Super Junior: we could've been a love story
Title: we could've been a love story
Author: papered
Fandom: Super Junior
Characters/Pairings: Zhou Mi, Kyumi
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1050
Summary: war!AU. Zhou Mi is a dreamer. He builds sandcastles in the air and believes in Happily Ever Afters; falls in love with drawing and singing and a dozen other things he's yet to try.
Notes: I started the first paragraph of this over a month ago, but it never got anywhere until now. Written listening to BoA's 永遠 on repeat. Also, my knowledge of history is non-existent, so please forgive my butchering everything. :X
01.
Zhou Mi is a dreamer. He builds sandcastles in the air and believes in Happily Ever Afters; falls in love with drawing and singing and a dozen other things he's yet to try.
He carries a bound notebook around (the pages wrinkled from use and back cover stained from the time he'd spilt tea on it); keeps black and white photos in neatly-labeled albums on the shelf of his corner of the room he shares with his family and sticks hand-drawn images of the sky on the tattered walls. The neighbours whisper behind his back, and the auntie who lives next door tells him that he's too old to still believe in dreams, and that he should get a stable job one of these days. Zhou Mi already has a job delivering newspapers in the morning, and he helps his parents out on their farm as much as he can, but giving up isn't something Zhou Mi knows how to do. Instead, he smiles even wider and keeps going. (because he knows dreams aren't light switches to be turned on and off at will.)
I'm going to be famous one day, he tells them, even if they don't believe him.
02.
When Zhou Mi leaves for Korea (I'm going to be a singer), there's an uproar in his village. Everyone Zhou Mi knows has lived out their lives in their birthplace, and leaving the village was rare enough; leaving the country was unheard of.
Zhou Mi's father is far from pleased. If you walk out that door, don't ever call me father again.
His mother's eyes are tired, and looking at the wrinkle-lines over her brows and the white in her hair, it suddenly occurs to Zhou Mi that she's old.
Zhou Mi walks out of his previous life fighting back tears and pretending he can't hear his father yelling about his good-for-nothing son and his mother's stifled crying.
03.
He meets Kyuhyun on the fifth day.
The other greets him with an uncertain 你好 and a hint of a smile, and Zhou Mi's gone. Kyuhyun's pronunciation is a little strange, but this is the longest Zhou Mi had ever been separated from his native tongue, and the familiar tones are like a balm on a wound he didn't know he had.
(ni hao = hello)
我是周觅, Zhou Mi says, and grasps long fingers between his.
(wo shi zhou mi = i'm zhou mi)
Kyuhyun's smile feels a little like the first time he'd discovered black and white keys under his fingers or heard the whirl of a needle over gramaphone records.
04.
Time passes quickly, but Kyuhyun is still the first person Zhou Mi has ever met who didn't scoff at his uncertain ideas and half-formed dreams. So when Kyuhyun pulls him into his room after vocal lessons one day, Zhou Mi doesn't resist.
He's had enough experience to know that the heart has a tendency to always go one step too far, but Zhou Mi's not scared of love.
05.
The hollow of Kyuhyun's neck is smooth unblemished skin, and when Zhou Mi press kisses to it in the middle of the night, the way Kyuhyun shivers against him leaves laughter in Zhou Mi's throat and tingles of warmth along his skin.
I wish I could fly, he says afterwards, a little sleepy, and their faces are close enough that Zhou Mi thinks he can almost count the individual lashes on Kyuhyun's eyelids despite the dark.
Kyuhyun laughs at him, rolls his eyes as if Zhou Mi is crazy, but threads the tips of their fingers together like promises in the sky.
06.
The Chinese civic war comes the summer of 1927, and enlistment is mandatory.
07.
I'll be back, Zhou Mi says - furiously, desperately, even if he's afraid he's lying - and Kyuhyun nods wordlessly.
They go to park and share an ice cream cone, and Zhou Mi scratches "周觅 + 奎贤" into the side of the bench they sit on. Kyuhyun watches him with fond eyes (and Zhou Mi wishes this didn't feel like a goodbye). They chase pigeons together until Zhou Mi's tired and Kyuhyun's laughing, and when it starts to rain, Zhou Mi tries to take off his jacket for Kyuhyun but the other stops him with a kiss. They kiss until they're drenched and out of breath, and then they head back to the dorms, hand in hand.
(zhou mi + kui xian)
Zhou Mi pretends he doesn't see the redness around Kyuhyun's eyes.
That night, Kyuhyun grasps his hands and tells him don't go with resignation on in his face and defeat already written into his posture. Zhou Mi hates that he can't surprise him - not this time - but he holds onto Kyuhyun's hand like a lifeline and whispers promises he's not sure he can keep. Kyuhyun nods and smiles like he believes him, and it's the smile that breaks Zhou Mi's heart.
08.
The day he leaves, Kyuhyun pulls him onto the balcony and kisses him hard, all brutal force and devastating warmth (don't you dare forget me) and Zhou Mi sighs against his lips and pulls him forward until they're chest to chest and heart to heart, until the breath is rushing out of his lungs and their silhouette is one under the rays of the afternoon sun.
09.
They put a weapon into his hands and push him out into the line of fire, and it's the first time Zhou Mi has ever held a gun. The cold steel burns into his palms, and the first time an enemy soldier steps in front of him, he hesitates.
The bullet misses him but not the person behind him, and Zhou Mi doesn't hesitate again.
10.
The day Zhou Mi dies, the weather is clear and the sky is a bright bright blue - almost too pretty to be true. It reminds him of Kyuhyun's smile, and maybe it's because he's distracted, but he doesn't see the tip of the rifle aimed at him until it's too late. When he goes down on his knees, Zhou Mi thinks to himself that this isn't as painful as he'd imagined.
Sorry, Kyuhyun, he says out loud, a little apologetically, and thinks that maybe, he's going to have to break his promise this time.
He dreams of dark eyes and stolen kisses before closing his eyes.
fic started: Jan 20, 2009
fic finished: Mar 8, 2009
+ Feedback would be greatly appreciated.
+ Like what you've read? Please friend!
Author: papered
Fandom: Super Junior
Characters/Pairings: Zhou Mi, Kyumi
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1050
Summary: war!AU. Zhou Mi is a dreamer. He builds sandcastles in the air and believes in Happily Ever Afters; falls in love with drawing and singing and a dozen other things he's yet to try.
Notes: I started the first paragraph of this over a month ago, but it never got anywhere until now. Written listening to BoA's 永遠 on repeat. Also, my knowledge of history is non-existent, so please forgive my butchering everything. :X
01.
Zhou Mi is a dreamer. He builds sandcastles in the air and believes in Happily Ever Afters; falls in love with drawing and singing and a dozen other things he's yet to try.
He carries a bound notebook around (the pages wrinkled from use and back cover stained from the time he'd spilt tea on it); keeps black and white photos in neatly-labeled albums on the shelf of his corner of the room he shares with his family and sticks hand-drawn images of the sky on the tattered walls. The neighbours whisper behind his back, and the auntie who lives next door tells him that he's too old to still believe in dreams, and that he should get a stable job one of these days. Zhou Mi already has a job delivering newspapers in the morning, and he helps his parents out on their farm as much as he can, but giving up isn't something Zhou Mi knows how to do. Instead, he smiles even wider and keeps going. (because he knows dreams aren't light switches to be turned on and off at will.)
I'm going to be famous one day, he tells them, even if they don't believe him.
02.
When Zhou Mi leaves for Korea (I'm going to be a singer), there's an uproar in his village. Everyone Zhou Mi knows has lived out their lives in their birthplace, and leaving the village was rare enough; leaving the country was unheard of.
Zhou Mi's father is far from pleased. If you walk out that door, don't ever call me father again.
His mother's eyes are tired, and looking at the wrinkle-lines over her brows and the white in her hair, it suddenly occurs to Zhou Mi that she's old.
Zhou Mi walks out of his previous life fighting back tears and pretending he can't hear his father yelling about his good-for-nothing son and his mother's stifled crying.
03.
He meets Kyuhyun on the fifth day.
The other greets him with an uncertain 你好 and a hint of a smile, and Zhou Mi's gone. Kyuhyun's pronunciation is a little strange, but this is the longest Zhou Mi had ever been separated from his native tongue, and the familiar tones are like a balm on a wound he didn't know he had.
(ni hao = hello)
我是周觅, Zhou Mi says, and grasps long fingers between his.
(wo shi zhou mi = i'm zhou mi)
Kyuhyun's smile feels a little like the first time he'd discovered black and white keys under his fingers or heard the whirl of a needle over gramaphone records.
04.
Time passes quickly, but Kyuhyun is still the first person Zhou Mi has ever met who didn't scoff at his uncertain ideas and half-formed dreams. So when Kyuhyun pulls him into his room after vocal lessons one day, Zhou Mi doesn't resist.
He's had enough experience to know that the heart has a tendency to always go one step too far, but Zhou Mi's not scared of love.
05.
The hollow of Kyuhyun's neck is smooth unblemished skin, and when Zhou Mi press kisses to it in the middle of the night, the way Kyuhyun shivers against him leaves laughter in Zhou Mi's throat and tingles of warmth along his skin.
I wish I could fly, he says afterwards, a little sleepy, and their faces are close enough that Zhou Mi thinks he can almost count the individual lashes on Kyuhyun's eyelids despite the dark.
Kyuhyun laughs at him, rolls his eyes as if Zhou Mi is crazy, but threads the tips of their fingers together like promises in the sky.
06.
The Chinese civic war comes the summer of 1927, and enlistment is mandatory.
07.
I'll be back, Zhou Mi says - furiously, desperately, even if he's afraid he's lying - and Kyuhyun nods wordlessly.
They go to park and share an ice cream cone, and Zhou Mi scratches "周觅 + 奎贤" into the side of the bench they sit on. Kyuhyun watches him with fond eyes (and Zhou Mi wishes this didn't feel like a goodbye). They chase pigeons together until Zhou Mi's tired and Kyuhyun's laughing, and when it starts to rain, Zhou Mi tries to take off his jacket for Kyuhyun but the other stops him with a kiss. They kiss until they're drenched and out of breath, and then they head back to the dorms, hand in hand.
(zhou mi + kui xian)
Zhou Mi pretends he doesn't see the redness around Kyuhyun's eyes.
That night, Kyuhyun grasps his hands and tells him don't go with resignation on in his face and defeat already written into his posture. Zhou Mi hates that he can't surprise him - not this time - but he holds onto Kyuhyun's hand like a lifeline and whispers promises he's not sure he can keep. Kyuhyun nods and smiles like he believes him, and it's the smile that breaks Zhou Mi's heart.
08.
The day he leaves, Kyuhyun pulls him onto the balcony and kisses him hard, all brutal force and devastating warmth (don't you dare forget me) and Zhou Mi sighs against his lips and pulls him forward until they're chest to chest and heart to heart, until the breath is rushing out of his lungs and their silhouette is one under the rays of the afternoon sun.
09.
They put a weapon into his hands and push him out into the line of fire, and it's the first time Zhou Mi has ever held a gun. The cold steel burns into his palms, and the first time an enemy soldier steps in front of him, he hesitates.
The bullet misses him but not the person behind him, and Zhou Mi doesn't hesitate again.
10.
The day Zhou Mi dies, the weather is clear and the sky is a bright bright blue - almost too pretty to be true. It reminds him of Kyuhyun's smile, and maybe it's because he's distracted, but he doesn't see the tip of the rifle aimed at him until it's too late. When he goes down on his knees, Zhou Mi thinks to himself that this isn't as painful as he'd imagined.
Sorry, Kyuhyun, he says out loud, a little apologetically, and thinks that maybe, he's going to have to break his promise this time.
He dreams of dark eyes and stolen kisses before closing his eyes.
fic started: Jan 20, 2009
fic finished: Mar 8, 2009
+ Feedback would be greatly appreciated.
+ Like what you've read? Please friend!