[exo, infinite] maybe next time + balloons
maybe next time
exo + infinite, kris/myungsoo
pg, 751w
k. searches for l. across time. (originally posted here)
In grade 12, a kid named Hyunsoo Lee transfers into Kevin Li's school, a bushy-headed delinquent with a guitar and a crew of bushy-headed delinquent friends. Kevin looks at the hitch of his lips, the way he wears his uniform, and it makes him want to get to know him. But while their last names ensure that they're constantly seated next to each other, they barely speak, and outside of class they're as good as strangers, no matter how many times Kevin thinks about him when he's alone.
For the next six months Kevin sits next to Hyunsoo Lee and watches him yawn and sneer his way through school. His band plays a show downtown, but Kevin has a basketball game the same night and misses it. Two days before he's prepared to approach him, Hyunsoo is gone; Kevin hears that his band has signed a contract with an entertainment agency in South Korea and dropped out. He does not see Hyunsoo again.
---
He takes this as a hint, and next time he becomes a pop idol, Kris. When he learns of L Kim, the cool and mysterious one in a new boy band called Infinite, he quietly congratulates himself on having gotten it right. Before his debut, Kris watches Infinite dance together on TV, and at every closeup of L's face he feels a strong sense of certainty.
But Kris's agency sends him to China, and the few moments he gets to see L in Korea are stiff and ritualized, with bows and titles Kris scrabbles to get right. He's busy, anyway, and the single-minded energy of his pursuit gets diverted into schedules and keeping track of five energetic boys and learning lines and dance routines, more than enough to keep the fire in his stomach sated.
And yet: At one year's Gayo Daejun, Kris shakes L's hand, and it's meant to be a brief, simple greeting in observation of the new year. But the movement of L's hand stills, still clasped in Kris's bigger one, and for a moment Kris sees in his eyes a flicker like a candle flame lighting, and he thinks, Maybe. But as soon as he thinks it, L's blandly cute, polite smile returns, as if he's recovered from some momentary lapse. He releases Kris's hand to shake the next person's, and Kris does not see him again, not in the same way.
---
In another time, Li Jiaheng becomes a special detective with the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, and he never shakes the feeling that he is waiting for something to happen. He spends his mornings with his coffee searching the faces of strangers in the newspaper, unsure of what he wants to see.
To combat the emptiness, he throws himself into his work, and eventually his sterling reputation gets him called to Japan to assist a team pursuing a Chinese-born serial killer, Jiu. When Jiaheng sees Jiu's headshot, he feels an odd warmth curling in his belly. He no longer looks at the pictures in newspapers.
The first and last time Jiaheng meets Jiu is in a parking garage in Tokyo. When he sees Jiu's black eyes glimmer briefly with recognition at his face, it fills him with a calm satisfaction that even the rawness of the blade slicing into his stomach can't destroy. From where he falls to the ground, he watches Jiu's soundless white shoes walk away, and through the blood rising in his throat he whispers, Maybe.
---
Wu Yifan meets Kim Myungsoo in Cannes, where they are both promoting films: a period epic for Yifan and a heist comedy for Myungsoo. At one afterparty they convene in a booth in the back corner and talk for hours about acting, superstition, places they lived in as children. They talk until the party fades out, as if muffled under the clouds of their cigarette smoke. Yifan is grateful that instinct told him to study Korean when he was younger.
At the end of the night, when Yifan gets up to leave, Myungsoo's fingers catch on his sleeve and Yifan looks down, then up at Myungsoo's black eyes. And in them he sees all the places Myungsoo has been, and he sees Myungsoo seeing all the places Yifan has been in his eyes, too.
"You know, then," says Yifan. "That I've been looking."
"I've been looking too," says Myungsoo. He hesitates. "Are you going to leave me again?"
Yifan smiles and he sits down. "Maybe," he says. Myungsoo's fingers still grip his sleeve. "Maybe not."
bonus story! (originally posted elsewhere)
balloons
exo + infinite, lu han/myungsoo
pg, 5 sentences
Sungyeol had told him to watch out for the new Chinese exchange student, because "I hear he can suck your soul out through your ass, or something." But when Myungsoo sees the boy in the cafeteria at lunch, he's all alone, quietly eating his stew and looking smaller than ever.
Myungsoo sits next to him and wordlessly offers him one of his earbuds, which the other boy takes with an apprehensive glance. Then his face lights up, and he says, "Oh, Tong Vfang Xien Qi," and the way his eyes crinkle unevenly makes Myungsoo's heart thud in his chest.
He makes a mental note to tell Sungyeol he's full of shit.
exo + infinite, kris/myungsoo
pg, 751w
k. searches for l. across time. (originally posted here)
In grade 12, a kid named Hyunsoo Lee transfers into Kevin Li's school, a bushy-headed delinquent with a guitar and a crew of bushy-headed delinquent friends. Kevin looks at the hitch of his lips, the way he wears his uniform, and it makes him want to get to know him. But while their last names ensure that they're constantly seated next to each other, they barely speak, and outside of class they're as good as strangers, no matter how many times Kevin thinks about him when he's alone.
For the next six months Kevin sits next to Hyunsoo Lee and watches him yawn and sneer his way through school. His band plays a show downtown, but Kevin has a basketball game the same night and misses it. Two days before he's prepared to approach him, Hyunsoo is gone; Kevin hears that his band has signed a contract with an entertainment agency in South Korea and dropped out. He does not see Hyunsoo again.
---
He takes this as a hint, and next time he becomes a pop idol, Kris. When he learns of L Kim, the cool and mysterious one in a new boy band called Infinite, he quietly congratulates himself on having gotten it right. Before his debut, Kris watches Infinite dance together on TV, and at every closeup of L's face he feels a strong sense of certainty.
But Kris's agency sends him to China, and the few moments he gets to see L in Korea are stiff and ritualized, with bows and titles Kris scrabbles to get right. He's busy, anyway, and the single-minded energy of his pursuit gets diverted into schedules and keeping track of five energetic boys and learning lines and dance routines, more than enough to keep the fire in his stomach sated.
And yet: At one year's Gayo Daejun, Kris shakes L's hand, and it's meant to be a brief, simple greeting in observation of the new year. But the movement of L's hand stills, still clasped in Kris's bigger one, and for a moment Kris sees in his eyes a flicker like a candle flame lighting, and he thinks, Maybe. But as soon as he thinks it, L's blandly cute, polite smile returns, as if he's recovered from some momentary lapse. He releases Kris's hand to shake the next person's, and Kris does not see him again, not in the same way.
---
In another time, Li Jiaheng becomes a special detective with the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, and he never shakes the feeling that he is waiting for something to happen. He spends his mornings with his coffee searching the faces of strangers in the newspaper, unsure of what he wants to see.
To combat the emptiness, he throws himself into his work, and eventually his sterling reputation gets him called to Japan to assist a team pursuing a Chinese-born serial killer, Jiu. When Jiaheng sees Jiu's headshot, he feels an odd warmth curling in his belly. He no longer looks at the pictures in newspapers.
The first and last time Jiaheng meets Jiu is in a parking garage in Tokyo. When he sees Jiu's black eyes glimmer briefly with recognition at his face, it fills him with a calm satisfaction that even the rawness of the blade slicing into his stomach can't destroy. From where he falls to the ground, he watches Jiu's soundless white shoes walk away, and through the blood rising in his throat he whispers, Maybe.
---
Wu Yifan meets Kim Myungsoo in Cannes, where they are both promoting films: a period epic for Yifan and a heist comedy for Myungsoo. At one afterparty they convene in a booth in the back corner and talk for hours about acting, superstition, places they lived in as children. They talk until the party fades out, as if muffled under the clouds of their cigarette smoke. Yifan is grateful that instinct told him to study Korean when he was younger.
At the end of the night, when Yifan gets up to leave, Myungsoo's fingers catch on his sleeve and Yifan looks down, then up at Myungsoo's black eyes. And in them he sees all the places Myungsoo has been, and he sees Myungsoo seeing all the places Yifan has been in his eyes, too.
"You know, then," says Yifan. "That I've been looking."
"I've been looking too," says Myungsoo. He hesitates. "Are you going to leave me again?"
Yifan smiles and he sits down. "Maybe," he says. Myungsoo's fingers still grip his sleeve. "Maybe not."
bonus story! (originally posted elsewhere)
balloons
exo + infinite, lu han/myungsoo
pg, 5 sentences
Sungyeol had told him to watch out for the new Chinese exchange student, because "I hear he can suck your soul out through your ass, or something." But when Myungsoo sees the boy in the cafeteria at lunch, he's all alone, quietly eating his stew and looking smaller than ever.
Myungsoo sits next to him and wordlessly offers him one of his earbuds, which the other boy takes with an apprehensive glance. Then his face lights up, and he says, "Oh, Tong Vfang Xien Qi," and the way his eyes crinkle unevenly makes Myungsoo's heart thud in his chest.
He makes a mental note to tell Sungyeol he's full of shit.