[Mini-series] Bubbles: The Derelict Prince (2/?)
Bubbles; Suho, Kris, Yixing, Sehun, Chanyeol, Baekhyun and other EXO members appearing as cameos; mini-series, violence, angst, psychological, character death, college!AU; NC-17; the boy band EXO belongs to SM Entertainment and to their selves respectively. I disown anything that you recognized in this fiction, except for the style of writing and plots. Any original characters’ names that resemble real life persons are purely coincidental.
A/N: First EXO fanfiction by me. Written for a friend who loves EXO more than anyone else.
Prompted by the last episode of EXO Showtime, Coldplay's Fix You and Marc Anthony's You Sang to Me.
The Little Merman | The Derelict Prince | Pieces of A Broken Seashell | The Thirsty Little Fish
---
Yifan inhaled, and he held his breath in.
The first ten seconds when the oxygen was denied from entering his nose, there were loud beatings that came from all over his body. Chest, wrists, ankles, the little spots behind the ears, the base of his neck where the bones met, his temples, even his eyes felt pulsing.
Yifan still didn’t want to breathe out.
The next five seconds was more silent. His heart beat slower, his pulses were restrained, and his throat felt stuffy. The pain was felt internally, from head to toes.
His hands fisted and his knuckles turned white.
Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen-
Twenty seconds without air and Yifan was thoroughly suffocated. Abruptly, he breathed out and his hands relaxed. Oxygen was rushing in and he could feel the blood was pumped thickly through his veins. It felt as if his whole body was pulsing, and his chest was lugged with that thing you had when you were facing one of those severe hiccups.
He blinked.
“So that’s how it felt.”
He gently whispered against the subtle wind of the early winter. His eyes were closed and he lifted his chin up, tasting the smell of the ocean with the tip of his nose.
He had never been to the beach as early as this morning. He never had the reasons to. But this time he did. This time, he wanted to. Because today was an anniversary that he wouldn’t want to miss.
(again)
The collar of his beige velvety trench coat was turned upwards as one of his hands was inside his front pocket; fingers were tracing the creases on the old piece of paper that he received more than five years ago.
Dear Yifan-ge,
I can’t, not anymore.
“What an idiot,” he chuckled, remembering someone’s droopy eyes and remarkable dimples. Sometimes he could hear that someone’s chirpy voice greeting him when he came back from his tiring day at the studio; the heat from the strong lights and that self-restrain to not to wipe off the thick layers of makeups on his face was really tiring and Yifan could really use someone’s company to make all the tiredness to go away.
Yifan-ge, I think in the next life, I want to be a starfish.
“Why a starfish?” he asked to the chirpy voice inside of his head. It was so clear and unwavering the first time he heard it, it stuck inside his head like an old record on play; sometimes creaky but it was certainly playing the right words times and times again. He could hear the voice laughed and he saw a flash of the deep dimples that never failed to make him stare whenever he saw them.
A live starfish is soft and sticky, right? Recently, he keeps saying that he feels like he’s the mermaid that’s going to turn into bubbles once he’s done living, so I want to be the starfish that could stuck to him until that time comes.
“What a strange dream,” he said, one hand pushing his dark brown hair away from his forehead. The winter wind started to get to his bones and he shivered quietly.
“Then what are you going to do when he finally turns into bubbles? Stick to another mermaid?”
I’m going to pray to God to turn me into the -
“-sea. Man, of all the things that you could have become, you chose to be the sea,” a voice suddenly emerged in between the chirpy one; soft enough to be swallowed in by the tides that crashed the beach tirelessly but loud enough to reach his ears, and Yifan opened his eyes. He was sure it wasn’t just another voice inside his head.
(there had always been one voice, and one voice only)
“Really, you’re fucking amazing, man. You said I’m your bubble friend but then you’ve turned yourself into the magnificent sea. Aren’t we supposed to exist together??” his last word became a scream rather than a gentle speech, and it made Yifan turned to his left after minutes spent looking for the second voice that interrupted his conversation with the chirpy voice earlier. A few metres to his left was a small man in a dark blue hoodie - hands in pockets, lips shivered - squatting down just a few inches away from the white foams that looked like huge palm prints left on the shore after the tides retreated back into the sea. His jeans were ripped on the knees and Yifan unconsciously wondered if he didn’t feel the cold with thin clothes like that.
It wasn’t his intention to stare at the small guy that morning, especially when he was left with just another ten hours before his flight back to Canada. That, if he rejected the interview with the idol magazine for a special feature on the latest sci-fi film he starred in. Seriously, his publicist in Korea was doing his job well. There’s nothing impossible in the life of Byun Baekhyun; he realised it today after reminiscing about his first fanmeeting for his third movie in Seoul a couple of years back in the few minutes of him standing and staring at the squatting guy in hoodie.
(it wasn’t even a box-office but Baekhyun, that little guy surely got some big medias wrapped around his little fingers)
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t say that. I didn’t mean it,” the guy whispered after a few minutes of silence (and not realising how intense he was being watched since then). He was staring into the horizon, admiring the beautiful orange lining above the sea and waited patiently until the sun appeared like a small ball of fire beneath the dark blue sky. Slowly, he reached for a bottle of soju to his right (which wasn’t in Yifan’s view until a few seconds ago) and poured it into two small plastic cups buried halfway into the sand.
“You never had the chance to try this before, right? I mean we were still underage at that time and the shemale ahjumma kept on yapping about wanting to tell tale us to our parents. Well screw her/him, because now we can. I’m old enough to buy it and you’re big enough to drink it. I mean, you’re the ocean now, what’re you gonna be afraid of, right?” he said, pulling one cup from inside the sand and raised it high, as if he was toasting the winter wind. Yifan could hear his laughter - sad and longing as he drank up the soju from his cup and poured the other one into the coming tides.
How intoxicating his laughter sounds like -
Yifan didn’t really understand why, but there was something about this small guy that caught his eyes and as if he didn’t have any desire to leave, any at all, he stayed watching - standing silently, hands back in pockets and fingers gently caressing the same old letter.
“Here, my friend. Try it,” he could hear the small guy offered another cup towards the unresponsive vast sea. He was hiccupping for a few times; body swayed a little to the left and right, sometimes backwards but what worried Yifan the most was when he started to lean in towards the coming tides in front of him. Unconsciously clenching the letter in his hand, Yifan moved a couple of steps nearer towards the now intoxicated small guy, trying to prevent any death around him as much as he could.
(at least not today, goddamn it!)
He flinched when he saw the small guy leant dangerously again towards the sea. He was sure if he was later than a second from where he was right then, a stiff and lifeless man would be found on the shore the next morning and there would be evidence convincing the legal authority that he was there when that happened, so with the thoughts only concerning himself and his only, Yifan finally rushed forward and although his hands almost slip, he regained his grip and pulled the small man by his hoodie, slightly choking him in the process.
“They should put a ‘don’t drink and swim’ sign somewhere in this area,” he nagged to himself in English, still wouldn’t let go of the drunken small man’s hoodie even though the latter was struggling like a little hamster that was pinched by its furry neck. With his heels lifted a bit higher above the ground, he turned around and his reddened cheeks met Yifan’s eyes.
-- the universe has been by my side all along
“Wha - what? Huh? Sorry? I can’t… I don’t… huh?” the small man asked, or at least with the way he was stumbling with his words, switching between his native tongue and English, seemed as if he was trying to ask Yifan what he was doing with his hoodie and he very much like him to stop doing that or he was going to fall down and falling down while being intoxicated too much like this (he had like three small cups of soju, that’s a lot!) wasn’t going to be a good ending for him. Yifan grimaced, and lowered his hand. The small man was now standing on both feet properly, but he still didn’t release his grip on the hoodie. Who knows what kind of outburst he was going to face if he ever let him go.
“Ahjussi, you speak English.”
“Who’s your ahjussi?!” Yifan exclaimed, pissed by the label. The small man jolted, a tad surprised before he smiled until his upper lip seemed to be disappeared. His full cheeks were raised until they covered his small eyes, and Yifan thought hey he did look like a hamster.
“I know English. I’m an English major, focused on literature. Ahjussi, do you read anything? Books, I mean. Books with pictures and short stories in it. I love fairy tales. They’re beautiful and fun and…” his voice seemed to falter and Yifan felt as if the small guy became heavier, so he let go of his grip on the hoodie.
Big mistake on his part.
As soon as he let him go, the small guy leant abruptly towards him, knocking him down with his back towards the sandy ground. Yifan thought about how hard it would be to clean up all the sand that got stuck onto his expensive velvety beige trench coat while he was falling down, one hand unconsciously moved around the small man’s waist - like an instinct - to make sure that he wouldn’t be harmed as they were hitting the ground.
‘Funny,’ he thought, ‘this instinct is funny,’ when he realised how tight his arm was on the unconscious man’s shoulder and how natural the other was secured around his waist. It felt as if the time stopped and Yifan would like to stay just like this for another few minutes. It had been a long time since he felt another warm body pressed against him (other than some regular you-know-what for his vital needs), heartbeat in sync and small snores caught his ears.
He’s cute, isn’t he, Yifan-ge?
Yifan blinked thrice, and his body stiffened. The small man in his arms mumbled slowly in his sleep, and he wasn’t really sure if what he heard was right.
“Yixing-ah, I miss you.”
And the chirpy voice inside his head suddenly quietened.
A/N: First EXO fanfiction by me. Written for a friend who loves EXO more than anyone else.
Prompted by the last episode of EXO Showtime, Coldplay's Fix You and Marc Anthony's You Sang to Me.
The Little Merman | The Derelict Prince | Pieces of A Broken Seashell | The Thirsty Little Fish
---
Yifan inhaled, and he held his breath in.
The first ten seconds when the oxygen was denied from entering his nose, there were loud beatings that came from all over his body. Chest, wrists, ankles, the little spots behind the ears, the base of his neck where the bones met, his temples, even his eyes felt pulsing.
Yifan still didn’t want to breathe out.
The next five seconds was more silent. His heart beat slower, his pulses were restrained, and his throat felt stuffy. The pain was felt internally, from head to toes.
His hands fisted and his knuckles turned white.
Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen-
Twenty seconds without air and Yifan was thoroughly suffocated. Abruptly, he breathed out and his hands relaxed. Oxygen was rushing in and he could feel the blood was pumped thickly through his veins. It felt as if his whole body was pulsing, and his chest was lugged with that thing you had when you were facing one of those severe hiccups.
He blinked.
“So that’s how it felt.”
He gently whispered against the subtle wind of the early winter. His eyes were closed and he lifted his chin up, tasting the smell of the ocean with the tip of his nose.
He had never been to the beach as early as this morning. He never had the reasons to. But this time he did. This time, he wanted to. Because today was an anniversary that he wouldn’t want to miss.
(again)
The collar of his beige velvety trench coat was turned upwards as one of his hands was inside his front pocket; fingers were tracing the creases on the old piece of paper that he received more than five years ago.
Dear Yifan-ge,
I can’t, not anymore.
“What an idiot,” he chuckled, remembering someone’s droopy eyes and remarkable dimples. Sometimes he could hear that someone’s chirpy voice greeting him when he came back from his tiring day at the studio; the heat from the strong lights and that self-restrain to not to wipe off the thick layers of makeups on his face was really tiring and Yifan could really use someone’s company to make all the tiredness to go away.
Yifan-ge, I think in the next life, I want to be a starfish.
“Why a starfish?” he asked to the chirpy voice inside of his head. It was so clear and unwavering the first time he heard it, it stuck inside his head like an old record on play; sometimes creaky but it was certainly playing the right words times and times again. He could hear the voice laughed and he saw a flash of the deep dimples that never failed to make him stare whenever he saw them.
A live starfish is soft and sticky, right? Recently, he keeps saying that he feels like he’s the mermaid that’s going to turn into bubbles once he’s done living, so I want to be the starfish that could stuck to him until that time comes.
“What a strange dream,” he said, one hand pushing his dark brown hair away from his forehead. The winter wind started to get to his bones and he shivered quietly.
“Then what are you going to do when he finally turns into bubbles? Stick to another mermaid?”
I’m going to pray to God to turn me into the -
“-sea. Man, of all the things that you could have become, you chose to be the sea,” a voice suddenly emerged in between the chirpy one; soft enough to be swallowed in by the tides that crashed the beach tirelessly but loud enough to reach his ears, and Yifan opened his eyes. He was sure it wasn’t just another voice inside his head.
(there had always been one voice, and one voice only)
“Really, you’re fucking amazing, man. You said I’m your bubble friend but then you’ve turned yourself into the magnificent sea. Aren’t we supposed to exist together??” his last word became a scream rather than a gentle speech, and it made Yifan turned to his left after minutes spent looking for the second voice that interrupted his conversation with the chirpy voice earlier. A few metres to his left was a small man in a dark blue hoodie - hands in pockets, lips shivered - squatting down just a few inches away from the white foams that looked like huge palm prints left on the shore after the tides retreated back into the sea. His jeans were ripped on the knees and Yifan unconsciously wondered if he didn’t feel the cold with thin clothes like that.
It wasn’t his intention to stare at the small guy that morning, especially when he was left with just another ten hours before his flight back to Canada. That, if he rejected the interview with the idol magazine for a special feature on the latest sci-fi film he starred in. Seriously, his publicist in Korea was doing his job well. There’s nothing impossible in the life of Byun Baekhyun; he realised it today after reminiscing about his first fanmeeting for his third movie in Seoul a couple of years back in the few minutes of him standing and staring at the squatting guy in hoodie.
(it wasn’t even a box-office but Baekhyun, that little guy surely got some big medias wrapped around his little fingers)
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t say that. I didn’t mean it,” the guy whispered after a few minutes of silence (and not realising how intense he was being watched since then). He was staring into the horizon, admiring the beautiful orange lining above the sea and waited patiently until the sun appeared like a small ball of fire beneath the dark blue sky. Slowly, he reached for a bottle of soju to his right (which wasn’t in Yifan’s view until a few seconds ago) and poured it into two small plastic cups buried halfway into the sand.
“You never had the chance to try this before, right? I mean we were still underage at that time and the shemale ahjumma kept on yapping about wanting to tell tale us to our parents. Well screw her/him, because now we can. I’m old enough to buy it and you’re big enough to drink it. I mean, you’re the ocean now, what’re you gonna be afraid of, right?” he said, pulling one cup from inside the sand and raised it high, as if he was toasting the winter wind. Yifan could hear his laughter - sad and longing as he drank up the soju from his cup and poured the other one into the coming tides.
How intoxicating his laughter sounds like -
Yifan didn’t really understand why, but there was something about this small guy that caught his eyes and as if he didn’t have any desire to leave, any at all, he stayed watching - standing silently, hands back in pockets and fingers gently caressing the same old letter.
“Here, my friend. Try it,” he could hear the small guy offered another cup towards the unresponsive vast sea. He was hiccupping for a few times; body swayed a little to the left and right, sometimes backwards but what worried Yifan the most was when he started to lean in towards the coming tides in front of him. Unconsciously clenching the letter in his hand, Yifan moved a couple of steps nearer towards the now intoxicated small guy, trying to prevent any death around him as much as he could.
(at least not today, goddamn it!)
He flinched when he saw the small guy leant dangerously again towards the sea. He was sure if he was later than a second from where he was right then, a stiff and lifeless man would be found on the shore the next morning and there would be evidence convincing the legal authority that he was there when that happened, so with the thoughts only concerning himself and his only, Yifan finally rushed forward and although his hands almost slip, he regained his grip and pulled the small man by his hoodie, slightly choking him in the process.
“They should put a ‘don’t drink and swim’ sign somewhere in this area,” he nagged to himself in English, still wouldn’t let go of the drunken small man’s hoodie even though the latter was struggling like a little hamster that was pinched by its furry neck. With his heels lifted a bit higher above the ground, he turned around and his reddened cheeks met Yifan’s eyes.
-- the universe has been by my side all along
“Wha - what? Huh? Sorry? I can’t… I don’t… huh?” the small man asked, or at least with the way he was stumbling with his words, switching between his native tongue and English, seemed as if he was trying to ask Yifan what he was doing with his hoodie and he very much like him to stop doing that or he was going to fall down and falling down while being intoxicated too much like this (he had like three small cups of soju, that’s a lot!) wasn’t going to be a good ending for him. Yifan grimaced, and lowered his hand. The small man was now standing on both feet properly, but he still didn’t release his grip on the hoodie. Who knows what kind of outburst he was going to face if he ever let him go.
“Ahjussi, you speak English.”
“Who’s your ahjussi?!” Yifan exclaimed, pissed by the label. The small man jolted, a tad surprised before he smiled until his upper lip seemed to be disappeared. His full cheeks were raised until they covered his small eyes, and Yifan thought hey he did look like a hamster.
“I know English. I’m an English major, focused on literature. Ahjussi, do you read anything? Books, I mean. Books with pictures and short stories in it. I love fairy tales. They’re beautiful and fun and…” his voice seemed to falter and Yifan felt as if the small guy became heavier, so he let go of his grip on the hoodie.
Big mistake on his part.
As soon as he let him go, the small guy leant abruptly towards him, knocking him down with his back towards the sandy ground. Yifan thought about how hard it would be to clean up all the sand that got stuck onto his expensive velvety beige trench coat while he was falling down, one hand unconsciously moved around the small man’s waist - like an instinct - to make sure that he wouldn’t be harmed as they were hitting the ground.
‘Funny,’ he thought, ‘this instinct is funny,’ when he realised how tight his arm was on the unconscious man’s shoulder and how natural the other was secured around his waist. It felt as if the time stopped and Yifan would like to stay just like this for another few minutes. It had been a long time since he felt another warm body pressed against him (other than some regular you-know-what for his vital needs), heartbeat in sync and small snores caught his ears.
He’s cute, isn’t he, Yifan-ge?
Yifan blinked thrice, and his body stiffened. The small man in his arms mumbled slowly in his sleep, and he wasn’t really sure if what he heard was right.
“Yixing-ah, I miss you.”
And the chirpy voice inside his head suddenly quietened.