#or it could have nothing to do with any of that and Lee Jihye just calls Kyrgios 'Grabdfather' as a sign of respect like 'youre so cool and | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

orphiclovers · 1 month

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Hope you don't mind elaborating on the other turns' YJH's relationship with SP and 3rd/1864th turn YJH? I genuinely enjoyed the other posts and wouldn't mind seeing more. ❤️

anon I will NEVER mind elaborating & I thank you for enabling my madness. I love talking about them sm <3

I guess I'll start off with 41&SP since I've been thinking about them and you didn't specify which one I should talk about. and. there's literally 1864 (?) different Yoo Joonghyuks. that's 1,736,316 combinations of pairings I could talk about. I'm never running out of content as long as I'm alive (well I'm not crazy enough to have headcanons for all of their relationships. yet. link to my YJH relationship chart).

this post has PARTS thats how long it got. under read more it goes

41's personality

oh 41, you miserable, miserable man. during the 41st regression, Yoo Joonghyuk had decided to harden his heart into cold, brutal practicality. he would use any means necessary to achieve his purpose, even if he had to sacrifice his companions. (he never called them that during this round, so it would hurt less when they died (didn't work)). he tried very hard to make himself an emotionless machine (see: him carelessly saying he doesn't give a shit, beyond losing tools he could use, when lee hyungsung and lee jihye die).

We get most of this characterization from the Disaster of Floods, 41st Shin Yoosung, who had a deeply messed up relationship with him that's its own post. she was the only one by his side till the very end and had to witness his cruelty, which traumatized her. and then he sent her to the past, abondened her in the labyrinth of the worlds- his ultimate unforgivable act. (quote 'The things done by the 41st round Yoo Joonghyuk were worse than murder.')

but as much as he tried, he couldn't become that heartless monster he showed to the world. (see: him promising Shin Yoosung they would go on a trip together after the scenarios were over. even at his worst, he couldn't help but try to comfort her.)

SP's thoughts on 41

41 and SP spend multiple scenes hanging out one-on-one so we have a lot to go off regarding their relationship. 41 is Secretive Plotter's second-in-command, the one who is closest to him and who spends the most time with him. For SP, this is because he finds 41 the most quote 'similar to himself' (in their ends justify the means, no matter how cruel approach) and thinks he's most likely to understand SP's actions. also since 41 is similar to him, and SP is the peak strongest smartest YJH, 41's opinion is automatically also worth more, right? girlmath (sp is arrogant).

SP relies on 41 as a trusted advisor and subordinate, let's him in on plans and asks for his opinion/advice sometimes, even if he doesn't necessarily take it. gives him commands and resposibilities and expects them to be done competently. even let's him see his vulnerable moments (do we remember the scene where SP woke up from a nightmare and 41 was there. that was to me what lemon candy moment is to doksoo fans).

SP cares for and is fond of and feels mildly possesive/protective over 41, but only the same amount as all the other regressions, nothing special about 41 in particular. SP think's every version of YJH belongs to him (see: n'gai forest's whole existence. see: 'return to me, [999]' see: 'return to me, the place you're supposed to be is here!' talking to 1863. see: 'That guy from the 1863rd should've been a part of me originally. Just like all of you.'). but he takes it for granted when that is true, because we only pine after what we don't have. like 3rd. (and 999.)

41's thoughts on SP

it's clear to me that 41 idolizes SP very much (in a 'he's me if I succeeded' way). when SP calls them similar and 41 says 'what an honor that is' he's not being sarcastic. he sees it as an honor that SP trusts him and thinks it would be better if he only trusted him, and not unreliable people like 999 (quote: [41] spoke with a voice containing a faint trace of rage. "It was a mistake to send him. Send me, instead. [999] is too soft.") and kdj (quote: "It's all because of that fool, Kim Dokja.") (this is partly jealousy. 'SP doesnt need anyone else when he has me' type of vibe.)

he takes his role as advisor very seriously. sees it as his job to point out the things SP doesn't catch or notice, question him, etc. sometimes feels frustrated when SP refuses to see reason (especially regarding 999)

still he is too loyal to ever disobey and the final decisions are always Plotter's. 41 is only subservient to him. ('lowered his head slowly' in acquiescence and submission. 'if thats what you want' im insane)

41 is very protective of SP. sees himself as a loyal knight, the only one capable of protecting his king. (probably literally calls SP 'my king' in his head...) very quick to jump to SP's defence at any point, absolutely hates people who disrespect him or betray him or dare to speak to him... sometimes goes too far and SP has to reprimand him/ make him back off.

this is after kdj provokes SP. see how 41 immedietly jumps to defend him? and how SP calls 41 off with a single word, literally like a guard dog? SP dismisses his concerns regarding 999 in a similar way.

41 also, and I cannot stress this enough, constantly looks at SP with yearning goey eyes. half the scenes hes in he's just...staring. with love. at SP.

41 too, is cringe and in love with someone who doesn't pay him any special attention. this is a yoo joonghyuk's natural state

#orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #yoo joonghyuk #orv spoilers #secretive plotter #selfcest #spyjh #plothyuk #how do i tag individual regressions?#asks

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dat-town · 9 months

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met you like destiny

never seen circus masterpost

Characters: Jiung & psychic!female reader

Setting & genre: magical realism au

Summary: You know the rules: you shouldn’t interfere with the future you see. This time, you can’t help though.

Warnings: general creepiness of an eerie circus, ambiguous ending, mentioned foreseen death, i know nothing about tarot and it probably shows, sorry

Words: 2.8k

For @restlessmaknae, happy D-3 <3

There are several rules to what you are doing for living:

Don't lie but speak as vaguely as possible. Details only cause problems.

Don't try to foresee your own future, it would only mess with your grasp on reality.

No matter what you see, you should never, under any circumstance, get involved.

You don't know if these are actual rules per se, but your mother taught you these from a young age when you had first shown signs of talent to tarot and crystal readings. Your family came from a long line of renowned psychics and she had been doing this for decades. She must have known it better. Not that it had stopped you from joining the circus even though she had told you not to. You had always been too proud and you hadn't wanted to live in her shadows forever. Nothing better to get your name known than a circus nobody remembers, huh? Nobody but those who were also part of your world at least.

Before joining the circus, despite having your mother and granny around who could understand you because they had gone through the same thing, you still felt alone. You felt like you were the odd one out, that one weird kid in town. But here? You were just like anybody else or even so ordinary-looking that visitors often confused you with other spectators, not taking you as a psychic even if you wore all black and chokers with pentagrams. Here, you felt normal.

The good kind of invisible because you never wanted to stand out but sometimes, the not so good kind, too.

"Sorry," the boy who bumped into you apologised right away even though you were pretty sure his loudly enthusiastic friends who dragged him along were more at fault. Still, you appreciated the sentiment.

"It's okay," you told him, not looking him in the eyes. Eyes held so much after all, so much history, so much of their soul. You didn't want to deal with all that when you weren't working, it was for the better like this. Brief encounters like this should have passed by like the wind.

You were about to continue your walk down the road to your favourite street food stall when the group called after you.

"Actually… can you help us?"

You hesitantly stopped and turned back, signalling that you were listening. Promises were dangerous things, you knew better than to be careless with them. Even if it was something as simple as offering your help.

"Do you know where to find a fortune teller? We want to know how long the birthday boy will be single," the one with the turquoise hair said while the one who had apologised to you looked like he would have rather been anywhere else. He must have been the aforementioned birthday boy then. No wonder he had to be dragged.

"Hm, if you are curious about your love life, I'm sure Madame Jihye would gladly assist you," you told them because you might have been able to see the future too but love wasn't your expertise. Your prophecies were usually more on the darker side.

"Her tent is next to the siren aquarium," you pointed in its general direction, quickly glancing at the three boys.

"Thank you," two of them singsonged, giddy, while the third muttered it shyly. They walked away and your gaze followed their figures until they disappeared at the corner.

You thought that you saw the last of them then and went along your way. You chit-chatted with Mr Lee about his daughter because even if he said he was fine, his eyes couldn't lie. Still, thanks to him you walked back to your tent with a pouch full of your favourite salty pretzel. You flipped the closed sign to an open one by the entrance and took a deep breath from the lavender-scented air. Your visitors often asked if it helped with your 'visions' as they called it but honestly, you just liked it. Not everything had to have a practical reason.

But something was off.

You could feel the energy around you being different. As if you weren’t alone. You looked around slowly, putting your things down on your table, gaze shifting from one lit candle to another, the smoke machine still working in the corner but one of the flames extinguished. Then hiding from behind your tent’s carmine, folded material you saw a Converse peeking out.

“You should come out,” you spoke up in a firm voice. “Until I’m asking nicely.”

Not that you were that scary. But people were often intimidated by your apparently cold aura and stern looks. You were a psychic, not a witch but not many knew or cared enough to know about the differences, so you could threaten anybody with a nice curse for breaking into your tent like that.

But the boy stepping out from between the loose material, looked more like a lost kitten than anything. Oh. He was the boy from before, the tall, lanky one with short hair. Only now, in the candlelit surroundings of your tent did you notice that his hair was silver with a hint of purple and you couldn’t help but wonder whether him dying his hair was like him being in the circus: being dragged to do so.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to intrude," he spoke up sheepishly, his voice just as nice as you remembered. You didn’t soften up just yet though.

"What are you doing here?" You asked as you crossed your arms in front of your chest.

"Hiding."

The corner of your mouth twitched in amusement.

"From your friends?"

"Yeah," the boy sighed and lifted his gaze from the ground to look at you. Quickly, you looked away as you busied yourself with a match and lighting the unlit candle.

"Didn't like the visit to Madame Jihye?" You inquired, almost conversationally, as if you were friends even though you were nothing but strangers.

"I don't really believe in all this," your sudden visitor awkwardly waved his hands, looking around in your tent. You didn’t take it as an offence, the supernatural wasn’t for everybody and they had the right to have their own beliefs, to see the world and its strange occurrences differently. "But Keeho and Intak were too hyped when we stumbled upon a circus to pass it by. I just went along with it."

“I guess you didn’t like it then,” you answered your own question with a little hum. It happened. More often than people would have liked to admit. The harsh truth was often harder to accept than a pretty lie.

“She told me that my first love will be tragic. You can imagine my friends’ dramatic reaction,” the boy sighed and even though you didn't know them at all, based on your singular encounter and his previous comments, you had an idea how the other two guys reacted to that. Still, was it a good enough reason for him to hide in your tent of all places?

“I’m Jiung by the way,” the boy said, polite as ever, like it mattered even though you most likely wouldn't see each other again. You didn't answer, names held power as well after all but the boy didn't give up so easily. He probably wanted an excuse to stay longer. “So are you like… working here?”

“Yeah, I do tarot readings,” you spread your hands over your table as you sat down, fingers drumming on the black and gold pack of cards, a one of a kind one, commissioned by you.

You learned crystal reading too from your mother and Madame Jihye taught you how to read palm or from tea leaves, but you usually opted for tarot. It felt the most familiar to you because while the messages hidden in anything else felt like anagrams and riddles waiting for you to figure them out, tarot was like reading a book to you.

“Aren’t you lonely here?”

It was a sudden question. A blurted out weird one. You certainly didn't expect that. It wasn't usually what people wondered about when they learned about your work at the always moving circus.

It was so unexpected that you looked up, eyes widening. Your gazes met for the first time. It felt like a shimmer in the air. Suddenly, it felt like deja vu, like you knew him even though you were sure you had never met before.

“Why would I be? New people come all the time and the circus is kind of like a family,” you protested more defensively than you had realised beforehand. Maybe it was because there was something about his eyes. They looked at you like he saw right through you.

"You can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely," Jiung added quietly and you didn't understand. Why did he sound so worried when he didn't even know you? Why did he sound like he cared?

There was silence then, you didn't have a good retort to that. Maybe you were lonely, sometimes, but it was okay. You had grown familiar with solitude over your school years. What good would it have done if you had people too close to you? You liked to live your life the way you wanted too much to be dragged to places like he had been by his so-called friends. Or maybe it was just a defence mechanism but you didn’t care enough to unpack that.

So silence it was. It wasn’t uncomfortable though. You sat by your desk, finishing the rest of your pretzel not bothering to pretend to be a good host to somebody who came unasked and unexpected and the boy didn’t bother to call you out on that. He seemed rather interested in the interior of your tent instead. He looked over your crystals and tea leaves and gilded cups with utmost interest but wasn’t rude enough to touch them without asking. You could almost tell when his curiosity peaked before he turned to you.

“Can you do a reading for me?”

“I thought you said that you don’t believe in this,” you reminded him, amused, shuffling cards lazily in your hands.

“I’m not. Not really. But I’m curious about what you see in my future,” Jiung said and that was fair. He sounded genuine and you appreciated his honesty, so you gestured at the seat across from you.

“Okay, sit down,” you told him before giving one last shuffle to the black and gold tarot cards in your hands and once the boy was seated, you spread them out in front of him. “Think about what you would like to know more about and once you have asked that question in your head, choose five cards from the deck and put them down in a cross pattern, in any order you feel like without looking at the cards’ face side.”

For somebody who didn’t believe in esoterics, Jiung looked pretty intrigued by the procedure. He followed the instructions well, not hesitating much to choose cards but not half-assing it either by grabbing five next to each other. Once the five cards were in a nice 3 x 3 form with one card at the cross point, you gathered the rest of the deck and put them away.

You glanced at the boy’s face while you let your fingertips hover above his choices, sensing their energy. You could tell there was something foreboding in the air, so maybe that’s why you faltered a bit looking at the beautiful drawing after turning just one card even though in itself it shouldn’t have meant anything. Then you turned the next card and the next one, disregarding the fact that you should have explained the meaning of each and their connection while you did so but Jiung’s previous words about Madame Jihye’s prediction echoed in your mind, louder and louder, the more cards were revealed. You had a bad feeling already when you reached for the last card in the middle of the spread and held your breath until you turned the card with The Hanged Man on it.

“What? What is it?” The boy’s gentle voice brought you back to reality as you stared at the cards still.

“Look, I know it must sound crazy to you but…” You gulped as you hesitantly looked up, only to find him already looking at you. You stilled yourself and looked him in the eye as you continued. “It would be for the best if you didn’t fall in love.”

Jiung furrowed his eyebrows, confused and probably thinking that it didn’t make sense. How could five cards tell him that he shouldn’t be in love? To him, it must have been ridiculous but to you? It was a clear warning. Madame Jihye was right, if he fell in love, it would be tragic.

“Here,” you pointed at the Knight of Cups card. “This shows romantic interest or at least that you are following your heart while these two on top and bottom both symbolise lack of control, that you can’t change your fate. Once you start walking down that road, there’s no way back,” you explained as you tapped on the cards of The Chariot and The Wheel of Fortune.

“I guess, that doesn’t mean anything good either,” Jiung eyed the card in the middle and you didn’t correct him.

“That generally means sacrifice and this stands for heartbreak, suffering, grief,” you touched the last card on the right, the Three Of Swords.

You usually didn’t do anything other than tarot, not if your clients didn’t explicitly ask or had a good enough reason. Because other things didn’t come as easy to you as breathing and there was always some danger to it. You could get stuck in that headspace, one part in the present, one part in the future. But you had never seen such an ominous spread.

“It might be wrong,” you said, quiet, even though it was a lie. Sure, predictions like this weren’t always clear or they were too vague to be interpreted well but they weren’t wrong. Still, you prompted the boy to draw cards again and when they were the exact same ones, you broke another rule of yours. “Can you show me your palm, please?”

You took a shaky breath after Jiung stretched out his hand towards you, palm up. You touched his life line with your index finger and closed your eyes. You let the smoke and the scent of the candles overwhelm your senses in the dark. Then you slid your fingertip over the palm slowly, flinching at the images flashing in front of you.

Thunder. Jiung smiled, warmly and fondly. He held his hand out. He shared his popcorn and laughed. Thunder. The circus sign flashed in the background. He grabbed a hand. Your hand. And run. Thunder. A kiss on the top of the ferris wheel. A pentagram on the ground. Candles burning down. Thunder. Jiung stumbled. There was black blood everywhere. A curse. Thunder. You felt tears stream down your face. A heart monitor beeped. Thunder.

You snatched your hand away and stood up quickly, almost knocking your chair down in your haste. You pulled back as if Jiung burned you, tears brimming in your eyes.

“You have to go,” you whispered in a weak voice.

But the boy was too nice, too caring.

“What? Why?” He asked confused as he stood up as well and tentatively reached out towards you. “Are you okay?”

You shook your head but refused to answer. You had something more important to do.

“You need to leave and don’t come back,” you told him firmly.

“I don’t understand.”

Of course, he didn’t. He couldn’t. He didn’t even believe in this. But you did and you knew it wasn’t just any vision. It was your shared future. If you didn’t change it.

“Please, just go,” you insisted and it surprised even you, the pleading in your voice. Jiung looked conflicted, his warm brows eyes hazy and confused, but lucky for you, he didn’t argue further. He took hesitant steps towards the entrance and you forced yourself not to look after him. Even if it was the last time you saw him.

Your vision might not come true. Jiung might not fall in love. Not with you at least. He wouldn’t die because of you either. But life had a cruel balance and there was a reason why you shouldn’t have messed with the predictions, especially not ones involving you. If he didn’t die like he was supposed to, somebody else had to because somebody had to even the bills of fate. And you knew exactly who.

Maybe it would be the right time you give a call to your mom and tell her that your grandma was right: you should have never come to this circus.

#series: never seen circus #p1harmony x reader #p1h x reader #jiung x reader #jiung angst #stories

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luxaofhesperides · 11 months

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in training.

a 1k drabble about ljh&yma.

also on ao3! . . .

Most of the time, Lee Jihye forgets that Yoo Mia exits.

It’s mean of her, she knows, but the girl isn’t particularly close with any of them and Yoo Joonghyuk tends to have her hidden away, like a princess in a tower. Even in moments of quiet, when everyone can catch their breath before the next scenario starts, Yoo Mia sticks to herself.

Lee Jihye doesn’t know where she goes or who she spends her time with. It certainly isn’t Yoo Joonghyuk; if he’s not working with Lee Jihye, which is rare these days, he’s running off on his own, gone for days at a time.

Staring at her now, Lee Jihye wishes she could go back in time and properly look out for Yoo Mia.

She’s around the same age as Lee Gilyoung and Shin Yoosung, isn’t she? Lee Jihye should have been taking care of her as well, but they just… aren’t close enough for that.

Does Yoo Mia have anyone looking out for her? Her brother doesn’t count; strong as he is, he’s also unreliable outside of dire circumstances. It’s fine for Lee Jihye since she can fend for her own and rely on the others when her own strength isn’t enough, but Yoo Mia?

For a moment, Lee Jihye really wants to slap Yoo Joonghyuk.

“Hey,” she starts awkwardly. “Did you… need something?”

Yoo Mia glares, looking remarkably like her brother. The bitch face is inheritable when it comes to the Yoo family, apparently. She doesn’t answer for a long minute. Lee Jihye considers walking away and pretending this didn’t happen, but the guilt she feels for forgetting about the girl keeps her feet rooted in place.

“How did you get oppa to train you?” she asks at last.

“What?”

“He trains you. But he never trains me, no matter how often I ask.”

“Oh.” Lee Jihye feels her heart sink. She really hopes Yoo Mia doesn’t think she’s trying to replace her as Yoo Joonghyuk’s sister. Their relationship is nothing like that. They’re not even friends. He’s Master for a reason: he has something she wants to learn, and they have no connection outside of that. Nothing like the blood bonds between him and Yoo Mia that make him go berserk the moment he thinks she’s in danger.

Maybe it’s a good thing that Yoo Mia is kept as far away from the scenarios as possible, while still making sure she gets through them.

“He found me first,” Lee Jihye says. “I was just… wandering. I was terrified out of my mind and could do nothing but run from monsters. He gave me a sword when he found me and asked if I wanted to live. I said yes, so he trained me for a bit before leaving to do… whatever it is he does.”

“You didn’t ask?”

Lee Jihye shakes her head. “No. Sorry. I can’t really help you with that.”

Yoo Mia crosses her arms, but isn’t of anger or defiance, it looks more like she’s hugging herself, a weak attempt at comfort. It makes bitterness well up in Lee Jihye’s throat.

She, like anyone else, deserve to live for herself. To fight for it like they all do. Even Lee Gilyoung and Shin Yoosung aren’t so smothered despite their age.

“I just wanted to help,” Yoo Mia mutters.

The guilt hits even harder, a solid punch to her heart. She really should have put in more effort to connect with the girl, to look out for her when no one else bothers. It’s why she looks after the other two kids when the adults scatter to the wind, angsting about Kim Dokja and the general state of their lives.

“You know I’m not his sister, right?” she blurts out thoughtlessly. “Like, I haven’t replaced you or anything. Yoo Joonghyuk isn’t teaching me because of that. He just needs something good with a sword who would listen to him and that’s what I am.”

“Even if you’re not his sister, you’re still closer to him than I am,” Yoo Mia says rather venomously. “He clearly doesn’t need me for anything. He doesn’t care that I’m still around.”

“Woah, hey, no! He does care! He just seriously sucks at showing it.”

“Sometimes I wonder why he bothered saving me.”

Lee Jihye winces. That’s rough. That’s really rough. She has no idea how to handle this situation. She needs to make her escape or change the topic or make some of the constellations make a sub-scenario just to beat up Yoo Joonghyuk. There has to be a way to dodge all this so she doesn’t make it worse.

She looks at Yoo Mia, stupidly grateful that the girl isn’t in tears, and all she can see is this young girl, still growing, all alone at the end of the world.

Well, Lee Jihye thinks. Fuck it. I’m not Yoo Joonghyuk.

“Want me to teach you how to fight?”

“What?”

“I can teach you everything he’s taught me. I can teach you even more than that, too. I’ve learned a few new tricks without him.”

A grin starts to grown on Yoo Mia’s face. It’s nice to see; as much as she clearly loves and idolizes her brother, she also needs to disrespect him and go behind his back every once in a while. It’s good for her.

“Really?”

“Really! But, ah, don’t expect to be going out with us all the time.”

“I don’t want to,” she says, “I just want to be less useless. I want to be able to help people and get material and fight off monsters when they attack the complex.”

“Fair enough,” Lee Jihye nods. “Let’s make it happen. Got a sword you can use?”

Yoo Mia pulls an entire sword out of her mouth in response. Lee Jihye really needs to remember she can do that because seeing that almost made her have a heart attack.

“Cool,” Lee Jihye says after a beat, forcibly acting normal, “Let’s go somewhere quieter and I’ll teach you all you need to know to be able to kick your brother’s ass.”

“For the record,” Yoo Mia says as she takes the lead and walks in front of Lee Jihye, “I wouldn’t mind having you for a sister.”

“Cool,” Lee Jihye repeats stupidly, grinning.

She’s messed up majorly, not paying attention to Yoo Mia, but she can fix it now. It’s a small thing, and it certainly won’t make life in the Star Stream any better, but it’ll be easier to bear.

It’s something worth fighting for.

#orv #orv fic #omniscient reader's viewpoint #lee jihye #yoo mia #orv fanfic #my writing #jihye is the sister of all time #i just think ljh and yma should team up to give yjh gray hairs

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pttucker · 8 months

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"Thank you." The words spilled out and Yoo Joonghyuk replied indifferently. "Don't say anything that isn't in your heart. I know you dislike me." "Of course, I dislike you. I hate you. You are the person who took my role." "I don't know what that means." In Lee Sookyung's head, time flowed slowly. She heard that it should move quickly… then why? Was it because it was hard and difficult? "…I've known you from a long time ago. That kid often talked about you. He came to visit his mother in prison and only talked about this." –This time, he challenged the 12 gods of Olympus. The young face of Kim Dokja as he talked happily. Many thoughts had floated on this child's face. Yoo Joonghyuk spoke like he felt Lee Sookyung's heart rate slowing down. "Lee Sookyung. Don't let go of your mind." Lee Sookyung barely maintained her blurring consciousness. She continued to be drowsy on Yoo Joonghyuk's back. "In any case, at least once… I wanted to thank you." "You are saying things that I can't understand."

Okay, so I've been thinking this for a while now but is Joonghyuk perhaps literally unable to comprehend that he's a character in a novel?

Like, at first I just thought it was a secret (obviously it was) and he didn't know and then I thought that maybe, for some reason, he just didn't care because he's so goal-motivated and has crushed down all his own emotions beyond what's needed to save the world, but now I'm really starting to wonder if he literally cannot process it. Like maybe he has his own version of Fourth Wall but it stops him from realizing that he's a character in a novel no matter what people say.

Like, Han Sooyoung literally calls him "protagonist" to his face but it's Han Sooyoung so it's quite possible he brushed it off as that's just how she sees the world as a writer.

But we also have the fact that people were starting to recognize that the world was following TWSA way back before Dokja got lost for three years, heck people were recognizing it both inside and outside the Seoul dome way back when he pretended to be Joonghyuk for the first time. Since then, rumors have been spread all across the internet and there's apparently still functioning news agencies because Dokja's party members are treated like celebrities.

So you'd think by now that it has to be common knowledge right? If nothing else, Sooyoung can't have been the only person to ever say something weird or act weird around the Yoo Joonghyuk. It wouldn't shock me at all if people haven't tried to interview him like they did with Heewon and Jihye.

So does he genuinely have no feelings in regards to finding out he's a fake person? Do none of the other characters not care either? We've had plenty of POV scenes from other characters but thinking about it, the one time that we see the novel openly discussed is between Dokja and his mom, Dokja and Sooyoung, Sooyoung and Sangah...all non-characters...

And now we have Dokja's mom trying to have this serious conversation with Joonghyuk and he's saying he doesn't understand and while you can take that to mean that he doesn't understand how he helped Dokja since he's only recently met him, I'm starting to wonder if it's not more literal - that he literally can't process what she's talking about.

Like, Dokja literally just got done showing the giants the literal scenes of TWSA and Joonghyuk had no reaction whatsoever. Like, maybe in that particular instance he wasn't able to see those scenes, only Dokja and the giants could, but still...

"Where are your parents?" "I was told they died in an accident." "You don't sound sad." "I can't grieve what I can't remember." Lee Sookyung knew. He didn't remember because it wasn't in the original novel. Everything about Yoo Joonghyuk was just a character setting. From the beginning, Yoo Joonghyuk's parents didn't exist. Lee Sookyung hesitated for a moment. "Yes, humans are like this. Do you think I remember all my childhood?" "…Is it memory loss?" "Everyone gets memory loss. Little by little, we will forget our memories and one day, we will forget everything."

And then on the other side we have this. It almost feels like Sookyung is trying to reassure him that it's normal not to remember things that happened when they were children and she specifically goes out of her way to say humans are like this. Like she's trying to tell him that he's still a human and reassure him that this is normal and not from him literally being a made up person.

So maybe he does know and has just been quietly processing it? Or maybe he does have a Fourth Wall, maybe all the characters do, but instead of blocking them from understanding, their versions keep their reactions to the real world muted whereas Dokja's keeps his reactions to TWSA muted? So they're aware but just can't bring themselves to care???

Like, I could see maybe one or two people just genuinely not caring, and maybe one of those people is Joonghyuk just because of how emotionally exhausted he has to be by now (both him AND 1863rd) but you're telling me that Lee Jihye doesn't have some opinions on all of that? Lee Hyunsung hasn't at least asked Dokja what he was like in the novel? Shin Yoosung hasn't asked about what she did in a future without Dokja taking her under his wing?

And then finally we have this:

Yoo Joonghyuk spoke, "Sometimes I remember things. I remember someone watching me." It was the first time Lee Sookyung heard this story and she wondered, "…Who was watching you?" "I don't know either. There was a gaze watching me for a long time. There were times when I often felt the gaze." After Yoo Joonghyuk's words were over, Lee Sookyung didn't talk for a long time. There was a long silence before Lee Sookyung laid her hands on Yoo Joonghyuk's head and spoke in a gentle voice. "Maybe it was your parents." Lee Sookyung stared up at the sky. Numerous constellations were watching them.

I feel like Sookyung is once again trying to make him feel better by saying it was his parents but at the same time Joonghyuk isn't really connecting the whole "Dokja came to talk to me about you every day when he was younger" to "Dokja knows my entire life story including my future" to "someone has been watching me for years." Or, if he is connecting the two, he's unwilling to verbalize it and just seems like he's side-stepping the whole issue?? So either he can't process that he's a character or can but can't really feel it?

Well, if nothing else, I do love it when we get mentions of Joonghyuk feeling like someone was with him during his hardships just the same as Dokja felt that Joonghyuk was there with him during his.

#hopefully I'm not majorly forgetting anything that totally refutes this like I have in the past lol #I'm sorry but a person with a naturally bad memory is trying to read a 5000 page novel while exhausted after work so it happens 😅#also I love that it's once again being brought up that yjh is the one who protected and was there for dokja when he needed someone #also I did notice that Dokja JUST got done saying he wants a story without any deaths and was told that probability wouldn't allow it #and now his mother is dying with sparks of probability all around her...#yjh #Lee Sookyung #kdj crew #orv #orv novel chapter 326-327 #orv spoilers #orv liveblog #omniscient reader's viewpoint #long post

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cittielinks · 11 months

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highschool au

Kim Dokja has always liked Yoo Joonghyuk, the honor student, the most handsome council president, and an overall package! he cooks, respects his elderly, is handsome to boot, and has a goal in life! Who would not like him? all though he dreams of having Yoo Joonghyuk as his boyfriend, he wasn't delusional enough to assume that it will happen. Kim Dokja is just an average student, with an average face and an average grade who has no plans after he graduates.

There was no way that they would end up together. So he could only like Yoo Joonghyuk from afar.

Even with little pocket money every day, Kim Dokja places a treat on Yoo Joonghyuk's desk.

He was lucky enough to be his classmate and is always one of the early people who go to school so he had ample time to place any treats on Yoo Joonghyuk's desk. It hurt his pockets of course, but he wanted to give something to Yoo Joonghyuk even just a little.

Unfortunately, Yoo Joonghyuk refuses to eat all the treats Kim Dokja placed on his desk. he either gives it to his friends or flat-out throws them away. A waste, but a lovelorn person like Kim Dokja has to do what he has to do for love!

Every day without missing a single day, Kim Dokja would always greet Yoo Joonhyuk with a quick Good Morning and Hellos every time. Yoo Joonghyuk only does a curt nod but it was already enough for Kim Dokja to be giddy all day. Even the bullies could not dampen his day.

At lunch, Yoo Joonghyuk is always surrounded by many wonderful people like Lee Seolhwa, Lee Hyunsung even the infamous lower years such as Kim Namwoon and Lee Jihye. Kim Dokja can always see his lunchbox too. Such a fantastic variety and is very yummy looking.

Kim Dokja can only sigh and stare at his cheap sandwich.

When the bell finally rings and everyone scrambled to go home or go to their respective clubs. Kim Dokja sat there, writing another love letter to Yoo Joonghyuk that won't probably ever get a reply.

Because he has no plans of ever giving them to Yoo Joonghyuk.

And then the next day his cycle of liking Yoo Joonghyuk repeats. Until it doesn't.

The letters he meticulously wrote detailing all of Kim Dokja's love for Yoo Joonghyuk disappeared, he tried to look for it.

He was entirely sure he had tucked it inside his bag. and as he looked around, he saw his bullies looking at him snickering. Kim Dokja paled, his eyes directly going to Yoo Joonghyuk.

In his hand were the letters he wrote for him. Kim Dokja wanted to die right then.

He saw Yoo Joonghyuk opening and reading the letters he wrote, his legs weakening, his hands shaking, and he couldn't breathe for a minute.

Yoo Joonghyuk looked perplexed, then his eyes stopped at his being. he stared at Kim Dokja with no emtions.

And then he crumpled the letter in his hand, tearing them, and then threw them in the trash bin. then he left the room.

Kim Dokja slumped in his seat. unaware of the bell, he just sat there, unable to recover.

He knew already that Yoo Joonghyuk would never never like him.

But seeing him just threw away his feelings like that hurts.

It really hurts. He was already rejected even before he could confess and it suck.

Kim Dokja wished he had never liked Yoo Joonghyuk if it warrants such pain in his heart.

–

Yoo Joonghyuk had known that his classmate, Kim Dokja liked him. He was not being subtle with his feelings after all. He found it cute but other than that nothing. He just let Kim Dokja be with his infatuation as it does not affect Yoo Joonghyuk in any way. At the end of the day, it was just a harmless crush.

Then he started greeting him every day, placing treats on his desk, and always staring at him every day.

It was uncommon for Yoo Joonghyuk to have people chase after him. But with Kim Dokja, he does not know why his mind would sometimes wanders around Kim Dokja's whole existence.

Maybe because of all Yoo Joonghyuk's admirers, Kim Dokja was the only one who did not always annoy him and treated him as a normal person. or maybe because he resembled a squid that he could not forget. It's fascinating. Until he got the letters.

It details a lot of deep romantic feelings that Yoo Joonghyuk was surprised about.

Kim Dokja likes him.

It struck him, finally.

That Kim Dokja like like him.

He frowned, it was not a nasty feeling but Yoo Joonghyuk felt perplexed.

So he did what he had to do.

He tore the letter as Kim Dokja watched him do so. And threw it in the bin then he left. The remaining letters were in his bag, and he reminded himself to return them to Kim Dokja the next day.

He could see Kim Dokja's heart being broken but at that moment Yoo Joonghyuk thought he did not care.

Kim Dokja was absent for two days, Yoo Joonghyuk did not feel bad, at least he thought he doesn't feel bad but the sting in his heart kinda not make any sense but he goes on with his day.

For the rest of the days when Kim Dokja was absent, his day felt empty like something was missing, he would occasionally look at the empty seat just behind him.

He could not miss that cute classmate of his, why would he miss him at all?

Maybe it was already a hobby of his to be greeted by Kim Dokja every day, to receive a treat from Kim Dokja every day. It was so strange.

On the third day, Kim Dokja returned to class, his eyes red and puffy. he did not look at Yoo Joonghyuk the whole day, nor did he greet him when he passed by. When the bell finally rang indicating the day ended. Everyone quickly ran out leaving him and Kim Dokja in the classroom.

Kim Dokja stood up, putting his thing in his bag, Yoo Joonghyuk followed suit. placing his pens in his bag. Kim Dokja then slowly walk out of the room.

"Hey." Yoo Joonghyuk can't help but call him out. Kim Dokja stopped walking, he faced him with no emotion whatsoever.

"What is it?" he asked

"Uh... I just want to apologize for what happened before."

"You don't need to apologize. Starting today, I'll stop liking you." then he left Yoo Joonghyuk alone in the classroom.

The sun slowly set and he stood there alone with a tiny ache on his chest.

#yoo joonghyuk #kim dokja #omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv #joongdok #kdj #orv kdj #orv yoo joonghyuk #yjh #yu junghyeok

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ravs6709 · 7 months

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Close Your Eyes (You're Safe With Me) - Seolhyuk

Word count: 3.7k words

Read on ao3 here!

*gestures vaguely* 2nd regression seolhyuk! or an attempt at it, at least. been like 3 months since i was able to actually start and finish something, feels so nice to be able to put something out! i originally started this as a The 2nd Regression fic start to finish and then decided partway i didn't feel like doing that anymore so it's just seolhyuk growing closer

also it's a sentinel/guide au because holy shit the potential for intimacy and vulnerability stored in it is SOOOOOO

warnings: nudity (but in a non-sexual way)

Anyways, enjoy!

•~•~•~•~•~•

There were two things in the world that Yoo Joonghyuk knew for a fact. The first was that he was a Regressor: a person granted the ability to restart should anything go wrong. While he only remembered one regression, there had been another life before it. He could feel the lack of memories weighing on him, knowing he had gone through the hellish scenarios before. Those missing memories were simply ignored; Yoo Joonghyuk was a Regressor, and that was all that mattered.

The second was that he was a sentinel. Not just any sentinel, he was a powerful one-- the dokkaebis and even a few weak constellations described him as such. Great battle instincts, superhuman senses; these traits were what allowed him to move on through the scenarios. Yoo Joonghyuk watched as other people envied him, wishing that they had also been born a sentinel like him rather than a guide or nothing at all, or that their instincts were as strong as his.

There was a third thing that Yoo Joonghyuk knew, and it was a weakness. Having senses like his meant that they were harder to control, and fighting in the scenarios where people were dying meant he had to rein himself in, or else he would drop. For Yoo Joonghyuk, dropping was a death sentence. Most sentinels had a guide by their side to help ease them so they could keep fighting.

Yoo Joonghyuk did not have a guide, because he was unable to be guided.

He had tried, but the first guide to try had gotten lost in his head and died. After that, he focused on the guide's mental state and was able to stop the next dozen from losing themselves in the same way. Because of that, not a single guide was able to ease his mind.

So Yoo Joonghyuk learned to keep himself in control. Strong senses kept on a tight leash, he was the epitome of self-control. Everything was kept inside of a box…

…until it was ready to burst.

The scenario was difficult, he had lost Lee Jihye in the scenario before and grief had clawed his heart, scarring it. Still, he had to keep fighting. But that box kept getting scratched, again and again and again, until it could no longer hold back everything he felt.

His senses exploded, all at once, and his body shut down in a drop. He wasn't able to avoid the blade that pierced his heart.

That was the end of Yoo Joonghyuk's first regression.

When Yoo Joonghyuk woke up in the subway car, he covered his ears, still sensitive to the chatter. Similar to the last time, when the scenarios began, he disarmed the terrorist and killed him. The train car quickly became a bloodbath.

Now that he'd gone through the beginning the first time, he would use that routine to reorient himself.

•~•~•~•~•~•

"Captain, watch out!"

He could hear someone calling out to him in the back of his mind, the noises of the world a very faint buzzing. He felt a mild sting in his abdomen, his vision too blurry to see what he was supposed to watch out for.

This sensation was familiar. He remembered feeling like this at the end of his first regression.

"Yoo Joonghyuk."

Perhaps this was the end—

"Yoo Joonghyuk, stay alive."

He felt a pair of his hands slowly grasp his head.

"No," he tried murmuring, the weight of his tongue heavy as lead.

The hands at his temple—they were a guide's. There were no guides on his team, he hadn't met Shin Yoosung in this regression yet. Someone must have found him, and they didn't know that—

"Let go of your mind, Yoo Joonghyuk."

•~•~•~•~•~•

When Yoo Joonghyuk opened his eyes, he wasn't in the subway train. Everything was white around him, but he found that it wasn't as grating to his eyes as he would've expected it to be.

"Yoo Joonghyuk," an unfamiliar voice called out.

He turned around and was met with an American woman.

"I am Anna Croft," the woman greeted. "I guided your mind."

The name rang familiar. A famous incarnation in the United States, if he recalled correctly. If that was the case, how did she guide—

"I have a skill that allows me to visit someone while they are unconscious."

"You are still in America?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Then—"

"I am like you, Yoo Joonghyuk."

Like him… she was—

"Not a regressor. But like you, I am also aware of what has happened in the previous round. I am capable of gifting my memories to my next self. I am also a prophet, I can see the future."

A prophet. A person who could see the future.

"You foresaw this meeting?"

"I foresaw your death, so I prevented it."

Someone like her could be useful.

"No one has ever guided me before."

"I know. You are not a very open person, Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi. But as a Regressor, you are very important, so I decided to save you.”

“Save me,” he said flatly.

“You must be wondering about your mind. I’ve guided it, but not completely, since I’m not physically here, this is just your unconsciousness. I hope that it will last you for a while, since I can not afford to use up my power and time wasting it on you.”

A guide who could help him without being physically present? Anna Croft had to be a powerful guide.

He nodded. He nearly said thank you, but realized it was pointless. “I will repay you for saving me.”

“I’ll take you up on that. Pray that we do not need to meet again too soon.”

•~•~•~•~•~•

Whatever Anna Croft had done with his mind, it had worked. His mind was clearer than ever as he began progressing through the scenarios, gathering flags in the fight for the Absolute Throne. Once he sat on it, all the guides gathered before him.

They told him about the Disaster meteorites, and how to best deal with the Disasters. The Disaster of Hellfire, Water, and Ice all went down with relative ease. When he arrived at the meteorite containing the Disaster of Questions, he noticed a small group of eight or so resting nearby it.

"This meteorite contains a Disaster," Yoo Joonghyuk said.

A woman stepped out from the crowd—their leader, most likely. She had pure white hair, just like Kim Namwoon. The hair colour was the biggest similarity between the two: Kim Namwoon was more lean, and didn't carry himself with the same elegance that this woman did.

"We are aware. We intended to fight them ourselves. Just because you are the Ruler, Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi, does not mean that only you are entitled to all the scenarios rewards."

Her words and tone were polite, but Yoo Joonghyuk could hear a faint sharpness, a hint of poison.

He activated [Sage's Eye] and read through her information. Lee Seolhwa, her name was. She was a guide. Her sponsor was Guam Divine Doctor. A doctor with the ability to heal, but also able to poison others. Lee Seolhwa was a wild card, with that [Thousand Spirit's Poison].

"I will allow your group to contribute," he said. "But you must follow my instructions."

Lee Seolhwa raised an eyebrow. "Is that an order, Supreme King?"

"The Disaster in there is known as the Disaster of Questions. He gains power by asking questions. There is a way to kill him early, and I am the only one who has the skill necessary to do so."

Lee Seolhwa didn't look convinced. "The Star Stream appears to prioritize people who have dealt the last blow. It is unfair to the rest of us."

"30,000 coins. I'll offer that from the scenario reward."

"50,000."

"I could order you all to stand down. I could give you nothing," he said coldly.

She didn't back down from his gaze. "You could, but will you?"

…damn it. On one hand, she was getting in his way, and it was better if he just used the order. On the other hand, he was familiar with how it felt to use it. As useful as it was, it was best to use in moderation.

"Fine. 40,000 coins."

"I'll accept that." Lee Seolhwa ordered her group to stand aside, and Yoo Joonghyuk took care of the Disaster.

•~•~•~•~•~•

Knowing what he knew about the sixth scenario, he found that having a healer would be useful.

"In the next scenario, I will be taking myself, Lee Jihye, Kim Namwoon, Lee Hyunsung, Shin Yoosung, and Lee Seolhwa."

The meeting was one for Kings. Lee Seolhwa wasn't a King, but she was resourceful enough to ensure that she'd be present at the meeting regardless, even if it meant temporarily poisoning the guards.

She turned to him with wide eyes. He didn't meet her gaze. There was no point, not when he needed to leave and make preparations. As he exited the tent, a hand caught his arm.

"Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi, what is this?"

"I thought you wanted to be involved more in the scenario."

"Why did you choose me?"

"Your healing abilities will be useful." He shook his arm out of her grip and left.

•~•~•~•~•~•

Lee Seolhwa was talented. That, she made clear again and again. She had her own group that she helped lead, but as the scenarios passed, she became more integrated into his own group.

Not only that…

Lee Seolhwa's hand rested against the base of his neck, and he could feel some of the tension loosen.

She wasn't like Anna Croft—who, unfortunately, saved his life once more, a debt he could sense building up—and she couldn't stop his drop once it started, but, unlike any other incarnation, she was able to prevent it from getting to that point.

"I've always been told I have a soothing presence," she'd told him, braiding Yoo Mia's hair.

Mia was starting to grow into a Sentinel, and now needed to learn how to control her own senses just as he had. It seemed like she was able to be guided just fine. Perhaps his own inability to be guided by most Guides had something to do with him being a Regressor?

"Or perhaps being a med school graduate contributes to it?" Lee Seolhwa continued.

He couldn't help but notice that Mia, always picky about who kept her company, had been oddly silent. Her eyes were closed, a relaxed smile on her face. He was sure that she'd start praising 'Seolhwa-unnie' soon enough.

Yoo Joonghyuk turned away from the sight. "Thank you," he'd murmured.

"You get tense easily, Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi," she said, her fingers drifting up to rest in his hair. Part of him wanted to tear her hand away, but the other part of him wanted to lean into the cool touch.

A foolish thing to want. He was a Regressor, and someone like him was not allowed to crave comfort like this. The fact that his senses had been more in control lately was a blessing, but it'd be a curse to rely on a Guide too much.

"There is no relaxing when it comes to the scenarios."

•~•~•~•~•~•

Scenario thirty one. He'd managed to make it further than his previous regression. The furthest he'd gotten, and yet, it seemed like this round would end here. Piercing white and yellow light flashed all over the place, and high pitched ringing echoed in his ears. The Star Stream, it was always trying to find the best ways to weaken an incarnation. The strongest of sentinels could only do so much with their sensitivity. Lee Jihye, Kim Namwoon, and Lee Hyunsung had all had to back down because they nearly dropped; Lee Seolhwa and Shin Yoosung were currently trying to calm down. As for Yoo Joonghyuk, he kept fighting.

Hands yanked him sideways, and he hadn't even registered that he'd stopped running. He could feel his body being dragged behind a pillar. “Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi, stay with me,” Lee Seolhwa said, her soft voice loud as bells.

His vision blurred, and yet, he found that his eyes could almost focus on Lee Seolhwa’s form. White… that had always been his least favourite colour. Such a glaring shade, and yet, amongst all the flashing colours, the white of Lee Seolhwa’s hair was possibly the softest thing he’d ever seen.

Cold hands cupped his cheeks, through his hair, down his neck, to his hands, they grasped at every bit of exposed skin.

"Lee Seolhwa," he rasped out, "you won't be able to…"

"Do not underestimate me," she said, and he could feel her prodding in his mind.

All Yoo Joonghyuk could do was close his eyes and lean into her embrace.

•~•~•~•~•~•

When Yoo Joonghyuk opened his eyes, he was in a hospital bed. Lee Seolhwa was slumped in a chair, her hand holding his, warmth flowing from his hand, to his heart, dulling any sense of worry.

She looked uncomfortable, hair messy around her face in a way that wasn't common. She tended to correct Kim Namwoon on his posture, and yet at the moment, hers was worse.

"Lee Seolhwa," he called out, rubbing his thumb along her wrist, feeling her pulse.

Slow and steady, a soothing beat that he learned to become familiar with. He let his senses tune everything else out, vaguely read over any scenario details. It'd been completed, and it seemed that his team had been able to recover enough to land the killing blow on the monster.

"Lee Seolhwa," he called out again, gently stirring her awake.

(If he happened to continue clinging on to her touch, that was only to stabilize himself.)

"Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi," she murmured, her eyes fluttering open. He watched as awareness sunk in, her gaze darting to their joined hands.

"Ah, sorry, I must have fallen asleep…" she pulled her hand away, pink dusting her cheeks, but he held on to it.

"It's…" not a problem, it felt nice, "...fine," he finished. "How do you feel?"

"I'm the doctor, I should be asking you that."

"I feel fine," he said, telling the truth. "It must have taken a toll on you." That much was obvious, Lee Seolhwa didn't sleep as much as she tried to convince the others too, and her face was paler than usual. "There was no need to risk yourself."

"You can't rely on Anna Croft-ssi for everything," Lee Seolhwa replied. "I know that my abilities as a Guide do not compare to hers, but I still deem it my responsibility to care for—" she cut herself off, looking away, "my patients. I would hate it, if you died and I didn't even try to save you."

"I…" he trailed off, not knowing what to say in response. The hand that felt cool in his now seemed to burn, but still, he didn't pull away. "I will continue to need you in the future, so do not overwork yourself." Even he couldn't bring himself to look at her.

"I'll take care of myself better, then," Lee Seolhwa murmured, the thrum of her pulse echoing in his ears.

He nodded.

•~•~•~•~•~•

"Captain!" Lee Jihye said, "Kim Namwoon wants a day off!"

"You—" Kim Namwoon shoved Lee Jihye, "you're the one who suggested it!"

"Day off granted," he told them, "You've both worked hard."

They both beamed, high-fiving each other. While they went to go fight each other or whatever it was they planned to do, Yoo Joonghyuk started preparing lunch.

"Need help?" Lee Seolhwa asked, standing beside him and taking hold of a frying pan to toss the vegetables.

He always preferred cooking on his own. "That will be appreciated."

She was silent as she aided him, chopping vegetables as he cooked. Silent and efficient, she didn't make small talk, creating a peaceful atmosphere.

"Thank you," he said, as he served plates for everyone.

She nodded, smiling softly. He gave a half-smile back. After cleaning up, he took his sword and practiced. As he practiced, he sensed a presence come and sit down on the grass nearby.

"What are you doing?" Yoo Joonghyuk asked Lee Seolhwa.

She was laying down on a picnic blanket. "Don't mind me, you continue. The field is full of flowers I haven't seen, so I'm going to see if I can figure out any medicinal properties."

He nodded, and continued training. Just like earlier, she kept quiet as he trained, occasionally humming a soft tune every once in a while. She tried not to draw attention, yet he found that his senses would hone in on her anyway.

A distraction. She was a distraction. Every once in a while, he could feel her staring at him, her gaze searing his skin. But still… he couldn't find it in him to have her leave.

"Is there something you need?" He asked, once he put his sword away.

"You're as hardworking as always, Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi," Lee Seolhwa replied. "Shouldn't you relax like the others? You've worked hard too."

"I cannot afford to let my guard down so easily."

"Don't you think this is why your Drops are so severe?" Lee Seolhwa asked. "If you don't want me to overwork myself guiding you, you have to make sure you don't get in that position in the first place. I don't know much about swordfighting or it's techniques, but even I could tell that your posture had been stiff."

"What are you suggesting?"

"A massage, if you'd like."

"A massage," he said blandly.

"A way to relax. Only if you want to. I have no ulterior intentions."

Obviously, he trusted her to not do something harmful to him. Still, a massage meant laying still, focusing on nothing but the feeling of her hands on him. He was no stranger to her touch when she guided him, hands against his face, but they were always for the express purpose of guiding him.

(He ignored the feeling of having woken up, her hand in his.)

"Where… do you intend to massage me?"

Lee Seolhwa looked at him with an indecipherable look. "However much you wish. I could keep it at just stroking your hair, or I could give you a full body massage, or anywhere in between. I wouldn't go past the boundaries you set."

You've long gone past my boundaries, Yoo Joonghyuk thought. He didn't say those words though, because he found that he didn't mind it when she did.

"Fine. Do what you want."

Her eyes widened. "Oh, like right now?"

"When else?"

He picked up the flowers that she'd been examining earlier while she picked up her notebooks and the blanket she'd been laying on. They went back to their base, and he took a quick shower while she packed her things away.

"You didn't need to put back on your clothes, you know," she said to him when he entered the room. "Won't you be taking them off again anyways?"

He didn't reply, instead he slowly slipped off his trenchcoat, then his shirt. Being shirtless in front of others wasn't an issue, he often trained like that, but his hands hesitated when they reached the belt of his pants.

"You don't have to, you know," she assured him.

He could feel her gaze on him, trying not to push too much, but ironically, it was that that emboldened him to continue. Once his pants were taken off, he laid down on the bed, and he could sense as she sat down, her hands sliding into his hair.

This was for the sake of guiding him, he told himself, but he found himself less and less convinced every time he thought that. He wouldn't have asked this of Anna Croft—the more skilled Guide of the two. His clothes taken off as if he were taking off armor, he exposed every delicate weak point to someone else. This kind of vulnerability, he could only ask of this from Lee Seolhwa. He closed his eyes, barely resisting a shiver when he felt her nails lightly scrape against his scalp.

“Shh, relax, Joonghyuk-ssi.”

Was it her words? Her low, soft tone? Her cool hands drifting to the nape of his neck? Her mental strength slowly chipping away at his mental walls? The fact that she'd omitted his last name?

Whatever it was, his breath had hitched. If Lee Seolhwa had noticed, she said nothing, and continued on. She pressed down on his shoulder blades, hands gliding across the muscles on his back. She stilled.

"Is this a new scar?" she asked, her finger delicately tracing a line on his back. "I don't recall treating you for an injury here."

"Sub-scenario," he replied. "The injury wasn't that bad."

"You should've come to me, regardless." When he didn't say anything, she continued, "don't assume I'm too busy to treat you."

…he hadn't even said anything, and yet, she could read him so easily.

Her hands moved to his shoulders, his arms, squeezing the tension out of them. She shifted focus to just one arm as they reached his wrist, thumbing against his pulse. Her fingers gently massaged his palm, his fingers, and—

He sucked in a breath. He couldn't see her face, but she could feel a soft warmth against his palm, the feeling of her lips. He could feel the exact moment she froze.

"I'm so sorry, Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi!" she dropped his hand, and he could feel the weight on the bed shift as if we were to get up.

"Lee Seolhwa," he said, and she stilled. "I do not mind." He itched to turn his face and look at hers, but he could feel his own face burn, so he kept his head where it was. "You may… continue."

He could feel her heartbeat, loud in his ears, not in time with his own heartbeat, but joining it, a beautiful melody that he could hear.

"Okay," she breathed, holding his other hand reverently. He could hear her quickening breaths, feel the way her hand trembled.

He let his mind wander, drifting, as it sought out her presence and her presence only, reducing his broad sense of the world to the building, the floor, the room, the two of them. A tiny warmth bloomed in his chest, delicate like a flower, and he knew he wanted to cherish this, keep it.

He'd have to be careful, and fight harder to protect this. But for now?

Yoo Joonghyuk let himself relax.

•~•~•~•~•~•

Orv taglist: @subrosasteath

Want to be added/removed from the orv taglist? Just let me know!

#...admittedly i mostly just wanted to write the non-sexual nudity scene. and i think it shows BUT thats whatever. i wrote fic!!!#yoo joonghyuk #lee seolhwa #seolhyuk #orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv fanfic #ravi writes a thing

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entropy-mephit · 11 months

Text

Since AO3 os down and I can't post anything, I'll just drop like half-chapter/companion ficlet of one fic just so it's somewhere. Of my ORVxD:BH one. (Link to the fic at the bottom.

Kim Dokja is watching how Yoo Joonghyuk offers his arm to the android teen, skin retracted in the invitation to the direct connection. And he is doing his best to not be jealous, because his fleshy body will never be able to commune with androids like this.

He can see her LED flicker quickly in yellow, displaying the intense load on her CPU from what she's being shown.

Yoo Joonghyuk doesn't have such obvious tell, but he is still in that specific way suggesting he's focused inwards.

They stand like this, exchanging data, for a few long seconds before both of them shift, perfectly in sync as they pull away from each other.

Girl turns to Kim Dokja with a bright smile. The interaction seems to have erased her hostility in an instant.

“Call me Lee Jihye! You are OK for a human and I support you and master!” she declares with a laugh and Kim Dokja can feel his cheeks burning.

“He sent you ‘Three Ways to Survive in an Apocalypse’, didn't he? And you really took your name from it?” as terrifying it is to hear about it if he let it just be suspicion in the back of his mind it'll probably haunt him otherwise.

“Yeah. It's a great story! The fractal repeating pattern of narrative, playing on the patterns, the theme of self and identity in face of the reset perception and the tragedy of repeated events speaks so much to the experience of the trial runs. I bet a lot of models will appreciate it for comparison to the memory resets or being returned to the factory settings. And the descriptions are so detailed one could build a pretty good simulation based on it!” She sounds enthusiastic, but Kim Dokja can't be ever certain how much of it is honest and how much is just acting for his sake. Then she pauses with consideration. “It probably is pretty damn weird for a human to like this kind of writing.”

Kim Dokja is a little terrifying to be seen like this, yet again being told he is the weird one, but it makes sense why the only ‘friend’ of his who seemed to really like the story when he shared it was the Chloe. It's a little weird to think about how only other person he knew to connect with the story was android, but back then he just thought that Chloe was humoring him because of her social programming, or maybe Kamski Elijah didn't quite program in any sort of literary analysis abilities and she was just trying to… doesn't matter.

His Joonghyuk seems to have noticed his mood and the strong arms of a lethal machine wrap gently around his waist. Kim Dokja needs a second to let himself listen to the subtle hum of the machinery hidden underneath the handsome facade and relax into the hug.

“Shh, we like you just how you are.”

Lee Jihye looks at them with a smile before also coming closer.

Thankfully she's not there for a hug, just to snatch away a knife.

Neither of them comments on it, but it's pretty obvious she's about to ditch that LED indicator from her temple.

Dokja is about to move to help her, but Joonghyuk doesn't seem to have intention of letting him go so soon. And there's nothing Dokja can do to escape (he lies to himself, well aware that he has in his pocket the key to put the android in maintenance mode if he really wants to disable him).

“We are kind of fixing each other, aren't we?” he notes with a little smile, even if those repairs to androids’ structure are nothing in comparison to the effort those androids put in, keeping his mental state intact.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/47493214/chapters/119690140

#kdj x yjh #fanfiction #crossover ORV x D:BH #ao3 fanfic

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betawooper · 1 year

Text

Chapter 356 - Forgotten People of the Scenario (Transfem AU)

*Joonghyuk is transfeminine

*Jihye is nonbinary and uses any pronouns

I had mixed feelings about the party members when they came to me one by one. Lee Seolhwa appeared in the middle of the night, and inserted a story pack into my perfectly fine arm. Her fingers constantly carded through her soft white hair, a nervous tic I noticed she had if only because in TWSA, Joonghyuk had grown to find it cute.

“I’m sure you’re having a tough time since... all of that.”

Understatement of the century. Judging by the way her eyes flicked to some spot on the floor, she was lost in her own thoughts by the implications. I caught her flushing pink as some thought swept through her mind.

I asked her what she was thinking about.

“Um, if what you said is true then does it really mean Joonghyuk and I...”

Focusing on the important matters, I see.

I smiled half-heartedly. “What else? Want me to tell you what you two named your child to prove it?”

She squeaked and her face became as red as the lipstick she wore. I had hoped making that joke would lift my mind from where it disappeared in its depression, but all it did was make me feel cruel. I really wondered why the other party members were being so kind to me.

“Che... don’t look like that. If we are characters in the novel, you still threw yourself in front of us and saved us. I remember that clearly. I’m sure the others do, too.” Heewon said.

“Mr. Dokja, I’m not sure why you told us that, but I know it’s hard for you right now.” Yoosung said.

“Yeah, Hyung! We get it if you feel bad.” Gilyoung said.

“Mr. Dokja, my manual never told me how to deal with this situation. However, I still trust you. Don’t trouble yourself over what we may think.” Hyunsung said.

Did I really deserve such compassion? When Lee Jihye came into the room, I figured he would be the one to rebuke me on their behalf. Just like Heewon had no mercy for those on the wrong side of justice, Jihye was unafraid of speaking the truth, no matter how much it could scathe. It was what he was best at in these troubling times.

I still gave her a smile to the best of my ability. While she made her way to the armchair next to me, I watched her flick her ponytail over her shoulder. She wasn’t wearing the uniform skirt now, but nothing else had changed. In the novel, that had always been a corner piece in her description.

“Mister.”

“Hm?”

“If all that you said was true, you must know a lot about me already.” Jihye said and sighed. “That means you know I’m not good at comforting people.”

“... You were here to comfort me?”

His eyebrows pinched together in confusion. “You thought I wasn’t?”

I froze, then chuckled dryly. “The Lee Jihye from the novel would not have hesitated to cut me down with her words, if not with her terrifying blade.”

“I guess that does sound like me, but...” He shrugged.

I didn’t know why it took me this long to realize how much he had changed. He didn’t even identify as female anymore. That was never in the original text no matter how much I checked, and even in future revisions the topic of his gender identity was never broached. Could I even trust in my own knowledge anymore?

“Hey. There is one thing I want to ask you. If you still want to make up for not telling me, or whatever.” Jihye asked.

“What is it?”

“Ms. Sangah. You said she is living in your brain. Can you tell her thanks?”

I looked at Jihye, confused. “Thanks for what?”

“For telling me about those random gaming statistics. I... I know I had all the time in the world to say it, but she was so busy trying to save our butts. I have a hard time thanking people already. You know how it is.”

“I’ll tell her when I get the chance.”

Jihye nodded. “Also, thanks to you, too.”

Now I really laughed. “What did I do?”

“Didn’t you know I was no longer gonna be a girl in the future?”

I smiled, crossing my legs and placing my clasped hands over my knees. “Nope.”

“Wha—huh? Then how did you know about Master and not me? Don’t tell me you skipped all the parts where I was in it!”

“What can I say? The author never intended this development at all.” I said to assuage his indignance. “This isn’t the only thing. They didn’t intend for Heewon to survive past Geumho Station. For Sangah to be saved by me. For me to live past the first scenario. A lot of unexpected things happened, and now nothing of the original novel remains the same.”

“You make it sound like it’s a bad thing.”

“Aren’t you afraid that someone like me both admitted to deceiving you and is now uncertain of your future?”

Jihye raised an eyebrow. “Wasn’t changing the future your plan from the beginning?”

... She had a point.

“In any case, you bringing up that Master liked playing girls in video games led to me eventually seeing myself as I am. I may hold grudges over the littlest things, but I also remember the nice things, too. So, thanks for saving Ms. Sangah, I guess.”

“You’re a strange kid, you know that?”

She scoffed. “I am literally twenty years old! You can’t be calling me that anymore!”

I chuckled. For the first time in a while, I could comfortably say my heart was genuinely amused.

“Of course, of course.”

#gotta make my own jihye food myself smh /lh #sauce reads orv #kim dokja #lee jihye #lee seolhwa #transfem yjh au #transfem yoo joo au

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k-dokja · 2 years

Text

FIRST LOVE, LATE SPRING | CHAPTER 0/?

For once, he appreciated that she didn't mention it. Not at the immediate moment when it happened anyway. He knew she was bound to mention it at some point. With his completely obvious and out of character behaviour, it was simply a matter of when.

And that happened when the two of them were the ones left to keep watch.

"She won't vanish if you take your eyes off her, you know," Han Sooyoung pointed out, unimpressed by his spacing out.

To be fair, he didn't like how he was acting either. There were more important matters to worry about than a face from his past. A non-threatening face for once, but from his past nonetheless. And maybe it was the one you carried with you that conflicted him more than anything.

It'd have been better if you were someone he harboured hatred for. Easier to write you off then. Wouldn't have to think twice about you afterwards. Yet, he seldom got it easy with life. Maybe your appearance would complicate it further.

Maybe it won't.

"Hey—"

"Do you remember your first love?"

Whatever impatience showed on Han Sooyoung's face vanished in place for her befuddlement. He could understand. He didn't know why he asked it himself. Your appearance had inspired a certain mood that muddled the clarity of his mind.

Han Sooyoung frowned distinctively, conflict drawn over her face. "Uh."

"So?" He pressed, unrelenting.

"Fictional." Her answer came. Clipped and straightforward, yet, her embarrassment was shown on her face.

He almost snorted. That was him, too. Once upon a time when he was in 8th grade and he was in love with Lee Jihye. However, the Kim Dokja of a few years later would sing another tune completely.

"I mean the real one," he clarified unhelpfully, egging her to go on.

Unfortunately for him, Han Sooyoung didn't really feel cooperative that day. "Why does it matter? You asked because this had something to do with her. Just go on ahead and say it."

"She was my first and last love," he threaded his fingers together, hoping it would keep his emotions in check.

It didn't. But the Fourth Wall helped. "She was a freshman when I was a senior. We were friends, once."

"Were?" Han Sooyoung once again frowned. "Aren't you on friendly terms? Is this a roundabout way to say you graduated from being a friend and becoming a boy—"

"Wish I have your optimism." He deadpanned. "But no, fairytales don't happen in real life. We aren't living in your stories."

"Will you stop dissing my writing?!"

Ignoring her disgruntlement, he continued on. "Do you remember the werewolf from earlier?"

His eyes fixated on your sleeping form. You looked peaceful somehow, he hoped that it was because of his presence. Yet, it felt foolish to believe him being there would help with the quality of your slumber in any way.

Still, he'd like to think all he had brought to you wasn't entirely bad things.

"What? Were you in a love triangle or something?"

"Yes."

"Wait, what? Seriously?" Han Sooyoung almost cackled out loud and disturbed those asleep.

He sighed out loud, bone-weary despite having been awake for only a few hours. "It wasn't even a love triangle, could've been a hexagon or an octagon for all I know."

"Well, then what happened?" She urged. "Seeing how the two of you are around each other, didn't you win? Did the two of you fallout somehow?"

He wanted to sigh again. "Nothing happened," he explained, "we simply stopped being children, that's all."

"Nothing happened?" Han Sooyoung echoed his words with the incredulity of someone who wanted him to hear how ridiculous they were. "You're a bad liar, you know that?"

"I know."

He was a bad liar. He knew that. The best he could do was bluff with the information he already had. Back then, he didn't know anything about the world. Everything he knew was the extension of basic knowledge and what Way of Survival taught him.

Yet, it was enough to convince you.

Once upon a time.

#kim dokja #kim dokja x reader #orv x reader #omniscient reader's viewpoint #fics

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leefi · 3 years

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any updates on the ORV 16 personality analysis, now that you're this far into the story?

let me go cross-examine with the PDB page because my brain is fried like an egg

ok main trio i wouldn't change from what i initially thought. yoohankim ISTP ENTP and INTJ respectively

KDJ probably my favorite fictional INTJ ever because he's just so well written, look at his big stupid Fi heart that loves his family so much. KDJ I kiss you on the mouth for how well written you are and also everything else about you. even the war crimes. I don't have much to say for him because he's such a strong INTJ that if you asked me what an INTJ was I'd point to him. One more thing I think is interesting is how similarly he and YJH come off at times...I feel like ISTP/INTJ and INFJ/INTP can be easily mistaken for each other based off of first impressions. Their actual functions are SO different I just mean in terms of vibes here

Han Sooyoung is a very strong ENTP as well which is all the explanation you need for her horrible personality /gen - I have no idea why INTJ votes are so high for her because her style of leadership and planning is explicitly pointed out several times to contrast Dokja's (Ne dom vs. Ni dom) - he says almost verbatim in canon how much he admires how she can see the big picture of things (Ne) while he tends to stick to one plan and modify that One Plan if needed as he goes (Ni). And Predictive Plagiarism is such an Ne-Ti skill it hurts. I could see the INTJ votes coming in due to to her 1863rd form but imo that's just an ENTP operating at their best? Also fictional ENTPs who are more ambitious tend to have this kind of "dual persona" when it comes to their goals/leadership styles vs their day-to-day personalities. They're very good at molding to a role

Yoo Jonghyuk ISTP <3 yeah. I would take ISTJ arguments if we were just vibe typing (especially later ORV) and I can SEE Si arguments but also. His Se and Ti are so strong. If you want to compare Ti and Te compare him and KDJ. Also I don't know too much about enneagram but he and HSY both being 8s with different wings is the funniest thing. 8's seek dominance over others (essentially a desire to be the top of the pecking order, whether as a leader or an independent actor, because their biggest fear is being controlled), 9 wing (yjh) looks for security in life and from the others around it, 7 wing (hsy) just wants to have a good fucking time and party. Also tends to hide/conceal its pain

Yoo Sangah ENFJ Yes yes I agree with this because I am in love with her (I had her as ExFJ when i did the post iirc I wasn't sure which). Intuitively good with people, naturally friendly, subtly very keen and discerning and able to not only pick up on but also accept Dokja's internal logic, even when it's a bit ruthless to do so (Ni-aux). She's the group's public figure, a natural diplomat. Doesn't shy away from the paparazzi like JHW or prefer to have her notoriety speak for her like HSY and KDJ. She's also YJH's exact opposite, if you want to compare ISTPs and ENFJs look at them. It means they have the same function stack but reversed. Also she and LHS being the most amicable of the main group is due to their xxFJ typing. naturally tuned in to people, to the point where they may stifle themselves for the sake of others

Lee Jihye I disagree with PDB saying ISTP (I think she's ISFP) but I don't know enough about mbti to dispute it LMFJDHDHD so I'll go with the communal vote of ISTP. they're right and I'm wrong. Either way my jock Se daughter

Lee Gilyoung I initially had him as INTP and PDB has him as INTP but I'm not... SURE? He's so difficult to type because he's the babby of the group. A babby doesn't have their full function stack developed yet. I don't think it's WRONG I'm just not SURE

Shin Yoosung I can see ENFP! She's either an ENFP leaning heavily on her tertiary Te (to appeal to her sponsor/dad's aux-Te) or an ENFJ (seeing herself as the most responsible among the kids, tends to be a little bossy at times).

Jung Heewon ISFP (i have feelings for you. this doesn't have anything to do with mbti just in general), nothing to add from what I said about her initially. Dominant Fi in her strong personal sense of justice.

Lee Hyunsung big ol ISFJ teddy bear. yes. His whole arc is about learning not to lean so heavily on his Si-dominance. He LSH and YJH are the reason why the OG WOS adults are so like. Like. Like. I'm trying to find a more polite way to say "like they have sticks up their asses"

Lee Seolhwa OKAY yes they have her as ISFJ that's what I meant when I said her personality is similar to Tamao's (another ISFJ). Though frankly I could see ISFJ or ISTJ for her, and I'm leaning more towards ISTJ. Either way I'm in love with her a little and I think that as her mega evil villain persona she's tapping into that inferior Ne and running with it, as all ISxJs should be allowed to do it's so fun and sexy

SWK I had as ESTP initially but after we actually meet him at the Constellation Banquet definitely ISTP lmao. Friendly jock that doesn't actually want to socialize. objectively the best constellation

Secretive Plotter ohhh.... Ooooh you'd think ISTP because of Who He Is but 40,000 years in space will change a bitch. Who knows. PDB says INTJ...sure? I dunno I think that vote might be due to vibe typing. I welcome comments on this, I don't think the votes on this on PDB are "complete" yet so to speak I don't trust this one (like LGY I don't think it's wrong I'm just not sure)

Uriel BIG ENFP VIBES but based off actual functions idk. Her ENFP energy is so strong that I'd struggle to see her as anything else. She and JHW both having strong Fi placements tho <333

ABFD I don't remember what PDB put for him but it was probably ESFP or ESTP. I'd say ESFP. Kim Namwoon ESTP.

Yoo Mia being ESTJ IS THE CUTEST THING (and i agree with it completely) when her older brother is an ISTP. Iconic duo

#hsy 🤝 Claude FE 3H = ENTP leadership. they're not 1:1 but it's funny where their similarities lie #goofs with big plans and ambitions just under the surface #actually thinking about it more i totally see ljh as ISTP. she and yjh and their big stupid inf Fe hearts #kimcom #orv spoilers #borv

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katcadecascade · 4 years

Text

The One Thing You Can’t Replace (ORV fic)

Summary: Shin Yoosung wakes up in tears. She will not grieve over a man who can still be saved. All she has to do is make everyone remember Kim Dokja.

Chapter One: As the World Caves In

“Okay, everyone calm down.”

“No, no, no, Ahjussi!”

“You have a plan. Of course you do, good… But about this?”

“Well I have never seen this scenario before actually.”

“Oh god, there’s a countdown!”

“We can overcome this scenario. We just have to work together like always… Why are you all staring at me like that?”

“Bastard, you can’t be this stupid.”

“Hmm?”

“The one thing we can’t…”

“Yes I can read too and just because we’re caught off guard doesn’t mean we can’t figure it out. We just have to be smart and find out what exactly is missing when this starts.”

“…”

“Ahjussi…”

[00:05 Before Scenario Begins]

“Hey, there’s no need to cry, Shin Yoosung.”

“Ahjussi, please… please don’t…”

[00:03]

“Don’t what? I’m not going any-“

[00:00]

[Sub-Scenario: The One Thing You Can’t Replace has begun!]

Shin Yoosung wakes up in tears.

She rubs the wetness off her cheeks in almost a painful pace but it doesn’t matter. Nothing compares to the giant ache in her heart. Dread spreads throughout her core as she looks around the room.

It’s her room obviously, a bit messy with clothes and books tossed around. There’s that animal fur smell that she is immune to but Lee Jihye always complains about when the older girl comes around. At one side of the room is her most cherished possessions.

Small animal tanks for the little frog and other small creatures she picked up. Then there are the bigger tanks that Lee Hyunsung had set up for her bigger creatures, like the tentacle monster. From the trail of water droplets, it seems like it crawled up the ceiling to perch on top of her closet.

Shin Yoosung rushed over to the tanks. For three years she did this routine, wake up only to immediately pay attention to the beasts she has gathered for two reasons.

The first is that she is a responsible beast tamer. Of course, she’ll take good care of them.

The second reason is to see if any of them could actually be…

Fresh tears erupt from the girl.

Each tank has a nameplate, craved with the unorthodox names she given them.

[Frog Who Could’ve Been _ Ahjussi]

[Elephant Monster Who Was Almost _ Ahjussi]

[Tentacle Monster Who Unfortunately Wasn’t _ Ahjussi]

They were all missing his name.

Her hands are tightly curled together, digging nails into the skin as another wave of tears pour in. It drips onto her shirt and it’s the same shirt she wore when the scenario started. Shin Yoosung knows that because she wanted to wear an outfit to match him. When she announced so his face was red but his smile was so big and Shin Yoosung wants him to smile more.

Him.

His name is missing.

He was gone for three years and they just got him back until that scenario sprang up on them.

“Shin Yoosung?”

She never noticed the door opened and before Lee Gilyoung could ask more worries, Shin Yoosung launched herself at her best friend.

“Did you forget him?” She asks with a crazed desperation, clutching onto his shoulders. She hasn’t held him so tight since they confronted the chimera underneath Paradise. “Ahjussi, Lee Gilyoung, please tell me you remember him!”

For the most part, Lee Gilyoung is utterally confused and scared of his weeping friend. That is until she said one word.

“Ahjussi?” He repeated with a daze. An odd look passes over his eyes, as if he’s having a mental crisis from sharing a mental link with a dying insect.

When he gets like this, Shin Yoosung knows to lead him over to sit on the bed in case he collapses.

“Ahjussi,” Lee Gilyoung mutters again, this time recognition sparks in his eyes. He is entirely alert and aware and now tears are falling from his eyes. “Shin Yoosung, the scenario!”

The message popped up above their heads, beaconed to their distress and awareness of the current event.

[Sub-Scenario: The One Thing You Can’t Replace

Clear Condition: Something irreplaceable has been forgotten by the world. Participants of scenario must identify it without the help of nonparticipants. (2/9) participants have recovered the identity.

Time Limit: 12 Hours

Compensation: Retrieval of the irreplaceable thing.

Failure: The irreplaceable thing will fade from existence]

The two kids paled at the failure consequences.

Immediately they ran out the door, nearly tripping over a tentacle.

Shin Yoosung normally would apologize whenever that happens but not now. Not when the one thing she can never replace might lose his existence.

“Hey, why are you to running?” Someone up ahead calls out to them, unknowingly becoming their target. “If Noona sees you she’s going to blame it on me and hey!”

The two kids do not drop their speed and tackle Lee Jihye to the floor.

“Lee Jihye,” Shin Yoosung rushes, “we’re in a scenario.”

The older girl shoves them off her to stand in a battle stance, pulling out her sword, “What, is something attacking the Master’s Industrial Complex?”

Shin Yoosung shakes her head, “No, we lost memories of someone.”

Sheathing her sword, Lee Jihye mutters, “Lame.”

Lee Gilyoung worriedly asks, “What did you say before? The name of this Industrial Complex?”

“Yoo Jonghyuk’s Industrial Complex,” she answers with a bored expression, “Hey are you two trying to prank me? What kind of scenario gives us amnesia?”

“Do you remember Ahjussi?” Shin Yoosung tries this method again since it worked so well with Lee Gilyoung.

It doesn’t work a second time.

“Ahjussi? You mean Lee Hyunsung?”

Seeing the pure confusion on Lee Jihye is really tormenting Shin Yoosung. She knows that out of everyone in the party, he is not Lee Jihye’s favorite person. Yet she does care in her own way, something about being the admiral of a huge ship of him and her Master.

Is this the point of the scenario, have everyone forget except Shin Yoosung and see how painful it is to ever dare live in a life without him?

Shin Yoosung knows that in the main party, she met him last. In that three-year period of heartache, she learned how the others meet this irreplaceable person.

He saved them one way or another.

He always had a risky plan that succeeded.

He was thoughtful and compassionate and…

Lee Gilyoung steps up to Lee Jihye.

“Play rock paper scissors with me,” he demanded with one fist readily above an open palm.

While Shin Yoosung was lost in her internal misery, Lee Gilyoung was also thinking deeply.

She recognizes that calculating glint in his eyes. Shin Yoosung knows who exactly he picked up that express from.

“Huh, that’s a weird change of topic,” Lee Jihye scratches her head. She shrugs and mirrors his hands. “You know that I’m very good at this game.”

“No you aren’t,” Lee Gilyoung said proudly.

“Tsk.”

They play one round. Lee Jihye throws down scissors and Lee Gilyoung throws down rock.

“Ahjussi also choose rock the first time,” he said calmly as his eyes tear up. “You played against him so many times and lost nearly all of them.”

A jab like that usually enrages Lee Jihye but right now, she is frozen. Her hands loosen up, falling to her sides as she stares at Lee Gilyoung.

“The Theater Dungeon,” she utters weakly. Then Lee Jihye laughs too sharply, smiling too pained, “He must have cheated.” Bizarre ranges of emotions quickly flash through her face, making her look a little crazy until she rubs her cheeks and snaps back into a fierce frown, “What did we do yesterday?”

In their rushed morning, Shin Yoosung didn’t recall everything, just the important bits like the fact that they were going to forget the one thing they can’t replace.

“We finished a monster hunting scenario and on the way back here this scenario came up.” Lee Gilyoung summed up and pointed at the scenario message log that appeared.

It updated.

[(3/9) participants have recovered the identity.]

Lee Jihye narrows her eyes at it, hesitantly muttering, “Nine?”

“We have to get to the others.”

Shin Yoosung did not wait for her friends as she dashes through the Industrial Complex to find the other party members. Lee Gilyoung is at her side but not Lee Jihye.

Instead, they hear her shout away, “I’ll find Master!”

It’s likely their best course of action. There is no time to waste.

[Time Remaining: 11 Hours]

#orv #orv fic #fic wip #shin yoosung #lee gilyoung #lee jihye #kim dokja #omniscient reader's viewpoint

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kadeuxhyeonju · 4 years

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Lee Hyeonju: Family

Mother—Lee Jihye

Hyeonju primarily grew up with his mother, Lee Jihye, a Rank 10 Master Sergeant of Spade. The Lees were a proud and ambitious family, always seeking to rise to greater heights within Kadeu and Spade. They expected greatness from their children and would see to it that their offspring rose in Rank and reputation. Lee Jihye was, from the very start of her life, put into a strict training regimen, which could be why she treated her future son much the same way—it was all she ever knew and it was effective. There was no room for mistakes, for flaws. If you showed weakness, the Lee family showed no hesitancy in casting out one of their own. It had happened to her younger brother, a born human who showed no ability in combat or intelligence, though he had an empathetic heart. Jihye would not be like him, she vowed it.

And it was true. She became nothing like her brother; she was not kind, gentle, understanding. Jihye only knew how to be cold, indifferent, calculating, her only virtue being that she knew patience. But even that was misplaced for more cruel deeds and ambitions. Hyeonju’s arrival in the world did nothing to change that. His innocent life did not stamp out the Lee family’s brutality, in fact, it may have spurred her on. Hyeonju found himself treated more like a pet project, an experiment, than a child in desperate need of and yearning for affection and acceptance.

Over time, as Hyeonju grew and distanced himself mentally from his environment and Jihye, he unconsciously began to believe that family was a sham of a concept. He’d seen the “normal” families, visited their homes, watched their interactions, and found he couldn’t understand, though part of him still held longing for what he observed. His mother’s way of life—of being—had stemmed from a prestigious family who deemed power and status as the only qualities of value in their lineage. Hyeonju failed to possess these two things.

As a born 10, he had garnered the proper respect of his rank, but he was a child and had no real authority. When his mother insisted he enlist, the young boy knew his Seven would make him worthless in the eyes of his mother, though that was considered reasonable rank for someone of his skill and age—at least what he had chosen to exhibit. His mother’s obsession with rank and power made Hyeonju resent her, Spade, it’s values, and how it made him feel trapped and unable to pursue what /he/ found value in. In all honesty, he didn’t even know what that was; his mother never let him explore his own identity to figure it out. And now as an adult, Hyeonju finds himself struggling to define who he is because of his mother’s erasure of his individuality. Which of the many masks that he wears is the real him?

Father—Park Minjun

The Parks are a long line of Kitsune and the occasionally Kumiho as many in the family’s history have chosen to stick to marrying their own species—fox spirits. Where the Lee Family was made up of the cruel and ambitious, the Parks were a clan of cunning and deceit. Mind you, they had “morals.” They didn’t kill unless necessary, didn’t wound or steal from the poor if they could help it. Their focus was primarily on theft, falseranking, and sabotage of rivals. Over time, though that changed. Killing became common. Scamming Low Rankers into crippling amounts of debt was the name of the game.

Park Minjun was a natural. Born to a Kitsune and Kumiho, both Queens of Heart and surrounded by the bloodthirsty, competitive nature of his six older siblings, Minjun learned quickly that he needed to get smart fast or find himself in the gutter with a knife in his back. Out of the seven children, Minjun was the most successful of them. He refused to piggy back off his parents’ wealth, not out of a need to prove himself, but out of simple arrogance. Minjun believed he didn’t need his parents in order to become the best. He thought of his siblings as moochers, pathetic and incompetent. They hadn’t figured out the rules as quickly as him and that was just fine.

Minjun was charming, cunning, conniving, and cruel. He took pleasure in the kill, whether human or something else, but he saved that as a last resort. He opted for handsome smiles and playing up his fox features—much to the delight of the women he pursued. He knew what to say, when to say it, could strike a deal with a man and have his business bankrupt within months all while Minjun walked away with droves of coins filling his bank account. Nothing could stop him and nobody could hold him back. He was invincible.

Then his eyes landed on what he would forever dub “the impossible deal” as he liked to tell his son. Jihye was everything he expected from a Spade—capable, strong—let’s face it, Minjun was a sucker for a powerful woman—competent, and always one step ahead of him. Minjun saw her and fell in love with a possibility. He wanted control and he wanted Jihye to give it to him willingly. The pursuit was something Hyeonju could speak about it in his sleep, his father had mentioned it so often whenever he visited Spade. Jihye pulled him in with her cold eyes and sultry sneer. She only ever cared about what his powers were, his lineage, his success as a Heart. Minjun had become ensnared without realizing it—entranced by her indifference and desire only for power. He had thought he was the pulling her in, but Jihye knew what she wanted and she was going to get it. She was an illusion he’d experience for a year before finding out she had become pregnant with his child, shattering any idea that /he/ had ever had any handle on this battle of minds.

Hyeonju has no false ideas of what his parents did and why they did it. Both were in pursuit of different forms of power—and they got it in the form of a little hybrid baby. Minjun trained him like Jihye requested, but Minjun wasn’t doing it out of kindness or even obligation. He used those moments to whisper toxic secrets and false hopes, all in an effort to one-up the woman who’d played him for a fool. Hyeonju had only ever wanted his father to see him and treat him as a son. In his desire for that, he did and said what Minjun wanted, sentiments leaning towards Minjun the more strained Jihye and Hyeonju’s relationship became. Looking back on it, Hyeonju is disgusted with himself for ever wanting anything from a man who only ever saw his child as a tool and punching bag. Nevertheless…

His father’s abandonment came as no surprise, but it was a wound that buried deep in Hyeonju’s chest. It further embedded the belief that family was only there to wound and then disappear. Ingrained in him was only the obligation he had toward his mother when he finally made it as a High Ranker. He can’t acknowledge it, even as a passing thought, but Hyeonju still hopes his biological family will change, will show him what he’s always wanted. But he’s not holding his breath. He’s died too many times for that.

Found Family—Nari

Hyeonju pursued life without any love, romantic or familial. Aside from his parents, he’d known his father’s family—and promptly decided they were as terrible as his father, but more idiotic. His parents among other factors had made him cynical of blood ties and even those formed through trust and respect. He had nothing to gain from it, fearing it would result in rejection and pain.

Nari came along just as he was ready to shut out the world. She reminded him of when he needed someone, anyone to show him empathy, kindness, mercy. She pulled at a string in his heart he was certain his parents had snipped in half with rusted shears long ago. At first, Hyeonju kept himself closed off, only occasionally offering advice or chastisement if he thought she was a bother to others. Time passed and Hyeonju found Nari’s sweet demeanor softening his heart and he began to reach out and become more involved. In her, he had found someone to care for. In time, and to his surprise, she reciprocated and Hyeonju found himself lighting up whenever she appeared.

There was nothing romantic about Hyeonju’s affections for the younger fox spirit, only a fondness he’d never known. It felt like what he’d always imagined in the dead of night as a child a family would be like. Never before and not since after, has he found someone that he loves as much as Nari—the family he had always longed for.

Chosen Family

Hyeonju will hesitate to call them family, but he does care for some people. Max, his childhood friend, who puts up with all his bullshit; Sullivan, who only recently became someone that the Heart has found himself opening up to. His circle is hardly a dot on a map, but to Hyeonju it is far larger than he’s ever known and it brings him some joy. This small, eclectic family he calls his own. It is the one thing that brings a true, heart-shaped, gentle smile to his face.

But only when no one’s looking.

#kadeuxhyeonju #task: family #again IM SO SORRY IT'S LONG TT #fun fact: juju knows his extended family on both sides #and hates them both equally #except his mom's brother #he's getting there #i drew crests because i didn't wanna draw that bigass tree of juju's family #headcanon

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luuurien · 2 years

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Jihye Lee Orchestra - Daring Mind

(Progressive Big Band, Avant-Garde Jazz, Third Stream)

Jihye Lee's grand sophomore album places her at the top of modern progressive jazz and big band, building songs that can be both glorious night time excursions and prickly, intense experiments at once. Daring Mind finds her at her maximum power as a band leader and a composer, taking her love of jazz and instilling it in every note.

☆☆☆☆

Listening to Jihye Lee is learning to fall in love with a genre for the first time. A South Korean immigrant whose induction into the Berklee College of Music came with no knowledge of jazz and little understanding of English, a large part of Jihye Lee's musical journey was not only learning the technical aspects of composition and band leadership, but also finding her love for jazz in the first place. Quickly absorbing the works of beloved composers and musicians like Gil Evans, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, it was clear even before her debut April that Jihye Lee was a name for any jazz fan to look out for. "As long as you have a daring spirit, trying new things, I think every musician from all over the world can be welcome," Lee said about the jazz world, and with Daring Mind she's not only reemphasized her place within it but also how singular a composer she is even in the expansive New York jazz scene. A concept record about her experience at Berklee and first four years in New York, Daring Mind's sound is more varied and colorful than the more in-your-face stylings of April. There's bits of swing on Why is That, gospel fusion in the rich harmonies of centerpiece Struggle Give You Strength, even a little bit of soulful balladry on the optimistic breakup piece GB. All these songs were written with a specific moment in mind: the frantic pace and constant unpredictable movement of the city comes through in the groovy but never aligned polyrhythms built by all the different instruments throughout opener Relentless Mind, Suji's dedication to major chords and ascending melodies is Lee's way of professing her love for close friend Suji Kim, and the strong tension and sharp muted horns on Dissatisfied Mind uses tritones and dissonant harmonies still put in a big band context, a dance floor looking to cut you into pieces. But what's most important is that these songs are still engaging to listen to, because concept alone doesn't cut it, and Daring Mind is undoubtedly an album built to hold all your attention for its entire hour runtime. It's practically a given that the bright, explosive sound of big band jazz will have your eyes focus right on it from the jump, but the lighter moments of the album - the quiet midsection of Unshakeable Mind largely developed by Evan Gregor's bass and Sebastian Noelle's guitar or Relentless Mind's beautiful harmonic progressions and trumpet solos - are just as enjoyable with Lee's rich and intelligently-laid out song structures. And while Daring Mind isn't as musically out there as some of her contemporaries, it does just enough to tweak the traditional big band and orchestral jazz sounds to make it a landmark of modern composition for both styles. Witnessing I Dare You unfold from venomous call-and-response into a woody, sharp saxophone solo or how utterly breathtaking the entirety of Struggle Gives You Strength, its honey-soaked horns and rewarding, thickly laid chords that span across the entirety of the band is nothing short of remarkable, and always makes returning to Daring Mind an indescribable amount of fun. There's nothing quite like seeing a composer take a genre to the absolute next level, somewhere nobody else could even think of heading, and Lee is able to do that while making things so guileless and joyful along the way. It's hard to think of a way that the bubbly trombone solo over Revived Mind's communal handclaps could be anything less than smile-inducing, and same goes for even the darkest bits of Daring Mind. Even when the stories Lee is telling get into difficult emotional territory, it's her delight in expressing them through her music that keeps things so magical. Daring alone isn't enough to describe the experience of Daring Mind in full. Her compositions, at their core, are a conduit for Lee's pure love of jazz music and its ability to express anything she wants it to. Even if GB wasn't a breakup song about the positive aspects of ending a relationship, her ability to express sadness doesn't take away from the power her music holds over you. Her rich, layered pieces are filled to the brim with excitement and grace and fortitude, not once does it ever feel like Lee isn't fully investing herself in the music she creates, and that goes for all the instrumentalists who brought Daring Mind to live alongside her. What's most valuable about Jihye Lee's music, and this has always been the case, is her ability to put her feelings into the music without sacrificing any of its immense layers and complexities to put those feelings in the spotlight. Daring Mind, across all its personal stories and fantastic performances, reminds you just how powerful an honest heart can be.

This review is part of the ALL I'VE MISSED: 2021 series, where I catalog the most exciting releases I didn't get to from last year.

#jihye lee orchestra #daring mind #motema #motéma #avant-garde jazz #big band #experimental #jazz #progressive big band #swing #third stream #2021 #2022 #8/10 #all i've missed 2021

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luxaofhesperides · 3 years

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my body slaughterhouse

In the quiet moments in-between everything, Yoo Joonghyuk looks to Kim Dokja. Or: Yoo Joonghyuk just wants to care for Kim Dokja if only he'd stay still for a goddamn second.

joongdok, 2.7k; an orv fic about gentleness.

also on ao3, with author’s notes if you want to read that sort of thing.

. . .

Yoo Joonghyuk is not used to being soft. His hands are made for breaking things, not saving them; he has never been able to save anyone, including himself. The lives he’s lived, going back to that fateful day the world ended, have made him cold and cruel. There is a distance between him and the rest of the world that no one can cross.

He walks this world alone. He knows better than to expect anyone to keep up with him.

He knows better than to get attached.

But Kim Dokja, impossible and unpredictable, forced his way into Yoo Joonghyuk’s life and declared them companions. And suddenly Yoo Joonghyuk is not the one walking ahead of everyone else, alone; now, he chases after Kim Dokja, time after time, reaching for him, always a step behind.

Kim Dokja is here, in this regression, and that is all that matters.

It’s quiet, tonight. There is no terrible tragedy hanging over their heads, or an enemy lying in wait for them. Tonight, they can rest.

Compared to his past regressions, everyone is lighter. They are not the same as they were before, at the beginning. No one is. But that heaviness they carried, that burden that slowly dragged them down, it’s not here.

Shin Yoosung smiles as she talks to Kim Dokja. Lee Gilyoung is relaxed on the ground, leaning back against Kim Dokja. They’re just kids, thrown headfirst into the scenarios, and Kim Dokja saved them, like he saved everyone else here. It’s no wonder they’re so attached.

Yoo Joonghyuk is too, even if he can’t bring himself to say it.

The others chat quietly in between eating. Something warms in Yoo Joonghyuk’s chest as he watches everyone enjoy his cooking. Kim Dokja too was taking time to savor his food. He was glad; he had put the best pieces on Kim Dokja’s plate.

It’s hard showing care, when he’s so used to everyone he cares for dying. It’s hard to show care when he’s the only one left in the end, and nothing he does can save them.

Kim Dokja meets his eyes; Yoo Joonghyuk had been staring for too long.

-Do you have something to say? he asks through Midday Tryst.

-No. Go back to eating.

Kim Dokja doesn’t look like he believes him, but that doesn’t surprise him. Out of everyone, Kim Dokja knows Yoo Joonghyuk best. It still stuns him, the lengths he’ll go to ensure Yoo Joonghyuk survives.

It’s not just the world Kim Dokja intends to save, but Yoo Joonghyuk also.

So used to being to one in control, leading others and taking charge in the scenarios, it’s strange to be on the other side of that. To follow after someone else, to have faith in them to get through anything. To be willing to die to see their goals come to being.

Kim Dokja is the only one Yoo Joonghyuk would feel this way for. No one else compares.

Under his gaze, Kim Dokja flushes and ducks his head. He urges the kids to eat and does not look at Yoo Joonghyuk again.

That’s fine. Yoo Joonghyuk is satisfied with keeping Kim Dokja fed. It’s the least he can do for someone who died for him time and time again.

“Why aren’t you sleeping,” Yoo Joonghyuk says. It’s more an accusation than a question, and perhaps that’s what makes Kim Dokja glare at him. Yoo Joonghyuk glances down at the phone Kim Dokja was so focused on, looks at its blank screen, and irritation quickly fills him.

“I wasn’t aware I had a bedtime,” Kim Dokja says, staring up at him defiantly. The circles under his eyes are dark, and will likely get even darker. For someone who always saves him, he doesn’t care for himself at all. It irks Yoo Joonghyuk.

“How do you expect to fight well if you’re too tired to function?”

“I’ll be just fine. It’s not like I need a lot of sleep in the first place.”

Yoo Joonghyuk is familiar with the urge to punch him, but it’s particularly strong at that moment. “Don’t be stupid,” he growls instead, “You’re no good to anyone when you’re exhausted. Go to sleep.”

Kim Dokja rolls his eyes. “Honestly, Yoo Joonghyuk, you’re worried over nothing. I’ve gone without sleep before, I can do it again.”

That such an infuriating man could give hope to so many others baffles him. That such an infuriating man is someone Yoo Joonghyuk is willing to die for is even more ridiculous. But this stubbornness is exactly why they’re all here today. He’s not as mad as he wants to be; he never is when it comes to Kim Dokja.

“Come,” he says, grabbing Kim Dokja’s arm, “I will make sure you sleep.”

“Yoo Joonghyuk!” He tries to pull away, but all that does is make Yoo Joonghyuk tighten his grip. “This is ridiculous! Let me go!”

He doesn’t bother answering. Instead, he drags Kim Dokja to his room and all but throws him on the bed. Kim Dokja sits up and stares at him.

“What has gotten into you lately?”

Yoo Joonghyuk considers. He wants to take care of Kim Dokja. Repay him for everything he’s doing for him, for all of them. He wants Kim Dokja to care a little more about himself, but until then, Yoo Joonghyuk is content with doing it for him. He wants to be gentle to the man who saved him, reminded him of the value of life, gave him a reason to continue on. He wants to hold Kim Dokja close so that he doesn’t die again, wants to protect him because one of these days his death will be permanent and that is the one thing Yoo Joonghyuk absolutely cannot survive.

He doesn’t know how to say all this. It gets caught in his throat, his chest. So he says nothing.

“Yoo Joonghyuk?”

Kim Dokja looks confused. Lost. There’s red in his cheeks and a tremble in his hands. It makes Yoo Joonghyuk’s heart ache.

He walks to the bed and guides Kim Dokja away from the edge. Kim Dokja lets him, watching his movement with wide eyes.

Yoo Joonghyuk climbs onto the bed, sits against the headboard, and pulls Kim Dokja to rest against his side.

“Yoo Joonghyuk?” he asks again, voice quieter, softer. Pressed against his side, with Yoo Joonghyuk’s arm around his shoulders, Kim Dokja feels vulnerable. Soft, like he might break at any moment.

Everything he feels tangles into a knot in his throat. What he wants to say won’t come out. Instead, he says, “I will stay and make sure you sleep.”

Kim Dokja stares at him for a long moment, then slowly, tentatively, relaxes against him. It feels like a testing of waters, a careful surrender.

It’s something Yoo Joonghyuk has noticed bust hasn’t given much thought. Kim Dokja doesn’t touch others easily. If he does, it’s quick and easy to miss. A hand on a shoulder, a pat on the back, here for a moment then gone in the next. He keeps a physical distance between others, save for the kids, and Yoo Joonghyuk has to wonder, has anyone really touched Kim Dokja? Held him as Yoo Joonghyuk does now, let him know the warmth of others, how grounding the weight of another can be?

This is not a question he will ever have answers to. But he does know that he is holding Kim Dokja, can feel the weight of him on his chest, not an unpleasant weight but a comforting one.

Kim Dokja turns his face into Yoo Joonghyuk’s chest. When he speaks, his voice is muffled. “If you plan to sleep here, then don’t sleep sitting up. I don’t want to hear you complaining about a sore neck tomorrow.”

He doesn’t know how much time passes, but Kim Dokja falls asleep, relaxing completely as his breath evens out. In sleep, his face is much softer. He looks younger when he’s not planning how to save everyone but himself.

The sight brings back that ache in his chest, which hurts in the most pleasant ways. How lucky he is, to have Kim Dokja in this regression. As long as he’s here, Yoo Joonghyuk will continue on.

Lee Jihye is brighter in this regression. She laughs more easily and is quick to tease others. It makes him wonder what she was like before the scenarios, before she killed her best friend and walked out of that school as its only survivor. It’s hard to remember that there was a before that haunts everyone here, when it’s all Yoo Joonghyuk has known for years.

She’s not as strong as she was before, but that’s alright. There are others that will help her when she needs it. All Yoo Joonghyuk has to do for her in this scenario is teach her how to fight; Kim Dokja will teach her how to live despite everything.

In this regression, Lee Jihye is still a teenage girl before she is a maritime general. There are still days she wakes up in tears, gasping her dead friend’s name, and withdraws into herself for a few hours. In past regressions, this has made her fight harder, more recklessly, uncaring of her own safety. Now, Kim Dokja watches over her carefully, speaks to her in low tones, and sends Jung Heewon to comfort her.

Yoo Joonghyuk wonders how things could have changed if he reached out a little more. Had he been less focused on clearing the scenarios and more focused on helping those around him, could they have survived?

He knows the answer, and it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. He tries not to think about it.

Lee Jihye grins when she sees him walk into the clearing they’ve claimed for training. For a moment, as she sits on the ground holding her sword, Yoo Joonghyuk sees her dead and bloodied. Then she stands and says, brightly, “Master! What are we doing today?”

Yoo Joonghyuk takes a moment to focus on the present, then says, “Start with warm ups, then do your katas fifty times. Then I’ll show you how to disarm someone without getting too close to them.”

Lee Jihye beams and gets to work. Yoo Joonghyuk observes her for a moment; she’s steadily improving, but she could be stronger. They could always be stronger, because they were are enough.

(The memory takes over: Yoo Joonghyuk, not fast enough, not strong enough, not clever enough to outwit Kim Dokja. Yoo Joonghyuk, holding Kim Dojka’s dying body, helplessly watching as he turns to dust, ejected from the Star Stream, unable to save him yet again.)

Yoo Joonghyuk makes his way to the other side of the clearing and unsheathes his sword. He, too, needs to be stronger. Strong enough to take on the constellations. Strong enough to save Kim Dokja from himself.

He trains for a few hours, teaches Lee Jihye new attacks, spars with her to let her practice. She’s the only one he found this regression; the others all gravitate around Kim Dokja. He only needs to look out of her and Mia in this regression.

Even so, Lee Jihye, like the others, turns to Kim Dokja as well. Despite how often she teases him and insists she doesn’t care for him, she is deeply affected by his deaths just as the kids are.

They stop for lunch, and Yoo Joonghyuk leaves Lee Jihye to her own devices as he considers the hidden scenarios he could go after in this area.

“Yoo Joonghyuk, come here,” Kim Dokja calls from where he waits by the door. “Are you going after the hidden items?”

He makes his way to Kim Dokja, already wary at the calculating gleam in his eyes. “I am,” he answers.

“Great! Let’s go then.”

“I don’t need you to come with me.”

“I wasn’t planning on giving you a choice.” Kim Dokja smiles, and it makes Yoo Joonghyuk want to both shove him away and pull him closer. He keeps his hands carefully still by his sides.

“I can get these on my own,” he says, knowing that would never be enough to convince Kim Dokja to let him leave alone.

“That’s not going to stop me.”

He leaves first, without looking back to see if Yoo Joonghyuk is following; he is, of course. He’s always following after Kim Dokja.

And because this is Kim Dokja, he can't go two minutes without trying to cause problems. “I’ll be getting my share of the items too, of course. Don’t expect me to guide you without expecting payment.” He smirks at Yoo Joonghyuk, waiting for him to respond.

He grabs Kim Dokja’s arm. “Pull your weight and do some of the work and I’ll let you have some.”

“Ah, always so violent, Joonghyuk-ah, can’t you have one conversation without threatening the other party?” He tries to break free of Yoo Joonghyuk’s grip, but now that he’s got Kim Dokja close, he has no reason to let go.

“What part of this is threatening?”

Kim Dokja gestures to his captured arm. “Do you not have working eyes? Most conversations don’t require such brute strength.” Yoo Joonghyuk wants to laugh at that. When has Kim Dokja ever had a normal conversation? He’s either planning something that will piss off the constellations, or antagonizing everyone around him. He avoids normal conversations as much as he can, as though speaking genuinely to someone for the sake of speaking to them will make him break out in hives.

“You can let go,” Kim Dokja tries, still trying to pull away.

Yoo Joonghyuk doesn’t bother to reply to that. He leads the way to the first hidden scenario in the area as Kim Dokja continues to struggle, then abruptly goes still, allowing the hold on his arm.

Another thing that Kim Dokja avoids: touch. Yoo Joonghyuk wants to keep him close, hold him at every opportunity, but Kim Dokja is quick to keep his distance and disappear. Even Yoo Joonghyuk has never been to physically isolated from others in past regressions. Kim Dokja seems touch starved, and that makes Yoo Joonghyuk want to touch him even more.

He slides his hand down from Kim Dokja’s arm to his wrist, and allows himself a small smile with Kim Dokja doesn’t try to pull away.

“What are you doing out here?”

Kim Dokja’s voice is the first thing in a few hours to break the silence on the roof. Yoo Joonghyuk sits near the edge, looking out over the broken world. Everyone had been hit hard by the last scenario, and he had to escape and be alone before he drowned in his own thoughts.

It takes a long moment before he finds his voice. “I wanted some time to myself,” he answers.

Kim Dokja hums and doesn’t leave. He sits behind Yoo Joonghyuk, barely any distance between them.

“Are you thinking about everything that went wrong? Comparing this to your past regressions?”

Like always, Kim Dokja knows exactly what he’s thinking. It’s a relief that he doesn’t have to explain it when Kim Dokja already knows.

“You shouldn’t focus on what went wrong. There are too many things to go over. You should focus on the fact that we’re all still alive, and we made it through another scenario.” His voice isn’t pitying or overly gentle. Kim Dokja speaks as though this is obvious, and Yoo Joonghyuk feels some of the tension in his shoulders lighten.

“Have you already begun planning for the next scenario?”

“Of course. But we’ll go over that tomorrow, after everyone’s had some time to rest.”

There is nothing more to say for the night. Yoo Joonghyuk focuses on the sound of Kim Dokja’s breathing, and leans back just enough that their shoulders touch. It feels like a hard-won victory when Kim Dokja doesn’t startle or shy away. Instead, he leans back against Yoo Joonghyuk, pressing their backs together. A weight drops onto his shoulder; Kim Dokja’s head, tilted back so he can look up at the steadily darkening sky.

They stay until the sun sets completely. It’s the first time he’s felt so at peace since the scenarios started.

That’s the first night Kim Dokja follows Yoo Joonghyuk to his tent and settles in besides him. He refuses to meet Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes, tense and nervous as though he wasn’t sure he was welcome.

Yoo Joonghyuk reaches out for him.

Kim Dokja reaches back.

#omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv #fic #orv fic #joongdok #hi this novel is making me too emotional so have a fic abt tenderness and yearning and being soft #this idea has haunted me all week so i havent actually read more of the novel but now that im done im gonna cry over this characters again #my writing

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blazinbeautywrites · 7 years

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Mafia Kings

Note: Due to recent events and the rampant uprising of plagiarism on this site and others I am stating once and once only that this is my ORIGINAL work. If I find out that you have stolen/taken any part of my work I will handle you and the situation the way I see fit

Full credit to the original owner of any pic or gif I use.

Length: 1,418

Genre: Honestly idk what genre this first chapter is lol

Summary: Jay never meant to meet her. In fact, he wish he never did. She was just a beautiful stranger who was nearly mugged and taken advantage of. Jihye never asked for this life. Now because of one night she landed head first into one of the most deadliest rivalries in South Korea.

A/N: I posted this on here before but I deleted it because I also had it on wattpad and didn’t want my work in other places. I’m posting on here for good since I deleted my wattpad stories. Hope you all enjoy!

"Mom!" Jihye yelled, running into her parent's home.

"Yes child?" Her mom said.

"Did my packages arrive yet?" Jihye asked her mom.

"Matter of fact, yes they did. What the hell did you order that needed to be stored in 3 boxes?" Her mom asked showing her where her deliveries were.

"Ohh thank god. I thought they'd never show," Jihye said, jumping up and down like a 5 year old.

"Girl what did you order?" Her mom asked once more.

"Well mother if you must know it's hair products. It's hard trying to find hair products for our hair type so I just went online and bought some in bulk," Jihye answered.

"If your father found out that you're overspending again he'll have your ass Jihye," Her mom told her.

"Well good thing I make my own money, live in my own apartment, drive my own car and pay my own bills," Jihye said. She noted her mother's annoyance and went to pick up her boxes.

Jihye's mom is black and her dad is Korean and is a very strict, some may even say cutthroat, CEO of a lucrative real estate agency. When he first started his company, he single handedly sold over 500 homes within the span of 4 months. He's one of the richest men in South Korea and he intends to keep it that way. Jihye never wanted for anything but at the age of 15, despite her father's protests, she decided to get a part time job because she wanted to be free and independent. Now 26 with a Bachelors degree in Mass Communications a Masters in Public Relations she worked as the president of a huge PR firm. Her firm housed some of the biggest businessmen, rappers and singers in South Korea. They even had ties to the mafia but she tried her best to stay away from that side of the business.

"Look mom I'm sorry for having them shipped here....again. It's just my neighbors are really nosy and I don't trust them," Jihye said. Her mom sighed and walked her to the couch patting the seat next to her.

"Jihye, sweetie just let your father set you up in one of his penthouse suites in the city. That way you don't have to live in that neighborhood. You have money why don-"

"Mom that's dad's money and I don't want him helping me find a place to live. That'll just give him something to hold over my head. If it makes you feel better I'll look for a new place tomorrow," Jihye said.

"Thank you. I'll ignore the fact that you cut me off while I was talking to you," Her mom said. Jihye and her mom went back over to her packages and before they could began stacking them to be loaded into Jihye's car they heard Jihye's father, Lee Jinyoung clear his throat.

"Hi honey, I didn't know you were home," Jihye's mom said as she gave her husband a hug and a kiss.

"I only just got here but not before I heard a bit of what was being discussed. What's this I hear about you looking for a new place to live?" Her dad asked.

"Mom hates my neighborhood so I'm gonna go apartment hunting tomorrow just to ease her mind," Jihye said.

"Why didn't you just come to me? I could have sold you an amazing apartment in Seoul. You do remember that I just had the grand opening of my new apartment complex, or do you not listen to the many voicemails I leave you?" Jihye's dad asks. He was aware that his daughter wanted nothing to with his money but he loved her and would always provide for her when necessary.

"Dad there are perfectly good real estate agents here. They may not have your track record but they’re still good nonetheless," Jihye said. Her father laughed and it annoyed her to death.

"Fair enough. I'll make you a deal," Her dad said. Jihye became extremely curious and sat back down on the couch.

"Okay I'm listening," Jihye said.

"I will sell you one of my penthouse suites and let you live there rent free for the first 6 months if, and only if, you represent a new client of mine," Jihye's dad proposed. Jihye looked at her dad as if she was expecting something more.

"What's the catch dad? I know you and there is always something else so what is it?" Jihye asked.

"Okay fine. There's some office space on the same floor as the penthouse and I sold it to my new client, Dean and-"

"DEAN?! Dad no!" Jihye screamed.

"Lee Jihye you will not interrupt me when I am speaking to you," Her dad scolded in Korean.

"Sorry," Jihye muttered.

"Now what I wanted to say is that Dean is looking to clean up his public image. His parents have threatened to disown him off if he doesn't get his act together," Her dad explained.

"Dad you know how I feel about him. He's an annoying douche bag and is always hitting on me. Plus he's 28 years old, he shouldn't still be relying on his parents and their money," Jihye said.

"Not everyone is like you my child. Some people don't know the value of hard work. He's a family friend and his parents are huge investors in my business. Now those are my terms, take it or leave it," Her dad said getting up and walking towards his office.

"Fine I'll do it, but under one condition," Jihye said to her father's back. He smiled and turned around to face her.

"I'm listening," He said to her.

"When I move in you aren't allowed to visit me. No stopping by unannounced or sending your little lap dog of an assistant to "check up" on me," Jihye told her father.

"Very well then. I'll have my assistant see to it that your apartment is ready by tomorrow afternoon," Her dad says as he finally retreats to his office. Jihye looks at her mom who was sitting on the opposite couch the entire time, observing the scene in front of her.

"Mom why is he always like this?" Jihye asks. Her mom walks over to her strokes her hair.

"As mush as he doesn't like to admit it, he was hurt last year when you two had that big fight and you cut him out of your life," Her mom said.

"I never meant to hurt you or dad. I just wanted him to stop trying to control my life. He tried to arrange me in a marriage with Dean to appease his asshole parents. Who sells their daughter out like that?" Jihye ranted. Her mom chuckled a bit and stood up.

"Yes the Kwons are assholes but they bring in a lot of revenue and business for your father so he did what he thought was best," Her mom said.

"And he thought pimping out his daughter and sending her into a loveless marriage was the right thing? Yeah okay mom I think I'm gonna go. I have some work to do." Jihye said picking up her purse and boxes. She walked to the door and before she walked out she walked back to her mom and gave her a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"I love you babygirl. Please be safe I heard there's a slight storm tonight." Her mom said.

"I love you too and I promise I'll be careful." Jihye said. She stepped into the afternoon air and noticed it had gotten a bit chilly. She shivered and quickly put her boxes in the backseat of her car. Once she got into the driver’s seat she pulled out her phone to send a quick text.

My Girls: Are you guys busy tonight? I really need to rant and talk about my shitty day. I have wine and a variety of alcohol.....and I'll order us some takeout.

Soljin: Hell yes I'm in. I need to get away from the insanity of my household and I can use a drink or 5.

Milani: You had me at wine!

Idara: Fucking right! Plus I got tea on your little boy toy Zico.

Jihye smiled at her friends' replies and threw her phone on her front seat. She backed out of her parent's driveway and started on her way home. She knew that this night was gonna be extremely eventful and she couldn't wait get it going.

#mine #text posts #jay park #khh #jay park scenarios #khh scenarios

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