Title: Why you fell in love
Characters: Cassiopeia, DBSK
Rating: PG
Genre: Gen
Summary: It all starts unknowingly, like everyone else - you've stumbled upon some webpage, or watched some program on your television and went back to look them up. DBSK. Dong Bang Shin Ki, or Tong Vfang Xien Qi and TVXQ.
A/N: for all the cassies out there. why you shouldn't give up just yet.
for all the cassies out there
It all starts unknowingly, like everyone else - you've stumbled upon some webpage, or watched some program on your television and went back to look them up. DBSK. Dong Bang Shin Ki, or Tong Vfang Xien Qi and TVXQ. You scrunch your eyebrows a little at the many variations of their names; curiosity piqued, you read on anyway.
You've heard about them before - who hasn't? From perhaps a friend or through the media, you've heard about their music, their success and everything else in between. But only bits and pieces of random facts here and there are floating around your brain - you didn't bother to find out more, until now. And when you read on, suddenly every fact you knew starts to join together - puzzle pieces fixing almost immediately - and u-know becomes U Know Yunho; Hero and Jaejoong are actually the same person; Purple Line wasn't their debut song; Cassiopeia was the name of their fanclub and Dong Bang Shin Ki naturally equates to the Rising Gods of the East.
Cassiopeia, you read, is the largest fanclub in the entire world. You think in wistful longing how amazing it would be to be part of that fanclub - but you dare not consider yourself as a Cassie anytime soon, and so you determinedly begin your search to fill your brain with more information about them and fill your hard drive with more gigabytes of pictures and videos.
You laugh appreciatively at Balloons, giggling to yourself at the adorableness, and melt a little when you see their Mirotic PV. You squeal a little when you watch them debut through the tiny little Youtube window, and soon begin to love them as U-Know Yunho, Youngwoong Jaejoong, Micky Yoochun, Xiah Junsu and Choikang Changmin. You think this is by far the best fandom that you've ever gotten yourself into.
Soon your iTunes is filled with their songs, and your media player repeatedly abused. You cry a little every time they injure themselves, and cheer your heart out whenever they perform, pumping your hands excitedly in the air in front of a computer screen. You start raving to your friends about how awesome, amazing, epic, cool, wonderful, best thing that ever happened DBSK is, and retaliate furiously when they think f(other korean groups) are better. How can anyone be better than those five together, you think dreamily to yourself, as you purchase the latest merchandise they released.
And not long after U-Know Yunho doesn't only become U-Know Yunho to you, but the Yunho you admire so very much. The Yunho who drank glue (to your horror) given by an anti-fan, and yet requested not to press charges. Just because she reminded him of his sister. You've never met anyone with such a big heart.
Youngwoong Jaejoong isn't just a pretty face with a beautiful voice anymore, but someone who has been through life's hardships and a role model to everyone else. You constantly wonder how he managed to plow through everything - from struggling to pay the rent to his adoption, or how he manages to pick himself up with every setback. You've never met anyone so brave, and you think, with all your heart, that he deserves every bit of the fame he's gained.
Micky Yoochun isn't someone cool or detached, but he's Park Yoochun - always the first to cry in award ceremonies, the guy from America who raps in their songs. You read in Wikipedia about some of their composition, and quirk an eyebrow when you see Kiss Shita Mama, Sayonara composed by him. The title seemed awkward enough to you, but you decide to give it a listen anyway. It was the most beautiful and saddest thing you've ever heard. And soon it grows to Love Bye Love, My Girlfriend and so much more. You've never met anyone so amazing at composition.
Xiah Junsu, you find out, isn't the maknae, despite his cute concept. He's not just a guy with a brilliant voice that sailed through auditions and trainings in SM easily. He's the one who trained the longest among all of them - the one who had to deal with additional training and struggling with his changing voice, yet come back even greater than anyone else. You find out he has a twin, Kim Junho, who sings as well. But secretly you think Kim Junsu is better - just because you might be a little biased. You've never met anyone with such a beautiful voice before.
Choikang Changmin, you note with a little laugh, is also Max Changmin - stage name an awkward mesh of English and Korean. Now he's the real maknae, and you can see why when you watch some of his videos. He's the adorable one, you think to yourself, heart racing a little faster when Changmin smiles with his mismatched eyes. Changmin, you find out with surprise, is the one that screams during Mirotic, that high note that never fails to make you wonder if anyone else could ever reach it. You find out he joins SM so very young, when everyone else is busy making sense of math equations, and reel in amazement at his sheer talent and determination. And yet, above everything, you've never met anyone with such a big appetite (for food, for reaching dreams, for success, for everything).
And Dong Bang Shin Ki, or TVXQ, or Tohoshinki, you think, is really the best thing that's ever happened to Korean music. The best thing that you've ever stumbled upon. You note with pride at their singing ability - much unlike the other groups who can't seem to sing for their career. How they manage to sing acapella effortlessly, how they hit note after note with apparent ease is something that's unique to DBSK, and only DBSK. And combined with their personalities, you think that it's just so hard not to fall in love with them.
So you start a little late, but follow them through every variety show appearance, every concert and every performance. You remain devoted to only them, never looking the other way when another group releases a catchy song, or when a particularly interesting group debuts. You've decided that your heart belongs to Dong Bang Shin Ki, and Dong Bang Shin Ki alone.
And when the lawsuit happened, you think your life ground to a sickening standstill. You cry a little every night at their prospective breakup, and cry even more when they asked you to Keep the Faith. What faith is there to keep when the only faith I had is breaking? you ask yourself miserably, but nonetheless, because your love for them wins out, you kept the faith safely inside your heart.
Everything begins to crash around you as their activities as a group were brought to a halt. And then came JYJ, and Yunho and Changmin - not DBSK, and you think you can't take it anymore. The stage without five seemed so empty. You know you should be happy for them, happy that they're finally free, but you can't bring yourself to feel happy. You miss the five of them together too much.
And sometimes at night when you go to bed you dream of no lawsuit, and them performing together again on Music Bank. You dream of the sea of red that is Cassiopeia, the best fanclub in the entire world, and you dream of their smiling faces once again. You wake up a little perturbed, but a little more determined each time to pull through the storm.
Months passed, and JYJ seems to have gone to a point of no return, with music videos and performances and one comeback after the other. Yunho seems to have fallen in love with musicals - appearing so frequently you think he's never coming back to the music scene. Changmin finally begins to act like how his age should, going to the University and studying for tests in the quaint little cafe just beside the SM building. Your heart clenches a little at how well they adapted to their new lifestyle, and wonder if there was still any faith left to keep.
But you wait, you wait and wait until all your tears for them run dry and all merchandise bought. So when they announce the comeback of Dong Bang Shin Ki, you think that it was the happiest day of your life. Your heart swells in happiness, and you cry even more as you rewind the announcement just to hear it again for confirmation.
And when they stand on the same stage and sing the same song once again, you let yourself relax a little - grateful that the wait was worth the end. Because this is Dong Bang Shin Ki. This is why you fell in love with them in the first place.
This is them, at their best.
"Having different names or being at different places won’t make a difference if all of our hearts beat as one."
Always Keep The Faith
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inspired by someone's comment on some post in sharingyoochun - where she/he said: Having different names or being at different places won’t make a difference if all of our hearts beat as one.