping off random things?

"Ack!"

A yelp, a series of loud, echoing thuds, and a prolonged groan.

That was all he needed to answer his questions.

Going back up had been a hassle, but the sight of the girl sprawled on the ground had him scrunching his nose, either out of his clean-freak tendencies — because ew, she was face-down on a tiled floor that had been stepped on so many times by various germ-filled soles — or because he sympathised with her.

"Why is life so cruel?!" she cried out.

He had been trying to find the answer to that question for ages.

Inspecting her ankle, it was bad. Suho loathed to think that he had caused that. It must've gone numb for a while before the pain had returned tenfold, rendering her delirious in her agony.

He shrugged his jacket off, wrapping it around the half-passed out girl, and knelt down to put her fumbling arms around his shoulders and pulled her up.

It was going to be a tiring walk down.

Ahyeong had drunk alcohol only once in her life: when she had chugged on a bottle of Pinot Noir that she stole from her mother's wine cabinet thinking it was grape juice. She was twelve at the time.

She had forgotten what the feeling was like.

But now as the colours blurred in her vision like vibrant paintings and impressive shows of light, she gathered this was how it was. Only now, she was drunk in pain instead of finely aged bottles of wine and she was mad and sad and happy as fuck.

Mad because her ankle was broken and she basically almost died.

Sad because wow, she basically almost died, whatever gave her that idea. Now she had to live in a glorified self-insert fic.

Happy because damn, Cha Eunwoo was carrying her to a cab to get her leg some proper treatment.

He looked kinda off, though. Cha Eunwoo was supposed to be the smiley cute boy, not the brooding cold dude that was currently shoving her into the back of a car and rattling off instructions to the driver.

"The hospital?"

"Yes, to the ER. She has a broken ankle. Please try to call a doctor to help her, she's in a delirious state because of the pain," he explained to the driver.

She tugged the hoodie tighter around herself, playing with the loose strings as she got reminded of the thought she had on the roof.

Character or a real person?

Lee Suho was alive, had skin that could be marred, bones that could be cracked, a mind that could think, and a heart that could feel.

He turned to her, saying something along the lines of calling friends or family to alert them of her condition. Her mind didn't properly register his words but she got the gist of it.

He was miserable. He didn't show it often, or at all for the matter. That's why when he had a chance, the cap on the bottle in which he was stewing his emotions had been loosened to let off some of the pressure.

He was lonely. He had lost his mother, his father was absent from his life, his friend had abandoned him in his own grief, and he didn't let anyone close to him. He had no one.

She found herself comparing her own situation to his. Now that she thought about it, they were similar. She had no one to pour her emotions onto, no one could even begin to understand what was happening to her. There may be someone out there who knew, but it wasn't like she was going to walk up to every person on the street and ask them "hey, did you know, this world is a story and you're technically not real!"

"Hey, do you understand?" his voice brought her back to the present.

She leaned back in her seat, looking at his usually apathetic face that was pinched in hidden concern.

"Yes, Mr. Lee," she mumbled back absent-mindedly, half-lidded eyes blinking rapidly to stay awake. She was too tired.

Suho raised a brow in slight confusion.

Oh, she said his last name.

She could not bring herself to care at the moment.

He ducked out of the car, closing the door shut and signalling the driver to take off.

The man in the front twisted the key, but Ahyeong raised her hand, stopping him.

"Wait a minute, ahjusshhi, I wanna say something to him," she mumbled.

Trying to summon the last ounce of energy left in her, she rolled down the window, calling out to Suho who was already a couple of feet down the pavement.

"Hey, you!"

He stopped, twisting his head to look at her.

Ahyeong sighed. This was her world. She was going to live here. As far as her knowledge went, she was alone in this endeavour.

She saw herself in the boy standing on the street waiting for her to say something. For now, character or not, one thing she did know was that Lee Suho was very, very real.

"Nothing lasts forever, you know? It gets better, eventually."

The wheels turned. The cab drove off onto the busy highways. Suho stood alone under the flickering lights on a cold night in Seoul.

It gets better.

He couldn't count the number of times he had heard that sentence in his life. He had become numb to it.

How strange, though. The way she said it. It felt more like a certainty rather than an empty wish.

His shoulders felt lighter than they did an hour ago.

Song Ahyeong, was it? She was coming to Saebeom soon.

Huh.

He started walking the long way up to his flat, dodging overworked employees rushing to their way home, music blasting in his ears.

Suho wondered what kind of person she was.

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barbenheimer-core · 3 years

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AUDERE EST FACERE !

하나. chanel : part one — 1.3k words

Ahyeong stared at the green wormhole outside the restaurant window that looked like it had ripped through the walls of reality itself, tuning out the low hum of the piano and the incessant chatterings of her parents discussing stock prices with the company investors over glasses of fine wine and impeccable dining.

She blinked.

It was gone.

Maybe she shouldn't have pulled an all-nighter binging True Beauty on webtoon as a reward for finishing the end-of-term exams. Lack of sleep was leading her to have vivid hallucinations.

She set her sights on her waiting dish of panna cotta instead, picking up the gold dessert spoon and scooping up an acceptable amount of the cold dish before putting it in her mouth.

"Noona," her brother, Gilyeong nudged her side, briefly scrolling his phone's screen before turning it at her direction under the table, away from the eyes of the adults.

Ahyeong, slightly confused, looked down at his phone screen, only to snap her neck as fast she could the other way.

Aish, that kid, the girl cursed under her breath, always up to ruining her mind.

Gilyeong lowly chuckled at his sister's agitated state and continued reading his horror manhwa on a mobile-reading app.

She couldn't exactly remember when, but it had become a tradition of sorts among the siblings to share the most gruesome stills of creepy images they could find to incite a satisfactory — and sometimes, rather laughable — reaction from the other.

They had a whole rating system where the degree of their flinches would determine the amount of money they had to pay to each other. Though she had to add, Ahyeong was winning in that department.

While Gilyeong found such material more often than not as he was an avid reader of any and every horror comic he could get his hands on, Ahyeong was more partial to the films and movies, only occasionally dipping her toes into physical pages.

Although she found clips and images at a slower pace than he did due to mountains of schoolwork, her contributions were usually the most disturbing (and mentally scarring) of all the others, which three times out of ten resulted in Gilyeong damaging his voice box by the magnitude of his screams.

(The neighbor had to check in once because he had thought it was Ahyeong screaming bloody murder.)

It wasn't like Gilyeong held back either. Despite being twelve, the guy had a lot of nerve in him reading all sorts of body horror. She supposed it was their mum's fault for leaving him unsupervised in the comics section at the library and Ahyeong's own for not stopping the seven-year-old from tainting his eyes. He had looked genuinely fascinated with the grotesque drawings and she had thought that it would have been nice to have someone to discuss her interests with. Her friends were hesitant to delve into "nightmare fodder" as they had called it.

She sighed, blinking away the drowsiness in her eyes as she tried to focus on eating her dessert. She couldn't wait to go back to reading True Beauty.

The restaurant lobby was as extravagant as it could've been, with rich, dark colors and gold-silver accents on every corner.

Her parents were outside, seeing the investors off while Ahyeong and Gilyeong waited for them to pick her up.

It had been over twenty minutes and they still hadn't returned. She could've rested a bit. Ahyeong tapped her foot impatiently, wincing at the sting in her foot. Standing in her stilettos for so long was doing her no good other than causing pain to her toes.

"Yah, dongsaeng, I'm gonna take a power nap, wake me up when mum and dad arrive."

She got no sign of confirmation other than a slight glance her way, and with that, she finally sunk into the couch and removed her heels.

The couch felt like a cloud, and Ahyeong couldn't help the heavy feeling behind her eyelids as exhaustion finally took over her consciousness and her eyes slowly fluttered shut, unbeknownst to the green hole in reality that formed in front of her as soon as she did.

Turn.

Someone was reading a book. That was what she first thought as her sleepiness faded, waking up from her nap but still keeping her eyes closed.

Maybe her brother had sneaked a copy of a comic under their parents' noses and was reading it while they were away.

Why didn't he wake her up yet? They still hadn't returned?

She was feeling more refreshed than ever and that was only possible with a full eight hours of sleep. Had a power nap finally lived up to its name?

It also smelled different. Compared to the faint scent of lavender and roses that glided through the air in the restaurant lobby, the only thing Ahyeong could register now was the steaming smell of convenience store ramen as if it was right in front of her and a rather strange note of musk from someone sitting across from her.

She furrowed her brows.

Gilyeong never put on cologne or perfume, who was it?

Snapping her eyes open, Ahyeong stilled, looking at the Gucci-clad person reading a manhwa in front of her.

She blinked.

Huh? Lee Dongmin?

Looking down at herself, she noticed her obvious change in attire, wearing Chanel trainers instead of stilettos and wide-legged pants and a cream turtleneck in place of her grey chiffon dress.

Where was she?

Awareness flooded her system, and her eyes zoomed over her surroundings to see a place she never thought she would.

Prince Comics.

The haven of horror enthusiasts.

Ahyeong contemplated. So was she in a drama? True Beauty, no less.

. . . wow, she really had been sleep-deprived, hadn't she? So much so that her obsession with True Beauty ended up with her having this extremely realistic fantasy.

Smiling faintly, she got up, alerting Cha Eu— no, Lee Suho, who went back to reading when she went to browse the collections available in the store.

So, a character from the main cast and an almost endless collection of her favorite pastime hobby?

She never thought she'd thank sleep deprivation for giving her such a wonderful lucid dream.

Suho glanced over his book to look at the girl peering at the various volumes of Uzumaki on the Junji Ito shelves.

Judging by her appearance, which screamed wealthy, she was most definitely not from around here.

He didn't recall seeing her around school or the neighborhood either.

Strange, he thought as she pulled out a copy of Shiver and sifted through it, face completely straight and not flinching in the slightest, rather, an amused smile played on her lips.

"Oh? Ahyeong! Is that you?"

His mental analysis of the new girl broke when the bookstore owner entered the lounge with a face of vague recognition, and Suho hastily returned his eyes back to reading his comic as the girl — Ahyeong, as the owner had called her, turned around with equal startlement.

TURN.

What the-?

"Wangja-ssi, it's been a while," Ahyeong smiled at the shop owner, slipping the book back into the shelf.

"Wah, you've gotten even more pretty from the last time I saw you!" Wangja exclaimed, face alight with elation at the sight of one of his favorite customers back at his shop.

She'd never seen him aside from behind a screen, what'd he mean?

Ahyeong looked abashed at the sudden compliment why was she doing that? and smiled awkwardly.

"Well, I'm here now. Our family moved to Gangnam a few days ago." She had been living in Gangnam since she'd been born, what was she saying? Why couldn't she control her actions?

"Daebak, what about your schooling? It's the middle of the year, have you found a place?"

"Oh, yeah, about that," Ahyeong grinned. She looked at Suho, who was gulping down red ginseng and not paying attention to their conversation at all, trying to signal him of the weird situation of paralysis that she was in. Was this what usually happened in a lucid dream? Her gaze locked onto Wangja's.

"I'm transferring to Saebom."

HUH!?

Suho choked on his drink.

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AUDERE EST FACERE !

하나. chanel : part two — 1.7k words

TURN.

The lights in the shop lowered in their intensity, and Ahyeong gasped, drawing in heavy breaths of air as her limbs finally moved of her own accord, bending low to clutch her knees and balance herself when she slightly stumbled.

"Are you okay?" Wangja the Shop Owner asked, concerned about the sudden change in demeanor.

"I,"— Ahyeong found herself at a loss for words, what was happening to her?— "I don't know."

An abnormal lucid dream, she thought, that was what she was experiencing. One in which she was aware of her made-up fantasy world but couldn't control her speech and actions at times.

It was like the dream itself had a script of its own.

Huh. Maybe that was it. She just had to follow the script.

"Umm... I think I should get going," she mumbled, hoping her hunch was right.

Wangja looked a bit disappointed that he couldn't carry on the conversation, but nodded in agreement. The sleek black car outside that he had spotted while coming in was probably her driver waiting on her.

Suho was still coughing on their way out, and upon the two shooting concerned looks at him he merely ignored them, gaining his composure and zooming past them and into the dimly lit night in his mildly flustered state.

As Ahyeong stepped into the cold night air, she saw her family's personal car, finding Driver Kwon sitting in front of the wheel through the tinted windows.

Her family and acquaintances must be the same as before then.

"Well, do come by often," Wangja said, handing her the copy of Shiver that she had been sifting through previously, and when Ahyeong looked at him confusedly, he winked, "as an insurance that you do visit, I'm letting you borrow it. Remember, the shop's policy only lets you borrow items for two weeks. Any more and you'll have to compensate."

The girl tucked the comic under her elbow, amused at his antics as if she'd known him for a long time, and said without thinking, "Does ramyeon work as compensation?"

The shop owner grinned, "Aye, you know me so well. Now go. Your driver is giving me the creeps with his glare."

Ahyeong chuckled at that. Driver Kwon was rather overprotective over the Song siblings and got suspicious of anyone who got within six feet of them, even the people the two kids had explicitly stated were their friends.

Bidding Wangja goodbye, Ahyeong slipped into the leather seats of the car, fastening the seatbelt around herself as was the clearly stated rule by the person in front of her who turned the key as soon as she got in, revving the engine before taking off into the night and to, presumably, her home.

Ahyeong paused at the front door, looking at the front lawn with puzzled eyes.

Why did it look even more extravagant than it was on a usual day?

The flowers were in full bloom despite spring having passed months ago, the garden lights were still switched on, illuminating the finely-trimmed shrubs and foliage, and the cars were displayed out in the open instead of being in the garage.

It was as if someone was trying to make a drawing of a picturesque rich household, perfect in every aspect with next to no flaws in its design.

The mahogany doors opened abruptly, halting her thoughts, and the housemaid, Eunjung, hurriedly ushered her in, putting slippers in front of the girl's feet as she toed her shoes off.

"Why were you out so late? It's past curfew. Thank goodness Mrs. Song hasn't returned from work yet, or you would've been in trouble," she fussed.

Trouble with her mother? That was odd. That never happened because Ahyeong usually informed Eunjung of where she was going, and her mother didn't really mind if she was out past curfew as long as she had alerted someone of coming in late.

"I'll prepare your dinner while you wash up. Do you want to eat at the table or should I bring it to your room upstairs?"

"My room, if it's not too much trouble."

Eunjung waved her hands, dismissing her, and scurried off to the kitchen while Ahyeong headed up the stairs to the West Wing of the house where her bedroom resided.

Contrary to what she thought, her room had not been what she expected.

It was littered with cardboard boxes and suitcases, most of them unpacked and organized but there still being enough to do that the floor looked messy.

Ahyeong remembered her involuntary words back at Prince Comics.

So her family moved to Seoul in this dream?

From where though? She's never lived anywhere else other than this city.

Oh well, too bad. There was no use dwelling on it. Her dream would end as soon as she would go to sleep and wake up anyway.

But her nagging mind urged her to clean her room up, and despite knowing that her efforts may be in vain she obliged, and by the end of the hour, her room looked just as it had been in real life.

Setting her towel by the bathroom rack to dry, Ahyeong sat down in front of her desk in her pajamas, where the maid had spread out a variety of steaming dishes on fine china while she had been tidying up.

Leave it to Eunjung to make mouth-watering food for any time of the day.

Just as she raised her spoon to eat the seaweed soup, her door swung open.

Gilyeong stood by the threshold, racing to her and shoving his phone in her face, a rather horrible picture of a mangled body on its screen.

"What the-" Ahyeong dropped her utensils with a clang, pushing the device away from her face with a disgusted expression and glaring at her brother, who giggled mischievously, "I'm trying to eat, you gremlin. Don't make me lose my appetite."

"It's payback for the time you showed me a clip of a gutted person when I was trying to eat pat-bingsu. Now get a taste of your own medicine, grinch," Gilyeong laughed evilly, shoving his phone into Ahyeong's eyesight as she tried to stop him from ruining her eyes in front of her food.

Even in dreams, her brother was as nasty as they came.

"You evil little-" Ahyeong wrestled the phone out of his hands, making the younger Song frown and whine at her to give it back to him, and got an idea as she glanced at the shelf on top of her desk.

"If you promise to behave yourself this week, I'll let you borrow that," she said, pointing at the Junji Ito comic that Wangja had let her borrow.

Gilyeong looked up, and his eyes glimmered in anticipation as he jumped up to grab it from the shelf.

"Woah, where did you get this from?" He exclaimed as he started to peruse the pages, "It was out of stock in every bookstore I dragged you to."

"I got it from a hippie who starred in a drama," she smirked at her brother's puzzled face , "so, do we have a deal?"

She raised her hands as she said so.

Her brother looked up at her suspiciously, eyes narrowed in contemplation, then nodded briefly, "deal."

He raised his palms, meeting Ahyeong's halfway as they did their Handshake of Temporary Truce.

Yes, they had different handshakes for a whole list of situations.

"But you still have to pay up for your flinches from yesterday and now," he drawled while walking out of her room.

Wait, yesterday?

"What do you mean the flinch from yesterday?"

Gilyeong stopped midway and turned around, confused.

"Don't tell me you've been getting amnesia too. We were at the restaurant yesterday with Mum and Dad's investors, remember?"

With that ominous comment, he stepped out, shutting the door behind him.

Sunlight peeked through the half-open blinds, beaming on Ahyeong's face as she woke up and looked around her room, same as ever.

What a crazy dream.

She remembered it as clear as day.

But it was over and done with, and she was in reality now.

For a moment she pondered how she had gotten into her bed, but then trashed the thought. One of her parents had probably carried her here when she had fallen into a deep sleep in the lobby of the restaurant.

She got up, picking up her phone to look at the day and time.

It was around 8 on a Sunday morning, and Ahyeong yawned, kicking off her blanket to freshen up. She woke up too early for a weekend.

Deciding to explore the city for the day, she changed into a button-up and denim trousers, picking up a set of Doc Martens on her way out for breakfast.

"What's new this mornin', gremlin," she greeted Gilyeong while running down the stairs, who sat by the couch reading something, its cover blocked out of her eyesight.

She slightly tripped on the last two steps and hit her knee on the railing, hissing in pain and lightly hopping towards the dining table.

"Good morning, Eunjung-ssi," Ahyeong smiled through her discomfort at the maid, in complete contrast to the way she greeted her brother, and he scowled at her from his spot but didn't say anything.

Eunjung rolled her eyes in good nature at the sibling's antics, all too used to it, "Good morning to you too."

She set down two servings of rice, soup, and a variety of side dishes for breakfast, and the siblings came to sit at the dining table.

As Ahyeong scooped up a spoonful of rice, she saw Gilyeong putting down his book, finally spotting its cover.

She paused.

"Hey, dongsaeng, how did you get that?" She said as she pointed at the copy of Shiver.

The young Song stopped eating, pointing a fake grin at her.

"From the grinch who got it from a hippie who starred in a drama."

This was not a dream.

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barbenheimer-core · 3 years

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AUDERE EST FACERE !

하나. chanel : part four — 3k words

Wangja crossed the street with a bag of two steaming bowls of ramyeon and red ginseng, speeding up his pace to prevent the noodles from getting too soggy while he walked the path over to his shop where he had left Ahyeong at, sighing as he thought about the new addition to the cast.

When he had walked into his store last night, he was not expecting a stage to commence immediately upon entering the lounge.

Thank the writer (this was the first and last time he was going to say that) that their conversation and actions had already been written out, or else the shop owner would've been gawking at the new girl for the entirety of the stage.

He had been immensely startled back then; it was unusual for him to not know the timing and plot of every stage because he always made sure to check the comic that permanently resided in a small, hidden corner of his shop every single day.

But when he had browsed the comic as soon as Ahyeong had left, he had been bewildered at the sudden shift in the book's contents.

The cast page had been altered to feature four main characters instead of the original trio, and as he had turned the pages, he had noticed the new stages being inked with interactions that had never been present as of before.

To think that an already complicated web of troubling relationships had not been enough for the writer, they had proceeded to add a love square to the mix.

Wangja grimaced at his creator's choices in life. They had definitely been influenced by someone to do so if it had been so last minute.

But one thing was for sure; out of all the stories that the writer had put him in, this was by far the most interesting.

"Ahyeong-ah! I'm back!" he yelled into the air as he stepped in, his voice echoing in the shop.

The silence was his only response.

Confused, he stepped through the streamers that decorated the lounge's archway, eyes searching for the girl while he set the food down on the coffee table next to the abandoned copy of Shiver.

"Ahyeong, are you here-"

He stopped abruptly, gaze finding the peach cover of True Beauty toppled upside down on the floor in front of a shelf he swore no one would notice.

With dread in his mind, he picked it up, turning it around, only to be faced by the drawn version of the person he was looking for.

Oh no. She'd seen it.

If Gilyeong had to describe his sister at that moment, he would've said she looked like she'd risen from a grave in a zombie apocalypse movie.

She looked dead. Alive, yes, but dead.

Like someone had told her whole life was a lie.

When Ahyeong had arrived back home from wherever she had dashed off to during the morning, she had looked like she'd gone through the five stages of grief, questioned the meaning of life, and ran a marathon through the streets of Seoul by how hard she was breathing.

He had almost asked her if she was okay, but that would've come off as him being "concerned for his dear sister," as Eunjung had so uselessly put it, and he hated proving people right. And besides, Ahyeong was clearly not okay.

"Oye, grinch," he called out across the table after seeing her actions.

She looked as if she hadn't even heard him. No annoyed flinch, no irritated twitching of her eyebrow; no reaction at all. Just her mindlessly trying to eat soup with chopsticks.

Eunjung looked at her with an extreme amount of concern.

Gilyeong almost puked at the feeling of worry in his gut.

Ahyeong was functioning on auto-pilot, her consciousness having taken a backseat as the only thing that moved her was sheer muscle memory.

She couldn't even remember how she had come back to her house, however, the stinging in her legs informed her of how she had deserted the shop and ran all the way back home, much to Driver Kwon's horror.

Her head felt empty.

Being in a comic? As a bully? That had to be the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard, or read, about herself.

It did not make sense. She was quite literally a model student, with a record as clean as glass. Being reduced to the likes of a bully? Impossible.

And then the derealisation came in.

This probably wasn't real after all. Maybe it was just one big practical joke blown out of proportion.

Yeah, that was it, she concluded as she finally became aware of her surroundings, dropping the chopsticks in her hands with a confused look and picking up a spoon to continue eating her soup, unaware of the small breath of relief from across the table.

That weird paralysis thing hadn't happened since the other day anyway, so she was probably going to be okay.

TURN.

What a fucking lie, you're kidding—

The doors to the house banged open, harshly knocking against the walls and startling the occupants of the dining room.

Song Hwayoung came inside the house, immediately making Eunjung receive her in a hurry and assist her with taking off her coat and setting her a pair of slippers.

Ahyeong was panicking. Why now? The universe was being unnecessarily cruel. Her body felt like a rock, cemented into the ground. The air got colder, the lights felt different, brighter somehow, as if someone was shining a spotlight down on her family, as if a grim situation was about to ensue.

Ahyeong almost got up to greet her mother, but sat back down after seeing the subtle shake of Gilyeong's head, who hastily looked down at his empty plate after Hwayoung came to sit at the head of the table.

Her mother looked like she had been trying to bottle up her anger the whole day, and the cap was finally about to burst.

Ahyeong felt unsettled at the sudden change in demeanor. Her mother had never gotten this furious before, ever. She attempted to stand, but she was glued to her seat and could only watch as Hwayoung glared daggers at Gilyeong.

She threw a stack of papers in front of Gilyeong, who shrunk into his seat when he saw its contents.

"What is this?" Hwayoung inquired, trying her best to appear calm.

The young boy mumbled a reply in a voice so small that it was barely audible.

Hwayoung flared her nostrils, "Say it louder!"

Both siblings flinched at the volume. "My report card," the youngest said shakily.

Why was her mum flipping over a simple report card? It's not like grades mattered—

"Even I know that it's a fucking report card. What I want to know is why your grades dropped to C's and D's and why the hell you're failing in math?"

Ahyeong's eyes widened, either involuntarily or of her own free will, she didn't know. Hwayoung cursing at her brother and raging over his academic report? That was quite literally the opposite of how her mother was. Hwayoung was supposed to be the sweetest person she'd ever known, understanding and supportive through every endeavor.

For a moment she considered if her mother had been replaced by a clone of a crueler version of her. With the bullshit that was happening to her right now, the theory did not even feel that far-fetched.

At Gilyeong's silence, Hwayoung scoffed, "All of this was happening and you didn't even bother telling me? I was in a phone call with your friend's mother who told me her son had scored first place but when she mentioned how you weren't even in the top ten do you know how humiliated I felt?"

She stood up abruptly, throwing her chair back, which was immediately caught by Eunjung, and scowled at the boy, not a single trace of warmth in her eyes that her daughter was familiar with, "What an embarrassment to the Song name. At least your sister fares better than you."

With that, she stalked away, heels clicking against the marble floors as she retreated to her room.

TURN .

Ahyeong got up as soon as she could control her movements, rushing over to Gilyeong whose eyes had become red and puffy as he sniffled.

She pulled him in between her arms, and he shook uncontrollably, Eunjung watching the ordeal with downtrodden eyes, wishing she could help.

This was far beyond what she thought would happen. No, that woman could not have been their mother.

As she put her brother to sleep that night, she came to a solution.

Stepping into the elevator to reach Cloud9 Officetel's terrace the next day, her resolve strengthened.

This nightmare was ending, one way or the other.

Jugyeong was quite possibly living the worst nightmare she'd ever had.

The world was too cruel. Beauty was only on the inside, they said. What a horrible lie.

She had been humiliated beyond measure. All she tried to do was convey her honest feelings to quite possibly the only person who had ever been genuinely kind to her. She would've been fine if Wang Hyunbin had simply rejected her and decided to stay as friends. But for him and Semi to destroy her pride and self-worth like that? Because of how she looked?

She felt her eyes burning with warm tears before they cascaded down her cheeks, the cold wind at the top of the building harshly biting at her skin and rattling her bones.

She shivered.

Cold, it was too cold. What a day to die.

Jugyeong's hands hovered over her phone's screen as she stared at her mother's contact. Would her family even mourn her? Good riddance, they would probably think.

But she had to tell someone, and even if her mother was harsh with her words, she still loved her. She had to tell her the reason why she was about to jump off of a building.

Just as her finger leaned down to press the call button, the door to the rooftop opened, and Jugyeong jumped in shock, turning around to see who had come in.

She did a double-take.

Was God personally consenting to her taking her own life? Because she was pretty sure he had sent down an angel to escort her soul into heaven.

Her glasses had been abandoned on the bench she'd been sitting on from when she had been trying to wipe her tears, so she couldn't really see the person properly, but even with bad eyesight, the stranger looked almost ethereal.

They were dressed in a black dress and heels, as if they had gone to a funeral, or were planning to go to one.

They stopped upon seeing Jugyeong's disheveled self.

Was God finally being kind to her in her final moments?

Mind in a haze and not thinking straight, Jugyeong broke down yet again.

Ahyeong was startled at the girl crying in front of her. She didn't think there was going to be someone else up there other than herself.

When she looked closer at the girl who was sobbing uncontrollably in front of her, she noticed who it was, immediately taking a few steps back on instinct.

Moon Gayoung? Why was she in a school uniform— oh.

You've got to be kidding me.

What luck she had, walking right into the girl this world literally revolved around.

She felt something pulling away at her in the back of her mind, sending warning bells down her spine, saying she wasn't supposed to be there. But why?

Ahyeong's heart almost burst out of her ribcage when Jugyeong threw herself at her, clutching almost painfully at her waist and sobbing into her dress.

She froze at the sudden contact, arms awkwardly hovering over the girl's shoulders.

Jugyeong had probably not recognized her yet, because there was no way she was hugging her future tormentor just like that.

"Th-thank y-y-you for c-coming," the girl said between choked breaths, "F-for being- for being here in my—" she struggled to say the words, "—my final moments."

Ahyeong stilled at that.

By the time her words had registered, she already knew what was happening.

This was the scene from the drama, she remembered, when Jugyeong had tried to kill herself because of the incident at school.

How ironic. Ahyeong almost laughed at her situation, they were here for the same fate for almost the same reason. Both didn't like the world that they lived in.

But for the Song girl, this was a test, really. A theory she came up with in the dead of the night.

The sensation of falling, that knee-jerk reaction, and the feeling of finally waking up from your dream. That was what she was hoping for. She wasn't here to die, she was here to go back to living her own life.

But the girl who clung to her was dead set on ending things, and frankly, that was a dreadful thought.

Ahyeong had no intention of leaving her as she was, be this a fictional world or not, Im Jugyeong was a human being who deserved a lot more than she got.

"Were you going to jump?"

Jugyeong's thoughts came to a halt as the Angel asked a question, the oddly familiar lilt of her voice bringing a strange mix of foreboding and warmth in her gut.

Still shaking, she only nodded against her shoulder.

"Why?"

"Because-" she sniffled, tightening her arms around them, "because everyone hates me," her voice faded at the end, and her wobbly knees gave in, making her sink into the hard floor and dragging the person along with her.

This time, the Angel wrapped her arms around her, rubbing soothing circles into her back.

"Jugyeong, things may seem horrible for you at the moment, and you have every right to be upset over what was said and done, but it is impossible to know answers to such questions when you're so overwhelmed."

The words cut through her haziness, her cries slowly stopping as what they said registered in Jugyeong's mind.

"You don't really want to die, do you?"

It felt weird, being told such things by a stranger.

Maybe deep down she had already known, but her despair had overtaken her senses and disregarded her common sense.

"Why were you really about to call your mother?"

Because she was hoping someone would stop her. To make sure someone really did care about her despite appearances.

The Angel patted her back, and slowly pulled away, only to firmly place their hands on Jugyeong's shoulders.

"Your family's waiting."

She didn't need to be told twice.

Maybe God was kinder than she thought.

It was getting dark now.

The cold evening air nipped at her skin as Ahyeong stood on the edge, heels digging into the concrete as she gazed down below.

What a hypocrite she was, telling all those things to Jugyeong.

She'd sent her home with a taxi after their ordeal, and Jugyeong had not even looked at her once through the whole thing.

She didn't know why.

The road was buzzing with activity, cars zooming past on asphalt, people walking home on the footpaths, vendors selling seasonal goods by the side.

It seemed to be a normal day.

She wondered how the rest of their day would go if her body suddenly flopped down there.

Gooseflesh rose on her arms. All of this was too real.

She slapped herself, the stinging spreading through her numb skin and making her wince in pain.

What was she doing? Was she really about to jump off a building just to test a theory out?

What if it failed? The pain in her cheek would pale in comparison to what would happen should she fall.

And the people waiting for her back home, thinking she was off paying her respects to an old friend. Gilyeong and Eunjung would be destroyed.

Ahyeong stepped back. No, she couldn't do this. She wasn't planning on dying today. Or anytime soon really.

She'd just have to get used to living here—

TURN.

Song Ahyeong stepped closer to the edge of the building, awaiting her doom.

What the fuck!? She didn't want to die, shit, shit, shit—

The LED screen behind her lit up in hues of pink and purple, colorful shadows falling on her dress that did nothing against the frigid wind.

Jung Seyeon's face graced the billboard in the distance, an ode from the people to celebrate the day he was born, and an apology for being the reason he died.

One more step and she would fall. No, no, one more step and she'd fall—

Ahyeong leaned forward closing her eyes for the last time.

NO!

And so, she fell backward.

Wait, backward?

TURN.

Ahyeong barely registered the iron grip on her wrist before it was tugged hard, her stiletto losing its balance and twisting her foot at an unnatural angle.

She widened her eyes as her vision blurred, surroundings moving too fast, and braced herself for the impact on the rough concrete.

It never came.

Instead, she fell on the person who had taken the liberty of pulling her back, and subsequently saving her. Groaning, she raised her head, squinting against the bright light of the advertisement.

"What a relief," Suho breathed out.

The ColorBeauty commercial cast the glow of its neon colors over their faces, and as the faint melody of Seyeon's voice filled the silence in the air, Song Ahyeong knew that somehow, she had fucked up.

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