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oldestfriend-invisibly · 3 months ago

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Playdate- Little Pril & Little Jennifer

Hello!! Sorry I went a month and a half without posting any fics, I was having an extremely stressful time.

I made a post a few weeks ago about April and Jenn hanging out together when regressed and decided to write a whole fic of it.

There's a mandatory, all-day meeting at the Washington office and whilst April is too small to attend it, Ben can't get out of going. Instead she gets to spend the day with Jenn who is also regressed (though older) and has been told she can't be in the meeting and agrees to watch over the younger girl.

4.8K words (I got carried away.)

Warnings- brief mention of harmful stimming during a meltdown. I've put [red brackets] around the paragraph it's mentioned in if you need to skip it.

...

Until now, Ben hadn’t actively taken April into the Washington office when she was regressed. She had slipped a couple of times whilst already there before, but he’d been able to let her nap or sit quietly next to him in his office. And if she was small in the morning, Ben would just call and request the day off work altogether.

But today, April hadn’t been obviously small when she woke up. Ben had noticed she was a bit more tired and grumbly than usual, but April wasn’t exactly a morning person, so he brushed it off. Now however, they were in the car, running late, and all Ben was focussed on was preparing himself for the big important meeting they had that day that everybody in the office would be attending.

Ben was so focused on mentally running and re-running his planned discussion points and planned schedule for the day, he completely missed the fact that April’s Scooby Doo audiobook CD had been left in the player and that it had automatically started playing when he turned the car on.

He was only made aware of this by the soft humming of April in the passenger seat beside him mumbling along to the Scooby Doo theme song that played between the end of one story and the beginning of another. Internally, Ben started panicking, knowing instantly that she was small, though wasn’t sure how far April had regressed. From the singing which was somewhat coherent- not quite bordering on babbling- he guessed she wasn’t as young as she often was, but also, probably wasn’t big enough to be able to sit through the meeting.

Ben couldn’t exactly just get April to be big, knowing being forced out of her headspace would most likely cause April to melt down later on. Equally, Ben could not miss this meeting. The current project was in its most critical phase, and as its leader- they couldn’t coordinate it without him there.

Additionally, Ben knew the others back in Pawnee were currently equally as busy, so likely wouldn’t have any free time to sit on a video call to April to keep her company. The thought of leaving his girl alone in the office made Ben’s heart constrict with anxiety.

Glancing momentarily away from the road and at April he observed the way she was wriggling around in her seat and heard the way she was parroting back the words spoken by the narrator on the CD. Whilst not understimulated to the point of upset, Ben could tell that today was a day where April was going to need pretty constant sensory input and thus ideally- supervision. However, whilst Ben would never ever describe April’s stimming as disruptive, he knew that the ignorant, irritable idiots he worked with would tolerate hearing the small girl absentmindedly echoing each word they spoke back to them just about as well as April would tolerate having to silently sit still for hours on end.

Running out of time as they were nearing the office building, Ben’s only plan of action consisted of getting April sat down in a quiet corner of the empty office and queueing up a day’s worth of movies for her to watch, with a handful of toys to fiddle with. He’d try his best to insert a few breaks into the meeting which he could use to get her to eat and use the bathroom, and maybe later in the day he could even get her to nap for the last few hours of the meeting.

“Dad, what are we doing today?” April questioned, drawing out the words out in a way that Ben knew meant that she knew exactly what was scheduled for that day, but was hopeful that she could convince Ben to change the plans.

“I’ve got that big meeting today, remember? Do you think you’ll be fine to keep yourself busy on your own?”

Ben winced at the pout and frustrated whine from beside him.

“Meetings are stupid and boring though. Why can’t you cancel it, aren’t you meant to be in charge?” her tone was as biting as a five year old could reasonably manage.

Ben got out of the car and opened the passenger door, crouching down face-to-face with April as she turned away from him, crossed her arms, and huffed- refusing to get out of the car. He sighed, trying to remain patient, yet keep the conversation short enough that they wouldn’t be any later than they already were.

“I am in charge, April, which is why I absolutely have to be in the meeting. I’m going to need you to behave really well for me today or else we might have to go to bed early and then you wouldn’t be able to call Mommy for a nighttime story.” He hated to use the threat of punishment like this, but he urgently needed to get her out of the car and into the building.

April didn’t respond further than another very grumpy pout, and Ben doubted he’d get anything else out of her. She still shifted back straight in her seat to let him reach over and unbuckle her seatbelt, so she obviously wasn’t irreconcilably mad at him, though she didn’t accept his outstretched hand to hold as they entered the building. Instead she swung her arms back and forth, eyes fixed resolutely on the ground as she trudged behind Ben and angrily muttered a mix of complaints about the meeting, complaints about Ben, and Scooby Doo theme song lyrics.

…

Whilst the meeting wasn’t due to start for another 4 minutes, by the time the two of them got up to the office it was already empty- everyone else had already made their way to the conference room. But as Ben didn’t technically have to be there until 9:30, he was going to stay with April, making sure she was settled, until the last moment; he didn’t care if it made him seem like a cold and distant boss.

When Ben scanned the room to determine the best place to get April situated, he realised he was incorrect in his initial assessment that the room was empty.

Sitting in one of the corners closest to the door was Jennifer. This was slightly strange, but Ben wouldn’t be surprised if she too was taking advantage of the remaining four minutes of freedom she had that day- she had always been incredibly efficient when it came to putting in the exact amount of time and effort needed to do a good job and get paid and not a second more.

“Avoiding the inevitable too, Jenn?” Ben called as he made his way over to where Jenn sat, deciding it would be a good idea to put April close to the water fountain there in the hope that maybe it’d prompt her to stay hydrated. He could hear April’s shuffling steps following not too close behind him, though she had gone silent in the unexpected presence of another person.

Jenn fixed Ben with a glare halfway between judgemental and disdainful, not uncommon, but didn’t provide any other response.

“Jenn…?”

“Ugh I’m so annoyed. I told them that I’m supposed to be in the pointless meeting and they can’t kick me out because I’m important then them, but no! I’m not apparently because I’m not ‘fit for work today’ which is so stupid! I literally don’t even care about the meeting either because it’s probably going to be mind-numbingly boring because everyone in there are actual idiots, and they all acted like I’m a baby and I’m not! I hate them so much!”

Ben was slightly taken aback by Jenn’s outburst. April seemed equally as wary as Ben felt her move closer behind him peering round at Jenn, similar to how a much smaller child would hide behind an adult's legs.

“Jenn,” Ben wasn’t completely sure of the best way to go about this, so decided to just ask plainly, “are you regressed at the moment?”

“Ugh no. Ok yeah fine, I am, whatever but it’s not even a big deal, I’m not even a baby or anything. I’m basically an adult and I’m definitely way more responsible and reasonable and smarter right now than any of them have ever been.”

Ben was stumped. Not only did he not realise Jenn regressed, but he also had extremely limited experience with teen regression. Before he could reply, Jenn noticed April and spoke first.

“Is she regressed too?”

April stepped out from where she was hidden and nodded, though she did grab onto Ben’s hand- clearly slightly intimidated. Although Andy was almost always older than April was, April had never been around an older girl.

“Do you have to stay here all day as well?” April asked, confidence growing when Ben squeezed her hand.

“Yep” she popped the p.

April’s eyes widened in excitement.

“Da, please please can I play with Jennifer today?” It seemed her previous upset with Ben was completely forgotten. Jenn was older and kinda mean which in April’s eyes made her really cool.

Ben hesitated. Whilst he realistically couldn’t stop them hanging out together and wouldn’t want to stop April having fun, he knew Jenn could be intense and often quite loud, and Ben was somewhat worried that April might get overwhelmed and Jenn wouldn’t be able to help.

The meeting was due to start in only a minute now, so Ben really couldn’t stay deliberating any longer.

“Yes you can, so long as you behave and stay with Jenn and don’t leave.” April nodded excitedly.

“Jenn, I’m gonna show you my evil torture prison dungeon on Minecraft.”

Once April had run over to her desk to retrieve her stuff, Ben turned to Jenn.

“Look, Jenn, I really need to run off now but you have my number right? If anything happens or she needs me please let me know? I’ll let the others know I’m waiting on a doctor��s call. She’s never been without one of us before and I guess I just really worry about her, she might be a bit high-maintenance today.”

Jenn just rolled her eyes at him. “Please, you’re so lame, it’s not like I’m going to let her loose on the streets, we’ll be fine. I’ll let you know if there’s an emergency.”

“Thank you so much Jenn. Have fun, April!” He called back as he all but sprinted away.

Pushing her own chair out from behind it’s desk, Jenn pulled another round next to it, patting it to invite April over.

“Come over here and show me your prison then, kid.”

…

April had a ton of fun showing Jennifer the different rooms in her prison. The one where the pistons pushed the chickens into the lava pit made the older girl snort with laughter, and April was so excited about Jenn thinking it was cool that she even let her push a few chickens into the lava herself.

Once Jenn had received a full tour of not just April’s prison but also her castle with all of her pets and the rocket that Andy had insisted on building, Jenn decided it was her turn to show April a game. April had never played a fashion dress-up game before but she quickly found that she absolutely loved picking the worst outfits and hairstyles possible, and then laughing at how stupid the models looked. The robotic announcement of the in-game judge- “te-rri-ble! Zero stars!”- in particular sent her into an uncontrollable fit of giggles, and had her repeating “te-rri-ble” and “Zero stars!” for the next twenty minutes with the same annunciation as the man in the game.

A little later on, the two were sat on the ground playing dolls. Or more accurately, Jenn was passionately explaining the intricate web of drama between her dolls whilst April rocked back and forth with her head on her knees, listening enraptured to the story whilst she mouthed along with Jenn’s words as she had done earlier with the audiobook.

“And then, just after Eleanore found out that her dad was going to jail for breaking into the city records office to destroy her popstar best friend’s birth certificate and erase her from existence, she also found out that her boyfriend Jake had been lying about being her boyfriend and he was actually an undercover robber all along trying to steal her diamonds!”

“Then what happened??” April was entirely invested.

“Then Eleanore called her other best friend- Cindy, the karate champion- and she fought Jake by-”

“by using her secret evil witch powers to turn him into a tiny beetle and trapping him in a jar until he says sorry and agrees to be her servant forever!”

“Well actually first she karate kicked him in the head but sure then she trapped him as a beetle.”

“And then he lived in Eleanore’s dungeon forever and ever and had to bring her and her friends cake and presents and new pet sharks every single day!”

“Yeah, sure, kid!” Jenn agreed, slightly thrown off after having her well planned out storyline derailed by April, but not particularly upset about it.

“Hey, wanna hear a secret?” Jenn leaned close to April conspiratorially.

“Yes, yes, tell me!” gasped April.

“Well, I’ve got a whole bag of chocolate in my desk from back when I was working in Pawnee. And I know your Dad would probably say no because he’s probably packed you a lunch with like fruit and stuff, but he isn’t here so he’d never find out… do you want some?”

This was the most exciting thing that had happened to April since Andy visited DC, and she was too eager to even speak, instead nodding enthusiastically and clenching and unclenching her fists at her sides.

Ben in fact did find out. Even if not for the empty wrappers conspicuously flowing over the top of the bin, the sight of April giggling and propelling herself round and round in the desk chair as her hands flapped were obvious signs that April was on a sugar high.

“Hey, guys, I’ve got thirty minutes off for lunch, but something tells me you’ve already had a feast.” Ben sighed but ultimately wasn’t angry with the pair. He knew today was probably difficult for both of them, so he was glad they were at least having some fun.

“What? No. We didn’t have any feasts, you’re lying.” April was an awful liar, and Jenn had to suppress the laughter that had started the moment she was sure Ben wasn’t about to get annoyed at her.

“Oh you haven’t? Well then I’m sure there’s lots of room in your tummy for lunch?” Ben smirked.

April, unable to continue her lie, simply huffed and crossed her arms. After making sure had a drink and a bathroom break, Ben did convince her to eat at least half of her sandwich and some grapes. She sat on his lap to eat whilst Jenn sat beside them picking at her own lunch.

Ben had to keep reminding April not to chew and talk at the same time as she immediately went into an explanation of everything the two of them had gotten up to that morning. However, by the end of the thirty minutes, April had fully crashed down from both the sugar high and the emotional high of the morning. Knowing one of the smaller rooms attached to the main office had a couch inside, Ben decided to try and get April to nap earlier than initially planned.

In anticipation for the meeting, April had worn comfortable leggings and a long sleeved t-shirt so luckily Ben didn’t need to get her to change into something she’d actually sleep in. All he needed to do was fetch her blanket and whatever stuffie was currently in her bag- which ironically was Jenn, her monkey.

It didn’t take long at all for April to drift off, and Ben gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before he left to resume the meeting, but not before quickly stopping by Jennifer on his way out.

“The meeting should last roughly another four hours, she’ll probably stay down for at least half of that time, and once she wakes up, just to get her to stick a movie on her tablet or something.”

Jenn nodded, attention split between Ben and the Monster High dress-up game she was playing.

“Yep”

“Thank you again so much, Jenn, remember call me-”

“Yes, I will call you if there’s an emergency. You’re already late getting back.” Jenn snickered as Ben noticed the time, and like he had earlier, sprinted out.

…

Ben had been right in his estimate, and about two hours later, April stirred from her nap.

She was immediately disoriented, taking a few seconds to remember where she was, and where Ben was. Upon recalling her morning, April had the distinct thought that whilst she loved hanging out with Jenn, she kind of just wanted her Dad and to go home now. She wasn’t going to cry about it. though. She knew that Da really couldn’t abandon the meeting and had asked her to behave whilst he was gone. Yes, she could be a big girl and play with Jenn again and behave and not cry, though all her earlier enthusiasm seemed to have left her.

When Jenn heard shuffling footsteps from across the room she looked up to see April, hair frizzy on one side, and holding her orange monkey. The subdued expression that revealed the girl’s change in demeanour set Jenn on edge slightly, as she tried to decide how best to handle this.

“Hey April” she winced as the girl startled at the sudden loudness of her voice, consciously softening her tone as she continued. “Wanna do some colouring?”

After a beat, April nodded. Stopping by her own desk on the way first and retrieving a green chewy toy which she immediately put in her mouth, April hesitantly walked over to Jenn. The blanket trailing behind the girl made her look a bit like a snail, and the thought made her smile.

April didn’t want to accidentally make a mess of the picture Jenn was colouring, so she decided to make a start on the other page. It was a picture of two girls sat together in a coffee shop. April thought this seemed boring, but the idea to give them purple skin and red eyes and make them drink neon yellow radioactive coffee did sound fun.

April wasn’t the biggest fan of colouring. She would get very frustrated when she went out of the lines, and would often abandon a picture altogether in response. She didn’t want to waste any of Jenn’s colouring pages though, so she picked up a light purple pencil and started very carefully filling in the picture.

Ann once told her that colouring was a calming strategy to help deal with big loud emotions. April hadn’t understood that. It was too quiet and still- leaving nothing to combat the loud emotions she was trying to avoid, and some types of pens made bad squeaky noises on the paper, and combined with the aforementioned frustration of having to start a new picture every time one went wrong made colouring a surprisingly overwhelming activity for April.

She tried to stop thinking about missing Da and focus on the picture but tears sprung to her eyes, blurring her vision. Not being able to properly see the page, April accidentally ended up colouring in some of the table purple by accident. But April had to carry on. She had to behave and making a fuss and leaving Jenn’s book with an unfinished picture because she was overreacting was not being well behaved.

These swirling thoughts brought more tears to her eyes and thus, more mistakes on the page. A moment later, Jenn noticed the tears about to spill down April’s face and started to panic, unsure of what had caused this reaction.

“Hey, April? Kid, are you ok?” In response, April only nodded, Jenn was cool, she couldn’t know April was being a big baby and crying about messing up a picture and missing her Dad. That was stupid and not cool.

Changing tactic, Jenn tried to steer the conversation to the picture April was colouring in, not expecting that this was in any way related to the problem.

At the mention of the colouring, April choked out a gasping sob as her emotions boiled over. She threw the pencil down with force, a purple dot now stood out against the girl on the paper’s still-white eye, which made April cry harder.

“Oh, uh, is it the colouring that’s upsetting you? What’s wrong with it?”

[April was now pressing her nails into her arms in a way that Jenn thought had to be somewhat painful, though she refrained from intervening terrified of making it worse, unsure if April would want to be touched. April’s crying unnerved Jenn slightly- her choked, strained gasps and low whines sounding nothing like how Jenn’s little sister used to cry, and for a moment Jenn worried that the girl was having some sort of asthma attack, her sobs seeming more pained than emotional. ]

“Bad colouring. Terrible, terrible, terrible.” Jenn would’ve snickered at the reappearance of the earlier vocal stim if not for April’s failure to communicate otherwise indicating how distressed she truly was.

Jenn felt awful. April had been excited to hang out earlier and she had assured Ben that April would be fine and now she wasn’t and she didn’t even know what went wrong. She suddenly felt very out of her depth, despite being older than April, she was still regressed herself, after all, and she was not equipped to deal with the situation.

Shakily reaching for her phone, she decided that this probably counted as an emergency. She glanced at April while the call connected, making sure she wasn’t at any physical risk, which she didn’t immediately seem to be, having thankfully removed her nails from her arms in favour of clutching the soft fur of her toy monkey. Ben, predictably, picked up barely a moment after it started ringing, and she heard a muffled “I really have to take this” over the top of some light murmuring, followed by an opening and closing door, and then just silence punctuated by Ben’s heavy breathing.

“Jennifer? Are you two ok? Is April ok?”

“I don’t know, Ben. I’m so sorry. She woke up and was all… quiet and we were colouring and she was crying I think? And when I asked her what was wrong, she started crying harder and I think… she seems really overwhelmed but I don’t know why.” Jenn rattled off in nearly one breath.

“It’s ok, Jenn, is she safe?” Ben tried to keep the panic out of his voice as he ran to the office. Jenn nodded, before realising he couldn’t see her nod, and replied “yeah, I think so.”

Ben soon arrived and ran straight over to where April stood swaying as she skittishly shifted from one foot to the other.

“Hey, Pril, shh. I’m here. Can you open your eyes for me, sweetheart?”

April opened her eyes, and once she registered Ben stood in front of her, she all but collapsed into him.

Catching her, he lowered them both down, swiped the blanket from where it was discarded a few feet away, and wrapped her up tightly in it. He gently rocked her back and forth, knowing the gentle, repetitive movement would help ground her.

“Da, terrible!” she whined in between gasps.

“Shhh, I know, Pril. Just keep doing deep breaths for me.”

April nodded, dropping her head to lean against him so she could fully focus more on her breathing. Her Da was here now and the emotions in her head were getting quieter and quieter.

Jenn wasn’t really sure how to help. She spotted the chewy toy discarded on the floor and picked it up, quickly running to wash it off.

When she arrived back, she wasn’t entirely sure if either of the other two had noticed she’d left so she nervously cleared her throat.

“Uhm, I washed this off. For if April wanted it.” She held out the toy which Ben gratefully took, he gave it to April who immediately started chewing on it again, letting out a shaky but calm sigh.

“Thank you so much, Jenn.” Ben smiled at the older girl who clearly felt very lost in the situation.

Then he tilted his head down to look at April. “I still have 30 minutes until I can leave, are you ok here until then, Pril?”

“Go home straight after?” She asked.

“I promise we’ll go home as soon as the meeting’s over.”

“Will Jenn stay until then?” she asked with a slight hopeful tone.

Ben looked up at Jenn who nodded assuredly, relief flashed across her face with the confirmation that April wasn’t upset at her.

“Yeah, she’ll stay with you.”

Deciding the easiest thing to do was to pull up a movie for April to watch, Ben went about setting the tablet up.

“Do you want your headphones, Pril?”

“No. Jenn needs to hear too.” Both Ben and Jenn smiled at that.

Eventually, Ben left to finish the last half hour of the meeting and Jenn and April were left together, sitting side by side on the floor with April’s tablet in front of them.

A couple of minutes in, Jenn noticed April twisting her fingers together and panicked once more thinking she was getting overwhelmed again.

“April? Do you need me to get your Da again?”

She wasn’t expecting the reply April gave- “Can I sit on your lap? Please?” she looked down, obviously nervous to ask, and Jenn sighed in relief.

“Yep” Jenn popped the p as she had earlier which made April smile. Jenn stretched her legs out and still holding her monkey, April moved to sit in the space. Jenn gently rewrapped the black blanket around the younger girl, making sure to include April’s monkey in the bundle.

“Your monkey looks nice and cozy in there.” Commented Jenn.

April nodded in response. “She has your name.”

That was not what Jenn expected to hear. “Wait, does she really?”

April nodded again. “Got her in DC and you’re from DC so she’s called Jenn.”

It was so sweet that Jenn didn’t even feel it necessary to comment that she was actually from Chicago not DC.

“Well, it is a spectacular name.”

This time April’s nod wasn’t accompanied by any following comment so Jenn let the silence settle between them.

From her position with April’s beck to her front, Jenn couldn’t exactly see April’s face. However, after five minutes with no sound or movement from the girl, Jenn was certain she’d fallen asleep, and made it her own mission to stay stock-still until Ben returned.

When he did, only ten minutes later, Jenn was barely awake herself. The soft lull of the movie and the weight of the younger girl in her lap relaxing her after the stress of the day.

When Ben returned and saw the two girls so obviously exhausted, he had to refrain from taking a photo to remember it, knowing Jenn would likely try and find a way to sue him for it later. Whilst the scene was undoubtedly very sweet, Ben’s heart did pang with the realisation that April clearly hadn’t been getting enough sleep recently, explaining her sluggishness that morning, and almost definitely contributing to the day’s upset. He sighed, not wanting to disturb either of them, but equally wanting to honour his promise to April to take her home as soon as possible.

“Girls?” he half-whispered. Jenn cracked her weary eyes open whilst April offered only a grumble.

“I know you’re super comfy there but it is time to go home now.” Hearing this, April slowly got up and moved over to Ben, immediately leaning all her weight against him- she was practically dead on her feet.

Jenn also got up, noticing the colleague she was getting a lift home with entering the office.

“I gotta go too now.” She informed the others. “Bye April, play another time?”

April looked up, nodded, and extracted herself from Ben’s arms to throw herself into a tight hug with Jenn.

“Bye bye, Jenn. Thank you for playing and being cool.”

“Any time, kid.”

April was practically asleep again by the time Ben got her buckled into the car. With the promise of a future playdate from Jenn, and a quiet Da & Pril evening and a call to Leslie and Andy from Ben, April curled up in the passenger seat with monkey-Jenn in her arms, and finally felt calm.

#One of the reasons this took me so long to write is that I kept fretting about the characterisation so if you think either of them are OOC-#-I don't mind if you comment on it but please be nice #I fall into the trap of basing April more off of my experiences than her characterisation in the actual show so I tried to work on that #I also didn't write April as young as I normally do so that felt different #anyway I hope you like this because I spent a good chunk revision time writing this instead #parks and rec agere #parks and recreation agere #fandom agere #little! April Ludgate #little! Jennifer Barkley #flip! Jennifer Barkley #cg! Ben Wyatt #mine

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okalanissolis · 5 months ago

Text

⌖ ๋࣭ ⭑♚₊🗡 ๋࣭ ꜱᴇᴇ ɪꜰ ɪ ꜱᴛɪʟʟ ᴇxɪꜱᴛ

ᴀ ᴄᴇʟᴇꜱᴛɪᴀʟ ᴍᴀꜰɪᴀ ᴀ.ᴜ.

⌖ ๋࣭ ⭑♚₊🗡 ๋࣭ ᴏɴʟʏ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴋɪɴɢ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ ๋࣭🗡₊♚⭑ ๋࣭⌖

ʙᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴘᴀꜱᴛ ɪꜱ ᴄᴏɴꜱɪᴅᴇʀᴇᴅ ᴘʀᴇᴠɪᴏᴜꜱ . . .

pt. ii | | series masterlist

focus on: muni sarang (diane meunier), choi san, & song deokhee word count: ~4.6k warnings: language, intermittent Lore Dumping™, mentions of violence, occasional graphic imagery, mentions of semi-main character death, Even More Gods Are Introduced and i think that is lovely

ᴛᴄᴅᴜ (ᴛᴏᴏ ᴄᴏɴᴠᴏʟᴜᴛᴇᴅ, ᴅɪᴅɴ'ᴛ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀꜱᴛᴀɴᴅ) ɪꜱ ɪɴᴄʟᴜᴅᴇᴅ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ !

⌖ ๋࣭ ⭑♚₊🗡 ๋࣭

lilo's mic: still knee deep in history but with more character introductions! i think at some point i might do a character recap page where i can offer some quick stats about the character's strengths and role, but idk if it would be helpful or just another way that i Procrastinate™ — let me know your thoughts !

⌖ ๋࣭ ⭑♚₊🗡 ๋࣭

⌜ my girl pinched my hips to see if i still exist / i think not ⌟

ꜱᴇᴇ ɪꜰ ɪ ꜱᴛɪʟʟ ᴇxɪꜱᴛ ๋࣭🗡₊♚⭑ ๋࣭⌖

— ʜᴀᴇᴍᴏ ᴘᴏʀᴛ was the main harbour of hoku city. home to the oldest and most robust working port on the island, the leeward side of the city was often referred to as haemopu side — an amalgamation of the names ʜᴀᴇᴍᴏꜱᴜ, the god of light and namesake of haemo port; and ᴋᴀᴘᴜ: sacred, taboo, forbidden. it was an unspoken rule that the shadows that danced on haemopu side were all puppets of that power known as serpens, and if you saw their strings or witnessed their plays, you would keep quiet, or your days were numbered — your gift from samgong through.

— still, haemo port was vast and wide, and business had to keep. it wasn't particularly bad luck to be a shop stationed near haemo port: there was so much foot traffic there, so many lives crossing back and forth, still hungry to survive; the best of money could be found for those who dared haemopu and kept their sight where it belonged — out of their eyes and in the open hands of hoku — or so the urban prayer went.

to the untrained eye, haemo port and ʜᴀᴇꜱᴜ ꜱᴛʀᴇᴇᴛ (the road that led to the devouring mouth of it) were the same as any other harbour on the island: only slightly more complicated than the sum of their intricately stacked, labyrinthine parts; bathed in light by enormous streetlamps so that when the sun went down, the majesty of ʀᴀᴋᴇᴛᴜ, night, couldn't be the refuge with which spirits attempted to thwart demons. but the fangs of some serpents still found their venomous purchase, and the storefronts along haesu street were often just that — fronts. legitimate stores, but facades for things still sinister, sliding their way through the waters, encircling your world, whole.

— on the furthest place inland haesu street ever went, there was an old business complex that had stood so long the original signage was lost and along with it, the precedent name. haemo complex, haesu park, haemo plaza, haemopu ether — old things have many names, and in legend, the many named becomes gods. inside the six story building, shops and establishments checked in and out like aimless souls in a graveyard: some lingered, some faded, some lasted the test of time.

on the first floor of haesu complex stood a taekwondo studio.

next to it, an indoor shooting range.

— we start this story with the taekwondo studio — the dojang, where mountains go to be edified and pupils to be fortified. eventually, we will open the door to see what is made with bullets and loose gunpowder, but for now, we take an abrupt turn right, through the third set of doors on the ground floor.

ᴄʜᴏɪ ᴊᴇᴏɴɢᴄʜᴇᴏʟ, father of one, was the owner of the modest studio: a stern man with a compassionate underbelly, a fourth dan black belt and the first sabeom — teacher — to enter the business complex. in the early days, when he was newly teaching and the world was more cruel and wanton than it ought, he orchestrated and ran illegal fights in the backmost part of his dojang. necessity begged it; life forced his unwavering hand. he'd never been proud, but he stood in his choices steadfast, and if you only saw the whole of him from an angle upturned and below, it seemed the might of him was his honor, unmarred.

dealing in entertainment and prestige, jeongcheol made ends meet in the evening to bring necessities and opportunity to his wife and newborn son at dawn, and by noon, instill dreams in the children that called him sabeom, center of their budding confidence.

when the serpens found out about his midnight habits, they paid a prompt price for front row tickets. by the end of the evening, jeongcheol's rental payments were moved to an account more reliable, and his small family moved out of the back office space and into one of the apartments that sat on the fifth and sixth floors. in exchange, the fights would persist on a grander scale at a more regular schedule ad infinitum, and the serpens would get their due cut.

jeongcheol always knew that this favor would amount to more debt, in the future, but for the security he was promised, in this blood oath? for the advantage and chance he could bestow upon his son? if it were shortsighted and misguided — this business deal with the serpent of the sky — then forgive him, but omniscience was simply the name of his city, not the power in his mind.

— and as san, his darling boy, grew from jeja to seonbae and in the course of time, sabeom all his own — a 3rd dan black belt and the pride of jeongcheol's world — the price of a demon's mercy became ever clearer, crystalizing into the certainty of future: law.

— it was in that very dojang, after all, that jeongcheol added to his myriad of students two young girls: diane and soyeon, dawn and dusk. jeja diane, a student named wisdom, took early to sparring with san, never minding that the younger always won, ever scheming to learn from a protégé's skill.

when san was chosen to be the demon heir's protector, it wasn't a matter of surprise or honor, simply that of providence.

and san was dignified by it, at any rate.

— only ever envisioning an inherited taekwondo studio for himself, a modest future but fulfilling dream, san's world expanded at the hands of diane — and his dojang, while still being the center of all his tethered existence, was a future now shared. ʏᴇᴏꜱᴀɴɢ, a pupil and friend, would aid him in handling the fights in the backmost part all of his father's hope and shame, an eternal rite, the sisyphean promise the choi family would never complete.

— jeongcheol had slowly backed away from the uglier side of his business as he aged into complacency and fatigue, and san had taken up the mantle in his place. now, sin would beget sin and shackled to the serpens would be yet another soul.

yeo was clear that he didn't mind.

already one foot into corruption, what was one more leg?

— he'd been cleaning up bruises from betting fights and broken limbs from shadow duels for years. he'd sewn flesh together the way others might knit tenderness and virtue, goodness and love.

every dojang needed it's medic. and every medic needed his charge.

— this was merit enough, for the both of them. respect for san in being trusted with something on which the whole of the underworld revolved; prestige for yeosang in the power inherent of a ruling head of a domain long standing, and in it's ancience, revered.

and watching them both, once the hand that led them deep into the mouth of something ravenous, still, stood choi jeongcheol, left wondering when security was no longer security — a promise no longer words of honor.

ꜱᴇᴇ ɪꜰ ɪ ꜱᴛɪʟʟ ᴇxɪꜱᴛ ๋࣭🗡₊♚⭑ ๋࣭⌖ ᴄᴏɴᴛ.

— diane had asked him to disappear, again.

— it was never an explicit demand, not since the first time, when she'd been following the tail of a banker and realized it would be so much easier to approach him if she were just a woman and not a daughter, held.

the nameless banker had decided he no longer wished to be a pigeon fed from an opened hand but a raven shot out of the sky, the shiny things he stole slipping from his traitor beak and landing back into the hand of the power that wielded the shotgun evermore.

— "you're intimidating, san." and it hadn't been her words or the command in her eye so much as it was a shift in her being — sarang to diane, veracity to something mutable and ever brewing. "i need to ensnare him..."

and he'd slipped away, taken her half-cue and was already gone.

— if the demon of hoku knew how often diane asked him to slip away, san was sure the mythic ernest would be none too pleased. it takes half a second for malignance to seize you in hoku city, and only a fraction of that if you're particularly inclined. of course, san was never far, and sarang more competent than what the wills of well meaning fathers offered her, but it would be more than just san's immortal soul on the line if something befell her and he were at all still breathing.

but it was always sarang's eyes that sought for the mercy of him, in the hairbreadth turn of her infinitesimal micro-expression, the graceful warp into something so unseen it were all but hidden to eyes that were any less devoted than his. and it was never a question because she would never need to ask; he'd learned to read the depths of her during sparring sessions in a dojang made of his youth and all his tomorrow. once, he'd crafted alongside her the armor that was so much a second skin, there were barely any joints or seams that one could rub the pad of their thumb along.

he'd seen her, then, and so he always knew.

— and that's how he found himself here, again. vanished from a spot he said he'd always defend: dematerialized, because bang chan had come to call.

— or so diane let the boy think. she'd found chan first, weeks before this encounter he'd name 'chance' or 'fate'. it had been simple to learn his routine and easier to insert herself in it. a coffee shop he always walked past. her new favorite window seat. a position so comfortable it looked as though it had always been.

and so they talked; this woman neither diane nor sarang, crafting a life by degrees of admission, chan warming to the gentle flame of her lies so that eventually, perhaps, knowledge of him would melt, secrets in him slip between them, in this place behind glass, warm between cups of untouched coffee.

not even san would hear the things chan would reveal in his adventurous, half-flirtatious speech. the thought often made the black belt's heart skid — his resolve stutter — but the bulk of him never wavered. he was a mountain and summits never crumbled; their might certainly never moved.

and that simple conflict of interest was something his friends never failed to entertain, and in mocking, enjoy.

— ᴅᴇᴏᴋʜᴇᴇ, twin sister of ᴡᴏᴏʏᴏᴜɴɢ and the one-minute younger half of their expert gunman team, was the one to first discover san's internal battle, having joked about his affection for diane from his sabeom days at the dojang. first, a true baseless joke, then overtime, a comfortable uncomfortability for san as it grew in truth and size.

san and his diane; no one loved their work the way san did; if san could marry duty he would.

— if he wasn't always looking at deokhee down the barrel of her sniper rifle, he just might knock some humility into her near prophetic teasing and her twin's identical shit eating grin.

but what was he to do when she was, in part, always right?

— sarang laughed at something chan said, and diane reached out to touch his shoulder with the soft of her hand. san turned his gaze, somehow half guilty, and that's when he saw the ephemera of a shadow he should not have.

what was kim hongjoong doing all the way here?

— first order of business would be to pull sarang from the place at which she stood. second would be to see just who the informant whisperer was that hongjoong strove to meet. third would be to evaluate just where that placed this puppet-master of secrets in the ever turbulent waters of organization and fealty — obeisance and axis.

— san was standing in front of her in the coffee shop before the shadow had ever truly dissipated — before any of the prior thoughts had fully formed in his mind.

sarang was good at smoothing her own confusion and concern, and playing the part of the innocent and sheltered. she huffed a convincing sigh and muttered something about a father that, overprotective, cut her time with this young officer short, and san caught the thrown word of 'cousin' like a fire-hot, thousand pound and ever-burning coal.

so that's how she'd explained his presence to chan.

— when she knew she'd almost been caught in the act by hongjoong, sarang swore.

— ʜᴏɴɢᴊᴏᴏɴɢ was a member of the serpens syndicate, and had, since the death of byeonghwa, been the watchful eye that extended past the confines of hoku city. loyal to the demon — a horkos made potent in the poignance of a blood debt — hongjoong was trusted... so far as anyone could be reliable, in this city that ate you whole, in these times that twisted the sinew of your very heart. at any rate, he was an informant of ernest, and while not one nearly as volatile as soyeon, still convoluted in intent.

he would be interested — perhaps even moreso curious than san, who daily burned all of his inquisition and steadfast resolve near through — as to what the demon heir was doing out here, in the pristine half of hoku city, talking with an officer that would just as soon as imprison her, if he knew even a fraction of the atrocities and moral impurities she ordered and aided, abetted and carried out.

— of course, even if hongjoong were to ask, sarang would never tell.

— not even with san, himself, did sarang reveal her true intentions in this business involving newly minted officer bang chan, a rookie at some few years post-graduation, an acquaintance turned friend from their first windfall encounter. not even with san, who knew the verity of sarang and had cherished her humanity from it's first appearance, did she let any information slip, a single hint pass.

he'd look into her eyes and unexpectedly, a wall was there — a guardedness of which he'd never known. she was no longer forthright about all possibilities with him. her thoughts were not so easily read, her want not so readily known.

— but that was not the worry that had the jaw with which to gnaw at san. not yet, anyway. not when hongjoong was surreptitiously on the same path as them, in a place where neither was colloquially seen (his informant hadn't been anyone of note, and so the consequence of his gained knowledge that day couldn't have been much, but one could never be complacent, if they wished to thrive).

— not when soyeon was unhappy, and sarang was the fool to not believe it.

— not when ernest, kingpin of terror, chessmaster of the underworld and ruler of hoku city, was mired in that slow changing-of-hands and place of gentle retreat where all of his speech was about the hand of iku, that terrify in the weight of dying.

the death of a demon was always a wounded threat that demanded first redress.

— it had started, in part, with the death of byeong-hwa. what was a king, after all, when his sworn shield had fallen? what menace was left in a monster, when his right hand was rotting, 6 feet below? the monsoon season would come, and a sickness would plague ernest along with the rain. jangma was the will of bada — the monsoon season the cursing volition of the sea. it was divine law, in some ways, that bada would claim her vengeance on hoku by taking it's epicenter and sweeping it's fortune and prosperity into her tumultuous seas, but it was still too soon, and thus, a secret well hidden.

no one in the serpens outside of the few remaining elders that sat at the demon's table, byeong-hwa's only daughter, his heir, and his warded nephew knew of the state of ernest's true mind.

the tides were swelling, the ground was saturating; bada was clambering toward the city, and at the time least affordable, the cracks between sarang and soyeon's friendship and intertwined lives deepened to a schism, with roots on either side, blooms torn apart, thorns tearing stem like gnashing teeth devouring flesh.

— when it rains, it pours, and in jangma, the storms were violent and unending; when bada raged, all the gods hovered close to witness her torrential price.

— "i'll tell ʏᴜɴʜᴏ." when they were haemopu side, diane turned to san, the silence between them broken, the confidence that always held in it's place perhaps worse for wear, if either of them had the resolve to mention it. "he'll have some clever way to spin hongjoong off our track - if he even saw anything in the first place."

— san nodded: just once, a jerky motion that left this world still buzzing, a dull, low whine.

yunho, sarang's cousin, was a close confidant of theirs. he moved into the serpens complex when he was 17. some commonplace tragedy left him with a want in the pit of his belly, and ever since the breaking down of all that tied sarang to soyeon and night to the dawining day, he had played the role of strategist and pragmatic advisor to his cousin — a safer, less volatile option for diane to pick, considering soyeon had always been her council, former.

— diplomats need their advisors; conmen require their marks. diane had a necessity for yunho and a plan for bang chan, and of course, they would be dealt with first. san was just a bodyguard, and in this way, he'd always known his place. but favor had a way of lead to want, and if he tended to that fire, it could always lick its way past his defenses and consume him whole.

— sarang blinked, and the change pulled san from his thoughts the way it always would. born to serve, her movements were what he'd been shaped to read. "i guess i'll tell hermes that you stood him up for yunho again, when it's time for your 13:00 date and you don't show."

— sarang laughed at that, warm and clear, almost chasing away the mist that had gathered all through the day, at choice intervals and expected alleyways, thickening to the obscurity of fog. hermes was sarang's greyhound — the puppy she'd once found when younger but crowned wise. she never had taken him to the serpens complex, where he could be socialized with the dobermans she'd cared for most her life. instead, san took him in — an act of kindness she never stopped praising him for, never quite forthright about her reasoning but offering just enough to where he was satisfied.

"tell the twins when you see them i need to have a word."

ꜱᴇᴇ ɪꜰ ɪ ꜱᴛɪʟʟ ᴇxɪꜱᴛ ๋࣭🗡₊♚⭑ ๋࣭⌖ ᴄᴏɴᴛ.

— the shop never had a name: just a wordless sign in the shape of a generic gun scope: the focus for an eye you'd never look into as you took your final, heaving breath.

the shooting range, the eye, akita's place, the final shop on the ground floor of haemo plaza.

— every child who'd ever touched a gun — any soul who had enough of some small mercy they had the fire to protect it in this heaving city — had, at some point, entered the shooting range that sat haemopu side. established longer than jeongcheol's dojang, but having changed hands at around the same time, the shooting range was owned by a woman named ᴀᴋɪᴛᴀ — ex-military but dishonorably discharged, a mother of twins, and simultaneously warm yet cold: distant, but always manning her station.

it was only natural that, sharpshooter of her squad, akita had taught her children to shoot from the moment their hands had the strength to thumb a trigger.

eyes bred to look at you through the barrel of a firearm, hearts trained to see the liberation at the end of a mission and none of the causalities between. akita took her twins, cradle of her future, and gave them all the skills she broke skin and bruised knuckle to hone. they would never have to struggle, because they would be born with skilled gift. they would have the freedom of honor, because no training would mar their resolve.

— at first, the shooting range was only that which sat within the four walls in the ground floor of that complex. but slowly it expanded: the back property, accessed through the side entrance, narrow but deep, for single sessions with moving targets; the abandoned lot near the docks that akita had come into possession of by chance and was appraising for sale until her daughter showed an aptitude for long range and a spark to pursue it.

before long, what was modest expanded, and with an open mouth, devoured until engorged. the shooting range was well known. beloved. conspicuous. exactly the sort of place one would expect to find a doorway into the depths of a now illegal, though still legitimate syndicate, and therefore, a place where they could never be found. in reverence and renown, akita secured a safe haven for her children, a place where they could rest without the fear of being poached.

two doors down, the serpens paid a lease, but here, in the four walls she maintained, they could never sink in their teeth.

but fate was the domain of samgong, and mischief the trait of hoku, and here, in a city where the presence of gods were only so strong because they were so ceaselessly revered, the two powers often conspired to thwart the dreams of those who dared trying, and those whose complacency masqueraded as crown.

— wooyoung, the older of the twins, was the impulsive to deokhee's passion. touched by caprice, drowning in compulsion — akita whispered into his ear as he grew up, tickling the soft skin hidden there, that he was born the same star sprite as hoku: before he became the omniscient eye, back when he was nameless, and his fervency was tried by the test of his father's tedium. in constant motion, neverending activity: "make no deals with iku, listen not to the obligation of horkos. you are a star, you belong to nothing but your own burn."

— deokhee, of course, was the fire burning her older brother brighter, still, the combustion in his path that kept him from apathy, that saw all his visions through. ᴇɴᴊɪ, her mother would call her, the fire god born into flesh. the ardor, the devotion, the commitment deepening to obsession, the dedication to wooyoung's whims, the conviction in her twin brother's mania. akita adored her daughter's fervency, fanned the flames of her exuberance never quenched. "shackle yourself to no one, my enji, you are not meant to be contained. never turn in on yourself; find a direction to incinerate: you are meant to set this world ablaze."

— avoiding flirtation with the fetters of the serpens was an unspoken request from akita, a desire never plainly raised. if she had been wiser (if she saw all too clearly the way serpents rise to challenge and adaptable, warp their venom to something honey-sweet) perhaps akita would have been more explicit in her demands, exact in all she envisioned and prayed to conspire. but it seemed an evident requirement, a moral anchored deep and in it's inevitability, made potent and strange.

"you are made for more," she had always told them.

but what can be done when your only framework of 'more' and 'greater' is the gunpowder residue of a superior weapon?

— once, akita built her children into crook of a firearm. ever after, they would know mostly it's bitter taste.

— none of this is to say, however, that the twins were a tragedy and their penchant something acrid, lead.

— deokhee was bottled excitement and effervescent joy in every task, and wooyoung the kind of gregarious that surrounded him with enthusiastic friendship and kindred brotherhood in every space he ventured to grace.

— and ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴜᴍɪɴᴀʀʏ was one of those third spaces that wooyoung and deokhee frequented most.

a serpens owned establishment: an electricity plant on the edge of town, with hidden rooms that opened into dark things that could only hide in the shadow of a generator as massive as that which fueled a never-blinking city. the luminary was one of the largest holes in the wall that the serpens ran. there, you could order any sin you could pay the ferryman to usher you to.

(so long as you were in the right room, of course. the serpens liked to keep their messes orderly.)

— the twins mostly frequented the rooms with standard bar fare. alcohol, dance, betting and games of chance, fisticuffs when more than just spirits hit you square in the jaw after one freedom too many. a common enough vice with a burgeoning sea of acquaintances and a militia of contacts and friends. it was here, in the pale of haemosu's light — all the glare they could harness but never reach — that the twin's sociability spun a web that was never meant to entrap them, but still made them the perfect players for a serpent game.

after all, it was in the luminary that the twins aligned themselves with the ꜱᴘɪɴᴇ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋᴇʀ ʙɪᴋᴇʀꜱ.

a group of criminals and delinquents that rode through ꜱᴋɪᴛ — the next door neighbor of hoku city, and the border at which the serpens let their needles halt. the serpens owned hoku, and every gang and group of would-be hopefuls that they'd long run out had taken up station in skit and brawled it out, there. a neighboring city was of no consequence to the serpens as long as they spilled blood on their rightful side of the fault line, and the spine breakers were a fairly established group that worked their own city and only occasionally crossed the borders of hoku — careful to always show their deference and pay their dues. they were a infrequent though to some familiar face in the luminary on nights when the moon hung low, mostly to work deals with the mercenaries for hire in the back, and always to chase a drink alongside the twins.

ᴊᴜɴɢᴋᴏᴏᴋ was their closest companion of the lot, and if his drink of choice was an expected usual, and his uninspired flirtation with deokhee an affectionate and comfortable aside, then the night would be warm and the luminary waitstaff would make better money in tips than they had all month.

— and it was precisely that friendship with jungkook (and perhaps their closeness with san, though why make complicated something already written by fate?), that brought the twins to the serpens those aging years ago.

it had been hongjoong, newly syndicate minted, that noticed these two sparrows who somehow seemed to know everyone he had been keeping his thousand eyes on, and dared to ask himself what use could come with knowing their names.

it had been simple, after, for seonghwa to convince him that wooyoung was the easier approach, and for soyeon to cast the die on his fate.

(but that had been years ago: before the breaking down of factions, before suspicion and envy cast shadows that demons new not how to play, before ties were cut like marionette strings, and seonghwa and soyeon became a duo, and hongjoong, far enough from the barrel to not yet choose how to align, had to keep his ideas in his breast pocket and his lies tucked beneath his tie.)

— in the end, the twins were brought into the serpens because their connections would open doors that had no keys. it was through wooyoung and deokhee that the serpens greedy left hand reached into the heart of skit and, with an emboldened and wanting jungkook, staged a coup and installed this friend as the spine breaker's acting head.

ever after, the bikers would be in debt of the might of hoku, and in perpetuity, there would be scouts and reinforcements should there be need of aid from a distance.

— it was simply providence that the twins would have use beyond their sociability and want. it was the work of that ever mischievous hoku that in a chance encounter and a single ploy, diane was gifted with the two best marksman the city could afford.

danger, of course, in the single-minded passion of deokhee and the brilliant, aimless apathy of wooyoung, but when combined together (and wooyoung under the threat of the only one he swore obeisance to: san), they were a power more than their arsenal, a weapon greater than their might and distant reach.

— when san found the two of them sitting on his couch, deokhee knuckle deep in affectionate rubs for hermes, wooyoung eating noodles out of the pot, on his pinky swinging the apartment's spare key ("for emergencies," san had said, and pointedly handed it to deokhee), there was less a reaction of disappointment or surprise, and more an acceptance that at least this way, the message would be easily delivered, in brevity, made sweet.

"diane's calling."

⌖ ๋࣭ ⭑♚₊🗡 ๋࣭ ᴏɴʟʏ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴋɪɴɢ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ ๋࣭🗡₊♚⭑ ๋࣭⌖ pt. ii | | series masterlist

ᴛᴄᴅᴜ (ᴛᴏᴏ ᴄᴏɴᴠᴏʟᴜᴛᴇᴅ, ᴅɪᴅɴ'ᴛ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀꜱᴛᴀɴᴅ) :

1 - jeongcheol, san's father, used to run a taekwondo studio. because times were hard, he ran illegal fights in the back of his dojang, and when the serpen's found out, they co-opted his business and expanded it. as he got older, he passed down his dojang to san, who now works as the bodyguard of diane. because of his busy schedule, he co-manages the dojang with yeosang, the medic of the taekwondo studio.

2 - the taekwondo studio is situated on haesu street in an unnamed work-live complex often referred to as haemo plaza. on the same floor as the dojang there is an unnamed shooting range, owned by akita, the mother of twin gunman for the serpens deokhee and wooyoung. akita does not know of her children's affiliation with the syndicate and would disapprove if she knew.

3 - san, deokhee, and wooyoung are all friends are are closely allied with diane. diane is also close allies with yunho, her cousin and strategist council after her falling out with soyeon has deepened in the past few years (there has been a vague multi-year time skip from pt. i to pt. ii).

4 - ernest, kingpin of the serpens, is currently dying. it is a well kept secret - but not from soyeon, who diane fears will use this knowledge opportunistically. recently, diane has been keeping many secrets from even her closest confidant, san, especially regarding her consistently visiting officer bang chan, trying to weasel from him secrets... but about what?

5 - hongjoong is a member of the serpens with many secrets and many informants. diane is unsure if, in the power vacuum created after ernest's death, if he will show loyalty towards her or soyeon, and so she is wary of what he knows, when he was in the area as she was meeting up with bang chan.

6 - hongjoong was the one to originally recruit twins deokhee and wooyoung, because they have many contacts in hoku and neighboring cities - notably jungkook, now leader of a biker gang in the neighboring city named skit.

7 - diane has a mission for deokhee and wooyoung heretofore lacking details or rhyme.

now onto pt. iii . . .