#at least we’ll get more actor Jun

[onedumbho3]

IM GONNA DIE 😭😭

[whoseafraidofliloleme]

Invisible Chapter 8

Summary: YN YLN has always been third in Class 2-5, right behind Lee Su Ho and Kang Soo Jin but with both of them having left Saebom Highschool, this is her time to shine. That is until Han Seosangnim asks her to tutor Han Seo Jun. A guy who doesn’t even know she existed.

Ship: Han Seo Jun x Female Reader.

Word Count: 1564 words. Surprise surprise I can write a kinda short chapter when I want to apparently.

Likes, comments and reblogs are appreciated with any reactions or whatever you want to say. Again I really don't know where I am going with this.

Taglist: @thealexalcala

Anyone interested in being added to the taglist, just let me know by sending an ask or replying to this post 😊.

True Beauty Masterlist

Chapter 7.

Chapter 8:

Here you were standing with Seo Jun, in front of Han Ssaem. However, there were many differences between then and now. It’s been a few months since that confrontation with Hae Sung, though you did miss him very much. Your class, Si Woo and Cho Rong didn’t let you wallow in the sadness of being on hiatus with your best friend.

Now you could confidently call the people in your class your friends, Hyun Ji was still your best friend. But with Soo Ah and Ju Kyung, the four of you had grown quite close to each other. Before when Han Seo Jun scared the crap out of you.

Now, even his deadliest glares had others running away in fear. Made you laugh before you told him to carry on studying, you’d even been to his house, his mum and sister thinking the world of you. They were lovely, it was nice to have so many people there for you.

As the days had gone by and you’d gotten closer to your classmates and others. You realise just how isolating your friendship with Hae Sung had been. From others you were finding out that you weren’t the issue, people wanted to get to know you.

Hae Sung was the problem. While you were still sceptical about Hae Sung stopping others from being friends with you, it was still nice to know that people were interested in being your friend.

Suddenly you are pulled from your thoughts when Han Ssaem clears his throat and looks at you and Seo Jun, nervously without thinking you take Seo Jun’s hand in yours and squeeze it. Not paying attention to Seo Jun who looks at your hands clasped together and smiles at you. This would be the deciding time, would you still be Seo Jun’s tutor, had his grade improved or gotten worse. If you weren’t his tutor anymore, did you lose the friendships you’d made? Everything rested on finding out Seo Jun’s grades after the latest exams.

“Well done Seo Jun, you’ve improved, with the way your grade has gone up, with more help from YN, you might just make it into the top 20 of our class,” Han Ssaem said smiling. He knew picking you to tutor Han Seo Jun would work. Not just in helping Seo Jun but help you to connect with your class. Han Ssaem mentally patted his back; this had been one of his better ideas.

You and Seo Jun walked out of the Teachers Room. You were still processing what had happened. You were overjoyed, the minute you stepped out of the Teachers Room, you turned and hugged Seo Jun. At first, he stilled. Shocked that you were hugging him. Then slowly, put his arms around you and held onto you, pulling you closer to him if that was even possible. He whispered his thanks in your ear and you hugged him tighter in response.

“Ahem Ahem, mind telling the rest of us what happened,” Ju Kyung said cheekily. In the past few months, she had seen your relationship with Seo Jun flourish. Without a doubt, there were feelings there. From what Hyun Ji told her, you were most definitely in denial about your feelings for Seo Jun.

Han Seo Jun, on the other hand, refused to tell Ju Kyung or Cho Rong what his feelings for you were. Ju Kyung had a suspicion that Seo Jun had confided in Su Ho about his feelings for you. Sadly Su Ho refused to tell Ju Kyung about it. Something about promising Seo Jun that he wouldn't tell Ju Kyung and that Ju Kyung should just wait for Seo Jun to tell her himself.

However, with the way you two were hugging when they all came, Seo Jun may just be ready to admit his feelings for you. Which would be something to see, Ju Kyung was ready to help her best friend get a girlfriend. Especially someone like you, at times seeing Seo Jun and you together, Ju Kyung didn’t understand why you were denying your feelings, the chemistry was there to see. Go Won on more than one occasion had asked Ju Kyung if her brother and you were dating yet. Even Su Ho was waiting for Seo Jun and you to get together.

Hearing Ju Kyung’s voice, you pulled away from Seo Jun, smiling awkwardly at your friends. That hug had not been a smart idea. You were trying not to let this crush on Seo Jun became more than a small crush. Unfortunately, rather than the crush being crushed, it just grew with each studying session or time you spent with Seo Jun.

You vehemently denied your feelings to Hyun Ji and anyone else in your friend group or class. Yet in front of Mi Soo Unnie and Joon Oppa, all you did was gush about Seo Jun. To the point where Mi Soo Unnie and Joon Oppa were betting on when you’d finally confess and live happily ever after with Seo Jun. Wishful thinking on their part, there was no way Han Seo Jun liked you and for now, you were just happy being his tutor and friend.

“Han Ssaem was happy with Seo Jun’s result, he's improved and with more help thinks Seo Jun can get into the top 20 of our class rankings,” you tell them proudly. As scared as you had been with tutoring Seo Jun, it was an immensely proud feeling to know that all your and Seo Jun’s hard work for the last few months had shown. You were already planning to figure out what mistakes were made this time around. That you could help Seo Jun with that would lead to an even better result next time.

“Yah YLN YN, I don’t like that look on your face, we are taking a break from studying for the rest of the week and I don’t care what you say, I refuse to study,” Seo Jun said loudly, breaking you out of thinking about your plan.

“But you barely do your homework without me forcing you to do it and now without studying, I know you won’t do your homework and then we’ll be back to square one. Just think, these past few months, you haven’t been punished once for not doing homework, why to go back to that Seo Jun,” you say sadly, looking at Seo Jun, who seems to be avoiding making eye contact with you. Looking anywhere but at your face.

Seo Jun sighed annoyed, he knew you were looking at him, the minute he looked at you. He would give in. Then again, studying was just another excuse to spend time with you. Seo Jun knew that while you were serious about studying, he could get at least an hour or two of messing around with you.

Talking about anything and everything he could think of before you forced him to do his work. Seo Jun made eye contact with you, giving you a small smile. Nodding his head. Laughing when you nodded your head and excitedly started talking about the study plans you had been making in your head.

“As fascinating as your study plans are YN, let’s celebrate this by going out to get Ice Cream,” Hyun Ji said. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement though you were shaking your head, trying to get out of it. Seo Jun looked at you and said please. That was all it took for you to crumble and agree.

Hae Sung watched you from where he was standing in the corridor. The past few months without you had been horrible. He missed you terribly. Seeing your friendship with those in your class, annoyed him to no end. They didn’t deserve to be surrounded by your light, you were better off without them, they did nothing but bring you down. Eventually, you would figure that out and come back to him, but he wasn’t patient enough for that. He couldn’t figure out, what to do to get back into your life again.

Although last month you had talked to him and he had apologised for what he did and said. Sure, he didn’t mean it, he was a good enough actor to get you to believe him. So thank God that you were willing to forgive him. Even then, you still didn’t want to get back to normal with him and he didn’t know how to make that happen. This wasn’t like with Gong Jae Yi where he could make him go abroad. Hae Sung very well couldn’t get rid of your whole class, and Song Si Woo and Kim Cho Rong as well, but he had to do something.

At this rate, you and Han Seo Jun would get together and Lee Hae Sung would rather go blind than see you with that imbecile being all romantic together. You and Gong Jae Yi together had been enough to scar him for lifetimes to come. No, that was his worst nightmare. He needed to do something, to get you talking to him again. Once you were talking again, all he had to do was separate you from your class. Like he used to do and sooner or later they would all get tired of Hae Sung answering for you and that would be the end of those fledgeling friendships.

Chapter 9.

[thegreymoon]

Monarch Industry

He’s insane but he’s actually right to be yelling about this.

I never understood these people in dramas who are literally plotting treason and keeping the incriminating evidence. Why don’t you just burn the damn letters after you read them? They always get uncovered and then RIP!

With all that said, I adore this actor! He’s so good! 

***

Looking forward to more of Da Wang, my beloved, in this episode 🖤

***

God, he’s so happy to see his father well.

Such a fool 😕

***

I’m too scared to watch what happens now 😬😬

***

What did they kill the servants for? 

I hate how they just exterminate everyone in their vicious little power struggles. 

***

The best thing about this episode is that I finally managed to get a good look at this beaded crown and count how many threads and how many beads it has. I’m inspired to draw Taxian-jun wearing nothing but that to celebrate! 

You know, for science. 

***

Bye-bye, Wang Xu!

I’m mad we never got a proper shot of his death and severed head, but I suppose it would have sent the censorship board into fits, so we’ll just have to make do with out imagination. 

***

Oh, Pang Gui, no 💔

***

This Lan Xichen wannabe 🙄

Lan Xichen would never have showed up to a siege without a sword. 

***

Well, they fucked around and found out 😂😂

Call not in vain the name of Yuzhang Lord 😂😂

There is nothing more cathartic than seeing villains get their comeuppance. 

***

Well, at least he got a good laugh out of this!

For some reason, I’m not too worried about Wang Lin, though. He will slither his way out of this. 

***

Fucking lunatic.

I hope Xiao Qi skins you all. 

***

Your brother is a moron.

Pity that you are completely insane, otherwise, with that one brain cell your brothers obviously lack, you could have gone far. 

***

“I love my brother and he has done nothing to me, but unfortunately I’m going to kill him anyway.”

Just watch him put him with Awu so that he can get on all our nerves some more with him moping and blathering about love while Xiao Qi remains off screen some more 😤😤

***

Smh.

Why must I be right. And then he’s bewildered why she chose Xiao Qi over him.

***

Beloved 🖤

He’s surrounded by traitors, fools and hotheads and he really needs his wife back.

***

Fucking evil.

***

When they’re both awful and you have no side to take, so you just watch the family drama unfold 🙄

***

I really like her, but there is zero chance she is getting a good ending after all this. 

She’s not evil, just powerless, in love and with no brain in sight. 

***

LMAOOOO, careful what you wish for! 

When he comes down, he will end all your careers for good! 

***

Poor Awu, everything is a mess and in addition to all her problems, she now has to babysit the idiot muppet. 

***

LOL, you tried to kill her, you disaster, and even worse, her husband too.

But watch him give her the seal now. The dead eunuch had it, he guaranteed has it now and just didn’t want to hand it over to Ziliu. 

***

The way he’s playing him 😅😅

Xiao Qi knows he’s a traitor, he doesn’t need anyone to confirm it for him!

[uwua3]

if it's ok 😳👉👈 i really love your writing and i've had this idea in my head for awhile but i can't get myself to write it on my own 🤔 i wanted to see how your spin would be on it- so can i request a prompt where reader gets jealous of tenma's co-actress in a romance and tries to mimic what she does to him in a show they're in?? ty!!! 💕💕💕 i look forward to your interpretation

thank you so much for requesting~ ♡ i love you sososo much; i hope this lives up to everything you’ve dreamed of! ♡ ～('▽^人) i LOVE YOU!!! <333

summary: when tenma lands a role in your favorite drama, he had one goal: to become your favorite actor

warnings: envy/jealousy, food mentions, rivalry (all covered briefly!)

author’s note: after learning everything there is to know about the k-drama, true beauty, on tik tok, i’ve decided to write this! for context, the only thing i recommend watching before reading this is watching the “roar” scene!

this is also the first time i’ve introduced made-up characters with names! please enjoy jun, the first character who isn’t canon to the a3!verse :D

word count: 3,768

music: like a movie – b1a4

pretty u!

🌻☀️ sumeragi tenma

what the heck was love, and why did he have to be in it?

sumeragi tenma, future “world’s best actor”, was suddenly... seeing why he hadn’t won that award yet. with a script in his hand and confusion in another, tenma read the title of the next drama he landed the role for

“PRETTY U...” it was japan’s next major love story, advertised on every social media platform possible with the all-star cast in the spotlight already. although it had already been out for a season, tenma was entering as the up-and-coming newest character of the series

tenma was boyish, young, and much too confident for his age—perfect for the role of a second-lead bad boy who was going to steal the heart and test the protagonist’s commitment

except... he didn’t actually want to take up a new project so soon. he only did because—

“what?! you’re going to be chan on PRETTY U?!” he proudly nodded and watched as you began ranting about how much you loved this show. there was only one reason he came to the audition: tenma wanted to star in your favorite television series

you always went on and on about how great everything about PRETTY U was. after hearing so much and pretending not to listen (even if he could practically explain the entire plotline now without watching it), tenma let himself become a fan, too

after all, how could he not be a fan when you loved PRETTY U so much?

tenma didn’t respond to his manager’s pleas until one day, you revealed another reason why PRETTY U was your favorite production: the main lead

“he’s so handsome~ i love him so much!” “do you know him? could you get me his number?” “look at him... he’s the most perfect actor in the business right now—ah, sorry ten!”

tenma scoffed every time, claiming he could most certainly do better than that hotshot. although the boys typically didn’t do the same type of television, he had become tenma’s #1 rival without even knowing it

besides... what did that guy have that tenma didn’t? he was just nice! sure, he held open the door for the lead, bent down to tie her shoes, bended over backwards just to be the perfect boy-next-door. yeah... even he couldn’t pretend anymore

tenma pouted at the thought, skimming over his next pilot episode for rehearsal tomorrow. he was too good to be real, after all, he was meant to end up with the lead girl anyways (spoiler alert!)

but, it didn’t matter how perfect that actor was! because tenma had gotten the role of “chan”, the leather-jacket wearing mystery with an actual heart of gold, and he was going to make the entire audience swoon

(though, tenma just wanted to make your heart skip a beat when he ended up on the big screen)

tenma would never admit how fast he checked his phone when he felt it buzz in his pocket. sure, it was unprofessional during rehearsal but he knew it was you. however, his smile dropped the moment he read what you sent

you: remember to tell him how much i love him!

tenma: hah... no good luck for your new bad boy?

you: you know i’ll always root for you, ten!

tenma: but, i’m better than that actor, right?

tenma watched his message get delivered and was about to keep bothering you until someone called his name like they were friends. speak of the devil...

that actor’s straight, white toothy smile made tenma stand a little straighter (damn it, tenma was shorter), eyes wide as the actor gracefully introduced himself as his co-star for the next month or so (how did his voice sound even better in person?!)

“good morning, tenma! my name is jun, i’m so honored to meet a fellow actor on set! let’s work together well!” were they... really the same age? tenma barely registered the fact he was suddenly shaking jun’s (right, that’s his name) hand. why did he have such a manly grip?

tenma quickly (to his dismay) found out that him & jun had entered the industry around the same time but often had different projects, so they were never featured in the same production before. apparently, that was creating quite a buzz in the media that two childhood stars were competing against one another

a competition that tenma couldn’t lose. he was going to be your favorite actor, not his rival!

jun, like the perfect gentleman everyone described him to be, showed tenma around the PRETTY U set. jun had nothing but good things to say about the crew and vise versa. that only reinforced how tenma was oddly much more quiet than he usually was. luckily, one of the talents of being an actor was improvising, so jun was doing just fine

when they had reached the dressing rooms, jun shot a bright smile at tenma and gestured to the rather large room

“we’ll be sharing a dressing room together, tenma! we’ll be spending a lot of time together!”

tenma suddenly regretted his decision to become chan of PRETTY U. you couldn’t have had a different favorite show?! anything but... this

there were now three main characters for PRETTY U: hoshi, yuri, and chan, creating a love triangle for millions of viewers to watch every week

nakamura jun, leading role, played “hoshi”, the boy-next-door. this is the popular boy at school with the best grades and an even greater reputation amongst everyone. next, uedo ren, one of japan’s rising female actresses of this generation. she is adored as “yuri”, the perfect girl. she is the typical nerd who suddenly transformed into the prettiest girl at school from learning make-up

last (but definitely not least!) is sumeragi tenma, playing “chan”, the bad boy. it was nothing like tenma’s done before, since the character was much less expressive than he was used to. chan is a traditional rebel who is revealed to have a soft side for yuri. but, chan (ironically enough) has a secret history with hoshi, causing tension in this already confusing love triangle

(embarrassingly enough, jun had to explain to tenma the complications and ties between each character. tenma, unfortunately, found it to be extremely helpful)

even with this newfound knowledge of the characters in season 2, tenma couldn’t help but absolutely ruin the first day of rehearsals. even with a decade or so of acting as his experience, one thing kept him from being chan: his lack of chemistry with “yuri”

“cut!” the director called out again for the nth time, sighing as their eyes landed on tenma, who was not enjoying being the center of attention this time, surprisingly

“take 5, kid. once you come back, i expect you to actually go through this scene without messing up your lines.” tenma nodded and exited quickly, feeling flustered from the looks of sympathy directed his way. usually, it was one-and-done. it didn’t take a hundred tries just to do another romantic and cliché scene

tenma exhaled loudly once he felt the fresh air upon his face. without the fear of cameras in his face anymore, tenma ran his hand through his hair with a frustrated kick at the concrete. come on! he was renown child actor sumeragi tenma, why was he so in his head now?

tenma was about to yell into the sky before he heard someone close the door, standing beside him with their usual silence. tenma didn’t even have to look to know it was jun (probably with the most pitiful look ever)

“tenma? are you okay?” jun waited as tenma tried to not say anything he’d regret, shifting his weight on his foot back and forth before relenting, shrugging as if it couldn’t be helped

“i don’t know... i just, i can’t see yuri that way. how am i supposed to flirt with someone i don’t even like?”

jun pondered the thought for a moment, before tilting his head, a boyish smile overtaking his features. tenma unwillingly relaxed; jun finally looked his age

“who do you like then?”

tenma froze, a blush even foundation couldn’t hide blossoming on his cheeks. jun let out a teasing “oooh!” as he nudged tenma with his shoulder, who pushed back with an eye-roll

“i-it’s not like that! don’t be so—ugh!” tenma cut himself off, rubbing the back of his neck and avoiding jun’s knowing eyes. damn it, they barely knew each other. why was he getting so comfortable with his enemy?!

“well, whoever you thought of, imagine yuri as them.”

“is that what you do?”

jun shrugged, not giving a clear answer for once. before tenma could ask for more information, their break was over

when tenma returned to the scene, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. when he opened them again, he watched as yuri transformed into the one person he’s been trying to impress this entire time: you

when “you” smiled, tenma couldn’t help but follow along. his first-take after break made the cut for the final product

“you must really like them, tenma~” — “stop!!!”

filiming afterwards became easy, especially when he imagined all his romantic words were directed towards you. he could feel the clamminess of his hands, the rapid beat of his heart, the intense blush across his face, all at the thought of you

(the only time he had to start over was when he accidentally said your name instead of yuri’s)

tenma was sure he’d become your favorite actor now! after all, you were his favorite person

“will you watch the first episode of PRETTY U’s season 2 with me?”

you had never said yes so fast in your entire life. when tenma learned there’d be a cast-viewing of episode 1 after finishing the season, he knew his +1 invite could only go to the biggest fan of the show

throughout filming, you were always the person who got him in trouble when the text tone wasn’t put on silent. you liked spamming tenma with a bunch of supportive and encouraging messages when you were available, meaning tenma always had something to look forward to after each scene

in return, tenma would send a selfie of him with his castmates or the set (or, what he was allowed to show under his contract). yet, despite your constant pleas, there was one co-star he’d never take a photograph with: jun

(“tenma! we’ve worked together for months~ shouldn’t i be called your friend now?” “no—” “huh?! don’t pretend you don’t like me!” “who said i was pretending?” “tenma!”)

at first, tenma was apprehensive about inviting you to an event where jun’s picture-perfect face would be on display everywhere. but, whenever he saw you, the weight of the tickets suddenly felt much heavier in his pocket. he couldn’t deprieve you of such an exclusive event just because of his jealousy (even if he was this close to doing so)

when tenma impulsively asked three days before, it felt worth it when you threw your arms around him (he hugged you back and pretended this meant something to you)

“i love you, ten!”

tenma felt like he was on set again, with yuri’s arms tightly holding onto his heart

“i love you, too.”

even after saying it so many times, tenma meant it even if he didn’t say it to your face every time

you looked like the star of the show

tenma fixed his tie as his blazer suddenly felt too tight. you appeared in your most formal attire, looking like a million bucks as you two sat across each other in the limo

“ten, look at all of this!” you pointed out every little thing of preparing for a professional event. the little glasses of champagne neither of you two could drink sat to the side as the leather seats molded to fit your posture. as the night lights of tokyo blurred by, tenma couldn’t help but think you sparkled more than this diamond of a city

“i can’t wait to go see the first episode! thank you for inviting me.” you bowed your head, as if suddenly overcome with gratefulness. tenma lightly kicked your shoe with his, fondly rolling his eyes as he tried not to smile (mission failed)

“don’t worry about it, who else would i bring? you’re my favorite pe—friend. friend, yeah...” tenma trailed off, suddenly finding something very interesting outside of the window. you only nodded, seemingly more interested in the fact there was enough room to walk around

when tenma caught sight of the infamous red carpet laid out in front of the theatre, he cleared his throat and put on his best face for the cameras. after stepping out of the car with his bodyguards nearby, tenma turned and gave you a genuine smile. not his typical arrogant smirk the news source ate up, but a type of smile only reserved for you

when he held out his hand, the flashing lights behind him seemed like a real celebrity, something you had never considered him to be before. it was like seeing tenma in a new light (both literally and figuratively)

“shall we?” you took his hand and wondered if you could ever have your own j-drama. perhaps, tenma could even be the main lead...

before you could step off to the side, tenma already had his arm wrapped around your waist with his unchanging expression (however, underneath it all, he was internally freaking out. what was he going to do now?!)

“you’re my date, right? walk the red carpet with me.” tenma winked (you swore it sparkled) as he gestured towards the carpet ahead. suddenly, the line seemed much longer

“t-ten... you’ve never brought a date before...” you mumbled, acutely aware of how soon it was to walk down together. tenma’s arm stiffened, but nothing else exposed the revelation as he looked down at you

“you’re my first, then.” and my last, tenma thought to himself. before you could change your mind, it was showtime. tenma put on his movie star face and introduced you to familiar interviewers, smiling away as if you two weren’t panicking on the inside

while you were focusing on the fact you were going to be going viral as tenma’s first “date” to the event, tenma was trying not to blush from how close you were. you felt... right besides him

tenma was a natural in front of an audience waiting for him to make a mistake. he flawlessly answered every question with swaggering confidence, his stride easy and poses photogenic

you did your best to follow his lead but it all ended when tenma took you into the theatre, staring down at you with a bright smile

“we did it! see, told you we’d be just fine.” tenma let out an exhale of relief, glowing with joy from the adrenaline of everything that came with being a superstar. as you looked up into his excited eyes, you saw him lean down before—

“your arm is still around me.”

silence, then a hurried separation as tenma put too many feet between you two. it was suddenly as if you two were strangers. you regretted the words the moment they left your mouth; you didn’t mind at all... why did you say something?!

“um... so, food?” tenma spoke up after an eternity of making excuses. you two quickly moved to the line of movie snacks, using candy and popcorn to substitue the suddenly awkward silence

when tenma ordered all your favorites without even asking, he turned around with the selection only to close his eyes and internalize every single thing he was feeling because there he was, his worst enemy

jun entered from a side door, most likely finishing up helping the crew with set-up (and 30 minutes early as usual) before catching tenma’s iconic bright orange hair, a grin lighting up his face

“tenma! it’s me, jun!” he said, as if they weren’t the two main leads of japan’s most famous drama so far. immediately, your smile matched jun’s as you watched as your favorite actor of all time make his way towards you two

“jun... of course you’d be here.” tenma said through gritted teeth, forcing a pleasant smile even with an armful of junk

“ah, still keeping the bad boy attitude? we’re off set now, you can stop method acting now.” jun joked, bringing his attention to you with a dazzling smile that would absolutely make any fansite’s career

“oh? who is this, a friend of yours?” tenma tried not to sigh so loud when you couldn’t help yourself and burst into a long rant about how amazing jun was. tenma waited until you reached your midpoint and stopped you with a quick nudge, trying not to scream (could jun stop being so... perfect? could you stop being so cute?!)

when tenma introduced you, he stood a little closer as he tried to maintain his jealousy. “they’re my date, by the way.” no one had asked, but tenma was clearly telling anyone who was around you two had gone together

jun’s eyes lit up in recognition as he let out a noise of surprise. “ah~ so this is who you—”

tenma didn’t regret losing his giant popcorn so fast to a co-star who could only be silenced with food. his wallet could afford another one, anyways. his pride on the other hand? could not let you know his acting secret already

“what was jun going to say?” you asked after you two departed for the viewing room. tenma nonchalantly pretended like everything was okay as he guided you to front row

“probably something about the fact you’re the one who always interrupts our scenes.”

“hey! my texts make your day, don’t lie!”

“go sit down and eat already, jeez.”

when it began, your eyes couldn’t leave the screen. it was better than you could have imagined. everything was perfect, it exceeded the standards of even the toughest fans out there. you loved every second of it... except...

tenma was too good at being chan. even with his bright hair, the dark clothes he wore made him appear intimidating, with his sharp eyes and even sharper smirk. chan’s appearance was tough, rough, and mean, everything tenma wasn’t

yet, you still couldn’t help but feel your heart sink when chan was clearly in love with yuri. yuri was one of your favorite characters by far, but she ended up bothering you for the entireity of the episode

especially every time she shared a scene (which were many times) with chan. chan was revealed to be a bad boy with a heart of gold, all with a special soft side for yuri

what was this feeling? were you... no, you couldn’t be! after all, you had never seen tenma that way before, right? yet, every time chan made an exception for yuri, you felt sick to your stomach

was it possible that tenma liked the actress who played yuri? you snuck a glance at tenma, only to see he was looking at you already (he’d never admit it, but he was watching your reactions to see if he made you proud. yet, every time you saw him, you subconsciously frowned)

were you not proud of him? did you not like his performance as chan?

before tenma could ask you, the scene changed into one of chan’s. he was standing outside in the school uniform, his head ducked as he swiped through yuri’s social media. before he could look up, yuri jumped in front of him with a teasing smile

“roar!” she called out, referring to their inside joke earlier in the episode. yuri cutely bounced back with another roar, holding her hands up like paws. chan watched, his typical rock-hard expression breaking to reveal his developing feelings for yuri

later on, chan stopped yuri in the hallway, other students watching as the school’s bad boy and goddess interact

“do that again.” chan demanded to which yuri innocently tilted her head, confused like a little puppy. “do what?” “that... that thing.” when chan roared, tenma sunk into his seat with an embarrassed defense and explanation ready. but, when he looked, you finally cracked a laugh at his little roar

your smile only fell when yuri roared again as a joke, but chan smiled for once. tenma wondered why... he thought you would be so happy to be here with him. maybe, he’d never be better than jun...

when the episode ended, it took a moment before you stood up and clapped. tenma followed along, but all he could think about was how he let you down. not only as chan, but as your boy, too

when you two left the room, you two hung back to watch as everyone congratulated one another on the success of the production. in the midst of the cheer and celebration, tenma felt small as he watched your blank expression

what did he do wrong? he put his best efforts into every scene; he might even say it was his best work yet. before he could apologize, you did the unthinkable: you roared

you jumped up into his face, holding your hands up like yuri did. when yuri did it, tenma didn’t feel a thing. but, when you did, tenma felt it. the butterflies fluttered in his stomach as he stared at you, frozen in place

“this is the part where you ask me to do it again.” you shyly trailed off, about to put your hands down before tenma weakly put his hands up, knowing he was about to regret his next move (if the embarrassment didn’t kill him, he didn’t know what would)

“roar!”

that was too loud, wasn’t it? the room suddenly went a lot more quiet as they turned their attention towards a teen actor roaring at his date

“yah! why didn’t you ask me the next line?”

“b-because... i know i like you even without you doing, that, again.”

you paused, taken back by his honesty. as tenma contemplated just falling onto the floor right then and there, you suddenly hardened your expression, standing up straighter with your arms crossed

“do that again.”

“do what?”

“that thing.”

when tenma roared again, much quieter this time, you nodded as you finally smiled genuinely for the first time ever since that episode started

“good, i know how chan feels now. i like you, too.”

“does that mean i’m your favorite actor now?”

(when jun released a video of tenma roaring online, he captioned it with “ROAR = ILY!!!” tenma realized maybe he wasn’t all that bad, but still)

[purpleyellow]

Bruce Wayne

Seventeen 14th member

Hayun’s masterlist

“The boys try to prank Hayun but end up finding out something new about her”

Trigger Warning: mentions of dead relatives (i’ll move on from this topic I promise) and description of a fake threat/robery/idk

a/n: Once again, thank you for requesting this and I’m sorry it took me so long. Feel free to let me know your thoughts as well as send me some requests💙. Ask box is also open to random chats.

“They were nice for letting us walk around” Hayun sighed happily as she walked along the commercial street with the rest of the 96 liners. 

The group was recording small takes for an upcoming tv appearance and since they were the first to get done some of the managers allowed them to wander around the block. What the girl didn’t know is that they were just setting her up for a hidden camera.

She was walking quite fast, which came in handy for Woozi, who stopped and pretended to read the menu of a random restaurant, quickly turning around and going back to the building when he realized she wouldn’t look back.

Wonwoo and Hoshi were actually quick to think about an escape when Hayun stopped to check out the showcase of a store. Jun, also really curious by the cheap magic tricks on display, didn’t notice the two boys increasing their pace enough so they could make a turn before she noticed, quickly running around the block to the place they left off.     

The Chinese boy was a little relieved she hadn’t noticed the others being gone, and sneakily escaped her eyesight as Hayun moved to another store after telling him to wait for her. Too bad he didn’t.

Smiling excitedly, Jun sat next to the boys right as Hayun walked out onto the street, looking around and searching for the boys who had joined the rest of Seventeen and sat in front of monitors to watch her get pranked.

Stepping out along the sidewalk, she noticed a barricade had been put down just at the end of the street, making it impossible for her to return to the build from that way. So, going down the street, she patted her pockets in a failed attempt to get her phone.

Laughing alone, Wonwoo took out the device from his pocket and showed it to the rest of the boys with an amused smile “She left it with me”

“I told her to stop leaving her stuff around. She won’t forget it after this” Jaeonghan smirked as the girl walked further, only to find another barricade that left her confused.

“She’s going to ask someone what’s going on, isn’t she?” Mingyu said right before laughing when Hayun stopped an old lady who had just crossed paths with her. The paid actress just dismissed her saying she had no idea and kept walking.

“I think she’s going to catch on at some point” Woozi pointed out, but before the others could agree, a motorcycle came through the barricade very dramatically, sending the boys laughing as they watched Hayun frown and follow the cyclist with her head.

When the bike had made halfway into the street, the man screamed with a demanding voice telling everyone around to get down, to which the actors around followed, letting out a few screams. Hayun, who had enough space between her and the commotion, quickly hid behind a trash can, occasionally peeking out to see what was going on. 

“I don’t know if it’s because we’re outside of the situation, but this looks quite suspicious” Scoups laughed as she looked around, but his comment was cut short when she leaned her back on the trash can and took three deep breaths.

“So she would freak out in a situation like this” Vernon’s tone gave away his pondering and Seungkwan hissed “Aish, I thought she would be more level headed” 

“I don’t know, she seems like she’s handling it fine,” Hoshi commented as they watched the monitors, the one that displayed Hayun looking more like a stilled frame than a live recording.

“Do you think she’s going to make a run for it?” Seungkwan asked after thirty seconds of nothing “Like, is she gathering the courage or something?”

“She would have done that already. Noona doesn’t really think twice before acting” Dino pouted at the scene unraveling  “Maybe she is doing the reasonable thing after all”

Looking at the monitors, some of the members didn’t fail to notice the girl occasionally stealing glances at something on her left, and while most of them brushed it off, Seungcheol frowned turning to one of the staff “Can we have a wider angle to see what she’s staring at?”

Changing up the monitor to show her from another angle, the leader noticed she was looking towards a couple straight across from her, both of them kneeling on the ground as they attentively watched the cyclist giving away threats and orders.

“Oh crap” Wonwoo muttered, also realizing the situation, and Scoups got up to speak to the producers, some of the camera directors, and even members asking him where he was going.

“Is she crying?” Minghao asked shocked, turning everyone’s attention back to the screen where Hayun had buried her face on her knees.

“Maybe she’s just resting,” Dokyeom said light-heartedly, making a few of them chuckle despite being a little concerned.

“We already got enough material, just end the prank” Seungcheol tried to reason with the producers and managers as they tried to have him back on his seat.

“Why are you going back now?” The woman frowned looking from him to her equipment.

“You didn’t give us enough details, and this might have gone too far” The boy sighed making her roll her eyes.

“What are you talking about? This is some third-class acting and she has barely reacted at all, let’s just push it a little more to get some content”

“I’m sorry you didn’t get entertained by us, but please end the prank” Scoups added a more demanding tone making the manager step in their conversation “What even is this about?”

“Hayun never told us how her parents passed away. And judging of how she’s reacting, I think this situation might have something to do with it” 

“How can you know? I mean, she’s barely shown any emotions”

“Okay, she’s definitely crying. Scoups? Wait, where is he?” Hoshi’s voice broke through their conversation making the leader gaze at the others with a raised eyebrow “Good enough for you?”

“Let’s end this now” The producer turned around, indicating the staff what to do. Quickly turning back to them, she added “I don’t think we have enough material to air this at all”

“Sorry again, but we’ll figure it out after” Seungchol bowed before running out of the building and down the street.

Pinpointing the trashcan she was hidden behind, Scoups and the rest of the members - some still clueless about what was going on- ran towards it and past the actors going back to the building. Circling it, Scoups crouched down beside the curled up girl and gave her a hug while muttering an apology.

“I’m really sorry, I should have gotten more details before making you do this”

“Don’t.. just, never let me near a situation like this again” She sniffled and landed a slap on his arm.

“You should have told us” Joshua mumbled sadly and she gave him a tight-lipped smile, breaking the hug with the older to dry her tears.

“That’s not something you just bring it up” Sighing she rested her back on the can and shrugged “At least now you know why I never watch Batman”

“What?” Vernon asked a little too loud making Dino elbow his sides. 

“I’m Bruce Wayne” Hayun chuckled at his confused face that turned into one of realization in a few seconds.

“Marvel is better anyway, you’re not missing anything” Woozi joked along and she sent him a wink.

“I’ve asked this before but I’ll ask again. How does your mood change so quickly?” Minghao frowned, entertained by her going from traumatized crying to joking around in a split second.

“I remembered that I’m not alone. You guys are my happy place.”

“Oh my-” “Ew” “Ugh” “Disgusting”

[razberryyum]

Scumbag System (SVSSS donghua) Episode 10 Thoughts (spoilers)

(covers SVSSS chaps 24 - 26, BC Novels Translations)

And thus the first season of the SVSSS donghua comes to an end...rather weirdly abruptly to be honest, but more on that later. Obviously I love the donghua. It was not perfect, but it still exceeded my expectations. I truly appreciate what they were able to do within their budget constraints and I think they captured the spirit of the source material perfectly, which is really all I hope for when it comes to adaptations.  The writing was strong, the humor hit the spot always (for example, when poor Shizun got motion sickness from sword riding, I guffawed), and they also gave us some of the most beautiful characters I’ve ever seen on screen, especially with Shen Qingqiu, Luo Binghe and Liu Qingge. I really, really hope they release official figurines for them. I’m going to start saving my money now just for that possibility.

Even though their time together in this episode was short, the BingQiu love was definitely strong. They gave them a combo move that was not in the source material: for someone like me who grew up watching Cantonese dramas, two characters who have a combo sword move (”雙劍合璧”!) are usually a couple so I was especially tickled by this addition. I am always thankful to the donghua team for the little Easter Eggs they give us for BingQiu, like the way Binghe's eyes lit up when he sees SQQ... 

or when SQQ touches him...

Once again, for those not in the know, it can easily be interpreted as a disciple just being devoted and filial to his Shizun. But for those of us who have read the novel, of course we know it’s indication of Bingmei falling in love with SQQ. I love how subtle yet significant these little expressions of Binghe’s are, and I hope they continue on with these little touches even in the next season. 

Of course then there are the more obvious gestures, like that HUG:

It lasted for a good 15 seconds and oh my God look at the Binghe’s hand placement!  There was totally nipple groppage happening there! This wasn’t in the book by the way...SQQ didn’t get woozy and Binghe most definitely didn’t have to catch him like some fainting damsel, so we have the donghua team to thank for this wonderful moment of (sexy) physical contact between the two of them. 

The donghua team was also especially generous in this episode since not only did we get some BingQiu love, but we got a pinch of LiuShen and QiJiu love too.

LQG’s eyes were on SQQ the entire time! And then Yue Qingyuan as usual took any opportunity he got to touch his Qingqiu.  So all shippers were fed. Hell, they even threw in some more straight-baiting again so peeps who are watching the show for the “straight” romance between Luo Binghe and his never-to-be-future-wife Qin Wanyue were fed too since the scene where Binghe gives her the handkerchief to wipe away her tears were not in the chapters of the book for this episode, and racking my brain I don’t even think it was in the book, period. I’m trying to remember if that handkerchief even holds any significance but even if it does, it’s all for naught since we know Qin Wanyue is at most just a minor side character. She does pop up again later on but then is mostly forgotten, so...not quite sure what that moment was all about other than to, I don’t know, throw off the censors?

I’m also not sure why we spent so much time with Liu Mingyan and Gongyi Xiao in this episode. Nothing against them personally, I like both characters very much (despite my previous complaints about GYX’s character design), and it’s not that they don’t deserve more screen time, but this was the season finale! Even though the next season has been announced, God knows when we’ll see it next year and how many episodes it would be, so every minute of screen time matters! That’s why I was a bit puzzled that they used up half of the episode showing LMY basically facing the same perils with her group of fellow disciples as before and GYX just running from that huge serpent. Even if that thing DOES turn out to be Zhuzhi-lang, it was still a bit much. They weren’t exactly character building scenes either so...why? Budget reasons? Didn’t have enough money to pay SQQ’s voice actor (Wu Lei-laoshi) so they had to stick in miscellaneous scenes to lessen his screen time? 

I’m kidding of course. God I hope that wasn’t the reason because that would just be sad.

Speaking of miscellaneous scenes though, what was going on with these two dudes?

I gotta admit, I’m a bit salty that these two mob characters got to do what our main couple can’t. What’s their story? Why do they get special privileges? Damn these nobodies. XD

All kidding aside, I have to say, of all the episodes this season, this might be the weakest one, not only because of the “filler” scenes, but also, the way the episode ended was so odd, especially for a season finale. The season basically ended on a scene transition. Not a cliffhanger, just a scene transition, and then cut to credits. What?? Why??? It’s almost as if they just ran out of time so had to stop the show all of a sudden. And then as if to make up for it, they added post-credit scenes which, honestly blew me away because it was so unexpected. It was indeed almost enough to make me completely forgive the weakness of the episode as a whole and that weird-ass ending.

I teared up!  The scene was kind of chopped up, didn’t even flow that smoothly, but I still got emotional! I’m sure when I see this scene in its entirety next season I am just going to be destroyed. I think they made it even more gut-wrenching than it was in the novel. Looks like the donghua team really aren’t gonna hold back when it comes to delivering the BingQiu knives. 

We also got to see Mobei-jun appear in the post-credits scene; I guess they had to stick him in there since he was featured in the poster for this season, so it would have been weird if he didn’t at least make an appearance.

I immediately thought of him as Sephiroth’s younger cousin when I first saw him on the poster and I still feel that way. Anyone related to Sephiroth, I will approve and instantly have affection for. For the MoShang shippers’ sake, I hope the Shang Qinghua they create for him will be just as pretty. I think I can now safely discard my guess from last time and also that moon-faced bearded ojisan others have guessed. We actually got a glimpse of the real deal in this sequence:

They strategically made him blurry so you can’t really make out his features, but what we still can tell from there is that he does not have facial hair (hence, he cannot be the ojisan) and the hair crown he’s wearing is silver and different from the twinky sect leader. So I guess we’ll be getting a fresh out of the microwave Airplane Bro instead of any of the no-name potential cannon fodder we’ve already seen. 

We’ll probably get the abyss opening up in maybe even the first episode of next season but that’ll still leave a lot of ground to be covered in just 10 episodes (rumored). There haven’t been any talk about a third season, but I really hope it’ll happen, even though it might take them a while to make it. I know it’s premature to even think of a third season when we haven’t even gotten an actual release date for the second, but I’m greedy because I already miss the donghua. This season was over so quickly, I’m already mourning the lack of new episodes. I hope we get the second season in the first quarter of next year and then by some miracle, a third or even fourth to properly finish out the story. I know we will never get the FULL story, but as long as they keep the spirit of BingQiu’s love and continue to hint at it like they’ve been doing this season, I will be more than satisfied. 

And while I’m wishful thinking for new seasons, I hope we also get a BingQiu duet and character songs. I love the opening and ending theme this season, if they want to save money I totally don’t mind if they just use the same OP/ED themes in the next season as well, but I hope they throw in a good BingQiu insert song and then release some individual character songs as well. I’m still not a fan of Binghe’s voice, but maybe they can have someone else do his vocals for the songs. SVSSS is the older son of MXTX’s works, I feel like it already got short-shrifted in terms of adaptation since it got the lesser budget compared to MDZS and TGCF. Hopefully with how popular the donghua is this season, it will be given a bigger budget next season so they can bring to life all the subsequent proceedings from the book properly. And whatever they’re paying Wu Lei-laoshi, SQQ’s voice actor, they should double it because that man is just amazing. I worship his voice and performance. I wish he would read the audiobook version of the the novel. I would listen to the hell out of that.  I have always loved SQQ, but if I’m going to be honest, I came into the show just a little more excited about seeing Bingge being brought to life. I still love Binghe of course, in all his phases, however, now,  because of Wu Lei-laoshi’s stellar voice performance (and of course SQQ’s beautiful looks), I’m leaving this season absolutely head over heels about SQQ/Shen Yuan. Also thanks to the show, I’m completely obsessed with Liu Qingge as well.  So for those two reasons, I will eternally be grateful to the donghua team.  

[tomorrowsdrama]

2020 Year in Thirst Pt. 2

Sometimes, I will watch a drama for the plot/premise/substance and be rewarded with a surprise hottie, and it’s the best feeling ever!  It’s like finding money in your pocket that you didn’t know about.  The following list of dramas can be described as:

Came for the plot, was rewarded with a surprising side of thirst

1. Flower of Evil

Brief Summary: Lee Jun Ki plays Baek Hee Sung and Moon Chae Won plays Cha Ji Won, his wife who is also a detective.  What Ji Won doesn’t know is that her husband, Hee Sung, is actually Hyun Soo, a man on the run from a murder that he did not commit and also a suspected accomplice to a series of murders committed by his father in the past.  Oh yeah, his dad secretly tried to groom him into being his protege/murder partner.  Because of how he was raised, HS believes that he has no emotions and is simply putting on an act as the perfect husband and father.  His “parents” are in on the ruse and are actually the ones who forced him into assuming their comatose son’s identity.  Anyway, of course things from the past start to catch up with HS and his wife is somehow assigned to investigating his old murder case.  She of course feels betrayed, but also conflicted as she discovers her husband is not who he said he was and a prime murder suspect.  Things get even more complicated as the real murderer re-appears with fabulous long hair and tries to frame HS for the murders.  In between all of this are delicious make outs between the couple and at least one instance where they banged so hard, HS was wiped out the next morning.

Surprise Thirst Factor: I checked out this drama fully expecting to drop it because the promos were so misleading and unappealing. But boy was I in for a pleasant surprise!  Not only was the drama super addicting, it also had some nice eye candy in the form of Lee Jun Ki being a completely unrealistic house husband who satisfies in the housework (The man cooks and does the laundry!), childcare, and bedroom and Kim Ji Hoon’s glorious mane of beauty making viewers have a moral crisis over lusting after a homicidal maniac (who turned out to be a real loser without murder daddy around to clean up his mess.  It’s ok, we’ll always have his hair).

Yes, work that hair honey.  It’s the only good thing you’ve got going on for you (the character, not Kim Ji Hoon)

The chemistry between Lee Jun Ki and Moon Chae Won was fire and the make out scenes were soo believable.  Like yes, these two beautiful people are really into being married to each other and understandably want to make out all the time. 

He’s the primary caretaker for their daughter and it’s just *swoons.*  Not all thirst traps come in the form of sexy abs (although I would not mind if he wanted to flash some).

2. Six Flying Dragons

Brief Summary: The story of young Yi Bang Won (who later becomes King Taejong) and the founding of the Joseon Dynasty.  As short as it sounds, that really is an accurate summary of the drama haha.

Surprise Thirst Factor: I started watching this drama because I heard it was a great sageuk and I’m a big fan of Yoo Ah In.  Even though I’m a fan of his acting, Yoo Ah In doesn’t necessarily get my hormones raging so I wasn’t expecting to be so thirsty while watching Six Flying Dragons.  But then.  BUT THEN.  Byun Yo Han showed up in all his scruffy tortured deadly killer glory and my hormones woke up and said hi, hello, who are you, what’s your name, what’s your sign, can I get your number?  The deadlier and more tortured his character got, the sexier he became to me.  Sorry Yoo Ah In, you’ll always be my acting boo, but Byun Yo Han’s got my thirst.  Byun Yo Han looks so good when he's sad and/or covered in blood, it makes me feel like a sadist for thinking that I wouldn’t mind if the drama made his character cry some more.

3. Ever Night S1

Brief Summary: As a child, Ning Que witnessed his entire household get massacred because of a prophecy that the child of Hades will be born from the house and bring about the Eternal Night.  Somehow, he managed to escape and was the lone survivor.  He finds a baby buried in a pile of dead bodies as he’s fleeing and names her Sang Sang.  The two orphans grow up inseparable from each other and do whatever it takes to survive in the harsh, cruel world.  Ning Que earns money by becoming a deadly mercenary and Sang Sang takes care of the household affairs.  At one point, Ning Que becomes a disciple of the powerful Fu Zi and somehow gets entangled in the struggles between the Holy Sect and Demon Sect.  A bunch of beautiful women fall for Ning Que, and the drama tries its hardest to convince us that he has chemistry with and reciprocates the feelings of one of them (i.e. Mo Shan Shan), but anybody who was even half paying attention knows that the only one for Ning Que is Sang Sang.  They are the OTP of all OTPs and take “ride or die” to a whole other level. Oh also, their height difference is the stuff manga dreams are made of. Ning Que is a “good guy” but also not a “good guy” in the sense that he is not above doing whatever it takes to seek revenge and is only out for himself and Sang Sang (and later, his older brothers and sisters from the academy).

Surprise Thirst Factor: Chen Feiyu is an attractive person but I could not in good conscience thirst after him because he was literally born in the year 2000.  It did not help that he was only 18 when he filmed Ever Night and looked every bit his age.  My thirst may have no shame, but it does have its own set of principles and one of those principles is thou shalt not lust after those born in the new millennium!  Luckily for me, Second Brother is played by Dylan Kuo who is a beautiful, elegant, tall man

and Brother Chao is exactly the type of rugged and manly that I am into.  

(you don’t have to be)

who looks better when wet

AHEM. Yeah.

Sixth Brother is also not so bad with his scanty pounding work attire,

4. Novoland: Eagle Flag

Brief Summary:  Asule is the prince of a tribe in the grasslands who is held as a royal guest (i.e. hostage) in the Eastland Empire.  There he meets his two future best friends, Yu Ran, a free spirited princess who is descended from a race of bird people, and Ji Ye, an emo neglected/shunned son of a concubine who is probably the best fighter in the empire.  Ji Ye loves Yu Ran who is a ball of sunshine to his Johnny Raincloud dark emo self.  Yu Ran loves Ji Ye back.  Asule loves both his friends and will do anything to protect them.  The world decides to fuck over best friends Asule, Ji Ye, and Yu Ran for no reason as they try their best to just live a peaceful life away from all the political scheming and fighting.

Surprise Thirst-worthiness: I was completely content with enjoying Eagle Flag purely for its story and substance.  It’s seriously a wonderful, yet heartbreaking drama and the scale of the production is amazing.  No cheap $10 costumes here.  Also, the direction is beautiful/artistic and not the run of mill “let’s shoot it and complete it as fast as we can.”  The two main actors were cute, but not really my type.  Then the drama decided to give Ji Ye the “Sexy Bloody Tormented Killer Makeover” and all of a sudden your girl was rushing to MDL to check Chen Ruo Xuan’s birthday and calculating his age.  I am simple, predictable, and consistent when it comes to my thirst and give a character some scruff, long hair, angst, and some bloodlust and I’m all yours.  I am literally:

Is it wrong that when Ji Ye showed up looking like this ready to kill his mother’s torturer

I thought, yes, can we have him kill another? 

5. Run On

Brief Summary: Im Siwan plays Ki Seon Geom, a national track runner from a rich family who is a bit of an oddball and marches to his own beat.  Although his words can sometimes be construed as rude since he has no filter, they are also completely honest and have no hidden meaning.  He also has his own personal code that he lives by and he will stick to it no matter how negatively it may impact himself.  He meets Oh Mi Joo, a translator with her own strange quirks and sparks fly as Mi Joo is assigned to be his interpreter.  

Surprise Thirst-worthiness: I kind of watched this drama by accident.  I had read about Im Siwan starring in a new drama but nothing I saw from the description or promos for Run On appealed to me.  Nor did it give me any information about what the drama would be about.  Then one day, I just happened to be browsing Netflix for something to play in the  background and decided on Run on since I thought I wouldn’t be that invested.  What a happy accident that turned out to be because I’m so in love with this drama right now.  This is a case where the thirst does not stem from the character’s physical appearance, but from the intensity/charisma the actor brings to the character and the character himself.  Ki Seon Geom is so odd, but so appealing at the same time and Im Siwan is so magnetic in the role.  Prior to Run On, Im Siwan wasn’t really my type physically.  In fact, I always scratched my head whenever people called him handsome in dramas (I know, I know, forgive me).  So color me shocked when I found myself swooning all over Im Siwan in the second episode of Run On.  Now, it’s like I have “Im Siwan is attractive” glasses on and he looks attractive in everything to me.  I want to gobble up all the dramas he’s been in.

[nanachingu]

Drama Review: Mouse

I’ve been active lately because I have another drama worth-reviewing for the 2nd quarter of 2021. This drama one of the most complicated story I’ve ever watched. Tips for watching this drama: keep focus and pay attention to all scenes because the details really help you understanding the drama. This story really not as simple as you think, like other drama we find who the villain and protagonist is the main lead, but this drama is not just about that. We’ll be given another plot twist in every episode and suspicious to every character.

*this post will contain spoiler to the story, please keep it mind*

The poster describe our main lead in this drama. I’ve been following all SeungGi drama since My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho. Actually he was the man that introduce and lead me to K-drama. My first drama was My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho and I love Lee Seung Gi. I think he always took a good drama and when announced that he’ll take a role in this drama, I’m really excited. As for the other three I knew them but not quite follow their acting career but it turns out they really good portray their character especially the one who played as Go Moo Chi. This drama will center on Jung Ba Reum (Lee Seung Gi) life.

Jung Ba-Reum (Lee Seung-Gi) is a rookie police officer, working at a police substation. He is an honest person and tries to attain justice. He faces a psychopath murderer, who places the entire nation in fear. Jung Ba-Reum’s life is totally changed afterwards.

Source: AsianWiki

This picture above show us how our main lead meet each other. When Bareum trying to save injured bird, Go Moo Chi car is blocked by them. They’re police and trying to catch psycopath that killed their important people. We got police as our main leads, television producer, highschool student that will become the main story and also a doctor as a candidate of psychopath and another doctor that proved as a psychopath.

Welcome, this is Han Seo Jun. One of the psychopath that shocked the public because he’s a great surgeon and has a nice reputation before a child revealed him as a psychopath and murder his parents. He’s the cause that this drama exist haha because he was succeed gave his psychopath gene to his child. You can’t say that his child will inherited his father gene 100%, but this is spoiler that Han Seo Jun really succeed. His child really have no emotion and smart, qualified to become the next psychopath.

SPOILER *(I know if you treated better, you didn’t have to become like your father *cries*)*

This is the first candidate as Han Seo Jun child or the new psychopath. Sung Yo Han. If you see his face and expression, he’s really suited to become the next psychopath. And he’s a doctor. Han Seo Jun also a doctor. And it turned out that his mom is Han Seo Jun ex’s wife. Automatically become the 1st and most likely candidate of the next psychopath. I just can say that Yohan was one of the most tragic character in this drama. You deserves better. I’m sorry that people really harsh on you, but believe me I’m always sure that you’re more than psychopath like others said ㅋㅋㅋㅋ.

Meet our main lead, Jung Ba Reum. He’s really kind police officer. But somehow we can’t take out him as the next candidate of psychopath. Jan Seo Jun also known as a kind and humble doctor but it turned out he has no emotion and all of it just an acting. Who knows that Ba Reum actually like that? *(I know I already watched itㅋㅋ)*. But after few episodes, something big happen and it’ll really change Ba Reum life. His life is not the same anymore and will lead the drama to a next level.

The last candidate, but I’m kinda sorry to write this but it’s one of my opinion. This is Detective Shin. I know that it’s not just me who accused him as one of the psychopath because of his father!!! The three of them I think born on the same year, so they were born when Han Seo Jun case was discussed and psychopath test on unborn child was questioned. Detective Shin’s father was one of the important people in government and has a vote to agree or disagree to psychopath test and he chose no because he’s expecting a child after a long time. He didn’t want to let go his baby if it turned out that from the test he has psychopath gene. Eventhough it’s just our speculation but I accused that his child has psychopath gene because of some scenes in the drama. Sorry… In the current timeline Detective Shin’s father also become president candidate while Detective Shin help Moochi and Bareum investigate the predator.

So who’s the real predator here?

We can see that tvN update the new poster after several episodes to show where the story will go. Like I said, something big will change Bareum’s life and it shows in the picture. Kind and innocent image Bareum change to more mysterius and dark Bareum. After watching Bareum’s changes, hm we’ll realized that this drama is more complicated than we think. It’s not just about finding the psychopath, but how we can put all the details that we get into another one story that will blow your mind. Lee Seung Gi as Jung Ba Reum wow he really potrays the character really well, even I the one who always follow Lee Seung Gi’s movie and drama still amazed with his skill in this drama. It applied to Lee Hee Joon that play Go Moo Chi character. Many applause to his acting. He describing sad, sorrow, and losing someone important while angry to situation, he really can describe it well. Argh I really wanna share my opinion about all the details but it’s too much spoiler for the story and I’m sure when you already know too much spoiler, the drama isn’t as good as before anymore.

It was more painful than another psychopath drama because….. we’ll see the story from another point of view that drama usually will show, and I don’t know how the writer-nim can think and make this plot. Because of this, I’m interested to watch this writer-nim another drama. Just a TMI, I heard that Mouse already shows as a cameo in writer-nim previous drama called Black. People said that we can see a few scenes about Mouse drama there but no one realized until the drama really airedㅋㅋㅋ Unfortunately I didn’t watch Black drama so I just knew from other people. Watching this drama feels like we’ll get another perspective about psychopath and I think actually society really made a big impact to create someone’s life. As a parents, you’ll have a big responsibilty of your children. How you raise them, and if you really think about society and peoples judgement but didn’t gave your best to your child then what’s the use??? I kinda hate the mom here. I know she’s scared, but it’s her choice but she can’t take a responsibility for her action. If she believe to her action, I know…. this drama will not be exist 😂😂

So last but not least, don’t forget our child actor Kang Hoon that really portray his character as Jae Hoon really well. I always admire his acting since his acting in When The Camellia Blossom. I’m sure that he’ll be a great actor in the future. His range of acting is really wide considering his age and his experiences. From the start until the end, he give us excellent acting for his character and I hope you will get better and better in the future. Fighting Kang Hoon!

One of my favorite quote but also most heartbreaking scene in this drama:

"In the next life, let’s meet each other when I’m born again as a normal person."

Okay! So I write this like after the night this drama ends and overall I really like the ending with all the plot and genre it’s perfect. Eventhough this drama is really complicated, but they wrap up the ending well. All clear and all scenes are explained well. I can’t ask for more. My rating for this drama is 5 out of 5 star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Please if you really have time and wanna watch this drama, please watch it. It’s really worth it!

See you in another review!!! (hope there are more good drama that worth to review in the future!!)

“God heard our prayers… We’re no longer monsters..”

[littlemindblabbles]

On-screen, Off-screen

Pairing: Jun x Y/N

Summary: You’re given the once-in-a-lifetime opportuinity to act in a music video alongside your idol, Wen Junhui. But is he really as nice in real life as he is on screen?

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

It’s just a kiss. Come on Y/N, I thought you wanted to be an actress. These things shouldn’t mean much to you if you weren’t so emotional. Emotions make you seem unprofessional remember? Which is something Jun definitely wasn’t.

Unfortunately your pep talk was of little use. You were a bundle of nerves, understandable from a normal person’s point of view since you were literally about to film a kiss scene with your celebrity crush. Was Jun even considered a celebrity crush? After actually talking to him and spending with him, you were quite sure your small infatuation had turned into something much more. Your were definitely head over heels for him but that definitely wasn’t helping right now.

Worst of all, it seemed that Jun wanted nothing less than to kiss you. For the last few days, he’d been getting into, rather loud, arguments with the director and artist of the song about the kiss. Things like “Must I really do that?” and “Can we just cut that final scene out, I think it’s unnecessary” were said many times and you more than got the hint that Jun was trying his outmost best to not kiss you. Am I that revolting?

“Good morning everyone, let’s get things done efficiently today, it’s our second last day together anyway! First thing, we’ll film the final scene of the mv now, it may sound a bit strange to do things out of order, but we need to use this backdrop and the rest of the scenes don’t. Actors get to your places, we’ll start in 2!”

Taking a deep breath, you walked towards your scene. Jun was already there, eyes closed as his makeup artist gave him some final touches. Since he couldn’t see you yet, you used this opportunity to admire him. His hair was perfectly styled and he was wearing an oversized sweater that still showed off his broad shoulders. 

“Might want to take a picture, it’ll last longer.” Shit, you blushed as you looked up to face Jun’s smirking face. If it were the first few days, you would be panicking right now because he might have been angry. But at least now you knew he was only teasing you. You opened your mouth to defend your stares, but at that point, the director signalled to start the scene. 

The music video followed a You-belong-with-me style, so the both of you had to pulll out your phones which had ‘I love you’ written on it, before stepping closer and finally kissing. Yeah, not gonna lie, it was quite cringe but it wasn’t like you could argue with the director and the artist. The first few takes were quite short, you didn’t even make it till the kiss scene because you either kept fumbling with your phone or Jun looked really awkward holding out his. This went on for awhile before the director got frustrated and called out.

“Ya, why do the both of you look so awkward! Okay to make things less weird, we’ll film two shots and stich them together. First, we’ll film the phones, you two just pretend your confessing to each other and actually say the lines out. It won’t be recorded anyway. The next scene would be just the both of you staring at each other, wildy in love. Then we’ll transition to the kiss. Ok? Ok.” 

“ACTION!” 

Jun took out his phone slowly, and at the same time looked at you so intensely with unknown emotions. 

“Y/N, when I first met you, I thought little to nothing of you, and expected you to go after me like some of my fans. But after I was really harsh to you, which I am sorry for by the way, you actually backed off and was nothing but professional. You were always so hardworking and I offered to help you that day because my heart ached to see you so dejected. From then, I realised I constantly wanted to put a smile on your face and be the reason for your laughter. I guess what I’ve been trying to say, as cliche as it is, is that I’ve fallen for you.”

Whether acting or not, you were completely sure all of you feelings were displayed directly on you face. All you could do was silently take out your phone too. 

“Cut! Wow, that was greeat guys, I think we just need this clip. I can really see the chemistry and love in both your eyes. Now keeping these emotions and putting the phone away, Jun step closer and place one hand around Y/N’s waist. Your other hand can do whatever like cup her cheek but that’s just an example. Then you both lean forward and kiss okay? Action!”

You didn’t even have time to prepare yourself. Jun took a step towards you and placed his arm around your waist. Before you knew it, his other hand was cupping your cheek and he was kissing you. Jun was kissing you. It felt like everything and nothing you could have ever imagined. Your knees felt like jelly and it was a good thing he was holding you upright. You started to feel less shocked and moved your hands around his back, hugging him as close as possible because when would you ever have this opportunity again? 

“And cut! Excellent guys, I’m actually tearing up. Now let’s do it a few more times for safety shots and also because I need different angles to make it more dramatic.” Wait what? There’s more than one?

You couldn’t even process your thoughts properly. For next 30 minutes, which truly felt like seconds, the both of you repeated the scene over and over again. The feeling while kissing him never changed, each one just as intense as the previous. While your poor acting skills meant that you were pouring all of your emotions into the kiss, you couldn’t help but think that Jun was feeling the same. There was no way one could say all those things and kiss someone like that but have no feelings right? But then again, Jun was an amazing actor and has been doing this for years, so your poor confused heart didn’t know what to feel.

“Alright thank you everyone, we’re off for lunch break then we’ll continue shooting.” As the cameras stopped rolling, the lovestruck look on Jun’s face completely disappeared. He lightly punched your arm and smiled.

“Hey, last one to the food tables has to treat the other ice cream later!” Before laughing and running off, acting as though the whole morning never happened. 

I guess he really is an amazing actor. 

Note: OOO finally! Also there’s probably gonna be one more part to this so it should be finished soon! Check out my masterlist in the meantime!

[peepspersonalperspective]

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Record of Youth

I’ve been waiting for this show for quite some time now. I’m really hoping it’ll fill the void in my heart left by It’s Okay Not To Be Okay. With a promising cast like Park Bo Gum (Reply 1988, Love in the Moonlight) and Park So Dam (Parasite) how could you not get excited? 

To be honest, when I first saw the trailer (the very first teaser), I got softer Itaewon Class vibes, because of the visual tone and the whole premise of a man hustling to prove himself. Funnily enough, when the show opened with Janet Suh cooing the opening theme, I flashbacked to It’s Okay... and got slightly worried about what to expect. I really need to learn to control my impulses and stop comparing material to others. 

Ok! So erasing any preconceived notions from past K-Dramas, and the clout around the leads, lets dive into the world Hye Jun and Jung Ha. 

Hye Jun is a model wanting to turn actor, whose popularity is fading and so is his youth (Relatable!). At first when he talks about time running out, I grew curious by what he meant, because he stated it in a very definitive way. (Spoiler Alert!) (Although, is it a spoiler?) We learn eventually that he’s actually of age to be drafted for mandatory military service, and he needs to turn his life around, like, ASAP! 

While Hye Jun’s world has been established well this episode, I haven’t quite figured him (as a character) out yet. And maybe that’s a good thing. I hope we’ll get to peel away the layers of his character as the show progresses. He says something about, not wealth or fame changing people, but age and maturity that come with experiences. So I’m excited to see him grow in this journey.

So far we see him assume different characters before different people in his life, as any person does to a certain degree, I guess. He’s angry at his parents, loving towards his grandfather, loyal to his more successful friend, assertive toward his agent, and ...you get the gist. We do see glimpses of his indignation toward the cut-throat industry, but his perseverence, which I believe will be the primary shade of his personality highlighted in this series. I just hope the makers don’t convolude his character too much.

Now coming to Jung Ha. She is quite relatable as a make-up artist, vlogger and a fan girl. She’s pragmatic and may come across as rigid when she’s anxious, but we also see her vulnerable and self aware. Jung Ha’s adaptation to the different circumstances she’s thrown into is very relatable. Her character has been better defined in the first episode, at least. 

Another key character is that of Hye Jun’s friend, Hae Hyo (Byeon Woo Seok). We don’t see much of him, but you know he’s important to the story. He’s the best friend, but also the more successful one, with a stronger family support (almost too strong). Hae Hyo is seemingly down-to-earth and just as loyal to Hye Jun as he is to him. They have a healthy competition, where they support each other even if it’s for the same role they’re auditioning for. It’ll be interesting to see this dynamic evolve. I, myself, have often wondered how to navigate such friendships, when you want to be happy for your friend, but a part of you is also dejected for not having reached that level even after starting from the same place. 

As for the story, as an individual in her late twenties herself, not having “arrived” as such, I can relate. The hustle, the family balancing act, the struggle for money to survive, the moral quandries, and everything that encompasses our twenties have been beautifully portrayed. I’m sure viewers will enjoy rooting for the characters, and live through them vicariously. I can’t wait to see more.

I usually give K-Dramas three episodes for the story to take off, and to immerse myself in the thrill. But I don’t think this is one of those shows. I could feel, relate and immerse myself in their world from the get go. I don’t need plot twists or such, because just watching them live their youth is a ride worth taking. I mean, I’m finding my own experiences in my late twenties quite interesting. I’m past the naivete and gratuitous enthusiasm, but i’m still hustling, and learning more about myself everyday, as I journey through all the possiblities ahead of me. 

Also don’t miss the appearance by Kim Hye Yoon. I hope she returns.

[k-odyssey]

Dramas I’ve Been Watching in February

I was going to wait till the very end of the month but I’ve already written the post so… Thoughts are under the cut like last time, and I tried not to include spoilers.

Crash Landing on You (finished)

I’ve already mentioned this one last month. Also it’s been all over my blog for a while now. My post about the finale.

The spoiler-free version is that I loved the journey this drama took me on. Did I love the ending? No, but it wasn’t bad. It was just okay.

The romance ticked off most of my favourite tropes and the acting was flawless.

Se Ri is such a good character. Businesswomen are often portrayed as cold and heartless, and it’s kind of how she’s perceived in SK, but it quickly becomes obvious that she’s anything but. She’s extremely warm, funny and charismatic, and if she trusts someone (basically, if they’re not her family) she actually shows her vulnerable side. Also it’s great to see her thrive when she’s around people who care about her.

Great ensemble. The secondary characters are so attaching. The non-evil ones I mean.

Extraordinary You (ep6 of 16)

Teenager figures out that she’s a comic book character and, unhappy with the direction of her story, takes matters into her own hands.

It’s still early on for me but I love this fresh take on the concept. I actually don’t know where this is headed, and I’m anticipating the twists and turns.

I love a heroine who takes charge of her life.

Mysterious love interest is adorable and getting more fleshed out and compelling every episode. I can’t hate Baek Kyung though. At least not so far.

Joy of Life (ep36 of 46)

Mentioned last month.

I’m still enjoying this one a lot. It’s as funny and interesting as ever.

Wan’er doesn’t get that much screentime but she’s a great character. I loved that scene with the princess in ep30 or 31.

I’m still in love with Fan Xian.

Forest (ep12 of 32)

Businessman and demoted surgeon are reunited in a countryside village when he becomes a rescue worker for all the wrong reasons.

This one comes with plenty of mysterious childhood trauma and fate.

Gorgeous forest shots.

Park Hae Jin’s character has a soft side, but I have to say he often rubs me the wrong way with his attitude and values. Although he is changing. Jo Bo Ah’s is a lot more likeable, but I’m not in love either? BUT they have an interesting love-hate dynamic that I really like.

It feels like I can predict where the story is going and I’m not sure I’m going to like all of it, but we’ll see!

Chocolate (finished)

Mentioned previously.

I ended up liking it a lot.

The hospice setting was original, you don’t see too many kdramas speaking about palliative care. And if they do it tends to be about one particular character who’s dying.

Lots of food. Lots of heartbreak, which comes with the territory.

I loved the kids and their conversations with adults.

Lee Jun, who isn’t one of the leads, ended up becoming my favourite character. I found that I could relate to him more. Like, honestly I wrote a whole post about that and then I got self-conscious and didn’t publish it.

The romance at the centre of the story is somehow the least memorable thing for me, although there were a few great emotional moments. Usually tearful ones.

Terrius Behind Me | My Secret Terrius (finished)

Fugitive spy turns into the perfect babysitter for his neighbour, while investigating her husband’s murder.

I’d watched 4 episodes back in november, and kind of picked up where I’d left it.

It’s a lovely, heartwarming drama. Terrius with the kids makes for great comedy. That and the network of neighbourhood sort-of-spies, stay-at-home parents.

Go Ae Rin is a lovely, resilient character.

Yes there’s some big conspiracy and spy stuff but ultimately it’s more of a drama about two people dealing with the loss of a loved one in different ways, and learning that they can lean and rely on each other. (And their community.)

Find Yourself (ep19 of 42)

Supervisor and intern 10 years her junior begin a secret office romance.

Full disclosure: I skipped significant parts of these 19 episodes, that happens when I’m watching stuff really late at night and I need to know what happens next. Not before ep9 or so though.

The drama gives a great insight into the kind of pressure chinese women may feel to get married and have children by a certain age. For that reason, many interactions are very frustrating to watch.

So many characters dismiss He Fan Xing’s every accomplishment because she’s single, and I really want to slap some sense into them. She’s 32 but everyone acts like she has one foot in the grave.

Also very frustrating: the plot. As funny and entertaining as it can be, I get mad at the many misunderstandings and entangled relationships. I hate it when I can see the trainwreck coming episodes in advance. Maybe that’s just a “me” thing. It makes me anxious, which is why I’m currently taking a break from it. I think I’ll try to finish it though.

In a way it’s a great guide to what not to do in a relationship. I guess they’ll end up together in the end, but it’s not a smooth ride. Like, I hate how at some point she just assumes he can’t afford the gift he gave her and returns it without telling him! Girl, learn to communicate. There’s lots of lies on both sides tbh.

They do have chemistry though! Also Zhang Yu Jian from Le Coup de Foudre plays the main character’s brother and I enjoy seeing him in this completely different role a lot. I had no idea he had this whole range of facial expressions due to the fact that Yan Mo had a blank face 99% of the time.

My Holo Love (finished)

Lonely, faceblind woman ends up with expensive AI, falls in love with it. Unless it’s the hot human lookalike she’s into…

It’s only 12 ep, perfect if you like shorter dramas.

I can believe a human falling in love with an AI very easily, but the AI becoming sentient is usually were my brain draws the line. It’s still a very enjoyable drama. The hologram aspect gives it a fresh twist. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen this kind of relationship portrayed between an AI and its maker.

These are two very good-looking people. Not that the other dramas don’t have pretty actors but, just saying.

Best thing about it: it has a proper ending, which is a rarity for netflix shows. I hope they make more like this from now on.

[koyurim]

hospital playlist 11

oh god, things are coming to a head here as we near the end. our cast is making big (relatively for the show) moves that shift the dynamics from something comfortable to something unknown. we have only one more episode left, how will i pass the time when this season is done airing?!

we find out that not one but TWO of our 99 crew are planning their departure! i’m distraught for what this means for the band and for their friendship (i love that jun-wan, the one most opposed to the band in the beginning, is like what about OUR BAND?). i’m sure that they’ll still all be tight since it’s been a while since they’ve all been together (given seok-hyeon returning from being abroad, them not working at the same hospital till now, etc), bUT it’s really different from having that comfort and ability to be close enough to drop by someone’s office to hang out. i think that at least one of our two will definitely be leaving (it feels like it would be too convenient for them to both figure things out in seoul by the end), but maybe season 2 will be song-hwa’s return from when she’s finished her year and her neck’s all better... HERE’S TO HOPING....

seok-hyeon’s going through a lot of mixed feelings with his father’s death. how must if feel when someone who hurt you a lot passes? plot wise, it feels really convenient that he passed before the divorce was processed since i am hoping that seok-hyeon will get some of the inheritance, but i could also see dad leaving a mess behind for seok-hyeon, mom, and the mistress to solve. we’ll find out next episode, but i love how much the rest care for him, they won’t even let him say nice things about the mistress’s baby. this is also the first episode we see 99 crew properly drunk, they’re always so responsible with drinking given that they might be called in at any moment, but i feel like jun-wan and jeong-wan really drank in solidarity with seok-hyeon’s grief/happiness/messy feelings. also, best resident min-ha made me LAUGH with less than a minute of screen time! she’s so cute and nervous! i wonder if they’ve interacted much since she confessed. 

jeong-wan’s plot is frustrating me at this point. i feel like we’ve been stuck for a while with the same dilemma, but no movement or growth. since his feelings with gyeol-ul and internal conflict are also not revealed to the viewers, it’s harder to figure out which way you want things to go for him. it’s nice that he’s finally starting to be kinder to gyeol-ul though, she deserves recognition for all her hard work and growth. congrats to her on her first surgery! i dont really care if him and gyeol-ul get together, i just want him to stick around for our crew and rosa! as a side note, i had no idea pediatric surgeons were so rare, jeong-wan, this definitely seems like the higher calling. 

jun-wan’s dealing with a whole bunch himself! he’s growing as a doctor, taking jae-hak’s advice in how to disseminate information to his patients’ family. (lol @ jae-hak slowly nudging him along and giving him cues as to when to say what) his investment in his patients really shows how these cases impact doctors, especially when he was like ‘i cant have a fever now!’ jun-wan! you’re human too! 

on the personal side of things, i’m delighted by how mature his relationship with ik-sun is. their conversations feel real and natural and they actually TELL each other things! in most drama relationships, i feel like we constantly hear ‘i’ll tell you later’ or ‘never mind’ and the dialogue is always something that moves the plot. they’ve decided to do long-distance and even though i agree with jun-wan that three years is short, i know that it’ll also be really hard. it also sounds like ik-sun only wants the happy parts in a relationship and is afraid of change due to her horrible ex. i was surprised to hear how her aversion to marriage is due to seeing ik-jun and u-ju (speaking of, we got to see u-ju/ik-sun!!!). i wonder what about ik-jun changing scared her, is she afraid of a life that’s dedicated only to her (potential) kids? anyway, jun-wan, there are some things you’re holding back from saying though! say it!!! you’re willing to make compromises for ik-sun and i hope she will be for you too. but ik-jun crawling all over jun-wan making the most ridiculous face had me giggling. he Definitely knows about their relationship. 

on to our chi-hong/ik-jun/song-hwa love triangle...

THE FUCKING ELEVATOR SCENE. 

AND THEN THE DRINKING GAME SCENE.

oh my god, where do i begin!!!!!!!! chi-hong, my boy. he really notices everything. the attention to detail and things unspoken does Not escape him. the tension in the elevator was palpable, especially because he noticed that ik-jun stepped into her personal space and gave her a parting touch on the shoulder as he left. when he asked for his birthday present from song-hwa and touched her shoulder, he was imitating what ik-jun did previously. he really wants to have the intimacy and closeness that ik-jun has with song-hwa. and because he wants that position, he notices ik-jun’s feelings. i do enjoy seeing how chi-hong really respects song-hwa and tries to model his behavior from her as a doctor, anticipating and learning where patients are headed as they step into the elevator. 

ik-jun... when you taught the residents and interns how to properly play the drinking game, you were giving them weapons for your own undoing... ik-jun keeps his cards so close to his chest that i nearly DIED from how his hand was forced to reveal his feelings. ik-jun is so nosy himself but he tried so hard to avoid verbalizing his feelings for song-hwa and it wasn’t until chi-hong returned to the question that he said it. cho jung-seok is a phenomenal actor, he dances around so many questions but his face reveals it all. i wonder if he will ever say the words directly to song-hwa. the song was also another roundabout way to describe his love for song-hwa and im slightly worried about how sad some of those lyrics are...

i would give ANYTHING to get song-hwa’s perspective. since i’ve been watching reply 1997, ive realized the thing with ambiguous love triangles is that we don’t really get our female lead’s pov. the lack of POV shrouds our female leads in this air of mystery and creates distance between me and them. while i’ve grown to love ik-jun because we get to see the many layers in him, we don’t necessarily get that with song-hwa since her most inner thoughts are hidden. this is seriously SO frustrating, especially since we don’t have character narration for the show, and i’m like PLEASE GIVE ME SOMETHING ABOUT WHERE SONG-HWA STANDS. at this point, i don’t necessarily know that song-hwa will choose chi-hong over ik-jun, but it’s been 20 years since she first liked ik-jun. i think it’d be completely healthy for her to have moved on, especially given his marriage, and be content with them as friends. ik-jun’s reveal during the drinking game definitely shook up the world around her and i’m wondering how she’s processing this information. i also wonder if asking to be transferred is a way to distance herself from chi-hong or ik-jun...

however this shakes down, i’m going to be really sad to say bye (only temporarily though!) to this show next week. also this week gets honorable mention to the best eating scene--song-hwa and jun-wan stuffing their faces and feeding each other pork belly

ps. somi’s video of nurse mom was lovely, but was it not like a huge violation of privacy? lol

[trishmilburn]

An Exploration of The Untamed’s Romance and Mystery, Episode 1

Disclaimer: This post and the ones that will follow will be filled with loads of spoilers if you haven’t seen The Untamed, the Chinese drama based on Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s novel, Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation).

It’s been almost a month since The Untamed aired its final episode, and I’m still totally obsessed with it. That’s both as a pure fan and as a writer of romance. I’ve been published in romance for eleven years now, and I’m always fascinated by how romance storylines are constructed in various forms – books, movies and TV. To me, The Untamed has a beautiful romance even though, due to the Chinese government’s censorship of homosexual (or BL, i.e. boys love) content, it was presented as a bromance. But you can tell that the writers, directors and lead actors of The Untamed were very well aware of the enormous fan base of the original novel and the donghua (Chinese animation) and did their best to live up to the spirit of the love story even though they couldn’t present it in an explicit or obvious way. But here’s the thing, the constraints did nothing to lessen the beauty of the romance; in fact, in some ways it made it even more impactful and emotional.

So beginning with this post and continuing with more in the future as I complete a re-watch of all 50 episodes, I’m going to explore the development of the romance and what made it so lovely to watch unfold. To a lesser degree, I’ll also be commenting on the development of the mystery and the machinations of the forces working against or using for their own personal advantage our two leads, Wei Ying (aka Wei Wuxian or the Yiling Patriarch) and Lan Zhan (aka Lang Wangji or Hanguang-Jun).

Of note, I’ll be commenting with the knowledge of what’s going to happen throughout the series and having read the novel.

So here we go with Episode 1:

We are thrown right into the middle of the action of a battle scene that happens a good way into the story as we’ll see it presented but that happened in the past. The first thing we hear spoken is some unknown person saying, “Wei Wuxian is dead. This calls for a celebration!” And then we see the raging battle, Wei Ying (Wei Wuxian is his courtesy name) is looking broken and horrified as people battle for a piece of powerful metal known as the Yin Tiger Seal, which Wei Ying created. Then the action is frozen as tears fall from Wei Ying’s eyes and he starts walking backward toward the edge of a cliff. We’ll see in the episodes ahead just why he is so broken at this point, but suffice it to say that almost everyone wants him dead and he’s lost so much that his tears are more than understandable.

But as he begins to fall, we see that there is still one person who very much wants him to stay alive – Lan Zhan, the man who loves him but who has never said those words. The first we see of Lan Zhan is him extending his arm bloody from battle and flying toward the edge of the cliff, grasping Wei Ying’s wrist at the last possible moment. His arm shakes as blood drips off of it, but he’s determined to hold all of Wei Ying’s weight with that one injured arm to keep him from falling to his death. You see the desperation in his eyes, and when Wei Ying looks up at him, you see how surprised and touched he is that this one person still cares whether he lives or dies. The first words we hear Wei Ying say are Lan Zhan’s name, right before he tells Lan Zhan to let him go. Lan Zhan, of course, doesn’t, but then Jiang Cheng, who is basically Wei Ying’s adoptive brother, approaches with the intent of making sure Wei Ying does, indeed, die. As he stabs down at Wei Ying with his sword, he misses but very nearly stabs Lan Zhan in the arm that is already injured. Seeing this, Wei Ying’s eyes go wide. He doesn’t want this person who is dear to him to suffer more injury, especially something that might prevent him from playing the zither or using his sword, the two items that help make him one of the most powerful immortal cultivators among all the cultivation sects. And so Wei Ying wrests his wrist out of Lan Zhan’s grasp and falls to his death, much to Lan Zhan’s horror. As a smug Jiang Cheng walks away, all Lan Zhan can do is stare downward, heartbroken, shocked and in utter despair.

In the next scene, we jump back to the “present” timeline, 16 years later. A storyteller is telling stories to the Lan Clan’s disciples, including Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi, about the infamous Yiling Patriarch, which is the name Wei Ying was known by after he startd down the demonic cultivation path. Though he’s been dead for 16 years, this storyteller is planting the seed that he might not be or that he might come back. On first watching, I was confused here, especially when the storyteller looks over his shoulder toward someone who is sitting behind a thin curtain and holding a fan. Now I know that this person is Nie Huisang, who while outwardly putting on a cowardly but loveable face and seeming to know nothing throughout the story, is actually a master manipulator of events, moving people like chess pieces to gain the end result he desires to get revenge for the death of his brother.

It suddenly starts getting darker outside, a person on the street says, “The soul has returned,” and the wind kicks up. A flag flies through the air and lands against a door at Mo Manor, where Wei Ying has returned to the land of the living because of a spell cast by Mo Xuanyu so that the powerful Yiling Patriarch can carry out revenge against all the people who have harmed Mo Xuanyu, who has been branded a lunatic by his family and others because he’s gay. As all of this is being explained, we see a flashback to the moment when Wei Ying was falling off the cliff. It took some discussions with other fans and this re-watch to figure out what was going on here, especially since this is where there’s a significant difference with the book. In the book, Wei Ying comes back in the body of Mo Xuanyu, so he looks like a different person and thus is unrecognizable as Wei Ying by just looking at him. Understandably, the makers of the drama didn’t want to have two actors playing the part of Wei Ying, and so we’re led to believe that the spell Mo Xuanyu cast allowed him to actually swap bodies with Wei Ying just before the moment of Wei Ying’s death. There’s a time travel-y aspect to this spell, and thus this is the reason Wei Ying’s body was never found in the drama. It’s a little mind twisty; just go with it because we get to have the handsome owner of gorgeous smiles Xiao Zhan play Wei Ying in both of his lives.

But wait, you might be thinking, how does that work? How would his family not recognize him? Well, Mo Xuanyu is actually the illegitimate child of the Jin Clan’s leader, and thus he went to the Jins’ Golden Unicorn Tower when he was 13. He was an adult when he got kicked out and returned to Mo Manor. His family has never seen his adult face as he always wears a mask or heavy powder to cover it. This mask will also allow Wei Ying to hide from those who would recognize him and assume he’d done something nefarious to come back to life.

Mo Xuanyu’s voice in Wei Ying’s head tells him what’s up, and Wei Ying notices a series of deep cuts on his arm that are a product of the spell. These wounds will never heal if Wei Ying doesn’t carry out the required revenge.

After an encounter with Mo Xuanyu’s ass of a cousin, Wei Ying steps out of the room that is covered in blood and paper talismans that were used in the spell to bring Wei Ying back. He eventually encounters the young Lan disciples. He marvels at this coincidence and wonders, “Is he here, too?” He being Lan Zhan. When Wei Ying wanders into the room where the Mo family is meeting with the disciples, who are there to get rid of some evil spirits, he’s once again attacked by his cousin. Lan Sizhui helps protect Wei Ying, likely acting on an unknown but instinctual connection since, though he’s forgotten, Wei Ying was an important person to him when he was young.

When Wei Ying sees the disciples using spirit attraction flags, he thinks about how everyone wanted him dead but they still use something that he created. When talking to the Lans, he notices the cloud pattern on Sizhui’s clothing and remembers the first time he saw Lan Zhan, back when they were both teens studying at the Lans’ home in Gusu, the Cloud Recesses.

That night, as the Lan disciples are in position to capture the evil spirits, Sizhui hears Wei Ying playing a tune on what looks like a blade of grass and tells Jingyi the song sounds familiar, like a melody from Gusu. He likely has heard Lan Zhan play the song as he’s mourned the loss of Wei Ying and desperately tried every day of those 16 years to reconnect with some piece of Wei Ying’s soul. It’s obvious Wei Ying is still thinking about Lan Zhan as he plays the song, and when he stops he says Lan Zhan’s name with a look of longing on his face. He is probably thinking about how Lan Zhan’s was the last face he saw before dying, about how Lan Zhan was trying so desperately to save him despite everything that had happened and how the rest of the world viewed him.

It’s important to note that at this point, Wei Ying is likely not in love with Lan Zhan, at least not knowingly. He can be a bit oblivious not only to the feelings of others, particularly Lan Zhan, but also his own. But there is no doubt he harbors a deep affection for the person he considers his dearest friend in the world.

His thoughts of the past are interrupted when Master Mo and his servants drag Wei Ying back to the main room, where Cousin Mo has been possessed and Madam Mo is convinced it’s Wei Ying’s doing. At this point you understand why Mo Xuanyu wanted revenge on his family. They’re awful. Wei Ying and the Lans work together as one member after another of the Mo family gets possessed by a spirit that is, strangely, residing in their left arms. The young Lans decide they need to call Lan Zhan for backup since they’re out of their depth, and of course Wei Ying is against this. After all, he can’t yet run the risk of being recognized, especially by the person who knows him best. While everyone else is dealing with possessed Madam Mo, Wei Ying sees an opportunity to exact some of the revenge he’s been tasked with and smears the circle keeping Master and Cousin Mo contained and tells them to “get to work.” Thus begins a fight between the three Mo family members.

Next we see Lan Zhan at some other location, his zither behind him and holding his sword, Bichen. He sees the signal flare the disciples sent up and off he goes to help. When he arrives and uses his powerful zither to send out a wave of white light to bring the Mo family under control, Wei Ying realizes who made that happen and slips away to hide. When he sees Lan Zhan descend into Mo Manor (like the gorgeous angel he is -- oops, sorry, got carried away with my love for Lan Zhan there), the smile on his face shows how much happiness Lan Zhan has brought him in the past, particularly when he was teasing Lan Zhan.

Sizhui asks Lan Zhan what kind of evil spirit they’re dealing with, but Lan Zhan replies that it’s rather a spiritual consciousness of a spiritual weapon. After he examines a sword, he realizes it has traces of the Yin Tiger Seal, to which Jingyi replies that the Yiling Patriarch must still be alive. Remember, that idea was planted by the storyteller at the command of Nie Huisang, who studied alongside Wei Ying and Lan Zhan at the Cloud Recesses.

Movement at the edge of the manor is Wei Ying making his escape, and Lan Zhan follows but doesn’t catch him. But when Lan Zhan is alone, he looks down the street and wonders, “Wei Ying, was it really you?” You can tell there is hope mixed with dread of what method Wei Ying may have used to come back.

The next scene reveals the storyteller being paid a gold nugget by Nie Huisang, though we still don’t see Huisang’s face, all for three days of stories about the Yiling Patriarch. Unknown to the storyteller, Wei Ying passes behind him with a donkey. Again the nameless man in the street says, “The soul has returned.” And Wei Ying sees that there is only one cut left on his arm. He wonders who it represents. That question and the mystery of the left arm-possessing spirit are what will bring Lan Zhan and Wei Ying back together and lead them on a series of adventures, during which their feelings for each other will grow.

[soundofseventeen]

My Fairy Tale (Wen Junhui)

Hi everyone! Bee and I are so sorry we’re so MIA right now, but it’s the end of a holiday season and the end of my semester is coming up and there’s just a lot going on for both of us. Hopefully we’ll be back in the swing of things soon! We hope everything is going well for all of you, and here’s a longer Jun thing I’ve been working on periodically. Bye! 

You sat on your couch, flipping through an old photo album from your parents house. They had just moved into a smaller place, thus leading to them getting rid of a lot of things. Some were hard to part with, so you offered to store them at your own house so they didn’t have to officially get rid of them. You smiled to yourself, flipping through pages and remembering all these things you seemed to forget. As you turned to the last page, one certain photo caught your eye.

You carefully pulled it out of its sleeve, taking a closer look at the picture. It was an old picture, you were maybe 7 or 8 in the photo, the boy next to you around the same age. You smiled at the large grin on his face as he had his arm behind your shoulder, his hand sitting right on your head. You had a mildly annoyed look on your face, but you knew you wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else at that moment. You flipped the photo over and saw your mom’s handwriting, Y/N & Junhui - Spring, followed by a year you couldn’t quite read anymore.

*

You had moved to China when you were 5 or 6. Your parents were from there originally, but moved out of the country after they had gotten married to work at a university. When they wanted to start a family, but when discovered that they couldn’t, they adopted you. They received an opportunity to go back to China, and since they missed it there, they made the move with you.

Given how small you were, you couldn’t quite comprehend the move. You just knew that you still had to go to school every day, but for some reason the school was in a different place, different kids were there, and they spoke a different language. Considering you were still young, you picked up on a lot of things quickly, but you still didn’t quite feel like you always fit with the other kids. Most of them were friendly towards you, but that was it. You had a bit of trouble making any friends.

Until one day, a certain boy in your class got tired of seeing you sit so quietly during your lunch periods and play times. He had officially made it his mission to get you to talk. He refused to give up until you would talk to him, and thus Jun became your first friend.

As the years went by, you and Jun remained to be best friends. You were always his first pick in games, whether or not you were actually good at the game or not. You two were always on the same team. You remember sitting in your living room at one point, a long forgotten board game sitting on the floor between you, some cartoon movie playing that managed to catch more of your attention. You smiled to yourself, watching as the prince won the heart of the princess once again.

“I can’t wait to meet my prince charming someday.” You said, placing your hands over your heart. Jun gave you an offended look.

“Hey, I’m your prince charming.” He pouted as your stuck your tongue out at him. “What happens after this?” Jun asked, tilting his head as the credits started to play.

“They get married, have babies, and live happily ever after.” You said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“How do you know that?”

“Because my mom said they’re in love. And that’s what people in love do.” You said, and Jun furrowed his eyebrows as you looked for the next movie to watch.

“That’s ridiculous.” Jun argued, and you shrugged.

“It could be real.”

“But that doesn’t make sense. I love my brother but I don’t want to marry him.” Jun sighed as you put in the next movie, another fairy tale one.

“My mom said there’s multiple kinds of love. Like the love my mom has for me is different from the one she has for my dad.” You said, and Jun nodded his head. “She said she loves me as her child, but she loves my dad as her soulmate.”

“Soulmate?”

“Yeah. She said it’s like two people who are made for each other.”

“Does everyone have one?”

“I think so. It would be kind of sad otherwise.” You said, and Jun sighed, then looked at you, holding out a pinky.

“Okay, how about this. If we get really old, like 30, and we don’t have one yet, we can be each other’s?” You grinned, linking your pinky to his.

“Deal.”

*

As you got older yet, you both started to branch out a little more. Made new friends, did new activities, Jun even getting into professional acting a little bit. But you still stayed in each other’s lives, your relationship turning from sweet and innocent to teasing and mild annoyance. At one point he bugged you so much, you told him to just leave you alone for a day. You thought you would finally have some peace, but found yourself sad that whole day. Jun refused to let your off easy though, and only started talking to you again when you showed up at his house with several cups of spicy noodles and an old VHS tape of one of your favorite movies. That was the first time you fell asleep on his shoulder, and he couldn’t quite figure out why his heart started to pound. He just blamed it on all the noodles he ate.

Jun was even your first kiss, though you didn’t tell him that until much later. He was in a play and needed to kiss one of the other actors, and was scared out of his mind. So, he came to you, his (at least he thought) more experienced friend. Being a teenager, you were embarrassed enough that he thought you already had your first kiss, but you were even more embarrassed thinking about telling him you hadn’t. So you let him believe you had.

It was insanely quick, mostly because you were both so nervous. He smiled afterwards though, leading you to smile.

“That wasn’t so bad!” Jun had laughed, shaking his head. “I can’t believe I was so worried about that!” You smiled to yourself, thinking along the exact same lines.

*

It was that same year that Jun came to you with some big news.

“Wait a second…” You said, trying to process what your best friend was telling you. “You’re… You’re moving to Korea… To be an idol?” Jun nodded his head, his eyes not leaving yours.

“I’m thinking about it.” He said, and you thought about it for a second.

“...Do you even know Korean?” You asked, causing Jun’s face to turn a little red as he slowly shook his head. “You realize that’s probably what they speak over there?”

“I would learn it.” He said, and you sighed.

“So… What are you gonna do?” You asked, playing with the sleeve on your shirt.

“I don’t know… I wanted to know what you thought.”

“Me?” Jun shrugged, and started playing with his own sleeve. You two definitely played the part of awkward teenagers well.

“Well, yeah. I mean… You’re the most important person to me beside my family… And you know me the best and whether or not I can do it…” He muttered, and you looked up at him.

“Junnie, of course you could do it. You’re Wen Junhui. You’re the boy who can do anything.” He looked at you again, sighing.

“Except win your heart.” Jun smirked, causing you to hit his arm. He had been making jokes like that for a while now, and you always felt a slight tug, knowing he was just joking. “...So you think I should do it?” He asked, and you thought about it for another second, then nodded.

“I don’t know what I’m gonna do without you here, but I think you’re gonna be amazing. If this is a way the rest of the world is gonna see you shine, then you have to try.” Jun leaned forward and hugged you, squeezing you a little tighter than he normally would.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do without you either.” He mumbled, and you sighed, patting his back.

*

A few weeks later, Jun had officially made the move to Korea. His first couple days there, he sent you almost hourly updates. Some were long, others were just saying a quick hi. He said the other boys he was training with were really nice, but he started to understand what you felt when you first moved to China. He sent you pictures every other day, including one of a boy named Jeonghan, saying he met your soulmate.

Life was weird for a while. Every time something good happened, you had to stop yourself from running to Jun’s house to tell him. Or if something bad happened, you had to stop yourself from calling him and asking him to come over. One time you almost called him, but you knew that he was working hard and if he knew something was wrong he’s try to come and see you.

As time went on, you were in contact less and less. Every day you wondered when he was ever going to come back, if he was coming back. He told you that when he did, you would be one of the first people he told. You got busier, he got busier, and eventually your communication slowed down to just a hello here and a hey there.

He did call you out of the blue one day, at about two in the morning. You remember being so concerned as to why he was suddenly calling you.

“Y/N. We’re debuting.”

“What?” You said, still half asleep, starting to wake up.

“We’re debuting. The group I’m training with. We’re debuting!” Your eyes shot open and you sat up.

“Seriously? Junnie! I’m so proud of you!” You said, somewhat quietly, since it was two in the morning. You heard his giggles through the phone, as well as several other voices.

“Thank you!” He said, followed by more laughter. “I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

“Kind of… But it’s okay. It’s been a while.” You grinned.

“Yeah it has… I’m sorry for calling now, but I didn’t want to wake my parents up and I needed to tell someone and… You know I missed you.”

“Jun, it’s really okay. I missed you too.”

“It’s been so busy here, and now it’s going to get busier. Oh! I don’t know if I told you! There’s another member from China! His name is…” Jun suddenly trailed off, and you heard some mumbled Korean (which you had started to pick up a bit of so you could understand Jun when he was a big star). “...Y/N I’m really sorry but I have to go…”

“Go, go. Go have fun and enjoy it.” You said. “Feel free to call any time.”

“I will, bye-” You just managed to catch before the phone went dead.

*

You were a little heartbroken when you saw that Jun and his other member Minghao were in China for some time, and he never mentioned it to you. Your head knew that he was busy, and probably didn’t say anything because he didn’t have the time to make it back home. But you were still a little hurt that he never even mentioned it to you.

You had been accepted to a special program at your school in Japan, so you had gone to spend a year there. You were even impressed to see all the Seventeen items, starting to realize just how popular they were getting. You were the usual old best friend, and tried to buy things whenever you could. You even sent a picture to Jun when you managed to get his photocard (you laughed to yourself, seeing the familiar face with purple hair) in one of the albums you bought, but were once again disappointed to not receive a response. Eventually you just stopped texting him, finally accepting that Jun had moved on in his life, and you had to move on in yours.

One of your roommates wanted to go see Seventeen while they were on tour in Japan, and you spent 4 days debating whether you should go or not. Part of you wanted to see Jun with all his new friends performing his little heart out, and to see that smile on his face again. The other part of you was trying so hard to let the past go. You even ended up selling most of your Seventeen items, though some you couldn’t quite part with, like a few of the albums you really liked and that particular purple haired photocard.

Your mom didn’t tell you this until much later, but Jun had come home while you were in Japan. He was so excited to surprise you, and to give you a bracelet he had found in his travels, one that he had a twin of. He felt bad about the fact that life had been so busy lately, and through all the craziness he had to get a new phone and a new number, but somehow your number got deleted in the transfer. He tried to contact you, but never seemed to manage to reach you.

He felt more nerves than when Seventeen debuted as he stood in front of your door, trying not to think about the fact that it had now been a couple years since he had seen you. He wondered what you looked like now. He ignored his heart pounding and rang the doorbell, trying to tell himself to not be nervous. He relaxed a little bit when your mom answered, surprise on her face.

“Junhui! Oh my gosh, look at you!”

“Hi Mrs. Y/L/N.” He smiled as she cooed over him, the little boy who used to help her with cooking and watch out for her child. “I was wondering if Y/N was around, I kind of wanted to surprise her so she wouldn’t be expecting-”

“Y/N? She didn’t tell you? Oh sweetie, Y/N isn’t here...” Your mom said, causing Jun’s heart to deflate.

“Oh… Do you know when she’ll be back?” He asked, trying to figure out the rest of his schedule.

“Not for another couple months… Y/N’s in Japan right now for school.”

“...Japan?” He asked, the disappointment too loud in his voice. She nodded her head with a frown.

“She got into a program and is studying abroad. I’m so sorry honey, I swore she would have told you…”

“Oh…” Jun said, recovering quickly. He was mildly kicking himself, being that Seventeen was just in Japan. He was closer to you than he had been in years and managed to completely miss you. “Oh, it’s alright. She was always the smart one, so she was bound to go places like this. Uhm… Yeah, we don��t talk too much… Anymore... Uhm, listen, can you not tell her I was here? I don’t want her to feel bad…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t say a word. Do you want to come in for some tea? I’d love to hear about your work!” She said, not taking Jun’s protests and ushering him into the house.

*

“So, everyone welcome our new employee, Y/N. Help make her feel at home here.”

You sat outside your new job, eating lunch and looking around Seoul. You had recently moved here because a position opened up within your company, and you were one of the only people at your job who was able to speak Korean.

You had taken a bite of your lunch as a group of people walked in front of you. You wouldn’t have even noticed, more distracted by some birds, if you hadn’t heard a certain voice.

“Y/N?!” You looked up, meeting Jun’s eyes. Your jaw dropped, wondering how on earth you managed to run into the one person you could possibly know here on your third day in the country. A couple of the other boys in the group waited for Jun, looking at him confused as he stared at you.

“Wait… Jun?” You said, watching the smile grow on his face. You had barely stood up as Jun walked forward and hugged you, squeezing you just a little tight. You let out a laugh as he pulled away, slightly processing what he just did.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done that, I just… Oh my god I haven’t seen you in so long!” He laughed, and you found yourself smiling just from his laugh. A laugh you didn’t realize how much you missed until now. “Oh, wait. Okay…” He turned towards the boys who were waiting for him, still watching you two in confusion. “Guys, this is Y/N. She was my best friend back in China. Y/N, this is Wonwoo, Seokmin, Chan, and Minghao.” He said, pointing to each of the boys.

“Oh yeah! I recognize you guys.” You said, waving at all of them. Jun gave you a look, which caused you to shrug. “I may have an album or two.”

“Wow, the best best friend. What are you even doing here-”

“Jun, I don’t want to end this reunion, but we are already late…” Minghao said, giving both of you an apologetic look. Jun pouted a bit, to which you shook your head.

“You know what? My lunch break is almost over anyway. I should be heading back. It was nice to meet you guys, and it was…” You turned to Jun. “It was really nice to see you again.” You started to walk away, but Jun stopped you.

“Wait uhm, your mom gave me your number a while ago but-”

“When did you see my mom?” You asked, to which Jun paused but then shrugged.

“A… while ago. But I tried messaging you and it never went through…”

“Oh, I had to get a new phone. I kind of… dropped it in a river.” You said, and Jun just chuckled.

“That sounds about right. Well here…” He pulled out his phone, opening up a new contact. “We should catch up soon.” You smiled, taking the phone and putting your information in.

“Yeah we should.” You said, handing the phone back. “I’ll.. see you around I guess. Nice bracelet.” You said, giving him and his friends a wave, then one more for Jun as you turned and made your way back to your office. Jun playing with the bracelet on his wrist, Minghao eventually coming up and pulling his arm, shaking his head.

*

“Wow, I missed you so much!” Jun laughed, leaning back on your couch.

“Me too… We gotta stop doing this not talking for a couple years thing.” You laughed, causing Jun to nudge your shoulder.

“Deal. You’re not getting away that easily again. No more going off to Japan without any warning.” He grinned.

“Only if you make that same deal.” You held out a pinky, and Jun linked his with yours.

“Deal.” He took a sip of his drink, sitting up a little more. “Alright, so who’s the lucky human?” He asked, and you raised an eyebrow.

“What lucky human?” You laughed, confused by his question.

“The lucky person who managed to steal your heart. Who finally did it?”

“Who…? Well, no one yet.” You said, looking at him. “I mean, there’s been a couple people here and there, but no one has done it yet.” You leaned back again, looking around your apartment.

“Seriously?” You nodded your head, and Jun leaned back to your level again. “Wow, I thought it would have happened by now. Well, at least if I couldn’t do it, it must really just be a challenge.” You laughed at his joke.

“Oh come on, I bet if you really had tried you could have done it.” You joked back, then noticed that Jun hadn’t laughed. You looked over at him, and he was just playing with his bracelet. “...Jun?”

“Oh…” He quickly recovered, putting a smile on his face. “Oh yeah, you’re probably right.” He cleared his throat, sitting forward a little bit. “Listen, I should probably head out. Rehearsal tomorrow, you know.”

“Oh… Yeah. Yeah, you should get going then. It’s late, and I have work tomorrow too. Big meeting. You know.” You said, standing up, following Jun’s lead. You cleaned up a little bit, then took him to the door.

“We should do this again soon.” Jun said, and you nodded.

“Definitely. Don’t work too hard.” You smiled, and he gave a wave as he stepped out of your apartment.

“Same to you.” He said, walking down the hall as you shut the door. You let out a sigh, leaning against the door for a second. You suddenly felt down, and you couldn’t quite figure out why. You shook your head, going to finish cleaning up. You had just finished your dishes when you heard a knock at your door.

“Oh, hi? Did you forget something?” You asked, opening the door to Jun again. Jun scratched his head, looking extremely nervous.

“Uhm… Yeah, kind of.” He said, and you looked back into your apartment. You didn’t see anything that looked out of place, so you turned back to Jun.

“Okay… What did you forget?” Jun just looked at you for a couple seconds, then took a step towards you. He put a hand on the side of your face, and before you could process what was happening, he leaned down and kissed you. It only lasted a couple seconds, but your heart felt so warm and it all clicked in your head.

“I… Really liked you then.” He said, and you looked at him. “I really like you now.” He wasn’t really looking at you, so you smiled. You quickly kissed his cheek, which caused them to turn dark red.

“I kinda like you too.”

*

You sighed at the picture, smiling at the two children smiling back at you. You felt weight falling next to you, turning to see your new husband smiling at you.

“What you looking at?” He asked, taking the book, slightly flipping through.

“Just some old photos.” You smiled as he took the one in your hand, smirking.

“Oh, my god.” He laughed, bringing it closer to his face to examine it better. “Can you believe we were ever that small?”

“Well, I can, but I’m realistic.” You joked, leaning on his shoulder.

“You know, I knew even back then that we’d end up together.”

“Oh did you?” You laughed, looking at him. “How could you possibly know that?”

“Because you’re my soulmate. Remember? We pinky promised on it? You don’t take that shit lightly.” He said, looking at the picture again.

“I guess we did.” You smiled as Jun pointed to you on the picture. “Didn’t you say Jeonghan was my soulmate at one point?”

“Maybe, but you needed to be set up. Poor thing, couldn’t get a date on her own. I had to interfere, for your own good. Couldn’t even tell when someone had a major crush on you. Besides, who wouldn’t fall in love with this little monster?” Pointing to your face in the picture, then your actual cheek.

“I guess you were my prince charming after all.”

“And you were my fairy tale.”

[despairandregretentertainment]

God Strike Down The Queen | Chris | Trial 5.5 | Re: Sorano, Jun, Rafe

Chris gives a nod of thanks to Sorano with a small snort, having mostly known about that, and a slightly more soft smile towards Jun for his own words. He’d known about Jun’s situation too, though it’s the trust that he’s willing to put in him for this that he appreciates the most. He could hope to not actually die, but if he did, at least it was on his own terms.

“I guess you will, and I guess I do. I’d tell ya to catch up to me, but I think we’re both fine where we are now. Thanks for the trust, no matter what happens. I know you said under diary oath that you wouldn't want me dead just to end this, but hopefully something better’ll come out of everything in the end, y’know? I appreciate it."

And, finally, he turns to Rafe with a wry smile of amusement, not overly annoyed despite the predatory grin and the suspicions pulled out from long past. 

  “Hate to break it to ya, but suspecting me or not, it still just makes you an asshole to have done it cuz of that more than justified, dude. And eh, don’t flatter yourself either; Even if we have some things in common, we’re hardly the same person, and frankly I have a lot more in common with Jun than I do with you. This game doesn’t revolve around you, y’know? Or me. But thanks, I appreciate the vote for my death, and I’ll steal all the luck I can.”

HCDISUCHDISU Thanks Chris. He says that with genuine sounding sincerity too, still just vibing as he leans back to rest even in the face of somewhat-certain death.

“Though to set the record straight on my fly-in situation, just because it’s relevant to the topic of shit TE’s pulled anyhow…” Because oh boy, he has more shit to talk about-

“I’ve worked for TE before in the entertainment industry, and got pretty popular in Japan for a bit too. It was over a decade or so before now while Tomo's dad was in charge, back when I was living in Japan for a while for work reasons. Child actor stuff, though the public thought I was even younger than I really am, but that one’s my mom’s fault. 

I even worked with current TE board member and now known bastard Hideo Muramoto directly at one point, as you might have noticed from one of Akira’s memories in this chapter, cuz I sure remember that shit fucking happening. Can’t say he was a great guy at the time, though if I’m being honest a lot of people in the acting world just suck shit in general. You saw what he made Akira do with that woman, though. I fucking wonder how he got the disease he has now.” Bastard.

“But, anyways, I made a new life for myself after that years later and left all that behind, finally got out to live my own life under a new name, try to figure out who I really was, etc etc. Got a good few years of that in, it was honestly pretty nice. Still proud of the musical I ended up making. But in the end, shit always seems to happen, huh?

I was in the middle of fleeing the country to escape the impending backlash of a former friend of mine leaking some private information about me that was going to link me to my past identity to the public when TE found me. It was just taking a normal public flight out of the US to get away from it all, ride out the storm and see what my options where when things cooled off, but I guess TE managed to get a drop on the news before the greater public did and managed to track me, because I was intercepted mid trip with a re-route for them to take me in and make their offer for me. 

I guess they figured I was some kind of security risk, since I only got to meet with a hologram of Tomo instead of the real deal. Dunno if it was the real him talking to me or not, and we’ll deal with Tomo later after the rest of the assholes if it comes to it. I know my priorities here.”

“Their offer was that if I joined DARE that they’d keep my past identity under wraps and stop it from getting out to the public while I was on it and after if I survived if I got my grand prize. But obviously, I wasn’t about to just trust that so I planned to refuse. And as you’ve seen in the present, it only took Rafe vaguely outting my past identity as a former child star on live TV for them all to drop their end of the deal with loopholes on that with the fear motive they gave. Maybe they would have anyways even without that happening, who knows.

But of course, that’s when the threats came in for the negotiation, the implication I’d be trapped in Japan under their thumb to be their personal puppet or die on the streets if I didn’t comply. I wished for awhile that I’d refused anyways and just took my chances to flee Japan too, but I knew it probably wasn’t going to work out. Nice as it would be for the US to actually do something for me, their blackmail material on the legality of my citizenship was enough to make that complicated at best. I'm Scottish, by the way.”

Oopsie, Chris is in fact an illegal immigrant to the US. If he’s putting all his cards on the table now, there’s really no reason not to reveal that too. Maybe he’d get the chance to sort that out one day. Well, if he survived this anyways, it was still pretty likely that he wouldn’t. 

“So, y’know, like hell am I taking all that lying down without lying down directly in front of their only way out of this. If they wanna fuck with me like they have been, I’m abso-fucking-lutely doing everything I can to fuck them over too.

The TE board of directors are the ones playing with our lives for entertainment, so while I’d rather personally put them under that guillotine in the Rage Room myself, fucking with them and their entertainment value here will have to do, because I’m not giving them shit that doesn’t involve talking about the fucked up operation they’ve been running with their shadow puppeting of TE.”

That’s his bit done, and he gets his own phone ready to vote with once they actually have to, but he’s going to be slow about it himself in general. Come what may at this point.

[sunshinechii-scenarios]

Day with Jun

I've been gone from my Day with SVT series oooooof. I haven't been very inspired recently for these which sucks but I know my creativity will come back, hopefully LOL. Check out our always updating masterlist for the other parts! - Chii

✿ Seventeen’s Jun x Gender Neutral Reader ✿ Fluff ✿ 1.8k words ✿  Not requested ✿  Written by Chii

I made that divider only for this blog’s use so please don’t take it or use in your own posts, thank you .- Chii

Your morning started much later than you expected. At 3 PM your phone rang and Jun woke you up with a loud good afternoon.

“I'll be there in 10!” You lazily mumbled a ‘mhm’ as you hung up the phone. You remembered that Jun was off today and wanted to relax with you. You had prepared face masks, dumb movies and snacks before hand.

You passed out right after the call and drifted back into dream world. A few seconds went by in your head while 10 minutes really passed. The doorbell was being rung quickly and you jolted out if bed.

You fixed your hair while you walked to the door and found Jun standing at it. He had a baby blue bag at his side. You stared at his outfit and frowned.

“Why are you wearing that?” He looked at his outfit and bought his brows together in confusion.

“What do you mean? I think I look good.”

“A leather jacket and jeans! I thought you would come in something comfortable.” You had wanted him to be at his maximum comfort today.

“I didn't get the memo we were supposed to look like we just rolled out of bed.” He said as he rolled his eyes and continued to stand in the door frame. You crossed your arms and pulled him in.

“Come in already you idiot! You’re lucky I have basketball shorts and a hoodie that fit you.” You said as you started to walk off to your bedroom. He took off his shoes, leaving him in his socks and following you.

By the time he entered the room, you were already halfway into your closet looking for the articles of clothing. You threw a pair of basketball shorts on the bed

“Change into those, you know where the bathroom is.” He took the shorts and went into the bathroom down the hall to change.

While he did so, you finally found the dark green hoodie from the depths of your closet. Jun entered the room and you aimed perfectly to throw it had his face.

“Is this the Clap hoodie?” He recognized the print on the back, Specialized Video Technology.

“Yes it is!” You smiled happily as he shrugged off his leather jacket, leaving him in just a tee-shirt.

“Why’d you buy one? I could have easily given you mine or gotten an extra.” He said while pushing his head through the small opening. His hair was a mess afterwards and caused you to laugh.

“Because I want to support you guys and be a good friend? Why is that a question?” You pushed him to sit on your bed as you fixed his hair by combing it with your fingers.

“Alright, whatever. What are we doing today anyway?” Jun said as he started to walk back to the living room with you behind him. You clapped your hands and smiled.

“We’re gonna get pampered!” His expression dropped, he was bewildered. He stopped walking, turned around and looked at you.

“Excuse me?”

“Well, you work a lot so you need some sort of relaxation, right? I also have a lot of movies to watch and I just got paid so food is on me!” You happily said to him. You wanted him to feel like he didn’t need to do any work today, it was the least you could do as his friend. He sighed and shook his head.

“I wish you would have told me that before I bought some of my mom's cooking over. She was taking a connecting flight and stopped by the dorms. She likes you more than she likes me.” He turned back around to walk and sit on the couch with multiple throw pillows and a large fluffy blanket.

“I think I like your mom more than I like you.” You said as you followed but didn’t sit down.

“Low blow. Why are you standing? Get down here.” Jun looked up at you but you turned your head ‘no’.

“Get comfortable! I'll get the stuff, there's a few movies already there, the remote is right in front of you! Choose anything!” Jun picked up the remote and began to flip through the movies you put into a playlist titled “For Junhui!”

He heard your footsteps and turned his head towards the sound to be face to face with a bunch of face masks.

“Choose one!” He rolled his eyes and nodded an okay as he randomly picked up a mask, aloe. You placed it on the couch as you went to put the other ones away.

“Perfect! Your skin looks dry anyway.” Jun stared at your with an offended look. You turned to see his unamused expression.

“Oh stop it! I mean it in the nicest way possible.” You hit his shoulder lightly.

“Yea, sure. I can’t help it, they don’t use the right makeup for my skin type.” He whined, thinking back to when they used a super matte, self-setting foundation on his face for a photoshoot.

“Okay, okay. Shush so I can put this on.” You said as you pat his shoulder. He rested his head on the couch as you stood behind it, ripping open the green packaging. You removed the slimy mask and unfolded it. Carefully, you fit it onto his face.

“You’re getting it in my mouth.” Jun mumbled as the mask started to coat his lips.

“Then stop moving!” You hit his shoulder then carefully pulled the mask off his lips before dabbing off the excess with a tissue. You noticed the pale and cracked skin.

“Gross, do you use chapstick?” You said as you threw the tissue on the coffee table to discard later.

“I think it wiped off on the hoodie in all honesty.” Jun said slowly to avoid the mask from slipping down his face and coating his lips again.

“I'll grab mine. Your lips look crusty.” He nodded while you went off to your room to grab the chapstick.

You applied the chapstick to his lips that looked a little too inviting even though they were gross looking. You shoved the blue tube in his hands while you excused yourself to the bathroom to cool down.

You closed and locked the door. Turning on the water, you splashed your face with the cold water. You found a tray of nail polish that your cousin left by the sink last time she visited and a great idea popped in your head.

Fast forward a little bit and Jun was patting in the extra face mask essence into his skin with one hand while you prepped the other for applying nail polish on.

“I really don't get why you’re painting my nails.” Jun said while you filed his nails. You felt the calluses on his hands and furrowed your brows for a few seconds until Jun called your name. 

“Do you think you could black?” He asked while his hand slipped out of yours to observe your job well done on his nails.

“I think so, why?” You asked as you looked through the tray in search for a black bottle.

“I'd rather do black than the light blue you have right now.” He said as he pointed to the bottle of baby blue polish on the table.

“Fair enough.” You opened the bottle and started to paint his hands. The warmth was still the same as ever.

While waiting for the layers of nail polish to dry, you kept an eye on the time.3:50 PM, 4:00 PM, 4:10 PM and 4:20 PM.

“Is that opaque enough for you?” You let go of his hands.

 “Reminds me of when I was a vampire for that drama.” You thought back to his actor days and tried to hold back a laugh for what you wanted to say next.

“Oh Mr.Junhui sir please don’t suck my blood and kill me!” You said in a very sarcastic way and it caused him to roll his eyes.

“You’re lucky my nails are still wet and I like them.” “Are you hungry by the way?” You said as you turned on the TV to slide a movie disk into it.

“Not really but let's order now. If we order any later than we’ll be stuck in the dinner rush.”

“Smart, pizza?” You asked.

“YES! I’ve been on this diet that Soonyoung put us on and I haven’t laid eyes on pizza in a month.” He groaned and you laughed at his manner.

You ordered the pizza but it looked like others got the same idea. There was an hour and 45 minute wait but Jun didn’t care. You pulled some snacks from the drawers in the kitchen and shared them between you two.

Jun took a photo of his nails and send them into the SVT group chat. They replied with a photo of a giant couch fort. Based on the photo, Vernon was taking the photo since you counted 11 boys in it.

“Do you think my nails are dry?” You shrugged and pushed the tip of your finger at his.

“Yes they are. Why?”

“Wanna build a fort?”

“Uh, yeah!” You two got to work and started to throw cushions and blankets all over the place. In half an hour your fort was erected in all its beige and soft glory. 

You two sat inside and dragged all the snacks in along with you. The comedy movie that you had put in earlier was just ending when Jun suggested something. A horror movie?

“Aren’t you bad with horror movies?”

“Sadly but where’s the fun in watching a comedy with my best friend?”

“Fine, I’ll dig something out.” You said as you walked away and came back a few minutes later with a Scary Movie disk in hand. Scary Movie was one of those movies that parodied the unoriginal scary movie cliches and made them funny.

(Scary Movie is rated R so please don’t watch it or the other movies in the series without an adult.)

The door rang when the climax of the movie had just died down. Jun offered to get it while you paused the movie. He sat down and opened the box in front of you two. 

“Are we really in a couch cushion fort setting pizza and watching Scary Movie right now?”

“Yes we are.” He rolled his eyes as he got another slice of pizza. His eyes drifted down to you leaning on him while covering your eyes. He wasn't a big fan of ghosts either but he blocked out the movie. You were much more entertaining. A light bulb went off in his head and he wanted to scare you. 

He unnoticeably moved his shoulder so his hand stopped right behind your back. The hand walked up your back. You screaming thinking it was a really big bug or a ghost, either one was bad. Jun’s laugher caused you to hit him. 

“Y/N, thanks for today.” He said sincerely as he hugged you lightly.

“Ah! What are you talking about? You decided to spend today with me instead of resting.” You tried to hide the blush that creeped on your cheeks and watched the movie on the screen.

“I made a good choice thought! I wish we could spend forever like this” Jun said. You wished the same.

I was in a RUSHHHH to finish this bc I felt bad that I hadn’t been keeping up with my written series that I work on! - Chii

Please don’t claim this as your own and please don’t do anything with it without my permission. If you don’t want it happening to you, don’t do it to others.