post #13
Fics ( #12).
How Hard Was That? GLAM, Zinni/Trinity
Safehouse SNSD, Taeyeon/Seohyun
Intriguing Secret, Hyosung/Sunhwa [warning: murder]
Six and Seven Girl's Day, Minah/Hyeri
Approved Block B/B.A.P., Jaehyo/Himchan
Fiction EXO, Kai/Suho
Untitled Infinite, Myungsoo/Sungyeol
One Sequin at a Time EXO, Suho/Kai
Why don't we measure the coefficient of ( Read more... )
How Hard Was That? GLAM, Zinni/Trinity
Safehouse SNSD, Taeyeon/Seohyun
Intriguing Secret, Hyosung/Sunhwa [warning: murder]
Six and Seven Girl's Day, Minah/Hyeri
Approved Block B/B.A.P., Jaehyo/Himchan
Fiction EXO, Kai/Suho
Untitled Infinite, Myungsoo/Sungyeol
One Sequin at a Time EXO, Suho/Kai
Why don't we measure the coefficient of ( Read more... )
The next duckling is named Sunny. Sunny is, as her name suggests, a very happy duckling, that enjoys swimming around with a big smile on her face. Her feathers are a very bright yellow and her beak a solid pink, whilst her eyes are very light. The way that Joohyun is able to figure out who Sunny is by her big smile, that never seems to leave her beak. Joohyun finds her to be adorable, and pets her often because of it.
Yoona swims in the center of the pool most of the time, rather gracefully. Her feathers are darker, but her beak is pale, creating a wonderful contrast between beak and feathers. Her eyes are large, and they remind her more of a deer than a duckling. And even if she is the youngest, she has some of the longest legs. When Joohyun had carried her, Yoona couldn’t help but laugh, throwing her head back at it. Joohyun finds Yoona to be very warm.
Sooyoung is the second youngest and the wackiest. She doesn’t look like the rest of the ducklings, because she has brown stripes, like a Mallard duckling, instead of the solid yellow. Her feet are large and webbed and they feel odd when she kicked her the first time Joohyun picked her up to go the big pool. She has a habit of floating around, not looking where she was going, and complaining at a very loud quack. Sooyoung is the one that quacks the most-and her quack is very loud.
Yuri looks similar to Sooyoung, except most of her body is brown whilst her underbelly is yellow. She is one of the more violent ducklings (Jessica and Hyoyeon are still one of the toughest) and Joohyun learns that Yuri has many different sides of her. She looks beautiful, but then she’ll be racing Hyoyeon or pushing Jessica and then she’ll be doing some dances in the middle of the pool, ruining Yoona’s swimming pattern. Joohyun has to pick her out of the pool every time she does this for a time out.
Hyoyeon loves being taken out of the pool, though. She has light, blonde feathers and a dark pink beak, so sometimes she has trouble picking her out, especially when she is next to Jessica or Taeyeon because they look so alike. Hyoyeon loves music, and so Joohyun plays some for her, from the H.O.T album she keeps safe in her room. She will spin around in circles whenever a song that she likes comes on, and that’s what Sooyoung says is her type of dancing.
The last duckling is named Tiffany. Tiffany is easy to distinguish because of her eyes. Whenever she looks like she’s happy, Tiffany’s beak will open, and her eyes will grow very small to create a beautiful eye smile. Tiffany isn’t as crazy as the other seven ducklings, but she doesn’t like the water that much, so Joohyun picks her out of the water and dries her off in a blanket to sit on Joohyun’s lap whenever she asks to be brought out. Hyoyeon and Jessica both get jealous whenever that happens-and it usually results in the two ducklings fighting.
Joohyun rolls her eyes whenever she has to separate the ducklings, wondering what Mother Goose had had to deal with, having to care for such meddlesome ducks.
**
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Joohyun looks up to see Jinwoon, half-way in the door, staring back at her. She’s found it hard to talk, or do anything, sitting on the floor cross-legged with Tiffany in her lap, so she just shuts her lips and swallows the lump in her throat. Jinwoon takes a step into her room and closes the door behind him, his eyes never leaving Yoona and Yuri, who peck at each other in the center of the pool.
“Your mom said that you were up here, so I just went up…If you want me to go, I can. I just thought that it might be a good idea to work on our English project today…” Jinwoon’s voice is filled with uncertainty, and Joohyun feels so terribly sorry for the boy.
“No, please come in,” Joohyun says, “Sit down um, anywhere you like. I promise you that I usually don’t harbour ducklings.”
“We’re more than just ducklings!” Jessica snaps, and Joohyun sighs. Jinwoon scrambles backwards, pointing at the blonde duckling with pretty eyelashes.
“They can talk!” Jinwoon exclaims, looking at Joohyun and then back at Jessica and then back at Joohyun again.
“Of course we can talk,” Jessica says, “Why wouldn’t we?”
“Normal ducks don’t talk, though! They quack, they can’t talk!” Jessica seems rather offended by this comment, and splashes him for good measure. Taeyeon pecks at her and Jessica huffs. Joohyun sighs, already used to this by now.
“Jinwoon,” Joohyun begins, “The ducklings can talk, yes, you’re not crazy. That one is Jessica and she’s Taeyeon-Jessica talks a lot. I’m sorry for her rudeness.”
Jinwoon catches his breath, clutching at his chest. Tiffany flaps her wings in Joohyun’s grasp and Joohyun sets her back into the water, where she floats next to Yuri and starts conversing to her in quack-language. Jinwoon loses the sudden-shock look on his face, watching as the eight ducklings interact.
When he’s ready, Joohyun introduces each and every one of the ducks to him, letting him hold them in his palms and watching with a cautious gaze as he plays with them in the pool with his hands. Time that was supposed to be spent working on homework is swept away by playing with the ducklings.
“Now,” Joohyun says when it’s six p.m. and Jinwoon has to go back home, “Will you help me get care of them until they go back to wherever they’re from?” Jinwoon smiles and agrees.
**
They start a routine to get care of the ducklings. From one incident where Hyoyeon and Sooyoung were separated and it ended up in Hyoyeon getting lost in the middle of the street and almost being run over, they have learned who is ok with being split up, if ever the need for Jinwoon to take four, and Joohyun to take four. They decide that Jessica and Hyoyeon should probably be split up because of their violent tendencies, and that it would be better if they weren’t fighting all the time. And even if they were rather pushy with each other, Yoona and Yuri didn’t like being apart from each other-fueling each other’s boredom.
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“What do you mean?” Joohyun asks, petting Tiffany’s hide, just the way she likes it. With time they have figured out their likes and dislikes, like the ducks weren’t just ducks but actual humans. Tiffany likes human contact whilst Yoona would rather be by herself, Jessica gets jealous easily whilst Sunny is extremely giving and doesn’t care about her share. Sometimes, when Joohyun talks about the ducklings, she has to remind herself that they aren’t human, they’re ducks, they shouldn’t have left that much of an impression but for some strange reason they do.
“Look,” Jinwoon points out, “Yoona likes being with Yuri, sure, but she hates staying without Sunny. Then there’s Taeyeon and Jessica, who fit each other perfectly-Jessica runs around creating havoc so Taeyeon must fix it. Hyoyeon and Sooyoung are inseparable,” they both laugh at that comment, “And I doubt that they would ever let us pull them apart ever again. And then there’s Tiffany and Yuri. They took the longest for me to find out. Tiffany yearns for contact; but every time she goes back into the water, she searches for Yuri.” Jinwoon smiles. “I even made couple names if you want to hear them.”
“Impressive,” Joohyun whispers, her eyes glued on the way that he explains everything. When he turns and stares at her quizzically, she snaps out of it and stares at her hands. “Just the way that you were able to deduce that and all. I didn’t know you were the type, Jinwoon-ah.”
Jinwoon chuckles awkwardly and rubs the back of his head. “I didn’t think I was much of the type either, to be honest.”
He reaches over to grab at the blanket and his hand accidentally brushes Joohyun’s. He draws his hand back quickly, his cheeks suddenly feeling so much hotter. He apologizes quickly.
“I think I should be going home, now,” he says, bowing and getting to his feet as rapidly as possible, “I’ll see you at school tomorrow, right?”
Joohyun nods, “Right.”
**
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Jinwoon is the one that comes up with the idea, stating that it has been a very long time since the baby ducks have been out of the house, and before Joohyun can say no, Sooyoung and Yuri are demanding to go. Jinwoon is smiling with some sort of pride when Joohyun finally gives in and they decide to go to the park the following Saturday, when her parents are off for the weekend.
Jinwoon carries four (Hyoyeon, Sooyoung, Sunny and Taeyeon) and Joohyun carries four (Jessica, Yuri, Tiffany and Yoona). They’re quiet and Joohyun relaxes-she would not want the police coming after her for talking ducks. The ducklings seem to understand that being talking ducks isn’t really the norm here, so they have promised only to quack in public.
They arrive at the park and it’s sunny, thankfully. They walk up to a small pond, and empty their full pockets with ducklings, letting them waddle into the water and start swimming. They have promised to stay close, kicking near the banks of the pond, interacting with each other and dipping their heads under once or twice. Jinwoon and Joohyun decide to unfurl a rug and sit down on it, right next to the water.
Jinwoon has brought pieces of bread and he tosses them into the water for the lucky ducks to eat. “This is nice,” he admits, “We should try to do this more often. The girls seem to like it.” Joohyun nods. Jinwoon turns and smiles, “And you look happier since it started.”
“What?” Joohyun asks, taken aback.
“Since the ducklings have arrived, you look much happier.” There’s a pause. Jinwoon sighs, looking down at the ripped loaf of bread in his hands. “When you were dating Changmin, you looked so sad all the time. Like there was always something that you needed to do-when in reality, Joohyun, you’re perfect just the way you are. You kept on doing all these things for him that you never gave time for yourself and for a very long time you were a very pitiable person.”
Jinwoon smiles, throwing another piece of bread into the pond-Yuri snatches it up and quacks in victory. “When the ducklings arrived and we started getting care of them, you started to look so much happier. They were making you so much happier than Changmin did. They were making you feel worth something; maybe because you didn’t have to worry about them as much as you did with Changmin. They’re ducklings-pretty low-maintenance if you ask me.”
Joohyun holds her breath.
“I like you this way, Joohyun; you’re so much prettier this way. Please stay this way. I want to continue to make you this way, to make you so happy. You are beautiful when you are happy and I wish with the deepest of my heart that I can be the one to make you smile each day. The real reason why I planned this, why we went out, was to finally ask you… Ask you to be my girlfriend.”
Joohyun drops the water bottle in her hand. It soaks her dress and Jinwoon helps her with as many rolls of paper towel as possible-until she starts laughing, and he follows suit, and they keep on laughing until night has fallen, and Jessica is demanding to be brought home.
**
A week after Joohyun accepts and becomes Jinwoon’s girlfriend, the ducklings disappear. Honestly, Joohyun wasn’t surprised when she didn’t see the eight baby ducks in the pool in the morning. The night before, they all looked so forlorn, and even Jessica didn’t feel like talking. There are no feathers lying in the pool when she drains it out in the tub and hides it back into the shed before going to the school. Tasks that she had found annoying, like scooping out bird poop or replacing the water seem saddening, now-this is the last time.
Taeyeon leaves her a two word letter, though, and it makes things not so bad.
I’m hopeful
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hey~ i'm sorry this took so long and it's probably crap and ugh but i loved the prompt so i had to do this. oh and sorry it became six parts. i tried
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