fic: goong, shin/chaegyung, pg-13.
I got this odd plot bunny way back after I finished Goong & had to write. Also! Warning! I'll be ficspamming today and tomorrow because I realized that crap, I gotta post all this stuff some day!
bedbugs that don't bite
fandom: goong
pairing: shin/chaegyung
rating: pg-13
words: ~2,000
disclaimer: MBC and the production company and the manhwa author own, I don't. The fairytale within the story is by H.C. Andersen, not me.
notes: Beta by dangermousie. This is partly post-series so includes SPOILERS. Oh, contains implied sex but as the rating shows, no smutty goodness to be found.
1.
Shin normally avoided reading anything to do with the culture surrounding royalty during his free time. He had his responsibilities and he followed them, as well as possible, but when he sat down with a book, he didn't want to read about queens and kings, princes and princesses. Such frustrated him, as nothing anybody had ever written was anywhere near what his own life was like. But then one day his class' teacher decided it'd be a fantastic idea for them to film a Western fairytale as a modern Korean short film, and Shin as the project's director was forced to read through various fairytales to figure out which one to film. When it came to portraying royalties, fairytales really were the worst, but like any responsibility, he went through it like a professional and finally decided on something royalty-free, a tale of gold and weird dogs instead (that's how he remembered it, anyway).
As he went through some of the fairytales, there was one that struck him as completely bizarre, a story called “The True Princess”. The basic gist of the story was that a prince was looking for a bride, who he insisted on being a true princess, as opposed to a phoney one (how many phoney princesses can the world hold and what on earth were such anyway, Shin wondered). He searched for one far and wide but finding not even one true princess, he returned home miserable and empty-handed. Then one day a princess knocked on the castle's gates (what are the odds, Shin thought), soaked from rain.
The queen mother decided to take the girl in for the night and test if she was a true princess (ironically this was something Shin could imagine his own mo-- the Queen doing). She placed a small pea on the princess' bed, and then placed twenty mattresses and twenty mattress pads on top of the pea. The princess slept in the bed and the next morning she was inquired if she had slept well.
“I got hardly any sleep at all,” the princess replied. “There was something hard beneath the mattress, and now my body hurts all over because of it. The night was unbearable!”
Because only a true princess could be so sensitive, the prince married his true princess and lived happily ever after.
Right. Shin closed the web browser he was reading the story on, and made a decision to steer clear from any stories dealing with princesses (true or phoney) from then on.
But the story stuck with him, so years later, when he finds a bag of dried peas in one of their kitchen cupboards while cooking, he thinks of the story. He wonders if Chaegyung has read it and in a moment of complete irrationality (it's her fault, really, the effect she's had on him), he goes to their their bedroom and places one pea under the mattress her side of the bed, never mind the fact she usually sleeps on his side, half of her on top of him in one way or another. He returns to the kitchen, where Chaegyung is setting up the dinner table, and he forgets about the pea and the story nearly as soon as he has shoved the peas back into the depths of the cupboard.
2.
Chaegyung hasn't kept a proper diary since her teen days, but now she's found a new hobby of keeping a diary of her dreams. Not the famous-designer-ones, the kind one sees while sleeping. She lets Shin read it sometimes, because it amuses him, all her dreams of the two of them racing each other on top of large bunnies and the like (Shin's one was white, hers was brown with floppy ears - the white bunny got tired halfway through the race so they both ended up riding the brown one to the finish line).
She keeps the dream diary under her side of their bed's mattress, and one time when digging it up to report a short dream (her mother learning Chinese to sell insurance to a billion new customers), she finds a small ball. She takes it between her fingertips, the tiny, uneven sphere and wonders where it came from.
Shin's brushing his teeth in the bathroom, so she takes her discovery to him.
“Shin goon, what is this?” she asks and holds the thing so close to his face he has to step back to focus his eyes on it.
Shin grins a bit around his tooth brush, spits in the sink and replies, “It's a pea.”
“A pea?” Chaegyung studies it closely. Somewhat a natural reflex, she puts it between her teeth and bites down hard. It hurts. A lot. “Oy-yoeee!” she exclaims, holding her mouth as if it'd help the pain in her tooth.
“What are you doing? Did you break a tooth?” Shin asks, worried, and slightly taken back. Holding her face as she opens her mouth for him to look at the tooth, he suddenly begins to chuckle.
“What are you laughing at?” she asks, a slightly confused, slightly offended look on her face. He continues chuckling until her fist collides with his chest and he stops.
“Your tooth is fine. Where did the pea go, Bigung-mama?”
“Why are you calling me --” she starts but then pauses. “I swallowed it by accident.” Next time, she swears, she'll throw it at his face or something. He'll get a bit indignant about it, probably, but then he'll calm down fast and be sure to see the humor in her constantly finding peas under her bed.
“It's okay,” Shin is saying now as he pulls her closer to him. “It's just a pea anyway.”
“What was it doing under the mattress?” she wonders out loud and puts her arms around him. It's nice like that, always is, and he automatically places his arms around her in a tight hug.
“I'll tell you later.”
“My mom is selling insurance to the Chinese,” Chaegyung says after a moment of silence but then decides she doesn't want to talk about it right now, either. Not now, not for a while.
3.
She doesn't enjoy sleeping with him as much as she enjoys sleeping on him. Chaegyung's leg, thigh and about a half of her torso are casually thrown over Shin's body, her head using his chest as a pillow. Sometimes this is comfortable, sometimes he wants to get as close as possible so that they end up sleeping in a complicated mess. Other times, well, it gets hot.
Not the good kind of hot, though, the kind where blood rushes through his body, his heart drumming in his ears. And he can nudge her awake, sliding his hand along her skin, underneath clothing and she may wake up slowly but is still cooing and moving against him, her hand -
But he's not thinking about that right now because he's not feeling that kind of hot. Instead he finds himself thinking about sharing a bed with her. It's as if every night they spend together, they become more comfortable sleeping with each other. Shin never told Chaegyung that he liked their first night together sharing a bed, though it was restless and awkward and he hit his head against the bed board and woke up with aching muscles. She has a calming effect on him when in sleep, which is odd, considering her personality used to make him everything but calm.
Nowadays it's better. She doesn't move around as much and even if she likes to always wrap her limbs around him in some odd way (as if he'd disappear if she didn't), it's comfortable for him. They fit. He doesn't know why that is.
She stirs a bit and Shin notices an opportunity. He nudges her awake some more. She mumbles something and he reaches to touch her chin, and then her knee, slowly pushing it off himself.
“I need to go, I'm thirsty,” he whispers and she moves, lets him slide off the bed and get his drink.
When he gets back, she slides her arm around his torso.
“Is the bed cold without me?” he thinks about asking her sarcastically as it's still hot and the air around them is moist and heavy. He thinks better of it, as she wouldn't answer anyway, and he doesn't move her arm, doesn't move at all. It's okay. Maybe the bed does get cold without him.
4.
They work different hours but the schedules fit them. Shin has to wake up early, and attend meetings and plan shooting schedules and that sort of thing, and then he's back at home by supper time. Chaegyung uses the mornings to relax, and when the time comes, take care of the baby. It's only after lunch that she starts sketching, or sewing, depending on the project. In the future she'd love to do something that's all hers, maybe start a shop filled with things she's designed, but for now, commissions and working for others while at home is fine with her.
They eat supper together and she usually continues working after it. Meanwhile he watches dramas (though he'll never admit he likes such himself, so he always pretends she'll join him any minute, and fakes annoyance when she doesn't), or reads a book.
When she finally does join him, they talk, or whine about work. Sometimes somebody in the family calls them and they talk via speaker phone. Things are quite different with the family now, especially the one on Shin's side, and if his mother ever calls, there are many awkward pauses. Chaegyung notices how Shin's knuckles turn white clutching a cushion as he talks, how he grits his teeth sometimes, but there's also change and when he finishes the call by saying, “Goodbye, amma” she knows that eventually things will be fine.
Things will be fine. Even when there's so much in the past, so many difficult things Shin hasn't quite been able to deal with yet. He's talked to her about it a couple of times but there are still barriers, tiny fears he has that she will somehow turn him down and leave him, even now. She wouldn't, of course, and she's positive he knows it, too, but can't help his nature.
She usually falls asleep first, on the sofa, and he lets her nap until he's too tired to watch any more TV and they both go to bed. Occasionally - or often, though this is not a fact Chaegyung has any intention of sharing with anyone - they have sex, after which she finds it difficult to sleep and he finds it annoying that she can't catch sleep and moves around in the bed so much. Then they end up wrestling a bit, in a silly manner, and usually the matches are resolved either by Chaegyung giving up and promising to stay quiet, or more sex. The cycle hardly ever continues after that, though, and then it doesn't take too long for both of them to catch sleep.
When Chaegyung things about it, she realizes in many ways the bed is their solace. Their place. As if the nights they spent together were more important than the days, because the bed is where they found each other even when they hadn't really found each other yet. It's where they're most vulnerable but in that calm it's the easiest for them. This is why they could never go to bed angry; they simply have too many good memories of lying next to each other, together. This is why she will love him always, even as long as 25 million years.
Assuming there'll still be beds by then, of course. She hopes there are.
---
I re-watched the last episode after having already written about 80% of this fic and realized the canon doesn't quite fit as CG wanted to travel a lot. And the baby. But I suppose one can assume they saved the travelling until after the baby came along and began living together either in Macau or Korea. And then lived happily ever after, or something of that sort. ;)
bedbugs that don't bite
fandom: goong
pairing: shin/chaegyung
rating: pg-13
words: ~2,000
disclaimer: MBC and the production company and the manhwa author own, I don't. The fairytale within the story is by H.C. Andersen, not me.
notes: Beta by dangermousie. This is partly post-series so includes SPOILERS. Oh, contains implied sex but as the rating shows, no smutty goodness to be found.
1.
Shin normally avoided reading anything to do with the culture surrounding royalty during his free time. He had his responsibilities and he followed them, as well as possible, but when he sat down with a book, he didn't want to read about queens and kings, princes and princesses. Such frustrated him, as nothing anybody had ever written was anywhere near what his own life was like. But then one day his class' teacher decided it'd be a fantastic idea for them to film a Western fairytale as a modern Korean short film, and Shin as the project's director was forced to read through various fairytales to figure out which one to film. When it came to portraying royalties, fairytales really were the worst, but like any responsibility, he went through it like a professional and finally decided on something royalty-free, a tale of gold and weird dogs instead (that's how he remembered it, anyway).
As he went through some of the fairytales, there was one that struck him as completely bizarre, a story called “The True Princess”. The basic gist of the story was that a prince was looking for a bride, who he insisted on being a true princess, as opposed to a phoney one (how many phoney princesses can the world hold and what on earth were such anyway, Shin wondered). He searched for one far and wide but finding not even one true princess, he returned home miserable and empty-handed. Then one day a princess knocked on the castle's gates (what are the odds, Shin thought), soaked from rain.
The queen mother decided to take the girl in for the night and test if she was a true princess (ironically this was something Shin could imagine his own mo-- the Queen doing). She placed a small pea on the princess' bed, and then placed twenty mattresses and twenty mattress pads on top of the pea. The princess slept in the bed and the next morning she was inquired if she had slept well.
“I got hardly any sleep at all,” the princess replied. “There was something hard beneath the mattress, and now my body hurts all over because of it. The night was unbearable!”
Because only a true princess could be so sensitive, the prince married his true princess and lived happily ever after.
Right. Shin closed the web browser he was reading the story on, and made a decision to steer clear from any stories dealing with princesses (true or phoney) from then on.
But the story stuck with him, so years later, when he finds a bag of dried peas in one of their kitchen cupboards while cooking, he thinks of the story. He wonders if Chaegyung has read it and in a moment of complete irrationality (it's her fault, really, the effect she's had on him), he goes to their their bedroom and places one pea under the mattress her side of the bed, never mind the fact she usually sleeps on his side, half of her on top of him in one way or another. He returns to the kitchen, where Chaegyung is setting up the dinner table, and he forgets about the pea and the story nearly as soon as he has shoved the peas back into the depths of the cupboard.
2.
Chaegyung hasn't kept a proper diary since her teen days, but now she's found a new hobby of keeping a diary of her dreams. Not the famous-designer-ones, the kind one sees while sleeping. She lets Shin read it sometimes, because it amuses him, all her dreams of the two of them racing each other on top of large bunnies and the like (Shin's one was white, hers was brown with floppy ears - the white bunny got tired halfway through the race so they both ended up riding the brown one to the finish line).
She keeps the dream diary under her side of their bed's mattress, and one time when digging it up to report a short dream (her mother learning Chinese to sell insurance to a billion new customers), she finds a small ball. She takes it between her fingertips, the tiny, uneven sphere and wonders where it came from.
Shin's brushing his teeth in the bathroom, so she takes her discovery to him.
“Shin goon, what is this?” she asks and holds the thing so close to his face he has to step back to focus his eyes on it.
Shin grins a bit around his tooth brush, spits in the sink and replies, “It's a pea.”
“A pea?” Chaegyung studies it closely. Somewhat a natural reflex, she puts it between her teeth and bites down hard. It hurts. A lot. “Oy-yoeee!” she exclaims, holding her mouth as if it'd help the pain in her tooth.
“What are you doing? Did you break a tooth?” Shin asks, worried, and slightly taken back. Holding her face as she opens her mouth for him to look at the tooth, he suddenly begins to chuckle.
“What are you laughing at?” she asks, a slightly confused, slightly offended look on her face. He continues chuckling until her fist collides with his chest and he stops.
“Your tooth is fine. Where did the pea go, Bigung-mama?”
“Why are you calling me --” she starts but then pauses. “I swallowed it by accident.” Next time, she swears, she'll throw it at his face or something. He'll get a bit indignant about it, probably, but then he'll calm down fast and be sure to see the humor in her constantly finding peas under her bed.
“It's okay,” Shin is saying now as he pulls her closer to him. “It's just a pea anyway.”
“What was it doing under the mattress?” she wonders out loud and puts her arms around him. It's nice like that, always is, and he automatically places his arms around her in a tight hug.
“I'll tell you later.”
“My mom is selling insurance to the Chinese,” Chaegyung says after a moment of silence but then decides she doesn't want to talk about it right now, either. Not now, not for a while.
3.
She doesn't enjoy sleeping with him as much as she enjoys sleeping on him. Chaegyung's leg, thigh and about a half of her torso are casually thrown over Shin's body, her head using his chest as a pillow. Sometimes this is comfortable, sometimes he wants to get as close as possible so that they end up sleeping in a complicated mess. Other times, well, it gets hot.
Not the good kind of hot, though, the kind where blood rushes through his body, his heart drumming in his ears. And he can nudge her awake, sliding his hand along her skin, underneath clothing and she may wake up slowly but is still cooing and moving against him, her hand -
But he's not thinking about that right now because he's not feeling that kind of hot. Instead he finds himself thinking about sharing a bed with her. It's as if every night they spend together, they become more comfortable sleeping with each other. Shin never told Chaegyung that he liked their first night together sharing a bed, though it was restless and awkward and he hit his head against the bed board and woke up with aching muscles. She has a calming effect on him when in sleep, which is odd, considering her personality used to make him everything but calm.
Nowadays it's better. She doesn't move around as much and even if she likes to always wrap her limbs around him in some odd way (as if he'd disappear if she didn't), it's comfortable for him. They fit. He doesn't know why that is.
She stirs a bit and Shin notices an opportunity. He nudges her awake some more. She mumbles something and he reaches to touch her chin, and then her knee, slowly pushing it off himself.
“I need to go, I'm thirsty,” he whispers and she moves, lets him slide off the bed and get his drink.
When he gets back, she slides her arm around his torso.
“Is the bed cold without me?” he thinks about asking her sarcastically as it's still hot and the air around them is moist and heavy. He thinks better of it, as she wouldn't answer anyway, and he doesn't move her arm, doesn't move at all. It's okay. Maybe the bed does get cold without him.
4.
They work different hours but the schedules fit them. Shin has to wake up early, and attend meetings and plan shooting schedules and that sort of thing, and then he's back at home by supper time. Chaegyung uses the mornings to relax, and when the time comes, take care of the baby. It's only after lunch that she starts sketching, or sewing, depending on the project. In the future she'd love to do something that's all hers, maybe start a shop filled with things she's designed, but for now, commissions and working for others while at home is fine with her.
They eat supper together and she usually continues working after it. Meanwhile he watches dramas (though he'll never admit he likes such himself, so he always pretends she'll join him any minute, and fakes annoyance when she doesn't), or reads a book.
When she finally does join him, they talk, or whine about work. Sometimes somebody in the family calls them and they talk via speaker phone. Things are quite different with the family now, especially the one on Shin's side, and if his mother ever calls, there are many awkward pauses. Chaegyung notices how Shin's knuckles turn white clutching a cushion as he talks, how he grits his teeth sometimes, but there's also change and when he finishes the call by saying, “Goodbye, amma” she knows that eventually things will be fine.
Things will be fine. Even when there's so much in the past, so many difficult things Shin hasn't quite been able to deal with yet. He's talked to her about it a couple of times but there are still barriers, tiny fears he has that she will somehow turn him down and leave him, even now. She wouldn't, of course, and she's positive he knows it, too, but can't help his nature.
She usually falls asleep first, on the sofa, and he lets her nap until he's too tired to watch any more TV and they both go to bed. Occasionally - or often, though this is not a fact Chaegyung has any intention of sharing with anyone - they have sex, after which she finds it difficult to sleep and he finds it annoying that she can't catch sleep and moves around in the bed so much. Then they end up wrestling a bit, in a silly manner, and usually the matches are resolved either by Chaegyung giving up and promising to stay quiet, or more sex. The cycle hardly ever continues after that, though, and then it doesn't take too long for both of them to catch sleep.
When Chaegyung things about it, she realizes in many ways the bed is their solace. Their place. As if the nights they spent together were more important than the days, because the bed is where they found each other even when they hadn't really found each other yet. It's where they're most vulnerable but in that calm it's the easiest for them. This is why they could never go to bed angry; they simply have too many good memories of lying next to each other, together. This is why she will love him always, even as long as 25 million years.
Assuming there'll still be beds by then, of course. She hopes there are.
---
I re-watched the last episode after having already written about 80% of this fic and realized the canon doesn't quite fit as CG wanted to travel a lot. And the baby. But I suppose one can assume they saved the travelling until after the baby came along and began living together either in Macau or Korea. And then lived happily ever after, or something of that sort. ;)