#idk if its the original editing or my console but the frames in the last gif bothered me

[courtana]

BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT | 4/? ↳ Red Hood Story Pack

[whetstonefires]

how do you think the batfam mightve progressed if jason never died?

Whaa, 4 asks at once? I’m sorry I still haven’t gotten back on the last one, I thought I was unstuck but guess what, I wrote myself into a pretty little corner by being all ‘I don’t care about what’s canon! i’m just gonna have fun!’ which is the correct approach except then you find out the thing you made up is incorrect and idk how to deal with that. being wrong. it’s a life skill i’m still working on.

So like, if the vote had gone the other way...it depends so much on the writing and editing teams, and so little on real causality, it’s hard to frame a picture?

Jason was created as an alternative to aging Dick down and taking him out of the Titans; his new character origin after the Crisis on Infinite Earths barely got out of its shakedown tour before they killed him off. We know who he was enough to spot the major character derailments, but who he might have been? It’s hard to say.

If he’d made it through the vote, the noisy fans would still have hated him, and so would the man writing his comics. I doubt Starlin would ever have convinced DC to do the HIV plotline with Robin like he reportedly tried, but I feel like Something Bad remained likely.

The 90s are known for their grimdarkness for a reason, and Jason just missed living through them. I feel like his odds of going villain were pretty high anyway, not because of him but because of the constant need for drama fuel. I mean, Alfred had a villain phase, in the 60s.

Babs became Oracle almost simultaneous with the Robin trade-off, debuted the same month Jason died (January ‘89), so that still would have happened. Tim’s influence on her was very slight.

Without Tim, there would have been no need for Steph, since she was created partly as a love interest but more importantly as a foil, and a way of getting more of that high-energy feeling traditionally associated with Robin back into the story even though so many of the fans loathed it and refused to have it in their lead.

(Not that Tim didn’t have a lot of it anyway, but it wasn’t his core feel the way it had been for Dick and Jason. Possibly of note, the ‘87 Killing Joke and ‘89 Batman movie also marked a rise in the use of Joker as Batman’s main dramatic foil rather than Robin, which coupled with the Bronze Age in general really shaped Tim’s character direction. It’s hard to say what caused what, with these trends.)

They might have introduced a girl anyway, to replace Babs. Maybe even a version of Cass. Shiva stated under interrogation during ADitF that she had no child, but in comics terms that half-guaranteed she’d get one eventually, because the concept was now out there.

I doubt Jason would have gotten his own series in the 90s, considering his screaming hatedom and the fact that it took three extremely successful mini-series to get Tim a regular title, but if DC had managed to repackage his character into something that the 90s liked and he had made a go of it, he’d probably have acquired a completely different supporting cast. He might well have continued his pattern of acquiring moms. Maybe even Talia. The whole Sheila thing would have been a half-forgotten backstory subplot by like ‘94 probably.

It occurs to me after typing all of this that you might want to hear my ideas about what in-universe causality might logically have led to, lmao. Let’s see.

Jason’s adolescence was hitting a rocky stage that I doubt this betrayal and near-death experience and technical bereavement would have ended, though it would probably have hit harder than his last few near-death experiences even assuming another improbable complete recovery.

If we up the realism dial a little, he might be forced into retirement by the severity of his wounds. He’d still have to hash out his trust issues with Bruce, probably more than ever. Being a shit communicator was not yet a key part of Bruce’s personality; they might have sorted things out.

Jason would not have dropped out of college. If he’s retired, he goes into a prestigious but helping-centered field with an understanding that he is now the son Bruce trusts to step up to keep WE on the straight and narrow after he dies; inheritance of voting shares may be structured around this expectation.

(Dick experiences that really complicated hypocritical jealousy where you specifically rejected a thing, but it spent so long being marked yours that you feel robbed anyway when someone else gets it. Not a lot of it in the disability scenario, because there’s a distinct vibe of consolation prize there, but otherwise.)

Babs would still have been Oracle. It would have been a less fraught launch, though.

Dick might not have heard about the Ethiopia thing at all, if Jason made a full recovery, considering how little communication was passing between him and Bruce at that point. Dick’s level of Batcomputer access only stated Jason as ‘location unknown’ when he was dead, so.

He and Jason got along fine, regardless of retcons since then, but he was under a lot of stress from a lot of sources, and the feeling that he couldn’t go home even when he really needed to, because he’d been replaced, was very present. That might well have blown up at some point.

I tend to think of Bruce as having changed pretty dramatically as a result of Jason’s death, disregarding a lot of retcons, but I mean, 1987 Bruce already failed to notice Dick having a mental breakdown right in front of him and put him off in favor of hero work with Jason on Dick’s birthday, he just did it cheerfully and with fairly courteous wording. There was a trend in the faildad direction starting already.

There was a lot of relationship stuff in need of fixing and in some ways Jason’s presence made that as hard for Dick with Bruce as Damian’s later did for Tim, even though there was a lot less drama and intentional emotional violence and attempted murder involved. So. That could have gone a lot of ways. Realistically, even without Tim trying to play peacemaker, Dick always gets dragged back into Bruce’s orbit, though. That’s narrative causality at work, but also psychology.

In-universe, Tim can be assumed to have already existed before Wolfman invented him. He’s mostly away at boarding school, but he’s nosy and well-intentioned and he Knows. If Jason ran away more comprehensively than the Great Mom Tour, he might approach him with an argument for why Batman needed Robin and he should go home. Or there would eventually have been a case where he knew something they didn’t and attempted to subtly pass information and got noticed.

Or Oracle’s expanding field of awareness would have eventually noticed him and his zoom-lens one summer evening while his parents were in Haiti getting dead. Idk.

He’d probably have gotten mixed up in Bat-things eventually, and if it wasn’t before the Haiti thing there’s no way Batman would have been invested enough in this random disappearance to be there in time to help, so he’d have been completely orphaned at 13. Bruce taking him in is reasonably likely, since he wasn’t exactly in a position to create himself a fake uncle at the time. On the other hand, he might have gone into foster care. His parent’s company still would have crashed without them, so he wouldn’t have inherited much, but he’d have been better off than most kids in the system because he’d have some assets.

Steph is even more guaranteed to hit the vigilante scene. Bruce would be a lot friendlier to her without Jason death issues for her to trigger, though that doesn’t mean he’d actually be friendly, and Jason would like her, and possibly communicate more effectively than Tim did about how she could not die, or possibly they’d have egged each other on into steadily more unwise behavior.

On the other hand, depending on where Jason’s character development went after surviving Ethiopia, he might at 17 find 15-year-old Steph indescribably annoying precisely because they have so much in common, and lash out at her as a proxy for his younger self, and be kind of awful.

Cataclysm breaks causality to even acknowledge anymore because they rushed on from it like massive chumps, but Jason would have been a good Robin to have for it. He’d have been pretty tall by then, and he’s got the mental tools for surviving in an unfriendly urban environment where money is useless. I think he and Cass would have gotten on well, they have compatible personalities. The only major issue I can see is if Bruce or Babs got really positive about her and triggered some kind of jealousy or possessiveness issue.

We don’t really have any specific data at all from before Jason died about how he would cope with a rival for something he felt entitled to but insecure about--he deferred very nicely to Dick as his elder, but Dick wasn’t actually a threat to anything Jason valued. Assuming later canon is applicable, jealousy would be a definite issue with any additional family members, though I assume without the risk of homicide.

Okay here is an after-midnight hour of my half-baked opinions. You asked for it! ;DDD

[justonehappyvictory]

hi!!! i love all your au sosoo stories and i have this au prompt... it's a little cliché tho. instead of being invested in cosmetology, hajin is involved in music. and then so is a part of a band probably with baek ah and eun and idk i just love the idea of two lovers who loves music as much as they love each other and i pictured hajin and so in it 😭🙈

Ahh, first prompt request ever! I love it! I hope I am/was able to deliver, anon.

EDIT: Posted on AO3

The door to their apartment flung open, making Wang So and Baek Ah jump in surprise. The cymbal So had been polishing fell out of his hand and clanged on the floor. Baek Ah had been tuning his guitar and the slamming door caused him to tighten one string too tightly and it snapped smartly against his hand. An angry welt formed on his hand and he grabbed the nearest object and launched it at the disturbance, So’s younger brother, Wang Eun. Eun dodged the projectile easily enough and eagerly waved a flyer at their faces.

“Guys, check it out,” he said gleefully. “There’s going to be a talent competition! The winner gets a contract deal!”

So picked up his dropped cymbal and resumed his polishing. “Are you sure it’s legit?” he drawled. “Last time you said contract deal, you lost all of our money.”

“Yeah, Eun,” Baek Ah said. “I’m all for a contract, but we just started eating real food. I don’t want to go back to living off ramen and gimbap again.”

Eun sat down in front of them, pleading. “No, it’s real. My friend is a secretary at the company. She told me about it. I promise it’s not a scam this time.”

So slipped the paper out of his hand, still skeptical. Baek Ah set down his guitar and walked over, reading the flyer over his shoulder. “Eun, this isn’t going to work,” So sighed. “This says we have to have to an original song. We only do covers. Unless you magically gained the ability to write songs, we have no chance.”

Eun wiggled his body emphatically at them and whined. “You guys don’t even want to try? Baek Ah’s good at the poetry thing, he could write a song.”

Baek Ah held his hands up. “Uh, writing a song is more than just putting words down on paper. I know absolutely nothing about creating a melody from scratch. So, yea, I think we’re going to have to sit this one out.”

Eun plunked on to the couch and crossed his arms, an angry pout forming on his face. “You guys always spoil my fun.”

So tousled his hair. “Look, we don’t like to be the bad guys, Eun, but we have to be realistic sometimes.”

“Seon Deok! Seon Deok,” Soo yelled, running full speed across the campus. She clutched to the paper in her hand like it was a map that would lead her to the world’s greatest treasure. “Seon Deok!” she yelled again as she saw her friend in their usual spot by the cafeteria. Seon Deok looked alarmed at her friend, noting all the attention she was garnering. Soo was all sweat, red face, and gasping breaths when she reached her. She tried to talk, but it took several minutes for her to breath to catch up to her. “Look… look at this flyer. It’s my shot!”

“Your shot?” Seon Deok said dubiously. She took the flyer from her clenched hand and flattened it out on the table, reading over the contents. “This is like your fifth shot this year. Remember when you lost two thousand dollars? Your mom almost murdered you. Also, this says you have to bring your own instruments and your mom made you sell your guitar. And your keyboard. And your bass in order to pay her back. You have nothing except your beautiful voice and I don’t know if that’s going to cut it in a competition.”

Soo pouted, resting her head on the table and lamenting the loss of her instruments. She had spent her days humming all the new melodies in her head into a tape recorder. If only she hadn’t been scammed in her eagerness to become famous, then she’d be on her way to a real contract. She new she was destined for musical greatness, she just needed to convince the rest of the world.

“Eun!” Soo heard Seon Deok yell, a blush forming on her neck. Soo laughed, she never could keep her wits about her when her crush was around. “Over here!”

The tall and lean boy with pink hair slouched over to them, he looked completely put out, like someone had snuffed out the fire inside him. “Hey Seon Deok, Hae Soo, what are you guys up to?” he said forlornly. He kicked at a rock underneath the table.

“Oh, nothing really,” Seon Deok said, fluttering her eyelashes at him and scooting closer to him, but her efforts went unnoticed. “Unnie is sad because she can’t enter this talent competition, which is such a shame because her songs are always amazing.”

Eun’s ears perked up at the sound of “talent competition” and “songs.” “Wait, what do you mean?”

Soo slid the flyer towards him. “You have to have an original song but I had to sell all of my instruments. So, even if I could write a song, I have no instrument to play it on.”

He slammed his hands on the table and stood up, leaning across the table so that his face was inches from Soo’s. Seon Deok huffed jealously next to him. “Soo, you can write songs? You know how to write songs?” Eun asked, his usual enthusiasm returning to his demeanor.

Soo leaned away. “Um, yea…”

Eun jumped up and whooped. “Soo, I have a band! You can write a song with us and we can be your instruments!”

Soo’s eyes lit up. “Are you serious? Are you sure? Will your bandmates be okay with this? Oh, my god, you will not regret this!” Eun and Soo grabbed hands, jumping and dancing together in their excitement.

For the second time that week, Eun slammed into the apartment, this time with Soo trailing behind him. Her excitement had begun to give way to nervousness when she realized Eun was taking her back to an apartment of men. Even with Seon Deok’s glowing review of why Eun is such a wonderful person, she had heard stories about his older brother and why he wasn’t such a wonderful person. One time, she had heard that he ripped an entire door off its hinges with just his hands because someone sneezed on him. She shuddered at what he would do if Eun was bringing her there unannounced. He didn’t seem the type of person to like surprises.

“Hyung? Baek Ah?” Eun called out. A second later, Soo saw a man come out of the bathroom in just a towel. He was using another, smaller towel to dry his hair, but her eyes were focused on his still damp and gleaming chest. He looked lithe, but toned. Her eyes trailed the defining lines of his abdomen, but he still had soft spots that looked like they would be really nice to grab onto and squeeze. She noticed that he had several scars strewn across his body, but they just gave him wild, rugged look she wanted to dig into.

“What is it this time, Eun?” she heard him say, still raking her eyes over him.

“Uh, hyung, you should get dressed,” Eun said, struggling to push a wonderstruck Soo behind him.

And that was when So noticed the small woman next to his brother and her trailing eyes. He took his extra towel and hid his exposed body from her. “Do you want to die,” he screeched.

His shout woke Soo up from her reverie and she felt her whole body turn red from being caught. She smacked her hand over her eyes, knowing she was too late. “Um, I-I can just come back later,” she squeaked. She quickly turned and ran head first into the door frame, causing her to fall and cry out in pain. “Ahh, I’m fine. I’m okay. Just a small bump.”

As Eun picked up Soo from the floor, he gave So an apologetic smile, who only glared at him as he stomped off into his room. He poked at the bruise forming on Soo’s head. “You can look now, he went to his room. Sorry about that.”

“I mean, you could have told me there was a naked man in your apartment before I entered,” she scolded.

Eun rolled his eyes at her. “It’s not like I keep a schedule of who’s going to be naked. That would be weird and perverted.”

She sighed, walking over to their couch and sitting down. “Who was that, anyway?”

“Oh, that’s my older brother, So.”

She gawked at him. “You mean… that was… he’s the one that ripped off the door?”

“I ripped off a door?” So asked, coming back into the room, this time fully clothed in black ripped jeans and a black slouchy shirt. Soo averted her eyes, the flush returning to her cheeks. “That’s a new one. Did you also know that I killed a man because he took my milk? Or maybe you know about the time I ran over my teacher for failing me? Or maybe you heard, and this one’s my favorite, that I ate a live duck?”

Soo pressed her lips together. With every word he said, he leaned closer to her and he was only centimeters from her. His scent invaded her nose, lemony and floral. She swallowed thickly, but didn’t break the eye contact between them. His gaze was hard, but she couldn’t help fall a little bit into them. “I-I may have heard that you sold a kidney on the black market to buy a motorcycle.”

“Hyung, knock it off,” Eun said, pushing him away from Soo. “Why do you always have to scare everyone away? She’s here to help us.”

So leaned back in his chair, his gaze still penetrating and sullen. “Help us with what?”

“With the talent competition. She knows how to write songs!” Eun was bouncing again. So looked over at him, slightly shaking his head and Eun stopped. “Come on, hyung. This is a golden opportunity. She can write the song. We can learn the song. And together we will race to the top of the charts. We’ll be unbeatable.”

“Eun,” So said, almost consoling. “I thought we discussed this already.”

“I’ve heard some of her stuff, though. It’s good. Come on, at least give her a chance before you completely dismiss her. It’s not her fault you came out almost completely naked.”

She noticed his face redden and a small giggle escaped her lips. He shot a glare at her and she immediately schooled her face to hide her emotion. “Alright,” he said. “Let me hear something and, if it’s good, then you can work with our other bandmate, Baek Ah, on something and we’ll,” he sighed and rubbed at his eyes, “we’ll enter the competition.”

Soo pulled out her phone and some headphones from her bag. Carefully, she placed the headphones over So’s ears and pressed play. She watched his expression. It ranged from annoyed to intrigued. “You wrote this?” So asked and she nodded. “All by yourself with no help?” She nodded again. He pulled the headphones off and tossed them back to her. He stood, looking like he was going to regret the next words he said. “We practice every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday.”

She smiled brightly at him and So, for one second, felt his heart flutter in his chest before he walked away.

There was a knock on the door and So thought it was weird that Baek Ah would knock when he lived here, whom he had expected back from the store sooner. “Maybe his hands are full,” he said to himself.

When he opened the door, it wasn’t Baek Ah, though. It was Hae Soo and he was taken aback. “Uh, Baek Ah’s not here right now.”

She smiled and his breath caught in his throat. He hated the way she smiled, how it brightened her eyes and rounded her cheeks and scrunched her nose just a tiny bit at the bridge. Mostly he hated the way his heart always skipped a beat and made him breath a little bit faster and filled him with a foreign warmth. “That’s okay,” she said. “I can wait. He said he wanted to talk about a chord in the song. Oh, are you cooking? Something smells amazing.”

He almost found himself saying that it was her that smelled amazing because she always did, crisp like apples and sweet like lilacs. As she walked underneath his arm holding the door open, he caught a whiff of her perfume and took a moment to savor it before pulling himself together. “Yea, I sent Baek Ah to the store to pick up some things we needed. Um, he didn’t mention you were stopping by.”

She was in the kitchen, a spoon in her mouth as she tasted his food. Her eyes widened in delight. “Wow, you made this? This tastes as good as it smells. Does Baek Ah need to tell you when I come by? He told me I can come over whenever I want.”

“You don’t feel nervous coming into an apartment filled with men?” So felt a stab of jealousy over Baek Ah and the way she said his name so casually. “Do you like him or something?”

She sucked on the spoon, considering the question. “I mean, what girl wouldn’t like handsome men paying attention to her and Baek Ah is extremely handsome. He’s got soft hair and kind eyes and perfectly calloused fingers from years of playing guitar. He’s a dream come true for many girls.”

So bit the inside of his cheek, felt the blood pool there. “Right. Yea, I’ve heard he’s got some groupies. Does this mean you’re one of them now?”

“Did you really just call me a groupie?” she asked, clearly offended by the insinuation.

He was saved from answering when Baek Ah came in. “Hey, I got that stuff you wanted. Oh, Hae Soo! Great, you came! You want to have some lunch with us before we get started.”

“That would be great, but I don’t want you thinking I’m going to sleep with you just because you’ve given me some food,” she said, her annoyed gaze never leaving So’s. He could feel the heat rising in his neck.

“That’s a weird thing to say. If you slept with me, I hope it would be because you like me rather than because I give you food.”

So felt sick to his stomach. “You’re not actually considering sleeping with her, are you?!”

Baek Ah looked between the two people in front of them, both glaring at each other determinedly. “He can sleep with me if he wants to,” Soo shouted. She grabbed Baek Ah by the hand and yanked him towards his room. “Come on, Baek Ah,” she seemed to yell just for So. “Let’s go work up an appetite.”

Baek Ah saw So kick at the sofa before Soo slammed his door shut. She huffed and paced around the room. “I’m not actually going to sleep with you,” she said.

“I know,” he laughed at her. “Because I know you’re crazy about him. I see the way you look at him and how you lean closer to him, trying to smell him. Which I don’t blame you there, he does smell good. You’re always way more interested in what he’s doing instead of focusing on writing a song. And, when he talks, you do this lip biting thing. You cant fool me. I’m very observant.”

“Too observant,” she said. “Sorry, for using you like that.”

“It’s fine. I like being used by pretty girls every once in awhile. Also, if you didn’t want me to know, you shouldn’t have lent me your notebook that you littered with doodles of him and little songs about him and little hearts with his name in them.” He picked up the aforementioned item and tossed it to her. She blushed furiously. “Since we’re in here, let’s talk song lyrics.”

“Uh, what made you start writing songs?” So ventured. Practice had just ended and he was completely flustered. Eun and Baek Ah had just left them to clean up and now the two of them were all alone. He wanted to know if she was still angry at him. She seemed closer to Baek Ah after he basically called her a groupie and he wasn’t sure if the two of them had slept together or if they were dating. He noted every casual touch she seemed to give him on the shoulder, on the arms, and once on his knee, which seemed too intimate for his liking. He had asked Baek Ah on several occasions if they were a couple but he would just laugh and say, “A gentlemen never betrays a woman’s secrets.” And So had no idea what that was even supposed to mean. He couldn’t help but feel jealous and angry and hopeless. Soo with her silky black hair and plump, pink lips. Soo with the voice of an angel and button nose. Soo with such delicate soft skin and a laugh that bore fairies into being. He was going insane with wanting to get to know her better but also trying not to seem too obvious or too eager.

“Because I have a song in my heart that’s always bursting to be free,” she said simply, like it was most obvious answer in the world. “Why do you like playing the drums?”

“It’s good anger management,” he shrugged. “I can play other instruments, though.”

“Really? What else can you play?”

“The piano, guitar, the violin, and, now I know you’ll be impressed with this one, the xylophone.”

She laughed and he laughed with her. “Those all seem like such … delicate instruments compared to you.”

“Are you saying I’m not delicate?” He leaned in a bit and he saw her eyes flicker to his lips.

“Uh, I’m sure in… some areas… you could be.” Unconsciously, Soo licked her lips and, before he could stop himself, he found himself kissing them. Her lips were just as soft as he imagined them to be and he could taste the vanilla in her lip balm. Her breath was warm and sweet. He heard her whisper his name and it just spurred him to deepen the kiss, pulling her closer to him and plunging his fingers into her silky strands. Her hands grazed up his chest and settled on his neck. He shivered when her fingers curled in his hair. He wished they had been doing this sooner. Kissing her felt like he was coming home.

She pulled away from him. Her lips were puffed and red and he tried to catch her lips again but she stepped away and avoided his gaze. “Oh, uh, I have to go,” she said. She quickly gathered her things and left, leaving So confused and hurt.

“He kissed you?” Seon Deok shrieked. “And you just left? What the hell is wrong with you? You’ve been dreaming about kissing him for weeks now.”

Soo pounded her head on the table before taking another shot of soju. “I know. I’m an idiot. I panicked. I didn’t think he was actually going to kiss me. I didn’t even know he liked me enough to kiss me!”

“So, what was it like?” Seon Deok poked her friend, eager for details.

“Well, it was… perfect. Slow and warm and … delicate,” she sighed and Seon Deok sighed with her. “And then he tugged me to him and his chest really is as solid as it looks but in a good way and the kiss was firm and thrilling and… god, it was so hot. Seon Deok, what is wrong with me?” She poured herself another glass of soju before knocking it back. “How am I supposed to fix this?”

“Go back and ravage him? He’ll probably forget all about it. Nothing like hot make-up sex,” she giggled and Soo smacked her lightly on the arm.

“I’m serious. I’m looking for serious solutions only.”

“I was serious, but, um, why don’t you write him a song or something? It’s kind of your thing.”

“Hmm… yea, I guess that makes sense.”  

Soo was avoiding him. She hadn’t been to any of their practices since he kissed her and she ran off. Why had she ran off? She seemed just as into the kiss as he did. He pressed his face into the pillow and screamed into it. It didn’t make any sense to him. Why had she run off?! He punched the pillow, punched the bed, punched the headboard. Was she really dating Baek Ah? Would she kiss him back if she was dating Baek Ah? Did he just betray his best friend? Everything would’ve been fine and solved and wonderful if she had just. Not. Run. Away! He flipped on his bed and started kicking the air. This was driving him up the wall.

There was a small knock on his door and Baek Ah poked his head through. “Hey, is there something going on with you? Because you’ve been terrible at practice. You’re off beat, or you’re too loud or you’re too soft or, sometimes, not even paying attention. It’s not like you.”

So pouted at his friend. “I think I did something really bad. And you’re going to hate me.”

“It would take quite a lot for me to hate you.” So pulled the pillow over his face and mumbled his troubles into it. Baek Ah walked over and pulled the pillow off his friend’s face. “So, just tell me. Can’t fix it if I don’t know what’s broken.”

“I kissed your girlfriend. I didn’t mean to, but she’s just so beautiful and always smells so nice and she licked her lips and I just couldn’t help myself and I kissed her.”

“Okay, let’s backtrack. I don’t have a girlfriend. Unless you count that poster of Seohyun from Girls’ Generation. Have you been kissing my poster?”

So sat up and squished Baek Ah’s face between his hands. “You’re not dating Hae Soo?”

“Hae Soo?” he asked, pushing So’s hands off his face. “Why would I date her? She likes you.” He gasped loudly. “YOU KISSED HAE SOO?! Oh, tell me everything? Did she kiss you? Man, I was wondering how long she was going to hold it in. She never shuts up about you.”

“She likes me? She said that? You heard the words ‘I like Wang So’ come out of her mouth?”

Baek Ah furrowed his eyebrows together. “Wait a second, start from the beginning.”

So fell sideways on his bed, his head dangling over the edge. “It was last week. It was after you and Eun left us to clean up. We were talking about instruments and I just… I kissed her and it was amazing and then she just left. And I haven’t heard anything from her since then. I thought she was avoiding me because you two were dating.”

“Okay, we will talk about how easily you would kiss a girl you think is my girlfriend at another point in time, my friend, but we’ve never been a thing. She’s cute, but she’s like a sister. I did suspect you had a thing for her, though, when I saw you kicking the couch after she dragged me into my room saying she was going to sleep with me. She likes you, though, so I’m surprised she would just leave and she didn’t even mention it to me.”

“You’ve been talking to her?” So asked eagerly, pulling himself up. “She hasn’t been coming to practice though.”

“Oh, that’s because she has exams and she’s been studying. She’s still been working on the music, though. She gave me the finished sheet music this morning. She said as long as we nail the melody, she’ll come through with the lyrics and she’ll meet up with us at the competition.”

“Right. The competition, which is another couple weeks. Do you think you could ask her why she left? Or like give her my number? Or should I write a letter? Do you think she would like flowers? Should I write a letter and send flowers?”

Baek Ah slapped his hand over So’s face. “Just stop talking. I’ll talk to her.” So just nodded.

Eun was off in the distance, on the phone with Seon Deok asking about Soo’s whereabouts. She was late and they were supposed to be up any minute now. Eun got off the phone and rushed over. “Seon Deok said traffic is really bad, but Hae Soo is definitely on her way.”

So rubbed at his eyes. Baek Ah smacked his face. “Okay, Eun you know the lyrics right?” Baek Ah asked. “If, for some reason, she doesn’t show and we go on, you’re going to have to sing.”

“Uh, I don’t know. Keyboard, I’m good at. Singing I’m good at. Playing the keyboard and singing at the same time in front of all those people, maybe not so much.”

“Face it,” sighed So, idly twirling his drumstick to hide his rising panic. “We’re screwed.”

“Well, aren’t you just a beacon of optimism,” said a voice behind him. All three men turned to see Soo and they gaped at her. So stood quickly, tripping over his feet and stumbling before her beauty. She looked stunning in a simple red dress that lightly hugged her small frame before flaring out the knees. Her usual straight hair fell down her back in waves and So wanted nothing more than to run his fingers through the length of it. The most beautiful part of her, though, was the way her eyes sparkled with excitement. “Sorry, I’m late.”

Eun pulled her into a hug before So could get to her. “It just matters that you are here,” Eun said close to her ear. “Come on, we’re next.” He took her hand and dragged her towards the stage. She gave So a fleeting but encouraging smile. She had hated how she had left things, tried texting him and calling him a thousand times, but nothing seemed right. She would make it right tonight, though. She had to.

A stagehand came up to them. “Ready in five,” he said and then hurried off to prepare the next act. They took their places behind the curtain. So tried to get Soo’s attention, but she was too busy talking to Baek Ah, going over last minutes notes. I guess I’ll just have to wait until after the show, he thought to himself. He cursed Eun for taking away his small window of opportunity.

“Alright, all you music lovers,” they heard the emcee call over the speakers. “Give it up for The Wolf-Dogs.” The crowd roared as the curtains rolled up.

“Wow,” Hae Soo said into the mic. “What a great crowd, tonight. Thank you all for letting us play our song for you. I know you’re pumped and ready to dance, but we’re going to slow it down for you a little bit. This song was written as an apology of sorts for someone I like quite a bit, maybe more than a bit. This song is called ‘Through the Night’. We hope you like it.”

The light dimmed over them as the first notes chimed over the crowd, a soft note escaping her lips, lulling the crowd into a hush. As she serenaded the audience, So felt the rising tide of euphoria sweep through him and felt the ebb of his anxiety and confusion over her radio silence flee with every romantic lilt and intonation that rippled from her. He watched as the crowd one by one by one brought out their phones, waving the bright lights in the air, creating a sea of fireflies. He clung to her words, the ones that told him she loved him, that told him she missed him, and said he was a blessing. He wanted it all with her, every touch, every smile, every conversation and she was telling him, telling everyone, that she wanted it too. He didn’t care anymore if they won this competition because somehow, inconceivably, he had won her love and that was the greatest prize of all. As the last silvery notes resonated through the night, the crowd’s howling and thunderous applause returned to the venue. The four of them took a bow as the curtains lowered. Stagehands rushed them off the stage so they could set up for the next competitor.

“Oh, man, Hae Soo, you were great!” Eun applauded. “I’ve never heard anyone sing like that before.”

Once again, Eun brought her in for a hug, completely cutting off his older brother from her. This time, without any time constraints, So pulled his brother off of Soo. “I need to talk to you,” So said to her and she let him take her hand and followed him to a quieter place they could talk.

“Before you say anything,” Soo said when they stopped. “I just want to say I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have just left like that. I could give you a thousand different excuses, but I’m just going to say that I like you. I like you a lot. I liked kissing you and I love that you can be wild and free playing the drums but that you’re precise and nimble enough to play the violin and I love how you smell like flowers but you taste like cinnamon and I like that you don’t care about what other people say about you. I just like every bit of you and I’m all in. That is, if you still like me.”

So felt his laughter bubble in his chest and burst from his lips. “Are you laughing at me?” she said, pouting.

“No, I’m laughing because this is all so unreal. You just sang a song for me. You wrote a song about me, about us, and sang it in front of all those people and now you’re standing in front of me listing reasons why you like me and I just can’t contain myself. Because I like you, too. I like you so much. I loved kissing you and I love that you smell like apples and taste like vanilla. I like how you put your whole heart and soul into every word and note you write. I like that you go after what you want no matter the consequences that lay before you. And I’m all in, too, every bit of me.”

It was Soo that initiated the kiss this time and So found he liked that a whole lot better, the way she jumped up into his height and crashed her lips into his. She dropped down, a playful smile on her lips and her eyes shining with glee. It wasn’t enough for him, he wanted more of her. He wrapped his arm around her waist, bringing her closer, and his other hand reached up to brush her hair behind her ear. “Don’t run away from me this time,” he said and as a giggle spilled from her lips, he drank it in. He stole another kiss and his own heart created a song just for her, bursting to be sung.