seouldout, round 03
3 seouldout prompt-inspired drabbles: two submitted, one not-submitted and which consequently exploded OTL concrit appreciated!
almost like flying
2PM, Jaebum/Wooyoung, G; 200 words
challenge 01: the air i saved for later
Jaebum walks through the door and Wooyoung can't move. Jaebum walks through the door the way he has a million times in Wooyoung's daydreams and Wooyoung’s bones have never felt so heavy and hollow. Each attempted movement of his jaw or his arm sends a jarring tremor down to his toes and he can only look on as Jaebum smiles, as Jaebum’s eyes crease, as Jaebum stands half a living room away in outstanding clarity, laughing ow, Chansung, you big crybaby.
Jaebum hugs him, all warm skin under chilled nylon and everything in Wooyoung shudders forward, gears shifting on with a lurch. Jaebum hyung, do you have any idea how this feels? he wants to say. It feels like a dam's been broken inside my chest, feels like these months were a dream and you were reality the whole time, feels like everything's going to be okay now, isn’t it- but he only gets to Jay before he chokes on a sob and then he can't say anything, gasping for air against Jaebum's collarbone.
"You were great, Wooyoung," Jaebum murmurs against his ear, and Wooyoung feels like fireworks, feels like laughing and dancing and singing all at the same time.
castaway
2PM, Junsu-centric, G; 200 words
challenge 03: crazy
Junsu thinks he learned about sound waves during high school, kind of remembers underlining mechanical vibrations that travel through air. It explains the way the notes shiver through his skin, the way the roof of his mouth tingles when he hums, the way words rattle out of him like they’re searching for freedom. His chest feels light and he grins; he’s spent far too long muttering into a cell phone instead of this, this conducting of poetry, this free cartwheeling over five lines.
He's sorting out a harmonization when the door creaks open. "Junsu!" Khun’s eyes are wide and bright. "We’re finally having that Warcraft showdown, you in?"
"You guys go ahead," Junsu says. His foot taps out the beat as he turns his sentence over and over in his head, thinks about how his voice went sharp near the end. Khun smiles, says "come join us when you can," and closes the door.
Junsu turns to the keyboard and plays the bridge again. It becomes an ebb and flow that tugs at the veins in his fingers, smoothing out the bumps in his mind, until he feels like he could let go of everything else and just slip away.
patchwork
2PM, Nichkhun/Junsu, PG; 671 words
free challenge: closer than you think
There are certain things that they’ve heard more than once. For example, Jaebum’s on the short side because they undershot the calculations, so the others’ height figures got jacked up. Except then, Junsu didn’t all fit together right-his head was a little too big, hips a little too narrow, skin stretched thin like a jacket two sizes too small.
The formula was perfected by the time they got to Nichkhun. It’s said that Jinyoung was seen skipping in the hallways afterwards, though the security tapes from that day have never been found. Everyone else was finished up without a hitch (aside from when the eye molds for Junho got squished just before transplant; Jinyoung fired that lab assistant right away), and then, as they say, the rest is history.
Nichkhun likes it here. Well, it’s not like he knows much about how it is out there, but he hears it can get pretty bad, so he thinks he should be thankful that this is the way he gets to be alive. It's only a little scary when Jinyoung tells them to flip like this, or to jump off of that, especially when there’s a whole tent full of people watching and laughing and sometimes throwing things at them, but at least they do it together. He likes that the most, the seven of them together.
Nichkhun, Junsu says one day. Nichkhun looks up. Junsu starts fidgeting with the collar of his costume, the way he does in front of a crowd, even though they both know Nichkhun’s seen the rough stitches at the curve of Junsu’s collarbone before. Nichkhun smiles anyway and pats the space next to him. Junsu sits down at the other end of the bench. They both watch as Wooyoung makes a jump for the trapeze. He misses it by an inch, and when he hits the net below, it almost looks like he’ll just keep going into the ground, but then the net springs back up and Chansung is laughing and pulling Wooyoung to his feet. Junsu sighs.
Nichkhun, Junsu says, I'm sorry. That… that we're like this. He gestures at the space between them, and Nichkhun thinks he might mean the way they don’t sit next to each other during meals, the way their conversations seem to evaporate as soon as Taecyeon or Wooyoung wanders off. Nichkhun looks at his hands. For as long as he can remember, they’d always just moved in different directions, and he’d never given it too much thought since they were always busy. It’d just seemed easier to let it be.
It's just that, well, I'm not exactly... complete. Junsu ducks his head. I’m not like- like you, you know? I don’t have everything. I’m sorry. And then Nichkhun thinks it might be more than that, even if Junsu doesn’t know it himself. He wonders for the first time just how much Junsu thinks about it when they tell him he’s being too loud, when they watch as Junsu tries and tries but still can’t quite do that spin in the air, when they roll their eyes and shrug their shoulders if Junsu’s last out the door, again.
Nichkhun smiles, even though it hurts a little, and reaches over to clasp Junsu’s shoulder. He thinks of the secret no one ever talks about, the one that Jinyoung had patched into his chest when he'd woken up that first time gasping for breath, feeling like the center of his body was caving in on itself. He thinks of the part of his heart that beats brighter and louder and slightly offbeat from the rest of him, the way it burns liquid flares and wire welding sparks in his chest when he least expects it. He remembers trying to breathe and turning his head and seeing someone he’d later kind of recognize and call Junsu lying on a table next to him, hair falling over closed eyes, chest flap cut open.
Nichkhun smiles and says, you've always had enough for both of us.
almost like flying
2PM, Jaebum/Wooyoung, G; 200 words
challenge 01: the air i saved for later
Jaebum walks through the door and Wooyoung can't move. Jaebum walks through the door the way he has a million times in Wooyoung's daydreams and Wooyoung’s bones have never felt so heavy and hollow. Each attempted movement of his jaw or his arm sends a jarring tremor down to his toes and he can only look on as Jaebum smiles, as Jaebum’s eyes crease, as Jaebum stands half a living room away in outstanding clarity, laughing ow, Chansung, you big crybaby.
Jaebum hugs him, all warm skin under chilled nylon and everything in Wooyoung shudders forward, gears shifting on with a lurch. Jaebum hyung, do you have any idea how this feels? he wants to say. It feels like a dam's been broken inside my chest, feels like these months were a dream and you were reality the whole time, feels like everything's going to be okay now, isn’t it- but he only gets to Jay before he chokes on a sob and then he can't say anything, gasping for air against Jaebum's collarbone.
"You were great, Wooyoung," Jaebum murmurs against his ear, and Wooyoung feels like fireworks, feels like laughing and dancing and singing all at the same time.
castaway
2PM, Junsu-centric, G; 200 words
challenge 03: crazy
Junsu thinks he learned about sound waves during high school, kind of remembers underlining mechanical vibrations that travel through air. It explains the way the notes shiver through his skin, the way the roof of his mouth tingles when he hums, the way words rattle out of him like they’re searching for freedom. His chest feels light and he grins; he’s spent far too long muttering into a cell phone instead of this, this conducting of poetry, this free cartwheeling over five lines.
He's sorting out a harmonization when the door creaks open. "Junsu!" Khun’s eyes are wide and bright. "We’re finally having that Warcraft showdown, you in?"
"You guys go ahead," Junsu says. His foot taps out the beat as he turns his sentence over and over in his head, thinks about how his voice went sharp near the end. Khun smiles, says "come join us when you can," and closes the door.
Junsu turns to the keyboard and plays the bridge again. It becomes an ebb and flow that tugs at the veins in his fingers, smoothing out the bumps in his mind, until he feels like he could let go of everything else and just slip away.
patchwork
2PM, Nichkhun/Junsu, PG; 671 words
free challenge: closer than you think
There are certain things that they’ve heard more than once. For example, Jaebum’s on the short side because they undershot the calculations, so the others’ height figures got jacked up. Except then, Junsu didn’t all fit together right-his head was a little too big, hips a little too narrow, skin stretched thin like a jacket two sizes too small.
The formula was perfected by the time they got to Nichkhun. It’s said that Jinyoung was seen skipping in the hallways afterwards, though the security tapes from that day have never been found. Everyone else was finished up without a hitch (aside from when the eye molds for Junho got squished just before transplant; Jinyoung fired that lab assistant right away), and then, as they say, the rest is history.
Nichkhun likes it here. Well, it’s not like he knows much about how it is out there, but he hears it can get pretty bad, so he thinks he should be thankful that this is the way he gets to be alive. It's only a little scary when Jinyoung tells them to flip like this, or to jump off of that, especially when there’s a whole tent full of people watching and laughing and sometimes throwing things at them, but at least they do it together. He likes that the most, the seven of them together.
Nichkhun, Junsu says one day. Nichkhun looks up. Junsu starts fidgeting with the collar of his costume, the way he does in front of a crowd, even though they both know Nichkhun’s seen the rough stitches at the curve of Junsu’s collarbone before. Nichkhun smiles anyway and pats the space next to him. Junsu sits down at the other end of the bench. They both watch as Wooyoung makes a jump for the trapeze. He misses it by an inch, and when he hits the net below, it almost looks like he’ll just keep going into the ground, but then the net springs back up and Chansung is laughing and pulling Wooyoung to his feet. Junsu sighs.
Nichkhun, Junsu says, I'm sorry. That… that we're like this. He gestures at the space between them, and Nichkhun thinks he might mean the way they don’t sit next to each other during meals, the way their conversations seem to evaporate as soon as Taecyeon or Wooyoung wanders off. Nichkhun looks at his hands. For as long as he can remember, they’d always just moved in different directions, and he’d never given it too much thought since they were always busy. It’d just seemed easier to let it be.
It's just that, well, I'm not exactly... complete. Junsu ducks his head. I’m not like- like you, you know? I don’t have everything. I’m sorry. And then Nichkhun thinks it might be more than that, even if Junsu doesn’t know it himself. He wonders for the first time just how much Junsu thinks about it when they tell him he’s being too loud, when they watch as Junsu tries and tries but still can’t quite do that spin in the air, when they roll their eyes and shrug their shoulders if Junsu’s last out the door, again.
Nichkhun smiles, even though it hurts a little, and reaches over to clasp Junsu’s shoulder. He thinks of the secret no one ever talks about, the one that Jinyoung had patched into his chest when he'd woken up that first time gasping for breath, feeling like the center of his body was caving in on itself. He thinks of the part of his heart that beats brighter and louder and slightly offbeat from the rest of him, the way it burns liquid flares and wire welding sparks in his chest when he least expects it. He remembers trying to breathe and turning his head and seeing someone he’d later kind of recognize and call Junsu lying on a table next to him, hair falling over closed eyes, chest flap cut open.
Nichkhun smiles and says, you've always had enough for both of us.