once upon a time, there was a wish
Title: once upon a time, there was a wish.
Author: omona_shi
Pairing: None.
Genre: !angst, AU.
Rating: G
Warnings: War, deaths and depression.
Summary: Because we all want hope. But what we can't help is kill it off bit by bit as we desperately try to take it for ourselves.
[A/N: inspired by Lord of the Rings - war, Death fic - depression, and History Revision - more war.]
once upon a time, there was a wish
A Super Junior AU !angst fic
“There’s another one?” The question came out a little more pathetically than Kyuhyun had intended but considering the state of the others, he was already doing pretty well with his voice.
“No shit, Sherlock. There’s a new one every day.”
Kyuhyun looked sideways to stare sourly at Heechul.
“How can you still afford to be here? Does this world still need strippers for their empty clubs?”
Getting up stiffly from the sofa because he was so clearly unwanted, Heechul stuck a middle finger up crudely at Kyuhyun.
“And it’s much more brilliant to comfort little children each day in their dumb math lessons because you know their fathers are never going to come home ever again because of humanity’s selfishness.”
“You’re the one to talk about virtues, Heechul, because apparently you’re just so full of them.” Sungmin walked in, ripping viciously at his tie as he did so.
“So?” the reply was indignant and Heechul’s face was wrinkled from its beautiful porcelain perfection into a picture of nothing but reality, “what’s wrong with being selfish when clearly everybody else is as well?”
There was a silence before Hangeng whispered something from his corner in the kitchen that nobody used anymore.
“What? We didn’t hear that, Geng.”
Hangeng glanced up, the eye bags darkening with each passing moment.
“Heechul. It’s time for your shift.”
“Right.” Heechul flung on a jacket and stalked out of the tiny apartment, his features already turned a dark hue before his work even started.
Nobody spoke for a bit as the news blared on. This channel was the only one that wasn’t censored although they all knew that it would only be a matter of time before the government took over and would begin to play the old romance dramas that had been filmed years and years ago instead of what everybody really cared about.
But maybe it would be easier if they didn’t know what was going on. The millions of mothers and daughters wouldn’t have to listen to the blaring sound of their fading TV reporting the new batch of a few thousand dead out on the battle field, wondering themselves to sleep if their husband, son or grandfather would be one of the massive numbers that would never see the light of day again.
The world would never learn from its mistakes.
A sudden dip in the falling-apart sofa alerted Kyuhyun of another person and smiled halfheartedly when he saw Donghae’s pale face next to his.
“Early leave tonight?”
There was a nod. “Boss got fired by the president’s assistant. Turns out that he was building, smashing it down, building and smashing it down again to delay construction.”
“I don’t blame him.”
The shadows on Donghae’s face stretched even longer and Kyuhyun awkwardly dangled a lanky arm across the broad, burden-laid shoulders of his favourite hyung.
Donghae worked in an architectural firm- the only reason why he wasn’t called for duty by the army yet- that used to create the most beautiful pieces of modern, structural art in Korea. He was proud, Kyuhyun recalled from his fading memory, when he first got his acceptance letter into Asia’s leading architectural design company. Everybody was clapping and they held a celebration in their old flat (‘before we all got kicked out when the officers turned up at the front door’, he added mentally) because yes, it was a massive step forwards for his career which at that time, Donghae believed it would be a grand promotion so that he could fulfill his dream- to craft the country into a modern structural masterpiece. Now, he had received his promotion as director of structural design, but only that the daily requests weren’t for skyscrapers and new public park renovations anymore, but for the dozens of prisons and military headquarters extensions required for the war.
His boss had been fired just today for doing the right thing. The reaction to the stress and his conscience had sealed his place in the government’s ‘rehabilitation program’. You go in, you never came out again.
“You know, Kyuhyunnie,” Donghae exhaled slowly, “I sometimes wonder when it’s our turn to be dragged off.”
“Maybe they’ll reach the wish before we even need to, hyung.”
His hyung didn’t reply, but rubbed his face tiredly instead.
“I’m going to sleep.”
“Night, hyung.”
Kyuhyun turned back to the TV screen. The apartment would be filled with crying and wailing a few hours later from Donghae’s nightmares, like it was every night. They all wore earplugs when they went to bed, but this time Donghae was sleeping early and Kyuhyun hoped that Leeteuk would finally come home tonight from his never-ending hospital shifts to calm him down- he was the only one that could calm Donghae down. They all saw them, their friends that had been taken away (Eunhyuk, Shindong, Ryeowook, Siwon and Kangin), but out of the remaining, only Donghae and Sungmin reacted physically to their haunting memories of happiness that only ever dare to re-appear in their dreams.
“I know what you’re thinking, Kyu.”
“Shut up, Min. I don’t need your lectures right now.”
Sungmin ignored him and plopped down onto the sofa. “I signed three men to their deaths today.”
“Only three?”
“It’s an improvement from last week.”
“Eight less, I suppose, could be called an improvement.”
Sungmin frowned slightly, but sighed.
“I want my freedom, Kyu. I don’t want to be in the army and fight for something I know we’ll never have.”
“You could find another job instead of working for the government as some military-instructing-robot of a civil servant.”
“Doing what? Digging for coal?” the elder pressed down on the mute button on the remote in frustration so that Kyuhyun would at least listen to him, “we’ve had this discussion before!”
“So is this how the world’s going to end, is it?” Kyuhyun’s voice was reduced to a breathy whisper, almost insanity rippling through the inaudible syllables, “all of us fighting for a wish that some God says will come true. Who dared give us that hope? Now the countries are destroying each other for it- do they even know where it is?”
“No,” Sungmin whispered, the thickness of the words clogging up his throat, “but they know that last person standing is the winner. The one who gets the wish.”
“Then what do you wish for, Min? If you had it?”
“Me?” Sungmin opened his mouth and spoke without hesitation, “I want our lives back. I want my friends out of that hellhole of an army and back home to our old apartment- living our lives as beautifully as it should have been before the government took everything from us. That’s all.”
The quiet evened out and stillness, save for the mute, flashing television and the rhythmic dripping from the kitchen tap. One could easily waste away in this world, living in pure terror yet despair and if you sat there long enough in silence, you would hear the gradual decrease in footsteps and noise in the outside world beyond the filthy window that hadn’t been cleaned for three years. The useless people were filtered away one by one and soon, each person would be living for freedom alone, making sure that they were deemed as important in the government’s eyes so that they wouldn’t be dragged away like pigs to slaughter. People began to betray their friends, their loved ones- everything for reputation and one could slowly come to see that the dehumanization of humanity was a product of a wish for something more, something better- the hope extended to mankind.
“Do you think Yesung’s going to come back from the bank tonight?” Kyuhyun wondered out loud.
The doorbell rang almost immediately after and Sungmin stood up with a broad, watery smile to answer it. That same smile vanished when he was greeted with a gun, uniform and a half-salute.
“This is Officer Kwon and I have been instructed to retrieve an immigrant named ‘Han Geng’ from this apartment.”
- - - - -
It’s the essence of man that there would be conflict. The need for power, the need for stability, and the need for righteousness that just so coincidentally remains different for each individual. From the lack of compassion, the arrogance leads to war and that leads to death. Death is measured in numbers, the masses, but when the streets slowly empty of life and you stand there in the doorway, asking yourself when is it your turn, everything slowly fades away.
- - - - -
Heechul’s howl when he returned could be heard from miles and all Sungmin could do was to quietly slip into Donghae’s room and wake him up from his thrashing nightmare to tell him about this one.
Thank you for reading and commenting! ^^
Author: omona_shi
Pairing: None.
Genre: !angst, AU.
Rating: G
Warnings: War, deaths and depression.
Summary: Because we all want hope. But what we can't help is kill it off bit by bit as we desperately try to take it for ourselves.
[A/N: inspired by Lord of the Rings - war, Death fic - depression, and History Revision - more war.]
once upon a time, there was a wish
A Super Junior AU !angst fic
“There’s another one?” The question came out a little more pathetically than Kyuhyun had intended but considering the state of the others, he was already doing pretty well with his voice.
“No shit, Sherlock. There’s a new one every day.”
Kyuhyun looked sideways to stare sourly at Heechul.
“How can you still afford to be here? Does this world still need strippers for their empty clubs?”
Getting up stiffly from the sofa because he was so clearly unwanted, Heechul stuck a middle finger up crudely at Kyuhyun.
“And it’s much more brilliant to comfort little children each day in their dumb math lessons because you know their fathers are never going to come home ever again because of humanity’s selfishness.”
“You’re the one to talk about virtues, Heechul, because apparently you’re just so full of them.” Sungmin walked in, ripping viciously at his tie as he did so.
“So?” the reply was indignant and Heechul’s face was wrinkled from its beautiful porcelain perfection into a picture of nothing but reality, “what’s wrong with being selfish when clearly everybody else is as well?”
There was a silence before Hangeng whispered something from his corner in the kitchen that nobody used anymore.
“What? We didn’t hear that, Geng.”
Hangeng glanced up, the eye bags darkening with each passing moment.
“Heechul. It’s time for your shift.”
“Right.” Heechul flung on a jacket and stalked out of the tiny apartment, his features already turned a dark hue before his work even started.
Nobody spoke for a bit as the news blared on. This channel was the only one that wasn’t censored although they all knew that it would only be a matter of time before the government took over and would begin to play the old romance dramas that had been filmed years and years ago instead of what everybody really cared about.
But maybe it would be easier if they didn’t know what was going on. The millions of mothers and daughters wouldn’t have to listen to the blaring sound of their fading TV reporting the new batch of a few thousand dead out on the battle field, wondering themselves to sleep if their husband, son or grandfather would be one of the massive numbers that would never see the light of day again.
The world would never learn from its mistakes.
A sudden dip in the falling-apart sofa alerted Kyuhyun of another person and smiled halfheartedly when he saw Donghae’s pale face next to his.
“Early leave tonight?”
There was a nod. “Boss got fired by the president’s assistant. Turns out that he was building, smashing it down, building and smashing it down again to delay construction.”
“I don’t blame him.”
The shadows on Donghae’s face stretched even longer and Kyuhyun awkwardly dangled a lanky arm across the broad, burden-laid shoulders of his favourite hyung.
Donghae worked in an architectural firm- the only reason why he wasn’t called for duty by the army yet- that used to create the most beautiful pieces of modern, structural art in Korea. He was proud, Kyuhyun recalled from his fading memory, when he first got his acceptance letter into Asia’s leading architectural design company. Everybody was clapping and they held a celebration in their old flat (‘before we all got kicked out when the officers turned up at the front door’, he added mentally) because yes, it was a massive step forwards for his career which at that time, Donghae believed it would be a grand promotion so that he could fulfill his dream- to craft the country into a modern structural masterpiece. Now, he had received his promotion as director of structural design, but only that the daily requests weren’t for skyscrapers and new public park renovations anymore, but for the dozens of prisons and military headquarters extensions required for the war.
His boss had been fired just today for doing the right thing. The reaction to the stress and his conscience had sealed his place in the government’s ‘rehabilitation program’. You go in, you never came out again.
“You know, Kyuhyunnie,” Donghae exhaled slowly, “I sometimes wonder when it’s our turn to be dragged off.”
“Maybe they’ll reach the wish before we even need to, hyung.”
His hyung didn’t reply, but rubbed his face tiredly instead.
“I’m going to sleep.”
“Night, hyung.”
Kyuhyun turned back to the TV screen. The apartment would be filled with crying and wailing a few hours later from Donghae’s nightmares, like it was every night. They all wore earplugs when they went to bed, but this time Donghae was sleeping early and Kyuhyun hoped that Leeteuk would finally come home tonight from his never-ending hospital shifts to calm him down- he was the only one that could calm Donghae down. They all saw them, their friends that had been taken away (Eunhyuk, Shindong, Ryeowook, Siwon and Kangin), but out of the remaining, only Donghae and Sungmin reacted physically to their haunting memories of happiness that only ever dare to re-appear in their dreams.
“I know what you’re thinking, Kyu.”
“Shut up, Min. I don’t need your lectures right now.”
Sungmin ignored him and plopped down onto the sofa. “I signed three men to their deaths today.”
“Only three?”
“It’s an improvement from last week.”
“Eight less, I suppose, could be called an improvement.”
Sungmin frowned slightly, but sighed.
“I want my freedom, Kyu. I don’t want to be in the army and fight for something I know we’ll never have.”
“You could find another job instead of working for the government as some military-instructing-robot of a civil servant.”
“Doing what? Digging for coal?” the elder pressed down on the mute button on the remote in frustration so that Kyuhyun would at least listen to him, “we’ve had this discussion before!”
“So is this how the world’s going to end, is it?” Kyuhyun’s voice was reduced to a breathy whisper, almost insanity rippling through the inaudible syllables, “all of us fighting for a wish that some God says will come true. Who dared give us that hope? Now the countries are destroying each other for it- do they even know where it is?”
“No,” Sungmin whispered, the thickness of the words clogging up his throat, “but they know that last person standing is the winner. The one who gets the wish.”
“Then what do you wish for, Min? If you had it?”
“Me?” Sungmin opened his mouth and spoke without hesitation, “I want our lives back. I want my friends out of that hellhole of an army and back home to our old apartment- living our lives as beautifully as it should have been before the government took everything from us. That’s all.”
The quiet evened out and stillness, save for the mute, flashing television and the rhythmic dripping from the kitchen tap. One could easily waste away in this world, living in pure terror yet despair and if you sat there long enough in silence, you would hear the gradual decrease in footsteps and noise in the outside world beyond the filthy window that hadn’t been cleaned for three years. The useless people were filtered away one by one and soon, each person would be living for freedom alone, making sure that they were deemed as important in the government’s eyes so that they wouldn’t be dragged away like pigs to slaughter. People began to betray their friends, their loved ones- everything for reputation and one could slowly come to see that the dehumanization of humanity was a product of a wish for something more, something better- the hope extended to mankind.
“Do you think Yesung’s going to come back from the bank tonight?” Kyuhyun wondered out loud.
The doorbell rang almost immediately after and Sungmin stood up with a broad, watery smile to answer it. That same smile vanished when he was greeted with a gun, uniform and a half-salute.
“This is Officer Kwon and I have been instructed to retrieve an immigrant named ‘Han Geng’ from this apartment.”
- - - - -
It’s the essence of man that there would be conflict. The need for power, the need for stability, and the need for righteousness that just so coincidentally remains different for each individual. From the lack of compassion, the arrogance leads to war and that leads to death. Death is measured in numbers, the masses, but when the streets slowly empty of life and you stand there in the doorway, asking yourself when is it your turn, everything slowly fades away.
- - - - -
Heechul’s howl when he returned could be heard from miles and all Sungmin could do was to quietly slip into Donghae’s room and wake him up from his thrashing nightmare to tell him about this one.
Thank you for reading and commenting! ^^