122.
I signed up for kpop_rarepairs earlier this year but it fell through and I never managed to finish the fic. Originally for _harmlessthings, this is very, very ridiculous, and minyoung. She wanted all possible tropes ("everyone thinks they're dating / their fellow bandmates play yenta") and it was so much fun to write, and I'm sorry I didn't finish :( ♥
---
Chunji is a weird environment to get to know someone else in.
You get to know the sound of their voice, the faces they make at an unpleasant song, and their taste in clothing when they've just come from a dance rehearsal, still smelling faintly of sweat. But you don't really get to know if they slurp their noodles, how they look freshly made up with perfectly plucked eyebrows, and their favourite brand of sneakers.
"Are we off air?" Sungmin whispers to her, and Sooyoung stifles a yawn.
"Yeah."
"Oh okay, because my birthday's coming up..." He waggles his eyebrows and Sooyoung hits his shoulder. "And, you know, not hinting, or anything, but I've had my eyes on these sneakers for a while..."
"Oh, well, too bad I'm not getting you anything!" She sticks up chin up and he pouts.
"Aw, come on Sooyoung! Beautiful, perfect, wonderfully kind Sooyoung! Don't you loooooove me? How could you not love this face!" He shoves his face into her personal space and pouts again, and she kicks him and squirms as the song ends and the light clicks on.
"Welcome back to Chunji Radio," Sungmin says smoothly into the mic, his hair in disarray and Sooyoung's relentless claws digging into his arm. "You are listening to the lovely voices of Sungmin of Super Junior and--"
"Sooyoung of Girls' Generation! So... I've heard some interesting rumours about you, Sungmin..." Sooyoung looks across at him and he makes shut up! motions at her.
"Oh really, what kind?" Shut up! he mouths at her. She blinks innocently back. They are so lucky the cameras are off for today.
"Do you have a certain... lady friend?" She flutters her eyelashes at him and he responds with I will kill you motions.
"Lady friend? I have no idea what you mean!" Now he's trying to sink his blunt nails into her skinny arm, but she just shakes him off and tosses her hair at him.
"There are reports that you and a certain lady have been spotted around N night markets... Could you have been meeting her after Chunji and not telling me?!" She pretends to be outraged but Sungmin just wants to punch her right now. Great, she's talking about their own nightly trips after Chunji to get some decent food in.
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" He feigns surprise in his voice even as he scribbles on the back of what looks like a Very Important Schedule, and holds it up for her.
You, Lady?
"Ouch!" He holds up the pen she threw at him and raises his eyebrows at the dangerous look she has on. "If you were wondering what that was, the lovely, sweet, innocent Sooyoung just threw a pen at me."
"I did not!"
"You did so!"
"I did not!"
"You did!"
"Guys, guys, calm, you're on radio, remember," a voice says in their ears, and they sheepishly look at the PD.
"Anyway," Sooyoung says with a pointed look in Sungmin's direction. "It's winter now and getting colder, so what better to listen to than 'First Snow' by Super Junior?"
"That's right! Listen to the beautiful lyrics and let's anticipate the first snow of the year together!" He hits play as Sooyoung collapses on the chair and throws bits of paper at him.
"I'm not a lady? Well excuse me if you're not a gentleman!"
He laughs as he brings up an arm to shield himself from her attacks, and she fake-snarls at him. "Now, now, that's not very ladylike, is it?"
She snarls, actually, this time, and in the brief silence that follows, her stomach rumbles.
"Ladylike, huh?" Sungmin repeat, and she pointedly ignores him.
"How long 'til we're done?"
"Uhh, half an hour?" Sungmin checks his watch and yeah, half an hour to go. He's hungry too. "Should we hit the markets again?"
"Not scared to be seen with your lady friend?" Sooyoung asks good-naturedly and kicks her legs under the table.
"Only if she's scared to be seen with me," he says and finishes the reply with a seedy wink, which she shrieks at.
"OH MY GOD, PLEASE NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!"
"So, lady friend," Donghae asks, wiggling his eyebrows like two furry caterpillars. Sungmin is tempted to throw the chicken wings but instead dumps them in Donghae's greedy hands.
"So, a lady friend, eh?" Hyukjae asks in a similar manner, nudging Sungmin's arm and Sungmin sighs heavily.
"Sooyoung wishes she was a lady, okay, she was just talking herself up."
Donghae and Hyukjae trade conspiratorial looks at that, and Sungmin sighs again. "What?"
"Oh, nothing," they say simultaneous and start fighting over the wings.
"Did we hear jealousy, today?" Tiffany asks, nudging Sooyoung's arm as Jessica flings her arm over Sooyoung's shoulders, standing on her toes.
"What?" Sooyoung produces some bulgogi from her bag, and Tiffany greedily descends upon it.
"Oh, you know," Jessica says, pulling Sooyoung down a bit to stage whisper into her ear, "Jealousy's only natural. Don't worry, we understand."
"Understand what?" Sooyoung bites into an apple, confusion written all over her face.
Jessica and Tiffany trade looks, and Tiffany sighs, arm coming up to rest on Sooyoung's shoulders as well. Sooyoung raises an eyebrow.
"We know about Sungmin," Tiffany says. Sooyoung looks at her, eyes wide, before she collapses in laughter.
"Oh my god! Oh my god, you thought-- you two thought-- that me and him, oh my god, no. There is no Sungmin and me, no."
Sooyoung grins at them, extremely entertained by the thought of it, even as the other girls stare at her. She sighs.
"Come on, I wouldn't keep it from you guys if there was anything, which there isn't. Choi Sooyoung's love life? Zero!"
Being in the same company, having trained together in the same rooms and building means that Super Junior and Girls' Generation have certain bonds and friendships other bands don't. Which also means a giant conspiracy theory.
Tiffany guests on Chunji and reports back to her band as Jessica sends regular updates to Heechul's phone, which gets tossed at Donghae when Heechul feels like it. Tiffany says they're basically perfect for each other and their trips to the night markets are disturbingly frequent.
Yesung and Ryeowook guest a few days later, and Ryeowook agrees that they are really cute together and that even if they aren't already together, they should be. Soon. Taeyeon agrees with this heartily when she drops by the station to drop off some food and sends off texts to all the Super Junior and Girls' Generation phone numbers she has.
"If they aren't already together, do you think there's something stopping them?" Yuri asks at their routine, post-Chunji meeting.
"Stupidity?" Tiffany guesses.
"Heechul agrees, stupidity," Jessica says, amused as she holds up her phone. Tiffany makes a fist of victory.
"And we all know that Heechul is always right."
"They sounded really cute today, didn't they?" Yoona says wistfully and the whole room sighs.
"Do you think we could do something to get them together, then?" Hyoyeon asks. Her phone beeps and she flips it open. "Hey, Hyukjae wants to know if Sooyoung's gotten Sungmin a present yet."
"What for?" Seohyun asks, not looking up from her book.
"For Christmas -- and his birthday," Hyoyeon says, grin spreading
"We could swap them, or Super Junior could," Sunny says, starting to smirk.
"Ohh, slip a love confession inside!"
"Decorated with love hearts!"
(insert more sabotage planning here)
Honestly, Sooyoung never planned to give Sungmin anything for Christmas because they agreed, mutually, that it was too hectic to go shopping with all the extra practices and concerts, and Sooyoung's relieved. She can't imagine picking out a Christmas present and a birthday present for Sungmin when he seems content with anything. And she definitely has to top the beautiful bouquet of flowers he had gotten for her birthday, even if the had been a shitty,
"A heart! Oh my God, he likes you!"
"Oh god, a heart is just as good as a confession, and flowers!"
"Red roses... Sooyoung, is there something you're hiding from us?"
No, she wasn't going to enlist their help. She was fine on her own, thank you very much.
Christmas rolls around and it's tiring and painful as it is every other year.
"Tag, you're it," Sungmin says, puffing as Super Junior shuffle off the stage and SNSD shuffle on. Sooyoung trades a nervous high five with him.
"I'm honoured," she says dryly, but his smile makes her just a little less nervous, and she smiles back.
"Good luck," he says, singsong, before he's pushed off and Sooyoung raises her hand in a half-wave, but they're on.
She gets back to the dorms exhausted and cold and pretty miserable at some ridiculous time, and there's a present on her bed.
Oh god, she thinks. I'm going to kill him.
"Sungmin dropped that off during the day sometime," Yuri says, popping her head through the doorway before the rest of her body follows. Jessica and Taeyeon trail in as well.
"What is it?" Taeyeon asks, and Sooyoung opens the card.
It's a beautiful woolen scarf in SNSD's pink, and a small batch of cookies. She tries a cookie and it's delicious, and the scarf is wonderful and warm, and Sooyoung pick sup the card again.
"Sungmin sounds super polite in this card," she wonders aloud, and the three in the doorway flinch. "And I didn't know his handwriting was so neat and precise... kind of reminds me of Seohyun's."
"What a coincidence!" Taeyeon says loudly.
"Yeah, who would've thought!" Yuri says, and Jessica tries not to smile.
"Thanks, though, guys," Sooyoung says sincerely as she turns with her arms outstretch for a hug.
"Feed me first," Jessica says, and opens her mouth wide.
Sungmin comes home to a similar situation, weary and tired. On his bed is a card and wrapped box, and he slowly opens the card. Hyukjae curiously pokes his head in.
"Sooyoung dropped that off earlier."
As Sungmin continues admiring the shoes, Donghae comes in and sits on the floor near the doorway, next to the Hyukjae's feet, and Shindong joins them.
"What's that?" Shindong asks curiously.
"Christmas present from Sooyoung," Donghae says with a straight face.
"Wow, she writes like you, Donghae," Shindong says as he reads the card, and Donghae winces.
"Nooooo she doesn't... Present's from Sooyoung, I swear, from Sooyoung," Donghae says desperately, and Hyukjae tries not to grin.
"Donghae can't lie, he's telling the truth, present from Sooyoung!" Hyukjae says, and staggers when Donghae hugs his legs.
"From Sooyoung, I swear!"
Sungmin turns with a giant grin on his face and smothers the two as Shindong watches in amusement.
"Okay then, thank you, Sooyoung."
---
Chunji is a weird environment to get to know someone else in.
You get to know the sound of their voice, the faces they make at an unpleasant song, and their taste in clothing when they've just come from a dance rehearsal, still smelling faintly of sweat. But you don't really get to know if they slurp their noodles, how they look freshly made up with perfectly plucked eyebrows, and their favourite brand of sneakers.
"Are we off air?" Sungmin whispers to her, and Sooyoung stifles a yawn.
"Yeah."
"Oh okay, because my birthday's coming up..." He waggles his eyebrows and Sooyoung hits his shoulder. "And, you know, not hinting, or anything, but I've had my eyes on these sneakers for a while..."
"Oh, well, too bad I'm not getting you anything!" She sticks up chin up and he pouts.
"Aw, come on Sooyoung! Beautiful, perfect, wonderfully kind Sooyoung! Don't you loooooove me? How could you not love this face!" He shoves his face into her personal space and pouts again, and she kicks him and squirms as the song ends and the light clicks on.
"Welcome back to Chunji Radio," Sungmin says smoothly into the mic, his hair in disarray and Sooyoung's relentless claws digging into his arm. "You are listening to the lovely voices of Sungmin of Super Junior and--"
"Sooyoung of Girls' Generation! So... I've heard some interesting rumours about you, Sungmin..." Sooyoung looks across at him and he makes shut up! motions at her.
"Oh really, what kind?" Shut up! he mouths at her. She blinks innocently back. They are so lucky the cameras are off for today.
"Do you have a certain... lady friend?" She flutters her eyelashes at him and he responds with I will kill you motions.
"Lady friend? I have no idea what you mean!" Now he's trying to sink his blunt nails into her skinny arm, but she just shakes him off and tosses her hair at him.
"There are reports that you and a certain lady have been spotted around N night markets... Could you have been meeting her after Chunji and not telling me?!" She pretends to be outraged but Sungmin just wants to punch her right now. Great, she's talking about their own nightly trips after Chunji to get some decent food in.
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" He feigns surprise in his voice even as he scribbles on the back of what looks like a Very Important Schedule, and holds it up for her.
You, Lady?
"Ouch!" He holds up the pen she threw at him and raises his eyebrows at the dangerous look she has on. "If you were wondering what that was, the lovely, sweet, innocent Sooyoung just threw a pen at me."
"I did not!"
"You did so!"
"I did not!"
"You did!"
"Guys, guys, calm, you're on radio, remember," a voice says in their ears, and they sheepishly look at the PD.
"Anyway," Sooyoung says with a pointed look in Sungmin's direction. "It's winter now and getting colder, so what better to listen to than 'First Snow' by Super Junior?"
"That's right! Listen to the beautiful lyrics and let's anticipate the first snow of the year together!" He hits play as Sooyoung collapses on the chair and throws bits of paper at him.
"I'm not a lady? Well excuse me if you're not a gentleman!"
He laughs as he brings up an arm to shield himself from her attacks, and she fake-snarls at him. "Now, now, that's not very ladylike, is it?"
She snarls, actually, this time, and in the brief silence that follows, her stomach rumbles.
"Ladylike, huh?" Sungmin repeat, and she pointedly ignores him.
"How long 'til we're done?"
"Uhh, half an hour?" Sungmin checks his watch and yeah, half an hour to go. He's hungry too. "Should we hit the markets again?"
"Not scared to be seen with your lady friend?" Sooyoung asks good-naturedly and kicks her legs under the table.
"Only if she's scared to be seen with me," he says and finishes the reply with a seedy wink, which she shrieks at.
"OH MY GOD, PLEASE NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!"
"So, lady friend," Donghae asks, wiggling his eyebrows like two furry caterpillars. Sungmin is tempted to throw the chicken wings but instead dumps them in Donghae's greedy hands.
"So, a lady friend, eh?" Hyukjae asks in a similar manner, nudging Sungmin's arm and Sungmin sighs heavily.
"Sooyoung wishes she was a lady, okay, she was just talking herself up."
Donghae and Hyukjae trade conspiratorial looks at that, and Sungmin sighs again. "What?"
"Oh, nothing," they say simultaneous and start fighting over the wings.
"Did we hear jealousy, today?" Tiffany asks, nudging Sooyoung's arm as Jessica flings her arm over Sooyoung's shoulders, standing on her toes.
"What?" Sooyoung produces some bulgogi from her bag, and Tiffany greedily descends upon it.
"Oh, you know," Jessica says, pulling Sooyoung down a bit to stage whisper into her ear, "Jealousy's only natural. Don't worry, we understand."
"Understand what?" Sooyoung bites into an apple, confusion written all over her face.
Jessica and Tiffany trade looks, and Tiffany sighs, arm coming up to rest on Sooyoung's shoulders as well. Sooyoung raises an eyebrow.
"We know about Sungmin," Tiffany says. Sooyoung looks at her, eyes wide, before she collapses in laughter.
"Oh my god! Oh my god, you thought-- you two thought-- that me and him, oh my god, no. There is no Sungmin and me, no."
Sooyoung grins at them, extremely entertained by the thought of it, even as the other girls stare at her. She sighs.
"Come on, I wouldn't keep it from you guys if there was anything, which there isn't. Choi Sooyoung's love life? Zero!"
Being in the same company, having trained together in the same rooms and building means that Super Junior and Girls' Generation have certain bonds and friendships other bands don't. Which also means a giant conspiracy theory.
Tiffany guests on Chunji and reports back to her band as Jessica sends regular updates to Heechul's phone, which gets tossed at Donghae when Heechul feels like it. Tiffany says they're basically perfect for each other and their trips to the night markets are disturbingly frequent.
Yesung and Ryeowook guest a few days later, and Ryeowook agrees that they are really cute together and that even if they aren't already together, they should be. Soon. Taeyeon agrees with this heartily when she drops by the station to drop off some food and sends off texts to all the Super Junior and Girls' Generation phone numbers she has.
"If they aren't already together, do you think there's something stopping them?" Yuri asks at their routine, post-Chunji meeting.
"Stupidity?" Tiffany guesses.
"Heechul agrees, stupidity," Jessica says, amused as she holds up her phone. Tiffany makes a fist of victory.
"And we all know that Heechul is always right."
"They sounded really cute today, didn't they?" Yoona says wistfully and the whole room sighs.
"Do you think we could do something to get them together, then?" Hyoyeon asks. Her phone beeps and she flips it open. "Hey, Hyukjae wants to know if Sooyoung's gotten Sungmin a present yet."
"What for?" Seohyun asks, not looking up from her book.
"For Christmas -- and his birthday," Hyoyeon says, grin spreading
"We could swap them, or Super Junior could," Sunny says, starting to smirk.
"Ohh, slip a love confession inside!"
"Decorated with love hearts!"
(insert more sabotage planning here)
Honestly, Sooyoung never planned to give Sungmin anything for Christmas because they agreed, mutually, that it was too hectic to go shopping with all the extra practices and concerts, and Sooyoung's relieved. She can't imagine picking out a Christmas present and a birthday present for Sungmin when he seems content with anything. And she definitely has to top the beautiful bouquet of flowers he had gotten for her birthday, even if the had been a shitty,
- Bet this is the first time you've gotten flowers from a guy, hah! Happy Birthday, piggy Choi Sooyoung!~ ^^ Sungmin~ ♥
"A heart! Oh my God, he likes you!"
"Oh god, a heart is just as good as a confession, and flowers!"
"Red roses... Sooyoung, is there something you're hiding from us?"
No, she wasn't going to enlist their help. She was fine on her own, thank you very much.
Christmas rolls around and it's tiring and painful as it is every other year.
"Tag, you're it," Sungmin says, puffing as Super Junior shuffle off the stage and SNSD shuffle on. Sooyoung trades a nervous high five with him.
"I'm honoured," she says dryly, but his smile makes her just a little less nervous, and she smiles back.
"Good luck," he says, singsong, before he's pushed off and Sooyoung raises her hand in a half-wave, but they're on.
She gets back to the dorms exhausted and cold and pretty miserable at some ridiculous time, and there's a present on her bed.
Oh god, she thinks. I'm going to kill him.
"Sungmin dropped that off during the day sometime," Yuri says, popping her head through the doorway before the rest of her body follows. Jessica and Taeyeon trail in as well.
"What is it?" Taeyeon asks, and Sooyoung opens the card.
- Merry Christmas, Sooyoungie! I hope you enjoy the present and I'll see you at Chunji soon. God bless~ Sungmin ^^ ♥
It's a beautiful woolen scarf in SNSD's pink, and a small batch of cookies. She tries a cookie and it's delicious, and the scarf is wonderful and warm, and Sooyoung pick sup the card again.
"Sungmin sounds super polite in this card," she wonders aloud, and the three in the doorway flinch. "And I didn't know his handwriting was so neat and precise... kind of reminds me of Seohyun's."
"What a coincidence!" Taeyeon says loudly.
"Yeah, who would've thought!" Yuri says, and Jessica tries not to smile.
"Thanks, though, guys," Sooyoung says sincerely as she turns with her arms outstretch for a hug.
"Feed me first," Jessica says, and opens her mouth wide.
Sungmin comes home to a similar situation, weary and tired. On his bed is a card and wrapped box, and he slowly opens the card. Hyukjae curiously pokes his head in.
"Sooyoung dropped that off earlier."
- Sungminnie~ ♥ ♥ ♥ Merry Christmas!!! I hope you like your present~ ^^ God bless~ Your Sooyoung~ ♥ ♥ ♥
As Sungmin continues admiring the shoes, Donghae comes in and sits on the floor near the doorway, next to the Hyukjae's feet, and Shindong joins them.
"What's that?" Shindong asks curiously.
"Christmas present from Sooyoung," Donghae says with a straight face.
"Wow, she writes like you, Donghae," Shindong says as he reads the card, and Donghae winces.
"Nooooo she doesn't... Present's from Sooyoung, I swear, from Sooyoung," Donghae says desperately, and Hyukjae tries not to grin.
"Donghae can't lie, he's telling the truth, present from Sooyoung!" Hyukjae says, and staggers when Donghae hugs his legs.
"From Sooyoung, I swear!"
Sungmin turns with a giant grin on his face and smothers the two as Shindong watches in amusement.
"Okay then, thank you, Sooyoung."