Fic // TVXQ // Our Little Princess #2
Title: Our Little Princess
Author: catachrestical
Keywords: Bandfic; hints of JaeHo and YooSu; some original characters.
Rating: PG13 for few language mishaps.
Disclaimer: I don't own them; this ain't for profit. Please don't sue me.
Notes: first version beta'd by janeberryblue; current version re-beta'd by bellasurus ♥
Thanks for reading :)
*
→ previous: #1
Our Little Princess
Chapter 2: Smiley Pebbles
Addressed to: Mr. Jung YunHo and Mr. Kim JaeJoong
Re: Kaneko and Akira Arisugawa.
My name is Jacob Phillips and I am a lawyer acting on behalf of Arisugawa Satoru and Arisugawa Julia.
Attached is the letter written by Arisugawa Julia, instructed to be sent to concerning parties the moment they are declared dead or missing. As you may or may not know, Satoru and Julia have been missing from an excavation site in Kenya since xxxx.xx.xx. They were declared dead as of xxxx.xx.xx.
Also attached to this letter is the newspaper article of the incident.
If this letter reaches you, then this will be the fifth time that Arisugawa Kaneko and Arisugawa Akira have changed guardians. As you may have derived from Julia's letter, neither Satoru's family nor hers are accepting of their marriage or their children. Since the four previously-appointed legal guardians have refused to take care of them, you are the next and final appointed guardians.
I am currently holding possession of their birth certificates, the Arisugawa's last will, and other legal documents. Should you agree to be the legal guardians of the children, the aforementioned papers will be sent to you immediately.
Should you refuse, Arisugawa Kaneko and Akira will be under the protection of the government of Japan and will be sent to local foster homes.
Satoru and Julia are both clients and dear friends of mine; I will be most pleased to help should there be any questions or concerns.
Best regards,
Jacob Phillips
Attorney
Phillips & Phillips.
YunHo flipped through the typed letter and found a copy of an article from a well-known Japanese newspaper dated a couple weeks ago. Behind it was another letter. That one was handwritten.
Jung-san, Kim-san,
If you're reading this letter...
YunHo read the newspaper article and both letters twice; wishing more than anything that he'd got them wrong. He didn't know how to explain it just yet, wasn't sure he could ever. He cradled his head in his hands and bit the inside of his right cheek. Someone said something-it sounded like JunSu.
He looked up and shook his head, more from disbelief than grief.
They were dead.
*
[ YooChun // One very vague statement later ]
. . .
What the hell?
Swearing was one of those things I picked up during my five years in America. The fact that I had a stepsister who made an art out of swearing didn't help the case, either. I could swear in Korean, but my first instinct was always to swear in English.
(This was an odd moment to remember Pandy. Huh.)
This felt oddly similar to what happened several years ago-the wave of dread in the pit of my stomach, the nagging sensation that something just wasn't right prickling on the back of my neck, the preconceived feeling of helplessness that eventually proved itself to be true.
(Back then, the words were 'We're moving to America' and it was Appa who said them.
I wanted to say a lot of things, but for some reason, I didn't. I wasn't sure whether it would make a difference or not, but I sure regretted not saying anything.
The name was still Micky YooChun, but he wasn't a kid anymore.)
"What the hell?" In no less than slightly accented English, effectively voicing what was in everyone's mind-roughly anyway. The little girl turned her head up and looked at me. Whoops. Forgot she understood English too.
"They're dead." YunHo-hyung repeated, still in Korean, obviously not wanting to upset the little stranger. As if that explained anything.
"That, I know, in which I will respond again with," arm gestures to emphasize, "What the h-"
"Chunnie." JunSu interrupted quietly from his spot, an efficient one word rebuke that reprimanded me more than I cared for. Right, sure. Kids. No swearing. JunSu had this good boy quality (even with his dangly earrings and bleached hair) that no one could imitate, let alone resist; me included.
Clamping my mouth shut, I noticed that JaeJoong was the only one who seemed to understand what leader-hyung was talking about.
Which brought us back to the main point, for the fourth time, together now: what the hyung?
"...You mean Arisugawa-san?" Again, Korean. Kane turned to JaeJoong.
"Both of them." Her head turned towards YunHo-hyung now.
"But when... how?" Back to the other hyung.
"The letters weren't from their mother-well, not all of them. The other one was from their lawyer. Their parents died in an excavation site. Buried alive. A couple weeks ago. In Africa." It was quickly becoming an exclusive, verbal ping-pong match between the two eldest members of the house, with five curious spectators and one oblivious toddler.
JaeJoong got even paler-if that were possible-and his only reply was silence.
Kaneko, however, seemed to pick up something from the conversation, and asked quietly, "Awl they dead?"
(So much for being subtle.)
This was where things turned tricky. There was another rapid-fire exchange between JaeJoong and YunHo, this one conducted through mere eye-contact that, if put into words, probably went along the lines of: Does Kane know? How much does she know? Should we tell her? How much should we tell her? How do we tell her?
I wondered how they did that sometimes, really.
As we'd learned through the years to just wait it out when they did that, I leaned on the side of the couch, finally giving up on kneeling, and did a quick check around the room. JunSu was chewing on his lips, clearly worried. ChangMin looked confused-he didn't even seem to realize that the little toddler in his lap was pulling a loose thread from his shirt. At the speed the little guy was going, ChangMin was going to end up with a one-sleeved T-shirt by the crack of dawn.
I sighed.
*
[ JaeJoong // Half a minute and a wordless discussion later ]
What the others didn't know was that the only result of that little exchange between YunHo and I was a 'let's-just-try-and-see-how-it-goes,' like every other non-verbal exchange. Surely they didn't expect us to talk technicalities and logistics like this.
I won the fight for control by a fraction of an inch, with insistent tilts of head. 'Let me handle this. I have eight sisters.' I wasn't sure YunHo caught the having eight sisters part, but I knew he'd let me talk to Kane and that was enough.
So...
"Who told you that, Kane?"
Kane shook her head, eyes watering. I instantly knew those weren't fake tears, so I reached out and stroked her hair gently. For a moment I really thought she was going to turn to my embrace, but she just stood there, clutching the hem of her pink Hello Kitty tee.
(I realized with a gut-wrenching sadness that it wasn't shyness that prevented her from turning for comfort-it was dignity.)
"No one," she started quietly. "No one tells. But Okaasan said that when people d-die-it, it means 'm not gon' see them fowa vewwy long time."
A world of silence.
I swallowed (eight sisters and I came up with nothing), looked at YunHo, found no answer-turned to look at the far side of the room. YooChun looked away, appearing more angry than sad. ChangMin had his eyes fixed on Akira. Lost. I looked at JunSu; my last resort-
(JunSu knew kids, right? He resembled them in many ways.)
-lips red from being bitten, JunSu shook his head. He looked like he was about to cry.
It was a sad day when five grown men couldn't comfort a little girl.
After what felt like an eternity or two, YunHo walked up and sat down in front of Kane. He had his no-nonsense, leader face: lips set in a grim line, brows furrowed just enough to convey determination, but not so much to scare people away.
And we... well, we counted on him, as always.
"You're not going to see them for a long, long time," he started gently, the way he'd always talked to kids. "Maybe longer than you thought."
Kane nodded, keeping her head lowered.
"Until you know what you want to do, you're welcome to stay with us as long as you want."
...and that was that. None of us even thought about disagreeing. That was the way it worked when you relied on someone to be your leader. You trusted him, you gave your loyalty, you believed in his decision.
That was the DongBang way.
*
[ JunSu // Three hours and thirty-six consecutive lifts later ]
"Still doing it?"
I lost my momentum when I looked up to see three members of the family walking into the deserted hallway. The soccer ball bounced softly on the carpeted floor, knocking down a potted fern near the radiator. I joined in the collective wince as pebbles scattered over maroon carpet with a soft 'whoosh'.
Oh, right.
This was why they didn't let me practice in the hallways.
"Not anymore." I walked towards the unfortunate plant and started collecting multi-colored pebbles. ChangMin squatted down beside me to help.
I knew without looking at him that he looked as tired and as beat as all of us. None of us had any inclination to go back to sleep after the literal bundles of surprise we found on our doorstep. YunHo-hyung sat down and leaned against the wall, YooChun plopping down beside him with a sigh.
"JaeJoong-hyung's staying with the kids?"
"Yeah. They're asleep. I talked to him about this." YunHo-hyung paused for a second. "Taking Kane and Akira in, I mean."
Justified lie. YunHo-hyung hadn't had a moment of privacy with JaeJoong-hyung all night. He just knew JaeJoong-hyung would stand behind all (well, most) of his decisions.
I deposited the pebbles in my hand back into the rattan pot before sitting down in front of them. ChangMin had different plans, apparently. He started putting the pebbles into a shape I could only interpret as a smiley face-except that it wasn't smiley; wasn't happy, wasn't sad either. The mouth was a straight line.
"...I'm sorry. For deciding without consulting you guys first."
"A little too late, isn't it?" YooChun chuckled, albeit without the usual sarcasm in his tone. He sounded tired even though he was smiling.
"We're last on the appointed guardians list. If we turn them out... they're going to be taken care of by social workers and put in foster homes only God knows when. Or separate orphanages."
None of which sound anywhere near appealing. I kept my mouth shut.
"So I was thinking... we keep them until we can find proper step-parents that will take both of them in."
And if we don't?
"I-We, JaeJoong and I-owe it to their parents."
No comment, really. It was the appropriate and honorable thing to do.
"But hyung," YooChun started, carefully. "Are you even sure we can be good guardians for them?"
There was a weighty pause in the air before YunHo-hyung answered, with certain finality in his tone, "We're decent people. We don't do drugs, we don't bring girls back home, we-some of us don't go to parties..."
"Yeah, but aside from for the impossibly rare week off we have starting tomorrow, we work twenty hours a day. Excluding sleep."
"...I know. We'll arrange something. Talk it out with TaeKim-hyung." That would be our manager. "We should be more worried about the media and..." There was the obligatory grimace that always appeared on all of our faces when the unmentionable name was mentioned. "...Lee Soo Man sungsaenim." Yep, none other than the head of SME-the one name that made adults squirm and children cry-ladies and gentlemen.
Another weighty silence.
"I don't mind," ChangMin suddenly said. We all looked up and turned to him, but he wasn't looking at us. He was absorbed in his still-expressionless pebble face.
"We already have a kid in the house anyway." YooChun shrugged-I wasn't sure whether he was referring to me or ChangMin. "Two more couldn't hurt."
I felt the first smile of the day creep up onto my face. "I agree," I said, standing up and reaching for my ball.
YunHo-hyung smiled, too. Was that gratitude I saw on his face?
"I think I'm going to bed now," YooChun got up and dusted his pants. The others soon followed.
"I'm hungry." ChangMin's brows contorted in a small, contemplative frown, eyes still fixed on his pebbles.
Snicker. YooChunnie, of course. "Want another cup of yogurt, ChangMin?"
ChangMin wrinkled his nose. "On second thought, I'm going to sleep and wait until JaeJoong-hyung wakes up and makes breakfast. Or lunch. Whatever."
I stretched and yawned. For some reason I also felt really, really tired-hungry, too, but I didn't think I'd be able to eat any food before getting a couple hours of sleep.
As we walked back into the apartment, I turned around for the last time towards the plant, intending to clean up the mess ChangMin left on the carpet.
I stopped for a second when I saw the pebbles. ChangMin had added one pebble on each end of the mouth-positioned slightly above the straight line that was supposedly the lips-and the face I saw was smiling back at me.
*
(I decided to leave them and let the janitor clean it up later.
I hoped he'd do it before my next-secret-soccer practice.)
Author: catachrestical
Keywords: Bandfic; hints of JaeHo and YooSu; some original characters.
Rating: PG13 for few language mishaps.
Disclaimer: I don't own them; this ain't for profit. Please don't sue me.
Notes: first version beta'd by janeberryblue; current version re-beta'd by bellasurus ♥
Thanks for reading :)
*
→ previous: #1
Our Little Princess
Chapter 2: Smiley Pebbles
Addressed to: Mr. Jung YunHo and Mr. Kim JaeJoong
Re: Kaneko and Akira Arisugawa.
My name is Jacob Phillips and I am a lawyer acting on behalf of Arisugawa Satoru and Arisugawa Julia.
Attached is the letter written by Arisugawa Julia, instructed to be sent to concerning parties the moment they are declared dead or missing. As you may or may not know, Satoru and Julia have been missing from an excavation site in Kenya since xxxx.xx.xx. They were declared dead as of xxxx.xx.xx.
Also attached to this letter is the newspaper article of the incident.
If this letter reaches you, then this will be the fifth time that Arisugawa Kaneko and Arisugawa Akira have changed guardians. As you may have derived from Julia's letter, neither Satoru's family nor hers are accepting of their marriage or their children. Since the four previously-appointed legal guardians have refused to take care of them, you are the next and final appointed guardians.
I am currently holding possession of their birth certificates, the Arisugawa's last will, and other legal documents. Should you agree to be the legal guardians of the children, the aforementioned papers will be sent to you immediately.
Should you refuse, Arisugawa Kaneko and Akira will be under the protection of the government of Japan and will be sent to local foster homes.
Satoru and Julia are both clients and dear friends of mine; I will be most pleased to help should there be any questions or concerns.
Best regards,
Jacob Phillips
Attorney
Phillips & Phillips.
YunHo flipped through the typed letter and found a copy of an article from a well-known Japanese newspaper dated a couple weeks ago. Behind it was another letter. That one was handwritten.
Jung-san, Kim-san,
If you're reading this letter...
YunHo read the newspaper article and both letters twice; wishing more than anything that he'd got them wrong. He didn't know how to explain it just yet, wasn't sure he could ever. He cradled his head in his hands and bit the inside of his right cheek. Someone said something-it sounded like JunSu.
He looked up and shook his head, more from disbelief than grief.
They were dead.
*
[ YooChun // One very vague statement later ]
. . .
What the hell?
Swearing was one of those things I picked up during my five years in America. The fact that I had a stepsister who made an art out of swearing didn't help the case, either. I could swear in Korean, but my first instinct was always to swear in English.
(This was an odd moment to remember Pandy. Huh.)
This felt oddly similar to what happened several years ago-the wave of dread in the pit of my stomach, the nagging sensation that something just wasn't right prickling on the back of my neck, the preconceived feeling of helplessness that eventually proved itself to be true.
(Back then, the words were 'We're moving to America' and it was Appa who said them.
I wanted to say a lot of things, but for some reason, I didn't. I wasn't sure whether it would make a difference or not, but I sure regretted not saying anything.
The name was still Micky YooChun, but he wasn't a kid anymore.)
"What the hell?" In no less than slightly accented English, effectively voicing what was in everyone's mind-roughly anyway. The little girl turned her head up and looked at me. Whoops. Forgot she understood English too.
"They're dead." YunHo-hyung repeated, still in Korean, obviously not wanting to upset the little stranger. As if that explained anything.
"That, I know, in which I will respond again with," arm gestures to emphasize, "What the h-"
"Chunnie." JunSu interrupted quietly from his spot, an efficient one word rebuke that reprimanded me more than I cared for. Right, sure. Kids. No swearing. JunSu had this good boy quality (even with his dangly earrings and bleached hair) that no one could imitate, let alone resist; me included.
Clamping my mouth shut, I noticed that JaeJoong was the only one who seemed to understand what leader-hyung was talking about.
Which brought us back to the main point, for the fourth time, together now: what the hyung?
"...You mean Arisugawa-san?" Again, Korean. Kane turned to JaeJoong.
"Both of them." Her head turned towards YunHo-hyung now.
"But when... how?" Back to the other hyung.
"The letters weren't from their mother-well, not all of them. The other one was from their lawyer. Their parents died in an excavation site. Buried alive. A couple weeks ago. In Africa." It was quickly becoming an exclusive, verbal ping-pong match between the two eldest members of the house, with five curious spectators and one oblivious toddler.
JaeJoong got even paler-if that were possible-and his only reply was silence.
Kaneko, however, seemed to pick up something from the conversation, and asked quietly, "Awl they dead?"
(So much for being subtle.)
This was where things turned tricky. There was another rapid-fire exchange between JaeJoong and YunHo, this one conducted through mere eye-contact that, if put into words, probably went along the lines of: Does Kane know? How much does she know? Should we tell her? How much should we tell her? How do we tell her?
I wondered how they did that sometimes, really.
As we'd learned through the years to just wait it out when they did that, I leaned on the side of the couch, finally giving up on kneeling, and did a quick check around the room. JunSu was chewing on his lips, clearly worried. ChangMin looked confused-he didn't even seem to realize that the little toddler in his lap was pulling a loose thread from his shirt. At the speed the little guy was going, ChangMin was going to end up with a one-sleeved T-shirt by the crack of dawn.
I sighed.
*
[ JaeJoong // Half a minute and a wordless discussion later ]
What the others didn't know was that the only result of that little exchange between YunHo and I was a 'let's-just-try-and-see-how-it-goes,' like every other non-verbal exchange. Surely they didn't expect us to talk technicalities and logistics like this.
I won the fight for control by a fraction of an inch, with insistent tilts of head. 'Let me handle this. I have eight sisters.' I wasn't sure YunHo caught the having eight sisters part, but I knew he'd let me talk to Kane and that was enough.
So...
"Who told you that, Kane?"
Kane shook her head, eyes watering. I instantly knew those weren't fake tears, so I reached out and stroked her hair gently. For a moment I really thought she was going to turn to my embrace, but she just stood there, clutching the hem of her pink Hello Kitty tee.
(I realized with a gut-wrenching sadness that it wasn't shyness that prevented her from turning for comfort-it was dignity.)
"No one," she started quietly. "No one tells. But Okaasan said that when people d-die-it, it means 'm not gon' see them fowa vewwy long time."
A world of silence.
I swallowed (eight sisters and I came up with nothing), looked at YunHo, found no answer-turned to look at the far side of the room. YooChun looked away, appearing more angry than sad. ChangMin had his eyes fixed on Akira. Lost. I looked at JunSu; my last resort-
(JunSu knew kids, right? He resembled them in many ways.)
-lips red from being bitten, JunSu shook his head. He looked like he was about to cry.
It was a sad day when five grown men couldn't comfort a little girl.
After what felt like an eternity or two, YunHo walked up and sat down in front of Kane. He had his no-nonsense, leader face: lips set in a grim line, brows furrowed just enough to convey determination, but not so much to scare people away.
And we... well, we counted on him, as always.
"You're not going to see them for a long, long time," he started gently, the way he'd always talked to kids. "Maybe longer than you thought."
Kane nodded, keeping her head lowered.
"Until you know what you want to do, you're welcome to stay with us as long as you want."
...and that was that. None of us even thought about disagreeing. That was the way it worked when you relied on someone to be your leader. You trusted him, you gave your loyalty, you believed in his decision.
That was the DongBang way.
*
[ JunSu // Three hours and thirty-six consecutive lifts later ]
"Still doing it?"
I lost my momentum when I looked up to see three members of the family walking into the deserted hallway. The soccer ball bounced softly on the carpeted floor, knocking down a potted fern near the radiator. I joined in the collective wince as pebbles scattered over maroon carpet with a soft 'whoosh'.
Oh, right.
This was why they didn't let me practice in the hallways.
"Not anymore." I walked towards the unfortunate plant and started collecting multi-colored pebbles. ChangMin squatted down beside me to help.
I knew without looking at him that he looked as tired and as beat as all of us. None of us had any inclination to go back to sleep after the literal bundles of surprise we found on our doorstep. YunHo-hyung sat down and leaned against the wall, YooChun plopping down beside him with a sigh.
"JaeJoong-hyung's staying with the kids?"
"Yeah. They're asleep. I talked to him about this." YunHo-hyung paused for a second. "Taking Kane and Akira in, I mean."
Justified lie. YunHo-hyung hadn't had a moment of privacy with JaeJoong-hyung all night. He just knew JaeJoong-hyung would stand behind all (well, most) of his decisions.
I deposited the pebbles in my hand back into the rattan pot before sitting down in front of them. ChangMin had different plans, apparently. He started putting the pebbles into a shape I could only interpret as a smiley face-except that it wasn't smiley; wasn't happy, wasn't sad either. The mouth was a straight line.
"...I'm sorry. For deciding without consulting you guys first."
"A little too late, isn't it?" YooChun chuckled, albeit without the usual sarcasm in his tone. He sounded tired even though he was smiling.
"We're last on the appointed guardians list. If we turn them out... they're going to be taken care of by social workers and put in foster homes only God knows when. Or separate orphanages."
None of which sound anywhere near appealing. I kept my mouth shut.
"So I was thinking... we keep them until we can find proper step-parents that will take both of them in."
And if we don't?
"I-We, JaeJoong and I-owe it to their parents."
No comment, really. It was the appropriate and honorable thing to do.
"But hyung," YooChun started, carefully. "Are you even sure we can be good guardians for them?"
There was a weighty pause in the air before YunHo-hyung answered, with certain finality in his tone, "We're decent people. We don't do drugs, we don't bring girls back home, we-some of us don't go to parties..."
"Yeah, but aside from for the impossibly rare week off we have starting tomorrow, we work twenty hours a day. Excluding sleep."
"...I know. We'll arrange something. Talk it out with TaeKim-hyung." That would be our manager. "We should be more worried about the media and..." There was the obligatory grimace that always appeared on all of our faces when the unmentionable name was mentioned. "...Lee Soo Man sungsaenim." Yep, none other than the head of SME-the one name that made adults squirm and children cry-ladies and gentlemen.
Another weighty silence.
"I don't mind," ChangMin suddenly said. We all looked up and turned to him, but he wasn't looking at us. He was absorbed in his still-expressionless pebble face.
"We already have a kid in the house anyway." YooChun shrugged-I wasn't sure whether he was referring to me or ChangMin. "Two more couldn't hurt."
I felt the first smile of the day creep up onto my face. "I agree," I said, standing up and reaching for my ball.
YunHo-hyung smiled, too. Was that gratitude I saw on his face?
"I think I'm going to bed now," YooChun got up and dusted his pants. The others soon followed.
"I'm hungry." ChangMin's brows contorted in a small, contemplative frown, eyes still fixed on his pebbles.
Snicker. YooChunnie, of course. "Want another cup of yogurt, ChangMin?"
ChangMin wrinkled his nose. "On second thought, I'm going to sleep and wait until JaeJoong-hyung wakes up and makes breakfast. Or lunch. Whatever."
I stretched and yawned. For some reason I also felt really, really tired-hungry, too, but I didn't think I'd be able to eat any food before getting a couple hours of sleep.
As we walked back into the apartment, I turned around for the last time towards the plant, intending to clean up the mess ChangMin left on the carpet.
I stopped for a second when I saw the pebbles. ChangMin had added one pebble on each end of the mouth-positioned slightly above the straight line that was supposedly the lips-and the face I saw was smiling back at me.
*
(I decided to leave them and let the janitor clean it up later.
I hoped he'd do it before my next-secret-soccer practice.)