#and han yoojin seems to think so too? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

dbgdbw · 5 months ago

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618.We're Getting Married (1)

우리 결혼합니다 (1)

“Yah! Han Yoojin!”

As we arrived at the Lyon branch of the French Hunter Association, a familiar face greeted us. Wearing an immensely wronged expression, Do Hamin gingerly approached me while shooting furtive glares in Yoohyunie’s direction.

“Your dongsaeng just up and abandoned me in the States and left on his own!”

“Hm? What kind of nonsense is that. How old are you, that you can’t even find your own way back home from somewhere like the U.S.”

“Yah! I’m saying, he suddenly went and disappeared, despite being the one who’d called me over to help! Even though I went all the way to America for you out of a sense of duty!”

“Duty, shmoody–it’s just work, isn’t it. D’you even know how much I’ve had to spend for your expenses till now.”

At the mention of funding, Do Hamin’s mouth clacked shut. The additional fees he’d requested coverage for because those friggin’ hamsters needed to be looked after properly had added up to a pretty penny indeed, and not just once or twice, either.

“...in any case, it’s a relief to see you’re safe and sound. Your dongsaeng was a right terror to be around, all that while. I’m pretty sure my lifespan’s been reduced by half!”

“Honestly, fussing so much over a measly half year.”

“Hah? Han Yoojin, you, whether now or before, your temperament is really…….”

Do Hamin trailed off from what he’d been saying, head tilting slightly in puzzlement. Because he was of a lower rank, all of his memories from pre-regression had been wiped away completely; but it seemed like some trace impressions still remained after all.

“Anyway, there wasn’t really a need for you to have to go all the way to the States though, right?”

“Ah, about that.”

Lowering his voice, Do Hamin whispered to me.

“While looking after Goldie, I picked up a new Skill, y’see.”

“A new Skill?”

“Yeah. Since all said and done, Goldie’s still a D-rank monster after all–I tagged along with some of Haeyeon’s Hunters to a few Dungeons, both to level up and to let Goldie stretch his legs a bit, too. And then, not too long ago, I came into possession of a Skill called ‘Rodents’ Friend’.”

…the hell was that. Was it a Skill you got awarded for True Dedication to hamsters, or something.

“Being affected by my own innate traits, it’s a type of information-gathering ability.”

“Information-gathering?”

“It enables me to gather intel that comes from rodent-type creatures, basically. The range is pretty big, too. And it’s not limited to just monsters, but ordinary rodents as well.”

Do Hamin preened, smirking a little. Wait, hold on. If it was rodents, then.

“That sounds like it’d be pretty handy?”

“Right?”

“Though not as useful as, say, cockroaches, probably.”

“...yah, it’s already heeby-jeeby enough with just ‘rodents,’ alright?”

“That’s rich, coming from you.”

“Hamsters and rodents are oceans apart, okay! At any rate–considering that rodents are the intel source, it’s not anything clear-cut. But it’s useful for something like people-tracking. Their scenting capabilities are pretty good, and they’re fairly ubiquitous in places like cities, right. France has a lot of rodents, apparently. There’s that one that knows how to cook, yeah.(1) That one’s kind of cute, at least.”

“Cockroaches would’ve been even better, probably.”

“...rodents are already pushing it.”

Since, when it came to cockroaches, there wasn’t a place they couldn’t go. Even if it grossed me out just to imagine. After telling him congratulations on his new Skill, I turned to Yoohyunie.

“Yoohyun-ah–even so, if you’ve summoned someone over, you should’ve made sure to arrange passage for them.”

“I’m sorry, hyung. I wasn’t able to send any missives because I was undercover at the time. I didn’t think there wouldn’t be any issues, either. Things in the U.S. are safer than the situation in Africa, after all. Probably.”

“You’re right–there’s no reason to expect that a grown adult, in a metropolis with full cell signal no less, shouldn’t be able to take care of himself. All he would’ve needed to do was place a call to either Dodam or Haeyeon, ultimately. Yah–did you hear, it was like that, got it.”

“I’m only holding my tongue because of the benefits I’ve collected.”

Haminie, that guy, sulked. Him, as well–compared to how that guy had been pre-regression, his temperment had mellowed out a fair bit too. He’d been far more snappish back then, probably owing to the duress he’d been under.

“Everyone’s doing okay, right? Since I’d had to move stealthily too, I haven’t really been able to keep in touch with anyone either.”

“Eh, you could say so, I suppose.”

It was a more noncommittal response than I’d expected.

“Did something happen?”

“No, it’s just. Our Blacksmith-nim has come down with a cold, is all. It’s just a bit of a severe case, as it goes.”

“What? How, exactly! The Forge is hardly somewhere cold, so is it because he’s pushed himself too much again, or something? And after nagging me about looking after my own health…….”

“I don’t know the specifics myself, seeing as how he’d only show up to ask after you and take care of some work, before disappearing again…….”

“Did he seem very unwell, d’you think?”

“He did look pretty exhausted.”

“Yoohyun-ah, do you know anything about this?”

“I went by the Forge.”

Yoohyunie filled me in on what had occurred following my disappearance. He’d headed into a Dungeon to meet up with the Newcomer, before being transported to Myungwoo’s Forge and meeting both the Newcomer and Hwanglim there.

“Back then, it seemed like he was incapable of even moving, but he later contacted me to say that it wasn’t something that I should let hyung know about, necessarily.”

“Even so, to not make any mention of it to this point…….”

To have both the Newcomer and Hwanglim involved–what could it have been. Just like before with the Dungeon in China, it seemed likely that it was a byproduct of attempting to help me out. If I’d known about it earlier, I would’ve consulted the Elder about it. It was a relief that he seemed to have recovered enough to have regained mobility, but……. With him inside the Forge, it wasn’t like I could contact him, but I was concerned about how he might be faring.

“Anyway–are we heading back home now, then? Goldie is waiting for me, see.”

“Ah, about that.”

We needed to stop by Sung Hyunjae’s wedding destination before that, but it was impossible to know where it might be located. Even if I wanted to ask Haminie, that guy wouldn’t be able to pinpoint it on account of how widespread the potential range would have to be, either. I’d need to know the general region the area would be in, at the very least; was he really not going to drop me a wedding invitation, after all.

I turned to look at the Association staff member, who had been lingering just on the outskirts without being able to approach us. They gave us a smile tinged with a bit of nervousness.

“If you will allow me, shall we proceed to the next area, sir?”

“Yes–certainly.”

Following the Association staff, we moved deeper into the premises. The Lyon branch wasn’t very big, but as I could sense faint traces of mana from here and there, it appeared that a considerable amount of Dungeon materials had gone into its construction.

‘It really does seem to be slowly returning, huh.’

The Mana Seal’s presence had grown a bit stronger from how it’d felt the day prior.

“Would it not cause problems, if my arrival in France were to be known?”

“As, unlike in Africa, they will be unable to move so freely in Europe, please do not be concerned, sir. Moreover–once it has spread that Director Han-nim has crossed over to Europe, the airport and plane terror incidents that have been occurring are likely to cease as a result.”

Since, France included, the neighboring countries had a far higher area-to-area ratio of airports. It would prove nigh impossible to evade all the European Hunters when moving through those routes. And the European Hunter Association had enough in-house S-rank Hunters to go toe-to-toe with the U.S. as well. Even if they tended to be autocratically-inclined S-rank Hunters, they would hardly see fit to let those terrorists run rampant on their own turf.

“Above all, those terrorists have been a thorn in the side of Europe as well. If we are able to utilize this chance to collaborate with Korea in order to clean them up once and for all, we would welcome the opportunity to do so. This way, please.”

The Association staff member opened the door. A handful of people–some looking to be regular reporters, as well as some Association personnel–were waiting for us inside.

“Germany’s Hunter Association’s Fritz Weyl.”

A middle-aged man, and.

“England’s Hunter Association’s Marissa Moore.”

A middle-aged woman introduced themselves to me in succession.

“How do you do, sir, madam. I am Dodam Rearing Facility’s Director, Han Yoojin.”

I felt a bit embarrassed, assembling the Hunter Association members of other countries together and addressing them like this. My bashfulness was further compounded by the fact that Haeyeon's Guild Leader, Yoohyunie, was positioned a step behind me, as though he were here in an assistant capacity. This kind of thing really didn’t suit me, after all. I’d been resolutely opposed to standing out, even right after pre-regression, too.

“This is Haeyeon's Guild Leader, Han Yoohyun. My dongsaeng, as you are likely aware.”

And next to him–well, he’s just a café owner. I supposed I was the owner too, but at this point, Do Hamin had basically taken it over. Yoohyunie greeted the two formally in turn as well.

After the expected photo op with the reporters, we proceeded to conduct a simple interview.

“It appears that something went awry in that last leg of teleportation, unexpectedly. Though I never imagined that I would end up in Africa, as a result.”

I glossed over events by remarking that any correspondence had been delayed as I’d been recovering from an injury I’d incurred, having gained shelter at a kind-hearted samaritan’s residence. As I’d been in a foreign place, there hadn’t been anyone who’d been able to recognize me, and telecommunication had been impossible on top of that.

“Any other questions you may have, I will address through a formal press release once I have returned to the Dodam Rearing Facility. Additionally–I’ve found out that, during my disappearance, happy tidings had been announced as well.”

Was there someone among them who possessed any info, perhaps.

“It appears that our dear Seseung Guild Leader has unveiled news of his impending nuptials, but whether it was because he was unable to locate me at the time, I have yet to receive an invitation to the wedding ceremony. As I am most eager to attend the occasion, if he would please deign to contact me, I would be ever so grateful.”

I made sure to casually mention that I would greatly appreciate any relevant updates coming from other sources as well. With an attitude that implied there would be an appropriate compensation for the corresponding information, of course.

The reporters filed out one by one, and it was decided that we would wait at the Association until Yerimie and company arrived, now that news had gotten out. Barring any delays, it was estimated that they might arrive here by the next day or so.

“Has anyone here heard any news regarding the Seseung Guild Leader, perchance?”

I questioned the Association staff as well. But as expected, all the responses I received only amounted to having heard about the wedding, and nothing more.

“My daughter will be getting married very soon, as well.”

Marissa spoke up, as she arranged a sheaf of paperwork inside her briefcase.

“Ah, is that so, ma’am? Allow me to extend my congratulations.”

“She insisted on seeing to the arrangements herself, but things have posed more difficulties than expected, it seems. I’ve had to step in to assist with matters, in the end.”

“It’s a convoluted affair, after all. There’s a plethora of details that must be seen to, I imagine. Though I confess I’m not certain how things work in England.”

Marissa’s eyes curved in a gentle smile, the faint crow’s feet lines around them wrinkling. Watching the movements of her mouth, it appeared that she was actually speaking in Korean, without any noticeable detriment to fluency.

“It is projected to take place very soon–would Director Han-nim be interested in attending? Her betrothed would be immensely delighted, I imagine.”

“I appreciate the consideration, ma’am. Please convey my warm regards for their union.”

‘Immensely delighted’; was her fiancé a fan of mine, I wondered. Even though any pre-regression memories would’ve been erased, and Chatterbox’s influence had dissipated for the most part, since the events of the Party would’ve remained untouched, my popularity was probably still, ahem, pretty considerable.

The Association staff member escorted us to a nearby hotel. Saying that he would do a spot of sightseeing, Do Hamin departed, venturing outside. No messages had come in from Yerimie’s side. Telecommunications with them was impossible, too. So instead, I contacted Dodam and Haeyeon to apprise them of the situation.

[ Apart from Chirpie and Velare disappearing every so often, there have been no outstanding incidents, sir. Sorokie has matured a considerable amount. Songie has grown somewhat as well. ]

Saying that the Rearing Facility hadn’t had anything out of the ordinary occur, Kyunghoonie hyung wished me a safe trip back. Even after I’d told Chirpie, that kid, to not drag Velare places, honestly.

“I apologize that I’ve been absent so frequently thus far. I’ll be depending on you going forward as well.”

[ Of course. And though there might still be a few days left, happy New Year’s to you in advance, sir.(2) You’ll be returning shortly, correct? ]

“That’s, well, it seems likely to be the case. Happy New Year to you as well.”

Why in the world did Sung Hyunjae have to pick January 1st for his wedding, out of all days. Though it probably hadn’t been up to him, I supposed. …if he really had been the one to decide on the date, though, I’d have to give him a hard kick in the ass.

Propping myself up on a large cushion, I stretched out lengthwise on the bed to flip through the TV channels. Yoohyunie had settled on a loveseat, and appeared to be absorbed in examining the Sovereign’s Blade. The eyes fixed on the blade of the sword were exceedingly heavy.

“Is he bothering you?”

“...hm?”

“‘You’ I mean, from pre-regression.”

Turning to look at me, Yoohyunie tilted his head slightly.

“...a bit, I suppose, after all.”

“I thought so. That’s only to be expected, so don’t get too concerned about it, alright. Hey–I ended up in quite a state myself too, in that Dungeon in China, right. Seizing him by the collar and pulling out weapons and all~”

“I think my reaction to that was probably too blasé, back then. Sorry, hyung.”

“Nah–it, well, worked out pretty okay, didn’t it.”

I still found him a bit hateful but, well, more than that–I hoped he was living happily, now. He should be doing okay, probably. Man, it still did piss me off, though. Why did that guy have to be so annoying, anyway.

“More than anything else…….”

Yoohyunie’s gaze dropped back towards the obsidian blade of the longsword.

“Hyung probably, likes that pre-regression ‘me’ as much as me, right.”

“That’s–ah–‘cause it’s you. Because he’s you, Yoohyun-ah.”

I fought to hide the way my heart suddenly felt like it’d dropped in my chest.

“That kind of thing, it bothers me after all. If it was anyone else, it wouldn’t phase me at all. Because now, I have the confidence to believe that hyung will always return to my side in the end. But if the other contender is ‘myself’.”

“...but that’s to say, it’s still ‘you,’ right. The one and the same.”

“Yeah.”

Yoohyunie gave a small nod. He didn’t turn his head to look at me. Without realizing, my hands had clenched into tightly balled fists. My throat suddenly felt like it was drying out. I’d have to tell him, eventually. But ‘he’ was already dead, and I’d–I’d have to send him off, ultimately. Unlike the dongsaeng who was at my side now.

So it would be alright.

“Should we go outside later to go do some sightseeing, too? I saw a lot of pretty buildings. The Association staff member from earlier, they mentioned that this place is famous for its fine dining within France, too. So we can go eat something delicious together.”

“Yeah, let’s.”

He was obediently responding to everything I’d said, but he definitely seemed more brooding than usual. Aigo, what should I do. I’d have to try and placate him while we went sightseeing.

Leaving the TV on a Hunter-oriented channel, I spread open my hand. There was a faint outline of a scar that still remained.

“Kiddo-yah, could you come out for a sec?”

How was I supposed to summon it, I wondered. Diarma seemed to be able to summon and banish them at will, as far as I knew. As I managed to concentrate my magical energy somewhat, a faint heat emitted from the scar, and then.

- 퓨익!

A small, sleek, beige-furred magical beast popped out. After bounding around a few times on top of the bed, Kkoma’s tail went ramrod straight as it sighted Yoohyunie, bristling.

- 뀩! 삑!

As though lambasting him about being bathed, it thumped its hind foot a few times; but apparently satisfied once that was done, it grabbed hold of one of its long ears and began to groom itself. So this kid was pretty simple, huh. The original form’s personality had been easy-going and genial to begin with too, I supposed.

“C’mere. Come over to appa.”

폴짝폴짝, Kkoma bounded over to me with tiny hops. It was really too cute, all being said.

“You can’t come outside without appa having called you first, ‘kay. Understand? You can’t go around on your lonesome. And don’t eat the blanket. It’s not food.”

Did it actually understand me, I wondered.

“Is it boring, being inside? Can you sense what’s going on outside from there?”

“Nope!”

Kkoma answered, 홱, abruptly shifting into the shape of a small child. Yoohyunie glanced up towards us, at Kkoma. He hadn’t bothered to pay any mind to any monsters before though; was it because she looked like me, from when I’d been young?

“Stay sleeping.”

“Sleeping?”

“‘M play with hyung in dream.”

She seemed to be referring to a dreamscape, most likely. Had the black dragon been able to teach her how to transform into a human shape, there. So it was because they played together a lot, that they appeared to be so close.

“Hyung said not to go out, too. Came out ‘cause appa called me.”

Having said her piece, apparently exhausted from maintaining a human shape, it quickly reverted back to the baby monster form. It soothed my worries some, that the black dragon appeared to be looking after his dongsaeng so conscientiously. Since, just like Gyeolie, he should be able to become ‘independent’ once he was given a name, it was probably for the best that I waited until I was back in Korea to do so. After all, it wasn’t as though I could even enlist assistance for the kids I already had, right now.

Ordering some room service, I sprinkled a smattering of ground magic stone on top of the food and fed it to Kkoma. She didn’t appear to be a particularly picky eater, but she definitely seemed to be drawn to the crackers(3) most all the same. When I told her that it wasn’t good to eat too much of it, she thumped her tail at me in response. But even with that expression of displeasure, she listened to me well enough.

[ Seseung’s Guild Leader’s betrothed, revealed to be an English citizen. ]

Just then, a breaking news headline scrolled across the bottom of the TV screen, where a broadcast announcing the upcoming opening of a French Awakening Center had been playing. What? English citizen? And then the news feed changed. I got that Sung Hyunjae was a bigshot or whatever, but did they really need to send this kind of thing as ‘breaking news’ to what wasn’t even a Korean broadcast station, but a French one as well. Was it because his fianceé was English? But more importantly, who in the world woul…….

“...huh?”

A dazzling golden-haired woman appeared on the TV screen. That person, was definitely.

‘That’s, Bak Hayool’s noonim?’

It was her, the woman I’d seen in the invitation recording. What–the person who’d invited him as her Party partner, was the person he was set to marry? Just when had they gotten together? Was it, in fact, actually a true love union?!

- - - - -

(1) Ratatouille reference, it’s fairly popular w koreans

(2) 새해 복 많이 받으세요 - they’re exchanging general new year’s greetings, so i localized it, but it’s ‘may you receive abundant new year’s blessings’ in lit translation

(3) 과자 crackers like, chips and sweets.. i didn't use 'confectionaries' bc that skews more 'cake'-esque in idea i think..

just as a note, kkoma (han byeol)’s gender isn’t specified at all this ch bc language-wise, it doesn’t ‘come up’ in korean (being a pronoun-dropping language); if anything, the assumption would be that she’s male, seeing as how she’s said to ‘resemble han yoojin when he was young,’ and refers to the black dragon (han seol) as ‘hyung.’

(she does this because her closeness with han seol is modeled after/a ‘reflection’ of yoohyunie and yoojin’s relationship (if their hyung-dongsaeng roles were switched + playing with different gender(s), as discussed both in-text (e.g. the prev ch) & by geunseo-nim in the afterword), hence ‘of course she would refer to [han seol] as ‘hyung’,’ while gyeol gets the usual title of ‘oppa’)

any ‘direct’ reference yj makes to her this chapter is gender neutral (e.g. ‘this kid/child’); it seems to be intentional on geunseo-nim’s part (re:not explicitly focusing on that aspect), as they had the opportunity to use ‘little girl’/’little boy’ instead of ‘child’ in certain parts–not unlike how ‘친-/chin-’ gets deliberately omitted whenever yj introduces yoohyunie to others, when it would normally be expected.

i'm planning on doing the prev ch too, just skipped it for this one first bc that one's heavier plot/dialogue-wise )b

+(Q&A)

Q) this suddenly occurred to me while i was drawing byeolie, so i came by to ask! does byeolie still refer to seolie as ‘hyung’ even after they’ve grown up??? A) to han byeol, ‘hyung’ is ‘hyung’. a lot of people around her ask whether it shouldn’t be ‘oppa,’ but she simply ignores them all ^^

+(Q&A)

Q) excluding han yoojin, who do the gyeol-seol-byeol babies like the most? A) han gyeol’s is love-hate, but he cares for sung hyunjae despite himself. han seol and han byeol like each other ^^

+(Q&A)

Q) if they were to sketch a family portrait, i was wondering who gyeol, seol, and byeol might end up drawing, in that case. A) all three of them would include dongsaeng, hyung, oppa, han yoojin and han yoohyun, bak yerim, peace and chirpie, velare, irin, sanho etc.–the people and animals that they live with–in their drawings. even walnut^^ in han gyeol’s case, he might cram a small sung hyunjae in a corner after much deliberation. aside from those, noah, moon hyuna, kang soyoung etc. might show up, depending on their interactions. han byeol in particular is the type to just draw a bunch at once as they come to mind. when it comes to the things that they like, han gyeol’s is han yoojin; han seol’s is han byeol; and han byeol would have appa, hyung, oppa, uncle, auntie, peace, and a bunch more others in the drawing besides.

+(Q&A)

Q) would it be alright if i inquired about the basic appearances/size the gyeol-seol-byeol babies have in their respective magical beast forms????? A) han gyeol has a small, silvery-pink dragon body, and fairy wings. he’s a baby dragon with soft, rounded features, but on the more long and slender side for his build. he’s able to fluctuate his size to an extent, but he likes to stay a size that’s suited to climbing up on han yoojin’s shoulder, generally. han seol is a small black-colored dragon. as a juvenile, his wings have yet to grow big enough to enable him to fly on his own (mechanically), without magical assistance. species-wise, he’s closer to an western-style dragon, and he’s capable of adjusting his size just like han gyeol; because he decided on his size in relation to han byeol’s own, he’s slightly bigger than han byeol. han byeol is wheat-colored, and has an appearance that is similar to a long-eared chinchilla. her tail is plush and voluminous, and her fur incredibly soft. she’s just about the perfect size for an adult to cup in both hands, with their hands held slightly apart; she finds it somewhat difficult to control her size fluctuations still, and while eating, tends to inadvertently grow in size. the three are fairly neck-and-neck when it comes to size; han gyeol is the longest, while in terms of volume (with fur included), han byeol is the largest ^^

+(Q&A)

Q) i’m curious about han yoojin’s ideal type. is it only ‘almost 2m height’ for han yoojin’s ideal type, and not particularly anything else besides? A) as han yoojin lacked that kind of support when he was young, he prefers a dependable older partner. his proclivity for ‘tall height + robust frame’ stems from that as well. he feels a desire to be protected, but because he has his dongsaeng and the kids, he thinks that he needs to be a protector, and so tends to repress and distance himself from that desire. if you get involved with the wrong older partner, the likelihood you might end up divested of everything from your liver to your gallbladder as you get swept up and used, is fairly high. because his expectations(criteria) for an older partner, a model adult, is excessively high, unless it’s an exceptionally outstanding person, he’s at least not likely to be easily swayed. at the conclusion of the novel, marissa is probably the most dangerous ^^ on the flip side, because he tries to become a protector as the ‘model adult’ with a younger partner, it may run contrary to his ideal type, but being with a younger partner will probably be safer for him. of course, during the novel, the circumstances make it difficult to date.

+(Q&A)

Q) i’m curious what han yoojin and han yoohyun usually do for ‘healing time*’ (*unwinding) A) han yoojin simply watches TV dramas/movies or eats something delicious. so long as there’s nothing going wrong and all the kids are safe and sound, that in itself is ‘healing’ for him. in the case of han yoohyun, as long as it’s time he’s spending with hyung, where it’s just the two of them, it can all be called ‘healing time’ for him ^^

+(Q&A)

Q) it’s said that not very many people have had the opportunity to dine with sung hyunjae; in han yoojin’s case, would he just call sung hyunjae out when he happened to be passing by seseung to have a meal together? A) in the first place, as they are the dodam rearing facility director and the seseung guild leader, and han yoojin is a high-profile f-rank, it would be difficult to casually call on one other while just passing by, from the standpoint of the novel. when they do end up dining together, it’s always over business, even if only as a formality. as sung hyunjae does not wish to additionally be forced to engage with others when faced with the already tedious business of eating, unless it’s with han yoojin or song taewon, he does not enjoy dining with others. from a post-series standpoint: since he was able to break free from the stifling circumstances, and (unilaterally) thinks that he meshes well with the young chaos, he’s quite enjoying looking after chaos ^^

+(Q&A)

Q) sung hyunjae-song taewon-han yoojin; if these three were able to gather together comfortably post-epilogue, would a day ever come where they might use hyung/dongsaeng address? A) there’s a chance that they’ll be able to have a comfortable get-together, but as far as hyung/dongsaeng goes–perhaps as a joke, but it seems unlikely that it would ever happen in earnest^^ in the case of han yoojin, he might do so with song taewon, but he’d dislike the prospect of placing sung hyunjae above himself; and as he wishes to have both of them stand on equal footing with him, sung hyunjae likely won’t be particularly inclined to place either person beneath himself as a dongsaeng. for song taewon, just being able to achieve peace of mind while caught between the two will probably be difficult enough.

+(Q&A)

Q) when sung hyunjae calls han yoojin ‘yoojin-ah’ on occasion, the two seem like they share a laid-back and amicable hyung-dongsaeng relationship, which is really nice to see~ would there happen to be instances where sung hyunjae occasionally calls him ‘yoojin-ah’ comfortably, outside the lens of the novel? if so, i’m curious what those occasions might beㅎㅎ and when he refers to soyoungie too, it seems he’ll call her ‘kang soyoung-yang’ while she’s there, but when talking about her with other people, he’ll go ‘soyoungie did x~~’ and such. like uncle and niece, it’s very heartwarming. in the same vein, when yoojinie isn’t there, i wonder if he’d go ‘yoojinie did x~~’ and so forth? i thought i recalled seeing a passage like that, but my memory is a bit hazy on which scene it wasㅠ A) if he wants to throw han yoojin off-kilter, he’ll call him by a different title/manner of address(호칭). if it’s for something he wants, he’s capable of saying things like ‘yoojinie hyung^^’ as much as it takes; but since it’ll lose its efficacy if he gets used to it, he’ll probably only do so when absolutely necessary. in the case of kang soyoung, it’s because she’s his guild member; but as han yoojin is dodam’s director, while in front of others, he’ll typically address him in a formal manner. because of his qualification as a ‘partner,’ so long as he doesn’t have other designs in place, he’ll extend the appropriate treatment to him, at least in front of others. while it’s fine if it’s himself doing the debasing, he’s not the type who would allow others to look down on him in the same manner.

^군 = ‘-goon’, 양 = ‘-yang’

+(Q&A)

Q) in the many lives that he’s lived, has sung hyunjae ever dated or gotten married? A) perhaps in his first life, or at the very early stages when he was just starting to be planted; after a while, he came to nearly lack that kind of desire altogether. part of it is also because he’s unconsciously aware of his own circumstances (i.e. being bound to crescent moon).

South Korea population decline.

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dinadumas · 1 year ago

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Why do you think yoohyun didn't make a Truman Show for yoojin? If he couldn't contact him then he could hire people to play the role of yoojin's best friend or send a partner to start a business with him or even better; send a child to be looked after by him. But he left him to get beaten up on streets, God knows how many time. Looks like he had millions but no intelligence or creativity.

The Truman Show would be a damn good idea, you're right.

On the one hand, I understand why Yoohyun made that choice. When he awakening and left he was 17, right? At the time of the story, the Korean age system is a goddamn blackwoods. Like at birth a child is already a year old plus another year on the first day of the new lunar calendar. That's crazy. So he was about 15 when he awakening? Crazy ×2.

A 15-year-old boy. At that age, kids prioritize justice and the bright side. Sometimes I think psychologically Yoohyun stayed at 15, so he didn't want to watch from the outside as his hyung lived in a bubble of lies and pretense. Yeah, Yoohyun, of course it's better to watch your brother suffer, right??? Ugh, it's killing me. Damn punk.

How much will a kid think before making the most dramatic decision? Nah. There was probably only one thought in his mind. That he and the capabilities of his future enemies were dangerous to Hyung. And then came the alien assholes.

Now let's put aside the idea that he's a child. Later, 3 years later, he really had many opportunities to make his hyung's life better. But it seems to me that Yoohyun was overcome with depression and the idea that he was on the only right path. (And as I noted earlier, he could have had a policy of honesty.)

Fear for hyung, the dungeons, the guild. So many problems, it's impossible to stay emotionally stable. Perhaps because of his psychological state, he didn't see and didn't want to see alternative paths.

At this point, I felt like slapping him. Okay him, okay public opinion, but the moment he refused to treat Yoojin's leg, it went too far. He wanted to protect him, but instead of protecting him, he crippled him. As the system said, protection s ranks often turn violent.

He can be understood, but not easily forgiven. That kid really made stupid and terrible decisions, it was useless to argue with that. It was Yoohyun's decisions that made the situation so terrible.

We will always see more opportunities from our place behind the 4th wall, it's true, but that doesn't make the Han brothers' situation any better for themselves. Yoohyun should have pulled his head out of the sand and looked at the situation soberly.

So yeah, the truman show is a damn good idea. Too bad Han Yoohyun was such a petty dramatic brat (in both good and bad ways).

#novel #manhwa #sctir #s classes that i raised #tsctir #the s classes that i raised

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yersina · 2 years ago

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Something han brothers

It starts with a cough.

“This treatment is still experimental,” his doctor says, as if this is just a normal procedure that’s been done a thousand times and not something that was just invented recently for a disease that only appeared within the last few years. “We’re still uncertain what the full range of side effects may be, but from previous accounts, it could include anything from confusion and memory loss to flattened affect and anhedonia.”

“Yes, I’m aware,” Yoojin says as patiently as possible. He read the pamphlets. He signed the consent form. He knows what he’s getting into.

She gives him a steady look. Yoojin wonders if it’s pity that he sees in her eyes. “Alright, then. Let’s get you breathing properly again.”

At first, he thinks it’s a cold. In fact, he’s excited to call it a cold, because it’s the simplest explanation and he hasn’t been able to look to the simplest explanation in so long. He coughs a few times while he’s in a dungeon, takes some cough medicine when he gets out, and calls it a day.

After all, what else could it be?

But the cough never quite worsens and never quite heals, always lingering in the back of his throat like he’s trying to cough up something that’s refusing to come out of his body, and it scares him, it terrifies him, because he knows what it means.

It’s just a cold, he repeats like a mantra, and relearns that he never quite managed to figure out the art of lying to himself.

After all the warnings that the doctors and nurses had given him, all the trepidation that Yoojin had pushed down in favor of grim determination, he feels… fine after the surgery. Tired and sore, but that’s normal, they assure him. Nothing a healing potion can’t fix.

“What’s your brother’s name?” a nurse asks him after she listens to his breathing.

“Han Yoohyun.”

“How old is he?”

“Twenty-one.”

“What’s his current occupation?”

And down they go on the list of questions that Yoojin had signed off for them to ask after the surgery. It’s almost funny, in a way—he still remembers how much he’d agonized over these questions, how he’d coughed out flower after flower while writing the answers. It’d hurt, he remembers, and yet he’d still held doubt deep in his heart over whether he should go through with the surgery, even as he was penning his signature. The doubt seems paltry in the face of the relief of being able to take a full breath of air, now.

“It seems like you’re in great condition,” the nurse tells him with a smile. “How are you feeling?”

“Good,” he answers with an echoing smile, and knows that he truly means it for the first time in years.

The first time that he pulls a petal out of his mouth, he stares at it for an interminable moment. Somehow, he didn’t expect it to be red.

“Oh, shit,” he hears from next to him. Yoojin turns his head to see the doe-eyed, dewy look of one of the hunters that he’s clearing the dungeon with. Song Dohyun, he thinks his name is. A little older than Yoohyun, probably—he feels a tickle in his lungs and reflexively cuts off that train of thought. “Hanahaki, right?”

Yoojin lets the petal fall from the cup of his palm. “Yep.”

“I’m sorry,” Song Dohyun says, still managing to emulate a sad puppy. “I hear that it’s really painful.” It is. Yoojin shrugs and adjusts his gloves so he doesn’t have to keep looking at the mournful expression. He hasn’t had to talk to someone quite so… earnest in a while. “Are you… thinking about getting the surgery?”

Thankfully, the leader of the dungeoning group calls for their attention before Yoojin has to really wrap his mind around the question.

Out of curiosity, he takes the bus with the route that he knows passes by a billboard for Yoohyun’s guild to get home from the hospital. He’s been avoiding it for almost a year now even though it’s the only line that goes directly to his apartment.

The bus ends up passing by the location too quickly for Yoojin to catch anything other than the silhouette of Yoohyun’s head and shoulders against a fiery background. It’s anticlimactic, for something that Yoojin has been so desperate to avoid for such a long time. Still, it’s his brother on a billboard—something that neither of them ever would have imagined for themselves just a few years ago.

Good for him, Yoojin thinks deliberately. It comes with none of the malice and jealousy that had plagued him for so long and brings a lightness to his chest that lingers for the rest of the bus ride home.

It takes two weeks for Yoojin to start carrying tissues around. A month after that and Yoojin is having to stuff whole blossoms into his pocket in between punching overgrown rats and collecting ingredients. It’s fast, he notes dully. Faster than he would’ve expected.

It takes two months for him to start coughing up blood.

There’s a pamphlet for a hunter-specific doctor hanging on his fridge, one where the number and website to set up an appointment is circled in black Sharpie. On the other side of the fridge is a photo of Yoojin and Yoohyun from years ago, decked out in winter gear and covered in snow, laughing together and not looking at the camera. It’s one of Yoojin’s favorite photos of them together.

One day, while he has a sleeve—black, because he’s getting tired of doing laundry—pressed to his mouth as he coughs, he slides it back into the photobook it came from and thinks about how he’s had to do this twice now. He wonders if it’s making the disease worse somehow.

The pamphlet stays up on the fridge.

When Yoojin gets back to his apartment, he surveys the space and realizes how impersonal everything looks. Over the years, he’d gradually taken down or thrown out anything that reminded him of Yoohyun, and the hanahaki had only sped up that process. And the things that had reminded him of Yoohyun had been… everything.

He starts by taking out one of the winter blankets that he’s been keeping in storage, one that he’s been putting off using because Yoohyun had been the one to pick this pattern, and he wasn’t sure if it’d bring back other painful memories. While he’s there, he pauses over a box of photobooks, untouched since he’d shoved it there in anger and misery a few years ago. He’d forgotten it existed.

It takes him hours to flip through the photobooks again, looking at the pictures with new eyes and a touch of curiosity. Everything had been so painful before that he can’t quite remember what it felt like when these photos were first taken. It’s sort of like there’s a black hole in his memory, except instead of amnesia, it’s only his feelings that he can’t remember.

It’s a bit strange, to look at his own history and feel detached, so he takes one that he likes and puts it in a place of honor on the fridge. Maybe he’ll warm up to it, eventually, and remember.

He leaves the pamphlet up there too. Just in case.

“Hi,” he croaks into his phone. His stomach had been churning from downing too many healing potions in a row, so he’d been experimenting with just letting the coughs happen. Now he’s starting to regret that a bit. “I’d like to make an appointment.”

He gives the nurse his information and stares out the window of his apartment while she looks up his records. “What are you coming in for?”

“Hanahaki surgery.”

After a few days, Yoojin’s… not quite sure what to do with himself. He still keeps an eye out for dungeons, but it lacks the fervency that used to fuel his actions. He’d needed to prove himself, needed to know that he could survive on his own and wasn’t trapped in the shadow of someone who didn’t give a damn about him, and now he… doesn’t. It leaves an empty space in his life that grows more and more unnerving the longer he stays in this apartment that’s both empty of and filled to the brim with emotion.

That’s the problem, he’s starting to realize. It’s not as if he’s been wiped of all emotion—far from it. It’s that he doesn’t have any emotions related to Yoohyun anymore.

And who is he when he doesn’t love his brother?

“Han Yoojin.”

Yoojin smiles wanly at the doctor who’d been assigned to him the last time. What are the odds? “Hello, Doctor Kim.”

She gives him a look before flipping through his chart. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here again. You were one of our best successes, you know. Hardly any side effects. What’s giving you trouble now?”

Yoojin reaches into his pocket and pulls out a clear plastic bag filled to the brim with red anemones, the flat round petals a stark contrast to the pink carnations that he’d shown her last time. “It came back.”

#mycookiesvenomousyestheybite #sina writes #fanfiction #sctir #s classes that i raised #hanahaki #i'm not sure if it's clear?? but this alternates between the 'present' when yj gets his surgery #and the 'future' where his hanahaki comes back again #my other idea for this prompt was a time loop/groundhog day au #where yh is trapped in the time loop and the point is to reconcile w yj #but alas this story wrote itself first :')

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thescrapbookingscientist · 1 year ago

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Bimonthly Media Roundup

- Hellsing Abridged (Webseries) - A rather old one but I do really like the aesthetic of this series - The kind of rough gothic look that was popular in the early 2000s. I appreciate that the author took the Dracula lore and just decided to go really weird with it with the multiple monster designs for Alucard himself, then applying that same "Rule of Cool looks over logic" monster lore for every other character in the series.

- Army of Darkness (Movie) - VHS night at my friends place, While I was familiar with Ash Vs the Evil dead I'd never actually seen this film and uh. Well I don't know what I was expecting but boy this sure wasn't that. I would not exactly call this a 'good' movie but it certainly was a fun one, and an incredible watching experience in a group setting. It reminded me a lot of Big Trouble in Little China with it's campy low budget energy where weird shit is constantly happening that the movie will never explain and the characters react very nonchalantly to the batshit things they are experiencing, Plot wise the movie could be described as Bruce Campbells No-Good Very Bad Day but the things that make it bad are honestly very funny and creative so good for it. I wish they made more movies like this nowadays honestly, just dumb little fun passion projects with obviously fake but still cool practical effects and an unnecessary skeleton army.

- Star Trek Strange New Worlds (TV) - Not too far in yet so not much to say, I like court themed episodes so I'm having fun with season 2 so far. Pike and Uhura are my faves as they are just very likable and silly guys who still know when to take their jobs seriously. Also this is a cool poster.

- Star Trek Lower Decks (TV) - Also only 2 episodes in so far but Season 4 is starting strong, I loved The Moopsy and everything about it and the menagerie in general, the vulcan girl getting a larger role with Tendi in particular seems like it will be a fun dynamic, and the humor and overall hyped vibes of the characters is still as strong as ever. Hmm I wonder if it would be worth it to paint myself green to do a Tendi cosplay or if Homestuck made that illegal for everyone forever.

- Dr Stone (Anime) - Yup.

- The S Classes That I Raised (Webnovel) - While I was never not invested in the story I've glad we've moved on to a new arc. Han Yoojin using his abilities to find people with unique non-fighting skills to take business away from what would be an evil mega corporation is a nice use of time-travel based knowledge, so I hope we get a bit more of that. I also would like some more downtime as I like all the characters and wish they got to hang out in low stakes situations more often. I suppose I'm also just a bit worn out of scrolling through action scenes, as while I quite like the art (and especially the coloring) style, the big effect explosions just don't translate super well to the scrolling style still-art pages of K-webcomics. That being said it could be a lot worse as Yoojin's relative powerlessness does make every fight at least interesting in how it needs to be thought through rather than just punched a lot - I just enjoy the fun character banter and political drama more.

- Ace Attorney Vs Professor Layton (Video Game) - Well that ending. happened. In truth I don't hate the twist necessarily on it's own, so much that it's the kind of twist that if you think about it too long it retroactively makes the rest of the story nonsensical. I also find the storyteller and Darklaw's motives to be very dumb which brings it down, not to mention they just axed Barnum from the last part of the game entirely despite him being arguably the best character in the game. Overall I didn't hate the game though, as I found a lot of the little character dialogue, puzzles, and Layton interactions cute - It makes me want to play a Layton game again that's for sure. I'm not sure it's a good Ace Attorney game as it feels very tonally different from the rest of the series, but hey with this I've experienced every Ace Attorney game in the franchise so that's nice, I'll have to do some character and case rankings at some point.

- One Piece (Anime) - Just finished Skypia and thinking about doing a liveblog from this point out. This was a pretty good arc honestly, I loved the villains design aesthetic and powers, lots of good crew bonding moments (Especially for Sanji + Usopp and Luffy + Nami), I liked the setting, the flashback episodes with Mont Blanc had uh questionable politics but the "we both have wives offscreen but are always shown together, think about each other constantly, and die thinking only of the other" gayness of it all made me laugh, and I think it did a good job giving everyone something interesting to do. Other notes would be how funny it is that Robin for the first half was having an entirely different, lovely experience wandering through the woods while everyone fights for their lives, that she nonchalantly snapped a guys neck when he told her to leave, and that poor Chopper had to fight 3/4 of the big bad guys all by himself that poor little deer.

- Genshin Impact (Video Game) - Still here, doing more co-op with my friend now, exploring the bonkers long Chasm quests in Liyue, hoping Kokomi comes back because I want her on my team so bad. Anyway Inazuma has been cool so far, I like the different environments on the islands (other than the lightning island which can sink into the ocean frankly) and there are lots of good character designs. Also I've been listening to the music more and its good!

Listening To: Bones by MSMR, In My Head by Mike Shinoda, Ivy by Taylor Swift, Dancin by Aaron Smith, Make Up Your Mind by Florence + The Machine, Ordinaryish People and World's Smallest Violin by AJR, Ghost by Justin Beiber, IDOL by YOASOBI, Atlantis by Seafret, Doin’ Time by Lana Del Rey, All the Boys by Panic! At The Disco.

#weekly roundup #my post #what's with the red gold color scheme this time idk

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lalune9x · 3 months ago

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Basically Sung Hyunje likes him because Yoojin is unique compared everyone else he has ever met, as he is someone ‘weak’ who genuinely tries to nurture those much stronger than himself. Also because Yoojin makes life interesting and fun for Hyunje again. And because Yoojin genuinely cared for and tried to protect him (which goes to Yoojin being unique, as everyone else just sees Hyunje as too far above human to need help).

I think this section from Chapter 754 illustrates it pretty well, since you mentioned being open to spoilers.

Warning: serious spoilers for the last part of the novel. Quick translation of part of the chapter under the cut.

—-

‘I’m not special.’

There was no reason for Sung Hyunje to keep focusing on me. If he lost interest, he could leave me at any time, like he did with others. It wouldn’t be strange if that moment was now. That was just the kind of person he was. In truth, I had been expecting this all along.

I felt a dull sadness. Amid the helplessness, a whisper echoed urging me to escape this situation. If I just turned around and walked out the door, I could find some comfort.

“……”

This had simply been something inevitable.

“…No, I…”

I looked up again, and was hurt by his quiet and subdued golden-eyed gaze.

“I still think Sung Hyunje-ssi is a good person.”

Instead of running, I spoke. I may have doubted him and perhaps even feared him a little. But still, there was all the time we had spent together until now.

“And I think I may be the exception.”

I clenched my trembling fingers tightly.

“Until now, um, until now we’ve been through so much together. Perhaps you think differently, but I’m allowed to think that way, aren’t I? Th-that should be enough to be special.”

My throat felt tight. I worried that I sounded pathetic, but I kept going.

“I, I deserve that much… don’t I?”

I took a deep breath, filling my chest.

“I believe that Sung Hyunje-ssi feels the same way.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, a wave of self-doubt washed over me. I wondered what nonsense I had just spewed. But before it became unbearable, a response came.

“Yes.”

Sung Hyunje’s voice was slow, deliberate.

“I liked you uniquely, Han Yoojin-gun.”

…Liked. Past tense. I clenched my fists tighter so as not to run away. My palms stung.

“That’s why I buried it.”

“…Buried it? What do you mean?”

“I’m tired and worn out.”

Sung Hyunje’s words came out like he was reciting an old poem.

“Life was long and tedious, and the death which should have come, slipped away with the memories that were taken from me. Still, I did not stop living, and because of that, I began to long for an end—an end as my true self.”

His golden eyes narrowed slightly as he gave a faint smile.

“But then, Han Yoojin-gun, I started to enjoy life again. I became genuinely excited, like a child. A child surrounded by fun doesn’t think of death. They only look forward to the passing time and the coming tomorrow.”

“…But then, if so…”

I had felt it too. After meeting the Sung Hyunje from before the regression, I sensed it even more clearly. The current Sung Hyunje seemed younger, like he was truly living his life.

“That’s why.”

Sung Hyunje touched his long finger lightly to his chest.

“The ‘me’ who wants to live won’t die. Even if I can’t control the accumulated power, it’s still mine, so it’s influenced by my will. That’s also the reason why the Crescent Moon had kept hiding me though I was almost full.”

“Because… you had wanted to accept death?”

“Even if I was forced to live forever, if I collapsed before rising as a full moon, I wouldn’t become the new Origin that the Crescent Moon desired. I would become a simple monster. The Crescent Moon had to be careful as I grew more tired.”

She couldn’t let anything go wrong before he was fully complete. After all, it would be incredibly difficult to find another person who could preserve themselves while building up through numerous worlds over such a long time.

The more he accumulated, the closer he got to immortality, but at the same time, the more unstable he became.

“But I changed,” he said.

“The Crescent Moon…”

She must have noticed. No, it was exactly because she knew, that she had made me kill him. Because Sung Hyunje had become able to withstand the invasion of the Transcendents and fill up to become a full moon without collapsing.

His eyes, holding a quiet smile, met mine.

“By burying my feelings for you, Han Yoojin-gun, I’ve regained my longing for that unattainable death.”

It hurt. I was sad that it had come to this, but at the same time, I was secretly glad—glad that my existence had pushed him to such lengths. Even though I had failed, I wasn’t wrong.

“How did you…?”

“There was my pre-regression self. I learned a lot from him. By pushing him to the surface and stepping back, I could fool the Crescent Moon.”

“…Because the pre-regression Sung Hyunje still yearned for the end,” I said.

“It would have been dangerous for me to directly engage in a game connected with the Transcendents.”

There was no way the Crescent Moon hadn’t been watching. She must have been confused. That’s probably why she didn’t interfere during the bet.

“I also practiced dividing myself. Everything I have accumulated is me, but at the same time, it is also separate. Thanks to that, I was able to set aside only my feelings for you.”

“Then…”

“The memories are still there. But they no longer affect me emotionally.”

I stared directly at him. The man in front of me now was the same Sung Hyunje I had first met after the regression. He regarded me with indifferent curiosity.

[section of them talking with Song Taewon]

“I’ll help too.”

I lifted my gaze to look directly at Sung Hyunje.

“I don’t have a plan, but…”

I stepped forward. I was still exhausted, and still couldn’t think of an answer. But one thing was clear. In the pitch darkness, it was shining even more brightly.

“I like you both. So, I can’t help it.”

Logic said there was no solution, but I liked them, so what could I do? Sung Hyunje watched me for a moment before he laughed.

“I value myself, you know,” he said.

“I’m well aware.”

“And I don’t easily discard any part of myself.”

“What are you—wait, are you saying…”

A part of Sung Hyunje. His feelings towards me. His golden eyes curved gently as he smiled.

“If I start trusting and relying on you once again, Han Yoojin-gun, the feelings I buried might resurface.”

“…Wait, hold on! You’re telling me I have to do the same thing one more time? Trusting and relying on me? Did you really do that?”

“Since the memories remain, isn’t it to your advantage? Even if the emotions are gone, objectively I still highly regard your actions.”

“Don’t rate other peoples’ lives! Anyway, you’re saying I just need to come up with a solution, right?”

“Something like that.”

“Stop smiling, it’s annoying!”

Even as I yelled in frustration, I felt relieved. I almost wanted to cry. This damned person did trust me after all. Even though he had prepared such an infuriating plan, I'd let it slide since that was just the kind of person he was. I cleared my throat, trying to compose myself.

Genuinely can anyone explain to me why sung hyunjae likes han yoojin . i did not finish the manhwa but i assumed he was just roleplaying and being silly since he found yoojin a valuable asset, and im guessing he accidentaly faked it til he made it. Can anyone explain it to me. Please.

#MAJOR NOVEL SPOILERS #sctir #tsctir #the s classes that i raised #s classes that i raised #jinjae

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wovenstarlight · 3 years ago

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(on ao3)

At some point, Yoojin realizes that Yoohyun's parents aren't coming back for him.

He's sitting on the couch watching Yoohyun color in the illustrations in one of his books when the realization hits him. It's not a pleasing one. Despite how fascinating Yoohyun is, Yoojin still isn't prepared to be the sole carer for him. He's a kid, too, even if he hardly feels like it.

"Yoohyun-ah," he says. His brother twists around and fixes his sharp eyes on him. "Do Mom and Dad still... talk to you?"

He frowns as soon as he finishes. That wasn't really what he wanted to ask. Even so, Yoohyun seems to understand, and shrugs in response.

"They cook when you're gone," he offers. "And. Get me books?" He pats the one he's working on.

"...Do they ever talk to you?"

"Mom teaches me recipes when she makes them."

"Does she now," Yoojin says, and Yoohyun starts reciting what seems to be a kimchi jjigae recipe, seemingly wanting to prove his claim, but Yoojin's too lost in thought to listen. If that's the extent of their interactions... Hm. It's not good for a growing child to have someone like him be his only point of closeness. He supposes he could try pushing Yoohyun away, see if that gets the parents to retrieve their son. They'd undoubtedly provide him with a far better, far more reliable experience growing up.

But a selfish part of him rails against the idea. They haven't done anything to push back against Yoojin taking care of his little brother, after all. With how little they've fought, that part of him whispers, did they ever really want to be parents? Even now, do they care?

Yoojin refocuses on his brother, who's watching him with an annoyed scrunch to his brows. "You weren't listening," he says as soon as he notices that Yoojin's back.

He offers his brother a smile, and raises a hand. "Thinking about something else," he explains as Yoohyun pushes his head insistently against his palm. "Sorry. I'll pay attention."

Yoohyun magnanimously accepts his apology in exchange for a gratuitous amount of head pats. They sit in silence for a bit, the only sound that of Yoojin giving his brother an impromptu head massage, before his hands still.

"Yoohyun-ah," he murmurs. He's still resting his fingers against his brother's temples, so he can't turn his head, but he hums questioningly. "Do you like Mom and Dad?"

Yoohyun pauses for a very long moment. "I don't know."

"Do you..." Yoojin thinks over his question. "It would be better if you stayed with them more. They can teach you better than I can. It's not good for me to be your only—"

Yoohyun jerks so that his hands fall away, then turns and gives him the most betrayed look he's ever seen on the kid's face. "Hyung doesn't want me around?"

"What? No, of course I— No, Yoohyun-ah, I mean I'm different—"

"I know."

"—and I can't, like, emotionally and morally, I'm not really the best— What?"

"I know," Yoohyun repeats, glaring at him. "I'm different too."

Well, that's. That's not really. Wrong. "That's different," Yoojin attempts.

"It is to other people."

......

Yoojin considers his little brother. He just promised to listen, and he's not doing a very good job of that, is he? "Yoohyun-ah, do you want to stay with me?"

"Yeah."

Oh. He hadn't known he could just... ask. Well, in that case, Yoojin's hardly going to go against his brother's wishes. There's nothing he wants less than to upset him.

Years later, Yoojin steps through the door of their house, toes off his shoes, and steps into his indoor slippers. He walks further in and looks around until he finds Yoohyun, sitting at the table with his homework, looking up expectantly.

"Hyung! You're back."

Yoojin stares at his little brother. His hands are shaking at his side where they're balled into fists. "Yoohyun-ah," he gets out.

Concern is rapidly taking over his brother's face. He gets up from his seat and wordlessly pulls out another chair; Yoojin stumbles into it, following Yoohyun's figure as he fetches him a glass of water. "Drink," he's commanded, and so he does.

"Yoohyun-ah," he croaks once the glass is finished. He takes his brother's hand. "Yoohyun-ah—"

"I'm here." Yoohyun squeezes his hand.

"Things..." Yoojin thinks over his words. "Things are going to be—pretty hard. In the coming... I don't know how long." He shakes his head, exhausted. "You're going to be in danger."

He looks up at his brother, searching his eyes. All he finds is concern and growing resolution. "You're going to be in danger," he presses. "You understand? It's going to be dangerous."

His brother nods. Yoojin sighs, unbearably fond. "Yoohyun-ah," he asks, "do you want to stay with me?"

"Always," Yoohyun promises.

And, after all, Yoojin is hardly going to go against his brother's wishes.

#my writing #my sranks #han yoohyun #han yoojin #rankswap au #my little guys.#yoojin discovers he can just ask yoohyun things and yoohyun will be (usually) unabashedly honest #and it dispels the mystery but somehow it makes yoohyun all the more fascinating to him #the honesty is refreshing! as is the bluntness #yoojin is direct because yoohyun seems to appreciate it. yoohyun is direct because. well. he just is #and its so much fun to be around that kind of guy. yoojin thinks his lil bro is hilarious #rankswap han bros wouldnt get to the point of Shut yourself in a room for a year like in canon #but. if they did. hyj would go Hey can i lock u in a room for a year. and hyh would go No?#and hyj would go oh ok. will think of a different plan. love you 😚#and hyh would go. Sure you do that. love you too.

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bidokja · 2 years ago

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ok i gotta ask. what is sclasses. are you willing to please give me a link and also possibly a pitch to sclasses. webtoon or novel first?

OH BOY, so "sclasses" is my tag for "The S-Classes That I Raised" (AKA "My S-Ranks" and "My S-Class Hunters"). It's a KRN webnovel with a manhwa adaption.

You can find the novel being currently translated by SFS Translations and the manhwa being officially translated on Webtoon. There's also a fan translation being done by Asurascans that is much farther ahead of the official manhwa TL.

For an introductory premise/summary:

Dungeons. Monsters. Awakened. A game-like System to package it all in. It seems straightforward enough, but a more troubling truth lies beneath the surface. With his younger brother's blood still staining his clothes, Han Yoojin obtains a means to turn back time. He siezes the opportunity, hoping to get a fresh start. Live a cleaner, less chaotic life. Unfortunately, his choice does quite the opposite, and he becomes the centerpiece of the chaos to come. Slowly but surely, the packaging is ripped away.

Things like my personal pitch, my love for Yoo Myeongwoo, and my novel vs manhwa recommendations are below the cut.

For my personal pitch, honestly...just being able to peek into Yoojin's thoughts is so worth it. He is the funniest motherfucker unlimited. No contest. The writing balances this quite well, too. I like to approach sclasses with the mindset that its most major sub-genre is "comedy", but it still knows when to take itself seriously.

Also, the approach the series takes with the tropes of dungeons, systems, and regression is refreshingly different from other series. It manages to give explanations that don't detract from the fantasy, but rather add to the growing horror. The pacing is great, with stakes being raised and revealed at just the right times. As for characters, literally everyone is interesting. Everyone. They're all batshit in different ways and have ZERO shame about it. I love to study them under the microscope in my brain. Most of them are also very compelling (even the ones you hate).

AND. MOST IMPORTANTLY. YOO MYEONGWOO EXISTS. LOOK AT HIM. MI POBRECITO MIAU MIAU. MY BABYGIRL.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk <3

P.S. - To answer your last question, I recommend the novel first, but the manhwa doesn't fall far behind.

I've already talked a bit about what parts of the writing I like above. The novel itself goes into a bit more depth, and has more gradual and fluid connections between events. It also shows WAY more of Yoojin's inner ranting and raving, which - as I've said - is genuinely such a huge part of the S-Classes expereince for me.

That being said, the manhwa is really good. Firstly, the art is amazing. I can't say it clears my bar for diversity (but no manhwa has done that so far so...y'know), but it's so much less stiff and more vibrant than a lot of studio work I've seen churned out lately so kudos there for sure. I also think that it manages to nail the impact of a few scenes even better than the novel does, and so far the edits to the pacing are well done to fit the more limited room of a comic medium without skipping important info and while still conveying the intended progression for the plot and characters. Which, maybe all these seem like basic things, but is something SO many adaptions drop the ball on.

#the s classes that i raised #my s class hunters #beso babbles #sclasses #that summary is spoiler free btw you learn about his brother and the regression thing all in ch1 it is quite literally the intro

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lalune9x · 2 months ago

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S-Classes ‘Side Story’ chapter 124 spoilers under the cut…

god I love this novel so much, it’s so funny and ridiculously endearing lmaooo 😭 (sorry I’m on mobile and don’t know how to format indented text)

—-

“Normally, I shouldn’t interfere. But since my partner has requested it…”

With those words, Sung Hyunje appeared.

“I have no choice but to comply.”

He was tiny, small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, and had fairy wings. It was a form I had seen once before, but still…

“…Why are you in this state again?”

Aren’t you about to turn forty? Actually, at this point, aren’t you already in your mid-forties? A man nearing fifty was fluttering around with shiny wings, claiming ‘I’m the Sesung Guild Leader~’ If he were a complete stranger, I would’ve said that people in this world had all sorts of preferences and left it at that. But unfortunately, this person happened to be my partner.

Amidst everyone’s gaze, Sung Hyunje-ssi landed on my palm. For a moment, I had the urge to clench my fist and shake it. Would sparks fly if I grabbed him?

[…]

“So that’s why you came with wings,” I said.

“The wings are because I felt Han Yoojin-gun’s interest in me has been waning a bit. I just spruced myself up a little.”

… What nonsense. When people said they wanted to spruce up, they usually changed their hairstyle, put on nice clothes, or added accessories. Why on earth would you suddenly add wings?

“… Anyway, we can explain publicly that the Sesung Guildmaster shrank due to a curse. As long as we get cooperation from the current Sesung Guildmaster, Hunter Kang Soyoung, it shouldn’t be too hard to bring Sesung Guild in line with its current state.”

“Um, excuse me.”

At that moment, Soyoung-ssi raised one arm with a serious expression. She glanced between the tiny Sung Hyunje in my palm and me before speaking.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but… in the end, the person who was a mermaid, then a captain, and now a fairy—is my boss?”

“Uh… yes? I suppose so.”

“And that thing… I mean, this person, needs to become the Sesung Guildmaster? No, wait, the original Guildmaster was… Why did I even join Sesung Guild under this person in the first place? Director Han Yoojin raised my dragon, didn’t he? And more importantly… Is that person really the Sesung Guildmaster?”

Soyoung-ssi clutched her head, looking confused. It seemed like her gradually returning memories were clashing with her current reality. Or maybe she just couldn’t accept that Sung Hyunje was her boss.

“Kang Soyoung-gun,” Sung Hyunje spoke softly to the bewildered Soyoung.

Since he was the guildmaster, maybe he would give some comforting advice to his young guild member…

“I’m a fairy dragon,” he said.

But no—he lied without even batting an eye. Had he lost his mind?

Kang Soyoung’s eyes widened as she stared at him. “You’re a dragon? For real?”

“Yes. Gyeol was born due to my influence as a fairy dragon. Don’t we even look alike?”

The self-proclaimed fairy dragon spun slowly once in my palm to display himself. Appearance-wise… he clearly did look like Gyeol. I felt sorry for Gyeol, but what Sung Hyunje-ssi said wasn’t entirely wrong. And now that he had fairy wings, his nonsense actually sounded somewhat plausible.

“So that’s…!”

Kang Soyoung cried out in awe and astonishment. Her expression went through a number of complex changes for a moment, but then she quickly calmed down and nodded firmly.

“I understand everything now.”

…Really? That was all it took?

“It all makes sense. It’s perfect. Yes! I love Sesung Guild and our Guildmaster!” Soyoung-ssi shouted with eyes full of guild pride…

Was this really okay? Sung Hyunje-ssi, didn’t you feel guilty at all? We did need to finish this mission and get out quickly, but this seemed too shameless.

#just posting my reactions to excerpts as I read #sctir side story #sctir #sctir spoilers #s classes that i raised #jinjae #jinje #hjyj #i love soyoung’s enthusiasm for her special interest

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unluckycactus · 6 months ago

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... what if I told you it's not an special chapter HSHDHD

This whole segment is part of the next update. It's just that the next update is so long that I chose to put this out as a preview of sorts, didn't think ppl would percieve it, but I was wrong it seems!

I wanna clear some things up, just in case:

Answer to point 2:

HeniRoksoo didn't faint, he was just too tired!

Remember that last chapter he said he has the day after the night shift off, but gets no sleep the day prior? Bro was running on 24hrs without sleep, so he merely crashed bc it was long due.

Answer to point 3:

As for not remembering, (if you meant the AF World) Heniroksoo still does not remember. He has heard bits of it through others, tho.

e.g:

Rosalyn straigt up gave him a summary and told HeniRoksoo that he died (Ch 5)

Rosa telling him about not giving a shit about Choi Han (Interlude I)

So HeniRoksoo is more than capable to explain what happened there, even if he doesn't remember it. He's just giving a summary and not a word-for-word retelling.

Answer to point 4:

What happened with Cha Yuha will actually be covered in SNAFU

Park Yoojin is 💆🏻‍♀️💆🏻‍♀️ something, for sure

Answer to point 5:

Depends on the version you read. If it was the 2021 ver then, no, neither Yoojin or Yuha were there.

If it is the edited version (June 2024), then he does appear, but he's just name dropped (Ch3, Ch9) He properly appears in Ch7.

Answer to point 6:

The adventure in the AF world will be left to y'all imagination unless one day I wake up and choose violence. But the whole bonus scene on my blog abt OGCale making the Orsena go bankrupt is a thing so, uh, enjoy that (?)

As for the multiversal adventure, ahem, I have the right to remain silent.

Thank you for enjoying the delulu‼️ 🫶🏻

Acquaint Fate (Ch 9) Spoilers

The Team 1 ocs cameo wasn't supposed to be this long, but your girl has to get the fic going, and they gave me a nice excuse to get the Earth #1 things going.

Anyways, I'm posting it here because why not.

◇──◆──◇──◆──◆──◇──◆

For someone with now perfect memory, Kim Rok Soo’s last moments awake were a blank slate.

He remembered coming home, luring out his niece with the promise of sweet, sweet McDonalds for breakfast and then...

Then...?

“...what the hell happened?” His headache didn’t do him any favors.

Screw the night shift, seriously.

“Oh, look. The dead man left the coffin.” Was Cha Yuha’s greeting. “Coffee?”

“As black as the soul of the higher-ups, please.” He nodded. “Where is—?”

As if summoned, Raon suddenly appeared in his field of vision. Well, that answered the question, at least.

“Our hoobae caught us up with your— well, another of your secret lives, I guess.”

Big blue eyes looked straight at him.

“Just how many secret lives do you have, Sparkly? It’s getting annoying to follow up!”

In Kim Rok Soo’s mind, Cha Yuha provided live commentary:

— Your niece asked the same thing when I gave her a rundown of the situation.

Out loud, Yuha replied:

“Well, there’s the regression. We all know about that one, right?” Raon nodded, even though his knowledge of the original timeline summed up to ‘everything went to shit.’ Cale wasn’t known for providing details, after all. “There are hyung’s after-work shenanigans. Then there are his supernatural misadventures. And lastly, there are his adventures in that timeline slash destroyed world you created.”

“Add my meetings in the dreamscape.” Rok Soo interjected.

Cha Yuha actually did a double take.

“Wait, what.”

“I’ve been chatting with people from other worlds in my dreams for a while.” He absent-mindedly explained, focusing on the smell of fresh coffee wafting through the apartment.

To his credit, Yuha didn’t lit anything on fire.

“... you need to tone down the multiversal networking.” Cha Yuha grumbled and went to fetch a cup.

“Jealous?” The teasing remark earned him a side eye.

“I’m just concerned, hyung. You love poking the hornet’s nest wherever you go.”

“My sunbaenim is right, Sparkly!” Raon chimed in, making himself comfortable on Kim Rok Soo’s lap. “You have gotten into a lot of trouble just in a couple of years! We couldn’t even finish going through all the incidents before the Wise Choon-Hee had to leave for school!”

Rok Soo gave Yuha a look.

— You wound me, hyung! I haven’t ratted you out yet. Hoobae here is only talking about the things your niece knows about.

Well, that explained the crime board in the making across his living room. It was certainly something only Choon-Hee would come up with.

“... please tell me he hasn’t met Yerim-noonim yet.”

Maybe Cha Yuha would keep his secrets until watching Kim Rok Soo struggle silently stopped being funny, but Yeo Yerim would throw him under the bus in a heartbeat just to see him get scolded by a kid.

— Nope, but he’s about to.

At that moment, the doorbell of his apartment rang, fulfilling the prophecy.

The fourth member of this Anti-Rok Soo force had arrived.

“Come in, you know the password anyways.” Kim Rok Soo sighed in defeat.

Raon didn’t bother to hide himself, which was most likely Yuha’s doing, instead peering curiously at the door as it opened.

“It is only polite to knock—”

As expected, Yerim spotted the anomaly immediately. She took a deep breath, looked him straight in the eyes with something akin to swirling madness and calmly asked:

“Why.”

Knowing her, it wasn’t a ‘why is there a dragon in your house’, but a ‘why do you get into trouble every time I take my eyes off you, you little punk?’

Which, rude. He wasn’t the one with the habit of casually coming up with biological weapons on the spot.

“... I can explain.” Kim Rok Soo knew he was about to face sweet, sweet judgment, so he took a little time to enjoy his coffee with a long sip first. “Basically, Raon fucked up a whole timeline, which did funny multiversal things and then it became a parallel world or something. And I was there, and then I wasn’t, and now he’s here.”

By the way Cha Yuha rolled his eyes, Kim Rok Soo knew his explanation came off as lacking. But if anyone was qualified to give a masterclass in multiversal shitshows, Yeo Yerim had the higher credentials among his people.

“Two deaths and you dare scold Park Yoojin about recklessness? You hypocrite.” See? She understood the situation just fine. “What’s with you and charming OP people left and right?”

Rok Soo sputtered a little.

“I don’t—”

“Excel sheet. ~” Yuha sing-sang, the traitor. “Anyways, why don’t you introduce yourself, hoobae?”

Raon immediately perked up. He flew up to Yerim and proudly proclaimed, chest stuck out:

“I’m the great and mighty Raon Miru! I’m a grand total of seven years old!”

“Oh no, he’s cute.” She cooed. “Nice to meet you, Raon. I’m Yeo Yerim.”

“I’m not cute! I’m great and mighty!”

Kim Rok Soo hummed, finishing his cup of coffee.

“It’s great to be cute, though. Lots of cuddles.”

“... I’m the mightiest being, so I guess that also makes me the cutest!” No one pointed out how fast the dragon backtracked.

“Yes, you are.” Rok Soo easily agreed.

“Sparkly, is she like Choi Han?” Raon immediately changed the subject, eyeing Yerim with a squinted gaze. “She feels strong! … Hm? It’s weird, our Choi Han is a swordmaster… but I can’t tell if he would win? Hey, blondie, you’re not a swordmaster right? I’m pretty sure you aren’t one! Then why are you so strong?”

“As expected, it doesn’t get past a dragon.”

“Hmph! Of course!” Raon harrumphed. “I couldn’t tell with sunbaenim because his species does not exist in my world, but I’ve met a few people like you! Now answer me!”

“That’s correct, Raon. Our Yerim is a single-lifer too.” It was Kim Rok Soo who answered. “By the way, Yuha-yah, don’t think we don’t know you’re stalling your checkup. Get going already, brat.”

Cha Yuha threw both hands up in surrender.

“I got caught. ~” Five seconds later, his wrist was actually trapped by Yeo Yerim.

“Yerim-noonim, as always, I leave him to you.” Rok Soo nodded at her.

“We will be back before you know it!”

“... what was that about?” Raon waited until they were both gone to address the subject. Smart kid. “Is sunbaenim sick?”

The regressor heaved a tired sigh.

“He’s not sick, but he’s in the middle of a long-term form of treatment.”

“Then I can help, Sparkly! I’m great and mighty, after all!” Being a dragon and having learned from his Goldie Gramps, Raon knew many types of magic. “If the problems are his hands, we can heal them!”

As expected, the little one had noticed.

“With Mary’s help, we were even able to give Lemon Gramps a new arm!”

“...that’s great, kid. But,” the regressor grimaced, there was no easy way to say this, “I don’t think you can.”

The reason why they had not been able to fully heal Yuha was not because of lack of resources, it was because—

“Creatures like Yuha, hmm, they exist under certain parameters here.” He explained. “In the case of certain species, there are wounds that will never heal. Or, depending on how and who made the wound, healing is only possible to a certain degree. Yuha’s wounds will heal, fortunately, but it will take a long time given the circumstances.”

Raon frowned.

“How long?”

“Mn. For the hands, about two more months, for the other…”

Make no mistake, Kim Rok Soo knew exactly how long it would take. It was one of the first things he asked about.

He just hated saying it out loud.

“... about one-hundred years.”

“What?!” Raon’s paws and tail angrily smacked against his table. “That’s so unfair!”

“It is.” Rok Soo agreed, grabbing the kid reflexively in case physics knocked him over. “The only thing we can really do for Yuha, is to make sure he doesn’t have complications while his body heals itself. And boost his defenses and regeneration ratio.”

“I’ll help! Sunbaenim will be so healthy when I’m done, that he’ll stink of herbs all the damn time!”

#cactiwritings #cacti rambles #cactianswers #cactispoilers

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sunghyunjae · 3 years ago

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excerpt from an AU im currently writing ^_^ this is set after 196

"But now you seem to have a finger in every pie." Sung Hyunjae's steps halt, and Han Yoojin feels a spike of dread work its way up his spine as he stops with him.

"You've amassed a fortune out of taming monsters, talked over budding, S-rank talented individuals into joining your side, and now I have just witnessed you swindle an SS-ranked item out of experienced businessmen, along with their chance to profit off what could be the most groundbreaking invention for the Hunter world after the synthesization of the health potion.

Sung Hyunjae had been stepping closer as he talked until he’s fully invading Han Yoojin’s space, and there’s no one else in the hallway except for them but he feels crowded in from every side, still, the air he breathes saturated with his overwhelming presence.

"What I would like to know, Han Yoojin-gun, is when exactly did you get such a clever mouth?"

The memory of his hands scorching a trail along Han Yoojin's back, drifting up from his shoulders to grip his jaw rises unbidden in his mind. The dread morphs, colors with the memory of heat, clears with the suggestion of an idea. His face aches and burns. Worth a try.

He raises his hand.

“It’s clever in more ways than one,” he says, resting his hand in the same place Sung Hyunjae’s had on him earlier, as he guides him down. “Would you like to be reminded of how?”

It's a poor attempt at misdirection and they both recognize it as such. Sung Hyunjae stares at him with one of his intense unmoving gaze as he decides whether to let it go this time too or not.

Come on, he thinks, and makes sure to not look away even once as he deliberately relaxes his shoulders, and tilts his head to subtly bare the side of his neck. I promise to make it worth your while.

It’s still not quite enough. Sung Hyunjae’s eyebrow ticks up, but he himself doesn’t budge, so Han Yoojin lets himself reach up, and subtly feel along the shell of his ear, knuckles softly brushing the space behind it.

Then he wets his lips, and leans forward to whisper, low and husky, “Wouldn’t you?”

"...you are," Sung Hyunjae's finally voice sounds out from the side, just under a conversational volume, but he's never heard him raise his voice above that the whole time Han Yoojin's known him. "much more difficult to deal with than I first thought, Han Yoojin-gun."

His tone is more indulgent than anything else. He could even say it sounds a little cheerful.

The next thing he knows, Han Yoojin’s back is against the wall and for a moment all he can see is gold.

#mysranks #the s-classes that i raised #sewrites #postings #sung hyunjae #han yoojin #if you know you know.

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dbgdbw · 5 months ago

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617.Physical Evaluation (2)

건강검진 (2)

“...it’s that, after some deliberation.”

Furtively avoiding the Elder’s gaze, I opened my mouth.

“Just, ah, well. There didn’t seem to be any point in futilely clinging onto this body of m–ack! You’re not supposed to use corporal punishment anymore, nowadays! They say that you’re only supposed to use words, even when disciplining kids!”

“Just what about ‘that body of yours’?”

“Even if my outward appearance changes some, I’ll still be me, sir. Isn’t that so.”

‘Han Yoojin’ would still be ‘Han Yoojin,’ when it was all said and done; and it was still a far better option than ending up dead in a month’s time. Earnestly, without a hint of a joke.

“Once I’m subjugated to a Transcendent, it would become difficult for me to remain in this world, right, sir. But it’s not as though I can desist from having to pay the price. And on top of that, it’s as good as guaranteed that there’ll be a Transcendent out there waiting to ‘replace’ me as soon as there’s an opening available, sir, just as Chatterbox had planned.”

I could place my trust in the Elder at least, but he’d also acknowledged that the world he originated from wasn’t this one. Eventually, he’d have to return to the First Origin’s world, and I would have to accompany him as he departed. And so, it would be tantamount to a pointless endeavor.

“When you consider that, it’d be preferable for me to be turned into a sword, wouldn’t it, sir. When the world appears to already be populated by a plethora of different entities, becoming a blade-based entity wouldn’t be out of the question. And it’s not as though my own dongsaeng is a ‘normal’ human, either, sir. Plus, there’s the Newcomer who goes around in the form of a volleyball–and though our kids may transform into a human shape, mind, their original forms aren’t human to begin with. And no matter what shape I may take, Yoohyunie will still always recognize ‘me’ as ‘myself.’”

“Hyung… I would, of course, but…….”

Yoohyunie stared at me with a look in his eyes that seemed to be wondering if he’d done something wrong.

“No matter what form you take, ‘Hyung’ will always be ‘Hyung,’ but… Even then, I think, hyung as he is now is still preferable. No–no matter how you might change, as long as it’s hyung, I’d still like you just the same, but……”

“See–he said that he’d like me just as much, even if I became a sword, sir.”

“No, hyung, that’s… What you’re saying isn’t wrong, but…….”

“The others might initially be taken aback, but since I’ll still remain ‘me,’ wouldn’t they eventually acclimate to the change too, sir.”

Even when I’d turned into a cat, none of them had appeared to be overly concerned; and perhaps a vocalization feature could be added onto the blade form. Supposing it was something the Elder wasn’t capable of doing, if it was Myungwoo, something like that might be possible. …though Myungwoo would probably be upset with me, too. And if a 3D projection aspect could be added onto that as well, then it didn’t seem like there’d be too much of a variance between my current state and that form. If I could keep my Skills, too, then we’d be able to meet in the mindscape dimension, besides.

All in all, it seemed like a fairly solid proposal.

“In a way, being opposed to having a person becoming a sword could be viewed as a kind of racis–.”

딱, a switch that suddenly appeared in the Young Chaos’s hand whipped down to strike me square on the forehead. It hurt!

“Do not take so lightly a world completely different from your own.”

The Young Chaos’s voice had grown harsh. As though everything up to now had merely been a light chastisement, it pressed heavily onto my shoulders. Flinching unconsciously, I shrunk in on myself.

“It is commendable, that you recognize your dongsaeng’s differences and seek to understand and reconcile them within yourself. It is only the right course to take.”

His voice still hard, but speaking in what appeared to be an attempt at a kindly manner, he went on.

“However–it is imperative that you not allow yourself to become swept away in the process of understanding, nevertheless. For you to acknowledge the differences between yourself and another being, and then to strive for harmony bearing those divergences is permitted. But differences are differences. There is no need to integrate those things within yourself as well. Nor is it something you should aspire to do.”

“...but sir, wouldn’t it really just entail ‘swapping out the body,’ as I’d laid it out?”

“What you propose is no simple feat. Above all–you, Firstborn, are not prepared to embark on such an enterprise. ‘One’s ‘body’ is simply the casing in which one resides.’ This is not untrue. Even so–such a principle is only applicable to those who are able to remain unaffected by the shell in which they dwell.”

It wasn’t as though I placed that high of an importance on looks, mysel… Erm, well…….

“Firstborn–consider, for a moment, a scenario in which you have become thus transformed into a different being–or, nay, to even become simply of a different age, or sex. Do you possess the confidence to say you would remain unchanged, whether you were a small child, an elderly person, or a woman.”

“...I don’t think I’d be that markedly different, sir.”

“So you suppose. Then, consider the brat who utilizes those chains.”

“Do you mean Sung Hyunjae, sir?”

“That one–he is unlikely to change, even if his age, sex, or species were to undergo a shift.”

He wasn’t wrong. Even if Sung Hyunjae were to suddenly become younger than me, or turn into a decrepit grandpa, or a woman, he probably wouldn’t be much different from how he was now. The attitudes of those around him would change, certainly, and so he might shift to accommodate the way in which he was perceived, but. It seemed likely that he would simply continue to willfully do whatever he wanted, and live as his whims took him, just as he did now.

“Whereas, when it comes to yourself, Firstborn–your conduct would most assuredly change in response.”

“That’s, you don’t have to go so far as……”

“Then–if he were a child, or a woman?”

“T-then…….”

Then–that is, erm, well……. Unconsciously, my gaze dropped to the floor. Even if Sung Hyunjae were to retain the same strength he possessed now, if he were to become as young as Gyeolie was, or his sex were to change, then–well, it was guaranteed that the way in which I treated him would shift correspondingly.

“On the other hand–that brat is likely to treat you in the same manner, irrespectively. The same as the Second who stands beside you.”

I turned to look at Yoohyunie. Had Yoohyunie been a younger sister, rather than a younger brother, then. If he’d been even younger. …my zealousness would have known no bounds, even more so than now. On the flip side, had Yoohyunie been my hyung instead–a lot of things would have been different.

“Had Yoohyunie been a different sex than me, then we probably wouldn’t have been able to continue to sleep together into adulthood, like now. And it would have been more difficult to look after him, without our dynamic at present being the same… But sir, that’s only to be expected, so…….”

“It wouldn’t have posed a problem to me. Hyung is Hyung. It’s just that, because hyung worries about how other humans view you, that I acquiesce to hyung’s lead, but… I’d probably feel saddened, and hurt.”

“It is owing to the influence exerted by the society in which you were born and raised, undoubtedly. Certainly, there are those races and societies for whom there is an absence of sex-based stigma. And for you, Firstborn–considering the position in which you were placed, to break free of the paradigms of the populace in which you were embedded would have been a nigh-impossible task. Whereas for the Seedlings(1), as they are able to stand alone without the protection of a herd, they are able to function in a comparatively solitudinarian manner as a result.”

It was true; Liette, too, seemed like she would have been the ‘same’ person, regardless of whether she’d been male or female. She probably would’ve run wild regardless, just as she did now. Liette would have remained the same, and perhaps there would have been less people challenging her, even, as a result. And likewise, I myself would have perceived her to be more aggressive than I did now, in all probability.

“You may presently theorize that you will remain sound of mind, Firstborn, but were your body to undergo a complete transformation, it is inevitable that the shock it leaves will be profound. Even losing an arm or leg, let alone a difference in age or sex, brings with it a heavy mental toll–this is true for all human beings. And so, if you were to abruptly lose that human vessel of blood and flesh with which you were accustomed, overnight.”

“...it would be difficult for me to contend with, I see, sir.”

As I came to realize the frame of mind I operated within, my confidence dissipated. If I really were to undergo such a transformation–would I be able to accept that ‘me’ so easily, I wondered.

“I’d assumed that I’d already become fairly accustomed to change, in light of the shifts this world has undergone–but I suppose I haven’t, sir.”

“What I advised of you was to abstain from allowing yourself become caught up, in that process of coming to an understanding of other worlds. It is a gradual adaptation of synchronism you must strive towards, and hardly an indiscriminate discarding of old things. Discarding all but for a single positive trait, is not something I espouse.”

…wasn’t wiping away everything except the one best thing, the right thing to do, though? Was this some kind of ‘diversity’ issue?

“Additionally.”

“Yowch!”

My forehead was smacked once again.

“Regardless of the situation–no being capable of retaining their sense of self would ever consider throwing away their own body so carelessly, from the onset!”

“...I apologize for my impudence, sir. But, I have resolved to start taking care of myself too, truly. It’s just.”

Shooting a surreptitious glance at Yoohyunie, I continued.

“There’s not really another way that I could continue to live for a long time with my dongsaeng, or those other people, otherwise, correct, sir. If I were a sword, something like a ‘lifespan’ wouldn’t be an issue, and once Yoohyunie’s lived for as long as he wished, then he could use the Sword’s Predator to swallow me up as well, so……”

Yoohynie’s hand, placed on top of his folded knees, gave a slight twitch. Considering what Yoohyunie had continually longed for, such a thing should have sounded appealing to him, after all. And as long as my Skills could be cleanly transferred over, it would be far easier to activate those Skills in that form, than I would ever be capable of doing so as a human. But I would have most definitely earned myself another lashing with that kind of talk, so I kept it internally to myself.

“All creatures must meet their end, certainly, but it is true that yours, Firstborn, has shown itself disproportionately early. A consequence of becoming entangled with those Outside things, verily.”

If it had just been an ‘ordinary’ length of time, at the very least. Even if it had just been twenty or thirty years that I had remaining, I wouldn’t have gone to such extremes in my considerations, but.

“However–Firstborn, you.”

Bending over slightly, the Young Chaos gazed down at me with a considering look in his eyes.

“The condition of your body, appears somewhat peculiar?”

“Come again, sir? That’s, erm. Well…….”

Had he noticed, after all. I didn’t want us to discuss it in front of Yoohyunie, but it wasn’t as though I could keep it hidden forever, either. The Young Chaos gestured for me to come closer. Once I’d scooted forward enough on my knees to end up right in front him, he slapped a hand down to clasp the back of my neck in a firm grip.

“Your condition is not dissimilar to our first meeting, by my reckoning.”

“...sir? Wait a minute, if it’s like the first time we met, then–!”

Back then–he’d said that I hardly seemed disposed to live for very long, and that it should be twenty years at most with care put into it…!

“Does that mean my lifespan’s increased to be twenty years, sir?!”

That meant I would just live to be forty-five–well, forty-six, since it was almost the new year(2)–by that account, but still. When only a few days prior, I’d been told I only had a month left! Had that Item been malfunctioning, perhaps? Maybe it had been broken, on account of having sat inside the Drawer for too long.

“Three years.”

“...sir?”

“And as you’re bound to live recklessly nevertheless, it could yet become one year still.”

“...and if I didn’t live recklessly, sir?”

“Though that chance hardly seems to hold merit at present–so long as you take care, I suppose you may live for a while longer yet. Perhaps forty, fifty years?”

Holy shit… It had increased so exponentially. How in the world. Yoohyunie wore an expression of surprise as well.

“F-for real, sir? It’s increased even more than before?”

“Take off your upper garment.”

I hurriedly pulled off my shirt. After carefully examining the Mana Seal for a moment, the Young Chaos spoke.

“It certainly appears as though that body of yours has reverted back to its state as of then.”

“My body was replaced wholesale a while back by Chatterbox, before being returned, as it so happens, sir. Could that have had a hand in it, perhaps?”

“That, I cannot speak to–however, it certainly appears as though the accumulated damage has vanished in the interim.”

“Ah, my mana sensitivity suddenly decreased sharply as well, too, sir. It seems to have been the case since this morning–erm, wait, since I woke up last night, I mean.”

“As that ‘sensitivity’ is a product of ‘having gained a sense for processing and gauging,’ the dullness is merely temporary. It should return to you in due course. And consequently, you should have become more stabilized as a result. After all, when I imparted the prediction of twenty years upon you, that was when you were yet incapable of wresting control from the Mark.”

I wasn’t sure what had transpired, but it was glad news nonetheless. But even as a sense of relief pervaded me, I felt my heart stutter in my chest as well. All of the worries that I’d been resolutely pushing aside because of the urgency of ‘only one month remaining’ seemed to be setting upon me at once; my heart rate picked up, beating faster and faster. Yet, even as my limbs loosened as the strength left my body, the corners of my mouth still turned up.

It seemed that, despite everything, I actually had wanted to keep living, after all.

“Yoohyun-ah, did you hear that–hyung’s lifespan’s been extended!”

“Mhn, I’m really glad. Congrats, hyung.”

Yoohyunie gave me a smile. He was most assuredly wearing a happy expression, but something about it seemed off. Even when the topic at hand was my lifespan, for some reason, the way he’d been responding this whole time had seemed… Somewhat unreactive, should I say. But there was no way that would be the case, so maybe I was mistaken somehow. Or, perhaps, was it because he would really be okay with hyung being turned into a sword, after all? We could be together all the time, then, and he’d have far less reason for concern, so it did seem like it could be considered a positive outcome after all.

“And after I’d given up on celebrating my sixtieth, too! Though, I did hear that people don’t really tend to bother with their hwangap(3) nowadays.”

“Implying that you are entertaining the possibility of living quietly until then?”

“Even if I wanted to, of course I couldn’t, sir.”

Getting to my feet, I pulled my shirt back on.

“You’re aware too, right, sir. That surviving the present takes precedence. When there are wolves snapping right at my heels, what other option do I have. Even if my heart might burst under the strain it causes, the rabbit needs to run, regardless.”

So, if I had forty to fifty years left, if I played my cards right, then I might at least be left with twenty or so at the end. Though I’d also experienced those twenty years rapidly being reduced to thirty days instead, well… That Item had probably been defective, in any case.

“In light of that–well, just in case. If, for some reason, sir, I end up being relegated to such a state again, then.”

“Though your ‘existential value’ may be high, your body is insufficient to be used for synthesis. A weapon must be sturdy, first and foremost.”

The Young Chaos remarked, scratching his temple.

“However, there should be something capable of serving as a surrogate. Something that has long since lost its own ‘nature.’”

“So you hadn’t actually turned everything you’d conquered into a blade, then, sir.”

“Certainly not. Such a process requires extensive effort. I merely retained the ones that held a personal appeal, and summarily discarded all the rubbish.”

“Apologies for my transgression, sir.”

“I’ve yet to agree to it, mind. Perhaps when the time comes, and if the situation appears to warrant such.”

Crimson eyes watched me steadily.

“Thus–do not consider it a valid last resort. Were I to deem such a course of action unsuitable, then it shall be a funeral I see to instead.”

“Understood, sir. I’ll definitely take it to heart.”

As though indicating time had run out, the environment surrounding us began to shimmer faintly.

“Beware. How events may unfold henceforth, even I am unable to predict.”

If it was the White Bird, would it know, I wondered. What it might’ve seen, what its objective was–I wanted to force it out of it, if possible.

Our surroundings shifted. A sudden chill swept over us. Yoohyunie immediately summoned a flame, and I quickly pulled on a scarf and cardigan from my Inventory as well.

“I’ll be right back after seeing to them. Keep Eunhae activated, okay.”

As he made to set off in order to eliminate the monsters that might be lurking around us, having passed Irin over to me as well–Yoohyunie abruptly stopped in his tracks, and turned to look back at me.

“Hyung will, undoubtedly keep at it, right?”

“Hm?”

“Now that Chatterbox is out of the way, they might not directly try for hyung anymore. Since Chatterbox’s remnants are mere humans, after all. That’s to say–wouldn’t it be possible, to lay low and live quietly once we return to Korea, now.”

“...it’s impossible to tell. And besides, the Seseung Guild Leader’s wedding is right around the corner too, right. When it’s almost certain that the Transcendents, and maybe even Crescent Moon, are going to be involved, how can we just go back to Korea.”

“It’s none of our business, though. Section Chief Song-nim will likely take care of it himself. That’s how it’s been up until now, too.”

Well… Sung Hyunjae was Section Chief Song-nim’s burden to bear(4), after all, but.

“As far as I’m concerned, since, ah, I guess he might be considered something like a friend. Because we’re acquaintances of a sort, I suppose, I should probably attend the wedding ceremony, at the very least. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event, after all.”

Though, with the person in question being Sung Hyunjae, it probably wouldn’t be surprising if he ended up getting hitched multiple times, I reckoned. Hearing my words, Yoohyunie let out a short sigh.

“And, even if I’m able to live to fifty or so, it’ll all be for nothing if the world ends up being destroyed, right? No matter how you look at it, it seems like it’s going to be an important event. In respect to keeping our world safe, I mean.”

“...yeah. Though, hyung–pre-regression, how strong was I, would you say?”

“...huh?”

At the unexpected question, I found myself at a loss for words. Even though he hadn’t been curious about it up till now. Was it because he’d caught a glimpse of those pre-regression memories, I wondered.

“You were, immensely strong. In truth–you were probably the strongest.”

Sung Hyunjae, who had previously been first place in the rankings, had sequestered himself away following Song Taewon’s death, and it seemed as though the trauma of that event had made a lasting impression on him as well. And so, it seemed highly likely that Yoohyunie, who had continued to advance even thereafter, would have been the strongest, after all.

“Hyung mentioned that you could use the pre-regression me’s strength too, right? Back then, in that mindscape dimension.”

“Erm, yeah. Though it doesn’t seem like I can use it in the same way, necessarily. I… hadn’t utilized everything, so…….”

Because I could only replicate the abilities that I had already used before, I hadn’t been able to copy over all of Yoohyunie’s abilities from back then. Since, thanks to the <2X> buff, there'd been no need to through the entire repertoire of his Skills at the time. Whether it was Titles or Skills, he had probably possessed a plethora more than he did now; but I hadn’t even been able to confirm them properly, in the moment.

“Am I capable of becoming stronger than him, do you think?”

“Well, of course. …he’s you, after all.”

And this time, he’d keep living–to twenty-six, to twenty-seven, and beyond. His time extending ever onwards, to become even stronger. Moving his head in a small nod, Yoohyunie gave a smile. My dongsaeng’s form soon grew further away.

“...personally encountering him must feel different than simply hearing about him, after all.”

I regressed back through time, and the twenty-five year old you rescued me; it was inevitable that only hearing about it secondhand would impact him differently, than actually getting to see him through a recorded medium. Irin, who had been perched on my shoulder, restlessly circled in place.

-...Hyung.

“Hm?”

-...no, it’s nothing.

Irin, who seemed as though he’d been about to say something, firmly shut his mouth. Why did he seem so morose, I wondered. He’d been acting oddly all day. I attempted to coax it out of him by asking if anything had happened; but Irin refused to speak, to the last.

- - - - -

(1) 원맥자, ‘seedlings,’ refers to certain born s-ranks bc they have the potential to become ‘transcendent’, e.g. Yoohyunie being a Fire that can become [the Source of All Fire] etc

(2) age footnote here (#5)

(3) 환갑/還甲

(4) phrased to imply shj’s stw’s problem bc they’re effectively married etc

[ ... ]

afterword - han yoohyun excerpts

so the Q&A section i did for this ch was so long that tumblr returned an error when i tried to post............. there's a decent sprinkle of endgame-ish spoilers scattered around, so it's probably for the best that i have to split it up into a different post, but anyway you can find them here

(this blog is up to 100 posts now! wild)

*edit: jk, turns out the Q&A alone are long enough that i have to split them into two parts.

Part 1

Part 2

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sijjak · 5 years ago

Text

HYUK DAZED FEBRUARY 2020 INTERVIEW

How was the shoot today?

It’s my first official schedule of 2020, so it was exciting. It sort of felt like waking up from hibernation.

What season do you like the best?

Winter. Since winter will be over soon, each day is precious. (laughs)

Which season do you think suits your voice the best?

I’m not sure, I don’t think it would be summer or winter. So then I guess it has to be either winter or spring?

Last December with the release of “Winter Butterfly,” you finished your <Four Seasons Project>. Was there a reason you released solo songs based on the seasons?

I wanted to communicate with my fans. There are many various ways to meet fans. I thought the way that I can express myself the most sincerely is through music. When I released a song every season, I was able to continuously communicate with the fans for a year.

All the songs are self-composed. When did you start writing songs?

My first self-composed song was “I’ll Hold You.” It was a song I only released online through SoundCloud and Youtube, but luckily a lot of fans liked it. When I listen to my songs, I get excited about composing.

When you’re composing, where do you get your inspiration?

Dramas and movies. After my acting debut, it can also come from the messages and the lingering motives from productions. After I watched the tvN drama <Mister Sunshine,> I wrote my song for summer last year, ‘Way to You.’ In the show, Yoojin, Dongmae, and Heesung all love Aeshin. It’s a love that can’t come true, but all three people want to go towards her. From this, there is the motive ‘the road to you will be my road, my end is you’ and this unfolded into the words to the song. Blindly longing for someone will eventually be a difficult thing.

It’s already been 9 years since your debut. If you look back at the 2010s, what do you think?

In 10 years, of course things change. (laughs) This year, only half of my 20s are left. If I look back, I think that it passed while working really hard.

What do the words “working hard” mean to you?

After I went through a short training period and debuted, I felt a compulsion and pressure that I had to practice more than the other members, so it was hard. I thought that I couldn’t be a nuisance to the members, so after our schedules were over, I headed to the practice room. Even after debut, for 5 years I went to the practice room everyday. Even when I was resting, it was comfortable to rest in the practice room. (laughs) But at some point, it surpassed “effort” and ate away at me. It seemed like it was making even the people around me exhausted and tired. But I would never think that time was bad. It’s just, I lived in that way, so for my remaining 20s, I resolved to live in a different way, more freely.

Looking at previous media and interviews you’ve done, you said you didn’t have certainty or confidence as an artist until 2017. You seem pretty much the same.

Yes, but now I’ve become more relaxed. The biggest difference is that whatever I do, I’ve gained confidence in the things I do myself. Even if I make mistakes, I acknowledge them, and because I can accept them, it puts me at ease. While I’m trying to make music or acting, I’m not really indecisive and I don’t hesitate a lot.

Is it thanks to that? A little while ago, you held your first solo concert. How did it feel to be on stage for over 2 hours by yourself?

Really, I’m comfortable when I’m on stage. Actually, it was hard when I was preparing and practicing for the concert. It can be too much and overwhelming (with emotion). A lot of feelings come and go, but when the show starts and I sing, those sorts of thoughts disappear. The time spent together with the audience, that is happy.

When you do full-scale solo promotions, is there something that’s musically different from previous promotions?

With the group VIXX, because we show a conceptual and active performance, I wanted to show an image opposite to that. Comfortable, calm, healing music. Now, I’m trying to catch both of the rabbits!* (laughs)

T/N: This is a kind of Korean phrase that refers to when someone is trying to do many things. So on top of doing the high concept and energy of VIXX, he is also doing calm and quiet music.

You mentioned it a little bit ago. You can’t leave out the stories in acting. When you are both an actor and a singer, there must be some positives and negatives.

When you’re acting, you need a wide range of experiences. While I was an idol, I was accustomed to restraining myself. It was difficult, but now I’m trying to shed that off. At the same time, I think I can express my emotions more freely than before. Before, singing on stage, even if I was so overwhelmed I could die, I hid it, but now I express that. Looking at it like that, I think the stages (I do) have become more rich and have more sincerity.

Acting and singing, using both of these talents, you have taken up the challenge this time of becoming a musical actor. Your first show <The Eyes of Dawn>, doesn’t have much time left before it opens.

From the Japanese occupation to the division of North Korea, this is a production with a distinct narration with the historical pain of a nation. It’s our history, and if we go a little forward, it’s my story. So I was able to immerse myself better. Actually, before I picked this show, I considered the influence of it and how it could make the fans who came to see me aware of some historical facts. Young fans, foreign fans, people of various ages and races, people that could learn the facts of our history. I thought if only I do well, it could be a good opportunity for everyone.

By the time this musical is finished, it’ll be spring. This coming spring, is there a place you would like to travel to?

Incheon, Ganghwa or a quiet domestic place like Gangnam, Namhae. Make a plan that’s enough for about a week, and I want to just stay in a quiet and cozy place. Just like a resident! (laughs).

It’s the start of 2020, so I’ll ask. As an artist, until where do you think Han Sanghyuk will go?

Of the emotions and messages that I want to express, one point where I can make some sort of outcome is now I really want to become an ‘artist.’ I’m not sure what sort of modifiers I should attach to the word ‘artist,’ but I guess that will depend on what I do, right? (laughs)

#vixx #hyuk #dazed feb 2020 #interview

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