Foul Bachelor Frog is my homie.
Hi again~
I realize that I've pretty much stopped updating LJ in recent months. Sorry about this. First year of grad school has been very busy: lab work, TAing, classes, research, lab meetings; keeping myself fed and my apartment tidy is a major undertaking too, haha. My routine these days consists of getting home from school late in the evening and barely get any homework done before I succumb to "a short, one hour nap" and waking up late for first period the next morning, with gross stuff in my mouth because I'd been too lazy to brush the night before. I'm a slow worker, so coupled with school giving me quite a lot of work, time passes more quickly than I can understand and I don't ever seem to get anything done to show for it. I go to school on weekends, too, so there's no respite there.
That being said, I miss LJ like a crazy cat lady whose cats have all been taken away, and I miss all of you guys, and I miss fic LIKE FUCKING FUCK. So classes being over (this doesn't actually affect me a lot as I still go to the lab everyday) and me being a procrastinator (as ever), I thought I'd take some time to do a quick update here, just catch up! And to make sure that my account isn't frozen from inactivity or something. Does LJ do that? ...Let's not find out.
ALSO, for the hell of it, a WIP UPDATE. I like/dislike doing these because I am a paranoid shit so I think they jinx me, but lately I feel the need to prove that yes, I'm still writing things, just... very slowly. >__> The question nowadays is, will I get enough time to finish the fics before I get tired of trying? NOT IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT. IT IS A BATTLE OF ENDURANCE, MY FRIENDS, AND I WILL PROVE TO BE THE VICTOR. I promise they are interesting stories (or at least I think they are, lolol). I've never really been good at posting short, fluffy fics just for the sake of posting them, so I don't think I'd be able to start now. In the meantime, I humbly ask for your patience.
**Please note that I keep a list of all my WIPs so even if I am not currently working on it, it definitely doesn't mean that I've forgotten about it. :)
ARASHI:
1. Nino/Aiba, humour, NC-17. It's Nino and Aiba's one year anniversary, so you can probably predict things are going to get a little messy.
Nino sighed. "Go ahead, ask."
"Did you get me a present too?"
"Well..." A clever hand made its way down Aiba's chest and trailed down to his now-growing erection. Aiba twitched; Nino only smirked a little. "I did take you out for dinner and games tonight, didn't I? And then I did all your favourite things in bed tonight, didn't I? And I let you hold me for as long as you wanted afterwards, didn't I? And you want something else, Aiba-san?"
Saying it like that would make anyone sound selfish.
"I want something else," Aiba said. As if Nino wouldn't be able to see right through him if he lied, anyway.
"Ah, I understand," Nino snickered, grinning outright now. He wrapped his hands gently around Aiba's cock and pulled, oh so lightly. "Then it's a very good thing that I know you as well as I do."
2. Something else that is very different from what I usually do, but I hope you will enjoy. It's a bigger project and I'm working with a friend on it, so when we get the first story done, I'll make an announcement about it. Keep your eyes out! FUFUFUFU
An ambiguous poem, just to incite excite you further:
Roses are red
Violets are blue
I know my Tiny ABCs
and I'll teach them to you too!
2PM:
1. Junho/Wooyoung (and Junho/Chansung, Wooyoung/Nichkhun, a general mess), mystery/drama, AU, R to NC-17. Ever since the kidnapping, Junho hasn't been quite right in the head. When he meets an old friend he thought had abandoned him, everything begins to fall apart. Again.
"Does this count as keeping our promise?" Junho had asked, more out of nostalgia than actual curiousity.
"Maybe for you," had been Wooyoung's flippant answer. Cheeky bastard. Junho had guessed this meant that Wooyoung had been aiming for an even higher position than an JYPE group agent. Wooyoung was one of those people: always demanding the very best out of himself. It was one of the reasons he and Junho had gotten along so well together, because Junho was the same sort. Don't stop pushing. Keep moving. Run. Climb. It wasn't for no reason that those were some of the first words Junho and Wooyoung had learnt together, experienced together.
It had been strange to Junho, in the upcoming weeks and months, as to why he remembered experiences with Wooyoung so well. Instances with Chansung and Nichkhun and most everyone, really, Junho would have had a few cases where he'd forgotten this or that which had happened, and someone would have to remind him, but with Wooyoung, Junho recalled their childhood together with pitch-perfect clarity. He even remembered the feelings. Maybe it was because during their seven years apart, all the time thinking about the other boy had consolidated Junho's memories of him into something solid and firm, layers strengthening layers strengthening layers. The regular reliving of past events he'd shared with Wooyoung in his mind over and over had, to Junho, given their history the quality of a pebble holding back a dam. Pull out one memory, and everything else comes flooding back, easy and sure.
It's only after everything has happened, finished, that Junho can appreciate (and scorn) the extent of his nativite, of his enthusiasm to believe only what he wanted to. He's learned his lessons the hard way.
Junho doesn't trust his memories anymore. He no longer trusts a lot of things.
2. This AR crack fic that nautisch asked me to write, involving 2PM as vampires. I worked on this fic when I was in a weird mood and wanted to just write whatever the hell I felt like, and after a while I felt that it was a little lacking in direction and more than a little OOC. So I started over. Below is everything that I had so far, which has now been scrapped. Warning: It hasn't been revised at all.
Let's not beat around the bush: Park Jaebeom is many things, but academic is not exactly one of them. He can make a sharp-witted comment when certain elements of the situation fall in his favour (not something that happened very often), but as general rule, Jay isn't the brightest crayon in the box. Being intelligent (like, Taec intelligent, A-average intelligent, I'm-the-teacher's-pet-watch-me-kiss-ass-in-my-perfect-Korean intelligent) meant control of two important skills, neither of which Jay possessed in spades (probably not even in clubs): being observant, and being able to make connections between the items observed. It infers rapid understanding of facts. It means that Jay, had he been "smart about these things," would have been able to piece together the messed up puzzle that apparently constitutes his life way, way, way in advance than he did.
As in, way, way, way in advance of right now.
Right now, with Jay standing less than three feet away from what seems to be some kind of quivering hunchback, draped in black fog (it has to be a cape, but Jay has never seen any capes that could float without wind), a round, bushy-haired head peeking out from up top, where it's bent over -- over --
a girl. With red at her neck.
A pretty, thin, Korean girl, wearing a bright purple halter top just like the one Jay had seen someone wearing at their concert that night, wearing it just like that girl at the concert who had been holding up a sign with Junho's name on it, who had long, thick hair braided neatly over her shoulder, just like this girl's, only this girl also has a trail of red down her neck, parallel to her braid --
There's a full moon tonight, Jay remembers. Nichkhun had said that to him earlier, kindly, almost like a reminder. "There's a full moon tonight," Khun had smiled, and Wooyoung, sitting behind them in the van, had laughed.
A full moon tonight, a girl in a purple halter top with red trailing down her pale white neck, and this weird, black blob cradling her, with its head lowered and formless mouth attached to the juncture of her shoulder.
Park Jaebeom is many things, and he may not be the brightest crayon in the box, but one thing he is not is a dumbass. Jay might not be observant, but he isn't blind. Jay may not have connected the dots before, but there isn't anything he can see right now except the finished picture.
So that's why there's all that tomato juice in their fridge, Jay realizes abruptly. He should have known it couldn't have been because Junho had decided to drink healthier.
Before him, the veiled creature who's been shuddering in time with making rhythmic sucking sounds at the girl's neck gives one, raspy, drawn-out moan, and the girl goes completely limp in its arms. The creature lifts up its head and blood-red eyes stare right through the darkness of the KBS's empty parking lot and pierce into Jay like a javelin.
Before him, the black-clothed creature wearing Junho's face lets out a blood-red grin, and this is when Jay begins to scream.
"FUCK!" Jay accidentally trips over a pile of abandoned beer bottles and winces as they crash down the alleyway. "This shit is messed up! What the hell! This isn't real!" He hefts a finger, heavy with accusation, at Junho. "You're completely psycho, Junho, do you hear me? Insane."
"That's not a mature reaction, just because I told you something you didn't like hearing," Junho says, temperate as anything. "And technically you're the one who's seeing supernatural beings. I'd say if anyone is going to get accused of being crazy, it ought to be you, hyung."
If this is a joke, Jay's not laughing. (Well. Not like he ever laughs at any of Junho's jokes.)
"Screw you, I am not seeing any supernatural beings because you are not a supernatural being." Jay slaps both his cheeks and screws his eyes shut for a second. When he opens them, Junho's still there, in his black -- what concept would you even call that outfit? Cape-y? Dracula-y? Emo?
Junho just stares back at him. He makes no move to emerge out of the shadows conveniently covering the girl (DEAD?!?!) puddled at his feet. "I could bite you, if you wanted more proof," he suggests blandly, and ducks when Jay hurls a broken bottle at him.
"Seriously?" Jay yells. "A vampire?! News flash, this isn't fantasyland, dude! This is Korea!"
"There's no need to be racist, hyung," Junho sniffs. "Koreans make just as good vampires as Americans do. Better, even, since we've naturally got dark hair." He straightens his own hair self-consciously, a move that Jay has seen him do a million and one times -- during the day, in front of a mirror.
"A-HAH!" The accusing finger makes a triumphant return. "If you were really a vampire, then you wouldn't be able to walk around in the daytime, except you totally do that. And I've seen your reflection. So there." See, Jay knew it all had to be a sick joke. Junho, a vampire. Get real. "Come on, give," Jay says, whipping his head back and forth. "Where's the camera crew?"
But Junho just rolls his eyes (still red, by the way, just in case Jay needs more affirmation of how high quality this prank is). "This isn't for a show," he says. He holds up one edge of his cape meaningfully; the corner of it flaps menacingly in the non-existant wind. "You think any stylists would dress me up in this kind of stuff if it was going to air on national television?"
"I don't know," Jay answers. "I don't see how it's worse than the crap you picked for yourself in Wild Bunny."
"Very funny," Junho says, dropping his cape sullenly. (Hah. Like Jay hadn't meant it or something.) "Anyway, sun and mirrors are fine. Vampires evolved out of those deficiencies long ago."
"Vampires evolve?" Jay gapes, momentarily forgetting the fact that his question shouldn't have gone past the vampire part.
"Why not? Humans evolved."
"God created man in his own image," Jay recites automatically, but then starts. "Shit!" He reaches hurriedly into his t-shirt collar and takes out his necklace with the crucifix pendant. He pumps it madly in Junho's direction. "Get away, demon spawn! A pox on you, or whatever. Get your ass away! I deem you -- uh, unclean? Banish thyself!"
"What the hell are you two doing?" comes Junsu's voice from the back exit of the building. "Send one guy to tell the other guy to hurry his carcinogenic ass up and then next thing you know, they're playing exorcist while everyone else is waiting to go home."
"Junsu!" Jay screams, at the same time Junho calmly calls, "Junsu."
"What?" Junsu says, walking over to them. He takes one look at Junho, one longer look at Jay, then stares for what seems like forever at the girl huddled, barely breathing, at Junho's feet.
"Was that the one who was holding up the blue sign?" he asks eventually.
"Yeah," Junho answers.
"She's hot."
"Yeah," Junsu repeats, a little more smugly.
"Did she follow you out here by herself?"
"Yep."
A low whistle. "You lucked out, man."
Junho grins.
Not too far away, Jay is having an aneurysm at the tender age of twenty-two.
"Junsu," he says, carefully and slowly; he even puts a hand on Junsu's shoulder. "Stop thinking with your dick for a second--"
"Yo, I don't--"
"And tell me if you notice anything wrong with Junho here."
"Wrong? There's nothing wrong with me," Junho says, sounding indignant, and Jay cannot believe the guy is actually feeling insulted right now.
"Fine. Different. Do you notice anything different about Junho?"
The weird thing is that Junsu is staring at Jay like Jay's the one with fangs and an ethereal cape and is standing over a half-dead body -- which, let's be clear, is obviously not the case.
"Is he getting smarter about this?" Junsu asks, blinking.
"What?" Jay says.
"Yeah, I think so," Junho sighs, resigned. "Didn't Wooyoung say that it took him five minutes or so to make sense of the last situation, and Chansung said -- maybe fifteen minutes the time before that?"
"I think it was over fifteen, but yeah."
"What?" Jay says.
"You know, I've heard about this inherent learning that even amnesiacs go through," Junsu continues, rubbing his chin. "Like, they don't remember anything, but if you give them some memory task to do, they still get better at it over time, just like a regular person. Something to do with how the brain compiles memory, or some shit, I'm not totally sure."
Junho narrows his eyes at Jay. At Jay. "You think this is what's happening here? He's subconsciously getting used to it so he's making the connections faster?"
"Maybe, I dunno, man." Junsu shrugs. "Either way it doesn't really matter, huh?"
"I guess not," Junho agrees, and takes a bottle out of his pocket.
"WHAT?" Jay yells.
"Here," Junho taps out something from the bottle and holds it out to Jay. "Take it." For a second, Jay has no idea what he's looking at because whatever it is nearly blends in fully with the paleness of Junho's creepy and apparently-normal vampire skin. But then he notices it: a little, white circular pill in the palm of Junho's hand.
Holy shit, Jay recognizes that. It's one of the first things they're taught about in high school sex-ed class -- probably more for the girls' sake than the guys', but yeah. It had been one pocket of seriousness in an hour and a half that was mostly spent in horrified, disgusted awe at how tampons worked and what dilation meant ("How many inches?").
"That's a roofie," Jay says.
"Definitely getting faster at this," Junsu mutters, and reaches for Jay.
Jay's pretty fast usually, and certainly he prides himself on being faster than Junsu on a good day, but maybe he shouldn't have spent those two seconds screaming, "DATE RAPE!" because before he can even turn on his heel to high-tail it out of there, he's suddenly got arms pinning his elbows together and a chalky, solid taste on his tongue.
"You threw it into my mouth?!" Jay sputters, trying to spit it out, only he can't, because suddenly Junho is right next to him and has covered Jay's mouth with his hand, forcing Jay to swallow.
Junho's hand is fucking cold, is the last think Jay thinks before passing out.
Voices drift in and out of his dreams, muffled and hazy.
"--can't believe you let yourself get caught, man--"
"--t my fault you guys sent him after me, how was I supposed to know--"
"--ull moon tonight, and all we wanted to do was to get home, send Jay to bed, then go out for some--"
"--ever, I don't--"
"--the body? ... Minjae-hyung ... --pital, maybe."
"--fine, that's good."
"...And Jay?"
"What about Jay?"
Jay's eyes snap open. He looks around: couch, pillow, messy apartment, and Nichkhun sitting at the dining room table wearing one of his ridiculously old-school hats. Jay's wristwatch reads 11:03 a.m.
"Did you have a good nap?" Nichkhun says, flipping a page in his Korean workbook.
Oh thank fuck, Jay thinks, and feels his entire body sag with a relief so thick it feels like Taec has finally rolled off his chest after a backflip gone wrong. It was all a dream.
"Khun," Jay croaks, throwing an arm over his eyes. "What the hell did we eat last night? I legit just had the craziest dream ever."
"Yeah, I guess that leftover pizza was a bit too far gone after all," Khun laughs. "Well, it was all we had. It was either that or starve. Do you feel like vomiting?"
"No," but Jay pauses, just to make sure. "We had stale pizza last night? I don't remember that."
"Huh, that's funny," Khun replies, and scribbles something down in his book. "Maybe that's another side effect of the pizza?"
"Yeah, maybe -- listen, you wouldn't believe what I dreamt about."
Nichkhun looks up for a quick second before going back to his homework. "Oh? Like what?"
"Like, stuff. Uh, stuff like how Junho was a vampire and sucked the blood of one of his fangirls in the parking lot of KBS. And Junsu knew. And then they, like, attacked me. With drugs, not with... vampire things." Jay laughs. It seems so retarded now. The stupidest dream ever; vampires weren't real. And even if they were (they're not), how in the world would Junho get to become a vampire without Jay noticing? 2PM was basically together 24/7 (not a good thing), with Jay at the forefront of the seven members, so any Dracula impersonators leaping on Junho would have definitely have to have gone through Jay first (also not a good thing).
"Anyway, it was nuts and I'm never thinking about it again," Jay yawns. He sits up on the couch and stretches, then glances at Khun. Nichkhun has put down this book and is staring at Jay like Jay's sprouted some kind of ugly beard or something.
"What," Jay says. He very surrepiteously lifts a hand to stroke his jaw, checking for dried spit trails.
Khun blinks at him. "You dreamt about that?"
"Uh. Yeah."
Nichkhun purses his lips together, very briefly, before aiming a supernova-watt smile at Jay. "Excuse me," he says, and disappears down the hall that leads to their bedrooms. A moment later, he comes back with Taec in tow.
"So!" Taec says, grinning, clapping his hands together. "I hear that you've been having nightmares?"
"Who said that?" Jay snaps, aiming his hardest glare at Khun, the squealer. "No one said that. It's a lie. And it wasn't like I wet myself or anything. What are you, a shrink? Go make me a sandwich."
Taec considers for a moment, then heads to the kitchen. "Sure, good idea."
"Eh?" Jay hadn't actually expected that to work. Almost four years he's known Taec and this is the first time he's taken Jay's direction so easily. "Uh, wait!" Jay shouts, scrambling for requests. "And grill me a steak! With glazed mushroom sauce! Baked potatoes! Sour cream!!"
"How about a ham and cheese sandwich with a nice glass of juice," Taec replies. Jay supposes he can live with that.
The orange juice is fizzing slightly.
Jay's fairly sure that Minjae-hyung outlawed carbonated drinks in the dorm since Chansung and Taec had their third drunk-burping contest at 4am in the moring, which had been a while ago. And the last time anyone broke the ban (it was Chansung, who'd brought home a Sprite), Minjae hyung had made him do two hundred push-ups while holding the pop bottle in his teeth. It had been a big deal. Therefore, what's in the glass in front of Jay right now can't be anything carbonated.
So why is the orange juice fizzing? And, if it actually was Orange Crush (it's not even the right shade of orange though), why would they get carbonated orange-only-in-colour drink when they could have bought good old American Pepsi? Or, wait. Coke. Koreans liked Coke. Oh, wait, maybe it was Orangina? Still. A ban was a ban was a Minjae ban.
"Hyung. Are you not thirsty at all?" Wooyoung asks, jolting Jay out of his staring competition with the glass cup in front of him. "I've never seen you put so much effort in not consuming a drink."
"I wasn't -- yah, there's bubbles in it."
Wooyoung yawns so widely his jaw cracks. "Yes, interesting observation."
Jay glares at him. "We don't have pop in the house. Why are there bubbles in my juice?"
"I don't know, why don't you ask it?"
"And why were you staring at me staring at my juice?"
"Just wanted to make sure you finished your meal okay," Wooyoung smiles. "Taec would probably get his feelings hurt if you didn't. He put a lot of effort making that sandwich--"
"What, you mean the 45 seconds or something?"
"--and I know Chansung would hate to see food wasted." The smile grows a little wider, but doesn't look that much more genuine. "Eat up, hyung. It's all for you."
Jay puts his sandwich down, untouched. "Uh, Wooyoung. Is something, uh... I don't know, up? With you?"
The smile flattens. "Nothing at all. How are you, hyung?"
The hell, Jay thinks. The creepiness factor here is skyrocketing off the charts. Wooyoung has never taken such an, an - intense? Jay doesn't even know - interest in Jay's eating habits before, not unless he was looking to steal some food for himself.
Jay's eyes dart back to his suspiciously fizzing orange juice. He's never seen such evil juice before. It's the source of all of this creepiness, Jay knows it. There's no way he's touching that glass.
"Hyung, please remember to drink your juice. So you don't get dehydrated."
Ain't. No. Way.
"Noooo, thank you...?" Jay says slowly, in time with the dawning comprehension of what could possibly (impossibly) be happening here. "Because -- uh, I think -- it's poisoned?"
Wooyoung blinks at him for a long second, then sighs exasperatedly. All of the weird tension suddenly just drops from his shoulder and his face adopts its usual unimpressed expression. "I told him we should have bought Coke for this," he says. "I guess that means it's time for a band meeting."
"How about we just tell him everything," Chansung suggests. "How bad can it be?"
"Yeah, I'll remind you you said that after he accidentally lets our secret slip and we get locked up as science experiments for the rest of our lives." Junsu taps his fingers on his knee irritably. "Let's just force him to eat the drug and be done with it."
"He's not going to eat it if he knows the food is drugged," Wooyoung states helpfully.
"That's why I said force, che."
"Wait wait wait," Jay interrupts, panicked. "So that juice really was poisoned?!"
This is surreal. What kind of people had conversations like this? The seven of them are sitting around the dining room table, discussing drugs and secrets and supernatural things like they're talking about whose turn it was to do the laundry. Even less drama than that, really.
"Come on, keep up, hyung," Junho says pleasantly. "We're vampires, you're starting to become resistant to the amnesic drugs we usually give you, we've got to decide what to do with you now, and we have dance practise in two hours. Did you study the new choreography?"
"Yes," Jay replies automatically, right before his brain stutters on the word 'vampire'. "Huh? But that was a dream."
"Uh," Junho says. This sentiment is somehow echoed in Jay's own brain, except magnified by ten thousand: a nuclear explosion of "UHHHH." UH, vampires really exist? UH, your group is full of vampires? UH, your group full of vampires tried to poison you to wipe your memory? UH, apparently they've been doing this for a while?? UH, CAN YOU SAY "CONSPIRACY"?!
Something weak and vaguely protesting is coming out of Jay's mouth, "But this -- I don't -- uh, I remember things going black, so it must have been..."
Oh no, his mind says. Oh no oh no oh no. Oh hell no.
"By the way, we're sorry about that," Junho says sheepishly. "Didn't mean to be so rough with you. We get much stronger at night, especially after a meal, so sometimes I forget to control myself properly. But yeah, the roofie's effects didn't last, I guess it just knocked you ou-- what are you doing?"
"This is another fucked up dream, isn't it," Jay says, pinching himself fiercely on the wrist. There's just no way that Junho (and Junsu, too? And apparently all of them??) was a freaking vampire of all things. Don't even get Jay started on the other crap. He pinches himself a little too hard in his desperation, and winces. "Fucking--"
Taec snatches his hand, keeping it still. "Stop that, you'll scar yourself."
"And you!" Jay roars, breaking free and hitting Taec in the shoulder. "Messing with my food!! Is that how you treat your leader, huh!"
Taec grins, holding his palms open. "For the greater good, Jay. We've kept you in the dark for so long; didn't know what else to do when you woke up remembering that you saw Junho feeding."
"Fee--" puke, oh God, Jay needs to puke.
"This is all Junho's fault," Junsu says, slapping the table. "See, I told him not to go outside for a smoke. Did he listen to me? No. Did any of you guys care enough to stop him? No. Now we've got Jay remembering shit and we have to deal with this before dance practise -- plus I haven't even studied, so you just know that Namyoung-hyung's going to be on my ass."
"YOU ACTUALLY WERE SUCKING THAT GIRL'S BLOOD, THEN."
"Hot girl," Junho reminds them, smiling broadly.
"Smoking hot," Junsu mutters.
"Don't boast. Jay, do you want to lie down for a bit?" Nichkhun asks him, putting a soft hand on Jay's shoulder. Jay flinches away; he can't help it. A flash of hurt colours Khun's face for a split second, before he replaces it with his perfect smile. "I -- sorry, this must be a lot to take in right now."
"Duh," Chansung says.
"If you're worried about being turned--" Khun starts, only to be interrupted by Jay's spit-choked scream. "Oh, sorry, had you not thought about that part yet?"
"I guess not," Wooyoung says, hammering Jay's back to stem his coughing. "Don't worry, hyung, you don't have to think about that at all! We're not going to turn you."
"Bleh," Jay groans. "Whuh?"
"We made the decision a long time ago," Taec explains, shrugging. "When Junho got turned, you were the only one left, so we had this meeting thing and agreed unanimously not to hurt you."
"Yeah, hyung," Chansung adds. "You're untouchable. You've got it."
Jay stares.
"You know. The holy spirit."
"..."
"You're innocent, hyung."
"I've been with girls!!" Jay blurts.
No one looks impressed. "No, dumbass," Taec says, sounding just like he does when he's explaining a homework question to Jay. "We mean here." He sticks a finger into the left side of Jay's chest. Jay just barely keeps himself from taking a step backwards -- but damn it if he's going to let Taec of all people get to him.
"If you're going to spout off some Disney princess comparison, I'm going to knock your teeth in," Jay says.
"It's actually more to do with what values you have as a person. It's not about evil and good--" ("Are you saying we're evil?" Wooyoung shouts indignantly. He's ignored.) "--it's about motivation," Taec continues. "You're not in this business to get famous. You're here for your family. Your love for your family protects you."
Cheesier and cheesier, Jay can't help thinking. Aloud he asks, "What are you talking about? Protects me against what?"
"Against agreeing to be in this business for decades," Junho answers.
Oh. That's right. Jay had never meant to stay in Korea. As soon as his contract finished, he's planning to catch the first flight back to Seattle. Fame is great and all, but Jay's here as a means, not an ends. The others, though. The others -- they sold their souls to be famous. Literally.
Taec must see something sobering in his expression, because he nods. "No better idols than ones who heal quickly, don't need sleep and stay young forever," he says simply. "That's us."
Okay, as I said, there are other fics, but these are the main four things I am working on right now. The Aiba/Nino one and the 2PM vampires one will be posted first, but aren't even halfway done yet. I have no idea when I'll be finished the Junho-centric one, because it is going to be long and tumultuous and has a plot that I really like and have always wanted to write, so I want to take extra care with it. The Arashi collaboration thing... we'll try to have something done during the holidays? Ha ha... OTL
Anyway. I hope all you lovely people are doing well. Good luck with exams if you have them, but otherwise, I wish you a very safe and warm and happy holiday season. ♥
GOING TO MY LAB NOW, WHAT A GREAT WAY TO SPEND A SATURDAY EVENING, WHAT GREAT FRIGID WEATHER OUTSIDE, GREAT GREAT GREAT
I realize that I've pretty much stopped updating LJ in recent months. Sorry about this. First year of grad school has been very busy: lab work, TAing, classes, research, lab meetings; keeping myself fed and my apartment tidy is a major undertaking too, haha. My routine these days consists of getting home from school late in the evening and barely get any homework done before I succumb to "a short, one hour nap" and waking up late for first period the next morning, with gross stuff in my mouth because I'd been too lazy to brush the night before. I'm a slow worker, so coupled with school giving me quite a lot of work, time passes more quickly than I can understand and I don't ever seem to get anything done to show for it. I go to school on weekends, too, so there's no respite there.
That being said, I miss LJ like a crazy cat lady whose cats have all been taken away, and I miss all of you guys, and I miss fic LIKE FUCKING FUCK. So classes being over (this doesn't actually affect me a lot as I still go to the lab everyday) and me being a procrastinator (as ever), I thought I'd take some time to do a quick update here, just catch up! And to make sure that my account isn't frozen from inactivity or something. Does LJ do that? ...Let's not find out.
ALSO, for the hell of it, a WIP UPDATE. I like/dislike doing these because I am a paranoid shit so I think they jinx me, but lately I feel the need to prove that yes, I'm still writing things, just... very slowly. >__> The question nowadays is, will I get enough time to finish the fics before I get tired of trying? NOT IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT. IT IS A BATTLE OF ENDURANCE, MY FRIENDS, AND I WILL PROVE TO BE THE VICTOR. I promise they are interesting stories (or at least I think they are, lolol). I've never really been good at posting short, fluffy fics just for the sake of posting them, so I don't think I'd be able to start now. In the meantime, I humbly ask for your patience.
**Please note that I keep a list of all my WIPs so even if I am not currently working on it, it definitely doesn't mean that I've forgotten about it. :)
ARASHI:
1. Nino/Aiba, humour, NC-17. It's Nino and Aiba's one year anniversary, so you can probably predict things are going to get a little messy.
Nino sighed. "Go ahead, ask."
"Did you get me a present too?"
"Well..." A clever hand made its way down Aiba's chest and trailed down to his now-growing erection. Aiba twitched; Nino only smirked a little. "I did take you out for dinner and games tonight, didn't I? And then I did all your favourite things in bed tonight, didn't I? And I let you hold me for as long as you wanted afterwards, didn't I? And you want something else, Aiba-san?"
Saying it like that would make anyone sound selfish.
"I want something else," Aiba said. As if Nino wouldn't be able to see right through him if he lied, anyway.
"Ah, I understand," Nino snickered, grinning outright now. He wrapped his hands gently around Aiba's cock and pulled, oh so lightly. "Then it's a very good thing that I know you as well as I do."
2. Something else that is very different from what I usually do, but I hope you will enjoy. It's a bigger project and I'm working with a friend on it, so when we get the first story done, I'll make an announcement about it. Keep your eyes out! FUFUFUFU
An ambiguous poem, just to incite excite you further:
Roses are red
Violets are blue
I know my Tiny ABCs
and I'll teach them to you too!
2PM:
1. Junho/Wooyoung (and Junho/Chansung, Wooyoung/Nichkhun, a general mess), mystery/drama, AU, R to NC-17. Ever since the kidnapping, Junho hasn't been quite right in the head. When he meets an old friend he thought had abandoned him, everything begins to fall apart. Again.
"Does this count as keeping our promise?" Junho had asked, more out of nostalgia than actual curiousity.
"Maybe for you," had been Wooyoung's flippant answer. Cheeky bastard. Junho had guessed this meant that Wooyoung had been aiming for an even higher position than an JYPE group agent. Wooyoung was one of those people: always demanding the very best out of himself. It was one of the reasons he and Junho had gotten along so well together, because Junho was the same sort. Don't stop pushing. Keep moving. Run. Climb. It wasn't for no reason that those were some of the first words Junho and Wooyoung had learnt together, experienced together.
It had been strange to Junho, in the upcoming weeks and months, as to why he remembered experiences with Wooyoung so well. Instances with Chansung and Nichkhun and most everyone, really, Junho would have had a few cases where he'd forgotten this or that which had happened, and someone would have to remind him, but with Wooyoung, Junho recalled their childhood together with pitch-perfect clarity. He even remembered the feelings. Maybe it was because during their seven years apart, all the time thinking about the other boy had consolidated Junho's memories of him into something solid and firm, layers strengthening layers strengthening layers. The regular reliving of past events he'd shared with Wooyoung in his mind over and over had, to Junho, given their history the quality of a pebble holding back a dam. Pull out one memory, and everything else comes flooding back, easy and sure.
It's only after everything has happened, finished, that Junho can appreciate (and scorn) the extent of his nativite, of his enthusiasm to believe only what he wanted to. He's learned his lessons the hard way.
Junho doesn't trust his memories anymore. He no longer trusts a lot of things.
2. This AR crack fic that nautisch asked me to write, involving 2PM as vampires. I worked on this fic when I was in a weird mood and wanted to just write whatever the hell I felt like, and after a while I felt that it was a little lacking in direction and more than a little OOC. So I started over. Below is everything that I had so far, which has now been scrapped. Warning: It hasn't been revised at all.
Let's not beat around the bush: Park Jaebeom is many things, but academic is not exactly one of them. He can make a sharp-witted comment when certain elements of the situation fall in his favour (not something that happened very often), but as general rule, Jay isn't the brightest crayon in the box. Being intelligent (like, Taec intelligent, A-average intelligent, I'm-the-teacher's-pet-watch-me-kiss-ass-in-my-perfect-Korean intelligent) meant control of two important skills, neither of which Jay possessed in spades (probably not even in clubs): being observant, and being able to make connections between the items observed. It infers rapid understanding of facts. It means that Jay, had he been "smart about these things," would have been able to piece together the messed up puzzle that apparently constitutes his life way, way, way in advance than he did.
As in, way, way, way in advance of right now.
Right now, with Jay standing less than three feet away from what seems to be some kind of quivering hunchback, draped in black fog (it has to be a cape, but Jay has never seen any capes that could float without wind), a round, bushy-haired head peeking out from up top, where it's bent over -- over --
a girl. With red at her neck.
A pretty, thin, Korean girl, wearing a bright purple halter top just like the one Jay had seen someone wearing at their concert that night, wearing it just like that girl at the concert who had been holding up a sign with Junho's name on it, who had long, thick hair braided neatly over her shoulder, just like this girl's, only this girl also has a trail of red down her neck, parallel to her braid --
There's a full moon tonight, Jay remembers. Nichkhun had said that to him earlier, kindly, almost like a reminder. "There's a full moon tonight," Khun had smiled, and Wooyoung, sitting behind them in the van, had laughed.
A full moon tonight, a girl in a purple halter top with red trailing down her pale white neck, and this weird, black blob cradling her, with its head lowered and formless mouth attached to the juncture of her shoulder.
Park Jaebeom is many things, and he may not be the brightest crayon in the box, but one thing he is not is a dumbass. Jay might not be observant, but he isn't blind. Jay may not have connected the dots before, but there isn't anything he can see right now except the finished picture.
So that's why there's all that tomato juice in their fridge, Jay realizes abruptly. He should have known it couldn't have been because Junho had decided to drink healthier.
Before him, the veiled creature who's been shuddering in time with making rhythmic sucking sounds at the girl's neck gives one, raspy, drawn-out moan, and the girl goes completely limp in its arms. The creature lifts up its head and blood-red eyes stare right through the darkness of the KBS's empty parking lot and pierce into Jay like a javelin.
Before him, the black-clothed creature wearing Junho's face lets out a blood-red grin, and this is when Jay begins to scream.
"FUCK!" Jay accidentally trips over a pile of abandoned beer bottles and winces as they crash down the alleyway. "This shit is messed up! What the hell! This isn't real!" He hefts a finger, heavy with accusation, at Junho. "You're completely psycho, Junho, do you hear me? Insane."
"That's not a mature reaction, just because I told you something you didn't like hearing," Junho says, temperate as anything. "And technically you're the one who's seeing supernatural beings. I'd say if anyone is going to get accused of being crazy, it ought to be you, hyung."
If this is a joke, Jay's not laughing. (Well. Not like he ever laughs at any of Junho's jokes.)
"Screw you, I am not seeing any supernatural beings because you are not a supernatural being." Jay slaps both his cheeks and screws his eyes shut for a second. When he opens them, Junho's still there, in his black -- what concept would you even call that outfit? Cape-y? Dracula-y? Emo?
Junho just stares back at him. He makes no move to emerge out of the shadows conveniently covering the girl (DEAD?!?!) puddled at his feet. "I could bite you, if you wanted more proof," he suggests blandly, and ducks when Jay hurls a broken bottle at him.
"Seriously?" Jay yells. "A vampire?! News flash, this isn't fantasyland, dude! This is Korea!"
"There's no need to be racist, hyung," Junho sniffs. "Koreans make just as good vampires as Americans do. Better, even, since we've naturally got dark hair." He straightens his own hair self-consciously, a move that Jay has seen him do a million and one times -- during the day, in front of a mirror.
"A-HAH!" The accusing finger makes a triumphant return. "If you were really a vampire, then you wouldn't be able to walk around in the daytime, except you totally do that. And I've seen your reflection. So there." See, Jay knew it all had to be a sick joke. Junho, a vampire. Get real. "Come on, give," Jay says, whipping his head back and forth. "Where's the camera crew?"
But Junho just rolls his eyes (still red, by the way, just in case Jay needs more affirmation of how high quality this prank is). "This isn't for a show," he says. He holds up one edge of his cape meaningfully; the corner of it flaps menacingly in the non-existant wind. "You think any stylists would dress me up in this kind of stuff if it was going to air on national television?"
"I don't know," Jay answers. "I don't see how it's worse than the crap you picked for yourself in Wild Bunny."
"Very funny," Junho says, dropping his cape sullenly. (Hah. Like Jay hadn't meant it or something.) "Anyway, sun and mirrors are fine. Vampires evolved out of those deficiencies long ago."
"Vampires evolve?" Jay gapes, momentarily forgetting the fact that his question shouldn't have gone past the vampire part.
"Why not? Humans evolved."
"God created man in his own image," Jay recites automatically, but then starts. "Shit!" He reaches hurriedly into his t-shirt collar and takes out his necklace with the crucifix pendant. He pumps it madly in Junho's direction. "Get away, demon spawn! A pox on you, or whatever. Get your ass away! I deem you -- uh, unclean? Banish thyself!"
"What the hell are you two doing?" comes Junsu's voice from the back exit of the building. "Send one guy to tell the other guy to hurry his carcinogenic ass up and then next thing you know, they're playing exorcist while everyone else is waiting to go home."
"Junsu!" Jay screams, at the same time Junho calmly calls, "Junsu."
"What?" Junsu says, walking over to them. He takes one look at Junho, one longer look at Jay, then stares for what seems like forever at the girl huddled, barely breathing, at Junho's feet.
"Was that the one who was holding up the blue sign?" he asks eventually.
"Yeah," Junho answers.
"She's hot."
"Yeah," Junsu repeats, a little more smugly.
"Did she follow you out here by herself?"
"Yep."
A low whistle. "You lucked out, man."
Junho grins.
Not too far away, Jay is having an aneurysm at the tender age of twenty-two.
"Junsu," he says, carefully and slowly; he even puts a hand on Junsu's shoulder. "Stop thinking with your dick for a second--"
"Yo, I don't--"
"And tell me if you notice anything wrong with Junho here."
"Wrong? There's nothing wrong with me," Junho says, sounding indignant, and Jay cannot believe the guy is actually feeling insulted right now.
"Fine. Different. Do you notice anything different about Junho?"
The weird thing is that Junsu is staring at Jay like Jay's the one with fangs and an ethereal cape and is standing over a half-dead body -- which, let's be clear, is obviously not the case.
"Is he getting smarter about this?" Junsu asks, blinking.
"What?" Jay says.
"Yeah, I think so," Junho sighs, resigned. "Didn't Wooyoung say that it took him five minutes or so to make sense of the last situation, and Chansung said -- maybe fifteen minutes the time before that?"
"I think it was over fifteen, but yeah."
"What?" Jay says.
"You know, I've heard about this inherent learning that even amnesiacs go through," Junsu continues, rubbing his chin. "Like, they don't remember anything, but if you give them some memory task to do, they still get better at it over time, just like a regular person. Something to do with how the brain compiles memory, or some shit, I'm not totally sure."
Junho narrows his eyes at Jay. At Jay. "You think this is what's happening here? He's subconsciously getting used to it so he's making the connections faster?"
"Maybe, I dunno, man." Junsu shrugs. "Either way it doesn't really matter, huh?"
"I guess not," Junho agrees, and takes a bottle out of his pocket.
"WHAT?" Jay yells.
"Here," Junho taps out something from the bottle and holds it out to Jay. "Take it." For a second, Jay has no idea what he's looking at because whatever it is nearly blends in fully with the paleness of Junho's creepy and apparently-normal vampire skin. But then he notices it: a little, white circular pill in the palm of Junho's hand.
Holy shit, Jay recognizes that. It's one of the first things they're taught about in high school sex-ed class -- probably more for the girls' sake than the guys', but yeah. It had been one pocket of seriousness in an hour and a half that was mostly spent in horrified, disgusted awe at how tampons worked and what dilation meant ("How many inches?").
"That's a roofie," Jay says.
"Definitely getting faster at this," Junsu mutters, and reaches for Jay.
Jay's pretty fast usually, and certainly he prides himself on being faster than Junsu on a good day, but maybe he shouldn't have spent those two seconds screaming, "DATE RAPE!" because before he can even turn on his heel to high-tail it out of there, he's suddenly got arms pinning his elbows together and a chalky, solid taste on his tongue.
"You threw it into my mouth?!" Jay sputters, trying to spit it out, only he can't, because suddenly Junho is right next to him and has covered Jay's mouth with his hand, forcing Jay to swallow.
Junho's hand is fucking cold, is the last think Jay thinks before passing out.
Voices drift in and out of his dreams, muffled and hazy.
"--can't believe you let yourself get caught, man--"
"--t my fault you guys sent him after me, how was I supposed to know--"
"--ull moon tonight, and all we wanted to do was to get home, send Jay to bed, then go out for some--"
"--ever, I don't--"
"--the body? ... Minjae-hyung ... --pital, maybe."
"--fine, that's good."
"...And Jay?"
"What about Jay?"
Jay's eyes snap open. He looks around: couch, pillow, messy apartment, and Nichkhun sitting at the dining room table wearing one of his ridiculously old-school hats. Jay's wristwatch reads 11:03 a.m.
"Did you have a good nap?" Nichkhun says, flipping a page in his Korean workbook.
Oh thank fuck, Jay thinks, and feels his entire body sag with a relief so thick it feels like Taec has finally rolled off his chest after a backflip gone wrong. It was all a dream.
"Khun," Jay croaks, throwing an arm over his eyes. "What the hell did we eat last night? I legit just had the craziest dream ever."
"Yeah, I guess that leftover pizza was a bit too far gone after all," Khun laughs. "Well, it was all we had. It was either that or starve. Do you feel like vomiting?"
"No," but Jay pauses, just to make sure. "We had stale pizza last night? I don't remember that."
"Huh, that's funny," Khun replies, and scribbles something down in his book. "Maybe that's another side effect of the pizza?"
"Yeah, maybe -- listen, you wouldn't believe what I dreamt about."
Nichkhun looks up for a quick second before going back to his homework. "Oh? Like what?"
"Like, stuff. Uh, stuff like how Junho was a vampire and sucked the blood of one of his fangirls in the parking lot of KBS. And Junsu knew. And then they, like, attacked me. With drugs, not with... vampire things." Jay laughs. It seems so retarded now. The stupidest dream ever; vampires weren't real. And even if they were (they're not), how in the world would Junho get to become a vampire without Jay noticing? 2PM was basically together 24/7 (not a good thing), with Jay at the forefront of the seven members, so any Dracula impersonators leaping on Junho would have definitely have to have gone through Jay first (also not a good thing).
"Anyway, it was nuts and I'm never thinking about it again," Jay yawns. He sits up on the couch and stretches, then glances at Khun. Nichkhun has put down this book and is staring at Jay like Jay's sprouted some kind of ugly beard or something.
"What," Jay says. He very surrepiteously lifts a hand to stroke his jaw, checking for dried spit trails.
Khun blinks at him. "You dreamt about that?"
"Uh. Yeah."
Nichkhun purses his lips together, very briefly, before aiming a supernova-watt smile at Jay. "Excuse me," he says, and disappears down the hall that leads to their bedrooms. A moment later, he comes back with Taec in tow.
"So!" Taec says, grinning, clapping his hands together. "I hear that you've been having nightmares?"
"Who said that?" Jay snaps, aiming his hardest glare at Khun, the squealer. "No one said that. It's a lie. And it wasn't like I wet myself or anything. What are you, a shrink? Go make me a sandwich."
Taec considers for a moment, then heads to the kitchen. "Sure, good idea."
"Eh?" Jay hadn't actually expected that to work. Almost four years he's known Taec and this is the first time he's taken Jay's direction so easily. "Uh, wait!" Jay shouts, scrambling for requests. "And grill me a steak! With glazed mushroom sauce! Baked potatoes! Sour cream!!"
"How about a ham and cheese sandwich with a nice glass of juice," Taec replies. Jay supposes he can live with that.
The orange juice is fizzing slightly.
Jay's fairly sure that Minjae-hyung outlawed carbonated drinks in the dorm since Chansung and Taec had their third drunk-burping contest at 4am in the moring, which had been a while ago. And the last time anyone broke the ban (it was Chansung, who'd brought home a Sprite), Minjae hyung had made him do two hundred push-ups while holding the pop bottle in his teeth. It had been a big deal. Therefore, what's in the glass in front of Jay right now can't be anything carbonated.
So why is the orange juice fizzing? And, if it actually was Orange Crush (it's not even the right shade of orange though), why would they get carbonated orange-only-in-colour drink when they could have bought good old American Pepsi? Or, wait. Coke. Koreans liked Coke. Oh, wait, maybe it was Orangina? Still. A ban was a ban was a Minjae ban.
"Hyung. Are you not thirsty at all?" Wooyoung asks, jolting Jay out of his staring competition with the glass cup in front of him. "I've never seen you put so much effort in not consuming a drink."
"I wasn't -- yah, there's bubbles in it."
Wooyoung yawns so widely his jaw cracks. "Yes, interesting observation."
Jay glares at him. "We don't have pop in the house. Why are there bubbles in my juice?"
"I don't know, why don't you ask it?"
"And why were you staring at me staring at my juice?"
"Just wanted to make sure you finished your meal okay," Wooyoung smiles. "Taec would probably get his feelings hurt if you didn't. He put a lot of effort making that sandwich--"
"What, you mean the 45 seconds or something?"
"--and I know Chansung would hate to see food wasted." The smile grows a little wider, but doesn't look that much more genuine. "Eat up, hyung. It's all for you."
Jay puts his sandwich down, untouched. "Uh, Wooyoung. Is something, uh... I don't know, up? With you?"
The smile flattens. "Nothing at all. How are you, hyung?"
The hell, Jay thinks. The creepiness factor here is skyrocketing off the charts. Wooyoung has never taken such an, an - intense? Jay doesn't even know - interest in Jay's eating habits before, not unless he was looking to steal some food for himself.
Jay's eyes dart back to his suspiciously fizzing orange juice. He's never seen such evil juice before. It's the source of all of this creepiness, Jay knows it. There's no way he's touching that glass.
"Hyung, please remember to drink your juice. So you don't get dehydrated."
Ain't. No. Way.
"Noooo, thank you...?" Jay says slowly, in time with the dawning comprehension of what could possibly (impossibly) be happening here. "Because -- uh, I think -- it's poisoned?"
Wooyoung blinks at him for a long second, then sighs exasperatedly. All of the weird tension suddenly just drops from his shoulder and his face adopts its usual unimpressed expression. "I told him we should have bought Coke for this," he says. "I guess that means it's time for a band meeting."
"How about we just tell him everything," Chansung suggests. "How bad can it be?"
"Yeah, I'll remind you you said that after he accidentally lets our secret slip and we get locked up as science experiments for the rest of our lives." Junsu taps his fingers on his knee irritably. "Let's just force him to eat the drug and be done with it."
"He's not going to eat it if he knows the food is drugged," Wooyoung states helpfully.
"That's why I said force, che."
"Wait wait wait," Jay interrupts, panicked. "So that juice really was poisoned?!"
This is surreal. What kind of people had conversations like this? The seven of them are sitting around the dining room table, discussing drugs and secrets and supernatural things like they're talking about whose turn it was to do the laundry. Even less drama than that, really.
"Come on, keep up, hyung," Junho says pleasantly. "We're vampires, you're starting to become resistant to the amnesic drugs we usually give you, we've got to decide what to do with you now, and we have dance practise in two hours. Did you study the new choreography?"
"Yes," Jay replies automatically, right before his brain stutters on the word 'vampire'. "Huh? But that was a dream."
"Uh," Junho says. This sentiment is somehow echoed in Jay's own brain, except magnified by ten thousand: a nuclear explosion of "UHHHH." UH, vampires really exist? UH, your group is full of vampires? UH, your group full of vampires tried to poison you to wipe your memory? UH, apparently they've been doing this for a while?? UH, CAN YOU SAY "CONSPIRACY"?!
Something weak and vaguely protesting is coming out of Jay's mouth, "But this -- I don't -- uh, I remember things going black, so it must have been..."
Oh no, his mind says. Oh no oh no oh no. Oh hell no.
"By the way, we're sorry about that," Junho says sheepishly. "Didn't mean to be so rough with you. We get much stronger at night, especially after a meal, so sometimes I forget to control myself properly. But yeah, the roofie's effects didn't last, I guess it just knocked you ou-- what are you doing?"
"This is another fucked up dream, isn't it," Jay says, pinching himself fiercely on the wrist. There's just no way that Junho (and Junsu, too? And apparently all of them??) was a freaking vampire of all things. Don't even get Jay started on the other crap. He pinches himself a little too hard in his desperation, and winces. "Fucking--"
Taec snatches his hand, keeping it still. "Stop that, you'll scar yourself."
"And you!" Jay roars, breaking free and hitting Taec in the shoulder. "Messing with my food!! Is that how you treat your leader, huh!"
Taec grins, holding his palms open. "For the greater good, Jay. We've kept you in the dark for so long; didn't know what else to do when you woke up remembering that you saw Junho feeding."
"Fee--" puke, oh God, Jay needs to puke.
"This is all Junho's fault," Junsu says, slapping the table. "See, I told him not to go outside for a smoke. Did he listen to me? No. Did any of you guys care enough to stop him? No. Now we've got Jay remembering shit and we have to deal with this before dance practise -- plus I haven't even studied, so you just know that Namyoung-hyung's going to be on my ass."
"YOU ACTUALLY WERE SUCKING THAT GIRL'S BLOOD, THEN."
"Hot girl," Junho reminds them, smiling broadly.
"Smoking hot," Junsu mutters.
"Don't boast. Jay, do you want to lie down for a bit?" Nichkhun asks him, putting a soft hand on Jay's shoulder. Jay flinches away; he can't help it. A flash of hurt colours Khun's face for a split second, before he replaces it with his perfect smile. "I -- sorry, this must be a lot to take in right now."
"Duh," Chansung says.
"If you're worried about being turned--" Khun starts, only to be interrupted by Jay's spit-choked scream. "Oh, sorry, had you not thought about that part yet?"
"I guess not," Wooyoung says, hammering Jay's back to stem his coughing. "Don't worry, hyung, you don't have to think about that at all! We're not going to turn you."
"Bleh," Jay groans. "Whuh?"
"We made the decision a long time ago," Taec explains, shrugging. "When Junho got turned, you were the only one left, so we had this meeting thing and agreed unanimously not to hurt you."
"Yeah, hyung," Chansung adds. "You're untouchable. You've got it."
Jay stares.
"You know. The holy spirit."
"..."
"You're innocent, hyung."
"I've been with girls!!" Jay blurts.
No one looks impressed. "No, dumbass," Taec says, sounding just like he does when he's explaining a homework question to Jay. "We mean here." He sticks a finger into the left side of Jay's chest. Jay just barely keeps himself from taking a step backwards -- but damn it if he's going to let Taec of all people get to him.
"If you're going to spout off some Disney princess comparison, I'm going to knock your teeth in," Jay says.
"It's actually more to do with what values you have as a person. It's not about evil and good--" ("Are you saying we're evil?" Wooyoung shouts indignantly. He's ignored.) "--it's about motivation," Taec continues. "You're not in this business to get famous. You're here for your family. Your love for your family protects you."
Cheesier and cheesier, Jay can't help thinking. Aloud he asks, "What are you talking about? Protects me against what?"
"Against agreeing to be in this business for decades," Junho answers.
Oh. That's right. Jay had never meant to stay in Korea. As soon as his contract finished, he's planning to catch the first flight back to Seattle. Fame is great and all, but Jay's here as a means, not an ends. The others, though. The others -- they sold their souls to be famous. Literally.
Taec must see something sobering in his expression, because he nods. "No better idols than ones who heal quickly, don't need sleep and stay young forever," he says simply. "That's us."
Okay, as I said, there are other fics, but these are the main four things I am working on right now. The Aiba/Nino one and the 2PM vampires one will be posted first, but aren't even halfway done yet. I have no idea when I'll be finished the Junho-centric one, because it is going to be long and tumultuous and has a plot that I really like and have always wanted to write, so I want to take extra care with it. The Arashi collaboration thing... we'll try to have something done during the holidays? Ha ha... OTL
Anyway. I hope all you lovely people are doing well. Good luck with exams if you have them, but otherwise, I wish you a very safe and warm and happy holiday season. ♥
GOING TO MY LAB NOW, WHAT A GREAT WAY TO SPEND A SATURDAY EVENING, WHAT GREAT FRIGID WEATHER OUTSIDE, GREAT GREAT GREAT